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Ultrasonic characterization of HCT cells in the 5-25 MHz range
No full textEarly recognition of cancerous tissue is crucial in receiving a favorable prognosis. There is a need for fast and easy diagnosis of tumors provided in real time. Ultrasound techniques that can be used to differentiate ultrasonic characteristics (such as speed of sound (SOS), attenuation, and backscatter coefficients (BSC)) in malignant and benign cells can aid in early diagnostics. Diagnostic ultrasound is advantageous in that it is noninvasive, inexpensive, and does not employ ionizing radiation which can increase the risk of getting cancer. Although statistically significant distinctions between benign and cancerous tumor scatterer properties have been demonstrated, there is little knowledge about which cell characteristics create differences in scattering. This thesis centers on introducing a cell pellet biophantom technique that employs the use of quantitative ultrasound to quantify the microstructure of HCT (colon cancer) cells in an attempt to establish a greater understanding of scattering mechanisms.
To analyze these characteristics HCT cells were cultured, suspended in agar and prepared into samples. Broadband BSC measurements were conducted using focused transducers and narrowband attenuation and SOS measurements were performed using receiving and transmitting transducers. All experiments were made in the 5-25MHz range at 33°C. The results introduce relevant data useful for comparative studies and further analysis.Physic
The Effect of Unemployment Insurance Payments on the Unemployment: Comparative Analysis of US and Germany cases
No full textThis econometric and theoretic analysis examines the impact of Unemployment Insurance benefits on unemployment looking at cases of the US Emergency Unemployment Insurance Program of 2008 and German Unemployment Insurance Program Hartz IV. The first part of the paper is an empirical work that uses Current Population Survey data to examine the duration of unemployment spells for those individuals who have regained employment after being unemployed and receiving unemployment compensation from a longitudinal sample of employed workers in 2014 and 2015. The key finding is that after the expiration of program the average duration of an unemployment spell decreased by .68 weeks. I also find that for both groups of workers (those who receive UI benefits and do not receive), the expiration of the program had a positive impact on their unemployment by decreasing the duration of the unemployment spell. The second part of the paper focuses on the theoretical analysis of the German case and identifies the main reasons for the successful implementation of the Hartz IV effect on the German economy. Besides identifying positive aspects of the UI program, it also focuses on negative effects of UI. The discussion parts provides the analytical analysis of the comparison of UI program in the two countries.Economic
Balance
No full textBalance, a three-song extended play album, was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee in March of 2017 and debuted during an evening length senior recital on April 15th, 2017 at Mount Holyoke College. This paper details the processes of networking, marketing, and recording I have undertaken to produce my first professional album in the country music genre. Throughout this year, I have explored entrepreneurship in a new light and seen firsthand the issues that come along with the music industry. Using strong networking skills that I have developed, I have crafted my own solutions to said roadblocks. I have utilized new apps to quickly grow a supportive fanbase and interviewed fellow artists of differing levels of success searching for advice. In addition, I have emailed, phoned and met face-to-face with industry professionals as well as produced three radio-quality original songs while working seamlessly with highly accredited engineers in Nashville. Reflecting upon this year-long adventure will provide me with useful insights as to what worked and what did not work in regards toward advancing my professional music career. In the years to come, I hope Balance will spark other recording projects and be the stepping stone for me to become a successful songwriter in Music City.Musi
Fields of green: Corporate sustainability and the production of economistic environmental governance
No full textThis article critically examines the production of economistic fields of environmental governance in the context of global summits like Rioþ20. It focuses on the constitutive work performed by diverse actors in extending corporate sustainability logics, social technologies, and organizational forms initially enacted at the 2012 Corporate Sustainability Forum (CSF). Fields are defined as dynamic, relational arenas featuring particular logics, dynamic actor positions, and organizational forms. Corporate sustainability exemplifies how the language and practices of economics have reshaped approaches to environmental protection and sustainable development. Although numerous studies have looked at the implementation of market-oriented approaches, less attention has been focused on the constitutive processes that animate and expand economistic fields of governance over time. Our analysis emphasizes diffuse processes of economization as central to the reproduction and extension of fields. The article addresses three key issues: (1) how global corporate sustainability networks help to constitute economistic fields of governance, (2) the extent to which major events contribute to field configuration, and (3) the processes through which field elements—logics, social technologies, and organizational forms—transpose onto related fields of governance. Field configuration produces economistic environmental governance by solidifying business logics, enabling new actor-networks, launching new globalscale initiatives, and enhancing the role of UN agencies in promoting corporate sustainability. We illustrate field configuration with two examples: the Natural Capital Declaration and the Green Industry Platform. Our analysis highlights the diffuse power of field dynamics in which discursive and social entanglement and transposition reproduce and extend corporate sustainability beyond current institutional boundaries
A Pictorial History of Mount Holyoke 1900-1935: Asa Kinney's View Camera Photographs
No full textThis monograph reproduces and discusses 142 photographs of Mount Holyoke College from 1900 to 1935 by Asa S. Kinney (1873-1961). He was teacher of plant science and landscape design from 1898 to 1939, whose passion was a 5 x 7 view camera from which he made nearly 2000 glass plate negatives, now in the college archives.
