bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Review: Novel agents for advanced bladder cancer
Authors: Sonpavde Guru , Elfiky Aymen A. , Rosenberg Jonathan E.
Published: September 2009

Conventional front-line platinum-based combination chemotherapy yields high response rates but suboptimal long-term outcomes for advanced transitional cell carcinoma. Salvage therapy is an unmet need with disappointing outcomes. The emergence of novel biologic agents offers the promise of improved outcomes. Neoadjuvant therapy preceding cystectomy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer provides an important paradigm and an interesting approach in developing novel agents. Patients who are not candidates for cisplatin require special attention. A multidisciplinary approach and collaboration among laboratory scientists, oncologists, urologists and radiation oncologists is necessary to make therapeutic advances. Recent and ongoing trials of novel chemotherapeutic and biologic agents are reviewed.
Amino acid residues 201-205 in C-terminal acidic tail region plays a crucial role in antibacterial activity of HMGB1
Authors: Gong Wei , Li Yuan , Chao Fan , Huang Gang , He Fengtian
Published: September 2009

Background

Antibacterial activity is a novel function of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). However, the functional site for this new effect is presently unknown.

Methods and Results

In this study, recombinant human HMGB1 A box and B box (rHMGB1 A box, rHMGB1 B box), recombinant human HMGB1 (rHMGB1) and the truncated C-terminal acidic tail mutant (tHMGB1) were prepared by the prokaryotic expression system. The C-terminal acidic tail (C peptide) was synthesized, which was composed of 30 amino acid residues. Antibacterial assays showed that both the full length rHMGB1 and the synthetic C peptide alone could efficiently inhibit bacteria proliferation, but rHMGB1 A box and B box, and tHMGB1 lacking the C-terminal acidic tail had no antibacterial function. These results suggest that C-terminal acidic tail is the key region for the antibacterial activity of HMGB1. Furthermore, we prepared eleven different deleted mutants lacking several amino acid residues in C-terminal acidic tail of HMGB1. Antibacterial assays of these mutants demonstrate that the amino acid residues 201-205 in C-terminal acidic tail region is the core functional site for the antibacterial activity of the molecule.

Conclusion

In sum, these results define the key region and the crucial site in HMGB1 for its antibacterial function, which is helpful to illustrating the antibacterial mechanisms of HMGB1.
The relationship between the evolution of microRNA targets and the length of their UTRs
Authors: Cheng Chao , Bhardwaj Nitin , Gerstein Mark
Published: September 2009

Background

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNA molecules that modulate the gene expression at the post-transcription levels in many eukaryotic cells. Their widespread and important role in animals is gauged by estimates that ~25% of all genes are miRNA targets.

Results

We perform a systematic investigation of the relationship between miRNA regulation and their targets' evolution in two mammals: human and mouse. We find genes with longer 3' UTRs are regulated by more distinct types of miRNAs. These genes correspondingly tend to have slower evolutionary rates at the protein level. Housekeeping genes are another class of genes that evolve slowly. However, they have a distinctly different type of regulation, with shorter 3'UTRs to avoid miRNA targeting.

Conclusion

Our analysis suggests a two-way evolutionary mechanism for miRNA targets on the basis of their cellular roles and the length of their 3' UTRs. Functionally critical genes that are spatially or temporally expressed are stringently regulated by miRNAs. While housekeeping genes, however conserved, are selected to have shorter 3'UTRs to avoid miRNA regulation.
An open-label, 1-year extension study of the long-term safety and efficacy of once-daily OROS® hydromorphone in patients with chronic cancer pain
Authors: Hanna Magdi , Tuca Alberto , Thipphawong John
Published: September 2009

Background

Opioid analgesics have proven efficacy in the short-term management of chronic cancer pain, but data on their long-term use is more limited. OROS® hydromorphone is a controlled-release formulation of oral hydromorphone that may be particularly well suited to long-term management of chronic cancer pain because it provides stable plasma concentrations and consistent analgesia with convenient once-daily dosing. The objective of this study (DO-118X) was to characterise the pain control achieved with long-term repeated dosing of OROS® hydromorphone in patients with chronic cancer pain.

Methods

In this multicentre, phase III, open-label, single treatment, 1-year extension study, OROS® hydromorphone was administered to 68 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic cancer pain, who had successfully completed a short-term equivalence study, and whose pain was controlled with a stable dose of medication (≥ 8 mg OROS® hydromorphone or equivalent controlled-release morphine). Patients were started on the dose of OROS® hydromorphone equivalent to the opioid dose on which they achieved dose-stable pain control in the equivalence study; dose adjustments were made as necessary and breakthrough pain medication was permitted. Efficacy was assessed with the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and patient and investigator global evaluations of treatment effectiveness. No formal statistical analysis was done.

Results

The mean (standard deviation) duration of exposure to study medication was 139 (129.9) days and the mean (standard deviation) average daily consumption of OROS® hydromorphone was 43.7 (28.14) mg/day. All scores were maintained at a mild to moderate severity throughout the study; however, BPI scores for pain at its worst, pain at its least, pain on average, pain right now, and pain relief were slightly worsened at end point compared with baseline. Mean BPI pain interference with daily activities and patient and investigator global evaluation scores also remained generally stable. Treatment effectiveness was rated as fair to good throughout the study. The most frequently reported adverse events were nausea (n = 24, 35.3%), constipation (n = 22, 32.4%), and vomiting (n = 15, 22.1%).

Conclusion

The results of this extension study suggest that long-term repeated dosing with once-daily OROS® hydromorphone can be beneficial in the continuing management of persistent, moderate-to-severe cancer pain.
Development of a fluorescent quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for the detection of Goose parvovirus in vivo
Authors: Yang Jin-Long , Cheng An-Chun , Wang Ming-Shu , Pan Kang-Cheng , Li Min , Guo Yu-Fei , Li Chuan-Feng , Zhu De-Kang , Chen Xiao-Yue
Published: September 2009

Background

Goose parvovirus (GPV) is a Dependovirus associated with latent infection and mortality in geese. Currently, it severely affects geese production worldwide. The objective of this study was to develop a fluorescent quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (FQ-PCR) assay for fast and accurate quantification of GPV DNA in infected goslings, which can aid in the understanding of the regular distribution pattern and the nosogenesis of GPV in vivo.

Results

The detection limit of the assay was 2.8 × 101 standard DNA copies, with a sensitivity of 3 logs higher than that of the conventional gel-based PCR assay targeting the same gene. The real-time PCR was reproducible, as shown by satisfactory low intraassay and interassay coefficients of variation.

Conclusion

The high sensitivity, specificity, simplicity, and reproducibility of the GPV fluorogenic PCR assay, combined with a high throughput, make this method suitable for a broad spectrum of GPV etiology-related applications.
Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Detection of Minimal Residual Disease by Standardized WT1 Assay to Enhance Risk Stratification in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A European LeukemiaNet Study
Authors: Cilloni Daniela , Renneville Aline , Hermitte Fabienne , Hills Robert K. , Daly Sarah , Jovanovic Jelena V. , Gottardi Enrico , Fava Milena , Schnittger Susanne , Weiss Tamara , Izzo Barbara , Nomdedeu Josep , van der Heijden Adrian , van der Reijden Bert A. , Jansen Joop H. , van der Velden Vincent H.J. , Ommen Hans , Preudhomme Claude , Saglio Giuseppe , Grimwade David
Published: September 2009

Purpose

Risk stratification in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is currently based on pretreatment characteristics. It remains to be established whether relapse risk can be better predicted through assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD). One proposed marker is the Wilms tumor gene WT1, which is overexpressed in most patients with AML, thus providing a putative target for immunotherapy, although in the absence of a standardized assay, its utility for MRD monitoring remains controversial.

Patients and Methods

Nine published and in-house real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction WT1 assays were systematically evaluated within the European LeukemiaNet; the best-performing assay was applied to diagnostic AML samples (n = 620), follow-up samples from 129 patients treated with intensive combination chemotherapy, and 204 normal peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) controls.

Results

Considering relative levels of expression detected in normal PB and BM, WT1 was sufficiently overexpressed to discriminate ≥ 2-log reduction in transcripts in 46% and 13% of AML patients, according to the respective follow-up sample source. In this informative group, greater WT1 transcript reduction after induction predicted reduced relapse risk (hazard ratio, 0.54 per log reduction; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.83; P = .004) that remained significant when adjusted for age, WBC count, and cytogenetics. Failure to reduce WT1 transcripts below the threshold limits defined in normal controls by the end of consolidation also predicted increased relapse risk (P = .004).

Conclusion

Application of a standardized WT1 assay provides independent prognostic information in AML, lending support to incorporation of early assessment of MRD to develop more robust risk scores, to enhance risk stratification, and to identify patients who may benefit from allogeneic transplantation.
Cost Effectiveness and Screening Interval of Lipid Screening in Hodgkin's Lymphoma Survivors
Authors: Chen Aileen B. , Punglia Rinaa S. , Kuntz Karen M. , Mauch Peter M. , Ng Andrea K.
Published: September 2009

Purpose

Survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) who received mediastinal irradiation have an increased risk of coronary heart disease. We evaluated the cost effectiveness of lipid screening in survivors of HL and compared different screening intervals.

Methods

We developed a decision-analytic model to evaluate lipid screening in a hypothetical cohort of 30-year-old survivors of HL who survived 5 years after mediastinal irradiation. We compared the following strategies: no screening, and screening at 1-, 3-, 5-, or 7-year intervals. Screen-positive patients were treated with statins. Markov models were used to calculate life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, and lifetime costs. Baseline probabilities, transition probabilities, and utilities were derived from published studies and US population data. Costs were estimated from Medicare fee schedules and the medical literature. Sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results

Using an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) threshold of $100,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) saved, lipid screening at every interval was cost effective relative to a strategy of no screening. When comparing screening intervals, a 3-year interval was cost effective relative to a 5-year interval, but annual screening, relative to screening every 3 years, had an ICER of more than $100,000/QALY saved. Factors with the most influence on the results included risk of cardiac events/death after HL, efficacy of statins in reducing cardiac events/death, and costs of statins.

Conclusion

Lipid screening in survivors of HL, with statin therapy for screen-positive patients, improves survival and is cost effective. A screening interval of 3 years seems reasonable in the long-term follow-up of survivors of HL.
Patterns of Care in Community-Based Oncology Practices for Anemia Associated With Myelosuppressive Chemotherapy
Authors: Naeim Arash , Friedman Lyssa , Whitlock Kimberly B. , Pasta David J. , Elkin Eric P. , Lubeck Deborah P. , Viswanathan Hema N. , Glaspy John
Published: September 2009

Use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in the treatment of myelosuppresive chemotherapy–induced anemia has been shown to increase hemoglobin levels and reduce the need for transfusions in patients with cancer.
ASCO Task Force on the Cost of Cancer Care
Authors: Schnipper Lowell E.
Published: September 2009

The United States leads the world in cancer care outcomes, but the cost is extremely high—and growing rapidly. New proposals for health reform emphasize one clear and immediate need: to control runaway cost.
Bridge of Signs: Can Sign Language Empower Non-Deaf Children to Triumph over Their Communication Disabilities?
Authors: Toth Anne
Published: September 2009

This pilot research project examined the use of sign language as a communication bridge for non-Deaf children between the ages of 0–6 years who had been diagnosed with, or whose communication difficulties suggested, the presence of such disorders as Autism, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and/or learning disabilities. Teaching staff, speech language therapists, and parents noted that hearing children who used the Bridge of Signs model experienced language development with sign language and, in some cases, went on to use that foundation as a bridge to speaking the oral language of their caretakers. Though deaf children who used the model were more likely to have been exposed to sign language and its use, they still showed improvement in vocabulary acquisition and production. Future development and application of this model will benefit from quantitative and longitudinal study.
The Death of a Virgin: The Cult of Wang Yulan and Nationalism in Jinmen, Taiwan
Authors: Chi Chang-hui
Published: September 2009

This article explores the impact of the global Cold War on local politics through the study of a state deified female ghost Wang Yulan in Jinmen, Taiwan. The liminal status of ghosts in the Chinese celestial order makes room for possible multiple meanings of state-local contestation. Civilians' interpretations of the cult engaged with the official discourse to generate what Bakhtin called "dialogized heteroglossia," revealing the limits of state control over interpretation and ambiguous relations between the state and local society under martial law.
Destiny Effects: Militarization, State Power, and Punitive Containment in Kashmir Valley
Authors: Duschinski Haley
Published: September 2009

This paper examines the juridico-political logic of exception in Kashmir Valley to demonstrate how Kashmiri civilians have been identified as threats to national order and incarcerated, literally and figuratively, as prisoners of the state. Particular attention is paid to how intensive militarization, authorized through legal provision, produces patterns of impunity that exceed and operate beyond the domain of law. The claim is that triangulations of neo-liberalism, nationalism, and militarism in national security states produce a prevailing condition of punitive containment for marked categories of the population, leading to the sedimentation of inequalities through patterns of social suffering and social death.
Reproductive Encounters: Negev Bedouin Women's Lay Encounters at Childbirth in an Israeli Hospital
Authors: Kisch Shifra
Published: September 2009

Though hospital studies have often focused on the vertical relationships between patients and medical staff, the interactions between patients have received much less attention. Whereas interaction with staff members is episodic, patients often spend long hours sharing intimate space and daily routines. Such encounters are particularly important when hospitals cater to social groups embedded in socio-political tensions. This paper examines the encounters between women on two sides of a socio-political divide: for several days during and after birth, Israeli Jewish and Arab-Bedouin women, share intimate proximity. Many Negev Bedouin women seldom interact with women outside their own immediate social circles, let alone Jewish-Israelis. Most do not move freely in public space, particularly in spaces that are mixed by gender and ethnicity. I suggest that hospital maternity wards present an unusual encounter zone embodying various contradictions. While birthing is central to the political, it also inspires the core metaphors of motherhood and shared humanity. Employing such metaphors can be simultaneously empowering and disempowering. Akin to the de-politicizing potential of medicalization processes, it often conceals the body politics. I analyze the significance of Bedouin women's encounters with unfamiliar women both Jewish and Bedouin and argue that these encounters are particularly revealing for what they betray of Bedouin women's negotiation of self and other. Bedouin women establish unmediated knowledge about the Other and refer to these observations to reflect critically on their own society. Additionally, Bedouin women engage in complex deliberations among themselves, sharing experiential knowledge and concerns related to childcare and motherhood, and in the process generate a critical debate that reaches far beyond these specific issues. The hospital is thus not merely a site where health-related values and practices are enacted, but one where they are formulated, negotiated, and challenged vis-à-vis others. I thus argue for the significance of studying what I here call "lay encounters." They betray the larger social context in which they are embedded.
Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur: Afro-Cosmopolitan Rap and Moral Circulation in Accra, Ghana
Authors: Shipley Jesse Weaver
Published: September 2009

Hiplife music in Accra, Ghana combines hip hop sampling, scratching, and rap lyricism with older forms of highlife popular music, traditional storytelling, and formal proverbial oratory. Hiplife and its mass mediated circulation provides a decentralized set of signs, practices, and performances through which Ghanaian publics reconfigure their relationship to dispersed modes of production, consumption and speaking characteristic of Ghana's privatizing state. Symbols of bodily morality are the parallel poetic terrain upon which individual choice is imagined. Signs of bodily fluids and fluidity mark a moral geography of private desires and public indiscretions. The moral legitimacy of a microphone-wielding speaker is produced and contested in lyrics and critiques of politicians, pastors and the mundane struggles of daily life. Youth are produced as self-sovereign subjects who aspire to success through the structures of entrepreneurship. Hiplife reconfigures Pan-African liberation as an entrepreneurial project epitomized by the rap artist;
Being Alone Together: From Solidarity to Solitude in Urban Anthropology
Authors: Coleman Leo
Published: September 2009

The characteristic urban experience of solitude challenges traditional anthropological theories of urban life. This article surveys urban theories that treat solitude primarily as loneliness, anomie, and social disorder. It then challenges these theoretical perspectives with ethnographic cases of gay identities and "being alone together," drawn from fieldwork in New Delhi, India. I develop a heuristic concept of "social solitude" in contrast to "solidarity," and examine the political and philosophical consequences of focusing on solitude as an urban way of life and an expression of sexuality. I discuss representations of solitude in modernist literature and conclude with a reading of Deleuze.
Torophiles and Torophobes: The Politics of Bulls and Bullfights in Contemporary Spain
Authors: Brandes Stanley
Published: September 2009

Although the bullfight as a public spectacle extends throughout southwestern Europe and much of Latin America, it attains greatest political, cultural, and symbolic salience in Spain. Yet within Spain today, the bullfight has come under serious attack, from at least three sources: (1) Catalan nationalists, (2) Spaniards who identify with the new Europe, and (3) increasingly vocal animal rights advocates. This article explores the current debate—cultural, political, and ethical—on bulls and bullfighting within the Spanish state, and explores the sources of recent controversy on this issue.
Beyond Global Warming: Interacting Ecocrises and the Critical Anthropology of Health
Authors: Singer Merrill
Published: September 2009

Human health is at growing risk due to the multiple climatic effects of global warming. More importantly, it is becoming evident that individual ecocrises are not independent phenomenon but are entwined with and contribute to the intensification of other environmental predicaments. In light of a range of imagined futures that share a narrative about global warming that posits the existence of global "winners and losers" (regions that will benefit from and those that will suffer from global warming), this paper examines two specific cases—Midwestern flooding during the summer of 2008 and the accelerating degradation of the Sacramento Delta. These examples, expressions of convergent ecocrises, here termed pluralea interactions, suggest that going beyond global warming reveals the folly of "winner and loser" thinking. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the health impacts of intersecting ecocrises for directions in medical anthropology.
Cyril of Alexandria and Gregory Nazianzen: Tradition and Complexity in Patristic Christology
Authors: Beeley Christopher A.
Published: September 2009

This article demonstrates Gregory Nazianzen's profound yet complicated influence on the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria. Although Athanasius is usually considered to be the main patristic source for Cyril's work, Cyril in fact derived the central principles of his unitive Christology and exegesis primarily from Gregory. Moreover, after the Formula of Reunion in 433 Cyril introduced certain elements from Athanasius and the Antiochenes that conflicted with the basic Gregorian framework. While Cyril remained a committed Gregorian in his late On the Unity of Christ , the intervening combination produced several tensions that threatened to compromise his legacy and posed major difficulties for later theologians. This study of Cyril's use of Gregory Nazianzen highlights the complex character of Cyril's Christology, resolves the problem of his alleged Apollinarianism, and suggests a major reevaluation of the development of post-Chalcedonian Christology.
Standing in the Breach: The Significance and Function of the Saints in the Letters of Barsanuphius and John of Gaza
Authors: Torrance Alexis
Published: September 2009

In this article I attempt to approach the concept of the saint in late antiquity from a theological rather than a socio-historical perspective. Using the abundant correspondence of Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, I look at how they conceived of the saints, the unmistakable importance they attached to their prayers and intercessions, and how the saints fit into Barsanuphius and John's broader Christian framework. I emphasize that the importance of the ἅγιοι is not constrained to their locality, and that their role for the two Gazan ascetics is not at all bound up with projects of self-promotion.
Ad Quirinum Book Three and Cyprian's Catechumenate
Authors: Alexis-Baker Andy
Published: September 2009

Although widely viewed as an unorganized catechetical document, Cyprian's Ad Quirinum Book Three has not been systematically analyzed for what it might reveal about the third-century North African catechumenate. By mapping discernible patterns in the headings and accompanying Scriptures, I will demonstrate that large sections of Book Three have a logical order, which helped catechists and catechumens memorize and practice the Scriptures. The first twenty-three precepts trained catechumens to practice economic sharing and to nonviolently respond to expected mistreatment. Later sections focus on disciplina , biblical book studies, and eschatological and baptismal concerns.
The Place of the Hypotyposeis in the Clementine Corpus: An Apology for "The Other Clement of Alexandria"
Authors: Bucur Bogdan G.
Published: September 2009

The received scholarly view on Clement of Alexandria's Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae, Adumbrationes , and Hypotyposeis dismisses these writings as inferior in style, dubious in content, and certainly marginal in importance for Clementine studies. This article follows the path suggested by Christian von Bunsen, Theodor von Zahn, André Méhat, and Pierre Nautin, and argues that the Excerpta, Eclogae , and Adumbrationes represent, on the contrary, the pinnacle of Clement's exposition of doctrine. Consequently, further research should pay special attention to the theological speculations contained in these writings, as they are likely to lead to significant insights into Clement's theology.
An Example of How to Die Nobly For Religion: The Influence of 4 Maccabees on Origen's Exhortatio ad Martyrium
Authors: deSilva David A.
Published: September 2009

In the course of his Exhortatio ad Martyrium , Origen retells the famous story of the martyrdoms of Eleazar, seven brothers, and the mother of the seven. While it is clear that he drew upon the version in 2 Maccabees from his verbatim recitations of the same, close study of his vocabulary, his supplements to the story, his choice of imagery, and his deployment of particular argumentative topics reveals the extent to which he drew upon 4 Maccabees, a text that would eventually be included in the codices of the Septuagint, as well. While the evidence is not sufficient to suggest that Origen included 4 Maccabees among the Scriptures, it is sufficient to demonstrate that he regarded it as a valuable resource for encouraging two Christian deacons to find the resolution to die for their religion, and to find such a death honorable and purposeful.
Gregory the Great and Eustratius of Constantinople: The Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers as an Apology for the Cult of Saints
Authors: Dal Santo Matthew
Published: September 2009

This paper argues that Gregory the Great's Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers (ca. 593) represent an apology for the cult of the saints comparable to Eustratius of Constantinople's On the State of Souls after Death (ca. 582). Gregory and Eustratius were contemporaries during Gregory's stay in the imperial capital as papal apocrisarius (ca. 579-86). Both writers defended the actuality of the saints' miracles against sixth-century doubters who possibly deemed the cult of the saints idolatrous. Like Eustratius, Gregory proposed a cooperation of energies between God and the holy man which allowed miracles to be conceived as both a divine and human event that legitimated the saints' veneration. The eschatology which both writers developed to defend the saints' role as mediators was also controversial, particularly their justification of the practice of offering prayers and Masses for the dead.
Living on the Frontlines: Black Teenagers on the Move to Freedom
Authors: Titus Jill Ogline
Published: September 2009

This article analyzes a set of fifty-five interviews conducted with black teenagers during the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia: site of the nation's most determined attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education through abandoning public education altogether. Caught up in currents larger than themselves, the teenagers' thoughts on subjects such as the term "black," the effectiveness of nonviolence, and the actions and motivations of white people offer a rare window into the minds of youth defining their own personhood against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world. Historians know relatively little about civil rights figures like the Prince Edward children, who were simultaneously protesters and victims. Many were thoroughly politicized by their experience, becoming either active resistors or thoughtful commentators on American race relations, while others remained unwitting participants in Prince Edward's civil rights drama.
The State as Surrogate Parent: Legislating Nonmarital Sex in Colonial India, 1911–1929
Authors: Tambe Ashwini
Published: September 2009

This essay reviews the raising of the age of consent for nonmarital sexual relations in early twentieth century India. Historians have exhaustively studied how child marriage came to be restricted, but have largely overlooked a parallel set of legal efforts to raise the age of consent for sex outside marriage. Reformists in the 1910s and 1920s steadily increased the minimum age specifying when girls could give their consent to sex with “strangers”—those who were not their husbands. Although these measures drew on international antitrafficking discourses, their major focus lay in entrenching parental control over daughters’ sexual practices. Indeed I argue that the 1929 law restricting child marriage, which effectively undermined parental control, was facilitated by the prior and concurrent measures that fixed a higher age of consent for nonmarital sex. A key contribution of my essay is its critical analysis of how apparently protective measures undermined girls’ sexual agency. I also trace how reformists seeking to raise the age of consent positioned themselves as actors on a world stage. In situating reforms on the age of consent in India within an international circuit of influence, my analysis reaches beyond the dyad of British-Indian relations that frames many feminist histories of colonial India.
Modernization of Welfare or Further Deprivation? State Provisions for Foundlings in the Late Ottoman Empire
Authors: Maksudyan Nazan
Published: September 2009

Though this history has so far received little scholarly attention, child abandonment was practiced in late Ottoman society, and its frequency was related to such factors as illegitimacy, poverty, migration, and war. Relying on Ottoman archival sources, together with periodicals and contemporary literature, this paper discerns major patterns of child abandonment in the late Ottoman Empire and discusses the history of the institutionalization and modernization of state provisions for abandoned children from a critical perspective, taking into account the experiences of infants, abandoning mothers, and wet-nurses. Traditionally stipends were assigned directly to the foundlings from central or local resources as part of the religiously determined policy to care for the needy. In an effort to organize and centralize relief, the stipends were gradually transferred to the wet-nurses, who acted as intermediary agents between the foundlings and the state. With the opening of the Dâr’ül-aceze foundling unit, the abandoned babies were taken care of by institutional, bureaucratized mechanisms in which police departments, birth registry offices, and municipalities played a part. Although these changes have been evaluated and discursively presented as the expansion of welfare policies and the modernization of the Ottoman state, from the perspective of the foundlings, the picture exposes increased deprivation, heightened mortality rates, and further suffering.
This I Beg my Aunt may not Know: Young Letter-Writers in Eighteenth-Century England, Peer Correspondence in a Hierarchical World
Authors: Harris Amy
Published: September 2009

Correspondence between youthful peers – particularly siblings – in eighteenth-century England reveals young people learning, experimenting, and even resisting the epistolary conventions espoused in letter-writing manuals. The eighteenth century saw a flourishing of letters and letter-writing manuals as sites for the teaching and learning of social protocol. Instead of seeing young people only as consumers of adult social mores, the letters allow a view of young people teaching one another as they played with standard correspondence practices. Letter-writing manuals imagined a hierarchical world where everyone knew their social, gender, and age niche, but young letter-writers pushed against the conventions as they simultaneously learned the parameters of polite society. The article uses correspondence from three middling and gentry families: the Jacksons of Gloucestershire, the Sharps of Northumberland and Durham, and the Edwards of Surrey. These letters, covering the middle decades of the eighteenth century, show young people confronting the competing eighteenth-century notions of equality and hierarchy and negotiating peer relations within a culture and society that prized status and rank.
Rite de Passage ? The Children’s Crusade and Medieval Childhood
Authors: Dickson Gary
Published: September 2009

One of the most extraordinary and memorable episodes of the crusading era, the Children’s Crusade (1212) was medieval Europe’s first youth movement. Young people ( pueri ), shepherds and peasants primarily, took part in a futile venture to regain the Holy Land and the True Cross. Contrary to the views of a revisionist historian, youths did indeed compose the core group of this popular crusade revival, although at a later stage adults—men, women, young mothers, the elderly—joined it as well. This paper argues that one possible way of interpreting the Children’s Crusade is according to the schema laid down in the anthropological classic Les rites de passage (1908) by the French ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep. The Children’s Crusade exemplifies the problem of coming of age in the Middle Ages, especially for peasant youths, who lacked access to the rituals of knighthood available to the chivalric aristocracy.
Where Am I? Refugee Youth Living in the United States
Authors: Mosselson Jacqueline R.
Published: September 2009

Based on a qualitative study of fifteen female refugees from Bosnia, this article explores the contribution of critical theories to refugee identity development in the context of the educational setting. The article examines both the theoretical and the practical discussions of ethnic identity development among refugees attending secondary schools in New York. By applying research from the ‘cultural turn’ to the study of refugee education and adaptation, the article challenges the validity of current educational and psychological theories in refugee adaptation, and, by extension, opens up debates around long-held beliefs about refugee ‘adaptation’ to the United States. By examining the role of schools in adaptation, this article shows how the debates objectify the individual, and how the needs of refugee populations can be better met by their teachers and schools even when the students are academically successful. Refugees have experienced life as tenuous and fragile, and they understand the meaning of transience. Hence, they tend to strive to ensure that they have basic, transferable skills and knowledge, which they acquire through education. With a critical theoretical lens, it becomes clear that by incorporating the experiences of students into the classroom, educators not only work to overcome the hidden curriculum that confines and encloses refugees as ‘other,’ but also enrich the classroom for both the refugee students and their classmates.
"I only wish I had a home on this globe": Transnational Biography and Dr. Mary Eddy
Authors: Fleischmann Ellen
Published: September 2009

In 1893, Dr. Mary Eddy, an American Protestant missionary with the Presbyterian-run Syria Mission (based in what is present-day Lebanon), became the first woman to obtain a license to practice medicine in the Ottoman Empire. The daughter of missionaries and brought up in Syria, Dr. Eddy spent much of her adult life roaming the countryside of Greater Syria, alternately curing poor villagers' ills and praying for their souls. This article examines the life of Dr. Mary Eddy, exploring questions about the tensions and intersections between history, biography, and transnationalism that confront the historian when writing about the life of a transnational individual.
The Disappearing of Hannah Kudjoe: Nationalism, Feminism, and the Tyrannies of History
Authors: Allman Jean
Published: September 2009

Hannah Kudjoe was Ghana's leading woman nationalist in the struggle for independence from British colonial rule in the 1940s and 1950s. As Ghana celebrated a half century of independence in 2007 and the heroes of that struggle were publicly honored by street naming ceremonies, the unveiling of statues, and historical reenactments, Hannah Kudjoe's name was nowhere to be found. Who was Hannah Kudjoe and how could such a high-profile, formidable, and well-connected nationalist leader be forgotten so quickly? Employing an agnotological approach to women's history that interrogates the construction of ignorance and sanctioned forgetting, this article traces the processes by which Hannah Kudjoe "got disappeared," and the ways in which feminist and nationalist histories have conspired in her disappearing.
"Take off that streetwalker's dress": Concha Michel and the Cultural Politics of Gender in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Authors: Olcott Jocelyn
Published: September 2009

Remembered as the constant companion of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the folksinger Concha Michel achieved notoriety for providing the soundtrack of Mexico's cultural Left. However, she also authored many works of poetry and prose that critiqued liberal, Marxist, and Catholic universalisms—all while maintaining a tireless pace as a teacher and activist. This article offers a methodological exploration of how Michel used personal anecdotes to fashion a universal cosmology and political philosophy grounded in gender complementarity and indigenous authenticity.
Trauma and Testimony in Black Women's Civil Rights Memoirs: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, Warriors Don't Cry, and From the Mississippi Delta
Authors: Berg Allison
Published: September 2009

This article focuses on three memoirs of the civil rights movement published roughly thirty years after the events described. Unlike feminist biography, on the one hand, and oral history, on the other hand, self-initiated accounts allow us to examine the range of narrative strategies chosen by black, female participant-witnesses to describe traumatic aspects of a movement that exposed them to varying degrees of physical, psychological, and sexual violence. I argue that memoirs by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Melba Pattillo Beals, and Endesha Ida Mae Holland are significant not only because they situate familiar movement milestones within the intimate context of "ordinary" women's lives, but also because they challenge the disembodied and triumphal story of the civil rights movement that has dominated American popular memory. As rich repositories of source material and as histories in their own right, these memoirs and others like them deserve considerably more scholarly attention.
Empirical Stratification Theory: Ibn Khaldun (1377) to Today
Authors: Haller Archibald O.
Published: September 2009

The current dispersion of stratification research into several seemingly unrelated topics such as social mobility and various kinds of inequality (racial, ethnic, gender, income, etc.) is unfortunate and unnecessary. It is unfortunate because a good theory can improve understanding of each of these and goes on to open new avenues for the development of theory itself. It is unnecessary because a general theory of stratification in fact exists, though this is not immediately obvious because its expressions have evolved with the passage of time, and because its basic unity is obscured by terminological differences among its contributors. The theory's original form was written in 1377 by Ibn Khaldun as the basis of his theory of human organization (sociology), and was buttressed by his profound knowledge of pre-14 th Century societies. His form of it is a conceptually simple framework consisting of a two-class hierarchy of absolute power, together with an analysis of the rise, dissolution, and replacement of power holding groups. Beginning around a century ago this framework was augmented and elaborated both in terms of a more refined set of dimensions of types of power and of modern statistical concepts by which to describe the structural variations of power in societal stratification systems in any society. The paper reviews the evolution of the theory and brings it up to date. Measurement methods as well the theory's implications are discussed.
Performing Race on the Original-Practices Stage: A Call to Action
Authors: Steigerwalt Jenna
Published: September 2009

This article reflects upon the presence of (and dilemmas caused by) race in the casting practices of major original practice Shakespeare companies: namely, Shakespeare's Globe in London, the Blackfriars Playhouse at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA, and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Given the immense draw of these companies to audiences old and new, they inhabit, the essay suggests, a privileged position in being able to create true dialogues about race both inside and outside of the playhouses. An examination of the casting choices made in the ASC's 2007 season, however, leads the article to illustrate the precarious nature of 'colorblind casting,' which in the season in question unintentionally created patterns of meaning even in plays (such as The Winter's Tale ) where no statement about race was being made by the director or performers. In drawing attention to the ways in which race may be unintentionally brought to the forefront of a production as a result of the racial make-up of its cast, the study calls upon original-practices companies to recognize the casual (and sometimes overt) racism of Shakespeare's texts and to wish to do something about it. Ultimately, it seeks to enforce the idea that criticism, honest conversations, and active work with race in performance by these companies can help to overcome this casual and pervasive racism: both of Shakespeare's plays and of the world in which we live today.
Casting for Racial Harmony: Strategies of Redemption in Caleen Sinnette Jennings’s Double Play
Authors: Erickson Peter
Published: September 2009

This article engages debates surrounding colour-bind and race-transcendent casting as they are articulated in Caleen Sinette Jennings's intertwined two-play sequence  Playing Juliet/Casting Othello . Staged in 1998, the sequence activates three distinct meanings of the word 'casting'. The first of these is the metadramatic casting of characters in  Playing Juliet/Casting Othello's play-within-the-play, which engages the recent developments in the history of racially-inflected Shakespearean casting practices: having black actors play black characters (a shift in racial realignment signified by Paul Robeson's performances as Othello in the first half of the twentieth century) and colour-blind casting of black actors in conventionally 'white' Shakespearean roles. The second meaning concerns the racially variant romantic relationships explored by the play's characters as themselves, in which they essentially 'audition' for prospective partners: the outcome of which exerts a shaping force in the play's resolution. The third meaning of 'casting' under consideration involves the concept of 'casting about' in the sense of the search for racial harmony in the casting of Shakespearean roles, and how these choices shape meanings. Through a consideration of these three angles, the article explores Jennings's treatment of the gendered asymmetry in the racially-inflected casting choices presented in her two plays, in which the two casting practices of colour-blind casting and racial realignment are pitted against each other. The final result is that the black man who is cast as Othello is uncritically celebrated at the expense of the black woman who plays the problematic role of Juliet.
Two Actors on Shakespeare, Race, and Performance: A Conversation between Harry J. Lennix and Laurence Fishburne
Authors: Thompson Ayanna
Published: September 2009

This article offers an edited transcript of a conversation which took place in July 2008 between Harry J. Lennix - Aaron the Moor in Julie Taymor's Titus (2008) - and Laurence Fishburne, who played Othello in Oliver Parker's 1995 film. Over the course of the conversation, the two actors, who have discussed and debated Shakespeare, race, and performance before, cover many of the topics most frequently interrogated by scholars: the 'residual' effects of Shakespeare's language on one's world view; the difference between an 'authentic' portrayal of a black man and a 'facsimile' of one; the difficulties and ethical implications of playing Othello with pride; the back stories black actors must invent to play Shakespearean roles. The conversation also offers an insight into the history of, relationships among, and advice passed between the many black actors who have played Othello, from Paul Robeson to Chiwetel Ejiofor. Combining personal experiences with an engagement with current scholarly debates, the transcript offers a wealth of information for performance scholars and theorists, as well as introducing new ideas and conversations that warrant further examination and analysis.
Strange Episodes: Race in Stage History
Authors: Akhimie Patricia
Published: September 2009

This article examines the textual history of the first recorded performance of Hamlet staged aboard a ship anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone in 1607 and described in the surviving diary of Admiral William Keeling. An episode in Shakespearean stage history that remains largely unsubstantiated, the performance's longevity has relied upon the editors of the extant records who have repeatedly become engaged in the cross-racial casting of this ephemeral production. The article builds upon the work of Antonia Nakano Glenn in suggesting that both actors and audiences participate in cross-racial casting through establishing expectations of 'type' and judging a performance by its fulfilment of those expectations, racially coding the vocabulary of stage history. In doing so, it attempts to identify an ethics of critical reporting positing textual scholars and editors as not just the chroniclers but also the agents of ideological change, whose approaches to textual transmission and description may go beyond interpretation, foreclosing meaning by suggesting the social uses of past performances as fixed. Combining readings of scholars who have alternately buried and revived the account of the 1607 performance, a recontextualization of the purported "strangeness" of the event supported by a body of travel writing that features performance-as-diplomacy, and an evaluation of the role of stage history in the production of race as static and monolithic, the article seeks to suggest that the editorial and interpretive work that produces stage history may also usurp the role of actors and audiences in authorizing representations of race.
Statistics, Maps, and Legibility: Negotiating Nationalism in Post-Revolutionary Mexico
Authors: Ervin Michael A.
Published: September 2009

“These days, we want to know everything and forget nothing. Life needs to confess to itself and take a test of conscience. Let's grab life by the neck so that it makes that confession in the elegantly eloquent form of numbers, tables, formulas, and diagrams. This is statistics: the confession that we make life make. One must never forget what Goethe said: my works are merely part of a great confession. We make of statistics the schematic, numerical confession of life. Life should confess to itself.”