"To Destroy the Teacher": Whitman and Martin Farquhar Tupper\u27s 1851 Trip to America

Explores the possible influence of British author Martin Farquhar Tupper on the development of Whitman\u27s poetics, concluding that "while the differences between Whitman and Tupper clearly override the similarities, the similarities should not be ignored.

Let’s Stop Calling them “Slave Narratives”: Anagrammatical Blackness in our Academic Discourse

The label “slave narrative” is a damaging misnomer that leads to critical distortions and misrepresentations. These important texts were written by free men and women, not slaves, who had emancipated themselves from America’s slave system, and they function as testimonials of self-determination that document their escape from enslavement and help to enact their own freedom. The label slave narrative, which emerged in the late 1930s during the Federal Writers Project, exemplifies “anagrammatical blackness,” as theorized by Christina Sharpe. The term perpetuates a reductive framework that de-centers the writers’ accomplishments and sustains the afterlives of slavery

Resource selection and space use of the critically endangered Tuamotu Kingfisher (Todiramphus gambieri)

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Aug. 24, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Dylan C. Kesler.M.S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.I investigated the ecological requirements of the critically endangered Tuamotu Kingfisher (Todiramphus gambieri), with the intent to provide management recommendations that could help prevent its extinction. The species is confined to the lowland forests on Niau Atoll in French Polynesia, with less than 250 individuals. I conducted a multi-scale resource selection study based on island-wide surveys and radiotelemetry relocation data from 2006-2008. The birds avoided undisturbed vegetation and appeared to rely on coconut plantations managed with prescribed burning for acquiring food resources. Managed plantations provided foraging habitat with open understory and exposed ground where the kingfishers hunted lizards and other prey items. Such conditions might have resembled those of the original forest that no longer occurs on the island. I also tested factors that have the potential to influence space use, and found that variation was driven by the configuration of foraging habitat. The birds appeared to have a maximum territory length that was likely limited by their ability to effectively defend territory boundaries, guard the nest, and provision nestlings. Thus, regions where habitats occur in very linear or distant patches may be unsuitable. I recommended translocation as a potential conservation strategy for Tuamotu Kingfishers, and provided criteria for selecting an island for establishing a rescue population.Includes bibliographical references

Therapeutics for Coral Bleaching: insight from a novel triterpenoid metabolite

The focus of the work will be to use therapeutics try to fix and/or prevent coral bleaching. Bleaching is when the coral releases its colored zoozanthellae symbionts, causing a white color appearance. This is a stress response for the coral and is caused mainly by an increase in temperature. This is a problem because once coral bleaching starts it can continue even without the presence of the stressors. If the coral does manage to survive this period it will take a long time for the symbionts to grow back to their original proportions in the coral. This topic is of interest because coral reefs are disappearing every day and conservation of coral reefs has been a hot topic in recent scientific discussions. This paper looks into the use of therapeutics in preventing coral bleaching and helping with recovery when a bleaching event occurs.B.S. (Bachelor of Science

Changes in hemlock looper [Lepidoptera: Geometridae] pupal distribution through a 3-year outbreak cycle

La distribution des chrysalides de l’arpenteuse de la pruche, Lambdina fiscellaria, a été étudiée au cours d’un cycle épidémique d’une durée de trois ans près du Lac Princeton sur l’île d’Anticosti au Québec. Au total, 10 sapins ont été coupés et toutes les chrysalides ont été comptées sur le tronc et les branches (partie non-foliée vs foliée) de la cime inférieure, médiane et supérieure, ainsi que sur le tronc sous la cime. En condition préépidémique, les chrysalides ont principalement été trouvées sur les branches des cimes médianes et supérieures. Durant l’épidémie, la densité des chrysalides n’a pas augmenté dans ces sites de pupaison et les larves se sont surtout transformées en chrysalides sur le tronc, à partir du sol jusque dans la cime médiane, ainsi que sur les branches de la cime inférieure. Peu de chrysalides ont été trouvées sur la partie foliée des branches en période post-épidémique, la plupart étant trouvées sur la partie basale non-foliée qui apparaît comme un endroit préférentiel pour la pupaison de l'arpenteuse de la pruche. De façon à optimiser la détection des augmentations de populations dans les réseaux de surveillance, des pièges à chrysalides devraient être placés à hauteur de poitrine sur le tronc de sapins baumiers.The hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria, pupal distribution was studied through a 3-year outbreak cycle near Lac Princeton on Anticosti Island in Quebec. Over the 3 years, 10 balsam fir trees were cut and all pupae were counted on the stem and branches (non-foliated vs foliated parts) of the lower, middle and upper crowns and on the stem below crown. In pre-outbreak conditions, pupae were mostly found on branches of the middle and upper crowns. During the outbreak, pupal density did not increase on these parts of the trees, since pupae were mostly found on the stem, from the ground to the middle crown, and on branches of the lower crown. Few pupae were found on the foliated portion of branches in post-outbreak conditions but most were found on the basal non-foliated part of branches, which appears to be a preferred location for hemlock looper pupation. In order to optimize detection of population increases in monitoring networks, we suggest using pupal traps at breast height on balsam fir trees

Use of inert gas jets to measure the forces required for mechanical gene transfection

BACKGROUND: Transferring genes and drugs into cells is central to how we now study, identify and treat diseases. Several non-viral gene therapy methods that rely on the mechanical disruption of the plasma membrane have been proposed, but the success of these methods has been limited due to a lack of understanding of the mechanical parameters that lead to cell membrane permeability. METHODS: We use a simple jet of inert gas to induce local transfection of plasmid DNA both in vitro (HeLa cells) and in vivo (chicken chorioallantoic membrane). Five different capillary tube inner diameters and three different gases were used to treat the cells to understand the dependency of transfection efficiency on the dynamic parameters. RESULTS: The simple setup has the advantage of allowing us to calculate the forces acting on cells during transfection. We found permeabilization efficiency was related to the dynamic pressure of the jet. The range of dynamic pressures that led to transfection in HeLa cells was small (200 ± 20 Pa) above which cell stripping occurred. We determined that the temporary pores allow the passage of dextran up to 40 kDa and reclose in less than 5 seconds after treatment. The optimized parameters were also successfully tested in vivo using the chorioallantoic membrane of the chick embryo. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the number of cells transfected with the plasmid scales with the dynamic pressure of the jet. Our results show that mechanical methods have a very small window in which cells are permeabilized without injury (200 to 290 Pa). This simple apparatus helps define the forces needed for physical cell transfection methods

RNA-Seq identifies SPGs as a ventral skeletal patterning cue in sea urchins

The sea urchin larval skeleton offers a simple model for formation of developmental patterns. The calcium carbonate skeleton is secreted by primary mesenchyme cells (PMCs) in response to largely unknown patterning cues expressed by the ectoderm. To discover novel ectodermal cues, we performed an unbiased RNA-Seq-based screen and functionally tested candidates; we thereby identified several novel skeletal patterning cues. Among these, we show that SLC26a2/7 is a ventrally expressed sulfate transporter that promotes a ventral accumulation of sulfated proteoglycans, which is required for ventral PMC positioning and skeletal patterning. We show that the effects of SLC perturbation are mimicked by manipulation of either external sulfate levels or proteoglycan sulfation. These results identify novel skeletal patterning genes and demonstrate that ventral proteoglycan sulfation serves as a positional cue for sea urchin skeletal patterning

Le Forum, Vol. 40 No. 4

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1089/thumbnail.jp

Le Forum, Vol. 40 No. 2

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1087/thumbnail.jp