Journal articles on the topic 'V-BLAST ARCHITECTURE'

The V-BLAST wireless communication architecture, space-time block code (STBC), and space-frequency block code (SFBC) techniques are strong candidates for achieving very high data rates in 4G broadband wireless communications. This paper extends the efficient Active Constellation Extension Smart Gradient-Project (ACE-SGP) peak-to-average power (PAPR) reduction method to STBC, SFBC, and V-BLAST systems. Simulation results show 4.19 and 3.57 dB of PAPR reduction for the Alamouti STBC and SFBC, respectively.

For the sake of reducing the hardware cost of multiple RF chains and the complexity for spatial multiplexing systems, in this paper a novel low-complexity transmit antenna selection criterion is proposed for V-BLAST system with MMSE OSIC detection. Based on MMSE extension of V-BLAST with sorted QR decomposition, an intuitional performance analysis of each sub-stream for MMSE V-BLAST transmission is done, and a new solution to the transmit antenna selection problem is suggested. Unlike most of the existing works, the proposed algorithm synthetically considers the impacts of detection order, interference cancellation, and noise amplification. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves well both in outage capacity and in symbol error rate performance with low computational complexity.

This paper presents a VLSI architecture for the suboptimal hard-output Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) algorithm in the context of Spatial Multiplexing Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (SM-MIMO) systems immersed in Rayleigh fading channels. The design and implementation of its corresponding data-path and control-path components over FPGA devices are considered. Results on synthesis, bit error rate performance, and data throughput are reported.

The use of multiple antennas at both transmitting and receiving sides of a rich scattering communication channelimproves the spectral efficiency and capacity of digitaltransmission systems compared with the single antennacommunication systems. However algorithmic complexity in the realization of the receiver is a major problem for itsimplementation in hardware. This paper investigates a nearoptimal algorithm for V-BLAST detection in MIMO wirelesscommunication systems based on the QR factorization technique, offering remarkable reduction in the hardware complexity. Specifically, we analyze some hardware implementation aspects of the selected algorithm through MATLAB simulations and demonstrate its robustness. This technique can be used in an efficient fixed point VLSI implementation of the algorithm. We also provide the VLSI architecture that implements the algorithm.

Ensuring proper and effective cementing of casing pipe columns in boreholes requires maintaining appropriate technological parameters for the developed slurry recipes. It is also necessary to use technology which guarantees effective displacement of the drilling mud for cement slurry injection into the annular space of the borehole. The most important factors that ensure high efficiency of drilling mud displacement by the cement slurry are, among others, the rheological properties of the liquids involved in the process of cementing the casing columns (drilling mud, cement slurry, buffer liquid). The introduced version of the European cement standard, PN-EN 197-1, includes new types of very economical multi-component cements CEM V/A and CEM V/B, which contain 20–40% Portland clinker with a relatively high content of hydraulic and pozzolanic constituents. They occur in the form of granulated blast furnace slag, natural as well as industrial pozzolans and silica fly ash from the combustion of hard coal. The article presents the results of laboratory tests on the technological parameters of both fresh and hardened cement slurries prepared on the basis of CEM V multi-component cement varieties A and B. These slurries meet the standard technological parameters to a demanding extent, which makes it possible to apply them to cementing columns of casing pipes in deep hole drilling. Their detailed properties can be modified by introducing other mineral additives and chemical admixtures to the cement slurry recipes.

Vernicia fordii (tung oil tree) is famous in the world for its production of tung oil. Unfortunately, it was infected by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fordii 1 (Fof-1) and suffered serious wilt disease. Conversely, its sister species V. montana is highly resistant to Fof-1. The MYB (v-myb myeloblastosis viral oncogene homolog) transcription factors were activated during the pathogen Fof-1 infection according to our previous comparative transcriptomic results. Depending on whether the sequence has a complete MYB-DNA-binding domain, a total of 75 VfMYB and 77 VmMYB genes were identified in susceptible V. fordii and resistant V. montana, respectively. In addition, we detected 49 pairs of one-to-one orthologous Vf/VmMYB genes with the reciprocal-best BLAST-hits (RBH)method. In order to investigate the expression modes and the internal network of MYB transcription factors in the two species responding to Fusarium wilt disease, the expressions of Vf/VmMYBs were then investigated and we found that most orthologous Vf/VmMYB genes exhibited similar expression patterns during the Fof-1 infection. However, four pairs of Vf/VmMYB genes, annotated as unknown proteins and mediator of root architecture, demonstrated absolute opposite expression patterns in the two Vernicia species responding to Fof-1. The interaction network of VmMYB genes were further constructed using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) method and four hub genes showing extremely high interaction with the other 1157 genes were identified. RT-qPCR result verified the opposite expression pattern of the hub gene VmMYB011 and VmMYB041 in two Vernicia species. In summary, co-expression network of the Vf/VmMYBs and significantly opposite related pairs of genes in resistant and susceptible Vernicia species provided knowledge for understanding the molecular basis of Vernicia responding to Fusarium wilt disease.

Multiple input multiple output-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) with an electronically steerable passive array radiator (ESPAR) antenna receiver can improve the bit error rate performance and obtains additional diversity gain without increasing the number of Radio Frequency (RF) front-end circuits. However, due to the large size of the channel matrix, the computational cost required for the detection process using Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) detection is too high to be implemented. Using the minimum mean square error sparse-sorted QR decomposition (MMSE sparse-SQRD) algorithm for the detection process the average computational cost can be considerably reduced but is still higher compared with a conventional MIMOOFDM system without ESPAR antenna receiver. In this paper, we propose to use a low complexity submatrix divided MMSE sparse-SQRD algorithm for the detection process of MIMOOFDM with ESPAR antenna receiver. The computational cost analysis and simulation results show that on average the proposed scheme can further reduce the computational cost and achieve a complexity comparable to the conventional MIMO-OFDM detection schemes.

Mildew resistance locus O (Mlo) gene was first found in barley as a powdery mildew susceptibility gene, and recessive mlo alleles confer durable resistance to barley powdery mildew. To identify candidate Mlo susceptibility genes in rubber tree, HbMlo12 was cloned from rubber tree clone CATAS7-33-97, which is susceptible to powdery mildew. Protein architecture analysis showed that HbMlo12 was a typical Mlo protein with seven transmembrane domains. Protein blast search in the Arabidopsis thaliana proteome database showed that HbMlo12 shared the highest similarity with AtMlo12, with 63% sequence identity. Furthermore, HbMlo12 together with the dicot powdery mildew susceptible Mlo proteins (including AtMlo2, AtMlo6, AtMlo12, tomato SlMlo1, pepper CaMlo2, pea PsMlo1, etc.) were grouped into clade V. Subcellular localization analysis in tobacco epidermal cells revealed that HbMlo12 was localized to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. HbMlo12 was preferentially expressed in the flower and leaf of rubber tree. Moreover, its expression was significantly upregulated in response to powdery mildew inoculation. Application of exogenous ethephon caused a distinct increase in HbMlo12 expression. Additionally, HbMlo12 transcript was quickly induced by spraying salicylic acid and gibberellic acid and reached the maximum at 0.5 h after treatments. By contrast, HbMlo12 expression was downregulated by methyl jasmonate, abscisic acid, and drought stress treatments. There was no significant change in HbMlo12 expression after indole-3-acetic acid, H2O2, and wounding stimuli. Taken together, these results suggested that HbMlo12 might be a candidate Mlo gene conferring susceptibility to powdery mildew in rubber tree. The results of this study are vital in understanding Mlo gene evolution and developing new rubber tree varieties with powdery mildew resistance using reverse genetics.

ZBBs have a high open circuit voltage (1.82 V), a high theoretical energy (> 400 W h-1 kg-1) and high demonstrated power densities (> 100 mW cm-2). Typically, ZBBs adopt a redox flow design involving the use of a Nafion membrane to separate aqueous zinc bromide anolyte and catholyte solutions [1]. In this study, the use of a membrane-free non-flow design was investigated for the purposes of recovering zinc from scrap and waste steel resources [2]. The rationale for this work stems from the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the iron and steel industry, which accounts for between 4-7 % of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions globally [3]. Blast furnace technology is likely to account for most stainless steel production in the coming decades, and therefore a transition to low-carbon and green steel production will require increased steel recycling rates and significantly improved waste and scrap management. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a zinc-bromine battery has been investigated for the recovery of materials rather than energy storage. Galvanization of steel is required to prevent rusting and degradation and involves coating the surface of steel in a protective layer of zinc. Galvanization processes account for over 50 % of global zinc consumption and by 2050 the demand for zinc will be 2.7 times greater than that of 2012 [4]. In order to enable recycling of scrap steel directly into blast furnaces, zinc is removed and recovered via mineral acid leaching. This method of recovery has a high zinc extraction efficiency but creates problematic waste streams and has poor energetic efficiency. In this work, the use of a membrane-free zinc-bromine battery has been studied for the purposes of extracting zinc from steel substrates and subsequently re-electroplating onto a conventional carbon foam electrode. The electrical performance of the cell was characterised by charge-discharge profiles and I-V curves. Zinc removal and recovery onto electrodes was characterised using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The work successfully demonstrates that ZBB technology could enable efficient and clean recovery of zinc from metal and waste substrates including scrap steel, slurries generated from basic oxygen steelmaking processes, and secondary vent dust from the primary steelmaking off gas streams. The cell studied in this work enabled dipping of zinc-containing steel substrates directly into the electrolyte solution without disassembly of the battery housing. In addition, the design involved the use of low-cost materials and reagents and potentially offers low balance-of-plant costs. The results show that zinc could be removed from steel surfaces during cell discharge with greater than 99.9 % yield. The Figure shows the extracted zinc could subsequently be re-electroplated onto a standard carbon foam electrode upon re-charging the cell. When a 0.5 V cut-off voltage was used upon discharge, the zinc was recovered selectively from the steel (see Fig. (a)); the surface elemental composition of the carbon electrode measured by EDS after charging was: carbon (26.79 wt%), oxygen (18.06 wt%), zinc (30.03 wt%) and bromine (25.11 wt%). Using a lower cut-off voltage (0.2 V) resulted in the co-extraction of iron from the substrate as well as zinc (see Fig. (b)); in this case, the elemental composition of the carbon electrode after charging was: carbon (27.53 wt%), oxygen (22.65 wt%), iron (4.72 wt%), zinc (24.44 wt%) and bromine (20.65 wt%). Provided a cut-off voltage of no less than 0.5 V was used for discharging, high purity zinc was recovered, and the cell showed good initial durability, with 30 cycles of charge-discharge demonstrated in this work. [1] S. Suresh, M. Ulaganathan, N. Venkatesan, P. Periasamy, P. Ragupathy, High performance zinc-bromine redox flow batteries: Role of various carbon felts and cell configurations. J. Energy Storage, 2018. 20: pp. 134-139. [2] S. Biswas, A. Senju, R. Mohr, T. Hodson, N. Karthikeyan, K. Knehr, A.G. Hsieh, X. Yang, B.E. Koel, D.A. Steingart, Minimal architecture zinc-bromine battery for low-cost electrochemical storage. Energy Environ. Sci., 2017. 10: pp. 114-120. [3] Iron and Steel Technology Roadmap: Towards More Sustainable Steelmaking, Energy Technology Perspectives, International Energy Agency, IEA Publications, Paris, 2020. https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap [accessed 12 April 2022]. [4] K.S. Ng, I. Head, G.C. Premier, K. Scott. E. Yu, J. Lloyd, J. Sadhukhan. A multilevel sustainability analysis of zinc recovery from wastes. Resour. Conserv. Recycl., 2016. 113: pp. 88-105. Figure. SEM images showing the carbon foam zinc electrodes after charging the cell. (a) is an electrode when a discharge cut-off voltage of 0.5 V was used, (b) is an electrode when a discharge cut-off voltage of 0.2 V was used. Figure 1

The present research focuses on studying the effect of architectural shape of reinforced concrete frames resulting from irregularity of geometrical shape of building frame. The reinforced concrete Frame, consisting of eight storey and three bays, was designed by the American Code ACI-14. SAP2000 (V.20) software was used for the purposes of design, analysis, of the structural response for behavior elasto-plastic under the effect of blast loading, through a number of variables, including the maximum displacement and plastic deformations at the tip of structure, number and status of plastic hinges formed, and damage index. The interaction diagram between axial force and bending moment was adopted as a yield surface to undergo the transition from elastic to plastic behavior for the columns, while the design yield moment was defined as a yield criterion for beams. The accumulated plasticity (Plastic hinge) at the ends of structural element was used to simulate the elasto-plastic behavior . Irregularity and unsymmetrical form of frame structure have a significant effect on increasing the deformations and plastic displacements in the elements more than 40% and increasing the damage index in structure more than 18%, that is calculated on the basis of dissipated energy by plastic deformations. The distance between centers of Mass (C.M.) and Stiffness (C.S.) significantly affects the response of structure, where the plastic deformations of structural elements are in the least damage zone in case of convergence between two centers, compared to other cases of heterogeneity irregularity of geometrical shape of structure that results in diverging of these centers.

