Ethnicity

As developed in the fields of anthropology and sociology, the concept of ethnicity offers one possible approach to analyzing diversity in the population of ancient Egypt. However, it is important that ethnicity not be elided with foreign-ness, as has often been the case in Egyptological literature. Ethnicity is a social construct based on self-image, and thus may be difficult to identify in the ancient sources, where a monolithic uniformity of “Egyptian” versus “other” prevails. A range of sources does suggest that ethnic difference operated within the indigenous population throughout Egyptian history, as would be expected in any complex society. This discussion explores these sources and suggests ways of thinking about the negotiation of ethnic identity in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian kingship

The aim of this course was to review the study of Egyptian kingship as the central institution of society and cosmos, with a focus on how the king related to court institutions surrounding him, as well as how his role in relation to the gods was projected and is now interpreted. The presentation was partly chronological, with the first lecture considering origins and the last surveying the institution in the long term. The nearly four millennia from which kingship is attested can only be sampled. Much of the evidence treated was iconographic rather than textual. One aim was to bring out the importance of visual forms for the performance, display, and meaning of kingship, in a mode that probably spoke more eloquently to many people than texts did. Another focus was the sophistication of the sources (The course was delivered in French ; the French titles of the lectures are retained here.

Ancient Egyptian kingship

The aim of this course was to review the study of Egyptian kingship as the central institution of society and cosmos, with a focus on how the king related to court institutions surrounding him, as well as how his role in relation to the gods was projected and is now interpreted. The presentation was partly chronological, with the first lecture considering origins and the last surveying the institution in the long term. The nearly four millennia from which kingship is attested can only be sampled. Much of the evidence treated was iconographic rather than textual. One aim was to bring out the importance of visual forms for the performance, display, and meaning of kingship, in a mode that probably spoke more eloquently to many people than texts did. Another focus was the sophistication of the sources (The course was delivered in French ; the French titles of the lectures are retained here.

Empirical approaches to detecting the action of natural selection in Drosophila

This dissertation examines two aspects of how natural selection shapes the amount and pattern of genetic variation within and between species: (1) the role of positively selected alleles in shaping the variation within and between subpopulations of a subdivided species and (2) the influence of epistatic selection operating on RNA secondary structures. First, the role of natural selection in shaping the pattern of variation within and between populations of the subdivided species Drosophila ananassae is investigated. To delimit the spread of positively selected alleles and characterize the role of natural selection in genetic differentiation, sequence data was collected from a locus in a region of low recombination for 13 populations, spanning a majority of the species range of D. ananassae. The migration behavior of this selected locus is compared to that of 10 independent neutrally evolving loci and tested against alternative models of natural selection. Second, nucleotide variation at the D. melanogaster bicoid locus is examined. The presence of a large, conserved secondary structure in the 3’ untranslated region enables the relationship between RNA secondary structure and patterns of standing variation in natural populations to be explored. Variation within this structure is analyzed with respect to models of compensatory evolution and recent improvements of these models. Evidence suggests that bicoid may be the result of a relatively recent gene duplication in the Dipteran lineage, thus, variation in the bicoid coding region is also analyzed with respect to the evolutionary processes that may be ongoing if this gene is still undergoing diversification and/or refining of its function. Finally, long-range compensatory interactions between the two ends of Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) mRNA are investigated by experimental manipulation. Site-directed mutations were introduced in the D. melanogaster Adh gene in an effort to explain why previous mutational analysis failed to fit Kimura’s classical model of compensatory evolution. The results of the mutational analysis indicate that a classical result was not observed due to the pleiotropic effect of changing a nucleotide involved in both long-range base pairing and the negative regulation of gene expression

An integrated process for strategic positioning within the value chain

The purpose of this article is to highlight the value of ‘strategic positioning’ as a means of providing competitive edge, and to introduce and describe a novel method of managing this. Strategic positioning is concerned with the choice of business activities a company carries out itself, compared to those provided by suppliers, partners, distributors and even customers. It is therefore directly impacted by, and has direct impact upon, such decisions as outsourcing, off-shoring, partnering, innovation, technology acquisition and customer servicing

Electron Streaming Effect Associated With the Elekta Unity Anterior Imaging Coil

The presence of the static field in magnetic resonance guided radiation therapy (MRgRT) systems, such as the Elekta Unity MR-Linac (MRL), influences charged particle motion due to the Lorentz force in and around patients. Consequently, for the Unity, changes to out-of-field dose (OFD) relative to conventional linacs occur due to the electron streaming effect (ESE) and spiraling contaminant electrons (SCE). This work investigates OFD associated with irradiation of the anterior MR imaging coil, which is in situ for all treatments on the Unity. Film measurements and Monaco simulations were performed to quantify the magnitude of OFD at the superior and inferior ends of the coil as a function of coil tilt relative to the beam direction. The dependence of OFD on field size and the relative electron density (RED) assigned to the coil and surrounding air are reported. The doses at both coil ends were clinically significant, with nearly 23.0% of the D-max dose to water being recorded for the largest field (8.0 x 22.0 cm(2)) and 6.8% for the smallest field (3.0 x 3.0 cm(2)). Monaco simulations of OFD agreed with film within 5.0%, when appropriate calculation conditions were set. OFD decreases as coil tilt is reduced, and there is no evidence of ESE when the coil is horizontal. Clinically, the potential magnitude of cranio-caudal streaming dose from a tilted coil necessitates the use of appropriate shielding. A clinical case involving coil-induced ESE during treatment of a lesion in the right angle is presented. The planning-based investigation revealed that ESE doses associated with the coil and an immobilization vacuum bag can be clinically significant

