Plato, Gorgias, and Trickster: Seeking Rhetoric\u27s Muse

From an historical perspective, rhetoric is the premier Tricksterish art. Seeing this permits us to re-evaluate Plato\u27s role in the history of rhetoric and re-think current practices

Feeling It:Toward Style as Culturally Structured Intuition

I have been moved to write a serious article about teaching style not because I have great and earth-shaking method to impart, but in some sense because I do not, even after years of study—including the small bit of empirical research at the core of this article. Style, as it turns out, remains as difficult, complex, and ultimately intuitive as most of the rest of writing. I hope, ultimately, to encourage writing teachers to focus more attention on style, basing approaches on what we already know rather than waiting and hoping for some flawless system to materialize. Indeed, by the end of the article I advocate for quite adventurous approaches, well beyond what the original study had contemplated. After all, we should not hold style to any standard different from the standard to which we hold rhetoric itself. We should actively seek to teach style as a varied but essential aspect of thinking about writing rhetorically, knowing all the while that doing so presents problems as wicked as those we face in daring to teach audience, exigency, process, kairos, and the rest. Meanwhile, as in those areas, we can attend to giving ourselves the best available frame, the most useful suggestions. I hope to help with that much, at least

Operational issues involving use of supplementary cooling towers to meet stream temperature standards with application to the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

A mixed mode cooling system is one which operates in either the open, closed, or helper (once-through but with the use of the cooling towers) modes. Such systems may be particularly economical where the need for supplementary cooling to meet environmental constraints on induced water temperature changes is seasonal or dependent upon other transient factors such as stream- flow. The issues involved in the use of mixed mode systems include the design of the open cycle and closed cycle portions of the cooling system, the specification of the environmental standard to be met, and the monitoring system and associated decision rules used to determine when mode changes are necessary. These issues have been examined in the context of a case study of TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant which utilizes the large quantity of site specific data reflecting conditions both with and without plant operation. The most important findings of this study are: (1) The natural temperature differences in the Tennessee River are of the same order of magnitude (50F) as the maximum allowed induced temperature increase. (2) Predictive estimates based on local hydrological and meteorological data are capable of accounting for 40% of the observed natural variability. (3) Available algorithms for plant induced temperature increases provide estimates within 1F of observed values except during periods of strong stratification. (4) A mixed mode system experiences only 10% of the capacity losses experienced by a totally closed system, (5) The capacity loss is relatively more sensitive to the environmental standard than to changes in cooling system design. (6) About one third of the capacity loss incurred using the mixed mode system is the result of natural temperature variations. This unnecessary loss may be halved by the use of predictive estimates for natural temperature differences

Doxycycline-regulated gene expression in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

BACKGROUND: Although Aspergillus fumigatus is an important human fungal pathogen there are few expression systems available to study the contribution of specific genes to the growth and virulence of this opportunistic mould. Regulatable promoter systems based upon prokaryotic regulatory elements in the E. coli tetracycline-resistance operon have been successfully used to manipulate gene expression in several organisms, including mice, flies, plants, and yeast. However, the system has not yet been adapted for Aspergillus spp. RESULTS: Here we describe the construction of plasmid vectors that can be used to regulate gene expression in A. fumigatus using a simple co-transfection approach. Vectors were generated in which the tetracycline transactivator (tTA) or the reverse tetracycline transactivator (rtTA2(s)-M2) are controlled by the A. nidulans gpdA promoter. Dominant selectable cassettes were introduced into each plasmid, allowing for selection following gene transfer into A. fumigatus by incorporating phleomycin or hygromycin into the medium. To model an essential gene under tetracycline regulation, the E. coli hygromycin resistance gene, hph, was placed under the control of seven copies of the TetR binding site (tetO(7)) in a plasmid vector and co-transfected into A. fumigatus protoplasts together with one of the two transactivator plasmids. Since the hph gene is essential to A. fumigatus in the presence of hygromycin, resistance to hygromycin was used as a marker of hph reporter gene expression. Transformants were identified in which the expression of tTA conferred hygromycin resistance by activating expression of the tetO(7)-hph reporter gene, and the addition of doxycycline to the medium suppressed hygromycin resistance in a dose-dependent manner. Similarly, transformants were identified in which expression of rtTA2(s)-M2 conferred hygromycin resistance only in the presence of doxycycline. The levels of doxycycline required to regulate expression of the tetO(7)-hph reporter gene were within non-toxic ranges for this organism, and low-iron medium was shown to reduce the amount of doxycycline required to accomplish regulation. CONCLUSIONS: The vectors described in this report provide a new set of options to experimentally manipulate the level of specific gene products in A. fumigatu

