136 research outputs found
Women and Abolitionism: Hannah More's and Ann Yearsley's Poetry of Freedom
No full textThis article analyses Hannah More's and Ann Yearsley's antislavery poems enphaising the ways in which both poets challenged the authority and integrity of parliement, and adumbrated a demystification of the money nexus that underpinned slavery. Crisafulli's analysis highlights the ways in which 'British sons of murder', from traders to the ship's 'tars' in thier different roles, are seen to be engaged in a brutal and 'savage' activity. The author argues through careful close readings that the language of "Slavery: A Poem" and "The Sorrows of Yamba" is never simply complicit with colonialist discourse as some critics have suggested, but construct an uncompromising counter-discourse that is not only, and powerfully, humanitarian but also stringently political. Linking Yearsley's invitation that slave traders bring their own daughters to this market (together with their wives, aged mothers and ruddy boys) to Swift's "A Modest Proposal", these poets, Crisafulli suggests, used their rhetorical skills on behalf of the slave's humanity and against the greed of the commercial nature to critique and to refeminise Britannia. If this meant contributing to a formulation of women and domesticity as key to the nation as family, at this moment and on this issue, the challenge was radical on several fronts
V. Crisafulli - J. Nesbitt (Trad.), J. Haldon, The Miracles of Artemios, A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymus Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, trad, et comm. V. Crisafulli et J. Nesbitt, avec un «supplementary essay» de J. Haldon
No full textDéroche Vincent. V. Crisafulli - J. Nesbitt (Trad.), J. Haldon, The Miracles of Artemios, A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymus Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, trad, et comm. V. Crisafulli et J. Nesbitt, avec un «supplementary essay» de J. Haldon. In: Revue des études byzantines, tome 56, 1998. pp. 286-289
V. Crisafulli - J. Nesbitt (Trad.), J. Haldon, The Miracles of Artemios, A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymus Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, trad, et comm. V. Crisafulli et J. Nesbitt, avec un «supplementary essay» de J. Haldon
No full textDéroche Vincent. V. Crisafulli - J. Nesbitt (Trad.), J. Haldon, The Miracles of Artemios, A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymus Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, trad, et comm. V. Crisafulli et J. Nesbitt, avec un «supplementary essay» de J. Haldon. In: Revue des études byzantines, tome 56, 1998. pp. 286-289
The microtubule-associated molecular pathways may be genetically disrupted in patients with Bipolar Disorder. Insights from the molecular cascades
No full textBipolar Disorder is a severe disease characterized by pathological mood swings from major depressive episodes to manic ones and vice versa. The biological underpinnings of Bipolar Disorder have yet to be defined. As a consequence, pharmacological treatments are suboptimal. In the present paper we test the hypothesis that the molecular pathways involved with the direct targets of lithium, hold significantly more genetic variations associated with BD. A molecular pathway approach finds its rationale in the polygenic nature of the disease. The pathways were tested in a sample of ∼7000 patients and controls. Data are available from the public NIMH database. The definition of the pathways was conducted according to the National Cancer Institute (http://pid.nci.nih.gov/). As a result, 3 out of the 18 tested pathways related to lithium action resisted the permutation analysis and were found to be associated with BD. These pathways were related to Reelin, Integrins and Aurora. A pool of genes selected from the ones linked with the above pathways was further investigated in order to identify the fine molecular mechanics shared by our significant pathways and also their link with lithium mechanism of action. The data obtained point out to a possible involvement of microtubule-related mechanics
A molecular pathway analysis informs the genetic background at risk for schizophrenia
No full textBackground: Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder marked by severely impaired thinking, delusional thoughts, hallucinations and poor emotional responsiveness. The biological mechanisms that lead to schizophrenia may be related to the genetic background of patients. Thus, a genetic perspective may help to unravel the molecular pathways disrupted in schizophrenia. Methods: In the present work, we used a molecular pathway analysis to identify the molecular pathways associated with schizophrenia. We collected data of genetic loci previously associated with schizophrenia, identified the genes located in those positions and created the metabolic pathways that are related to those genes' products. These pathways were tested for enrichment (a number of SNPs associated with the phenotype significantly higher than expected by chance) in a sample of schizophrenic patients and controls (4486 and 4477, respectively). Results: The molecular pathway that resulted from the identification of all the genes located in the loci previously found to be associated with schizophrenia was found to be enriched, as expected (permutated p(106)=9.9999e-06).We found 60 SNPs amongst 30 different genes with a strong association with schizophrenia. The genes are related to the pathways related to neurodevelopment, apoptosis, vesicle traffic, immune response and MAPK cascade. Conclusions: The pathway related to the toll-like receptor family seemed to play a central role in the modulation/connection of various pathways whose disruption leads to schizophrenia. This pathway is related to the innate immune system, further stressing the role of immunological-related events in increasing the risk to schizophrenia
Enrichment pathway analysis. The inflammatory genetic background in bipolar disorder
No full textAbstract Introduction The pathophysiology of Bipolar Disorder (BD) is yet to be fully characterized. In the last years attention was focused on neurodevelopment or neurodegenerative events. In this context, hyper- and hypo- activation of inflammatory cascades may play a role in modulating the architecture and function of neuronal tissues. In the present paper we tested the enrichment of molecular pathways related to inflammatory cascades (IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, TNF and INF) testing whether genes related to these systems hold more variations associated with the risk for BD than expected. Methods ~7000 bipolar patients and controls with genome-wide data available from NIMH dataset were analyzed. SNPs were imputed, checked for quality control, pruned and tested for association (0.015 times) to limit false positive findings. Results As a result, IL-6, IL-8 and IFN related pathways held twice to thrice the number of expected variants associated with BD. These tests resisted the permutation analysis. Limitations The restricted number of inflammatory components included in the analysis and the lack of functional consequences for some of the SNPs analyzed may be biased; however, these choices helped the authors to lighten the statistical computational load for the analyses and at the same time included possibly hidden SNPs in linkage disequilibrium with the analyzed variations. Conclusions We bring evidence that the inflammatory cascades may be genetically varied in Bipolar patients. This genetic background may explain part of the pathophysiology of the disorder
Progress and prospects in pharmacogenetics of antidepressant drugs
No full textIntroduction: Depression is responsible for the most part of the personal and socio-economic burden due to psychiatric disorders. Since antidepressant response clusters in families, pharmacogenetics represents a meaningful tool to provide tailored treatments and improve the prognosis of depression. Areas covered: This review aims to summarize and discuss the pharmacogenetics of antidepressant drugs in major depressive disorder, with a focus on the most replicated genes, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), but also on the findings provided by new and promising analysis methods. In particular, multimarker tests such as pathway analysis and polygenic risk scores increase the power of detecting associations compared to the analysis of individual polymorphisms. Since genetic variants are not necessarily associated with a change in protein level, gene expression studies may provide complementary information to genetic studies. Finally, the pharmacogenetic tests that have been investigated for clinical application are discussed. Expert opinion: Despite the lack of widespread clinical applications, preliminary results suggest that pharmacogenetics may be useful to guide antidepressant treatment. The US Food and Drug Administration included pharmacogenetic indications in the labeling of several antidepressants. This represented an important official recognition of the clinical relevance of genetic polymorphisms in antidepressant treatment.</p
Introduzione
No full textIntroduction to the issue of Textus, edited by the author and Stuart Curran, dedicated to "Renaissance and Romanticism: Continuities and Discontinuities in the Transmission of Literary and Cultural Models
Possible biomarkers modulating haloperidol efficacy and/or tolerability
No full textHaloperidol (HP) is widely used in the treatment of several forms of psychosis. Despite of its efficacy, HP use is a cause of concern for the elevated risk of adverse drug reactions. adverse drug reactions risk and HP efficacy greatly vary across subjects, indicating the involvement of several factors in HP mechanism of action. The use of biomarkers that could monitor or even predict HP treatment impact would be of extreme importance. We reviewed the elements that could potentially be used as peripheral biomarkers of HP effectiveness. Although a validated biomarker still does not exist, we underlined the several potential findings (e.g., about cytokines, HP metabolites and genotypic biomarkers) which could pave the way for future research on HP biomarkers
Implementing the market approach to enterprise support - an evaluation of ten matching grant schemes
No full textDeveloping viable new business is critical to recovery, and long-term growth, especially in transition economies. There has been a long history of public support of enterprise development, starting with centralized state agency initiatives, but moving more recently to decentralized instruments for development of the business services market. The window of time during which the benefits of intervention are likely to be greatest: when a market is in its infancy, and its development is constrained by uncertainty, and lack of information. Interventions for enterprise support should be demand-responsive, and flexibly organized. In some circumstances, centralized assistance may still be effective, but it is generally better to use competitive private service providers responding to enterprises'changing needs. The main task is to stimulate the private services sector, improving its capacity to respond to the demands of new, and expanding private enterprises. Support for enterprises has tended to be either free, or heavily subsidized. But such subsidies can be justified only if interventions efficiently supply goods. Providing technical, and management know-how can be a public good if it generates externalities- if, for example, know-how benefits can be disseminated at proportionately low additional cost. Any subsidy for an intervention should be temporary, and should be phased out when the main objective of intervention is achieved - that is, when the market takes off. Grants should generally be for know-how, not for equipment. There may be a case for unbundling the know-how component of loans (including feasibility studies, and follow-up expert services) for grant funding. A package combining loans and grants - through a single financial institution, or through separate institutions - may work provided safeguards can be put in place to prevent perverse use of grants. The matching grant model, which is used increasingly in the World Bank, and elsewhere, is one solution - but it must be justified, and carefully designed. After evaluating ten matching grant funds, the author concludes that performance is mixed. Best practice models are needed. Ensuring economic benefits requires proactive management, with clear objectives of market facilitation ("making a market"). And it requires a balance between rapid grant approval procedures, and careful selection of services for grants.Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Enterprise Development&Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies
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