Class Action Suits and Social Change: The Organization and Impact of the Hill-Burton Cases

Symposium: The Sociology of Class Actions NOTE: A printing error labeled this issue Spring 1982, when it should have been labeled Summer 198

The Plague of Athens and the Cult of Asclepius: A Case Study of Collective Behavior and a Social Movement

Abstract During the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, several waves of a plague killed an estimated one-third of the civilian Athenian population and one-fourth of its army. Thucydides account of the plague and the subsequent rise of the cult of Asclepius can be examined as perhaps the earliest case study of collective behavior and a social movement. In his account of the plague, Thucydides reveals a sociological imagination and concepts including anomie and escalating stages of collective behavior. Social movements often arise in times of sudden changes and social unrest, becoming a source of spiritual and political empowerment. The cult of Asclepius rose to prominence after the plague as a redemptive and reformative social movement. In the wake of the plague, the cult established new religious norms of healing and supported the growth of Hippocratic medicine throughout the ancient Mediterranean world

Immunochemistry of adenoviruses: Limitations and new horizons of gene therapy

Adenoviruses have increasingly been recognized as significant viral pathogens causing highmorbidity andmortality especially among immunocompromised individuals such as transplant recipients and AIDS patients. Through the infection process, after the adenovirus fiber and penton are bonded to cell surface receptors through special amino acid moieties, secondary messengers activate protein kinases, pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Serotype and species specific antibodies also are induced. Recombinant human adenoviruses have been pivotal in the development of gene therapy strategies and have shown a great promise for the treatment of genetic disorders and malignancies. Recent studies have enlightened their harmful immunological effects dependent on fiber and hexon polypeptide structure and receptor binding. Pre-existing antibodies or those elicited by vectors neutralize input recombinant adenovirus particles rendering them ineffective. Mediators induce serious even lethal side effects and cytotoxic reactions which extinguish transgene expression. To overcome these difficulties new strategies are required in the application of recombinant adenoviruses to redirect vector entry from the natural receptors to alternative binding sites or using rare human or animal adenovirus fiber molecules to modify the native fiber structure by altering amino acid structure and creating chimeric fibers. This requires searching for, isolating and characterizing new serotypes, mutants or variants for new generation vectors. Human adenovirus 1 feline isolate (feline adenovirus) might fulfil these criteria