bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
True Crime Radio and Listener Disenchantment with Network Broadcasting, 1935-1946
Authors: Razlogova Elena
Published: April 2006

This article uses the true-crime radio program Gang Busters to explore the decline in the relationship between network broadcasters and their audiences in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the 1920s and early 1930s, with no scientific structure yet available to analyze and predict audience response, radio producers created programs and genres relying on individual listeners' letters and personal observations. In this period, listener response inspired lasting changes in radio technology, genres, and institutions. By the 1940s, ratings and surveys of specialized markets shaped production choices. Radio genres and formulas had standardized and producers were no longer interested in inviting audiences to participate in the creation process but only in allowing them to express taste preferences. This breakdown of reciprocity was first evident in the case of working class and nonwhite audiences. Broadcasters asserted their authority over voices of listeners and of the poor people whose lives were documented by Gang Busters, particularly popular among children and working class people of all races. The producers of an episode about a police shooting on a farmhouse in Oklahoma clashed with Mexican farmers and other members of the community where the shooting took place. The farmers argued that the radio show glossed over the actions of the police officer who killed the Mexican owner of the farm solely because of the color of his skin, mistaking him for an American Indian criminal on the loose. Listeners' sense of entitlement also extended to the society at large. Unemployment and economic collapse led many Americans to distrust all large business institutions. The failure of broadcasters to move beyond racial stereotypes enabled local farmers and radio listeners to draw parallels between structures of power in commercial broadcasting and those in corporate business and in law enforcement.
The Technology of Child Production: Eugenics and Eulogics in the de Liberis Educandis
Authors: Bloomer W. Martin
Published: April 2006

The de Liberis Educandis, emanating from the circle of Plutarch, provides directives for fathers in the education of sons. The argument for the intervention of fathers is expressed and even conceived in rhetorical forms. Excellence in speaking is understood as the result and the proof of free birth, a test of legitimacy. The speech of wives, concubines, nurses, slaves, freedmen, flatterers, and the vile constitute threats to the ideal education and ideal man. The author's prescriptions are more concerned with creating ideal relationships among men—father, teacher, and young student—than with particulars of curriculum.
Elegy and Epic and the Recognition of Paris: Ovid Heroides 16
Authors: Mazurek Elizabeth Forbis
Published: April 2006

This essay interprets Heroides 16, Paris' epistle to Helen, as Ovid's re-imagining of literary history, according to which elegy is born simultaneously with epic. Ovid creates this imaginary history through the figure of Paris, whose self-representation leads to confusion over his identity as a lover or a warrior. The poet exploits Paris' contradictory self-image in order to challenge traditional notions about the status of elegy and epic in the literary hierarchy. Reading in mythological sequence, we are to see Paris as the precursor of elegiac lovers and of epic heroes, the progenitor of both elegy and epic.
The Ample Word: Immanence and Authority in Dickinson's Poetry
Authors: Diehl Joanne Feit
Published: April 2006

The value Dickinson places on power manifests itself throughout her poems in a rhetoric of immanence and authority. After examining these terms, I look at four instances from the poems that illustrate the verbal strategies by which she establishes her foundational relation to the world. Although Dickinson's poetics has at times been viewed as austere, the proliferation of tropes and richness of figurative language constitute a realm of verbal amplitude, yet an amplitude that she regards with ambivalence.
"Where - Omnipresence - fly?" Calvinism as Impetus to Spiritual Amplitude
Authors: Eberwein Jane Donahue
Published: April 2006

Although Calvinism influenced Dickinson's imagination and diction, her tendency to distill the essence of experience allowed her to intuit gaps in her tradition while forging links to Transcendentalism, Catholicism, non-western practices, and today's undoctrinal spirituality. Key spiritual features found in her writings include attentiveness, gratitude, and awareness of divine omnipresence.
"Brown Kisses" and "Shaggy Feet": How Carlo Illuminates Dickinson for Children
Authors: Figley Marty Rhodes
Published: April 2006

Emily Dickinson's love for her dog, Carlo, reveals an earthy aspect of the poet that children will understand. She was not just a pristine introvert dressed in white; Dickinson had a vibrant, sixteen-year relationship with a large, muddy-pawed canine. She named him, romanticized him, confided in him, drew strength from him, and grieved acutely when he died.
How(e) to Read Dickinson (W)riting Nature
Authors: Hogue Cynthia
Published: April 2006

This essay reads Emily Dickinson's nature poetry through Susan Howe's analytic reading of Dickinson's nature poetry in My Emily Dickinson, analyzing how the two poets share a particular capacity for material and perceptual attention, and arguing that that attention is historically contextualized by war, the repressed in both their works.
Amplitude of Queer Desire in Dickinson's Erotic Language
Authors: Juhasz Suzanne
Published: April 2006

Dickinson's poetics of erotic desire can best be understood as queer—a transgression of normative cultural systems that regulate gender, sexuality, and desire. This paper explores an aspect of Dickinson's masochistic fantasy, linguistically created with metaphor, that by way of figurative excess constructs a play of excitement and desire that bypasses traditional gender and sex arrangements and redefines the sexed body.
The Body's Body: Dickinson's Fashions and Amplitude
Authors: Wardrop Daneen
Published: April 2006

