The Sonnet and its Travels

As well as being one of the oldest and best known of all poetic forms, the sonnet is also one of the most widely travelled. Critical studies of the sonnet in English have traced its historical development from its Italian predecessors, through its domestication in Elizabethan England, to its remarkable popularity among modern British, Irish, and American poets. There is still much to learn, however, about the geography of the sonnet. This essay looks at some of the ways in which the sonnet has been shaped in places distant from its familiar European cultural domain: in Roy Campbell's South Africa, Allen Curnow's New Zealand, and Derek Walcott's St Lucia. It claims that, paradoxically, the intense compression of the sonnet form generates a powerful preoccupation with worldwide vision. It also proposes that the shape and size of the sonnet makes it an especially attractive form for poet-translators, and that the circulation of translations, imitations, and versions of sonnets greatly enhances the geographical mobility of the form. The essay concludes that some of the most innovative experiments with the sonnet form, by writers such as Don Paterson and Paul Muldoon, have been those concerned with latitude, and with the crossing of cultural and geographical boundaries

Countdown to 2010: Can we assess Ireland’s insect species diversity and loss?

peer-reviewedThe insects are the most diverse organisms on this planet and play an essential role in ecosystem functioning, yet we know very little about them. In light of the Convention on Biological Diversity, this paper summarises the known insect species numbers for Ireland and questions whether this is a true refl ection of our insect diversity. The total number of known species for Ireland is 11,422. Using species accumulation curves and a comparison with the British fauna, this study shows that the Irish list is incomplete and that the actual species number is much higher. However, even with a reasonable knowledge of the species in Ireland, insects are such speciose, small, and inconspicuous animals that it is diffi cult to assess species loss. It is impossible to know at one point in time the number of insect species in Ireland and, although it is useful to summarise the known number of species, it is essential that biodiversity indicators, such as the Red List Index, are developed

Virtual Stationary Satellites over Any Area of the Earth for a Continuous or Set Amount of Time

Various embodiments may provide systems and methods for achieving continuous measurements (e.g., continuous video images) of the same spot on the Earth using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations and/or Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellations. Various embodiments may provide a system of Virtual Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Stationary Satellites (VLSSs) over any area of the Earth for a continuous or a periodic amount of time

Bioinformatics solutions for confident identification and targeted quantification of proteins using tandem mass spectrometry

Proteins are the structural supports, signal messengers and molecular workhorses that underpin living processes in every cell. Understanding when and where proteins are expressed, and their structure and functions, is the realm of proteomics. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful method for identifying and quantifying proteins, however, very large datasets are produced, so researchers rely on computational approaches to transform raw data into protein information. This project develops new bioinformatics solutions to support the next generation of proteomic MS research. Part I introduces the state of the art in proteomic bioinformatics in industry and academia. The business history and funding mechanisms are examined to fill a notable gap in management research literature, and to explain events at the sponsor, GlaxoSmithKline. It reveals that public funding of proteomic science has yet to come to fruition and exclusively high-tech niche bioinformatics businesses can succeed in the current climate. Next, a comprehensive review of repositories for proteomic MS is performed, to locate and compile a summary of sources of datasets for research activities in this project, and as a novel summary for the community. Part II addresses the issue of false positive protein identifications produced by automated analysis with a proteomics pipeline. The work shows that by selecting a suitable decoy database design, a statistically significant improvement in identification accuracy can be made. Part III describes development of computational resources for selecting multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) assays for quantifying proteins using MS. A tool for transition design, MRMaid (pronounced „mermaid‟), and database of pre-published transitions, MRMaid-DB, are developed, saving practitioners time and leveraging existing resources for superior transition selection. By improving the quality of identifications, and providing support for quantitative approaches, this project brings the field a small step closer to achieving the goal of systems biology.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Using the Electronic Medical Record to Examine Racial and Ethnic Differences in Depression Diagnosis and Treatment in a Primary Care Population

Objective: We assessed racial and ethnic differences in depression diagnosis and treatment in a primary care population. Methods: A sample of primary care outpatients in 2007 was generated using the electronic medical record (EMR). Patients were considered depressed if their providers billed for depression-related codes; they were considered prescribed antidepressants if any antidepressants were on their medication list. Rates of diagnosis and medication prescription were estimated using a generalized linear model with a Poisson distribution, adjusting for covariates. Results: In the resulting sample (n=85,790), all minority groups were less likely to be diagnosed with depression as compared to Whites (p<0.05); 11.36% of Whites had a depression diagnosis, as compared to 6.44% of Asian Americans, 7.55% of African Americans, and 10.18% of Latino Americans. Among those with a depression diagnosis (n=11,096), 54.07% of African Americans were prescribed antidepressant medications, as compared to 63.19% Whites (p<0.05); Asian Americans and Latino Americans showed a trend of being less likely to be prescribed antidepressant medications. Conclusions: Our study illustrates differences in diagnosis and treatment for minority primary care patients, and is innovative in using the EMR to probe these differences. Further research is needed to understand the underlying reasons for these observed differences

