D2R Dopamine Receptor Mediates Changes in Dual Specificity Phosphatase Expression in a Small Cell Lung Cancer Cell Line

Bromocriptine, a D2 dopamine receptor (D2R) agonist, is used clinically as a treatment for pituitary tumors of a lactotroph origin. Many questions remain unanswered about the mechanism of this effect. The antiproliferative effect has not been demonstrated in DMS 53 cell line, a Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). In this thesis, we have shown that treatment with NPA (N‑propylnorapomorphine), a dopamine receptor agonist inhibits ERK phosphorylation and proliferation in DMS 53 cells. NPA treatment causes significant increases in DUSP‑1 (MKP‑1), DUSP‑4 (MKP‑2) and DUSP5 mRNA. NPA treatment also correlates with increases in DUSP5 (hVHR3) protein visualized using Western Blot. These three genes were also induced by treatment with exogenous arachidonic acid (AA). In addition, the NPA mediated increases in these genes was inhibited by 5,8,11,14‑eicosatetraynoic acid (ETYA) an AA analog and inhibitor of downstream activity, suggesting NPA induction of these three genes is AA dependent. Ethanol treatment leads to inhibition of the NPA induction of DUSP4 and DUSP5, suggesting phosphatidic acid (PA) produced from Phospholipase D (PLD) is involved in this induction

Overparticipation: Designing Effective Land Use Public Processes

There are more opportunities for public participation in the planning and zoning process today than there were in the decades immediately after states adopted the first zoning enabling acts. As a result, today, public participation, dominated by nearby residents, drives most land use planning and zoning decisions. Enhanced public participation rights are often seen as an unqualified good, but there is a long history of public participation and community control cementing racial segregation, entrenching exclusion, and preventing the development of affordable housing in cities and suburbs alike. Integrating community engagement into an effective administrative process requires addressing the various ways in which existing public participation processes have failed to serve their purported goals. This Article critically examines how public participation operates in land use planning and approvals. It then proposes a new model, drawing lessons from other administrative processes, in an effort to balance public input, legal standards, and expertise

Living a Better Story: The Lived Narrative Apologetic in the Book of Acts

Is it possible to articulate an apologetic practice from the account of Luke-Acts, which is not among the current popular Christian apologetic practices within contemporary apologetic scholarship? Can one consider the narratives in this history of Acts as a description of apologetic methodology, a sort of a first Christian apologetic practice demonstrated by Jesus and then replicated by His disciples? The answer is yes. The historical work of Luke offers an early apologetic practice in which the story of Scripture, the narrative of God, witnessed incarnationally through the life of Jesus and continued by the early church. Like Scripture, the concept of lived narrative demonstrates the capacity to create plausibility structures for non-Christians to become Jesus’ followers as they enter a new story/narrative to live. The church’s lived narrative was an apology and invitation to allow His story to explain life better

Overcoming Stigma with Dialogue: My Experiences as a Parent of an Opiate Addict

Opioid addiction has reached crisis levels in the United States. While as many as 20 million Americans have Substance Use Disorder (SUD), often drug addiction is seen as an immoral choice rather than a medical condition. Little research has been done from the perspective of the parent with an addicted child, and thus there is an absence of scholarly literature on how parents might negotiate the challenges faced when seeking help for a child with SUD. In this thesis, I use autoethnography as a method to tell the story of my eight-year journey with my daughter’s addiction. I reveal my painful experiences dealing with the stigma when learning about my daughter’s addiction and in seeking help and support for her addiction. Additionally, I offer my experiences with dialogue that helped maintain and rebuild the relationship with my daughter. By revealing my lived experiences, I expose the everyday ways stigma often prevents attempts to help those with SUD and reveal new ways to communicate that can build relationships between parents and their children; rather than separate and abandon them. By understanding the lived experience of stigma and by treating those struggling with SUD with respect we can generate hope for an experience that feels so hopeless

Zoning as Taxidermy: Neighborhood Conservation Districts and the Regulation of Aesthetics

Over the last thirty years, municipalities across the country have embraced neighborhood conservation districts, regulations that impose design standards at the neighborhood level. Despite their adoption in thirty-five states, in municipalities from Boise to Cambridge, neighborhood conservation districts have evaded critical analysis by legal scholars. By regulating features such as architectural style, roof angle, and maximum eave overhang, conservation districts purport to protect “neighborhood character” or “cultural stability.” Implicit in these regulations is the unsupported assumption that the essential feature of a neighborhood’s character is its architectural design at a single point in time. The unfortunate result is zoning as taxidermy, rather than land-use planning that permits places to evolve to meet changing needs and preferences. Conservation districts freeze places in time, exclude would-be residents from desirable neighborhoods, and threaten to increase the cost of housing in those neighborhoods and the cities in which they are located. Urban culture is defined by dynamism, vitality, and an ability to adapt to and accommodate population and market shifts. Conservation district regulations should be crafted in that same spirit, to preserve cities and suburbs as places amenable to change. They should not only permit but also promote investment and redevelopment, particularly redevelopment of neighborhoods that, because they are close to public amenities, are well suited to dense development. This Article urges state legislators to cabin local authority to enact conservation districts. Revisions to state zoning-enabling legislation can ensure that these regulations (i) are not exclusionary, (ii) are responsive to changing market dynamics and evolving consumer preferences, and (iii) do not artificially inflate housing prices