Oral History Interview: Francis M. Curnutte

This interview is one of a series conducted with West Virginian religious leaders. Born in Mingo County, West Virginia, Mr. Curnutte resided in Wayne, West Virginia at the time of the interview. Subjects discussed include: rural religion of the twenties and thirties, snake handling, and the changing nature of religion.https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1107/thumbnail.jp

Discrete Homotopy Theory and Critical Values of Metric Spaces

Utilizing the discrete homotopy methods developed for uniform spaces by Berestovskii-Plaut, we define the critical spectrum Cr(X) of a metric space, generalizing to the non-geodesic case the covering spectrum defined by Sormani-Wei and the homotopy critical spectrum defined by Plaut-Wilkins. If X is geodesic, Cr(X) is the same as the homotopy critical spectrum, which differs from the covering spectrum by a factor of 3/2. The latter two spectra are known to be discrete for compact geodesic spaces, and correspond to the values at which certain special covering maps, called delta-covers (Sormani-Wei) or epsilon-covers (Plaut-Wilkins), change equivalence type. In this paper we initiate the study of these ideas for non-geodesic spaces, motivated by the need to understand the extent to which the accompanying covering maps are topological invariants. We show that discreteness of the critical spectrum for general metric spaces can fail in several ways, which we classify. The "newcomer" critical values for compact, non-geodesic spaces are completely determined by the homotopy critical values and refinement critical values, the latter of which can, in many cases, be removed by changing the metric in a bi-Lipschitz way.Comment: 5 figures, 23 pages. This third version includes updated references, additions to the introduction that further motivate the investigation of the critical spectrum for non-geodesic spaces, and an answer to a question posed by the authors in the first version regarding the topological relevance of refinement critical value

Consuming Genomes: The Coproduction of a New Scientific and Technological Order for Genetic Testing

At the intersection of consumer culture, venture capital, biotechnology, and increased patient autonomy, a new biomedical service industry has emerged. Since 2006 companies in the US have been altering the landscape of health care by offering Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing for a variety of diseases and traits. Recently, the activities of 23andMe and Navigenics, the two leading providers of DTC genetic services, have come under the scrutiny of various regulators and institutions, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Energy and Commerce. In this dissertation, I situate direct-to-consumer genetic testing within the historical trajectory of genetic testing technology and the increasing profitability of information technology and biomedicine. I then analyze the recent encounters between DTC providers and regulators to identify the key scientific and discursive resources that are being employed to position the genetic testing technology with respect to regulatory initiatives. My empirical analysis of a rich set of primary sources (including websites, policy documents, and interviews) shows that the emergence of DTC genetic testing is a conspicuous instance of coproduction: a new social and technological order for genetic testing has led to the emergence of a new figure, the genetic consumer

Using Google Earth to Track Carnegie Steel from U.S. History

Students will understand that Carnegie Steel owned all facets of steel production and transportation, effectively cutting out the middle men, thus maximizing corporate profits

The Separation of Piperylene Concentrate by Extractive Distillation

Piperylene concentrate, the five-carbon olefin and diolefin by-product of ethylene production, is being produced in increasing quantities as liquid feedstocks become more prevalent. At present, the concentrate is used primarily in resin production for the adhesives industry. Since this use is economically unattractive, a separation of the concentrate into pure compounds is industrially desirable. The evaluation of the effectiveness of several solvents for extractive distillation of piperylene concentrate was performed. This study resulted in the selection of acetonitrile as the most effective and most economical solvent investigated. Various distillation conditions were studied and optimization was based on these results

Osmotic forces are not critical for Ca 2+ -induced secretion from permeabilized human neutrophils

In order to examine the role of osmotic forces in degranulation, the effects of solutes and osmolality on granule secretion were explored using both FMLP-stimulated, intact neutrophils and Ca 2+ -stimulated, permeabilized cells. We employed a HEPES-based buffer system which was supplemented with: (a) permeant (KCl or NaCI) or impermeant (Na-isethionate or choline-CI) ions, or (b) permeant (urea) or impermeant (sucrose) uncharged solutes. Intact and permeabilized cells had significantly different solute requirements for degranulation. FMLP-stimulated release from intact cells was supported by NaCI or Na-isethionate > KCl > choline-Cl or sucrose > urea. In contrast, the rank order of Ca 2+ -stimulated release from permeabilized cells was choline-C > Na-isethionate, KCl, or NaCl > sucrose > urea. Hypo-osmotic conditions caused increased levels of background granule release from both intact and permeabilized neutrophils. However, hypo-osmolality inhibited both FMLP-stimulated degranulation from intact cells and Ca 2+ -induced release from permeabilized neutrophils. While hyperosmotic conditions inhibited stimulated release from intact cells, this inhibition was much less pronounced in permeabilized cells when the granules were directly exposed to these solutions. In fact, hyperosmotic sucrose greatly enhanced Ca 2+ -induced secretion. Although isolated specific and azurophil granules showed some lytic tendencies in hypo-osmotic buffers, the overall stability of the isolated granules did not indicate that swelling alone could effect degranulation. These results suggest that degranulation in permeabilized cells is neither due to nor driven by simple osmotic forces (under resting or stimulated conditions) and emphasize differences obtained by bathing both the granules and plasma membrane (as opposed to membranes alone) in various solutes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49877/1/1041350204_ftp.pd

Barriers to clinical adoption of next generation sequencing: Perspectives of a policy Delphi panel

AbstractThis research aims to inform policymakers by engaging expert stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and deliberate the most important and tractable policy barriers to the clinical adoption of next generation sequencing (NGS). A 4-round Delphi policy study was done with a multi-stakeholder panel of 48 experts. The first 2 rounds of online questionnaires (reported here) assessed the importance and tractability of 28 potential barriers to clinical adoption of NGS across 3 major policy domains: intellectual property, coverage and reimbursement, and FDA regulation. We found that: 1) proprietary variant databases are seen as a key challenge, and a potentially intractable one; 2) payer policies were seen as a frequent barrier, especially a perceived inconsistency in standards for coverage; 3) relative to other challenges considered, FDA regulation was not strongly perceived as a barrier to clinical use of NGS. Overall the results indicate a perceived need for policies to promote data-sharing, and a desire for consistent payer coverage policies that maintain reasonably high standards of evidence for clinical utility, limit testing to that needed for clinical care decisions, and yet also flexibly allow for clinician discretion to use genomic testing in uncertain circumstances of high medical need