bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Physiological Thyroid Hormone Levels Regulate Numerous Skeletal Muscle Transcripts
Authors: Visser W. Edward , Heemstra Karen A. , Swagemakers Sigrid M. A. , Özgür Zeliha , Corssmit Eleonora P. , Burggraaf Jacobus , van Ijcken Wilfred F. J. , van der Spek Peter J. , Smit Johannes W. A. , Visser Theo J.
Published: July 2009

Context: Skeletal muscle is an important target tissue for thyroid hormone (TH). It is currently unknown which genes are regulated by physiological TH levels.

Objective: We examined the effects of l-thyroxine on human skeletal muscle transcriptome.

Design: Microarray analysis of transcript levels was performed using skeletal muscle biopsies from patients under euthyroid and hypothyroid conditions.

Setting: The study was conducted in a university hospital laboratory.

Patients: We studied skeletal muscle obtained from 10 thyroidectomized patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma on and after 4 wk off l-thyroxine replacement.

Mean Outcome Measures: Gene expression changes were measured using microarrays. Results were analyzed using dedicated statistical methods.

Results: We detected 607 differentially expressed genes on l-thyroxine treatment, of which approximately 60% were positively and approximately 40% were negatively regulated. Representative genes were validated by quantitative PCR. Genes involved in energy and fuel metabolism were overrepresented among the up-regulated genes, of which a large number were newly associated with thyroid state. l-thyroxine therapy induced a large down-regulation of the primary transcripts of the noncoding microRNA pair miR-206/miR-133b.

Conclusion: We demonstrated that physiological levels of TH regulate a myriad of genes in human skeletal muscle. The identification of novel putatively TH-responsive genes may provide the molecular basis of clinical effects in subjects with different TH status. The observation that TH regulates microRNAs reveals a new layer of complexity by which TH influences cellular processes.

Skeletal muscle has a major contribution to the metabolic rate in humans; data demonstrate that skeletal muscle transcriptome is largely changed in different thyroid states.
Cardiac repair and regeneration: the Rubik’s cube of cell therapy for heart disease
Authors: Boudoulas Konstantinos D. , Hatzopoulos Antonis K.
Published: July 2009

Acute ischemic injury and chronic cardiomyopathies damage healthy heart tissue. Dead cells are gradually replaced by a fibrotic scar, which disrupts the normal electromechanical continuum of the ventricular muscle and compromises its pumping capacity. Recent studies in animal models of ischemic cardiomyopathy suggest that transplantation of various stem cell preparations can improve heart recovery after injury. The first clinical trials in patients produced some encouraging results, showing modest benefits. Most of the positive effects are probably because of a favorable paracrine influence of stem cells on the disease microenvironment. Stem cell therapy attenuates inflammation, reduces apoptosis of surrounding cells, induces angiogenesis, and lessens the extent of fibrosis. However, little new heart tissue is formed. The current challenge is to find ways to improve the engraftment, long-term survival and appropriate differentiation of transplanted stem cells within the cardiovascular tissue. Hence, there has been a surge of interest in pluripotent stem cells with robust cardiogenic potential, as well as in the inherent repair and regenerative mechanisms of the heart. Recent discoveries on the biology of adult stem cells could have relevance for cardiac regeneration. Here, we discuss current developments in the field of cardiac repair and regeneration, and present our ideas about the future of stem cell therapy.
Pluripotent stem cells and other technologies will eventually open the door for straightforward gene targeting in the rat
Authors: Voigt Birger , Serikawa Tadao
Published: July 2009

Although the rat is a preferred model in many fields of biomedical sciences, the inability to generate germline competent embryonic stem (ES) cells was a major drawback for research activities that aimed to elucidate gene functions. Several alternative strategies like N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) or transposon-mediated mutagenesis were developed successfully for this species. Countless experiments in many laboratories around the world were undertaken to overcome this problem. Eventually, the successful establishment of rat ES cells and rat-induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was reported, 27 years after the first reported generation of mouse ES cells. Furthermore, the application of zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) to early-stage rat embryos demonstrated effectively that another way existed for generating knockout rats. ZFNs require only the standard techniques that are used to produce transgenic animals and are expected to comprise a major tool for the gene-targeted generation of knockout animals. These newly developed tools, in conjunction with the solid basis of the rat in the area of physiological and behavioral experiments, will not only close the gap between the rat and the mouse as the mammalian genetic model of choice, but also boost the significance of the rat as a model animal in research laboratories around the globe.
Book Review
Authors: McQueirns Debbie
Published: June 2009

Assessment of feigned cognitive functioning: A neuropsychological perspective

Edited by Kyle Brauer Boone New York: The Guildford Press, 2007.
Book Review
Authors: Colquhoun‐Flannery Claire
Published: June 2009

Corrections, mental health and social policy: International perspectives

Edited by Robert K. Ax and Thomas J. Fagan Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd., 2007. pp. 418. 978‐0‐398‐07756‐3 (hard) 978‐0‐398‐07757‐0 (pbk)
Book Review
Authors: Meissner Christian A. , Albrechtsen Justin S.
Published: June 2009

Detecting lies and deceit: Pitfalls and opportunities (second edition)

Edited by Aldert Vrij Chichester: Wiley, 2008.
Book Review
Authors: McQueirns Debbie
Published: June 2009

The road to balcombe street: The IRA reign of terror in London

Steven P. Moysey New York: Hayworth Press, 2008.
Book Review
Authors: Murray Lucy
Published: June 2009

Assessing risk in sex offenders: A practitioners guide (1st edition)

Leam A. Craig, Kevin D. Browne and Anthony R. Beech Chichester: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2008. pp. 249. ISBN: 978‐0‐470‐01897‐2
Book Review
Authors: Puniskis Michael J.
Published: June 2009

Terrorism, organised crime and corruption: Networks and linkages

Edited by Leslie T. Holmes Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007. £69.95 (hardcover only). ISBN: 978‐1‐84542‐537‐1
Book Review
Authors: Easton Simon
Published: June 2009

A handbook for expert witnesses in Children Act cases

By The Hon. Mr. Justice Wall, Lord Justice Wall, Nicholas Wall, Iain Hamilton, Stephen Cobb, Peggy Ray Bristol UK: Jordans, 2007. pp. 218. £30.00. ISBN: 1846610346, 9781846610349
Using postgraduate students' evaluations of research experience to benchmark departments and faculties: Issues and challenges
Authors: Ginns Paul , Marsh Herbert W. , Behnia Masud , Cheng Jacqueline H. S. , Scalas L. Francesca
Published: July 2009

Background The introduction of the Australian Research Training Scheme has been a strong reason for assuring the quality of the research higher degree (RHD) experience; if students experience poor supervision, an unsupportive climate, and inadequate infrastructure, prior research suggests RHD students will be less likely to complete their degree, with negative consequences for the student, the university, and society at large.

Aims The present study examines the psychometric properties of a survey instrument, the Student Research Experience Questionnaire (SREQ), for measuring the RHD experience of currently enrolled students. The core scales of the SREQ focus on student experiences of Supervision; Infrastructure; Intellectual and Social Climate; and Generic Skills Development.

Sample Participants were 2,213 postgraduate research students of a large, research‐intensive Australian university.

Results Preliminary factor analyses conducted at the student level supported the a priori four factors that the SREQ was designed to measure. However, multi‐level analyses indicated that there was almost no differentiation between faculties or departments nested with faculties, suggesting that the SREQ responses are not appropriate for benchmarking faculties or departments.

Conclusions Consistent with earlier research based on comparisons across universities, the SREQ is shown to be almost completely unreliable in terms of benchmarking faculties or departments within a university.
The "Transparency" of Christian Proselytizing in Kyrgyzstan
Authors: Pelkmans Mathijs
Published: June 2009

To make an object transparent implies that its internal features become better visible. It also means that the surface of that same object becomes less discernable. I apply this analogy to argue that the current preoccupation with transparency allows certain ideological movements to hide controversial agendas from public scrutiny. Focusing on evangelical Christian aid to Kyrgyzstan, this article traces how post-Soviet liberalization enabled evangelicals to gain a strong footing in this Muslim-majority society. Their emphasis on religious rights served to legitimize their missionary agendas, while the adoption of development rhetoric allowed evangelicals to present themselves as "transparent" civil society players. As such, this empirical case illuminates the ideological workings of "empty" and ostensibly value-free political imageries.
Medical Schismogenics: Compliance and "Culture" in Caribbean Biomedicine
Authors: Whitmarsh Ian
Published: June 2009

As biomedicine turns increasingly toward chronic diseases, compliance or adherence with pharmaceutical regimens has become a major focus. This article explores the specters created by the diagnostics of non-compliance, focusing on asthma in the eastern Caribbean country of Barbados. I argue that the rubric of compliance in biomedicine today medicalizes "culture" as a gendered irrational use of medications; and such a focus has created a counterdiscourse among families and medical practitioners that posits a biomedicine obsessed with "compliance." I suggest that these reciprocal reactions comprise a medical schismogenics that exceed the diagnostics of noncompliance, whether biomedical or anthropological.
The Strength of Diversity: A Micro-history of Ethnic Conflict and Coexistence in Rural Southeast Poland
Authors: Lehmann Rosa
Published: June 2009

This article addresses the problem of ethnic conflict and coexistence by examining the Polish-Ukrainian relationship from an anthropological perspective. It explores why today Poles and Ukrainians coexist peacefully in southeast Poland, despite a bloody civil war in the 1940s. The case study suggests that a dynamic system of alliance, guided by cross-cutting cleavages and cross-cutting social networks, provides for negative feedback mechanisms that contribute to resilience to violent ethnic conflict at the community level. Although the ethnic cleft has increasingly been bridged, the ethnic cleavage remains a source of structural vulnerability.
Heritage Kinaesthetics: Local Constructivism and UNESCO's Intangible-Tangible Politics at a Favela Museum
Authors: Savova Nadezhda Dimitrova
Published: June 2009

In Providencia, Rio de Janeiro's oldest favela (shantytown), the Municipality created the "Open-Air/Living Museum" to celebrate its history and link it to a larger infrastructure development project, within the agenda of Brazilian cultural policy to implement UNESCO's global recommendations on safeguarding local intangible heritage world-wide. How do local interpretations of cultural heritage affirm, modify, or enrich the institutional (municipality, state, and UNESCO) policies on tangible and intangible heritage? And how does tourism connect to the imagining of community cultural revival? I develop the concept of heritage kinaesthetics as the moving bodily practices that people imagine and enact to enliven the built environment's static aesthetic looks, or the immobile quality usually ascribed to historic sites. The five main heritage kinaesthetics practiced by residents and visitors include: visual (photographing; seeing vs looking), ambulatory (walking around as exploration), performative (enacting intangible cultural heritage such as samba, capoeira, football, and music; tour guides' performances), oral (telling stories/imagining history), and acoustic (re-creating place-specific sounds). Local heritage kinaesthetics practices are placed within the larger context of Brazilian and internationally UNESCO's cultural policy on heritage safeguarding conceptualized to enhance community quality of life.
Support Groups, Marriage, and the Management of Ambiguity among HIV-Positive Women in Northern Nigeria
Authors: Rhine Kathryn A.
Published: June 2009

