A Redemption of Meaning in Three Novels by Italo Calvino

In this thesis I present three readings of Italo Calvino’s later novels: Invisible Cities (1972), If on a winter’s night a traveler (1979), and Mr. Palomar (1983). My primary aim is to defend Calvino against dominant scholarly interpretations that position him as a Postmodern nihilist, a literary trickster interested solely in toying with the mechanics of language. My analysis of Calvino’s work re-envisions him as a special breed of Postmodernist concerned with humanity’s ability to create spaces for meaning in spite of an indifferent cosmos. Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, cognitive science, analytic philosophy, and phenomenology, I synthesize my own critical lens to demonstrate Calvino’s ecstatic faith in human creativity. I claim that Calvino’s later novels contain a fundamentally ethical message: they call on us to live our lives with the intensity and vigilance of the artist, to see the world as a landscape for the collective life of our minds, to endure “the inferno of the living” through acts of creation

A Randomized Controlled Effectiveness Trial for PSA Screening Decision Support Interventions in Two Primary Care Settings

BACKGROUND Decision support interventions (DESIs) provide a mechanism to translate comparative effectiveness research results into clinical care so that patients are able to make informed decisions. Patient decision support interventions for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) have been shown to promote informed decision making and reduce PSA testing in efficacy trials, but their impact in real world settings is not clear. OBJECTIVE We performed an effectiveness trial of PSA decision support interventions in primary care. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial of three distribution strategies was compared to a control. PARTICIPANTS Participants included 2,550 men eligible for PSA testing (76.6 % of the eligible population) and 2001 survey respondents (60.1 % survey response rate). INTERVENTIONS The intervention groups were: 1) mailed the DESI in DVD format, 2) offered a shared medical appointment (SMA) to view the DESI with other men and discuss, and 3) both options. MAIN MEASURES We measured PSA testing identified via electronic medical record at 12 months and DESI use by self-report 4 months after the intervention mailing. KEY RESULTS We found no differences in PSA testing across the three distribution strategies over a year-long follow-up period: 21 %, 24 %, 22 % in the DESI, SMA, and combined group respectively, compared to 21 % in the control group (p = 0.51). Self-reported DESI use was low across all strategies at 4 months: 16 % in the mailed DESI group, 6 % in the SMA group, and 15 % in the combined group (p = < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Mailing PSA decision support interventions or inviting men to shared medical appointments unrelated to a primary care office visit do not appear to promote informed decision making, or change PSA testing behavior

The Lantern, 2012-2013

• How They Run • What Was Said in Boston • On the Last Day of the Month • An Angel Tries to Surprise Humans • I Wonder if God Modeled Boys After Books • Marred with Modern Scars • Feather Bed • Ode to a Pen • Objet Petit A • Breaking News: Grownups Fear Return of Disco • Neuroscience • New Document • We Were Stars, and the Sky was Our Grass • About a Man • Trojan • An Ode • Yr Body Sour • That Lake in Jamaica • Live While Chiefs are Still Fighting • Lament for Mathematics • The Robert Frost House • People Fell in Love on Me • Sunday Review • Looks Silly in Tiny Desk Chairs • Two Years Later • Better Than Nothing • Istanbul • Packs of Cigarettes • Sonnet • Outside King of Steaks • Obstinance • Coffee Grinds • Autumn Equinox • Homecoming • Oh, San Francisco • Slide: A Beginning • Slowly Last Summer • Of Dogs and Men • Letters Not Sent • Before the Race • The Little Things • Tarpon Springs • Payment for Rebellion • Wednesday • When is President\u27s Day? • Heartless Parallels and Perpendiculars • Railway • Presto Agitato • Easier Said Than Done • Waves • Four White Women • Rope • Alter Ego Self Portrait • Pebbles • Coney Island • Guanjuanto • Growth • Evolve • Winter Blackout • Honeybee • Frames • Wanderlust • Guiding Light 1 • Frick\u27s Lock • The Ones That Never Leave • In Memoriam: Rachel Blunthttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1179/thumbnail.jp

The Lantern, 2013-2014

• Strikes • Pietro di Venezia • To the Lover of Small Things • Jim\u27s Big Day • Akademiks • Redamancy • A Love Poem for Arctia Caja • Mother River • The Lyrics to Your Song • Nerves • Gemini Season • White Interface • The Last Time I Played with Dolls • The Mechanic • My Goldfish • Put Down Your Hammer • Strip • Hollywood • Identity • The Grey Zone • Sophia • When I Became a Poet • Unbroken • The Veteran Aeronaut • I Have Running Water but They had the Stars • Not A Nigga • Mother, Adam, Eve • From Fragile Seeds: A Palindrome • Conspiring, The Spires • Finally Working Out What Goes Where (God, For Example, is in His Kingdom) • Identity Crisis • Affection • Patience • An Enchanting Lost Cause • False Starts • Soggy Rice, Lukewarm Water • The Glow • Heat • 9-14 • Filigree • Diane Arbus • Touched • Dying Alive • Just Another Drunkard on the Train • Dinner • The French Legionnaire • Conspiracy and Theory • 1249am • Colored Pencils • Sea Glass • Roundtrip • The Muse Heard Music • Lacrimosa • The Allegory of the Maze • The Stars on Stuart Road • To Isabella • For Want of a Potato Chip • Termite Nests • Saving a Rose • Today and Yesterday • A Foggy New York • Cat; Wurtzburg • Embrace • Faces • Geisha • Pacis Leo • Patterns • Te-Whanganui-a-Tara (The Dock)https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1180/thumbnail.jp

Urinary leukotriene E4 and prostaglandin D2 metabolites increase in adult and childhood severe asthma characterized by type 2 Inflammation : a clinical observational study