Abstract Background: High throughput sequencing of immunoglobuline heavy chain gene rearrangements (IGH) recently demonstrated that B-cell precursor ALL (BCP-ALL) is a highly oligoclonal disease in children (Theunissen, Hematologica, 2017), however, little is known about the degree of oligoclonality in adults with BCP-ALL. Furthermore, no data exist on potential changes of the subclonal composition during therapy. Therefore, we aimed to monitor the clonal architecture of the leukemic blasts before and after Rituximab containing induction treatment in the context of the current German Multicentric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (GMALL) 08/2013 trial. Materials & Methods: We identified and studied complete and incomplete immunoglobulin (IG) heavy chain rearrangements in 100ng of bone marrow (BM) DNA at diagnosis (dx) and 500ng BM DNA after Rituximab-containing induction I in 19 patients with BCP-ALL. We employed IGH-VJ FR1 and IGH-DJ NGS assays developed within the EuroClonality-NGS Consortium (www.euroclonalityngs.org), performing next generation sequencing on Illumina MiSeq. We analysed data with the ARResT/Interrogate bioinformatics platform (Bystry, Bioinformatics, 2017), which is also able to isolate and use the DN-J stem of V/DJ junctions to link clonally related rearrangements. Clones with abundance ≥5 %, and all subclones carrying the same DN-J stem as the dominant clones were considered as leukemia-associated and studied further. Employing the sequence of the DN-J stem, we could also link related complete and incomplete rearrangements, even though those are amplified in two separate PCRs. Results: At dx, 18/19 patients carried at least 1 IGH rearrangement with abundance ≥ 5%, 10 patients carried 2 or more. In all 18 patients with dominant markers detected at dx, subclones with abundance <5% carrying the same DN-J stem as the dominant clone were present, indicating oligoclonality and clonal evolution. On average, 53.1 (range 0-295) (sub)clones per DN-J stem were detected at dx, and 32.7 (range 0-238) after treatment. Next, we compared the kinetics of all (sub)clones with abundance ≥1% in at least one of the time-points. Of the 18 patients, 6 only had subclones with abundance <1%, and we did not investigate the kinetics of such subclones. In another 11 patients (Fig. 1, Pt. 1-11), all sub(clones) had the same kinetics, with no clone gaining predominance over time. In 1 patient (Fig. 1, Pt. 12), 3 (sub)clones which were present at dx disappeared and a new subclone appeared after treatment. This patient had a pro-B immunophenotype, where oligoclonality and clonal instability are well known phenomena (Szczepanski, Leukemia, 2001). Conclusions: It has recently been shown that ALL is a highly oligoclonal disease in children (Theunissen, Hematologica, 2017), and our study extends this finding to adults with BCP-ALL. We furthermore demonstrate that the subclonal composition remains stable in the majority of patient during induction chemoimmunotherapy. The fact that the response to treatment is generally consistent among different (sub)clones has important implications for MRD quantification as it reassures the usage of the dominant clonal IG gene rearrangement for MRD monitoring in ALL. However, also significant changes of the clonal composition may occur in BCP-ALL as exemplified in one patient of our cohort. Further investigations are necessary to elucidate factors that influence subclonal heterogeneity in response to treatment. Disclosures Viardot: Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Gilead Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria. Kneba:AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria. Goekbuget:Pfizer: Consultancy, Other: Travel support, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: Travel support, Research Funding; Kite / Gilead: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy, Other: Travel support, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy. Brüggemann:Incyte: Consultancy; PRMA: Consultancy; Regeneron: Research Funding; Affimed: Research Funding; Pfizer: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Speakers Bureau.

Background:Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of autoimmune diseases-associated loci so far but much of the heritability of these diseases remains unknown. In an attempt to identify potential causal variants, various studies revealed that the missense variant rs35677470 atDNASE1L3is associated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic sclerosis (SSc), thus exhibiting a pleiotropic effect. Deoxyribonuclease I-like 3 (DNase1L3) is a member of human DNase I family, representing a nuclease that cleaves double-stranded DNA during apoptosis and is involved in the development of autoimmune diseases [1].Objectives:To investigate the role of the rs35677470 polymorphism atDNASE1L3gene leading to the R206C mutation in SLE, RA and SSc [2-3] and the mechanism that may affect the loss of function in the protein structure.Methods:TheDNASE1L3evolution was investigated to define conservation elements in the protein sequence using, BLASTP extended searches [4], TCOFFEE [5] multiple sequence alignments, and MEGAX [6] for phylogenetics analysis. Three-dimensional (3D) homology modeling was used to localize the polymorphism under study. The mutant was constructed by molecular modeling using the structures of homologous DNAses (PDB entries 1atn, 4awn, 3d3w; [7-9]). Molecular mechanics/dynamics studies were applied to validate structural/functional changes caused by the R206C substitution. All figures depicting 3D models were generated using the PyMOL molecular-graphics system V.2.2 (Schrodinger, LLC).Results:The evolutionary analysis shows heavily conserved sequence elements among species indicating structural/functional importance. Structural analysis revealed that the rs35677470 SNP codes for a nonconservative amino acid variation, R206C, disrupts the conserved electrostatic network holding protein secondary structure elements to place. Specifically, the R206 to E170 interaction, part of a salt bridge network stabilizing two a-helices, is being interrupted, thereby affecting the molecular architecture (Fig. 1). Indeed, previous studies on the effect of this SNP in Caucasian populations resulting in a lower level of DNAse1L3 activity are consistent with this observation [10].Figure 1.Ribbon representation of the DNAse1L3 homology model showing the position of the stabilizing salt bridge network (E170- R206, R208- D219). Insert figure shows the R206C mutation. Positively charged R (in blue), negatively charged D,E (in red) and C (in yellow) are shown. Distances are in Angstroms.Conclusion:This study represents a comprehensive evaluation of the shared autoimmune loci ofDNASE1L3(rs35677470), reported to produce an inactive form of DNaseIL3 [10]. The structural analysis, explains the potential role of the produced mutation by modifying the placement of structural elements and consequently introducing disorder in the protein folding and affecting biological function. Altogether, this study contributes to the delineation of the genetic architecture of SLE, RA and SSc.References:[1]Sisirak V et al (2016). Cell 166:88–101[2]Westra HJ et al (2018). Nat Genet. 50:1366-74[3]Acosta-Herrera M et al. (2018). Ann Rheum Dis. 78:311-19[4]Altschul SF et al (1997) Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-402.[5]Notredame et al (2000) JMB, 302:205-17[6]Kumar S et al (2018) Mol. Biol. Evol. 35:1547-9[7]Kabsch W et al (1990) Nature 347: 37-44[8]Parciegla et al (2012) Biochemistry 51: 10250[9]Sasaki K et al (1993) Acta Cryst., A 49: 111-2[10]Ueki et al (2009) Clinica Chim. Acta 407:20–4Disclosure of Interests:None declared

