Chaucer's presence in songes and sonettes

In an elegy to Wyatt published in Tottel’s Miscellany, Surrey claims that Wyatt ‘reft Chaucer the glory of his wit’. This statement, which both lauds and resists Chaucer, is a microcosm of the way Chaucer is treated throughout the Miscellany. In examining the collection’s paradoxical attitude to Chaucer, this essay focuses particularly on the Squire’s Tale, the Franklin’s Tale, Anelida and Arcite, the Legend of Good Women, and several short lyrics. In its interest in courtly love poetry and Petrarch, the Miscellany follows a trajectory in English poetry set by Chaucer. Its courtly verse is saturated with words, phrases, and tropes from his poetry. Rhyme royal, which he introduced into English poetry, is widely used. The Canterbury Tales has been fully assimilated and can be referred to allusively with the same confidence of the audience’s knowledge as is the case when referring to classical myth; in Wyatt’s ‘Myne owne Jhon Poins’, the speaker, disclaiming deceitfulness, says that he cannot ‘say that Pan/ Passeth Appollo in musike manifold:/ Praise syr Topas for a noble tale,/ And scorne the story that the knight tolde’ (lines 48-50). However, Chaucer’s poetry is also downplayed and contested in the Miscellany. ‘Truth’, the only poem of his which appears in the volume, is disingenuously placed in the ‘Uncertain Authors’ section. In addition, some of the most important elements of his work are strongly resisted in the Miscellany, either ignored, dismissed or challenged. These elements include Chaucer’s interest in variety of voice, his sympathetic engagement with women, particularly wronged women, and his interest in female speech and particularly female complaint. The Miscellany, by contrast, is dominated by male-voiced lyrics preoccupied with the pain inflicted on the lover by a lady who is frequently unfeeling, cruel, or faithless. Chaucer’s frequent focus on the cynical seduction and betrayal of female by male is reversed in the Miscellany, and the language and metaphors he uses to express male cruelty (e.g. the word ‘newfangleness’ and images of hooks, nets and traps) are usurped to describe the lady’s cruelty to the suffering lover. On occasion, poems in the Miscellany challenge specific Chaucerian texts; ‘On His Love Named White’ throws down a gauntlet to The Book of the Duchess, while two of Surrey’s poems implicitly take issue with the female falcon’s voice in the Squire’s Tale, giving the deceitful tercelet the opportunity to shout down the falcon’s charges. The essay thus shows that in many respects Tottel’s Miscellany is only superficially Chaucerian, and that it both passively and actively takes issue with Chaucer’s work.

High sensitivity recording of afferent nerve activity using ultra-compliant microchannel electrodes: an acutein vivovalidation

Neuroprostheses interfaced with transected peripheral nerves are technological routes to control robotic limbs as well as convey sensory feedback to patients suffering from traumatic neural injuries or degenerative diseases. To maximize the wealth of data obtained in recordings, interfacing devices are required to have intrafascicular resolution and provide high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) recordings. In this paper, we focus on a possible building block of a three-dimensional regenerative implant: a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel electrode capable of highly sensitive recordings in vivo. The PDMS 'micro-cuff' consists of a 3.5 mm long (100 µm × 70 µm cross section) microfluidic channel equipped with five evaporated Ti/Au/Ti electrodes of sub-100 nm thickness. Individual electrodes have average impedance of 640 ± 30 kΩ with a phase angle of −58 ± 1 degrees at 1 kHz and survive demanding mechanical handling such as twisting and bending. In proof-of-principle acute implantation experiments in rats, surgically teased afferent nerve strands from the L5 dorsal root were threaded through the microchannel. Tactile stimulation of the skin was reliably monitored with the three inner electrodes in the device, simultaneously recording signal amplitudes of up to 50 µV under saline immersion. The overall SNR was approximately 4. A small but consistent time lag between the signals arriving at the three electrodes was observed and yields a fibre conduction velocity of 30 m s−1. The fidelity of the recordings was verified by placing the same nerve strand in oil and recording activity with hook electrodes. Our results show that PDMS microchannel electrodes open a promising technological path to 3D regenerative interfaces.

