bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multiple Targeting Modules on Peroxisomal Proteins Are Not Redundant: Discrete Functions of Targeting Signals within Pmp47 and Pex8p
Authors: Wang Xiaodong , McMahon Moira A. , Shelton Shary N. , Nampaisansuk Mongkol , Ballard Johnathan L. , Goodman Joel M.
Published: January 2004

Several peroxisomal proteins have two nonoverlapping targeting signals. These signals have been termed “redundant” because targeting can still occur with only one signal. We now report that separate targeting motifs within both Pmp47 and Pex8 provide complementary function. Pmp47 is an ATP translocator that contains six transmembrane domains (TMDs). We had previously shown that the TMD2 region (termed TMD2R, consisting of TMD2 and a short adjacent segment of cytosolic loop) was required for targeting to proliferated peroxisomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We now report that the analogous TMD4R, which cannot target to proliferated peroxisomes, targets at least as well, or much better (depending on strain and growth conditions) in cells containing only basal (i.e., nonproliferated) peroxisomes. These data suggest differences in the targeting pathway among peroxisome populations. Pex8p, a peripheral protein facing the matrix, contains a typical carboxy terminal targeting sequence (PTS1) that has been shown to be nonessential for targeting, indicating the existence of a second targeting domain (not yet defined in S. cerevisiae); thus, its function was unknown. We show that targeting to basal peroxisomes, but not to proliferated peroxisomes, is more efficient with the PTS1 than without it. Our results indicate that multiple targeting signals within peroxisomal proteins extend coverage among heterogeneous populations of peroxisomes and increase efficiency of targeting in some metabolic states.
Interdependency of Fission Yeast Alp14/TOG and Coiled Coil Protein Alp7 in Microtubule Localization and Bipolar Spindle Formation
Authors: Sato Masamitsu , Vardy Leah , Angel Garcia Miguel , Koonrugsa Nirada , Toda Takashi
Published: January 2004

The Dis1/TOG family plays a pivotal role in microtubule organization. In fission yeast, Alp14 and Dis1 share an essential function in bipolar spindle formation. Here, we characterize Alp7, a novel coiled-coil protein that is required for organization of bipolar spindles. Both Alp7 and Alp14 colocalize to the spindle pole body (SPB) and mitotic spindles. Alp14 localization to these sites is fully dependent upon Alp7. Conversely, in the absence of Alp14, Alp7 localizes to the SPBs, but not mitotic spindles. Alp7 forms a complex with Alp14, where the C-terminal region of Alp14 interacts with the coiled-coil domain of Alp7. Intriguingly, this Alp14 C terminus is necessary and sufficient for mitotic spindle localization. Overproduction of either full-length or coiled-coil region of Alp7 results in abnormal V-shaped spindles and stabilization of interphase microtubules, which is induced independent of Alp14. Alp7 may be a functional homologue of animal TACC. Our results shed light on an interdependent relationship between Alp14/TOG and Alp7. We propose a two-step model that accounts for the recruitment of Alp7 and Alp14 to the SPB and microtubules.
Simultaneous yet Independent Regulation of Actin Cytoskeletal Organization and Translation Initiation by Glucose inSaccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Uesono Yukifumi , Ashe Mark P. , Toh-e Akio
Published: January 2004

Acute glucose deprivation rapidly but transiently depolarizes the actin cytoskeleton and inhibits translation initiation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Neither rapid actin depolarization nor translation inhibition upon glucose removal occurs in a reg1 disruptant, which is defective in glucose repression, or in the tpk1wmutant, which has weak cAPK activity. In the absence of additional glucose, recovery of either actin polarization or translation initiation relies upon respiration, the Snf1p protein kinase, and the transcription factors Msn2p and Msn4p. The readdition of glucose to glucose-starved cells causes a rapid recovery of actin polarization as well as translation initiation without respiration. These results indicate that the simultaneous regulation of actin polarization and translation initiation is divided into three reactions: 1) rapid shutdown depending on Reg1p and cAPK after glucose removal, 2) slow adaptation depending on Snf1p and Msn2p/4p in the absence of glucose, and 3) rapid recovery upon readdition of glucose. On glucose removal, translation initiation is rapidly inhibited in a rom2 disruptant, which is defective in rapid actin depolarization, whereas rapid actin depolarization occurs in a pop2/caf1 disruptant, which is defective in rapid inhibition of translation initiation. Thus, translation initiation and actin polarization seem to be simultaneously but independently regulated by glucose deprivation.
Suppression of mitochondrial respiration through recruitment of p160 myb binding protein to PGC-1α: modulation by p38 MAPK
Authors: Fan Melina , Rhee James , St-Pierre Julie , Handschin Christoph , Puigserver Pere , Lin Jiandie , Jäeger Sibylle , Erdjument-Bromage Hediye , Tempst Paul , Spiegelman Bruce M.
Published: January 2004

The transcriptional coactivator PPAR gamma coactivator 1 α (PGC-1α) is a key regulator of metabolic processes such as mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration in muscle and gluconeogenesis in liver. Reduced levels of PGC-1α in humans have been associated with type II diabetes. PGC-1α contains a negative regulatory domain that attenuates its transcriptional activity. This negative regulation is removed by phosphorylation of PGC-1α by p38 MAPK, an important kinase downstream of cytokine signaling in muscle and β-adrenergic signaling in brown fat. We describe here the identification of p160 myb binding protein (p160MBP) as a repressor of PGC-1α. The binding and repression of PGC-1α by p160MBP is disrupted by p38 MAPK phosphorylation of PGC-1α. Adenoviral expression of p160MBP in myoblasts strongly reduces PGC-1α's ability to stimulate mitochondrial respiration and the expression of the genes of the electron transport system. This repression does not require removal of PGC-1α from chromatin, suggesting that p160MBP is or recruits a direct transcriptional suppressor. Overall, these data indicate that p160MBP is a powerful negative regulator of PGC-1α function and provide a molecular mechanism for the activation of PGC-1α by p38 MAPK. The discovery of p160MBP as a PGC-1α regulator has important implications for the understanding of energy balance and diabetes.
Ovca1 regulates cell proliferation, embryonic development, and tumorigenesis
Authors: Chen Chun-Ming , Behringer Richard R.
Published: January 2004

Loss of OVCA1/DPH2L1 correlates with ovarian and breast cancer. To study its in vivo role, we generated Ovca1 mutant alleles in mice. Ovca1 heterozygotes spontaneously develop cancer. Ovca1 mutant mice die during embryonic development and at birth with developmental delay and defects in multiple organ systems. Cell proliferation defects were observed in Ovca1 mutant mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). p53 deficiency can rescue these Ovca1 mutant MEF proliferation defects and partially rescue Ovca1 mutant embryonic phenotypes. Furthermore, Ovca1; p53 double heterozygotes developed tumors quicker than p53 heterozygotes and with an increased carcinoma incidence. Multiple tumor burden in Ovca1 heterozygotes that were also p53 deficient was significantly higher than in p53 homozygous mutants. These in vivo findings demonstrate that Ovca1 is a tumor suppressor that can modify p53-induced tumorigenesis and suggest that it acts as a positive regulator for cell cycle progression. The close linkage of OVCA1 and p53 on human Chromosome 17 suggests that coordinated loss may be an important mechanism for the evolution of ovarian, breast, and other tumor phenotypes.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress induces p53 cytoplasmic localization and prevents p53-dependent apoptosis by a pathway involving glycogen synthase kinase-3β
Authors: Qu LiKe , Huang Shirley , Baltzis Dionissios , Rivas-Estilla Ana-Maria , Pluquet Olivier , Hatzoglou Maria , Koumenis Costas , Taya Yoichi , Yoshimura Akihiko , Koromilas Antonis E.
Published: January 2004

The tumor suppressor p53, a sensor of multiple forms of cellular stress, is regulated by post-translational mechanisms to induce cell-cycle arrest, senescence, or apoptosis. We demonstrate that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress inhibits p53-mediated apoptosis. The mechanism of inhibition involves the increased cytoplasmic localization of p53 due to phosphorylation at serine 315 and serine 376, which is mediated by glycogen synthase kinase-3 β (GSK-3β). ER stress induces GSK-3β binding to p53 in the nucleus and enhances the cytoplasmic localization of the tumor suppressor. Inhibition of apoptosis caused by ER stress requires GSK-3β and does not occur in cells expressing p53 with mutation(s) of serine 315 and/or serine 376 to alanine(s). As a result of the increased cytoplasmic localization, ER stress prevents p53 stabilization and p53-mediated apoptosis upon DNA damage. It is concluded that inactivation of p53 is a protective mechanism utilized by cells to adapt to ER stress.
Cholinergic Modulation of the Hippocampus During Encoding and Retrieval of Tone/Shock-Induced Fear Conditioning
Authors: Rogers Jason L. , Kesner Raymond P.
Published: January 2004

We investigated the role of acetylcholine (ACh) during encoding and retrieval of tone/shock-induced fear conditioning with the aim of testing Hasselmo's cholinergic modulation model of encoding and retrieval using a task sensitive to hippocampal disruption. Lesions of the hippocampus impair acquisition and retention of contextual conditioning with no effect on tone conditioning. Cholinergic antagonists also impair acquisition of contextual conditioning. Saline, scopolamine, or physostigmine was administered directly into the CA3 subregion of the hippocampus 10 min before rats were trained on a tone/shock-induced fear conditioning paradigm. Freezing behavior was used as the measure of learning. The scopolamine group froze significantly less during acquisition to the context relative to controls. The scopolamine group also froze less to the context test administered 24 h posttraining. A finer analysis of the data revealed that scopolamine disrupted encoding but not retrieval. The physostigmine group initially froze less during acquisition to the context, although this was not significantly different from controls. During the context test, the physostigmine group froze less initially but quickly matched the freezing levels of controls. A finer analysis of the data indicated that physostigmine disrupted retrieval but not encoding. These results suggest that increased ACh levels are necessary for encoding new spatial contexts, whereas decreased ACh levels are necessary for retrieving previously learned spatial contexts.
Dynamic Changes in Acetylcholine Output in the Medial Striatum During Place Reversal Learning
Authors: Ragozzino Michael E. , Choi Daniel
Published: January 2004

