Sookie\u27s Place(s): New Roadways Into The South Of The Southern Vampire Mysteries

Charlaine Harris’ bestselling paranormal romance series, the Southern Vampire Mysteries is only beginning to be understood as more than a cultural phenomenon, but rather as a highly politicized and critical work of fiction that shines through genre designations such as romance, mystery, and fantasy. Much of this praise can be attributed to the series’ heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, who gracefully traverses boundaries that divide what are arguably racial and ethnic groups ever at odds with one another as they share political and social space. Her adventures therefore pose significant questions concerning diversity, equality, and nationalism, but more obviously they ask what southernness has to do with these issues of identity. The SVM situates itself between south as place and south as imaginary, insisting on the utility of this region and its attendant baggage by localizing issues plaguing American collective consciousness, such as identity politics and civil equality, class castes and poverty, racism and homophobia, violence and hate crimes. Such a south allows for the misdirection of American rhetoric, which demonizes the south as the nation’s Other, but employs its given role to effect change, to take Americanness to task. That is, here the south operates as not only a state of being (i.e. a place, an identity, etc.) but also a process. This thesis aims to locate where the “process South” operates in the SVM—in bodies, between bodies, across communities—in order to map its myriad successes and failures and thereby create a blueprint for reading the series’ “real” repercussions

“Get Your Geek On”: Online and Offline Representations of Audiotopia within the GeekyCon Community

This thesis examines the musical community of GeekyCon, a convention centered around popular media, such as Harry Potter, Broadway, and Disney. The GeekyCon community results from the connection between the unofficial convention Facebook group and the yearly physical event. This interconnectivity allows both the live and mediated space of GeekyCon to function as a heterotopia, a concept first conceived by Foucault (1967) as a separate space outside of the dominant society in which ideas and identities can be freely explored. Through ethnographic research, including participant observation as well as interviews, I present the music of GeekyCon as an audiotopia, a sonic realization of heterotopia theorized by Josh Kun (2005). The musical experiences present at GeekyCon, both virtual and physical, provide members of the community with a means to negotiate personal as well as group identities and to decide what it means, as the convention slogan says, to “Get Your Geek On. I divide the thesis based on several overarching musical themes important to the GeekyCon community. After my initial introduction, the second chapter, entitled “Why are the Wiggles Performing at GeekyCon?” elaborates on the concept of audiotopia. This chapter draws on examples from the Facebook group to demonstrate the way in which music found at the convention creates a site for group identity formation and negotiation, thus demonstrating iterations of audiotopia. The third chapter, “Yes All Witches,” further analyzes the inclusive and feminist environment found within this community. Drawing from the previous chapters’ discussion of audiotopia, I argue that the music at GeekyCon, specifically wizard rock, functions as an aurally enacted safe space. The next chapter, entitled “We’re All in This Together,” describes the participatory and performative practices at GeekyCon. The musical theater singalongs found at the convention blur the line between participatory and presentational music and help establish a sense of community at the convention. I furthermore connect the performative musical practices to a larger discussion of performativity within feminist scholarship. Finally, I conclude with a summary chapter placing my thesis within the larger fields of ethnomusicology and fan studies

The influence of carbon morphologies and concentrations on the rheology and electrical performance of screen-printed carbon pastes

Screen-printing inks containing various morphologies of carbon are used in the production of a variety of printed electronics applications. Particle morphology influences the rheology of the ink which will affect the deposition and therefore the electrical performance of a printed component. To assess the effect of both carbon morphology and concentration on print topography and conductivity, screen printable carbon inks with differing loading concentrations of graphite, carbon black and graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) were formulated, printed and characterised, with rheological and novel print visualisation techniques used to elucidate the mechanisms responsible. Carbon morphology had significant effects on the packing of particles. The smaller carbon black particles had more interparticle interactions leading to better conductivities, but also higher ink viscosities and elasticities than the other morphologies. Increases in carbon concentration led to increases in film thickness and roughness for all morphologies. However, beyond a critical point further increases in carbon concentration led to agglomerations of particles, mesh marking and increases in surface roughness, preventing further improvements in the print conductivity. The optimal loading concentrations were identifiable using a custom-made screen-printing apparatus used with high speed imaging for all morphologies. Notable increases in filamentation during ink separation were found to occur with further increases in carbon concentration beyond the optimum. As this point could not be identified using shear rheology alone, this method combined with shear rheology could be used to optimise the carbon concentration of screen-printing inks, preventing the use of excess material which has no benefit on print quality and conductivity

Emissions

This chapter assesses the current state of the science regarding the composition, intensity, and drivers of wildland fire emissions in the USA and Canada. Globally and in the USA wildland fires are a major source of gases and aerosols which have significant air quality impacts and climate interactions. Wildland fire smoke can trigger severe pollution episodes with substantial effects on public health. Fire emissions can degrade air quality at considerable distances downwind, hampering efforts by air regulators to meet air standards. Fires are a major global source of aerosols which affect the climate system by absorbing and scattering radiation and by altering optical properties, coverage, and lifetime of clouds. A thorough understanding of fire emissions is essential for effectively addressing societal and climate consequences of wildland fire smoke

