Sonne, Surfen, Sex und Soziologie : oder wie man eine wissenschaftliche Einführung als Roman verpackt

Rezension zu: Gerhard Wagner : Paulette am Strand. Roman zur Einführung in die Soziologie. Verlag Velbrück Wissenschaft, Weilerswist 2008. ISBN 978-3-938808-52-2 ; 144 Seiten, 19,90 Euro

Prolactin-induced mouse mammary carcinomas model estrogen resistant luminal breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Tumors that express estrogen receptor alpha (ERα+) comprise 75% of breast cancers in women. While treatments directed against this receptor have successfully lowered mortality rates, many primary tumors initially or later exhibit resistance. The paucity of murine models of this luminal tumor subtype has hindered studies of factors that promote their pathogenesis and modulate responsiveness to estrogen-directed therapeutics. Since epidemiologic studies closely link prolactin and the development of ERα+ tumors in women, we examined characteristics of the aggressive ERα+ and ERα- carcinomas which develop in response to mammary prolactin in a murine transgenic model (neu-related lipocalin- prolactin (NRL-PRL)). To evaluate their relationship to clinical tumors, we determined phenotypic relationships among these carcinomas, other murine models of breast cancer, and features of luminal tumors in women. METHODS: We examined a panel of prolactin-induced tumors for characteristics relevant to clinical tumors: histotype, ERα/progesterone receptor (PR) expression and estrogen responsiveness, Activating Protein 1 (AP-1) components, and phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (Stat5), extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 and AKT. We compared levels of transcripts in the ERα-associated luminal signature that defines this subtype of tumors in women and transcripts enriched in various mammary epithelial lineages to other well-studied genetically modified murine models of breast cancer. Finally, we used microarray analyses to compare prolactin-induced ERα+ and ERα- tumors, and examined responsiveness to estrogen and the anti-estrogen, Faslodex, in vivo. RESULTS: Prolactin-induced carcinomas were markedly diverse with respect to histotype, ERα/PR expression, and activated signaling cascades. They constituted a heterogeneous, but distinct group of murine mammary tumors, with molecular features of the luminal subtype of human breast cancer. In contrast to morphologically normal and hyperplastic structures in NRL-PRL females, carcinomas were insensitive to ERα-mediated signals. These tumors were distinct from mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-neu tumors, and contained elevated transcripts for factors associated with luminal/alveolar expansion and differentiation, suggesting that they arose from physiologic targets of prolactin. These features were shared by ERα+ and ERα- tumors, suggesting a common origin, although the former exhibited transcript profiles reflecting greater differentiation. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies demonstrate that prolactin can promote diverse carcinomas in mice, many of which resemble luminal breast cancers, providing a novel experimental model to examine the pathogenesis, progression and treatment responsiveness of this tumor subtype

MCL-1 is a prognostic indicator and drug target in breast cancer

Analysis of publicly available genomic and gene expression data demonstrates that MCL1 expression is frequently elevated in breast cancer. Distinct from other pro-survival Bcl-2 family members, the short half-life of MCL-1 protein led us to investigate MCL-1 protein expression in a breast cancer tissue microarray and correlate this with clinical data. Here, we report associations between high MCL-1 and poor prognosis in specific subtypes of breast cancer including triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form that lacks targeted treatment options. Deletion of MCL-1 in the mammary epithelium of genetically engineered mice revealed an absolute requirement for MCL-1 in breast tumorigenesis. The clinical applicability of these findings was tested through a combination of approaches including knock-down or inhibition of MCL-1 to show triple-negative breast cancer cell line dependence on MCL-1 in vitro and in vivo. Our data demonstrate that high MCL-1 protein expression is associated with poor outcome in breast cancer and support the therapeutic targeting of MCL-1 in this disease

Essays on Interpretation in Social Science

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Eros and Modernity: Georg Simmel on Love

The text below was originally published under the name “Eros and Modernity: Simmel on Love” in: The Sociology of Emotions: Original Essays and Research Paper. Franks, D.D. and E. Doyle McCarthy (ed.). Greenwich, CT: JAI press, 1989, pp. 229-247. In the words of its author, the text was written at a time when he was intensely engaged with Simmel, working on his philosophy of history and his hermeneutics. Today, Guy Oakes revisits this text and allows Simmel Studies Journal to republish it for this special issue on love. The text explores in its first part the defining characteristics of erotic love according to Simmel: individuality, reciprocity, immediacy and radicalism. In the second part he concentrates on modernity and how it has had an impact on love relationships

