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When Theater Becomes an Art: A Study of the Multi-faceted Nature of Absurd Theater in Eugene Ionesco\u27s Didactic Play “Rhinoceros”
No full textBy writing “anti-plays,” “comedic-dramas,” “pseudo-dramas,” and “ tragic-farces,” Eugene Ionesco emerges as a master of what can be referred to as the “anti-theater” movement of the nineteen-fifties. In the nineteen-sixties, however, Ionesco’s works announced a sort of evolution in his creative process in the sense that his plays privileged and highlighted the much more serious theme of absurdity, as portrayed by his most utilized character, Béranger. In Rhinocéros (1959), Ionesco proposes a theater that not only reflects society’s daily quotidian life, but rather focuses on shocking his spectator in order to force him or her to contemplate the human condition. This didactic play remains relevant to the contemporary world, as exhibited by the numerous representations and mises-en-scènes of Rhinocéros that have taken place since its creation in 1959, leading up to its most recent interpretation by the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in November 2012. The quantity and variety of the representations testify to the universality of the play as well as to its timeless nature, since, in his play, Ionesco proposes a reflection on the comportment of men in the face of dictators rising to power in the twentieth century. He not only denounces political fascism, but also condemns all forms of totalitarianism that were developing most often through the intermediary of language. Rhinocéros reveals not only the exceptional qualities of Ionesco’s capacities as a writer and humanist observer of our society, but also, and most importantly, it re-actualizes the genius-creator of the post-war dramatist that he was
Une Vie D’Esprit Immuable: Le Marquis de Lafayette/ Le Marquis de Lafayette: A Life of Immutable Spirit
No full textEchoes from the Archive: How Oral History, Radio, and the Archive Intersect
No full textStories are how we understand the world around us. Every day we read stories in newspapers or magazines, watch them on television, or listen to them on the radio. We tell stories amongst ourselves over dinner or coffee or the phone. We are constantly sharing bits and pieces of our lives with those around us. It is easy for these stories to be lost forever, especially with the twenty-four hour news cycle. Moreover, there seems to be little focus on the stories of the past as we jump from one subject to the next without pausing to let each story sink in. Some stories remain untold and forgotten, buried within archives. But the past can provide us with an understanding of the present: what’s past is prologue. What if we were to bring new life to these forgotten stories of the archive through new digital media? Can we see the lives of ordinary people in a different and revelatory way? Can they help us understand the past or present better? In this project, I study how stories shape how we view ourselves and our past. Inspired by NPR’s “This American Life,” I explore the theme of escape with linked stories of a Laotian immigrant, a former slave, and a young fugitive, which help me to understand how stories can intersect in new and interesting ways. My analysis applies theories of oral history and radio broadcasting to archival materials in order to further comprehend what it means to tell a story and to trace out the impact stories have on our culture
Post-translational Modification of a Key Transcription Factor for HSV-1 Infection
No full textHerpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a highly prevalent virus that causes cold sores. The HSV-1 virion contains VP16, an important multifunctional protein. VP16 is a potent transcriptional activator that recruits host cell proteins, including Oct-1, to initiate immediate early (IE) viral gene expression and therefore the lytic cycle. The VP16 amino acid residue serine 375 resides in a consensus casein kinase II (CKII) site and lies within the region which interacts with Oct-1. We hypothesize that phosphorylation by CKII at serine 375 upon infection activates VP16 to initiate complex formation with Oct-1 and induce IE gene expression. Pharmacological inhibition of CKII with TBCA resulted in an 80% decrease in IE mRNA levels at 2 hours post infection (hpi) as quantified using qRTPCR. However, phosphorylation at serine 375 could not be detected in infected cell lysates 2-8 hpi using western blotting. In contrast, significant phosphorylation at serine 375 was detected at 20 hpi. Preliminary data suggests that phosphorylated VP16 may be preferentially packaged into the tegument of infectious virions. These data support an alternative mechanism by which late synthesized VP16 is phosphorylated at serine 375, packaged into infectious virions and delivered to the next cell pre-modified for Oct-1 complex formation and IE transcription activation
Fer Kinase is Required for Proper Vasculogenesis in Zebrafish
No full textFer kinase, a protein involved in the regulation of cell-cell adhesion and proliferation, has been implicated in leukemia, gastric cancer, and liver cancer. However, the role Fer plays in the molecular mechanisms of these diseases remains largely unknown. By studying Fer during development, we hope to obtain a better understanding of its involvement in human carcinogenesis. Our lab has shown that FRK-1, a Fer kinase homologue in C. elegans, is involved in regulating a stem cell-like population during development. In this study, we begin to bridge the gap between the invertebrate and vertebrate realms by elucidating the role that Fer kinase plays during zebrafish embryogenesis. Our data indicate that not only is a Fer homologue expressed in zebrafish, but that it is required for normal vaculogenesis and hematopoiesis. Fer mRNA is expressed in the early hematopoietic stem cell lineage by 24 hpf, peaks at 48 hpf and is absent by 72 hpf. Morpholino knock-down of Fer results in disorganized vasculature and reduced sprouting of intersegmental vessels, which ultimately leads to improper circulation. Finally, we have performed quantitative gene expression and embryonic rescue experiments implicating Fer regulation of the Wnt-Notch pathway, which directs the ratio of vascular/blood cells as well as angiogenesis during development. This unique regulatory function for Fer kinase would provide valuable information not only to the field of developmental biology, but could also lead to novel therapies in a variety of cancers in which expression of Fer kinase is either misregulated or deleted, such as in myeloid leukemia
