Plural Society Portrayed In Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

The highlight of characters in a novel is really important to be understood to reach a comprehensive understanding, because, “learning literature is the same way as to overcome our problems” (Wellek and Warren, 1965: 23). The Alchemist novel has many positive appreciations from the readers. This novel is full of symbols, wise words, motivation, cultural aspects and human values. Many researches are done to analyze this novel. Intrinsic and extrinsic elements are already done by some previous researcher. The study about plural society that are clearly portrayed in this novel, has not been analyzed yet. This study is aimed to describe the characteristics of plural society portrayed in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and to explain the attitudes of both main and supporting characters toward the plural society in this novel. This research is classified as a descriptive qualitative method. The primary data source of this study is the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1986) translated from Spain to English by Alan R. Clarke (1992). This novel consists of 88 pages. The collecting data process is note-taking technique. So, this study is also categorized as library research. Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapters, the researcher draws the conclusions such follows. There are twelve aspects or characteristics that becomes the portrayal or reflection of the plural society found in this novel. They are the condition of multi-races or ethnics, religion, language, social organization, knowledge system, economic system, technology, arts, symbols, value and belief, norms, custom and tradition. Furthermore, it is found that the main character’s attitudes (Santiago’s) toward the plural society are: assimilation, acculturation, pluralism, cultural change, cultural integration, and accommodation. It is also found that the supporting character’s attitudes toward the plural society are: assimilation, cultural continuity, cultural change, cultural integration, cultural conflict, and pluralism

Tumor Cell Plasticity and Angiogenesis in Human Melanomas

Recent molecular studies provide evidence for a significant transcriptional plasticity of tumor cell subpopulations that facilitate an active contribution to tumor vasculature. This feature is accompanied by morphological changes both in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we investigated the morphological plasticity of tumor cells with special focus on vasculogenic mimicry and neovascularisation in human melanoma and mouse xenografts of human melanoma cell lines. In melanoma xenograft experiments, different vessel markers and green fluorescent protein expression were used to show how melanoma cells contribute to neovascularization. Additionally, we analyzed neovascularization in 49 primary melanomas and 175 melanoma metastases using immunostaining for blood (CD34) and lymphatic (D2–40) vessel-specific markers. We found significantly more lymphatic vessels in primary melanomas than in melanoma metastases (p<0.0001). In contrast to the near absence of lymphatic vessels within metastases, we found extensive blood micro-neovascularization. Blood micro-neovascularization was absent in micro metastases (less than 2 mm). A significant inverse correlation between Glut-1 expression (implying local hypoxia) and the presence of microvessels indicates their functional activity as blood vessels (p<0.0001). We suggest that the hypoxic microenvironment in metastases contributes to a phenotype switch allowing melanoma cells to physically contribute to blood vessel formation

Choosing the right cell line for breast cancer research

Breast cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease. Gene expression profiling has contributed significantly to our understanding of this heterogeneity at a molecular level, refining taxonomy based on simple measures such as histological type, tumour grade, lymph node status and the presence of predictive markers like oestrogen receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) to a more sophisticated classification comprising luminal A, luminal B, basal-like, HER2-positive and normal subgroups. In the laboratory, breast cancer is often modelled using established cell lines. In the present review we discuss some of the issues surrounding the use of breast cancer cell lines as experimental models, in light of these revised clinical classifications, and put forward suggestions for improving their use in translational breast cancer research