I Dreamt I Was Kafka: Freudian Interpretation and Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has been examined through the lens of Freudian theory for decades. This article argues that Franz Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis with Freudian theory in mind, particularly regarding The Oedipal Complex, a theory Sigmund Freud developed to describe the psychosexual development that occurs during the Phallic stage. According to Freud, during this stage, children experience an unconscious feeling of desire for their opposite-sex parent and jealousy and envy toward their same-sex parent. This article examines how Franz Kafka seems to reverse the Oedipal pattern in The Metamorphosis as the main character Gregor seems to not long for the love of his mother but rather that of his sister, Grete. This article also examines how Kafka seems to have written The Metamorphosis, as well as most of his work, through an autobiographical lens

Personal Digital Archiving

Preserve Your Data in 2 minutes / 2 hours / 2 days / 2 months BASIC PRINCIPLES 1. IDENTIFY what you want to save 2. Decide what is MOST IMPORTANT to you 3. ORGANIZE the content 4. Make COPIES & MANAGE them in different places 5. Manage your archive OVER TIM

Folger Sustainable Preservation Environment Project

The Folger Shakespeare Library requests a planning grant to fund Phase 1 of the Folger Sustainable Preservation Environment Project (FSPEP), the development of an overall plan for creating and maintaining a sustainable preservation environment for the Folger's unparalleled collection of Shakespeare and early modern European resources. Preserving the collection is a critical priority of the Folger. Data collected to-date supports the conclusion that current environmental conditions at the Folger are not optimal for long-term collection preservation, with nearly all building areas showing the collections are at risk of natural aging, metal corrosion, mechanical damage, and/or mold growth. This project will be a collaborative effort of Folger facilities staff, curators, and conservators, guided by the expertise of preservation technology and energy consultants with the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) and Herzog/Wheeler & Associates

NPFXD Motif-containing Proteins in Aspergillus nidulans

Filamentous fungi grow by producing tubular, thread-like structures called hyphae. These hyphal cells elongate in a unidirectional, polarized manner, by synthesizing and adding new cell wall and membrane exclusively at the apex. Until recently, the model of hyphal growth had been based solely on exocytosis through the Spitzenkörper (SPK), an organized body of secretory vesicles found only in growing fungal hyphae. However, it is now generally presumed that endocytosis is also required, and that a mechanism called apical recycling maintains a balance between the coupled processes of endocytosis and exocytosis. This equilibrium requires both the SPK and a sub-apical collar, which is enriched for endocytosis and originates approximately 1-5 µm distal to the SPK. As new membrane is added and cell wall is synthesized at the apex of each hypha, cargo is also internalized in the sub-apical collar. Here, a bioinformatics approach was utilized to methodically identify 39 Aspergillus nidulans proteins predicted to contain an NPFxD peptide motif, which is a necessary endocytic signal sequence in yeast. I hypothesized that some of these NPFxD motif-containing proteins in A. nidulans would localize to at least one of three apical regions where cargoes are typically observed (the SPK, the sub-apical collar, and the apical crescent). Those with apical localizations are also likely to be associated with the establishment or maintenance of polarized growth, and could even be cargo for endocytosis. In order to test this hypothesis, the expression and localization of motif-containing proteins in A. nidulans was evaluated by endogenously inserting GFP or mCherry and imaging during polarized growth. The localization patterns of confirmed GFP proteins studied thus far supported the hypothesis that this motif is likely to mark proteins for localization to one or more of the three predicted regions near the growing fronts of hyphae. When apical localization was observed, a gene deletion strain was then constructed to further investigate the function of each protein. Mutants from initial deletion experiments demonstrated an inability to maintain polarization and displayed atypical development in various cell types, which also suggests that the genes in question could be involved in membrane turnover

Assessing the Fidelity of Explanations with Global Sensitivity Analysis

Many explainability methods have been proposed as a means of understanding how a learned machine learning model makes decisions and as an important factor in responsible and ethical artificial intelligence. However, explainability methods often do not fully and accurately describe a model's decision process. We leverage the mathematical framework of global sensitivity analysis techniques to reveal deficiencies of explanation methods. We find that current explainaiblity methods fail to capture prediction uncertainty and make several simplifying assumptions that have significant ramifications on the accuracy of the resulting explanations. We show that the simplifying assumptions result in explanations that: (1) fail to model nonlinear interactions in the model and (2) misrepresent the importance of correlated features. Experiments suggest that failing to capture nonlinear feature interaction has a larger impact on the accuracy of the explanations. Thus, as most state-of-the-art ML models have non-linear interactions and operate on correlated data, explanations should only be used with caution

