bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of Dual Function (5R,6R)- and (5S,6S)-5-Bromo-6-Methoxy-5,6-Dihydro-AZT-5′-(Para-Bromophenyl Methoxyalaninyl Phosphate) as Novel Spermicidal and Anti-HIV Agents
Authors: Jan Shyi-Tai , Shih Mei-Jue , Venkatachalam TK , D'Cruz Osmond J , Chen Chun-Lin , Uckun Fatih M
Published: March 2015

We synthesized a novel compound, 5-bromo-6-methoxy-5,6-dihydro-AZT-5′-(p-bromophenyl methoxyalaninyl phosphate), which had an EC50 value of 5 µM in sperm motility assays. This is >1 log10 better than that of the detergent spermicide nonoxynol-9 (EC50 81 µM). The compound also displayed a potent anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) activity with an IC50 value of 0.005 µM in HIV replication assays, which was virtually identical to that of AZT (IC50 0.006 µM) and >2 log10 more potent than that of nonoxynol-9 (IC50 2.2 µM). The promising results reported herein recommend the further development of the dual function 5-halo-6-alkoxyl-5,6-dihydro-AZT derivatives as a new class of vaginal contraceptives capable of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV while providing fertility control for women who are at high risk of acquiring HIV by heterosexual transmission. These dual function 5-halo-6-alkoxyl-5,6-dihydro-AZT derivatives may also have utility in curbing domestic and wildlife animal retroviral transmissions.
AZT-5′-(p-Bromophenyl Methoxyalaninyl Phosphate) as a Potent and Non-Toxic Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Agent
Authors: Jan Shyi-Tai , Zhu Z , Tai H-L , Shih Mei-Jue , Venkatachalam TK , Uckun Fatih M
Published: March 2015

The potency and selectivity index of the AZT-phenyl phosphate derivatives in thymidine kinase (TK)-deficient T cells were substantially enhanced by introducing a single para-bromo substituent in the phenyl moiety. AZT-5′-( p-bromophenyl methoxyalaninyl phosphate) was 43-fold more potent than AZT-5′-(phenyl methoxyalaninyl phosphate) and was fivefold more potent than AZT in inhibiting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication in TK-deficient CEM cells.
Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Activity of 2′-fluoro-2′,3′-Dideoxyarabinosyladenine (F-ddA) Used in Combination with other Mechanistically Diverse Inhibitors of HIV-1 Replication
Authors: Buckheit RW , Russell JD , Pallansch LA , Driscoll JS
Published: March 2015

2′-Fluoro-2'3′-dideoxyarabinosyladenine (F-ddA), a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, is currently being evaluated in clinical trials. Future monotherapy for the treatment of HIV is unlikely owing to the rapid emergence of drug-resistant viruses, so F-ddA was evaluated in combination with a variety of mechanistically diverse inhibitors of HIV replication. Such in vitro studies provide insights into whether certain drug combinations yield synergistic antiviral activity or, more importantly, antagonistic antiviral activity or synergistic cytotoxicity. F-ddA exhibited synergistic antiviral interactions with representatives of each of the major classes of anti-HIV compounds, including other nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors. Greatest levels of synergistic interaction were detected when F-ddA was used in combination with the nonnucleoside compounds nevirapine and costatolide, the nucleoside analogues AZT, ddC and 3TC and the protease inhibitors ritonavir and nelfinavir. No evidence of either combination toxicity or antagonistic antiviral activity was detected with any of the tested compounds.
Role of Lentiviral Lytic Polypeptide I (LLP-I) in the Selective Cytotoxicity of γ-Glutamylcysteine Ethyl Ester against Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Producing Cells
Authors: Kubota Satoshi , Zhang Hui , Kitahara Shigehisa , Pomerantz Roger J
Published: March 2015

Selective cytotoxic effects of γ-glutamylcysteine ethyl ester (γ-GCE) against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected H-9 T lymphocytic cells were demonstrated previously. However, the mechanism of those effects remained unclear. Here, we report on enhanced cytotoxicity of the lentiviral lytic peptide I (LLP-I) of gp41, the envelope transmembrane glycoprotein of HIV-1, in the presence of γ-GCE. Without γ-GCE, the cytotoxic effect of LLP-I was transient, whereas with γ-GCE, cell death induced by LLP-I remained continuous until termination. Of note, such effects by γ-GCE were also observed with another unrelated amphipathic peptide toxin, melittin. These results suggest that the synergistic cytotoxic effect of γ-GCE and LLP-I may play a central role in the molecular mechanism of the selective cytotoxicity of γ-GCE in HIV-1-infected T lymphocytic cells.
Influence of Treatment Schedule and Viral Challenge Dose on the in Vivo Influenza Virus-Inhibitory Effects of the Orally Administered Neuraminidase Inhibitor GS 4104
Authors: Sidwell Robert W , Bailey Kevin W , Bemis Paul A , Wong Min-Hui , Eisenberg Eugene J , Huffman John H
Published: March 2015

