Ellen Glasgow\u27s Virginia : the background of her novels

Ellen Glasgow\u27s native state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, was a constituent portion of her. I am Virginian in every drop of my blood and pulse of my heart..., she said. With her Virginia she wove a rich background for her novels. At times the cloth was homespun like the background of the Burrs in THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE; at other times it was of a finer texture as in VIRGINIA; yet again it was a rich tapestry for people like the Archibalds in THE SHELTERED LIFE. Ellen Glasgow has contributed to world literature, in polished, exquisite form, an unbiased picture of Virginia. Beginning with the plantation scenes of 1850 in THE BATTLEGROUND, she takes her readers through almost a century of Virginia scenes and life. The reader sees back country, towns, cities through the changing years until Richmond in 1940 is portrayed in the novel, IN THIS OUR LIFE. Had Ellen Glasgow lived to write the contemplated novel, BEYOND DEFEAT, it is probable that she would have again portrayed Virginians against a Virginia landscape

A Comparitive Assessement of Cytokine Expression in Human-Derived Cell Lines Exposed to Alpha Particles and X-Rays

Alpha- (α-) particle radiation exposure has been linked to the development of lung cancer and has been identified as a radiation type likely to be employed in radiological dispersal devices. Currently, there exists a knowledge gap concerning cytokine modulations associated with exposure to α-particles. Bio-plex technology was employed to investigate changes in proinflammatory cytokines in two human-derived cell lines. Cells were irradiated at a dose of 1.5 Gy to either α-particles or X-rays at equivalent dose rates. The two cell lines exhibited a unique pattern of cytokine expression and the response varied with radiation type. Of the 27 cytokines assessed, only vascular endothelin growth factor (VEGF) was observed to be modulated in both cell lines solely after α-particle exposure, and the expression of VEGF was shown to be dose responsive. These results suggest that certain proinflammatory cytokines may be involved in the biological effects related to α- particle exposure and the responses are cell type and radiation type specific

Differential Effects of Alpha-Particle Radiation and X-Irradiation on Genes Associated with Apoptosis

This study examined differential effects of alpha-(α-) particle radiation and X-rays on apoptosis and associated changes in gene expression. Human monocytic cells were exposed to α-particle radiation and X-rays from 0 to 1.5 Gy. Four days postexposure, cell death was measured by flow cytometry and 84 genes related to apoptosis were analyzed using real-time PCR. On average, 33% of the cells were apoptotic at 1.5 Gy of α-particle radiation. Transcript profiling showed statistical expression of 15 genes at all three doses tested. Cells exposed to X-rays were <5% apoptotic at ~1.5 Gy and induced less than a 2-fold expression in 6 apoptotic genes at the higher doses of radiation. Among these 6 genes, Fas and TNF-α were common to the α-irradiated cells. This data suggests that α-particle radiation initiates cell death by TNF-α and Fas activation and through intermediate signalling mediators that are distinct from X-irradiated cells

RADIATION DOSE ESTIMATION BY COMPLETELY AUTOMATED INTERPRETATION OF THE DICENTRIC CHROMOSOME ASSAY

Accuracy of the automated dicentric chromosome (DC) assay relies on metaphase image selection. This study validates a software framework to find the best image selection models that mitigate inter-sample variability. Evaluation methods to determine model quality include the Poisson goodness-of-fit of DC distributions for each sample, residuals after calibration curve fitting and leave-one-out dose estimation errors. The process iteratively searches a pool of selection model candidates by modifying statistical and filter cut-offs to rank the best candidates according to their respective evaluation scores. Evaluation scores minimize the sum of squared errors relative to the actual radiation dose of the calibration samples. For one laboratory, the minimum score for the curve fit residual method was 0.0475 Gy2, compared to 1.1975 Gy2 without image selection. Application of optimal selection models using samples of unknown exposure produced estimated doses within 0.5 Gy of physical dose. Model optimization standardizes image selection among samples and provides relief from manual DC scoring, improving accuracy and consistency of dose estimation

Accurate cytogenetic biodosimetry through automated dicentric chromosome curation and metaphase cell selection

