Being in charge: Older women and their younger female kin

Our cross-cultural study of the relationship between older women and their younger female kin examines women's hierarchies based on age and focuses on the exercise of authority by women, when such authority is traditional and accepted. Data were collected for two world-wide samples each consisting of 30 societies, varying in complexity, subsistence base, geographic location, and in customs related to women's lives. Three hypotheses were tested. The findings, which are statistically significant, suggest that the relationships between older women and their younger female kin are patterned and predictable, determined by the role of women in subsistence activities, by rules for post-marital residence, and by descent.When domination can only be exercised... directly, between one person and another, it can not take place overtly and must be disguised under the veil of enchanted relationships, the official model of which is presented by the relations between kinsmen.The gentle, invisible form of violence, which is never recognized as such... can not fail to be seen as the most economical mode of domination...The system is such that the dominant agents have a vested interest in virtue. (Bourdieu 1991191, 192, 194)     

Probucol treatment in hypercholesterolemic patients: effects on lipoprotein composition, HDL particle size, and cholesteryl ester transfer

Despite probucol's capacity to induce regression of tendinous xanthomata and reduce whole plasma and LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) in patients with hypercholesterolemia, its therapeutic use in the United States has been limited because of concern about its HDL-lowering effects. To assess the possibility that probucol might facilitate mobilization of tissue cholesterol in the presence of low HDL levels as a consequence of favorable changes in lipoprotein composition and function, we have analyzed lipoproteins and studied cholesteryl ester transfer (CET) in hypercholesterolemic patients before and after treatment. Prior to treatment, the free cholesterol (FC)/lecithin (L) ratio in plasma, a new index of cardiovascular risk, and the mass of cholesteryl ester transferred from HDL to the apo B-containing lipoproteins (CET) both were significantly increased (P less than 0.001). As previously shown, plasma cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, HDL2, and apolipoproteins A-I, A-II, and B all fell significantly following probucol treatment. The FC/L ratio in plasma (P less than 0.01) and HDL2 (P less than 0.01) both fell significantly also, as did the sphingomyelin/lecithin ratio in VLDL + LDL (P less than 0.001) which is typically increased in untreated patients with hypercholesterolemia. Nondenaturing gradient gel electrophoresis in 6 patients revealed that the quantitative changes in HDL were associated with a redistribution of particles characterized by a decrease in the prevalence of the largest (HDL2b) and a relative increase in the number of the smallest (HDL3b) particles. Moreover, CET following probucol therapy returned to levels which were indistinguishable from those of normolipidemic controls. These results indicate that untreated patients with hypercholesterolemia have abnormalities in (1) lipoprotein composition which have been shown to retard the movement of cholesterol from tissues to HDL, and in (2) CET which is accelerated and can potentially lead to the formation in plasma of atherogenic CE-enriched apo B-containing lipoproteins. Probucol's capacity to reverse these specific alterations suggests that it may have beneficial effects on cholesterol transport in patients with hypercholesterolemia.     

Transepithelial paracellular leakiness induced by chronic phorbol ester exposure correlates with polyp-like foci and redistribution of protein kinase C-alpha

Although exposure of LLC-PK1 epithelial cell sheets to phorbol esters (TPA) causes a near immediate and total decrease of transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), continuation of exposure for 3 to 4 days results in a tachyphylactic response as TER begins to return to control levels. Recovery of TER is maximal by 5 to 6 days, but reaches only 70 to 80% of control level. A reciprocal change in the transepithelial flux of D-mannitol indicates that the TER decrease is indicative of an increase in tight junction permeability. Exposure of cell sheets to TPA for several days also results in the appearance of multilayered polyp- like foci (PLFs) across the otherwise one cell layer thick cell sheets. The pattern of penetration of the electron dense dye, ruthenium red, from the apical surface, across the tight junction and into the lateral intercellular space indicates that the tight junctions of the cell sheet become uniformly leaky after acute exposure to TPA. However, when exposure is continued for several days, only the junctions of cells in the PLFs manifest leakiness. The decrease in TER following acute TPA exposure correlates with the translocation of protein kinase C-alpha (PKC alpha) into a membrane-associated compartment. With exposure of several days, only a trace of PKC alpha is visible by Western immunoblot, and this is in the membrane-associated compartment. Immunofluorescent microscopy indicates that the trace of PKC alpha seen in the Western immunoblots is ascribable distinctly to cells of the PLFs. Monolayer areas between PLFs show no discernible immunofluorescent signal. The data therefore indicate that tight junction barrier function may be restored in certain areas by the down regulation of PKC alpha from the membrane-associated compartment. Failure to down regulate may result in the paracellular leakiness and abnormal cell architecture of the PLFs. Possible implications of this model for in vivo epithelial tumor promotion are discussed.      

Automatic Detection of Microaneurysms and Hemorrhages in Digital Fundus Images

An efficient approach for automatic detection of red lesions in ocular fundus images based on pixel classification and mathematical morphology is proposed. Experimental evaluation of the proposed approach demonstrates better performance over other red lesion detection algorithms, and when determining whether an image contains red lesions the proposed approach achieves a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 91%.