What motivated Conservative MPs to back or oppose Brexit?

The Conservative Party’s divisions over the EU are well known. But what motivated MPs to back Leave or Remain? Luke Moore uses logistic regression analysis to consider three key motivations: seeking office, votes, or that particular policy. He explains why all three affected Conservative MPs’ decision making, but that policy- or office-seeking were more prominent

INVESTIGATION OF A CARBON MONOXIDE DEHYDROGENASE FROM AN UNCULTURED ARCHAEON

The Nickel based Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase (CODH) is an anaerobic metalloenzyme responsible for the reversible conversion of CO and water into CO2 and 2 protons and 2 electrons. This enzyme has importance in the environment as one of Earth’s first carbon fixation pathways, and for human uses as a potential source of biofuels and other commodity chemicals. CODH enzymes are present in a wide array of taxa, many of which are uncultured. In this study we express and purify the catalytic subunit (CooS) of the anaerobic CODH from an uncultured Hydrothermarchaeota JdFR-17 co-expressed with the nickel insertion accessory protein (CooC) from Archaeoglobus fulgidis to generate a CODH complex in E. coli. The protein was then characterized via activity assays and thermal stability assays to test the hypothesis that this CooS was more active for CO oxidation compared to CO2 reduction and functioned at elevated temperatures. A soluble CooS protein was purified that contained both nickel and iron in the active site. This provides evidence that CooC and CooS proteins from two different species can cooperate, and that it is possible to express Archaeal CODH complexes in E. coli. However, enzyme assays yielded inconclusive results. This led us to infer that the CODH complex was expressed, yet inactive

The knowledge-power nexus: towards a political ecology of South Africa’s Integrated Coastal Management policy

Magister Artium - MAIntegrated coastal management (ICM) has been unequivocally established in policy and legislation as the preferred framework within which environmental management in South Africa’s coastal environment should be undertaken. The production and dissemination of knowledge is seen as a critical component of the ICM framework, to the extent that ‘reliable knowledge’ is considered as one of two pillars that underpin the philosophy of the ICM process. The centrality of knowledge to ICM raises questions around objectivity, relevance, subjectivity, hegemony, hierarchy, power and negotiation within the process of knowledge production, as well as concepts of knowledge legitimacy in the promotion of specific kinds of knowledge within the ICM framework. This study responds to the prevailing notion within the environmental management field that the act of managing our environment is an apolitical or socially sterile one, by exploring the relationship between the concepts of knowledge and power as a point of departure. Thereafter, political ecology is employed as a method to contextualise and highlight some of the social processes at play within the ICM process

Moore, Luke

Co. K. 371st Infantryhttps://dh.howard.edu/prom_members/1059/thumbnail.jp

Local Hadwiger's Conjecture

We propose local versions of Hadwiger's Conjecture, where only balls of radius $\Omega(\log v(G))$ around each vertex are required to be $K_{t}$-minor-free. We ask: if a graph is locally-$K_{t}$-minor-free, is it $t$-colourable? We show that the answer is yes when $t \leq 5$, even in the stronger setting of list-colouring, and we complement this result with a $O(\log v(G))$-round distributed colouring algorithm in the LOCAL model. Further, we show that for large enough values of $t$, we can list-colour locally-$K_{t}$-minor-free graphs with $13 \cdot \max\left\{h(t),\left\lceil \frac{31}{2}(t-1) \right\rceil \right\}$ colours, where $h(t)$ is any value such that all $K_{t}$-minor-free graphs are $h(t)$-list-colourable. We again complement this with a $O(\log v(G))$-round distributed algorithm.Comment: 24 pages; some minor typos have been fixe

The knowledge-power nexus: towards a political ecology of South Africa’s Integrated Coastal Management policy

