II. Journal articles

Marian Coredemption And Mediation In The Collection Of Marian Masses: Special Seasons

By Andrew L. Ouellette, MA, Department of Humanities

Journal article: Mariological Society Of America. Delivered May 19th, 2022.

Abstract: Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi. As this ancient adage reminds us of the interconnectedness of prayer, belief, and life, so too does it serve as a barometer to the Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as it is lived out in her liturgical celebrations. Following the directive of the Second Vatican Council that “the liturgical cult of the Blessed Virgin be generously fostered” (Lumen Gentium, 67), the Congregation for Divine Worship published, with the approval of Pope Saint John Paul II, published the Collectio Missarum de beata Maria Virgine on August 15, 1986. Continuing with the liturgical reform that followed the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Masses that make up this Collectio shed greater light on Mary’s role in the economy of salvation through the use of specific Marian titles, the typological significance of Mary as “the Chosen Daughter of Israel”, and in the euchological texts for the various feasts.

This paper attempts to highlight those prayers and readings within the Collectio that emphasize Mary’s divine and ecclesial maternity with an emphasis on her maternal role(s) as Coredemptrix and Mediatrix. By focusing especially (but not exclusively) on the readings and prayers for Masses such as Mary and the Annunciation, Mary at the Foot of the Cross (I and II), and Mary as Fountain of Light and Life, it is shown that these Masses of the current Roman liturgy emphasis a balance of Christotypical and ecclesiological Mariology that in no way devalues a theology of coredemption and mediation. Through the prayers and readings of the Collectio, our liturgical veneration of Mary in her pivotal role in the work of redemption and in the distribution of grace can serve as a vehicle of motivation for the members of the Church on earth to, likewise, participate in the divine economy as coredeemers and mediators. In addition to a survey of the prayers and readings of the liturgies within the Collectio, this paper also examines the history of the various feasts and titles of Mary within the Collectio, utilizing a hermeneutic of continuity that allows the liturgies of the past to inform the public worship of today.

Henry Adam’s Protean Views Of American Empire, 1890-1905

By Angel Cortes, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Journal of Gilded Age & Progressive Era 21 (2022): 168-181.

Abstract: In the history of the Gilded Age and its geopolitics, Henry Adams has a reputation for being an imperialist. While not universally subscribed to by historians, this characterization has waxed sufficiently as to eclipse Adams’s more complex, even contradictory, record on the American Empire. The evidence I will marshal will not prove that Adams was actually an anti-imperialist, but it will reveal the protean nature of Adams’s views of the American Empire. To get a grip on this relatively unexamined aspect of Adams’s thought, I will analyze his correspondence during the last decade of the nineteenth century in which he criticized the extension of American power across the Pacific, particularly in regard to its political economy, religion, and civilization. With the onset of the American Filipino War, Adams raged at the news of American atrocities. This paper shows that Adams’s outrage was part of an incipient civilizational ideology, one that neither materialized into an attachment to the anti-imperialist cause nor accepted the vaunted superiority of the West. Even though Adams possessed no principle to guide his thinking on the empire, his pessimistic evaluation of the extension of American power is enough to reconsider his reputation as an imperialist.

The Institution Of The Family And The Virtuous Society

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (India), Vol. 45, No. 3 (July-September 2020), 357-74.

Abstract: Ethical societies are composed of virtuous communities, supported by the social whole according to the principle of subsidiarity, and virtuous persons, ruled by just laws. The most important community in any society is the family; the foundation of the family is marriage. In traditional societies, although the institution of the family takes on various forms, it has ethical obligations and promotes the common good of society. Within liberal societies, marriage is transformed into a relationship between contracting individuals, who are free to choose the rules for their marriages. Because the liberal model of marriage is based on emotions, which frequently change, marriages are less stable and their ability to promote the good of society is diminished. Therefore, we should safeguard or recover the understanding and reality of the family as a social institution with ethical obligations. Members of liberal societies are not obligated to accept the liberal redefinition of marriage. Catholics can understand the cultivation of ethical societies as one way of responding to the universal call to holiness

Leadership, Management, And The Common Good

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Örtenblad, A. (eds) Professionalizing Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Abstract: The one essential property of a true profession is that, when practiced properly, it promotes the common good. Other attributes of occupations that have traditionally been regarded as professions are accidental properties. Because it possesses the one essential property, the occupation of leadership and management is a true profession theoretically. It is not generally taught and practiced as a true profession, however, because it is not generally understood to be a true profession. It is imperative that we understand, teach, and practice leadership and management as a true profession, so that leaders and managers can actualize their full potential to promote the common good. This is especially true at a time when some of the traditional professions are increasingly considered to be branches of business.

