to Enter Arcanum : Gnosticism In Ezra Pound\u27s cantos

Despite the painstaking work of Pound scholars, the mythos of the Cantos has yet to be properly understood, because its occult sources have not been examined sufficiently. The occult here includes the body of speculative, heterodox religious thought which lies outside all religious doxologies--including Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Cabalism, and Theosophy. As well, occultism involves belief in gnosis or direct awareness of the Divine which can be attained through myesis or ritual initiation.;Drawing upon recently published material and unpublished Pound letters, the thesis traces Pound\u27s intimate engagement with specific occultists (Mead, Upward, and Orage) and their ideas, and argues that speculative occultism helped shade his aesthetic theories and poetry. Special attention is paid to Mead\u27s work on Gnosticism and its contribution to Pound\u27s extraordinary aesthetic and religious sensibility much noticed in Pound criticism.;The discussion falls into three sections. Chapter I sees the Cantos as palingenesis and argues that the poem should be read symbolically. Chapter II and III discuss the intense public interest at the time of Pound\u27s arrival in London. Chapter II also details Pound\u27s interest in particular occult movements and describes modern philosophical occultism. Then Chapter III establishes, first, that Pound\u27s contact with the occult began at least as early as his undergraduate years and that he came to London already primed on the occult, and second, that many of his London acquaintances were unquestionably occultists. They include Upward, Mead, Orage, Yeats, and Olivia and Dorothy Shakespear (Pound\u27s future mother-in-law and wife). The occultism of Upward and Mead was most congenial to Pound and was adopted in the Cantos. Chapters IV and V examine selected cantos (17, 23, 45-51, and 90-91) in light of Pound\u27s occult interests. Chapter IV outlines a triparite schema for the Cantos called katabasis/palingenesis/epopteia. It is argued that the Cantos are structured on the model of an initiation rather than a journey, but that the poem does not so much describe an initiation rite as enact one for the reader. The last chapter is an analysis of cantos 90 and 91. The emphasis is placed here on the spiritual drama enacted by the illuminated soul undergoing an initiation. The discussion of canto 90 reveals that it can be read palingenetically and a reading of canto 91 interprets that canto as an account of paradise as a higher plane of being in occult terms

Alemtuzumab induction and tacrolimus monotherapy in pancreas transplantation: One- and two-year outcomes

BACKGROUND. Alemtuzumab (Campath-1H) induction with tacrolimus monotherapy has been shown to provide effective immunosuppression for kidney, liver, lung, and small bowel transplantation. This drug combination was evaluated in pancreas transplant recipients. METHODS. Sixty consecutive pancreas transplants (30 simultaneous pancreas-kidney, 20 pancreas after kidney, and 10 pancreas alone) were carried out under this protocol between July 2003 to January 2005. The mean follow-up was 22 months (range 17-33). RESULTS. One-year patient, pancreas, and kidney allograft survival were 95%, 93%, and 90%, respectively. With 22 months follow-up, patient, pancreas, and kidney survival were 94%, 89%, and 87%, respectively. The rejection rate was 30% (18/60), with four patients (7%) experiencing steroid-resistant rejection. Major infection occurred in three (5%) patients resulting in two (3.3%) deaths from disseminated histoplasmosis and a herpes virus infection. One patient with cryptococcal meningitis was successfully treated. Seven (11.7%) patients experienced cytomegalovirus infection, all of whom responded to treatment with ganciclovir. One (1.7%) case of polymorphic posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease was seen, which regressed with a temporary discontinuation of tacrolimus and high-dose ganciclovir. The mean serum creatinine of the 30 simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants at one year posttransplant was 1.37±0.33 mg/ml. The preexisting creatinine in pancreas after kidney transplants was not adversely affected by this immunosuppressive protocol. CONCLUSION. A single dose of perioperative alemtuzumab followed by daily tacrolimus monotherapy provides effective immunosuppression for pancreas transplantation, but the optimal use of this drug combination is not yet clear. © 2006 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc

Burnt and Blossoming: Material Mysticism in Trilogy and Four Quartets

This paper brings two WWII poems into dialogue: H.D.'s Trilogy and Eliot's Four Quartets. Both poems express a creative response to the destruction of war. My reading of Trilogy suggests a material mysticism in which vision and renewal are situated within the natural world, rituals and bodily experience. Bringing this understanding of mysticism to bear on Four Quartets reveals tension between transcendence and materiality. For Eliot, redemption comes through time and location, while for H.D., redemption lies within material particularity. Four Quartets oscillates between an apophatic discourse that seeks to transcend desire and history and an emphasis on material particularities

