bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impact of Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy on Quality of Life and Symptoms: Observational Data Over 12 Months From the Mind-Body Study
Authors: Ganz Patricia A. , Petersen Laura , Bower Julienne E. , Crespi Catherine M.
Published: January 2016

Purpose

To examine patterns of health and symptoms associated with the initiation of adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) for primary breast cancer treatment.

Patients and Methods

The mind-body study (MBS) observational cohort participants provided self-reported data on physical and mental health, ET-related symptoms, as well as depression, fatigue, and sleep obtained at enrollment (after primary treatment, prior to initiation of ET) and 6 and 12 months later. Longitudinal trajectories of outcome variables among three patient groups (no ET, aromatase inhibitor [AI], or tamoxifen) were compared by using linear mixed models.

Results

Two-thirds of the 186 women initiated ET, which was evenly split between AI and tamoxifen, and no significant differences were observed in self-reported measures among the groups at baseline or in covariate-adjusted analyses. Physical health scores were below normative levels initially and improved over time, but the AI group had a significantly lower score at 12 months (P = .05); mental health scores were within the normal range, were similar in each group, and did not change over time. The no-ET group showed either stable or declining symptom severity, whereas the ET groups often showed increased severity over time, and the AI group reported more severe musculoskeletal (P = .02), hot flash (P = .02), and cognitive problems (P = .006) at one or both of the follow-up time points compared with the no-ET group. The tamoxifen group had higher levels of hot flashes (P = .002), cognitive problems (P = .016), and bladder problems (P = .02) than the no-ET group.

Conclusion

Attention should be given to the increased symptom burden associated with ET, and better efforts should be made to address patient-reported outcomes.
Conditional Survival of Patients With Metastatic Testicular Germ Cell Tumors Treated With First-Line Curative Therapy
Authors: Ko Jenny J. , Bernard Brandon , Tran Ben , Li Haocheng , Asif Tehmina , Stukalin Igor , Lee Margaret , Day Daphne , Alimohamed Nimira , Sweeney Christopher J. , Bedard Philippe L. , Heng Daniel Y.C.
Published: January 2016

Purpose

The International Germ Cell Cancer Collaborative Group (IGCCCG) criteria prognosticate survival outcomes in metastatic testicular germ cell tumor (MT-GCT), but how the initial risk changes over time for those who survived since curative treatment is unknown.

Patients and Methods

We assessed patients eligible for first-line therapy for MT-GCT at five tertiary cancer centers from 1990 to 2012 for 2-year conditional overall survival (COS) and conditional disease-free survival (CDFS), defined as the probability of surviving, or surviving and being disease free, respectively, for an additional 2 years at a given time point since the initial diagnosis.

Results

For all patients (N = 942), 2-year COS increased from 92% (95% CI, 91% to 94%) at 0 months to 98% (95% CI, 97% to 99%), and 2-year CDFS increased from 83% (95% CI, 81% to 86%) at baseline to 98% (95% CI, 97% to 99%) at 24 months after diagnosis. Two-year COS improved by 2% (97% at 0 months, 99% at 24 months) in the IGCCCG favorable-risk group, by 5% (94% at 0 months, 99% at 24 months) in the intermediate-risk group, and by 22% (71% at 0 months to 93% at 24 months) in the poor-risk group. Two-year CDFS improved significantly at 12 months for each risk group (favorable, 91% baseline v 95% at 12 months; intermediate, 84% v 95%; poor, 55% v 85%). Baseline IGCCCG risk stratification was not associated with long-term COS or CDFS for patients who survived to greater than 2 years post therapy. No significant differences in COS and CDFS were noted between seminoma and nonseminoma; patients ≥ 40 years old had inferior 2-year COS from 0 to 12 months, but no differences were noted at 18 months.

Conclusion

Our data suggest that the concept of conditional survival applies to patients with MT-GCT treated with curative therapy. Patients with MT-GCT who survived and remained disease free more than 2 years after the diagnosis had an excellent chance of staying alive and disease free in additional subsequent years, regardless of the initial IGCCCG risk stratification.
Intestinal Bile Acid Composition Modulates Prohormone Convertase 1/3 (PC1/3) Expression and Consequent GLP-1 Production in Male Mice
Authors: Morimoto Kohkichi , Watanabe Mitsuhiro , Sugizaki Taichi , Irie Jun-ichiro , Itoh Hiroshi
Published: January 2016

Besides an established medication for hypercholesterolemia, bile acid binding resins (BABRs) present antidiabetic effects. Although the mechanisms underlying these effects are still enigmatic, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) appears to be involved. In addition to a few reported mechanisms, we propose prohormone convertase 1/3 (PC1/3), an essential enzyme of GLP-1 production, as a potent molecule in the GLP-1 release induced by BABRs. In our study, the BABR colestimide leads to a bile acid-specific G protein-coupled receptor TGR5-dependent induction of PC1/3 gene expression. Here, we focused on the alteration of intestinal bile acid composition and consequent increase of total TGR5 agonistic activity to explain the TGR5 activation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that nuclear factor of activated T cells mediates the TGR5-triggered PC1/3 gene expression. Altogether, our data indicate that the TGR5-dependent intestinal PC1/3 gene expression supports the BABR-stimulated GLP-1 release. We also propose a combination of BABR and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor in the context of GLP-1-based antidiabetic therapy.
Loss of Fatty Acid Binding Protein 4/aP2 Reduces Macrophage Inflammation Through Activation of SIRT3
Authors: Xu Hongliang , Hertzel Ann V. , Steen Kaylee A. , Bernlohr David A.
Published: January 2016

