The Social Nature of Individual Self-Identity: Akan and Narrative Conceptions of Personhood

Marya Schechtman has given us reasons to think that there are different questions that compose personal identity. On the one hand, there is the question of reidentification, which concerns what makes a person the same person through different time-slices. On the other hand, there is the question of characterization, which concerns the actions, experiences, beliefs, values, desires, character traits, etc. that we take to be attributable to a person over time. While leaving the former question for another work, Schechtman answers the latter question by proposing what she terms the narrative self-constitution view, whereby Schechtman claims that we account for intuitive features (moral responsibility, survival, compensation, and self-interested concern) of characterization through narratives. Still, merely having a narrative is not enough. In order to live the life of a person, an agent’s narrative must sync with the narrative told about him/her in community. This paper, while in full agreement with Schechtman’s claim regarding narratives and their ability to explain the intuitive features that regard the question of characterization, puts pressure on the latter claim. I argue that a person’s narrative is not merely one that synchs with the narrative told in community, but one that is determined by the person’s community. In focusing on Schechtman’s second claim, I appeal to the Akan conception of personhood, showing that the community sets the parameters of personal identity, and by body politics and conferring social recognition, determines the traits that we take to be attributed to a given person over time

Indiana wildlife photography : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

In order to express the admiration I have for the fauna of the world in a format other than an essay, I have created six wildlife photographs. The objective of these photographs is to represent as closely as possible animals' beauty, behavior, and relationship with their environment, while adhering to compositional elements that create quality photographs. This compilation represents my semester long project in wildlife photography. It details what equipment was used, how photographs were taken, why specific photographs were selected for print, and how photos were scanned, digitally enhanced, and printed. The disk enclosed contains digital images of the six photographs I chose to digitally enhance and print for my final product.Honors CollegeThesis (B.?.

Consumer Attitudes toward Freshness Indicators on Perishable Food Products

Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Bridges Between Subriemannian Geometry and Algebraic Geometry

We consider how the problem of determining normal forms for a specific class of nonholonomic systems leads to various interesting and concrete bridges between two apparently unrelated themes. Various ideas that traditionally pertain to the field of algebraic geometry emerge here organically in an attempt to elucidate the geometric structures underlying a large class of nonholonomic distributions known as Goursat constraints. Among our new results is a regularization theorem for curves stated and proved using tools exclusively from nonholonomic geometry, and a computation of topological invariants that answer a question on the global topology of our classifying space. Last but not least we present for the first time some experimental results connecting the discrete invariants of nonholonomic plane fields such as the RVT code and the Milnor number of complex plane algebraic curves.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of 10th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications, Madrid 201

Complete spelling rules for the Monster tower over three-space

The Monster tower, also known as the Semple tower, is a sequence of manifolds with distributions of interest to both differential and algebraic geometers. Each manifold is a projective bundle over the previous. Moreover, each level is a fiber compactified jet bundle equipped with an action of finite jets of the diffeomorphism group. There is a correspondence between points in the tower and curves in the base manifold. These points admit a stratification which can be encoded by a word called the RVT code. Here, we derive the spelling rules for these words in the case of a three dimensional base. That is, we determine precisely which words are realized by points in the tower. To this end, we study the incidence relations between certain subtowers, called Baby Monsters, and present a general method for determining the level at which each Baby Monster is born. Here, we focus on the case where the base manifold is three dimensional, but all the methods presented generalize to bases of arbitrary dimension.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; new titl

The Evaluation of Mefloquine Drug Repurposing on Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The aim of this study is to observe cell proliferation, cell viability, apoptosis, and autophagy on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines, NB4 and U937, with the drug repurposing of mefloquine (MQ). Methods such as the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay and trypan blue staining have shown a decrease in live cells with high concentrations of mefloquine. Using their average perspective IC50 values of MQ concentration, Western blotting was applied by means of apoptosis and autophagy markers to determine if the induction of apoptosis and inhibition of autophagy was present in MQ-treated AML cells. The experiment will be continued with more cell lines, drugs, and other means of protocol in order to contribute to cancer therapy.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1285/thumbnail.jp

Tuning Nanocrystal Surface Depletion by Controlling Dopant Distribution as a Route Toward Enhanced Film Conductivity

Electron conduction through bare metal oxide nanocrystal (NC) films is hindered by surface depletion regions resulting from the presence of surface states. We control the radial dopant distribution in tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) NCs as a means to manipulate the NC depletion width. We find in films of ITO NCs of equal overall dopant concentration that those with dopant-enriched surfaces show decreased depletion width and increased conductivity. Variable temperature conductivity data shows electron localization length increases and associated depletion width decreases monotonically with increased density of dopants near the NC surface. We calculate band profiles for NCs of differing radial dopant distributions and, in agreement with variable temperature conductivity fits, find NCs with dopant-enriched surfaces have narrower depletion widths and longer localization lengths than those with dopant-enriched cores. Following amelioration of NC surface depletion by atomic layer deposition of alumina, all films of equal overall dopant concentration have similar conductivity. Variable temperature conductivity measurements on alumina-capped films indicate all films behave as granular metals. Herein, we conclude that dopant-enriched surfaces decrease the near-surface depletion region, which directly increases the electron localization length and conductivity of NC films

The Whitefield planning group : Whitefield Eco-Industrial Park : Whitefield, NH

The Whitefield Planning Group is a collaboration of key stakeholders concerned with the development of the and the effort to develop the Whitefield Industrial Park in New Hampshire (US). The thesis describes how the start-up phase of the collaboration and the desired goals for economic development for this area in the White Mountains region of the state. (Library-derived description)Corey, P.L. (2002). The Whitefield planning group: Whitefield Eco-Industrial Park: Whitefield, NH. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster of Science (M.S.)School of Community Economic Developmen

MOF the beaten track: unusual structures and uncommon applications of metal-organic frameworks

Abstract Over the past few decades, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have proved themselves as strong contenders in the world of porous materials, standing alongside established classes of compounds such as zeolites and activated carbons. Following extensive investigation into the porosity of these materials and their gas uptake properties, the MOF community are now branching away from these heavily researched areas, and venturing into unexplored avenues. Ranging from novel synthetic routes to post-synthetic functionalisation of frameworks, host–guest properties to sensing abilities, this review takes a sidestep away from increasingly ‘traditional’ approaches in the field, and details some of the more curious qualities of this relatively young family of materials