Remarkable Longevity Research Articles

Negócio à moda antiga: tropas de comércio em Diamantina nos meados do século XX

Este artigo analisa uma variedade de aspectos relacionados à atuação das tropas de comércio nas Minas Gerais ao longo dos séculos XIX e XX. Agente central da economia mineira por largo tempo, ressalta-se o conjunto de narrativas dos viajantes estrangeiros sobre o fenômeno do tropeirismo oitocentista, o que ajuda a compreender certos sentidos sociais e culturais implicados no objeto em tela. A partir das memórias de antigos almocreves do Alto Jequitinhonha, procura-se demonstrar, também a notável longevidade alcançada pelas tropas de comércio na região de Diamantina, fenômeno que persistiu até os anos 1950.

DIGNITY AND ENNUI: Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 2009: The State of the World's Human Rights, London: Amnesty International Publications

Amnesty International, for many the archetypal global human rights non-governmental organization (NGO), is nearly 50. Since its birth in 1961, it has outlived many regimes and institutions that were its political midwives, from the Cold War, the Soviet Union and apartheid to the final eclipse of the British and French Empires; from sectarian violence in Northern Ireland to dictatorship in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. This remarkable longevity has not been achieved without cost. For those who work for or with Amnesty, its inner working culture has often been unsympathetic and unforgiving, sacrificial even, most notably so at its newly renovated headquarters, the International Secretariat (IS), in Easton Street, central London. To say that it is not an easy organization to manage and work in is an understatement that will provoke rueful smiles among those who have included a spell at Amnesty as part of their human rights journey. Part savvy...

“Voices from the People”

This article examines letters sent to the editors of the American Phrenological Journal, a monthly periodical dedicated to the pseudoscience of phrenology. This “rebel medical journal,” which existed on the fringes of nineteenth-century American medical journalism, demonstrated remarkable longevity, remaining in print for more than seventy years. While phrenology is largely remembered because of its prominent practitioners and well-known supporters, letters sent to the journal provide insight into how ordinary individuals engaged with phrenological ideas. Three types of letters were common: those that sang the virtues of phrenology and the APJ; those that contained questions; and those that pointed out problems or concerns with phrenology. The letters showed that readers were drawn to phrenology as an overarching system with far-reaching explanatory power but troubled by its contradictions in detail.

Theatre Censorship: From Walpole to Wilson by David Thomas, David Carlton, Anne Etienne

