bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“This Our Dwelling”: The Landscape Experience of the Jesuit Missionaries to the Huron, 1626-1650
Authors: Taylor Monique
Published: January 2017

In seventeenth-century New France, the Jesuit missionaries to the Huron people found themselves in an environment very different from the one they had known in France. From surroundings that consisted of great architectural structures, cities and roads, cultivated agricultural landscapes and dwindling and restricted forests, these missionaries found themselves in a landscape that by their standards was undeveloped, uncultivated and uncivilized. The wilderness they described was primitive, frightening and dangerous. This paper considers how these European missionaries made a place for themselves in their new environment. It explores their descriptions of this new landscape and their experience in the New World, which they provided in the Jesuit Relations, revealing how the missionaries perceived their place and what that place came to mean to them.
“As Long as He is an Immigrant from the United Kingdom”: Deception, Ethnic Bias and Milestone Commemoration in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, 1953-1965
Authors: Badgley Kerry
Published: January 2017

This essay examines the Department of Citizenship and Immigration’s attempt in 1953 to commemorate the millionth postwar immigrant to Canada. Federal policy-makers decided to pre-select the millionth immigrant in order to ensure that he was white, male, young, British and potentially successful. An examination of these plans provides insights into the attitudes of Immigration officials in the early 1950s, how they wished their department to be perceived by the Canadian public, and the extent to which they would resort to deception to attain their ends.
Innocent Addicts, Dope Fiends and Nefarious Traffickers: Illegal Drug Use in 1920s English Canada.
Authors: Carstairs Catherine
Published: January 2017

Canada’s first widespread moral panic about drug use occurred in the 1920s. This paper argues that a new language of drug use was constructed to create this panic and shows how the “narratives of narcoticism” were influenced by gender, race and class. It concludes that these imaginary tales had a significant impact on drug legislation and on the lives of drug users.
A Chequered Progress:Farmers and the Telephone in Canada,1905-1951
Authors: Pike Robert M.
Published: January 2017

The discontinuous and contingent development of farm and rural telephony in Canada, between 1905 and 1951, is explored in light of the common mythology of the inevitability of technological diffusion. The major spread of farm phones between 1905 and 1921 is traced and analysed, as is the major decline in farm telephone ownership during the Depression and the subsequent slow recovery. Provincial variations in phone farm diffusion are examined in light of average farm income, public and private phone company policies and the socio-economic context of agriculture. The argument that the automobile was substituted for the phone is discussed, with particular reference to the three prairie provinces, as is also the relatively swift recovery of Canadian farm telephony compared with the United States.
The Social Construction of the Canadian Cowboy: Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Posters, 1952-1972
Authors: Seiler Robert M. , Seiler Tamara P.
Published: January 2017

Cattle people across the western United States and Canada have been celebrating their western heritage annually since 1883, when the cattle people of Pecos (Texas) organized the very first rodeo or stampede. Over the years, one rodeo has surpassed all the others: the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, which has been hailed as “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.” In this paper we examine selected representations of the cowboy, taking as our corpus the official posters circulated by the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Board during the years 1952 to 1972. We focus on the texts as the artful organization of iconographic and linguistic messages and how they were read by their consumers.
“What It Took and Took/To Be a Man”: Teaching Timothy Findley and the Construction of Masculinities
Authors: York Lorraine
Published: January 2017

This essay explores some of the institutional and pedagogical implications of a female instructor teaching a course on the construction of masculinities in the fiction of Timothy Findley. It briefly explores some initial institutional resistance to the course, before focussing on pedagogical challenges: e.g., the impact of teaching a theory that holds that gender is performed rather than unproblematically determinate; student engagement with the tension in Findley’s works between essentialized gender characteristics and a performative understanding of gender identities; and the mutually interpretive role of fiction and theory on the course. The essay ends with a pedagogical, institutional meditation on student responses to the ideas presented.
Vanishing Acts II: Queer Reading(s) of Timothy Findley’s Headhunter and Not Wanted on the Voyage
Authors: Pearson Wendy
Published: January 2017

This article provides an exploration of the way in which our cultural articulation of forms of identity politics determine and preclude what will be visible and invisible in our lives and in our reading of texts. The article begins by articulating the ironic and ambivalent relationship between visibility and invisibility in racial, gendered and heteronormative terms, and then proceeds to analyze the function of the heteronormative gaze as an effect of power in its readings of Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage and Headhunter. Findley’s work brings into view those who are “not wanted on the voyage,” that is those who are marked as other by the heteronormative gaze and, in doing so, recuperates as subjects both the author himself, as a gay man, and all of those who are unwanted and invisible.
The Canadian Homosexual
Authors: Goldie Terry
Published: January 2017

Criticism of Timothy Findley’s The Wars has generally agreed that one of its major concerns is gender, and that this concern is focussed through the enigmatic central character, Robert Ross. But how is gender shaped by Robert’s sexuality? Findley took Ross’s name from one of the famous homosexuals of history, Oscar Wilde’s lover, but whether or not Findley’s Ross is homosexual is not easy to decide. The present study considers the sexual explorations within a later Findley novel, Headhunter, and uses this examination as a filter to view The Wars. The primary assertion is that Robert Ross and other characters in the novel can be seen as homosexual but through a quite complex portrait of homosexuality. In The Wars the possible homosexualities reflect an extremely ambivalent response to masculinity and to sexuality.
Art For Whose Sake? Reading Pound’s Reputation in Timothy Findley’s Famous Last Words and The Trials of Ezra Pound
Authors: Hollenberg Donna Krolik
Published: January 2017

In these works about Ezra Pound, Timothy Findley engages the disturbing legacy of this modernist predecessor, whose fascist sympathies have not precluded praise by the academy. The majority continue to separate Pound’s poetry from his politics, the art from the man. Findley’s works, I argue, encourage us to remove this cordon sanitaire around Pound. Through several framing techniques, Findley validates opposing points of view. He encourages readers to understand the subtle psychological realities that inform Pound’s reputation, to question the basis of his primacy and to reconnect aesthetic with ethical values.
On Translating Timothy Findley: Of Words and Worlds
Authors: Loyer Nésida
Published: January 2017

This paper illustrates how having access to a living author affects a translator’s work. The examples are mainly derived from Timothy Findley’s Headhunter. Contact with an author makes for a greater degree of accuracy and faithfulness - both to the spirit and the letter of the original. It facilitates the research of quotations and fosters a deeper understanding of the subtexts and of the author’s idiosyncracies. Because languages have different modes of expression, being faithful to the spirit may require being unfaithful to the letter. The accuracy and faithfulness increase exponentially when the translator has a first-hand knowledge of the words and world of the author. In the case of Timothy Findley, his trust and generosity made the task of translating his work a most rewarding experience - and enabled me to convey in a more profound way his work to francophone readers.
Intertextuality in Timothy Findley’s Headhunter
Authors: Brydon Diana
Published: January 2017

This paper uses Timothy Findley’s Headhunter to bring into focus literary theoretical questions about how intertextuality and influence may need to be reconceived within a post-colonial reading context. Concentrating on Headhunter’s venture-capitalist revision of the racist imperialism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and on Lilah Kemp as intertextual medium, the paper aigues that Headhunter’s intertextuality marks its ambivalent complicity in what it seeks to oppose without abandoning a role for human agency in effecting change.
It’s Just a Story: Postmodernism, Politics and Findley’s italics
Authors: Wyile Herb
Published: January 2017

An important part of any stock-taking or appreciation of Timothy Findley’s work to this point is an assessment of Findley’s somewhat ambivalent contribution to the development of the postmodern textual strategies that increasingly have characterized Canadian fiction. This discussion concentrates on a fairly specific aspect of Findley’s work that none the less implicates larger questions of politics and aesthetics - Findley’s use of italics. The essay ultimately argues that though Findley’s use of postmodern strategies may be relatively accessible and recuperable, it does productively effect an important “engagement with the social and historical world” and invites the reader to participate in that engagement. While the essay generally follows the academic form suggested above, it occasionally includes italicized interpolations which respond to, problematise, or interrogate some of the points made in the essay, in a fashion somewhat analagous to Findley’s dialogic use of italics in his texts.
“Singing Our Way Out of Darkness”: Findley’s Anti-Censorship Argument in Headhunter
Authors: Cohen Mark
Published: January 2017

In keeping with Timothy Findley’s well-publicised defences of free speech, the novel Headhunter presents a critique of censorship. This critique makes use of two key classical liberal arguments for free speech. The first is the non-consequentialist approach, which argues that free speech is valuable as an end in itself. The novel conveys this notion by linking speech to elements of nature, such as humans and animals, which are generally valued for their inherent qualities. The second argument is the consequentialist one, in which speech is valuable because it is capable of producing good effects in society. While most people would agree that non-offending speech should be protected for its constructive effects, in Headhunter Findley stresses that even art that menaces society deserves protection from censorship. This paper traces these arguments, but also identifies their flaws. It concludes that, with careful judgement, censorship in certain contexts may be an appropriate response.
Towards Permanent Insecurity: The Social Impact of Unemployment
Authors: McBride Stephen
Published: January 2017

Numerous studies have revealed a relationship between unemployment and various other social ills. These include poverty, negative shifts in self-esteem for affected individuals and their families, increased anxiety, stress, and associated increases in physical and mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse, child abuse and family breakdown. Others have linked unemployment to increased racism and discrimination, suicide rates and crime rates.

For much of the post-war period the stresses associated with unemployment were mitigated by a social policy net and a programme of unemployment insurance that, by 1971, covered the great majority of the workforce and provided a significant cushion against the immediate effect of job loss. Since the mid-1970s the social supports available to the unemployed have been eroded by government and, in the mid-1990s, major alterations were made to the programmes. The Employment Insurance reforms of 1996, the replacement of the Canadian Assistance Plan by a Canada Health and Social Transfer that permits workfare as a condition of social assistance, and the devolution of training and active employment measures to the provincial level receive detailed analysis. In a context where a world of work is undergoing rapid change and partial attachments to the labour force - part-time, temporary and individual self-employment - are more common, the effect of Unemployment Insurance and social reforms, combined with an overall economic strategy that privileges inflation and deficit control over employment creation, means that permanent insecurity is replacing the relative social security of an earlier era. The social impact of this situation will be traced.
Reforming Health Care Governance: The Case of Nova Scotia
Authors: Bickerton James
Published: January 2017

This article examines the place of decentralization and democratization as an element in the health care reform plans of one province, Nova Scotia, It begins with a brief review of the arguments for a different kind of state, one based on the principles of democratic administration, before considering the issues these arguments raise for health care governance in particular. Nova Scotia's health care system is situated within the broader Canadian context, and this essay notes the particular challenges, difficulties and opportunities for reform within this provincial setting. The essay provides an overview of Nova Scotia's health reform process, paying close attention to the various fiscal, political and administrative factors at work. It concludes with an assessment of the Nova Scotia case that duly notes both its accomplishments and failures, and the lessons, problems and prospects it may suggest for reforming health care governance elsewhere in Canada. Decentralization and democratization are not just about the ideal of citizen empowerment or the quality of democracy. They are also important to the long-term goals of cost containment and resource allocation, as well as the need to change the public's perception of the factors important to securing the health and well-being of their communities. While other policies must be pursued to accomplish all varied goals of comprehensive health care reform, moving towards a fully democratic and participatory system of health care governance continues to be central to its long-term success.
Neo-liberalism, State Restructuring and Immigration: Changes in Canadian Policies in the 1990s
Authors: Arat-Koc Sedef
Published: January 2017

The essay focusses on recent changes in immigration and settlement policies in Canada and their impact on immigrant women and immigrant families in the 1990s, at a time when Canada has been experiencing a restructuring of the state as well as a restructuring of the economy. In the 1990s several significant changes have been introduced in immigration and settlement policies. On the one hand, the emphasis on global competitiveness has led to increased requirements on the type of independent class immigrants Canada recruits, who not only have to be highly skilled and educated and/or wealthy, but also "up and running" on arrival. On the other hand, fiscal restraint on the part of the state has led to an emphasis on self-sufficiency and individual responsibility on the part of immigrants. In line with this latter emphasis, Canada has introduced several new policies in the 1990s with significant implications for immigrants: more stringent requirements and enforcement procedures for family sponsorship; changes to language training programmes and cuts in other settlement services; and the introduction of the landing fee (the "head tax").

The essay argues that the changes in immigration are parallel with and part of the general undermining of social citizenship in Canada. These policy changes in the 1990s also represent a radical retreat from the possibility of an expansion of rights during the 1980s hi Canada, when the state seemed to be moving towards more social and redistributive justice through the introduction of the equality clauses of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition to framing theoretically the changes in immigration and settlement in restructuring of the state, the essay also focusses on the impacts of the changes on women and families. There are reasons to expect that the pressures for self-efficiency on the part of families will increase relations of dependency within families.
Restructuring, Gender and Social Security Reform in Canada
Authors: MacDonald Martha
Published: January 2017

As a significant component of the institutional structure of the economy, social security reform has been at the policy forefront in Canada in recent years. This paper reviews the debate around reform and the programme changes that resulted, focussing on how these changes intersect with economic restructuring and their gender implications. Social security reform, like economic restructuring, has gendered impacts and reflects particular assumptions about gender relations. Changes to Employment Insurance and to the funding of welfare, social services and child benefits are discussed in this light, and comparisons are made with American reforms. The expected impacts by gender, work pattern, level of income and family situation are considered. The paper demonstrates the harmonizing down that has occurred and the penalties imposed on people in non-standard jobs and on welfare, who are disproportionately women.
Ontario Works and Single Mothers: Redefining “Deservedness and the Social Contract”
Authors: Mayson Melodie
Published: January 2017

For the first time in Ontario, since the introduction of the Ontario Mother's Allowance (OMA) programme in 1920, single mothers in financial need will lose an important form of protection that has been associated with their entitlement to assistance as full-time childcare providers. On 1 May 1998, the Ontario Works Act came into effect along with its mandatory employment requirements for single parents. With nearly 200,000 sole-support mothers as well as their children affected by changes to "mothers allowance," the significance of these developments cannot be underestimated.

