The Wolf-King of Rome: viewpoint as a tool for classical reception in children’s historical fiction

This paper argues that the narratological technique of viewpoint is a fundamentally important mechanism for engaging young readers with classical antiquity through historical fiction. The creative portion of this paper uses close viewpoint in its third-person narration so that its viewpoint characters are readily identifiable and believable to young readers. The viewpoint characters—three young Roman children of varying social class—are caught up together and must fight against a plot to revive the Wolf-King, a werewolf entity tied to Rome’s ancient beginnings. It forms the first 30,000 words of a children’s fiction novel that blends historical fiction with fantastical elements. Children’s historical fiction offers its readers the chance to interact with historical events, societies, and cultures (Ringrose 2007 p 212), though this requires the author to have effective command of narratological techniques. Young people’s reading habits naturally vary, though identifiable protagonist characters seem to play a significant role in engaging many young people with reading (Hughes-Hessel & Rodge 2007 p 27, et al). The technique of viewpoint allows the writer to focalise the narration tightly upon the subjective thoughts, reactions and experiences of its protagonist character or characters (McCallum 1999 p 30). This can be achieved through both first- and third-person narration, and allows the writer to build readers’ empathy and understanding of characters and their perspectives

Interpreting the King’s Touch: Authority and Accessibility in the Reign of Charles II

This article examines the religious and medical phenomenon of the “King’s Touch,” a ritualized healing ceremony by which French and English monarchs were thought to cure their subjects of scrofula (tuberculosis). The prevailing interpretation of the King’s Touch as an intimidating projection of monarchial authority is examined with respect to Charles II of England, whose divine right to lead was challenged by the national memory of Interregnum and Parliamentary rule. Additionally, the agential role of subjects in securing the King’s Touch and potential lay perceptions of the ceremony are discussed. The paper ultimately suggests that both “bottom-up” and “top-down” factors fueled a dramatic rise in King’s Touch healing ceremonies throughout Charles II’s reign (1630-1685). This article contributes to the study of the “politics of access” around Charles II: the degree of seclusion and openness with which he positioned himself in respect to his subjects. In doing so, it aims to utilize the King’s Touch as a lens into popular understandings of monarchial authority following the collective trauma of the English Civil War (1642–1651), taking into account both religious and medical factors

Representational redescription and the development of cognitive flexibility

Karmiloff-Smith (e.g. 1986, 1992) has suggested that 'cognitive flexibility' is the result of a series of three representational redescriptions. These redescriptions are carried out by endogenous metaprocesses operating directly on the representations. Representational redescription accounts only for development beyond 'behavioural success', the stimulus to the redescription being stability at a previous level.Many features of the Representational Redescription theory are criticised, but the underlying idea that cognitive flexibility is associated with representational level is maintained. This point is supported by a review and study of planning development arguing that representational development, rather than process development explains increasing flexibility.Data from children's drawings and block balancing, along with a theoretical analysis of the model indicate that the details of the Representational Redescription theory are not consistent or plausible. In particular the concepts of initial procedural representation, endogenous metaprocesses, behavioural success, stability as the spur to development, and implicit information within representations, are rejected.Removing the constraints of behavioural success suggests a new recursive model, which is proposed as a general developmental mechanism. 'Recursive Re-Representation' views representational redescription as a creative process, and builds on Boden's (1992) computational approach to creativity. Cognitive flexibility is determined by a limited cognitive capacity, the level of 'chunking' in a domain and the possession of an overview of the relevant conceptual space. Chunking is achieved through a re-representation of behaviour and the environment, rather than a direct operation on representations. The BAIRN system (Wallace, Klahr & Bluff, 1987) is suggested as providing the basis for an implementation of Recursive ReRepresentation.It is argued that the Recursive Re-Representation account which views Representational Redecription as a recursive, creative process provides a more parsimonious approach to representational change throughout development

Surface Membrane Biology Of Schistosoma Mansoni

The apical and basal membranes of the surface syncytium of Schistosoma mansoni were separated and found to exhibit the predictable, polarised ATPase distributions of other transporting epithelial layers. A multilamellar body fraction was prepared from adult worms and the major phospholipid classes determined. Phosphatidylcholine constituted the major phospholipid class. An apparent projection core was described in schistosome multilamellar bodies, which showed structural analogy to multilamellar bodies from lung.;Methods were devised for sequentially stripping the outer (OB) and inner (IB) bilayers from the surface apical membrane complex of adult worm pairs. Tritiated Concanavalin A and {lcub}(\u27125)I{rcub} diazotised iodosulfanilic acid were found to be useful markers for the OB, while alkaline phosphatase and a Mg(\u272+) dependent, Na(\u27+) ATPase were described from the IB. Removal of the OB did not result in cytosolic leakage from the syncytium, while removal of the IB resulted in the loss of high molecular weight soluble proteins. Differences in phospholipid composition between the OB, IB and multilamellar bodies were found to be quantitative rather than qualitative. Preliminary evidence suggested that major phospholipid classes of the OB and IB exhibited heterogeneous turnover or post-synthetic modulation.;Radiolabelled glycerol was incorporated into the lipids of adult worms and had a turnover half-time (t 1/2) of 13.0 hours. Loss of glycerol from the aqueous phase exhibited biphasic kinetics. Glycerol was found not to be ideal for measurements of turnover rates of OB and IB lipids. (\u2714)C Palmitate was incorporated into the lipid phase of adult worms and was lost with t 1/2 = 11.5 hours. The IB lipids showed biphasic kinetics with t 1/2 = 11.5 hours. The IB lipids showed biphasic kinetics with t 1/2 = 12 minutes and 17.3 hours. Results of the turnover studies emphasized the ability of S. mansoni to rapidly renew its surface and to modulate surface phospholipids.;A negatively charged, sialic acid - containing glycocalyx was discovered on the schistosome surface and was found to show regional and sexual heterogeneity. The presence of this surface coat on lung stage and adult parasites, combined with the lack of a coat on very young schistosomula, may help to explain the phenomenon of concomitant immunity

