bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clonal evolution of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma takes place in the lymph nodes
Authors: Umino Akira , Nakagawa Masao , Utsunomiya Atae , Tsukasaki Kunihiro , Taira Naoya , Katayama Naoyuki , Seto Masao
Published: March 2011

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is the neoplasm caused by human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). We performed oligo-array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) against paired samples comprising peripheral blood (PB) and lymph node (LN) samples from 13 patients with acute ATLL. We found that the genome profiles of the PB frequently differed from those of the LN samples. The results showed that 9 of 13 cases investigated had a log2 ratio imbalance among chromosomes, and that chromosome imbalances were more frequent in LN samples. Detailed analysis revealed that the imbalances were likely caused by the presence of multiple subclones in the LN samples. Five of 13 cases showed homozygous loss regions in PB samples, which were not found in the LN samples, indicating that tumors in the PB were derived from LN subclones in most cases. Southern blot analysis of TCRγ showed that these multiple subclones originated from a common clone. We concluded that in many ATLL cases, multiple subclones in the LNs originate from a common clone, and that a selected subclone among the LN subclones appears in the PB.
Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM): novel biological insights and development of early treatment strategies
Authors: Korde Neha , Kristinsson Sigurdur Y. , Landgren Ola
Published: March 2011

Monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) are asymptomatic plasma cell dyscrasias, with a propensity to progress to symptomatic MM. In recent years there have been improvements in risk stratification models (involving molecular markers) of both disorders, which have led to better understanding of the biology and probability of progression of MGUS and SMM. In the context of numerous molecular events and heterogeneous risk of progression, developing individualized risk profiles for patients with MGUS and SMM represents an ongoing challenge that has to be addressed by prospective clinical monitoring and extensive correlative science. In this review we discuss the current standard of care of patients with MGUS and SMM, the use of risk models, including flow cytometry and free-light chain analyses, for predicting risk of progression. Emerging evidence from molecular studies on MGUS and SMM, involving cytogenetics, gene-expression profiling, and microRNA as well as molecular imaging is described. Finally, future directions for improving individualized management of MGUS and SMM patients, as well as the potential for developing early treatment strategies designed to delay and prevent development of MM are discussed.
Synthetic lethality: exploiting the addiction of cancer to DNA repair
Authors: Shaheen Montaser , Allen Christopher , Nickoloff Jac A. , Hromas Robert
Published: March 2011

Because cancer at its origin must acquire permanent genomic mutations, it is by definition a disease of DNA repair. Yet for cancer cells to replicate their DNA and divide, which is the fundamental phenotype of cancer, multiple DNA repair pathways are required. This produces a paradox for the cancer cell, where its origin is at the same time its weakness. To overcome this difficulty, a cancer cell often becomes addicted to DNA repair pathways other than the one that led to its initial mutability. The best example of this is in breast or ovarian cancers with mutated BRCA1 or 2, essential components of a repair pathway for repairing DNA double-strand breaks. Because replicating DNA requires repair of DNA double-strand breaks, these cancers have become reliant on another DNA repair component, PARP1, for replication fork progression. The inhibition of PARP1 in these cells results in catastrophic double-strand breaks during replication, and ultimately cell death. The exploitation of the addiction of cancer cells to a DNA repair pathway is based on synthetic lethality and has wide applicability to the treatment of many types of malignancies, including those of hematologic origin. There is a large number of novel compounds in clinical trials that use this mechanism for their antineoplastic activity, making synthetic lethality one of the most important new concepts in recent drug development.
International Myeloma Working Group consensus approach to the treatment of multiple myeloma patients who are candidates for autologous stem cell transplantation
Authors: Cavo Michele , Rajkumar S. Vincent , Palumbo Antonio , Moreau Philippe , Orlowski Robert , Bladé Joan , Sezer Orhan , Ludwig Heinz , Dimopoulos Meletios A. , Attal Michel , Sonneveld Pieter , Boccadoro Mario , Anderson Kenneth C. , Richardson Paul G. , Bensinger William , Johnsen Hans E. , Kroeger Nicolaus , Gahrton Gösta , Bergsagel P. Leif , Vesole David H. , Einsele Hermann , Jagannath Sundar , Niesvizky Ruben , Durie Brian G. M. , San Miguel Jesus , Lonial Sagar
Published: March 2011

The role of high-dose therapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) continues to evolve in the novel agent era. The choice of induction therapy has moved from conventional chemotherapy to newer regimens incorporating the immunomodulatory derivatives thalidomide or lenalidomide and the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. These drugs combine well with traditional therapies and with one another to form various doublet, triplet, and quadruplet regimens. Up-front use of these induction treatments, in particular 3-drug combinations, has affected unprecedented rates of complete response that rival those previously seen with conventional chemotherapy and subsequent ASCT. Autotransplantation applied after novel-agent-based induction regimens provides further improvement in the depth of response, a gain that translates into extended progression-free survival and, potentially, overall survival. High activity shown by immunomodulatory derivatives and bortezomib before ASCT has recently led to their use as consolidation and maintenance therapies after autotransplantation. Novel agents and ASCT are complementary treatment strategies for MM. This article reviews the current literature and provides important perspectives and guidance on the major issues surrounding the optimal current management of younger, transplantation-eligible MM patients.
Public Values, Health Inequality, and Alternative Notions of a “Fair” Response
Authors: Blacksher Erika , Rigby Elizabeth , Espey Claire
Published: March 2011