Integrating The Liberal And Practical Arts

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Catholic Social Science Review 23:75-92.

Abstract: Catholic colleges and universities should integrate liberal and practical education. John Henry Newman and Josef Pieper attempt, unsuccessfully, to distinguish the liberal and practical arts in terms of being ends in themselves versus having ends beyond themselves. Jacques Maritain, instead, advocates making all education liberal. The purpose of liberal education is to enable students to understand reality, so they can pursue happiness correctly. The purpose of practical education is to teach students how to earn a living virtuously. These purposes should not be separated. Students need courses that integrate a liberal arts discipline and a practical arts discipline within a single course.

Two Anthropological Errors According To Karol Wojtyla

By Adrian Reimers, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Philosophy and Canon Law, Silesian University, Katowice, Poland, 2021

Abstract: Throughout his philosophical writings and, indeed, into his papacy, Karol Wojtyła addresses and warns against two common errors in modern philosophy. The first is the reduction of our concept of reality to materialistic premises. In Love and Responsibility, he distinguishes the “biological order”, which is the order studied according to the canons of biological sciences, from the “order of being,” which is the order of reality knowable to metaphysics. This confusion leads to misunderstanding in ethics. The second error is complementary to the first and consists in what Wojtyła calls the “hypostatization of consciousness,” which is the reduction of personal experience entirely to the contents of consciousness. The historical roots of this error trace back to Descartes and his identification of himself as a “thinking thing,” whose body is simply an extended 3-dimensional solid in space and time. Both errors arise from a neglect or even a rejection of metaphysics, without which it is impossible to give an adequate account of the human being.

A Hidden Life Hides Too Much Of Franz Jägerstätter's Life

By Shawn T. Storer, M.Div., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Church Life Journal, University of Notre Dame McGrath Institue for Church Life, web published on February 18, 2020 (jointly published in print in The Catholic Worker)

Abstract: Article about the life and witness of the Catholic martyr and conscientious objector to the Nazis Blessed Franz Jägerstätter with an analysis of Terrence Malick's depiction of him in the film A Hidden Life.

Portrait Of The Writer As A Young Man: Thomas Merton’s Early Publications, 1931-1941

By Thomas T. Spencer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review. Vol. 46. No. 2 (Summer, 2021). 3-11

The Merton Seasonal - Volume 46 - Thomas Merton Center

Abstract: Thomas Merton is one of the most well-known spiritual writers of the twentieth century. In the 1930’s, prior to entering the Trappist Abbey at Gethsemani, Merton published essays, poems, cartoons, book reviews, short stories, commentaries, and letters to the editor in school and university publications, as well as national magazines and newspapers. These early writings are significant for collectively they show a young man evolving and maturing as a writer, writing for different audiences, and seeking to discover the direction his writing would take. These early years as a writer were transformative in helping him later become a successful and prolific spiritual writer.

They Were Mine And I Theirs: The Shared Vision Of Humanity Of Thomas Merton And Richard Wright

By Thomas T. Spencer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review. Vol 47. No. 1 (Spring, 2022), 14-18. The Merton Seasonal - Volume 47 - Thomas Merton Center

Abstract: Richard Wright, one of the foremost African American writers and novelists of the 1930’s and 1940’s, and Thomas Merton had much in common. They possessed a love for the vocation of writing and a commitment to promote through their writings the need for greater racial equality and justice. More significantly, they also shared a mystical, ideal vision of the unity of all people. Merton articulates this first in his famous recounting of an experience in downtown Louisville, as well as other writings, while Wright manifest it through his fiction, most notably a fictional character in his novel The Man Who Lived Underground. Although the two men never met or corresponded, Merton’s spiritual writings and Wright’s novels are remarkably similar in promoting the notion of the unity of all humankind. A look at each author’s works affirms they possessed a “shared vision of humanity.” Their writings remain relevant reading for today’s divided world.