MLR, 104.2, 2009 553 and upright Criticus, theworth of the poet as the reformer of theCommonwealth becomes apparent. In the final crowning chapter of the section and of the book Lees-Jeffries demonstrates how Jonson adapts his knowledge of the fountains on display atNonsuch palace tomake a plea for thedisgraced Earl of Essex. Nonsuch's Diana fountain and itsGrove ofDiana, the latterelaborated with an intricate series ofmottoes and poems, prompted spectators to interactwith theOvidian myth of Diana and Actaeon and with itskey theme ofvisual transgression. Drawing a parallel between Actaeon's surprising ofDiana inher grove and themud-bespattered Essex's famously rude interruption intoElizabeth's bedchamber on 24 September 1599, the event thatarguably clinched his fall intodisfavour, is,forLees-Jeffries, irresistible. In conjunction with this,not entirely disapprobatory references to Essex are traceable in the allusions to theActaeon myth within Jonson's drama, which not so cryptically appear to petition forElizabeth's royal clemency. Interpreted accordingly, Jonson's play is a curious case of art imitating life imitating art' (p. 270). Lees-Jeffries's ambitious and persuasive studymakes us reconsider the renowned gardens, fountains, and sculptures of Theobalds, Kenilworth, and Nonsuch; italso asks us to reread and reimagine major earlymodern works in active, participatory, and interdisciplinary ways that fruitfullycombine and engage thevisual, the textual, and thematerial. Selwyn College, Cambridge Russell M. Hillier Theatre Censorship: From Walpole toWilson. By David Thomas, David Carlton, and Anne Etienne. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. xvi+28opp. ?50. ISBN 978-0-19-926028-7. As its title suggests, thebulk of thisbook concerns the Licensing Act of 1737, under which the Lord Chamberlain was made responsible for the authorization of theatres and the pre-approval of new plays. The Act represented something of a legislative coup for Robert Walpole, who, confronted by the increasingly biting theatrical treatment of himself and his sponsor George II, used all of his considerable political skill to pass the licensing and censorship provisions as successive amendments to a bill thathad ostensibly been intended to address the problem of public vagrancy. Apparently unaware that therewas an Enlightenment inprogress,Walpole habitually took a fairly robust attitude to censoring oppositional points of view through a variety of means (Paul Starr, The Creation of theMedia: The Political Origins of Modern Communications (New York: Basic Books, 2004), P- 39;Michael Harris, London Newspapers in the Age of Walpole (Cranbury,NJ: Associated University Press, 1978), Chapters 7 and 8), and his craftyuse of statute law to silence his critics in the theatrewas thus, ifsomewhat extreme, hardly uncharacteristic. What demands more explanation is theAct's quite remarkable longevity? while such heavy-handed measures would have been unthinkable ifapplied to newspapers, books, or poetry, itremains a startling fact that,until the law's repeal in 1968, no stage play could be publicly performed inBritain without first having been approved by the censor. The authors' examination of thisparadox takes the formof a detailed examination 554 Reviews of thekey points in theAct's history?its introduction by Walpole, the reformof the licensing provisions in 1843, the successive attempts to repeal censorship in 1832, 1909, and 1949, and its eventual abolition. At each stage the book provides a sum mary of thehistorical and theatrical background, before offering a detailed account of the parliamentary campaigns by both sides, complete with detailed references to a variety of primary sources. This might all sound a littledry, and indeed itwould be, were itnot for the fact that,being largely composed of either playwrights orMPs with an appreciation of the theatre, the constituency of those looking to have the law repealed tended to express its arguments in rathermore felicitous terms than your standard parliamentary interestgroup. Apart from the chapters explicitly dealing with the Act, the book offers brief surveys of British theatre censorship before and after theAct in the firstand final chapters. The prehistory concerns censorship under the Royal Prerogative, and as such, isactually vital to a proper understanding of thevarious attempts to repeal the Act?obfuscation about whether the Lord Chamberlain exercised censorship under the Prerogative was an important tactic in the government's effortstoblock reform. The finalchapter, forwhich the authors conducted a survey of British theatre and company managers, deals with theatre censorship inmodern...

Functional leaf traits, plant communities and acclimation processes in relation to oxidative stress in trees: a critical overview

AbstractTropospheric ozone exercises pressure on vegetation in combination with other oxidative factors such as strong sunlight, UV‐B radiation, high temperatures and water shortage. The relationship established between these factors and the plants can be either antagonistic (cross‐resistance) or synergistic. Response mechanisms are activated involving physiological, chemical and morphological features. Overall sensitivity (or resistance) is determined by the amount of total oxidative pressure in relation to the plant's physiological plasticity [i.e. its ability (within its own resilience potential) to alter its structure and functions in order to react to the oxidative pressure]. Within different populations of the same species, functional leaf traits (leaf area and thickness, leaf mass per area or specific leaf area, tissue thickness) may vary in relation to the extent that the plant succeeds in acclimating to ambient oxidative pressure. The behaviour of a tree in an oxidative environment can be interpreted by means of leaf structure analysis. Leaves presenting high tissue density (and thus low intercellular space content) display a high degree of acclimation to stressors, react little to environmental changes and are characterized by remarkable longevity. Leaves of this type also have a high photosynthesis capacity per surface unit (due to the N content per surface unit) and a high PN/GW (or water use efficiency, WUE). Thus, they are able to support detoxification processes. These morphological traits are to be found in adult plants in late successional stands and, above all, in ambients that have already been subjected to oxidative pressure. However, in early successional species and during the dynamic stages of growth (e.g. in the renewal occurring along forest edges), it is the opposite leaf traits that prevail: low leaf density, high photosynthesis capacity per dry weight unit, low WUE, low leaf longevity. These traits make plants far more reactive to environmental changes (e.g. they exploit the light from sun flecks much more effectively), but enable them to achieve only a low degree of acclimation and a poor ability to support detoxification processes. Whereas adult forests display a high level of ecological resilience and have a relatively good tolerance of ozone, the renewal stages are (at least potentially) more vulnerable. In these environments, ozone can alter the competition among genotypes and favour more resistant ones. Among the sectors most at risk, we must include communities growing at the edge of their ecological range, for whom even a slight increase in oxidative pressure can trigger substantial degenerative processes.

