Search

The universalized, gendered myth of war is that of men in arms and women at home. The Israeli experience of the Gulf War spelled an opposite situation in which fighters were not called for active military duties and the home became 'the front.' This reversal was especially blatant in the case of Israeli nurses stationed in the hospital. This article analyzes the rhetorics of war among these nurses, describing how it changed from panic and uncertainty, through a discourse of soldiering, to frustration. This transformation is interpreted within a dual framework, as a professional gender struggle embedded in a national script of militarism., DURING THE GULF WAR, in the beginning of 1991, many Israeli nurses found themselves caught up in a paradoxical situation. Whenever the SCUD attack sirens were heard and citizens all [...]

Based on a six-year fieldwork in Israeli hospitals, this paper focuses on the reactions of parents to their appearance-impaired newborn, suggesting that the majority of parents are apt to abandon their child as a result of an external deformity. It is further found that visible impairments, however slight and curable, are likely to cause rejection, while often more medically severe internal problems do not. On the basis of these findings, which are shown to cut across ethnic, economical and educational categories, several possible explanations are considered. It is suggested that in the absence of any other information, the extreme significance of appearance in the case of newborn may prdocue, when deviating from the expected body-image, a cognitive dissonance powerful enough so as to result in the stigmatization of the appearance-impaired child as a 'non-person,' and hence lead to his/her rejection. The paper concludes with an outline of practical implications for family psychologists, therapists and the medical professions.

This article discusses and deconstructs the myth of 'motherly love' by contrasting it with fieldwork on Israeli parents' reactions to their appearance-impaired child. The ethnography of these reactions presents a common pattern of rejection--alternatively consisting of both the abandonment of the child at the hospital and of various forms of abuse at home. The article concludes by re-thinking the issue of 'motherly love' and 'bonding' as conditioned on some deeply-ingrained parental expectations regarding the appearance of their child., 'Motherly love' is a powerful cultural idiom constituted upon an almost inextricable blend of historical, sociological, medical and feminist discourses. In this paper I discuss the reification of 'motherly love' [...]

This ethnography draws on patterns of parental behavior in 200 Israeli homes of appearance-impaired children. Through the presentation of six characterizing case studies, which bring together a panorama of sociocultural categories, the author argues that parents define their appearance-impaired children as 'nonpersons.' This extreme stigma results in allocating the children a distinct 'nonhome' territory: neglected areas considered to be unfit for the use of other family members. Stigmatization is reversible once impaired appearance is 'corrected.' In the analysis, the article draws on the theoretical constructs of Foucault's 'body politic' to structurally define the relation between cognitive stigmatization and territorial seclusion.

The article presents abstracts on topics related to the science of religion which include the responses of prominent Arabs to the aspirations and colonization of Zionists before 1908, the effects of authoritarianism, religiousity and New Age beliefs on the support for democracy, and the theory on Islamic activism by Islamic cleric Fathi Yakan.

The early observation of light-dependent Ca-ATPase activity in chloroplast thytakoids [Avron, M. (1962) J. Biol. Chem. 237, 2011-2017] has been reinvestigated. It is demonstrated that in contrast to light-triggered MgATP activity, Ca-ATPase activity is strictly dependent on Δ&μmacr;H+, the transthylakoid membrane electrochemical potential gradient, since (a) there is an absolute requirement for continuous illumination; (b) electron-transport mediators that catalyze proton uptake, like phenazinemethosulphate, methylviologen of ferricyanide, are essential and (c) uncouplers inhibit the activity. The Ca-ATPase activity is essentially unaffected by dithiols, but is inhibited by CF0-CF1 inhibitors including tentoxin, dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and antisera to CF1. Addition of Ca-ATP to thylakoids does not induce ΔpH or Δψ (the electrical potential gradient) formation either in the light or following preillumination with dithiols, demonstrating that it is not coupled to proton translocation. It is also demonstrated that Ca-ATP or Ca-ADP does not induce a proton leak through CF0-CF1. It is concluded that the Ca-ATPase activity in chloroplast thylakoid reflects a partial reaction of ATP synthesis catalyzed by CF0-CF1, which is internally uncoupled from proton translocation but is dependent on energization by a transmembrane Δ&μmacr;H+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-Cyclohexyl-N′-(dimethylamino)-carbodiimide (NCD-4) labels three sites in the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase which can be resolved by their spectral properties and by their effects on the catalytical activity of the enzyme. One site is not protectable by Ca2+ ions or by dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and is not essential for catalytical activity. Two Ca2+-protectable sites, whose modification leads to a biphasic inhibition of Ca-ATPase activity. have fluorescence emission maxima at 407 nm and 425 nm. The Ca-ATPase modified by NCD-4 hydrolyses ATP but does not translocate Ca2+ nor does it undergo the conformational changes associated with Ca2+ binding in the native enzyme. High concentrations of Ca2+ induce slow biphasic fluorescence quenching in the Ca-ATPase labeled selectively at the 407-nm site but the signals are largely abolished by modification of the 425-nm site. Both vanadate ions and ATP reverse this Ca2+-induced fluorescence queching. It is proposed that NCD-4 labels the two high-affinity Ca2+-binding sites of the Sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase and that the conformational changes in the modified enzyme may reflect interactions between the two sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]