Evolution of lactation : ancient origin and extreme adaptations of the lactation system

Lactation, an important characteristic of mammalian reproduction, has evolved by exploiting a diversity of strategies across mammals. Comparative genomics and transcriptomics experiments have now allowed a more in-depth analysis of the molecular evolution of lactation. Milk cell and mammary gland genomic studies have started to reveal conserved milk proteins and other components of the lactation system of monotreme, marsupial, and eutherian lineages. These analyses confirm the ancient origin of the lactation system and provide useful insight into the function of specific milk proteins in the control of lactation. These studies also illuminate the role of milk in the regulation of growth and development of the young beyond simple nutritive aspects.

Scandalous texts : the anxieties of the literary

This thesis explores contemporary literary scandals in order to identify the cultural and literary anxieties revealed by controversial works. Examining how scandals emerge in relation to challenging representations of children, women, religion and authenticity, the thesis argues that literary controversies reveal concerns about the construction of identity, history and reality.

The rise of ancient China : fragmentation and amalgamation

This book examines the source of Chinese civilization, foundations of traditional Chinese society and early patterns of power transition. It engages readers in a search for a broad understanding of China's traditional culture and the enduring legacies of the past-in-the-present. It questions the conventional view about China's past, be that of a Confucian, a Communist or a Western ethnocentric historiographer. Most theories concerning the history of China postulate a central culture based on the Yellow River valley and radiating out into the vast areas of what we know as China. Informed by the latest archaeological discoveries, the author points out an alternative view on formation and development of Chinese civilization. Exploring the social and political upheavals that characterized the continuous disintegration and annexation in the 1st millennium BC, the author offers a unique account of the process of periodic fragmentation and amalgamation. Though presented for specialists in the field, virtually every page of this book is intelligible to the lay person, opening a window for anyone interested in the subject to look at this ancient culture from a new angle.

A modern audience for the ancient mysteries of the occult : the evolution of Rudolf Steiner's esoteric architecture

In today’s secular society, occult conceptions of architecture may seem somewhat anachronistic, but at the turn of the twentieth century the bourgeoisie, alongside society’s artistic and intellectual elite, were enthusiastically embracing a myriad of esoteric doctrines and mystical impulses. One of the most prominent and enduring examples of this cultural phenomenon is to be found in Rudolf Steiner’s quasi-philosophical system of Anthroposophy. As a path of spiritual development based on ancient mysteries of the occult, Anthroposophy offered people the belief that there existed a way out of the chaos and meaninglessness of modern industrialised society. Steiner used the medium of architecture as a way of repackaging the occult’s venerable secrets into a tangible, material form that made their hidden message more readily accessible to his contemporary audience. While he was striving towards creating a totally new architectural language appropriate to the modern age, he perceived architectural style as an evolutionary process that revealed its spiritual content in a particular way in every epoch. As such, Steiner made free use of historical and mythological precedents as archetypal references in his work, thus giving his architecture a genealogy that has, until now, remained largely undefined. By investigating Steiner’s indebtedness to ancient temples and the architecture of the baroque, a greater understanding of his architectural heritage is made possible, which not only helps to locate him within the cultural milieu of his day, but also within the broader context of architectural history. A spiritual thread runs through this history that demonstrates that Steiner’s architecture is not as idiosyncratic as it may initially seem, though whether his work represents an original step forward in the development of modern architecture, or is merely a hangover of nineteenth century eclecticism, must also be considered in order to determine the architectural value of Steiner’s esoteric ideas.

Mobile texts and migrant audiences : rethinking literacy and assessment in a new media age

This article highlights the importance of rethinking literacy assessment in a digital and global world. Although pressures currently abound to narrow conceptions and practices of literacy, especially in an era of high stakes testing, digital multimodality and connectivity offer the potential for new ways of thinking, representing, and communicating, as well as new avenues for participating in relationships across social, geographic, and cultural difference. We explore the challenges of redesigning assessments so that they better take into account children's multiliterate capabilities. In so doing, we offer examples from our work in afterschool contexts that demonstrate how we have grappled with the complexities of assessment in new times.

Water in the Indic Traditions

The essay critically discusses the predominant role played by water in the lives of people from Vedic times to the present day, in the Hindu world. A number of ceremonies both happy or auspicious-making and secular have been associated with water. Several hymns of the Vedas, Brāhmanas, Mahābhārata, Āgamic and Purānic texts are drawn upon to bring out the legends and myths, and genuine beliefs, connected with water that underscore the sacred and profane, purificatory, healing and resuscitating dimensions of water. The essay treats readers to many ancient motifs concerning the pervasive value and utility of water. These comprise, variously, sacrifice, fertility rites, water-medium birth, divine metamorphosis, self-conceiving cosmic birth, totemism life-cycle rites, sanctifications, consecration and installation of icons and edifices, food rituals, monsoon rites, to pacifications, possession and exorcism, death, after-life and rebirth rituals. Reference is also made to the ecology of water resources, the economy of water scarcity, ‘war-wars’ or water imperialism, and water justice in the socio-political arenas of post independent India, in a rapidly liberalising and globalising world. In that regard practical applications of the knowledge-base are explored through the work of NGOs and Water Swamis in the subcontinent.

“The hope – the one hope – is that your generation will prove wiser and more responsible than mine.” Constructions of guilt in a selection of disaster texts for young adults

This paper explores a range of definitions of guilt, and argues that fiction for young adults which is set after a major disaster that has been caused by humans has surprisingly little emphasis on guilt. Focusing on Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells, Nuclear War Diary by James E. Sanford (Jr), The Last Children by Gudrun Pausewang, The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd and its sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017, and Days Like This by Alison Stewart, the paper argues that in post-nuclear texts for young adults the emphasis tends to be on the perceived responsibility of the young adult reader's generation to work towards preventing the disaster from becoming reality, rather than on the guilt of the adult generation that caused the disaster. However, in texts dealing with environmental disaster, the young adult reader's generation can be seen to have some measure of culpability, and so the issues of guilt and responsibility become more complex