Electric Brilliancy: Cross-Dressing Law and Freak Show Displays in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco

Electric Brilliancy: Cross-Dressing Law and Freak Show Displays in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco Clare Sears (bio) In 1863, midway through the Civil War, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a local law against cross-dressing that prohibited public appearance “in a dress not belonging to his or her sex” (Revised Orders 1863). That city was not alone in this action: between 1848 and 1900, thirty-four cities in twenty-one states passed laws against cross-dressing, as did eleven additional cities before World War I (Eskridge 1999). Far from being a nineteenth-century anachronism, cross-dressing laws had remarkable longevity and became a key tool for policing transgender and queer communities in the 1950s and 1960s. However, although studies have documented the frequent enforcement of these laws in the mid-twentieth century, far less is known about their operations in the nineteenth century, when they were initially passed. In this essay, I examine the legal and cultural history of cross-dressing law in one city—San Francisco—from the 1860s to 1900s. In particular, I explore cross-dressing law’s relationship with another nineteenth-century institution that was centrally concerned with cross-gender practices—the dime museum freak show. Focusing on the complex, contradictory, and sometimes unpredictable relationships between legal regulation, cultural fascination, and gender transgressions, I develop three main arguments. First, I examine the legal work of cross-dressing law, documenting the range of practices criminalized, people arrested, and punishments faced. Observing that the law exclusively targeted public cross-dressing practices, I argue that it did much more than police the types of clothing that “belonged” to each sex; it also used the visible marker of clothing to police the types of people who “belonged” in public space. Second, I explore the relationship between cross-dressing law and a host of other local laws that targeted human bodies as public nuisances. In doing so, I argue that cross-dressing law was not an isolated act of government, exclusively concerned with [End Page 170] gender, but one part of a broader regulatory project that was also concerned with sex, race, citizenship, and city space. Finally, I analyze the case of Milton Matson, a female-bodied man who was recruited from a jail cell to appear in a dime museum freak show in 1890s San Francisco. Based on this analysis, I argue that cross-dressing law and the freak show had similar disciplinary effects, producing and policing the boundaries of normative gender, albeit in incomplete ways. A Dress Not Belonging San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors did not initially criminalize crossdressing as a distinct offense, but as one manifestation of the broader offense of indecency. The full legal text stated: If any person shall appear in a public place in a state of nudity, or in a dress not belonging to his or her sex, or in an indecent or lewd dress, or shall make any indecent exposure of his or her person, or be guilty of any lewd or indecent act or behavior, or shall exhibit or perform any indecent, immoral or lewd play, or other representation, he should be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction, shall pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars (Revised Orders 1863). In turn, this wide-reaching indecency law was not a stand-alone prohibition, but one part of a new chapter of the municipal codebook, titled Offenses Against Good Morals And Decency, which also criminalized public intoxication, profane language, and bathing in San Francisco Bay without appropriate clothing. Alongside these newly designated crimes, crossdressing was one of the very first “offenses against good morals” to be outlawed in the city. In 1866, the original five-hundred-dollar penalty was revised to a five-hundred-dollar fine or six months in jail; in 1875, it increased to a one-thousand-dollar fine, six months in jail, or both (General Orders 1866General Orders 1875). Despite its roots in indecency law, San Francisco’s cross-dressing law soon became a flexible tool for policing multiple gender transgressions. Before the end of the nineteenth century, San Francisco police made more than one hundred arrests for the crime of cross-dressing (Municipal Reports 1863...

