bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multinomial-based small area estimation of labour force indicators
Authors: López-Vizcaíno Esther , Lombardía María José , Morales Domingo
Published: April 2013

This paper deals with small area estimation of labour force characteristics like totals of employed, unemployed and inactive people and unemployment rates. Small area estimators of these quantities are derived from a multinomial logit mixed model with independent random effects on the categories of the response vector. The mean squared errors are estimated both by explicit formulas and by bootstrap methods. Two simulation experiments designed to analyze the behaviour of the introduced estimators have been carried out. Finally, an application to real data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey of Galicia is given.
Is the sinonasal questionnaire a useful screening instrument for chronic sinonasal diseases in pulmonary clinics?
Authors: Ussavarungsi Kamonpun , Limsuwat Chok , Berdine Gilbert , Nugent Kenneth
Published: April 2013

Dixon and coworkers (Dixon AE, Sugar EA, Zinreich SJ, et al. Criteria to screen for chronic sinonasal disease. Chest 2009; 136: 1324–1332.) recently developed a five-item questionnaire for diagnosing chronic sinonasal disease in patients with asthma. Our study was designed to determine how frequently patients attending pulmonary clinics have chronic sinonasal disease and the relationship between questionnaire results and a history of sinus disease and current treatment for sinus disease. The participants were patients in pulmonary clinics at Texas Tech University Health Science Center, who answered the sinonasal questionnaire (SNQ). Additional information included a history of sinus disease or sinus/nasal surgery, smoking status, and current relevant medications. The participants included 28 men and 51 women. Patient ages ranged from 38 to 94 years (mean 62.2 years). Of all the patients, 28 patients (35.4%) had prior sinus disease, 10 (12.7%) had history of sinus or nasal surgery, 24 (30.4%) had history of asthma, and 10 (12.7%) were current smokers. Of them, 14 patients (17.7%) used nasal steroids, 12 (15.2%) used antihistamines, four (5.1%) used decongestants, nine (11.4%) used leukotriene inhibitors, 13 (16.5%) used oral corticosteroids, and two (2.5%) used combinations. The SNQ identified 39 patients (49.4%) as having chronic sinonasal diseases. Therefore, 14% of the participants had sinonasal symptoms but no prior diagnosis of sinus disease. Patients with prior sinus disease and nasal steroid use were more likely to have positive questionnaire result ( p < 0.001 and p < 0.032, respectively). The SNQ can identify patients with chronic sinonasal disease in pulmonary clinics. However, the significance of sinonasal disease and its treatment in these patients needs more study.
“Your girls that you all love are mine already”: Dracula, Mormonism and New Women’s Degenerate Polygamy
Authors: Roth Jenny , Chambers Lori , Walsh Dana
Published: April 2013

Polygamy, often unmentioned or glossed over by critics, is central to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Representations of law in relation to the polygamy threat borne by vampires connect the novel to contemporary legal and popular debates about the perceived threat Mormonism posed to patriarchal power within empire and home. Stoker’s treatment of polygamy places the novel within the contemporary contextual canon of anti-polygamy and anti-Mormon novels, thus situating it as a popular participant in the legal debates about polygamy, empire and women’s rights which took place in the fin-de-siécle courts and popular press on both sides of the Atlantic.
Milnacipran combined with pregabalin in fibromyalgia: a randomized, open-label study evaluating the safety and efficacy of adding milnacipran in patients with incomplete response to pregabalin
Authors: Mease Philip J. , Farmer Mildred V. , Palmer Robert H. , Gendreau R. Michael , Trugman Joel M. , Wang Yong
Published: April 2013

Objective:

To evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of adding milnacipran to pregabalin in patients with fibromyalgia who have experienced an incomplete response to pregabalin.

Methods:

In this randomized, multicenter, open-label study, patients received pregabalin 300 or 450 mg/day during a 4- to 12-week run-in period. Patients with weekly recall visual analog scale (VAS) pain score of at least 40 and up to 90, Patient Global Impression of Severity score of at least 4, and Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) score of at least 3 were classified as incomplete responders and randomized to continue pregabalin alone ( n = 180) or receive milnacipran 100 mg/day added to pregabalin ( n = 184). The primary efficacy parameter was responder status based on PGIC score of up to 2. The secondary efficacy parameter was change from randomization in weekly recall VAS pain score. Safety parameters included adverse events (AEs), vital signs, and clinical laboratory tests.

Results:

The percentage of PGIC responders was significantly higher with milnacipran added to pregabalin (46.4%) than with pregabalin alone (20.8%; p < 0.001). Mean improvement from randomization in weekly recall VAS pain scores was greater in patients receiving milnacipran added to pregabalin (−20.77) than in patients receiving pregabalin alone (−6.43; p < 0.001). During the run-in period, the most common treatment-emergent AEs with pregabalin were dizziness (22.8%), somnolence (17.3%), and fatigue (9.1%). During the randomized period, the most common treatment-emergent AEs with milnacipran added to pregabalin were nausea (12.5%), fatigue (10.3%), and constipation (9.8%).

