bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rituals in Organizations
Authors: Islam Gazi , Zyphur Michael J.
Published: January 2009

This article integrates material from the study of rites, rituals, and ceremonies to apply these constructs to the study of organizations. A brief history of the study of the constructs is offered. Theories concerning the components, types, and functions of rites, rituals, and ceremonies are described, followed by a survey of field research in organizations that applies these theories. Conclusions about the current state of knowledge in the field are followed by implications for future study.
Effects of infectious mononucleosis and HLA-DRB1*15 in multiple sclerosis
Authors: Nielsen TR , Rostgaard K , Askling J , Steffensen R , Oturai A , Jersild C , Koch-Henriksen N , Sørensen PS , Hjalgrim H
Published: January 2009

Background

Both human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1*15 and Epstein-Barr virus infection presenting as infectious mononucleosis (IM) are recognized as risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS). However, their combined effect and possible interaction on MS risk is not known.

Objective

To assess the association between HLA-DRB1*15 and risk of MS in persons with and without IM.

Methods

We compared the prevalence of DRB1*15 in MS patients with ( n = 76) and without ( n = 1,836) IM with the corresponding distributions in blood donors with ( n = 62) and without ( n = 484) IM histories. This allowed us to estimate the relative risk of MS associated with DRB1*15 in the presence and absence, respectively, of previous IM. We then estimated the interaction between DRB1*15 and IM as the ratio of the two individual odds ratios.

Results

In IM-naïve individuals, DRB1*15 carried a 2.4-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0–3.0) increased MS risk. In contrast, among persons with IM history, DRB1*15 was associated with a 7.0-fold (95% CI, 3.3–15.4) increased MS risk. Thus, the MS risk conferred by HLA-DRB1*15 was 2.9 (95% CI, 1.3–6.5)-fold stronger in the presence than in the absence of IM. Combined with previous results, this result indicates that DRB1*15-positive persons with a history of IM may be at a 10.0-fold (95% CI, 6.0–17.9) increased risk of MS compared with persons who are DRB1*15 and IM-naïve.

Conclusion

DRB1*15 and IM may act in synergy causing MS.
The contribution of cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands to the early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis
Authors: Zipoli V , Hakiki B , Portaccio E , Lolli F , Siracusa G , Giannini M , Pantoni L , Pescini F , Sorbi S , Amato MP
Published: January 2009

Background

McDonald Criteria (MDC) have been validated in selected patients at high risk for multiple sclerosis (MS). However, possible overdiagnosis of MS can represent critical issues in less controlled clinical settings.

Objective

To assess the contribution of oligoclonal bands (OB) to MS diagnosis in current clinical practice.

Methods

We included all the patients admitted to our Department since 2001 who had undergone diagnostic workup for a possible MS diagnosis, followed up for at least 1 year. We assessed the accuracy of MDC, OB, and two MDC definitions of dissemination in space (DIS-MRI: fulfillment of MRI criteria, DIS-OB: two MRI lesions+OB).

Results

We included 118 patients (median follow-up 4.0 years). Twenty-eight cases received an alternative diagnosis, whereas none of these presented OB, 43% fulfilled the DIS-MRI criteria. OB were present in 70% of the remaining 90 patients. By the end of the follow-up, 56% of the diagnoses had converted to clinically definite MS and OB showed higher accuracy than DIS-MRI fulfillment (70% vs 58%). Moreover, after 1 year and at the end of the follow-up, DIS-OB yielded a higher Specificity level in comparison with DIS-MRI.

Conclusion

OB can improve overall diagnostic Accuracy by increasing Specificity and negative predictive value.
Risky Subjects: Public Health, Personal Narrative, and the Stakes of Qualitative Research
Authors: Tomso Gregory
Published: January 2009

Facing the failure of 'one size fits all' HIV prevention messages, progressive public health researchers are attempting to localize and humanize prevention strategies for men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). In order to better understand individual motives, beliefs, and behaviors, recent efforts have centered on collecting personal narratives from men who engage in risky sex. This article offers an epistemological critique of this so-called 'narrative turn' in qualitative research. Specifically, it analyzes the complexities of the conceptual relationship between narrative and sexual subjectivity.
A P2X receptor from the tardigrade species Hypsibius dujardiniwith fast kinetics and sensitivity to zinc and copper
Authors: Bavan Selvan , Straub Volko A , Blaxter Mark L , Ennion Steven J
Published: January 2009

Background

Orthologs of the vertebrate ATP gated P2X channels have been identified inDictyosteliumand green algae, demonstrating that the emergence of ionotropic purinergic signalling was an early event in eukaryotic evolution. However, the genomes of a number of animals includingDrosophila melanogasterandCaenorhabditis elegans, both members of the Ecdysozoa superphylum, lack P2X-like proteins, whilst other species such as the flatwormSchistosoma mansonihave P2X proteins making it unclear as to what stages in evolution P2X receptors were lost. Here we describe the functional characterisation of a P2X receptor (HdP2X) from the tardigradeHypsibius dujardinidemonstrating that purinergic signalling is preserved in some ecdysozoa.

