The written sources of Paul's knowledge concerning Jesus.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe problem is to determine whether or not Paul may have had some written sources regarding Jesus. This dissertation is limited by excluding from consideration all possible sources other than written. It attempts to discover evidence of written sources and their nature and to correlate them with the documents posited as a result of Gospel-criticism. The tradition in the Church and the insights of the greatest interpreters must be used, but the primary method used in this study is to compare Pauline and Gospel passages with respect to their vocabulary, form, and content. These books are assumed as Pauline: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Previous workers in the area of Paul's relation to Jesus fall into five groups: 1) those who believe that Paul founded a new Gentile Christianity independently on the basis of his own theology; 2) those who believe that Paul is dependent upon and agrees with Jesus in every way; 3) those who believe that Paul is often in substantial agreement with Jesus but that no connection is to be traced between the two; 4) those who believe that Paul continues Jesus' work and gospel being consciously dependent upon the Jesus of history; and 5) those who believe that Paul continues Jesus' work without conscious dependence upon the Jesus of history. [TRUNCATED

Southern Resident killer whale SRKW females and the tragedy of the commons

The Endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in the Pacific Northwest is an obligate predator upon fish, with an apparent dependence upon mature Chinook salmon (Onchorhynchus tsawytscha) populations that are also Endangered throughout most of the foraging range of these whales. The whales coevolved with the salmon in a classic predator-prey scenario in which both flourished for the past 15,000 years since the submergence of Beringia allowed the whales to colonize the eastern North Pacific from North Atlantic ancestral populations. The salmon were already in the North Pacific for at least 500,000 years prior, and Chinook salmon had evolved a very successful ecological lifestyle of predation and semelparous anadromy with homing instinct for spawning in the rivers in which they hatched. Along with their multiple populations from many watersheds and optimal run-timing for spawning in habitats from near estuarine to alpine, they were also large and nutritious fish available as killer whale food year-round in coastal and inland sea habitats. The ancestral piscivorous ecotype killer whales that colonized the eastern North Pacific did so in cooperative extended family tribes that tended to breed within the tribe – resulting in the genetically discrete communities of “resident” ecotypes: SRKW, NRKW, etc. Population success in each of these communities was dependent upon female fecundity, and this was ultimately limited by food availability and energetic “catch per unit effort”, CPUE. With no “birth control” the females in these populations could produce a calf as often as every two or three years (18 months gestation, one year lactation) and upwards of perhaps ten calves in a reproductive lifetime (age 11-45 approx). I will present forty years of documented evidence for the SRKW female cohort fecundity related to the tragedy of the commons in Chinook salmon management

Layered double hydroxides : synthesis and application in gene delivery to mammalian cells in culture.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) or hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTLcs) are classified as anionic clays in which their structure is based upon brucite and are represented by the following general chemical formula: [MII1-xMIII x(OH)2]x+(An-)x/y.yH2O where MII and MIII represent various possible divalent cations, e.g., Mg2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Co2+ and Fe2+ and trivalent cations, e.g., Al3+, Fe3+ and Cr3+ respectively. The value x is equal to the stoichiometric ratio of MIII/(MII+MIII) and An- represents exchangeable anions such as CO32-, Cl- and SO42-. It is these exchangeable interlayer anions, which make layered double hydroxide compounds excellent carriers of negatively charged or anionic containing biomolecules, such as DNA and hence can be exploited in their use in gene therapy. In this study, a variety of Mg-Al hydrotalcites (HTs), Zn-Al, Zn-Fe and Mg-Fe LDHs were synthesized using co-precipitation. The synthesized compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). XRD patterns for the synthesized HTs and LDHs exhibited characteristic features indicative of an ordered layered material. Elemental analysis of the compounds revealed a measured value of x in the range of 0.25-0.33 for Mg-Al HTs and Zn-Fe LDHs, 0.11-0.16 for Zn-Al LDHs and 0.55-0.58 for Mg-Fe LDHs. FTIR and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of characteristic functional groups and interlayer anions. From electron microscopy, the compounds exhibited classical morphologies typical of HT and LDH compounds and had a lateral size range of 200-300 nm. These compounds were studied in their ability to bind DNA with the use of a gel retardation or band shift assay. This assay confirmed that these compounds are indeed able to bind DNA. The binding mechanism of DNA to the HT and LDH compounds was evaluated and plausible mechanisms were proposed. Furthermore, nuclease digestion assays were carried out in order to evaluate the potential protecting ability that these compounds afford towards the bound DNA in the presence of serum. It was observed that all compounds protected most of the bound DNA. The cytotoxicity of the compounds was evaluated in the HEK293, HepG2 and HeLa mammalian cell lines using the MTS (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-5(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salts) assay with a concentration range of 20-100 μg of respective HT/LDH compound. For most of the compounds, cell viability was observed in excess of 80 %. Finally, transfection studies were carried out utilizing green fluorescent protein (GFP) analysis and luciferase gene expression using the same mammalian cells in culture. It was noted that all HTs and LDHs were able to release DNA in a controlled prolonged manner over a period of three days. Green fluorescent protein gene expression commenced after 27 hours and reached a maximum at 72 hours. Efficient luciferase gene expression was observed with luciferase activities for DNA: HTs ranging from 0.05 x 106 - 2.0 x 106 RLU / mg protein and DNA: LDHs ranging from 0.05 x 106 - 16.7 x 106 RLU / mg protein. Highest luciferase activity was recorded as 16.7 x 106 RLU / mg protein

Bone sequestrum in a yearling red deer (Cervus elaphus) hind in New Zealand.

