AL 'AWATHIF AL ADABIYAH FI QISHAH IMROAH 'INDA NUQTHAH AL SHIFR LI NAWAL AL SA'ADAWI DIRASAH SIKULUJIYAH AL ADABIYAH

Novel “Imro’ah Inda Nuqthoh Al-Shifr” adalah salah satu karya Nawal El-Sa’adawi. Dalam novel Nawal El-Sa’adawi menceritakan kehidupan seorang perempuan yang bernama Firdaus. Firdaus digambarkan sebagai perempuan yang kuat dalam menjalani kehidupannya. Namun, dibalik kekuatannya tersebut Firdaus harus tunduk pada tradisi yang berlaku dimana setiap perempuan harus patuh terhadap laki-laki, dan pada akhirnya mengharuskan dia sebagai pelacur. Lambat laun dia sadar dan tak mau harga dirinya diinjak-injak oleh kaum pria. Sebagai senjata dalam mempertahankan dirinya, akhirnya Firdaus membunuh seorang laki-laki yang menyebabkan dia masuk penjara dan mendapat hukuman gantung. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti mengangkat 2 rumusan masalah. Pertama, Emosi Syakhsiyah/Halatu Ijabiyah (Emosi yang berdampak Positif) yaitu perasaan pribadi yang dirasakan tokoh-tokoh dalam cerita. Meliputi bahagia, pujian, berusaha, membela, kenikmatan, dan cinta. Kedua, Emosi Alimah/Halatu Salbiyah (Emosi yang berdampak Negatif) perasaan yang menimbulkan kesedihan yang ada dalam tokoh-tokoh cerita ini. Meliputi sedih, takut, marah, kecewa, benci, khawatir, bingung. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif yang bersifat deskriptif. Adapun pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan Psikologi Sastra, yang difokuskan pada teori Emosi Sastra milik Ahmad al-Syayib dalam Kritik Sastra. Data yang dihasilakn yaitu, Emosi Syakhsiyah memiliki 6 emosi, antara lain: Bahagia, pujian, berusaha, membela, kenikmatan, dan cinta. Sedangkan Emosi Alimah memiliki 8 emosi, antara lain: sedih, takut, marah, benci, kecewa, khawatir, bingung dan masing-masing emosi memiliki pengaruh terhadap kejiwaan, perilaku, dan perubahan fisik

Is Evolution of Blind Mole Rats Determined by Climate Oscillations?

The concept of climate variability facilitating adaptive radiation supported by the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis is disputed by the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one, but the prevalence of one or the other might be scale-dependent. We report on a detailed, comprehensive phylo-geographic study on the ,4 kb mtDNA sequence in underground blind mole rats of the family Spalacidae (or subfamily Spalacinae) from the East Mediterranean steppes. Our study aimed at testing the presence of periodicities in branching patterns on a constructed phylogenetic tree and at searching for congruence between branching events, tectonic history and paleoclimates. In contrast to the strong support for the majority of the branching events on the tree, the absence of support in a few instances indicates that network-like evolution could exist in spalacids. In our tree, robust support was given, in concordance with paleontological data, for the separation of spalacids from muroid rodents during the first half of the Miocene when open, grass-dominated habitats were established. Marine barriers formed between Anatolia and the Balkans could have facilitated the separation of the lineage ‘‘Spalax’’ from the lineage ‘‘Nannospalax’’ and of the clade ‘‘leucodon’’ from the clade ‘‘xanthodon’’. The separation of the clade ‘‘ehrenbergi’’ occurred during the late stages of the tectonically induced uplift of the Anatolian high plateaus and mountains, whereas the separation of the clade ‘‘vasvarii’’ took place when the rapidly uplifting Taurus mountain range prevented the Mediterranean rainfalls from reaching the Central Anatolian Plateau. The separation of Spalax antiquus and S. graecus occurred when the southeastern Carpathians were uplifted. Despite the role played by tectonic events, branching events that show periodicity corresponding to 400-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity bands illuminate the important role of orbital fluctuations on adaptive radiation in spalacids. At the given scale, our results supports the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis over the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one

Sonic Hedgehog Signaling in Limb Development.

The gene encoding the secreted protein Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is expressed in the polarizing region (or zone of polarizing activity), a small group of mesenchyme cells at the posterior margin of the vertebrate limb bud. Detailed analyses have revealed that Shh has the properties of the long sought after polarizing region morphogen that specifies positional values across the antero-posterior axis (e.g., thumb to little finger axis) of the limb. Shh has also been shown to control the width of the limb bud by stimulating mesenchyme cell proliferation and by regulating the antero-posterior length of the apical ectodermal ridge, the signaling region required for limb bud outgrowth and the laying down of structures along the proximo-distal axis (e.g., shoulder to digits axis) of the limb. It has been shown that Shh signaling can specify antero-posterior positional values in limb buds in both a concentration- (paracrine) and time-dependent (autocrine) fashion. Currently there are several models for how Shh specifies positional values over time in the limb buds of chick and mouse embryos and how this is integrated with growth. Extensive work has elucidated downstream transcriptional targets of Shh signaling. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how antero-posterior positional values are encoded and then interpreted to give the particular structure appropriate to that position, for example, the type of digit. A distant cis-regulatory enhancer controls limb-bud-specific expression of Shh and the discovery of increasing numbers of interacting transcription factors indicate complex spatiotemporal regulation. Altered Shh signaling is implicated in clinical conditions with congenital limb defects and in the evolution of the morphological diversity of vertebrate limbs

