The New Monumental Era: Daniel Webster and the Commemoration of Compromise in the Age of Disunion, 1853-1865

Professional Paper 1: This professional paper is an in-depth analysis of a statue of Daniel Webster erected in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1859. Daniel Webster was a congressman for Massachusetts who became a controversial figure after he spoke in support of the Fugitive Slave Law as part of the Compromise of 1850. This paper analyzes the Daniel Webster statue and argues that the fractured politics of Union politicized public commemoration in the late antebellum period after the Compromise of 1850. This paper furthermore analyzes one of the first debates surrounding the public commemoration of a controversial historical actor with close ties to the perpetuation of American slavery. The Daniel Webster statue was part of a mass movement to commemorate and celebrate America’s past heroes from the revolutionary generation and the recent past. The monied aristocracy in Boston viewed the statue as an emblem of nationalist pride and unity in the months leading up to the war. Meanwhile, Garrisonian abolitionists contested the politics of commemoration and moral physical boundaries in antebellum American cities such as Boston. Southern politicians also debated the significance of the Webster state and engaged in rituals of the public commemoration. This professional paper is an important contribution to the historical scholarship on statues, memorials, and the politicization of memory. Furthermore, it encourages historians to analyze how memorials fit into the politics of union and democratic practices of the late antebellum period. Monuments and other forms of public commemoration are deeply connected to moral about the political economy of slavery. Professional Paper 2: This professional paper analyzes the history of the Virginian oyster industry over the course of the long nineteenth century. It argues that the Virginia state legislature debated and ultimately implemented protectionist economic policies aimed to guard the state from Northern exploitation. To make Virginia more commercially independent, policymakers determined that the taxation, policing, and strict regulation of state-owned oyster beds would facilitate the revenue necessary for industrial modernization. This essay adopts the oyster commodity as its focus to analyze the Southern political economy of the late antebellum period and postbellum period. This exploration of the oyster commodity reveals how sectionalism impacted the relationship between Southern agricultural goods and Northern businesses and consumers. This paper also argues that Virginia’s oyster industry and state regulations relied on the threatened use of violence. The Virginia oyster police shows that the American regulatory state in the nineteenth century not only relied on matters of property and law, but also state-sanctioned violence. This professional paper contributes to scholarship on Virginian and Southern history. It also engages with scholarship on the Southern political economy in the nineteenth century

“I STILL LIVE!” DANIEL WEBSTER AND THE POLITICS OF COMMEMORATION IN THE AGE OF DISUNION

This dissertation explores the political afterlife of American statesman Daniel Webster (1782- 1852) from 1852 to 1865. It explores two distinct yet interconnected theaters of politics in antebellum America: the politics of memory and the politics of commemoration. Webster’s followers engaged in the politics of memory by resurrecting their statesman in the national arena. Defenders, detractors, and partisans contested Webster’s memory to claim power and legitimacy during the sectional crisis in the 1850s and during the Civil War in the 1860s. The physical monument in Boston was the epicenter for a second political theater, the politics of commemoration. Following the statesman’s death in 1852, one hundred of the most powerful men in Massachusetts formed the Webster Memorial Committee to erect a bronze statue. The monument-building process¾organization, funding, and placement¾invited political contestation. Unionists, abolitionists, Black petitioners, German immigrants, female activists, and party politicians all contested the monument. They debated whether Daniel Webster, a northern doughface, was worthy of a public monument in Boston, Massachusetts, the epicenter of abolitionism in the Civil War North. This dissertation argues that Webster’s contested memory and monument constituted a distinct sphere of politics in the Age of Disunion. Here, antebellum Americans contested core components of early American democracy. They debated whether the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law were necessary to preserving the Union. They debated the nature of the Union and how to best preserve liberty. They clashed over whether to obey the U.S. Constitution or disregard the law for the sake of freedom. Competing visions of democracy clashed around Webster’s memory generally, and his monument specifically. Pundits mustered Webster’s memory to exert political power during a of prolonged national crisis

Biomarkers and Cellular Biology in Perioperative Medicine.

Surgical procedures alter tissue integrity; are associated with pain and activation of the sympathetic nervous system; and sometimes, cause exposure to foreign materials used during the surgery or implanted perioperatively [...]

Adaptive Lerngraphen im Digitalen Klassenzimmer: Synchrones Distanzlernen mit ASYMPTOTE

Mit der COVID-19-Pandemie und dem plötzlich erforderlichen Distanzunterricht im Frühjahr 2020 wurden verschiedenste Defizite in der digitalen Schulbildung sichtbar. So sahen sich viele Lehrkräfte mit mangelnder technischer Ausstattung als auch der fehlenden technischen Ausbildung konfrontiert (Forsa, 2020). Des Weiteren konnten sie nur auf ein unzureichendes Angebot an digitalen Lernplattformen zurückgreifen und berichteten von einem vermehrten Einsatz von Reproduktionsaufgaben (Barlovits et al., 2021). Sprunghaft rückte die Nutzung und Entwicklung von digitalen Lernplattformen in den vergangenen Jahren sowohl in den öffentlichen als auch den politischen Fokus (WELT, 2020). In einer Bestandsaufnahme einiger bestehender Lernplattformen von Thurm und Graewert (2022) wurde allerdings deutlich, dass das volle Potential von digitalen Lernangeboten bei weitem nicht ausgenutzt wird und auch in der Qualität der Lernangebote teils gravierende Unterschiede bestehen. Thurm und Graewert (2022) fordern daher eine Weiterentwicklung der digitalen Lehr-/Lernumgebungen beziehungsweise eine Neuentwicklung dieser unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener Kriterien. Zu Letzteren gehören mitunter die Qualität der Aufgaben in Bezug auf mögliche Aufgabenformate, die Qualität der Diagnostik, die Adaptivität an die Lernenden, soziales Lernen in Form von Teamarbeit sowie Teamkommunikation und nicht zuletzt die Möglichkeiten der Eigenregulation. Mit dem Wissen um diese Anforderungen für digitale Lernplattformen stellen wir das Projekt ASYMPTOTE und das gleichnamige System für synchrones Distanzlernen vor

Heme oxygenase-1 modulates CD62E-dependent endothelial cell–monocyte interactions and mitigates HLA-I-induced transplant vasculopathy in mice

The main risk factor for developing transplant vasculopathy (TV) after solid organ transplantation is de-novo production of donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) binding to endothelial cells (ECs) within the graft’s vasculature. Diverse leukocyte populations recruited into the vessel wall via activated ECs contribute to vascular inflammation. Subsequent smooth muscle cell proliferation results in intima hyperplasia, the pathophysiological correlate of TV. We demonstrated that incubating aortic EC with anti-HLA-I antibodies led to increased monocyte adhesion to and transmigration across an EC monolayer. Both occurred in a CD62E-dependent fashion and were sensitive toward the anti-inflammatory enzyme heme oxygenase (HO)-1 modulation. Using a murine heterotopic aortic transplantation model, we demonstrated that anti-MHC I antibody-induced TV is ameliorated by pharmacologically induced HO-1 and the application of anti-CD62E antibodies results in a deceleration of developing TV. HO-1 modulation is a promising therapeutic approach to prevent leukocyte recruitment and subsequent intima hyperplasia in TV and thus precludes organ failure

Intranasal lidocaine administration via mucosal atomization device : a simple and successful treatment for postdural puncture headache in obstetric patients

(1) Background: Postdural puncture headache (PDPH) remains a serious complication in obstetric patients. While the epidural blood patch represents the current gold standard in therapy, a growing number of alternative measures are thought to be beneficial for clinical management. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze the efficacy of intranasal lidocaine administration to treat PDPH in obstetrics at our university hospital; (2) Methods: A retrospective analysis of the medical records of patients with PDPH has been performed focusing on the techniques of administration, dosing, treatment duration, impact on pain intensity as well as side effects of intranasal lidocaine; (3) Results: During the study period, 5610 obstetric patients received neuraxial anesthesia, of whom 43 (0.77%) developed PDPH. About one third of the patients with PDPH after spinal anesthesia (n = 8), epidural anesthesia (n = 5) or both (n = 2) were treated with intranasal lidocaine. Lidocaine was administered either via gauze compresses (GC, n = 4), a mucosal atomization device (MAD, n = 8) or with a second-line mucosal atomization device due to low gauze compress efficacy (n = 3). All patients treated with lidocaine refused the epidural blood patch. Nebulization of lidocaine resulted in a significant reduction in pain intensity after the first dose (p = 0.008). No relevant side effects developed except sporadic temporal pharyngeal numbness. The utilization of the mucosal atomization device averted the necessity for an epidural blood patch, whether employed as the primary or secondary approach; (4) Conclusions: Our data imply that the mucosal atomization device enhances the efficacy of intranasal lidocaine administration in obstetric patients suffering from PDPH

Intravenous Sphingosylphosphorylcholine Protects Ischemic and Postischemic Myocardial Tissue in a Mouse Model of Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