Results

ATP (EC50~44.5 μM) evoked transient inward currents inHdP2X with millisecond rates of activation and desensitisation.HdP2X is antagonised by pyridoxal-phosphate-6-azophenyl-2',4' disulfonic acid (IC5015.0 μM) and suramin (IC5022.6 μM) and zinc and copper inhibit ATP-evoked currents with IC50values of 62.8 μM and 19.9 μM respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis showed that unlike vertebrate P2X receptors, extracellular histidines do not play a major role in coordinating metal binding inHdP2X. However, H306 was identified as playing a minor role in the actions of copper but not zinc. Ivermectin potentiated responses to ATP with no effect on the rates of current activation or decay.

Conclusion

The presence of a P2X receptor in a tardigrade species suggests that both nematodes and arthropods lost their P2X genes independently, as both traditional and molecular phylogenies place the divergence between Nematoda and Arthropoda before their divergence from Tardigrada. The phylogenetic analysis performed in our study also clearly demonstrates that the emergence of the family of seven P2X channels in human and other mammalian species was a relatively recent evolutionary event that occurred subsequent to the split between vertebrates and invertebrates. Furthermore, several characteristics ofHdP2X including fast kinetics with low ATP sensitivity, potentiation by ivermectin in a channel with fast kinetics and distinct copper and zinc binding sites not dependent on histidines makeHdP2X a useful model for comparative structure-function studies allowing a better understanding of P2X receptors in higher organisms.
Domain duplication, divergence, and loss events in vertebrate Msx paralogs reveal phylogenomically informed disease markers
Authors: Finnerty John R , Mazza Maureen E , Jezewski Peter A
Published: January 2009

Background

Msx originated early in animal evolution and is implicated in human genetic disorders. To reconstruct the functional evolution of Msx and inform the study of human mutations, we analyzed the phylogeny and synteny of 46 metazoan Msx proteins and tracked the duplication, diversification and loss of conserved motifs.

Results

Vertebrate Msx sequences sort into distinct Msx1, Msx2 and Msx3 clades. The sister-group relationship between MSX1 and MSX2 reflects their derivation from the 4p/5q chromosomal paralogon, a derivative of the original "MetaHox" cluster. We demonstrate physical linkage between Msx and other MetaHox genes (Hmx, NK1, Emx) in a cnidarian. Seven conserved domains, including two Groucho repression domains (N- and C-terminal), were present in the ancestral Msx. In cnidarians, the Groucho domains are highly similar. In vertebrate Msx1, the N-terminal Groucho domain is conserved, while the C-terminal domain diverged substantially, implying a novel function. In vertebrate Msx2 and Msx3, the C-terminal domain was lost. MSX1 mutations associated with ectodermal dysplasia or orofacial clefting disorders map to conserved domains in a non-random fashion.

Conclusion

Msx originated from a MetaHox ancestor that also gave rise to Tlx, Demox, NK, and possibly EHGbox, Hox and ParaHox genes. Duplication, divergence or loss of domains played a central role in the functional evolution of Msx. Duplicated domains allow pleiotropically expressed proteins to evolve new functions without disrupting existing interaction networks. Human missense sequence variants reside within evolutionarily conserved domains, likely disrupting protein function. This phylogenomic evaluation of candidate disease markers will inform clinical and functional studies.
Evaluation of a microarray-hybridization based method applicable for discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa genome
Authors: Dötsch Andreas , Pommerenke Claudia , Bredenbruch Florian , Geffers Robert , Häussler Susanne
Published: January 2009

Background

Whole genome sequencing techniques have added a new dimension to studies on bacterial adaptation, evolution and diversity in chronic infections. By using this powerful approach it was demonstrated that Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes intense genetic adaptation processes, crucial in the development of persistent disease. The challenge ahead is to identify universal infection relevant adaptive bacterial traits as potential targets for the development of alternative treatment strategies.

Results

We developed a microarray-based method applicable for discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in P. aeruginosa as an easy and economical alternative to whole genome sequencing. About 50% of all SNPs theoretically covered by the array could be detected in a comparative hybridization of PAO1 and PA14 genomes at high specificity (> 0.996). Variations larger than SNPs were detected at much higher sensitivities, reaching nearly 100% for genetic differences affecting multiple consecutive probe oligonucleotides. The detailed comparison of the in silico alignment with experimental hybridization data lead to the identification of various factors influencing sensitivity and specificity in SNP detection and to the identification of strain specific features such as a large deletion within the PA4684 and PA4685 genes in the Washington Genome Center PAO1.

Conclusion

The application of the genome array as a tool to identify adaptive mutations, to depict genome organizations, and to identify global regulons by the "ChIP-on-chip" technique will expand our knowledge on P. aeruginosa adaptation, evolution and regulatory mechanisms of persistence on a global scale and thus advance the development of effective therapies to overcome persistent disease.
Upregulated mRNA expression of desaturase and elongase, two enzymes involved in highly unsaturated fatty acids biosynthesis pathways during follicle maturation in zebrafish
Authors: Ishak Sairatul D , Tan Sze-Huey , Khong Hou-Keat , Jaya-Ram Annette , Enyu Yee-Ling , Kuah Meng-Kiat , Shu-Chien Alexander Chong
Published: January 2009

Background

Although unsaturated fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, C20:4n-6), collectively known as the highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA), play pivotal roles in vertebrate reproduction, very little is known about their synthesis in the ovary. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) display capability to synthesize all three HUFA via pathways involving desaturation and elongation of two precursors, the linoleic acid (LA, C18:2n-6) and linolenic acid (LNA, C18:3n-3). As a prerequisite to gain full understanding on the importance and regulation of ovarian HUFA synthesis, we described here the mRNA expression pattern of two enzymes; desaturase (fadsd6) and elongase (elovl5), involved in HUFA biosynthesis pathway, in different zebrafish ovarian follicle stages. Concurrently, the fatty acid profile of each follicle stage was also analyzed.

Methods

mRNA levels of fadsd6 and elovl5 in different ovarian follicle stages were determined by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. For analysis of the ovarian follicular fatty acid composition, gas chromatography was used.

Results

Our results have shown that desaturase displayed significant upregulation in expression during the oocyte maturation stage. Expression of elongase was significantly highest in pre-vitellogenic follicles, followed by maturation stage. Fatty acid composition analysis of different ovarian follicle stages also showed that ARA level was significantly highest in pre-vitellogenic and matured follicles. DHA level was highest in both late vitellogenic and maturation stage.

Conclusion

Collectively, our findings seem to suggest the existence of a HUFA synthesis system, which could be responsible for the synthesis of HUFA to promote oocyte maturation and possibly ovulation processes. The many advantages of zebrafish as model system to understand folliculogenesis will be useful platform to further elucidate the regulatory and mechanism aspects of ovarian HUFA synthesis.
Validation of previously identified serum biomarkers for breast cancer with SELDI-TOF MS: a case control study
Authors: van Winden Annemieke WJ , Gast Marie-Christine W , Beijnen Jos H , Rutgers Emiel JTh , Grobbee Diederick E , Peeters Petra HM , van Gils Carla H
Published: January 2009

Background

Serum protein profiling seems promising for early detection of breast cancer. However, the approach is also criticized, partly because of difficulties in validating discriminatory proteins. This study's aim is to validate three proteins previously reported to be discriminative between breast cancer cases and healthy controls. These proteins had been identified as a fragment of inter-alpha trypsin inhibitor H4 (4.3 kDa), C-terminal-truncated form of C3a des arginine anaphylatoxin (8.1 kDa) and C3a des arginine anaphylatoxin (8.9 kDa).

Methods

Serum protein profiles of 48 breast cancer patients and 48 healthy controls were analyzed with surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). Differences in protein intensity between breast cancer cases and controls were measured with the Mann-Whitney U test and adjusted for confounding in a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

Four peaks, with mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) 4276, 4292, 8129 and 8941, were found that were assumed to represent the previously reported proteins. M/z 4276 and 4292 were statistically significantly decreased in breast cancer cases compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). M/z 8941 was decreased in breast cancer cases (p < 0.001) and m/z 8129 was not related with breast cancer (p = 0.87). Adjustment for sample preparation day, sample storage duration and age did not substantially alter results.

Conclusion

M/z 4276 and 4292 both represented the previously reported 4.3 kDa protein and were both decreased in breast cancer patients, which is in accordance with the results of most previous studies. M/z 8129 was in contrast with previous studies not related with breast cancer. Remarkably, m/z 8941 was decreased in breast cancer cases whereas in previous studies it was increased. Differences in patient populations and pre-analytical sample handling could have contributed to discrepancies. Further research is needed before we can conclude on the relevance of these proteins as breast cancer biomarkers.
Acute abdomen caused by ingested chicken wishbone: a case report
Authors: Hoxha Faton T , Hashani Shemsedin I , Komoni Driton S , Gashi-Luci Lumturije H , Kurshumliu Fisnik I , Hashimi Medita SH , Krasniqi Avdyl S
Published: January 2009

Introduction

An ingested foreign body often passes the gastrointestinal tract without any complications. Foreign bodies, such as dentures, fish bones, chicken bones, and toothpicks, have been known to cause perforation of the GI tract.

Case presentation

We are presenting a case of a fifty-year-old male with acute abdomen; diffuse fibro purulent peritonitis, i.e. ileum perforation, caused by accidentally ingesting a chicken wishbone. He was treated surgically with ileum resection, and temporary ileostomy. After four months, intestinal continuity was established in the second operation.