Remarkable longevity and stress resistance of nematode PI3K‐null mutants

The great majority of lifespan-augmenting mutations were discovered in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In particular, genetic disruption of insulin-like signaling extends longevity 1.5- to 3-fold in the nematode, and to lesser degrees in other taxa, including fruit flies and mice. C. elegans strains bearing homozygous nonsense mutations in the age-1 gene, which encodes the class-I phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit (PI3K(CS)), produce progeny that were thought to undergo obligatory developmental arrest. We now find that, after prolonged developmental times at 15-20 degrees C, they mature into extremely long-lived adults with near-normal feeding rates and motility. They survive to a median of 145-190 days at 20 degrees C, with nearly 10-fold extension of both median and maximum adult lifespan relative to N2DRM, a long-lived wild-type stock into which the null mutant was outcrossed. PI3K-null adults, although a little less thermotolerant, are considerably more resistant to oxidative and electrophilic stresses than worms bearing normal or less long-lived alleles. Their unprecedented factorial gains in survival, under both normal and toxic environments, are attributed to elimination of residual and maternally contributed PI3K(CS) or its products, and consequent modification of kinase signaling cascades.

Timing of Therapeutic Intervention Determines Functional and Survival Outcomes in a Mouse Model of Late Infantile Batten Disease

Classical late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (cLINCL) is a monogenic disorder caused by the loss of tripeptidyl peptidase 1 (TPP1) activity as a result of mutations in CLN2. Absence of TPP1 results in lysosomal storage with an accompanying axonal degeneration throughout the central nervous system (CNS), which leads to progressive neurodegeneration and early death. In this study, we compared the efficacies of pre- and post-symptomatic injections of recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) for treating the cellular and functional abnormalities of CLN2 mutant mice. Intracranial injection of AAV1-hCLN2 resulted in widespread human TPP1 (hTPP1) activity in the brain that was 10-100-fold above wild-type levels. Injections before disease onset prevented storage and spared neurons from axonal degeneration, reflected by the preservation of motor function. Furthermore, the majority of CLN2 mutant mice treated pre-symptomatically lived for at least 330 days, compared with a median survival of 151 days in untreated CLN2 mutant controls. In contrast, although injection after disease onset ameliorated lysosomal storage, there was evidence of axonal degeneration, motor function showed limited recovery, and the animals had a median lifespan of 216 days. These data illustrate the importance of early intervention for enhanced therapeutic benefit, which may provide guidance in designing novel treatment strategies for cLINCL patients.

How many judges does it take to make a Supreme Court?: and other essays on law and the Constitution

Why do appellate courts always have an odd number of judges? And what does the answer tell us about changing concepts of law? How can common law be unconstitutional? Why does the power of judges depend on accurate court reporting? Because legal education today has come to focus so much on teaching students to think like lawyers, some subjects do not fit comfortably in law school curricula. John Orth, a distinguished senior law scholar, here explores some of these neglected but important topics. His insightful volume invites students of the law to look at the origins of accepted legal practices as a means of gaining insight into the judicial role and the evolution of common law. In six carefully reasoned and clearly argued articles, Orth presents the familiar in a fresh light. He considers, in addition to the questions already mentioned, how the centuries-old common law tradition interacts with statutory law-making, why claims that individual rights are grounded in common law are suspect, and how the common law uses what it learns about the past. In considering these questions related to common law and its remarkable longevity, Orth illuminates both its interaction with written constitutions and its longstanding preoccupation with procedure and property. And by questioning the assertion that individualism was the cornerstone of common law, he deftly resolves an objection that liberal scholars sometimes raise concerning common law - its connection to the Lochner era of Supreme Court jurisprudence. How many judges does it take to make a supreme court? As Orth observes, the institutional novelty of odd numbers of judges provided a means to break ties but did nothing to guarantee acceptance of their decisions. By demonstrating that what seems obvious about the law today was not always so, he cogently addresses changing perceptions of law and invites its future practitioners not only to think like lawyers but also to be more fully grounded in the law.