Nearly all unpublished, these represent individual college buildings, campus views imbued with picturesque naturalism, theatrical productions, sports, gardens, individual students, art collections, classrooms, and student rituals such as May Day. He also made some photographs of nearby streets and buildings of South Hadley.
Kinney should be remembered today for his formidable pictorial history of nearly four decades of the college. It's unlikely that a comparable set of photographs exists for any other small college town
The Effects of Elite Prep School Education on Society
No full textThis paper explores the ways in which secondary education at elite boarding schools affects its attendees’ sense of meritocracy, privilege and attainment of success. Stemming primarily from Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital and Shamus Khan’s work concerning how the elite use meritocracy as a way to support the social inequality between the socially elite and non-elite, this study explores how prep school attendees perceived their time at prep school, and how they believe it affected their success later on in life. In order to gain an understanding of how attendees interpreted their time at boarding schools, I conducted interviews with twelve students from three elite New England boarding schools. The information from these interviews was then used to interrogate the previous literature concerning elite boarding schools.
In this project, I argue that while previous literature has begun to address the issue of elite culture at boarding schools, it fails to account for how students consciously experience boarding school, in terms of how they acknowledge privilege and account for their own success. By contextualizing each participant’s experience with how they ended up attending boarding school, what they signified as the most important parts of their time at their respective schools, and how they planned to gain opportunities and earn success in the future, this study gained a deeper understanding into the elite culture of prep schools. In particular, the findings of this study demonstrate that while the majority of prep school students hold awareness of their privilege, they differ in the ways in which they knowingly utilize it.Sociology & Anthropolog
The Role of Bifidobacterium Colonization and Microbial Diversity in the Gastrointestinal Microbiome on the Development of Allergic Proctocolitis in Early Infancy
No full textMicrobial dysbiosis is proposed to impair immune system maturation and thus contribute to the development of allergic disease in early infancy (Azad et al., 2015; Cseh et al., 2010). However the role of the microbiome in allergic proctocolitis remains unknown. Bifidobacterium is proposed to play a protective role in the development of allergic disease by promoting the development of Th1 and T regulatory cells (Cseh et al., 2010). This study seeks to evaluate the diversity, microbial distribution, and relative abundance of Bifidobacterium in the gastrointestinal tract of control versus allergic proctocolitis infants in the first two weeks of life.
At the baseline visit, controls had a greater relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, a trend towards higher microbial diversity, and no statistically significant differences in Bifidobacterium compared to allergic proctocolitis cases. No differences were noted between allergic proctocolitis cases and controls in any measure tested at the two-week visit. Additionally, interesting patterns emerged in individual infants suggesting an increase in Bifidobacterium in controls and a decrease in allergic proctocolitis cases from the baseline to two-week visit. Overall, these findings confirm that microbial alterations may contribute to the development of allergic proctocolitis and highlight the need for additional future research.Biological Science
More Than Where the Heart Is: A Philosophical Consideration of the Home
No full textWhen we say that there is no place like home, we offer a platitude for why homes are special. Underneath the cliché, however, there is something substantive to this claim: home is a special place, one that is important in ways that others are not.
