24 research outputs found
The Quotidian Apocalypse and the Quixotic Cause: An Interview with Author Connie Willis
No full textThe writer Connie Willis lives in Greeley, Colorado, home to the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). She is an alumna of UNC and has chosen to deposit her papers in its archives. A pre-eminent science fiction author, her clock- and calendar-defying tales of time travel have transported many fans and won numerous awards. Her stellar reputation in fandom and among librarians as a mentor, peer, and public intellectual is well-deserved and hard-earned. She gives generously of her time at conventions, conferences, and community events. We finally caught up with her in the latter days of Summer 2018, after the Locus Awards and the Westercon science fiction and fantasy convention, and interviewed her about her recent novella “I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land” (first appearing in Asimov’s Science Fiction in 2017 and later published by Subterranean Press in 2018). It concerns a disappearing Manhattan bookshop that may also be a harbor for endangered books. The story’s subject matter is of great relevance for archivists and librarians of the Anthropocene—as is the content of our conversation with Ms. Willis, which ranges from the insidious nature of censorship to the nobility of fighting for lost causes.
Pre-print first published online 11/08/201
Passions Read & Hearts Fed: Science Fiction Orients Library Science to the Anthropocene—A Review of “I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land”
No full textA review of Connie Willis' recently-published story, “I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land,” (Asimov’s, December 2017). The setting for Willis’ cautionary tale is a chimeric Manhattan bookstore, Ozymandia’s. The labyrinthine business is a last refuge for endangered books. The protagonist, an ambitious, forward-thinking blogger, rethinks his penchant for all things innovative when he visits the store and becomes conscious of the havoc wreaked upon books by the circumstances of the Anthropocene (wars, weather, bookworms, bookburning, thoughtless culling, etc.). He comes to understand the urgent need for, and complexity of the systematic preservation of information.
Pre-print first published online 11/08/201
Joseph Skibell, 24th Annual ODU Literary Festival
No full textJoseph Skibell, teaches at Emory University. He has worked as a bread baker, copy editor, journalist, screenwriter, and bartender. His stories have appeared in such literary journals as Story magazine, and many of his plays have been produced nationally. In the past 15 years, he has received numerous literary honors, including a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation grant, a New Mexico Creative Arts Division/NEA grant, a James A. Michener Fellowship, and the Jay C. and Ruth Hall Fellowship for Fiction. He is the author of the novel A Blessing on the Moon
SPECTRAL LINE SURVEYS OF YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS USING THE CALTECH SUBMILLIMETER OBSERVATORY
No full textAuthor Institution: Emory University, Department of Chemistry, Atlanta, Georgia 30322Advancements in radioastronomical instrumentation have allowed for the identification of approximately 170 interstellar molecules, many of which are complex organic molecules (COMs). Many of the detected COMs, including species such as glycolaldehyde and formamide, are thought to be prebiotic precursors in the chemistry of these star-forming regions. Complex organic chemistry is especially rich in hot cores/corinos, where thermal evaporation during the warm-up phase of star-formation releases molecules from icy grain mantles into the gas phase. Grain surface and gas phase astrochemical models provide predicted abundances of COMs, and these predictions can be tested through observations of a variety of sources. We have used the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) to conduct deep =1.3mm unbiased line surveys of 8 sources including hot cores, hot corinos, dense molecular clouds, and shocked regions. These line surveys cover frequencies in the range of 215 - 270 GHz with an RMS noise level of 30 mK, which is sufficiently deep to probe many of the largest COMs that have been identified to date. We have performed detailed spectral analyses for these line surveys targeting a range of COMs that test the chemical mechanisms included in astrochemical models. Here we present the spectra and results of a quantitative analysis of these sources, and discuss the implications of these results for astrochemical models
UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF COMPLEX INTERSTELLAR ORGANIC CHEMISTRY USING HERSCHEL/HIFI SPECTRAL LINE SURVEYS
No full textAuthor Institution: Department of Chemistry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322; Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; Departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904The goal of our ongoing Herschel Space Observatory OT1 program is to probe the influence of physical environment on molecular complexity through spectral line surveys. These observations target a sample of 10 sources, probe a range of physical environments, and include frequency windows that contain transitions from a set of known complex organic molecules. From these results, we have determined the fractional abundances of a set of organic molecules that are predicted by models to trace key chemical mechanisms in interstellar clouds. We are examining correlations between classes of molecules, as well as correlations between the physical properties of the source (i.e. temperature, density, age, etc.) and each molecular target. These results can be used as benchmarks to improve astrochemical models to the point where accurate predictions of complex molecular inventory can be based on the physical and chemical environment of a given source. Here we will report on preliminary results from these observations and discuss these results in the context of the effect that physical environment has on the chemical complexity of interstellar clouds
Introduction
No full textThis is the introduction to a book in which Schweighauser traces the acoustic imagination of American literature from naturalism to postmodernism. He reads the noises writers represent as fictional responses to the social, cultural, and political changes and conflicts of modernity and postmodernity. Exploring the social functions of literature, he also suggests that literature itself, in its constant search for new language forms, has become a source of revitalizing noise in the channels of cultural communication.
