CU Dissertations

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Abortion and Religion: The Politics of the American Catholic Bishops
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, Abortion and Religion: The Politics of the American Catholic BishopsMargaret Sammon Parsons, Ph.D.Director: Stephen Schneck, Ph.D.Prior to the 1960s, the American Catholic bishops avoided political involvement unless it directly impacted the Church. Initially, the bishops' main priority for their flock was protection from anti-Catholic discrimination and assuring the nation that Catholics were loyal and patriotic Americans. After Roe v. Wade, the bishops engaged in politics more directly by denouncing the Court's decision, thus laying the foundation for decades of debate over the issue of abortion. By 1976, candidates had recognized the importance of the Catholic vote and both parties began courting the bishops. Since then, the bishops have amassed significant political leverage, primarily due to their near-singular focus on abortion. This dissertation will be the first to examine how the bishops' decision to focus primarily on abortion has been the wellspring of their increased political power. I will discuss the history of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and its political involvement through 2008. This includes an examination of the relationship between the Catholic Church and both the Democratic and Republican parties, including a discussion of the presidential elections from 1976-2008. I will also analyze the changing attitudes toward abortion among key subgroups of the American electorate. My research shows that abortion has been the critical element of the bishops' political power for several reasons: (1) abortion attracts a significant amount of attention; (2) no American bishop favors legalized abortion; (3) the bishops have not been forced to endorse one party over the other; and (4) the tactics of some bishops (i.e., denying communion) have allowed the Church to guide parishioners toward preferred candidates without explicit endorsements. While abortion has not always been a major issue for voters, it has been critical in the expansion of the bishops' political power. As leaders of a major swing-voter group, candidates recognize the bishops' influence and actively court their endorsement. Even without abortion as a major issue in an election, a pro-choice candidate still faces major hurdles in winning the bishops' approval. As was evident in the 2004 election, without agreement on abortion, no amount of agreement on other social issues will earn a candidate episcopal approval., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:12:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Parsons_cua_0043A_10192display.pdf: 1361104 bytes, checksum: dd2cb848d224feece3df1df47366a36f (MD5)
The Absolutist Roots of Modern Consent: A Study of the Humanist Political Philosophy of Jean Bodin
Despite having "discovered" modern sovereignty, and despite his profound influence on his own epoch, Jean Bodin is today a curiously neglected figure in the history of political philosophy. Indeed, an apparent imperviousness to his importance appears to exist, despite assertions from figures such as Eric Voegelin that "Aristotle is more frequently read than Bodin because of the prestige attached to his name, but whether his actual influence on the political science of our day is greater than Bodin's may well be doubted." How can this neglect be explained?This dissertation hypothesizes that one important reason for the lack of attention to Bodin lies in the difficulty of understanding the meaning of sovereignty itself, at least apart from mere rote formulas which assume the very political perspective that sovereignty creates. As such, the history of early modern political philosophy to the present tends to be cast in a narrative of the progressive democratization of authority and emergence of human rights, rather than as the story of the vicissitudes and tendencies of the unprecedented entity called the sovereign state. Meanwhile, typical treatments of Bodin in various histories of political philosophy, while minimally acknowledging his contribution of the idea of sovereignty, often proceed to dismiss Bodin as "contradictory" or lacking in philosophical coherence. The research in this work proceeds, not from Bodin's definition of sovereignty, but seeks instead, through an extensive textual analysis, to discover the manner in which Bodin's legal theory and natural philosophy relate to each other, forming a coherent and intelligible theoretical whole. It is concluded that, while maintaining a teleological natural view of man and the state, Bodin nonetheless severs political authority from its centuries-old basis in the natural law, revelation, and custom, in effect "positing" a source of political and legal legitimacy that refers to the contemporaneous will of man alone. It is further argued that this unprecedented step, which may be said to lie at the very core of modernity, finds its ultimate basis in a particular humanist view of reason and freedom. This view, it is maintained, posed the political problem for which sovereignty in turn provided the solution., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America
Ad/Dressing Modernism: Emilia Pardo Bazán's Later Short Stories (1901-1921)
