Present Self Research Articles

Autonomy and dementia Part II: Autonomy and representation: a possible combination?

This paper, based on a critical review of the medico-social literature, questions the representation of patients with dementia in relation to the autonomy perspectives presented in a previous article. In the canonical perspective of autonomy (defined as a rational decision-making by a stand alone self), the surrogate is the spokeperson of the subject's wills when he was competent because he knows these wills through advance directives or assuming them via substituted judgment. Best patient's interest is then depreciated because it is focused on the present incompetent self. In the relational perspective, where autonomy is constructed through a dialogue with others, the surrogate is the present interlocutor, making the decisions with the patient and care-givers in a way varying with the disease process. He represents the subject with dementia as he was before the disease but also as he has become. Therefore, there is a continuum between autonomy and representation. Autonomy and well being are both the surrogate aims. The relational perspective allows care continuity of patients with dementia even when considered as incompetent. It offers a more balanced perspective on the patient autonomy since it is embedded in all others, and opens a richer view on what good life is, untill the end of dementia.

“We make the shoes, you make the story” Teenage girls’ experiences of fashion: Bricolage, tactics and narrative identity

This article explores the ways that French teenage girls use fashion discourse to construct their evolving identity from their recently left childhood to their future as fully grown women. Verbatim texts of 14 phenomenological discussions concerning clothing, accessories, make‐up and fashion are interpreted using the concepts of bricolage (Lévi‐Strauss), tactics (Certeau) and narrative identity (Ricœur). The findings resonate with Thompson and Haytko’s portrayal of a dialogical relationship between consumers and a system of countervailing fashion meanings and with Murray’s exposition of a dialectical and discursive tension between sign‐experimentation and sign‐domination. But beyond this we elucidate the process by which teenagers also acquire, from personal social milieu, skills and tactics through which they toy with preconstrained sartorial symbolism to construct the plot line of their own lives which, in turn, reflects their past, defines their present self and presages their future.

The Branded Self:

This investigation makes the argument that to a considerable degree, our sense of our selves is connected to the way advertising helps us shape our identities and focuses our attention on brands as a way of signifying who we are to others. My point of departure is Norbert Wiley’s The Semiotic Self (1995:37). I will use Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism to deal with Wiley’s notion that the self involves an internal conversation in which the present self (the “I”) talks about the past self (the “me”) to the future self (the “you”). The branded self discusses some important concepts in semiotic analysis and relates them to the notion of the “self” and then to other matters, such as branding.

Revisiting Shimoda's "Shuuchaku-Kishitsu" (Statothymia): A Japanese View of Manic-Depressive Patients.

Although the empiric paradigm is now dominant in academic research, in Japan quite a few psychiatric clinicians still take phenomenological-anthropological approaches into consideration, especially when they address manic-depressive illness with typical endogenous features. This is because Shimoda's concept of “shuuchaku-kishitsu” (statothymia) has been widely accepted, together with other phenomenological views of continental origin. In the present paper the author first delineates Shimoda's concept which is based on observations of patients' personality features and the characteristics of their emotionality. He then attempts to refine this concept in spatiotemporal terms, presenting the view that in patients the past self tends to adhere to the present self (the term “shuuchaku” means “adhering to” or “preoccupied with”). He also considers that patients tend to incorporate “soto” (outer space) into “uchi” (inner space), where they believe that symbiotic relations are preserved. Finally, he argues the clinical significance of the presented views in the cultural milieu in which Japanese psychiatric practices are situated.

Cognitive Factors in Fibromyalgia: The Role of Self-Concept and Identity Related Conflicts

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by the presence of diffuse and chronic musculoskeletal pain of unknown etiology. Clinical diagnosis and the merely palliative treatments considerably affect the patient's experience and the chronic course of the disease. Therefore, several authors have emphasized the need to explore issues related to self in these patients. The repertory grid technique (RGT), derived from personal construct theory, is a method designed to assess the patient's construction of self and others. A group of women with fibromyalgia (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30) were assessed using RGT. Women with fibromyalgia also completed the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and a visual-analogue scale for pain, and painful tender points were explored. Results suggest that these women had a higher present self–ideal self discrepancy and a lower perceived adequacy of others, and it was more likely to find implicative dilemmas among them compared to controls. These dilemmas are a type of cognitive conflict in which the symptom is construed as “enmeshed” with positive characteristics of the self. Finally, implications of these results for the psychological treatment of fibromyalgia are suggested to give a more central role to self-identity issues and to the related cognitive conflicts.

