\u27What They Seek for is in Themselves\u27: Quaker Language and Thought in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Literature

This paper argues that Quakerism was an important influence on a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American writers. Looking at the work of, amongst others, Charles Brockden Brown, Robert Montgomery Bird, Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Greenleaf Whittier, it demonstrates that both the stereotyped depiction of Quakers and the use of Quaker ideas, such as the inward light in literature of the period, helped writers tackle some of the paradoxes of democracy in a young nation. The perceived mystery of Quaker individualism is used in these texts first to dramatize anxiety over the formation of American \u27character\u27 as either fundamentally unique and unknowable or representative of the whole nation, and secondly for more constructive ends in order to create a language able to express unity in diversity

Using competition assays to quantitatively model cooperative binding by transcription factors and other ligands.

BACKGROUND: The affinities of DNA binding proteins for target sites can be used to model the regulation of gene expression. These proteins can bind to DNA cooperatively, strongly impacting their affinity and specificity. However, current methods for measuring cooperativity do not provide the means to accurately predict binding behavior over a wide range of concentrations. METHODS: We use standard computational and mathematical methods, and develop novel methods as described in Results. RESULTS: We explore some complexities of cooperative binding, and develop an improved method for relating in vitro measurements to in vivo function, based on ternary complex formation. We derive expressions for the equilibria among the various complexes, and explore the limitations of binding experiments that model the system using a single parameter. We describe how to use single-ligand binding and ternary complex formation in tandem to determine parameters that have thermodynamic relevance. We develop an improved method for finding both single-ligand dissociation constants and concentrations simultaneously. We show how the cooperativity factor can be found when only one of the single-ligand dissociation constants can be measured. CONCLUSIONS: The methods that we develop constitute an optimized approach to accurately model cooperative binding. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The expressions and methods we develop for modeling and analyzing DNA binding and cooperativity are applicable to most cases where multiple ligands bind to distinct sites on a common substrate. The parameters determined using these methods can be fed into models of higher-order cooperativity to increase their predictive power

Synthetic stellar populations: single stellar populations, stellar interior models and primordial proto-galaxies

We present a new set of stellar interior and synthesis models for predicting the integrated emission from stellar populations in star clusters and galaxies of arbitrary age and metallicity. This work differs from existing spectral synthesis codes in a number of important ways, namely (1) the incorporation of new stellar evolutionary tracks, with sufficient resolution in mass to sample rapid stages of stellar evolution; (2) a physically consistent treatment of evolution in the HR diagram, including the approach to the main sequence and the effects of mass loss on the giant and horizontal-branch phases. Unlike several existing models, ours yield consistent ages when used to date a coeval stellar population from a wide range of spectral features and colour indexes. We rigorously discuss degeneracies in the age-metallicity plane and show that inclusion of spectral features blueward of 4500 AA, suffices to break any remaining degeneracy and that with moderate S/N spectra (10 per 20AA, resolution element) age and metallicity are not degenerate. We also study sources of systematic errors in deriving the age of a single stellar population and conclude that they are not larger than 10-15%. We illustrate the use of single stellar populations by predicting the colors of primordial proto-galaxies and show that one can first find them and then deduce the form of the IMF for the early generation of stars in the universe. Finally, we provide accurate analytic fitting formulas for ultra fast computation of colors of single stellar populations. The models can be found at http://www.physics.upenn.edu/~rauljComment: MNRAS in pres

Jonathan Lethem's Genre Evolutions

The ideas I expound here proceed from an initial, rather broad observation that all of Jonathan Lethem's novels subvert established fictional genres in some way. For example, The Fortress of Solitudedisrupts a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age narrative with elements of fantasy and comic book super-heroics. As She Climbed Across the Table is billed as a "campus comedy," yet allows science fiction to infiltrate its witty satire on academic life. Girl in Landscape is a western set in space. Now, it can of course be argued that any genre is necessarily an unstable category, a somewhat volatile mixture of repeated, conventional elements and the variations that provide an individual text with a sense of identity. Scholars such as Margaret Cohen, in "Traveling Genre," have argued just this, and I take it as axiomatic throughout

A Sphinx on the American Land: The Nineteenth Century South in Comparative Perspectives

Many souths Slim volume asserts broad comparative methodology in study of region Social anthropology has but one method; it is the comparative method; it is impossible pronounced Evans-Pritchard, the Oxford anthropologist. His point is that perfect comparisons are impossible, yet...

