bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Horror, The Horror: What Kind of (Horror) Movie is the Apocalypse?
Authors: Walsh Richard
Published: April 2013

The Apocalypse, its interpreters, and apocalyptic films make much of monstrous evils and violent ends. Apocalyptic does so in order to prevent community members’ failure/apostasy. The fear of such failure is Apocalypse’s first horror feature. Because its final fantasy is of an absolute Empire, the Apocalypse is also inseparable from cinematic horror. This end—or its seductive preview in text/vision—is the horror of possession/absorption, a common trope of religious horror and the Apocalypse’s second horror feature. The first horror feature so terrifies that one easily succumbs to the second; however, some films raise salutary questions about such scripted lives.
Becoming Data: Star Trek Wisdom and the Unforeseen Effects of Fieldwork on the Fieldworker
Authors: Willey Robin D.
Published: April 2013

Religious communities present very different, and often difficult, issues to the researcher. In particular, religious groups often have more interest in the researcher as a person than as a social scientist. In other words, religious people often are more interested in “saving” the researcher’s “soul” in than providing that researcher with accurate information. This article unravels this issue through a single event that the author experienced in the field. Struggling to understand this event, the author uses a piece of popular culture—a scene from Star Trek—to contextualize and substantiate what happened to him. This scene provided a base from which the author could begin to access related academic literature on fieldwork in religious communities. In sum, this study exposes one of the many vulnerabilities that junior/student researchers experience in the field. In addition, it reveals the expediency of using popular culture to understand difficult fieldwork experiences.
God, Pain and Love in the Music of Nick Cave
Authors: Boer Roland
Published: April 2013

Nick Cave has asserted that all his songs are love songs. Rather than follow his own guidelines for interpreting his work in terms of biblical influences from the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, I suggest a fourfold schema. It operates in terms of the presence and absence of both God and pain. There are very few of the secular soppy songs (no pain, no God) that are standard fare for much pop music and the ones Cave does offer are not very good. A few more appear in the painlessly divine songs (no pain, with God), which are the songs that opened Cave’s work out to wider audiences. However, the vast majority are either painfully secular songs (with pain, no God) or the brutally divine ones (both pain and God are present). I explore these in more detail, since here we find complex overlaps between God, pain and women.
Gaither Homecomings, College Football Reunions, and the Consecration of Cultural History
Authors: Harrison Douglas
Published: April 2013

Although the Bill and Gloria Gaither Homecoming Friends concert and video series is a ubiquitous presence in Christian entertainment, its cultural function and influence are not well understood. This essay argues that alongside the established view of the Homecoming series as an inwardly focused method some Christians use to interpret the vicissitudes of evangelical experience, the Homecoming phenomenon also exerts an outwardly shaping force. Drawing on a line of sports reunion videos that share key similarities with Homecoming, this essay traces the emergence of the Homecoming series as a transcultural narrative framework within which to commodify nostalgic re-engagements with the past—both religious and secular.
The Theological Aesthetic of American Beauty
Authors: Spiegel James S.
Published: April 2013

A central theme in the film American Beauty is the notion that beauty is to be found literally everywhere, even amidst immorality and deep suffering. The film is an artwork that invites the viewer to see the whole world as art and grounds this aesthetic perspective in a concerted theism. As such, American Beauty functions as an apologetic for a high view of providence and dramatically illustrates the “aesthetic-totality” theodicy as a theistic response to the problem of evil.
Hollywood’s Transformed Hero: A Countercultural Journey
Authors: Dunbar Dirk
Published: April 2013

American mainstream film from the 1950s to the present has advanced a barrage of countercultural heroes that bears witness to the shattering of traditional cultural assumptions and to the emergence of new values that help define popular culture. By examining the nature of the countercultural journey across a variety of genres I hope to show how the cinematic quest to define the characteristics of the new hero mirrors growing perspectives regarding race, gender, sanity, spirituality, and environmental relations.
Life as a Journey: The Spiritual Dimension in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
Authors: Garbowski Christopher
Published: April 2013

The article explores the problem of film’s adaptation of a literary work’s religious sensibility. Although some of the Christian elements of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings remain and others have gained a different emphasis, the author maintains that the spiritual dimension of Jackson’s adaptation is a more promising field for comparison. One of the major narrative metaphors in the literary and film trilogy is life as a journey; consequently, the problem of choice highlights the essential role of the conscience for human spiritual development. The journey’s terminal point, death, likewise becomes a major concern, and a key to understanding the spiritual dimension of Jackson’s work.
Jesus on the Mainline: Lou Reed and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Sons
Authors: Parrish Tim
Published: April 2013

