261 research outputs found
'To Knowe a Gentilman': Men and Gentry Culture in Fifteenth Century Yorkshire
No full textThis is a study of gentry culture, specifically the culture of gentry males in fifteenth century Yorkshire. Its aim is to examine what it meant to be a gentleman in this period, looking at how gentry males defined themselves as gentlemen, what was expected of them and what they expected of others. A single county has been chosen to allow for more detailed examination of the evidence than would be possible in a wider study, with this county in particular chosen for the richness and variety of its sources. The range and quality of sources is important, for this is an interdisciplinary study which makes used of a varied collection of evidence in order to gain the fullest picture possible of gentry culture in this period. Through a series of case studies, each focusing on a particular piece, or collection of pieces, of evidence to include chancery documents, wills, letters, art and architecture, I will identify several themes integral to the construction of identity for gentry males. In looking specifically at gentlemen, rather than gentlewomen or the gentry in general, this thesis will consider questions not only of status but also of gender, a combination of factors that have seldom been considered in previous scholarship. It is hoped that this this new perspective, combined with the interdisciplinary nature of the study, something that has also seldom been been attempted, will prove useful in gaining a greater understanding of what it meant to be a gentleman in late medieval England. By extension, it is intended that this will contribute towards a greater understanding of late medieval society as a whole
From Log Cabins to Highrises: Urban Life in Russia
No full textLife in urban Russia has been very different from that in America during the past 100 years. Russians have lived through wars, revolutions, housing shortages, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and great changes in the economy since then. At this Passport presentation, learn about daily life in Russian cities and towns, from highrise apartment buildings in megacities to wooden houses in rural villages—and how Russians escape the pressures of urban living by retreating to their dachas. Sharon Hudgins is a former university professor, an award-winning author, and a journalist with more than 900 articles published worldwide. Together with Tom Hudgins, an economics professor at Collin College, she lived in two Russian cities during the mid-1990s when both of them were professors with the University of Maryland\u27s program in Siberia and the Russian Far East. She is the author of The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East (Texas A & M University Press, 2003), and a new cookbook, T-Bone Whacks & Caviar Snacks: Cooking with Two Texans in Siberia and the Russian Far East (University of North Texas Press, 2018)
Preliminary Thermal Analysis of the DEXSTR CubeSat
No full textCollin M. Gentry, Missouri University of Science and Technology, USAHenry J. Pernicka, Missouri University of Science and Technology, USAThe Doppler Experiment for Search, Tracking, and Rescue (DEXSTR) is a 3U CubeSat being developed by the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The low Earth orbit mission uses the Doppler shift of a ground-based beacon signal to geolocate the beacon. This technology has applications in the lunar domain, providing positioning support of assets on the surface of the Moon. The performance of the payload is highly dependent on maintaining its chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) at a consistent temperature, as the CSAC is needed to accurately determine the Doppler shift. This poses a challenge for DEXSTR and other CubeSats due to their high power densities and limited thermal control capabilities. This study presents a preliminary thermal analysis of DEXSTR as the team progresses toward increasing the model fidelity of the payload and CSAC. Mission constraints and payload requirements are used to create hot and cold cases that account for currently undetermined mission elements such as DEXSTR's specific orbit. A thermal model is built in Thermal Desktop, utilizing the symbolic capabilities of the software to easily adjust model parameters as the mission concept is more fully detailed. This model is used to assess the spacecraft's ability to meet critical thermal requirements, namely the rate of temperature change of the payload and the operating temperature limits of DEXSTR's electronics. From this analysis, initial plans for DEXSTR's thermal control system are outlined. Finally, this study looks ahead to the lunar thermal environment and the unique challenges it will pose to the use of Doppler-shift location technology in cislunar space
