Beyond Prejudice and Pride: The Human Sciences in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Latin America

Grappling with problematics of status and hierarchy, recent literature on the history of the human sciences in Latin America has gone through three overlapping phases. First, the scholarship has reflected a dialogue between Latin American scientists and their European colleagues, characterized by the “center/periphery” model of scientific diffusion. Next, scholars drew on postcolonial theory to undermine the power of the “center” and to recover the role of local agents, including both elites and subalterns. In the wake of numerous studies embracing both models, the way has been cleared to look at multiple dimensions simultaneously. Histories of the human sciences in the complex multicultural societies of Latin America provide an unusually direct path to integration. Moreover, this dynamic and multilayered approach has the potential to address ambivalences about authority and power that have characterized previous analyses of the production and application of knowledge about the human condition

Julia Rodriguez, Associate Professor, History (COLA) travel to Spain and France

Professor Rodriguez presented a paper and co-organized two panels at the International Congress of Americanists meeting and was able to complete archival research for my book project

Freeze-thaw durability of recycled concrete from construction and demolition wastes

Road engineering is one of the most accepted applications for concrete including recycled aggregates from construction and demolition wastes as a partial replacement of the natural coarse aggregates. Amongst the durability concerns of such application, the deterioration due to freeze-thaw cycles is one of the most important causes decreasing the life span of concrete in countries with a continental climate. Moreover, the use of de-icing salts, which is a common practice to prevent ice formation on roadways and walkways, increases the superficial degradation of concrete due to frost-salt scaling. Thus, this paper aims to assess the resistance to frost salt with de-icing salts of two recycled concrete mixtures containing a 50% replacement of the conventional gravel by recycled aggregates both of mixed and ceramic nature, i.e. containing ceramic percentages of 34% and 100%, in comparison to a conventional concrete made with siliceous gravel. Therefore, the surface scaling was evaluated based on EN 1339 (2004) on 28 days cured cylinders, exposed to 7, 14, 21 and 28 freeze-thaw cycles in the presence of sodium chloride solution. Given that no airentraining admixture was used in any of the mixtures, the scaling of both conventional and recycled concretes exceeded the 1 kg/m2 limit established by the European standard. Nonetheless, for the casting surface, the recycled concrete with low ceramic content exhibited a similar behaviour to the conventional concrete, whereas the performance of the recycled concrete with high ceramic content was better. However, as expected, trowelled surfaces showed a worse performance and both recycled concretes had a lower freeze-thaw durability than the conventional mixture. In any case, the results suggested that the composition of the recycled aggregates could be used as a factor to limit the differences in performance between recycled and conventional mixtures

Estimating Gaussian mixtures using sparse polynomial moment systems

The method of moments is a statistical technique for density estimation that solves a system of moment equations to estimate the parameters of an unknown distribution. A fundamental question critical to understanding identifiability asks how many moment equations are needed to get finitely many solutions and how many solutions there are. We answer this question for classes of Gaussian mixture models using the tools of polyhedral geometry. Using these results, we present an algorithm that performs parameter recovery, and therefore density estimation, for high dimensional Gaussian mixture models that scales linearly in the dimension.Comment: 30 page

Implementing real polyhedral homotopy

We implement a real polyhedral homotopy method using three functions. The first function provides a certificate that our real polyhedral homotopy is applicable to a given system; the second function generates binomial systems for a start system; the third function outputs target solutions from the start system obtained by the second function. This work realizes the theoretical contributions in \cite{ergur2019polyhedral} as easy to use functions, allowing for further investigation into real homotopy algorithms.Comment: 10 page

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

Kleine Levin Syndrome (KLS), also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, is characterized by progressive drowsiness and sleep for most days and nights. It is a rare neurological disorder with a prevalence of one to five cases per million. Those with KLS have recurring periods of excessive sleep, altered behavior, and a reduced understanding of the world. KLS primarily occurs in adolescents, boys more frequently than girls with a higher prevalence in Ashkenazi Jews. The exact cause of KLS is unknown but damage or malfunction of the hypothalamus may be involved. Although there is no definitive treatment for KLS, pharmaceuticals such as stimulants have been used to combat the sleepiness. However, these can cause irritability and mood swings, so alternatives to pharmaceuticals are also considered. Recent research suggests that a mutation in the gene LMOD3 may be the cause of KLS. LMOD proteins are structural proteins and appear to be developmentally regulated. In this poster, we will present the molecular mechanism for the disease and potential therapeutic targets for treatment on this disease