168 research outputs found
'The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen’s Escape from War to Freedom’
No full textThe two volumes examine a fascinating set of memoirs and autobiographies written by a variety of authors. It includes famous persons such as Hellen Keller and Temple Grandin, as well as others likely unknown beyond the world of disability studies, such as John M. Hull (who relates his experience of going blind) and Kay Redfield (who relates her experience with bipolar disorder).
Each of 200 entries examines a particular author and literary work (e.g., Christy Brown, My Left Foot). The entry provides biographical, historical, and literary context around the author/work and elucidates the role the text has played within disability memoir. The works selected bear most directly on disability studies proper but also provide rich topics of study for sociology and anthropology courses, minority and gender studies, and English literature studies. Additionally, this publication offers physicians, nurses, and teachers a unique tool in their professional developments to gain insights into the lives of those whom they serve.
G. Thomas Couser (Founding Director of the Disability Studies Program, Hofstra University and a leading expert in disability memoir) has joined Susannah Mintz (Professor of English and Disability Studies, Chair of English Department, Skidmore College) to determine the contents and provide peer review on this work. A comprehensive, annotated list of disability memoir is included in an appendix
The contribution of chronic kidney disease to the global burden of major noncommunicable diseases
No full textNoncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the most common causes of premature death and morbidity and have a major impact on health-care costs, productivity, and growth. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease have been prioritized in the Global NCD Action Plan endorsed by the World Health Assembly, because they share behavioral risk factors amenable to public-health action and represent a major portion of the global NCD burden. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a key determinant of the poor health outcomes of major NCDs. CKD is associated with an eight- to tenfold increase in cardiovascular mortality and is a risk multiplier in patients with diabetes and hypertension. Milder CKD (often due to diabetes and hypertension) affects 5–7% of the world population and is more common in developing countries and disadvantaged and minority populations. Early detection and treatment of CKD using readily available, inexpensive therapies can slow or prevent progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Interventions targeting CKD, particularly to reduce urine protein excretion, are efficacious, cost-effective methods of improving cardiovascular and renal outcomes, especially when applied to high-risk groups. Integration of these approaches within NCD programs could minimize the need for renal replacement therapy. Early detection and treatment of CKD can be implemented at minimal cost and will reduce the burden of ESRD, improve outcomes of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (including hypertension), and substantially reduce morbidity and mortality from NCDs. Prevention of CKD should be considered in planning and implementation of national NCD policy in the developed and developing world
Altered Egos Authority in American Autobiography
No full textThis work explores the "authority" of autobiography in several related senses: first, the idea that autobiography is authoritative writing because it is presumably verifiable; second, the idea that one's life is one's exclusive textual domain; third, the idea that, because of the apparent congruence between the implicit ideology of the genre and that of the nation, autobiography has a special prestige in America. Aware of the recent critiques of the notion of autobiography as issuing from, determined by, or referring to a pre-existing self, Couser examines the ways in which the authority of particular texts is called into question--for example, because they involve pseudonymity (Mark Twain), the revision of a presumably spontaneous form (Mary Chesnut's Civil War "diaries"), bilingual authorship (Richard Rodriguez and Maxine Hong Kingston), collaborative production (Black Elk), or outright fraud (Clifford Irving's "autobiography" of Howard Hughes). Couser examines both the way in which canonical autobiographers may playfully and purposely undermine their own narrative authority and the way in which minority writers' control of their lives may be compromised. Autobiography, then, is portrayed here as an arena in which individuals struggle for self-possession and self-expression against the constraints of language, genre, and society.Intro -- Contents -- 1 Prologue: The Case of the Counterfeit Autobiography -- 2 Introduction: Authority, Autobiography, America -- 3 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Self-Constitutional Conventions -- 4 Prose and Cons: The Autobiographies of P. T. Barnum -- 5 False "I's": Mark Twain's Pseudonymous Autobiography -- 6 (En)Slave(d) Narrative: Early Afro-American Autobiography -- 7 Mary Boykin Chesnut: Secession, Confederacy, Reconstruction -- 8 Black Elk Speaks With Forked Tongue -- 9 Biculturalism in Contemporary Autobiography: Richard Rodriguez and Maxine Hong Kingston -- 10 Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- YThis work explores the "authority" of autobiography in several related senses: first, the idea that autobiography is authoritative writing because it is presumably verifiable; second, the idea that one's life is one's exclusive textual domain; third, the idea that, because of the apparent congruence between the implicit ideology of the genre and that of the nation, autobiography has a special prestige in America. Aware of the recent critiques of the notion of autobiography as issuing from, determined by, or referring to a pre-existing self, Couser examines the ways in which the authority of particular texts is called into question--for example, because they involve pseudonymity (Mark Twain), the revision of a presumably spontaneous form (Mary Chesnut's Civil War "diaries"), bilingual authorship (Richard Rodriguez and Maxine Hong Kingston), collaborative production (Black Elk), or outright fraud (Clifford Irving's "autobiography" of Howard Hughes). Couser examines both the way in which canonical autobiographers may playfully and purposely undermine their own narrative authority and the way in which minority writers' control of their lives may be compromised. Autobiography, then, is portrayed here as an arena in which individuals struggle for self-possession and self-expression against the constraints of language, genre, and society.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Book Review: Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing
No full textAuthor: G. Thomas Couser
Reviewer: Steven Brown
Publisher: (Ithaca: Cornell, 2004).
Cost: Paperback - 47.50
Paper, 2003 ISBN: 0-8014-8863-X 47.50
Phosphodiesterase inhibitors correct resistance to natriuretic peptides in rats with Heymann nephritis
No full textExperimental nephrotic syndrome is characterized by abnormal sodium metabolism, reflected in a blunted natriuretic response both to volume expansion and to infused atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), The studies presented here examined the relationships among plasma ANP concentration and urinary sodium (UNaV) and cyclic GMP excretion (UcGMPV) in vivo, and the responsiveness of isolated glomeruli and inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells to ANP and urodilatin (renal natriuretic peptide; RNP) in vitro in rats with Heymann nephritis, an immunologically mediated model of nephrotic syndrome, Nine to 14 days after ip injection of anti-Fx1A antiserum, rats were proteinuric and had a blunted natriuretic response to intravenous infusion of isotonic saline (2% body weight, given over 5 min). Thirty min after the onset of the infusion, plasma ANP concentration was increased to the same extent in both normal and nephritic rats, compared with their respective hydropenic controls, Despite this increase, UcGMPV was significantly less in nephritic rats after the saline infusion, Accumulation of cGMP by isolated glomeruli and IMCD cells from nephritic rats after incubation with ANP and RNP was also significantly reduced, compared with normal rats. This difference was not related to differences in either density or affinity of renal ANP receptors, but was abolished when accumulation of cGMP was measured in the presence of 10(-3) M isobutylmethylxanthine or Zaprinast, two different inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDE), Infusion of Zaprinast into one renal artery in nephritic rats normalized both the natriuretic response to volume expansion and the increase in UcGMPV from the infused, but not the contralateral, kidney. Furthermore, cGMP-PDE activity was increased in IMCD cell homogenates from nephritic compared with normal rats (388 +/- 32 versus 198 +/- 93 pmol/min per mg protein, P < 0.03). These results indicate that blunted volume expansion natriuresis accompanied by cellular resistance to ANP in vitro occurs in an immunologic model of renal injury, The resistance is not related to an alteration in ANP release or binding to its renal receptors, but is suppressed by PDE inhibitors and is associated with increased renal cGMP PDE activity, thus suggesting that enhanced cGMP-PDE activity may account for resistance to the natriuretic actions of ANP observed in vivo. This defect may represent the intrinsic sodium transport abnormality linked to sodium retention in nephrotic syndrome
Normal lactational environment restores nephron endowment and prevents hypertension after placental restriction in the rat
No full text© 2007 American Society of NephrologyUteroplacental insufficiency in the rat restricts fetal growth, impairs mammary development, compromising postnatal growth; and increases adult BP. The roles of prenatal and postnatal nutritional restraint on later BP and nephron endowment in offspring from mothers that underwent bilateral uterine vessel ligation (restricted) on day 18 of pregnancy were examined. Sham surgery (control) and a group of rats with reduced litter size (reduced; litter size reduced at birth to five, equivalent to restricted group) were used as controls. Offspring (control, reduced, and restricted) were cross-fostered on postnatal day 1 onto a control (normal lactation) or restricted (impaired lactation) mother. BP in male offspring was determined by tail cuff at 8, 12, and 20 wk of age, with glomerular number and volume (Cavalieri/Physical Dissector method) and renal angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT(1)R) mRNA expression (real-time PCR) determined at 6 mo. Restricted-on-restricted male offspring developed hypertension (+16 mmHg) by 20 wk together with a nephron deficit (-26%) and glomerular hypertrophy (P < 0.05). In contrast, providing a normal lactational environment to restricted offspring improved postnatal growth and prevented the nephron deficit and hypertension. Reduced-on-restricted pups that were born of normal weight but with impaired growth during lactation subsequently grew faster, developed hypertension (+16 mmHg), had increased AT(1A)R and AT(1B)R mRNA expression (P < 0.05), but had no nephron deficit. Our study identifies the prenatal and postnatal nutritional environments in the programming of adult hypertension, associated with distinct renal changes. It is shown for the first time that a prenatally induced nephron deficit can be restored by correcting growth restriction during lactation.Mary E. Wlodek, Amy Mibus, Adeline Tan, Andrew L. Siebel, Julie A. Owens and Karen M. Morit
Touching the Rock:An Experience of Blindness (1990)
No full textTouching the Rock comprises the autobiographical reflections of Anglo-Australian theologian and educator John M. Hull in the period shortly after losing his sight, from summer 1983 to summer 1986. In the book, Hull discusses coming to terms with his impairment, his loss of memory of the visual, his damaged recollection of those things that were once familiar, and the diversity of reactions from those around him. Touching the Rock is a transcript of Hull's taped diary entries on various topics related to his blindness, including dream analyses; altered practices with familiar objects and the environment; reflections on sections of literature, including the Bible and other religious texts; his trials while forming a young family as a man without sight; and the kindness and cruelty of people during his initial three years of living in complete darkness.<br/
No relationship between lipid levels and renal function in patients with chronic renal impairment
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