Pink Lady

Prose by Camille Arnett. Winner in the 2018 Manuscripts Prose Contest

Parody Poems

As a class assignment, the author created a series of parody poems inspired by the examples found in Lewis Carroll\u27s Alice in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass Chess

A variation on the game of chess that reflects some of the motifs, themes, and absurdities of Through the Looking Glass

Terrible Am I, Child?

The modern period of intergenerational strife between the aging-out Baby Boomers and the Millennials who have come forth to replace them in an infrastructure that cannot support them is a struggle that carries with it unique psychological implications ripe for literary exploration. Understanding these conflicts in a profound way is an important challenge to take on, and one which can, in my belief, be best achieved through literature. My work, a draft of a novel entitled Terrible Am I, Child?, is a family drama which takes the symbolic generational divide and uses it as a framework for exploring issues of gender, sexuality, family obligation, and memory. The novel follows protagonist Rhetta, a twenty-something college grad who grew up on the east coast, reuniting with her long-estranged, working-class father to take care of him when he falls ill. The central conflict revolves around the father and daughter trying to reconcile their differences and live in relative harmony despite social upheaval and diametrically-opposed ideologies. The research framework for this novel explores the intersection of genre (neorealism) and critical framework (psychoanalysis). The Electra Complex, the structure imbedded in the bones of the novel, symbolizes, as Jill Scott says in Electra After Freud: “A movement away from the universal and the masculine, away from the logic of the psyche to the realms of imagination and fiction” (Scott, 2005, pg. 10). The specific social milieu this story is set within influences the socio-political tensions in the story, and establishes a stark divide between the psychological world and the physical reality. This work ultimately strives to enter into the modern conversation of generational divides and ideological conflict by painting empathetic portraits of both sides, with the understanding that the reconciliation may very well never be achieved if the interior world is unchangeable

Human isotype‐dependent inhibitory antibody responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Accumulating evidence from experimental animal models suggests that antibodies play a protective role against tuberculosis (TB). However, little is known about the antibodies generated upon Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) exposure in humans. Here, we performed a molecular and functional characterization of the human B‐cell response to MTB by generating recombinant monoclonal antibodies from single isolated B cells of untreated adult patients with acute pulmonary TB and from MTB‐exposed healthcare workers. The data suggest that the acute plasmablast response to MTB originates from reactivated memory B cells and indicates a mucosal origin. Through functional analyses, we identified MTB inhibitory antibodies against mycobacterial antigens including virulence factors that play important roles in host cell infection. The inhibitory activity of anti‐MTB antibodies was directly linked to their isotype. Monoclonal as well as purified serum IgA antibodies showed MTB blocking activity independently of Fc alpha receptor expression, whereas IgG antibodies promoted the host cell infection. Together, the data provide molecular insights into the human antibody response to MTB and may thereby facilitate the design of protective vaccination strategies

Multiple Sclerosis Decreases Explicit Counterfactual Processing and Risk Taking in Decision Making

Deficits in decision making (DM) are commonly associated with prefrontal cortical damage, but may occur with multiple sclerosis (MS). There are no data concerning the impact of MS on tasks evaluating DM under explicit risk, where different emotional and cognitive components can be distinguished.Methods: We assessed 72 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients with mild to moderate disease and 38 healthy controls in two DM tasks involving risk with explicit rules: (1) The Wheel of Fortune (WOF), which probes the anticipated affects of decisions outcomes on future choices; and (2) The Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT) which measures risk taking. Participants also underwent a neuropsychological and emotional assessment, and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded.Results: In the WOF, RRMS patients showed deficits in integrating positive counterfactual information (p <0.005) and greater risk aversion (p <0.001). They reported less negative affect than controls (disappointment: p = 0.007; regret: p = 0.01), although their implicit emotional reactions as measured by post-choice SCRs did not differ. In the CGT, RRMS patients differed from controls in quality of DM (p = 0.01) and deliberation time (p = 0.0002), the latter difference being correlated with attention scores. Such changes did not result in overall decreases in performance (total gains).Conclusions: The quality of DM under risk was modified by MS in both tasks. The reduction in the expression of disappointment coexisted with an increased risk aversion in the WOF and alexithymia features. These concomitant emotional alterations may have implications for better understanding the components of explicit DM and for the clinical support of MS patients