Beneficial Effects Of Growth Mindset Of Intelligence And Growth Mindset Of Personality On Academic Achievement In School-Aged Children

By Cosette Fox, Ph.D. and Maria Barrera, Department of Social Sciences

Journal article: Pedagogical Contexts 2020, No. 2(15), ISSN 2300-6471 pp. 25–40,

Abstract: Multiple research studies revealed the benefits of adopting a growth mindset of intelligence for students of all ages. However, few studies have investigated the advantage of having a growth mindset of personality or having grit on academic performance. Therefore, this study investigated the influence of grit and implicit theories of intelligence and personality on academic performance in fifth through eighth-grade students. Our hypothesis is that a relatively higher level of grit as well as a growth mindset would result in better academic success. Students were tested in their respective classrooms using questionnaires for grit, mindset of intelligence and mindset of personality. Quarter grades and standardized scores were obtained for all students on topics such as English, reading, language, math and science. Growth mindset of intelligence and growth mindset of personality provided a selective advantage academically to students on classroom grades and on standardized testing, particularly in verbal areas such as English, reading and language. Furthermore, mindset of intelligence predicted significant change in standardized math scores. Grit did not affect academic performance. Our results suggest that educational institutions would benefit from mindset interventions promoting a growth mindset of intelligence and personality in students.

The Effect Of Sucrose And Stress On Male Participants’ Memory

By Cosette Fox, Ph.D. and Maria Barrera, Department of Social Sciences

Journal article: Michigan Academician XLVII (2021), 162–172

Abstract: Glucose has been shown to have a memory facilitating effect. The goal of this study is to test if sucrose, a carbohydrate consumed on a daily basis, would also enhance memory in male college students. Subjects were given either a sucrose (50 g) or a placebo drink (50.6 mg of saccharine). Subjects filled the Stress Indicator Questionnaire that measures five stress indicators: physical, sleep, behavioral, emotional, and personal habits. A slideshow of 52 IAPS pictures were then shown to the subjects followed by immediate and delayed recall tests and a recognition test. Even though we found no direct effect of sucrose on memory, the results showed that high fasting blood glucose level is associated with lower recognition memory. Furthermore, high sleep stress enhanced memory for immediate recall. On the other hand, high behavioral stress was detrimental for delayed recall and recognition. The differential effects of the different indicators of stress on memory is discussed in relation to changes in cortisol levels that may result in modulation of blood glucose levels which in turn can affect memory. The results of this study shed light on the effect of different types of stress and fasting glucose levels on memory.

Growth Mindset And Responses To Acute Stress.

By Fischer, E., Fox, C., Ph.D. & Yoon, L., Department of Social Sciences

Article: Manuscript submitted for publication. Cognition and Emotion Journal

Let's Read A Story!: Collaborative Meaning Making, Student Engagement, And Vocabulary Building Through The Use Of Interactive Read-Alouds

By S. Helbig, MA and S.V. Piazza, Department of Social Sciences

Journal article: Michigan Reading Journal, 53(1), 6.

Abstract:The interactive read-aloud has long been a practice during early literacy instruction in schools and in homes. Reading aloud to children provides a platform for teachers or caregivers to model meaning-making interactions with text. Students are able to collaboratively engage in conversations to create a collective understanding of texts. Interactions during a read-aloud can foster engagement, create meaning, and promote vocabulary acquisition. This article examines current research that supports the use of interactive read alouds to engage learners in meaning-making processes and translates research and theory into practical recommendations for effective interactive read-alouds.

Freidrich Froebel (1782-1852)

By Shaya Helbig, MA and Laura Teichert, Department of Social Sciences

Article: In The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers, Geier, B.A. (eds). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Abstract: Friedrich Froebel was a German pedagogue working at the dawn of the nineteenth century and best known as the architect of kindergarten, in both design and name. Trained by Johann Pestalozzi and influenced by Jean Jacques Rousseau, Froebel helped to lay the foundation for modern education with his educational tome, Education of Man (1826). His writings have influenced how childhood is viewed and valued as he emphasized the unique needs and capabilities of young children. He advocated for a child-centered approach to learning and that play was fundamental in supporting children’s learning and development. He introduced the gifts (block play) and occupations (hands-on activities and songs), which were designed to support children’s autonomous learning, and remain key activities in contemporary early childhood education. At a time when women could not vote, Froebel advocated for women by championing their intellect and for their right to work outside the home as teachers of young children. He created training centers and supported women’s role in education as necessary. This led to women becoming agents of change for their gender, which ultimately led to female access to capital, informal and formal female networks, and a measure of authority. Ultimately, Friedrich Froebel is a chief architect of modern early childhood education and, almost 200 years later, his contributions remain present in early childhood classrooms.