Reviews

Reviews Anne E. Mullin. Teaching Writing Creatively. (David Starkey, Ed., 1998). Keith Rhodes. Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence. (Mark Lawrence McPhail, 1996). Ellen Davis. Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women. (Jane Hirshfield, Ed., 1994). Jean R. Trounstine. Educational Drama and Language Arts: What Research Shows. (Betty Jane Wagner, 1998)

Toward Guidelines for Harvest Intensities and Regeneration Targets with Minimal Impact Upon Retained Genetic Diversity in Central Hardwood Tree Species

There is an urgent need for a coordinated and systematic approach to the in situ conservation of the genetic resources of commercially important forest tree species in the Central Hardwoods. Effective in situ management of genetic resources would benefit from clear guidelines for how many adult trees can be harvested with minimal impact on allelic diversity. We are constructing a computer model for this purpose, and present preliminary results based upon replicate harvests of a virtual forest stand consisting of 200 adult trees. Our model explores how much regeneration is needed so that there is no more than a 10 percent risk of retaining less than 90 percent of the original allelic diversity. In the absence of regeneration, up to 55 percent of the adult trees can be harvested without exceeding the 10 percent risk level. At higher harvest intensities, locally-derived regeneration is needed to replace the alleles removed from the adult population. When all 200 adult trees are harvested, the 10 percent risk level is not exceeded if there are at least 116 regenerants, provided that these are derived from pre-harvest random mating among the adults. In the presence of substantial pollen flow from a genetically differentiated outside pollen source (e.g., 10-20 percent pollen flow), the minimum amount of regeneration needed is reduced. This indicates that outside pollen can be more efficient, relative to pollen from within the stand, at replacing alleles lost from the adult population

Different histories but similar genetic diversity and structure for black walnut in Indiana and Missouri

—Missouri and Indiana have markedly different histories of glaciation and recolonization by forest trees. These states also differ in land use patterns and degree of anthropogenic landscape change such as forest fragmentation. To determine the overall effects of these and other demographic differences on the levels of genetic diversity and structure in black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) more than 550 total black walnut trees from nine populations in Indiana and 10 in Missouri were sampled and analyzed using 12 nuclear microsatellite loci. Although genetic diversity parameters such as allelic richness and expected heterozygosity were high overall, they varied little among populations and their mean values for the two states were not significantly different. Pairwise genetic distance values between all population pairs ranged from 0.012-0.159, but no significant pattern of isolation by distance was detected. The estimate of the degree of genetic differentiation between states (FPT = 0.0009) was very small and not significant, indicating that differences between states explained an inconsequential portion of the total variance. The observed low levels of local and regional genetic structure indicate that high levels of pollen flow have buffered black walnut from the genetic consequences of founder effects and genetic drift in both geologic and recent time scales

The Outcomes Book: Debate and Consensus after the WPA Outcomes Statement

The WPA Outcomes Statement represents a working consensus among composition scholars about what college students should learn and do in a composition program. But as a single-page document, the statement cannot convey the kind of reflective process that a writing program must undertake to address the learning outcomes described. The Outcomes Book relates the fuller process by exploring the matrix of concerns that surrounded the developing statement itself, and by presenting the experience of many who have since employed it in their own settings. For departments, programs, and individuals, this collection levers the Outcomes Statement in all its simplicity and complexity into a rich discussion of the programmatic essentials of writing theory and pedagogy--and what these look like at writing programs informed by the Outcomes Statement. It is written in the hope that faculty and administrators alike will use the Statement as a tool for cyclically reflecting on their own programs and practice.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1153/thumbnail.jp

Voluntary Wheel Running Reverses Age-Induced Changes in Hippocampal Gene Expression

Normal aging alters expression of numerous genes within the brain. Some of these transcription changes likely contribute to age-associated cognitive decline, reduced neural plasticity, and the higher incidence of neuropathology. Identifying factors that modulate brain aging is crucial for improving quality of life. One promising intervention to counteract negative effects of aging is aerobic exercise. Aged subjects that exercise show enhanced cognitive performance and increased hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity. Currently, the mechanisms behind the anti-aging effects of exercise are not understood. The present study conducted a microarray on whole hippocampal samples from adult (3.5-month-old) and aged (18-month-old) male BALB/c mice that were individually housed with or without running wheels for 8 weeks. Results showed that aging altered genes related to chromatin remodeling, cell growth, immune activity, and synapse organization compared to adult mice. Exercise was found to modulate many of the genes altered by aging, but in the opposite direction. For example, wheel running increased expression of genes related to cell growth and attenuated expression of genes involved in immune function and chromatin remodeling. Collectively, findings show that even late-onset exercise may attenuate age-related changes in gene expression and identifies possible pathways through which exercise may exert its beneficial effects