Exploring other worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kane, and the antebellum culture of curiosity

Antebellum Americans had a strong interest in the unknown, which manifested itself simultaneously in highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow culture. Venues such as scientific institutions, lyceums, lecture halls, the penny-press, and the dime-museum all catered to American curiosity. Exploring Other Worlds examines this culture of curiosity, arguing that curiosity was a defining trait of antebellum America, transcending many of the boundaries we often associate with the era. Curiosity promoted intellectual interest in science, but it also led to the sensationalism of modern commercial popular culture. The inter-related lives of Elisha Kane and Margaret Fox demonstrate this thesis. Kane was America\u27s first celebrated Arctic explorer, serving as surgeon on the First Grinnell Expedition (1850--1851) and commanding the Second Grinnell Expedition (1853--1855) in search of the lost British explorer John Franklin. While Kane\u27s expeditions did not succeed in discovering Franklin, his books describing his voyages were very popular. They successfully blended Arctic science with adventure-story sensationalism. Kane was romantically involved with the spirit-rapper Margaret Fox. Fox was well-known as one of the Fox sisters, whose mysterious knockings led to the emergence of Spiritualism in antebellum America. By cracking their toe joints, the Fox sisters convinced many that they could act as mediums between the living and the dead. Fox\u27s spirit-rapping, like Kane\u27s Arctic exploration, mixed science with sensationalism. Various theories about the nature of the mind, such as mesmerism, clairvoyance, and phrenology, fanned the flames of the Fox sisters\u27 sensational rappings. Like Kane, Fox became famous by appealing to an American desire to explore the unknown. When rumors about the Kane/Fox affair became known, the sensationalism they had inspired in their professional lives spilled over into their personal lives. Once again a culture of curiosity defined how they were discussed in public, but this curiosity lost all resemblance to the quasi-scientific curiosity that defined their earlier public lives. It pointed to the commercial sensationalism of a later era

Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being.

The diversity of life on Earth is dramatically affected by Human alterations of ecosystems. Compelling evidence now shows that the reverse is also true: biodiversity in the broad snsse affects the properties of ecosystem and, therefore, the benefits that humans obtain from them. In this article, we provide a synthesis of the most crucial messages emerging from the latest scientific literature and international assessments of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem services and human well- being. Human societies have beeb built on biodiversity. Many activities indispensable for human subsistence lead to biodiversity loss, and this trend is ikely to continue in the future. We clearly benefit from the diversity of organisms that we have learned to use for medicines, food, fibers, and other renwable resources. In addition, biodiversity has always been an integral part of the human experience and there are many moral reasons to preserve it for its own sake. What has been less recognized is that biodiversity also influences human well- being, including the access to water and basic materials for a satifactory life, and security in the face of environmental change, through its effects on the ecosystem processes that lie at the core of the Earth´s most vital life support system.Fil: Díaz, Sandra Myrna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Fargione, Joseph. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina. University Of New Mexico; Estados UnidosFil: Chapin III, Francis Stuart. University Of Alaska; Estados UnidosFil: Tilman, David. University of Minnesota; Estados Unido

A Place to be Together:: Cultivating Spaces of Discomfort and Not Knowing in Visual Analysis. The Collaborative Seeing Studio.

This article describes our transmethodological practice and the affective space of making and making sense of visual research in community. We purposefully embrace complexity and richness in visual data analysis, rather than seeking to reductively avoid doubt and uncertainty. To do this, we bring multiple ways of seeing together into a collaborative, poly-vocal construction. Our ‘studio’ is designed to be a safe space for risk and creativity. We are at different levels of experience and confidence, but we all learn from each other. Seeing collaboratively depends on translating our ways of reading visual material “out of our heads” and “into our shared space.” In the sense that we love what we are doing, we revel at opening ourselves to new possibilities. In-Progress: Victoria Restler Narrates a Collaborative Seeing Studio Session. Wendy Luttrell leads us into collaging as both metaphor and tools of Collaborative Seeing. We end with a brief reflection

Apparent superballistic dynamics in one-dimensional random walks with biased detachment

The mean-squared displacement (MSD) is an averaged quantity widely used to assess anomalous diffusion. In many cases, such as molecular motors with finite processivity, dynamics of the system of interest produce trajectories of varying duration. Here we explore the effects of finite processivity on different measures of the MSD. We do so by investigating a deceptively simple dynamical system: a one-dimensional random walk (with equidistant jump lengths, symmetric move probabilities, and constant step duration) with an origin-directed detachment bias. By tuning the time dependence of the detachment bias, we find through analytical calculations and trajectory simulations that the system can exhibit a broad range of anomalous diffusion, extending beyond conventional diffusion to superdiffusion and even superballistic motion. We analytically determine that protocols with a time-increasing detachment lead to an ensemble-averaged velocity increasing in time, thereby providing the effective acceleration that is required to push the system above the ballistic threshold. MSD analysis of burnt-bridges ratchets similarly reveals superballistic behavior. Because superdiffusive MSDs are often used to infer biased, motor-like dynamics, these findings provide a cautionary tale for dynamical interpretation

