‘Hunting for hidden meaning’: an analysis of the history, interpretation and presentation of seventeenth-century plasterwork at St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall

This thesis examines the original historical, visual and cultural context for the seventeenth-century plasterwork at St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. This plasterwork runs in a frieze around the upper section of the walls of a hall in what is now a substantial mansion house atop the Mount. The frieze depicts scenes of hunting all manner of animals, set within an undulating landscape. This study explains the original meaning and significance of the themes and imagery it contains. A history of the Mount from 1523 to 1680 is provided through a re-examination of existing histories and a recent archaeological report along with new material discovered in family, local and state archives. This has enabled a detailed examination of the development of the buildings on the Mount from priory to country home, demonstrating that a building of high status was created into which was installed a decorative frieze. The association of this decoration with the ballad of ‘Chevy Chase’ is analysed through a review of the way in which the frieze has been presented to the public over the years and how its name was imposed as a consequence of early tourism. A visual context and approximate date for the frieze has been provided through comparative analysis of examples of decorative art and artefacts which share similar hunting scenes, in particular the Hertford Borough Charter of 1605

Les codes d’une masculinité « cool » : discours et performances de genre dans les clips du rappeur MC Solaar

Au début des années 1990, les médias généralistes érigent MC Solaar en « rappeur cool » pour le caractère mélodieux et cérébral de sa musique (Hammou, 2012). Cet article, centré sur les clips du rappeur parus au cours de cette décennie, analyse ses performances de genre comme empruntant aux codes d’une masculinité hégémonique (Connell, 1985) proches de la virilité-privilège (Achin et Dorlin, 2008). Bien que ces performances aient servit d’appui aux discours des médias généralistes dans leur rejet des masculinités marginalisées (Connell, 1985) associées aux jeunes de « banlieue », l’analyse propose de les replacer dans une stratégie de contournement de stigmates raciaux de la part de l’artiste. Introduit par une revue de littérature consacrée au traitement académique des masculinités dans le rap français, cet article s’inscrit dans le champ des cultural studies et déploie une analyse textuelle, musicale et visuelle de la masculinité performée par MC Solaar. Les codes de genre du rappeur sont interrogés dans une perspective intersectionelle et à l’aune de la construction globale de sa persona liée à des chaînes de coopération (Becker, 1988) agissant dans le contexte socio-historique précis des années 1990.In the early 1990s, mainstream French medias called MC Solaar the “cool rapper” because of the melodious and intellectual features of his music (Hammou, 2012). Focusing on the rapper’s music videos released during this decade, this paper analyzes the extent to which his gender performances borrow from the codes of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1985) and virility-privilege (Achin and Dorlin, 2008). Although these performances have served to support mainstream media discourses in their rejection of marginalized masculinities (Connell, 1985) associated with youth from the French “banlieue”, the analysis intends to situate them within a strategy of racial stigma avoidance. This paper is introduced by a literature review about the academic treatment of masculinities in French rap. It belongs to the field of cultural studies and provides a textual, musical and visual analysis of MC Solaar performed masculinity. The rapper’s gender codes are examined from an intersectional perspective and in the light of the construction of his persona, related to chains of cooperation (Becker, 1988) operating in the specific socio-historical context of the 1990s

Separation Distribution of Vacuum Bubbles in de Sitter Space

We compute the probability distribution of the invariant separation between nucleation centers of colliding true vacuum bubbles arising from the decay of a false de Sitter space vacuum. We find that even in the limit of a very small nucleation rate per unit Hubble volume the production of widely separated bubble pairs is suppressed. This distribution is of particular relevance for the recently proposed ``colliding bubble braneworld'' scenario, in which the value of Omega_k (the contribution of negative spatial curvature to the cosmological density parameter) is determined by the invariant separation of the colliding bubble pair. We also consider the probability of a collision with a `third' bubble.Comment: 15 pages REVTEX, 2 Postscript figure

Non-Abelian T-duality in Pre-Big-Bang Cosmology

We study the impact of non-Abelian T-duality transformations on a string based cosmological model. The implementation of the pre-big-bang scenario is investigated. We found a region of the dual phase where such a picture is possible.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 3 figure

GPCR-styrene maleic acid lipid particles (GPCR-SMALPs):their nature and potential

