PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, 1865-1867

Reconstruction, with some justification, has often been viewed historically in black and white. Historians have long viewed the postwar struggle as one between racially united white southerners and their former slaves. Recent state and regional studies of the South , however, have raised new issues regarding the Presidential Reconstruction experience throughout the former Confederacy. A variety of historical forces including race, class , and wartime loyalties, shaped Presidential Reconstruction in western North Carolina. Reconstruction was only partially the story of African Americans' transition to freedom. Throughout the South, different groups of whites also fought one another for political and social superiority. In western North Carolina, this conflict largely derived from wartime class tensions. Forced to sacrifice their men,agricultural produce, and more to the Confederate cause, poorer whites resented their wealthier neighbors, who appeared to escape such sacrifices. Such tensions were prevalent in western North Carolina where independent small landholders dominated the population. Following the war, those tensions would help shape the political and social struggle between mountain whites during Presidential Reconstruction . This thesis explores how western North Carolinians responded to the Civil War's consequences. Who would rule following the war? How did the former slave owning class reestablish its political power? What would be African Americans' role in a mountain society without slavery? How did whites and blacks define African Americans' freedom? Race alone can not answer these questions. Western North Carolina's black population, roughly thirteen percent of the total, was simply too small to dominate Presidential Reconstruction. Rather the immediate postwar years in western North Carolina can only be understood within a cross-current of forces (race, class, and wartime loyalties) acting concurrently

Chimera Grid Tools

Chimera Grid Tools (CGT) is a software package for performing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis utilizing the Chimera-overset-grid method. For modeling flows with viscosity about geometrically complex bodies in relative motion, the Chimera-overset-grid method is among the most computationally cost-effective methods for obtaining accurate aerodynamic results. CGT contains a large collection of tools for generating overset grids, preparing inputs for computer programs that solve equations of flow on the grids, and post-processing of flow-solution data. The tools in CGT include grid editing tools, surface-grid-generation tools, volume-grid-generation tools, utility scripts, configuration scripts, and tools for post-processing (including generation of animated images of flows and calculating forces and moments exerted on affected bodies). One of the tools, denoted OVERGRID, is a graphical user interface (GUI) that serves to visualize the grids and flow solutions and provides central access to many other tools. The GUI facilitates the generation of grids for a new flow-field configuration. Scripts that follow the grid generation process can then be constructed to mostly automate grid generation for similar configurations. CGT is designed for use in conjunction with a computer-aided-design program that provides the geometry description of the bodies, and a flow-solver program

Some inequalities for the Tutte polynomial

We prove that the Tutte polynomial of a coloopless paving matroid is convex along the portions of the line segments x+y=p lying in the positive quadrant. Every coloopless paving matroids is in the class of matroids which contain two disjoint bases or whose ground set is the union of two bases of M*. For this latter class we give a proof that T_M(a,a) <= max {T_M(2a,0), T_M(0,2a)} for a >= 2. We conjecture that T_M(1,1) <= max {T_M(2,0), T_M(0,2)} for the same class of matroids. We also prove this conjecture for some families of graphs and matroids.Comment: 17 page

The Prevalence of Bacterial Infection in Patients Undergoing Elective ACDF for Degenerative Cervical Spine Conditions: A Prospective Cohort Study With Contaminant Control

Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of bacterial infection, with the use of a contaminant control, in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). Methods: After institutional review board approval, patients undergoing elective ACDF were prospectively enrolled. Samples of the longus colli muscle and disc tissue were obtained. The tissue was then homogenized, gram stained, and cultured in both aerobic and anaerobic medium. Patients were classified into 4 groups depending on culture results. Demographic, preoperative, and postoperative factors were evaluated. Results: Ninety-six patients were enrolled, 41.7% were males with an average age of 54 ± 11 years and a body mass index of 29.7 ± 5.9 kg/m2. Seventeen patients (17.7%) were considered true positives, having a negative control and positive disc culture. Otherwise, no significant differences in culture positivity was found between groups of patients. However, our results show that patients were more likely to have both control and disc negative than being a true positive (odds ratio = 6.2, 95% confidence interval = 2.5-14.6). Propionibacterium acnes was the most commonly identified bacteria. Two patients with disc positive cultures returned to the operating room secondary to pseudarthrosis; however, age, body mass index, prior spine surgery or injection, postoperative infection, and reoperations were not associated with culture results. Conclusion: In our cohort, the prevalence of subclinical bacterial infection in patients undergoing ACDF was 17.7%. While our rates exclude patients with positive contaminant control, the possibility of contamination of disc cultures could not be entirely rejected. Overall, culture results did not have any influence on postoperative outcomes

Investigating the impact of bisphosphonates and structurally related compounds on bacteria containing conjugative plasmids