Cotyledonoid dissecting leiomyoma with adipocytic differentiation: A case report

• The second case of cotyledonoid dissecting lipoleiomyoma documented in the literature is reported. • Cotyledonoid dissecting leiomyoma presents in a similar manner as aggressive malignancies; however, it is a benign lesion. • Recurrence of cotyledonoid dissecting leiomyoma is exceedingly rare with only one documented recurrence following conservative treatment

Empowering Support Staff: Enhancing HCPS Through Performance Evaluation and Strategic Feedback

Hanover County Public Schools (HCPS) submitted a Request for Assistance (RFA) to doctoral students at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to improve their support staff evaluation system. The doctoral team focused on developing an updated evaluation tool that effectively measures support staff job performance. To do so, the team conducted a descriptive study and developed a framework, Core Evaluation Components (CEC), to support the use of research-informed components in a quality K12 staff evaluation. The methods used in this study were a survey and a qualitative document analysis. The survey was used to understand the opinions, perspectives, and input from both HCPS support staff employees and evaluators. The qualitative document analysis was utilized to compare the current HCPS evaluation tool to those of neighboring school districts to identify the needs of the new tool. Findings revealed the importance of prioritizing the needs of the organization’s evaluators and employees, the CEC elements of accuracy, transparency, equity, and feedback, and performance management concepts in the development of the new evaluation tool. The team created targeted recommendations for HCPS to implement the new evaluation tool effectively and developed job-specific evaluation forms, an executive summary, and strategic feedback forms for HCPS to implement

A Comparison of Nursing Homes in Rural and Urban Communities in Indiana

The growing number of elderly persons in U.S. society—the “Graying of America”—increases the urgency of making available the resources needed to ensure optimum quality of life for all seniors. When families are no longer able to meet their loved one’s needs, it becomes necessary to consider the possibility of long-term care. Often, families face this decision without the information they need in order to make an informed choice. The researchers utilized a four-tiered categorization to compare nursing homes in most rural, rural, urban and most urban counties in Indiana. The Medicare website (http://www.medicare.gov/) addresses issues of staffing, number of Medicare/Medicaid beds, and quality ratings. The authors discussed implications for elderly residents of rural counties in Indiana and encouraged further research to determine the extent to which their findings may be generalized to the continental U.S

Bacteria Monitoring in the Upper Illinois River Watershed

This project focuses on the Upper Illinois River Watershed (UIRW; HUC 11110103), which is within the Boston Mountains and Ozark Highlands ecoregions in northwest Arkansas. Headwaters of the Illinois River originate near Hogeye, Arkansas and flow north through Savoy, then west into Oklahoma near Watts. The UIRW drains an area of 1952 km2 , of which 50.3% is pasture and grassland, 35.9% is forest, 8.8% is urban and suburban, 4.3% is transitional and 0.3% is water (Arkansaswater.org, 2015). Land use throughout the watershed is also changing, with increases in residential, commercial and industrial development. The IRW has been designated a priority watershed for the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) 319 Nonpoint Source Program

Higher measured than modeled ozone production at increased NOx levels in the Colorado Front Range

Abstract. Chemical models must correctly calculate the ozone formation rate, P(O3), to accurately predict ozone levels and to test mitigation strategies. However, air quality models can have large uncertainties in P(O3) calculations, which can create uncertainties in ozone forecasts, especially during the summertime when P(O3) is high. One way to test mechanisms is to compare modeled P(O3) to direct measurements. During summer 2014, the Measurement of Ozone Production Sensor (MOPS) directly measured net P(O3) in Golden, CO, approximately 25 km west of Denver along the Colorado Front Range. Net P(O3) was compared to rates calculated by a photochemical box model that was constrained by measurements of other chemical species and that used a lumped chemical mechanism and a more explicit one. Median observed P(O3) was up to a factor of 2 higher than that modeled during early morning hours when nitric oxide (NO) levels were high and was similar to modeled P(O3) for the rest of the day. While all interferences and offsets in this new method are not fully understood, simulations of these possible uncertainties cannot explain the observed P(O3) behavior. Modeled and measured P(O3) and peroxy radical (HO2 and RO2) discrepancies observed here are similar to those presented in prior studies. While a missing atmospheric organic peroxy radical source from volatile organic compounds co-emitted with NO could be one plausible solution to the P(O3) discrepancy, such a source has not been identified and does not fully explain the peroxy radical model–data mismatch. If the MOPS accurately depicts atmospheric P(O3), then these results would imply that P(O3) in Golden, CO, would be NOx-sensitive for more of the day than what is calculated by models, extending the NOx-sensitive P(O3) regime from the afternoon further into the morning. These results could affect ozone reduction strategies for the region surrounding Golden and possibly other areas that do not comply with national ozone regulations. Thus, it is important to continue the development of this direct ozone measurement technique to understand P(O3), especially under high-NOx regimes