The last music on earth: prehistory and the function of music in The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that has been the subject of much critical success and debate, perhaps to the point of saturation. The Road tells the story of an unnamed man and boy as they travel south in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, empty of nature, life and safety. It is a struggle not only for their survival but also for what remains of, or what is meant by, humanity. This paper discusses the function of music in The Road based upon the twice-occurring mention of a flute, extrapolating on Randall Wilhelm’s concept of still life in The Road to provide a detailed close reading of this image. The flute is a remnant of the human and humanity, and it is also a link to our prehistoric ancestors. While it may initially appear to be an item of superficial insignificance, this paper will argue that the flute is not only central to understanding the text, but also located structurally within cave imagery present throughout The Road. Despite the amount of literature already produced on The Road, it remains a prescient work, tapping into contemporary fears of nuclear war or environmental disaster. The Road will not disappear, and this article serves to discuss new territory in the form of the flute and music

Analytical and experimental performance of a dual-mode traveling wave tube and multistage depressed collector

A computational procedure for the design of traveling-wave-tube(TWT)/refocuser/multistage depressed collector (MDC) systems was used to design a short, permanent-magnet refocusing system and a highly efficient MDC for a medium-power, dual-mode, 4.8- to 9.6-GHz TWT. The computations were carried out with advanced, multidimensional computer programs which model the electron beam and follow the trajectories of representative charges from the radiofrequency (RF) input of the TWT, through the slow-wave structure and refocusing section, to their points of impact in the depressed collector. Secondary emission losses in the MDC were treated semiquantitatively by injecting representative secondary-electron-emission current into the MDA analysis at the point of impact of each primary beam. A comparison of computed and measured TWT and MDC performance showed very good agreement. The electrodes of the MDC were fabricated from a particluar form of isptropic graphite that was selected for its low secondary electron yield, ease of machinability, and vacuum properties

Overdue: A policy analysis of college library operation programs

The problem was to identify and assess the policy basis for the universal policy of colleges to have library operation programs. Colleges are higher education institutions whose main business is the delivery of college education, undergraduate instruction, leading to baccalaureate degrees. The conventional wisdom--the explanation of policy basis given in the literature--is a construct here called the College Library Doctrine. According to it, there is a fundamental relationship between the library operation program and the delivery of college education, undergraduate instruction. This relationship is said to be the result of historical process.;The College Library Doctrine was analyzed using a forensic or investigative approach. This approach looked for consistency and/or contradiction, treating the literature as data or evidence.;As a result of the analysis it was found that the same data or evidence supports a quite different explanation of why colleges have library operation programs. This alternative explanation of policy basis has little to do with the delivery of college education, undergraduate instruction. The existence of this quite different alternative explanation raises a serious reasonable doubt over the existence of the fundamental relationship posited by the College Library Doctrine.;The unresolved doubt, along with the recurrence of the college library operation program in the arena of institutional reputation, in topics such as quality, image, and prestige--through such phenomena as accreditation, ratings, rankings, and media coverage--suggest a policy relocation of the college library operation program from its usual but problematic placement in the broad area of academic support, to a different venue, institutional support. Enhancement of institutional reputation is an important part of institutional support. In this relocation there would be a better fit between policy basis and policy; and there, accordingly, the institutional support benefit and potential of the library operation program might be maximized.;The Appendix recalls an early question of the analysis conceptualization and demonstrates that, whether or not the results and conclusions of the analysis itself are accepted, there are decisive flaws in attempts to prescribe college library program resource allocation on the basis of historical data

A Comparative Study of a Linguistic and a Traditional Approach to Spelling

It was the purpose of this study to compare a modern linguistics method in spelling instruction to a previously used traditional method to answer the question: Is the linguistic method more effective than the traditional method in teaching spelling

Surgical Management of Spinal Epidural Disease: An Update

Management of spinal cord compression from metastatic malignant disease remains unsatisfactory. Results of surgical decompression are at best less than those of radiation therapy alone. However, new surgical approaches now focus on removing the anterior-situated tumor tissue which produces neural compression in about 85% of the cases. The results of these procedures that allow removal of the ventrally compressing tumor show significant improvement in the management of patients with spinal epidural disease. We review the surgical strategy of these new approaches and the attendant results

Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Behaviors Related to Health among the Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador and the Potential Application of Telehealth

There is much concern of health effects related to gas drilling in the provinces of Ecuador. Recent research has shown a possible correlation between oil drilling and a multitude of health problems (1). Cancer rates in particular may be elevated in populations exposed to the drilling pollutants; while intriguing, this research remains inconclusive in large partly because of difficulties in diagnosing cancer among other health problems in rural populations, but also due to local peoples perception of exposure. It has been determined that previous explorations between petroleum and cancer had not been approached directly in terms of taking indigenous peoples knowledge, attitude, behavior, and beliefs (KABB) into account, which is vital in shaping their identity and entity as a whole, particularly in the intersections of medical, ecological-environmental, and cultural-historical trajectories. Upon further investigation in the current literature and discussion with the local experts in the fields of anthropology and epidemiology, it is identified that the perception of illness and its implication in terms of KABB must be assessed and taken under consideration before the true prevalence of cancer in this region can be measured to its true extent. This research will therefore aim to lay the groundwork by conducting interviews utilizing surveys developed to assess the KABB of local people through healthcare providers and indigenous healers. Targeted interviewees will be from the following key figures of the local healthcare system: Physicians, nurses, promotores, shamans (Indigenous healers), Quito\u27s epidemiologists, public health officials, oncologists. The KABB of the indigenous healers will be compared to those of western-trained healthcare providers and scientists. Targeted locales will be major cities such as Quito and rural areas in the Oriente. We will also enlist the help of students at Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccial (UTE), Equinoccial Technological University in Quito using Telehealth Video-Telephone-Conferencing (VTC) and Internet to share project progress, discuss issues, and to share information. The result will be valuable for future endeavor to further investigate the link between petroleum exploration and its carcinogenic effects on local population, as well as to establish the true prevalence of cancer due to petroleum exploration. This research also could help prevent a major health crisis, similar to the once-unknown deleterious effects of tobacco use along with its far-reaching medical-legal aftermath of unprecedented cases of litigations. It is hoped that this research will serve as a forerunner in qualitative research utilizing KABB model to explore area of complicated human-environment-diseases interactions; and thereby to shed light into the ambiguous relationship between cultural beliefs, petroleum exploration, and cancer in Ecuador. The study was aimed at laying the groundwork for future focused research to address critical health issues among the people affected. Results of the surveys showed that the concerns related to petroleum drilling and its effects on the environment and health is less tantamount in the urban areas compared to the rural communities near the drilling areas. Independent of the petroleum drilling activities, we found that the major health problems are related to poverty, malnutrition, unclean water, and a variety of potentially preventable infections. Solutions include improved education, prevention, better nutrition, sanitized water and local economic development. We plan to apply Telehealth technologies to create a collaborative knowledge network and address these issues more efficiently.\u2

Ultraviolet Luminosity Density of the Universe During the Epoch of Reionization

The spatial fluctuations of the extragalactic background light trace the total emission from all stars and galaxies in the Universe. A multi-wavelength study can be used to measure the integrated emission from first galaxies during reionization when the Universe was about 500 million years old. Here we report arcminute-scale spatial fluctuations in one of the deepest sky surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope in five wavebands between 0.6 and 1.6 $\mu$m. We model-fit the angular power spectra of intensity fluctuation measurements to find the ultraviolet luminosity density of galaxies at $z$ > 8 to be $\log \rho_{\rm UV} = 27.4^{+0.2}_{-1.2}$ erg s$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ $(1\sigma)$. This level of integrated light emission allows for a significant surface density of fainter primeval galaxies that are below the point source detection level in current surveys.Comment: The official typeset version is available from the Nature Communications website at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150907/ncomms8945/full/ncomms8945.html The data used in this work can be found at http://herschel.uci.edu/CANDELS