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Applied Theatre Interventions in the Classroom and Beyond
No full textJoin Georgetown's Racial Justice Institute (RJI) EnActors for an interactive workshop. This session is intended to be an introduction to the methodologies and themes that will be part of the EnActors offerings to the broader GU community. The session will be characterized by the presentation of snippets of performance and the collective exploration of these timely topics and tool
Balancing Innovation and Access: The Impact of the TRIPS Waiver on Intellectual Property and Global Public Health
No full textThe Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver, implemented in 2022 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, has sparked significant debate surrounding the balance between intellectual property (IP) protections and global public health. In response, this essay explores the historical evolution of IP laws, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, leading up to the TRIPS waiver. It examines the implications of the waiver on future IP disputes, focusing on its impact on pharmaceutical innovation and global access to essential medical technologies. Furthermore, the essay analyzes the perspectives of major stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, WTO member countries, and the United States, regarding the expansion of the TRIPS waiver to include COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics, revealing the intricate dynamics of IP protections in the context of public health crises and exploring potential pathways for navigating these complexities
Veterans Interest Newsletter Issue 66
No full textTopics include the death of Lieutenant Commander Lou Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona; changes made to the mission statement of West Point whereby the words “duty, honor, and country” were removed; veterans assisting in the rescue of American citizens from Gaza; the introduction of the Veterans Transition to Trucking Act which would simplify the process for veterans to become trucking apprentices; the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate a conversation with a World War II veteran at the World War II Museum in New Orleans; the role of the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II; and excerpts from the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Also includes statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) listing the use of VA benefits and healthcare utilization by the US veteran population. The statistics show the total US veteran population; the number of living World War II veterans; veterans receiving disability compensation; veterans who are 100% disabled; the number of veterans enrolled in the VA health system; the number of full time and overall total of VA employees; the number of VA medical centers; the number of VA national cemeteries and the total FY23 VA appropriation
Bounded by the Sea: An Interdisciplinary Environmental History of Early Medieval Brittany
No full textPh.D.In some ways, the sixth to tenth centuries were turbulent for Brittany, bringing political changes and military conquests, including by the Bretons, Franks, and Vikings. Yet, throughout the early Middle Ages, Brittany’s inhabitants relied on resources drawn from their natural environment, such as grain, wood, pasture, fish and salt, to maintain stability and build wealth. An interdisciplinary approach, combining written sources with evidence from archaeology and paleoecology, helps to bring this environmental history into clearer focus. Breton written accounts, largely hagiographies, texts relating to the saints, and charters, records of the possessions and legal rights of ecclesiastical institutions, make frequent references to the natural world. Meanwhile, preserved plant matter — pollen, seeds and wood — found in archaeobotanical assemblages, provide an independent natural archive of Breton land management and vegetation change. When layered together, these datasets allow for a more complete and continuous view of land use in early Middle Ages than we are used to.
This dissertation reveals that early medieval Bretons utilized a range of intertwined land use practices, designed to make simultaneous use of waters, woodlands, farmlands, meadows, and pastures. Bretons selected their techniques in accordance with local environmental conditions, for instance sowing tolerant grains on acidic soils or pasturing livestock on otherwise unproductive wetlands. The intensity of Breton land use practices varied throughout the first millennium, as, following a notable phase of rewilding in Late Antiquity (c. 200-500 AD), renewed and unprecedented human impact on the natural landscape increased between c. 500-1000 AD and particularly in the eighth and ninth centuries. These patterns are linked to changes in the region’s social and political make-up, as first the Breton migrations brought new settlers into the region and galvanized an explosion in new monastic foundations, and later Carolingian influence led to an encroachment on Brittany’s natural resources. Viking incursions in the region, meanwhile, did not undo these trends towards agricultural intensification, suggesting that Brittany’s local communities, and the lands they farmed, remained more resilient than their elite landlords. By following visible traces on the page and the landscape, what follows recovers this complex history
Impact of Education on RN Readiness to Screen for IPV in a Perinatal Emergency Department
No full textD.N.P.Pregnant people are vulnerable to the initiation and intensification of intimate partner violence (IPV), which can cause adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes; however, screening for IPV does not occur as often as screening for other high-risk conditions of pregnancy. Nurses in perinatal emergency settings are well-positioned to identify and support pregnant and postpartum survivors of IPV, but insufficient training is consistently cited as a barrier to screening for IPV among nurses. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the impact of registered nurse (RN) education on readiness to manage IPV screening, rates of IPV screening completion, and rates of IPV-related social work consults in a perinatal emergency department. Survey data collected before and after RN education was compared to evaluate readiness to screen for IPV using a modified version of the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS) tool (Short et al., 2006). Deidentified chart data was collected pre-post to assess rates of IPV screening completion and IPV-related social work referrals. Participants were RNs working in a perinatal emergency department (n = 8). Survey results compared before and after education demonstrated statistically significant improvements in perceived preparedness (
