New Releases by Adam Christopher

A collection of rad tattoos by third generation tattooer and painter Adam France.

NEW ONGOING SERIES FROM DARK CIRCLE! “Daughter of the Revolution, Part 2” Running out of places to hide, the Shield discovers she is not without allies. Detective Nicole Simmons seems to know exactly who—and what—the Shield is, but with the enigmatic government agent Walter Chase closing the noose, the pair faces two difficult questions: why is the Shield back now… and whose side is she really on?

It was just another Tuesday morning when she walked into the office—young, as I suspected they all might be, another dark brunette with some assistance and enough eye black to match up to Cleopatra. And who am I? I''m Ray, the world''s last robot, famed and feared in equal measure, which suits me just fine—after all, the last place you''d expect to find Hollywood''s best hit man is in the plain light of day. Raymond Electromatic is good at his job, the lone employee of the Electromatic Detective Agency—except for Ada, office gal and super-computer, the constant voice in Ray''s inner ear. Ray might have taken up a new line of work, but money is money, after all, and he was programmed to make a profit. Besides, with his twenty-four-hour memory-tape limits, he sure can keep a secret. When a familiar-looking woman arrives at the agency wanting to hire Ray to find a missing movie star, he''s inclined to tell her to take a hike. But she had the cold hard cash, a demand for total anonymity, and tendency to vanish on her own. Plunged into a glittering world of fame, fortune, and secrecy, Ray uncovers a sinister plot that goes much deeper than the silver screen—and this robot is at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Made to Kill is the thrilling new speculative noir from novelist and comic writer Adam Christopher. Ray Electromatic Mysteries Brisk Money Made to Kill Standard Hollywood Depravity Killing is My Business At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

NEW ONGOING SERIES FROM DARK CIRCLE! “Daughter of the Revolution, Part 1” Since the dawn of the republic, whenever her country faces its blackest days, she returns: a spirit of the revolution sent to fight for what is right. But when she reappears for the first time in a generation with no memories—not even of her own identity—and encounters an evil force expecting her arrival, all the Shield can do is… run!

Branded terrorists and on the run from the Fleet, ex-Marines Carmina Serra and Charlie Carter and mining superstar Zia Hollywood crash land on Lucifer, a planet at the end of the universe. Populated by two warring factions a religious cult and a crime syndicate Lucifer is blighted with a spate of murders that threaten to plunge the planet into civil war.

summons to a bullet-riddled body in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment marks the start of a new case for consulting detectives Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson. The victim is a subway train driver with a hidden stash of money and a strange Colombian connection, but why would someone kill him and leave a fortune behind? The search for the truth will lead the sleuths deep into the hidden underground tunnels beneath New York City, where answers—and more bodies—may well await them...

InyGa1-yAs alloys are critical in commercial applications such as high speed transistors, light emitting diodes, solid state lasers, photovoltaics, and photo-detectors. However, the range of compositions used in these applications is often limited to the range of InyGa1-yAs compositions which are lattice matched to elementary or binary semiconductor substrates. Additionally, the integration of InyGa1-yAs based devices on silicon substrates has been limited by complicated processing procedures. In order to resolve these issues we developed two compositionally graded buffer systems to integrate InyGa1-yAs devices on InP and Si substrates. The development of InyGa1-yAs devices on Si substrates also used the direct growth of Ge on Si offcut substrates. InAsxP1-x compositionally graded buffers were investigated for the growth of InyGa1-yAs compositions with lattice constants greater than InP. We report the effects of strain gradient, growth temperature, and strain initiation sequence (gradual or abrupt strain introduction) on threading dislocation density, surface roughness, epi-layer relaxation, and tilt. We find that gradual introduction of strain causes increased dislocation densities (u003e106 cm-2) and tilt of the epi-layer (u003e 0.10°). A method of abrupt strain initiation is proposed which can result in dislocation densities as low as 1.0x105 cm-2 for films graded from the InP lattice constant to InAs0.15P0.85. A model for a two-energy level dislocation nucleation system is proposed based on our results. We demonstrate a method for the growth of InyGa1-yAs devices on Si substrates in a single process run. Two epitaxial layers were used to change the lattice constant from the Si substrate to the InyGa1-yAs lattice constant. The first layer was a Ge layer grown directly on Si. To reduce the threading dislocation density to

