259890 research outputs found
Sort by
On Being Brought from Gambia or Ghana to Colonial Boston: Teaching Phillis Wheatley and Place
No full textIn this pedagogical article, I describe my classroom practice in which the context of place becomes supremely important when introducing Wheatley’s work to students. With the help of experiential learning in the form of a walking tour of Wheatley\u27s Boston and some maps, I call attention to spatiality as a crucial context for framing the poet’s most persistent concerns. The article contains images that can be useful to instructors who do not have the benefit of teaching Wheatley in Boston
Securing the AI Supply Chain: Safeguarding U.S. Advantage in the Age of Generative AI
No full textArtificial intelligence (AI) now supports nearly every domain of national power, from intelligence fusion and logistics to cyber defense and information operations. Unlike traditional defense systems, AI depends on a globally distributed supply chain spanning data, models, and compute. Other critical systems also rely on global supply chains, but AI is distinctive in its dependence on large-scale data, open-source software, and foreign-fabricated chips, each of which introduces distinct avenues for compromise.
The AI supply chain includes every stage of an algorithm’s lifecycle: data ingestion, labeling, model training, deployment, and post-deployment monitoring. Because these processes draw on open-source tools, commercial cloud services, and foreign-made chips, assurance gaps now extend across the entire stack.
Recent incidents highlight how these risks have shifted inside modern AI ecosystems. In 2024, researchers discovered malicious model payloads on open-source platforms such as Hugging Face and prompt-injection exploits targeting GitHub Copilot, demonstrating that compromise can begin with poisoned data or manipulated model weights, not just zero-day exploits.
The United States therefore faces a dual imperative: to preserve the openness that drives innovation while hardening the AI supply chain against adversarial manipulation. Achieving this balance requires an ecosystem that is verifiable, governable, and resilient.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gnsi_decision_briefs/1034/thumbnail.jp
Queer Excess and Hybrid History in Elizabeth Cary’s Edward II
No full textElizabeth Cary’s prose history The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II (1627) follows the fourteenth-century king of England, whose love affairs with his favorite courtiers ultimately resulted in his overthrow and execution. She identifies Edward’s queerness, and his resulting lack of emotional control, as central to his inability to govern England, and as an example of the dangers of excessive emotions for her readers. Because of Edward II’s complicated publishing and attribution history, much of the scholarly effort around this text has been spent attempting to interpret it through Cary’s personal life and political aims. While this has been essential work, placing Cary more firmly among the historical literature of her time allows us to examine her innovative use of form. The early Stuart historiographical field is often viewed as lacking clear direction or focus, but Cary’s ability to repurpose the many forms available to her demonstrates the possibilities inherent in this period of literature. She writes in the popular “politic history” tradition, but incorporates the conventions and language of various other histories, treatises, and verse narratives to create a hybrid form. Though Cary does express strong political opinions, she uses these forms to expose and condemn Edward’s queer excess, as well as excess passion in general
Introduction: Concise Collection on Teaching the Works of Phillis Wheatley Peters, Part II
No full textThis short essay introduces part two of a two-part Concise Collections special issue on teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters. It discusses how the life and works of the poet can be taught in various educational settings
True to Form: Genre and Critical Affect in the Study of Early Modern Women’s Writing
No full textThis essay considers how incorporating the critical study of affect into feminist formalist analyses can help move the field of early modern women’s writing forward in new and productive ways. After a brief historical and theoretical overview of the relationship between formalism and feminism in the study of early modern women’s writing, the essay turns to the specific topic of genre and affect. Reading the affective registers of literary genre, which often requires reading across traditional period divides, can productively enable us to deepen our understanding of early modern women’s forms. However, turning our critical eye to our own affective responses and priorities as scholars is also a necessary component of such analysis. Genres create affective experiences, but our own affect as scholars and teachers also influences our assessment of literary genres and the narratives we tell about the past. Critical assessment of form and genre, in other words, is itself an affective endeavor. Drawing on examples from seventeenth-century Englishwomen’s elegies, this essay sketches out some possibilities for enriching our feminist formalist analysis of early modern women’s writing by attending to both textual and critical affect
Struggle for Economic Plurality; Economies of Belonging: Subsistence, Indigneity, and the Contradictions and Margins of Capitalism in the Andean Highlands
No full textThis dissertation examines the collective-oriented economy of the Viacha Highlands, a Quechua community in Cusco, Peru, to show how subsistence agriculture, reciprocity, and ritual practices constitute a coherent non-capitalist system of provisioning and belonging. Drawing on one year of ethnographic immersion, the study situates Viacha’s economy within the Community Economies framework, foregrounding its three commitments: anti- essentialism, pluriversality, and ethical–political praxis. Findings reveal that practices such as ayni-ayni (reciprocal labor exchange) and faina (communal work) resist reduction to wage labor, coexist alongside monetary and capitalist dynamics, and ground social reproduction in responsibility and care. At the same time, capitalist schooling, state policy, and nearby urban centers like Pisac reshape generational attachments to land and labor. By documenting Viacha’s economic system as both alternative and contested, this dissertation expands the debate on economy and Community Economies theory, offering a critical and timely contribution to rethinking value, resilience, and interdependence
The Orange Glow in the Sunshine State: Three Visions of PLATO in Florida (1970-1990)
