1,245 research outputs found
Interactions of L-3,5,3'-Triiodothyronine, Allopregnanolone, and Ivermectin with the GABAA Receptor: Evidence for Overlapping Intersubunit Binding Modes
No full textStructural mechanisms of modulation of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptors by neurosteroids and hormones remain unclear. The thyroid hormone L-3,5,3’-triiodothyronine (T3) inhibits GABA-A receptors at micromolar concentrations and has common features with neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone (ALLOP). Here we use functional experiments on α2β1γ2 GABA-A receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes to detect competitive interactions between T3 and an agonist (ivermectin, IVM) with a crystallographically determined binding site at subunit interfaces in the transmembrane domain of a homologous receptor (glutamate-gated chloride channel, GluCl). T3 and ALLOP also show competitive effects, supporting the presence of both a T3 and ALLOP binding site at one or more subunit interfaces. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations over 200 ns are used to investigate the dynamics and energetics of T3 in the identified intersubunit sites. In these simulations, T3 molecules occupying all intersubunit sites (with the exception of the α-β interface) display numerous energetically favorable conformations with multiple hydrogen bonding partners, including previously implicated polar/acidic sidechains and a structurally conserved deformation in the M1 backbone.Peer reviewe
Grace Aguilar’s historical romances
No full textPhDMy dissertation looks critically at Grace Aguilar’s historical romance novels and short
stories, and investigates English writers’ uses of history in early- to mid-nineteenth century
fiction. Shifting the current critical emphasis on Aguilar’s Jewish texts, I
have analyzed the ways in which Aguilar revises the genres of the national tale, the
gothic romance, and the medieval romance in order to demonstrate her participation
in the construction of nineteenth-century domestic values.
In Chapter One, I introduce to critical debate Aguilar’s juvenilia, relying on
unpublished manuscripts and novels published only in the twentieth century to
establish the origins of Aguilar’s interest in history and historical writing. Locating
Aguilar’s narrative style in the early nineteenth-century national tale, I show that as a
child Aguilar envisioned the English and Scottish nations as a family, making
domesticity both a private and a public—a female and a male—value.
Chapter Two focuses on Aguilar’s use of history to express nineteenth-century
domestic ideals in her version of the gothic romance. Deploying the setting of the
Catholic Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, Aguilar writes gothic tales that unite
Jewish and Protestant gender values. She makes heroic the Jewish female martyr to
suggest not only that nineteenth-century Protestants and Jews share similar domestic
principles, but also that Jewish women could be seen as ideal models for Protestant
women.
Finally, in Chapter Three I explore Aguilar’s participation in the nineteenth-century
medievalist tradition by reflecting on her revision of nineteenth-century literary
idealizations of the Middle Ages. In these short stories, Aguilar fictionalizes the
sixteenth-century European chivalric ethos, looking critically at the role of women in
court society at the end of the Middle Ages. Deploying the tropes prevalent in
popular nineteenth-century anti-medievalist fiction, Aguilar debunks celebrations of
the Middle Ages by showing how chivalry is antagonistic to nineteenth-century
domesticity
Accurate and efficient orbit prediction through improved drag force modelling of GRACE and PROBA-V satellites
No full textIn recent years, with the increasing number of man made objects in space the need for accurate satellite orbit prediction has increased tremendously. Prediction of satellite trajectories is important to plan collision avoidance manoeuvres between space assets and debris, to autonomously maintain formation flying missions and to plan manoeuvres for ground-track maintenance of Earth-observation missions. For satellites in very low LEO, aerodynamic drag is the largest and the most difficult force to model because of the changing nature of atmospheric density. This report describes the efforts made towards improving the orbit prediction of SAOCOM-CS with a focus on drag force modelling. This is accomplished by orbit determination using GPS state vector measurements and precise deterministic force models, during periods of high and low solar activity. Drag scale factors are estimated with different resolutions. Different methods are used to choose the estimated drag scale factors for orbit prediction. GRACE-A and PROBA-V satellites are used as test cases. For a prediction arc length of one day, the best prediction strategy results in maximum position errors (3D) of 243.5 m and 24.1 m for GRACE-A \& PROBA-V, respectively during high solar activity. Based on the prediction results of GRACE-A \& PROBA-V, a rule of thumb analysis is used to derive the maximum position error in the orbit prediction of SAOCOM-CS, which lies between 40 and 