Experiments were done to determine how an alteration of the treatment schedule of 5 or 32 mg/kg/day per os (p.o.) doses of GS 4104 [the ethyl ester prodrug of the neuraminidase inhibitor (3R, 4R,5S)-4-acetamido-5-amino-3-(1-ethylpropoxy)-1-cylohexene-1-carboxylic acid (GS 4071)] would affect influenza A (H1N1) virus infection in mice. Treatments with a low dose, one, two, three or four times daily, were highly inhibitory, unless therapy was terminated relatively early in the infection (days 2–3), in which case efficacy was curtailed. Single administrations at various times relative to virus exposure had essentially no effect. The 32 mg/kg/day dose was significantly inhibitory using all treatment schedules. These data indicated a requirement for the compound to be in the host when lung virus titres were reaching maximal levels and, for minimally effective doses, that at least continued daily therapy was needed to maintain adequate serum levels to achieve an appropriate antiviral effect. Twice daily p.o. treatment for 5 days with 20 mg/kg/day of GS 4104 totally prevented deaths in mice receiving high viral challenge doses that were sufficient to kill placebo-treated controls in less than 5 days. Other parameters of antiviral efficacy (lung consolidation, arterial oxygen saturation, lung virus titres) were also markedly inhibited regardless of viral challenge doses. These data provide further insights into how the maximum therapeutic benefit can be derived from use of this orally effective influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitor.
Human Cytomegalovirus: Challenges Opportunities and New Drug Development
Authors: Field A Kirk
Published: March 2015

In the age of highly active antiretroviral therapy, the incidence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) retinitis in AIDS patients has decreased substantially. However, this change does not indicate that HCMV disease in AIDS patients and other immunocompromised patients has abated and is no longer a concern. On the contrary, HCMV disease in graft recipients, newborns, and even in AIDS patients still accounts for considerable morbidity, and drug resistance to the anti-HCMV compounds is a major problem. Furthermore, HCMV may have a role in metabolic diseases, such as atherosclerosis. Fortunately there are novel and potentially very effective new compounds undergoing pre-clinical and clinical evaluation. These developments point the way toward new therapies and also to a clearer understanding of the biology of HCMV replication, infection and disease.
Isoquinolinesulphonamide Derivatives Inhibit Transcriptional Elongation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA in a Promyelocytic Model of Latency
Authors: Critchfield JW , Ho O , Roberts BD , Van Lint C , Verdin E , Butera ST
Published: March 2015

Using the OM-10.1 promyelocytic model of inducible human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, we tested a panel of known protein kinase inhibitors for an ability to block tumour necrosis factor-α-induced HIV-1 expression. Among the compounds tested, the broad-spectrum protein kinase inhibitor H-7 uniquely blocked HIV-1 expression at the level of viral transcription, but did not inhibit nuclear factor κB activation or function. In structure—activity analysis this inhibitory activity of H-7 on HIV-1 expression corresponded with the known structural requirements for the interaction of H-7 with the ATP-binding region of protein kinase C, suggesting that it was indeed related to the kinase inhibitory properties of H-7. The mechanism of H-7 transcriptional inhibition did not involve chromatin remodelling at the HIV-1 long terminal repeat promoter, as shown by nuc-1 disruption, and appeared to involve HIV-1 RNA elongation but not initiation. Therefore, H-7 and related isoquinoline-sulphonamide analogues are most likely inhibiting a kinase target essential for HIV-1 transcriptional elongation whose identity may provide new therapeutic targets for intervention.
Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors: The NNRTI Boom
Authors: Pedersen Ole S , Pedersen Erik B
Published: March 2015

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are promising drugs for the treatment of HIV when used in combination with other anti-HIV drugs such as nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors and protease inhibitors. The first generation of NNRTIs have, however, suffered from the rapid development of resistance. This review discusses the properties of the FDA-approved NNRTI drugs and focuses on the recent efforts being made to produce second generation inhibitors that circumvent this resistance problem.
Cellulose Acetate Phthalate (CAP): An ‘Inactive” Pharmaceutical Excipient with Antiviral Activity in the Mouse Model of Genital Herpesvirus Infection
Authors: Gyotoku T , Aurelian L , Neurath AR
Published: March 2015

The spread of sexually transmitted infections caused by herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) has continued unabated. At least 20% of the United States population has been infected with HSV-2 and there is a high probability of further virus transmission by asymptomatic carriers. Given the absence of effective vaccines, this indicates the need to develop prophylactic measures such as topical microbicides that have antiviral activity. Recent studies indicate that cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP), an inactive pharmaceutical excipient commonly used in the production of enteric tablets and capsules, is a broad specificity microbicide against diverse sexually transmitted pathogens. When appropriately formulated in micronized form, it inactivates various viruses, including HSV-2, in vitro. Here we show that CAP inhibits HSV-2 infection in the mouse model of genital HSV-2 infection. Pretreatment with micronized CAP formulated in a glycerol-based cream with colloidal silicone dioxide significantly reduced the proportion of HSV-2-infected mice (10% virus shedding, 0–5% lesion development and 0% fatality for CAP as compared to 84% shedding, 63% lesion development and 63% fatality in saline-treated mice). These differences were significant ( P≤0.0002 by the test of equality of two proportions). Virus titres in the minority of mice that developed infection were similar to those in untreated mice. HSV-2 infection was not inhibited by treatment with CAP formulated with other inactive ingredients (for example povidone plus crosprovidone) instead of silicone dioxide, presumably reflecting CAP complexation/inactivation. These data suggest that properly formulated, CAP may be an efficacious agent for preventing vaginal transmission of genital herpesvirus infections.
Detection of arenavirus in a peripheral odontogenic fibromyxoma in a red tail boa (Boa constrictor constrictor) with inclusion body disease
Authors: Hellebuyck Tom , Pasmans Frank , Ducatelle Richard , Saey Veronique , Martel An
Published: March 2015

