bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sporting Events and the Spatial Patterning of Crime in South Africa: Local Interpretations and International Implications
Authors: Breetzke Gregory , Cohn Ellen G.
Published: April 2013

In this study we investigate the impact of sporting events on crime levels in Tshwane, South Africa. Using crime data from 2001 to 2006, we examine whether crime levels increase throughout Tshwane as a whole as well as within certain buffer distances around the Loftus Versfeld stadium, on game days compared to non-game days. Findings show that there is an increase in overall crime in Tshwane on game days, but when specific types of crime are examined, the association between sporting events and crime levels in Tshwane varies depending on the spatial level under investigation. Explanations for these findings are provided based on routine activities theory linked with knowledge of the socio-demographics of sports fans in South Africa. We conclude by outlining some international implications of our results for law enforcement agencies tasked with policing cities during major sporting events.
Chochmat: Rhymes with Spirit Rock
Authors: Sautter Cia
Published: April 2013

Meditation is now a heavily promoted activity for holistic health and spiritual exploration. It may be possible to tie this interest to the growth of Asian religions in the western world. Studying the phenomenon raises provocative questions concerning the relationship between popular and organized religious practices in North America. This article explores some of the questions and possible answers by looking at a specific example of Buddhism’s influence on the revival of Jewish meditation, in order explore some current American conceptions of religion and spirituality.
Book Reviews
Authors: Dean Marie A. , Beavis Mary Ann , McBride James , Mazur Eric Michael , Dalton Lisle
Published: April 2013

Jennifer E. Porter, and Darcee L. McLaren, ed., Star Trek and Sacred Ground, reviewed by Marie A. Dean

Peter Emberley, Divine Hunger: Canadians on Spiritual Walkabout, reviewed by Mary Ann Beavis

Tony Ladd and James A. Mathisen, Muscular Christianity: Evangelical Protestants and the Development of American Sports, reviewed by James McBride

David Rosen, The Tao of Elvis, reviewed by Eric Michael Mazur

Christopher H. Evans and William R. Herzog, The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion, and American Culture, reviewed by Lisle Dalton
Shojo Savior: Princess Nausicaä, Ecological Pacifism, and The Green Gospel
Authors: DeWeese-Boyd Ian
Published: April 2013

In the distant future, a thousand years after “The Seven Days of Fire”—the holocaust that rapacious industrialization spawned—the earth is a wasteland of sterile deserts and toxic jungles that threaten the survival of the few remaining human beings. This is the world of Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In this film, Miyazaki offers a vision of an alternative to the violent quest for dominion that has brought about this environmental degradation, through the struggle of the young princess of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaä. As a messianic figure, I contend the shojo Nausicaä offers a beneficial estrangement from common conceptions of the gospel and opens up the ecological significance of Christ’s message of non-violence. Exploring the ecological and pacific aspects of the gospel through this figure, I argue, may provide a helpful lens for examining our own distorting visions in this age of war and environmental crisis.
“Love in the Clouds”: Barbara Cartland’s Religious Romances
Authors: Rix Robert W.
Published: April 2013

Barbara Cartland has become a byword for pulp fiction, the epitome of popular culture lacking progressive purpose and deeper meaning. It is well known that Cartland wrote sentimental romances, but the extent to which these were written against the backdrop of a spiritual framework with the intent of propagating a “religion of love” is little realized. This article discusses how Cartland represents romantic love as a means to accessing an “absolute reality” transcending ordinary experience. Focusing on her novel Love in the Clouds as a case study, I will examine how Cartland used the popular romance genre as a platform for a spiritual awakening of her readers. Her ideas and influences will be contextualized within the tradition of religious romance writing.
“One nation under God”: Identity and Resistance in a Rural Atheist Organization
Authors: Ritchey Jeff
Published: April 2013

This work explores identity development among members of the Atheist Station, a meeting place for agnostics, secular humanists and atheists in rural, southwest-central Pennsylvania. Utilizing the research and conceptual framework provided by “communities of practice” social learning theory, this work attempts to better understand member participation, meaning-making and the subsequent development of an atheist identity taking place within this highly marginalized group.
Cyberpilgrimage: A Study of Authenticity, Presence and Meaning in Online Pilgrimage Experiences
Authors: Hill-Smith Connie
Published: April 2013

The idea of cyberpilgrimage may be met with scepticism. There may be a sense that pilgrimage via the Internet intrinsically cannot be authentic, that without any physical depth, it can only be an affectation, even a caricature, of “proper” (terrestrial) pilgrimage. This “authenticity issue” is crucial, and failure to address it will undermine academic attempts at its study, even while Internet religion becomes increasingly central to understanding contemporary religious expression. This article explores various aspects of the new phenomenon of cyberpilgrimage, framed by a discussion of the potential authenticity of cyberpilgrimage.
Book Reviews
Authors: Webster Travis
Published: April 2013

Forman, Robert K.C. Grassroots Spirituality: What It Is, Why It Is Here, Where It Is Going, reviewed by Travis Webster
“Religious Groups and “Affluenza”: Further Exploration of the TV-Materialism Link
Authors: Harmon Marc D.
Published: April 2013