Through an examination of key ideological and structural transformations internal and external to the social assistance system, this article argues that a redefinition of women's relationship to the employment market and to domestic labour is fundamental to the neo-conservative view holding sway in Ontario. By redefining single mothers' "deservedness" for financial assistance, traditionally viewed since 1920 as compensation for their contribution to society through child rearing, the Ontario government is legitimizing its broader withdrawal from social provision to those in need, and is compelling individuals to rely on their own private solutions to the systemic problems of unemployment, underemployment and the gender division of labour. Paradoxically, by making Ontario's social assistance programme harsher in its economic and moral regulation of sole-support parents, the government has assumed even greater regulatory powers over the lives of poor families and has effectively contradicted the "family values" it claims to uphold.
Of Milk and Mandarins: rBST, Mandated Science and the Canadian Regulatory Style
Authors: Turner R. Steven
Published: January 2017

On 14 January 1999; the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada denied regulatory approval to the Monsanto Corporation’s recombinant bovine growth hormone, Nutrilac. In doing so it rejected the first major product of genetic engineering proposed for regulatory approval in Canada that had been commercially targeted at the agriculture and food-production system. The decision ended a bitter and sometimes bizane saga characterized by allegations of corporate bribery, whistle-blowing scientists and hostile parliamentary committee investigations. The rBST story is examined here as an example of contemporary technoscientific controversies, as a case study in the Canadian regulatory style and for its relevance to current debates over the reform of Canadian regulatory procedures.
The National Allegory of Fraternity: Loyalist Literature and the Making of Canada’s White British Origins
Authors: Coleman Daniel
Published: January 2017

This essay critically examines a rhetorical trope that contributed significantly to the naturalization of white British masculinity as the assumed norm for Canadian citizenship, the “allegory of fraternity” - and particularly its menacing corollary of fratricide - reappears over a 100-year span (1840 to 1943) in novels, epic poems and verse dramas that posit the United Empire Loyalists as the nation’s progenitors, especially through the times of testing they and their descendants endured in the War of 1812, the Revolutionary War, and the Rebellions of 1837. The essay argues that this recurrent allegory conveys a nervous, “unofficial curriculum” which promotes a specific form of whiteness — patterned after the British officer class’s code of honour and enterprise — as the natural order for the Canadian nation.
Making Canada’s “Literary Land Claim”: Marjorie Pickthall’s “The Third Generation”
Authors: Dean Misao
Published: January 2017

Theorists of the nation such as Renan, Bhabha and Grant have commented on the way that the narrative of nationality is founded upon the obligatory forgetting of an originary act of violence. Through the tropes of indigenzation and inheritance, Canadian fiction “forgets” indigenous peoples and Aboriginal title. But the Delgamuukw decision reminds us that the claim to unified nationhood in Canada is fractured at its base, in the uncertainty of the nation’s legal claim to a relationship with the nation-space. This kind of fracture and uncertainty is the theme of Marjorie Pickthall’s story, “The Third Generation,” which appeared in her collection Angel’s Shoes (1923).
Margaret Fleming and the Alpine Club of Canada: A Woman’s Place in Mountain Leisure and Literature, 1932-1952
Authors: Reichwein PearlAnn , Fox Karen
Published: January 2017

This study examines the life history of Margaret Fleming (1901-1999) — a Canadian mountaineer, editor, school teacher and single woman who lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fleming, a lifetime member of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC), was introduced to her first mountaineering camp in 1929 by Elizabeth Parker. Through the ACC, Fleming climbed in the Rockies, participated in early ski-mountaineering explorations into the Yoho National Park backcountry, served as the first woman editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal (1942-1952) and cultivated long-lasting friendships with other climbers. As a professional woman who juggled the responsibilities of work, family and leisure, Fleming’s mountaineering life was shaped by the gendering of physical and social culture. Fleming integrated her pursuits as a genteel mountain woman and literary editor, within the context of an ongoing process of negotiations over women’s place in mountain leisure.
Do Parents have Fundamental Rights?
Authors: Howe R. Brian
Published: January 2017

This article addresses the question of whether parents have fundamental rights in relations with their children. Against the claim that parents have fundamental rights, and in reference to the evolution of Canadian public policy and Canada’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is argued that it is children — not parents — who have basic rights. In so far as parents have rights, they are conditional rights — not fundamental rights — and are connected to their obligations to provide for the rights and best interests of their children. Such an understanding is justified in reference not only to the Convention but also to John Rawls’s theory of justice.
Frequency of symptomatic vertebral body compression fractures requiring intervention following single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery for spinal metastases
Authors: Virk Michael S. , Han James E. , Reiner Anne S. , McLaughlin Lily A. , Sciubba Daniel M. , Lis Eric , Yamada Yoshiya , Bilsky Mark , Laufer Ilya
Published: January 2017

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of symptomatic vertebral body compression fractures (VCFs) requiring kyphoplasty or surgery in patients treated with 24-Gy single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

METHODS

This retrospective analysis included all patients who had been treated with 24-Gy, single-fraction, image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy for histologically confirmed solid tumor metastases over an 8-year period (2005–2013) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Charts and imaging studies were reviewed for post-SRS kyphoplasty or surgery for mechanical instability. A Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) was calculated for each patient both at the time of SRS and at the time of intervention for VCF.

