History of Usury: The Transition of Usury Through Ancient Greece, The Rise of Christianity and Islam, And the Expansion of Long-Distance Trade and Capitalism

Society and its ideas, markets, and institutions are in the constant process of change. These transforming factors contribute to the evolution of economics. Usury is one prominent economic issue that demonstrates this evolution. As it has developed, usury, the lending of money at interest or excessive interest, has been debated for almost two millennia. During the lifetime of Aristotle, 384-322 B.C., the lending of money for profit was believed to be unnatural and dishonorable. Aristotle and his beliefs of usury provided a foundation of ideas for future perspectives on the practice. This negative connotation associated with usury continued in history as is evident in the development and spread of Christianity and Islam during the Middle Ages. The Christian church drew on biblical passages and moral and religious reasons to define usury as a sin. The Church placed a ban on the practice of usury to prevent this “evil”. In Islam, the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad led Muslims to also view usury as a crime. [excerpt

Fashioning Europe: Identity and Dress in Early Modern Costume Books

This article aims to demonstrate how early modern costume books attempted to define the identities of Europeans. They presented a system of social stratifications, describing the presumed differences between people of various origins, age, gender, and, above all, social position. The existence of these differences was presented as part of an order not only social and political but also moral and religious. On closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that these differences had as much to do with actual cultural disparities between people as with the different perspectives and attitudes of the authors of the individual books

Regulation of the Rgs4 gene by the hypoxia inducible factors.

The transcriptional response to hypoxia is critically dependent on the Hypoxia Inducible Factors HIF-1 and HIF-2, which have roles not only in development and cellular adaptation to low oxygen levels, but also in diseases such as cancer. Although many HIF target genes have been well-characterised, there is strong evidence that the complete set of HIF responsive genes have not been described. This thesis describes the characterisation of a novel hypoxia responsive gene, Rgs4, found by a previous microarray study. Rgs4 encodes the Regulator of G-protein Signalling 4 (RGS4 protein), which directly inhibits signalling from various G-protein coupled receptors. Hypoxic regulation of Rgs4 mRNA is observed in neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma cells derived from rat, mouse and human samples. This response is found to be mimicked by HIF pathway activating chemicals, and occurs in a manner consistent with direct HIF regulation of Rgs4 transcription. However, hypoxic regulation of this gene is not observed in all cell types that Rgs4 is expressed in. Reporter gene assays testing 32.9kb of the locus encompassing the Rgs4 gene failed to detect a hypoxia responsive element, though bioinformatics analysis indicates that Rgs4 is under the control of distant enhancers outside of the region tested. Further characterisation of the Rgs4 hypoxic response could help to explain functions of HIF that are currently poorly characterised, such as its effect on catecholamine release and signalling, while the atypical nature of Rgs4 regulation by HIF may provide a model to discover other as-yet unknown HIF interacting proteins and cell type specific HIF target genes.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Molecular & Biomedical Science, 201

Dynamically improper hypersurfaces for endomorphisms of projective space

We prove that among nonlinear endomorphisms of the projective plane, those with a periodic critical point are Zariski dense. This partially answers a question of Ingram.Comment: 11 page

Unemployed workers, 'enforced leisure' and education for 'the right use of leisure' in Britain in the 1930s

This article examines the views of those who regarded the unemployment of the 1930s not solely as a disaster, but as a liberating new form of leisure for workers, provided that they could make the 'right use' of this leisure. This was an urgent challenge for more and more workers would soon be faced by 'a vast surplus of leisure time' made possible by technological change. The solution was to use the voluntary adult education movement to guide workers towards this 'right use'. The problem was that the grants which the government and charitable trusts made available to the voluntary sector were too small for the task and, more fundamentally, the analysis was misconceived and contradictory. But these opinions did serve to reinforce the case against public works, and legitimised a continuing desire to supervise working-class life on the part of the state and its partners in the voluntary sector

Immersed in Fire: The Use of Virtual Reality as an Attitude Assessor and Boundary Object in Wildland Fire Management

Interest in using prescribed burning as a forest management tool to promote forest health and regeneration is growing in Maine. The goal for this research was to better understand the way that the public perceives prescribed burning practices in wildland-urban interfaces, with an emphasis placed on how immersive imagery, closely related to virtual reality (VR), compares to traditional communication methods. We specifically focus on the social acceptability of prescribed burning and analyze how the level of immersive imagery is related to that acceptability (Ahn, 2015; Bricken, 1990; Fogg, Cuellar, and Danielson, 2009; Smith 2015; Wiederhold, Davis, and Wiederhold, 1998). The information derived from this research can be a useful tool in public involvement and communication efforts for forest managers, scientists, and policy makers. Additionally, this research identified potential solutions for bridging public and manager communication boundaries. Immersive imagery is a relatively new technology and its uses within forest management have only recently begun to be explored. This research built upon the concept of boundary spanning objects, where an object – in this case immersive imagery – can create an effective exchange of ideas and information between stakeholder groups. Within the boundary literature, three factors are frequently identified as being particularly influential on the perceptions of information communicated through a boundary object: saliency, legitimacy, and credibility (Cash et al., 2002). Combining this with the growing body of literature on immersive imagery for communication and decision-making purposes, this research attempted to identify public perceptions of immersive imagery. This research evaluated saliency, legitimacy, and credibility of immersive imagery and traditional communication methods, which contributes toward understanding immersive imagery’s potential as a boundary-spanning object. The methodological design for this research was to implement a 2x2 framework in which participants were shown visual imagery that varied based on level of immersion as well as level of smoke within the imagery. Each participant was given a pre and post-questionnaire tailored to whichever of the four groups they have randomly been assigned. The pre-questionnaire included questions that attempted to measure the participants environmental values, prior knowledge and experience, acceptability of prescribed burns, their views on smoke from prescribed burns, their perceived confidence and trust in managers, and questions relating to boundary objects. After viewing the randomly assigned imagery, participants took a post-questionnaire which composed of questions relating to sociodemographic variables, and the other same identical parameters. We found that immersive imagery or VR has substantial potential in several arenas, but most notably as an effective boundary spanning object that seemed to increase participant’s perceptions of credibility and saliency towards VR and wildland fire management. Additionally, the technology also showed a high amount of potential in reducing fear and anxiety towards prescribed burning

