If Reflections Could Talk

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work

British climatologist and geographer, Gordon Manley (1902–1980), is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on climate variability in the UK, for establishing the Central England Temperature series and, for his pivotal role in demonstrating the powerful relationship between climate, weather, and culture in post-World War II Britain. Yet Manley made many contributions, both professional and popular, to climate change debates in the twentieth century, where climate change is broadly understood to be changes over a range of temporal and spatial scales rather than anthropogenic warming per se. This review first establishes how Manley's work, including that on snow and ice, was influenced by key figures in debates over climatic amelioration around the North Atlantic between 1920s and 1950s. His research exploring historical climate variability in the UK using documentary sources is then discussed. His perspectives on the relationship between climate changes and cultural history are reviewed, paying particular attention to his interpretation of this relationship as it played out in the UK. Throughout, the review aims to show Manley to be a fieldworker and an empiricist and reveals how he remained committed to rigorous scientific investigation despite changing trends within his academic discipline

The Revanchist City: Downtown Chicago and the Rhetoric of Redevelopment in Bronzeville

This paper examines and interprets the contrived cycle of disinvestment and reinvestment in Bronzeville the original settlement area of Blacks in Chicago The historical political economic and social policy of confinement and segregation in Chicago created a high concentration of public housing in Bronzeville Data reveals that the disinvestment process in Bronzeville correlates with the concentration of public housing As the cost of local state and federal practices to maintain and concentrate public housing in Bronzeville increased a new public policy of housing demolition to create mixed income housing development coupled with decline of Chicago s manufacturing base and subsequent rise in information and consumption-based economy sparked reinvestment Our data reveal that the process of disinvestment and reinvestment gentrification doesn t just happen by chance but in fact is socially contrived and planned Under the rhetoric and language of being concerned for the well-being of the urban poor the primary goal of downtown Chicago and other public and private interests is to reclaim urban space for the creation of a middle and White upper-class elite consumer base in Bronzeville as well as a space of cultural consumption for tourist

The Inheritance of Serum Alkaline Phosphatase in the Pigeon (Columba livia)

The purpose of this work was to determine the manner of inheritance of serum alkaline phosphatase in the racing pigeon, (Columba livia). The evidence indicates that the electrophoretic patterns of serum alkaline phosphatase in the pigeon are inherited as codominant genes

Biology of Stegasta Bosqueella Chambers) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae)

Entomolog

Rheostats and Toggle Switches for Modulating Protein Function

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author’s publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.The millions of protein sequences generated by genomics are expected to transform protein engineering and personalized medicine. To achieve these goals, tools for predicting outcomes of amino acid changes must be improved. Currently, advances are hampered by insufficient experimental data about nonconserved amino acid positions. Since the property “nonconserved” is identified using a sequence alignment, we designed experiments to recapitulate that context: Mutagenesis and functional characterization was carried out in 15 LacI/GalR homologs (rows) at 12 nonconserved positions (columns). Multiple substitutions were made at each position, to reveal how various amino acids of a nonconserved column were tolerated in each protein row. Results showed that amino acid preferences of nonconserved positions were highly context-dependent, had few correlations with physico-chemical similarities, and were not predictable from their occurrence in natural LacI/GalR sequences. Further, unlike the “toggle switch” behaviors of conserved positions, substitutions at nonconserved positions could be rank-ordered to show a “rheostatic”, progressive effect on function that spanned several orders of magnitude. Comparisons to various sequence analyses suggested that conserved and strongly co-evolving positions act as functional toggles, whereas other important, nonconserved positions serve as rheostats for modifying protein function. Both the presence of rheostat positions and the sequence analysis strategy appear to be generalizable to other protein families and should be considered when engineering protein modifications or predicting the impact of protein polymorphisms