The fact that disadvantaged people generally die younger and suffer more disease than those with more resources is gaining ground as a major policy concern in the United States. Yet we know little about how public values inform public opinion about policy interventions to address these disparities. This article presents findings from an exploratory study of the public's values and priorities as they relate to social inequalities in health. Forty-three subjects were presented with a scenario depicting health inequalities by social class and were given the opportunity to alter the distribution of health outcomes. Participants' responses fell into one of three distributive preferences: (1) prioritize the disadvantaged, (2) equalize health outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, and (3) equalize health resources between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. These equality preferences were reflected in participants' responses to a second, more complex scenario in which trade-offs with other health-related values — maximizing health and prioritizing the sickest — were introduced. In most cases, participants moderated their distributive preferences to accommodate these other health goals, particularly to prioritize the allocation of resources to the very sick regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Introduction to the Newberry New Book Symposium on Larry Glickman's Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America
Authors: Fink Leon
Published: March 2011

This issue's Up for Debate section discusses Lawrence Glickman's new book, Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America. Introduced by Leon Fink's brief summary, the debate brings together three commentaries by Nan Enstad, Nancy MacLean, and Susan Levine. In a response, Glickman reasserts his central argument, while welcoming new angles on the field.
NFATC1 promotes epicardium-derived cell invasion into myocardium
Authors: Combs Michelle D. , Braitsch Caitlin M. , Lange Alexander W. , James Jeanne F. , Yutzey Katherine E.
Published: March 2011

Epicardium-derived cells (EPDCs) contribute to formation of coronary vessels and fibrous matrix of the mature heart. Nuclear factor of activated T-cells cytoplasmic 1 (NFATC1) is expressed in cells of the proepicardium (PE), epicardium and EPDCs in mouse and chick embryos. Conditional loss of NFATC1 expression in EPDCs in mice causes embryonic death by E18.5 with reduced coronary vessel and fibrous matrix penetration into myocardium. In osteoclasts, calcineurin-mediated activation of NFATC1 by receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL) signaling induces cathepsin K (CTSK) expression for extracellular matrix degradation and cell invasion. RANKL/NFATC1 pathway components also are expressed in EPDCs, and loss of NFATC1 in EPDCs causes loss of CTSK expression in the myocardial interstitium in vivo. Likewise, RANKL treatment induces Ctsk expression in PE-derived cell cultures via a calcineurin-dependent mechanism. In chicken embryo hearts, RANKL treatment increases the distance of EPDC invasion into myocardium, and this response is calcineurin dependent. Together, these data demonstrate a crucial role for the RANKL/NFATC1 signaling pathway in promoting invasion of EPDCs into the myocardium by induction of extracellular matrix-degrading enzyme gene expression.
Algebraic relations among periods and logarithms of rank 2 Drinfeld modules
Authors: Chang Chieh-Yu , Papanikolas Matthew A.
Published: March 2011

For any rank $2$ Drinfeld module $\rho$ defined over an algebraic function
field, we consider its period matrix $P_{\rho}$, which is analogous to the
period matrix of an elliptic curve defined over a number field. Suppose
that the characteristic of the finite field ${\Bbb F}_q$ is odd and that
$\rho$ does not have complex multiplication. We show that the
transcendence degree of the field generated by the entries of $P_{\rho}$
over ${\Bbb F}_q(\theta)$ is $4$. As a consequence, we show also the
algebraic independence of Drinfeld logarithms of algebraic functions which
are linearly independent over ${\Bbb F}_q(\theta)$.
Residuation of linear series and the effective cone of C d
Authors: Mustopa Yusuf
Published: March 2011

We obtain new information about divisors on the $d$th symmetric power $C_{d}$ of a general curve $C$ of genus $g \geq 4.$ This includes a complete description of the effective cone of $C_{g-1}$ and a partial computation of the volume function on one of its non-nef subcones, as well as new bounds for the effective and movable cones of $C_{d}$ in the range $\frac{g+1}{2} \leq d \leq g-2.$ We also obtain, for each $g \geq 5,$ a divisor on $C_{g-1}$ with non-equidimensional stable base locus. For a general hyperelliptic curve $C$ of genus $g,$ we obtain a complete description of the effective cone of $C_{d}$ for $2 \leq d \leq g$ and an integral divisor on $C_{g-1}$ which has non-integral volume whenever $g$ is not a power of 2.
Interpolating sequences for analytic selfmappings of the disc
Authors: Ferrer Pere Menal , Galán Nacho Monreal , Nicolau Artur
Published: March 2011

