The reign of Queen Anne,

Mode of access: Internet.

Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria;

Mode of access: Internet.

Innovation in the Local Context – A Case Study of BYD in China

In this paper we have used the case of BYD to examine firm innovation in the China context. From a historical perspective, with its strategic diversification from battery to mobile phone manufacturing to automobile manufacturing, we find that BYD has been innovative in its production method, vertical integration strategy, and design of product for local customers. The effective understanding and leveraging of local contextual factors including supply of labor (especially low cost-highly skilled labor), growing middle class, and local industry environments have played important roles for BYD’s innovation in China.

Influence of the substrate in germination of lychee seeds

The lychee is, all over the world, considered as the "queen of the fruits" due to the delicacy of its appearance and flavor. Although it was only recently that it started to have economical importance in Brazil, the lychee is already calling the attention of numerous farmers, mainly those who cultivate citric fruits and/or sugarcane in the State of São Paulo, due to the constant and at the same time growing necessity of finding new alternative crops. Considering that the commercial cultivation of lychee plants in the field requires the previous obtainment of rootstocks viewing to reduce the genetic variability and the length of the juvenile period displayed by plants resulting directly from the seeds, finding ways to improve the germination performance of lychee seeds for the production of rootstock plants is of considerable economic importance. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to test five substrates for the germination of lychee seeds: (1) vermiculite, (2) washed sand, (3) filter paper, (4) carbonized rice hull, and (5) sphagnum. The results showed that the period of time required by a lychee seed to germinate is a short one thus reinforcing the importance of providing a suitable substrate for the germination to take place. It was found that the substrates which apparently allowed the best combinations of water and oxygen availability for the seeds - washed sand and carbonized rice hull - were those leading to the fastest and highest germination values.

Elemental analysis of wood materials by external millibeam thick target PIXE

PIXE (Particle Induce X-ray Emission spectrometry) was used for analysing stem bark and stem wood of Scots pine, Norway spruce and Silver birch. Thick samples were irradiated, in laboratory atmosphere, with 3 MeV protons and the beam current was measured indirectly using a photo multiplicator (PM) tube. Both point scans and bulk analyses were performed with the 1 mm diameter proton beam. In bulk analyses, whole bark and sectors of discs of the stem wood were dry ashed at 550 ˚C. The ashes were homogenised by shaking and prepared to target pellets for PIXE analyses. This procedure generated representative samples to be analysed, but the enrichment also enabled quantification of some additional trace elements. The ash contents obtained as a product of the sample preparation procedure also showed to be of great importance in the evaluation of results in environmental studies. Spot scans from the pith of pine wood outwards, showed clearly highest concentrations of manganese, calcium and zinc in the first spot irradiated, or 2-3 times higher than in the surrounding wood. For stem wood from the crown part of a pine this higher concentration level was found in the first four spots/mms, including the pith and the two following growth rings. Zinc showed increasing concentrations outwards in sapwood of the pine stem, with the over-all lowest concentrations in the inner half of the sapwood. This could indicate emigration of this element from sapwood being under transformation to heartwood. Point scans across sapwood of pine and spruce showed more distinct variations in concentrations relative to hearth wood. Higher concentrations of e.g. zinc, calcium and manganese were found in earlywood than in denser latewood. Very high concentrations of iron and copper were also seen for some earlywood increments. The ash content of stem bark is up to and order higher than for the stem wood. However, when the elemental concentration in ashes of bark and wood of the same disc were compared, these are very similar – this when trees are growing at spots with no anthropogenic contamination from the atmosphere. The largest difference was obtained for calcium which appeared at two times high concentrations in ashes of bark than in ashes of the wood (ratio of 2). Pine bark is often used in monitoring of atmospheric pollution, where concentrations in bark samples are compared. Here an alternative approach is suggested: Bark and the underlying stem wood of a pine trees are dry ashed and analysed. The elemental concentration in the bark ash is then compared to the concentration of the same element in the wood ash. Comparing bark to wood includes a normalisation for the varying availability of an element from the soil at different sites. When this comparison is done for the ashes of the materials, a normalisation is also obtained for the general and locally different enrichment of inorganic elements from wood to bark. Already a ratio >2 between the concentration in the bark ash and the concentration in the wood ash could indicate atmospheric pollution. For monitoring where bark is used, this way of “inwards” comparison is suggested - instead of comparing to results from analyses of bark from other trees (read reference areas), growing at sites with different soil and, locally, different climate conditions. This approach also enables evaluation of atmospheric pollution from sampling of only relative few individual trees –preferable during forest felling.

