Connecting Urban Students with their Rivers Generates Interest and Skills in the Geosciences

This article provides an overview of two different enrichment programs for urban high school students from the Greater Hartford Area of Connecticut that were conducted during the summer of 2002. They were designed to expose students entering the tenth grade to Earth Science as a problem solving science in a challenging and supportive atmosphere. This was done by focusing on understanding watersheds and water quality using primarily chemical techniques on samples collected from the Connecticut River and adjacent waters. The students worked in groups of one to three and student-faculty ratios that did not exceed three to one provided close supervision and individual attention. The majority of the students indicated that the programs were a positive experience and that they developed a greater appreciation for the science and would recommend these programs to other students. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

'The undiluted squash of UK math rock': the performer's view of ArcTanGent festival

In its promotional materials ArcTanGent describes itself as ‘the world’s ultimate music festival for the alternative of the alternative.’ August 2017 saw the festival sell out its fifth instalment, attracting five thousand attendees to a farm south of Bristol. Its competitive booking of internationally-recognised acts makes ArcTanGent an unmissable event for fans of math, post, and noise rock, many of whom play in bands and aspire to perform at the festival themselves. In the case of the largely DIY UK math rock scene, this aspiration derives in part from ArcTanGent’s assumption of congressional status among members. Not only does it provide a platform for lesser known bands to promote themselves to an engaged audience, it also presents an opportunity for scene stakeholders from around the country to interact socially and strengthen networks. This article draws upon multiple interviews, primarily with three bands on ArcTanGent’s 2017 line-up, to provide an overview of the ways in which it is perceived by performers within the UK math rock scene. The findings of these interviews expose similarities, but also some notable differences, in each subject’s experience of the festival: the excitement and positivity of ‘novice’ bands contrasts with the limitations and sense of routine felt by ‘veterans.’ The bands’ levels of engagement with the event also serve to demonstrate that in its short period of existence ArcTanGent has become an important pillar in the structure of this underground scene, leading to a sense of community developing among participants. However, in comparing the festival with the everyday there is recognition among bands that it presents a ‘falsified sense’ of their popularity, posing the question of whether ArcTanGent has done more harm than good to the commercial progression of the UK math rock scene; an argument which is currently being played out in the scene’s blogosphere

God Wills It: Presidents and the Political Use of Religion

How have American presidents used religious rhetoric? Has it helped them achieve their goals? Why or why not? These are the main questions this dissertation attempts to grapple with. I begin my study by developing a typology of presidential religious rhetoric that consists of three basic styles of speech. Ceremonial religious rhetoric is meant to capture those times when a president uses religious language in a broad sense that is appropriate for the occasion. Examples would include holiday addresses and funeral eulogies. I label a second variant of religious rhetoric comforting and calming. A president will frequently use religious rhetoric as he tries to shepherd the country through the difficult aftermath of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster or a riot. The final kind I have called instrumental. A president uses instrumental religious rhetoric when he makes an argument founded on religious concepts or beliefs in an attempt to convince interested parties to support a goal of his, such as passing a piece of legislation. The majority of the project focuses on this last type. I propose a strict set of coding rules for both identifying when instrumental religious rhetoric has appeared and for gauging its possible impact. My measures of potential effectiveness focus on the president's three most important relationships- his relationship with the public, his relationship with the media and his relationship with Congress. The eight case study chapters include analyses of Eisenhower's calls for increased mutual security funding, Carter's rhetoric describing his energy policies and Clinton's rhetoric about the impeachment proceedings against him, among others. The limited number of case studies immediately yields an interesting finding: it turns out that presidents do not often make consistent religious arguments for their governmental objectives. Further, when instrumental religious rhetoric is used, presidents limit themselves to discussing certain issues where religion might be said to be naturally applicable- questions of national security, civil rights and scandal. As it is, two presidents, Truman and Nixon, never used a religious rhetorical strategy at all. Indeed, it appears that whether due to personal taste or political complications, almost all presidents are quite uncomfortable using instrumental religious rhetoric. Therefore, a crisis is shown to be a necessary condition for a president to engage in religious speechifying. The existence of a crisis seems to be needed to force many a president to overcome his reluctance to drape his goals in religious rhetoric. The main finding of this dissertation, however, is that instrumental religious rhetoric is not very helpful to a goal-oriented president. In nearly every case, public opinion does not respond to the president's religious pleas, the media reacts critically to both his ideas and his language and the reception of his proposals in Congress disappoints. This surprising conclusion displaces the results of earlier major studies of presidential religious rhetoric that claimed such language had a powerful force to it. A final experiment was designed to explore the causal dynamics behind the findings of the case studies. Why does religious rhetoric fail? Is it because it is simply unpersuasive? Or, rather, is the explanation found in the context (i.e. crisis situations) in which such rhetoric has appeared? The experiment was designed to decide between these two competing hypotheses. Student participants were given sample speeches containing either religious or secular arguments for a political goal. Treatments were designed to accurately mimic where and how religious rhetoric has historically been used. Results support the former interpretation; exposure to a religious policy argument has no effect on an individual's opinion. Exposure to secular rhetoric is slightly more impactful but, regardless, ideology and partisan affiliation are far more important than either type when it comes to explaining opinions. The religious dimensions of presidential leadership have been a constant throughout history, becoming even more visible in the post-war period. This dissertation greatly furthers our understanding of this important subject. It is valuable for anyone interested in either the challenges of presidential power or in the role that religion plays in contemporary American politics

