Storytelling in Amy Tan’s The bonesetter’s daughter: belonging and the transnationality of home in older age

Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter is a fictional account of a Chinese American woman and her mother, a first generation migrant, who is negotiating dementia in later life. Analysis of diasporic novels can provide insight into migrant belonging, especially the emotional geographies of home and emotional subjectivities of ageing that are not commonly or easily elucidated even by qualitative interviewing methods. This article examines Tan’s construction of ageing as an intergenerational, cultural and emotional process, and highlights the role of storytelling as an everyday home-making practice through which the transnationality of home in older age becomes evident

In Vivo Transcription Dynamics of the Galactose Operon: A Study on the Promoter Transition from P1 to P2 at Onset of Stationary Phase

Quantitative analyses of the 5′ end of gal transcripts indicate that transcription from the galactose operon P1 promoter is higher during cell division. When cells are no longer dividing, however, transcription is initiated more often from the P2 promoter. Escherichia coli cells divide six times before the onset of the stationary phase when grown in LB containing 0.5% galactose at 37°C. Transcription from the two promoters increases, although at different rates, during early exponential phase (until the third cell division, OD600 0.4), and then reaches a plateau. The steady-state transcription from P1 continues in late exponential phase (the next three cell divisions, OD600 3.0), after which transcription from this promoter decreases. However, steady-state transcription from P2 continues 1 h longer into the stationary phase, before decreasing. This longer steady-state P2 transcription constitutes the promoter transition from P1 to P2 at the onset of the stationary phase. The intracellular cAMP concentration dictates P1 transcription dynamics; therefore, promoter transition may result from a lack of cAMP-CRP complex binding to the gal operon. The decay rate of gal-specific transcripts is constant through the six consecutive cell divisions that comprise the exponential growth phase, increases at the onset of the stationary phase, and is too low to be measured during the stationary phase. These data suggest that a regulatory mechanism coordinates the synthesis and decay of gal mRNAs to maintain the observed gal transcription. Our analysis indicates that the increase in P1 transcription is the result of cAMP-CRP binding to increasing numbers of galactose operons in the cell population

La educación inclusiva frente a las desigualdades sociales: un estado de la cuestion y algunas reflexiones geograficas

Este artículo establece un estado de la cuestión e la educación inclusiva en el mundo y sugiere algunas reflexiones al respecto. El primer apartado recuerda las conexiones ineludibles entre las preocupaciones educativas por la educación inclusiva y las preocupaciones más generales por la desigualdad. El segundo consigna los criterios de búsqueda de las publicaciones académicas, y observa dos grandes temas en sus contenidos: sobre todo, el cambio interno de las escuelas atrae las miradas, pero en segundo plano también el entorno territorial despierta algunas inquietudes. El tercero anota los criterios de búsqueda de la documentación del Banco Mundial, la OCDE y la UNESCO. En este ámbito los simposios de la Oficina Internacional de la Educación de UNESCO revelan una interpretación dispar, aunque convergente, del concepto de educación inclusiva en las distintas regiones mundiales. Asimismo, todas las publicaciones oficiales muestran una atención prioritaria a las dinámicas internas de las escuelas, puesto que apenas algunas esbozan ciertas relaciones entre la educación inclusiva y las políticas públicas. El último apartado adelanta varios argumentos a favor de una mayor consideración de las escalas local y estatal de la educación inclusiva. Las principales razones para atender a la dimensión local provienen de la causalidad acumulativa de las privaciones sociales, de la necesidad de articular la acción de las escuelas y de la posibilidad de abrir un espacio significativo para la participación ciudadana. Asimismo, las principales razones para atender a la dimensión estatal surgen de las posibles sinergias entre la educación inclusiva y la expansión educativa (p. ej. ¿es correlativo el avance de la escolarización en los distintos ciclos escolares?) como también entre la educación inclusiva y la protección social (p. ej. ¿tienen una implicación pedagógica consistente las abundantes condiciones educativas de las transferencias sociales?

Ectopic Pregnancy as a Model to Identify Endometrial Genes and Signaling Pathways Important in Decidualization and Regulated by Local Trophoblast

The endometrium in early pregnancy undergoes decidualization and functional changes induced by local trophoblast, which are not fully understood. We hypothesized that endometrium from tubal ectopic pregnancy (EP) could be interrogated to identify novel genes and pathways involved in these processes. Gestation-matched endometrium was collected from women with EP (n = 11) and intrauterine pregnancies (IUP) (n = 13). RNA was extracted from the tissue. In addition, tissues were prepared for histological analysis for degree of decidualization. We compared a) the samples from EP that were decidualized (n = 6) with non-decidualized samples (n = 5), and b) the decidualized EP (n = 6) with decidualization-matched IUP (n = 6) samples using an Affymetrix gene array platform, with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, combined with quantitative RT-PCR. Expression of PRL and IGFBP1 was used to confirm the degree of decidualization in each group. There were no differences in PRL or IGFBP1 expression in the decidualization-matched samples but a marked reduction (P<0.001) in the non-decidualized samples. Decidualization was associated with increased expression of 428 genes including SCARA5 (181-fold), DKK1 (71-fold) and PROK1 (32-fold), and decreased expression of 230 genes including MMP-7 (35-fold) and SFRP4 (21-fold). The top canonical pathways associated with these differentially expressed genes were Natural Killer Cell and Wnt/b-Catenin signaling. Local trophoblast was associated with much less alteration of endometrial gene expression with an increase in 56 genes, including CSH1 (8-fold), and a reduction in 29 genes including CRISP3 (8-fold). The top associated canonical pathway was Antigen Presentation. The study of endometrium from tubal EP may promote novel insights into genes involved in decidualization and those influenced by factors from neighboring trophoblast. This has afforded unique information not highlighted by previous studies and adds to our understanding of the endometrium in early pregnancy

Common Polymorphisms in MTNR1B, G6PC2 and GCK Are Associated with Increased Fasting Plasma Glucose and Impaired Beta-Cell Function in Chinese Subjects

BACKGROUND: Previous studies identified melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B), islet-specific glucose 6 phosphatase catalytic subunit-related protein (G6PC2), glucokinase (GCK) and glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR) as candidate genes for type 2 diabetes (T2D) acting through elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG). We examined the associations of the reported common variants of these genes with T2D and glucose homeostasis in three independent Chinese cohorts. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), MTNR1B rs10830963, G6PC2 rs16856187 and rs478333, GCK rs1799884 and GCKR rs780094, were genotyped in 1644 controls (583 adults and 1061 adolescents) and 1342 T2D patients. The G-allele of MTNR1B rs10830963 and the C-alleles of both G6PC2 rs16856187 and rs478333 were associated with higher FPG (0.0034<P<6.6x10(-5)) in healthy controls. In addition to our previous report for association with FPG, the A-allele of GCK rs1799884 was also associated with reduced homeostasis model assessment of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) (P=0.0015). Together with GCKR rs780094, the risk alleles of these SNPs exhibited dosage effect in their associations with increased FPG (P=2.9x10(-9)) and reduced HOMA-B (P=1.1x10(-3)). Meta-analyses strongly supported additive effects of MTNR1B rs10830963 and G6PC2 rs16856187 on FPG. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Common variants of MTNR1B, G6PC2 and GCK are associated with elevated FPG and impaired insulin secretion, both individually and jointly, suggesting that these risk alleles may precipitate or perpetuate hyperglycemia in predisposed individuals

Role of Sphingomyelin Synthase in Controlling the Antimicrobial Activity of Neutrophils against Cryptococcus neoformans

The key host cellular pathway(s) necessary to control the infection caused by inhalation of the environmental fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans are still largely unknown. Here we have identified that the sphingolipid pathway in neutrophils is required for them to exert their killing activity on the fungus. In particular, using both pharmacological and genetic approaches, we show that inhibition of sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) activity profoundly impairs the killing ability of neutrophils by preventing the extracellular release of an antifungal factor(s). We next found that inhibition of protein kinase D (PKD), which controls vesicular sorting and secretion and is regulated by diacylglycerol (DAG) produced by SMS, totally blocks the extracellular killing activity of neutrophils against C. neoformans. The expression of SMS genes, SMS activity and the levels of the lipids regulated by SMS (namely sphingomyelin (SM) and DAG) are up-regulated during neutrophil differentiation. Finally, tissue imaging of lungs infected with C. neoformans using matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS), revealed that specific SM species are associated with neutrophil infiltration at the site of the infection. This study establishes a key role for SMS in the regulation of the killing activity of neutrophils against C. neoformans through a DAG-PKD dependent mechanism, and provides, for the first time, new insights into the protective role of host sphingolipids against a fungal infection