Late Quaternary hydrological dynamics in the Middle Kalahari: forcing and feedbacks

The Kalahari region has become a major source of Quaternary palaeoenvironmental data derived primarily from the analysis of geomorphological proxies of environmental change. One suite of data, from palaeolacustrine landforms, has recently provided a new record of major hydrological changes in the last 150 ka [Burrough, S. L., Thomas, D. S. G., Bailey, R. M., 2009. Mega-Lake in the Kalahari: A Late Pleistocene record of the Palaeolake Makgadikgadi system. Quaternary Science Reviews, in press.]. Here we present an improved analysis of the drivers and feedbacks of lake level change, utilising information from three main sources: data from the lake system itself, from analyses of other late Quaternary records within the region and from climate modelling. Simulations using the Hadley Centre coupled climate model, HadCM3, suggest that once triggered, the lake body was large enough to potentially affect both local and regional climates. Surface waters and their interactions with the climate are therefore an important component of environmental dynamics during the late Quaternary. Through its capacity to couple Middle Kalahari environments to distant forcing mechanisms and to itself force environmental change, we demonstrate that the existence or absence of megalake Makgadikgadi adds a new level of complexity to the interpretations of environmental proxy records in southern Africa's summer rainfall zone.

Pollination deficits in UK apple orchards

Apple production in the UK is worth over £100 million per annum and this production is heavily dependent on insect pollination. Despite its importance, it is not clear which insect pollinators carry out the majority of this pollination. Furthermore, it is unknown whether current UK apple production, in terms of both yield and quality, suffers pollination deficits and whether production value could be increased through effective management of pollination services. The present study set out to address some of these unknowns and showed that solitary bee activity is high in orchards and that they could be making a valuable contribution to pollination. Furthermore, fruit set and apple seed number were found to be suffering potential pollination deficits although these were not reflected in apple quality. Deficits could be addressed through orchard management practices to improve the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators. Such practices include provision of additional floral resources and nesting habitats as well as preservation of semi-natural areas. The cost effectiveness of such strategies would need to be understood taking into account the potential gains to the apple industry.

Regulation of cell migration in cancer: investigation into the regulation of cancer cell blebbing in the extracellular matrix

Cell migration is a highly coordinated process and any aberration in the regulatory mechanisms could result in pathological conditions such as cancer. The ability of cancer cells to disseminate to distant sites within the body has made it difficult to treat. Cancer cells also exhibit plasticity that makes them able to interconvert from an elongated, mesenchymal morphology to an amoeboid blebbing form under different physiological conditions. Blebs are spherical membrane protrusions formed by actomyosin-mediated contractility of cortical actin resulting in increased hydrostatic pressure and subsequent detachment of the membrane from the cortex. Tumour cells use blebbing as an alternative mode of migration by squeezing through preexisting gaps in the ECM, and bleb formation is believed to be mediated by the Rho-ROCK signaling pathway. However, the involvement of transmembrane water and ion channels in cell blebbing has not been examined. In the present study, the role of the transmembrane water channels, aquaporins, transmembrane ion transporters and lipid signaling enzymes in the regulation of blebbing was investigated. Using 3D matrigel matrix as an in vitro model to mimic normal extracellular matrix, and a combination of confocal and time-lapse microscopy, it was found that AQP1 knockdown by siRNA ablated blebbing of HT1080 and ACHN cells, and overexpression of AQP1-GFP not only significantly increased bleb size with a corresponding decrease in bleb numbers, but also induced bleb formation in non-blebbing cell lines. Importantly, AQP1 overexpression reduces bleb lifespan due to faster bleb retraction. This novel finding of AQP1-facilitated bleb retraction requires the activity of the Na+/H+ pump as inhibition of the ion transporter, which was found localized to intracellular vesicles, blocked bleb retraction in both cell lines. This study also demonstrated that a differential regulation of cell blebbing by AQP isoforms exists as knockdown of AQP5 had no effect on bleb formation. Data from this study also demonstrates that the lipid signaling PLD2 signals through PA in the LPA-LPAR-Rho-ROCK axis to positively regulate bleb formation in both cell lines. Taken together, this work provides a novel role of AQP1 and Na+/H+ pump in regulation of cell blebbing, and this could be exploited in the development of new therapy to treat cancer.

