5,303 research outputs found
Cult: A Composite Novel
No full textCult (redacted)
The first component of the thesis is a composite novel called Cult which falls into two parts with seven narratives in each. Part 1 tracks the protagonist, Ellen, from her first involvement with the cult through to her eventually leaving it. Although fiction, the first half of the book answers the kinds of questions the author is asked when people discover that she was once a sannyasin (a follower of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). While the experiences of meditation, group therapy and communal living are all faithfully rendered within the stories, the need for strong characters, narrative drive and a lightness of touch takes precedence.
Part 2 picks up Ellen’s story some twenty or so years later and explores what becomes of her in middle age. It also looks at other groups in society, such as academia, the law and the internet dating community which each have their own jargon, hierarchies, rituals and rules but are not considered to be cults.
The book examines the question raised in the Epigraph, ‘how do we be together when we feel so alone’ with a focus on relationships other than the familial and the romantic.
Collisions, Chasms and Connections: a Performative Exploration of the Composite Novel Form
The second part of the thesis is both a critical and creative response to three contemporary American books: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. The critical element comprises a close reading of the three books; a chronological reconstruction of their overarching storylines; and a consideration of what their authors have said about writing the books. It concludes that, in the composite novel, the simultaneous presentation of multiple views and storylines operate much like a 3D image to give the impression of depth to the characters and situations rendered. The creative element of the essay is a playful and personal response to the texts
The future of scholarly communications
No full textThe academic publishing industry is set to celebrate 350 years of peer-reviewed scientific journals. However, there are significant shifts in the practice of scholarship, as scholars and citizens alike participate in an increasingly digital world. Is the scholarly article still fit for its purpose in this data-driven world, with new interdisciplinary methodologies and increasing automation? How might it be enhanced or replaced with new kinds of digital research objects , so as not to restrict innovation but rather create a flourishing sense-making network of humans and machines? The emerging paradigm of social machines provides a lens onto future developments in scholarship and scholarly collaboration, as we live and study in a hybrid physical-digital sociotechnical system of enormous and growing scale.Copyright 2014 David De Roure. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided the original author and source are credited. If reusing please acknowledge "Insights: the UKSG journal" as the place of first publication. Please cite using the full DOI as specified at the end of the article: De Roure, D, The future of scholarly communications, Insights, 2014, 27(3), 233–238; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.17
Strategic technology investment decisions in R&D
No full textThesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Technology and Policy Program, 1999.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105).by David I. Lackner.S.M
Curing Cholera: Pathogens, Places and Poverty in South Asia
No full textIn this paper I will seek to provide a new understanding of endemicity of disease in India. Through a study of cholera research in the twentieth century I will argue that disease and its endemicity has to be understood in biological factors as well as within a wider social and economic context. I will discuss the medical efforts at locating the causality of cholera from the nineteenth century in Indian climate, water bodies and human anatomy to show that cholera is no more a biological phenomena than water is an ecological or environmental problem. Both are essentially political and economic questions
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1981 and twentieth-century evangelicalism.
