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This thesis collects, transcribes, and, with reference to household documents and contemporary literature, annotates and interprets the surviving correspondence of a constellation of seven upper servants who at various points in the second half of the sixteenth century were stationed at or moved between several country houses and estates of which Bess of Hardwick was mistress. The thesis finds that the extant correspondence of Bess’s servants falls into two categories: (1) letters of management exchanged between Bess and five of her household and estate officers (Francis Whitfield, James Crompe, William Marchington, and Edward Foxe at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire and nearby estates in the 1550s-1560s, and Nicholas Kynnersley at Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire in the late 1580s) and (2) letters seeking practical and political patronage, written in the early 1580s by two of Bess’s gentle-born personal attendants, William Marmyon and Frances Battell, to contacts outside Bess’s itinerant (and at that time politically vulnerable) household. Close literary, linguistic (historical pragmatic), and material readings reveal that all these letters adapt and surpass conventional expressions as they engage in practical problem-solving, complex interpersonal exchanges, and domestic politics. The thesis argues that the manuscript letters materialise dynamic verbal performances of their writers’ specific social roles and relationships — the mistress-servant relationship foremost among them. Each writer simultaneously registers and renegotiates his or her own experience of the mistress-servant relationship through the combination of diverse epistolary features, which include verbal etiquette and page layout, degrees of directness or circumlocution, complexity of syntax, tone, use of emotive language, discourses of pleasure and displeasure, personalised content (which ranges from in-jokes to empathy to distinctive pen flourishes), and explicit expressions of authority or loyalty, as well as job-specific terminology and subject matter. Frequency of correspondence, modes of delivery, and the afterlives of letters are shown to carry further social significance. The correspondence of Bess of Hardwick’s servants acts as a touchstone for the complex role of letter-writing in the formation of social selves and the performance of domestic duties in sixteenth-century England. By accurately transcribing these letters, interpreting them using a unique combination of literary, linguistic, and visual analysis, and reconstructing from these letters and additional archival sources the careers of several servants of one mistress, this thesis opens up new material, perspectives, questions, and methods for early modern cultural studies.

It is not a complete reference work, containing every facet ever discovered about the medieval era, but rather, a thorough overview of many aspects of medieval life, ranging from medicine to heraldry to weights and measures. There is an extended chapter on clothing, which traces the evolution of design, fabrics, colours, and accessories throughout the time period. Other topics include food, holidays, kings and queens, the Church, Crusades and war. The chapter on women dispels the myth of the oppressed, stay-at-home medieval woman, stating that while that was certainly the case with many, some from the middle class practised trades and joined guilds while peasant women worked alongside their husbands, and noblewomen controlled the castle in their husbands' absence.

Background Thyroid carcinoma is a rare malignancy in middle-aged to older, medium to large breed dogs. Most are carcinomas or adenocarcinomas and are often detected incidentally via palpation or advanced imaging, such as computed tomography. Up to 48% of dogs present with metastatic disease, primarily in lymph nodes and lungs. Preferred treatment is thyroidectomy, but many dogs are poor candidates due to tumour immobility and metastasis. Stereotactic body radiation therapy and radioactive iodine (I 131 ) are emerging treatments with promising outcomes in these cases. This report describes a dog with metastatic ectopic thyroid carcinoma treated with both SBRT and I 131 . Case presentation This case describes a 10-year-old Jack Russell Terrier mix presenting with an ectopic thyroid carcinoma at the heart base and pericardial effusion. Initial treatment involved stereotactic body radiation therapy in three fractions totalling 21 Gy. Seven weeks later, with persistent tumour-related signs, a subcutaneous injection of 1600 MBq of I 131 was administered. The dog clinically improved, while showing initial tumour reduction on cardiac ultrasound and thoracic radiographs. 37 months later, the dog presented again with recurrent pericardial effusion. Thoracic radiographs and ultrasound revealed metastatic nodules and increased size of the primary heart-based mass, indicating disease progression. A second dose of I 131 (1600 MBq) was administered, but restrictive pericarditis and effusion necessitated a subtotal pericardectomy. Nine months after the second I 131 treatment, the dog presented with similar signs and further disease progression evident on imaging including pleural effusion. Though treatment options, including a third I 131 dose and a second SBRT course, were discussed, the owners chose to humanely euthanise the dog. Conclusions This case highlights an unusually prolonged survival in a dog with metastatic ectopic thyroid carcinoma, suggesting the potential for extended disease control with multimodal external beam radiation and I 131 therapies.

