Workshop on the Origins of Solar Systems

Topics addressed include: interstellar chemistry and primitive bodies; astronomical measurements and nebula models; solar nebula models and meteorite; and planetary accumulation and evolution

The attitude toward war of ten American Christian Leaders from 1914 to 1926

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Automated and Human Rhythm in Alice in Wonderland (1915) and sportage

In the history of live musical performance, the question of rhythm has often been overlooked. People playing together in various ensembles have always been able to keep in time with one another due to their own abilities to play fluidly and interact with each other’s body languages and musical gestures to see approximately when the beat is. At the rise of the Digital/Electronic Age in music, this becomes harder and harder to do with an automated performer. A computer, as a performer and as a musical instrument, does not have the ability to listen to the other musicians in the ensemble, and therefore plays within an exactly measured time, dictated by a digital metronome. How then can a computer successfully play a piece of music in time with a group of human performers? One option would be to create a click track using the digital metronome, and have the click be sent out to the entire ensemble, making them stay in time with the fixed time that a computer thinks in. Another way to do this, is have a human being operate the computer as an instrument, and have the person trigger certain events to occur in time with the rest of the ensemble. In two of my own compositions, I test these two possibilities for integrating a computer into the ensemble of humans. For “Alice in Wonderland (1915),” a 45 minute film score to W.W. Young’s 1915 adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, I wrote a rhythmically complex piece of music, with the traditional time tellers in notated music (time signatures and tempo markings) being constantly in flux. The piece never settles in one time signature or tempo for an extended amount of time, therefore the performers already have to be “on their toes” about where the beat is and where the piece is taking them. Adding the click of a digital metronome keeps them more solidly in a specifically measured time, within which the film plays out. In “sportage,” a 12 minute orchestral piece, the computer’s part is fully scored out on the page, and the operator of the laptop is told when to trigger the events by the conductor. The timekeeper in this piece is a human being, who cannot physically measure specific amounts of time with the precision that a computer can, and therefore, the piece cannot be played the same way every time, which is unpredictable and irrational in the eyes of the computer. Overall, these experiments are based on one pressing matter ­ what is the role of the computer in the world of “classical” music in 2016? Within the past 20 or so years, there have been several attempts to integrate the computer, or at least electronics, into the standard orchestra, but many of them are unseen by the vast community. How then, can we as a generation of musicians and composers born and bred in the Digital Age, integrate the computer into the music and make it as standard as any other section of the orchestra? The goal of my project is to give a number of possible ways a composer can go about doing this

The solubility of rhenium in silicate melts: Implications for the geochemical properties of rhenium at high temperatures

The solubility of rhenium (Re) in a haplobasaltic melt (anorthite-diopside eutectic composition) has been experimentally determined using the mechanically assisted equilibration technique at 1400°C as a function of oxygen fugacity (10−12 < fO2 ≤ 10−7 bar), imposed by CO-CO2 gas mixtures. Samples were analysed by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). This is a true microanalytical technique, which allows small-scale sample heterogeneity to be detected, while providing a limit of detection of 2 ppb Re. Time-resolved LA-ICP-MS spectra revealed the presence of suboptically sized micronuggets of Re in all samples, which, because they are present at the 0.5 to 10 ppm level, dominate the true solubilities of Re (<1 ppm at the conditions of the experiment) in bulk analyses of the samples. Nevertheless, the micronuggets could be filtered out from the time-resolved spectra to reveal accurate values of the true Re solubility. A number of time series of samples were taken at constant fO2 to demonstrate that the solubilities converge to a constant value. In addition, solubilities were measured after increasing and decreasing the imposed fO2. The results show that Re dissolves in the silicate melt as ReO2 (Re4+) and ReO3 (Re6+) species, with the latter predominating at typical terrestrial upper-mantle oxygen fugacities. The total solubility of Re is described by the following expression (fO2 in bars): [Re/ppb] = 9.7(±1.9) × 109 (fO2) + 4.2 (±0.3) × 1014 (fO2)1.5Assuming an activity coefficient for Re in Fe-rich metal of 1, this gives a value of DRemet/sil of 5 × 1010 at log fO2 = IW-2, appropriate for metal-silicate partitioning in an homogenously accreting Earth. Thus, Re is indeed very highly siderophile, and the mantle’s abundance cannot be explained by homogenous accretion

