The Use of Bakhtin\u27s Polyphony to Analyze Peer Relationships

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine how resident assistants integrate training on leadership and ethics with their personal beliefs in their roles as resident assistants (RAs). Data for this study was gathered using an electronic survey. Participants who have between one and four years of RA experience were to participate in this study. An announcement of the study with a link to the survey was sent to the resident director of all dorms on the UA campus with the request that the announcement be forwarded to the RAs. The survey included six questions that provided basic demographic information and training experience. Then the demographics was followed by four scenarios, each having four multiple choice options and two open ended questions about leadership and ethical action. It took approximately 10-20 minutes to complete the survey. Results were analyzed descriptively

Cervical Cancer-Associated Human Papillomavirus 16 E7 Oncoprotein Inhibits Induction of Anti-Cancer Immunity by a CD4+ T Cell Dependent Mechanism

Attempts to develop therapeutic vaccines against cervical cancer have been proven difficult. One of the major causes of the failure is due to the use of the wrong mouse models based on transplantable tumours in testing the efficacy of vaccines. Now that a transgenic epithelial mouse model has been developed to closely mimic cervical cancer, the mechanisms needed to eliminate this type of cancer could be studied. The E7 oncoprotein of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most expressed HPV protein in cervical cancers and its continuous production is essential to maintain the cancerous state and therefore the obvious target in the development of vaccines. Skin grafts expressing the HPV 16 E7 protein (E7 autografts) are not spontaneously rejected from an MHC matched immunocompetent host. Interestingly, simultaneous placement of an MHC mismatched skin (allograft) next to an E7 autograft results in the E7 autograft rejection. However when the allograft also expresses E7, the E7 autograft is rejected more slowly. Autograft rejection requires CD8+ T cells, and is accelerated by removal of CD4+ T cells after placement of the E7 expressing allograft, suggesting induction of an E7 specific CD4+ regulatory T cell population by the E7 expressing allograft. This observation may have implications in designing effective vaccines and immunotherapy against cervical cancers in women

The Good, the Badge, and the Ugly: Takeaways from Creating an Information Literacy Badge

Digital badges are micro-certifications that indicate competence in particular skills. At Columbia College, we combined coursework on information literacy skills with a Wikipedia editing project to create a digital “Research Badge” administered through the campus learning management system. Our poster at SCLA 2019 shared project successes and areas for improvement

Die Hecogenin-Cephalostatin-Route : ein Weg aus dem Spiroketal-Dilemma

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Fighting "the Evil Scourge of Terrorism": From 'Jewish Terrorism' to 'Islamic Terrorism' in the United States, 1940-2017

This dissertation investigates how four central discursive agents – the U.S. government, academia, news journalism, and cultural productions – framed and conceptualized ‘terrorism’ from the 1940s onward. It shows how these four agents influenced each other, gradually spreading an understanding of ‘terrorism’ as a serious threat to national security further into American mainstream society. Beginning in the 1940s, the dissertation demonstrates that earlier conceptualizations of ‘terrorism’ understood the perpetrators as inherently rational actors with a clear political agenda and framed it as one minor aspect in larger issues of revolutions, rebellions, and guerrilla warfare. The project then investigates how the marginal status of ‘terrorism’ slowly changed in the 1970s when several high-profile incidents were increasingly understood as acts of ‘terrorism’ instead of, e.g., air piracy or simply hostage taking. In contrast to previous conceptualizations, the term also acquired an inherently negative connotation. From the 1980s onward, ‘terrorism’ dominated the political scene as various administrations vowed to fight it through war. Perpetrators were also increasingly identified based on ethnic and religious affiliation while references to political grievances decreased in importance. The dissertation then shows how framings of 9/11 and the ensuing ‘War on Terror’ as ‘Islamic terrorism’ targeting the United States for its superior democratic values were the result of a particular conceptualization of ‘terrorism’ which focused on Islam as an explanation for violence and postulated that ‘terrorism’ could only be fought through war. Another relevant finding of the project is that the Middle East, both the geographical region and the way it is imagined in American culture and politics, is central to notions about ‘terrorism’ in the United States. Negotiations of what ‘terrorism’ means at a particular point in time and to whom and why play out against the backdrop of American relations to the Middle East. Hence, while early framings of the issue focused on Jewish groups active in Palestine (and, eventually, Israel), in later years, analyses of ‘terrorism’ overwhelmingly focused on Arab groups and, more recently, Islamic perpetrators as main ‘terrorist’ threats – a construction which has only become cemented since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The dissertation thus also charts American engagement in the Middle East as a region which seemingly produced ‘terrorism’ against the United States while also analyzing how these ideas about ‘terrorism’ constructed the Middle East in the American cultural imaginary in return

A broad spectrum, one-step reverse-transcription PCR amplification of the neuraminidase gene from multiple subtypes of influenza A virus

Background: The emergence of high pathogenicity strains of Influenza A virus in a variety of human and animal hosts, with wide geographic distribution, has highlighted the importance of rapid identification and subtyping of the virus for outbreak management and treatment. Type A virus can be classified into subtypes according to the viral envelope glycoproteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Here we review the existing specificity and amplification of published primers to subtype neuraminidase genes and describe a new broad spectrum primer pair that can detect all 9 neuraminidase subtypes