Preservation of Molecular Biosignatures on Mars: The Damaging Impact of Cosmic Radiation
No full textPh.D.The search for extraterrestrial life in the solar system is at the heart of astrobiology. Its discovery would be monumental, illuminating our place in the universe and extending our understanding of life. In our cosmic neighborhood, Mars has been a favored target for more than a century because of its geological and chemical similarities with Earth as well as its habitable state early in its history. The planet has been studied through observations, models, and analogs sites, as well as orbiter, lander, and rover missions. Today, NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers traverse the surface, the joint NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return effort is underway, and ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover will soon launch.However, Mars has been exposed to high energy Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) for about four billion years, potentially damaging molecular remnants of ancient life (i.e., biosignatures). In this dissertation, I investigate the fate of biosignatures diagnostic of life (hopanes and steranes) preserved in clay- and carbonate-rich natural samples after exposure to simulated GCRs up to an equivalent of 15 million years on Mars (0.9 MGy). Clay- and carbonate-rich mineralogies are preferentially targeted by the rover missions for their preservation properties over geological timescales. However, I found that the loss of biosignatures after irradiation was two to three times faster than predicted by the current literature, and varied dramatically, even among samples with similar characteristics (mineralogy, water content etc.). In addition, I investigate how saline environments affect biosignature preservation under GCRs. Despite the advantages such environments present in astrobiology (presence of liquid water, biosignature entrapment and preservation etc.), I measured that biosignatures are destroyed four to six times faster when irradiated in chloride salt matrices.Altogether, these results show the large impact that GCRs may have on diagnostic biosignatures in natural samples analogous to the rover missions’ targets. To increase our chances of finding intact biosignatures on Mars it is critical to prioritize samples shielded from radiation (e.g., deep drilling missions, or targeting subsurface samples in caves and lava tubes) or relatively recently exposed to GCRs (e.g., via wind scarp retreat, boulder displacement, or meteoritic impact)
Beyond the Horizon: Cosmopolitanism and Corporeality in the Novels of Marie Darrieussecq
No full textThe 21st-century novels of Marie Darrieussecq deal with the contemporary experience of a globalized world. Her work serves as a characteristic example within a contemporary transnational literary trend of cosmopolitan realism that includes authors like Deborah Levy, Nora Bossong, and Olga Tokarczuk. This article, drawing on phenomenological theory, analyzes the phenomenal and corporeal dimensions of cosmopolitan existence, examining several of Darrieussecq’s novels, in particular Truismes, White, Le Pays, and La Mer à l’envers. In these cases, questions of cosmopolitan identity as well as cosmopolitan aesthetics are evoked through moments of (dis)orientation and entanglement of body, landscape, and space. I argue that her writing of corporeal space has to be read in the context of globality and cosmopolitanism, offering a counter-narrative to discourses of idealistic cosmopolitanism aligning globalization with immaterial, disembodied qualities. In this way, the article proposes a notion of cosmopolitanism based on corporeality which functions as a node between the universal and the particular, between the global and the local. Darrieussecq’s writing fosters an embodied being in the world, where dichotomies like near and far, presence and absence, subject and world are undermined. The analysis aims to illustrate how, throughout Darrieussecq’s whole work, scenes of corporeal cosmopolitanism occur in various narrative contexts. Further, the article posits the motif of the horizon as an aesthetic as well as conceptual figure of embodied cosmopolitanism. Not only does her writing imply the metaphorical broadening of horizons, but it makes the horizon a parameter central to the configuration of narrated space.https://doi.org/10.57928/bg2y-y78
Community Land Trusts in the Transit Oriented Development Model: Stewarding Social Sustainability in West Baltimore’s Penn North Neighborhood
No full textThis paper examines affordable housing production challenges in walkable transit-oriented
development models and evaluates the extent to which a community land trust can mitigate
resident displacement using the case of a disinvested neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.
Urban revitalization that promotes walkable transit-oriented neighborhoods can lead to economic
prosperity that appreciates land values and disproportionately harms low-income residents. This
paper reviews the contemporary practice of community land trusts and transit-oriented
development, interviews community land trust practitioners, and conducts spatial analysis to
assess the value proposition of a community land trust for the Penn North neighborhood in West
Baltimore, Maryland. Findings demonstrate that Penn North’s demographic profile and home
price to income ratio present an appropriate context for a community land trust to operate within
the transit-oriented development model. Advancing the concept that community land trusts are
integral to socially sustainable transit-oriented development
There Goes the Neighborhood Store: Does the Community Reinvestment Act Encourage Small Business Lending That Gentrifies Neighborhoods?