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Spanish. The Catholic University of America, Ad/Dressing Modernism: Emilia Pardo Bazán's Later Short Stories (1901-1921)Martha E. Davis, Ph.D. Director: Chad C. Wright, Ph.D. Although her realist and naturalist novels have been widely researched, scholars have only recently begun to study the more than 500 short stories Emilia Pardo Bazán authored. The majority of her short story oeuvre coincides not only with the pinnacle of her feminist writings, but also with the modernist period (1880-1920). Concerned with literary as well as sartorial fashion, Pardo Bazán demonstrates a heightened awareness of her writing style, as well as her characters' style of dress and their corresponding roles as conformists or New Woman trendsetters. In this dissertation I aim to uncover how the question of "style" or "fashion" manifests itself in characters' apparel and the literary themes of Pardo Bazán's "modernist" writing. To illustrate how Modernism allowed Pardo Bazán to experiment with form and content, I draw on the short story theories of Poe, Joyce and other critics. Virginia Woolf's and Edith Wharton's reflections provide a contemporary feminist perspective on writing during what Rita Felski deems a "feminized" modern age. I refer to what Robert Johnson describes as the "social modernism" of Spanish women writers that highlights themes related to women's changing societal roles. Additionally, I use Roland Barthes' fashion theory to interpret the significance of sartorial elements in the author's short fiction. The cultural theories of J.C. Flügel, Anne Hollander and others help delineate the importance society places on clothing, fashion and the accumulation of material goods, which are central elements in Pardo Bazán's oeuvre.My research demonstrates that highlighting fashion in a modernist style allows Pardo Bazán to raise her readers' awareness of women's issues in a modernizing society, especially as they relate to education, marriage and employment. Drawing on the relative benign subjects of sewing, fashion and other interests of early twentieth-century women, the author is able to explore more "weighty" questions related to gender inequality while also demonstrating the value of women's skills and interests. By "dressing" her language in satire or parody, Pardo Bazán effectively criticizes sexism without appearing overtly feminist and thereby offending her largely conservative, bourgeois readers, thus broadening the reach of her provocative short stories., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:46:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Davis_cua_0043A_10125display.pdf: 1637969 bytes, checksum: 55d05911959df92a73437ecb45153092 (MD5)
Alcohol consumption impairs protein trafficking: mechanism, consequences and possible treatment
Efforts have been made to understand alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) since the time alcohol was proved to independently cause liver injury. Although significant progress has been achieved in describing the clinical presentation of the disease, molecular mechanisms involved in the establishment of ALD to end-stage liver injuries are still not fully understood. Chronic alcohol consumption is one of the prerequisites for the development of severe forms of ALD such as fibrosis and cirrhosis. In rodents’ liver and hepatic cells in culture, chronic alcohol exposure leads to enhanced protein acetylation and acetaldehyde adduction. Of the multitude of proteins known to be modified upon alcohol administration, tubulin is among the best studied. However, an open question is whether these modifications present in clinical samples. Both modifications have also been implicated in promoting alcohol-induced defects in protein trafficking, but whether they do so directly is another open question. Due to limited knowledge of underlying molecular details, there is no effective treatment for ALD to this date. We induced tubulin hyperacetylation and acetaldehyde adduction in absence of alcohol and examined selective hepatic protein trafficking steps. We first confirmed that tubulin was hyperacetylated and acetaldehyde-adducted in livers from alcohol-exposed individuals. Then, we induced acetylation by overexpression of a tubulin-specific acetyltransferase, αTAT1, and adduction by directly adding acetaldehyde to WIF-B cells. Both αTAT1 overexpression and acetaldehyde treatment significantly impaired both plus-end (secretion) and minus-end (transcytosis)-directed microtubule-dependent trafficking and clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Each modification led to similar levels of impairment as observed in alcohol-treated cells. Levels of impairments by either modification showed no dose-dependence and no additive effects suggesting that sub-stoichiometric tubulin modifications lead to altered protein trafficking and that lysines are not selectively modified.To investigate effective intervention for ALD, we examined a dietary mimetic, spermidine, for its hepatoprotective properties. Because alcohol consumption is associated with oxidative stress-induced liver injury and pro-inflammatory responses, spermidine is likely to protect ALD by its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory characteristics. In this study, we used a two-hit, chronic alcohol and acute lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model of liver injury. We determined that spermidine administration prevented alcohol and LPS-induced increases in liver injury using plasma ALT and histology as a readout. As predicted, spermidine also prevented alcohol and LPS-induced oxidative stress by decreasing the levels of both reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation. Spermidine also prevented fibrosis by inhibiting alcohol and LPS-induced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, activation of hepatic stellate cells, and deposition of collagen. Together, our results indicate that spermidine is an antioxidant thereby conferring anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects associated with ALD., Biology, Cellular biology, Molecular biology, Biology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America
