THE VARIABILITY OF MULTI-DRUG RESISTANCE ABCB1 GENE IN THE ROMA POPULATION FROM CROATIA

When overexpressed, a large transmembrane P-glycoprotein, the product of the ABCB1 gene, is a notable impediment to brain-targeted therapies (like antiepileptics) and chemotherapies. Some of the genetic biomarkers with evidence of multi-drug resistance in ABCB1 ― rs1045642, rs1128503, and rs3213619 ― were analyzed in 440 subjects, members of three socio-culturally different Roma (Gypsy) groups of Croatia. Minor allele frequencies (MAFs) of rs1045642 and rs1128503 were the highest in the Balkan Roma (63.6% and 69.4%, respectively) when compared to the Baranja (52.3% and 62.5%) and the Međimurje Roma (48.8% and 54.5%) (p=0.0005 and p=0.0011, respectively). rs3213619 was monomorphic in the Međimurje group, while its MAFs in other two Roma groups were very low (<1.9%). The distribution of five detected haplotypes (four in the Međimurje group) significantly differed between the Roma subpopulations (p<0.0001), just like the frequencies of diplotypes (p=0.0008). At a global scale, the positive relationship between genetic and geographic distances between the 21 investigated populations indicates isolation by spatial distance. However, this is not true for the relationship between Roma and other populations due to their population history. The analyzed ABCB1 loci indicate genetic distinctiveness of the Roma population

Self-administration of methohexital, midazolam and ethanol: effects on the pituitary–adrenal axis in rhesus monkeys

There is disagreement in the literature with respect to how drugs of abuse affect the functioning of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and whether these changes in endocrine function may be related to the rewarding effects of these drugs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46363/1/213_2004_Article_1986.pd

Ghosts of Ned Kelly: Peter Carey's True History and the myths that haunt us

© 2011 Marija PericicNed Kelly has been an emblem of Australian national identity for over 130 years. This thesis examines Peter Carey’s reimagination of the Kelly myth in True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). It considers our continued investment in Ned Kelly and what our interpretations of him reveal about Australian identity. The paper explores how Carey’s departure from the traditional Kelly reveals the underlying anxieties about Australianness and masculinity that existed at the time of the novel’s publication, a time during which Australia was reassessing its colonial history. The first chapter of the paper examines True History’s complication of cultural memory. It argues that by problematising Kelly’s Irish cultural memory, our own cultural memory of Kelly is similarly challenged. The second chapter examines Carey’s construction of Kelly’s Irishness more deeply. It argues that Carey’s Kelly is not the emblem of politicised Irishness based on resistance to imperial Britain common to Kelly narratives. Instead, he is less politically aware and also claims a transnational identity. The third chapter explores how Carey’s Kelly diverges from key aspects of the Australian heroic ideal he is used to represent: hetero-masculinity, mateship and heroic failure. Carey’s most striking divergence comes from his unsettling of gender and sexual codes. The paper argues that Australians continue to invest in Kelly because he provides an opportunity to stabilise an identity threatened by changing perspectives on history; in Kelly, we see the changing shape of our ideal selves

Genetic Variation at Nine Short Tandem Repeat Loci Among Islanders of the Eastern Adriatic Coast of Croatia

We have analyzed the extent of genetic variation at nine autosomal short tandem repeat loci (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820) among six populations from Croatia: five distributed in the islands of the eastern Adriatic coast and one from the mainland. The purpose is to investigate the usefulness of these loci in detecting regional genetic differentiation in the studied populations. Significant heterogeneity among the island and mainland populations is revealed in the distributions of allele frequencies; however, the absolute magnitude of the coefficient of gene differentiation is small but significant. The summary measures of genetic variation, namely, heterozygosity, number of alleles, and allele size variance, do not indicate reduced genetic variation in the island populations compared to the mainland population. In contrast to the two measures of genetic variation, allele size variance and within-locus heterozygosity, the imbalance index ( ) indicates evidence of recent expansion of population sizes in all islands and in the mainland. High mutation rates of the studied loci together with local drift effects are likely explanations for interisland genetic variation and the observed lack of reduced genetic diversity among the island populations