My project considers both what a home is and why it might be the special place that we imagine it to be. To do so, I engage with Kirsten Jacobson’s arguments for the importance of home: first, that homes are refuges of a particular sort, and second, that as such refuges, they provide one with the ability to successfully operate within the wider world. The basis of both arguments is her definition of home as a place of familiarity and security. This claim is where my primary critique lies. Although it may seem intuitive, this definition does not account for many home spaces, including those that are abusive, unstable, or unsafe, among others. To account for these homes, Jacobson is left with two possible responses. She can claim that these spaces are not homes in the sense that she intends. Doing so, however, renders her goal of providing a universal definition of home a failure. Alternatively, she can revise her definition to include a shallower, more inclusive sense of familiarity and security. Redefining the home in this way, however, would defeat the purpose of claiming that home is unique, as it includes spaces we do not consider to be homes.
I show that for Jacobson to preserve her larger project goal, she must sacrifice the universality of her argument and instead offer a normative claim about the home. This move is not without adverse consequences. In making it, Jacobson either revokes the home-status of many home spaces, or claims that such spaces are bad homes. Those within these spaces will also not have the tools to succeed in the world, per Jacobson’s argument. I argue that the larger insight she provides about the importance of home is worth this sacrifice. In choosing the normative definition, however, Jacobson has not resolved all issues with her conception of home. Familiarity and security are complex ideas; too much of either in one’s life can be harmful. After demonstrating the potential harms of familiarity and security, and considering the perspective of Martin Heidegger, I argue that we should imagine a normative conception of the home that differs in important ways from that which Jacobson has given us. This conception must account for the importance of home as a refuge space, but it must also describe the value of a home that enables growth through risks and discovery. It is this home that we can successfully argue will prepare one for the wider world.Philosoph
Williston Hall, 1876-1917
No full textThis short illustrated essay tells the story of Williston Hall, the first building constructed
wholly outside the walls of the gigantic Seminary Hall. Opened in 1876, it housed art and the
natural sciences. A gallery of original art and copies was accompanied by rooms devoted to
collections of ornithology, zoology, mineralogy and geometry. A large annex was added in 1889.
When the first Shattuck Hall was built in 1892, physics and chemistry moved there, leaving more
room in Williston for the other sciences and art. However, the sciences were burgeoning and
space sorely lacked, so a final beneficial change came in 1902 when art moved to the newly built
Dwight Art Memorial. In Williston the sciences gained national prominence in following years
but in 1917 a disaster struck. Fire consumed the entire building and with it the once famous
collection
Genetic Analysis of Non-Apoptotic Programmed Cell Death
No full textProgrammed cell death (PCD) serves a variety of key roles during development and homeostasis. In most cases, PCD occurs via apoptosis, a highly orchestrated process that is primarily dependent on the activity of caspase proteases. However, many cells die by a process that has been termed “autophagic cell death.” Autophagic cell death occurs predominantly in highly differentiated cells like muscles and neurons, and although there has been a lot of research done on autophagy, the process leading to the induction of autophagic cell death is poorly defined.
The term PCD was coined in 1965 to describe the death of the intersegmental muscles (ISMs) of moths (Lockshin and Williams 1965). The ISMs are used by the developing adult to eclose (emerge) at the end of metamorphosis, after which these muscles initiate autophagic cell death (Schwartz et al. 1990). Expression of Acheron, a phylogenetically-conserved member of the Lupus antigen family of RNA-binding proteins, is induced approximately 1000-fold when the ISMs become committed to die (Wang et al. 2009). Acheron serves as a survival protein to protect the cells until the time of eclosion, after which it is degraded (Sheel et al. 2016).
RNA interference screening methods can be used to inhibit the activity of specific genes and identify genes that affect cell death in insect muscles. I used the fruit fly model organism Drosophila melanogaster because it has exceptional tools for genetic analysis. Rather than employ abdominal muscles to perform the eclosion behavior, flies utilize a set of muscles in the head known as the ptilinal muscles. Like the ISMs, following eclosion the ptilinal muscles die by a process controlled by Acheron (Sheel et al. 2016).
Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that mediate autophagic cell death. Since non-dying cells can undergo autophagy it is not clear how autophagy is regulated to become part of the killing mechanism (Fuchs and Steller 2011). This project focuses on studying Acheron expression in D. melanogaster and identifying specific proteins that are essential for autophagic cell death.Biochemistr