Honoring and Maintaining a Dual Identity

My father taught at a church-affiliated college as a professor of philosophy. My mother, for much of my growing-up years, was a fifth-grade public school teacher. Although I was shaped by both of these models, and attracted to each, I initially came down on the side of elementary teaching. For close to 10 years I worked, mostly happily, with upper-elementary children in both public and private settings. Professionally, at least, I seemed to have much more to talk about with my mother. Having subsequently completed a doctorate in the history of education (including much formal and informal study of philosophy) and having taught now for 15 years at a small Christian liberal arts college, friends often point out how much my life resembles that of my father

The propaganda model and sociology : understanding the media and society

This article unpacks reasons why the Propaganda Model represents a critical sociological approach to understanding media and society, explores the model’s potential within the sociological field, and considers the trajectory of its reputational reception to date. The article also introduces the three central hypotheses and five operative principles of the Propaganda Model and suggests that the model complements other (competing) approaches that explore the relationship between ideological and institutional power and discursive phenomena

A Year of Monumental Change: A Review of Virginia\u27s 2021 General Assembly Regular and Special Sessions

Between the abolition of the death penalty and the continued fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Virginia General Assembly had a full plate of legislative priorities in 2021. This Article will provide a summary of the major bills that were introduced, passed, or that failed during the 2021 Regular and Special Sessions. The other articles within this issue cover the following topics in depth: reproductive justice, criminal justice legal reform, housing policy concerns during the pandemic, cannabis legalization, and environmental justice. This Article summarizes legislation grouped in the following parts: I. Civil and Criminal law, II. Education, III. Labor and Commerce, IV. Housing, V. Immigration, VI. Voting rights, and VII. The Environment

Real time face matching with multiple cameras using principal component analysis

Face recognition is a rapidly advancing research topic due to the large number of applications that can benefit from it. Face recognition consists of determining whether a known face is present in an image and is typically composed of four distinct steps. These steps are face detection, face alignment, feature extraction, and face classification [1]. The leading application for face recognition is video surveillance. The majority of current research in face recognition has focused on determining if a face is present in an image, and if so, which subject in a known database is the closest match. This Thesis deals with face matching, which is a subset of face recognition, focusing on face identification, yet it is an area where little research has been done. The objective of face matching is to determine, in real-time, the degree of confidence to which a live subject matches a facial image. Applications for face matching include video surveillance, determination of identification credentials, computer-human interfaces, and communications security. The method proposed here employs principal component analysis [16] to create a method of face matching which is both computationally efficient and accurate. This method is integrated into a real time system that is based upon a two camera setup. It is able to scan the room, detect faces, and zoom in for a high quality capture of the facial features. The image capture is used in a face matching process to determine if the person found is the desired target. The performance of the system is analyzed based upon the matching accuracy for 10 unique subjects

Linearly polarised pion photoproduction on the deuteron

Measurements of the linear polarisation asymmetry in pion photoproduction on both the proton and neutron have been performed with a liquid deuterium target using the Mainzer Microtron and Crystal Ball detector at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität in Mainz. These results, particularly the π 0 n channel, provide current models attempting to describe the nucleon resonance spectrum and properties with essential constraints. Measurements on the neutron are essential to determine isospin amplitudes of the nucleon resonance spectrum. The experiment featured a photon beam polarised through coherent bremsstrahlung of a 1.5 GeV electron beam on an aligned diamond radiator. The target was cryogenic liquid deuterium cooled to 23 K. Detection of the produced π 0 s was achieved through their dominant decay to two photons which were subsequently recorded in high density scintillating crystal calorimeters, known as the Crystal Ball and TAPS. The same detectors were used to determine the direction of the recoiling proton or neutron while thin plastic scintillator was used to distinguish between the two nucleons. Results on the proton are consistent with previous measurements and predictions from groups performing partial wave analysis to determine the resonance properties. Results on the neutron are measured for the first time in this energy regime spanning the first and second resonance regions and favour the SAID partial wave analysis solution

A cancer cell-line titration series for evaluating somatic classification.