Conclusions:

In this exploratory, open-label study, adding milnacipran to pregabalin improved global status, pain, and other symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia with an incomplete response to pregabalin treatment.
The Mature Athlete
Authors: McCarthy Moira M. , Hannafin Jo A.
Published: April 2013

Context:

Aging changes the biology, healing capacity, and biomechanical function of tendons and ligaments and results in common clinical pathologies that present to orthopedic surgeons, primary care physicians, physical therapists, and athletic trainers. A better understanding of the age-related changes in these connective tissues will allow better patient care.

Evidence Acquisition:

The PubMed database was searched in December 2012 for English-language articles pertaining to age-related changes in tendons and ligaments.

Level of Evidence:

Level 5.

Results:

The mature athlete faces challenges associated with age-dependent changes in the rotator cuff, Achilles tendon, lateral humeral epicondylar tendons, quadriceps tendon, and patellar tendon. The anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament are the most studied intra-articular and extra-articular ligaments, and both are associated with age-dependent changes.

Conclusion:

Tendons and ligaments are highly arranged connective tissue structures that maintain joint motion and joint stability. These structures are subject to vascular and compositional changes with increasing age that alter their mechanotransduction, biology, healing capacity, and biomechanical function. Emerging research into the etiology of age-dependent changes will provide further information to help combat the age-related clinical complications associated with the injuries that occur to tendons and ligaments.
Enhancing Political Participation in Jamaica
Authors: Waller Lloyd George
Published: April 2013

Youth participation through political talk appears to be shifting to the online public sphere in many parts of the world. Many attribute this shift to online social networks such as Facebook. Emerging research seem to suggest that this may be a cure for the problem of political apathy among the youth. This study explores such a possibility in Jamaica. In all, 752 youth ages 15 to 24 were surveyed to ascertain whether Facebook encourages political talk among this age cohort, and what if any are the primary factors that discourage this practice. The findings suggest that (a) Facebook is an extension of offline political talk among the civically engaged and politically charged youth of Jamaica; (b) Facebook does not substantively encourage political talk among the politically apathetic Jamaican youth; and (c) fear of political victimization is the primary factor that discourages many Jamaican youth to engage in political talk on Facebook.
Evaluation of Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy by MRI and Ultrasound
Authors: Babiker Mahmoud S. , Omer Awatef M. , Al Oufi Abdul-Rahman
Published: April 2013

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a major cause of brain damage and neurodevelopmental abnormalities in full-term newborn infants. We are reporting the results of a study comparing cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cranial sonography (US) in 150 neonates with suspected HIE. Magnetic resonance imaging findings were normal in 44 patients (29%); 18% of patients showed only basal ganglia (BG) brightness, 10.6% showed brightness of the BG with intracerebral hemorrhage, and 63% of patients showed additional diagnostic details. Cranial US was normal in 75 patients (50%) and showed increased periventricular echogenicity in 32%, intraventricular hemorrhage in 9%, and additional diagnostic details in 13%. There was a positive correlation between MRI studies and US ( P = .013). These data suggest that US is a worthwhile modality for the diagnosis of HIE but that early MRI findings will provide additional information in many cases in the detection of cerebral intraventricular hemorrhage.
Targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Putora P.M. , Schneider T. , Rodriguez R. , Früh M.
Published: April 2013

Educational aims

To explain the clinically relevant molecular pathways in lung cancer.

To understand the basic principles of tests useful for targeted therapies.

To present a basis for current treatment approaches.
Gene expression patterns following unilateral traumatic brain injury reveals a local pro-inflammatory and remote anti-inflammatory response
Authors: White Todd E , Ford Gregory D , Surles-Zeigler Monique C , Gates Alicia S , LaPlaca Michelle C , Ford Byron D
Published: April 2013

Background

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in irreversible damage at the site of impact and initiates cellular and molecular processes that lead to secondary neural injury in the surrounding tissue. We used microarray analysis to determine which genes, pathways and networks were significantly altered using a rat model of TBI. Adult rats received a unilateral controlled cortical impact (CCI) and were sacrificed 24 h post-injury. The ipsilateral hemi-brain tissue at the site of the injury, the corresponding contralateral hemi-brain tissue, and naïve (control) brain tissue were used for microarray analysis. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software was used to identify molecular pathways and networks that were associated with the altered gene expression in brain tissues following TBI.

Results

Inspection of the top fifteen biological functions in IPA associated with TBI in the ipsilateral tissues revealed that all had an inflammatory component. IPA analysis also indicated that inflammatory genes were altered on the contralateral side, but many of the genes were inversely expressed compared to the ipsilateral side. The contralateral gene expression pattern suggests a remote anti-inflammatory molecular response. We created a network of the inversely expressed common (i.e., same gene changed on both sides of the brain) inflammatory response (IR) genes and those IR genes included in pathways and networks identified by IPA that changed on only one side. We ranked the genes by the number of direct connections each had in the network, creating a gene interaction hierarchy (GIH). Two well characterized signaling pathways, toll-like receptor/NF-kappaB signaling and JAK/STAT signaling, were prominent in our GIH.

