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The sparsity of permanent seismic instrumentation in marine environments often limits the availability of subsea information on geohazards, including active fault systems, in both time and space. One sensing resource that provides observational access to the seafloor environment are existing networks of ocean bottom fiber optic cables; these cables, coupled to modern distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems, can provide dense arrays of broadband seismic observations capable of recording both seismic events and the ambient noise wavefield. Here, we report a marine DAS application which demonstrates the strength and limitation of this new technique on submarine structural characterization. Based on ambient noise DAS records on a 20 km section of a fiber optic cable offshore of Moss Landing, CA, in Monterey Bay, we extract Scholte waves from DAS ambient noise records using interferometry techniques and invert the resulting multimodal dispersion curves to recover a high resolution 2D shear-wave velocity image of the near seafloor sediments. We show for the first time that the migration of coherently scattered Scholte waves observed on DAS records can provide an approach for resolving sharp lateral contrasts in subsurface properties, particularly shallow faults and depositional features near the seafloor. Our results provide improved constraints on shallow submarine features in Monterey Bay, including fault zones and paleo-channel deposits, thus highlighting one of many possible geophysical uses of the marine cable network.

The sparsity of permanent seismic instrumentation in marine environments often limits the availability of subsea information on geohazards, including active fault systems, in both time and space. One sensing resource that provides observational access to the seafloor environment are existing networks of ocean bottom fiber optic cables; these cables, coupled to modern distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) systems, can provide dense arrays of broadband seismic observations capable of recording both seismic events and the ambient noise wavefield. Here, we report a marine DAS application which demonstrates the strength and limitation of this new technique on submarine structural characterization. Based on ambient noise DAS records on a 20 km section of a fiber optic cable offshore of Moss Landing, CA, in Monterey Bay, we extract Scholte waves from DAS ambient noise records using interferometry techniques and invert the resulting multimodal dispersion curves to recover a high resolution 2D shear-wave velocity image of the near seafloor sediments. We show for the first time that the migration of coherently scattered Scholte waves observed on DAS records can provide an approach for resolving sharp lateral contrasts in subsurface properties, particularly shallow faults and depositional features near the seafloor. Our results provide improved constraints on shallow submarine features in Monterey Bay, including fault zones and paleo-channel deposits, thus highlighting one of many possible geophysical uses of the marine cable network.

PurposeAntitumor activity of cancer immunotherapies may elicit immune responses to nontargeted (secondary) tumor antigens, or antigen spread. We evaluated humoral antigen spread after treatment with sipuleucel-T, an immunotherapy for asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), designed to target prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP; primary antigen).Experimental designSerum samples from patients with mCRPC enrolled in the placebo-controlled phase III IMPACT study (evaluable n = 142) were used to assess humoral antigen spread after treatment with sipuleucel-T. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) responses to self-antigens (including tumor antigens) were surveyed using protein microarrays and confirmed using Luminex xMAP. IgG responses were subsequently validated in ProACT (n = 33), an independent phase II study of sipuleucel-T. Association of IgG responses with overall survival (OS) was assessed using multivariate Cox models adjusted for baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and lactate dehydrogenase levels.ResultsIn patients from IMPACT and ProACT, levels of IgG against multiple secondary antigens, including PSA, KLK2/hK2, K-Ras, E-Ras, LGALS8/PCTA-1/galectin-8, and LGALS3/galectin-3, were elevated after treatment with sipuleucel-T (P < 0.01), but not control. IgG responses (≥ 2-fold elevation posttreatment) occurred in ≥ 25% of patients, appeared by 2 weeks after sipuleucel-T treatment, and persisted for up to 6 months. IgG responses to PSA and LGALS3 were associated with improved OS in sipuleucel-T-treated patients from IMPACT (P ≤ 0.05).ConclusionsSipuleucel-T induced humoral antigen spread in patients with mCRPC. IgG responses were associated with improved OS in IMPACT. The methods and results reported may identify pharmacodynamic biomarkers of clinical outcome after sipuleucel-T treatment, and help in clinical assessments of other cancer immunotherapies. See related commentary by Hellstrom and Hellstrom, p. 3581.

