Good to Think With : Women and Exempla in Four Medieval and Renaissance English Texts

This dissertation examines four English texts—Beowulf; Ancrene Wisse; Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ Man of Law’s Tale and Second Nun’s Tale; and Richard Hyrde’s English translation, The Instruction of a Christen Woman, of Juan Luis Vives’ De Institutione Feminae Christianae—in terms of their use of exempla related to women. These texts all find women good “to think with,” to use, from The Body and Society, Peter Brown’s appropriation of Levi-Strauss’s famous wordplay. The ways in which these Old English, Middle English, and modern English texts portray women’s lives and bodies as a gateway into thought about the Christian life are also compared with portrayals of the lives of female saints in hagiographic texts of late antiquity and the Middle Ages

Discovery of a Major D-Loop Replication Origin Reveals Two Modes of Human mtDNA Synthesis

Mammalian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication has long been considered to occur by asymmetric synthesis of the two strands, starting at the multiple origins of the strand-displacement loop (D-loop). We report the discovery of a major replication origin at position 57 in the D-loop of several human cell lines (HeLa, A549, and 143B.TK^–) and immortalized lymphocytes. The nascent chains starting at this origin, in contrast to those initiated at the previously described origins, do not terminate prematurely at the 3′ end of the D-loop but proceed well beyond this control point, behaving as “true” replicating strands. This origin is mainly responsible for mtDNA maintenance under steady-state conditions, whereas mtDNA synthesis from the formerly identified D-loop origins may be more important for recovery after mtDNA depletion and for accelerating mtDNA replication in response to physiological demands

The Relationship between Spatial Ability and the Conservation of Matter in Middle School

Research has shown that spatial ability plays a key role in understanding STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) content, including chemistry. Conservation of Matter (CoM) is an essential but challenging topic for chemistry students of all ages to grasp; it is often taught in a way where students memorize it but do not learn what it means conceptually. This research explored the relationship between understanding spatial ability and conceptual understanding of CoM in middle school students. CoM was examined in two ways using the Conservation of Matter Assessment (CoMA): through questions on conservation of atoms and the conservation of mass. Spatial ability was measured using the Purdue Spatial Visual Test: Rotations (PSVT). Significant, moderate correlations were found between spatial ability and understanding of CoM prior to and after a chemistry unit including instruction on CoM; the correlation was stronger after instruction. Scores on the PSVT and CoMA significantly increased pre to post instruction. The data show spatial ability may impact students’ understanding of CoM, which contributes to the literature on factors that impact students’ understanding of chemistry. Additionally, it provides evidence that teachers should consider including spatially rich experiences in their chemistry classroom, such as making explicit connections between the areas of Johnstone’s Triad

The evolution of neuronal progenitor cell division in mammals: The role of the abnormal spindle-like microcephaly associated (Aspm) protein and epithelial cell polarity

Among mammals, primates are exceptional for their large brain size relative to body size. Relative brain size, or encephalization, is particularly striking among humans and their direct ancestors. Since the human-chimp split 5 to 7 million years ago, brain size has tripled in the human lineage (Wood & Collard 1999). The focus of this doctoral work is to investigate some of the cell biological mechanisms responsible for this increase in relative brain size. In particular, the processes that regulate symmetric cell division (ultimately generating more progenitors), the constraints on progenitor proliferation, and how neural progenitors have overcome these constraints in the process of primate encephalization are the primary questions of interest. Both functionally analyses in the mouse model system and comparative neurobiology of rodents and primates are used here to address these questions. Using the mouse model system, the cell biological role of the Aspm (abnormal spindle-like microcephaly associated) protein in regulating brain size was investigated. Specifically, Aspm function in symmetric, proliferative divisions of neuroepithelial (NE) cells was analyzed. It was found that Aspm expression in the mouse neuroepithelium correlates in time and space with symmetric, proliferating divisions. The Aspm protein localizes to NE cell spindle poles during all phases of mitosis, and is down-regulated in cells that undergo asymmetric (neurogenic) cell divisions. Aspm RNAi alters the division plane in NE cells, increasing the likelihood of premature asymmetric division resulting in an increase in non-NE progeny. At least some of the non-NE progeny generated by Aspm RNAi migrate to the neuronal layer and express neuronal markers. Importantly, whatever the fate of the non-NE progeny, their generation comes at the expense of the expansion of the proliferative pool of NE progenitor cells. These data have contributed to the generation of an hypothesis regarding evolutionary changes in the regulation of spindle orientation in vertebrate and mammalian neural progenitors and their impact on brain size. Specifically, in contrast to invertebrates that regulate the switch from symmetric to asymmetric division through a rotation of the spindle (horizontal versus vertical cleavage), asymmetric NE cell division in vertebrates is accomplished by only a slight deviation in the cleavage plane away from the vertical, apical-basal axis. The requirement for the precise alignment of the spindle along the apical-basal axis in symmetric cell divisions may have contributed to selection on spindle “precision” proteins, thus increasing the number of symmetric NE cell division, and contributing to brain size increases during mammalian evolution. Previous comparative neurobiological analyses have revealed an increase in basally dividing NE cells in the brain regions of highest proliferation and in species with the largest brains (Smart 1972a,b; Martinez-Cerdeno et al. 2006). The cell biological characteristics of these basally dividing cells are still largely unknown. We found that primate basal progenitors, similar to rodent apical progenitors, are Pax6+. This suggests that primate basal progenitors may share other properties with rodent apical progenitors, such as maintenance of apical contact. Our previous finding that artificial alteration of cleavage plane in NE cells affects their ability to continue proliferating supports the hypothesis that the apical membrane and junctional complexes are cell fate determinants (Huttner & Kosodo 2005). As such, the need to maintain apical membrane contact appears to be a constraint on proliferation (Smart 1972a,b; Smart et al. 2002). Together, these data favor the hypothesis that primate basally dividing cells maintain apical contact and are epithelial in nature