Abstract Immunotherapy-based regimens are now integrated in clinical practice for a wide range of cancers. However, responses to immunotherapy are inconsistent across the neoplastic spectrum. To this end, a deep characterization of intra-tumor immune architecture is essential for identifying subsets of patients who can benefit from checkpoint inhibitors and other immunomodulatory treatments. V-domain Ig suppressor of T-cell activation (VISTA) has recently been recognized as a key negative immune regulator of anti-tumor immune response and is gaining growing interest as a potential pharmacological target. This molecule can work either as a receptor or as a ligand, is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem cells and myeloid compartment (Fig.1A) and has been found upmodulated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). 1 However, despite those features, and its compelling role as a mediator of immune escape in cancer, VISTA-associated immune features are relatively unexplored in myeloid malignancies. Herein, we conducted a large multi-omics study, investigating the transcriptomic and genetic signatures associated with VISTA expression in a large publicly available dataset of patients with AML 2 with the purpose of potentially inspiring selective molecular targeted therapies in defined subsets of patients. VISTA was found upregulated in 285 samples from AML patients at diagnosis compared to 33 specimens from healthy controls (HC) (Fig.1B) highlighting its dysregulation at disease onset. When exploring distinct AML subtypes, we observed a pattern reflecting the expression reported in normal myelopoiesis stages, with higher expression levels in myelomonocytic and monocytic subsets and lower levels in promyelocytic leukemia (Fig.1A,B). Accordingly, genomic aberrations associated with higher VISTA expression were more commonly NPM1 mutations and MLLT3-KTM2A gene fusions both enriching M4 and M5 morphologic subgroups respectively (Fig.1C, D). This pattern was also confirmed in a panel of human leukemia cell lines (Fig.1E). Based on the 75%ile of VISTA mRNA expression in HC, we categorized patients in high (N=139) and low (N=146) expressors and performed a differential analysis between the two groups. High VISTA expressors showed a striking enrichment in genes involved in immune activation with upregulation of antigen presentation and processing pathways, cytokine and interleukine signaling, toll-like receptor cascade, NK cytotoxicity and response to interferon (Fig.1F,G). Based on these findings, we reasoned that VISTA hyperexpression could arise from two possible mechanisms: I) a paraphenomenon of the enrichment in blasts with particular morphologic features, II) a feedback response to the initial immune activation against leukemic blasts, in patients with higher immunoediting potential, representing an early marker of immune pressure, shaping leukemia ontogeny. To further test this last hypothesis, we analyzed the correlation between VISTA expression and the mutational burden present in those AML specimens and found that high VISTA expression inversely correlated with the number of somatic hits acquired at diagnosis (Fig.1H). Consistent with lessons inherited from tumor biology, this result potentially indicates that VISTA hyperexpression counteracts immunoediting mechanisms that, in an initial phase, sculpt the oncogenic potential of leukemic blasts, selecting clones with lower neoantigenic burden. This phase of immune activation and elimination, is ideally followed by an equilibrium and escape stage, in which regulatory negative mechanisms arise, ultimately facilitating leukemic progression. Of note is that unbiased differential analysis of the same AML subset compared to HC did not identify upregulation in any other antigen presenting cell-associated checkpoint negative regulators, including PDL1. Altogether those findings pinpoint the role of VISTA as early marker of immune activation and potentially a feedback mechanism that ultimately may promote immune escape in AML. Targeting VISTA may be an effective approach for controlling disease recurrence and treatment resistance in molecularly defined subgroups of AML. Ongoing experiments and analysis of immunogenomic players of immune escape in the setting of allogenic stem cell transplantation will clarify the role of VISTA in mediating AML relapse and evasion from graft versus leukemia effect. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Maciejewski: Regeneron: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Bristol Myers Squibb/Celgene: Consultancy; Alexion: Consultancy.