No full textThe purpose of this thesis was to demonstrate the significance of the life and ministry of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones in post-war British evangelicalism and to show that, so far as Protestant churches in England and Wales were concerned, no history of the period can afford to ignore him. It is our contention that despite differences of opinion and self- marginalization Lloyd-Jones was and has remained a major force in evangelical thinking. In order to understand how this developed the thesis has been structured along thematic lines highlighting events, persons and questions. The study begins by setting the stage with a biographical chapter and goes on to examine the kind of impact that Lloyd-Jones's preaching had on Christians of all denominations. He believed preaching to be the greatest need of the day and the position of this thesis is that preaching was Lloyd-Jones's greatest contribution to twentieth- century Christianity. As a preacher he attracted one of London's largest congregations and in chapter three we look at the history and nature of Westminster Chapel comparing it with neighbouring ministries, and establishing the kind of people who went to hear him. Chapters four and five ascertain the factors which shaped Lloyd-Jones's views on the church and show how his Reformed evangelicalism led in a separatist as opposed to an ecumenical direction and finally, to a position which was neither Congregational nor Presbyterian. Our further argument is that while he favoured unity among believers his separatist ecclesiology only exacerbated the situation and left evangelicals more divided than before. Chapters six to eight evaluate Lloyd-Jones's background, the nature of his leadership and the extent of his influence - factors which either shaped or were the outcome of his ministry - and looks at the issues which these questions raise
Continuous-flow, electrically-triggered, single cell-level electroporation
No full textElectroporation creates transient openings in the cell membrane, allowing for intracellular delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic substances. The degree of cell membrane permeability during electroporation plays a key role in regulating the size of the delivery payload as well as the overall cell viability. A microfl uidic platform offers the ability to electroporate single cells with impedance detection of membrane permeabilization in a high-throughput, continuous-fl ow manner. We have developed a fl ow-based electroporation microdevice that automatically detects, electroporates, and monitors individual cells for changes in permeability and delivery. We are able to achieve the advantages of electrical monitoring of cell permeabilization, heretofore only achieved with trapped or static cells, while processing the cells in a continuous-fl ow environment. We demonstrate the analysis of membrane permeabilization on individual cells before and after electroporation in a continuous-fl ow environment, which dramatically increases throughput. We have confi rmed cell membrane permeabilization by electrically measuring the changes in cell impedance from electroporation and by optically measuring the intracellular delivery of a fl uorescent probe after systematically varying the electric fi eld strength and duration and correlating the pulse parameters to cell viability. We fi nd a dramatic change in cell impedance and propidium iodide (PI) uptake at a pulse strength threshold of 0.87 kV/cm applied for a duration of 1 ms or longer. The overall cell viability was found to vary in a dose dependent manner with lower viability observed with increasing electric fi eld strength and pulse duration. Cell viability was greater than 83% for all cases except for the most aggressive pulse condition (1 kV/cm for 5 ms), where the viability dropped to 67.1%. These studies can assist in determining critical permeabilization and molecular delivery parameters while preserving viability.Peer reviewe
A study of early indication citation metrics
No full textResearch outputs are growing in number and frequency, assisted by a greater number of publication mediums and platforms via which material can be disseminated. At the same time, the requirement to find acceptable, timely, objective measurements of research "quality" has become more important. Historically, citations have been used as an independent indication of the significance of scholarly material. However, citations are very slow to accrue since they can only be made by subsequently published material. This enforces a delay of a number of years before the citation impact of a publication can be accurately judged. By contrast, each new citation establishes a large number of co-citation relationships between that publication and older material whose citation impact is already well established. By taking advantage of this co-citation property, this thesis investigates the possibility of developing a metric that can provide an earlier indicator of a publication's citation impact. This thesis proposes a new family of cocitation based impact measures, describes a system to evaluate their effectiveness against a large citation database, and justifies the results of this evaluation against an analysis of a diverse range of research metric
Measurement of the D+/- production asymmetry in 7 TeV pp collisions
