The process of a sperm entering an egg during fertilization is not well-understood at the molecular level for any organism. Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, serves as an ideal model organism to study the normal process of fertilization and what goes awry in cases of sterility. A novel membrane protein termed GCS1 is suggested to play a crucial role in fertilization in angiosperm plants and protists. Disruptions of the gene in these organisms are sterile due to defects in gamete interactions. Comparative genomics suggest that GCS1-like proteins are conserved across a wide variety of eukaryotic species, including Drosophila, suggesting that the GCS1 gene is of ancient origin. We have cloned a genomic fragment containing a putative Drosophila GCS1-like homologue (dGCS1) and showed that it rescues mutations in a gene called pskl, which when mutated results in male sterility. This result confirms that dGCS1, like GCS1 in other organisms, plays a role in fertilization. However, our mutants also show that dGCS1 has roles in both sperm formation and sperm function during fertilization. Currently, we are using Minos, a DNA transposon inserted near a protein-coding exon of the dGCS1, to disrupt the gene. We have obtained over 100 Minos excision alleles and are comparing these derivatives genetically and molecularly to determine if we can define specific portions of the dGCS1 protein that contribute to male fertility. These ongoing studies should be informative for identifying regions of the Drosophila gene and protein that are important for function, and should shed light on how GCS1s in general function during fertilization.

Today, a number of artists have returned to drawing -- in a big way. For example, Julie Mehretu uses swarming masses of lines and geometric shapes to document the urban environment in which she thrives. Her canvases are huge documents, often measuring more than ten feet in both directions. Likewise, Gosia Wlodarczak uses large-scale linear-line drawings. In her wall-covering installations, she brings forth a wide range of shapes and figures to create a visual atlas of her life. Common to these artists' works is a sense of infinite expansion. The artists' use of layering creates an unexpected depth that blurs the line between the artists' reality and the abstract. It is as if their drawings continue out into space and enter ours -- the spectator in front of the work. Using the idea of infinite expansion, we compare these artists' work and discuss the underlying geometric structure within their explosive drawing fields and how it relates to the world around us.

Dust is something usually swept away and discarded after it falls. Most would not consider dust as a medium for artistic expression, yet artists have utilized dust in their work. For example, Duchamp used a year’s worth of collected dust in his Large Glass. Indeed, Man Ray’s photographs of the dust on Duchamp’s piece are almost as famous as Large Glass itself. Additionally, Rauschenberg showcased dust in his series of White Paintings — monochrome canvases that act as, according to John Cage, “landing strips for dust motes, light and shadow.” Dust is not merely a nuisance — it has the potential to add a layer of meaning to art, something that can be seen in recent artists’ work. The shroud of dust on the crumpled covers of Tracey Emin’s Bed transforms it into a piece of the past. To an even greater degree, Gosia Wlodarczak explores the potential of dust in her series of covered pieces, aptly named Dust Cover. For Wlodarczak, dust shows the collected presence of the energy of a space. In this presentation, we begin with an historical overview of artists’ use of dust. We then consider these more recent artists’ work: Emin and Wlodarczak. Here, we discuss how such tiny particles add meaning; the collection of dust on the surface of these works documents the passage of time.

Clay, as Barbara Babcock describes it, is regarded as a god-given, living and life-sustaining substance. Clay, she continues, is a material which one takes, makes, and gives with thanks, and which one never handles lightly. For the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, the medium is inseparable from their spiritual, artistic, and utilitarian practices. Their collection, use, and treatment of clay involves a complex system of ritual and respect — an observation that continues to inform present-day artists. Nora Naranjo-Morse, contemporary Tewa artist, retains the sacred nature of clay that Babcock describes. Drawing from Tewa cosmology, worldview, and daily life, I examine the deep significance of clay as a source of artistic production and cultural symbolism. My argument is that, even in the sterility of the gallery space, Naranjo-Morse invokes the spiritual, artistic, and utilitarian practice associated with the medium. 

In 2007 strange cars began appearing around the United States. Clad in eccentric color schemes and a curious cluster of cameras jutting from their roofs, these cars were in the service of Google’s Street View project. As an extension of the company’s Maps program, Street View has systematically photographed panoramic views of the roads of the United States and the World. Unsurprisingly, related projects, specifically utilizing Street View technology in the service of art, have sprung up. For example, The Google Art Project began as a way to bring museum collections to Internet users using Street View technology. Art Project allows “visitors” to “walk” through museum collections from all over the world, choose paintings and view them in excruciating detail. Alternatively, artist Jon Rafman culls images from Street View that range from the banal to the picturesque, often beckoning the viewer to formulate enigmatic and, at times, counter-cultural narratives out of the chaotic mash. In my presentation, I want to mediate these two projects, The Google Art Project and Jon Rafman’s 9eyes. While I argue that Google Street View is an emergent medium for artistic investigation and a provocative new consumer technology, I ask if and how new media provide agency to their globalized users. Through the use of accessible new media technologies, Street View shifts the role of the user from static and passive to dynamic and active, but does it emancipate the spectator? Here my focus turns to Rafman’s concept of the virtual sublime. Using the writing of critical theorist Elizabeth Grosz and Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben as a guide, I discuss Rafman’s image “strings” in regards to the overall Street View project.

Most people associate images of the halos with holiness or sainthood. Although heavily charged with religious symbolism, over the centuries, the halo as a personification of religious values has existed in a variety of forms. Moreover, throughout its history it has taken on very diverse meanings within an assortment of Western and non-Western art forms such as the mandorla used in Buddhist imagery or perhaps the more familiar Christian halo seen in images of Christ. In this research, I look deeper into the connotative and denotative meanings associated with its historical uses, identifying veiled messages hidden within its various forms. In my analysis, I utilize Saussure’s study of semiotics as well as Roland Barthes “Myth Today.” I seek to understand not only the history and progression of meanings associated with the halo, but how its form continues to circulate within modern-day culture. My contention is that Andy Warhol’s Gold Marilyn Monroe reprises this age-old form. Examining Warhol’s work reveals how on the one hand, the myth of the halo plays a role in its current definition and communication to the viewer. Yet on the other, I illustrate how Warhol manipulates and undermines the signified meaning of the halo and ultimately the form of the halo itself.

 Like Picasso and other modern artists of the time American choreographers, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham, have been accused of culling much of their work from the “exotic” sources of India and Africa. While this artistic borrowing, in the case of works like Picasso’s Demoiselles D’Avignon, has been explored and analyzed, similar artistic endeavors like St Denis’ 1913 Bakawali Nautch and Graham’s 1947 Night Journey have gone relatively uninvestigated in terms of their significance within the fields of dance and cultural studies. The re-examination of these influences and the analysis of their cultural specifics would go a long way toward an effort to restore the significance and cultural implications of dance in their respective cultures as well as in the work of St. Denis and Graham. This research aims through the critical historical context and formal analysis of these pieces to assert that there is much to be gained from understanding these works as not merely having occurred in reaction to outside cultural sources, but rather that they sit at the crossing of a multitude of influences. They are a result of and in turn the catalyst for innovation across cultures.

It was 1909, a time of great economic and political instability, when Filippo Marinetti allegedly stumbled forth from the “maternal ditch” of industrial waste. With wild passion and exuberant fury, he penned the Futurist Manifesto. Encouraged by his young, well-educated friends, he rejected passivity, and called for the celebration of active living through battle, steel, and speed. He broadcasted his declaration in the Paris newspaper, Le Figaro. Such a direct, cutthroat approach, expressing the objectives of a group of artists who did not yet exist, took the art world by surprise. His zeal has since been imitated many, many times over. A century later, The Freee Art Collective, a trio of British protest artists, revamped the work. By simply replacing words and phrases within the original document’s structure, Freee reordered the Futurist Manifesto, making its demands fresh and relevant to contemporary art and culture. Through a comparison of Marinetti’s original Futurist Manifesto and Freee’s New Futurist Manifesto, this paper aims to examine the evolving function of the manifesto, not only as a voice of artistic movements but also as a means of revealing cultural mentalities and concerns of a time and place.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a Gram-negative pathogen that causes gastroenteritis. Components of the outer and inner membrane, characteristic of Gram-negative bacteria, contribute to Salmonella’s mechanisms to avoid detection and killing by the host immune system. The anionic bacterial cell surface is disrupted by cationic antimicrobial proteins (CAMP) that increase outer membrane (OM) permeability and access to the inner membrane. To resist CAMP killing Salmonella activates the PhoPQ two-component system, which is essential for pathogenesis. Because many PhoPQ-regulated enzymes are dispensable during infection, we conducted a forward genetic screen that identified new components of the PhoPQ regulon involved in maintaining the OM permeability barrier. Sequencing revealed mutations in genes encoding a variety of membrane proteins including transporters, phospholipid and lipopolysaccharide biosynthetic enzymes and efflux pumps, as well as regulatory proteins. Amongst the results, yejM mutants expressed the highest levels of membrane damage. YejM is an inner membrane protein with a periplasmic enzymatic domain that is critically involved in maintaining the OM permeability barrier. Structural alignments suggest that YejM is a member of the alkaline phosphatase superfamily. Attempts at full length deletions of yejM were unsuccessful suggesting the transmembrane domain is essential for viability, whereas periplasmic deletion mutants were viable but expressed varied levels of OM damage. Complementation with periplasmic deletion mutants and plasmids carrying the periplasmic domain rescued the OM permeability defect. Using structural models generated by a Protein Homolog/analogy Recognition Engine (PHYRE), we located putative metal binding sites involved in catalysis. To investigate the enzymatic mechanism, specific metal-binding residues were mutated via Polymerase Chain Reaction. We aim to determine if these residues contribute to the OM permeability defect of the yejM mutant Salmonella.