Magister Artium - MAIntegrated coastal management (ICM) has been unequivocally established in policy and legislation as the preferred framework within which environmental management in South Africa’s coastal environment should be undertaken. The production and dissemination of knowledge is seen as a critical component of the ICM framework, to the extent that ‘reliable knowledge’ is considered as one of two pillars that underpin the philosophy of the ICM process. The centrality of knowledge to ICM raises questions around objectivity, relevance, subjectivity, hegemony, hierarchy, power and negotiation within the process of knowledge production, as well as concepts of knowledge legitimacy in the promotion of specific kinds of knowledge within the ICM framework. This study responds to the prevailing notion within the environmental management field that the act of managing our environment is an apolitical or socially sterile one, by exploring the relationship between the concepts of knowledge and power as a point of departure. Thereafter, political ecology is employed as a method to contextualise and highlight some of the social processes at play within the ICM process.Using a discourse analysis approach, semi-structured, open-ended interviews with ICM role-players from civil society as well as the public, private and research sectors are used to identify and unpack key ‘storylines’ articulated by ICM role-players in the Western Cape. Five main storylines are identified, relating to: i) the criticality of knowledge to the ICM process; ii) the diversity of ICM knowledge and the difficulty encountered during efforts to integrate them; iii) the experience that decision-making in ICM takes place in an intensely political space; iv) civil society respondents’ perception of government’s role in ICM as punitive and purely regulatory; and v) that ICM is integrated in name only. The views of ICM role-players with regard to the state of ICM in South Africa, as well as the degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity in personal definitions of ICM also emerged from these engagements. ICM role-players were largely unanimous in their negative view of the current state of ICM in South Africa, with positive or neutral sentiments rarely expressed. ICM role-players expressed varied personal definitions of the term, with role-players from the research sector demonstrating the most holistic understanding of the concept

HARDWARE Astronomy: Repair and Refurbishment of the Small Radio Telescope

A Small Radio Telescope (SRT), originally developed by MIT\u27s Haystack Observatory, was donated to Winona State University by Mayo High School in Rochester, Minnesota. The assembly includes a 2.3 meter dish with mount and motors that allow pointing over the entire sky. The SRT, unfortunately, has been weathered over years of exposure to the elements, and was absent all the electronics necessary for pointing and collecting data. Here we report our efforts to repair, replace, and refurbish the SRT for future undergraduate research. Specifically, the replacement of pointing hardware, the development of a motor control system and graphical user interface (GUI), and future work to implement a software defined radio (SDR) for detection of astronomical signals

The Rapid Imaging Planetary Spectrograph

The Rapid Imaging Planetary Spectrograph (RIPS) was designed as a long-slit high-resolution spectrograph for the specific application of studying atmospheres of spatially extended solar system bodies. With heritage in terrestrial airglow instruments, RIPS uses an echelle grating and order-sorting filters to obtain optical spectra at resolving powers up to R~127,000. An ultra-narrowband image from the reflective slit jaws is captured concurrently with each spectrum on the same EMCCD detector. The "rapid" portion of RIPS' moniker stems from its ability to capture high frame rate data streams, which enables the established technique known as "lucky imaging" to be extended to spatially resolved spectroscopy. Resonantly scattered emission lines of alkali metals, in particular, are sufficiently bright to be measured in short integration times. RIPS has mapped the distributions of Na and K emissions in Mercury's tenuous exosphere, which exhibit dynamic behavior coupled to the planet's plasma and meteoroid environment. An important application is daylight observations of Mercury at solar telescopes since synoptic context on the exosphere's distribution comprises valuable ground-based support for the upcoming BepiColombo orbital mission. As a conventional long slit spectrograph, RIPS has targeted the Moon's surface-bound exosphere where structure in linewidth and brightness as a function of tangent altitude are observed. At the Galilean moons, RIPS can study the plasma interaction with Io and place new constraints on the sputtered atmosphere of Europa, which in turn provides insight into the salinity of Europa's subsurface ocean. The instrumental design and construction are described herein, and these astronomical observations are presented to illustrate RIPS' performance as a visiting instrument at three different telescope facilities.Comment: Accepted for publication by Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (07-2023

Older persons participation in hard martial arts: Opportunities to improve psychological well-being? A scoping review.

International Journal of Exercise Science 17(5): 183-198, 2024. This study aims to explore the potential psychological and cognitive advantages for older individuals engaged in hard martial arts (HMA), through a comprehensive scoping review of literature up to 2023. Specifically, it examines the extent of changes in cognition, mental state, and quality of life among elderly participants of HMA. Inclusion criteria were studies conducted on healthy persons who were over 50 years of age. Only papers published in the English language were included. The search was undertaken in electronic databases and sources of grey literature. Thirteen papers with a total of 514 participants met the inclusion criteria. Improved cognition and decreased levels of anxiety and depression were emerging themes. Together, these factors contributed to the quality of life of participants. HMA was found to benefit cognitive abilities and psychological well-being, increasing quality of life more than traditional exercise alone. Findings suggested duration of training influenced change more than frequency. The limited number of studies exploring the effects of HMA on mental wellness and cognitive ability in older adults underscores the need for further research. The findings of this review suggest cognitive and quality of life improvements and reduced depression and anxiety in individuals engaging in HMA. This review serves as a foundation for soundly designed future research