Explore the vast range of titles available.

Without neon, Las Vegas might still be a sleepy desert town in Nevada and Times Square merely another busy intersection in New York City. Transformed by the installation of these brightly colored signs, these destinations are now world-famous, representing the vibrant heart of popular culture. But for some, neon lighting represents the worst of commercialism. Energized by the conflicting love and hatred people have for neon, Flickering Light explores its technological and intellectual history, from the discovery of the noble gas in late nineteenth-century London to its fading popularity today. Christoph Ribbat follows writers, artists, and musicians-from cultural critic Theodor Adorno, British rock band the Verve, and artist Tracey Emin to Vladimir Nabokov, Langston Hughes, and American country singers-through the neon cities in Europe, America, and Asia, demonstrating how they turned these blinking lights and letters into metaphors of the modern era. He examines how gifted craftsmen carefully sculpted neon advertisements, introducing elegance to modern metropolises during neon's heyday between the wars followed by its subsequent popularity in Las Vegas during the 1950s and '60s. Ribbat ends with a melancholy discussion of neon's decline, describing how these glowing signs and installations came to be seen as dated and characteristic of run-down neighborhoods. From elaborate neon lighting displays to neglected diner signs with unlit letters, Flickering Light tells the engrossing story of how a glowing tube of gas took over the world-and faded almost as quickly as it arrived.

The laser pretreatment of seed is drawing pronounced attention from the scientific community for its positive impact in boosting germination, seedling , and growth of plants. In this study, the laser pretreatment of Adansonia digitata ( A . digitata ) seeds was evaluated. Eight laser treatments were conducted at different powers, 10, 20, 40, and 80 mW, with the two-time interval for each power at 2 and 4 min. The outcomes indicated that the most efficient irradiation was 10 mW/2 min which induces the highest germination rate and polyphenolic contents for seeds. Based on these results, the animal experimental design was processed to assess the hepatoprotective activity of A. digitata extracts obtained through the optimum laser preillumination to enhance the resistance of liver damage in mice. The total phenol and flavonoid contents and the antioxidant properties of the methanolic extracts were estimated in vitro. The CCl4 was used to induce hepatotoxicity in mice. The animals were divided into five groups. The sera of the treated animals were used for the determination of transaminases, and the liver homogenates were used for the determination of antioxidant status, and further liver tissues were subjected to verify the anti-apoptotic effect of A. digitata methanolic extract. The in vivo results showed that the methanolic extract exposed to laser treatment at 10 mW/2 min provided better hepatoprotective capacity than the other treatments. Administration of A. digitata extract not only offered a significant decrease in liver enzyme activity but also markedly improved the antioxidant status and reduced the apoptotic progression induced by CCl4 toxicity in liver tissue.

Charged particle beams induce various biological effects by creating high‐density ionization through the deposition of energy along the beam's trajectory. Charged particle beams composed of neon ions (20Ne10+) hold great potential for biomedical applications, but their physiological effects on living organs remain uncertain. In this study, we demonstrate that neon‐ion beams expedite the process of reoxygenation in tumor models. We simulated mouse SCCVII syngeneic tumors and exposed them to either X‐ray or neon‐ion beams. Through an in vivo radiobiological assay, we observed a reduction in the hypoxic fraction in tumors irradiated with 8.2 Gy of neon‐ion beams 30 h after irradiation compared to 6 h post‐irradiation. Conversely, no significant changes in hypoxia were observed in tumors irradiated with 8.2 Gy of X‐rays. To directly quantify hypoxia in the irradiated living tumors, we utilized dynamic contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion‐weighted imaging. These combined MRI techniques revealed that the non‐hypoxic fraction in neon‐irradiated tumors was significantly higher than that in X‐irradiated tumors (69.53% vs. 47.67%). Simultaneously, the hypoxic fraction in neon‐ion‐irradiated tumors (2.77%) was lower than that in X‐irradiated tumors (4.27%) and non‐irradiated tumors (32.44%). These results support the notion that accelerated reoxygenation occurs more effectively with neon‐ion beam irradiation compared to X‐rays. These findings shed light on the physiological effects of neon‐ion beams on tumors and their microenvironment, emphasizing the therapeutic advantage of using neon‐ion charged particle beams to manipulate tumor reoxygenation. Quantitative non‐hypoxic (Splatoon) maps of the tumors tested. The Splatoon maps indicate accelerated tumor reoxygenation in the tumors irradiated with neon ions.

Understanding the drivers of community stability in times of increasing anthropogenic pressure is an urgent issue. Biodiversity is known to promote community stability, but studies of the biodiversity–stability relationship rarely consider the full complexity of biodiversity change. Furthermore, finding generalities that hold across taxonomic groups and spatial and temporal scales remains challenging because most investigations have narrow taxonomic, spatial, and temporal scopes. We used organismal data collected through the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) at sites across the contiguous United States to evaluate linkages between community stability and biodiversity change for four taxonomic groups: small mammals, ground beetles, fish, and freshwater macroinvertebrates. We defined community stability as constancy of aggregate species' abundance. We quantified change in biodiversity as (1) dissimilarity in community taxonomic and functional composition and species replacement and richness change components of that dissimilarity and (2) change in species' abundance distributions as captured by change in species rank, richness, and evenness. We found that community stability increased with species replacement and with contribution of species replacement to overall dissimilarity for all taxonomic groups, but declined with increasing change in species richness and evenness. This is consistent with the notion that temporal fluctuations in species abundance can help stabilize community properties. We also found that community stability was highest when change in community functional composition was either lower or higher than expected given reshuffling of each community's taxonomic composition. This suggests that long‐term community stability can result from fluctuations of functionally similar species in assemblages with high taxonomic reshuffling. On the contrary, the functional uniqueness of fluctuating species compensates for lower taxonomic reshuffling to drive stabilization of community properties. Our study provides an initial assessment of the relationship between community stability and biodiversity change and illustrates the utility of fine temporal resolution data collected across ecosystems and biomes to understand the general mechanisms underlying biodiversity–stability relationships.