Schwarz's Lemma leads to a natural interpolation problem for analytic functions from the disc into itself. The corresponding interpolating sequences are geometrically described in terms of a certain hyperbolic density.
A construction of elements in the Bernstein center for quasi-split groups
Authors: Moy Allen , Tadić Marko
Published: March 2011

The Bernstein center of a reductive p-adic group is the algebra of conjugation invariant distributions on the group which are essentially compact, i.e., invariant distributions whose convolution against a locally constant compactly supported function is again locally constant compactly supported. The center acts naturally on any smooth representation, and if the representation is irreducible, each element of the center acts as a scalar. For a connected reductive quasi-split group, we show certain linear combinations of orbital integrals belong to the Bernstein center. Furthermore, when these combinations are projected to a Bernstein component, they form an ideal in the Bernstein center which can be explicitly described and is often a principal ideal. The elements constructed here should have applications to various questions in harmonic analysis.
Deformations of nilpotent cones and Springer correspondences
Authors: Kato Syu
Published: March 2011

Let $G = \mathop{Sp}( 2n )$ be the symplectic group over ${\Bbb Z}$. We present a certain kind of deformation of the nilpotent cone of $G$ with $G$-action. This enables us to make direct links between the Springer correspondence of ${\frak{sp}} _{2n}$ over ${\Bbb C}$, that over characteristic two, and our exotic Springer correspondence. As a by-product, we obtain a complete description of our exotic Springer correspondence.
The distribution of the zeros of random trigonometric polynomials
Authors: Granville Andrew , Wigman Igor
Published: March 2011

We study the asymptotic distribution of the number $Z_{N}$ of zeros of
random trigonometric polynomials of degree $N$ as $N\rightarrow\infty$. It
is known that as $N$ grows to infinity, the expected number of the zeros
is asymptotic to $\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}\cdot N$. The asymptotic form of the
variance was predicted by Bogomolny, Bohigas and Leboeuf to be $cN$ for
some $c>0$. We prove that $\frac{Z_{N}-{\Bbb E} Z_{N}}{\sqrt{cN}}$
converges to the standard Gaussian. In addition, we find that the
analogous result is applicable for the number of zeros in short intervals.
American Neoconfessional: Memoir, Self-Help, and Redemption on Oprah’s Couch
Authors: Gilmore Leigh
Published: March 2011

This essay reads the scandal surrounding James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces as part of a developing brand, the American neoconfessional, and questions how memoirs, as part of this brand, present “reading in public” as a mode of civic engagement that teaches readers to consume and judge “similar others.” The redemption narrative is the preferred story in this brand, with its links to the American dream, and its promotion centers normativity as an uninspected value in life narrative. The norming of life narrative away from the complexities of racial and gendered histories of harm influences the recent shift in the memoir market toward self-help discourse. Drawing on Lauren Berlant, autobiography studies, and scholarship on Oprah Winfrey, this essay theorizes how celebrity and sentimentality intersect with nonnormative life stories and anti-confessional discourse in recent memoirs.
Wampum Belts and Tomahawks on an Irish Estate: Constructing an Imperial Identity in the Late Eighteenth Century
Authors: Tobin Beth Fowkes
Published: March 2011

Sir John Caldwell collected Native American artifacts while he served in the British military during the American Revolution. Caldwell used his collection to construct an image of himself as a military officer whose cultural encounters with Native Americans prepared him to be flexible in his exercise of the sometimes precarious and often contested authority of an Anglo-Irish landowner.
Pacific Women Building Peace: A Regional Perspective
Authors: George Nicole
Published: March 2011

Contemporary analysis of Pacific Islands regionalism is commonly focused on the institutional realm and examines how frameworks of regional governance have evolved and been strengthened. This article, by contrast, provides insight into the less well understood political content of more informal modes of Pacific Islands regional integration. In particular, it examines Pacific women's regional peacebuilding collaborations since the 1960s and 1970s. It demonstrates the political impact of Pacific women's collective responses to conflict in the region during the past forty years while also discussing the varying nature of this activity over time. Consideration is therefore given both to Pacific women's differing conceptual approaches to peacebuilding and to the differing geopolitical scope of their regional peacebuilding networks. The significance of this discussion is two-fold. First, this research provides insight into the history of "bottom-up" forms of regional engagement in the Pacific, a realm of political activity that might, if more broadly recognized, positively complement existing programs that aim to secure future security in the Pacific through regional institutional consolidation. Second, it challenges conventional perspectives on women and peacebuilding that tend to suggest that women respond to conflict in ways that are singular, homogenous, and marginal to the political mainstream.
"Our Ancestors that We Carry on Our Backs": Restaging Hawaii's History in the Plays of Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl
Authors: Looser Diana
Published: March 2011

During the past twenty years, Hawaiian dramatist and museum educator Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl has become established as one of the foremost playwrights working in the contemporary Pacific. Since the mid-1980s, a dominant strand of Kneubuhl's oeuvre has involved a critical examination of Hawai'i's colonial history, using various forms of theatrical performance to interrogate historical injustices and characterizations of Hawaiian culture that erase or overwrite indigenous epistemologies, offering restorative models and, in some instances, stimulating efforts that bring about material social change. This paper surveys six of Kneubuhl's historiographic works produced during the 1980s and 1990s, highlighting varied dramaturgical strategies employed to engage the cultural past in order to address contemporary concerns. The discussion distinguishes two broad theatrical genres arising from Kneubuhl's training and work experience: historical "plays for the theatre," which incorporate fictional or fantastic elements and are designed for repeated performance within the aesthetic and commercial frame of amateur or professional theatre production; and her "living history programs," site- and occasion-specific performances based more directly on documentary sources and developed in consultation with historians, with a stricter pedagogical purview and a tendency toward a more realist style of presentation. This overview of Kneubuhl's plays and programs foregrounds the important cultural interventions effected by her work during the last two decades, and contributes to an investigation of the various uses of performance in helping to construct indigenous histories in Oceania, while engaging in a broader dialogue about the ways in which theatre functions actively within the postcolonial Pacific.
Becoming a "New" Museum?: Contesting Oceanic Visions at Musée du Quai Branly
Authors: Jolly Margaret
Published: March 2011

The Musée du Quai Branly ( MQB ) has been the focus of passionate debates in scholarly and public media in France and globally, since even before its opening in June 2006. These debates have often polarized advocates of divergent aesthetic and ethnographic approaches to museum practice, although some argue this is a false dichotomy and that the MQB has the future potential to realize a "double vision." Yet both approaches have their discursive origins in Euro American scholarship and museological practice, and effecting a genuinely "double vision" must surely confront the question of the relation of objects in museums and galleries to living peoples and especially the descendants of the creators of such objects/subjects. This essay explores this question in relation to MQB displays of Oceanic art, in particular the Pacific and Indigenous Australian art in the permanent collections and in the fabric of Jean Nouvel's building. It juxtaposes the museum's credo "where cultures converse" with the voices of Oceanic curators in dialogue at a conference held in association with the Polynésie exhibition in June 2008. It suggests that becoming a "new museum" is predicated not just on the rhetoric of an equality of arts, but also on people becoming engaged in more respectful relations of dialogue and exchange.
On Location at a Nonentity: Reading Hollywood's "Micronesia"
Authors: Kupferman David W.
Published: March 2011

The subject of "Micronesia" has rarely figured in Hollywood's cinematic lexicon, but when it does it is usually relegated to the exotic backdrop of the familiar colonial screen. By employing two Deleuzean cinema analytics that consider realism as well as monumental, antiquarian, and ethical historical representations in film, I closely "read" three Hollywood movies spanning fifty years of subjectivizing "Micronesia" in the social cinematic imaginary. Such a reading of His Majesty O'Keefe (1953), starring Burt Lancaster and set in Yap; Nate and Hayes (1983), starring Tommy Lee Jones and set partially in Pohnpei; and Windtalkers (2002), starring Nicholas Cage about the battle of Saipan, allows us to consider both the various "truths" about Micronesia that Hollywood produces and what the functions of those truths are. Finally, the paper takes into account Deleuze's conception of minor cinema as well as his notion of fabulation in order to offer a counter discourse to the popular Hollywood displacement of "Micronesia" both from the public imaginary and from the islands and Islanders themselves.
Navigating the Revival of Voyaging in the Marshall Islands: Predicaments of Preservation and Possibilities of Collaboration
Authors: Genz Joseph
Published: March 2011

Endeavors to preserve esoteric domains of cultural knowledge in Oceania face severe challenges. Paradoxically, revitalization projects risk recontextualizing specialized knowledge and this weakens its cultural significance. In this article, I draw attention to the complexities of this predicament by providing ethnographic details on an ongoing voyaging revival in the Marshall Islands. I examine the competing cultural imperatives to simultaneously safeguard knowledge-based positions of identity, maintain deferential relationships with chiefly authority, and revitalize the cultural heritage. The navigational knowledge is being carefully guarded within families despite, or perhaps because of, decreasing numbers of custodians of a unique wave-based voyaging tradition. Now, Marshallese are navigating through unknown routes to uncover knowledge that has been lost, forgotten, and fragmented, and this suggests possibilities for new models of collaborative research that are sensitive to the politics of culture and tradition as they address the practices of cultural recovery.
Community-Based Internships to Address Environmental Issues: A Model for Effective Partnerships
Authors: Close Fran T. , Zokovitch Paben Jeanne Marie , Foster Anika
Published: March 2011

Background: Previous studies have shown that environmental burdens tend to be inequitably borne by poor and minority populations. Statistics indicate that these populations suffer disproportionately from adverse health effects associated with polluting facilities in their community. To address these problems, public health officials and researchers should pay close attention to the experiences of individuals in local communities. Methods: The aims of the Community-Based Internship Program were to (1) provide a graduate internship that gives students the opportunity to utilize their didactic skills in a community-based setting on important environmental issues and (2) educate and empower the community with the tools needed to address their environmental concerns and protect their health. Graduate students from various disciplines participated in a 12-week internship program that involved community-based organizations (CBOs) working on environmental health and justice issues. Results: A total of 22 graduate interns were given projects that assisted the CBOs in creating environmental health awareness and educating communities about environmental issues. Each internship represented a unique partnership between a university, an environmental law firm, and CBOs. This equitable partnership fostered co-learning and capacity building among all partners. Conclusion: The opportunity to collaborate as partners on a community-based initiative resulted in benefits for all partners. The graduate internship program was implemented effectively because of each partner's contribution and dedication to the success of the program. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this program can assist others with the development of similar partnerships that benefit underserved communities.
Balancing Community and University Aims in Community-Based Participatory Research: A Pacific Islander Youth Study
Authors: Tanjasiri Sora Park , Wiersma Lenny , Briand Greta , Faletau Vaka , Lepule Jonathan , Nacpil Lianne , Eichenauer Jan
Published: March 2011

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) holds the promise of improving the planning, conduct, and long-term translation of research findings into community settings. Objectives: This 2-year, exploratory study applied CBPR structures and processes to the identification of individual, cultural and community factors associated with obesity among Pacific Islander (PI) youth in Southern California. Methods: We describe the CBPR principles and strategies used by a community-university partnership to develop, implement, and report on the findings from assessments of obesity, physical activity, and nutritional intake among PI youth. Results: Although CBPR planning processes led to successes in community-based youth recruitment and retention, we learned key lessons regarding implementation of tailored assessment protocols, often involving problems arising from the university side of the CBPR collaborative. Conclusion: CBPR has its strengths and limits; more studies are needed that report on processes to increase our understanding of how to balance research rigor with community sustainability.
Moving Toward Synergy: Lessons Learned in Developing and Sustaining Community-Academic Partnerships
Authors: Brush Barbara L. , Baiardi Janet M. , Lapides Sharon
Published: March 2011

Background: Community-academic partnerships are an increasingly popular approach to addressing community health problems and engaging vulnerable populations in research. Despite these altruistic foci, however, partnerships often struggle with fundamental issues that thwart sustainability, effectiveness, and efficiency. Objectives: We adapted a synergy-promoting model to guide the development and evaluation of a community-academic partnership and share lessons learned along the way. Methods: We analyzed the partnership process over time to determine the interaction of trust, collaboration, and engagement in creating partnership synergy and promoting sustainability. Lessons Learned: Few community-academic partnerships use a conscious and systematic approach to guide and evaluate their progress. We argue that this is an important first step in creating a partnership, sustaining a milieu of open dialogue, and developing strategies that promote trust and equalize power dynamics. Still, as we learned, the best laid plans can go awry, challenging partnership synergy throughout its lifespan.
Evaluation of an Asthma Medication Training Program for Immigrant Mexican Community Health Workers
Authors: Martin Molly A , Mosnaim Giselle S. , Rojas Delia , Hernandez Olivia , Sadowski Laura S.
Published: March 2011

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who connect immigrant communities with health care services. Although CHW asthma interventions have been shown to improve some outcomes, their ability to change medication adherence remains unclear. Objective: Our goal was to determine if intensive asthma medication training resulted in objective improvements in asthma medication instruction abilities for immigrant Mexican CHWs. Methods: Eleven CHWs participated in a 15-hour training course conducted in only Spanish. The course covered asthma pathophysiology, reliever and controller medications, medication technique, and self-management skills. Before and after the training, CHWs completed a written asthma knowledge test and were tested on medication delivery technique using a demonstrator metered dose inhaler (MDI), spacer, and dry powder inhaler (DPI). After the training, CHWs performed a standardized role play to assess their ability to deliver medication instruction. At follow-up evaluations, the CHWs described benefits and weaknesses of the training. Results: Before the training, the median correct medication technique scores were: MDI = 25%, spacer = 0%, and DPI = 0%. After the training, the median scores were: MDI = 69%, spacer = 64%, and DPI = 67% ( p < .01). On the role plays, all CHWs were scored as "Demonstrates adequate understanding of a complicated skill" and four were "Ready for the field on a clinical trial." The CHWs described specific application of training skills during the subsequent delivery of an asthma intervention. Conclusion: This training and follow-up evaluation provide objective evidence of improved asthma medication knowledge, delivery technique, and instruction abilities in immigrant Mexican CHWs. With proper training, CHWs can assist families to understand and correctly use complicated asthma medications.
A Funding Initiative for Community-Based Participatory Research: Lessons from the Harvard Catalyst Seed Grants
Authors: Tendulkar Shalini A. , Chu Jocelyn , Opp Jennifer , Geller Alan , DiGirolamo Ann , Gandelman Ediss , Grullon Milagro , Patil Pratima , King Stacey , Hacker Karen
Published: March 2011