Activation of proinflammatory macrophages plays an important role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Previous work using high fat-fed mice has shown that ablation of the adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (FABP4/aP2) in macrophages leads to an antiinflammatory state both in situ and in vivo, and the mechanism is linked, in part, to increased intracellular monounsaturated fatty acids and the up-regulation of uncoupling protein 2. Here, we show that loss of FABP4/aP2 in macrophages additionally induces sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) expression and that monounsaturated fatty acids (C16:1, C18:1) lead to increased SIRT3 protein expression. Increased expression of SirT3 in FABP4/aP2 null macrophages occurs at the protein level with no change in SirT3 mRNA. When compared with controls, silencing of SIRT3 in Raw246.7 macrophages leads to increased expression of inflammatory cytokines, inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase 2. In contrast, loss of SIRT3 in FABP4/aP2-deficient macrophages attenuates the suppressed inflammatory signaling, reduced reactive oxygen species production, lipopolysaccharide-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, and increased fatty acid oxidation. These results suggest that the antiinflammatory phenotype of FABP4/aP2 null mice is mediated by increased intracellular monounsaturated fatty acids leading to the increased expression of both uncoupling protein 2 and SirT3.
Desmin enters the nucleus of cardiac stem cells and modulates Nkx2.5 expression by participating in transcription factor complexes that interact with thenkx2.5gene
Authors: Fuchs Christiane , Gawlas Sonja , Heher Philipp , Nikouli Sofia , Paar Hannah , Ivankovic Mario , Schultheis Martina , Klammer Julia , Gottschamel Teresa , Capetanaki Yassemi , Weitzer Georg
Published: January 2016

The transcription factor Nkx2.5 and the intermediate filament protein desmin are simultaneously expressed in cardiac progenitor cells during commitment of primitive mesoderm to the cardiomyogenic lineage. Up-regulation of Nkx2.5 expression by desmin suggests that desmin may contribute to cardiogenic commitment and myocardial differentiation by directly influencing the transcription of the nkx2.5 gene in cardiac progenitor cells. Here, we demonstrate that desmin activates transcription of nkx2.5 reporter genes, rescues nkx2.5 haploinsufficiency in cardiac progenitor cells, and is responsible for the proper expression of Nkx2.5 in adult cardiac side population stem cells. These effects are consistent with the temporary presence of desmin in the nuclei of differentiating cardiac progenitor cells and its physical interaction with transcription factor complexes bound to the enhancer and promoter elements of the nkx2.5 gene. These findings introduce desmin as a newly discovered and unexpected player in the regulatory network guiding cardiomyogenesis in cardiac stem cells.
Eccentric contraction: unraveling mechanisms of force enhancement and energy conservation
Authors: Nishikawa Kiisa
Published: January 2016

During the past century, physiologists have made steady progress in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction. However, this progress has so far failed to definitively explain the high force and low energy cost of eccentric muscle contraction. Hypotheses that have been proposed to explain increased muscle force during active stretch include cross-bridge mechanisms, sarcomere and half-sarcomere length non-uniformity, and engagement of a structural element upon muscle activation. The available evidence suggests that force enhancement results from an interaction between an elastic element in muscle sarcomeres, which is engaged upon activation, and the cross-bridges, which interact with the elastic elements to regulate their length and stiffness. Similarities between titin-based residual force enhancement in vertebrate muscle and twitchin-based ‘catch’ in invertebrate muscle suggest evolutionary homology. The winding filament hypothesis suggests plausible molecular mechanisms for effects of both Ca2+ influx and cross-bridge cycling on titin in active muscle. This hypothesis proposes that the N2A region of titin binds to actin upon Ca2+ influx, and that the PEVK region of titin winds on the thin filaments during force development because the cross-bridges not only translate but also rotate the thin filaments. Simulations demonstrate that a muscle model based on the winding filament hypothesis can predict residual force enhancement on the descending limb of the length–tension curve in muscles during eccentric contraction. A kinematic model of titin winding based on sarcomere geometry makes testable predictions about titin isoforms in different muscles. Ongoing research is aimed at testing these predictions and elucidating the biochemistry of the underlying protein interactions.
Skeletal muscle tissue in movement and health: positives and negatives
Authors: Lindstedt Stan L.
Published: January 2016

The history of muscle physiology is a wonderful lesson in ‘the scientific method’; our functional hypotheses have been limited by our ability to decipher (observe) muscle structure. The simplistic understanding of how muscles work made a large leap with the remarkable insights of A. V. Hill, who related muscle force and power to shortening velocity and energy use. However, Hill's perspective was largely limited to isometric and isotonic contractions founded on isolated muscle properties that do not always reflect how muscles function in vivo. Robert Josephson incorporated lengthening contractions into a work loop analysis that shifted the focus to dynamic muscle function, varying force, length and work done both by and on muscle during a single muscle work cycle. It became apparent that muscle is both a force generator and a spring. Titin, the missing filament in the sliding filament model, is a muscle spring, which functions very differently in cardiac versus skeletal muscle; its possible role in these two muscle types is discussed relative to their contrasting function. The good news for those of us who choose to work on skeletal muscle is that muscle has been reluctant to reveal all of its secrets.
Myosin isoforms and the mechanochemical cross-bridge cycle
Authors: Walklate Jonathan , Ujfalusi Zoltan , Geeves Michael A.
Published: January 2016

At the latest count the myosin family includes 35 distinct groups, all of which have the conserved myosin motor domain attached to a neck or lever arm, followed by a highly variable tail or cargo binding region. The motor domain has an ATPase activity that is activated by the presence of actin. One feature of the myosin ATPase cycle is that it involves an association/dissociation with actin for each ATP hydrolysed. The cycle has been described in detail for a large number of myosins from different classes. In each case the cycle is similar, but the balance between the different molecular events in the cycle has been altered to produce a range of very different mechanical activities. Myosin may spend most of the ATPase cycle attached to actin (high duty ratio), as in the processive myosin (e.g. myosin V) or the strain-sensing myosins (e.g. myosin 1c). In contrast, most muscle myosins spend 80% of their ATPase cycle detached from actin. Within the myosin IIs found in human muscle, there are 11 different sarcomeric myosin isoforms, two smooth muscle isoforms as well as three non-muscle isoforms. We have been exploring how the different myosin isoforms have adapted the cross-bridge cycle to generate different types of mechanical activity and how this goes wrong in inherited myopathies. The ideas are outlined here.
Mitochondria to motion: optimizing oxidative phosphorylation to improve exercise performance
Authors: Conley Kevin E.
Published: January 2016

Mitochondria oxidize substrates to generate the ATP that fuels muscle contraction and locomotion. This review focuses on three steps in oxidative phosphorylation that have independent roles in setting the overall mitochondrial ATP flux and thereby have direct impact on locomotion. The first is the electron transport chain, which sets the pace for oxidation. New studies indicate that the electron transport chain capacity per mitochondria declines with age and disease, but can be revived by both acute and chronic treatments. The resulting higher ATP production is reflected in improved muscle power output and locomotory performance. The second step is the coupling of ATP supply from O2 uptake (mitochondrial coupling efficiency). Treatments that elevate mitochondrial coupling raise both exercise efficiency and the capacity for sustained exercise in both young and old muscle. The final step is ATP synthesis itself, which is under dynamic control at multiple sites to provide the 50-fold range of ATP flux between resting muscle and exercise at the mitochondrial capacity. Thus, malleability at sites in these subsystems of oxidative phosphorylation has an impact on ATP flux, with direct effects on exercise performance. Interventions are emerging that target these three independent subsystems to provide many paths to improve ATP flux and elevate the muscle performance lost to inactivity, age or disease.
Exceptional running and turning performance in a mite
Authors: Rubin Samuel , Young Maria Ho-Yan , Wright Jonathan C. , Whitaker Dwight L. , Ahn A. N.
Published: January 2016

The Southern California endemic mite, Paratarsotomus macropalpis, was filmed in the field on a concrete substrate and in the lab to analyze stride frequency, gait, and running speed under different temperature conditions and during turning. At ground temperatures ranging from 45°C to 60°C, mites ran at a mean relative speed of 192.4±2.1 BL s−1 (body lengths per second), exceeding the highest previously documented value for a land animal by 12.5%. Stride frequencies were also exceptionally high (up to 135 Hz), and increased with substrate temperature. Juveniles exhibited higher relative speeds than adults and possess proportionally longer legs, which allow for greater relative stride lengths. Although mites accelerated and decelerated rapidly during straight running (7.2±1.2 ms−2 and −10.1±2.1 ms−2, respectively), the forces involved were comparable to those found in other animals. P. macropalpis employs an alternating tetrapod gait during steady running. Shallow turns were accomplished by a simple asymmetry in stride length. During tight turns, mites pivoted around the tarsus of the inside third leg (L3), which thus behaved like a grappling hook. Pivot turns were characterized by a 42% decrease in turning radius and 40% increase in angular velocity compared to non-pivot turns. The joint angle amplitudes of the inner L2 and L3 were negligible during a pivot turn. While exceptional, running speeds in P. macropalpis approximate values predicted from inter-specific scaling relationships.
Expectancy and conditioned hearing levels in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Authors: Nachtigall Paul E. , Supin Alexander Ya. , Smith Adam B. , Pacini Aude F.
Published: January 2016