The North East Scotland Energy Monitoring Project (NESEMP) is an ongoing three year study of energy use in 400 households, most of who work for a large local authority in North East Scotland. This project recruited participants from Aberdeenshire County Council, and the geographical spread of the sample was found to well represent the geographical spread of the population in the study area. Participants in this study were each provided with an internet-connected energy usage monitor – a technology which provides households with real-time electricity consumption feedback as well as the ability to see time-series data when connected to the internet. The energy data streams from the sample have been used to draw a picture of household energy consumption. Participants were asked to fill in CO2-calculator questionnaires in the first phase of the study. Returned questionnaires were subsequently analysed using a standardised method to derive CO2 estimates. Participants were also asked about the frequency with which they undertook various pro-environmental behaviours, their beliefs about climate change, their beliefs about the efficacy of particular measures to mitigate climate change, measures of personal coping with climate change, attitudes to energy generation, life satisfaction and community connectedness. Household CO2 footprint estimates were fed back to all households in the second phase of the study, and an experimental condition was introduced for 50% of the sample. This experimental condition will allow the study to determine any additional effect of individual-appliance feedback over and above whole-house feedback. The study design including details of the experimental condition will be presented. Methodological challenges associated with the scale of data collection (400 houses each providing readings every 5-minutes for 3 years) will be discussed. Furthermore, household energy consumption will be discussed in relation to questionnaire-based measures, including

"Perspective-taking is a theoretical framework that has been used to understand how the perception of different phenomena is shaped according to the point of view from which it is evaluated. Theoretically, perspective-taking encompasses both the cognitions and emotions that take place during situations where one person attempts to take the perspective of another. This has been largely used to study issues of social cooperation (e.g. Batson, Early and Salvarani, 1997; Galinsky et al., 2005) and, more recently, other areas such as pro-environmental behaviours (Berenguer, 2007). This study explored the effects that mood and perspective-taking have on the emotional reactions (pleasure, arousal and dominance and freely generated emotion words) and preference for office environments, and whether it is possible to predict preference from the emotional reactions people have to the offices. This study simulates the particular instance of presentation of final design by professionals to non-trained audiences, within an architecture and built environment context. By manipulating the perspectives that participants took during the evaluation of stimuli this study replicated the common place stated preference experimental situation (a self perspective people take) but also explored the particular case that professionals in the field of architecture and built environment disciplines do when they design: taking the perspective of a general other (a detached perspective) or taking the perspective of the client (the perspective of other).The results of the study found that taking a perspective is a mixture of drawing on self experiences and considering what others may say about it, the extent to which self and other references are used depends on the perspective taken, but it was clear that other and detached perspectives did lead to a reduction of self-knowledge references but also that these perspectives were significantly more difficult to take than a self perspective. Overall, th

IntroductionThe goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which the informational variables from the preference matrix (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989) are predictive of landscape aesthetics. In a recent meta-analysis covering empirical research on the preference matrix, it was concluded that consistent support was lacking for each of its component variables (Stamps, 2004). Possible causes for the inconclusive findings in the past are outlined and addressed in the present study. Amongst the methodological improvements are the use of a statistical test which takes into account the ordinal distribution of the data, improved definitions of some of the preference matrix items based on participant comprehension scores, a substantially sized image database (N = 1600) with high quality images from natural, built and “mixed” scenes, and use of beauty rather than preference as target variable since the latter is deemed to be sensitive to the goals and intentions of people (Herzog & Leverich, 2003). In addition, any confounding effects of scene familiarity and both natural and built content on ratings of the variables from the preference matrix were taken into account and the frequently suggested interaction between complexity and coherence was investigated.Method Results and Discussion In contrast to findings reported previously (Stamps, 2004), this research shows that all variables from the preference are positively predictive of beauty. The lack of consistent findings in previous studies is therefore likely a consequence of methodological shortcomings. In addition, this study has been the first in which support for an interaction between coherence and complexity was found. Furthermore, both natural and built content of a scene, as well as its familiarity, were found to be related to reported beauty. This finding is interesting because it implies that natural and built content are concepts that are not directly opposite. It is concluded that the preference matrix sho