Ambrose the Pastor and the Image of the 'Bride': Exegesis, Philosophy, and the Song of Songs
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Greek and Latin. The Catholic University of America, Before May 24, 2015, this dissertation can be viewed by CUA users only. [24 months embargo], Ambrose the Pastor and the Image of the `Bride':Exegesis, Philosophy, and the Song of SongsMaria MacLean Kiely, Ph.D.Director: Dr. Philip Rousseau,Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Early Christian StudiesAmbrose of Milan remains a dilemma. He was an eminent ecclesiastical leader, who knew how to promote the independence of the Church in an imperial city. In his sometimes stormy encounters with three emperors and two usurpers, he invariably maintained his position and power. Yet, he was considered one of the great theologians of the early Church and a source for Christian mysticism based on the Song of Songs. A nuanced appraisal of these two sides of Ambrose is complicated by the fact that he was thrust unprepared into the ecclesiastical duties of teaching and preaching. To redeem his deficit, he borrowed from his Greek and Latin predecessors; his homilies and treatises are studded with their exegetical and philosophical ideas. Who is the man behind the political adroitness, the mystical bent, and the erudite borrowings? What is the interior genius of Ambrose? Historians need to reassess him in order to grasp the full import of his episcopacy and his influence. Ambrose has provided a key to this process of reappraisal in his use of the Song of Songs. Analysis of this, his favorite, Scripture in diverse treatises has enabled me to probe his thought and his understanding of his role as bishop. I have investigated three major treatises: the De Isaac, the De Bono Mortis, and the Expositio Psalmi 118. Each is directed to Ambrose's congregation at large, and indirectly to the wider community of interested outsiders. I have discovered an Ambrose deeply engaged in a dialogue with the philosophical tradition of Platonism. Scholars who consider him opposed to philosophy mistake anti-pagan rhetoric for personal conviction. The Church as bride represents the interior capacity for God in the soul of each baptized Christian. This represents a transformation of Origen's ideas and methods into a simple, effective tool for late fourth-century catechesis and Scriptural exegesis. On the deepest level, Ambrose thinks in terms of poetic image; metaphor is his native environment. This innate poetic sense allows him to see both the layers of allegory in the Song of Songs and the richness of human love as the foundation for interpretation., Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-25T14:58:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kiely_cua_0043A_10416display.pdf: 2820529 bytes, checksum: 2ed4b70f1dc2a9432a0c733ad72952a7 (MD5)
American Catholic Missions to Japanese in the United States: Their Intersection of Religion, Cultures, Generations, Genders, and Politics, 1910 to 1970
Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation focuses on American Catholic missions to the Japanese in the United States during the early to mid twentieth century. Because this evangelization was one of the very first foreign missions by the U.S. Catholic Church, the thesis provides several unique findings such as some new aspects of the experience challenging the ideas shared among home missionaries in the United States, the role of Catholicism in enculturation of an ethnic minority group for whom Catholicism was not a majority faith, and the influence on Americanization by the service of a religious minority to an ethnic minority.This unique mission before and during World War II also tested the values of both of the missionaries and the Japanese. On the one hand, this historical setting forced all of the members of the mission society--the leaders, local missionaries, women religious and religious brothers to play unusual roles which were beyond their ordinary tasks. On the other hand, the patriarchal nature of the Japanese society was shaken in their encounter with Catholic missionaries who founded a bilingual school. Since this school also brought Catholic and non-Catholic Japanese together, both religious and national values which were new to those Japanese immigrants were introduced from children to parents and from women to men. It is also a history of community building and networking by Nisei, the second-generation Japanese Americans who graduated from those mission schools while receiving entire their education in the United States.The research for this dissertation was supported mainly with the documents housed in the archives of the dioceses and the mission societies which assisted those Japanese in the United States. In addition to the archival documents exchanged among the missionaries, the communication and newsletters written in English and Japanese addressed to/from those Japanese, Issei immigrants and Nisei citizens, revealed what they had thought and expected.Thus, this dissertation covers the history of Catholic missions to the Japanese in the United States from its beginning in 1912 to the virtual ending of the education for the Nisei' children in the 1970s. It also includes most of the regions where the mission was pursued., Made available in DSpace on 2012-02-15T20:08:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Yamazaki_cua_0043A_10261display.pdf: 2156134 bytes, checksum: 094e9f4c6171ad0599dad6663f7878ef (MD5)