Previous studies have shown that Dickinson used dress metaphorically in her poetry, but this study reads fashion as a cultural artifact and economic index of nineteenth-century women's lives. Examined here most particularly are Dickinson's letters to Susan Gilbert Dickinson and other female correspondents, which use dress to present the self and concomitantly to develop a rich frame of reference to the female body.
Inclusion of Immigrant Families in U.S. Health Coverage Expansions
Authors: Hirota Sherry , Garcia Jane , Silber Ralph , Lamirault Ingrid , Penserga Luella J , Hall Margo B
Published: April 2006

This paper examines federal and state restrictions on immigrants and the negative impact of these restrictions on local efforts to serve the uninsured. It examines a health coverage program offered to low-income residents in Alameda County, California from 2000 to 2005, illustrating local efforts to expand health coverage to both adults and children, regardless of immigration status. After five years of operating the pilot program, leaders of Alameda County's health care safety net conclude that local health coverage programs are unsustainable over a long period of time without significant federal and state support. The financial resources that federal, state, and local governments are patching together for health coverage could be used more efficiently if consolidated. Stabilizing the federal tax base and recognizing the phenomenal amount of federal, state, and local funding that is already spent on medical care for the uninsured are the first steps towards achieving meaningful health care reform.
The Impact of Community Health Worker Training and Programs in NYC
Authors: Perez Moises , Findley Sally E , Mejia Miriam , Martinez Jacqueline
Published: April 2006

The Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative is committed to improving health care in Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and low-income communities in New York City, large parts of which are home to many immigrants to the U.S. The collaborative developed a program to train and integrate community health workers (CHWs) into ongoing programs at partner community organizations. We report on our 2000–2005 experiences with CHWs for health insurance, child immunizations, and asthma management. A total of 1,504 CHWs were trained, with 16%–200% increase in CHW competency for selected skills. The CHWs facilitated health insurance enrollment for about 30,000 individuals, assisted 8,000 children to become completely immunized, and supported 4,000 families improving asthma management. Integration of CHW training into community programs is effective for empowering health promotion in underserved communities.
New Mexico Community Voices: Policy Reform to Reduce Oral Health Disparities
Authors: Powell Wayne , Hollis Christine , De la Rosa Mario , Helitzer-Allen Deborah L. , Derksen Daniel
Published: April 2006

Using a socio-ecological framework to guide the initiative, New Mexico Community Voices developed, with state and local stakeholders, responsive oral health policies to address oral health disparities. Several policy objectives were achieved: increasing awareness of the public health importance of oral health; improving access to dental services for uninsured or underserved populations; enhancing dental services specialty care; and increasing sustainable oral health infrastructure through pipeline development of oral health providers to relieve service shortages and diversify the oral health workforce. Improving access to oral health and augmenting numbers of dental providers in rural areas were also successful. The governor has appointed the New Mexico Oral Health Advisory Council to address state oral health issues. The New Mexico partnerships have demonstrated how effective policy change can generate important incremental shifts in oral health care delivery and provide best practice models that diminish the oral health crisis faced by underserved populations.
Preventable Hospitalization and Medicaid Managed Care: Does Race Matter?
Authors: Basu Jayasree , Friedman Bernard , Burstin Helen
Published: April 2006

This study examines the preventable hospitalization patterns of Medicaid patients by race/ethnicity to determine whether Medicaid managed care (MMC) has been more effective in some subgroups than others. It uses logistic models for three states, comparing preventable hospitalizations with marker admissions (urgent admissions, insensitive to primary care). Hospital discharge data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient database of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality for New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin residents aged 20–64 years is used. In a more urban state, New York, MMC was effective for Whites but not for minorities. In a more rural state, Wisconsin, MMC was effective for minorities. Overall, the evidence is not strong that any particular racial group consistently benefited from MMC, or that any state consistently showed a favorable impact of MMC across racial groups. However, racial/ethnic disparity associated with the risk of preventable hospitalization is significantly lower among Medicaid patients than among private fee-for-service patients.
Availability of Spanish Prescription Labels
Authors: Sharif Iman , Lo Sarah , Ozuah Philip O
Published: April 2006