The present studies explored the role of the medial striatum in learning when taskcontingencies change. Experiment 1 examined whether the medial striatum is involved in place reversal learning. Testing occurred in a modified cross-maze across two consecutive sessions. Injections of the local anesthetic, bupivacaine, into the medial striatum, did not impair place acquisition, but impaired place reversal learning. The reversal-learning deficit was due to an inability to maintain the new choice pattern following the initial shift. Experiment 2 determined whether changes in acetylcholine (ACh) output occur during the acquisition or reversal learning of a place discrimination. Extracellular ACh output from the medial striatum was assessed in samples collected at 6-min intervals using in vivo microdialysis during behavioral testing. ACh output did not change from basal levels during place acquisition. During reversal learning, ACh output significantly increased as rats began to learn the new choice pattern, and returned to near basal levels as a rat reliably executed the new place strategy. The present results suggest that the medial striatum may be critical for flexible adaptations involving spatial information, and that ACh actions in this area enable the shifting of choice patterns when environmental conditions change.
Changes in Acetylcholine Extracellular Levels During Cognitive Processes: Table 1.
Authors: Pepeu Giancarlo , Giovannini Maria Grazia
Published: January 2004

Measuring the changes in neurotransmitter extracellular levels in discrete
brain areas is considered a tool for identifying the neuronal systems involved
in specific behavioral responses or cognitive processes. Acetylcholine (ACh)
is the first neurotransmitter whose diffusion from the central nervous system
was investigated and whose extracellular levels variations were correlated to
changes in neuronal activity. This was done initially by means of the cup
technique and then by the microdialysis technique. The latter, notwithstanding
some technical limitations, makes it possible to detect variations in
extracellular levels of ACh in unrestrained, behaving animals. This review
summarizes and discusses the results obtained investigating the changes in ACh
release during performance of operant tasks, exposition to novel stimuli,
locomotor activity, and the performance of spatial memory tasks, working
memory, and place preference memory tasks. Activation of the forebrain
cholinergic system has been demonstrated in many tasks and conditions in which
the environment requires the animal to analyze novel stimuli that may
represent a threat or offer a reward. The sustained cholinergic activation,
demonstrated by high levels of extracellular ACh observed during the
behavioral paradigms, indicates that many behaviors occur within or require
the facilitation provided by the cholinergic system to the operation of
pertinent neuronal pathways.
Septohippocampal Acetylcholine: Involved in but not Necessary for Learning and Memory?
Authors: Parent Marise B. , Baxter Mark G.
Published: January 2004

The neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) has been accorded an important role in supporting learning and memory processes in the hippocampus. Cholinergic activity in the hippocampus is correlated with memory, and restoration of ACh in the hippocampus after disruption of the septohippocampal pathway is sufficient to rescue memory. However, selective ablation of cholinergic septohippocampal projections is largely without effect on hippocampal-dependent learning and memory processes. We consider the evidence underlying each of these statements, and the contradictions they pose for understanding the functional role of hippocampal ACh in memory. We suggest that although hippocampal ACh is involved in memory in the intact brain, it is not necessary for many aspects of hippocampal memory function.
Perirhinal Cortex Muscarinic Receptor Blockade Impairs Taste Recognition Memory Formation
Authors: Gutiérrez Ranier , De la Cruz Vanesa , Rodriguez-Ortiz Carlos J. , Bermudez-Rattoni Federico
Published: January 2004

The relevance of perirhinal cortical cholinergic and glutamatergic
neurotransmission for taste recognition memory and learned taste aversion was
assessed by microinfusions of muscarinic (scopolamine), NMDA (AP-5), and AMPA
(NBQX) receptor antagonists. Infusions of scopolamine, but not AP5 or NBQX,
prevented the consolidation of taste recognition memory using attenuation of
neophobia as an index. In addition, learned taste aversion in both short- and
long-term memory tests was exclusively impaired by scopolamine. These data
provide neurochemical support for the theory that cholinergic activity of the
perirhinal cortex participates in the formation of the taste memory trace and
that it is independent of the NMDA and AMPA receptor activity. These results
support the idea that cholinergic neurotransmission in the perirhinal cortex
is also essential for acquisition and consolidation of taste recognition
memory.
Galantamine Facilitates Acquisition of Hippocampus-Dependent Trace Eyeblink Conditioning in Aged Rabbits
Authors: Weible Aldis P. , Oh M. Matthew , Lee Grace , Disterhoft John F.
Published: January 2004

Cholinergic systems are critical to the neural mechanisms mediating learning. Reduced nicotinic cholinergic receptor (nAChR) binding is a hallmark of normal aging. These reductions are markedly more severe in some dementias, such as Alzheimer's disease. Pharmacological central nervous system therapies are a means to ameliorate the cognitive deficits associated with normal aging and aging-related dementias. Trace eyeblink conditioning (EBC), a hippocampus- and forebrain-dependent learning paradigm, is impaired in both aged rabbits and aged humans, attributable in part to cholinergic dysfunction. In the present study, we examined the effects of galantamine (3 mg/kg), a cholinesterase inhibitor and nAChR allosteric potentiating ligand, on the acquisition of trace EBC in aged (30–33 months) and young (2–3 months) female rabbits. Trace EBC involves the association of a conditioned stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US), separated by a stimulus-free trace interval. Repeated CS–US pairings results in the development of the conditioned eyeblink response (CR) prior to US onset. Aged rabbits receiving daily injections of galantamine (Aged/Gal) exhibited significant improvements compared with age-matched controls in trials to eight CRs in 10 trial block criterion (P= 0.0402) as well as performance across 20 d of training [F(1,21) = 5.114,P= 0.0345]. Mean onset and peak latency of CRs exhibited by Aged/Gal rabbits also differed significantly [F(1,21) = 6.120/6.582,P= 0.0220/0.0180, respectively] compared with age-matched controls, resembling more closely CR timing of young drug and control rabbits. Galantamine did not improve acquisition rates in young rabbits compared with age-matched controls. These data indicate that by enhancing nicotinic and muscarinic transmission, galantamine is effective in offsetting the learning deficits associated with decreased cholinergic transmission in the aging brain.
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Sensory Cortex: Figure 1
Authors: Metherate Raju
Published: January 2004