The hearing sensitivity of a bottlenose dolphin for a warning sound, when the exact time of the arrival of a loud sound could, or could not, be predicted was measured. Sensitivity was measured when the time of the onset of the loud sound was randomly varied (random-variation sessions) and when the time of the onset of the loud and the pattern of stimulus levels was constant (fixed-stimulus sessions). The loud sound was kept the same in both of the series. The mean duration and mean range of the levels of the test/warning signal were also kept equalacross experimental sessions. Hearing sensitivity was measured using the auditory evoked potential method with rhythmic trains of short pips as test stimuli. With randomly varied warning sounds, thresholds before the loud sound were on average 10.6 dB higher than the baseline thresholds. With fixed warning signals, thresholds were on average 4.4 dB higher than the baseline thresholds. Considering that the loud sounds were identical, the difference between the random-variation and the fixed-stimulus sessions cannot be explained by a direct (unconditioned) influence of sound exposure. Therefore, the data provide reliable evidence for the conditioning nature of the hearing-dampening effect and also demonstrate that hearing sensitivity change also depends on when the animal can expect the loud sound to occur.
Sound Transmission between Rooms with Curtain Wall Façades: A Case Study
Authors: Secchi Simone , Cellai Gianfranco , Fausti Patrizio , Santoni Andrea , Martello Nicolò Zuccherini
Published: January 2016

Curtain walls have reached good performances in terms of façade sound and thermal insulation, as well as solar protection. Nevertheless, the sound insulation performance of the partition between adjoining rooms with continuous curtain wall façades is often reduced by the presence of direct and flanking transmission through the junction with the façade itself.

In this work, flanking and direct structural transmissions are analysed with reference to the joints of the mullion of the curtain wall with lightweight plasterboard partitions. Airborne sound insulation and vibration measurements were made in two adjacent rooms affected by the acoustic problems determined by the curtain wall joint.

Traditional acoustic measurements, carried out according to EN ISO 16283–1, highlighted problems in sound insulation between rooms, but without any indication on different sound transmission paths through the wall. Vibration measurements were made for every part of the system (frame columns and beams, window panes, plasterboard wall, plasterboard false ceiling, etc.) to better understand the sound transmission paths in these kinds of structures.

In this paper the results of this analysis are presented.

Moreover, taking into account previous works and measurements made in this research field, different solutions for curtain wall structures are analysed and technical suggestions are given to improve airborne sound insulation between rooms separated by partitions mounted up to metal frames.
An Investigation into Relationships between Classroom Acoustic Measurements and Voice Parameters of Teachers
Authors: Durup Nick , Shield Bridget , Dance Stephen , Sullivan Rory
Published: January 2016

School teachers appear to have a greater prevalence of voice problems than the general population, yet classrooms are not designed with the safe use of teachers' voices in mind. In an effort to better understand the influence of classroom acoustic design on teachers' voice parameters measurements of teachers' voices in different classroom types have been made. An Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM) has been used to measure voice parameters (including the average voice sound pressure level, fundamental frequency and phonation time) directly from the skin vibrations in the neck, thus eliminating the effects of other noise sources in the environment. The rooms involved were acoustically benchmarked individually to enable relationships between the voice data and acoustic parameters, such as unoccupied ambient noise levels and reverberation times, to be investigated. The study data shows a positive correlation between unoccupied ambient noise levels and the average voice levels of the teachers, as well as between voice level and phonation time. There was no significant correlation in the study data between classroom reverberation times and voice levels or between voice level and fundamental frequency.
Telomeres and telomerase as therapeutic targets to prevent and treat age-related diseases
Authors: Bär Christian , Blasco Maria A.
Published: January 2016

Telomeres, the protective ends of linear chromosomes, shorten throughout an individual’s lifetime. Telomere shortening is a hallmark of molecular aging and is associated with premature appearance of diseases associated with aging. Here, we discuss the role of telomere shortening as a direct cause for aging and age-related diseases. In particular, we draw attention to the fact that telomere length influences longevity. Furthermore, we discuss intrinsic and environmental factors that can impact on human telomere erosion. Finally, we highlight recent advances in telomerase-based therapeutic strategies for the treatment of diseases associated with extremely short telomeres owing to mutations in telomerase, as well as age-related diseases, and ultimately aging itself.
Introduction of International Auditing Standards in Russia
Authors: Турищева  , Turishcheva Tatyana
Published: January 2016

Th e article deals with the introduction of international auditing standards in Russian auditing practice, existing

problems and ways of solving them. It is concluded that the current stage of development of audit in Russia is characterized

by a further convergence of Russian and international auditing practices, increase of public demand for its improvement.
Environmental Audit As a Tool for Public Environmental Control
Authors: Чхутиашвили  , Chkhutiashvili Lela
Published: January 2016

Th e article is devoted to the problems and prospects of development of public environmental monitoring in the

Russian Federation and environmental audit as a tool for public environmental control.
Analysis of Development of Corporate Banking Services
Authors: Лосева  , Loseva N. , Козлов  , Kozlov A.
Published: January 2016

