Abstention and Opposition

ABSTENTION AND OPPOSITION Ryan LaBar, M.F.A. University of Nebraska, 2010 Adviser: Peter Pinnell Working with clay, I fabricate individual wheel thrown elements, these, together with other clay parts, are carefully stacked on top of each other to compose a layered and woven structure. Each element counterbalances the position of another. These precarious constructs are placed in a kiln, and the heat of the kiln melts and moves the clay and glaze. The clay parts deform as the material softens. Tensions are released, causing the system to undergo a domino effect best described as a cascading failure where the failure of one part triggers the failure of successive parts. As the firing progresses, the movement quiets and the system of parts reach equilibrium and become a singular and rested whole. The final composition reflects the motion and revealed tension of the integrated clay parts. The deformed elements of the system appear suspended in space or compressed by the weight of another. Cool blue celadon bands twist around soft white porcelain rings as brown stoneware rods, once rigid, bend and weave their way throughout. The piece is a dynamic whole of singular elements. The combined movement of the neighboring parts has affected each singular part. The structural rods, bands, and rings change from being a physical structure of support to being a visual illusion of structure. The parts have mixed to become one. A transformation has occurred. Each component’s rigid and singular identity has changed, warped, and bent to accommodate the integration of the neighboring elements. The pieces are compositionally balanced with areas contrasting harmony and discord. Areas of harmony are emphasized through the use of color, line, and the repetition of form. Contrasting the areas of harmony are sections where form is lost and discord dominates. This is done by placing random elements that are structurally sound and don\u27t deform next to elements that provide and communicate movement. In these areas of visual discord, the viewer is confronted with the inability to find resolution. Resolution can only be discovered when a balance between harmony and discord are discovered and embraced throughout the whole of the structure. The pieces are a metaphor for my personal identity. My psyche, like my work, is a composed structure of many single elements of experience. These experiences, woven together, tangled and piled, undergo a “cascading failure,” melting together to create collaborative memory that defines me as a pluralistic whole. This whole is a composition of self and guides the changes that bring me closer to self-actualization. As I collect and integrate experiences, I occasionally step back to analyze myself. After this moment of self-awareness, I seek out experiences that will lead me to become my idealized whole. In life, as in my work, I have an understanding that things will only turn out as an approximation of my intent. What results is usually something unexpected. It is within the unexpected where truths can be found. These truths define one\u27s course of experiences. This ever changing, self-defining feedback loop drives the improvement of my work and self

TIME-OF-FLIGHT STUDIES OF ELECTRONS IN VACUUM

An electron gun, drift tube, and fast amplifier (described) were designed and tested as part of a time-offlight electron beam monochromator. Drift time distributions were obtained for electrons of mean energy from 3 to 15 ev, which required mean transit times from 800 to 350 nsec, respectively, with the latter minimum value corresponding to the effects of amplifier rise time and pulse width from the avalanche transistor pulser. The former value corresponds to an electron energy spread from the electron gun of about 0.6 ev. The reciprocal of the square of the transit time is a linear function of the electron gun accelerating potential with an intercept at -- 1.5 v attributed to contact potentials. Beam attenuation due to scattering off of residual gas in the vacuum system indicated that pressures below 10/sup -6/ mm Hg are required in order to avoid loss of electrons in drift distances of the order of one meter. (auth

Effects of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy of Unverricht-Lundborg Type

Purpose : A 34-year-old woman with progressive myoclonus epilepsy of Unverricht-Lundborg type was considered for vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy. Methods : After demonstration of intractability to multiple antiepileptic regimens and progressive deterioration in cerebellar function, the patient was implanted with a vagus nerve stimulator and followed for 1 year. Neurological status, seizure frequency, and parameter changes were analyzed. Results : VNS therapy resulted in reduction of seizures (more than 90%) and a significant improvement in cerebellar function demonstrated on neurological examination. The patient reported improved quality of life based in part on her ability to perform activities of daily living. Conclusions : VNS therapy may be considered a treatment option for progressive myoclonus epilepsy. The effects of VNS on seizure control and cerebellar dysfunction may provide clues to the underlying mechanism(s) of action.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65549/1/j.1528-1157.2000.tb00293.x.pd

日本文化を教えて - カンタベリー大学アジア研究学部（NZ）

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), a membrane-anchored enzyme responsible for the termination of endocannabinoid signalling, is an attractive target for treating conditions such as pain and anxiety. Inhibitors of the enzyme, optimized using rodent FAAH, are known but their pharmacology and medicinal chemistry properties on the human FAAH are missing. Therefore recombinant human enzyme would represent a powerful tool to evaluate new drug candidates. However, the production of high amounts of enzyme is hampered by the known refractiveness of FAAH to overexpression. Here, we report the successful overexpression of rat and human FAAH as a fusion to the E. coli maltose-binding protein, retaining catalytic properties of native FAAH. Several known FAAH inhibitors were tested and differences in their potencies toward the human and rat FAAH were found, underscoring the importance of using a human FAAH in the development of inhibitors

