Digital Commons Network^™

Proteoglycan 4 (Lubricin) And Regulation Of Xanthine Oxidase In Synovial Macrophage As A Mechanism Of Controlling Synovitis, Khaled A. Elsaid, Ling X. Zhang, Thomas Zhao, Ava Marks, Derek Jenkins, Tannin A. Schmidt, Gregory D. Jay

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Synovial macrophages (SMs) are important effectors of joint health and disease. A novel Cx3CR1 + TREM2 + SM population expressing the tight junction protein claudin-5, was recently discovered in synovial lining. Ablation of these SMs was associated with onset of arthritis. Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) is a mucinous glycoprotein that fulfills lubricating and homeostatic roles in the joint. The aim of this work is to study the role of PRG4 in modulating synovitis in the context of SM homeostasis and assess the contribution of xanthine oxidase (XO)-hypoxia inducible factor alpha (HIF-1a) axis to this regulation.

Methods

We used Prg4FrtloxP/FrtloxP …

Eve And Her Feminist Descendants: The Power And Agency Of Serpentine Women In Art, Literature, And Popular Culture, Emma Sandra Shanley

Master’s Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Looking Back To Old New York City In Herman Melville’S “Bartleby”, Shawn Thomson

Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications

Though “Bartleby, the Scrivener” takes place in the three-block area in and around the lawyer’s Wall Street offices, the uptown attitudes toward city life of the suburbs inform the lawyer’s relationships to his urban or downtown space. Wall Street stands as a central feature of the island city’s history, taking its name from a physical wall built to protect the Dutch from the British and the Indians. As a result, Wall Street served to differentiate the suburban from the urban confines of the city. Through the position of the lawyer in the Master Chancery office on Wall Street and his …

Pixel Personalities Ai, Patrick Casey

Theses

The Pixel Personality AI project explores how AI characters can be embedded in augmented reality (AR) environments to foster user interaction and storytelling. By situating AI personas within real-world contexts, the project examines how design principles, storytelling techniques, and user-centric technology can create engaging and intuitive experiences. Through iterative prototyping and design refinement, the project addressed challenges in aesthetic design, interface usability, and AR integration. The resulting low-poly aesthetic and customized visual filters enhance spatial storytelling while maintaining a balance between user focus and environmental immersion. This research highlights the potential of AI-driven narratives to reshape AR experiences, emphasizing user …

Covid-19 Effects On School Choral Music Programs’ Rehearsal Instruction: Exploring Responses, Sharing Teacher Perceptions On Future Preparedness, Watson Chilala

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The US experienced increased hospitalizations resulting from a resurgence of COVID-19 infections from Late July to mid-September 2023. Among educators and parents, the trend brought back memories of government school closures and their school instruction-related repercussions. This qualitative holistic case study explored how school choral music directors perceive their choral music programs' preparedness to mitigate instruction-related losses should future pandemics or long-term disruptions to instruction occur. The study examined relevant literature vis-a-vis journal articles and books and conducted open-ended interviews online, by phone, and in person. This study can empower choral music education with teaching strategies to improve SCMPs’ future …

The Soil Test: Facilitating Increased Receptivity To Spiritual Formation In A Large Church Through Education, Motivation, And Resources, Rosemary Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Decades of recent research and writing about spiritual formation and discipleship assume that there will be growth in spiritual maturity if churches have more models and biblical information. However, the literature addresses the wrong problem; it presupposes that the church is ready for spiritual formation. In their efforts to facilitate it, those trying to help the church are like the farmer who sows seed onto unprepared soil. Good seeds, such as discipleship groups, are sown into the soil of the church without paying attention to whether the soil can produce a harvest. The project posited that five conditions should be …

Racial Reconciliation In Black And White: A Qualitative Study Of Live Mississippi Blues Music Communication, Christian Patterson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research effort is to investigate a problem regarding communication between Black and White Mississippians in live Mississippi blues music settings. The central research question for this study is as follows: Can live Mississippi blues music communication be used as a tool to strengthen race relations between Black and White Mississippians? Few studies exist regarding this matter. Understanding this phenomenon is relevant because racial reconciliation is critical to the Magnolia State’s future success, and research has proven that music can unify individuals. To facilitate comprehension, a thorough literature review describes Mississippi’s racial challenges from the …

