Méliès Boots

Before he became the father of cinematic special effects, George Méliès (1861-1938) was a maker of deluxe French footwear, an illusionist, and a caricaturist. Proceeding from these beginnings, Méliès Boots traces how the full trajectory of Georges Méliès’ career during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, along with the larger cultural and historical contexts in which Méliès operated, shaped his cinematic oeuvre. Solomon examines Méliès’ unpublished drawings and published caricatures, the role of laughter in his magic theater productions, and the constituent elements of what Méliès called "the new profession of the cinéaste." The book also reveals Méliès' connections to the Incohérents, a group of ephemeral artists from the 1880s, demonstrating the group’s relevance for Méliès, early cinema, and modernity. By positioning Méliès in relation to the material culture of his time, Solomon demonstrates that Méliès’ work was expressive of a distinctly modern, and modernist, sensibility that appeared in France during the 1880s in the wake of the Second Industrial Revolution

Stigmatization, disclosure and the social Space of the camp: reflections on ARV provision to the displaced in Northern Uganda

This paper is part of a study of the social effects of antiretroviral provision to displaced communities in northern Uganda. It focuses on the effects of antiretroviral provision, and associated care and support on stigmatization. It argues that while antiretrovirals have helped reduce forms of stigmatization, particularly linked with visible signs of illness, new forms of stigmatization have emerged, linked to the invisibility of illness. These changes should be understood as linked to the changes is the disease trajectory, and the social context in which they emerge. In the context of the displacement camp, where secrecy is low, there are high levels of non-verbal disclosure, which I term socio-spatial disclosure. In addition, the language of stigmatization is embedded in the experiences of social suffering in the camps, and particularly linked to lack of productivity, perceived immorality, and militarization. This paper aims to contribute to the theory of stigmatization by linking an analysis of the disease trajectory to that of 'social space'

Role of BDNF in the Ability of Exercise to Attenuate Dependence-Related Escalated Alcohol Drinking in C57BL/6J Mice

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) continues to be a burden to society. Currently, few efficacious treatments exist. In addition to behavioral therapy and support groups (e.g. Alcoholics Anonymous), there are only three FDA approved pharmacotherapies. The lack of treatment options for alcohol addiction denotes the need to discover and develop new strategies and pharmacological targets to improve abstinence, prevent relapse, and inhibit the development of alcohol addiction. Chronic alcohol exposure reduces brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Reductions of BDNF in the mPFC drive alcohol-dependent drinking in mice and conversely, elevating BDNF in this region blocks alcohol dependence-related drinking. Therefore, enhancing TrkB (BDNF primary receptor) activity in the mPFC, by pharmacological activation or increased expression of BDNF via exercise, may provide a new treatment strategy for AUD. To engender alcohol dependence mice are exposed to repeated cycles of chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) vapor, producing escalated alcohol drinking compared to Baseline and control (Air) mice. Additionally, deficits in Bdnf mRNA and protein are seen in the mPFC after CIE exposure. Exercise (wheel running) noninvasively induces BDNF expression in the dentate gyrus (DG) of rodents and in the blood of humans. This information led to the question of whether exercise could increase BDNF in the mPFC, reduce alcohol dependence-related drinking, and if this effect would occur through a BDNF-TrkB mediated mechanism. Studies tested the hypothesis that: Daily, limited (2-hr) voluntary wheel running would increase BDNF expression in the brain and through BDNF-TrkB signaling, attenuate CIE-induced escalated alcohol drinking. Following the Introduction, Chapter 2 demonstrates mice given limited access to a running wheel every day for several weeks, show increased Bdnf mRNA (qRT-PCR) and BDNF protein (ELISA) expression in the mPFC and DG. Building on these findings, Chapter 3 shows exercise attenuates CIE induced escalated alcohol drinking and mitigates reductions of BDNF mRNA in the mPFC caused by chronic alcohol exposure. Finally, in Chapter 4, using pharmacological inhibition of TrkB receptors, the ability of exercise to attenuate escalated alcohol intake is prevented. Taken together this study demonstrates exercise attenuates escalated alcohol intake in a model of dependence via BDNF-TrkB mediated signaling