Office of the City Clerk, St. Catharines Records, 1928-1974, n.d.

The site of present-day St. Catharines was settled by 3000 United Empire Loyalists at the end of the 18th century. From 1790, the settlement (then known as "The Twelve") grew as an agricultural community. St. Catharines was once referred to Shipman's Corners after Paul Shipman, owner of a tavern that was an important stagecoach transfer point. In 1815, leading businessman William Hamilton Merritt abandoned his wharf at Queenston and set up another at Shipman's Corners. He became involved in the construction and operation of several lumber and gristmills along Twelve Mile Creek. Shipman's Corners soon became the principal milling site of the eastern Niagara Peninsula. At about the same time, Merritt began to develop the salt springs that were discovered along the river which subsequently gave the village a reputation as a health resort. By this time St. Catharines was the official name of the village; the origin of the name remains obscure, but is thought to be named after Catharine Askin Robertson Hamilton, wife of the Hon. Robert Hamilton, a prominent businessman. Merritt devised a canal scheme from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario that would provide a more reliable water supply for the mills while at the same time function as a canal. He formed the Welland Canal Company, and construction took place from 1824 to 1829. The canal and the mills made St. Catharines the most important industrial centre in Niagara. By 1845, St. Catharines was incorporated as a town, with the town limits extending in 1854. Administrative and political functions were added to St. Catharines in 1862 when it became the county seat of Lincoln. In 1871, construction began on the third Welland Canal, which attracted additional population to the town. As a consequence of continual growth, the town limits were again extended. St. Catharines attained city status in 1876 with its larger population and area. Manufacturing became increasingly important in St. Catharines in the early 1900s with the abundance of hydro-electric power, and its location on important land and water routes. The large increase in population after the 1900s was mainly due to the continued industrialization and urbanization of the northern part of the city and the related expansion of business activity. The fourth Welland Canal was opened in 1932 as the third canal could no longer accommodate the larger ships. The post war years and the automobile brought great change to the urban form of St. Catharines. St. Catharines began to spread its boundaries in all directions with land being added five times during the 1950s. The Town of Merritton, Village of Port Dalhousie and Grantham Township were all incorporated as part of St. Catharines in 1961. In 1970 the Province of Ontario implemented a regional approach to deal with such issues as planning, pollution, transportation and services. As a result, Louth Township on the west side of the city was amalgamated, extending the city's boundary to Fifteen Mile Creek. With its current population of 131,989, St. Catharines has become the dominant centre of the Niagara region. Source: City of St. Catharines website http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/governin/HistoryOfTheCity.asp (January 27, 2011)

James VI of Scotland Letter, 1579

This letter authorizes William Hamilton of Portmollart to repair to Edinburgh notwithstanding the acts discharging the Hamiltons from being within six miles of the King’s person. James VI and James I (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots as James VI from July 24th, 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on March 24, 1603 after the passing of Elizabeth I.

Indenture between Patrick and Mary Burns and Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff

Indenture of mortgage in fee with dower between Patrick and Mary Burns of the Township of Grantham and Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff of St. Catharines regarding parts of Lots no. 19 and 23 in the 5th Concession in the Town of Grantham - instrument no. 14820. Listed in Book E, folio 339, October 3, 1864.

Indenture between Patrick and Mary Burns to Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff

Indenture of bargain and sale between Patrick and Mary Burns of Grantham to Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff of St. Catharines regarding part of Lot 23 in the 5th Concession in the Township of Grantham - instrument no. 491, December 10, 1868.

