Not Just Another Tea Party

Not Just Another Tea Party Nicole Kramer Faculty Sponsor: Brian Krueger , Political Science At times throughout U.S. history, there have been factions within political parties that do not just fade away or blend into the dominant paradigm, but survive and fundamentally alter the party. However, what qualifies a movement as a faction and not just another political idea that has gained some popularity, and what allows a faction to actually make a significant impact? I began my research when I became curious and started looking at the Tea Party movement. As part of my study I wanted to learn about the demographics of the Tea Party, what their ideals were, how they differed from the general population and non-Tea Party Republicans, how the movement began, and if the movement would actually sustain and change the Republican Party. The Tea Party can be considered a faction of the Republican Party, but with stronger conservative ideals of a certain type. Their members typically tend to be wealthier and more educated than the majority of the population and other Republicans, indicating that Tea Party members will not be easily co-opted by the mainstream Republican Party. So, the question then becomes, will the Tea Party impact the Republican Party, or will it just continue as a tangential movement. Upon examination I believe that the Tea Party will cause the Republican Party to change, and in fact has already begun to do so. In recent news the Fiscal Budget for 2012 put forth by Paul Ryan and passed by a Republican House of Representatives, represents a new shift in the Republican Party. This budget will rein in government social spending, change how the government spends money, and shrink the role of the government generally, which are major concerns of the Tea Party movement. If this budget gets approved it will reduce the deficit by eliminating Medicare as we currently know it and it will dramatically reduce Medicaid. The sizes of these cuts are so large that this plan also can lower tax rates for the highest income individuals. This is a substantial conservative shift for the Republicans, who only a few years ago passed one of the largest expansions to traditional Medicare through the Part D (drug) program. The goal of my project was to examine the Tea Party and determine whether this faction would sustain for a long period of time and if it could make an impact on the Republican Party. I believe that the Tea Party will sustain and will make impacts, shifting the issues of the Republican Party. Keywords: Political Science, Tea Party, Factions, Republican Part

Prevalence of shoulder morbidity after treatment for breast cancer in South Africa

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer death among women and represents a considerable public health burden in South Africa and other low-middle income countries. Breast cancer management comprises single or combination treatment including surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Short and long-term complications of these treatments include shoulder morbidities such as pain, decreased range of motion, tightness, weakness, pain, numbness and lymphoedema, and may be present for up to 6 years post-surgery. An understanding of baseline demographic and clinical risk factors can guide rehabilitation and management strategies for high risk patients. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analysis of the prevalence of shoulder pain and dysfunction in women attending their post-treatment annual follow up visit for unilateral breast carcinoma. The aim of this study was to quantify the burden of shoulder pain and disability in a tertiary academic hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and identify potential risk factors for the development of shoulder morbidity. The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of shoulder morbidity and the secondary objective was to evaluate associations between shoulder morbidity and risk factors such as treatment protocol or baseline demographics. Results: The majority of patients were of mixed ancestry, had their left side affected, received ALND and had undergone Modified Radical Mastectomy. The mean age was 60 years with a mean follow-up since surgery of 6 years. Three-quarters of patients reported a presence of pain or disability; 9% experienced severe pain and disability. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression analysis identified race, side, axillary surgery, chemotherapy and age as significant predictors of pain, and chemotherapy a significant predictor of disability. Discussion: The substantial burden of shoulder morbidity in this population represents a significant public health burden. The use of identified clinical and demographic characteristics may guide in the development of survivorship programmes incorporating surveillance and management of these high risk patients

Evaluating social games for kids and teenagers diagnosed with cancer

Serious games for health are interactive games with a focus on health care, physical and mental fitness. As it is assumed that social support can also indirectly influence patient's health condition, multiplayer online health games present an innovative approach of improving the player's health condition. In this paper we present the health game prototype "Adventures in Sophoria" developed at the University of Duisburg-Essen with the goal of facilitating the intercommunication of teenagers during cancer treatment. Two versions of the game were implemented, one explicitly referring to cancer and an implicit version with no cancer content. In a between-subjects experimental study with a clinical sample, both versions were compared. Additionally, parents and nursing staff were interviewed in order to evaluate the demand regarding health games. Results suggest that the implicit game version yielded higher enjoyment and acceptance compared to the explicit version. © 2011 IEEE

Developing computational tools and datasets to investigate the genomic loci associated with disease

