Women: Indisputable Fans of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study of Female Baseball Fans

Baseball is known as America’s Pastime and has been a strong symbol of masculinity in American culture. The ratio of female to male fans, however, is actually the most equal of any major professional sport in the United States. This thesis examines that paradox. Drawing on participant observations at games, interviews with fans and an ethnographic study of a sports radio station in Kansas City, I find that the increasing participation of female fans is a result of baseball being experienced and marketed as a family-oriented game. This family experience gave women a point of entry and women have stuck around ever since. In the process, women have become genuine fans and are increasingly involved in running the game itself

Effect of Selenium on Glucosinolate and Isothiocyanate Concentrations in \u3cem\u3eArabidopsis thaliana\u3c/em\u3e and Rapid-Cycling \u3cem\u3eBrassica oleracea\u3c/em\u3e

Brassica vegetables play a unique nutritional and sensory role in human diets around the world. Their characteristic flavors come from the break down products of glucosinolate (GS) compounds, a large group of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) containing glucosides. Glucosinolates are hydrolyzed by myrosinase to isothiocyanates (ITCs) which are biologically active. Mounting evidence of this process is of scientific interest due to the potential for high consumption of Brassica vegetables containing several GSs and their respective hydrolysis products that are associated with cancer chemoprevention. Glucosinolates are sulfur-rich hydrophilic, nonvolatile plant secondary metabolites; and. over the past few decades, their importance has increased following discoveries of their hydrolysis products, ITCs, as potential anticarcinogens. The importance of selenium (Se) to human health has increased in recent years due its antioxidant potential and cancer suppression properties. Recent studies have demonstrated that certain Se containing compounds like Se-methyl-Se-Cysteine and Se-methionine are effective chemoprotective agents, reducing the incidence of breast, liver, prostate, and colorectal cancers in model systems. Brassicaa species are able to hyperaccumulate selenium at concentrations of up to 10-15 mg Se·g-1 dry weight in their shoots while growing on naturally-occurring soils containing only 0.2-10 mg Se·kg-1. The non-specific integration of Se into the S assimilation pathway enables the plant to metabolize selenoamino acids, selenocysteine and selenomethionine, into proteins. The process is believed to be the major contributor of Se toxicity in plants. The ability of hyperaccumulators to accrue and tolerate high concentrations of Se is thought to be associated with a distinct metabolic capacity that enables the plants to convert these selenoamino acids into non-protein amino acids

Theophila

This project attempts to understand the relationship between a Medieval anchoress and Christ as a romantic relationship rather than a spiritual metaphor. Mystical marriage, the union of a human woman with Christ, son of God, is a popular formulation of the relationship a medieval anchoress experiences through her religious enclosure. Through analysis of a collection of thirteenth century Middle English texts written to instruct anchoresses on the maintenance of mystical marriage, I argue that the love between the anchoress and God is produced through action rather than a spontaneously generated emotion. The Katherine Group, or Ancrene Wisse Group, consists of a love poem to Christ in the voice of an anchoress, a guide on proper comportment as an anchoress, and three Lives of female saints who participated in mystical marriage. These texts provide a “squint” into the lives of thirteenth century anchoresses in the English West Midlands and suggest how these women practiced mystical marriage

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the life support and airlock support systems, volume 2

The McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (MDAC) was selected in June 1986 to perform an Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL). The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Life Support and Airlock Support Systems (LSS and ALSS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. The discrepancies were flagged for potential future resolution. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter LSS and ALSS hardware. Volume 2 continues the presentation of IOA worksheets and contains the critical items list and NASA FMEA to IOA worksheet cross reference and recommendations

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Analysis of the life support and airlock support subsystems

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA approach features a top-down analysis of the hardware to determine failure modes, criticality, and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. This report documents the independent analysis results corresponding to the Orbiter Life Support System (LSS) and Airlock Support System (ALSS). Each level of hardware was evaluated and analyzed for possible failure modes and effects. Criticality was assigned based upon the severity of the effect for each failure mode. The LSS provides for the management of the supply water, collection of metabolic waste, management of waste water, smoke detection, and fire suppression. The ALSS provides water, oxygen, and electricity to support an extravehicular activity in the airlock

The Effect of Abscisic Acid on Tomato Calcium Partitioning and Fruit Quality

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a widely employed plant model system for studying fruit metabolism, development and ripening. Various environmental stress factors, such as drought and high relative humidity, can cause calcium (Ca) deficiency and lead to physiological diseases such as blossom-end rot (BER) in tomato fruit. Recent studies demonstrate that abscisic acid (ABA) triggers whole-plant and fruit-specific mechanisms to increase fruit Ca uptake and prevent BER development. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of exogenous ABA applications during plant development on tomato carotenoid pigments, soluble sugars, organic acids, aromatic volatiles, carbohydrates, and mineral nutrient content in ripe fruit, and to assess the impacts of ABA applications on BER by evaluating how exogenous ABA will affect the distribution of Ca between the leaves and fruit. There were a series of three experiments that examined two types of tomato plants, micro tomato and a commercial tomato cultivar \u27Mt. Fresh Plus\u27. ABA was exogenously applied to the foliar and/or root tissue. Leaves were harvested and analyzed for chlorophylls, carotenoids, and Ca concentrations. Fruit tissue was harvested at red ripe maturity and analyzed for yield, BER and fruit quality parameter, such as carotenoids, soluble sugars, organic acids and aroma volatiles. The results indicate that applications of ABA treatments to tomato plants decreased the partitioning of Ca into the leaves while increasing concentrations in the fruit tissue. ABA treatments, in combination with the Ca treatment of 180 mg⋅L-1 (milligram per liter), decreased the incidence of BER. Further, ABA treatments decreased BER even in the presents of low Ca in the fertilizer solution. Results indicate that ABA treatments are most effective in the early stages of plant development. This study demonstrated that ABA is a viable treatment to significantly improve tomato fruit quality. Specifically, ABA treatments increased tomato fruit carotenoids and soluble sugar, while decreasing organic acid concentrations. However, ABA treatments had a detrimental effect on aroma volatile concentrations. ABA treatment applications in conjunction with low Ca treatments did not prove to be effective in improving tomato fruit quality. This study demonstrated that foliar spray ABA applications are more effective than root ABA applications

Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the life support and airlock support systems, volume 1

The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Life Support and Airlock Support Systems (LSS and ALSS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were then compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. The discrepancies were flagged for potential future resolution. This report documents the results of that comparison for the Orbiter LSS and ALSS hardware. The IOA product for the LSS and ALSS analysis consisted of 511 failure mode worksheets that resulted in 140 potential critical items. Comparison was made to the NASA baseline which consisted of 456 FMEAs and 101 CIL items. The IOA analysis identified 39 failure modes, 6 of which were classified as CIL items, for components not covered by the NASA FMEAs. It was recommended that these failure modes be added to the NASA FMEA baseline. The overall assessment produced agreement on all but 301 FMEAs which caused differences in 111 CIL items

Teaching Educators Basic Fruit Tree Grafting Methods

Hands-on education has proven to be successful in teaching basic grafting methods. MSU Extension developed and conducted eleven statewide workshops teaching Extension Agents and Master Gardeners preferred fruit tree grafting methods. The hands-on workshops provided specialists, agents, and Master Gardeners training on teaching fruit tree grafting classes for clientele. Each workshop consisted of a pre-test, a PowerPoint presentation, a post-test, and a grafting demonstration. Post-test scores showed a significant gain in knowledge over pre-test scores. This training can be replicated/adapted by other organizations to conduct educational outreach