Grasping Glamour

This review essay reviews: The Glamour System, by Stephen Gundle and Clino T. Castelli; Glamour: A History, by Stephen Gundle; Glamour in Six Dimensions: Modernism and the Radiance of Form, by Judith Brown; Glamour: Women, History, Feminism, by Carol Dyhouse

Performing Lena: Race, Representation, and the Postwar Autobiographical Performances of Lena Horne

As a hypervisible black woman, whose overdetermined image was evoked by blacks and whites to represent racialized political interests on both sides of the color line throughout the long civil rights era, singer–actress Lena Horne was burdened with the requirement to perform blackness. In this dissertation, I explore Horne’s attempts to negotiate these performance expectations during the postwar, McCarthy, and civil rights eras. I contend that Horne self–fashioned a series of politicized black female personas that negotiated, challenged, and appropriated, with varied and often conflicting results, her Hollywood–manufactured glamour girl image in an effort to talk back to the dominant society and talk to her black audiences. Moreover, I argue that Horne’s autobiographical performances of politicized blackness reflect and shape the changing, always contested, definitions of black “authenticity” and radical protest politics between 1945 and 1965

SURVEYING FOR RANAVIRUS IN GREEN FROGS (LITHOBATES CLAMITANS) AT FIVE LOCATIONS IN INDIANA

Ranaviruses are an emerging pathogen within the United States that infects amphibians, reptiles, and fish. A Frog Virus 3-like (FV3) ranavirus has been detected at only two locations in Indiana; however, there have been few attempts to broadly sample for ranaviruses to determine their distribution across the state. This knowledge is necessary for the continued management and conservation of native amphibian populations. Our objective was to assess the occurrence of FV3-like ranaviruses in larval Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) populations at five sites located in different regions of Indiana. Tissue samples were collected from 166 individuals and were assayed using both conventional and qPCR methods. We did not detect the presence of any FV3-like ranaviruses at any of the five sites with either PCR method, suggesting the possibility that at these sites, FV3-like ranaviruses may not be present. However, continued sampling should be carried out to monitor the status of the presence of ranaviruses in this portion of the Midwest

Investigation of the behavior of ventilated supercavities

The topic of supercavitation is of considerable interest to drag reduction and/or speed augmentation in marine vehicles. Supercavitating vehicles need to be supplied with an artificial cavity through ventilation until they accelerate to conditions at which a natural supercavity can be sustained. A study has been carried out in the high-speed water tunnel at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory to investigate some aspects of the flow physics of such a supercavitating vehicle. During the present experimental work, the ventilated supercavity formed behind a sharp-edged disk was investigated utilizing several different configurations. Results regarding cavity shape, cavity closure and ventilation requirements versus cavitation number and Froude number are presented. Additionally, effects related to flow choking in a water tunnel test section are discussed. Results obtained are similar in character to previously reported results, but differ significantly in measured values. Cavity shape, particularly aft of the maximum cavity diameter, is found to be a strong function of the model support scheme chosen.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84292/1/CAV2009-final111.pd

Effects of surface characteristics on hydrofoil cavitation

This was an exploratory research project aimed at capitalizing on our recent research experience with unsteady partially cavitating flows. Earlier work identified the significant and unexpected effect of surface properties and water quality on the dynamics of these flows. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of using hydrophobic surfaces to control or minimize unwanted vibration and unstable operation in the partially cavitating regime. A candidate shape, denoted as the Cav2003 hydrofoil, was selected on the basis of theoretical analysis for a given range of contact angle. We manufactured three hydrofoils of identical cross section, but different surface characteristics. Three different surfaces were studied: anodized aluminium (hydrophilic), Teflon (hydrophobic), and highly polished stainless steel (hydrophobic). Contact angle was measured with a photographic technique developed by three of the undergraduates working on the project. Studies were made in both weak and strong water. Significant surface effects were found, but were unexpected in the sense that they did not correlate with measured contact angles.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84293/1/CAV2009-final112.pd

Injustice perceptions about pain: parent–child discordance is associated with worse functional outcomes

