Inventio Porticus - Imagining Solomon's Porches in Late Medieval England

This paper presents a study of the iconographic relationship between medieval church porches and the porches of King Solomon. In so doing it develops Richard Krautheimer’s work to elucidate the inventive capacity of medieval designers when a prototype is known only through written sources not structural actuality. The paper begins by introducing instances where established architectural modes were adopted for the design of a church porch, for example the cloistral attributes of the porch at Great Massingham (Norfolk). It is then argued that, based on formal study of entrance buildings including porch-towers, gatehouses, and ultimately the remarkable double-depth north porch at St Mary Redcliffe, biblical descriptions of Solomon’s forebuildings presented designers with malleable models which afforded inventive architectural interpretation

The Pagoda Sequence: a Ramble through Linear Complexity, Number Walls, D0L Sequences, Finite State Automata, and Aperiodic Tilings

We review the concept of the number wall as an alternative to the traditional linear complexity profile (LCP), and sketch the relationship to other topics such as linear feedback shift-register (LFSR) and context-free Lindenmayer (D0L) sequences. A remarkable ternary analogue of the Thue-Morse sequence is introduced having deficiency 2 modulo 3, and this property verified via the re-interpretation of the number wall as an aperiodic plane tiling

Epigenetic studies in Alzheimer's disease: Current findings, caveats, and considerations for future studies

This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32201. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a sporadic, chronic neurodegenerative disease, usually occurring late in life. The last decade has witnessed tremendous advances in our understanding about the genetic basis of AD, but a large amount of the variance in disease risk remains to be explained. Epigenetic mechanisms, which developmentally regulate gene expression via modifications to DNA, histone proteins, and chromatin, have been hypothesized to play a role in other complex neurobiological diseases, and studies to identify genome-wide epigenetic changes in AD are currently under way. However, the simple brute-force approach that has been successfully employed in genome-wide association studies is unlikely to be successful in epigenome-wide association studies of neurodegeneration. A more academic approach to understanding the role of epigenetic variation in AD is required, with careful consideration of study design, methodological approaches, tissue-specificity, and causal inference. In this article, we review the empirical literature supporting a role for epigenetic processes in AD, and discuss important considerations and future directions for this new and emerging field of research. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.NI

DNA Modifications and Alzheimer's Disease

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this recordAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease, affecting millions of people worldwide. While a number of studies have focused on identifying genetic variants that contribute to the development and progression of late-onset AD, the majority of these only have a relatively small effect size. There are also a number of other risk factors, for example, age, gender, and other comorbidities; however, how these influence disease risk is not known. Therefore, in recent years, research has begun to investigate epigenetic mechanisms for a potential role in disease etiology. In this chapter, we discuss the current state of play for research into DNA modifications in AD, the most well studied being 5-methylcytosine (5-mC). We describe the earlier studies of candidate genes and global measures of DNA modifications in human AD samples, in addition to studies in mouse models of AD. We focus on recent epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) in human AD, using microarray technology, examining a number of key study design issues pertinent to such studies. Finally, we discuss how new technological advances could further progress the research field

The mitochondrial epigenome: a role in Alzheimer's disease?

Considerable evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction occurs early in Alzheimer's disease, both in affected brain regions and in leukocytes, potentially precipitating neurodegeneration through increased oxidative stress. Epigenetic processes are emerging as a dynamic mechanism through which environmental signals may contribute to cellular changes, leading to neuropathology and disease. Until recently, little attention was given to the mitochondrial epigenome itself, as preliminary studies indicated an absence of DNA modifications. However, recent research has demonstrated that epigenetic changes to the mitochondrial genome do occur, potentially playing an important role in several disorders characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction. This review explores the potential role of mitochondrial epigenetic dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease etiology and discusses some technical issues pertinent to the study of these processes.Alzheimer’s Research UKNI

Meander, Folding and Arch Statistics

The statistics of meander and related problems are studied as particular realizations of compact polymer chain foldings. This paper presents a general discussion of these topics, with a particular emphasis on three points: (i) the use of a direct recursive relation for building (semi) meanders (ii) the equivalence with a random matrix model (iii) the exact solution of simpler related problems, such as arch configurations or irreducible meanders.Comment: 82 pages, uuencoded, uses harvmac (l mode) and epsf, 26+7 figures include

The parish churches of Norwich north of the River Wensum: city, community, architecture and antiquarianism

Norwich Ultra Aquam (‘over the water’) formed a discrete leet or administrative area within the medieval city. At its heart was an Anglo-Scandinavian defensive enclosure, with Coslany lying to the west, and later suburban developments to the north and east. Evidence from topographic, dedicatory, archaeological and inter-parochial relationships, suggests that the pattern of church foundation was both complex and distinctive. Unlike several parishes south of the river, there are no indications that the early phases of Ultra Aquam church foundations were the initiative of senior ecclesiastics, or had specifically royal connections. Rather, they were local projects responding to the manner in which the city was developing. Later in the Middle Ages monastic interest on the north bank increased but several of the churches remained in secular hands. Patronage, whether lay or ecclesiastical, played a key part in their architectural development; St Michael Coslany and St George Colegate in particular received considerable burgess investment. The rich antiquarian tradition in the city provides a record of attitudes to the churches in the post-Reformation period which has to be understood in terms of priorities that changed over time