bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Who Defines "Mutilation"? Challenging Imperialism in the Discourse of Female Genital Cutting
Authors: Smith Courtney
Published: May 2011

The article is situated within the academic feminist movement that questions universalizing approaches to understanding oppressions of women. It seeks to challenge the hegemony of traditional Western feminist discourse in framing the debate surrounding female genital cutting (FGC). The argument is that FGC is not a "barbaric, uncivilized, and mutilating practice" that happens in uniform, primordial societies. The article critiques this ethnocentric rhetoric and also provides an alternative approach to studying, discussing, and understanding FGC. It does so by interviewing women who are affected by FGC, constructing discourse and action based upon their experiences, and opening the discussion to also include practices of sex-based body modification found in the West. Engaging with and privileging women affected by the practices, and exercising cultural reflection in the process, could result in a new discursive framing based upon equal participation in the discussion and nonimperialist, transnational feminist activism. This is both the end goal and argument of the article.
Babies by the Bundle: Gender, Backlash, and the Quiverfull Movement
Authors: Harrison Laura , Rowley Sarah B.
Published: May 2011

The article focuses on the Quiverfull movement, which began in the 1980s in the United States. The movement derives its name from Psalm 127, which considers children to be a "heritage from the Lord" and compares them to arrows in a quiver with which believers may face their enemies. Quiverfull members are evangelical Christians who eschew all forms of birth control as interference with God's divine plan. Women, in particular, are encouraged to sacrifice their bodies for unfettered reproduction and to submit to both God and their husbands, who are their earthly masters. Examined are popular media representations of the movement, as well as Quiverfull members' own self-representations, including books, news articles, online articles, blogs, and television shows, to assess Quiverfull's larger cultural significance and analyze the movement in the context of pro-natalism and the backlash against feminism. The article argues that the Quiverfull movement is a community of members who are connected through their belief in gender essentialism, divine control of reproduction, and culture war. However, the article insists that the movement does not represent simply a reactionary impulse—it does not merely desire a return to some simple, mythic past; rather, Quiverfull readily engages with modern culture in order to argue for its worldview. By connecting its movement through modern technology, using the mainstream media to gain credibility by emphasizing common values, and co-opting the rhetoric of feminism, the movement works both within and challenges cultural norms.
1CROSS + 3NAILS = 4GVN: Compulsory Christianity and Homosexuality in the Bible Belt Panopticon
Authors: Barton Bernadette
Published: May 2011

While some areas of the United States have made progress in securing rights for gay people, Bible Belt states lag behind. Not only do these states lack domestic-partner benefits, but also lesbians and gay men can still be fired from places of employment in many regions of the Bible Belt for being a homosexual. The article argues that regional social mores for small-town life, rules that govern southern manners, and expectations of submission to Christian institutions function as a "Bible Belt panopticon" to perpetuate both passive and active homophobia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and excerpts from in-depth audiotaped interviews with lesbians and gay men from the region, the article explores the intersections among religiosity, region, and sexual identity to theorize how the Bible Belt panopticon operates to create an environment of compulsory Christianity.
Carnivalizing Carnival-Land in the Urban Sertões of Teatro Oficina
Authors: Melo Carla
Published: May 2011

The imaginary around the "Canudos War" (1896-1897) as paradigmatic of others that perpetuate the extreme socio-spatial exclusion of contemporary Brazil was a central theme of Teatro Oficina's Os Sertões (2002-2007). This five-part theatrical production was based on the literary epic of the same title (1902), which re-envisioned the northeastern Brazilian backlands, redeeming its subjects and denouncing the Canudos War as a massacre. The Os Sertões cycle allegorized the struggle of the landless, the urban squatters, as well as Teatro Oficina's own fight against the gentrification of its neighborhood. Through an analysis of the performance tactics and the various texts that informed the making of Os Sertões , this article locates performance's spatiality and its potential for enacting social agency as intrinsically connected to the body and sensorial knowledge.
Disonancias musicales: violencia y performance en Cuarteto de Eduardo Rovner
Authors: Meléndez Priscilla
Published: May 2011

Music is a powerful presence in Eduardo Rovner's dramatic production that resists being considered merely part of the background. In "Disonancias musicales: violencia y performance en Cuarteto de Eduardo Rovner" I aim to show that music assumes a key role in this Argentine play, by allowing the audience to connect diverse political and historical spaces and times, from the world of Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony , to the present-day performance of four inept and cruel string musicians that unsuccessfully play Beethoven's work. In Cuarteto , the violent acts of the members of the quartet connect the historical past — including Nazism — with a present moment when social and political violence is being linked to artistic creation, ironically joining Beethoven's admirable music with the moral indignities and murderous acts of the contemporary musicians, and in turn, indirectly with the atrocities of the Argentine Dirty War of the late 1970's and early 1980's. In Cuarteto , Rovner creates an ambiguous artistic world — both sublime and horrendous — as a way to explore the processes of artistic communication, and to claim not only the artist's own creative freedom, but also the political and ethical freedom that has been suppressed in Argentina's recent history.
"Home is where theatre is": Performing Dominican Transnationalism
Authors: Stevens Camilla
Published: May 2011