American Isaac and Ishmael: the Literary Relationship of Herman Melville, Robert Penn Warren, and Ralph Ellison
While Robert Penn Warren and Ralph Ellison both wrote and spoke often of their interest in the literary project of Herman Melville and acknowledged their literary debt to him, there has been a dearth of in-depth analysis of these literary relationships. An understanding of how Warren and Ellison each interpreted Melville’s literary thought, archetypes, and tropes, as well as their adaptation and continuation of his American vision is especially important given the increasing significance placed on Melville in the mid-twentieth century by intellectuals concerned about the rise of totalitarianism and the state of democracy at home and abroad. This dissertation examines Melville’s influence on Warren and Ellison as displayed in their essays and interviews as well as in their literary works, while focusing primarily upon the later two authors’ reception of what Warren terms Melville’s “Single Great Story” of a wandering son protagonist whom he identifies as an archetypal Ishmael figure. Since both Warren and Ellison populate their fiction with failed fathers and rootless sons, and this theme dominates Melville’s fiction as well, this was a natural focal point for developing their literary relationships. The dissertation first examines the various non-fiction discussions of Melville by both Warren and Ellison in order to develop each’s own readerly interests and perspective on the earlier author’s corpus. In both cases, attention was given to Warren and Ellison’s use of archetype, literary history, and myth-making in their interpretations of Melville. These interpretations were then used to close-read various father and son pairings in Warren and Ellison’s fiction (and, in Warren’s case, poetry) in order to uncover points of influence from Melville. A result of this focus was to develop an implicit archetypal use by Melville, Warren, and Ellison of the biblical story of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael to describe the fraught relationship in America between the present and the past, complicated by overly-restrictive conceptions of what it means to be an American. Additionally, in the Ellison chapters, some time is spent discussing the influence of Warren upon Ellison as well. Examining Melville’s influence by understanding Warren and Ellison’s personal interpretations of the earlier author resulted in tangible points of relationship between each author, which a more general approach that overlooked how each author read Melville and merely examined similar themes in their fiction and poetry would not have been able to accomplish. Additionally, examining both authors’ readings of Melville was instrumental for establishing deep parallels between Warren and Ellison’s conception of American identity, history, and democracy. The dissertation connects Warren and Ellison’s reading and appropriation of Melville and his “Single Great Story” to their own political and social climates, especially to their concerns over regionalism, the Civil Rights Movement, and the tendency on the part of mainstream society to create overly exclusive conceptions of American identity that disinherited those seen as somehow “un American.”, American literature, American studies, African American studies, American Exceptionalism, American Literary History, Bible in Literature, Herman Melville, Ralph Ellison, Robert Penn Warren, English Language and Literature, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America
American Poetry at Mid-Century: Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell
Degree awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation explores the artistic and personal connections between three writers who helped change American poetry: Robert Penn Warren, Randall Jarrell, and Robert Lowell. All three poets maintained a close working relationship throughout their careers, particularly as they experimented with looser poetic forms and more personal poetry in the fifties and after. Various studies have explored their careers within sundry contexts, but no sustained examination of their relationships with one another exists. In focusing on literary history and aesthetics, this study develops an historical narrative that includes close-readings of primary texts within a variety of contexts. Established views of formalism, high modernism, and the New Criticism are interwoven into the study as tools for examining poetic structure within selected poems. Contexts concerning current criticism on these authors are also interlaced throughout the study and discussed in relation to particular historical and aesthetic issues. Having closely scrutinized the personal exchanges and creative output of all three poets, this study illuminates the significance of these writers' relationships to American poetry at mid-century and beyond. Though the more experimental schools of poetry would not reach their height until the 1950s, by the 1940s Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell were already searching for a new aesthetic. With friendships strong, correspondences frequent, and critical attention to one