Primative doctor and eugenic priest: Grant Allen, M.P. Shiel, and the future of the Victorian medical man

M.P. Shiel’s 1895 short story “The S.S.” ends with the protagonist, Prince Zaleski, contemplating the future of the medical profession. Zaleski imagines a future where eugenic health is venerated as a new religion, and where the physician has been remade into “the Sacrificial Priest.” A similar image of the medical future appears in Grant Allen’s story “The Child of the Phalanstery,” (1884) which depicts a future world where the healthy body is viewed as sacred to “divine humanity” and in which each community’s chief “physiologist” is responsible for sacrificing any deformed children on the “alter of humanity.” This article argues that Allen and Shiel’s images of the future medical man represent a confluence of hitherto overlooked trends in fin-de-siècle anthropological, medical, and eugenic discourse. Victorian Anthropological analyses asserted that the primitive doctor was identical with the priest, and that the body had occupied a central position in man’s earliest religious thought. Concurrently, proponents of eugenics presented their movement as a potential religion of the future, which would sanctify the human body. As such, this article examines both the imagined past and future of the fin-de-siècle medical man to reveal the medical profession’s role as a potential priesthood of the body

The Composition of Fatty Materials from a Thule Eskimo Site on Herschel Island

Analysis of midden material from a Thule Eskimo dwelling site on the shore of Herschel Island showed it to contain a high proportion of fatty material. Chemical analysis shows this to consist of a mixture of fatty acids from the fats and oils of marine animals which has been partially, but far from completely, converted to adipocere. The lack of complete conversion is attributed to anaerobic conditions, low ambient temperature, and lack of bacterial action. The results are consistent with, but not a proof that the debris is from a mixture of harbour, ringed, and bearded seal, which is the conclusion from the bone fragments found.Key words: Thule dwelling, midden, fat and oil, adipocere, anaerobic decay, whale fat, seal fatMots clés: résidence Thulé, amas d'ordures, gras et huile, adipocire, décomposition anaérobique, gras de baleine, gras de phoqu

The response of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas to a summer Mistral event: A coupled atmosphere–ocean approach

In this paper the effect of a summer Mistral event on the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas in the northwestern Mediterranean is discussed, using a coupled numerical model and satellite and in situ observations. The focus is on the spatial and temporal distribution of the ocean mixed layer response to the strong winds, and on how this is affected by atmosphere–ocean coupling. The model used is the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®1), developed at the Naval Research Laboratory. This system includes an atmospheric sigma coordinate, non-hydrostatic model, coupled to a hydrostatic sigma-z level ocean model (Naval Coastal Ocean Model), using the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF). The model is run at high (km scale) resolution to capture the fine structure of wind jets and surface cooling. Two non-assimilating numerical experiments, coupled and uncoupled, are run for a 3-day period of a Mistral event, to examine more closely the impact of coupling on the surface flux and sea surface temperature (SST) fields. The cooling of SST up to 3 °C over 72 h in the coupled run significantly reduced the surface momentum and heat fluxes, relative to the uncoupled simulation, where the SST was kept fixed at the initial value. Mixed layer depths increase by as much as 30 m during the event. A heat budget analysis for the ocean is carried out to further explain and investigate the SST evolution. Shear-induced mixing in inertial waves is found to be important to the surface cooling. Effects of coupling on the atmospheric boundary layer are found to be significant, but overall the effect of coupling on the synoptic low pressure system is small