CAUL Read and Publish Agreement.Publishe

Performance test of QU-fitting in cosmic magnetism study

QU-fitting is a standard model-fitting method to reconstruct distribution of magnetic fields and polarized intensity along a line of sight (LOS) from an observed polarization spectrum. In this paper, we examine the performance of QU-fitting by simulating observations of two polarized sources located along the same LOS, varying the widths of the sources and the gap between them in Faraday depth space, systematically. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach is used to obtain the best-fit parameters for a fitting model, and Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria (AIC and BIC, respectively) are adopted to select the best model from four fitting models. We find that the combination of MCMC and AIC/BIC works fairly well in model selection and estimation of model parameters in the cases where two sources have relatively small widths and a larger gap in Faraday depth space. On the other hand, when two sources have large width in Faraday depth space, MCMC chain tends to be trapped in a local maximum so that AIC/BIC cannot select a correct model. We discuss the causes and the tendency of the failure of QU-fitting and suggest a way to improve it.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRA

Structure-from-Motion based vegetation modeling and shade estimation

Although three-dimensional (3-D) light dimension and range (LiDAR) point cloud datasets describing the structure of vegetation have proven to be highly useful for ecological modeling, the collection of such data is expensive. However, a new technology known as Structure-from-Motion, or SfM, has become available that can be used to create 3-D point cloud datasets for far less cost. A small unmanned aerial system (UAS), point and shoot digital camera, and Agisoft PhotoScan® (http://agisoft.com) software were used to create a highly dense 3-D SfM point cloud dataset representing a short reach of the Upper South Fork of the New River in Boone, NC. The quality of the 3-D SfM point cloud dataset was evaluated with an emphasis on how accurately vegetation was represented. Also, a digital surface model (DSM) based on the 3-D SfM point cloud dataset was used in conjunction with a solar ray tracing method to predict shade cast by vegetation in the study area. Overall, the results of this study suggest that SfM based point clouds representing vegetation are of a high enough quality to be used for ecological modeling purposes

Downer cows: a reanalysis of an old data set.

CAUL Read and Publish Agreement.AIMS: To compare the performance of two predictive models for the survival of downer cows. METHODS: The first model had been developed in 1987 using a dataset containing missing values, while the second, new model was developed on the same dataset but using modern data imputation and analytical methods. Missing data were imputed using multiple imputation by chained equations and a logistic regression model fitted to the imputed data, with survival or not as the outcome variable. The predictive ability of the model built on the imputed data was contrasted with the original prognostic model by testing them both on a second smaller but complete data set, collected contemporaneously with the development of the original model but from a different region of New Zealand. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and cut point for the two models were calculated. RESULTS: The original 1987 model had a slightly higher accuracy than that of the new one with a sensitivity of 0.85 (95% CI = 0.72-0.94) and a specificity of 0.82 (95% CI = 0.7-0.91), using a cut point for the probability of survival = 0.313. CONCLUSIONS: The original prognostic formula published by Clark et al. in 1987 performed as well as a modern model built on an imputed data set. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The use of a prognostic test based on the Clark model should remain an important part of the clinical examination of downer cows by New Zealand veterinarians.Abbreviations: AUC: Area under the curve; AST: Aspartate transaminase activity; CK: Creatine phosphokinase activity; GAM: Generalised additive model; NSAID: Non-steroidal-anti-inflammatory drugs; PCV: Packed cell volume.Publishe

Ecological knowledge, leadership, and the evolution of menopause in killer whales

This is the final version of the article. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.There is another record in ORE for this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/16488Classic life-history theory predicts that menopause should not occur because there should be no selection for survival after the cessation of reproduction [1]. Yet, human females routinely live 30 years after they have stopped reproducing [2]. Only two other species-killer whales (Orcinus orca) and short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) [3, 4]-have comparable postreproductive lifespans. In theory, menopause can evolve via inclusive fitness benefits [5, 6], but the mechanisms by which postreproductive females help their kin remain enigmatic. One hypothesis is that postreproductive females act as repositories of ecological knowledge and thereby buffer kin against environmental hardships [7, 8]. We provide the first test of this hypothesis using a unique long-term dataset on wild resident killer whales. We show three key results. First, postreproductively aged females lead groups during collective movement in salmon foraging grounds. Second, leadership by postreproductively aged females is especially prominent in difficult years when salmon abundance is low. This finding is critical because salmon abundance drives both mortality and reproductive success in resident killer whales [9, 10]. Third, females are more likely to lead their sons than they are to lead their daughters, supporting predictions of recent models [5] of the evolution of menopause based on kinship dynamics. Our results show that postreproductive females may boost the fitness of kin through the transfer of ecological knowledge. The value gained from the wisdom of elders can help explain why female resident killer whales and humans continue to live long after they have stopped reproducing.This research was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council grant (NE/K01286X/1) to D.P.C., D.W.F., and M.A.C