In Jesus’ Son, perhaps Johnson’s most representative work, Johnson portrays the story of his narrator’s search for religious transcendence through a creative engagement with Lou Reed’s great song about drug addiction and spiritual yearning, “Heroin.” The title of the book is in fact a coded reference to Reed’s “Heroin” (mentioned in the epigraph) and to the narrator’s search to become worthy of Jesus Christ’s legacy. Lou Reed, though, is the novel’s authorizing voice, or spirit of the novel. Johnson writes a kind of confessional novel—the story of his birth of an artist that also refers to his status as a born-again Christian. In using Reed’s “Heroin” to structure his fictional autobiography, Johnson acknowledges that Lou Reed helped give him the vision to render a horrid world true and beautiful, something worth saving.
Curses and Catharsis in Red Sox Nation: Baseball and Ritual Violence in American Culture
Authors: Caterine Dr. Darryl V.
Published: April 2013

Boston Red Sox fans once attributed their team’s failure to win a World Series to its sale in 1918 of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. In the 2004 playoffs and World Series, the Red Sox exorcised the “Curse of the Bambino” by emerging victorious over their rivals. The Curse and its catharsis–which mirror Puritan jeremiads and execution ceremonies, respectively–reveal baseball as a rite of “sacred violence” maintaining social order by regulating aggression. Accentuated rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees demythologized the pastoral idealizations of baseball that have figured prominently in its history since the Civil War, finally rendering it a spectacle of ordinary violence for New England fans.
Crop-tops, Hipsters and Liminality: Fashion and Differentiation in Two Evangelical Student Groups
Authors: Dutton Edward Croft
Published: April 2013

This article will examine the use of contemporary fashions as a means by which evangelical students express a sense of differentiation from other students. It will draw upon detailed participant observation. It will use this data to criticise Turner’s understanding of liminality. The article will demonstrate that university is a liminal phase and that Oxford University is more liminal than Leiden University. It will argue that, drawing upon the groups assessed, liminality is better defined as a loosening of structure on one level and a reassertion of structure on another. In looking at fashions among evangelical students, it will argue that the more liminal a university is, the more structured and differentiated its main evangelical group appears to be. Moreover, the article aims to provide useful research into fashion among evangelical students.
Financial Dimensions of Veterinary Medical Education: An Economist's Perspective
Authors: Lloyd James W.
Published: April 2013

Much discussion has transpired in recent years related to the rising cost of veterinary medical education and the increasing debt loads of graduating veterinarians. Underlying these trends are fundamental changes in the funding structure of higher education in general and of academic veterinary medicine specifically. As a result of the ongoing disinvestment by state governments in higher education, both tuition rates and academic programs have experienced a substantial impact across US colleges and schools of veterinary medicine. Programmatically, the effects have spanned the entire range of teaching, research, and service activities. For graduates, both across higher education and in veterinary medicine specifically, the impact has been steadily increasing levels of student debt. Although the situation is clearly worrisome, viable repayment options exist for these escalating debt loads. In combination with recent income and employment trends for veterinarians, these options provide a basis for cautious optimism for the future.
Impact of Outcome-Based Assessment on Student Learning and Faculty Instructional Practices
Authors: Dawson Susan D. , Miller Tess , Goddard Sally F. , Miller Lisa Maag
Published: April 2013

Increased accountability has been a catalyst for the reformation of curriculum and assessment practices in postsecondary schools throughout North America, including veterinary schools. There is a call for a shift in assessment practices in clinical rotations, from a focus on content to a focus on assessing student performance. Learning is subsequently articulated in terms of observable outcomes and indicators that describe what the learner can do after engaging in a learning experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which a competency-based program in an early phase of implementation impacted student learning and faculty instructional practices. Findings revealed that negative student perceptions of the assessment instrument's reliability had a detrimental effect on the face validity of the instrument and, subsequently, on students' engagement with competency-based assessment and promotion of student-centered learning. While the examination of faculty practices echoed findings from other studies that cited the need for faculty development to improve rater reliability and for a better data management system, our study found that faculty members' instructional practices improved through the alignment of instruction and curriculum. This snap-shot of the early stages of implementing a competency-based program has been instrumental in refining and advancing the program.
The Profitable World of Tennessee Williams
Authors: Falk Signi
Published: April 2013

Tennessee Williams has been called "an artist to the fingertips," "a master of sensitive characterization," a writer with "hypnotic qualities," of "exquisite tastes," and "the foremost new playwright to have appeared on the American scene in a decade." And yet, the fact that many critics after having ridiculed a particular play unmercifully, have given the highest praise to the acting and the production, raises the question whether the quality of the playwright's work has not been obscured by brilliant productions. A partial list of performers is impressive: the late Laurette Taylor as Amanda in The Glass M el1agerie and in the film version, the late Gertrude Lawrence; Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, and Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire; Margaret Phillips and Tod Andrews in Summer and Smoke; Maurine Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo; Barbara Bel Geddes and Burl Ives in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And above all, a dramatist, most of whose work has been interpreted by so distinguished a director as Elia Kazan, must indeed call himself fortunate.
A Theater that Is National
Authors: Johnson Walter
Published: April 2013