The researcher explores whether previously noted links between television viewing and materialism also appear among those in religious communities. Secondary analyses were conducted using data from six previous studies: Mennonites, American Buddhists, North American Hispanic Youth in Seventh-Day Adventist Congregations, two studies of youth in various Protestant denominations, and a national youth study with an over-sample of parochial students.
Book Reviews
Authors: Auger Emily E. , Szcypa Piotr , Paradis Kenneth , Kelley Kate S. , Smith Andrew
Published: April 2013

Christopher Partridge and Eric Christianson, eds. The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan & Western Demonology in Popular Culture, reviewed by Emily E. Auger

John Lyden, ed. The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film, reviewed by Piotr Szczypa

Jackson, Gregory. The Word and Its Witness: The Spiritualization of American Realism, reviewed by Kenneth Paradis

Thompson, Kirsten Moana. Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Century, reviewed by Kate S. Kelley

Turner, Richard Brent. Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans, reviewed by Andrew Smith
Faculty Development in Veterinary Education: Are We Doing Enough (or Publishing Enough About It), and Do We Value It?
Authors: Bell Catriona E.
Published: April 2013

In this discussion article, I aim to promote international discourse about faculty development in veterinary education, to highlight both the paucity of literature available in this field and the variation in terminology used in publications, to draw from existing evidence in medical education literature, and to identify what we know already and where we are now and where we should be in the next 10 years.
Colonel Sellers as a Scientist A Play By S.L. Clemens and W.D. Howells
Authors: Meserve Walter
Published: April 2013

As interesting and as revealing of personality and artistic characteristics as anything Samuel Clemens and W. D. Howells ever did together is their venture into the world of the drama and the theater. Their interest in a combined dramatic work started during the summer of 1875 when Clemens proposed that Howells dramatize Tom Sawyer, but as Howells explained that he had not time and that Clemens should do it anyway, nothing came of the suggestion (July 19, 1875, Mildred Howells, Life in Letters, I, 208). Earlier that year Clemens had sent a Mr. Haskins, an actor with a plot, to Howells thinking that a play might result, but Howells was unimpressed. "I have seen Haskins," he wrote to Clemens (July 3, 1875, Life in Letters, I, 207). "His plot was a series of stage situations, which no mortal ingenuity could harness together."
Tennessee Williams and Strindberg
Authors: Vowles Richard
Published: April 2013

In his Cornell University lectures a few years ago the critic Joseph Wood Krutch remarked that "Strindberg is ... directly or indirectly the strongest literary influence upon the currently admired Tennessee Williams, I should be willing to wager. Mr. Krutch was wrong about some things in those lectures. He persisted in calling Strindberg a Dane, and in getting play plots mixed up. And he thought the influence of Strindberg on Williams was largely a deleterious, a damaging one. But he was fundamentally right in observing what I should prefer to call an affinity, a relationship that needs to be explored.
Tennessee Williams: A Selected Bibliography
Authors: Dony Nadine
Published: April 2013

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beckett's Late Works: An Appraisal
Authors: Fehsenfeld Martha
Published: April 2013

This victim of more words than ever before inflicted on any other living subject has recently been castigated by both wordsmen and -women for "scraping the bottom of [his] ... barrel" in offering recent plays and prose: "brief exercises," "tableaux vivants," "having ceased to be comic, "intensity at the cost of .. . depth," and the inevitable "nothing remains to say," are some of the accusations — always carefully hedged by "the beginnings of critical wisdom" or some such safety clause. The implication is that these late works are either empty echoes of what was or benign sputterings replacing what can no longer be.
Roger Planchon' s Gilles de Rais: A Liturgy of Evil
Authors: Lamont Rosette
Published: April 2013

In choosing to subtitle his Gilles de Rais "Miracle en dix tableaux," Roger Planchon — the famous director of the TNP (now located at Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon) and, as is less known, particularly outside of France, an increasingly prolific, adventurous, poetic, and even metaphysical dramatist stresses the liturgical aspects of a "Bluebeard" drama featuring the mysterious hero/antihero of the fifteenth century.
Building a Theatrical Vernacular: Responsibility, Community, Ambivalence, and Queer Theatre
Authors: Dolan Jill
Published: April 2013

I originally presented the bulk of this article as the keynote at the Queer Theatre Conference presented in New York City last spring. "Queer Theatre, A Conference With Performances" was held April 27-29, 1995. The conference was presented by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center's Theatre Program; it was co-hosted by the Arts Program at the Judson Memorial Church, New York Theatre Workshop, La Mama E.T.C., and .the Joseph Papp Public Theatre. Because of the visibility and heft of CLAGS and its hosts, the conference was advertised nationally and attended by scholars, practitioners, critics, and spectators from around the United States.

