Inaugural Session, Institute of English Studies Seminar in the History of Libraries

Text of the inaugural session of the Institute of English Studies seminar in the History of Libraries held on 27/2/08

Centre and Creative Periphery in the Histories of the Book in the English Speaking World and Global English Studies: A Propos The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

A revised version of an article first published in Publishing History no 59, 2006. The later versions of this article are unedited papers

Seroprevalence of Pandemic Influenza H1N1 in Ontario from January 2009–May 2010

We designed a seroprevalence study using multiple testing assays and population sources to estimate the community seroprevalence of pH1N1/09 and risk factors for infection before the outbreak was recognized and throughout the pandemic to the end of 2009/10 influenza season.Residual serum specimens from five time points (between 01/2009 and 05/2010) and samples from two time points from a prospectively recruited cohort were included. The distribution of risk factors was explored in multivariate adjusted analyses using logistic regression among the cohort. Antibody levels were measured by hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) and microneutralization (MN) assays.Residual sera from 3375 patients and 1024 prospectively recruited cohort participants were analyzed. Pre-pandemic seroprevalence ranged from 2%-12% across age groups. Overall seropositivity ranged from 10%-19% post-first wave and 32%-41% by the end of the 2009/10 influenza season. Seroprevalence and risk factors differed between MN and HAI assays, particularly in older age groups and between waves. Following the H1N1 vaccination program, higher GMT were noted among vaccinated individuals. Overall, 20-30% of the population was estimated to be infected.Combining population sources of sera across five time points with prospectively collected epidemiological information yielded a complete description of the evolution of pH1N1 infection

Kdm3a lysine demethylase is an Hsp90 client required for cytoskeletal rearrangements during spermatogenesis

The lysine demethylase Kdm3a (Jhdm2a, Jmjd1a) is required for male fertility, sex determination, and metabolic homeostasis through its nuclear role in chromatin remodeling. Many histone-modifying enzymes have additional nonhistone substrates, as well as nonenzymatic functions, contributing to the full spectrum of events underlying their biological roles. We present two Kdm3a mouse models that exhibit cytoplasmic defects that may account in part for the globozoospermia phenotype reported previously. Electron microscopy revealed abnormal acrosome and manchette and the absence of implantation fossa at the caudal end of the nucleus in mice without Kdm3a demethylase activity, which affected cytoplasmic structures required to elongate the sperm head. We describe an enzymatically active new Kdm3a isoform and show that subcellular distribution, protein levels, and lysine demethylation activity of Kdm3a depended on Hsp90. We show that Kdm3a localizes to cytoplasmic structures of maturing spermatids affected in Kdm3a mutant mice, which in turn display altered fractionation of beta-actin and gamma-tubulin. Kdm3a is therefore a multifunctional Hsp90 client protein that participates directly in the regulation of cytoskeletal components.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The History of the Book as a Field of Study within the Humanities

Article about the recent development of the History of the Book. To be published in Histoire nationale ou histoire internationale du livre et de l’édition? Un débat planétaire/National or International Book and Publishing History? A Worldwide Discussion. Ed Martyn Lyons,Jacques Michon, Jean-Yves Mollier & François Vallotton, (Québec: Nota Bene)

An agenda for imperial and post-imperial book history

There are signs that the history of the book as a field of study is entering a new phase. This raises some big issues and large prospects

I.R. Willison’s response to the presentation of his Festschrift, University of London

I.R. Willison’s response to the presentation of his Festschrift, University of London IES/SAS, in the Keith Hancock Room, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, October 2nd 2007

Introduction

First paragraph: When the Cambridge history of the book in Britain project was first conceived in the early 1990s it was acknowledged by D.F. McKenzie that, compared to the first six projected volumes in the series, ‘the terms of reference’ for the final volume – originally planned to cover the period 1914-2000 – ‘remain disturbingly imprecise’. McKenzie offered three explanatory factors: ‘partly because the book must now share its functions with other media with which it is complexly interdependent, partly because the archival resources are so much richer than for earlier periods, [and] partly because new technologies and the emergence of multinational publishing weaken the very premises of a national history’. A quarter of a century on we might add a fourth factor. Compared to earlier volumes in the series the period after 1914 remains largely unmapped – or at best inconsistently plotted. With a much smaller body of existing research on which to draw, this volume should be seen as laying the groundwork for future exploration of the book in Britain since 1914 as much as the summation of current work in the field