Gender Differences in White Matter Microstructure

Sexual dimorphism in human brain structure is well recognised, but little is known about gender differences in white matter microstructure. We used diffusion tensor imaging to explore differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of microstructural integrity.A whole brain analysis of 135 matched subjects (90 men and 45 women) using a 1.5 T scanner. A region of interest (ROI) analysis was used to confirm those results where proximity to CSF raised the possibility of partial-volume artefact.Men had higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in cerebellar white matter and in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus; women had higher FA in the corpus callosum, confirmed by ROI.The size of the differences was substantial--of the same order as that attributed to some pathology--suggesting gender may be a potentially significant confound in unbalanced clinical studies. There are several previous reports of difference in the corpus callosum, though they disagree on the direction of difference; our findings in the cerebellum and the superior longitudinal fasciculus have not previously been noted. The higher FA in women may reflect greater efficiency of a smaller corpus callosum. The relatively increased superior longitudinal fasciculus and cerebellar FA in men may reflect their increased language lateralisation and enhanced motor development, respectively

Immune Activation Reduces Sperm Quality in the Great Tit

Mounting an immune response against pathogens incurs costs to organisms by its effects on important life-history traits, such as reproductive investment and survival. As shown recently, immune activation produces large amounts of reactive species and is suggested to induce oxidative stress. Sperm are highly susceptible to oxidative stress, which can negatively impact sperm function and ultimately male fertilizing efficiency. Here we address the question as to whether mounting an immune response affects sperm quality through the damaging effects of oxidative stress. It has been demonstrated recently in birds that carotenoid-based ornaments can be reliable signals of a male's ability to protect sperm from oxidative damage. In a full-factorial design, we immune-challenged great tit males while simultaneously increasing their vitamin E availability, and assessed the effect on sperm quality and oxidative damage. We conducted this experiment in a natural population and tested the males' response to the experimental treatment in relation to their carotenoid-based breast coloration, a condition-dependent trait. Immune activation induced a steeper decline in sperm swimming velocity, thus highlighting the potential costs of an induced immune response on sperm competitive ability and fertilizing efficiency. We found sperm oxidative damage to be negatively correlated with sperm swimming velocity. However, blood resistance to a free-radical attack (a measure of somatic antioxidant capacity) as well as plasma and sperm levels of oxidative damage (lipid peroxidation) remained unaffected, thus suggesting that the observed effect did not arise through oxidative stress. Towards the end of their breeding cycle, swimming velocity of sperm of more intensely colored males was higher, which has important implications for the evolution of mate choice and multiple mating in females because females may accrue both direct and indirect benefits by mating with males having better quality sperm

The effects of stress on brain and adrenal stem cells

The brain and adrenal are critical control centers that maintain body homeostasis under basal and stress conditions, and orchestrate the body’s response to stress. It is noteworthy that patients with stress-related disorders exhibit increased vulnerability to mental illness, even years after the stress experience, which is able to generate long-term changes in the brain's architecture and function. High levels of glucocorticoids produced by the adrenal cortex of the stressed subject reduce neurogenesis, which contributes to the development of depression. In support of the brain–adrenal connection in stress, many (but not all) depressed patients have alterations in the components of the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis, with enlarged adrenal cortex and increased glucocorticoid levels. Other psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and depression, are also associated with abnormalities in hippocampal volume and hippocampal function. In addition, hippocampal lesions impair the regulation of the LHPA axis in stress response. Our knowledge of the functional connection between stress, brain function and adrenal has been further expanded by two recent, independent papers that elucidate the effects of stress on brain and adrenal stem cells, showing similarities in the way that the progenitor populations of these organs behave under stress, and shedding more light into the potential cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of tissues to stress

Inflammatory resolution: New opportunities for drug discovery

Treatment of inflammatory diseases today is largely based on interrupting the synthesis or action of mediators that drive the host’s response to injury. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, steroids and antihistamines, for instance, were developed on this basis. Although such small-molecule inhibitors have provided the main treatment for inflammatory arthropathies and asthma, they are not without their shortcomings. This review offers an alternative approach to the development of novel therapeutics based on the endogenous mediators and mechanisms that switch off acute inflammation and bring about its resolution. It is thought that this strategy will open up new avenues for the future management of inflammation-based diseases

Time to change your mind? Modelling transient properties of cortex formation highlights the importance of evolving cell division strategies

The successful development of the mammalian cerebral neocortex is linked to numerous cognitive functions such as language, voluntary movement, and episodic memory. Neocortex development occurs when neural progenitor cells divide and produce neurons. Critically, although the progenitor cells are able to self-renew they do not reproduce themselves endlessly. Hence, to fully understand the development of the neocortex we are faced with the challenge of understanding temporal changes in cell division strategy. Our approach to modelling neuronal production uses non-autonomous ordinary differential equations and allows us to use a ternary coordinate system in order to define a strategy space, through which we can visualise evolving cell division strategies. Using this strategy space, we fit the known data and use approximate Bayesian computation to predict the founding progenitor population sizes, currently unavailable in the experimental literature. Counter-intuitively, we show that humans can generate a larger number of neurons than a macaque’s even when starting with a smaller number of progenitor cells. Accompanying the article is a self-contained piece of software, which provides the reader with immediate simulated results that will aid their intuition. The software can be found at www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/noemi-picco

Likely equilibria of the stochastic Rivlin cube

The problem of the Rivlin cube is to determine the stability of all homogeneous equilibria of an isotropic incompressible hyperelastic body under equitriaxial dead loads. Here, we consider the stochastic version of this problem where the elastic parameters are random variables following standard probability laws. Uncertainties in these parameters may arise, for example, from inherent data variation between different batches of homogeneous samples, or from different experimental tests. As for the deterministic elastic problem, we consider the following questions: what are the likely equilibria and how does their stability depend on the material constitutive law? In addition, for the stochastic model, the problem is to derive the probability distribution of deformations, given the variability of the parameters