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Church Space as Queer Place? LGBTQ+ Placemaking, Assimilation, and Subversion within Progressive Faith-Based Spaces in Maine
Full text linkIn popular discourse, understandings of queerness and religiosity as antithetical proliferate. However, the political involvement of Portland, Maine’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement points to a more complex relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and progressive religious institutions. Through participant observation, archival research, and semi-structured interviews with nine LGBTQ+ community members and informants, I reveal the crucial role of Portland’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement from the late 1980s into the present day. On the one hand, progressive faith-based spaces across Maine provide safe spaces for queer political organizing. On the other hand, “ephemeral placemaking” in progressive faith-based spaces represents an assimilationist political strategy that stresses LGBTQ+ respectability. Thus, I argue that queer placemaking in progressive faith-based spaces reflects both subversive and assimilationist politics. LGBTQ+ activists utilize ephemeral placemaking strategies within progressive faith-based spaces to challenge political opposition from the religious Right while also reinforcing what Mikulak (2019) terms “godly homonormativity”: the normalization of LGBTQ+ identity and the upholding of heteronormativity by emphasizing respectability and monogamy. My analysis of queer political organizing within progressive faith-based spaces “queers” religion and LGBTQ+ politics, disrupting dominant narratives of religion as homophobic and LGBTQ+ politics as radical
Timing the Paleozoic Oxygenation of the Deep Ocean Using Thallium Isotopes
No full text[Abstract restricted
Modeling UV Light Through N95 Filters
Full text linkReuse of N95 FFRs helps mitigate the effects of shortages. UV-C exposure is an ideal method for the decontamination necessary for FFR reuse. Recent research quantifies the transmittance of UV-C through the 3M1870+ and 3M9210+ FFRs [1]. Other research measures the reduction in viral load in relation to UV-C exposure time [11]. We design and program a ray tracing simulator in MATLAB to characterize the distribution of scattered photons in N95 FFRs. We implement an object-oriented FFR with configurable physical characteristics. We use the simulator to record the number of photons available for decontamination in each sub-layer of the filtering layers of the 3M1870+ and 3M9210+ for a given number of photons incident to the layers. We make assumptions about the photon absorption and viral deactivation in each sub-layer to derive a relation between the number of incident photons and the number of viruses remaining. The transmittance computed by our simulator matches the experimentally measured transmittance. The diameter of the simulated scattered beam also matches the experimentally measured scattered beam diameters. Our data, combined with our assumptions about absorption and deactivation, however, fail to account for the dropoff in viral load observed at about 25 seconds of exposure time in the 3M1870+
The Shah Bano Case: An English-Language Democratic Practice in Post-Colonial India
Full text linkIn 1985, Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, known commonly as the Shah Bano Case, became a flashpoint for Indian democracy. The Shah Bano case revolved around the maintenance of a divorced woman, not the first of its kind by any means. A case that sparked major social and political upheaval during a broader period of political turmoil, the Shah Bano case has long been interpreted as an expression of the crisis and contradictions between the democratic rights of women as citizens and the democratic rights of Muslims as a religious minority in the Indian nation-state. In the immediate aftermath of the case, critical feminist and post-colonial scholarship grappled with the dilemmas it involved, but to some extent remained caught up in those dilemmas. This thesis builds upon the important work of these and later scholars, but it also draws new attention to the specific role of the English-language public sphere in shaping the terms of debate that surrounded the case in the 1980s. This paper argues against the binary understanding of the landmark Shah Bano Case as either a failure or success of Indian secularism. I argue that the case and its aftermath demonstrate the continual nature of Indian secularism and democratic practice, especially laden in the post-Emergency era
Characterisation of the \u3ci\u3eGryllus bimaculatus\u3c/i\u3e nervous system: insights into the role of the Spätzle1 and Spätzle5 proteins in the compensatory plasticity of the CNS
No full text[Abstract restricted
The influence of Toll 7 on the neuroplasticity of auditory neurons in the Mediterranean field cricket (\u3ci\u3eGryllus bimaculatus\u3c/i\u3e)
No full text[Abstract embargoed
Una Comprensione Computazionale della Psiche Emotiva e Ordine nelle Ballate del \u3ci\u3eDecameron\u3c/i\u3e: Stilometria e Elaborazione del Linguaggio Naturale
Full text linkThe present thesis, written in Italian, explores the emotional psyche and narrative order embedded within the ballads of the Decameron, a renowned literary masterpiece by Giovanni Boccaccio. Leveraging the advancements in stylometry and natural language processing techniques, this research aims to convince medieval Italian literature scholars to produce more on scholarship of the ballads and uncover the intricate patterns of human emotions and narrative organization in the ballads. The study begins by establishing a comprehensive corpus of ballads from the Decameron, utilizing digital libraries and text repositories. Subsequently, using stylometric analysis, the research examines the linguistic and stylistic features that distinguish the brigata’s ballads, focusing on elements such as vocabulary, syntax, and rhyme scheme. These analyses enable the identification of authorial patterns, shedding light on the emotional expressions and narrative techniques employed by Boccaccio. A natural language processing model was used to predict authorship of the ballads using each of the brigata’s novelle as training data. The findings of this research contribute to a deeper understanding of the emotional and narrative purpose of the Decameron\u27s ballads. Results of stylometric analysis allowed for new characterization of Panfilo’s ballad as sad and revealed how similarity in the emotional psyches of the brigata transcends gender. These novel perspectives allowed for unique literary analysis of the ballads. Accurate prediction of ballad authorship demonstrates that ballads fit into the narrative structure of the Decameron and restore order in each of the ten days
Investigating the Role of \u3ci\u3eHelicobacter pylori\u3c/i\u3e Glycan Biosynthesis in Modulating Host Immune Cell Recognition
No full textThe pathogenic bacterium Helicobacter pylori has evolved glycan-mediated mechanisms to evade host immune recognition. For example, H. pylori incorporates Lewis blood group antigens at the terminus of lipopolysaccharides on its cell surface that mimic the groups found on human cells. This study tests the hypothesis that disruption of H. pylori glycan biosynthesis enhances immune recognition and response. To test this hypothesis, human adenocarcinoma-derived gastric epithelial cells and leukemia-derived THP-1 monocytes differentiated into dendritic cells were challenged with wildtype H. pylori alongside an array of H. pylori glycosylation mutants. Relative levels of immune response were measured via gastric cell granularity, bacterial viability, dendritic cell maturation, and cytokine production from both human host cell models. Gastric and bacterial cell health both diminished in cocultures of gastric cells with glycosylation mutants compared to cocultures of gastric cells with wildtype bacteria. The glycoprotein mutant D579 significantly increased gastric CXCL-8 production compared to wildtype bacteria, where the LPS mutant DWZK significantly decreased production. All other mutants varied significantly across replicates, suggesting the role of phase variation and gene redundancy in regulating bacterial cell surface glycosylation. Dendritic cell activation and IL-10 production either increased or did not change in the presence of glycosylation mutants compared to wildtype. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that H. pylori’s glycan presentation plays an important role in modulating the host immune response
