New England Soul

Review of The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England by Harry S. Stou

Simulation of Alternative Marketing Strategies for U.S. Cotton

Three marketing strategies (selling a put option, cash sale at harvest, and cash sale in June) are simulated based on historical values and ranked based on certainty equivalents for a representative irrigated and dryland cotton farm Scenario analysis is also used to compare varying yield values.Simulation, Marketing, Cotton, Risk, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

In patients with radiologically-staged resectable oesophago-gastric junctional tumours, is diagnostic laparoscopy useful as an additional staging procedure?

AbstractA best evidence topic in surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was in patients with oesophago-gastric junctional tumours which have been radiologically-staged as potentially resectable, is diagnostic laparoscopy useful as an additional staging procedure. 292 papers were found using the reported search, of which 5 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. We conclude that as an additional tool following radiological staging of oesophago-gastric junctional tumours, diagnostic laparoscopy does appear to detect previously occult peritoneal metastases as well as liver metastases and lymph nodes and these findings do in turn lead to changes in management in over ten percent of patients. The procedure is however associated with some morbidity and its efficacy in changing management in the era of routine PET scanning remains to be evaluated

Mitigating Cotton Revenue Risk Through Irrigation, Insurance, and Hedging

This study focuses on managing cotton production and marketing risks using combinations of irrigation levels, put options (as price insurance), and crop insurance. Stochastic cotton yields and prices are used to simulate a whole-farm financial statement for a 1,000 acre furrow irrigated cotton farm in the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley under 16 combinations of risk management strategies. Analyses for risk-averse decision makers indicate that multiple irrigations are preferred. The benefits to purchasing put options increase with yields, as they are more beneficial when higher yields are expected from applying more irrigation applications. Crop insurance is strongly preferred at lower irrigation levels.cotton, crop insurance, irrigation, options, puts, risk, simulation, stochastic efficiency with respect to a function, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, D81, Q12, Q15,

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: The Boothbay Region, 1906-1960 by Harold B. Clifford; Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England,1500-1643 by Neal Salisbury; The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England by Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Women of Maine by Lee Agger; Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times by James R. Mellow; In English Ways: The Movement of Societies and the Transferal of English Local Law and Customs to Massachusetts Bay in the Seventeenth Century by David Grayson Allen

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: A Brides Passage: Susan Hathorns Year Under Sail edited by Catherine Petroski; Inventing Acadia: Artists and Tourists at Mount Desert by Pamela J. Belanger; Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World by Alison Games; Johnson\u27s Kingdom: The Story of a Nineteenth Century Industrial Kingdom in the Town of Wayne, Maine by Edward Kallop; Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food, at Sea and Ashore in the Nineteenth Century By Sandra L. Olive

Nuclear relocalisation of cytoplasmic poly(A)-binding proteins PABP1 and PABP4 in response to UV irradiation reveals mRNA-dependent export of metazoan PABPs

Poly(A)-binding protein 1 (PABP1) has a fundamental role in the regulation of mRNA translation and stability, both of which are crucial for a wide variety of cellular processes. Although generally a diffuse cytoplasmic protein, it can be found in discrete foci such as stress and neuronal granules. Mammals encode several additional cytoplasmic PABPs that remain poorly characterised, and with the exception of PABP4, appear to be restricted in their expression to a small number of cell types. We have found that PABP4, similarly to PABP1, is a diffusely cytoplasmic protein that can be localised to stress granules. However, UV exposure unexpectedly relocalised both proteins to the nucleus. Nuclear relocalisation of PABPs was accompanied by a reduction in protein synthesis but was not linked to apoptosis. In examining the mechanism of PABP relocalisation, we found that it was related to a change in the distribution of poly(A) RNA within cells. Further investigation revealed that this change in RNA distribution was not affected by PABP knockdown but that perturbations that block mRNA export recapitulate PABP relocalisation. Our results support a model in which nuclear export of PABPs is dependent on ongoing mRNA export, and that a block in this process following UV exposure leads to accumulation of cytoplasmic PABPs in the nucleus. These data also provide mechanistic insight into reports that transcriptional inhibitors and expression of certain viral proteins cause relocation of PABP to the nucleus. © 2011. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Greater Portland Celebration 350: A Commemorative Edition, edited by Albert F. Barnes; Portsmouth-Built: Submarines of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard by Richard E. Winslow, III; A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory: Puritan Radicalism in New England, 1620-1660 by Philip R. Gura; The Socialist Alternative: Utopian Experiments and the Socialist Party of Maine, 1895-1914 by Charles Scontras; Restitution: The Land Claims of the Mashpee, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Indians of New England by Paul Brodeur

A Study on Phase-Changing Materials for Controllable Stiffness in Robotic Joints

This paper studies the viability of using a class of phase-changing materials for the design of controlled variable stiffness robotic joints which enable the design of robots that can operate in confined spaces. In such environments, robots need to be able to navigate in proximity or while in contact with their environment to reach one or more manipulated target. Joints with controllable stiffness can substantially enhance functionality of this class of robots where relatively higher joint stiffness is required to support the robot weight against gravity and low stiffness is desired when operating in complex or delicate environments. The research work presented in this paper focuses on examining thermorheological fluids (TRF) to design and manufacture thermally controlled variable stiffness joints. Two phase-changing materials are considered in the study: low-melting-point solder and hot-melt adhesive. Both materials are embedded in a custom designed joint fabricated using 3D printing and silicone casting. Joint stiffness was investigated with both materials and reported here. The results shows that the proposed variable stiffness joints with TRF achieve wide ranges of load-deflection ratio varying between 0.05 N/mm (when thermally activated) to about 10 N/mm (in bonding state). On average, the joint can withstand 20 times its total weight when in the bonding state. Design challenges and durability of TRF-based joints are discussed