Reinvisioning the Nineteenth Century in Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker : Gender, Ethnicity, and Class

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, an alternate history novel, examines the cultural and political atmosphere in late nineteenth-century America. It focuses on a group of women marginalized from mainstream society because of their race, culture, or class. The novel’s heroine, Briar, a poor working woman, is rejected by society and suffers labor exploitation. In response to her oppressive circumstances, she joins a community of women, and together, they rebel against an oppressive, patriarchal society. My paper explores Priest’s adaptation of the social, historical, and cultural background of the nineteenth-century and the treatment of gender, ethnicity, and class through her characters. Boneshaker examines nineteenth-century standards of motherhood and marriage. I argue that it disrupts the extreme codes that define motherhood and marriage because its women are not defined by their status as wives and Briar creates her own conventions for parenting as a single mother. They are not restricted by conventional, middle class nineteenth-century values regarding marriage and motherhood. I argue that as an alternate history fiction, Boneshaker has the ability to liberate and empower those disenfranchised by race, class, or gender. While Priest succeeds in freeing her female characters from oppressive nineteenth-century gender constraints, she does not respond to anti-Chinese sentiment. Boneshaker offers a historically accurate portrayal of Chinese racism in the nineteenth-century, but it refuses to effectively confront it in the same way it does for gender oppression and Native American racism. The women in Boneshaker are offered gender liberation, and the Native American woman, while she suffers from racist attitudes, is given the power to defend herself from her attackers. Boneshaker’s Chinese reflect nineteenth-century depictions that stereotype them as submissive and passive. In Boneshaker, they are effectively silenced through language barriers or disability, and are never given the opportunity to respond to racism. They continually suffer abuse at the hands of white male characters, but are never given the opportunity to defend themselves. I argue that Boneshaker’s treatment of the Native American princess Angeline is in response to nineteenth-century stereotypes of Native women. Priest refuses to reduce Angeline to stereotypes that liken her to middle class white women. In many nineteenth-century periodicals and literature, Native women were written to appeal to the middle class sensibility of white women readers. To achieve this, the depiction of Native women reflected the white middle class woman in looks and values. The role of the Native woman in popular nineteenth-century fiction was typically reduced to the romantic interest of a white man or she was depicted as the noble savage, willing to deceive her people to save white men. I argue that Boneshaker’s depiction of Princess Angeline as an independent, rebellious, liberated woman, offers readers a historically accurate portrayal of the Native American woman. The alternate history novel offers Boneshaker the ability to reimagine and reinvision the nineteenth-century; however, it does not always take advantage of its genre possibilities. Boneshaker is an example of the limitations and advantages of the genre in its inability to significantly respond to Chinese racism while also demonstrating class and gender liberation. Boneshaker offers women an alternate space in which they are given autonomy and act as active agents in the construction of history

Personality types and value orientations with special reference to the feminine role

The problem of conflict in the feminine role is the result of social and cultural changes of the past several decades. The traditional middle and upper class feminine role expectations were focused upon marriage and the family and the woman's interests, values, and actions were expected to be channeled in the direction of obligation to the family group. The woman's individual needs and interests were expected to be subordinated to the needs and interests of her family. Society left little or no opportunity for the woman of the colonial period to play any role other than this one, so closely connected with her biological role of bearing children. The woman who did not marry was forced to choose between becoming a member of a relative's family as the stereotyped "maiden aunt" and becoming a governess or teacher. The opportunity for individual achievement in this latter role was highly limited

