From the Social Margins to the Center: Lebanese Families Who Arrived in South Carolina before 1950

The Lebanese families who arrived in South Carolina found themselves in a different environment than most had anticipated. Those who had spent time elsewhere in the U.S. found predominantly rural and predominantly Protestant South Carolina to be almost as alien as they or their parents had found the United States due partly to the religious differences and partly to the cultural differences between the Northeast, where most of them had lived for at least a few years after arriving in the United States, and the Southeast. Most of these new arrivals eventually found success and some degree of acceptance, but some returned to the North, some returned to the Middle East, and some decided to seek their fortunes elsewhere in the United States. South Carolina history is usually presented in popular fora as being the history of two races, each of one of which consisted of one ethnic group, and both of which were and are entirely Protestant. This is not the case. South Carolina began with three races - American Indian, white, and African-American - and with multiple ethnic groups within each race. Most existing historical information is about the white component of South Carolina\u27s population, and from this historical information, the English and Huguenot whites were joined very early by Sephardic Jews, then by the Scots-Irish and the Germans, and later by the Irish, more Germans, Swedes, Chinese, Italians, Greeks - and Lebanese. Greenville provides an excellent case study because it has a large Lebanese community and because it became both a transportation and an industrial center shortly before Lebanese immigrants began to arrive. Like Charleston, Greenville had a large immigrant community for South Carolina, but the majority of its non-immigrant population was born in the Carolinas or Georgia. Greenville, unlike Charleston and many other Southern cities was both slow to enact legal segregation and relaxed about enforcing it. There is almost no published academic material on Lebanese Christians in the South. There is a 1940s article about the Lebanese community in an unnamed Southern town as well as an article about the Lebanese community in Birmingham, Alabama. The sole academic publication on Lebanese Christians in the Carolinas is a dissertation on the Greeks and Lebanese in the Carolinas, mainly Columbia, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina, between 1900 and 1940

Shakespeare in South Africa: An Examination of Two Performances of Titus Andronicus in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa

The works of William Shakespeare are wide and universal. His work has been and is still consistently performed in numerous countries and venues across the globe. This thesis focuses on two performances of Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, in South Africa. One performance, directed by Dieter Reible in 1970, was produced during apartheid. The second, directed by Gregory Doran, was performed in 1995, just after the end of apartheid. These performances of Titus not only show the versatility and universality of Shakespeare’s work, but the complexity of audience reception and directorial intention in different political landscapes. First, this thesis explores South Africa’s own history with violence, race, gender, and power. Then, it discusses how these themes permeate the text of Titus and then how they relate to the South African performances of Titus Andronicus in 1970 and 1995

Predator-prey Interactions Between Escherichia coli Strains and Caenorhabditis elegans at Various Temperatures and Resource Levels

Predation is an important component of both evolutionary and ecological interactions across nature. The predator-prey relationship can be altered by differential species’ responses to changes in abiotic factors. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of temperature, resource levels, and their potential interactions using two strains of Escherichia coli prey and a Caenorhabditis elegans predator. It is concluded that an interaction exists between temperature and resource level on this predator-prey relationship however further testing must be done to confirm results due to contamination in the results

Analysis Of Host Factors Involved In Regulating Hiv-1-Induced Syncytium Formation

Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus and the causative agent of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV-1 can spread through multiple modes of transmission including cell-to-cell transmission between CD4+ T cells at a transient junction known as the virological synapse (VS). The VS forms upon HIV-1 Envelope (Env) on the surface of an infected (producer) cell binding CD4 on an uninfected (target) cell. While the VS typically resolves with complete cell separation and transfer of virus particles, Env can occasionally facilitate cell-cell fusion at this site, forming a multinucleated infected cell (syncytium). Excessive syncytium formation is prevented by viral and host factors, though this subpopulation of infected cells can still comprise ~20% of all infected cells in vivo. T cell-based syncytia detected in vivo are unique from mononucleated infected cells as they contain 2-4 nuclei, can have an elongated morphology, and appear highly motile. Despite such significant presence of syncytia, little is known about how these multinucleated infected entities contribute to HIV-1 spread and pathogenesis. During cell-to-cell transmission at the VS, viral and host factors are enriched at this site to support virus spread (reviewed in Chapter 2). This thesis focused on fusion inhibitory factors HIV-1 Gag and several host proteins, including tetraspanins, ezrin, and EWI-2. We determined that EWI-2 is recruited specifically to the producer cell side of the VS (the presynapse) where it inhibits HIV-1-induced cell-cell fusion in a dose-dependent manner (Chapter 3). Although both EWI-2 and tetraspanins are typically downregulated upon infection, both tetraspanin CD81 and EWI-2 surface levels are partially restored on HIV-1-induced CD4+ primary T cell-based syncytia compared to mononucleated infected cells. We sought to determine whether target cells influence the surface profile upon fusion and whether the altered protein levels are maintained for the lifetime of a syncytium (Chapter 4). We demonstrated that EWI-2 surface levels on syncytia correlate with levels of the target cell population, suggesting that EWI-2 brought along by target cells at least partially restores surface expression in syncytia. Further, we determined that newly formed, “young” syncytia, have higher levels of EWI-2 than older ones, suggesting that downregulation of EWI-2 continues in syncytia. We expect that higher levels of EWI-2 on young syncytia will render them less susceptible to continued cell-cell fusion than mononucleated infected cells and may also reduce virus particle infectivity. This will be tested by analysis of a purified syncytia population to measure fusogenicity and particle infectivity relative to fusogenicity and particle infectivity of mononucleated infected cells. Those data will be included in a future manuscript. Collectively, the work presented in this dissertation has furthered our understanding of HIV-1-induced cell-cell fusion regulation and allowed us to characterize distinct differences in protein expression between syncytia and mononucleated infected cells. These findings open the door to future investigations aimed at understanding how syncytia contribute to virus transmission and pathogenesis

Patient Controlled Analgesia and an Alternative Protocol: A Comparison of Outcomes After Thoracic and Lumbar Surgery

Introduction. Patient controlled analgesia (PCA) is a common form of pain management after spine surgeries, in which patients get custom control of their opioid dose. PCA has been demonstrated as a safe form of analgesia; however, use of PCA comes with risks that can be mitigated by opting for alternative pain management. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of patients using PCA to those with an alternative analgesia protocol that does not involve PCA. Methods. A retrospective chart review from January 2017 to July 2018 was conducted. Patients included in this study were those 18 or older who were admitted to a large midwestern tertiary medical center in Wichita, Kansas, and underwent thoracic or lumbar spinal surgery from a single spine surgeon. Data from patient demographics, comorbidities, and type of procedure were collected and compared to control for possible confounding variables. Patients were divided into two groups: patients receiving a PCA pain protocol postoperatively and those receiving a non-PCA protocol. Statistical analyses were performed and all tests with p < 0.05 were considered significant. Results. This study found patients in the PCA protocol had similar outcomes to those in the alternative analgesia protocol. This was true for both primary and secondary outcomes. The primary outcome was patient length of stay after the operation. Secondary outcomes included readmission rates, frequency of naloxone rescue, transfers to higher levels of care, and total opioid consumption. Conclusions. This study supports that a non-PCA protocol for postoperative pain management yields similar outcomes to a PCA protocol in the setting of thoracic and lumbar surgery