another's work constant throughout this decade, their poetry shifted in similar ways, both in content and style, by no coincidence. Ultimately, Warren, Jarrell, and Lowell purposely amended the formalist and high modernist aesthetics of their mentors in order to create poetry that engaged in an authentic exploration of selfhood within the real-life contexts of the post-World War II era. This project joins several recent critical works that fray the edges of hard-drawn boundaries that have become generally accepted truths about American literature. Despite the fact that these three artists enjoyed and benefited professionally from life-long, well-documented literary relationships with one another, previous histories have discouraged scholars from investigating these connections. As a case study, this dissertation points to a need to widen and reevaluate the current views of American poetry in the second half of the twentieth-century, so that we may more fully grasp the complexities and origins of contemporary poetry and forge a better understanding of American verse traditions., Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-25T14:59:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Shifflett_cua_0043A_10418display.pdf: 757914 bytes, checksum: 593b371ac515d2186124bb4c6da161ba (MD5)
American Political Parties as Transnational Parties
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, American Political Parties as Transnational Parties Michael Read, Ph.D.Director: John Kenneth White, Ph.D.This dissertation examines the development and historical foundations of the transnational activities of American political parties. Although there has been a lack of study in this area, American political parties do now have permanent transnational activity. This activity follows two distinct tracks. First, beginning with the 1964 election, the parties launched their abroad committees to gather votes of eligible absentee voters overseas. For this track, special attention is paid to the 2000, 2004, and 2008 presidential elections, particularly the overseas fundraising and campaigning in the 2008 cycle. Second, beginning in 1982, American parties began to conduct outreach with their like-minded colleagues. They joined, or aided in the creation of, party internationals. Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy that, in turn, funded party-themed institutes to provide democratic development assistance to counter the influence of another major transnational movement, Soviet-backed Communism. This dissertation argues these transnational activities are now permanent and, therefore, American political parties ought to be included in the literature on transnational political parties. Research was conducted by review of relevant literature and supplemented by first-person interviews with relevant actors. Interview subjects were identified through the literature or as leading professionals in their field or both.The argument takes a structural and historical approach. In addition to examining American party operations in and of themselves, associated actors are examined. The roles of American political consultants as agents of partisan outreach and 501(c)(3) organizations as support structures for transnational partisan networks are given particular attention. The historical approach is used to argue that the differences between traditional and American party transnationaltransnationalism is a product of the time and place of the individual movements' development., Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-01T11:46:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Read_cua_0043A_10159display.pdf: 6776330 bytes, checksum: 82d755546b9fee732e9c1d35e78d8cc0 (MD5)
American Racial Poetics Through Baraka’s Blues: Some Case Studies, 1928-2022
American Racial Poetics Through Baraka’s Blues: Some Case Studies, 1928-2022, deploys Amiri Baraka’s paradigm of the blues from Blues People: Negro Music in White America as a means to interpret and understand a multicultural, unified resistance to racism through American poetry since at least the 1920s. This lens offers a rich, cross-cultural consideration of poets’ social experiences, poetic philosophies, imagined audiences, content and aesthetic decisions, and probable impacts on readers, engaging many complexities of race and racism in America that may be missed by studies that focus on poetry of individual cultural or racial groups. The first chapter tracks the motivations, choices, and impacts of Robert Penn Warren and Gwendolyn Brooks through their non-epic poems addressing racism, proposing that Warren strives yet struggles to “hear the blues” while Brooks “sings the blues.” The second chapter interprets Marilyn Chin and Martín Espada as poets who came of age during the social revolutions of the 1960s and ‘70s, and whose poetic philosophies, concerning racism and other forms of oppression, amount to what Espada calls an “artistry of dissent,” broadening the cultural scope of the blues initially posed by Baraka. The third chapter weaves together Jake Adam York’s notion of a “monumental poetics” with Natasha Trethewey’s concept of a “necessary utterance,” arguing that both poets recover forgotten or erased history while promoting Édouard Glissant’s notion of “relation,” therefore hearing, responding to, and extending the blues. The fourth chapter posits that Terrance Hayes and Natalie Diaz reimagine the blues through American poetry, constructing poetic and human views that simultaneously account for American past, present, and future, working toward a freedom