Glädje i vårdandets värld

Föreliggande vårdvetenskapliga studie har som syfte att avtäcka och synliggöra glädjesom idé i vårdandets värld. Glädje sammanbinds med vårdandet genom kärleken somden tongivande kraften hos glädje. Vårdandets sak har genom historien alltid varit attlindra lidande och att tjäna liv och hälsa i en anda av kärlek och barmhärtighet. Dennastudie om glädje i vårdandet har en övergripande idéhistorisk inriktning och resultatetsammanställs i form av ett idémönster. Tolkningen sker genom en hermeneutisk ansatsmed fokus på förståelse av själva vårdandet. För att djupare förstå glädje, dessursprungsidé, väsen och uttrycksformer granskas begreppet ’glädje’ och de näraliggandebegreppen ’glad’ och ’ljus’ i etymologiska ordböcker samt i svenska, engelska ochlatinska ordböcker. Som stöd för tolkningen används klassiska texter innehållandefilosofers tankar om glädje. Glädje som idé glimtar fram i form av ett sjufaldigtmönster. Detta mönster innehåller särdrag hos glädje och det hjärtas natur somrespektive särdrag förverkligas i. I andlig mening utgör hjärtat livets medelpunkt ochkänslornas hemvist. Mönstret bildar bakgrund och blir vägledande vid den hermeneutiska läsningen omglädje, så som den framträder i berättelser om vårdande under åren 1900–1933. Dehistoriska källorna utgörs av facktidskriften Svensk sjukskötersketidning, böcker medberättelser om vårdande, arkivmaterial samt läroböcker om vårdarbete. Resultatetmynnar ut i ett idémönster, där idéer om det som gör glädje verksamt som vårdandeframträder. Dessa är det sanna hjärtats rena glädje – kärlek, glädje är ett kärleksbevis.Det brinnande hjärtats djupa glädje – livsglädje, glädje inspirerar och genererar kraft.Det bärande hjärtats glansfulla glädje – generositet, glädje är en gåva till den andra medlöfte om hjälp. Det inbjudande hjärtats glittrande glädje – gemenskap, glädje inbjudertill gemenskap. Det upprymda hjärtats uppsluppna glädje – integration, glädje gör attmänniskan kan glömma sitt lidande och närma sig den hon önskar vara. Detstämningsfulla hjärtats högtidliga glädje – bevärdigande, glädje skapar en anda ochatmosfär där människan upplever sig hedrad. Det fridfulla hjärtats stora glädje –räddning, en glädje visar sig när människan har erhållit det som kan begäras av gott ochundsluppet ont och är förnöjd med sin levnads lott. Förhoppningen är att dennagrundforskning ska öppna för ett nytt seende som kan leda till att glädjeuppmärksammas i vårdandets värld och artikuleras där.

Informations- och kommunikationsteknologi som stöd för patienter med astma och kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom avseende egenvård. En litteraturstudie.

Bakgrund: Astma och KOL är två vanlig kroniska sjukdomar som är kopplade till stort sjukdomslidande och lägre livskvalité. Många personer som idag lever med sjukdomarna lever isolerat från andra. Idag har vi en ständig utveckling av sociala nätverk som öppnar en ny möjlighet för egenvård. Egenvård kan göra att patienter får en bättre vardag samt att det lättare kan få ett socialt umgänge. Syfte: Syftet är sammanställa befintlig litteratur och där undersöka hur informations- och kommunikationsteknologi underlättar egenvården för patienter med astma och KOL. Metod: Litteraturstudie där artiklarna söktes i databaser för omvårdnadsvetenskap så som Web Of Science, pubmed och Cinahl. Litteraturstudien baseras på 16 vetenskapliga artiklar som både är kvalitativa och kvantitativa. Artiklarna som valdes är inte äldre än 10 år gamla, skrivna på engelska och publicerade i en vetenskaplig tidning. Resultat: Resultatet som artiklarna påvisade är grundade på IKT i form av datorer, mobiltelefoner, surfplattor och web-baserad program. Artiklarna visar att egenvården kan förbättras genom ökad livskvalité, bättre kommunikation och bättre sjukdomsinsikt när man använder IKT. Slutsats: IKT är en viktig roll i våran hälso- och sjukvård idag. Det finns dock liten forskning på hur egenvården kring astma och KOL påverkas av IKT. Den forskning som finns pekar åt är att den förbättrar för patienter. Det behövs även mer forskning kring IKT som en resurs för egenvård kring ett omvårdnadsperspektiv.

