Staging Memories at the Narayanhiti Palace Museum, Kathmandu

This article focuses on a particular time (present-day Nepal, post-monarchy) and site (the Narayanhiti Palace Museum) that offers a compelling space for understanding the negotiation of the country’s recent past, revealing much about the transition from royal to republican Nepal. Acknowledging that the social and historical location of the museum causes it to bear the imprint of social relations beyond its walls, this article asks: How is Nepal’s royal past now understood, and who authorizes the understanding? There is no king governing Narayanhiti Palace, and the state does not use the palace to conduct its affairs; the politics of the space therefore risk being concealed by its open gates. This article explores the re-creation of a stable imagined past, in contrast with both the urban chaos of contemporary Kathmandu and with the political instability of Republican Nepal’s capital. Based on ethnographic research ‘behind the scenes’ at the museum, I take Annis’ analogy of the museum as ‘staging ground’ (1986) and explore the museum as both a space where decisions are made about what stories are told (sanctifying some forms of remembering and endorsing forgetting), as well as a space experienced by both ex-palace staff and visitors. These people bring the past to mind, combining their imaginations and memories with the environment of the museum. I suggest that official representations try to secure an image of a unified national identity that simultaneously remembers and forgets the king (Lakier 2009; Hutt 2006). As the city and the nation continue to reinvent themselves, the carefully constructed ‘non-place’ of the unchanging Palace Museum is being revealed. No king rules from Narayanhiti Palace and the state does not use the palace to conduct its affairs; the politics of the space therefore risk being concealed by its open gates. I explore the re-creation of a stable imagined past, in contrast both with the urban chaos of the contemporary city of Kathmandu and the political instability of the capital in Republican Nepal Based on ethnographic research ‘behind the scenes’ at the museum, I take Annis’ analogy of the museum as ‘staging ground’ (1986) and explore the museum as both a space where decisions are made about what stories are told, (sanctifying some forms of remembering and endorsing forgetting) and a space experienced by both ex-palace staff and visitors, who bring the past to mind, combining their imaginations and memories with the environment of the museum. I suggest that official representations try to secure an image of a unified national identity that simultaneously remembers and forgets the king (Lakier 2009, Hutt 2006). As the city and the nation continues to reinvent itself, the unchanging carefully constructed non-place of the Palace Museum is being revealed

Seismic constraints on the three-dimensional geometry of low-angle intracrustal reflectors in the Southern Iberia Abyssal Plain

Several lines of evidence suggest that simple shear rifting of the continental crust, in the formof low-angle detachment faulting, occurred during the final stages of continental breakupbetween West Iberia and the Grand Banks. The primary evidence for such faulting is theoccurrence of low-angle, high amplitude reflectors within the basement adjacent to the ocean–continent transition zone. Here we present a series of intersecting, depth migrated seismicreflection profiles that image one such reflector, the H-reflector, located on the southern edgeof Galicia Bank. ‘H’ lies beneath several boreholes drilled during ODP Legs 149 and 173,in a region where the oceanward extent of extended continental crust steps at least 150 kmwestward from its location in the southern Iberia Abyssal Plain to its location off the relativelyshallow Galicia Bank. In our profiles ‘H’ appears to define a surface that extends over a regionof at least 200 km2 and that dips down ?19? to the north, towards Galicia Bank. The profilesshow that a close affinity exists between ‘H’ and the most seaward continental crust. Based ongeophysical data and ODP drilling results, we infer that the basement above ‘H’ is composedof continental crust deformed by extensional faults into a series of wedge-shaped blocks andthin slivers. These basement wedges have a complex 3-D geometry. ‘H’ rises to the basementsurface on a number of the seismic profiles and appears to define locally the oceanward extentof continental fault blocks

Method for calculating allowable creep stress in linearly increasing stress environment

Constant creep data accumulation for design stress analysis on cladding material thickness around cylindrical reactor fuel elemen

Nuclear characteristics of a fissioning uranium plasma test reactor with light-water cooling

An analytical study was performed to determine a design configuration for a cavity test reactor. Test section criteria were that an average flux of 10 to the 15th power neutrons/sq cm/sec (E less than or equal to 0.12 eV) be supplied to a 61-cm-diameter spherical cavity at 200-atm pressure. Design objectives were to minimize required driver power, to use existing fuel-element technology, and to obtain fuel-element life of 10 to 100 full-power hours. Parameter calculations were made on moderator region size and material, driver fuel arrangement, control system, and structure in order to determine a feasible configuration. Although not optimized, a configuration was selected which would meet design criteria. The driver fuel region was a cylindrical annular region, one element thick, of 33 MTR-type H2O-cooled elements (Al-U fuel plate configuration), each 101 cm long. The region between the spherical test cavity and the cylindrical driver fuel region was Be (10 vol. % H2O coolant) with a midplane dimension of 8 cm. Exterior to the driver fuel, the 25-cm-thick cylindrical and axial reflectors were also Be with 10 vol. % H2O coolant. The entire reactor was contained in a 10-cm-thick steel pressure vessel, and the 200-atm cavity pressure was equalized throughout the driver reactor. Fuel-element life was 50 hr at the required driver power of 200 MW. Reactor control would be achieved with rotating poison drums located in the cylindrical reflector region. A control range of about 18 percent delta k/k was required for reactor operation

Neutronic design for a lithium-cooled reactor for space applications

Neutronic design calculations for lithium 7 cooled nuclear reactor for space application

Neutronics analysis of an open-cycle high-impulse gas core reactor concept

A procedure was developed to calculate the critical fuel mass, including the effects of propellant pressure, for coaxial-flow gas-core reactors operating at 196,600 newtons thrust and 4400 seconds specific impulse. Data were generated for a range of cavity diameter, reflector-moderator thickness, and quantity of structural material. Also presented are such core characteristics as upper limits on cavity pressure, spectral hardening in very-high-temperature hydrogen, and reactivity coefficients

Strong climate legislation and public behaviour change – the role of communication

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Effects of Pharmacological De-prenylation of Rhes on Motor Behavior in a Beta-Nitropropionic Acid Animal Model of Huntington\u27s Disease

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a heritable, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric disturbances. The progressive disease is caused by an unstable CAG expansion within the gene that normally encodes for the huntingtin protein (Htt). The expanded mutant form of Htt (mHtt) is expressed ubiquitously throughout patients’ bodies; however, neuronal degeneration is prominent only in the corpus striatum and, to a lesser extent, the cortex. The Ras homolog Rhes is also preferentially localized to the striatum. The putative co-factor Rhes has been shown to act with mHtt to cause neuronal death. Simvastatin, a lipid lowering drug, and zoledronate, a nitrogen bisphosphonate, act on the mevalonate pathway, which gives both Rhes and its target cells, binding sites. The current study aimed to interrupt the mevalonate pathway and inactivate, via de-prenylation, Rhes in CD-1 mice exposed to 3-nitroproprionic acid, a neurotoxin that mimics HD mitochondrial dysfunction and striatal degeneration. Results suggest that drug treatment does not rescue motor impairments and may potentiate 3-NP damage. The persistent motor deficits are discussed in relation to possible Rhes de-prenylation