The research team conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey of all pharmacies in the Bronx, New York (99.4% participation rate) to determine availability of Spanish prescription labels. One hundred twenty five pharmacies (78%) were small independent pharmacies; 36 (22%) were large-chain pharmacies. Overall, 111 (69%) stated that they could provide prescription labels in Spanish. Overall, for all the pharmacy ZIP codes, the mean proportion of the population that was Spanish-speaking was 46.8% (range 11% to 71.6%). Seventy-eight (48%) pharmacies were located in areas where more than 50% of the population were Spanish-speaking, 48 (30%) were located in areas with 25.1–50% Spanish-speakers, and 35 (22%) were in areas with up to 25% Spanish-speakers. Small independent pharmacies were more likely than large chain pharmacies to provide prescription labels in Spanish (71% vs. 61%, p=0.25). All the pharmacists commented that a patient must specifically request a Spanish prescription label in order to receive one. Pharmacies located in areas with the highest proportion of Spanish speakers were more likely to provide prescription labels in Spanish (82% vs. 62% vs. 49%; p=.001). Of the 111 pharmacies that could provide Spanish labels, 95 (86%) used a computer program to perform the translation and 16(14%) used a lay employee. Of pharmacies using a computer program, only one had a Spanish-speaking pharmacist who could check and correct the computer translations.
Factors Associated With Health Service Utilization Patterns in Low-Income Women
Authors: Weinreb Linda , Perloff Jennifer , Goldberg Robert , Lessard Darleen , Hosmer David W
Published: April 2006

Little is known about the relationship of demographic, health, and psychosocial factors with health services utilization over time among low-income female heads of household. In a case-control study conducted between 1991 and 1997, 273 homeless and low-income housed mothers living in Worcester, Massachusetts were interviewed at baseline and at a two-year follow-up. The use of outpatient and emergency department care in this study sample was examined. High usage patterns were found at baseline. At the two-year follow-up, poor health status, non-White race, and fewer supportive relationships were significantly associated with frequent emergency department visits. Women with higher rates of ongoing outpatient medical care visits were more likely to have fewer social supports and more bodily pain than women with lower rates of ambulatory care usage. Mental health and victimization were not associated with service use patterns. In order to address poor women's needs in a more effective and potentially less costly way, health programs must understand their need for social support and culturally responsive services.
How to Promote Effective African American Partnerships for Community-Based HIV/AIDS Planning: Lessons Learned from the Atlanta Regional Minority Health Network
Authors: Griffin James P , Floyd Aaronette
Published: April 2006

Coalitions differ from partnerships in that they are often more diverse in their organizational components. Such diversity may lend the advantages of resource conservation and greater credibility but may pose fundamental challenges as well. Using group communication tactics and group maintenance strategies such as positive communication and intentional relationship-building can strengthen the performance of a group. The purpose of this paper is to describe the communication enhancement and conflict prevention methods which the Atlanta Regional Minority Health Network found essential to the successful functioning of the coalition of HIV prevention stakeholders.
Informing the Policy Agenda: The Community Voices Experience on Dental Health for Children in North Carolina's Rural Communities
Authors: Hartsock Lisa Gaarde , Hall Margruetta B , Connor Angela M
Published: April 2006

Dental decay is one of the nation's most common childhood diseases and the rate of decay for low-income children in North Carolina is nearly double that of children living above the poverty line. A number of factors impede the utilization of dental services by children; these factors can be grouped into three broad categories: patient factors, provider factors (including availability and provider willingness to provide treatment that is often difficult and time consuming) and payor factors. Addressing the dental health crisis for children in low-income families can only be accomplished by tackling multiple contributors to the problem simultaneously. A Community Voices program in North Carolina demonstrated that key policy strategies must be addressed at the state and national levels to ensure that interventions have the greatest possible impact, measured in terms of improved dental health status and high patient satisfaction rates.
Cigarette Smoking Among College Students Attending A Historically Black College and University
Authors: Laws Michelle A , Huang Chien Ju , Brown Roderick F , Richmond Al , Conerly Rhonda C
Published: April 2006

Very little is known about the prevalence, patterns, social norms, and trends of smoking among students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The current study assessed the prevalence, patterns, and norms associated with cigarette smoking among a cross-sectional random sample of 371 undergraduate college students at a historically Black university in North Carolina. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents were non-smokers. Eighty-six percent of the students reported that smoking was discouraged among their peers and 45% responded that they preferred associating with peers who did not smoke cigarettes. Seventy-one percent of the students responded that they did not smoke before the age of 18 and 55% reported that, while they were growing up, neither of their parents smoked. Preliminary findings of this study indicate that smoking is not widely practiced and has not become a socially acceptable or encouraged norm among college students attending an HBCU.
Getting to Arab Democracy: The Promise of Pacts
Authors: Cook Steven A.
Published: April 2006

Abstract: Power-sharing pacts and democracy with guarantees are far from perfect. Still, both Western policy makers and Arab reformers should take a long-term view of democratic change in the Arab world. Not only do pacts hold out the promise of drawing Arab leaders into political reform, but by lengthening the transition process, they can also help lay the foundations for the successful consolidation of democratic institutions. While power-sharing arrangements may be deeply unsatisfying for some Arab reformers, such political deals can significantly increase the likelihood both that liberal opposition activists will survive and that democracy will take root in the Middle East.
Stronger Legislatures, Stronger Democracies
Authors: Fish M. Steven (Michael Steven)
Published: April 2006

In order to assess the real impact of different governmental arrangements on democratization, we must penetrate beyond general categories for classifying constitutional systems and measure the power of specific institutions. This essay presents a new instrument for measuring the powers of national legislatures across different constitutional frameworks that examines the postcommunist countries' Freedom House scores and ratings on a Parliamentary Powers Index at the constitutional moment and beyond. The evidence shows that the strength of the national legislature may be an institutional key to democratization.
Postcommunist Central Banks: A Democratic Deficit?
Authors: Johnson Juliet Ellen
Published: April 2006