Emma Hamilton, a Model of Agency in Late Eighteenth-Century Europe

Emma Hamilton (1765-1815) eut un impact considérable à un moment charnière de l’histoire et de l’art européens. Faisant preuve d’une énorme résilience, elle trouva un moyen efficace d’affirmer son agentivité et fut une source d’inspiration puissante pour des générations de femmes et d’artistes dans leur propre quête d’expression et de réalisation de soi. Cette thèse démontre qu’Emma tira sa puissance particulière de sa capacité à négocier des identités différentes et parfois même contradictoires – objet et sujet ; modèle et portraiturée ; artiste, muse et œuvre d’art ; épouse, maîtresse et prostituée ; roturière et aristocrate ; mondaine et ambassadrice : et interprète d’une myriade de caractères historiques, bibliques, littéraires et mythologiques, tant masculins que féminins. Épouse de l’ambassadeur anglais à Naples, favorite de la reine de Naples et amante de l’amiral Horatio Nelson, elle fut un agent sur la scène politique pendant l’époque révolutionnaire et napoléonienne. Dans son ascension sociale vertigineuse qui la mena de la plus abjecte misère aux plus hauts échelons de l’aristocratie anglaise, elle sut s’adapter, s’ajuster et se réinventer. Elle reçut et divertit d’innombrables écrivains, artistes, scientifiques, nobles, diplomates et membres de la royauté. Elle participa au développement et à la dissémination du néoclassicisme au moment même de son efflorescence. Elle créa ses Attitudes, une performance répondant au goût de son époque pour le classicisme, qui fut admirée et imitée à travers l’Europe et qui inspira des générations d’interprètes féminines. Elle apprit à danser la tarentelle et l’introduisit dans les salons aristocratiques. Elle influença un réseau de femmes s’étendant de Paris à Saint-Pétersbourg et incluant Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, Germaine de Staël et Juliette Récamier. Modèle hors pair, elle inspira plusieurs artistes pour la production d’œuvres qu’ils reconnurent comme parmi leurs meilleures. Elle fut représentée par les plus grands artistes de son temps, dont Angelica Kauffman, Benjamin West, Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, George Romney, James Gillray, Joseph Nollekens, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence et Thomas Rowlandson. Elle bouscula, de façon répétée, les limites et mœurs sociales. Néanmoins, Emma ne tentait pas de présenter une identité cohérente, unifiée, polie. Au contraire, elle était un kaléidoscope de multiples « sois » qu’elle gardait actifs et en dialogue les uns avec les autres, réarrangeant continuellement ses facettes afin de pouvoir simultanément s’exprimer pleinement et présenter aux autres ce qu’ils voulaient voir.

The figure of the vampire as an emblem of tradition

Afin de se perpétuer dans le temps, la tradition recourt à des figures qui la véhiculent. Cette étude prend pour objet la figure du vampire qui, en transmettant des aspects importants de la tradition culturelle, prend la forme d’une tradition en soi, se manifestant dans une série de récits et d’œuvres littéraires et culturelles. Ces figures possèdent le plus grand pouvoir de transmission puisqu’elles ne sont pas des traditions à la base, mais elles ne peuvent rester culturellement importantes seulement qu’en devenant des traditions. C’est-à-dire que la figure du vampire possède sa propre tradition littéraire et/ou filmique, tout en offrant une vision de la transmission, de la tradition et de l’éducation. Afin de demeurer présentes à travers le temps, les traditions doivent posséder un noyau principal, tout en restant assez malléables afin que des caractéristiques secondaires de celles-ci puissent changer et évoluer. Le vampire est une figure toute aussi malléable que les traditions, faisant donc d’elle l’emblème parfait du concept. De plus, cinq nœuds de tradition réapparaissent, à différents niveaux, dans la littérature vampirique. Le choix de la victime, la morsure vampirique et l’échange de sang transformatif – et le lien de ceux-ci à une vision perverse de la sexualité, le processus d’éducation, le désir d’appartenir à une famille ou à une communauté et le besoin de comprendre ses origines, illustrent tous le lien indéniable entre la figure du vampire et le concept de la tradition. Ce mémoire explore l’impact de la figure du vampire comme emblème de la tradition à travers le roman vampirique classique – le plus traditionnel – Dracula de Bram Stoker et à travers les trois premiers tomes des Vampire Chronicles d’Anne Rice, soit Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat et Queen of the Damned, ainsi que leurs adaptations cinématographiques.