While the term national theatre has been used for a long time in various countries as the name of the nationally subsidized major theater in the national capital, the idea of a theater that will serve a whole nation instead of a segment of it is being realized in Sweden. For Riksteatem is what its name implies—the national theater or the theater for a whole nation. Such a theater conceived in the depths of the world-wide depression in 1933 and successfully developed over the past twenty-five years in a country with less than eight million inhabitants should warrant study by non-Swedes, not least by theater-minded people in our own country where interesting attempts were made by way of federal theater projects during the depression.
Yeats, Bullen, and the Irish Drama
Authors: Nelick Frank
Published: April 2013

The late Mr. P.S. O'hegarty of Dublin was a man of many worthy interests; a scholar, historian, editor, book-dealer and controversialist, he was, most of all, a bibliophile and a passionate collector of books about Ireland and by Irishmen.1 Unlike many book lovers, he remained systematic in his collecting and cataloguing of books by people that he knew and liked in the stormy early decades of the twentieth century. By the time of his death in 1955 his large personal library of some twenty thousand volumes had become a remarkable cache of material relating to the Irish literary and political renaissance and he an authoritative bibliographer of William Butler Yeats
The Composition of The Glass Menagerie: An Argument for Complexity
Authors: parker Brian
Published: April 2013

Though Mrs. Edwina Williams has pointed out the many differences between the Williams family and the Wingfields,' The Glass Menagerie is nonetheless Tennessee Williams's most autobiographical play, accurate to the imaginative reality of his experience even when it departs from fact in detail. The essentials of that experience — the mismatched parents; the shock of the family's move from early years in his grandfather's Mississippi rectory to a series of shabby fiats in downtown SI. Louis; Williams's breakdown after working as a clerk in a warehouse, trying to write at night; his close companionship with his sister, Rose, disrupted by her withdrawal into schizophrenia; and the disastrous mistake of submitting her to a frontal lobotomy — are too well known to bear expansion. The recent publication of Williams's Memoirs,' however, with their startling frankness about his sex life, helps fill in some further details. In particular, Williams is explicit about his feeling of personal guilt because new companions and interests, the excitements of university life, and perhaps especially his gradual discovery of his own homosexual preferences led him to neglect and even be unkind to his sister at her period of greatest need. "It's not very pleasant to look back on that year [1937]," he writes, "and to know that Rose knew she was going mad and to know, also, that I was not too kind to my sister" (p. 121). He tells of her tattling on a wild party he gave at the house during their parents' absence, in resentment of which he hissed at her on the stairs, "I hate the sight of your ugly old face!", leaving her stricken and wordless, crouched against the wall. "This is the cruelest thing I have done in my life, I suspect", he comments, "and one for which I can never properly atone" (p. 122). Later that year Rose was put in an institution; and the following summer, while Williams was in Illinois with some of his new friends, his parents gave their permission for the operation that rendered Rose harmless but childish for the rest of her life.
Lesbians on the French Stage: From Homosexuality to Monique Wittig's Lesbianization of the Theatre
Authors: Savona Jeannelle Laillou
Published: April 2013

Writing an article about French lesbian plays in 1995 is neither an easy nor an innocent task. First, the word lesbian itself covers several definitions based on different sexual practices and concepts of desire, a variety of historical, cultural, ethnic, and national life-styles, and often conflicting political agendas. As Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has aptly shown, "lesbian," like "gay," often calls to mind two sets of oppositions which entail two controversial issues. The first one is that of gender identification: women-identified women (Adrienne Rich's "lesbian continuum," for example, which can lead to female or feminist separatism) vs. men-identified women ("the inversion trope," which can consolidate the antihomophobic alliance with gay men). The second focuses on sexual object choice — same-sex vs. opposite-sex object — and has given rise to several different theories: constructivist vs. essentialist, for example, or psychoanalytical (which tends to be "universalizing") vs. socio-political (which leads to a "minoritizing" approach). According to Sedgwick, such coexisting categories are not only unstable, but their use always entails some divisiveness founded on epistemological contradictions. As well, the idea of a lesbian play is even more problematic depending on whether one considers the erotics or sexual politics of a play or both, or whether one also takes into account the sexual orientation and degree of "outness" of its author, director, actors, and even implied or real audiences. Finally, at this point in history. when writing in a North American context, it is hardly possible to approach the topic without taking politics into account, since most gay men and lesbians are now strongly united in their struggle against homophobia and against the present right-wing backlash affecting the treatment of the AIDS epidemic. But one of the dangers of adopting a political stance is the temptation to overvalue lesbian or gay plays on account of their scarcity or marginality and to favour one form of lesbian life or one aesthetic choice of representation over another.
The Lesbian Rule: Lillian Hellman and the Measures of Realism
Authors: Fleche Anne
Published: April 2013

