Sankarasubramanian Arumugam, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Climate Change and Sensitivity of Water Resources.

Precipitation elasticity of streamflow e_p provides a measure of the sensitivity of streamflow to changes in rainfall. Watershed model based estimates of e_pare shown to be highly sensitive to model structure and calibration error. A Monte-Carlo experiment compares a nonparametric estimator of e_p with various watershed model based approaches. The nonparametric estimator is found to have low bias and is as or more robust than alternate model-based approaches. The nonparametric estimator is used to construct a map of e_pfor the U.S. Comparisons with ten detailed climate change studies reveal that the contour map of e_p introduced here provides a validation metric for past and future climate change investigations in the U.S. Further investigations reveal that e_p tends to be low for basins with significant snow accumulation and for basins whose moisture and energy inputs are seasonally in phase with one another. The Budkyo hypothesis can only explain variations in e_p for very humid basins.
 

Sumugam Balachandran, Electrial Engineering and Computer Science.

Assessment of Risk for Life-Threatening Cardiac Ailments.

This work is concerned with formulating an approach to analyze Electrocardiogram for assessment of risk for life threatening cardiac ailments. A pioneering Non-Invasive method attempting to detect multiple cardiac ailments is presented. A flexible software analysis tool has been developed which given an input rhythm strip of conventionally available high-resolution surface electrocardiogram (ECG) performs the wavelet analysis. The tool provides the option of three alignment techniques, namely Alignment by Maximum correlation with the chosen template, Alignment by the Peak of QRS segment, and Alignment by Maximum slope of RS segment for Cycle Averaging .The aligned ECG waveform is then cycle averaged to improve the signal to noise ratio and then transformed to the wavelet domain using a fourth order Daubechie wavelet (db4). Additionally the module offers three High pass filtering options, which can be applied to the averaged waveform prior to wavelet transformation to eliminate low frequencies from the analysis. The important issue of providing a user interface to choose the options to view the Wavelet Transformed ECG is addressed and a comparison of options is empirically evaluated.
 

Neeti Belliappa, History.

Crafting a Nation: The Political Identities of Lala Lajpat Rai, 1882-1928

Lajpat Rai, one of the most prominent nationalist leaders in India, has been rigidly categorized as an extremist in his dealings with the British colonial power and as a Hindu nationalist with regard to his views on Indian nationalism. This paper seeks to contest both these categorizations as part of a broader project on Punjabi Hindu identities from 1900 to 1970. I hope to show ultimately that Punjabi Hindu interests were diverse, depending on whether its spokes persons were land owners, lawyers, merchants or moneylenders, male or female, devout or irreligious, rural or urban, inhabiting a Muslim dominated area or part of a Hindu majority locality, members of the newly founded Arya Samaj or not. Lala Lajpat Rai’s formidable output of writings reveal changes in his political identities over the span of almost half a century of political activity in India. Using a variety of source materials, I examine the changing conceptions of ‘nation’ in Rai’s writings and his changing relationship to the nation. Following Ayesha Jalal’s intervention in the debate on Indian nationalism, Rai’s political identities are explored to reveal new insights into the usually simplistic divide between religious nationalism (commonly believed to be communalism) and secular nationalism. Rai’s writings changed their tenor and substance in dramatic ways depending on the constituency they were meant for, the interests he represented and the time they were written. His changing relationship to the ‘nation’ will be explored through his writings on the Punjab, on education, on language as a marker of cultural identity and on Hinduism, more specifically the Arya Samaj movement of which he was a key member in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.
 

Aleksei Beltukov, Math.

Infecting the World with Integral Geometry.

Mathematical theories are in certain respects like viruses waiting for a suitable host. They lie dormant for centuries until an application, which causes a mass outbreak, is found. Unlike bubonic plague, mathematical epidemics are highly beneficial for general public. The latest outbreak of Integral Geometry occurred in the early 1970s after 55 years of incubation period. In 1972 Godfrey Hounsfield and Alan Cormack created a new strain called "computerized tomography" by combining X-ray scanning with digital technology. In 1979, both scientists received the Nobel Prize for their pioneering work. Unfortunately, there have been no major follow-ups since then. The subject of this talk is going to be the current situation in the field, which might be described as flu season. Recent advances in remote sensing suggest upcoming geometric applications. In the first half of the talk I am going to discuss my work on promising hybrids of tomography and acoustics. In the more mathematical second half I shall invert an integral transform using very elementary techniques. I do not expect the audience to be even remotely familiar with the subject. However I am not going to be able to completely avoid using basic calculus terminology. So those who had substituted intro to vector calculus with mathematics of social choice should consider themselves properly warned! Still I hope that, even if you come from a country where mathematics is banned by law, you will see the beauty behind the formulas the way I do.
 

