Sympathy for the Devil: Charles Manson's Exploitation of California's 1960s Counter-Culture

Charles Manson rose to infamy in 1969 with his orchestration of seven grisly murders in Los Angeles, California.1 Even more shocking than the murder scenes was the fact that Manson did not perpetrate any of the murders himself, but instead convinced others to commit the crimes: the murderers came from a Manson-led cult commonly known as the Manson Family. Manson&rsquo;s total control over his followers marked him as a manipulative and cunning psychopath, but the development of his cult was largely due to the 1960s counter-culture in which it began. Manson&rsquo;s psychological development left clear markers for his psychopathy, which characterizes him as narcissistic, manipulative, parasitic, selfish, sadistic, and with no capacity for empathy. From early childhood Manson had a penchant for crime and manipulation, and once he reached California in the 1960s he found a scene that perfectly catered to his psychopathic whims. The 1960s were a volatile era of social and political turbulence, much of which was centered in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The decade was characterized by emphases on psychedelic drug use, sexual exploration, racial equality, and activism through music, and Manson exploited these values in order to cultivate his following. While the counter-culture stressed drug use as a means to attain a higher consciousness, Manson used psychedelic drugs to control and influence his followers. Similarly, the counter-culture&rsquo;s ideal of sexual freedom was bastardized by Manson through his sexual exploitation of women in the Family. He and his cult survived on the generosity of hosts throughout California, and they were welcomed by most due to the counter-cultural practices of free love and communal living. The culminating murders were thus perpetrated due to Manson&rsquo;s strong ability to influence others, but the counter-culture provided for him an environment in which to cultivate and apply his psychopathy. Had he not been situated in the 1960s counter-culture, Manson would never have been able to exert control over and eventually commit murder through the members of the Manson Family. 1Manson was also convicted of the murders of Gary Hinman and Donald Shea, but this thesis will focus on the deaths at the Tate and LaBianca scenes.</p

An Alternating-Priority Server with Correlated Switchover Times

This document analyzes a single server queueing system in which service is alternated between two queues and the server requires a (finite) switchover time to switch from one queue to the other. The distinction from classical results is that the sequence of switchover times from each of the queues need not be i.i.d. nor independent from each other; each sequence is merely required to form a stationary ergodic sequence. With the help of stochastic recursive equations explicit expressions are derived for a number of performance measures, most notably for the average delay of a customer and the average queue lengths under different service disciplines. With these expressions a comparison is made between the service disciplines and the influence of correlation is studied. Finally, through a number of examples it is shown that the correlation can significantly increase the mean delay and the average queue lengths indicating that the correlation between switchover times should not be ignored. This has important implications for communication systems in which a common communication channel is shared amongst various users and where the time between consecutive data transfers is correlated (for example in ad-hoc networks)

Postprandial apoE isoform and conformational changes associated with VLDL lipolysis products modulate monocyte inflammation.

ObjectivePostprandial hyperlipemia, characterized by increased circulating very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) and circulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS), has been proposed as a mechanism of vascular injury. Our goal was to examine the interactions between postprandial lipoproteins, LPS, and apoE3 and apoE4 on monocyte activation.Methods and resultsWe showed that apoE3 complexed to phospholipid vesicles attenuates LPS-induced THP-1 monocyte cytokine expression, while apoE4 increases expression. ELISA revealed that apoE3 binds to LPS with higher affinity than apoE4. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of site-directed spin labels placed on specific amino acids of apoE3 showed that LPS interferes with conformational changes normally associated with lipid binding. Specifically, compared to apoE4, apoE bearing the E3-like R112→Ser mutation displays increased self association when exposed to LPS, consistent with a stronger apoE3-LPS interaction. Additionally, lipolysis of fasting VLDL from normal human donors attenuated LPS-induced TNFα secretion from monocytes to a greater extent than postprandial VLDL, an effect partially reversed by blocking apoE. This effect was reproduced using fasting VLDL lipolysis products from e3/e3 donors, but not from e4/e4 subjects, suggesting that apoE3 on fasting VLDL prevents LPS-induced inflammation more readily than apoE4.ConclusionPostprandial apoE isoform and conformational changes associated with VLDL dramatically modulate vascular inflammation

Relaying in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: The Brownian Motion Mobility Model