Both proponents and detractors of central bank independence (CBI) view granting central bank independence as a domestic decision made for domestic economic reasons after domestic political consideration. However, postcommunist independent central banks began their lives burdened with a dual democratic deficit. Not only were they predominantly developed by and for international actors, but this rapid process occurred without building significant domestic support for these institutions. This paper explores the problematic implications of this democratic deficit and discusses how central banks might be better incorporated into democratic polities without compromising their countries' economic health.
Getting to Arab Democracy: Dealing With Communalism
Authors: Rubin Barry
Published: April 2006

Abstract: The ethnic-communal factor has frequently been neglected in analyses of the prospects for democracy in the Middle East. Virtually every state in the region has major minority groups which have interests not identical with those of the governing group. Groups that believe their communities can win elections are going to be more favorable toward democracy than those certain they would lose. Any successful democracy has to work out a system of balancing these ethno-religious forces. But the complex structure of communities can also contribute to democracy if it offers a pluralist approach in which groups must make deals and compromises to meet their needs.
Knowledge-Sharing Activities in India
Authors: Laxman Rao N
Published: April 2006

Libraries in India are striving to provide necessary and relevant information to their users. Limited resources have been one main barrier to satisfying the growing informational needs of the users. Now, the Indian libraries are planning various methods of resource sharing to help meet information demands. Attitudes of library and institutional managements have undergone a change, to become more open to the benefits of resource sharing. A number of formal arrangements are being made for resource sharing among the libraries. A number of resource-sharing activities are discussed in this article, broadly arranged under four headings: National Information System in Science and Technology (NISSAT) National Information Centres (NIC); library consortia; document delivery services; and interlibrary cooperation.
Del ser (o no ser) hispano: Unamuno frente a la negritud
Authors: Dominguez Burdalo Jose
Published: April 2006

Taking as its point of departure the Spanish expression "negra ingratitud de los cubanos," this article analyzes Unamuno's intellectual leadership with a focus on his attitude toward Blacks, which drastically changed throughout his career. If until 1932 Unamuno omitted Blacks from his concept of "Hispanoamericanidad," employing a verbal arsenal partaking of the usual colonialist diatribes, soon thereafter, in large measure owing to his encounter with Nicol�s Guill�n, the Spanish philosopher would reverse his position. Living proof of how destiny can be surprisingly ironic, Unamuno became a crucial agent in the redefinition of the literary canon regarding the frequently dismissed "son cubano."
"De tal palo tal astilla": 76 89 03 y "los hijos del Proceso"
Authors: Copertari Gabriela
Published: April 2006

This essay examines the Argentine film 76 89 03, whose release in 2000 stirred up a violent controversy in Argentina. Focusing on the film's representation of school, family, and advertising discourses produced during the dictatorship, and exploring the film's relationship to the comedias picarescas (a film genre approved by the military), I analyze the rereading that 76 89 03 offers of the way in which the last military dictatorship may have paved the way for the neo-liberal transformation of Argentina in the 1990s.
La coleccion de silvas de Quevedo. Propuesta de inventario
Authors: Rey Alfonso
Published: April 2006

Quevedo was the only Spanish writer who composed a sequence of silvae in imitation of Statius. This sequence was published in Las tres musas �ltimas (1670), fifteen years after the author's death. Although this posthumous edition has some inconsistencies and wrong attributions, it offers the most reliable source for a critical edition. However, modern editors of Quevedo's poetry have modified its arrangement by removing some of the poems and transferring them to other sections, thus imposing a thematic criterion upon a formerly classical unit. The aim of the present article is to reconstruct the original corpus of Quevedo's silvas.
"A imitacion del hilo del laberinto de Perseo": El nexo narrativo de las ficciones laberinticas en Sierra Morena
Authors: Rivero Horacio Chiong
Published: April 2006

In the labyrinth that emerges from the wilderness of Sierra Morena, Cervantes creates an iconoclastic artifice that highlights the theoretical and aesthetic concepts of both the imitation and invention of literature. In the labyrinthine Sierra Morena, Don Quixote attempts to imitate Amadís and Orlando, yet through his hybrid mimesis, he becomes an inventor of narrative labyrinths. The prolific allusions to labyrinths are not only emblematic of the narrative threads that are intricately interlaced throughout Sierra Morena and Don Quixote, but they also evince Cervantes' invention of the first modern novel, which may be termed a metalabyrinth of fictions.
Self-Deception and Peck's Analysis of Evil
Authors: Kubarych Thomas S
Published: April 2006

