Goes I-M and beyond: Science requirements and technology challenges

Measurement of Earth observation parameters from geosynchronous satellites; severe local storm observational guidelines; major instrument requirements; rapid convective cell growth; geosynchronous satellite requirements; and major technological challenges for the next 25 years are discussed

Anne Cooke Bacon

Motivated by religious piety and a remarkable education, Anne Cooke Bacon was one of the most prominent and prolific women writers in Renaissance England. Scholars have called attention in particular to the transformation her writing underwent after the death of her husband, Sir Nicholas Bacon, in 1579. While he lived, Cooke Bacon translated religious works, modestly keeping the focus on the ideas of others. When she became a widow, she assumed a new voice and tone-assertive and often domineering-in letters of advice not only to her adult sons but to prominent male political figures as well

Observation guidelines for a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in geosynchronous orbit

The successful utilization of Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) measurements in low Earth orbit for the analysis of rapidly changing events has led to the consideration of a TOMS in geosynchronous orbit. This orbit should allow for the selection of temporal and spatial resolutions that are specifically designed for these events, plus the flexibility of selecting different sized areas and pointing the sensor to focus on the most interesting events. Separate temporal and spatial resolution guidelines plus recommended areal coverage have been developed for tropical cyclones, jet streams, the interaction between strong convection and the environment, and the surveillance of volcanoes. It is also suggested that the most effective use of TOMS would be simultaneous flights with microwave and high spatial resolution infrared temperature profiles

To Love and Be Wise : the Earl of Essex, Humanist Court Culture, and England\u27s Learned Queen

During two particular decades of her reign—the 1560s and the 1590s—Queen Elizabeth I strategically and publicly represented herself as a learned prince. In the 1590s alone, she staged several significant demonstrations of her erudition: she delivered a Latin oration at the University of Oxford (1592) while university officials, prominent nobles, and international dignitaries looked on; in the months after Henri IV converted to Catholicism in 1593, she translated Boethius; in 1597, she trounced the Spanish-allied Polish ambassador with a pert Latin speech; and in 1598, she translated excerpts from Horace Ars poetica and Plutarch\u27s essay De curiositate.[1] Although modern scholars have long praised Elizabeth\u27s impressive education, more attention should be devoted to the political implications of this public, royal self-image and its effect on the queen\u27s highly educated statesmen.[2] Throughout the sixteenth century, civic humanist philosophers drew upon the centuries-old association between good learning and good government to advocate different variations on a similar theme: that an ideal monarchy consisted of a learned ruler surrounded by similarly educated advisors.[3] When Elizabeth represented herself as a philosopher-prince, she portrayed herself as wise, politically potent, and morally upright—characteristics that helped to justify her personal right to rule the nation, even as an unmarried queen

Mildred Cooke Cecil

Married to William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth\u27s chief advisor, Mildred Cooke Cecil occupied a rare position in Elizabethan England. She traveled in the inmost circles of high politics and occasionally participated directly in political, typically international, situations. Born on 25 August 1526 to Sir Anthony Cooke and Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, Cooke Cecil became one of the most famous learned women in England during and even after her lifetime. Elizabethan educator Roger Ascham lauded Cooke Cecil for being able to read Greek as easily as English. She had proven this skill by translating Greek works by the early church fathers, St. Basil and St. Chrysostom. A few years after she married Cecil (on 25 December 1545), she offered her translation of a sermon by Saint Basil to Anne Stanhope Seymour, duchess of Somerset, wife to the lord protector of England

An HIV feedback resistor: auto-regulatory circuit deactivator and noise buffer.

Animal viruses (e.g., lentiviruses and herpesviruses) use transcriptional positive feedback (i.e., transactivation) to regulate their gene expression. But positive-feedback circuits are inherently unstable when turned off, which presents a particular dilemma for latent viruses that lack transcriptional repressor motifs. Here we show that a dissipative feedback resistor, composed of enzymatic interconversion of the transactivator, converts transactivation circuits into excitable systems that generate transient pulses of expression, which decay to zero. We use HIV-1 as a model system and analyze single-cell expression kinetics to explore whether the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) uses a resistor to shut off transactivation. The Tat feedback circuit was found to lack bi-stability and Tat self-cooperativity but exhibited a pulse of activity upon transactivation, all in agreement with the feedback resistor model. Guided by a mathematical model, biochemical and genetic perturbation of the suspected Tat feedback resistor altered the circuit's stability and reduced susceptibility to molecular noise, in agreement with model predictions. We propose that the feedback resistor is a necessary, but possibly not sufficient, condition for turning off noisy transactivation circuits lacking a repressor motif (e.g., HIV-1 Tat). Feedback resistors may be a paradigm for examining other auto-regulatory circuits and may inform upon how viral latency is established, maintained, and broken

Essex’s International Agenda in 1595 and His Device of the Indian Prince

In the fall of 1595, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was poised to attain political greatness, and he knew it. The international political climate had become sufficiently precarious that a statesman with Essex‘s particular expertise in foreign intelligence and military matters possessed skills well-tailored to address England’s current crises. Spain was once again preparing to invade, this time with an armada greater than in 1588; relations with England’s key ally France were cooling; and the financial and military advantages of asserting a presence in the New World were becoming increasingly evident. Aware of this moment as opportune for his political career, Essex engaged in a period of intense personal campaigning during the latter half of 1595— campaigning that, significantly, involved two theatrical entertainments produced for Queen Elizabeth I. These dramatic spectacles took place in the final weeks of 1595, and in both, Essex encouraged the queen to endorse his vision for a more internationally assertive England