Transcriptional regulation of the arabidopsis circadian clock component LHY

In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock is believed to be composed of a number of coupled transcriptional negative feedback loops. The LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) gene is thought to form part of at least two of these transcriptional feedback loops, as well as playing a role in the perception of light signals by the clock. To better understand how multiple transcriptional feedback loops might be integrated in the transcriptional regulation of LHY, we have performed an analysis of the cis-regulation of this gene. Through deletion analysis of reporter gene constructs, we have identified a 957 basepair region of the LHY promoter which contains sufficient sequence to direct the characteristic expression profile of LHY. Furthermore, we provide evidence that at least two circadian signals converge on this region. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays identified four classes of candidate cis-elements within the LHY promoter including a poly-CTT tract, an AAAAA motif, a candidate MYB-binding site and a G-box motif. Through mutational analysis of these elements, we have been able to determine aspects of their in vivo regulatory function. We report that a G-box motif and the previously uncharacterized AAAAA element are implicated in the regulation of LHY transcription by light signals. In etiolated seedlings, the region of the LHY promoter containing the MYB-binding site motif and multiple copies of the poly-CTT motif mediates regulation of LHY by both light-responsive and circadian signals

Developmental Anatomy of Descurainia pinnata

This study is concerned mainly with the morphological development of Descurainia pinnata subspecies ochroleuca (Wooton) Detling, a member of the tribe Sisymbrieae and subtribe Descurainiinae of the Cruciferae. Although commonly referred to as Sophia by many botanists, this genus is otherwise known as Descurainia and sometimes partly included in Sisymbrium. D. pinnata is listed as Sisymbrium canescens in Gray\u27s manual, as Sophia pinnata by Coulter and Nelson, as Descurainia pinnata by Kearney and Peebles, and as Sophia ochroleuca by Wooton and Stanley

Jojoba: An assessment of prospects

This report examines in detail the sperm oil and animal and vegetable wax markets in an attempt to establish market price and volume parameters for jojoba oil and wax. These market analyses suggest that at £900 to £950 per tonne jojoba wax could compete in the wax markets and might obtain a share of the market of between 2,000 and 5,000 tonnes. At £500 to £600 per tonne jojoba oil could compete with sperm oil which at present has a market of below 20,000 tonnes, although this will probably have been eroded to a substantial extent by synthetics by the time jojoba oil is available in quantities of this order. In particular, in this latter market jojoba oil might be used by the leather, lubricants and pharmaceutical industries. If, for illustrative purposes, a 25,000 tonne market were to be secured and a future yield of 2.5 tonnes per hectare of oil obtained, a cultivated area of 10,000 hectares of jojoba would suffice. This is a very small area in global terms and it seems, therefore, that jojoba is unlikely to provide more than a minor new source of income for a few developing countries. Jojoba must be considered as one of a number of possible plant introductions to arid zones and the need is to direct attention to research priorities which aim at overcoming limitations in the cultivation of the crop. If research proves that jojoba can be cultivated satisfactorily it would be reasonable to organize trial plots in selected developing countries to obtain more basic agronomic information on how the plant reacts in different environments. Only when these trials have proved successful and realistic yield data obtained, will the necessary information·be available to enable the economic potential for the introduction of jojoba to developing countries to be examined fully

Transcriptional regulation of the arabidopsis circadian clock component LHY

In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock is believed to be composed of a number of coupled transcriptional negative feedback loops. The LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) gene is thought to form part of at least two of these transcriptional feedback loops, as well as playing a role in the perception of light signals by the clock. To better understand how multiple transcriptional feedback loops might be integrated in the transcriptional regulation of LHY, we have performed an analysis of the cis-regulation of this gene. Through deletion analysis of reporter gene constructs, we have identified a 957 basepair region of the LHY promoter which contains sufficient sequence to direct the characteristic expression profile of LHY. Furthermore, we provide evidence that at least two circadian signals converge on this region. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays identified four classes of candidate cis-elements within the LHY promoter including a poly-CTT tract, an AAAAA motif, a candidate MYB-binding site and a G-box motif. Through mutational analysis of these elements, we have been able to determine aspects of their in vivo regulatory function. We report that a G-box motif and the previously uncharacterized AAAAA element are implicated in the regulation of LHY transcription by light signals. In etiolated seedlings, the region of the LHY promoter containing the MYB-binding site motif and multiple copies of the poly-CTT motif mediates regulation of LHY by both light-responsive and circadian signals.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo