bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Advanced brain dopamine transporter imaging in mice using small-animal SPECT/CT
Authors: Pitkonen Miia , Hippeläinen Eero , Raki Mari , Andressoo Jaan-Olle , Urtti Arto , Männistö Pekka T , Savolainen Sauli , Saarma Mart , Bergström Kim
Published: October 2012

Background

Iodine-123-β-CIT, a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) ligand for dopamine transporters (DATs), has been used for in vivo studies in humans, monkeys, and rats but has not yet been used extensively in mice. To validate the imaging and analysis methods for preclinical DAT imaging, wild-type healthy mice were scanned using 123I-β-CIT.

Methods

The pharmacokinetics and reliability of 123I-β-CIT in mice (n = 8) were studied with a multipinhole SPECT/CT camera after intravenous injection of 123I-β-CIT (38 ± 3 MBq). Kinetic imaging of three mice was continued for 7 h postinjection to obtain the time-activity curves in the striatum and cerebellum volumes. Five mice had repeated measures 4 h post-123I-β-CIT injection to provide an indication of test-retest reliability. The same five mice served as a basis for a healthy mean SPECT template.

Results

Specific binding of 123I-β-CIT within the mouse striatum could be clearly visualized with SPECT. The kinetics of 123I-β-CIT was similar to that in previously published autoradiography studies. Binding potential mean values of the test-retest studies were 6.6 ± 15.7% and 6.6 ± 4.6%, respectively, and the variability was 9%. The SPECT template was aggregated from the first and second imaging of the test-retest animals. No significant difference between the templates (P > 0.05) was found. From the test template, a striatal volume of 22.3 mm3 was defined.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that high-resolution SPECT/CT is capable of accurate, repeatable, and semiquantitative measurement of 123I-β-CIT DAT binding in the mouse brain. This methodology will enable further studies on DAT density and neuroprotective properties of drugs in mice.
The pediatric sepsis biomarker risk model
Authors: Wong Hector R , Salisbury Shelia , Xiao Qiang , Cvijanovich Natalie Z , Hall Mark , Allen Geoffrey L , Thomas Neal J , Freishtat Robert J , Anas Nick , Meyer Keith , Checchia Paul A , Lin Richard , Shanley Thomas P , Bigham Michael T , Sen Anita , Nowak Jeffrey , Quasney Michael , Henricksen Jared W , Chopra Arun , Banschbach Sharon , Beckman Eileen , Harmon Kelli , Lahni Patrick , Lindsell Christopher J
Published: October 2012

Introduction

The intrinsic heterogeneity of clinical septic shock is a major challenge. For clinical trials, individual patient management, and quality improvement efforts, it is unclear which patients are least likely to survive and thus benefit from alternative treatment approaches. A robust risk stratification tool would greatly aid decision-making. The objective of our study was to derive and test a multi-biomarker-based risk model to predict outcome in pediatric septic shock.

Methods

Twelve candidate serum protein stratification biomarkers were identified from previous genome-wide expression profiling. To derive the risk stratification tool, biomarkers were measured in serum samples from 220 unselected children with septic shock, obtained during the first 24 hours of admission to the intensive care unit. Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was used to generate a decision tree to predict 28-day all-cause mortality based on both biomarkers and clinical variables. The derived tree was subsequently tested in an independent cohort of 135 children with septic shock.

Results

The derived decision tree included five biomarkers. In the derivation cohort, sensitivity for mortality was 91% (95% CI 70 - 98), specificity was 86% (80 - 90), positive predictive value was 43% (29 - 58), and negative predictive value was 99% (95 - 100). When applied to the test cohort, sensitivity was 89% (64 - 98) and specificity was 64% (55 - 73). In an updated model including all 355 subjects in the combined derivation and test cohorts, sensitivity for mortality was 93% (79 - 98), specificity was 74% (69 - 79), positive predictive value was 32% (24 - 41), and negative predictive value was 99% (96 - 100). False positive subjects in the updated model had greater illness severity compared to the true negative subjects, as measured by persistence of organ failure, length of stay, and intensive care unit free days.

Conclusions

The pediatric sepsis biomarker risk model (PERSEVERE; PEdiatRic SEpsis biomarkEr Risk modEl) reliably identifies children at risk of death and greater illness severity from pediatric septic shock. PERSEVERE has the potential to substantially enhance clinical decision making, to adjust for risk in clinical trials, and to serve as a septic shock-specific quality metric.
Use of an online virtual environment in psychiatric problem-based learning
Authors: Rampling Jeremy , O'Brien Aileen , Hindhaugh Keelyjo , Woodham Luke , Kavia Sheetal
Published: October 2012

Aims and method

To create a simulated patient with psychosis for psychiatric training within the online virtual environment of Second Life. After design and delivery of the scenario, medical students were asked to complete it and provide feedback.

Results

A total of 24 students tried the scenario and gave feedback via an online survey. The project had been offered to 150 students so the take up was low. The feedback was predominantly negative with 53 critical responses to 32 positive ones. The consensus was that the scenario was cumbersome, did not imitate real life and was of little educational value. Multimedia representations of psychotic symptoms were more positively received and there may be scope for further development.

Clinical implications

Interactive technology has a role in psychiatric education but we would not recommend the use of scenarios that rely predominantly on verbal communication within Second Life.
How did we let it come to this? A plea for the principle of continuity of care
Authors: Lodge George
Published: October 2012

The administrative imposition of new models of psychiatric care in the community has led to the fragmentation of services and a deteriorated experience for both service users and professionals. The author makes a plea for psychiatrists to reassert the principle of continuity of care, which has been all but lost from the practice of psychiatry during the past decade. It is possible to meet the clinical objectives of necessary support and treatment for service users within the community without the current multiplicity of team structures seen throughout England.
The cardiovascular health of young people with severe mental illness: addressing an epidemic within an epidemic
Authors: Bailey Sue , Gerada Clare , Lester Helen , Shiers David
Published: October 2012

For young people with emerging psychosis, early weight gain and its potential cardiac and metabolic consequences amplify worrying UK public health trends for young people in general. This paper will argue that if clinicians dismiss these changes as of secondary concern in psychiatric treatment for their young patients, they may be inadvertently condoning a first critical step on a path towards physical health inequalities. Greater recognition is needed for this patient population in their 20s and 30s, at ages not normally considered for active primary or secondary cardiovascular prevention, who are at high risk of dying prematurely. The early phase of psychosis presents an important treatment window for protecting cardiometabolic health.
Disruption of the Melanin-Concentrating Hormone Receptor 1 (MCH1R) Affects Thyroid Function
Authors: Chung Shinjae , Liao Xiao-Hui , Di Cosmo Caterina , Van Sande Jacqueline , Wang Zhiwei , Refetoff Samuel , Civelli Olivier
Published: October 2012

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a peptide produced in the hypothalamus and the zona incerta that acts on one receptor, MCH receptor 1 (MCH1R), in rodents. The MCH system has been implicated in the regulation of several centrally directed physiological responses, including the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis. Yet a possible direct effect of the MCH system on thyroid function has not been explored in detail. We now show that MCH1R mRNA is expressed in thyroid follicular cells and that mice lacking MCH1R [MCH1R-knockout (KO)] exhibit reduced circulating iodothyronine (T4, free T4, T3, and rT3) levels and high TRH and TSH when compared with wild-type (WT) mice. Because the TSH of MCH1R-KO mice displays a normal bioactivity, we hypothesize that their hypothyroidism may be caused by defective thyroid function. Yet expression levels of the genes important for thyroid hormones synthesis or secretion are not different between the MCH1R-KO and WT mice. However, the average thyroid follicle size of the MCH1R-KO mice is larger than that of WT mice and contained more free and total T4 and T3 than the WT glands, suggesting that they are sequestered in the glands. Indeed, when challenged with TSH, the thyroids of MCH1R-KO mice secrete lower amounts of T4. Similarly, secretion of iodothyronines in the plasma upon 125I administration is significantly reduced in MCH1R-KO mice. Therefore, the absence of MCH1R affects thyroid function by disrupting thyroid hormone secretion. To our knowledge, this study is the first to link the activity of the MCH system to the thyroid function.
Activin A Stimulates AKR1C3 Expression and Growth in Human Prostate Cancer
Authors: Hofland Johannes , van Weerden Wytske M. , Steenbergen Jacobie , Dits Natasja F. J. , Jenster Guido , de Jong Frank H.
Published: October 2012

Local androgen synthesis in prostate cancer (PC) may contribute to the development of castration-resistant PC (CRPC), but pathways controlling intratumoral steroidogenic enzyme expression in PC are unknown. We investigated the effects of activin, a factor involved in the regulation of PC growth and steroidogenic enzyme expression in other steroidogenic tissues, on intratumoral steroidogenesis in PC. Activin A effects and regulation of the activin-signaling pathway molecules were studied in the PC cell lines LNCaP, VCaP, and PC-3 and in 13 individual PC xenograft models. Also, expression levels of inhibin βA- and βB-subunits (INHBA and INHBB) and of the activin antagonist follistatin were quantitated in patient PC tissues. Activin A induced the expression and enzyme activity of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzyme AKR1C3 in LNCaP and VCaP cells. Inhibition of endogenous activin A action in the PC-3 cell line decreased AKR1C3 levels and consequently testosterone synthesis. In return, androgens suppressed INHBA expression in both VCaP cells and the PC xenograft models. The antiproliferative effects of activin A were opposed by physiological concentrations of androstenedione in LNCaP cells. In patient PC tissues, expression levels of INHBA were increased in CRPC samples and correlated with AKR1C3 levels. Moreover, a high ratio of activin subunits to follistatin was associated with a worse metastasis-free survival in patients. In conclusion, activin A is controlled by androgens in PC models and regulates local androgen production. Activin A thus seems to mediate (residual) intratumoral androgen levels and could form a novel therapeutic target in CRPC.
Hepatocyte Growth Factor Plays a Key Role in Insulin Resistance-Associated Compensatory Mechanisms
Authors: Araújo Tiago G. , Oliveira Alexandre G. , Carvalho Bruno M. , Guadagnini Dioze , Protzek André O.P. , Carvalheira Jose B.C. , Boschero Antonio C. , Saad Mario J.A.
Published: October 2012

Insulin resistance is present in obesity and in type 2 diabetes and is associated with islet cell hyperplasia and hyperinsulinemia, but the driving forces behind this compensatory mechanism are incompletely understood. Previous data have suggested the involvement of an unknown circulating insulin resistance-related β-cell growth factor. In this context, looking for candidates to be a circulating factor, we realized that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a strong candidate as a link between insulin resistance and increased mass of islets/hyperinsulinemia. Our approach aimed to show a possible cause-effect relationship between increase in circulating HGF levels and compensatory islet hyperplasia/hyperinsulinemia by showing the strength of the association, whether or not is a dose-dependent response, the temporality, consistency, plausibility, and reversibility of the association. In this regard, our data showed: 1) a strong and consistent correlation between HGF and the compensatory mechanism in three animal models of insulin resistance; 2) HGF increases β-cell mass in a dose-dependent manner; 3) blocking HGF shuts down the compensatory mechanisms; and 4) an increase in HGF levels seems to precede the compensatory response associated with insulin resistance, indicating that these events occur in a sequential mode. Additionally, blockages of HGF receptor (Met) worsen the impaired insulin-induced insulin signaling in liver of diet-induced obesity rats. Overall, our data indicate that HGF is a growth factor playing a key role in islet mass increase and hyperinsulinemia in diet-induced obesity rats and suggest that the HGF-Met axis may have a role on insulin signaling in the liver.
Proliferation Rates of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1 (MEN1)-Associated Tumors
Authors: Walls Gerard V. , Reed Anita A.C. , Jeyabalan Jeshmi , Javid Mahsa , Hill Nathan R. , Harding Brian , Thakker Rajesh V.
Published: October 2012

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the combined occurrence of parathyroid and adrenocortical tumors, and neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of the pancreas and pituitary. The pancreatic NETs are predominantly gastrinomas and insulinomas, and the pituitary NETs are mostly prolactinomas and somatotrophinomas. We postulated that the different types of pancreatic and pituitary NETs may be partly due to differences in their proliferation rates, and we therefore assessed these in MEN1-associated tumors and gonadal tumors that developed in mice deleted for an Men1 allele (Men1+/−). To label proliferating cells in vivo, Men1+/− and wild-type (Men1+/+) mice were given 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in drinking water from 1–12 wk, and tissue sections were immunostained using anti-BrdU and hormone-specific antibodies. Proliferation in the tumors of Men1+/− mice was significantly (P < 0.001) increased when compared with the corresponding normal Men1+/+ tissues. Pancreatic, pituitary and adrenocortical proliferation fitted first- and second-order regression lines in Men1+/+ tissues and Men1+/− tumors, respectively, R2 = 0.999. Apoptosis was similar in Men1+/− pancreatic, pituitary, and parathyroid tumors when compared with corresponding normal tissues, decreased in Men1+/− adrenocortical tumors, but increased in Men1+/− gonadal tumors. Mathematical modeling of NET growth rates (proliferation minus apoptosis rates) predicted that in Men1+/− mice, only pancreatic β-cells, pituitary lactotrophs and somatotrophs could develop into tumors within a murine lifespan. Thus, our studies demonstrate that Men1+/− tumors have low proliferation rates (<2%), second-order kinetics, and the higher occurrence of insulinomas, prolactinomas, and somatotrophinomas in MEN1 is consistent with a mathematical model for NET proliferation.
Bioinspired Mechanism for the Translocation of Peptide through the Cell Membrane
Authors: Sakamoto Kazutami , Aburai Kenichi , Morishita Taku , Sakai Kenichi , Sakai Hideki , Abe Masahiko , Nakase Ikuhiko , Futaki Shiroh
Published: October 2012

Discreetness of a cell is the key to life, with the cell membrane separating the interior cytosol from its environment. In this regard, cytosol is never connected to the external media even during the course of cell fission or fusion. However, water-soluble peptides called protein transduction domain (PTD) can spontaneously translocate through the cell membranes without any particular transporter or receptor. Here, we propose that the translocation of PTD can be described based on a local and temporal dynamic topological transformation of the membrane structure to mesh phase.
Effect of Surfactant Type on Enzymatic Miniemulsion Polymerization Using Horseradish Peroxidase as a Catalyst
Authors: Kohri Michinari , Kobayashi Ayaka , Fukushima Haruka , Taniguchi Tatsuo , Nakahira Takayuki
Published: October 2012

The influence of surfactant type on monomer conversion and particle size of polystyrene particles prepared by horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mediated miniemulsion polymerization was investigated.
Tuning Particle Velocity and Measurement Sensitivity by Changing Pore Sensor Dimensions
Authors: Kozak Darby , Anderson Will , Trau Matt
Published: October 2012

Tuning the size of an elastic pore sensor enables the control of both the measurement sensitivity and particle velocity through the pore. Increasing the pore size by stretching the pore membrane reduced the magnitude of the resistive pulse signal generated by 330 nm polystyrene particles by 24% while simultaneously increasing their velocity through the pore, as shown by the 68% shorter pulse durations. These effects are due to the reduced excluded particle volume and increased fluid velocity through the larger pore, respectively.
Two-dimensional Brownian Motions of Polyacrylamide-modified Colloidal Particles
Authors: Nakamura Yuki , Okuzono Tohru , Toyotama Akiko , Yamanaka Junpei
Published: October 2012

We report Brownian motions of colloidal silica particles (diameter: 325 nm) modified with polyacrylamide (PAAm), near the surfaces of PAAm-modified glass. Aqueous solutions of ethanol (EtOH) are used as the dispersion media, and the solvent properties with respect to PAAm chains are tuned by varying the EtOH concentrations. The mean-square displacements, σ2, of the individual particles are determined from particle trajectories obtained by optical microscopy. The diffusion coefficients of the particles, determined from the slopes of σ2–t plots, are smaller at higher EtOH concentrations as a result of increases in the magnitude of interactions between the PAAm chains on the colloidal particles and those on the glass surfaces.
Preparation and Electrooptic Properties of Liquid Crystal Devices Doped with Cucurbituril-protected Gold Nanowires
Authors: Sawai Hiroya , Matsuura Taisei , Kakiuchi Hideshi , Ohgi Taeko , Shiraishi Yukihide , Toshima Naoki
Published: October 2012

Cucurbituril-protected gold (CB–Au) nanowires were prepared by ultraviolet irradiation of an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution of tetrachloroauric(III) acid in the presences of CB. The average width and length of CB[5]–Au nanowires were 256 and 6600 nm, respectively. The nanowires were dispersed in a liquid crystal, 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl, to construct a novel twisted nematic liquid crystal device (TN-LCD). The power consumption of this TN-LCD in the presence of CB–Au nanowires was lower than that in their absence.
Immobilization of a Single Intact Liposome onto a Peptide-modified Glass Microwell
Authors: Kasuya Yuzo , Tsukamoto Kei , Yamada Daisuke , Matsumura Kazunari
Published: October 2012

A method for immobilizing an intact liposome onto a solid material has been studied for applications in sensing devices and microreactor systems. We prepared peptide-modified microwells with a submicron size (<300 nm), using focused ion beam milling on a glass material to immobilize single intact liposomes.
Biological role of the two overlapping poly(A)-binding protein interacting motifs 2 (PAM2) of eukaryotic releasing factor eRF3 in mRNA decay
Authors: Osawa Masanori , Hosoda Nao , Nakanishi Tamiji , Uchida Naoyuki , Kimura Tomomi , Imai Shunsuke , Machiyama Asako , Katada Toshiaki , Hoshino Shin-ichi , Shimada Ichio
Published: October 2012

Eukaryotic releasing factor GSPT/eRF3 mediates translation termination-coupled mRNA decay via interaction with a cytosolic poly(A)-binding protein (PABPC1). A region of eRF3 containing two overlapping PAM2 (PABPC1-interacting motif 2) motifs is assumed to bind to the PABC domain of PABPC1, on the poly(A) tail of mRNA. PAM2 motifs are also found in the major deadenylases Caf1–Ccr4 and Pan2–Pan3, whose activities are enhanced upon PABPC1 binding to these motifs. Their deadenylase activities are regulated by eRF3, in which two overlapping PAM2 motifs competitively prevent interaction with PABPC1. However, it is unclear how these overlapping motifs recognize PABC and regulate deadenylase activity in a translation termination-coupled manner. We used a dominant-negative approach to demonstrate that the N-terminal PAM2 motif is critical for eRF3 binding to PABPC1 and that both motifs are required for function. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and NMR analyses revealed that the interaction is in equilibrium between the two PAM2–PABC complexes, where only one of the two overlapping PAM2 motifs is PABC-bound and the other is PABC-unbound and partially accessible to the other PABC. Based on these results, we proposed a biological role for the overlapping PAM2 motifs in the regulation of deadenylase accessibility to PABPC1 at the 3′ end of poly(A).
“Sing the Dionysus”: Euripides’ Bacchae as Dramatic Hymn
Authors: Damen Mark L. , Richards Rebecca A.
Published: October 2012

This article weaves together several lines of thinking in recent work on Euripides, in particular, his innovative approach to traditional dramatic and religious expression, and the overt theatricality of the Bacchae . To the first three choral odes, which are clearly modeled on hymn, should be added other parts of the play, especially its middle scenes (576–976). There, Euripides uses idioms of the theatre—dialogue, messenger speeches, and performance—to express the content found often in hymns, such as a god’s birth, nature, and blessings. At its culmination, this “dramatic hymn” offers an etiology of the Dionysia itself.

τὰ νομισθέντα γὰρ αἰεὶ Διόνυσον ὑμνήσω.

(“As has always been the custom, I will sing the hymn of Dionysus.”)

—Eur. Bacch . 71–72
The Royal Costume and Insignia of Alexander the Great
Authors: Collins Andrew W.
Published: October 2012

Alexander’s proclamation as King of Asia was not a claim to be the new king of Persia or the new Great King. Alexander’s empire was one above and beyond the local kingship of Persia, and this “revisionist” interpretation of Alexander’s kingship requires a new assessment of Alexander’s reconfigured royal costume. Alexander rejected the upright tiara (the symbol of Achaemenid kingship) and the “Median” (or riding) dress, such as the kandys and anaxyrides . In adopting a new and impressive royal costume, Alexander expressed the exalted nature of his recently won kingship of Asia by devising a hybrid Macedonian– Persian dress.
How to Read Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists
Authors: Paulas John
Published: October 2012

Scholarly interest in the literary aspects of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists has increased greatly over the last decade, but little analysis proceeds from the perspective of the reader. This article seeks to redress that situation by showing how “readerly” engagement involving inter- and intratext renders Athenaeus’ text both meaningful and pleasurable to read. I analyze the text as a dramatization of acts of reading inter- and intratextually. Such reading broadly employs symbolism and symbolic language. Understanding this way of reading and its rhetoric enables modern readers to see the Deipnosophists as a literary work rather than merely a repository of knowledge.
Seducing Autocracy: Tacitus and the Dynasts of the Near East
Authors: Andrade Nathanael
Published: October 2012

This article examines Tacitus’ exploration of the motives of Near-Eastern dynasts in Histories 2 and Annals 2. In these books, Tacitus presents Near-Eastern “enslavement” to the Roman empire as an act of will. Near-Eastern dynasts desired to “seduce” Romans into becoming masters and assuming the same despotic and morally enslaved dispositions that they as dynasts exerted. Their slaving helped frame, forge, and actuate a Roman imperial system that subjected Romans to despotic figures amid the unceasing threat of civil discord. In this sense, Near-Eastern seduction and its products symbolized Rome’s enslavement to autocracy and its circumvention of Republican governance.
Gambling with Debt: Lessons from the Illiterate
Authors: See Sarita Echavez
Published: October 2012

What debt do we owe the subprime debtor? What purchase, the kind of knowledge and literacy produced by the contractual illiterate, the debtor who seemingly does not know how to read a contract? Analyzing the twenty-first century theatrical adaptation of Carlos Bulosan’s 1940s short story “The Romance of Magno Rubio,” Sarita Echavez See makes a case for the renewed relevance of Bulosan’s insights about the illiterate Filipino American fieldworker of the Great Depression for the contractually illiterate subprime debtor of the current era. Bulosan’s juxtaposition of the abstract with the literal in his portrayal of the exploited labor and desires of Filipino American seasonal fieldworkers exposes new forms of knowledge about debt, obligation, and reciprocity that ironically emanate from the illiterate and the uneducated.
Coloring in the Bubble: Perspectives from Black-Oriented Media on the (Latest) Economic Disaster
Authors: Squires Catherine R.
Published: October 2012

Historically, people of color have turned to alternative “ethnic” media to fill in gaps in the record presented by dominant media. However, it is necessary to assess whether these alternative media provide sufficient counternarratives. Such an assessment is even more important now, as media consolidation and multicultural marketing present new opportunities for and pressures on ethnic media, often under the sign of neoliberal and “postracial” progress. I investigate how three media platforms aimed at people of color responded to the mortgage lending crisis and subsequent economic meltdown. I explore whether each outlet provided readers with perspectives rarely found in dominant media reports on the crisis. This exploration yields insights about the production of resistant news narratives, as well as cautions about the limitations of critique found in ethnic media.
The Uses of Asianization: Figuring Crises, 1997-98 and 2007-?
Authors: Kang Laura Hyun Yi
Published: October 2012

This article attempts to think through important connections and missed connections between the “Asian financial crisis” of 1997–98 and the U.S. “subprime” crisis and ongoing sovereign debt crises. The possible lessons to be learned in 1997–98 about the dangers of unfettered capital mobility and the growing market in occult financial instruments such as derivatives were foreclosed by the “Asianization” of the crisis itself. The essay begins by problematizing the temporal enclosure of the 1997–98 crisis by recalling three intermeshed Asianizations in the 1990s, from “Asian miracle” to “Asian crisis” to “Asian recovery.” Then, it moves to broaden the geographic bounding of the 1997–98 crisis by contextualizing it in terms of three other interconnected “stories” about the globalization of finance capital. The article ends by considering a fourth, more recent Asianization in the discourse of “Asian triumph” expressed in the aftermath of the “subprime crisis,” which exposed the deep dysfunctions of Wall Street and later British firms. These shifting uses of Asianization provide instructive demonstrations of the analytic work necessitated by the broadened purview and dispersed archives of a transnational, interdisciplinary American studies.
Welcome to My Cell: Housing and Race in the Mirror of American Democracy
Authors: Cuevas Ofelia O.
Published: October 2012

This article examines the parallel expansion of two forms of housing in the United States: the housing market of homes bought with subprime mortgages; and security housing units and solitary confinement beds in the rapidly growing network of prisons and detention centers. It considers the intersection of the two markets in which black and brown people are not only consumers of a false ontological security in the housing market but also a product—a body that fills a bed—in a racialized system of incarceration. It argues that both forms of participation find their place under the rubric of securitization, conceived in the full force of its double meaning, in terms of the transformation of debt into financial securities and of the financialization of “security,” that is, of state violence and social control as related to the racial subject, through the historical trajectory of the ideals of personhood and property and the practices of dispossession and colonial accumulation.
A Tale of Two Gulfs: Life, Death, and Dispossession along Two Oil Frontiers
Authors: Watts Michael
Published: October 2012

Two major oil-producing regions frame this article. The first is the onshore oil world in the global South (the Niger delta in Nigeria as part of the wider Gulf of Guinea), and the second is the offshore world of deepwater oil and gas exploration and production in the United States (specifically, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Deepwater Horizon blowout). Both arenas can be seen as oil frontiers—frontiers of accumulation and dispossession—rooted in the operations of specific oil assemblages. I trace the relations between the deep infrastructures of the oil world—pipelines, rigs, flowstations, tankers, financiers, engineering firms, security forces, and so on—and to the regimes of life and death in the postcolonial South and the advanced capitalist North. Political, economic, and social relations are, as Timothy Mitchell notes, engineered out of the flows of energy. Opening up these sorts of oil frontiers—whether in Angolan or Brazilian deepwater, Russian Siberia, or increasingly now the frozen frontiers of the Arctic—necessitates engagements with place-specific social and political forces, none of which necessarily or easily are compatible with some presumed set of desires of corporate oil capital—political stability, surplus management, price control—or indeed of imperialist oil-consuming states. In one case the terminal point is an insurgency and combustible politics threatening the very operations of the oil industry and the petrostate itself; in the other it is the violence of a blowout—the loss of human and environmental life and livelihoods—and of the deadly consequences of substituting technical and financial over political risks.
The Black Mohicans: Representations of Everyday Violence in Postracial Urban America
Authors: Márquez John D.
Published: October 2012

This article compares two dominant representations of blackness conveyed via the media and state institutions: first, representations of exceptional, black, elected officials, athletes, entertainers, and honors students who demonstrate the success of the civil rights movement, and second, representations of black and Latino victims and victimizers of violence who are routinely politicized to represent the innate pathology of black and Latino communities writ large within cities like Chicago. This discursive contrast helps gloss over the pervasive economic inequalities that help produce urban violence. Additionally, it exacerbates and further normalizes a socio-logical architecture inherent to Enlightenment thought, that is particularly essential to/within settler colonial formations like the United States, and that is dependent on hypervisible images of helpless, bloody, and pathological masses of natives, who are popularly perceived as deserving of quarantine or obliteration.
Collectible Singletons
Authors: Dwyer Eugene
Published: October 2012

A significant number of Pompeian domestic sculptural collections highlight single works rather than multiples of similar material, size, and quality. A local secondary market in antiques or replicas may account for the use of single pieces (as opposed to the use of matched sets), but decorative concerns such as “branding” a certain domestic space—atrium or garden—by means of a striking visual effect may provide a better explanation for the existence of “singletons.”
Collecting Gods in Roman Houses: The House of the Gilded Cupids (VI.16.7, 38) at Pompeii
Authors: Petersen Lauren Hackworth
Published: October 2012

This essay takes up the theme of eclecticism in Roman domestic decoration by exploring the wide range of representations of gods in Roman houses. Specifically, it examines painted and sculpted images of deities in the House of the Gilded Cupids at Pompeii to shift attention from issues of style and the attendant debates on copies, both of which have largely dominated discussions of painted and sculpted displays in domus . This paper, instead, situates the seemingly haphazard collection of gods within the contexts of Roman religion and collecting practices more generally and aims to demonstrate that despite their presumed “kitschy” or idiosyncratic quality, these displays were perhaps a bit more canonical than we have allowed them to be.
Roman Collecting, Decorating, and Eclectic Practice in the Textual Sources
Authors: Tronchin Francesca C.
Published: October 2012

While few detailed descriptions of Roman homes exist in the textual evidence, there are abundant depictions of individuals and their varied relationships with select objects in their possession from which emerge two generalizations. First, ancient descriptions of houses and villas fall roughly into two categories: specific descriptions of the author’s own residence and anti-luxury commentary. Second, two distinct paradigms of domestic display emerge; I call them decorating and collecting , terms that are familiar yet have heretofore lacked precise definitions in this field of research. Collectors are a popular topos in texts with an anti-luxury bent; Trimalchio is a prime example. Decorators, like Cicero for example, enhance their homes according to principles associated with the ancient concept of decor .
Locating Neocolonialism, “Tradition,” and Human Rights in Uganda's “Gay Death Penalty”
Authors: Cheney Kristen
Published: October 2012

In 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill introduced in Uganda's Parliament reignited homophobic sentiment across Africa. Despite a well-documented history of sexual diversity in Africa, claims that homosexuality is “un-African” are being used to justify violence and exclusion. This article, based primarily on a discursive analysis of public media sources, delves into various cultural logics that reveal the tensions and contradictions in Ugandans' widespread opposition to homosexuality. U.S. evangelical influence, postcolonial amnesia in regard to “tradition,” fertility concerns, and human rights exceptionalism drive this moral panic over issues of sexual diversity. Such sentiments must be addressed by confronting neocolonial religious influence and cultivating renewed respect for human rights and Africa's history of sexual diversity.
International Human Rights, Gender-Based Violence, and Local Discourses of Abuse in Postconflict Liberia: A Problem of “Culture”?
Authors: Abramowitz Sharon , Moran Mary H.
Published: October 2012

