Physicochemical analysis of rotavirus segment 11 supports a 'modified panhandle' structure and not the predicted alternative tRNA-like structure (TRLS)

.Rotaviruses are a major cause of acute gastroenteritis, which is often fatal in infants. The viral genome consists of 11 double-stranded RNA segments, but little is known about their cis-acting sequences and structural elements. Covariation studies and phylogenetic analysis exploring the potential structure of RNA11 of rotaviruses suggested that, besides the previously predicted "modified panhandle" structure, the 5' and 3' termini of one of the isoforms of the bovine rotavirus UKtc strain may interact to form a tRNA-like structure (TRLS). Such TRLSs have been identified in RNAs of plant viruses, where they are important for enhancing replication and packaging. However, using tRNA mimicry assays (in vitro aminoacylation and 3'- adenylation), we found no biochemical evidence for tRNA-like functions of RNA11. Capping, synthetic 3' adenylation and manipulation of divalent cation concentrations did not change this finding. NMR studies on a 5'- and 3'-deletion construct of RNA11 containing the putative intra-strand complementary sequences supported a predominant panhandle structure and did not conform to a cloverleaf fold despite the strong evidence for a predicted structure in this conserved region of the viral RNA. Additional viral or cellular factors may be needed to stabilise it into a form with tRNA-like properties

Gender, Power and Sexual Abuse in the Pacific: Rev Simpson’s Improper Liberties

In 1843 on the island of Tahiti the evangelical missionary Rev. Alexander Simpson was accused of sexually assaulting three of the female students under his care, and of taking 'improper liberties' with at least three more. The events did not come out in public for at least a decade, while Simpson's power in the local community only grew and rumblings relating to his wrong-doings were ruthlessly 'crushed'. By exploring the case of Rev. Simpson, Emily Manktelow gives us key insights into the gender, power and racial dynamics of a particular case of sexual abuse on the frontiers of European colonialism. She explores the social and sexual context of clerical abuse, considers the hierarchies of gender and power that determined how the case was handled, investigates the nature of colonialism, gender and abuse in the 19th century. The uncomfortably timely content of Gender, Power and Sexual Abuse in the Pacific is uncomfortably timely allows us to interrogate the way we deal with and represent issues of abuse, authority and childhood in the modern world. It aims to give voice to those whom the archive has silenced, and to listen to what they have to tell us about gender, sexuality and abuse in the modern world

Subverting Empire: Deviance and Disorder in the British Colonial World

The British Empire was never as orderly as its architects would have us believe. Across the British imperial world, rules were broken, norms and social conventions were ignored and boundaries were transgressed. This is the first historical study to probe the colonial history of deviance, bringing to light stories of subversive behaviour that were deliberately covered up. With case studies ranging from Britain to New Zealand, India to East and Southern Africa, the book reveals what deviance in a colonial context actually entailed, as well as the ways in which deviants themselves were categorised, controlled and concealed. Ranging from murder to madness, forgery to fornication, Subverting Empire shows up the diverse ways in which governments attempted to enforce social order – and the ingeniousness of those who undermined it

Reverend Simpson’s “Improper Liberties”: Moral Scrutiny and Missionary Children in the South Seas Mission

This article explores a case of alleged sexual abuse, by a missionary, of a number of missionary daughters in the South Seas mission. The rich material connected with this case allows for a powerful insight into the fabric of life of missionaries and their children, and illuminates various levels of moral scrutiny and social supervision that were embedded in the mission context. Parental moral scrutiny was the most effective mechanism to neutralise the internal threat posed by the potential deviance of missionary children. The levels of moral scrutiny in the mission were unevenly implemented, however, and the asymmetry of scrutiny that occurred (whereby missionary children were subjected to intense social and moral supervision, while missionaries themselves were permitted a certain level of deviation from spiritual and cultural norms) reflected the hierarchies of power and social dynamics of the mission context. This case led to the systemisation and legitimisation of both these scrutinies and these asymmetries, while further implementing new levels of social control, directed both at the behaviour of missionary children and the efficiency of parental moral scrutiny enacted by their parents

Thinking with gossip: deviance, rumour and reputation in the South Seas Mission of the London Missionary Society

Recalling his arrival at the island of Tahiti, site of the London Missionary Society’s South Seas Mission (SSM) in 1842, Reverend John Jesson could not help noting his dismay at the prevalence of gossip among his missionary brethren

Gender and the Family in Evangelical Mission

“When it is well between me and my God, then it is well between me and my wife: and when it is well between me and my wife, then it is well between us and our children: and when it is well between us and our children, then it is well between our family and the servants: and when it is well within the house, then it is well between me and my people.” ‘Address of the Rev W. Jowett at the Opening of the Missionaries’ Children’s Home, Islington’, CMS Gleaner 1:3 (June, 1850), p. 28

The rise and demise of missionary wives

The white missionary couple is an assumed presence in mission history; its mid-nineteenth-century ubiquity read back into the formation of evangelical mission. This article questions that assumption by creating a chronological and conceptual framework for the professional trajectory of missionary women, and demonstrates that it was on the issue of female mission engagement that complex debates about the nature of mission were negotiated and defined. The rise of the missionary wife shaped mission history, through both the complementary rise of the civilizing mission and through active female spiritual agency. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, it was clear that missionary wives had created a space they could not fill in the evermore institutionalized and secularized world of mission building. The rise of single female religious engagement in Britain meanwhile provided a timely alternative to wifely activism, and missionary wives were increasingly institutionally marginalized by the very single female missionaries who had come to “assist” them

Missionary families. Race, Gender and Generation on the Spiritual Frontier

Missionary families were an integral component of the missionary enterprise, both as active agents on the global religious stage and as a force within the enterprise that shaped understandings and theories of mission itself. Taking the family as a legitimate unit of historical analysis in its own right for the first time, Missionary families traces changing familial policies and lived realities throughout the nineteenth century and powerfully argues for the importance of an historical understanding of the missionary enterprise informed by the complex interplay between the intimate, the personal and the professional. By looking at marriage, parenting and childhood; professionalism, vocation and domesticity; race, gender and generation, this first in-depth study of missionary families reveals their profound importance to the missionary enterprise, and concludes that mission history can no longer be written without attention to the personal, emotional and intimate aspects of missionary lives