Character prominence and perspective in narrative comprehension

Current theories of narrative comprehension assume that readers attend to information about the protagonist, including his/her goals, location, and emotions. However, such a Limited view of narrative comprehension does not adequately address the complexity of text. Typically, the reader is exposed to an array of important secondary characters and their relations to the protagonist(s) in narratives. Also included in this story dynamic may be the beliefs or opinions of the secondary character(s) regarding the protagonist. Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of character prominence and perspective on reading comprehension for narratives. The prominence distinction between two characters, a protagonist and secondary character, was established by controlling the order of mention and the number of references to each character by proper name and pronoun. Character perspective was introduced into the narratives by describing the beliefs of the secondary character regarding the protagonist. The effects of such belief-based descriptions on comprehension were compared to other protagonist descriptions that were asserted as true from an omniscient narrator\u27s perspective. Reading time results showed that the beliefs of the secondary character regarding the protagonist were used to update the reader\u27s mental representation of the protagonist. When the beliefs of the secondary character were inconsistent with a later action performed by the protagonist, readers experienced comprehension difficulty. However, this difficulty was delayed (i.e., observed on the second target sentence) relative to when that action was inconsistent with a previous description which was stated as true of the protagonist from the narrator\u27s perspective (Experiment 1). Further, the effects of the second character\u27s beliefs on reading comprehension were affected by the second character\u27s location in the target action scene (Experiment 3). The comprehension difficulty observed when the second character was present in the target action scene was not observed when the second character was removed from that scene. These results contribute to the limited research on the role of secondary characters in narrative comprehension

Providing Situational Awareness to Unmanned System Operators and Pilots: A Research Study in Human-Machine Interfacing

There are over 500 RC systems on the market and each controller is set up differently. The goal of this project is to improve human machine interfaces used by unmanned system operators ranging from hobbyist to military, to ensure pertinent information is communicated safely to the pilot by creating a single, easily customizable controller. Currently, RC controllers can be difficult to learn because there are no standards for control locations. Controllers are not waterproof and do not have the ability to give the pilot access to on board information like a camera view or instrumentation values. To address these concerns, this project aims to research, design, and prototype an RC control comprised of commercially available parts to help improve the overall safety of RC controller systems. This project is still in developmental phase but this research will help increase safety and usability for the unmanned systems field

Transcriptomic Characterization of an Infection of Mycobacterium smegmatis by the Cluster A4 Mycobacteriophage Kampy

The mycobacteriophages, phages that infect the genus Mycobacterium, display profound genetic diversity and widespread geographical distribution, and possess significant medical and ecological importance. However, most of the majority of functions of mycobacteriophage proteins and the identity of most genetic regulatory elements remain unknown. We characterized the gene expression profile of Kampy, a cluster A4 mycobacteriophage, during infection of its host, Mycobacterium smegmatis, using RNA-Seq and mass spectrometry. We show that mycobacteriophage Kampy transcription occurs in roughly two phases, an early phase consisting of genes for metabolism, DNA synthesis, and gene regulation, and a late phase consisting of structural genes and lysis genes. Additionally, we identify the earliest genes transcribed during infection, along with several other possible regulatory units not obvious from inspection of Kampy\u27s genomic structure. The transcriptional profile of Kampy appears similar to that of mycobacteriophage TM4 but unlike that of mycobacteriophage Giles, a result which further expands our understanding of the diversity of mycobacteriophage gene expression programs during infection

Single Day Construction of Multigene Circuits with 3G Assembly

The ability to rapidly design, build, and test prototypes is of key importance to every engineering discipline. DNA assembly often serves as a rate limiting step of the prototyping cycle for synthetic biology. Recently developed DNA assembly methods such as isothermal assembly and type IIS restriction enzyme systems take different approaches to accelerate DNA construction. We introduce a hybrid method, Golden Gate-Gibson (3G), that takes advantage of modular part libraries introduced by type IIS restriction enzyme systems and isothermal assembly’s ability to build large DNA constructs in single pot reactions. Our method is highly efficient and rapid, facilitating construction of entire multigene circuits in a single day. Additionally, 3G allows generation of variant libraries enabling efficient screening of different possible circuit constructions. We characterize the efficiency and accuracy of 3G assembly for various construct sizes, and demonstrate 3G by characterizing variants of an inducible cell-lysis circuit

Fluorescent Calcium Imaging and Subsequent In Situ Hybridization for Neuronal Precursor Characterization in Xenopus laevis

