Wallace Stevens

Originally published in 1980. Wallace Stevens: The Making of the Poem emphasizes the ideas that Wallace Stevens embeds in his poetry, providing the first study to provide an intellectual biography of Stevens. It examines Stevens' naturalism, his ideas of the self, and the imagination, among other topics. The concepts that emerge from long reading of the poetry of Stevens are slight and basic, but these concepts do accord, even if they never emerge into a coherent philosophy. The accordance is probably a result of Stevens' preference for naturalistic thought

Stevens' Poetry of Thought

Originally published in 1966. Stevens' Poetry of Thought is the first full-length study of Wallace Stevens as a thinker. With original insight, Mr. Doggett provides many detailed interpretations of individual poems in examining Steven's imagery. This is a pertinent treatment of Stevens' inherent affinity with the philosophic imagination of his time, showing how firmly this poet was linked through his images with the leading thinkers of the age just passed—especially Schopenhauer, Bergson, Santayana, Whitehead, William James, Jung, and Cassirer. The clear and perceptive reading of a great many of the poems in this book should illuminate the work of Stevens for all the readers who admire his language and wish for further insight into its significance. Beyond being a definitive exposition of Steven' poetry and a meaningful act of faith in the intellectual sophistication of Stevens, this is an exciting study of the human imagination which satisfies the need for distinction between poetry and philosophy while illuminating one by the other. Mr. Doggett demonstrates how the poetry of Stevens is a representative voice of the ideas of his age and illustrates Stevens own statement: "Poets and philosophers often think alike, as we shall see." Wallace Stevens is now recognized as one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. His first volume of poems, Harmonium was published in 1923, and since then seven volumes of his work have appeared. He was awarded the Bollingen Prize in Poetry of the Yale University Library for 1949. In 1951 he won the National Book Award in Poetry for The Auroras of Autumn. The Collected Works of Wallace Stevens was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1955. From 1916 to his death in 1955 he was associated with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, of which he became vice-president in 1934

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

An immunogenic peptide in the A-box of HMGB1 protein reverses apoptosis-induced tolerance through RAGE receptor

Apoptotic cells trigger immune tolerance in engulfing phagocytes. This poorly understood process is believed to contribute to the severe immunosuppression and increased susceptibility to nosocomial infections observed in critically ill sepsis patients. Extracellular high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is an important mediator of both sepsis lethality and the induction of immune tolerance by apoptotic cells. We have found that HMGB1 is sensitive to processing by caspase-1, resulting in the production of a fragment within its N-terminal DNA-binding domain (the A-box) that signals through the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) to reverse apoptosis-induced tolerance. In a two-hit mouse model of sepsis, we show that tolerance to a secondary infection and its associated mortality were effectively reversed by active immunization with dendritic cells treated with HMGB1 or the Abox fragment, but not a noncleavable form of HMGB1. These findings represent a novel link between caspase-1 and HMGB1, with potential therapeutic implications in infectious and inflammatory diseases. \ua9 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Autophagy supports color vision

Cones comprise only a small portion of the photoreceptors in mammalian retinas. However, cones are vital for color vision and visual perception, and their loss severely diminishes the quality of life for patients with retinal degenerative diseases. Cones function in bright light and have higher demand for energy than rods; yet, the mechanisms that support the energy requirements of cones are poorly understood. One such pathway that potentially could sustain cones under basal and stress conditions is macroautophagy. We addressed the role of macroautophagy in cones by examining how the genetic block of this pathway affects the structural integrity, survival, and function of these neurons. We found that macroautophagy was not detectable in cones under normal conditions but was readily observed following 24 h of fasting. Consistent with this, starvation induced phosphorylation of AMPK specifically in cones indicating cellular starvation. Inhibiting macroautophagy in cones by deleting the essential macroautophagy gene Atg5 led to reduced cone function following starvation suggesting that cones are sensitive to systemic changes in nutrients and activate macroautophagy to maintain their function. ATG5-deficiency rendered cones susceptible to light-induced damage and caused accumulation of damaged mitochondria in the inner segments, shortening of the outer segments, and degeneration of all cone types, revealing the importance of mitophagy in supporting cone metabolic needs. Our results demonstrate that macroautophagy supports the function and long-term survival of cones providing for their unique metabolic requirements and resistance to stress. Targeting macroautophagy has the potential to preserve cone-mediated vision during retinal degenerative diseases