bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sleep/Wake Patterns of Individuals With Advanced Cancer Measured by Ambulatory Polysomnography
Authors: Parker Kathy P. , Bliwise Donald L. , Ribeiro Maria , Jain Sanjay R. , Vena Catherine I. , Kohles-Baker Mary Kay , Rogatko Andre , Xu Zhiheng , Harris Wayne B.
Published: May 2008

Purpose

Sleep/wake disturbances are prevalent in patients with advanced cancer, but 24-hour polysomnography (PSG) examinations of these patterns have not been undertaken. The purpose of this study was to describe these sleep/wake patterns using continuous PSG and to explore relationships with selected demographic and clinical variables.

Patients and Methods

The sample included patients with advanced cancer (solid tumors); those with neurologic disorders or psychosis, substance abuse, or brain metastasis were excluded. The final sample included 114 participants with a mean age of 51.1 years (± 9.1 years). Participants underwent continuous, ambulatory PSG for 42 hours in their home environments. Standard PSG measures were calculated. Analysis included data from 2 nights and the intervening day. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize sleep/wake parameters of the average of the 2 nights and the intervening day. Nonparametric analyses were used to detect differences and relationships among the variables.

Results

Compared with normative data, participants had reduced quantity and quality of nocturnal sleep and episodes of sleep scattered throughout the day. Increased daytime sleep was negatively associated with several key parameters of nocturnal sleep quantity and quality. Women, whites, and those who were married/partnered and had more education had better nocturnal sleep. Cancer type and selected medications may be risk factors for disturbed sleep and waking.

Conclusion

Participants experienced severe difficulty with “state maintenance”, or the ability to maintain both the sleep and waking states. Research designed to identify the etiology of these problems is needed to develop effective interventions.
Estrogen- and Progesterone-Receptor Status in ECOG 2197: Comparison of Immunohistochemistry by Local and Central Laboratories and Quantitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction by Central Laboratory
Authors: Badve Sunil S. , Baehner Frederick L. , Gray Robert P. , Childs Barrett H. , Maddala Tara , Liu Mei-Lan , Rowley Steve C. , Shak Steven , Perez Edith D. , Shulman Lawrence J. , Martino Silvana , Davidson Nancy E. , Sledge George W. , Goldstein Lori J. , Sparano Joseph A.
Published: May 2008

Purpose

Central and local laboratory concordance for hormone receptor measurement is therapeutically important. This study compares estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) measured by local laboratory immunohistochemistry (IHC), central IHC, and central reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using a proprietary 21-gene assay.

Patients and Methods

A case-control sample of 776 breast cancer patients from Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) study E2197 was evaluated. Central IHC Allred score for ER and PR was obtained using tissue microarrays and 1D5 ER antibody and 636 PR antibody. Quantitative RT-PCR for ER and PR in whole sections was performed using the 21-gene assay.

Results

For ER, the concordance between local and central IHC was 90% (95% CI, 88% to 92%), between local IHC and central RT-PCR was 91% (95% CI, 89% to 93%), and between central IHC and central RT-PCR was 93% (95% CI, 91% to 95%). For PR, the concordance between local IHC and central IHC was 84% (95% CI, 82% to 87%), between local IHC and central RT-PCR was 88% (95% CI, 85% to 90%), and between central IHC and central RT-PCR was 90% (95% CI, 88% to 92%). Although concordance was high, IHC ER-negative cases that were RT-PCR positive were more common than IHC ER-positive cases that were RT-PCR negative. In ER-positive patients, ER expression by central IHC Allred score was marginally associated with recurrence (P = .091), and ER expression by central RT-PCR was significantly associated with recurrence (P = .014). However, recurrence score, which incorporates additional genes/pathways, was a highly significant predictor of recurrence (P < .0001).

Conclusion

There is a high degree of concordance among local IHC, central IHC, and central RT-PCR by the proprietary gene assay for ER and PR status. Although ER expression is marginally associated with relapse in ER-positive patients treated with chemohormonal therapy, recurrence score is a highly significant predictor of recurrence.
Randomized Phase II Trial of Induction Chemotherapy Followed by Concurrent Chemotherapy and Dose-Escalated Thoracic Conformal Radiotherapy (74 Gy) in Stage III Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer: CALGB 30105
Authors: Socinski Mark A. , Blackstock A. William , Bogart Jeffrey A. , Wang Xiaofei , Munley Michael , Rosenman Julian , Gu Lin , Masters Gregory A. , Ungaro Peter , Sleeper Arthur , Green Mark , Miller Antonius A. , Vokes Everett E.
Published: May 2008

Purpose

To evaluate 74 Gy thoracic radiation therapy (TRT) with induction and concurrent chemotherapy in stage IIIA/B non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Patients and Methods

Patients with stage IIIA/B NSCLC were randomly assigned to induction chemotherapy with either carboplatin (area under the curve [AUC], 6; days 1 and 22) with paclitaxel (225 mg/m2; days 1 and 22; arm A) or carboplatin (AUC, 5; days 1 and 22) with gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m2; days 1, 8, 22, and 29; arm B). On day 43, arm A received weekly carboplatin (AUC, 2) and paclitaxel (45 mg/m2) while arm B received biweekly gemcitabine (35 mg/m2) both delivered concurrently with 74 Gy of TRT utilizing three-dimensional treatment planning. The primary end point was survival at 18 months.