Conclusion

Intestinal perforation by a chicken bone is rare and affects the left colon or distal ileum. The lack of information of ingestion and detection of chicken bones preoperatively are of interest to be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute abdomen, which in this case was treated surgically.
The Violence of Diaspora: Governmentality, Class Cultures, and Circulations
Authors: Thomas Deborah A.
Published: January 2009

This essay explores how, when, and why questions regarding the state often seem to drop out of analytic view in scholarship on the African diaspora. I argue that focusing on modes of governmentality across empires clarifies how particular state projects have been imagined and developed transnationally. Specifically, I investigate how gender and sexual norms have been mobilized by states in ways that reproduce class hierarchies through the idea of culture. I demonstrate how links were conceptualized and institutionalized among the economy, family, and political participation for communities of African descent in the United States and the British West Indies at particular moments, and I show that these links became the basis for a culturalist discursive framework applied first to black family formation and more recently to violence. This discursive framework limits our ability to offer alternative explanations of the various kinds of violence that have emerged (epistemological and actually existing) among black folk here and there. Ultimately, I argue that the classed and gendered dimensions of state projects are entangled and that this entanglement is both reproduced by and reproduces culturalist-oriented scholarship, even in the face of much transformed ways of organizing global relatedness in economic and political spheres.
Where Blackness Resides: Afro-Bolivians and the Spatializing and Racializing of the African Diaspora
Authors: Busdiecker Sara
Published: January 2009

This essay addresses the centrality of space and place in the negotiation of identity in the African diaspora. It does so through the examination of how one particular geographic region in the Bolivian Andes, the Yungas, is implicated in social constructions of blackness among black and nonblack Bolivians and in the marked scarcity of those constructions. Bolivians of African descent have been concentrated in this rural agricultural region for centuries. The area's historical and physical characteristics have long encouraged the notion that the Yungas is somehow the “closest thing to Africa” in Bolivia and thus a “natural place” for black slaves to have ended up and a “natural place” for their descendants to have stayed. The ways in which Afro-Bolivians have been naturalized into the Yungas suggests a biologizing (in other words, racializing) of blackness that is largely denied in the context of Bolivia and, further, demonstrates how blackness is spatialized and space is racialized within the global African diaspora.
Active Marooning: Confronting Mi Negra and the Bolivarian Revolution
Authors: Ramírez Cristóbal Valencia
Published: January 2009

Particular historic and contemporary formations of criollo society deny the existence of an Afro-Venezuelan community, thus hindering race-based struggles for democracy. However, Afro-Venezuelan activists are challenging Venezuelan race relations through a process of active marooning, a sustained politics of liberation. This interdisciplinary essay uses ethnographic evidence from fieldwork conducted in Venezuela from 2003 to the present to discuss the tensions between the Afro-Venezuelan movement, fellow Bolivarian activists, and the Venezuelan state in the context of the Bolivarian Revolution. I argue that race-based organizing remains an important strategy for negotiating citizenship in the modern nation-state and that the Venezuelan case rests uneasily in scholarship on the African diaspora.
Indigenous Acts: Black and Native Performances in Mexico
Authors: González Anita
Published: January 2009

While Africans and their descendants are woven into the fabric of Mexico's history, social systems and cultural institutions negate the viability of a dynamic and political black population. Although Afro-Mexicans have socially “disappeared” into the political construction of mestizaje, dances based on archetypal images of blackness such as the negritos or the danza del diablo proliferate at theater and dance festivals in the country.

Performance is a place where black identity articulates itself within a global “call- and-response” of images. Devil dances of the Pacific Costa Chica exemplify the exotic and violent archetype of the Afro-Mexican. In contrast, indigenous Native American village dancers act out inversions of blackness in masked ceremonial rituals called negritos.

These examples of Native American and Afro-Mexican performances highlight the multiple dialogues that surround the African presence in Mexico. Dance, with its gestured codes and musical accompaniments, persists as evidence of a distinctive diasporic presence in a country in which African people run the risk of invisibility.
New Provincialisms: Curating Art of the African Diaspora
Authors: Wainwright Leon
Published: January 2009

Art of the African diaspora has become the focus of various curatorial interests in displaying and documenting an expanded, circum-Atlantic geography of blackness based on a notion of diaspora that once seemed promising for imagining an inter- or transnational community. However, the recent application of the diaspora concept to curatorial spaces has become susceptible to a provincializing attitude grounded in United States-centered experiences. This essay interrogates the ways in which such a U.S. locus for the African diaspora generates a hegemonic spatio-temporal scheme of new “margins” and “centers.” With reference to visual examples, it recognizes attempts among artists and curators in Britain and the Anglophone Caribbean to dismantle and disavow the hegemonic use of race and the diaspora concept as founding categories of art historiography and of public memory.
Blacks in European History
Authors: Stovall Tyler
Published: January 2009

This review essay examines six monographs dealing with the history and present conditions of blacks in Europe. It argues that the recent surge in interest in black European history arises both from more diasporic conceptions of blackness in general, and from more inclusive ideas about European history. In both cases a new emphasis on transnational history has been key to this field. The article examines two books that deal with Britain, two on France, and two on Germany. It finds that some key themes unite these readings at the same time that national differences remain important.
“What's in a Name?” That Which We Call Brilliance by Any Other Name Would Read as Festus Claudius McKay
Authors: Harris Laura A.
Published: January 2009