Exploring The Uses And Gratifications Of Higher Education Online Multimedia Instructional Tools: A Qualitative Study, Shelby Lord

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research study examined the communication goals that motivate California Community College (CCC) faculty to employ multimedia instructional tools in their online classes. Additionally, this study investigated the positive and negative impacts of multimedia instructional tools on faculty-to-student communication. A qualitative research method was utilized for this research study. Findings were obtained from June 2024 through August 2024 using 25 qualitative semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Participants were faculty who were currently teaching remote classes through the CCC system, faculty who approved the informed consent for the study, and faculty who agreed to participate in a semi-structured interview. A thematic analysis process …

Stopping The Transference: Family Resilience Concerning High Adverse Childhood Experience Through A Genogram Study Of Southern Appalachian Storytelling Culture, Brittany Shay Teague

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of multi-generational Appalachian storytellers and their culture to discover if there was a decrease in Adverse Childhood Experiences and increase resilience across generations. Vygotsky's Communication Theory, which emphasizes child development through language and communication, and Masten’s Resilience Theory, which emphasizes that children can develop resilience with the assistance of their caregivers, guided this study. The research questions asked were as follows: How do they describe the impact of storytelling and genograms on resilience and intergenerational transference?  How do they describe the importance of storytelling? How would they describe …

Enhancer Reprogramming Underlies Therapeutic Utility Of A Smarca2 Degrader In Smarca4 Mutant Cancer, Sasikumar Kotagiri, Nicholas Blazanin, Yuanxin Xi, Yanyan Han, Md Qudratullah, Xiaobing Liang, Yawen Wang, Poonam Pandey, Hira Mazhar, Truong Nguyen Lam, Anand Kamal Singh, Jing Wang, Yonathan Lissanu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Genomic studies have identified frequent mutations in subunits of the SWI/SNF (switch/sucrose non-fermenting) chromatin remodeling complex including SMARCA4 and ARID1A in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Genetic evidence indicates that the paralog SMARCA2 is synthetic lethal to SMARCA4 suggesting SMARCA2 is a valuable therapeutic target. However, the discovery of selective inhibitors of SMARCA2 has been challenging. Here, we utilized structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies to develop YD23, a potent and selective proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) targeting SMARCA2. Mechanistically, we show that SMARCA2 degradation induces reprogramming of the enhancer landscape in SMARCA4-mutant cells with loss of chromatin accessibility at enhancers of genes …

A Study Of Thomas Oord’S Open Theism And Theodicy, Olaoluwa Apata

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Open theism’s opposition to the traditional Christian view and its rejection of the classical definitions of God’s attributes, character, and divine impassibility continually creates a point of contention between the two worldviews. As one of the leading voices in this movement, Thomas Oord offers what can be described as a refined argument in support of Open theism in contemporary theological and philosophical studies. His open theism holds that due to God’s kenotic act and uncontrolling love, his ability to know the future is limited and he cannot prevent evil. Oord introduces his version of open theism with the goal of …

Exploring Spiritual Leadership Theory's Beneficial Member Outcomes By Women Who Founded And Lead Nonprofit Evangelical Christian Organizations, Barrie Milton Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The problem under investigation has two facets: the lack of testing the Spiritual Leadership Theory (SLT) in religious organizations and the lack of any study of Christian women who lead the nonprofit evangelical ministry organization or the classical Christian education (CCE) school they founded or cofounded. This qualitative phenomenological study addressed this problem by exploring the phenomenon of beneficial member outcomes from SLT’s practice by these women who lead those Christian organizations. The literature review includes SLT’s compatibility with Christian leadership and an extensive analysis of the biblical, theological, and historical literature concerning the leadership role of women in the …

Addressing A Lack Of Counseling Programs To Diminish The Psychological, Emotional, And Mental Impacts Of Church Closure Grief, Marcel Berrios