RESULTS

Three hundred twenty-three patients who had undergone single-fraction SRS between C-1 and L-5 were included in this analysis. The cumulative incidence of VCF 5 years after SRS was 7.2% (95% CI 4.1–10.2), whereas that of death following SRS at the same time point was 82.5% (95% CI 77.5–87.4). Twenty-six patients with 36 SRS-treated levels progressed to symptomatic VCF requiring treatment with kyphoplasty (6 patients), surgery (10 patients), or both (10 patients). The median time to symptomatic VCF was 13 months. Seven patients developed VCF at 11 levels adjacent to the SRS-treated level. Fractured levels had no evidence of tumor progression. The median SINS changed from 6.5 at SRS (interquartile range [IQR] 4.3–8.8) to 11.5 at stabilization (IQR 9–13). In patients without prior stabilization at the level of SRS, there was an association between the SINS and the time to fracture.

CONCLUSIONS

Five years after ablative single-fraction SRS to spinal lesions, the cumulative incidence of symptomatic VCF at the treated level without tumor recurrence was 7.2%. Higher SINSs at the time of SRS correlated with earlier fractures.
Spine radiosurgery: lessons learned from the first 100 treatment sessions
Authors: Harel Ran , Pfeffer Raphael , Levin Daphne , Shekel Efrat , Epstein Dan , Tsvang Lev , Ben Ayun Maoz , Alezra Dror , Zach Leor
Published: January 2017

OBJECTIVE

Local therapy to spine tumors has been shown to be effective in selected cases. Spinal radiosurgery (SRS) is an evolving radiotherapy regimen allowing for noninvasive, highly efficacious local treatment. The learning curve can compromise the results of any newly employed technology and should be studied to minimize its effects. In this paper the first 100 SRSs performed at several medical centers are presented and analyzed for the effects of the learning curve on outcome.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis was undertaken to evaluate data from patients treated with SRS at Sheba Medical Center and Assuta Medical Centers in the period from September 2011 to February 2016. Medical history, clinical and neurological findings, pathological diagnoses, SRS variables, complications, and follow-up data were collected and analyzed. Local control rates were calculated, and local treatment failure cases were qualitatively studied.

RESULTS

One hundred treatment sessions were performed for 118 lesions at 179 spinal levels in 80 patients. The complication rate was low and did not correlate with a learning curve. Mean follow-up time was 302 days, and the overall local control rate was 95%. The local control rate was dose dependent and increased from 87% (among 35 patients receiving a dose of 16 Gy) to 97% (among 65 patients receiving a dose of 18 Gy). The 6 treatment failure cases are discussed in detail.

CONCLUSIONS

Spinal radiosurgery is a safe and effective treatment. Comprehensive education of the treating team and continuous communication are essential to limit the effects of the learning curve on outcome.
Special Relations, Special Obligations, and Speciesism
Authors: Qi Eric X.
Published: January 2017

This paper develops a general account of special relations and special obligations, and uses it as a framework to argue for a modest form of speciesism  mitigated speciesism  based on an understanding of species co-membership as a thick concept. Mitigated speciesism steers a middle ground between anti-speciesism and crude speciesism. Unlike anti-speciesists, I maintain that species co-membership is a morally relevant special relation, which indeed grounds special obligations among the members of the same species. But unlike crude speciesists, I argue that our special obligations to our fellow human beings do not warrant that we should always count their interests more than comparable interests of non-human animals. Instead, special obligations based on species co-membership are subject to three constraints.
Justice and Non-Human Animals - Part I
Authors: Attfield Robin , Humphreys Rebekah
Published: January 2017

It is widely held that moral obligations to non-human beings do not involve considerations of justice. For such a view, nonhuman interests are always prone to be trumped by human interests. Rawlsian contractarianism comprises an example of such a view. Through analysis of such theories, this essay highlights the problem of reconciling the claim that humans have obligations to non-humans with the claim that our treatment of the latter is not a matter of justice. We argue that if it is granted that the basic interests of non-human beings sometimes count for more than the peripheral interests of humans, then our understandings of obligation and of justice must be aligned, so that what we say about obligation is not countered by assumptions about the invariable priority of humans in matters of justice. We further consider whether such a conclusion can be endorsed by those who adopt certain alternative theories to contractarianism. We conclude that adherents of a range of theories including sentientism and biocentrism must accept that human interests can sometimes be superseded by animal interests, and that this applies not least in matters of justice.
Animal Ethics: Beyond Neutrality, Universality, and Consistency
Authors: Chakraborty Sreetama
Published: January 2017

This paper reflects a possibility of going beyond the postmodernists way of ethically examining non-human animals based on the tripartite pillars of neutrality, universality, and consistency. My concentration focuses on some interrelated queries, such as  What does animal ethics conventionally mean? How did power, hierarchy, and domination separate humans from other animals? How does the fate of non-human animals (whether they ought to be morally considered or not) depend on humans moral values? How far is it justified to secure animal rights in the age of perilous animal use, especially for food or during animal experimentation? While examining these issues, I bring into light the several arguments and positions put forward by thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Carl Cohen, Brian Berry, and others. Moreover, my search is for a non-anthropocentric sustainable paradigm, to balance human interests and animal needs together, in order to sustain the future generations of human and non-human intimacy.
Existence and Needs: A case for the equal moral considerability of non-human animals
Authors: Ndasauka Yamikani , Kayange Grivas M.
Published: January 2017

This paper reflects on the question, Is there a sound justification for the existential view that humans have a higher moral status than other animals? It argues that the existential view that humans have a higher moral status than animals is founded on a weak and inconclusive foundation. While acknowledging various arguments raised for a common foundation between human and non-human animals, the paper attempts to establish a common ground for moral considerability of human and non-human animals. The first common foundation is based on the existential notion of being in the world, which is common for both human and non-human animals. The second idea is based on the common desire to actualize different needs. The paper demonstrates these common foundations by referring to Heidegger and Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs.
Three New Flavonoid Glycosides from the Fruits of Luffa echinata Roxb.- a Hepatoprotective Plant
Authors: Alam Tanveer , Harrasi Ahmed Sulaeman Al , Ahmed Bahar , Najam Lubna , Khan Shah Alam
Published: January 2017

Phytochemical investigation of bioactive polar extracts of Luffa echinata Roxb. fruits led to the isolation and characterization of three new flavone glycosides viz., 3,5,7,3?,4?-pentahydroxyflavone-3-[-O-?-Dglucopyranosyl- 7-O-?-D-glucopyranoside (1),3,5,7-trihydroxy-(7?,8?- dioxo,9?,10?,-dihydro[a]cyclohex ?13?,(14?), ?11?(12)-12?,13?,-dimethyl)-flavone-7-[-O-?-D-galactopyranosyl-(1?2)]-O-?-D-glucopyranoside (2), and 5,7,8,4?- tetrahydroxy flavone-7-[-O-?-D-xylosyl-(1?2)]-O-?-D-glucopyranoside (3). The structures of the newly isolated compounds were elucidated on the basis of spectral data and chemical evidences.The isolated compounds are found to be new analogs of tricetin, quercetin and isoscutellarin.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 117-125, 2016 (December)
In vitro Toxicity Study of Reconstituted Amphotericin B - Lipid Derivatives Dry Powder for Nebulization
Authors: Adhikari Kajiram
Published: January 2017

The aim of the present research work was to evaluate the safety of reconstituted dry powder amphotericin B (AmB) inhalation via nebulizer. This study was carried out on respiratory cell lines (A549, Calu-3, NR 8383), kidney cells (293T/17), human red blood cells (RBC) and aerosol properties were determined by Andersen Cascade Impactor (ACI). AmB, a lipid derivative reconstituted dry powder was formulated by lyophilization and reconstituted into distilled water at AmB concentration at 4 mg/ml. The value of MMAD, FPF were obtained as 1.7 to 2.05 ?m and 70 to 80%, respectively. The cytotoxicity test carried out by MTT assay of lipid formulations revealed a very low toxicity on respiratory cell lines such as kidney cells, than pure AmB at concentration 1 to 8 ?g/ml of AmB. In-vitro cytotoxicity results showed less toxicity to human red blood cells (RBC) than pure AmB at concentration 1 to 8 ?g/ml of AmB.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 127-134, 2016 (December)
Hibiscus sabdariffa Mucilage as a Disintegrant in Formulating Fast Dissolving Tablets
Authors: Shirsand SB , Shivanand - , Shailashri - , Keshavshetti GG , Jonathan V
Published: January 2017

The aim of the present work was to prepare and evaluate fast dissolving tablets of nebivolol with a view to enhance patient compliance and minimize the side effects. In this study, fast dissolving tablets of nebivolol were formulated by direct compression method using mucilages of tapioca seeds (Manihot esculenta), basella climb (Basella alba), red sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa) as natural disintegrants and crosspovidone as a synthetic superdisintegrant in different ratios with directly compressible mannitol (Pearlitol SD 200) as a diluent to enhance the mouth feel. The prepared formulations were evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content, in vitro dispersion time, wetting time, water absorption ratio, in vitro drug release, stability and excipients interaction. Among all the formulations, the formulation (FHD3) containing 8% w/w mucilage of Hibiscus sabdariffa was the overall best formulation (t50% 1.7 min) based on in vitro drug release studies. Stability studies on the formulations indicated that there are no significant changes in drug content and in vitro dispersion time (p<0.05). From the above studies, it can be concluded that fast dissolving tablets of nebivolol can be prepared using different mucilages as natural disintegrants for faster dispersion and disintegration in the mouth.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 143-149, 2016 (December)
Phytochemical and Biological Investigations of Eurya acuminata (Theaceae)
Authors: Faisal Tahmid , Ahsan Monira , Choudhury Jakir Ahmed , Azam ATM Zafrul
Published: January 2017