Preschool Children’s Perspectives On What Writing Is

By Shaya Helbig, MA, and Laura Teichert, Department of Social Sciences

Article: The Third International Conference on Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, Indiana University School of Education October 15, 2022

Abstract: This exploratory case study investigated preschool children’s understanding of the purpose of writing. Multiple focus group interviews were held with four, four-year-old children in a midwestern US charter school. Currently, curriculum and policy emphasize writing as cognitive skills associated with handwriting and spelling. Emergent writing is defined as code-dependent (Common Core, 2010). References to the message (i.e., purpose) are done so in relation to encoding skills (MAISA, 2016). Socially constructed perspectives of emergent writing focus on the co-construction of meaning and expression through writing (Wells Rowe, 2019). Research from this paradigm has described two-yearold children assigning meaning and articulating what their marks represent (Wells Rowe, 2008). The following research questions guided the study: How do these children assign purpose to writing? How do these children define writing? Data sources included focus group transcripts, video recordings, and participants’ artifacts. Data was analyzed using open codes to develop themes (Frost, 2011). Findings showed children eagerly engaged in drawing activities but lacked an awareness of the purpose of writing. They described writing as putting their name on a page or something a grown-up does. One child, however, understood the notion of message or purpose when attributed to drawing. She drew a dinosaur “to scare” the researcher. More commonly, children described writing in opposition to another skill. Writing was “not tracing—” a skill commonly encountered by these children as they completed handwriting worksheets. When shown photographs of people doing different writing or drawing activities, children could identify different objects in the photos, like “house” or “letters,” but were unable to identify the house as drawing and the letters as writing. Although the participants were young and may well develop an awareness of purpose, we wonder if the over-emphasis on measurable, discrete skills marginalizes children’s budding awareness to the reasons people write.

The West Is Rejecting Christianity And Sliding Relentlessly Toward Communism

By Deborah Arangno, Ph.D., Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Op Ed: LifeSiteNews.com, June 2022

Abstract: Socialism is the politics of envy, an ideology founded on an essential contempt for humanity, therefore by nature it is hostile to the Judeo-Christianity identity of the West. Yet it has become heretical to question the foundational dogmas of Socialism, lest we appear scientifically ignorant, backward, or religiously fanatical.

On Pathological Science: Darwinian Evolution And The Devaluing Of Man

By Deborah Arangno, Ph.D., Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Op Ed: LifeSiteNews.com, May 2021

Abstract: Questions regarding such theories as the origins of the universe, the emergence of life on earth, the meaning of human existence, and the concept of personhood are more pivotal to contemporary intellectual thought than ever before. These questions, which form the undergirding platform for the most existential controversies of our time, and the inevitable answers to these questions, wield momentous implications and consequences for science, technology, and society as a whole, profoundly impacting civilization and humanity itself.

In 1953, Nobel laureate Irving Langmuir coined the expression “Pathological Science” as the “science of things that aren’t so”. Nowhere is this more applicable theory than Darwin’s theory of evolution. Today, in academia and throughout all public discourse, Darwin’s theory is presented as fact, something clearly and definitively known by scientific authority – it is never questioned, never referred to as a hypothesis. From elementary school through college, students are indoctrinated by the dogma’s tenets, they are required to memorize its particulars and to recite its details on exams and in oral presentations without scrutiny or critical analysis.

Darwin claims that an accumulation of slight differences through natural selection and mutation can produce the enormous differences among living things. But where is the evidence of such a claim? There are no facts to support Darwin’s claim. There is not even one example of a 'missing link.'

Mathematical Structures Applied To Metaethical Dialectics

By D.C. Arangno, Ph.D. and L.M. Arangno, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Philosophia, 50 (4):1563-1577, Springer 2022

Abstract: This paper seeks to utilize mathematical methods to formally define and analyze the metaethical theory that is ethical reductionism. In contemporary metaethics, realist-antirealist debates center on the ontology of moral properties. Our research reflects an innovative methodology using methods from Graph Theory to clarify a debated position of Meta-Ethics, previously encumbered by intrinsic vagueness and ambiguity. We employ rigorous mathematical formalism to symbolize, parse, and thus disambiguate, particular philosophical questions regarding ethical ontological materialism of the reductionist variety. In this paper, we seek to revisit the once vexed question regarding the multiple-realizability of moral properties by employing the mathematical machinery of hypergraphs and category theory. The utilization of Mathematical formalism offers explanatory flexibility specifically to the hypothesis that there are potentially an infinite number of unrelated subvening facts which may constitute supervening moral properties. We by no means have attempted to settle the argument on the side of naturalism, but have only identified an obstacle to rigorous argumentation, and pioneered a method to eliminate it. We hope our research will be of interest to both the Analytic Philosophy and the Applied Mathematics communities, and will help facilitate discussions of metaethics, particularly pertaining to ethical naturalism. We believe there is much research yet to be done.

Mathematical Realism: From Intuition To Esoterica

By Deborah Arangno, Ph.D., Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Article: Academia Letters, Academia.edu, Article 925

Abstract: There continues to be a vibrant debate whether Mathematics exists as a body of knowledge only within the Human mind, a fabrication or invention of the Human intellect without any extrinsic reality, or whether it exists as some abstract truth to be discovered. This paper will argue that on the one hand the information gleaned from the process of science, namely knowledge, is intrinsically approximative, given the protean nature of the material character upon which this knowledge is based, whereas mathematics is that rational order undergirding the very material world we experience, in fact the structure of reality itself, to which we are privy due to a ratiocinative capacity of the Human intellect. When we study mathematics, we begin to understand the intrinsic relationship between facts and wisdom.

Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae Newly Released (Nrel) From Biofilms By Antibody-Mediated Dispersal Versus Antibody-Mediated Disruption Are Phenotypically Distinct

By Elaine Mokrzan, Ph.D., et. al, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Biofilm. 2020 Nov 18;2:100039.

Abstract: Biofilms contribute significantly to the chronicity and recurrence of bacterial diseases due to the fact that biofilm-resident bacteria are highly recalcitrant to killing by host immune effectors and antibiotics. Thus, antibody-mediated release of bacteria from biofilm residence into the surrounding milieu supports a powerful strategy to resolve otherwise difficult-to-treat biofilm-associated diseases. In our prior work, we revealed that antibodies directed against two unique determinants of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) [e.g. the Type IV pilus (T4P) or a bacterial DNABII DNA-binding protein, a species-independent target that provides structural integrity to bacterial biofilms] release biofilm-resident bacteria via discrete mechanisms. Herein, we now show that the phenotype of the resultant newly released (or NRel) NTHI is dependent upon the specific mechanism of release. We used flow cytometry, proteomic profiles, and targeted transcriptomics to demonstrate that the two NRel populations were significantly different not only from planktonically grown NTHI, but importantly, from each other despite genetic identity. Moreover, each NRel population had a distinct, significantly increased susceptibility to killing by either a sulfonamide or -lactam antibiotic compared to planktonic NTHI, an observation consistent with their individual proteomes and further supported by relative differences in targeted gene expression. The distinct phenotypes of NTHI released from biofilms by antibodies directed against specific epitopes of T4P or DNABII binding proteins provide new opportunities to develop targeted therapeutic strategies for biofilm eradication and disease resolution.

Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae Responds To Virus-Infected Cells With A Significant Increase In Type Iv Pilus Expression

By Elaine Mokrzan, Ph.D., et. al, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: mSphere. 2020 5(3): e00384-20.

Abstract: Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) colonizes the human nasopharynx, but when the host immune response is dysregulated by upper respiratory tract (URT) virus infection, NTHI can gain access to more distal airway sites and cause disease. The NTHI type IV pilus (T4P) facilitates adherence, benign colonization, and infection, and its majority subunit PilA is in clinical trials as a vaccinogen. To further validate the strategy of immunization with PilA against multiple NTHI-induced diseases, it is important to demonstrate T4P expression under microenvironmental conditions that predispose to NTHI infection of the airway. Because URT infection commonly facilitates NTHI-induced diseases, we examined the influence of ongoing virus infection of respiratory tract epithelial cells on NTHI T4P expression in vitro Polarized primary human airway epithelial cells (HAEs) were sequentially inoculated with one of three common URT viruses, followed by NTHI. Use of a reporter construct revealed that NTHI upregulated pilA promoter activity when cultured with HAEs infected with adenovirus (AV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or rhinovirus (RV) versus that in mock-infected HAEs. Consistent with these results, pilA expression and relative PilA/pilin abundance, as assessed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunoblot, respectively, were also significantly increased when NTHI was cultured with virus-infected HAEs. Collectively, our data strongly suggest that under conditions of URT virus infection, PilA vaccinogen induction of T4P-directed antibodies is likely to be highly effective against multiple NTHI-induced diseases by interfering with T4P-mediated adherence. We hypothesize that this outcome could thereby limit or prevent the increased load of NTHI in the nasopharynx that characteristically precedes these coinfections. IMPORTANCE Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) is the predominant bacterial causative agent of many chronic and recurrent diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tracts. NTHI-induced chronic rhinosinusitis, otitis media, and exacerbations of cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often develop during or just after an upper respiratory tract viral infection. We have developed a vaccine candidate immunogen for NTHI-induced diseases that targets the majority subunit (PilA) of the type IV twitching pilus (T4P), which NTHI uses to adhere to respiratory tract epithelial cells and that also plays a role in disease. Here, we showed that NTHI cocultured with virus-infected respiratory tract epithelial cells express significantly more of the vaccine-targeted T4P than NTHI that encounters mock-infected (healthy) cells. These results strongly suggest that a vaccine strategy that targets the NTHI T4P will be effective under the most common predisposing condition: when the human host has a respiratory tract virus infection.