M. Scott Peck's proposed "evil" subtype of narcissistic personality disorder is distinguished from psychopathy by the use of self-deception to keep the emotional consequences of his or her crimes out of conscious awareness. A true psychopath, who does not have a conscience and does not accept morality, has no need of self-deception. Group evil, in Peck's analysis, is related to, and has much in common with, individual evil, including self-deception. There are many models of self-deception, but Davidson's model seems directly relevant to the psychology of evil as described by Peck. This is illustrated with examples from personal experience, Gitta Sereny's biography of Albert Speer and Alexander Solzhenitsyn's account of the Soviet Gulag.
Politics and the Single Woman: The "Sex and the City Voter" in Campaign 2004
Authors: Anderson Karrin Vasby , Stewart Jessie
Published: April 2006

The "Sex and the City Voter" construct as it was deployed in political journalism and popular culture during the 2004 campaign is problematic. Although it seemingly promoted young women's political agency, the potency of the image came from its characterization of young women voters as a homogenous group of white, middle- to upper-class professionals, as consumers rather than citizens, and as sexually appealing and available. The construct's assimilation into popular culture and political journalism mirrored earlier attempts by the media to characterize feminism in the late 1990s, where emphasis was placed on young women as so-called "third wave" feminists. The 2004 campaign offers an important case study of third-wave feminist logic as it was appropriated and infused in campaign discourse and political journalism.
One Nation (Pretty Darn) Divisible: National Identity in the 2004 Conventions
Authors: Stuckey Mary E
Published: April 2006

This essay reads the oratory and policy platforms presented at the 2004 presidential nominating conventions as markers of U.S. national identity. The analysis reveals that Democrats present a complicated, nuanced vision of U.S. national identity, a vision premised upon the toleration and celebration of difference and a value of equality. Republicans, conversely, articulated a more straightforward sense of national identity that was convinced of American superiority, suspicious of government involvement in economic matters, and ultimately guided by a responsibility to protect long-standing values. The essay concludes with a call to reexamine even the most banal and mundane campaign discourse for its capacity to express national values and a sense of U.S. national identity.
A Left Sacred or a Sacred Left? The College de Sociologie, Fascism, and Political Culture in Interwar France
Authors: Falasca-Zamponi Simonetta
Published: April 2006

This paper examines the Collège de Sociologie's project to construct a new sacred sociology against the background of a rising fascism and the perceived crisis of democracy in 1930s Europe. The paper discusses the Collège's problematic reevaluation, on the wave of Durkehim, of affective forces and irrational energies as manifestations of the sacred and as the fundamental elements driving people's participation in communal life. The paper concludes that the Collège's idea of the sacred as ambiguously moving between the opposed poles of attraction and repulsion exposed the perilously fascinating side of fascism. The Collège's focus on the ambiguity of the sacred dramatizes the need for new conceptual tools to reevaluate fascism's logic and scope. It also indicates the importance of rethinking the political in order to challenge the seduction of a sacred right.
Nazi Foundations in Heidegger's Work
Authors: Faye Emmanuel , Watson Alexis , Golsan Richard Joseph
Published: April 2006

This article presents the central theses of the author's book, Heidegger: l'introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie. The author does not explore simply the history of Heidegger's involvement with National Socialism, which is well known, but rather examines the connections between National Socialism and the foundations of Heidegger's philosophy as the latter is presented in the sixty eight volumes which have appeared to date of the Gesamtausgabe as well as unpublished texts of two of Heidegger's seminars given between 1933 and 1935. The author argues that Heidegger's Nazism is evident not simply in speeches he gave in favor of Nazism but in the entirety of the courses he taught. In the courses from 1933 and 1934, for example, Heidegger discusses the political significance of his masterpiece, Being and Time, and linked it directly to Nazi racist thinking.

The author also shows that the linkage between Nazism and Heidegger's thought did not end in the 1930s and that in the early 1940s Heidegger offered an ontological legitimization of racial selection. After the defeat of Nazism, Heidegger continued to stress at least implicitly the linkage of his conception of death with heroic sacrifice. The upshot of this, ultimately was to call into question in philosophical terms the "deaths" of Jewish victims in the death camps. Heidegger thus contributed to what the author calls an "ontological denial of the Holocaust."
The Beauty and Terror of Lebensphilosophie : Ludwig Klages, Walter Benjamin, and Alfred Baeumler
Authors: Lebovic Nitzan
Published: April 2006

During the past two decades interest in Walter Benjamin and fascist aesthetics has extended well beyond the limits of any social and political focus. Strangely, a little investigation shows that this vogue has been fueled by the historical roots of Benjamin's theory as much as by the discourse he employed-- downplayed by current historians-- a mixture of aesthetic critical theory, ideas about temporality drawn from the philosophy of life [Lebensphilosophie], and an alternative philosophy of history.

Directly relevant to these connections is a document - unnoticed until now - that registers the interest a high ranking Nazi took in Walter Benjamin, or more concretely, an interest a Nazi Lebensphilosopher took in Benjamin's own fascination with Lebensphilosophie, the tool the latter believed might help him develop a total critique. The focus of this discussion, where radical politics met a radical critique, belongs to a third party, a relatively hidden site in the history of modern thought: the Lebensphilosophie of Ludwig Klages, the conservative and anti-Semitic popular philosopher, and his dedication to the work of another founder of this neo-Romantic discourse, Johann Jacob Bachofen.