Constraints on the Accuracy of Photometric Redshifts Derived from BLAST and Herschel/SPIRE Sub-mm Surveys

More than 150 galaxies have been detected in blank-field millimetre and sub-millimetre surveys. However the redshift distribution of sub-mm galaxies remains uncertain due to the difficulty in identifying their optical-IR counterparts, and subsequently obtaining their spectroscopic emission-line redshifts. In this paper we discuss results from a Monte-Carlo analysis of the accuracy with which one can determine redshifts from photometric measurements at sub-millimetre-FIR wavelengths. The analysis takes into account the dispersion in colours introduced by including galaxies with a distribution of SEDs, and by including photometric and absolute calibration errors associated with real observations. We present examples of the probability distribution of redshifts for individual galaxies detected in the future BLAST and Herschel/SPIRE surveys. We show that the combination of BLAST and 850um observations constrain the photometric redshifts with sufficient accuracy to pursue a program of spectroscopic follow-up with the 100m GBT.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figures, in 2K1BC symposium "Experimental Cosmology at Millimetre Wavelengths", ed. M. de Petris and M. Gervasi, AIP, in pres

A small RNA that cooperatively senses two stacked metabolites in one pocket for gene control.

Riboswitches are structured non-coding RNAs often located upstream of essential genes in bacterial messenger RNAs. Such RNAs regulate expression of downstream genes by recognizing a specific cellular effector. Although nearly 50 riboswitch classes are known, only a handful recognize multiple effectors. Here, we report the 2.60-Å resolution co-crystal structure of a class I type I preQ1-sensing riboswitch that reveals two effectors stacked atop one another in a single binding pocket. These effectors bind with positive cooperativity in vitro and both molecules are necessary for gene regulation in bacterial cells. Stacked effector recognition appears to be a hallmark of the largest subgroup of preQ1 riboswitches, including those from pathogens such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We postulate that binding to stacked effectors arose in the RNA World to closely position two substrates for RNA-mediated catalysis. These findings expand known effector recognition capabilities of riboswitches and have implications for antimicrobial development

Aquatic Insects of Upper Three Runs Creek, Savannah River Plant, South Carolina. Part II: Diptera

As discussed in detail in Part I of this series (Morse et al. 1980), aquatic insects were collected biweekly from six locations on Upper Three Runs Creek, Savannah River Plant near Aiken, South Carolina, from September 1976 through August 1977, using light traps and semi-quantitative benthic sampling methods. See part I (Morse et al. 1980) for site and habitat descriptions and for a discussion of the methods used. In that publication, faunistic results were provided for all insect taxa except Diptera and relative abundance data for all but Diptera and non-dryopoid Coleoptera

Aquatic Insects of Upper Three Runs Creek, Savannah River Plant, South Carolina. Part 1: Orders other than Diptera

Upper Three Runs Creek and its tributary sources, located mostly on property of the Savannah River Plant near Aiken, South Carolina (Fig. 1), is well-known as an unpolluted, blackwater drainage system which is probably typical of smaller, Sandhills waterways of primeval southeastern North America. Probably no other stream at the Plant\u27s Flowing Stream Laboratory (or Thermal Effects Laboratory) has been documented by a research team from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (A.N.S.P.)

Neuropsychiatric Profiles in Dementia

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original is available at http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/lwwgateway/landingpage.htm;jsessionid=Wy1M9PqrBY1LGf0bN3QqF0h42YJqr4mTnW1ZdGT87Wllb4qvTbQb!-396536289!181195628!8091!-1?sid=WKPTLP:landingpage&an=00002093-201110000-00006We compared patterns of neuropsychiatric symptom across four dementia types (AD, VAD, DLB, PDD), and two mixed groups (AD/VAD, AD/DLB) in sample of 2,963 individuals from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set between September 2005 and June 2008. We used confirmatory factor analysis to compare neuropsychiatric symptom severity ratings made by collateral sources on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-Q) for people with Clinical Dementia Rating scores of 1 or higher. A three factor model of psychiatric symptoms (mood, psychotic, and frontal) was shared across all dementia types. Between-group comparisons revealed unique neuropsychiatric profiles by dementia type. The AD group had moderate levels of mood, psychotic, and frontal symptoms while VAD exhibited the highest levels and PDD had the lowest levels. DLB and the mixed dementias had more complex symptom profiles. Depressed mood was the dominant symptom in people with mild diagnoses. Differing psychiatric symptom profiles provide useful information regarding the non-cognitive symptoms of dementia