The Right Development of Mount Desert

A privately printed piece discussing advantages and disadvantages of economic and residential development of the area of Mount Desert Island, Maine, and the relationships between summer and year round residents

Copper and Stone

This thesis project is prefaced with a personal history that looks at experiences and relationships as an inspiration for creative writing. The remaining sections include original poetry that responds to family history, personal experience, and recurrent themes of war, loss, nature, and relationships. Selected literature and poetry prompts are noted from diverse styles and writers - Thoreau, Milosz, Williams, Jarrell - among others

Evolution of the Stx2-Encoding Prophage in Persistent Bovine Escherichia coli O157:H7 Strains

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a human pathogen that resides asymptomatically in its bovine host. The level of Shiga toxin (Stx) produced is variable in bovine-derived strains in contrast to human isolates that mostly produce high levels of Stx. To understand the genetic basis for varied Stx production, chronological collections of bovine isolates from Wisconsin dairy farms, R and X, were analyzed for multilocus prophage polymorphisms, stx(2) subtypes, and the levels of stx(2) transcript and toxin. The E. coli O157:H7 that persisted on both farms were phylogenetically distinct and yet produced little to no Stx2 due to gene deletions in Stx2c-encoding prophage (farm R) or insertional inactivation of stx(2a) by IS1203v (farm X). Loss of key regulatory and lysis genes in Stx2c-encoding prophage abolished stx(2c) transcription and induction of the prophage and stx(2a)::IS1203v in Stx2a-encoding prophage generated a truncated stx(2a) mRNA without affecting phage production. Stx2-producing strains were transiently present (farm R) and became Stx2 negative on farm X (i.e., stx(2a)::IS1203v). To our knowledge, this is the first study that details the evolution of E. coli O157:H7 and its Stx2-encoding prophage in a chronological collection of natural isolates. The data suggest the bovine and farm environments can be niches where Stx2-negative E. coli O157:H7 emerge and persist, which explains the Stx variability in bovine isolates and may be part of an evolutionary step toward becoming bovine specialists

Specific emotions as mediators of the effect of intergroup contact on prejudice: findings across multiple participant and target groups

Emotions are increasingly being recognised as important aspects of prejudice and intergroup behaviour. Specifically, emotional mediators play a key role in the process by which intergroup contact reduces prejudice towards outgroups. However, which particular emotions are most important for prejudice reduction, as well as the consistency and generality of emotion–prejudice relations across different in-group–out-group relations, remain uncertain. To address these issues, in Study 1 we examined six distinct positive and negative emotions as mediators of the contact–prejudice relations using representative samples of U.S. White, Black, and Asian American respondents (N = 639). Admiration and anger (but not other emotions) were significant mediators of the effects of previous contact on prejudice, consistently across different perceiver and target ethnic groups. Study 2 examined the same relations with student participants and gay men as the out-group. Admiration and disgust mediated the effect of past contact on attitude. The findings confirm that not only negative emotions (anger or disgust, based on the specific types of threat perceived to be posed by an out-group), but also positive, status- and esteem-related emotions (admiration) mediate effects of contact on prejudice, robustly across several different respondent and target groups

Mediator Condensates Localize Signaling Factors to Key Cell Identity Genes

The gene expression programs that define the identity of each cell are controlled by master transcription factors (TFs) that bind cell-type-specific enhancers, as well as signaling factors, which bring extracellular stimuli to these enhancers. Recent studies have revealed that master TFs form phase-separated condensates with the Mediator coactivator at super-enhancers. Here, we present evidence that signaling factors for the WNT, TGF-β, and JAK/STAT pathways use their intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) to enter and concentrate in Mediator condensates at super-enhancers. We show that the WNT coactivator β-catenin interacts both with components of condensates and DNA-binding factors to selectively occupy super-enhancer-associated genes. We propose that the cell-type specificity of the response to signaling is mediated in part by the IDRs of the signaling factors, which cause these factors to partition into condensates established by the master TFs and Mediator at genes with prominent roles in cell identity

Marketing (as) Rhetoric: paradigms, provocations, and perspectives

In this collection of short, invited essays on the topic of marketing (as) rhetoric we deal with a variety of issues that demonstrate the centrality of rhetoric and rhetorical considerations to the pursuit of marketing scholarship, research and practice. Stephen Brown examines the enduring rhetorical power of the 4Ps; Chris Hackley argues for the critical power of rhetorical orientations in marketing scholarship but cautions us on the need to work harder in conceptually connecting rhetorical theory and modern marketing frameworks; Shelby Hunt explains how rhetorical processes are incorporated in his inductive realist model of theory generation, using one of his most successful publications as an illustration; Charles Marsh demonstrates what Isocrates’ broad rhetorical project has to teach us about the importance of reputation cultivation in modern marketing; Nicholas O’Shaughnessy uses an analysis of Trump’s discourse to argue that political marketing as it is currently conceived is ill-equipped to engage effectively with the rhetorical force of Trump’s ‘unmarketing’; Barbara Phillips uses Vygotsky’s work on imagination to investigate the important of pleasure and play in advertising rhetoric; and finally, David Tonks, who in many ways started it all, reiterates the need for marketers to recognise the strength of the relationship between marketing and persuasion