75 m. Changes in the mean estimated drag scale factors of the satellites are observed between high and low solar activity which might indicate deficiencies in the NRLMSISE-00 density model. The report also provides the effect of the space weather forecast errors on the best prediction strategy. Introducing a 10 \% error in the solar activity index resulted in mean maximum along-track prediction errors of 393 m and 16 m for GRACE-A \& PROBA-V, respectively during high solar activity. Similarly, including random errors in the geomagnetic activity index resulted in mean maximum along-track prediction errors of 443 m and 15 m for GRACE-A \& PROBA-V, respectively during high solar activity. Finally, the optimization of the estimation and prediction methods for the computational efficiency of PROBA-V is presented. A six hour estimation arc length with the force model comprising Earth gravity field of degree and order 30 of the model ITU\_GRACE 16 with luni-solar perturbations and devoid of atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure and tidal forces is the most computationally efficient combination for a prediction arc length of one day.Aerospace Engineerin
Non-prejudicial disclosure of the invention - grace period
No full textPričujoče diplomsko delo obravnava vprašanje milostnega obdobja na področju patentov. Avtorica najprej predstavi značilnosti patenta in kriterij novosti izuma, kot najpomembnejši pogoj za pridobitev patenta, nato pa pojem milostnega obdobja, njegove značilnosti in prednosti, ki jih prinaša izumiteljem. Natančneje je analizirana ureditev milostnega obdobja v ZDA, pri čemer je posebna pozornost posvečena zakonu Leahy – Smith America Invents Act, ki je uvedel spremembe tega instituta, in ureditev v Evropi, kjer imamo v zvezi s patentom na voljo institut neškodljivega razkritja izuma, milostno obdobje pa je priznano le na področju modelov. Avtorica ugotavlja, da bi v Evropi bi bilo smiselno uvesti milostno obdobje pred vložitvijo patentne prijave vsaj v obliki t. i. »varnostne mreže«, saj so evropski izumitelji v deprivilegiranem položaju v primerjavi z izumitelji, ki delujejo v sistemih, kjer se lahko zanašajo na obdobje milosti. Uvedba milostnega obdobja je naslednji korak, ki ga narekuje nadaljevanje postopka harmonizacije mednarodnega patentnega prava.Diploma thesis discusses the question of grace period for patents. The author starts by presenting the characteristics of patents and requirement of novelty as the single most important condition for obtaining a patent. The author further presents the concept of grace period, its characteristics and benefits it has for inventors, which is followed by a close analysis of grace period in the USA, with special attention being paid to Leahy – Smith America invents act, which introduced changes to grace period. Lastly, the author presents the concept of non-prejudicial disclosure of the invention and grace period for models that we have in Europe. The author establishes that grace period should be introduced in Europe at least in the form of »safety net« grace period, since current regulation puts European inventors in a deprivileged position as opposed to inventors that work in the systems where they can rely on grace period. Introducing grace period in Europe is the next step that is required under the process of harmonisation of international patent law
Jews and gender in British literature 1815-1865.
No full textPhDThis thesis examines the variety of relationships between Jews and gender in early
to mid-nineteenth century British literature, focussing particularly on representations
of and by Jewish women. It reconstructs the social, political and literary context in
which writers produced images and narratives about Jews, and considers to what
extent stereotypes were reproduced, appropriated, or challenged. In particular it
examines the ways in which questions of gender were linked to ideas about religious
or racial difference in the Victorian period.
The study situates literary representations of Jews within the context of
contemporary debates about the participation of the Jews in the life of the modern
state. It also investigates the ways in which these political debates were gendered,
looking in particular at the relationship between the cultural construction of
femininity and English national identity.
It first considers Victorian culture's obsession with Rebecca, the Jewess created in
Walter Scott's influential novel Ivanhoe (1819). It examines Rebecca's refusal to
convert to Christianity in the context of Scott's discussion of racial separatism and
modern national unity.
Evangelical writers like Annie Webb, Amelia Bristow and Mrs Brendlah were
prolific literary producers, and preoccupied with converting Jewish women.
Particularly during the 18'40s and 1850s, evangelical writing provided an important
forum for the construction and consolidation of women's national identity.
Grace Aguilar's writing was an attempt to understand Jewish identity within the
terms of Victorian domestic ideology. In contrast, Celia and Marion Moss, in their
historical romances, offered narratives of female heroism and national liberation,
drawing on the contemporary debate about slavery.
