In U.S. America and much of the Western world, natural is a venerated symbolic placeholder for any number of assumed virtues and ideals. Present conflicts have brought forward questions about what natural (which I argue functions as an ideograph) should mean in contexts that seem to call for a formal, enforceable definition. In this study, I use the vocabulary of Deleuze and Guattari (1987) and the context of bodybuilding to work towards a theory of how ambiguous ideographs become "striated" or “crystallized.” Within this discussion I present instances where natural has been employed as a vehicle to cause harm, and I offer an advisement to rhetorical scholars on how we might approach striated ideographs in the future.

EBV episomes replicate once per cellular S phase, during latent infection of host cells. Only one viral protein, Epstein-Barr Nuclear Antigen-1 (EBNA-1) is required for replication; the rest of the replication machinery is provided by the cell. EBNA-1 is an excellent model to study the molecular events required for DNA replication and its regulation because viral replication is limited to once per cell cycle. EBNA-1 is a member of a special class of DNA binding proteins called origin binding proteins (OBPs). These specialized proteins bind to distinct DNA sequences in the genome called origins of replication, where DNA replication is initiated. Origin binding proteins may serve to distort the DNA at the origin and may also attract the cellular replication machinery. Structural studies of the DNA binding and dimerization region of EBNA-1 using X-ray crystallography were undertaken in order to better understand how OBPs bind to origin DNA sequences and facilitate the assembly of the cellular replication apparatus. Six truncation mutants of EBNA-1, all containing the DNA binding and dimerization region of EBNA-1, were cloned, over-expressed in bacteria and purified to apparent homogeneity. Four of these clones were crystallized using the method of hanging-drop vapour-diffusion. Two fragments, EBNA₄₇₀₋₆₁₉ and EBNA₄₇₀₋₆₀₇, formed well-ordered crystals that diffracted beyond 2.5 Å resolution. In addition , this study also demonstrates the value of finding the most suitable piece of the protein for crystallization. This piece should fold into a compact domain for efficient packing into a crystal. Finding the optimal piece of the protein reduces the time spent searching for crystallization conditions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Thermal behavior and molecular packing of alkylated poly(ethylene- alt- maleic anhydride) and poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) were studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Effects of the length and graft density of alkyl side chains and backbone rigidity on the thermal behavior and on the structure of the mesophases are discussed.

Thermal behavior and molecular packing of a series of £\-helical poly(L-glutamates), with n-alkyl side chain of various lengths (m(number of carbons in the alkyl group) = 1, 2, 6, 12,18), were studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing light microscopy and X-ray diffraction. For polymers of m = 1 and 2, There is a pseudohexagonal structure below ca. 130 oC and above this temperature the stable phase is the hexagonal columnar phase. There exists a layered structure in the polymer of m = 6, as well as a solvent induced hexagonal columnar structure which formed during solution casting process. In the polymer of m = 12, a layered structure was formed in the temperature range between 20 to 255 oC. However, for longer side chain, m = 18, tendency of crystallization of alkyl long side chain forced the backbone to pack into layer structure. There are two distinct melting temperature at ca. 60 oC, and the enthalpy are ca. 53 and 19 J/g, which corresponding to the melting of hexagonal and monoclinic side chain crystallines. The polymers with longer side chain (m = 6, 12 and 18) tend to be lyotropic liquid crystalline phase within lamellar inter-rod distance of 1.25 nm in solution state, and the structure will remain after drying. However, the inter-rod distance will collapse at the temperature above ca. 200 ¢J and will not recover after cooling.

<p> The magnetic susceptibility of samarium orthophosphate (SmPO4) has been measured over the temperature range from 0.4 to 270°K. A theoretical expression for the susceptibility has been developed assuming a crystal field of cubic symmetry and fitted to the experimental data. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)