Illicit

Prose by Chelsea Yedinak

Postprint Copy of Years of Teaching Dangerously: Interfacing Thomas Cromwell in Canon and Fandom, Michael Drayton, “W.S.,” and Hilary Mantel

When Sir Thomas Bodley founded the Bodleian Library, he sought to keep “baggage books,” “riff-raff books,” and distasteful literature off the shelves. The question of keeping literature in or out of a library or canon is never simply about literature; it is also about class-based criticism and notions of defending culture and taste against unauthorized popular versions. Teaching dangerously opens the early modern classroom, theorizing it as a type of literary fandom that is both personally engaging and socially conscious: this type of teaching does not forget academic rigor; it remembers human impact, by enfolding scholarship and theory. Putting early modern texts into play alongside contemporary literature and social issues moves learning in unscripted, surprising, and dangerous directions. This article models these dangerous practices by interfacing affect theory with the fandom of Thomas Cromwell as he appears in Michael Drayton’s poem The Legend of Thomas Cromwell, the apocryphal “W.S.” drama The Life and Death of Thomas Cromwell, and Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. This type of ‘magic’ is not so far removed from J.K. Rowling’s wizardry, and teaching dangerously with affect theory empowers classroom fandom that engages and changes the world as we know it

Behind Valencia: A Contemporary Play

SYNOPSIS The purpose of this play is to highlight the length that modern females go to in order to maintain a desired appearance, especially across social media. These desired appearances are influenced by the glamorous and unrealistic looks and physiques that are prevalent in the media. Essentially, the primary goal of these characters is to attract the attention of their male counterparts because of the gender roles society promotes. This shallow lifestyle can be completely consuming for impressionable, young females

Invincible Ones

A gripping play that tells the story of a group of girls in their mid-twenties living in a claustrophobic apartment in the Lower East Side, coping with the death of a friend

Understanding virtual solvent through large-scale ligand discovery

Predicting new ligands and their binding poses for a protein target relies on an understanding of the physical forces that exist between the water-submerged protein and ligand. The relative favorability of these molecular and atomic interactions between the protein and ligand compared with their interactions with water determine the binding affinity, which in turn can be converted into a binding free energy. Protein-ligand binding energetics are, with varying levels of success, encoded into scoring functions, which at their best, can only partially emulate the true binding affinity of a protein-ligand binding event. In the context of virtually screening millions or hundreds of millions of drug-like ligands, molecular docking algorithms take advantage of scoring functions to rank the binding energies of these molecules relative to one another to help prioritize the most promising ligands.The focus of this dissertation is the balance between scoring function energy terms with an emphasis on water energetics, specifically the desolvation of the protein upon ligand binding. It is thought that our limited understanding of water is largely responsible for our limitations in discovering and designing drugs. This is due to the large number of roles that water can play, as well as its significant, and even dominant, contribution to protein-ligand binding energetics, which in the realm of molecular docking, is typically under-modeled or completely neglected. First, I focus on the incorporation of receptor desolvation into the standard DOCK3.7 scoring function to more accurately model protein-ligand binding interactions by including further contributions of water. This is the original implementation of Grid Inhomogeneous Solvation Theory applied to the model cavity, cytochrome c peroxidate, and spearheaded by Trent Balius and Marcus Fischer. Second, I discuss an extension of GIST in DOCK3.7, a new implementation that relies on pre-computed Gaussian-weighted GIST receptor desolvation enthalpies. This results in negligible slowdown of the standard DOCK3.7 scoring function, similar performance to the original implementation of GIST, and the identification of new ligands for the drug-like model system, AmpC β-lactamase. The work on receptor desolvation contained within these two chapters inspires the name of this thesis, and were started in my rotation and have continued until the end. Third, I focus on the use of property-matched and property-unmatched decoys for use in retrospective enrichment calculations prior to running a large-scale molecular docking virtual screen. Decoy molecules share the same physical properties as ligands that bind a protein but are topologically dissimilar to ensure that they do not actually bind the protein. What we found was that charge mismatching between ligands and decoys could bias one’s docking setup towards artifactually strong performance. Chapter 3 focuses on how we both decreased and increased the property space of decoys relative to ligands to safeguard against these docking setup biases. Fourth, I employ this knowledge of protein-ligand binding affinities to identify novel selective melatonin receptor ligands that are active in in vivo circadian rhythm assays. Finally, I discuss my current project on the CB1 cannabinoid receptor in the context of analgesia, followed by future directions

