“Our Amazing Visitors”: Catherine Cartwright’s Account of Labrador Inuit in England

New material about Inuit who visited England in the 18th century was recently discovered in a British archive. Presented here are three letters written in 1773 by Catherine Cartwright, sister of Captain George Cartwright of Labrador fame. The letters describe and discuss the group of five Inuit who came to England with the latter in the autumn of 1772. All of the Inuit party but one died of smallpox at the outset of their return voyage to Labrador early the following summer. A fourth letter, written a year later by an M. Stowe, a family relation, contains information about George Cartwright’s return to Labrador with Caubvick, the lone Inuit survivor. These letters contain new information about the Inuit visit that is both firsthand and enriched with personal observation and opinion. As microhistorical data, the letters contribute to broader historical discussions of Inuit-European relations, Inuit society, Inuit agency in the changing economics of the late 18th century, and the perspectives of Europeans and their fascination with indigenous peoples.De la documentation au sujet d’Inuits qui s’étaient rendus en Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle a fait l’objet d’une récente découverte dans des archives britanniques. Nous présentons ici trois lettres écrites en 1773 par Catherine Cartwright, la soeur du commandant George Cartwright, célèbre au Labrador. Ces lettres portent sur un groupe de cinq Inuits ayant visité l’Angleterre avec Cartwright à l’automne 1772. Tous ces Inuits, sauf un, sont morts de la variole au début de leur voyage de retour au Labrador, vers le commencement de l’été suivant. Une quatrième lettre, rédigée un an plus tard par un dénommé M. Stowe, une relation de famille, renferme des renseignements sur la rentrée de George Cartwright au Labrador avec Caubvick, le seul survivant inuit. Ces lettres contiennent de nouveaux renseignements à propos de la visite inuite, renseignements qui sont de première main et sont enrichis d’observations et d’opinions personnelles. À titre de données micro-historiques, ces lettres contribuent aux discussions historiques de plus grande envergure concernant les relations entre les Inuits et les Européens, et mettent en lumière la société inuite, l’agence inuite au sein de l’économie en pleine évolution de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et les perspectives des Européens à l’égard de leur fascination vis-à-vis des peuples indigènes

Transmembrane signaling and cytoplasmic signal conversion by dimeric transmembrane helix 2 and a linker domain of the DcuS sensor kinase

Transmembrane (TM) signaling is a key process of membrane-bound sensor kinases. The C4-dicarboxylate (fumarate) responsive sensor kinase DcuS of Escherichia coli is anchored by TM helices TM1 and TM2 in the membrane. Signal transmission across the membrane relies on the piston-type movement of the periplasmic part of TM2. To define the role of TM2 in TM signaling, we use oxidative Cys cross-linking to demonstrate that TM2 extends over the full distance of the membrane and forms a stable TM homodimer in both the inactive and fumarate-activated state of DcuS. An S186xxxGxxxG194 motif is required for the stability and function of the TM2 homodimer. The TM2 helix further extends on the periplasmic side into the α6-helix of the sensory PASP domain and on the cytoplasmic side into the α1-helix of PASC. PASC has to transmit the signal to the C-terminal kinase domain. A helical linker on the cytoplasmic side connecting TM2 with PASC contains an LxxxLxxxL sequence. The dimeric state of the linker was relieved during fumarate activation of DcuS, indicating structural rearrangements in the linker. Thus, DcuS contains a long α-helical structure reaching from the sensory PASP (α6) domain across the membrane to α1(PASC). Taken together, the results suggest piston-type TM signaling by the TM2 homodimer from PASP across the full TM region, whereas the fumarate-destabilized linker dimer converts the signal on the cytoplasmic side for PASC and kinase regulation

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 44, No. 2

• Fortune\u27s Stepchildren: Slovaks in Pennsylvania • Slovak Churches: Religious Diversity and Ethnic Communities • Slovak Fraternal-Benefit Societies in Pennsylvania • Early Fraktur Referring to Birth and Baptism in Pennsylvania: A Taufpatenbrief from Berks County for a Child Born in 1751 • The Solitary Sisters of Saronhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1142/thumbnail.jp

modeling the laser ablation process

This chapter focuses on the problem of modeling the laser ablation process from a geometrical point of view. The objective is to create a model capable of describing the laser incision depth based on the knowledge of the laser parameters and inputs. The discussion starts with a statement of the problem, which is defined in terms of a supervised regression. Our approach is compared with existing heuristic models for the prediction of ablation depth