Acetylcholine release in sensory neocortex contributes to higher-order sensory function, in part by activating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Molecular studies have revealed a bewildering array of nAChR subtypes and cellular actions; however, there is some consensus emerging about the major nAChR subtypes and their functions in sensory cortex. This reviewfirst describes the systems-level effects of activating nAChRs in visual, somatosensory, and auditory cortex, and then describes, as far as possible, the underlying cellular and synaptic mechanisms. A related goal is to examine if sensory cortex can be considered a model system for cortex in general, because the use of sensory stimuli to activate neural circuits physiologically is helpful for understanding mechanisms of systems-level function and plasticity. A final goal is to highlight the emerging role of nAChRs in developing sensory cortex, and the adverse impact of early nicotine exposure on subsequent sensory–cognitive function.
Nicotinic Cholinergic Synaptic Mechanisms in the Ventral Tegmental Area Contribute to Nicotine Addiction
Authors: Pidoplichko Volodymyr I. , Noguchi Jun , Areola Oluwasanmi O. , Liang Yong , Peterson Jayms , Zhang Tianxiang , Dani John A.
Published: January 2004

Tobacco use is a major health problem that is estimated to cause 4 million
deaths a year worldwide. Nicotine is the main addictive component of tobacco.
It acts as an agonist to activate and desensitize nicotinic acetylcholine
receptors (nAChRs). A component of nicotine's addictive power is attributable
to actions on the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, which serves a fundamental
role in the acquisition of behaviors that are inappropriately reinforced by
addictive drugs. Here we show that nicotine, in the same concentration and
time ranges as obtained from tobacco, has three main actions that regulate the
activity of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons. Nicotine first activates and then
desensitizes nAChRs on the DA neurons. This process directly excites the DA
neurons for a short period of time before the nAChRs desensitize. Nicotine
also enhances glutamatergic excitation and decreases GABAergic inhibition onto
DA neurons. These events increase the probability for synaptic plasticity,
such as long-term potentiation. The short-lived direct excitation of the DA
neurons coupled with the enhanced glutamatergic afferent activity provides the
presynaptic and postsynaptic coincidence necessary to initiate synaptic
potentiation. In total, these synaptic events lead to a relatively
long-lasting heightened activity of midbrain DA neurons. Consistent with other
summarized studies, this work indicates that the synaptic changes normally
associated with learning and memory can be influenced and commandeered during
the nicotine addiction process.
Cholinergic Modulation of Visual Attention and Working Memory: Dissociable Effects of Basal Forebrain 192-IgG-saporin Lesions and Intraprefrontal Infusions of Scopolamine
Authors: Chudasama Yogita , Dalley Jeffrey W. , Nathwani Falgyni , Bouger Pascale , Robbins Trevor W.
Published: January 2004

Two experiments examined the effects of reductions in cortical cholinergic function on performance of a novel task that allowed for the simultaneous assessment of attention to a visual stimulus and memory for that stimulus over a variable delay within the same test session. In the first experiment, infusions of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) produced many omissions but did not impair rats' ability to correctly detect a brief visual stimulus. However, these animals were highly impaired in remembering the location of that stimulus following a delay period, although in a delay-independent manner. In the second experiment, another group of animals with selective 192IgG-saporin lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (nBM) were not impaired under conditions of low-attentional demand. However, when the stimulus duration was reduced, a significant memory impairment was observed, but similar to the results of the first experiment, the nBM-lesioned animals were not impaired in attentional accuracy, although aspects of attention were compromised (e.g., omissions). These findings demonstrate that (1) cortical cholinergic depletion produces dissociable deficits in attention and memory, depending on the task demands, (2) delay-independent mnemonic deficits produced by scopolamine are probably due to impairments other than simple inattention, and (3) working memory deficits are not simply dependent on attentional difficulties per se. Together, these findings implicate the nBM cortical cholinergic system in both attentional and mnemonic processing.
Anxious (Dis)Figuration: Ingres in Whistler's Little Blue Girl
Authors: Kjellman‐Chapin Monica
Published: January 2004

This article examines J.M. Whistler's Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl, situating it as a central site of the artist's anxieties and desires. Begun in 1894 and only relinquished after Whistler's death in 1903, The Little Blue Girl is a strange painting, the body within it oddly disfigured and the idiomaticity fragmented and hesitant. This work represents an ambitious attempt on the part of the artist to inscribe himself into tradition through a specific quotational praxis. Whistler staked his bid for canonicity on The Little Blue Girl through a reference to the bodies of Ingres. The Little Blue Girl's palimpsestic surface betrays the desires motivating this referential strategy and the anxieties that prevent it from fulfilling its primary function.

