1,781 research outputs found
Audio Interview with Mr. Alexander (Alex) Lafferty
No full textAudio - Mr. Alex Lafferty discusses his life in Athabasca having moved here around 1906. Freighting, the railroad ,and the many captains and companies on the river are mentioned including: Captain Haight, John Shott, and Captain Mills. Mr. Magnus Brown was a boat builder and Mr. Lafferty helped to build the last ferryTape is quite good considering the age of Mr. Lafferty (90 yrs.) at the time of taping. Mr. Lafferty remembers much of early times
Halting a Runaway Train: Reforming Teacher Pensions for the 21st Century
No full textWhen it comes to public-sector pensions, writes lead author Michael B. Lafferty in this report, "A major public-policy (and public-finance) problem has been defined and measured, debated and deliberated, but not yet solved. Except where it has been." As recounted in "Halting a Runaway Train: Reforming Teacher Pensions for the 21st Century", these exceptions turn out to be revealing -- and encouraging
‘You Are the Old Entrapped Dreams of the Coyote’s Brains Oozing Liquid Through the Broken Eye Socket’: Ecomonstrous poetics and weird bioregionalism in the fiction of R. A. Lafferty (with a comparative reading of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian)
No full textThe fiction of R. A. Lafferty (1914-2002) is at once deeply ecological and deeply strange. Its incessant narrative inclusion of the nonhuman beings, places, and forces of Lafferty’s Oklahoman and otherwise (south)western bioregion evinces an imagination profoundly porous to the local specificities and abundance of one’s more-than-human context. In this way it is deeply ecological. Lafferty’s fiction is also known (among his small devoted readership, which includes such luminaries as Neil Gaiman and Harlan Ellison) as one of the most uniquely off-kilter, wildly imaginative, and arcanely erudite bodies of work in U.S. literature. In this way it is deeply strange. While it is often acknowledged that Lafferty transcends the genre of science fiction (the industry in which most of his early work was published) and that his work is sui generis, little has been done to place him as either a U.S. author generally or an author of regional place more specifically. This thesis attempts to initiate the placement of Lafferty as a bioregional writer of the Great Plains and Southwest, whilst placing equal emphasis on Lafferty’s literary mode as not so much science-fictional as weird, or monstrous (in what we will call a horror-comic or monstro-ludic key). The fusion of these concerns leads this thesis to declare Lafferty a purveyor of American Weird Bioregionalism. Toward this end, we herein assemble insights from regional western U.S. narrative traditions (the frontier tall tale and Native American storytelling) together with recent ecocritical and ecophilosophical discourses (New Materialism and Object-Oriented Ontology) to reconfigure contemporary Monsters Studies toward a more-than-human construal of monsters and the monstrous that reads Lafferty’s weird bioregional fiction through the lens of what this thesis terms an Ecomonstrous Poetics. A chapter devoted to an ecomonstrous reading of Cormac McCarthy’s southwestern novel Blood Meridian provides a canonical comparison to Lafferty with surprising overlap. A final chapter on Lafferty’s implicit ecotheology rounds out the thesis and opens it up to further research
Human beta defensin 2 selectively inhibits HIV-1 in highly permissive CCR6+CD4+ T cells
No full textChemokine receptor type 6 (CCR6)+CD4+ T cells are preferentially infected and depleted during HIV disease progression, but are preserved in non-progressors. CCR6 is expressed on a heterogeneous population of memory CD4+ T cells that are critical to mucosal immunity. Preferential infection of these cells is associated, in part, with high surface expression of CCR5, CXCR4, and α4β7. In addition, CCR6+CD4+ T cells harbor elevated levels of integrated viral DNA and high levels of proliferation markers. We have previously shown that the CCR6 ligands MIP-3α and human beta defensins inhibit HIV replication. The inhibition required CCR6 and the induction of APOBEC3G. Here, we further characterize the induction of apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme (APOBEC3G) by human beta defensin 2. Human beta defensin 2 rapidly induces transcriptional induction of APOBEC3G that involves extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) activation and the transcription factors NFATc2, NFATc1, and IRF4. We demonstrate that human beta defensin 2 selectively protects primary CCR6+CD4+ T cells infected with HIV-1. The selective protection of CCR6+CD4+ T cell subsets may be critical in maintaining mucosal immune function and preventing disease progression
Human Th17 cells lack HIV-inhibitory RNases and are highly permissive to productive HIV infection
No full textSaga of the Whispering Hills - 039
No full textPhotograph - Glenda Waddle, Alex Lafferty, Mike Saluk, and Carl Carlson. Saga of the Whispering Hills, presented by the Athabasca Players for the 75th Anniversary of Athabasca, Albert
Expression of HIV-1 matrix protein p17 and association with B-cell lymphoma in HIV-1 transgenic mice