This essay argues that a transnational approach to Dominican performance reveals a wealth of theatrical activity that addresses Dominican-U.S. migration. Like the characters in their plays who perform the social scenarios of migration, the creative endeavors of playwrights and performers such as Elizabeth Ovalle, Zaida Corniel, Chiqui Vicioso, and Josefina Báez are psychically and materially invested in more than one geopolitical space. Framed by critical approaches from Latino theater studies and migration studies, the analysis of the theme of return migration in four pieces by these authors shows that for transnational migrants, "home" can be conceived of as pluri-local and mobile. Their plays thus help to re-conceptualize dominicanidad from a diasporic perspective and to counter stereotyped portrayals of Dominican migration.
D.F. : el mural citadino de Emilio Carballido
Authors: Rizk Beatriz J.
Published: May 2011

D.F. consists of fifty two one-act plays. From a time-span perspective, the collection begins with El final del idilio , which takes place in 1884, at a school under the strict supervision of Catholic priests and ends with Condominio , well into the twenty-first century, on the effects of over modernization in an urban setting. Its contents' range can be compared with the great muralists (Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros) oeuvre or the city chronicles of Carlos Monsiváis, who has also meticulously reflected on Mexican City's urban growth as if it was an open text to be decoded. Considering its inhabitants' discursive registry changes during three different periods — thirty years apart — and taking into account the socio-historical context, we single out Estufas, Un cuento de Navidad , and Difuntos de fin de siglo .
Provoking Intimacies: Staging Las relaciones de Clara in Havana
Authors: White Bretton
Published: May 2011

This article examines the blurring of distinctions between audience and actor in Cuban director Carlos Díaz's creative 2007 staging of Las relaciones de Clara (written by Dea Loher, 1999) in the musty rooms of a colonial home. Using queer theorist Leo Bersani and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips' theories, I investigate how a proliferation of intimacies creates a sense of sameness that is rooted in physical proximity and discomfort. This essay shows how re-imagining the possibility of physical intimacies can produce a shared hopefulness between audience, play troupe and the nation. What makes these theatrical intimacies relevant in a contemporary Cuban context is how they resist the state's persistent attempts to fabricate its own version of a unified society. (BW, Article in English)
El derecho a la identidad y su correlato escénico en A propósito de la duda , de Patricia Zangaro
Authors: Botta Mónica
Published: May 2011

This essay focuses on Patricia Zangaro's A propósito de la duda (2000), and examines the play's role in the Madres and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo's search for the abducted children of parents subjected to forced disappearances. An analysis of the Brecthtian's techniques employed by the dramatist helps to explain not only the ways in which the play engages its audience in political and ethical issues, but the manner it elicits the exercise of the "right to truth and identity."
"A Gentle and Humane Temper": Humility in Medicine
Authors: Coulehan Jack
Published: May 2011

Humility is the medical virtue most difficult to understand and practice. This is especially true in contemporary medicine, which has developed a culture more characterized by arrogance and entitlement than by self-effacement and moderation. In such a culture, humility suggests weakness, indecisiveness, or even deception, as in false modesty. Nonetheless, an operational definition of medical humility includes four distinct but closely related personal characteristics that are central to good doctoring: unpretentious openness, honest self-disclosure, avoidance of arrogance, and modulation of self-interest. Humility, like other virtues, is best taught by means of narrative and role modeling. We may rightly be proud of contemporary medical advances, while at the same time experiencing gratitude and humility as healers.
Medicine, Methodology, and Values: Trade-Offs in Clinical Science and Practice
Authors: Ho Vincent K. Y.
Published: May 2011

The current guidelines of evidence-based medicine (EBM) presuppose that clinical research and clinical practice should advance from rigorous scientific tests as they generate reliable, value-free knowledge. Under this presupposition, hypotheses postulated by doctors and patients in the process of their decision making are preferably tested in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), and in systematic reviews and meta-analyses summarizing outcomes from multiple RCTs. Since testing under this scheme is predominantly focused on the criteria of generality and precision achieved through methodological rigor, at the cost of the criterion of realism, translating test results to clinical practice is often problematic. Choices concerning which methodological criteria should have priority are inevitable, however, as clinical trials, and scientific research in general, cannot meet all relevant criteria at the same time. Since these choices may be informed by considerations external to science, we must acknowledge that science cannot be value-free in a strict sense, and this invites a more prominent role for value-laden considerations in evaluating clinical research. The urgency for this becomes even more apparent when we consider the important yet implicit role of scientific theories in EBM, which may also be subjected to methodological evaluation and for which selectiveness in methodological focus is likewise inevitable.
Prescribing Psychotherapy
Authors: Chisolm Margaret S.
Published: May 2011

Psychotherapy has long been an integral treatment modality for patients with psychiatric conditions, but recent evidence suggests that the practice of psychotherapy by psychiatrists has greatly diminished. Between 1996 and 2005, the percentage of psychiatry office visits involving psychotherapy decreased from about 44% to 29%, a 35% reduction in less than 10 years. Although the increasing availability of medications to treat psychiatric disorders has played a role in this decline, it is not the only factor. This essay reviews the multiple forces effecting this shift and highlights the limited knowledge base regarding the impact of this change on patients. The essay concludes with a call for research to prevent unintended and potentially harmful consequences to patients and to inform the continued role of psychotherapy in residency education.
Teaching Quality and Cost in the Tumultuous Era of Health-Care Reform
Authors: Davis Andrew M.
Published: May 2011

The passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act has not ended bitter debates around the policies and practice patterns required to appropriately balance access, quality, and cost in the U.S. health-care system. While many physicians have asked simply "to be left alone" to continue practicing as they see fit, this is an increasingly untenable position, given the notably high costs and very mixed clinical outcomes in the United States relative to other developed nations. A new multi-author text on Medical Quality Management stresses physician involvement in health-care quality, safety, and efficiency and lays out key concepts to help readers better understand many of the national challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This essay extends lessons from this book and the national debate on health-care reform and suggests promising areas for clinician engagement in the ongoing evolution of the U.S. health-care system.
Medical Cure and Progress: The Case of Type-1 Diabetes
Authors: Marcum James A.
Published: May 2011

Medicine often defines progress in terms of medical cures; however, such cures are rare. At best, medical progress generally consists of managing patients more efficiently or competently, especially in terms of relieving their symptoms. Today, medicine stands on the edge of curing a number of diseases. However, before achieving such cures, biomedical scientists need to understand in finer detail the mechanisms of physiological and pathological processes, especially from a systems perspective, and students of biomedical studies need to understand more precisely what a medical cure is conceptually or philosophically. This article utilizes type-1 diabetes to explore the issues surrounding medical progress with respect to defining medical cure, especially in terms of distinguishing it from managing a patient's illness.
Sarkar on the Buddha's Four Noble Truths
Authors: Kang Chris
Published: May 2011

This is a critical comparison of two important figures, one ancient and one contemporary, in the Indian religious landscape: Gotama Buddha and Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. Such comparison of their key ideas and practices is warranted for two reasons. First, Sarkar, a neo-Hindu thinker and reformer, has both praised the Buddha's humanism and criticized the Buddhist doctrine of the Four Noble Truths, and it is of interest to examine exactly where Sarkar stands in relation to the Buddha and to Buddhism as a whole. It is particularly interesting to examine in what ways Sarkar's teachings are an attempt to find an alternative to Buddhism. Second, it is of academic interest to explore the accuracy of Sarkar's interpretations of the Buddha's teachings and the problem of their acceptability to Buddhists. This essay argues for the commensurability of the Sarkarian and Buddhist emancipatory ethic despite real doctrinal and practical differences, and suggests that Sarkarian and Buddhist approaches can each contribute to the alleviation of human suffering both individual and collective.
The Concept of Zhen 真 in the Zhuangzi
Authors: Chong Kim-chong
Published: May 2011

The term zhen in the Zhuangzi is commonly associated with the zhen ren or the "true person," who is described, for example, as capable of going through fire and water unharmed. Some scholars take this as typifying a mystical element in the Zhuangzi . This essay investigates the various meanings and uses of zhen in the Zhuangzi and reaches a broader understanding of the zhen ren in various contexts.
Mozi's Moral Theory: Breaking the Hermeneutical Stalemate
Authors: Johnson Daniel M.
Published: May 2011

The most significant contemporary controversy surrounding the thought of Mozi is the debate over his ultimate criterion of right action—whether he should be interpreted as a divine-will theorist or as a utilitarian. It is possible, at least on the surface, to interpret him either way. I consider arguments designed to break this hermeneutical stalemate and argue that the divine-will interpretation comes out ahead. I conclude by responding to an argument by Xiufen Lu that the debate is misguided.
Mou Zongsan, Hegel, and Kant: The Quest for Confucian Modernity
Authors: Schmidt Stephan
Published: May 2011

This essay discusses the New Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan (1909–1995), who in a number of highly influential writings in the 1970s attempted a kind of Confucian Aufhebung of Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy. Section 1 analyzes Mou's hybrid terminology and demonstrates how his use of Kantian concepts such as intellectual intuition (zhi de zhijue) and autonomy (zi lu) significantly altered the meaning of these terms without making the differences explicit. By relating this particular brand of Kantian Confucianism to the Chinese discourse on modernization—in which New Confucians took a stand against May Fourth iconoclasm—section 2 brings to light the inner strategic logic of Mou Zongsan's approach, namely a two-step argument for both the possibility and the necessity of Confucian Modernity. The concluding third section traces Mou's strategic appropriation of Kantian philosophy to his brief but momentous encounter with Hegel's metaphysics of history in the 1950s. Although Mou Zongsan himself never fully acknowledged his indebtedness to Hegel, the essay demonstrates that it was Hegel who first provided Mou with an understanding of how to enlist Kant's services in his quest for Confucian Modernity.
An Eliminativist Theory of Suspense
Authors: Uidhir Christy Mag
Published: May 2011

Suspense realism claims suspense is itself a genuine, distinct emotion. While current theories of suspense are suspense realist theories, I argue for a suspense eliminativist theory according to which suspense is not itself a genuine, distinct emotion but a subspecies of an emotion, or the class comprising all and only those subspecies, chiefly demarcated by the necessity of uncertainty and primarily the province of (primarily fictional) narrative encounters. There are several prima facie compelling reasons to think suspense eliminativism is capable of grounding a theory equally if not better able to resolve the principal concerns suspense theory must address.
Montaigne's Moral Objectivism
Authors: Edelman Christopher
Published: May 2011

