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Missiles on Lake Michigan: Public Opposition to the Nike Air Defense System in Chicago, 1954-1971
No full textThis paper examines civilian opposition to the Nike air defense system between the mid-1950s and early 1970s in Chicago, Illinois. During the Cold War, the United States Army installed several surface-to-air missile bases in civilian areas in Chicago and other cities across the country in order to defend against a potential Soviet air attack. The Army and their Nike missiles encountered considerable public hostility and resistance from the start, but these efforts changed over time. During the earliest period of opposition to Nike in the mid-1950s, political officials and their constituents in Chicago framed their grievances with Nike as a neighborhood and municipal issue. The loudest objections emerged from the liberal, affluent, and politically organized Hyde Park-Kenwood area. Later, opposition to Nike was imbued with national and international implications when the anti-nuclear movement entered the fray in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the late 1960s, Chicago’s Nike debate became further entangled with national military policy as the missiles came to be associated with the controversial deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and the war in Southeast Asia. The Nike debate developed from a local and municipal battle over land use to a conversation about broader American military doctrine. At the same time, certain continuities persisted, with the socioeconomic and political characteristics of the neighborhoods involved informing civilians’ interpretation of Nike throughout the entire 1954-1971 period
Filing China’s Image: The Chinese Censorship and the American Journalists, 1930-1950
No full textThis thesis explores how China’s modern censorship system emerged from wartime imperative and the transnational network embedded in the news industry and public sphere during the 1930s and 1940s. Delving into the intertwined development of censorship, state-building, and journalism in China between the 1930s and 1950s, it reveals two essential aspects of the formation of the Kuomintang regime’s censorship system. First, the censorship system was largely shaped by a group of veteran Chinese newspaper professionals, who actively made up the first generation of governmental information bureaucrats and crafted the censorship policies for the regime. Meanwhile, a transnational network comprising of Chinese and foreign newspaper owners, editors, and journalists facilitated the institutionalization of the KMT’s international propaganda system, which later transformed into a censorship system. The transnational network of journalists in China continued to develop, eventually coming into conflict with an increasingly restrictive censorship machinery. This network played a pivotal role in the information war between the Nationalists and the Communists during the Civil War, including both the outcome of the war and the information control strategy of the People’s Republic. Drawing on archival sources, historical news reports, and memoirs, this thesis examines how the modern Chinese state’s early censorship system was shaped by not only domestic political imperatives but also complex interactions between Chinese and foreign newspaper professionals. It reveals that the state’s information control system, an essential component of modern China’s state-building project, was deeply intertwined with the nation’s public sphere
Can Structural Information Shape Children’s Reasoning About Gender Disparities in STEM Achievements?
No full textGender bias in STEM is often subtly embedded in educational materials, which is a structural barrier for girls that contributes to broader gender disparities in STEM. This study examined whether presenting children with structural information—the gender representation of scientists in STEM materials and the corresponding gender differences among STEM competition winners—influences their reasoning about gender disparities in STEM achievement. Children were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: a baseline condition (no gender information about the scientists in the textbook and boys won), a between-group comparison condition (male scientists in the textbook and boys won), or a within-group comparison condition (boys won when scientists were male, and girls won when scientists were female). After viewing the stimuli, children completed open-ended and explanation rating tasks in two STEM domains: robot-building (original) and puzzle-solving (generalization). Both experimental conditions shifted children’s reasoning away from intrinsic and toward structural explanations in the original domain. We also found some evidence of generalization. These findings suggest that even brief exposure to structural information—particularly through within-group comparison condition—can effectively promote structural reasoning in young children
Discovery of Macrocyclic Peptide Binders, Covalent Modifiers, and Degraders of a Structured RNA by mRNA Display
Full text linkRNA targeting represents a compelling strategy for addressing challenging therapeutic targets that are otherwise intractable through traditional protein targeting. Revolutionary approaches in RNA-focused small molecule libraries have successfully identified RNA-binding ligands but generally remain limited in diversity and impeded by a dearth of structural insight into RNA and RNA complexes. Cyclic peptides are potential structural mimics of evolutionary RNA-protein interacting motifs and can be massively diversified and selected via genetically encoded libraries, offering a complementary approach. This study introduces genetically encoded thioether cyclic peptide libraries constructed through mRNA display using a dibromoxylene linker and its fluorosulfonyl derivative that can covalently engage RNA nucleophiles. Using an optimized mRNA display workflow for RNA binders, we discovered high affinity, covalent and noncovalent binders for SNCA 5′ UTR IRE, the upstream iron-responsive element that post-transcriptionally regulates the expression of α-synuclein, an intrinsically disordered protein implicated in Parkinsonism and related neurodegenerative diseases. Notably, a stringent selection strategy employing “base-paired” target analog counterselection enhanced specificity by deenriching nonspecific electrostatic interactions mediated by polycationic residues. Further engineering hit peptides with an imidazole tag yielded selective RNA degraders in which covalent degraders showed noticeably improved potency from noncovalent counterparts. This work provides a prototype framework for evolution-driven, high-throughput, RNA-targeted drug discovery using cyclic peptides
