Iron Age mortuary rites in southern Britain: Familiar ancestors, foreign ideas

Coming from a family which is Scottish on one side and English on the other, Andrew Lamb has been curious about cultural differences between closely related groups from a young age. Combined with a long lasting interest in the European Iron Age (due in no small part to Asterix comics), his current research focuses on the southern counties of England between c.500 BC and AD 70, examining the variation in human remains across this area

Transatlantic Utopia: American Antebellum Novels and Their Reflexive Historicism

This dissertation argues that the utopian novel offers an invaluable lens for understanding the social fabric of the antebellum America. The project focuses mainly on four works: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852), a fantasy roman à clef of the Brook Farm utopian colony; William Gilmore Simms’ The Yemassee (1835), a novel about the native American threat to the utopia of a slaveocracy; Martin Delany’s Blake; or the Huts of America (1859), a call for pan-African revolt in North America; and Robert Henry Newell’s Avery Glibun; or, Between Two Fires (1867), a fantasy bildungsroman about the antebellum period as a utopia in itself. My readings of these novels examine the different utopian aspects inherent in each text, drawing out the ways readership patterns illustrate that such works both amplify and complicate societal agitation for women’s equality, abolition, attention to class inequities, religious renewal and even political revolution. The common thread linking these topics is a question about the utility of the novel as a demonstrable instrument of social change. The porous political boundaries of the antebellum United States make for a literary environment ripe for the ideals and philosophy of European thinkers to take hold, and hence the term transatlantic. The dissertation approaches the developing field of ‘transatlanticism’ in literary studies, asking how American writers create a diaphanous geopolitical space redolent of an Elysian mythos. On the granular level, the literary analysis unearths evidence of the utopian reasoning of each novelist as he or she posits a counterpoint to the hegemonic structure of antebellum American society. I will argue that the Protestant ideals of social reform enables the novel to reach an emerging middle-class readership with a utopian idealism coupled with a pre-Marxist evangelical spirituality in the decades leading up to the Civil War

The Rate of Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Local Universe

Following the faint gamma-ray burst, GRB 170817A, coincident with a gravitational wave-detected binary neutron star merger at $d\sim40$ Mpc, we consider the constraints on a local population of faint short duration GRBs (defined here broadly as $T_{90}<4$ s). We review proposed low-redshift short-GRBs and consider statistical limits on a $d\lessapprox200$ Mpc population using Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), and Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) GRBs. Swift/BAT short-GRBs give an upper limit for the all-sky rate of $<4$ y$^{-1}$ at $d<200$ Mpc, corresponding to $<5$% of SGRBs. Cross-correlation of selected CGRO/BATSE and Fermi/GBM GRBs with $d<100$ Mpc galaxy positions returns a weaker constraint of $\lessapprox12\ {\rm y^{-1}}$. A separate search for correlations due to SGR giant flares in nearby ($d<11$ Mpc) galaxies finds an upper limit of $<3\ {\rm y^{-1}}$. Our analysis suggests that GRB 170817A-like events are likely to be rare in existing SGRB catalogues. The best candidate for an analogue remains GRB 050906, where the Swift/BAT location was consistent with the galaxy IC0327 at $d\approx132$ Mpc. If binary neutron star merger rates are at the high end of current estimates, then our results imply that at most a few percent will be accompanied by detectable gamma-ray flashes in the forthcoming LIGO/Virgo science runs.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Published in Galaxies as part of the Special Issue, "Observations and Theory of Short GRBs at the Dawn of the Gravitational Wave Era

Malaria-filaria coinfection in mice makes malarial disease more severe unless filarial infection achieves patency