The invisible lesbian has posed difficulties for writers of queer history and criticism, in part just because she's a woman. We have seen, for example, how historian John Boswell accounted for the relative absence of women in his classic study Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. Women, he explained, mostly didn't write the history he was talking about, so they were necessarily underrepresented in his book as well. Meanwhile, in literary criticism, texts in which the lesbian is ignored or ambiguously or negatively represented have called for drastic measures, requiring either a political approach, as Diana Fuss has suggested — a measuring stick of "utility" — or a kind of aesthetics of lesbianism which has seemed specious to the utility-minded. Recently, this apparent opposition between essentialism and constructionism in queer politics seems to be breaking down, and this is a good thing for the lesbian, whose existence often has to be posited, because she's not always available in referential terms. The challenge in lesbian representation is also the challenge of feminist theory, namely, to discuss the woman as an effect of the very discourse that names her to affirm a woman who is in some sense not there. Lesbian theory adds to feminism's challenge the question: what difference does sexuality make in the structure of a gendered discourse?
(Re)visioned, Invisible, and Mute: Male Bodies in Rumble Productions' Strains
Authors: Gilbert Reid
Published: April 2013

The auditorium of the Station Street Theatre in Vancouver. as arranged for Rumble Productions' collaborative piece, Strains, accommodated a lit, square performance space which the actors entered and left: auditorium, acting space, and actors' bodies together forming the mise-en-scene. As Arnold Aronson points out, the mise-en-scene of much contemporary theatre can "become the dominant element of a production, establishing the whole tone and shaping the interpretation ... as well as determining the rhythm and movement of the performers." This appears to be particularly true in postmodern productions where the scene may be formed not only as it has been traditionally — by stage set, costume, lights, movement, and histrionic style — but also by historical appropriation and fragmentation. More important, the mise-en-scene in such productions, as Sarah Bryant-Bertail notes, is "fundamentally signified through culturally constructed human bodies. These bodies are materially anchored in the actors on stage but touch every other element of the production." This is entirely the case with Strains.
Who's Looking at Who(m)?: Re-viewing Medusa
Authors: Goodman Lizbeth
Published: April 2013

Is it Medusa's image or her gaze which has caused all the trouble, and earned her such a bad rep? What or who, exactly, is turned to stone by Medusa? Is it those who dare to look at her, or those at whom she looks? What is it about Medusa which so frightens mortals with a need to look around, and which offers to those making theatre today such a strong metaphor for the transformative power of women? And what is it about the languages of performance which allows us to transcend some of the rules of grammar and syntax, while remaining ambiguously framed by our own words, voices, ways of communicating and creating? Where, if anywhere, can we draw any lines or boundaries between performance and communication, text and subtext, sexual desire and sexual expression, longing and imagining, movement and the thought of movement, looking, seeing, being seen, and being seen to be seen ... so that we may choose to present ourselves in deliberately provocative ways?
"The Moment of Submission": Neil Bartlett in Conversation
Authors: Sinfield Alan
Published: April 2013

Neil Bartlett is the most prominent and successful out-gay theatre worker in Britain — as writer, adapter, performer, director, and producer. A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep (1989) weaves the life and work of the homosexual Victorian painter Simeon Solomon into present-day concerns with AIDS and queer-bashing; Sarrasine (1990) is from Balzac's story about a man who develops a passion for a castrato, taking "feminine" manners as evidence of femaleness; Night after Night (1993) illustrates the gay history of the musical while recalling a night when Bartlett's parents were in the audience; A Picture of Dorian Gray (1994) has Wilde's friends recreating his novella; Splendid's (1995) was written by Jean Genet in 1948 but unearthed only in 1992. Bartlett directed a cross-dressed Twelfth Night at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, and translated Racine's Berenice for the National Theatre. Two prose works, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde (1988) and Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall (1990), are equally celebrated.
From Summer and Smoke to Eccentricities of a Nightingale: The Evolution of the Queer Alma
Authors: Clum John
Published: April 2013

From Summer and Smoke to Eccentricities of a Nightingale: The Evolution of the Queer Alma
The Queer Pleasures of Mary Martin and Broadway: The Sound of Music as a Lesbian Musical
Authors: Wolf Stacy
Published: April 2013

By the late 1950s, Mary Martin was a famous, powerful Broadway star. After stealing the show singing and doing a "striptease" to "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in Leave It to Me in 1938, she solidified her stardom as the goddess come-to-life in One Touch of Venus (1943), charmed audiences all over the country in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun (1947), and brought the house down for a record-setting 1,925 performances in South Pacific (1949). She played a brief but memorable run in Peter Pan (1954), and later filmed the performance for television, permanently laminating her star identity onto the role of the boy who wouldn't grow up. Martin also turned down some notable parts, including the leads in Funny Girl, My Fair Lady, Kiss Me Kate, and Oklahoma. But Martin actively pursued, financially backed, and created another role which to this day is associated with her - Maria in The Sound of Music.
Performance Anxiety: "Identity," "Community," and Tim Miller's My Queer Body
Authors: Wallace Robert
Published: April 2013

