The Penny Post (1851–1896), a religious working-class magazine, was published following a critical time for the Oxford Movement, a High Church movement in the Church of England. The Oxford Movement's ideas were leaving the academic atmosphere of Oxford and traveling throughout the local parishes, where the ideals of Tractarian teachings met the harsh realities of practice and the motivations and beliefs of the working-class parishioners. The upper-class paternalistic ideologies of the Oxford Movement were not reflected in the parishes, and the working-classes felt distanced from their place in religious worship. The Penny Post was published and written by Tractarian clergymen and followers to "triumph in the Working Man's Home," attempting to convince a working-class audience that the upper-class Tractarian clergymen and parishioners both understood and wanted to help the poorer peoples of society. However, an analysis of the Penny Post reveals that its creators had more complex motives and were targeting a more diverse audience than they claimed. Because of these complexities, the Penny Post's creators could not reconcile the discrepancies between working-class ideologies and upper-class ideologies; the Penny Post, in the end, undermined its own intended purposes. The elements of the magazine that attempted to address working-class concerns were overshadowed by other elements that, while appearing to address working-class concerns, directly targeted an upper-class audience. This dichotomy of purpose—simultaneously addressing different classes with different, often contradictory, beliefs—reveals the multifaceted nature of the Penny Post's efforts to reach their audiences. The Penny Post is a magazine that simultaneously addresses an upper-class audience and a working-class audience, a duality that creates ideological contradictions and tensions throughout the magazine. These tensions reflect the class issues within Victorian society and the ways religious movements dealt with those tensions in periodicals like the Penny Post. The Penny Post provides an important look into how the Oxford Movement, a movement not known for its understanding of and interest in the working classes, did attempt to reach and understand the working classes through periodical literature.

Atriplex hortensis (2n = 2x = 18, 1C genome size ~1.1 gigabases), also known as garden orach, is a highly nutritious, broadleaf annual of the Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae family that has spread from its native Eurasia to other temperate and subtropical environments worldwide. Atriplex is a highly complex and polyphyletic genus of generally halophytic and/or xerophytic plants, some of which have been used as food sources for humans and animals alike. Although there is some literature describing the taxonomy and ecology of orach, there is a lack of genetic and genomic data that would otherwise help elucidate the genetic variation, phylogenetic position, and future potential of this species. Here, we report the assembly of the first highquality, chromosome-scale reference genome for orach cv. ‘Golden’. Sequence data was produced using Oxford Nanopore’s MinION sequencing technology in conjunction with Illumina short-reads and chromatin-contact mapping. Genome assembly was accomplished using the high-noise, single-molecule sequencing assembler, Canu. The genome is enriched for highly repetitive DNA (68%). The Canu assembly combined with the Hi-C chromatin-proximity data yielded a final assembly containing 1,325 scaffolds with a contig N50 of 98.9 Mb and with 94.7% of the assembly represented in the nine largest, chromosome-scale scaffolds. Sixty-eight percent of the genome was classified as highly repetitive DNA, with the most common repetitive elements being Gypsy and Copia-like LTRs. The annotation was completed using MAKER which identified 31,010 gene models and 2,555 tRNA genes. Completeness of the genome was assessed using the Benchmarking Universal Single Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) platform, which quantifies functional gene content using a large core set of highly conserved orthologous genes (COGs). Of the 1,375 plant-specific COGs in the Embryophyta database, 1,330 (96.7%) were identified in the Atriplex assembly. We also report the results of a resequencing panel consisting of 21 accessions which illustrates a high degree of genetic similarity among cultivars and wild material from various locations in North America and Europe. These genome resources provide vital information to better understand orach and facilitate future study and comparison.

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Abrupt decreases and increases in systolic arterial blood pressure produce baroreflex mediated shortening and lengthening, respectively, of the R-R interval. This phenomenon, otherwise known as the cardivagal baroreflex, is best described by the sigmoid relationship between R-R interval length and systolic blood pressure. The linear portion of this relationship is used to derive the slope or gain of the cardiovagal baroreflex. Importantly, lower levels of cardiovagal baroreflex have been associated with poor orthostatic tolerance and an increased cardiovascular disease-related mortality. The most commonly used and accepted technique to assess cardiovagal barorelex gain is the modified Oxford techinique. Bolus injections of sodium nitroprusside followed by phenylephrine HCL are used to decrease and raise blood pressure ~15 mmHg, respectively. The baroreflex control of the cardiac vagal outflow can then be assessed by the relation of the R-R interval to systolic blood pressure. However, the modified Oxford technique does not always reveal the nonlinear nature of baroreflex relations. The reasons for this has been unclear. Thus, analysis of baroreflex gain when nonlinearities are not revealed is problematic. Five classifications of baroreflex trials have been identified: acceptable, threshold-heavy, saturation-heavy, linear-heavy, and random trials. A new method of gain estimation was developed that combines the strengths of the current methods of gain estimation with the knowledge of the classifications of baroreflex trials. Using this method, cardiovagal baroreflex gain assessment can be maximized if threshold-heavy, saturation-heavy, and random trials are filtered out of the analysis and the manual method is used to estimate gain on the remaining trials. In addition, a link seems to exist between the variability of delta and the variability in baroreflex gain between different subjects. / Master of Science