Advanced Manned Launch System (AMLS) study

To assure national leadership in space operations and exploration in the future, NASA must be able to provide cost effective and operationally efficient space transportation. Several NASA studies and the joint NASA/DoD Space Transportation Architecture Studies (STAS) have shown the need for a multi-vehicle space transportation system with designs driven by enhanced operations and low costs. NASA is currently studying an advanced manned launch system (AMLS) approach to transport crew and cargo to the Space Station Freedom. Several single and multiple stage systems from air-breathing to all-rocket concepts are being examined in a series of studies potential replacements for the Space Shuttle launch system in the 2000-2010 time frame. Rockwell International Corporation, under contract to the NASA Langley Research Center, has analyzed a two-stage all-rocket concept to determine whether this class of vehicles is appropriate for the AMLS function. The results of the pre-phase A study are discussed

Microstructural strain energy of α-uranium determined by calorimetry and neutron diffractometry

The microstructural contribution to the heat capacity of α-uranium was determined by measuring the heat-capacity difference between polycrystalline and single-crystal samples from 77 to 320 K. When cooled to 77 K and then heated to about 280 K, the uranium microstructure released (3±1) J/mol of strain energy. On further heating to 300 K, the microstructure absorbed energy as it began to redevelop microstrains. Anisotropic strain-broadening parameters were extracted from neutron-diffraction measurements on polycrystals. Combining the strain-broadening parameters with anisotropic elastic constants from the literature, the microstructural strain energy is predicted in the two limiting cases of statistically isotropic stress and statistically isotropic strain. The result calculated in the limit of statistically isotropic stress was (3.7±0.5) J/mol K at 77 K and (1±0.5) J/mol at room temperature. In the limit of statistically isotropic strain, the values were (7.8±0.5) J/mol K at 77 K and (4.5±0.5) J/mol at room temperature. In both cases the changes in the microstructural strain energy showed good agreement with the calorimetry

Seasonal Survival and Cause-Specific Mortality of Northern Bobwhites in Mississippi

Knowledge of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) survival and rates at which specific mortality agents remove individuals from the population is important for implementation of science-based harvest and habitat management regimes. To better understand population response to habitat management, we monitored 194 radio-marked northern bobwhites in managed old-field habitats in eastcentral Mississippi, 1993 to 1996. Bobwhite populations increased during the first 3 years following initiation of disking and burning practices. During the 2nd year of bobwhite habitat management breeding season survival (0.509) was high relative to other southeastern populations. However, breeding season survival declined from the 2nd through the 5th year of management (1993, 0.509; 1994, 0.362; 1995, 0.338; 1996, 0.167; P \u3c 0.001). Declining seasonal survival was attributable to increasing mammalian mortality from 1993 to 1996 (P \u3c 0.01). Avian mortality rates were stochastic and differed among years (P = 0.04), while unknown mortality rates were similar (P = 0.13). Avian mortality evidently operated in a density-dependent fashion, whereas mammalian mortality continued to increase despite declining bobwhite population. Northern bobwhite cause-specific mortality rates among years differed by sex (P \u3c 0.01) and age (P \u3c 0.01). Indices of breeding season relative abundance declined with declining survival. We hypothesize that manipulations (bum, disk, bum/disk) which created habitat that met the seasonal requirements of breeding bobwhites and other early successional prey species, may have resulted in a functional and numerical response of mammalian predators

Promoting Strategic Thinking in American Indian Leaders

Native leaders are challenged with rebuilding, reuniting, and revitalizing their disseminated nations. The Native chief executive faces the tasks of asserting political sovereignty, protecting cultural rights, and improving the dire socioeconomic conditions on American Indian reservations. Strategic thinking is essential to addressing these challenges. The Constraints Model proposed by Irving Janis has been expanded to include American Indian perspectives regarding errors leaders make in policymaking and crisis management. Characteristics and educational needs of Native leaders crucial for strategic thinking are discussed. Recommendations include encouraging Native leaders to participate in executive education programs and to incorporate tools such as the Strategic Analysis protocol in their nation building efforts