What We Know About the Irish in the United States: Reflections on the Historical Literature of the Last Twenty Years

For many years, scholars and others who wrote about the Irish in theUnited States focused on the Catholic Irish, especially those who arrived around the time of the Irish Potato Famine and the several decades after that great calamity. Over roughly the last twenty years, the historical literature has come to grips with the more varied nature of the Irish experience in the United States and now better reflects the diversity of the varied religious backgrounds of the Irish in the United States. Further, while the literature on the Catholic Irish in the United Statesfocused heavily on the Irish in northeastern cities there has been increasing attention to the Irish in other sections of the United States. The result of this new research and writing has been to expand and enrich our understanding of the Irish experience in the United States. My intention in this article is to sketch out this expanded and enriched understanding of the Irish experience in the United States which is also part of a larger, global process, the Irish Diaspora. The Diaspora approach to the study of the Irish in the United States offers a greatmany advantages. One of the limitations on the study of United States history has long “American exceptionalism.” In its simplest form this approach begins by seeing United States history as a unique experience, separate from the larger flow of world events, and stresses the distinctiveness of the American (U.S.) experience. The Diaspora approach moves away from this and places the experience of theIrish in the United States in global context.

Review of \u3ci\u3eBeyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910\u3c/i\u3e by David M. Emmons

David Emmons\u27s book on the Butte Irish (1989) helped begin a scholarly reassessment and investigation of the Irish experience in America, expanding it well beyond East Coast Irish communities and a few others in the Midwest. It had a significant impact on other scholars, myself included. His new book, which deals with the Irish experience in the West, therefore, has been much anticipated. Beyond the American Pale will not disappoint those who have waited for Emmons\u27s take on the larger picture of the Irish in the West, although it may not be what many expect

Review of \u3ci\u3eBeyond the American Pale: The Irish in the West, 1845-1910\u3c/i\u3e by David M. Emmons

David Emmons\u27s book on the Butte Irish (1989) helped begin a scholarly reassessment and investigation of the Irish experience in America, expanding it well beyond East Coast Irish communities and a few others in the Midwest. It had a significant impact on other scholars, myself included. His new book, which deals with the Irish experience in the West, therefore, has been much anticipated. Beyond the American Pale will not disappoint those who have waited for Emmons\u27s take on the larger picture of the Irish in the West, although it may not be what many expect

Pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety in THA patients with differing radiographic severity

Background: Comorbid mood disorders and pain catastrophizing behavior in patients with hip osteoarthritis have been associated with worse pain scores and more functional limitations before and after undergoing a total hip arthroplasty (THA). There remain questions regarding the relationship between severity of hip disease and mental health factors on preoperative measures in patients with differing radiographic disease. The purpose of this study was to assess preoperative pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety scores in THA patients with less severe radiographic hip arthritis compared to those with more severe radiographic disease. Methods: A total of 785 patients were enrolled in a prospective cohort of THA patients at a tertiary hip program over a 5-year period. Study participation consisted of preoperative and postoperative survey completion with a minimum of 1-year postoperative follow-up. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was used to assess for pain catastrophizing. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A, HADS-D) was used to assess for anxiety and depression. Radiographic severity was assessed using preoperative radiographs and was graded with the Tönnis classification of osteoarthritis and joint space width. Results: Preoperative and postoperative surveys were completed for 411 patients. Preoperatively, 58 patients (14.11%) had a clinically relevant PCS score, 72 patients (17.52%) had an abnormal HADS-D score, and 69 patients (16.79%) had an abnormal HADS-A score. Tönnis Grade 0/1 patients had more abnormal preoperative HADS-A scores than Tönnis Grade 2/3 patients (20.51% vs 11.11%, p = 0.036). There were no statistically significant differences in the preoperative PCS (p = 0.104) and HADS-D (p = 0.188) scores between Tönnis Grade 0/1 patients and Tönnis Grade 2/3 patients. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that patients with less severe radiographic disease had greater anxiety scores. This suggests that patients with clinically relevant anxiety were more likely to undergo a THA earlier in the course of their hip pathology rather than continuing with conservative management until they progress to end-stage disease. There was no difference in pain catastrophizing and depression scores between groups of less and more severe hip disease

Evidence of a metabolic memory to early-life dietary restriction in male C57BL/6 mice

<p>Background: Dietary restriction (DR) extends lifespan and induces beneficial metabolic effects in many animals. What is far less clear is whether animals retain a metabolic memory to previous DR exposure, that is, can early-life DR preserve beneficial metabolic effects later in life even after the resumption of ad libitum (AL) feeding. We examined a range of metabolic parameters (body mass, body composition (lean and fat mass), glucose tolerance, fed blood glucose, fasting plasma insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), insulin sensitivity) in male C57BL/6 mice dietary switched from DR to AL (DR-AL) at 11 months of age (mid life). The converse switch (AL-DR) was also undertaken at this time. We then compared metabolic parameters of the switched mice to one another and to age-matched mice maintained exclusively on an AL or DR diet from early life (3 months of age) at 1 month, 6 months or 10 months post switch.</p> <p>Results: Male mice dietary switched from AL-DR in mid life adopted the metabolic phenotype of mice exposed to DR from early life, so by the 10-month timepoint the AL-DR mice overlapped significantly with the DR mice in terms of their metabolic phenotype. Those animals switched from DR-AL in mid life showed clear evidence of a glycemic memory, with significantly improved glucose tolerance relative to mice maintained exclusively on AL feeding from early life. This difference in glucose tolerance was still apparent 10 months after the dietary switch, despite body mass, fasting insulin levels and insulin sensitivity all being similar to AL mice at this time.</p> <p>Conclusions: Male C57BL/6 mice retain a long-term glycemic memory of early-life DR, in that glucose tolerance is enhanced in mice switched from DR-AL in mid life, relative to AL mice, even 10 months following the dietary switch. These data therefore indicate that the phenotypic benefits of DR are not completely dissipated following a return to AL feeding. The challenge now is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects, the time course of these effects and whether similar interventions can confer comparable benefits in humans.</p&gt

Preparation, structural characterisation and antibacterial properties of Ga-doped sol-gel phosphate-based glass

A sol-gel preparation of Ga-doped phosphate-based glass with potential application in antimicrobial devices has been developed. Samples of composition (CaO)(0.30)(Na2O)(0.20-x) (Ga2O3) (x) (P2O5)(0.50) where x = 0 and 0.03 were prepared, and the structure and properties of the gallium-doped sample compared with those of the sample containing no gallium. Analysis of the P-31 MAS NMR data demonstrated that addition of gallium to the sol-gel reaction increases the connectivity of the phosphate network at the expense of hydroxyl groups. This premise is supported by the results of the elemental analysis, which showed that the gallium-free sample contains significantly more hydrogen and by FTIR spectroscopy, which revealed a higher concentration of -OH groups in that sample. Ga K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray absorption near-edge structure data revealed that the gallium ions are coordinated by six oxygen atoms. In agreement with the X-ray absorption data, the high-energy XRD results also suggest that the Ga3+ ions are octahedrally coordinated with respect to oxygen. Antimicrobial studies demonstrated that the sample containing Ga3+ ions had significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus compared to the control

Dental management considerations for the patient with an acquired coagulopathy. Part 1: Coagulopathies from systemic disease

Current teaching suggests that many patients are at risk for prolonged bleeding during and following invasive dental procedures, due to an acquired coagulopathy from systemic disease and/or from medications. However, treatment standards for these patients often are the result of long-standing dogma with little or no scientific basis. The medical history is critical for the identification of patients potentially at risk for prolonged bleeding from dental treatment. Some time-honoured laboratory tests have little or no use in community dental practice. Loss of functioning hepatic, renal, or bone marrow tissue predisposes to acquired coagulopathies through different mechanisms, but the relationship to oral haemostasis is poorly understood. Given the lack of established, science-based standards, proper dental management requires an understanding of certain principles of pathophysiology for these medical conditions and a few standard laboratory tests. Making changes in anticoagulant drug regimens are often unwarranted and/or expensive, and can put patients at far greater risk for morbidity and mortality than the unlikely outcome of postoperative bleeding. It should be recognised that prolonged bleeding is a rare event following invasive dental procedures, and therefore the vast majority of patients with suspected acquired coagulopathies are best managed in the community practice setting

Salerno's model of DNA reanalysed: could solitons have biological significance?

We investigate the sequence-dependent behaviour of localised excitations in a toy, nonlinear model of DNA base-pair opening originally proposed by Salerno. Specifically we ask whether ``breather'' solitons could play a role in the facilitated location of promoters by RNA polymerase. In an effective potential formalism, we find excellent correlation between potential minima and {\em Escherichia coli} promoter recognition sites in the T7 bacteriophage genome. Evidence for a similar relationship between phage promoters and downstream coding regions is found and alternative reasons for links between AT richness and transcriptionally-significant sites are discussed. Consideration of the soliton energy of translocation provides a novel dynamical picture of sliding: steep potential gradients correspond to deterministic motion, while ``flat'' regions, corresponding to homogeneous AT or GC content, are governed by random, thermal motion. Finally we demonstrate an interesting equivalence between planar, breather solitons and the helical motion of a sliding protein ``particle'' about a bent DNA axis.Comment: Latex file 20 pages, 5 figures. Manuscript of paper to appear in J. Biol. Phys., accepted 02/09/0

The interferon gamma gene polymorphism +874 A/T is associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome

BACKGROUND: Cytokines play important roles in antiviral action. We examined whether polymorphisms of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-10 affect the susceptibility to and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS: A case-control study was carried out in 476 Chinese SARS patients and 449 healthy controls. We tested the polymorphisms of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-10 for their associations with SARS. RESULTS: IFN-γ +874A allele was associated with susceptibility to SARS in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.001). Individuals with IFN-γ +874 AA and AT genotype had a 5.19-fold (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 2.78-9.68) and 2.57-fold (95% CI, 1.35-4.88) increased risk of developing SARS respectively. The polymorphisms of IL-10 and TNF-α were not associated with SARS susceptibility. CONCLUSION: IFN-γ +874A allele was shown to be a risk factor in SARS susceptibility