Montaigne is almost certainly a skeptic, and it is often thought that his skepticism leads him to subscribe to moral relativism. Indeed, there are passages in the Essais that seem to support this widespread interpretation. However, in this essay the author argues that Montaigne's skepticism does not lead to moral relativism. In fact, not only does it not lead him to abandon the notion of objective moral truth, but it is precisely his skepticism that allows Montaigne to see how despite the fact that his moral objectivism is unjustifiable, it is nonetheless defensible.
Art or Porn: Clear Division or False Dilemma?
Authors: Maes Hans
Published: May 2011

Art or Porn? The popular media will often choose this heading when reviewing the latest sexually explicit novel, film, or art exhibition. The underlying assumption seems to be that the work under discussion has to be one or the other, and cannot be both. But is this not a false dilemma? Can one really draw a sharp dividing line between the two domains? I think not. I will argue that there is a middle ground between art and pornography and that this middle ground is occupied by numerous paintings, prints, photographs, films, novels and graphic novels. As such, I believe that the phrase 'pornographic art,' far from being an oxymoron, actually designates a legitimate artistic category. There is strong opposition to this view in the philosophy of art today. Both Jerrold Levinson and Christy Mag Uidhir have recently argued that pornography and art are mutually exclusive. So, my first task is to show that their arguments, though well-crafted and carefully formulated, ultimately fail.
Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman , or The Justification of Literature
Authors: Carroll Noël
Published: May 2011

Since 1996, with the premiere of his play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane , Martin McDonagh has emerged as one of the most powerful young voices in the English-speaking theater world. The Pillowman is his most philosophical work. It is a meta-theatrical exercise that obliquely addresses the question of whether theater (and, by extension, literature) can be justified in anything that it says. Or, instead, are some things out of bounds, perhaps sometimes warranting regulation?
Rorty's Liberal Utopia and Huxley's Island
Authors: Curtis William M.
Published: May 2011

Richard Rorty controversially suggests that literature is more important for political progress in liberal society than political philosophy. Indeed, eschewing conventional choices, like Plato's Republic or Machiavelli's Prince , Rorty argues that the best introduction to political thought is Aldous Huxley's celebrated dystopian novel, Brave New World . Rorty, however, neglects Huxley's positive utopian work, Island . This is unfortunate because Island depicts a pragmatic liberal society that embodies many of Rorty's political ideals. This article demonstrates that Island represents an exercise of liberal political imagination that complements Rorty's widely discussed vision of a pragmatic liberal utopia.
Nietzsche's Last Laugh: Ecce Homo as Satire
Authors: More Nicholas D.
Published: May 2011

Against the many who claim that Nietzsche's Ecce Homo is useless, madness, or merely inscrutable, my close analysis of the philosopher's last original composition reveals that his so-called autobiography actually inhabits an ancient literary form: satire. After establishing how to read this much-maligned book, I argue that Ecce Homo gives us the best example of Nietzsche interpreting his own philosophy, and constitutes a rhetorical and therapeutic strategy for him to engage and survive his "dangerous truths" through humor. Finally, I outline the import of reading Nietzsche as a satirist-not only in his final work, but across his corpus.
Nietzsche and "Getting It Wrong"
Authors: Montanari Dylan J.
Published: May 2011

Robert Pippin's Nietzsche, Psychology, & First Philosophy is a striking, lucid study of Nietzsche's thoughts on the vicissitudes of subjectivity and its constituent commitments. It is an invaluable read not only for Nietzsche specialists, who will find it a serious challenge to prevailing attitudes, but also for all philosophers, who will discover his relevance to contemporary subfields concerned with human intention and action. Nietzsche emerges as the philosopher who came the closest, in the face of the perils of modernity, to offering a radically new picture of what it means to act as a free, authentic subject.
Lolita's Nietzschean Morality
Authors: Rodgers Michael
Published: May 2011

This essay wakes the sleeping dog that is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita . Rejecting the critical consensus suggesting that it has the ability to educate morally its readers, this essay, instead, heralds the idea that Lolita is a critique of morality. Focusing on the text's similarities with Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, I aim to negate the various interpretations that argue that Nabokov's cause célèbre houses a traditionally virtuous morality. By examining Nabokov's literary technique and illustrating how this, at a meta-level, echoes Nietzsche's philosophy of a "transvaluation of all values," I argue that Lolita forces readers to inhabit a disorientating Nietzschean world.
Truth and Lies in Umberto Eco's Baudolino
Authors: Mercer Sabine
Published: May 2011

Is Baudolino an ambiguous game about truth and lies? Eco's medieval metafiction entertains with philosophical insights about the makings and meanings of truth. Systems of knowledge and the plurality of interpretation lead to a proliferation of truth-claims that show truth as being conceptional, provisional, manipulated by knowledge/power systems, or as dependent on perception. The confusion of textual worlds with the empirical world and a reversed logic of cause and effect produce paradoxical truth-effects, whereas possibility is the precondition for hope; hope that can bring into being the desires and dreams that are part of the stories we tell about ourselves.
Thinly Disguised (Autobio)Graphical Stories: Will Eisner’s Life, in Pictures
Authors: Dong Lan
Published: May 2011