Aphaniosoma creperum Collin 1949
No full text<i>Aphaniosoma creperum</i> Collin, 1949 <p>Figs 15–16</p> Material examined <p> <b>Lectotype</b> (here designated)</p> <p>EGYPT • ♂; Siwa Oasis; 24 Apr. 1935; J. Omer-Cooper leg., Armstrong College Expedition; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435827.</p> <p> <b>Paralectotypes</b></p> <p>EGYPT • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for lectotype; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435829–31 • 2 ♂♂, parts of abdomens and hypopygia only, in Euparal; same collection data as for lectotype; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435828 • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; same collection data as for lectotype; 18–19 Apr. 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 01343582–33 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for lectotype; 29 Apr. 1935; evening sweeping; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435837 • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for lectotype; 3–5 May 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435834–36 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for lectotype; Zegawa; 5 May 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435838 • 4 ♂♂; same collection data as for lectotype; Zegawa; 8 May 1935; Plant No. 9 Tabsanit; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435839–42 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for lectotype; 21–22 May 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435843 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for lectotype; 31 May–1 Jun. 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435844 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for lectotype; 3 Jun. 1935; NHMUK, B.M. 1935–354, bar code 013435845 • 1 ♀; Fayoum, Lake Karun; 2–23 Sep. 1945; R.L. Coe leg.; NHMUK, B.M. 1946–39, bar code 014594087.</p> <p> <b>Other material</b></p> <p>EGYPT • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Cairo, El-Marg; 30.16° N, 31.23° E; 21 Mar. 1996; M. Barták leg.; margin of field; CULSP • 1 ♀; Cairo, El-Marg; same collection data as for preceding; 22 Mar. 1996; orange orchard; CULSP • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; MJE; • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Cairo, Golo Island, along Nile river; 29.58° N, 31.15° E; 21 Mar. 1996; M. Barták leg.; CULSP • 2 ♂♂; same collection data as for preceding; MJE • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Tanta, 12 km SE; 30.41° N, 31.02° E; 27–28 Mar. 1996; M. Barták leg.; orchard; CULSP • 1 ♂; Cairo, 20 km S; 29.52° N, 31.15° E; 31 Mar. 1996; M. Barták leg.; riverbank; CULSP • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; semi desert; CULSP • 1 ♂, 6 ♀♀, preserved in alcohol; Alexandria, Lake Etku; 20 Oct. 2003; P. Gatt; leg.; MJE • 2 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; Alexandria, Abu Kir; 20 Oct. 2003; P. Gatt leg.; beach, wrack; PG • 1 ♀; Alexandria, Lake Etku; 20 Oct. 2003; P. Gatt leg.; PG.</p> <p>ISRAEL • 1 ♂; Iddan spring; 19 Mar. 1995; B. Merz leg.; MHNG • 6 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀; same collection data as for preceding; A. Freidberg leg.; SMNHTAU.</p> <p>JORDAN • 1 ♂, preserved in alcohol; Azraq, Wildlife Resort; 31°49ʹ97ʹʹ N, 36°49ʹ27ʹʹ E; 20 Oct. 2011; J.-H. Stuke leg.; 1584; J-HS.</p> Remarks <p> <i>Aphaniosoma creperum</i> belongs to a difficult and complex group of species several of which have sympatric distributions. Collin (1949) described <i>A. creperum</i> from several male specimens, but he did not designate a holotype or place identification labels on any of the specimens. The two specimens that he dissected (Fig. 15B–C) and upon which he may have based his very limited illustration are mounted separately in Euparal on plastic and together on the same pin with one data label (dated: “ 24 iv 1935 ”). However, these are not associated with the remainder of their individual specimen parts, which were probably badly destroyed when the abdomen was removed for maceration and dissection. He illustrated only the basiphallus /epiphallus and the distiphallus possibly of one of these (Collin 1949: 135). Later, the present author (Ebejer 1998: 205, figs 21–22) illustrated the hypopygium of the other specimen along with a new drawing of the aedeagus from a slightly altered angle to that of Collin’s figure. Pont (1995: 54) listed 10 males and 10 females but conceded that he found it difficult to recognize the sexes owing to the very poor condition of most of the specimens. Eleven males and 9 females are listed in the Material examined section above. From the available material it is not possible to be certain that one species is involved and for this reason a lectotype is here designated. A specimen, rather badly glued to a plastic point, fits Collin’s description, including that of the male hypopygium, where most of the characteristic structures can be clearly seen. This specimen (Fig. 15A) is here designated as lectotype. Only those specimens with visible male terminalia that fit those of the lectotype, and females associated with them are designated as paralectotypes, leaving 1 male, 6 females and an indeterminate specimen all in very poor condition as ‘probable paralectotypes’.