Results

Forty-three and 26 patients were accrued to arms A and B, respectively. Arm B was closed prematurely due to a high rate of grade 4 to 5 pulmonary toxicity. The overall response rate was 66.6% (95% CI, 50.5% to 80.4%) and 69.2% (95% CI, 48.2% to 85.7%) on arm A and B, respectively. The median survival time (MST) and 1-year survival rate was 24.3 months (95% CI, 12.3 to 36.4) and 66.7% (95% CI, 50.3 to 78.7) and 12.5 months (95% CI, 9.4 to 27.6) and 50.0% (95% CI, 29.9 to 67.2) for arms A and B, respectively. The primary toxicities included esophagitis, pulmonary, and fatigue.

Conclusion

Arm A reached the primary end point with an estimated MST longer than 18 months and will be compared with a standard dose of TRT in a planned randomized phase III trial in the United States cooperative groups.
Prospective Phase II Trial of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With Gemcitabine and Cisplatin for Resectable Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreatic Head
Authors: Heinrich Stefan , Pestalozzi Bernhard C. , Schäfer Markus , Weber Achim , Bauerfeind Peter , Knuth Alexander , Clavien Pierre-Alain
Published: May 2008

Purpose

To test the safety of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for resectable pancreatic cancer.

Patients and Methods

Patients with cytologically proven resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head were eligible for this prospective phase II trial. After confirmation of resectability by contrast-enhanced computed tomography (ceCT), positron emission tomography/CT, laparoscopy, and endoscopic ultrasound, patients received four biweekly cycles of gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 and cisplatin 50 mg/m2. Thereafter, staging was repeated and patients underwent surgery. Quality of life (QoL) and prealbumin serum levels were determined pre- and postchemotherapy. Follow-up included 3-month CA 19-9 measurements and ceCT after 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Histologic tumor response was assessed by two scoring systems.

Results

Twenty-eight patients entered this study. Adverse effects were mainly gastrointestinal and hematologic, most often mild, and never of grade 4. Twenty-six patients (93%) had resectable cancer on restaging examinations, and the R0 resection rate was 80%. Histologic tumor response and cytopathic effects were documented in 54% and 83% of patients, respectively. On intention-to-treat analysis, disease-free and overall survival were 9.2 months (95% CI, 5.6 to 12.9 months) and 26.5 months (95% CI, 11.4 to 41.5 months) and 9 months (95% CI, 6.99 to 10.1 months) and 19.1 months (95% CI, 15 to 23.1 months) for ductal adenocarcinoma, respectively. QoL improved in two items and was unchanged in all other items. Moreover, prealbumin serum levels significantly improved during chemotherapy (P = .008).

Conclusion

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin is well tolerated and does not impair resectability of pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, it improves the QoL and the nutritional status of affected patients with favorable overall and disease-free survival.
Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Stage III Colon Cancer: Do Physicians Agree About the Importance of Patient Age and Comorbidity?
Authors: Keating Nancy L. , Landrum Mary Beth , Klabunde Carrie N. , Fletcher Robert H. , Rogers Selwyn O. , Doucette William R. , Tisnado Diana , Clauser Steven , Kahn Katherine L.
Published: May 2008

Purpose

We surveyed cancer physicians to understand how patients' age and comorbidity influence adjuvant chemotherapy recommendations and whether physician or practice characteristics also affect these recommendations.

Methods

National survey of surgeons and medical oncologists caring for patients with colorectal cancer regarding whether they would recommend adjuvant chemotherapy for hypothetical patients with stage III colon cancer who varied by age (55 v 80 years) and comorbid illness (none, moderate, severe congestive heart failure [CHF]). Repeated measures logistic regression was used to assess the influence of patient, physician, and practice characteristics on chemotherapy recommendations.

Results

Of 1,096 physicians, nearly all recommended chemotherapy for patients who were 55 years old with no comorbidity (99.0%), 55-years old with moderate CHF (88.6%), or 80 years old with no comorbidity (92.6%); many fewer recommended chemotherapy for 55-year-old patients with severe CHF (24.9%) or 80-year-old patients with moderate (47.2%) or severe (9.0%) CHF (P < .001). Younger physicians (P < .001) were more likely than others to recommend adjuvant chemotherapy overall, although physician factors explained little of the variability in recommendations.

Conclusion

Physicians agree with guidelines recommending adjuvant chemotherapy for young, healthy patients with stage III colon cancer but differ widely on recommendations for patients who are older and sicker. Few physician or practice characteristics were associated with recommendations. For older and sicker patients, the individual physicians seen may have a substantial impact on the likelihood of receiving chemotherapy. Understanding better the sources of variation not explained by patients' clinical characteristics may allow improved tailoring of therapy to patients most likely to benefit.
The Pal3 Promoter Sequence Is Critical for the Regulation of Human Renin Gene Transcription by Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ
Authors: Todorov Vladimir T. , Desch Michael , Schubert Thomas , Kurtz Armin
Published: May 2008