Rationale: New approaches are needed to guide personalized treatment of asthma.Objective: To test if urinary eicosanoid metabolites can direct asthma phenotyping.Methods: Urinary metabolites of prostaglandins (PG), cysteinyl-leukotrienes (LT) and isoprostanes were quantified in the Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Diseases Outcomes (U-BIOPRED) study including 86 adults with mild-to-moderate asthma (MMA), 411 with severe asthma (SA), and 100 healthy controls (HC). Validation was performed in 302 SA subjects followed-up after 12-18 months, and externally in 95 adolescents with asthma.Measurement and Main Results: Metabolite levels in HC were unrelated to age, BMI and sex, except for the PGE2-pathway. Eicosanoid levels were generally greater in MMA relative to HC, with further elevations in SA, except for PGE2-metabolites in males, which were the same or lower in non-smoking asthmatics as in HC. Metabolite levels were unchanged in asthmatics adherent to oral corticosteroid treatment as documented by urinary prednisolone detection, whereas SA treated with omalizumab had lower levels of LTE4 and the PGD2 metabolite 2,3-dinor-11?-PGF2?. High levels of LTE4 and PGD2-metabolites were associated with lower lung-function, and increased levels of exhaled nitric oxide and eosinophil markers in blood, sputum and urine in U-BIOPRED and in adolescents with asthma. These type-2 (T2) asthma associations were reproduced in the follow-up visit of the U-BIOPRED study, and found to be as sensitive to detect T2 inflammation as the established biomarkers. Conclusions: Monitoring of urinary eicosanoids can identify T2 asthma and introduces a new non-invasive approach for molecular phenotyping of adult and adolescent asthma

The Lantern, 2014-2015

• The Retreat • Part of Eve\u27s Discussion • Buchanan • Hypotheticals • The Baby Hippo • Sertraline and Cheerios • Margins • Anatomy of Me • Orange • Ode to Mathematics • Garden Path • Periphery • 10n Power=Our Maybe Domains • Hillside • Baltimore//Analogues • Work is a Religion • At the Bridal Shower • November • Revisionist History • Cold Front • Lung (for D. Avitabile) • Tether • Hold Still • Reverb • An Almost English Major and His Daughter • Clocks • In the Kitchen on a Sunday Afternoon • Amy • Nine • Customary Thoughts • Showers • Te Encuentro • I Find You • Literary Analysis • The Diamond on My Face • Catherine • Hunsberger Woods, 11:42 on a School Night • Cabbage • After Class • For Chell • To Whom It May Concern • Contra • Shards • Smoke and Roses • Polaroid • Spring\u27s Debut • The Deadline • A Previous Life • Wet Canvas • Obsessions and Compulsions • For Xandra • The Seagulls of 17th Street • No Man\u27s Land • Summer Flowers • Float • Dana Reads • A Barcelona Moment • Business Meeting • Posted • Champagnehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1181/thumbnail.jp

The Lantern, 2011-2012

• Frangipani • A Shadow • Dear Anne, In this Place, Stringbean Girls • Back to a Dandelion • How to Plant a Room • Swimming Pool Poem 30 • The Naming of Daughters • Berman Museum Photographs • Truth or Dare • The Song of Remembrance, L\u27vov, Poland, 1940 • Headlights • Prayer of Thanks • Numbers Game • Pediment • Home Sick • Lust • Sand Lining Instructions • A-A-Ask a Question • Flash Cards • Columbus Day • Mr. Yoest Gives His Report to the Police Officers on Wednesday Night • Gender Trouble • The Internet Connection at Ursinus College • Assuming You\u27ll Still be Here • 10/28/11, Third Poem • October • Actions that Affirm and Confirm Us as a Community • Why I Hate The Lantern • Confessions of an Ex-Vegetarian • Run • Lunch at Caltort • Schemers • You Will Make Beautiful Babies in America • The Black Dirt Region • Il Travatore • Ghost Story • Blue Eyes and Sunny Skies • A Little Sincerity • The Bookstore • The Opposite of Serendipity • The Human Doll • Evil Deeds • Francesca • Sunday Morning • Jersey Aesthetic • Jump! • Behind Reimert • Seaweed in New Zealand • Tombee de L\u27elegance • The Window • Esperando • Rainbow to the Heavens • Encased • In Springtime • A Fiesolan Monk\u27s Room • Inside a Bone • Neon Indian • Moments of Clarity • OneFeral: A Feral Self-Portrait • Cover Image: The Conquerorhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1177/thumbnail.jp

Stratification of asthma phenotypes by airway proteomic signatures

© 2019 Background: Stratification by eosinophil and neutrophil counts increases our understanding of asthma and helps target therapy, but there is room for improvement in our accuracy in prediction of treatment responses and a need for better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Objective: We sought to identify molecular subphenotypes of asthma defined by proteomic signatures for improved stratification. Methods: Unbiased label-free quantitative mass spectrometry and topological data analysis were used to analyze the proteomes of sputum supernatants from 246 participants (206 asthmatic patients) as a novel means of asthma stratification. Microarray analysis of sputum cells provided transcriptomics data additionally to inform on underlying mechanisms. Results: Analysis of the sputum proteome resulted in 10 clusters (ie, proteotypes) based on similarity in proteomic features, representing discrete molecular subphenotypes of asthma. Overlaying granulocyte counts onto the 10 clusters as metadata further defined 3 of these as highly eosinophilic, 3 as highly neutrophilic, and 2 as highly atopic with relatively low granulocytic inflammation. For each of these 3 phenotypes, logistic regression analysis identified candidate protein biomarkers, and matched transcriptomic data pointed to differentially activated underlying mechanisms. Conclusion: This study provides further stratification of asthma currently classified based on quantification of granulocytic inflammation and provided additional insight into their underlying mechanisms, which could become targets for novel therapies