Taking Writing On-Line: The Intersections Of Rhetoric, Technology, And Community In The Composition Classroom

Discourse constructs individuals in community and by analogy constructs students (and teachers) in the networked-writing classroom. This work of constructing subjects moves us alternately toward the group (centripetal) and away toward becoming more individual (centrifugal). In order to understand this coordinate but opposite movement within on-line communication, the dissertation brings together the two strands (within the social) of technology and rhetoric. This rhetoric of technology is defined as the invention, arrangement, and delivery of computer-mediated language for the purpose of evoking action upon the part of an audience. The dissertation presents—among others—the discourse theory of Patricia Bizzell, Joseph Harris\u27s ideas concerning the usefulness of the term “community,” the “political unconscious” of Fredric Jameson, Jacques Derrida\u27s notion of différance and dissemination, and Hawisher and Selfe\u27s “rhetoric of technology.” It argues that these ideas and those of Susan Wells, especially her “rhetoric of intersubjectivity,” allow us to examine technology within community and see how it reduces multiple discourses while it creates new solidarities between individuals. The dissertation examines the uses on-line language may be put to in networked classroom communities. It recognizes this language as highly volatile and susceptible to manipulation. It presents two case studies of networked classroom practice that profile students\u27 and teachers\u27 work in the new milieu of the on-line writing classroom. The first case study examines the classroom listserv and presents an analysis of its discourse that acts to motivate both the individual and the group. This technology must, however, be let to build community within the forms of the face-to-face classroom. The second case study examines the laptop classroom where students combine resistance and creativity to manage the oppression of the technology\u27s instrumentalism. In a more personal vein, the author reflects on Freud\u27s dream analysis, the cyborg, and one intransigent student that highlight his own uses of technology to discover the work of the network-writing teacher. The challenge to teaching in these on-line virtual environments is to make them more richly inhabited and not to take them for granted or let them be subsumed into the ubiquitous rhetoric of corporate e-commerce

Marine Microalgae: Climate, Energy, and Food Security From the Sea

Climate, energy, and food security are three of the greatest challenges society faces this century. Solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change often conflict with solutions for ensuring society’s future energy and food requirements. For example, BioEnergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) has been proposed as an important method for achieving negative CO2 emissions later this century while simultaneously producing renewable energy on a global scale. However, BECCS has many negative environmental consequences for land, nutrient, and water use as well as biodiversity and food production. In contrast, large-scale industrial cultivation of marine microalgae can provide society with a more environmentally favorable approach for meeting the climate goals agreed to at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, producing the liquid hydrocarbon fuels required by the global transportation sector, and supplying much of the protein necessary to feed a global population approaching 10 billion people

Progress report no. 2

Statement of responsibility on title-page reads: Editors: I.A. Forbes, M.J. Driscoll, N.C. Rasmussen, D.D. Lanning and I. Kaplan; Contributors: S.T. Brewer, G.J. Brown, P.DeLaquil, III, M.J. Driscoll, I.A. Forbes, C.W. Forsberg, E.P. Gyftopoulos, P.L. Hendrick, C.S. Kang, I. Kaplan, J.L. Klucar, D.D. Lanning, T.C. Leung, E.A. Mason, N.R. Ortiz, N.A. Passman, N.C. Rasmussen, I.C. Rickard, V.C. Rogers, G.E. Sullivan, A.T. Supple, and C. P. TzanosIncludes bibliographical referencesProgress report; June 30, 1971U.S. Atomic Energy Commission contract AT(11-1)306

