CL 553 United Methodist Polity and Discipline

The Book of Discipline, 2004; Thomas Edward Frank, Polity, Practice, and the Mission of the United Methodist Church; and Jack M. Tuell, The Organization of the United Methodist Church, (2005-2008 Edition).https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/2384/thumbnail.jp

Interactivity: New Rules of Engagement for the Humanities

This journal is a result of our frustration with 21st century humanities scholarship and dissemination. The term “digital” humanities has gained a certain cache and indeed, bringing technology into humanities research was, and still is, an important hurdle to overcome. However, humanities conversations on the topic have stalled and can’t seem to move beyond defining digital humanities. We believe that much of this stagnation is due to the emphasis on a superficial understanding of technology as a mode of delivery rather than as a mode of inquiry. Digital media and tools do allow for better and faster ways of doing traditional humanities things like scholarship and education. However, the failure of the digital humanities movement to look beyond media transformation and towards new modes of inquiry, blocks the humanities from evolving. The stubborn insistence on clinging to traditional forms of humanities scholarship at the expense of innovation is holding the field back. If, as McLuhan hypothesizes, the “medium is the message,” then why is the humanities still so doggedly focused on the content? We envision this journal as a forum to generate new ideas and ways of thinking about the humanities

Private Information, Overconfidence and Trader Returns in Prediction Markets

In lab experiments on the value of information in financial markets, groups of “insiders” are randomly chosen to receive perfect information. However, in typical (non-experimental) financial markets, investors often engage in extensive fundamental analysis, a process which may result in over-confidence in one’s private information. In this study, we examine trading volume, prices and trader returns in a set of four real money prediction markets where the values of securities are tied to a movie’s box office performance. Before the markets opened, every trader submitted a detailed forecast of the movie’s future performance. Therefore, all traders have self-generated private information, the accuracy of which can only be known ex-post.            As expected, the volume and timing of trading were consistent with over-confidence. In three of the four markets, contract prices were consistent with the prior information equilibrium. In those three markets, traders whose forecast was associated with the winning contract had significantly higher returns than traders whose forecasts suggested that another contract would pay off. In the other market, there were no significant differences in returns across trader groups. This research suggests that when traders are overconfident and trade accordingly, there can value to being better informed if the information is accurate.

Jet of Blood

A virtual production of Antonin Artaud’s 1925 play, Jet of Blood

HSV-mediated expression of interleukin-4 in dorsal root ganglion neurons reduces neuropathic pain

BACKGROUND: To examine the role of inflammatory mediators in neuropathic pain, we used a replication-defective genomic herpes simplex virus (HSV)-based vector containing the coding sequence for the anti-inflammatory peptide interleukin (IL)-4 under the transcriptional control of the HSV ICP4 immediate early promoter, vector S4IL4, to express IL-4 in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in vivo. RESULTS: Subcutaneous inoculation of S4IL4 in the foot transduced lumbar DRG to produce IL-4. Transgene-mediated expression of IL-4 did not alter thermal latency or tactile threshold in normal animals, but inoculation of S4IL4 1 week after spinal nerve ligation (SNL) reduced mechanical allodynia and reversed thermal hyperalgesia resulting from SNL. Inoculation of S4IL4 1 week before SNL delayed the development of thermal hyperalgesia and tactile allodynia, but did not prevent the ultimate development of these manifestations of neuropathic pain. S4IL4 inoculation suppressed non-noxious-induced expression of c-Fos immunoreactivity in dorsal horn of spinal cord and reversed the upregulation of spinal IL-1β, PGE2, and phosphorylated-p38 MAP kinase, characteristic of neuropathic pain. CONCLUSION: HSV-mediated expression of IL-4 effectively reduces the behavioral manifestations of neuropathic pain, and reverses some of the biochemical and histologic correlates of neuropathic pain at the spinal level

Seed-to-seed growth of superdwarf wheat and arabidopsis using red light-emitting diodes (LED's): A report on baseline tests conducted for NASA's proposed Plant Research Unit (PRU)

To determine the influence of narrow-spectrum red light-emitting diodes (LED's) on plant growth and seed production, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.cv Superdwarf) and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh, race Columbia) plants were grown under red LED's (peak emission 660 nm) and compared to plants grown under daylight fluorescent (white) light and red LED's supplemented with either 1 percent or 10 percent blue fluorescent (BF) light. Wheat growth under red LED's alone appeared normal, whereas Arabidopsis under red LED's alone developed curled leaf margins and a spiraling growth pattern. Both wheat and Arabidopsis under red LED's alone or red LED's + 1 percent BF light had significantly lower seed yield than plants grown under white light. However, the addition of 10 percent BF light to red LED's partially alleviated the adverse effect of red LED's on yield. Irrespective of the light treatment, viable seeds were produced by wheat(75-92 percent germination rate) and Arabidopsis (85-100 percent germination rate). These results indicate that wheat, and to a lesser extent Arabidopsis, can be successfully grown under red LED's alone, but supplemental blue light is required with red LED's to sufficiently match the growth characteristics and seed yield associated with plants grown under white light

350 mV, 5 GHz Class-D Enhanced Swing Differential and Quadrature VCOs in 65 nm CMOS

A new enhanced swing class-D VCO which operates from a supply voltage as low as 300 mV is presented. The architectural advantages are described along with an analysis for the oscillation frequency. Prototype differential and quadrature variants of the proposed VCO have been implemented in a 65 nm RF CMOS process with a 5 GHz VCO oscillation frequency. At a 350 mV supply, the measured phase noise performance for the quadrature VCO with a 5% tuning range is -137.1 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz offset with a power dissipation of 2.1 mW from a 0.35 V supply. The highest resulting figure-of-merit (FoM) is 198.3 dBc/Hz.©2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works