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Besides spiritual activities, the social activities that happen in church buildings are vital to the functioning of most communities; therefore, churches play a central role in the social fabric and social infrastructure of communities in ways not necessarily thought about until they are no longer around. The looming absence of this role or function of the church becomes the overarching focus to address when an announcement is made that a church is permanently closing. Lost in navigating the business and community aspects of a church closure is the congregation's metamorphic spiritual, emotional, and psychological journey. Subsequently, many church members are …

Planning In Advance (Pia): Teaching London Seventh-Day-Adventist Church Leaders In Providing Spiritual Care For Dying And Mourning Parishioners, Walace Saint Louis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The London Seventh-Day Adventist Church (LSDAC), Maybee, Michigan, grapples with the lack of trained leaders in EoL to provide pastoral care for dying and mourning African American parishioners. The purpose of this DMIN action research project is to educate LSDAC leaders in providing spiritual care for their congregants as lay chaplains. The city of Maybee contains 612 people, with 95 % Caucasians and 5% other racial groups. The LSDAC membership is 99% African Americans and 1% Caucasians. It has around 30 members.

The philosophical concept of this research lies in the presuppositions that African Americans prefer spiritual EoL care from …

An Investigation Into The Redemptive Uses Of Technology To Help Churches Reach The Lost And Make Disciples, Scott W. Sherman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There is a compelling rationale for investing the time and energy to develop a successful digital discipleship program. There is a mandate to reach the lost. There is a command to make disciples of all nations. Theologically there is significant and sufficient biblical evidence that discipleship and can happen remotely. Evidentially, Christian digital community has occurred successfully and with levels of engagement needed for spiritual accountability and growth. Following a non-empirical mixed methodology based on Bernard Lonergan for evidence gathering and subsequently incorporating a redemptive Augustinian methodology akin to The City of God, we have fulfilled the purpose of being …

Studying The Dynamics Of Neuromodulators In The Brain By Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging, Pingchuan Ma

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Neuromodulators in the brain are fundamental to neuronal functions and animal behaviors in health and diseases. The modulatory actions of neuromodulators highly rely on their spatiotemporal dynamics. Recent research has demonstrated the importance of both sustained and transient change in neuromodulators, likely due to tonic and phasic neuromodulator release. However, no traditional methods could simultaneously record both types of dynamics. Fluorescence lifetime of optical reporters could offer a solution because it both allows high temporal resolution and is impervious to sensor expression differences across chronic periods. Nevertheless, no fluorescence lifetime change across the entire classes of neuromodulator sensors was previously …

Exploring The Homeostatic Functions And Driving Forces Of Lymphatic Outflow Pathways From The Central Nervous System, Zachary Matthew Papadopoulos

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Lymphatic drainage from the central nervous system (CNS) has been noted and described for several hundred years, yet its physiological roles have remained unclear. The fluid homeostasis of the CNS has long stood as an area of scientific interest due to primary disorders including hydrocephalus. However, the early days of neuroimmunology leaned on the lack of lymphatic vasculature in the CNS as a contributing explanation for ‘immune privilege’ in the CNS. As a result, the importance of lymphatics in CNS homeostasis has remained poorly understood and controversial. Following a renaissance in interest in the contribution of lymphatics to CNS homeostasis, …

Fans In Ancient Egypt: Iconographic And Contextual Study Of Fans In The Predynastic, Old, And Middle Kingdoms, Nadra Zaki

Theses and Dissertations

A variety of fans existed throughout ancient Egyptian history. They had several forms and were made of different materials. They appear in two- and three-dimensional representations, as well as in texts. They relate to royalty and high officials and also feature in domestic settings, both out- and indoors. Fans were used for creating breeze, and providing shade in real life, and also during the journey to the afterlife, where they combined physical and metaphysical protection. Several names were associated with fans, depending on their functions, both in the secular and sacred world.

