Gendered Spaces and Wounded Bodies: Yamina Benguigui's 'Inch'Allah Dimanche'

Yamina Benguigui is a pioneer in the representation of Maghrebi immigration to France, and has produced a number of works of documentary and fictional film on the subject. This article discusses her fictional film Inch'Allah dimanche (2001). The film portrays the trajectory of a young woman, Zouina, who takes her children and mother-in-law to join her husband in France. The film is unique for its close focus on the space of the home, and the negotiation of gendered spaces within the strict confines set by Zouina's husband. In this article, I consider Zouina's tentative steps towards emancipation from these confines, focusing on preconceived notions of gendered spaces across different cultures. I consider possible interpretations of the final moment of wounding in the film, in which Zouina breaks through a window with her bare hands, destroying the barrier between the interior, private space of the home and the exterior, public space of the street.

Wounded Spaces: When Planning Degraded Cairo’s Urban Memory

This paper examines the position of planning practices operated under precise guidelines for displaying modernity. Cultivating the spatial qualities of Cairo since the 1970s has unveiled centralised ideologies and systems of governance and economic incentives. I present a discussion of the wounds that result from the inadequate upgrading ventures in Cairo, which I argue, created scars as enduring evidence of unattainable planning methods and processes that undermined its locales. In this process, the paper focuses on the consequences of eviction rather than the planning methods in one of the city’s traditional districts. Empirical work is based on interdisciplinary research, public media reports and archival maps that document actions and procedures put in place to alter the visual, urban, and demographic characteristics of Cairo’s older neighbourhoods against a backdrop of decay to shift towards a global spectacular. The paper builds a conversation about the power and fate these spaces were subject to during hostile transformations that ended with their being disused. Their existence became associated with sores on the souls of its ex-inhabitants, as outward signs of inward scars showcasing a lack of equality and social justice in a context where it was much needed.

Advanced glycation of fibronectin impairs vascular repair by endothelial progenitor cells: Implications for vasodegeneration in diabetic retinopathy

PURPOSE. Vascular repair by marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is impaired during diabetes, although the precise mechanism of this dysfunction remains unknown. The hypothesis for the study was that progressive basement membrane (BM) modification by advanced glycation end products (AGEs) contributes to impairment of EPC reparative function after diabetes-related endothelial injury.

METHODS. EPCs isolated from peripheral blood were characterized by immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry. EPC interactions on native or AGE-modified fibronectin (AGE-FN) were studied for attachment and spreading, whereas chemotaxis to SDF-1 was assessed with the Dunn chamber assay. In addition, photoreactive agent-treated monolayers of retinal microvascular endothelial cells (RMECs) produced circumscribed areas of apoptosis and the ability of EPCs to “endothelialize” these wounds was evaluated.

RESULTS. EPC attachment and spreading on AGE-FN was reduced compared with control cells (P < 0.05–0.01) but was significantly restored by pretreatment with Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD). Chemotaxis of EPCs was abolished on AGE-FN but was reversed by treatment with exogenous RGD. On wounded RMEC monolayers, EPCs showed clustering at the wound site, compared with untreated regions (P < 0.001); AGE-FN significantly reduced this targeting response (P < 0.05). RGD supplementation enhanced EPC incorporation in the monolayer, as determined by EPC participation in tight junction formation and restoration of transendothelial electric resistance (TEER).

CONCLUSIONS. AGE-modification of vascular substrates impairs EPC adhesion, spreading, and migration; and alteration of the RGD integrin recognition motif plays a key role in these responses. The presence of AGE adducts on BM compromises repair by EPC with implications for vasodegeneration during diabetic microvasculopathy.

Re-Envisioning the Artist Hero Through Two Cole Porter Biopics

Songwriter Cole Porter is unusual in having had two biopics based on his life: Night and Day (1946) starring Cary Grant, and De-Lovely (2004), starring Kevin Kline. The differences in the treatment of the character of Cole Porter between the films are striking, and indicate a change in the way that society envisions its artists, and the very act of creativity. Night and Day was conceived partly as a showcase of Porter's songs, but also as a means of providing inspiration to soldiers returning wounded from World War II, based on Porter's recovery from a traumatic riding accident. It depicts Porter as an everyman following a trajectory of achievement, from having little to great success, which was positioned as easy to emulate. De-Lovely, on the other hand, is about the relationship between Porter and his wife Linda, and the way that his creativity was influenced by his changing relationships with various people. Drawing on the work on biopics of scholars such as G.F.Custen, together with research into the shifting ideas of how creativity operates and is popularly understood, this article uses these biopics as case studies to examine the representation of changing concepts of the artist and the act of creativity through Hollywood film. It also considers how these changing conceptions and representations connect to shifts in American society.

Electrical estimulation of retinal pigment epithelial cells

We investigated and characterized the effect of externally applied electric fields (EF) on retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells by exposing primary cultures of human RPE cells (hRPE) and those from the ARPE19 immortalized cell line to various strengths of EF (EF-treated cells) or to no EF (control cells) under different conditions including presence or absence of serum and gelatin and following wounding. We evaluated changes in RPE cell behavior in response to EF by using a computer based image capture and analysis system (Metamorph). We found that RPE cells responded to externally applied EFs by preferential orientation perpendicular to the EF vector, directed migration towards the anode, and faster translocation rate than control, untreated cells. These responses were voltage-dependent. Responses were observed even at low voltages, of 50-300 mV. Furthermore, the migration of hRPE cell sheets generated by wounding of confluent monolayers of cells at early and late confluence could be manipulated by the application of EF, with directed migration towards the anode observed at both sides of the wounded hRPE. In conclusion, RPE cell behaviour can be controlled by an externally applied EF. The potential for externally applied EF to be used as a therapeutic strategy in the management of selected retinal diseases warrants further investigation. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Trade-offs between personal immunity and reproduction in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

How are resources split between caring for offspring and self-maintenance? Is the timing of immune challenge important? In burying beetles challenging the immune system prior to breeding does not affect the total number and quality of offspring produced during the individual's lifetime. However, the immune system is suppressed during breeding and if an immune challenge is presented during this time the beetle will upregulate its immune system, but at the detriment to the number of offspring produced during that breeding opportunity.We know that parental investment and immune investment are costly processes, but it is unclear which trait will be prioritized when both may be required. Here, we address this question using the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, carrion breeders that exhibit biparental care of young. Our results show that immunosuppression occurs during provision of parental care. We measured phenoloxidase (PO) on Days 1-8 of the breeding bout and results show a clear decrease in PO immediately from presentation of the breeding resource onward. Having established baseline immune investment during breeding we then manipulated immune investment at different times by applying a wounding challenge. Beetles were wounded prior to and during the parental care period and reproductive investment quantified. Different effects on reproductive output occur depending on the timing of wounding. Challenging the immune system with wounding prior to breeding does not affect reproductive output and subsequent lifetime reproductive success (LRS). LRS is also unaffected by applying an immune elicitor prior to breeding, though different arms of the immune system are up/downregulated, perhaps indicating a trade-off between cellular and humoral immunity. In contrast, wounding during breeding reduces reproductive output and to the greatest extent if the challenge is applied early in the breeding bout. Despite being immunosuppressed, breeding beetles can still respond to wounding by increasing PO, albeit not to prebreeding levels. This upregulation of PO during breeding may affect parental investment, resulting in a reduction in reproductive output. The potential role of juvenile hormone in controlling this trade-off is discussed.

Robert Graves

Robert Graves was a British writer who enlisted in August 1914. He fought at the Battle of Loos in 1915, and was wounded at the Somme in 1916. He published his first volumes of poems during the war, and his bestselling war memoir, Goodbye to All That, in 1929.