BackgroundAccurate detection of somatic single nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions from DNA sequencing experiments of tumour-normal pairs is a challenging task. Tumour samples are often contaminated with normal cells confounding the available evidence for the somatic variants. Furthermore, tumours are heterogeneous so sub-clonal variants are observed at reduced allele frequencies. We present here a cell-line titration series dataset that can be used to evaluate somatic variant calling pipelines with the goal of reliably calling true somatic mutations at low allele frequencies.ResultsCell-line DNA was mixed with matched normal DNA at 8 different ratios to generate samples with known tumour cellularities, and exome sequenced on Illumina HiSeq to depths of >300×. The data was processed with several different variant calling pipelines and verification experiments were performed to assay >1500 somatic variant candidates using Ion Torrent PGM as an orthogonal technology. By examining the variants called at varying cellularities and depths of coverage, we show that the best performing pipelines are able to maintain a high level of precision at any cellularity. In addition, we estimate the number of true somatic variants undetected as cellularity and coverage decrease.ConclusionsOur cell-line titration series dataset, along with the associated verification results, was effective for this evaluation and will serve as a valuable dataset for future somatic calling algorithm development. The data is available for further analysis at the European Genome-phenome Archive under accession number EGAS00001001016. Data access requires registration through the International Cancer Genome Consortium's Data Access Compliance Office (ICGC DACO)

What mediates psychopathology in stalking victims? The role of individual-vulnerability and stalking-related factors

Stalking victims report significant psychiatric morbidity, which often persists long after the stalking itself has ceased. Elucidating predictors of psychopathology in victims is critical to informing the clinical management of this population. This study examined demographic, individual-vulnerability and stalking-related predictors of general psychopathology and post-traumatic stress in a community sample of victims (n = 236). Regression analyses showed that both general psychopathology and post-traumatic stress were influenced by individual-vulnerability factors, particularly the use of avoidance coping, and stalking-related factors, most notably being subjected to threats. This study provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of factors that mediate psychiatric morbidity among stalking victims, and highlights the utility of clinicians focussing on modifying dynamic risk factors such as maladaptive avoidance behaviours to help alleviate victims\u27 psychological distress

Non-invasive molecular imaging of inflammatory macrophages in allograft rejection.

BackgroundMacrophages represent a critical cell type in host defense, development and homeostasis. The ability to image non-invasively pro-inflammatory macrophage infiltrate into a transplanted organ may provide an additional tool for the monitoring of the immune response of the recipient against the donor graft. We therefore decided to image in vivo sialoadhesin (Sn, Siglec 1 or CD169) using anti-Sn mAb (SER-4) directly radiolabelled with (99m)Tc pertechnetate.MethodsWe used a heterotopic heart transplantation model where allogeneic or syngeneic heart grafts were transplanted into the abdomen of recipients. In vivo nanosingle-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) imaging was performed 7 days post transplantation followed by biodistribution and histology.ResultsIn wild-type mice, the majority of (99m)Tc-SER-4 monoclonal antibody cleared from the blood with a half-life of 167 min and was located predominantly on Sn(+) tissues in the spleen, liver and bone marrow. The biodistribution in the transplantation experiments confirmed data derived from the non-invasive SPECT/CT images, with significantly higher levels of (99m)Tc-SER-4 observed in allogeneic grafts (9.4 (±2.7) %ID/g) compared to syngeneic grafts (4.3 (±10.3) %ID/g) (p = 0.0022) or in mice which received allogeneic grafts injected with (99m)Tc-IgG isotype control (5.9 (±0.6) %ID/g) (p = 0.0185). The transplanted heart to blood ratio was also significantly higher in recipients with allogeneic grafts receiving (99m)Tc-SER-4 as compared to recipients with syngeneic grafts (p = 0.000004) or recipients with allogeneic grafts receiving (99m)Tc-IgG isotype (p = 0.000002).ConclusionsHere, we demonstrate that imaging of Sn(+) macrophages in inflammation may provide an important additional and non-invasive tool for the monitoring of the pathophysiology of cellular immunity in a transplant model

Sensitivity to Visual‐Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy

Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4‐ (n = 15) and 6‐month‐old (n = 12) infants’ visual preferences for visual‐tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4‐ and 6‐month‐olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual‐tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual‐tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6‐ (Experiment 1), and 4‐month‐olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual‐tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching

Outdoor performance of a reflective type 3D LCPV system under different climatic conditions

Concentrating sunlight and focusing on smaller solar cells increases the power output per unit solar cell area. In the present study, we highlight the design of a low concentrating photovoltaic (LCPV) system and its performance in different test conditions. The system essentially consists of a reflective type 3.6× cross compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC) designed for an acceptance angle of ± 30°, coupled with square shaped laser grooved buried contact (LGBC) silicon solar cells. A heat exchanger is also integrated with the PV system which extracts the thermal energy rejected by the solar cells whilst maintaining its temperature. Indoor characterization is carried out to evaluate the system performance under standard conditions. Results showed a power ratio of 3.12 and an optical efficiency of 73%. The system is placed under outdoor environment on a south facing roof at Penryn, UK with a fixed angular tilt of 50°. The high angular acceptance of the system allows collection of sunlight over a wider range. Results under different climatic conditions are presented and compared with a non-concentrating system under similar conditions. On an average, the LCPV system was found to collect an average of 2.54 times more solar energy than a system without the concentrator