The majority of genetic variants associated with complex diseases are located in non-coding, regulatory regions of the genome. Understanding the genetic mechanisms of the progression of these diseases has been largely advanced by sequencing-based genomic techniques including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, Hi-C, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping. However, the genetic underpinnings of disease have been difficult to interpret largely because (1) currently available visualization software lacks the ability to efficiently and programmatically integrate large volumes of complex multi-omic data and (2) there are few datasets in disease-relevant cell types in which genomic changes are tracked in response to disease-specific stimuli. In the first part of this work I describe plotgardener, a new R programmatic library for efficiently and reproducibly plotting publication-quality, multi-panel genomic figures. Plotgardener provides customizable genomic plotting and annotation functions that allows users to size and arrange plots in precisely-defined coordinate systems based upon user-defined units of measurement. I include example use cases with plotgardener, both with genomic data and ggplot2 objects, and also have extensively documented and freely available code for the package through Bioconductor and GitHub. I then go on to create and investigate the first response allelic imbalance (AI) and eQTL (reQTL) datasets using an ex vivo model of osteoarthritis (OA) whereby chondrocytes are stimulated with fibronectin fragment (FN-f), a known OA trigger. AI analysis revealed 55 unique genetic variants exhibiting AI at 58 positional genes only after FN-f treatment, with some of these genes exhibiting differential expression. reQTL mapping identified 384 eGenes specific to FN-f treated samples, and colocalization of identified reQTLs with GWAS of various OA phenotypes revealed one robust colocalization of a reQTL with multiple OA phenotypes. I also use plotgardener to visualize these datasets within the context of the genes and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure of the region. Overall, these studies have resulted in the creation of a broadly applicable genomic visualization tool and novel datasets to provide critical insights into the genetic basis of osteoarthritis.Doctor of Philosoph

Retrospektive Analyse der Diagnostik und operativen Therapie des Magenkarzinoms sowie Beurteilung des Stellenwertes der 7. TNM Klassifikation am Evangelischen Diakonissenkrankenhaus Leipzig

