bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
MVP expression in the prediction of clinical outcome of locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with radiotherapy
Authors: Henríquez-Hernández Luis Alberto , Moreno Mercedes , Rey Agustín , Lloret Marta , Lara Pedro C
Published: August 2012

Objective

To explore the role of Major Vault Protein (MVP) in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Subjects and Methods

131 consecutive patients suffering from oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma were included in the study. In the whole series, the mean follow-up for survivors was 123.11 ± 40.36 months. Patients in tumour stages I and II were referred to surgery; patients in stage III-IV to postoperative radiotherapy (mean dose = 62.13 ± 7.74 Gy in 1.8–2 Gy/fraction). MVP expression was studied by immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded tumour tissue.

Results

MVP expression was positive in 112 patients (85.5%) and no relation was found with clinic pathological variables. MVP overexpression (those tumours with moderate or strong expression of the protein) was related to insulin-like growth factor receptor-1 (IGF-1R) expression (P = 0.014). Tumour stage of the disease was the most important prognostic factor related to survival. Tumours overexpressing MVP and IGF-1R were strongly related to poor disease-free survival (P = 0.008, Exp(B) = 2.730, CI95% (1.302-5.724)) and cause-specific survival (P = 0.014, Exp(B) = 2.570, CI95% (1.215-5.437)) in patients achieving tumour stages III-IV, in multivariate analysis.

Conclusions

MVP and IGF-1R expression were related in oral squamous cell carcinoma and conferred reduced long-term survival in patients suffering from advanced stages of the disease.
Deacetylation of H4-K16Ac and heterochromatin assembly in senescence
Authors: Contrepois Kévin , Thuret Jean-Yves , Courbeyrette Régis , Fenaille François , Mann Carl
Published: August 2012

Background

Cellular senescence is a stress response of mammalian cells leading to a durable arrest of cell proliferation that has been implicated in tumor suppression, wound healing, and aging. The proliferative arrest is mediated by transcriptional repression of genes essential for cell division by the retinoblastoma protein family. This repression is accompanied by varying degrees of heterochromatin assembly, but little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms involved.

Results

We found that both deacetylation of H4-K16Ac and expression of HMGA1/2 can contribute to DNA compaction during senescence. SIRT2, an NAD-dependent class III histone deacetylase, contributes to H4-K16Ac deacetylation and DNA compaction in human fibroblast cell lines that assemble striking senescence-associated heterochromatin foci (SAHFs). Decreased H4-K16Ac was observed in both replicative and oncogene-induced senescence of these cells. In contrast, this mechanism was inoperative in a fibroblast cell line that did not assemble extensive heterochromatin during senescence. Treatment of senescent cells with trichostatin A, a class I/II histone deacetylase inhibitor, also induced rapid and reversible decondensation of SAHFs. Inhibition of DNA compaction did not significantly affect the stability of the senescent state.

Conclusions

Variable DNA compaction observed during senescence is explained in part by cell-type specific regulation of H4 deacetylation and HMGA1/2 expression. Deacetylation of H4-K16Ac during senescence may explain reported decreases in this mark during mammalian aging and in cancer cells.
Prevalence of asthma in Portugal ‐ The Portuguese National Asthma Survey
Authors: Sa‐Sousa Ana , Morais‐Almeida Mário , Azevedo Luis Filipe , Carvalho Rosa , Jacinto Tiago , Todo‐Bom Ana , Loureiro Carlos , Bugalho‐Almeida António , Bousquet Jean , Fonseca João Almeida
Published: August 2012

Background

Asthma is a frequent chronic respiratory disease in both children and adults. However, few data on asthma prevalence are available in Portugal. The Portuguese National Asthma Survey is the first nationwide study that uses standardized methods. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of current asthma in the Portuguese population and to assess the association between ‘Current asthma’ and comorbidities such as upper airways disease.

Methods

A cross‐sectional, population‐based, telephone interview survey including all municipalities of Portugal was undertaken. Participants were randomly selected to answer a questionnaire based on the Portuguese version of the GA2LEN survey. ‘Current asthma’ was defined as self‐reported lifetime asthma and at least one of 3 symptoms in the last 12 months: wheezing, waking with breathlessness or having an asthma attack.

Results

Data were obtained for 6 003 respondents, with mean age of 38.9 (95%CI 38.2‐39.6) years and 57.3% females. In the Portuguese population, the prevalence of ‘Current asthma’ was 6.8% (95%CI 6.0‐7.7) and of ‘Lifetime asthma’ was 10.5% (95%CI 9.5‐11.6) Using GA2LEN definition for asthma, our prevalence estimate was 7.8% (95%CI 7.0‐8.8). Rhinitis had a strong association with asthma (Adjusted OR 3.87, 95%CI 2.90‐5.18) and the association between upper airway diseases and asthma was stronger in patients with both rhinitis and sinusitis (Adjusted OR 13.93, 95%CI 6.60‐29.44).

Conclusions

Current asthma affects 695 000 Portuguese, with a prevalence of 6.8%. People who reported both rhinitis and sinusitis had the highest risk of having asthma.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension: an imaging review comparing MR pulmonary angiography and perfusion with multidetector CT angiography
Authors: Junqueira F P , Lima C M A O , Coutinho A C , Parente D B , Bittencourt L K , Bessa L G P , Domingues R C , Marchiori E
Published: August 2012

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive disease that leads to substantial morbidity and eventual death. Pulmonary multidetector CT angiography (MDCTA), pulmonary MR angiography (MRA) and MR-derived pulmonary perfusion (MRPP) imaging are non-invasive imaging techniques for the differential diagnosis of PH. MDCTA is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, one of the most common causes of PH. MRA and MRPP are promising techniques that do not require the use of ionising radiation or iodinated contrast material, and can be useful for patients for whom such material cannot be used. This review compares the imaging aspects of pulmonary MRA and 64-row MDCTA in patients with chronic thromboembolic or idiopathic PH.
Does circumpatellar electrocautery improve the outcome after total knee replacement?
Authors: Baliga S. , McNair C. J. , Barnett K. J. , MacLeod J. , Humphry R. W. , Finlayson D.
Published: August 2012

The incidence of anterior knee pain following total knee replacement (TKR) is reported to be as high as 49%. The source of the pain is poorly understood but the soft tissues around the patella have been implicated.

In theory circumferential electrocautery denervates the patella thereby reducing efferent pain signals. However, there is mixed evidence that this practice translates into improved outcomes.

We aimed to investigate the clinical effect of intra-operative circumpatellar electrocautery in patients undergoing TKR using the LCS mobile bearing or Kinemax fixed bearing TKR. A total of 200 patients were randomised to receive either circumpatellar electrocautery (diathermy) or not (control). Patients were assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) for anterior knee pain and Oxford knee score (OKS) pre-operatively and three months, six months and one year post-operatively. Patients and assessors were blinded.

There were 91 patients in the diathermy group and 94 in the control. The mean VAS improvement at one year was 3.9 in both groups (control; -10 to 6, diathermy; -9 to 8, p < 0.001 in both cases, paired, two-tailed t-test). There was no significant difference in VAS between the groups at any other time. The mean OKS improvement was 17.7 points (0 to 34) in the intervention group and 16.6 (0 to 42) points in the control (p = 0.36). There was no significant difference between the two groups in OKS at any other time.

We found no relevant effect of patellar electrocautery on either VAS anterior knee pain or OKS for patients undergoing LCS and Kinemax TKR.
The operative management of osteoporotic fractures of the knee
Authors: Bohm E. R. , Tufescu T. V. , Marsh J. P.
Published: August 2012

This review considers the surgical treatment of displaced fractures involving the knee in elderly, osteoporotic patients. The goals of treatment include pain control, early mobilisation, avoidance of complications and minimising the need for further surgery. Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) frequently results in loss of reduction, which can result in post-traumatic arthritis and the occasional conversion to total knee replacement (TKR). TKR after failed internal fixation is challenging, with modest functional outcomes and high complication rates. TKR undertaken as treatment of the initial fracture has better results to late TKR, but does not match the outcome of primary TKR without complications. Given the relatively infrequent need for late TKR following failed fixation, ORIF is the preferred management for most cases. Early TKR can be considered for those patients with pre-existing arthritis, bicondylar femoral fractures, those who would be unable to comply with weight-bearing restrictions, or where a single definitive procedure is required.
A comparison of radiological and computer navigation measurements of lower limb coronal alignment before and after total knee replacement
Authors: Willcox N. M. J. , Clarke J. V. , Smith B. R. K. , Deakin A. H. , Deep K.
Published: August 2012

We compared lower limb coronal alignment measurements obtained pre- and post-operatively with long-leg radiographs and computer navigation in patients undergoing primary total knee replacement (TKR). A series of 185 patients had their pre- and post-implant radiological and computer-navigation system measurements of coronal alignment compared using the Bland-Altman method. The study included 81 men and 104 women with a mean age of 68.5 years (32 to 87) and a mean body mass index of 31.7 kg/m2(19 to 49). Pre-implant Bland–Altman limits of agreement were -9.4° to 8.6° with a repeatability coefficient of 9.0°. The Bland–Altman plot showed a tendency for the radiological measurement to indicate a higher level of pre-operative deformity than the corresponding navigation measurement. Post-implant limits of agreement were -5.0° to 5.4° with a repeatability coefficient of 5.2°. The tendency for valgus knees to have greater deformity on the radiograph was still seen, but was weaker for varus knees.

The alignment seen or measured intra-operatively during TKR is not necessarily the same as the deformity seen on a standing long-leg radiograph either pre- or post-operatively. Further investigation into the effect of weight-bearing and surgical exposure of the joint on the mechanical femorotibial angle is required to enable the most appropriate intra-operative alignment to be selected.
The use of a virtual learning environment in promoting virtual journal clubs and case-based discussions in trauma and orthopaedic postgraduate medical education
Authors: Palan J. , Roberts V. , Bloch B. , Kulkarni A. , Bhowal B. , Dias J.
Published: August 2012

The use of journal clubs and, more recently, case-based discussions in order to stimulate debate among orthopaedic surgeons lies at the heart of orthopaedic training and education. A virtual learning environment can be used as a platform to host virtual journal clubs and case-based discussions. This has many advantages in the current climate of constrained time and diminishing trainee and consultant participation in such activities. The virtual environment model opens up participation and improves access to journal clubs and case-based discussions, provides reusable educational content, establishes an electronic record of participation for individuals, makes use of multimedia material (including clinical imaging and photographs) for discussion, and finally, allows participants to link case-based discussions with relevant papers in the journal club.

The Leicester experience highlights the many advantages and some of the potential difficulties in setting up such a virtual system and provides useful guidance for those considering such a system in their own training programme. As a result of the virtual learning environment, trainee participation has increased and there is a trend for increased consultant input in the virtual journal club and case-based discussions.

It is likely that the use of virtual environments will expand to encompass newer technological approaches to personal learning and professional development.
Biological reconstruction after excision, irradiation and reimplantation of diaphyseal tibial tumours using an ipsilateral vascularised fibular graft
Authors: Mottard S. , Grimer R. J. , Abudu A. , Carter S. R. , Tillman R. M. , Jeys L. , Spooner D.
Published: August 2012

The purpose of this study was to assess the outcome of 15 patients (mean age 13.6 years (7 to 25)) with a primary sarcoma of the tibial diaphysis who had undergone excision of the affected segment that was then irradiated (90 Gy) and reimplanted with an ipsilateral vascularised fibular graft within it.

The mean follow-up was 57 months (22 to 99). The mean time to full weight-bearing was 23 weeks (9 to 57) and to complete radiological union 42.1 weeks (33 to 55). Of the 15 patients, seven required a further operation, four to obtain skin cover. The mean Musculoskeletal Society Tumor Society functional score at final follow-up was 27 out of 30 once union was complete. The functional results were comparable with those of allograft reconstruction and had a similar rate of complication.

We believe this to be a satisfactory method of biological reconstruction of the tibial diaphysis in selected patients.
Imaging the vascularisation of the femoral head by CT angiography
Authors: Zlotorowicz M. , Czubak J. , Kozinski P. , Boguslawska-Walecka R.
Published: August 2012

The femoral head receives its blood supply primarily from the medial femoral circumflex artery, with its deep branch being the most important.

In a previous study, we performed classical anatomical dissections of 16 hips. We have extended our investigation with a radiological study, in which we aimed to visualise the arteries supplying the femoral head in healthy individuals. We analysed 55 CT angiographic images of the hip.

Using 64-row CT angiography, we identified three main arteries supplying the femoral head: the deep branch of the medial femoral circumflex artery and the posterior inferior nutrient artery originating from the medial femoral circumflex artery, and the piriformis branch of the inferior gluteal artery. CT angiography is a good method for visualisation of the arteries supplying the femoral head. The current radiological studies will provide information for further investigation of vascularity after traumatic dislocation of the hip, using CT angiography.
The results of total humeral replacement following excision for primary bone tumour
Authors: Puri A. , Gulia A.
Published: August 2012

Rarely, the extent of a malignant bone tumour may necessitate resection of the complete humerus to achieve adequate oncological clearance. We present our experience with reconstruction in such cases using a total humeral endoprosthesis (THER) in 20 patients (12 male and eight female) with a mean age of 22 years (6 to 59). We assessed the complications, the oncological and functional outcomes and implant survival. Surgery was performed between June 2001 and October 2009. The diagnosis included osteosarcoma in nine, Ewing’s sarcoma in eight and chondrosarcoma in three. One patient was lost to follow-up. The mean follow-up was 41 months (10 to 120) for all patients and 56 months (25 to 120) in survivors. There were five local recurrences (26.3%) and 11 patients were alive at time of last follow-up, with overall survival for all patients being 52% (95% confidence interval (CI) 23.8 to 74) at five years. The mean Musculoskeletal Tumor Society score for the survivors was 22 (73%; 16 to 23). The implant survival was 95% (95% CI 69.5 to 99.3) at five years.

The use of a THER in the treatment of malignant tumours of bone is oncologically safe; it gives consistent and predictable results with low rates of complication.
Exam Corner – September 2012
Authors: Khanduja V.
Published: August 2012

The FRCS (Tr & Orth) examination has three components: MCQs, Vivas and Clinical Examination. The Vivas are further divided into four sections comprising Basic Science, Adult Pathology, Hands and Children’s Orthopaedics and Trauma. The Clinical Examination section is divided into Upper and Lower limb cases. The aim of this section in the Journal is to focus specifically on the trainees preparing for the exam and to cater to all the sections of the exam. The vision is to complete the cycle of all relevant exam topics (as per the syllabus) in four years.
Computer-controlled fluid-flow chemical analysis (CC-FCA) and its application to environmental analytical chemistry
Authors: Motomizu Shoji
Published: August 2012