A captive bred red tail boa ( Boa constrictor constrictor) was presented with a large intraoral mass originating from the buccal gingiva, attached to the right dentary teeth row. Based on the clinical features and histological examination, the diagnosis of a peripheral odontogenic fibromyxoma was made. Sections of liver biopsies and circulating lymphocytes contained relatively few eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies, indistinguishable from those observed in inclusion body disease–affected snakes. Inclusion bodies were not observed in cells comprising the neoplastic mass. Using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), arenavirus was detected in the neoplastic tissue. Two years after surgical removal of the mass, recurrence of the neoplastic lesion was observed. Numerous large inclusion body disease inclusions were abundantly present in the neoplastic cells of the recurrent fibromyxoma. Sections of liver biopsies and circulating lymphocytes contained relatively few intracytoplasmic inclusions. The RT-PCR revealed the presence of arenavirus in blood, a liver biopsy, and neoplastic tissue. The present case describes the co-occurrence of an arenavirus infection and an odontogenic fibromyxoma in a red tail boa.
Occurrence of Coxiella burnetii and Chlamydiales species in abortions of domestic ruminants and in wild ruminants in Hungary, Central Europe
Authors: Kreizinger Zsuzsa , Szeredi Levente , Bacsadi Árpád , Nemes Csaba , Sugár László , Varga Tamás , Sulyok Kinga M. , Szigeti Alexandra , Ács Kornél , Tóbiás Enikő , Borel Nicole , Gyuranecz Miklós
Published: March 2015

Coxiella burnetii and certain members of the Chlamydiales order are zoonotic, intracellular, Gram-negative bacteria, with abortigenic potential in ruminants. These pathogens have a broad host range and worldwide geographical distribution. The current study aimed to reveal the importance of C. burnetii and Chlamydiales spp. in abortions in domestic ruminants and their occurrence in wild ruminants with real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays, histology, and immunohistochemical staining (IHC). From the 111 abortion cases of domestic ruminants examined, C. burnetii was detected in 33 placenta samples (cattle, n = 22; sheep, n = 10; goat, n = 1), and members of the Chlamydiales order were detected in 32 placenta samples (cattle, n = 14; sheep, n = 16; goat, n = 2) using qPCR. Coinfection with both C. burnetii and Chlamydiales spp. were identified in 12 cases (cattle, n = 3; sheep, n = 8; goat, n = 1) out of the qPCR-positive samples. The presence of the relevant antigen was confirmed by IHC in 20 cases ( C. burnetii, n = 2, in sheep; Chlamydiaceae, n = 17, in sheep [ n = 15] and goat [ n = 2]; and both pathogens in 1 sheep). Coxiella burnetii was identified in 2.2% (2/91) of the wild ruminants, but the samples were negative by IHC. Uncultured Chlamydiales spp. were detected in 4.4% (4/91) of the placenta samples by qPCR. In conclusion, Q fever is widespread among domestic ruminants in Hungary, and, in several cases, C. burnetii was implicated as the primary cause of abortions. Waddlia chondrophila, Parachlamydia spp., and uncultured Chlamydiales spp. were present only sporadically in samples from cattle and wild ruminants.
Detection of Babesia canis vogeli and Hepatozoon canis in canine blood by a single-tube real-time fluorescence resonance energy transfer polymerase chain reaction assay and melting curve analysis
Authors: Kongklieng Amornmas , Intapan Pewpan M. , Boonmars Thidarut , Thanchomnang Tongjit , Janwan Penchom , Sanpool Oranuch , Lulitanond Viraphong , Taweethavonsawat Piyanan , Chungpivat Sudchit , Maleewong Wanchai
Published: March 2015

A real-time fluorescence resonance energy transfer polymerase chain reaction (qFRET PCR) coupled with melting curve analysis was developed for detection of Babesia canis vogeli and Hepatozoon canis infections in canine blood samples in a single tube assay. The target of the assay was a region within the 18S ribosomal RNA gene amplified in either species by a single pair of primers. Following amplification from the DNA of infected dog blood, a fluorescence melting curve analysis was done. The 2 species, B. canis vogeli and H. canis, could be detected and differentiated in infected dog blood samples ( n = 37) with high sensitivity (100%). The detection limit for B. canis vogeli was 15 copies of a positive control plasmid, and for H. canis, it was 150 copies of a positive control plasmid. The assay could simultaneously distinguish the DNA of both parasites from the DNA of controls. Blood samples from 5 noninfected dogs were negative, indicating high specificity. Several samples can be run at the same time. The assay can reduce misdiagnosis and the time associated with microscopic examination, and is not prone to the carryover contamination associated with the agarose gel electrophoresis step of conventional PCR. In addition, this qFRET PCR method would be useful to accurately determine the range of endemic areas or to discover those areas where the 2 parasites co-circulate.
Detection of African swine fever, classical swine fever, and foot-and-mouth disease viruses in swine oral fluids by multiplex reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction
Authors: Grau Frederic R. , Schroeder Megan E. , Mulhern Erin L. , McIntosh Michael T. , Bounpheng Mangkey A.
Published: March 2015

African swine fever (ASF), classical swine fever (CSF), and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are highly contagious animal diseases of significant economic importance. Pigs infected with ASF and CSF viruses (ASFV and CSFV) develop clinical signs that may be indistinguishable from other diseases. Likewise, various causes of vesicular disease can mimic clinical signs caused by the FMD virus (FMDV). Early detection is critical to limiting the impact and spread of these disease outbreaks, and the ability to perform herd-level surveillance for all 3 diseases rapidly and cost effectively using a single diagnostic sample and test is highly desirable. This study assessed the feasibility of simultaneous ASFV, CSFV, and FMDV detection by multiplex reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction (mRT-qPCR) in swine oral fluids collected through the use of chewing ropes. Animal groups were experimentally infected independently with each virus, observed for clinical signs, and oral fluids collected and tested throughout the course of infection. All animal groups chewed on the ropes readily before and after onset of clinical signs and before onset of lameness or serious clinical signs. ASFV was detected as early as 3 days postinoculation (dpi), 2–3 days before onset of clinical disease; CSFV was detected at 5 dpi, coincident with onset of clinical disease; and FMDV was detected as early as 1 dpi, 1 day before the onset of clinical disease. Equivalent results were observed in 4 independent studies and demonstrate the feasibility of oral fluids and mRT-qPCR for surveillance of ASF, CSF, and FMD in swine populations.
Validation and application of a canine-specific automated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein assay
Authors: Hillström Anna , Hagman Ragnvi , Söder Josefin , Häggström Jens , Ljungvall Ingrid , Kjelgaard-Hansen Mads
Published: March 2015

Measurement of low concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) in dogs has previously been performed with nonautomated assays. The aim of this study was to validate an automated high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) assay, developed by modifying a routinely used canine-specific immunoturbidimetric CRP test (cCRP). Imprecision, linearity under dilution, limit of blank (LOB), limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined for the hsCRP test, as well as the presence of prozone effect and interferences. The imprecision, measured as intra-assay variation, was ≤2.7%. The assay was acceptably linear under dilution. An analytically relevant prozone effect was present for samples with CRP concentration >150 mg/L, and there were mild interferences from hemolysis and lipemia. The LOB, LOD, and LOQ were 0.10 mg/L, 0.22 mg/L, and 0.50 mg/L, respectively. A method comparison study with a canine-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed, showing poor agreement between the hsCRP test and the ELISA. An additional aim of the study was to apply the hsCRP test to clinical research samples. Serum samples from 7 dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy were collected pre- and postoperatively, and CRP was measured with both the cCRP and hsCRP assay. The expected postoperative increase in CRP was detected earlier with the hsCRP test, compared with the cCRP test. The hsCRP assay was further applied on samples from 6 lean and 9 overweight dogs. There was no significant difference in CRP concentration between the groups ( P = 0.06). In conclusion, the hsCRP test had acceptable analytical performance, and the assay was successfully applied to clinical research samples.
Development and validation of a novel hydrolysis probe real-time polymerase chain reaction for agamid adenovirus 1 in the central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps)
Authors: Fredholm Daniel V. , Coleman James K. , Childress April L. , Wellehan James F. X.
Published: March 2015

Agamid adenovirus 1 (AgAdv-1) is a significant cause of disease in bearded dragons ( Pogona sp.). Clinical manifestations of AgAdv-1 infection are variable and often nonspecific; the manifestations range from lethargy, weight loss, and inappetence, to severe enteritis, hepatitis, and sudden death. Currently, diagnosis of AgAdv-1 infection is achieved through a single published method: standard nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) and sequencing. Standard nPCR with sequencing provides reliable sensitivity, specificity, and validation of PCR products. However, this process is comparatively expensive, laborious, and slow. Probe hybridization, as used in a TaqMan assay, represents the best option for validating PCR products aside from the time-consuming process of sequencing. This study developed a real-time PCR (qPCR) assay using a TaqMan probe–based assay, targeting a highly conserved region of the AgAdv-1 genome. Standard curves were generated, detection results were compared with the gold standard conventional PCR and sequencing assay, and limits of detection were determined. Additionally, the qPCR assay was run on samples known to be positive for AgAdv-1 and samples known to be positive for other adenoviruses. Based on the results of these evaluations, this assay allows for a less expensive, rapid, quantitative detection of AgAdv-1 in bearded dragons.
Diagnostic Narratives
Authors: Penkler Michael , Felder Kay , Felt Ulrike
Published: March 2015

This study explores how Austrian newspapers and magazines report on the obesity epidemic. We show how the media provide a space for formulating situated diagnostic narratives, that is, accounts that develop both a diagnosis of society through the lens of a health phenomenon and a definition of the phenomenon itself. Nourished by globally circulating discourses, these narratives are articulated in a national context and are enmeshed in biopolitical struggles. Linking a diagnosis of society to the biomedical sphere grants authority to diagnostic narratives and creates a space in which otherwise contestable moral calls to return to traditional orders can be articulated.
The right to life: Human life, bio-power and the performativity of law
Authors: MacGregor Casimir
Published: March 2015

This article considers the performativity of law in regard to constructing life as either human or non-human; personifying a 15-days group of cells while transforming a fully formed foetus to hospital waste. I suggest that the practice of a human rights approach to a sociology of bio-knowledge needs to attend to the contested nature of humanness and the question of how law is operationalised within power/knowledge. I argue that such an approach would include recognition of the process of the creation and the bearing of rights, especially the right to life that is based upon a particular relationship between nature and culture. Finally, I argue that law is central to constituting humanness, as human life can be paradoxically both included and excluded by law. The practice of a human rights approach to a sociology of bio-knowledge must focus on the performativity of law, as law is a tool of bio-power that regulates the right to life.
Indigenous biospecimen collections and the cryopolitics of frozen life
Authors: Kowal Emma , Radin Joanna
Published: March 2015

In the mid-20th century, scientists began to collect and freeze blood samples for a range of purposes. This article considers the broader implications of scientific freezing for conceptions of time and life by drawing on empirical research with scientists associated with a large collection of samples assembled from Indigenous Australians in the 1960s. We first review some key critiques of cryopreservation posed by Indigenous scholars and by science and technology studies. We then propose ‘cryopolitics’ as a concept to express the various political, ethical and temporal conundrums presented by the practice of freezing. We frame cryopolitics as a mode of Michel Foucault’s biopolitics. If biopolitical assemblages make live and let die, cryopolitical ones reveal the dramatic consequences of mundane efforts to make live and not let die. In our case study, we argue that frozen blood vacillates between two cryopolitical states, ‘latent life’ and ‘incomplete death’. Samples seen as latent life cannot be destroyed; samples understood as incomplete death require destruction. A state of incomplete death can be resolved through the return of blood samples to the Indigenous groups they were collected from, a process that has occurred in North America. Our cryopolitical analysis suggests another potential resolution: reviving a form of latent life aligned with futures envisaged by Indigenous communities themselves.
Public engagement in biosciences and biotechnologies: Reflections on the role of sociology and STS
Authors: Marks Nicola J. , Russell A. Wendy
Published: March 2015

Approaches to public engagement in biosciences and biotechnologies have been informed by work done by sociologists and science and technology studies (STS) scholars, in particular their critiques of traditional elitist and technocratic approaches to science policy. In this article, we analyse one attempt at institutionalising public engagement in Australia, and focus on points of tension between different actors. We explore the roles of social scientists in policy and in public engagement, and the potential for opening up discussions and decision-making about the biosciences and biotechnologies. We reflect on the difficulties for social scientists in maintaining a critical yet constructive voice and draw attention to care as a possible ethico-political commitment and practice that may create opportunities and spaces for improving public engagement and policy making.
In and out of the state: Working the boundaries of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Authors: Kabamba Patience
Published: March 2015

Anthropology has often renewed itself by studying collective self-organization beyond the reach of the state. The idea that power usually flows top-down from a state monopoly is increasingly questioned in an era of networks fuelled by interactive decision-making processes that include non-state actors. Power theoretically understood as potentia – the elementary power through which human beings deploy their productive capacities and creative possibilities – is ontologically prior to power expressed as an obsession with order that is often repressive ( potestas). Granting precedence to potentia over potestas inevitably leads us to question the conceptual centrality of the state. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has long stood – and stands today – as a symbol of the antithesis of social order, offers much material for reflection on this issue. While this paper considers how people negotiate the boundaries between state and non-state power in the contemporary DRC, its lasting contribution is to revive in a distinctly new way a tradition of anthropology to use the study of stateless societies to pose big critical questions about the institutions on which modern societies rest.
Anthropology and traces
Authors: Napolitano Valentina
Published: March 2015

This article explores the trace as a methodological tool and theoretical pathway in anthropology and beyond. Traces signal the limits of representation; they are the materials of knots of histories at the margins, as well as auratic presences. Through a critical reading of key ethnographic works, including an analysis of a Casa del Popolo in Rome which has been turned into a squat by Peruvian migrants, this article argues that the study of traces has an important genealogy in anthropology. This study invites us to explore the mattering of things (as forms becoming of importance), new ways of conjuring and operationalizing ethnographic ‘details’ and to broaden our debate of an anthropology beyond the subject, in the light of the mattering of histories.
Pilgrimages and publics: The case of Taizé
Authors: Pritchard Elizabeth
Published: March 2015

Applying Michael Warner’s definition of a public as an organized body capable of being addressed in discourse, this essay argues that the mission and associated practices of Taizé pilgrimage are a public formation. The argument draws from visits to the Taizé community in France, to a Taizé youth group in Rotterdam, interviews with pilgrims, writings by community leaders and members, as well as numerous addresses to the European pilgrimages on the part of religious and political leaders. The aims of this argument are to bring pilgrimage research into broader conversations with other strata of cultural theory and to challenge prevailing understandings of the ‘public’ and the relationship between publicness and religion.
Towards a relational ethics: Rethinking ethics, agency and dependency in research with children and youth
Authors: Meloni Francesca , Vanthuyne Karine , Rousseau Cécile
Published: March 2015

While anthropologists have reflected on ethics and power since the late 1960s, the specific dilemmas that arise in research conducted with children and youth have scarcely been addressed. Nevertheless, critical anthropology’s reflections on power relations and reflexivity can valuably contribute to the interdisciplinary debate in the field of childhood studies, by complexifying categories of voice, dependency and agency, which are often taken for granted in the ethical conversation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with undocumented youth in Montreal, this article argues for the importance of a critical understanding of childhood within a wider context of interdependence, and consequently, for a redefinition of ethics as a reflexive and relational space of intersubjectivity.
Autonomic Changes in Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures
Authors: Reinsberger Claus , Sarkis Rani , Papadelis Christos , Doshi Chiran , Perez David L. , Baslet Gaston , Loddenkemper Tobias , Dworetzky Barbara A.
Published: March 2015

Disturbances of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are common in neuropsychiatric disorders. Disease specific alterations of both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity can be assessed by heart rate variability (HRV), whereas electrodermal activity (EDA) can assess sympathetic activity. In posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), parasympathetic HRV parameters are typically decreased and EDA is increased, whereas in major depressive disorder (MDD) and dissociation, both parasympathetic and sympathetic markers are decreased. ANS abnormalities have also been identified in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) by using HRV, indicating lower parasympathetic activity at baseline. In addition to reviewing the current literature on ANS abnormalities in PTSD, MDD, and disorders with prominent dissociation, including borderline personality disorder (BPD), this article also presents data from a pilot study on EDA in patients with PNES. Eleven patients with PNES, during an admission to our epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU), were compared with 9 with generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS). The area under the EDA curve, the number of EDA responses lasting longer than 2 seconds, and the number of EDA surges during sleep (sympathetic sleep storms) were calculated on ictal and interictal days by an automated algorithm. EDA changes in PNES patients did not follow a systematic pattern of sympathetic hyperarousal (like EDA after GTCS) but were more variable. How specific PNES semiologies, and/or underlying neuropsychiatric disorders, may influence ictal and interictal EDA patterns, and lead to a novel diagnostic biomarker remains to be evaluated in future larger studies.
Differences Between Men’s and Women’s Monetary Valuation of Crime Avoidance Behavior
Authors: Bitton Yifat , Shavit Tal
Published: March 2015

In this article, we focus on the monetary value of the “female fear,” namely, women’s precautionary and avoidance behaviors, which they use to protect themselves against crimes and compare it with the monetary value of similar behaviors taken by men. Using scenario questionnaires that allude to the risks of being alone in dark surroundings, we tested the willingness of men and women to pay for what is perceived as a means for reducing the potential of being the victim of a crime in these risky situations. The results reveal that females are willing to pay higher amounts of money for actions they perceive as having a positive effect on lowering the danger of victimization. This finding shows that the monetary cost of female fear is yet another harm inflicted upon women within the social framework of gendered power relationships. More to the point, the gender-based comparison this article undertakes re-conceptualizes female fear not only as women-focused but also as a cost being unevenly borne by women. Relevant policy implications are discussed. This is the first study to put a price tag on female fear, illuminating its financial implications, yet to be explored, next to its acknowledged behavioral implications.
Design, synthesis, and anti-HIV-1 activity of 1-aromatic methyl-substituted 3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)uracil and N-3,5-dimethylbenzyl-substituted urea derivatives
Authors: Sakakibara Norikazu , Baba Masanori , Okamoto Mika , Toyama Masaaki , Demizu Yosuke , Misawa Takashi , Kurihara Masaaki , Irie Kohji , Kato Yoshihisa , Maruyama Tokumi
Published: March 2015

Background

A new series of 1-aromatic methyl-substituted 3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)uracil and N-3,5-dimethylbenzyl-substituted urea derivatives were synthesized and evaluated as non-nucleoside HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

Methods

A series of new 6-azido and 6-amino derivatives of 1-substituted-3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)uracils were synthesized using our previously reported method, and three acyclic derivatives were synthesized from urea. The anti-HIV-1 activities of these compounds were determined based on the inhibition of virus-induced cytopathogenicity in MT-4 cells. The cytotoxicities of the compounds were evaluated using the viability of mock-infected cells.

Results

Some of these compounds showed good-to-moderate activities against HIV-1 with half maximal effective concentration (EC50) values in the submicromolar or subnanomolar range. Compared with emivirine, compound 6-amino-3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-1-(4-aminobenzyl)uracil showed significant anti-HIV-1 activity with an EC50 value of 10 nM and a high selectivity index of 1923. Preliminary structure–activity relationship studies and molecular modeling analyses were carried out to explore the major interactions between HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and the potent inhibitor 6-amino-3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-1-(4-aminobenzyl)uracil; these results may be important for further development of this class of compounds as anti-HIV-1 agents.

Conclusion

The excellent activity of 6-amino-3-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-1-(4-aminobenzyl)uracil (EC50: 0.010 ± 0.006 µM, SI: >1923) may serve as the basis for conducting further investigations on the behavior of this class of compounds against drug-resistant mutants.
“We reaffirm our Mozambican identity in the fight against HIV and AIDS”: Examining educational perspectives on women’s ‘proper’ place in the nation of Mozambique
Authors: Miedema Esther , Millei Zsuzsa
Published: March 2015

There is increasing recognition of the importance of space in the study of education, resulting in a greatly diversified literature on the geographies of education. This article builds on this growing body of scholarly work to examine a number of critical spatial assumptions underpinning school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Maputo, Mozambique. It does so through an analysis of key governmental and ministerial documents and policy-makers’ and educators’ conceptions of the aims of such education. This article highlights how school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique was conceptualized in gendered and distinctly place-based terms. In addition, we elucidate how, despite the various discursive shifts since the struggle for independence from Portugal, young women continue to be construed as the symbolic anchor of the nation, their natural place defined in relation to the domestic, the intimate, and local ‘in-here.’
Trees, flowers, prisons, flags: Frustration and hope shaping national identity for Palestinian families
Authors: Akesson Bree
Published: March 2015

The Israeli occupation has shaped the lives of Palestinian families for generations. Under occupation, Palestinian children continue to craft identities connected to place, specifically in their relationship with Palestine as a nation-state. Drawing from a qualitative research project using the concept of place as a lens through which to view children’s negotiations with their environments, this article examines how Palestinian identity is related to marginalization and dislocation from place as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation. A total of 18 interviews were conducted with Palestinian children and their families living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The research used a place-based methodology including collaborative family interviews, mapmaking, and drawing. The data generally reinforced the view that a history of dislocation and marginalization from place due to the longstanding occupation contributes to emotions of frustration and hope, which in turn play a significant role in the national imaginary of families and children and ultimately shape Palestinian national identity or being Palestinian.
Heirs of the world’s newest nation: Contrasting rhetoric and realities of children as citizens and nation-builders in South Sudan
Authors: Ensor Marisa O
Published: March 2015

Often described as ‘the future of the nation’, children in South Sudan represent the promise of a stable positive national identity in this conflict-ridden, newly independent African country. State- and nation-building efforts in the post-independence period have similarly targeted the members of the youngest generations, at least at the discourse and normative levels, as ideas of nationhood and childhood are seen as mutually constitutive. Progress made since the 2005 Peace Agreement has, however, been negated by the recent resurgence of ethnically fuelled conflict and population displacement. Unsuccessful efforts to mould the highly ethnically heterogeneous population of South Sudan into a coherent national entity and the failure to satisfy the needs of the very young population constitute leading factors contributing to the escalation of violence. Based on fieldwork conducted in several localities in South Sudan and northern Uganda between 2009 and 2013, this article discusses some of the challenges and opportunities faced by South Sudanese children and youth as both objects of and agentive participants in their young country’s parallel nation-building and citizenship projects. By exploring the relationship between and children’s implicatedness in these two related processes, the realities and complexities of children’s lives in ethnically diverse conflict-affected nations like South Sudan are contrasted to these roles and mandates.
National identity and language: Class differences among youth in western Ukraine
Authors: Peacock Elizabeth A
Published: March 2015

In Ukraine, promoting the Ukrainian language has been an important part of nation-building after post-Soviet independence. However, different regions of the country question this connection between language, identity, and the nation-state. In western regions, speaking Ukrainian is believed to be essential to legitimizing one’s Ukrainian ethnic identity. In practice, however, there are a variety of ideologies of language related to national identity. To date, little has been done to examine how young people in this region utilize competing discourses of identity at multiple spatial scales in defining their own notions of identity. Drawing upon ethnographic data, I examine how 13- to 15-year-olds interpret language use in relation to ethnic and national identity. Through this research, I aim to show how young people’s everyday engagements with local, national, and global ideologies complicate notions of a coherent, territorially based nation.
Constructions of Finnishness in the media productions of second-generation Finnish immigrant children and youth
Authors: Oikarinen-Jabai Helena
Published: March 2015

Performative participatory research projects conducted with people of immigrant backgrounds, especially those conducted by Maggie O’Neill in the East Midlands, United Kingdom (1999–2009), have the potential to create new spaces for ‘new homes’. They also provide insights into migrant youth’s homing desire and the way it relates to cultural and national citizenship and diasporic imaginings. In this article, I analyse productions made together with a group of Somali youths in Finland: a book, a radio programme, a documentary film, photographs and a video installation, wherein the youths, by reflecting on their childhood memories, focus on issues of belonging and negotiations of Finnishness. I argue that as youths with immigrant backgrounds participate in making their own audio-visual narrations, they challenge and broaden the images of ‘ideal Finnishness’ presented to them by mainstream discourses and practices. I present some examples of the work the youths have done and discuss some of the conclusions they present in their artworks. I aim to demonstrate the ways in which second-generation immigrant youths’ perspectives could be and should be used in reframing social, cultural, political and educational discourses, supporting new kinds of constructions and representations of what citizenship and belonging in the Finnish society entails.
‘Let’s hear how students feel …’: Representations of schooling on news television in India
Authors: Thapliyal Nisha
Published: March 2015

The aim of this article is to posit children as political beings and becomings in every aspect of their lives including schooling. This discussion explores the multiplicity of ways in which children actively make meaning about themselves in relation to the actors, institutions and discourses that constitute their lived worlds. It is empirically grounded in critical media analysis of two 2009 prime-time English language television news programmes about school reform. Both these programmes presented ‘what kids think’1 through interactions between a total of 22 private secondary school students and Human Resources Development Minister, Kapil Sibal. The analysis draws on a relational reading of the politics in childhood as constituted and enacted in the domain of schooling. In this context, it focuses on how children perceive and negotiate the subject positions and subjectivities presented to them by their families, the state and media. More specifically, this article argues that children are aware of and competent to engage with extent power relations and structures as represented in discourses of schooling.
“It takes a global village”: Troubling discourses of global citizenship in United Planet’s voluntourism
Authors: Zeddies Margaret , Millei Zsuzsa
Published: March 2015

This article merges the fields of tourism studies with the social studies of children and childhood in a discourse analysis of the voluntourism company United Planet’s website. In the past decade, United Planet has emerged as a popular voluntourist company with a mission to “unite the world in a community beyond borders.” United Planet’s volunteer projects, as described on their website, combine international volunteering with cultural excursions to children living in the Global South. Through our analysis of the United Planet website and focusing on notions of childhood, we demonstrate that it constructs a seemingly harmonious transnational world that is without cultural and geographic boundaries and histories. However, the erasure of borders and historical power relations to construct a global community with a form of global citizenship attached to it hinges upon the maintenance of different trajectories and inequalities of Global North and South. In this way, this form of global citizenship contradicts United Planet, and voluntourism’s promise about the creation of a more equitable world and limits its membership to the North.
New urban utopias of postcolonial India
Authors: Datta Ayona
Published: March 2015

Smart cities are now arguably the new urban utopias of the 21st century. Integrating urban and digital planning, smart cities are being marketed across the world as solutions to the challenges of urbanization and sustainable development. In India, in particular, there has been a move towards building 100 new smart cities in the future in order to spur economic growth and urbanization. Using the case of Dholera, the first Indian smart city, I examine how global models of smart cities are provincialized in the regional state of Gujarat through local histories, politics and laws. First, I argue that Dholera smart city is part of a longer genealogy of utopian urban planning that emerged as a response to the challenges of development and modernity in post-independent India. Second, that Dholera highlights a shift towards an ‘entrepreneurial urbanization’ in a regional state interested in scaling up a ‘Gujarat model of development’ for emulation at the scale of the nation. Finally, that in Dholera ‘speed’ is a relative term across its scales of manifestation from the global to local, where short ‘bursts of speed’ in conceptualization and investment is matched by significant ‘bottlenecks’ via local protests. The article concludes that Dholera’s fault lines are built into its utopian imaginings, which prioritizes urbanization as a business model rather than a model of social justice.
Smart ventures in Modi’s urban India
Authors: Harris Andrew
Published: March 2015

This commentary emphasizes the topicality and critical importance of a close focus on a smart city such as Dholera. Not only does this address a smart city craze in urban planning and thinking in contemporary India, but it offers a way of exploring the urban visions central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s model of economic development. It is argued that Ayona Datta’s engagement with Dholera importantly ‘provincializes’ discussion around smart cities in India within wider urban studies debates. But it is suggested that this work might develop greater genealogical connections with histories of colonial urbanism and employ more nuanced empirical research to help disrupt the promotional bombast that currently accompanies smart cities in Modi’s India.
Zeroville-on-Khambhat, or
Authors: Greenfield Adam
Published: March 2015

In this reflection on Ayona Datta’s article on ‘New Urban Utopias’, I consider the specific ideological work the notion of the ‘smart city’ does when transplanted onto Indian soil as the development project of Dholera. I explore how the desire on the part of Dholera’s promoters to sanitize the site’s history, and efface the legacy of displacements and expulsions on which the planned megacity will be built, parallels a collective desire for forgetting on the part of Gujarat, Narendra Modi (then Gujarati Chief Minister and now Indian Prime Minister) and the nation itself.