Provincialism and the modern diaspora: T.S. Eliot and David Jones

This article considers how T. S. Eliot's promotion of the work of the Anglo-Welsh poet David Jones after the Second World War further involved him in a process of considering the resonances of the local and familiar as operative within the displacements of modernity. This promotion therefore retrospectively prioritized an aspect of Eliot's poetics which had been present, but occluded, all along. Conversely, the article considers how similar resonances in Jones's own work were enhanced by his encounter with Eliot's translation of the Francophone Caribbean poet St-John Perse's Anabase, an encounter which enabled Jones to establish an idiom responsive to the divergent cultural affinities inherent in ‘our situation’.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies new childhood obesity loci

Multiple genetic variants have been associated with adult obesity and a few with severe obesity in childhood; however, less progress has been made in establishing genetic influences on common early-onset obesity. We performed a North American, Australian and European collaborative meta-analysis of 14 studies consisting of 5,530 cases (≥95th percentile of body mass index (BMI)) and 8,318 controls (<50th percentile of BMI) of European ancestry. Taking forward the eight newly discovered signals yielding association with P < 5 × 10(-6) in nine independent data sets (2,818 cases and 4,083 controls), we observed two loci that yielded genome-wide significant combined P values near OLFM4 at 13q14 (rs9568856; P = 1.82 × 10(-9); odds ratio (OR) = 1.22) and within HOXB5 at 17q21 (rs9299; P = 3.54 × 10(-9); OR = 1.14). Both loci continued to show association when two extreme childhood obesity cohorts were included (2,214 cases and 2,674 controls). These two loci also yielded directionally consistent associations in a previous meta-analysis of adult BMI(1).

Six new loci associated with body mass index highlight a neuronal influence on body weight regulation

Common variants at only two loci, FTO and MC4R, have been reproducibly associated with body mass index (BMI) in humans. To identify additional loci, we conducted meta-analysis of 15 genome-wide association studies for BMI (n > 32,000) and followed up top signals in 14 additional cohorts (n > 59,000). We strongly confirm FTO and MC4R and identify six additional loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)): TMEM18, KCTD15, GNPDA2, SH2B1, MTCH2 and NEGR1 (where a 45-kb deletion polymorphism is a candidate causal variant). Several of the likely causal genes are highly expressed or known to act in the central nervous system (CNS), emphasizing, as in rare monogenic forms of obesity, the role of the CNS in predisposition to obesity.

A newly discovered portrait of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

This article establishes the authenticity of a half length portrait of Napoleon, long thought to be a copy.

Of tropics, prisons and bicycles: a conversation with David Arnold

David Arnold who retired this year as the Professor of Asian and Global History at the University of Warwick remains one of the most prolific historians of colonial medicine and modern South Asia. A founding member of the subaltern studies collective, he is considered widely as a pioneer in the histories of colonial medicine, environment, penology, hunger and famines within South Asian studies and beyond. In this interview he recalls his formative inspirations, ideological motivations and reflects critically on his earlier works, explaining various shifts as well as map- ping the possible course of future work. He talks at length about his forthcoming works on everyday technology, food and monsoon Asia. Finally, he shares with us his desire of initiating work on an ambitious project about the twin themes of poison and poverty in South Asian his- tory, beginning with the Bengal famine in the late eighteenth century and ending with the Bhopal gas tragedy of the early 1980s. This conversation provides insights into the ways in which the field of medical history in modern South Asia has been shaped over the past three decades through interactions with broader discussions on agency, resistance, power, everydayness, subal- tern studies, global and spatial histories. It hints further at the newer directions which are being opened up by such persisting intellectual entanglements.

Utveckling av en SMS-tjänst med David Siegels modell

Det satsas allt mer på mobiltelefontjänster idag och snabbt växande är sådana tjänster som involverar SMS. Högskolans Bibliotek på Campus Borlänge har ett intresse av att kunna erbjuda sina låntagare en påminnelsetjänst för försenade eller reserverade böcker.Vi fick i uppgift att under vårt examensarbete ta fram en prototyp av en SMS-tjänst åt biblioteket. Den skall påminna låntagare om att en bok är försenad och/eller att en reserverad bok har inkommit. Denna tjänst skall hjälpa biblioteket att nå ut med informationen till låntagaren via ett SMS till mobiltelefonen.Denna rapport är en undersökning av vilka delkomponenter i David Siegels modell som anses lämpade respektive inte lämpade för utveckling av ny funktionalitet som innefattar SMS till en befintlig webbplats. En förklaring finns varför vissa är lämpade och andra inte.I rapporten förklaras också att SMS-funktionen är en IT-tjänst, närmare bestämt en SMS-tjänst. Tjänsten utvecklas utifrån David Siegels modell och genom en prövning mot empirin har vi kommit fram till vilka delkomponenter som är lämpliga respektive inte lämpliga för utveckling av en SMS- tjänst.Vid utvecklingen av denna SMS-tjänst fungerade Siegels modell tillfredsställande. Om man använder de dokument vi anser vara viktiga för denna typ av utveckling kan vi rekommendera denna modell för framtida tilläggstjänster som innefattar SMS.

Professor David Firmage, Department of Biology and Environmental Studies

Professor Emeritus David Firmage, Department of Biology and Environmental Studies. Reading Looking for Alaska by Peter Jenkins

A Reading by David Wojhan

A Reading by David Wojhan on January 1, 1983.