Oral history interview with Lee Anne Blankenship

Abstract provided by interviewer Sarah Blankenship. Lee Anne Blankenship (Sanders ‘80) attended Abilene Christian University between Spring 1978 and Fall 1980 and received a B.B.A in Marketing and Management. ACU is a Church of Christ affiliated liberal arts university which strives to provide its students with a Christian education in a Christ-like environment. Mrs. Blankenship recounts her time at ACU from a Methodist perspective and as someone who did not live in a dormitory. She recounts her time in the business department along with a relationship she observed between her professor and a student. She also discusses the pressure put on women in social clubs and recounts the story of a female student faced with an abortion. This interview provides primary source information on ACU’s classroom and community culture in regards to gender, sexuality, and race as seen through a non-traditional student’s viewpoint during the late-70s to early-80s

Areal geology of Painthorse quadrangle Culberson County, Texas

Painthorse quadrangle is structurally high on an eastward-sloping homoclinal flexure of the Delaware Mountains. This quadrangle is divided into two major lithic units; the gypseous Castile is the bedrock formation of the eastern half of the quadrangle, the limestones and sandstones of the Delaware Mountain group comprising the western half. The western half of the quadrangle is an area of low, rolling hills and flat, broad valleys. The soil is extremely fertile. Paleontological evidence supports the presence of the Manzanita limestone member of the Cherry Canyon. The South Wells member could be present. The Lamar member of the Bell Canyon formation is exposed as a westward-facing cuesta. The weathering characteristics of the Castile gypsum directly control the topography of the eastern half of the quadrangle; the result is a karst topography. The soil derived from the Castile is almost sterile and the plants growing in it are especially adapted to its chemical make-up. The Rustler formation is found only as caps on the highest hills. The Cretaceous Cox sandstone unconformably overlies the Permian Pierce Canyon redbeds. Conglomerates composed of various ratios of Cox, Pierce Canyon and Rustler pebbles occur as sinkhole deposits throughout the areaGeological Science

A comparison of the effects of two mathematics programs upon selected fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade remedial mathematics students

The problem with which this investigation was concerned is that of determining whether remedial mathematics students who receive individualized attention in small groups with many special materials would gain more knowledge in the areas of computation, concepts, problem solving, and total composite mathematics than would remedial mathematics students taught as sub-groups of regular mathematics classes

Molecular Mechanics Simulations and Improved Tight-binding Hamiltonians for Artificial Light Harvesting Systems: Predicting Geometric Distributions, Disorder, and Spectroscopy of Chromophores in a Protein Environment

We present molecular mechanics {and spectroscopic} calculations on prototype artificial light harvesting systems consisting of chromophores attached to a tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) protein scaffold. These systems have been synthesized and characterized spectroscopically, but information about the microscopic configurations and geometry of these TMV-templated chromophore assemblies is largely unknown. We use a Monte Carlo conformational search algorithm to determine the preferred positions and orientations of two chromophores, Coumarin 343 together with its linker, and Oregon Green 488, when these are attached at two different sites (104 and 123) on the TMV protein. The resulting geometric information shows that the extent of disorder and aggregation properties, and therefore the optical properties of the TMV-templated chromophore assembly, are highly dependent on the choice of chromophores and protein site to which they are bound. We used the results of the conformational search as geometric parameters together with an improved tight-binding Hamiltonian to simulate the linear absorption spectra and compare with experimental spectral measurements. The ideal dipole approximation to the Hamiltonian is not valid since the distance between chromophores can be very small. We found that using the geometries from the conformational search is necessary to reproduce the features of the experimental spectral peaks

Upstream Passage, Spawning, and Stock Identification of Fall Chinook Salmon in the Snake River, 1992 : Annual Report FY 92-93.

This report summarizes the activities and results for the second year (1992) of a three year study. The goals of the study were as follows: (1) to determine the source (s) of interdam losses of adult fall chinook salmon between Ice Harbor Dam (IHR) and Lower Granite Dam (LGR), as well as upstream of LGR; (2) identify spawning locations upstream of LGR for calibration of aerial redd surveys, and to assist with redd habitat mapping and carcass recovery (for genetic stock profile analysis). Radio telemetry was used as the method of addressing project goals. Unmarked (not adipose clipped) adult fall chinook salmon were trapped and radio tagged at IHR and LGR dams as they ascended the Snake River during their spawning migration. They used aerial and ground mobile radio tracking to determine the movements of these fish. They examined movements of all radio tagged salmon upstream of LGR Dam. That provided us with a sample of 17 radio tagged fish tagged at IHR and 20 tagged at LGR. They estimate a combined fall back rate at LGR of 37.1% (13 fish). Another 10.8--13.5% were `lost` or prespawning mortalities. They identified two potential spawning locations that would not have been detected from the aerial spawning surveys. One site was upstream of Troy on the Grande Ronde River and the other was in the upper Snake River

