Showing 191 - 200 of 2041 Items

Stolen Future, Broken Present: The Human Significance of Climate Change

Date: 2014-01-01

Creator: David A Collings

Access: Open access

This book argues that climate change has a devastating effect on how we think about the future. Once several positive feedback loops in Earth’s dynamic systems, such as the melting of the Arctic icecap or the drying of the Amazon, cross the point of no return, the biosphere is likely to undergo severe and irreversible warming. Nearly everything we do is premised on the assumption that the world we know will endure into the future and provide a sustaining context for our activities. But today the future of a viable biosphere, and thus the purpose of our present activities, is put into question. A disappearing future leads to a broken present, a strange incoherence in the feel of everyday life. We thus face the unprecedented challenge of salvaging a basis for our lives today. That basis, this book argues, may be found in our capacity to assume an infinite responsibility for ecological disaster and, like the biblical Job, to respond with awe to the alien voice that speaks from the whirlwind. By owning disaster and accepting our small place within the inhuman forces of the biosphere, we may discover how to live with responsibility and serenity whatever may come. (Publisher's Description) Freely available online at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/o/ohp/12832550.0001.001


Love is Real & I Just Had Some for Dessert: Legacies of Communal Care & Compassion in Asian Diasporic Women's Food Writing

Date: 2023-01-01

Creator: Miki Rierson

Access: Open access

In this project I work to recover influential yet often erased Asian American female immigrant chefs and food authors from the mid-twentieth century to the present, situating their contributions in a deep-rooted tradition of diasporic women who used cooking as a means of communal agency and care. Immigrant Asian cookbook authors and chefs have long faced internal criticisms from their own diasporic communities of either inauthenticity or engaging in “food pornography,” to use writer Frank Chin’s term—a line of criticism that Lisa Lau has elaborated on as “re-Orientalism.”Though these criticisms should not eclipse the works themselves, I discuss and counter them in my project because they reflect broader challenges faced particularly by Asian female diasporic authors even today. , I seek to address a broader scholarly gap through my project. Presently, much important work exists on the legacies of historical trauma and violence on marginalized communities, work that highlights the insidious ways violence manifests in academia, pop culture, and everyday lives. This project is a personal pursuit to focus on the healing and beautiful aspects of diasporic community and identity, an ode to the parts of us that are not defined by the pain and suffering but that seek self-affirmation beyond them.


Music Streaming Services, Programming Culture, and the Politics of Listening

Date: 2015-05-01

Creator: Walker Kennedy

Access: Open access



Liberty and Its Legacy An Analysis of Freedom and Liberty in American Political Rhetoric

Date: 2023-01-01

Creator: Ryan S. Kovarovics

Access: Open access

The concept of freedom has always been central to the American identity, but its meaning has never been agreed on by all and has long been the subject of debate. An abridged explanation of the evolution of liberty’s meaning in political thought and American history is presented in the first chapter of this project. It demonstrates the long-standing importance of individual freedom in America and highlights some historical moments when liberty has come into conflict with other societal values. When used in American political rhetoric today, “freedom” and “liberty” typically take on a “negative” meaning that is focused mostly on individual freedom from government intervention. This is especially clear with regard to issues each party claims to “own” in the context of freedom, including abortion for the Democrats and the covid-19 pandemic response for the Republicans. To verify this partisan ownership of freedom and compare how each party uses freedom in political rhetoric, an empirical analysis was conducted of the uses of “freedom” and “liberty” in candidate tweets and campaign ads from the 2022 midterm elections. The analysis found some support for partisan ownership of freedom rhetoric surrounding these and other issues, but the most interesting finding was that Democrats and Republicans invoked “freedom” and “liberty” in their rhetoric at virtually identical rates. This shows that neither party can lay an exclusive claim to be the “party of freedom.”


Electronic branching ratio of the lepton

Date: 1992-01-01

Creator: R. Ammar

P. Baringer

D. Coppage

R. Davis

M., Kelly

N. Kwak

H. Lam

S. Ro

Y. Kubota

M. Lattery

J. K. Nelson

D. Perticone

R. Poling

S. Schrenk

R. Wang

M. S. Alam

I. J. Kim

B. Nemati

V. Romero

C. R. Sun

P. N. Wang

M. M. Zoeller

G. Crawford

R. Fulton

K. K. Gan

H. Kagan

R. Kass

J. Lee

R. Malchow

F. Morrow

M. K. Sung

Access: Open access

Using data accumulated by the CLEO I detector operating at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have measured the ratio R=( e» e ) 1 where " 1 is the decay rate to final states with one charged particle. We find R=0.2231 0.0044 0.0073 where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. Together with the measured topological one-charged-particle branching fraction, this yields the branching fraction of the lepton to electrons, Be=0.192 0.004 0.006. © 1992 The American Physical Society.


Inclusive (2P) production in (3S) decay

Date: 1991-01-01

Creator: R. Morrison

D. Schmidt

M. Procario

D. R. Johnson

K., Lingel

P. Rankin

J. G. Smith

J. Alexander

M. Artuso

C. Bebek

K. Berkelman

D. Besson

T. E. Browder

D. G. Cassel

E. Cheu

D. M. Coffman

P. S. Drell

R. Ehrlich

R. S. Galik

M. Garcia-Sciveres

B. Geiser

B. Gittelman

S. W. Gray

D. L. Hartill

B. K. Heltsley

K. Honscheid

J. Kandaswamy

N. Katayama

D. L. Kreinick

J. D. Lewis

G. S. Ludwig

Access: Open access

Using the CsI calorimeter of the CLEO II detector, the spin triplet b(2P) states are observed in (3S) radiative decays with much higher statistics than seen in previous experiments. The observed mass splittings are not described well by theoretical models, while the relative branching ratios agree with predictions that include relativistic corrections to the radiative transition rates. © 1991 The American Physical Society.


Coordination of distinct but interacting rhythmic motor programs by a modulatory projection neuron using different co-transmitters in different ganglia

Date: 2013-05-01

Creator: Molly A. Kwiatkowski

Emily R. Gabranski

Kristen E. Huber

M. Christine Chapline

Andrew E., Christie

Patsy S. Dickinson

Access: Open access

While many neurons are known to contain multiple neurotransmitters, the specific roles played by each co-transmitter within a neuron are often poorly understood. Here, we investigated the roles of the co-transmitters of the pyloric suppressor (PS) neurons, which are located in the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of the lobster Homarus americanus. The PS neurons are known to contain histamine; using RT-PCR, we identified a second co-transmitter as the FMRFamide-like peptide crustacean myosuppressin (Crust-MS). The modulatory effects of Crust-MS application on the gastric mill and pyloric patterns, generated in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG), closely resembled those recorded following extracellular PS neuron stimulation. To determine whether histamine plays a role in mediating the effects of the PS neurons in the STG, we bath-applied histamine receptor antagonists to the ganglion. In the presence of the antagonists, the histamine response was blocked, but Crust-MS application and PS stimulation continued to modulate the gastric and pyloric patterns, suggesting that PS effects in the STG are mediated largely by Crust-MS. PS neuron stimulation also excited the oesophageal rhythm, produced in the commissural ganglia (CoGs) of the STNS. Application of histamine, but not Crust-MS, to the CoGs mimicked this effect. Histamine receptor antagonists blocked the ability of both histamine and PS stimulation to excite the oesophageal rhythm, providing strong evidence that the PS neurons use histamine in the CoGs to exert their effects. Overall, our data suggest that the PS neurons differentially utilize their co-transmitters in spatially distinct locations to coordinate the activity of three independent networks. © 2013. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.


Molecular and mass spectral identification of the broadly conserved decapod crustacean neuropeptide pQIRYHQCYFNPISCF: The first PISCF-allatostatin (Manduca sexta- or C-type allatostatin) from a non-insect

Date: 2010-01-01

Creator: Elizabeth A. Stemmler

Emily A. Bruns

Christopher R. Cashman

Patsy S. Dickinson

Andrew E., Christie

Access: Open access

The PISCF-allatostatins (Manduca sexta- or C-type allatostatins) are a family of pentadecapeptides characterized by a pyroglutamine blocked N-terminus, an unamidated-PISCF C-terminus, and a disulfide bridge between two internal Cys residues. Several isoforms of PISCF-AST are known, all from holometabolous insects. Using a combination of transcriptomics and mass spectrometry, we have identified the first PISCF-type peptides from a non-insect species. In silico analysis of crustacean ESTs identified several Litopenaeus vannamei (infraorder Penaeidea) transcripts encoding putative PISCF-AST precursors. Translation of these ESTs, with subsequent prediction of their putative post-translational processing, revealed the existence of as many as three PISCF-type peptides, including pQIRYHQCYFNPISCF (disulfide bridging between Cys7 and Cys14). Although none of the predicted isoforms was detected by mass spectrometry in L. vannamei, MALDI-FTMS mass profiling identified an m/z signal corresponding to pQIRYHQCYFNPISCF (disulfide bridge present) in neural tissue from 28 other decapods, which included members of six infraorders (Stenopodidea, Astacidea, Thalassinidea, Achelata, Anomura and Brachyura). Further characterization of the peptide using SORI-CID and chemical derivatization/enzymatic digestion supported the theorized structure. In both the crab Cancer borealis and the lobster Homarus americanus, MALDI-based tissue surveys suggest that pQIRYHQCYFNPISCF is broadly distributed in the nervous system; it was also detected in the posterior midgut caecum. Collectively, our data show that members of the PISCF-AST family are not restricted to the holometabolous insects, but instead may be broadly conserved within the Pancrustacea. Moreover, our data suggest that one highly conserved PISCF-type peptide, pQIRYHQCYFN-PISCF, is present in decapod crustaceans, functioning as a brain-gut paracrine/hormone. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Identification and cardiotropic actions of sulfakinin peptides in the American lobster Homarus americanus

Date: 2007-07-01

Creator: Patsy S. Dickinson

Jake S. Stevens

Szymon Rus

Henry R. Brennan

Christopher C., Goiney

Christine M. Smith

Lingjun Li

David W. Towle

Andrew E. Christie

Access: Open access

In arthropods, a group of peptides possessing a -Y(SO3H)GHM/ LRFamide carboxy-terminal motif have been collectively termed the sulfakinins. Sulfakinin isoforms have been identified from numerous insect species. In contrast, members of this peptide family have thus far been isolated from just two crustaceans, the penaeid shrimp Penaeus monodon and Litopenaeus vannamei. Here, we report the identification of a cDNA encoding prepro-sulfakinin from the American lobster Homarus americanus. Two sulfakinin-like sequences were identified within the open-reading frame of the cDNA. Based on modifications predicted by peptide modeling programs, and on homology to the known isoforms of sulfakinin, particularly those from shrimp, the mature H. americanus sulfakinins were hypothesized to be pEFDEY(SO3H)GHMRFamide (Hoa-SK I) and GGGEY(SO3H)DDY(SO3H)GHLRFamide (Hoa-SK II). Hoa-SK I is identical to one of the previously identified shrimp sulfakinins, while Hoa-SK II is a novel isoform. Exogenous application of either synthetic Hoa-SK I or Hoa-SK II to the isolated lobster heart increased both the frequency and amplitude of spontaneous heart contractions. In preparations in which spontaneous contractions were irregular, both peptides increased the regularity of the heartbeat. Our study provides the first molecular characterization of a sulfakinin-encoding cDNA from a crustacean, as well as the first demonstration of bioactivity for native sulfakinins in this group of arthropods.


Trumpet slices in Kerr spacetimes

Date: 2014-12-29

Creator: Kenneth A. Dennison

Thomas W. Baumgarte

Pedro J. Montero

Access: Open access

We introduce a new time-independent family of analytical coordinate systems for the Kerr spacetime representing rotating black holes. We also propose a (2+1)+1 formalism for the characterization of trumpet geometries. Applying this formalism to our new family of coordinate systems we identify, for the first time, analytical and stationary trumpet slices for general rotating black holes, even for charged black holes in the presence of a cosmological constant. We present results for metric functions in this slicing and analyze the geometry of the rotating trumpet surface.