In the context of the African HIV epidemic, support groups are not simply spaces for discussions of social and health well-being; neither are they institutions functioning solely to cultivate self-responsible and economically empowered patients. HIV-positive women in northern Nigeria have appropriated a support group to facilitate their marriage arrangements. In this group, women negotiate the threats of stigma and the promises of respectable marriage through what I call the management of ambiguity surrounding their HIV status. I further argue that the practice of support group matchmaking reveals the local political economic dynamics that shape social and illness trajectories in resource-poor settings.
Re-Evaluating the Role of “National” Identities in the American Catholic Church at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Case of Les Petites Franciscaines De Marie (PFM)
Authors: Waldron FlorenceMae
Published: June 2009

Ethnic divisions and nationalism dominate the scholarship on the Church’s efforts to incorporate immigrants in the decades around 1900. By studying nuns’ perceptions of their place in the Church in their own words, the author argues that female religious may not have prioritized ethnic distinctions as highly as their male counterparts did. Examining how founding members of the Petites Franciscaines de Marie (PFM) understood their ethnic identity in relation to their identity as nuns, this article challenges prevailing interpretations of nationalism among ethnic Catholics in the United States, while suggesting the importance of incorporating women’s views into a fuller understanding of church history.
St. Paul and the Polemicists: The Robert Parsons–Thomas Morton Exchanges, 1606–10
Authors: Carrafiello Michael L.
Published: June 2009

The author examines St. Paul’s prominent place in the polemical exchanges between the English Jesuit Robert Parsons and the Protestant cleric Thomas Morton during the controversy over the Jacobean Oath of Allegiance that followed the Gunpowder Plot’s failure in 1605. The most important topics were the relative supremacy of kingly and papal authority and the use of equivocation in the taking of oaths. While Parsons and Morton could each find some basis of claiming St. Paul as an authority, Parsons proved to be much more successful in this regard, thereby depriving English Protestants like Morton of an important source of support for the Jacobean establishment.
Peter of Leicester, Bishop Godfrey Giffard of Worcester, and the Problem of Benefices in Thirteenth-Century England
Authors: Burger Michael
Published: June 2009

In 1287, Bishop Godfrey Giffard of Worcester fell out with his clerk, Peter of Leicester, denouncing him for ingratitude. Yet the bishop faced a problem: Peter’s ecclesiastical benefices. For lords, benefices had distinct advantages in allowing them to support bureaucrats without directly affecting their own finances, but for someone of Giffard’s position, the situation was far more disagreeable—the law and the courts made benefices largely irrevocable. Giffard’s maneuvers regarding Peter’s benefices indicate that benefices were a poor instrument of accountability, a characteristic that deserves some attention.
El discurso africanista del Renacimiento en La primera parte de la descripción general de África de Luis del Mármol Carvajal
Authors: Martínez-Góngora Mar
Published: June 2009

Luis del Mármol Carvajal dirige la Primera parte de la descripción general de África a Felipe II en 1573, con la esperanza de que la información que contiene la obra sobre las realidades geográficas y etnográficas del continente sea útil en caso de que surja un interés imperialista por parte de la Corona. El autor, que sufriera cautiverio en el norte de África, toma como principal fuente para su obra la Descripción de África de León el Africano. Menos dedicado que León a presentar las similitudes entre la cultura europea y la norteafricana, Mármol Carvajal construye un discurso centrado en los intereses comerciales de los españoles en África. De ese modo, es responsable de la difusión en la época de datos importantes sobre bienes de consumo altamente valorados en los mercados europeos, así como de la representación de un “otro” africano definido por su potencial para ser asimilado al pueblo cristiano colonizador.
On Shaky Ground: Hydraulics, State Formation, and Colonialism in Sixteenth-Century Mexico
Authors: Valle Ivonne Del
Published: June 2009

[L]a historia del origen y fundamento, de cómo empezó y principió la gran ciudad de México Tenochtitlan, que está adentro del agua . . . nunca se perderá ni olvidará lo que hicieran, lo que asentaran en sus escritos y pinturas, su fama y el renombre y recuerdo que de ellos hay, en los tiempos venideros, jamás se perderá ni olvidará; siempre lo guardaremos nosotros, los que somos hijos, nietos, hermanos menores, biznietos, tataranietos, descendientes, sangre y color suyos.

—Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc, Crónica Mexicayotl
The Mexicas founded Tenochtitlan on a small island in 1325, creating over time a very complex hydraulic system that allowed them to manage their aquatic environment. This article analyzes the technological and epistemological imperatives that this geographical contingency would impose on the future development of a Spanish colonial state. In the transition from violent conquest to the establishment of hegemony through urban development and institutions such as the university, Spanish sovereignty is paradoxically both sustained and undermined by the Spaniards’ disavowal of indigenous forms of knowledge. In Francisco Cervantes de Salazar’s México en 1554 , urbanism, knowledge, and aesthetics are linked to political dominion, but several blind spots in the text, namely, references to Nahuatl history and technology, signal the impossibility of complete hegemony and, on the contrary, demonstrate that the Spaniards’ presence in Mexico cannot be guaranteed except through violence.
The Dueña Dolorida : Policing Gender, Desire, and Entertainment
Authors: Velasco Sherry
Published: June 2009

The image of a bearded lady in the Dueña Dolorida plot in the second part of Don Quijote reveals certain strategies for policing gender behavior that impact traditional notions of desire for the characters who participate in and/or observe the episode as well as for the readers of Cervantes’s novel. This article questions what the figure of the cross-dressed, bearded Condesa Trifaldi and the enchanted Dulcinea (played by the transvestite page) mean for the spectators in the palace as well as for readers. To help understand the significance of the gender-bending plot, this essay examines visual representations of the episode in illustrations and film: Covarrubias’s Emblemas morales , a children’s book version of the Dueña Dolorida illustrated by Antonio Albarrán, Arturo Marín as Trifaldi in Rafael Gil’s 1947 film Don Quijote de la Mancha , and Juan Diego Botto as the enchanted Dulcinea in Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón’s 2002 film El caballero don Quijote .
Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity
Authors: Burke Edmund
Published: June 2009

For prehistorians, the concept of the "Neolithic toolkit" provides a means of evaluating the technological capacities of world societies on a cross-cultural basis. This article seeks to refi ne the toolkit idea by distinguishing a series of the technological complexes that, while originating in different regional contexts, became standardized over the centuries in the lands of Islam in the era before 1500 C.E. and subsequently diffused to the rest of the world. The article focuses on three case studies—the water management toolkit, the writing and information management toolkit, and the mathematics and cosmology toolkit—in an effort to explore the reasons for the apparent centrality of Islamicate societies in the assembling of these technological complexes.
The "Pursuits of the Civilized Man": Race and the Meaning of Civilization in the United States and Australia, 1790s–1850s
Authors: Smithers Gregory D.
Published: June 2009

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of settler colonial definitions of civilization in the expanding frontiers of the United States' "New South" and in southeastern Australia between the 1790s and the 1850s. The article notes that the United States is often omitted from comparisons of nineteenth-century settler societies, an omission that elides the social, cultural, and political similarities that the United States' republican form of settler civilization shared with settler colonial societies such as New South Wales in Australia. Specifically, the article assesses the important role that ideals of gender, sexual behavior, and racial formation had on evolving understandings of settler civilization in relation to the Cherokee in the United States and among Aboriginal tribes such as the Awabakal and Wiradjur in Australia. The evidence suggests that while white Americans and Australians shared a similar understanding of the gendered ideals required for the highest form of settler colonial civilization to develop on colonial frontiers, these ideals were malleable enough to help travel writers, settlers, and missionaries identify very different racial "problems" that need reforming if settler civilization was to flourish. Woven through this analysis are the responses of Cherokee Indians and Australian Aborigines to settler civilization—responses that reflect both the hegemony of settler colonial power and its contested nature in different settler colonial contexts.
The End of a Silver Era: The Consequences of the Breakdown of the Spanish Peso Standard in China and the United States, 1780s–1850s
Authors: Irigoin Alejandra
Published: June 2009

The breakdown of the monopoly of coinage in Spanish America by the 1820s meant the cessation of the silver standard that had fueled the expansion of global trade in the early modern period. This article analyzes the resulting economic effects in China and the United States. The analysis connects monetary developments in Spanish America with demand-side explanations within China and the increasingly dominant role of North Americans as intermediaries of the world's silver trade after the 1780s. The article challenges established notions that silver outfl ow from opium imports or silver shortages from falling South American output were the main causes of economic troubles in nineteenth-century China. Through a comparison with the workings of North American institutions in managing domestic monetary effects, the article highlights the puzzling lack of any monopolistic monetary authority in imperial China.
Micah 6:8 in the Literature of the American Founding Era: A Note on Religion and Rhetoric
Authors: Dreisbach Daniel L.
Published: June 2009

Micah 6:8 is a biblical passage cited frequently in the literature of the American founding era. This note profiles several noteworthy uses of this text and considers why the founders were drawn to these prophetic words. There was a consensus among the founders that a self-governing people must be a self-controlled, righteous people, and nations must be virtuous if they are to be stable and prosperous. The founders, it is argued, saw in this biblical passage God's instruction on how people and nations can be righteous.
Mitt Romney, "Faith in America," and the Dance of Religion and Politics in American Culture
Authors: Medhurst Martin J.
Published: June 2009

This essay examines the interplay of religion and politics in the 2008 Republican primary. It does so by using Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech as a lens for analyzing, interpreting, and commenting upon the place of religious discourse in American politics. Romney's speech functioned as a sort of Rorschach test through which various segments of the voting public read their own beliefs, values, fears, and prejudices. By examining audience response to Romney's speech across the elite media, I isolate the beliefs and attitudes of these media elites and their readers toward religion in the public sphere. I then subject those beliefs and attitudes to critical examination.
Judgment, Experience, and Leadership: Candidate Debates on the Iraq War in the 2008 Presidential Primaries
Authors: Bostdorff Denise M.
Published: June 2009

The examination of 25 pre-primary and primary debates of the 2008 campaign indicates most Republicans, over time, moved toward ever stronger support of President Bush and the surge policy, while continuing to link meeting the challenge in Iraq with the war on terror and moral resolve. The Democrats, conversely, increasingly embraced timetables for withdrawal. McCain and Obama, the ultimate victors, depicted Iraq as the defining issue that best reflected their respective leadership capabilities, thereby setting the key frames of "judgment" and "experience" that would continue to dominate the 2008 general election, even when the economy eclipsed Iraq as an issue.
More Good, Less Evil: Contesting the Mythos of National Insecurity in the 2008 Presidential Primaries
Authors: Ivie Robert L. , Giner Oscar
Published: June 2009

The rhetoric of national security in both the Democratic Party and Republican Party presidential primaries functioned very much as an archetypically dark ritual of insecurity. The principal exception was the discourse of candidate Barack Obama, who spoke in a prophetic voice to invoke the myth of American exceptionalism as a foundation of hope and change and to express national mission in more democratic and practical terms. Speaking in a democratic idiom, he turned the mythos of mission from a story of moral conquest into a practical vision of working collaboratively on the global scene to promote peace by augmenting social justice.
Friend or Foe?: Naming the Enemy
Authors: Engels Jeremy
Published: June 2009

Taking the writings of Thomas Jefferson and David Walker as a starting point, this essay extrapolates a rhetorical theory of naming the enemy. In democracies, especially those built on Judeo-Christian traditions, bad character makes enemies enemies. However, as character is easily masked, the process of naming enemies is necessarily one of reading the signs. Thus, Jefferson focuses on his enemies' appearances, whereas Walker focuses on how his enemies talk. Because both means of naming the enemy are deeply flawed, democratic culture is perpetually in the process of negotiating its enemies as they are rhetorically named and unnamed.
The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Address, March 18, 2008
Authors: Frank David A.
Published: June 2009

Barack Obama's address of March 18, 2008, sought to quell the controversy sparked by YouTube clips of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ, condemning values and actions of the United States government. In this address, Obama crosses over the color line with a rhetorical strategy designed to preserve his viability as a presidential candidate and in so doing, delivered a rhetorical masterpiece that advances the cause of racial dialogue and rapprochement. Because of his mixed racial heritage, he could bring perceptions and misperceptions in black and white "hush harbors" into the light of critical reason. The address succeeds, I argue, because Obama sounds the prophetic voice of Africentric theology that merges the Jewish and Christian faith traditions with African American experience, assumes theological consilience (that different religious traditions share a commitment to caring for others), and enacts the rhetorical counterpart to Levinas's philosophy featuring the "face of the other."
Mary Church Terrell vs. Thomas Nelson Page: Gender, Race, and Class in Anti-Lynching Rhetoric
Authors: Watson Martha Solomon
Published: June 2009

Examining the exchange between Thomas Nelson Page and Mary Church Terrell about lynching in the 1904 North American Review , this essay considers how her ideological position, which emerged from her gender, race, and class, shaped her response. Although these factors enabled her response and built identification with her audience, the essay argues that they created a "trained incapacity" that led her to reaffirm damaging racial stereotypes and to accentuate class cleavages within her race. Rather than responding to Page's "scurrilous attacks on colored men," Church Terrell reinforced the prejudices she sought to dismantle.
“Born Under the Cruel Rigor of Captivity, The Supplicant Left it Unexpectedly by Committing a Crime”: Categorizing and Punishing Slave Convicts in Brazil, 1830-1897
Authors: Beatti Peter M.
Published: June 2009

No presídio [de Fernando de Noronha] o bandido [Zé Moleque] criara fama de boa pessoa, de trabalhador. Os seus roçados de farinha eram sempre os maiores e nunca estivera em cela, nunca dera o que fazer aos diretores.

In José Lins do Rego's 1936 novel,A Usina(the sugar refinery), the penal colony of Fernando de Noronha Island emerges as an incongruous Utopia. The novel's young black protoganist Ricardo serves a three year sentence there as a result of his involvement in a Recife labor strike. Upon his return, he is disillusioned by what he finds on the mainland. He recalls his penalcolony stint with a mixture of nostalgia and shame, especially the tender relationship he had had with the former black bandit Zé Moleque, the respected convict in the citation above. The island, some 220 miles off Brazil's northeast coast, initially appears to be an exotic criminal community of dishonored men, the antithesis of life on the mainland. But, as the plot progresses, it becomes a bucolic foil with which the author highlights hypocrisy, injustice, indifference, and corruption on the modernizing Brazilian mainland of the 1920s.
Sickness, Recovery, and Death among the Enslaved and Free People of Santos, Brazil, 1860–1888
Authors: Read Ian
Published: June 2009

Between 1802 and 1849, cholera and influenza pandemics killed hundreds of thousands from Shanghai to Seville to New York, but these diseases did not dip below the South American portion of the equator. As a result, Brazil gained a reputation of good health, an opinion confirmed by European travelers and some provincial authorities. This rosy reputation wilted in 1849 when a yellow fever epidemic devastated several seaports, including the imperial capital of Rio de Janeiro. Following this outbreak, waves of epidemics swept the nation with unfamiliar and terrifying virulence. Brazilians were struck again and again by cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, and bubonic plague until the early 1900s.
Short Bowel Syndrome
Authors: Navarro Fernando , Gleason Wallace A. , Rhoads J. Marc , Quiros-Tejeira Ruben E.
Published: July 2009

