From “Black is Beautiful” to “Gay Power”: Cultural Frames in the Gay Liberation Movement

In lieu of an abstract, a short excerpt is provided: The 1960s and 1970s were a decade of turbulence, militancy, and unrest in America. The post-World War II boom in consumerism and consumption made way for a new post-materialist societal ethos, one that looked past the American dream of home ownership and material wealth. Many citizens were now concerned with social and economic equality, justice for all people of the world, and a restructuring of the capitalist system itself. According to Max Elbaum, the traditional narrative of the 1960s begins with an “idealistic, impassioned” youth working on voter registration and civil rights and ends with “days of rage as the sixties movement, frustrated by the Vietnam War, became irrational and self-destructive.”[i] What started out as middle-class students organizing in the South for civil rights slowly transformed into “the emergence of the New Left, the antiwar movement, women’s liberation, and identity based politics.”[ii] The New Left protest groups of this decade are important to gay radicalism because they created the foundational strategies for future gay activism.[iii] Although Homophile organizations existed in the 1940s and 1950s, gay radicalism did not fully blossom until the language, style, and strategies of the New Left emerged during the decade of discontent, chiefly embodied by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Black Panther Party.[iv] In Maurice Issserman and Michael Kazin’s view, “the New Left was a profoundly American movement, inspired by the civil rights movement, and fashioning its early political beliefs from a combination of American radical traditions.”[v] Originally, the New Left focused on social justice issues – poverty, race, equality – through conscience raising events. Eventually, as the Vietnam War escalated, and the stark realities of American imperialism became more apparent, many adopted a militant approach.[vi] [i] Max Elbaum, Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao, and Che, New ed (London ; New York: Verso, 2006), 15.. The “Good Sixties, Bad Sixties” narrative, exemplified in Todd Gitlin\u27s The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, is contested by multiple scholars, including Terence Kissack, “Freaking Fag Revolutionaries: New York’s Gay Liberation Front, 1969–1971,” Radical History Review 1995, no. 62 (March 20, 1995): 105–134. [ii] David A. Reichard, “‘We Can’t Hide and They Are Wrong’: The Society for Homosexual Freedom and the Struggle for Recognition at Sacramento State College, 1969-1971,” Law & History Review 28, no. 3 (August 2010): 636. [iii] Similar to many other authors of gay history, the use of identity labels is often messy. An individual or organization’s use of a specific term is a very personal decision. Consequently, I have adopted the standard practice of referring to a movement or organization as they would have been during the historical period in which they existed. Hence, for much of the 1960s and 1970s, “gay” or “lesbian and gay” would have been used to refer to a community of homosexual individuals. Furthermore, I refer to the Gay Liberation movement and Gay Rights movements with two very distinct definitions. Gay liberation sought the goal of destroying a system in which gays and lesbians were treated as second-class citizens; on the other hand, the Gay Rights Movement was specifically targeting laws and ordinances, within the political system, which discriminated against gays and lesbians. At no point should my misuse of a term be construed as a lack of sensitivity. [iv] Various rights group adopted the term “homophile” because it denotes same-sex love and not just sexual acts. The homophile movement wanted to persuade “hetero and homosexuals alike that gay men and women should be considered full participants in the pageant of American civil rights.” See John Dennett II. Master, “`A Part of Our Liberation’: ‘ONE Magazine’ and the Cultivation of Gay Liberation, 1953-1963” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Riverside, 2006), 361. For more, see Martin Meeker, “Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 10, no. 1 (2001): 78–116, doi:10.1353/sex.2001.0015; James T. Sears, Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation, Gay and Lesbian Studies (New York, N.Y.: Harrington Park Press, 2006). [v] Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, 4th ed. (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, USA, 2011), 161. [vi] Terrence R. Restivo, “The Building of a New Left Conglomerate in the City of Ann Arbor: VOICE, the Black Action Movement and Human Rights Party (1965-1975)” (M.A., Duquesne University, 2006), 6

Secuelas por Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico en pacientes de 40-90 años, del servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Roberto Calderón Gutiérrez, de enero 2011 a diciembre 2014

