Objectification, Identity and the Late Medieval Codex

The essay weighs materialist anthropological approaches in respect of late medieval books and how books may have 'objectified' aspirational identities for their patrons, owners and readers

An Introduction to Devotional Anthologies. One Volume ‘Collections’ and their Contexts

Centraal in dit artikel staat een groep Engelse devotionele ‘meerteksthandschriften’ die beschouwd kunnen worden als op zichzelf staande verzamelingen. Vooraleer in te gaan op deze devotionele bloemlezingen, wordt aandacht geschonken aan de beperkingen die de onderzoeker van middeleeuwse handschriften in institutionele collecties ondervindt, dit in tegenstelling tot de vermeende liberale omgang met boeken in de middeleeuwen. Als alternatief voor zulk een vrije omgang met boeken, wordt beargumenteerd dat ook in de middeleeuwen toegang tot collecties en boeken vaak voorbehouden was aan een selecte groep van mensen die allen behoorden tot een concreet sociaal netwerk. Vervolgens worden inhoud en uiterlijke kenmerken van deze devotionele bloemlezingen verder onder de loep genomen. De keuze van en omgang met teksten in twee monumentale verzamelingen, Bodleian Library, Eng Poet A.1 (‘Vernon’) en British Library Additional 22283 (‘Simeon’), wordt verbonden met het ruimere corpus. Een laatste casestudy, Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms Bodley 789, werpt licht op de structuur van de besproken bloemlezingen. Het artikel besluit met een voorzichtige schets van de context waarin devotionele verzamelingen werden vervaardigd en het proces dat aan hun productie ten grondslag lag. Central to this article is a group of English devotional miscellanies which can be considered as separate collections. Before going into these devotional anthologies, attention is given to the limitations faced by the researcher of medieval manuscripts in institutional collections, in contrast to the supposed liberal intercourse with books in the Middle Ages. As an alternative to such free intercourse with books, it is argued that in the Middle Ages access often reserved access to collections and books to select groups of people who belonged to a excusive social networks. Next, content and appearance of this devotional anthologies are further examined. The selection and handling of texts in two historic collections, Bodleian Library, Eng Poet A.1 (Vernon) and British Library Additional 22283 (Simeon), is connected to the larger corpus. A recent case study, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 789, sheds light on the structure of the discussed anthologies. The article concludes with a tentative outline of the context in which devotional sets were manufactured and the process that formed the basis of their production

A Fragment of the Middle English Prose Brut in the Special Collections Dept., Queen's University of Belfast

Provides information about a fragment of the Middle English Prose Brut discovered by the author that was previously unknown to scholarship

'Some sprytuall matter of gostly edyfycacion’: Readers and Readings of Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ

The author looks at a sample of manuscripts containing this widely copied religious text from the early fifteenth century and questions the power of the author to truly control the readers' experience of the Mirror. The essay looks at varieties of annotation and other markings in manuscripts, from copies in private ownership to those in institutional settings. The essay is able to reveal how the Mirror was used in Syon abbey as part of the liturgical cycle in the Brigittine house, and by female readers in wealthy secular households. The essay explores the idea of how free the reader of meditative literature might be, or how far an author can impose structures for devotional practice upon actual audiences

Swarm UAVs for Area Mapping in GPS-denied Locations

Utilizing small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) in mapping and cartography applications holds transformative potential, particularly in challenging and GPS-denied environments. Traditionally, mapping involved manual efforts using diverse tools, but there has been a fundamental shift towards autonomous vehicles capable of achieving efficient results in less time and with reduced human effort. Autonomous mapping typically relies on single a UAV employing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) or photogrammetry alongside GPS. This research project seeks to leverage swarm robotics to map intricate landscapes and rugged terrains using SUASs with a faster, more accurate, and precise approach, eliminating dependence on GPS for global positioning. The mapping scope encompasses hard-to-access locations like cliffs, abandoned structures, and forests, as well as areas impractical for manual surveying, such as construction sites and expansive indoor spaces like warehouses, factories, or historical buildings resistant to modifications for survey purposes. The swarm will exhibit an emergent-like behavior to map any location efficiently, ensuring collision-free navigation among sUAS and ground objects

The interaction of tropomodulin with tropomyosin stabilizes thin filaments in cardiac myocytes

Actin (thin) filament length regulation and stability are essential for striated muscle function. To determine the role of the actin filament pointed end capping protein, tropomodulin1 (Tmod1), with tropomyosin, we generated monoclonal antibodies (mAb17 and mAb8) against Tmod1 that specifically disrupted its interaction with tropomyosin in vitro. Microinjection of mAb17 or mAb8 into chick cardiac myocytes caused a dramatic loss of the thin filaments, as revealed by immunofluorescence deconvolution microscopy. Real-time imaging of live myocytes expressing green fluorescent protein–α-tropomyosin and microinjected with mAb17 revealed that the thin filaments depolymerized from their pointed ends. In a thin filament reconstitution assay, stabilization of the filaments before the addition of mAb17 prevented the loss of thin filaments. These studies indicate that the interaction of Tmod1 with tropomyosin is critical for thin filament stability. These data, together with previous studies, indicate that Tmod1 is a multifunctional protein: its actin filament capping activity prevents thin filament elongation, whereas its interaction with tropomyosin prevents thin filament depolymerization