We recently reported that human renin gene transcription is stimulated by the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ in the renin-producing cell line Calu-6. The effect of PPARγ was mapped to two sequences in the renin promoter: a direct repeat hormone response element (HRE), which is related to the classical PPAR response element (PPRE) and a nonconsensus palindromic element with a 3-bp spacer (Pal3). We now find that PPARγ binds to the renin HRE. Neither the human renin HRE nor the consensus PPRE was sufficient to attain the maximal stimulation of renin promoter activity by the PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone. In contrast, the human renin Pal3 element mediates both the full PPARγ-dependent activation of transcription and the PPARγ-driven basal renin gene transcription. The human renin Pal3 sequence was found to selectively bind PPARγ and the retinoid X receptor-α from Calu-6 nuclear extracts. This is in contrast to the consensus PPRE, which can bind other nuclear proteins. PPARγ knockdown paradoxically did not attenuate the stimulation of the endogenous renin gene expression by rosiglitazone. Similarly, a deficiency of PPARγ did not attenuate the activation of the minimal human renin promoter, which contains the endogenous Pal3 motif. However, when the human renin Pal3 site was replaced by the consensus PPRE sequence, PPARγ knockdown abrogated the effect of rosiglitazone on renin promoter activity. Thus, the human renin Pal3 site appears to be critical for the PPARγ-dependent regulation of gene expression by mediating maximal transcription activation, particularly at the low cellular level of PPARγ.
Regulation of Pseudosexual Behavior in the Parthenogenetic Whiptail Lizard, Cnemidophorus uniparens
Authors: Dias Brian George , Crews David
Published: May 2008

Neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying complementary behaviors like male-typical mounting and female-typical receptivity are most often studied independently in males and females, respectively. Cnemidophorus uniparens is a unisexual lizard species consisting only of females that alternately express male- and female-like pseudosexual behavior across the ovarian cycle. Intact, postovulatory (PostOv), and ovariectomized (OVX), androgen-implanted animals [OVX plus testosterone (T)] exhibit male-like mounting, but not receptivity, whereas intact, preovulatory (PreOv), and OVX lizards injected with estradiol [OVX plus estrogen (E)] express receptivity, but not mounting. We tested whether the serotonergic system in the preoptic area (POA) and ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMN) gates the reciprocal inhibition characterizing this alternating expression of mounting and receptivity. Serotonergic signaling at the POA appears to be key to gating male-like behavior. Postovulatory and OVX plus T animals have lower intracellular serotonin (5-HT) levels, and greater abundance of inhibitory 5-HT1A receptor mRNA in the POA compared with both PreOv and OVX plus E lizards. Moreover, injecting 5-HT into the POA of OVX plus T animals suppresses mounting, whereas injection into VMN of OVX plus E lizards suppresses receptivity. Although 5-HT levels in the VMN do not differ across the ovarian cycle or between hormonally manipulated animals, PreOv and OVX plus E lizards have a lower abundance of 5-HT2A mRNA in the VMN. Stimulating 5-HT1A receptors using systemic drug administration inhibits mounting, whereas activating 5-HT2A receptors facilitates receptivity. This study illuminates how male- and female-typical sexual behaviors share common neural circuits, and that 5-HT regulates these naturally complementary, and mutually exclusive, behaviors.
Expression and Functional Analysis of Dopamine Receptor Subtype 2 and Somatostatin Receptor Subtypes in Canine Cushing’s Disease
Authors: de Bruin C. , Hanson J. M. , Meij B. P. , Kooistra H. S. , Waaijers A. M. , Uitterlinden P. , Lamberts S. W. J. , Hofland L. J.
Published: May 2008

Cushing’s disease (CD) is a severe disorder characterized by chronic hypercortisolism due to an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma. Transsphenoidal adenomectomy is the treatment of choice in humans with CD, but recurrences occur frequently. Finding an effective and safe medical treatment for CD may improve long-term clinical outcome. The recent demonstration of expression of somatostatin receptor subtypes (mainly sst5) and dopamine receptor subtype 2 (D2) in human corticotroph adenomas offers the possibility for medical treatment of CD with novel somatostatin analogs and dopamine agonists. Investigation of the effects of these drugs is hampered by the low incidence of CD in humans. Interestingly, CD is a frequent disorder in dogs with striking clinical similarities with CD in humans. Therefore, we investigated the expression and functional role of D2 and somatostatin receptors in corticotroph adenoma cells from 13 dogs with active CD that underwent therapeutic hypophysectomy and normal anterior pituitary cells from five dogs. Quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry revealed that both in CD and normal anterior pituitary, sst2 was the predominant receptor subtype expressed, whereas D2 was modestly expressed and sst5 was expressed only at very low levels. In primary cultures of canine adenomas (n = 7), the sst2-preferring agonist octreotide also showed the strongest ACTH-suppressive effects. In conclusion, canine corticotroph adenomas provide an interesting model to study CD, but differences in somatostatin and dopamine receptor expression between humans and dogs should be taken into account when using dogs with CD as a model to evaluate efficacy of novel somatostatin analogs and dopamine agonists for human CD.
A Novel Biological Role of Tachykinins as an Up-Regulator of Oocyte Growth: Identification of an Evolutionary Origin of Tachykininergic Functions in the Ovary of the Ascidian, Ciona intestinalis
Authors: Aoyama Masato , Kawada Tsuyoshi , Fujie Manabu , Hotta Kohji , Sakai Tsubasa , Sekiguchi Toshio , Oka Kotaro , Satoh Nori , Satake Honoo
Published: May 2008

Tachykinins (TKs) and their receptors have been shown to be expressed in the mammalian ovary. However, the biological roles of ovarian TKs have yet to be verified. Ci-TK-I and Ci-TK-R, characterized from the protochordate (ascidian), Ciona intestinalis, are prototypes of vertebrate TKs and their receptors. In the present study, we show a novel biological function of TKs as an inducible factor for oocyte growth using C. intestinalis as a model organism. Immunostaining demonstrated the specific expression of Ci-TK-R in test cells residing in oocytes at the vitellogenic stage. DNA microarray and real-time PCR revealed that Ci-TK-I induced gene expression of several proteases, including cathepsin D, chymotrypsin, and carboxy-peptidase B1, in the ovary. The enzymatic activities of these proteases in the ovary were also shown to be enhanced by Ci-TK-I. Of particular significance is that the treatment of Ciona oocytes with Ci-TK-I resulted in progression of growth from the vitellogenic stage to the post-vitellogenic stage. The Ci-TK-I-induced oocyte growth was blocked by a TK antagonist or by protease inhibitors. These results led to the conclusion that Ci-TK-I enhances growth of the vitellogenic oocytes via up-regulation of gene expression and enzymatic activities of the proteases. This is the first clarification of the biological roles of TKs in the ovary and the underlying essential molecular mechanism. Furthermore, considering the phylogenetic position of ascidians as basal chordates, we suggest that the novel TK-regulated oocyte growth is an “evolutionary origin” of the tachykininergic functions in the ovary.
Tuberoinfundibular Peptide of 39 Residues Is Required for Germ Cell Development
Authors: Usdin Ted B. , Paciga Mark , Riordan Tim , Kuo Jonathan , Parmelee Alissa , Petukova Galina , Camerini-Otero R. Daniel , Mezey Éva
Published: May 2008

Tuberoinfundibular peptide of 39 residues (TIP39) was identified as a PTH 2 receptor ligand. We report that mice with deletion of Tifp39, the gene encoding TIP39, are sterile. Testes contained Leydig and Sertoli cells and spermatogonia but no spermatids. Labeling chromosome spreads with antibodies to proteins involved in recombination showed that spermatogonia do not complete prophase of meiosis I. Chromosomes were observed at different stages of recombination in single nuclei, a defect not previously described with mutations in genes known to be specifically involved in DNA replication and recombination. TIP39 was previously shown to be expressed in neurons projecting to the hypothalamus and within the testes. LH and FSH were slightly elevated in Tifp39−/− mice, suggesting intact hypothalamic function. We found using in situ hybridization that the genes encoding TIP39 and the PTH 2 receptor are expressed in a stage-specific manner within seminiferous tubules. Using immunohistochemistry and quantitative RT-PCR, TIP39 expression is greatest in mature testes, and appears most abundant in postmeiotic spermatids, but TIP39 protein and mRNA can be detected before any cells have completed meiosis. We used mice that express Cre recombinase under control of a spermatid-specific promoter to express selectively a cDNA encoding TIP39 in the testes of Tifp39−/− mice. Spermatid production and fertility were rescued, demonstrating that the defect in Tifp39−/− mice was due to the loss of TIP39. These results show that TIP39 is essential for germ cell development and suggest that it may act as an autocrine or paracrine agent within the gonads.
Glucocorticoid Receptor Phosphorylation Differentially Affects Target Gene Expression
Authors: Chen Weiwei , Dang Thoa , Blind Raymond D. , Wang Zhen , Cavasotto Claudio N. , Hittelman Adam B. , Rogatsky Inez , Logan Susan K. , Garabedian Michael J.
Published: May 2008

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is phosphorylated at multiple sites within its N terminus (S203, S211, S226), yet the role of phosphorylation in receptor function is not understood. Using a range of agonists and GR phosphorylation site-specific antibodies, we demonstrated that GR transcriptional activation is greatest when the relative phosphorylation of S211 exceeds that of S226. Consistent with this finding, a replacement of S226 with an alanine enhances GR transcriptional response. Using a battery of compounds that perturb different signaling pathways, we found that BAPTA-AM, a chelator of intracellular divalent cations, and curcumin, a natural product with antiinflammatory properties, reduced hormone-dependent phosphorylation at S211. This change in GR phosphorylation was associated with its decreased nuclear retention and transcriptional activation. Molecular modeling suggests that GR S211 phosphorylation promotes a conformational change, which exposes a novel surface potentially facilitating cofactor interaction. Indeed, S211 phosphorylation enhances GR interaction with MED14 (vitamin D receptor interacting protein 150). Interestingly, in U2OS cells expressing a nonphosphorylated GR mutant S211A, the expression of IGF-binding protein 1 and interferon regulatory factor 8, both MED14-dependent GR target genes, was reduced relative to cells expressing wild-type receptor across a broad range of hormone concentrations. In contrast, the induction of glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper, a MED14-independent GR target, was similar in S211A- and wild-type GR-expressing cells at high hormone levels, but was reduced in S211A cells at low hormone concentrations, suggesting a link between GR phosphorylation, MED14 involvement, and receptor occupancy. Phosphorylation also affected the magnitude of repression by GR in a gene-selective manner. Thus, GR phosphorylation at S211 and S226 determines GR transcriptional response by modifying cofactor interaction. Furthermore, the effect of GR S211 phosphorylation is gene specific and, in some cases, dependent upon the amount of activated receptor.
“Would You Believe That, Dr. Speck?” Frank Speck andThe Redman's Appeal for Justice
Authors: Pulla Siomonn
Published: May 2008