</p> <p> The female from Lake Karoun, which Collin (1949) stated as belonging to this species, bears a red circled ‘Type’ label. However, it was collected 10 years later at Lake Karoun, which is at least 445 km east of Siwa, and it belongs to a group of species where this sex is identical in all of them. There is no male from that site with which it could be associated, and so it may not belong to <i>A. creperum</i>. Furthermore, Collin did not describe any features of this specimen and he did not provide it with an identification label. It is left as ‘paralectotype’.</p> <p> <i>Aphaniosoma creperum</i> is typically a dark greyish brown to black species. The females of three closely related species: <i>A. nigricauda</i> Ebejer, 1998, <i>A. nigrum</i> Ebejer, 1998, and <i>A. spiniventre</i> Ebejer, 1998 usually have a dark brown basal flagellomere, as does the female of <i>A. creperum</i>, and they can only be identified by association with males. Males can be identified by examination of the hypopygium, where the shape of the pregenital sternites, the postgonite and the apex of the bilobed distiphallus are the simplest characters that help to differentiate <i>A. creperum</i> from closely related species, the most difficult of which to tell apart is <i>A. nigricauda</i>. The latter does not have the ventral extension to tergite 6; sternites 5 and 6, although similar, are not identical, and the distiphallus is with rather longer and clearly more pointed lobes. These differences may represent geographical variation of one species, but so far the indication is that <i>A. nigricauda</i> is a species in North Africa extending westwards from Tunisia and <i>A. creperum</i> a North African species extending eastwards from Egypt to Israel, Jordan and Oman.</p> Distribution <p>Egypt, Oman (Becker 1903; Ebejer 1996). New records for Israel and Jordan.</p>Published as part of <i>Ebejer, Martin J., 2023, The genus Aphaniosoma Becker, 1903 (Diptera: Chyromyidae) in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, with descriptions of new species, pp. 1-161 in European Journal of Taxonomy 872</i> on pages 37-41, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.872.2131, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/8018303">http://zenodo.org/record/8018303</a>
An exploratory study of mood states and transient emotion in amateur dressage riders
No full textThe purpose of this study was to explore the horse-rider relationship through the effect of a rider’s mood on the horse’s behavior in practice and competition. A total of 18 Female amateur dressage riders participated in this study. The participants completed five surveys and two observations. Surveys included a demographic survey, Rotter’s I-E Scale, Orientation to Life Questionnaire, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Observations took place at a scheduled practice and during one competition per participant. The POMS results showed increased mood disturbance from the riders (N=16, M= -9.94), p= 0.03 between practice and competition. Observation data revealed no significance in horse conflict behavior between practice and competition (M= -1.18) p= 0.95. The differences between rider TMD and horse conflict behavior pre- and post-competition, the results demonstrated a strong, positive, and significant correlation (r=0.868), p=0.000. These results are preliminary, but highlight a potential moderator of the horse-rider relationship
Some embeddings between symmetric R. Thompson groups
No full textFunding: The first author wants to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R&D” (SEV-2015-0554). The second author wishes to acknowledge support from EPSRC grant EP/R032866/1 during the creation of this paper.Let m ≤ n ∈ ℕ, and G ≤ Sym(m) and H ≤ Sym(n). In this article we find conditions enabling embeddings between the symmetric R. Thompson groups Vm(G) and Vn(H). When n ≡1 mod (m −1), and under some other technical conditions, we find an embedding of Vn(H) into Vm(G) via topological conjugation. With the same modular condition we also generalise a purely algebraic construction of Birget from 2019 to find a group H ≤ Sym(n) and an embedding of Vm(G) into Vn(H).Peer reviewe
Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height
