Less cyber,more café: Enhancing existing small businesses across the digital divide with ICTs

About 10% of the world has access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Telecenters and cyber cafés are one prevalent way to increase access. This paper suggests increasing access through currently existing, local businesses where people already gather and where proprietors already posses existing business relationships with suppliers and customers. This paper questions the prevailing emphasis on the “cyber'' characteristics of access, e.g., computing and internet access as is currently known, and attempts to refocus the conversation by considering computing and access in the context of the “café,” e.g., as public life in the sense of Habermas, which permits an in situ evolution of relevant access. This analysis is based on extant literature and direct ethnographic research in several public places in six countries. We offer example design perspectives based on a reflection of “third places” as inspiration for appropriate innovation in the provision of computing and communications. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Paradigmatic De Novo GRIN1 Variants Recapitulate Pathophysiological Mechanisms Underlying GRIN1-Related Disorder Clinical Spectrum

Background: GRIN-related disorders (GRD), the so-called grinpathies, is a group of rare encephalopathies caused by mutations affecting GRIN genes (mostly GRIN1, GRIN2A and GRIN2B genes), which encode for the GluN subunit of the N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) type ionotropic glutamate receptors. A growing number of functional studies indicate that GRIN-encoded GluN1 subunit disturbances can be dichotomically classified into gain- and loss-of-function, although intermediate complex scenarios are often present. Methods: In this study, we aimed to delineate the structural and functional alterations of GRIN1 disease-associated variants, and their correlations with clinical symptoms in a Spanish cohort of 15 paediatric encephalopathy patients harbouring these variants. Results: Patients harbouring GRIN1 disease-associated variants have been clinically deeply-phenotyped. Further, using computational and in vitro approaches, we identified different critical checkpoints affecting GluN1 biogenesis (protein stability, subunit assembly and surface trafficking) and/or NMDAR biophysical properties, and their association with GRD clinical symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings show a strong correlation between GRIN1 variants-associated structural and functional outcomes. This structural-functional stratification provides relevant insights of genotype-phenotype association, contributing to future precision medicine of GRIN1-related encephalopathies.     

Preparation of MFI type tubular membranes by steam-assisted crystallization

Zeolite MFI membranes were successfully prepared on both alumina and stainless steel tubular supports by crystallization of previously deposited silicate layers under a steam atmosphere. The resultant membranes were able to separate n/isobutane mixtures at relatively high temperatures, displaying separation selectivities of 11.3, 8.9 and 2.5 at 100, 230 and 330 °C, respectively.     

Enlargement of the micropores of a caking bituminous coal by controlled oxidation

In a study of the enlargement of pores of coals it has been found that treatment of a bituminous coal (PSOC No. 371, from the Pennsylvania State University Coal Section) with a 5:95 O₂:N₂ stream 4 h at 400 °C increases the surface area as measured by nitrogen adsorption at 77K by a factor of at least 50 to a value 52 m² g^?1. The increase in pore size was accompanied by a 9.7% weight loss. Simultaneously, the area as measured by carbon dioxide at 195K increased from 61 to 136 m² g^?1 and that measured by carbon dioxide at room temperature increased from 125 to 237 m² g^?1. Attempts to enlarge the pores by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide or ozone were unsuccessful. A Pittsburgh coal subject to a small percentage of oxygen in nitrogen or steam at 300 to 400 °C showed a surface area as measured by nitrogen adsorption of less than 1 m² g^?1 both before and after such pretreatment. This same coal with a 5:95 O₂:N₂ stream for 4 h at 450 °C showed a surface area of 110 m² g^?1 measured by nitrogen adsorption at 77K.