Vernacular Music Material Culture in Space and Time

Few musical instruments are more closely tied or hold greater significance to American history than the banjo. From its West African roots, to its birth in the seventeenth century Caribbean, and through its meteoric rise in nineteenth century American popular culture, the banjo is an iconic instrument whose impact is woven into the cultural fabric of the American experience. As scholars, researchers, and enthusiasts continue to discover new information about the early banjo, there is no collective location to maintain, interact with, and collectively analyze this important data. The proposed Banjo Sightings Database Project (BSD) will combine rare and widely-dispersed primary source material (circa 1650-1870) with appropriate and innovative technological applications, resulting in a system that not only catalogs information about the early banjo, but also establishes an interactive, peer-reviewed knowledge management system, allowing users to explore the early banjo

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BANJOS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: CUSTOM AND TRADITION IN A MODERN EARLY BANJO REVIVAL

This thesis demonstrates how members of a modern music revival use the banjo to create a counter narrative to America's whiteness. Within this revival, nineteenth-century banjos are central to a growing interest in antebellum, early minstrel, and Civil War era music and culture. As researchers, collectors, musicians, and instrument builders pursue this interest, they explore the dissonances of the legacies surrounding slavery, blackface minstrelsy, and the traumas of the American Civil War. Framing this phenomenon within Eric Hobsbawm's theories of custom and tradition and Thomas Turino's concepts of habits, socialization, and cultural cohort relationships, I argue that this modern revival supports a form of critical ethnography aimed for advocacy on three fronts--advocacy that challenges marginalizing stereotypes, promotes opportunities to rethink the banjo's cultural significance as a national instrument of whiteness, and creates greater infrastructure for the knowledge and material culture amassed by members of the banjo community

Range or Meadow Regrowth Grazing and Weaning Effects on Two Year-Old Cows

Body condition of cows at calving affects pregnancy rate and breeding date. Body condition at calving of spring calving cows wintered on range is influenced by fall body condition. A Montana study showed that lactating cows grazing range lost body condition during August and September. The loss of body condition was attributed to an inadequate consumption of crude protein. Diet samples of cattle grazing Sandhills range during August to October contain 6% to 8% crude protein. Loss of body condition of spring calving, primiparous cows grazing Nebraska Sandhills range during the fall is a concern. Subirrigated meadow regrowth is a higher quality forage than upland range in the fall. Diet samples collected from cattle grazing regrowth from subirrigated meadow during October contained approximately 11% crude protein. Two potential ways of maintaining or increasing cow body condition during the fall is to wean the calf, thus reducing the cow\u27s nutrient requirements, or increase the potential to meet crude protein requirements with higher quality forage. Our objectives were to determine if September weaning or grazing subirrigated meadows would improve body condition score of spring calving primiparous beef cows during September and October. and to determine nutrient intakes by dry and lactating cows grazing native range or subirrigated meadow regrowth

Seasonal Changes in Protein Degradabilities of Sandhills Native Range and Subirrigated Meadow Diets and Application of a Metabolizable Protein System

Meadow and range diets increased in digestibility, crude protein. and escape protein during periods of active growth

Computational tools for the study of the genomes of filamentous fungi

During the past year, we have developed and deployed several new computational tools to provide new means of access to information used for research in the biology of filamentous fungi. These new tools complement and extend other resources available for access to both molecular and biological data

Inside NanoSail-D: A Tiny Satellite with Big Ideas

"Small But Mighty" certainly describes the NanoSail-D experiment and mission. Its unique goals and designs were simple, but the implications of this technology are far reaching. From a tiny 3U CubeSat, NanoSail-D deployed a 10 square meter solar sail. This was the first sail vehicle to orbit the earth and was only the second time a sail was unfurled in space. The NanoSail-D team included: two NASA centers, Marshall and Ames, the universities of Alabama in Huntsville and Santa Clara in California, the Air Force Research Laboratory and many contractors including NeXolve, Gray Research and several others. The collaborative nature was imperative to the success of this project. In addition, the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation and Dynetics Inc. jointly sponsored the NanoSail-D project. This paper presents in-depth insight into the NanoSail-D development. Its design was a combination of left over space hardware coupled with cutting edge technology. Since this NanoSail-D mission was different from the first, several modifications were necessary for the second NanoSail-D unit. Unforeseen problems arose during refurbishment of the second unit and the team had to overcome these obstacles. Simple interfaces, clear responsibilities and division of effort allowed the team members to work independently on the common goal. This endeavor formed working relationships lasting well beyond the end of this mission. NanoSail-D pushed the technology envelop with future applications for all classes of satellites. NanoSail-D is truly a small but mighty satellite, which may cast a very big shadow for years to come

Cow/Calf Production Record Software.