One of the first artists to use light, specifically neon, as a form of sculpture, Keith Sonnier explored what sculpture is and could be. From his early pieces such as Rat Tail Exercise and the Ba-O-Ba series to his most recent neon-based series, this book explores the progression and influence of his oeuvre.

Track structures and resulting DNA damage in human cells have been simulated for hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and neon ions with 0.25–256 MeV/u energy. The needed ion interaction cross sections have been scaled from those of hydrogen; Barkas scaling formula has been refined, extending its applicability down to about 10 keV/u, and validated against established stopping power data. Linear energy transfer (LET) has been scored from energy deposits in a cell nucleus; for very low-energy ions, it has been defined locally within thin slabs. The simulations show that protons and helium ions induce more DNA damage than heavier ions do at the same LET. With increasing LET, less DNA strand breaks are formed per unit dose, but due to their clustering the yields of double-strand breaks (DSB) increase, up to saturation around 300 keV/μm. Also individual DSB tend to cluster; DSB clusters peak around 500 keV/μm, while DSB multiplicities per cluster steadily increase with LET. Remarkably similar to patterns known from cell survival studies, LET-dependencies with pronounced maxima around 100–200 keV/μm occur on nanometre scale for sites that contain one or more DSB, and on micrometre scale for megabasepair-sized DNA fragments.

Why did we do this work?Health inequalities are steepest in young people (YP) and deprivation correlates with adolescent ‘Did Not Attend’ rates, which are as high as 15%.1 2 Co-production gives service users a voice, aiding development of patient-friendly solutions to increase engagement.3 However, YP are rarely consulted when designing health services.Show Up! utilises creative co-production to:Explore and understand YP’s barriers to health and potential solutions.Assess the value of this method for development of YP’s health services.What did we do?Fourteen YP, aged 14–17 years, from a school in the third most deprived decile in the Index of Multiple Deprivation4 participated in five days of creative workshops, including two days with 11 clinicians. We explored YP’s lived experience of health, wellbeing, and health inequalities using interviews and co-produced creative outputs, which were performed to an audience of local health leaders with a post-performance discussion. Qualitative and creative data was thematically analysed.What did we find?Three key themes arose during the week of workshops: barriers to good health, suggestions for improvement of healthcare services, and benefits of creative co-production (table 1).YP highlighted that misinformation and unrealistic standards on social media often threatens their health and wellbeing. Following their final performance, YP urged health leaders to better utilise social media to deliver targeted, accurate health information to them. YP also called for better communication with them in general; they want to take power over their health so clinicians should address them rather than their parents.YP raised the significance of health prevention, and suggested prioritising community health and wellbeing, rather than only focusing on hospitals. They challenged conventional health services, suggesting that they ignore the wider issues at play. One YP gave the example of struggling to manage their diet, the lack of information around improving this, and the difficulties to resist tempting marketing for ‘junk food’.Co-production within Show Up! gave YP a platform to be heard. The YP found value in creative methods as they felt empowered and gained confidence to promote change within health services, and also take control of their own health. YP expressed a desire for more opportunities to work alongside health professionals to steer change.Abstract 8079 Table 1Quotes from YP regarding their lived experiences of health, health needs, and opportunities for creative expression of these[Image Omitted. See PDF.]What does this mean?Creative co-productive can successfully engage YP in the development of health services with numerous benefits. Not only did we gain invaluable insights and novel ideas from YP to enable healthcare reform, but it also had immediate impacts for YP regarding current wellbeing and empowerment. There is significant potential for increasing the scope of this method for reimagining health for YP across the country.ReferencesHagell A, Shah R. Clarifying what we mean by health inequalities for young people. 2020.Campbell K, Millard A, McCartney G, McCullough S.Who is least likely to attend?An analysis of outpatient appointment DNA data in NHS Dumfries & Galloway. 2015.McConnell T, Best P, Davidson G, McEneaney T, Cantrell C, Tully M. Coproduction for feasibility and pilot randomised controlled trials: learning outcomes for community partners, service users and the research team. 2018.Index of Multiple Deprivation. Consumer Data Research Centre, 2015.

Wave-particle duality is an inherent peculiarity of the quantum world. The double-slit experiment has been frequently used for understanding different aspects of this fundamental concept. The occurrence of interference rests on the lack of which-way information and on the absence of decoherence mechanisms, which could scramble the wave fronts. Here, we report on the observation of two-center interference in the molecular-frame photoelectron momentum distribution upon ionization of the neon dimer by a strong laser field. Postselection of ions, which are measured in coincidence with electrons, allows choosing the symmetry of the residual ion, leading to observation of both, gerade and ungerade , types of interference. The wave nature of light and particles is of interest to the fundamental quantum mechanics. Here the authors show the double-slit interference effect in the strong-field ionization of neon dimers by employing COLTRIMS method to record the momentum distribution of the photoelectrons in the molecular frame