Conclusions

Bioinformatic analysis of microarray data following TBI identified key molecular pathways and networks associated with neural injury following TBI. The GIH created here provides a starting point for investigating therapeutic targets in a ranked order that is somewhat different than what has been presented previously. In addition to being a vehicle for identifying potential targets for post-TBI therapeutic strategies, our findings can also provide a context for evaluating the potential of therapeutic agents currently in development.
Validation of patient determined disease steps (PDDS) scale scores in persons with multiple sclerosis
Authors: Learmonth Yvonne C , Motl Robert W , Sandroff Brian M , Pula John H , Cadavid Diego
Published: April 2013

Background

The Patient Determined Disease Steps (PDDS) is a promising patient-reported outcome (PRO) of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). To date, there is limited evidence regarding the validity of PDDS scores, despite its sound conceptual development and broad inclusion in MS research. This study examined the validity of the PDDS based on (1) the association with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores and (2) the pattern of associations between PDDS and EDSS scores with Functional System (FS) scores as well as ambulatory and other outcomes.

Methods

96 persons with MS provided demographic/clinical information, completed the PDDS and other PROs including the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale-12 (MSWS-12), and underwent a neurological examination for generating FS and EDSS scores. Participants completed assessments of cognition, ambulation including the 6-minute walk (6 MW), and wore an accelerometer during waking hours over seven days.

Results

There was a strong correlation between EDSS and PDDS scores (ρ = .783). PDDS and EDSS scores were strongly correlated with Pyramidal (ρ = .578 & ρ = .647, respectively) and Cerebellar (ρ = .501 & ρ = .528, respectively) FS scores as well as 6 MW distance (ρ = .704 & ρ = .805, respectively), MSWS-12 scores (ρ = .801 & ρ = .729, respectively), and accelerometer steps/day (ρ = -.740 & ρ = -.717, respectively).

Conclusion

This study provides novel evidence supporting the PDDS as valid PRO of disability in MS.
A family-centered lifestyle intervention to improve body composition and bone mass in overweight and obese children 6 through 8 years: a randomized controlled trial study protocol
Authors: Cohen Tamara R , Hazell Tom J , Vanstone Catherine A , Plourde Hugues , Rodd Celia J , Weiler Hope A
Published: April 2013

Background

Childhood obesity gives rise to health complications including impaired musculoskeletal development that associates with increased risk of fractures. Prevention and treatment programs should focus on nutrition education, increasing physical activity (PA), reducing sedentary behaviours, and should monitor bone mass as a component of body composition. To ensure lifestyle changes are sustained in the home environment, programs need to be family-centered. To date, no study has reported on a family-centered lifestyle intervention for obese children that aims to not only ameliorate adiposity, but also support increases in bone and lean muscle mass. Furthermore, it is unknown if programs of such nature can also favorably change eating and activity behaviors. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of a 1 y family-centered lifestyle intervention, focused on both nutrient dense foods including increased intakes of milk and alternatives, plus total and weight-bearing PA, on body composition and bone mass in overweight or obese children.

Methods/design

The study design is a randomized controlled trial for overweight or obese children (6–8 y). Participants are randomized to control, standard treatment (StTx) or modified treatment (ModTx). This study is family-centred and includes individualized counselling sessions on nutrition, PA and sedentary behaviors occurring 4 weeks after baseline for 5 months, then at the end of month 8. The control group receives counselling at the end of the study. All groups are measured at baseline and every 3 months for the primary outcome of changes in body mass index Z-scores. At each visit blood is drawn and children complete a researcher-administered behavior questionnaire and muscle function testing. Changes from baseline to 12 months in body fat (% and mass), waist circumference, lean body mass, bone (mineral content, mineral density, size and volumetric density), dietary intake, self-reported PA and sedentary behaviour are examined.

Discussion

This family-centered theory-based study permits for biochemical and physiological assessments. This trial will assess the effectiveness of the intervention at changing lifestyle behaviours by decreasing adiposity while enhancing lean and bone mass. If successful, the intervention proposed offers new insights for the management or treatment of childhood obesity.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov,NCT01290016.
Epidermal growth factor receptor variant type III markedly accelerates angiogenesis and tumor growth via inducing c-myc mediated angiopoietin-like 4 expression in malignant glioma
Authors: Katanasaka Yasufumi , Kodera Yasuo , Kitamura Yuka , Morimoto Tatsuya , Tamura Tomohide , Koizumi Fumiaki
Published: April 2013

Background

Expression of the constitutively activated mutant EGFR variant III (EGFRvIII), the most common mutation in glioblastoma multiforme (GBMs), has been clinically correlated with tumor proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis. In this study, we examined the role of EGFRvIII on the tumor microenvironment, especially on angiogenesis.

Methods

To study the role of EGFRvIII in tumor angiogenesis, we prepared LN229 glioblastoma transfected with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), wild-type EGFR, or EGFRvIII (LN229-WT or -vIII), and examined tumor growth and microvessel density in the tumors. Additionally, the potential angiogenic factors were identified by real-time PCR analysis, and the functions in LN229-vIII cells were examined.