Claude McKay, the canonically renowned Harlem Renaissance poet, has become a central subject in current sexuality, African diaspora, and postmodern Marxist studies. This review essay highlights the different contributions of four recent book-length studies specifically on McKay; it situates their theoretical contexts within larger critical dialogues and historical inquiries concerning black creative expression and transnational ideological spaces and material practices.
Motherhood and Ritual Murder in Medieval Spain and England
Authors: Weissberger Barbara F.
Published: January 2009

Anti-Semitic myths of ritual murder are less developed and more belated in medieval Spain than in northern Europe, where they flourished since the twelfth century. This essay suggests one reason for this difference: the presence and increasing importance in late medieval Spain of the converso, a hybrid who blurs the boundaries between Christian and Jew. Using recent psychoanalytic criticism of the Prioress's Tale, Chaucer's sentimentalized representation of the murdered child's mother is contrasted with the very different one in Damián de Vegas's Memoria del Santo Niño de La Guardia (1544), an account of a 1489-90 alleged ritual murder that was instrumental in the Catholic Monarchs' decision to expel the Spanish Jews in 1492. Vegas characterizes the two mother figures in his tale as being deceitful, indifferent, and blind, all traits traditionally used to stigmatize Jews. This conflation of mother and Jew is a striking literary marker of the crisis of categories that contributed to the discrimination against conversos in medieval and early modern Spain.
The “Scriene” and the Channel: England and Spain in Book V of The Faerie Queene
Authors: Greene Roland
Published: January 2009

This essay analyzes the figures of language and of landscape that allow Edmund Spenser to consider in an international context the virtue at the center of Book V of The Faerie Queene, justice. How, he asks, is justice projected from one society into another in an act of empire? Spenser's thinking on this issue is conditioned by his participation in a way of figuring empire through the palus, or the wooden stake that marks the boundary of civil society in a colonial setting, often under English rule. The alternative way of figuring imperial power on the landscape during this period is the via, that is, the way or channel that penetrates indigenous territory. Spenser also explores teleiopoesis, or the making of imaginative effects at a distance, an imaginative force that complements and drives across the figures of the palus and via. The essay argues that justice in Book V must be understood through these figures and in the international context that Spenser evokes in his exploration of justice. Such an approach does not cancel out but augments many of the traditional readings of this virtue in The Faerie Queene.
A Fine Romance: Anglo-Spanish Relations in the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Samson Alexander
Published: January 2009

England and Spain's close ties of kinship had bound the royal houses together stretching back to the thirteenth century. In the later sixteenth century, English interest in Spanish culture, history, and politics had intensified precisely during the period when political relations had deteriorated into war. The perception of closeness and filiation ran parallel with enmity and hate. This study demonstrates the complexity of diplomatic and cultural exchange, assimilation, competition, and cooperation that characterized the intricate alliance between England and Spain. It examines England and Spain's shared cultural heritage and the trade agreements and dynastic marriages that had linked them closely by blood. Special attention is given to Philip II's entry into London in 1554 as the new English king, a pivotal moment in the rivalry between the two countries. While popular hostility and fear of Spanish domination certainly contributed to the conflict surrounding the marriage of Philip and Mary, the most difficult issue for the royal couple was the household drama in which the parties on each side sought their own prestige and commercial and political advantage. Perhaps this moment of international diplomatic relations demonstrates above all the delicate balance between honesty and deception, admiration and jealousy, cooperation and rivalry, love and hate that can be found in any close relationship.
“A Spaniard Is No Englishman”: The Ghost of Spain and the British Imaginary
Authors: Lezra Jacques
Published: January 2009

The prevailing anthropological understanding of mimesis, this essay argues, is inadequate to the study of early modern cultural exchange, in particular of the ways in which literary cultures imagine themselves in the lexicons provided by other national traditions. The idiom of haunting–both in its psychoanalytic and in its Elizabethan and Jacobean iterations–provides a preferable account of the temporality of cultural exchange, of the conflicting sorts of imitation at issue in early modernity, of the uncertainty with which images are valued. The essay examines works by James I and by Dekker and his circle, focusing on the conflict between English responses to the battle of Lepanto and the Armada. The battling “ghosts” of these two events, one a conciliar victory led by the Spaniard John of Austria, the other an act of aggression ordered by his half-brother, Philip II, form the ground of the British cultural imaginary.
New Books across the Disciplines
Authors: Cornett Michael
Published: January 2009

“New Books across the Disciplines” is a bibliographic resource that facilitates a cross-disciplinary survey of recent publications. Its scope ranges from late antiquity to the seventeenth century. Coverage is comprehensive for the large majority of North American and British publishers. Other European titles are included whenever received. Books are classified under variable topical headings and listed alphabetically by author's name. Entries include complete bibliographical data and annotations. With few exceptions, books appearing here have been published within the previous two years. Many will be presented here before they are ordered and shelved by libraries. The topics for this issue include:

Editions and translations Reference Biographical studies Mapping space Contact cultures Jewish studies Christian saints and professions Family and the everyday The marvelous Visual culture Narrative structures, lyric effects Essay collections
The Haunting of the University
Authors: Kochhar-Lindgren Gray
Published: January 2009

The essay traces the genealogy and implications of the emergence of a discourse of ghosts, spectrality, hauntology, and phantoms within the rational machinery of the modern university. Moving across disciplines—including literature, sociology, physics, psychoanalysis, and philosophy—the article contends that the university is at a new moment of self-understanding.
Teaching Mary Darby Robinson's Reading List
Authors: Vernooy-Epp Dawn M.
Published: January 2009

This article proposes a strategy for teaching students about periodization, canonicity, and recovery work. It assigns Mary Darby Robinson's reading list as course material in women's literature as well as in Romantic-period classes and other kinds of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century interdisciplinary courses.
Multimedia Learning Gets Medieval
Authors: Williams Tara
Published: January 2009

The essay argues that technological multimedia can help students comprehend historical context and thus analyze texts successfully. The author identifies the practical benefits of this approach for any literary period but suggests that the parallels between contemporary experiences with multimedia and medieval experiences with manuscripts make that pairing especially useful.
The Difficulty of Raising Standards in Teacher Training and Education
Authors: Fisch Audrey A.
Published: January 2009

The New York Times and others regularly implore us to raise the quality of teacher education. This essay explores why it is so difficult to do so, particularly at the urban, public institutions that produce many of our nation's teachers. It describes one such attempt to raise standards in writing. I document the process of building a new writing assessment program, including a writing assessment exam and a remediation program. I discuss our rubric and scoring procedures, samples of student work, and the poor score trends for our exam. I describe the difficulties in working without adequate resources, and I examine the ways in which our program posed a threat to the economics of the university. I conclude that efforts to raise program quality and produce higher-quality graduates are unlikely to succeed without fundamental changes to the economy of education generally and teacher education in particular.
Changes in the pressure and the dynamic stiffness index of medical elastic compression stockings after having been worn for eight hours: a pilot study
Authors: van der Wegen-Franken C P M , Tank B , Nijsten T , Neumann H A M
Published: January 2009

Objectives

There is no data available at present on the changes in the exerted pressure together with the dynamic stiffness index (DSI) of medical elastic compression stockings (MECS). The objective of this pilot study was to measure the pressure and calculate the DSI of 12 different brands of MECS before and after having been worn for eight hours.

Methods

In all, 12 different commercially available brands of MECS that were divided into two categories (class I round-knitted and class II flat-knitted MECS) were tested. The pressure was measured, and the DSI of the MECS was first calculated at the B1 level before wearing in the morning and again eight hours after they had been worn. All laboratory measurements were performed using a newly developed dynamic leg-segment model.

Results

The pressure at the B1 level dropped significantly in all 12 brands of MECS after having been worn for eight hours, whereas the DSI remained unchanged.

Conclusion

The DSI of MECS reflects an important and particularly consistent therapeutic effect. As the pressure drops during the day, the pressure amplitude or pulsations remain the same. The pressure drop may be due to fatigue of the elastic material. The DSI would therefore form a valuable indicator for prescribing the most effective MECS for the patient.
Venous haemodynamics: What we know and don't know
Authors: Lurie F
Published: January 2009

The presence of haemodynamic abnormalities in chronic venous disease (CVD) has been well established. The relationships between these abnormalities and clinical manifestations, or natural history of CVD, are complex and remain to be investigated. Flow-mediated processes and mechanisms unrelated to blood flow may play an important role in the pathophysiology of CVD. Current state of knowledge makes questionable a possibility of building treatment strategies based on a single simplified model of the disease. As an example of such simplified approach, CHIVA introduces an opportunity to critically assess the gaps in knowledge in venous pathophysiology.
Tight Junction Proteins in Human Schwann Cell Autotypic Junctions
Authors: Alanne Maria H. , Pummi Kati , Heape Anthony M. , Grènman Reidar , Peltonen Juha , Peltonen Sirkku
Published: January 2009