Benjamin Disraeli's construction of a "tough version of Jewish identity was a
response both to the contemporary stereotype of the feminised Jew and to the debate
about Jewish emancipation. It also drew on the virile ideology of the Young England
movement of the 1840s
Cutting'aesthetic teeth' : Flannery O'Connor's habit of art
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e ExpressãoEste trabalho foi sugerido pela afirmação de Flannery O'Connor que sua "dedicação estética" nasceu através do contato com Art and Scholasticism de Jacques Maritain. O propósito foi chegar a uma interpretação do sentido da frase. Uma investigação detalhada foi feita do conteúdo de Art and Scholasticism, posteriormente contrastada com os resultados de uma pesquisa feita em seus ensaios e suas cartas, o que revelou numerosos ecos de diversos trechos constando no texto de Maritain. Três pontos principais foram escolhidos como critérios na análise do hábito artístico de O'Connor: 1) a prática de arte implica uma luta; 2) a arte somente pode ser percebida pelos sentidos; e 3) a prática de arte exige do artista a dedicação indivisa à obra nascente. O estudo conclui que, para O'Connor, o brotar da dentição estética, através da leitura de Art and Scholasticism, significou que, ao perceber na análise da natureza da arte algo com que podia concordar, ela reconheceu tanto sua própria capacidade de tornar-se uma artista literária, quanto sua vontade de assumir a tarefa de desenvolver em sua pessoa o hábito de arte
Kinship of God and man : the new and the old theology, an attempt to formulate a thorough-going trinitarian theology /
No full textv. 1. Harmony of some revelations in nature and in grace -- v. 2. Good and evil grow out of the progressive growth of man -- v. 3. Salvation of man -- v. 4. The church universal (not published?)Mode of access: Internet
To each according to deeds : divine judgement according to deeds in second temple Judaism and in Paul's letters.
No full textPaul's use of the motif of `judgment according to deeds' corresponds terminologically, rhetorically, and theologically with its use in second temple Judaism. In order to demonstrate this thesis, the author examines the tradition- history of the motif in the Jewish Scriptures, the OT Pseudepigrapha, and the Qum- ran literature. By the beginning of the common era `judgment according to deeds' is a widespread, fundamental theological axiom, applicable to a variety of rhetorical purposes. The motif has an important soteriological function within what is now commonly termed Jewish `covenantal nomism' (not legalism). This judgment does not entail a one-for-one recompense of good or evil deeds, but views works wholistically (i. e., as a whole either good or bad), and thus as revealing one's `way' of life or `heart. ' One's deeds do not earn or merit God's grace and salvation; nevertheless, one's recompense-the blessings or the curses of the covenant-will be congruent with ("according to") this pattern of behavior, since one's works reveal what is hidden in the heart, either loyalty or disloyalty to God and his covenant. Salvation by covenant mercy and judgment according to works are complementary. In both its form and function Paul's use of the motif places him firmly within this same tradition-history. In addition, he maintains the wholistic perspective of deeds common to the Jewish tradition. Although the term `covenantal nomism' is not appropriate for Paul's thought (Christ replaces the Torah as the defining locus of electing grace), the fundamental structure of grace and works, election and obedience, salvation and judgment, remains remarkably similar. In Paul also one is justified by grace and judged according to works, issuing in eternal life or wrath. The juxtaposition of justification and judgment causes Paul no theological tension, because he inherited a way of speaking and thinking about judgment according to deeds which similarly related them without paradox
Modelling the Earth's static and time-varying gravity field using a combination of GRACE and GOCE data
No full textThe main focus of the thesis is modelling the static and time-varying parts of the Earth's gravity field at the global scale based on data acquired by the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). In addition, a new methodology is proposed to validate global static gravity field models. Furthermore, the added value of GOCE data to the static and time-varying gravity field retrieval is assessed. Finally, low-frequency noise in GRACE observables derived from its K-band ranging (KBR) data is studied and a new way to cope with it is proposed. GRACE/GOCE global static gravity field modelling: DGM-1S, A new global static gravity field model entitled DGM-1S (Delft Gravity Model, release 1, Satellite-only) is computed by a statistically optimal combination of GRACE and GOCE data. The model is based on seven years of GRACE KBR data, four years of GRACE satellites' kinematic orbits, 14 months of GOCE kinematic orbits, and 10 months of GOCE Satellite Gravity Gradiometry (SGG) data. Kinematic orbit and KBR data are processed with a variant of the acceleration approach, in which these data are respectively transformed into "three-dimensional (3-D) average acceleration vectors'' and "range combinations'' (?inter-satellite accelerations) with a three-point differentiation. Gravity gradients are processed in the instrument frame. Stochastic models of data noise are built with an auto-regressive moving-average (ARMA) process. The usage of ARMA models ensures that (i) coloured noise in data is appropriately dealt with; and (ii) data are combined in a statistically optimal manner. DGM-1S is compiled up to spherical harmonic degree 250 with a Kaula regularization applied above degree 179. It is found that (a) the usage of GOCE kinematic orbits may not lead to an improvement of a static gravity field model if GRACE data and GOCE gravity gradients are already incorporated; and (b) GOCE gravity gradients manifest their contribution in a combined GRACE/GOCE model above degree 150. For the purpose of an assessment, the DGM-1S, GOCO01S, EIGEN-6S (only its static part), and GOCO02S geoid models are used to compute the corresponding oceanic mean dynamic topography models by subtracting the DNSC08 mean sea surface model. The results are confronted with the state-of-the-art CNES-CLS09 mean dynamic topography model, which shows the best agreement for DGM-1S. Furthermore, the test suggests that the GRACE/GOCE satellite-only models are influenced by a relatively strong high-frequency noise above degree 200. In addition, the test indicates that problems still seem to exist in satellite-only GRACE/GOCE models over the Pacific ocean, where considerable deviations of these models from EGM2008 are detected. Validating global static gravity field models: quantifying GOCE mission's added value and inspecting data combination optimality in models produced with surface data, The ability of satellite gravimetry data to validate global static gravity field models is studied. Two types of control data are considered: GRACE KBR data and GOCE gravity gradients. The validation is based on an analysis of misfits computed as differences between data observed and those computed with a force model that includes, in particular, a static gravity field model to be assessed. Only "independent'' data are used in the model validation, i.e., those that were not used in the production of models under assessment. The methodology is applied to eight models: EGM2008 (truncated at degree 250), EIGEN-6C (only its static part and truncated at degree 250), two GRACE-only models (ITG-Grace03 and ITG-Grace2010s), and four GRACE/GOCE models: GOCO01S, EIGEN-6S (only its static part), GOCO02S, and DGM-1S. The validation shows that independent data of both types allow a difference in performance of the models to be observed, despite the fact that the duration of these data is much shorter than that of data used to produce those models. The KBR and SGG control data demonstrate relatively high inaccuracies of EGM2008 in 5 - 22 mHz (27 - 120 cycles-per-revolution, cpr) and 10 - 28 mHz (54 - 150 cpr) frequency ranges, respectively. The latter data also reveal inaccuracies of ITG-Grace2010s in 25 - 37 mHz (135 - 200 cpr) frequency range. The validation in the spatial domain shows that EGM2008 performs weaker than the GRACE/GOCE models. Considering root mean square (RMS) misfits related to the zz gravity gradient component (with z being the nadir axis of the instrument frame), the performance difference in the continental areas poorly covered by terrestrial gravimetry data (Himalayas, South America, and Equatorial Africa) is 76 - 83 %. This difference is explained mostly by a loss of information content of ITG-Grace03 when it was combined with terrestrial gravimetry/satellite altimetry data to produce EGM2008. Furthermore, the revealed performance differences are 4 - 16 % in the continental areas well covered by those data (Australia, North Eurasia, and North America) and 11 % in the world's oceans. These differences are related to the GOCE mission's added value to the static gravity field retrieval. It is shown that EIGEN-6C also suffers from a loss of information during data combination, but in a much less pronounced manner. In South America, for instance, this model is found to perform poorer than its satellite-only counterpart, i.e., EIGEN-6S, by only 12 %. The GRACE/GOCE models show in the poorly surveyed continental areas a higher accuracy than ITG-Grace2010s: by 23 - 36 %, which is attributed to the GOCE mission's added value. The quantified added value is shown to be almost entirely related to the coefficients below degree 200. DGM-1S and GOCO02S show an almost similar performance against GOCE control gravity gradients. Nevertheless, the former model shows a slightly better agreement with KBR control data. Both models agree with control data of both types better than EIGEN-6S. Assessing GOCE mission's added value to time-varying gravity field modelling, Temporal gravity field variations recovered from KBR data suffer, among others, from a limited spatial resolution and a relatively low accuracy of the East-West changes. I investigate whether a retrieval of these variations can be improved by incorporating GOCE data. To that end, I compare monthly solutions up to degree 120 computed (i) from KBR data alone and (ii) using a statistically optimal combination of KBR data with GOCE kinematic orbit and gravity gradients. The impact of GOCE data is analysed in the context of unconstrained solutions and after an optimal anisotropic filtering. This impact in these two cases is found to be radically different. In the case of unconstrained solutions, a usage of GOCE data allows the noise in these solutions to be reduced by 1 - 2 orders of magnitude. I demonstrate, however, that this reduction is a stabilization effect and is not driven by the information content in GOCE data. In the case of the filtered