Because of the historical importance of the Queer Theatre conference, I've decided that I want to mark the occasion of that event here by preserving the keynote much as it was delivered. Often, when academics publish work that began as a lecture or a paper, our effort is to mask the original constituency for which it was written. Rather than subsuming this piece in a rethought set of propositions, geared to a more readerly audience, I want to evoke the moment into which these words were spoken.
Book Reviews
Authors: Jenkins Anthony , Clum John , Cunnningham Frank , Page Malcom , Gross Robert , Balkian Janet , Demastes William , Durbach Errol , Lee Josephine , Klaver Elizabeth , Bak John , Hamner Robert , Zinman Toby Silver , Leland Charles
Published: April 2013

Janelle Reinelt, After Brecht: British Epic Theater, reviewed by Anthony Jenkins

Ruby Cohn, Anglo-American Interplay in Recent Drama, reviewed by John M. Clum

Norman Berlin, O'Neill's Shakespeare, reviewed by Frank R. Cunningham

Hersh Zeifman ed., David Hare: A Casebook, reviewed by Malcom Page

Robert Vorlicky, Act Like a Man: Challenging Masculinities in American Drama, reviewed by Robert F. Gross

Mathew Roudane, ed., Public Issues, Private Tensions, reviewed by Janet N. Balkian

Marc Robinson, The Other American Drama, reviewed by William W. Demastes

James Acheson, ed., British and Irish Drama since 1960, reviewed by Errol Durbach

Paul Delaney, ed., Tom Stoppard in Conversation, reviewed by Josephine Lee

Nancy Lane, Understanding Eugene lonesco, reviewed by Elizabeth Klaver

Alice Griffin, Understanding Tennessee Williams, reviewed by John S. Bak

Bruce King, Derek Walcott and West Indian Drama., reviewed by Robert Hamner

John Pilling, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Beckett, reviewed by Toby Silverman Zinman

Jamed McFalane, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen, reviewed by Charles Leland
Angels in America: Tony Kushner's Theses on the Philosophy of History
Authors: McNulty Charles
Published: April 2013

AIDS plays have come to be thought of as a phenomenon of the 1980S, as Happenings were of the 1960s. Though the epidemic still rages, the bravely furious genre that began with William Hoffman's As Is and Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart has for the most part receded into the paragraphs of theater history textbooks. Nicholas de Jongh identifies the central mission of these plays as the fight against "an orthodoxy that regards AIDS as a mere local difficulty, principally affecting a reviled minority." It is not entirely surprising, then, that the category has been said to have drawn to a close. The disease, after all, has been acknowledged, albeit belatedly, to be a widespread calamity; only the morally deaf, dumb, and blind have resisted this assessment, and they most certainly remain beyond the pale of agitprop, no matter how artfully conceived. To make things official, an obituary of the genre appeared in American Theatre in October of 1989.
O'Casey's Dramatic Apprenticeship
Authors: Hogan Robert
Published: April 2013

BEFORE W. B. YEATS, Lady Gregory, and Lennox Robinson rejected The Silver Tassie in 1928 and precipitated Sean O'Casey's break with the Abbey Theatre, the Theatre had produced five of his plays. Three of them— The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars—established O'Casey's international reputation as a major dramatist. The two other plays—''Kathleen Listens In" and "Nannie's Night Out"—exist in manuscript and will presently be published. Both plays are one-acts: the former is a satiric fantasy which foreshadows the method of O'Casey's recent work, and the latter is a tragicomedy similar in manner to the three famous early plays.
Sean O'Casey and the Road to Expressionism
Authors: De Baun Vincent
Published: April 2013

STUDENTS OF SEAN O'CASEY generally agree that his plays describe a course of technical development from naturalism to expressionism. The point of definite change of genre is usually established as the second act of The Silver Tassie (1928). Shortly after the first performance of the play, Curtis Canfield wrote: "In The Silver Tassie [O'Casey] gives evidence of relinquishing a medium and a method in which he was most effective for the sake of a different subject matter and a different technique .... The Silver Tassie opens in the familiar Dublin tenement but the last acts move away from realism into the realm of philosophic expressionism." A decade later, the same interpretation persisted. For example, Walter Starkie commented that in The Silver Tassie O'Casey '1eft behind the plays of his former manner, and he began to grope towards new dramatic values. . . . The first act is written in true O'Casey manner—there is movement, there is life: the characters are real beings .... The second act, which is set in the trenches 'somewhere in France: is a queer, fantastic scene that recalls slightly the dream play in Masses and Men by Toller." After still another decade, S. Marion Tucker and Alan S. Downer were indicating that in The Silver Tassie O'Casey ''began experimenting with form and trying his hand at expressionism." And so on. Numerous other examples could be offered.
Synge's Last Play: "And a Story Will Be Told For Ever”
Authors: Orel Harold
Published: April 2013

YEATS, FOR THE MOST PART, was unsentimental about his contemporaries. But of Synge's achievement, and of Synge as a person, he had only good things to say; he probably learned more from Synge than from any man save Ezra Pound. In part, of course, Synge's indifference to the demands of convention-loving playgoers and critics endeared him to Yeats. "He did not speak to men and women, asking judgment, as lesser writers do," wrote Yeats in Dramatis Personae; ''but knowing himself part of judgment he was silent."

