6 research outputs found
A Dominant Allele of Arabidopsis Pectin-Binding Wall-Associated Kinase Induces a Stress Response Suppressed by MPK6 but Not MPK3 Mutations
No full textThe plant cell wall is composed of a matrix of cellulose fibers, flexible pectin polymers, and an array of assorted carbohydrates and proteins. The receptor-like Wall-Associated Kinases (WAKs) of Arabidopsis bind pectin in the wall, and are necessary both for cell expansion during development and for a response to pathogens and wounding. Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases (MPKs) form a major signaling link between cell surface receptors and both transcriptional and enzyme regulation in eukaryotes, and Arabidopsis MPK6 and MPK3 indeed have important roles in development and the response to stress and pathogens. A dominant allele of WAK2 requires kinase activity and activates a stress response that includes an increased ROS accumulation and the up-regulation of numerous genes involved in pathogen resistance, wounding, and cell wall biogenesis. This dominant allele requires a functional pectin binding and kinase domain, indicating that it is engaged in a WAK signaling pathway. A null mutant of the major plasma membrane ROS-producing enzyme complex, rbohd/f does not suppress the WAK2cTAP-induced phenotype. A mpk6, but not a mpk3, null allele is able to suppress the effects of this dominant WAK2 mutation, thus distinguishing MPK3 and MPK6, whose activity previously was thought to be redundant. Pectin activation of gene expression is abated in a wak2-null, but is tempered by the WAK-dominant allele that induces elevated basal stress-related transcript levels. The results suggest a mechanism in which changes to the cell wall can lead to a large change in cellular responses and help to explain how pathogens and wounding can have general effects on growth. The Author 2011. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPB and IPPE, SIBS, CAS.2011 © The Author 2011. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPB and IPPE, SIBS, CAS
Internet technologies relevant to private investigators’ working practices
No full textMuch has been written and discussed especially in the various US media and in legislative organs, about how the Internet is used illegally (hacking, stalking for instance), but hardly if any research has been done as to how the investigative industry employs the new medium to its benefit. The author described in this thesis how private investigators (PIs) execute their profession these days using the facilities the Internet avail them in contrast to the time before the dawn of the Internet. This contrast is also investigated in an international context, an important part of the thesis, drawn from the author's 32 years of international business experience and that of PIs worldwide. The availability of the various online facilities in different countries are compared. To better understand the new medium, and its facilities a short outline of the Internet’s history, it’s set up in general and for the use of PIs in particular is supplied. PIs also face limitations in their daily work, limitations originating from online, legal, educational, financial and international causes. The new medium not only helps PIs in their investigative, but also in their office work. Finally PIs' wishes for new tools to facilitate their daily investigative work and their outlook as to where the new medium will head are also discussed
Liberalism, nationalism and the evolution of middle-class values : the literature on interior decoration in England, 1875-1914.
No full textPhDIn the 1870s and 80s, the interior decoration of the middle-class
home was the focus of a great deal of attention, as reflected in a
dramatic increase in the literature on this subject in the form of
handbooks 'for those about to furnish', articles in women's magazines,
trade Journals and publications for artists and architects. This
literature expressed the most advanced ideas of the day and actively
promoted such progressive concepts as individual freedom of expression,
cosmopolitan internationalism, the need for improvement in the
position of women, and the application of new scientific theories
This thesis traces these ideas to the political ideology of modern
British liberalism which was at its most influential during this
period Liberal writers, in particular John Stuart Mill, wrote
persuasively about the primacy of the private sphere of life In
their view, it was only in private life that man could develop true
individuality through freedom of choice, this concept had important
implications for the appearance of the home Many of those who wrote
on interior decoration had read Mill, or were involved with reform
movements or political activities inspired by liberal theories As a
result, they tried to bring about social change through the application.
of liberal principles to the decoration of the middle-class
home
There were also, however, sharp disagreements expressed in the
decorating literature about what constituted the optimal middle-class
interior These conflicts reflected areas of unresolvable tension
within the ideological framework of liberalism; their impact on
interior decoration is explored as well
As the influence of liberalism waned, the values expressed in the
literature on decoration changed correspondingly The importance of
the home in the formation of national character was given greater
emphasis and a return to 'correct' and traditional national styles was
seen as a necessary protection against both internal weakness and the
'foreign contagion' of European styles such as Art Nouvea
The industrial suburbs of Leeds in the nineteenth century : Community consciousness among the social classes
No full textThe changing relationship between community and class has been a subject generally neglected by historians. Marxist social theory provides little framework for the examination of the significance of community in capitalist society. This study of the industrial suburbs of Leeds indicates the importance of community consciousness, both as a force moulding class relations in Victorian society, and as a cognizance itself shaped by class relations.
It is argued in chapter two that the relatively monolithic culture of the clothing villages was, by the 1830's, cracking under the pressures of factory capitalism. Suburban attitudes towards community institutions and traditions became permeated and modified by class
interests. Chapter three shows how deference and paternalism were fashioned in the factory politics of the 1820's and 1830's, while suburban autonomy came to be threatened by municipal centralization. Chapter five examines the changing role of patronage in suburban
religion and education, and analyses petty-bourgeois perceptions of community.
However there was much continuity as well as change. Chapter
two argues that several characteristics of clothier culture survived industrialization. Chapter three shows how national political divisions were often subsumed by local loyalties. The long tradition of labour radicalism was partly preserved by the mid-Victorian labour
aristocracy. It is argued in chapter four that their labour
consciousness was firmly rooted in the local community. Petty-bourgeois community sentiment, examined in chapter five, developed from the traditions of sectarianism and localism. Deference and paternalism revived after 1848 and remained important throughout the century. However there was never a factory culture in Leeds suburbs to match that of Lancashire. In chapter six it is argued that few of
the institutions of social control, constructed by patronage from the 1830's, ever gained popular acceptance. There were other 'community institutions', from dame schools to friendly societies, which were of greater importance to the fabric of out-township life.
It is concluded that community consciousness was preserved by the working class both in the sense of place and of past. As class conflict developed in the industrial suburbs, so the struggle to appropriate local traditions, the sense of history, of 'milieu', and of community itself, became part of this conflict
Black diamonds : coal, the Royal Navy, and British imperial coaling stations, circa 1870−1914
No full textThis thesis examines how the expansion of a steam-powered Royal Navy from the second half of the nineteenth century had wider ramifications across the British Empire. In particular, it considers how steam propulsion made vessels utterly dependent on a particular resource – coal – and its distribution around the world. In doing so, it shows that the ‘coal question’, almost totally ignored in previous histories, was central to questions of imperial and trade defence, required the creation of infrastructures that spanned the globe, and connected British sailors with a plethora of different imperial, maritime, and foreign peoples.
Although a limited number of studies have highlighted the importance of coal to imperial defence, this thesis considers the wider context of the period 1870−1914 in order to understand the significant place of coal in these discussions. In doing so, it shows coal’s place within wider changes to political ideologies, imperial defence schemes, popular imperialism and navalism, knowledge collection, and the growth of the state apparatus.
A robust coaling infrastructure was required to ensure quality naval coal was available globally on a huge geographical scale. This involved a large number of bodies, but this has never been examined by scholars for this period. Although naval coaling relied heavily on the coal export industry, the Admiralty had a key role in ensuring that the infrastructure, particularly after 1880, could cope with increases in ship size and number and competition from its rivals. The thesis also shows how these processes worked on the ground, from testing and purchasing coal to the methods and labour used to load in on warships.
The thesis also shows that the necessity of coaling in foreign stations fostered new interactions between naval personnel and the wider world. Although naval visits to these places are prime examples of British encounters beyond its own shores at the zenith of empire, these are largely absent from existing studies. Thus, it explores how the interactions with local populations, other maritime visitors, and the stations themselves shaped the experience of sailors abroad, and created a maritime community spanning large oceanic spaces
The new Liberalism and the challenge of Labour in the West Riding of Yorkshire 1885-1914 with special reference to Huddersfield
No full textThis thesis contributes substantially to a debate that has long been
a preoccupation of historians surrounding the timing, underlying reasons
for, and inevitability (or otherwise) of the Labour Party's replacement
of Liberalism as the main opponent to the Conservative Party. In terms
of the context for examining the extent and potential of Labour's
challenge to Liberalism before 1914 and the presence of any form of
'progressive' or 'new' Liberalism, there has been a shift away from the
ambit of national politics to that of local parliamentary and municipal
politics. Amongst those areas of Britain that have been the subject
of analysis, West Yorkshire, as the very birthplace of the Independent
Labour Party, remains predominant and this study, by highlighting
Huddersfield, complements and extends work already carried out on Leeds,
Bradford and the Colne Valley.
Through a close analysis of the local and regional press, election
results, personal papers, party records, pamphlets and trade union
records, in conjunction with secondary sources, the emergence and nature
of the Labour movement's challenge to a Liberalism dominated by a
Nonconformist textile manufacturer elite, is examined. Trade unionism's
central role in the establishment of the Huddersfield Labour Union in
1891 is evident. So too is the belated conversion of the Huddersfield
Trades Council to independent parliamentary labour representation which,
when combined with a religious, ethical form of Socialism around 1906,
posed so serious a threat to established Liberalism that only opportune
party re-organisation, an undemocratic franchise, and bitter divisions
within the Labour movement, could save it. Yet even amidst its
parliamentary victories of 1906 and 1910 Huddersfield Liberalism was,
through its continued intransigence towards working-class concerns and
its espousal of outdated issues, which had diminishing relevance to a
nascent class-based electorate, increasingly less viable both electorally
and intellectually