Witnessing to Heal the Self in Gayl Jones's Corregidora and Phyllis Alesia Perry's Stigmata

The past.., is a circle. If you walk long enough, you catch up with yourself. --Phyllis Alesia Perry (117) The wounded body is sacred in some deep level of its existence; it is a body specialized and formed by experience; in its new way of being present to the world, the wounded body gains something not possessed before. --Dennis Patrick Slattery (7) In many literary texts exploring the long-term memory of slavery, textualizing the body allows the pain of slavery to find a voice and a language. Gayl Jones's Corregidora (1975) and Phyllis Alesia Perry's Stigmata (1998) display the traumatic memory of racial slavery as an act remembered and encoded onto black female bodies. Jones's and Perry's particular expressions of physical and psychological pain simultaneously draw attention to the suffering individual who either inherits or directly lives through the trauma of slavery and to the actual experience of such pain. The black female bodies are positioned initially as the suffering center of a familial past rooted in slavery, yet what is more significant is that these narratives explore the ways in which these same bodies become something new. To repair their ruptured minds and bodies, the characters must enter an internal personal struggle that leads to a re-engagement with the external world in light of how their traumas shaped their identities and relationships inside and outside the familial circle. This process then allows these women to transmit their stories to another person, which is essential for integration of the traumatic past with the present self. The body becomes essential to this integrative process of recuperation and healing from trauma. Therefore, any exploration of the representation and articulation of trauma must include a return to the body as more than the site of pain and fractured identity. Further, the body is not merely an instrument or animated canvas that the mind uses; rather, the body is essential to how the person is made present and expresses herself in the world. However, as Corregidora and Stigmata make evident, violent trauma damages the human being deeply, fracturing and dividing the significant relationship that operates between the body and mind. For healing to begin, there must be a revalorization of the flesh that recognizes and allows for a reunification of the body and mind, expressed through a language of the body. This begins with a recuperation of the direct relationship between the body and mind as it attends to the painful memories bound up in both. This also requires accepting the body in its new form--a form that carries scars in its flesh, just as the mind carries its own scars in the form of memories of violence. The two female protagonists of Corregidora and Stigmata are the inheritors of a matrilineal legacy of slavery. Their ancestors' suffering from racial slavery radiates into the present for the twentieth-century women at the center of these texts. The familial memories of slavery come through the injured bodies, which consequently access a past that often exceeds language's ability to articulate such experiences of severe violation. Traumatic memories become quite literally encoded on the body, and, consequently, the wounds become the physical indication of a larger story where trauma's physical and psychological effects are felt and viewed on the skin. (1) Corregidora's Ursa Corregidora and Stigmata's Lizzie DuBose live with a familial legacy of violence, yet it is felt in ways that are real and present. The inheritance of trauma's physical, psychological, and historical consequences show how each protagonist's acceptance of her wounded past, evident in the body, functions as a catharsis that is both corporeal and psychological. In these narratives, the personal and familial remembrances of violent histories collide. Jones and Perry articulate the black female body as a way of remembering and entering into the tragic past that their characters feel in real and tangible ways. …

The stromal and haematopoietic antigen-presenting cells that reside in secondary lymphoid organs

T cells encounter their cognate antigens in specialized compartments of secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs). There, dendritic cells (DCs) present self and non-self antigens to T cells, and promote immunity or tolerance depending on the availability of danger signals. Resident stromal cells orchestrate the interaction between T cells and DCs by recruiting them to T cell zones and guiding their migration within SLOs. Recent studies have shown that SLO-resident stromal cells also have a crucial role in tolerance induction in the periphery. In this Review, we discuss the roles of SLO-resident DCs and stromal cells in shaping T cell responses.