Synge went his lonely way. Of his innate shyness, a life-long characteristic, we know a great deal. John Masefield was one of many persons struck by Synge's willingness to answer questions, a trait which stood out all the more because Synge hated to put himself forward. "When someone spoke to him," Masefield wrote about an evening in Bloomsbury in 1903, "he answered with the grave Irish courtesy. He offered nothing of his own." It is likely, as Masefield suggests, that Synge could talk brightly and charmingly to women. Still, "his place was outside the circle, gravely watching, gravely summing up, with a brilliant malice, the fools and wise ones inside."
The Crux of Melancholy: Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance
Authors: Pero Allan
Published: April 2013

This struggle with identifying certain places as one’s own – the difficulty, as Edna puts it to Julia, of being “dispossessed, and suddenly dispossessing” (121) – is a persistent vein in Albee’s dramatic work: The Zoo Story, The Ballad of the Sad Café, The Play about the Baby,
The Ghost in the Machine: Heiner Müller’s Devouring Melancholy
Authors: Williams Kirk
Published: April 2013

Eating is a kind of memorialization, at least according to Freud, who exerts his own influence on Müller’s text. To take the lost object into oneself, cannibalizing and consuming it through ritual or metaphor, is one way that the subject masters the potentially paralysing ambivalence of loss. The dead live on, but they do not return; eating the dead, to paraphrase Müller, allows us to know them and be finished with them at the same time. The dead, however, are hard to keep down — they keep coming back up, rather like history itself. It is, as Hamletmachine illustrates, no small task to rid oneself of the literary past. Memory returns, unbidden, ghosts walk among the ruins, cycles of death and regeneration cannot be arrested by will or art.
Allegories from the Past: Stoppard’s Uses of History
Authors: Innes Christopher
Published: April 2013

The surprising thing about Tom Stoppard is that – for all his reputation as a “cutting edge” dramatist, dealing with highly contemporary issues, tackling immediately relevant themes – i n his whole d ramatic output there a re on ly four full-length stage plays actually set in the present. These are Night and Day and Jumpers and Hapgood, along with his ironically titled, semi-autobiographical The Real Thing and his very first play, Enter a Free Man – although Stoppard has dismissed this as an amalgam of other people’s plays. Eighteen of his remaining nineteen full-length plays are set wholly or at least partially in the past, qualifying him for the title “historical playwright,” a fact that makes him quite unusual among major twentieth-century British playwrights. There are, of course, others who have turned to historical subjects, among them Edward Bond and Caryl Churchill. Yet neither of these has set more than one in three of their dramas in the past, and Churchill, for example, moves away from the historical, with most of her history plays being clustered in her early career. Perhaps the only playwright who has anything approaching the same weight of historical drama in his total output is Peter Barnes, whose plays are set in eras so distant and different from our own that the effect is estranging.
In vitro Effect of Aqueous Extract of Fresh Leaves of Abroma augusta L on the Diffusion of Glucose
Authors: Islam Md Tariqul , Rahman Md Ajijur , Islam Md Anwar-Ul
Published: April 2013

There have been a number of reports concerning the role of dietary fiber in hampering the diffusion of glucose and lowering the postprandial serum glucose. The present study investigates the effect of viscous aqueous leaf extract of Abroma augusta L (Family: Sterculiaceae, Bengali name: Ulatkambal, English name: Devil's cotton, DC) on the diffusion of glucose in vitro. Different mixtures were prepared using varying concentrations of sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC) and aqueous extract of A. augusta with a fixed concentration of glucose. The diffusion of glucose from these systems into the outer medium through the ultra-fine membrane was measured. The results showed that both Na-CMC and aqueous extract of ulatkambal significantly (p<0.05) reduced the diffusion of glucose compared to control in a concentration-dependent manner. The result of this study suggested that dietary fiber present in the aqueous leaf extract of A. augusta may be potentially effective in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus by reducing post-prandial glucose absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14486 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 21-26, 2013
Antibiotic Sensitivity of Pathogens Causing Urinary Tract Infection
Authors: Akter Taslima , Mia Zakaria , Shahriar Masum
Published: April 2013

Diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) causing pathogens with their sensitivity to different antibiotics was performed with a total of 96 samples from both male (n=31; 32.3%) and female (n=65; 67.7%) of different age groups. Out of 96 urine samples, 55 (57.3%) were found positive after culturing in MacConkey agar plates. The percent distribution of positive cases against collected samples was higher for female (67%) than male (32%). However, female and male at the reproductive age of 16-30 years were more susceptible to UTI. A total of 55 bacterial isolates were identified by conventional methods and their antibiotic sensitivity was tested using Mueller- Hinton agar plates. The predominant isolates were Escherichia coli (34.5%), Klebsiella sp. (18.2%) and Staphylococci (20.0%). The sensitivity pattern for most of the isolated organisms showed 50% and/or higher sensitivity to imipenem, azithromycin and cephalexin, except Staphylococci (only 9.09% to azithromycin). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14491 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 53-58, 2013
Bioactivities of Artocarpus chaplasha Roxb. and Bougainvillea spectabillis Willd.
Authors: Chowdhury Farjana , Pal Senjuti , Sharmin Tasnuva , Rashid Ridwan Bin , Sikder Md. Al Amin , Kabir Shaila , Rahman Mohammad S , Rashid Mohammad A
Published: April 2013

The methanol extracts of leaf of Artocarpus chaplasha Roxb. and Bougainvillea spectabillis Willd. as well as their petroleum ether, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and aqueous soluble partitionates were subjected to screenings for antioxidant, cytotoxic, thrombolytic, membrane stabilizing and antimicrobial activities. The antioxidant potential was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Folin- Ciocalteau reagent using butylated hydroxytolune (BHT) and ascorbic acid as standards. The aqueous soluble fraction of the crude methanol extract of A. chaplasha and the methanolic crude extract of B. spectabillis demonstrated the highest free radical scavenging activity with the IC50 of 15.60±0.27 ?g/ml and 18.33±0.17 ?g/ml, which could be correlated to their total phenolic content of 61.26±0.23 and 50.00±0.19 mg of GAE/gm of extractive, respectively. Different extractives of A. chaplasha and B. spectabillis showed clot lysis activity ranging from 2.56±0.68% to 17.07±0.23% and 2.24±0.71% to 17.59±0.74% as compared to 66.77% and 3.791 % produced by the standard streptokinase and water, respectively. In hypotonic solution and heat induced conditions, the crude extract of A. chaplasha inhibited the haemolysis of human erythrocyte by 41.96±0.87% and 40.00±0.78%, while the carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction of methanol extract of B. spectabillis inhibited haemolysis by 65.68±0.36% and 35.62±0.82%, respectively. Here, acetyl salicylic acid (0.1 mg/ml) was used as reference showing 72.79% and 42.12% of haemolysis of RBCs in hypotonic and heat induced conditions, respectively. Among the extractives of both plants, the crude methanol extract of A. chaplasha and the chloroform soluble fraction of B. spectabillis extract revealed mild to moderate antimicrobial activity with zone of inhibition ranging from with 7.0 to 13.0 mm. The general toxicity was determined by brine shrimp lethality bioassay where the pet-ether soluble fraction of A. chaplasha (LC50 0.781±0.36 ?g/ml) and the aqueous soluble partitionate of B. spectabillis (LC50 1.28±0.57 ?g/ml) suggested the presence of considerable bioactive principles. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14493 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 63-68, 2013
Evaluation of Cardiovascular Activity of an Ayurvedic Product Mrityunjay in Rat Model
Authors: Rahman Most Shammi , Jahan Shahana , Nahar Kamrun , Islam Nazia , Rahman Danis , Rashid Ridwan Bin , Chowdhury Abu Asad , Banoo Rebecca , Amran Mohammad Shah
Published: April 2013

Ayurvedic system of medicine is a major component of indigenous systems of medicine in Bangladesh. We used an Ayurvedic drug Mrityunjay which is traditionally used for high blood pressure, heart diseases and heartquake. We measured the electrocardiographical (ECG) parameters using an ECG machine (Vet 300, EDAN, China) in rat model before and after administration of the test drug. We observed that, Mrityunjay at high doses (800 ?g/Kg, 1600?g/kg, 3200?g/kg) produced heart blocks and other arrhythmias, but in normal dose (200?g/Kg) it has no serious untoward effects on cardiac muscle. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14503 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 99-105, 2013
New Health Concerns Vol.16(1)
Authors: Hossain Md Akbar , Tanvir Sharif
Published: April 2013

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bpj.v16i1.14511 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 16(1): 117-120, 2013
Spectrophotometric determination of chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride in dosage forms
Authors: Kaura Arun , Gupta Vikas , Roy G S , Kaura Monika
Published: April 2013

A rapid and simple method for simultaneous determination of Chlorpheniramine Maleate (CPM) and Phenylpropanolamine Hydrochloride (PPM) by first derivative UV spectrophotometry has been developed in combined pharmaceutical dosage forms. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of drugs in physical mixture and commercial formulations and results showed good linearity, precision and reproducibility. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v2i5.14436 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, April 2013, 2(5): 97-100
Antidiarrhoeal activity of rind of Punica granatum
Authors: Akter Saleha , Sarker Amit , Hossain Md. Sanowar
Published: April 2013

Punica granatum (Family: Punicaceae) is a widely consumed fruit in Bangladesh locally known as Anar or Bedana. Traditionally the plant is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, hemorrhage, tuberculosis and chronic periodontitis. The present study was undertaken in order to justify and authenticate the traditional use of rind of P. granatum fruit in diarrhoea. Methanolic extract of the rind of the fruit was tested in castor oil- and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea in mice at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight. The results of the present study revealed significant antidiarrhoeal activity (p<0.001) in both animal models. The extract inhibited 31.25% defaecation at the dose of 200 mg/kg and 53.75% at the dose of 400 mg/kg in castor oil-induced diarrhoea while standard drug loperamide inhibited 71.25% defaecation. In magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea the inhibition of defaecation was 45.71 and 57.14% at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg respectively while loperamide inhibited 64.29% defaecation. The antidiarrhoeal effect of the extract was concentration dependent in both castor oil-induced diarrhoea and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea. Phytochemical screening of the extract revealed the presence of flavonoids and alkaloids that may play key role in its antidiarrhoeal activity. The results of the present study validate the folkloric use of the rind of P. granatum in the treatment of diarrhoea.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v2i5.14437 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, April 2013, 2(5): 101-104
Serum Copper and Plasma Protein Status in Normal Pregnancy
Authors: Noor Nushrat , Jahan Nasim , Sultana Nayma
Published: April 2013

Background: Gradual alteration of serum copper and some plasma protein levels may occur with advancement of pregnancy, which is associated with increased maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Objective: To observe serum copper and plasma protein levels in normal pregnant women of different trimesters in order to find out their nutritional status. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out in the Department of Physiology, Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC), Dhaka, between 1st January 2010 and December 2010. Ninety normal pregnant women of different trimesters with age 20-30 years were included in the study group. They were selected from Out Patient Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, SSMC. Age matched 30 non-pregnant women were taken as control. Serum copper level was measured by Spectrophotometric method, serum total protein and albumin levels were estimated by standard method. Statistical analysis was done by one way ANOVA, Bonferroni and Pearsons correlation coefficient test as applicable. Results: Serum Cu levels were significantly higher in all trimesters of pregnant women compared to control. Again, this value was significantly higher in 3rd trimester than that of in 1st and 2nd trimester and also in 2nd trimester than that of in 1st trimester. In addition, mean serum total protein level was significantly lower in 3rd trimester than control but no statistically significant difference was observed among different trimesters. Again, mean serum albumin level was significantly lower in 2nd and 3rd trimester than 1st trimester and control. In addition, serum Cu concentration showed significant positive correlation with different trimesters of gestation. Conclusion: This study reveals that hypercupremia along with hypoproteinemia occur in pregnant women from 1st to 3rd trimester of gestation. This gradual alteration of micro and macronutrients become more profound with advancement of pregnancy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbsp.v7i2.14452 J Bangladesh Soc Physiol. 2012, December; 7(2): 66-71
Bangladesh Financial Reporting Standard (BFRS) and Environmental Accounting: A Case Study of Listed Manufacturing Companies in Bangladesh
Authors: Biswas Md Islam , Rahaman Md Mustafizur
Published: April 2013

This paper examines whether Bangladesh Financial Reporting Standards (BFRS) can be used for monitoring environmental degradations. The paper critically examines the contemporary environmental accounting literature, and attempts to find a mandatory reporting mechanism in the context of accounting for a public good. It selects the relevant financial reporting standards and examines their strengths and weaknesses. Using qualitative and case-study research methods, the financial statements of 65 local manufacturing companies that are operating in an environmentally sensitive sector are studied. The study finds that the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) guidelines and the private sectors self-regulation are insufficient to monitor environmental disclosure. The paper proposes a mandated separate statement of environmental assets and liabilities. The elements of the proposed statement are discussed. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v6i2.14514 Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) VolVI, Issue02, (July-December, 2011) & VolVII, Issue-1 (January-June, 2012) pp.1-20
Customer Perception, Price and Demand Analysis of Supermarkets in Dhaka City
Authors: Azad SM Nasim , Hossain Md Moyazzem , Parveen Rehena
Published: April 2013

This paper estimates the customer perception about supermarkets and also tries to estimate the determinants which are responsible to satisfy the customers of supermarkets in Bangladesh. For empirical estimation we use primary data from 290 respondents. The respondents are customers of selected supermarkets in Dhaka city. We use logistic regression to identify the factors. Thus age, sex, education level, monthly household income, monthly household expenditure, monthly frequency of visit to Supermarket, availability of (almost) all products and price of the products are significant predictors of satisfaction level with regard to supermarket in Bangladesh. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v6i2.14516 Journal of Business and Technology (Dhaka) VolVI, Issue02, (July-December, 2011) & VolVII, Issue-1 (January-June, 2012) pp.35-51
Effectiveness of role play in enhancing the speaking skills of the learners in a large classroom: An investigation of tertiary level students
Authors: Islam Priscilla , Islam Tazria
Published: April 2013

This investigation looks at enhancement in learners speaking skills through role play in groups in a large classroom and this study also examines the teachers assessment of students for further development of their speaking skills. About one-hundred twenty students of the department of English, Stamford University Bangladesh were involved in this investigation process from January 2012 until April 2012 in the speaking classes. For the research, qualitative data were collected in the form of questionnaires, group interviews, classroom observation, and students performance evaluation result. The result from class room observations of students performance has been presented in the form of graphic analysis. The result shows learners improvement in speaking skills through role play and how the positive attitudes of teachers help to further their speaking skills. From the response of the students questionnaire it has become obvious that role play has been enthusiastically accepted by the students as it challenges their creativity and ability to think critically, which enables them to speak more logically and confidently in the classroom. The result of the group interview shows the advantages and disadvantages of students performance while doing the role play in groups inside the classroom and it also helps students to overcome inhibition when it comes to speaking in front of others. Through classroom observation the teacher identifies students ability to adapt with the situational factors and also measures their fluency and use of accurate language by recording their performances. The teacher also records the gradual progress of students for further development of their speaking skills and ascertains how beneficial it is to do role play in a large classroom. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14475 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 218-233
The Labyrinth of The Liberator: Márquezs Historical Character in Freudian Light
Authors: Yasmin Tahsina
Published: April 2013

Abstract not available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14480 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 286-295
Optically Driven Mobile Integrated Micro-Tools for a Lab-on-a-Chip
Authors: Liu Yi-Jui , Lee Yi-Hsiung , Lin Yu-Sheng , Tsou Chingfu , Baldeck Patrice , Lin Chih-Lang
Published: April 2013

This study proposes an optically driven complex micromachine with an Archimedes microscrew as the mechanical power, a sphere as a coupler, and three knives as the mechanical tools. The micromachine is fabricated by two-photon polymerization and is portably driven by optical tweezers. Because the microscrew can be optically trapped and rotates spontaneously, it provides driving power for the complex micro-tools. In other words, when a laser beam focuses on the micromachine, the microscrew is trapped toward the focus point and simultaneously rotates. A demonstration showed that the integrated micromachines are grasped by the optical tweezers and rotated by the Archimedes screw. The rotation efficiencies of the microrotors with and without knives are 1.9 rpm/mW and 13.5 rpm/mW, respectively. The micromachine can also be portably dragged along planed routes. Such Archimedes screw-based optically driven complex mechanical micro-tools enable rotation similar to moving machines or mixers, which could contribute to applications for a biological microfluidic chip or a lab-on-a-chip.
Control of a Stand-Alone Variable Speed Wind Energy Supply System
Authors: Hussein Mahmoud , Senjyu Tomonobu , Orabi Mohamed , Wahab Mohamed , Hamada Mohamed
Published: April 2013

This paper presents a simple control strategy for the operation of a variable speed stand-alone wind turbine with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The PMSG is connected to a three phase resistive load through a switch mode rectifier and a voltage source inverter. Control of the generator side converter is used to achieve maximum power extraction from the available wind power. Control of the DC-DC bidirectional buck-boost converter, which is connected between batteries bank and DC-link voltage, is used to maintain the DC-link voltage at a constant value. It is also used to make the batteries bank stores the surplus of wind energy and supplies this energy to the load during a wind power shortage. The load side voltage source inverter uses a relatively complex vector control scheme to control the output load voltage in terms of amplitude and frequency. The control strategy works under wind speed variation as well as with variable load. Extensive simulation results have been performed using MATLAB/SIMULINK.
Elevating Mallarmé’s Shipwreck
Authors: Dernie David
Published: April 2013

This paper discusses collage as a means to explore spatial ideas. It concerns the practice of drawing-as-research, the spatiality of drawing and the nature of paper. It questions the homogeneity of digital tools in contemporary practice. It is introduced with a discussion of architectural representation and space with a historical trajectory. It questions an understanding of space-as-geometry and discusses the potential role of non-perspectival drawings and non-digital drawing in current practice. The collage studies focus on the late nineteenth century. Working in the tradition of the collage novel, and with original engravings from the popular French newspaper Le Grande Illustré (1904), the collages work with the thematic structure and spatiality of Stéphane Mallarmé’s revolutionary poem Un Coup de Dés written a few years earlier. In this paper, the spatial and thematic content of Mallarmé’s poem are visualized for the first time. The conclusions of this study concern the role of non-digital drawings in the profession, and the potential of creative “paper technologies” to engage the material imagination at the early stages of a design process. It opens new ground as a study of the spatiality of text, the relationship between dramaturgy and architecture and on the nature of topological drawings.
Ex Vivo Behaviour of Human Bone Tumor Endothelial Cells
Authors: Infante Teresa , Cesario Elena , Gallo Michele , Fazioli Flavio , De Chiara Annarosaria , Tutucci Cristina , Apice Gaetano , De Nigris Filomena
Published: April 2013

Cooperation between endothelial cells and bone in bone remodelling is well established. In contrast, bone microvasculature supporting the growth of primary tumors and metastasis is poorly understood. Several antiangiogenic agents have recently been undergoing trials, although an extensive body of clinical data and experimental research have proved that angiogenic pathways differ in each tumor type and stage. Here, for the first time, we characterize at the molecular and functional level tumor endothelial cells from human bone sarcomas at different stages of disease and with different histotypes. We selected a CD31+ subpopulation from biopsies that displayed the capability to grow as adherent cell lines without vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Our findings show the existence in human primary bone sarcomas of highly proliferative endothelial cells expressing CD31, CD44, CD105, CD146 and CD90 markers. These cells are committed to develop capillary-like structures and colony formation units, and to produce nitric oxide. We believe that a better understanding of tumor vasculature could be a valid tool for the design of an efficacious antiangiogenic therapy as adjuvant treatment of sarcomas.
Computational Tools and Approaches for Design and Control of Coating and Composite Color, Appearance, and Electromagnetic Signature
Authors: Sapper Erik , Hinderliter Brian
Published: April 2013

