Editorial of Special Issue of National Identities: Alevism as an ethno-religious identity: Contested boundaries

No abstract for editorial but this is the opening paragraph: This special issue on Alevism and trans/national Alevi identity critically engages with the relationship between religion, ethnicity and national identity. The core issues are as follows: • how ethnicity and religion are conceptualised for a relatively invisible ethnic group in different national contexts; • how religion and ethnicity intersect when Alevism is both a faith and an ethnic identity, especially when conceptions of that identity are contested; • how identity is shaped through state policies within different national policy contexts and how etic definitions of minority communities are constructed by the state or other agencies with the power to impose them on the community in contrast to the emic or self-definitions of Aleviness from within the Alevi community; • how despite the fragmented, heterogeneous nature of Alevi communities, there is also a sense of a single, transnational imaginary community, at least for the purposes of political assimilation/integration and activism; • how education and other arenas of political, religious and cultural engagement at local, national and transnational levels create the possibilities, both positively and negatively, for future action/policy to situate minority ethnic communities

Comparison of fine needle aspiration biopsy and paraffin embedded tissue sections for measuring AgNOR proteins

Paraffin embedded tissue sections and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) are important methods for diagnosis. We compared thyroid tissue obtained by FNAB to paraffin embedded sections to determine whether there were differences in detection of the amounts of argyrophilic nucleolar organizing region (AgNOR) proteins. Twenty-two patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma were included in the study. Slides were prepared with both FNAB tissue and 3 mu m sections of paraffin embedded tissue, and stained for AgNOR. One hundred nuclei per individual were evaluated; total AgNOR number/nucleus (TAn/TNn) and total AgNOR area/nuclear area (TAa/TNa) of individual cells were determined. Mean TAn/TNn and TAa/TNa values were 4.800 +/- 1.118 and 13.382 +/- 2.612, respectively, for FNAB samples; corresponding values were 2.406 +/- 0.649 and 8.49 +/- 0.893, respectively, for paraffin embedded sections. The differences between FNAB materials and paraffin embedded tissue sections were significant for the mean TAn/TNn and TAa/TNa values. Significant differences in the amounts of AgNOR protein detected were found between FNAB and paraffin embedded tissue sections

Investigation of argyrophilic nucleolar organizing region

BACKGROUND: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a complex event frequently observed in vascular surgery and can cause functional and structural cell damage. Nucleolar-organizing regions (NORs) are sites of the ribosomal genes located on chromosomes and can be stained with silver when they are active. Thus these proteins are named as argyrophilic-NOR (AgNOR)-associated proteins. We aimed to investigate any possible effects of renal I/R injury on the NOR protein synthesis and association between the AgNOR proteins amount and histopathological injuring score

Investigation of argyrophilic nucleolar organizing region

BACKGROUND: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a complex event frequently observed in vascular surgery and can cause functional and structural cell damage. Nucleolar-organizing regions (NORs) are sites of the ribosomal genes located on chromosomes and can be stained with silver when they are active. Thus these proteins are named as argyrophilic-NOR (AgNOR)-associated proteins. We aimed to investigate any possible effects of renal I/R injury on the NOR protein synthesis and association between the AgNOR proteins amount and histopathological injuring score. METHODS: Nine female wistar-albino rats with weight of 200-250g were included into the study. The animals were randomly divided in two groups, a Control Group and an I/R Group. In I/R group, rats were subjected to 45 minutes of renal pedicle occlusion followed by 24 hours of reperfusion. In the control group no drug injections or ischemia reperfusion were performed in animals. Then histopathological injury score, mean AgNOR number and total AgNOR area/nuclear area (TAA/NA) were detected for each rat. RESULTS: The differences between control and I/R groups were significant for histopathological injury scores (p = 0.016). Also the differences between control group and I/R group were significant for mean AgNOR number (p = 0.000) and TAA/NA ratio (p = 0.000). Additionally, there was a positive correlation between TAA/NA ratio and histopathological injury score (r = 0.728; p = 0.026) and between mean AgNOR number and histopathological injury score (r = 0.670; p = 0.048). CONCLUSION: The detection of AgNOR proteins amount may be used as an indicator to obtain information about the cellular behaviour (self-protective mechanism of tubular epithelial cells) against I/R injury and cellular damage levels (Tab. 2, Fig. 4, Ref. 24). Text in PDF www.elis.sk