The Dances Are Changing

Contribution to book forum around Black Man in the Netherlands: An Afro-Antillean Anthropology by Francio Guadeloupe (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2022

African Heritage Design

Prenant comme point de départ l’arène patrimoniale historiquement constituée au Ghana, et plus particulièrement les acteurs clés de cette arène et les conflits entre eux, les auteurs explorent la pluralité et les dynamiques de la construction du “patrimoine culturel” dans ce pays. Plusieurs domaines – état, religion, media de loisir – et tendances dans la construction du passé culturel se rencontrent : la mobilisation du ‘patrimoine’ par l’état dans le cadre des politiques d’identité nationale, la contestation de ce projet étatique par les églises pentecôtistes qui considèrent le ‘patrimoine’ comme dangereux et satanique, et la valorisation du ‘patrimoine’ comme style esthétique dans les vidéos présentées par les télévisions locales. Les tendances économiques récentes visant à donner une image plus positive du ‘patrimoine africain’ s’ancrent dans des initiatives publiques antérieures et s’appuient sur la notion de style et de design visuel. Ainsi, ces tendances posent de nouvelles questions sur les liens entre patrimoine et esthétique visuelle, et impliquent une compréhension du patrimoine culturel prenant en compte les questions de style, de design et de commercialisation.This paper explores the plurality and dynamics of ‘cultural heritage’ formation in Ghana by looking at key players in the historically constituted heritage arena and the contestations between them. Focusing on the intersecting domains of the state, religion, and entertainment media, it discerns several tendencies with regard to the framing of cultural pasts : mobilization of ‘heritage’ by the state as part of national identity politics ; contestation of this state project by Pentecostal churches that view ‘heritage’ as demonic and dangerous ; and revaluation of ‘heritage’ as aesthetic style in local television and video making. Recent, market-driven trends towards a more positive representation of ‘African heritage’ depart from earlier state initiatives in their explicit focus on visual style and design, raising new questions about the links between heritage and visual aesthetics and asking for an understanding of cultural heritage that takes into account issues of style, design, and commerce

Fathers today: design of a randomized controlled trial examining the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in behavioral and neural responses to infant signals

BACKGROUND: Previous research has mostly focused on the hormonal, behavioral and neural correlates of maternal caregiving. We present a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design to examine the effects of intranasal administration of oxytocin and vasopressin on parenting behavior and the neural and behavioral responses to infant cry sounds and infant threat. In addition, we will test whether effects of oxytocin and vasopressin administration are moderated by fathers' early childhood experiences. METHODS: Fifty-five first-time fathers of a child between two and seven months old will participate in three experimental sessions with intervening periods of one to two weeks. Participants self-administer oxytocin, vasopressin or a placebo. Infant-father interactions and protective parenting responses are observed during play. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is used to examine the neural processing of infant cry sounds and infant threat. A handgrip dynamometer is used to measure use of handgrip force when listening to infant cry sounds. Participants report on their childhood experiences of parental love-withdrawal and abuse and neglect. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will provide important insights into the hormonal, behavioral and neural correlates of fathers' parenting behavior during the early phase of fatherhood. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Dutch Trial Register: NTR (ID: NL8124); Date registered: October 30, 2019

Anti-CD74 antibodies have no diagnostic value in early axial spondyloarthritis: Data from the spondyloarthritis caught early (SPACE) cohort

Anti-CD74 IgG antibodies are reported to be elevated in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). This study assessed the diagnostic value of anti-CD74 antibodies in patients with early axSpA. Anti-CD74 IgG and IgA antibodies were first measured in an exploratory cohort of patients with radiographic axSpA (138 patients with ankylosing spondyloarthritis (AS)) and 57 healthy controls and then were measured in patients with early axSpA (n = 274) and with non-SpA chronic back pain (CBP) (n = 319), participating in the spondyloarthritis caught early (SPACE) prospective cohort study of patients under 45 years old with early back pain (for ≥ 3 months, but ≤ 2 years). In the exploratory cohort, anti-CD74 IgG antibodies were present in 79.7% of patients with AS vs. 43.9% of healthy controls (p < 0.001). Anti-CD74 IgA antibodies were present in 28.5% of patients with AS vs. 5.3% of healthy controls (p < 0.001). In the SPACE cohort, anti-CD74 IgG antibody levels were present in 46.4% of the patients with axSpA vs. 47.9% of the patients with CBP (p = 0.71). Anti-CD74 IgA antibodies were present in 54.7% of the patients with axSpA and 37.0% of the patients with CBP (p < 0.001). This resulted in a positive predictive value of 58.8% (compared to a prior probability of 46.2%) and a negative predictive value of 59.1% (compared to a prior probability of 53.8%). In a regression model, total serum IgA was associated with axSpA odds ratio (OR) 1.19, p < 0.001) whereas anti-CD74 IgA was not (OR) 1.01, p = 0.33). Furthermore, anti-CD74 IgA was associated with sacroiliitis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (OR) = 2.50, p = 0.005) and heel enthesitis (OR) = 2.56, p = 0.002). Albeit anti-CD74 IgA is elevated in patients with early axSpA, this elevation is not sufficiently specific to yield significant diagnostic value in patients under 45 years old presenting with early back pai

Religious revelation, secrecy and the limits of visual representation

This article seeks to contribute to a more adequate understanding of the adoption of modern audiovisual mass media by contemporary religious groups. It does so by examining Pentecostal-charismatic churches as well as the Christian mass culture instigated by its popularity, and so-called traditional religion in Ghana, which develop markedly different attitudes towards audiovisual mass media and assume different positions in the public sphere. Taking into account the complicated entanglement of traditional religion and Pentecostalism, approaching both religions from a perspective of mediation which regards media as intrinsic to religion, and seeking to avoid the pitfall of overestimating the power of modern mass media to determine the world, this article seeks to move beyond an unproductive recurrence to oppositions such as tradition and modernity, or religion and technology. It is argued that instead of taking as a point of departure more or less set ideas about the nexus of vision and modernity, the adoption of new mass media by religious groups needs to be analyzed by a detailed ethnographic investigation of how these new media transform existing practices of religious mediation. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between the possibilities of gaining public presence through new media, and the difficulty in authorizing these media, and the experiences they induce, as authentic. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications

High Log-Scale Expansion of Functional Human Natural Killer Cells from Umbilical Cord Blood CD34-Positive Cells for Adoptive Cancer Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy based on natural killer (NK) cell infusions is a potential adjuvant treatment for many cancers. Such therapeutic application in humans requires large numbers of functional NK cells that have been selected and expanded using clinical grade protocols. We established an extremely efficient cytokine-based culture system for ex vivo expansion of NK cells from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from umbilical cord blood (UCB). Systematic refinement of this two-step system using a novel clinical grade medium resulted in a therapeutically applicable cell culture protocol. CD56+CD3− NK cell products could be routinely generated from freshly selected CD34+ UCB cells with a mean expansion of >15,000 fold and a nearly 100% purity. Moreover, our protocol has the capacity to produce more than 3-log NK cell expansion from frozen CD34+ UCB cells. These ex vivo-generated cell products contain NK cell subsets differentially expressing NKG2A and killer immunoglobulin-like receptors. Furthermore, UCB-derived CD56+ NK cells generated by our protocol uniformly express high levels of activating NKG2D and natural cytotoxicity receptors. Functional analysis showed that these ex vivo-generated NK cells efficiently target myeloid leukemia and melanoma tumor cell lines, and mediate cytolysis of primary leukemia cells at low NK-target ratios. Our culture system exemplifies a major breakthrough in producing pure NK cell products from limited numbers of CD34+ cells for cancer immunotherapy

Pentecostal Forms across Religious Divides: Media, Publicity, and the Limits of an Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism

Scholars of Pentecostalism have usually studied people who embrace it, but rarely those who do not. I suggest that the study of global Pentecostalism should not limit itself to Pentecostal churches and movements and people who consider themselves Pentecostal. It should include the repercussions of Pentecostal ideas and forms outside Pentecostalism: on non-Pentecostal and non-Christian religions, on popular cultural forms, and on what counts as &lsquo;religion&rsquo; or &lsquo;being religious&rsquo;. Based on my ethnographic study of a charismatic-Pentecostal mega-church and a neo-traditional African religious movement in Ghana, I argue that neo-Pentecostalism, due to its strong and mass-mediated public presence, provides a powerful model for the public representation of religion in general, and some of its forms are being adopted by non-Pentecostal and non-Christian groups, including the militantly anti-Pentecostal Afrikania Mission. Instead of treating neo-Pentecostal and neo-traditionalist revival as distinct religious phenomena, I propose to take seriously their intertwinement in a single religious field and argue that one cannot sufficiently understand the rise of new religious movements without understanding how they influence each other, borrow from each other, and define themselves vis-&agrave;-vis each other. This has consequences for how we conceive of the study of Pentecostalism and how we define its object

Accra's Sounds and Sacred Spaces

This article explores the sonic sacralization of urban space in the multicultural city of Accra. In Ghanaian cities today religious groups increasingly vie for public presence. It is especially the religious manifestation in the urban soundscape, most forcefully by charismatic-Pentecostal churches and preachers, that has of late generated controversy. While charismatic-Pentecostal 'noisemaking' leads to conflicts all year round, it is especially during the annual traditional 'ban on drumming and noisemaking' that the religious confrontation over sound and silence in the city comes to full and violent expression. Approaching the articulation between religiosity and urban space through the aural, this article examines how religious sound practices create, occupy and compete for urban space. Comparing the nexus of religion, urban space and aurality in charismatic Pentecostalism and Ga traditional religion, it seeks to establish two points. First, that behind the apparent opposition between Pentecostalism and traditional religion is a difference in religious spatiality, but a remarkable similarity in the place of sound in relation to the spiritual. Second, it argues that the religious clash over sonic sacralization of urban space should not only be understood as a competition for symbolic control of spaces, but also as a spiritual struggle over the invisible, but all the more affective powers felt to be present in the city. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2008 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.