Unfulfilled Dreams Research Articles

Current gene therapy for stomach carcinoma.

Gastric cancer is common in China[1-42], and its early diagnosis and treatment in advanced stage are difficult[31-50]. In recent years, gene study in cancer is a hotspot, and great progress has been achieved[41-80]. Cancer gene therapy has shifted from the imagination into the laboratory and clinical trials. The “logic of how genes function” coupled with the connections of cell cycle processes to specific gene actions is creating a promise of treating tumors by gene therapy. There have been significant advances against both local and metastatic growths. The potential role of gene intervention extends from diseases caused by single gene defects, through severe viral infections, to polygenic disorders, such as diabetes mellitus and arteriosclerosis. However, gene therapy can be defined as the introduction and expression of an exogenous gene into human cells for therapeutic benefit, and is conventionally restricted to human diseases associated with single gene defects. The rapid progress in our understanding of some of the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of cancer and metabolic disorders, with the development of gene delivery vector technology, has urged us to consider novel gene approaches to digestive diseases. There is no shortage of ideas and applications for gene intervention in human diseases, but there are great limitations not only with the efficiency and targeting of the present generation of gene transfer vectors but also with our incomplete understanding of transcription control[1,2]. The graduation of gene therapy from unfulfilled dreams to conventional therapy for gene and acquired disorders will require a mastery of multiple disparate components including gene delivery vectors, regulated tissue-specific gene expression, control of immunity and manipulation of cell viability. Improvement in suicide genes has opened up a whole new treatment modality for treating hyperproliferative disorders and for designing animal models for disease[3]. Along with herpes simplex virus-1 thymidine kinase, a host of additional suicide gene has been developed. A critical comparison of these will follow along with progress in utilizing these reagents for therapeutic benefits[81-90]. The current delineation of the molecular basis of cancer provides a strong rationale to consider gene therapy approaches for cancer as a complement to other cancer therapies. Phase III trials focused on adenoviral vector-mediated delivery of wild-type p53 to compliment p53 mutations were recently initiated for head and neck cancer and ovarian cancer. Clinical testing of the tumor inhibitory gene E1A, delivered by synthetic vectors is ongoing. Positive clinical data from these clinical studies will establish the use of gene therapy as a component of the multimodal treatment for certain cancers[4-6]. Although the rapid technological advances continue to sustain the field of cancer gene therapy, few individual patients have benefited from the revolution so far. The plethora of clinical trials described confirms that each malignancy has its own ideal strategy based on the associated molecular defects, and there has been rapid progress in this viewpoint. At the same time, there has been a renewed appreciation for the limitations to gene therapy, which include low efficiency of gene transfer, poor specificity of response and methods to accurately evaluate responses, and lack of truly tumor-specific targets at which to aim. With all new therapies, we are climbing a steep learning curve in encountering treatment-related toxicities, as well as profound ethical and regulatory issues[5-9].

Relapse stories in obesity

The tendency for obese people to relapse and regain the weight they have lost constitutes a serious problem in obesity treatment. The present study is an attempt to analyse obesity narratives to characterize the complex interrelationship between relapses and sociocultural factors. In-depth interviews were obtained from 90 obese subjects who were applying for weight loss programmes or seeking help for obesity-related problems. The social constructionist version and application of grounded theory was used to analyse the stories told by the subjects about their obesity experiences. Three main strategies to explain weight gain and relapses after weight-loss periods were identified: deprivation of supervision, anti-dieting values and isolation and unfulfilled dreams. These strategies emphasize the impact of social control, weight-related values and attitudes as well as unrealistically high hopes connected to weight loss. The results indicate that the social environment plays an important role in weight-related issues and social reactions to weight changes are difficult to handle, irrespective of the nature of the reactions. Obesity narratives present the explanations and justifications for previous failures and reflect the obese persons' understanding of their experiences in diverse social contexts.

The Nature and Support of Adolescent Mothers' Life Aspirations

The Nature and Support of Adolescent Mothers' Life Aspirations* Phame M. Camarena,** Kris Minor, Theresa Melmer, and Cheryl Ferrie Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 58 young mothers from a rural region of upper midwest to examine how mothers construct life aspirations in face of new parent roles. The majority of participants reported that parenting demands had resulted in an adjustment of expectations rather than a dramatic change in either level or nature of aspirations. Although all of mothers reported some support for pursuing life goals, this support was generally weak and inconsistent. Access to resources and firm encouragement to pursue aspirations now characterized participants with most resilient stories of adjustment. Although negative consequences of early parenting have been well documented, societal image of teenage parents has become too stereotyped and fails to recognize diversity of adolescent parents' experiences (Chase-Lansdale, Brooks-Gunn, & Paikoff, 1992). One of these stereotypes is belief that early parenting dooms young mothers to a life of unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. The consistent link between adolescent pregnancy and relatively low levels of educational and employment achievement certainly does lend some support to this belief (e.g., Barbour, Richardson, & Bubenzer, 1993; Hayes, 1987). These connections, however, are not necessarily causal in nature since many of factors that predict adolescent childbirth are linked to educational and employment aspirations prior to pregnancy (Melhuish & Phoenix, 198788; Upchurch, 1993). The resultant picture of adolescent mothers' aspirations is, therefore, somewhat difficult to disentangle. What is clear, however, is that life aspirations are an important component of adolescent mothers` adjustment. As suggested by Blinn (1990), aspirations for family. education, and work become highly salient to adolescent mothers as they are to reevaluate their visions of future. Both long and short term choices that most adolescents face now take on a new sense of urgency for adolescent parent as priorities shift to account for future of new child (White & Cummings, 1995). The Significance of Aspirations The importance of aspirations and for adjustment during adolescence generally are manifest conceptually in two different ways. First, they provide a yardstick or standard to help adolescents weigh degree to which different choices will help or hinder their chances of achieving desired goals. Second, as a motivational force they influence degree to which effort is expended on tasks that make achievement of aspirations and possible. For adolescent mothers forced to confront new parenting demands, a clear set of aspirations and may provide an important protection as a guide through difficult choices and serve as a buffer against discouragements and stressors they experience. Evidence for this power of aspirations as a protective factor for populations. generally, and adolescent mothers, specifically, is found in both Kauai and Baltimore longitudinal studies. The Kauai study (Werner & Smith, 1992) was designed to examine factors that protected an at risk sample of individuals born in Hawaii in 1955 from prenatal development into young adulthood. Although Werner and Smith describe a number of different factors that distinguished adolescents and young adults who had overcome their earlier high status, they concluded that greatest differences could be found in goals they had set for their adult lives and their sense of personal competence and determination (pp. 69-70). These same factors were highlighted as being central parts of the paths that led to improvement for adolescent mothers in this sample (p. 95). In a similar vein, Baltimore study followed a sample of primarily African American urban adolescent mothers from birth of child to young adulthood to trace developmental paths of both mother and child (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987; Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989). …

The Aging Family: New Visions in Theory, Practice and Reality

Hanna, Hargrave, Integrating the Process of Aging and Family Therapy. Hargrave, Hanna, Aging: A Primer for Family Therapists. Bojean, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Aging Families. Shields, Wynne: The Strength-Vulnerability Model of Mental Health and Illness in the Elderly. Erlanger, Changing Roles and Life Cycle Transitions. Miller et al, Marriage in Middle and Later Life. Oates, Reconciliating Unfulfilled Dreams at the End of Life.

Keeping Your Compassion Alive

n your work you're repeatedly exposed to the pain and suffering of those in your care. The unfulfilled dreams of your patients and their families, their anguish and isolation, confront you daily. The young woman who just had her third miscarriage, the gay man with AIDS who has been disowned by his family, the elderly couple who can no longer care for themselves-all touch you deeply. Some observers think burnout and the loss of compassion is the inevitable outcome of these exposures. But compassion is, in fact, a renewable resource. In this article, I'll explore the role compassion plays in nursing. I'll present the view that compassion naturally ebbs and flows within each of us. And I'll discuss how nurturing your compassion-and responding to your unique rhythm of compassion enrichment and compassion fatigue--provides you with an alternative to professional burnout.

Mycogen magically turns around Agrigenetics

This short article describes how Mycogen, which acquired Agrigenetics/Lubrizol`s seed industry in the 1993, finally turned a profit after drastic sales and brand consolidation updates. Lubrizol is a supplier of lubricant additives to the energy industry. Until Mycogen turned it around, Agrigenetics stood as a stark example of the unfulfilled dreams plaguing agbiotech.

THE LAST THING I BUILD

As The Last Thing I Build opens, Jerry Fenner somehow finds himself drawn back down into the basement to be with his old friends, Table Saw, Computer and Telephone. It is time for a final accounting. In the bowels of his home, Jerry confronts his unfinished plans, unfulfilled dreams, and his father′s expectations. Table Saw challenges Jerry to build one last project. Telephone interrupts him a great deal with its pesky ringing and glib comments. At least, the Computer remembers what Jerry wrote, and why. As the life‐journey from school teacher, to writer, to alcoholic draws to an end, Jerry discovers what he has built. Then, the phone rings – one last time.

Korean Reunification: Alternate Pathways (review)

BOOK REVIEWS119 reinforced the reputation of the Kyöngsöng [Spinning Company] as an indigenous enterprise with a strong nationalist commitment" (1 19). All told, this book is a fascinating portrayal of the largest indigenous capitalists . One yearns for another study, one dealing with less extensive Koreanowned businesses and enterprises. Perhaps McNamara will follow up research further down the economic scale. Surely there are lessons to be learned from both the large entrepreneurs and the smaller-scale endeavors. Forrest R. Pitts University of Hawaii Korean Reunification: Alternate Pathways, edited by Michael Haas. Bibliography, index. New York: Praeger, 1989. xxii + 152 pp. $39.95. Korean Reunification is a collection of both original and reprinted papers that purport to provide alternative pathways to achieve one of the unfulfilled dreams of the sixty-five million Koreans residing on the Korean peninsula, forty-two million in the south and twenty-three million in the north. Korea since 1945 has been a divided nation—territorially and politically—initially along the thirty-eighth parallel, but since 1953, along the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the land. Inasmuch as the territorial partition of Korea was imposed upon the Korean people "rather mindlessly" by the allied powers during World War II in 1945, the purposefully and logically arranged alternative pathways that this book proposes are welcome additions and contributions to the growing body of literature on the study of divided Korea and its reunification. Most of the contributions in this imaginative and scholarly undertaking, edited by Michael Haas of the department of political science at the University of Hawaii, are quite perceptive and original in attesting to the scholarly ability and orientation of the individual authors. If the initial wartime decision in May of 1945 to draw the line at the thirtyeighth parallel, by two young intellectually-minded colonels, Dean Rusk and C. H. Bonesteel HI, had been made with the degree of deliberation and compassion displayed by the contributing authors in this volume, the tragedy of an artificial breakup and splitting of the ancient and proud Korean people would have been avoided. The millions of lives and billions of dollars wasted during the thirty-seven months of combat waged during the Korean War of 1950-1953 would also have been saved, freeing the funds for more positive and constructive uses. The sad fact of life, however, is that only through historical hindsight and reflections on past suffering do we acquire a valuable lesson, namely, the wisdom of avoiding and not repeating similar "mindless" mistakes. The nation-splitting of the Korean people is a tragedy that could have been avoided if due consideration had been given to the consequences, both intended and unintended, and the implications of such a grave decision. The reunification of a divided nation is easier said than done. It is easier to 120BOOK REVIEWS split and divide than to reintegrate and reunify. All of the chapters in this volume suggest theoretically possible models and alternatives to the task of how to effect reunification of the divided nation of North and South Korea. The alternative pathways to Korean reunification mentioned in this book range from the "historical approach" (M. Haas), to the "neutralization approach" (J. Galtung), "the functionalist approach" (M. Haas), "the nonviolence approach" (G. Paige), "the mediation approach" (T. Becker), "the negotiation approach" (O. Young), and what one contributor has called "the political feasibility approach" (D. Suh). All of these alternative approaches and pathways to Korean reunfication sound fine and dandy. However, the reality of the politics of Korean reunification is the existence of mistrust and confrontation between the two rival states and regimes of North and South Korea. The experience of inter-Korean dialogue and relations since August 1971, when the first Red Cross talks on the reunification of divided families were proposed by Seoul and accepted by Pyongyang, has not been at all hopeful or sanguine about the future prospect of an easy solution to the Korean problem through what has been dubbed the "peaceful means of dialogue and negotiation." The absence of political will and consensus between the two hostile regimes has posed a formidable barrier to achieving any early breakthrough in the settlement of disputes or an eventual agreement on the...

Automated theorem proving methods

The mechanisation of reasoning is a dream that goes back at least 300 years, to Leibniz, whose visions of a “calculus ratiocinator” and a “lingua characteristica” remained as unfulfilled dreams well into the 19th century. Today deduction carried out by computers is a field of research actively supported by many governments around the world.

"My Mother Was Much of a Woman": Black Women, Work, and the Family under Slavery

was bor back due in slavery, says Nanny to her granddaughter in Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, so it wasn't for me to fulfill my dreams of whut a woman oughta be and to do. Nanny had never confused the degrading regimen of slavery with her own desires as they related to work, love, and motherhood: didn't want to be used for a work-ox and a brood-sow and Ah didn't want mah daughter used dat way neither. It sho wasn't mah will for things to happen lak they did. Throughout her life, she had sustained a silent faith in herself and her sisters that was permitted no expression within the spiritual void of bondage: wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for me, she grieved.1 Nanny's lament offers a challenge to the historian who seeks to understand American slave women their unfulfilled dreams as well as their day-in, day-out experiences. Despite recent scholarly interest in the relationship between women's work and family life on the one hand and Afro-American culture on the other, a systematic analysis of the roles of slave women is lacking. In her pioneering article entitled Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves (published over a decade ago), Angela Davis made a crucial distinction between the work that women were forced to perform for a master and the domestic labor that they provided for their own families. But her emphasis on the political implications of nurturing under slavery has not received the in-depth consideration it deserves.2 For example, a few scholars have explored the roles of the bondwoman as devoted wife and mother, physically powerful

Middle Life Crisis and Industrial Workers

Psychiatric consultation with a large utility company has uncovered a unique manifestation of the middle life syndrome. Employees with 20 or more years of service, referred to our psychiatric group, have in common such issues as "institutional transference," unfulfilled employee vocational dreams and fantasies, with concurrent inability to adjust to technological, geographical and personnel changes. The author suggests personnel programs and policies which might help to deal preventively with these problems before employees reach middle life. Methods are suggested in which corporation changes might be more sensitively instituted to meet the psychological needs of employees.

A Guide to the Location of Nineteenth-Century Cuban Magazines

It is a well known, oft stated fact that Latin American periodicals, particularly of the nineteenth century, contain a wealth of untapped documentation for the historian and literary critic. This is especially true for Cuba, where a protracted colonial period with years of tight censorship, repression, and revolutionary turmoil made the publication of lengthy works unfulfilled dreams thwarted by “la Señora Censura” or a highly underdeveloped publishing industry. Magazines and newspapers were frequently the only outlets for the expression of ideas on politics, economics, education, philosophy, religion, literature, science, music, and art, or for the publication of creative works in prose and poetry. Consequently, the examination of nineteenth-century Cuban periodicals yields an unusually rich view of the history and culture of the island; indeed, in some periods these publications, frequently ephemeral, offer the only major source of comprehensive information and documentation.