Beröringsbehandling hos patienter med cancer : En litteraturöversikt

Bakgrund: Varje år diagnostiseras cirka 64 000 personer med cancer och tumörsjukdomar är den näst vanligaste dödsorsaken i Sverige. Att få diagnosen cancer innebär en påfrestande tid både fysiskt och psykiskt. Sjuksköterskans arbetsuppgift är bland annat att lindra lidande och främja för god hälsa. Beröring är ett allmänmänskligt livslångt behov och blir extra tydligt när en dödlig sjukdom drabbar en människa. Syfte: Syftet är att belysa erfarenheter av beröringsbehandling hos sjuksköterskor och patienter med cancer. Metod: Studien har valt att genomföras som en litteraturöversikt, där 14 vetenskapliga artiklar användes varav 5 kvalitativa och 9 kvantitativa. Resultat: Resultatet delades in i två områden: Patienters erfarenheter av beröringsbehandling och sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av beröringsbehandling. Under området patienters erfarenheter framkom två kategorier: lindrande inverkan och främjande inverkan, samt underkategorierna: fysiskt obehag, psykiskt obehag, välbefinnande och närhet. Under området sjuksköterskors erfarenheter framkom en kategori: utbildning i beröringsbehandling samt underkategorin: upplevelser av beröringsbehandling. Slutsats: Beröringsbehandling har en kortvarig symtomlindrande inverkan på smärta, ångest, illamående samt ger ökat välbefinnande och livskvalitet. Därtill förbättrades kontakten mellan sjuksköterska och patient som bidrog till att den existentiella ensamheten minskades. Sjuksköterskorna såg patienten som en individ istället för en patient med en sjukdom.

Functional extruded snack products based on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) flours

Background – Chickpea and fenugreek are both legumes that confer several nutritional and functional virtues, especially to diabetes and associated metabolic syndrome conditions. They are high in protein and fibre, low in fat and prove to be low glycaemic. They also provide a gluten-free alternative to those suffering from celiac disease. Though these seeds are locally available, hardly any products appear on the supermarket shelves.
Objectives – The aim was to utilise the health and nutritional benefits of chickpea and fenugreek and develop acceptable snack products by extrusion technology.
Design – Preliminary trials were conducted with different proportions of rice and chickpea at a range of extruder conditions to optimise the raw material and processing conditions. Studies were then conducted at optimum processing conditions using a 7:3 chickpea and rice combination replacing with 2% fenugreek or 5, 10, 15 and 20% FenuLifeÒ (deodorized fenugreek powder). Products were evaluated for their physical (expansion, crunchiness and colour) and sensory ( texture, colour, flavour and overall acceptability) characteristics in order to identify their suitability as snack products.
Outcomes – Addition of chickpea up to 70% with rice showed increased expansion and stable product characteristics. Addition of fenugreek and FenuLifeÒ, indicated slight reduction in product expansion (radial) and crunchiness. However, the product made with 20% FenuLifeÒ had significant changes in expansion, crunchiness and colour values. The median scores of sensory evaluation indicated that all products were within the acceptable range. Inclusion of fenugreek showed lower ratings for flavour due to the strong bitter taste of fenugreek. There were no significant differences between products containing FenuLifeÒ (5-15%) in their colour, flavour, texture and overall quality.
Conclusion – This study demonstrates an opportunity for using chickpea and fenugreek in functional product development. Fenugreek in the form of deodorize powder (fenulifeÒ) could be incorporated up to 15% in a mixture of chickpea and rice to develop snack products of acceptable physical and sensory properties.

The outer limits of read-ability

This is a 20-minute presentation that involves 3 simultaneous 16mm film projections and live performance of sound poetry, which addresses issues of traumatic effect and affect. The Outer Limits of Read-ability extends the concerns of my earlier film, entitled Traum A Dream (Australia, 2003), into the immediacy of the performance situation. Traum A Dream has been described as “a representation of traumatised space, depicting a person who is consumed by a body of pain in which slowly something is remembered.” The Outer Limits of Read-ability enlists the strategies of experimental film, direct cinema, and punk, while invoking Artaud's notions of “cruel performance”

Pain, passion and faith : revisiting the place of Charles Wesley in early Methodism

Pain, Passion and Faith: Revisiting the Place of Charles Wesley in Early Methodism is a significant study of the 18th-century poet and preacher Charles Wesley. Wesley was an influential figure in 18th-century English culture and society; he was co-founder of the Methodist revival movement and one of the most prolific hymn-writers in the English language. His hymns depict the Christian life as characterized by a range of intense emotions, from ecstatic joy to profound suffering.