Las secuelas neurológicas después del accidente cerebrovascular isquémico pueden impactar negativamente en la calidad de vida de las personas y ser factor determinante en la mortalidad de estas, existiendo datos limitados y variables en cuanto a la frecuencia de su desarrollo, siendo preponderante la investigación de este tópico. El presente estudio es de tipo descriptivo, retrospectivo y de corte transversal, en el cual se abordaron las Secuelas por Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico en pacientes de 40 – 90 años, del servicio de Medicina Interna, del Hospital Roberto Calderón Gutiérrez, de enero 2011 a diciembre 2014, que persigue describir las secuelas por esta patología en el grupo de estudio definido. El universo se conformó por 138 expedientes de pacientes con la patología, siendo la muestra de 103 expedientes, la fuente fue secundaria, conformada por la revisión de expedientes clínico, recopilando los datos por medio de la Ficha de recolección elaborada en base a los objetivos propuestos en el estudio. Los principales resultados reflejaron que el sexo predominante fue el femenino, entre el grupo etario de 71 a 80 años. La Hipertensión Arterial representó el antecedente patológico más frecuente, siendo la arteria cerebral media la más afectada. La parálisis / paresia de las extremidades contralaterales fue la secuela predominante. Por tanto, se recomienda hacer insistencia en la atención integral en salud brindada a los usuarios, logrando reconocer factores de riesgo patológico y no patológico incidiendo así en su control o eliminación y de esta forma mitigando el desarrollo de esta enfermedad. Palabras Claves: Secuelas, accidente cerebrovascular, isquemia

Mapping cardiac remodeling in chronic kidney disease

Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) mostly die from sudden cardiac death and recurrent heart failure. The mechanisms of cardiac remodeling are largely unclear. To dissect molecular and cellular mechanisms of cardiac remodeling in CKD in an unbiased fashion, we performed left ventricular single-nuclear RNA sequencing in two mouse models of CKD. Our data showed a hypertrophic response trajectory of cardiomyocytes with stress signaling and metabolic changes driven by soluble uremia-related factors. We mapped fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation in this process and identified notable changes in the cardiac vasculature, suggesting inflammation and dysfunction. An integrated analysis of cardiac cellular responses to uremic toxins pointed toward endothelin-1 and methylglyoxal being involved in capillary dysfunction and TNFα driving cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in CKD, which was validated in vitro and in vivo. TNFα inhibition in vivo ameliorated the cardiac phenotype in CKD. Thus, interventional approaches directed against uremic toxins, such as TNFα, hold promise to ameliorate cardiac remodeling in CKD.</p

Constitutive expression of a grapevine polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein affects gene expression and cell wall properties in uninfected tobacco

Background Polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) directly limit the effective ingress of fungal pathogens by inhibiting cell wall-degrading endopolygalacturonases (ePGs). Transgenic tobacco plants over-expressing grapevine (Vitis vinifera) Vvpgip1 have previously been shown to be resistant to Botrytis infection. In this study we characterized two of these PGIP over-expressing lines with known resistance phenotypes by gene expression and hormone profiling in the absence of pathogen infection. Results Global gene expression was performed by a cross-species microarray approach using a potato cDNA microarray. The degree of potential cross-hybridization between probes was modeled by a novel computational workflow designed in-house. Probe annotations were updated by predicting probe-to-transcript hybridizations and combining information derived from other plant species. Comparing uninfected Vvpgip1-overexpressing lines to wild-type (WT), 318 probes showed significant change in expression. Functional groups of genes involved in metabolism and associated to the cell wall were identified and consequent cell wall analysis revealed increased lignin-levels in the transgenic lines, but no major differences in cell wall-derived polysaccharides. GO enrichment analysis also identified genes responsive to auxin, which was supported by elevated indole-acetic acid (IAA) levels in the transgenic lines. Finally, a down-regulation of xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolases (XTHs), which are important in cell wall remodeling, was linked to a decrease in total XTH activity. Conclusions This evaluation of PGIP over-expressing plants performed under pathogen-free conditions to exclude the classical PGIP-ePG inhibition interaction indicates additional roles for PGIPs beyond the inhibition of ePGs

A mating-type mutagenesis screen identifies a zinc-finger protein required for specific DNA excision events in Paramecium

In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, functional genes are reconstituted during development of the somatic macronucleus through the precise excision of ∼45 000 single-copy Internal Eliminated Sequences (IESs), thought to be the degenerate remnants of ancient transposon insertions. Like introns, IESs are marked only by a weak consensus at their ends. How such a diverse set of sequences is faithfully recognized and precisely excised remains unclear: specialized small RNAs have been implicated, but in their absence up to ∼60% of IESs are still correctly excised. To get further insight, we designed a mutagenesis screen based on the hypersensitivity of a specific excision event in the mtA gene, which determines mating types. Unlike most IES-containing genes, the active form of mtA is the unexcised one, allowing the recovery of hypomorphic alleles of essential IES recognition/excision factors. Such is the case of one mutation recovered in the Piwi gene PTIWI09, a key player in small RNA-mediated IES recognition. Another mutation identified a novel protein with a C2H2 zinc finger, mtGa, which is required for excision of a small subset of IESs characterized by enrichment in a 5-bp motif. The unexpected implication of a sequence-specific factor establishes a new paradigm for IES recognition and/or excision

Genetic imprinting: urinary odour preferences in mice

Odour cues influence a variety of social activities in mammals, including kin recognition, mate selection, inbreeding avoidance and juvenile dispersal from the natal area. Inbreeding avoidance is particularly evident across the mammalian phyla because inbreeding can cause a reduction in fitness4. Here we show that the attraction of mice to the urinary odours of other mice is subject to a 'parent-of-origin' effect5 which causes both males and females to prefer the odour of urine from mice of an unrelated strain to that of urine from mice of the same strain as their mothers

Flow cytometry sorting of nuclei enables the first global characterization of Paramecium germline DNA and transposable elements

Abstract Background DNA elimination is developmentally programmed in a wide variety of eukaryotes, including unicellular ciliates, and leads to the generation of distinct germline and somatic genomes. The ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia harbors two types of nuclei with different functions and genome structures. The transcriptionally inactive micronucleus contains the complete germline genome, while the somatic macronucleus contains a reduced genome streamlined for gene expression. During development of the somatic macronucleus, the germline genome undergoes massive and reproducible DNA elimination events. Availability of both the somatic and germline genomes is essential to examine the genome changes that occur during programmed DNA elimination and ultimately decipher the mechanisms underlying the specific removal of germline-limited sequences. Results We developed a novel experimental approach that uses flow cell imaging and flow cytometry to sort subpopulations of nuclei to high purity. We sorted vegetative micronuclei and macronuclei during development of P. tetraurelia. We validated the method by flow cell imaging and by high throughput DNA sequencing. Our work establishes the proof of principle that developing somatic macronuclei can be sorted from a complex biological sample to high purity based on their size, shape and DNA content. This method enabled us to sequence, for the first time, the germline DNA from pure micronuclei and to identify novel transposable elements. Sequencing the germline DNA confirms that the Pgm domesticated transposase is required for the excision of all ~45,000 Internal Eliminated Sequences. Comparison of the germline DNA and unrearranged DNA obtained from PGM-silenced cells reveals that the latter does not provide a faithful representation of the germline genome. Conclusions We developed a flow cytometry-based method to purify P. tetraurelia nuclei to high purity and provided quality control with flow cell imaging and high throughput DNA sequencing. We identified 61 germline transposable elements including the first Paramecium retrotransposons. This approach paves the way to sequence the germline genomes of P. aurelia sibling species for future comparative genomic studies

Conditional ablation of neurones in transgenic mice

Conditional targeted ablation of specific cell populations in living transgenic animals is a very powerful strategy to determine cell functions in vivo. This approach would be of particular value to study the functions of distinct neuronal populations; however, the transgene of choice for conditional cell ablation studies in mice, the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene, cannot be used to ablate neurones as its principal mode of action relies on cell proliferation. Here we report that expression of the E.coli nitroreductase gene (Ntr) and metabolism of the prodrug CB1954 (5-aziridin-1-yl-2-4-dinitrobenzamide) to its cytotoxic derivative can be used to conditionally and acutely ablate specific neuronal populations in vivo. As proof of principal, we have ablated olfactory and vomeronasal receptor neurones by expressing Ntr under the control of the olfactory marker protein (OMP) gene promoter. We demonstrate that following CB1954 administration, olfactory and vomeronasal receptor neurones expressing the transgene were selectively eliminated from the olfactory epithelium (OE), and projections to the olfactory bulb (OB) were lost. The functional efficacy of cell ablation was demonstrated using a highly sensitive behavioural test to show that ablated mice had lost the olfactory ability to discriminate distinct odors and were consequently rendered anosmic. Targeted expression of Ntr to specific neuronal populations using conventional transgenes, as described here, or by “knock-in” gene targeting using embryonic stem cells may be of significant value to address the functions of distinct neuronal populations in vivo