Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties, by Peter Biskind

Book review by Christopher Sharrett of Peter Biskind, Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. 371 pp

Intertextuality and the Breakup of Codes: Coppola\u27s Apocalypse Now

For all of the aesthetic flaws focused on by critics at its release in 1979, there is little question that Apocalypse Now is a pivotal American film, certainly in its description of the gradual transformation of mainstream cinematic narrative. If only by virtue of its use as a reference point for describing other films and cultural phenomena, Coppola\u27s film is a remarkable cultural artifact. Intertextual analysis of this film is necessary as it leaps the boundaries of genre categorization on an on-going basis, discovers new audiences, separates itself from the specific issue it addresses (Vietnam) to become important to other types of discourse, and enters into a wide-ranging discussion of the nature of apocalyptic consciousness in mass society and postmodern art

Notes on Cinema and the Romantic World-View

An examination of the cinema\u27s relationship to romanticism demonstrates the problematical business of periodizing an art movement and showing its relationship to a specific political/historical movement. Although the cinema did not exist during the years roughly 1798-1850, it is fair to say that the international cinema from its inception has embodied the controlling spirit and dialectic of Romanticism. It is extraordinary that relatively little has been said about the connections of film to the sensibility that arose with the emergence of industrialism and the bourgeoisie in the first half of the nineteenth century. Lecture given at the Romanticism Past and Present Institute for secondary school faculty, sponsored by Sacred Heart University and the Connecticut Humanities Council. The writers of these essays had the specific task of selecting and presenting their material with secondary school faculty and their students in mind

CHARACTERIZING CONSUMPTION, DEPENDENCE, AND THE ROLE OF GLUCOCORTICOIDS IN AN ANIMAL MODEL OF VOLUNTARY ETHANOL CONSUMPTION

Alcohol abuse disorders (AUD) represent a serious worldwide health problem with far reaching social, financial, and interpersonal implications. One of the most devastating facets of these disorders is the propensity to relapse following periods of abstinence. Ethanol withdrawal (EWD) is believed to promote relapse by increasing anxiety and craving, and may contribute to the development of cognitive decline associated with long-term dependence. Clinical data suggest that stress also plays a main role in both the development of AUD as well as relapse to drinking. As a physiological stressor, EtOH elevates levels of stress hormones (cortisol in humans, corticosterone (CORT) in the rat). Both CORT and EtOH have been shown to alter the composition, function, and activity of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, and in particular, the NR2B subunit of this receptor. These alterations have been suggested to mediate EWD, which may negatively impact abstinence rates. This synergistic interaction between EtOH and CORT may present a therapeutic target for the treatment of EWD. In fact, data suggest that blocking the glucocorticoid receptor, which is a main target for CORT, with RU-486 could promote abstinence, as treatment with the drug has been shown to reduce consumption and the development dependence, as well as the severity of EWD and the cognitive deficits following EWD. However, these latter effects have not been validated in models of voluntary EtOH consumption. As there is considerable evidence that active versus passive intake can significantly impact neuroadaptations to ethanol this is an important consideration. These studies sought to characterize consumption and evaluate the development of dependence in a chronic voluntary model of intermittent access (IA) to EtOH. CORT plasma levels and protein expression of the glucocorticoid and NR2B receptors were measured during and/or following exposure. Finally, to assess the role of CORT in EtOH consumption and the development of dependence, the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist ORG-34517 was administered during access to EtOH. IA access to 20% EtOH produced varying levels of consumption (2.0-6.7g/kg/24hr exposure) and blood EtOH levels (6.3-116.9 mg/dl), but did not significantly affect food consumption or weight gain. Baseline CORT levels were found to be predictive of subsequent EtOH consumption and levels of consumption were sufficient to elevate CORT levels following one hour of EtOH exposure. Further, IA to EtOH was sufficient to produce dependence, as measured by elevations in the acoustic startle reflex following 26 hours and five days of withdrawal. No alteration in protein expression was observed regarding either the NR2B or glucocorticoid receptors and exposure to ORG-34517 had no effect on consumption or withdrawal

SOMATIC INJURY PRECEDES DISTAL ATROPHY FOLLOWING EXCITOTOXIC HIPPOCAMPAL INSULT

Excitotoxicity can lead to increases in intracellular Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations via the glutamatergic NMDA receptors, which can lead to cell death. Detailing the time-dependent degradation of neuronal components in response to excitotoxic challenge may help elucidate the sequence in which these signaling pathways are initiated and further, associate these pathways with topographic cellular demise. Using organotypic hippocampal slice culture technique, tissue from neonatal rat pups was exposed to NMDA, APV, or co-exposed for 24, 72 or 120 hours. Fluorescent microscopy of propidium iodide (PI) was used to evaluate neuronal membrane damage, changes in the density of mature soma (NeuN) and NMDA NR2B subunits were measured using immunohistochemical procedures. After 24 hours of exposure, the CA1 showed an increased PI signal and a decrease in NeuN marker, indicating somatic injury occurs shortly after excitotoxic challenge; these effects were blocked by co-administration of APV. Also in the CA1, loss of NR2B subunits, heavily expressed in dendritic processes, declined following 72 hours of exposure. Because somatic injury precedes loss of distal NR2B subunits, it is possible that these events involve different mechanisms, findings that may be relevant in the development of therapies to target neurodegeneration resulting from excitotoxicity

Optimization of Liposomal Encapsulation Efficiency

Introduction: My project was a continuation of the Vascular Research Lab’s (VRL) ongoing research at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Knoxville (UTMCK) aimed at optimizing liposomal encapsulation efficiency of small interfering RNA (siRNA) which can be used to silence genes to prevent a variety of disease pathologies. Methods: Assay siRNA loading capacity of liposomes based on lipid concentration Development of a method for liposome purification: HPLC & HiTRAP Column Results & Conclusion: siRNA loading capacity Higher lipid:siRNA resulted in increased encapsulation efficiency HPLC – did not work as expected HiTRAP Column – currently being optimized to be used as part of standard operating procedure

Metabolomics and cognition in African American adults in midlife: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study

Clinical studies have shown alterations in metabolic profiles when patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease dementia were compared to cognitively normal subjects. Associations between 204 serum metabolites measured at baseline (1987–1989) and cognitive change were investigated in 1035 middle-aged community-dwelling African American participants in the biracial Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Cognition was evaluated using the Delayed Word Recall Test (DWRT; verbal memory), the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST; processing speed) and the Word Fluency Test (WFT; verbal fluency) at visits 2 (1990–1992) and 4 (1996–1998). In addition, Cox regression was used to analyze the metabolites as predictors of incident hospitalized dementia between baseline and 2011. There were 141 cases among 1534 participants over a median 17.1-year follow-up period. After adjustment for established risk factors, one standard deviation increase in N-acetyl-1-methylhistidine was significantly associated with greater 6-year change in DWRT scores (β=−0.66 words; P=3.65 × 10−4). Two metabolites (one unnamed and a long-chain omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in vegetable oils (docosapentaenoate (DPA, 22:5 n-6)) were significantly associated with less decline on the DSST (DPA: β=1.25 digit-symbol pairs, P=9.47 × 10−5). Two unnamed compounds and three sex steroid hormones were associated with an increased risk of dementia (all P<3.9 × 10−4). The association of 4-androstene-3beta, 17beta-diol disulfate 1 with dementia was replicated in European Americans. These results demonstrate that screening the metabolome in midlife can detect biologically plausible biomarkers that may improve risk stratification for cognitive impairment at older ages

Video Nasty: The Moral Apocalypse in Koji Suzuki’s Ring

Although overshadowed by its filmic adaptations (Hideo Nakata, 1998 and Gore Verbinski, 2002), Koji Suzuki’s novel Ring (1991) is at the heart of the international explosion of interest in Japanese horror. This article seeks to explore Suzuki’s overlooked text. Unlike the film versions, the novel is more explicitly focused on the line between self-preservation and self-sacrifice, critiquing the ease with which the former is privileged over the latter. In the novel then, the horror of Sadako’s curse raises questions about the terrors of moral obligation: the lead protagonist (Asakawa) projects the guilt he feels over his self-interested actions, envisaging them as an all-consuming apocalypse