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) form the largest class of membrane proteins and are an important target for therapeutic drugs. These receptors are highly dynamic proteins sampling a range of conformational states in order to fulfil their complex signalling roles. In order to fully understand GPCR signalling mechanisms it is necessary to extract the receptor protein out of the plasma membrane. Historically this has universally required detergents which inadvertently strip away the annulus of lipid in close association with the receptor and disrupt lateral pressure exerted by the bilayer. Detergent-solubilized GPCRs are very unstable which presents a serious hurdle to characterization by biophysical methods. A range of strategies have been developed to ameliorate the detrimental effect of removing the receptor from the membrane including amphipols and reconstitution into nanodics stabilized by membrane scaffolding proteins (MSPs) but they all require exposure to detergent. Poly(styrene-co-maleic acid) (SMA) incorporates into membranes and spontaneously forms nanoscale poly(styrene-co-maleic acid) lipid particles (SMALPs), effectively acting like a 'molecular pastry cutter' to 'solubilize' GPCRs in the complete absence of detergent at any stage and with preservation of the native annular lipid throughout the process. GPCR-SMALPs have similar pharmacological properties to membrane-bound receptor, exhibit enhanced stability compared with detergent-solubilized receptors and being non-proteinaceous in nature, are fully compatible with downstream biophysical analysis of the encapsulated GPCR

Transit timing analysis of CoRoT-1b

CoRoT, the pioneer space-based transit search, steadily provides thousands of high-precision light curves with continuous time sampling over periods of up to 5 months. The transits of a planet perturbed by an additional object are not strictly periodic. By studying the transit timing variations (TTVs), additional objects can be detected in the system. A transit timing analysis of CoRoT-1b is carried out to constrain the existence of additional planets in the system. We used data obtained by an improved version of the CoRoT data pipeline (version 2.0). Individual transits were fitted to determine the mid-transit times, and we analyzed the derived $O-C$ diagram. N-body integrations were used to place limits on secondary planets. No periodic timing variations with a period shorter than the observational window (55 days) are found. The presence of an Earth-mass Trojan is not likely. A planet of mass greater than $\sim 1$ Earth mass can be ruled out by the present data if the object is in a 2:1 (exterior) mean motion resonance with CoRoT-1b. Considering initially circular orbits: (i) super-Earths (less than 10 Earth-masses) are excluded for periods less than about 3.5 days, (ii) Saturn-like planets can be ruled out for periods less than about 5 days, (iii) Jupiter-like planets should have a minimum orbital period of about 6.5 days.Comment: 6 pages, accepted at A&

The Covariant Entropy Bound, Brane Cosmology, and the Null Energy Condition

In discussions of Bousso's Covariant Entropy Bound, the Null Energy Condition is always assumed, as a sufficient {\em but not necessary} condition which helps to ensure that the entropy on any lightsheet shall necessarily be finite. The spectacular failure of the Strong Energy Condition in cosmology has, however, led many astrophysicists and cosmologists to consider models of dark energy which violate {\em all} of the energy conditions, and indeed the current data do not completely rule out such models. The NEC also has a questionable status in brane cosmology: it is probably necessary to violate the NEC in the bulk in order to obtain a "self-tuning" theory of the cosmological constant. In order to investigate these proposals, we modify the Karch-Randall model by introducing NEC-violating matter into $AdS_5$ in such a way that the brane cosmological constant relaxes to zero. The entropy on lightsheets remains finite. However, we still find that the spacetime is fundamentally incompatible with the Covariant Entropy Bound machinery, in the sense that it fails the Bousso-Randall consistency condition. We argue that holography probably forbids all {\em cosmological} violations of the NEC, and that holography is in fact the fundamental physical principle underlying the cosmological version of the NEC.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, version 2:corrected and greatly improved discussion of the Bousso-Randall consistency check, references added; version3: more references added, JHEP versio

Tumor protein D54 defines a new class of intracellular transport vesicles

Transport of proteins and lipids from one membrane compartment to another is via intracellular vesicles. We investigated the function of tumor protein D54 (TPD54/TPD52L2) and found that TPD54 was involved in multiple membrane trafficking pathways: anterograde traffic, recycling, and Golgi integrity. To understand how TPD54 controls these diverse functions, we used an inducible method to reroute TPD54 to mitochondria. Surprisingly, this manipulation resulted in the capture of many small vesicles (30 nm diameter) at the mitochondrial surface. Super-resolution imaging confirmed the presence of similarly sized TPD54-positive structures under normal conditions. It appears that TPD54 defines a new class of transport vesicle, which we term intracellular nanovesicles (INVs). INVs meet three criteria for functionality. They contain specific cargo, they have certain R-SNAREs for fusion, and they are endowed with a variety of Rab GTPases (16 out of 43 tested). The molecular heterogeneity of INVs and the diverse functions of TPD54 suggest that INVs have various membrane origins and a number of destinations. We propose that INVs are a generic class of transport vesicle that transfer cargo between these varied locations