Relational Identities and Other-Than-Human Agency in Archaeology

Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology explores the benefits and consequences of archaeological theorizing on and interpretation of the social agency of nonhumans as relational beings capable of producing change in the world. The volume cross-examines traditional understanding of agency and personhood, presenting a globally diverse set of case studies that cover a range of cultural, geographical, and historical contexts. Agency (the ability to act) and personhood (the reciprocal qualities of relational beings) have traditionally been strictly assigned to humans. In case studies from Ghana to Australia to the British Isles and Mesoamerica, contributors to this volume demonstrate that objects, animals, locations, and other nonhuman actors also potentially share this ontological status and are capable of instigating events and enacting change. This kind of other-than-human agency is not a one-way transaction of cause to effect but requires an appropriate form of reciprocal engagement indicative of relational personhood, which in these cases, left material traces detectable in the archaeological record. Modern dualist ontologies separating objects from subjects and the animate from the inanimate obscure our understanding of the roles that other-than-human agents played in past societies. Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology challenges this essentialist binary perspective. Contributors in this volume show that intersubjective (inherently social) ways of being are a fundamental and indispensable condition of all personhood and move the debate in posthumanist scholarship beyond the polarizing dichotomies of relational versus bounded types of persons. In this way, the book makes a significant contribution to theory and interpretation of personhood and other-than-human agency in archaeology.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1141/thumbnail.jp

The Nature of Active Galactic Nuclei with Velocity Offset Emission Lines

We obtained Keck/OSIRIS near-IR adaptive optics-assisted integral-field spectroscopy to probe the morphology and kinematics of the ionized gas in four velocity-offset active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These objects possess optical emission lines that are offset in velocity from systemic as measured from stellar absorption features. At a resolution of ~0.18", OSIRIS allows us to distinguish which velocity offset emission lines are produced by the motion of an AGN in a dual supermassive black hole system, and which are produced by outflows or other kinematic structures. In three galaxies, J1018+2941, J1055+1520 and J1346+5228, the spectral offset of the emission lines is caused by AGN-driven outflows. In the remaining galaxy, J1117+6140, a counterrotating nuclear disk is observed that contains the peak of Pa$\alpha$ emission 0.2" from the center of the galaxy. The most plausible explanation for the origin of this spatially and kinematically offset peak is that it is a region of enhanced Pa$\alpha$ emission located at the intersection zone between the nuclear disk and the bar of the galaxy. In all four objects, the peak of ionized gas emission is not spatially coincident with the center of the galaxy as traced by the peak of the near-IR continuum emission. The peaks of ionized gas emission are spatially offset from the galaxy centers by 0.1"-0.4" (0.1-0.7 kpc). We find that the velocity offset originates at the location of this peak of emission, and the value of the offset can be directly measured in the velocity maps. The emission-line ratios of these four velocity-offset AGNs can be reproduced only with a mixture of shocks and AGN photoionization. Shocks provide a natural explanation for the origin of the spatially and spectrally offset peaks of ionized gas emission in these galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Is There Madness in the Method? Researching Flexibility in the Education of Adults

This paper explores the process of formulating research questions for an ongoing empirical study of conceptions of flexibility and lifelong learning in the context of further education in the UK. The process is represented in three parallel versions: an algorithmic tale, a tale of improvisations and a reflexive tale

UI-Design driven model-based testing

Testing interactive systems is notoriously difficult. Not only do we need to ensure that the functionality of the developed system is correct with respect to the requirements and specifications, we also need to ensure that the user interface to the system is correct (enables a user to access the functionality correctly) and is usable. These different requirements of interactive system testing are not easily combined within a single testing strategy. We investigate the use of models of interactive systems, which have been derived from design artefacts, as the basis for generating tests for an implemented system. We give a model-based method for testing interactive systems which has low overhead in terms of the models required and which enables testing of UI and system functionality from the perspective of user interaction

Functional interaction between BMPR-II and Tctex-1, a light chain of Dynein, is isoform-specific and disrupted by mutations underlying primary pulmonary hypertension