Computer-controlled fluid-flow chemical analysis (CC-FCA) was investigated for the determination of trace amounts of toxic pollutants in the environment. For CC-FCA, automated chemical analysis systems were developed by using computer-controllable pumping and valve modules, and polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) tubing and connectors. The systems demonstrated in this work were a flow injection-type system, a sequential injection-type system, a mini-column pretreatment system (Auto-Pret system), and an Auto-Pret hyphenated with flow injection analysis (FIA) system. Such systems were fully controlled by a computer program; the lab-made programs were written in Visual Basic. The systems can be hyphenated with some detectors, such as a spectrophotometric detector, an electrochemical detector, electrothermal-atomic absorption spectrometry (ET-AAS), a liquid electrode plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (LEP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-AES. Such systems were successfully applied to the determination of trace amounts of toxic pollutants in environmental water samples: they were heavy metal ions (Pb, Cd, Cr, etc.). In this paper, the author aims mainly at investigating the CC-FCA method for the determination of trace amounts of Cr(VI) in environmental water samples by spectrophotometry. The techniques used in this work were FIA, sequential injection analysis (SIA), and Auto-Pret/FIA, which were all computer-controllable. Limits of detection of Cr(VI) by FIA, SIA, and Auto-Pret/FIA were 8 × 10–9 mol/L (0.4 μg/L), 1.1 × 10–8 mol/L (0.6 μg/L), and 1.4 × 10–9 (0.07 μg/L), respectively. The methods were applied to the determination of Cr(VI) in river and drinking waters.
Education, Employment, and Independent Living of Young Adults Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Authors: Appelman Karen I. , Callahan Judy Ottren , Mayer Margaret H. , Luetke Barbara S. , Stryker Deborah S.
Published: August 2012

L ittle information is available on the education, employment, and independent living status of young deaf and hard of hearing adults who have transitioned from high school. The present article reports post-secondary outcomes of 46 young adults who had attended for at least 4 years a non–public agency school in the northwestern United States specializing in deaf education. School administrators had developed a specific philosophy and operationalized it in an academic and literacy-based curriculum incorporating a grammatically accurate signing system. The researchers found that most or all participants had finished high school, had earned a college degree, were employed, and were living independently. Findings are discussed in terms of the available literature and the study’s contribution to a limited body of recent research on young postsecondary deaf and hard of hearing adults.
Fathers’ Involvement in Preschool Programs for Children With and Without Hearing Loss
Authors: Ingber Sara , Most Tova
Published: August 2012

T he authors compared the involvement in children’s development and education of 38 fathers of preschoolers with hearing loss to the involvement of a matched group of 36 fathers of preschoolers with normal hearing, examining correlations between child, father, and family characteristics. Fathers completed self-reports regarding their parental involvement and parenting self-efficacy and reported on their family cohesion and adaptability. Mothers also reported on their husbands’ involvement. Similarly high levels of involvement on the part of both groups of fathers were found. Involvement correlated positively with fathers’ self-reported parenting self-efficacy, family cohesion, and adaptability, and mother-reported paternal involvement. Implications for professionals and mothers are discussed, including the need to encourage mothers’ support for their husbands’ involvement and to empower fathers’ sense of competency in order to increase their involvement.
A Comparison of Phonological Processing Skills of Children With Mild to Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Children With Dyslexia
Authors: Park Jungjun , Lombardino Linda J.
Published: August 2012

U sing the C omprehensive Test of Phonological Processes (Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1999), the researchers compared strengths and weaknesses in phonological processing skills in three groups: 21 children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MSNH group), 29 children with dyslexia, and 30 age-matched controls. The MSNH group showed phonological deficits that were restricted to phonological awareness tasks (elision/blending) and a phonological memory task (nonword repetition), yet exhibited unimpaired rapid naming ability. Children with dyslexia showed deficits in all 3 phonological constructs. Finally, both degree of hearing loss and age at which hearing loss was identified in the MSNH group were related to the children’s phonological processing skills. Because of their deteriorated phonological skills, children with MSNH may be at risk of starting school with weaknesses in early literacy skills. Implications for practice aimed at improving phonological and literacy skills of these children are described.
Reading to Deaf Children Who Sign: A Response to Williams (2012) and Suggestions for Future Research
Authors: Andrews Jean F.
Published: August 2012

A commentary on Williams’s (2012) invited article on the use of adapted vocabulary learning interventions focuses on three areas: (a) Vocabulary interventions with storybook reading originally designed for hearing children can be adapted for deaf children. (b) Teachers are invited to reflect on how the read-aloud process in English differs from the read-aloud process in sign. (b) Teachers are asked to consider adding drawing and writing activities to reading lessons to show young deaf readers how reading and writing are reciprocal processes. The emergent literacy theory is used, as it informs and drives instructional vocabulary teaching practices for deaf children in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. The emergent literacy theory broadly captures cognitive, social, perceptual, and linguistic understandings of how young signing deaf children acquire both English word recognition abilities and vocabulary knowledge, among other important prereading concepts.
Characteristics of a Virtual Community for Individuals Who Are d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Authors: Shoham Snunith , Heber Meital
Published: August 2012

