Can Developing Women Create Primitive Art? and Other Questions of Value, Meaning and Identity in the Circulation of Janakpur Art

In this article, I examine the values and meanings that adhere to objects made by Maithil women at a development project in Janakpur, Nepal – objects collectors have called ‘Janakpur Art’. I seek to explain how and why changes in pictorial content in Janakpur Art – shifts that took place over a period of five or six years in the 1990s – occurred, and what such a change might indicate about the link between Maithil women’s lives, development, and tourism. As I will demonstrate, part of the appeal for consumers of Janakpur Art has been that it is produced at a ‘women’s development project’ seeking to empower its participants. And yet, the project’s very successes threaten to displace the producers (and what they produce) from their perceived qualities/identities as ‘traditional’ and ‘primitive,’ thereby bringing into question the authenticity of the ‘art’ they produce. The conundrum begs this question: can developing women produce primitive art?

Detecting BRAF Mutations in Formalin-Fixed Melanoma: Experiences with Two State-of-the-Art Techniques

Melanoma is characterized by a high frequency of BRAF mutations. It is unknown if the BRAF mutation status has any predictive value for therapeutic approaches such as angiogenesis inhibition.

Current state of the art in myocardial tissue engineering

Myocardial tissue engineering aims to repair, replace, and regenerate damaged cardiac tissue using tissue constructs created ex vivo. This approach may one day provide a full treatment for several cardiac disorders, including congenital diseases or ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction. Although the ex vivo construction of a myocardium-like tissue is faced with many challenges, it is nevertheless a pressing objective for cardiac reparative medicine. Multidisciplinary efforts have already led to the development of promising viable muscle constructs. In this article, we review the various concepts of cardiac tissue engineering and their specific challenges. We also review the different types of existing biografts and their physiological relevance. Although many investigators have favored cardiomyocytes, we discuss the potential of other clinically relevant cells, as well as the various hypotheses proposed to explain the functional benefit of cell transplantation.