HDL, through sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), exerts direct cardioprotective effects on ischemic myocardium. It remains unclear whether other HDL-associated sphingophospholipids have similar effects. We therefore examined if HDL-associated sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC) reduces infarct size in a mouse model of transient myocardial ischemia/reperfusion. Intravenously administered SPC dose-dependently reduced infarct size after 30 minutes of myocardial ischemia and 24 hours reperfusion compared to controls. Infarct size was also reduced by postischemic, therapeutical administration of SPC. Immunohistochemistry revealed reduced polymorphonuclear neutrophil recruitment to the infarcted area after SPC treatment, and apoptosis was attenuated as measured by TUNEL. In vitro, SPC inhibited leukocyte adhesion to TNFα-activated endothelial cells and protected rat neonatal cardiomyocytes from apoptosis. S1P3 was identified as the lysophospholipid receptor mediating the cardioprotection by SPC, since its effect was completely absent in S1P3-deficient mice. We conclude that HDL-associated SPC directly protects against myocardial reperfusion injury in vivo via the S1P3 receptor

Acute perioperative-stress-induced increase of atherosclerotic plaque volume and vulnerability to rupture in apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice is amenable to statin treatment and IL-6 inhibition

Myocardial infarction and stroke are frequent after surgical procedures and consume a considerable amount of benefit of surgical therapy. Perioperative stress, induced by surgery, is composed of hemodynamic and inflammatory reactions. The effects of perioperative stress on atherosclerotic plaques are ill-defined. Murine models to investigate the influence of perioperative stress on plaque stability and rupture are not available. We developed a model to investigate the influence of perioperative stress on plaque growth and stability by exposing apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice, fed a high cholesterol diet for 7 weeks, to a double hit consisting of 30 min of laparotomy combined with a substantial blood loss (approximately 20% of total blood volume; 400 µl). The innominate artery was harvested 72 h after the intervention. Control groups were sham and baseline controls. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and serum amyloid A (SAA) plasma levels were determined. Plaque load, vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) and macrophage content were quantified. Plaque stability was assessed using the Stary score and frequency of signs of plaque rupture were assessed. High-dose atorvastatin (80 mg/kg body weight/day) was administered for 6 days starting 3 days prior to the double hit. A single dose of an IL-6-neutralizing antibody or the fusion protein gp130-Fc selectively targeting IL-6 trans-signaling was subcutaneously injected. IL-6 plasma levels increased, peaking at 6 h after the intervention. SAA levels peaked at 24 h (n=4, P<0.01). Plaque volume increased significantly with the double hit compared to sham (n=8, P<0.01). More plaques were scored as complex or bearing signs of rupture after the double hit compared to sham (n=5-8, P<0.05). Relative VSMC and macrophage content remained unchanged. IL-6-inhibition or atorvastatin, but not blocking of IL-6 trans-signaling, significantly decreased plaque volume and complexity (n=8, P<0.01). Using this model, researchers will be able to further investigate the pathophysiology of perioperative plaque stability, which can result in myocardial infarction, and, additionally, to test potential protective strategies

Sequential Surgical Procedures in Vascular Surgery Patients Are Associated With Perioperative Adverse Cardiac Events

Patients at elevated cardiovascular risk are prone to perioperative cardiovascular complications, like myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS). We have demonstrated in a mouse model of atherosclerosis that perioperative stress leads to an increase in plaque volume and higher plaque vulnerability. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a pivotal role in development and destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. For this exploratory post-hoc analysis we identified 40 patients recruited into a prospective perioperative biomarker study, who within the inclusion period underwent sequential open vascular surgery. On the basis of protein markers measured in the biomarker study, we evaluated the perioperative inflammatory response in patients' plasma before and after index surgery as well as before and after a second surgical procedure. We also analyzed available immunohistochemistry samples to describe plaque vulnerability in patients who underwent bilateral carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in two subsequent surgical procedures. Finally, we assessed if MINS was associated with sequential surgery. The inflammatory response of both surgeries was characterized by postoperative increases of interleukin-6,−10, Pentraxin 3 and C-reactive protein with no clear-cut difference between the two time points of surgery. Plaques from CEA extracted during the second surgery contained less Tregs, as measured by Foxp3 staining, than plaques from the first intervention. The 2nd surgical procedure was associated with MINS. In conclusion, we provide descriptive evidence that sequential surgical procedures involve repeat inflammation, and we hypothesize that elevated rates of cardiovascular complications after the second procedure could be related to reduced levels of intraplaque Tregs, a finding that deserves confirmatory testing and mechanistic exploration in future populations