Tight junctions (TJs) form physical barriers in various tissues and regulate paracellular transport of ions, water, and molecules. Myelinating Schwann cells form highly organized structures, including compact myelin, nodes of Ranvier, paranodal regions, Schmidt-Lanterman incisures, periaxonal cytoplasmic collars, and mesaxons. Autotypic TJs are formed in non-compacted myelin compartments between adjacent membrane lamellae of the same Schwann cell. Using indirect immunofluorescence and RT-PCR, we analyzed the expression of adherens junction (E-cadherin) and TJ [claudins, zonula occludens (ZO)-1, occludin] components in human peripheral nerve endoneurium, showing clear differences with published rodent profiles. Adult nerve paranodal regions contained E-cadherin, claudin-1, claudin-2, and ZO-1. Schmidt-Lanterman incisures contained E-cadherin, claudin-1, claudin-2, claudin-3, claudin-5, ZO-1, and occludin. Mesaxons contained E-cadherin, claudin-1, claudin-2, claudin-3, ZO-1, and occludin. None of the proteins studied were associated with nodal inter-Schwann cell junctions. Fetal nerve expression of claudin-1, claudin-3, ZO-1, and occludin was predominantly punctate, with a mesaxonal labeling pattern, but paranodal (ZO-1, claudin-3) and Schmidt-Lanterman incisure (claudins-1 and −3) expression profiles typical of compact myelin were visible by gestational week 37. The clear differences observed between human and published rodent nerve profiles emphasize the importance of human studies when translating the results of animal models to human diseases.
The Role of XRF, Inter-Element Corrections, and Sample Preparation Effects in the 100-Year Evolution of ASTM Standard Test Method C114
Authors: Anzelmo John A.
Published: January 2009

The interconnection between, and evolution of, manufacturing trends, raw materials, XRF Instrumentation, XRF software capabilities, XRF Standard Reference Materials, and ASTM Standard Test Method for Chemical Analysis of Hydraulic Cement (C114), Rapid Method Qualification, is followed to show why certain XRF specimen preparation methods and inter-element correction methods were adequate at one time, but may not be adequate any longer, depending on many different variables unique to each plant location and business model. All of the above variables have changed over time, and the reasons why they have changed, and where they are going is explained. The theoretical basis for methods used during certain time frames is explained, and illustrated by example. From the trends observed in the variables previously listed, a conclusion about the direction of the modern cement laboratory in the near future is proposed.
Solving crystal structures of metal and chemical hydrides
Authors: Cerný Radovan
Published: January 2009

The methods of structural characterization of metal and chemical hydrides are reviewed. The existing difficulties and problems are outlined and possible solutions presented. It is shown that powder diffraction, and especially the Direct Space Method, is essential component of hydride research. Crystal structures containing as many as 55 independent atoms (including hydrogen) have been fully characterized using powder diffraction. This is of great importance, because rapid collection of powder data thanks to modern synchrotron and neutron time-of-flight sources opens the possibility for fast in-situ studies, mapping of phase transitions induced by the temperature, pressure, hydrogen content, and chemical reactions. The progress in structural characterization of hydrides goes hand in hand with the progress in the powder diffraction methodology.
Light metal borohydrides: crystal structures and beyond
Authors: Filinchuk Yaroslav , Chernyshov Dmitry , Dmitriev Vladimir
Published: January 2009

Experimental structures of M(BH4)n, where M is a 2nd–4th period element, are reviewed with a particluar emphasize on crystal chemistry. It is shown that except certain cases, the BH4 group has a nearly ideal tetrahedral geometry. Correction of the experimentally determined H-positions allows to compare directly the results obtained by different diffraction techniques and by theoretical calculations. Analysis of coordination geometries for M and BH4, and of mechanisms of phase transitions in LiBH4, suggest that the directional BH4 … M interaction is at the origin of structural complexity of borohydrides. The ways to influence their stability by chemical modification are discussed. Study of structural evolution with temperature and pressure is shown to be the way to access fundamental information on structural stability of these systems.
Pair Distribution Functions and Reverse Monte Carlo modelling of disordered metal hydrides
Authors: Sorby Magnus H.
Published: January 2009

Total X-ray and neutron scattering experiments aim to measure both diffuse scattering and, in the case of crystalline samples, Bragg scattering on an absolute scale. The total scattering data can be transformed to the Pair Distribution Function (PDF) which shows short-range correlations between the atoms. Reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modelling is a technique to make three-dimensional model of the atomic arrangements from total scattering data or PDFs. These models are not constrained by space group symmetry, and can give structural insight that is not available from the time- and space averaged models obtained from Bragg scattering alone.

RMC modelling has been used to investigate the short-range structure correlations of the disordered crystalline metal deuterides α-VD0.8}, β-VD{0.5} and ZrCr2D4. It was found that the local structures are similar to those found in corresponding ordered low-temperature phases at length scales up to 3–4 Å and that abnormally short D–D separations do not occur despite very short separation between possible D sites. For amorphous metal hydrides, RMC modelling shows that the local atomic configurations can differ substantially from those found in the corresponding crystalline phases.
The crystal structure of α-MgD2 under high pressure by neutron powder diffraction
Authors: Kohlmann Holger , Zhao Yusheng , Nicol Malcolm F. , McClure Jason
Published: January 2009

The crystal structure of rutile-type magnesium deuteride, α-MgD2, has been studied by in situ neutron powder diffraction at room temperature and pressures up to 9.3 GPa. The bulk modulus B
0 = 49(2) GPa is about half, the linear compressibilities (0.0063/GPa along a and 0.0041/GPa along c) are about twice and the variation of the free positional parameter x about six times the values for the isostructural magnesium fluoride, indicating the strong polarizability of the deuteride anion. Under pressure the MgD6 octahedra are more compressed (four Mg–D distances at 199(1), two at 173(1) pm) than at ambient pressure (195.1(1), 194.8(2) pm) and the structural arrangement becomes more CaCl2 like, although no structural phase transition has been observed.
The Interaction of knotted1 and thick tassel dwarf1 in Vegetative and Reproductive Meristems of Maize
Authors: Lunde China , Hake Sarah
Published: January 2009