from racism that has not yet been realized. Amiri Baraka’s blues, James Baldwin’s assessment of “white guilt,” and Édouard Glissant’s “relation” provide sociohistorical understandings of racism that overlay and undergird the aesthetic workings of these, and many other poets’ work. In order to support scholars and poets alike, this study combines rich explications, sociohistorical context, and conceptual frameworks concerning race and racism, seeking to broaden and enrich the scope of scholarly examination of poetry confronting racism, emphasizing cross-cultural and cross-generational intersections as necessary transformations. , American literature, Creative writing, African American studies, American poetry, Amiri Baraka, blues spirit, multicultural, poetics, racism, English Language and Literature, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America
Analysis of Anthrax Toxin Channel Current Fluctuational Dynamics
The anthrax toxin protective antigen (PA63) is an oligomeric channel that represents an ideal target for multivalent channel-blocking ligand development. PA63 acts as a translocase, delivering enzymatic factors of the tripartite anthrax toxin into the cytosol. We previously described poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers as effective multivalent PA63 blockers. Here, we used single-channel planar lipid bilayer technique to examine the effect of PAMAM surface chemistry on their ability to block PA63. We found that the strength of channel/dendrimer interaction was determined by both binding reaction on- and off-rates. Thus, we observed a three folds decrease in on-rate and a ten times decrease in residence time with generation 2 hydroxyl-terminated PAMAM compared to amino-terminated PAMAM. For both blockers, kon and tres increased dramatically with transmembrane voltage. Considering the electrostatic nature of the interaction, the effect on the off-rate is not surprising. One of the unforeseen findings was the increase in dendrimer capture rate as result of trans-negative voltage and the strong on-rate dependence on dendrimer surface chemistry. Analytical interpretation of current noise data in these studies was complicated by the intrinsic current fluctuation of PA63, described as 1/f noise. We only observed 1/f noise in the binary bacterial toxin channels that are evolved to translocate their enzymatic components and contain functionally critical hydrophobic phenylalanine rings, called Φ clamps. PA63 channel with a mutated Φ clamp was dysfunctional as a translocase and did not exhibit 1/f noise. Using poly(ethylene glycol) partitioning experiments and molecular dynamic simulations, we suggested that the 1/f noise in PA63 channel occurs as a result of ‘hydrophobic gating’ at the Φ clamp region. When studying the small ion transport properties of PA63, we discovered an unusually strong PA63 conductance dependence on the nature of the bathing electrolyte cations. We suggest that this effect is determined by the interplay between cation radii and their binding affinity to the negatively charged residues, proximal to the Φ clamp. Understanding the intrinsic behavior of PA63, including its fluctuation dynamics and ion transport properties, can contribute to the antitoxin development effort and advance this channel as a novel tool for biosensor development and applications., Biology, Biophysics, Antrhax, channel, conductance, dendrimer, noise, toxin, Biology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America
The Analysis of Heuristics in the Cognitive Process of Catholic High School Selection
Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America, Research about the cognitive process that a parent uses in selecting a high school for their child could help increase Catholic school enrollment, which would serve the dual purpose of evangelizing more students and providing increased financial stability through higher tuition revenue. Heuristics, shortcuts the brain uses to make difficult decisions, provide insight into this cognitive process of high school selection. The affect heuristic suggests that a person makes a judgment based upon emotion, the availability heuristic occurs when someone makes a judgment based upon the ease of recall of information, and the representativeness heuristic is used when a judgment is based upon the degree to which a sample is thought to share characteristics of the parent population. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which parents use the affect, availability, and representativeness heuristics in forming opinions about Catholic schools and making decisions about sending their children to a Catholic high school. Two surveys were crafted to analyze this problem. In the first survey, 465 parents of 7th and 8th graders at Catholic elementary schools responded to four stimuli that tested for the affect, availability, and representativeness heuristics. In the second survey, 187 parents of applicants at a Catholic high school answered questions about the various sources of information for learning about a school. Chi-Square analysis, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data from both instruments. The results suggest that parents use some combination of the affect, availability, and representativeness heuristics when forming opinions about Catholic high schools and when deciding for their child to apply to and enroll in a Catholic high school. The findings provide admissions directors and administrators at Catholic schools greater insight into how to better attract, enroll, and retain students.