This article explores the interactions between autobiographical writing and the graphic novel through a critical analysis of Eisner’s collection, Life, in Pictures: Autobiographical Stories (2007). It demonstrates how Eisner’s work challenges the conventional conceptualization of autobiography and also breaks new ground in creating, reading, and theorizing the graphic novel, thus expanding the ways the reader reads and understands both genres. At the same time, it reveals the techniques through which Eisner examines the complexity of social prejudice in visual and textual narratives. Focusing on two stories in the collection, The Dreamer and To the Heart of the Storm , this article discusses how Eisner explores the potential of the graphic novel form by incorporating fiction and life writing. Furthermore, it reveals how Eisner uses these narrative modes to depict not only antisemitism, but also broader social issues regarding prejudice.
The Search : A Graphic Narrative for Beginning to Teach about the Holocaust
Authors: Flory Wendy Stallard
Published: May 2011

The Search , the 2007 Holocaust graphic narrative by Eric Heuvel et al. (originally in Dutch and now translated into other languages including English), was first tested in government-funded initiatives in secondary schools in Germany, Poland, and Hungary. A project with a quite different impact from Art Spiegelmann’s Maus , it was expressly planned for teaching 13- to 16-year-olds with little knowledge of the subject. This essay examines the strategies of the book’s creators. These include the care and skill of its design, the effectiveness of the artwork, the inclusiveness of the range of topics covered, and how, by propelling them to explore documentary materials, The Search can make vivid, harrowing, and moving for these students at least some dimensions of the Holocaust experience of individuals.
Marvel Comics and the Golem Legend
Authors: Weiner Robert G.
Published: May 2011

The Jewish legend of the golem is often considered the prototype as the “original” superhero (influencing the creation of Superman and other characters). During the 1970s Marvel Comics used the golem legend to create their own unique brand of “monster” superhero. This essay describes the various ways Marvel has used the golem motif in its sequential art stories. First appearing in the pages of Strange Tales , this golem differed from the original stories of Rabbi Loew’s supernatural savior. The character really did not resonate with the comic book-buying public, lasting only three issues and one guest appearance. Yet the concept of the golem was too powerful a metaphor to be discarded. Marvel Comics brought back another type of golem for their Invaders World War II series. The creators (specifically writer Roy Thomas) tried to answer the question, what if a golem had been there to protect Jews during the Holocaust? This golem was a man/ clay hybrid who was also a Rabbi.
The “Outsider”: Neil Gaiman and the Old Testament
Authors: Camus Cyril
Published: May 2011

Neil Gaiman’s educational environment was divided between Jewish family and Anglican schooling. Raised up as a cultural outsider, he has cultivated his detached outlook, moving from England to the United States and depicting the latter from a British perspective in Sandman and American Gods . His cheerful embracement of the position of the “alien” also shows in his use and rewritings of the foundational Judaic text, the Old Testament, in the six scripts he contributed for the British comics-anthology of theological satire Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament (Knockabout, 1987), and in his comics-series Sandman (DC, 1988–1996), where the explicit linking of DC characters to their biblical roots, and the use of Midrashic references, operate as a resacralization that counterbalance the desacralization at the core of Outrageous Tales .
Mutational analysis of the necdin gene in patients with congenital isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism
Authors: Beneduzzi Daiane , Iyer Anita K , Trarbach Ericka Barbosa , Silveira-Neto Acacio P , Silveira Letícia G , Tusset Cintia , Yip Kathleen , Mendonça Berenice B , Mellon Pamela L , Latronico Ana Claudia
Published: May 2011

Context

Necdin activates GNRH gene expression and is fundamental for the development, migration, and axonal extension of murine GNRH neurons. In humans, necdin plays a potential role in the hypogonadotropic hypogonadism phenotype in patients with Prader–Willi syndrome.

Aim

To investigate necdin gene (NDN) variants in patients with isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH).

Patients and methods

We studied 160 Brazilian patients with IHH, which includes 92 with Kallmann syndrome and 68 with normosmic IHH. Genomic DNA was extracted and the single NDN exon was amplified and sequenced. To measure GNRH transcriptional activity, luciferase reporter plasmids containing GNRH regulatory regions were transiently transfected into GT1-7 cells in the presence and absence of overexpressed wild-type or mutant necdin.

Results

A heterozygous variant of necdin, p.V318A, was identified in a 23-year-old male with Kallmann syndrome. The p.V318A was also present in affected aunt and his father and was absent in 100 Brazilian control subjects. Previous FGFR1 gene analysis revealed a missense mutation (p.P366L) in this family. Functional studies revealed a minor difference in the activation of GNRH transcription by mutant protein compared with wild type in that a significant impairment of the necdin protein activity threshold was observed.

