Dinosaur footprints from the Duntulm Formation (Bathonian, Jurassic) of the Isle of Skye

The first in situ dinosaur tracks from Scotland were discovered at the top of the Duntulm Formation (Bathonian, Jurassic) near to Staffin in northeastern Skye. Fifteen individual tridactyl footprints were recorded of which two pairs appear to have been part of the same trackway. The footprints are preserved as natural moulds on a mud-cracked sandstone surface. The individual track sizes range from about 30 cm to over 50 cm in length with narrow to broad digits suggestive of having been made by a medium to large bipedal dinosaur

Geoengineering: A war on climate change?

Geoengineering; specifically Solar Radiation Management ; has been proposed to effect rapid influence over the Earth’s climate system in order to counteract Anthropogenic Global Warming. This poses near-term to long-term governance challenges; some of which are within the planning horizon of current political administrations. Previous discussions of governance of SRM have focused primarily on two scenarios: an isolated “Greenfinger” individual; or state; acting independently ; versus more consensual; internationalist approaches. I argue that these models represent a very limited sub-set of plausible deployment scenarios. To generate a range of alternative models; I offer a short; relatively unstructured discussion of a range of different types of warfare – each with an analogous SRM deployment regime

'The manly game' : cricket and masculinity in Savannah, Georgia in 1859

This study examines the rise and fall of the Savannah Cricket Club in 1859. It demonstrates that while cricket had deep historical roots in Georgia, there were specific reasons for the creation of the SCC in 1859. Most important of these was the players' own perception of their masculine identity, and the opportunity that cricket offered as a forum for its expression. By 1860, however, the approaching Civil War meant that military activity replaced sport as the main forum for expressing manliness. This study aims to shed new light on the interaction of sport, leisure and gender in antebellum Southern society

Rural poor relief in colonial South Carolina

This article explores the rural poor relief system of colonial South Carolina. It finds that poor relief was substantially more generous and more readily available in rural areas of South Carolina than elsewhere in British North America, or indeed in the entire Anglophone world. It suggests that this was because elite vestrymen had deep-seated concerns about the position of the white poor in a society that was dominated by African slavery. Generous relief of adult paupers was therefore a public demonstration of the privileges of race to which all whites were entitled. Elites in rural South Carolina also made considerable efforts to provide a free education for pauper children that would inculcate industry and usefulness among those who might become future public burdens. The serious attention paid to the situation of the white poor in colonial South Carolina was therefore part of an effort to ensure the unity of white society by overcoming the divisions of class

Black and white relations

The roughly ten million Africans transported forcibly to the Americas between 1500 and 1850 were thrust headlong into a bewildering variety of different environments. Some cleared the jungles of South America, others grew sugar on small Caribbean islands, while a smaller number laboured in rice fields and tobacco farms or on the wharves of ports on the North American mainland. In all of these locations enslaved Africans added to a pre-existing mix of Native Americans, immigrant Europeans and their descendants. Enslaved Africans were never completely isolated from these other populations though in several Caribbean islands and in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia nine out of ten individuals were enslaved

Survival strategies of poor white women in Savannah, 1800–1860

Poor white women had a particularly challenging experience in antebellum Savannah since they were female in a patriarchal society and poor members of the ‘superior race’ that had numerous legal and social advantages. This articles explores the multiple ingenious survival strategies adopted by poor white women in Savannah, including marriage, employment, crime and charity. It ultimately argues that poor white women exploited their racial privileges to the full by taking advantage of legal loopholes and lax law enforcement to earn money, while at the same time earning the sympathy and financial support of elite white men and women via benevolent organisations. Poor white women were able to survive in slave societies because they had significant racial privileges that could not be denied

Black mortality in antebellum Savannah

Black mortality in an urban environment in the antebellum South is relatively under-researched. This article is based on burial records from Savannah between 1853 and 1861 and argues that black mortality in Savannah was noticeably better than on nearby plantations and was broadly comparable to white mortality. This is in contrast to previous studies on slave mortality which have tended to stress that black mortality was worse than white. I conclude by arguing that mortality was linked to more closely to class than race in Savannah

Southern manhood : perspectives on masculinity in the Old South [Book review]

For southern historians it sometimes seems as if our understanding of southern masculinity has not progressed much since the publication of Bertram Wyatt-Brown's Southern Honor: Ethics and Behaviour in the Old South twenty-five years ago. While those interested in lives of women have published numerous monographs and articles, outlining the particular stresses and strains to which enslaved women and their free counterparts were subjected to, the same cannot be said for men. Our stereotype of the upright southern man (nearly always elite whites), concerned with his honor and with expressing his mastery of his dependents, has remained largely intact. Friend and Glover's collection aims to challenge that monolithic view of southern masculinity and does so successfully

Adaptive immunity in cancer immunology and therapeutics.

Copyright: © the authors; licensee ecancermedicalscience. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The vast genetic alterations characteristic of tumours produce a number of tumour antigens that enable the immune system to differentiate tumour cells from normal cells. Counter to this, tumour cells have developed mechanisms by which to evade host immunity in their constant quest for growth and survival. Tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) are one of the fundamental triggers of the immune response. They are important because they activate, via major histocompatibility complex (MHC), the T cell response, an important line of defense against tumourigenesis. However, the persistence of tumours despite host immunity implies that tumour cells develop immune avoidance. An example of this is the up-regulation of inhibitory immune checkpoint proteins, by tumours, which induces a form of self-tolerance. The majority of monoclonal antibodies in clinical practice have been developed to target tumour-specific antigens. More recently there has been research in the down-regulation of immune checkpoint proteins as a way of increasing anti-tumour immunity