Craniofacial integration, plasticity and biomechanics in the mouse masticatory system

The craniomandibular skeleton is a complex, dynamic structure, housing many vital tissues and required to perform critical functions. This region is however subject to substantial morphological change during development, and required to adapt to its environment and individual variance. The capacity of this region to maintain correlated form and appropriate functional performance despite these challenges is not fully understood. The sample consists of three strains of mice; a wild-type strain and two mutant strains from the same genetic background strain. Both mutations selectively affect chondrocranial growth, and thus influence of both are limited to the crania. The brachymorph mutant phenotype is characterised by a shortened cranium, while the pten is elongated. This sample therefore allows exploration of a potential plastic response in terms of the mandible, the masticatory lever system, and in turn mechanical advantage, when cranial length and the out-lever are varied. Three dimensional landmarks were applied to micro-CT scans and partial-least-squares analysis carried out to determine covariance between crania and mandibles. Mechanical advantage was calculated as a ratio of muscle in-lever and jaw out-lever for three key masticatory muscles. A common pattern of both variance and covariance was found among all three strains, with mandibular morphology in each strain covarying with cranial phenotypes. Jaw out-lever lengths were found to be significantly different in all three strains, and yet little significant difference between strains was found in mechanical advantage for any muscles. This maintenance of mechanical advantage is attributed to plastic adaptation in regions influencing muscle in-lever length, the latter which were found to be significantly different in the three strains. These results show the potential of the craniomandibular complex to plastically adapt to maintain both correlated form and functionality when variation occurs in one region, and thus these results have significant implications for the evolvability of the complex

How books became less 'different': An exploration of the rise of marketing within the publishing industry 1980-2010, and consideration of how this not only changed the business model, but impacted on the role of the author; with consideration of the likely associated implications of these developments in future

This research focuses on the history of publishing and authorship and is represented by the following books and articles: How to Market Books (1990; 1993; 1997; 2000; 2008) Are Books Different? (1993) Marketing your Book: An Author’s Guide (2001; 2007) Is there a Book in you? (2006) How to get a Job in Publishing (2008); and two papers from the Journal of Scholarly Publishing (2010) The work, individually and severally, explores how, from 1980–2010, most publishing houses developed the role and efficiency of their marketing processes, whose significance within organisations grew substantially; drew on an increasingly trained pool of labour that had benefitted from courses of professional preparation to support their operation; and became increasingly dependent on the participation of their authors in the marketing of their books. There is consideration of how and why the rise of new technical solutions, and the increased experience of authors in the publishing process, offered them the potential for self-development, without an automatic need for publishers to disseminate their work. The likely consequences for publishers, writers, retailers and all other associated stakeholders are explored. There is investigation of how author empowerment will affect publisher-author relations and new business opportunities in future. Finally, opportunities for additional research are identified. A detailed approach has been taken in these publications, and the research pursued with a rigorous methodology. Collectively, the work offers a detailed exploration of the structures, processes and individual roles involved, within their local and wider contexts, as well as on an international basis. The work has been informed by, and influences, others working in these fields. The resulting coherent body of work makes a significant and original contribution to the present state of knowledge in the history of publishing and authorship in particular, and to wider cultural and economic contexts in general