Mapping Dutch Nationalism across the Atlantic

1648 witnessed the legal birth of the Dutch Republic, and Claes Jansz Visscher capitalized on Dutch nationalism by publishing maps of Dutch-controlled territories in Brazil and New Netherland. The maps presented a unified image of possession in both arenas and featured them as secure and stable locations worthy of investment amidst tensions in the Republic c. 1650. These maps contributed to shape a global and historical Dutch national consciousness at this critical moment of their so-called Golden Age

Possessing Brazil in Print, 1630-54

The maps of Brazil published during the tenure of the Dutch Republic’s possession of the territory (1630–54) share common features that demonstrate how existing conventions in rhetoric and iconography were used by publishers to convey Dutch ownership. In the maps, the land was visually controlled by ground plans distinguishing cultivated and occupied lands from uncultivated, unoccupied territory, and the texts drew upon contemporary legal and engineering theories developed from antique precedents. Texts and images of Pernambuco published by Claes Jansz Visscher and by Joan Blaeu served as important means for defining the Dutch nation by reinforcing Dutch conceptions of property rights in prints of territories abroa

The Effect of an Elastic Eccentric Extensor Mechanism on Hamstring Function

Hamstring strains have a long recovery time, a high rate of recurrence, and are very common injuries in sports. Fatigue, improper warm-up, previous injury, strength imbalance, and poor flexibility have all been linked to hamstring injuries. Initial treatment of the hamstring typically consists of rest, ice, compression, elevation, and pain relief. However, no optimal treatment regimen has been developed based on carefully designed clinical trials. This study tested fourteen college-aged male and female subjects. Their gait was recorded using video tracking software with and without an elastic band (Theraband® Akron, Ohio) attached to the anterior surface of their waist and proximal tibia utilizing 1.5 inch white athletic tape (Johnson & Johnson© New Brunswick, New Jersey). With the results, a one-way, repeated measures ANOVA was conducted with the factor being the use of an elastic band and the dependent variable being angular velocity and its associated angle of flexion. The results for the repeated measures ANOVA indicated a significant time effect, Wilk’s Λ = 0.512, F (1,13) = 12.414, p = 0.004. The results from our study show that angular velocity increased earlier in the range of motion than when the subject was not wearing the band. In order for the patient to control the leg, the hamstring muscle would have to assume more eccentric load. From this increased eccentric load, we can assume there would be an increase in eccentric strength and a decrease in injuries

Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 is a Novel Protein Sensor in Pregnancy

The twenty-first century has experienced a shift in cause of death worldwide from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases. Interestingly, many of these implicated chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, have been shown to be programmed in the womb. As first posited by the Barker Hypothesis, adverse exposures in utero can increase an individual’s risk for chronic disease later in life. Therefore, pregnancy is an opportune time for intervention to improve the health of future generations. Studies of exposures known to negatively impact infant health, e.g. states of overnutrition (obesity, diabetes, excess gestational weight gain) and undernutrition (starvation, protein restriction), are critical to reveal the mechanisms of and identify markers for developmental programming. Numerous endocrine signals including insulin, leptin, and adiponectin have been extensively investigated during pregnancy with aberrant effects on offspring growth and metabolic function. A novel endocrine hormone, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which has been recently implicated as a signal for protein restriction, has not yet been studied for a potential role in developmental programming of future disease. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of FGF21 in pregnancy. We hypothesized FGF21 may be a nutrient sensor and a signal for fetal nutrient insufficiency during pregnancy. In studies of healthy, pregnant women, we found FGF21 was acutely regulated by maternal macronutrient balance. We then found in both mice and human studies that FGF21 is elevated in response to low maternal protein intake in pregnancy. We also showed elevated maternal FGF21 correlated with decreased infant size in the first year of life, an outcome commonly associated with reduced maternal protein intake in pregnancy. Finally, we used the Protein Leverage Hypothesis to directly test whether FGF21 is indeed a protein sensor in pregnancy and found that FGF21 is required for the hyperphagic response to low protein intake in pregnancy. In summary, these studies support the hypothesis that FGF21 is a protein sensor in pregnancy. Further studies in large clinical populations including fetal growth restriction are needed to discern whether FGF21 could be used as a marker for fetal nutrient insufficiency in the public health setting

