The difference of Being in the early modern world: a relational-material approach to life in Scotland in the period of the witch trials

This thesis investigates how ways of being in different ontologies emerge from material and embodied practice. This general concern is explored through the particular case study of Scotland in the period of the witch trials (the 16th and 17th centuries C.E.). The field of early modern Scottish witchcraft studies has been active and dynamic over the past 15 years but its prioritisation of what people said over what they did leaves a clear gap for a situated and relational approach focusing upon materiality. Such an approach requires a move away from the Cartesian dichotomies of modern ontology to recognise past beliefs as real to those who experienced them, coconstitutive of embodiment and of the material worlds people inhabited. In theory, method and practice, this demands a different way of exploring past worlds to avoid flattening strange data. To this end, the study incorporates narratives and ‘disruptions’ – unique engagements with Contemporary Art which facilitate understanding by enabling the temporary suspension of disbelief. The methodology is iterative, tacking between material and written sources in order to better understand the heterogeneous assemblages of early modern (counter-) witchcraft. Previously separate areas of discourse are (re-)constituted into alternative ontic categories of newly-parallel materials. New interpretations of things, places, bodies and personhoods emerge, raising questions about early modern experiences of the world. Three thematic chapters explore different sets of collaborative agencies as they entwine into new things, co-fabricating a very different world. Moving between witch trial accounts, healing wells, infant burial grounds, animals, discipline artefacts and charms, the boundaries of all prove highly permeable. People, cloth and place bleed into one another through contact; trees and water emerge as powerful agents of magical-place-making; and people and animals meet to become single, hybrid-persons spread over two bodies. Life and death consistently emerge as protracted processes with the capacity to overlap and occur simultaneously in problematic ways. The research presented in this thesis establishes a new way of looking at the nature of Being as experienced by early modern Scots. This provides a foundation for further studies, which can draw in other materials not explored here such as communion wares and metal charms. Comparison with other early modern Western societies may also prove fruitful. Furthermore, the methodology may be suitable for application to other interdisciplinary projects incorporating historical and material evidence.

Assessment of the spatial variability in Tall wheatgrass forage using LANDSAT 8 satellite imagery to delineate potential management zones

Little information is available on the degree of within-field variability of potential production of Tall wheatgrass (Thinopyrum ponticum) forage under unirrigated conditions. The aim of this study was to characterize the spatial variability of the accumulated biomass (AB) without nutritional limitations through vegetation indexes, and then use this information to determine potential management zones. A 27-×-27-m grid cell size was chosen and 84 biomass sampling areas (BSA), each 2 m(2) in size, were georeferenced. Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers were applied after an initial cut at 3 cm height. At 500 °C day, the AB from each sampling area, was collected and evaluated. The spatial variability of AB was estimated more accurately using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), calculated from LANDSAT 8 images obtained on 24 November 2014 (NDVInov) and 10 December 2014 (NDVIdec) because the potential AB was highly associated with NDVInov and NDVIdec (r (2) = 0.85 and 0.83, respectively). These models between the potential AB data and NDVI were evaluated by root mean squared error (RMSE) and relative root mean squared error (RRMSE). This last coefficient was 12 and 15 % for NDVInov and NDVIdec, respectively. Potential AB and NDVI spatial correlation were quantified with semivariograms. The spatial dependence of AB was low. Six classes of NDVI were analyzed for comparison, and two management zones (MZ) were established with them. In order to evaluate if the NDVI method allows us to delimit MZ with different attainable yields, the AB estimated for these MZ were compared through an ANOVA test. The potential AB had significant differences among MZ. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that NDVI obtained from LANDSAT 8 images can be reliably used for creating MZ in soils under permanent pastures dominated by Tall wheatgrass.

Insights into (S)-rivastigmine inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE): Molecular docking and saturation transfer difference NMR (STD-NMR)

Rivastigmine is a very important drug prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms. It is a dual inhibitor, in that it inhibits both acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). For our screening program on the discovery of new rivastigmine analogue hits for human butyrylcholinesterase (hBuChE) inhibition, we investigated the interaction of this inhibitor with BuChE using the complimentary approach of the biophysical method, saturation transfer difference (STD)-NMR and molecular docking. This allowed us to obtain essential information on the key binding interactions between the inhibitor and the enzyme to be used for screening of hit compounds. The main conclusions obtained from this integrated study was that the most dominant interactions were (a) H-bonding between the carbamate carbonyl of the inhibitor and the NH group of the imidazole unit of H434, (b) stacking of the aromatic unit of the inhibitor and the W82 aromatic unit in the choline binding pocket via pi-pi interactions and (c) possible CH/pi interactions between the benzylic methyl group and the N-methyl groups of the inhibitor and W82 of the enzyme.

Assessment of sugarcane harvesting residue effects on soil spectral behavior

When the harvesting of sugarcane involves a mechanized process, plant residues remain on the soil surface, which makes proximal and remote sensing difficult to monitor. This study aimed to evaluate, under laboratory conditions, differences in the soil spectral behavior of surface layers Quartzipsamment and Hapludox soil classes due to increasing levels of sugarcane?s dry (DL) and green (GL) leaf cover on the soil. Soil cover was quantified by supervised classification of the digital images (photography) taken of the treatments. The spectral reflectance of the samples was obtained using the FieldSpec Pro (350 to 2500 nm). TM-Landsat bands were simulated and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and soil line were also determined. Soil cover ranged from 0 to 89 % for DL and 0 to 80 % for GL. Dry leaf covering affected the features of the following soil constituents: iron oxides (480, 530 and 900 nm) and kaolinite (2200 nm). Water absorption (1400 and 1900 nm) and chlorophyll (670 nm) were determinant in differentiating between bare soil and GL covering. Bands 3 and 4 and NDVI showed pronounced variations as regards differences in soil cover percentage for both DL and GL. The soil line allowed for discrimination of the bare soil from the covered soil (DL and GL). High resolution sensors from about 50 % of the DL or GL covering are expected to reveal differences in soil spectral behavior. Above this coverage percentage, soil assessment by remote sensing is impaired.

