Political Factors in the Formulation of National Strategy

You have given me a lot of territory to cover this morning with the title: Political Factors in the Formulation of National Strategy. I have been trying to think of what I might say that would not be too repetitive of what you have been reading and covering in your discussions, which are the life of this great insti­tution. I am delighted to be asked to take part in a global problem, for it seems to me that it is only global thinking that will meet our national needs

Time-resolved protein dynamics using x-ray crystallography and optical spectroscopy

Reversibly switchable fluorescent proteins (RSFPs) switch between a highly and weakly fluorescent state upon photoexcitation. This switching is known to be driven by reversible photoisomerisation and a change in protonation state of the chromophore. However, the exact sequence of events after optical excitation is unclear. In this thesis, time-resolved crystallography and vibrational spectroscopy are used to study the ultrafast dynamics of a new RSFP.  Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) is used to probe the trans/cis reaction and reveals ultrafast sub-Angstrom motions of the chromophore and surrounding hydrogen bonding network. The addition of a stokes pulse (shown to dump the excited state population) increases these displacements and allows assignment of the light-induced signals to a vibrationally excited electronic ground state structure instead of an excited state structure. Temperature analysis of the steady-state switching rates resolves an intermediate ground-state structure using conventional crystallography which supports the TR-SFX assignments. Ultrafast pump-probe vibrational spectroscopy confirms that excited state photoisomerisation occurs (~70 ps), proceeded by rearrangement of a nearby arginine residue (~7 ps) with deprotonation (trans-neutral/cis-anion) occurring between 2 ns - 1 ms. An additional dump pulse is then shown to repress product formation and reforms the ground state, further supporting the structural observations of the pump-dump-probe crystallography measurements. These results improve our understanding of photoswitching in RSFPs and have important implications for structural assignments in future TR-SFX experiments. Time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography (TR-SSX) is an accessible and emerging technique for studying protein dynamics on millisecond timescales. Here, the trans/cis isomerisation of an RSFP is probed at 10 ms with a range of pump intensities to demonstrate precise control of the cis-state formation yields. The population transfer is resolved crystallographically using quantitative analysis of the occupancy, showing excellent agreement with optical flash-photolysis measurements. The issue of X-ray induced heating, which leads to partial thermal recovery, is also addressed. A temperature increase of 82-112 K is extracted for the fixed-target sample delivery used, which should be accounted for in all future TR-SSX experiments. Finally, the effect of pH on the protonation step is investigated by studying a RSFP mutant with a destabilised ground state conformation. Structural and spectroscopic evidence is presented for a new class of reaction at low pH, involving a cis-neutral/trans-cation isomerisation, in contrasts to the typical cis-anion/trans-neutral reaction at neutral pH. These steady-state observations expand our understanding of acid/base equilibria in the photoreactions of RSFPs.Open Acces

営業の観点から見た日本の民間銀行 : 1931年から1945年までの経営史の一考察

This essay reconsiders the part played by the largest private sector banks in the Japanese economy during the years between the Manchurian Incident (1931) and the end of the Pacific War (1945). In contrast to much of the previous writing on prewar and wartime finance, which places the emphasis on the importance of the state and public policy in directing the actions of the financial industry, this research note gives primacy to the actions the banks themselves took to obtain funds and to use those funds productively and profitably. Drawing on the accounts presented by the six biggest banks in the corporate histories they have published from time to time, I argue that private sector bankers concentrated on trying to build and maintain safe and sound business, and wanted an environment in which business could prosper. While they complied with changes in political conditions and regulations and even at times aggressively pursued new business related to military expansion and war, and while some bankers expressed strongly patriotic sentiments, a number of senior executives also voiced concerns that the economic controls introduced by the government after the outbreak of war in China in 1937 were against the interests of a healthy financial industry, and they lamented the progressive erosion of the discretionary credit decision-making powers of bank managers. By adapting to circumstance and acting opportunistically to make the best of a bad situation, private sector bankers abetted the war-making of the Japanese state

Informal Diplomacy in Meiji Japan : The Visits of General Grant and Crown Prince Nicholas Alexandrovich

国立ロシア人文大学, モスクワ大学, 2007年10月31日-11月2

lntroduction to Part 2

Historiography and Japanese Consciousness of Values and Norms, カリフォルニア大学 サンタ・バーバラ校, カリフォルニア大学 ロサンゼルス校, 2001年1

