Ambiguous alliances: Native American efforts to preserve independence in the Ohio Valley, 1768-1795

Ambiguous Alliances examines the revolutionary era in the Ohio Valley from a Native American perspective. Rather than simply considering them as British pawns or troublesome mischief-makers, this account describes how Wyandots, Shawnees, Ottawas, Delawares, Miamis, and their native neighbors made decisions about war and peace, established alliances with Europeans, Americans, and distant Indian nations, and charted specific strategies for their political and cultural survival. They also suffered devastating personal and property loss and encountered significant disruption to their societal routines. Yet much about their daily lives remained unchanged, and their communities continued to foster a strong Indian identity.;This dissertation explores native objectives for the period 1768--1795, specifically looking at what the various nations were hoping to accomplish in their relationships with the British and the Americans. While preserving land and sovereignty were the Indians\u27 clearest aims, this study also emphasizes that the underlying goal of protecting their rights and property was to retain their cultural distinctiveness. Furthermore, these twin objectives were inextricably linked. The Indians\u27 ability to remain viable diplomatic partners with the Europeans depended on the maintenance of their landed independence.;Along with analyzing native objectives, this dissertation discusses Indian strategies to attain these goals and looks at how the Revolution assisted or hampered their execution. Some tribes actively recruited British or American allies; some attempted to remain neutral; others endeavored to form a united Indian front; and still others alternately extended their allegiance to both parties in an effort to secure both autonomy and protection.;Despite its heavy emphasis on native alliances and military maneuvers, this work also examines the Revolution\u27s challenges to the rhythms of daily life. In addition to physical destruction, wartime agendas altered native.economic patterns and sometimes even invaded cultural practices, threatening to constrict gender roles for women or to prevent nations from adopting captives to replace their deceased relatives. Although the era\u27s disruptions brought emotional distress, physical displacement, and political ambiguity, the tribes persisted in sustaining both their daily existence and their national identities

On-chip generation of heralded photon-number states

Beyond the use of genuine monolithic integrated optical platforms, we report here a hybrid strategy enabling on-chip generation of configurable heralded two-photon states. More specifically, we combine two different fabrication techniques, \textit{i.e.}, non-linear waveguides on lithium niobate for efficient photon-pair generation and femtosecond-laser-direct-written waveguides on glass for photon manipulation. Through real-time device manipulation capabilities, a variety of path-coded heralded two-photon states can be produced, ranging from product to entangled states. Those states are engineered with high levels of purity, assessed by fidelities of 99.5$\pm$8\% and 95.0$\pm$8\%, respectively, obtained via quantum interferometric measurements. Our strategy therefore stands as a milestone for further exploiting entanglement-based protocols, relying on engineered quantum states, and enabled by scalable and compatible photonic circuits

Reward dysfunction in major depression: Multimodal neuroimaging evidence for refining the melancholic phenotype

Reward dysfunction is thought to play a core role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified reward processing deficits in MDD, but these methods have yet to be applied together in a single MDD sample. We utilized multimodal neuroimaging evidence to examine reward dysfunction in MDD. Further, we explored how neurobiological reward dysfunction would map onto subtypes of MDD. The feedback negativity (FN), an ERP index of reward evaluation, was recorded in 34 unmedicated depressed individuals and 42 never-depressed controls during a laboratory gambling task. Ventral striatal (VS) activation to reward was recorded in a separate fMRI session, using an identical task, among a subgroup of 24 depressed individuals and a comparison group of 18 non-depressed controls. FN amplitude was blunted in MDD. This effect was driven by a MDD subgroup characterized by impaired mood reactivity to positive events, a core feature of melancholic MDD. A similar pattern was observed for VS activation, which was also blunted among the MDD subgroup with impaired mood reactivity. Neither FN amplitude nor VS activation were related to the full, DSM-defined melancholic or atypical MDD subtypes. Across the MDD sample, FN amplitude and VS activation were correlated, indicating convergence across methods. These results indicate that not all MDD is characterized by reward dysfunction, and that there is meaningful heterogeneity in reward processing within MDD. The current study offers neurobiological evidence that impaired mood reactivity is a key phenotypic distinction for subtyping MDD, and further suggests that the existing melancholic phenotype may require further refinement

Treatment of breast cancer: Imo State Nigeria versus Indiana, USA women -- comparative analytic study