Discussions relating to Frank Speck's contributions to anthropology during the early twentieth century mainly focus on his representations of aboriginal territoriality in eastern Canada. This essay situates Speck and his contributions to anthropology within the larger context of aboriginal issues in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I examine the practical conditions and working assumptions connected to his role as an anthropologist and argue that Speck was a participant in a much larger political struggle that included the active engagement of aboriginal peoples. A particular examination of Speck's attempts to help resolve the longstanding struggles of the Six Nations of Grand River during the early 1900s provides a more detailed context to the practical and applied nature of his work. This further strengthens an understanding of Speck as an educator and an advocate who worked to raise both political and administrative awareness regarding the enduring presence of aboriginal peoples in Canada and acceptance of aboriginal cultures by mainstream nonaboriginal society.
“This More Delusive”: Tantalus and Seneca in Paradise Lost
Authors: Byville Eric
Published: May 2008

Despite its immense scope, Milton scholarship has rarely considered the influence of Senecan tragedy on Paradise Lost. This essay offers such a consideration by arguing for a specifically Senecan allusion in book 10, in which Milton describes “delusive” fruits that grow in hell and that deceive the fallen angels by turning to ash in their mouths. This episode has been the object of much critical discussion, and none of its identified sources, including the Bible, Lucan, and Spenser, provides a convincing model for Milton's depiction of the tantalizing food. I propose that Milton imitates the Tantalus scene from Seneca's Thyestes and that his engagement with Seneca constitutes what critics of intertextuality call a “systematic” or “critical” allusion. As such, this scene not only provides an intertext for the controversial fruit episode of book 10 but also reveals larger thematic parallels between Seneca's tragedy and Milton's epic. More than simply a story to which Milton alludes, Seneca's version of the Tantalus myth offers a model for understanding the important role played by allusion in historically belated literature.
Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane and the Martial Ideal
Authors: Richardson John
Published: May 2008

Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane of 1701 marks an important step in the development of literary representations of military heroes. Rowe draws on and adapts seventeenth-century accounts of Timur and other soldiers to create a conqueror more virtuous and peace-loving than those portrayed by earlier playwrights. Yet in spite of his pacific temper, Rowe's hero must go to war, and such necessity becomes an argument for William III's contemporary war with France. In fashioning a warrior who both hates and wages war, Rowe anticipated a number of eighteenth-century heroic figures. Tamerlane's lasting popularity suggests that he provided the century with one of its best-known and most resonant versions of the martial ideal.
Reel Violence: Paradise Now and the Collapse of the Spectacle
Authors: Gana Nouri
Published: May 2008

This essay seeks to investigate the aporias and dilemmas of representation that Arab writers and artists confront at a time when the Arab world has become overly mediatized and ideologically territorialized as a zone of sectarian violence and death. For all the reports on Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, the Arab world suffers from what might be called a collapse of witnessing. By focusing on the controversies over the humanization of terrorism in Hany Abu-Assad's film Paradise Now (Al-Jenna al-an), I demonstrate the ways in which the film grapples with the construction of a narrative terrorism that cannot be pre-discursively (and on licensed grounds) discredited as justificatory of terror. Oftentimes, narratives of terrorism are discredited not because they ostensibly raise ethical concerns over the aestheticization of terror but because they challenge the racial and geopolitical differentials on the grounds of which humanity is constructed, valued, allocated, or withheld. I argue that Abu-Assad's Paradise Now reopens the corridors of distant empathizing and shakes awake the intoxicated slumbering of our sobering imaginative impulses. Paradise Now treads the fine line between interpreting and responding to martyrdom operations (a.k.a. suicide bombing), ensuring that these complementary and simultaneous hermeneutic tasks do not slither accidentally into the moral abyss of justifying “terror-ism.” I demonstrate how the film makes use of cinematic conventions (e.g., the thriller genre and camera malfunctions) in order to undo the spectacle of terror-ism—and become something other than spectacle in the very route to becoming spectacle—as well as articulate a more nuanced and challenging narrative of Palestinian nationhood, a narrative that has been so far either impermissible or readily discreditable by status occupation. Welcome to the reel desert of the real.
Melancholy Ties: Intergenerational Loss and Exile in Persepolis
Authors: Segall Kimberly Wedeven
Published: May 2008

