Charlotte Bronte's Villette : the confessional perspective

The appearance of Charlotte Bronte's novel Villette In 1853 provoked a vigorous critical reaction, for the work marked a departure from the prevailing course of the novel in the mid-nineteenth century. The rise of industrialism and the moral convictions of a growing middleclass readership were helping to shape the novel into a panoramic social commentary. Dickens and Thackeray exemplify the novelists of the period whose works reflect a deep concern for the problems of a society in flux. Charlotte Bronte's concern is rather with the inner life of the individual. In Villette, the frank exploration of the emotional life of the heroine Lucy Snowe elicited attacks on the author's own moral philosophy. The fictional treatment of passion was a violation of conventional Victorian attitudes

Between writer and reader : the relationship of the concept of audience to the teaching of composition

Traditionally the term rhetoric has been applied to the education of speakers on public occasions. Modem rhetoric has been characterized by a shift from spoken to written discourse and another shift from emphasis on the rhetor to emphasis on the audience. The purpose of this study is two-fold: to synthesize the major contributions to the study of audience, assessing their usefulness in the teaching of composition, and to analyze rhetorical action by presenting a model which will illuminate the relationship between writer and reader. The heritage of the rhetorical concept of audience can be traced back to the Rhetoric of Aristotle. The analysis of audience found in the Rhetoric can be of great value to students and teachers of written discourse. Aristotle treats rhetoric as an art which can be systematized, and is therefore teachable. Although Aristotelian rhetoric can be useful, it also has limitations for twentieth-century studies

Genetic switching during protein synthesis and the role of quadruplexes in HIV-1’s nef gene

HIV-1 is still a prominent global public health issue responsible for the deaths of over 1 million people annually. It is a very complex virus that has been extensively studied over the past decade. The virus has adapted several mechanisms to maintain a compact genome size while also producing required essential gene products in order to successfully replicate itself in an efficient manner. One of the ways it has been able to achieve this goal is to not obey the “rules” of the central dogma of molecular biology. The flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein, and with the outdated idea of one gene producing one protein, is oversimplified with our current knowledge of the virus. One way to maintain its strict, compact genome size requirement is to have inherent multiple reading frames in the same copy of its RNA. By utilizing a ribosomal frameshift, HIV-1 is able to produce multiple proteins without the addition of more genetic material. This has been extensively studied in the past, namely in the Gag-Pol polyprotein, which is only produced as a result of a ribosomal frameshift in the -1 direction. We are presenting a new mechanism by which HIV-1 induces a -1 ribosomal frameshift. Nef is a protein produced by the nef gene of HIV-1 and functions to improve viral replication and pathogenicity. It is known to downregulate CD4 and MHC Class I receptors in order to evade the host’s immune cell response. Deletion of the nef gene in the virus has been shown to prevent long-term patients who have been diagnosed with HIV-1 from progressing to AIDS, indicating the importance of the Nef protein and its role of pathogenesis. There are several requirements for a ribosomal frameshift to occur. These requirements, containing a heptameric sequence with the format of ‘X XXY YYZ’ and a pseudoknot or other RNA secondary structure separated by a length of 6-12 oligonucleotides, are all found in the nef gene. We hypothesize a -1 ribosomal frameshift is induced by the formation of a quadruplex (QPX). By utilizing an in vitro frameshift assay with a dual reporter fluorescence protein vector, where we have cloned two copies of nef gene fragments (one wild type and another with 3 specific bases modified to remove potential G QPX formation) in between a cerulean fluorescent protein and an orange fluorescent protein, we have found that the QPX in this region of nef is essential for inducing a -1 ribosomal frameshift. When three specific guanines in the nef region are modified into adenine bases, the ribosomal frameshifting event that occurs in the wild type is significantly reduced (p<0.0001), highlighting the importance between the formation of a QPX in the nef gene of HIV-1 and its role in inducing a frameshift in the -1 direction during protein synthesis

How Do We Forgive?: An Empirical Framework for the Underlying Processes of Overcoming Interpersonal Betrayal

Few studies have empirically examined the underlying processes of forgiveness. Perspective-taking has been depicted as an important precursor to forgiveness, specifically by means of empathic responding toward the offender (e.g., McCullough, Worthington, & Rachal, 1997). By contrast, Takaku (2001) proposed that forgiveness is merely a means of reducing cognitive dissonance that results from perspective-taking. The ultimate goal of this study was to test the dissonance model of forgiveness in an experimental design. Tesser and Cornell’s (1991) self-affirmation method of dissonance reduction was included to capture evidence of dissonance indirectly. A series of two-way ANOVAs was conducted to examine 3 (Perspective-Taking: Recall-Self-as-Transgressor; Imagine-Other; Control) x 2 (Self-Affirmation: Self-Affirmation; Summer Vacation Control) interactions for self-reported feelings of dissonance, forgiveness, positive and negative emotional reactions, and unforgiveness. The proposed dissonance-reduction model of forgiveness was not supported; however, findings did reveal an indirect effect of perspective-taking on forgiveness outcomes. Additional exploratory analyses addressed alternative causal paths between perspective-taking, attributions, and empathy for the offender. Implications are directed toward better understanding the ambiguous nature of the cognitive and emotional processes that help victims cultivate forgiveness and overcome the psychological burden of betrayal

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons

Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots for b/w printin

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques