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What Makes a Teacher a Teacher: A Philosophical Approach Aligned with Plato
No full textThis thesis investigates how contemporary U.S. educational accountability policies—namely No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (RttT)—redefine the role of teachers through a compliance-oriented lens. Moving beyond logistical and emotional impacts, this study applies Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as a philosophical framework to uncover the intellectual and ethical constraints imposed on educators. Through qualitative document analysis of federal policy texts, three metaphorical themes—shackles, shadows, and enlightenment—emerged to represent how teachers are bound by data-driven mandates, compelled to perform surface-level success, and yet still retain the potential to guide students toward deeper intellectual engagement. The findings reveal a systemic misalignment between policy rhetoric and the philosophical purpose of education. Rather than empowering teachers as ethical and intellectual leaders, current policies reduce them to technicians of performance metrics. While glimpses of mentorship and reflective practice appear in policy language, they are often instrumentalized to serve outcome-based agendas. This study calls for a radical reimagining of educational policy—one that restores teachers’ moral agency, honors their intellectual labor, and repositions them not as agents of implementation but as keepers of light in a system too often defined by shadows
Examining Secretory Pathways in Inflammasome Activated innate Immune Cells
No full textInnate immune cells serve as the first line of defense by detecting pathogens through pathogen- and damage-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs and DAMPs). Recognition of PAMPs triggers the synthesis and secretion of pro-inflammatory proteins, with the inflammasome playing a key role in the secretion of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), a crucial part of the innate immune response. Upon inflammasome activation, the release of signal-peptide lacking cytoplasmic proteins such as IL-1β occurs through non-classical pathways known as unconventional protein secretion (UCPS), which vary depending on the cell type and stimulus which helps tailor the extent of pro-inflammatory protein secretion. Broadly, UCPS cargoes are released either via direct release through plasma membrane pores, or by entering vesicular intermediates that fuse with the plasma membrane. The aim of this thesis was to establish cell line models to study these distinct secretory pathways. We characterized the secretion pathway responsible for IL-1β release from neutrophil-like differentiated HL-60 (dHL-60) cells and macrophage-like THP-1 cells, as primary neutrophils and macrophages are known to utilize vesicular intermediates and plasma membrane pores, respectively, for IL-1β release. Our findings revealed that upon NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation, dHL-60 cells—unlike parental HL-60 cells—secreted IL-1β in a NLRP3-dependent manner, independent of pyroptosis. IL-1β secretion in dHL-60 cells was unaffected by autophagy inhibition, unlike primary neutrophils. Furthermore, treatment with brefeldin A (BFA), a classical secretion inhibitor, significantly reduced IL-1β release in dHL-60s. Examination of IL-1β synthesis and secretion following treating with BFA indicated that BFA affects multiple stages, including synthesis and release of IL-1β. In contrast, THP-1 macrophage-like cells showed robust IL-1β secretion that was not affected by BFA treatment, consistent with a GSDMD pore-mediated unconventional secretion route. These findings indicate that dHL-60 and THP-1 cells release IL-1β via distinct secretory pathways. Additionally, we evaluated available online tools for prediction of UCPS cargoes. Here, we found that these tools have low accuracy, highlighting the importance of developing improved prediction models which could be built by studying UCPS in cell line models established her
Anti-Inflamatory Mechansim of Bacillus Subtilis Derirved Exopolysaccharide
No full textExopolysaccharides (EPS) secreted by the commensal bacterium Bacillus subtilis exhibit potent anti-inflammatory properties, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. We hypothesized that EPS reprograms antigen-presenting cells toward a tolerogenic state by modulating TLR4–MyD88 signaling. To test this, we began using a chemically defined, high-yield EPS production and purification protocol that largely eliminates protein and DNA contaminants, thus improving functional reproducibility across experiments using this new method. In vitro, EPS engaged TLR4 on murine dendritic cells (DC2.4) without inducing classical NF-κB activation, seen by LPS stimulation. Rather, EPS treatment upregulated inhibitory molecules, PD-L1 and PD-L2 while leaving activation markers, CD80/CD86 expression unchanged. These data are consistent with a regulatory phenotype in this cell type. Functionally, EPS-conditioned DC2.4 cells suppressed antigen-independent proliferation of both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T lymphocytes. EPS pre-treatment also induced a state of endotoxin tolerance, where subsequent LPS challenge failed to induce IL-6 secretion or NF-κB p65 phosphorylation. In vitro, a single dose of EPS conferred robust protection against LPS-induced systemic inflammation, maintaining suppressed IL-6 levels for at least three days Interestingly, this tolerogenic effect was not observed in primary bone marrow derived dendritic cells and macrophages, thus, suggesting a context or cell-type specific mechanism for such induced tolerance. These findings identify B. subtilis EPS as a safe and novel TLR4- dependent immunoregulatory molecule. We believe EPS induces tolerance by decoupling microbial sensing receptors from inflammatory signaling and output. This work provides both mechanistic insight and a scalable production method to support the development of microbial polysaccharides as next-generation anti-inflammatory therapeutics
Murine TBK1 regulates MPP3-type HSPCs and circulating leukocytes in normal hematopoiesis and FLT3+ LSCs in MLL-AF9-driven leukemia
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematologic cancer with a notoriously bleak prognosis; for non-M3 AML, the overall 5-year survival rate is ∼30%. While 60-70% of newly diagnosed AML patients will achieve complete remission (CR), half of these patients will experience relapse (secondary resistance) by three years from their diagnosis. Moreover, 30-40% of AML patients present with refractory disease (primary resistance) and cannot respond to frontline treatments. Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are implicated in both primary and secondary resistance, and their eradication is necessary to maintain CR. LSCs have unique transcriptomes and immunophenotypes, thus can be identified relatively accurately using RNA-Seq (e.g., HOXA9 and MEIS1) and flow cytometry (e.g., CD123, CD244, CLL1, c-KIT, and FLT3). However, despite our being able to identify LSCs, agents directed specifically against LSCs do not yet exist. Moreover, being non-selective in terms of the cells targeted, conventional chemotherapy comes with significant toxicity and offers long-term survival to fewer than 1 out of every 3 patients. Thus, there is a need for LSC-specific agents that are as effective as they are tolerable. OBJECTIVE: Considering previous data from our group implicating innate immunity-associated signaling (the TLR-TAK1/TICAM-1 axes) in the survival of LSCs, we sought to characterize TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1), a Ser/Thr kinase of the innate immune system, in normal hematopoiesis and MLL-AF9-driven (MLL-AF9+) murine leukemia, to determine if TBK1 may be a feasible drug target for the treatment of AML. METHODS: We generated a tamoxifen-inducible, global Tbk1-knockout (Tbk1NULL) C57BL/6 mouse model. Tbk1fx/fx mice were purchased from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and crossed with Rosa26-CreERT2+ C57BL/6 mice purchased from The Jackson Laboratory. Isolated HSPCs were transduced with an MSCV retrovirus harboring the MLL-AF9 leukemic oncogene. All procedures were performed in accordance with the NIH\u27s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)-approved protocol (#2020010) at Loyola University Chicago. RESULTS: In normal murine physiology, we found that Tbk1NULL C57BL/6 mice are viable and grossly normal; the genetic loss of Tbk1 does not significantly impede homeostatic hematopoiesis. However, we discovered that global deletion of Tbk1 leads to an increase in the size of the pool of MPP3-type HSPCs in the bone marrow and the number of neutrophils in peripheral blood. Moreover, we report that while TBK1 does not seem to regulate the engraftment nor reconstitution abilities of transplanted bone marrow cells, TBK1 does negatively regulate monocyte production in an HSPC-intrinsic fashion, as wild-type mice lethally conditioned with busulfan and given Tbk1NULL bone marrow displayed increased monocytes in peripheral blood at endpoint compared to mice transplanted with control marrow. In murine leukemia, we found that the genetic loss of Tbk1 strongly reduces the size of the c-Kit+Flt3+ compartment of MLL-AF9+ HSPCs in vitro and in vivo. We also learned that TBK1 negatively regulates the expression of Csf1r on MLL-AF9+ HSPCs and that some mice given Tbk1NULL MLL-AF9+ HSPCs develop a subcutaneous mass of AML cells (chloroma). DISCUSSION: Murine TBK1 appears to be required by specific LSCs yet dispensable in homeostatic hematopoiesis. While our study requires much further investigation and escalation to better-powered models, we are enthusiastic to present some preliminary data that implicate TBK1 as a drug target in the treatment of MLL-AF9+ AML. This work was supported by the NIH\u27s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI; R01 HL133560-01 [Jiwang Zhang] & T35 HL120835 [Austin P. Runde, LUC SSOM\u27s STAR/T35 Program]), National Cancer Institute (NCI; R01 CA223194-01 [Jiwang Zhang]), National
The Hitching Post: American Poetry and Chinese Mythology