Triggered single photons from a quantum dot

We demonstrate a new method for generating triggered single photons. After a laser pulse generates excitons inside of a single quantum dot, electrostatic interactions between them and the resulting spectral shifts allow a single emitted photon to be isolated. Autocorrelation measurements show a reduction of the two-photon probability to 0.12 times the value for Poisson light. Strong anti-bunching persists when the emission is saturated. The emitted photons are also polarized.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTex, to be published in PR

Méliès Boots

Before he became the father of cinematic special effects, George Méliès (1861-1938) was a maker of deluxe French footwear, an illusionist, and a caricaturist. Proceeding from these beginnings, Méliès Boots traces how the full trajectory of Georges Méliès’ career during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, along with the larger cultural and historical contexts in which Méliès operated, shaped his cinematic oeuvre. Solomon examines Méliès’ unpublished drawings and published caricatures, the role of laughter in his magic theater productions, and the constituent elements of what Méliès called "the new profession of the cinéaste." The book also reveals Méliès' connections to the Incohérents, a group of ephemeral artists from the 1880s, demonstrating the group’s relevance for Méliès, early cinema, and modernity. By positioning Méliès in relation to the material culture of his time, Solomon demonstrates that Méliès’ work was expressive of a distinctly modern, and modernist, sensibility that appeared in France during the 1880s in the wake of the Second Industrial Revolution

The Impact Of Price Changes And Trends On Demand For Meat In Nigeria

This study determines the responsiveness of demand for meat to variations in prices and incomes on the basis of food demand data for the time period between 1980 to 2001 using an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model.  These findings are reasonable given the position that beef holds as the dominant and traditional meat in Nigeria.  These elasticities also imply that beef and chicken are luxury goods, while other fish and demersal fish are normal goods for Nigeria households consistent with the findings of previous studies. With the exception of some cross-price elasticities, the majority of the price elasticities exhibit the expected signs and magnitudes.  This indicates that demand for beef and other meat Nigeria is very price elastic.  In general, the results suggest that own-prices as well as incomes are the predominant factors determining consumer choice and meat consumption patterns in Nigeria rather than relative prices

Quantifying pelagic primary production and respiration via automated in-situ incubation system

We developed and validated a novel automated water incubator that measures in-situ rates of photosynthesis and respiration. This dataset includes raw data, Monte-Carlo simulation method, and processed results from field deployments in Summer, 2021. Deployment of the incubator was conducted near Ucantena Island, Massachusetts, USA. The dataset includes timeseries of automated incubation experiments, reporting dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), temperature, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). There are four deployments spanning from late august to early October, 2021. Each deployment lasted approximately 72 hours. Hourly DO fluxes from photosynthesis/respiration are calculated and reported for each deployment respectively. Data of derivative analysis are also included for various validation on the automated incubator and data analysis techniques.National Science Foundation OTIC 184109

Complex band structure and electronic transmission

The function of nano-scale devices critically depends on the choice of materials. For electron transport junctions it is natural to characterize the materials by their conductance length dependence, $\beta$. Theoretical estimations of $\beta$ are made employing two primary theories: complex band structure and DFT-NEGF Landauer transport. Both reveal information on $\beta$ of individual states; i.e. complex Bloch waves and transmission eigenchannels, respectively. However, it is unclear how the $\beta$-values of the two approaches compare. Here, we present calculations of decay constants for the two most conductive states as determined by complex band structure and standard DFT-NEGF transport calculations for two molecular and one semi-conductor junctions. Despite the different nature of the two methods, we find strong agreement of the calculated decay constants for the molecular junctions while the semi-conductor junction shows some discrepancies. The results presented here provide a template for studying the intrinsic, channel resolved length dependence of the junction through complex band structure of the central material in the heterogeneous nano-scale junction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure