bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Postoperative methemoglobinemia following infiltrative lidocaine administration for combined anesthesia in pediatric craniofacial surgery
Authors: NEUHAEUSER CHRISTOPH , WEIGAND NIKOLA , SCHAAF HEIDRUM , MANN VALESCO , CHRISTOPHIS PETROS , HOWALDT HANS PETER , HECKMANN MATTHIAS
Published: October 2007

Background: Infiltrative anesthesia of the scalp with lidocaine was used in an attempt to reduce blood loss and anesthetic requirements during pediatric craniofacial surgery. Lidocaine, however, has the potential to cause methemoglobinemia. In this retrospective cohort‐study we analyzed the incidence and effects of postoperative methemoglobinemia following subcutaneous lidocaine administration.

Methods: During 1999–2006, 50 infants (age: 3–31 months) undergoing elective craniofacial surgery were analyzed. All infants received general anesthesia and routine monitoring, including invasive arterial blood pressure measurement. Prior to incision, the scalp was infiltrated with 6–15 ml lidocaine 1% (with epinephrine 1 : 200.000). Blood loss and blood transfusions were recorded. Methemoglobin (Met‐Hb) levels were determined postoperatively using co‐oximetry.

Results: Twenty percent of the operated infants showed elevated Met‐Hb levels (median of maximal levels: 6%; range: 2.2–18%) at admission on the PICU. In 80% of these methemoglobinemia resolved spontaneously within 12 h, only two children received methylene blue because of visible cyanosis. The intra‐ and postoperative course was otherwise uneventful in all the children despite significant total blood loss (median of blood loss as percentage from total estimated blood volume: 43%; range: 11–110%). Lidocaine was the only substance identified to have the potential to cause methemoglobinemia. However, the average administered dose of lidocaine was not significantly different between patients with or without methemoglobinemia (13 ± 3.1 vs 12 ± 3.5 mg·kg−1;P = 0.37).

Conclusions: Even though we did not measure lidocaine plasma levels, lidocaine was the most likely cause of postoperative methemoglobinemia. Despite a high incidence, methemoglobinemia occurred sporadically and was without dangerous consequences.
The use of aprotinin in children undergoing operative repair of isolated atrial septal defects
Authors: CHIRAVURI S. DEVI , VOEPEL‐LEWIS TERRI , DEVANEY ERIC J. , MALVIYA SHOBHA
Published: October 2007

Background:  The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the benefits, risks and costs associated with aprotinin use in children who underwent repair of an atrial septal defect (ASD). The primary aim was to determine whether the transfusion rate is lower in children who received aprotinin compared with those who did not during ASD repair. The use of aprotinin has been shown to reduce transfusion requirements for children undergoing primary or secondary repair of congenital cardiac anomalies. However, past studies have not reported the benefits of this agent during low complexity procedures such as ASD repair.

Methods:  All children who underwent ASD repair over 6 years (3 years pre‐ and postroutine use of aprotinin for all CPB cases in the institution) were identified, and their medical records reviewed. Children with multiple congenital cardiac lesions were excluded. The following data were recorded: demographics and baseline laboratory findings, intraoperative use of aprotinin, cardiopulmonary bypass information including details of ultrafiltration, all intraoperative and postoperative transfusions, postoperative bleeding and relevant laboratory findings.

Results:  One hundred and fifteen children were included, 66 of whom received aprotinin. Transfusion rates were not different between children who received aprotinin [n = 8 (12%)] and those who did not [n = 3 (6%)]. Furthermore, changes in hematocrit were not different between groups. These findings were similar when children ≤15 kg were compared with those >15 kg.

Conclusions:  This study suggests that aprotinin use offers no benefit for children undergoing isolated repair of an ASD.
Maternal heart rate variability just before surgery significantly correlated with emergence behavior of children undergoing general anesthesia
Authors: ARAI YOUNG‐CHANG P. , UEDA WASA , ITO HIROSHI , WAKAO YOSHIKO , MATSURA MASAYO , KOMATSU TORU
Published: October 2007

Background:  Emergence agitation in pediatric anesthesia is associated with preanesthesia child anxiety, which is strongly influenced by maternal mental conditions. Mental stress affects the autonomic nervous system, thereby influencing heart rate variability (HRV). The present study tested the correlations between preanesthesia maternal HRV and perioperative child behavior.

Methods:  A total of 27 pairs of mothers and children were analyzed in the present study. Maternal HRV was recorded from the night before the child’s surgery to arrival to the operation room and thereafter recorded data were analyzed. The children underwent minor plastic surgery under general anesthesia, and induction and emergence behavior were assessed.

Results:  Quality of mask induction did not correlate with the ratio of low‐frequency (LF) components to high‐frequency (HF) components (LF/HF ratio) of preanesthesia maternal HRV either obtained during 21:00–06:00 (stage I) or 06:00–08:00 (stage II). Scores of the child’s emergence behavior did not correlate with the LF/HF ratio of maternal HRV of stage I; however, the LF/HF ratio of maternal HRV of stage II significantly correlated with emergence behavior.

Conclusions:  Two‐hour maternal HRV just before surgery significantly correlated with emergence behavior of children undergoing general anesthesia.
A cardiologist view of vascular disease in diabetes
Authors: Lockhart Christopher J. , Hamilton Paul K. , McVeigh Katherine A. , McVeigh Gary E.
Published: October 2007

Diabetes mellitus is a potent risk factor for the development of a wide spectrum of cardiovascular (CV) complications. The complex metabolic milieu accompanying diabetes alters blood rheology, the structure of arteries and disrupts the homeostatic functions of the endothelium. These changes act as the substrate for end‐organ damage and the occurrence of CV events. In those who develop acute coronary syndromes, patients with diabetes are more likely to die, both in the acute phase and during follow‐up. Patients with diabetes are also more likely to suffer from chronic cardiac failure, independently of the presence of large vessel disease, and also more likely to develop stroke, renal failure and peripheral vascular disease. Preventing vascular events is the primary goal of therapy. Optimal cardiac care for the patient with diabetes should focus on aggressive management of traditional CV risk factors to optimize blood glucose, lipid and blood pressure control. Targeting medical therapy to improve plaque stability and diminish platelet hyper‐responsiveness reduces the frequency of events associated with atherosclerotic plaque burden. In patients with critical lesions, revascularization strategies, either percutaneous or surgical, will often be necessary to improve symptoms and prevent vascular events. Improved understanding of the vascular biology will be crucial for the development of new therapeutic agents to prevent CV events and improve outcomes in patients with diabetes.
Nateglinide, alone or in combination with metformin, is effective and well tolerated in treatment‐naïve elderly patients with type 2 diabetes
Authors: Schwarz S. L. , Gerich J. E. , Marcellari A. , Jean‐Louis L. , Purkayastha D. , Baron M. A.
Published: October 2007

Aim:  The aim of this work was to assess the efficacy and tolerability of nateglinide alone or in combination with metformin in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM).

Methods:  Study 1 was a 12‐week, multicentre, randomized, double blind and placebo‐controlled study of nateglinide monotherapy (120 mg, before meals) in 66 drug‐naïve patients with T2DM aged ≥65 years. Study 2 was a 104‐week, multicentre, randomized, double blind and active‐controlled study of nateglinide (120 mg, before meals) or glyburide (up to 5 mg bid) in combination with metformin (up to 1000 mg bid) in 69 treatment‐naïve patients with T2DM aged ≥65 years. HbA1c, fasting and postprandial glucose levels, and safety assessments were made.

Results:  In Study 1, nateglinide significantly reduced HbA1c from baseline (7.6 ± 0.1% to 6.9 ± 0.1%; Δ = −0.7 ± 0.1%, p < 0.001) and compared with placebo (between‐group difference = −0.5%, p = 0.004 vs. nateglinide). No hypoglycaemia was reported. In Study 2, combination therapy with nateglinide/metformin significantly reduced HbA1c from baseline (7.8 ± 0.2% to 6.6 ± 0.1%; Δ = −1.2 ± 0.2%, p < 0.001), as did glyburide/metformin (7.7 ± 0.1% to 6.5 ± 0.1%; Δ = −1.2 ± 0.1%, p < 0.001). There was no difference between treatments (p = 0.310). One nateglinide/metformin‐treated patient experienced a mild hypoglycaemic episode compared with eight episodes in eight patients on glyburide/metformin; one severe episode led to discontinuation. Target HbA1c (<7.0%) was achieved by 60% of patients receiving nateglinide (Study 1) and 70% of nateglinide/metformin‐treated patients (Study 2).

Conclusion:  Initial drug treatment with nateglinide, alone or in combination with metformin, is well tolerated and produces clinically meaningful improvements in glycaemic control in elderly patients with T2DM.
Addition of biphasic insulin aspart 30 to optimized metformin and pioglitazone treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: The ACTION Study (Achieving Control Through Insulin plus Oral ageNts)
Authors: Raskin P. , Matfin G. , Schwartz S. L. , Chaykin L. , Chu P.‐L. , Braceras R. , Wynne A.
Published: October 2007

Aim:  Efficacy and safety of biphasic insulin aspart (BIAsp 30, 30% short‐acting and 70% intermediate‐acting insulin aspart) added to an optimized treatment of metformin and pioglitazone (met/pio) were compared with treatment with optimized met/pio in type 2 diabetes patients.

Methods:  This randomized, 34‐week, parallel‐group study enrolled insulin‐naive, type 2 diabetes patients (HbA1c 7.5–12.0%) previously using two oral antidiabetic (OAD) agents. During an 8‐week run‐in period, treatment was changed to met/pio and doses were adjusted up to 2500 mg/day and 30 or 45 mg/day respectively. Subjects either continued met/pio alone or added BIAsp 30 initiated at 6 units twice daily and titrated to target plasma glucose (PG) (4.4–6.1 mmol/l).

Results:  At end‐of‐study, subjects treated with BIAsp 30+met/pio (n = 93) had a mean (±s.d.) HbA1c reduction significantly greater than treatment with met/pio (n = 88) (1.5% ± 1.1 vs. 0.2% ± 0.9, p < 0.0001 between groups). Subjects treated with BIAsp 30+met/pio were more likely to reach The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and European Association for the Study of Diabetes/American Diabetes Association HbA1c targets of ≤6.5 and <7.0%, respectively, than with met/pio only (HbA1c≤6.5%: 59 vs. 12%; HbA1c <7.0%: 76 vs. 24%). At end‐of‐study, self‐monitored glucose profile values at all eight daily time points were significantly less for the BIAsp 30+met/pio group compared with the met/pio group, and minor hypoglycaemia (defined as PG < 3.1 mmol/l) was more frequent (8.3 vs. 0.1 events/year, p < 0.001). Both groups gained weight during treatment (BIAsp 30+met/pio, 4.6 ± 4.3 kg; met/pio, 0.8 ± 3.2 kg; p < 0.001).

Conclusion:  Addition of insulin in type 2 patients treated with met/pio is an effective way to achieve glycaemic targets. Treatment with BIAsp 30+met/pio achieved significantly greater reduction in HbA1c, as compared with met/pio alone. In patients with type 2 diabetes poorly controlled by 2 OADs, more achieved glycaemic targets using BIAsp 30+met/pio than using met/pio alone.
Effect of atorvastatin on endothelial function and inflammation in long‐duration type 1 diabetic patients without coronary heart disease and arterial hypertension
Authors: Konduracka E. , Galicka‐Latala D. , Cieslik G. , Rostoff P. , Fedak D. , Sieradzki J. , Naskalski J. , Piwowarska W.
Published: October 2007

Aim:  We evaluated the ability of atorvastatin, an HMG‐CoA reductase inhibitor, to affect endothelial function and inflammation in long‐duration (>10 years) type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients without coronary heart disease (CHD) and arterial hypertension (AH).

Methods and Results:  We randomized 204 Caucasians with long‐duration T1DM into either the atorvastatin 40 mg/day plus hypolipaemic diet group (n = 154) or the placebo plus hypolipaemic diet group (n = 50) for 6 months. Endothelium‐dependent flow‐mediated (FMD) and endothelium‐independent flow‐mediated vasodilatation, serum levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1), von Willebrand factor (vWF) and high sensitivity C‐reactive protein (hs‐CRP) were estimated before and after treatment. After 6 months of therapy, FMD was increased by 44% in the atorvastatin plus diet group compared with the placebo plus diet group. Treatment with atorvastatin led to a significant reduction in levels of PAI‐1 and hs‐CRP; however, the elevation of vWF level was observed. In the placebo plus diet group, we observed a significant reduction in levels of hs‐CRP but not of vWF and PAI‐1.

Conclusions:  Atorvastatin improves endothelial function and reduces some proinflammatory and prothrombotic markers of atherosclerosis in T1DM patients without CHD and AH. The surprising effect of atorvastatin on serum vWF levels in T1DM requires further study.
Weight changes in type 2 diabetes and the impact of gender
Authors: Tuthill A. , McKenna M. J. , O’Shea D. , McKenna T. J.
Published: October 2007

Aims:  Many studies suggest that weight gain occurs during treatment of type 2 diabetes, irrespective of the treatment type. The aim of this study was to address the questions (i) whether weight gain is inevitable in patients treated for type 2 diabetes, and (ii) whether treatment escalation is prompted by a rise in glycaemic control [haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)] or weight gain.

Methods:  A diabetes database was used to identify all patients with type 2 diabetes attending our clinic between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2000. To facilitate further analysis, independent anonymized database resources were established. Data collected included height, weight, gender, HbA1c, age and diabetes treatment at each visit.

Results:  One thousand and eighty‐four patients were included; after 6 months of treatment, patients’ average weight had reduced by 1.0 kg (s.d. 4.6) (p < 0.001). Sixty per cent of the patients had either a decrease or no change in weight, while 40% demonstrated a weight gain. Women demonstrated more weight loss than men. After a mean follow‐up of 50 months (s.d. 25.7), 439 patients (40%) who received treatment with diet alone, diet followed by metformin or metformin alone demonstrated a maintained weight reduction in addition to improved glycaemic control. A rise in HbA1c rather than weight gain prompted treatment change.

Conclusions:  This study provides evidence that weight gain is not a necessary consequence of the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Women were more successful than men in losing weight, and diet, with or without the addition of metformin, was the treatment type most usually associated with weight loss.
Diastolic dysfunction and abnormalities of the microcirculation in type 2 diabetes
Authors: Brooks B. A. , Franjic B. , Ban C. R. , Swaraj K. , Yue D. K. , Celermajer D. S. , Twigg S. M.
Published: October 2007

Aim:  Diabetic cardiomyopathy is an increasingly recognized entity. The pathogenic factors that may contribute to its development, especially the earliest changes of diastolic dysfunction (DD), have not been clearly defined. Microvessel dysfunction and upregulation of profibrotic growth factors have been described as possible causes. The aim of this study was therefore to determine whether microvascular dysfunction and/or upregulation of the profibrotic connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) are associated with subclinical DD in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

Methods:  Forty subjects with type 2 diabetes and 20 age‐matched non‐diabetic controls, all of whom had no clinical evidence of ischaemic heart disease, cardiac failure or echo evidence of systolic ventricular dysfunction, were recruited. Microvascular function was measured by laser Doppler velocimetry, with examination of endothelium‐dependent increase in blood flow following iontophoresis of acetylcholine (ACh) and endothelium‐independent increase in blood flow in response to the nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP). CTGF levels were determined by Western immunoblotting.

Results:  DD determined on the basis of traditional echocardiographic criteria was similar in diabetic subjects compared with controls (28 vs. 20%, p = 0.5). Using left ventricular myocardial tissue Doppler‐based indices for DD, the E/E′ and the E′/A′ ratios (where E is the flow related to early ventricular filling and E′ and A′ are early and late diastolic velocities, respectively) in diabetic subjects revealed evidence of more DD than controls (p = 0.046 and p = 0.007 respectively) . Comparing controls with no DD by conventional echocardiographic criteria (Group I), diabetes and no DD (Group II) and diabetes with DD (Group III), there was a significant trend in reduction of both endothelium‐dependent (ACh fold change; p = 0.04) and endothelium‐independent (SNP fold change; p = 0.0004) blood flow across the groups. The ACh and SNP responses, however, were not correlated significantly with quartiles of the E/E′ ratio or the E′/A′ ratio. CTGF plasma levels did not differ across the groups and CTGF did not correlate with parameters of microvascular function.

Conclusions:  This study indicates that while there is a significant association between DD and measures of microvascular function, the relationship between endothelial dysfunction, CTGF and subtle measures of DD is not strong. Other factors are therefore likely to play an important role in the early pathogenesis of subclinical cardiac DD in type 2 diabetes.
Co‐administration of SR141716 with peptide YY3–36 or oxyntomodulin has additive effects on food intake in mice
Authors: White N. E. , Dhillo W. S. , Liu Y.‐L. , Small C. J. , Kennett G. A. , Gardiner J. V. , Ghatei M. A. , Bloom S. R.
Published: October 2007

Background:  SR141716 has been shown to significantly inhibit food intake and reduce body weight by antagonizing CB1 receptors. The gut hormones peptide YY3–36 (PYY3–36) and oxyntomodulin (OXM) inhibit food intake through Y2 and Glucagon‐Like‐Peptide (GLP)‐1 receptors respectively.

Objective:  To determine the effects of co‐administration of SR141716 with either PYY3–36 or OXM in mice on food intake.

Methods:  Mice (n = 14 per group) were fasted for 16 h prior to study days and given two intraperitoneal injections: study 1, vehicle–saline, SR141716–saline, vehicle–PYY3–36 or SR141716–PYY3–36; study 2: vehicle–saline, SR141716–saline, vehicle–OXM or SR141716–OXM.

Food was returned and measured following injections.

Results:  Co‐administration of SR141716–PYY3–36 or SR141716–OXM showed greater inhibition in food intake when compared with administration of SR141716, PYY3–36 or OXM alone.

Conclusion:  Our data show that SR141716 in combination with PYY3–36 or OXM reduces food intake additively in mice.
Severe hypoglycaemia in a person with insulin autoimmune syndrome accompanied by insulin receptor anomaly type B
Authors: Kato T. , Itoh M. , Hanashita J. , Itoi T. , Matsumoto T. , Ono Y. , Imamura S. , Hayakawa N. , Suzuki A. , Mizutani Y. , Uchigata Y. , Oda N.
Published: October 2007

Aims  A rare case of the insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS) accompanied by insulin receptor anomaly is reported.

Methods  Antibodies to insulin and insulin receptor were determined in the patient with severe hypoglycaemia before and after the treatment with prednisolone.

Results  Titers of antibody to insulin and insulin receptors were 73.0% and 41.5%, respectively. Drug‐induced lymphocyte stimulation tests were all negative for the suspicious drugs. Her HLA‐DR was DRB1*0403/04051. Following steroid therapy, the formation of antibodies was suppressed and alleviated her symptoms. Scatchard analysis yielded findings specific to polyclonal antibodies.

Conclusions  The changes in autoantibodies resulted in alleviation of the hypoglycemic symptoms as a result of steroid therapy.
Rationale for and study design of the sulodexide trials in Type 2 diabetic, hypertensive patients with microalbuminuria or overt nephropathy
Authors: Lambers Heerspink H. J. , Fowler M. J. , Volgi J. , Reutens A. T. , Klein I. , Herskovits T. A. , Packham D. K. , Fraser I. R. , Schwartz S. L. , Abaterusso C. , Lewis J. ,   on behalf of the Collaborative Study Group
Published: October 2007

Background  Patients with Type 2 diabetes and albuminuria are at high risk to progress to end‐stage renal disease (ESRD). Although angiotensin receptor blockers confer renoprotection, many diabetic patients still develop overt nephropathy and reach ESRD. Glycosaminoglycans belong to the same family as heparin and heparinoids. Pilot studies with sulodexide, a glycosaminoglycan, have shown that sulodexide can reduce urinary albumin excretion rates in diabetic patients. No hard renal end‐point data are available.

Methods  Two multicentre, double‐masked, randomized placebo controlled trials were designed to study the renoprotective potential of sulodexide. The Sulodexide Microalbuminuria Trial examined the efficacy of sulodexide given over 26 weeks in 1000 patients with Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and microalbuminuria. The Sulodexide Overt Nephropathy Trial examined the efficacy of sulodexide in 2240 patients with Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and proteinuria ≥ 900 mg/24 h.

Results  The primary outcome of The Sulodexide Microalbuminuria Trial was (i) conversion to normoalbuminuria and at least a 25% decrease in the urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR), or (ii) at least a 50% reduction in UACR. The primary outcome of The Sulodexide Overt Nephropathy Trial was time to a composite end point of doubling of serum creatinine or ESRD.

Conclusions  The sulodexide nephropathy programme will document whether therapy with sulodexide confers renal protection in Type 2 diabetes and nephropathy.
Perceptions of undergraduate students not participating in HIV/AIDS prevention activities in Botswana
Authors: Sabone M. , Ntsayagae E. , Brown M.S. , Seboni N.M. , Mogobe K.D. , Sebego M.
Published: October 2007

Background:  Botswana is one of the countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. Prevalence rates of 22.8% and 38.6% have been reported for age groups 15–19 and 20–24 years respectively. The government has solicited a concerted effort of all individuals and agencies in both the public and private sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Purpose:  This report is part of the findings of a study conducted at a university to evaluate students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of two HIV/AIDS initiatives put in place and aimed at changing the students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.

Methods:  The study utilized the Rapid Assessment Process (RAP). Four teams interviewed: students who had taken the course; students who had used the centre; students who had taken the course and used the centre; and students who have neither taken the course nor used the centre. Initial steps in data analysis involved coding and theme derivation. Findings reported here were from participants who neither participated in the course nor used the centre.

Findings:  Participants reported the following problems, which were hindering the success of the programmes: problems in the ABC message; permissive campus environment; lack of entertainment; and students’ perceptions about HIV/AIDS and their own vulnerability. Participants came up with suggestions for improving the initiatives. The authors discuss implications of the study findings for the university’s initiatives.
Inequality and Deliberative Development: Revisiting Bolivia's Experience with the PRSP
Authors: Morrison Kevin M. , Singer Matthew M.
Published: October 2007

The deliberative‐development approach to policy‐making has gained popularity in both academic and policy circles. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the requirements necessary for deliberation to have beneficial effects on policy, some of which are detailed in this article, in particular the need for equality among deliberators. The article examines Bolivia's 2000 National Dialogue and demonstrates the effects of inequality — not between elites and non‐elites, but between groups within civil society — on the legitimacy of the outcome. Its findings have important implications for the design of deliberative‐development institutions.
PIECEMEAL TRANSLATION
Authors: AYDEMIR MURAT
Published: October 2007

Mieke Bal and Shahram Entekhabi's Glub (Hearts) of 2004, comprising an art film and a video installation, inquires into the Middle Eastern and North African practice of eating roasted sunflower, pumpkin and other seeds as it has taken hold in the city of Berlin. Bal has called the work an instance rather than an object of ‘cultural analysis’, the term that she has espoused for her critical practice. Cultural analysis engages its object in relation to theoretical concepts and socio‐cultural contexts without, however, reducing it to a case or illustration of either. This essay builds on the cultural analysis that Glub carries out by addressing the practice of seed‐eating, described by one commentator as a ‘social event and an art form’, in a number of frames. These frames overlap but do not amount to a comprehensive description of the work, adding to the density or ‘thickness’ of the object at stake. Initially, the work is considered in the context of Bal's recent academic work. Further, there is discussion of Glub's peculiar and strategic rendering of Berlinian ‘street life’, which both suspends and reinforces the recognizability of the contemporary Western metropolis. Finally, the article addresses the ways in which the work engages with the possibilities and pitfalls of the cross‐cultural translation of an everyday cultural detail.
VISUAL ARCHIVES AS PREPOSTEROUS HISTORY
Authors: VAN ALPHEN ERNST
Published: October 2007

Three examples of artistic archiving – Christian Boltanski's archival installations, Ydessa Hendeles's installation Partners: The Teddy Bear Project and Peter Forgacs' film Maelstrom, which is based on archival home footage – are situated in relation to the privileged and respected position of the archival medium in Holocaust studies. This reading of three contemporary works of art takes its cue from Mieke Bal's notion of preposterous history, elaborated in Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History (1999), where she demonstrates the idea that art's engagement with what came before it involves an active reworking of the predecessor. In light of Bal's argument, archival practices by Boltanski, Hendeles and Forgacs are perceived as preposterous in relation to the archival genre they adopt. They do not comply to the genre and to the qualities assigned to it through the course of history, but in their practices they foreground, each in their own way, aspects and qualities of the archival mode so far unacknowledged or repressed.
WHAT DOES A WOMAN WANT? ART INVESTIGATING DEATH IN CHARLOTTE SALOMON'S LEBEN? ODER THEATER?
Authors: POLLOCK GRISELDA
Published: October 2007

An art work that refuses the boundaries of word and image, image and music, that was made in defiance of art history's preferred models of style, movement and period, Charlotte Salomon's vast interdisciplinary project Leben? oder Theater? (1941–42) challenges art history but responds well to models of feminist reading of visual narrative and semiotics proposed by Mieke Bal's practice of cultural analysis and working with concepts. Viewed since its belated discovery as a largely autobiographical text, Charlotte Salomon's huge work is here examined through the lens of two concepts: Benjamin's ‘theatre of memory’ and Braccha Ettinger's idea of ‘art working’. Taking seriously the interrogative form of the title, the article asks both how an art work can be an investigation and what this art work was questioning. Close reading of key images that explore the inner worlds of three women that form a counter series to the overt narrative sequence of the final text, the text is analytically ‘listened to’ in order to plot out the nature of the questions it poses about life, death, creativity through a memorial restaging of the lives and deaths of four women and one man. Focusing on the visual strategies in the paintings, the visual and acoustic leitmotifs that pictorially define the major ‘players’, and tracing the semiotic and affective freight of the colour blue, the article examines the journey the work performed for the artist through the prism of Ettinger's proposal about ‘art as a transport station of trauma’ that might open up to trans‐subjective border space in which the trauma of loss can be encountered and worked through.
READING, WRITING, FILMING, DREAMING, DRESSING
Authors: ANN HOLLY MICHAEL , BAL MIEKE
Published: October 2007

A conversation with Mieke Bal, as recounted by longtime friend, Michael Ann Holly. Many subjects emerge along the way, both serious and light: about the state of the world, about the discipline of art history, about reading art and writing about seeing, about memories and past times.
AESTHETICS OF INTERMEDIALITY
Authors: BENNETT JILL
Published: October 2007

If ‘art thinks’, as Mieke Bal contends, what are the operative concepts it generates, and how do visual culture studies capture the nature of aesthetic or visual thought? This essay analyses contemporary art projects by Gabriel Orozco, Candice Breitz, Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, and iCinema as both ‘gestural’ and ‘intermedial’ productions. Invoking a concept of gestural criticism derived from Georgio Agamben, Bennett argues that gesture is an operative method rather than subject matter in art, and a key to understanding mediality and relations between media. This focus is extended into a broader methodological argument for visual cultural studies that attends to the specifics of media and aesthetic operations within an interdisciplinary field, building on methodological critiques by both Bal and Brian Massumi, and citing the precedent of Aby Warburg's Mnemosyne project.
Revenue Sharing and Information Exchange under Non‐discriminatory Taxation*
Authors: Keen Michael , Ligthart Jenny E.
Published: October 2007

The international exchange of tax information, and its merits compared to withholding taxation, has emerged as a central topic in international tax policy. We characterize and compare the outcomes that emerge, in a two‐country world, with and without information exchange, under the assumption that countries are unable to tax residents and non‐residents differentially. The analysis focuses on the role of asymmetries in country size (capturing a key feature of tax havens) and on the impact and potential desirability of schemes to share the revenue raised by withholding (as under the new EU savings tax arrangements) or (more innovatively) as a consequence of information exchange. We show that, irrespective of any difference in country size, it is in the interests of both countries, in terms of tax revenue, that all revenue collected from non‐residents be transferred to the residence country—which would entail taking the EU practice even further from the norm, but is currently the standard in relation to information exchange. A withholding scheme with revenue fully reallocated in this way gives both countries more revenue than does information sharing, whatever the allocation under the latter.
Diversification for general copula dependence
Authors: Alink Stan , Löwe Matthias , Wüthrich Mario V.
Published: October 2007

We generalize the extreme value analysis for Archimedean copulas (see Alink, Löwe and Wüthrich, 2003) to the non‐Archimedean case: Assume we have d≥2 exchangeable and continuously distributed risks X1,…,Xd. Under appropriate assumptions there is a constant qd such that, for all large u, we have . The constant qd describes the asymptotic dependence structure. Typically, qd will depend on more aspects of this dependence structure than the well‐known tail dependence coefficient.
Generalized M‐fluctuation tests for parameter instability
Authors: Zeileis Achim , Hornik Kurt
Published: October 2007

A general class of fluctuation tests for parameter instability in an M‐estimation framework is suggested. Tests from this framework can be constructed by first choosing an appropriate estimation technique, deriving a partial sum process of the estimation scores that captures instabilities over time, and aggregating this process to a test statistic by using a suitable scalar functional. Inference for these tests is based on functional central limit theorems, which are derived under the null hypothesis of parameter stability and local alternatives. For (generalized) linear regression models, concrete tests are derived, which cover several known tests for (approximately) normal data but also allow for testing for parameter instability in regressions with binary or count data. The usefulness of the test procedures—complemented by powerful visualizations derived from these—is illustrated using Dow Jones industrial average stock returns, youth homicides in Boston, USA, and illegitimate births in Grossarl, Austria.
Estimating systematic continuous‐time trends in recidivism using a non‐Gaussian panel data model
Authors: Koopman Siem Jan , Ooms Marius , Lucas André , Montfort Kees van , Van Der Geest Victor
Published: October 2007

We model panel data of crime careers of juveniles from a Dutch Judicial Juvenile Institution. The data are decomposed into a systematic and an individual‐specific component, of which the systematic component reflects the general time‐varying conditions including the criminological climate. Within a model‐based analysis, we treat (1) shared effects of each group with the same systematic conditions, (2) strongly non‐Gaussian features of the individual time series, (3) unobserved common systematic conditions, (4) changing recidivism probabilities in continuous time and (5) missing observations. We adopt a non‐Gaussian multivariate state‐space model that deals with all these issues simultaneously. The parameters of the model are estimated by Monte Carlo maximum likelihood methods. This paper illustrates the methods empirically. We compare continuous time trends and standard discrete‐time stochastic trend specifications. We find interesting common time variation in the recidivism behaviour of the juveniles during a period of 13 years, while taking account of significant heterogeneity determined by personality characteristics and initial crime records.
On a distribution of Jasso and Kotz
Authors: Nadarajah Saralees
Published: October 2007

Explicit expressions are derived for the moments and the Gini coefficient of the ring‐exponential distribution introduced by Jasso and Kotz (Statistica Neerlandica, 61, 2007, 305–328).
Inefficient Public Provision in a Repeated Elections Model
Authors: CASAMATTA GEORGES , DE PAOLI CAROLINE
Published: October 2007

We consider a dynamic setting with no policy commitment. Two parties that compete for election must choose the level of provision of a public good as well as the tax payment needed to finance it. The cost of producing the good may be high or low and this information is not known to the voters. We show that there exists an equilibrium in which the party that does not want much of the public good uses the inefficient (high cost) technology even though the efficient one is available. Using the low cost technology would, by informing the voters about the cost parameter, force it to produce an excessively high level of the good in the future. Interestingly, this equilibrium is not symmetric, suggesting that a party with a strong taste for the public good is less likely to adopt a wasteful policy.
Increasing Returns, Learning, and Beneficial Tax Competition
Authors: HONKAPOHJA SEPPO , TURUNEN‐RED ARJA
Published: October 2007

We analyze the welfare impact of entrepreneur mobility in a two‐country overlapping generations model. Increasing returns in production yield multiple equilibria that are stable under adaptive learning. Governments compete for the mobile resource by setting income taxes. We show that large welfare gains can arise from noncooperative taxation. If expectational barriers prevent the realization of high output equilibria, tax competition can sufficiently perturb expectations so that high steady states become attainable. Once in a high production regime, governments may institute cooperative tax increases or reductions so as to bring the economy to the global joint optimum without disturbing the regime.
Political Support for Tax Decentralization
Authors: PERALTA SUSANA
Published: October 2007

We present a spatial model of a city with two unequally productive jurisdictions. City residents bear a commuting cost to work in either of the two jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction must finance a public budget with a wage and a head tax. We compare the first best optimum to tax decentralization. From the total welfare viewpoint, tax competition is always inefficient. However, majoritarian local governments may prefer the inefficient tax decentralization to the first best.
Extendable Cooperative Games
Authors: AZRIELI YARON , LEHRER EHUD
Published: October 2007

A (TU) cooperative game is extendable if every core allocation of each subgame can be extended to a core allocation of the game. It is strongly extendable if any minimal vector in the upper core of any of its subgames can be extended to a core allocation. We prove that strong extendability is equivalent to largeness of the core. Further, we characterize extendability in terms of an extension of the balanced cover of the game. It is also shown how this extension can unify the analysis of many families of games under one roof.
Endogenously Weighted Voting
Authors: HOUY NICOLAS
Published: October 2007

We define Endogenously Weighted Plurality Voting (EWPV) as the voting rule that, each individual being allowed to cast exactly one vote, selects the individual(s) who obtain(s) the greatest number of indirect votes. Endogenously Weighted Approval Voting (EWAV) selects the individual(s) who obtain(s) the greatest number of indirect votes when each individual can cast as many votes as he wants. In both cases, each individual can vote for any other individual, i.e., the set of candidates is the set of voters. In this study, we give necessary and sufficient axioms for EWPV and EWAV. We also propose a simple model where EWAV is more efficient than the traditional Approval Voting.
Relationality in sociolinguistics: A dialogue with linguistic ethnography1
Authors: Tsitsipis Lukas D.
Published: October 2007

This paper selects as its focus the study of relationality in sociolinguistics. Through an emphasis on social relations as these emerge in discursive and communicative praxis I propose a critical revising of some more traditional, positivistic understandings of sociolinguistic research that enshrine a firm divide between a researching subject and an object of this research. This is followed by a relational analysis of empirical data from the Greek Albanian communities of modern Greece. Many threads of my discussion of relationality in sociolinguistics dovetail with the newly emerging field of Linguistic Ethnography.
A step too far: Discursive psychology, linguistic ethnography and questions of identity
Authors: Wetherell Margaret
Published: October 2007

This paper argues that linguistic ethnography needs to include psychology as well as language and culture in the list of objects it studies, and build a dialogue with discursive psychology, which similarly focuses on discourse in contexts of use. Discursive psychology, and its variants, are introduced and, using a fragment of interaction from the U.K. reality television programme ‘Big Brother’ as an illustration, ways of investigating ‘personal order’ through discursive research are explored. It is argued that the investigation of identity and people's investments in particular identity positions should not be impeded by, for instance, conversation analytic methodological prescriptions or the concerns of psycho‐social researchers that the study of psychology through the study of language is a step too far.
On the Temporal Nature of Planning in L1 and L2 Composing
Authors: Manchón Rosa M. , de Larios Julio Roca
Published: October 2007

In this article we report on a study in which verbal protocol data were used to explore English as a foreign language writers' planning behavior while engaged in academic writing tasks. The analysis was approached from a temporal perspective (i.e., time spent on planning operations) in relation to three independent variables: (a) the participants' level of proficiency (preintermediate, intermediate, and advanced) in the second language (L2); (b) the language of composition: native (L1, Spanish) vs. foreign language (L2, English) writing; (c) the stage of the composition in which planning operations occurred (composition time was divided into three periods). Results indicate that the language of the composition did not explain differences in planning time, but the participants' level of L2 proficiency did. Proficiency also influenced (a) the different amount of time devoted to planning in the L1 and the L2 tasks and (b) the participants' coordination of goals as well as the range of constraints guiding their planning behavior. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are advanced.
Second Language Learners and Speech Act Comprehension
Authors: Holtgraves Thomas
Published: October 2007

Recognizing the specific speech act (Searle, 1969) that a speaker performs with an utterance is a fundamental feature of pragmatic competence. Past research has demonstrated that native speakers of English automatically recognize speech acts when they comprehend utterances (Holtgraves & Ashley, 2001). The present research examined whether this occurs for participants learning English as a second language. Participants read conversational utterances and then performed a lexical decision task (decide whether a target string of letters is a word). Consistent with past research, native speakers performed this task more quickly when the target string was the speech act associated with the preceding utterance. In contrast, nonnative speakers did not demonstrate this effect, suggesting that speech act activation is not an automatic component of comprehension for people acquiring a second language.
On Crosslinguistic Variations in Imperfective Aspect: The Case of L2 Korean
Authors: Lee EunHee , Kim Hae‐Young
Published: October 2007

This article examines the acquisition of Korean imperfective markers, the progressive ‐ko iss‐ and the resultative ‐a iss‐, with a view to understanding how tense/aspect morphology expands beyond prototype associations with inherent aspects of the verbs. We hypothesized that ‐a iss‐ will develop later than ‐ko iss‐, but that the development of ‐a iss‐ will precede or coincide with the expansion of ‐ko iss‐ marking for result state meaning. Cross‐sectional data were collected from 120 learners of second language Korean using a sentence interpretation task and a guided picture description task. The results support our hypothesized acquisition route of imperfective markers, establishing dynamic durativity as the prototypical meaning of the Korean imperfective ‐ko iss‐ and suggesting individual variation in expanding the prototype.
THE GENDER EARNINGS GAP IN BRITAIN: INCLUDING THE WORKPLACE*
Authors: MUMFORD KAREN , SMITH PETER N.
Published: October 2007

The earnings gap between male and female employees is substantial and lingering. Using linked data for Britain, in this paper we show that an important contribution to this gap is made by the workplace in which the employee works. Evidence for workplace and occupational segregation as partial explanations of the earnings gap is presented. Having allowed also for individual worker characteristics there remains a substantial within‐workplace and within‐occupation gender gap. The contribution of these factors, as well as the earnings gap itself, differ significantly across sectors of the labour market. The relative unimportance of occupational segregation and the large remaining gender gap suggest that stronger enforcement of equal pay legislation is likely to be the most appropriate policy response.
USE IT OR LOSE IT? THE IMPACT OF COMPUTERS ON EARNINGS*
Authors: DOLTON PETER , MAKEPEACE GERRY , ROBINSON HELEN
Published: October 2007

The extent to which the impact of computer skills depends on how computers are used is investigated using British data from an establishment survey, cohort studies and the European E‐Living survey. We examine the importance of type of activity and frequency of use in these various data sources. We find that the impact on earnings depends on which cohort of workers is examined and that there are differences over time. The regression results show that the use of computers for internet access and for email is positively significant across all of our data sets, although there are differences in the size of the effects between men and women.
OPTIMAL TAXATION AND POLITICAL EQUILIBRIUM WITH FAIRNESS CONSIDERATION*
Authors: KIM YOUNGSE
Published: October 2007

In this paper, I investigate the optimal taxation of labor and capital as well as the political equilibrium when people are homogeneous and have a preference for fairness. Not surprisingly, the optimal taxation takes a variant Ramsey–Mirrlees formula. I then fully characterize the equilibrium fiscal policy and find conditions under which the maximum capital levy holds. In particular, I show that an additional concern for fairness may enforce or weaken the maximum capital levy result in an intuitive manner. For example, if the degree to which labor income is determined by stochastic shocks with respect to talent and effort is relatively larger than that of capital income, the maximum capital levy and hence no tax on labor is less plausible to obtain on equilibrium.
REGULATORY COOPERATION, AID FOR TRADE AND THE GATS
Authors: Hoekman Bernard , Mattoo Aaditya
Published: October 2007

Abstract.  This paper discusses what could be done to expand services trade and investment through a multilateral agreement in the WTO. A distinction is made between market access liberalization and the regulatory preconditions for benefiting from market opening. We argue that prospects for multilateral services liberalization would be enhanced by making national treatment the objective of WTO services negotiations. Moreover, if complemented by assistance to strengthen regulatory capacity in developing countries, the WTO could become more relevant in promoting not just services liberalization but, more importantly, domestic reforms of services policies.
Financial market analysis can go mad (in the search for irrational behaviour during the South Sea Bubble)1
Authors: SHEA GARY S.
Published: October 2007

An investigation into the legal and political history of South Sea Company subscription finance shows that the subscription contracts had default options built into them, as was typically the case in eighteenth‐century subscription financing. Company records and contemporary pamphlet literature show that people understood the subscription finance mechanics that were stated in law. A fair presentation of South Sea share value data also supports this view. We thus conclude that the analyses published in this journal by Dale, Johnson, and Tang were irretrievably flawed and present a substantially incorrect history of the markets for South Sea shares.