Conclusion

A rare variant of necdin (p.V318A) was described in a family with Kallmann syndrome associated with a FGFR1 mutation. Familial segregation and in vitro analysis suggested that this non-synonymous variant did not have a direct causative role in the hypogonadism phenotype. NDN mutations are not a frequent cause of congenital IHH.
Plant Genetics, Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security
Authors: Ronald Pamela
Published: May 2011

The United States and the world face serious societal challenges in the areas of food, environment, energy, and health. Historically, advances in plant genetics have provided new knowledge and technologies needed to address these challenges. Plant genetics remains a key component of global food security, peace, and prosperity for the foreseeable future. Millions of lives depend upon the extent to which crop genetic improvement can keep pace with the growing global population, changing climate, and shrinking environmental resources. While there is still much to be learned about the biology of plant–environment interactions, the fundamental technologies of plant genetic improvement, including crop genetic engineering, are in place, and are expected to play crucial roles in meeting the chronic demands of global food security. However, genetically improved seed is only part of the solution. Such seed must be integrated into ecologically based farming systems and evaluated in light of their environmental, economic, and social impacts—the three pillars of sustainable agriculture. In this review, I describe some lessons learned, over the last decade, of how genetically engineered crops have been integrated into agricultural practices around the world and discuss their current and future contribution to sustainable agricultural systems.
Sorotipos virais de dengue identificados em crianças de Manaus, Estado do Amazonas, 2008
Authors: Costa Cristóvão Alves da , Façanha Grecilane Palheta
Published: May 2011

INTRODUCÃO: A dengue é uma arbovirose que vem causando sérios problemas de saúde pública, em regiões tropicais e subtropicais do planeta. MÉTODOS: Neste estudo, foram investigadas amostras de sangue de crianças, através da RT-PCR, com o intuito de se identificar sorotipos do vírus dengue nessa população infantil, em Manaus/AM, durante o ano de 2008. RESULTADOS: O DENV-3 foi o único sorotipo viral identificado. CONCLUSÕES: No presente estudo, 83% das crianças analisadas apresentaram resultado negativo para dengue através do RT-PCR sugerindo a ocorrência de outras doenças febris que necessitam ser esclarecidas.
Existence of collateral Equilibrium without survival assumption
Authors: Orrillo Jaime
Published: May 2011

This paper shows the existence of a collateral equilibrium without assuming any hypotheses on the strict positivity, be they individual initial endowments, including the ex post initial endowments, or aggregated initial endowments. Because of dropping the strict positivity of social initial endowment we fail to get an equilibrium. Instead, we get a quasi-equilibrium. Then, appealing to the concept of irreducibility (introduced by McKenzie in 1959) which is adapted to the collateral model, we show that the quasi-equilibrium is indeed a legitime equilibrium.
Agravos clínicos atendidos pelo Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência (SAMU) de Porto Alegre - RS
Authors: Marques Giselda Quintana , Lima Maria Alice Dias da Silva , Ciconet Rosane Mortari
Published: May 2011

OBJETIVO: Caracterizar os agravos clínicos atendidos pelo Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência (SAMU), de Porto Alegre, no período de janeiro a junho de 2008. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal, descritivo, exploratório. Utilizaram-se dados do sistema de informações do SAMU que foram transportados para o Programa Excel. O tratamento e análise dos dados foram descritivos. RESULTADOS: Os agravos neurológicos, cardiovasculares, respiratórios, digestivos e metabólicos foram os mais prevalentes, e a maioria ocorreu na faixa etária de 41-60 anos. Os hospitais públicos e unidades de pronto-atendimento foram as principais portas de entrada dos pacientes atendidos pelo SAMU. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados podem contribuir para uma melhor organização do serviço e apontam necessidades de qualificação do atendimento de enfermagem que tem participação decisiva no cuidado ao paciente.
Contribuição do enfermeiro para possível redução de rejeição ao Transplante de Córnea
Authors: Souza Andréa Lima de Castro , Cerqueira Carolay Nascimento , Nogueira Emília Cervino
Published: May 2011

OBJETIVO: Verificar as contribuições do Enfermeiro para a possível redução dos índices de rejeição ao transplante de córnea em Sergipe. MÉTODOS: Estudo exploratório, retrospectivo e quantitativo em prontuários de doadores e receptores de córnea de 2003 a 2008 da Central de Notificação, Captação e Distribuição de Órgãos de Sergipe (CNCDO-SE). RESULTADOS: Foram analisados 350 captações, 309 transplantes, 185 doadores e 39 rejeições. Das córneas captadas pelo enfermeiro, 83,73% foram aproveitadas, 15,44% foram descartadas e 6,50% apresentaram rejeição. Das córneas captadas por outro profissional, 72,72% foram aproveitadas, 27,27% foram descartadas e 13,65% apresentaram rejeição. CONCLUSÃO: As córneas captadas pelo enfermeiro apresentaram menor índice de rejeição e maior aproveitamento. As variáveis ligadas ao receptor e ao doador não influenciaram nas rejeições.
Análise de sensibilidade do consumo de gasolina C entre julho de 2001 e dezembro de 2008: política tributária estadual como instrumento de políticas energéticas e ambientais
Authors: Vilela Thaís Machado de M. , Pinto Junior Helder Queiroz
Published: May 2011

A partir de uma análise descritiva dos dados de consumo de gasolina C por estado é possível notar diferentes comportamentos entre os mesmos. Desta forma, a análise de sensibilidade da demanda por gasolina C a variações no preço no Brasil deve considerar essa multiplicidade de respostas. Através de uma abordagem econométrica tradicional de séries de tempo, procura-se, neste artigo, avaliar as diferentes reações a mudanças no preço, mais especificamente, a mudanças no imposto estadual ICMS sobre a gasolina C. O cálculo da elasticidade-imposto permite verificar os efeitos da adoção de políticas públicas estaduais nos planos ambiental e energético.
Vamos fazer da nossa vida uma obra de arte?
Authors: Campos Ana Maria de , Pachane Graziela Giusti
Published: May 2011

Apresentamos neste artigo uma pesquisa educacional como caminho investigativo trilhado na companhia de muitas pessoas. Recorremos às narrativas de algumas educadoras populares para compartilhar uma experiência de formação realizada na cidade de Campinas-SP, no período compreendido entre 2003-2004. Procuramos abordar a formação e o trabalho realizado nos grupos de alfabetização de jovens e adultos, como vivência significativa na vida de todos os participantes do processo. A relevância da experiência pode ser apreendida através das narrativas, impregnadas da compreensão que as educadoras têm de si e do trabalho que desenvolvem em parceria com formadores e educandos, todos sujeitos produtores de uma outra e nova interpretação do vivido. A atitude autoral presente nas narrativas e nas opções de vida evidenciam que a concepção emancipatória da produção do conhecimento experimentada na Educação Popular favorece o desenvolvimento da inteligência e das energias criativas das pessoas. A re-significação da vida como uma obra de arte, inconclusa e aberta, pode ser vislumbrada através dos registros dos sujeitos: educadoras e pesquisadores.
Educação para além da formação do trabalhador alienado
Authors: Almeida Natália Regina de
Published: May 2011

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é indicar algumas questões acerca do papel da educação frente à sociedade capitalista. É importante destacar que não se trata de um trabalho empírico, mas sim, de uma reflexão, uma tentativa de se pensar a relação educação-trabalho-capital. Nesse sentido, perguntamos: Qual o sentido da educação frente à lógica do capital? O papel da educação como "veículo" para novas propostas de elaboração de estratégias para a mudança consciente dos educandos é de fundamental importância. Para consolidar essa tentativa, utilizamos o apoio teórico de autores como: Gadotti (1995), Konder (1981), Marx (1983, 1989, 2002), Marx e Engels (1984, 1993), Mészáros (2005), Pires (1997) e Schaff (1967). Entendemos que uma educação que não seja meramente para formação de futuros "alienados", mas sim, uma educação que não se conforme com as reproduções sociais e que leve em consideração o caráter sócio-histórico do indivíduo, é crucial.
Mulheres e professoras: repercussões da dupla jornada nas condições de vida e no trabalho docente
Authors: Zibetti Marli Lúcia Tonatto , Pereira Sidnéia Ribeiro
Published: May 2011

De uma perspectiva dos estudos de gênero, esta pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, discute as condições de vida e trabalho de mulheres que atuam na docência em educação infantil e nas séries iniciais do ensino fundamental em três redes municipais do interior do estado de Rondônia. Os resultados indicam que as inadequadas condições de trabalho nas escolas, quando somadas à desigual divisão das atribuições domésticas e à ausência de serviços públicos de atendimento às mães trabalhadoras, repercutem de maneira negativa nas condições de vida e na qualidade do trabalho docente.
Os trópicos na rota do Império britânico: a visão de Mungo Park sobre a África em fins do século XVIII
Authors: Viana Larissa
Published: May 2011

O jovem médico escocês Mungo Park chegou à África em 1795, aos 23 anos, com uma missão tão específica quanto complexa naqueles tempos: percorrer o curso do rio Níger. Em 1799, o relato dessa jornada veio a público em uma publicação que vendeu 1.500 cópias em apenas um mês, estimulando o aparecimento de mais duas edições da obra no mesmo ano e sua tradução para o francês e o alemão no ano seguinte. Neste artigo, examina-se a narrativa de Mungo Park considerando-se as relações entre trópico, ciência e viagem nos primeiros tempos do expansionismo inglês sobre o interior da África.
John Banister: um cirurgião elisabetano no Brasil
Authors: Mello Amílcar D'Avila de
Published: May 2011

Na história quinhentista do Brasil, são muito raras as referências aos profissionais da saúde. Na expedição de Edward Fenton, despachada pela Coroa inglesa em 1582 para fundar um entreposto comercial na Ásia, vinha o famoso cirurgião-barbeiro e físico (médico) John Banister. Desviada da sua rota original para repetir os feitos de Francis Drake, a esquadra fez escala na África, atravessou o Atlântico e ancorou no litoral catarinense. Nessas águas, a expedição degenerou em ações piráticas e retornou fracassada à Europa. John Banister é considerado aquele que libertou a anatomia inglesa da sua escravidão medieval, lançando sobre ela a luz do Renascimento. Foi a primeira vez que alguém dessa envergadura na área da saúde visitava estas latitudes.
As apropriações da obra de Pierre Bourdieu no campo educacional brasileiro, através de periódicos da área
Authors: Catani Afrânio Mendes , Catani Denice Bárbara , Pereira Gilson R. de M.
Published: May 2011

A partir de pesquisa realizada em 20 periódicos especializados em educação, editados entre 1971 e 2000, são analisadas as formas de apropriação da obra de Pierre Bourdieu no campo educacional brasileiro. O conjunto dos 355 artigos publicados nesses periódicos que fazem referências ao sociólogo constitui o corpus básico para a análise das peculiaridades das interpretações brasileiras do autor.
Ética e poder na sociedade da informação: revendo o mito do progresso
Authors: Dupas Gilberto
Published: May 2011

Durante o século XX, o capitalismo global apossou-se por completo dos destinos da tecnologia, libertando-a de amarras metafísicas e orientando-a única e exclusivamente para a criação de valor econômico. Transformados em fator fundamental na disputa dos mercados e na acumulação capitalista global, os vetores tecnológicos autonomizaram-se definitivamente de considerações de natureza ética, social ou de políticas públicas. As conseqüências foram, dentre outras, o aumento da concentração de renda e da exclusão social, o perigo de destruição do habitat humano por contaminação e a manipulação genética, ameaçando o patrimônio comum da humanidade.É preciso pois buscar condições para que nova hegemonia mundial, que inclua mas não se constranja ao capital, possa construir um mundo melhor, utilizando-se dos avanços da ciência em benefício da grande maioria de seus cidadãos.
Cooperativismo e dinâmicas produtivas em zonas desfavorecidas: o caso das pequenas cooperativas agrícolas do Sul da França
Authors: Pires Maria Luiza Lins e Silva
Published: May 2011

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar os arranjos produtivos desenvolvidos pelos agricultores familiares no âmbito da unidade familiar e da cooperativa, avaliando seus impactos sobre o território em termos de criação/ampliação do capital social. Procura-se também identificar as estratégias utilizadas pelas cooperativas para lidar com as adversidades locais, garantindo-lhes uma dinâmica particular. As cooperativas têm estimulado a mobilização dos sócios em torno de inovações organizacionais e tecnológicas? Quais os seus impactos em nível de ampliação do capital social e dinamização dos territórios? Essas questões são analisadas a partir de uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa realizada no Sul da França, tendo como referência dois estudos de caso - Société coopérative agricole Fromagerie des Cévennes e Cooperativa Origine Cévennes. Em ambos, privilegiaram-se o savoir-faire e o protagonismo dos atores locais; estes considerados, mais do que "objetos de estudo", "sujeitos de seu próprio desenvolvimento". O estudo revela os limites e poder de alcance de uma cooperativa, mesmo quando vitimada por distâncias consideráveis dos centros de distribuição dos produtos, custos operacionais elevados, terras áridas e dificuldades de infraestrutura. Os casos são particularmente significativos para reforçar a importância do cooperativismo, sobretudo em áreas consideradas desfavorecidas.
Fenomenologia do maravilhoso na literatura italiana
Authors: Ardissimo Erminia , Scarinci Silvana
Published: May 2011

O maravilhoso na literatura italiana assume diversas formas. Eu pretendo apresentar aqui três tipologias, escolhidas por serem arquetípicas e por explicarem o desenvolvimento futuro do gosto literário italiano. Em primeiro lugar, Dante: em sua obra, o nível epistêmico do sobrenatural se sobrepõe ao nível do natural. Beatriz, a mulher-anjo, pertence ao mundo real, mas através de suas qualidades conecta este mundo ao mundo celeste. Ela é conhecida por ser uma manifestação do divino, um milagre. Em segundo lugar, episódios de magia nos poemas cavalheirescos sublinham o imprevisível e a surpresa, o que sempre trazem novos rumos às vidas das personagens, às vezes surgem como soluções, outras vezes desviam o herói de seu destino correto. Em Orlando Furioso, a mágica também revela os desejos obscuros das personagens e seres humanos; trata-se de uma espécie de ciência da imaginação. Em terceiro lugar, na literatura de viagem, o maravilhoso é um tema recorrente, já que a viagem é um meio de se encontrar com o desconhecido, o inacreditável, o prodigioso, desde o Milione de Marco Polo. No início da era moderna, uma nova epistemologia e desencantamento tomam o lugar das analogias e da mágica, mas o maravilhoso não desaparece, ao contrário, adquire ainda maior importância com a nova ciência. Concluirei minha fala com algumas considerações sobre a maravilha na música presente na literatura do século XVII.
Nanofiltration for enhanced removal of disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors in swimming pool water–retention and water quality estimation
Authors: Klüpfel A. M. , Glauner T. , Zwiener C. , Frimmel F. H.
Published: May 2011

Three nanofiltration (NF) membranes with a chlorine tolerance ≥ 1 mg L−1 were applied to reduce DBPs and their precursors in swimming pool water. A lab scale plant with crossflow modules was installed in by-pass at the sand filter outlet of a swimming pool for a period of several weeks. The chlorine tolerances of the membranes SB90 and NP030 were found to be adequate for filtration under swimming pool water conditions over the given experimental period. Retention of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) were about 70% and 80% for SB90 and 50% and 40% for NP030, respectively. DOC accumulation in the pool and the expected fresh water consumption for a treatment system consisting of ultrafiltration (UF) and NF with backwash water treatment were estimated by mass balances based on the results. Mass balances were calculated also for a German public swimming pool with a conventional water treatment system (flocculation-sand filtration-chlorination) and were compared to DOC on-line measurements. Calculation of DOC mass balances for different UF-NF treatment scenarios showed that pool water quality could be improved significantly compared to the conventional treatment system.