Coinfections are common in natural populations, and the literature suggests that helminth coinfection readily affects how the immune system manages malaria. For example, type 1–dependent control of malaria parasitemia might be impaired by the type 2 milieu of preexisting helminth infection. Alternatively, immunomodulatory effects of helminths might affect the likelihood of malarial immunopathology. Using rodent models of lymphatic filariasis (Litomosoides sigmodontis) and noncerebral malaria (clone AS Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi), we quantified disease severity, parasitemia, and polyclonal splenic immune responses in BALB/c mice. We found that coinfected mice, particularly those that did not have microfilaremia (Mf), had more severe anemia and loss of body mass than did mice with malaria alone. Even when controlling for parasitemia, malaria was most severe in Mf coinfected mice, and this was associated with increased interferon-g responsiveness. Thus, in Mf mice, filariasis upset a delicate immunological balance in malaria infection and exacerbated malaria-induced immunopathology. Helminth infections are prevalent throughout tropical regions where malaria is transmitted [1–5]. Interactions among infections commonly alter disease severity [6, 7], and malaria-helminth coinfection can either exac

Inflammation as a Central Mechanism in Alzheimer\u27s Disease

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by cognitive decline and the presence of two core pathologies, amyloid β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Over the last decade, the presence of a sustained immune response in the brain has emerged as a third core pathology in AD. The sustained activation of the brain\u27s resident macrophages (microglia) and other immune cells has been demonstrated to exacerbate both amyloid and tau pathology and may serve as a link in the pathogenesis of the disorder. In the following review, we provide an overview of inflammation in AD and a detailed coverage of a number of microglia-related signaling mechanisms that have been implicated in AD. Additional information on microglia signaling and a number of cytokines in AD are also reviewed. We also review the potential connection of risk factors for AD and how they may be related to inflammatory mechanisms

Craft Generation - Exhibition / Symposium / Workshops / Tour

2014 saw a national programme celebrating 25 years of contemporary visual art under the banner of GENERATION.  FCA&C (Fife Contemporary Art & Craft) wanted to recognise and celebrate the achievements of Contemporary Scottish Craft practitioners, highlighting creativity, skills, and the career of key individuals as well as and the continuation and renewal of skill and Craftsmanship. Established craft artists will exhibited along with artists from the following generation whose work they admired. Included were: John Creed with Thomas Jacobi; Maureen Hodge with Anna Ray; Dorothy Hogg with Andrew Lamb; Alison Kinnaird with Karlyn Sutherland; Archie McCall with Dawn Youll; Jacki Parry with Claire Barclay. Publications containing short interviews with each artist were created to accompany the exhibition.  (These are now available as a free online downloadable publication.) http://www.fcac.co.uk/event/craft-generation/ In addition to the Exhibition in St Andrews - This exhibition had a year long tour taking the show across the length of Scotland - Paisley - Wick - Dumfries To engage the public there was an educational programme timetabled during the exhibition including workshops, a symposium and meet the maker events. Craft in Conversation Symposium, lecture / panel discussion, St Andrews - Saturday 28th February 2015 My involvement included speaking at the symposium, discussing my own practice and innovations as well as the work of the Silversmithing and Jewellery department at GSA. “The symposium reacted to the key themes of FCA&C’s exhibition ‘Craft Generation’. Craft in Conversation discussed the way in which craft is continued, taught and innovated through industry and personal practice.  ‘Thought-provoking speakers included – two of the Craft Generation artists, Andrew Lamb and Karlyn Sutherland, as well as V&A Dundee’s Tara Wainwright and Harris Tweed’s Mark Hogarth” On 22nd February 11am-4pm I also worked with Craft Scotland and Dorothy Hogg MBE for a ‘Meet the Maker’ event…. “Meet your maker 2015...see the skill, and discover the creativity a celebration of Scottish craft making. FCA&C is delighted to be partnering Craft Scotland again as part of their national Meet Your Maker initiative to coincide with FCA&C’s Craft Generation exhibition.  In this national year-round celebration of Scottish craft making, visitors to St Andrews Museum can meet two jewellers in February. The makers will be present on their respective Sundays from around 11am to 4pm and will discuss the work they make and the processes they use, talking about examples of their work in the Craft Generation exhibition.  As highly skilled artists, using complex techniques, both days should provide fascinating insights into the complexities of working as a top-level practitioner.