Confronting Otherness: Jewish Women in Preholocaust Poland

A lecture by Dr. Paula E. Hyman, Lucy Moses Professor Modern Jewish History, Yale University.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1210/thumbnail.jp

A tau homeostasis signature is linked with the cellular and regional vulnerability of excitatory neurons to tau pathology.

Excitatory neurons are preferentially impaired in early Alzheimer's disease but the pathways contributing to their relative vulnerability remain largely unknown. Here we report that pathological tau accumulation takes place predominantly in excitatory neurons compared to inhibitory neurons, not only in the entorhinal cortex, a brain region affected in early Alzheimer's disease, but also in areas affected later by the disease. By analyzing RNA transcripts from single-nucleus RNA datasets, we identified a specific tau homeostasis signature of genes differentially expressed in excitatory compared to inhibitory neurons. One of the genes, BCL2-associated athanogene 3 (BAG3), a facilitator of autophagy, was identified as a hub, or master regulator, gene. We verified that reducing BAG3 levels in primary neurons exacerbated pathological tau accumulation, whereas BAG3 overexpression attenuated it. These results define a tau homeostasis signature that underlies the cellular and regional vulnerability of excitatory neurons to tau pathology

Systematic Review of Potential Health Risks Posed by Pharmaceutical, Occupational and Consumer Exposures to Metallic and Nanoscale Aluminum, Aluminum Oxides, Aluminum Hydroxide and Its Soluble Salts

Aluminum (Al) is a ubiquitous substance encountered both naturally (as the third most abundant element) and intentionally (used in water, foods, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines); it is also present in ambient and occupational airborne particulates. Existing data underscore the importance of Al physical and chemical forms in relation to its uptake, accumulation, and systemic bioavailability. The present review represents a systematic examination of the peer-reviewed literature on the adverse health effects of Al materials published since a previous critical evaluation compiled by Krewski et al. (2007). Challenges encountered in carrying out the present review reflected the experimental use of different physical and chemical Al forms, different routes of administration, and different target organs in relation to the magnitude, frequency, and duration of exposure. Wide variations in diet can result in Al intakes that are often higher than the World Health Organization provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), which is based on studies with Al citrate. Comparing daily dietary Al exposures on the basis of “total Al”assumes that gastrointestinal bioavailability for all dietary Al forms is equivalent to that for Al citrate, an approach that requires validation. Current occupational exposure limits (OELs) for identical Al substances vary as much as 15-fold. The toxicity of different Al forms depends in large measure on their physical behavior and relative solubility in water. The toxicity of soluble Al forms depends upon the delivered dose of Al+ 3 to target tissues. Trivalent Al reacts with water to produce bidentate superoxide coordination spheres [Al(O2)(H2O4)+ 2 and Al(H2O)6 + 3] that after complexation with O2•−, generate Al superoxides [Al(O2•)](H2O5)]+ 2. Semireduced AlO2• radicals deplete mitochondrial Fe and promote generation of H2O2, O2 • − and OH•. Thus, it is the Al+ 3-induced formation of oxygen radicals that accounts for the oxidative damage that leads to intrinsic apoptosis. In contrast, the toxicity of the insoluble Al oxides depends primarily on their behavior as particulates. Aluminum has been held responsible for human morbidity and mortality, but there is no consistent and convincing evidence to associate the Al found in food and drinking water at the doses and chemical forms presently consumed by people living in North America and Western Europe with increased risk for Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). Neither is there clear evidence to show use of Al-containing underarm antiperspirants or cosmetics increases the risk of AD or breast cancer. Metallic Al, its oxides, and common Al salts have not been shown to be either genotoxic or carcinogenic. Aluminum exposures during neonatal and pediatric parenteral nutrition (PN) can impair bone mineralization and delay neurological development. Adverse effects to vaccines with Al adjuvants have occurred; however, recent controlled trials found that the immunologic response to certain vaccines with Al adjuvants was no greater, and in some cases less than, that after identical vaccination without Al adjuvants. The scientific literature on the adverse health effects of Al is extensive. Health risk assessments for Al must take into account individual co-factors (e.g., age, renal function, diet, gastric pH). Conclusions from the current review point to the need for refinement of the PTWI, reduction of Al contamination in PN solutions, justification for routine addition of Al to vaccines, and harmonization of OELs for Al substances

Review of Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia on CD-ROM

Book review (CD-ROM format) of a work that attempts to cover the whole Jewish world and all of Jewish culture from the Hebrew Bible to the present. Also available online: http://jwa.org

The transformation of Jewish identity in Vienna, 1918--1938.

This dissertation examines the ways in which literature, theater, politics and gender not only reflected but also actively shaped the identities of Viennese Jews after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In response to more narrowly defined constructions of Jewish identity, it draws out the subtler patterns of association and socialization that characterized modern Jewish life, including matters of taste, cultural alignment and political membership. Study of these socio-cultural affiliations ultimately shows that for many Austrian authors, dramatists, and politicians---and for their broader audience---a Jewish background mattered a great deal in the process of negotiating and fashioning culture.The first chapter introduces the issues at stake during the insecure, uncertain and volatile years from 1918 to 1938 that profoundly affected all Austrians, but transformed the lives of Jewish Austrians in particular. It investigates the wide spectrum of Jewish responses to the postwar political and social crises as Jews were forced to renegotiate previously comfortable identities. The second chapter explores one such response through the involvement of socialist leader David Joseph Bach in the cultural policies of "Red Vienna," which reflected the emphasis on Bildung already popular among secular Central European Jews. In contrast to this enthusiasm for Bildung, journalist Else Feldmann's position as an impoverished Jewish woman allowed her to make visible the problems of interwar Socialism often glossed over by more idealistic, bourgeois party leaders. The third chapter considers authors Veza Canetti and Mela Hartwig, who likewise maintained critical distances to ideologies supported by many of their male counterparts, including socialism and psychoanalysis. Chapter four argues that new space in the Viennese public sphere allowed women including Eugenie Schwarzwald, Berta Zuckerkandl and Alice Schalek to flourish as journalists, educators, and organizers of social welfare systems, even as the parallel development of antisemitism and misogyny limited their success. The last chapter examines Jewish participation in both Yiddish theater and the baroque Catholic Salzburg Festival, illustrating how the Jewish responses to political and social changes in interwar Austria included both support for and rejection of traditional notions of Jewish and Austrian identities.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2004.School code: 0265

Latino Group Consciousness and Perceptions of Commonality with African Americans

Currently, Latinos and African Americans constitute more than one-quarter of the U.S. population. The sheer size of these groups suggests an opportunity for increased political influence, with this opportunity providing the incentive for greater social and political interaction between them. The objective of this article is to determine the role of Latino group consciousness in the formation of attitudes toward African Americans. Copyright (c) 2008 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.