No full textMost common human traits and diseases have a polygenic pattern of inheritance: DNA sequence variants at many genetic loci influence the phenotype. Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified more than 600 variants associated with human traits(1), but these typically explain small fractions of phenotypic variation, raising questions about the use of further studies. Here, using 183,727 individuals, we show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait(2,3). The large number of loci reveals patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits. First, the 180 loci are not random, but instead are enriched for genes that are connected in biological pathways (P = 0.016) and that underlie skeletal growth defects (P<0.001). Second, the likely causal gene is often located near the most strongly associated variant: in 13 of 21 loci containing a known skeletal growth gene, that gene was closest to the associated variant. Third, at least 19 loci have multiple independently associated variants, suggesting that allelic heterogeneity is a frequent feature of polygenic traits, that comprehensive explorations of already-discovered loci should discover additional variants and that an appreciable fraction of associated loci may have been identified. Fourth, associated variants are enriched for likely functional effects on genes, being over-represented among variants that alter amino-acid structure of proteins and expression levels of nearby genes. Our data explain approximately 10% of the phenotypic variation in height, and we estimate that unidentified common variants of similar effect sizes would increase this figure to approximately 16% of phenotypic variation (approximately 20% of heritable variation). Although additional approaches are needed to dissect the genetic architecture of polygenic human traits fully, our findings indicate that GWA studies can identify large numbers of loci that implicate biologically relevant genes and pathways
Relating metal binding to deoxyribonucleic acid binding in the Ni regulatory protein NikR
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 2010.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Vita. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.The concentration of transition metals within the cell must be tightly regulated. If the concentration of a given transition metal is too low the cell may not be able to perform life-sustaining processes, while high levels of metals are poisonous to the cell and can cause cell death. In Escherichia coli, NikR regulates nickel uptake by blocking transcription of the genes encoding the nickel uptake transporter, NikABCDE. NikR is a homotetrameric transcription factor with a central metal binding domain (MBD) that includes the tetrameric interface and two flanking dimeric ribbon-helix-helix (RHH) DNA-binding domains. Early work revealed that NikR can bind a variety of transition metal ions and has two binding affinities for the nik operon: nM when stoichiometric Ni2+ binds NikR and pM when excess Ni2+ binds. The enhanced DNA affinity suggests the presence of low affinity nickel binding sites on the protein. Recently, it has been shown that NikR also requires K+ to bind DNA, suggesting yet another type of metal binding site on the protein. To understand NikR's ability to bind multiple transition metal ions and how Ni2+ specifically induces NikR-DNA binding, we solved the crystal structures of the apo- MBD and BMD bound to Zn2+ and Cu2+. Comparing these structures to the previously published Ni2+-MBD structure, we noted that when the proper metal binds to NikR it utilizes H76 of alpha helix 3 as a ligand. This, in turn, orders helix !3, and we propose this conformational stabilization is a key step in the NikR-DNA binding mechanism. Electrostatic free energy calculations and thermodynamic integration were used to study which metal prefers to bind at a site between the MBD and RHH domains that is formed when NikR is bound to DNA. Our studies illustrate that NikR-DNA binding was most favorable when this site contains a monovalent cation the size of K+. These studies support a physiological role of K+ in NikR-DNA binding. Structures from crystals of NikR and NikR-bound to DNA soaked with excess nickel ions indicate six types of potential low-affinity nickel binding sites on the protein surface. Binding of excess nickel ions to these sites does not induce any significant conformational change, suggesting that these sites have an electrostatic effect increasing ! 4 NikR's affinity for DNA. Using a combination of X-ray crystallography and molecular simulations we have identified and explored the metal binding sites on E. coli NikR and how they influence NikR:DNA binding.by Christine M Phillips.Ph.D
A land use classification of the ERTS-A, Collin County, Texas, subframe of the Texoma frame
No full textThere are no author-identified significant results in this report
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