An Analysis of the Portrayal of Catholicism on Prime-Time Network Entertainment Television, 1950-1980
Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, ABSTRACTAn Analysis of the Portrayal of Catholicism on Prime-Time Network Entertainment Television, 1950-1980Christopher Gildemeister, Ph.D. Director: Leslie W. Tentler, Ph.D. Representations in popular culture entertainment both reflect popular thought about various subjects, and simultaneously influence perceptions of those same subjects. This dissertation proposes a twofold thesis: firstly, that the representation of the Catholic priest in American popular culture - particularly film and prime-time broadcast network entertainment television - was shaped by various real-life individual priests; and secondly, that such representations fell into a number of identifiable and frequently repeated tropes, which themselves served to influence later representations. With the rise of mass popular culture in the 1920s (largely originated by the increasing influence of film and the rapid and widespread adoption of radio broadcasting), the image of the Catholic priest in America shifted from that of the effeminate, licentious, and sexually depraved predator which was widespread during the nation's era of domination by traditionally anti-Catholic Protestants to that of the "heroic priest": a tough, dynamic, manly individual dedicated to social reform, particularly involving battles against entrenched civic corruption and crime. The major model for the "heroic priest" was the famed "radio priest," Father Charles Coughlin, who in the early years of his fame was a far more populist and reform-minded individual than he was to become subsequently. Several other real-life priests, such as Boys Town founder Father Edward Flanagan and World War I chaplain Father Duffy also contributed to the image of the "heroic priest," which was reflected in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces, Boys Town, and others. Post-World War II, the image of the "heroic priest" acquired a heavily anti-Communist cast, influenced by such real-life resistance to tyranny as that offered by Hungarian Cardinal Joszef Mindszenty, which was reflected throughout the television programming of the era, from the early Studio One to programs like Mission: Impossible and The Outer Limits. The image also softened somewhat into that of the "man of piety," dedicated priests who continued their devotion to social uplift though in less obstreperous ways, seen on programs ranging from Dragnet to The Loretta Young Show. The 1962-63 ABC television series Going My Way (based on the famed 1944 movie) offered a unique picture of Catholic clergy and the Church on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. While overtly reflecting an older, traditionalist portrait of the "Catholic ghetto" of the 1930s, in its subtext the series uneasily confronted the Church's internal tensions over such issues as marriage, atheism, ecumenism, and race. Finally, influenced by such real-life radical priests as Philip and Daniel Berrigan, media began portraying priests as radical reformers in such programs as The Mod Squad. This image soon softened into a portrait of Catholic clergy as "fully human," well-meaning but possessed of the full range of human foibles, as reflected on such television portrayals of priests as Father Francis Mulcahy on M*A*S*H and comedian Don Novello's humorous character Father Guido Sarducci - thus tracing a perceptual arc of the Catholic priest from depraved to heroic to fully human., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-20T16:21:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gildemeister_cua_0043A_10504display.pdf: 2508103 bytes, checksum: 9bfc2ac1e8008299109f0a7f6f12561a (MD5)
Ancient and Medieval Interpretation of the Complaints of Jeremiah
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, Ancient and Medieval Interpretation of the Complaints of JeremiahSusan G. Sullivan, Ph.D.Director, Edward M. Cook, Ph.D. Poem prayers in the book of Jeremiah use strong, sometimes accusatory, language, in the first person, in speaking to God. They stand out from the rest of the book, with little or no connection to preceding and following sections. The traditional list includes Jeremiah 11:18-20, 12:1-6, 15:10-11, 15:15-18, 17:14-18, 18:18-23, 20:7-10, and 20:14-18. Modern interpreters call them "confessions," "laments," or "complaints," noting similarities between these and Gunkel's "laments of the individual," though most do not include all elements of the lament genre. "Complaint" best describes their strong emotional content, addressed to God, connected with specific misery that does not resolve into praise. This dissertation considers ancient and medieval interpretation of these complaints, with particular focus on Jeremiah's harsh language. It looks at the traditional list of complaints, plus Jeremiah 4:10, an accusatory sentence; first in the Masoretic Text, then in the ancient versions: Septuagint, Targum, Vulgate, and Peshitta. It considers the meaning of the words of the complaints and how these were transmitted. It then considers a representative sample of interpretation in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Syriac. It includes Greek and Latin patristic; Latin medieval; Jewish ancient, rabbinic, and medieval; and Syriac ancient and medieval interpreters. It examines their choice of words, content and mode of interpretation, and methods of dealing with Jeremiah's strong complaints and accusations. Reverent interpretation by ancient and medieval interpreters transmitted these texts very carefully, with few emendations, including some slight softening of Jeremiah's