Comparative genome analysis of Wolbachia strain wAu

BACKGROUND: Wolbachia intracellular bacteria can manipulate the reproduction of their arthropod hosts, including inducing sterility between populations known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Certain strains have been identified that are unable to induce or rescue CI, including wAu from Drosophila. Genome sequencing and comparison with CI-inducing related strain wMel was undertaken in order to better understand the molecular basis of the phenotype. RESULTS: Although the genomes were broadly similar, several rearrangements were identified, particularly in the prophage regions. Many orthologous genes contained single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between the two strains, but a subset containing major differences that would likely cause inactivation in wAu were identified, including the absence of the wMel ortholog of a gene recently identified as a CI candidate in a proteomic study. The comparative analyses also focused on a family of transcriptional regulator genes implicated in CI in previous work, and revealed numerous differences between the strains, including those that would have major effects on predicted function. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides support for existing candidates and novel genes that may be involved in CI, and provides a basis for further functional studies to examine the molecular basis of the phenotype

From the ground up: archaeology as colonial knowledge production in Upper Canada, 1830-1860

This thesis presents a study of archaeology as a form of colonial knowledge production employed in Simcoe County in the years between 1830 and 1860, set against the backdrop of the Native assimilation policies in Upper Canada. I argue that the identification of archaeological sites, their survey, documentation, excavation, and the collection of their contents shaped new epistemologies that contributed to the administration and governance of Aboriginal populations, their territories and the nation-building efforts of this period. I ask: Who took on the tasks of digging, mapping and collecting in Simcoe County? Why were Aboriginal remains and artifacts tom from their original contexts and reinserted as new forms of knowledge into European historical chronologies? What did settlers, colonial administrators and missionaries cum archaeologists know, and how did they know? To address these questions, I draw on the theoretical framework advocated by historical anthropology and the anthropology of colonialism. Cultural studies of colonialism have revealed how, in the nineteenth century, all across the globe, territory was conquered not only through physical force and economic expansion but also through the creation of facts that gave colonial agents and settlers power over indigenous societies, their natural resources and their culture. Colonial domination was enacted through the defining and classifying of space, the counting of populations, the codifying and representation of the past, and the insertion of this information into government reports and archives (Cohn 1996; Dirks 1992). While historical anthropologists have focused heavily on the textual documentation found within these archives, I also interrogate the material, archaeological archive to reveal the complex architecture of colonialism. Yet, as this thesis demonstrates, colonial knowledge production was not monolithic, nor was it without its uncertainties: what was observed and how it was recorded and made into governable knowledge was conditioned by particular socio-political circumstances (Stoler 2009; Thomas 1994). Through the four case studies that structure this thesis, I seek out the ways in which the project of colonial archaeology in Simcoe County was both contingent and often unsettled. In addition, I identify how the production of archaeological knowledge was not an isolated activity. Published reports and archaeological evidence from Simcoe County moved quickly across imperial space, influencing the formation of emerging racial typologies and categories of difference within the metropole that, as I conclude, reverberate in the present

Democratizing Knowledge: Using Wikipedia for Inclusive Teaching and Research in Four Undergraduate Classes

In preparation for the spring 2018 semester, the three of us came together to develop a Wikipedia-based project using feminist pedagogies in their teaching practice. With different assignments, students in the four courses collaborated in this effort to improve the diversity, breadth, and quality of information in the free encyclopedia in English. Moreover, the assignments challenged students\u27 research and information literacy skills via an authentic learning experience, specifically editing Wikipedia on art- and diversity-related topics while engaging with the Wikipedia community and teaching other students how to edit Wikipedia on underrepresented topics--the “social responsibility of a collective struggle” for inclusion in knowledge production. The course Creating Wikipedia for the Arts prepared students to host an Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon during which they taught participants about Wikipedia and how to edit it. Leading up to the event, students enrolled in Nineteenth-Century Art, Arts of Africa, and Foundations in Art Education researched notable9 individuals relevant to the topic of their course who did not have an article in Wikipedia or only had a short stub article in need of expansion and improvement. Using this research, they came to the edit-a-thon to create and improve articles, thus making their research freely available to anyone with Internet access