State-space modelling of the drivers of movement behaviour in sympatric species

Understanding animal movement behaviour is key to furthering our knowledge on intra- and inter-specific competition, group cohesion, energy expenditure, habitat use, the spread of zoonotic diseases or species management. We used a radial basis function surface approximation subject to minimum description length constraint to uncover the state-space dynamical systems from time series data. This approximation allowed us to infer structure from a mathematical model of the movement behaviour of sheep and red deer, and the effect of density, thermal stress and vegetation type. Animal movement was recorded using GPS collars deployed in sheep and deer grazing a large experimental plot in winter and summer. Information on the thermal stress to which animals were exposed was estimated using the power consumption of mechanical heated models and meteorological records of a network of stations in the plot. Thermal stress was higher in deer than in sheep, with less differences between species in summer. Deer travelled more distance than sheep, and both species travelled more in summer than in winter; deer travel distance showed less seasonal differences than sheep. Animal movement was better predicted in deer than in sheep and in winter than in summer; both species showed a swarming behaviour in group cohesion, stronger in deer. At shorter separation distances swarming repulsion was stronger between species than within species. At longer separation distances inter-specific attraction was weaker than intra-specific; there was a positive density-dependent effect on swarming, and stronger in deer than in sheep. There was not clear evidence which species attracted or repelled the other; attraction between deer at long separation distances was stronger when the model accounted for thermal stress, but in general the dynamic movement behaviour was hardly affected by the thermal stress. Vegetation type affected intra-species interactions but had little effect on inter-species interactions. Our modelling approach is useful in interpreting animal interactions, in order to unravel complex cooperative or competitive behaviours, and to the best of our knowledge is the first modelling attempt to make predictions of multi-species animal movement under different habitat mosaics and abiotic environmental conditions

Middle pleistocene glaciation in Patagonia dated by cosmogenic-nuclide measurements on outwash gravels

The well-preserved glacial record in Argentine Patagonia offers a ~ 1 Ma archive of terrestrial climate extremes in southern South America. These glacial deposits remain largely undated beyond the range of radiocarbon dating at ca. 40 ka. Dating old glacial deposits (> several 105 a) by cosmogenic surface exposure methods is problematic because of the uncertainty in moraine degradation and boulder erosion rates. Here, we show that cobbles on outwash terraces can reliably date ‘old’ glacial deposits in the Lago Pueyrredón valley, 47.5° S, Argentina. Favorable environmental conditions (e.g., aridity and strong winds) have enabled continuous surface exposure of cobbles and preservation of outwash terraces. The data demonstrate that nuclide inheritance is negligible and we therefore use the oldest surface cobbles to date the deposit. 10Be concentrations in outwash cobbles reveal a major glacial advance at ca. 260 ka, concurrent with Marine Isotope Stage 8 (MIS 8) and dust peaks in Antarctic ice cores. A 10Be concentration depth-profile in the outwash terrace supports the age and suggests a low terrace erosion rate of ca. 0.5 mm ka− 1. We compare these data to exposure ages obtained from associated moraines and find that surface boulders underestimate the age of the glaciation by ~ 100 ka; thus the oldest boulders in this area do not date closely moraine deposition. The 10Be concentration in moraine cobbles help to constrain moraine degradation rates. These data together with constraints from measured 26Al/10Be ratios suggest that all moraine boulders were likely exhumed after original deposition. We determine the local Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) occurred at ~ 27–25 ka, consistent with the maximum LGM in other parts of Patagonia

Accounting for International War: The State of the Discipline

In studies of war it is important to observe that the processes leading to so frequent an event as conflict are not necessarily those that lead to so infrequent an event as war. Also, many models fail to recognize that a phenomenon irregularly distributed in time and space, such as war, cannot be explained on the basis of relatively invariant phenomena. Much research on periodicity in the occurrence of war has yielded little result, suggesting that the direction should now be to focus on such variables as diffusion and contagion. Structural variables, such as bipolarity, show contradictory results with some clear inter-century differences. Bipolarity, some results suggest, might have different effects on different social entities. A considerable number of studies analysing dyadic variables show a clear connection between equal capabilities among contending nations and escalation of conflict into war. Finally, research into national attributes often points to strength and geographical location as important variables. In general, the article concludes, there is room for modest optimism, as research into the question of war is no longer moving in non-cumulative circles. Systematic research is producing results and there is even a discernible tendency of convergence, in spite of a great diversity in theoretical orientations.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69148/2/10.1177_002234338101800101.pd

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters