Showing papers by "Albion College published in 2000"

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN ALTERNATIVE HARD ROCK An Analysis of Intersectionality

Abstract: This article provides an empirical example and an analytic argument for how queer theory can be useful for sociological inquiries of gender relations. Using data collected through participant observation of a rock music subculture, the author addresses the importance of conceptualizing sexuality and gender as analytically distinct. There are five major findings drawn from this analysis. First, members of this subculture queered sexuality despite identifying as heterosexual. Second, there is a dissonance between how members talked about sexuality and how they enacted sexuality. Third, queering sexuality opened space for subverting hegemonic gender relations. Fourth, some forms of gender resistance relied on and reinscribed hegemonic sexual relations. Fifth, only by analyzing sexuality at multiple levels of analysis was this play of resistance and hegemony revealed. Both empirical and theoretical implications are suggested.

Early eocene fossil vertebrates from the southwestern green river basin, lincoln and uinta counties, wyoming

Abstract: Seven local faunas (Little Muddy I–VII) of early to middle Eocene age are described from the Little Muddy Creek area in the southwestern Green River Basin. These assemblages were collected from approximately 400 m of interfingering alluvial and lacustrine deposits in the Wasatch, Green River and Bridger formations. This is the first time the Wasatchian-Bridgerian boundary has been delineated within the southwestern Green River Basin. A continuous stratigraphic section from the late Wasatchian (Wa7) through the late Bridgerian (Br3) is now known in the southern Green River Basin.The Lostcabinian (Wa7) in the southwestern Green River Basin is recognized by the occurrence of Lambdotherium and the presence of Meniscotherium and Notharctus nunienus. The temporal range of Anemorhysis wortmani is extended upward to include the Lostcabinian of the southwestern Green River Basin. The late Gardnerbuttean (Bridgerian Biostratigraphic Zone Br1a) is recognized in the southwestern Green River Basin by the firs...

High accuracy measurements and Monte Carlo calculations of the relative efficiency curve of an HPGe detector from 433 to 2754 keV

Abstract: The relative full-energy peak efficiency curve of a 280-cm3 coaxial HPGe detector was determined to an accuracy of about 0.1% over the energy range from 433 to 2754 keV from pairs of gamma-ray lines whose emission probabilities are very accurately known. The curve was extended from previous studies by the addition of lines from 108 m Ag and 24 Na . Ratios of full- energy peak efficiencies were also determined by Monte Carlo calculations using the CYLTRAN code. The measured ratios and the Monte Carlo values were in excellent agreement (0.03–0.19%). The relative efficiency was defined by a pair of functions, one for 433–1332 and one for 614–2754 keV. Monte Carlo values were used to supplement the measured values, resulting in a more accurate fit. The stability of the relative efficiency curve for a 94-cm3 HPGe detector was studied and it was found that there was no statistically significant change over a period of 3 years.

Eocene and Oligocene volcanism at Mount Petras, Marie Byrd Land: implications for middle Cenozoic ice sheet reconstructions in West Antarctica

Abstract: Evidence for one late Eocene and four middle Oligocene eruptions of Mount Petras, Marie Byrd Land provides new insights into reconstructions of middle Tertiary ice sheet configurations, surface topography, and volcanism in West Antarctica. The interpretation presented here of the volcanic record at Mount Petras, based on detailed analyses of lithofacies, petrography, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, and geochemistry, is significantly different from previous interpretations based on reconnaissance studies. A massive, 25 m thick, mugearite lava near the summit of Mount Petras is 40Ar/39Ar dated to 36.11 ± 0.22 Ma (2 σ uncertainty), indicating an onset of Cenozoic alkaline volcanism in the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province in latest Eocene time. Middle Oligocene (29-27 Ma) hawaiite volcaniclastic lithofacies at Mount Petras are interpreted as products of mixed magmatic (Strombolian style) and phreatomagmatic (Surtseyan style) subaerial eruptions. The four hawaiite outcrop areas exhibit characteristics of near-vent tuff cone environments. The near-vent deposits are located at different elevations and positions on Mount Petras and suggest four separate eruptive centres, with eruptions dated to between 28.59 ± 0.22 Ma and 27.18 ± 0.23 Ma. The mixed Surtseyan and Strombolian eruptions imply local or intermittent contact with external water, which we infer was derived from melting of a thin, local ice cap or ice and snow on slopes. The 29-27 Ma volcanic deposits at Mount Petras provide the oldest terrestrial evidence for glacial ice in Marie Byrd Land. The 29-27 Ma tuff cone deposits overlie an erosional unconformity, with > 400 m of topographic relief. The relatively high relief pre-volcanic environment is suggestive of ongoing erosion and is inconsistent with previous interpretations of a regional, low relief, early Cenozoic West Antarctic Erosion Surface.

Use of Wiener filtering in the measurement of the two-dimensional modulation transfer function

Abstract: This paper presents a new method for the measurement of modulation transfer function (MTF) using Wiener filtering. The method, unlike conventional methods using slit or edge devices, allows the direct determination of the MTF in all directions at one step. An image containing a precise circular region is acquired and its Fourier transform is calculated. In the absence of any blurring, the Fourier transform yields a simple Bessel function. Because of the symmetry in the convolution theorem, the roles of the blurring function and object can be interchanged, allowing the blurring function to be recovered using a Wiener filter. We simulated this process to understand the effects of attenuation, signal-to-noise ratio, and circle size. Images were simulated containing a circular region and degraded by spatial domain blurring with a Gaussian convolution kernel and by additive Poisson noise. The determined MTF matches the expected MTF except for a slight high frequency overestimate due to noise aliasing, which can be compensated. This method allows one to easily measure the two-dimensional MTF, particularly in systems which have an asymmetrical point spread function such as computed radiography. The method can be used as a tool for quality assurance and for comparing the resolution characteristics of various digital radiography systems.

Mecranium juddii (Melastomataceae: Miconieae), a new species from the Massif de la Hotte, Haiti

Abstract: Mecranium juddii is described and illustrated. It is known only from 1650–1700 m elevation in the Ravine du Sud on the northern slopes of Morne Formon in Macaya National Park, Haiti.Mecranium juddii is a member of theM. multiflorum complex and is phenetically most similar toM. revolutum andM. alpestre, which differ fromM. juddii in stem indumentum or leaf size and shape.

Acute Ginkgo biloba facilitates decision-making in a working memory task in rats.

Abstract: significantly better (P<0.0001) than with the 8-s delay (79%, 79%, 82%). Ginkgo’s effect was not significant (0 v 1, P=0.66; 0v2 ,P=0.30); a longer, more difficult, delay might reveal ginkgo’s facilitative effect. Start, Run, Choice, and Goal latencies were all reduced by the 8-s delay (all P’s<0.003), perhaps reflecting frustration of delay. Ginkgo significantly reduced both latencies involving decisions: Choice time (1-s delay: 0.66 s, 0.60 s, 0.56 s; 8-s delay: 0.58 s, 0.53 s, 0.52 s ;0v1 ,P=0.06 ,0v2 : P=0.01), and Start time (1-s delay: 1.28 s, 1.08 s, 1.16 s; 8-s delay: 1.02 s, 0.92 s, 1.07 s ;0v1 ,P=0.02 ,0v2 ,P=0.64). Run time and goal time, less reflective of decision processes, were not significantly affected by the ginkgo. Acute exposure to ginkgo reduced the time necessary for rats to make decisions, but did not increase the accuracy of the decisions. Thus in rats as in humans (1, 11) ginkgo can speed processing time. The mechanism responsible for this effect is as yet undetermined. (Supported by Albion College’s Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.)

Giving Care, Writing Self: A "New" Ethnography

Abstract: that the book led to conclusions with greater explanatory power, but the author seems drawn more to the origins and development of R.O.C. practices and the period when Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek reigned. He writes of the elaborate campaign of cultural propaganda aimed at the vast community of "overseas Chinese." How exactly this serves the interests of the state is not fully addressed, but one suspects that it has had the same marginal effect as the government-sponsored program for overseas Chinese youth—the "love boat"— who were invited back to Taiwan to experience R.O.C. hospitality and indoctrination. One is left wondering about the content of these exercises and to sort out for oneself what they "buy" for the R.O.C. In his fourth chapter, Rawnsley takes up Taiwan's international media and diplomacy, dealing principally with the 1990s. He explains how efforts are made to shape opinions overseas, but neglects the one enterprise about which readers of this journal may be particularly curious. That is, Rawnsley does not consider informal diplomacy directed by representatives of the R.O.C. at scholars of China and Taiwan. While he does deal with efforts to influence individuals in government, media, and business, there is no discussion of the generous grants from R.O.C. sources that fall into the hands of academics for conferences, publications, and research trips. Nor does Rawnsley mention the contentious disputes that arose in the past decade over pledges made—and withdrawn—by the R.O.C. to American universities. Rawnsley's concluding remarks do not address as squarely as they might the most intriguing conceptual questions he poses. Moreover, nowhere in his four chapters is there much that justifies the management consulting advice Rawnsley provides to the R.O.C. government about consolidation of its far-flung propaganda enterprise and the desirability of training its cadre of propagandists because "In the modern media environment it is inexcusable for diplomats not to know how to work with the media." In short, Rawnsley can be commended for illuminating a much-neglected corner of Taiwan's international predicament, although one wishes he had done so with even greater perspicacity.

Gestalt Psychology in German Culture, 1890–1967: Holism and the Quest for Objectivity . By Mitchell G. Ash. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Pp. xii + 513. $24.95. Paper. ISBN 0–521–64627–8.

Abstract: norms of behavior, especially etiquette, were fostered as emancipatory goals to overcome \"remnants of'Jacobin' crudity\" (p. 497), including workers' culture. Similarly, Hanna Schissler demonstrates that the SPD failed with the West German female electorate, during what might be called \"the hour of an 'excess' of women,\" because the party refused to adjust its policies and practices. Old forms (family wage) and values (domesticity) survived via proletarian antifeminism and the SPD's inability to speak to women directly, despite attaining an equal rights clause in the Basic Law and an increasing number of women working. Though containing few parameter-shaking analyses, this collection illustrates well that both the Socialists and Communists altered their approaches and many compromised earlier ideals. The common thread that runs through the collection is not only the emergence of Socialists and Communists from a proletarian milieu, but the moving away from that milieu. The repeated abandonment of positions which reflected the interests of the mass of workers—male and female—seems to end logically with the demise of communism and \"labor\" parties being like other parties. Do the sympathies with the historical Left, which these essays reflect in the emphasis upon dilemmas and difficult situations, underscore that German Socialists and Communists participated in a long history in which they were not the prime agents, but primarily served to keep important ideals alive?