Climatology of the Forest-Tundra Ecotone at a Maritime Subarctic-Alpine Site, Mealy Mountains, Labrador

Climatological investigations were conducted from 2001 to 2009 in the central Mealy Mountains, Labrador (53.6˚ N), as part of interdisciplinary research on tree line ecology and climate change. The aim was to describe local climatic and edaphic variables along an altitudinal gradient from the closed forest edge to the alpine tundra and to relate recent changes in regional climate to potential changes in the forest tundra ecotone. Results show relatively warm, moist summers and cool winters, with abundant precipitation and moderate to gale-force winds. At ca. 600 m a.s.l., the tree line was characterized by 694 ± 85 growing degree-days and a mean July air temperature of 12.9 ± 0.8˚C. Growing season soil temperatures of ca. 8˚C were similar across the forest-tundra ecotone, but their seasonal regimes differed among subzones. Soil nutrient fluxes showed some variation but no consistent pattern that would suggest nutrients as a limiting factor. Snow depth in the forest-tundra subzone was more variable than in the forest, indicating that microtopography is an important factor for tree survival there in winter. Comparisons of the field data with long-term regional climatic and hydrographic records show that conditions have become warmer and drier in the most recent decade compared with the previous half-century or more. Concurrent vegetation studies indicate that changes expected with a warming climate are already occurring.De 2001 à 2009, des études climatologiques ont été effectuées dans les monts centraux Mealy, au Labrador (53,6˚ N) dans le cadre d’une recherche interdisciplinaire sur l’écologie de la limite forestière et le changement climatique. Ces études avaient pour but de décrire les variables climatiques et édaphiques locales le long d’une pente altitudinale allant de la lisière de la forêt dense jusqu’à la toundra alpine. Elles avaient également pour but de faire le lien entre les récents changements enregistrés dans le climat régional et les changements susceptibles de se produire dans l’écotone de la toundra forestière. Les résultats montrent des étés humides et relativement chauds ainsi que des hivers frais, avec des précipitations abondantes et des vents allant de modérés à coups de vent. À environ 600 m ASL, la limite forestière était caractérisée par 694 ± 85 degrés-jours de croissance et une température de l’air moyenne de 12,9 ± 0,8 ˚C en juillet. En saison de croissance, les températures du sol d’environ 8 ˚C étaient semblables à la grandeur de l’écotone de la forêt-toundra, bien que les régimes saisonniers différaient d’une sous-zone à l’autre. Les flux de nutriments du sol affichaient une certaine variation, mais il n’existait aucun modèle uniforme laissant entrevoir que les nutriments pouvaient être un facteur limitant. L’épaisseur de la neige dans la sous-zone forêt-toundra variait plus que dans la forêt, ce qui indique que la microtopographie est un facteur important pour la survie des arbres dans cet endroit-là l’hiver. La comparaison des données obtenues sur le terrain aux données climatiques et hydrographiques régionales à long terme laisse entrevoir que les conditions se sont réchauffées et asséchées au cours de la toute dernière décennie comparativement au demi-siècle précédent ou plus. Les études concurrentes sur la végétation indiquent que les changements qui étaient escomptés de même que le réchauffement du climat se manifestent déjà

Teaching Naked Is More Than a Game [A Review by Elizabeth Sutton for Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning, by José Antonio Bowen]

The title of José Bowen’s book, Teaching Naked, is meant to garner second looks. Indeed, his title follows a premise of his book: marketing matters. But selling a book is different from selling the value of an education. The latter is what Bowen suggests technology can help us do. Bowen does not want to eradicate technology from teaching. Far from it. He makes the case that technology should be used to enhance student engagement and should be used outside of class time so that classes can be focused on the face-to-face pedagogies that he identifies as the strength and market niche of traditional colleges and universities in a world of for-profit and online higher education products