This review deals with the complications and treatment of short bowel syndrome (SBS), addressing the psychosocial, medical, and surgical complications in children receiving long-term parenteral nutrition (PN) support, as well as factors that affect the intestinal adaptation process. Whenever possible, as much of the colon as possible is retained in continuity because the colon is an avid absorber of sodium. It is also important for clinicians to be aware of the important absorption mechanisms in the different regions of the bowel. For example, resection of the terminal ileum removes vitamin B12 transporters and active sodium-coupled bile salt transporters. Treatment of patients missing the terminal ileum may require monthly vitamin B12 injections and oral bile salt binders, such as cholestyramine, when the colon is present to reduce the volume of diarrhea. Patients who do not have ileocecal valves (ICVs) are prone to small bowel bacterial overgrowth that requires treatment to facilitate the intestinal adaptation process. We discuss how the PN is decreased as enteral feedings are advanced as well as clinical monitoring and routine laboratory tests. Although much has been learned over the past 20 years about PN, major questions remain, including determining the optimal form of intravenous lipid (omega-3 preparations versus omega-6 lipids versus a combination of both) to prevent liver disease.
Micetomas actinomicóticos no Rio Grande do Sul: relato de quatro casos
Authors: Londero Alberto T. , Ramos Cecy D. , Matte Shirley W.
Published: July 2009

São relatados quatro casos de micetoma causados por Nocardia brasiliensis, ocorridos no Rio Grande do Sul. É revista a literatura rio-grandense-do-sul.
Comparación entre las comunidades de nematodos parasitos de ovinos y caprinos criados en zonas áridas de Venezuela
Authors: Morales Gustavo , Pino Luz A. , Aldana Elis , Perdomo Luis , Molina Emilia
Published: July 2009

La estructura y composición de la comunidad de nemátodos parásitos de ovinos es similar a la de los caprinos (r**s = 0,90 P <= 0,05 y C**ss = 93,33%). En el caso de los ovinos se obtuvo para el índice de diversidad de Shannon-Weaver un valor promedio de 1,23 + ou - 0,15 bits y en el de los caprinos fue de 1,15 + ou - 0,24 bits. El valor promedio del índice de equitabilidad fue de 0,49 + ou - 0,06 para la comunidad de nemátodos presentes en los ovinos y de 0,44 + ou - 0,09 para la de los caprinos. A pesar de que no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre las medias de dichos índices, se evidenció una mayor homogeneidad en el curso del año para los valores correspondientes a la comunidad parásita en ovinos que en la de los caprinos.
Evaluation of a monoclonal antibody affinity purified antigen for zymodeme specific serological diagnosis of Trypanosoma cruzi infection
Authors: Schechter Mauro
Published: July 2009

Theoretically, serological assays with affinity purified marker antigens can allow strain-specific diagnosis even when parasites cannot be retrieved from and infected host. A Trypanosoma cruzi antigen was purified by affinity chromatography using a zymodeme (Z) 2 specific monoclonal antibody (2E2C11). An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the purified antigen could discriminate between sera from rabbits immunized with T. cruzi zymodeme clones but could not discriminate between sera from mice infected with different zymodemes.
On Aulacophyto and Euparaphyto (Diptera, Sarcophagidae, Microcerellini), with descriptions of four new species
Authors: Tibana Rita , Lopes H. de Souza
Published: July 2009

Aulacophyto reinhardi n.sp., from Argentina, A. baumgartneri n.sp., A tarmanensis, n.sp. from Peru; A. rusca Hall from Chile and Euparaphyto peruana n.sp. from Peru were studied; a key to species of Aulacophyto is given.
Descripción del macho y de la hembra de Lutzomyia larensis n.sp. (Diptera: Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) del estado Lara, Venezuela
Authors: Arredondo C. Conrado
Published: July 2009

Es dada la descripción del macho y de la hembra de una nueva espécie de flebotomíneo recolectado en tronco de árboles en el Parque Nacional de Yacambú, Estado Lara, Venezuela. La nueva espécie pertenece al subgénero Helcocyrtomyia, Barrto, 1962 o al grupo vexator, série peruensis de Theodor (1965) y de Young & Fairchild (1974). El macho se identifica por la presséncia de 5 espinos en el dististilo y por el mechón de cerdas largas en el basistilo, implantadas en tubérculos gruesos y queratinizados. La hembra a la vez presenta armadura dl cibário con 4 dientes largos y una espermateca segmentada semejante a las de otras espécies de la série peruensis.
Description of Lutzomyia (Coromyia) disneyi, n. sp. (Diptera: Psychodidae-Phlebotominae) from Belize, Central America
Authors: Williams Paul
Published: July 2009

The commonest sand fly in limestone caves in Belize, Central America, previously, referred to as Lutzomyia beltrani (Belize form), is described as Lutzomyia (Coromyia) disneyi n. sp.
Observations on the morphology of Pomacea lineata (Spix, 1827) (Mollusca, Ampullariidae)
Authors: Thiengo Silvana Carvalho
Published: July 2009