Results

LN229-vIII cells showed more aggressive tumor growth and higher vascularity as compared to LN229-WT cells in vivo, although there was no significant difference in the cell growth rates in vitro. We next investigated the expression of 60 angiogenesis-related factors to clarify the mechanisms underlying the difference in vascularity between tumor xenografts of LN229-vIII and LN229-WT. We found that the mRNA and protein expressions of angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4), a secreted protein involved in angiogenesis and metabolism regulation, were significantly induced by EGFRvIII overexpression, both in vitro and in vivo. Constitutive knockdown of Angptl4 in LN229-vIII using shRNA significantly decreased the microvessel density in the tumor xenografts and suppressed tumor growth. To clarify the regulatory mechanisms of Angptl4 by EGFRvIII, we analyzed the signaling pathways and transcription factors by pharmacological inhibition and RNA interference. U0126, an ERK signal inhibitor dramatically suppressed Angptl4 expression. The transcription factor c-Myc, which is regulated by ERK, was activated in the LN229-vIII cells and knockdown of c-Myc using siRNA also attenuated Angptl4 expression in the LN229-vIII cells. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay revealed increased recruitment of c-Myc to the promoter region of Angptl4 in the LN229-vIII cells.

Conclusions

In summary, we demonstrated that EGFRvIII induces Angptl4 expression through the ERK/c-Myc pathway and promotes tumor angiogenesis in malignant gliomas.
The curious case of exploding quantum dots: anomalous migration and growth behaviors of Ge under Si oxidation
Authors: Wang Ching-Chi , Liao Po-Hsiang , Kuo Ming-Hao , George Tom , Li Pei-Wen
Published: April 2013

We have previously demonstrated the unique migration behavior of Ge quantum dots (QDs) through Si3N4 layers during high-temperature oxidation. Penetration of these QDs into the underlying Si substrate however, leads to a completely different behavior: the Ge QDs ‘explode,’ regressing back almost to their origins as individual Ge nuclei as formed during the oxidation of the original nanopatterned SiGe structures used for their generation. A kinetics-based model is proposed to explain the anomalous migration behavior and morphology changes of the Ge QDs based on the Si flux generated during the oxidation of Si-containing layers.
Single image haze removal considering sensor blur and noise
Authors: Lan Xia , Zhang Liangpei , Shen Huanfeng , Yuan Qiangqiang , Li Huifang
Published: April 2013

Images of outdoor scenes are usually degraded under bad weather conditions, which results in a hazy image. To date, most haze removal methods based on a single image have ignored the effects of sensor blur and noise. Therefore, in this paper, a three-stage algorithm for haze removal, considering sensor blur and noise, is proposed. In the first stage, we preprocess the degraded image and eliminate the blur/noise interference to estimate the hazy image. In the second stage, we estimate the transmission and atmospheric light by the dark channel prior method. In the third stage, a regularized method is proposed to recover the underlying image. Experimental results with both simulated and real data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is effective, based on both the visual effect and quantitative assessment.
Single-stage surgical repair in a complex case of aberrant right subclavian artery aneurysm and common carotid trunk
Authors: Kokotsakis Ioannis , Harling Leanne , Anagnostakou Vania , Tassopoulos Dimitris , Charitos Christos , Ashrafian Hutan , Athanasiou Thanos
Published: April 2013

Aberrant right subclavian artery with coexisting common carotid trunk is an extremely rare congenital anomaly affecting <0.1% of the population. We report the case of a 77-year-old Caucasian man presenting with dysphagia and dyspnea secondary to an aberrant right subclavian artery aneurysm and describe our technique for open surgical repair.
Solitary pulmonary mass in a patient with a history of lymphoma: a case report
Authors: Yuan Ying , Shen Hong , Hu Hanguang , Ye Xiaoxian , Zhong Xian
Published: April 2013

Introduction

With the progress made in treatments, the survival rate for patients with malignant lymphoma in the last 30 years has significantly improved. However, the risk of experiencing a second primary malignancy or other disease has increased significantly.

Case presentation

A 44-year-old Mongolian man with a large mass in his right lower abdomen was admitted to our hospital 15 years previously. The mass was removed, and confirmed via pathological examination to be a malignant B-cell lymphoma in the appendix and distal small bowel. Post-operative chemotherapy with standard cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunomycin, vincristine (Oncovin®) and prednisolone regimen was given for six cycles. No obvious recurrence was detected over the following 12 years. Subsequently, a mass in the right lung was found on a regular X-ray follow-up; our patient did not report chills, fever or cough. Chest computed tomography and positron emission tomography scans confirmed the mass. A primary lung carcinoma was considered to be the most likely diagnosis. However, after an exploratory thoracotomy and right upper lobectomy was performed a pathological examination of tissue samples demonstrated a lung cryptococcal granuloma, with positive staining for periodic acid Schiff and periodic acid-silver metheramine.

