Eleven years ago the circular DNA of a novel single-stranded virus has been cloned and partially characterized by Nishizawa and Okamoto and their colleagues. According to the initials of the patient from whom the isolate originated, the virus was named TT virus. This name has been subsequently changed by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) into Torque teno virus, permitting the further use of the abbreviation TTV. Although initially suspected to play a role in non A –E hepatitis, subsequent studies failed to support this notion. Within a remarkably short period of time it became clear that TT viruses are widely spread globally, infect a large proportion of all human populations studied thus far and represent an extremely heterogeneous group of viruses, now labelled as Anelloviruses. TT virus-like infections have also been noted in various animal species. The classification of this virus group turns out to be difficult, their DNA contains between 2200 and 3800 nucleotides, related so-called TT-mini-viruses and a substantial proportion of intragenomic recombinants further complicate attempts to combine these viruses into a unifying phylogenetic concept.

Cats with no tails, the one thousand year old Tynwald assembly, offshore finance institutions, and motorcycle road racing are all ingredients that help to define a Manx national identity. Modern, high-powered motorcycles being pushed to their limits on a course that has remained largely unchanged since 1911 is perhaps the most literal demonstration of the new meeting the old, on an island where the traditional and the modern exist peacefully and do not clash. The Isle of Man TT Races provides an excellent starting-point from which to examine the twists and turns of the island’s twentieth century history and, most importantly, the deep links between sport and society. This book examines the origins and expansion of the Isle of Man TT from the first motorcar races in 1904 up to the present day, charting the event’s acceleration from a small, domestic competition to a large-scale international event which has helped fuel the island’s reputation as the home of motorcycle road racing. In examining the links between sport and society, this book uses the TT races to look at changes in the mechanics of Manx politics, the streamlining of the Manx economy and construction of Manx national identity; it is not a history of winners and losers at the TT. It is because the TT has deep roots in the history of the island and because it has come to form a significant part of the island’s identity, that this motorcycle race continues to thrive in the present day. The TT makes the Isle of Man distinctive; others have tried and failed to replicate this event. Where else in the world can the modern motorcycle racer take in so much history and heritage at close to 200 mph?

Run over the everyday roads of the Isle of Man for over 100 years, the world-famous Tourist Trophy races have gripped the imaginations of successive generations of motorcyclists. From the earliest days of single-speed, belt-driven machines delivering 5 bhp, to the highly developed projectiles of today offering a fearsome 200 bhp, race fans have thronged the roadside banks and watched in awe as the best racing motorcyclists in the world rode the fastest machines of their day around the twists, turns and climbs of the 374 mile Mountain Course, all in pursuit of a coveted Tourist Trophy. This new updated edition covering the 2007 - 2012 races, reveals the event's colourful history through the high-speed activities of great riders such as the Collier brothers, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Steve Hislop, Joey Dunlop, John McGuinness and many others. It also looks at the machines and mechanical developments and race organisation, plus the financial rewards and commercial interests; setting them all in the context of the triumphs and tragedies of a great sporting event that has seen average lap speeds rise from 40 mph to over 130 mph. Written in an easy style, this book reveals the Manx TT's colourful history through its great riders, machines, mechanical developments and race organisation and is superbly illustrated with over 250 colour photographs.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

The most detailed set of studies ever on all aspects of one of the most beautifully decorated Egyptian non-royal tombs, new in paperback This lavishly illustrated book is the culmination of a project to document and conserve the tomb of Menna, one of the most beautiful and complex painted tombs of the ancient Egyptian necropolis at Luxor. Through conservation, the tomb, which previously lay open to environmental influence, was brought back to its former glory. Aided by non-invasive methods of scientific analysis, the historical and cultural importance of Menna’s paintings can now be viewed and studied and enjoyed by a worldwide audience. High-definition photography and drawings complement specialist essays by scholars, scientists, and technicians, who discuss the artistic and cultural significance of the paintings, their architectural context, and scientific importance. Directed by Dr. Hartwig and administered by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) as part of its Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project, the project was funded by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sponsored by Georgia State University, and carried out in collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. Contributors: Cristina Beretta is based in Edinburgh, Scotland Pieter Collet lives in the Netherlands Katy Doyle lives in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) Elsa van Elslande, Laboratoire d’Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale (LAMS), CNRS is based in Paris, France Renata García Moreno, University of Liège, Belgium Melinda Hartwig, Georgia State University, Atlanta (USA) François-Philippe Hocquet, University of Liège, Belgium Gregory Howarth is based in London, England Alexandra Kosinova is based in London, England Kerstin Leterme, University of Liège, Belgium Bianca Madden is based in Oxford, England François Mathis, University of Liège, Belgium Mark Perry is co-director of the Perry Lithgow Partnership Ltd., Chipping Norton, England David Strivay, University of Liège, Belgium Douglas Thorp is based in London, England Peter Vandenabeele, Ghent University, Belgium

Celebrates a century of sidecar racing at the Isle of Man TT, highlighting technical innovation and the dominance of iconic teams like BMW, BSA, Yamaha, and Honda. The Isle of Man TT is arguably the most historic motorsport event on the planet. Its 37 ¾ mile Mountain Course is the world’s oldest racing circuit that is still in use. Three wheeled machines first appeared in 1923, and were an instant hit with the spectators. Early pioneer Fred Dixon set the standard for technical innovation with his banking sidecar, but lack of manufacturer support meant that the class was soon dropped. When sidecar outfits made a comeback at the TT in the 1950s, it was West German BMW machines which dominated the podium places. The Munich factory supported World Championship contenders such as Max Deubel, Georg Auerbacher and Siegfried Schauzu, and it was not until the late 60s that BSA-mounted British riders began a fight-back. Through the 1970s Yamaha two stoke engines were the weapon of choice at the TT, and powered the likes of World Champions George O’Dell and Jock Taylor; that is until Mick Boddice secured the support of Honda UK. Boddice battled it out with the rising young star Dave Molyneux, who would go on to dominate the sidecar TT over three decades as the most successful driver in the history of the event. In recent years the pace at the TT has been set by the electrifying World Championship duo of Ben and Tom Birchall. Sidecar Century celebrates the technical innovation and sheer determination of all of these competitors, over 100 years of classic racing.