The North East Scotland Energy Monitoring Project (NESEMP) is an ongoing three year study of energy use in 400 households, most of who work for a large local authority in North East Scotland. This project recruited participants from Aberdeenshire County Council, and the geographical spread of the sample was found to well represent the geographical spread of the population in the study area. Participants in this study were each provided with an internet-connected energy usage monitor – a technology which provides households with real-time electricity consumption feedback as well as the ability to see time-series data when connected to the internet. The energy data streams from the sample have been used to draw a picture of household energy consumption. Participants were asked to fill in CO2-calculator questionnaires in the first phase of the study. Returned questionnaires were subsequently analysed using a standardised method to derive CO2 estimates. Participants were also asked about the frequency with which they undertook various pro-environmental behaviours, their beliefs about climate change, their beliefs about the efficacy of particular measures to mitigate climate change, measures of personal coping with climate change, attitudes to energy generation, life satisfaction and community connectedness. Household CO2 footprint estimates were fed back to all households in the second phase of the study, and an experimental condition was introduced for 50% of the sample. This experimental condition will allow the study to determine any additional effect of individual-appliance feedback over and above whole-house feedback. The study design including details of the experimental condition will be presented. Methodological challenges associated with the scale of data collection (400 houses each providing readings every 5-minutes for 3 years) will be discussed. Furthermore, household energy consumption will be discussed in relation to questionnaire-based measures, including

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 illustrates a commitment by the Scottish Government to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and highlights the need to ensure Scotland makes an effective transition to a low carbon economy. Climate change will affect Scotland’s people, community and its environment which is why ambitious targets to reduce GHG emissions have been set. However, barriers exist to achieving these targets including individuals’ attitudes to adopting environmentally friendly behaviours. Individual and household demand is an important aspect in achieving the Scottish Government’s targets and behavioural change will be key in ensuring a successful transition to a low carbon society. Therefore, it is important to gain an in-depth understanding of what factors may affect behaviour and attitudes and how the attitudes, behaviours, and motivations of rural households and individuals may aid or hinder progress towards a low carbon rural society. The Scottish Government funded PhD ‘Towards a Low Carbon Rural Society’ will contribute to a larger Scottish Government funded programme researching the feasibility of moving to a low carbon rural economy. The PhD will investigate the barriers and motivations that may prevent or encourage Scottish residents living in rural areas to implement carbon reduction behaviours in their own homes and lifestyles using a mixed method approach. A number of issues will be explored regarding behavioural barriers and motivations including environmental attitudes, concern, identity and knowledge in addition to individual’s trust in organisations and information sources. Over the coming months an in-depth literature review will be undertaken to investigate and evaluate data on carbon emissions, community initiatives and policy and targets implemented by the Scottish Government to reduce carbon emissions. Behavioural change theories will be explored, including, for example, Social Cognitive Theory, Theory of Reasoned action, Theory o

The proton probing technique is used to image quasi-static electromagnetic fields present in the wake of a high-intensity short-pulse laser propagating through an underdense plasma. Bubblelike field structures form along the channel filaments and expand in time.

The proton probing technique is used to image quasi-static electromagnetic fields present in the wake of a high-intensity short-pulse laser propagating through an underdense plasma. Bubblelike field structures form along the channel filaments and expand in time.