Age-Specific Growth and Remarkable Longevity in Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) from West Greenland as Estimated by Aspartic Acid Racemization

Abstract Eyes from 75 narwhals (Monodon monoceros) were collected in West Greenland in 1993 and 2004 for the purpose of age estimation. Age estimates were based on the racemization of l-aspartic acid to d-aspartic acid in the nucleus of the eye lens. The ratio of d- and l-enantiomers was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. The aspartic acid racemization rate (kAsp) was estimated to be 0.001045/year ± 0.000069 SE by regression of d/l ratios on age estimated by length from 15 young narwhals (≤298 cm) and by earplug laminations from 13 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus). The d/l ratio at age 0 ((d/l)0) was estimated to be 0.0288 by regression of d/l ratios against the estimated age of the 15 young narwhals. The intercept of the regression slope, providing twice the (d/l)0 value, was 0.05759 ± 0.00147 SE. The maximum estimated age was a 115-year-old (±10 SE) female. Asymptotic body length was estimated to be 396 cm for females and 457 cm for males, and asymptotic body mass was estimated to ...

Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian Mining Community: The Social Economy of Leisure in North-East England, 1820-1914

Since the 1970s, the development of mass leisure in general, and of major sports in particular, has presented a fertile field for research to historians of modern British society. Alan Metcalfe—a Geordie whose academic career in the discipline of kinesiology has been pursued in Canada—has broken new ground by taking the microscope to a small, compact, and distinctive industrial region in order to unravel the complexity and the diversity of its popular culture in the decades before the First World War. The scope of his study is narrower than his title implies. Although it includes a chapter on ‘non-sporting leisure’, this is very much a history of sport; and the ‘mining community’ under scrutiny consists of the fifty or so pit-villages of the small Northumberland coalfield, north of the Tyne, rather than the Great Northern Coalfield as a whole. Within these limits, however, a good deal of ground is covered in a thorough and thoughtful fashion. Professor Metcalfe offers a wealth of detail, first, on the remarkable longevity of such ‘traditional’ pitmen's pastimes as cock-fighting and potshare bowling; second, on the gradual transformation of ‘old’ sports like pigeon-racing and athletics; third, on those two spectacular crazes of the 1890s, billiards and bicycles; and finally, on soccer, as the ‘beautiful game’ evolved towards commercialisation and professionalism, while at the same time establishing itself as the major participation sport among the working class. All these developments are analysed in terms of their significance for community life and relationships within the coalfield; but Metcalfe also takes pains to point out ways in which the experience of east Northumberland may have differed from that of other parts of the country. Particularly striking is his emphasis on the economic booms of the early 1870s and, more particularly, the later 1890s in providing favourable conditions for major new developments in both the range and the organisation of sporting activity among the miners. The crucial role in all this of the miner-controlled Social clubs and Institutes which mushroomed in the pit villages during the two decades before the First World War is especially well illustrated. But for all its merits, Metcalfe's book leaves some important themes largely unexplored. As he himself points out, because the world of sport was a man's world, the women of the coalfield are virtually excluded. Consequently, several popular domestic pastimes, appropriate to the family circle—such as reading (and being read to), and playing card games—are ignored. Although annual flower shows and Sunday School picnics get a mention, community celebrations of exceptional national events—such as the Queen's jubilees in 1887 and 1897, or the coronations of 1902 and 1911—escape notice. Similarly, little attention is given to the fact that many (although not all) of the sports under consideration were age-specific as well as gender-specific. In other words, they appealed chiefly to young men during that brief interlude between school and marriage—a time of life when sporting pursuits had also to leave room for gentle dalliance and serious courtship. Finally, although the opportunities for recreation may have brought purpose and pleasure to many pitmen's lives, the use of one's ‘free time’ was, in the end, a matter of individual choice. Choice was, of course, limited to what was locally available; and it was partly shaped by family traditions and peer-pressure. As Metcalfe points out, leisure activity was always constrained by ‘time, money, and space’; but it also depended crucially on individual inclination and personal commitment. Man does not live by football alone; and the range of options open, even to Northumberland pitmen a century ago, was wider than the present study appears to suggest. Why some men chose one option, and some another; how often they changed their minds and pursued new fads and fashions; and how much time, effort and money they were able and willing to commit to their ‘hobbies’ at different stages of their lives, are questions which remain unanswered in this useful but narrowly-focused book.

