The politics of space: student communes, political counterculture, and the Columbia University protest of 1968

This thesis examines the Columbia University protest of April 1968 through the lens of space. It concludes that the student communes established in occupied campus buildings were free spaces that facilitated the protestors' reconciliation of political and social difference, and introduced Columbia students to the practical possibilities of democratic participation and student autonomy. This thesis begins by analyzing the roots of the disparate organizations and issues involved in the protest, including SDS, SAS, and the Columbia School of Architecture. Next it argues that the practice of participatory democracy and maintenance of student autonomy within the political counterculture of the communes awakened new political sensibilities among Columbia students. Finally, this thesis illustrates the simultaneous growth and factionalization of the protest community following the police raid on the communes and argues that these developments support the overall claim that the free space of the communes was of fundamental importance to the protest

Living the movement: Liberation News Service, Montague Farm, and the New Left, 1967-1981

This dissertation uses the Liberation News Service (LNS)--the Associated Press of New Left underground media--and Montague Farm--a commune created by former LNS staffers--as a lens through which to trace the evolution of the American New Left after 1968. The establishments of underground newspapers--often organized as work collectives--and communes were two of the most ubiquitous and emblematic gestures of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For this reason, LNS and Montague Farm serve as ideal subjects to reveal how institutions founded on the ideals of late-1960s activism adapted their politics to survive in the adverse political culture of the 1970s. By tracking these two groups, this dissertation grounds the events of the 1970s in the legacies of the 1960s. Along the way it explores the divergent aspirations of the communal counterculture, the evolution and demise of the New Left, and the quotidian challenges of living the Movement. Both groups drew from their political worldviews in order to shape their daily lives, creating new divisions of labor, new social arrangements, and new personal politics. With these trends in mind, this dissertation extends the chronological breadth of the Sixties, rethinks the relationship between political and cultural radicalism, and explores the relationship between diverse social movements. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that living the movement--through emphases on personal liberation and egalitarianism--became a central institutional survival strategy amid the demise of the New Left and the emergence of an adversarial national political culture. LNS accomplished this goal by continually revising its collective work structure; Montague Farm did so through communal living, antinuclear activism, and alternative energy organizing. This entwined institutional history suggests that the New Left's endgame was significantly more drawn out and complicated than defeatist New Leftists and triumphalist conservatives would have us believe. Indeed, both LNS and Montague Farm maintained a broad vision of Movement activism through the dusk of the 1970s

Effects of dominance and female presence on secondary sexual characteristics in male tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella)

Alpha status may lead to physiological changes that enhance secondary sexual characteristics, which may serve as competitive signals to conspecific males, sexual signals to females, or possibly a combination of both. Here we report measurements of secondary sexual characteristics in captive dominant and subordinate male tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) with varying access to females. An adult male (who had previously been subordinate while housed with other males) was paired with an adult female, and then this male-female pair was introduced into a room that housed three other male-male pairs with stable hierarchy arrangements. We analyzed weight, body measurements, facial photographs, and hair cortisol before, during, and after introducing a female into the room. While there were no differences in weight or measurements between alphas and subordinates without physical access to the female prior to or during the female’s presence, we found that direct access to the female resulted in dramatic changes in facial appearance, body size, and testicular volume in the male who was paired with her. Overall, we found little evidence to suggest that alpha males advertise their status within all male groups via sexual secondary characteristics. However, direct physical access to females appears to trigger the development of such characteristics in alpha males. It remains of continued interest to identify the endocrine mechanisms responsible for the development, and possible loss, of secondary sexual characteristics

Sex and rank affect how infant rhesus macaques look at faces

We investigated how differences in infant sex and mothers’ dominance status affect infant rhesus macaques’ (Macaca mulatta) interest in visually exploring emotional facial expressions. Thirty-eight infants were presented with animated avatars of macaque facial expressions during the first month of life. Sons of high-ranking mothers looked more at faces, especially the eye region, than sons of low-ranking mothers, but no difference in looking duration was found for daughters. Males looked significantly more at eyes than females, but this effect was reversed in infants who were reared without mothers in a primate nursery facility. In addition, in mother-infant interactions, mothers of sons were more likely to gaze at their infant’s face compared to mothers of daughters. Combined with previous research indicating that rhesus macaque mothers interact differently with infants based on their own rank and infant’s sex, these results support the view that social experiences shape early face preferences in rhesus macaques

Evaluating the use of HILIC in large-scale, multi dimensional proteomics:horses for courses?

