The Past and Future Hero: the Henty Boy in the Twenty-First Century?

The purpose of this paper is to address the question ‘Can the Henty hero be transferred into the twenty-first century?’ In order to investigate the question I will begin with a brief introduction to G. A. Henty and his work before examining the construct of the Henty hero. The results of this examination provide an answer to the immediate question, whilst foregrounding other significant areas for enquiry

ILS and RTP: Support to Researchers Provided by Information and Learning Services as Part of the Research Training Programme at the University of Worcester, Past, Present and Future.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the involvement of Information and Learning Services staff in the delivery of the Research Training Programme at the University of Worcester, UK with a focus on researcher receptivity. I believe that by constantly reflecting on the development of that part of the programme delivered by ILS and by examining feedback from the sessions, it is possible to improve and increase the level of researcher receptivity. It is hoped that such examination and reflection will be of value and relevance to the IL community since by reflecting on success and failure in a local context and by mapping this reflection to existing research enables librarians to improve the support provided to researchers within their institutions. This article outlines the support given to research students at the University of Worcester in the past, examines the changes leading to present programme delivery and reflects on considerations for future support. The article is underpinned by reference to current research undertaken in international (albeit Western-centric) contexts. I note that the rationale behind changes is embedded in current adult learning and teaching theory. In an increasingly competitive research environment where funding is dependent on a statistically monitored research output, the aim of such support is to integrate any IL contribution into the wider research training programme. Thus resource discovery becomes part of the reflexive research cycle. Implicit in this investigative reflection is the desire of the IL community to constantly strive towards the positive reception of IL into research support programmes which are perceived by researchers as highly valuable to the process and progress of their work

Goblinization: a Reading of the Colonial Subject and Degeneration in The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) by George MacDonald (1824-1905)

George MacDonald‟s two longer fairy tales, Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) reflect key preoccupations of nineteenth century English society such as the Darwinian discussion, commercialism, wealth creation and materialism. My aim in this paper is to read The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie as a reflection of the nineteenth century, essentially "Victorian,‟ preoccupation with the colonized as "other‟. I approach this preoccupation through the arguments of similarity and difference as justification for imperial expansion

Ranald Bannerman: the Hero as ‘Real’ Boy

First published in serial form in ‘Good Words for the Young’ Nov 1869 – Oct 1870, Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood (RBB) holds premonitions of MacDonald’s later books such as Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) and includes autobiographical material. Indicators of MacDonald’s views on for example, education and allusions to political changes make RBB as much a story for adults as for children. Set in the North East of Scotland, MacDonald’s home, the story begins with Ranald’s earliest memory and ends with his departure to school and university. In between are all the agonies of growing up, punctuated by vivid episodes that act as stepping stones toward maturity

Recombination: Narrative and Genre in George MacDonald’s A Rough Shaking

In this paper my aim is to demonstrate that, romance realism and fairy tale may all be present in one narrative, are not exclusive and need not be viewed as oppositional

Personal and Political Identity and Disguise in The Tiger of Mysore by G.A. Henty (1832-1902)

This paper was given at the Children’s Literature Association India Conference, Mangalore, January 10 – 12, 2008. It was with some trepidation that I proposed a paper on G. A. Henty for a conference in India. Why? Henty’s stereotypical image is of one who promoted exclusively masculine values in adventure stories written for boys often in the historical setting of the British Empire. Like all stereotypical images, this critique represents a facet of a wider actuality, but it is perhaps, prevalent enough to account for my anxiety. However, since Henty is one of the two authors examined in my current research, I offer this investigation of ‘Personal and Political Identity and Disguise in The Tiger of Mysore (1896)

Interpretation at the controller's edge: designing graphical user interfaces for the digital publication of the excavations at Gabii (Italy)

This paper discusses the authors’ approach to designing an interface for the Gabii Project’s digital volumes that attempts to fuse elements of traditional synthetic publications and site reports with rich digital datasets. Archaeology, and classical archaeology in particular, has long engaged with questions of the formation and lived experience of towns and cities. Such studies might draw on evidence of local topography, the arrangement of the built environment, and the placement of architectural details, monuments and inscriptions (e.g. Johnson and Millett 2012). Fundamental to the continued development of these studies is the growing body of evidence emerging from new excavations. Digital techniques for recording evidence “on the ground,” notably SFM (structure from motion aka close range photogrammetry) for the creation of detailed 3D models and for scene-level modeling in 3D have advanced rapidly in recent years. These parallel developments have opened the door for approaches to the study of the creation and experience of urban space driven by a combination of scene-level reconstruction models (van Roode et al. 2012, Paliou et al. 2011, Paliou 2013) explicitly combined with detailed SFM or scanning based 3D models representing stratigraphic evidence. It is essential to understand the subtle but crucial impact of the design of the user interface on the interpretation of these models. In this paper we focus on the impact of design choices for the user interface, and make connections between design choices and the broader discourse in archaeological theory surrounding the practice of the creation and consumption of archaeological knowledge. As a case in point we take the prototype interface being developed within the Gabii Project for the publication of the Tincu House. In discussing our own evolving practices in engagement with the archaeological record created at Gabii, we highlight some of the challenges of undertaking theoretically-situated user interface design, and their implications for the publication and study of archaeological materials

Stellar Abundances in Giant Stars in the Metal-Rich Globular Cluster NGC6528

We present the first results of a detailed abundance analysis, based on VLT observations, of giant stars in the very metal-rich globular cluster NGC 6528. We will be able to tie the horizontal branch abundances (see e.g. Carretta et al. 2001) to those of the more luminous giants (see CMDs). For the very similar cluster NGC 6553 studies of different types of stars have yielded very disparate results. Our first analysis of three of our stars seem to indicate that indeed the different sorts of stars do show similar abundances if one homogeneous set of models and parameters are being used.Comment: 2 pages, 2 diagrams, to be published in the proceedings of "New Horizons in Globular Cluster Astronomy" held in Padua 2002, eds. Piotto, Meylan, Djorgovsk

Forager bees (Apis mellifera) highly express immune and detoxification genes in tissues associated with nectar processing.

Pollinators, including honey bees, routinely encounter potentially harmful microorganisms and phytochemicals during foraging. However, the mechanisms by which honey bees manage these potential threats are poorly understood. In this study, we examine the expression of antimicrobial, immune and detoxification genes in Apis mellifera and compare between forager and nurse bees using tissue-specific RNA-seq and qPCR. Our analysis revealed extensive tissue-specific expression of antimicrobial, immune signaling, and detoxification genes. Variation in gene expression between worker stages was pronounced in the mandibular and hypopharyngeal gland (HPG), where foragers were enriched in transcripts that encode antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and immune response. Additionally, forager HPGs and mandibular glands were enriched in transcripts encoding detoxification enzymes, including some associated with xenobiotic metabolism. Using qPCR on an independent dataset, we verified differential expression of three AMP and three P450 genes between foragers and nurses. High expression of AMP genes in nectar-processing tissues suggests that these peptides may contribute to antimicrobial properties of honey or to honey bee defense against environmentally-acquired microorganisms. Together, these results suggest that worker role and tissue-specific expression of AMPs, and immune and detoxification enzymes may contribute to defense against microorganisms and xenobiotic compounds acquired while foraging