The author provides substantial new readings of a broad range of canonical texts, from the naturalism of Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, and Stephen Crane to the modernism of Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, John Dos Passos, and Djuna Barnes, to the postmodernism of Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, and Don DeLillo. Across almost 100 years of literary history, he listens to the hum of traffic and the fracas of war and to immigrant accents and African-American vocalization. From the late 19th-century writers' often anxious responses to the new soundscapes brought about by industrialization and urbanization, to the modernists' decision to let the noises of social discontent seep into the very forms of their texts, to late 20th-century literary oscillations between acoustic mysticism and ecological critique, he shows that changing representations of sound indicate writers' stances on issues of class, gender, and race.
Drawing on soundscape studies, systems theory, sociology, media archaeology, and literary theory, this book explores the acoustic worlds and changing social functions of American literature
International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis
No full textIsam Alobid, MD, PhD(1) , Nithin D. Adappa, MD(2) , Henry P. Barham, MD(3) , Thiago Bezerra, MD(4) , Nadieska Caballero, MD(5) , Eugene G. Chang, MD(6) , Gaurav Chawdhary, MD(7) , Philip Chen, MD(8) , John P. Dahl, MD, PhD(9) , Anthony Del Signore, MD(10) , Carrie Flanagan, MD(11) , Daniel N. Frank, PhD(12) , Kai Fruth, MD, PhD(13) , Anne Getz, MD(14) , Samuel Greig, MD(15) , Elisa A. Illing, MD(16) , David W. Jang, MD(17) , Yong Gi Jung, MD(18) , Sammy Khalili, MD, MSc(19) , Cristobal Langdon, MD(20) , Kent Lam, MD(21) , Stella Lee, MD(22) , Seth Lieberman, MD(23) , Patricia Loftus, MD(24) , Luis Macias-Valle, MD(25) , R. Peter Manes, MD(26) , Jill Mazza, MD(27) , Leandra Mfuna, MD(28) , David Morrissey, MD(29) , Sue Jean Mun, MD(30) , Jonathan B. Overdevest, MD, PhD(31) , Jayant M. Pinto, MD(32) , Jain Ravi, MD(33) , Douglas Reh, MD(34) , Peta L. Sacks, MD(35) , Michael H. Saste, MD(36) , John Schneider, MD, MA(37) , Ahmad R. Sedaghat, MD, PhD(38) , Zachary M. Soler, MD(39) , Neville Teo, MD(40) , Kota Wada, MD(41) , Kevin Welch, MD(42) , Troy D. Woodard, MD(43) , Alan Workman(44) , Yi Chen Zhao, MD(45) , David Zopf, MD(46) CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS: (1) Universidad de Barcelona; (2) University of Pennsylvania; (3) Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; (4) Universidade de São Paulo; (5) ENT Specialists of Illinois; (6) University of Arizona; (7) University of Oxford; (8) University of Texas; (9) University of Indiana; (10) Mount Sinai Beth Israel; (11) Emory University; (12) University of Colorado; (13) Wiesbaden, Germany; (14) University of Colorado; (15) University of Alberta; (16) University of Alabama at Birmingham; (17) Duke University; (18) Sungkyunkwan University; (19) University of Pennsylvania; (20) Universidad de Barcelona; (21) Northwestern University; (22) University of Pittsburgh; (23) New York University; (24) Emory University; (25) University of British Columbia; (26) Yale University School of Medicine; (27) Private Practice; (28) Department of Otolaryngology, Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal; (29) University of Adelaide; (30) Pusan National University; (31) University of California, San Francisco; (32) University of Chicago; (33) University of Auckland; (34) Johns Hopkins University; (35) University of New South Wales, Australia; (36) Stanford University; (37) Washington University; (38) Harvard Medical School; (39) Medical University of South Carolina; (40) Singapore General Hospital; (41) Taho University; (42) Northwestern University; (43) Cleveland Clinic Foundation; (44) University of Pennsylvania; (45) University of Adelaide; (46) University of Michigan.status: Publishe
Increased systemic inflammation is associated with cardiac and vascular dysfunction over the first 12 weeks of antiretroviral therapy among undernourished, HIV-infected adults in Southern Africa.