Yes / The next-generation short-read sequencing technologies that generate comprehensive, whole-genome data with single-nucleotide resolution have already advanced tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment, surveillance and source investigation. Their high costs, tedious and lengthy processes, and large equipment remain major hurdles for research use in high tuberculosis burden countries and implementation into routine care. The portable next-generation sequencing devices developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) are attractive alternatives due to their long-read sequence capability, compact low-cost hardware, and continued improvements in accuracy and throughput. A systematic review of the published literature demonstrated limited uptake of ONT sequencing in tuberculosis research and clinical care. Of the 12 eligible articles presenting ONT sequencing data on at least one Mycobacterium tuberculosis sample, four addressed software development for long read ONT sequencing data with potential applications for M. tuberculosis. Only eight studies presented results of ONT sequencing of M. tuberculosis, of which five performed whole-genome and three did targeted sequencing. Based on these findings, we summarize the standard processes, reflect on the current limitations of ONT sequencing technology, and the research needed to overcome the main hurdles. Summary: The low capital cost, portable nature and continued improvement in the performance of ONT sequencing make it an attractive option for sequencing for research and clinical care, but limited data is available on its application in the tuberculosis field. Important research investment is needed to unleash the full potential of ONT sequencing for tuberculosis research and care.

Traditional plating methods for bacterial enumeration can be limited, but the development of high-throughput DNA sequencing, such as Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), can provide rapid and highly specific alternative for species-level identification. In this study, ONT amplicon sequencing was applied to fresh broiler breast meat to identify their bacterial composition and monitor their dynamic changes. The sequencing data were complemented by sensory panels, physicochemical analysis, and traditional plating methods. Over time, the bacterial diversity decreased within and across samples. By the end of shelf-life, Pseudomonas fragi, Pseudomonas lundesis, and Brochothrix thermosphacta became the most prevalent species. These bacteria were associated with spoilage attributes that were reported in the sensory panels. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of Nanopore sequencing in determining the spoilage associated bacteria in chicken meat. Future research may focus on developing targeted interventions to mitigate the impact of these spoilage bacteria and extend the shelf life of chicken meat.

La presente tesi di dottorato è il primo studio complessivo sui rapporti di Alessandro Manzoni con la cultura anglosassone, considerati nelle due direzioni: da una parte, le possibili influenze della letteratura inglese sulle sue opere, dall’altra la fortuna dell’autore in Gran Bretagna e negli Stati Uniti nell’Ottocento. Manzoni, infatti, non fu complessivamente incompreso o ignorato nei paesi anglosassoni, come ritenevano alcuni studiosi. Al contrario: personaggi importanti del mondo letterario e culturale apprezzavano e citavano le sue opere, e le numerose traduzioni, recensioni, antologie e libri sull’Italia testimoniano che questo autore era noto tra il pubblico colto. Tra gli episodi più importanti della fortuna di Manzoni nell’Inghilterra vittoriana si possono ricordare: due recensioni di Mary Shelley, influenzata dalla prospettiva risorgimentale (che era in realtà ambivalente verso Manzoni); e un romanzo della scrittrice Charlotte Yonge, legata al movimento di Oxford, che apprezzava particolarmente "I promessi sposi" per i valori cristiani. Negli Stati Uniti, i pregi del romanzo erano riconosciuti da intellettuali attenti alla cultura italiana contemporanea, come Emerson e Margaret Fuller. / This dissertation is the first overall study on Alessandro Manzoni’s relationship with the English-speaking world, considered along both lines: possible influences from English literature on Manzoni’s works, and Manzoni’s reception in Great Britain and the United States in the XIXth century. Manzoni was not ignored or misunderstood in those countries, as some critics believed. On the contrary, distinguished men and women from the literary and cultural world read, liked and quoted his works. Indeed, the great number of translations, reviews, anthologies and books on Italy dealing with Manzoni testifies that the Italian author was well-known among the educated reading public. Two important episodes of Manzoni’s reception in Victorian England can be mentioned: two reviews by Mary Shelley, who was influenced by the issues of the Italian Risorgimento (not totally sympathetic with Manzoni); a novel by Charlotte Yonge, the novelist of the Oxford movement, who admired Manzoni’s "Promessi sposi" for its Christian values. In the United States, the merits of Manzoni’s work were acknowledged by Emerson and Margaret Fuller, who showed interest and consideration for the contemporary Italian culture.