Basis for the exercise-induced hyperphagia in adult hamsters

In adult female golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus, Waterhouse) voluntary exercise is associated with increased food intake and accelerated somatic growth. We examined the possible interdependence between increased food intake and accelerated somatic growth by measuring food intake in hamsters whose growth was blocked by hypophysectomy. In a 2 x 2 design, hypophysectomized hamsters (HYPOX, n = 20) and animals with intact pituitaries (INT, n = 24) were either allowed to exercise for 35 days (n = 22) or were maintained in sedentary condition (n = 22). Exercise induced increased food intake in both HYPOX and INT hamsters and somatic growth in INT hamsters only. Hypophysectomy was also associated with a 43% reduction in the activity level and a significant increase in the percentage of body fat estimated indirectly. We conclude that adult hamsters increase their food intake in response to some stimulus related to exercise and not to exercise-induced growth.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22611/1/0000161.pd

Multiple generation distinct toxicant exposures induce epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of enhanced pathology and obesity

Three successive multiple generations of rats were exposed to different toxicants and then bred to the transgenerational F5 generation to assess the impacts of multiple generation different exposures. The current study examines the actions of the agricultural fungicide vinclozolin on the F0 generation, followed by jet fuel hydrocarbon mixture exposure of the F1 generation, and then pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane on the F2 generation gestating females. The subsequent F3 and F4 generations and F5 transgenerational generation were obtained and F1-F5 generations examined for male sperm epigenetic alterations and pathology in males and females. Significant impacts on the male sperm differential DNA methylation regions were observed. The F3-F5 generations were similar in ∼50% of the DNA methylation regions. The pathology of each generation was assessed in the testis, ovary, kidney, and prostate, as well as the presence of obesity and tumors. The pathology used a newly developed Deep Learning, artificial intelligence-based histopathology analysis. Observations demonstrated compounded disease impacts in obesity and metabolic parameters, but other pathologies plateaued with smaller increases at the F5 transgenerational generation. Observations demonstrate that multiple generational exposures, which occur in human populations, appear to increase epigenetic impacts and disease susceptibility

Constraining the Scatter in the Mass-Richness Relation of maxBCG Clusters With Weak Lensing and X-ray Data

We measure the logarithmic scatter in mass at fixed richness for clusters in the maxBCG cluster catalog, an optically selected cluster sample drawn from SDSS imaging data. Our measurement is achieved by demanding consistency between available weak lensing and X-ray measurements of the maxBCG clusters, and the X-ray luminosity--mass relation inferred from the 400d X-ray cluster survey, a flux limited X-ray cluster survey. We find \sigma_{\ln M|N_{200}}=0.45^{+0.20}_{-0.18} (95% CL) at N_{200} ~ 40, where N_{200} is the number of red sequence galaxies in a cluster. As a byproduct of our analysis, we also obtain a constraint on the correlation coefficient between \ln Lx and \ln M at fixed richness, which is best expressed as a lower limit, r_{L,M|N} >= 0.85 (95% CL). This is the first observational constraint placed on a correlation coefficient involving two different cluster mass tracers. We use our results to produce a state of the art estimate of the halo mass function at z=0.23 -- the median redshift of the maxBCG cluster sample -- and find that it is consistent with the WMAP5 cosmology. Both the mass function data and its covariance matrix are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Ap

The Vehicle, Spring 2008

Table of Contents Not So Hot Cocoa (To a fish named Mooshu)Gina Lobiancopage 1 LessonsGlen Davispage 2 Christian Campus HouseJacob Fosterpage 4 Gray AreaRebecca Griffithpage 5 Gathering RosebudsJacob Fosterpage 6 Play Those BluesJacob Dawsonpage 8 The Apple CarAmanda Vealepage 10 A Night at the UptownerJacob Fosterpage 12 Candy DishAnthony Hesseldenzpage 14 Winter DayAnna-Elise Pricepage 15 The Friendly FogSarah Ruhollpage 16 Hey MamaJacob Dawsonpage 18 Keep TurningStephanie Drozdpage 20 A Pen, A Rose, and a Bottle of JackCarissa Haydenpage 21 Ten Days LaterAndrew Deckerpage 22 FearShannara Holderpage 27 Thank You and GoodnightJacob Fosterpage 28 My Mother\u27s PassingAmanda Vealepage 30 The Bearded ManAndrew Deckerpage 32 TabooMario Podeschipage 34 DervishScott Lutzpage 41 IckJacob Fosterpage 42 Meditation of the SeasonsStephanie Drozdpage 45 Full MoonAnna-Elise Pricepage 47 Becoming WiseAmanda Vealepage 48 In SightAnthony Hesseldenzpage 50 About the Authors Art Submissions Down the TracksShannara Holdercovers and page 23 Out the Back DoorShannara Holderpage 24 UntitledJennifer O\u27Neilpage 25 LullabyShannara Holderpage 26https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1089/thumbnail.jp