Recollections of Past Days: The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer

For visitors to the Martin\u27s Cove historic site in Wyoming, Patience Loader has become an icon of the disastrous winter entrapment of the Martin and Willie handcart companies. Her record of those events is important, but there is much else of interest in her autobiography. In fact, it is a bit unusual that someone such as her would have left such an engaging record of her life. The daughter of an English gardener, Patience Loader became a boarding house servant, domestic maid, and seamstress. Converted to Mormonism, she shipped with her parents to America. They joined the ill-fated Martin company, which because of poor planning and a late start west, was caught poorly prepared by severe high plains snowstorms in October and November 1856. The combined fatalities of the Martin and Willie companies made this the worst disaster in the history of overland travel. Patience = s father was one of those who died. After reaching Utah, Patience took the unusual step for a Mormon of marrying a soldier, John Rozsa, stationed at Camp Floyd. The troops there had made up the Utah Expedition, sent to ensure federal authority over the Mormons. Rozsa was a Hungarian immigrant and Mormon convert. When the Utah troops were recalled for the Civil War, Patience accompanied her husband, as an army laundress, to Washington, D.C., running a boarding house while Rozsa fought. After the war, he died at Fort Leavenworth of consumption, and Patience returned alone to Utah, where she became a cook at a mining camp in American Fork Canyon. Her autobiography ends there in 1872, though she lived till 1922.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1036/thumbnail.jp

Automating the Process of Fitting New Planetary Transit Data with Python

The study of exoplanets has aided astronomers in understanding the behaviors of solar systems and continued the search for extraterrestrial life. Photometry, the measurement of light flux caused by a planetary object transiting a star, is one of the main methods to detecting exoplanets. Because of atmospheric variations and experimental uncertainty, the photometric data is modeled with a line of best fit. To create the fit for the data, a person must input values for seven parameters iteratively until the accuracy of the fit is satisfactory. This process is time-consuming and limits the accuracy of the model. This project presents a new program coded in Python that will automate the process for new transit data by allowing a user to input one set of estimated parameters. The program alters the inputted parameters repeatedly to create multiple fits, and then presents the parameters for the fit with the lowest residual data. Planets with high chances of transiting their parent star were chosen for observation. Two planets with previously confirmed transits and thirteen planets without confirmed transits were observed using four, 0.7meter telescopes. Data were analyzed using the current method of data analysis and with the program developed in this project. This program could serve as a practical application for astronomers that provide more accurate and efficient results.  The purpose of the experiment is to see how environmental and chemical factors, such as caffeine, induce different stress responses based off of zebrafish behavior and cortisol assay results

Bohemian Rhapsody: A Film Review

This is a review of the 2018 Queen bio-pic, Bohemian Rhapsody

Structure-toxicity relationships for aminoalkanols : a comparison with alkanols and alkanamines

The relative toxicity (log IGC50-1) of 35 selected alkanamines and aminoalkanols was evaluated in the static Tetrahymena pyriformis population growth assay. Excess toxicity, indicated by potency greater than predicted for alkanols, was associated with both classes of chemicals. Moreover, the aminoalkanols were found to be more toxic than corresponding alkanamines. A high quality 1-octanol/water partition coefficient (log Kq^) dependent quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), log IGCsub\u3e50-1 = 0.72 (log Kqw) - 1 -32; r2 = 0.939, was developed for alkanamines. This QSAR represented the amine narcosis mechanism of toxic action. Several structure-toxicity features were observed for the aminoalkanols. These included 2-amino-l-hydroxy derivatives being more toxic than corresponding derivatives where the amino and hydroxy moieties were separated by methylene groups, and hydrocarbon branching next to the amino moiety resulting in decreased toxicity. Regression analysis of log Kqw versus the log IGCsub\u3e50-1 for selected aminoalkanols yielded the model, log IGCsub\u3e50-1 =0.17 (log Kow) - 0.70; r2 =0.833

