Translating Cultural Memory: French and English D-Day Narratives at the Memorial Museum of Caen

Thesis advisor: Joseph BreinesDuring my five-month stay with in Rennes, France in the fall of my junior year, my French host parents took me to Normandy to visit the memorial museum in Caen and the D-Day beaches. Véronique and Gildas considered this trip “obligatoire” for any American in France, a sentiment that has been matched by virtually everyone I have spoken with since, both French and American. My visit was, however, disrupted by an experience of linguistic confusion that could have significantly limited my ability to appropriate the information presented in the museum. The guiding texts found on the walls of the museum, translated from French to English, lacked so acutely the idiomatic feel of native English that they would have obscured my understanding of the text, had I not also been fluent in French and able to read the originals. What began as a tourist’s frustration is today the subject of a project that has carried me back to France for another two months as well as into both translation and museum theory. I have created here a critical study as well as a retranslation of a selection of these texts, proposed with no other aim than to explore the importance of linguistic accuracy, and the implications of inaccuracy in translation. This work is meant to represent the chronological process by which I explored the original translations and ultimately determined my final retranslations. As such, I have attempted to reflect the results of the different stages of my work in the division of my five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the museum: its history, purported aims, and layout. In discussing the museum, I consider some applications of Vivian Patraka’s museum and performance theories to this site, eventually exploring the connection between the importance of these texts within their physical and cultural space and the importance of their proper translation. To further delve into the subject of translation theory and its implications to my project, I will invoke the work of David Bellos, Walter Benjamin, and others. After having laid this theoretical groundwork for my project in conjunction with a background of the museum, my second chapter will present the original translations of the texts from the portion of the museum devoted to D-Day, supplemented by my annotations. These annotations are prefaced with an explanation of the methodology that I used while sifting through these original translations, which I hope will help to at least primarily explain the categories into which I have chosen to group the errors and problems that I found. The third chapter is a deeper analysis of each of these categories, beginning with the most significant or global and descending all the way down to the purely technical. Each section of this commentary will include examples of pertinent cases of the problem or error and a discussion of the stylistic or cultural issue present. After having identified all the present errors in my second chapter and analyzing them by category in my third, I will present in my fourth chapter a complete retranslation of these selected texts My fifth and final chapter will serve to conclude the process, stating any changes or modifications to my theoretical or procedural approach I find appropriate after having completed the project.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: College Honors Program.Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures Honors Program.Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican Spring Dances

Presenting original works by Gregory Dawson, Arturo Fernandez, Julia Stiefel and Tanya Bello. Special encore presentation of select Senior Project works

College student sleep quality and mental and physical health are associated with food insecurity in a multi-campus study

AbstractObjective:To assess the relationship between food insecurity, sleep quality, and days with mental and physical health issues among college students.Design:An online survey was administered. Food insecurity was assessed using the ten-item Adult Food Security Survey Module. Sleep was measured using the nineteen-item Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Mental health and physical health were measured using three items from the Healthy Days Core Module. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to assess the relationship between food insecurity, sleep quality, and days with poor mental and physical health.Setting:Twenty-two higher education institutions.Participants:College students (n 17 686) enrolled at one of twenty-two participating universities.Results:Compared with food-secure students, those classified as food insecure (43·4 %) had higher PSQI scores indicating poorer sleep quality (P \u3c 0·0001) and reported more days with poor mental (P \u3c 0·0001) and physical (P \u3c 0·0001) health as well as days when mental and physical health prevented them from completing daily activities (P \u3c 0·0001). Food-insecure students had higher adjusted odds of having poor sleep quality (adjusted OR (AOR): 1·13; 95 % CI 1·12, 1·14), days with poor physical health (AOR: 1·01; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·02), days with poor mental health (AOR: 1·03; 95 % CI 1·02, 1·03) and days when poor mental or physical health prevented them from completing daily activities (AOR: 1·03; 95 % CI 1·02, 1·04).Conclusions:College students report high food insecurity which is associated with poor mental and physical health, and sleep quality. Multi-level policy changes and campus wellness programmes are needed to prevent food insecurity and improve student health-related outcomes

Disturbances in North American boreal forest and Arctic tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses

Ecosystems in the North American Arctic-Boreal Zone (ABZ) experience a diverse set of disturbances associated with wildfire, permafrost dynamics, geomorphic processes, insect outbreaks and pathogens, extreme weather events, and human activity. Climate warming in the ABZ is occurring at over twice the rate of the global average, and as a result the extent, frequency, and severity of these disturbances are increasing rapidly. Disturbances in the ABZ span a wide gradient of spatiotemporal scales and have varying impacts on ecosystem properties and function. However, many ABZ disturbances are relatively understudied and have different sensitivities to climate and trajectories of recovery, resulting in considerable uncertainty in the impacts of climate warming and human land use on ABZ vegetation dynamics and in the interactions between disturbance types. Here we review the current knowledge of ABZ disturbances and their precursors, ecosystem impacts, temporal frequencies, spatial extents, and severity. We also summarize current knowledge of interactions and feedbacks among ABZ disturbances and characterize typical trajectories of vegetation loss and recovery in response to ecosystem disturbance using satellite time-series. We conclude with a summary of critical data and knowledge gaps and identify priorities for future study