Spontaneous intracellular calcium activity can be observed in a variety of cell types and is proposed to play critical roles in a variety of physiological processes. In particular, appropriate regulation of calcium activity patterns during embryogenesis is necessary for many aspects of vertebrate neural development, including proper neural tube closure, synaptogenesis, and neurotransmitter phenotype specification. While the observation that calcium activity patterns can differ in both frequency and amplitude suggests a compelling mechanism by which these fluxes might transmit encoded signals to downstream effectors and regulate gene expression, existing population-level approaches have lacked the precision necessary to further explore this possibility. Furthermore, these approaches limit studies of the role of cell-cell interactions by precluding the ability to assay the state of neuronal determination in the absence of cell-cell contact. Therefore, we have established an experimental workflow that pairs time-lapse calcium imaging of dissociated neuronal explants with a fluorescence in situ hybridization assay, allowing the unambiguous correlation of calcium activity pattern with molecular phenotype on a single-cell level. We were successfully able to use this approach to distinguish and characterize specific calcium activity patterns associated with differentiating neural cells and neural progenitor cells, respectively; beyond this, however, the experimental framework described in this article could be readily adapted to investigate correlations between any time-series activity profile and expression of a gene or genes of interest

Quantitative characterization of random partitioning in the evolution of plasmid-encoded traits

Plasmids are found across bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes and play an important role in evolution. Plasmids exist at different copy numbers, the number of copies of the plasmid per cell, ranging from a single plasmid per cell to hundreds of plasmids per cell. This feature of a copy number greater than one can lead to a population of plasmids within a single cell that are not identical clones of one another, but rather have individual mutations that make a given plasmid unique. During cell division, this population of plasmids is partitioned into the two daughter cells, resulting in a random distribution of different plasmid variants in each daughter. In this study, we use stochastic simulations to investigate how random plasmid partitioning compares to a perfect partitioning model. Our simulation results demonstrate that random plasmid partitioning accelerates mutant allele fixation when the allele is beneficial and the selection is in an additive or recessive regime where increasing the copy number of the beneficial allele results in additional benefit for the host. This effect does not depend on the size of the benefit conferred or the mutation rate, but is magnified by increasing plasmid copy number

“We All Live Downriver”: Environmental Justice and Community Resistance to the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline and Jordan Cove Export Terminal in Southern Oregon

Native America tribes and community members throughout Oregon have asserted a strong opposition to the fossil fuel industry’s attempt to expand railways, build pipelines, and construct refineries, holding facilities, and export terminals. Despite the limited presence of fossil fuel infrastructure in the state, however, the industry is actively pursuing permits for two highly controversial developments: The Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline and the Jordan Cove Export Terminal. The pipeline would connect with the existing Ruby Pipeline in Malin, Oregon, pass through 229-miles of southwestern Oregon’s tribal, forest, and agricultural lands while traversing over 400 streams and rivers, and terminate on the coast of Oregon in Coos Bay where the gas will be liquefied and refined prior to exportation to overseas markets. Over 600 private landowners are threatened with eminent domain, and the ancestral territories, cultural resources, and burial grounds of five Oregon and three northern California federally recognized tribes would also be impacted by this project. The purpose of this master’s thesis research was three-fold: 1) to explore the negative impacts of the LNG supply chain; 2) to conduct an ethnographic study of communities and organizations within the affected zones of the LNG project in order to understand how they perceive the risks they face, and 3) to highlight how these same communities are forging intersectional alliances to assert their opposition to the development. This study identifies the environmental, cultural, and social threats of the pipeline and terminal using the conceptual frameworks of environmental justice, settler colonialism, and the anthropology of energy and extraction. Additionally, it explores the connection between human rights, environmental protection, and the conservation of cultural keystone species that are often threatened by large-scale fossil fuel development

The relationship of readiness factors to Jan. first grade reading achievement

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Providing Situational Awareness to Unmanned System Operators and Pilots: A Research Study in Human-Machine Interfacing

There are over 500 RC systems on the market and each controller is set up differently. The goal of this project is to improve human machine interfaces used by unmanned system operators ranging from hobbyist to military, to ensure pertinent information is communicated safely to the pilot by creating a single, easily customizable controller. Currently, RC controllers can be difficult to learn because there are no standards for control locations. Controllers are not waterproof and do not have the ability to give the pilot access to on board information like a camera view or instrumentation values. To address these concerns, this project aims to research, design, and prototype an RC control comprised of commercially available parts to help improve the overall safety of RC controller systems. This project is still in developmental phase but this research will help increase safety and usability for the unmanned systems field