Sweetness and light: illuminating the honey bee genome

come this, Martin Beye supplied AT-rich DNA isolated fromis the first hymenopteran andthe fifth insect genome to be sequenced (Honey BeeGenome Sequencing Consortium, 2006) in what promisesto be a swarm of insect genome sequences expected toappear over the next few years (Table 1). The Honey BeeGenome Sequencing Project (HBGSP) was conceptualizedover a period from 1998 to 2001 by the community atcourses, conferences and workshops (Robinson, 1999;Maleszka, 2000; Pennisi, 2001). In addition, initial effortswere directed at physical and genetic maps of the genome(Estoup

Cell death in Porifera: molecular players in the game of apoptotic cell death in living fossils

Apoptosis represents the morphological manifestation of programmed cell death and, paradoxically at first sight, it is a prerequisite for metazoan life. Thus, apoptosis is responsible for the demise of cells during many physiological processes. It is also accountable for the death of cells following exposure to countless stimuli. Therefore, it is obvious that apoptosis must be regulated by a complex network of various molecular signaling pathways. Research during the past 20 years has led to the identification of major functional groups of molecules involved in apoptotic pathways. These include members of the Bcl-2 superfamily, members of the TNF family, caspases, and their activators. Yet, the evolutionary conservation of those elements of the apoptotic machinery was only established from nematode to man. Sponges (phylum Porifera) are characterized by a remarkable regeneration capacity and longevity. Furthermore, they represent the phylogenetically oldest still extant metazoan taxon. Thus, research on these living fossils opens a window to the past, to the dawn of metazoan life. It allows us to trace the evolution of programmed cell death and its core components. This review summarizes the key findings and concepts which have emerged from studies of apoptosis in Porifera.

Quality control of a mutant plasma membrane ATPase: ubiquitylation prevents cell-surface stability

The plasma membrane ATPase, Pma1, has remarkable longevity at the cell surface. In contrast to the wild-type protein, the temperature-sensitive mutant Pma1-10 is misfolded and undergoes rapid removal from the cell surface for vacuolar degradation. At the restrictive temperature, Pma1-10 becomes ubiquitylated before or upon arrival at the plasma membrane. Internalization from the plasma membrane and vacuolar degradation of Pma1-10 is dependent on the ubiquitin-interacting motif (UIM) of the epsin Ent1, suggesting recognition of ubiquitylated substrate by the endocytic machinery. Surprisingly, ubiquitylation of Pma1-10 is reversed when its internalization is blocked in an end3 mutant. Under these conditions, Pma1-10 acquires association with detergent-insoluble, glycolipid-enriched complexes (DIGs) which has been suggested to promote stability of wild-type Pma1. Ubiquitylation does not cause DIG exclusion because a Pma1-Ub fusion protein is not significantly excluded from DIGs. We suggest that ubiquitylation of Pma1-10 represents a component of a quality control mechanism that targets the misfolded protein for removal from the plasma membrane. Rapid internalization of Pma1-10 caused by its ubiquitylation may preempt establishment of stabilizing interactions.