“Melancholy Ties: Intergenerational Loss and Exile in Persepolis” analyzes the way in which collective loss is represented in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis books. Unlike the spectacular, violent, media images of the Middle East, which detach the Western spectator from the stories and humanity of Near Eastern peoples, Satrapi's graphic novel views a young girl's developing sense of self through intergenerational stories. Moreover, Satrapi's second Persepolis work recognizes the alienation and loss that occurs because the protagonist experiences the cultural violence of being labeled with stereotypes while she is living in Europe. Specifically, this essay examines how these two texts depict the psychological paradox that traumatic experiences-individual, familial, and social-inflect a partial destruction and particular reconstruction of one's self. In the books' historical settings, the deposition of the shah and the Islamic revolution in Iran in the first and the Iran-Iraq war and the exile of the protagonist in Europe in the second, the losses are portrayed through intergenerational stories, cultural exile, and the difficulties of return, as well as the direct experiences of violence. These intergenerational, cross-social, and cross-cultural losses are depicted by Satrapi as influencing the protagonist's sense of self. The melancholy ties-rooted in loss and East-West encounters-grow into cultural and intergenerational bonds by the end of Persepolis II. Replacing detached media violence, these Persepolis books offer a more intimate and globally interconnected portrait.
Anointing with Rubble: Ruins in the Lebanese War Novel
Authors: Seigneurie Ken
Published: May 2008

When the Lebanese civil war officially broke out in 1975, the conflict looked a lot like one of the numerous proxy wars that hitched local animosities to the East-West ideological struggle. Within a year, however, the cart began pulling the horse as ethnic-sectarian struggle preempted secular and Cold War imperatives. For literature, wartime chaos punctured the myth of progress and along with it realist literature predicated on a knowable world. After a half century of serving the Arab cause, realism became an overnight anachronism and from its grip emerged the Lebanese war novel.

The result is a retooled modernist literature that stresses the ideological preconditions for renewal in a new notion of human dignity. Hassan Daoud's 1983 Binayat Mathilde (The House of Mathilde), Hoda Barakat's 1990 Hajar al-dahik (The Stone of Laughter), and Rashid al-Daif's 1995 'Azizi al-sayyid Kawabata (Dear Mr Kawabata) show how violence and coercion infuse the city and humiliate the self during war. Human dignity emerges in these novels only as a longed-for memory or vision of what was or ought to be. In Arabic literature nothing is more redolent of memory and longing than the medieval literary motif of “stopping before the ruins” (wuquf 'ala al-atlal), to remember former people and places. Hilary Kilpatrick's pioneering work has revealed how the motif can be reappropriated to probe “deeper layers of consciousness,” and is “connected with the role of memory in literature today as a device for structuring experience.”

This essay argues that the Lebanese war novel has also quietly incorporated “stopping before the ruins” into a modernist idiom. This is not simply to state that the abandoned campsite has now become the burned-out home and that the ex-lover has become one's family, neighbors or associates. In these novels the ruins motif sets in motion the mental processes that condition the conviction that human life is possessed of innate dignity regardless of how history and war may compromise it. I argue in a final section of this essay that this socio-literary practice corresponds closely to Julia Kristeva's account of psychosexual trauma in her theory of infantile abjection.
When Wounds and Corpses Fail to Speak: Narratives of Violence and Rape in Congo (DRC)
Authors: Chiwengo Ngwarsungu
Published: May 2008

This essay seeks to understand why the discourse of human rights documentaries, reports, narratives, and films gives agency to some victims and silences the voices of others. Through the examination of human rights discourse on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the essay examines how political manipulation and the rhetoric and genre of human rights discourse stifle the narratives on the violence and trauma of the Congolese population. It seeks to understand why the rape narratives of women of some nations effectively elicit empathy and convey the violence, trauma, and genocide of a people, while the rape of women, children, and men in the Congo is met with indifference. Through the Anglophone and Francophone writings of Baenga Bolya's La profanation des vagins (The Profanation of Vaginas), Marie Béatrice Umutesi's Fuir òu mourir au Zaïre (Surviving the Slaughter), Doctors Without Borders' R D Congo: Silence, on meurt (D. R. Congo: Quiet, We're Dying), and Human Rights Watch's Shattered Lives, Seeking Justice, and The War within the War and through Terry George's film and book Hotel Rwanda, this study discusses the ideological nature and the political malleability of African memorial sites, which are already othered within the Western imagination. It also analyzes how the rape of Congolese females becomes visible solely when it is inscribed within Western feminist discourse and shows how rhetoric, intercultural interpretations, and style impact the reception of narratives of pain.
Practice Prize Report—Planning New Tariffs at tele.ring: The Application and Impact of an Integrated Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning Tool
Authors: Natter Martin , Mild Andreas , Wagner Udo , Taudes Alfred
Published: May 2008

Tele.ring is a mobile phone organization selling contracts and cell phones in the Austrian market. The market situation in 2005 was highly competitive and dynamic, resulting in relatively short tariff life cycles. Excessively long lead times made tele.ring's management feel dissatisfied with their new tariff development process. Furthermore, a new competitor had entered the market, posing a major threat, and it was unclear how to effectively safeguard tele.ring's position in the market. In cooperation with the management, we implemented and tested a new segmentation, targeting, and positioning tool, which provides managers with information on their target markets, customer preferences, competitors' strengths, and customer segments. It allows for the simultaneous visualization of these data on a single map and facilitates timely and accurate decision making. In particular, we report on the design and the implementation of a new pricing scheme, “Formel 10,” which became the most successful new tariff introduction in this competitive market. tele.ring's managers were very much impressed with our tool's ability to represent the market on a single map and with its capacity to allow for intuitive interpretation. In addition, the tool enhanced internal communication between its users and different stakeholders during the new tariff development process.
My Mobile Music: An Adaptive Personalization System for Digital Audio Players
Authors: Chung Tuck Siong , Rust Roland T. , Wedel Michel
Published: May 2008