Bacterial plasmids propagate through microbial populations via the directed process of conjugative plasmid transfer (CPT). Because conjugative plasmids often encode antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors, several approaches to inhibit CPT have been described. Bisphosphonates and structurally related compounds (BSRCs) were previously reported to disrupt conjugative transfer of the F (fertility) plasmid in E. coli. We have further investigated the effect of these compounds on the transfer of two additional conjugative plasmids, pCU1 and R100, between E. coli. The impact of BSRCs on E. coli survival and plasmid transfer was found to be dependent on the plasmid type, the length of time the E. coli were exposed to the compounds, and the ratio of plasmid donor to plasmid recipient cells. Therefore, these data indicate that BSRCs produce a range of effects on the conjugative transfer of bacterial plasmids in E. coli. Since their impact appears to be plasmid type-dependent, BSRCs are unlikely to be applicable as broad inhibitors of antibiotic resistance propagation

Pooled Deep Sequencing of Plasmodium falciparum Isolates: An Efficient and Scalable Tool to Quantify Prevailing Malaria Drug-Resistance Genotypes

Molecular surveillance for drug-resistant malaria parasites requires reliable, timely, and scalable methods. These data may be efficiently produced by genotyping parasite populations using second-generation sequencing (SGS). We designed and validated a SGS protocol to quantify mutant allele frequencies in the Plasmodium falciparum genes dhfr and dhps in mixed isolates. We applied this new protocol to field isolates from children and compared it to standard genotyping using Sanger sequencing. The SGS protocol accurately quantified dhfr and dhps allele frequencies in a mixture of parasite strains. Using SGS of DNA that was extracted and then pooled from individual isolates, we estimated mutant allele frequencies that were closely correlated to those estimated by Sanger sequencing (correlations, >0.98). The SGS protocol obviated most molecular steps in conventional methods and is cost saving for parasite populations >50. This SGS genotyping method efficiently and reproducibly estimates parasite allele frequencies within populations of P. falciparum for molecular epidemiologic studies

WARNING: Physics Envy May Be Hazardous To Your Wealth!

The quantitative aspirations of economists and financial analysts have for many years been based on the belief that it should be possible to build models of economic systems - and financial markets in particular - that are as predictive as those in physics. While this perspective has led to a number of important breakthroughs in economics, "physics envy" has also created a false sense of mathematical precision in some cases. We speculate on the origins of physics envy, and then describe an alternate perspective of economic behavior based on a new taxonomy of uncertainty. We illustrate the relevance of this taxonomy with two concrete examples: the classical harmonic oscillator with some new twists that make physics look more like economics, and a quantitative equity market-neutral strategy. We conclude by offering a new interpretation of tail events, proposing an "uncertainty checklist" with which our taxonomy can be implemented, and considering the role that quants played in the current financial crisis.Comment: v3 adds 2 reference

Pan-viral serology implicates enteroviruses in acute flaccid myelitis.

Since 2012, the United States of America has experienced a biennial spike in pediatric acute flaccid myelitis (AFM)1-6. Epidemiologic evidence suggests non-polio enteroviruses (EVs) are a potential etiology, yet EV RNA is rarely detected in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)2. CSF from children with AFM (n = 42) and other pediatric neurologic disease controls (n = 58) were investigated for intrathecal antiviral antibodies, using a phage display library expressing 481,966 overlapping peptides derived from all known vertebrate and arboviruses (VirScan). Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of AFM CSF RNA (n = 20 cases) was also performed, both unbiased sequencing and with targeted enrichment for EVs. Using VirScan, the viral family significantly enriched by the CSF of AFM cases relative to controls was Picornaviridae, with the most enriched Picornaviridae peptides belonging to the genus Enterovirus (n = 29/42 cases versus 4/58 controls). EV VP1 ELISA confirmed this finding (n = 22/26 cases versus 7/50 controls). mNGS did not detect additional EV RNA. Despite rare detection of EV RNA, pan-viral serology frequently identified high levels of CSF EV-specific antibodies in AFM compared with controls, providing further evidence for a causal role of non-polio EVs in AFM

Flowering margins support natural enemies between cropping seasons

IntroductionPopulations of natural enemies of insect pests are declining owing to agricultural intensification and indiscriminate use of pesticides, and this may be exacerbated in agricultural systems that clear all margin plants after the cropping season for other uses such as fodder. Retaining a diversity of non-crop flowering vegetation outside the cropping season may support more resilient and effective natural pest regulation.MethodsWe tested the potential for non-crop vegetation to support natural enemies in fields across two locations after harvesting the primary crops of lablab and maize.ResultsA total of 54 plant species were recorded across the sites in Kenya with 59% of them being annuals and 41% perennials. There was a significant seasonal variation in plant species richness (ANOVA: F1, 16 = 33. 45; P&lt; 0.0001) and diversity (ANOVA: F1, 16 = 7.20; P = 0.0511). While time since harvesting was a significant factor influencing the overall abundance of natural enemies (ANOVA: F2, 1,133 = 8.11; P&lt; 0.0001), they were generally higher in abundance in locations with margin plants or where a diversity of margin plants was observed.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that flowering plants in agricultural systems offer refuge and alternative food for natural enemies and potentially other beneficial insects between cropping seasons. The conservation of natural enemies between crops may lead to more effective natural pest regulation early in the following crop, thus reducing reliance on insecticides application