Microbial contamination of plastic surfaces is a significant source of hospital‐acquired infections. To produce antimicrobial surfaces, chlorhexidine was attached to nitrided acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The uniformity of chlorhexidine distribution on the plastic surfaces was revealed by time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF‐SIMS) imaging. Its antimicrobial efficacy was established against model pathogenic Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The stability of the bonded chlorhexidine was evaluated via a leaching test. The surfaces rapidly killed microbes: no viable colonies of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, or Candida albicans were recoverable after 45 minutes. It was effective against SARS‐COV‐2, with no viable virions found after 30 minutes. Additionally, the surfaces were as effective in killing chlorhexidine‐resistant strains of bacteria as they were in killing naïve strains. The surface was stable; after 2 weeks of leaching, no detectable chlorhexidine was found in the leachate. We believe that the technology is widely applicable to prevent the spread of fomite infection. Fomite transmission of disease plays a key role in hospital acquired infection. In this study the use of surface activation and the attachment of biocides to polymer materials to prevent microbial contamination are studied. The attachment of chlorhexidine to the surfaces imparts both antibacterial and anti‐viral activity to the polymers.

The physiology of SARS-CoV-2 virus/host interactions is not well understood. To better understand host/virus interactions, we performed a CRISPR activation screen to identify host genes that confer resistance to authentic SARS-CoV-2. This highlighted 34 new candidate genes that may alter the course of infection. We validated that 7 of these genes can suppress authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection, including the innate immune receptor P selectin, which increases SARS-CoV-2 spike-dependent binding to cells, while protecting from infection. P selectin also promotes binding to SARS-CoV-2 variants, SARS-CoV-1, and Middle East respiratory syndrome spike proteins, suggesting a general role for P selectin in highly pathogenic coronavirus infections. Importantly, P selectin protein expression driven by synthetic mRNA can block SARS-CoV-2 infection. Naturally, P selectin is expressed on platelets, and we show that it promotes spike-mediated platelet aggregation. P selectin is also expressed on the endothelium, where SARS-CoV-2 spike interactions are also P selectin dependent. In vivo, SARS-CoV-2 uses P selectin to home to capillary beds where the virus interacts with platelets and endothelium, and blocking this interaction can clear vascular-associated pulmonary SARS-CoV-2.

PurposeThe initial aim of this multiagency, multigenerational record linkage study is to identify childhood profiles of developmental vulnerability and resilience, and to identify the determinants of these profiles. The eventual aim is to identify risk and protective factors for later childhood-onset and adolescent-onset mental health problems, and other adverse social outcomes, using subsequent waves of record linkage. The research will assist in informing the development of public policy and intervention guidelines to help prevent or mitigate adverse long-term health and social outcomes.ParticipantsThe study comprises a population cohort of 87 026 children in the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW). The cohort was defined by entry into the first year of full-time schooling in NSW in 2009, at which time class teachers completed the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) on each child (with 99.7% coverage in NSW). The AEDC data have been linked to the children's birth, health, school and child protection records for the period from birth to school entry, and to the health and criminal records of their parents, as well as mortality databases.Findings to dateDescriptive data summarising sex, geographic and socioeconomic distributions, and linkage rates for the various administrative databases are presented. Child data are summarised, and the mental health and criminal records data of the children's parents are provided.Future plansIn 2015, at age 11 years, a self-report mental health survey was administered to the cohort in collaboration with government, independent and Catholic primary school sectors. A second record linkage, spanning birth to age 11 years, will be undertaken to link this survey data with the aforementioned administrative databases. This will enable a further identification of putative risk and protective factors for adverse mental health and other outcomes in adolescence, which can then be tested in subsequent record linkages.

Human pressures on ecosystems from landscape transformation and harvesting can result in changes to body size and functional traits of affected species. However, these effects remain very poorly understood in many settings. Here we examine whether and how fishing and the attributes of coastal seascapes can operate in concert to change the body size and functional traits of the giant mud crab, Scylla serrata; a prized fisheries species. We captured 65 legal sized (> 15 cm carapace width) male giant mud crabs from 13 estuaries in southeast Queensland, Australia. These estuaries span a wide range of fishing and catchment landscape transformation intensity. We made a total of 9000 external morphometric measurements in the study. There was a distinct effect of estuarine landscape context on body size, with the largest individuals captured from systems with bigger inlets and lower extent of intertidal flats. Variation in functional traits was most often associated with variation in fishing pressure and human population size in the catchment. Crabs from areas with less commercial fishing pressure and lower human populations in the catchment had the largest chelipeds. We also found effects of urbanisation (negative correlations), intertidal flats (inconsistent effects) and mangrove extent (positive correlations) on the size of some functional traits. Our results show that human pressures can have sublethal effects on animals in estuaries that alter body size and functional traits. These phenotypic responses might have consequences for the fitness and ecological roles of targeted species, and the yields of fisheries catches.