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The current study investigates the discursive strategies used by Jewish Israeli women when telling stories of self-empowerment involving interpersonal tension with authority figures. Our corpus is based on in-depth interviews with thirty women aged fifty to ninety-three from the southern city of Beer Sheva, Israel. We identified forty-two narratives manifesting interpersonal tension, mostly with authority figures. Drawing on the theoretical framework of narrative analysis, we conduct a performance-based, pragmatic microanalysis of four stories through which we demonstrate an ensemble of strategies paramount in shaping and contesting power relations, including use of direct reported speech, address and reference terms, and code-switching. By telling their stories, our storytellers mobilized the storytelling event as an occasion to perform a self-empowering move through which they subverted the frameworks of authority not only on a local level in the narrated and storytelling events but potentially also on a broader societal level, disrupting hegemonic asymmetries. (Power relations, narratives, self-empowerment, direct reported speech, code-switching, terms of address, terms of reference) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammalian heparanase is discussed relative to gene cloning, function and expression in tumor metastasis and progression. A 50-kDa heparanse from human hepatoma and placenta was purified. Cloning of the cDNA and gene encoding the enzyme is reported. The study discussed involved what is apparently the first cloned mammalian heparan sulfate (HS)-degrading enzyme and gives direct evidence of its role in tumor metastasis. Overexpression of the heparanse cDNA in low- or nonmetastatic tumor cells brought high metastatic potential in experimental mice.

The murine homeobox genes Msx-1 and Msx-2 are related to the Drosophila msh gene and are expressed in a variety of tissues during mouse embryogenesis. We now report the developmentally regulated expression of Msx-1 and Msx-2 in the mouse mammary gland and show that their expression patterns point toward significant functional roles. Msx-1 and Msx-2 transcripts were present in glands of virgin mice and in glands of mice in early pregnancy, but transcripts decreased dramatically during late pregnancy. Low levels of Msx-1 transcripts were detected in glands from lactating animals and during the first days of involution, whereas Msx-2 expression was not detected during lactation or early involution. Expression of both genes increased gradually as involution progressed. Msx-2 but not Msx-1 expression was decreased following ovariectomy or following exposure to anti-estrogen implanted directly into the gland. Hormonal regulation of Msx-2 expression was confirmed when transcripts returned to normal levels after estrogen was administered to ovariectomized animals. In situ molecular hybridization for Msx-1 showed transcripts localized to the mammary epithelium, whereas Msx-2 expression was confined to the periductal stroma. Mammary stroma from which mammary epithelium had been removed did not transcribe detectable amounts of Msx-2, showing that expression is regulated by contiguous mammary epithelium, and indicating a role for these homeobox genes in mesenchymal-epithelial interactions during mammary development.

Arthropod symbionts present tissue tropism that corresponds to the nature of the association and the mode of transmission between host generations. In ticks, however, our knowledge of symbiont tissue tropism and function is limited. Here, we quantified and localized previously described C oxiella-like symbionts in several organs of the tick R hipicephalus turanicus. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed high densities of C oxiella in the female gonads, and both male and female Malpighian tubules. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization and transmission electron microscopy, we further showed that in the gonads of both R h. turanicus and R h. sanguineus, C oxiella does not colonize the primary oocytes but is found later in young and mature oocytes in a specific distribution, suggesting controlled vertical transmission. This method revealed the presence C oxiella in the distal part of the Malpighian tubules, suggesting a possible role in nitrogen metabolism. While testing R ickettsia symbionts, no specific tissue tropism was found, but a slightly higher densities in the tick gut. The low density of R ickettsia in the female ovaries suggests competition between R ickettsia and C oxiella for vertical transmission. The described tissue distribution supports an obligatory role for C oxiella in ticks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]