Background: The National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) have increasingly focused on community-engaged research and funded investigators for community-based participatory research (CBPR). However, because CBPR is a collaborative process focused on community-identified research topics, the Harvard CTSA and its Community Advisory Board (CERAB) funded community partners through a CBPR initiative. Objectives: We describe lessons learned from this seed grants initiative designed to stimulate community-academic CBPR partnerships. Methods: The CBPR program of the Harvard CTSA and the CERAB developed this initiative and each round incorporated participant and advisory feedback toward program improvement. Lessons Learned: Although this initiative facilitated relevant and innovative research, challenges included variable community research readiness, insufficient project time, and difficulties identifying investigators for new partnerships. Conclusion: Seed grants can foster innovative CBPR projects. Similar initiatives should consider preliminary assessments of community research readiness as well as strategies for meaningful academic researcher engagement.
From the Ground Up: Building a Participatory Evaluation Model
Authors: Sánchez Victoria , Carrillo Christina , Wallerstein Nina
Published: March 2011

Background: We engaged in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project with the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) and its 32 county-based health councils. Objectives: We report on the process of the collaborative development of an evaluation model that would identify and link council actions to intermediate system change. Methods: We used multiple data sources and interactive, iterative processes to systematically examine and document the health council system including document review, a statewide partnership survey, and multiple meetings with partners. Lessons Learned: We highlight lessons and challenges in our CBPR process, including the need for community partners to overcome the fear of evaluation, the use of multiple participatory mechanisms, the value of a linking agent, and understanding multiple data needs. Conclusion: The time and resources of this participatory evaluation process enabled successful navigation of two important issues: (1) increased attention to statewide accountability of collaborative public health initiatives, and (2) increased expectation by health councils or other community partnerships to have a recognized voice in defining measures for this accountability.
A Community-Based Systems Learning Approach to Understanding Youth Violence in Boston
Authors: Bridgewater Khary , Peterson Steve , McDevitt John , Hemenway David , Bass Jeffrey , Bothwell Paul , Everdell Ros
Published: March 2011

Background: Youth violence in general and gang violence in particular continues to be a pernicious problem facing the majority of large U.S. cities. Attempts to reduce youth violence are hindered by the absence of a shared framework that crosses multiple disciplines. Objective: The goal of the Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP) is to help communities strategize for and achieve sustained reductions in youth violence in Boston. Methods: A distinction of YVSP is the engagement of community residents in a group model building process to develop a conceptual framework and create a system dynamics computer model of youth violence in Boston. Community residents including youth participated in the design, execution, and evaluation of the project. We also partnered with community agencies to gain insight from individuals with a history of gang involvement or violent offense. The computer model highlights the dynamics of movement into and out of gangs, and the relationships that influence violent interactions among individuals and gangs. The model serves as a simulation-based laboratory for examining initiatives aimed at reducing youth violence within a community. It considers the positive feedback between traumatic stress and violence; as violence levels rise in the community, this increases individual traumatic stress, which further increases violent responses by community members. Conclusion: The project's community-based approach coupled with its system dynamics methodology produced a new understanding of youth violence in Boston. This understanding undergirds the model's logic, making it more useful to community residents and more accurate in describing the behavior of youth in high-violence neighborhoods.
Art Messaging to Engage Homeless Young Adults
Authors: Nyamathi Adeline , Slagle Alexandra , Thomas Alexandra , Hudson Angela , Kahilifard Farinaz , Avila Glenna , Orser Julie , Cuchilla Manuel
Published: March 2011

Background : Art has been shown to be an empowering and engaging entity with numerous benefits to vulnerable populations, including the homeless persons and young adults. However, little is known how homeless young adults perceive the use of art as messages that can communicate the danger of initiating or continuing drug and alcohol use. Objectives : The purpose of this study was to solicit perspectives of homeless, drug-using young adults as to how art can be used to design messages for their peers about the danger of initiating or continuing drug and alcohol use. Methods : Qualitative methodology via focus group discussions was utilized to engage 24 homeless young adults enrolled from a drop-in site in Santa Monica, California. Results : The findings revealed support for a myriad of delivery styles, including in-person communication, flyers, music, documentary film, and creative writing. The young adults also provided insight into the importance of the thematic framework of messages. Such themes ranged from empowering and hopeful messages to those designed to scare young homeless adults into not experimenting with drugs. Conclusion : The findings indicate that in addition to messages communicating the need to prevent or reduce drug and alcohol use, homeless young adults respond to messages that remind them of goals and dreams they once had for their future, and to content that is personal, real, and truthful. Our research indicates that messages that reinforce protective factors such as hope for the future and self-esteem may be as important to homeless young adults as information about the risks and consequences of drug use.
Convenient Scapegoats: Public Workers under Assault
Authors: McCartin Joseph A.
Published: March 2011