The use of unsecured debt in REITs

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-56).by Michael J. O'Connell.M.S

Disabling Consent, or Reconstructing Sexual Autonomy

Does a right to sexual autonomy criminalize the embellished pick-up line? Or does a right to sexual autonomy permit each and every consensual sex act, however life- threatening, or even life-ending? This Article defends (by reconstructing) sexual autonomy as the governing principle of modern rape law. Powerful criticisms of sexual autonomy otherwise normatively opposed share an antecedent assumption: that sexual autonomy can be read off and as first person present active (or passive) consent (Part I). This Article argues against the conflation of sexual autonomy with sexual consent. Instead, and in conversation with competing liberal and feminist political theoretic accounts of sexual autonomy, this Article defines sexual autonomy as the capability to codetermine sexual relations (Part II). By interfacing a revised concept of sexual autonomy against and alongside State v. Fourtin, a 2012 Connecticut Supreme Court decision overturning a conviction of sexual assault against a severely mentally and physically disabled woman (Part III), the Article proposes three possibilities for statutory reform: refurbishing consent; expanding restrictions on status relations; and applying an accommodation model of disability entitlements to sexual relations (Part IV). After synopsizing our interventions, the Conclusion reminds readers that our brief for sexual autonomy, relationally reconstructed, presumes and propounds the ordinariness, not the extraordinariness, of sex

Estrogen and progesterone induce persistent increases in p53-dependent apoptosis and suppress mammary tumors in BALB/c-Trp53+/- mice

INTRODUCTION Treatment with estrogen and progesterone (E+P) mimics the protective effect of parity on mammary tumors in rodents and depends upon the activity of p53. The following experiments tested whether exogenous E+P primes p53 to be more responsive to DNA damage and whether these pathways confer resistance to mammary tumors in a mouse model of Li-Fraumeni syndrome. METHODS Mice that differ in p53 status (Trp53+/+, Trp53+/-, Trp53-/-) were treated with E+P for 14 days and then were tested for p53-dependent responses to ionizing radiation. Responses were also examined in parous and age-matched virgins. The effects of hormonal exposures on tumor incidence were examined in BALB/c-Trp53+/- mammary tissues. RESULTS Nuclear accumulation of p53 and apoptotic responses were increased similarly in the mammary epithelium from E+P-treated and parous mice compared with placebo and age-matched virgins. This effect was sustained for at least 7 weeks after E+P treatment and did not depend on the continued presence of ovarian hormones. Hormone stimulation also enhanced apoptotic responses to ionizing radiation in BALB/c-Trp53+/- mice but these responses were intermediate compared with Trp53+/+ and Trp-/- tissues, indicating haploinsufficiency. The appearance of spontaneous mammary tumors was delayed by parity in BALB/c-Trp53+/- mice. The majority of tumors lacked estrogen receptor (ER), but ER+ tumors were observed in both nulliparous and parous mice. However, apoptotic responses to ionizing radiation and tumor incidence did not differ among outgrowths of epithelial transplants from E+P-treated donors and nulliparous donors. CONCLUSION Therefore, E+P and parity confer a sustained increase in p53-mediated apoptosis within the mammary epithelium and suppress mammary tumorigenesis, but this effect was not retained in epithelial outgrowths.This work was supported by grants from the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (W81XWH0410385 to KAD and DAMD17-01-1-0315 to ACB) and the National Institutes of Health (RO1-CA095164 to DJJ)

