Remixed Nations: Dominican-Puerto Rican Nationalism in Sietenueve's Hip-Hop

This essay studies Hip-Hop by Sietenueve, a Puerto Rican MC of Dominican descent, as a rewriting of Puerto Rican nationalism which makes room for a dual national identity. In doing so, the essay focuses on the emergent point of view of the second generation of the Dominican diaspora in Puerto Rico and on its novel articulations of national identity. Operating within broader aesthetic networks of Hip-Hop and the Caribbean, Sietenueve revisits Puerto Rican icons so as to counter the homogenizing cultural patterns resulting from neoliberalism and at the same time unmoor nationalism from traditional hierarchies and open it up to the Dominican diaspora. Moreover, Sietenueve imagines a poetic link to an ancestral Dominican homeland and thus replaces notions of rootedness with liberating motifs of mobility and creativity. In that sense, Sietenueve's Hip-Hop persona is emblematic of a Dominican second generation in Puerto Rico that is empowered by its double ability to remix and redefine both outmoded Puerto Rican icons and physically distant Dominican lands

The House of Pretension: Space and Performance in Miguel Piñero's Theatre

Nuyorican poet and playwright Miguel Piñero sets his play Short Eyes and his collection Outrageous One-Act Plays in theatrical spaces that highlight confinement as an inescapable reality where identities are dictated by racial and social hierarchies. This emphasis on spatial limitation continues a particular tendency in Puerto Rican island essays and theatre toward representing identities marked by their defensive self-enclosing in domestic spaces. Piñero in turn transforms this isolation by highlighting the marginality of those who experience it and poses a performed element through which solidarity with other ethnic and social groups can be envisioned. By studying this aspect of Piñero’s theatre, Nuyorican drama can be reconnected with island culture in order to transcend a separation of both literary bodies that is common in criticism. (RI

Scapular body fractures—should we be fixing more of these?

The question of whether we should be fixing more scapular body fractures originates from the historical preference for nonoperative management of these fractures. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in operative management due to the recognition that scapular malunion can cause significant disability. While the treatment pendulum has shifted away from benign neglect, finding the right balance of surgical aggression remains controversial. In general, the majority of scapula fractures can successfully be treated nonoperatively with excellent functional results. However, numerous case studies exist demonstrating poor outcomes of scapular body or neck fractures with increased deformity. The literature suggests that a glenopolar angle (GPA) less than 20 degrees can lead to a significant decrease in shoulder function. Additionally, retrospective studies using lateral border offset (LBO) greater than >2 cm and angulation >45 degrees as a surgical indication demonstrate functional outcomes with near normal strength and range of motion and low complication rates. While numerous cut-offs for surgical indications have been recommended, all indications are considered relative and treatment should be individualized based on patient characteristics and goals

Insights into the Physiology of Childbirth Using Transcriptomics

Romero and colleagues discuss a study in PLoS Medicine that used microarrays to determine labor-associated gene expression profiles in the human uterus

Gene Expression Profiling of Embryonic Human Neural Stem Cells and Dopaminergic Neurons from Adult Human Substantia Nigra

Neural stem cells (NSC) with self-renewal and multipotent properties serve as an ideal cell source for transplantation to treat neurodegenerative insults such as Parkinson's disease. We used Agilent's and Illumina Whole Human Genome Oligonucleotide Microarray to compare the genomic profiles of human embryonic NSC at a single time point in culture, and a multicellular tissue from postmortem adult substantia nigra (SN) which are rich in dopaminergic (DA) neurons. We identified 13525 up-regulated genes in both cell types of which 3737 (27.6%) genes were up-regulated in the hENSC, 4116 (30.4%) genes were up-regulated in the human substantia nigra dopaminergic cells, and 5672 (41.93%) were significantly up-regulated in both cell population. Careful analysis of the data that emerged using DAVID has permitted us to distinguish several genes and pathways that are involved in dopaminergic (DA) differentiation, and to identify the crucial signaling pathways that direct the process of differentiation. The set of genes expressed more highly at hENSC is enriched in molecules known or predicted to be involved in the M phase of the mitotic cell cycle. On the other hand, the genes enriched in SN cells include a different set of functional categories, namely synaptic transmission, central nervous system development, structural constituents of the myelin sheath, the internode region of axons, myelination, cell projection, cell somata, ion transport, and the voltage-gated ion channel complex. Our results were also compared with data from various databases, and between different types of arrays, Agilent versus Illumina. This approach has allowed us to confirm the consistency of our obtained results for a large number of genes that delineate the phenotypical differences of embryonic NSCs, and SN cells

Inflammatory Gene Regulatory Networks in Amnion Cells Following Cytokine Stimulation: Translational Systems Approach to Modeling Human Parturition

A majority of the studies examining the molecular regulation of human labor have been conducted using single gene approaches. While the technology to produce multi-dimensional datasets is readily available, the means for facile analysis of such data are limited. The objective of this study was to develop a systems approach to infer regulatory mechanisms governing global gene expression in cytokine-challenged cells in vitro, and to apply these methods to predict gene regulatory networks (GRNs) in intrauterine tissues during term parturition. To this end, microarray analysis was applied to human amnion mesenchymal cells (AMCs) stimulated with interleukin-1β, and differentially expressed transcripts were subjected to hierarchical clustering, temporal expression profiling, and motif enrichment analysis, from which a GRN was constructed. These methods were then applied to fetal membrane specimens collected in the absence or presence of spontaneous term labor. Analysis of cytokine-responsive genes in AMCs revealed a sterile immune response signature, with promoters enriched in response elements for several inflammation-associated transcription factors. In comparison to the fetal membrane dataset, there were 34 genes commonly upregulated, many of which were part of an acute inflammation gene expression signature. Binding motifs for nuclear factor-κB were prominent in the gene interaction and regulatory networks for both datasets; however, we found little evidence to support the utilization of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) signaling. The tissue specimens were also enriched for transcripts governed by hypoxia-inducible factor. The approach presented here provides an uncomplicated means to infer global relationships among gene clusters involved in cellular responses to labor-associated signals