Whether the United States can emerge from the Great Recession to confront this massive long-range failure of the private sector to generate good jobs, reliable benefits, and rising incomes for the many will depend greatly on how well public sector unions are able to weather this perilous moment. With less than 7 percent of nongovernmental workers unionized, private sector unions no longer have the leverage to improve wages and benefits for those beyond their ranks. Thus, by default, public sector unions have become the single most effective social force capable of speaking out for a just economy that lifts the standards of all workers, public and private. To preserve their credibility and their ability to fight effectively for both their members and a fairer economy for all, the unions would be wise at this moment to show that they are prepared to make sacrifices where necessary, appropriate, and fair. In turn, all who seek a fairer economy have a stake in coming together to resist the radical effort to roll back public sector unionism that is now gaining ground.
The Last Page
Authors: Mohamed Feisal G.
Published: March 2011

And yet Egypt's democratic moment has arrived. It has arrived through the heroic efforts of a young, progressive generation, and in the teeth of the world's great powers who in their desperation could not scare it away by raising the bogey of the Muslim Brotherhood (which, they seem to forget, has survived half a century of being outlawed thanks in no small part to Cold War funding and organizational support from the CIA and Saudi Arabia). This heralds more than the decline of a single empire. Having exhausted just about all of the world's empires, Egypt has now exhausted empire itself. Afghanistan may be the "graveyard of empires," but Egypt might prove to be the graveyard of empire as such. It has rinsed away empire's wonted colors and exposed it as a hoary miser with empty shows of grandeur and force. How puny is empire that its millennia of spurious claims on a nation can be shrugged off in eighteen days by that sleeping giant Demos!
Learning from the French Left: Lessons of the Pension Reform Battle
Authors: Vinel Jean-Christian
Published: March 2011

"Check your Rolex. It's time for a rebellion." In the fall of 2010, protesters against the reform of the French pension system lacked neither catchy slogans nor energy. For more than a month, unionists and a variety of left activists organized strikes and demonstrations that brought up to three million protesters onto the streets and disrupted public transportation and schools. Strikes and blockades in oil refineries created a serious gas shortage. Opinion polls showed that a majority of the population supported the movement. At the demonstrations, the phrase "Rêve générale"—a pun on the French words for "dream" and "strike"—was ubiquitous on signs and stickers. The protests were also a merry affair, with the usual dose of balloons, food, and music that symbolize people's determination.
Phantasms of Revolution
Authors: Linfield Susie
Published: March 2011

It would be easy—and perhaps entertaining—to write a history of Maoism in France that would lampoon the misjudgments, blind spots, and grandiosity of the movement. (Maoism in the United States never attained the power or cachet that it garnered in France; Maoism in certain other places—such as Peru, as embodied in the Shining Path, and Cambodia, under the Khmer Rouge—was no laughing matter.) After all, chastising the Left of the 1960s, and blaming it for as many contemporary ills as is conceivably possible, has, apparently, become a requirement of political discourse in both the United States (see under: Bill Ayers) and France (note Nicolas Sarkozy's linkage of riots in immigrant suburbs with the student radicals of 1968). It is to Richard Wolin's great credit that he abstains from the seductions of derision—though not from the responsibilities of criticism—in The Wind from the East , his history of Maoism in the French Left and, in particular, of the influence that China's Cultural Revolution exerted on French intellectuals.
Has the U.S. Left Made a Difference?
Authors: Kazin Michael
Published: March 2011

Without political power or honor as prophets, leftists still helped to make the United States a more humane society. By setting forth bold visions of a different future, they did much to initiate what became common, if seldom uncontroversial, features of American life. These included the advocacy of equal opportunity and equal treatment for women, ethnic and racial minorities, and homosexuals; the enjoyment of sexual pleasure unconnected to reproduction; a media and educational system sensitive to racial and gender oppression and that celebrates what we now call multiculturalism; and the popularity of novels and films with a strongly altruistic and anti-authoritarian point of view.
Extending a Hand in Myanmar
Authors: Holliday Ian
Published: March 2011

After decades of harsh and unyielding military dictatorship, the political landscape in Myanmar (Burma) shifted in the closing months of 2010 as the first general election in twenty years approached. Key figures in a ruling cabal seldom known to curry favor with the population at large roused themselves to plot campaign strategy. In hitherto-beaten opposition groups, leading individuals dusted themselves off and debated how to respond to the generals' election. In cities, towns, and villages throughout the land, rudimentary features of the democratic process began to surface. On November 7, citizens cast ballots for a bicameral national parliament and fourteen provincial assemblies. Once votes had been tallied, a huge victory for the military leaders' chosen party was proclaimed.
The Politics of Inequality
Authors: Levinson Mark
Published: March 2011