In an article published in Theatre Journal, Reid Gilbert argues that "when it is put on view as sexual object, the male body is invariably punished." To illustrate his argument, Gilbert considers three plays (Robert Lepage's Polygraph, Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, and David Drake's The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me), specifically analyzing scenes in which the body of a male character is positioned as an erotic object usually, but not exclusively, by being nude. Two of these scenes focus on gay male characters — Francois in Polygraph and the unnamed persona adopted by Drake in his solo show — who, in Gilbert's reading of these plays, seek and receive masochistic treatment. In McNally's play, Gilbert argues, this "punishment" is exercised not on the character who appears nude but on the only other male character — his brother-in-law, who watches him take a shower. Though both are heterosexual, the character who views the other's nudity "is punished for having broken the taboo, for having viewed another male body".
A Moral Dialectic: Shelagh Stephenson’s An Experiment with an Air Pump
Authors: Barnett Claudia
Published: April 2013

In An Experiment with an Air Pump (1998), Shelagh Stephenson dramatizes a string of conflicts that at once demand and resist resolution – such as past and present, male and female, art and science – and portrays each concept with multiple characters to provide nuanced permutations. Her drama resides in the oppositional pairs personified by her characters, emerging in the clashes between ideologies, in the space of difference – the space that inspires revolution. “When our theatres perform plays of other periods,” writes Bertolt Brecht, “they like to annihilate distance, fill in the gap, gloss over the differences. But what comes then of our delight in comparisons, in distance, in dissimilarity – which is at the same time a delight in what is close and proper to ourselves?” (276). Stephenson’s play, set half in the present and half in the past, answers Brecht’s call for distance and echoes his delight in dissimilarity while drawing connections between worlds two-hundred years apart. The simultaneous staging of similarity and difference, past and present, results in a drama that grapples with issues of ethics and interpretation and requires its audience to do the same.
Fexofenadine HCl Immediate Release Tablets: In vitro Characterization and Evaluation of Excipients
Authors: Ahmed Shahriar , Nazmi Mehrina , Hasan Ikramul , Sultana Sabiha , Haldar Shimul , Reza Md Selim
Published: April 2013

Fexofenadine HCl immediate release tablets were designed to increase the dissolution rate by using superdisintegrants. Different formulations of Fexofenadine HCl were prepared by direct compression method. These formulations were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, weight variation, disintegration time, and in vitro dissolution study. The drug release from the formulations were studied according to USP specification (USP paddle method at 50 rpm for 60 minutes) maintaining the temperature to 37°C. Sodium starch glycolate, cross carmellose sodium, crospovidone (kollidon CL), ludiflash and xanthan gum were used in 3%, 6% and 8% concentrations as superdisintegrants. Thus, the ratio of superdisintegrants was changed whereas all the other excipients as well as the active drug (Fexofenadine HCl) remained same in every formulation. Here, 0.001N HCl was used as dissolution medium according to USP and absorbances were determined by using UV spectrophotometer at 217 nm. The F-3 and F-6 formulation prepared by 8% of Sodium starch glycolate and 8% of Cross carmellose sodium showed 99.99% drug release within 30 minutes and 45 minutes, respectively. The disintegration times of F-3 and F-6 formulation were within 9 seconds. The interactions between drug and excipients were characterized by FTIR spectroscopic study. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14483 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 1-9, 2013
Pharmacological and Phytochemical Screenings of Ethanol Extract of Etlingera linguiformis (Roxb.) R.M.Sm. Growing in Bangladesh
Authors: Hossan Md Arafat , Ibrahim Mohammed , Ahsan Md Qamrul , Aktar Fahima , Kuddus Md Ruhul , Chowdhury M Mohi Uddin , Rashid Mohammad A
Published: April 2013

The present study was conducted to investigate the bio-activities of ethanol extract of Etlingera linguiformis (Roxb.) R.M.Sm. as well as to determine the chemical profiles of the extract. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the crude extract were evaluated by the disc diffusion method against 4 Gram positive and 7 Gram negative pathogenic bacteria and 7 fungi using Ciprofloxacin and Fluconazole as standards, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by the serial dilution method. The anti-atherothrombosis activity was assessed by using Streptokinase (SK) as standard. Moreover, the in-vitro anti-inflammatory and membrane stablization tests were performed. In the anti-bacterial and antifungal activity test, the zones of inhibition were found within the range of 10.0-15.0 and 10.0-22.0 mm, respectively. The highest zone of inhibition was obtained against Bacillus cereus (15.0 mm) and Blastomyces dermatitidis (22.0 mm). In the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test the crude extract inhibited the growth of Blastomyces dermatitidis significantly at 31.2 ?g/ml. In the anti-atherothrombosis activity test, the extract revealed moderate clot lysis by 15.15%. Moreover, the extract produced inhibition of protein denaturation and haemolysis by 34% and 38.98% in the in vitro antiinflammatory and membrane stablization tests. Preliminary phytochemical screenings of the crude extractives demonstrated the presence of alkaloids, steroids, tannins, reducing sugars and gums. The extract also exhibited good biological activities. Therefore, the plant should be subjected to systematic bioactivity guided isolation in order to obtain the active molecules. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14488 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 33-37, 2013
Evaluation of Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Effects of a Poly-herbal Ayurvedic Formulation
Authors: Uddin Mohammad Jashim , Bhuiyan Md Abdul Motaleb , Mazumder Kishor , Shohel Mohammad , Hossain Md Belayet , Chowdhury Abu Asad , Mazid Md Abdul
Published: April 2013