Obstetric Fistula is a childbearing injury that occurs as a result of neglected labor. Obstetric Fistulas occur in 5% of live births and accounts for 8% of all maternal deaths. It is one of the four major causes of maternal mortality and morbidity. Worldwide about 50,000 to 100,000 women are affected by obstetric fistula each year (World Health Organization, 2011). The purpose of this project was to: 1) Create greater awareness of obstetrical fistula in the community, 2) Assess if giving circles and my presentation accomplished this goal. Giving circles is a strategy used to inform and educate small groups of people about obstetric fistula. I conducted a series of giving circles, starting with family, then to a group of friends, followed by students in the UW School of Nursing Programs, and hope to set up another for UW faculty. I used PowerPoint slides and showed a clip of the 2009 Emmy award winning documentary “A Walk to Beautiful”. I asked the attendees to fill out a written evaluation at the end of each presentation as a means to evaluate the presentation itself and the impact it had on the attendees. The evaluation consisted of eight direct questions about the information and delivery of the presentation and allowed the attendees to comment and/or grade content. In total I had a response rate of about 50%. I identified major themes across all responses and sub-themes in each of the individual questions. One major theme identified was the need to spend more time explaining the anatomy of an Obstetric Fistula and the research around the social implications of having the fistula. As a result I concluded that there is a general interest in the community about Obstetric Fistula and giving circles are an effective method of raising awareness.

Diabetes is a serious and prevalent disease affecting the lives of many people. Studies have shown that cardiovascular calcification, or calcium-phosphate mineral deposition in blood vessels, cardiac valves, and myocardium, is prominent in patients with Type II diabetes (T2D), accounting for the heightened cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in this population. Using a T2D mouse model, our laboratory has shown a positive correlation of hyperglycemia with cardiovascular calcification. A multi-ligand receptor, namely the receptor for advanced glycation-end products (RAGE), was high in cartilaginous and calcific areas of blood vessels and aortic valves and translocated to the cell membrane of the cells with osteochodrogenic (bone and cartilage precursor) and chondrocytic (cartilage) properties. To study whether RAGE is involved in the early signaling of osteochodrogenic differentiation and calcification of cardiac valves, we cultured bovine valve interstitial cells (BVICs) in procalcific medium containing normal and high glucose in a range of hyperglycemia. We found that high glucose increased calcification of BVICs by up to 3 folds. Expression levels of RAGE and its ligands are determined by reverse-transcription PCR and Western blot analysis. The biological activity of RAGE are blocked by a commercially available neutralizing antibody to see whether RAGE is required for the high glucose-associated BVIC calcification. Our results show a decrease in BVIC calcification when RAGE activity is blocked by a neutralizing antibody. For future studies, we will create a cell line with lower expression levels of RAGE via small RNA interference.

The aim of our research was to collect and synthesize best business practices and lessons learned about the ecotourism industry from a) the primary literature and b) interviews with a selection of ecotourism brokers from private, government, and civil society sectors. We then presented this information to the S. Korean Government in order to aid in the sustainable development of ecotourism on the Korean coastlines. We first examined the primary literature and created inventories of journal articles and books that outline contemporary paradigms of ecotourism. From these resources we established our own working definition of ecotourism as a baseline, represented through each section of the study: 1) Broker Types, 2) Ecotourism Production Process: Broker Perspective, 3) Triple Bottom Line Sustainability, and 4) Interview Framework. We then developed an interview protocol, and selected a series of case studies in which we interviewed a series of broker from different countries representing ecotourism industries and geographies similar to that of the Korean coastline. The framework of these interviews was based on a Triple Bottom Line Sustainability business model, which creates a balance between brokers, locals and the tourists. Results suggest that Triple Bottom Line Sustainability is appropriate for the development of ecotourism in S. Korea.

Chemostats are a continuous culture system in which cells are grown in a tightly controlled, chemically constant environment where culture density is constrained by limiting specific nutrients. Unlike batch cultures, the selective pressure imposed in a chemostat is constant. This has made them a desirable tool for evolution and competition experiments. Traditionally chemostat experiments with S. cerevisiae have been constrained due to the limited number of cultures that can be run at once. In order to solve this problem our team is working with a new culturing system that allows 64 chemostats to be run simultaneously. In our experiment we evolved 32 biological replicates of haploid MATa yeast cells under constant sulfur-limitation for 250 generations. We are now using a variety of techniques including whole genome sequencing of evolved populations to characterize mutations that have been selected for during the course of these evolutions. Changes in the genome can be correlated to changes in relative fitness, which we assayed through competition with a GFP (a green fluorescent protein that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet blue light) expressing ancestral strain every 50 generations. Ultimately it is our hope that higher replicate number will better reveal the spectrum of genes important for adaptive growth in a sulfur-limited environment. Furthermore we would like to use these methods to understand what genes are important in a wide variety of nutrient limited environments.