The transport behavior of electromagnetic radiation through a polymeric coating or composite is the basis for the material color, appearance, and overall electromagnetic signature. As multifunctional materials become more advanced and next generation in-service applications become more demanding, a need for predictive design of electromagnetic signature is desired. This paper presents various components developed and used in a computational suite for the study and design of electromagnetic radiation transport properties in polymeric coatings and composites. Focus is given to the treatment of the forward or direct scattering problem on surfaces and in bulk matrices of polymeric materials. The suite consists of surface and bulk light scattering simulation modules that may be coupled together to produce a multiscale model for predicting the electromagnetic signature of various material systems. Geometric optics ray tracing is used to predict surface scattering behavior of realistically rough surfaces, while a coupled ray tracing-finite element approach is used to predict bulk scattering behavior of material matrices consisting of microscale and nanoscale fillers, pigments, fibers, air voids, and other inclusions. Extension of the suite to color change and appearance metamerism is addressed, as well as the differences between discrete versus statistical material modeling.
Sick Building Syndrome by Indoor Air Pollution in Dalian, China
Authors: Guo Peng , Yokoyama Kazuhito , Piao Fengyuan , Sakai Kiyoshi , Khalequzzaman Md , Kamijima Michihiro , Nakajima Tamie , Kitamura Fumihiko
Published: April 2013

This study assessed subjective symptoms related to indoor concentrations of chemicals among residents in a housing estate in Dalian, China, where indoor air pollution by interior decoration materials has recently become a major health problem. Fifty-nine males and 50 females were surveyed for their symptoms related to sick building syndrome. Formaldehyde (HCHO), NO2, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their dwellings were collected using a diffusion sampler and measured by GC/MS. For residents with one or more symptoms in the past, HCHO, butanol or 1,2-dichloroethane concentrations were significantly greater in their bedrooms or kitchens compared with those of subjects without previous symptoms. For residents with one or more symptoms at the time of the study, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, xylene, butanol, methyl isobutyl ketone, and styrene concentrations in their bedrooms or kitchens were significantly greater compared with those of residents without symptoms. HCHO, NO2, and VOCs were detected in all rooms, but their levels were lower than the guideline values except for HCHO in two rooms. Chemical substances from interior decoration materials at indoor air levels lower than their guideline values might have affected the health status of residents.
P4 ATPases: Flippases in Health and Disease
Authors: Van der Mark Vincent , Elferink Ronald , Paulusma Coen
Published: April 2013

P4 ATPases catalyze the translocation of phospholipids from the exoplasmic to the cytosolic leaflet of biological membranes, a process termed “lipid flipping”. Accumulating evidence obtained in lower eukaryotes points to an important role for P4 ATPases in vesicular protein trafficking. The human genome encodes fourteen P4 ATPases (fifteen in mouse) of which the cellular and physiological functions are slowly emerging. Thus far, deficiencies of at least two P4 ATPases, ATP8B1 and ATP8A2, are the cause of severe human disease. However, various mouse models and in vitro studies are contributing to our understanding of the cellular and physiological functions of P4-ATPases. This review summarizes current knowledge on the basic function of these phospholipid translocating proteins, their proposed action in intracellular vesicle transport and their physiological role.
Welcome to Medical Sciences: A New Open Access Platform for Research on Basic Medicines
Authors: Yen Yun
Published: April 2013

The scientific world is filled with both challenges and opportunities across disciplines. Around the world, all look for opportunities to improve the economy by investing in biomedical research, as well as in biotechnology. Within biotechnology, drug discovery and therapeutics remain the mainstays of biomedical research. [...]
Effect of Erica sp. Honey against Microorganisms of Clinical Importance: Study of the Factors Underlying this Biological Activity
Authors: Feás Xesus , Iglesias Antonio , Rodrigues Sandra , Estevinho Leticia
Published: April 2013

This study aimed to determine the factors (phenolic compounds, flavonoids, sugars or H2O2) that contribute the most to the antimicrobial activity of heather honey samples against four yeasts and four bacteria with medical importance. To discard the effect of H2O2 in the antimicrobial activity, catalase was added. To evaluate the osmotic pressure’s effect, artificial honey was also used. Phenolic compounds and flavonoids were determined and Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to assess whether these correlated with antimicrobial activity. The amount of phenolic compounds ranged from 630.89 ± 5.21 GAE kg−1 to 718.92 ± 4.41 GAE kg−1, while the flavonoids varied between 450.72 ± 5.67 CAE kg−1 and 673.98 ± 4.33 CAE kg−1. For the bacteria, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the honey without catalase ranged from 1.01 ± 0.50% to 10.00 ± 4.72% and was between 2.00 ± 0.94% and 13.27 ± 5.23% for honey with catalase. Concerning the yeasts, the MICs was between 13.16 ± 4.08% and 20.00 ± 5.09% for honey without catalase and between 14.95 ± 4.16% and 25.67 ± 5.50% for honey with catalase. The elucidation of the antimicrobial factors and action mechanisms is essential for the correct use of honey in therapeutic applications.