The Archaeology of Foraging and Farming at Niah Cave, Sarawak

This paper reports on the principal archaeological results of a renewed program of fieldwork in the Niah Caves (Sarawak) by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and environmental scientists. The paper focuses on two main themes: (1) the evidence for the changing nature of the human use of the cave and the implications of this evidence for wider debates in Southeast Asia regarding the foraging behaviors of the modern human populations who colonized the region in the later Pleistocene, and (2) the character of the later transition from foraging to farming. The first foragers visiting the caves ca. 45,000 years ago encountered much more varied landscapes than the present-day equatorial evergreen rainforest around Niah, though they were ones in which rainforest probably remained a component. A remarkable array of organic evidence indicates that the Pleistocene foragers using the caves exploited such landscapes with a combination of hunting, fishing, mollusk collection, and plant gathering, the latter including tuberous forest plants such as aroids, taro, yam, and sago palm. In the mid Holocene, when the landscape surrounding the cave was more similar to that of today, the primary use of the caves was for burials: the West Mouth of the Great Cave in particular was the location for an elaborate Neolithic cemetery that was characterized by a considerable degree of formal planning through its ca. 2500-year life. However, Neolithic people may also have used the West Mouth for habitation, as they certainly used other entrances of the cave complex. Based on present evidence, their subsistence base appears to have been forest foraging, though they were in contact with rice farmers. The remarkable antiquity and longevity of rainforest foraging knowledge and technologies at Niah appear to be among the most important conclusions emerging from the project, findings that may provide further support for arguments against the foragerfarmer dichotomy that underpins the currently dominant model of agricultural origins in Southeast Asia.

Enclave services: an office with a purpose.

Enclave services: an office with a purpose.

Uncommon readers: Denis Donoghue, Frank Kermode, George Steiner, and the tradition of the common reader

Impressive in scope and erudition, Christopher Knight's Uncommon Readers focuses on three critics whose voices - mixing eloquence with pugnacity - stand out as among the most notable independent critics working during the last half-century. The critics are Denis Donoghue, Frank Kermode, and George Steiner, and their independence - a striking characteristic in a time of corporate criticism - is reflective of both their backgrounds (Donoghue's Catholic upbringing in Protestant-ruled Northern Ireland; Kermode's Manx beginnings; and Steiner's Jewish upbringing in pre-Holocaust Europe) and their temperaments. Each represents a party of one, a fact that has, on the one hand, made them the object of the occasional vituperative dismissal and, on the other, contributed to their influence and remarkable longevity. Since the 1950s, Steiner, Donoghue, and Kermode have each maintained a highly public profile, regularly contributing to such influential publications as Encounter, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. This aspect of their work receives particular attention in Uncommon Readers, for it illustrates a renewed interest in the role of the public critic, especially in relation to the genre of the literary-review essay, and signals a sustained conversation with an educated public - namely the common reader. Knight makes the argument for the review essay as a serious and still viable genre, and he examines the three critics in light of this assumption. He expounds upon the critics' separate interests - Kermode's identification with discussions of canonicity, Steiner's with cultural politics, and Donoghue's with the persistent claims of the imagination - while also revealing the ways in which their work often reflects theological interests. Lastly, he attempts to adjudicate some of the conflicts that have arisen between these critics and other literary theorists (especially the post-structuralists), and to discuss the question of whether it is still possible for critics to work independently. Original and deliberative, Uncommon Readers presents a renewed defense of the tradition of the common reader.