A poly-herbal ayurvedic formulation containing Sida retusa (root), Withania somnifera, Frillaria roylei, and Paederia foetida (prasarini) is used in the treatment of inflammation and pain based on the long-term experience of the ayurvedic physicians, but no scientific study has been carried out so far. We have evaluated the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of the poly-herbal preparation using different animal models such as hot plate method for analgesic activity and anti-inflammatory activity by carrageenan-induced inflammation. Significant analgesic activity of the poly-herbal formulation was found after 2 hours as compared to the control. The product also showed sufficient anti-inflammatory activity while checked against carrageenan induced inflammation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14492 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 59-62, 2013
A Validated RP-HPLC Method for Simultaneous Estimation of Antidiabetic Drugs Pioglitazone HCl and Glimepiride
Authors: Hossain Khohinur , Rahman Asma , Sultan Md Zakir , Islam Farhana , Akteruzzaman Md , Salam Md Abdus , Rashid Mohammad A
Published: April 2013

A simple, fast and economic reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method has been developed and validated for simultaneous and quantitative analyses of pioglitazone HCl and glimepiride in pharmaceutical dosage forms. The method was developed using the mobile phase comprising of potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (KH2PO4) at pH 3.4 and acetonitrile in the ratio of 40:60 (v/v) over C-18 bonded silica column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 um, Phenomenex Inc.) at ambient temperature. The flow rate was at 0.8 min/min and the eluent was monitored by UV detection at 235 nm. The recoveries were found to be >97% for pioglitazone and >99% for glimepiride, demonstrative of accuracy of the protocol. Inter-day and intra-day precision of the new method were less than the maximum allowable limit (RSD% ? 2.0) according to ICH, USP and FDA guidelines. The method showed linear response with correlation coefficient (r2) values of 0.9991 for pioglitazone and 0.9999 for glimepiride. Therefore, the method was found to be accurate, reproducible, sensitive and less time consuming and can be successfully applied for the assay of pioglitazone and glimepiride in combined formulations. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14497 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 69-75, 2013
Capacity of Non Ionic and Ionic Surfactants for Solubilisation of Paracetamol
Authors: Rahaman Tamanna , Fardous Jannatul , Perveen Faria Farzana , Sultana Sakina
Published: April 2013

The present study was conducted to investigate the solubilising capacity of polyvinylpyrrollidone (PVP K-30), Polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000), Polysorbate (Tween 80) and Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) for paracetamol. In our study, PVP K-30 exhibited 5 times, Tween 80 showed 3 times and SLS displayed 2 times higher solubilising capacity than water. Here, PVP K-30 exhibited the highest solubilising capacity and the value was 6.36 ± 0.063 (mg /ml), whilst PEG 6000 in the same study failed to show any significant increase (p> 0.05, unpaired t-test, two-tailed). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14498 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 77-80, 2013
Membrane Stabilizing and Preliminary Hypoglycemic Activities of Picrasma javanica
Authors: Sharmin Tasnuva , Islam Farhana , Sikder Md. Al Amin , Kabir Shaila , Haque Mohammad Rashedul , Rashid Mohammad A
Published: April 2013

The methanol extract of leaves of Picrasma javanica Blume and its n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and aqueous soluble partitionates were evaluated for membrane stabilizing and preliminary hypoglycemic activities. In hypotonic solution and heat-induced conditions, the crude methanol extract inhibited 65.30±0.52% and 36.79±0.38% haemolysis of RBC as compared to 72.79% and 42.12% produced by standard drug, acetyl salicylic acid, respectively (0.10 mg/ml). The crude extract also showed blood sugar lowering efficacy at 200 and 400 mg/ kg body weight, with 48.63% reduction of blood sugar level at 400 mg/kg body weight while the standard drug, Glibenclamide (10 mg/kg body weight) demonstrated 53.7% reduction of blood sugar level at 3rd hour of administration. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14500 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 89-92, 2013
Removal of Remazol Red from Textile Waste Water Using Treated Sawdust - An Effective Way of Effluent Treatment
Authors: Ara Nargish Jahan , Hasan Md Abu , Rahman Mohammad Arifur , Salam Md Abdus , Salam Abdus , Alam AM Shafiqul
Published: April 2013

Activated carbon prepared from sawdust is endeavored as adsorbent for the removal of reactive dye, namely Remazol Red (RR) from aqueous media. The adsorption of RR has been studied onto activated sawdust at various particle size, adsorbent dose, temperature and pH values. The adsorptions of the above mentioned dye were designed for the Langmuir and Freundlich Isotherms. Pseudo first and second order kinetic models were used to calculate the amount adsorbed at equilibrium (qe). The calculated values of qe for pseudo-second order equation were found to be in good agreement with those of experimental values. The monolayer capacity (qm) for treated sawdust (8.00 mg g1) is greater than commercial charcoal (0.074 mg g1). It is established that treated sawdust has been used as a better adsorbent for the removal of RR as compared to commercial charcoal. This process may eventually be used to get industrial waste free purified water. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14501 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 93-98, 2013
Preparation and Evaluation of Gastroretentive Floating Pellets of Metronidazole
Authors: Nowshad Shahriar , Pathan Md Saiful Islam
Published: April 2013