In Vivo Selection Of Highly Metastatic Human Ovarian Cancer Sublines Reveals Role For Amigo2 In Intra-Peritoneal Metastatic Regulation

By Y. Liu, J. Yang, Aris Alexandrou, Ph.D. et. al, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Cancer Letters. S0304-3825(21)00048-3, 2021 (PMID: 33524500)

Circadian Protein, Period2, Regulates Low Dose Adaptive Radioprotection Via Per2/Pgsk3b/B-Catenin/Per2 Loop

By Aris Alexandrou, Ph.D., Y. Duan, S. Xu, et. al, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: iScience, Science Direct, Vol 25, Issue 12, 2022

Abstract: Radiosensitivity of mammalian cells varies in the circadian period and adaptive radioprotection can be induced by pre-exposure to low-level radiation (LDR). It is unclear, however, if clock proteins participate in signaling LDR radioprotection. Herein, we demonstrate that radiosensitivity is increased in mice with the deficient Period 2 gene (Per2def) due to impaired DNA repair and mitochondrial function in progenitor bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells and monocytes. Per2 induction and radioprotection are also identified in LDR-treated Per2wt mouse cells and in human skin (HK18) and breast (MCF10A) epithelial cells. LDR-boosted PER2 interacts with pGSK3 (S9) which activates -catenin and the LEF/TCF mediated gene transcription including Per2 and genes involved in DNA repair and mitochondrial functions. This study demonstrates that PER2 plays an active role in LDR adaptive radioprotection via PER2/pGSK3 / -catenin/Per2 loop, a potential target for protecting normal cells from radiation injury.

Reversal Symmetries For Cyclic Paths Away From Thermodynamic Equilibrium

By J. W. Biddle, Ph.D. and J. Gunawardena, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Phys. Rev. E 101, 062125 (2020).

Abstract: If a system is at thermodynamic equilibrium, an observer cannot tell whether a film of it is being played forward or in reverse: any transition will occur with the same frequency in the forward as in the reverse direction. However, if expenditure of energy changes the rate of even a single transition to yield a nonequilibrium steady state, such time-reversal symmetry undergoes a widespread breakdown, far beyond the point at which the energy is expended. An explosion of interdependency also arises, with steady-state probabilities of system states depending in a complicated manner on the rate of every transition in the system. Nevertheless, in the midst of this global nonequilibrium complexity, we find that cyclic paths have reversibility properties that remain local, and which can exhibit symmetry, no matter how far the system is from thermodynamic equilibrium. Specifically, given any cycle of reversible transitions, the ratio of the frequencies with which the cycle occurs in one direction versus the other is determined, in the longtime limit, only by the thermodynamic force on the cycle itself, without requiring knowledge of transition rates elsewhere in the system. In particular, if there is no net energy expenditure on the cycle, then, over long times, the cycle occurrence frequencies are the same in either direction.

Allosteric Conformational Ensembles Have Unlimited Capacity For Integrating Information.

By J. W. Biddle, Ph.D., R. Martinez-Corral, et. Al, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: eLife 10, e65498 (2021)

Abstract: Integration of binding information by macromolecular entities is fundamental to cellular functionality. Recent work has shown that such integration cannot be explained by pairwise cooperativities, in which binding is modulated by binding at another site. Higher-order cooperativities (HOCs), in which binding is collectively modulated by multiple other binding events, appear to be necessary but an appropriate mechanism has been lacking. We show here that HOCs arise through allostery, in which effective cooperativity emerges indirectly from an ensemble of dynamically interchanging conformations. Conformational ensembles play important roles in many cellular processes but their integrative capabilities remain poorly understood. We show that sufficiently complex ensembles can implement any form of information integration achievable without energy expenditure, including all patterns of HOCs. Our results provide a rigorous biophysical foundation for analysing the integration of binding information through allostery. We discuss the implications for eukaryotic gene regulation, where complex conformational dynamics accompanies widespread information integration.

Thermodynamic Bounds On Ultrasensitivity In Covalent Switching

By Jeremy A. Owen*, Pranay Talla*, John W. Biddle, Ph.D., and Jeremy Gunawardena, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Submitted to the Biophysical Journal (manuscript under revision).

Abstract: Switch-like motifs are among the basic building blocks of biochemical networks. A common motif that can serve as an ultrasensitive switch consists of two enzymes acting antagonistically on a substrate, one making and the other removing a covalent modification. To work as a switch, such covalent modification cycles must be held out of thermodynamic equilibrium by continuous expenditure of energy. However, a quantitative understanding of this energy requirement is lacking. Here, we exploit the linear framework for timescale separation to estab- lish tight bounds on the performance of any covalent-modification switch, in terms of the chemical potential difference driving the cycle. The bounds apply to arbitrary enzyme mechanisms, not just Michaelis-Menten, with arbitrary kinetic rates and thereby reect fundamental physical constraints on covalent switching.

Faculty-Advisor Relationship Impact On Student Pathways To It Careers/Education

By Matthew Cloud, MS, BME, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Journal article: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 37(4), 79-79, 2021.

Abstract: How do faculty and academic advisor relationships affect students in their decision-making process for careers and education choices in IT? We will explore findings from interviews of faculty and advisors for 8 Computer Science/ Information Technology programs at 18 campuses across Indiana in the Ivy Tech Community College on why students follow the paths they do, as well as the challenges and successes of advising within a community college.

Python, Devnet And The Cloud

By Cloud, Matthew, MS, BME

Journal article: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges 35.5 (2019): 116-116.

Abstract: Learn how to get started with Python and the CISCO DevNet workshops for your classroom and why they are important. Understand how to work with AWS Cloud 9, DevNet, Python IDLE design environments and how they play into the future of networking and cybersecurity. Develop demo Python programs on API integration with chatbots and see how it can work with Big Data in real time.

Complaint As Reconciliation In The Literary Mission Of Robert Southwell

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Precarious Identities: Studies in the Work of Fulke Grevel and Robert Southwell, 172–204. Edited by Vassiliki Markidou and Afroditi-Maria Panaghis. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2020.

Abstract: This essay explores St. Robert Southwell’s use of the popular English literary mode of complaint mode in his devotional poetry as strategy for reaching Protestant readers. In doing so, it corrects several misconceptions about Southwell that confine his target audience to persecuted Catholics and that connect his literary methodology to continental Europe, while also highlighting more broadly the neglected importance of English complaint poetry during the Renaissance period. Ultimately it shows the way Southwell capitalizes on the characteristic agony and suspense of the complaint mode as a self-conscious strategy to reach his Protestant readers during a period of intense religious turmoil.

St. Ignatius In The Affective School Of Ludolph Of Saxony

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 53.3 (Fall, 2021): 1–39.

Abstract: This article, published in the premier journal of Jesuit studies, is the most comprehensive study to date of the pervading influence of the medieval Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi on the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Because of a misplaced value of originality, Jesuit scholars have mostly neglected the obvious importance of the work that inspired the conversion of their founder. This article not only demonstrates that Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises are in fact of a systemization of the affective devotional method he encountered in the Vita, but uses those insights to shed new light into some controversies surrounding the interpretation of the Exercises, specifically in the role of the Contemplation to Attain Love and the purpose of the Fourth Week.

Passions And The Passion: Robert Southwell’s Mary Magdalene

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Studies in Philology 121.1 (Winter, 2024) (accepted, forthcoming).

Abstract: This article explores the Jesuit martyr and poet St. Robert Southwell’s innovated approach to human emotions through the character of Mary Magdalene. While uniquely combining the topics of continental baroque poetry of the Catholic Reformation with the literary tastes of his English Protestant contemporaries, Southwell radically pushes against the neo-Stoic approaches to human passion in the consolation literature on both sides of the confessional lines. This article is the most comprehensive study ever written on Mary Magdalens Funerall Teares, Southwell’s most popular prose work that was published in eleven editions during the early modern period, in England and abroad.