Kostadinka Bizheva, Physics and Astronomy.

Penetration depth limit to optical coherence microscopy in turbid media: the effect of multiply scattered light on image contrast and resolution.

A major problem in biomedical optical imaging is the fact that image quality degrades with depth penetration: the deeper the imaged object is buried in turbid media like tissue, the less precise is the determination of its location, size, shape and optical properties. In optical microscopy detection of multiply scattered light arising from the presence of a turbid background leads to loss of illumination power, reduced spatial resolution, poor image contrast and ultimately limits the image penetration depth. Though various photon gating techniques (spatial filtering, time-, coherence- and polarization gating) have been designed to reject background light, the contribution of multiply scattered light to the total measured intensity can still be significant especially at greater imaging depths. Understanding of how detection of multiply scattered light affects the point-spread function (PSF) and subsequently the image quality and depth penetration of a microscope, and evaluation of the dependence of the scattered light detection on the imaging geometry and sample optical properties is essential for optimization of the imaging system performance and development of novel image processing algorithms. Then objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between image contrast, resolution and penetration depth of optical coherence microscopy/tomography (OCM/T) in turbid media and determine its dependence on the imaging geometry and sample optical properties.
 
 

John Bottari, Electrical and Environmental Engineering.

Rapid Prototyping Using Complex Programmable Logic Devices.

Robots are currently being used in reconnaissance missions where human lives are or could potentially be in jeopardy. An obvious example points to situations in which a robot could be placed inside a building, and it scurries around collecting and relaying data to a central location. Imagine being able to let a robot roam around a burning building looking for people trapped inside. The goal of this project is to design a robot, based on the Altera University Program 1 (UP 1) CPLD design laboratory board, that can achieve autonomous control using proximity detectors. The UP1 board supports both a 2.5K gate MAX EPM7128S CPLD device as well as a 20K gate FLEX EPF10K20 SRAM based CPLD device. Timing pulses, generated by the UP 1 board, control the motion of the robot. This will allow it to move forward, reverse or rotate in place. Although basic robotic operation can be achieved with either device, the FLEX CPLD with its higher gate capacity will be required due to the complexity of the options presented.
 

Daniel Craig, Occupational Therapy.

The Relationship Between Meaningfulness and Emotional Responses to Music.

An essential part of occupational therapy is selecting activities that will be meaningful to the patient, in an effort to motivate the patient to engage and succeed in therapy. The study proposes to develop a simple scale to quantify the meaningfulness of an activity and use that scale to determine the meaningfulness of music that produces observable emotional reactions compared to music that does not produce these reactions. The study is a step toward defining the qualities of a meaningful activity, and will provide useful insight into the nature and relationship of emotion and meaningful occupation. The results of the study may lead toward an objective measurement of the meaningfulness of an occupation and offers additional support for the use of music as useful modality in occupational therapy treatment.
 

Steve Craine, Biology.

Pitch Pine Invasions of Cape Cod Pond Shores: Are They a Threat to Rare Plants?

Cape Cod pond shores are a unique habitat, shaped by flooding, which supports many rare plant species. However increased human water use has reduced flood frequency and amplitude, allowing the encroachment of pitch pines and threatening endemic herbs. This study addresses two questions: 1) How do pines alter the habitat to the detriment of endemics? 2) How sensitive to flooding are pines? Knowing how much flooding is necessary to keep pines out could focus policies on avoiding damage to this habitat while minimizing cost to human water use. Pitch pines create considerable shading, while rare pondshore species are adapted to direct sun. In one pine stand, available light was reduced by 85 - 95%. Pine litter also changes soil chemistry. Three adjacent plots, with living pines, dead pines, and no pines, were analyzed for soil moisture, pH, and available nitrogen. While there were no significant differences in moisture, soil under living pines was significantly more acidic, and highest NH₄ was found under dead trees. Herbaceous communities under 10-year-old pines had much less diversity and lower total coverage than nearby communities clear of pines. A greenhouse experiment showed that 3-month-old pitch pine seedlings were very tolerant to root flooding, with no mortality after 12 weeks. Root-flooded seedlings developed morphological adaptations to anoxic soil conditions, including hypertrophied lenticels, increased root growth near soil surface, and decreased total root growth. Whether older trees are less tolerant of flooding than younger ones due to reduced morphological flexibility will be tested by flooding older trees in 2001.
 

Heidi Gearhart, Art History.

From the Fantastic to the Grotesque: the Evolution of Fantastic Imagery in Medieval Pattern Books

In the hundred years between 1350 and 1450, the practice of drawing changed drastically. The drawing books of the middle ages, filled with fantastic imagery and highly finished stock patterns turned in to the modern sketchbook: a place for the artist to make observations and work out ideas. As this change in drawing practice occurred, what was drawn changed also. The fantastic animal or animal-human creatures of the middle ages turned first into standardized monsters, such as demons or devils, and then faded away completely, replaced by the grotesque human figure. This shift in iconography is indicative of a change in epistemological theory: as the middle ages gave way to the renaissance, the medievalists’ neo-Platonic theory of humans’ inability to know directly about God gave way to an Aristotelian positivism and optimism of scientific observation and knowledge. My research will trace this development through three sets of drawings. The first set is dated from 1350 to 1400. These drawings show a remarkable juxtaposition of careful observation-based drawings of humans and animals with the occasional fantastic creature. The second set dates from the first half of the 15th century. In these drawings the observational technique has taken over, and the fantastic creatures have faded into standard models of demons, devils, and unicorns. The third set of drawings will represent the chronological and iconographical endpoints: Villard de Honnecourt’s mid-13^th century drawings of fantastic creatures and Leonardo da Vinci’s grotesque humans of the year 1500.
 

Megan Griffiths, Biology.

The role of salt spray in maintaining coastal sandplain heathland plant communities.

Coastal heathlands are disturbance-dependent plant communities that occur in the northeastern United States. Without disturbance heathlands become overgrown by trees. I hypothesize that salt spray plays a role in maintaining heathland communities. I investigated this hypothesis with the following goals: (1) to determine spatial patterns of salt spray accumulation and (2) to identify a mechanism by which salt spray maintains the stature and composition of these communities. I found that salt spray accumulation and plant water stress decreased in heathlands as distance from the ocean increased, while the amount of necrotic damage to leaves decreased as distance from the ocean increased. I also found that plant height increased as distance from the ocean increased; this was accompanied by an increase in the number of trees in the community as distance from the ocean increased. Based on results from manipulative experiments, I propose that the changes in plant water stress, necrosis, height, and community composition could be attributed to the effects of salt spray. In this experiment I subjected plants of six different species to three levels of salt spray treatment. Using these treatments, I found that all plant species tested became more water stressed as salt spray levels were increased, but tree species showed the highest levels of water stress. I also found increased leaf necrosis and decreased shoot elongation with increased salt spray levels. The effects of salt spray on heathland plant physiology may provide a mechanism by which this abiotic factor maintains the stature heathland plant communities.
 

Stacie Gruber, Psychology.

Stroop Performance in Normal Controls: An fMRI Study.

Over the last several years, I have focused my research efforts and graduate studies on the application of neurocognitive models and neuroimaging techniques to better characterize neurobiological risk factors for substance abuse and psychopathology. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a powerful, non-invasive method for the visualization of localized changes in signal intensity in response to cognitive challenge paradigms. One promising challenge paradigm for the application of neuroimaging techniques to the study of psychopathology has been the Stroop task. Comprised of three subtests designed to establish competing response tendencies within the study subject and assess the subject's ability to suppress interfering stimuli, the Stroop task appears to pit an automatic process (word reading) against a controlled, conscious process (color naming). It is widely used as an index of attention and executive control, as the task requires the ability to actively inhibit an overlearned response in favor of a more voluntary response. In an attempt to clarify changes in signal intensity, which may accompany the performance of the Stroop task, healthy subjects were imaged using fMRI techniques while performing a modified version of the task. While the goal is to eventually apply these techniques to schizophrenic patients, it is imperative to first ensure clear visualization of both the regions of interest and differential changes in signal intensity related to the Stroop interference subtest. The aim of the research investigation was to test the hypothesis that selective activation would accompany the interference subtest in a subdivision of the anterior cingulate cortex, which would likely be correlated with task performance.

Mark Gwinn, English.

Unmasking Frederick Douglass' Othello.

Roland Barthes advances myth as a language that cultivates a fragmented consumer, a fate he laments as the internment of the creative soul: "[t]hus everyday, and everywhere, man is stopped by myths, referred by them to this motionless prototype which lives in his place; in the fullest sense a prohibition for man against inventing himself. "Barthes' dissection of the colonizing subjectivity and his prosecution of myth as an agent in that subjectivity's pervasive influence avails it as a method of restoring history to the mythic mottoes of a culture's gods, hinted by its writers. Within the context provided by Barthes' explication of mythic language, Frederick Douglass' allusion to "Othello" in his chapter entitled "Vast Changes," from his memoir "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written By Himself," is central to Douglass' narrative transcendence of an entrenched antipathy between the status of "blackness" and configurations of citizenship - an antipathy asserted in the way the culture imagined Shakespeare's Moor. Reading the allusion within its cultural context and through a coalition of interpretive strategies, including Gates' analysis of Douglass' early binary rhetoric, Little's analysis of the racialized primal scene in "Othello," and Ernest's conception of the performance of oppositional identities, the essay constructs an explanatory framework to politicize the commonplace "topos" of whiteness endemic in the cultural moment in which Douglass found his voice and his calling."
 

Kyna Hamill, Drama and Dance.

The "Power" of the Sword in Female Transvestism on and off the Jacobean Stage.

In Phillip Stubb's "Anatomie of the Abuses of England"(1583) he wrote that "Apparel was given as a sign of distinction to discern between sex and sex". Among the various distinctions used to distinguish between men and women included one of the most important pieces of attire worn by men as a symbol of power; the rapier or the sword. This was a detail, which served as a sign of authority in society whether they actually knew how to use the weapon or not. The rapier especially became an device used to signify not only one's class, but also to render a warning to those who were not supposed to bare arms, including women. This paper will discuss how plays on the Jacobean stage responded to the representations of women embracing the sword as a natural prop in dressing as a man. This was a phenomenon which was becoming surprisingly popular in Jacobean society, so much so that James I made note of it in a letter in 1620. I will show how female transvestism was considered a threat by Jacobean society because the main symbol of power, the weapon, was not only worn by women but in some cases used by them as well. I will be comparing play texts which show how the stage representations of "women" wearing and using swords consistently re-organized the female's power by removing it, replacing it or reusing it in order to put her back into her proper position in society. Plays considered include: Swetnam the Woman Hater (1617), Love's Cure or the Martial Maid (1613?), The Maid's Tragedy (1610) and The Roaring Girl (1611).
 

Peter Lin-Marcus, Urban and Environmental Policy.

Diversity and Leadership at Tufts University.

This report explores the dynamics of diversity in carrying out effective leadership, with a case study of diversity at Tuft University. Diversity offers the opportunity for making everyone a leader. Effective diversity can significantly improve higher education through developing new knowledge means examining alternative perspectives, bringing in new ways of thinking or asking new questions. In addition, significant learning takes place through debates and discussions, with the cross fertilization of different ideas. Having all perspectives is crucial to achieving high quality scholarship. In addition, Tufts University has many resources. It has committed, talented leadership committed to diversity at all levels. Tufts’ roots in Unitarian-Universalism should offer a strong foundation, since Unitarian-Universalism encourages openness (it has no firm doctrine) and has long supported civil rights and diversity. Tufts’ quality scholarship should further encourage the development of new viewpoints and newer, more effective ways of studying and understanding issues. Its national and global connections should bring diverse experiences, viewpoints and knowledge into the learning experience. Tufts commitment to public service should further these advantages. Yet, many of Tufts University’s own official reports confirm a widespread belief that these assets are not fully used, shortchanging scholarship and leadership development for all. This research looks at the tools which effective leaders use, and challenges they may face. Instead of assigning blame, sharing the knowledge of tools and challenges will help Tufts (and other organizations) fully use their resources and become more effective in accomplishing their mission.
 

Carl Martin, English.

"Unthegn": Grendel in his Landscape.

Despite characterizations of _Beowulf_'s Grendel as "external" or "antithetical" to the life of the Germanic mead-hall, the monster is in fact neither intrinsically antisocial nor kinless. Grendel values the Danes' communal structures but is prevented, as God has willed, from sharing them. We see this in the irony of Grendel's incessant returns to Heorot, where he slaughters the Danes but inexplicably omits to destroy the hall itself. Like the exile-protagonist of the Old English poem, _The Wanderer_, Grendel desires a place before the "gifstol"--the throne where the exchange ritual of reciprocal allegiance between king and thane is enacted--and occupies a wasteland of solitary obsolescence. But critics, content to divide the poem's Denmark into the known, hospitable world of Heorot and the dark, unfriendly wilderness beyond its bounds, offer no place for the morally ambiguous borderland of moors with which Grendel—as the banished thane who both gravitates to and is repelled from Heorot—is so closely associated. A close look at the monster's landscape shows that Grendel is not anathema to the mead-hall, but a pitiful, solitary warrior who performs much the same role as the Wanderer, valorizing the mead-hall by demonstrating the dangers contingent on its loss. But unlike the Wanderer, Grendel cannot even have the thin consolation of memory, since God's curse precluded his ever having a lord to serve in the defense of the realm. He is therefore "unthane"--the mere shell, the empty potentiality, of a thane.
 

Jennifer Daley Modrall, Biology.

The impact of veterinary administration of antibiotics on the bacterial ecology of wild bird populations.

This study investigated whether veterinary uses of antibiotics have altered the bacteria ecology within surrounding wild bird populations. The issue of increasing antibiotic resistance among humans has been widely documented and connected to antibiotic uses in medicine. In addition, antibiotics have been commonly used in animal husbandry for over 30 years. There is convincing evidence that these agricultural practices can and have created antibiotic resistance in farm animals, and that this resistance can be transferred to farm workers and consumers of animal food products. Many wild birds forage from common food, water and even manure at farm and veterinary sites and therefore may be exposed to antibiotics and/or antibiotic resistant bacteria. We surveyed wild House sparrows (Passer domesticus) at two sites with different antibiotic usage: Tufts University Veterinary campus and Tufts University main campus. Bacterial samples were collected from cloacal swabs and analyzed for the presence of enteric bacteria species, such as E.coli. Sensitivities to 7 antibiotics commonly used at the veterinary hospital were assessed. The distribution of bacteria species and antibiotic sensitivities patterns of bacteria from House sparrows were notably different between the veterinary and suburban locations. The creation of large reservoirs of antibiotic resistance in wild birds and other animals could threaten human and livestock health and have unforeseen consequences for wild animals. Due to their great mobility, birds could be an important transmission vector of antibiotic resistance. This study provides evidence that certain wild bird populations may already be potential reservoirs of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
 

Ben Nephew, Biology.

Effects of acute crowding on avian physiology, behavior, and endocrinology.

One potential stressor to vertebrates both in the wild and captivity is the presence of numerous individuals in a confined space: crowding. To examine crowding in birds, we developed an experimental design which allowed us to simultaneously measure cardiac, behavioral, and endocrine responses of European starlings to acute crowding. We hypothesized that crowding would be a significant stressor and that heart rate (HR), activity level, stress hormones, and aggression would all increase due to an increase in the density of birds. Maintenance behaviors such as feeding, drinking, and preening were expected to decrease. A cage containing a focal bird was outfitted with a trap door which allowed for the introduction of intruder birds (one, three, or five birds) without human interference. The focal bird was implanted with a subcutaneous HR transmitter, behavior was videotaped through a two-way mirror, and blood samples were taken at the end of trials to determine stress hormone levels. Analysis of behavioral data revealed significant increases in three aggressive behaviors: pecking, head feather puffing, and upright posture, and a decrease in preening following the initiation of crowded conditions. The intruder starlings significantly increased pecking, and there were trends of increased head feather puffing, upright posture, and body contact. The HR data showed a significant increase in focal starling HR due to crowding which was directly related to the number of starlings in the focal cage. Stress hormone data has not yet been analyzed, but it should provide valuable insight into how birds respond to acute crowding. Behavioral and cardiac results suggest that crowding is a significant acute stressor.
 

Roger Sedarat, English.

Hearing the Babel in the Ivory Tower: Linguistic Racism in the College Writing Classroom.

Gloria Anzaldua, in her book Making Face, Making Soul, says something highly problematic for English composition teachers:

This dramatizes the kind of catch 22 anxiety addressed by Patricia Bizzell, wherein instructors want to empower their students to succeed in the dominant culture and yet feel guilty for insisting that they subordinate their own discourses to one deemed inferior. Even worse, instructors of introductory composition rarely receive the kind of English as a Second Language (ESL) training that teaches them to consider other discourses such as African-American English as valid forms of communication, so they might unintentionally make self-righteous judgments on the ways their students communicate. Of course, college teachers need to help their students attain a mastery of Standard English, yet without an awareness of one's own privileged position in a dominant discourse, the kind of race sensitivity that engenders a tolerant classroom where true learning can take place may be lacking. Looking at a brief history of Indian education in America and an examination of bidialectal and bilingual learners in relation to current pedagogy, I intend to demonstrate how such awareness becomes possible.
 

Cheryl Smith, English.

Out of Her Place: Early Modern Exploration and Female Authorship.

My research rests on the understanding that two modes of exploration, scientific and colonial, had enormous bearing on the early modern world-view. As a result, exploration—on the abstract level of imagining other worlds and their potential and on the concrete level of discoveries in the scientist’s laboratory and on the horizon of colonial voyaging—impacts cultural production throughout the age. I examine the relationship between the rise of exploration and the rise of the professional woman writer in the seventeenth century. Despite the period’s well-known misogynistic trends—the persecution of women as witches, for instance—the 1600s were exceptionally good years in terms of women’s access to voice and print. By the end of the century, women had made extraordinary forays into the influential arenas of public authorship and the public stage. My work looks at the contexts for this development, focusing on the interplay of female authorship and a burgeoning seventeenth-century commitment to exploration that made the notions of space and place more crucial than ever before. One primary space that emerges as full of symbolic meaning in the early modern age is the natural world. Seen in a new light because of advances in science and an increased ability to accurately map recently "discovered" lands, the physical environment weighs heavily on the early modern imagination. My work reveals how women’s bodies and voices are central to the cultural, colonial, and scientific advances of the day and considers how women played out their drama of authorship (truly dramatic in that it overstepped accepted norms for their sex) on the actual or imaginary stage of the natural world—a world as threatening as it was inspiring.
 

Rinah T. Smith, Psychology.

Early chronic exposure to nutritive and non-nutritive sweet solutions alters oral morphine intake.

Chronic exposure to nutritive and non-nutritive sweet solutions from an early age alters the subsequent oral intake of morphine in male rats. The object of this study was to investigate whether early chronic exposure to sucrose or saccharin would alter oral morphine intake. Weanling male Long Evans rats were given ad lib access to chow and water (CONTROL), or chow, water and either sucrose (32% w/v) solution (SUCROSE) or saccharin (0.15% w/v) solution (SACCHARIN) for fifty days. At this point all rats were tested on a dose response curve to morphine using the tail flick test. Rats that had access to sucrose showed a significantly decreased ED50 response compared to the control and saccharin rats. After an extended period of time consuming their original diets all rats had their liquid diets replaced with a morphine (0.6% w/v) solution for sixteen days after which they were given a two-day, two-bottle choice test (water or morphine solution). SUCROSE rats drank significantly less morphine than the CONTROL or SACCHARIN rats during the sixteen-day trial. All animals continued to drink the morphine solution during the two-day choice test but the SUCROSE rats drank significantly less than either the CONTROL or SACCHARIN rats. In addition, we found a negative correlation between intake of sucrose and intake of morphine. These results suggest that early chronic exposure to a nutritive sweet solution, but not a non-nutritive sweet solution, could alter subsequent intake of morphine.
 

Christopher Thomas, Math.

Periodic surface transformations

In algebra, there are certain objects called free groups, and certain transformations of them called outer automorphisms. It has been shown that all outer automorphisms can be represented by actions on a one-dimensional structure of loops and lines, though not all of them can then be realized on a two-dimensional surface. I have found necessary and sufficient conditions for when a periodic outer automorphism can be represented by an action on a surface. My current goal is to properly extend this to identify when any finite number of such outer automorphisms can be simultaneously realized on a single surface.
 

Olivia Turnbull, Drama and Dance.

