bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Community-Based Participatory Research in Little Haiti: Challenges and Lessons Learned
Authors: Kobetz Erin , Menard Janelle , Diem Joshua , Barton Betsy , Blanco Jenny , Pierre Larry , Auguste Pascale D. , Etienne Marie , Brewster Cheryl
Published: June 2009

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective methodology for developing relevant interventions with socially marginalized communities. However, implementing CBPR methods is challenging for several reasons. This paper presents challenges encountered in the context of an ongoing CBPR initiative in Little Haiti in Miami, Florida, and describes the solutions used to address them. Objectives: We sought to describe the challenges faced and lessons learned while conducting CBPR in Little Haiti. Methods: Community–academic partnerships were created to guide the creation of culturally relevant cancer interventions and research. Lessons Learned: Historical distrust of research, cultural constructions of health and illness, and literacy issues are key considerations when developing partnerships with Haitian and other marginalized, immigrant communities. Conclusions: Partnerships are fostered over time through demonstrated mutual commitment to improving health and building community capacity. Communities must play an active role throughout the research process to ensure that studies are culturally relevant, and ensuing intervention, sustainable.
Gathering the Evidence: Photovoice as a Tool for Disability Advocacy
Authors: Newman Susan , Maurer Doug , Jackson Alex , Saxon Maria , Jones Ruth , Reese Gene
Published: June 2009

The participatory research method Photovoice capitalizes on the spirit of the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words." We, a group of 10 individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and our project facilitator, used Photovoice as means to advocate for equal access to community resources. Often people with disabilities encounter difficulties in helping the able-bodied population to understand issues that are faced by persons who use wheelchairs to move about in the community. Our photographs provide visual evidence that helps us to identify and address issues of accessibility in our community of Charleston, South Carolina. We are using our photographs to educate the public, as well as those who have the political power to make change in our communities. In this article, we share some of the issues we addressed during our project and our thoughts about using Photovoice as a tool to support disability advocacy efforts.
Analysis of Soviet Technology Transfer in the Development of China's Nuclear Weapons
Authors: Liu Yanqiong , Liu Jifeng
Published: June 2009

Because China built its atomic and hydrogen bombs at a time of resource scarcity and rudimentary industrial development, it is generally believed that it got a great deal of help from Soviet nuclear technology transfer during the late 1950s. In particular, Soviet leaders and scientists asserted that they supplied China with extensive and critical assistance; some even claimed that this transfer of nuclear technology shortened the time needed to develop China's nuclear weapons by at least 15 years. Many non-Soviet researchers have concurred. Yet while Chinese officials, scientists, and historians have always given the Soviets due credit for this help, many have also continued to assert that because the Chinese solved key nuclear technology issues on their own, the effect of Soviet technology transfer was in fact more limited than these other experts claimed. Following a brief review of the history of Soviet nuclear-weapons technology transfer to China, this article addresses the issue by describing the kinds of Soviet nuclear-weapons technology transferred to China, assessing the role this Soviet technology played in China's nuclear-weapons program, and finally comparing and contrasting Soviet and Chinese views on the importance of Soviet technology transfer to the development of China's nuclear-weapons program.
Conflicts of Eastern and Western Technology Transfer: Licenses, Espionage, and R&D in the Hungarian Defense Industry during the 1970s and 1980s
Authors: Germuska Pál
Published: June 2009

The article first tracks the process of disillusionment in Soviet technology transfer, and the conflicts between indigenous R&D and production under licenses. Next are examined the main technological questions of the 1970s and 1980s: How could a socialist state legally or illegally acquire state-of-the-art technologies? How did Hungary endeavor to procure Western licenses? The article's final section demonstrates the impact of the transferred technologies and the R&D efforts by means of three brief case studies from different branches of the Hungarian defense industry.
"Going Global": Why Do Multinational Corporations Participate in Highly Skilled Migration?
Authors: Counihan Christopher
Published: June 2009

The global competition among states to attract and retain highly skilled and ever more mobile labor has become a subject of increasing scholarship and policy analysis. However, little attention has been paid to private organizations such as multinational corporations (MNCs) that send their "best and brightest" employees on long-term overseas assignments. These sending organizations are active players in the process of highly skilled migration—players that have invested valuable resources in the pursuit of sending their employees where they want, when they want. This article explores the evolving justification structures that explain why MNCs send their key employees on expatriate assignments. Over time, these corporations developed successive strategies for managing the expansion of their business operations beyond the borders of their home countries, each strategy providing different concepts of what an expatriated manager should be and do. The current "global corporation" model acknowledges the necessity of expatriate assignments. Highly skilled migration is viewed as an integral element in the development of the type of cosmopolitan worker now believed necessary to build a culturally sensitive organization—migration that corporate leaders regard as an existential imperative in today's hyper-competitive global marketplace.
Skilled Migrants' Dynamics, Institutions, Innovation, and Diffusion: A Conceptual and Analytical Framework to Assess Patterns of (Re)integration
Authors: d'Almeida André Corrêa
Published: June 2009

This article argues that a diffusion of innovations model can be employed together with complexity theory in the construction of a conceptual framework to explain skilled migrants' (SMs) behavior and patterns of (re)integration, in either their homeland or their host country. This framework can be applied to identify and distinguish between those aspects of institutional structure that favor and those that hinder SMs' entrepreneurial aspirations. Empirical results derived from this framework can enrich the lessons learned from SMs' experiences and prompt the adoption of policies that favor SMs' personal performance, increase their capacity to fulfill entrepreneurial aspirations, and enhance the role they can play in development processes.
Contested Bodies: Early Christian Asceticism and Nineteenth-Century Polemics
Authors: Clark Elizabeth A.
Published: June 2009

This essay explores how two nineteenth-century writers who opposed the asceticizing aspects of the Oxford Movement and Roman Catholicism appealed to patristic writings. Anglican Isaac Taylor and Episcopalian Arthur Cleveland Coxe employed different rhetorical strategies: Taylor attempted to shock unsuspecting Christians about the "true" nature of Tractarian devotion to patristic Christianity, while Coxe, conversely, sought to explain away the asceticism promoted by the Fathers and align early Christianity with nineteenth-century domesticity. Coxe, American editor of the Ante-Nicene Fathers series, advanced his cause by adding anti-Catholic footnotes and "elucidations" to the Fathers' writings.
On the Edge of Self and Other: Holy Bodies in Late Antiquity
Authors: Miller Patricia Cox
Published: June 2009

In the two centuries prior to the outbreak of the iconoclastic controversy in the eighth century, anecdotes about icons began to appear in hagiographies. This essay develops a reading of certain of these anecdotes as constituting a form of "picture theory" that teaches the reader how to engage with icons and how to imagine saintly presence. Reading backwards from the iconoclastic controversy in which positions regarding idolatry and the role of material images in Christian theology and ritual were debated openly, I argue that the hagiographical enterprise that preceded iconoclasm developed discursive pictorial strategies for advertising the importance of representation, of imaging, as a means for embracing the saints without idolizing them. Hagiographical anecdotes about icons in effect sidestepped an idolatrous impulse at the same time as they anticipated the later positive theorization of material expressions of religion.
The Body as/at the Boundary of Gnosis
Authors: Brakke David
Published: June 2009

This essay explores the poetics of the divine body in the so-called Untitled Treatise in the Bruce Codex and uses that body and its text to examine two boundaries, both boundaries of Gnosis. First, modern scholars debate whether and how to draw a boundary around the phenomenon that is sometimes called "Gnosticism." Such scholarly boundary-making can be productive, and here the Untitled Treatise belongs, along with On the Origin of the World , outside the boundary of Gnostic Christianity and dates most likely to the fourth century. Second, in his elaborate description of the Human Being or City, the author has drawn on several currents, especially in Valentinian thought, to use the human body as the guiding metaphor for what human beings can and cannot know of the divine. The Untitled Treatise participates in a wider late ancient conversation about the value and limits of knowing through the body, a conversation that Patricia Cox Miller's recent work has helped to bring vividly to life. The paper argues that, when it comes to Gnosis, boundaries can be productive and bodies can be productive means of thinking about boundaries.
Martyrology and the Prurient Gaze
Authors: Frankfurter David
Published: June 2009

This paper uses a range of early (100-400 C.E .) martyrological narratives, in association with novels and apocalyptic discourses of the same era, to show the appeal of such narratives to early Christian audiences' prurience into sadoerotic violence. The sado-erotic voyeurism invited can be placed in historical and performative continuity with the Roman spectacle, literary ambivalence over female chastity, and both geographical and heresiographical fantasies about the sexual and cultural predilections of the Other. The spectacle of sado-erotic violence allows the enjoyment of erotic display at the same time as the disavowal of that enjoyment, which is projected onto the violently punitive actions of Roman authorities, heathen mobs, or (in eschatology) angels of hell. It also allows masochistic identification with victims' eroticized brutalization and dissolution.
Carnal Excess: Flesh at the Limits of Imagination
Authors: Burrus Virginia
Published: June 2009

This essay explores representations of fleshly excess in Christian and Jewish texts of the late fourth and fifth centuries, from the cosmically-scaled figures of Adam and the resurrected Christ in Genesis Rabbah and Augustine's City of God , on the one hand, to the hagiographical portraits of fat rabbis and monks in the tractate Baba Metsia of the Babylonian Talmud and the Lausiac History of Palladius, on the other. The Platonic figure of the khora is initially invoked to frame two main arguments: first, that these late ancient texts discover transcendence within, rather than outside of, the boundlessness of materiality; and, second, that this incarnational tendency has intriguing implications for practices and theories of representation and imagination.
The Unbounded Body in the Age of Liturgical Reproduction
Authors: Krueger Derek
Published: June 2009

Miracle stories from the sixth and seventh centuries about irregular, accidental, and inadvertent Eucharists demonstrate God's unbounded and excessive material body. These traditions provide a counterpoint to ascetic emphasis on bodily discipline and limits. As narratives of divine abundance, these tales contain implicit theologies of the Eucharist and theories of ritual efficacy through the recitation of anaphoral prayers.
Ethical Norms and the International Governance of Genetic Databases and Biobanks: Findings from an International Study
Authors: Capron Alexander Morgan , Mauron Alexandre , Elger Bernice Simone , Boggio Andrea , Ganguli-Mitra Agomoni , Biller-Andorno Nikola
Published: June 2009

This article highlights major results of a study into the ethical norms and rules governing biobanks. After describing the methodology, the findings regarding four topics are presented: (1) the ownership of human biological samples held in biobanks; (2) the regulation of researchers’ use of samples obtained from biobanks; (3) what constitutes “collective consent” to genetic research, and when it is needed; and (4) benefit sharing and remuneration of research participants. The paper then summarizes key lessons to be drawn from the findings and concludes by reflecting on the importance of such empirical research to inform future governance norms and practices.
Routine (Non-Religious) Neonatal Circumcision and Bodily Integrity: A Transatlantic Dialogue
Authors: Dekkers Wim
Published: June 2009

In the current debate about the pros and cons of routine (nonreligious) neonatal circumcision (RNC), the emphasis is on medical justifications for the practice. Questions of human rights also are widely discussed. However, even if the alleged medical benefits of RNC were to outweigh the harms and risks, this is not a sufficient justification for RNC. The practice of RNC is questionable from a variety of viewpoints including not only the ideal of evidence-based medicine and human rights considerations, but also the notion of respect for bodily integrity.
Kantian Condemnation of Commerce in Organs
Authors: Kerstein Samuel J.
Published: June 2009

Opponents of commerce in organs sometimes appeal to Kant’s Formula of Humanity to justify their position. Kant implies that anyone who sells an integral part of his body violates this principle and thereby acts wrongly. Although appeals to Kant’s Formula are apt, they are less helpful than they might be because they invoke the necessity of respecting the dignity of ends in themselves without specifying in detail what dignity is or what it means to respect it, and they cite the wrongness of an agent’s treating another merely as a means without clarifying conditions under which this occurs. This paper crystallizes two different approaches to the Formula of Humanity and probes when, according to them, the principle would imply that it is wrong to engage in “live donor” transactions, in which someone chooses to undergo a kidney extraction in exchange for money.
The Virtues of Scholarship and the Virtues of Political Action
Authors: Gunderson Martin
Published: June 2009

Many bioethicists are involved in political advocacy groups as well as scholarship, and this has led to controversy. The virtues that enable scholarship to flourish are in tension with those that are vital for effective participation in political advocacy groups. This produces conflicts for bioethicists that are as serious as financial conflicts of interest. These conflicts cannot simply be eliminated, however. Scholars are citizens who have reason to engage in political action in light of their scholarly conclusions, and bioethicists who are political advocates are thoughtful persons who have reason to engage in scholarship. At best, the conflicts can be mitigated.
Post-Byzantine Medical Manuscripts: New Insights into the Greek Medical Tradition, its Intellectual and Practical Interconnections, and our Understanding of Greek Culture
Authors: Papadopoulos Christos
Published: June 2009

Greek medical texts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries known as ιατροσόφια form a significant corpus of manuscripts employed as vernacular manuals of medical instructions. In modern times, their image has been generally unfavorable and their systematic study relatively ignored. A re-examination of diverse manuscripts offers fresh insights into contemporary notions on medicine, aspects of assimilation of Hellenic, Byzantine and Western medical customs, the language of disease, the interplay between learned and magico-religious medicine, and broader cultural notions and interactions between Orthodoxy, science, and tradition. As a result, our appreciation of Greek therapeutics, and place in the wider European medical practice are all enhanced and, from the point of view of a social history of medicine, new light is shed on cultural aspects of contemporary Greek Orthodox society.
Sexual and Emotional Values: Their Position in the Evaluation Codes of Young Greeks, and their Projection through Television Series Aimed at Young Viewers
Authors: Theodossakis Dimitris
Published: June 2009

Friendship, love, erotic relations, altruism, sexuality, φιλότιμο (pride), sincere relationships, and humor all occupy prominent positions in the value systems of young Greeks. There is both an orientation and hierarchical structure to these factors, especially as they relate to emotional and sexual type. Gender, age, and social background are variables that appear to be independent of these factors. Nevertheless, there are some important differences relating to eros (έρωτας, passionate/romantic love), sexuality and love. An investigation of the frequency with which values of emotional and sexual type are projected through a Greek and an American television series aimed at young viewers reveals that that these values comprise the focal point of the television myths and correlate with the kind of values young viewers adopt.
The Sacrificed Subject in Rhea Galanaki's Ismail Ferik Pasha
Authors: Aleksić Tatjana
Published: June 2009

Viewed through the lens of Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytical theory, Emmanuel/Ismail, the protagonist of Rhea Galanaki's Ismail Ferik Pasha , can be seen as a subject in crisis. Returning to the place from which he was abducted as a boy, Ismail undergoes a process of re-establishing his wavering national, religious, and even gender identity within the realm of his original familial and cultural setting. This substitution of the Symbolic Law of his imposed Ottoman acculturation by his original one activates the mechanisms of cultural coercion that the subject is unable to respond to in any way except through the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.
Linguistic Creativity, Secondary Orality, and Political Discourse: The Modern Greek Myth of the "Eloquent Orator"
Authors: Tsakona Villy
Published: June 2009

The use of tropes is one of the most striking features of Greek political discourse. Such creative linguistic resources are not used merely to "decorate" political speeches and render them more appealing to the audience, but, most importantly, to criticize the opponent(s) and project certain aspects of political identity. While such resources are employed in the recitation of politicians' written texts and indicate the "conversationalization" of political communication, they also seem to be important criteria for the evaluation of Greek politicians. Given that oral practices are more highly valued than literal ones in Greek culture, while at the same time school education has accorded "literary" value to linguistic creativity, Greek citizens tend to focus on creative features in assessing the political skills of public orators, thus contributing to the modern Greek myth of the "eloquent orator" as the most competent politician.
Citizenship, Ethnicity, and Education in Modern Greece
Authors: Zachos Dimitrios
Published: June 2009

Citizenship is a concept that is strongly connected to the idea of the nation-state. During the twentieth century, most nation-states used education as one means to homogenize their citizenry and impose linguistic uniformity. Such is the case with Greece where there has also been a critical relationship between citizenship, ethnicity, and education. In recent years, Greece has experienced a large influx of immigrants for whom Greek ethnicity is not always a given. Schools have become one of the areas where attempts have been made to integrate these immigrants into the Greek state. For the most part, these attempts have not been very successful.
Junkermann by M. Karagatsis: A Greek Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night
Authors: De Boel Gunnar
Published: June 2009

Several of the characters and themes in M. Karagatsis's novel, Junkermann , seem closely modeled on two of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels: The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night . In particular, both Vassili (Vasya) Junkermann and Jay Gatsby are former soldiers who find themselves hard up at the end of World War I. Both rise to positions of great wealth, buying-to no avail-recently built castle-like houses destined to receive the magic presence of the women they love. Moreover, in both Tender is the Night and Junkermann , young psychiatrists play a major role with respect to the female protagonist; in both cases, they are unable to understand the women they love. The cluster of common themes and characters seems too dense to be coincidental. If, however, Karagatsis meant to write a Greek Gatsby and a Greek Tender is the Night in one comprehensive novel, it is interesting to see which themes attracted his attention in Fitzgerald's novels, and which transformations he made. This opens up entirely new avenues of interpretation for Junkermann , as it suggests that this novel is not meant to be an illustration of determinism, but, to the contrary, of the awakening of sleeping humanity and of the emptiness of a world from which the people who gave meaning to it have disappeared.
The Patriarchal Crisis of 1910 and Constitutional Logic: Ottoman Greeks' Dual Role in the Second Constitutional Politics
Authors: Fujinami Nobuyoshi
Published: June 2009

From January to March 1910, the Ottoman Greeks experienced severe internal strife and a major crisis due to circumstances surrounding elections for the Holy Synod. An analysis of this crisis reveals some important aspects of the political structure of Ottoman Greek society. The Greeks were split into two camps with Patriarch Joachim III, lay councilors, the Hellenic legation, and the urban masses on one side and the metropolitans, intellectuals, and "middle class" on the other. The clerics remained influential even after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. Moreover, there were several points of conflict within the Greek Orthodox community-the Joachimist/anti-Joachimist split, the lay/clerical controversy, the existence of two national centers, and the relationship with the Bulgarians. Ottoman Greeks employed the logic of constitutionalism, the dominant legitimacy discourse after the Young Turk Revolution, in both intra- and inter-communal politics. Political maneuvering in the Second Constitutional Period and the Greeks' dual role therein must be re-examined with reference to the interaction of these complex political actors and arenas of conflict.
Teorías de la hermandad poético-musical en el contorno nacional: la generación argentina de 1837
Authors: Campillo Fenoll Marcos
Published: June 2009

Considering the processes of nation-building in Argentina during the nineteenth century as well as the consolidation of debates pertaining to the constitution of a 'national literature,' this article explores the relationship between poetry and music outlined in some works by the most important writers of the Argentine romantic Generation of 1837. Juan Thompson, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Esteban Echeverría, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Bartolomé Mitre all expressed concerns for the role of music in their personal lives and in the broader national cultural project. These intellectuals did not always agree on the hierarchical relationship between music and poetry, but the ongoing search into the character of a national song constituted for all of them the middle point between both arts. However, the uneasy relationship between music and poetry, a sisterhood necessary for the development of national customs and progress, came to represent a complex dichotomy between the oral character of music and the work of the 'letrados.' Existing song repertoires within the national popular realms represented a threat to their cultural project, to the effect that folksong collections such as El Cancionero Argentino of 1837 were published by the intellectual elite as a way to obliterate other musical representations. Despite their efforts to bar the popular folklore from these discussions, defining the argentine character as inevitably lyrical and musical at the same time would eventually allow a work such as José Hernández's Martín Fierro to be centrally positioned within the national literary canon.
Writing the Self: What Gómez de la Serna learned from Nietzsche
Authors: Fernández-Medina Nicolás
Published: June 2009

This article analyzes the role Nietzsche's philosophy played in Ramón Gómez de la Serna's (1888-1963) journey toward the Avant-Garde in the early years between 1907 and 1911. Gómez de la Serna's readings of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecce Homo were decisive in defining his sense of self in concepts of truth and falsity. The concern for a self-critical and increasingly "authentic" subjectivity leads Ramón irrevocably to an autobiographical mode of writing in a Nietzschesit sense. However, Ramón's concept of authenticity progressively approached autobiography as a truthful expression of something deeper and more personal: one's "vitalismo." Thus, facts, bearing witness, personal history, and linear temporality need not be privileged in autobiography. Instead, what was truthful cut much deeper into the self and entailed how it overcame its circumstance to locate something more authentic in the presentness of experience.
"¿Y memoria?": Larra y la resistencia al olvido
Authors: Harkema Leslie J.
Published: June 2009

This study highlights the role of the past in the work of Mariano José de Larra, and in so doing addresses a contradiction in the traditional view of the writer as both anachronistically "modern" and the exemplary Spanish Romantic. While displaying an artistic sensibility in line with the German Romanticism of A. W. Schlegel, which is characterized by an emphasis on the interdependence of the literary past and present, Larra refuses to limit his conception of good art to the chronological category of Romanticism, and fights against the forgetfulness that such a narrowing of scope would imply. This "resistance to oblivion" is analyzed as it appears in several of Larra's writings, beginning with articles on the arts in Spain such as "Conventos españoles," "Literatura," and "You quiero ser cómico"; then moving to the political vision he expresses in his introduction to his translation of a visionary text by F. R. Lammenais; and finally turning to the social criticism of the author's last writings, with particular focus on the article "Fígaro dado al mundo." In all of these texts, Larra makes reference to Spain's political and religious past, as well as to literature from a variety of time periods, in order to include that past in a better understanding of the present. Thus emerges a view of art and criticism as mnemonic and, thereby, restorative forces in society—along with a sharp critique of modernity's forgetfulness and, implicitly, the selective memory of the Romantic Movement.
Disección anatómica de la imaginación y de la moda en el sueño satírico 54 de El Censor
Authors: Hontanilla Ana
Published: June 2009

This article analyzes the way in which a wide range of social prototypes, as portrayed in El Censor's essay number 54 (1781-1783, 1787), embody one of the primary concerns of eighteenth-century intellectuals in Spain: the exposure of errors born from the disordered imagination of the common people, hastened in the process of searching for and constructing a social identity within the confines of urban life in Spain during this period. The experimental discourse offers the enlightened critic a valid and rational approach that warns against the weaknesses of social models in competition, which despite their irrationality, dominate the moment. From the vantage point of the empirical essayist, the observed subjects are characterized by their epistemological deficiencies. The perceived general clumsiness of common people to construct categories of thought, establish moral priorities and attribute the corresponding value to material objects are among the factors that lead to the creation of not simply erroneous social identities, but often detrimental ones. The epistemological aspirations of experimentation, however, are used in the context of a satirical-allegoric dream. The allegoric vision of the essayist transforms the human body into an absurd yet amusing spectacle, while utilizing it as the subject of an experimental study. The destabilization of the limits between the imagination and the experimental reason promote a perception of the sciences, of the subject as observer and of empirical knowledge as something both marvelous and strange.
Tourist Gaze and Germanic Immigrants in Roberto Arlt's Aguafuertes patagónicas
Authors: Valko Jennifer M.
Published: June 2009

This article shows how the poetic works of Delmira Agustini and Alfonsina Storni subvert the resources of Modernismo. The disarticulation of the Modernista esthetic seems to communicate a certain level of instability in their poetry. This poetic procedure leads to a fragmented subjectivity. Therefore, these authors could be included within Posmodernismo (e.g. López Velarde et alia). Agustini and Storni's main purpose is to search a discourse that allows them to re-think and revise the poetic language in order to express in new terms their own experience of difference.
Writing and Bare Life: Locura and Colonialism in Matos Paoli's Canto de la locura
Authors: Waldron John V.
Published: June 2009

Before his death in July of 2000, the Puerto Rican poet and "perennial nominee" for the Nobel Prize for literature, Francisco Matos Paoli often said that his poems were in fact very political and were not divorced from reality like those who practiced "pure poetry" in earlier generations. With very few exceptions, his Luz de los héroes (1951) being among them, it is difficult to see a direct connection between the style and mystical themes that recur in his poetry and any sort of political concern. My article shows how such a connection does indeed exist by understanding the negative power of Matos Paoli's poetic work in relation to the state of exception formed by colonial, bio-power in Puerto Rico. Though he was a poet, he was also a freedom fighter. This paper studies in particular the poem he wrote after his time in a psychiatric asylum, Canto de la locura (1962) in relation to the state of exception that reined in Puerto Rico particularly during the late 1940s and early 1950s when the "Gag Law" was imposed to quash any declarations or even symbolic gestures in favor of Puerto Rican independence. As a result of his involvement in the independence movement at that time, Matos Paoli was imprisoned along with Pedro Albizu Campos, the leader.
Fra-1/AP-1 Impairs Inflammatory Responses and Chondrogenesis in Fracture Healing
Authors: Yamaguchi Toru , Takada Yasunari , Maruyama Kenta , Shimoda Kouji , Arai Yoshinori , Nango Nobuhito , Kosaki Naoto , Takaishi Hironari , Toyama Yoshiaki , Matsuo Koichi
Published: June 2009

Inflammation inevitably follows injury of various tissues, including bone. Transgenic overexpression of Fra-1, a component of the transcription factor activator protein-1 (AP-1), in various tissues progressively and globally enhances bone formation, but little is known about the possible effects of Fra-1/AP-1 on fracture healing. We created a transverse fracture of the mouse tibial diaphysis and examined fracture healing radiologically, histologically, and immunologically. Strikingly, fracture union was delayed even though the bone formation rate in callus was higher in Fra-1 transgenic (Tg) mice. In these mice, chondrogenesis around the fracture site was impaired, resulting in accumulation of fibrous tissue, which interferes with the formation of a bony bridge across the callus. Curiously, immediately after fracture, induction of the inflammatory mediators TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and Cox-2 was significantly suppressed in Fra-1 Tg mice followed, by the reduced expression of Sox-9 and BMP-2. Because serum prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels were dramatically low in these mice, we administered PGE2 to the fracture site using a slow-release carrier. The accumulation of fibrous tissue in Fra-1 Tg mice was significantly reduced by PGE2 administration, and chondrogenesis near the fracture site was partially restored. These data suggest that the Fra-1-containing transcription factor AP-1 inhibits fracture-induced endochondral ossification and bony bridge formation presumably through suppression of inflammation-induced chondrogenesis.
Use of Saliva-Based Nano-Biochip Tests for Acute Myocardial Infarction at the Point of Care: A Feasibility Study
Authors: Floriano Pierre N , Christodoulides Nicolaos , Miller Craig S , Ebersole Jeffrey L , Spertus John , Rose Beate G , Kinane Denis F , Novak M John , Steinhubl Steven , Acosta Shelley , Mohanty Sanghamitra , Dharshan Priya , Yeh Chih-ko , Redding Spencer , Furmaga Wieslaw , McDevitt John T
Published: June 2009

Background: For adults with chest pain, the electrocardiogram (ECG) and measures of serum biomarkers are used to screen and diagnose myocardial necrosis. These measurements require time that can delay therapy and affect prognosis. Our objective was to investigate the feasibility and utility of saliva as an alternative diagnostic fluid for identifying biomarkers of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: We used Luminex and lab-on-a-chip methods to assay 21 proteins in serum and unstimulated whole saliva procured from 41 AMI patients within 48 h of chest pain onset and from 43 apparently healthy controls. Data were analyzed by use of logistic regression and area under curve (AUC) for ROC analysis to evaluate the diagnostic utility of each biomarker, or combinations of biomarkers, in screening for AMI.

Results: Both established and novel cardiac biomarkers demonstrated significant differences in concentrations between patients with AMI and controls without AMI. The saliva-based biomarker panel of C-reactive protein, myoglobin, and myeloperoxidase exhibited significant diagnostic capability (AUC = 0.85, P < 0.0001) and in conjunction with ECG yielded strong screening capacity for AMI (AUC = 0.96) comparable to that of the panel (brain natriuretic peptide, troponin-I, creatine kinase-MB, myoglobin; AUC = 0.98) and far exceeded the screening capacity of ECG alone (AUC approximately 0.6). En route to translating these findings to clinical practice, we adapted these unstimulated whole saliva tests to a novel lab-on-a-chip platform for proof-of-principle screens for AMI.

Conclusions: Complementary to ECG, saliva-based tests within lab-on-a-chip systems may provide a convenient and rapid screening method for cardiac events in prehospital stages for AMI patients.
North Korea's Policy Process: Assessing Institutional Policy Preferences
Authors: McEachern Patrick
Published: June 2009

I argue that North Korean politics is becoming pluralized. Policy outcomes are increasingly shaped by the interaction of the Cabinet, party, and military. Systematic content analysis of domestic articles and speeches suggests that policy preferences vary by institution. Second-echelon divisions are observable and help to shape policy more than has been previously argued.
Thyroglobulin as a marker of iodine nutrition status in the general population
Authors: Vejbjerg Pernille , Knudsen Nils , Perrild Hans , Laurberg Peter , Carlé Allan , Pedersen Inge Bülow , Rasmussen Lone B , Ovesen Lars , Jørgensen Torben
Published: June 2009

Objective

The iodine status of a population is traditionally evaluated by either urinary iodine (UI) excretion or by some measure of thyroid volume and the prevalence of goitre. In this prospective study of a mandatory iodization programme, we aimed to evaluate serum thyroglobulin (Tg) as a marker of iodine status in the population.

Methods

Two identical cross-sectional studies were performed before (1997–1998,n=4649) and after (2004–2005,n=3570) the initiation of the Danish iodization programme in two areas with mild and moderate iodine deficiency. Serum Tg was measured from blood samples. Thyroid volume was measured by ultrasonography.

Results

Before iodization, the median serum Tg was considerably higher in moderate than in mild iodine deficiency. Iodization led to a lower serum Tg in all examined age groups. The marked pre-iodization difference in Tg level between the regions was eliminated. The prevalence of Tg above the suggested reference limit (40 μg/l) decreased from 11.3 to 3.7% (P<0.0001). Using bootstrapping, we demonstrated a higher efficacy of Tg than of thyroid volume to show a difference between pre- and post-iodization values.

Conclusion

We found serum Tg to be a suitable marker of iodine nutrition status in the population. The results may suggest that the Danish iodization programme has led to a sufficient iodine intake, even if the median UI excretion is still marginally low according to WHO criteria.
Lack of regulation of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 during short-term manipulation of GH in patients with hypopituitarism
Authors: Sigurjonsdottir Helga A , Andrew Ruth , Stimson Roland H , Johannsson Gudmundur , Walker Brian R
Published: June 2009

Objective

Evidence from long-term clinical studies measuring urinary steroid ratios, and fromin vitrostudies, suggests that GH administered for longer than 2 months down-regulates 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1), thereby reducing cortisol regeneration in liver and adipose tissue. We aimed to measure acute effects of GH on 11β-HSD1 in liver and adipose tissuein vivo, including using a stable isotope tracer.

Design

Observational studies of GH withdrawal and reintroduction in patients with hypopituitarism.

Methods

Twelve men with benign pituitary disease causing GH and ACTH deficiency on stable replacement therapy for >6 months were studied after GH withdrawal for 3 weeks, and after either placebo or GH injections were reintroduced for another 3 weeks. We measured cortisol kinetics during 9,11,12,12-2H4-cortisol (d4-cortisol) infusion, urinary cortisol/cortisone metabolite ratios, liver 11β-HSD1 by appearance of plasma cortisol after oral cortisone, and 11β-HSD1 mRNA levels in subcutaneous adipose biopsies.

Results

GH withdrawal and reintroduction had no effect on 9,12,12-[2H]3-cortisol (d3-cortisol) appearance, urinary cortisol/cortisone metabolite ratios, initial appearance of cortisol after oral cortisone, or adipose 11β-HSD1 mRNA. GH withdrawal increased plasma cortisol 30–180 min after oral cortisone, increased d4-cortisol clearance, and decreased relative excretion of 5α-reduced cortisol metabolites.

Conclusions

In this setting, GH did not regulate 11β-HSD1 rapidlyin vivoin humans. Altered cortisol metabolism with longer term changes in GH may reflect indirect effects on 11β-HSD1. These data do not suggest that glucocorticoid replacement doses need to be increased immediately after introducing GH therapy to compensate for reduced 11β-HSD1 activity, although dose adjustment may be required in the longer term.
Cryopreserved ovarian tissues can maintain a long-term function after heterotopic autotransplantation in rat
Authors: Deng Xiaohui , Zheng Hua , Yu Xuan , Yu Hongling , Zhang Chengmei , Chao Lan , Li Ruichang , Liu Wenjun
Published: June 2009

The functional longevity of cryopreserved ovarian grafts is one of the most challenging questions regarding ovarian transplantation at present. This study used a rat ovarian grafting model to investigate whether ovarian tissues from adult rats, which had been cryopreserved by vitrification and followed by heterotopic transplantation, could establish long-term hormone secretion and follicle development. Fresh and cryopreserved ovarian tissues were autologously transplanted under the kidney capsule. One-third of the animals in each group (sham-operated, fresh autografts, cryopreserved autografts, or castrated) were killed 5, 8, or 10 months after transplantation. Vaginal cytology, serum estradiol (E2), progesterone, and the morphology of the reproductive tract were used to assess ovarian function. Both fresh and cryopreserved ovarian grafts survived well in all the animal models with comparable proportion of follicles at each stage of folliculogenesis at all three time points. The serum E2 and progesterone concentrations in the groups with fresh or cryopreserved grafts remained comparable with those in sham-operated controls at all investigated time points. However, a loss of grafts and primordial follicles following heterotopic transplantation was noted. In conclusion, the heterotopic autotransplantation of vitrified ovarian tissues from adult rat without vascular anastomosis can maintain long-term ovarian function and exert endocrine function in target organs, in spite of the reduction in follicle pool.
Progesterone and conceptus elongation in cattle: a direct effect on the embryo or an indirect effect via the endometrium?
Authors: Clemente M , de La Fuente J , Fair T , Al Naib A , Gutierrez-Adan A , Roche J F , Rizos D , Lonergan P
Published: June 2009

The steroid hormone progesterone (P4) plays a key role in the reproductive events associated with pregnancy establishment and maintenance. High concentrations of circulating P4in the immediate post-conception period have been associated with an advancement of conceptus elongation, an associated increase in interferon-τ production and higher pregnancy rates in cattle. Usingin vitroandin vivomodels and ∼8500 bovine oocytes across six experiments, the aim of this study was to establish the route through which P4affects bovine embryo developmentin vitroandin vivo. mRNA for P4receptors was present at all stages of embryo development raising the possibility of a direct effect of P4on the embryo. Exposure to P4in vitroin the absence or presence of oviduct epithelial cells did not affect the proportion of embryos developing to the blastocyst stage, blastocyst cell number or the relative abundance of selected transcripts in the blastocyst. Furthermore, exposure to P4in vitrodid not affect post-hatching elongation of the embryo following transfer to synchronized recipients and recovery on Day 14. By contrast, transfer ofin vitroderived blastocysts to a uterine environment previously primed by elevated P4resulted in a fourfold increase in conceptus length on Day 14. These data provide clear evidence to support the hypothesis that P4-induced changes in the uterine environment are responsible for the advancement in conceptus elongation reported previously in cattle and that, interestingly, the embryo does not need to be present during the period of high P4in order to exhibit advanced elongation.
Adenine nucleotide translocase 4 deficiency leads to early meiotic arrest of murine male germ cells
Authors: Brower Jeffrey V , Lim Chae Ho , Jorgensen Marda , Oh S Paul , Terada Naohiro
Published: June 2009

Male fertility relies on the highly specialized process of spermatogenesis to continually renew the supply of spermatozoa necessary for reproduction. Central to this unique process is meiosis that is responsible for the production of haploid spermatozoa as well as for generating genetic diversity. During meiosis I, there is a dramatic increase in the number of mitochondria present within the developing spermatocytes, suggesting an increased necessity for ATP production and utilization. Essential for the utilization of ATP is the translocation of ADP and ATP across the inner mitochondrial membrane, which is mediated by the adenine nucleotide translocases (Ant). We recently identified and characterized a novel testis specific Ant, ANT4 (also known as SLC25A31 and Aac4). The generation ofAnt4-deficient animals resulted in the severe disruption of the seminiferous epithelium with an apparent spermatocytic arrest of the germ cell population. In the present study utilizing a chromosomal spread technique, we determined thatAnt4-deficiency results in an accumulation of leptotene spermatocytes, a decrease in pachytene spermatocytes, and an absence of diplotene spermatocytes, indicating early meiotic arrest. Furthermore, the chromosomes ofAnt4-deficient pachytene spermatocyte occasionally demonstrated sustained γH2AX association as well as synaptonemal complex protein 1 (SYCP1)/SYCP3 dissociation beyond the sex body. Large ATP supplies from mitochondria may be critical for normal progression of spermatogenesis during early stages of meiotic prophase I, including DNA double-strand break repair and chromosomal synapsis.
Phase boundary effects on the mechanical deformation of core/shell Cu/Ag nanoparticles
Authors: Zheng Bin , Nong Wang Yi , Qi Min , Williams Elissa H.
Published: June 2009

The uniaxial compressive deformation of core/shell-type Cu/Ag nanoparticles and naked Cu nanoparticles were simulated by molecular dynamics, revealing the role of nanophase boundaries in the mechanical deformation. The simulations show that single type of partial dislocations glide across the entire slip planes of the Cu cores, resulting in elongated Cu cores compared with circular Cu cores of naked Cu nanoparticles. The phase boundary is the nucleation source of dislocations, and the ultrahigh atomic level stress of part atoms in the phase boundary can ensure the movement of the single type of dislocations under compressed.
Noncontact thermophysical property measurement of liquid cerium by electrostatic levitation
Authors: Li Jianqiang , Ishikawa Takehiko , Okada Junpei T. , Watanabe Yuki , Yu Jianding , Yoda Shinichi , Yuan Zhangfu
Published: June 2009

The knowledge of thermophysical properties of active metals is critical to understand their metallurgical processes and further industrial applications. However, due to high reactivity and melt contamination from a crucible and gaseous environment, accurate values of the properties are hard to obtain using conventional methods such as the sessile-drop method. In the present study, a vacuum electrostatic levitator was used to circumvent these difficulties and enabled the noncontact determination of thermophysical properties of liquid cerium even in an undercooled state. The data of density, surface tension, and viscosity of molten cerium were reported, as well as their temperature dependence.
High-pressure cation-exchange treatment of a ZSM-5 zeolite
Authors: Han Aijie , Qiao Yu
Published: June 2009

Under ambient pressure, an aqueous solution may not enter the nanopores of a hydrophobic ZSM-5 zeolite, which imposes difficulties to cation-exchange treatment. In the current study, a high-pressure cation-exchange technique is developed. With a relatively short treatment time, the degree of hydrophobicity is significantly increased.
Influences of oxygen impurity contained in nitrogen on the reaction of titanium with nitrogen
Authors: Lu Fu-Hsing , Jiang Bor-Feng , Lo Jen-Li , Chan Mu-Hsuan
Published: June 2009

In this work, Ti pellets were selected as a model system to investigate the influences of oxygen impurity in nitrogen gas on the reaction of a metal with the nitrogen. Analyzing changes in the in situ oxygen partial pressures when titanium specimens were annealed in the oxygen-containing nitrogen shows that the dissolution of oxygen in Ti and TiNx is exothermic, and the solubility decreases as the temperature increases. X-ray diffraction results show that nitridation of Ti occurred before oxidation, even in an oxygen-containing nitrogen atmosphere. Kinetics apparently predominates over thermodynamics at low temperatures in such a system.