Mobile ad hoc networks are characterized by a lack of a fixed infrastructure and by node mobility. In these networks data transfer can be improved by using mobile nodes as relay nodes. As a result, transmission power and the movement pattern of the nodes have a key impact on the performance. In this work we focus on the impact of node mobility through the analysis of a simple one-dimensional ad hoc network topology. Nodes move in adjacent segments with reflecting boundaries according to Brownian motions. Communications (or relays) between nodes can occur only when they are within transmission range of each other. We determine the expected time to relay a message and compute the probability density function of relaying locations. We also provide an approximation formula for the expected relay time between any pair of mobiles

Protective spin-labeled fluorenes maintain amyloid beta peptide in small oligomers and limit transitions in secondary structure

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the presence of extracellular plaques comprised of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides. Soluble oligomers of the Aβ peptide underlie a cascade of neuronal loss and dysfunction associated with Alzheimer's disease. Single particle analyses of Aβ oligomers in solution by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) were used to provide real-time descriptions of how spin-labeled fluorenes (SLFs; bi-functional small molecules that block the toxicity of Aβ) prevent and disrupt oligomeric assemblies of Aβ in solution. Furthermore, the circular dichroism (CD) spectrum of untreated Aβ shows a continuous, progressive change over a 24-hour period, while the spectrum of Aβ treated with SLF remains relatively constant following initial incubation. These findings suggest the conformation of Aβ within the oligomer provides a complementary determinant of Aβ toxicity in addition to oligomer growth and size. Although SLF does not produce a dominant state of secondary structure in Aβ, it does induce a net reduction in beta secondary content compared to untreated samples of Aβ. The FCS results, combined with electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and CD spectroscopy, demonstrate SLFs can inhibit the growth of Aβ oligomers and disrupt existing oligomers, while retaining Aβ as a population of smaller, yet largely disordered oligomers

Effect of disorder on superconductivity in the boson-fermion model

We study how a randomness of either boson or fermion site energies affects the superconducting phase of the boson fermion model. We find that, contrary to what is expected for s-wave superconductors, the non-magnetic disorder is detrimental to the s-wave superconductivity. However, depending in which subsystem the disorder is located, we can observe different channels being affected. Weak disorder of the fermion subsystem is responsible mainly for renormalization of the single particle density of states while disorder in the boson subsystem directly leads to fluctuation of the strength of the effective pairing between fermions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Physical Review B (accepted for publication

Haptoglobin Phenotype, Preeclampsia Risk and the Efficacy of Vitamin C and E Supplementation to Prevent Preeclampsia in a Racially Diverse Population

Haptoglobin's (Hp) antioxidant and pro-angiogenic properties differ between the 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2 phenotypes. Hp phenotype affects cardiovascular disease risk and treatment response to antioxidant vitamins in some non-pregnant populations. We previously demonstrated that preeclampsia risk was doubled in white Hp 2-1 women, compared to Hp 1-1 women. Our objectives were to determine whether we could reproduce this finding in a larger cohort, and to determine whether Hp phenotype influences lack of efficacy of antioxidant vitamins in preventing preeclampsia and serious complications of pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH). This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in which 10,154 low-risk women received daily vitamin C and E, or placebo, from 9-16 weeks gestation until delivery. Hp phenotype was determined in the study prediction cohort (n = 2,393) and a case-control cohort (703 cases, 1,406 controls). The primary outcome was severe PAH, or mild or severe PAH with elevated liver enzymes, elevated serum creatinine, thrombocytopenia, eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, medically indicated preterm birth or perinatal death. Preeclampsia was a secondary outcome. Odds ratios were estimated by logistic regression. Sampling weights were used to reduce bias from an overrepresentation of women with preeclampsia or the primary outcome. There was no relationship between Hp phenotype and the primary outcome or preeclampsia in Hispanic, white/other or black women. Vitamin supplementation did not reduce the risk of the primary outcome or preeclampsia in women of any phenotype. Supplementation increased preeclampsia risk (odds ratio 3.30; 95% confidence interval 1.61-6.82, p<0.01) in Hispanic Hp 2-2 women. Hp phenotype does not influence preeclampsia risk, or identify a subset of women who may benefit from vitamin C and E supplementation to prevent preeclampsia

Upward curvature of the upper critical field in the Boson--Fermion model

We report on a non-conventional temperature behavior of the upper critical field ($H_{c2}(T)$) which is found for the Boson-Fermion (BF) model. We show that the BF model properly reproduces two crucial features of the experimental data obtained for high-$T_c$ superconductors: $H_{c2}(T)$ does not saturate at low temperatures and has an upward curvature. Moreover, the calculated upper critical field fits very well the experimental results. This agreement holds also for overdoped compounds, where a purely bosonic approach is not applicable.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revte