Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet

""Junius and Joseph examines Joseph Smith's nearly forgotten [1844] presidential bid, the events leading up to his assassination on June 27, 1844, and the tangled aftermath of the tragic incident. It... establishes that Joseph Smith's murder, rather than being the deadly outcome of a spontaneous mob uprising, was in fact a carefully planned military-style execution. It is now possible to identify many of the key individuals engaged in planning his assassination as well as those who took part in the assault on Carthage jail. And furthermore, this study presents incontrovertible evidence that the effort to remove the Mormon leader from power and influence extended well beyond Hancock County [Illinois] (and included prominent Whig politicians as well as the Democratic governor of the state), thereby transforming his death from an impulsive act by local vigilantes into a political assassination sanctioned by some of the most powerful men in Illinois. The circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith's death also serve to highlight the often unrecognized truth that a full understanding of early Mormon history can be gained only when considered in the context of events taking place in American society as a whole."" Beginning with this provocative thesis from the introduction, Wicks and Foister engage in a thorough reexamination of Joseph Smith's 1844 presidential candidacy, its political context and implications, and its probable connection to his murder. While their work asserts controversial conclusions about what and who were behind that murder, its import extends further since it provides unprecedented, detailed portraits of political Mormonism, politics in 1844 Illinois and the Midwest, the web of connections and personalities that linked the two, and the events of June 27. ---Book Review can be found in: The Western Historical Quarterly Winter 2006, by: Stephen C. Taysom

Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet

Junius and Joseph examines Joseph Smith\u27s nearly forgotten [1844] presidential bid, the events leading up to his assassination on June 27, 1844, and the tangled aftermath of the tragic incident. It... establishes that Joseph Smith\u27s murder, rather than being the deadly outcome of a spontaneous mob uprising, was in fact a carefully planned military-style execution. It is now possible to identify many of the key individuals engaged in planning his assassination as well as those who took part in the assault on Carthage jail. And furthermore, this study presents incontrovertible evidence that the effort to remove the Mormon leader from power and influence extended well beyond Hancock County [Illinois] (and included prominent Whig politicians as well as the Democratic governor of the state), thereby transforming his death from an impulsive act by local vigilantes into a political assassination sanctioned by some of the most powerful men in Illinois. The circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith\u27s death also serve to highlight the often unrecognized truth that a full understanding of early Mormon history can be gained only when considered in the context of events taking place in American society as a whole. Beginning with this provocative thesis from the introduction, Wicks and Foister engage in a thorough reexamination of Joseph Smith\u27s 1844 presidential candidacy, its political context and implications, and its probable connection to his murder. While their work asserts controversial conclusions about what and who were behind that murder, its import extends further since it provides unprecedented, detailed portraits of political Mormonism, politics in 1844 Illinois and the Midwest, the web of connections and personalities that linked the two, and the events of June 27. ---Book Review can be found in: The Western Historical Quarterly Winter 2006, by: Stephen C. Taysom.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1041/thumbnail.jp

A Critical Analysis of the Theoretical Basis of Ultrasonic Scattering Measurements

There are three elements involved in the backscattering from inhomogeneous media; the scattering properties of a single particle or scattering element, the scattering associated with a group of such particles and the relationship of the scattered wave to the measured signal. Ideally it should be possible to obtain information about the material microstructure from ultrasonic backscattering measurements. However, a number of assumptions and approximations must be made before the problem becomes tractable, and it is the purpose of the present investigation to compare the various approaches available in the literature in an attempt to quantify the errors involved with some of these approximations

Medical training simulation for central venous catheterization

Our Creative Inquiry, in collaboration with clinicians, local hospitals, and MBA students, has involved the development, testing, and commercialization of a central venous catheterization training simulator. Medical training simulators are important tools for educating physicians without needing to practice on patients. Central venous catheterization (CVC) is the insertion of a catheter into a sizable vein in order to deliver a large influx of drugs to the heart. The risky nature of the procedure comes from the proximity of the vein to the heart, lungs, and major arteries. Many complications can arise, often the cause of expensive and ineffective training methods. We have created an affordable simulator with features that address the limitations of current simulators, including a fully rotatable head, proper anatomical landmarks, and ultrasoundability. Our patent-pending design is currently being prepared for manufacturing and marketing in hopes of increasing the safety of CVC procedures

The use of social network analysis to describe the effect of immune activation on group dynamics in pigs

The immune system can influence social motivation with potentially dire consequences for group-housed production animals, such as pigs. The aim of this study was to test the effect of a controlled immune activation in group-housed pigs, through an injection with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and an intervention with ketoprofen on centrality parameters at the individual level. In addition, we wanted to test the effect of time relative to the injection on general network parameters in order to get a better understanding of changes in social network structures at the group level. 52 female pigs (11-12 weeks) were allocated to four treatments, comprising two injections: ketoprofen-LPS (KL), ketoprofen-saline (KS), saline-LPS (SL) and saline-saline (SS). Social behaviour with a focus on damaging behaviour was observed continuously in 10 x 15 min bouts between 0800 am and 1700 pm 1 day before (baseline) and two subsequent days after injection. Activity was scan-sampled every 5 min for 6 h after the last injection in the pen. Saliva samples were taken for cortisol analysis at baseline and at 4, 24, 48, 72 h after the injections. A controlled immune activation affected centrality parameters for ear manipulation networks at the individual level. Lipopolysaccharide-injected pigs had a lower in-degree centrality, thus, received less interactions, 2 days after the challenge. Treatment effects on tail manipulation and fighting networks were not observed at the individual level. For networks of manipulation of other body parts, in-degree centrality was positively correlated with cortisol response at 4 h and lying behaviour in the first 6 h after the challenge in LPS-injected pigs. Thus, the stronger the pigs reacted to the LPS, the more interactions they received in the subsequent days. The time in relation to injection affected general network parameters for ear manipulation and fighting networks at the group level. For ear manipulation networks, in -degree centralisation was higher on the days following injection, thus, certain individuals in the pen received more interactions than the rest of the group compared to baseline. For fighting networks, betweenness decreased on the first day after injection compared to baseline, indicating that network connectivity increased after the challenge. Networks of tail manipulation and manipulation of other body parts did not change on the days after injection at the group level. Social network analysis is a method that can potentially provide important insights into the effects of sickness on social behaviour in group-housed pigs. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Improved nuclear localization of DNA-binding polyamides

