Culture and region revisited

People in different regions of the world live under different cultural and religious orders and derive various practical ethics from them. Some of these moral and religious principles are clearly more favorable for economic development than others. Yet such ethnological differences are regrettably absent from our prevailing theories of regional economic development. In this paper, culture is defined as a system of relatively slow processes of change — known as cultural arenas. A complex interface exists between these slower processes and the relatively faster ones (known as games). In attempting to assess the development prospects of any region, a key point to grasp is that this cultural interface may be self-organizing. Its future trajectory will therefore be uncertain. To the extent that the proposed system of slow processes may be construed as a region's cultural base, they may control the nature and achievable pace of that region's development.An earlier version of this paper was presented at a Conference onThe Economics of the Cities of Art, held in Venice from 13–15 May 1991.     

Homophobia and psychoanalysis: A reply to Roughton.

Replies to R. E. Roughton's (see record 1994-27310-001) response to D. K. Flaks's (see record 1993-23357-001) article on homophobia and the psychologists's role in psychoanalytic training institutes. Flaks commends attempts by the American Psychoanalytic Association to combat homophobia within the organization but notes potential problems that might limit its success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cerebral protection by intermittent reperfusion during temporary focal ischemia in the rat

Temporary arterial occlusion has been routinely used as an adjunct in intracranial aneurysm surgery. This has commonly been performed using a protocol of multiple short periods of occlusion alternating with periods of restoration of normal circulation. Recently, the logical basis of this method has come under scrutiny. There is extensive experimental evidence to suggest that repetitive, brief periods of global ischemia may cause more severe cerebral injury than an equivalent single period of global ischemia. Only recently has this issue begun to be addressed with regard to focal ischemia. Hence, despite the common use of temporary clipping, little experimental data are available regarding the ischemic consequences of temporary arterial occlusion with periods of reperfusion versus uninterrupted temporary occlusion. To investigate this issue, a protocol of occlusion/reperfusion that simulates the temporal profile that occurs during surgery was performed in a rat model of focal ischemia. Sixteen anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups. The animals in Group I underwent 60 minutes of uninterrupted middle cerebral artery occlusion and the animals in Group II were subjected to six separate 10-minute occlusion periods with 5 minutes of reperfusion between occlusions. Histopathological analysis was performed 72 hours postischemia. Group I had significantly increased mean infarction volumes (50.0 +/- 12.1 mm3) compared to Group II (8.7 +/- 3.1 mm3) (p = 0.008). Injuries in Group I occurred in both the cortex and striatum, whereas Group II showed only striatal injuries. Furthermore, the extent of the injuries in Group II was less severe, characterized by ischemic neuronal injury rather than frank infarction. The results indicate that intermittent reperfusion is neuroprotective during temporary focal ischemia and support the hypothesis that intermittent reperfusion is beneficial if temporary clipping is required during aneurysm repair.     

Epitope cleavage by Leishmania endopeptidase(s) limits the efficiency of the exogenous pathway of major histocompatibility complex class I-associated antigen presentation

The activation of CD8+ T cell responses is commonplace during infection with a number of nonviral pathogens. Consequently, there has been much interest in the pathways of presentation of such exogenous antigens for major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted recognition. We had previously shown that Leishmania promastigotes transfected with the ovalbumin (OVA) gene could efficiently target OVA to the parasitophorous vacuole (PV), with subsequent recognition by class II-restricted T cells. We now report the results of studies aimed at evaluating the PV as a route of entry into the exogenous class I pathway. Bone marrow-derived macrophages can present soluble OVA (albeit at high concentrations) to the OVA(257-264)-specific T cell hybridoma 13.13. In contrast, infection with OVA-transfected Leishmania promastigotes failed to result in the stimulation of this hybridoma. This appeared unrelated to variables such as antigen concentration, parasite survival, and macrophage activation status. These results prompted an analysis of the effects of promastigotes on class I peptide binding using RMA-S cells and OVA(257-264). Our data indicate that the major surface protease of Leishmania, gp63, inhibits this interaction by virtue of its endopeptidase activity against the OVA(257-264) peptide. The data suggest that this activity, if maintained within the PV, would result in loss of the OVA(257-264) epitope. Although we can therefore draw no conclusions from these studies regarding the efficiency of the PV as a site of entry of antigen into the exogenous class I pathway, we have identified a further means by which parasites may manipulate the immune repertoire of their host.     

Differential expression of mammalian TRP homologues across tissues and cell lines

Mammalian homologues of the Drosophila trp gene have been invoked as the structural basis for the currents associated with capacitative Ca2+ entry (CCE) in many cell types. Trp homologues are members of a large protein family that may associate as channel subunits providing an explanation for the functional diversity of store-operated channels observed in these cells. However, there is little information as to which of these genes are co-expressed at the cellular level. We have examined the tissue specific expression of five mammalian trp genes and determined which are co-expressed in five different cell lines. The results show tissue- and cell-specific co-expression of multiple trp forms. This implies that the subunit composition of a particular CCE channel may vary depending on the cell type.     

The greenhouse effect; Impact upon and the role to be played by construction

The authors highlight several possible ways in which the construction industry could lower present emissions of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. It is an excellent discussion document and is recommended reading.     

The effect of skull-pin insertion on cerebrospinal fluid pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure: influence of sufentanil and fentanyl

Directed delivery and distribution of anaesthetics (novocaine, lidocaine, trimecaine) immobilized on finely dispersed iron powders under the influence of an external magnetic field in body tissues of test animals have been studied. The data of emission spectral analysis relating to concentration of iron in soft and bone tissues of animals influenced by constant and alternating magnetic field on front and reverse sides over a period from 0 to 180 min are given.