bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Founder mutations and genotype-phenotype correlations in Meckel-Gruber syndrome and associated ciliopathies
Authors: Szymanska Katarzyna , Berry Ian , Logan Clare V , Cousins Simon RR , Lindsay Helen , Jafri Hussain , Raashid Yasmin , Malik-Sharif Saghira , Castle Bruce , Ahmed Mushtag , Bennett Chris , Carlton Ruth , Johnson Colin A
Published: October 2012

Background

Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS) is an autosomal recessive lethal condition that is a ciliopathy. MKS has marked phenotypic variability and genetic heterogeneity, with mutations in nine genes identified as causative to date.

Methods

Families diagnosed with Meckel-Gruber syndrome were recruited for research studies following informed consent. DNA samples were analyzed by microsatellite genotyping and direct Sanger sequencing.

Results

We now report the genetic analyses of 87 individuals from 49 consanguineous and 19 non-consanguineous families in an unselected cohort with reported MKS, or an associated severe ciliopathy in a kindred. Linkage and/or direct sequencing were prioritized for seven MKS genes (MKS1, TMEM216, TMEM67/MKS3, RPGRIP1L, CC2D2A, CEP290 and TMEM237) selected on the basis of reported frequency of mutations or ease of analysis. We have identified biallelic mutations in 39 individuals, of which 13 mutations are novel and previously unreported. We also confirm general genotype-phenotype correlations.

Conclusions

TMEM67 was the most frequently mutated gene in this cohort, and we confirm two founder splice-site mutations (c.1546 + 1 G > A and c.870-2A > G) in families of Pakistani ethnic origin. In these families, we have also identified two separate founder mutations for RPGRIP1L (c. 1945 C > T p.R649X) and CC2D2A (c. 3540delA p.R1180SfsX6). Two missense mutations in TMEM67 (c. 755 T > C p.M252T, and c. 1392 C > T p.R441C) are also probable founder mutations. These findings will contribute to improved genetic diagnosis and carrier testing for affected families, and imply the existence of further genetic heterogeneity in this syndrome.
How effective are slurry storage, cover or catch crops, woodland creation, controlled trafficking or break-up of compacted layers, and buffer strips as on-farm mitigation measures for delivering an improved water environment?
Authors: Randall Nicola P , Donnison Louise M , Lewis Paul J
Published: October 2012

Background

Agriculture has intensified over the last 50 years resulting in increased usage of fertilizers and agrochemicals, changes in cropping practices, land drainage and increased stocking rates. In Europe, this has resulted in declines in the quality of soils and waters due to increased run off and water pollution. Fifty percent of nitrates in European rivers are derived from agricultural sources in the UK this value is as high as 70%, where agriculture also contributes to approximately 28% of phosphates and 76% of sediments recorded in rivers. Catchments dominated by agricultural land use have increased levels of pesticides and bacterial pathogens.

European member states have a policy commitment to tackle water pollution through the Water Framework Directive. An analysis of the effectiveness of water pollution mitigation measures should enable decision makers and delivery agencies to better facilitate catchment planning.

The aim of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of slurry storage, cover/catch crops, woodland creation, controlled trafficking/break-up of compacted layers and buffer strips, as on farm mitigation measures, for delivering an improved water environment.

Methods

The systematic review will consist of a searchable systematic map database for all the named interventions. Where possible, quantitative analysis will be used to assess the effectiveness of interventions.

Electronic databases, the internet, and organisational websites will be searched, and stakeholders will be contacted for studies that investigate the impact of the on-farm mitigation measures on water quality. All studies found will be assessed for suitability for inclusion in the next stage. Inclusion criteria will be based on subject, intervention, comparator and outcome. The details of included studies will be incorporated into the systematic map database, and studies scored for effectiveness of intervention and study design. Where there is suitable data available, meta-analysis will be carried out to test the effectiveness of individual mitigation measures. A report will summarise the evidence, highlight any gaps in the available research, and provide recommendations for future research.
Decreased cervical epithelial sensitivity to nonoxynol-9 (N-9) after four daily applications in a murine model of topical vaginal microbicide safety
Authors: Lozenski Karissa , Ownbey Robert , Wigdahl Brian , Kish-Catalone Tina , Krebs Fred C
Published: October 2012

Background

The disappointing clinical failures of five topical vaginal microbicides have provided new insights into factors that impact microbicide safety and efficacy. Specifically, the greater risk for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) acquisition associated with multiple uses of a nonoxynol-9 (N-9)-containing product has highlighted the importance of application frequency as a variable during pre-clinical microbicide development, particularly in animal model studies.

Methods

To evaluate an association between application frequency and N-9 toxicity, experiments were performed using a mouse model of cervicovaginal microbicide safety. In this model system, changes in cervical and vaginal epithelial integrity, cytokine release, and immune cell infiltration were assessed after single and multiple exposures to N-9.

Results

After the initial application of N-9 (aqueous, 1%), considerable damage to the cervical epithelium (but not the vaginal epithelium) was observed as early as 10 min post-exposure and up to 8 h post-exposure. Subsequent daily exposures (up to 4 days) were characterized by diminished cervical toxicity relative to single exposures of like duration. Levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines released into the cervicovaginal lumen and the degree of CD14-positive immune cell infiltration proximal to the cervical epithelium were also dependent on the number of N-9 exposures.

Conclusions

Rather than causing cumulative cervical epithelial damage, repeated applications of N-9 were characterized by decreased sensitivity to N-9-associated toxicity and lower levels of immune cell recruitment. These results provide new insights into the failure of N-9-based microbicides and illustrate the importance of considering multiple exposure protocols in pre-clinical microbicide development strategies.
The importance of hypoglycemia in diabetic patients
Authors: Shafiee Gita , Mohajeri-Tehrani Mohammadreza , Pajouhi Mohammad , Larijani Bagher
Published: October 2012

Hypoglycemia is one of the most important complications of diabetes treatment. The risk of severe hypoglycemia is higher in elderly patients, those having comorbidities such as vascular disease or renal failure, pregnant women and in children with type 1diabetes. Moreover, in type 2 diabetes, progressive insulin deficiency, longer duration of diabetes, and tight glycemic control increase the risk of hypoglycemia as much as type 1 diabetes.Episodes hypoglycemia may lead to impairment of counter-regulatory system, with the potential of development of hypoglycemia unawareness. So, hypoglycemia may increase the vascular events even death in addition to other possible detrimental effects. Glycemic control should be individualized based on patient characteristics with some degree of safety. Recognition of hypoglycemia risk factors, blood glucose monitoring, selection of appropriate regimens and educational programs for healthcare professionals and patients with diabetes are the major issues to maintain good glycemic control, minimize the risk of hypoglycemia, and prevent long- term complications.
G-CSF-activated STAT3 enhances production of the chemokine MIP-2 in bone marrow neutrophils
Authors: Nguyen-Jackson Hoainam T , Li Haiyan S , Zhang Huiyuan , Ohashi Erika , Watowich Stephanie S
Published: October 2012

G-CSF stimulates the expression of the chemokine MIP-2 in mature neutrophils by a direct transcriptional mechanism dependent upon STAT3.

Neutrophil mobilization from the bone marrow is a critical aspect of the innate immune response, enabling a rapid deployment of phagocytes to infected or inflamed tissue. The cytokine G-CSF, which is induced rapidly during infection, elicits a swift and potent mobilizing response, yet its mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. Here, we studied the role of G-CSF and its principal signal transducer STAT3 in regulating expression of the neutrophil chemoattractant MIP-2. Our studies revealed Gr-1hi mature neutrophils as major sources of Cxcl2 (MIP-2) mRNA in bone marrow and G-CSF-responsive MIP-2 protein production. Induction of Cxcl2 was regulated directly by G-CSF-activated STAT3 via interaction at a STAT consensus element in the Cxcl2 promoter. G-CSF coordinately stimulated the association of STAT3, induction of the transcriptionally active H3K4me3 modification, and recruitment of RNA Pol II at the Cxcl2 proximal promoter, as well as the promoter region of Il8rb, encoding the MIP-2 receptor. These results suggest that the G-CSF–STAT3 pathway directly regulates transcriptional events that induce neutrophil mobilization.
Hysteria, conversion and functional disorders: a neurological
contribution to classification issues
Authors: Reynolds Edward H.
Published: October 2012

Proposals by psychiatrists to reclassify conversion disorder in DSM-5 and
ICD-11 are proving difficult and controversial. Patients with conversion
disorder usually present initially to neurologists, who often use different
concepts and terminology. History and clinical practice suggest that the way
forward is to seek agreed principles and a common understanding between the
two disciplines, preferably in a single universal classification.
Do conflict-affected societies need
psychiatrists?
Authors: Silove Derrick
Published: October 2012

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression
are prevalent among post-conflict populations worldwide but controversy
about the cultural meaning of these symptoms, particularly in relation to
PTSD, adds to the challenge for psychiatry in mounting appropriate
intervention programmes. Accumulating scientific evidence assists in guiding
the focus and scope of emergency mental health programmes, initiatives that
can become the vanguard of mental health development and reform for
countries recovering from conflict.
Psychotic experiences: disadvantaged and different from the
norm
Authors: van Os Jim
Published: October 2012

Stress-induced alterations in how a person attributes meaning to internal
and external stimuli may represent the first step in explaining how
population ethnic minority–majority interactions affect mental health.
Cross-context and diagnostic assumption-free research is required to
elucidate how the wider social environment interacts with personal
characteristics to increase expression of psychosis.
Importance of specialisation in psychiatric services: Commentary on … How did we let it come to this?
Authors: Killaspy Helen
Published: October 2012

In this issue, Dr Lodge makes a plea for continuity of care in the face of the increased specialisation of mental healthcare over recent years. However, continuity of care is not a straightforward concept and its relationship to clinical outcome is not established. The increased specialisation of mental healthcare reflects an evolving evidence base that has increased our understanding of mental illness and the treatments and delivery systems that are most effective. In other words, specialisation is the sign of a progressive field.
Role of Substance P in Renal Injury During DOCA-Salt Hypertension
Authors: Wang Youping , Wang Donna H.
Published: October 2012

Substance P (SP), a neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R) agonist, is mainly produced and stored in primary sensory nerves and, upon its release, participates in cardiovascular and renal functional regulation. This study tests the hypothesis that activation of the NK-1Rs by SP occurs during hypertension induced by deoxycorticosterone (DOCA)-salt treatment, which contributes to renal injury in this model. C57BL/6 mice were subjected to uninephrectomy and DOCA-salt treatment in the presence or absence of administration of selective NK-1 antagonists, L-733,060 (20 mg/kg·d, ip) or RP-67580 (8 mg/kg·d, ip). Five weeks after the treatment, mean arterial pressure determined by the telemetry system increased in DOCA-salt mice but without difference between NK-1R antagonist-treated or NK-1R antagonist-untreated DOCA-salt groups. Plasma SP levels were increased in DOCA-salt compared with control mice (P < 0.05). Renal hypertrophy and increased urinary 8-isoprostane and albumin excretion were observed in DOCA-salt compared with control mice (P < 0.05). Periodic acid-Schiff and Masson's trichrome staining showed more severe glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial injury in the renal cortex in DOCA-salt compared with control mice, respectively (P < 0.05). Hydroxyproline assay and F4/80-staining showed that renal collagen levels and interstitial monocyte/macrophage infiltration were greater in DOCA-salt compared with control mice, respectively (P < 0.05). Blockade of the NK-1R with L-733,060 or RP-67580 in DOCA-salt mice suppressed increments in urinary 8-isoprostane and albumin excretion, interstitial monocyte/macrophage infiltration, and glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial injury and fibrosis (P < 0.05). Thus, our data show that blockade of the NK-1Rs alleviates renal functional and tissue injury in the absence of alteration in blood pressure in DOCA-salt-hypertensive mice. The results suggest that elevated SP levels during DOCA-salt hypertension play a significant role contributing to renal damage possibly via enhancing oxidative stress and macrophage infiltration of the kidney.
The role of nectins in different types of cell–cell adhesion
Authors: Rikitake Yoshiyuki , Mandai Kenji , Takai Yoshimi
Published: October 2012

Mammalian tissues and organs are composed of different types of cells that adhere to each other homotypically (i.e. interactions between cells of the same cell type) or heterotypically (i.e. interactions between different cell types), forming a variety of cellular patterns, including mosaic patterns. At least three types of cell–cell adhesion have been observed: symmetric homotypic, asymmetric homotypic and heterotypic cell adhesions. Cadherins and nectins, which are known cell–cell adhesion molecules, mediate these cell adhesions. Cadherins comprise a family of more than 100 members, but they are primarily involved in homophilic trans-interactions (i.e. interactions between the same cadherin members) between opposing cells. By contrast, the nectin family comprises only four members, and these proteins form both homophilic and heterophilic trans-interactions (i.e. interactions between the same and different nectin members on opposing cells). In addition, heterophilic trans-interactions between nectins are much stronger than homophilic trans-interactions. Because of these unique properties, nectins have crucial roles in asymmetric homotypic cell–cell adhesion at neuronal synapses and in various types of heterotypic cell–cell adhesions. We summarize recent progress in our understanding of the biology of nectins and discuss their roles in heterotypic cell–cell adhesions, whose formation cannot be solely explained by the action of cadherins.
The Effect of Tetraphenylphosphonium Chloride on Phase Behavior and Nanoscale Structures in a Mixture of D2O and 3-Methylpyridine
Authors: Sadakane Koichiro , Horikawa Yuka , Nagao Michihiro , Seto Hideki
Published: October 2012

The effects of adding an “inversely antagonistic” salt, tetraphenylphosphonium chloride (PPh4Cl), to a binary mixture of deuterated water and 3-methylpyridine were investigated by visual inspection and small-angle neutron scattering. With increasing salt concentration, the two-phase region shrinks and a charge density wave structure is induced, as in the case of adding a “normally antagonistic” salt, sodium tetraphenylborate (NaBPh4), to the binary mixture. The concentration range of the periodic structure is narrower than that in the case of adding NaBPh4, and no ordered lamellar structure is observed in the present study.
Reverse Variation of Cloud Points of Light-responsive Assemblies of Azobenzene-modified Amphiphilic Polymers
Authors: Marie Emmanuelle , Tribet Christophe
Published: October 2012

In water, cloud points are usually increased upon making the chain more polar in response to light exposure of photochrome side groups. We show here that a reverse response to light is obtained in azobenzene-modified amphiphilic polymers because of the formation of self-assemblies. We propose a model to calculate the cloud point accounting for the balance between inter- and intramolecular hydrophobic interactions. The principle illustrated in this study could help to tailor the polymer architecture for optimizing the magnitude of responses.
Weak Laws against Acid Attacks on Women: an Indian Perspective
Authors: Ahmad Nehaluddin
Published: October 2012

Acid attacks, especially on women, have seen an alarming growth in India over the last decade. While these attacks can be attributed to various factors such as the social weakness of women in a male-dominated society, the situation is exacerbated by the general neglect of the lawmakers. As acid is inexpensive and easily available, it serves as an ideal weapon for the perpetrators. Further, as this offence is bailable in certain situations, the punishment does not act as a sufficient deterrent in most cases. This paper describes the horrendous effects that acid attacks have on the victims physically, psychologically and socially. It also examines the contemporary laws governing acid attacks on victims and offenders. Ideas for a better legal approach will also be examined with special reference to acid attacks as a crime, and the validity of specific legal provisions for female victims.
Medico-legal Claims Following Amputations in the UK and Ireland
Authors: Scurr Victoria R , Scurr James RH , Scurr John H
Published: October 2012

The causes and outcomes of medico-legal claims following amputation were evaluated. A retrospective analysis of the experience of a consultant surgeon acting as an expert witness within the United Kingdom and Ireland (1990–2010). There were 154 claims referred for an opinion of which 53 related to female patients. The median age was 67 (range, 20–101) years. Forty nine (32%) of the patients were known diabetics. Seventy-eight (51%) of the claims actually arose following a medically expected amputation, i.e. an amputation that was not preventable or due to negligence. The other common causes of claims were a delay in the diagnosis and or treatment of arterial ischaemia (34%), and following iatrogenic injuries (5%). Eleven of the claims are still ongoing, 3 went to trial, 52 (34%) were settled out of court and 83 (54%) were discontinued after the claimants were advised that they were unlikely to win their case. Disclosed settlement amounts are reported. Delays in the diagnosis and or treatment of arterial ischaemia were the commonest reasons that a claimant was successful. Half of claims did not proceed but were not without financial and psychological costs.
Lessons from the front line
Authors: Belmont Jr P. J. , Hetz S. , Potter B. K.
Published: October 2012

We live in troubled times. Increased opposition reliance on explosive devices, the widespread use of individual and vehicular body armour, and the improved survival of combat casualties have created many complex musculoskeletal injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Explosive mechanisms of injury account for 75% of all musculoskeletal combat casualties. Throughout all the echelons of care medical staff practice consistent treatment strategies of damage control orthopaedics including tourniquets, antibiotics, external fixation, selective amputations and vacuum-assisted closure. Complications, particularly infection and heterotopic ossification, remain frequent, and re-operations are common. Meanwhile, non-combat musculoskeletal casualties are three times more frequent than those derived from combat and account for nearly 50% of all musculoskeletal casualties requiring evacuation from the combat zone.
Colonoscopy and Colorectal Cancer Screening in Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Review of a Series of Cases and Recommendations for Examination
Authors: Fischer Leonard S. , Becker Andrew , Paraguya Maria , Chukwu Cecilia
Published: October 2012

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) frequently have comorbidities that might interfere with colonoscopy preparation and examination. In this article, the authors review their experience with colonoscopies performed from 2002 through 2010 on adults with IDD at a state institution to evaluate quality and safety of examinations and to formulate a plan to improve quality. In addition to IDD, these individuals had associated comorbidities, including digestive motility disorders and epilepsy. Results were compared with examinations performed in a random group of 40 adults without IDD examined between 2004 and 2008. The authors discovered a high rate of colonoscopy preparation failure and failed examinations in the IDD group. Preparation complications were also noted. The authors recommend careful preoperative evaluation of individuals with IDD and limiting colonoscopy to individuals who are able to tolerate preparation and comply with hydration.
Understanding Differences in Neurotypical and Autism Spectrum Special Interests Through Internet Forums
Authors: Jordan Chloe Jennifer , Caldwell-Harris Catherine L.
Published: October 2012

Special interests are frequently developed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder, expressed as an intense focus on specific topics. Neurotypical individuals also develop special interests, often in the form of hobbies. Although past research has focused on special interests held by children with autism spectrum disorder, little is known about their role in adulthood. The current study investigated differences in the content, number, and specificity of the special interests held by adult individuals with autism spectrum disorder and neurotypical individuals, using Internet discussion forums as a data source. Quantitative analysis of forum posts revealed significant differences between the diagnostic groups. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder reported having more interests in systemizing domains, more specific interests, and a greater number of interests overall than neurotypical individuals. Understanding special interests can lead to the development of educational and therapeutic programs that facilitate the acquirement of other important social and communication skills.
Strategies for Organizational Change from Group Homes to Individualized Supports
Authors: Walker Pam
Published: October 2012

Organizations are increasingly looking to convert from facility-based services for adults with developmental disabilities to individualized supports. Such conversion involves not only a change in services but a transformation of organizational culture. This qualitative study involved four organizations that have made sustained efforts to transform. Although the approach taken by each organization was unique, there were also some common strategies, which included generating commitment to common values and mission, a turn or return to authentic person-centered planning, shifting power and control, using community supports and relationships, moving away from facility-based settings, and nurturing staff engagement. Ultimately, organizational change is an ongoing process that requires organizational perseverance and commitment.
Resistance and Resilience in a Life Full of Professionals and Labels: Narrative Snapshots of Chris
Authors: Van Hove Geert , Gabel Susan L. , De Schauwer Elisabeth , Mortier Kathleen , Van Loon Jos , Loots Gerrit , Devlieger Patrick , Roets Griet , Claes Lien
Published: October 2012

In this article, the authors relate the life of Chris through narrative snapshots. Chris asked the authors to tell her story. They decided that it could be used to provide an insight into the different ways people with labels are confronted with professional practices and rituals.

Although Chris lived a “tough life,” her story is full of resilience and resistance. Chris will be kept in the authors' memory as a strong woman, a teacher, and a friend.
Debt and Discipline
Authors: Mahmud Tayyab
Published: October 2012

Neoliberal restructuring of the economy created a symbiosis of debt and discipline. New policies displaced Keynesian welfare, facilitated financialization of the economy, broke the power of organized labor, and expanded debt to sustain aggregate demand. Ever-increasing sections of the working classes were brought within the ambit of the credit economy. Constructs of individual responsibility and human capital were refashioned to facilitate assemblage of subjects who would engage the financialized economy as risk-taking entrepreneurs. Engulfment in debt induced self-discipline and conformity with the logic of the financialized economy and precarious labor markets.
Realty Reality: HGTV and the Subprime Crisis
Authors: Shimpach Shawn
Published: October 2012

The American basic cable channel HGTV became the object of public scorn after the housing market became associated with the current and ongoing global financial crisis. While noting the ways in which this channel’s programming has been complicit in the financialization of home ownership and the effacement of risk that continue to transform “dwelling” into “home” into “investment,” this article takes the occasion of enmity foisted on HGTV as an opportunity to more broadly consider the complex role of representation—or in the language of these programs, the role of “staging” —in and as part of the economic crisis. The links between complex and often abstract forms of financial speculation and the ideology of home ownership are not as direct as they were portrayed in the aftermath of the crisis. The staging of real estate in HGTV’s programming and the staging of economic practices offer two simultaneous and parallel, but distinct, practices of representation. Just as recently developing approaches to conducting the ethnography of financial markets have begun to suggest new ways of thinking about the work done in and by the economy, grounded in material practices, so too do we need to take seriously the complexity of the work done by textual representation in our understanding of political economies. Yes, through crisis we found that these practices are linked, but not directly or causally. HGTV programming does not offer confirmation or reification of the link between representational games of financial speculation and those of home owners. It is not the site of culture that has led to economic crisis, but rather a telling site of the culture of crisis.
Debt, Power, and Crisis: Social Stratification and the Inequitable Governance of Financial Markets
Authors: Heintz James , Balakrishnan Radhika
Published: October 2012

Credit markets lie at the heart of many economic crises, shaping policy responses and reinforcing inequities. This essay examines the power dynamics embodied in debt relationships, the propensity of credit markets to create conditions of economic fragility, and the interactions between financial markets and existing social stratifications. It explores case studies of credit markets and crisis: racialized lending in the subprime mortgage markets, the European sovereign debt crisis, the Latin American debt crisis, and capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa. The essay concludes with a consideration of how economic and social rights provide an alternative framework for financial governance.
New Racial Meanings of Housing in America
Authors: Wyly Elvin , Ponder C. S. , Nettling Pierson , Ho Bosco , Fung Sophie Ellen , Liebowitz Zachary , Hammel Dan
Published: October 2012

America is now half a decade into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, triggered by a deeply racialized “innovation” at the social and spatial margin—risky, high-cost mortgage lending—that went mainstream. Predatory capital perfected its operations in poor and working-class black neighborhoods of the deindustrializing inner city, before pursuing the greater volume available across a multiracial array of postindustrial Sun Belt suburbanites. In this article, we map the dangerous spatial configurations of law that reproduced these evolving exploitations. The catastrophic aftermath of predatory financialization may have destabilized the alliance between economic and cultural conservatives that structures so much of America’s racial political economy.
From Silver Cups to Garden Gnomes: Toward a Contextual Reception of Standardized Images
Authors: Mayer Emanuel
Published: October 2012

Roman domestic art in elite and non-elite houses follows the same iconographic patterns. This high degree of standardization has led to the widespread assumption that art use lower down the social scale was a matter of elite imitation. But as this paper argues, canonical images were not exclusively popular because they copied upper-class fashions. Instead, standardized imagery was popular because it could impart a whole variety of meanings. And indeed, non-elite art buyers often tweaked canonical images to suit highly idiosyncratic representational interests. This non-elite art use is explored through a comparison with the cultural transformations of the modern garden gnome.
Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990–2001): Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War
Authors: Bumet Jennie E.
Published: October 2012

This article situates the sexual violence associated with the Rwandan civil war and 1994 genocide within a local cultural history and political economy in which institutionalized gender violence shaped the choices of Rwandan women and girls. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that Western notions of sexual consent are not applicable to a culture in which colonialism, government policy, war, and scarcity of resources have limited women's access to land ownership, economic security, and other means of survival. It examines emic cultural models of sexual consent and female sexual agency and proposes that sexual slavery, forced marriage, prostitution, transactional sex, nonmarital sex, informal marriage or cohabitation, and customary (bridewealth) marriages exist on a continuum on which female sexual agency becomes more and more constrained by material circumstance. Even when women's choices are limited, women still exercise their agency to survive. Conflating all forms of sex in conflict zones under the rubric of harm undermines women's and children's rights because it reinforces gendered hierarchies and diverts attention from the structural conditions of poverty in postconflict societies.
Introduction
Authors: Dewey Susan , Germain Tonia St.
Published: October 2012

This special ASR forum, “The Case of Gender-Based Violence: Assessing the Impact of International Human Rights Rhetoric on African Lives,” grounds itself in the notion that gender relations (and, indeed, gendered social norms) can undergo significant transformation in zones of conflict or in other contexts of extreme socioeconomic and political instability. Individuals actively reconfigure moral landscapes of power and sexuality amidst the everyday chaos, violence, and deprivation that constitutes the experience of war for most people, thereby formulating new normative frame-works of appropriately gendered norms for social interaction and sexual expression. These norms, of course, are rather dramatically cross-cut, for all actors involved, by an extensive list of factors that include one's ethnolinguistic or religious affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and myriad other allegiances that are all too frequently brought to the fore by conflict or other forms of instability. War and instability, it seems, force individuals to think of themselves, and others, in ways that might not otherwise have seemed imaginable.

The case studies in this issue are based upon research in Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, South Africa, and Liberia. One unifying theme is the frequency with which human rights rhetoric divorces conflict-related gender based violence from the peacetime normative framework. The authors illustrate the cultural restrictions and patriarchal oppression that encourage violence within different dimensions of the socioeconomic and political context (home, culture, political authority, economy, and military), and they analyze gender-based violence as a form of structural violence. Nonetheless, as Sharon Abramowitz and Mary Moran caution us, gender-based violence in conflict and postconflict zones is not simply an enhanced version of “traditional” gender oppression. We would be severely remiss, the authors remind us, to read conflict and crisis as culture.
Why Some Students Leave College During Their Senior Year
Authors: Hunt Patricia F. , Boyd Vivian S. , Gast Linda K. , Mitchell Alice , Wilson Wendy
Published: October 2012

Although many studies have examined college student attrition, no extant literature examines the phenomenon of undergraduates who discontinue their enrollment in college during a semester of their senior year. This study used both institutional and self-reported survey data to examine the rationale behind seniors' decision to leave college during a semester and before degree completion. Further, because there is a significant gap in graduation rates between first-generation and non-first-generation students, we examined statistically significant differences between first generation and non-first-generation college seniors on this issue.
Predictors of Learning for Students from Five Different Racial/Ethnic Groups
Authors: Lundberg Carol A.
Published: October 2012

Using a sample of 2,836 students from 5 different racial/ethnic groups, this study identified the ways student engagement and institutional features predict student learning. A supportive campus environment and high academic challenge predicted learning in general education, personal development, and practical competence for all racial/ethnic groups. An institutional emphasis on interactional diversity also predicted personal development for all groups. Findings by race/ ethnicity were more similar than different, but conditional effects by student race/ethnicity were also identified relative to interactional diversity.
Big Dollar, Little Democracy
Authors: Faux Jeff
Published: October 2012

Money talks. It is also a conversation stopper. Almost any discussion among progressives of what is really needed to solve the nation's multiple crises typically ends in despair when someone says, "But they will not accept that," they being the corporate rich and powerful, what a Texas friend of mine used to call Big Dollar.
The Rise and Fall of the American Linguistic Empire
Authors: Cohen Paul
Published: October 2012

In an op-ed piece entitled "What You (Really) Need to Know," published on January 20, 2012, in the New York Times , former president of Harvard University Lawrence Summers called upon American universities to revamp their curricula in order to better prepare their students for the twenty-first century. Among his propositions, Summers made the case that the study of foreign languages represents a waste of time. As more and more people acquire English across our increasingly interconnected globe, he argued, mastery of foreign languages will become less and less necessary. Colleges and universities should instead teach their students leading-edge skills better suited to an increasingly competitive employment marketplace.
The War Against Social Security
Authors: Altman Nancy J.
Published: October 2012

Eric Laursen has written a highly readable, exhaustively researched history of the last thirty years of struggles over Social Security. His story about this ongoing war against Social Security is both timely and sobering. Laursen's masterful account is timely because it brings to light, just on the cusp of its possible victory, a well-orchestrated, richly financed, powerful effort to undo Social Security. Bipartisan discussions are currently taking place behind closed doors in Washington. It is not hyperbolic to say that the discussions could lead to legislative changes to Social Security that would gradually but inexorably result in its demise.
Fiscal Policy in a Depressed Economy
Authors: Delong J. Bradford , Summers Lawrence H.
Published: October 2012

In a depressed economy, with short-term nominal interest rates at their zero lower bound, ample cyclical unemployment, and excess capacity, increased government purchases would be neither offset by the monetary authority raising interest rates nor neutralized by supply-side bottlenecks. Then even a small amount of hysteresis—even a small shadow cast on future potential output by the cyclical downturn—means, by simple arithmetic, that expansionary fiscal policy is likely to be self-financing. Even if it is not, it is highly likely to pass the sensible benefit-cost test of raising the present value of future potential output. Thus, at the zero bound, where the central bank cannot or will not but in any event does not perform its full role in stabilization policy, fiscal policy has the stabilization policy mission that others have convincingly argued it lacks in normal times. Whereas many economists have assumed that the path of potential output is invariant to even a deep and prolonged downturn, the available evidence raises a strong fear that hysteresis is indeed a factor. Although nothing in our analysis calls into question the importance of sustainable fiscal policies, it strongly suggests the need for caution regarding the pace of fiscal consolidation.
Macroeconomic Effects of Federal Reserve Forward Guidance
Authors: Campbell Jeffrey R. , Evans Charles L. , Fisher Jonas D. M. , Justiniano Alejandro
Published: October 2012

A large output gap accompanied by stable inflation close to its target calls for further monetary accommodation, but the zero lower bound on interest rates has robbed the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the usual tool for its provision. We examine how public statements of FOMC intentions—forward guidance—can substitute for lower rates at the zero bound. We distinguish between Odyssean forward guidance, which publicly commits the FOMC to a future action, and Delphic forward guidance, which merely forecasts macroeconomic performance and likely monetary policy actions. Others have shown how forward guidance that commits the central bank to keeping rates at zero for longer than conditions would otherwise warrant can provide monetary easing, if the public trusts it. We empirically characterize the responses of asset prices and private macroeconomic forecasts to FOMC forward guidance, both before and since the recent financial crisis. Our results show that the FOMC has extensive experience successfully telegraphing its intended adjustments to evolving conditions, so communication difficulties do not present an insurmountable barrier to Odyssean forward guidance. Using an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, we investigate how pairing such guidance with bright-line rules for launching rate increases can mitigate risks to the Federal Reserve’s price stability mandate.
Disentangling the Channels of the 2007–09 Recession
Authors: Stock James H. , Watson Mark W.
Published: October 2012

This paper examines the macroeconomic dynamics of the 2007–09 recession in the United States and the subsequent slow recovery. Using a dynamic factor model with 200 variables, we reach three main conclusions. First, although many of the events of the 2007–09 collapse were unprecedented, their net effect was to produce macro shocks that were larger versions of shocks previously experienced, to which the economy responded in a historically predictable way. Second, the shocks that produced the recession were primarily associated with financial disruptions and heightened uncertainty, although oil shocks played a role in the initial slowdown, and subsequent drag was added by effectively tight conventional monetary policy arising from the zero lower bound. Third, although the slow nature of the recovery is partly due to the shocks of this recession, most of the slow recovery in employment, and nearly all of the slow recovery in output, is due to a secular slowdown in trend labor force growth.
The Euro’s Three Crises
Authors: Shambaugh Jay C.
Published: October 2012

The euro area faces three interlocking crises that together challenge the viability of the currency union. There is a banking crisis: banks are undercapitalized and have faced liquidity problems. There is a sovereign debt crisis: a number of countries have faced rising bond yields and challenges funding themselves. Lastly, there is a growth crisis: economic growth is slow in the euro area overall and unequally distributed across countries. These crises connect with one another in several ways: the problems of weak banks and high sovereign debt are mutually reinforcing, and both are exacerbated by weak growth but also in turn constrain growth. This paper details the three crises, their interconnections, and possible policy solutions. Policy responses that fail to take into account the interdependent nature of the problems will likely be incomplete or even counterproductive. A broader point also becomes clear: a currency union may not need a fiscal union, but it does likely need both a financial union and some way to adjust for unbalanced economic conditions across countries.
“Extraordinary and dangerous powers”: Prisons, Police, and Literature in Godwin’s Caleb Williams
Authors: Bailey Quentin
Published: October 2012

In the novel Caleb Williams , William Godwin focuses on how “the spirit and character of government intrudes itself into every rank of society” with petitions, resolutions, and parliamentary bills that sought to address the perceived increase in lawlessness in England in the years after the American Revolution. I argue in this article that Godwin’s attention to the inhumane rigours of incarceration, his concerns about the development of a shadowy new police force that existed outside the traditional bounds of magisterial oversight, and his anxieties about the increasingly important role of literature in shaping popular attitudes towards suspected criminals grew out of broader discussions about the penal and police reforms that William Pitt’s government introduced in the years after the 1780 Gordon Riots. The public debates about the extent of these new powers may have shaped the focus and tone of Godwin’s novel as much as the government’s suppression of radical dissent in the 1790s.
A Tale of Two Tactics: Laclos’s Novel Approach to Military Crisis and Reform
Authors: Osman Julia Anne
Published: October 2012

Scholars have long recognized Les Liaisons Dangereuses as a document for social reform, declaring the need for more women’s education and exposing moral corruption among French nobles. Scholars have also recognized Laclos’s military background and his metaphoric language of war and alliances. This essay places Laclos’s novel in the context of French military reform in the late eighteenth century and, in doing so, reveals new layers of social critique. As an artillery officer and critic of Vauban, he was deeply affected by this thirty-year period of debate among officers on how to improve the French army after the loss of the Seven Years’ War. With this context in mind, the military language of Valmont and Merteuil, when interpreted literally, reveal Laclos’s take on the reform period. Merteuil’s methods of seduction bear an uncanny resemblance to the tactics of Frederick the Great, and Valmont’s conquest of la présidente de Tourvel echoes Vaubanian siege-craft. With this perspective, the “war” between the two leads not to an odd ending without resolution, but the expected conclusion for these military debates and reforms. In Les Liaisons Dangereuses , Laclos reveals his perception of the military debates of the time and argues that any meaningful military reform requires societal changes.
The Failure of Trade's Empire in The History of Emily Montague
Authors: Binhammer Katherine
Published: October 2012

The contingencies of applying free trade imperialism to an impoverished Canada in the 1760s force the characters in Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague to abandon the sentimental colonial project, retreating to England to establish their domestic Utopia. Other critics have read Emily Montague's relation to the colonial project as ambiguous; I agree but relate these ambiguities not to the novel's gender or colonial practices, but to its economic ideology of global laissez-faire capitalism. Brooke's novel tries to narrate a plot of infinite wealth accumulation, but Canada's particular political and economic problems will not abide. The novel ends up laying bare the contradictions at the heart of this emerging liberal economic theory.
"Women Love to Have Their Own Way": Delusion, Volition, and "Freaks" of Sight in Tabitha Tenney's Female Quixotism
Authors: Harris W.C.
Published: October 2012

Without denying the conservatism of Female Quixotism on such themes as class and nationality, this essay attends to contradictory impulses in the text that work against retrenchment and mark this novel as relatively progressive on matters of gender. Female Quixotism can easily be read as an indictment of sentimental novels and their reputed deleterious effects on female readers or, in a more progressive vein, as a counter to that attack. Tenney addresses not simply the isolation of women who read sentimental fiction but that of all educated women. In this essay, I read Dorcasina as a comic figure who nonetheless registers sober truths about the affective and social options that women faced in late eighteenth-century America. Do the delusions of Tenney's heroine enable intentionality and permit some degree of control over one's story? A lack of such control is precisely what early American seduction novels obsessively and simultaneously mourned and exhorted to the (female) reading public.
L'Anecdote historique en texte et en image: d'Arnaud et d'Ussieux
Authors: Moser-Verrey Monique
Published: October 2012

L'anecdote historique, imprégnée de religion, apparaît de façon résiduelle dans les deux premiers tomes des Épreuves du sentiment de Baculard d'Arnaud et dans le Décaméron françois de Louis d'Ussieux, où elle côtoie des histoires, des nouvelles et d'autres types d'anecdotes. La prise en compte de l'histoire de la publication des récits composant ces recueils ainsi que l'observation détaillée des rapports qu'entretiennent avec la narration les images des fleurons, des frontispices, des vignettes d'en-tête et des culs-de-lampe, dus pour la plupart à Charles Eisen et Joseph Longueil, permet de déceler des stratégies de mise en marché soutenues par une illustration mixte, tant réaliste qu'allégorique. L'exacerbation progressive des épreuves du sentiment fait basculer le propos des recueils de l'exaltation de la vertu vers la représentation de la terreur, voire de l'horreur, suivant la mouvance européenne.