Abstract Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal stem cell neoplasms affecting patients usually over 60 years old that typically present into the clinic with common symptoms including cytopenias, recurrent infections, bleeding and bruising. Approximately 20-30% of MDS patients progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are associated with inferior survival1. Diagnosis of MDS relies on findings from peripheral blood counts, examination of bone marrow morphology and evaluation of cytogenetic profiles for chromosomal aberrations. Using the WHO 2008 criteria, the proportion of blasts in the bone marrow, the number of cell lineages affected and the presence of del(5q) are collectively evaluated to classify patients into one of the five MDS categories [refractory anemia, refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts, refractory cytopenia multilineage dysplasia, refractory anemia with excess blasts, MDS with del(5q)]. The International Prognostication Scoring System (IPSS & IPSS-R) is the most widely used prognostic system in MDS. IPSS utilizes morphological variables to assign patients into low, intermediate or high-risk groups2. Accurate classification into one of these prognostic categories is critical as it determines selection of therapy regimes. Recent systematic profiling screens of MDS genomes have unraveled a complex network of cellular pathways that are causally implicated in MDS pathogenesis. Mutations have now been characterized in a number of key components of the spliceosome machinery (SF3B1, SRSF2, U2AF1, U2AF2, ZRSR2), regulators of DNA methylation (DNMT3A, IDH1, IDH2, TET2), chromatin modification (ASXL1, EZH2), transcription (EVI1, RUNX1, GATA2), signal transduction (NRAS, JAK2, KRAS, CBL) and cell cycle control (TP53)3-9. Collectively, more than 40 genes are significantly mutated in MDS; these mutations account for nearly 90% of MDS patients. The majority of patients present with two or more oncogenic mutations at diagnosis, and significant patterns of gene-gene interactions and mutual exclusivity have been reported10,11. Systematic integration of mutation data with large and well-annotated clinical datasets offers an unprecedented opportunity to decipher both the diagnostic as well as prognostic potential of these mutations as clinical biomarkers. However, the underlying genetic heterogeneity imposes significant challenges and important considerations that need to be accounted for when interpreting observed correlations between genotype, morphology and patient outcome. To unravel the interlocking genetic heterogeneity in MDS, Bejar et al., Papaemmanuil et al., and Haferlach et al. have studied the prevalence of acquired gene mutations in MDS and closely related chronic myeloid neoplasms in ~ 2100 MDS patients with well-annotated diagnostic and clinical outcome variables10-12. Univariate analysis has identified more than 10 genes to be significantly correlated with clinical outcome, including SF3B1, SRSF2, ASXL1, RUNX1, TP53, BCOR, RUNX1, EZH2, IDH2, ZRSR2, U2AF1 and CUX1. The total number of oncogenic mutations identified in each patient is selected as one of the most significant genetic predictors of outcome. Mutations in gene components of the spliceosome machinery are observed in approximately 50% of MDS patients, identifying pre-mRNA splicing as the most frequently altered biological process in MDS. Additionally, clonal relationship analysis of these mutations identifies that mutations in splicing genes occur early, followed by mutations in preferred partner genes, and mutations in different genes of the spliceosome machinery are associated with distinct morphological classification groups. The present talk will provide an overview of our current understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms that underpin MDS biology. It will also evaluate how the genetic architecture of MDS can be incorporated in developing reliable and informative patient classification as well as outcome prediction models that can support clinical decision making in the future. References: 1. Tefferi A, Vardiman JW. Myelodysplastic syndromes. N Engl J Med. 2009;361(19):1872-1885. 2. Greenberg PL, Tuechler H, Schanz J, et al. Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) for myelodysplastic syndromes. Blood. 2012. 3. Yoshida K, Sanada M, Shiraishi Y, et al. Frequent pathway mutations of splicing machinery in myelodysplasia. Nature. 2011;478(7367):64-69. 4. Graubert TA, Shen D, Ding L, et al. Recurrent mutations in the U2AF1 splicing factor in myelodysplastic syndromes. Nat Genet. 2012;44(1):53-57. 5. Ernst T, Chase AJ, Score J, et al. Inactivating mutations of the histone methyltransferase gene EZH2 in myeloid disorders. Nat Genet. 2010;42(8):722-726. 6. Ley TJ, Ding L, Walter MJ, et al. DNMT3A mutations in acute myeloid leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2010;363(25):2424-2433. 7. Mardis ER, Ding L, Dooling DJ, et al. Recurring mutations found by sequencing an acute myeloid leukemia genome. N Engl J Med. 2009;361(11):1058-1066. 8. Gelsi-Boyer V, Trouplin V, Adelaide J, et al. Mutations of polycomb-associated gene ASXL1 in myelodysplastic syndromes and chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. Br J Haematol. 2009;145(6):788-800. 9. Shih AH, Levine RL. Molecular biology of myelodysplastic syndromes. Semin Oncol. 2011;38(5):613-620. 10. Haferlach T, Nagata Y, Grossmann V, et al. Landscape of genetic lesions in 944 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. Leukemia. 2014;28(2):241-247. 11. Papaemmanuil E, Gerstung M, Malcovati L, et al. Clinical and biological implications of driver mutations in myelodysplastic syndromes. Blood. 2013;122(22):3616-3627; quiz 3699. 12. Bejar R, Stevenson K, Abdel-Wahab O, et al. Clinical effect of point mutations in myelodysplastic syndromes. N Engl J Med. 2011;364(26):2496-2506. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract CAR-T cell therapy against CD19 has changed the treatment landscape in relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-ALL. R/r T-ALL has a dismal prognosis, with an unmet need for effective targeted therapies. Several unique challenges mean that CAR-T cell therapy has yet to be successfully translated to T-ALL. Most strategies have targeted pan-T cell antigens (CD7, CD5) but these are limited by T cell aplasia and fratricide, requiring elimination of CAR-T antigen surface expression during manufacture. An ideal target would be exclusively or largely confined to the malignant T cell component but published examples of these (CD1a and TRBC1) are expressed in only minor T-ALL subsets. We previously showed that CD21 is expressed in a NOTCH-dependent manner in T-ALL (Leukemia. 2013, 27:650) and have developed it as a potential immunotherapy target, being primarily expressed on normal B cells, with minimal expression on mature T cells. 70% of human T-ALL cell lines (9/16) expressed surface CD21 by flow cytometry (FACS), with a median antigen density in positive lines of 2545/cell. In primary T-ALL, 57% of presentation samples (n=58) expressed CD21 (median antigen density 1168/cell). 45% of relapse (n=11) and 20% of primary refractory cases (n=30) expressed CD21, with a similar antigen density to presentation samples. CD21 positivity varied by maturational stage, with highest expression in cortical T-ALL (80% of cases) followed by pre-T (72%), mature (67%), ETP (25%) and pro-T (17%). Healthy donor blood (n=14) showed CD21 expression limited to B cells and a low proportion (11%) of T cells (10-fold lower intensity v B cells, 316 antigens/cell). T cell CD21 expression was not up-regulated upon activation with CD3/CD28 antibodies (n=6) and was not associated with markers of differentiation/exhaustion. To target CD21, DNA gene-gun vaccination of rats with a plasmid encoding full-length CD21, followed by phage display was performed and multiple anti-CD21 scFvs isolated. These were cloned into 4-1BBζ CARs and expressed in primary T cells but failed to kill or secrete cytokines in response to CD21+ SupT1 cells. CD21 is a bulky molecule, with 15/16 sushi repeats in the extracellular domain. All isolated scFvs were found to bind membrane-distal domains. We hypothesized that ineffective signalling due to inadequate synapse formation was responsible for poor performance of anti-CD21 CAR-T, and that binders to membrane-proximal epitopes would signal more efficiently. We re-vaccinated rats with the first 5 sushi repeats of CD21 and generated a library of binders which bound CD21 at this membrane-proximal region. Multiple candidate binders expressed as CARs were functional, with cytotoxicity and interferon-γ secretion in response to CD21+ target cells. However, non-specific background cytokine secretion was seen against CD21 negative cells, and no IL-2 secretion was seen. Re-cloning binders into a fragment antigen binding (Fab)-CAR architecture yielded constructs capable of specific cytotoxicity, IFN-γ and IL2 secretion against a CD21+ cell line but not its CD21 negative counterpart (n=6). Our lead anti-CD21 candidate CAR specifically proliferated in vitro, without fratricide or premature exhaustion/ differentiation, and was active against low-density CD21-positive cell lines (n=3) and primary cells from 2 T-ALL patients. Improved functionality of Fab v scFv-based CAR was not driven by higher affinity binding or CAR surface expression. We tested anti-CD21 CAR in murine models of T-ALL. NSG mice were injected with SupT1-luciferase cells and treated with aCD19 or aCD21 CAR-T on day +5. At 2 weeks post treatment, markedly lower disease burden was seen in CD21 CAR-T v CD19 recipients by bioluminescence imaging (median radiance 71700 v 790000 p=0.0079). Further, we injected primary T-ALL blasts in another cohort, treating with aCD19 or aCD21 CAR-T on D+20. Serial bleeds from day 27 post CAR-T showed tumour control in aCD21 CAR treated mice (p=0.024) with an overall survival advantage (median OS 44 days vs undefined, HR = 19.8, p = 0.0069, n=4/group). In summary, we propose CD21 as a novel target for CAR-T cell therapy in T-ALL. Its expression is largely restricted to the malignant T cell compartment, overcoming issues with fratricide and on-target off-tumour effects seen in many T-ALL CAR-T strategies to date. Despite the complexity of the target, we have successfully generated an aCD21 CAR that is functional both in vitro and in vivo. Disclosures Maciocia: Autolus: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Onuoha: Autolus: Ended employment in the past 24 months. Khwaja: Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Astellas: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Maciocia: Autolus: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company, Research Funding. Pule: Autolus: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company.