A Member of the Food Chain?: Quantifying Primary Productivity from Nazi Germany to the International Biological Program, 1929-1989, tells the story of primary productivity, one of the fundamental measurements of the ecological and earth sciences today. Primary productivity is used in biology to refer to the aggregate photosynthetic production of the plant life of a particular region. Thanks to the rule of thermodynamics, most scientists have regarded the ability of plants to produce carbohydrates using carbon dioxide, water, and solar energy as foundational to all life throughout the twentieth century. Yet the history of the theory and methods used to quantify primary productivity is more complex than the straightforward and seemingly apolitical nature of the idea might initially suggest. This dissertation charts the genesis of this quantified measure from laboratory plant physiology, through agricultural science in National Socialist Germany, to postwar Global Ecology in the US.

Using this methodology, I examine the Skira, a Classical Athenian festival of midsummer, employing it as a test case for the claims above. This results in a number of innovations over previous scholarship of the Skira. First, using a careful diachronic accounting of sources, I am able to show that the Skira existed in distinct phases and exhibited marked changes in purpose. Examining the oldest sources, it is clear that the Skira was a women-exclusive festival until 350BCE. At that point, Lycurgus, the Athenian politician, added a new procession to the Skira as part of his attempt to return Athens to its former greatness . This new focus, picturing the Skira as a masculine, patriotic festival, became the dominant way to discuss the festival for the following five hundred years. Second, examining sources synchronically, I am able to show that the earlier women''s festival was devoted primarily to Athena, not Demeter as is sometimes claimed. As part of that examination it is necessary also to demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which Athena impacted the lives of Athenian woman and to complicate an essentialist view of divinities. In a synchronic look at the post-Lycurgan sources, I am able to show how Lycurgus employed the mythology of Euripides'' "Erechtheus" to create a new Skira, blending the traditional concerns of Athenian women expressed in the earlier Skira (family, the protection of children, fertility) with a new stress on autochthony and the veneration of ancestors.

Raymond Chandler famously hated science fiction, saying "They pay brisk money for this crap?" However, it has recently come to light that Chandler secretly wrote a series of stories and novels starring a robot detective. He then burnt all the manuscripts and went on writing his noir masterpieces. Unknown to Chandler, his housekeeper had managed to save some of these discarded manuscripts from the grate in his study, preserving the tales for future generations. The first of these stories was recently unearthed by author Adam Christopher. On the topic of how the manuscript made its way from Chandler''s study in California to Christopher''s home in England, Christopher is suspiciously quiet. Ray Electromatic Mysteries Brisk Money Made to Kill Standard Hollywood Depravity Killing is My Business At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"All is not well aboard the U-Star Coast City. The station''s reclusive Commandant is nowhere to be seen, leaving Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland to deal with a hostile crew on his own. Persistent malfunctions plague the station''s systems while interference from a toxic purple star makes even ordinary communications problematic. Alien shadows and whispers seem to haunt the lonely corridors and airlocks, fraying the nerves of everyone aboard. Isolated and friendless, Cleveland reaches out to the universe via an old-fashioned space radio, only to tune in to a strange, enigmatic signal: a woman''s voice that seems to echo across a thousand light-years of space. But is the transmission just a random bit of static from the past--or a warning of an undying menace beyond mortal comprehension?" --

Dropped on a frozen planet under suspicious circumstances, a group of marines struggles to discover the true objective of their mission. "Cold War" is a Tor.com Original novelette, set in the same Spider War universe as Adam Christopher''s novel The Burning Dark. “Smart, intricate, and viscerally gripping... Christopher carves a place for himself among the stars of his genre.” —V.E. Schwab, author of Vicious At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ted Hall is worried. He’s been sleepwalking, and his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer. Meanwhile, the circus has come to town, but the Celtic dancers are taking their pagan act a little too seriously, the manager of the Olde Worlde Funfair has started talking to his vintage machines, and the new acrobat’s frequent absences are causing tension among the performers. Out in the city there are other new arrivals – immortals searching for an ancient power – a primal evil which, if unopposed, could destroy the world! File Under: Urban Fantasy [ Tensile Strength | Dual Identities | The Greatest Show | Bandits ]