No full textThis is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.INTRODUCTION: Persistent systemic inflammation is associated with mortality among undernourished, HIV-infected adults starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa, but the etiology of these deaths is not well understood. We hypothesized that greater systemic inflammation is accompanied by cardiovascular dysfunction over the first 12 weeks of ART. METHODS: In a prospective cohort of 33 undernourished (body mass index <18.5 kg/m2) Zambian adults starting ART, we measured C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α receptor 1 (TNF-α R1), and soluble CD163 and CD14 at baseline and 12 weeks. An EndoPAT device measured the reactive hyperemia index (LnRHI; a measure of endothelial responsiveness), peripheral augmentation index (AI; a measure of arterial stiffness), and heart rate variability (HRV; a general marker of autonomic tone and cardiovascular health) at the same time points. We assessed paired changes in inflammation and cardiovascular parameters, and relationships independent of time point (adjusted for age, sex, and CD4+ T-cell count) using linear mixed models. RESULTS: Serum CRP decreased (median change -3.5 mg/l, p=0.02), as did TNF-α R1 (-0.31 ng/ml, p<0.01), over the first 12 weeks of ART. A reduction in TNF-α R1 over 12 weeks was associated with an increase in LnRHI (p=0.03), and a similar inverse relationship was observed for CRP and LnRHI (p=0.07). AI increased in the cohort as a whole over 12 weeks, and a reduction in sCD163 was associated with a rise in the AI score (p=0.04). In the pooled analysis of baseline and 12 week data, high CRP was associated with lower HRV parameters (RMSSD, p=0.01; triangular index, p<0.01), and higher TNF- α R1 accompanied lower HRV (RMSSD, p=0.07; triangular index, p=0.06). CONCLUSIONS: Persistent inflammation was associated with impaired cardiovascular health over the first 12 weeks of HIV treatment among undernourished adults in Africa, suggesting cardiac events may contribute to high mortality in this population.This work was supported by the Vanderbilt
Meharry Center for AIDS Research (NIH grant number P30 AI54999); the NIH
Fogarty International Center, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health,
National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute, and National Institute of Mental Health,
through the Vanderbilt-Emory-Cornell-Duke Consortium for Global Health Fellows
(grant number R25 TW009337); the National Center for Advancing Translational
Sciences (CTSA award number UL1TR000445) and the European and Developing
Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (grant IP.2009.33011.004)
Managerial Safety and Soundness and Maximization of Shareholder Interests: Sifting Through Bifurcated Governance Strands over Managerial Conduct of United States Banking Organizations
No full textPhDThe recent trend reflecting the erosion of the traditional boundaries between banking and other
financial businesses by virtue of financial deregulation and liberalization has resulted in a more
complex and dynamic risk-profile for banking institutions. One upshot of this transformation is,
whilst promoting safe and sound banking still remains the overriding hank regulatory objective,
the focal point shifts more and more to managerial function and responsibility, a subject
traditionally more generally associated with the corporate-law domain but now being recognized
as a core subject-matter for banking regulation and supervision. This text will analyze the
subject of managerial function and responsibility in the context of United States banking
institutions, specifically the national hank, the bank holding company and the financial holding
company.