Conclusions

Compared to the normal population, second primary malignancy (in particular leukaemia and lung cancer) in patients with malignant lymphoma during their long-term survival has been seen occasionally. However, other diagnoses should also be considered such as pulmonary cryptococcosis. Other than computed-tomography-guided needle biopsy, surgery for some patients is a much more appropriate choice, which could also help attain correct diagnosis and treatment.
Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infection among patients attending serology laboratory of Gondar University Hospital
Authors: Tesfa Habtie , Biadgo Belete , Getachew Fasika , Tegegne Kifle , Yismaw Gizachew , Muluye Dagnachew
Published: April 2013

Background

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HBV) infections accounts for substantial proportions of the world wide liver disease. The two hepatotropic virus share common modes of transmission and their co-infection are common. Patients with dual HBV and HCV infection have more severe liver disease and are at increased risk of progression to hepatic cell carcinoma. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of HBV and HCV among patients attending serology laboratory of Gondar University Teaching Hospital.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted from January 2007 to December 2011 at serology laboratory of Gondar University Teaching Hospital. Data were cross checked for completeness, entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16 statistical package.

Results

From the total of 2,684 clinicaly suspected hepatitis patients, 563 (20.98%) were positive for HBsAg and anti-HCV test. Of all, 14.4% were seropositive for HBV (male= 7.89% female=6.27%) (p-value=0.011) while 12.4% were seropositive for HCV (male =7.6% and female=4.13%) (p-value<0.001). The co-incidence of HBV and HCV were found to be 36 (6.39%) (male=3.9% and female=2.4%) (p-value <0.001). Majority of HBV (30.2%) and HCV (30.7%) infections were detected among age group of 25–34 years old (p-value=0.36) and 15–24 years old (p-value<0.001) respectively.

Conclusion

The overall prevalence of HBV and HCV is high. Males and younger age groups were more affected. Community awareness about the transmission and prevention of viral hepatitis infection should be strengthened by giving health education and herd immunization.
The disability system and programs to promote employment for people with disabilities
Authors: Wittenburg David , Mann David R , Thompkins Allison
Published: April 2013

This paper examines employment-focused interventions within the US disability system. Our review illustrates the challenges of developing and implementing these types of initiatives, despite substantial policy interest. Our findings indicate that none of the demonstrations we reviewed have the potential to lead to substantial caseload reductions that could reverse program growth. However, they can inform future designs, particularly the importance of customizing supports to very well-defined target populations.

JEL code

D04
From the “Kingdoms of Angola” to Santiago de Guatemala: The Portuguese Asientos and Spanish Central America, 1595–1640
Authors: Lokken Paul
Published: April 2013

The evidence presented in this article establishes the era of the major Portuguese asientos (1595–1640) as a key moment in the history of African migration to Spanish Central America. Between 1607 and 1628 alone, Portuguese slave traders made at least 15 voyages from Angola to the Caribbean coast of Central America, landing in most cases “by accident” at the Honduran port of Trujillo while allegedly en route to Veracruz. Many of the West Central Africans carried on these voyages were subsequently marched inland by the same Portuguese merchants to be sold in Santiago de Guatemala, capital of the Audiencia of Guatemala. Their final destinations were often rural properties located in or near the Pacific lowlands of modern-day Guatemala and El Salvador, where the largest sugar and indigo plantations counted dozens of Angolans among their enslaved workers. A decided majority of these involuntary migrants were young men, most no doubt having departed from Luanda following misfortune in the wars that, with a good deal of Portuguese encouragement, wracked their homelands after 1575. Their migration experiences testify to a significant shift in the point of origin of Africans brought to Central America away from Senegambia and neighboring regions of West Africa, birthplace of the majority of Africans transported to Central America prior to 1595. The later-arriving and larger West Central African workforce played a more important role than heretofore understood in satisfying the demands for labor that arose in the early seventeenth century as commercial agriculture briefly boomed amid persistent indigenous population decline.
Introduction: Idées Fixes and Fausses Idées Claires
Authors: Epstein Mikhail , Perl Jeffrey M.
Published: April 2013

This essay, coauthored by the editor and a member of the editorial board of Common Knowledge, introduces the fifth installment of the journal's symposium “Fuzzy Studies,” which is about the “consequence of blur.” Beginning with a review of Enlightenment ideas about ideas — especially Descartes's argument that a mind “unclouded and attentive” can be “wholly freed from doubt” (Rules III, 5) — this essay then turns to assess the validity of counter-Enlightenment arguments, mostly Russian but also anglophone and French, against the association of clarity and certainty. A line of descent is drawn from the speaker of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy to Dostoevsky's underground man, and the latter is shown to differ from the former mainly in that the underground man sympathizes consciously with Descartes's bête noire, the “evil deceiver” (Descartes's speaker sympathizes perhaps unconsciously). Enlightenment, in other words, is not as it appears to be, for rationalists too insist on their caprice. Hyperrationality, it is argued, can be a form of madness, a mania over clarity, distinctions, rules, principles, and unquestionable truths. Examples from Russian and anglophone literature are given of how easily the distance from idée claire to idée fixe is to traverse. The end product of un-self-doubting rationality tends to be delay or stoppage of the intellect, which this essay terms noostasis (and proposes is the opposite of ekstasis).
Mathematics, Media, and Cultural Techniques
Authors: Brüning Jochen
Published: April 2013

This contribution, by a mathematician, to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies” examines some mechanisms that seem essential for the “ratchet effect” that, in Michael Tomasello's use of the term, refers to the ability of human cultures to preserve their achievements even through serious crises and even where preservation entails substantial loss. By taking the word culture to refer to any group of individuals who closely cooperate over an extended period, this article evaluates mathematicians and mathematics as its main example. The assessment of the enterprise of mathematics as a culture corresponds to the author's personal experience — and mathematics, he argues, is both historically old and simply structured, despite the formidable complexity of mathematical knowledge as it has been compiled over the centuries. The preserving, restructuring, and enlarging of this knowledge may be regarded as the main cultural goals of mathematics and are the objects of study here. This article concentrates first on the techniques used in pursuing the tasks of preservation, enlargement, and restructuring — techniques such as counting methods and geometric diagrams — and it emphasizes their use in communication, when they function as media. The cultural techniques of mathematics, known to and used by all members of that culture, are media that, through intensity of communication, add symbolic functions to mere procedures. (The prototypical example of a cultural technique, in this sense, is language.) Knowledge, as the additional symbolic value, is distributed and at the same time preserved in the process of permanent communication.
Sharp Edges, False Comfort
Authors: Richardson Carolyn
Published: April 2013

This article, a contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies,” criticizes a prominent form of philosophical account of rational activity. Rational activity includes actions as varied as kicking a soccer ball and speaking a language. The philosophical accounts examined — which may be called “intellectualist” — share two features: they originate in skeptical doubt about whether what appears to be rational activity really is, and they ascribe knowledge of the norms of her activity to the person doing it. Given their first feature, intellectualist accounts seek to reassure us. But they fail: the phenomenon to which they appeal in explaining rational activity — a person's grasping its norms — itself presupposes such activity. The question whether a person knows the norms of her activity is a central way of organizing the disputes of the last sixty years over whether the humanities are as intellectually legitimate as the sciences. One prominent thing it can mean to call humanities work “fuzzy” is that it is without authoritative method. Critics of the humanities may be understood as insisting that intellectual work is genuinely rational only where the thinker has in view sharply defined norms. Thus, such critics evince the same kind of concern about the legitimacy of literary or historical studies as intellectualist philosophers do about the reality of apparent soccer kicks or meaningful speech. Whatever the merit of these concerns, there is no comfort to be had in ascribing knowledge of the norms of her activity to either the literary critic or the soccer player.
Space in Form
Authors: Rayner Alan D. M.
Published: April 2013

This contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies” argues that the inclusion of space in form brings varying degrees of fuzziness and fluidity to all natural identities. Such inclusion is vital to evolutionary creativity, from subatomic to cosmic scales of natural energy flow. Examples abound throughout the natural world of indeterminate forms and processes unclassifiable under any of the discrete categories that are preferred and imposed by definitive theoretical models. Here, the much-neglected kingdom of the fungi is used to illustrate the workings of a logic of fluid boundaries.
“ALL DISTINCTIONS ARE Political, Artificial”
Authors: Lawrence Bruce B.
Published: April 2013

Few modern artists so consistently embodied a fuzzy logic of their own as did the Indian painter Maqbool Fida Husain (1915 – 2011). His critics tried to define him as a reckless defamer of Hindu values, but another way to define him is as a dutiful devotee of a vision that was inclusive, rather than exclusive, and that understood all boundaries and identities as fluid or blurry, rather than as fixed and immutable. Or one might say that Husain strove to project what Ashis Nandy has called “Indian-style secularism,” celebrating creation, humanity, and beauty in the multiple religious forms of the subcontinent. Having lived and painted in India all his life, he was forced into exile in his nineties by right-wing Hindu politicians. In London, he continued to work on a new interpretation of Indian civilization as universally relevant, in a sequence of paintings with themes from the Mahabharata, while, in Doha, a royal patron commissioned him to paint a series relating Islamic and Christian civilization. The two series are shown, in this essay, to best exhibit Husain's view of “all distinctions” as “political, artificial.”
The Islamic-Israelite World
Authors: McMeekin Sean
Published: April 2013

This essay applies the concept of “fuzzy thinking” to geopolitics, using a curious turn of phrase in a 1914 policy paper (“the Islamic-Israelite world”) to explore paradoxes of German strategy in World War I. To find the origins of this phrase, the article explores the language of prewar Orientalism, especially the potent German variety that was notoriously neglected by Edward Said in his 1979 study decrying Orientalism as the handmaiden of European imperialism. But many prominent German Orientalists were also ignored in Robert Irwin's recent book-length critique of Said's Orientalism, despite the centrality of the German case to Irwin's argument. Just as Said ignored scholarly titans of the German-speaking world such as Carl Heinrich Becker, Ignaz Goldziher, and Theodore Nöldeke — presumably because Germany, unlike France and Britain, never colonized Islamic lands in the Middle East — so, too, did Irwin ignore more worldly German Orientalists such as Max von Oppenheim and Curt Prüfer, whose covert activities on behalf of Berlin did not fit his own counterthesis that Orientalism, pace Said, “in its most important aspect was founded upon academic drudgery.” The “hack” German Orientalists who concocted a Turco-German “jihad” against the Entente Powers in World War I — accompanied by a simultaneous plan to unleash Zionism to destroy tsarist Russia — may not have been scholars of the highest caliber, which helps explain how they could tolerate a fuzzy phrase like “the Islamic-Israelite world.” The essay concludes that, nevertheless, we may learn from and even be inspired by their ideas, however illusory these proved to be in practice.
“OUR PROTESTANT Rabbin”
Authors: Green Dominic , Schuchard Marsha Keith
Published: April 2013

This article comprises a dialogue between two historians who have attempted, individually, to narrate the life of Lord George Gordon (1751 – 93), the Scottish prophet, revolutionary, and convert to Judaism. For modern cultural historians, Gordon's peregrinations between identities offer a kaleidoscopic view of Britain in the overlooked but crucial interstice between the upheavals of 1776 and 1789. Yet the partial nature of the evidence, the long omission of Gordon from the historiography of eighteenth-century Britain, and the complex, often furtive nature of Gordon's activism create multiple ambiguities in his story. These ambiguities are compounded here by the authors' differing approaches. Marsha Keith Schuchard argues for a Gordon shaped by Scottish origins; Dominic Green, for a Gordon responding to English opportunities. They disagree over the likely date of Gordon's conversion to Judaism and, crucially, over whether he was a religious atavist or a Romantic pioneer. This dialogue is meant to illustrate the utility of a scholarship that acknowledges fuzziness rather than attempting to overclarify it. The article is also meant to show, however, that on the public stage fuzziness can be less benign: Gordon was a religious politician, who reworked his complexities and confusions into a violent, uncompromising critique of eighteenth-century British social order.
The Oil Town of Ahmadi since 1946
Authors: Alissa Reem
Published: April 2013

This article highlights the role of oil as an agent of political, social, and cultural change at the level of the everyday urban experience by introducing the company town as a modern architectural and urban prototype that has been largely neglected in the study of the Middle East. Using the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) town of Ahmadi as a case study, Alissa’s article offers new perspectives on the history of oil urbanism in Kuwait since 1946. It first traces the origins of Ahmadi’s architectural and urban development as shaped by KOC officials and by the company architects Wilson, Mason and Partners, both responsible for forging the town’s first decade of urban existence under the aegis of colonial urbanism. Second, it analyzes how the nationalization of Egypt’s Suez Canal in 1956 and the growth of regional and local anti-British sentiments that also targeted the KOC compelled the British oil company to reposition itself as the benevolent modernizer of Kuwait and as the champion of Kuwaitization through a tactfully constructed public relations campaign that lasted until 1960. The process of Kuwaitization, or nationalization of the oil industry, largely entailed the replacement of Ahmadi’s expatriate population with a Kuwaiti one. As a result of this demographic shift, Alissa argues, the urban modernity experienced in Ahmadi by the Kuwaiti employees of KOC during the 1960s and 1970s mediated drastically new and modern lifestyles that rendered it a nostalgic city in the nation’s collective memory.
The Oil City in Focus
Authors: Damluji Mona
Published: April 2013

As the most widely circulated cinematic portrait of Abadan under full administration of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), the AIOC film Persian Story offers an exceptional opportunity to examine the ways in which the British company linked the idea of modernity to the image of Western aesthetics of urbanism in the oil city. Damluji argues that the AIOC produced this cinematic spectacle of urbanism in order to control the image of oil modernity in Iran. This article first examines the discursive practices — the verbal exchanges, ideas, decisions, and conditions — that made Persian Story a major cinematic event in Britain and a durable visual record of oil modernity in Iran. It further analyzes the visual composition and narrative of the film in order to understand how AIOC’s network of executives and filmmakers selected and managed representations of urban space and society in Abadan. In Persian Story oil modernity is made legible in the spaces of leisure shaped by British town planning. Meanwhile, the film renders invisible the spaces of Abadan’s working class, whose demands for fair wages, regular hours, and decent living conditions were routinely neglected by the oil company. As a result, the segregation and inequality that defined the oil city for so many Iranian workers are absent from Persian Story. Yet, even after the nationalization movement in 1951 forced British employees to evacuate the oil city, the film was applauded in London theaters and classrooms as “the clearest impression” the world had of Abadan.
White Drugs in Interwar Egypt
Authors: Kozma Liat
Published: April 2013

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, British and Egyptian officials, medical doctors, and the Egyptian press reiterated that country was plagued by “white drugs”: cocaine and heroin. Kozma’s article demonstrates how, in addition to presenting drug consumption as a social problem, discourse on the topic voiced social concerns about class, gender, colonialism, and social change. It explores both medical and popular discourses of drug consumption, focusing on notions of nation, gender, and class. Kozma’s article thus examines how a global phenomenon, namely the increased consumption of and trade in drugs and the attempt to curb the former, was experienced and represented in the Egyptian local case.
Religious Anxieties in Two Marginal Regions
Authors: Becker Felicitas
Published: April 2013