Traditionally metronidazole is used in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis, trichomoniasis, amoebiasis and is also used in combination with other drugs to treat Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) that causes stomach or intestinal ulcers. The main aim of this study was to develop a gastroretentive floating pellets for the treatment of above pathological conditions. Such kind of dosage form may provide an extension of drug presence in the upper GI tract resulting enhanced absorption and improved bioavailability for the treatment against protozoa and bacteria. Nine formulations of metronidazole floating pellets such as F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8 and F9 were prepared by ionic gelation method using different quantities of sodium alginate and psyllium husk. The drug and polymer ratio were 1:1.4, 1:1.5, 1:1.6, 1:1.6; 1:1.7, 1:1.8, 1:1.8, 1:1.9 and 1:2.0, respectively. The in vitro drug release study was carried out in 900 ml phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) at 37±0.50C and 50 rpm for 12 hours using USP XXIV paddle method and the content of drug release was determined by UV spectrometer at 277nm. Maximum and minimum drug release were found in F1 (88.63%) and in F6 (73.21%), respectively. It indicates that increase in sodium alginate concentration decreases drug release. All the formulations were buoyant for more than 12 hours in simulated gastric fluid at 370C. The maximum and minimum bulk density tapped were 0.57 and 0.52 in F1 and F9, respectively where drug loading were 14.07% in F1 and 12.56% in F9 which indicates that bulk density of the pellets is directly proportional to drug loading. The maximum and minimum swelling were in F3 (75%) and F7 (59%), respectively which demonstrate that swelling of pellets were inversely proportional to the sodium alginate concentration but it is directly proportional to psyllium husk content. In addition, the psyllium husk keeps the GI tract healthy by scavenging toxins and residues of digestive systems. Therefore, it can be concluded that combination of sodium alginate and biodegradable psyllium husk can be prospectively used for the preparation of gastroretentive floating pellets. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14504 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 107-115, 2013
New Drugs Approval Vol.16(1)
Authors: Hossain Md Akbar , Tanvir Sharif
Published: April 2013

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14512 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 121-123, 2013
Editor's Note Vol.6(2) & 7(1)
Authors: Alam Mahmudul
Published: April 2013

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v6i2.14513 Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) VolVI, Issue02, (July-December, 2011) & VolVII, Issue-1 (January-June, 2012)
The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East by Timur Kuran
Authors: Derrenger William H
Published: April 2013

Princeton University PressNew Jersey, USA, 2011ISBN: 9781400836017DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v6i2.14517Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) VolVI, Issue02, (July-December, 2011) & VolVII, Issue-1 (January-June, 2012) pp.53-54
The present mode of teaching in the ELT classes at the Higher Secondary level in Bangladesh: Is it the practice of CLT or disguised GTM?
Authors: Abedin Md Minhajul
Published: April 2013

This study focuses on the current application of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach at the higher secondary level in Bangladesh. Several attempts have been taken to prove the justification of the inclusion of the CLT approach in the curriculum in our country. Though the CLT approach was not imposed suddenly on our curriculum, the implementation of CLT in the present context in Bangladesh is still questionable. In this study, concentration has been given to the disguised impact of the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) on the practice of the CLT approach in Bangladesh. It has also been an attempt to find whether we can term the current mode of CLT as modified CLT. This small scale research has been conducted at the Higher Secondary level to locate the presence of GTM in place of the CLT approach. The study has been done through questionnaire survey and interview. The result of the findings has been analyzed and some suggestions have been given on the basis of the result. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14459 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 1-15
Marlowes Theatre of Cruelty: Threat, Caution and Reaction in Five Plays
Authors: Ashraf Tasleem Ara
Published: April 2013

Abstract not availableDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14460 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 16-26
Learning from Mistakes: Using Correction Code to Improve Students Writing Skill in English Composition Class
Authors: Ferdouse Farhana
Published: April 2013

Selecting a right way to provide students with error feedback in their writing has proved to be a complex task for researchers in language pedagogy. Although a lot of studies have been conducted to examine this issue, the teachers are still following their own way of error feed back. So the researchers feel that there is a need to conduct different sort of studies to find out an effective way of error feedback. The present study with 20 participants in second trimester university level proves that students prefer coded feedback more as in this process of error feedback teachers show the error and its type by using a certain code or symbol. This study also shows that the students benefit more from having coded feedback over non-coded feedback. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14463 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 62-86
Ibsenite Protagonists at Extreme Odds with the Rest of the World: A Psychological Interpretation
Authors: Huq ABM Monirul , Ahsan Md Firoz Mahmud
Published: April 2013