Chemical analysis of pottery demonstrates prehistoric origin for high-altitude alpine dairying

The European high Alps are internationally renowned for their dairy produce, which are of huge cultural and economic significance to the region. Although the recent history of alpine dairying has been well studied, virtually nothing is known regarding the origins of this practice. This is due to poor preservation of high altitude archaeological sites and the ephemeral nature of transhumance economic practices. Archaeologists have suggested that stone structures that appear around 3,000 years ago are associated with more intense seasonal occupation of the high Alps and perhaps the establishment of new economic strategies. Here, we report on organic residue analysis of small fragments of pottery sherds that are occasionally preserved both at these sites and earlier prehistoric rock-shelters. Based mainly on isotopic criteria, dairy lipids could only be identified on ceramics from the stone structures, which date to the Iron Age (ca. 3,000 - 2,500 BP), providing the earliest evidence of this practice in the high Alps. Dairy production in such a marginal environment implies a high degree of risk even by today’s standards. We postulate that this practice was driven by population increase and climate deterioration that put pressure on lowland agropastoral systems and the establishment of more extensive trade networks, leading to greater demand for highly nutritious and transportable dairy products

Does the disturbance hypothesis explain the biomass increase in basin-wide Amazon forest plot data?

Positive aboveground biomass trends have been reported from old-growth forests across the Amazon basin and hypothesized to reflect a large-scale response to exterior forcing. The result could, however, be an artefact due to a sampling bias induced by the nature of forest growth dynamics. Here, we characterize statistically the disturbance process in Amazon old-growth forests as recorded in 135 forest plots of the RAINFOR network up to 2006, and other independent research programmes, and explore the consequences of sampling artefacts using a data-based stochastic simulator. Over the observed range of annual aboveground biomass losses, standard statistical tests show that the distribution of biomass losses through mortality follow an exponential or near-identical Weibull probability distribution and not a power law as assumed by others. The simulator was parameterized using both an exponential disturbance probability distribution as well as a mixed exponential–power law distribution to account for potential large-scale blowdown events. In both cases, sampling biases turn out to be too small to explain the gains detected by the extended RAINFOR plot network. This result lends further support to the notion that currently observed biomass gains for intact forests across the Amazon are actually occurring over large scales at the current time, presumably as a response to climate change

MicroMotility: State of the art, recent accomplishments and perspectives on the mathematical modeling of bio-motility at microscopic scales

Mathematical modeling and quantitative study of biological motility (in particular, of motility at microscopic scales) is producing new biophysical insight and is offering opportunities for new discoveries at the level of both fundamental science and technology. These range from the explanation of how complex behavior at the level of a single organism emerges from body architecture, to the understanding of collective phenomena in groups of organisms and tissues, and of how these forms of swarm intelligence can be controlled and harnessed in engineering applications, to the elucidation of processes of fundamental biological relevance at the cellular and sub-cellular level. In this paper, some of the most exciting new developments in the fields of locomotion of unicellular organisms, of soft adhesive locomotion across scales, of the study of pore translocation properties of knotted DNA, of the development of synthetic active solid sheets, of the mechanics of the unjamming transition in dense cell collectives, of the mechanics of cell sheet folding in volvocalean algae, and of the self-propulsion of topological defects in active matter are discussed. For each of these topics, we provide a brief state of the art, an example of recent achievements, and some directions for future research

Disruption of Lateral Efferent Pathways: Functional Changes in Auditory Evoked Responses

The functional consequences of selectively lesioning the lateral olivocochlear efferent system in guinea pigs were studied. The lateral superior olive (LSO) contains the cell bodies of lateral olivocochlear neurons. Melittin, a cytotoxic chemical, was injected into the brain stem using stereotaxic coordinates and near-field evoked potentials to target the LSO. Brain stem histology revealed discrete damage to the LSO following the injections. Functional consequences of this damage were reflected in depressed amplitude of the compound action potential of the eighth nerve (CAP) following the lesion. Threshold sensitivity and N1 latencies were relatively unchanged. Onset adaptation of the cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) was evident, suggesting a reasonably intact medial efferent system. The present results provide the first report of functional changes induced by isolated manipulation of the lateral efferent pathway. They also confirm the suggestion that changes in single-unit auditory nerve activity after cutting the olivocochlear bundle are probably a consequence of disrupting the more lateral of the two olivocochlear efferent pathways.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41379/1/10162_2002_Article_3018.pd