Harnessing Technology to Advance Citizen-Centric Land Administration in Rwanda

Rwanda is recognized as a global land governance leader due to the success of its Land Tenure Regularisation Program (LTRP), which resulted in the registration of over 11 million parcels and the issuance of 7 million certificates of title, and the establishment of the Land Administration Information System (LAIS). These notable achievements have contributed to land market viability, reductions in land disputes, and increased land-based revenue. However, some land administration challenges persist, including high costs and delays for buyers and sellers, as well as the double selling of land, identity fraud, and repudiation associated with land transfers.In recognition of the need for innovative solutions to these persistent challenges, Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority (RLMUA), Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), and Medici Land Governance (MLG) developed Ubutaka App, a paperless, secure, and fully interoperable land administration system. The system uses emerging technology to simplify land transactions by voluntary sale and prevent double selling of land, identity fraud, and repudiation. Designed for use by Land Notaries and Registrars in Rwanda, and currently being piloted in Gasabo District, Ubutaka requires only one visit to a notary through the use of biodata, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and blockchain. The web-based application integrates seamlessly with existing Rwandan systems, including Irembo, LAIS, and Rwanda National Identification Agency (NIDA) to securely transmit citizens’ information. Authorizations and approvals by users are completed using PKI. Finally, for added transparency and security, key components of the process are recorded on blockchain.The adoption of advanced land governance systems enhanced by emerging technologies, such as Public Key Infrastructure and blockchain, enables the Government of Rwanda to solve modern land sector problems and better protect the country’s land heritage. This paper demonstrates how technologies such as Ubutaka app provide opportunities for positive transformation in citizen-centric land administration

Guns N\u27 Roses in Spain

This is a concert review of a Guns N\u27 Roses concert I saw in Spain last year, it discusses my personal experience and whether I think the ticket price was worth it

Vasopressin excites interneurons to suppress hippocampal network activity across a broad span of brain maturity at birth

During birth in mammals, a pronounced surge of fetal peripheral stress hormones takes place to promote survival in the transition to the extrauterine environment. However, it is not known whether the hormonal signaling involves central pathways with direct protective effects on the perinatal brain. Here, we show that arginine vasopressin specifically activates interneurons to suppress spontaneous network events in the perinatal hippocampus. Experiments done on the altricial rat and precocial guinea pig neonate demonstrated that the effect of vasopressin is not dependent on the level of maturation (depolarizing vs. hyperpolarizing) of postsynaptic GABA(A) receptor actions. Thus, the fetal mammalian brain is equipped with an evolutionarily conserved mechanism well-suited to suppress energetically expensive correlated network events under conditions of reduced oxygen supply at birth.Peer reviewe

Teoria actor-network na análise e especificação de um sistema de informação

A teoria Actor-Network (ANT) é uma das correntes de pensamento contemporâneo, com origem nos estudos da ciência e tecnologia e que forma um quadro conceptual com reflexos importantes ao nível da Sociologia da Ciência e da Tecnologia. Utilizando as suas características permite analisar situações sociais onde o humano e o tecnológico têm importância equivalente, eliminando barreiras ontológicas entre ambos. Neste artigo pretende-se fazer o enquadramento da introdução de um novo sistema de informação (SI) numa organização representado por uma ferramenta colaborativa e consequentemente especificar uma nova situação organizacional, através da qual seja possível estabelecer comparações afim de perceber os benefícios e limitações que uma ferramenta destas pode oferecer. Interessa-nos perceber de que forma o recurso a novas tecnologias obriga à reorganização do sistema de actividades humanas, e de que forma, podem estas ser utilizadas com sucesso no desenvolvimento dos processos organizacionais. A ANT é apresentada como uma metodologia de análise que, será utilizada para desenvolver uma aproximação a um processo genérico para ser usado em análises organizacionais, principalmente onde exista a introdução de tecnologias que influenciem o funcionamento da organização