Get PDFIn this dissertation, I examine the ways in which Chinese mythology has figured in American poetry, focusing particularly on the ways Chinese mythologies have served—and continue to serve—as “hitching posts,” quasi-material sites from which meaning can be created and explored. As I am defining it, a myth is a narrative that gives meaning to a lived experience. It explains what we commemorate and worship and renders meaningful both celebration and life. In the first three chapters of this study, I discuss the ways in which Chinese myths and cultural practices have been both used as hitching posts and appropriated by American poets and artists of non-Chinese descent in order to contend with feelings of political and spiritual dislocation, normative constructions of gender and femininity, and anti-Black racism. I then pivot to American poets’ engagements with East Asian spiritual practices, which produced a cognitive disconnect that allowed the American readership to abstract itself from the plight of Chinese immigrants to the United States, even as it produced an interest in the literature, religion, and mythology of classical China. I extend this argument into my final chapter, in which I claim that unlike the U.S. poets who place their focus on classical China, overlooking U.S. immigrant communities, contemporary American poets, particularly those of Chinese descent, use myth to engage with geopolitical China and geopolitical Chinese communities in meaningful ways. Writers studied in this dissertation include Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Jenny Xie, and Li-Young Lee
Assessment of Relationships Between Quality and Staffing in the Ambulatory Care Environment
Get PDFABSTRACT Background The United States healthcare system underperforms compared to other industrialized countries where cost and quality are concerned. Nursing is accountable, as a profession recognized by society, to ensure health and livelihood in the patients and populations served. Advancing the role of the ambulatory care nurse and providing valid strategies to measure the contribution of the nursing profession in this setting is a tactic that many organizations are pursuing to achieve this paradigm shift. The assessment of relationships between measures of structure, process, and outcome within the ambulatory care setting across a variety of organizations may have the potential to lay the foundation for further studies that will inform the nursing profession of continued need for development in this critical transformative moment in history. Methods This study was conducted with a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive, correlational design. The research question proposed in this study is, “Do relationships exist between ambulatory nursing quality indicators that are structure related, process related, and outcome related?”. The objectives of this study were to determine indicators that are sensitive to the role of the RN in ambulatory and to determine indicators that are highly related with each other within the paradigm of structure, process and outcome in the ambulatory RN environment. Results Descriptive analysis was achieved by Aim 1 of this study, describing structure, process and outcome variables in the ambulatory care environment at the unit level of measurement. Alternative hypothesis that relationships existed between these domains of measures was supported in Aim 2. The RN was not found to be related, when assessed from the unit level, by visits, to process or outcome variables. The MA was the most significant and positively related to process and outcome variables in Aim 2. Conclusions This study was conducted in a sample size of 130 primary care clinics, when the originally intended sample size was 385. Furthermore, many challenges existed to acquiring all data points requested from participants. While description and some relationship was successfully achieved, more research will be needed, and potentially from the patient level of data analysis to understand more fully the most effective staffing models for optimal patient care outcomes
Narcissism and Situation Specific Open-Minded Cognition
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism (VN) and situation specific open-minded cognition (SOMC) by placing participants in a context designed to trigger the reciprocity effect. Previous literature has suggested that narcissism negatively impacts cognitive flexibility, with vulnerable narcissism expected to exhibit a more substantial effect. We hypothesized that both types of narcissism would be inversely related to OMC, and that the impact of vulnerable narcissism would be magnified in the presence of a condition effect. A sample of 177 participants was recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform and was randomly assigned to either an open or closed-minded conversational partner in a controlled vignette scenario. Participants\u27 levels of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism were assessed using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 (NPI-16) and the Short Form Five Factor Narcissism Inventory (FFNI-SF) vulnerable narcissism subscale, respectively. Results indicated a significant negative correlation between both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and OMC, with vulnerable narcissism showing a