16 p

Nanosail-D: The Small Satellite That Could!

Three years from its initial design review, NanoSail-D successfully deployed its sail on January 20th, 2011. It became the first solar sail vehicle to orbit the earth and the second sail ever unfurled in space. The NanoSail-D mission had two main objectives: eject a nanosatellite from a microsatellite; deploy its sail from a highly compacted volume and low mass system to validate large structure deployment and potential de-orbit technologies. These objectives were successfully achieved and the de-orbit analysis is in process. This paper presents an overview of the NanoSail-D project and insights into how potential setbacks were overcome. Many lessons have been learned during these past three years and are discussed in light of the phenomenal success and interest that this small satellite has generated. NanoSail-D was jointly designed and built by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA's Ames Research Center. ManTech/NeXolve Corporation also provided key sail design support. The NanoSail-D experiment is managed by Marshall and jointly sponsored by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation and Dynetics Inc. Ground operations support was provided by Santa Clara University, with radio beacon packets received from amateur operators around the world

Lamin B1 Depletion in Senescent Cells Triggers Large-Scale Changes in Gene Expression and the Chromatin Landscape

Senescence is a stable proliferation arrest, associated with an altered secretory pathway, thought to promote tumor suppression and tissue aging. While chromatin regulation and lamin B1 down-regulation have been implicated as senescence effectors, functional interactions between them are poorly understood. We compared genome-wide Lys4 trimethylation on histone H3 (H3K4me3) and H3K27me3 distributions between proliferating and senescent human cells and found dramatic differences in senescence, including large-scale domains of H3K4me3- and H3K27me3-enriched “mesas” and H3K27me3-depleted “canyons.” Mesas form at lamin B1-associated domains (LADs) in replicative senescence and oncogene-induced senescence and overlap DNA hypomethylation regions in cancer, suggesting that pre-malignant senescent chromatin changes foreshadow epigenetic cancer changes. Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome fibroblasts (mutant lamin A) also show evidence of H3K4me3 mesas, suggesting a link between premature chromatin changes and accelerated cell senescence. Canyons mostly form between LADs and are enriched in genes and enhancers. H3K27me3 loss is correlated with up-regulation of key senescence genes, indicating a link between global chromatin changes and local gene expression regulation. Lamin B1 reduction in proliferating cells triggers senescence and formation of mesas and canyons. Our data illustrate profound chromatin reorganization during senescence and suggest that lamin B1 down-regulation in senescence is a key trigger of global and local chromatin changes that impact gene expression, aging, and cancer

Mll1 is essential for the senescenceassociated secretory phenotype

Oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) and therapy-induced senescence (TIS), while tumor-suppressive, also promote procarcinogenic effects by activating the DNA damage response (DDR), which in turn induces inflammation. This inflammatory response prominently includes an array of cytokines known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Previous observations link the transcription-associated methyltransferase and oncoprotein MLL1 to the DDR, leading us to investigate the role of MLL1 in SASP expression. Our findings reveal direct MLL1 epigenetic control over proproliferative cell cycle genes: MLL1 inhibition represses expression of proproliferative cell cycle regulators required for DNA replication and DDR activation, thus disabling SASP expression. Strikingly, however, these effects of MLL1 inhibition on SASP gene expression do not impair OIS and, furthermore, abolish the ability of the SASP to enhance cancer cell proliferation. More broadly, MLL1 inhibition also reduces “SASP-like” inflammatory gene expression from cancer cells in vitro and in vivo independently of senescence. Taken together, these data demonstrate that MLL1 inhibition may be a powerful and effective strategy for inducing cancerous growth arrest through the direct epigenetic regulation of proliferation-promoting genes and the avoidance of deleterious OIS- or TIS-related tumor secretomes, which can promote both drug resistance and tumor progression