In Arabidopsis, SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) and CLAVATA1 (CLV1) competitively regulate meristem homeostasis. Here, we explore the interaction of their maize homologs knotted1 (kn1) and thick tassel dwarf1 (td1). kn1 mutants form fewer lateral organs and td1 inflorescences are fasciated with additional floral organs. Double mutants show kn1 epistatic to td1 in seedling and ear development but dose-sensitivity exists later to promote leaf initiation. Thus kn1 and td1 function in a pathway to maintain meristem homeostasis but their products may interact with different partners during development.
Reduced Fertility of Drosophila melanogaster Hybrid male rescue (Hmr) Mutant Females Is Partially Complemented by Hmr Orthologs From Sibling Species
Authors: Aruna S , Flores Heather A , Barbash Daniel A
Published: January 2009

The gene Hybrid male rescue (Hmr) causes lethality in interspecific hybrids between Drosophila melanogaster and its sibling species. Hmr has functionally diverged for this interspecific phenotype because lethality is caused specifically by D. melanogaster Hmr but not by D. simulans or D. mauritiana Hmr. Hmr was identified by the D. melanogaster partial loss-of-function allele Hmr1, which suppresses hybrid lethality but has no apparent phenotype within pure-species D. melanogaster. Here we have investigated the possible function of Hmr in D. melanogaster females using stronger mutant alleles. Females homozygous for Hmr mutants have reduced viability posteclosion and significantly reduced fertility. We find that reduced fertility of Hmr mutants is caused by a reduction in the number of eggs laid as well as reduced zygotic viability. Cytological analysis reveals that ovarioles from Hmr mutant females express markers that distinguish various stages of wild-type oogenesis, but that developing egg chambers fail to migrate posteriorly. D. simulans and D. mauritiana Hmr+ partially complement the reduced fertility of a D. melanogaster Hmr mutation. This partial complementation contrasts with the complete functional divergence previously observed for the interspecific hybrid lethality phenotype. We also investigate here the molecular basis of hybrid rescue associated with a second D. melanogaster hybrid rescue allele, In(1)AB. We show that In(1)AB is mutant for Hmr function, likely due to a missense mutation in an evolutionarily conserved amino acid. Two independently discovered hybrid rescue mutations are therefore allelic.
The Strength of Selection Against the Yeast Prion [PSI+]
Authors: Masel Joanna , Griswold Cortland K
Published: January 2009

The [PSI+] prion causes widespread readthrough translation and is rare in natural populations of Saccharomyces, despite the fact that sex is expected to cause it to spread. Using the recently estimated rate of Saccharomyces outcrossing, we calculate the strength of selection necessary to maintain [PSI+] at levels low enough to be compatible with data. Using the best available parameter estimates, we find selection against [PSI+] to be significant. Inference regarding selection on modifiers of [PSI+] appearance depends on obtaining more precise and accurate estimates of the product of yeast effective population size Ne and the spontaneous rate of [PSI+] appearance m. The ability to form [PSI+] has persisted in yeast over a long period of evolutionary time, despite a diversity of modifiers that could abolish it. If mNe < 1, this may be explained by insufficiently strong selection. If mNe > 1, then selection should favor the spread of [PSI+] resistance modifiers. In this case, rare conditions where [PSI+] is adaptive may permit its persistence in the face of negative selection.
Obestatin stimulates Akt signalling in gastric cancer cells through β-arrestin-mediated epidermal growth factor receptor transactivation
Authors: Álvarez Carlos J P , Lodeiro María , Theodoropoulou Marily , Camiña Jesús P , Casanueva Felipe F , Pazos Yolanda
Published: January 2009

Obestatin was identified as a gut peptide encoded by the ghrelin gene that interacts with the G protein-coupled receptor, GPR39. In this work, a sequential analysis of its transmembrane signalling pathway has been undertaken to characterize the intracellular mechanisms responsible for Akt activation. The results show that Akt activation requires the phosphorylation of T308 in the A-loop by the phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) and S473 within the HM by the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase complex 2 (mTORC2: Rictor, mLST8, mSin1, mTOR kinase) with participation neither of Gi/o-protein nor Gβγ dimers. Obestatin induces the association of GPR39/β-arrestin 1/Src signalling complex resulting in the transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and downstream Akt signalling. Upon administration of obestatin, phosphorylation of mTOR (S2448) and p70S6K1 (T389) rise with a time course that parallels that of Akt activation. Based on the experimental data obtained, a signalling pathway involving a β-arrestin 1 scaffolding complex and EGFR to activate Akt signalling is proposed.