stronger association. However, contrary to our hypothesis, a significant condition effect was observed in only one of the multiple regression analyses, suggesting that the condition manipulation was not consistently effective across all models. The shortfall in the expected sample size may have contributed to the underpowered nature of the study, limiting the detection of subtle interaction effects. These findings highlight the complex dynamics between different forms of narcissism and cognitive processes, underscoring the need for further research with larger samples and alternative methodological approaches. Future studies should consider the potential influence of real-life scenarios and other situational variables to better understand the interplay between personality traits and cognitive outcomes
Returning to Simplicity in Early Daoist and Ancient Greek Thought
Get PDFUnderlying both the voluntary simplicity and minimalist lifestyle movements is the sentiment that living a simple life leads to tranquility. Despite purported instances where tranquility is experienced through simple living (Hitz, 2020), one can identify instances where, despite living simply, one does not experience tranquility. If living simply is not sufficient for tranquility, what is? In this project I argue that “simplicity” is the inner condition necessary and sufficient to experiencing tranquility. While some argue that simplicity is a practical virtue (Compte-Sponville, 2001; Gambrel and Cafaro, 2010; and Martin, 2012), I argue that simplicity, what is linguistically defined as the state of being simple, is the state of purity. In each sense of how “simplicity” is commonly used, an underlying connective thread appears in a connection to this notion of purity. To be simple, in some way, refers to being pure. This sense of purity can be understood in relation to extraneity—to be pure is to hold nothing in excess of what is necessary to one’s natural functioning. Purity, in turn, I demonstrate is rooted in the capacity of harmonious detachment. Harmonious detachment, in contrast to other forms of detachment, I argue, is not a renunciation of attachment, but a capacity to let go. In this sense, harmonious detachment presupposes that one holds attachment only to harmonize with outcome. Through this sense of detachment, I demonstrate that it is through this practice that one reaches simplicity. In considering the relationship between the simple life and simplicity further, I argue that although the simple life is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the cultivation of simplicity, its presence makes the development of such a state easier to attain. One can practice harmonious detachment regardless of one’s lifestyle, however living a simple life eases its cultivation
The Meaning of Mission at a Catholic, Liberal Arts College
Get PDFThis qualitative case study research aimed to uncover how students engage with institutional mission to understand: how the mission of a Catholic, liberal arts college contributes to the development of its undergraduate students and how higher education professionals integrate mission throughout the community. Semi-structured interviews allowed students, faculty, staff, and administrative perspectives to highlight how this work happens at a Benedictine college. Participants highlighted how their experience of mission contributed to their intellectual curiosity, their sense of self through community, and their ability to connect their education to the world at large and beyond their present academic experience. The higher education professionals shared that this work is intentional, developmental, for everyone in the community, and is often embodied through not just one person or office, but through the work and culture of a whole community. By providing students with this kind of experience and conditions for development, students are well prepared to navigate the world ahead of them–certainly in their chosen fields, but also for what society will confront them with and expect of them. This research has given language to mission, something often considered intangible and has shown its transformative power for students, cementing its value in higher education
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Strengthen MTSS within Catholic Schools
No full textMany Catholic schools face resource challenges that result in limitations surrounding the implementation of multi-tiered systems and support (MTSS). Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a potential tool for Catholic schools to strengthen systems of support. This article explores how AI can strengthen core components of MTSS such as identifying evidence-based interventions, developing progress monitoring tools, analyzing student data, and facilitating personalized instruction. The article also outlines different AI tools available to schools and discusses potential benefits and challenges of leveraging AI within Catholic schools. Future researchers should consider evaluating and analyzing implementation of AI tools within MTSS, specifically how AI tools may support Catholic schools with resource limitations, time constraints, and expertise barriers