γ-Tocotrienol Reversal of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Human Breast Cancer Cells is Mediated through a Suppression of Canonical Wnt and Hedgehog Signaling

γ-Tocotrienol, a natural isoform within the vitamin E family of compounds, displays potent antiproliferative, apoptotic and reversal of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) activity against breast cancer using treatment doses that have little or no effect on normal cell viability. EMT is a route by which epithelial cells undergo various biochemical alterations leading to the acquisition of mesenchymal traits. Several aberrant signaling pathways are involved in EMT-dependent cancer metastasis. Specifically, dysregulation of the canonical Wnt and Hedgehog pathways are intimately involved in promoting breast cancer EMT and metastasis. Therefore, studies were conducted to examine effects of γ-tocotrienol on Wnt and Hedgehog signaling. Results from these studies demonstrate that γ-tocotrienol significantly inhibits canonical Wnt and Hedgehog signaling by inhibiting receptors, co-receptors and ligand expression, as well as inhibiting expression of cytosolic and nuclear signaling proteins within these pathways. Additional studies showed that γ-tocotrienol treatment increased the expression of negative regulators of both the Wnt and Hedgehog pathways. These findings demonstrate that γ-tocotrienol reversal of EMT is mediated, at least in part, through the inhibition of canonical Wnt and Hedgehog signaling, and strongly suggest that this form of vitamin E may provide significant benefit in the prevention and treatment of metastatic breast cancer

Role of Autophagy in Mediating the Anticancer Effects of Tocotrienols

γ-Tocotrienol, a natural isoform of vitamin E, is a potent anticancer agent. Autophagy is a highly regulated process by which debris is eliminated from a cell, but can also play a role in cellular survival or death. The role of autophagy in mediating the anticancer effects of γ-tocotrienol is not clearly understood. This chapter reviews the mechanism(s) involved in γ-tocotrienol-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells. Treatment with γ-tocotrienol increased conversion of microtubule-associated protein, 1A/1B-light chain 3, from its cytosolic form (LC3B-I) to its lipidated form (LC3B-II), and the accumulation of autophagy-related proteins Beclin-1 (Atg6) and Atg5-Atg12. Additional studies confirmed that transfection with Beclin-1 siRNA or pretreated with 3-methyladenine (3-MA), an inhibitor of autophagy, blocked these effects. γ-Tocotrienol treatment also induced a time-responsive increase in autolysosome markers LAMP-1 and cathepsin-D, and pretreatment with bafilomycin A1 (Baf1), an inhibitor of late phase autophagy, blocked these effects and caused a significant reduction in γ-tocotrienol-induced cytotoxicity. γ-Tocotrienol also induced a decrease in ERK, an increase in p-38 and JNK activation, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress apoptotic markers including phospho-PERK, phospho-elf2α, Bip, IRE1α, ATF-4, CHOP, and TRB3. In summary, γ-tocotrienol-induced autophagy is intimately involved in promoting ER-stress-mediated apoptosis in human breast cancer cells

Discovery of Reflection Nebulosity Around Five Vega-like Stars

Coronagraphic optical observations of six Vega-like stars reveal reflection nebulosities, five of which were previously unknown. The nebulosities illuminated by HD 4881, HD 23362, HD 23680, HD 26676, and HD 49662 resemble that of the Pleiades, indicating an interstellar origin for dust grains. The reflection nebulosity around HD 123160 has a double-arm morphology, but no disk-like feature is seen as close as 2.5 arcsec from the star in K-band adaptive optics data. We demonstrate that uniform density dust clouds surrounding HD 23362, HD 23680 and HD 123160 can account for the observed 12-100 micron spectral energy distributions. For HD 4881, HD 26676, and HD 49662 an additional emission source, such as from a circumstellar disk or non-equilibrium grain heating, is required to fit the 12-25 micron data. These results indicate that in some cases, particularly for Vega-like stars located beyond the Local Bubble (>100 pc), the dust responsible for excess thermal emission may originate from the interstellar medium rather than from a planetary debris system.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in press for March, 2002 (32 pages, 13 figures

Offsets and the Path to Carbon Neutrality in Higher Education and Study Abroad

Professors Paul Sylvester, Early & Middle Grades Education, and Michael Di Giovine, Anthropology, in conversation with Bradley Flamm - Offsets and the Path to Carbon Neutrality in Higher Education and Study Abroa