This paper deals with the morpholgy of Pomacea lineata (Spix, 1827) collected at its type locality. The shell is globose, moderately heavy, horn-colored with brown spiral bands; apex subelevated; 4 - 5 rounded whorls increasing in diameter rather rapidly, separated by deep suture. Aperture large and ovoid; outer lip sharp; umbilicus narrow and deep; operculum concentric, corneous. Ratios: shell width/shell length = 0.74 - 0.83 (mean 0.78); spire length/shell length = 0.10 - 0.18 (mean 0.13); aperture length/shell length = 0.70 - 0.77 (mean 0.73). The animal is longisiphonate. Renal organ brownish with marked invagination at its right edge. Ureter elongated with its long axis transverse to the main axis of the kidney. The radula is taenioglossate (2.1.1.1.2) and has on average 35 transverse rows of teeth. The form and arrangement of the radula teeth are nearly the same as in other Ampullariidae. The testis is cream-colored and lies in the first three whorls of the spire. Spermiduct uniformly narrow, running to the base of the spire. Seminal vesicle whitish, slightly pressed dorsoventrally. Prostate cylindric and thick, similar in color to the testis. Penis whiplike, with a closed circular spermiduct. Penis pouch ovoid completely envelping the penis. Penis sheath elongated, broad prosimally, tapering distally. Its inner surface shows a longitudinal channel along its proximal half and two glands, one on the middle and the other apical. Ovary composed of branched whitish tubules situated on the surface of the digestive gland. Oviduct slender running along the columellar axis toward the base of the spire. Seminal receptalble tubiform, thick-walled and rounded proximally. Albumen gland large, pink, enclosing the receptacle and the spiral capsule gland. Vestigial male copulatory apparatus (penis and its sheath) present in all females examined.
Evaluation of Chagas' disease transmission through breast-feeding
Authors: Bittencourt Achiléa  L. , Sadigursky Moisés , Silva Antusa A. da , Menezes Carlos A. S. , Marianetti Mércia M. M. , Guerra Solon C. , Sherlock Ítalo
Published: July 2009

On hundred milk or colostrum samples from 78 mothers with chronic Chagas' disease were parasitologically studied for Trypanosoma cruzi infection by means of direct examination and inoculation of mice. The mice were submitted to direct bllod examination three times a week. At the end of 45 days, xenodiagnosis and indirect immunofluorescent test (IFAT) for T. cruzi antibodies were carried out in the animals. No parasitized sample was observed even though five mothers had parasitemia at milk collection. In addition, 97 breast-fed children of chronic chagasic mothers, born free of infection, were tested for IgG antibodies to T. cruzi using IFAT. No case of T. cruzi infection was detected. The authors conclude that breast-feeding should not be avoided for children for chronic chagasic women. However, as these mothers had intermittent parasitemia, they should avoid nursing when there is nipple bleeding.
Leishmania mexicana amazonensis: heterogeneity in 5-nucleotidase and peroxidase activities of mononuclear phagocytes during in vivo and in vitro infection
Authors: Côrte-Real Suzana , Grimaldi Junior Gabriel , Meirelles Maria de Nazareth Leal de
Published: July 2009

The degree of maturation of cells of the Mononuclear Phagocyte System (MPS), during in vivo and in vitro infection by Leishmania mexicana amazonenesis, was evaluated in this study. The macrophages' differentiation was assayed by cytochemical characterization at the ultrastrctural level, using two well-established markers: 5'-nucleotidase enzyme activity, for revealing the mature cells, and the peroxidase activity present in the cell granules to demonstrate immature mononuclear phagocytes. only a few mcrophages, demonstrating 5'-nucleotidase positive reaction in both the plasma membrane and within their cytoplasmic vesicles, were found scattered in the chronic inflammation at the L. m. amazonensis lesions in albino mice. However, by the peroxidase activity analysis, we were also able to demonstrate the presence of immature MPS cells, which predominate, together with parasitized vacuolated macrophages, in chronic lesions induced in this systemby L. m. amazonensis. The implications of these results on the pathogenesis of murine cutaneous leishmaniasis are discussed.
Colicinogeny in Salmonella serovars isolated in Brazil
Authors: Campos Leila Carvalho , Hofer Ernesto
Published: July 2009

A study of colicinogeny was made in 748 strains of Salmonella (97 serovars) isolated from different sources; human (291), animal (119), environmental (141), food (102) and animal feed (95). Colicin production was detected in 64 strains (8.6%), particularly isolated from foods (30.4%). Col. E1 (53) and Ia (44) were the most frequently observed, especially in S. agona for environment and food sources. Col V production was identified in 5 strains of S. typhimurium within 8 producer cultures isolated from humans. Its relationship with the sources and serovars of Salmonella are discussed.
Atividades citotóxica e hemolítica em Escherichia coli uropatogênicas
Authors: Andrade João Ramos Costa , Suassuna Ítalo
Published: July 2009

Estudamos 59 Escherichia coli uropatogênicas (ECUP) obtidas de pacientes com infecção urinária e 30 E. coli originárias das fezes de indivíduos normais. Cada amostra originou-se de um paciente ou controle. Verificamos que 44% e 3,3% respectivamente eram hemolíticas em meio sólido segundo a origem. Apenas 15% das ECUP hemolíticas produziram alfa-hemolisina, isoladamente ou em associação com ß-hemolisina. A alfa-hemolisina correspondeu a 92% das amostras com atividade hemolítica. Não encontramos correlação entre títulos de alfa-hemolisina e o sítio de origem das ECUP (infecção alta ou baixa). Em 71% das ECUP e 30% das E. coli fecais detectamos a produção de citotoxina com ação citocida para linhagens celulares epitelióides como Vero, He-La e Hep-2 e pouco ativa para fibroblastos de embrião de galinha. A produção desta citotoxina não apresenta correlação com a síntese de hemolisinas. Não verificamos associação entre títulos citotóxicos e origem das ECUP. Certas características biológicas desta citotoxina como a resposta morfológica que determina nas células, o aumento dos títulos citotóxicos com o tempo, sua atividade citocida irreversível e sua termolabilidade sugerem analogia com a Verotoxina (VT) de E. coli. As células afetadas pela citoxina inicialmente mostram aspecto estrelado, tornam-se arredondadas e finalmente desprendem-se do seu suporte. É sugerido que a produção de citotoxina por E. coli aderidas às mucosas do trato urinário possa contribuir para a agressão ao uroepitélio.
El ensayo inmunoenzimatico en microgotas sobre nitrocelulosa (Dot-ELISA) en el diagnostico de la enfermedad de Chagas: I. Estudio comparativo de dos preparaciones antigenicos de Trypanosoma cruzi
Authors: Hubsch Rosa M. de , Chiechie Norma , Comach Guillermo , Aldao Rafael Rangel , Gusmao Renato D'A
Published: July 2009

