A mirror transport mechanism for use at cryogenic temperatures

The Mirror Transport Mechanism (MTM), which supports a pair of dihedral mirrors and moves them in a very smooth and uniform scanning motion normal to a beamsplitter is described. Each scan is followed by a quick flyback and repeat. Material selection, design, and testing of all major components of the MTM are discussed. Flex pivot failures during vibration testing, excessive dihedral platform sag under one g operation, electronic and fiber optic characteristics, and tolerancing considerations are covered. Development of the mechanism has reached the final phase of thermal and vibration qualification. Environmental testing of the complete FIRAS experiment is just beginning

LIFE AFTER STUDY ABROAD: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY OF GRADUATE STUDENT STUDY ABROAD RETURNEES

The number of graduate students who chose to participate in study abroad experiences has grown within recent years. As this population of study abroad participants continues to expand, it is necessary for study abroad faculty and staff to understand the learning outcomes that graduate students experience after their study abroad program. This study sought to uncover the long-term impact of a study abroad experience on a graduate student participant. By utilizing narrative inquiry as a methodology, the researcher collected lived experiences from four graduate student study abroad alumni. Each participant\u27s narrative story was re-told and analyzed for growth experienced as a result of their study abroad experience. The study identified four themes that graduate students who participate in a study abroad program experienced. The themes included increased self-confidence, an appreciation for diversity, self-reflection, and career and learning development

Embodiment, Plasticity, and the Re/Production of Gender, Sex, and Race in Human Biology

This paper historically situates human biology research by engaging with feminist science and technology scholars to show how a key mechanism of embodiment, plasticity, is used to re/produce sex and gender binaries in anthropological research and beyond. I begin by defining embodiment and demonstrating its reliance on plasticity. Next, I discuss plasticity and review how and why it has been taken up in human biology research. After, I engage with the works of feminist, trans, and queer scholars who have examined the connection between embodiment, plasticity, and the creation of Western binarized sex and gender. Further, I present how the re/production of a sex and gender binary is entwined with the justification of racial hierarchies through plasticity. While deterministic frameworks are often the most criticized in biology for harmful racist and sexist understandings of race and gender, plasticity and gene-times-environment interaction frameworks are not without fault. Even with large shifts in scientific understanding, in this case from determinism to plasticity, science, in particular human biology, can still be a tool to create and maintain racist, patriarchal, cis- and hetero-normative systems. I conclude with recommendations and possible pathways forward for embodiment and plasticity research in human biology, suggesting that human biology research should engage with feminist science and technology critiques to be mindful of the way in which our concepts might be re/producing harm

Catchment-scale vulnerability assessment of groundwater pollution from diffuse sources using the DRASTIC method : a case study

The catchment-scale groundwater vulnerability assessment that delineates zones representing different levels of groundwater susceptibility to contaminants from diffuse agricultural sources has become an important element in groundwater pollution prevention for the implementation of the EUWater Framework Directive (WFD). This paper evaluates the DRASTIC method using an ArcGIS platform for assessing groundwater vulnerability in the Upper Bann catchment, Northern Ireland. Groundwater vulnerability maps of both general pollutants and pesticides in the study area were generated by using data on the factors depth to water, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of vadose zone, and hydraulic conductivity, as defined in DRASTIC. The mountain areas in the study area have “high” (in 4.5% of the study area) or “moderate” (in 25.5%) vulnerability for general pollutants due to high rainfall, net recharge and soil permeability. However, by considering the diffuse agricultural sources, the mountain areas are actually at low groundwater pollution risk. The results of overlaying the maps of land use and the groundwater vulnerability are closer to the reality. This study shows that the DRASTIC method is helpful for guiding the prevention practices of groundwater pollution at the catchment scale in the UK

Self Vs. Society: The Essential Antagonism Between Society and the Individual In Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Daniel Deronda