Public fascination with the American West in the late nineteenth century was motivated by contradictory desires that demanded a specific version of the frontier to answer its needs. Westward expansion into the wilderness had long been presented as the nation’s great mission and purpose, and it became something everyone wanted to share in, if only vicariously. The devastation caused by the Civil War created an even greater need for a sense of national unity and purpose – a demand that could be effectively answered with the concept of Manifest Destiny. However, just as Manifest Destiny demanded the West be conquered so that the continent could be occupied all the way to the Pacific, industrialization and all its discontents created a deep nostalgia for the pre-capitalist ‘Eden" that this same conquer and civilization set out to destroy. Buffalo Bill, the "Last of the Great Scouts", was in a unique position to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable version of the West demanded by the popular American imagination. Consequently his Wild West Exhibition was a many-layered vehicle for conveying history, romantic fantasies and political ideologies. However, before the myth ever entered the arena, it entered people’s consciousness in the enormous posters plastered across America on the sides of buildings, billboards, and billposts. My paper explores how the visual publicity produced by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West selected and mobilized familiar images from Western art and literature that framed Buffalo Bill to satisfy the demands of the contemporary American public.
 

Evan Weststrate, Electrical and Environmental Engineering.

An Efficient Guided Random Method for Simulation Based Test Pattern Generation in Sequential Logic Circuits

Researchers in the field of fault simulation and test pattern generation (TPG) are continually investigating new methods of effieciently and accurately grading test patterns used in VLSI manufacturing test. The goal is to be able to generate and verify a viable, non redundant series of test vectors that can completely detect any reasonable defect in a circuit. This presentation will cover my primary research activity (efficient fault simulation methods) and the coupling of this with an interesting automatic TPG method using genetic algorithms. It has been found that this method can work quite well, producing test patterns with similar fault coverages in significantly less time.
 

Donna L. Wilson, Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Nanopatterning of Large Free-Standing Biological Molecules

The controlled construction of supramolecular inorganic, organometallic and biological materials is an area of intense research. By patterning a monolayer of precursor "director" molecules on length scales ranging from the micrometer to nanometer, it is believed the organization of such supramolecular assemblies can be precisely predicted and controlled. The spatially controlled patterning of a modified collagen molecule was accomplished for lines of 100 nm in length and 30-50 nm in width written on a gold substrate via dip-pen nanolithography (DPN). It was also possible to control the spacing between the molecules, as well as patterning on larger scales. The patterning of 2m m x 2m m squares and drawings of line widths varying for 0.2-0.8 m m were additionally performed via the DPN technique. These data demonstrate that DPN technology can be used to pattern molecules of biological importance and molecules of sizes and properties that have traditionally given researchers much difficulty in patterning. These patterns might lead to specific arrays of collagen utilized to induce the assembly of collagen scaffoldings, or in mediation of cell attachment affecting such processes as DNA synthesis, cell growth, and protein secretion, leading to single cell manipulation. We have also successfully demonstrated that collagen-like peptides can be nanopatterned using the same technique. Goals include using these patterns to control bulk assembly and patterning of peptides, and coupling the peptides with reactive moieties to facilitate the formation of composite or hardened patterned materials.
 

Ricardo M. Zayas, Biology.

Nitric oxide signaling in the nervous system of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta.

Nitric oxide (NO) has been identified as an important signaling molecule in many physiological processes such as blood pressure regulation, penile erection, and neurotransmission. As a result, it is also implicated in a variety of disorders including hypertension, bronchial asthma and aggressive behavior. NO is produced by nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and its primary target is another enzyme, soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC). When stimulated, sGC produces cGMP, which causes a diversity of cellular responses. NO is a particularly interesting transmitter because it is a gas and can rapidly diffuse across cellular barriers. Therefore, the signaling functions and limitations of NO signaling are difficult to study in the highly complex vertebrate brain. Our laboratory uses Manduca sexta larvae to study the range, specificity and behavioral role of NO in the central nervous system (CNS). Manduca is an ideal organism to study NO because we have mapped uniquely identifiable neurons that express NOS, and neurons that are targets of NO. Furthermore, we have identified some of the transmitter pathways that control NO release. Presently, we are investigating the mechanism of physiological responses evoked by NO in specific neurons and will further use these target neurons to study the range and specificity of NO released centrally.

Schedule of Presentations
 
 

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