How to Present Yourself to One or Many

Skill in oral and written communication is a key to leadership success. Academics often underrate the oral type. Dr. Susan Paddock, professor of governmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, spoke on how to present your best self at the university's Women & Leadership Symposium in June. In a society that still expects women to be self-effacing and puts men in positions of power, part of making a positive impression involves how you think about yourself. “Anyone who sees herself or himself as not a person in power will act that way,” she said. Build your confidence in parallel with your skills. It's a mistake to equate oral communication with speeches to a roomful of people. That's only a small part. “When we're making an impression with our speaking skills, it's usually in much smaller settings, even one-on-one,” she told WIHE. Suppose you're unexpectedly in an elevator with someone who could do wonders for your career. She asks you about yourself. How will you respond in the brief time until the elevators doors open again and everyone gets out? It's trite but true: First impressions are awfully important. So don't leave them to chance; plan and practice your elevator speech. In half a minute or less, it should tell: Besides the content, verbal skills and enthusiasm count for a lot in that first impression. So does the nonverbal: appearance, body language, eye contact and handshake. “Too often intelligent people think it's the words they say that make a difference. Words are only 7% of your message,” Paddock said. Here's the breakdown: Think of all the ways your boss or department chair can send a message without words. What do her smile and gestures tell you (kinesics or body language)? His arm on your shoulder could communicate positive support or unwanted sexual interest (haptics or touch). Keeping you waiting sends one message, punctuality another (chronemics or timing). Women send unintended nonverbal messages based on gender. They tend to be smaller than men, taking up less physical space (objectics or appearance, also including clothing and hairstyle). Being aware of this can start you thinking about how to offset it. “Our higher, lighter voices often don't carry as much authority as men's,” she said (paralanguage or sounds). They don't travel as far; if you're lost in the woods, use a low voice to call for help. High pitches are the first to go in hearing loss, perhaps a reason male partners stop listening to females. How far apart people prefer to stand when they talk (proxemics) varies by culture, as does whether eye contact (oculesics) signals honesty or insolence. Learn the cultural cues for the people you deal with. At least half of oral communication is listening, which goes beyond waiting your turn to speak. Stay quiet and focused. Maintain eye contact unless the culture forbids it. Keep an open mind; don't jump to conclusions. Listen to understand and let your response show that you do. Regardless of your position on campus, it involves attending meetings. How you present yourself there will depend on the meeting's purpose and your role in it. If you're the meeting leader, establish the purpose before you begin. Is it to convey information, discuss an area of concern, solve a problem or reach a decision? Plan the agenda accordingly and manage the space, time, process and atmosphere to achieve that goal. Wrap up and summarize. Most failed meetings result from poor planning, lack of leadership, lack of clear results or poor group process. If you're a meeting participant, support the leader to reach the goal. Individuals can take on any number of roles in the group such as timekeeper, initiator, questioner, summarizer, clarifier, gate keeper, compromiser, consensus seeker, encourager, energizer, harmonizer and reliever of tensions. Both leaders and participants can help keep the meeting on track by putting limits on nonfunctional behavior like competition, domination, withdrawal or horsing around. Giving speeches is another chance to make an impression on campus, though perhaps the least important. “You can really screw up a formal presentation without hurting how people think of you if you come across well one-on-one or in small groups,” Paddock told WIHE. She offered many practical tips, including: Higher education gives you lots of opportunities to make an impression, for better or worse. “Learning to present yourself is a lifelong process,” she said. Use it to position yourself as a leader on campus. Contact Dr. Paddock at spaddock@wisc.edu

Perception of the past and present self:

Perception of the past and present self:

Self-concept Clarity Mediates the Relation between Stress and Subjective Well-being

Three studies tested the extent to which self-concept clarity mediates the relation between different types of stressful life events and subjective well-being, independently of neuroticism. In Study 1 (N = 292), self-concept clarity fully mediated the relation between stress from various sources (e.g., work, social rejection) and subjective well-being. In Study 2 (N = 127), self-concept clarity partially mediated the relation between meaninglessness (i.e., perceptions of life as meaningless) and subjective well-being. In Study 3 (N = 78), self-concept clarity partially mediated the relation between self-discontinuity (i.e., perceptions of discontinuity between past and present self) and subjective well-being. Across studies, an alternative mediation model was unsupported. The findings provide an impetus for theoretical and empirical advancements in understanding how self-concept clarity may play a role in the impact of stress on subjective well-being.

The Can Of Ail: A. E. Housman’s Moral Irony

The Can Of Ail: A. E. Housman’s Moral Irony Donna Richardson (bio) Academic readers have been kinder to A. E. Housman’s poetry in the second half of the twentieth century than in the first half. Critical respect for Housman has increased considerably since the Times Literary Supplement’s fiftieth-anniversary assessment of A Shropshire Lad, which contains a handful of quotations used to exemplify broad themes such as “personal affection” or “external nature,” and which not surprisingly concludes that the popular appeal of his poetry “is not derived from its intellectual or its moral content. Housman is not a philosophical or an imaginative poet: he displays no Wordsworthian insight into the deep springs of human sympathy, no Shakespearean understanding of the range and intensity of human passions.”1 Since then, new critical editions of the poetry and letters have come forth and the Housman Society has been formed. Many more articles have taken his work seriously, for example those cited in the collections edited by Christopher Ricks and Philip Gardner.2 The debt of his poetry to his classical background has been more thoroughly explored; studies relating his work to larger contexts such as his gender-orientation and the historical conditions of late-Victorian society have broadened what had seemed to be the limited cultural scope of his few and simple poems. Not many critics, however, have found enough rhetorical and stylistic complexity in Housman’s poems to justify extended close readings of them. Housman has appeared to discourage such attention, because his prose criticizes many of the modernist philosophical assumptions and corresponding uses of language, especially tropes adapted from metaphysical wit, that evolved symbiotically with the practice of close reading.3 As a result, those interpreters who have given him credit for ironic wit have cited few detailed examples, implying that such wit is less than central to his purpose or practice.4 The one recent study that has done comprehensive close analysis of his poems maintains that Housman uses wit primarily to subvert his “official” level of meaning by creating a homoerotic subtext.5 I will argue, on the contrary, that Housman’s overt use of wit to convey both verbal and dramatic irony is central to his presentation of the human condition. In his first volume of poetry, A Shropshire Lad, Housman develops a rhetorical strategy that sets a precedent for interpreting the speakers in [End Page 267] his poetry, whether himself or others, as consciously but never sufficiently self-ironic. If Housman had written only his later poetry, in which he is generally the speaker, readers might be justified in assuming that authoritarian assertion characterizes his poetics and that his tone is the equivalent of William Ernest Henley’s self-congratulatory pessimism in “Invictus.” But in A Shropshire Lad, Housman elaborates on the narrative complexities of Blake and Wordsworth to dramatize an almost postmodern degree of irony about whether any speaker, including the author, can control the meaning of his actions or the implications of his language. Housman implies we can never avoid indulging in human ignorance and folly, even while doing our best to locate and criticize it in ourselves and others. The key to Housman’s strategy is that the speaker in most of this volume, a common country “lad” named Terence Hearsay, is also the author, who directs irony at both his past and present self. Terence has generally been interpreted as an uneducated innocent who seldom serves as Housman’s spokesman. But in LXII, the original end-poem of the volume, Terence implies he is the author of all the poems, and the story he tells of his trip to Ludlow Fair epitomizes the sophisticated self-irony he has already deployed in crafting the poems about his past self. In a pun which informs the entire volume, Terence says that the purpose of his acerbic wit is to help people face the “ill” of life rather than escape into “ale.”6 Yet the worst ill Terence’s language reveals in the Ludlow Fair episode is that he can never learn enough to face fully and resist indulging in the “ail” of his own emotional “ale.” Accordingly, in the preceding poems...

Structural Basis for Lipid-Antigen Recognition in Avian Immunity

CD1 proteins present self- and foreign lipid Ags to activate specific T cells in the mammalian immune system. These T cells play an important role in controlling autoimmune diseases, suppression of tumor growth, and host defense against invading pathogens. Humans use five CD1 isoforms, whereas only two exist in birds. Unlike mammals' CD1, the structure of chicken CD1-2 showed a primitive lipid-binding groove, suggesting that chicken may only recognize single-chain lipids. In contrast, the crystal structure of the second chicken CD1 isoform, chCD1-1, reported in this study at 2.2 A resolution, reveals an elaborated binding groove with a dual-pocket, dual-cleft architecture. The A' and F' deep pockets are separated from each other, but each is connected to a hydrophobic surface cleft, which may participate in lipid binding. The long endogenous ligand found inside the binding groove of chCD1-1, together with binding data on various glycolipids and mycolic acid, strongly suggest that the unique avian CD1 family could bind long dual- and possibly triacyl-chain lipids.

Oriental Antiquity and Romantic Locality: The Gaze Backward and Inward

The Romantic literary figures found in the distant antiquities of the Orient, of Greece, and Arabia, irresistible attractions embodying the underlying genuine history of Western civilization and culture. Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, the Arabian Desert, and Egypt reflected a world of antiquity, which provided the Romantics with the opportunity to gaze backward and, consequently, explore remote otherness—itself responsible for shaping present Western Self. The Romantic artists and literary figures believed that this region enfolds within its antiquities the mysteries of the mind. They found in the tranquility of Oriental antique places, whether in reality or through the power of their imaginative faculties, possible prospects of hidden realities essential for self receptiveness, which had been despondent amidst the contradictions and complexities of the urban civilizations of Europe; i.e. those remote places, whether directly or indirectly gazed at, provided them with the opportunity to personally experience and perceive fundamental realities, which may have been underside Western civilization. To them, to dig into the mysteries of Self, they had to locate Self in Oriental antique sites. Crossing the demarcation line between the present and the past was an irresistible venture, which set in motion the recreation or location of Self by transcending its consciousness (the present or West) into the sub-consciousness (the past or East). Accordingly, the gaze backward was indeed a gaze inward..

Chapter 4 - How Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Induce Regulatory T Cells

Since their discovery by Steinman and Cohn in 1973, dendritic cells (DCs) have become increasingly recognized for their crucial role as regulators of innate and adaptive immunity. DCs are exquisitely adept at acquiring, processing, and presenting antigens to T cells. They also adjust the context (and hence the outcome) of antigen presentation in response to a plethora of environmental inputs that signal the occurrence of pathogens or tissue damage. Such signals generally boost DC maturation, which promotes their migration from peripheral tissues into and within secondary lymphoid organs and their capacity to induce and regulate effector T cell responses. Conversely, more recent observations indicate that DCs are also crucial to ensure immunological peace. Indeed, DCs constantly present innocuous self- and nonself-antigens in a fashion that promotes tolerance, at least in part, through the control of regulatory T cells (Tregs). Tregs are specialized T cells that exert their immunosuppressive function through a variety of mechanisms affecting both DCs and effector cells. Here, we review recent advances in our understanding of the relationship between tolerogenic DCs and Tregs.

Generation of T Cells of Desired HLA Restriction Specific for Epitopes of a Self-Antigen, WT1, for the Adoptive Immunotherapy of WT1 Positive Malignancies Using A Panel of Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells Expressing Prevalent HLA Alleles.