No full textHIV-1 infection is associated with increased risk for B-cell lymphomas. How HIV infection promotes the development of lymphoma is unclear, but it may involve chronic B-cell activation, inflammation, and/or impaired immunity, possibly leading to a loss of control of oncogenic viruses and reduced tumor immunosurveillance. We hypothesized that HIV structural proteins may contribute to lymphomagenesis directly, because they can persist long term in lymph nodes in the absence of viral replication. The HIV-1 transgenic mouse Tg26 carries a noninfectious HIV-1 provirus lacking part of the gag-pol region, thus constituting a model for studying the effects of viral products in pathogenesis. Approximately 15% of Tg26 mice spontaneously develop leukemia/lymphoma. We investigated which viral proteins are associated with the development of leukemia/lymphoma in the Tg26 mouse model, and performed microarray analysis on RNA from spleen and lymph nodes to identify potential mechanisms of lymphomagenesis. Of the viral proteins examined, only expression of HIV-1 matrix protein p17 was associated with leukemia/lymphoma development and was highly expressed in bone marrow before disease. The tumor cells resembled pro-B cells, and were CD19(+)IgM(-)IgD(-)CD93(+)CD43(+)CD21(-)CD23(-)VpreB(+)CXCR4(+) Consistent with the pro-B-cell stage of B-cell development, microarray analysis revealed enrichment of transcripts, including Rag1, Rag2, CD93, Vpreb1, Vpreb3, and Igll1 We confirmed RAG1 expression in Tg26 tumors, and hypothesized that HIV-1 matrix protein p17 may directly induce RAG1 in B cells. Stimulation of human activated B cells with p17 enhanced RAG1 expression in three of seven donors, suggesting that intracellular signaling by p17 may lead to genomic instability and transformation
Arthur Danto's philosophy of art
No full textThe thesis is a critical examination of Danto's philosophy of art. It begins with his
article 'The Artworld' where he proposes a special is of artistic identification to
distinguish artworks. Danto's idea of the artworld is discussed, a historical and
contextual theory of art, which arose from his attempt to explain the difference
between Warhol's Brillo Boxes sculpture and an indiscernible stack of everyday
Brillo boxes. It is argued that Danto unsuccessfully attempts to shore up his artworld
concept with the special is.
The technique of comparing indiscernible counterparts, from Danto's
book The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, is examined. It is argued that the
technique is philosophically redundant, but it is a redundant premise which has been
added to a valid inference (Danto's historical and contextual view of art: his artworld
theory) therefore, this does not make the original inference invalid.
Danto's treatment of metaphor, expression, and style is shown to result
in four claims. First, artworks embody rhetorical ellipsis. Second, artworks share
features of metaphor: they are intensional (with an s) in structure and cannot be
paraphrased. Third, a work of art expresses what it is a metaphor for by the way it
depicts its subject. Fourth, artworks embody style.
The conclusion, has two parts. The first part gives a summary of the
criticism of Danto's theory of art: (1) there are logical inconsistencies in his concept
of the is of artistic identification and in his use of indiscernible counterparts, (2) his
theory suffers by being over-inclusive and (3) he uses circular arguments. The
second part is based on a response to the criticism: it provides a definition of art.
This has three elements. First, an argument is proposed for a spectrum of artistic
presence in which all human activity and artefacts can be placed. Second, there is an
acceptance of Danto's view of art (or artistic presence) being both intentional (with
a t) and intensional (with an s); however, by applying these concepts to a spectrum,
the problem of over-inclusiveness is avoided. Finally, it is argued there can he no
wholly non-circular account of art
Self-Concept Competency of National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Managers
No full textBoyatzis has stated that true management competencies are characteristics of a manager which differentiate superior from average and below average performance. Boyatzis, however, treats a manager\u27s self-image (self-concept) as a threshold rather than a real competency. Lafferty\u27s research, which has measured relationships between several lifestyle (self-concept) variables and corresponding organizational behavior, has found that performance differences between average and high performing managers are associated with differences in self-concept construction. The researcher proposes to treat variations in self-concept measurements from managers as indications of their relative management competency. Thisresearch investigates seventeen hypotheses relating to the self-concepts of high performing, mid-level technical managers employed in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Level 1: Life Style Inventory, developed by Lafferty, was administered to high performing, mid-level managers (118 aerospace technical and 43 non-technical) from nine major Research and Space Flight Centers, and the agency Headquarters, attending a Management Education Program. Measurement of 16 self-conceptand 4 biographical variables were compared and contrasted with self-concept measurements accomplished by Lafferty on samples of engineers, supervisors and mid-level managers.
Three major conclusions are reached. (1) NASA technical managers exhibit an unusual degree of satisfaction when compared with other supervisors and mid-level managers and a self-actualizing management style. (2) The self-concept characteristics of high perfectionism and dependence in NASA technical managers should be studied further, based on Cooke and Rousseau\u27s findings that high measurements in these variables are associated with a greater number of symptoms of strain and Lafferty\u27s findings concerning associations between high measurements of these variables and disfunctional managerial behavior. (3) Evidence is provided by researchers, like Garfield, that while management experience may be significantly associated withself-concept increases in achievement and helpfulness orientations, and self-concept assumptions of these managers may preclude them from significant increases in their self-actualization
globalbioticinteractions/hechinger2011: prepare for publication to zenodo
No full textDiscover data in Ryan F. Hechinger, Kevin D. Lafferty, John P. McLaughlin, Brian L. Fredensborg, Todd C. Huspeni, Julio Lorda, Parwant K. Sandhu, Jenny C. Shaw, Mark E. Torchin, Kathleen L. Whitney, and Armand M. Kuris 2011. Food webs including parasites, biomass, body sizes, and life stages for three California/Baja California estuaries. Ecology 92:791–791. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/10-1383.1
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