Earlier studies have either generally examined fans …

Age-Related Tfeb Downregulation In Proximal Tubules Causes Systemic Metabolic Disorders And Occasional Apolipoprotein A4-Related Amyloidosis, Jun Nakamura, Takeshi Yamamoto, Yoshitsugu Takabatake, Tomoko Namba-Hamano, Atsushi Takahashi, Jun Matsuda, Satoshi Minami, Shinsuke Sakai, Hiroaki Yonishi, Shihomi Maeda, Sho Matsui, Hideaki Kawai, Isao Matsui, Tadashi Yamamuro, Ryuya Edahiro, Seiji Takashima, Akira Takasawa, Yukinori Okada, Tamotsu Yoshimori, Andrea Ballabio, Yoshitaka Isaka

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

With the aging of society, the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), a common cause of death, has been increasing. Transcription factor EB (TFEB), the master transcriptional regulator of the autophagy/lysosomal pathway, is regarded as a promising candidate for preventing various age-related diseases. However, whether TFEB in the proximal tubules plays a significant role in elderly patients with CKD remains unknown. First, we found that nuclear TFEB localization in proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTECs) declined with age in both mice and humans. Next, we generated PTEC-specific Tfeb-deficient mice and bred them for up to 24 months. We found that TFEB …

Il-12 Encoding Ondv Synergizes With Car-T Cells In Orthotopic Models Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Amanda Rosewell Shaw, Daisuke Morita, Caroline E Porter, Eric Tu, Greyson W Biegert, Sonia Agrawal, Nicholas Durham, Malcolm K Brenner, Masataka Suzuki

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Systemic administration of oncolytic viruses (OVs) is a promising approach for targeting metastatic solid tumors, but their anti-tumor activity is limited by pre-existing neutralizing antibodies against common human viruses. Therefore, investigators have developed OVs derived from non-human host viruses. Successful implementation of this strategy requires that the viral vector selectively infects and replicates within human cancer cells. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an avian paramyxovirus that, as NDV-based OVs (oNDVs), has demonstrated safety and activity against multiple human tumors in clinical trials. Their use as a single agent, however, is insufficient to cure tumors. Similarly, chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells …

Mechanism Of Impaired Cd8+ T Cell Activation During Ross River Virus Infection, Christopher Bullock

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Ross River virus (RRV) is a mosquito transmitted virus endemic to Australia that infects humans and causes acute symptoms of rash, fever, myalgia, and fatigue. Although systemic viral infection subsides within a few weeks, joint pain lingers in many patients for months. Active viral replication is not readily detected in this chronic phase, although persistent viral RNA has been found in the synovial fluid of patients. This can be studied in mice, which can be productively infected with RRV when inoculated in the foot. Like in humans, in the chronic phase of disease, viral RNA is still present in the …

Re-Entering Fandom Pages In The Era Of New Media Ecosystems: The Case Of Turkish Television Series And Their Devoted Viewer Communities, Orhun Yakun, Serhat Kaymas

Kritika Kultura

Given the global prominence of Turkish television series, there is a strong necessity for re- evaluating the constitution of transnational fandom groups in new media ecosystems. Hence, the reasons and motivations of multinational fandom communities are something of a blind spot in fandom studies, especially in the case of devoted fan communities of Turkish television series. Most contemporary studies in fandom literature have mainly focused on television viewers’ experiences in individual countries due to cultural proximity and cultural discount theories rather than the constitution of multinational fandom groups in the new media ecosystem. However, this article argues that such existing …

The Erotic As A Marvelous Real Paradigm: Hurston And Conjure Feminism, Patricia Coloma Peñate

Kritika Kultura

The presence of conjuring in African American culture and artistic works in its relation to female identity has been recently addressed from an academic point of view as “Conjuring Feminism”: a term that centralizes its role as an intellectual tradition that works as a liberatory epistemology for women of African descent. In the definition of such term, Audre Lorde’s concept of the erotic has a central role. This paper analyzes Zora Neale Hurston’s works to explore how she engages in this tradition and its erotic nature. Lorde’s notion also functions as the paradigm at the base of Conjuring Feminism and …

Nationalism, Feminism, And Modernity And Maria Paz Zamora-Mascuñana's Mi Obolo, Diana Villanueva Romero