AbstractDespite many recent advances in instrumentation, the sheer complexity of biological samples remains a major challenge in large-scale proteomics experiments, reflecting both the large number of protein isoforms and the wide dynamic range of their expression levels. However, while the dynamic range of expression levels for different components of the proteome is estimated to be ∼107–8, the equivalent dynamic range of LC–MS is currently limited to ∼106. Sample pre-fractionation has therefore become routinely used in large-scale proteomics to reduce sample complexity during MS analysis and thus alleviate the problem of ion suppression and undersampling. There is currently a wide range of chromatographic techniques that can be applied as a first dimension separation. Here, we systematically evaluated the use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), in comparison with hSAX, as a first dimension for peptide fractionation in a bottom-up proteomics workflow. The data indicate that in addition to its role as a useful pre-enrichment method for PTM analysis, HILIC can provide a robust, orthogonal and high-resolution method for increasing the depth of proteome coverage in large-scale proteomics experiments. The data also indicate that the choice of using either HILIC, hSAX, or other methods, is best made taking into account the specific types of biological analyses being performed

Vegetation Cover Analysis of Hazardous Waste Sites in Utah and Arizona Using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

This study investigated the usability of hyperspectral remote sensing for characterizing vegetation at hazardous waste sites. The specific objectives of this study were to: (1) estimate leaf-area-index (LAI) of the vegetation using three different methods (i.e., vegetation indices, red-edge positioning (REP), and machine learning regression trees), and (2) map the vegetation cover using machine learning decision trees based on either the scaled reflectance data or mixture tuned matched filtering (MTMF)-derived metrics and vegetation indices. HyMap airborne data (126 bands at 2.3 x 2.3 m spatial resolution), collected over the U. S. Department of Energy uranium processing sites near Monticello, Utah and Monument Valley, Arizona, were used. Grass and shrub species were mixed on an engineered disposal cell cover at the Monticello site while shrub species were dominant in the phytoremediation plantings at the Monument Valley site. Regression trees resulted in the best calibration performance of LAI estimation (R-2 > 0.80. The use of REPs failed to accurately predict LAI (R-2 < 0.2). The use of the MTMF-derived metrics (matched filter scores and infeasibility) and a range of vegetation indices in decision trees improved the vegetation mapping when compared to the decision tree classification using just the scaled reflectance. Results suggest that hyperspectral imagery are useful for characterizing biophysical characteristics (LAI) and vegetation cover on capped hazardous waste sites. However, it is believed that the vegetation mapping would benefit from the use of higher spatial resolution hyperspectral data due to the small size of many of the vegetation patches (<1 m) found on the sites.open111

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC)—a powerful separation technique

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) provides an alternative approach to effectively separate small polar compounds on polar stationary phases. The purpose of this work was to review the options for the characterization of HILIC stationary phases and their applications for separations of polar compounds in complex matrices. The characteristics of the hydrophilic stationary phase may affect and in some cases limit the choices of mobile phase composition, ion strength or buffer pH value available, since mechanisms other than hydrophilic partitioning could potentially occur. Enhancing our understanding of retention behavior in HILIC increases the scope of possible applications of liquid chromatography. One interesting option may also be to use HILIC in orthogonal and/or two-dimensional separations. Bioapplications of HILIC systems are also presented

Victuals and Values: Exploring Cultural Differences in Family Health Using a Food Memory Framework

Food memories are salient across the lifespan and recent work suggests that memories for past food experiences, especially those from childhood, may influence caregivers’ present-day eating and family meal planning behaviors. Yet, researchers have not identified how cultural ideology interacts with the memory system to inform the intergenerational transmission of food values and beliefs within the family unit. This omission has the potential to perpetuate pre-existing health disparities in families belonging to minority groups and limits the efficacy and appeal of nutritional initiatives within an ever-diversifying U.S. population. Across three studies, the present dissertation examined qualitative and quantitative data on childhood memories, eating motivations, and physical health collected from caregivers belong to four subcultural groups in the U.S. The primary aims of this dissertation were to provide a systematic comparison of food and non-food memories using mixed methods (Study 1), examine food memories from a cultural perspective (Study 2), and identify potential pathways between food memories, eating motivations, and health (Study 3). The three studies presented in this dissertation demonstrated that childhood autobiographical food memories are unique, culturally bound, and potentially linked to food-related behaviors, eating motivations, and health status later in life. This dissertation provides the first known evidence of a culturally moderated pathway between the autobiographical memory system, eating motivations, health perceptions, and caregiver BMI and represents a first step towards identifying how the memory system can be used to develop more inclusive and efficacious healthcare programs