An Uninformed Pilgrim

Joseph C. Pattison’s article, “The Celestial City, or Dream Tale,” examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Celestial Railroad” and portrays the narrator as a Christian hero standing against the modernist persuasions of his time – a protagonist who enters the story with firm orthodox convictions and exits his dream journey with unaltered principles or character. However, Hawthorne’s narrator frequently adopts new modernist arguments and wavers in his pre-formed convictions. He toys with Christian faith but promptly discards any accusations of guilt that such beliefs suggest. While he repeatedly compromises his principles and doubts the ramifications of Christian faith, his dynamic nature is nowhere stronger than in the final scene of the story when he realizes the consequences of modernist thought. Here, he finally expresses true regret and displays his tendency to change – a tendency which Pattison’s article takes so little account of. Though Pattison sees this story as Hawthorne’s attempt to illustrate unwavering Christian principles, the narrative rather serves as a cautionary note to uneducated individuals, and a warning against shaky convictions and unfounded faith

Parent Interaction Between an Infant with a Cochlear Implant and Additional Disabilities

Pediatric hearing loss has many spoken language learning issues that can impact parent-infant interaction. Moreover, additional disabilities are likely to increase stress, which could have cascading effects on communication. The purpose of the study was to examine interactions between mother- and father-child dyads with and without hearing loss and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and global delay. Recordings of the parents speaking with six infants in the study were analyzed: an infant with cochlear implants and ASD (low socioeconomic status, SES), two infants with cochlear implants and normal development (high SES and low SES), one infant with a cochlear implant and CMV (average SES), one infant with a cochlear implant and global delay (average SES), and one infant who was typically developing and had normal hearing (high SES). After analyzing the results for communication measures, such as vocalization attempts, turn-taking in utterances, mean-length of utterances, and type-token ratio, it was concluded that maternal and paternal interaction was negatively affected due not only to the difficulty of the hearing loss and/or additional disability, but rather due to a combination of factors, including the disability, SES, maternal and paternal education, and the home environment

Solving the Structure of eIF2 Bound to eIF2B Using Cryogenic Electron Microscopy

Translation begins when initiation factor-2 (eIF2) delivers methionyl initiator tRNA (Met-tRNAi) to the ribosome. The exchange of GDP bound to eIF2 for GTP is a prerequisite to binding Met-tRNAi and is mediated by a second initiation factor, eIF2B. Regulation of mRNA translation is achieved through phosphorylation of eIF2 α at Ser51 which converts eIF2 from a substrate into a competitive inhibitor of eIF2B. Using the latest cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) technologies in both collection and data processing we were able to obtain three high resolution structures to interrogate the structural basis of the integrated stress response

The Shifting Meaning of the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka Interns on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series. The part of the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road running through Appomattox Court House holds various meanings for those that have used it through the years. The early 19th-century inhabitants of Appomattox Court House viewed it as the source of prosperity for the town. By connecting the two wealthy cities of Richmond and Lynchburg, it ensured a steady flow of traffic that would spur construction of the town’s first building, the Clover Hill Tavern, in 1819. Without the road, many of the non-agricultural businesses in the community could not function, thus making the road instrumental to the town’s success. In 1854, a railroad stop was established 3 miles west of the town. The road which had once been a source of prosperity spelled the town’s death sentence as people chose faster and smoother train travel over the stage road. Taverns went out of business and the population of 100 people in the 1860s decreased to just 10 by the 1890s. [excerpt

Simulation Genres and Student Uptake: The Patient Health Record in Clinical Nursing Simulations

Drawing on fieldwork, this article examines nursing students’ design and use of a patient health record during clinical simulations, where small teams of students provide nursing care for a robotic patient. The student-designed patient health record provides a compelling example of how simulation genres can both authentically coordinate action within a classroom simulation and support professional genre uptake. First, the range of rhetorical choices available to students in designing their simulation health records are discussed. Then, the article draws on an extended example of how student uptake of the patient health record within a clinical simulation emphasized its intertextual relationship to other genres, its role mediating social interactions with the patient and other providers, and its coordination of embodied actions. Connections to students’ experiences with professional genres are addressed throughout. The article concludes by considering initial implications of this research for disciplinary and professional writing courses

Statistical methods for detecting genes associated with sperm competition in natural populations of Drosophila, using blocks of tightly linked single nucleotide polymorphisms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Statistics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The purpose of the project is to develop statistical methods for detecting genes associated with sperm competition in natural populations of Drosophila (fruit flies). The flies' genotype information given by Fiumera et al. (2004) is used as the starting point of the analysis. This dataset utilizes blocks of tightly linked single nucleotide polymorphisms within genes suspected to affect sperm competition. The sperm competition detection process is completed in three different stages: maternal and offspring haplotypes reconstruction; paternal genotype and offspring fraction estimation; and preferred genotype detection. Software programs HAPLORE and PHASE 2.0 were implemented for maternal and offspring haplotype reconstruction. The software Parentage is applied on the reconstructed haplotypes for estimating paternal genotypes and the amount of offspring they produced. Lastly, the Kruskal Wallis and permutation tests were conducted to detect differences in offspring produced between groups of males with different genotypes

Epic: An EP

Poem

Chromosomal chimeras in Crepis,

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