Monica Kjellman‐Chapin is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Clark University. She completed her PhD on Whistler's late paintings of the female nude at Boston University and is currently researching and writing about art history and kitsch.
William Hogarth's The March to Finchley and the fate of comic history painting
Authors: Fordham Douglas
Published: January 2004

Completed in 1750, William Hogarth's The March to Finchley set out to demonstrate that a Protestant trading nation could produce a form of history painting free from the absolutist tendencies of European academicism. This essay argues that Hogarth's accomplishment was more thoroughgoing and intellectually rigorous than previously recognized, and that combined with the Analysis of Beauty (1753), it established a new agenda for ambitious art production. Through its manipulation of a domestic visual vocabulary, The March to Finchley transformed status consciousness into an inclusive artistic category and oppositional political rhetoric into a positive national identity. Comic history, as this new genre was called, offered a stable, yet flexible foundation for the emergence of a distinctively British school of art. That this school never came to fruition was largely because of a shift in Britain's political climate, and in particular, a rise in popular imperial enthusiasm brought about by the Seven Years' War.

Douglas Fordham graduated from Yale University where he received the Frances Blanshard prize for an outstanding doctoral dissertation in the History of Art. He is currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.
Intimate Archives: Japanese‐Canadian family photography, 1939–1949
Authors: Kunimoto Namiko
Published: January 2004

‘Intimate Archives’ situates domestic photographs of Japanese Canadians taken during the 1942–1949 internment in Canada within historical crisis and subjective narrative, tracing the possibilities of meaning for both the depicted subjects and the possessors of the images. In 1942, as Japanese Canadians were uprooted from familiar communities throughout British Columbia, Canada and overwhelmed with the loss of those closest to them, photography was employed to recentre themselves within a stable, yet somewhat imaginative, network of relations. Domestic photographs and albums produced at this time worked to construct, preserve and contain the visual and imaginative narrative of cohesive family stability and communal belonging, despite divisive political differences, disparate geographical living situations and elapsed family traditions.

Namiko Kunimoto was awarded a double major BA in art history and anthropology at the University of British Columbia in 1998 and her MA in at the same university, where she was awarded a University of British Columbia Grant Fellowship. She is studying for her PhD in art history at the University of California, Berkeley, supported by a Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. Publications include, ‘Mariko Mori at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art’, Last Call, June 2001, and ‘The Guerrilla Girls’, Discorder Magazine, April 2000.
Relatives’ experience of nursing home admissions: preliminary study
Authors: Pearson Alan , Nay Rhonda , Taylor Bev
Published: January 2004

Objective: As the first of a three‐phase study examining nursing home admissions, the current paper reports on relatives’ subjective experience of admitting an older family member to a nursing home.

Methods: Fifty‐eight relatives from northern New South Wales (NSW) and South Australia who had admitted a family member into an aged care home were interviewed.

Results: A broad range of positive and negative experiences were recounted by relatives who had been involved in a nursing home admission of a family member. Although there was a diversity of responses, a number of common themes were identified in the interviews. These included the inability to cope with supporting an older person, difficulties in finding a nursing home, disheartening admission processes, and a broad range of emotional responses including guilt, distress and relief.

Conclusions: Admission of a family member to a nursing home can be a difficult and emotional time for relatives. The complex and sensitive nature of this process highlights the importance of recognition and support for relatives from health care professionals in aged care.
Gendered Agendas: The Secrets Scholars Keep about Yorùbá‐Atlantic Religion
Authors: Matory J. Lorand
Published: January 2004

Whereas scholars have often described the material interests served by any given social group's selective narration of history, this article catches scholars in the act of selectively narrating Yorùbá‐Atlantic cultural history in the service of their own faraway activist projects. Anthropologist Ruth Landes' re‐casting of the Afro‐Brazilian Candomblá religion as an instance of primitive matriarchy not only encouraged feminists abroad but also led Brazilian nationalist power‐brokers to marginalise the male, and often reputedly homosexual, priests who give the lie to Landes's interpretation. In the service of a longdistance Yorùbá nationalist agenda, sociologist Oyeronke Oyewumi has declared traditional Yorùbá society ‘genderless’, and found, among both North American feminist scholars and Yorùbá male scholars, allies in concealing the copious evidence of gender and gender inequality in Yorùbá cultural history. What these historical constructions lack in truth value they make up for in their power to mobilise new communities and alliances around the defence of a shared secret. The article addresses how politically tendentious scholarship on gender has inspired new social hierarchies and boundaries through the truths that some high‐profile scholars have chosen to silence.
‘If You Can't Pronounce My Name, You Can Just Call Me Pride’: Afro‐German Activism, Gender and Hip Hop
Authors: El‐Tayeb Fatima
Published: January 2004

The history of the black German minority, now estimated at around 500,000, goes back several centuries. It is only since the twentieth century, however, that Germans of African descent have been perceived as a group. This did not lead to their recognition as a national minority, but rather, from the 1910s to the 1960s, they were defined as a collective threat to Germany's racial and cultural ‘purity’. When a sense of identity emerged among Afro‐Germans themselves in the 1980s, the majority population continued to deny the existence of ethnic diversity within German society. At the turn of the twenty‐first century, Afro‐Germans seemingly suddenly appeared as a new, ‘hip’ minority. This appearance was largely focused on the immense public success of the Hip Hop collective ‘Brothers Keepers’, conceived as an anti‐racist, explicitly Afro‐German intervention into German debates around national identity and racist violence. This article explains the success of ‘Brothers Keepers’ by contextualising it within the tradition of two decades of Afro‐ German feminist activism and the transnational Hip Hop movement of European youth of colour.
Creole Performance in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
Authors: Frederick Rhonda
Published: January 2004

Mary Seacole's autobiography has been read as a feminist performance as well as a paradigmatic Victorian travel narrative. While these assessments address important aspects of the memoir, neither affords the author's Jamaicanness significant space in its analysis. This essay addresses the silences left when Wonderful Adventures is removed from its Jamaican context, then offers a reading of it from this perspective. Grounded in histories that document nineteenth‐century Jamaican social categories, the article analyses Seacole's book using Caribbean literary perspectives that explore raced, ‘coloured’ and geographically‐located identities. The result is an interpretation of the memoir that offers insight into Jamaica's Creole population, its status and colour politics, and identity concerns. All have been expertly shaped by Seacole's rhetorical manoeuvres.
Colonial Matriarchs: Garveyism, Maternalism, and Belize's Black Cross Nurses, 1920–1952
Authors: Macpherson Anne
Published: January 2004

This article analyses the politics of Belize's Black Cross Nurses in their heyday in order to bring into dialogue the historiography on gender in the transnational Garveyite movement to which the middle‐class Nurses belonged, and the historiography on maternalism. It complicates the claim that Garveyite women were subordinated within the movement and resisted its gender norms, and addresses the lack of attention to maternalist politics among non‐white women in colonised settings, where racial anxieties strengthened middle‐class attachment to bourgeois respectability. By analysing the Nurses's relations with the colonial state, poor urban mothers and middle‐class men, the article concludes that their maternalism served to reproduce class and race hierarchies, and colonial rule, even as it strengthened middle‐class women's political autonomy and legitimacy.
‘Wearing three or four handkerchiefs around his collar, and elsewhere about him’: Slaves' Constructions of Masculinity and Ethnicity in French Colonial New Orleans
Authors: White Sophie
Published: January 2004

Drawing on slave testimony from criminal trials, this article suggests that slaves in French Colonial Louisiana articulated a nuanced relationship to material goods premised less on a static vision of West African culture, than on variable notions of gender and ethnicity. Here, articles of dress could be used by slaves to distinguish among themselves, as revealed in the 1766 investigation against one runaway marginalised in spite of his self‐conscious sartorial identification as a slave and as an ‘African’. This paper thus offers an example of slaves engineering social control within black spaces by manipulating the legal apparatus of the white hegemony. Sartorial performances of ethnicity and masculinity were key to this process.
Diasporic Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transnational Production of Black Middle‐Class Masculinity
Authors: Summers Martin
Published: January 2004

This essay examines the relationship between two black Freemasons in the Gold Coast and New York in the 1930s. Drawing on the correspondence of D. K. Abadu Bentsi and Harry A. Williamson, this essay argues that fraternal voluntary associations operated as sites for the formation of a gendered diasporic identity. In doing so, it suggests that we need to complicate our understanding of diaspora by considering the ways in which the development of diasporic subjectivity and consciousness, as a dynamic process, is inextricably bound up in the formation of class and gender identities and the maintenance of class and gender boundaries.
Gender in the African Diaspora: Electronic Research Materials
Authors: Manning Patrick
Published: January 2004

Electronic resources, especially the World Wide Web, present important advantages for gendered analysis of the African Diaspora. For topics ranging from patterns of enslavement to current educational issues, this review emphasises the possibilities for crossing regional and linguistic boundaries in gender studies through use of the Internet. With citation of numerous websites and other resources, the essay identifies research issues, discusses research techniques, notes various forms of electronic publication and provides examples of searching electronically for different kinds of information.
Production of a new model of slowly progressive Heymann nephritis
Authors: Barabas Arpad Z. , Cole Chad D. , Barabas Arpad D. , Lafreniere Rene
Published: January 2004

Summary.  A slowly progressive autoimmune kidney disease was induced in Sprague Dawley rats by subcutaneous injection of a chemically modified kidney antigen (rKF3), incorporated into Alum and Distemper complex vaccine, followed by subcutaneous injections of an aqueous preparation of the same antigen. Pathogenic autoantibodies developed, which reacted with fixed glomerular nephritogenic antigen. Subsequently, immunopathological events lead to chronic progressive immune complex glomerulonephritis and proteinuria.

The slowly developing disease was morphologically and functionally similar to Heymann nephritis (HN). The damage observed in the kidneys of experimental animals at 8 weeks and at the end of the experiment was examined by direct fluorescent antibody test, histology and electron microscopy. The changes were similar to the typical lesions found in HN rat kidneys, but less severe. Animals became proteinuric from 17 weeks onward (instead of the usual 4–8 weeks). By the end of the experiment, at 8 months, 100% of the rats were proteinuric. This new experimental model of autoimmune kidney disease, which is not complicated by intraperitoneal deposition and retention of Freund's complete adjuvant and renal tubular antigens, allowed us to investigate the pathogenesis of the disease processes from a different aspect, and promises to be a useful and improved model for the investigation of future treatment options.
Targeted cellular process profiling approach for uterine leiomyoma using cDNA microarray, proteomics and gene ontology analysis
Authors: Ahn Woong Shick , Kim Ko‐Woon , Bae Su Mi , Yoon Joo Hee , Lee Joon Mo , Namkoong Sung Eun , Kim Jin Hong , Kim Chong Kook , Lee Young Joo , Kim Yong‐Wan
Published: January 2004

Summary.  This study utilized both cDNA microarray and two‐dimensional protein gel electrophoresis technology to investigate the multiple interactions of genes and proteins involved in uterine leiomyoma pathophysiology. Also, the gene ontology analysis was used to systematically characterize the global expression profiles at cellular process levels. We profiled differentially expressed transcriptome and proteome in six‐paired leiomyoma and normal myometrium. Screening up to 17 000 genes identified 21 upregulated and 50 downregulated genes. The gene‐expression profiles were classified into mutually dependent 420 functional sets, resulting in 611 cellular processes according to the gene ontology. Also, protein analysis using two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis identified 33 proteins (17 upregulated and 16 downregulated) of more than 500 total spots, which was classified into 302 cellular processes. Of these functional profilings, downregulations of transcriptomes and proteoms were shown in cell adhesion, cell motility, organogenesis, enzyme regulator, structural molecule activity and response to external stimulus functional activities that are supposed to play important roles in pathophysiology. In contrast, the upregulation was only shown in nucleic acid‐binding activity. Taken together, potentially significant pathogenetic cellular processes were identified and showed that the downregulated functional profiling has a significant impact on the discovery of pathogenic pathway in leiomyoma. Also, the gene ontology analysis can overcome the complexity of expression profiles of cDNA microarray and two‐dimensional protein analysis via its cellular process‐level approach. Therefore, a valuable prognostic candidate gene with relevance to disease‐specific pathogenesis can be found at cellular process levels.
STAT‐1: a novel regulator of apoptosis
Authors: Stephanou Anastasis , Latchman David S.
Published: January 2004

Summary.  Extracellular signalling molecules binding to their specific receptors are able to modulate gene expression, leading to changes in development, cell growth and homeostasis. The signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) protein family members are among the best studied of the latent cytoplasmic signal‐dependent transcription factors. The STAT factors are activated via phosphorylation on the C‐terminal domain following cytokine signalling or by various stress‐induced stimuli. Recently, STAT‐1 has been implicated in modulating pro‐ and anti‐apoptotic genes following several stress‐induced responses. These effects are dependent on STAT‐1 phosphorylation on serine‐727 and require the C‐terminal transactivation domain of STAT‐1 to enhance its pro‐apoptotic effect or inhibit its anti‐apoptotic effects. The STAT‐1 C‐terminal domain has been demonstrated to be important for protein–protein interaction with other transcriptional activators. The reports that STAT‐1‐deficient mice develop spontaneous and chemically induced tumours more rapidly compared to wild‐type mice and that STAT‐1‐deficient cells are more resistant to agents that induce apoptosis strongly support the argument that STAT‐1 acts as a tumour suppressor.
High levels of intracellular ATP prevent nitric oxide‐induced apoptosis in rat gastric mucosal cells
Authors: Honda Kenichi , Kato Katsuaki , Dairaku Naohiro , Iijima Katsunori , Koike Tomoyuki , Imatani Akira , Sekine Hitoshi , Ohara Shuichi , Matsui Hiroshi , Shimosegawa Tooru
Published: January 2004

Summary.  Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in gastric mucosal injury in the human stomach. Exposure to excessive NO leads to apoptosis; however, the mechanism remains largely unknown in gastric epithelial cells. The apoptotic process is modulated by energy states in cells. This study investigated molecular mechanisms of NO‐induced apoptosis in gastric epithelial cells and influence of high glucose on those mechanisms. Normal rat gastric mucosal epithelial (RGM‐1) cells were cultured in media containing either 1000 (low) or 4500 mg/l (high) of D‐glucose. When the cells were incubated with a chemical NO donor NOC18, apoptosis was induced in a dose‐dependent manner. Intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels significantly increased in the cells cultured with high glucose in comparison with the low‐glucose condition. The cells with high ATP levels were more resistant to NO‐induced apoptosis than the cells with low ATP levels. NO‐induced apoptosis was followed by mitochondrial depolarization, upregulation of Bax protein, cytochrome C release from mitochondria to the cytosol and subsequent caspases activation. These results suggest that NO inhibition of mitochondrial respiratory system and acute ATP depletion initiate apoptotic signalling in gastric epithelial cells. High glucose may prevent NO‐induced apoptosis by leading to high levels of intracellular ATP or other metabolic changes in this cell line.
Immunophenotyping of macrophages in human pulmonary tuberculosis and sarcoidosis
Authors: Stanton Lee‐Anne , Fenhalls Gael , Lucas Andrew , Gough Peter , Greaves David R. , Mahoney James A. , Helden Paul van , Gordon Siamon
Published: January 2004

Summary.  Classic studies of tuberculosis (TB) revealed morphologic evidence of considerable heterogeneity of macrophages (MØs), but the functional significance of this heterogeneity remains unknown. We have used newly available specific antibodies for selected membrane and secretory molecules to examine the phenotype of MØs in situ in a range of South African patients with TB, compared with sarcoidosis. Patients were human immunodeficiency virus‐negative adults and children, and the examined biopsy specimens included lung and lymph nodes. Mature pulmonary MØs (alveolar, interstitial, epithelioid and multinucleated giant cells) selectively expressed scavenger receptor type A and a novel carboxypeptidase‐like antigen called carboxypeptidase‐related vitellogenin‐like MØ molecule (CPVL). CPVL did not display enhanced expression in sarcoidosis, vs. TB patients, as observed with angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE), a related molecule. Immunocytochemical studies with surfactant proteins (SP)‐A and ‐D showed that type II alveolar cells expressed these collectins, as did MØs, possibly after binding of secreted proteins. Studies with an antibody specific for the C‐terminus of fractalkine, a tethered CX3C chemokine, confirmed synthesis of this molecule by bronchiolar epithelial cells and occasional endothelial cells. These studies provide new marker antigens and extend previous studies on MØ differentiation, activation and local interactions in chronic human granulomatous inflammation in the lung.
Correlation of c‐erbB‐2 and S‐100 expression with the malignancy grading and anatomical site in oral squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Albuquerque Júnior Ricardo L. C. , Miguel Márcia C. C. , Costa Antonio L. L. , Souza Lélia B.
Published: January 2004

Summary.  An immunohistochemical analysis of 32 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (eight in the inferior lip, eight in the lateral angle of the tongue, eight in the palate and eight in the mouth floor) was performed to evaluate the expression pattern of c‐erbB‐2 protein and S‐100‐positive cells in the lesions. The immunohistochemical expression was correlated with the tumour anatomical site and histological grading of malignancy. A higher frequency of c‐erbB‐2‐positive cases was found in the tongue, even though no correlation could be detected between the protein expression and the tumour histological grading. With respect to the S‐100‐positive cells, it was observed that a quantitative decrease was present in the cases classified as high‐grade tumours when compared to the low ones (P = 0.0007). Thus, c‐erbB‐2 immunohistochemical expression is correlated with anatomical localization, and the expression of the S‐100 Langerhans' cell markers is decreased significantly in high‐grade carcinomas.
Pressure monitoring of continuous‐flow solid‐phase peptide synthesis
Authors: Baru M.B. , Mustaeva L.G. , Vagenina I.V. , Gorbunova E. YU. , Cherskii V.V.
Published: January 2004

Abstract: We describe the noninvasive real‐time pressure monitoring of Boc‐ and Fmoc‐based peptide synthesis. Pressure was measured using a resistance strain gauge attached to the inlet of a continuous‐flow reactor of variable volume. In the assembly of the ‘difficult’ polyalanine sequence, it was shown that pressure monitoring can reveal structural variations of the peptide‐resin, e.g. the onset, development and termination of aggregation. This method provided washing minimization that favored substantial saving of solvents. The obtained results demonstrated the advantage of pressure monitoring over swellographic monitoring.
Monomeric destetrapeptide human insulin from a precursor expressed inSaccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Cui D.‐F. , Li M.‐Y. , Zhang Y.‐S. , Feng Y.‐M.
Published: January 2004

Abstract:Destetrapeptide insulin (DTI, human insulin with B27–30 removed) was obtained from a monomeric precursor (MIP) expressed inSaccharomyces cerevisiaethrough tryptic transpeptidation in the presence of synthetic tetrapeptide Gly‐Phe‐Phe‐Tyr. Thein vivobiological activity of DTI, determined by mouse convulsion assay, is 22 IU/mg. Its binding activity with insulin receptor on human placental membrane is 80% and itsin vitrobiological activity, determined by free fat cell assay, is 77%. Compared with native insulin, DTI molecules do not associate in solution but exist in the monomeric form, thus leading to its rapid utilizationin vivo.
Preparation of ‘side‐chain‐to‐side‐chain’ cyclic peptides by Allyl and Alloc strategy: potential for library synthesis
Authors: Grieco P. , Gitu P.M. , Hruby V.J.
Published: January 2004

Abstract:Automated and manual deprotection methods for allyl/allyloxycarbonyl (Allyl/Alloc) were evaluated for the preparation of side‐chain‐to‐side‐chain cyclic peptides. Using a standard Allyl/Alloc deprotection method, a small library of cyclic peptides with lactam bridges (with seven amino acids) was prepared on an automatic peptide synthesizer. We demonstrate that the Guibé method for removing Allyl/Alloc protecting groups under specific neutral conditions [Pd(PPh3)4/PhSiH3)/DCM] can be a useful, efficient and reliable method for preparing long cyclic peptides on a resin. We have also manually synthesized a cyclic glucagon analogue containing 24 amino acid residues. These results demonstrated that properly controlled palladium‐mediated deprotection of Allyl/Alloc protecting groups can be used to prepare cyclic peptides on the resin using an automated peptide synthesizer and cyclic peptides with a long chain.