Th e article discusses main types of corporate banking services, points out problems of bank sector aff ecting

business eff ectiveness and due to be solved together by banks and the State.
Newly qualified health visitor: Child dental health promotion
Authors: Williams Emma
Published: January 2016

In the first of a regular series, Emma Williams, JHV newly qualified health visitor board member for 2016, reflects on how a health need identified during training led to implementing a change in practice in her preceptorship year.
Minor injuries and ailments. 1: Head injuries
Authors: Tinsley Elizabeth
Published: January 2016

Minor head injuries are more likely to occur in children than adults due to high energy levels and an undeveloped sense of danger. While many head injuries are difficult to prevent, correct assessment and advice can reduce unnecessary attendance at A&E departments. This article is the first in a series to be published in JHV on preventing and treating minor injuries and ailments. It will provide health visitors with advice for parents on dealing with minor injuries and ailments in children in the home, when to attend A&E, and direct readers towards up-to-date guidance and information for both parents and professionals.
What constitutes good trial evidence?
Authors: Lavender Tina , Richens Yana
Published: January 2016

In this paper the authors will discuss the randomised controlled trial in the context of evidence-based practice. This paper aims to provide health professionals with some insight into what makes a good trial paper, highlighting the main areas where there are often misunderstandings of the appropriateness of trial methodology within individual studies. Being able to determine what constitutes good trial evidence is important in determining which evidence should be applied to practice.
New year, new resolutions
Authors: Cowley Dame Sarah
Published: January 2016

Dame Sarah Cowley suggests some new resolutions to start the year. A focus on healthier eating, challenging negative stereotypes and respect for professional colleagues all potentially bring personal and professional considerations together.
Research roundup: January 2016
Authors: Seal Joanne , Brook Judy , Jenkins Annie
Published: January 2016

In this section, a range of brief synopses of recently published articles that may be of interest to health visitors is presented. The aim of this roundup is to provide an overview, rather than a detailed summary, of the research papers selected. Should you wish to look at any of the papers in more detail, a full reference is provided.
Ripping off Hollywood celebrities: Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, luxury fashion and self-branding in California
Authors: Pesce Sara
Published: January 2016

My article takes The Bling Ring, directed by Sofia Coppola (2013) – and the post-Fordist, promotional, consumerist constellation it is consciously set in – as a case study of the metamorphosis of the agency, value and meaning of celebrity in contemporary California. I discuss how, in the era of social networking, the construction of celebrity has undergone a process of transformation that entails two conflicting, although strictly interlaced, tendencies. On the one hand is the Hollywood star, supported by a persisting industrial policy and holding a monopoly of attention. On the other is the multiplication of platforms for distributing visibility, including the spectacle of fashion-bloggers, trend-setters and ‘celetoids’ and forms of self-publicity, self-broadcast and life-casting of ‘ordinary individuals’ through the web. Especially, thanks to the diffusion of luxury fashion brands (and a precise marketing policy), a new liaison is taking place between the accredited star and a type of fans increasingly transforming themselves into would-be celebrities. I suggest here that the ‘Bling Ring’ story can be better understood when set against the background of LA’s culture of branding and self-branding, a culture of self-commodification marked by the idea of empowerment through ever-renewing skills of self-presentation and artificially framed styles of life. At the same time, I hint at the social disparity embedded in LA, with its elites’ ambivalent behaviour, including the nostalgic glance of a Hollywood insider (Coppola), to contest a notion of ‘democratization’ of fame. I wish to demonstrate how new-media-conveyed developments in American youth’s behaviour – based on the skills of networking, on the auto-didactic, entrepreneurial activity of web participation, on open access and unrestricted appropriation – are challenging the privilege of fame aristocracy (the Hollywood stars), but not its vertical concentration of wealth and its individualized mode of power.
Fashioning mental illness: Woody Allen’s Jasmine French, a twenty-first-century Blanche DuBois
Authors: Smith Catherine
Published: January 2016

Through the analysis of the characters and costumes of Jasmine French in Woody Allen’s 2013 film Blue Jasmine, this article explores the dangers of maintaining a sense of identity so closely tied to dress. This article examines the practice of identity construction through the consumption of luxury fashion, and the corresponding tensions that can arise in the dynamic of such a dress practice.
What to wear to the end of the world: The function of fashion in apocalyptic narrative
Authors: Lascity Myles Ethan , Roberts Candice D.
Published: January 2016

Narratives of the apocalypse remain a powerful fixture in storytelling across media by confronting notions of mortality and the significance of life. Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World represents one of several recent, mixed-genre films to unpack a pre-apocalyptic scenario with a more realistic setting than common sci-fi and fantasy approaches. Setting the stage in a world that is ordinary rather than fantastic allows the audience a relatable perspective into an extraordinary event and provides a more pragmatic experience of the familiar myth of total destruction. By exploring identity and symbolism through the everyday ritual of dress, this article examines clothing as a material representation of social and psychological processes at the world’s end. Dress is dissected in discussion with physiological needs and cultural norms as well as critically analysed from phenomenological and feminist standpoints.
Facing the Arab ‘Other’?: Jerusalem in Jewish women’s comics
Authors: Fischer Nina
Published: January 2016

Jerusalem is the frontline and a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In recent years, comic artists have turned their attention to the Middle East, including the ‘Holy City’. Scholars, however, have yet to study how comics engage with life in Jerusalem, in particular the relationships between Arabs and Jews. In this article, I will take on this critical oversight and explore how Mira Friedman’s ‘Independence Day’ (2008), Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (2010) and Miriam Libicki’s Jobnik!: An American Girl’s Adventures in the Israeli Army (2008) engage with the complicated social situation. The philosopher, Emmanuel Lévinas, has argued that face-to-face encounters are the basis for recognizing the Other as human and for feeling responsibility towards him or her.1 In this article I show that we rarely see the Other’s face in the corpus of the Jewish comic artists I discuss here. Instead, the Arab presence is brought into the texts by way of urban elements such as the Dome of the Rock, media remediations or indistinct, distant figures. This highlights that comics are closely tied into the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians, where fear and separation rule to a level where the Arab Other – whether Christian or Muslim – of the Jews of Jerusalem is almost invisible.
Extracts from The Book of Sarah
Authors: Lightman Sarah
Published: January 2016

Harry was born 23 December 2013. Beautiful, loud, hungry. Clock of my day. Emperor of my household. At a conference on motherhood in London in June 2015 I heard Bracha Ettinger speak about ‘the three shocks of maternality’. It helped me to understand how much I am still recovering from my new reality.
On the “Falsation” of Deceitful Architectures
Authors: Miranda Antonio
Published: January 2016

Professor Antonio Miranda Regojo-Borges is a polymath; an architectural critic whose knowledge base covers centuries, reaches across disciplines and informs his polemic thoughts. He writes quixotic and “antiquarian” prose - in the style of Wollflin’s principles of art history, Kant’s theories on taste, and William Gilpin’s Eighteenth Century tour journals. In its enumerative tendencies, it is reminiscent of the analytical theorists Edmund Burke, whilst in its examination of architecture in the cultural industry context it reminds us of Theodore Adorno. At times ironic, at times bombastic, and at times mocking, his writing style will alienate as many as it enthuses. He will not care.

This text offers both a critique of modern culture and an outline model for architectural criticism. Rooted in the most radical beliefs of a Twentieth Century Modernism, that for many seems moribund today, it argues that the pillars upon which the modern utopian vision was constructed remain essential – perhaps more essential than ever today. In the media obsessed, consumerist context of the present, and in the aftermath of the latest economic collapse to befall the world economy, it argues for an architecture of “the essential” – a functional and poetic architecture of the anti-spectacle.

Antonio Miranda is the author of 15 books amongst which we can list, to name but a few: Antología de arquitectura moderna 1900-1990; Ni robot ni bufón: manual para la crítica de arquitectura; Horizonte cerrado; Columnas para la resistencia - variaciones sobre ciudad, arquitectura y subcultura; and .A todos los becarios de la reina - ocho ensayos de estética civil. He has spent a career of over 40 years writing some of the most ardent and focused architectural criticism in the Spanish language. Based on the idea of “falsation”, as developed by Karl Popper, it comes close to being a manifesto for criticism. It offers guidelines for rooting out “bad” architecture – a series of pointers to be used in judging the work of an architect. These pointers, he suggests, will not produce “great” buildings, but may be useful in the “identification” of architecture that does not conform to “minimum standards of function and rationalism”. For some it will be rigid, prescriptive, dogmatic and impractical. It is certainly satirical, ruthless and uncompromising. On the “Falsation” of Deceitful Architectures, as the title suggests, is no ordinary architectural text.
The City as a Laboratory of Shadows: Exposing Secret Histories While Thinking of the Future
Authors: MacDonald Robert G
Published: January 2016

This paper lays out a particular way of ‘seeing’ or looking at cities – one that allows us to see beneath the physical surface of buildings and infrastructure and which thus opens the door to considering the ‘shadows’ of a city as a source of inspiration. In these shadows, it suggests, we can see the city as a ‘laboratory of ideas.’ Specifically, the paper examines the city of Liverpool but its themes are applicable worldwide. It aims to expose Liverpool’s ‘poetic’ qualities and suggests that those best placed to understand it, and guide its development, may not be architects or planners, but rather those that inhabit it most intensely – its people. As a result, the paper becomes a tale about time and movement and the everyday (and night) life of a port city with a history stretching back over centuries.

Despite this history, the city has over the past two decades received a whole range of development grants that have and are, right now, changing the physical nature of its urban environment radically. In the context of these physical, externally funded changes to the city’s make-up that mirror conditions found in cities across the world, it is perhaps more important than ever to redirect our thoughts to what lies beneath the surface – to the city’s social, economic and cultural heart. The thinking and experience that underlies this suggestion began in the 1960s when architecture was taught alongside sociology. Imagine a radical School of Art & Design with a sociologist on the staff, in which Richard Hoggart’s The Uses and Misuses of Literacy was on the agenda, and the writings of the Marxist social theorist Raymond Williams were essential reading – Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, in particular. This author comes out of this tradition, and it is in this tradition that this paper sees the future of cities to be a future without architects or, at least, a future in which architects do not dictate to the people for whom they design. It is an argument applicable across the globe.
Art, Architecture and the Law: The Architectural Project and the Legal Contract as Social Artefacts
Authors: Bordeleau Anne , Bélanger André
Published: January 2016

In an installation presented at the Cooper Gallery in New York in 2005, the British-American artist Carey Young located six vinyl lines on the floor and walls of a room. She then placed an inscription announcing that the American Constitution would temporarily not apply to those who decided to stand within the space defined by the lines. In this political yet playful installation entitled Declared Void, Young points to the grey zones of the legal system, while also questioning the social role of architecture, and even our understanding of what constitutes a defined space. In a piece entitled Double Game, 1999, the artist Sophie Calle worked with Paul Auster in a performance piece in which they mutually entered a contract according to which Calle played the role of a character in one of Auster’s novels. It involved her deliberately appropriating various sites in New York City in such a way that the accepted conventions of their public use were overturned. Converting, for example, a telephone booth into a decorated interior space for private use she temporarily broke basic spatial contracts about the shared use of spaces in the city while, simultaneously, placing the ‘contract’ at the center of the work.

Similarly, the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra has played with notions of the contract and our contractual use and reading of spaces in works such as A line of 160cm tattooed on 4 people, 2000, in which he uses the gallery setting as a spatial symbol that ‘legitimizes’ the contracting of four prostitutes in an agreement that allows their bodies to be indelibly marked in the name of an art performance. Following a tradition evident since the 1950s, the work of these artists has used the notion of the contract and the social ambiguities of space in a way that has either been foregrounded in their final pieces, or is indispensable to the discomfort created by their work. Operating in a blurred legal and spatial zone, these artists question the jurist’s notions of the contract and the architect’s ideas of space. As a result, they also open up both disciplines to a cross disciplinary reading that investigates their real and conceptual overlaps. In creating works that invite a ‘contractual’ (and thus immaterial) reading of physical space and an examination of the ‘real’ (and thus material) consequences of the contract they allow us to consider issues of direct importance to the theory of law; architecture’s role in contemporary society; and how a cross disciplinary perspective of these issues potentially opens architecture and the contract – understood as social artefacts – to the full implications of a reading through the prism of Hannah Arendt’s ‘subjective in-between’ – a realm in which the “intangible is no less real than the world of things we visible have in common”.
Porosity: Networking Cities for a Changing Climate
Authors: Napawan N. Claire , snyder Brett
Published: January 2016

On October 28th 2013 Hurricane Sandy hit land on the East Coast of the United States. The deadliest storm to hit the country since 2005 it caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electric service, and caused 117 deaths in the United States, including 53 in New York, making Sandy the most life costly hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina. In all an estimated 186 people were killed across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada. In the immediate aftermath of the storm not only did the emergency services, state and federal government implement emergency plans of action, including both direct intervention on the ground and massive financial support, so too did a number of charities, community and residents groups across the US.

One of the most surprising of these groups was what became known as Occupy Sandy. As noted by the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute: “Within hours of Sandy’s landfall, members from the Occupy Wall Street movement used social media to tap the wider Occupy network for volunteers and aid. Overnight, a volunteer army of young, educated, tech-savvy individuals with time and a desire to help others emerged. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, “Occupy Sandy” became one of the leading humanitarian groups providing relief to survivors across New York City and New Jersey. At its peak, it had grown to an estimated 60,000 volunteers—more than four times the number deployed by the American Red Cross.”

What this phenomenon clearly demonstrates is the potential for digital networking to improve response to catastrophic storm events at a community level. Far from being solely a question of material support and logistics, the response to the disaster was one equally definable as digital. Pointing to the possible rethinking of issues around the extreme and localised consequences of climate change and responses to it in purely traditional infrastructural terms, the social media focused organisation of Occupy Sandy potentially offers us a new frame of reference to deal with these, and less catastrophic issues around climate change and our response to it.

This paper provides a discussion of the projected impacts of global environmental change in urban environments in the United States, with a particular focus on their impact on existing storm and sanitary water infrastructure. However, it theorizes a new approach to this archaic system of infrastructure that exploits social networking tools and digital technologies to build greater networks for climate change resilience across the United States and, by extension, elsewhere.
Effect of Annona muricata pre-treatment on liver synthetic ability, kidney function and hematological parameters in dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)-administered rats
Authors: Usunobun Usunomena , Okolie Ngozi
Published: January 2016

Background:Dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) is a potent hepatotoxin, carcinogen and mutagen which exerts carcinogenic effects and induces hepatic necrosis in experimental animals through metabolic activation by CYP2E1. This study thus evaluated efficacies of Annona muricata pre-treatment on acute dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)-induced anemia and biochemical alterations in male albino rats.Methods:Four (4) groups of six (6) rats each were used for the study. Group 1 served as control and was untreated, group 2 and 3 were pre-treated with 400mg/kg Annona muricata ethanol leaf extract for one week while group 3 and 4 each received single dose of 20mg/kg DMN (orally) after one week. The rats were sacrificed 48hrs after DMN administration.Results:In rats administered 20mg/kg DMN, toxicty was clearly shown by decreased activities of serum liver synthetic molecules namely total protein, albumin, increased total bilirubin, increased kidney parameters such as creatinine and urea as well as decreased body weight gain. The toxic effect of DMN was also indicated by significantly decreased levels of red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cells (WBC) and platelet count (Plt count). However, in rats pre-treated with 400mg/kg Annona muricata prior to DMN administration, there were significant reversals in the activities of serum liver synthetic molecules, kidney profiles, and hematological parameters when compared to DMN-alone administered rats.Conclusion:Annona muricata pre-treatment exhibited in vivo protective and anti-anemic effects against DMN-induced injury.
The perspective of history pre-service teachers’ towards the use of digital storytelling in educational environments
Tarih öğretmeni adaylarının öğretim ortamlarında dijital hikâye anlatımı etkinliğinin kullanımına yönelik görüşleri
Authors: Karataş Serçin , Gülen Şeyma Büşra , Hava Kevser
Published: January 2016

Digital storytelling, telling a story with words, images and sounds to create a digital project, is a popular method among educators and researchers. Use of digital storytelling method in classrooms provides many advantages such as supporting 21st century skills for teachers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the history pre-service teachers’ perspective about using of digital storytelling in educational environments. The study was designed qualitative method. Data are collected with semi-structured interview form. The eight pre-service teachers participated in the study that enrolled in History Education at Gazi University.  Two coders construct two schemas from data, and then schemas were revised and determined three themes. These themes are (1) the definition of digital storytelling, (2) the benefits of digital storytelling, and (3) the difficulties in the process of creating digital stories. In conclusion, the participants state that digital storytelling has positive effects/contributions on enhancing students’ motivation and creative thinking skills. In addition, all of the participants state that they will use digital storytelling activities in educational environments when they are in-service.

 

Özet

Teknolojinin ucuzlaması ve yaygınlaşmasıyla, dijital hikâye anlatımı her bireyin fırsat bulabileceği kolay bir etkinlik olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu durum, dijital hikâye anlatımı etkinliğinin eğitimciler ve araştırmacılar arasında popüler hale gelmesine olanak sağlamaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı, tarih öğretmeni adaylarının öğretim ortamlarında dijital hikâye anlatımı etkinliğinin kullanılmasına yönelik görüşlerinin araştırılmasıdır. Araştırmaya, Gazi Eğitim Fakültesi Tarih Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı2.sınıfta okuyan 8 öğretmen adayı katılmıştır. Verilerin toplanmasında yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizi aşamasında iki kodlayıcı, verilerden iki ayrı şema oluşturmuş ve bu şemalar yeniden gözden geçirilerek üç ortak tema belirlenmiştir. Bu temalar (1) dijital hikâye anlatımın tanımı, (2) dijital hikâye anlatımının faydaları, (3) dijital hikâye oluşturma sürecinde yaşanan zorluklar şeklindedir. Araştırma sonunda öğretmen adayları, dijital hikâye anlatım etkinliğinin öğretim sürecinde kullanılmasının öğrenci katılımı, motivasyon ve yaratıcı düşünme becerisi açısından pek çok eğitsel avantajının olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Buna ek olarak bütün katılımcılar, bu etkinliği görev yapacakları sınıf ortamlarında kullanacaklarını ifade etmişlerdir.
Walkability in upper east Texas cities and implications for physical activity and health
Authors: Njororai Simiyu Wycliffe W. , Njororai Fletcher J. , Jivetti Billystrom Aronya
Published: January 2016

Introduction: Physical activity is an important intervention strategy against the increasing cases of overweight and obesity in the USA and many other parts of the world. Walking has been identified as a component of physical activity that can easily be incorporated into one’s lifestyle. Recent studies on physical activity have focused on promoting walking as a health enhancing endeavor.

Purpose: This study examined the walkability of the environments in 57 cities drawn from 22 different counties in upper east Texas within the USA.

Methods and materials: The data for all the 57 key cities in upper east Texas were collected from the Walkscore.com.

Results: It was established that 13 (22.8%) of the cities had walkable scores below 24%; 26 (45.6%) had between 25 and 49; 13 (22.8%) between 51 and 69; 4 (7%) had between 70 and 89, and only one city had a score of 91.

Discussion: The vast majority of cities (39, 68.42%) had walkable scores that show a high dependability on vehicle transport; with only 5 (8.8%) cities being rated as very walkable or a walker’s paradise. This reflects a high dependence on vehicles in the upper east Texas region and therefore minimal walking.

Recommendations: There is need to actively pursue an agenda that promotes infrastructural investments that can bring about ease of walking and accessibility of community services at close range. Stakeholders need to collectively come together to generate interventions that can enhance the well-being of the residents in of upper east Texas.