1,257 research outputs found
Diaspora of Islamic Cultures: Continuity and Change
This paper, drawing upon an ongoing research project funded by Canadaâs Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Ford Foundation, introduces the main ideas and themes that inform the study of changing gender and family relations among four displaced communities of Islamic cultures (Iranian, Afghan, Palestinian, and Pakistani). For members of each group, three sets of âcircumstancesâ are analyzed â an individualâs experience in the home and host country, together with an examination of socio-economic conditions and policies in the host. In addition to these social and economic factors, in particular, it will focus on the ways in which social class, gender, and religious commitments affect an individualâs experience when they move. It is argued that gender significantly impacts new migrantsâ experience and how they feel about their âhomeâ country. One of our main hypotheses is that under pressures of a rapid, often difficult, social and cultural transformation, changing gender dynamics in the new country can lead to a new understanding among partners â or, alternatively, to heightened tension, with severely damaging effects, particularly for women and children. Culturally, when family understandings collapse, this process may be accompanied by an effort to find religious justification for gender inequality. Then, a connection can be seen between difficulties in the new country, the efforts of conservative men to reclaim the dominance they once enjoyed in their countries of origin, and give it a religious justification. Hence, the revival, in the diaspora, of conservative Islamic practice and belief.InspirĂ© dâun projet de recherche toujours en cours â projet financĂ© conjointement par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH, et la Fondation Ford â cet article prĂ©sente les thĂšmes majeurs et les idĂ©es principales sous-jacents Ă cette Ă©tude sur les changements qui sâopĂšrent dans les relations entre membres des deux sexes ainsi quâau sein de la structure familiale pour quatre groupes de dĂ©placĂ©s de culture islamique â les communautĂ©s iranienne, afghane, palestinienne et pakistanaise. Trois ensembles de « circonstances » sont analysĂ©s pour les membres de chaque communautĂ© : lâexpĂ©rience personnelle dâun individu dans son pays dâorigine et dans le pays hĂŽte, ainsi quâune analyse des conditions socio-Ă©conomiques et des politiques en cours dans le pays hĂŽte. En plus de ces facteurs sociaux et Ă©conomiques, seront aussi examinĂ©s de plus prĂšs les façons dont lâappartenance Ă une classe sociale, le fait dâĂȘtre un homme ou une femme et le degrĂ© dâattachement Ă la religion influent sur lâexpĂ©rience dâun individu lorsquâil Ă©migre. Lâauteure soutient que lâappartenance Ă un genre ou Ă un autre â la sexospĂ©cificitĂ© - influe de façon notable sur lâexpĂ©rience vĂ©cue par les nouveaux migrants et sur leur sentiment envers leur âpatrieâ. Lâune des principales hypothĂšses est que, sous la pression des transformations sociales et culturelles qui sâopĂšrent rapidement â et souvent difficilement â les changements dans la dynamique des relations entre les deux sexes dans le nouveau pays peuvent amener une nouvelle comprĂ©hension entre les partenaires â ou, au contraire, contribuer Ă des relations interpersonnelles plus tendues, avec des effets dommageables tout particuliĂšrement pour les femmes et les enfants. Dans un contexte culturel, lorsque lâharmonie familiale se dĂ©sintĂšgre, ce processus peut sâaccompagner dâefforts pour essayer de trouver des justifications religieuses Ă lâinĂ©galitĂ© entre les genres. On peut donc Ă©tablir un lien entre les difficultĂ©s vĂ©cues dans le nouveau pays et les efforts dĂ©ployĂ©s par les hommes conservateurs pour essayer de retrouver leur position dominante quâils occupaient dans leur pays dâorigine, tout en lui donnant une justification religieuse. Ceci explique la renaissance Ă lâintĂ©rieur de la diaspora, de pratiques et de croyances islamiques conservatrices
Phototoxic aptamers selectively enter and kill epithelial cancer cells
The majority of cancers arise from malignant epithelial cells. We report the design of synthetic oligonucleotides (aptamers) that are only internalized by epithelial cancer cells and can be precisely activated by light to kill such cells. Specifically, phototoxic DNA aptamers were selected to bind to unique short O-glycan-peptide signatures on the surface of breast, colon, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells. These surface antigens are not present on normal epithelial cells but are internalized and routed through endosomal and Golgi compartments by cancer cells, thus providing a focused mechanism for their intracellular delivery. When modified at their 5âČ end with the photodynamic therapy agent chlorin e6 and delivered to epithelial cancer cells, these aptamers exhibited a remarkable enhancement (>500-fold increase) in toxicity upon light activation, compared to the drug alone and were not cytotoxic towards cell types lacking such O-glycan-peptide markers. Our findings suggest that these synthetic oligonucleotide aptamers can serve as delivery vehicles in precisely routing cytotoxic cargoes to and into epithelial cancer cells
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