Oxidation Stability and Tribological Behavior of Vegetable Oil Hydraulic Fluids

The new generation of vegetable oil hydraulic fluids has a price advantage and provides field longevity comparable to synthetic esters at moderate temperature. This article investigates the oxidation stability and tribological behavior of fully formulated vegetable oil hydraulic fluids. Differences in origin (canola, soybean, and sunflower oil) and the degree of unsaturation are studied. Modified ASTM D943 (Dry TOST) was found reliable to evaluate the impact on oxidative stability of various additive packages in vegetable oils. Tribological testing utilized laboratory hydraulic pumps such as the Vickers V 104C, Vickers 20VQ, and Vickers PFB-5 under a variety of temperatures, pressures, pump outputs, and speeds. The conditions of aging fluids were monitored by evaluation of TAN, viscosity, wear rate, and depletion of antioxidants. Voltammetric technique was applied to determine the concentration of antioxidant in systems. Based on analysis of antioxidant consumption, the main degenerative process in vegetable oils under demanding pump operations is similar to pyrolytic degradation, rather than oxidation. By selecting the appropriate synergistic additive packages, a remarkable pump longevity can be obtained for each vegetable base stock studied.

Interdependent Folding of the N- and C-Terminal Domains Defines the Cooperative Folding of α-Lytic Protease

Alpha-lytic protease (alphaLP) serves as an important model in achieving a quantitative and physical understanding of protein folding reactions. Synthesized as a pro-protease, alphaLP belongs to an interesting class of proteins that require pro regions to facilitate their proper folding. alphaLP's pro region (Pro) acts as a potent folding catalyst for the protease, accelerating alphaLP folding to its native conformation nearly 10(10)-fold. Structural and mutational studies suggested that Pro's considerable foldase activity is directed toward structuring the alphaLP C-terminal domain (CalphaLP), a seemingly folding-impaired domain, which is believed to contribute significantly to the high-energy folding and unfolding transition states of alphaLP. Pro-mediated nucleation of alphaLP folding within CalphaLP was hypothesized to subsequently enable the alphaLP N-terminal domain (NalphaLP) to dock and fold, completing the formation of native protease. In this paper, we find that ternary folding reactions of Pro and noncovalent NalphaLP and CalphaLP domains are unaffected by the order in which the components are added or by the relative concentrations of the alphaLP domains, indicating that neither discrete CalphaLP structuring nor docking of the two alphaLP domains is involved in the folding transition state. Instead, the rate-limiting step of these folding reactions appears to be a slow and concerted rearrangement of the NalphaLP and CalphaLP domains to form active protease. This cooperative and interdependent folding of both protease domains defines the large alphaLP folding barrier and is an apparent extension of the highly cooperative alphaLP unfolding transition that imparts the protease with remarkable kinetic stability and functional longevity.

“The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda Translations”

AbstractFrom the beginning of Orientalist studies of the Muslim world, it was axiomatic to define certain religious phenomena in terms of their origins. Because of the tendency to view all Eastern doctrines as essentially alike, Orientalist scholars of the Romantic period invariably defined Sufism as a mysticism that was Indian in origin; from the first appearance of the term in European languages, “Sufism” was characterised as essentially Looking back at this early scholarship today, it is surprising that this unanimous belief in the Indian origin of Sufism was almost entirely unconnected to any historical evidence. From the days of Sir William Jones and Sir John Malcolm to relatively recent times, this opinion has had a remarkable longevity, despite the ludicrous appearance of some of these claims today. As an example one may consider the outrageous claim of Max Horten, in a 1928 study that sought to explain Sufism as a pure expression of Vedanta: “No doubt can any longer remain that the teaching of Hallaj (d. 922) and his circle Another pertinent example is found in an observation of William James in his 1902 Gifford Lectures, published as The Varieties of Religious Experience:In the Mohammedan world the Sufi sect and various dervish bodies are the possessors of the mystical tradition. The Sufis have existed in Persia from the earliest times, and as their pantheism is so at variance with the hot and rigid monotheism of the Arab mind, it has been suggested that Sufism must haveJames's remark illustrates, innocently enough, how widely this opinion was shared at the time by the academic world in Europe and America. It is easier to see from the perspective of the later twentieth century that this opinion was conditioned by nineteenth-century racial attitudes as well as assumptions about the unchanging nature of religions.