The Politics of the Working-Class Suburb: Walthamstow, 1870-1914

Published with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Peter Lund Simmonds and the Political Ecology of Waste Utilization in Victorian Britain

Copyright © 2011 by the Society for the History of Technology. This article first appeared in Technology and Culture, 52:1 (2011) 21-44. Posted with permission by The Johns Hopkins University Press.This article investigates the category of waste and its ideological function within Victorian political ecology. It seeks to draw out the connections between conceptions of nature, understandings of technology, and political economy in mid-Victorian capitalist ideology. It does so through a detailed reading of the corpus of one Victorian writer and commentator on technological subjects, Peter Lund Simmonds. Simmonds is interesting both as an everyday producer of knowledge about science and technology, and because he explicitly draws on the category of waste as a condition of possibility for technological progress and civilization. Ultimately he is indicative of the continuing strength of cornucopian ideas of nature among ideologues of capitalist improvement in the mid-Victorian period, which suggests the limited metropolitan influence of any emerging conservationism or "green imperialism.

The politics of environmental history

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

War on Waste?: The Politics of Waste and Recycling in Post-War Britain, 1950-1975

This is a postprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Capitalism Nature Socialism© 2009 Copyright Taylor & Francis; Capitalism Nature Socialism is available online at http://www.informaworld.co

Investigating the spatial regulation of meiotic recombination in S. cerevisiae

In order for a species to engage in and reap the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction, a subset of cells in each individual must undergo a complex ordeal known as meiosis—a specialised cell division. By halving the genome content and “shuffling the deck”, meiosis generates genetically diverse haploid gametes (eggs, sperm) or spores from diploid cells. Such a monumental task is by no means easy or risk free: during the meiotic programme, cells intentionally damage their own genomes through widespread induction of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in order to initiate homologous recombination—a DNA-repair process—and subsequent crossover (CO) formation. The success of meiosis is, however, not left up to chance. Rather, a complicated web of regulation acts at multiple stages to ensure this dangerous tradeoff pays dividends. Notably, the spatial pattern of meiotic recombination across the genome is complex and non-random. Whilst ultimately stochastic in nature, recombination events within any given meiotic cell display relatively even distributions along each chromosome—a phenomenon mediate by processes of “interference” acting at two key stages in meiosis: DSB and CO formation. Despite wide ranging historical observation, relatively little is known about how either form of interference is accomplished. Genome-wide mapping of recombination within S. cerevisiae has, however, provided a unique opportunity to investigate the underlying mechanisms. By computationally and mathematically analysing genome-wide data, work presented throughout this thesis seeks to: (i) investigate CO distribution and CO interference within various DNA damage response and DNA repair mutants (Tel1ATM, Mec1ATR, Rad24, Msh2) (Chapter 2) (ii) develop novel approaches to DSB mapping (Chapter 3) (iii) characterise the hyperlocal regulation of DSB formation (Chapter 3) and (iv) examine the mechanics of DSB interference (Chapter 4). Moreover, widely applicable simulation platforms for investigating DSB and CO formation have been developed (Chapter 2, 4). Collectively, this thesis further elucidates the mechanisms that underpin the spatial regulation of meiotic recombination in S. cerevisiae

The Effectiveness of Reciprocal Teaching Applied to Human Society and Its Environment: An Exploratory Study

This study examined the effectiveness of the Reciprocal Teaching (RT) reading comprehension activity applied to prepared readings in the subject Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE). Reciprocal teaching involves the four strategies of ‘questioning’, ‘clarifying’, ‘summarising’ and ‘predicting’, employed in a process that uses students in the role of tutors and cycles this role among all students of the group. RT is a social teaching strategy designed to produce metacognitive readers who are able to interrogate text for its meaning. This study was completed in two phases: the first of which was a triangulated mixed method approach involving Year 4 students and the second phase was a case study of the use of a modified RT approach with a Year 2 class. The Year 4 class was internally divided into two equivalent groups; the control group was taught by the class teacher in her traditional manner, and the experimental group was subjected to the RT process by the researcher. The quantitative data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential methods and the qualitative data studied for emerging themes related to possible internalisation of the skills involved in the use of RT. A pre-test/post-test method revealed that the experimental group suffered no disadvantage after exposure to the reciprocal teaching process. Further, there was evidence of internalisation of the RT strategies among the students of the experimental group. Later, a simplified version of the RT process (limited to use of the ‘questioning’ strategy) was applied to a Year 2 class as a case study. Again, there was evidence of internalisation of the strategy involved indicating that RT strategies may be taught early in the primary program. The study indicates that the strategies of RT can be applied in subjects other than English and in so doing students may develop generalised skills that will lead to critical thinking