Accurate digital image analysis of abnormal microscopic structures relies on high quality images and on minimizing the rates of false positive (FP) and negative objects in images. Cytogenetic biodosimetry detects dicentric chromosomes (DCs) that arise from exposure to ionizing radiation, and determines radiation dose received based on DC frequency. Improvements in automated DC recognition increase the accuracy of dose estimates by reclassifying FP DCs as monocentric chromosomes or chromosome fragments. We also present image segmentation methods to rank high quality digital metaphase images and eliminate suboptimal metaphase cells. A set of chromosome morphology segmentation methods selectively filtered out FP DCs arising primarily from sister chromatid separation, chromosome fragmentation, and cellular debris. This reduced FPs by an average of 55% and was highly specific to these abnormal structures (≥97.7%) in three samples. Additional filters selectively removed images with incomplete, highly overlapped, or missing metaphase cells, or with poor overall chromosome morphologies that increased FP rates. Image selection is optimized and FP DCs are minimized by combining multiple feature based segmentation filters and a novel image sorting procedure based on the known distribution of chromosome lengths. Applying the same image segmentation filtering procedures to both calibration and test samples reduced the average dose estimation error from 0.4 Gy to \u3c0.2 Gy, obviating the need to first manually review these images. This reliable and scalable solution enables batch processing for multiple samples of unknown dose, and meets current requirements for triage radiation biodosimetry of high quality metaphase cell preparations

Automating dicentric chromosome detection from cytogenetic biodosimetry data.

We present a prototype software system with sufficient capacity and speed to estimate radiation exposures in a mass casualty event by counting dicentric chromosomes (DCs) in metaphase cells from many individuals. Top-ranked metaphase cell images are segmented by classifying and defining chromosomes with an active contour gradient vector field (GVF) and by determining centromere locations along the centreline. The centreline is extracted by discrete curve evolution (DCE) skeleton branch pruning and curve interpolation. Centromere detection minimises the global width and DAPI-staining intensity profiles along the centreline. A second centromere is identified by reapplying this procedure after masking the first. Dicentrics can be identified from features that capture width and intensity profile characteristics as well as local shape features of the object contour at candidate pixel locations. The correct location of the centromere is also refined in chromosomes with sister chromatid separation. The overall algorithm has both high sensitivity (85 %) and specificity (94 %). Results are independent of the shape and structure of chromosomes in different cells, or the laboratory preparation protocol followed. The prototype software was recoded in C++/OpenCV; image processing was accelerated by data and task parallelisation with Message Passaging Interface and Intel Threading Building Blocks and an asynchronous non-blocking I/O strategy. Relative to a serial process, metaphase ranking, GVF and DCE are, respectively, 100 and 300-fold faster on an 8-core desktop and 64-core cluster computers. The software was then ported to a 1024-core supercomputer, which processed 200 metaphase images each from 1025 specimens in 1.4 h

A Deep Probe of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions at z~1-3 with the GOODS NICMOS Survey

We use a sample of 8298 galaxies observed in the HST GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS) to construct the galaxy stellar mass function as a function of both redshift and stellar mass up to z=3.5 and down to masses of Mstar=10^8.5 Msun at z~1. We discover that a significant fraction of all massive Mstar>10^11 Msun galaxies are in place up to the highest redshifts we probe, with a decreasing fraction of lower mass galaxies present at all redshifts. This is an example of `galaxy mass downsizing', and is the result of massive galaxies forming before lower mass ones, and not just simply ending their star formation earlier as in traditional downsizing scenarios. We find that the faint end slope is significantly steeper than what is found in previous investigations. We demonstrate that this steeper mass function better matches the stellar mass added due to star formation, thereby alleviating some of the mismatch between these two measures of the evolution of galaxy mass. We furthermore examine the stellar mass function divided into blue/red systems, as well as for star forming and non-star forming galaxies. We find a similar mass downsizing present for both blue/red and star-forming/non-star forming galaxies, and that the low mass galaxies are mostly all blue, and are therefore creating the steep mass functions. We furthermore show that, although there is a downsizing such that high mass galaxies are nearer their z=0 values at high redshift, this turns over at masses Mstar~10^10 Msun, such that the lowest mass galaxies are more common than galaxies at slight higher masses, creating a `dip' in the observed galaxy mass function. We argue that the galaxy assembly process may be driven by different mechanisms at low and high masses, and that the efficiency of the galaxy formation process is lowest at masses Mstar~10^10 Msun at 1<z<3. (Abridged)Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS, accepte

Summer Programming: What Do Children Say?

Studies document that low-income children lose academic skills over the summer. Six years of reading achievement data collected by Energy Express, a nationally recognized summer reading and nutrition program in West Virginia, has established the efficacy of the intervention. The purpose of this study was to examine characteristics of a voluntary summer program that foster participation. Interview data indicates that children attend because they perceive the program as fun; large creative art (for example, full-body portraits, appliance box castles, wall murals) seems particularly important. Energy Express gives children both the fun they want and the enrichment they need in the summer

What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education?

The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short response to the guiding conference question. The following are these responses which range from philosophical considerations, systems and governance perspectives, national particularities and teacher and principal perspectives