“Art had almost left them:” Les Cenelles Society of Arts and Letters, The Dillard Project, and the Legacy of Afro-Creole Arts in New Orleans

In 1942, in New Orleans a group of intellectual and artistic African-Americans, led by Marcus B. Christian, formed an art club named Les Cenelles Society of Arts and Letters. Les Cenelles members both looked to New Orleans’s Afro-Creole population as the pinnacle of African American artistic achievements and used their example as a model for artists who sought to effect social change. Many of the members of Les Cenelles wrote for the Louisiana Federal Writers’ Program (FWP). A key strategy the members of Les Cenelles used to accomplish their goals was gaining the support of white civic leaders, in particular Lyle Saxon. Christian and Saxon’s relationship was unusual in the 1940s Jim Crow era in the sense that it was built upon mutual respect and admiration. This thesis examines both the efforts of Les Cenelles and the black division of the FWP, as well as Christian and Saxon’s relationship

ASSEMBLY OF PARTICLES ONTO RIGID CYLINDERS AND FLEXIBLE MEMBRANES: PROBING EFFECTS OF SURFACE CURVATURE AND DEFORMATION

In this thesis we explore two specific topics within the broad field of particle adhesion. First, we examine the effect of substrate shape and geometry on the self assembly of adsorbed particles, by performing molecular dynamics simulations of interacting particles constrained to the surface of cylinders of varying diameters. We find the diameter of the cylinder imposes a constraint on the shape and crystallographic orientation of the self-assembled lattice, essentially determining the optimal arrangement of particles a priori. We propose a simple one-dimensional model to explain the optimal arrangement of particles as a function of the particle interaction potential and the physical size of the constraining cylinder. We next investigate the stiffness of these cylindrical lattices, and find that thin cylindrical crystals are anomalously softer than large ones. We then propose this effect is a consequence of the geometric arrangement of particles in a tight cylindrical shape, and quantify how the stiffness depends on the circumference of the cylinder and on the strength of interaction between the particles. Second, we explore how adhesion of particles can reshape the substrate, for the purpose of designing novel functional materials. We perform experiments exposing cationic nanoparticles to lipid bilayer vesicles, where we vary the adhesion energy between the two by adjusting the fraction of anionic lipid (DOPS) in the otherwise zwitterionic lipid (DOPC) bilayer membrane. We find two distinct types of behavior: when the DOPS content of the membrane is 5% or higher, the high adhesion energy causes the nanoparticles to disrupt the vesicles upon adsorption. When the DOPS content is 4% or less, the adhesion of nanoparticles caused the vesicles to adhere to one another and form a rigid liposome gel. We propose that these two behaviors are explained by a transition from a partial wrapping of the nanoparticles to their complete envelopment by the membrane when the DOPS content exceeds 4.5%. We also detail methods for producing large quantities of the vesicle gel using cationic polymers in place of the nanoparticles. These findings could be used to to engineer new solid, semi-permeable materials that can encapsulate cargo, or to create cargo-carrying liposomes with the ability to rupture on trigger

Interview Of Dr. Ken Warner, Dean Of The School Of Public Health

Articlehttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96995/1/UMURJ-Issue07_2010-AProgovac.pd

Costs of Chronic Waterborne Zinc Exposure and the Consequences of Zinc Acclimation on the Gill/Zinc Interactions of Rainbow Trout in Hard and Soft Water

Juvenile rainbow trout were exposed to zinc in both moderately hard water (hardness 5 120 mg CaCO3/L, pH = 8.0, Zn = 150 μg/L or 450 μg/L) and soft water (hardness = 20 mg CaCO3/L, pH = 7.2, Zn = 50 μg/L or 120 μg/L) for 30 d. Only the 450 mg/L zinc–exposed fish experienced significant mortality (24% in the first 2 d). Zinc exposure caused no effect on growth rate, but growth affected tissue zinc levels. Whole body zinc levels were elevated, but gills and liver showed no consistent increases relative to controls over the 30-d. Therefore, tissue zinc residues were not a good indicator of chronic zinc exposure. After the 30-d exposure, physiological function tests were performed. Zinc was 5.4 times more toxic in soft water (control 96 h LC50s in hard and soft water were 869 μg/L and 162 μg/L, respectively). All zinc-exposed trout had acclimated to the metal, as seen by an increase in the LC50 of 2.2 to 3.9 times over that seen in control fish. Physiological costs related to acclimation appeared to be few. Zinc exposure had no effect on whole body Ca2+ or Na+ levels, on resting or routine metabolic rates, or on fixed velocity sprint performance. However, critical swimming speed (UCrit) was significantly reduced in zinc-exposed fish, an effect that persisted in zinc-free water. Using radioisotopic techniques to distinguish new zinc incorporation, the gills were found to possess two zinc pools: a fast turnover pool (T1/2 = 3–4 h) and a slow turnover pool (T1/2 = days to months). The fast pool was much larger in soft water than in hard water, but at most it accounted for \u3c3.5% of the zinc content of the gills. The size of the slow pool was unknown, but its loading rate was faster in soft water. Chronic zinc exposure was found to increase the size of the fast pool and to increase the loading rate of the slow pool

