Ecological lipidology

Dietary lipids (DLs), particularly sterols and fatty acids, are precursors for endogenous lipids that, unusually for macronutrients, shape cellular and organismal function long after ingestion. These functions - cell membrane structure, intracellular signalling, and hormonal activity - vary with the identity of DLs, and scale up to influence health, survival, and reproductive fitness, thereby affecting evolutionary change. Our Ecological Lipidology approach integrates biochemical mechanisms and molecular cell biology into evolution and nutritional ecology. It exposes our need to understand environmental impacts on lipidomes, the lipid specificity of cell functions, and predicts the evolution of lipid-based diet choices. Broad interdisciplinary implications of Ecological Lipidology include food web alterations, species responses to environmental change, as well as sex differences and lifestyle impacts on human nutrition, and opportunities for DL-based therapies

Self-similar chain conformations in polymer gels

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the swelling of randomly end-cross-linked polymer networks in good solvent conditions. We find that the equilibrium degree of swelling saturates at Q_eq = N_e**(3/5) for mean strand lengths N_s exceeding the melt entanglement length N_e. The internal structure of the network strands in the swollen state is characterized by a new exponent nu=0.72. Our findings are in contradiction to de Gennes' c*-theorem, which predicts Q_eq proportional N_s**(4/5) and nu=0.588. We present a simple Flory argument for a self-similar structure of mutually interpenetrating network strands, which yields nu=7/10 and otherwise recovers the classical Flory-Rehner theory. In particular, Q_eq = N_e**(3/5), if N_e is used as effective strand length.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 3 Figure

Conformation and dynamics of a diluted chain in the presence of an adsorbing wall: A simulation with the bond fluctuation model

The bond fluctuation model has been used to simulate the adsorption process of a single long polymer chain on an adsorbing surface. Simulations start at high temperature with the chain in an equilibrium coil structure. The inter- and intra chain energy potential were selected in such a way that on cooling the polymer chain vitrifies without any indication of chain ordering or chain folding. The structure attained on cooling is analysed for arrange of values of the interaction potential between the surface and the polymer segments. Adsorption is measured by the fraction of polymer segments situated on the adsorbingwallwhilst crystalline ordering is characterized by the pair correlation function g(r), the bond order parameter P2(r) and the bond correlation functionM(j). Isothermal adsorption is followed as well as a function of temperature. The work shows that adsorbing surface nucleates crystalline order by suppressing one dimension in the segmental mobility of the polymer chain, along with factors as thermal treatment and inter and intra-potentials.RSS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) and FEDER funds under the project MAT2012-38359-C03-01.Sabater I Serra, R.; Torregrosa Cabanilles, C.; Meseguer Dueñas, JM.; Gómez Ribelles, JL.; Molina Mateo, J. (2014). Conformation and dynamics of a diluted chain in the presence of an adsorbing wall: A simulation with the bond fluctuation model. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 402:7-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2014.05.009S71540

Los cruces globales de Carla Guelfenbein: Una entrevista sobre su novela Nadar desnudas, la literatura chilena y el alcance global de su obra

Carla Guelfenbein es la autora de las novelas El revés del alma (2003), La mujer de mi vida (2006), El resto es silencio (2009) y Nadar desnudas (2012) y es uno de los autores bestsellers en Chile y Latinoamérica. Sus cuatro novelas han sido traducidas a más de una docena de idiomas. Su obra tiene un alcance verdaderamente global y por lo tanto se relaciona estrechamente con el tema—las intersecciones hemisféricas—de esta edición de Mester. Cuando Guelfenbein vino a UCLA para dar una conferencia sobre su novela más reciente, Nadar desnudas, aprovechamos la ocasión para entrevistarla sobre su obra, su relación con la literatura chilena y el mercado literario transnacional

Braking and entering: A new CFO's transition into a K-12 urban school district

In this autoethnography, I examine the challenges I faced as a private-to-public-sector novice CFO entering a resource-constrained 41-thousand-student K-12 urban school district in Colorado. This study chronicles how I deliberately slowed down my interactions within a complex adaptive system (CAS) through ethnographic interviewing to identify the relationships, processes, and tools; and create the conditions necessary to align and optimize resources at the district level to improve student outcomes. There is scant research on how a new K-12 education CFO transitions from a traditional budget-manager approach toward one that promotes inquiry and cost-effectiveness. Unlike CFOs in the private sector, oftentimes I was estranged from strategic and capital-allocation decisions, particularly around instruction. I lacked the time, skilled staff, and resources to perform fundamental cost-benefit analyses. I had come to work in a school system after obtaining an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and working in Wall Street for 20 years. Having no experience working in the public sector more generally or education more specifically, I came with a particular mindset and approach not altogether suited for this environment. Consequently, my transition to this new milieu was quite chaotic. I intentionally embraced entry planning as a way to make sense of a CAS that oftentimes defied comprehensive analysis. I learned, slowly, that successful entry required intellectual rigor and emotional sensitivity. I repeatedly found that interventions based on adaptive change that fundamentally shifts how works gets done increased employees’ anxiety. I assumed the roles of researcher, learner, and knower in evolving an induction approach that recognized entry never stopped because the CAS never rested. I explore entry through three case studies. The first of these pertains to my participation in Teachers’ Master Agreement Negotiations; the second centers on my engagement with Nutrition Services, a low-status but high-value allocator of resources; and the third analyzes how I merged the roles of CFO and educator to increase my district’s understanding of municipal-bond finance in preparation for a general-obligation bond offering. Keywords: CFO entry; entry planning; complex adaptive systems; teachers’ negotiations; nutrition services; school financ