This study focuses on the conflicts between society and the individual in three of George Eliot’s works: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Daniel Deronda. This work analyzes the relationship between the individual and his or her society within these novels and uses its findings to illustrate the mechanism and goal of social evolution as it is depicted in these three works. Research was conducted by reading several primary and secondary texts. The primary texts included the three novels discussed, as well as many of Eliot’s non-fiction essays and Herbert Spencer’s essay The Social Organism, in order to place the novels within a larger discussion of the theory of social organicism. Secondary literary criticisms of George Eliot’s works were also consulted in order to place this study within the current discussion of social organicism as well as the individual’s place in society in George Eliot’s works. The research suggests that in these three novels George Eliot depicts social evolution as giving rise to the organic society in Herbert Spencer s sense as opposed to J. G. Herder’s sense. This study argues that in Adam Bede there is a fundamental and necessary conflict between society and the individual, that in The Mill on the Floss this conflict is revealed to be the very mechanism by which societies evolve, and that in Daniel Deronda George Eliot suggests that Spenserian organicism, in which the needs of the individual are valued above those of the a society, is the final goal of this social evolution

Can the Center Hold? Grappling with the decline of a small-city downtown in Meridian, Mississippi

Meridian, Mississippi, is a poster child for the Post-War Era decline of America\u27s downtowns. The center city has been in steady decline since the rise of automobile culture and the opening of Meridian’s first suburban mall in the 1970s. This study analyzes how a historic preservation ethic may better inform the economic development of a downtown with an emphasis on establishing best practices for other small American cities. In focusing on a small, southern city, this paper fortifies a weak area in the study of preservation best practices related to downtown revitalization, which has focused on larger cities outside the Mid-South region. It examines the preservation policies within Meridian\u27s 2004 Downtown Redevelopment Plan, 2009 Comprehensive Plan, and other official city planning documents. It gauges the importance placed on preservation in city planning, as well as to what degree preservation policies are actually carried out. Meridian\u27s revitalization efforts focus on large development projects devoted to entertainment and tourism: the restoration of the Grand Opera House, the upcoming redevelopment of an abandoned Art Deco office building into a hotel, and the construction of the MAEE, slated to open in 2017. This study examines the current success of these and other projects and gauges how successfully they encourage sustainable development of the downtown core. Specifically, the study will suggest how historic preservation, incremental development, and diverse services and functions can improve downtown revitalization efforts in Meridian and comparable cities

Microtubule Motors Drive Nuclear Dynamics and Positioning in Developing Skeletal Muscle Cells

Dynamic interactions with the cytoskeleton are essential to move and anchor nuclei during tissue development, and defects resulting in nuclear mispositioning are often associated with human disease, such as muscular dystrophy and myopathy. Skeletal muscle cells are large syncytia formed by fusion of myoblasts, and contain hundreds of nuclei positioned regularly along the length the cell. During muscle cell development, nuclear movement in myotubes requires microtubules, but the mechanisms involved have not been elucidated. Here, we find that nuclei actively translocate through myotubes. As they translocate, they also rotate in three-dimensions. These movements require an intact microtubule cytoskeleton, which forms a dynamic bipolar network around the nuclei, and are driven by the microtubule motor proteins, kinesin-1 and cytoplasmic dynein. Depletion of the plus-end directed motor kinesin-1 abolishes nuclear rotation and significantly inhibits nuclear translocation, resulting in the abnormal aggregation of nuclei near the midline of the myotube. Loss of the minus-end directed dynein motor also inhibits nuclear dynamics, but to a lesser extent, leading to altered spacing between adjacent nuclei. The motors are found throughout the cytoplasm, but also decorate the nuclear envelope. To test whether kinesin-1 on the nucleus is essential for nuclear distribution, we controlled the recruitment of truncated, constitutively active kinesin-1 motors to the nuclear envelope. We show that nuclear-based kinesin-1 is necessary to prevent nuclear aggregation. Additionally, we show that kinesin-1 localization to the nuclear envelope in myotubes is mediated at least in part by interaction with the nuclear envelope protein, nesprin-2. We identify a conserved kinesin light chain-binding motif in nesprin-2 and show that recruitment of the motor complex to the nucleus via this motif is essential for proper nuclear distribution. Thus, our work indicates that oppositely directed motors acting from the surface of the nucleus drive nuclear motility in myotubes. The variable dynamics observed for individual nuclei within a single myotube likely result from the stochastic activity of competing motors interacting with a complex bipolar microtubule cytoskeleton. The three-dimensional rotation of myotube nuclei may facilitate their motility through the complex and crowded cellular environment of the developing muscle cell, allowing for proper myonuclear positioning

Picturing Pacific Prehistory: The rock-art of Vanuatu in a western Pacific context

This thesis examines similarities and differences between rock-art sites in Vanuatu and the broader western Pacific region, and situates the results within the framework of Pacific prehistory. Prior to this thesis, regional models of rock-art in the western Pacific were founded on corresponding distributions of non-motif variables, such as technical classes (painting or engraving), topographic location (boulders, caves etc), and local geology. One of the outcomes of these previous studies was the identification of a region-wide distinction between engraved and painted rock-art, referred to in this thesis as the 'Austronesian engraving style' (AES) and the 'Austronesian painting tradition' (APT), respectively. The aim of this study is to examine the merits of the AES and the APT as analytical entities, and to determine how they articulate with one another in time and space. This is achieved in two ways. First, an unprecedented statistical comparison between motifs is conducted across the region, the results of which are compared with the outcomes of an examination of non-motif variables. Second, an intensive examination of the spatial and temporal variation within the rock-art of Vanuatu is conducted in order to elicit broad patterns of similarity and difference between painted and engraved rock-art on a local scale. The results of the regional western Pacific and local Vanuatu analyses are then combined in an attempt to address the ultimate goal of this thesis: the development of a model of rock-art transformation for the western Pacific region

Police functional adaptation to the digital or post digital age: discussions with cybercrime experts.

This article examines the challenges of functional adaptation faced by the police in response to technologically driven changes in the nature of crime. It also recounts how research under the auspices of a ‘dark web’ research project resulted in a search for an effective approach to engaging with investigators dealing with cybercrime. In doing so it tested, as a research methodology, a standard change implementation tool (problem tree analysis) from the Disaster Management and Sustainable Development (DMSD) discipline. This in turn resulted in significant consideration being given to the physical space in which that methodology is used. It presents the results of a workshop held with cybercrime investigators (not all were police officers) in terms of the importance of four key organisational and cultural issues (management, leadership and institutional ethos within the police; the risks of over-complication and exaggerated distinctions between cyber and real world policing; ethics; and knowledge, training and development) alongside the development and acquisition of new technical capabilities

Depressive symptoms in asymptomatic stage B heart failure with Type II diabetic mellitus.

BackgroundThe presence of concomitant Type II diabetic mellitus (T2DM) and depressive symptoms adversely affects individuals with symptomatic heart failure (HF).HypothesisIn presymptomatic stage B HF, this study hypothesized the presence of greater inflammation and depressive symptoms in T2DM as compared to non-T2DM Stage B patients.MethodsThis cross-sectional study examined clinical parameters, inflammatory biomarkers, and depressive symptoms in 349 T2DM and non-T2DM men with asymptomatic stage B HF (mean age 66.4 years ±10.1; range 30-91).ResultsFewer diabetic HF patients had left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction (P < .05) although more had LV diastolic dysfunction (P < .001). A higher percentage of T2DM HF patients were taking ACE-inhibitors, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, statins, and diuretics (P values < .05). T2DM HF patients had higher circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) (P < .01), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (P < .01), and soluble ST2 (sST2) (P < .01) and reported more somatic/affective depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory II) (P < .05) but not cognitive/affective depressive symptoms (P = .20). Among all patients, in a multiple regression analysis predicting presence of somatic/affective depressive symptoms, sST2 (P = .026), IL-6 (P = .010), B-type natriuretic peptide (P = .016), and sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [P < .001]) were significant predictors (overall model F = 15.39, P < .001, adjusted R2 = .207).ConclusionsSomatic/affective but not cognitive/affective depressive symptoms are elevated in asymptomatic HF patients with T2DM patients. Linkages with elevated inflammatory and cardiac relevant biomarkers suggest shared pathophysiological mechanisms among T2DM HF patients with somatic depression, and these conditions are responsive to routine interventions, including behavioral. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd