In Avala Is Falling , Jovanović's breakout success in 1978,
a young woman challenges the expectations that teachers, parents,
bus drivers and doctors have for her. The "Avala" of the title
refers to ...a mountain south of Belgrade which is home to some of
Serbia's most important nationalist monuments and shrines; it is
also the site of the main mental hospital for the region, and its
"falling" is the unexpected fulfillment of a prophecy from a
traditional Serbian folk song. Jovanović's use of stream of
consciousness in her characters' thinking and speaking, as well as
intertextuality in description and plot advancement heralded the
arrival of an innovative new writer who was determined to break
with the of traditional concerns of earlier women writers. This
book is now recognized as much more than "jeans prose," although
the fame the book achieved under that characterization eventually
pushed it to cult status. Jovanović is now considered a major
avant-garde writer, whose stylistic innovations were as challenging
as her women-centered themes.
This book is about the process of Americanization of Yugoslav culture and everyday life during the sixties. After having fallen out of the Eastern bloc, Tito turned to American backing. In political ...spheres distance was carefully guarded, yet in the realms of culture and consumption the Yugoslav regime was definitely much more receptive. For Titoist Yugoslavia this tactic turned out to be rewarding. It stabilised the regime internally and gave it an image of openness in foreign policy. The book addresses the link between cultural diplomacy, culture, consumer society and politics. The main argument is that both culture and everyday life modelled on the American way were a major source of legitimacy for the Yugoslav Communist Party, and a powerful weapon for both USA and Yugoslavia in the Cold War battle for hearts and minds. Vučetić explores how the Party used American culture in order to promote its own values and how life in this socialist and capitalist hybrid system looked like for ordinary people, living in a country with communist ideology wrapped in capitalist form. The book offers a careful reevaluation of the limits of appropriating the American dream. The analysis raises doubts toward both the uncritical celebration of Yugoslavia’s openness and the exaggerated picture of its authoritarianism.
In this novel, written by the esteemed novelist in 1901, a provincial composer and organist from Croatia struggles to find his way along the perilous frontier between the worlds of artistic vocation ...and humdrum family life. The local kapellmeister---a Czech, in good Habsburg tradition, and a confidant of Gaj and Palacky, influential politicians of the time---recognizes young Amadej Zlatanic as a prodigy and persuades the stingy mayor and stubborn parish priest to pack the teenager off to the conservatory in Prague. After several years of sordid student purgatory, Amadej returns to Croatia---ready for love and ready to make great art. The world of Central Europe in the 1860s flows past, and Amadej tries to keep abreast of political change. At the same time he ducks and dodges predatory relatives and townspeople in his native district, to which he has returned for the sake of employment. Despite his marriage to the impressionable and vulnerable local beauty, Adelka, and his devotion to their daughter Veruska, Amadej is sorely troubled by the political corruption and isolation of Croatia. His wife takes ill and his family is poor. Yet ultimately it is the vulgar, populist notion of Croatian "identity"---symbolized by the worship of the tamburica, a local musical instrument---that crushes Amadej's career. As it does so, he contemplates the two worlds of national greatness, amidst the Croatian national awakening, and international fame. Finally, frustrated beyond relief by unsuccessful affairs both amorous and professional, and tortured by the philistinism surrounding him, Amadej leaves the world of sanity for a mind-blowing descent into the maniacal and inescapable world of hallucination, paganism, and paranoia.
At the time of cancer diagnosis, body mass index (BMI) is inversely correlated with lung cancer risk, which may reflect reverse causality and confounding due to smoking behavior. We used two‐sample ...univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) to estimate causal relationships of BMI and smoking behaviors on lung cancer and histological subtypes based on an aggregated genome‐wide association studies (GWASs) analysis of lung cancer in 29 266 cases and 56 450 controls. We observed a positive causal effect for high BMI on occurrence of small‐cell lung cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.24‐2.06, P = 2.70 × 10−4). After adjustment of smoking behaviors using multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR), a direct causal effect on small cell lung cancer (ORMVMR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.06‐1.55, PMVMR = .011), and an inverse effect on lung adenocarcinoma (ORMVMR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.77‐0.96, PMVMR = .008) were observed. A weak increased risk of lung squamous cell carcinoma was observed for higher BMI in univariable Mendelian randomization (UVMR) analysis (ORUVMR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.01‐1.40, PUVMR = .036), but this effect disappeared after adjustment of smoking (ORMVMR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.90‐1.16, PMVMR = .746). These results highlight the histology‐specific impact of BMI on lung carcinogenesis and imply mediator role of smoking behaviors in the association between BMI and lung cancer.
What's new?
Lung cancer risk appears to be inversely correlated with BMI, which could be due to a variety of factors. Here, the authors used Mendelian randomization (MR) to look for a causal effect of BMI on lung cancer. MR uses genetic variants as instrumental variables, and avoids the effects of confounding factors. However, linkage disequilibrium with causal variants may interfere with the results. After adjustment for smoking, the authors found a direct causal effect of BMI on small cell lung cancer, and an inverse effect on lung adenocarcinoma. These results highlight that the effect of BMI varies significantly depending on histology.
Semliki Forest virus (SFV) provides a well-characterized model system to study the pathogenesis of virus encephalitis. Several studies have used virus derived from the molecular clone SFV4. SFV4 ...virus does not have the same phenotype as the closely related L10 or the prototype virus from which its molecular clone was derived. In mice, L10 generates a high-titer plasma viremia, is efficiently neuroinvasive, and produces a fatal panencephalitis, whereas low-dose SFV4 produces a low-titer viremia, rarely enters the brain, and generally is avirulent. To determine the genetic differences responsible, the consensus sequence of L10 was determined and compared to that of SFV4. Of the 12 nucleotide differences, six were nonsynonymous; these were engineered into a new molecular clone, termed SFV6. The derived virus, SFV6, generated a high-titer viremia and was efficiently neuroinvasive and virulent. The phenotypic difference mapped to a single amino acid residue at position 162 in the E2 envelope glycoprotein (lysine in SFV4, glutamic acid in SFV6). Analysis of the L10 virus showed it contained different plaque phenotypes which differed in virulence. A lysine at E2 247 conferred a small-plaque avirulent phenotype and glutamic acid a large-plaque virulent phenotype. Viruses with a positively charged lysine at E2 162 or 247 were more reliant on glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) to enter cells and were selected for by passage in BHK-21 cells. Interestingly, viruses with the greatest reliance on binding to GAGs replicated to higher titers in the brain and more efficiently crossed an in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB).
Virus encephalitis is a major disease, and alphaviruses, as highlighted by the recent epidemic of chikungunya virus (CHIKV), are medically important pathogens. In addition, alphaviruses provide well-studied experimental systems with extensive literature, many tools, and easy genetic modification. In this study, we elucidate the genetic basis for the difference in phenotype between SFV4 and the virus stocks from which it was derived and correct this by engineering a new molecular clone. We then use this clone in one comprehensive study to demonstrate that positively charged amino acid residues on the surface of the E2 glycoprotein, mediated by binding to GAGs, determine selective advantage and plaque size in BHK-21 cells, level of viremia in mice, ability to cross an artificial BBB, efficiency of replication in the brain, and virulence. Together with studies on Sindbis virus (SINV), this study provides an important advance in understanding alphavirus, and probably other virus, encephalitis.
Slovenia Cox, John K.
2005, 20040601, 2004-06-01, 20050101
eBook
A clear and concise introduction to contemporary Slovenia. It examines the country's rapid transition from a collection of provinces in the southern part of the Habsburg Empire, to a republic within ...Yugoslavia, to an independent state and analyzes the major political and economic developments since 1991. The perfect introduction to one of Europe's most fascinating nations.
Preface Chronology Glossary and Abbreviations 1. Historical and Cultural Background 2. Political Background, Recent/Current Politics and Political Outlook 3. Economic Background, Recent/Current Economics and Outlook 4. Regional and International Relations 5. Slovene National Identity Bibliography Index
John C. Cox is Associate Professor and Director of the campus-wide honors program at Wheeling Jesuit University. He took his Ph.D from Indiana University in 1995 and is the author of The History of Serbia (Greenwood 2002). He had also written articles and essays on nationalism, fascism and Yugoslav communism, numerous book reviews on the breakup of Yugoslavia. His current research interests include literary translation and the life and works of the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.
Abstract
Pulmonary surfactant is a lipoprotein synthesized and secreted by alveolar type II cells in lung. We evaluated the associations between 200,139 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 40 ...surfactant-related genes and lung cancer risk using genotyped data from two independent lung cancer genome-wide association studies. Discovery data included 18,082 cases and 13,780 controls of European ancestry. Replication data included 1,914 cases and 3,065 controls of European descent. Using multivariate logistic regression, we found novel SNPs in surfactant-related genes CTSH rs34577742 C > T, odds ratio (OR) = 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.89–0.93, P = 7.64 × 10−9 and SFTA2 (rs3095153 G > A, OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.10–1.21, P = 1.27 × 10−9) associated with overall lung cancer in the discovery data and validated in an independent replication data—CTSH (rs34577742 C > T, OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.80–0.96, P = 5.76 × 10−3) and SFTA2 (rs3095153 G > A, OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.01–1.28, P = 3.25 × 10−2). Among ever smokers, we found SNPs in CTSH (rs34577742 C > T, OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.85–0.92, P = 1.94 × 10−7) and SFTA2 (rs3095152 G > A, OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.14–1.27, P = 4.25 × 10−11) associated with overall lung cancer in the discovery data and validated in the replication data—CTSH (rs34577742 C > T, OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.79–0.97, P = 1.64 × 10−2) and SFTA2 (rs3095152 G > A, OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.01–1.30, P = 3.81 × 10−2). Subsequent transcriptome-wide association study using expression weights from a lung expression quantitative trait loci study revealed genes most strongly associated with lung cancer are CTSH (PTWAS = 2.44 × 10−4) and SFTA2 (PTWAS = 2.32 × 10−6).
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