Pain is experienced within and influenced by social environments. For children with chronic pain, the child–parent relationship and parental beliefs about pain are particularly important and may influence pain outcomes. Pain-related injustice perceptions have recently been identified as an important cognitive–emotional factor for children with pain. The current study aimed to better understand the pain-related injustice perceptions of children with chronic pain and their parents. The sample consisted of 253 pediatric chronic pain patients (mean age = 14.1 years, 74% female) presenting to a tertiary pain clinic. Patients completed measures of pain intensity, pain-related injustice perceptions, stress, functional disability, and quality of life. Parents completed a measure of pain-related injustice perceptions about their child's pain. Child–parent dyads were categorized into 1 of 4 categories based on the degree of concordance or discordance between their scores on the injustice measures. One-way analysis of variances examined differences in pain intensity, stress, functional disability, and quality of life across the 4 dyad categories. Our findings indicated that both the degree (concordant vs discordant) and direction (discordant low child–high parent vs discordant high child–low parent) of similarity between child and parent injustice perceptions were associated with child-reported pain intensity, stress, functional disability, and quality of life. The poorest outcomes were reported when children considered their pain as highly unjust, but their parents did not. These findings highlight the important role of parents in the context of pain-related injustice perceptions in pediatric chronic pain

What Would the Nautilus Say? Unleashing Creativity in Mathematics!

While the nautilus shell is often represented in popular culture as an example of a golden spiral, according to many mathematicians it is not. In this paper we examine multiple arguments for and against considering the nautilus as a “golden” spiral and offer a semi-structured task that is accessible to middle school students and beyond to begin their own investigation. Our hope is that asking, what would the nautilus say, can serve as a starting point for children and adults alike to push against the walls we so often draw around mathematical questions and begin to see where their creativity takes them as they venture outside of the maths box

Mutational Analysis of the Rotavirus NSP4 Enterotoxic Domain that Binds to Caveolin-1

Background: Rotavirus (RV) nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) is the first described viral enterotoxin, which induces early secretory diarrhea in neonatal rodents. Our previous data show a direct interaction between RV NSP4 and the structural protein of caveolae, caveolin-1 (cav-1), in yeast and mammalian cells. The binding site of cav-1 mapped to the NSP4 amphipathic helix, and led us to examine which helical face was responsible for the interaction. Methods: A panel of NSP4 mutants were prepared and tested for binding to cav-1 by yeast two hybrid and direct binding assays. The charged residues of the NSP4 amphipathic helix were changed to alanine (NSP446-175-ala6); and three residues in the hydrophobic face were altered to charged amino acids (NSP446-175-HydroMut). In total, twelve mutants of NSP4 were generated to define the cav-1 binding site. Synthetic peptides corresponding to the hydrophobic and charged faces of NSP4 were examined for structural changes by circular dichroism (CD) and diarrhea induction by a neonatal mouse study. Results: Mutations of the hydrophilic face (NSP446-175-Ala6) bound cav-1 akin to wild type NSP4. In contrast, disruption of the hydrophobic face (NSP446-175-HydroMut) failed to bind cav-1. These data suggest NSP4 and cav-1 associate via a hydrophobic interaction. Analyses of mutant synthetic peptides in which the hydrophobic residues in the enterotoxic domain of NSP4 were altered suggested a critical hydrophobic residue. Both NSP4HydroMut112-140, that contains three charged amino acids (aa113, 124, 131) changed from the original hydrophobic residues and NSP4AlaAcidic112-140 that contained three alanine residues substituted for negatively charged (aa114, 125, 132) amino acids failed to induce diarrhea. Whereas peptides NSP4wild type 112 −140 and NSP4AlaBasic112-140 that contained three alanine substituted for positively charged (aa115, 119, 133) amino acids, induced diarrhea. Conclusions: These data show that the cav-1 binding domain is within the hydrophobic face of the NSP4 amphipathic helix. The integrity of the helical structure is important for both cav-1 binding and diarrhea induction implying a connection between NSP4 functional and binding activities