New information technologies increasingly make it possible for service providers to adaptively personalize their service, fine-tuning the service over time for each individual customer, based on observation of that customer's behavior. We propose an “Adaptive Personalization System” and illustrate its implementation for digital audio players, a product category with rapidly expanding sales. The proposed system automatically downloads personalized playlists of MP3 songs into a consumer's mobile digital audio device and requires little proactive user effort (i.e., no explicit indication of preferences or ratings for songs). The system works in real time and is scalable to the massive data typically encountered in personalization applications. A simulation study shows the Adaptive Personalization System to outperform benchmark approaches. We implemented the Adaptive Personalization System on Palm PDAs and tested its performance with digital audio users. For actual users, the Adaptive Personalization System provides substantial improvements over benchmark approaches both in terms of the number of songs listened to and listening duration.
Airline Fleet Assignment with Enhanced Revenue Modeling
Authors: Barnhart Cynthia , Farahat Amr , Lohatepanont Manoj
Published: May 2008

The airline fleet assignment problem addresses the question of how to best assign aircraft fleet types to scheduled flight legs. This paper presents the subnetwork fleet assignment model: a model that employs composite decision variables representing the simultaneous assignment of fleet types to subnetworks of one or more flight legs. The formulation is motivated by the need to better model the revenue side of the objective function. We present a solution method designed to balance revenue approximation and model tractability. Computational results suggest that the approach yields profit improvements over comparable models and that it is computationally tractable for problems of practical size.
Queuing Models for Sizing and Structuring Rental Fleets
Authors: Papier Felix , Thonemann Ulrich W.
Published: May 2008

This paper has been motivated by a fleet optimization problem faced by one of the leading European cargo rail companies. The company operates a fleet of more than 100,000 rail cars and annually invests significant sums of money into new cars. Because the price tag of a new car is over 50,000 euros, planning such a fleet is an important activity at the company. In this paper, we develop and solve analytical models for fleet planning. We first describe the rental process and show how it can be modeled as a queuing loss system. We then develop a profit function and derive several structural results, such as the concavity of the profit function in the fleet size. Building on these structural results, we show how the fleet size can be optimized, how the fleet structure (i.e., the types of cars being used) can be optimized, and how a joint fleet of owned and leased cars can be optimized. Because some of the optimal methods are difficult to implement, we also develop and test an approximation that is easy to implement. To illustrate our findings and to validate our approach, we provide numerical results that are based on data of the company that motivated our research.
Per-Seat, On-Demand Air Transportation Part I: Problem Description and an Integer Multicommodity Flow Model
Authors: Espinoza D. , Garcia R. , Goycoolea M. , Nemhauser G. L. , Savelsbergh M. W. P.
Published: May 2008

The availability of relatively cheap small jet planes has led to the creation of on-demand air transportation services in which travelers call a few days in advance to schedule a flight. A successful on-demand air transportation service requires an effective scheduling system to construct minimum-cost pilot and jet itineraries for a set of accepted transportation requests. We present an integer multicommodity network flow model with side constraints for such dial-a-flight problems. We develop a variety of techniques to control the size of the network and to strengthen the quality of the linear programming relaxation, which allows the solution of small instances. In Part II, we describe how this core optimization technology is embedded in a parallel, large-neighborhood, local search scheme to produce high-quality solutions efficiently for large-scale real-life instances.
The Fetal Brain in Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus-infected Calves: Lesions, Distribution, and Cellular Heterogeneity of Viral Antigen at 190 Days Gestation
Authors: Montgomery D. L. , Van Olphen A. , Van Campen H. , Hansen T. R.
Published: May 2008

Previous studies have shown that the brain is a target of persistent infection with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and have demonstrated viral tropism for neurons as well as other endogenous cell types in diverse brain areas. Apart from foci of mild residual inflammation in some postnatal calves, consistent brain lesions, per se, have not been reported. No similar comprehensive studies of the brain have been reported in bovine fetuses. In the current study, 12 BVDV-seronegative heifers were inoculated intranasally with a 2-ml 4.4 log10 TCID50/ml dose of noncytopathic type 2 BVDV at 75 and 175 days of gestation to create persistently and transiently infected fetuses, respectively. In only persistently infected fetuses, encephaloclastic lesions resulting in pseudocysts were observed in the subependymal zone in the region of the median eminence and adjacent corona radiata as well as in the region of the external capsule associated with lenticulostriate arteries. Additionally, areas of rarefaction in white matter were observed at the tips of cerebrocortical gyri and in the external capsule. The distribution of viral antigen was examined by immunohistochemical labeling using the 15C5 anti-BVDV monoclonal antibody. Viral antigen was detected only in calves inoculated at 75 days of gestation, i.e., persistently infected. The pattern of BVDV immunolabeling revealed both similarities and differences compared with previous studies in postnatal calves, suggesting that viral infection in the brain is a dynamic and progressive rather than static process.
Experimental Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) of Elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) to White-tailed Deer by Intracerebral Route
Authors: Hamir A. N. , Richt J. A. , Miller J. M. , Kunkle R. A. , Hall S. M. , Nicholson E. M. , O'Rourke K. I. , Greenlee J. J. , Williams E. S.
Published: May 2008