In order to improvement both system performances and data rate Multiple Input Multiple Output techniques play an important role in transmission system. A number of techniques are used to do the needful work for performance improvement in MIMO systems belongs to different block codes, apart from that BLAST architecture are used Such as Diagonal Bell laboratories layered space-time (D-BLAST), Vertical Bell Labs Space-Time Architecture (V-BLAST) method. This work defines the performance improvement using V-BLAST technique in Multiple Input Multiple Output detector. Here we discuss the concept of Multiple Input Multiple Output with BLAST architecture. Depends upon the Bit Error Rate and Frame Error Rate, the comparison is made with the existing methods.

Abstract Motivation The proteasome is the main proteolytic machine for targeted protein degradation in archaea and eukaryotes. While some bacteria also possess the proteasome, most of them contain a simpler and more specialized homolog, the heat shock locus V protease. In recent years, three further homologs of the proteasome core subunits have been characterized in prokaryotes: Anbu, BPH and connectase. With the inclusion of these members, the family of proteasome-like proteins now exhibits a range of architectural and functional forms, from the canonical proteasome, a barrel-shaped protease without pronounced intrinsic substrate specificity, to the monomeric connectase, a highly specific protein ligase. Results We employed systematic sequence searches to show that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far and that beyond the hitherto known proteasome homologs lies a wealth of distantly related, uncharacterized homologs. We describe a total of 22 novel proteasome homologs in bacteria and archaea. Using sequence and structure analysis, we analyze their evolutionary history and assess structural differences that may modulate their function. With this initial description, we aim to stimulate the experimental investigation of these novel proteasome-like family members. Availability and implementation The protein sequences in this study are searchable in the MPI Bioinformatics Toolkit (https://toolkit.tuebingen.mpg.de) with ProtBLAST/PSI-BLAST and with HHpred (database ‘proteasome_homologs’). The following data are available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/t48yhff7hs/3: (i) sequence alignments for each proteasome-like homolog, (ii) the coordinates for their structural models and (iii) a cluster-map file, which can be navigated interactively in CLANS and gives direct access to all the sequences in this study. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