Bacterial infections in Lilongwe, Malawi: aetiology and antibiotic resistance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Life-threatening infections present major challenges for health systems in Malawi and the developing world because routine microbiologic culture and sensitivity testing are not performed due to lack of capacity. Use of empirical antimicrobial therapy without regular microbiologic surveillance is unable to provide adequate treatment in the face of emerging antimicrobial resistance. This study was conducted to determine antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in order to inform treatment choices and generate hospital-wide baseline data.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Culture and susceptibility testing was performed on various specimens from patients presenting with possible infectious diseases at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe, Malawi.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Between July 2006 and December 2007 3104 specimens from 2458 patients were evaluated, with 60.1% from the adult medical service. Common presentations were sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia and abscess. An etiologic agent was detected in 13% of patients. The most common organisms detected from blood cultures were <it>Staphylococcus aureus</it>, <it>Escherichia </it><it>coli</it>, Salmonella species and <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae</it>, whereas <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>and <it>Cryptococcus neoformans </it>were most frequently detected from cerebrospinal fluid. <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>was rarely isolated. Resistance to commonly used antibiotics was observed in up to 80% of the isolates while antibiotics that were not commonly in use maintained susceptibility.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is widespread resistance to almost all of the antibiotics that are empirically used in Malawi. Antibiotics that have not been widely introduced in Malawi show better laboratory performance. Choices for empirical therapy in Malawi should be revised accordingly. A microbiologic surveillance system should be established and prudent use of antimicrobials promoted to improve patient care.</p

In-pile loop irradiation studies of organic coolant materials : quarterly progress report, July 1-September 30, 1963

Statement of responsibility on title page reads: Report prepared by: E. A. Mason, Project Supervisor W. N. Bley, Project Engineer; Contributors: C. D. Sawyer A. H. Swan, R. A. Chin, J. P. Casey J. F. Terrien G. C. Nullens"Issued: December 15, 1963.""AEC Research and Development Report"--Cover"SRO-85."Includes bibliographical references (leaf 24)Quarterly progress report; July 1-September 30, 1963M.I.T. Project No. DSR 9819U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Savannah River Operations Office Contract no. AT(38-1)-33

Revisiting the Mystery of Recent Stratospheric Temperature Trends

Simulated stratospheric temperatures over the period 1979–2016 in models from the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative are compared with recently updated and extended satellite data sets. The multimodel mean global temperature trends over 1979–2005 are -0.88 ± 0.23, -0.70 ± 0.16, and -0.50 ± 0.12 K/decade for the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU) channels 3 (~40–50 km), 2 (~35–45 km), and 1 (~25–35 km), respectively (with 95% confidence intervals). These are within the uncertainty bounds of the observed temperature trends from two reprocessed SSU data sets. In the lower stratosphere, the multimodel mean trend in global temperature for the Microwave Sounding Unit channel 4 (~13–22 km) is -0.25 ± 0.12 K/decade over 1979–2005, consistent with observed estimates from three versions of this satellite record. The models and an extended satellite data set comprised of SSU with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A show weaker global stratospheric cooling over 1998–2016 compared to the period of intensive ozone depletion (1979–1997). This is due to the reduction in ozone-induced cooling from the slowdown of ozone trends and the onset of ozone recovery since the late 1990s. In summary, the results show much better consistency between simulated and satellite-observed stratospheric temperature trends than was reported by Thompson et al. (2012, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11579) for the previous versions of the SSU record and chemistry-climate models. The improved agreement mainly comes from updates to the satellite records; the range of stratospheric temperature trends over 1979–2005 simulated in Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative models is comparable to the previous generation of chemistry-climate models

The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Anisotropy in the Gravitational-Wave Background

The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has reported evidence for the presence of an isotropic nanohertz gravitational wave background (GWB) in its 15 yr dataset. However, if the GWB is produced by a population of inspiraling supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) systems, then the background is predicted to be anisotropic, depending on the distribution of these systems in the local Universe and the statistical properties of the SMBHB population. In this work, we search for anisotropy in the GWB using multiple methods and bases to describe the distribution of the GWB power on the sky. We do not find significant evidence of anisotropy, and place a Bayesian $95\%$ upper limit on the level of broadband anisotropy such that $(C_{l>0} / C_{l=0}) < 20\%$. We also derive conservative estimates on the anisotropy expected from a random distribution of SMBHB systems using astrophysical simulations conditioned on the isotropic GWB inferred in the 15-yr dataset, and show that this dataset has sufficient sensitivity to probe a large fraction of the predicted level of anisotropy. We end by highlighting the opportunities and challenges in searching for anisotropy in pulsar timing array data.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures; submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters as part of Focus on NANOGrav's 15-year Data Set and the Gravitational Wave Background. For questions or comments, please email [email protected]