History of Rights and Freedoms for LGBTQ+ Community in the United States

Our mission in creating the website is to illustrate the history and plight of LGBTQ+ people in the United States of America from the beginning of the 20th century into the modern day. Considering the themes of freedom and movement addressed in our class, we found it important to address the victories and losses in the ongoing struggle for social and legal equality for the LGBTQ+ community.https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/freedom-movement-spring-2018/1002/thumbnail.jp

Association Study of ITGAM, ITGAX, and CD58 Autoimmune Risk Loci in Systemic Sclerosis: Results from 2 Large European Caucasian Cohorts

International audienceObjective. Accumulating evidence shows that shared autoimmunity is critical for the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) belongs to the connective tissue disorders, and recent data have highlighted strong associations with autoimmunity genes shared with other autoimmune diseases. To determine whether novel risk loci associated with systemic lupus erythematosus or multiple sclerosis may confer susceptibility to SSc, we tested single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from ITGAM,ITGAX, and CD58 for associations. Methods. SNP harboring associations with autoimmune diseases. ITGAM rs9937837, ITGAX rs11574637, and CD58 rs12044852, were genotyped in 2 independent cohorts of European Caucasian ancestry: 1031 SSc patients and 1014 controls from France and 1038 SSc patients and 691 controls from the USA, providing a combined study population of 3774 individuals. ITGAM rs1143679 was additionally genotyped in the French cohort. Results. The 4 polyrnorphisms were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the 2 control populations, and allelic frequencies were similar to those expected in European Caucasian populations. Allelic and genotypic frequencies for these 3 SNP were found to be statistically similar in SSc patients and controls. Subphenotype analyses for subgroups having diffuse cutaneous subtype disease, specific autoantibodies, or fibrosing alveolitis did not reveal any difference between SSc patients and controls. Conclusion. These results obtained through 2 large cohorts of SSc patients of European Caucasian ancestry do not support the implication of ITGAM, ITGAX, and CD58 genes in the genetic susceptibility of SSc, although they were recently identified as autoimmune disease risk genes. (First Release March 1 2011; J Rheumatol 2011;38:1033-8; doi:10.3899/jrheum.101053

Targeting phosphatase-dependent proteoglycan switch for rheumatoid arthritis therapy.

Despite the availability of several therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that target the immune system, a large number of RA patients fail to achieve remission. Joint-lining cells, called fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), become activated during RA and mediate joint inflammation and destruction of cartilage and bone. We identify RPTPσ, a transmembrane tyrosine phosphatase, as a therapeutic target for FLS-directed therapy. RPTPσ is reciprocally regulated by interactions with chondroitin sulfate or heparan sulfate containing extracellular proteoglycans in a mechanism called the proteoglycan switch. We show that the proteoglycan switch regulates FLS function. Incubation of FLS with a proteoglycan-binding RPTPσ decoy protein inhibited cell invasiveness and attachment to cartilage by disrupting a constitutive interaction between RPTPσ and the heparan sulfate proteoglycan syndecan-4. RPTPσ mediated the effect of proteoglycans on FLS signaling by regulating the phosphorylation and cytoskeletal localization of ezrin. Furthermore, administration of the RPTPσ decoy protein ameliorated in vivo human FLS invasiveness and arthritis severity in the K/BxN serum transfer model of RA. Our data demonstrate that FLS are regulated by an RPTPσ-dependent proteoglycan switch in vivo, which can be targeted for RA therapy. We envision that therapies targeting the proteoglycan switch or its intracellular pathway in FLS could be effective as a monotherapy or in combination with currently available immune-targeted agents to improve control of disease activity in RA patients