No full textM.P.P.Policymakers designed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to encourage lending in low-income communities and correct for decades of redlining targeted at neighborhoods with large concentrations of racial and ethnic minority groups, especially predominately Black neighborhoods. The investments are intended, in part, to reduce concentrations of poverty by introducing higher-earning, higher-educated individuals to these communities. However, when college graduates move into low-income neighborhoods at high rates, the retail mix often becomes more generic to accommodate the new residents. The shifting retail landscape, a common outgrowth of gentrifying neighborhoods, can alienate original residents, creating resentment and isolation, leading to a weakened sense of community belonging that has adverse health effects. This paper analyzes how the CRA incentivizes large small business loans in low-income neighborhoods, changing the neighborhood’s character through generic business formation and accelerating the in-migration of college graduates
Tag, Seq, and Discover: Insights in Oligodendrocytes and Remyelination
No full textPh.D.Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a central nervous system (CNS) disease, in which immune cells target and destroy oligodendrocyte lineage cells (OLCs) and the myelin they produce, causing multiple, focal demyelinated lesions. Myelin replacement can occur naturally via the recruitment of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) in a process known as remyelination. However, this process is incomplete in MS, becomes less efficient with chronic disease, and ultimately fails despite disease modifying drugs that prevent the infiltration of immune cells into the CNS. In order to understand why remyelination fails in MS, it is necessary to examine the intrinsic molecular signals involved in the progression of OLCs, as well as how they interact with other cell populations within demyelinated lesion microenvironments as remyelination progresses. In this dissertation, I utilized the ribosome tagging strategy, RiboTag, to fate map OLCs during development, adulthood, and post-demyelinating injury. Three distinct RiboTag lines were created utilizing Cre or inducible Cre-ERT recombinase controlled by the Cspg4 (NG2), Pdgfra, or Plp promoter. Using the Cspg4(NG2)Cre:Rpl22HA(RiboTag) line, I observed Rpl22HA expression in both OLCs and neurons during development, and in OLCs, microglia, and astrocytes following demyelinating injury. These results suggest the Cspg4 promoter is not specific to OLCs, and instead, is differentially activated in multiple CNS cell populations during development and under demyelinating injury. Using the inducible PdgfraCreERT:Rpl22HA line, I observed Rpl22HA labeling after tamoxifen administration specifically in OLCs in the homeostatic CNS and following demyelinating injury. Similarly, the inducible PlpCreERT:Rpl22HA line enabled Rpl22HA labeling after tamoxifen administration specifically in mature oligodendrocytes (OLs) in the homeostatic CNS and post-demyelinating injury. However, in all three lines, the Cre-mediated activation of Rpl22HA exhibited high sensitivity and labeled OLCs both throughout the CNS and inside the demyelinating lesion, making further investigations into the genetic complexities of OLCs involved in remyelination challenging. To characterize the gene expression profile of all cell types involved in the remyelination process, I conducted transcriptomic bioinformatic analysis following single nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNAseq) of lysolecithin-induced demyelinated lesions at time points corresponding to different stages of remyelination. Through my analyses, I established an understanding of the cell populations within a regenerating lesion microenvironment at the molecular level and observed detailed gene expression changes among major cell populations during remyelination. My findings confirmed previous research on the interactions between OLCs and other major cell types such as microglia, astrocytes, vascular and mesenchymal cells within the lesion microenvironment, while generating new insights on cell population shifts and dynamics within a remyelinating lesion. My results further suggest that OLC progression is mediated through a complex set of intrinsic transcriptional changes within recruited OPCs themselves, as well as extrinsic interactions with activated peripheral immune cells and CNS resident cells that are initiated at different stages of remyelination. I further investigated the potential to assess therapeutic interventions via snRNAseq through the analysis of transcriptomic changes in recruited OPCs and the lesion microenvironment with the pharmacological inhibition of Slc7a5, a neutral amino acid transporter, upregulated in myeloid cells following demyelination. Through my analyses, I found that pharmacological inhibition of Slc7a5 increased pro-regenerative myeloid cell profiles and shifted OLCs from a demyelination-associated to a homeostatic state. These results suggest that pharmacological inhibition of Slc7a5 may enhance remyelination by creating a more favorable lesion microenvironment through the reprogramming of myeloid cells. Future investigations into the intrinsic and extrinsic properties elucidated in this dissertation will inform treatment strategies aimed at promoting remyelination in individuals affected by MS