Sustaining the West: Cultural Responses to Canadian Environments edited by Liza Piper & Lisa Szabo-Jones

Review of Sustaining the West: Cultural Responses to Canadian Environments

Influence of structural disorder and large-scale geometric fluctuations on the Coherent Transport of Metallic Junctions and Molecular Wires

Structural disorder is present in almost all experimental measurements of electronic transport through single molecules or molecular wires. To assess its influence on the conductance is computationally demanding, because a large number of conformations must be considered. Here we analyze an approximate recursive layer Green function approach for the ballistic transport through quasi one-dimensional nano-junctions. We find a rapid convergence of the method with its control parameter, the layer thickness, and good agreement with existing experimental and theoretical data. Because the computational effort rises only linearly with system size, this method permits treatment of very large systems. We investigate the conductance of gold- and silver wires of different sizes and conformations. For weak electrode disorder and imperfect coupling between electrode and wire we find conductance variations of approximately 20%. Overall we find the conductance of silver junctions well described by the immediate vicinity of narrowest point in the junction, a result that may explain the observation of well-conserved conductance plateaus in recent experiments on silver junctions. In an application to flexible oligophene wires, we find that strongly distorted conformations that are sterically forbidden at zero temperature, contribute significantly to the observed average zero-bias conductance of the molecular wire

The k-Compartment Problem

This article defines a new minimization problem, the k-Compartment Problem, and presents its solution. The k-Compartment Problem is to determine the minimum sum of k+1 line segments that intersect two parallel lines which form k compartments

A Program Of Race Betterment: The Emergence And Evolution Of Eugenic Ideas In Michigan

Contemporary concerns with technologies like CRISPR and the proliferation of state laws restricting abortion have led people to wonder if we are witnessing a return of eugenics. I analyze the development and evolution of eugenic ideas and policies throughout the 20th century, using the state of Michigan as a frame of reference. In examining the eugenic theories and policies psychiatrists and physicians endorsed, I demonstrate that eugenics was a key component of preventive public medicine in the first two decades of the 20th century. I show how they educated the public on eugenics based on both environmentalist and hereditarian ideas and stressed that the suppression of individual rights to reproductive autonomy were necessary to improve the general welfare of society, an argument that influenced American jurists to endorse sterilization as a justifiable police power measure. I then reveal how these core principles remained embedded in both medical genetics and population control. Although medical geneticists shunned research on the inheritance of social behaviors, they remained committed to applying preventive genetic medicine for genetic physical and mental diseases and counseling individuals to not have children based on their genes. Population planners feared the catastrophic consequences of overpopulation and suppressed poor women’s right to reproductive autonomy around the world to address what they believed were crucial issues of resource depletion, economic development, and political stability during the Cold War. I conclude by looking at how eugenic ideas continue to suppress the reproductive rights of individuals while Michigan leaders have failed to adequately address the state’s eugenic past. Although contemporary notions of individualism in relation to reproduction prevent a resurgence of eugenics like that in the first half of the 20th century, current attempts to restrict reproductive rights are a cause for concern, and addressing our eugenic past is crucial to ensuring these rights are not violated

Observations on the reproductive morphology of some California spionid polychaetes

This study considers the morphology of the sperm, nephridia, seminal receptacles, and gonads among a number of California spionid species. The data collected provide support for the general observation of other workers