A Family Business: Chile and the Transition to Democracy in Alberto Fuguet’s Se arrienda

Alberto Fuguet’s film Se arrienda (Chile, 2005) depicts a landmark era in Chile’s history: the Transition to Democracy (1988-2004). In this article, I argue that Fuguet’s film represents Chile during the Transition to Democracy through the lenses of culture and economics. I maintain that the film’s dual temporal structure; polysemous title; and epigraph from L.P. Hartley’s coming-of-age novel The Go-Between (1953) establish its allegorical qualities. Additionally, I analyze three facets of the film which are central to the film’s representation of Chile during the Transition: the 1988 Human Rights Now! concert in Mendoza; the relationship between Gastón and his father; the marginalized character of Chernovsky. First, I argue that the film’s representation of the Human Rights Now! concert reflects the collective optimism and solidarity at the beginning of the Transition. Second, I maintain that the relationship between Gastón and his father embodies “family capitalism” (Hierarchical Capitalism 47). Finally, I argue that the portrayal of Chernovsky’s descent into poverty and isolation reflects the entrenched socio-economic inequality and limited social safety net in Transition-era Chile

Integration der Bewegungssimulation in den Konstruktionsprozess

OP 970814

A Family Business: Chile and the Transition to Democracy in Alberto Fuguet’s Se arrienda

Alberto Fuguet’s film Se arrienda (Chile, 2005) depicts a landmark era in Chile’s history: the Transition to Democracy (1988-2004). In this article, I argue that Fuguet’s film represents Chile during the Transition to Democracy through the lenses of culture and economics. I maintain that the film’s dual temporal structure; polysemous title; and epigraph from L.P. Hartley’s coming-of-age novel The Go-Between (1953) establish its allegorical qualities. Additionally, I analyze three facets of the film which are central to the film’s representation of Chile during the Transition: the 1988 Human Rights Now! concert in Mendoza; the relationship between Gastón and his father; the marginalized character of Chernovsky. First, I argue that the film’s representation of the Human Rights Now! concert reflects the collective optimism and solidarity at the beginning of the Transition. Second, I maintain that the relationship between Gastón and his father embodies “family capitalism” (Hierarchical Capitalism 47). Finally, I argue that the portrayal of Chernovsky’s descent into poverty and isolation reflects the entrenched socio-economic inequality and limited social safety net in Transition-era Chile

Braking and entering: A new CFO\u27s transition into a K-12 urban school district

In this autoethnography, I examine the challenges I faced as a private-to-public-sector novice CFO entering a resource-constrained 41-thousand-student K-12 urban school district in Colorado. This study chronicles how I deliberately slowed down my interactions within a complex adaptive system (CAS) through ethnographic interviewing to identify the relationships, processes, and tools; and create the conditions necessary to align and optimize resources at the district level to improve student outcomes. There is scant research on how a new K-12 education CFO transitions from a traditional budget-manager approach toward one that promotes inquiry and cost-effectiveness. Unlike CFOs in the private sector, oftentimes I was estranged from strategic and capital-allocation decisions, particularly around instruction. I lacked the time, skilled staff, and resources to perform fundamental cost-benefit analyses. I had come to work in a school system after obtaining an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and working in Wall Street for 20 years. Having no experience working in the public sector more generally or education more specifically, I came with a particular mindset and approach not altogether suited for this environment. Consequently, my transition to this new milieu was quite chaotic. I intentionally embraced entry planning as a way to make sense of a CAS that oftentimes defied comprehensive analysis. I learned, slowly, that successful entry required intellectual rigor and emotional sensitivity. I repeatedly found that interventions based on adaptive change that fundamentally shifts how works gets done increased employees’ anxiety. I assumed the roles of researcher, learner, and knower in evolving an induction approach that recognized entry never stopped because the CAS never rested. I explore entry through three case studies. The first of these pertains to my participation in Teachers’ Master Agreement Negotiations; the second centers on my engagement with Nutrition Services, a low-status but high-value allocator of resources; and the third analyzes how I merged the roles of CFO and educator to increase my district’s understanding of municipal-bond finance in preparation for a general-obligation bond offering. Keywords: CFO entry; entry planning; complex adaptive systems; teachers’ negotiations; nutrition services; school financ