In contrast to the relatively rapid changes occurring in the modern American army, the period between the end of the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Mexican War offers a definite period for a study of military life when reform came slowly. During the period of study, leaders made few attempts to reform the general structure of the military institution as a social system. On the other hand, many changes can be discerned which improved weaponry and equipment, tactics, supply and administrative procedures, moral guidance, recreational facilities, and pay.

Thesis advisor: Sara Moorman / My grandfather passed away four years ago of cancer. Every family member made their way to Cape Cod during his last few days in order to say their good-byes. It was not until the day after the last grandchild said good-bye that my grandfather passed away. We all felt that he wanted to wait so he could say good-bye to all of us. I have talked to many people who have had similar experiences with family members and friends. Some people have held on to see people one last time; others have wanted to make another birthday, while others have wanted to see another holiday that is special to them. In the present study, I explored the death dip, death rise phenomenon. Specifically, I analyzed mortality rates around the New Year’s Day, Christmas, and Pioneer Day. I examined two days before and two days after the holiday within specific cities (Project 1: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago; Project 2: Salt Lake City, Boise, Little Rock; Project 3: Atlanta, Oklahoma City, New Orleans) within a five-year period (1998-2002). The data observed found a death dip and death rise present for New Year’s in New York City and Chicago. There was not a death dip or death rise observed for Project 2, Project 3, or Los Angeles in Project 1. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

La différenciation cellulaire implique une régulation transcriptionnelle coordonnée et finement contrôlée qui passe par le recrutement de facteurs de transcription (FT) cellules-spécifiques sur des régions génomiques régulatrices appelées enhancers. Parmi ces FT, des protéines nommées « facteurs pionniers » (FP) lient la chromatine condensée et favorisent la transition des enhancers d’un état inactif vers un état « préparé » (étape de « priming »), facilitant ainsi la fixation d’autres FT et permettant l’activation de ces régions. L’engagement vers un lignage cellulaire particulier est donc associé à l’engagement des FP au niveau d’enhancers dont la structure chromatinienne subit des changements architecturaux associés à la mise en place de marques spécifiques. Celles-ci incluent, la monométhylation de la lysine 4 de l’histone H3 (H3K4me1), l’acétylation de la lysine 27 de l’histone H3 (H3K27ac) ou encore des modifications des résidus cytosine (5-méthylcytosine, 5mC ; 5-hydroxyméthylcytosine, 5hmC). La 5hmC est un intermédiaire de la voie de déméthylation active : elle résulte de l’oxydation de la 5mC par les enzymes « Ten Elven Translocation » (TET) et peut être à son tour oxydée en 5-formylcytosine (5fC) et 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) qui sont ensuite remplacées par des cytosines via l’intervention du système « Base Excision Repair ». Cependant, du fait de sa stabilité et de sa capacité à lier des protéines particulières, la 5hmC pourrait également jouer un rôle spécifique. De précédents travaux ont d’ores et déjà mis en évidence un lien entre le recrutement des FP et les modifications des cytosines. Néanmoins, l’implication des processus de méthylation/déméthylation dans la régulation spatio-temporelle des étapes de « priming » et d’activation des enhancers n’a pas encore été caractérisée. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de cette étude à été de définir le rôle des modifications de cytosines (5mC et 5hmC) lors de l’activation des enhancers liés par des FP. Pour ceci, nous avons analysé d’une part, l’implication des processus de méthylation et déméthylation des cytosines sur le « priming » et l’activation des enhancers, en utilisant des inhibiteurs des ADN méthyltransférases ou des enzymes TET. D’autre part, nous avons entrepris d’identifier les dynamiques de « priming » et d’activation des enhancers à l’échelle du génome au cours de la différenciation neurale, en lien avec la présence de la 5hmC. Les résultats obtenus nous ont notamment permis de proposer un schéma d’activation des enhancers dans lequel les dynamiques de méthylation/déméthylation de l'ADN jouent un rôle essentiel dans la structuration de la chromatine. / Cell differentiation relies on a coordinated and finely regulated transcriptional regulation involving the recruitment of cell-type transcription factors (TFs) on genomic regions called enhancers. Some of these TFs, named pioneer factors (PFs), are able to bind to condensed chromatin and favour enhancer transition from an inactive to a primed state, thus facilitating the binding of other TFs and enhancer activation. Therefore, lineage commitment is associated to the engagement of PFs at enhancers where the chromatin structure undergoes architectural modifications related to the set up of specific marks. These include, the monomethylation of the lysine 4 of the histone H3 (H3K4me1), the acetylation of the lysine 27 of the histone H3 (H3K27ac) or cytosine modifications (5-methylcytosine, 5mC; 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5hmC). The 5hmC base is an intermediate in the process of active demethylation coming from the oxidation of the 5mC by the Ten Elven Translocation (TET) enzymes and can itself be further oxidized in 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC), two bases which are then replaced by cytosines through the Base Excision Repair mechanism. Nevertheless, due to its stability and its ability to bind some specific proteins, 5hmC might also play specific roles. Previous works already highlighted a link between the recruitment of PFs and cytosine modifications. However, the involvement of the methylation/demethylation processes in the spatio-temporal regulation of the priming and activation of enhancers has not yet been characterized. In this context, the aim of this study was to define the role of cytosine modifications (5mC and 5hmC) during the activation of enhancers bound by PFs. For this, we analyzed the implication of cytosine methylation and demethylation processes on enhancer priming and activation by using DNA methyltransferases or TET inhibitors. In addition, we identified the dynamics of enhancer priming and activation genome-wide during neural differentiation, in relation to the presence of 5hmC. The results allow us to propose a scheme of enhancer activation in which DNA methylation/demethylation dynamics play an essential role in the chromatin structure of these regulatory elements.

This dissertation reveals a hitherto unrecognized thread of speculative postapocalyptic fantasies underlying nineteenth-century accounts of the American frontier. Many critics have exposed the latent imperialism behind popular myths of primeval wilderness and virgin land; bringing together fictional tales, travel writings, and scientific texts, I show that U.S. authors who enthusiastically celebrated these myths distorted rather than escaped the bounds of history. Their literature results in an uncanny historicism that unsettles narratives of material progress by conflating ancient territorial rupture with a potentially disastrous future. The Illinois prairie of the 1840s thus appeared to Margaret Fuller as a country that has been carefully cultivated by a civilized people, who had been suddenly removed from the earth, with all the works of their hands, and the land given again into nature's keeping. Fuller's notion of hidden destruction behind a vision of natural tranquility was not uncommon. Striving to reconcile their projection of an empty continent with the myriad traces of both Native Americans and prior European settlers, writers such as William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack London crafted historical narratives that imagined the swift annihilation of entire populations. For them, the blank slate of the American continent was simultaneously a ruined wasteland, and the mythical American Adam was really an American Noah - a patriarch of a new world built on the violent dissolution of the old. U.S. frontier literature between the War of 1812 and the First World War contains postapocalyptic themes like the last man on earth, the lapse into barbarism, and ruin-strewn landscapes. As a key example, I read Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826) as a narrative of biological extinction that foreshadows his later national apocalyptic allegory The Crater (1847). Similarly, I contend that the industrial ruins a young Thoreau discovered in the Maine woods spurred him to imagine a suddenly depopulated Massachusetts in his journal. These postapocalyptic fantasies often attempted to deny the ongoing presence and property claims of Native Americans by relegating the original inhabitants of American soil to a separate past, yet they also suggested that the United States itself might be subject to imminent catastrophe.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a ecologia populacional da espécie arbórea Solanum Erianthum D. Don em dois remanescentes de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual e verificar a hipótese de que a mesma possui um comportamento de espécie pioneira e colonizadora no início do processo de sucessão nos ecossistemas. Os dois remanescentes de vegetação nativa escolhidos estão inseridos dentro de um contexto de paisagem fragmentada e antropizada, apresentando diferentes níveis de perturbação. As populações foram levantadas através de uma amostragem adaptativa, indicada para espécies que apresentam padrões agrupados de comportamento espacial. Os mosaicos sucessionais onde as populações foram amostradas foram avaliados através da análise silvigênica de desenvolvimento da arquitetura do ecossistema florestal. As duas populações somam 155 indivíduos, sendo uma com 85 indivíduos e uma densidade moderada e outra de 70 indivíduos e uma alta densidade. As densidades avaliadas para nas duas populações parecem estar relacionadas ao histórico de perturbação dos remanescentes a que pertencem. Os 85 indivíduos do remanescente menos perturbado somam uma área amostral de 13.800 m2 distribuídos por todos os 250 ha, em 20 subpopulações da espécie, com uma densidade média de 0,006 ind./m2, sempre em mosaicos sucessionais do início do processo sucessional, porém em diferentes fases da mesma. No remanescente mais perturbado, com uma área de 3 ha, foram amostrados 70 indivíduos em um único grupo de 2.100 m2 e uma densidade média de 0,033 ind./m2. Para a população do remanescente menos perturbado foi possível calcular a densidade por área para a espécie, 11,1 ind. / ha. Os indivíduos das duas populações foram divididos em classes ontogenéticas, que permitiram entender melhor o comportamento da espécie frente aos mosaicos sucessionais da Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Os dados apresentados corroboram com a hipótese de que a espécie desenvolve suas populações através de um padrão comportamental de espécie pioneira e colonizadora, com estrutura espacial agregada e uma alta densidade de indivíduos jovens próximos a indivíduos adultos. / The main purpose of this study is evaluate the population ecology of a tree specie, Solanum erianthum D.Don, in two fragment remnant of Floresta Estacional Semidecidual and compare the date with the pioneer species syndrome on the ecological sucession of ecosystems. The two fragments of vegetation are in the context of fragmented and antropic landscape. The population is sampled with adaptive sampling, which is indicated for species with aggregated spatial structure. The two population have 155 individuals, one population with 85 individuals and moderate density and other population of 70 individuals with higher density. The density evaluated in the two population are related with the perturbation history of the fragments remnant. The 85 individuals of the remnant with less perturbation history are in one sampling area of 13.800 m2, on the 250 ha of the fragment, and distributed in 20 subpopulation groups, with a average density of 0,006 ind./m2. This subpopulations are always present in the sucession of the mosaic patch, in different fases of them. In the fragment remnant with a higher perturbation history, the 70 individuals are sampled in one only group, in 2.100 m2 on the 3 ha of total area of the remnant. The density is this later group is very higher, 0,033 ind./m2, when compared with other sampling population of the fragment remnant with less perturbation history. For this population of the greater fragment, are possible to calculate the density for area to the species, 11,1 ind./ha. All individuals are classified in ontogenetic classes, which make it possible to compare different individuals on the two population and make some observations of characteristics of the species in the sucessional mosaic patchs of Floresta Estacional Semidecidual. Os dados apresentados corroboram com a hipótese de que a espécie desenvolve suas populações através de um padrão comportamental de espécie pioneira e colonizadora, com estrutura espacial agregada e uma alta densidade de indivíduos jovens próximos a indivíduos adultos.