Acquired immunologic tolerance: with particular reference to transplantation

The first unequivocally successful bone marrow cell transplantation in humans was recorded in 1968 by the University of Minnesota team of Robert A. Good (Gatti et al. Lancet 2: 1366–1369, 1968). This achievement was a direct extension of mouse models of acquired immunologic tolerance that were established 15 years earlier. In contrast, organ (i.e. kidney) transplantation was accomplished precociously in humans (in 1959) before demonstrating its feasibility in any experimental model and in the absence of a defensible immunologic rationale. Due to the striking differences between the outcomes with the two kinds of procedure, the mechanisms of organ engraftment were long thought to differ from the leukocyte chimerism-associated ones of bone marrow transplantation. This and other concepts of alloengraftment and acquired tolerance have changed over time. Current concepts and their clinical implications can be understood and discussed best from the perspective provided by the life and times of Bob Good

"With usura hath no man a house of good stone" (Pound, Canto 45)

N/

Epithelial and hematopoietic cell chimerism in intestinal allografts

In intestinal transplantation recipient lymphocytes infiltrate the allograft soon after reperfusion. Recently, it has been demonstrated that long-surviving small bowel transplants bear enterocytes of recipient origin. We investigated whether epithelial cells (enterocytes) persisted in long-term allografts based on studies of biopsies. The biopsies of four male intestinal transplant recipients of female grafts with a previous graft biopsy positive for recipient enterocytes were examined at least 6 months after previous positive assessment. Using the FISH technique, we searched for Y-chromosome-positive enterocytes in the female allograft. Recipient male enterocytes were identified in all biopsies at low percentages ranging from 0.18 to 0.26. The lymphocytes within the graft were of both recipient (male) and donor (female) origin. The four types of cells—enterocytes and lymphocytes of recipient and donor origin—coexist in long-term graft biopsies

Rat enterocyte cultures on human amniotic membranes

Rat enterocytes were cultured on human amniotic membranes. Intestine of neonatal DA rats was digested using collagenase and dispase according to the technique developed by Evans. The harvested enterocytes were cultured on human amniotic membranes using standard cell culture techniques. After the second day of culture, some intestinal epithelial units started to gradually detach from the membrane, dispersing as single cells and disappearing within a few days. On the contrary, other units showed signs of cell proliferation. The cultured cells underwent morphologic changes, survived, and remained attached to the amniotic membrane for 3 weeks. Paraffin sections of the membrane showed cultured cytokeratin-positive cells attached to the membrane as a monolayer. Human amniotic cell membranes help to maintain rat enterocytes in culture for a long time period (3 weeks), possibly via secretion of trophic factors. This technique may provide a valuable tool to study the development and the properties of these epithelial cells in a culture environment

Impact of Steroids on Natural Killer Cells Against Cytotoxicity and Hepatitis C Virus Replication

Natural killer (NK) cells play important roles in killing tumor and virus-infected cells. Immunosuppression used after organ transplantation is thought to increase the risk of tumor recurrence and viral infections. However, the effect of immunosuppressive drugs on NK cells has not yet been clearly established. Therefore, we examined the effect of immunosuppression on NK cells. NK cells were cultured for 7 days in the presence of interleukin-2 (100 U/mL) with or without the following immunosuppressive drugs: tacrolimus, cyclosporine A, corticosteroid (methylprednisolone [MP]), mycophenolate mofetil, and rapamycin. The effect of the drugs on NK cell activation was tested on the basis of the following: NK cell phenotype, NK cell proliferation, cytotoxicity against K562 cells, cytokine production by NK cells, and anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) activity with HCV genomic replicon cells. NK cells showed relatively robust functions in the presence of tacrolimus and cyclosporine A. Mycophenolate mofetil and rapamycin significantly prevented only NK cell proliferation (P < .05). In contrast, MP significantly inhibited the proliferation, cytotoxicity, and anti-HCV effect (10.9%, 18.5%, and 1.9%, respectively) of NK cells. Furthermore, MP specifically inhibited the expression of NK cell activation markers and the production of interferon-γ (P < .05). Corticosteroids have distinct effects on NK cells, which may have important implications for NK cell function in cytotoxicity and HCV effect after transplantation