BACKGROUND: Women with breast cancer undergo multimodal treatment for best outcome. This study seeks to identify the treatment challenges for such women in Imo State, Nigeria vis-à-vis similar women in Indiana USA. We compared the treatment modalities of both groups; noting predictors of compliance for subsequent action. SETTING: Federal Medical Centre, Owerri; Imo State, Imo State University, Orlu, Nigeria and Indiana University Hospital, Indiana, USA. DESIGN: A retrospective study. METHODOLOGY: From 2000-2013, 100 randomly pulled charts of patients treated for pathologically confirmed breast cancer in Imo, Nigeria Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State University Hospital; and Indiana University Hospital U.S. respectively were reviewed. The demographics, clinical and pathological data of the patients with confirmed breast cancer were obtained. The data were formatted and analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. The clinical features, management options, outcomes and specific features were compared for both groups using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests (age, parity) and chi-square tests for all other variables. A 5% significance level was used for all tests. RESULTS: One hundred patients were included for each group. The mean/minimum ages; Imo, Nigeria 41.7/21 (SD/SE 15.3/1.5) vs. Indiana, U.S.56.4/29 (SD 12.4/SE 1.2) p<0.0001. Histology for Indiana USA women was predominantly ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) P<0.0001 while that of Imo, Nigeria was invasive ductal carcinoma inflammatory cancer P<0.0326. Women in both locations received chemotherapy and surgery. Imo women received less radiotherapy. Toxicity from chemotherapy remained constant features for both groups, P<0.0001. In Indiana USA, the 5year survival exceeded 85%; In Imo Nigeria it was 10%. This study showed that Women on both locations who were likely to be compliant were those receiving mastectomy; Imo, Nigeria 44(56%) <0.013 vs. Indiana, U.S. 74(80%) p<0.0186; women with cosmesis given; Imo, Nigeria 41(42%) vs. Indiana, U.S. 91 (94%) p<0.0001. Sample sizes were inadequate to perform multivariable models. CONCLUSION: The multimodal treatment regimen implied that there was need for an algorithm protocol for breast cancer women. Thus the need to improve the quality of treatment particularly in Nigeria by improved treatment documentation to overcome key barriers involving information exchange

The Impact of a School Board’s One-to-One iPad Initiative on Equity and Inclusion

This paper examines the impact of a school board’s one-to-one iPad initiative on equity and inclusion. Data include: questionnaires from Grade 7–9 students, teachers, and administrators; focus groups with inclusion coaches; and interviews with classroom teachers. The results show that the iPads have supported equity among students in the district; there is now less disparity in terms of access to technology on the basis of families’ socio-economic status. The results show that the iPads have also supported the academic and social inclusion of students with exceptionalities; themes that arose across the data sources include: differentiation of content, access to grade-level curriculum, the appearance of sameness, communication and collaboration among students with and without exceptionalities, and positive student affect. Negative implications included the potential for students who struggle with self-regulation to be negatively affected and the potential for the technology to be used in socially exclusionary ways

Changes in mumps virus neurovirulence phenotype associated with quasispecies heterogeneity

AbstractMumps virus is a highly neurotropic virus with evidence of central nervous system invasion (CNS) in approximately half of all cases of infection. In countries where live attenuated mumps virus vaccines were introduced, the number of mumps cases declined dramatically; however, recently, the safety of some vaccine strains has been questioned. For example, one of the most widely used vaccines, the Urabe AM9 strain, was causally associated with meningitis, leading to the withdrawal of this product from the market in several countries. This highlights the need for a better understanding of the attenuation process and the identification of markers of attenuation. To this end, we further attenuated the Urabe AM9 strain by serial passage in cell culture and compared the complete nucleotide sequences of the parental and passaged viruses. Interestingly, despite a dramatic decrease in virus virulence (as assayed in rats), the only genomic changes were in the form of changes in the level of genetic heterogeneity at specific genome sites, i.e., either selection of one nucleotide variant at positions where the starting material exhibited nucleotide heterogeneity or the evolution of an additional nucleotide to create a heterogenic site. This finding suggests that changes in the level of genetic heterogeneity at specific genome sites can have profound neurovirulence phenotypic consequences and, therefore, caution should be exercised when evaluating genetic markers of virulence or attenuation based only on a consensus sequence

Making sense of risk. Donor risk communication in families considering living liverdonation to a child

This paper contributes to the growing line of thought in bioethics that respect for autonomy should not be equated to the facilitation of individualistic self determination through standard requirements of informed consent in all healthcare contexts. The paper describes how in the context of donation for living related liver transplantation (LRLT) meaningful, responsible decision making is often embedded within family processes and its negotiation. We suggest that good donor risk communication in families promote “conscientious autonomy” and “reflective trust”. From this, the paper offers the suggestion that transplant teams and other relevant professionals have to broaden their role and responsibility for risk communication beyond proper disclosure by addressing the impact of varied psychosocial conditions on risk interpretation and assessment for potential donors and family stakeholders. In conclusion, we suggest further research questions on how professional responsibility and role-taking in risk communication should be morally understood