harsh language. The texts were handed down in "streams of tradition" in language groups. Interpreters found meaning for the texts in the details of Jeremiah's life, but did not limit understanding to this original meaning. They considered theological questions raised by his complaints and related them to communities of their own day. Their conviction that these texts would reveal useful insights about God and God's work with, and expectations of, humanity, was shown in practices valuable for our own day: carefully transmitting each text, paying close attention to its details, seeking connections between these texts and the rest of Scripture, and considering theological implications and applications to communities., Made available in DSpace on 2013-02-08T16:06:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sullivan_cua_0043A_10382display.pdf: 1639357 bytes, checksum: d78891c9547302927437207ebcb04faf (MD5)
Antagonistic expression of Miz1 and Zeb1 driven by c-Myc expression in high-grade human hepatocholangio-carcinomas with chromosome 8q24 amplification
Antagonistic expression of Miz1 and Zeb1 driven by c-Myc expression in high-grade human hepatocholangio-carcinomas with chromosome 8q24 amplificationJoeffrey ChahineDirector: Pamela L. Tuma, Ph.D.Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), the sixth most common type of cancer, and the third most common cause of cancer death with about 9.2% of all deaths, and Intra-Hepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), the second most common primary hepatic tumor, are two cancers with a high number of approximately 820,000 newly diagnosed cases each year worldwide. Uncovering the factors promoting these two cancers and understanding the relative mechanisms is a leading research topic at the basic science and translational levels. In most cases, HCC and ICC are multistage diseases, and their increasing occurrences are mainly due to infection with hepatitis B/C viruses, cirrhosis, and lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption. Also, genomic instability and chromosomal 8q24 amplification have been documented in several epithelial cell-derived cancers, including HCC and ICC. More than 80% of human cancers are derived from polarized epithelial cells. As the invasive phenotype is acquired, cells undergo an epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). With EMT being linked to drug resistance and metastasis, it is critical to fully understand malignant transformation to predict and treat the disease. The c-Myc oncogene itself resides on amplified 8q24 (at 8q24.21), and high c-Myc levels are found in most alcohol-induced HCC cases. Also, it is broadly accepted that c-Myc overexpression leads to the transcription of countless genes that further promote transformation and cell proliferation. Overexpressed c-Myc also can also promote the repression of other transcription factors involved in tumor suppression further enhancing cancer progression. One such transcription factor is Miz1. In normal cells, c-Myc levels are low with the Myc-Max dimers activating their selected targets, while Miz1 at its core promoter is-bound to p300 and nucleophosmin (npm) activating genes involved in adhesion, autophagy, apoptosis, polarity, and tumor suppression. In contrast, in cancer cells high c-Myc levels, the c-Myc-Max dimers displace p300 and npm and bind Miz1 thereby repressing Miz1 transcriptional activity leading to decreased apoptosis, autophagy, and polarity. Moreover, high c-Myc expression has been linked to activation of transcription factors that promote EMT, including Zeb1. Importantly, Zeb1 expression is associated with aggressive behavior in many tumor types and chemotherapeutic drug resistance. This thesis is focused on understanding chromosome 8q24 amplification that is observed more frequently in patients with alcohol-induced HCC and ICC, by evaluating the temporal expression patterns of c-Myc, Miz1, Ki-67 and Zeb1 in a cohort of 147 HCC, and 146 CC cases with the latter including 114 ICC and 32 c-HCC-CC (combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma) cases. The formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue sections of these resected cases were examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using Miz-1 (ZBTB17), Zeb1 (OT13G6), c-Myc (Y69), and Ki-67 (Mib-1) monoclonal antibodies. Decreased Miz1 expression was observed in all grades whereas c-Myc and Zeb1 labeling along with Ki-67 peaked in high-grade cases. Also, high-grade HCC, ICC, including c-CC-HCC cases with high c-Myc expression levels showed relatively a high correlation with c-Myc gene amplification using Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (FISH). But more importantly, 12 HCC, 10 ICC, and 10 c-HCC-CC high-grade cases showed Miz1 loss of cytoplasmic expression with Miz1 only nuclear expression, in addition to high c-Myc expression and amplification, Ki-67 and Zeb1 expression. Strikingly, these same cases when correlated with clinicopathologic variables, they all presented with histories of hepatitis, alcohol consumption, cirrhosis, and metastasis. In conclusion, by linking the assessed expressions and amplification data to clinical parameters, this project suggests the exciting possibilities and gateways for establishing therapeutic interventions and could uncover novel treatment strategies for HCC and ICC with specific patterns and inclusion criteria., Cellular biology, Oncology, Anatomical Pathology, Cholangiocarcinoma, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Translational Research, Tumor Biology, Biology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America

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