Coming Out, Going Home

Despite the historical centrality of Western cities as sites of queer cultural settlement, larger global economic and political forces have vociferously shaped, dispersed, and altered dreams of mobility for gay Taiwanese millennials in the age of globalization. While Taiwanese gay millennials follow a seemingly universal “rural-to-urban,” “East-to-West” movement trajectory, this study also explicates local nuanced ramifications running against the common trend. Drawn upon five-year ethnographic studies in Taiwan, this study examines how parents could to some extent conform to societal pressures by co-creating a life narrative to the society. Parents/family appear to contribute to how participants' decision on spatial movement but gay male millennials with supportive parents are eventually “going home.” However, the concept of home is configured by multiple economic and social forces involving (1) the optimal distance with the biological family and (2) the proper performances of consumption policed and imposed by the gay community in the neoliberal Taiwanese society.

КІНЕТОСТАТИЧНЕ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ШАРНІРНИХ ПРОСТОРОВИХ МЕХАНІЗМІВ ГАЛТУВАЛЬНИХ МАШИН (ЧАСТИНА 1: ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ МЕХАНІЗМУ З ДОДАТКОВОЮ РУХОМОЮ ЛАНКОЮ – КОРОМИСЛОМ)

Kinetostatic study of a statically determined hinged spatial mechanism without redundant (passive) connection with an additional movable link – a rocker arm of a machine for processing parts, in which the working container performs complex spatial movement. Methodology. The essence of the kinetostatic research was to determine the radial and axial components of the reactions in all rotational kinematic pairs of the hinged statically defined spatial mechanism of the machine for processing parts, when it is idling. The kinetostatic study was implemented using the SolidWorks 2016 computer-aided design system with preliminary 3D modeling of this machine design with an additional moving link – a rocker. Results. In the course of the kinetostatic study, 3D modeling of a machine with an additional movable link – a rocker arm in the SolidWorks 2016 computer-aided design system was carried out, the maximum values of the radial and axial components of reactions in all rotational kinematic pairs of the machine for processing parts were determined, the effect of changing the center distance of the intermediate connecting rod (working capacity ) on the increase in the maximum values of the reactions in all rotational kinematic pairs. Scientific novelty. The relationship between the center distance of the intermediate connecting rod (working capacity) and the change in the maximum values of the reactions in all rotational kinematic pairs of the machine for processing parts is determined. As a result, it becomes possible to determine the maximum permissible center distance of the intermediate connecting rod to ensure the durable operation of the machine. Practical significance. It is determined that the nature of the change in the maximum values of the radial and axial components of the reactions in each rotational kinematic pair of the spatial mechanism depends on the value of the coefficient characterizing the ratio of the center-to-center length of the intermediate connecting rod (working capacity) to the center-to-center length of the driving or driven connecting rods of the machine. The range of variation of this coefficient has been determined, within which it is rational to design this machine design. The results obtained can be used in the corresponding design bureaus of machine-building enterprises at the stage of designing tumbling equipment with a complex spatial movement of working containers.

Eye movements through space interfere with visual processing of time-related words

When people make lexical decisions to words referring to the past or the future, they are faster when their manual responses are compatible with the mental timeline (MTL). That is, future words are responded to faster on the right than the left, while past words are responded to faster on the left than the right. This space-time congruency effect is interpreted to suggest that time words are represented along a spatial continuum that goes from left to right (past to future), at least in Western cultures that use reading-writing systems operating from left to right. All previous experiments used lateralized hand movements to register responses, which would evoke the directionality of writing. To evoke the directionality of reading, we investigated whether the space-time congruency effect would be replicated in a language task when responses were given using the eyes rather than the hand. Thus, participants were asked to make lateralized eye movements to indicate whether letter stimuli were real words or not (lexical decision). Eye movements were perturbed for responses incompatible with the direction of the MTL, both in terms of decision time and motor amplitude. These results confirm that time-related words are embodied through spatial movement in effector-independent motor networks and suggests that the spatial representation of time operates in a body-centered reference frame.

Experimental assessment of eigenfrequencies and stiffness of the elastically supported body

The aim of the research is to derive an analytical solution describing the vibrations of railway wagons caused by asymmetrical loading of cargo for prediction of dangerous conditions. A presumption for the dynamic analysis and assessment of the driving quality of railway vehicles is an important experimental determination and verification of the basic characteristics of the suspension respectively. A method for determining these characteristics for two-axle vehicles has been developed and applied. This method requires knowledge of the position of the center of gravity and the main central moments of inertia. Vehicle bodies, chassis frames, and wheelsets are assumed to be rigid bodies under the investigation of these characteristics. The characteristics of the springs are linear or can be linearized. The vehicle body performs a general spatial movement. The result of the investigation is an analytical method to obtain the required characteristics needed for the dynamic analysis of the vehicle.