Regulation of endogenous genes by DNA-binding polyamides requires effective nuclear localization. Previous work employing confocal microscopy to study uptake of fluorophore-labeled polyamides has demonstrated the difficulty of predicting a priori the nuclear uptake of a given polyamide. The data suggest that dye identity influences uptake sufficiently such that a dye-conjugate cannot be used as a proxy for unlabeled analogs. Polyamides capable of nuclear localization unaided by fluorescent dyes are desirable due to size and other limitations of fluorophores. Recently, a polyamide-fluorescein conjugate targeted to the hypoxia response element (HRE) was found to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in cultured HeLa cells. The current study uses inhibition of VEGF expression as a biological read-out for effective nuclear localization of HRE-targeted polyamides. We synthesized a focused library of non-fluorescent, HRE-targeted polyamides in which the C-terminus ‘tail’ has been systematically varied. Members of this library bind the HRE with affinities comparable or superior to that of the fluorescein-labeled analog. Although most library members demonstrate modest or no biological activity, two non-fluorescent polyamides are reported with activity rivaling that of the previously reported fluorescein-labeled polyamide. We also show evidence that promoter occupancy by HIF-1, the transcription factor that binds the HRE, is inhibited by HRE-targeted polyamides

Influence of structural variation on nuclear localization of DNA-binding polyamide-fluorophore conjugates

A pivotal step forward in chemical approaches to controlling gene expression is the development of sequence-specific DNA-binding molecules that can enter live cells and traffic to nuclei unaided. DNA-binding polyamides are a class of programmable, sequence-specific small molecules that have been shown to influence a wide variety of protein–DNA interactions. We have synthesized over 100 polyamide-fluorophore conjugates and assayed their nuclear uptake profiles in 13 mammalian cell lines. The compiled dataset, comprising 1300 entries, establishes a benchmark for the nuclear localization of polyamide-dye conjugates. Compounds in this series were chosen to provide systematic variation in several structural variables, including dye composition and placement, molecular weight, charge, ordering of the aromatic and aliphatic amino-acid building blocks and overall shape. Nuclear uptake does not appear to be correlated with polyamide molecular weight or with the number of imidazole residues, although the positions of imidazole residues affect nuclear access properties significantly. Generally negative determinants for nuclear access include the presence of a ß-Ala-tail residue and the lack of a cationic alkyl amine moiety, whereas the presence of an acetylated 2,4-diaminobutyric acid-turn is a positive factor for nuclear localization. We discuss implications of these data on the design of polyamide-dye conjugates for use in biological systems

Guiding the Design of Synthetic DNA-Binding Molecules with Massively Parallel Sequencing

Genomic applications of DNA-binding molecules require an unbiased knowledge of their high affinity sites. We report the high-throughput analysis of pyrrole-imidazole polyamide DNA-binding specificity in a 10^(12)-member DNA sequence library using affinity purification coupled with massively parallel sequencing. We find that even within this broad context, the canonical pairing rules are remarkably predictive of polyamide DNA-binding specificity. However, this approach also allows identification of unanticipated high affinity DNA-binding sites in the reverse orientation for polyamides containing β/Im pairs. These insights allow the redesign of hairpin polyamides with different turn units capable of distinguishing 5′-WCGCGW-3′ from 5′-WGCGCW-3′. Overall, this study displays the power of high-throughput methods to aid the optimal targeting of sequence-specific minor groove binding molecules, an essential underpinning for biological and nanotechnological applications

An Experimental Investigation of Ultrasonic “Grain Noise” in Titanium -6AL-4V

Ultrasonic testing is used for the detection of flaws in critical parts, such as forgings in gas turbines[3]. Benign features within the microstructure, such as grain boundaries, also reflect part of the ultrasonic pulse. These signals will generally be of a lower amplitude than flaw signals, since they represent a softer discontinuity in material properties. Figure 1 shows a simplified distribution of such ‘grain noise’ signals, and a possible distribution of signals resulting from small flaws. Two difficulties arise due to the presence of grain noise: (1) The smallest flaw signals cannot be observed since they are masked by the grain noise. This defines the limiting resolution of the scan. (2) The largest noise signals are mistaken for flaws, leading to ‘false calls’ and the rejection of sound material.</p

A Critical Analysis of the Theoretical Basis of Ultrasonic Scattering Measurements

There are three elements involved in the backscattering from inhomogeneous media; the scattering properties of a single particle or scattering element, the scattering associated with a group of such particles and the relationship of the scattered wave to the measured signal. Ideally it should be possible to obtain information about the material microstructure from ultrasonic backscattering measurements. However, a number of assumptions and approximations must be made before the problem becomes tractable, and it is the purpose of the present investigation to compare the various approaches available in the literature in an attempt to quantify the errors involved with some of these approximations.</p