In PilsenTwenty-six Station Road,She climbed to the third floorUp stairs which were all that was leftOf the whole house,She opened her doorFull on to the sky,Stood gaping over the edge.For this was the placeThe world ended.Thenshe locked up carefullylest someone stealSiriusor Aldebaranfrom her kitchen,went back downstairsand settled herselfto waitfor the house to rise againand for her husband to rise from the ashesand for her children’s hands and feet to be stuck back in placeIn the morning they found herstill as stone, sparrows pecking her hands.Five Minutes after the Air Raidby Miroslav Holub(Calder 287) Holding Still Detonation. Affect. During the Second World War, London and other European cities were subjected to the terrors of aerial bombardment, rendered through nightmarish anticipations of the bomber (Gollin 7) and the material storm of the real air-raid. The fall of bombs plagued cities and their citizens with the terrible rain of explosives and incendiary weapons. A volatile landscape was formed as the urban environment was ‘unmade’ and urged into violent motion. Flying projectiles of shrapnel, debris and people; avalanches of collapsing factories and houses; the inhale and exhale of compressed air and firestorms; the scream of the explosion. All these composed an incredibly fluid urban traumatic, as atmospheres fell over the cities that was thick with smoke, dust, and ventilated only by terror (see for instance Sebald 10 and Mendieta’s 3 recent commentary). Vast craters were imprinted onto the charred morphologies of London and Berlin as well as Coventry, Hamburg and Dresden. Just as the punctuations of the bombing saw the psychic as well as the material give way, writers portraying Britain as an ‘volcano island’ (Spaight 5) witnessed eruptive projections – the volleys of the material air-war; the emotional signature of charged and bitter reprisals; pain, anguish and vengeance - counter-strikes of affect. In the midst of all of this molten violence and emotion it seems impossible that a simultaneous sense of quiescence could be at all possible. More than mere physical fixity or geographical stasis, a rather different sort of experience could take place. Preceding, during and following the excessive mobilisation of an air raid, ‘stillness’ was often used to describe certain plateuing stretches of time-space which were slowed and even stopped (Anderson 740). Between the eruptions appeared hollows of calm and even boredom. People’s nervous flinching under the reverberation of high-explosive blasts formed part of what Jordan Crandall might call a ‘bodily-inclination’ position. Slackened and taut feelings condensed around people listening out for the oncoming bomber. People found that they prepared for the dreadful wail of the siren, or relaxed in the aftermath of the attack. In these instances, states of tension and apprehension as well as calm and relief formed though stillness. The peculiar experiences of ‘stillness’ articulated in these events open out, I suggest, distinctive ways-of-being which undo our assumptions of perpetually fluid subjectivities and the primacy of the ‘body in motion’ even within the context of unparalleled movement and uncertainty (see Harrison 423 and also Rose and Wylie 477 for theoretical critique). The sorts of “musics of stillness and silence able to be discovered in a world of movement” (Thrift, Still 50), add to our understandings of the material geographies of war and terror (see for instance Graham 63; Gregory and Pred 3), whilst they gesture towards complex material-affective experiences of bodies and spaces. Stillness in this sense, denotes apprehending and anticipating spaces and events in ways that sees the body enveloped within the movement of the environment around it; bobbing along intensities that course their way through it; positioned towards pasts and futures that make themselves felt, and becoming capable of intense forms of experience and thought. These examples illustrate not a shutting down of the body to an inwardly focused position – albeit composed by complex relations and connections – but bodies finely attuned to their exteriors (see Bissell, Animating 277 and Conradson 33). In this paper I draw from a range of oral and written testimony archived at the Imperial War Museum and the Mass Observation wartime regular reports. Edited publications from these collections were also consulted. Detailing the experience of aerial bombing during the Blitz, particularly on London between September 1940 to May 1941, forms part of a wider project concerning the calculative and affective dimensions of the aeroplane’s relationship with the human body, especially through the spaces it has worked to construct (infrastructures such as airports) and destroy. While appearing extraordinary, the examples I use are actually fairly typical of the patternings of experience and the depth and clarity with which they are told. They could be taken to be representative of the population as a whole or coincidentally similar testimonials. Either way, they are couched within a specific cultural historical context of urgency, threat and unparalleled violence.Anticipations The complex material geographies of an air raid reveal the ecological interdependencies of populations and their often urban environments and metabolisms (Coward 419; Davis 3; Graham 63; Gregory The Colonial 19; Hewitt Place 257). Aerial warfare was an address of populations conceived at the register of their bio-rhythmical and metabolic relationship to their milieu (Adey). The Blitz and the subsequent Allied bombing campaign constituted Churchill’s ‘great experiment’ for governments attempting to assess the damage an air raid could inflict upon a population’s nerves and morale (Brittain 77; Gregory In Another 88). An anxious and uncertain landscape constructed before the war, perpetuated by public officials, commentators and members of parliament, saw background affects (Ngai 5) of urgency creating an atmosphere that pressurised and squeezed the population to prepare for the ‘gathering storm’. Attacks upon the atmosphere itself had been readily predicted in the form of threatening gas attacks ready to poison the medium upon which human and animal life depended (Haldane 111; Sloterdijk 41-57). One of the most talked of moments of the Blitz is not necessarily the action but the times of stillness that preceded it. Before and in-between an air raid stillness appears to describe a state rendered somewhere between the lulls and silences of the action and the warnings and the anticipatory feelings of what might happen. In the awaiting bodies, the materialites of silence could be felt as a kind-of-sound and as an atmospheric sense of imminence. At the onset of the first air-raids sound became a signifier of what was on the way (MO 408). Waiting – as both practice and sensation – imparted considerable inertia that went back and forth through time (Jeffrey 956; Massumi, Parables 3). For Geographer Kenneth Hewitt, sound “told of the coming raiders, the nearness of bombs, the plight of loved ones” (When the 16). The enormous social survey of Mass Observation concluded that “fear seems to be linked above all with noise” (original emphasis). As one report found, “It is the siren or the whistle or the explosion or the drone – these are the things that terrify. Fear seems to come to us most of all through our sense of hearing” (MO 378). Yet the power of the siren came not only from its capacity to propagate sound and to alert, but the warning held in its voice of ‘keeping silent’. “Prefacing in a dire prolepsis the post-apocalyptic event before the event”, as Bishop and Phillips (97) put it, the stillness of silence was incredibly virtual in its affects, disclosing - in its lack of life – the lives that would be later taken. Devastation was expected and rehearsed by civilians. Stillness formed a space and body ready to spring into movement – an ‘imminent mobility’ as John Armitage (204) has described it. Perched on the edge of devastation, space-times were felt through a sense of impending doom. Fatalistic yet composed expectations of a bomb heading straight down pervaded the thoughts and feelings of shelter dwellers (MO 253; MO 217). Waves of sound disrupted fragile tempers as they passed through the waiting bodies in the physical language of tensed muscles and gritted teeth (Gaskin 36). Silence helped form bodies inclined-to-attention, particularly sensitive to aural disturbances and vibrations from all around. Walls, floors and objects carried an urban bass-line of warning (Goodman). Stillness was forged through a body readied in advance of the violence these materialities signified. A calm and composed body was not necessarily an immobile body. Civilians who had prepared for the attacks were ready to snap into action - to dutifully wear their gas-mask or escape to shelter. ‘Backgrounds of expectation’ (Thrift, Still 36) were forged through non-too-subtle procedural and sequential movements which opened-out new modes of thinking and feeling. Folding one’s clothes and placing them on the dresser in-readiness; pillows and sheets prepared for a spell in the shelter, these were some of many orderly examples (IWM 14595). In the event of a gas attack air raid precautions instructions advised how to put on a gas mask (ARPD 90-92),i) Hold the breath. ii) Remove headgear and place between the knees. iii) Lift the flap of the haversack [ …] iv) Bring the face-piece towards the