Abstract 4086Poster Board III-1021We have recently established a panel of artificial antigen-presenting cells (AAPCs) each expressing a single HLA class I allele (such as A0201, A0301, A2402, B0702, C0401) and costimulatory molecules (B7.1, ICAMI, LFA3, b2-microglobulin). These cells were capable of eliciting T cells responses specific for immunogenic epitopes of the cytomegalovirus protein CMVpp65 presented by single HLA allele expressed by each AAPC (J.Immunol, 2009;183(4):2837-50). The initial studies with HLA-A0201 expressing AAPCs had suggested that they could sensitize the T cells against single immunogenic A0201-binding peptides derived from antigens such as S100 and telomerase. However, there are no data regarding the potentials of AAPCs expressing other HLA alleles to present epitopes of endogenous self antigens and stimulate specific T cells. We have recently defined a series of immunogenic epitopes for WT1 that can be presented by each of the HLA alleles represented in this panel, by an epitope mapping analysis of WT1 specific T cells sensitized in vitro with autologous dendritic cells(DC) loaded with the pool of overlapping 15-mer peptides spanning the sequence of WT1. In the present study we asked whether the established panel of AAPCs expressing different HLA alleles when loaded with the human WT1 peptide pool, could be used to generate T cells directed against this self antigen, whether the peptides recognized by these T cells would be identical to the peptides defined to be immunogenic when presented in the context of the same HLA alleles after stimulation with the autologous DC loaded with the same WT1 pool and further whether AAPCs could also be used to elicit responses against subdominant epitopes presented by an HLA allele expressed on AAPCs that were not elicited among T cells sensitized with peptide pool loaded autologous DC. The pool of 141 synthetic pentadecapeptides each overlapping the next by 11aa loaded on the autologous DC elicited responses in 80% of 14 normal individuals tested. Epitope mapping permitted identification immunodominant WT1 peptide sequences eliciting responses and their restricting HLA allele(s) as determined in a Cr51 release assay against the panel of WT1 peptide loaded EBV transformed B cells matching one of the HLA alleles of the T cell genotype.. AAPCs expressing single HLA allele shared by the same T cells and loaded with the same WT1 total peptide pool elicited responses in each normal individual. In each case the T cells recognized one of the same epitopes defined to be previously immunogenic in man when presented in the context of the HLA allele expressed by the AAPCs. At the same time, single peptide epitopes that were defined to be presented by, for example, HLA A0201 alleles after stimulation with WT1 total pool loaded DCs did not elicit WT1 specific T cells responses if they were loaded on AAPCs expressing another HLA allele such as B0702. In comparisons of T cells sensitized with autologous DCs versus AAPCs loaded with WT1 peptides pool we also found that while AAPCs expressing the HLA allele presenting the immunodominant epitope recognized by T cells sensitized with pool loaded autologous DC also elicited strong responses, AAPCs expressing HLA alleles shared by the responding T cells could also elicit responses against immunogenic but subdominant epitopes that were not generated after sensitization of the same T cells with WT1 peptide pool loaded autologous DCs. Thus, these studies suggest that the panel of murine derived AAPCs can effectively present self antigens, such as WT1, and permits in vitro sensitization and propagation of tumor reactive WT1 peptide specific T cells of desired HLA restriction for the adoptive immunotherapy of WT1+ malignancies. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Sensing the story: structure and improvisation in writing for performance

This article discusses the process of writing through devising in performance. It takes as a case study Apart of and A Part From in which muscle and sense memory touch, smell, taste, sound and sight were the points of departure for a contemporary performance piece on migration and identity. This was a practice-as-research project aimed to better understand the artist's body (myself) in improvisation with memory fragments. Working from a non-verbal frame the writing experience began as actions in space, then new memories in my body, to maps on paper, to key word and some staging patterns, to systematic capturing of the textual, rhythmic and spatial structures in the emerging 30-minute performance. Various objects were incorporated to give aesthetic coherence of the piece. The article reports on the processes of writing in action, the writing and performing as lived experience and how the writing emerged from the spaces in between self and other, self and object, self and space, present self and past self.

Modulation of medial prefrontal and inferior parietal cortices when thinking about past, present, and future selves

Recent functional neuroimaging studies have shown that reflecting on representations of the present self versus temporally distant selves is associated with higher activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). In the current fMRI study, we investigated whether this effect of temporal perspective is symmetrical between the past and future. The main results revealed that the MPFC showed higher activity when reflecting on the present self than when reflecting on past and future selves, with no difference between past and future selves. Temporal perspective also modulated activity in the right inferior parietal cortex but in the opposite direction, activity in this brain region being higher when reflecting on past and future selves relative to the present self (with again no difference between past and future selves). These findings show that differences in brain activity when thinking about current versus temporally distant selves are symmetrical between the past and the future. It is suggested that by processing degrees of self-relatedness, the MPFC might sustain the process of identifying oneself with current representations of the self, whereas the right inferior parietal cortex might be involved in distinguishing the present self from temporally distant selves.