Strategies animals use to find and consume food in the face of conflicting forces such as competition and predation are central questions in the fields of ecological theory and management. Whereas theoretical models abound, proper empirical tests of these theories are less abundant. In studying the relationship between food abundance, predation risk, and competition there exists an array of confounding factors, which need to be accounted for by manipulating some aspect of the system. I used a guild of spring migratory ducks as a model system and manipulated food abundance in areas differing in presumed risk to assess the relative effects of food abundance, predation risk, competition, and life history characteristics on foraging strategies used by ducks. Using a randomized block design, I established a pair of 0.4 ha plots (block) in emergent, open water, and forested wetlands in the Wabash River Floodplain in eastern Illinois. I randomly selected one plot within each block to supplement with 2000 kg/ha of corn ( Zea mays ), creating an area of very high duck food abundance next to a control area with no added food. I conducted instantaneous focal animal samples and used video recorders to estimate the proportion of time mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ), blue-winged teal (Anas discors ), wood duck (Aix sponsa ), ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris ), and lesser scaup (Aythya affinis ) devoted to feeding, identify the specific behaviors used, and estimate feeding stint lengths and frequencies. I used these metrics as an index of risk that ducks were willing to engage in for a known food reward. I predicted that species with a faster life history strategy, factors that increase perceived predation risk (cover, water depth, group size), and increase energetic demand (due to nesting or temperature), would elicit more risk-taking behaviors in ducks. This would be realized by an increase in the proportion of time spent feeding, longer feeding durations, and deeper feeding behaviors in treatment plots compared with control plots. Consistent with my life history prediction, species with a faster life history strategy were willing to engage in more risky behavior (feeding more) for a greater food reward (food treatment). Mallards, lesser scaup, and wood ducks exhibited risk-taking behavior consistent with perceived predation risk. Mallards devoted more time to feeding and used longer feeding stints when in areas with less cover. Alternatively, lesser scaup devoted more time to feeding when in areas of more cover. Wood ducks devoted more time to feeding in treatment plots, when in shallow areas, and larger flocks. When blue-winged teal fed on the surface (eyes above water), they devoted more overall time to feeding indicating that surface feeding is less risky than deeper feeding. Wood ducks and lesser scaup exhibited behavior consistent with an increase in energetic demand as observed by an increase in the proportion of time devoted to feeding later in the spring. I also examined how food abundance influenced aspects of ducks'' foraging niches. I found that dabbling ducks used a greater variety of behaviors (behavior niche breadth) when in treatment plots compared to control plots and also shifted to slightly deeper feeding behaviors in treatment plots. This greater breadth when food was more abundant was due to individuals of the same species diverging from one another, rather than each individual using a broader array of behaviors. Overall, I found substantial variability among and within species in how they manage risk while foraging, although this was partially explained by life history theory, and what types of conditions they perceive as risky. I document the importance of taking the state of the forager (life history, perceived risk, energetic demand) into account when examining patterns of risk-taking.