Long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes at physiological temperature

Photosynthetic antenna complexes capture and concentrate solar radiation by transferring the excitation to the reaction center which stores energy from the photon in chemical bonds. This process occurs with near-perfect quantum efficiency. Recent experiments at cryogenic temperatures have revealed that coherent energy transfer - a wavelike transfer mechanism - occurs in many photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes (1-4). Using the Fenna-Matthews-Olson antenna complex (FMO) as a model system, theoretical studies incorporating both incoherent and coherent transfer as well as thermal dephasing predict that environmentally assisted quantum transfer efficiency peaks near physiological temperature; these studies further show that this process is equivalent to a quantum random walk algorithm (5-8). This theory requires long-lived quantum coherence at room temperature, which never has been observed in FMO. Here we present the first evidence that quantum coherence survives in FMO at physiological temperature for at least 300 fs, long enough to perform a rudimentary quantum computational operation. This data proves that the wave-like energy transfer process discovered at 77 K is directly relevant to biological function. Microscopically, we attribute this long coherence lifetime to correlated motions within the protein matrix encapsulating the chromophores, and we find that the degree of protection afforded by the protein appears constant between 77 K and 277 K. The protein shapes the energy landscape and mediates an efficient energy transfer despite thermal fluctuations. The persistence of quantum coherence in a dynamic, disordered system under these conditions suggests a new biomimetic strategy for designing dedicated quantum computational devices that can operate at high temperature.Comment: PDF files, 15 pages, 3 figures (included in the PDF file

Measurement of junctional tension in epithelial cells at the onset of primitive streak formation in the chick embryo via non-destructive optical manipulation

Directional cell intercalations of epithelial cells during gastrulation has in several organisms been shown to be associated with a planar cell polarity in the organisation of the actin-myosin cytoskeleton and is postulated to reflect directional tension that drives oriented cell intercalations. We have characterised and applied a recently introduced non-destructive optical manipulation technique to measure the tension in individual epithelial cell junctions of cells in various locations and orientations in the epiblast of chick embryos in the early stages of primitive streak formation. Junctional tension of mesendoderm precursors in the epiblast is higher in junctions oriented in the direction of intercalation than in junctions oriented perpendicular to the direction of intercalation and higher than in junctions of other cells in the epiblast. The kinetic data are fitted best with a simple visco-elastic Maxwell model and we find that junctional tension and to a lesser extent viscoelastic relaxation time are dependent on myosin activity

Basal channels drive active surface hydrology and transverse ice shelf fracture

Ice shelves control sea-level rise through frictional resistance, which slows the seaward flow of grounded glacial ice. Evidence from around Antarctica indicates that ice shelves are thinning and weakening, primarily driven by warm ocean water entering into the shelf cavities. We have identified a mechanism for ice shelf destabilization where basal channels underneath the shelves cause ice thinning that drives fracture perpendicular to flow. These channels also result in ice surface deformation, which diverts supraglacial rivers into the transverse fractures. We report direct evidence that a major 2016 calving event at Nansen Ice Shelf in the Ross Sea was the result of fracture driven by such channelized thinning and demonstrate that similar basal channel–driven transverse fractures occur elsewhere in Greenland and Antarctica. In the event of increased basal and surface melt resulting from rising ocean and air temperatures, ice shelves will become increasingly vulnerable to these tandem effects of basal channel destabilization

Getz Ice Shelf melt enhanced by freshwater discharge from beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Antarctica's Getz Ice Shelf has been rapidly thinning in recent years, producing more meltwater than any other ice shelf in the world. The influx of fresh water is known to substantially influence ocean circulation and biological productivity, but relatively little is known about the factors controlling basal melt rate or how basal melt is spatially distributed beneath the ice shelf. Also unknown is the relative importance of subglacial discharge from the grounded ice sheet in contributing to the export of fresh water from the ice shelf cavity. Here we compare the observed spatial distribution of basal melt rate to a new sub-ice-shelf bathymetry map inferred from airborne gravity surveys and to locations of subglacial discharge from the grounded ice sheet. We find that melt rates are high where bathymetric troughs provide a pathway for warm Circumpolar Deep Water to enter the ice shelf cavity and that melting is enhanced where subglacial discharge fresh water flows across the grounding line. This is the first study to address the relative importance of meltwater production of the Getz Ice Shelf from both ocean and subglacial sources.publishedVersio