The thesis deals with market for collective investments in the Czech Republic, the principles of mutual funds business, legal coverage and performance. Specifics of collective investments in the Czech Republic and legislation are clarified in the first part. In the second part the basic methods of evaluating the mutual funds performance are described. The second chapter includes the presentation of Pioneer Investments, of which mutual funds are subject of performance analysis. The practical part is focused on the analysis of selected, previously characterized, mutual funds managed by Pioneer Investments. These funds are compared with performance of other competitive funds on the market.

abstract: The research question explored in this thesis is how CRISPR mediated editing is influenced by artificially opened chromatin in cells. Closed chromatin poses a barrier to Cas9 binding and editing at target genes. Synthetic pioneer factors (PFs) are a promising new approach to artificially open condensed heterochromatin allowing greater access of target DNA to Cas9. The Haynes lab has constructed fusions of enzymatic chromatin-modifying domains designed to remodel chromatin and increase Cas9 editing efficiency. With a library of PFs available, this research focuses on analyzing the behavior of Cas9 in chromatin that has been artificially opened by PFs. The types and frequency of INDELs (insertions & deletions) were determined after non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) in PF and Cas9-treated cells using quantitative Sanger sequencing and Synthego’s ICE software. Furthermore, NOME-seq analysis was carried out to map nucleosome position in PF and Cas9 treated cells. Although this experiment was unsuccessful, the heat map generated with data obtained from Synthego ICE predicts a possible presence of nucleosome in the vicinity suggesting that perhaps a fully open chromatin state was not achieved. Linear Regression analysis with certain assumptions confirms that with the increase in distance downstream of cut-site, the editing frequency decreases exponentially. Nevertheless, further experimental work should be carried out to investigate this hypothesis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biomedical Engineering 2019

Oregon City lies at the base of Willamette Falls. It was one of the few known points in the Oregon Territory, as the destination for thousands coming overland to lay claim to the acres upon acres of forested land. Presently, Oregon City is known by its proximity to Portland. The two neighboring settlements were considered "long-distance," when on a spring evening in 1889, energy generated from the falls was carried through 14 miles of recently-laid copper wire to power streetlights in downtown Portland's Chapman Square. It was the first ever long-distance transmission of electricity. Oregon City, the oldest incorporated settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, is a town in transition, as it attempts to reinvent itself as something more than an old mill town, building on its natural beauty and historical significance. This essay collection showcases the history and character of Oregon City, highlighting the people and places that have called it home.

The 134-year old Frantz-Dunn House in Hoskins. Oregon is an intact, well-preserved example of rural Gothic architecture in the Willamette Valley. The old farmstead sits on a former Civil War Fort site and represents a link in the history of the region to the larger patterns of expansion in America during the nineteenth century. This study focuses on the family history of three generations of occupants of the historic dwelling. The information was gathered from extant materials and official documents, historic publications, local museum collections, visual observation of the house and from interviews with the relatives of the pioneer families and selected Hoskins residents. Special interest was paid to the interior furnishings and finishes in the interest of the material culture of the house. Interior furnishings were discussed from interview and extant elements. Recommendations for further study of this and other historic houses with focus on the interior material culture of are given. / Graduation date: 2006 / Best scan available for photos.

Successful strategy of E-commerce is an important research topic in the passed decades. Understanding the relationship between order of entry and competitive advantage is the main purpose of this research. In this research, it collected a lot of survey reports, press releases, financial information and market research data from well-known online research companies, consultant companies and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This research focus on three kinds of internet business models such as search engine service, online shop and e-auction. After analyzing the data, the market pioneers have better performance in present than the market followers. It can conclude that there is relative pioneer advantage in the Internet business. However the entry of order has different influence on different business models. For search engine service and e-auction, they have the advantage of taking first. But there is no apparent preponderating first in the on-line shop. The types of online shop and product characteristics also affect the performance under different entry of order. Keywords¡GPioneer Advantage¡Bonline shop¡BSearch engine¡Be-auction¡B E-commerce¡Be-business¡Be-business model