Strategies for therapeutic amelioration of aberrant plasma Zn2+ handling in thrombotic disease: Targeting fatty acid/serum albumin-mediated effects

Funding: This research was funded by Leverhulme Trust, grant number RPG-2017-214; Bio-technology and Biological Sciences Research Council, grant number BB/J006467/1 and BB/V014684/1; British Heart Foundation, grant number FS/20/3/34956.The initiation, maintenance and regulation of blood coagulation is inexorably linked to the actions of Zn2+ in blood plasma. Zn2+ interacts with a variety of haemostatic proteins in the bloodstream including fibrinogen, histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) and high molecular weight kininogen (HMWK) to regulate haemostasis. The availability of Zn2+ to bind such proteins is controlled by human serum albumin (HSA), which binds 70-85% plasma Zn2+ under basal conditions. HSA also binds and transports non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs). Upon NEFA binding, there is a change in the structure of HSA which leads to a reduction in its affinity for Zn2+. This enables other plasma proteins to better compete for binding of Zn2+. In diseases where elevated plasma NEFA con-centrations are a feature, such as obesity and diabetes, there is a concurrent increase in hyper-coagulability. Evidence indicates that NEFA-induced perturbation of Zn2+-binding by HSA may contribute to the thrombotic complications frequently observed in these pathophysiological conditions. This review highlights potential interventions - both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical - that may be employed to combat this dysregulation. Lifestyle and dietary changes have been shown to reduce plasma NEFA concentrations. Furthermore, drugs that in-fluence NEFA levels such as statins and fibrates may be useful in this context. In severely obese patients more invasive therapies such as bariatric surgery may be useful. Finally, other potential treatments such as chelation therapies, use of cholesteryl transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors, lipase inhibitors, fatty acid inhibitors and other treatments are highlighted, that with additional research and appropriate clinical trials, could prove useful in the treatment and management of thrombotic disease through amelioration of plasma Zn2+ dysregulation in high-risk individuals.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Exploring Mechanisms for Model‐Dependency of the Stratospheric Response to Arctic Warming

The Arctic is estimated to have warmed up to four times faster than the rest of the globe since the 1980s. There is significant interest in understanding the mechanisms by which such warming may impact weather and climate at lower latitudes. One such mechanism is the “stratospheric pathway”; Arctic warming is proposed to induce a wave‐driven weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex, which may subsequently impact large‐scale tropospheric circulation. However, recent comprehensive model studies have found systematic differences in both the magnitude and sign of the stratospheric response to Arctic warming. Using a series of idealized model simulations, we show that this response is sensitive to characteristics of the warming and mean polar vortex strength. In all simulations, imposed polar warming amplifies upward wave propagation from the troposphere, consistent with comprehensive models. However, as polar warming strength and depth increases, the region through which waves can propagate is narrowed, inducing wave breaking and deceleration of the flow in the lower stratosphere. Thus, the mid‐stratosphere is less affected, with reduced sudden stratospheric warming frequency for stronger and deeper warming compared to weaker and shallower warming. We also find that the sign of the stratospheric response depends on the mean strength of the vortex, and that the stratospheric response in turn plays a role in the magnitude of the tropospheric jet response. Our results help explain the spread across multimodel ensembles of comprehensive climate models

Progress toward curing HIV infection with hematopoietic cell transplantation.

HIV-1 infection afflicts more than 35 million people worldwide, according to 2014 estimates from the World Health Organization. For those individuals who have access to antiretroviral therapy, these drugs can effectively suppress, but not cure, HIV-1 infection. Indeed, the only documented case for an HIV/AIDS cure was a patient with HIV-1 and acute myeloid leukemia who received allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from a graft that carried the HIV-resistant CCR5-∆32/∆32 mutation. Other attempts to establish a cure for HIV/AIDS using HCT in patients with HIV-1 and malignancy have yielded mixed results, as encouraging evidence for virus eradication in a few cases has been offset by poor clinical outcomes due to the underlying cancer or other complications. Such clinical strategies have relied on HIV-resistant hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells that harbor the natural CCR5-∆32/∆32 mutation or that have been genetically modified for HIV-resistance. Nevertheless, HCT with HIV-resistant cord blood remains a promising option, particularly with inventories of CCR5-∆32/∆32 units or with genetically modified, human leukocyte antigen-matched cord blood