Exploring the Decarbonylation of Cyclic Imides Utilizing a Nickel Catalyst
No full textPrevious research established that a decarbonylative nickel-mediated cross coupling reaction of N-substituted cyclic imides with diorganozinc reagents is possible with many different functional groups in the R position of the cyclic imide. The scope of the reaction was further expanded with a wide variety of diorganozinc reagents (R1). (J. Org. Chem., 2011, 76, 3588). All of the previous reactions were successful using an unsaturated backbone. The focus of this particular research is to expand scope of the reaction by exploring the possibility of a saturated imide backbone. To determine the ideal reaction conditions to promote the decarbonylation it was tried under a variety of solvents and ligands. (Original contains diagram
Probing the Effects of Various Rhodium Catalysts on the Carbon-Carbon Activation of Quinolinyl Ketones
No full textThough the carbon-carbon single bond is thought to be exceptionally stable because of a lack of polarization and steric inaccessibility, it is shown to be functionalizable in the rhodium-catalyzed intramolecular insertion of an alkene into a quinolinyl ketone (Douglas, et. al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 412). This reaction was studied kinetically with the use of seven different rhodium(I) catalysts in order to determine the relative rates of the reactions. The procedure was conducted using resealable NMR tubes and the relative amount of product to starting material was tracked with NMR spectroscopy throughout the reactions. Further investigation was done using bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene)rhodium(I) trifluoromethanesulfonate because of the high rate of reaction discovered in the preliminary experiments. The kinetics of this catalyst were explored by varying the concentration of the starting quinolinyl ketone while holding all other factors constant. The new catalysts researched here could help to increase the rate of these carbon-carbon single bond activating reactions as well as lead to an expansion of the substrate scope
The JanDY Online Survey System
No full textThe JanDY Survey System is a continuation of an ongoing project started by Dr. McFall. This project aims at enhancing the capabilities of the existing online survey system used at Hope College. Over the course of the summer, the existing creation wizard was edited and improved, allowing the survey creator a wide range of possibilities. The survey display was also enhanced with a whole new layout including the relocation of the next and previous buttons, the addition of progress bars, the displaying of survey and page titles, and a number of refinements. Extensive work was done to test survey interactions. This test broke down into load testing and navigation testing. Load testing involved simulating hundreds and thousands of users loading, taking, or submitting a survey at once. Navigation testing involved automating a user taking a survey and making sure that the proper pages were displayed, that the correct information was displayed on each page, and that the pages were displayed in the correct order. Work on this project continued into the school year where new features started to be added to system while parts already implemented were improved
Design and Implementation of an 8-TET Robot
No full textTET robot is short for tetrahedral robot. The name reflects the fact that a tetrahedral robot uses a tetrahedron as its structural basis. The simplest TET robot consists of a single tetrahedron while more complex configurations can be built with multiple tetrahedra. An 8-TET robot is built from eight tetrahedra. TET robots are currently an interest to NASA because TET robots are capable of a unique method of movement not attainable with standard wheel-based rovers. A tetrahedral robot moves by expanding and contracting parts of its tetrahedral structure in choreographed ways. This allows for a varying number of gaits depending on the robot\u27s structural complexity. The purpose of this particular research project was to design and implement a new system to control our 8-TET prototype. The old system worked, but there was a lot of wiring on the robot and the communication was slow. Every strut was wired to a centralized controller and all communication was carried out with a single radio. In order to remedy these faults, each strut of the robot was redesigned so that each is independently controlled by a dedicated microcontroller. Each strut was also redesigned to independently communicate with the computer program that controls the robot. This eliminated wiring between struts and allowed for faster communication. Ultimately, this research will help us gain further insight into how TET robots should be controlled. Once we develop a very successful prototype, we will be able to gain further insight into the full capabilities of TET robots
A Factor Analysis of Two Post-Partum Depression Assessments Used in the Hospital Setting
No full textA woman’s risk for post-partum depression (PPD) can be assessed in the hospital setting. Two instruments, the Post-Partum Depression Risk Assessment (PDRA) and the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Screen (EPDS), are used in a large Midwestern hospital. The purpose of this study was to determine if the PDRA and EPDS were measuring different elements of PPD using factor analysis, identifying items that clustered together. Nola Pender’s Health Promotion Model informed the study because how a mother perceives her risk of PPD will lead to taking preventative action if PPD symptoms occur. This study was a factor analysis of PDRA and EPDS risk assessment using de-identified data collected from a convenience sample of 585 mothers within 24 hours of delivery. The variable self-harm from the PDRA was eliminated because there were no occurrences of this variable in the dataset. Principal components analysis was conducted using oblique rotation, initially revealing four components. These components loaded on four factors, which were stress, emotional response, history, and selfharm. Emotional response was composed of only factors from the EPDS, history from PDRA, and harm was only one question from the EPDS. Limitations for the factor analysis include this study being the first to compare the PDRA and the EPDS, and data collection from only one healthcare institution. Conclusions are that the PDRA and the EPDS are measuring different factors. The PDRA focuses on history, whereas the EPDS focuses on the current pregnancy. Therefore, when evaluating PPD, both PDRA and EPDS should be used. Further research is needed