Agency and empowerment on women-owned farms: A Vermont agricultural case study

When examining data from the most recent US Census of Agriculture (2012), I noticed a distinct imbalance between the percentages of male and female farmers, both in the country and in Vermont. Sales from women-owned farms represent only 3.3 percent of the total of U.S. agricultural sales, and in Vermont, women were the principal operators of 22.38 percent of farms. I wanted to examine the factors that led to these imbalances, and also understand from women farmers themselves what strategies they used to overcome these obstacles. The theories of agency and empowerment can be used in explaining women’s inequality in agricultural spheres: agency, usually referencing decision-making power, leads into the process of empowerment. Empowerment is often a “fuzzy” term, or difficult to define, but it revolves around the ability to make choices, access to resources, as well as the subcomponent of achievement. I hoped to find with my research how women farmers went about the processes of agency and empowerment on their farms. I interviewed nineteen women farmers in Vermont from nine different counties about how they started farming, the structure and mission of their farm businesses, employment and management structures, use of support networks and organizations, necessary skills for farming, and whether they felt that their experiences in the world of agriculture were different due to their gender. In their answers to these questions, I teased out what barriers they perceived to their equality in agriculture, how they tried to surmount them as individuals, and also how they used support systems and other collectives to their advantage in the pursuit of both increased agency and empowerment. Although I did hear some stories of overt sexism and unfairness due to gender from some women, my overall findings were less negative/pessimistic and more focused towards an optimistic, equal future than I had expected to find. Many of the women I interviewed had diversification strategies in place on their farms, and many also combined farming with agritourism ventures. Both of these strategies offered an opportunity for agency and empowerment. Women tended to require hands-on instruction in order to comfortably learn new farming skills. Many women noted the importance of informal support networks of other female farmers as a factor of their successes both in learning these skills and in terms of emotional support, and stressed the importance of the Internet in forming and sustaining such networks. These results can be useful to Extension and other agricultural programs who interact with women farmers on a regular basis, as some women felt that these formal networks and organizations did not adequately serve their needs

Introduction of shared-memory parallelism in a distributed-memory multifrontal solver

We study the adaptation of a parallel distributed-memory solver towards a shared-memory code, targeting multi-core architectures. The advantage of adapting the code over a new design is to fully benefit from its numerical kernels, range of functionalities and internal features. Although the studied code is a direct solver for sparse systems of linear equations, the approaches described in this paper are general and could be useful to a wide range of applications. We show how existing parallel algorithms can be adapted to an OpenMP environment while, at the same time, also relying on third-party optimized multithreaded libraries. We propose simple approaches to take advantage of NUMA architectures, and original optimizations to limit thread synchronization costs. For each point, the performance gains are analyzed in detail on test problems from various application areas.Dans cet article, nous étudions l'adaptation d'un code parallèle à mémoire distribuée en un code visant les architectures à mémoire partagée de type multi-coeurs. L'intérêt d'adapter un code existant plutôt que d'en concevoir un nouveau est de pouvoir bénéficier directement de toute la richesse de ses fonctionnalités numériques ainsi que de ses caractéristiques internes. Même si le code sur lequel porte l'étude est un solveur direct multifrontale pour systèmes linéaires creux, les algorithmes et techniques discutés sont générales et peuvent s'appliquer à des domaines d'application plus généraux. Nous montrons comment des algorithmes parallèles existant peuvent être adaptés à un environnement OpenMP tout en exploitant au mieux des librairies existantes optimisées. Nous présentons des approches simples pour tirer parti des spécificités des architectures NUMA, ainsi que des optimisations originales permettant de limiter les coûts de synchronisation dans le modèle fork-join que l'on utilise. Pour chacun de ces points, les gains en performance sont analysés sur des cas tests provenant de domaines d'applications variés

