Discandying Cleopatra: Preserving Cleopatra’s Infinite Variety in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

Taking Shakespeare’s unique use of the term “discandying” as a starting point, this essay argues that Shakespeare’s preoccupation with food preservation in Antony and Cleopatra extends and complicates a tradition interested in preservation more broadly construed, a tradition represented and embodied by the figure of Cleopatra as a medical, gynecological, and alchemical authority on renewal. Believed into the early modern period to be the author of an apparent Book of Cleopatra, Cleopatra as a figure comes to be intimately associated with preservation and the promise of immortality. Shakespeare reimagines the figure of Cleopatra as a product of an early modern preservative culture, drawing from both ancient tradition and contemporary domestic practices to produce a figure of and for consumption. Cleopatra demonstrates that far from being a process toward permanence, preservation is both dynamic and organic, requiring the potency of the “foreign” integrated with the domestic to rethink what it means to persevere in the face of discandying

Glass Bellies and Artificial Wombs: Gender, Science, and Reproduction in Early Modern Alchemical Performance

In this essay, I use the glass belly or vessel as a framework for examining the intersection of science, performance, and gender in the early modern period. I begin with the example of the glass belly because of how its form and functions intersect these areas of inquiry through early modern alchemy, which I argue can be examined *as* science in performance—in other words, alchemy serves as exemplar of the performativity of science. If early modern scholars have used performance to represent “the deceptive, hollow, and illusory nature of the theatrical, even as it conjures the real into being,” alchemy serves as a particularly pertinent case. Alchemy is often dismissed in our modern day as an illusory science, one that but mimics the more sophisticated techniques of scientific methodology and which is defined by its reputation as fraudulent and deceptive, which was not entirely accurate to its time. But insofar as we might define science as a body of knowledge—scientia—and a set of practices—techne—alchemy was very much constituted by both. Furthermore, precisely because of the gendering that occurred with the glass vessels used in alchemical science (and would continue to be used as laboratory vessels in the growing field of chemistry), I argue that the history of alchemy can provide a useful framework for mapping out the early, gendered relationships between science and performance

Blurring Boundaries: Transforming Place, Policies, and Partnerships for Postsecondary Education Attainment in Metropolitan Areas

By 2020, more than six out of 10 U.S. jobs will require postsecondary training. Despite a slight increase in college attainment nationally in recent years, the fastest-growing minority groups are being left behind. Only 25 and 18 percent of Blacks and Hispanics, respectively, hold at least an associate's degree, compared with 39 percent of Whites. Without substantial increases in educational attainment, particularly for our nation's already underserved groups, the United States will have a difficult time developing a robust economy.Home to 65 percent of Americans, and a majority of all African Americans and Hispanics (74 and 79 percent, respectively), the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) can play a strong role in developing this nation's workforce. In fact, to reach a national attainment target that meets our workforce needs, more than half of college degrees could be generated from the these cities. The majority of degrees needed among African-American and Hispanic adults could also be produced in MSAs.Clearly, investing in and organizing around the potential of metropolitan areas is critical, and the stakes have never been higher. Yet the current funding climate requires strategic public and private partnerships to invest in education innovation and human capital development in order to have the most robust impact on sustainable national growth. For this study, the Institute for Higher Education (IHEP) sought to follow up on its previous work examining MSA educational attainment rates by further exploring policies that either inhibit or facilitate degree production, and identifying metropolitan-level, cross-section collaborations that help local leaders contribute to national completion goals

Microstructure and properties of single crystal BaTiO3 thin films synthesized by ion implantation-induced layer transfer

Single crystal BaTiO3 thin films have been transferred onto Pt-coated and Si3N4-coated substrates by the ion implantation-induced layer transfer method using H+ and He+ ion coimplantation and subsequent annealing. The transferred BaTiO3 films are single crystalline with root mean square roughness of 17 nm. Polarized optical and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) indicate that the BaTiO3 film domain structure closely resembles that of bulk tetragonal BaTiO3 and atomic force microscopy shows a 90degrees a-c domain structure with a tetragonal angle of 0.5degrees-0.6degrees. Micro-Raman spectroscopy indicates that the local mode intensity is degraded in implanted BaTiO3 but recovers during anneals above the Curie temperature. The piezoelectric coefficient, d(33), is estimated from PFM to be 80-100 pm/V and the coercive electric field (E-c) is 12-20 kV/cm, comparable to those in single crystal BaTiO3

Exposure To Pesticides And Food Packaging Materials And Bmi In Samoan Mothers And Children

Background: Growing evidence suggests that environmental chemicals, including certain pesticides and bisphenol A (BPA), may be linked to obesity because of their ability to disrupt metabolic functions. Methods: We conducted a community-based, cross-sectional survey of 319 non-pregnant mothers, ≥18 years old, with a child aged 2-Samoa, a country with high obesity prevalence, understudied agricultural and residential pesticide use and BPA consumption from canned and packaged goods. We measured weight and height of the mother-child pair and interviewed mothers about their potential environmental exposures. Using multivariable logistic regression, we evaluated the association between pesticide and BPA exposure surrogates and weight status. Results: Among 319 mothers, 87.2% were overweight or obese (BMI≥26); among 314 children, 16.2% were overweight or obese (World Health Organization BMIz≥2). A total of 188 (59%) and 108 (34%) women reported home pest treatments with insecticides or herbicides, respectively. In adjusted analyses, we observed a borderline significant association (p=0.056) between herbicide use and higher maternal BMI; no associations were observed for other environmental exposures. Children who lived within 0-29 meters of a farm/plantation had lower odds of overweight/obesity. Conclusion: Our results suggest a possible link between herbicide use and higher maternal BMI as well as an association with proximity of home to a farm/plantation and lower BMI in children. Further research could incorporate biological or environmental sampling of pesticide and BPA exposure