The Great War and the Genesis of Pigou’s A Study in Public Finance

This essay explores three closely linked themes. (1) The arguments A.C. Pigou employed in his political economy of the Great War to support his conclusions concerning how Britain could best pay for the war and finance the debt incurred in waging it. (2) The more general sociological and institutional assumptions of his political economy of war: his conviction, stated as early as February 1916, that some twenty years after the Great War, Britain would confront the prospect of a total war, requiring the mobilization of the economy to achieve the military objectives of the state; the institutional expansion and re-articulation of the state in responding to imperatives of national security; and the need for a much more sophisticated regime of public finance, grounded in an economic analysis that would identify the most effective means of covering the costs of these exigencies. (3) The genesis of his book A Study in Public Finance (1928) as a generalization and reconfiguration of his political economy of war on the plane of policy analysis

The Ethics of Political Economy: Pigou in the Public Sphere

The career of Arthur Cecil Pigou was marked by a clearly articulated project of public economic enlightenment initiated in 1903 and sustained into the mid-1950s. We argue as follows: Pigou held that in the British polity of his time, citizens were indirectly but ultimately responsible for economic policy. However, he was convinced that the British public was woefully ignorant of economic affairs and incapable of understanding elementary economic reasoning without expert advice. He placed the responsibility for enlightening the public on how to understand and assess economic policy on the economics profession, an obligation on which he acted in various essays, lectures, and letters to The Times intended for the “general body of the public.”La carrière d’Arthur Cecil Pigou a été marquée par un projet clairement défini visant à éveiller le grand public aux questions économiques. Ce projet fut initié en 1903 et dura jusqu’au milieu des années 1950. Nous défendons ce qui suit : Pigou a soutenu que dans la société politique britannique de son temps, les citoyens étaient indirectement, mais en fin de compte, responsables de la politique économique. Cependant, il était convaincu que le public britannique était terriblement ignorant des affaires économiques et incapable de comprendre un raisonnement économique élémentaire sans le conseil d’experts. Selon lui, la responsabilité d’éclairer le public sur la façon de comprendre et d’évaluer la politique économique incombait aux économistes, une obligation qu’il a mise en œuvre dans divers essais, des conférences et des lettres au Times destiné au « corps général du public.

On Pigou’s Theory of Economic Policy Analysis

The economics of A.C. Pigou is generally regarded as an ensemble of policies—chiefly ‘Pigouvian’ taxes and subsidies—designed to maximize economic welfare. We contest this view, arguing that Pigou was not a proponent of specific policies but rather a logician of policy analysis. Although he assessed welfare programs of his time, his judgments on policies were invariably prima facie, hedged and qualified by a formidable array of restrictive and contingent variables. Thus there are no definitively Pigouvian welfare measures. In Part I of the essay, we show that Pigou developed a blueprint for an analytical theory of economic welfare that specified the conditions an analysis of economic policy must satisfy in order to qualify as scientifically legitimate. In Part II, we examine his writings on public finance in order to explore the main inference he drew from this theory: the historicity of policy analysis, a critical aspect of his thought that has been largely neglected in the secondary literature.L’économie politique d’Arthur C. Pigou est en général considérée comme un ensemble de recommandations politiques - en particulier les taxes et les subventions « pigouviennes » - conçues de manière à maximiser le bien-être économique. Nous remettons en question cette conception et nous montrons que Pigou ne défendait pas certaines politiques en particulier, mais qu’il était plutôt un logicien de l’analyse des politiques. Bien qu’il se soit prononcé à propos des programmes économiques de son temps, ses jugements sur les politiques économiques étaient invariablement accompagnés d’une formidable gamme de variables restrictives et contingentes. Par conséquent il n’existe pas, à proprement parler, de mesures pigouviennes en matière d’économie du bien-être. Dans la première partie de cet article, nous montrons que Pigou a développé un projet préparatoire pour une théorie analytique du bien-être économique. Cette théorie spécifie les conditions qu’une analyse de la politique économique doit satisfaire pour pouvoir être considérée comme scientifique. Dans la seconde partie, nous examinons à travers ses travaux en finance publique les principaux enseignements qu’il a tirés de cette théorie : l’historicité de l’analyse des politiques économiques. Cet aspect de sa pensée a été très largement négligé par les commentateurs des travaux de Pigou