Unconventional antigen-presenting cells in the induction of peripheral CD8+ T cell tolerance

Bone marrow-derived APCs are considered the predominant cell type involved in the induction and maintenance of T cell tolerance in vivo. In the periphery, cross-presentation of self-antigens by DCs, in particular, CD8alpha(+) DCs, has been the most discussed mechanism underlying the induction of CD8(+) T cell tolerance against self. However, nonhematopoietic APCs in the liver, skin, parenchymal tissues, and lymph nodes can also present self- and exogenous antigens to CD8(+) T cells under steady-state conditions. Although far surpassed by their DC counterparts in their ability to stimulate T cell responses, these unconventional APCs have been shown to play a role in the induction, maintenance, and regulation of peripheral CD8(+) T cell tolerance by a multitude of mechanisms. In this review, we will discuss the different nonhematopoietic cells that have been shown to present tissue-specific or exogenous antigens to naïve CD8(+) T cells, thereby contributing to the regulation of T cell responses in the periphery.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow: Individual differences in future self-continuity account for saving

Some people find it more difficult to delay rewards than others. In three experiments, we tested a "future self-continuity" hypothesis that individual differences in the perception of one's present self as continuous with a future self would be associated with measures of saving in the laboratory and everyday life. Higher future self-continuity (assessed by a novel index) predicted reduced discounting of future rewards in a laboratory task, more matches in adjectival descriptions of present and future selves, and greater lifetime accumulation of financial assets (even after controlling for age and education). In addition to demonstrating the reliability and validity of the future self-continuity index, these findings are consistent with the notion that increased future self-continuity might promote saving for the future.

Lonely Voices

Page 27 January–February 2009 Lonely Voices Scott Elliott The Man Back There and Other Stories David Crouse Sarabande Books http://www.sarabandebooks.org 224 pages; paper, $15.95 In The Lonely Voice (1963), Frank O’Connor argues that the short story is the literary form best suited to expressing the otherwise unheard angst of submerged populations, at giving voice to the lonely misfit out of step with a more contented majority. O’Connor would likely approve of David Crouse’s second collection as it chronicles some moments of quiet desperation in the lives of unexpectedly sympathetic male misfits crying out in lonely voices from a variety of stations. As the title indicates, we encounter many of these men as present circumstances force them to acknowledge, once again, and in many cases against their wishes, that they have a history, that they carry around a former, regrettable version of themselves that may arise again at any moment. Or the characters are still on the ropes and stomaching and/or giving the blows that will lead to a break between selves, surviving the experience they will someday look back on as the marker between the men they have become and the men they used to be. These blows come in many forms: a former wife’s potentially career-shattering book, a father’s suicide, the imminent loss of a job, divorce, a son’s attempted suicide, loneliness, the disappearance of a lover, a wife’s discovery of a disturbing addiction. This is literary fiction, so more important than the blows the characters endure is the way they respond and what their reactions reveal about their character. In the complex psychological world of these stories—a world in which characters are not always good witnesses to their own motivations—a heightened awareness of past mistakes and failures does not necessarily lead to an avoidance of the same mistakes the next time around. Instead, these stories implicitly suggest, the mistakes themselves and the interesting trouble the characters get into as a result of these mistakes bring the characters (and careful readers) as close as we can come to powerful emotional truths, the raw material of character itself. Even to classify what the characters do to get themselves into trouble as “mistakes” is problematic in the world these stories forge as many things which could be classified as “mistakes”—for sound reasons based in mainstream morality—may be the best expression of a more primal being. In most cases, the men in this collection no longer enjoy the protection that a false personality, a comfortable material situation, or some other self-delusion might provide. In every case, we see these characters laid bare, and through the laying bare, come to better understand the nature of the mystery informing their actions and our own. Distance from and closeness to self and others is important in this collection. In the collection’s titular story, Sweets, a forty-four-year-old man who has just punched his girlfriend’s ex in a bar realizes how much he and this ex have in common. Crouse writes, “[Sweets] felt sorry for the man in the bar now, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He probably didn’t want to have a history either, right? He probably wanted that very much.” The person you damage, the person from whom you might expect you’d like to distance yourself, is likely to be the very one with whom you have the most in common. On one level, the man in the bar is the man back there; on another level, Sweets is the man back there as his present self ponders the question implicit in this phrase: “how much, if at all, have I changed?” Similarly , the very characters convention might compel a reader to condemn may be the ones closest to the reader in his or her secret moments. In addition to Sweets’s redemption through his capacity to empathize with someone he’s punched, he is further redeemed in “The Man Back There” in a quick, almost throw-away moment of aesthetic appreciation for moonlight on a river. The collection is filled with small redemptions...