No full textThe PLATO network, a collection of mainframe computers, terminals, and educational software, has received an increasing amount of scholarly attention in the last decade as a social precursor to the modern internet. Existing histories have neglected to investigate the ways in which PLATO and its related business enterprise worked to accelerate the shift in university governance away from classical liberal ideas centering the public good and towards a more profit-centered neoliberal rationality. By tracing the rise of PLATO in Florida universities, this paper argues that PLATO aided and was aided by the shifting priorities of American universities in the 1970s and 80s, as seen in the ways faculty and administrators discussed and imagined the PLATO system upon its arrival. Additionally, this paper highlights issues in the historiography of computing and proposes a more holistic model for writing about computer networks which balances all the relevant actors and their conflicting aspirations for the system in question
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Metabolism in Bacteria
No full textDissolved inorganic carbon (DIC: CO2, HCO3⁻, CO32⁻) plays a central role in the metabolism of all living organisms. DIC is necessary for steps in essential biosynthetic processes, such as the synthesis of amino acids and nucleobases; in autotrophic bacteria, organic molecules are synthesized entirely from DIC. To ensure a steady supply of CO2 and HCO3 - needed for biosynthesis and/or autotrophy, organisms use bicarbonate transporters to increase the cytoplasmic concentration of this anion, and carbonic anhydrase (CA) to speed the interconversion of CO2 and HCO3 -, both in the cytoplasm and at the cell surface. This dissertation investigates DIC metabolism by autotrophic and heterotrophic members of Bacteria. Autotrophic organisms using the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle must minimize the wasteful oxygenase reaction of the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO). They have evolved carbon dioxide concentrating mechanisms (CCMs). These systems include DIC transporters to elevate intracellular bicarbonate concentrations and carboxysomes, which are proteinaceous microcompartments which encapsulate RubisCO and CA to increase local CO2 concentrations and enhance the carboxylation efficiency of RubisCO. Chapters 2 and 3 of this dissertation focus on genus Thiomicrospira, especially T. pelophila, an autotrophic member of class Gammaproteobacteria. In Chapter 2, we demonstrated that ιCA, a newly discovered form of CA, is active within carboxysomes from members of genus Thiomicrospira and furthermore, we demonstrated for T. pelophila that ιCA is essential for growth under DIC limitation, both in native cells and when heterologously expressed in E. coli. This is the first time that ιCA has been described within a CCM context. In Chapter 3, we showed that T. pelophila encodes an unusually large number of putative DIC transporters. Four of these transporters were able to mediate bicarbonate uptake when expressed in E. coli. Interestingly, only one transporter was dramatically transcriptionally upregulated under DIC limitation, while transcripts from carboxysome genes did not differ as dramatically. This suggests that CCMs in T. pelophila might function differently than CCMs of other autotrophs, in which genes encoding multiple DIC transporters and carboxysome components are all strongly upregulated under low DIC conditions. Chapter 4 broadens the scope of DIC metabolism to all microorganisms, with phylogenetic and functional analysis of the sulfate permease (SulP) family of transporters to determine how widespread bicarbonate transport is among this family. Phylogenic analysis suggests that SulP transporters can be divided into 5 different clades (A-E). In our first round of screening a library of 210 sulP genes, we found that many members of the C-clade are capable of bicarbonate uptake, while bicarbonate transport in other clades is less common. In some cases, results from this first screen of the library were not reliably replicable. These findings advance our understanding of microbial DIC uptake and fixation, and have implications for microbial ecology, global carbon cycling, and biotechnological applications
The Relationship Between Perceived and Actual Knowledge of Multi-tiered Systems of Support/Response to Intervention (MTSS/RtI) in Middle School Principals in Florida
No full textPrincipals play a crucial role in implementing MTSS/RtI (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support/Response to Intervention), yet little is known about their understanding of the RtI component. This quantitative survey examined Florida middle school principals’ actual and perceived knowledge of MTSS/RtI, as well as how training and demographic factors—such as special education certification, education level, Title I status, administrative experience during rollout years (2006–2010), district training hours, and college coursework—relate to that knowledge. Data from 54 principals were collected through perception scales, training background, and knowledge-based questions. Results showed principals rated their perceived knowledge higher than their actual knowledge, with a moderate positive correlation between the two. District training was the only factor significantly associated with perceived knowledge, while many administrators reported varied or low levels of training in pre-service and district training. Findings indicated gaps in understanding RtI components (particularly screening) and confusion distinguishing RtI from eligibility processes. Title I schools showed lower patterns, suggesting greater support is needed. Comments underscored the need for focused support in higher-tiered interventions, dedicated staff for individual students, inclusion of students with disabilities, solutions to secondary level implementation challenges (including scheduling, curriculum and credits) and clarity between MTSS and RtI terminology
Exploring the Experiences of Three Saudi Mothers Returning to Saudi with Their Bilingual Children
No full textThis qualitative interview study explored the experiences of three Saudi mothers who returned to Saudi Arabia with their bilingual children after living with their children in English-speaking countries for educational and academic purposes. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory is the theory that served as the guiding framework for the study, shaping the direction of the study and informing both the analysis and discussion of the data. The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of this unique phenomenon and to address a gap in the existing literature since there are very few studies that focus on the post-return experience to Saudi Arabia. The data was collected and analyzed during the spring and summer of 2025 through virtual semi-structured interviews and member checking. Furthermore, the analysis followed the phases and strategies of thematic analysis. Therefore, the findings were organized into three overarching themes with subthemes under each theme. The overarching themes are: (a) Reintegrating into the Saudi Social and Educational Environments, (b) Strategies for Sustaining Bilingualism, and (c) Reflections and Advice on Returning to Saudi Arabia with Bilingual Children. Together, all these themes provide an interpretive discussion of the mothers’ return experiences from social, educational, and family life aspects, while also offering valuable implications for Saudi educational policymakers both inside and outside Saudi Arabia, as well as for Saudi parents and families navigating similar transitions. Finally, the study concludes with recommendations for future research