The methanol extract of the powdered leaf of Eurya acuminata was investigated for isolation of secondary metabolites and two compounds were obtained by using VLC, column chromatography and TLC. The compounds were identified as phytol (1) and ?-sitosterol by extensive spectroscopic studies, including high field NMR analyses as well as co-TLC with authentic samples. The methanol extract of leaf of E. acuminata and its organic and aqueous soluble partitioning materials were evaluated for cytotoxic, thrombolytic and antimicrobial properties. In the cytotoxicity study the aqueous fraction of crude methanolic extract showed significant lethality towards brine shrimp having LC50 value 8.821 ?g/ml as compared to standard vincristine sulfate (0.404 ?g/ml). In the study for thrombolytic property, different extract of E. acuminata exhibited various thrombolytic activity ranging from 13.66 to 31.89 % as compared to standard streptokinase (46.51 %). No antimicrobial activity was observed from leaf extracts.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 151-154, 2016 (December)
Estimation of Loss of Iodine from Edible Iodized Salt During Cooking of Various Bangladeshi Food Preparations
Authors: Sikdar KM Yasif Kayes , Ganguly Amlan , Hossain ASM Monjur Al , Faroque ABM
Published: January 2017

Iodine is one of the essential micronutrients required for the normal mental and physical development of human beings. Low iodine intake exerts several detrimental effects on human health. The most serious effect of iodine deficiency is represented by possible damage to the fetus such as stillbirths, abortions and congenital abnormalities. According to the existing law, iodized salt should contain at least 15 ppm of iodine. However, iodine is lost significantly during cooking and few studies have been conducted to estimate such loss of iodine. Hence, in the present study, thirty recipes commonly cooked in Bangladeshi families were taken and by using colorimetric assay method, it was found that the mean losses of iodine during different cooking procedures were 13.28% for pressure cooking, 23.46% for boiling, 9.5% for deep frying and 5.18% for shallow frying. The results showed that the loss of iodine depends upon the type of cooking procedures and cooking time.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 161-165, 2016 (December)
Novel Co-processed Spray Dried Super Disintegrants Designing of Fast Dissolving Tablets Using
Authors: Shirsand SB , Gumate RT , Jonathan V , Shailashri -
Published: January 2017

In the present study, novel co-processed superdisintegrants were developed by spray drying method using microcrystalline cellulose and mannitol in different ratios (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) for use in the fast dissolving tablet formulations. The developed excipients were evaluated for angle of repose, Carrs index and Hausners ratio in comparison with physical mixture of superdisintegrants. The angle of repose of the developed excipients was found to be < 30o, Carrs index in the range of 9-15 % and Hausners ratio in the range of 1.12-1.16. Fast dissolving tablets of glibenclamide were prepared using the above co-processed superdisintegrants and evaluated for pre-compression and post-compression parameters. Based on in vitro dispersion time (approximately 22.23 sec), promising formulation MCM3 was tested for in vitro drug release pattern in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer and stability (at 400C/75 % RH for 3 months), drug excipients interaction (IR spectroscopy) were studied. Among the designed formulations, the formulation (MCM3) containing 8 % w/w of co-processed superdisintegrant (1:3 mixture of microcrystalline cellulose and mannitol) emerged as the overall best formulation (t50% 1.6 min) based on drug release characteristics in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer compared to commercial conventional tablet formulation (t50% 6 min). Stability studies on promising formulation indicated that there were no significant changes in drug content and in vitro dispersion time (p<0.05).Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 167-172, 2016 (December)
Formulation and In vitro Characterization of Phenytoin Loaded Mucoadhesive Biofilms of Colocasia esculenta for Translabial Drug Delivery System
Authors: Ojha Abhijeet , Madhav NV Satheesh
Published: January 2017

The aim of our research work was to isolate a biomaterial from Colocasia. esculenta and prepare phenytoin loaded mucoadhesive biofilms using this biomaterial. The biomaterial was isolated from C. esculenta tubers by an economical process. The isolated biomaterial was subjected to various physical evaluation, chemical tests as well as spectral analysis. The drug-biomaterial interaction study was performed to see if there was any interaction of biomaterial with phenytoin. Phenytoin loaded biofilms were prepared using biomaterial, flexicizer and other co- processing agents. The prepared biofilms were evaluated for physical appearance, weight, thickness, folding endurance, swelling index, surface pH, tensile strength, percent elongation, percent moisture uptake, percent moisture loss, vapor transmission rate and content uniformity. The mucoadhesivity of biofilms was investigated using rotating basket method. The in-vitro drug release study of biofilms was performed on static MS diffusion apparatus. The stability studies of biofilms were carried out at different conditions of temperature and relative humidity. The results were compared with the standard hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (Sodium CMC) films. The experimental results revealed that the phenytoin loaded biofilms of C. esculenta possessed excellent mucoadhesivity, sufficient stability as well as appreciable release characteristics. The best biofilm formulation was PK6 with a cumulative drug release of 95.35 % over 36 hours. Hence, C. esculenta biomaterial can serve as a potential film forming agent for transmucosal drug delivery systems.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 177-186, 2016 (December)
Investigation of Formaldehyde Content in Dairy Products Available in Bangladesh by a Validated High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method
Authors: Hossain Md Shahadat , Islam Md Samiul , Bhadra Subrata , Rouf Abu Shara Shamsur
Published: January 2017

Highly nutritious dairy products are ingested regularly by all ages of population. Adulteration of dairy products to enhance the inherent stability and acceptability to common consumers by different harmful and toxic ingredients like formalin, an unpermitted preservative, has been a burning issue in Bangladesh over the last few years. The aim of this paper was to analyze the concentration of formaldehyde in dairy products most commonly sold in Bangladeshi markets by a validated reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method to reveal the on-going alarming scenario in a scientific way. After pre-derivatization with 2,4- dinitrophenylhydrazine, formaldehyde was detected at 345 nm using a C18 column with acetonitrile and water (45:55) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 2.0ml/min. The validated method has been applied to 41 marketed dairy products, including pasteurized milk, UHT milk, banana- mango- and chocolate-milk, flavored yoghurt, lassi, buttermilk, and skimmed milk. However, no formaldehyde was detected among the tested dairy products.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 187-194, 2016 (December)
Enhancement of Dissolution Profile of Poorly Water Soluble Loratadine by Solid Dispersion Technique
Authors: Uddin Md Zahir , Chowdhury Jakir Ahmed , Hasan Ikramul , Reza Md Selim
Published: January 2017

This study was carried out to improve the dissolution properties of loratadine by solid dispersion technique. A series of solid dispersions of loratadine in PVP K-30 (1:1, 1:3 and 1:5) were prepared by kneading technique. The prepared solid dispersions were characterized by various physicochemical properties (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy) and the dissolution characteristics were compared with loratadine and the physical mixtures of loratadine. It was revealed from the physicochemical analyses that there was a good compatibility between drug and carrier. On the other hand, the drug release from the prepared binary solid dispersions was significantly enhanced in comparison to both drug alone and the physical mixtures. Finally solid dispersion of loratadine: PVP K-30 prepared as 1:5 ratio was found to be described by non-Fickian release mechanism and was selected as the best formulation in this study.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 195-201, 2016 (December)
Formulation and In vitro Evaluation of Oral Floating Tablets of Salbutamol Sulphate: Comparison with Effervescent Tablets
Authors: Ali Md Haider , Bhuiyan Mohiuddin Ahmed , Reza Md Selim , Karim Samira
Published: January 2017

The aim of this research was to develop and evaluate gastric floating tablets of salbutamol sulphate. The oral delivery of anti-asthmatic salbutamol sulphate tablets were facilitated by preparing floating dosage form which could increase its absorption in the stomach by increasing the gastric residence time of the drug. Floating tablets were formulated by using different polymers like carbopol, xanthan gum, HPMC-K4 MCR and HPMC- K100 MCR with different proportions. A comparative study of normal effervescent tablets of salbutamol sulphate had also been done. The prepared tablets were evaluated for all their physicochemical properties and in vitro buoyancy study. In vitro dissolution studies of the formulations were done in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer using USP apparatus 2 (paddle method) at 50 rpm. Percent drug release of the formulations (F-1 to F-11) was from 87.34%- 99.12% after 12 hours. From the results, F-11 was selected as an optimized formulation based on 12 h drug release which showed minimal floating lag time and maximum floating time. On the other hand, 100% drug was released within 2 hours from the F-12 of effervescent salbutamol sulphate tablets in which polymer was absent while gas generating sodium bicarbonate and citric acid were present. The results of the study were consistent and may encourage formulating similar dosage form with other drugs.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 203-208, 2016 (December)
Effect of Serum Trace Elements, Macro-minerals and Antioxidants in Acne Vulgaris Patients: A Case-Control Study
Authors: Ahmed Salma , Ali Rubaiya , Islam Md Reazul , Hoque Md Anamul , Hasnat Abul , Nahar Zabun
Published: January 2017

Acne vulgaris is a chronic skin disease with multifaceted cause. The exact etiology and pathogenesis of acne are yet to be established completely and various causative factors are considered as pathogenic mechanisms in the development of this disorder. We designed a study to determine the extent of serum trace elements, macrominerals and antioxidants in patients with acne, and thereby, to find the pathophysiological correlations, if any. Serum trace elements and macro-minerals were determined by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. RP-HPLC was used to quantify antioxidants. Significantly (p<0.05) decreased level of zinc (1.90±0.06 vs. 2.17±0.09 mg/L), calcium (115.64±4.84 vs. 197.05±7.11 mg/L) and vitamin A (0.2±0.06 vs. 0.86±0.26 ?mol/L) was found in patient when compared with the corresponding controls. This investigation suggests a commendable association between the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris with the reduced level of zinc, calcium and vitamin A which could well be used as a diagnostic tool for acne vulgaris.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 15(2): 215-220, 2016 (December)