face’[…](v) Breathe out and continue to breathe in a normal manner The rational technologies of drill, dressage and operational research enabled poise in the face of an eventual air-raid. Through this ‘logistical-life’ (Reid 17), thought was directed towards simple tasks by minutely described instructions. Stilled LifeThe end of stillness was usually marked by a reactionary ‘flinch’, ‘start’ or ‘jump’. Such reactionary ‘urgent analogs’ (Ngai 94; Tomkins 96) often occurred as a response to sounds and movements that merely broke the tension rather than accurately mimicking an air raid. These atmospheres were brittle and easily disrupted. Cars back-firing and changing gear were often complained about (MO 371), just as bringing people out of the quiescence of sleep was a common effect of air-raids (Kraftl and Horton 509). Disorientation was usually fostered in this process while people found it very difficult to carry out the most simple of tasks. Putting one’s clothes on or even making their way out of the bedroom door became enormously problematic. Sirens awoke a ‘conditioned reflex’ to take cover (MO 364). Long periods of sleep deprivation brought on considerable fatigue and anxiety. ‘Sleep we Must’ wrote journalist Ritchie Calder (252) noticing the invigorating powers of sleep for both urban morale and the bare existence of survival. For other more traumatized members of the population, psychological studies found that the sustained concentration of shelling caused what was named ‘apathy-retreat’ (Harrisson, Living 65). This extreme form of acquiescence saw especially susceptible and vulnerable civilians suffer an overwhelming urge to sleep and to be cared-for ‘as if chronically ill’ (Janis 90). A class and racial politics of quiescent affect was enacted as several members of the population were believed far more liable to ‘give way’ to defeat and dangerous emotions (Brittain 77; Committee of Imperial Defence).In other cases it was only once an air-raid had started that sleep could be found (MO 253). The boredom of waiting could gather in its intensity deforming bodies with “the doom of depression” (Anderson 749). The stopped time-spaces in advance of a raid could be soaked with so much tension that the commencement of sirens, vibrations and explosions would allow a person overwhelming relief (MO 253). Quoting from a boy recalling his experiences in Hannover during 1943, Hewitt illustrates:I lie in bed. I am afraid. I strain my ears to hear something but still all is quiet. I hardly dare breathe, as if something horrible is knocking at the door, at the windows. Is it the beating of my heart? ... Suddenly there seems relief, the sirens howl into the night ... (Heimatbund Niedersachsen 1953: 185). (Cited in Hewitt, When 16)Once a state of still was lost getting it back required some effort (Bissell, Comfortable 1697). Cautious of preventing mass panic and public hysteria by allowing the body to erupt outwards into dangerous vectors of mobility, the British government’s schooling in the theories of panicology (Orr 12) and contagious affect (Le Bon 17; Tarde 278; Thrift, Intensities 57; Trotter 140), made air raid precautions (ARP) officers, police and civil defence teams enforce ‘stay put’ and ‘hold firm’ orders to protect the population (Jones et al, Civilian Morale 463, Public Panic 63-64; Thomas 16). Such orders were meant to shield against precisely the kinds of volatile bodies they were trying to compel with their own bombing strategies. Reactions to the Blitz were moralised and racialised. Becoming stilled required self-conscious work by a public anxious not to be seen to ‘panic’. This took the form of self-disciplination. People exhausted considerable energy to ‘settle’ themselves down. It required ‘holding’ themselves still and ‘together’ in order to accomplish this state, and to avoid going the same way as the buildings falling apart around them, as some people observed (MO 408). In Britain a cup of tea was often made as a spontaneous response in the event of the conclusion of a raid (Brown 686). As well as destroying bombing created spaces too – making space for stillness (Conradson 33). Many people found that they could recall their experiences in vivid detail, allocating a significant proportion of their memories to the recollection of the self and an awareness of their surroundings (IWM 19103). In this mode of stillness, contemplation did not turn-inwards but unfolded out towards the environment. The material processual movement of the shell-blast literally evacuated all sound and materials from its centre to leave a vacuum of negative pressure. Diaries and oral testimonies stretch out these millisecond events into discernable times and spaces of sensation, thought and the experience of experience (Massumi, Parables 2). Extraordinarily, survivors mention serene feelings of quiet within the eye of the blast (see Mortimer 239); they had, literally, ‘no time to be frightened’ (Crighton-Miller 6150). A shell explosion could create such intensities of stillness that a sudden and distinctive lessening of the person and world are expressed, constituting ‘stilling-slowing diminishments’ (Anderson 744). As if the blast-vacuum had sucked all the animation from their agency, recollections convey passivity and, paradoxically, a much more heightened and contemplative sense of the moment (Bourke 121; Thrift, Still 41). More lucid accounts describe a multitude of thoughts and an attention to minute detail. Alternatively, the enormous peaking of a waking blast subdued all later activities to relative obsolescence. The hurricane of sounds and air appear to overload into the flatness of an extended and calmed instantaneous present.Then the whistling stopped, then a terrific thump as it hit the ground, and everything seem to expand, then contract with deliberation and stillness seemed to be all around. (As recollected by Bill and Vi Reagan in Gaskin 17)On the other hand, as Schivelbusch (7) shows us in his exploration of defeat, the cessation of war could be met with an outburst of feeling. In these micro-moments a close encounter with death was often experienced with elation, a feeling of peace and well-being drawn through a much more heightened sense of the now (MO 253). These are not pre-formed or contemplative techniques of attunement as Thrift has tracked, but are the consequence of significant trauma and the primal reaction to extreme danger.TracesSusan Griffin’s haunting A Chorus of Stones documents what she describes as a private life of war (1). For Griffin, and as shown in these brief examples, stillness and being-stilled describe a series of diverse experiences endured during aerial bombing. Yet, as Griffin narrates, these are not-so private lives. A common representation of air war can be found in Henry Moore’s tube shelter sketches which convey sleeping tube-dwellers harboured in the London underground during the Blitz. The bodies are represented as much more than individuals being connected by Moore’s wave-like shapes into the turbulent aggregation of a choppy ocean. What we see in Moore’s portrayal and the examples discussed already are experiences with definite relations to both inner and outer worlds. They refer to more-than individuals who bear intimate relations to their outsides and the atmospheric and material environments enveloping and searing through them. Stillness was an unlikely state composed through these circulations just as it was formed as a means of address. It was required in order to apprehend sounds and possible events through techniques of listening or waiting. Alternatively being stilled could refer to pauses between air-strikes and the corresponding breaks of tension in the aftermath of a raid. Stillness was composed through a series of distributed yet interconnecting bodies, feelings, materials and atmospheres oriented towards the future and the past. The ruins of bombed-out building forms stand as traces even today. Just as Massumi (Sensing 16) describes in the context of architecture, the now static remainder of the explosion “envelops in its stillness a deformational field of which it stands as the trace”. The ruined forms left after the attack stand as a “monument” of the passing of the raid to be what it once was – house, factory, shop, restaurant, library - and to become something else. The experience of those ‘from below’ (Hewitt 2) suffering contemporary forms of air-warfare share many parallels with those of the Blitz. Air power continues to target, apparently more precisely, the affective tones of the body. Accessed by kinetic and non-kinetic forces, the signs of air-war are generated by the shelling of Kosovo, ‘shock and awe’ in Iraq, air-strikes in Afghanistan and by the simulated air-raids of IDF aircraft producing sonic-booms over sleeping Palestinian civilians, now becoming far more real as I write in the final days of 2008. Achieving stillness in the wake of aerial trauma remains, even now, a way to survive the (private) life of air war. AcknowledgementsI’d like to thank the editors and particularly the referees for such a close reading of the article; time did not permit the attention their suggestions demanded. Grateful acknowledgement is also made to the AHRC whose funding allowed me to research and write this paper. ReferencesAdey, Peter. Aerial Geographies: Mobilities, Bodies and Subjects. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010 (forthcoming). 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