Wave propagation in a diffusive SEIR epidemic model with nonlocal transmission and a general nonlinear incidence rate

We introduce a diffusive SEIR model with nonlocal delayed transmission between the infected subpopulation and the susceptible subpopulation with a general nonlinear incidence. We show that our results on existence and nonexistence of traveling wave solutions are determined by the basic reproduction number $R_{0}=\partial _{I}F(S_{0},0)/\gamma $ R 0 = ∂ I F ( S 0 , 0 ) / γ of the corresponding ordinary differential equations and the minimal wave speed $c^{*}$ c ∗ . The main difficulties lie in the fact that the semiflow generated here does not admit the order-preserving property. In the present paper, we overcome these difficulties to obtain the threshold dynamics. In view of the numerical simulations, we also obtain that the minimal wave speed is explicitly determined by the time delay and nonlocality in disease transmission and by the spatial movement pattern of the exposed and infected individuals.

Hyperbolic compartmental models for epidemic spread on networks with uncertain data: Application to the emergence of COVID-19 in Italy

The importance of spatial networks in the spread of an epidemic is an essential aspect in modeling the dynamics of an infectious disease. Additionally, any realistic data-driven model must take into account the large uncertainty in the values reported by official sources such as the amount of infectious individuals. In this paper, we address the above aspects through a hyperbolic compartmental model on networks, in which nodes identify locations of interest such as cities or regions, and arcs represent the ensemble of main mobility paths. The model describes the spatial movement and interactions of a population partitioned, from an epidemiological point of view, on the basis of an extended compartmental structure and divided into commuters, moving on a suburban scale, and non-commuters, acting on an urban scale. Through a diffusive rescaling, the model allows us to recover classical diffusion equations related to commuting dynamics. The numerical solution of the resulting multiscale hyperbolic system with uncertainty is then tackled using a stochastic collocation approach in combination with a finite volume Implicit–Explicit (IMEX) method. The ability of the model to correctly describe the spatial heterogeneity underlying the spread of an epidemic in a realistic city network is confirmed with a study of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy and its spread in the Lombardy Region.

Spatiotemporal coordination of the RSF1-PLK1-Aurora B cascade establishes mitotic signaling platforms

The chromatin remodeler RSF1 enriched at mitotic centromeres is essential for proper chromosome alignment and segregation and underlying mechanisms remain to be disclosed. We here show that PLK1 recruitment by RSF1 at centromeres creates an activating phosphorylation on Thr236 in the activation loop of Aurora B and this is indispensable for the Aurora B activation. In structural modeling the phosphorylated Thr236 enhances the base catalysis by Asp200 nearby, facilitating the Thr232 autophosphorylation. Accordingly, RSF1-PLK1 is central for Aurora B-mediated microtubule destabilization in error correction. However, under full microtubule-kinetochore attachment RSF1-PLK1 positions at kinetochores, halts activating Aurora B and phosphorylates BubR1, regardless of tension. Spatial movement of RSF1-PLK1 to kinetochores is triggered by Aurora B-mediated phosphorylation of centromeric histone H3 on Ser28. We propose a regulatory RSF1-PLK1 axis that spatiotemporally controls on/off switch on Aurora B. This feedback circuit among RSF1-PLK1-Aurora B may coordinate dynamic microtubule-kinetochore attachment in early mitosis when full tension yet to be generated.

Dynamics of a Reaction Diusion Brucellosis Model

To understand the effects of animal movement on transmission and control of brucellosis infection, a reaction diffusion partial differential equation (PDE) brucellosis model that incorporates wild and domesticated animals under homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions is proposed and analysed. We computed the reproductive number for the brucellosis model in the absence of spatial movement and we established that, the associated model has a globally asymptotically stable disease-free equilibrium whenever the reproductive number is less or equal to unity. However, if the reproductive number is greater than unity an endemic equilibrium point which is globally asymptotically stable exists. We performed sensitivity analysis on the key parameters that drive the disease dynamics in order to determine their relative importance to disease transmission and prevalence. For the model with spatial movement the disease threshold is studied by using the basic reproductive number. Additionally we investigate the existence of a Turing stability and travelling waves. Our results shows that incorporating diffusive spatial spread does not produce a Turing instability when the reproductive number R0ODE associated with the ODE model is less than unity. Finally the results suggest that minimizing interaction between buffalo and cattle population can be essential to manage brucellosis spillover between domesticated and wildlife animals. Numerical simulations are carried out to support analytical findings.