In his pathbreaking 1984 book The New Politics of Inequality , Tom Edsall warned about "a major shift in the balance of power in the United States," reflecting an erosion of political influence "of the bottom half of the economic spectrum" and a significant increase in the political cohesion and effectiveness of the wealthy. Edsall traced the conversion of the Democrats to more business funding and the decline of labor and working-class voting. He predicted that "as long as the balance of political power remains so heavily weighted towards those with economic power, national economic policy will remain distorted regardless of which party is in control of the federal government." The imbalance in power and its "distorted" effect on policy that alarmed Edsall twenty-seven years ago was a small tumor compared to the metastasized cancer that now threatens our democracy. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson's Winner-Take-All Politics is the best book on the American political economy since Edsall's. It is also the essential guide to how the United States went from New Deal egalitarianism—in the thirty years after the Second World War the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of American families actually increased a bit faster than the income of the richest 20 percent—to our present day American plutocracy.
"If you are an egalitarian, why do you send your children to private school?"
Authors: Kohn Margaret
Published: March 2011

The question that inspired this essay might seem to be a concern only for a small number of well-to-do families who can afford the high cost of private education. And many of these people see themselves as middle class rather than "rich," but this is precisely the myopia that the world of elite schools reinforces. a Families who earn more than three times the median household income ($50,300) can only think of themselves as struggling members of the middle class when they have almost no real exposure to the lives of the actual middle class, let alone the poor. When you spend time at an inner-city public school you find out that the Christmas break may be spent working at the family store rather than skiing. Nevertheless, I think that the theoretical issues raised by private schooling are relevant for broader issues of educational policy. The principles expressed in private decisions should inform public deliberation, but the extent of our obligations and our ability to fulfill them will be different. To modify a famous example from moral theory, if your mother and an important stranger are both caught in a fire, it is fine to prioritize the private over the public good and save your mother first, but having demonstrated that you think death by burning is a terrible thing, you should support funding for the fire department or fire safety regulations. In other words, the principles that inform your decision in one sphere should also be used to reflect on your obligations in the other. The egalitarian who believes that the purpose of public education is to promote democratic character through exposure to difference should, if possible, select a diverse public school for his child. Similarly, the egalitarian-liberal who endorses a system of detached public schools should select a somewhat unheimlich (and therefore autonomy-promoting) school. We may legitimately prioritize our children's well-being over the public good, but we must define well-being in the same way as we do when we are thinking about what is good for others.
Introduction
Authors: Walzer Michael
Published: March 2011

We asked four writers to answer these two questions: What is your own relationship to the state of Israel? And how do you think that American Jews, as a whole, should relate to Israel? These weren't, so to speak, the original Dissent questions or, better, the questions first pondered by the Marxist radicals who founded the magazine. As younger socialists, back in the 1930s and 1940s, they would have asked, "How should democratic leftists respond to a nationalist movement like Zionism?" Because most of these leftists were Jewish, the question might have had a special resonance for them, but they would have denied this. They were good internationalists, opposed to every form of nationalism, including their own, which wasn't really "theirs."
Survivors' History
Authors: Nikitin Vadim
Published: March 2011

The twenty years of social upheaval since the Soviet collapse have added a bitter postscript to Stephen Cohen's story. Most of the survivors, including Anna Larina, are now dead, and with them the dream of a humane communist future that had kept them alive though their long detention. Poverty, ideological exhaustion, and the double-edged promise of consumer capitalism have shattered the fragile, idealistic unity of the Perestroika era. In many ways, including the subtle (albeit half-hearted) rehabilitation of Stalin, the pendulum has again swung back toward a Brezhnev-style authoritarian conservatism. Yet this situation is exactly what makes The Victims Return relevant and necessary. Cohen's account of the survivors' struggle for truth and dignity is his testament that while every story may not have what his Russian friends would call a "kheppy end," every system of oppression always produces its eventual gravediggers.
A Nation of (Deported) Immigrants
Authors: Goodman Adam
Published: March 2011

The Valenzuelas' cases are not unique. The Obama administration removed more people during each of the last two years than in any other year in U.S. history. Despite the administration's insistence that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is focusing its efforts on dangerous, violent criminals, both anecdotal and statistical evidence prove otherwise. In 2009, the number of removed individuals who had never been convicted of a crime was more than twice the number of those that had. In October 2010, ICE released its 2010 deportation statistics, celebrating the removal of a record 195,772 criminals. Although this represents a 52.5 percent increase from 2009, it should not overshadow the fact that non-criminals still made up more than half of the 392,862 removals. Moreover, some of the criminals removed were people like the Valenzuelas, who committed minor offenses years—or decades—ago.