In this article we draw on three years of ethnographic observation of postconflict humanitarian intervention in Liberia to consider the process whereby global efforts in the areas of gender-based violence (GBV) and human rights are interacting with local debates over kinship, entitlement, personal rights, and social responsibility. This article draws upon Liberian narratives, complaints, and efforts to regulate, in a national context, social norms and behavior in regard to gender-based violence issues in postconflict life while also engaging with an ongoing international human rights discourse on the subject of GBV. Our ethnography takes a multiscalar approach to give a sense of the process, multiple discourses, and dialectics of power involved in this issue, and to demonstrate how the definition of “the GBV problem” in Liberia, the target of complex GBV interventions, is different from the conception held by agencies, governmental ministries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are responsible for implementing global mandates.
Pastoral Production in Colonial Kenya: Lessons from the Past?
Authors: Waller Richard
Published: October 2012

This article examines the troubled course of attempts to modernize and control pastoral production in Kenya over the last hundred years. It begins with an overview of changes in pastoralism to provide context and then gives more detailed consideration to the failure of colonial attempts to manage livestock resources. Finally, it discusses recent developments in relation to the past. It argues that study of pastoralism's past offers valuable lessons and provides insights into its present and possible future.
The New Sexual Violence Legislation in the Congo: Dressing Indelible Scars on Human Dignity
Authors: Zongwe Dunia Prince
Published: October 2012

This article describes a legal thread running from the commission of massive sexual violence in the eastern provinces of the Congo since 1996 to the enactment of liberal legislation in 2006 to combat sexual violence throughout the country, especially in eastern Congo. In doing so, the article fills a gap in the nascent legal literature on systematic sexual violence. It finds that the new rape law is progressive, liberal, gender-neutral, and in keeping with international law. However, an unfortunate lapse in legislative drafting puts in doubt the authority of the courts to use the new rape law to prosecute systematic sexual violence. Despite this weakness, as well as harsh realities such as resource limitations and institutionalized corruption, the new sexual violence law, “the law of shameful acts,” nonetheless provides a framework on the basis of which the state and rape survivors can prosecute perpetrators. It is a necessary step in upholding accountability and preparing for the more daunting task of healing communities affected by a devastating regional war.
Pagan-Christian Debates over the Interpretation of Texts in Late Antiquity
Authors: Kahlos Maijastina
Published: October 2012

This article discusses ancient debates between Christian and polytheist writers over the allegorical interpretations of sacred texts. These disputes are set in the wider context of the “the battles of the books” in Late Antiquity. Many similarities and continuities are shown in the interpretative approaches to sacred texts, even though the Christian and polytheist writers themselves often tried to downplay these similarities and to construe differences instead. The article examines the use of allegorical interpretation as a defense of sacred texts, often against the polemic launched from opposing religious groups.
Reconsidering Zeus’ Order: The Reconciliation of Apollo and Hermes
Authors: Bungard Christopher
Published: October 2012

This paper argues that the Homeric Hymn to Hermes explores competing ways of approaching the world through the figures of Hermes and Apollo. Apollo’s reliance on the established world, partially marked by the knowledge of εἰδέναι, is insufficient in understanding Hermes, who aligns himself with the flexible capacity of νόος. Whereas Apollo eliminates his rivals in order to establish himself permanently, Hermes exploits unexplored potentials in order to create space alongside the established gods in the Olympian order. Ultimately, the newly forged friendship of Apollo and Hermes helps us understand the nature of Zeus more fully.
Understanding Context: Cultural, Relational, & Psychological Interactions in Self-Authorship Development
Authors: Pizzolato Jane Elizabeth , Nguyen Tu-Lien Kim , Johnston Marc P. , Wang Sherry
Published: October 2012

Existing research points toward dissonance as the primary catalyst in self-authorship development. This study investigated the cultural relevance of current conceptions of dissonance's role in self-authorship development. A total of 166 participants of color were recruited from three large public research universities from different regions in the United States. The results of our qualitative study suggest two kinds of dissonance lead to self-authorship development: Identity dissonance and relationship dissonance, and that type of dissonance experienced impacts developmental pathways. The implications of our results suggest that there is a need to further specify the current understandings of the catalysts and processes involved in self-authorship development.
The Journey Toward Developing Political Consciousness Through Activism for Mexican American Women
Authors: Hernandez Ebelia
Published: October 2012

This study examined how Mexican American women made meaning of their undergraduate activism and its potential implications on their development toward self-authorship. The developing political consciousness model emerged from their interviews to demonstrate the process of developing increasingly complex social knowledge, the shift of motivation to engage in activism from being a peer expectation to an internalized life calling, and an increasingly complex understanding of political tactics and ability to collaborate with members and other organizations for the goal of achieving political change.
Creation of a Mental Health Treatment Fears and Obstacles Inventory for College Students
Authors: Park Heather L. , Attenweiler William J. , Rieck Stacey M.
Published: October 2012

This project concerned the creation of an inventory for college students of treatment fears and obstacles to seeking mental health services. Unlike previous research, undergraduate participants generated a pool of items to measure fears of and obstacles to seeking services. Subsequent rational and statistical refinement resulted in a 29-item scale that exhibits a clear factor structure and solid internal consistency. The new scale, Mental Health Treatment Fears and Obstacles (MHTFO) demonstrates a robust association with a shorter, existing measure, and the pattern of correlations with relevant popular measures supports its construct validity as a unique assessment. Results suggest that the MHTFO may make a valuable contribution to investigating fears about seeking mental health services; although further research is needed to demonstrate psychometric quality.
When Universities Go Abroad: NYU in Abu Dhabi
Authors: Gordon Linda
Published: October 2012