Seeing America: Women Photographers between the Wars

Seeing America explores the camera work of five women who directed their visions toward influencing social policy and cultural theory. Taken together, they visually articulated the essential ideas occupying the American consciousness in the years between the world wars. Melissa McEuen examines the work of Doris Ulmann, who made portraits of celebrated artists in urban areas and lesser-known craftspeople in rural places; Dorothea Lange, who magnified human dignity in the midst of poverty and unemployment; Marion Post Wolcott, a steadfast believer in collective strength as the antidote to social ills and the best defense against future challenges; Margaret Bourke-White, who applied avant-garde advertising techniques in her exploration of the human condition; and Berenice Abbott, a devoted observer of the continuous motion and chaotic energy that characterized the modern cityscape. Combining feminist biography with analysis of visual texts, McEuen considers the various prisms though which each woman saw and revealed America. Their documentary photographs were the result of personal visions that had been formed by experiences and emotions as well as by careful calculations and technological processes. These photographers captured the astounding variety of occupations, values, and leisure activities that shaped the nation, and their photographs illuminate the intricate workings of American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Winner of the 1999 Emily Toth Award for the best feminist study of popular culture given by the Women’s Caucus of the Popular Culture Association Melissa McEuen is an assistant professor of history at Transylvania University. Each short biographical study of these artists and their professional habits charts the evolution of socially conscious photography. —Arkansas Review A treasury of information and analysis. . . . A rich resource for anyone interested in the history of photography, women\u27s history, and American history in general. —Bloomsbury Review The quality in this study rests in McEuen’s ability to synthesize individual creativity with a description of the period, and how these women’s photography played a role in so many aspects of it. —Choice A valiant, well-researched effort to bridge the history of visual culture with American social and political history. —Journal of American History Gives credit to the women who had the unique ability to capture the unfailing human spirit in their images. —Kentucky Monthly Profiles five female photographers, their work, their motivations and their reflection of America. —Lexington Herald-Leader The best books always leave their audience wanting more. That is certainly true of this gem of a work. —Library Journal (starred review) Succeeds in conveying to the reader the remarkable intellectual curiosity and wherewithal of these women, as evidenced by the vibrancy and variety of the their work. —Magill Book Reviews McEuen has contributed an impressively-researched, well-written, and engaging volume, rich in contextual details and appealing to specialists and general readers alike. —NWSA Journal Illuminates both the work and the personalities of the artists—as well as the difficulties of being a woman photographer at the time. —Ohioana Quarterly Opens a window on American culture between the world wars. —Publishers Weekly McEuen looks beyond the image, in this case photographs, to understand who fashioned the image and why. —Register of the Kentucky Historical Societyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_womens_studies/1007/thumbnail.jp

One-dimensional transport in bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes

We report measurements of the temperature and gate voltage dependence for individual bundles (ropes) of single-walled nanotubes. When the conductance is less than about e^2/h at room temperature, it is found to decrease as an approximate power law of temperature down to the region where Coulomb blockade sets in. The power-law exponents are consistent with those expected for electron tunneling into a Luttinger liquid. When the conductance is greater than e^2/h at room temperature, it changes much more slowly at high temperatures, but eventually develops very large fluctuations as a function of gate voltage when sufficiently cold. We discuss the interpretation of these results in terms of transport through a Luttinger liquid.Comment: 5 pages latex including 3 figures, for proceedings of IWEPNM 99 (Kirchberg

Changing Eyes: American Culture and the Photographic Image, 1918-1941.

From 1918 to 1941, fast-paced changes and far-reaching crises occurred in all realms of American life--social, economic, political, cultural, and intellectual. Evidence of the culture\u27s preoccupations showed up not only in written, but also in visual sources. Photographs helped to reveal the values of American culture, and did so with increasing frequency as the photographic process was further improved. Each visual image bore the marks of its culture, yet none provided a completely objective look at reality. For every picture was the product of the personality standing behind the camera. This study examines both the lives and the photographs of five women who took pictures in the 1920s and 1930s. These five--Doris Ulmann, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, Berenice Abbott, and Marion Post Wolcott--were selected for several reasons: each made considerable contributions to photography\u27s development, in a historical sense; each produced perceptive works reflecting American thought and life in these decades; and each displayed a unique style, indicative of type and amount of artistic training, political background, varying financial constraints, and sources of support, some private and some public. Together, the five produced a corps of visual images that epitomized the nature of American culture and character in two decades marked by tremendous changes in all realms. Their work covers as broad a spectrum in tastes, methods, and visions, as any in the history of photography. That these woman worked during such a critical time in the nation\u27s history simply augments their personal achievements. In using photographs as historical evidence, I have examined photographic series of particular subjects, rather than isolated images. I have discussed various sources of funding photographers relied upon, and I have analyzed the extent to which these sources influenced the kinds of photographs that resulted. The main line of argument throughout the study deals with how methods and directions of photography itself changed in these two decades; how these five women I have studied served as both vehicles for, and creators of, change; and how Americans, both collectively, and as individuals, were portrayed through the medium of photography

The Game Has Changed: A New Paradigm for Stakeholder Engagement

For business operators, the game has changed in terms of relationships with significant stakeholders—including employees, customers, and suppliers. The traditional business beliefs that brought success in the past will not bring success in the future. Whether you call today’s business environment the “new normal,” the “not normal,” or just plain unsettling, you have probably noticed that the old ways aren’t working. People are skeptical about their relationships with business, and a new approach is needed. As Albert Einstein postulated, “Problems that are created by our current level of thinking can’t be solved by that same level of thinking.” In this paper, I explain the paradigm shift in thinking that is required for business to survive and prosper in the “new normal” that is taking shape