Tracing the lineage of Lebensphilosophie in relation to the Bachofen- debate of the mid 1920s leads us to dark corners and antecedents of today's biopolitics, teaching us a great deal about where and when Benjamin's notion of life was used as a total critique, and where it collided with the totalitarian struggle for life. Moreover, it teaches us that in so many ways, current political philosophy is still led by the consequences of this collision and its horizon of expectations, "the wagon of catastrophes" as Benjamin calls it in an article dedicated to toys as psycho-cultural archetypes.
The Political and Cultural Roots of Negationism in France
Authors: Rousso Henry
Published: April 2006

This article examines the history of the Holocaust Denial, or "negationism" in France. The author, who headed a French government commission to research and report on the phenomenon at the University of Lyon-III, where there have been numerous examples of the phenomenon involving students, faculty, and administration, describes the phenomenon at Lyon and the circumstances and individuals involved. He also traces the history of "negationism" from the early postwar period, where it was linked, at least initially to French fascism and collaboration with the Nazis, through its links to the extreme Left and currently, Islamic extemism. The author discusses the major figures associated with negationism including Maurice Bard�che, Paul Rassinier, Robert Faurisson, and Roger Garaudy.
Immunohistochemical Study of Cell Proliferation, Bcl-2, p53, and Caspase-3 Expression on Preneoplastic Changes Induced by Cadmium and Zinc Chloride in the Ventral Rat Prostate
Authors: Arriazu Riánsares , Pozuelo José M. , Henriques-Gil Nuno , Perucho Teresa , Martín Rocío , Rodríguez Rosario , Santamaría Luis
Published: April 2006

This work was directed to evaluate immunoexpression of markers for apoptosis, resistance to apoptosis, and cell proliferation, as well as estimates of nuclear size in ventral prostate of rats treated with cadmium chloride and cadmium + zinc chloride because a possible protective effect of zinc has been postulated. The following variables were studied: volume fraction (VF) of Bcl-2 immunostaining, percentage of cells immunoreactive to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (LIPCNA) and p53 (LIp53), numerical density of caspase-3 immunoreactive cells (NVcaspase-3), and estimates of volume-weighted mean nuclear volume (υV). The LIPCNAand VFof Bcl-2 were significantly increased in the treated animals. The dysplasias (independent of their origin) showed a significant increase of the LIp53, NVcaspase-3, and υVin comparison with normal acini from treated and control animals. It can be concluded that cell proliferation is enhanced in long-term cadmium-exposed rats, and exposure to zinc combined with cadmium had no effect on any of the variables studied when comparing with normal acini. The increase of nuclear υVcould indicate a more aggressive behavior for pretumoral lesions.
Analysis of Methylmalonic Acid in Plasma by Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Schmedes Anne , Brandslund Ivan
Published: April 2006

Background: Methylmalonic acid (MMA) is a biochemical marker for cobalamin deficiency, particularly in cases where the cobalamin concentration is moderately decreased or in the low-normal range. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with electrospray ionization is a rapid, robust method that has been used in MMA analysis. We developed a simple method combining solid-phase extraction (SPE) and derivatization to prepare serum or plasma for LC-MS/MS analysis of MMA.

Methods: Deuterated internal standard d3-MMA was added to serum or plasma before SPE on strong anion-exchange (SAX) columns. After elution with HCl–butanol (10:90 by volume) and addition of 1 g/L formic acid, the samples were simultaneously derivatized and evaporated by heating to 70 °C for 15 min followed by 54 °C overnight in uncapped vials. Acetonitrile and 1 g/L formic acid were added to the samples before injection into the LC-MS/MS system. MMA and d3-MMA were quantified in the multiple-reaction monitoring mode. Calibrators were prepared in serum by the standard addition method.

Results: The MMA assay was linear up to 200 μmol/L. Interassay CVs were 6.7%, 5.0%, and 5.0% for mean concentrations of 0.15, 0.36, and 0.65 μmol/L, respectively.

Conclusions: Our simplified sample preparation and derivatization method is suitable for use in MMA analyses. MMA elutes with the derivatization reagent, and derivatization and evaporation are performed simply by leaving the uncapped vials in a heating block overnight. The method shows good linearity and precision.
Clinical Utility of an Automated Immunochemiluminometric Thyroglobulin Assay in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
Authors: Persoon Adrienne CM , Van Den Ouweland Johannes MW , Wilde Juergen , Kema Ido P , Wolffenbuttel Bruce HR , Links Thera P
Published: April 2006

Background: Thyroglobulin (Tg) measurements are important in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). We evaluated the analytical and clinical performance of a new automated immunochemiluminometric assay for Tg (Tg-ICMA; Nichols Advantage Tg; Nichols Institute Diagnostics).

Methods: We used the Tg-ICMA to measure Tg concentrations in serum samples from 110 Tg antibody–negative DTC patients undergoing thyroid-hormone suppression therapy. Disease state at the time of measurement was assessed on the basis of routine follow-up data. We compared the clinical performance of this assay with the routinely used IRMA (ELSA-hTG; CIS Bio International).

Results: The detection limit and functional sensitivity of the Tg-ICMA, based on direct calibration to CRM-457, were 0.05 and 0.6 μg/L, respectively. No Tg-IRMA-positive cases were missed by the Tg-ICMA. Tg was measurable by Tg-ICMA (0.6–8.6 μg/L) but undetectable by Tg-IRMA (<1.5 μg/L) in 12 patients (11%). Clinical data showed evidence of disease in 4 of 12 patients (33%).

Conclusions: The Tg-ICMA is a sensitive and reproducible assay for identifying patients in follow-up for DTC with evidence of disease, but uncertainty remains with regard to interpreting findings of measurable serum Tg in patients with no evidence of disease. Follow-up data are required to determine the predictive value of these isolated Tg results. New concepts, i.e., serial Tg measurements and risk stratification of patients, need to be tested to confirm the applicability of this assay for clinical practice.
Ectopic pregnancy in animals and humans
Authors: Corpa Juan Manuel
Published: April 2006

Ectopic pregnancy denotes a pregnancy occurring elsewhere than in the cavity of the uterus. This pathology has been recognised for years and it causes numerous maternal deaths during the first trimester of pregnancy. While this condition is well-known in humans, it is rarely diagnosed in animals. However, the causes and mechanisms leading to an ectopic implantation of the ovum are not always clearly defined in humans or animals. Two types of ectopic pregnancy are mainly recognized: (1) tubal pregnancy occurs when an oocyte is fertilized and then remains in the oviduct and (2) abdominal pregnancy occurs when the gestation develops in the peritoneal cavity. The latter may be subdivided into two subtypes: the primary form, when a fertilized oocyte enters the peritoneal cavity and becomes attached to the mesentery or abdominal viscera, and the secondary form, which follows the rupture of an oviduct or the uterus after the fetus has been implanted, and the fetus is expelled into the peritoneal cavity. Cornual, ovarian and cervical ectopic locations are less frequent. Several differences exist in ectopic pregnancies between human beings and animal species. While abdominal pregnancy has been described in both human and animal species, tubal ectopic pregnancies would appear to be restricted to primates. Other than anecdotal cases, this pathological condition does not occur in laboratory, domestic or farm animals. Several factors are described as being the cause of these differences.
Reduction of body-weight gain enhances in vitro embryo production in overfed superovulated dairy heifers
Authors: Freret S , Grimard B , Ponter A A , Joly C , Ponsart C , Humblot P
Published: April 2006

The aim of our study was to test whether a reduction in dietary intake could improve in vitro embryo production in superovulated overfed dairy heifers. Cumulus–oocyte complexes of 16 Prim’ Holstein heifers (14 ± 1 months old) were collected by ovum pick-up (OPU), every 2 weeks following superovulation treatment with 250 μg FSH, before being matured and fertilized in vitro. Embryos were cultured in Synthetic Oviduct Fluid medium for 7 days. Heifers were fed with hay, soybean meal, barley, minerals and vitamins. From OPU 1 to 4 (period 1), all heifers received individually for 8 weeks a diet formulated for a 1000 g/day live-weight gain. From OPU 5 to 8 (period 2), the heifers were allocated to one of two diets (1000 or 600 g/day) for 8 weeks. Heifers’ growth rates were monitored and plasma concentrations of metabolites, metabolic and reproductive hormones were measured each week. Mean live-weight gain observed during period 1 was 950 ± 80 g/day (n = 16). In period 2 it was 730 ± 70 (n = 8) and 1300 ± 70 g/day (n = 8) for restricted and overfed groups respectively. When comparing period 1 and period 2 within groups, significant differences were found. In the restricted group, a higher blastocyst rate, greater proportions of grade 1–3 and grade 1 embryos, associated with higher estradiol at OPU and lower glucose and β-hydroxybutyrate, were observed in period 2 compared with period 1. Moreover, after 6 weeks of dietary restriction (OPU 7), numbers of day 7 total embryos, blastocysts and grade 1–3 embryos had significantly increased. On the contrary, in the overfed group, we observed more <8 mm follicles 2 days before superovulation treatment, higher insulin and IGF-I and lower nonesterified fatty acids in period 2 compared with period 1 (no significant difference between periods for embryo production). After 6 weeks of 1300 g/day live-weight gain (OPU 7), embryo production began to decrease. Whatever the group, oocyte collection did not differ between period 1 and 2. These data suggest that following a period of overfeeding, a short-term dietary intake restriction (6 weeks in our study) may improve blastocyst production and embryo quality when they are low. However, nutritional recommendations aiming to optimize both follicular growth and embryonic development may be different.
Centrosome changes during meiosis in horse oocytes and first embryonic cell cycle organization following parthenogenesis, fertilization and nuclear transfer
Authors: Li Xihe , Qin Y , Wilsher Sandra , Allen W R
Published: April 2006

Various types of cell cycle organization occur in mammals. In this study, centrosome changes during meiosis in horse oocytes, and first cell cycle organization following fertilization, parthenogenesis and nuclear transfer, were monitored. Cumulus oocyte complexes harvested from horse ovaries obtained from slaughtered mares were cultured in vitro. Meiotic oocytes of germinal vesicle (GV), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), metaphase I and II (MI and MII) stages were selected at various set times during in vitro maturation. Embryos at the first cell cycle stage were generated by subjecting MII stage oocytes to fertilization by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), parthenogenetic treatment or nuclear transfer. Centrosome changes during meiosis and the first cell cycle organization were detected by indirect immunofluorescent staining, using a mouse anti-α-tubulin antibody for microtubules and a rabbit anti-γ-tubulin antibody for centrosomes. These examinations showed that the centrosomes of the horse oocyte reorganize themselves from the beginning of GV stage to leave only PCM of γ-tubulin surrounding both poles of the MI and MII stage spindles. These MII oocytes can organize the separation of metaphase chromosomes during the first embryonic cell cycle by parthenogenetic treatment. When the MII oocytes were subjected to ICSI or nuclear transfer, one or two red-stained centrosomes of γ-tubulin were introduced by the fertilising spermatozoon or the donor cell which associated with the sperm chromatin in the fertilized embryos and with the donor cell chromatin and microtubules in the cloned embryos. This finding suggests that centrosomes are not an essential component in the formation of the metaphase spindle during meiotic maturation of horse oocytes, but they can be introduced from the spermatozoon or donor cell and are necessary for the organization of normal embryonic development.
Estradiol and its membrane-impermeable conjugate estradiol–BSA inhibit tamoxifen-stimulated prolactin secretion in incubated rat pituitaries
Authors: Aguilar R , Bellido C , Garrido-Gracia J C , Alonso R , Sánchez-Criado J E
Published: April 2006

In the absence of estrogen (E), the selective E receptor modulator tamoxifen (TX) has two agonist effects in the rat pituitary: induction of progesterone receptor (PR)-dependent GnRH self-priming in the gonadotrope, and stimulation of prolactin (PRL) secretion in the lactotrope. TX-induced gonadotropin (GnRH) self-priming is absent when 10−8 M estradiol-17β (E2) is added to the incubation medium of pituitaries from TX-treated rats. The present experiments investigated whether PR-independent PRL release into the incubation medium of pituitaries from TX-treated ovariectomized (OVX) rats was affected by E2, and the effect of different ER ligands (ICI182780, TX, estradiol-17α, E2 –BSA) on TX-stimulated PRL secretion. Moreover, the effect of E2 on TRH-stimulated PRL secretion in pituitaries collected from estradiol benzoate- and TX-treated OVX rats was studied. It was found that: i) incubation with E2 supressed the PRL releasing effect of injected TX; ii) whereas coincubation with the pure anti-E type II ICI182780 antagonized the inhibitory effect of E2, coincubation with the anti-E type I TX did not; iii) estradiol-17α lacked inhibitory action, whereas a dose-dependent inhibitory effect of both E2 and E2 –BSA was noticed; and iv) TRH stimulatory effect on PRL release in pituitaries from TX-treated rats was blocked by addition of E2 to the medium. Taken together, these data argue in favor of the presence of specific membrane recognition sites for E in the lactotrope involved in steroid-specific E2 inhibition of TX-stimulated PRL secretion.
Kit ligand and c-Kit are expressed during early human ovarian follicular development and their interaction is required for the survival of follicles in long-term culture
Authors: Carlsson Inger B , Laitinen Mika P E , Scott Jennifer E , Louhio Henna , Velentzis Louiza , Tuuri Timo , Aaltonen Johanna , Ritvos Olli , Winston Robert M L , Hovatta Outi
Published: April 2006

The receptor tyrosine c-Kit and its cognate ligand, c-Kit ligand (KL, stem cell factor, SCF), are involved in ovarian follicular development in several animal species. We studied the expression of KL and c-Kit using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in donated human ovarian cortical tissue. The KL transcripts were expressed in granulosa cells of primary follicles, whereas the expression of c-Kit was confined to the oocyte and granulosa cells in primary and secondary follicles. We employed an ovarian organ culture using firstly serum-containing and then serum-free medium to study the effects of KL and an anti-c-Kit antibody, ACK2, on the development and survival of ovarian follicles in vitro. Culture of ovarian cortical slices for 7 days resulted in a 37% increase in the number of primary follicles and a 6% increase in secondary follicles. The proportion of viable follicles decreased in all cultures. The addition of KL (1, 10 and 100 ng/ml) into the culture media did not affect the developmental stages of the follicles or the proportion of atretic follicles. Inclusion of ACK2 (800 ng/ml) in the culture medium significantly increased the proportion of atretic follicles on days 7 (49 vs 28% in control cultures) and 14 (62 vs 38%) of culture. In conclusion, c-Kit and KL are expressed in human ovaries during follicular development. Blocking the c-Kit receptor induces follicular atresia. The KL/c-Kit signaling system is likely to control the survival of human ovarian follicles during early follicular development.