Becker’s article focuses on similarities between arguments about funerary ritual, in particular the rite of telkin (admonition), among Muslim congregations in Highland Aceh, Indonesia, and in parts of Tanzania. It discusses the Sufi and scholarly networks that most likely explain the presence of this rite in both regions. The intensity of recent arguments about telkin, though, is connected to changing social and political constellations in the colonial and postcolonial period, which have left villagers in both locations unsure of their ability to maintain everyday sociality while also managing their relations with national and transregional power centers. The dispersal of the telkin ritual in two very different locations shows that the traditional rituals attacked by Muslim reformists cannot be construed as “local” additions to “orthodox” Islam; rather, this ritual is evidence of exchanges within Islamic networks that predate the reformist ones. Moreover, the debates show the extent to which even apparently isolated rural locations participate in global exchanges and are in some ways even more vulnerable to them than the cities more often seen as hubs of globalization.
Notch1 functions as a negative regulator of lymphatic endothelial cell differentiation in the venous endothelium
Authors: Murtomaki Aino , Uh Minji K. , Choi Yun K. , Kitajewski Christopher , Borisenko Valeriya , Kitajewski Jan , Shawber Carrie J.
Published: April 2013

In development, lymphatic endothelial cells originate within veins and differentiate via a process requiring Prox1. Notch signaling regulates cell-fate decisions, and expression studies suggested that Jag1/Notch1 signaling functions in veins during lymphatic endothelial specification. Using an inducible lymphatic endothelial Prox1CreERT2 driver, Notch signaling was suppressed by deleting Notch1 or expressing dominant-negative Mastermind-like in Prox1+ endothelial cells. Either loss of Notch1 or reduced Notch signaling increased Prox1+ lymphatic endothelial progenitor cell numbers in the veins, leading to incomplete separation of venous and lymphatic vessels. Notch loss of function resulted in excessive Prox1+ lymphatic cells emerging from the cardinal vein and significant lymphatic overgrowth. Moreover, loss of one allele of Notch1 in Prox1 heterozygous mice rescued embryonic lethality due to Prox1 haploinsufficiency and significantly increased Prox1+ lymphatic endothelial progenitor cell numbers. Expression of a constitutively active Notch1 protein in Prox1+ cells suppressed endothelial Prox1 from E9.75 to E13.5, resulting in misspecified lymphatic endothelial cells based upon reduced expression of podoplanin, LYVE1 and VEGFR3. Notch activation resulted in the appearance of blood endothelial cells in peripheral lymphatic vessels. Activation of Notch signaling in the venous endothelium at E10.5 did not arterialize the cardinal vein, suggesting that Notch can no longer promote arterialization in the cardinal vein during this developmental stage. We report a novel role for Notch1 in limiting the number of lymphatic endothelial cells that differentiate from the veins to assure proper lymphatic specification.
Splicing kinetics and transcript release from the chromatin compartment limit the rate of Lipid A-induced gene expression
Authors: Pandya-Jones Amy , Bhatt Dev M. , Lin Chia-Ho , Tong Ann-Jay , Smale Stephen T. , Black Douglas L.
Published: April 2013

The expression of eukaryotic mRNAs is achieved though an intricate series of molecular processes that provide many steps for regulating the production of a final gene product. However, the relationships between individual steps in mRNA biosynthesis and the rates at which they occur are poorly understood. By applying RNA-seq to chromatin-associated and soluble nucleoplasmic fractions of RNA from Lipid A-stimulated macrophages, we examined the timing of exon ligation and transcript release from chromatin relative to the induction of transcription. We find that for a subset of genes in the Lipid A response, the ligation of certain exon pairs is delayed relative to the synthesis of the complete transcript. In contrast, 3′ end cleavage and polyadenylation occur rapidly once transcription extends through the cleavage site. Our data indicate that these transcripts with delayed splicing are not released from the chromatin fraction until all the introns have been excised. These unusual kinetics result in a chromatin-associated pool of completely transcribed and 3′-processed transcripts that are not yet fully spliced. We also find that long introns containing repressed exons that will be excluded from the final mRNA are excised particularly slowly relative to other introns in a transcript. These results indicate that the kinetics of splicing and transcript release contribute to the timing of expression for multiple genes of the inflammatory response.
Methodological Approaches to Commercial Organization Project Management Standard Development
Authors: ��������  , Artemev Dmitry , ���������  , �������  , Gergert Dmitriy
Published: April 2013

This paper examines some questions of approaches to corporate project management. The relationship between maturity level of project management and standartization of project activities is contemplated; the role of project office at all levels of evolutionary maturity is defined; the organizational framework of implementation of project management corporate system (PMCS) and project management standard is analyzed; the place of PMCS in organization management structure is defined. A conceptual model of corporate project management standard�s development and implementation is proposed. Within this model the boundary conditions for created system and, respectively, for the standard are defined: functional framework of the standard and project management system are defined; key roles in organization project management processes are established; key processes and functions on organization project management are formulated. Besides, the project phases on development and deployment of project management corporate methodology are offered in this paper.