A master's thesis consisting of a proposed acting project: Starbuck in The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash and an analysis of a performed major role: John in Judith by Jean Giraudoux

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston Universit

Binge Eating Disorder Mediates Links between Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety and Caloric Intake in Obese Women

Despite considerable comorbidity between mood disorders, binge eating disorder (BED), and obesity, the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine models by which internalizing behaviors of depression and anxiety influence food intake in overweight/obese women. Thirty-two women (15 BED, 17 controls) participated in a laboratory eating-episode and completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Path analysis was used to test mediation and moderation models to determine the mechanisms by which internalizing symptoms influenced kilocalorie (kcal) intake. The BED group endorsed significantly more symptoms of depression (10.1 versus 4.8, P=0.005 ) and anxiety (8.5 versus 2.7, P=0.003). Linear regression indicated that BED diagnosis and internalizing symptoms accounted for 30% of the variance in kcal intake. Results from path analysis suggested that BED mediates the influence of internalizing symptoms on total kcal intake. The associations between internalizing symptoms and food intake are best described as operating indirectly through a BED diagnosis. This suggests that symptoms of depression and anxiety influence whether one engages in binge eating, which influences kcal intake. Greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying the associations between mood, binge eating, and food intake will facilitate the development of more effective prevention and treatment strategies for both BED and obesity

The Reproductive Biology of Spotted Seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, Along the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, were collected from the barrier islands, Biloxi Bay and St. Louis Bay areas along the Mississippi Gulf Coast during April-Sep. 1998 and March-Sep. 1999. Female spotted seatrout reached 50% sexual maturity at 230 mm standard length (SL) (age 1), and 80% of age-1 spotted seatrout captured were sexually mature. Spotted seatrout have a 5-mo spawning season in Mississippi, ranging from mid-April to mid-Sep., although the onset of the season may vary annually depending on temperature. Histological analysis showed spotted seatrout are capable of spawning multiple times throughout the reproductive season, and batch fecundity was estimated from 51 fish undergoing final oocyte maturation (FOM). Batch fecundity (BF) was significantly (P \u3c 0.001) positively related to SL and ovary-free body weight (OFBW); the equation best describing the BF-size relationship was BF = (554.2·SL) - 88,398 (r2 = 0.25). Relative BF was significantly different among months (P = 0.041), with June values higher than those in Aug. Overall, mean relative BF was 165.7 ± 13.9 eggs/g OFBW. The FOM and postovulatory follicle methods gave similar estimates of overall spawning frequency of once every 4-5 d. However, there were significant differences (P \u3c 0.001) in spawning frequency among areas; spotted seatrout from the barrier islands and St. Louis Bay areas spawned more frequently (mean, every 4 d) than fish from Biloxi Bay area (mean, every 15-18 d). Salinity, depth, and submerged habitat are not different among the areas, but there is greater shoreline development in the Biloxi Bay area. Differences in the reproduction of spotted seatrout among estuaries need to be considered when developing regional management plans for the species

COSMOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF QUASARS

Quasars are the earliest objects known to exist. We examine their origin in the context of popular models for structure formation in the universe. We show that seeds for quasar black holes could have originated from the initial cosmological collapse of overdense regions with unusually small rotation. Most of these seeds have a mass of order 10^6 solar masses, just above the cosmological Jeans mass. For Cold Dark Matter cosmologies, we find of order one seed black hole per bright galaxy. After the galaxy forms, the seeds inside its bulge sink to the center by dynamical friction. We also describe a few empirical methods to study the properties of quasars and their environments. These include: probing quasar hosts through [C II] emission, finding quasar lifetimes from the ``proximity effect'' along two lines of sight, and measuring the amplitude of clustering at high redshifts through the detection of Lyman-alpha clouds beyond the quasar redshift.Comment: 5 pages, Standard Tex, contribution to the Texas symposium in Munich, Dec. 1994

Comparisons and Trends in White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus, Body Fat in Northeastern Minnesota, 1974-1990

The relationships among locations of body fats have not been thoroughly examined in White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus). We measured bone marrow fat (n = 2995), back fat (n = 1018), kidney fat (n = 2076), and xiphoid fat (n = 1246) levels of White-tailed Deer kills from Cook and Lake counties in northeastern Minnesota during 1974-1990. For each dead deer we determined age, sex, date, and causes of mortality. All of the fat measures were correlated to varying degrees. Generally all fat measurements peaked in late autumn and subsequently began declining and reached their lowest levels in May. Fat content was negatively correlated with winter severity. Causes of mortality included predation, poaching, accidental, unknown, and auto-collisions. Predated animals had lower bone marrow (-7.42 ± 3.92) and 0.165 ± 2.30 times lower back fat and had higher amounts of kidney fat than those killed by vehicles (0.86 ± 0.43)

A revolute joint with linear load-displacement response for a deployable lidar telescope

NASA Langley Research Center is developing concepts for an advanced spacecraft, called LidarTechSat, to demonstrate key structures and mechanisms technologies necessary to deploy a segmented telescope reflector. Achieving micron-accuracy deployment requires significant advancements in deployment mechanism design, such as the revolute joint presented herein. The joint exhibits load-cycling response that is essentially linear with less than 2% hysteresis, and the joint rotates with less than 7 mN-m (1 in-oz) of resistance. A prototype reflector metering truss incorporating the joint exhibits only a few microns of kinematic error under repected deployment and impulse loading. No other mechanically deployment structure found in the literature has been demonstrated to be this kinematically accurate