No full textThe asymmetry in the production cross-section \sigma of D+/- mesons, A_P = (\sigma(D+) - \sigma(D-))/(\sigma(D+) + \sigma(D-)), is measured in bins of pseudorapidity \eta and transverse momentum p_T within the acceptance of the LHCb detector. The result is obtained with a sample of D+ -> K_S pi+ decays corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb^-1, collected in pp collisions at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. When integrated over the kinematic range 2.0 K_S pi+ decay is negligible. No significant dependence on \eta or p_T is observed
Targets of transcription inhibition by the antibiotics lipiarmycin, GE23077, and salinamide
No full textThe antibiotics lipiarmycin (Lpm), GE23077 (GE), and salinamide (Sal) function by inhibiting bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP). In this work, the targets (and mechanisms) of transcription inhibition by Lpm, GE, and Sal are identified and characterized through a combination of genetic, biochemical, and structural approaches. Each of these compounds functions through a different target on the enzyme that does not significantly overlap the targets of other bacterial RNAP inhibitors. Elucidation of these targets may prove useful for antibacterial drug discovery and design. To define the functional target of Lpm, we isolated and sequenced 160 Lpm-resistant mutants. In the structure of RNAP, sites of substitutions conferring Lpm-resistance cluster to define the “Lpm target,” which includes residues in the RNAP switch-region, as well as one wall of the RNA exit channel. Biochemical experiments show that Lpm inhibits the RNAP-DNA interaction, and appears to function by trapping the RNAP clamp in a fully-to-partially closed state. To define the functional target of GE, we isolated and sequenced 35 GE-resistant mutants. In the structure of RNAP, sites of substitutions conferring GE-resistance cluster to define the “GE target,” which includes residues in the RNAP active-center subregions, the “β D2-loop” and the “link region.” Biochemical experiments reveal that GE inhibits nucleotide addition during transcription initiation, after open complex formation, but prior to phosphodiester bond formation. The crystal structure of RNAP in complex with GE confirms that GE binds to the GE target, and indicates that GE functions by precluding the binding of NTP substrates to the RNAP active-center "i site" and "i+1 site.” To define the functional target of Sal, we isolated and sequenced 47 Sal-resistant mutants. In the structure of RNAP, sites of substitutions conferring Sal-resistance cluster to define the “Sal target,” which includes residues in the RNAP active-center subregions: the “bridge-helix N-terminal hinge” (BH-HN), the “F-loop,” and the “link region.” Biochemical experiments reveal that Sal inhibits nucleotide addition during both transcription initiation and elongation. The crystal structure of RNAP in complex with Sal confirms that Sal binds to the Sal target, and suggests that Sal functions by trapping the BH-HN in a straight (unbent) conformation.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby David D. Dege
David Kldiashvili’s Character Names
No full textIn classical literature the choice of character names does not seem to be an automatic, easy process. This is the case with David Kldiashvili’s works as well. Unlike E. Ninoshvili and G. Tsereteli, David Kldiashvili does not employ any telltale names in his writings. At first sight, the character names evidenced in his works are ordinary, widespread Christian names encountered in Imereti region of Georgia: Platon, Kirile, Aristo, Jimsher…Melano, Elene, Dariko; the family names also sound realistic: Samanishvili, Miminoshvili, Bregadze, Kamushadze… Thus, picking a specific Christian or family name for a character does not seem to be essential for D. Kldiashvili. However, the study of the writer’s manuscripts has proved the opposite: in the process of creating his works the author often changed character names, he seemed to be in constant search of suitable names for them. In this reference, Sergo Kldiashvili’s (David Kldiashvili’s son) memoirs on one of the stories -“Solomon Morbeladze”, are of particular interest: David Kldiashvili told his son: “I had the plot of the story, but I couldn’t decide on a name for the main character; that troubled me and hindered me from finishing the story.” At that time, it happened so, that he heard the family name Morbedadze, that according to D. Kldiashvili struck him “as a surprise, I modified Morbedadze to Morbeladze, the family name ‘dragged’ the Christian name Solomon, and the story was written with ease. It was not just work but a true pleasure!’ It is difficult to say why the family name Morbeladze ‘dragged’ the Christian name – Solomon, or why the writer considered this pair to be a perfect match for his character.
Obviously, David Kldiashvili tries to fit names to his characters on the basis of their personal qualities; as the writer suggests: every character should have “a name of their own and not a borrowed one”. The given phenomenon triggers a number of questions; is it plausible to answer them or find any explanation to the above-said? Presumably, the answers are known to the author…or, more convincingly, to the one “who grants us inspiration” (Anna Kalandadze)
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