The expressed and the inexpressible in the theatre of Jean-Jacques Bernard and Henry Rene Lenormand between 1919 and 1945

This study is concerned with the ways the Inter-War theatre of Jean-Jacques Bernard and Henry-Rene Lenormand illustrates the paradox of the relative impotence of words as instruments of communication on the one hand as compared with their potency in other respects. The first two chapters are devoted to Bernard's exploitation and demonstration of the inadequacy of words as vehicles of meaning, the complex and correspondingly confusing nature of dialogue and miscellaneous factors which generally aggravate the communication process. Chapter 4 is given over to an examination of the most important failing of verbal symbols as illustrated in Lenormand's metaphysically oriented drama, and Chapter 5 treats of the other ways in which Lenormand's theatre complements Bernard’s by highlighting the fundamental inefficiency of words as communication tools and certain factors which further undermine dialogue and personal relations. Chapters 3 and 6 review how the plays of Bernard and Lenormand also bring into relief the extraordinary and sometimes dangerous effectiveness words can have, notably as provocative triggers and psychological catalysts. A substantial Introduction puts Chapters 1-6 into a historical perspective, explains the choice of playwrights, discusses the way their work has been critically evaluated, classified and analysed in the past and accounts for this study’s particular approach to their drama between 1919 and 1945

Differential DNA accessibility to polymerase enables 30-minute phenotypic β-lactam antibiotic susceptibility testing of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae

The rise in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections has created a global health emergency, underlining the critical need to develop faster diagnostics to treat swiftly and correctly. Although rapid pathogen-identification (ID) tests are being developed, gold-standard antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) remains unacceptably slow (1–2 d), and innovative approaches for rapid phenotypic ASTs for CREs are urgently needed. Motivated by this need, in this manuscript we tested the hypothesis that upon treatment with β-lactam antibiotics, susceptible Enterobacteriaceae isolates would become sufficiently permeabilized, making some of their DNA accessible to added polymerase and primers. Further, we hypothesized that this accessible DNA would be detectable directly by isothermal amplification methods that do not fully lyse bacterial cells. We build on these results to develop the polymerase-accessibility AST (pol-aAST), a new phenotypic approach for β-lactams, the major antibiotic class for gram-negative infections. We test isolates of the 3 causative pathogens of CRE infections using ceftriaxone (CRO), ertapenem (ETP), and meropenem (MEM) and demonstrate agreement with gold-standard AST. Importantly, pol-aAST correctly categorized resistant isolates that are undetectable by current genotypic methods (negative for β-lactamase genes or lacking predictive genotypes). We also test contrived and clinical urine samples. We show that the pol-aAST can be performed in 30 min sample-to-answer using contrived urine samples and has the potential to be performed directly on clinical urine specimens

Youth Representation on County Government Committees: Youth in Governance in Kenosha County, Wisconsin

The Kenosha County Youth In Governance program was created to build leadership skills and civic engagement opportunities for high school-aged students by placing two youth representatives on each of the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors standing committees. In reviewing data from 3 years of youth participants, the program was effective in increasing civic engagement and leadership skills of young people. Respondents reported specific increases in knowledge of county government, connection to community, empowerment, communication skills, and confidence. Effective program practices were also identified from reviewing statements made from youth participants

Cultural Misconceptions Surrounding Indigenous Populations in the Western Hemisphere

This group has researched common misconceptions that american culture holds regarding Native North Americans and Latinx immigrants. This was a significant topic for the researchers because these misconceptions are the building blocks for cultural prejudice within Americans. Many of the misconceptions that are perpetuated within American culture regarding native peoples and latinx immigrants have severe, and negative repercussions on those populations. Moreover these misconceptions are naturalized within American culture and have distinctively shaped the way in which Americans view and interact with these minority populations. This group’s research revealed that many of the misconceptions held about Native North Americans and Latinx immigrants represent these populations as marginal, simple, and fixed in time. These representations have influenced American culture in many ways; most prominently in the way in which the socially endorsed, representative bodies within American culture have interacted with these populations

