Building an Open-Source Archive for Born-Digital Dissertations

This proposal for a Level I Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant would support an interdisciplinary workshop aimed at identifying the issues, opportunities and requirements for developing an open-source system into which born-digital dissertations (e.g., interactive webtexts, software, games, etc.) can be deposited and maintained, and through which they can be accessed and cross-referenced. The workshop will build upon the framework set up by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLDT) and the United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association (USETDA), which support the creation and dissemination of digital dissertations, but, despite best efforts, do not currently offer a comprehensive, central repository or index of born-digital dissertations such as exists for print (e.g., Proquest). One of the primary goals for this workshop will be to develop a plan for the development of such a tool as well as the identification of a project advisory board

Mucedorus: the last ludic playbook, the first stage Arcadia

This article argues that two seemingly contradictory factors contributed to and sustained the success of the anonymous Elizabethan play Mucedorus (c. 1590; pub. 1598). First, that both the initial composition of Mucedorus and its Jacobean revival were driven in part by the popularity of its source, Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Second, the playbook's invitation to amateur playing allowed its romance narrative to be adopted and repurposed by diverse social groups. These two factors combined to create something of a paradox, suggesting that Mucedorus was both open to all yet iconographically connected to an elite author's popular text. This study will argue that Mucedorus pioneered the fashion for “continuations” or adaptations of the famously unfinished Arcadia, and one element of its success in print was its presentation as an affordable and performable version of Sidney's elite work. The Jacobean revival of Mucedorus by the King's Men is thus evidence of a strategy of engagement with the Arcadia designed to please the new Stuart monarchs. This association with the monarchy in part determined the cultural functions of the Arcadia and Mucedorus through the Interregnum to the close of the seventeenth century

Innervation options for gracilis free muscle transfer in facial reanimation

Gracilis free muscle transfer (GFMT) is considered the gold standard in dynamic smile reanimation in patients with long-standing facial paralysis. There are multiple motor nerves in the head and neck that can be used to provide innervation to the GFMT, either alone or in combination. In this article, we review the literature about these donor nerve options and discuss their advantages and disadvantages in terms of smile excursion, spontaneity, reliability, and timing. Furthermore, we discuss the use of multiple donor nerve sources in dually-innervated GFMT and areas for future investigation

High Magnetic Field Corrections to Resistance Thermometers for Low Temperature Calorimetry

We present a general analytical method of correcting for magnetic-field-induced changes in both the apparent temperature and the sensitivity of resistive thermometers at dilution refrigerator temperatures. With this method, we are able to reduce magnetic field induced errors in temperature to a level limited only by our ability to regulate the temperature in the absence of a magnetic field. We illustrate the application of our method to two resistive sensors in magnetic fields up to 18 T: a custom-made AuxGe1-x thin film sensor used in calorimetry and a commercially available ruthenium-oxide thick film resistor used in thermometry

KIN-29 SIK regulates chemoreceptor gene expression via an MEF2 transcription factor and a class II HDAC

The expression of individual chemoreceptor (CR) genes in Caenorhabditis elegans is regulated by multiple environmental and developmental cues, possibly enabling C. elegans to modulate its sensory responses. We had previously shown that KIN-29, a member of the salt-inducible kinase family, acts in a subset of chemosensory neurons to regulate the expression of CR genes, body size and entry into the alternate dauer developmental stage. Here, we show that KIN-29 regulates these processes by phosphorylating the HDA-4 class II histone deacetylase (HDAC) and inhibiting the gene repression functions of HDA-4 and an MEF-2 MADS domain transcription factor. MEF-2 binds directly to the CR gene regulatory sequences, and is required only to repress but not activate CR gene expression. A calcineurin phosphatase antagonizes the KIN-29/MEF-2-regulated pathway to modulate levels of CR gene expression. Our results identify KIN-29 as a new regulator of MEF2/HDAC functions in the nervous system, reveal cell-specific mechanisms of action of this pathway in vivo and demonstrate remarkable complexity in the regulation of CR gene expression in C. elegans