Transforming Perspectives Through Service-Learning Participation: A Case Study of the College Counts Program

A case study has been conducted on the College Counts program, a well-integrated service-learning program, to examine the experiential learning of 10 former participants. It was the objective of this investigation to view the learning of 10 college students, through the lens of transformational learning, as they reflect on their experiences as participants in the College Counts program. Transformational learning theory was used as a lens to determine if high school students have the ability to engage in transformative learning. Students reported in their own voices transformative learning in one or more of the following forms: increased cultural inclusiveness, commitment to social justice, and/or shift in personal perspective and choices. Results of the study suggested that Mezirow’s transformational learning theory should be expanded to include secondary students

A Study of the Electrical Double Layer

The thesis is divided into four sections. A. The introduction traces the development of electrical double layer theory and outlines the essentials of the Helmholtz, Gouy-Chapman, and Stern concepts. The ideal polarised electrode is then considered, and the application of electrocapillarity techniques to the structural elucidation of the metal-solution interface is discussed. Modifications and extensions of the Stern theory described by Grahame are then introduced, and finally the principal experimental methods of double layer investigation are summarised. B. This is the main section of the work. It describes first an accurate alternating current bridge system designed to measure the differential capacity of the interface at a dropping mercury cathode in contact with a solution of some indifferent electrolyte. Thereafter the results obtained by this method are presented. Capacity data for aqueous N/10 potassium chloride are reported. The minimum value of 16.7 muF/cm2. is in good agreement with 16.1 muF/cm2. determined by Grahame. The effects on capacity of the addition of trace concentrations of a number of surface active substances, i.e., gelatin, eosin, methyl red, and pyridine were then investigated, and finally, pseudo capacities obtained in the presence of small concentrations of salts such as cadmium chloride, were used to determine the effects of the reagents already mentioned, on reversible reduction of the cation. The remaining part of this section is concerned with a systematic examination of capacity phenomena in some non aqueous solvents. Electrocapillarity measurements, using a capillary electrometer method were also made. Minimum capacities of 6.84 and 11.46 muF/cm2. were found for anhydrous acetic and formic acids respectively. The supporting electrolytes were 1 molal ammonium acetate and 1 molal ammonium formate. Although the high decomposition potential of sulphuric acid restricted capacity determinations, a value of 17.75 muF/cm2. for 98% (w/w ) acid is reported at -0.6 volt v. a mercury pool reference electrode. Surface charge densities have been derived both from electrocapillarity differentiation and capacity integration, and electrocapillarity curves have been determined by a further integration. Capacity and electrocapillarity data for water, anhydrous methanol, ethanol, n-propanol and pyridine with 1 molal lithium chloride as supporting electrolyte are presented. Some of the experimental work was carried out by the late Dr. J. C. James just prior to his death and so it was thought to be appropriate to complete the work and to extend it to other systems. Thus, surface charge densities and electrocapillarity curves for the non aqueous solvents above have been derived from capacity integration. The minimum capacity values for water, methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and pyridine were found to be 16.25, 9.50, 8.00, 8.00, and 5.75 muF/cm2. The effects of cation variation for a given anion in methanol were determined by comparison of cathodic capacities for 1 molal lithium, sodium, potassium, and ammonium iodides. The same trends as in aqueous solution were found, but the effects were much more pronounced. C. A double layer capacity investigation of the system Cu/Cu++ was carried out by two different methods. The electrolyte was 0.5 M copper sulphate -1N sulphuric acid. An alternating current bridge system similar to that already mentioned was first used. The results were found to be frequency dependent, but a minimum capacity of 55 muF/cm2. at 10,000 cycles per second is reported. The second method employed an oscillographic technique designed to present cathodic double layer charging curves, the slope of which measures capacity. The oscillograms obtained were initially linear prior to electrolysis, but the slopes were highly susceptible to current density variations. The effects on the capacity of the copper system of trace concentrations of gelatin and thiourea were also investigated. D. The last section reports work of a different nature, viz. , the ion association which occurs between cations and dicarboxylate anions in aqueous solution. This was studied by potentiometric, conductometric, and spectrophotometric methods. Equilibrium constants are given, and the significance of these results is discussed

FINANCIAL PROSPECTS, BUSINESS ORGANIZATION, AND MANAGEMENT: FARM BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Farm Management,