'The undiluted squash of UK math rock': the performer's view of ArcTanGent festival

In its promotional materials ArcTanGent describes itself as ‘the world’s ultimate music festival for the alternative of the alternative.’ August 2017 saw the festival sell out its fifth instalment, attracting five thousand attendees to a farm south of Bristol. Its competitive booking of internationally-recognised acts makes ArcTanGent an unmissable event for fans of math, post, and noise rock, many of whom play in bands and aspire to perform at the festival themselves. In the case of the largely DIY UK math rock scene, this aspiration derives in part from ArcTanGent’s assumption of congressional status among members. Not only does it provide a platform for lesser known bands to promote themselves to an engaged audience, it also presents an opportunity for scene stakeholders from around the country to interact socially and strengthen networks. This article draws upon multiple interviews, primarily with three bands on ArcTanGent’s 2017 line-up, to provide an overview of the ways in which it is perceived by performers within the UK math rock scene. The findings of these interviews expose similarities, but also some notable differences, in each subject’s experience of the festival: the excitement and positivity of ‘novice’ bands contrasts with the limitations and sense of routine felt by ‘veterans.’ The bands’ levels of engagement with the event also serve to demonstrate that in its short period of existence ArcTanGent has become an important pillar in the structure of this underground scene, leading to a sense of community developing among participants. However, in comparing the festival with the everyday there is recognition among bands that it presents a ‘falsified sense’ of their popularity, posing the question of whether ArcTanGent has done more harm than good to the commercial progression of the UK math rock scene; an argument which is currently being played out in the scene’s blogosphere

Organic functionalisation, doping and characterisation of semiconductor surfaces for future CMOS device applications

Organic Functionalisation, Doping and Characterisation of Semiconductor Surfaces for Future CMOS Device Applications Semiconductor materials have long been the driving force for the advancement of technology since their inception in the mid-20th century. Traditionally, micro-electronic devices based upon these materials have scaled down in size and doubled in transistor density in accordance with the well-known Moore’s law, enabling consumer products with outstanding computational power at lower costs and with smaller footprints. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), the scaling of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is proceeding at a rapid pace and will reach sub-10 nm dimensions in the coming years. This scaling presents many challenges, not only in terms of metrology but also in terms of the material preparation especially with respect to doping, leading to the moniker “More-than-Moore”. Current transistor technologies are based on the use of semiconductor junctions formed by the introduction of dopant atoms into the material using various methodologies and at device sizes below 10 nm, high concentration gradients become a necessity. Doping, the controlled and purposeful addition of impurities to a semiconductor, is one of the most important steps in the material preparation with uniform and confined doping to form ultra-shallow junctions at source and drain extension regions being one of the key enablers for the continued scaling of devices. Monolayer doping has shown promise to satisfy the need to conformally dope at such small feature sizes. Monolayer doping (MLD) has been shown to satisfy the requirements for extended defect-free, conformal and controllable doping on many materials ranging from the traditional silicon and germanium devices to emerging replacement materials such as III-V compounds This thesis aims to investigate the potential of monolayer doping to complement or replace conventional doping technologies currently in use in CMOS fabrication facilities across the world