Accounting for spatial substitution patterns and bioeconomic feedback loops: an economic approach to managing inland recreational fisheries

2011 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation consists of three papers which address separate but related issues in recreational fisheries management. Paper one estimates the economic contribution of the private, recreation-based aquaculture industry in the Western United States. Paper two presents a method for combining models of site selection with input-output models in order to better estimate the true economic impacts of augmentation or deterioration of recreational sites. Finally, paper three presents a dynamic, bioeconomic model of a recreational fishery and uses that model to simulate what would happen over time to anglers and fish populations (as well as value to anglers) if fish stocking were to be halted at a single recreational fishery. All three papers are policy relevant today given the increased pressure from (and litigation filed by) environmental groups to reduce fish stocking due to conflicts with native and endangered species. Paper one explores the economic contribution of the private, recreation-based aquaculture industry in the Western United States. New sectors are constructed in IMPLAN input-output software using data gathered between 2007 and 2010 from producers and their direct customers (stocked fisheries). Information from a third survey of anglers in Colorado and California is integrated to predict the short-term shocks that would occur to various industries if anglers at privately stocked fisheries were to discontinue fishing (simulating a hypothetical collapse of the industry). Accounting for both the backward and forward linkages of the private, recreation-based aquaculture industry's production, model results indicate that for every dollar of fish stocking, $36 dollars of recreational angler-related expenditures are supported, and that the total economic contribution of this industry in the Western United States is roughly$2 billion annually. This is the first study addressing the forward linkages and total economic contribution of this industry in the Western United States. Paper two addresses a similar issue as paper one, but goes further to account for substitution patterns among anglers. Using information from a survey of anglers in 2009, a repeated nested logit (RNL) model of angler spatial substitution behavior is estimated. Then, the RNL is used to predict changes in angler days associated with changes in fishery attributes. By linking the RNL and input-output model, better insight is gained into the economic losses associated with augmentation or deterioration of stocked fishing sites. Results indicate that if a single site is closed within the region of analysis, of the 29,500 anglers that will no longer fish at that site, only 6,500 anglers will leave the region of analysis (the rest substituting to other in-region sites). Standard impact analysis would therefore overestimate the economic impacts of such a policy by 450%. Results are similar when catch rates are reduced by 50% at one site, with 14,000 anglers leaving that site but only 3,000 leaving the region. The third and final paper of this dissertation presents a means by which managers may manage inland recreational fisheries from a dynamic bioeconomic perspective. A discrete-time, discrete-space, infinite time horizon numerical model of a fishery is built in GAMS software to reflect responses of anglers to the fishery and responses of the fishery to anglers over time. A data-driven random utility model is used to inform angler response and value functions in this dynamic bioeconomic model. Results from one region in California indicate that a) current fish stocking levels may be inefficiently high, and b) elimination of fish stocking programs at popular lakes may not lead to a crash in fishery populations, since anglers will simply substitute to other nearby fisheries (rather than "fish-out" the lake). Managers who can predict the intertemporal effects of fishery management alternatives in this way will be able to better meet the demands of recreational anglers

