Labor and women's nutrition : a study of energy expenditure, fertility, and nutritional status in Ghana

Economic approaches to health and nutrition have focused largely on measures of child nutrition and related variables (such as birth weight) as indicators of household production of nutritional outcomes. But when dealing with adult nutrition, economists have to address an issue that has generated tremendous controversy in the clinical nutrition literature. That issue is heterogeneity in an individual's energy expenditures. Preschoolers'energy expenditure also differs, but the differences are small enough to be ignored. Not so for adults, whose waking hours are devoted mostly to labor activities of which the energy costs vary enormously. Variables measuring time allocation to various types of labor tasks were used to proxy differences in energy expenditure. Parity has also been hypothesized to be an important determinant of female nutritional health in high fertility countries - with rapid reproductive cycling contributing to a cumulative nutritional decline. But the"maternal depletion syndrome"remains controversial. Much of the evidence to date has been impressionistic - or the results of studies based on small, nonrandom cohorts. Higgins and Alderman used a two-step instrumental variables technique to get consistent estimates of the structural parameters. Energy expenditure, as embodied in individual time allocations over the previous seven days, was found to be an important determinant of women's nutritional status. Time devoted to agricultural tasks, in particular, had a strong negative effect. The results also appear to confirm the existence of a maternal depletion syndrome. Perhaps more important, evidence was found of a substantial downward bias of the calorie-elasticity estimate when the energy expenditure proxies were excluded.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research

Benjamin Britten: art song, a synthesis of words and music — issues and approaches to text-setting

The clarity of verbal expression evident throughout Benjamin Britten’s (1913-1976) art songs serves to highlight the central role which the setting of pre-existing written poetic texts occupies in his compositional process and in the aesthetic appreciation of his interpretation. For Britten, text acts initially as a source of musical imagination, but it also provides the composer with a framework with which to express musically his selected, literary-based ideas

Benjamin Britten’s absorption of and contribution to the Lied tradition

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) grew up in a musical household. His mother was a keen amateur singer who was active in the local Choral Society and also encouraged the family’s musical entertainment of guests. In his contribution to Mitchell and Keller’s 1952 book, Peter Pears lists the repertory performed in the Britten household; prominent among this repertoire are the songs of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms and of lesser significance some lighter weight songs of Arthur Sullivan, ballads of Liza Lehmann and others, and some few folk songs,1 thus highlighting the relative importance of German Lieder as a formative influence on this young composer. From an early age Britten’s role in this musical household was to provide the piano accompaniment for his mother’s voice, who performed her son’s early settings; this formative experience of writing for and accompanying high voice was to become a significant and permanent of Britten’s vocal writing style. This article seeks to identify and critically assess the significance of art song to Britten’s compositional achievements; while addressing specifically the genres of solo art song with instrumental accompaniment and orchestral song, it excludes the consideration of Britten’s vocal duets, trios and dramatic works. This selection reflects the fact that it is in these two genres that Britten approaches most directly the origins of the German art song tradition

Benjamin Britten: Text Setting as Cultural Custodian in Art Song

Proposing the thesis that, for Benjamin Britten, text-setting analysis is analogous to song analysis; this dissertation cautions that non-engagement in text-setting is to approach song as if it were instrumental music; likewise, to consider inadequately the wide-ranging musical implications of music-text relations is to limit the interpretive possibilities of song. This research approaches the analysis of song through an engagement with songs composed by Britten in the 1930s from texts by W. H. Auden. Blending insights from literary and linguistic studies with rhythmic analysis, this necessarily interdisciplinary research places song analysis in cultural context; text (poetic and musical) requires social context. Setting out with this rationale and these aims, this dissertation offers new perspectives for song interpretation, song classification and the social function of song. Poetic analysis is presented as central to an understanding of Britten’s song text setting. The mimetic possibility of song to present word and mood painting receives widespread support. This dissertation goes beyond this often considered diminutive fundamental capacity of song to represent text, and recognises a more complete representation of poetic form, the effect of individual words and word units and poetic meaning, in song. Musical language is repeatedly and consistently shown to highlight, to reinforce, to accentuate, to stress, to correlate and align with text; essentially song complements or contests verbal language. These musical equivalences are shown to be derivative of text but also become independent of text in song. Text setting is proposed not as one possible component of song analysis; rather text setting is the ultimate consolidating focus of song interpretation

PAI-1 Expression Is Required for HDACi-Induced Proliferative Arrest in ras-Transformed Renal Epithelial Cells

Malignant transformation of mammalian cells with ras family oncogenes results in dramatic changes in cellular architecture and growth traits. The generation of flat revertants of v-K-ras-transformed renal cells by exposure to the histone deacetylase inhibitor sodium butyrate (NaB) was previously found to be dependent on transcriptional activation of the PAI-1 (SERPINE1) gene (encoding the type-1 inhibitor of urokinase and tissue-type plasminogen activators). NaB-initiated PAI-1 expression preceded induced cell spreading and entry into G1 arrest. To assess the relevance of PAI-1 induction to growth arrest in this cell system more critically, two complementary approaches were used. The addition of a stable, long half-life, recombinant PAI-1 mutant to PAI-1-deficient v-K-ras-/c-Ha-ras-transformants or to PAI-1 functionally null, NaB-resistant, 4HH cells (engineered by antisense knockdown of PAI-1 mRNA transcripts) resulted in marked cytostasis in the absence of NaB. The transfection of ras-transformed cells with the Rc/CMVPAI expression construct, moreover, significantly elevated constitutive PAI-1 synthesis (10- to 20-fold) with a concomitant reduction in proliferative rate. These data suggest that high-level PAI-1 expression suppresses growth of chronic ras-oncogene transformed cells and is likely a major cytostatic effector of NaB exposure

The TGF-β1/Upstream Stimulatory Factor-Regulated PAI-1 Gene: Potential Involvement and a Therapeutic Target in Alzheimer's Disease

Amyloid peptide (Aβ) aggregates, derived from initial β-site proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. The plasmin-generating cascade appears to serve a protective role in the central nervous system since plasmin-mediated proteolysis of APP utilizes the α site, eventually generating nontoxic peptides, and plasmin also degrades Aβ. The conversion of plasminogen to plasmin by tissue-type plasminogen activator in the brain is negatively regulated by plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) resulting in attenuation of plasmin-dependent substrate degradation with resultant accumulation of Aβ. PAI-1 and its major physiological inducer TGF-β1, moreover, are increased in models of Alzheimer's disease and have been implicated in the etiology and progression of human neurodegenerative disorders. This review highlights the potential role of PAI-1 and TGF-β1 in this process. Current molecular events associated with TGF-β1-induced PAI-1 transcription are presented with particular relevance to potential targeting of PAI-1 gene expression as a molecular approach to the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases associated with increased PAI-1 expression such as Alzheimer's disease

The effect of tip shields on a horizontal tail surface

A series of experiments made in the wind tunnel of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, New York University, on the effect of tip shields on a horizontal tail surface are described and discussed. It was found that some aerodynamic gain can be obtained by the use of tip shields though it is considered doubtful whether their use would be practical