Late quaternary palaeoenvironments of the Sandveld, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Summary in English.Bibliography: leaves 263-292.This thesis presents new palaeoenvironmental evidence from the semi-arid lowlands of the West Coast Sandveld, which prompts a fresh synthesis as to the nature of late Quaternary environmental changes in the southwestern Cape's fynbos biome. The study is centred on Verlorenvlei, a remote coastal lake and swamp system which is ideally situated to investigate the complex interactions between late Holocene climate change, vegetation change, sea-level fluctuation, lacustrine/estuarine/fluvial sedimentology and human activity in the Sandveld region. In addition, this region of the West Coast has provided Quaternary scientists with a rich archaeological record against which independent lines of palaeoecological evidence can be evaluated. In support of the study, a wide range of palaeoenvironmental techniques has been applied to sediments sampled from the Verlorenvlei area. Organogenic deposits have been radiocarbondated and subjected to pollen analysis and assorted sedimentological and geoarchaeological assessments. Preliminary fossil pollen data from Elands Bay Cave, assembled for the period following the Last Glacial Maximum until approximately the terminal Pleistocene, are suggestive of moister and possibly cooler conditions in the Sandveld at this time. This is in contrast to prevailing evidence from the summer rainfall region of the subcontinent. Particle size analysis and an assessment of the in situ fossil Mollusca from vibracores, derived from the estuarine reaches of Verlorenvlei, reveal substantive evidence for rapid sea-level fluctuations along the West Coast during the mid-Holocene. Further inland, several mid-Holocene higher sea-levels are reflected in the palynology of lacustrine cores derived from Grootdrift and Klaarfontein. Detailed pollen diagrams, presented from Grootdrift, Klaarfontein, Muisbosskerm and Spring Cave, reflect the regional vegetation history during several periods over the last 7 000 years. There is convincing evidence from these data that the first half of the Holocene - commensurate with the Holocene hypsithermal - was associated with reduced moisture availability, and hence arid conditions along the West Coast. By contrast, there is evidence from the latter half of the Holocene that conditions ameliorated in the Sandveld around 3 000 BP and that moisture was, at this time more freely available. Following a hiatus in sedimentation some time after 4 000 BP, marine conditions are no longer visible in Verlorenvlei, having been replaced by fresh water as the dominant hydrological regime. A high resolution palynological investigation of the Grootdrift wetland sediments has contributed to a detailed palaeolimnological reconstruction of the upper Verlorenvlei system since the time of colonial expansion into the area, some 300 years ago. The picture reveals a sequence of rapid ecological changes in the face of progressive human disturbance. Arising from these insights, a number of recommendations for the management of dryland aquatic ecosystems such as Verlorenvlei, are presented. The significance of these late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental changes, in terms of the biogeography of plants and animals and also in terms of human occupation of the region, is examined

Construct validation of common format biodata within the public sector

Biographical data inventories (biodata) have one of the best predictors of job performance criteria for over 100 hundred years. Similarly, CommonFormat Biodata (CFB) inventories have also demonstrated their ability to predict certain performance criteria. There are two common themes and tow common sub-themes typically associated with CFB intruments, Education, experience, time, and specificity respectively. The major purpose of this paper was to employ a confirmatory factor analysis strategy to construct and validate a CFB inventory

Furrow irrigation of corn with water and dairy manure slurry

The purpose of this research was to determine the benefits and feasibility of irrigation using both water and a dairy manure slurry on corn silage yields. The influence of soil types and soil properties on corn silage yields were also studied. Corn silage at the West Tennessee Experiment Station, Jackson, Tennessee was irrigated for three growing seasons with water only. Gated aluminum pipe delivered irrigation water to the furrows between corn rows. The corn silage was harvested using a silage chopper, and plot yields were obtained. Corn silage at the Cherokee Dairy Farm, Knoxville, Tennessee was irrigated for three growing seasons using a dairy manure slurry. The manure slurry was delivered to the furrows by gated aluminum pipe. Corn silage was harvested by hand cutting to determine plot yields. In both locations, the value of irrigation was determined by measuring the increase in the corn silage yields compared to non-irrigated plots at each location. Irrigation can increase corn silage yields even in years of near normal rainfall. Irrigation with both water and dairy manure slurry resulted in increased yields. Soil types also influenced corn silage yields on irrigated areas but only to a slight extent when the soil types were similar