T he content of 2,050 messages on a virtual forum for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people in Israel was analyzed. Interactions and behavior were monitored to determine if behavior on the forum expressed social support, and whether the community was an entirely virtual community or a real community whose members also met in other venues. Subjects discussed in messages included technical difficulties, coping with difficulties presented by hearing loss, adjusting to assistive devices, difficulties at school and work, accessibility issues, difficulties communicating with the hearing world, and rights. Messages were also used to initiate a range of social activities. Classification of behaviors per the Social Support Behavior Code (Cutrona & Suhr, 1992) showed that most were in the category of informational support . Other types of support in the model, tangible assistance, emotional support, social network support, and esteem support, were evident in fewer messages.
Decolonising James Cameron’s Pandora: Imperial history and science fiction
Authors: Alessio Dominic , Meredith Kristen
Published: August 2012

The science fiction film Avatar will be examined in light of the social-political context in which it was written, demonstrating the director’s highly charged critique of US foreign policy. Yet this paper also argues that the depiction of the alien native species remains problematic from a postcolonial perspective. “Decolonising Pandora” addresses too the ways that Avatar has been used for political ends by peoples throughout the world, while acting as a vehicle for a critical examination of traditional definitions of empire and imperial history overall.
“Bloody Coxcombs, But No Bodies”: The policy and practice of crowd control in post-war British Africa, 1948–1959
Authors: Brownell Josiah
Published: August 2012

This article examines British policymakers’ attempts to address the political and practical problems of crowd control in British Africa. After the Accra riots, reforming the policing of crowds became an imperial priority. These efforts pushed in several policy directions, yet none could solve the deeper political issues causing the unrest, nor stop state violence against civilians. During the 1950s, the distance between the liberal rhetoric in Britain about the rule of law and the brutal realities of colonial policing continued to grow. This gap was finally exposed during the Nyasaland Emergency, which had dramatic consequences for the future of British Africa.
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in Colonial Australia, 1805–1860
Authors: Harman Kristyn , Maxwell-Stewart Hamish
Published: August 2012

The majority of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia in the nineteenth century were European, yet a small number of colonial subjects were also incorporated into Britain’s Antipodean penal settlements. These included Aboriginal prisoners from the New South Wales frontier. By the 1850s a few Aboriginal convicts were incarcerated at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, where their comparatively high rate of death attracted administrative attention. This article situates these deaths in custody within the broader history of convict transportation. As well as an analysis of comparative death rates it uses a series of case studies to explore the factors that contributed to the higher death rate experienced by Aboriginal convicts in colonial Australia.
“They Do Not Know How to Deal with Native Unrest”: British intervention and unintended consequences in French North Africa, 1940–1946
Authors: Leonard Doug
Published: August 2012

As the Second World War raged, Allied forces moved across North Africa, expelling Axis armies and winning territory in Algeria and Tunisia. As Free French leaders struggled to regain control over their former colonial territories, British officials stepped into the breach, in the process providing an important opening for African and Arab national leaders to exploit in pushing for independence. Far from an isolated outbreak of violence, the Algerian revolution that emerged in the 1950s grew in large part from a complicated international environment that included transnational anti-colonial currents and old imperial rivalries.
The Use of the Past in the Crown of Aragon: The MS 1 of the Library of the Universitat de Barcelona
Authors: Vianna Luciano José
Published: August 2012

This article considers the relationship between power and the act of writing in the Crown of Aragon during the reign of Peter IV of Aragon (1336–1387). I focus my attention on the MS 1 of the Library of the Universitat de Barcelona, which relates the lifetime of James I of Aragon (1213–1276), looking for its historical meaning and taking as reference the context in which it was made (1343). Thus, my aim in this article is to find an answer (or possible answers) to the following question: “What is the meaning of the narrative of this manuscript when studied from the perspective of the context of composition in 1343?” In this sense I analyze the content of the MS 1 of the Library of the Universitat de Barcelona and relate it to the context of the beginning of the reign of Peter IV of Aragon (1343), the same year of the confiscation of the Crown of Majorca by Peter IV of Aragon.
Trecento Devotion and Visuality: A Reliquary Panel by Tommaso da Modena
Authors: Dillon Sarah
Published: August 2012

By contextualizing a reliquary panel by Tommaso da Modena within the interrelated artistic, scientific, and religious trends and practices of fourteenth-century Italy, a better understanding of the ways such a devotional aid was received comes to light. This article considers how the reliquary panel’s material, composition, and decorative techniques could have resonated with aspects of Trecento visuality and devotion (e.g., the production of eyeglasses, debates about the Beatific Vision, Ugo Panciera’s Treatise on Perfection , and the Franciscan theology of light). It pays particular attention to the panel’s incorporation of verre églomisé, a technique that experienced a significant revival during the Trecento and which was recommended by Cennino Cennini's for decorating reliquaries. Such an investigation demonstrates how Tommaso’s panel, and others like it, could have capitalized on the growing interest in the sense of sight and optics to affect spiritual insight.
The Validity of Russian Exceptionalism: Assessing Theories of Power and Lordship in the High Middle Ages
Authors: Ignatov Ivan
Published: August 2012

Russian historians have overwhelmingly adhered to one of two beliefs medieval Rus’ was either of a “feudal,” and hence European, character, or it was not feudal and thus unique. This schema is, however, fundamentally flawed because it does not consider the medieval world on its own terms. This article contemplates an alternative approach: the conception of power as lordship advanced by Thomas N. Bisson in The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (Princeton 2009). His notion that lordship was personal, affective, and not at all resembling of modern ideas of “government,” applies rather well to the rule exercised by Rurikid princes. Bisson’s more complex notion of a “crisis” that saw this lordship gradually become more accountable and government-like is more difficult to pin-point in Russia. Nevertheless, medieval Novgorod seems to have undergone a very Bisson-esque kind of crisis, ultimately suggesting that Bisson’s conception is a useful one to apply to medieval Russia.
Passive Virtue and Active Valor: Carpaccio’s Two Ladies on an Altana above a Hunt
Authors: Vitela Lisa Boutin
Published: August 2012

The work of painter Vittore Carpaccio throws new light on the gender ideals pervasive in Venetian society during the late fifteenth century. Recent conservation research has revealed that the artist’s most famous work, a rare domestic panel depicting two sumptuously attired women seated on a rooftop terrace or altana (Museo Correr, Venice) was, in fact, only the lower half of a painting whose upper portion depicted men hunting on the Venetian lagoon (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). Yet scholars have continued to address the separated panels as if they each constituted an artistic whole, rather than addressing the complexities of the recomposed panel’s iconography. In this article, the entire painting is analyzed as a construction of contemporary notions of gender difference. The image is read as an accurate depiction of aspects of Venetian life, while also serving as an allegory of courtship through the representation of female passivity and virtue in contrast to male aggression in the midst of the hunt.
Hwearflacra hrær : Line 34a of The Finnsburh Fragment
Authors: Landis Christina
Published: August 2012

“The Battle of Finnsburh,” related to the “Finn Episode” in Beowulf, exists only in a seventeenth-century transcription and contains forty-eight lines. The original manuscript, believed to have been found in the Lambeth Palace Library, is thought to have been lost during the reordering and rebinding of manuscripts in the late seventeenth century. It is known as the Finnsburh Fragment . There are numerous cruces found in the text, including line 34a, hwearflacra hrær . Although many previous considerations have assumed the transcriber, George Hickes, was in error, it is proposed that Hickes was correct in his transcription. Hwearflacra is dealt with as a plural genitive kenning, while hrær is viewed as a variation of hræw . The proposed reading of line 34a also considers the influence of Germanic and Norse mythology on the text. The suggested interpretation demonstrates that harsh emendations to Hickes’s transcription are not necessary to reach a comprehensible reading.
The Case of Anger in The Siege of Milan and The King of Tars
Authors: Elias Marcel
Published: August 2012

Anger was an ambivalent emotion in the Middle Ages, oscillating between acceptance and condemnation in theological discourse. Initially defined as detrimental during the Carolingian era unless it was internally directed against one’s own sins, anger came to be rehabilitated in a context of Crusade, where zealous leaders were required to defend ecclesiastical interests on the battlefield. However, certain very specific conventions regulated its verbalization, thus permitting authors to either magnify or denounce the protagonists they portrayed according to how they framed the emotion. This paper offers a reading of The Siege of Milan and The King of Tars , two Middle English crusading romances, in light of these codes. A close look at the way anger is represented throughout the texts enables us to acquire a subtle and enriched understanding of two prominent issues inherent to the texts’ ideologies: the promotion of Christian devotion to the religious and military standards intrinsic to the Crusades in The Siege of Milan , and the importance of Christian expansion and incorporation in The King of Tars.
Poetry, Theft, and Divine Creation in Inferno XXIV–XXV
Authors: Carney Guy
Published: August 2012

Portraying the punishment of the thieves by metamorphosis in Inferno XXIV–XXV allows Dante not merely to revel in poetic virtuosity, but to consider the nature of poetry though comparison with both theft and divine creation. This paper identifies how the poetic process is explored in the canto of the thieves and considers these various critiques in light of the broader evolution within Western aesthetics about creation and creativity.
Rhetoric of Hypocrisy: The Pardoner’s Reproduction in His Critics
Authors: Rabiee Robert Yusef
Published: August 2012

This article explores both recent scholarly receptions of Chaucer’s Pardoner and his reception amongst the Canterbury pilgrims. Contrary to readings which focus on the Pardoner’s “alterity” and outsider status in The Canterbury Tales , the Pardoner is read as occupying a central role in the pilgrims’ social arrangement. By reading the Pardoner in the context of both emerging Lollard debates surrounding institutional abuses in the Church and the orthodox notion of “hypocrisy,” it is shown that the Pardoner’s “con” succeeds precisely because of his institutional safe haven. Finally, the Pardoner’s confidence-game is shown to operate much like the elaborate confidence-game that is Chaucer’s own fiction, opening up discourses of pleasure that allow both author and reader to explore heterodox notions while remaining within an orthodox framework. However, the Pardoner’s hypocrisy also tends toward the erosion of the institutions which allow him to operate his confidence-game.
Certain Madness: Guy de Maupassant and Hypnotism
Authors: Sattar Atia
Published: August 2012

This essay explores the onset of the condition deemed madness in both versions of Guy de Maupassant’s horror story “The Horla” (1886/1887). Madness here characterizes the narrators’ belief in an invisible possessor named Horla, a being identifiable through empirical investigations yet resistant to scientific rationalization. More specifically, the twofold narrative blurs the institutional boundaries between science and the supernatural by introducing the creature Horla to an already unstable scientific history of nineteenth-century hypnotism. Through its depictions of conflict between personal affliction and scientific perception, “The Horla” explores the parameters of science’s unthinkable and unimaginable conceptions. Maupassant’s dual narrative portrays the fantastic experiences made possible by that which lies beyond science—experiences rationalizable only in terms of madness.
Cosmetic Surgery, Racial Identity, and Aesthetics
Authors: Munzer Stephen R.
Published: August 2012

Human motives are varied, often hidden, and sometimes highly complicated, and this point applies with special force to persons’ motives to modify their bodies. The motives to undergo cosmetic surgery in order to change one’s appearance have, or at least seem to have, racial dimensions that are both particularly complicated and peculiarly obscure. In the case of cosmetic Asian eyelid surgery, at least six theories shed light on the explanation, analysis, and appraisal of this class of body modifications. The theories are here called benign explanation, performance theory, aesthetic oppression, internalized racism, Foucauldian care of the self, and complicity with a racist society. These theories, as articulated here, illuminate bodily alterations that relate to racial identity, especially in regard to minority races. Several of these theories make room for the exercise of freedom in the face of pressures to succumb to a seeming aesthetic ineluctability created by a dominant race.
Humans without Bodies: DNA Portraiture and Biocybernetic Reproduction
Authors: Ayers Drew
Published: August 2012

In DNA portraits, a visualization of a DNA sample—an “inner” structure—comes to stand in for the individual represented in the portrait. This essay places DNA portraits within an intellectual approach to photography that regards the photographic process as a technique by which the invisible inside might be made material in the photographic image. DNA portraits do not share the same mode of production as photographic portraiture, and yet, despite significant technological and cultural shifts, the nineteenth-century image vernaculars survive within these twenty-first-century visual objects. DNA portraits point toward a larger cultural concern enabled by the genomic revolution: that of the ability of DNA to function as a material expression of some internal essence. DNA portraits also rely on computing and information-processing technologies, exposing the extent to which they draw on a framework of understanding that regards biological material in terms of bits of computing data.
“A Little Spark Perhaps May Lie Conceal’d”: Humane Societies and the Principles of Resuscitation to Save the Drowned
Authors: Hutter Liz
Published: August 2012

Using representative texts from the humane societies’ print oeuvre, this essay shows how the public and private enactment of resuscitation engages collective participation in a narrative of individual and civic restoration. The essay argues that changes in representations of the apparently dead body, from a “pallid body” in the societies’ case reports to its depiction as a sympathetic object of charity in their hymns and odes, and then to its public display in the societies’ anniversary celebrations as the apex of benevolent sensibility, masks social and cultural uncertainty about matters of life and death.
Stimulating Music: The Pleasures and Dangers of “Electric Music,” 1750–1900
Authors: Kennaway James
Published: August 2012

Far from being a purely modern idea, the notion of “electric music” was already common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The shift in thinking about music from cosmic harmony to nervous stimulation made metaphors and speculative theories relating music and electricity irresistible. This essay considers the development of the idea of electric music, looking at its associations with a sexual “body electric.” It will then examine how this conception of music went from being the subject of sympathy to becoming part of a medical critique of music as a dangerous stimulant, with echoes in music criticism and beyond.
A Critical Pedagogy of Place: Learning through the Body
Authors: Cravey Altha J. , Petit Michael
Published: August 2012

The article provides a pedagogical strategy that incorporates feminist geographic understandings of space, place, and time to advance feminist analytics of societal power. It describes an historically situated campus field trip at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that focuses on the long-term struggle for women to gain access to the university. In doing so, it provides a template for other feminist teachers interested in an experiential approach to student learning that helps students understand the operation of systems of social control. The article argues for a critical pedagogy of place that examines familiar places on a campus in which students' lives are already situated, and it demonstrates how this approach helps students build on the knowledge they already hold to discover connections among space, knowledge, and power for themselves. The analytic lens of place, space, and time, coupled to specific historical and contemporary sociocultural conflicts, allows students to articulate their everyday life experiences to broader historical and contemporary structures of power, while at the same time developing a deeper appreciation of how spatialized power dynamics govern human bodies.
Mary Magdalene and the Politics of Public Memory: Interrogating The Da Vinci Code
Authors: Kennedy Tammie M.
Published: August 2012

As a figure of appropriation, recovery, and reinterpretation, Mary Magdalene illuminates the need to examine how rhetorical practices inscribe and misrepresent historical women in public memory. Analyzing sites of public memory, such as mass media, helps feminist scholars account for not only women who have been forgotten, but also for the ways that women have been misremembered. Using Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Ron Howard's film adaptation of the novel as sites of public memory, the article demonstrates how historical women like Magdalene are constructed and sustained as "facts" that support ideological paradigms and subvert alternative interpretations, or what Michel Foucault describes as "counter-memory." Despite Brown's intention to remember Magdalene in a new way, his contribution to public memory re-inscribes a gendered view that truncates her agency as a woman and leader in early Christianity.
Covering National Concerns about Teenage Pregnancy: A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Images of Pregnant and Mothering Women
Authors: Vinson Jenna
Published: August 2012

Responding to recent frenzy over "teen moms" in the media, the article illustrates how visual representations of pregnant and mothering teenagers construct the United States' problem with teenage pregnancy. It argues that there is an historical precedent of using white female bodies in cover stories to portray teenage pregnancy as a universal problem that stems from women's seemingly irresponsible timing of pregnancy. It maintains that this obscures the United States' problematic history of condemning the reproductive decisions of poor women and women of color. To support these claims, the article draws on feminist critique of racialized teenage-pregnancy discourses to conduct a visual rhetorical analysis of photographs of women in U.S. magazine cover stories and news articles from the 1970s and '80s—when the phrase "teenage pregnancy" began circulating as a cause for national concern. It identifies visual and verbal rhetoric used to idealize adolescence and (re)construct concerns about the reproductive decisions of minoritized women. In the end, the article provides a model of a visual rhetorical analysis that fosters a critical gaze on representations of pregnant and mothering teens today.
Slave Hunters, Brothel Busters, and Feminist Interventions: Investigative Journalists as Anti-Sex-Trafficking Humanitarians
Authors: Galusca Roxana
Published: August 2012

The article elaborates a critique of current anti-trafficking humanitarianism as it takes form and shape in U.S. investigative journalism. In particular, it focuses on what is called here, following Foucault, the formation of a "popular regime of truth" about sex trafficking, tracing its cultural emergence in nineteenth-century muckraking journalism, its formation and circulation in the twenty-first century, and its current imbrications with U.S. governmental discourses and policies. This regime of truth in investigative journalism, it contends, congeals at the intersection of journalists' affective attachments to women's bodily abjection on the one hand and humanitarian fantasies on the other. The article makes use of feminist film theory and transnational feminist scholarship to show the ways in which the journalistic "truth" about sex trafficking relies on journalists' investment in visual and discursive tropes of excessive emotions, as well as on libidinal attachments to vulnerable bodies. To this end, it offers a close reading of an undercover journalistic operation in Cambodia led by investigative journalist Aaron Cohen. It concludes with an analysis of official U.S.anti-trafficking policies abroad in order to show how current journalistic truth-making claims about sex trafficking enter foreign politics and have a considerable impact on sex workers in the non-Western world.
Cultural Consumption and Rejection of Precious Jones: Pushing Disability into the Discussion of Sapphire's Push and Lee Daniels's Precious
Authors: Jarman Michelle
Published: August 2012

Sapphire's novel Push (1996) and Lee Daniels's film Precious (2009) provide multiple and intersecting representations of race, gender, and class, which have been recognized and analyzed by film critics and academics. The representations of disability in the novel and film, however, have rarely been connected to these categories of identity (or oppression). Because disability—"obesity," Down syndrome, HIV—and culturally pathologized and disabling traits—illiteracy, poverty, abuse—are intricately woven into rhetorical discussions about the film, critical disability studies provides a crucial theoretical framework for analyzing the cultural consumption of Precious Jones. Resisting either a blanket celebration or dismissal of Precious , the article argues that the intense emotional reactions evoked by the film—from inspiration to repulsion—have much to say about the broader cultural tensions around reading disability within the registers of race, gender, and class dynamics. The article focuses on systemic, intersecting forces of oppression by placing into dialogue Daniels's film, Sapphire's novel, and the popular public discourse around the film. Central to this analysis is the figure of Precious Jones—embodied by actress Gabourey Sidibe—and the "problems" this figure elicits and reveals.
Beyond Additions and Exceptions: The Category of Transgender and New Pedagogical Approaches for Women's Studies
Authors: Beauchamp Toby , D'Harlingue Benjamin
Published: August 2012

The article argues that while introductory women and gender studies courses typically take social construction theory as foundational, their textbooks, supplemental materials, and teaching strategies simultaneously rely on a definition of "woman" that assumes particular body parts. Such a linkage elides the existence and particularities of transgender and gender-nonconforming bodies and subjects on the one hand, yet posits them as exceptions on the other. This combination stabilizes the normativity of hegemonic sex and gender embodiments by naturalizing nontransgender bodies. Rather than simply arguing for greater inclusion of trans subjects under the sign of woman or man, the article suggests that careful attention to the positioning of transgender bodies necessitates a broad theoretical reframing of how women's studies textbooks and curriculum are designed, and how gendered bodies more broadly are taught and conceptualized.