The primary thesis to be presented and supported is in banking the governance order
concerning the "control and direction" mechanism over managerial conduct can only be fully
appreciated by not only looking into the economy specific dimension, as informed primarily by
applicable corporate law standards addressed generally to and among the shareholder, the board
and the senior management as they interact with the corporate entity, but also by investigating
the industry specific dimension (in the instant case as to banking institutions), as reflected by
required regulatory standards enshrined in statutes, regulations and other regulatory
pronunciations addressed specifically to their industrial particularities and their derived
implications on the society as whole. In the context of the United States, the governance order of
banking institutions, as such, is placed in the applicable (i) state law corporate governance
framework tinder the Delaware General Corporate Law and related Delaware case law and (ii)
federal statutes and the prudential regulations and practices of federal banking regulators.
As will be seen, these two regulatory strands that impact the U. S. hank governance order
have separately evolved tinder separate statutory and regulatory frameworks with separate
policy underpinnings. Traditionally, banks as corporate entities have been treated under general
corporate governance principles developed under corporate statutes and case law. For lcdcral
banking institutions, the federal regulators have generally deferred to the fiduciary standards
under Delaware corporate law. The policy of the Delaware statute and case law directs corporate
directors and officers towards maximizing corporate value fier the shareholders: the law
recognizes that corporate management is engaged in business risk-taking and grants corporate
management considerable leeway as to their good-faith decisions and activities, while placing
constraints on grossly negligent, illegal, had taith and sell-dealing decisions and activities. The
U. S. federal bank regulators' primarily are concerned with the "satcty and soundness" of'
banking institutions and the stability of the U. S. banking system. In pursuing the prudential
objective, the U. S. Congress and these bank regulators have externally imposed numerous
regulatory requirements on bank management, backed by intensive supervision and vigorous
enforcement. This text will argue that these federal banking laws and regulations have
significantly intruded- in depth and in breadth- into the traditional state law domain of corporate
governance of banking institutions, and, as a result of which, the ensuing contusion and
inconsistence in governance standards to be addressed. This intrusion refers to a stand-alone
bank, as well as a bank held by a corporate parent.
An appreciation of this "push and pull" tension between these two bifurcated strands
influencing the governance structure facing bank management is critical as management plans
its prudent profit-seeking strategies. Whilst a needed, comprehensive reform able to bring about
a set of uniform and industry-specific governance standards is outside the scope of this work,
this text will consider possible ways to reconcile conflicts generated and will make some modest
recommendations in this connection as conclusions thereof
Disciplining the Spectator: Subjectivity, the Body and Contemporary Spectatorship
No full textIn this thesis the author argues that although questions of the spectator’s corporeal engagement with film are much neglected by film theory, the body is nevertheless a central term within contemporary cinema, in its mode of address, as a locus of anxiety in media effects debate, and as site of disciplinary practices. And while the thesis begins by demonstrating both the socially and historically constructed nature of spectatorship, and the specific practices that work to create contemporary cinema’s corporeal address, the latter half of the dissertation devotes itself to revealing the regulatory implications of this physical address. That is, the author shows that cinema’s perceived capacity of affect the body of the spectator is a profound source of cultural anxiety. But more importantly, through an analysis of the films Funny Games, Irréversible, Wolf Creek, and the genre of ‘torture porn’ more generally, what is revealed in these final chapters is that the regulation of cinema in the contemporary era is less a question of the institutionalised censorship of texts, and more a question of regulating the ‘self’. In this respect, the author demonstrates the specific disciplinary practices that attempt to present the problem of violent, and sexually violent, imagery not as a textual issue per se, but a question of the formation of appropriate spectatorial relations. Moreover, this study begins the process of teasing out the ways in which the contemporary spectator is induced to see the problem of media violence as one that can be resolved through what
Foucault would term, techniques of the self