The catalytic (C) subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) can be regulated by co- and post-translational modifications. The C-subunit is co-translationally N-myristylated. N-myristylation is catalyzed by the enzyme N-myristyl transferase (NMT), and it is the incorporation of the 14 carbon, saturated fatty acid, myristic acid, onto the N-terminal glycine residue of a target protein. In PKA, N-myristylation enhances the thermal stability of the protein and increases membrane binding in RII but not RI holoenzyme complexes. In these studies, the myristylated C-subunit was crystallized in different states including bound to a substrate peptide alone as well as to a substrate peptide and an ATP analogue. Furthermore, time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy and MD simulations were performed to analyze the effects of N-myristylation on C-subunit dynamics. These studies showed that N-myristylation stabilizes the N-terminus and myristate pocket of PKA and exhibits effects on dynamics throughout the enzyme including at the active site. Myristylation may, therefore, provide allosteric regulation of PKA. The reaction mechanism of PKA is also well-characterized. ADP-release is the rate-limiting step in PKA reaction turnover, and ADP-release is governed by magnesium concentration. PKA binds two magnesium ions termed Mg1 and Mg2 with the numbering based on the order in which the ions were thought to bind. However, recent studies suggest that the magnesium ions may bind in reverse order, and the mode of magnesium and ADP-release following phosphoryl transfer is unresolved. In these studies, the C-subunit was crystallized displaying partial and complete phosphoryl transfer of AMP-PNP onto a substrate peptide. These structures showed that Mg1 is released following complete phosphoryl transfer, and therefore, Mg1 release may be an important step preceding ADP release. Also, the C-subunit of PKA was crystallized in an apo state and bound to ADP. The ADP bound structure showed that ADP binds to the C-subunit with one magnesium ion, and this ion corresponds to Mg2 verifying the results from the partial and complete phosphoryl transfer structures. Furthermore, the ADP bound structure adopts a novel conformation that may represent the possible motions associated with ADP release including opening of the Gly-rich loop and C-tail away from the active site.

This textbook features 30 grammar-based exercises for the elementary learner of the English language. Detailed grammar explanations, illustrations, and the answers to the 30 exercises are included.

The Empire State is dying. The Fissure connecting the pocket universe to New York has vanished, plunging the city into a deep freeze and the populace are demanding a return to Prohibition and rationing as energy supplies dwindle. Meanwhile, in 1954 New York, the political dynamic has changed and Nimrod finds his department subsumed by a new group, Atoms For Peace, led by the mysterious Evelyn McHale. As Rad uncovers a new threat to his city, Atoms For Peace prepare their army for a transdimensional invasion. Their goal: total conquest – or destruction – of the Empire State. File Under: Science Fiction [ Splitting the Atoms | Angry Robots | Crossing | Universal Destruction ]

The evolution of antibiotic resistance is shaped by interactions between genes, the chemical environment, and an antibiotic''s mechanism of action. This thesis explores these interactions with experiments, theory, and analysis, seeking a mechanistic understanding of how different interactions between genes and drugs can enhance or constrain the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

Tony Prosdocimi lives in the bustling Metropolis of San Ventura - a city gripped in fear, a city under siege by the hooded supervillain, The Cowl. When Tony develops super-powers and acts to take down The Cowl, however, he finds that the local superhero team Seven Wonders aren''t as grateful as he assumed they''d be... File Under: Science Fiction [ Heroes In Action | A Double Cross | Kapow! | Tables Turned ]

THE EMPIRE STATE IS THE OTHER NEW YORK. A parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple, a place where sinister characters lurk around every corner while the great superheroes that once kept the streets safe have fallen into dysfunctional rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York… until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants. Playing on the classic Gotham conventions of the Batman comics and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, debut author Adam Christopher has spun this smart and fast-paced superhero-noir adventure, the sort of souped-up thrill ride that will excite genre fans and general readers alike. File Under: Science Fiction [ Pocket Universe | Heroes or Villains | Speak Easy | Loyalties Divided ] e-book ISBN: 978-0-85766-194-4

This dissertation is presented in three parts. In the first part, using a combination of simultaneous RNA and protein detection, high-resolution confocal microscopy, and image segmentation, I show that it is possible to resolve and count the number of mRNA transcripts for a given gene within single-cells of fixed Drosophila embryos. I used these methods to study the stochastic nature of transcription at the endogenous locus of the Hox gene Sex combs reduced, and I uncovered evidence for transcriptional bursting as well as divergent modes of transcription. This was the first time such analyses had been carried out in an intact metazoan organism. In the second part, I present evidence that despite the presence of several well conserved putative binding sites in the 3''UTR of the Hox gene Antennapedia, the microRNA miR-iab-4-5p does not appear to play a large role in the regulation of Antennapedia protein levels during embryogenesis, and at most has very subtle effects. This is important, because despite the fact that Drosophila Hox genes and Hox-cluster encoded microRNAs are very strongly predicted to interact in silico, most investigations of these interactions have uncovered only very subtle (if any) effects on protein levels. This suggests that our ability to predict miRNA target sites in silico is very lacking, or that, in general, microRNAs play very subtle roles during development. In the third part, I investigate the function of the homolog of the Grainy head transcription factor in the fungus Neurospora crassa. In all animal model organisms in which they have been studied, Grainy head transcription factors play a conserved role in epidermal barrier formation and healing. I therefore thought it would be interesting to investigate the function of this transcription factor in fungi, organisms which lack an epidermis. Using microarray and phenotypic analyses I uncovered evidence that the Grainy head homolog in Neurospora plays a role in cell-wall formation, defense, and virulence. This points to an interesting connection between transcriptional control of physical-barrier formation in animals, and physical-barrier formation, defense, and virulence in fungi.

The IV-VI semiconductors, and specifically the lead-salts (PbS, PbSe, and PbTe), are a natural choice for nanocrystal science. In nanocrystals, because of their narrow band gap, small effective masses, and large dielectric constants, they offer a unique combination of both strong confinement and strong dielectric contrast with their environment. Studying how these two effects modify optical and electrical properties of nanocrystals will be the topic of this dissertation. We begin with a summary of the synthesis of high-quality PbS and PbSe nanocrystals. Special care is taken to explain the chemical procedures in detail to an audience not expected to have significant prior chemistry knowledge. The synthesized nanocrystals have bright and tunable emission that spans the edge of the visible to the near-IR spectrum (700-1800 nm), and they are capped with organic ligands making them easily adaptable to different substrates or hosts . This combination of high optical quality and flexible device engineering make them extremely desirable for application. Moving beyond single-material nanocrystals, we next explore nanocrystal heterostructures, specifically materials with a spherical core of one semiconductor and a shell of another. Core-shell structures are commonly used in nanocrystals as a method to separate the core material, where the electrons and holes are expected to stay, from interfering effects at the surface. This typically results in improvements in stability and fluorescence quantum efficiency. To that end, we develop a model to explain how confinement plays out across abrupt changes in material, focusing on the optical and electrical properties of recently synthesized PbSe/PbS core-shell quantum dots. We show that for typical sizes of these nanocrystals, a novel type of nanocrystal heterostructure is created, where electrons and holes extend uniformly across the abrupt material boundary, and the shell does not act as a protecting layer. For very large sizes not yet achievable, we expect that the electron and hole will separate in different layers, with potentially measurable effects. Comparisons are made to optical and electrical measurements on these structures, showing good agreement. Next, we explore how shape can impact nanocrystal properties, on top of their intrinsic size or material dependence. By looking at cylindrically shaped nanocrystals, called "nanorods," with aspect ratios 10, we explore how having a slightly extended dimension can impact nanocrystal properties. A model is developed to explain their electronic structure, with surprising results. Foremost is that along the extended dimension, electrons and holes are strongly electrically bound, not with each other directly, but with their image charges in the outer host dielectric material. Nevertheless, the energy spectra of the excitons remains nearly hostindependent, with the effects of this strong binding instead seen in a redistribution of transition oscillator strength. To test the model, we develop a novel synthesis of high quality PbSe nanorods, and find good agreement with measured absorption spectra. Finally, we present a study on the transfer of charge into and out of a nanocrystal. By modeling the charge transfer process within a modified Marcus Theory, we isolate the relevant parameters that can be used to control the rate of transfer. Primary among these are the values of the quantum dot energy levels, and the electrostatic charging energy of the acceptor. We vary the former by changing the quantum dot size, and the latter by varying the host dielectric constant. To test the model, we chemically bind a small molecular acceptor molecule to the surface of PbS nanocrystals and use transient fluorescence to measure the rate of charge transfer. Both the dependence of the rate on quantum dot size and host dielectric constant show good agreement with the model.