Study of decoupled uplink and downlink access in 5G heterogeneus systems

El projecte analitzarà les funcionalitats i problemàtiques de l'Internet tàctil.Uplink and downlink decoupling (DUDe) is a disruptive technique that has been proposed recently to reduce the uplink and downlink imbalance problem, which occurs in HetNets due to the strong transmit power disparities between macro and small cells. In this thesis, previous research done on DUDe, in particular the association probability derivation, is used to calculate how the capacity is affected when the association is made to any SCell in the scenario. This specific situation is highly realistic since one or several small cells might be unavailable due to overload reasons. Therefore, one of the main objectives of this thesis is to evaluate and compare the potential capacity gains of decoupling to any other small cell in the scenario with respect to the macro cell, association that follows classical downlink received power policies. Decoupling uplink from the macro cell can improve as well the uplink outage, metric also evaluated and compared in this study. Moreover, there is a strong trend in research to empower multi-connectivity solutions, where one user has more than one uplink connection. We refer to this case as a dual connectivity scenario, and the uplink is further studied by allowing decoupled associations in dual connectivity scenarios. Dual connectivity in the uplink is highly controversial, since the user has limited power to share between two different access points. Therefore, a part from comparing the decoupled association performance with the downlink received power policies, this study compares the performance of multi-connectivity against having one single serving cell. In this case, a comparison is done with respect to the best uplink serving cell. Results show that decoupling the access increases the capacity even if there are some SCells unreachable and presents great performance on DC scenario.El uplink and downlink decoupling (DUDe) es una novedosa técnica propuesta recientemente para reduir el problema del uplink and downlink imbalance. El uplink and downlink imbalance ocurre cuando las potencias de las antenas de una heterogeneus network (HetNet) son muy dispares. En este proyecto, teniendo en cuenta la investigación realitzada hasta la fecha sobre el DUDe (especialmente sobre la probabilidad de asociación), se calcula la capacidad asociándose a cualquier SCell. Esta situación es muy importante ya que puede ser que algunes celdas sean inalcanzables por el usuario debido a que puedn estar sobrecargadas. Por este motivo, uno de los principales objetivos del proyecto es aavaluar la mejora de capacidad al relaizar el DUDe con cualquier SCell y mantenir la asociaciín con la MCell tal y como se ha hecho hasta ahora. Esta técnica se llama downlink receive power (DRP). El DUDe también mejora la outage probability, indicador que también se evalua en el estudio. En los estudios mas recientes también se trabaja con dual connectivity para mejorar las prestacions de la conexión. Aunque dividir la transmisión en el enlace de subida puede disminuir la capacidad debido a la baja potencia del usuario, se compara la capacidad de desacoplar el acceso en dual connectivity con el escenario de single best association. Los resultados muestran que el DUDe aumenta la capacidad aun teniendo algunes SCells inalcanzables. También se ha demostrado que el DUDe funciona perfectamente con la dual connectivity.L’Uplink and downlink decoupling és una innovadora tècnica que ha sigut proposada recentment per reduir el problema de l’uplink and downlink imbalance. L’uplink and downlink imbalance es dona a les heterogeneus networks (HetNets) degut a la disparitat de potències entre les diferents antenes. Durant aquest projecte, tenint en compte la recent recerca sobre DUDe (sobretot sobre la probabilitat d’associació), s’utilitza per calcular la capacitat a qualsevol SCell. Aquesta situació és molt important d’analitzar ja que pot ser possible que algunes no estiguin accessibles per sobrecàrrega. Per aquest motiu, un dels principals objectius del projecte és avaluar la millora de capacitat entre realitzar el DUDe a qualsevol SCell i mantenir l’associació amb la MCell com s’havia fet fins ara, el que es coneix com downlink receive power (DRP). El DUDe també comporta moltes millores a la outage probability, indicador que també s’avalua a l’estudi. En els estudis més recents també treballen amb dual connectivity per millorar les prestacions. Tot i que dividir la transmissió a l’enllaç de pujada pot comportar perdre capacitat degut a la baixa potència de l’usuari, es compara la capacitat amb el DUDe en un escenari de dual connectivity amb el cas de single best association. Els resultats mostren que el fet de desacoblar l’accés augmenta la capacitat de la connexió tot i tenir algunes SCells inabastables. També s’ha demostrat que el DUDe funciona perfectament amb la dual connectivity