Pliny's Progress: On a troublesome Domitianic Career

Der cursus honorum des jüngeren Plinius unter Domitian ist ein viel diskutiertes Thema. Dieser Aufsatz zeigt, dass Plinius entweder im Jahr 93 oder 94 Prätor war und identifiziert die wahrscheinlichen Fixpunkte seiner frühen Karriere. In diesem Zusammenhang wird zudem deutlich, dass die Prozesse gegen Herennius Senecio, Arulenus Rusticus und den jüngeren Helvidius nicht mit Sicherheit ins Jahr 93 datiert werden können und dass die Karriere des Calestrius Tiro wahrscheinlich modifiziert werden sollte. Höchst wahrscheinlich ist auch, dass Plinius von Domitian als praefectus aerari militaris eingesetzt wurde. Die im Nachhinein frisierte Darstellung seiner Karriere sollte weder mit Verachtung gestraft, noch leichtgläubig übernommen werden.The Domitianic cursus of Pliny the Younger has occasioned long debate. This article demonstrates that he was praetor in either 93 or 94, and establishes the likely coordinates of his earlier career. It also shows that the trials of Herennius Senecio, Arulenus Rusticus and the younger Helvidius cannot be dated certainly to 93; that Calestrius Tiro’s career should probably be modified; and that Pliny was in all likelihood appointed praefectus aerari militaris by Domitian. His post eventum styling of this career, it is proposed, calls neither for condemnation nor for credulity.tbaLe cursus honorum de Pline le Jeune sous Domitien a occasionné un long débat. Cet article démontre qu’il fut préteur soit en 93 ou 94, et identifie les point de repères probables de sa jeune carrière. L’article expose également que les procès d’Herennius Senecio, d’Arulenus Rusticus et du jeune Helvidius ne peuvent être datés de l’année 93 avec certitude; que la carrière de Calestrius Tiro devrait probablement être modifiée; et que Pline fut selon toute vraisemblance nommé praefectus aerari militaris par Domitien. Il est proposé que la stylisation post eventum de cette carrière n’appelle ni pour la condamnation ni pour la crédulité.tb

Pliny’s Progress: On a Troublesome Domitianic Career

Not onlineI gratefully acknowledge funding from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from De Gruyter https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/45870

What is Music For?: Utopian Ecomusicologies and Musicking Hornby Island

This dissertation concerns making music as a utopian ecological practice, skill, or method of associative communication where participants temporarily move towards idealized relationships between themselves and their environment. Live music making can bring people together in the collective present, creating limited states of unification. We are “taken” by music when utopia is performed and brought to the present. From rehearsal to rehearsal, band to band, year to year, musicking binds entire communities more closely together. I locate strategies for community solidarity like turn-taking, trust-building, gift-exchange, communication, fundraising, partying, education, and conflict resolution as plentiful within musical ensembles in any socially environmentally conscious community. Based upon 10 months of fieldwork and 40 extended interviews, my theoretical assertions are grounded in immersive ethnographic research on Hornby Island, a 12-square-mile Gulf Island between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada. I describe how roughly 1000 Islanders struggle to achieve environmental resilience in a uniquely biodiverse region where fisheries collapsed, logging declined, and second-generation settler farms were replaced with vacation homes in the 20th century. Today, extreme gentrification complicates housing for the island’s vulnerable populations as more than half of island residents live below the poverty line. With demographics that reflect a median age of 62, young individuals, families, and children are squeezed out of the community, unable to reproduce Hornby’s alternative society. This dissertation begins with theorization that connects music making to community and environmental thought. I then represent the challenges Islanders set for themselves and the struggles they face, like their desire for food sovereignty, off-grid energy, secure housing, protection of their aquifers, affordability of ferry transportation, ecological waste-cycles, and care for each other’s mental health. I bring attention to unique institutions that Islanders have created to better manage their needs and desires. In response to the island’s social and environmental dynamics of justice, I argue and demonstrate through ethnography that music making is an essential communal process that brings people together to dialogue about their needs and advance their goals to establish a more equitable and environmentally responsible community