Modelling the behaviour of engine assembly workers

Presents a prototype modelling methodology that provides a generic approach to the creation of quantitative models of the relationships between a working environment, the direct workers and their subsequent performance. Once created for an organisation, such models can provide a prediction of how the behaviour of their workers will alter in response to changes in their working environment. The goal of this work is to improve the decision processes used in the design of the working environment. Through improving such processes, companies will gain better performance from their direct workers, and so improve business competitiveness. This paper first presents the need to model the behaviour of direct workers in manufacturing environments. To begin to address this need, a simplistic modelling framework is developed, and then this is expanded to provide a detailed modelling methodology. There then follows a description of an industrial evaluation of this methodology at Ford Motor Company. This modelling methodology has been assessed in this case study and has been found to be valid in this case. There are many challenges that this theme of research needs to address. The work described in this paper has made an important first step in this area, having gone some way to establishing a generic methodology and illustrating its potential value. Our future work will build on this foundation

On the spectroastrometric separation of binary point-source fluxes

Spectroastrometry is a technique which has the potential to resolve flux distributions on scales of milliarcseconds. In this study, we examine the application of spectroastrometry to binary point sources which are spatially unresolved due to the observational point spread function convolution. The technique uses measurements with sub-pixel accuracy of the position centroid of high signal-to-noise long-slit spectrum observations. With the objects in the binary contributing fractionally more or less at different wavelengths (particularly across spectral lines), the variation of the position centroid with wavelength provides some information on the spatial distribution of the flux. We examine the width of the flux distribution in the spatial direction, and present its relation to the ratio of the fluxes of the two components of the binary. Measurement of three observables (total flux, position centroid and flux distribution width) at each wavelength allows a unique separation of the total flux into its component parts even though the angular separation of the binary is smaller than the observations' point-spread function. This is because we have three relevant observables for three unknowns (the two fluxes, and the angular separation of the binary), which therefore generates a closed problem. This is a wholly different technique than conventional deconvolution methods, which produce information on angular sizes of the sampling scale. Spectroastrometry can produce information on smaller scales than conventional deconvolution, and is successful in separating fluxes in a binary object with a separation of less than one pixel. We present an analysis of the errors involved in making binary object spectroastrometric measurements and the separation method, and highlight necessary observing methodology.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Molecular evolution of sex-biased genes in the Drosophila ananassae subgroup

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genes with sex-biased expression often show rapid molecular evolution between species. Previous population genetic and comparative genomic studies of <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>and <it>D. simulans </it>revealed that male-biased genes have especially high rates of adaptive evolution. To test if this is also the case for other lineages within the <it>melanogaster </it>group, we investigated gene expression in <it>D. ananassae</it>, a species that occurs in structured populations in tropical and subtropical regions. We used custom-made microarrays and published microarray data to characterize the sex-biased expression of 129 <it>D. ananassae </it>genes whose <it>D. melanogaster </it>orthologs had been classified previously as male-biased, female-biased, or unbiased in their expression and had been studied extensively at the population-genetic level. For 43 of these genes we surveyed DNA sequence polymorphism in a natural population of <it>D. ananassae </it>and determined divergence to the sister species <it>D. atripex </it>and <it>D. phaeopleura</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sex-biased expression is generally conserved between <it>D. melanogaster </it>and <it>D. ananassae</it>, with the majority of genes exhibiting the same bias in the two species. However, about one-third of the genes have either gained or lost sex-biased expression in one of the species and a small proportion of genes (~4%) have changed bias from one sex to the other. The male-biased genes of <it>D. ananassae </it>show evidence of positive selection acting at the protein level. However, the signal of adaptive protein evolution for male-biased genes is not as strong in <it>D. ananassae </it>as it is in <it>D. melanogaster </it>and is limited to genes with conserved male-biased expression in both species. Within <it>D. ananassae</it>, a significant signal of adaptive evolution is also detected for female-biased and unbiased genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings extend previous observations of widespread adaptive protein evolution to an independent <it>Drosophila </it>lineage, the <it>D. ananassae </it>subgroup. However, the rate of adaptive evolution is not greater for male-biased genes than for female-biased or unbiased genes, which suggests that there are differences in sex-biased gene evolution between the two lineages.</p

Not Profiting from Precarity: The Work of Nonprofit Service Delivery and the Creation of Precasiousness

This paper examines the impact of precarity on the nonprofit service providing sector (NPSS). Using in depth qualitative interviews, recent empirically-based surveys of the Ontario nonprofit sector and key academic and grey literature, we explore the deeper meaning of precarity in this sector. We contend that the NPSS is a unique, and in many respects, an ideal location in which to explore the workings and impact of precarity. Looking at the nonprofit sector reveals that precarity operates at various levels, the: 1) nonprofit labour force; 2) organization structure and operation of nonprofit agencies; and, 3) clients and communities serviced by these nonprofit organizations. By observing the workings of precarity in this sector, precarity is revealed to be far more than an employment based phenomenon but also a force that negatively impacts organizational structures as well as vulnerable communities