Experimental Testing Program in Elementary Chemistry: A Preliminary Report

An experimental testing program is described which utilizes questions that are partly computer composed, in addition to a section composed by the instructor, and a retesting option to the student. Results from a trial of the program for one term indicate that (1) course grades were improved, (2) the student withdrawal failure rate was unaffected, and (3) the employed students took greater advantage of the retest than did the unemployed students

Part Rabbit, Part girl, Part Hole

The first issue of The September Issues and I was asked by the editor and photographer Mary Rozzi to create a visual response for their pages. The September Issues gives women creatives the opportunity to express themselves freely, explore their identities, and build a community without any constraints—a place where art, beauty, fashion, and topical issues can be discussed from a purely feminine perspective; a community that reflects the diversity and power of global femininity. The magazine aims to share ideas of identity, discover ritual and ceremony; celebrate and champion women pioneers of the past and present, and those yet to come—exchanging the story of women’s lives through visual and intellectual vocabularies. Politically, the world is fragmented. Recent events have demonstrated that change is most definitely the only thing we can be sure of in this moment. The September Issues want to be an active part of that change. We want to empower women by celebrating their achievements, and strive for the creation of an influential voice of equality in our future society. There was no brief. It was a magazine completed by women about women. A speculative tribe, linked invisibly by one common thread. I chose to continue the series of photographs shown at The Stanley Picker Gallery in The Liquid Game that follows the objects of and close to the earth as symbols and representations of the body. A codified place. Future memories. Abstract resistance. And this was the text to accompany the two images

“Down to the Last:” An experiment in comedy, stunts, and visual effects

This paper will cover the creation of my thesis film, “Down to the Last,” from concept to completion, with a special focus on writing a dark comedy with a strong female lead, and the desire to incorporate visual effects and stunts to enhance the overall story. Details of how my crew and I decided to approach the challenges of my script and vision will be fleshed out along with solutions to problems we faced during preproduction, principle photography, and postproduction. The outcome of the project is a combination of minute deviations from my initial vision and a minimization of visual effects in order to preserve the tone and humor of the story

Spectroscopic investigation of nitrogenase: EPR and MCD studies of the FeMo cofactor and the P-cluster

Little is known about substrate binding and reduction of nitrogenase. EPR spectroscopy is used here to observe intermediate states generated by different substrates. Two different spin states (S=3/2 and S=1/2) were exhibited for each substrate, which may result from different binding of the substrate to the cofactor (side-on or terminal binding) or the difference of the substrate binding to either Fe or Mo of the cofactor. Parallel studies were performed on a variant MoFe protein, alpha-195Gln, which exhibited different signals from the wild-type suggesting that the substituted amino acid maybe necessary to reach some mechanistic states that the wild-type MoFe protein can reach. Electron transfer between the Fe protein and the MoFe protein was investigated to help determine the initial electron transfer pathway in nitrogenase. The altered Fe protein, L127-deletion Fe protein, is permanently in the complex-ready conformation and complexes with the MoFe protein to allow one electron transfer. The MCD studies suggest the presence of a second paramagnetic center in addition to the resting state cofactor. The second paramagnetic center may result from an electron delocalized over the entire P-cluster or its return to the Fe protein. The P-cluster is suggested to play a role in the electron transfer from the Fe protein to the cofactor. Apo-proteins were used to provide information about the function and the maturation of the P-cluster. One apo-protein, nifB-deletion MoFe protein, exhibits redox characteristics analogous to the wild-type MoFe protein, i.e., both as-isolated proteins have the P-cluster in the state P0 and could be oxidized to P+2. The second apo-protein, nifH-deletion MoFe protein, demonstrated different characteristics. The as-isolated form appears to be in the P+1 state and can be oxidized to a previously unobserved state now suggested to be S=2.0. These results indicate that nifH-deletion MoFe protein P-clusters electronically differ from the mature fully functioning P-cluster in the nifB-deletion and wild-type MoFe proteins suggesting that NifH is necessary for the maturation of the P-cluster

“Real Bitches,” Victims, and Tough Daddies: Male Control, Gender Performativity, and the State in Vice Policing

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College