Scores of American universities have opened campuses abroad, New York University, where I teach, among them. (Others include Georgetown in Qatar, Yale in Singapore, Columbia in Jordan, and Duke in China.) Criticism and debate surround these developments, but have been limited mainly to financial and enrollment viability and to abstract questions of ethical and political correctness. I think the issues need to be contextualized with specifics. I taught at NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for seven weeks in September-October 2011, and the experience revealed that, while each foreign campus has unique characteristics, NYU's in Abu Dhabi is an outlier among them.
Michael Walzer Responds
Authors: Walzer Michael
Published: October 2012

Jim Rule has provided us with a useful example of a critique of Israel that is fairly common in some leftist circles—and that it is important to understand and reject. The common critique begins with the claim that all ethnic nationalisms and all nation-states are at least potentially unjust and oppressive, but Israel is an actual and particularly horrendous example. Well, there are, in fact, as Rule says, worse examples (he lists a few), but Israel's injustice is also ours, because of the financial aid and diplomatic support that the United States provides. And in any case, Israel is especially liable to criticism because it is a latecomer to the world of nation-states. "It arrived too late," as Tony Judt once wrote—that is, after the idea that nations need states of their own had lost its appeal to intellectuals like Judt. Today, all nation-states are anachronisms, but Israel is one nation-state too many.
Grad Students to the Barricades
Authors: Winant Gabriel
Published: October 2012

Here's a familiar story from about a decade ago: a pair of political antagonists conduct an increasingly bitter election campaign, ending in frustrating indecision. Disputes pile up over the legitimacy of the balloting process, and government of?cials are called in to intervene. Finally, a federal panel, boasting a majority of Republican appointees, shuts down the votecounting outright, yielding a conservative victory.
The Last Page
Authors: Phillips Maxine
Published: October 2012

The hype for my forty-fifth college reunion this past June started months in advance. The school, one of those that "changes lives," is the archetypal small liberal arts college. It was the place, my parents promised, that would prepare me for life
James B. Rule Replies
Authors: Rule James B.
Published: October 2012

Michael Walzer is a desperate man. When people this smart start making arguments this bad, you know that their worldview is failing, but that they can't bear to admit it. Walzer has made it his mission to promote a vision of a kinder, gentler Israel—egalitarian, tolerant, and peaceful. Despite his best efforts, that Israel increasingly exists only in his imagination. Meanwhile, the real Israel grows more unequal, more authoritarian, more ethnocratic in its domestic life, and more chauvinistic and expansionist internationally.
Zionism and Its Discontents
Authors: Linfield Susie
Published: October 2012

At a downtown Manhattan dinner party several months ago, the name of a widely respected journalist—author of an acclaimed book on genocide in Africa—was mentioned. This is a man whose work, though not immune to criticism, is generally regarded as brilliant and humane. "Why, he's a Zionist!" one guest hissed, with the contempt that in previous eras would have been reserved for fascists or members of the Ku Klux Klan. Everyone at the table seemed to nod with satisfaction—we're done with him!—until I said, somewhat stumblingly, "Well, I am too. I mean, I believe in a state for the Jewish people." The other guests—left-wing academics, accomplished people, smart people, good people, some of whom I not only like but love—looked dumbfounded. An embarrassed silence ensued.
Europe's Perfect Storm: The Political and Economic Consequences of the Eurocrisis
Authors: Müller Jan-Werner
Published: October 2012

What exactly is the Eurocrisis a crisis of? Is it a currency crisis? A crisis of economic policymaking in Europe? Is it a crisis of a particular, expensive social model, as American conservatives like to claim? Or of the whole political project of European integration as it has been developing since the 1950s? The answer is, a bit of all of the above. In fact, it is a perfect political and economic storm, one that may still sweep away many accomplishments of the European Union—the greatest political innovation since the creation of the democratic welfare state. Even if the euro survives in its present form, the price millions of people will have paid for its preservation will be very high indeed. Quite apart from the economic disasters unfolding in Spain, Greece, and other countries, there have been less obvious but equally dangerous costs. The crisis has distracted elites from urgent political matters, above all, the rise of a new kind of illiberal politics in Eastern Europe. It has recreated political and cultural rifts between national elites long thought dead; it has also sown distrust and animosity between ordinary people. Not least, it leaves a deep sense of discontent and disillusionment with the European Union as such.
The Horizontalists
Authors: Marcus David
Published: October 2012

Since the early 1970s we have wondered—with increasing anxiety—why and if we know better. Social scientists, literary critics, philosophers, and jurists have all begun to turn from their particular disciplines to the more general question of interpretation. There has been an increasing uneasiness with universal categories of thought; a whispered suspicion and then a commonly held belief that the sum—societies, histories, identities—never amounts to more than its parts. New analytical frameworks have begun to emerge, sensitive to both the pluralities and localities of life. "What we need," as Clifford Geertz argued, "are not enormous ideas" but "ways of thinking that are responsive to particularities, to individualities, oddities, discontinuities, contrasts, and singularities."