Identification and evaluation of organizational structures and measures for analysis of Joint Task Forces

Joint Task Forces (JTF) operate in a variety of missions and uncertain environments. The architectures of these organizations must be capable of adapting to changes in the mission, the environment, or the organization itself. Mathematical models that are useful in predicting operational performance are needed for research into the optimum design of a JTF architecture for a given mission. To develop these models, properties of a joint task force organization must be understood and measures must be identified that are both sensitive to changes (differences) in architectures and related to operational performance. A literature review of civilian research in organizational structures and measures identified several candidates. To analyze the usefulness of these measures to identify differences in operational architectures, two known contrasting JTF organizations are developed using structures found in the literature. Each of the measures is applied to all structures in both architectures and analyzed to determine which measures show promise. Those that identify differences between operationally relevant architectures are deemed useful measures. Limited data from a related Naval Postgraduate School command and control experiment, in which architecture type is a factor, is used to fit a regression-type model that predicts JTF performance based on measures classified as useful.http://archive.org/details/identificationnd1094513463U.S. Navy (U.S.N.) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The SECURE project – Stem canker of oilseed rape: : molecular methods and mathematical modelling to deploy durable resistance

N Evans et al, "The SECURE Project - Stem Canker of oilseed rape: Molecular methods and mathematical modeling to deploy durable resistance", in Vol 4 of the Proceedings of the 12th International Rapeseed Congress : Sustainable Development in Cruciferous Oilseed Crops Production, Wuhan, China, March 26 - 30, 2007. The proceedings are available online at: http://gcirc.org/intranet/irc-proceedings/12th-irc-wuhan-china-2007-vol-4.htmlModelling done during the SECURE project has demonstrated the dynamic nature of the interaction between phoma stem canker (Leptosphaeria maculans), the oilseed rape host (Brassica napus) and the environment. Experiments done with near-isogenic lines of L. maculans to investigate pathogen fitness support field data that suggest a positive effect of the avirulence allele AvrLm4 on pathogen fitness, and that the loss of this allele renders isolates less competitive under field conditions on cultivars without the resistance gene Rlm4. The highlight of molecular work was the cloning of AvrLm1 and AvrLm6. L. maculans is now one of the few fungal species for which two avirulence loci have been cloned. Subsequent research focused on understanding the function of AvrLm1 and AvrLm6 and on the analysis of sequences of virulent isolates to understand molecular evolution towards virulence. Isolates of L. maculans transformed with GFP and/or DsRed were used to follow growth of the fungus in B. napus near-isogenic-lines (NIL) with or without MX (Rlm6) resistance under different temperature and wetness conditions. The results greatly enhanced our knowledge of the infection process and the rate and extent of in planta growth on different cultivars. Conclusions from work to model durability of resistance have been tested under field conditions through a series of experiments to compare durability of resistance conferred by the major resistance gene Rlm6 alone in a susceptible background (EurolMX) or in a resistant background (DarmorMX) under recurrent selection over 4 growing seasons. A major priority of the project was knowledge transfer of results and recommendations to target audiences such as plant breeding companies and extension services. CETIOM developed a “diversification scheme” that encourages French growers to make an informed choice about the cultivars that are grown within the rotation based on the resistance genes carried by the individual cultivars. Use of such schemes, in association with survey data on the population structure of L. maculans at both national and European scales will provide opportunities for breeders and the industry to manage available B. napus resistance more effectively.Non peer reviewe

Ucma/GRP inhibits phosphate-induced vascular smooth muscle cell calcification via SMAD-dependent BMP signalling

Vascular calcification (VC) is the process of deposition of calcium phosphate crystals in the blood vessel wall, with a central role for vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). VC is highly prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and thought, in part, to be induced by phosphate imbalance. The molecular mechanisms that regulate VC are not fully known. Here we propose a novel role for the mineralisation regulator Ucma/GRP (Upper zone of growth plate and Cartilage Matrix Associated protein/Gla Rich Protein) in phosphate-induced VSMC calcification. We show that Ucma/GRP is present in calcified atherosclerotic plaques and highly expressed in calcifying VSMCs in vitro. VSMCs from Ucma/GRP(-/-) mice showed increased mineralisation and expression of osteo/chondrogenic markers (BMP-2, Runx2, beta-catenin, p-SMAD1/5/8, ALP, OCN), and decreased expression of mineralisation inhibitor MGP, suggesting that Ucma/GRP is an inhibitor of mineralisation. Using BMP signalling inhibitor noggin and SMAD1/5/8 signalling inhibitor dorsomorphin we showed that Ucma/GRP is involved in inhibiting the BMP-2-SMAD1/5/8 osteo/chondrogenic signalling pathway in VSMCs treated with elevated phosphate concentrations. Additionally, we showed for the first time evidence of a direct interaction between Ucma/GRP and BMP-2. These results demonstrate an important role of Ucma/GRP in regulating osteo/chondrogenic differentiation and phosphate-induced mineralisation of VSMCs.NWO ZonMw [MKMD 40-42600-98-13007]; FCT [SFRH/BPD/70277/2010]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio