Naomi's redemption

Draft libretto for an opera in two acts based on the Biblical tale of Ruth. Three main solo roles: Naomi, Ruth, Boaz; with four smaller roles and optional chorus. The libretto follows the Biblical story as closely as possible. Two questions still need resolving: What is Ruth's fate at the end? Is she simply a surrogate mother for Naomi? Why is Obed's ancestry traced through Boaz and not through Naomi's son Mahlon as Levirate marriage would dictate

Elizabeth von Arnim ~ The anonymous in poetry

Paper given at Re-evaluating Elizabeth von Arnim Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, Sunday, 13 September 2015

‘Place feeling’ in the Fiction of E.M. Forster and Elizabeth Bowen

‘Place feeling’ in the Fiction of E.M. Forster and Elizabeth Bowe

Developing sexual competence? Exploring strategies for the provision of effective sexualities and relationships education

School-based sexualities and relationships education (SRE) offers one of the most promising means of improving young people's sexual health through developing 'sexual competence'. In the absence of evidence on whether the term holds the same meanings for young people and adults (e.g. teachers, researchers, policy-makers), the paper explores 'adult' notions of sexual competence as construed in research data and alluded to in UK Government guidance on SRE, then draws on empirical research with young people on factors that affect the contexts, motivations and outcomes of sexual encounters, and therefore have implications for sexual competence. These data from young people also challenge more traditional approaches to sexualities education in highlighting disjunctions between the content of school-based input and their reported sexual experience. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these insights for developing a shared notion of what SRE is trying to achieve and suggestions for recognition in the content and approaches to SRE.</p

An analysis of the long-term variation in stream water quality for three upland catchments at Loch Dee (Galloway, S.W. Scotland) under contrasting land management

International audienceA long term record of water chemistry, consisting of twenty years of weekly spot samples, from three sub-catchments draining into a loch and the loch outflow in Galloway, S.W. Scotland have been analysed. The analysis undertaken consisted of a three component statistical trend model. The technique allows the identification of long-term, seasonal and short-term trends, as well as differentiation between base flow and high flow responses. The land usage in the three sub-catchments is moorland, forest and forest plus lime. The results show that, since the mid-1980s, there has been a gradual decline in stream-water sulphate of the same order as reductions in the deposition of non-marine sulphate. Superimposed on this trend are somewhat random but considerable perturbations to this decline, caused by sea-salt deposition. There is no evidence of changes in surface water nitrate concentrations. The influence of different land management is evident in the sulphate, nitrate and pH data, whilst variations in calcium concentrations are also a product of differences in hydrological routing and the impact of sea-salt episodes. Keywords: trend analysis, acid deposition, land management, water quality, sea-salts, Galloway, S.W. Scotlan

Membrane-domain mutations in respiratory complex I impede catalysis but do not uncouple proton pumping from ubiquinone reduction.

Respiratory complex I [NADH:ubiquinone (UQ) oxidoreductase] captures the free energy released from NADH oxidation and UQ reduction to pump four protons across an energy-transducing membrane and power ATP synthesis. Mechanisms for long-range energy coupling in complex I have been proposed from structural data but not yet evaluated by robust biophysical and biochemical analyses. Here, we use the powerful bacterial model system Paracoccus denitrificans to investigate 14 mutations of key residues in the membrane-domain Nqo13/ND4 subunit, defining the rates and reversibility of catalysis and the number of protons pumped per NADH oxidized. We reveal new insights into the roles of highly conserved charged residues in lateral energy transduction, confirm the purely structural role of the Nqo12/ND5 transverse helix, and evaluate a proposed hydrated channel for proton uptake. Importantly, even when catalysis is compromised the enzyme remains strictly coupled (four protons are pumped per NADH oxidized), providing no evidence for escape cycles that circumvent blocked proton-pumping steps