Evaluating the long-term predictive value of macular thickness fluctuations on diabetic macular oedema response to anti-VEGF treatment
Full text linkObjective: This study assesses the predictiveness of retinal thickness variability on long-term visual acuity (VA) outcomes in patients with diabetic macular oedema (DMO) undergoing anti-VEGF therapy. Design: Retrospective chart review at a single institution. Participants: 184 and 138 patients underwent initial treatment for DMO and continued to follow-up at 3 and 5 years, respectively. Methods: Baseline demographics, past medical, and clinical data were collected through electronic medical record query. Central subfield thickness (CST), choroidal volume (CV), and cube average thickness (CAT) variability over the first year of treatment were calculated using standard deviation, amplitude, and area under the curve. CST, CV, CAT, and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were noted at the initial treatment date and 3 and 5 years. CST variability quartiles were compared on baseline, final, and change in BCVA alongside final and change in CST. Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate factors associated with final BCVA at 3 and 5 years while adjusting for confounders. Results: There is no significant association between larger fluctuations in macular thickness and change in BCVA at 3 and 5 years. Individuals in the highest CST variability quartile had the lowest final BCVA but also the lowest baseline BCVA and no difference in BCVA change. Linear regression revealed that CST variability was not predictive of final BCVA. Baseline BCVA and total number of anti-VEGF injections were predictive of BCVA at 3 years and 5 years respectively. Conclusions: Macular thickness variability did not predict long-term visual outcomes at 3 and 5 years.</p
Flow-directed Space-efficient Closure Conversion
Full text linkIn higher-order languages, a function captures its free variables in a closure, often implemented as a flat record. While this simple structure is effective, more sophisticated representations can significantly reduce overhead. To manage the multiplicity of possible closure representation decisions, this paper introduces a model that represents closure decisions and a transformation that applies these decisions to a program. This paper presents several optimization passes that rewrite the closure representations, each of which greedily minimizes the dynamic allocation required for closures. Higher-order control-flow analysis provides more information about the flows of function values. This information is used both to justify the soundness for some of the proposed rewriting passes and to provide heuristics for others. This paper presents an efficient implementation of 0-CFA with supports for ref-cells and separate compilation. This novel approach is implemented in the Standard ML of New Jersey compiler and evaluated against the existing implementation. The results show that this approach is scalable to large programs and effective in reducing dynamic allocations
Renewing the Nine Rasas: Translating Taste in the Early Modern Deccan Sultanates
No full textThis dissertation asks why a group of primarily Muslim scholars connected to the court of Ibrahim ʿAdil Shah II—a king who famously crafted a political persona around the word nawras—adopted a Sanskrit word with a long history in Indian aesthetic theory as the keyword for their intellectual projects. Previously viewed as singularly promoted by Ibrahim, the related concepts of nawras and rasa were theorized, commented on, and translated by Persian, Dakani, and Sanskrit authors in Bijapur and its surroundings. These scholars (local and Hindustani Muslims; Hindus; and migrants from Iran) interpreted this term in different ways while also engaging closely with each other across languages, genres, and social communities. This dissertation is interested in what discussions of rasa in the Deccan reveal about cultural interactions in early modernity and overlaps between literary practices, consumption practices, and forms of sensory experience—visual art, literary aesthetics, music, and gustatory taste—which modern disciplinary divisions have placed in separate spheres. The dissertation argues that in contrast to parallel projects of translating, interpreting, and taxonomizing Indic knowledge that took place at the Mughal court, Deccani scholars’ engagements with the analytic of rasa stemmed not from a political motive, but from understandings of the term as spanning literary connoisseurship and sensory experience. Rasa’s application to aesthetics and consumption practices aligned with views of artistic appreciation and creation as having real and concrete effects on the body and emotions, widespread in the early modern Persianate world. Reading and engaging with mobile forms of knowledge in Persian (as well as Indic theories of aesthetics), socially and ethnically diverse writers in the Deccan collectively crafted a theory of “new taste.” Their shared project—emerging in a space peripheral to the early modern empires, yet central to multiple overlapping networks—reveals the limitations of dividing identities in the Deccan into the familiar categories of Hindu/Muslim, local/foreign, or vernacular/cosmopolitan. The dissertation aims to provide a model for understanding forms of cross-linguistic, cross-cultural engagement and theories of art and the senses that emerged outside the early modern empire
Flexible Changes in Neural Gain and Selectivity in the Early Auditory Encoding of Experts Under Varying Attention and Effort Demands