Diverse heterozygous mutations of bone morphogenetic receptor type II (BMPR-II) underlie the inherited form of the vascular disorder primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). As yet, the molecular detail of how such defects contribute to the pathogenesis of PPH remains unclear. BMPR-II is a member of the transforming growth factor-beta cell signalling superfamily. Ligand binding induces cell surface receptor complex formation and activates a cascade of phosphorylation events of intracellular intermediaries termed Smads, which initiate transcriptional regulation. Some 30% of PPH-causing mutations localize to exon 12, which may be spliced out forming an isoform depleted of the unusually long BMPR-II cytoplasmic tail. To further elucidate the consequences of BMPR2 mutation, we sought to characterize aspects of the cytoplasmic domain function by seeking intracellular binding partners. We now report that Tctex-1, a light chain of the motor complex dynein, interacts with the cytoplasmic domain of BMPR-II and demonstrate that Tctex-1 is phosphorylated by BMPR-II, a function disrupted by PPH disease causing mutations within exon 12. Finally we show that BMPR-II and Tctex-1 co-localize to endothelium and smooth muscle within the media of pulmonary arterioles, key sites of vascular remodelling in PPH. Taken together, these data demonstrate a discrete function for the cytoplasmic domain of BMPR-II and justify further investigation of whether the interaction with and phosphorylation of Tctex-1 contributes to the pathogenesis of PPH

The structure of discussion: a discourse analytical approach to the identification of structure in the text type 'discussion'

This study is concerned with the structural analysis of a corpus of discussive data. The data, mainly taken from CANCODE, the Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English, was taken from a range of situational contexts, along a cline of formality from informal �chat� to public broadcast material. The data was analysed using a version of the Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) model of discourse, which was adapted to deal with spoken discussion, and the resultant analytical framework was described in detail. Previous studies of discussion and argumentation have looked either at intra-turn structure, or at the local management of disagreement between turns. This study aims to provide an overall analysis of the structure of discussion, with a view to elucidating the argumentative and persuasive strategies used by interactants involved in spontaneous spoken discussion. It is argued that discourse acts can be identified through the study of certain lexico-grammatical items which typically realise them, and that both at act level and at move level elements of structure combine to form a type of patterning which is typical to discussive texts. It is further argued that this patterning reflects various aspects of the �nature� of discussion, such as its combativeness, and the way that interpersonal objectives become less important in this type of interaction. Also the emergent nature of opinion in discussion is reflected in interactants� use of focussing moves and summarising acts, and points of convergence between interactants can be identified through their use of responding moves

Treating Substance Abuse in American Prisons

https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/gps-posters/1667/thumbnail.jp

Parid foraging choices in urban habitat and their consequences for fitness

Urban environments are habitat mosaics, often with an abundance of exotic flora, and represent complex problems for foraging arboreal birds. In this study, we used compositional analysis to test how Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major used heterogeneous urban habitat, with the aim of establishing whether breeding birds were selective in the habitat they used when foraging and particularly how they responded to non-native trees and shrubs. We also tested whether they showed foraging preferences for certain plant taxa, such as oak Quercus, which are important to their breeding performance in native woodland. Additionally, we used mixed models to test the impact these different habitat types had on breeding success (expressed as mean nestling mass). Blue Tits foraged significantly more in native than non-native deciduous trees during incubation and when feeding fledglings, and significantly more in deciduous than in evergreen plants throughout the breeding season. Great Tits used deciduous trees more than expected by chance when feeding nestlings, and a positive relationship was found between availability of deciduous trees and mean nestling mass. Overall, the breeding performance of both species was poor and highly variable. Positive relationships were found between mean nestling mass and the abundance of Quercus for Great Tits, but not for Blue Tits. Our study shows the importance of native vegetation in the complex habitat matrix found in urban environments. The capacity of some, but not all, species to locate and benefit from isolated patches of native trees suggests that species vary in their response to urbanisation and this has implications for urban ecosystem function

The structure of discussion: a discourse analytical approach to the identification of structure in the text type 'discussion'

This study is concerned with the structural analysis of a corpus of discussive data. The data, mainly taken from CANCODE, the Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English, was taken from a range of situational contexts, along a cline of formality from informal �chat� to public broadcast material. The data was analysed using a version of the Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) model of discourse, which was adapted to deal with spoken discussion, and the resultant analytical framework was described in detail. Previous studies of discussion and argumentation have looked either at intra-turn structure, or at the local management of disagreement between turns. This study aims to provide an overall analysis of the structure of discussion, with a view to elucidating the argumentative and persuasive strategies used by interactants involved in spontaneous spoken discussion. It is argued that discourse acts can be identified through the study of certain lexico-grammatical items which typically realise them, and that both at act level and at move level elements of structure combine to form a type of patterning which is typical to discussive texts. It is further argued that this patterning reflects various aspects of the �nature� of discussion, such as its combativeness, and the way that interpersonal objectives become less important in this type of interaction. Also the emergent nature of opinion in discussion is reflected in interactants� use of focussing moves and summarising acts, and points of convergence between interactants can be identified through their use of responding moves