A Mode Coupling Theory for Random Waveguides with Turning Points

We study acoustic waveguides with varying cross sections and slowly bending axes. In particular, we consider waveguides with rough walls and cross sectional width that varies slowly. Roughness means fast and small fluctuations that occur on the scale of the wavelength. The roughness in the walls is unknown in applications and so we model it as a random process to study the propagation of uncertainty in the walls to uncertainty in the wavefield. The slow variations occur on a scale much larger than the wavelength and cause jumps in the number of propagating modes supported by the guide. Here we present a mathematical analysis from first principles of waves in waveguides with an arbitrary but finite number of turning points. We use our analysis to quantify randomization of the wavefield and transport of power in the guide. This is accomplished by obtaining a statistical description of coupled complex waveguide mode amplitudes in terms of the statistics of the fluctuations in the walls. Randomization is captured by decay of the means of the mode amplitudes with distance from the source. Transport of power is studied through differential equations for the second moments of the mode amplitudes. We show using these equations that the random fluctuations in the wall may increase or decrease net transmitted power depending upon the source excitation.PHDMathematicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138640/1/derekmw_1.pd

MicroRNA-155 regulates monocyte chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that miR-155 regulates monocyte migratory potential via modulation of chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA); and thereby is associated with disease activity. Methods: miR-155 copy-number in monocytes from peripheral blood (PB) of healthy (n=22), RA (n=24), and RA synovial fluid (SF; n=11) were assessed by real time- PCR using synthetic miR-155 as quantitative standard. To evaluate the functional impact of miR-155, human monocytes were transfected with control or miR-155 mimic and the effect on transcript levels, and production of chemokines was evaluated by TLDA and multiplex assays. A comparative study evaluated constitutive chemokine receptor expression in miR-155-/- and wild-type murine (CD115+Ly6C+Ly6G-) monocytes. Results: Compared with healthy monocytes, miR-155 copy-number was higher in RA PB and SF monocytes (PB p<0.01, and SF p<0.0001). MiR-155 copy-number in RA PB monocytes were higher in ACPA positive compared with ACPA negative patients (p=0.033) and correlated (95% C.I.) with DAS28 (ESR), R=0.728 (0.460, 0.874), with tender, R=0.631 (0.306, 0.824) and swollen, R=0.503 (0.125, 0.753) joint counts. Enforced-expression of miR-155 in RA monocytes stimulated the production of CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CCL8; up-regulated CCR7 expression and down-regulated CCR2. Conversely, miR155-/- monocytes showed down-regulated CCR7 and upregulated CCR2 expression. Conclusions: Given the observed correlations with disease activity, these data provide strong evidence that miR-155 can contribute to RA pathogenesis by regulating chemokine production and pro-inflammatory chemokine receptor expression, thereby promoting inflammatory cell recruitment and retention in the RA synovium

Poster 263: Obesity, Blood Pressure and Chronic Low Back Pain

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146960/1/pmr2s118a.pd

Practical Model for Improved Classification of Trace Chemical Residues on Surfaces in Active Spectroscopic Measurements

Trace chemical detection and classification in stand-off reflection-based spectro- scopic data is challenging due to the variability of measured data and the lack of physics-based models that can accurately predict spectra. Most available models assume that the chemical takes the form of spherical particles or uniform thin films. A more realistic chemical presentation that could be encountered is that of a nonuniform chemical film that is deposited after evaporation of the solvent that contained the chemical. We present an improved signature model for this type of solid film. The proposed model, called sparse transfer matrix, includes a log-normal distribution of film thicknesses and is found to reduce the root mean square error between simulated and measured data by about 25% when compared with either the particle or uniform thin film models. When applied to measured data, the sparse transfer matrix model provides a 10% to 28% increase in classification accuracy over traditional models