Study of Tenderization Method of Old Goat Meat

The objective of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of tenderization methods on several characteristics of goat meat.  A total of 6 goats (approximately 3 years of age) were used in the study.  The meat was obtained from the hind leg (m. biceps femoris).  Treatments were arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 6 replicates in each treatment.  The treatments were P0: control, P1: the meat was submerged in pineapple juice extract, P2: the meat was electrically stimulated, and P3: the meat was injected with CaCl2 solution.  The variables measured were tenderness (mm/g/s), pH, water holding capacity (%), cooking losses (%), moisture content (%) and dissolved protein content (μg/ml).  Data obtained were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and Least Significant Difference compare the differences between means.  The result showed that treatments significantly (P<0.01) affected the meat tenderness, pH and water holding capacity but not significantly (P>0.05) affected meat cooking losses, moisture content and dissolved protein.  It can be concluded that injection CaCl2 was more effective in improving the tenderness of old goat meat. . (Animal Production 7(2): 106-110 (2005) Key Words : Tenderization Method, Pineapple Juice Extract, Goat meat, CaCl2, Electrical Stimulation

Method to find the deed already done

Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay to offer the reader the knowledge of how he created one of his most widespread poem, "The Raven". Carlos Ginzburg revisits its path to building your online research about witchcraft and gave up as the choice of the base object of this research and special the study entitled “Good Walkers”. Both Poe and Ginzburg talk about the method of the development of their work, but adopt contrary postures what drives them in carrying out their work. The rule and intuition. The ideal and the desire. Mediating this difference, this text follows the paradigm of the method of Giorgio Agamben. Whereas the method is only the description of the deed already done and not a pre-order already known that can build an innovation.

DIALECTICAL ASSESSMENT BY THE MATCHED GUISE METHOD

Beliefs and behavior towards language are usually uniform in a spoken community which means that they are shared by the members of certain community. Those behaviors, being either positive or negative, are not revealed when the speaker is directly questionned about different dialects. In with the purpose of applying them to the respondents so that they are unaware of the investigation goal.  Among the several indirect assessments, the most known is the matched guise method, proposed by Lambert (2003 [1967]). It consists of presenting the collected data to a group of “referees” (listeners who measure or assess the recorded speakers’ interviews). The recorded interviews consists of speakers reading aloud the same passage of a text. The referees’s duty is to listen to the recordings and measure each speaker’s personal traces, using only the vocal clues and the reading.  This work, based on Linguistic Beliefs and Behaviors Studies, brings the results obtained by means of a questionnaire adapted from the matched guise method, aiming to assess cariocas (from Rio de Janeiro), gauchos (from Rio Grande do Sul) and Northern Parana respondents, regarding their three different linguistic varieties. For the assessment, referees were not informed whether they would listen to different kinds of linguistic varieties or if they were produced by speakers of different dialects as well. One of the varieties represented, in fact, the own referee’s dialect. Forty-eight Maringa dwellers responded to the interview. Thirty-two of them were born in other states (16 cariocas and 16 gauchos). Results showed positive assessment related to gauchos, signaling to a preference for that dialect. As to carioca’s dialect, the assessment was also positive and close to the gauchos’, only 2% percentage difference.  As to Northern Parana speakers, however, results showed negative assessment, signaling to rejection or prejudice towards the speaking group.

Detailed analysis of a conservative difference approximation for the time fractional diffusion equation

Diffusion equations that use time fractional derivatives are attractive because they describe a wealth of problems involving non-Markovian Random walks. The time fractional diffusion equation (TFDE) is obtained from the standard diffusion equation by replacing the first-order time derivative with a fractional derivative of order α ∈ (0, 1). Developing numerical methods for solving fractional partial differential equations is a new research field and the theoretical analysis of the numerical methods associated with them is not fully developed. In this paper an explicit conservative difference approximation (ECDA) for TFDE is proposed. We give a detailed analysis for this ECDA and generate discrete models of random walk suitable for simulating random variables whose spatial probability density evolves in time according to this fractional diffusion equation. The stability and convergence of the ECDA for TFDE in a bounded domain are discussed. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to show the application of the present technique.

An approximate method for the solution of an influence function foil rolling model

Fleck and Johnson (Int. J. Mech. Sci. 29 (1987) 507) and Fleck et al. (Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. 206 (1992) 119) have developed foil rolling models which allow for large deformations in the roll profile, including the possibility that the rolls flatten completely. However, these models require computationally expensive iterative solution techniques. A new approach to the approximate solution of the Fleck et al. (1992) Influence Function Model has been developed using both analytic and approximation techniques. The numerical difficulties arising from solving an integral equation in the flattened region have been reduced by applying an Inverse Hilbert Transform to get an analytic expression for the pressure. The method described in this paper is applicable to cases where there is or there is not a flat region.