PAX6 protein-protein interactions

The gene PAX6 is located on chromosome 11 (1 lpl3) and encodes a transcription factor (PAX6) that is expressed early in development. The PAX6 protein is expressed in the developing eye, regions of the brain, central nervous system (CNS), nasal epithelium and pancreas. PAX6 is best known for its role in eye development with heterozygous mutations causing congenital ocular malformations. However, it must be remembered that PAX6 has multiple functions in the brain including specification of neuronal subtypes and axon guidance.There is growing understanding of the role of PAX6 as a transcription factor during development, and many of its DNA targets have recently been defined. However, almost nothing is known about the proteins with which PAX6 interacts.In the initial stage of my research I identified a conserved region consisting of the final 32 amino acids of the PST (proline, serine and threonine rich) domain of PAX6. Based on sequence homology and secondary structure predictions I classed this region as a novel domain, the 'C terminal domain'. Next I used the yeast 2-hybrid system to investigate possible PAX6 protein interactions. By screening a mouse brain cDNA library with the C terminal domain and whole PST domain, I identified three novel and interesting interactors, Homer3, Dncll and Triml 1.I re-confirmed these interactions in a pairwise manner using the yeast 2-hybrid system, and I showed that the C terminal domain was vital for the interactions between PAX6 and Homer3 or Dncll. Furthermore, certain C terminal mutations that are known to cause ocular malformations in patients are also sufficient to reduce or abolish these interactions. I attempted to further characterise the interactions by co-immunoprecipitation. However, this was not possible due to technical difficulties.Although speculative at present, the finding that PAX6 may interact with Homer3 (a component of the post synaptic density) and Dncll (a subunit of the motor protein dynein) alludes to an interesting new role for PAX6 in neurogenesis

'Community and Exclusion: The Torrey Canyon Disaster of 1967'

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Social History following peer review. The version of record in Vol. 48 (4) pp. 892-909 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shv004Oral historians have only recently begun to record the memories of communities affected by major oil spills. In this article we investigate how the first supertanker oil spill in 1967, the Torrey Canyon, is remembered in the coastal communities of Cornwall. Environmental disasters cause more than just environmental damage. They also challenge communities, bringing to the forefront social tensions and conflicts. This study reveals the widespread sense of exclusion within the community as the national political, military and scientific elites took control over the clean-up operation. While aspects of the disaster have been successfully integrated into existing Cornish shipwreck narratives, the displacement of local hierarchies of knowledge by national elites challenged both personal and community identities revealing a subaltern community, often economically vulnerable, whose indigenous knowledge was ignored or devalued. Connecting these dimensions of community memory is the fundamentally moral question of intent, and the resistance to imposed peripheral status enacted through processes of remembering, telling of trickster tales and black humor.British Academy/Leverhulm

'Refuse and the ‘risk society’: The political ecology of risk in inter-war Britain'

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis is an open access article which is freely available in ORE or from the publisher's web site by following the DOI in this record. Please cite the published version.This article responds to current uses and critiques of Ulrich Beck’s ‘risk society’ thesis by historians of science and medicine. Those who have deployed engaged with the concept of risk society concept have mainly been content to accept the fundamental categories of Beck’s analysis. In contrast, we argue that the Beck’s risk society thesis underplays two key themes. Firstly, the role of capitalism and capitalist social relations as a the driver of technological change and the transformations in the reproduction of everyday life; and secondly, the ways in which hegemonic discourses of risk can be appropriated and transformed by counter-hegemonic forces. In place of ‘risk society’ we propose an approach based upon a ‘political ecology of risk’, which emphasizes the social relations that that are foundational to the everyday politics of environmental health.The Wellcome Trus

The Effectiveness of the Methods of Reciprocal Teaching: As Applied Within the NSW Primary Subject Human Society and Its Environment: An Exploratory Study

Reciprocal teaching (RT) is a process involving four distinct activities (questioning, clarifying, summarising and predicting) employed in a student-led, team approach to develop reading comprehension skills among primary students. In this study a series of readings were prepared for a topic taught within the NSW key learning area of Human Society and its Environment (HSIE). The readings were used in a study comparing the effects of RT with those of a more traditional approach to reading. A mixedmethod procedure was employed with 25 Year Four students who were divided into two groups (control and experimental) balanced for age, sex and ability. Both groups were pre- and post-tested for their knowledge of information supplied within the readings. An analysis of variance of the results indicated no detriment to the use of the RT procedures in comparison to the effective traditional approach taken by the home-teacher. Further, exit interviews with, and journal entries of students from both groups suggested that while the students in the control group viewed reading as a decoding process, the students from the RT group had begun to internalise the questioning and clarifying strategies and viewed reading as a process of dealing with ideas (comprehension)