Finding Bede In The Lindisfarne Gospels: Aldred The Scribe And 'Beda Ðe Broema Boecere'

By Chris Scheirer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: forthcoming in Journal of English and Germanic Philology

Abstract: Aldred, scribe and priest of the community of St. Cuthbert at Chesterle-Street, is well known for his provision of a full interlinear English gloss into the magnificent book known as the "Lindisfarne" Gospels. His gloss is an invaluable source for the study of the history of Old English, and has rightly attracted much interest from scholars seeking to understand its grammatical and linguistic features. However, in addition to the interlinear gloss, Aldred also added into the book a number of longer marginal annotations which expand on or respond to the Scripture text in interesting ways. These marginal annotations have received comparatively little attention; in particular, with the exception of W. J. P. Boyd's important 1975 study, the sources upon which Aldred drew for his glossing activity is a subject whose parameters remain poorly defined. One thing, however, is clear — that Aldred honored Bede as a voice of authority, and cited him explicitly in his marginal gloss to John 19.38. Yet where precisely among Bede's works Aldred drew this reference is a question that has hitherto eluded identification. Presently, no serious suggestion has been offered. I argue here that the source may be confidently identified as Bede's poem De die iudicii. This identification, I further suggest, can be connected to Aldred’s poetic activity elsewhere in the book, notably in his colophon at the end of St. John's gospel, and enlarges our ability to see him as a scribe/scholar deeply sensitive to the ability of poetry to express divine revelation and one who stands as a type of poet in his own right.

Carmina Spoliata: Late-Antique Inscriptional Verse In The Poetry Of Bede

By Chris Scheirer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Conference paper: forthcoming in conference proceedings to be published by ARC Humanities Press

Pietas: A Case For Ethical Patriotism In Aquinas

By Theresa MacArt, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: Journal of Politics 84.1 (January 2022): 541-553

Abstract:Contemporary models of patriotism struggle to reconcile robust political partiality with universal norms of justice. This article defends an alternative account of ethical patriotism based on Thomas Aquinas’s virtue of pietas, or dutiful respect towards country and fellow citizens. Aquinas’s sensitivity to the sociopolitical context of human development leads him to defend patriotism as an associative obligation. Yet he avoids the moral particularism or skepticism characteristic of most defenses of strong patriotism by presenting norms of justice as preconditions of common life, upon which the long-term stability of positive law depends. Consequently, the virtue of pietas takes an aspirational form; it aims not to preserve a flawed status quo, but to preserve political features that give distinctive shape to a political community while simultaneously pressing the regime to reground positive laws on a foundation of natural right.

Aquinas’s Theology Of Politics

By Theresa MacArt, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Article: Public Discourse (Oct. 19, 2022).

Abstract: William McCormick, SJ, has written a new and welcome interpretation of Thomas Aquinas as a political thinker. His reading of Aquinas suggests that the political common good, as an intermediary between human and divine things, is a subject for ongoing inquiry, sensitive to the exigencies of a fallen world. McCormick holds that the “pedagogy of politics” unfolds teleologically as a community—in and through common deliberation and action—comes to greater knowledge of itself and its own ends.

Not For Ourselves Alone

By Theresa MacArt, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Article: Virtue 7 (Winter 2021): 3.

Abstract: This piece was solicited by the journal editor for a special issue on the cardinal virtues. The brief essay reflects on the virtue of justice, and the way in which its other-directed nature cuts against contemporary individualist impulses. From the moment of our birth we are embedded in networks of relationships with others to whom we naturally owe duties and debts. I conclude with some reflections on how classical schools can contribute to formation in the virtue of justice.

The Life Of The Church Fathers: The Illative Sense And Personal Influence In Newman’s University

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Journal article: A Word in Season, the Journal of the St. John Henry Newman Association of America

Abstract: In this paper, I examine how the Church Fathers influenced Newman’s understanding of personal influence, and the role it played in developing the illative sense of students at a university. From his reading of the Greek Fathers such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, Newman came to a deeper appreciation of the Incarnation and was able to develop his theory of personal influence. In his analysis of the life of St. Augustine, Newman came to see that the love of God provides the students the capabilities of judging matters both in terms of mind and heart. By means of these two insights, Newman tried to educate the whole person. Thus, I argue that Newman sought to show how faculty must personally influence their students by means of the love of Christ so that they can train their illative sense and form communities of love.