Se estudia el Ensayo Inmunoenzimático en Microgotas sobre Nitrocelulosa (Dot-ELISA)comparando dos preparados antigénicos de formas epimastigotas de cultivo de T. cruzi: 1) la fracción citoplasmática (antígeno citoplasmático y 2) el parásito total fijado previamente con formaldehido (antígeno integral). Se usaron sueros de: 95 pacientes chagásicos con serología convencional positiva, cardiopatía crónica y algunos con xenodiagnóstico positivo; 42 personas sanas y 32 con miocardipatía crónica con serología negativa y 74 pacientes con diferentes patologías incluyendo: sífilis, toxoplasmosis, lupus eritematoso diseminado, con factor reumatoide, leishmaniasis visceral, y leishmaniasis cutánea. Definidos los títulos diagnósticos (cut-off) de 1:512 con antígeno citoplasmático y de 1: 128 con antígeno integral, la especificidad fue 96% para el primero y de 100% para el segundo; mientras que la sensibilidad fue de 100% para ambas. En el estudio comparativo con las pruebas serológicas convencionales examinando 147 sueros tomados de personas referidas al laboratório, Dot-ELISA con antígeno citoplasmático presentó índices deco-positividad de 1,0, co-negatividad de 0,989 y eficiencia 0,993. Dot-ELIS con antígeno integral dió 1,0, 0,979 y 0,986 respectivamente. De acuerdo con esta evaluación, la técnica Dot-ELISA con antígeno integral se presenta como una alternativa práctica para el diagnóstico serológico de la enfermedad de Chagas.
Redescrição de adultos de Metacuterebra apicalis (Diptera: Cuterebridae)
Authors: Leite Antonio Cesar Rios , Willams Paul
Published: July 2009

A redescrição morfológica de Metacuterebra apicalis (Diptera, Cuterebridae) foi usada a nível de microscopia óptica e eletrônica de varredura.
Biologia do triatoma vitticeps (Stal, 1859) em condiçoes de laboratórios (Hemiptera: Reduvidae: Triatominae) I. Ciclo evolutivo
Authors: Gonçalves Teresa Cristina M. , Victório Vânia Maria N. , Juberb José , Cunha Vanda
Published: July 2009

Foram feitas observações do ciclo evolutivo do Triatoma vitticeps com alimentação semanal em camundongo, em condições de laboratório. De quatro casais virgens obtiveram-se 435 ovos, sendo que 149 destinaram-se ao ciclo evolutivo e 286 ao estudo da resistência ao jejum, o que constituirá a segunda etapa deste trabalho. Apenas 50 exemplares atingiram a fase adulta num período X (S) = 270 ± 45 dias. Quanto ao tempo de incubação, o 1° e o 2° estádios foram realizados, cada um, em menos de um mês, enquanto que os 3º, 4º e 5º estádios requereram cerca de um, dois e três meses, respectivamente. A procura pelo 1º repasto ocorreu de forma sensível no 3º, 6º e 10º dias. Em todos os estádios, mais de 50% dos exemplares realizaram apenas um repasto, com exceção do 5º, onde foram necessários dois. No que diz respeito ao intervalo de tempo entre o oferecimento do repasto, o ato de picar, e a duração do repasto, observou-se que estes aumentaram gradativamente de acordo com o estádio. Dos 423 repastos realizados, 390 não foram seguidos de defecação no prazo de 10 min. Sob este aspecto parece que o T. vitticeps não é um bom transmissor do T. cruzi. O experimento teve a duração de 13 meses e neste período as temperaturas máximas e mínimas e a umidade relativa do ar variaram em média de 28 ± 2°C a 25 ± 2°C e 80 ± 2%, respectivamente. O material é proveniente da criação mantida no Departamento de entomologia do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
Incontinência urinária entre estudantes de educação física
Authors: Santos Estelamares Silva dos , Caetano Aletha Silva , Tavares Maria da Consolação Gomes Cunha Fernandes , Lopes Maria Helena Baena de Moraes
Published: July 2009

A incontinência urinária (IU) é vista como um problema que afeta mulheres mais velhas e multíparas. Pouca atenção tem sido dada para identificá-la em grupos mais jovens ou nulíparas. Este estudo verificou a prevalência da IU e as características da perda urinária entre mulheres jovens e nulíparas, estudantes de Educação Física. Os dados foram coletados através de um questionário. Dentre 95 estudantes, 61,1% responderam ao questionário. A idade média foi 21,4 anos e 20,7% afirmaram já ter apresentado perda involuntária de urina. Em 75% dos casos a perda de urina ocorreu durante as atividades esportivas. As estudantes que tiveram perda urinária quantificaram, em média, o problema com a nota 2,3 (variando de 0 a 6), sendo 0 nenhum problema e 10, problema grave. Conclui-se que a perda urinária durante o exercício, embora seja relativamente freqüente, não é considerada um problema relevante para as estudantes de Educação Física.