A new experiment for the determination of the 18F(p,alpha) reaction rate at nova temperatures

The 18F(p,alpha) reaction was recognized as one of the most important for gamma ray astronomy in novae as it governs the early 511 keV emission. However, its rate remains largely uncertain at nova temperatures. A direct measurement of the cross section over the full range of nova energies is impossible because of its vanishing value at low energy and of the short 18F lifetime. Therefore, in order to better constrain this reaction rate, we have performed an indirect experiment taking advantage of the availability of a high purity and intense radioactive 18F beam at the Louvain La Neuve RIB facility. We present here the first results of the data analysis and discuss the consequences.Comment: Contribution to the Classical Novae Explosions conference, Sitges, Spain, 20-24 May 2002, 5 pages, 3 figure

Negative emotional stimuli reduce contextual cueing but not response times in inefficient search

In visual search, previous work has shown that negative stimuli narrow the focus of attention and speed reaction times (RTs). This paper investigates these two effects by first asking whether negative emotional stimuli narrow the focus of attention to reduce the learning of a display context in a contextual cueing task and, second, whether exposure to negative stimuli also reduces RTs in inefficient search tasks. In Experiment 1, participants viewed either negative or neutral images (faces or scenes) prior to a contextual cueing task. In a typical contextual cueing experiment, RTs are reduced if displays are repeated across the experiment compared with novel displays that are not repeated. The results showed that a smaller contextual cueing effect was obtained after participants viewed negative stimuli than when they viewed neutral stimuli. However, in contrast to previous work, overall search RTs were not faster after viewing negative stimuli (Experiments 2 to 4). The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional content on visual processing and the ability to use scene context to help facilitate search

Indirect study of 19Ne states near the 18F+p threshold

The early E < 511 keV gamma-ray emission from novae depends critically on the 18F(p,a)15O reaction. Unfortunately the reaction rate of the 18F(p,a)15O reaction is still largely uncertain due to the unknown strengths of low-lying proton resonances near the 18F+p threshold which play an important role in the nova temperature regime. We report here our last results concerning the study of the d(18F,p)19F(alpha)15N transfer reaction. We show in particular that these two low-lying resonances cannot be neglected. These results are then used to perform a careful study of the remaining uncertainties associated to the 18F(p,a)15O and 18F(p,g)19Ne reaction rates.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. Accepted in Nuclear Physics

Attentional demand influences strategies for encoding into visual working memory

Visual selective attention and visual working memory (WM) share the same capacity-limited resources. We investigated whether and how participants can cope with a task in which these 2 mechanisms interfere. The task required participants to scan an array of 9 objects in order to select the target locations and to encode the items presented at these locations into WM (1 to 5 shapes). Determination of the target locations required either few attentional resources (“popout condition”) or an attention-demanding serial search (“non pop-out condition”). Participants were able to achieve high memory performance in all stimulation conditions but, in the non popout conditions, this came at the cost of additional processing time. Both empirical evidence and subjective reports suggest that participants invested the additional time in memorizing the locations of all target objects prior to the encoding of their shapes into WM. Thus, they seemed to be unable to interleave the steps of search with those of encoding. We propose that the memory for target locations substitutes for perceptual pop-out and thus may be the key component that allows for flexible coping with the common processing limitations of visual WM and attention. The findings have implications for understanding how we cope with real-life situations in which the demands on visual attention and WM occur simultaneously

D(18F,pa)15N reaction applied to nova gamma-ray emission

The 18F(p,alpha)15O reaction is recognized to be one of the most important reactions for nova gamma-ray astronomy as it governs the early E <= 511keV gamma emission. However in the nova temperature regime, its rate remains largely uncertain due to unknown low-energy resonance strengths. We report here the measurement of the D(18F,p)19F(alpha)15N one-nucleon transfer reaction, induced by a 14 MeV 18F radioactive beam impinging on a CD2 target; outgoing protons and 15N (or alpha-particles) were detected in coincidence in two silicon strip detectors. A DWBA analysis of the data resulted in new limits to the contribution of low-energy resonances to the rate of the 18F(p,alpha)15O reaction.Comment: Rapid Communication to appear in Phys. Rev. C., 4 pages and 4 figure

Gain and Loss Learning Differentially Contribute to Life Financial Outcomes

Emerging findings imply that distinct neurobehavioral systems process gains and losses. This study investigated whether individual differences in gain learning and loss learning might contribute to different life financial outcomes (i.e., assets versus debt). In a community sample of healthy adults (n = 75), rapid learners had smaller debt-to-asset ratios overall. More specific analyses, however, revealed that those who learned rapidly about gains had more assets, while those who learned rapidly about losses had less debt. These distinct associations remained strong even after controlling for potential cognitive (e.g., intelligence, memory, and risk preferences) and socioeconomic (e.g., age, sex, ethnicity, income, education) confounds. Self-reported measures of assets and debt were additionally validated with credit report data in a subset of subjects. These findings support the notion that different gain and loss learning systems may exert a cumulative influence on distinct life financial outcomes