4 research outputs found
Valedictory Address: Deandra Lieberman
No full textValedictory Address given by Deandra Lieberman in the Spring of 2013
WACANA SPIRITUALITAS-HUMANIS DALAM NOVEL-NOVEL KARYA AYU UTAMI
No full textThis study utilizes the discourse theory of Michel Foucault’s perspective as a
knife of analysis. The study in this thesis encompasses several aspects, formulating a
series of production patterns of discursive formation texts by utilizing archeologygenealogy
methods; describes the present of ruptures (discontinuity) and the
formulation of a new episteme; and explains the power order and knowledge of
spirituality in Indonesia.
The results of the analysis in this thesis showed that the discourse of spirituality
in the novels by Ayu Utami was not actually apart from the traces of similar discourse
in Indonesia, especially in the era of New Order. By utilizing the archeology and
genealogy of Michel Foucault’s, this thesis has identified and interpreted a series of
discursive formations that indicated of ruptures (discontinuity). Based on the
archaeological readings of the seventh novel by Ayu Utami, three patterns of discursive
formation text formations are composed, such as "religious spirituality", "human
creation" and "Javanese spirituality". Based on the results of in-depth reading of the
discursive formation were found six ruptures as a marker of discontinuity. Some of
ruptures are influenced by the socio-cultural conditions as well as the ideas and
knowledge that prevailed at that time. The series of ruptures indicated a shift in the
episteme of the New Order era known as “ban” and “rejection” into the new episteme of
“acceptance”. While through the genealogical reading, the practice of exclusion and
inclusion has found in the discourse of spirituality in Indonesia, especially in the
beginning of New Order era. Prohibitions as a concept of exclusion arose in the form of
policies issued by the New Order government which required the community to
embrace one of the five recognized religions in Indonesia. Not recognizing the Javanese
Spirituality as a religion is also a concept of rejection. The idea of “right and wrong”
also comes through different sexual orientation that were previously considered as
abnormal or false. The form of inclusion that appears in the novels is the persistence of
spirituality movements in Indonesia. Based on archeology-genealogy readings, the
spirituality discourse that carried by Ayu Utami through her novels actualy was not only
trying to show the forms that have been understood by the community, but also present
the practices in criticizing, breaking and unraveling the understandings that admitted as
the only acceptable truth. Therefore, literary works has been proved to be not just a
fictional imaginative work resulting from a series of creative and intellectual processes
of the author in perceiving the socio-cultural conditions; more than that, literary work is
a reaction to the problematic things that occur in contextual reality that is considered as
alternative ideas in understanding a construction or related phenomenon
The role of prion protein glycosylation in prion propagation
No full text2018 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of neurodegenerative diseases that affect humans and animals alike. TSEs are caused by the accumulation of a disease producing isoform referred to as PrPSc that results from the misfolding of the normal cellular prion protein PrPC. The pathological outcomes of TSEs include amyloid plaque build-up and spongiform degeneration in the brain of infected hosts. Clinical signs of prion disease can vary between TSEs, but often include neurologic impairment that is subtle in onset and tends to progress slowly. Prion diseases are relatively recently discovered and have sparked much controversy due to the scientific findings that directly challenge some of the most well established scientific dogmas. Among these is that the infectious agent responsible for the transmission of TSEs is proteinacious in nature and devoid of the nucleic acids present in pathogens like viruses and bacteria. As a result of this hypothesis, both PrPC and PrPSc share the same amino acid sequence in the host. Therefore, central to our understanding of the prion hypothesis is to recognize the structural differences between PrPC and PrPSc. PrPC has been proven to include three α-helices and two, short β-pleated sheets whereas PrPSc consists of high β-sheet content, aggregates in the presence of detergents, and is resistant to protease treatment. These characteristics of PrPSc have inhibited researchers to successfully examine the abnormal isoform in high-resolution structural studies. Therefore, an alternative means of distinguishing PrPC and PrPSc is necessary. Since then, several groups have created monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that differentiate between infectious prion protein (PrP) aggregates. Two such mAbs, PRC5 and PRC7 were the first mAbs discovered in which the involvement of individual residues in functional, discontinuous, and conformationaly dependent epitopes was studied. Of these antibodies, PRC7, is dependent on N-linked glycosylation at mono-1 of the prion protein and specifically binds to the infected isoform of PrP. Therefore, we hypothesized that an underglycosylated form of PrP is preferentially generated during prion replication in the infected host. In this body of work, we have systemically ablated mono-1, one of the two N-linked glycan attachment sites on the murine prion protein to address the role of underglycosylation in prion propagation at N180 and at S/T182 of the consensus sequence by mutating N or S/T to each of the other 19 amino acids individually. Here we present novel evidence showing the effects of underglycosylation in prion propagation of prion isolates RML, 22L, 139A, and mCWD. These preliminary data demonstrate the importance of post-translational differences between PrPC and PrPSc which represent a fundamental, unresolved aspect of the prion hypothesis