Abstract not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14470 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 145-158
Desdemonas Handkerchief: Its Symbolic Significance
Authors: Huq Syed Anwarul
Published: April 2013

Abstract not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14471 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 159-168
Naipauls A Bend in the River as a Jamesonian Third World National Allegory
Authors: Idris Nazua
Published: April 2013

Abstract not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14472 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 169-182
The Sources of Magic Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Authors: Roy Shaibal Dev
Published: April 2013

Abstract not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14477 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 252-262
In Vivo Applications of Single Chain Fv (Variable Domain) (scFv) Fragments
Authors: Monnier Philippe , Vigouroux Robin , Tassew Nardos
Published: April 2013

Single chain variable domain (Fv) fragments (scFv) are powerful tools in research and clinical settings, owing to better pharmacokinetic properties compared to the parent monoclonal antibodies and the relative ease of producing them in large quantities, at low cost. Though they offer several advantages, they suffer from lower binding affinity and rapid clearance from circulation, which limits their therapeutic potential. However, these fragments can be genetically modified to enhance desirable properties, such as multivalency, high target retention and slower blood clearance, and as such, a variety of scFv formats have been generated. ScFvs can be administered by systemic injection for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. They can be expressed in vivo through viral vectors in instances where large infection rates and sustenance of high levels of the antibody is required. ScFvs have found applications as tools for in vivo loss-of-function studies and inactivation of specific protein domains, diagnostic imaging, tumor therapy and treatment for neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. This review will focus on their in vivo applications.
Edges and Overlaps in Northwest Atlantic Phylogeography
Authors: Altman Safra , Robinson John , Pringle James , Byers James , Wares John
Published: April 2013

As marine environments change, the greatest ecological shifts—including resource usage and species interactions—are likely to take place in or near regions of biogeographic and phylogeographic transition. However, our understanding of where these transitional regions exist depends on the defining criteria. Here we evaluate phylogeographic transitions using a bootstrapping procedure that allows us to focus on either the strongest genetic transitions between a pair of contiguous populations, versus evaluation of transitions inclusive of the entire overlap between two intraspecific genetic lineages. We compiled data for the Atlantic coast of the United States, and evaluate taxa with short- and long-dispersing larval phases separately. Our results are largely concordant with previous biogeographic and phylogeographic analyses, indicating strong biotic change associated with the regions near Cape Cod, the Delmarva Peninsula, and eastern Florida. However, inclusive analysis of the entire range of sympatry for intraspecific lineages suggests that broad regions—the Mid-Atlantic Bight and eastern Florida–already harbor divergent intraspecific lineages, suggesting the potential for ecological evaluation of resource use between these lineages. This study establishes baseline information for tracking how such patterns change as predicted environmental changes take place.
Syracuse Limestone: From the Past a Prospect for Contemporary Buildings
Authors: Giuffrida Alessia , Ciliberto Enrico
Published: April 2013

The conservation of the historic stone heritage has great importance when this material characterizes the image of a city, as it happens in Syracuse (Sicily). Its historical buildings are afflicted by a heavy state of deterioration due to the particular microclimate, to pollution and to neglect endured over time. This article reports the investigations made on limestone samples from historic façades of the city and from the neighboring quarries still in operation, in order to understand the petrographic typology, the reaction to the degradation over time, the possible maintenance and recovery interventions, and the correct applications in buildings of new construction. For this aim, bulk and surface analysis have been made both on the quarry materials and on the corresponding aged materials. It is therefore possible to define the types of rock most suitable for the use in contemporary architecture guaranteeing criteria of perfect biocompatibility. In this way a natural material can be employed in traditional and innovative uses and ensure both the sustainability of the interventions and the continuity of a consolidated tradition.
Connexin 26 is Down-Regulated by KDM5B in the Progression of Bladder Cancer
Authors: Li Xin , Su Yongping , Pan Jinhong , Zhou Zhansong , Song Bo , Xiong Enqing , Chen Zhiwen
Published: April 2013

Connexin 26 (Cx26) expression is down-regulated and KDM5B (H3K4 demethylase) is up-regulated in the progression of bladder cancer, suggesting that Cx26 expression may be down-regulated by KDM5B in bladder cancer. To test the hypothesis, the HT1376 and T24 human bladder carcinoma cells were transfected with the plasmids pcDNA3.1-KDM5B, and caused the down-regulation of Cx26 expression. In contrast, the HT1376 and T24 cells transfected with the plasmids pTZU6+1-shRNA-KDM5B1 and pTZU6+1-shRNA-KDM5B2 caused the up-regulation of Cx26 expression. Immunohistochemistry and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis showed that the immunohistochemical expression of KDM5B and Cx26 was inversely related in bladder carcinoma tissues but no relationship in benign tissues. Taken together, these results indicate that KDM5B represses Cx26 expression in the bladder cancer development. Thus, a negative value to Cx26 immunohistochemical expression and a positive value to KDM5B immunohistochemical expression could be an ancillary diagnosis of primary bladder malignancy.