Flight initiation distances of nesting Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) in response to human disturbance

Birds frequently interact with people when they occur in coupled human-ecological or anthropogenic environments, which makes the protection of legally protected species a challenge. Flight initiation distances (FIDs) are often used to inform development of appropriate buffer distances required for human exclusion zones used to protect birds nesting in anthropogenic landscapes. Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) are protected by the Endangered Species Act in the United States and often nest in areas used by humans. Studies evaluating Piping Plover FIDs are limited and implementation of exclusion zones has been inconsistent across the species’ range. We measured Piping Plover response and FIDs to naturally occurring stimuli on public beaches at Lake McConaughy, Nebraska, USA. Piping Plover FIDs differed most by stimulus class (vehicle, human, dog, human with dog), Julian day, and hour of day. Piping Plover FIDs were greatest for dog and human with dog compared to humans and vehicles. For all types of stimuli, Piping Plover FIDs decreased over time during the nesting season and increased slightly during each day. In the majority of instances in which Piping Plovers left their nests, return times to the nest were relatively short (less than three minutes). These results suggest Piping Plovers become habituated to the presence of human-related stimuli over the course of a nesting season, but other explanations such as parental investment and risk allocation cannot be excluded. Additional research and improved guidance regarding the implementation of exclusion zones is needed so managers can implement effective protection programs in anthropogenic landscapes.

Modeling the patrol behavior of the Diacamma's gamergate

The gamergate (generally called the “queen”) of the Diacamma sp. walks around in the nest and comes into contact with the workers. The gamergate informs the workers of its presence by physical contact. This behavior is called a “patrol.” In previous work, it was reported that the gamergate controls its patrolling time depending on the colony size. How does the gamergate know the colony size, and how does it control the patrolling time? In this article, we propose a simple dynamics to explain this behavior. We assume that the gamergate and the workers have internal states which interact by physical contacts. By numerical simulations, we confirm that the patrol time of the proposed model depends on the size of the colony.

Influence of the substrate in germination of lychee seeds

A lichia é considerada em todo o mundo como a rainha das frutas, por sua aparência e sabor delicado. Atualmente, a cultura vem despertando interesse, principalmente no Estado de São Paulo, onde, em virtude dos problemas enfrentados pelos agricultores, destacando-se os de laranja e cana-de-açúcar, a procura por alternativas agrícolas vem se intensificando ainda mais. A propagação através de sementes não é recomendada comercialmente, pois as plantas de pé-franco são geneticamente muito desuniformes e apresentam período juvenil muito longo, demorando até 10 anos para entrar em produção; no entanto, a semente pode ser utilizada para a obtenção de porta-enxertos. Observou-se que a germinação de sementes de lichia ocorre rapidamente, reforçando a importância do uso de um substrato adequado. Pela análise dos resultados obtidos, verifica-se que o substrato que aparentemente permitiu as melhores combinações de água e disponibilidade de oxigênio para as sementes - casca de arroz carbonizada e areia lavada, foi o que proporcionou valores de germinação mais rápidos e mais altos.

Mating influence in the ovary differentiation in adult queens of Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

The present results show that in the ovarioles of a newly emerged (0 day) queen of A. mellifera only two regions may be distinguished: a proximal, short germarium and a very long distal, terminal filament. As the queen matures and gets ready for the nupcial flight, the germarium increases in lenght, advancing towered the distal end, as the terminal filament shortens. The ovarioles of queens ready to mate (6 to 8 days old) have, already one or two ovarian follicles, i.e. a very short proximal vitellarium, but a real vitellogenesis only starts after the fecundation. If the queen does not mate the ovarioles structure is disrupted (12-16 days old). In mated queen eggs the ovarioles present three differentiated regions, from the apice to the basis: a short terminal filament, a medium size germarium, and a very long basal vitellarium. As the eggs are laid, the emptied follicle collapses, degenerates and produces a corpus luteum.