49 research outputs found
Diesel exhaust particles are mutagenic in FE1-MutaMouse lung epithelial cells
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 2008-May-10The particulate phase of diesel engine exhaust is likely carcinogenic. However, the mechanisms of diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) induced mutagenicity/carcinogenicity are still largely unknown. We determined the mutant frequency following eight repeated 72 h incubations with 37.5 or 75 microg/ml DEP (NIST SRM 1650) in the FE1-MutaMouse lung epithelial cell line. We measured DEP-induced acellular and intracellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and compared with ROS production induced by carbon black, which we have previously shown is mutagenic in this cell line [N.R. Jacobsen, A.T. Saber, P. White, P. Moller, G. Pojana, U. Vogel, S. Loft, J. Gingerich, L. Soper, G.R. Douglas, H. Wallin. Increased mutant frequency by carbon black, but not quartz, in the lacZ and cII transgenes of mutamouse lung epithelial cells, Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 48(6) (2007) 451-461]. The mutant frequency was marginally elevated in cells treated with 37.5 microg/ml DEP (1.29-fold [95% CI: 0.96-1.60], p=0.08) and significantly increased in cells treated with 75 microg/ml DEP (1.55-fold [95% CI: 1.23-1.87], p < 0.001). ROS production from DEP was low both within cells and in acellular systems when compared to carbon black. These results show that DEP are mutagenic in a mammalian cell line in vitro and that additional pathways besides ROS production, such as those involving the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, likely are involved in the mutagenesis
‘Putting Life in Years’ (PLINY) telephone friendship groups research study: pilot randomised controlled trial
No full textBackground - Loneliness in older people is associated with poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We undertook a parallel-group randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of telephone befriending for the maintenance of HRQoL in older people. An internal pilot tested the feasibility of the trial and intervention.
Methods - Participants aged >74 years, with good cognitive function, living independently in one UK city were recruited through general practices and other sources, then randomised to: (1) 6 weeks of short one to one telephone calls, followed by 12 weeks of group telephone calls with up to six participants, led by a trained volunteer facilitator; or (2) a control group. The main trial required the recruitment of 248 participants in a 1-year accrual window, of whom 124 were to receive telephone befriending. The pilot specified three success criteria which had to be met in order to progress the main trial to completion: recruitment of 68 participants in 95 days; retention of 80% participants at 6 months; successful delivery of telephone befriending by local franchise of national charity. The primary clinical outcome was the Short Form (36) Health Instrument (SF-36) Mental Health (MH) dimension score collected by telephone 6 months following randomisation.
Results - We informed 9,579 older people about the study. Seventy consenting participants were randomised to the pilot in 95 days, with 56 (80%) providing valid primary outcome data (26 intervention, 30 control). Twenty-four participants randomly allocated to the research arm actually received telephone befriending due to poor recruitment and retention of volunteer facilitators. The trial was closed early as a result. The mean 6-month SF-36 MH scores were 78 (SD 18) and 71 (SD 21) for the intervention and control groups, respectively (mean difference, 7; 95% CI, -3 to 16).
Conclusions - Recruitment and retention of participants to a definitive trial with a recruitment window of 1 year is feasible. For the voluntary sector to recruit sufficient volunteers to match demand for telephone befriending created by trial recruitment would require the study to be run in more than one major population centre, and/or involve dedicated management of volunteers
Studies on immunity in the male genital tract
No full textThe male genital tract is a major site of HIV acquisition and transmission. It is an obvious site for inducing immune responses to candidate HIV vaccines, to prevent infection or halt the spread of the virus. There are relatively few published studies characterising T cells in the male genital tract. A challenge that hampers studies at this mucosal surface is obtaining samples with sufficient immune cells. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to establish an optimised method to isolate immune cells from the male genital tract. Cellular activation and inflammation in the genital tract have important implications for both transmission and acquisition of HIV, since they provide target cells for viral replication. Thus, the second and third aim of this study was to investigate mucosal T cell activation and inflammatory cytokine profiles in semen in HIV?infected and uninfected men, and compare the immune milieu of the genital tract with the systemic compartment
Author Correction: A consensus protocol for functional connectivity analysis in the rat brain
No full textAuthor Correction: A consensus protocol for functional connectivity analysis in the rat brai
Derrida and postmodernity: At the end(s) of history
No full textThis thesis erects and defends the proposition that Jacques Derrida's readings of 'metaphysics in deconstruction' and his raising to theoretical consciousness of the 'differential matrix', have the capacity to inaugurate a 'brave new world' in this postmodern 'age of the aporia'. Beginning with an examination of Derrida's readings of Husserl and Saussure, it is argued that the radical historicity uncovered here qua an originary synthesis of language, time and the other, opens the possibility for greatly more democratising and emancipating self-creations and human solidarities to be thought. In terms of 'self-creations', and borrowing from the work of Elizabeth Deeds Errnarth, Chapter Two follows Derrida as modernity's sovereign subject and its 'History' are dis-placed by an absolutely affirmative postmodern subjectivity whose axiom might be 'I inherit, therefore, I am ... yes, yes ... ' Construed through his deconstructive reading of Kant, Derrida shows the way in which this postmodern subjectivity without alibi, makes of us all (like it or not, know it or not) resistance fighters, so many singularities existing in constant tension with all normalising/totalising tendencies (social, economic, techno-scientific, political, legal etc ... ) which profess to know the secret. Turning to co-extensive 'human solidarities', Chapter Three subsequently demonstrates the way in which Derrida's call for a 'New International', orientated through a 'new figure of Europe', enables us to imagine new polysemic communities (local, national, international) founded on the 'aporia of the demos', a 'foundation' that construes its hyper-relativity as a positive (ethico-political) condition of decision in terms of a radical responsibility (on an individual and communal level) for the moral/aesthetic decisions we make. It is thus that I will argue that Derrida's vision for a 'new world order' is born out of an aporetic condition which is both a risk and a chance of both the best - and the worst - happening; as someone who shares Derrida's desire for a fairer, freer, more peaceful world, one respectful of difference and otherness, I believe this to be a 'poker like gamble' well worth taking. Chapter Four offers a comparative analysis between the work of Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard, two theorists counter-signing differently many of the 'same' discourses/ traditions/cultures/languages, etc ... to which they are both heirs. The chapter examines their respective 'quasi-philosophies of the limit', together with their differing conceptions of the issues surrounding globalisation and universalisation, as well as Baudrillard' s elevation of America (as opposed to Europe) as the exemplary site of resistance against the dangers of totalisation in 'postmodem' societies. The central argument here, in line with my previous remarks, is that Derrida's thought arguably remains 'the best' way to navigate the postmodem condition and the challenges it produces. The originality of this thesis lies in two main areas, the first having to do with my presentation and conception of Derrida's oeuvre and the second having to do with the comparisons made in this study between Derrida and Ermarth and Derrida and Baudrillard. In terms of the former, I offer what I consider to be a unique, sustained, in-depth analysis of the 'development' (on a theoretical and practical level) of the thematics of 'radical historicity' and of 'post-historical man' - effectively the development of Derrida's quasi-philosophy of history- from his earliest works so that they can be seen to inform his later intervention(s) in what are conventionally understood as ethical and political matters; transforming this understanding in the process and, after the end of history's ends (upper case, lower case and the totalising 'history of meaning' per se), quite literally and radically changing the way we see what we call 'the world'. For while in the conventional literature Derrida's politics come late, I argue here that his indeed later political work is but an emphasis of constant political thematics acting as a leitmotif from beginning to end. Turning to the latter, in terms of the comparisons I make - first between Derrida and Ermarth in Chapter Two and more especially between Derrida and Baudrillard in Chapter Four - the claim to originality lies in the fact that there is no comparison of any note or depth in the literature between these thinkers; nothing that compares Derrida's 'affirmative postmodem subjectivity' and its 'inheritance' with Ermarth's 'rhythmic time' and 'muIti-level consciousness', and nothing comparing Derrida's corpus - specifically his optimistic emancipating and democratizing hopes for the future - with Baudrillard's more pessimistic conceptualization of 'simulation society' and the loss of our European universal values under the hegemonic, globalising movement of the 'American model'. The aim of these two comparisons is to support my claim that Derrida's historico-political position is the 'best' way of essaying the quasi-ground of an in(different) politics in such a way that it keeps the future open to what he calls a 'better world' to come, a world without ends
The Highlander
No full textThis thesis explores James Macpherson’s The Highlander (1758) in relation to originality, Scottish identity and historiography. It also situates the Ossianic Collections in the context of Macpherson’s earlier poetical and later historical works. There are three parts to it: a biographical sketch of Macpherson’s early life, the annotated edition of The Highlander, and discursive commentary chapters. By examining The Highlander in detail this thesis questions the emphasis of other Macpherson criticism on the Ossianic Collections, and allows us to see him as a writer who is historically minded, very aware of sources, well versed in established forms of poetry and thoroughly, and positively, British. The Highlander stands out among the corpus of his works not because it can give us insights into the Ossianic Collections, which is its usual function in Macpherson criticism, but because it can help us understand what it is that connects Macpherson’s earlier and later works with the Ossianic Collections: history, Britishness, tradition.
Macpherson’s poetical works are united by a desire to translate Scotland’s factual past into sentimental British poetry. In the Ossianic Collections he does so without particular faithfulness to his sources, but in The Highlander he converts historical sources directly into neo-classic verse. This is where Macpherson’s originality lies: his ability to adapt history. In different styles and genres, and based on different sources, Macpherson’s works are early examples of Scotland’s great literary achievement: historical fiction. Instead of accusing him of forgery or trying to trace his knowledge of Gaelic ballads, this thesis presents Macpherson as a genuine historian who happened to write in a variety of genres
Genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, and reactive oxygen species induced by single-walled carbon nanotubes and C(60) fullerenes in the FE1-Mutatrade markMouse lung epithelial cells
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 2008-JulViability, cell cycle effects, genotoxicity, reactive oxygen species production, and mutagenicity of C(60) fullerenes (C(60)) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) were assessed in the FE1-Mutatrade markMouse lung epithelial cell line. None of these particles induced cell death within 24 hr at doses between 0 and 200 microg/ml or during long-term subculture exposure (576 hr) at 100 microg/ml, as determined by two different assays. However, cell proliferation was slower with SWCNT exposure and a larger fraction of the cells were in the G1 phase. Exposure to carbon black resulted in the greatest reactive oxygen species generation followed by SWCNT and C(60) in both cellular and cell-free particle suspensions. C(60) and SWCNT did not increase the level of strand breaks, but significantly increased the level of FPG sensitive sites/oxidized purines (22 and 56%, respectively) determined by the comet assay. The mutant frequency in the cII gene was unaffected by 576 hr of exposure to either 100 microg/ml C(60) or SWCNT when compared with control incubations, whereas we have previously reported that carbon black and diesel exhaust particles induce mutations using an identical exposure scenario. These results indicate that SWCNT and C(60) are less genotoxic in vitro than carbon black and diesel exhaust particles
American hegemony comes home: The Chilean laboratory and the neoliberalization of the United States
No full textInternational theorists have long argued over the longevity of American hegemony and whether or not the American-centered international order is currently in crisis. What remains largely missing in many of the analyses of the history and present of American hegemony is an examination of how maintaining global hegemony affects or has affected domestic American political and economic institutions. Looking back at the early 1970s, I examine the nexus between the crisis of American global hegemony in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the project of neoliberalization in Chile and how the Chilean socioeconomic laboratory set an important precedent for the subsequent adoption of neoliberal reforms in the United States under the Reagan Administration. The reassertion of American hegemony was coextensive with a neoliberal project that was initially experimented with in Chile under the authoritarian rule of Augusto Pinochet. © The Author(s) 2013.ARRIGHI, LONG 20 CENTURY MONE, P322; ARRIGHI G, 2010, LONG 20 CENTURY MONE, P331; ARRIGHI G, 2003, NEW LEFT REV, V20, P41; ARRIGHI G, 2008, A SMITH BEIJING LINE, P108; BLEIBERG RM, 1980, BARRONS NATL BUSINES, P7; Blyth Mark, 2002, GREAT TRANSFORMATION; Bourdieu P, 2001, RADICAL PHILOS, P2; BRENNER R, 2003, BOOM BUBBLE US WORLD, P14; BRENNER R, 2006, EC GLOBAL TURBULENCE, P126; Brown W., 2003, THEORY EVENT, V7; Bull Hedley, 1977, ANARCHICAL SOC STUDY; BUZAN B, 2001, REV INT STUD, V27, P482; Colby Jason M., 2011, BUSINESS EMPIRE UNIT; CONRAD S, 2012, GERMAN COLONIALISM S, P162; CONSTABLE P, 1993, NATION ENEMIES CHILE, P160; Cooley Alexander, 2005, LOGICS HIERARCHY ORG; CORVALAN L, 2003, GOBIERNO SALVADOR AL, P124; DEZALAY Y, 2002, INT PALACE WARS LAWY, P82; FARRANT A, 2012, AM J EC SOC, V71; FISCHER K, 2009, ROAD MONT PELERIN MA, P327; Foucault M, 2008, MICHEL FOUCAULT-LECT, P1, DOI 10.1057-9780230594180; FRIEDMAN JR, 2007, ANTHROPOL THEOR, V7, P428; Friedman M., 2002, CAPITALISM FREEDOM; GALEANO E, 1998, MIRACLE UNIVERSE SET, P147; GERWARTH R, 2009, CENT EUR HIST, V42, P287; HARVEY D, 2005, BRIEF HIST NEOLIBERA, P57; HARVEY D, 2005, NEW IMPERIALISM, P63; Harvey D., 2005, BRIEF HIST NEOLIBERA; HARVEY D, 2006, SPACES GLOBAL CAPITA, P47; HASLAM J, 2005, NIXON ADM DEATH ALLE, P55; Headrick Daniel, 1981, TOOLS EMPIRE TECHNOL; Hobson J. M., 2002, HIST SOCIOLOGY INT R; Hobson John M., 2004, E ORIGINS W CIVILISA; Hobson John M., 2012, EUR CONC WORLD POL; HUNTINGTON SP, 1976, CRISIS DEMOCRACY GOV, P64; Ikenberry GJ, 2011, PRINC STUD INT HIST, P1; Inayatullah N., 2004, INT RELATIONS PROBLE; KAYAOGLU T, 2010, INT STUDIES REV, V12, P194; Klein N., 2007, SHOCK DOCTRINE; Krippner Greta, 2011, CAPITALIZING CRISIS; Lake David A., 2009, HIERARCHY INT RELATI; LAPP M, 1995, SOCIAL SCI HIST, V19; LIPTON D, 1990, BROOKINGS PAPERS EC, P99; MACLEOD R, 1993, J WORLD HIST, V4; OAKS JB, 1979, NY TIMES, pA33; ONUF N, 1989, INT STUDIES Q, V33; Osiander Andreas, 2007, STATE SYSTEMIC POLIT; PECK J, 2010, CONSTRUCTIONS NEOLIB, P20; Prasad Monica, 2006, POLITICS FREE MARKET; ROUSTANG F, 2000, CHILE PINOCHET RECOV; Stoler A. L., 1995, RACE ED DESIRE FOUCA; Stoler A. L., 1997, TENSIONS EMPIRE COLO; SZNAJDER M, 1999, LIBERALISM ITS PRACT, P43; THATCHER M, 2008, BROADVIEW ANTHOLO B, V6, P797; Tilley Helen, 2011, AFRICA LIVING LAB EM; TOWNS AE, 2010, WOMEN STATES NORMS H, pCH1; VALDES JG, 1995, PINOCHETS EC CHICAGO, P2; Walker RBJ, 1993, INSIDE OUTSIDE INT R; Waltz Kenneth N., 1979, THEORY INT POLITICS; WARSH D, 1997, BOSTON GLOBE; Watson Adam, 2009, EVOLUTION INT SOC CO; WENDT A, 1995, INT ORG, V49; 2012, COREY ROBIN 07171
Author Correction: A consensus protocol for functional connectivity analysis in the rat brain (Nature Neuroscience, (2023), 26, 4, (673-681), 10.1038/s41593-023-01286-8)
No full textIn the version of this article initially published, Clément M. Garin was presented in the author list without a middle initial. The name has been amended in the HTML and PDF versions of the article
The Christian ministry : case studies of preachers of the Churches of Christ in Bicol, Philippines
No full textThis thesis examines the challenges faced by the ministers of religion in Churches of Christ (Restoration Movement) in Bicol, Philippines. The goal is to do theology from below, not from above, as pastoral ministry must come from the experience of those who practice it, not from textbooks. The pastoral perspectives of the dilemmas that the ministers raise are heard, observed, documented, and then reflected upon. To do this, case studies of four preachers are used and the mga problema that they present are explored with them.
As a result, first, I introduce some of those challenges which are perplexing on the ground level and which appear to be under-researched in serious theological circles, especially in an Asian context. Second, I hope that these case studies can be used to stimulate reflection in ministerial and spiritual formation. Third, I document some of the theology and methodology of the Churches of Christ, particularly as practiced in the Philippines.
Chapter 1 explores the dichotomy between the perceived satisfaction in the pastoral ministry with the crisis of role and identity. In particular, issues such as forced exits and stress are presented while baptism and preaching are scrutinized. Chapter 2 centres on the conundrums experienced in planting a new church and being the lone planter. Chapter 3 examines three challenges–the task of ministering in a home congregation, the issue of accreditation in ministerial training, and how the minister can be a success and grow the church. Never far from the thoughts and actions of any of the Bicolano ministers is the problema of poverty, so Chapter 4 considers some of the Filipino, personal, and spiritual complexities of poverty, delineates a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration in any effort to overcome this malady and concludes with a particular reference to ministry