Die Optimierung der Diagnostik und Therapie von Magenkarzinomen stellt bei der schlechten Prognose der häufig schon im fortgeschrittenen Stadium diagnostizierten Befunde weiterhin eine große Herausforderung dar. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit konnte insbesondere mit Verbesserung der Endosonographischen Diagnostik ein präziseres Tumorstadium präoperativ nachgewiesen werden. Nach Analyse unserer diagnostischen Untersuchungen ist eine Differenzierung zwischen uT2 und uT3 Kategorie einfacher durchführbar. Dennoch zeigte sich häufiger als initial diagnostiziert postoperativ ein positiver Nodalstatus und eine fortgeschrittenere T-Kategorie, deshalb sollte 1. die D2- Lymphadenektomie obligat durchgeführt und 2. das Konzept der multimodalen Therapie stringenter verfolgt werden. Die 7. TNM-Klassifikation hatte nicht allein einen Einfluss auf das operative Vorgehen. Dennoch kann sie bei der Entscheidung zur lokalen oder radikalen Therapie (z.B. bei T1a oder T1b) behilflich sein. Weiterhin wurde in verschiedenen Studien dargestellt, dass die Anzahl der Lymphknotenmetastasen, präziser nach der 7. TNM-Klassifikation eingeteilt, und die Infiltrationstiefe durchaus einen Einfluss auf die Prognose der 5JÜR haben. Hier besteht ein Potential zur präoperativen Optimierung z.B. durch neoadjuvante Chemotherapie, so dass sie, wie wir heute wissen auch nachfolgend praktiziert, einen Einfluss auf die Entscheidungsfindung der individuellen Therapiestrategie und damit der Prognose hatte. Mit dieser Studie konnten keine signifikante Prognoseverbesserung zwischen den einzelnen Stadien im Vergleich der 6. und 7. TNM Klassifikation nachgewiesen werden. Kliniken mit einer hohen Fall- und Operationszahl sind assoziiert mit einer besseren Prognose bezüglich des postoperativen Outcomes, dennoch kann das Evangelische Diakonissenkrankenhaus Leipzig mit einer Gesamt-5JÜR der operierten Patienten von 41% in Berücksichtigung der Zusammensetzung Patientengutes und der niedrigen Fallzahl durchaus dem internationalen Vergleich Stand halten. Ob mit der zunehmenden Tendenz zur Zentrenbildung und der weiteren Optimierung der präoperativen Diagnostik sowie der multimodalen Therapie die Langzeitüberlebensraten weiter verbessert werden können, werden zukünftige Studien zeigen.:Abkürzungsverzeichnis 1 1. Einleitung 2 1.1. Epidemiologische Fakten des Magenkarzinoms 2 1.2. Risikofaktoren und Pathogenese 3 1.3. Risikogruppen 4 1.4. Symptome 4 1.5. Diagnostik des Magenkarzinoms 4 1.6. Histologie und Prognosefaktoren 5 1.7. TNM-Klassifikation 6 1.8. Therapieansatz 7 2. Ziele der Arbeit 8 3. Material und Methoden 9 3.1. Material 9 3.2. Methoden 12 3.3. Auswertung und Statistik 12 4. Ergebnisse 13 4.1. Patientenzusammensetzung 13 4.1.1. Altersverteilung und Demographie 13 4.1.2. Einweisungsdiagnose 14 4.1.3. Operationsindikationen 15 4.1.4. Risikofaktoren 15 4.1.5. ASA-Klassifikation 16 4.2. Diagnostik 17 4.2.1. Gastroskopie 18 4.2.2 Nachweis von Helicobacter pylori 18 4.2.3. Endosonographie/ Sonographie 19 4.2.4. Computertomographie 22 4.2.5. Präoperative Histologie 23 4.3. Operative Therapie – Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren 24 4.3.1.Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren in Bezug auf die Tumor-Lokalisation 25 4.3.2. Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren in Bezug auf den histologischen Typ 26 4.3.3. Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren in Bezug auf UICC-Stadien 27 4.3.4. Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren in Bezug auf die pT-Kategorie 28 4.3.5. Vergleich der Resektionsverfahren in Bezug auf die pN-Kategorie 29 4.4. TNM Klassifikation Vergleich 6. und 7. Auflage 30 4.4.1. pT-Kategorie 31 4.4.2. pN-Kategorie 32 4.5. Postoperatives Grading 34 4.6. UICC-Stadien 34 4.7. Histologische Klassifikation 36 4.8. Postoperative 30-Tage-Letalität 37 4.9. Überlebenszeiten 38 5. Diskussion 42 6. Zusammenfassung 56 7. Literatur 57 8. Anlagen 6

The photoelectric effect in external fields

Atoms and negative ions interacting with laser photons yield a coherent source of photoelectrons. Applying external fields to photoelectrons gives rise to interesting and valuable interference phenomena. We analyze the spatial distribution of the photocurrent using elementary quantum methods. The photoelectric effect is shown to be an interesting example for the use of coherent particle sources in quantum mechanics.Comment: Contribution to the Einstein special issue, slightly updated reference

Activist friendships in the time of burnout : Marilyn Buck and Mariann Wizard, 1966-2010

During the 1960s and 1970s, Marilyn Buck, a white antiracist activist, engaged in activism outside the confines of feminist organizations largely dominated by upper middle-class white women. Marilyn worked in solidarity with both the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the Black Liberation Army (BLA) in the Bay Area, operating almost entirely behind the scenes. Following her arrest in 1973 for allegedly purchasing ammunition and weapons for the Black Liberation Army under a false name, she spent nearly the rest of her life in prison, eventually becoming a well-known prison activist and developing a vast network of friends and supporters from all over the world. For the duration of her long and sometimes grueling activist journey, Marilyn completely evaded burnout. Activist burnout poses a serious threat to the survival of social movements, striking even the most seasoned activists. In this thesis, I argue that Marilyn’s talent for creating and maintaining strong relationships played a major role in facilitating her ability to avoid burnout and keep her activist commitments strong. Many have celebrated Marilyn’s activist work and literary achievements, yet her interpersonal strengths must be acknowledged: she managed to build an immense international support network while living behind prison walls. In this multilayered study, I not only analyze Marilyn Buck’s significance as an activist who built an extensive friendship network and maintained an unwavering, lifelong commitment to her beliefs, but I also attempt to understand her life through the double lens of the perspective of her close friend, Mariann Wizard, and my own scholar/activist positionality. I combine the personal with the archival to demonstrate the value of Marilyn and Mariann’s friendship—both for the two of them and for modern-day scholars and activists looking to gain insight on the importance of activist friendships.Women's and Gender Studie

The Interaction of Co-rumination, Coping Strategies, and Stress in Predicting Depression and Anxiety

Co-rumination, defined as a repetitive, problem-focused dialogue with close friends, has been demonstrated to be a cognitive vulnerability factor for both depression and anxiety. This risk factor has been posited as one explanation to why women have higher rates of these mental health issues than men, despite also reporting higher rates of social support. Due to co-rumination's relationship to both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, recent research has proposed that individual's coping abilities may be important in determining whether co-rumination predicts emotional difficulties. The current study proposed that problem-solving, emotion coping, and different types of social support would interact with co-rumination in order to differentially predict depression and anxiety. Current stress level was predicted to also interact with co-rumination and coping variables to predict these outcomes. A sample of 63 female undergraduate students completed measures of co-rumination, coping, stress, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that co-rumination, coping, and stress did not interact to predict depressive symptoms. Functions of social support individually predicted depressive symptoms. The relationship between co-rumination and anxiety varied as a function of both appraisal support and stress level. The present findings highlight the need for more research in this area, especially further exploration of the role of co-rumination in anxiety

Do Attachment Styles and Co-rumination Predict Marital and Emotional Distress?

Depression is a debilitating disorder, associated with a wide range of symptomatology and impairments in functioning, including in relationships. Marriage is a primary source of support for most adults and thus any stress within this relationship can exacerbate risk for depression. Although attachment styles and communication have been implicated as important risk factors for depression and marital distress, limited research to date has explored interactions. The current study investigated whether attachment styles and the communication style of co-rumination predicted emotional and relationship distress. Married individuals (N = 198) were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and completed questionnaires about attachment style, co-rumination, depression, anxiety, and relationship adjustment with their spouse. The hypothesized pathways between these variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that specific attachment styles, but not co-rumination, significantly predicted emotional distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) and marital distress; however, not in the hypothesized direction. There was no evidence of gender moderation. As part of an exploratory analysis, content of co-rumination was also analyzed. Theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed as well as directions for future research

Is mRNA decapping by ApaH like phosphatases present in eukaryotes beyond the Kinetoplastida?

BACKGROUND: ApaH like phosphatases (ALPHs) originate from the bacterial ApaH protein and have been identified in all eukaryotic super-groups. Only two of these proteins have been functionally characterised. We have shown that the ApaH like phosphatase ALPH1 from the Kinetoplastid Trypanosoma brucei is the mRNA decapping enzyme of the parasite. In eukaryotes, Dcp2 is the major mRNA decapping enzyme and mRNA decapping by ALPHs is unprecedented, but the bacterial ApaH protein was recently found decapping non-conventional caps of bacterial mRNAs. These findings prompted us to explore whether mRNA decapping by ALPHs is restricted to Kinetoplastida or could be more widespread among eukaryotes. RESULTS: We screened 827 eukaryotic proteomes with a newly developed Python-based algorithm for the presence of ALPHs and used the data to characterize the phylogenetic distribution, conserved features, additional domains and predicted intracellular localisation of this protein family. For most organisms, we found ALPH proteins to be either absent (495/827 organisms) or to have non-cytoplasmic localisation predictions (73% of all ALPHs), excluding a function in mRNA decapping. Although, non-cytoplasmic ALPH proteins had in vitro mRNA decapping activity. Only 71 non-Kinetoplastida have ALPH proteins with predicted cytoplasmic localisations. However, in contrast to Kinetoplastida, these organisms also possess a homologue of Dcp2 and in contrast to ALPH1 of Kinetoplastida, these ALPH proteins are very short and consist of the catalytic domain only. CONCLUSIONS: ALPH was present in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes, but most eukaryotes have either lost the enzyme, or use it exclusively outside the cytoplasm. The acceptance of mRNA as a substrate indicates that ALPHs, like bacterial ApaH, have a wide substrate range: the need to protect mRNAs from unregulated degradation is one possible explanation for the selection against the presence of cytoplasmic ALPH proteins in most eukaryotes. Kinetoplastida succeeded to exploit ALPH as their only or major mRNA decapping enzyme. 71 eukaryotic organisms outside the Kinetoplastid lineage have short ALPH proteins with cytoplasmic localisation predictions: whether these proteins are used as decapping enzymes in addition to Dcp2 or else have adapted to not accept mRNAs as a substrate, remains to be explored