Treating Adolescents Together or Individually? Issues in Adolescent Substance Abuse Interventions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66302/1/j.1530-0277.2002.tb02619.x.pd

Influences, symbolism, and subtext in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore or the Three Sundays of a Poet

Gian Carlo Menotti’s madrigal fable, The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore or The Three Sundays of a Poet, bears the influences of various art forms and musical compositions. The work incorporates elements of ancient Greek theatre in three specific ways, namely the use of a chorus to offer commentary on the dramatic action, the combination of movement (dance) with music, and the use of a heroic figure. The Unicorn also has strong roots in the music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, which are evident in the elaborate counterpoint as well as in the stylistic features of both the madrigal and madrigal comedy found in the work. Specifically, the work was inspired by Orazio Vecchi’s madrigal comedy, L’Amfiparnaso, with which it shares similarities in form, harmony, text painting, and the use of onomatopoeia. While L’Amfiparnaso utilizes stock characters of the commedia dell’arte, Menotti created his own characters for The Unicorn. However, certain parallels can be drawn between the personalities of Menotti’s original characters and the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte, indicating a possible influence on the creation of Menotti’s characters. Medieval bestiary and the associated mythology were also strong influences on Menotti, as evidenced by his selection of the mythical creatures the Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore as allegorical representations of youth, middle age, and old age. While scholars have read the libretto as contrasting the true artist (a trailblazer with original, authentic emotions) with those who simply copy the art they see (mimicking emotion instead of making their own judgments), a yet unexplored subtext includes Menotti’s personal struggles with homosexuality in the conservative and judgmental society of 1950s America. This theme emerges through the thematic overtones of the work as well as through his usage of words and objects often associated with homosexuality. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field