To compare clinical and pathologic findings of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a natural host, 3 groups ( n = 5) of white-tailed deer (WTD) fawns were intracerebrally inoculated with a CWD prion of WTD, mule deer, or elk origin. Three other uninoculated fawns served as controls. Approximately 10 months postinoculation (MPI), 1 deer from each of the 3 inoculated groups was necropsied and their tissues were examined for lesions of spongiform encephalopathy (SE) and for the presence of abnormal prion protein (PrPd) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot (WB). The remaining deer were allowed to live until they developed clinical signs of the disease which began approximately 18 MPI. By 26 MPI, all deer were euthanatized on humane grounds. Obvious differences in clinical signs or the incubation periods were not observed between the 3 groups of deer given CWD. In 1 of 3 nonclinical deer euthanatized at 10 MPI, minimal microscopic lesions of SE were seen in the central nervous system (CNS) tissues, and PrPd was observed by IHC in tissues of all 3 deer. In the clinical deer, CNS lesions of SE and PrPd accumulations were more severe and extensive. It is concluded that the 3 sources of CWD prion did not induce significant differences in time to clinical disease or qualitative differences in signs or lesions in WTD. However, this observation does not imply that these CWD agents would necessarily behave similarly in other recipient species.
Photodamage in Feline Skin: Clinical and Histomorphometric Analysis
Authors: Almeida E. M. P. , Caraça R. A. , Adam R. L. , Souza E. M. , Metze K. , Cintra M. L.
Published: May 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate clinical and histomorphometric features of cat skin under long-term solar exposure. Ear skin of 34 Domestic Shorthair cats that were chronically exposed to sun was classified as follows: group 0, normal ( n = 13); group 1, initial stage of photodamage (PD) ( n = 10); group 2, advanced stage of PD ( n = 11). Histologic sections were examined independently by 2 pathologists, and epidermal thickness, adnexal unit area, and dermal cellularity were assessed by morphometry. A positive correlation was obtained between age, degree of edema and sclerosis in the upper dermis, telangiectases, squamatization of basal keratinocytes, and epidermis thickness and the degree of PD. The area occupied by adnexal structures in the dermis diminished with increased PD. Dermal sclerosis and edema best separated the 3 groups. The results indicated a high level of skin hypersensitivity to sun rays in cats. The findings may be useful for clinical testing and in general veterinary pathology and dermatology.
Cutaneous and Nasal Protothecosis in a Goat
Authors: Macedo J. T. S. A. , Riet-Correa F. , Dantas A. F. M. , Simões S. V. D.
Published: May 2008

A case of protothecosis is reported in an adult goat with inspiratory dyspnea and stertor. Dermatitis with prominent ulcerated nodules up to 3 cm in diameter was observed in the muzzle at the mucocutaneous junctions of nasal and lip skin, and in the border of the pinna. Histologic lesions were necrotizing pyogranulomatous dermatitis and rhinitis with myriads of walled sporangia, characteristic of Prototheca wickerhamii. This seems to be the first report of protothecosis in a goat.
Expression of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor and Tropomyosin-related Kinase-B in a Bovine Jejunal Nodular Ganglioneuroblastoma
Authors: Ulrich R. , Stan A. C. , Koch A. , Beineke A.
Published: May 2008

This report describes the morphologic, ultrastructural, and immunophenotypic features of a nodular ganglioneuroblastoma in the jejunum of a 13-month-old Holstein-Friesian heifer. On histologic examination, the mass was composed of clusters of neuroblasts and isolated ganglionic neurons in abundant neurophilic matrix that was surrounded by scanty Schwannian stroma. On ultrastructure examination, the large ganglionic neuron-like cells had unmyelinated neurites. Most ganglionic neuron-like tumor cells expressed neurofilament, neuron-specific enolase, chromogranin A, and S-100, whereas the Schwann-cell-like stromal cells expressed S-100 and vimentin. Both brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tropomyosin-related kinase-B (Trk-B) were expressed in ganglionic neuron-like tumor cells, which suggested the activation or reactivation of an embryonic autocrine BDNF/Trk-B pathway that could have prolonged cell survival and promoted differentiation with neurite formation.
Primary Intimal Aortic Angiosarcoma in a Dog
Authors: Ranck R. S. , Linder K. E. , Haber M. D. , Meuten D. J.
Published: May 2008

A primary intimal aortic angiosarcoma was diagnosed in a 4-year-old, spayed female German Shepherd that presented for complications of thromboembolic disease because of infarcts in multiple organs. On gross examination, aneurysmal dilatation of the aorta was associated with a friable, necrotic mass attached to the endothelial surface, which partially occluded the aortic lumen. On histologic examination, plump neoplastic spindle cells formed a plaque-like mass arising from the intima that merged with a large accumulation of fibrin and necrotic debris, and projected into the lumen. Neoplastic cells invaded periaortic vessels and were seen in some infarct-associated thromboemboli. Tumor cells expressed vimentin and CD31, with infrequent, patchy staining with factor VIII-related antigen; tumor cells were negative for cytokeratin and smooth-muscle actin. Aortic angiosarcoma is a rare malignancy in humans. This is the first description of a primary intimal aortic angiosarcoma in a dog, with immunohistochemical evidence of endothelial origin.