Duly delivered : women's experiences of birth planning

Critically examines the construct of power differentials in the childbirth experiences of forty-two women following the birth of their first child. Detailed data was collected using questionnaires and in-depth interviews with women from a range of localities around the State. The research demonstrated that childbirth processes in Victoria effectively ignore the wishes of pregnant women leading to them suffering significant physical and psychological health consequences.

Ontogenetic development of migration : Lagrangian drift trajectories suggest a new paradigm for sea turtles

Long distance migration occurs in a wide variety of taxa including birds, insects, fishes, mammals and reptiles. Here, we provide evidence for a new paradigm for the determinants of migration destination. As adults, sea turtles show fidelity to their natal nesting areas and then at the end of the breeding season may migrate to distant foraging sites. For a major rookery in the Mediterranean, we simulated hatchling drift by releasing 288 000 numerical particles in an area close to the nesting beaches. We show that the pattern of adult dispersion from the breeding area reflects the extent of passive dispersion that would be experienced by hatchlings. Hence, the prevailing oceanography around nesting areas may be crucial to the selection of foraging sites used by adult sea turtles. This environmental forcing may allow the rapid evolution of new migration destinations if ocean currents alter with climate change.

Breeding short-tailed shearwaters buffer local environmental variability in south-eastern Australia by foraging in Antarctic waters

BACKGROUND: Establishing patterns of movements of free-ranging animals in marine ecosystems is crucial for a better understanding of their feeding ecology, life history traits and conservation. As central place foragers, the habitat use of nesting seabirds is heavily influenced by the resources available within their foraging range. We tested the prediction that during years with lower resource availability, short-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris) provisioning chicks should increase their foraging effort, by extending their foraging range and/or duration, both when foraging in neritic (short trips) and distant oceanic waters (long trips). Using both GPS and geolocation data-loggers, at-sea movements and habitat use were investigated over three breeding seasons (2012-14) at two colonies in southeastern Australia. RESULTS: Most individuals performed daily short foraging trips over the study period and inter-annual variations observed in foraging parameters where mainly due to few individuals from Griffith Island, performing 2-day trips in 2014. When performing long foraging trips, this study showed that individuals from both colonies exploited similar zones in the Southern Ocean. The results of this study suggest that individuals could increase their foraging range while exploiting distant feeding zones, which could indicate that short-tailed shearwaters forage in Antarctic waters not only to maintain their body condition but may also do so to buffer against local environmental stochasticity. Lower breeding performances were associated with longer foraging trips to distant oceanic waters in 2013 and 2014 indicating they could mediate reductions in food availability around the breeding colonies by extending their foraging range in the Southern Ocean. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of foraging flexibility as a fundamental aspect of life history in coastal/pelagic marine central place foragers living in highly variable environments and how these foraging strategies are use to buffer this variability.

Long incubation bouts and biparental incubation in the nomadic Banded Stilt

Parental care strategies have been widely investigated in shorebirds that undertake long-distance regular migrations. In contrast, virtually nothing is known of the parental care of nomadic, opportunistically breeding shorebirds, although the irregular and short-lived nature of their breeding potentially accentuates the trade-offs between investment in successive clutches and between the sexes. We investigated the incubation behaviour of the nomadic, opportunistically breeding Banded Stilt (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus). Seven nests, filmed continuously with day–night cameras over 2–7 days, revealed that both sexes contributed to incubation, with males apparently the sole carer during hatching and early brood-rearing; this is a possible adaptation, which enables females to quickly produce a second clutch if favourable conditions persist. All incubator changeovers occurred after dark; incubation shifts averaged 44.8 ± 10.9 (s.e.m.) h (n = 11, 17.5–139.6 h), the longest recorded for any shorebird. Incubation constancy averaged 96.5%; this high value is possibly an adaptation to high predation and the need for rapid embryonic development in the face of ephemeral resources for breeding. Long incubation shifts may be explained by extended foraging trips to distant areas of the partially inundated salt-lake surface, where food resources had been concentrated by wind-driven water movement.