The role of sex in cardiac function and diseaseThis paper is one of a selection of papers published in this Special Issue, entitled Young Investigator's Forum.

2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Czubryt ◽  
Leon Espira ◽  
Lise Lamoureux ◽  
Bernard Abrenica

In the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the importance of sex in the etiology of cardiac dysfunction. While focus has been primarily on how sex modulates atherogenesis, it is becoming clear that sex is both a predictor of outcome and an independent risk factor for a number of other cardiac diseases. Animal models and human studies have begun to shed light on the mechanisms by which sex influences the function of cardiomyocytes in health and disease. This review will survey the current literature on cardiac diseases that are influenced by sex and discuss the intracellular mechanisms by which steroid sex hormones affect heart function. A theory on how sex may regulate myocardial energy metabolism to affect disease susceptibility and progression will be presented, as well as a discussion of how sex may influence outcomes of experiments on isolated cardiomyocytes by epigenetic marking.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-287
Author(s):  
Feras Krimsti ◽  
John-Paul Ghobrial

Abstract This introduction to the special issue “The Past and its Possibilities in Nahḍa Scholarship” reflects on the role of the past in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nahḍa discourse. It argues that historical reflection played a pivotal role in a number of scholarly disciplines besides the discipline of history, notably philosophy and logic, grammar and lexicography, linguistics, philology, and adab. Nahḍawīs reflected on continuities with the past, the genealogies of their present, and the role of history in determining their future. The introduction of print gave new impulses to the engagement with the historical heritage. We argue for a history of the nahḍa as a de-centred history of possibilities that recovers a wider circle of scholars and intellectuals and their multiple and overlapping local and global audiences. Such a history can also shed light on the many ways in which historical reflection, record-keeping practices, and confessional, sectarian, or communalist agendas are entwined.


2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian G. Anderson ◽  
Lucy A. Tedd

PurposeTo introduce the theme of this special issue which contains a selection of papers presented at the Association for History and Computing UK (AHC‐UK) annual conference in 2004.Design/methodology/approachThe role of the AHC in the UK is described and the reasons for choosing the theme of the 2004 conference, Recasting the Past: Digital Histories, are outlined along with the original call for papers.FindingsThe contributors to this issue come from a wide geographic area and reflect the delegates at the conference by being archivists, historians, librarians and researchers.Originality/valueProvides an introduction to the special issue.


2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongqiang Chen ◽  
Meghan B. Azad ◽  
Spencer B. Gibson

Autophagy is an intracellular lysosomal degradation process, which in the case of macroautophagy, is characterized by the formation of double-membraned autophagosomes. Enhanced under stress conditions, autophagy can function to promote cell survival or cell death depending on the type of cellular stress. Interest in autophagy has increased substantially in the past several years as new research implicates this “self-eating” pathway in cell growth, development, and many human diseases. Various methods have been developed for detecting autophagy; however, the implementation of these methods and the interpretation of the results often vary between studies, and a more standardized approach is required. In this review, we summarize the current methods available for detecting autophagy and for determining its contribution to cell death. Furthermore, we discuss the critical points for the successful application of these methods based on experiences from our laboratory and from other research groups.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Joosen

Compared to the attention that children's literature scholars have paid to the construction of childhood in children's literature and the role of adults as authors, mediators and readers of children's books, few researchers have made a systematic study of adults as characters in children's books. This article analyses the construction of adulthood in a selection of texts by the Dutch author and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Guus Kuijer and connects them with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's recent concept of ‘childism’ – a form of prejudice targeted against children. Whereas Kuijer published a severe critique of adulthood in Het geminachte kind [The despised child] (1980), in his literary works he explores a variety of positions that adults can take towards children, with varying degrees of childist features. Such a systematic and comparative analysis of the way grown-ups are characterised in children's texts helps to shed light on a didactic potential that materialises in different adult subject positions. After all, not only literary and artistic aspects of children's literature may be aimed at the adult reader (as well as the child), but also the didactic aspect of children's books can cross over between different age groups.


Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110136
Author(s):  
Caroline Bem ◽  
Susanna Paasonen

Sexuality, as it relates to video games in particular, has received increasing attention over the past decade in studies of games and play, even as the notion of play remains relatively underexplored within sexuality studies. This special issue asks what shift is effected when sexual representation, networked forms of connecting and relating, and the experimentation with sexual likes are approached through the notion of play. Bringing together the notions of sex and play, it both foregrounds the role of experimentation and improvisation in sexual pleasure practices and inquires after the rules and norms that these are embedded in. Contributors to this special issue combine the study of sexuality with diverse theoretical conceptions of play in order to explore the entanglements of affect, cognition, and the somatic in sexual lives, broadening current understandings of how these are lived through repetitive routines and improvisational sprees alike. In so doing, they focus on the specific sites and scenes where sexual play unfolds (from constantly morphing online pornographic archives to on- and offline party spaces, dungeons, and saunas), while also attending to the props and objects of play (from sex toys and orgasmic vocalizations to sensation-enhancing chemicals and pornographic imageries), as well as the social and technological settings where these activities occur. This introduction offers a brief overview of the rationale of thinking sex in and as play, before presenting the articles that make up this special issue.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’

<p>This article is an attempt to explore the inclusion and the use of superstitious elements in Mark Twain’s novel <em>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</em> (1884) and Shakespeare’s play <em>Macbeth</em> (1611). Superstition involves a deep belief in the magic and the occult, to almost to an extent of obsession, which is contrary to realism. Through the analytical and psychological approaches, this paper tries to shed light on Twain’s and Shakespeare’s use of supernaturalism in their respective stories, and the extent the main characters are influenced by it. A glance at both stories reveals that characters are highly affected by superstitions, more than they are influenced by their religious beliefs, or other social factors and values. The researcher also tries to explore the role played by superstition, represented by fate and the supernatural in determining the course of actions characters undertake in both dramas. The paper concluded that the people who lived in the past were superstitious to an extent of letting magic, omens; signs, etc. affect and determine their lives; actions and future decisions. They determine their destiny and make it very difficult for them to avoid it, alter it or think rationally and independently. And that, man’s actions are not isolated, but closely connected to the various forces operating in the universe.</p>


Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Fassinger ◽  
Susan L. Morrow

Various research methods can be appropriate for social justice aims. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches offer different kinds of strengths in advancing a social justice agenda. This article recaptures and expands upon the ideas presented by the authors of this special issue, recommending best practices in research for social justice in the following areas: (a) cultural competence and the role of the researcher(s); (b) formulating the focus of the research; (c) selection of the underlying paradigm and research method/design; (d) the research team: formation, process, and issues of power; (e) power and relationship with research participants; and (f) data gathering, analysis, and reporting.


2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manreet K. Chehal ◽  
David J. Granville

The cytochrome p450 2C (CYP2C) monooxygenase family is a key player in the generation of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids. It has recently become apparent that CYP plays an important role in cardiovascular physiology and contributes to the pathogenesis of various cardiovascular diseases. In particular, several studies have demonstrated a role for these enzymes in cardiac ischemia and reperfusion injury. The current review summarizes the role of the CYP epoxygenase, CYP2C9, in ischemic heart disease and vascular homeostasis.


Author(s):  
Anthony Ryle

This series provides a selection of articles from the past. In Fifty years ago: The scope of occupational medicine in a university health service Anthony Ryle briefly explores the potential role of a University Health Service in relation to students’ academic achievements and failures, rather than their physical health and safety.


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