Ungentlemanly Capitalism: John Hay and Malaya, 1904-1964

John Hay was one of Britain’s leading colonial capitalists, building his career from the 1900s to the 1960s in Malaya’s plantation industry. He became the leading spokesperson for the British rubber growers, and played a major role in the formulation of international restriction schemes during the 1930s. Hay was a remarkable entrepreneurial talent, consolidating his corporate power through the premiere Malayan agency house, Guthrie & Co. This in itself challenges the notion that Britain’s myriad of ‘free-standing’ companies, which were typical of direct investment in the Empire, represented a relatively weak and unsustainable form of multinational enterprise. But Hay’s dominance of the Malayan plantation sector also questions the notion of ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ as the driving force behind the expansion and sustenance of the British imperial system. Hay’s network of colonial corporate influence did not extend into the corridors of ‘gentlemanly capitalist’ power in Whitehall and the City, where he often had frosty relations. Ultimately, it was the financial sector in London that brought about Hay’s forced resignation from Guthrie in 1963. Examining questions of class, ethnicity, personality, ideology and strategy, the article focuses on why Hay did not develop better relations with commercial, financial and official elites, issues that would also engender tensions with the post-colonial political and business leadership of Malaya/Malaysia

ISO observations of the interacting galaxy Markarian 297: with the powerful supernova remnant 1982aa

Markarian (Mkn) 297 is a complex system with two interacting galaxies. Observations were made with ISO using ISOCAM, ISOPHOT and LWS. We present ISOCAM maps at 6.7, 7.7, 12 and 14.3 microns which, with PHT-S spectrometry of the central interacting region, probe the dust obscured star formation and dust properties. ISOCAM reveals that the strongest emission region in the four MIR bands is completely unremarkable at visible and near-IR (e.g. 2MASS) wavelengths, and does not coincide with the nuclear region of either colliding galaxy. It shares this striking characteristic with the overlap region of the colliding galaxies in the Antennae (NGC 4038, 4039), the intragroup region of Stephan's Quintet, and IC 694 in the interacting system Arp 299. At 15 microns, the hidden source in Mkn 297 is, respectively, 14.6 and 3.8 times more luminous than the hidden sources in the Antennae (NGC 4038/4039) and Stephan's Quintet. Numerical simulations indicate that we see the Mkn 297 interaction about 1.5 x 10e8 years after the collision. ISOCAM shows knots and ridges of emission. The 14.3/7.7 micron ratio map implies widespread strong star formation. Strong emission features were detected in the ISOPHOT spectrum, while [OI], [OIII] and [CII] emission lines were seen with LWS. Using data from the three instruments, luminosities and masses for two dust components were determined. The total infrared luminosity is approximately 10e11 L_sol, marginally a LIRG. A 1979 supernova generated one of the most powerful known radio remnants (SN 1982aa) close to the strongest MIR source and identified with star forming region 14 in the optical. This exceptional supernova explosion may have been accompanied by a GRB, and a search for a GRB in this direction in contemporaneous satellite data is recommended.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Updated to better use recent SN/GRB work and tune terminology in Sec. 4.

Immune response of healthy horses to DNA constructs formulated with a cationic lipid transfection reagent

Background Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) vaccines are used for experimental immunotherapy of equine melanoma. The injection of complexed linear DNA encoding interleukin (IL)-12/IL-18 induced partial tumour remission in a clinical study including 27 grey horses. To date, the detailed mechanism of the anti-tumour effect of this treatment is unknown. Results In the present study, the clinical and cellular responses of 24 healthy horses were monitored over 72 h after simultaneous intradermal and intramuscular application of equine IL-12/IL-18 DNA (complexed with a transfection reagent) or comparative substances (transfection reagent only, nonsense DNA, nonsense DNA depleted of CG). Although the strongest effect was observed in horses treated with expressing DNA, horses in all groups treated with DNA showed systemic responses. In these horses treated with DNA, rectal temperatures were elevated after treatment and serum amyloid A increased. Total leukocyte and neutrophil counts increased, while lymphocyte numbers decreased. The secretion of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and interferon gamma (IFNγ) from peripheral mononuclear blood cells ex vivo increased after treatments with DNA, while IL-10 secretion decreased. Horses treated with DNA had significantly higher myeloid cell numbers and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand (CXCL)-10 expression in skin samples at the intradermal injection sites compared to horses treated with transfection reagent only, suggesting an inflammatory response to DNA treatment. In horses treated with expressing DNA, however, local CXCL-10 expression was highest and immunohistochemistry revealed more intradermal IL-12-positive cells when compared to the other treatment groups. In contrast to non-grey horses, grey horses showed fewer effects of DNA treatments on blood lymphocyte counts, TNFα secretion and myeloid cell infiltration in the dermis. Conclusion Treatment with complexed linear DNA constructs induced an inflammatory response independent of the coding sequence and of CG motif content. Expressing IL-12/IL-18 DNA locally induces expression of the downstream mediator CXCL-10. The grey horses included appeared to display an attenuated immune response to DNA treatment, although grey horses bearing melanoma responded to this treatment with moderate tumour remission in a preceding study. Whether the different immunological reactivity compared to other horses may contributes to the melanoma susceptibility of grey horses remains to be elucidated

Isolation, establishment, and characterization of ex vivo equine melanoma cell cultures

Gray horses spontaneously develop metastatic melanomas that resemble human disease, and this is often accompanied with metastasis to other organs. Unlike in other species, the establishment of primary equine melanoma cultures that could be used to develop new therapeutic approaches has remained a major challenge. The purpose of the study was to develop a protocol for routine isolation and cultivation of primary equine melanocytes. Melanoma tissues were excised from 13 horses under local anesthesia, mainly from the perianal area. The melanoma cells were isolated from the melanoma tissue by serial enzymatic digestion using dispase and collagenase. Out of the 13 excised melanomas, cell cultures from eight melanomas were established, which corresponded to a success rate 62%. These cells showed different degrees of melanin pigmentation. Characterization of these cells using confocal microscopy, FACs analysis and western blotting showed that they expressed melanoma-associated antigens; Melan-A, MAGE-1, and MAGE-3, and PCNA expression was higher in fast-proliferating isolates. The protocol we developed and established proved successful for routine isolation and cultivation of primary equine melanoma cells. This method provided a large number of primary equine melanoma cells that could be used to study new therapeutic approaches for treatment of equine melanomas