Family relationships in the novels of Francois Mauriac

This thesis is concerned with the study of the extent to which the family relationships portrayed in Mauriac's novels can be regarded as channels of love and the role played by the members of the families described as vehicles of or obstacles to divine grace. Attention is focused on the insight Mauriac's treatment of family relationships gives us into the true nature of love, as this is understood by the Christian, man's need for it and the effect it has on the emotional and spiritual development of the individual. Since Mauriac's characters are generally shown to be egoistic in their relationships, to confuse their love of others with love of self or to communicate even disinterested affection in a meaningless way, an analysis of the vast majority of the families Mauriac describes reveals an almost total absence of genuine love, according to the New Testament interpretation of the word. Mauriac is shown to emphasize throughout his novels that family relationships are not naturally loving ones and that, far from being common, even minimally happy homes are rare phenomena, not born but painstakingly made. The secret of their relative success is shown to lie according to Mauriac in Christianity's law of love and its understanding of 'God' and 'Love' as synonymous. Whether or not they are aware of it, the most effective transmitters of this message are shown to be those who love others selflessly 'in deed and in truth', whilst those who fail in this respect prove to be correspondingly misleading. In the final part of the thesis, however, it is pointed out that God is shown by Mauriac to reveal himself constantly in various and often mystical ways, so that, however beneficially loving, or harmfully unloving, family relationships may be, the only force that can ever be said to constitute an essential obstacle to divine grace is an individual's own will

Bone scaffolds with controllable porosity

The Adaptive Foam Reticulation (AFR) technique, a combination of foam reticulation and freeze casting, has been investigated for producing bone repair bioscaffolds from hydroxyapatite (HA), titanium (Ti) and titanium-aluminium-vanadium (Ti-6Al-4V). Scaffolds have a network of macropores of diameter between 94 and 546 mm, with struts 20 to 118 mm thick. The structure was dependent on the template from which structures were produced, the number of coats of slurry applied to the template and the sintering temperature. The struts contained numerous micropores, the size of which was increased from 2-5 to 20-30 mm by decreasing the freezing temperature. Whilst the size of individual micropores was independent of the amount of porogen in the slurry, there was some coalescence at higher percentages. Scaffolds exhibited porosities of between 76 and 96%, with porosity consistently decreased by increasing the number of coats from one to five. The mechanical strength of all samples was determined theoretically by the novel incorporation of a shape factor conventially used for microporous structures into an existing equation used to calculate the yield stress of porous structures. In most cases this agreed with the experimentally obtained yield stress. With compressive yield stresses of 0.002 to 0.18MPa and 0.002 to 1.8 MPa respectively, HA and Ti structures are only suitable in non-load bearing situations. However Ti-6Al-4V scaffolds had yield stresses of 0.21-13.7 MPa, within the range of cancellous bone. AFR-fabricated HA scaffold offered greater in-vitro cell viability than a commercially available porous HA disc. Including a porogen offered no improvement in viability compared to structures fabricated without porogen, except at the highest inclusion where a statistically significant increase was observed. The weak compressive strength of scaffolds needs improving, and fabrications require in-vivo analyses. However, AFR could offer a viable alternative to other manufacturing techniques

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SOUTHERN FORESTS

A multiperiod regional mathematical programming model is used to evaluate the potential economic impacts of global climatic change on the southern U.S. forestry sector. Scenarios for forest biological response to climate change are developed for small and large changes in forest growth rates. Resulting changes in timber supply have economic impacts on producers and consumers in forest products markets, both nationally and regionally. Conclusions include outer dimensions of global climate change impacts and potential effects of smaller biological responses on the forestry sector both nationally and in the U.S. South. Relative impacts are found to be larger for producers than for consumers, and southern producers experience relatively greater changes in economic welfare.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,