The seemingly inevitable advent of climate change has been one of the prevalent policy discourses of the beginning of this XXI century. Human activities are indisputable contributors to the problem but, interestingly, we as a species do not seem to realise the urgency with which changes have to happen to address climate change effectively. Despite numerous psychological and sociological studies on attitudes towards and behaviours related to climate change, we still do not seem to understand why we as humans, while seeing an imminent threat to our well-being, are not acting on it. Our study takes this lack of understanding as a starting point and asks, first, how people actually make sense of climate change, to test the hypothesis that there might be a gap between the dominant policy discourses and the mental representations held by the public. Second, we hypothesise that people’s reactions to climate change might also be masqueraded into a number of coping mechanisms. That is, this apparent lack of action could actually be an active coping mechanism that allows people to get on with their everyday lives. We present results from a survey of the Scottish public (n=500) that explored what participants’ perceptions of “eminent and current global threats” were in order to asses if climate change is indeed socially represented as something we must act upon with urgency as the media and political discourses suggests. We also identified specific coping mechanisms and their relationship to relevant behaviours, lifestyles and other constructs. The results are interpreted in light of coping and adaptation theories which, on the general level, advocate that coping can be seen as the “thoughts or behaviors that people use to manage the internal and external demands of situations that are appraised as stressful” (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004, p. 747). As such, in order to initiate coping behaviours there is a conceptual as well as a practical requirement: something must be apprais

The seemingly inevitable advent of climate change has been one of the prevalent policy discourses of the beginning of this XXI century. Human activities are indisputable contributors to the problem but, interestingly, we as a species do not seem to realise the urgency with which changes have to happen to address climate change effectively. Despite numerous psychological and sociological studies on attitudes towards and behaviours related to climate change, we still do not seem to understand why we as humans, while seeing an imminent threat to our well-being, are not acting on it. Our study takes this lack of understanding as a starting point and asks, first, how people actually make sense of climate change, to test the hypothesis that there might be a gap between the dominant policy discourses and the mental representations held by the public. Second, we hypothesise that people’s reactions to climate change might also be masqueraded into a number of coping mechanisms. That is, this apparent lack of action could actually be an active coping mechanism that allows people to get on with their everyday lives. We present results from a survey of the Scottish public (n=500) that explored what participants’ perceptions of “eminent and current global threats” were in order to asses if climate change is indeed socially represented as something we must act upon with urgency as the media and political discourses suggests. We also identified specific coping mechanisms and their relationship to relevant behaviours, lifestyles and other constructs. The results are interpreted in light of coping and adaptation theories which, on the general level, advocate that coping can be seen as the “thoughts or behaviors that people use to manage the internal and external demands of situations that are appraised as stressful” (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004, p. 747). As such, in order to initiate coping behaviours there is a conceptual as well as a practical requirement: something must be apprais

Increasing public participation in the urban planning process is a key part of participatory democracy, yet one of the main problems in communication between developers and end-users is how to convey what the realised design will both look and feel like. This paper describes a study designed to investigate the differences afforded by either active navigation or passive observation of a desktop virtual townscape, in terms of perception of that environment and salient details observed and recalled. Two different versions of a virtual townscape were created, differing in aspects such as presence/absence of buildings, colour of buildings, type of pavement surface, presence/absence of trees and plants, and presence/absence of static figures. The computer game engine UnrealEngine2 Runtime was used to convert all the 3D data and digital textures from the CAD model into a real time rendering that enabled users to move around the model using keyboard and mouse. In the passive observation condition (N=40) participants were required to watch a walkthrough of the two different versions. In the active navigation condition (N=41) participants selfnavigated their way around the versions. All participants were asked to follow a think aloud protocol while watching/navigating the models, and comment specifically on their observations and impressions of three target areas. After each walkthrough/navigation, a number of semantic differential scales were completed by the participants, in addition to a number of open-response questions relating to what they remembered, liked and disliked from each version. We present findings and reflect upon the results from our study in terms of the ultimate objective of the design brief and/or presentation context. For example, our findings suggest that in terms of evaluating competing design scenarios, there may be little to gain from building interaction into virtual representations of these scenarios since passive conditions of viewing tend to perm

The relationship between familiarity, public participation and environmental preferences is examined using an urban design case study. Previous research has shown that familiarity judgements certainly play a role in preference judgements. Generally speaking, greater degrees of actual familiarity are considered to increase affective responses to environmental scenes. In addition to the degree of actual familiarity, there is evidence to suggest that the degree of perceived familiarity influences preference in the same direction. However, when dealing with the design of the built environment, we are often asking people to compare an existing environment with an environment that has yet to be realised (i.e. a design). The degree of actual familiarity with a design is necessarily low for most people (apart from for the designer), but clearly the degree of perceived familiarity may be high. With this in mind, we designed a study to investigate the role that both actual and perceived familiarity had on people’s comparisons between an existing urban square and a proposed re-design of that space. The design used was the result of an extensive public consultation study reported elsewhere. Actual familiarity with the square was manipulated by using two samples: one (N=100) from the same city as the case study, and one (N=100) from a different city. The framing of the presentation of the design scenario was also manipulated, so in one condition participants were told that the design was the most popular option with local residents arising from a public consultation looking at 9 possible design scenarios, and in the other condition they were simply told that the local authority were considering the design. Participants were presented with colour images taken from photorealistic computer models of both the existing situation (an urban square being used as a car park), and a re-designed scenario (which involved removal of vehicular traffic from the square). After viewing each imag

Context: The external appearance of housing plays an important part in how we judge both our own, and other people’s houses. However, in the UK, the nature of the housing ‘product’ (i.e. volume housing built by speculative developers) is largely determined by consumer preferences which are assumed to be revealed through market behaviour. This paper presents a study looking at the external appearance of housing as it relates to representations of sustainability.Background: Preferences for particular house types have been shown to be influenced by both the materials used and the visual appearance of house facades. Indeed, previous research has demonstrated that people associate particular building materials with certain personality characteristics of assumed residents. Given that the external façade of a house is often the most visually apparent aspect of its construction, it is important to consider the meanings associated with a particular building material or style. This paper reports on a study looking at the symbolic meaning associated with building materials, by looking at the change in inferred meaning associated with a change in building material. These issues are examined with reference to social representations of sustainability, especially insofar as certain building materials are considered to be representative of sustainability credentials.Method: Participants were randomly assigned (using automatic randomization built into an online survey) to one of four experimental conditions. Two factors were varied between the experimental conditions: The exterior façade material (Timber or Render), and the description (Standard or ‘Sustainable’). Taking the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a conceptual starting point, the various antecedents to behavioural intention were examined. The behavioural intention under investigation in this study was defined as being: “considering buying a particular house”. 108 participants took part in this study, which was run as an onli

Around the world there is, arguably, an increasing 'commodification' of housing, which is tending to treat the new home in the same way as any manufactured consumer good, rather than as an integral part of an environment that supports a community. Construction industries around the world are recognising that they are less efficient at manufacturing their product than other industries. They are encouraged in this by governments with an eye to meeting large demands for new housing at minimum cost. They are therefore trying to change the way they build houses. They are centralising production, cutting down on traditional labour skills and increasing prefabrication and standardisation. This 'commodification' has the potential to create difficulties in the communities in which such housing is built.

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type:text, This paper analyzes prices and returns for seventeen stocks which are dually listed on the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchange. The empirical results indicate that the Japanese capital market is not segmented. Rather, it is fairly well integrated in a world context. Specifically, it is shown that (1) changes in the yen/dollar exchange rate is the primary factor for explaining differences in returns for the dually listed securities, and (2) a secondary factor is changes in return for the security's market of origin, not simply the market of trade. In addition, a cluster analysis indicates that there is no segmentation even on a macro-scale.

Tokyo, This paper analyzes prices and returns for seventeen stocks which are dually listed on the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchange. The empirical results indicate that the Japanese capital market is not segmented. Rather, it is fairly well integrated in a world context. Specifically, it is shown that (1) changes in the yen/dollar exchange rate is the primary factor for explaining differences in returns for the dually listed securities, and (2) a secondary factor is changes in return for the security's market of origin, not simply the market of trade. In addition, a cluster analysis indicates that there is no segmentation even on a macro-scale.

Theater program of "The Rainmaker" by N. Richard Nash, directed by Reuben Silver. This performance ran from October 4-November 5, 1955. Performers: Calvin H. Thomas as H.C. Curry, Melvin Stewart as Noah Curry, Edmond T. Jenkins as Jim Curry, Cozette Craig as Lizzie Curry, Holmes Morrison as File, Percy Marshall as Sheriff Thomas, Albert L. Fann as Bill Starbuck.