solutions, the impact stays, in average, at sub-millimeter level in terms of equivalent water heights. This is below the GRACE noise level. The peak impacts reach about 1~cm. This holds true for the combined impact of GOCE kinematic orbit data and gravity gradients as well as for the impact of these data types individually. Relatively, the peak impacts do not exceed 5 - 7 % of the signal amplitude, because they always occur at locations where the time-varying gravity field signal is strong. Nevertheless, I refrain from concluding that added value of GOCE data to the retrieval of temporal gravity changes is always negligible. A number of scenarios are discussed, in which the impact of GOCE data may exceed the level quantified in the study presented. GRACE global time-varying gravity field modelling: DMT-2, The Delft Mass Transport model, release 2 (DMT-2), similar to its predecessor, i.e., DMT-1, is produced from KBR data. The model consists of a time series of 94 monthly solutions (February 2003 - December 2010). Each solution consists of spherical harmonic coefficients up to degree 120 with respect to DGM-1S. Both unconstrained and optimally filtered solutions are produced. The improvements applied in the production of this new model as compared to its predecessor are usage of: (i) an improved estimation and elimination of the low-frequency noise in residual range combinations, so that strong mass transport signals are not damped; (ii) an improved frequency-dependent data weighting, which allows statistically optimal solutions to be compiled; (iii) release 2 of GRACE level-1B data; (iv) a recent a priori static gravity field model, i.e., DGM-1S; (v) release 5 of the AOD1B model of non-tidal mass re-distribution in the atmosphere and ocean; (vi) the recent ocean tide model EOT11a; and (vii) an improved calibration scheme of the satellites' accelerometers. It is shown that DMT-2 substantially outperforms its predecessor in terms of spatial resolution, which is proven to be mainly associated with the usage of a more advanced frequency-dependent data weighting. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the usage of release 2 of GRACE level-1B data leads to an elimination of the East-West artifacts. Finally, it is shown that choosing the maximum spherical harmonic degree lower than 120 in the context of monthly gravity field modelling could lead to an underestimation of the signal amplitude and the presence of the so-called "Gibbs'' phenomenon in the vicinity of areas with strong mass variations. However, the higher spatial resolution of models produced up to degree 120 is almost entirely attributed to the optimal filtering and is not driven by the information content in unconstrained spherical harmonic coefficients. The contributions of the thesis, The primary contributions of this thesis are as follows: 1. Computing new global static gravity models of a competitive quality. 2. Development of a new methodology to validate global static gravity field models. 3. Quantification of the GOCE mission's added value to the static and time-varying gravity field modelling. 4. Inspection of data combination optimality in models produced with satellite gravimetry and surface data. This paves the way to developing better strategies to combine satellite and surface gravimetry data in the production of future models. 5. Computing a new GRACE time-varying gravity field model, DMT-2. 6. Demonstrating the importance of an accurate computation and a proper exploitation of stochastic models of noise in satellite gravimetry data in the context of global gravity field modelling. 7. Identifying the origin of low-frequency noise in GRACE KBR-based observables and proposing a new way to cope with it.Geoscience and Remote SensingCivil Engineering and Geoscience
A comparative study of form and theology in the works of Flannery O'Connor and Simone Weil
No full textIn this comparative study of the form and theology of Flannery O'Connor and Simone Weil I interrogate how Weil's philosophical writings and her theology illuminate O'Connor's use of both narrative and non-fictional forms, and her Catholicism. The Introduction analyses how Weil's concept of superposed reading provides a new method of approaching both O'Connor, her writings, and O'Connor
studies, and focuses on how such apparently different women interconnect. Chapter One explores how both Weil and O'Connor attempt to write their theologies on the
souls of their readers yet are each subject to constraints imposed by form. Weil's concept of locating equilibrium between incommensurates is discussed, and her
distinctively philosophical approach to fictions and fictionality is used to investigate O'Connor's notion of prophetic fictions and the writer's role. Chapter Two assesses how both writers revivify Christian paradoxes. Weil's monstrous concept of affiiction, and O'Connor's use of the grotesque genre to jolt secular man into an
awareness of the sacred are scrutinised. Chapter Three studies how both writers consider an encounter between God and man is possible through the action of grace. My Conclusion interrogates how Weil's work can deepen our understanding of O'Connor's writings, and examines how successful O'Connor is at realising a truly
Christian literature. I conclude that despite being a writer of powerful fictions, O'Connor can not be totally successful in her mission as writer-prophet because
ultimately fiction escapes orthodoxy
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