Kritika Kultura

This article aims to discuss Maria Paz Zamora-Mascuñana’s Mi obolo (1924) in light of biographical and culturally meaningful findings obtained through archival work conducted in 2018 and 2022 using the Library of Congress’s holdings of Philippine periodicals from the American colonial period as well as those of the Southeast Asian Newspaper collection at the East View Global Press Archive (GPA).3 The main claim here is that, with the publication of Mi obolo, Zamora-Mascuñana materialized her political will to contribute to the construction of the nation at a time when women’s participation in Filipino politics was met with resistance due to …

The Forming Of Ethical Evaluation Of Shuihu Zhuan In The Context Of Guanxi Culture, Ruihui Han

Kritika Kultura

Shuihu Zhuan, a work of fiction with a perverse narrative of atrocities, has been criticized as a novel with serious ethical demerits. Yet, this novel remains widely appreciated within Chinese society, with many holding its morals in high esteem. This presents an apparent paradox when juxtaposed against the ethical criticisms directed at the novel. Understanding the forming of the ethical evaluation is pivotal, especially given the significant role of ethical references in literary commentary—a backdrop further intensified by traditional Chinese literary theory, which is deeply influenced by Confucian moral teachings. Since interpretations of Shuihu Zhuan should consider its context, this …

Ethical Dilemma And Narrative Strategies In David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly (1988 And 2017), Xin Zhang, Shumin He

Kritika Kultura

David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly (1988), the first play written by an Asian American playwright to win the Tony Awards, remains his most renowned and controversial play. The play has been criticized for catering to mainstream discourse for reproducing the rather negative “Dragon Lady” stereotype in the name of subverting the “Madame Butterfly” stereotype. However, with the unreliable narration, the play connotes dual narrative dynamics which creates great aesthetic tension and powerful ironic effect. But such a rhetorical device has, to some extent, also led to the alienation between the play’s representing strategies and the implied author’s intention, which results …

The Multispecies Soundscape In Mo Yan's Red Sorghum, Qianqian Chen, Joan Qionglin Tan

Kritika Kultura

Red Sorghum, the masterpiece of Mo Yan, the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, is an exemplar of the Chinese root-seeking literature in the 1980s. Comparing the red sorghum field to an auditory field accommodating diversified species, the article unveils that its multispecies soundscape is characterized by its animated liveliness, tumultuous polyphony, and acoustic harmony between sound and silence. By delving into the historical and cultural context of the novel, as well as Mo’s personal background, this paper concludes that the clamorous multispecies soundscape in the red sorghum field can be attributed to Chinese ancient ecological philosophy, Gaomi …

Editor's Introduction, Vincenz Serrano

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

"Effable Nature In Unheard Stories": Tishani Doshi's Poetics Of Discovery, Juan Ignacio Oliva

Kritika Kultura

This article aims to study the multiple nature metaphors used in Tishani Doshi’s poetry to convey messages of understanding and epiphany. Born in 1975 in Madras (now Chennai), Doshi is an Indian author and academic who has gained indisputable reputation as a novelist and poet, with other cultural and artistic interests like dancing and writing journal articles. She is especially devoted to narrating the urges of contemporary human existence, and to defending class, gender, and racial rights violated by capitalist patriarchal anthropocentrism, all while embracing the aesthetic beauty of artistic creation as a weapon to change the world. Therefore, in …

Transhistorical Connectivities Around The Indian Ocean: Western Colonialism And Climate Change In Amtav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse, Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru

Kritika Kultura

This article argues that Amitav Ghosh’s non-fiction book The Nutmeg’s Curse illustrates the ways in which the proto-global entanglement of chaotic colonial forces, which proliferates across space and time, has played an important part in the current climate change. Ghosh imagines the Indian Ocean as a melting pot of rhizomatic energies of imperial aggression and local resistance, but also of new emerging life, with the agency of nature playing a very important part in the latter. I aim to show this in a combined Deleuzian, postcolonial, and ecocritical reading, with elements of chaos theory meant to provide possible interpretations to …