Full text linkThe frequency-following response (FFR) offers a powerful window into how attention and domain-specific expertise shape early auditory encoding. Yet, despite decades of research, the cognitive role of the FFR remains underdefined. Existing studies of attention often report mixed or null results, suggesting that its influence on early auditory encoding may be weak or contingent on individual factors such as expertise. Conversely, studies of expertise consistently show enhanced FFR amplitudes in musicians and other experts (e.g., Wong et al., 2007; Parbery-Clark et al., 2009; Strait et al., 2013), but these have largely been conducted under passive listening conditions, without explicit attentional demands. As a result, the literature defaults to the assumption that larger FFR amplitudes signify superior encoding, yet this assumption lacks strong theoretical grounding. To address this gap, the present dissertation examines the joint effects of attention and expertise across active and passive listening conditions, drawing on competing predictions from gain modulation models (e.g., Hillyard et al., 1998; Zatorre et al., 1999, 2012) and dynamic tuning accounts (Fritz et al., 2003; Fritz et al., 2007; Elhilali et al., 2007). Across four experiments, the findings reveal that expertise sharpens FFR responses in a non–context-specific manner, consistent with dynamic tuning models that emphasize selective suppression of irrelevant neural activity. However, under more challenging tasks, effort in experts was associated with global increases in FFR amplitude, suggesting the flexible recruitment of gain-modulation mechanisms to strengthen performance. Passive listening, by contrast, consistently elicited broadly elevated FFR amplitudes, indicating a diffuse, non-selective form of auditory engagement. Taken together, these results suggest that early auditory encoding flexibly engages mechanisms of both selectivity and gain, depending on task difficulty, effort, and expertise. The findings contribute toward a more comprehensive model of auditory attention in which dynamic tuning enhances encoding efficiency under favorable conditions, while gain modulation amplifies responses to meet the demands of effortful listening
A Social Experience or Asocial Experience? The Fractured Togetherness of Final Fantasy XIV
Full text linkIn the face of anxieties regarding declining social connection, massively multiplayer online video games (or MMOs) have demonstrated their capacity to facilitate social interaction and feelings of community. In recent times, developments made both in how MMOs are designed and in online social platforms have elicited queries regarding whether these games still serve that social function. Through digital ethnographic study in the popular MMO Final Fantasy XIV, this study examines the game’s ability to facilitate social connection among its players. I find that, though Final Fantasy XIV offers a unique social experience where players can cultivate a sense of togetherness with each other, it becomes fractured due to the game’s systems deemphasizing social play as well as players fulfilling their social needs through external means. I argue that this experience of fractured togetherness does not invalidate MMOs from being valuable social spaces that can yield positive social outcomes for players. In effect, MMOs can therefore be instrumental in other, more individualized social platforms learning to support communality
A Private Space Within the Public Sphere: How Did the Crinoline Shape Victorian Society?
Full text linkThis thesis examines the social impact of middle-class women’s fashion in nineteenth-century Britain. Using a blend of historical research and object analysis, this project reveals the juxtaposition between how fashion was written by its contemporaries versus how it actually appeared in real life. Victorian women's fashion is often portrayed both in history and the media as very restrictive and cumbersome to both the wearer and those around them. While this perception is not entirely untrue, it also perpetuates the idea that fashion is a frivolous commodity with no real purpose. This paper dives deeper into the possibility that fashion was used by women as a tool to solidify their position within the public sphere that was traditionally dominated by men. By focusing on the steel-cage crinoline and the department store of the nineteenth-century, this paper highlights how middle-class women used the popular fashion of the time to their advantage despite the public outcry against it. When comparing the steel-cage crinoline with previous skirt shaping devices and the similar public reactions they caused, the key difference was the scale and speed in which these devices were able to be produced, sold, and purchased by a wider consumer audience. Shopping had already been established as a primarily feminine activity and was a common reason for women to be seen in public. However, when the department store appeared in the nineteenth-century, it quickly became a haven for middle-class women since many upper-class ladies still patronized the traditional aristocratic shops and lower-class women typically had jobs. Upper-class women were also more likely to wear steel-cage crinolines of extreme measurements to distinguish themselves from the other social classes and working women may have not worn one at all. This meant that a majority of average sized crinolines would have been worn by the middle-class women who were most likely to frequent the department stores. This paper brings to the surface some of these women' s voices that have traditionally been stifled by the mass amount of media focused mostly on the extreme crinoline wearers and not the experience of most women. Comparing the shopping experience for middle-class women in the eras before, during, and after the popularity of the steel-cage crinoline reveals the ways women used the device as a tool to solidify their position within the public sphere. Women surely existed in public before the crinoline, but this existence was limited by their lack of visibility and thus their autonomy. However, as the popularity of the crinoline began to dissipate in the latter half of the century there would be a new trend of ‘women only’ spaces that emerged. This timeline shows how the crinoline’s visibility granted women more autonomy in the public sphere and how its disappearance endangered this freedom, resulting in feminine defined spaces designed to preserve it. This paper therefore contributes to the academic conversation on the public sphere by highlighting lived experiences from ordinary women as well as the before and after effect of the steel-cage crinoline on Victorian society