Solid-state nanopores: a new platform for DNA biomarker discovery

Solid-state (SS) nanopores emerged as a molecular detection platform in 2001, offering many advantages over their biological counterparts, α-hemolysin nanopores (α-HL). These advantages include better chemical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal stability, as well as size tunability and device integration. In addition, the size of α-HL restricts its application to translocations of single-stranded polynucleotides (ssDNA and ssRNA). This research project focused on developing a SS-nanopore platform for biomarker detection, based on differentiating ssDNA and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at the single-molecule scale. Reported dsDNA translocation measurements result in an average residence time of ~ 30 ns/bp, so the temporal resolution required for detection of small DNA duplexes can exceed available bandwidth limitations. To address this issue, several system parameters were explored in order to slow down translocation speed, thereby increasing temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. These parameters included: applied voltage, pH, pore geometry, DNA binding agents, salt composition and concentration, and temperature. Experimental findings showed that SS-nanopores can be precisely fabricated using a controlled helium ion milling technique, acidic conditions cause DNA depurination that results in slower translocation durations, and single-stranded binding proteins (SSBs) bind preferentially to ssDNA, forming complexes with distinct translocation characteristics that permit large (> 7 kb) ds- and ssDNA to be effectively distinguished. Together, these data show that SS-nanopores can serve as a tool to electronically detect the presence and relative concentration of target DNA molecules with ultrahigh sensitivity, thus demonstrating their potential utility as a biomarker discovery platform in both biomedical and environmental applications

The position of women in the administration of physical education units in selected four-year, public colleges and universities

The purpose of the study was to determine the position of women administrators of physical education units in large and very large universities throughout the United States having undergraduate and graduate professional preparation and general college programs in physical education. A total of 199 institutions of higher education meeting the criteria for inclusion in the study were recipients of the survey instrument. Ninety-eight respondents provided usable returns. The data collected for this investigation were of a descriptive nature. The quantitative segment of the data was analyzed utilizing appropriate numbers, percentages, tables, and graphs

The influence of managing a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) forest for biofuels production via switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) intercropping and woody debris removal on rodents

The abundance and distribution of wildlife communities can be influenced by many factors including resources, competitors, predators and parasites, and climate. Changes to managed forest understory composition and structure may affect ecologically important rodent communities. Furthermore, diversity of rodent communities can correlate with vertebrate biodiversity across a diverse range of ecosystem types. To help meet demands for renewable sources of energy, biofuel feedstock production options include intercropping switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) within intensively managed loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stands, and removal of residual woody debris. The objective of my study was to experimentally examine rodent responses to these options. I surveyed rodent populations using mark-recapture techniques to determine their responses to pine and switchgrass intercropping and residual woody debris removal. For 6 months in 2009, and 5 months in 2010, we captured rodents on experimental plots within newly established pine plantations that were subjected to five different treatments that involve biomass removal. Habitat measurements conducted in 2010 on percent cover and height of habitat types reflected differences among the 5 treatments as indicated by a significant interaction of habitat type (i.e. grass, pine, etc.) among biomass removal options and across sampling dates from April to October. This interaction indicates the preparation of the study plots created habitats that differed in structure. Rodent community diversity metrics including species richness, Shannon Diversity index, and Fisher's á index were not influenced by biomass removal options in either 2009 or 2010. In 2009, treatments did not influence the abundance of any species. However, there was a trend for house mice (Mus musculus) and hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) adults to be more abundant in habitats with switchgrass. In 2010, treatments significantly influenced the abundance of the number of unique individuals and total captures of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), M. musculus, and S. hispidus of. During the second year of study, P. leucopus adults showed highest abundance in non-switchgrass habitats, intermediate abundance in pine and switchgrass intercropped habitats, and lowest abundance in switchgrass only habitats. Additionally, P. leucopus juveniles showed a trend to be more abundant in habitats without switchgrass, suggesting differences were a result of P. leucopus reproduction in these habitats. M. musculus abundance was highest in switchgrass only habitats, intermediate in pine and switchgrass intercropped habitats, and lowest in habitats without switchgrass. Mus musculus juveniles showed a trend for higher abundance in habitats with switchgrass suggesting differences were a result of M. musculus reproduction. Abundance of S. hispidus tended to be higher in habitats with pine and switchgrass intercropped than habitats without switchgrass and habitats with only switchgrass. Juvenile abundance of S. hispidus did not differ among biomass removal options, suggesting all habitats in this study provided similar resources for S. hispidus reproduction. My results suggest residual woody debris removal has no influence on rodent population abundance, incorporation of switchgrass intercropping has an intermediate influence on rodent population abundance, and planting only switchgrass has a significant influence rodent population abundance. Switchgrass habitats supported higher abundance of the invasive M. musculus, and lower abundance of the native P. leucopus than habitats without switchgrass. Thus, forest managers may want to consider introducing switchgrass exclusively to interior forest stands, that are far from potential M. musculus source populations (e.g., agricultural fields and residential buildings. This strategy could also benefit native species that avoid switchgrass, such as P. leucopus, by providing refuge areas devoid of switchgrass in exterior stands. A better understanding of rodent responses to forest management will be beneficial in maintaining biodiversity and the sustained use of the services provided by forest habitats

