The film ‘Migrante’ Essay Example for Free

The film ‘Migrante’ Essay The scenes leading to Frida’s departure to Israel is all too familiar since many Filipinos, including me, have relatives working abroad. But it is an entirely new experience when viewing it from a different perspective. One could almost sense the pain that characters were feeling as Frida’s departure neared, most especially when the children were begging desperately for their mother not to leave was one of the scenes that struck me. If they had a choice, who would want to go out of this country to work? Knowing our Filipino culture for strong family ties, no one would. If there is anything that makes ‘Migrante’ stand out from other OFW films is the fact that they spent a significant amount of time showing what pushed Frida, like other Filipinos, to work abroad. Many Filipinos leave the country in the hope that working abroad could help them uplift their living conditions, be able to send loved ones to a good school, buy medicines for family members who are sick and secure a decent future, especially for the children, only to end up as a victim of maltreatment. Another highlight of the film is how other OFWs, who, too, have their own problems, are willing to lend a helping hand to their fellow Filipinos in dire need. As portrayed in ‘Migrante’, government agencies abroad were hardly of help to the unsung heroes of the country. Those who played the role as members of the real-life migrant rights group Migrante International expressed their reservations on how their fellow Filipinos landed in a much worse fate when embassy o fficials intervened, or the lack thereof, in their respective cases. The film is another gripping portrayal of the continuing poor working conditions of overseas Filipino workers. It was a film on one individual’s life. But now, (in this film) you will see the bigger problem. It also focuses on how groups few non-government organization are helping OFWs in other countries. There is accumulating number of cases of OFWs being maltreated. The number of reported incidents have increased tremendously that people think that it is just an ordinary case. It projects the many faces of being an overseas Filipino worker. The fates of the OFWs in the film were intertwined by the tragic incident that has befallen Frida and her family. This film is one of the most effective ways to educate the people about what we are going through. This is not just a lecture. The film would be of big help in the migrants’ rights advocacy. It is very timely because the labor export policy is being intensified. It reflects what Filipinos are going through abroad becaus e the story did not just focus on one family. As the film concluded, a question is sure to linger in one’s mind: What is there to do to stop this cycle?

Distinct Serum Protein Pattern in Paranoid Schizophrena

Distinct Serum Protein Pattern in Paranoid Schizophrena A DISTINCT SERUM PROTEIN PATTERN IN PATIENTS WITH PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA[A1] N. A. Timofeyeva1,3, I. V. Alekseeva1,3, S. A. Ivanova2,4, G. G. Simutkin2, A. V. Semke2, I. S. Losenkov2, N. A. Bokhan2, O. S. Fedorova1,3, A. A. Chernonosov1,3* 1 Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia 2 Mental Health Research Institute, Tomsk National Research Medical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk, Russia 3 Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia       4 National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia ABSTRACT The proteomic approach, namely, a combination of 2D gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry, is a powerful tool that allows researchers to identify proteins that are differentially expressed in disease states. Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness, whose aetiology is still unclear; therefore, information about differences in serum protein patterns may improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The goal of this study was to use the proteomic approach to identify altered protein levels in the serum samples from patients with schizophrenia. For this study, blood was collected from 10 patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 10 healthy volunteers. We uncovered major changes in the expression of such proteins as apolipoproteins of classes A4 and C3, transthyretin (TTR), and serum amyloid A1. Furthermore, an increase in expression was found only for apolipoprotein A4, whereas the expression of apolipoprotein C3, TTR, and serum amyloid A1 was decreased. The observed differences in the expression of serum proteins (TTR and serum amyloid) are in good agreement with the results obtained by other research groups during analyses of cerebrospinal fluid or post-mortem brain tissues by other methods. Keywords: psychiatric disorder, schizophrenia, [A2]  proteomics, 2D electrophoresis, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, biomarker, serum. Introduction Although in recent years, great progress has been made in reducing mortality and in the treatment of common illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, the mortality caused by mental disorders remains unchanged [1]. Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness, whose aetiology is still unclear. Schizophrenia is characterised by hallucinations, delusions (positive psychotic symptoms), affective problems [A3](negative psychotic symptoms), and cognitive dysfunction [2]. A number of hypotheses have been proposed about the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, for example, aberrations [A4]  in the pathways of transmission of neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin [3, 4] or pathological changes in embryonic neurogenesis owing to variations in gene neuregulin-1 [5], as well as oxidative-stress-mediated cell damage due to lowered levels of antioxidant defence enzymes in patients with schizophrenia[A5] [6]. Such pathogenesis may be caused by a dysfunction of some enzymes (proteins) as well as changes of their quantity in the blood of these patients. At the same time, there is no information about differences in serum protein patterns that can be used for typing of psychopathologies among individuals at risk of developing psychiatric disorders [7]. Diagnosis and nosology rely on symptoms and accumulated clinical observations, and thus far, have been based mostly on interviews with patients and on patients subjective complaints [8]. Moreover, current medications still have substantial adverse effects and/or require weeks for therapeutic effects to manifest themselves; not all patients respond to current pharmacotherapy [9]. In sum, an insufficient understanding of psychiatric disorders at the molecular level and the lack of disease-specific changes in serum protein patterns prevent optimisation of diagnosis and treatment of such complex psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia  [A6]. The proteomic approach, namely, the combination of 2D gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), allows researchers to reliably identify proteins isolated from human bodily fluids [10, 11]. Our exploratory study [12] showed that 2D gel electrophoresis is suitable for isolation of proteins from blood of patients with mental disorders. Therefore  [A7], in the present work, clinical blood samples from patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were tested to identify quantitative differences in the proteomic profile of serum. Results and Discussion In this study, we examined blood serum of healthy people and patients with paranoid schizophrenia to search for quantitative and/or qualitative differences in proteins associated with this mental disorder. The use of 2D gel electrophoresis enables researchers to simultaneously isolate more than 300 protein spots on one gel containing 150  µg of protein for subsequent MALDI-TOF MS/MS analysis [10, 11]. We analysed differences in serum protein patterns by comparing the gels between the patients and healthy controls. The analysis [A8]  of protein patterns in serum was focused on those protein spots that differed in 2D gels between the patients and healthy controls. Such protein spots were analysed by means of the Gel-Pro Analyzer software and normalised to the sum of three proteins (a, b, Ñ ; for details, see Materials and Methods). These three proteins are isoforms of apolipoprotein L (ApoL) [18]. As a result, 15 protein spots were isolated and identified by peptide mass fin gerprinting and MS/MS analysis. The list of proteins identified in the NCBI database is shown in table [A9]1. Some proteins haptoglobin, transthyretin (TTR), and apolipoprotein C3 shown in table 1 are present in more than one spot on a gel and have different pI values. Perhaps this phenomenon is due to various post-translational modifications or partial processing. It was found that only the serum level of ApoA4 was increased (1.8-fold) as compared to the control group (figure 1a). Our findings support other [A10]  reports on altered protein levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid in schizophrenia [19, 20].   Ã‚   The decrease in the serum concentration relative to the control group was observed for ApoC3 and for ApoC2 in patients with schizophrenia (figure 1b). This downregulation was on average from 1.8- to 3-fold for ApoC3, and smaller for ApoC2: only 1.25-fold. These proteins are synthesised in the liver and are components of very low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs). Apolipoprotein C2 activates extrahepatic lipoprotein lipase, whereas apolipoprotein C3 can inhibit lipoprotein lipase Fig. 1 Examples of proteins with differential expression in human serum are presented in the enlarged sections of the 2DE profile. a) Apo A4; b) Apo C3 and C2; c) serum amyloid A1; d) transthyretin (the protein is present in two spots because of post-translational modifications). Sch: schizophrenia. and activate LCAT [21, 22]. Previously, it was found that the expression of apolipoproteins is altered in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders [23]. The authors found that low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and VLDLs are the most prominent factors differentiating depressed patients from healthy controls, and that plasma unsaturated lipid concentrations are elevated in the depressed group. Thus, there is growing evidence that deregulated lipid homeostasis may play a common role in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Other proteins with a decreased concentration are serum amyloid A1 and TTR (figure 1c and 1d). Inflammatory amyloid A1 is among the so-called acute phase proteins, which have both direct and indirect bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic properties. According to the classical theory of inflammation, in the acute phase of inflammation, the serum concentration of amyloid A1 increases 100- to 1000-fold [24], whereas in our study, we observed a 2.3-fold decrease in the serum concentration of this protein in patients with schizophrenia. Perhaps this result  [A11] is due to decreased immunity in Table 1. The list of proteins from human serum analysed by 2DE and identified by MALDI-MS/MS after in-gel digestion with trypsin. Protein NCBI database no. Protein ID pI MW (kDa) Score (individuals/ significant) Fold Change (+/-)* Sch vs control 1 gi157831596 ÃŽÂ ±2-antitrypsin 5.37 44.3 48/45 -1.32  ± 0.2 2 gi338305 SP 40 5.74 36.7 17/10 -1.31  ± 0.09 3 gi3337390 Haptoglobin 6.14 38.2 35/29 +1.22  ± 0.13 4 gi114318993 Transthyretin (dimer) 5.16 20.2 120/84 -1.68  ± 0.25 5 gi11957960 Apolipoprotein A4 5.28 28.9 43/32 +1.84  ± 0.16 6 gi223976 Haptoglobin hp2ÃŽÂ ± 6.23 41.7 39/20 -1.38  ± 0.17 7 gi296653 Haptoglobin hp2ÃŽÂ ± 6.23 41.5 18/10 -1.42  ± 0.11 8 gi296653 Haptoglobin hp2ÃŽÂ ± 6.25 41.5 39/15 -1.56  ± 0.24 9 gi4507725 Transthyretin 5.52 15.9 75/52 -1.06  ± 0.13 10 gi4507725 Transthyretin 5.52 15.9 65/60 -1.45  ± 0.23 11 gi4557323 Apolipoprotein C3 5.23 10.8 112/70 -1.85  ± 0.21 12 gi4557323 Apolipoprotein C3 5.23 10.8 115/68 -3.28  ± 0.16 13 gi4557323 Apolipoprotein C2 5.42 11.2 104/78 -1.25  ± 0.08 14 gi40316910 Serum amyloid A1 6.28 13.5 134/90 -2.34  ± 0.09 15 gi19626079 Albumin fragment 6.20 22.4 56/40 -2.06  ± 0.32 The fold change is equal to SPi/SPcontrol, where i is the identification number of a spot. Symbols - and + mean a decrease and increase, respectively. Sch: schizophrenia. patients with psychiatric disorders or to the presence of comorbidities. In addition, [A12]  it is possible that a decrease in serum amyloid A1 concentration is related to downregulation of antioxidant-defence enzymes in patients with schizophrenia [6] because high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) inhibit oxidative modification of LDLs via the activity of their associated enzymes and apolipoproteins [25]. If HDLs become so-called dysfunctional HDLs because of accumulation of oxidants derived from an inflammatory reaction, such HDLs inhibit the HDL-associated antioxidant enzymes and reduce the ability of apolipoproteins A1 to promote ABCA-1-mediated cholesterol efflux [25]. In the literature, there are data on a strong positive relation between cholesterol levels and pathophysiological features of mood disorders. The link between mental health (brain) and cholesterol is believed to be based on hypothetical neuron-associated mechanisms. Cholesterol is an integral component of the plasma m embrane of neurons and is present in myelin. Furthermore, cholesterol performs crucial functions in the development, stability, and workings of the synapse [26]. Overall, aberrations in cholesterol in a psychiatric illness may substantially affect the mood via synaptic stability and lowered serotonergic activity. In the case of TTR, we observed a decrease in the serum concentration of its dimer and one of monomeric forms (protein 10 in Table 1) among the patients with schizophrenia (~1.7-fold and ~1.5-fold, respectively), whereas the serum level of another TTR monomeric form was found to be unchanged relative to the control group (protein 9 in Table 1). TTR is a liver-derived secretory protein and is the major serum carrier of thyroid hormones: thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine. TTR is also involved in the transport of retinol via an interaction with retinol-binding proteins. Several studies were conducted in an attempt to identify disease biomarkers that could advance the understanding of the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In some of these studies, a link between TTR and schizophrenia was found [27, 28]. In ref. [28], it was estimated that 3% of TTR in ventricular cerebrospinal fluid [A13]  and 10% of TTR in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid are derived from blood. To assess the involvement of blood TTR in the changes observed in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with schizophrenia, those authors also studied serum TTR levels in the same people (simultaneously with cerebrospinal fluid collection) by an ELISA. They observed a significant moderate decrease in TTR concentration in serum samples of patients with schizophrenia compared to co ntrols. Nevertheless, there was no association between cerebrospinal-fluid and serum TTR levels in the same individuals, indicating that the protein levels of TTR are regulated by different systems in serum and in cerebrospinal fluid. Conclusion In the present study, we identified differentially expressed proteins in the serum from patients with schizophrenia by proteomic analysis. We showed differential expression of such proteins as TTR, serum amyloid A1, and apolipoproteins of classes A4 and C3. Furthermore the increase in the expression was found only for apolipoprotein A4, whereas the expression of apolipoprotein C3, TTR, and serum amyloid A1 was decreased. Such alterations of the expression of these proteins may indicate problems with regulation, for example, in the synthesis. On the other hand, the altered protein expression may simply reflect the pathophysiological status of patients with schizophrenia, where these proteins could be candidates for biomarkers.   Nevertheless, to confirm the significance of the altered levels of these proteins in the pathogenesis [A14]  of schizophrenia, and to determine their suitability as biomarkers of schizophrenia, further research is needed. Competing interests. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the contents of this article. Funding. This research was made possible in part by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (14-15-00480, with the exception of the work corresponding to MALDI-TOF MS/MS analysis) and Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (the part of work corresponding to MALDI-TOF MS/MS analysis). References Kessler RC, Demler O, Frank RG, Olfson M. 2005 Prevalence and treatment of mental disorders 1990 to 2003. N. Engl. J. Med. 352, 2515-2523. J. van Os, S. Kapur Schizophrenia. Lancet (Lond. Engl.), 374 (2009), pp. 635-645 H. Moore, A.R. West, A.A. Grace. The regulation of forebrain dopamine transmission: relevance to the pathophysiology and psychopathology of schizophrenia. Biol. Psychiatry, 46 (1999), pp. 40-55. M.A. Geyer, F.X. Vollenweider. Serotonin research: contributions to understanding psychoses. Trends Pharmacol. Sci., 29 (2008), pp. 445-453. E. Bramon, E. Dempster, S. Frangou, M. Shaikh, M. Walshe, F.M. Filbey, C. McDonald, P. Sham, D.A. Collier, R. Murray. Neuregulin-1 and the P300 waveform-a preliminary association study using a psychosis endophenotype. Schizophr. Res., 103 (2008), pp. 178-185 P.K. Ranjekar, A. Hinge, M.V. Hegde, M. Ghate, A. Kale, S. Sitasawad, U.V. Wagh, V.B. Debsikdar, S.P. Mahadik. Decreased antioxidant enzymes and membrane essential polyunsaturated fatty acids in schizophrenic and bipolar mood disorder patients. Psychiatry Res., 121 (2003), pp. 109-122. Ivanova SA, Fedorenko OYu, Smirnova LP, Semke AV. 2013 Biomarker discovery and development of pharmacogenetic approaches to personalized therapy of patients with schizophrenia. Siberian vestnik of psychiatry and narcology. 12-16. Turck CW, Maccarrone G, Sayan-Ayata E, Jacob AM. 2005 The quest for brain disorder biomarkers. J. Med. Invest. 52, 231-235. Bystritsky A. 2006 Treatment-resistant anxiety disorders. Mol. Psychiatry. 11, 805-814. Davalieva K, Kostovska IM, Dwork AJ. 2016 Proteomic research in schizophrenia. Front. Cell. Neurosci. 16, (doi: 10.3389). Guest PC, Guest FL, Martins-de Souza D. 2016 Making sence of blood-based proteomics and metabolomics in psychiatric research. Int.J. of Neuropsychopharmacology. 719-728. Alekseeva IV, Timofeeva NA, Chernonosov AA, Ivanova SA, Bokhan NA, Fedorova OS. 2013 Use of two-dimensional electrophoresis for proteomic studies of serum from patients with mental disorders. Vestnik of Novosibirsk State University. Series: Biology, Clinical Medicine. 11, 56-60. PeÃ…Â ¡iĆ¡ I, Dihazi GH, Mà ¼ller GA, Jahn O, Hoffmann M, Eltoweissy M, Koziolek M, Dihazi H. 2011 Short-term increase of glucose concentration in PDS results in extensive removal and high glycation level of vital proteins during continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant. 26, 2674-83. Giuliano S, Agresta AM, De Palma A, Viglio S, Mauri P, Fumagalli M, et al. 2014 Proteomic Analysis of Lymphoblastoid Cells from Nasu-Hakola Patients: A Step Forward in Our Understanding of This Neurodegenerative Disorder. PLoS ONE. 9(12): e110073. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110073). Candiano G, Bruschi M, Musante L, Santucci L, Ghiggeri GM. 2004 Blue silver: a very sensitive colloidal Coomassie G-250 staining for proteome analysis. Electrophoresis. 25, 1327-1333. Brauner JM, Groemer TW, Stroebel A, Grosse-Holz S, Oberstein T, Wiltfang J, Kornhuber J, Maler JM. 2014 Spot quantification in two dimensional gel electrophoresis image analysis: comparison of different approaches and presentation of a novel compound fitting algorithm. BMC Bioinformatics. 15, 181-193. Perkins DN, Pappin DJ, Creasy DM, Cottrell JS. 1999 Probability-based protein identification by searching sequence databases using mass spectrometry data. Electrophoresis. 20, 3551-3567. Lepedda AJ, Nieddu G, Zinellu E, De Muro P, Piredda F, Guarino A, Spirito R, Carta F, Turrini F, Formato M. 2013 Proteomic analysis of plasma-purified VLDL, LDL, and HDL fractions from atherosclerotic patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy: identification of serum amyloid A as a potential marker. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. 2013, 1-11. Aphkhazava D, Nieves E, Callaway M, Olszewski W, Rotzschke O, Santambrogio L. 2013 Protein expression profiles of human lymph and plasma mapped by 2D-DIGE and 1D SDS-PAGE coupled with nanoLC-ESI-MS/MS bottom-up proteomics. J Proteomics. 78, 172-187. Wan CLa Y, Zhu H, Jiang L, Chen Y, Feng G, Li H, Sang H, Hao X, Zhang G, He L. 2007 Abnormal changes of plasma acute phase proteins in schizophrenia and the relation between schizophrenia and haptoglobin (Hp) gene.Amino Acids Amino Acids 1, 101-108. Eckel RH. 1989 Lipoprotein lipase: a multifunctional enzyme relevant to common metabolic diseases. N.Eng.J.Med. 320, 1060-1068. Wang HEckel RH. 2009 Lipoprotein lipase: from gene to obesity. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 297, 271-288. Zheng P, Gao HC, Li Q, Shao WH, Zhang ML, Cheng K, Yang de Y, Fan SH, Chen L, Fang L, Xie P. 2012 Plasma metabonomics as a novel diagnostic approach for major depressive disorder. J. Proteome Res. 11, 1741-8. doi: 10.1021/pr2010082. Baumann  H. 1994 The acute phase response. J. Gauldie: Immunologie Today. 2, 74-80. Vohnout, B., de Gaetano, G., Donati, M. B. and Iacoviello, L. (2011) The Relationship between Dyslipidemia and Inflammation, in Nutritional and Metabolic Bases of Cardiovascular Disease (eds M. Mancini, J. M. Ordovas, G. Riccardi, P. Rubba and P. Strazzullo), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781444318456.ch26 Chattopadhyay A, Paila YD. 2007 Lipid-protein interactions, regulation and dysfunction of brain cholesterol. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 16, 627-33. Wan C, Yang Y, Li H, La Y, Zhu H, Jiang L, Chen Y, Feng G, He L. 2006 Dysregulation of retinoid transporters expression in body fluids of schizophrenia patients. J. Proteome Res. 5, 3213-3216. Huang JT, Leweke FM, Oxley D, Wang L, Harris N, Koethe D, Gerth CW, Nolden BM, Gross S, Schreiber D, Reed B, Bahn S. 2006 Disease biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with first-onset psychosis. PLoS Med. 3, (e428). [A1]Dear Author, Please dont forget to update the title in all supporting documents and correspondence. It often happens that after the language editing, coauthors make additions to the manuscript; also, some of the corrections are rejected. As a result, the manuscript that is submitted to the journal may contain 5-10 new errors. My advice is to send me the manuscript for a quick check on the day of the submission to the journal. I can use the automatic compare documents function of Word to find all new changes and to correct them quickly. I will also issue a certificate after this final check, and you can insert the sentence (optional) The English language was corrected and certified by shevchuk-editing.com. into Acknowledgments. [A2]Please do not include keywords that other researchers are unlikely to use when searching for articles. [A3]Affective disorders are depression and bipolar disorder. [A4]Please be careful with the words abnormal and abnormality when referring to a persons health status because they may be insulting to patients. [A5]Please note that this is a more polite form. [A6]Please avoid creating unusual abbreviations and single-word abbreviations because they make a text harder to read (well-known abbreviations such as DNA and official gene symbols are OK). The only valid reason for creating an abbreviation is the following: a long multiword expression (4 or more long words) that occurs more than 4 times in the text. Even in this case, it is better to avoid abbreviating. It is easy to write in abbreviations but it is difficult to decipher such a text. [A7]Please avoid creating long sentences because they are hard to read. [A8]Please note that the word study usually means the whole manuscript. [A9]The typical format is Table [A10]Please keep in mind that the word previous is redundant in this context because all published studies are previous. It is OK to say previous when you discuss your own earlier studies. [A11]Please dont use the words which or this as a substitute for the whole sentence or a statement. This usage is vague and confusing because some people will think that this or which refers to the last word, not the whole statement. Therefore, it is better to use a descriptive phrase instead. [A12]Its not a good idea to start a sentence with such words as and, but, also, or, so in a formal text. [A13]Please dont create abbreviations at the end of the article, after the full form was already used many times. [A14]= mechanism

Lesbianism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer :: TV Television Show Essays

Given that lesbian desire has often been associated with the monstrous in horror and vampire genres, and that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is seen as having reworked the conventions of these genres, it is worth considering how the narrative of lesbianism is dealt with in this series to contemplate if and how this desire has been resignified. This paper is concerned with critically analysing the overt representations of lesbian desire and identity as they are manifested through the Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the coming out narratives as they unfold in Season Four. It attempts to address several questions: How has Buffy the Vampire Slayer reworked the representation of lesbians in the vampire genre? How are the themes of lesbian desire and coming out as lesbian dealt with in the series? Finally, has the show challenged stereotypical representations of lesbianism, or merely perpetuated them? I start this paper with a sense of ambivalence about how the lesbian characters and lesbian desire are constructed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because on the one hand I gain pleasure from watching these representations, but on the other hand I suspect that the series perpetuates some homophobic concepts about lesbianism. I am mindful that representations in horror and fantasy television programs and films are creative images and manifestations of ideas, mythologies and narratives. They are not perfect reflections of society, although the writers may attempt to deal with some social issues and identity politics within generic frameworks. However, fictional representations are still important sites where viewers negotiate personal and cultural concepts of sexuality and subjectivity. This queer reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer investigates the disguised homo-erotic tensions between the out lesbian characters in the series. It avoids an elaborate search for homoerotic and non-normative sexual couplings between other characters in the series. If I were to do such a queer reading, I would probably concentrate on the Willow and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), or Faith (Eliza Dushku) and Buffy relationships as Farah Medlesohn has done in her essay, "Surpassing the Love of Vampires"(2002: 45-60). Alternatively, I might focus on the sadomasochistic relationship between Spike (James Marsters) and Buffy, or the bizarre love triangle between Andrew, Warren and Jonathan in Season Six. Instead, this paper is more concerned with analysing the blatant representations of lesbian desire and sexuality as they are constructed through characterisation, metaphors, narrative and stylistic devices in particular episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to consider how these themes have b een integrated into a youth-orientated, television program.