Carpal disease in racing horses

Thirteen Standardbred horses were trained on a treadmill for 31 weeks as part of a larger study into the effects of overtraining. Synovial fluid was collected from the midcarpal joint at the start, and at seven, 15, 21, 26 and 30 weeks of training. Low grade signs of midcarpal joint disease developed in all horses during the last 16 weeks of the program. Synovial fluid leukocyte counts remained unchanged throughout the study, whereas total protein concentration and lactate dehydrogenase activity increased significantly with training. Sulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAGs) levels increased initially, but then decreased. Correlations between the clinical signs of joint disease and sulfated GAG levels were weak. Synovial fluid sulfated GAGs were compared with other diagnostic variables for predicting the degree of articular cartilage damage in horses with midcarpal joint disease. Interpretation of radiographs was found to be the most accurate for the prediction of articular damage. Synovial fluid analysis was found to be of little value. There was no correlation between sulfated GAG concentration and articular cartilage damage, and no significant difference between sulfated GAG concentrations from horses with clinical evidence of joint disease and horses with no signs of joint disease trained on a treadmill. Anatomical dissections of the midcarpal joint were performed on ten cadavers. The medial palmar intercarpal ligament (MPICL) was found to consist of four fibre bundles. The predominant orientation of these was proximodorsal to distopalmar. The lateral palmar intercarpal (LPICL) and dorsomedial intercarpal (DMICL) ligaments had a similar orientation but were simpler in structure. The alignment of these ligaments suggested that they resisted transverse forces across the midcarpal joint. Using a dorsal transverse displacement of 1.5 mm of the proximal row of carpal bones relative to the distal row of carpal bones, it was demonstrated that the palmar intercarpal ligaments provided 22.7% of the restraining force while only contributing 9% of the ligamentous cross sectional area. A study of 32 racing horses presented with midcarpal joint disease confirmed the high frequency of MPICL tearing (51%). Enlargement of the DMICL was also common (33%). There was no correlation between the severity of signs of midcarpal joint disease and the severity of MPICL tearing. An inverse relationship was demonstrated between subchondral bone damage within the midcarpal joint, and MPICL tearing (R=-0.55). There was no association between DMICL enlargement and osteochondral damage. A postmortem study of 142 joints of horses with no history of midcarpal joint disease demonstrated that the frequency of MPICL tearing in racing horses was 91%. Severity of tearing of the MPICL increased significantly with age. Histopathological evidence of degeneration (loss of organisation of collagen fibres) was consistently observed in MPICLs of adult horses. These changes were not observed in unborn term foals, but were present from one month of age. Enlarged DMICLs had regular collagen arrangement, but discrete areas of fibrovascular infiltration were consistently observed. The race records of 42 horses undergoing midcarpal joint carpal arthroscopy were examined. Using multiple regression the extent of subchondral bone damage was the best predictor of postoperative performance. The addition of the grade of MPICL tearing significantly improved the prediction of postoperative performance, whereas the inclusion of the extent of articular cartilage damage had no effect

Coxsackievirus B3 Inhibits Antigen Presentation In Vivo, Exerting a Profound and Selective Effect on the MHC Class I Pathway

Many viruses encode proteins whose major function is to evade or disable the host T cell response. Nevertheless, most viruses are readily detected by host T cells, and induce relatively strong T cell responses. Herein, we employ transgenic CD4+ and CD8+ T cells as sensors to evaluate in vitro and in vivo antigen presentation by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), and we show that this virus almost completely inhibits antigen presentation via the MHC class I pathway, thereby evading CD8+ T cell immunity. In contrast, the presentation of CVB3-encoded MHC class II epitopes is relatively unencumbered, and CVB3 induces in vivo CD4+ T cell responses that are, by several criteria, phenotypically normal. The cells display an effector phenotype and mature into multi-functional CVB3-specific memory CD4+ T cells that expand dramatically following challenge infection and rapidly differentiate into secondary effector cells capable of secreting multiple cytokines. Our findings have implications for the efficiency of antigen cross-presentation during coxsackievirus infection

Prototype design of a dielectrically embedded mesh lens

Here we present a prototype design for a dielectrically embedded mesh lens consisting of stacked layers of printed circuit board (PCB) material and embedded copper elements. The dielectrically embedded mesh lens consists of layers of dielectric which contain subwavelength- dimension metal elements laid out in a grid fashion, and is both flat and lightweight. It has been demonstrated that the sizes of these metal elements can be varied according to their position in the apparatus, using models based on transmission line theory, to create a lens which focuses a plane wave at millimeter wavelength to a Gaussian beam with very low transmission loss, even without the use of antireflective coating. We present the phase design for our lens which was designed, using transmission line theory and electromagnetic modelling software, to operate at 20GHz. We further present an analysis of the transmission line components which will make up the lens

Prototype design of a dielectrically embedded mesh lens

Here we present a prototype design for a dielectrically embedded mesh lens consisting of stacked layers of printed circuit board (PCB) material and embedded copper elements. The dielectrically embedded mesh lens consists of layers of dielectric which contain subwavelength- dimension metal elements laid out in a grid fashion, and is both flat and lightweight. It has been demonstrated that the sizes of these metal elements can be varied according to their position in the apparatus, using models based on transmission line theory, to create a lens which focuses a plane wave at millimeter wavelength to a Gaussian beam with very low transmission loss, even without the use of antireflective coating. We present the phase design for our lens which was designed, using transmission line theory and electromagnetic modelling software, to operate at 20GHz. We further present an\ud analysis of the transmission line components which will make up the lens

Improving land use change tracking in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory: final outputs report

This report describes work on the project “Improving Land Use Change Tracking in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory” for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (reference TRN 2384/05/2020). The aim of the project was to make improved estimates of land-use change in the UK, using multiple sources of data. We applied a method for estimating land-use change using a Bayesian data assimilation approach. This allows us to constrain estimates of gross land-use change with national-scale census data, whilst retaining the detailed information available from several other sources. We produced a time series of maps describing our best estimate of land-use change given the available data, as well as the full posterior distribution of this space-time data cube. This quantifies the joint probability distribution of the parameters, and properly propagates the uncertainty from input data to final output. The output data has been summarised in the form of land-use vectors. The results show that we can provide improved estimates of past land-use change using this method. The main advantage of the approach is that it provides a coherent, generalised framework for combining multiple disparate sources of data, and adding further sources of data in future would be straightforward. Future work could focus on more detailed analysis of existing data sets, introducing independent constraints where possible, and obtaining further relevant data sets. The code is available via GitHub

COX-1 (PTGS1) and COX-2 (PTGS2) polymorphisms, NSAID interactions, and risk of colon and rectal cancers in two independent populations

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) target the prostaglandin H synthase enzymes, cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and -2, and reduce colorectal cancer risk. Genetic variation in the genes encoding these enzymes may be associated with changes in colon and rectal cancer risk and in NSAID efficacy