Age Dependent Dehydration of Postmitotic Cells as Measured by X-Ray Microanalysis of Bulk Specimens

In this paper we give a brief outline of our bulk specimen technique developed to measure intracellular water concentration in frozen-hydrated biological specimens by means of energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Fractured surface of the deep-frozen tissue samples is analyzed in an electron microscope (a specimen area of 15x11.5 m is scanned) using 20 kV accelerating voltage and 1-5 pA effective beam current (measured in the specimen). Strong electric charging, which is the main problem associated with the low temperature X-ray microanalysis of frozen-hydrated specimens, is reduced by choosing optimum temperature range for the measurements (170-185 K) and by etching a thin surface layer on specimen surface. The main advantage of the method over other X-ray microanalytical techniques using sections and bulk specimens for water and dry-mass content determinations in cells (which are shortly reviewed) is the simple specimen preparation, the easy sample handling and the good stability of specimen during measurements. The main disadvantage is the poor spatial resolution as compared to the analysis of sections. Measurements with our method provided meaningful results of the change in intracellular water contents in various postmitotic cells of rats dependent on age. The observed decline of the intracellular water contents results in increased ionic strength and slower diffusion in old cells than in young ones. These effects may be implicated in senescent deterioration of cell metabolism

Alterations of the Intracellular Water and Ion Concentrations in Brain and Liver Cells During Aging as Revealed by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Microanalysis of Bulk Specimens

Age dependence of the intracellular concentrations of monovalent ions (Na+, K+ and Cl-) was examined in 1, 11 and 25-month-old rat brain and liver cells by using energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. The in vivo concentrations of Na+, K+ and Cl- ions were calculated from two different measurements: The elemental concentrations were measured in freeze-dried tissue pieces, and the intracellular water content was determined by means of a recently developed X-ray microanalytic method, using frozen-hydrated and fractured bulk specimens as well as subsequent freeze-drying. All the single monovalent ion concentrations and consequently, also the total monovalent ion content showed statistically significant increases during aging in brain cortical neurons. A 3-6% loss of the intracellular water content was accompanied by a 25-45% increase of the monovalent ionic strengths by the age of 25 months. A membrane protective OH radical scavenger (centrophenoxine) reversed the dehydration in the nerve cells of old animals, resulting in a decrease of the intracellular ion concentrations. Aging has a less prominent effect on the water and ion contents of the hepatocytes. The degree of water loss of cytoplasm exceeds that of the nuclei in the liver, suggesting that dominantly the translational steps can be involved in the general age altered slowing down of the protein synthetic machinery, predicted by the membrane hypothesis of aging (Zs.- Nagy, 1978)

Production studies, transformations in children’s television and the global turn

Moving away from the dominant discourse of US experience, this article looks at how the production of local content for children remains a central issue in many parts of the world, in spite of the growth of transnational media and the apparent abundance of content for children worldwide. Drawing on a pre-summit workshop on Children’s Content at the Core of Public Service Media, held at the 2014 World Summit on Media for Children, it considers the lack of academic perspectives on production, before exploring with workshop participants the regulatory and funding frameworks for quality children’s content, and the conditions for their successful implementation. There is a continuing problem about producing sustainable children’s content, and western models are not always the most appropriate at providing solutions, which need to be nuanced and tailored to different national, regional and local contexts

Transnational children\u27s television: The case of nickelodeon in the south pacific

This article examines children\u27s television in the context of the debate on media globalization by positioning Viacom-owned Nickelodeon, currently beamed into more than 400 million households, as a quintessential type of transnational television that is critical to understanding the contemporary landscape of media industries and cultures worldwide. The author argues that the majority of globally branded children\u27s television networks, in comparison to other types of transnational television often associated with multidirectional media flow, tend to be merely clones of the original US versions. However, this argument is intended to move beyond traditional references to either cultural or American imperialism. By counterposing two locales, the article uses Nickelodeon\u27s operations in New Zealand and Australia as a case study to critically examine the corporate practice of localization employed by a US transnational children\u27s multimedia brand in different media markets. © The Author(s), 2010

The commercialization of children\u27s television in postsocialist Europe

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the children\u27s television business had become one of the fastest growing sectors of the European media industries. The emerging postsocialist media markets have become a high priority for both transnational and regional media companies looking for new audience groups. In this article, the author provides a historical overview of the transformations that occurred in the arena of children\u27s media culture in Eastern Europe during the last thirty years. Children\u27s television, which attained a symbolic importance in national public debates throughout the region after 1989, can provide a unique lens to examine broader social, political, and cultural issues related to the transformations of postsocialist media systems. The author analyzes the emergence of a new conceptualization of the child media user, who is more influential than ever before, but whose power is given, expressed, and experienced primarily through consumption. Children\u27s television in Hungary is used as a case study to provide an in-depth and detailed analysis of such transformations using diverse sources including TV guides, television programs, and in-depth interviews conducted with media professionals and policymakers between 1998 and 2008. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Negotiating \u27non-profit\u27: The survival strategies of the Sesame Workshop

Our study focuses on Sesame Street and sets out to examine how Sesame Workshop, as a \u27non-profit\u27 organization targeting children, has been able to continuously transform and make itself relevant in a predominantly commercial children\u27s television landscape dominated by transnational ownership structures. The analysis includes an investigation of Sesame Workshop\u27s mission statements, organizational structure, annual fiscal reports, promotional material and other written sources from the 1970s to the 2010s. We focus on the Workshop\u27s own arguments and reasons for why their \u27non-profit\u27 status was, and still is, better at taking care of children\u27s interests than the for-profit companies. These understandings are held up against the, at times, very commercial logic guiding the workshop\u27s business model, and analysed within the economic and political context of children\u27s television in the United States and the Workshop\u27s key international target markets. Our theoretical framework draws upon insights from work on political economy and children\u27s media and comparative media systems

Popular television in Eastern Europe during and since socialism

This collection of essays responds to the recent surge of interest in popular television in Eastern Europe. This is a region where television\u27s transformation has been especially spectacular, shifting from a state-controlled broadcast system delivering national, regional, and heavily filtered Western programming to a deregulated, multi-platform, transnational system delivering predominantly American and Western European entertainment programming. Consequently, the nations of Eastern Europe provide opportunities to examine the complex interactions among economic and funding systems, regulatory policies, globalization, imperialism, popular culture, and cultural identity.This collection will be the first volume to gather the best writing, by scholars across and outside the region, on socialist and postsocialist entertainment television as a medium, technology, and institution

From the Simpsons to The Simpsons of the South Pacific : New Zealand\u27s first primetime animation, bro\u27Town

New Zealand\u27s first primetime animated program, bro\u27Town, ran successfully for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. Described by its creators as a modern-day non-PC satire, bro\u27Town focuses on five New Zealand teenagers of Samoan and Maori ethnicities growing up in Auckland. While the program was promoted as The Simpsons of the South Pacific, its audience, critics, and politicians have celebrated it as a twenty-first-century New Zealand creative success story. This article explores the historical, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped bro\u27Town in the context of the debates on media globalization using the framework of hybridity as the cultural logic of globalization as well as the framework of global television formats. The authors suggest that bro\u27Town represents a complex case of television program adaptation and provides a unique case study to examine the multilayered nature of contemporary hybrid cultural forms moving beyond the simplistic local-global dyad. © 2010 SAGE Publications