Pope Pius XII and the Jews Essay -- essays research papers

The twentieth century was marked by genocides on an monstrous scale. One of the most terrible was the Holocaust wrought by Nazi Germany, which killed an estimated six million European Jews and almost as many other victims. During this dark time, the Catholic Church was shepherded by Pope Pius XII, who proved himself an untiring foe of the Nazis, determined to save as many Jewish lives as he could. Yet today Pius XII gets almost no credit for his actions before or during the war. Anti-Catholic author Dave Hunt writes, "The Vatican had no excuse for its Nazi partnership or for its continued commendation of Hitler on the one hand and its thunderous silence regarding the Jewish question on the other hand. . . . [The popes] continued in the alliance with Hitler until the end of the war, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from the Nazi government to the Vatican."[1] Jack Chick, infamous for his anti-Catholic comic books, tells us in Smokescreens, "When World War II ended, the Vatican had egg all over its face. Pope Pius XII, after building the Nazi war machine, saw Hitler losing his battle against Russia, and he immediately jumped to the other side when he saw the handwriting on the wall. . . . Pope Pius XII should have stood before the judges in Nuremberg. His war crimes were worthy of death."[2] One is tempted simply to dismiss these accusations, so wildly out of touch with reality, as the deluded ravings of persons with no sense of historical truth. This would underestimate the power of such erroneous charges to influence people: Many take these writers at their word. Stepping out of the nightmare fantasyland of Hunt and Chick and back into sunlight of the real world, we discover that, not only was Pius XII no friend of the Nazis, but that his opposition to them began years before the War, before he was elected to the papacy, when he was still Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State. On April 28, 1935, four years before the War even started, Pacelli gave a speech that aroused the attention of the world press. Speaking to an audience of 250,000 pilgrims in Lourdes, France, the future Pius XII stated that the Nazis "are in reality only miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of social revolution, whether ... ...Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."[23] ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- FOOTNOTES: [1] Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1994), 284. [2] Jack Chick, Smokescreens (China, California: Chick Publications, 1983), 45. [3] Robert Graham, S.J., ed., Pius XII and the Holocaust (New Rochelle, New York: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 1988), 106. [4] Joseph Lichten, "A Question of Moral Judgement: Pius XII and the Jews," in Graham, 107. [5] Pinchas E. Lapide, Three Popes and the Jews (New York: Hawthorn, 1967), 118. [6] Ibid., 121. [7] Lichten, 107. [8] Graham, 18. [9] Ibid., 19. [10] Lichten, 30. [11] Ibid., 99. [12] Ibid., 120. [13] Ibid., 125. [14] Ibid., 126. [15] Lapide, 133. [16] Lichten, 127. [17] Graham, 62. [18] Lichten, 130. [19] American Jewish Yearbook 1944-1945, 233. [20] Lapide, 133. [21] Ibid., 215. [22] Ibid., 227-228. [23] Ibid., 251. Pope Pius XII and the Jews Essay -- essays research papers The twentieth century was marked by genocides on an monstrous scale. One of the most terrible was the Holocaust wrought by Nazi Germany, which killed an estimated six million European Jews and almost as many other victims. During this dark time, the Catholic Church was shepherded by Pope Pius XII, who proved himself an untiring foe of the Nazis, determined to save as many Jewish lives as he could. Yet today Pius XII gets almost no credit for his actions before or during the war. Anti-Catholic author Dave Hunt writes, "The Vatican had no excuse for its Nazi partnership or for its continued commendation of Hitler on the one hand and its thunderous silence regarding the Jewish question on the other hand. . . . [The popes] continued in the alliance with Hitler until the end of the war, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from the Nazi government to the Vatican."[1] Jack Chick, infamous for his anti-Catholic comic books, tells us in Smokescreens, "When World War II ended, the Vatican had egg all over its face. Pope Pius XII, after building the Nazi war machine, saw Hitler losing his battle against Russia, and he immediately jumped to the other side when he saw the handwriting on the wall. . . . Pope Pius XII should have stood before the judges in Nuremberg. His war crimes were worthy of death."[2] One is tempted simply to dismiss these accusations, so wildly out of touch with reality, as the deluded ravings of persons with no sense of historical truth. This would underestimate the power of such erroneous charges to influence people: Many take these writers at their word. Stepping out of the nightmare fantasyland of Hunt and Chick and back into sunlight of the real world, we discover that, not only was Pius XII no friend of the Nazis, but that his opposition to them began years before the War, before he was elected to the papacy, when he was still Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State. On April 28, 1935, four years before the War even started, Pacelli gave a speech that aroused the attention of the world press. Speaking to an audience of 250,000 pilgrims in Lourdes, France, the future Pius XII stated that the Nazis "are in reality only miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of social revolution, whether ... ...Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."[23] ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- FOOTNOTES: [1] Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1994), 284. [2] Jack Chick, Smokescreens (China, California: Chick Publications, 1983), 45. [3] Robert Graham, S.J., ed., Pius XII and the Holocaust (New Rochelle, New York: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 1988), 106. [4] Joseph Lichten, "A Question of Moral Judgement: Pius XII and the Jews," in Graham, 107. [5] Pinchas E. Lapide, Three Popes and the Jews (New York: Hawthorn, 1967), 118. [6] Ibid., 121. [7] Lichten, 107. [8] Graham, 18. [9] Ibid., 19. [10] Lichten, 30. [11] Ibid., 99. [12] Ibid., 120. [13] Ibid., 125. [14] Ibid., 126. [15] Lapide, 133. [16] Lichten, 127. [17] Graham, 62. [18] Lichten, 130. [19] American Jewish Yearbook 1944-1945, 233. [20] Lapide, 133. [21] Ibid., 215. [22] Ibid., 227-228. [23] Ibid., 251.

Behavioral Phenotypes of Inbred Mouse Strains :: essays research papers

Molecular geneticists have recently been using targeted gene line mutations so as to effectively isolate certain genes as being the cause of a specific phenotype. However the effects of a gene can be a result of complex interactions within its genetic background. Scientist have tried to maintain and isogenic genetic background. However in choosing the appropriate isogenic background it is important that all of the effects of it be documented so that the appropriate selection of genetic background can be chosen for an expected phenotype and so that the results can be interpreted properly. The effects of different strains on the performance of various different tests of an animal’s behavior are documented here. A well established measure of mouse behavior is open field locomotion. In this measurement a mouse’s amount of movement, rate of movement and other behaviors are measured. These measurements are proposed to suggest specific levels of emotionality and anxiety in mice as well as other underlying traits. The levels of activity and anxiety have been measured for specific strains. The best choice for a strain when trying to assess the level of activity or anxiety for a mutation is the strain that is known to produce the opposite level of anxiety or activity. There are two types of learning tasks that have been assessed for. Complex learning tasks involve and animal using multiple pieces of information simultaneously and Avoidance tasks which involve the animal avoiding a location where they have previously received a shock. Other behavioral traits that have been assessed are aggressiveness, reproductive behavior and the effects of acoustic startle where the reaction of a mouse to a loud noise is measured as well as its reaction when the sound is preceded by a relatively quiet sound The effects of genetic strains have also been studied with regard to their effects on certain drugs. The effects of drugs such as ethanol show that it is very hard to generalize the effects of a specific drug on a specific strain since the reactions vary with the dose given and with the reinforcing effect that it has on the mice. In some studies it was shown that despite the noticeable mean effect of ethanol on a strain it did not have the same effect with a different dose. However certain generalizations of strains sensitivity to ethanol have shown themselves to be robust across several procedural variations.

Intel Core I7 Essay

Intel made some dramatic changes in the Nehalem microarchitecture in order to offer new features and capacity in the core i7 family processors. In the coming paragraph we will explore the details of some features and their influence on control and measurement application. Intel moved the memory controller and PCI Express controller from the northbridge to the CPU die, in order to reduce the number of external databus . These changes increase data-throughput and reduce the latency for memory and PCI Express data transactions. (Figure 1) Intel inserts a distributed shared memory architecture using Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). QPI is the new point-to-point interconnects for connecting a CPU to either a chipset or another CPU. Intel’s decisions have more significant impact for multiprocessor systems. These improvements make the Core i7 family of processors ideal for test and measurement applications such as high-speed design validation and high-speed data record and playback. CPU Performance Boost via Intel Turbo Boost Technology To provide a good performance and to optimize the processor power consumption, Intel introduced a new feature called Intel Turbo Boost. Intel Turbo Boost is a new feature that automatically allows active processor cores to run faster than the operating frequency when certain conditions are met. Intel Turbo Boost is activated when the operating system requests the highest processor performance state. The maximum frequency of the specific processing core on the Core i7 processor is dependent on the number of active cores, and the amount of time the processor spends in the Turbo Boost state depends on the workload and operating environment. Figure 3. Intel Turbo Boost features offer processing performance gains for all applications regardless of the number of execution threads created. Figure 3 illustrates how the operating frequencies of the processing cores in the quad-core Core i7 processor change to offer the best performance for a specific workload type. In an idle state, all four cores operate at their base clock frequency. If an application that creates four discrete execution threads is initiated, then all four processing cores start operating at the quad-core turbo frequency. If the application creates only two execution threads, then two idle cores are put in a low-power state and their power is diverted to the two active cores to allow them to run at an even higher clock frequency. Similar behavior would apply in the case where the applications generate only a single execution thread.

What is the relationship between happiness and meaning?

The question of life’s meaning and the nature of man’s happiness is a philosophical question. The wish for meaning is a concern of every individual. Human drive and motivation are controlled by passion and the goal to achieve what they hope to conclude as success in order to be happy and contented in life. One can never be happy in the absence of any sense of fulfillment and contentment from any results that may arise from that action. There are several kinds of people in this world if we must define drifters, the meaningless or the empty, and the selfless. Where then in this category do we understand life meaning and its impact to happiness? The philosophy of life lies on the determination of the meaning of life.   Man fully concedes to the level of happiness preset by his own definition of success and self fulfillment distinguished by acceptance on the limitations and coverage of the meanings of life (Hudson 1996). Man creates and walks in the path of his own destiny compact with the belief and knowledge of what one should strive for along with the practical organization of emotions and interest to the best purpose for self. The practical man may not be interested in the concept of doing good for the society whose context and meaning of friendship are purely material and commonplace. His interest may focus more on what people can do for him. So any event in his life not in line with his principles creates dissatisfaction and unrest. Philosophy makes man stand firm on principles and values that goes beyond normal understanding of life and the world where sometimes choices are not justified by their consequences. This is a matter of individual self fulfillment building meanings around belief creating a philosophy that serve to preprogram and structure life visions and values. The matters of philosophy, meaning, fulfillment and happiness always go hand in hand. Happiness therefore is a matter of participation on something that has worth and value for the person that can in turn give him his personal definition of sense of fulfillment. A lot of people are unhappy because they demanded too much of themselves which made them unable to savor their feelings of pleasure n small accomplishments. Happiness is a degree of fit between a person’s expectations and results towards its extended joy or peace. We note then that the well being of man comes from how one understand virtue and social implications of daily behavior. Happiness does not revolve around material possessions, good health or good relationships because you may or may not have that and still feel unhappy. Happiness sometimes comes with a life filled with purpose and meaning knowing the source of life and surrendering one’s purpose in living say for example the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Jacobs 1991).   The pursuit of good life ultimately leads to happiness making life meanings a passion that drives one to work selflessly for the well being and happiness of other people. Sometimes in life people need to realize that losing control and understanding the meaning of it could make a person happy. When one learns to forego and try not to shape events and people into what he wants these people to be then he may see himself happy. The best way to achieve happiness is to stop its pursuit of the inevitable but work one’s way around it. Life’s meaning is derived from self expressions and identity necessary to make life worth living. The meaning of life is contingent on the circumstances of life and is the measure of the nature of happiness of an individual. Meaning is then is the component of man’s happiness. Losing life’s meaning makes a person feel like a dead man walking in the face of the earth with no goal or direction. Most of the time, people who feel emptiness in their hearts normally ends their life or commits crime hurting other people because they don’t see the value of life. One may wonder why rich people could very well donate large sums of money like millions of dollars to other people. Selfless giving and knowing true happiness are derived from the meanings that they have set on their lives. Take for example Brad Pitt who donated five million dollars to rebuild New Orleans. You might wonder how one could work so hard to achieve riches and then give it away for the happiness of others. The meaning of selfless giving is the true wisdom of happiness. We say then that happiness is based on the philosophy of life’s meaning. It is very individualistic and sometimes hard to comprehend but it is the true meaning of happiness. References Hudson, D. W. (1996). Happiness and the limits of satisfaction. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher Inc. Jacobs, W. J. (1991). Mother Teresa: helping the poor. Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press.