The genetics of thermal plasticity in Plantago lanceolata

Phenotypic plasticity, an individual’s phenotypic response to environmental change, is a fundamental characteristic of all life on earth that plays a central role in adaptation, phenotypic differentiation, and speciation. Temperature-sensitive phenotypic plasticity, i.e. thermal plasticity, often increases with latitude, suggesting an increasingly adaptive role of thermal plasticity in predominantly cool, thermally variable environments. While the hypothesis is reasonable, it has not been thoroughly tested. Demonstrating local adaptation of thermal plasticity requires showing that: 1) thermal plasticity increases fitness in high latitude environments, 2) clinal variation arises from natural selection, and not by chance alone, 3) differences in thermal plasticity persist in the presence of gene flow, 4) thermal plasticity has a genetic basis and varies genetically along a latitudinal gradient, 5) thermal plasticity is heritable, and 6) thermal plasticity is a derived phylogenetic character. Today, little is known about the genetic properties of thermal plasticity. I took advantage of natural geographic variation in a widespread perennial herb, Plantago lanceolata to improve our understanding of adaptation along latitudinal clines by examining the genetic features of thermal plasticity. With genetic data I address the questions: 1) Is clinal variation in thermal plasticity best explained by natural selection driven by environmental differences among populations, neutral genetic evolution, or both? 2) What is the genetic architecture of thermal plasticity and single-environment trait variation, and how are they related? 3) Do genetic properties of thermal plasticity mirror phenotypic patterns along a latitudinal gradient? Among 14 European populations of Plantago lanceolata I estimated differentiation in temperature-sensitive floral reflectance plasticity (QST/PST), neutral genetic differentiation (FST & Jost’s D) of AFLP markers, and between-population differences in aspects of the reproductive environment. I used phenotypic QST (PST) vs. FST comparisons to investigate the evolutionary forces responsible for geographic patterns of thermal plasticity, and to determine if differences brought about by neutral evolutionary forces are sufficient to explain these patterns. My data supported the hypothesis that natural selection, driven by environmental properties of the reproductive season, particularly the duration and proportion of time at cool temperatures, has contributed to geographic patterns of thermal plasticity. As between-population differences in these environmental variables increased, differences in thermal plasticity increased more quickly than did neutral genetic differences. To determine the genetic architecture of thermal plasticity I produced an F2 mapping family from parents derived from distant northern and southern European populations that exhibited high (northern parents) and low (southern parents) thermal plasticities of floral reflectance. I then grew parents and offspring in two environments (cool and warm) mimicking what plants would encounter in nature. I attained genetic markers via genotype-by-sequencing (ddRADseq), produced a recombination map and performed QTL mapping of thermal plasticity and single-environment trait values for six traits: floral reflectance, flowering time, rosette diameter, leaf length, leaf fresh mass, and leaf area. My data provides critical genetic support for the hypothesis temperature-sensitive floral reflectance plasticity in P. lanceolata is adaptive in high latitude environments where growing seasons are cool and short. My data confirms thermal plasticity in P. lanceolata has a genetic basis as I found one single QTL underlying the thermal plasticities of three traits, floral reflectance, flowering time and leaf length. Floral reflectance plasticity and flowering time plasticity QTLs colocalized with, and shared phenotypic effects with corresponding single environment QTLs. The leaf length plasticity QTL did not colocalize with any single-environment QTLs, and was influenced by cytoplasm. I did not find evidence plasticity QTLs of different traits were pleiotropic. Additionally, genotypic differences at plasticity QTLs paralleled patterns of plasticity along latitudinal clines. At plasticity QTLs northern genotypes (Danish and Swedish) increased the magnitude of thermal plasticity, while southern genotypes (French and Italian) decreased plasticity