Adaptation and Innovation: Trends and Developments in American Judaism

Celebrating 10 years of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University… The Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies presents The Schurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies. [Dr. David Ellenson] President of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Author of Between Tradition and Culture: the Dialectics of Jewish Religion and Identity in the Modern World (1994) and Tradition in Transition: Orthodoxy, Halakhah and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity (1990).https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1225/thumbnail.jp

Somatic LKB1 Mutations Promote Cervical Cancer Progression

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the etiologic agent for cervical cancer. Yet, infection with HPV is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer, because most infected women develop transient epithelial dysplasias that spontaneously regress. Progression to invasive cancer has been attributed to diverse host factors such as immune or hormonal status, as no recurrent genetic alterations have been identified in cervical cancers. Thus, the pressing question as to the biological basis of cervical cancer progression has remained unresolved, hampering the development of novel therapies and prognostic tests. Here we show that at least 20% of cervical cancers harbor somatically-acquired mutations in the LKB1 tumor suppressor. Approximately one-half of tumors with mutations harbored single nucleotide substitutions or microdeletions identifiable by exon sequencing, while the other half harbored larger monoallelic or biallelic deletions detectable by multiplex ligation probe amplification (MLPA). Biallelic mutations were identified in most cervical cancer cell lines; HeLa, the first human cell line, harbors a homozygous 25 kb deletion that occurred in vivo. LKB1 inactivation in primary tumors was associated with accelerated disease progression. Median survival was only 13 months for patients with LKB1-deficient tumors, but >100 months for patients with LKB1-wild type tumors (P = 0.015, log rank test; hazard ratio = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.083 to 0.77). LKB1 is thus a major cervical tumor suppressor, demonstrating that acquired genetic alterations drive progression of HPV-induced dysplasias to invasive, lethal cancers. Furthermore, LKB1 status can be exploited clinically to predict disease recurrence

PRESSURE DEPENDENCE OF THE LATTICE VIBRATIONS OF CRYSTALLINE BENZENE

Author Institution: Chemistry Department, University of California; Chemistry Department, University of Southern CaliforniaThe Raman spectrum of crystalline benzene has been studied at temperatures between $77^{\circ} K$ and $300^{\circ} K$ and pressures up to 35 kbar. Lattice and internal vibrations have been observed for the orthorhombic and the monoclinic (high-pressure) phases. This paper reports primarily the results for the pressure-dependence of the gerade lattice vibrations in the orthorhombic phase at $77^{\circ} K$ . Theoretical calculations, based on an atom-atom intermolecular potential, are discussed. They include calculation of equilibrium crystal structure, elastic constants and pressure-dependence of structure and lattice frequencies. This work was supported in part by the Army Research Office (Durham) and by the United States Atomic Energy Commission

Continuity and innovation : Esriel Hildesheimer and the creation of a modern Jewish orthodoxy.

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You shall tell your children: Remembering the Holocaust in American Passover Haggadot

This dissertation argues for and enacts a reading of representative Shoah texts found in contemporary haggadot from liberal Judaisms in the United States based on a hermeneutic of trauma. The ongoing ritualizing of the Shoah in Passover haggadot requires special attention to the problematics raised by placing a non-redemptive event into a redemptive narrative. The hermeneutic of trauma developed in this dissertation attends to the history, ideology and construction of memory surrounding Shoah texts and the implications of these for ethical readings that allow mourning and prevent forgetting. The hermeneutic of trauma is a method of reading and interpreting Holocaust narratives in the haggadah by reading against the redemptive frame of the text.After reviewing academic discussion of memory and representation of the Holocaust and setting out the critique of redemptive memory, especially its complex relationship to feelings of shame and to the ability to mourn, the dissertation analyzes how the creators of the Reform haggadah created a text of both continuity and contrast with their Reform legacy and their rabbinic heritage. It places this text, along with its Conservative counterpart, within an American discourse of Holocaust-redemption and argues against this as the basis for a viable American Jewish identity. The dissertation examines ritualizations that draw on Holocaust icons, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the diary of Anne Frank, and presents non-redemptive readings of these memory texts. This dissertation also analyzes the performative aspect of the seder and its role in remembering the Holocaust. Investigation of the non-rational and embodied aspects of the ritual leads to the argument that the Holocaust, as an event at the limits, cannot be embodied in its full extremity. The dissertation argues that these ritual memory texts---and by extension ritual theory itself should be read to privilege the tension created by the contrast between Exodus and Auschwitz. It is argued that this move, which acknowledges these commemorations as traumatic text, breaks open the redemptive frame of the haggadah and presents a limited, yet real, possibility for hope.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Southern California, 2001.School code: 0208

Reduced progression of endometrial hyperplasia with oral mTOR inhibition in the Pten heterozygote murine model

Phosphatase and tensin homolog ( PTEN) mutations are associated with human endometrial cancers, and PTEN heterozygote (±) mice have a high rate of endometrial neoplasia. The objective of this study was to evaluate an oral mTOR inhibitor (mTOR-I) on the reduction of endometrial hyperplasia in an animal model. Three groups of 10 female mice were treated from age 20-26 weeks: group A, Pten wild type with mTOR-I; group B, Pten ± with placebo; and group C, Pten ± with mTOR-I. Rates of hyperplasia and markers of proliferation and apoptosis were evaluated. Higher grade hyperplasia occurred in a significantly greater percentage of the untreated Pten ± group B (80%; 8/10) compared with groups A (0%; 0/10) and C (20%; 2/10; P < .02). The treated Pten ± mTOR-I group C also demonstrated significantly increased apoptosis ( P < .002) and decreased proliferation index ( P < .02) compared with the untreated group B. Oral mTOR inhibition decreases the progression of endometrial hyperplasia in the Pten heterozygote murine model through decreased cell proliferation and increased apoptosis