The \u27Nevergiveups\u27 of Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS: Scholar-Journalism-Activism as Social Documentary

This article traces our collective experiences as a photographer, a journalist and an academic engaged in the process of documenting the lives of South Africa’s grand-mothers – who are confronting the HIV/AIDS pandemic while carrying an immense history of social struggle in the apartheid era. We set out with individual aspirations to record, in visual and narrative forms, the life stories and lived experiences of members of the Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA) organization based in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Over the course of three years of building relationships and working with leaders of this organisation, we developed a social documentation project that involved a series of individual portraits, family photographs, longitudinal life nar-ratives, organizational ethnographies and film footage. Collectively, this data formed the foundation for ‘The Nevergiveups’ photo exhibition at the District Six Museum and the Khayelitsha Community Centre in June 2011. This installation emerged as a collective, international effort to promote wider awareness of the significance and particularity of the juncture many South African grandmothers face – between the trauma of a collective memory of apartheid and the contemporary HIV/AIDS crisis. This project emerged in a distinct approach that combined social documentation with scholar-activism – as our professional spheres as journalist, photographer and academic sociologist intersected in a larger shared pursuit of contributing to a social documentation and activist project that would provide an archival record of South African grandmothers’ lives through the elder women members of GAPA

Using collaborative autoethnography to explore online doctoral mentoring: Finding empathy in mentor/protégé relationships.

We used collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to investigate how we, in our prior work as doctoral mentors at an online institution that assigned students to dissertation chairs, navigated the challenges associated with relationship deterioration with some of our student protégés. We explored how the process of reflection and interrogation might shape our future responses to conflict so that we might improve our strategies for successful and satisfying mentoring outcomes. We applied Rusbult, Zembrodt, and Gunn’s (1982) framework, with constructs Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect (EVLN), to examine specific cases from our work as dissertation mentors. Originally created to help explain responses to romantic relationship deterioration, we applied this framework to the dissertation mentor-protégé relationship in order to reflect on ways to improve student progress. Two themes from our analysis of each case emerged from the data. Each theme tied to the student’s behavior and the impact that behavior had on our collective perception. Implications are provided for mentoring students in online doctoral programs

Gendered Violence: Continuities and Transformation in the Aftermath of Conflict in Africa

This thematic cluster of essays, titled “Gendered Violence: Continuities and Transformation in the Aftermath of Conflict in Africa,” focuses on the continuities between regimes of violence during organized political conflict and persisting violence against women in the postconflict era of democratic governance. The genesis for this collection evolved out of an international symposium organized by the first author of this introduction, in August 2011. The aim of the symposium was to explore African women’s experiences in the aftermath of mass violence and genocide—both in terms of their victimhood and their agency—and their positioning in the broader context of their social, cultural, and political engagement after the official ending of hostilities. In this introduction, we consider the multiple violations that women have suffered in recent conflicts and genocide on the African continent, and which they continue to suffer long after the violent conflict has ended. We explore the plurality of women’s experiences in the wake of political violence and in its aftermath—their simultaneous experiences of trauma and victimhood, their agency and empowerment, and their solidarity in standing together in their woundedness to rebuild their communities

Women's Activism in South Africa: Working Across Divides

Women's Activism in South Africa provides the most comprehensive collection of women's experiences within civil society since the 1994 transition. This book captures South African women's stories of collective activism and social change at a crucial point for the future of democracy in the country, if not the continent. Pulling together the voices of activists and scholars, South Africa's path to democracy and the assurance of gender rights emerge as a complex journey of both successes and challenges. The collection elucidates a new form of pragmatic feminism, building upon the elasticity between the state and civil society. What the cases demonstrate is that while the state itself may not be a panacea, it still represents a key source of power and the primary locus of vital resources, including the rights of citizenship, access to basic needs, and the promise of protection from genderbased violence - all central to women's particular needs in South Africa

Strikingly higher frequency in centenarians and twins of mtDNA mutation causing remodeling of replication origin in leukocytes

The presence of a genetic component in longevity is well known. Here, the association of a mtDNA mutation with a prolonged life span in humans was investigated. Large-scale screening of the mtDNA main control region in leukocytes from subjects of an Italian population revealed a homoplasmic C150T transition near an origin of heavy mtDNA-strand synthesis in approximate to 17% of 52 subjects 99-106 years old, but, in contrast, in only 3.4% of 117 younger individuals (P = 0.0035). Evidence was obtained for the contribution of somatic events, under probable nuclear genetic control, to the striking selective accumulation of the mutation in centenarians. In another study, among leukocyte mtDNA samples from 20 monozygotic and 18 dizygotic twins, 60-75 years old, 30% (P = 0.0007) and 22% (P = 0.011), respectively, of the individuals involved exhibited the homoplasmic C150T mutation. In a different system, i.e., in five human fibroblast longitudinal studies, convincing evidence for the aging-related somatic expansion of the C150T mutation, up to homoplasmy, was obtained. Most significantly, 5' end analysis of nascent heavy mtDNA strands consistently revealed a new replication origin at position 149, substituting for that at 151, only in C150T mutation carrying samples of fibroblasts or immortalized lymphocytes. Considering the aging-related health risks that the centenarians have survived and the developmental risks of twin gestations, it is proposed that selection for a remodeled replication origin, inherited or somatically acquired, provides a survival advantage and underlies the observed high incidence of the C150T mutation in centenarians and twins