At the Margins of the World: The Nature of Limits in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line

Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) is an anti-war film which can be read as an Orphic narrative meditating on the relationship between humans and “nature.” Many scholarly readings of the film have been attracted by analyzes that explore the influences of Cavell and Heidegger on Malick (Critchley, Furstenau and MacCavoy, Sinnerbrink). Kaja Silverman’s recent opus, Flesh of My Flesh (2009), contains a chapter titled “All Things Shining.” She elegantly examines how Malick’s film explores the theme of “finitude.” She argues that, ontologically speaking, human existence gains a more intense “glow” when humans are made aware of their mortality. The present becomes paramount. But like Orpheus, the present seeks to make amends with the past. Taking Silverman’s analysis one step further involves exploring finitude through the film’s many animal, arboreal and geological images. Nature can be read as a “margin” that more fully enhances the film’s exploration of connection and finitude. To this end, the opening chapter of Jacques Derrida’s Margins of Philosophy (1986) is invaluable. Entitled “Tympan,” Derrida’s introductory essay introduces a wealth of ecological metaphors. These stimulate an interaction between Silverman’s model of finitude, Derrida’s surprising ecologies at the margin and Malick’s quest for what shines in all beings

Department of Cardiac Function in LCAD Deficient Mice After a Single Bout of Endurance Exercise

Fatty acids are the primary fuel source for cardiac tissue in both humans and animals. These become especially important during times of starvation and long bouts of exercise. Fatty acids are broken down into smaller, useable acyl-CoA subunits through a process called beta-oxidation. The first step in this process must be catalyzed by one of four acyl-CoA dehydrogenase enzymes depending on the length of the fatty acid to be metabolized. The enzyme that catalyzes the break-down of long-chain fatty acids, long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCAD), was examined. The objective of this study was to determine how a single bout of endurance exercise impacts cardiac function in LCAD deficient mice as well as to assess whether recovery from exercise is adversely affected. Mice were separated into four groups for testing: LCAD, non-exercised; LCAD, exercised; control, non-exercised; and control, exercised. Mice were exercised by forced running at a speed of 31m/min with increasing grade (2%) each 20 min. Twenty-four hours post-exercise, the mice were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (40 ml/kg body weight,) and ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and cardiac output values were determined in both groups. It was determined that exercise had no effect on cardiac function or recovery in either the LCAD or control group. There was, however, a significant difference between the LCAD and control group for fractional shortening (p\u3c0.05) and cardiac output (p\u3c0.05). It was concluded that a single bout of endurance exercise had no significant effect on the cardiac function of LCAD deficient mice during recovery, although the disease did negatively affect cardiac function when compared to the control group

Crassulacean acid metabolism in the Gesneriaceae

The occurrence of the Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) was studied in four epiphytic species of the Gesneriaceae: two neotropical species, Codonanthe crassifolia and Columnea linearis, and two paleotropical species, Aoschynanthus pulcher and Saintpaulia ionantha. Gas exchange parameters, enzymology, and leaf anatomy, including mesophyll succulence and rel­ ative percent of the mesophyll volume occupied by airspace, were studied for each species. Codonanthe crassifolia was the only species to show nocturnal CO2 uptake and a diurnal organic acid fluctuation. According to these results, Codonanthe crassifolia shows CAM-cycling under well-watered conditions and when subjected to drought, it switches to CAM-idling. Other characteristics, such as leaf anatomy, mesophyll succulence, and PEP carboxylase and NADP malic enzyme activity, indicate attributes of the CAM pathway. All other species tested showed C3 photosynthesis. The most C3-like species is Columnea linearis, according to the criteria tested in this investigation. The other two species show mesophyll succulence and relative percent of the leaf volume occupied by airspace within the CAM range, but no other characters of the CAM pathway. The leaf structure of certain genera of the Gesneriaceae and of the genus Peperomia in the Piperaceae are similar, both having an upper succulent, multiple epidermis, a medium palisade of one or a few cell layers, and a lower, succulent spongy parenchyma not too unlike CAM photosynthetic tissue. We report ecophysiological similarities between these two distantly related families. Thus, the occurrence of CAM-cycling may be more common among epiphytic species than is currently known

Development and evaluation of lessons for class and group situations in grade I. Volume I.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University For volume II, please see: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/1415

From cellular properties to population asymptotics in the Population Balance Equation

Proliferating cell populations at steady state growth often exhibit broad protein distributions with exponential tails. The sources of this variation and its universality are of much theoretical interest. Here we address the problem by asymptotic analysis of the Population Balance Equation. We show that the steady state distribution tail is determined by a combination of protein production and cell division and is insensitive to other model details. Under general conditions this tail is exponential with a dependence on parameters consistent with experiment. We discuss the conditions for this effect to be dominant over other sources of variation and the relation to experiments.Comment: Exact solution of Eq. 9 is adde