bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Revisiting Swiss temperature trends 1959–2008
Authors: Ceppi Paulo , Scherrer Simon C. , Fischer Andreas M. , Appenzeller Christof
Published: December 2010

Temperature is a key variable for monitoring global climate change. Here we perform a trend analysis of Swiss temperatures from 1959 to 2008, using a new 2 × 2 km gridded data‐set based on carefully homogenised ground observations from MeteoSwiss. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to discuss the spatial and altitudinal temperature trend characteristics in detail, and second, to quantify the contribution of changes in atmospheric circulation and local effects to these trends.

The seasonal trends are all positive and mostly significant with an annual average warming rate of 0.35 °C/decade (∼1.6 times the northern hemispheric warming rate), ranging from 0.17 in autumn to 0.48 °C/decade in summer. Altitude‐dependent trends are found in autumn and early winter where the trends are stronger at low altitudes (<800 m asl), and in spring where slightly stronger trends are found at altitudes close to the snow line.

Part of the trends can be explained by changes in atmospheric circulation, but with substantial differences from season to season. In winter, circulation effects account for more than half the trends, while this contribution is much smaller in other seasons. After removing the effect of circulation, the trends still show seasonal variations with higher values in spring and summer. The circulation‐corrected trends are closer to the values simulated by a set of ENSEMBLES regional climate models, with the models still tending towards a trend underestimation in spring and summer.

Our results suggest that both circulation changes and more local effects are important to explain part of recent warming in spring, summer, and autumn. Snow‐albedo feedback effects could be responsible for the stronger spring trends at altitudes close to the snow line, but the overall effect is small. In autumn, the observed decrease in fog frequency might be a key process in explaining the stronger temperature trends at low altitudes. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society
Climatology of the annual maximum daily precipitation in the La Plata Basin
Authors: Naumann Gustavo , Llano María Paula , Vargas Walter Mario
Published: December 2010

Important features of extreme precipitation in the La Plata Basin are studied on daily, seasonal, and annual time scales, using information from 1861 to 2005 and a common period from 1959 to 1998. A relation between the daily precipitation annual maximum and different time scales is developed. The points that make up part of the association field, the location of the maximum annual frequencies, the maximum annual precipitation totals, and the years in which they occur in the basin region are also presented.

Owing to the increase in precipitation documented in the region during the last decades of the twentieth century, this work will attempt to estimate the trends during the time periods studied in each of the basin stations prior to analysing the trend estimators calculated for different periods. Conditioning over the physical inference of the trends is related to the previous estimation results. Indeed, trend estimators may identify a long wavelength with a small amplitude at a physical level or the presence of waves during the calculation period with wavelengths longer than the period itself.

Due to the fluctuations present in the selection of the daily precipitation maximum, the three annual maxima and the mean of the three absolute maxima for each year are analysed. This procedure is sound, whereby the frequency distribution models are the same for the individual maxima as well as for the mean values. The most suitable models for the adjustment of extreme precipitation events in the basin are the GEV and Gamma distributions. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society
Using econometric methods to test for trends in the HadCRUT3 global and hemispheric data
Authors: Coggin T. Daniel
Published: December 2010

In this note I present and illustrate recently developed econometric trend tests using the HadCRUT3 global and hemispheric surface temperature data updated through 2009, specifically allowing statistical complications of structural change, serial correlation, and unit roots. My results confirm the general finding of earlier studies: the HadCRUT3 data present a consistent pattern of warming in recent years (post‐1975). Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society
Genotypingmdx,mdx3cv, andmdx4cvmice by primer competition polymerase chain reaction
Authors: Shin Jin‐Hong , Hakim Chady H. , Zhang Keqing , Duan Dongsheng
Published: December 2010

mdx,mdx3cv, andmdx4cvmice are among the most commonly used models for the study of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Their disease is caused by point mutations in the dystrophin gene. Despite widespread use of these models, genotyping has not always been straightforward. Current methods require multiple polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), post‐PCR manipulations, and/or special equipment/reagents. Herein we report a simple, robust PCR genotyping method based on primer competition. This approach could also be applied in genotyping other point‐mutation models. Muscle Nerve , 2010
Fibrillin‐1 genetic deficiency leads to pathological ageing of arteries in mice
Authors: Mariko Boubacar , Pezet Mylène , Escoubet Brigitte , Bouillot Stéphanie , Andrieu Jean‐Pierre , Starcher Barry , Quaglino Daniela , Jacob Marie‐Paule , Huber Philippe , Ramirez Francesco , Faury Gilles
Published: December 2010

Fibrillin‐1, the major component of extracellular microfibrils that associate with insoluble elastin in elastic fibres, is mainly synthesized during development and postnatal growth and is believed to guide elastogenesis. Mutations in the fibrillin‐1 gene cause Marfan syndrome, a multisystem disorder characterized by aortic aneurysms and dissections. The recent finding that early deficiency of elastin modifies vascular ageing has raised the possibility that fibrillin‐1 deficiency could also contribute to late‐onset pathology of vascular remodelling. To address this question, we examined cardiovascular function in 3‐week‐old, 6‐month‐old, and 24‐month‐old mice that are heterozygous for a hypomorphic structural mutation of fibrillin‐1 (Fbn1$^{+/{\rm{mg}}\Delta}$ mice). Our results indicate that Fbn1$^{+/{\rm{mg}}\Delta}$ mice, particularly those that are 24 months old, are slightly more hypotensive than wild‐type littermates. Additionally, aneurysm and aortic insufficiency were more frequently observed in ageing Fbn1$^{+/{\rm{mg}}\Delta}$ mice than in the wild‐type counterparts. We also noted substantial fragmentation and decreased number of elastic lamellae in the aortic wall of Fbn1$^{+/{\rm{mg}}\Delta}$ mice, which were correlated with an increase in aortic stiffness, a decrease in vasoreactivity, altered expression of elastic fibre‐related genes, including fibrillin‐1 and elastin, and a decrease in the relative ratio between tissue elastin and collagen. Collectively, our findings suggest that the heterozygous mgΔ mutation accelerates some aspects of vascular ageing and eventually leads to aortic manifestations resembling those of Marfan syndrome. Importantly, our data also indicate that vascular abnormalities in Fbn1$^{+/{\rm{mg}}\Delta}$ mice are opposite to those induced by elastin haploinsufficiency during ageing that affect blood pressure, vascular dimensions, and number of elastic lamellae. Copyright © 2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The role of the c‐statistic in variable selection for propensity score models
Authors: Westreich Daniel , Cole Stephen R. , Funk Michele Jonsson , Brookhart M. Alan , Stürmer Til
Published: December 2010

The applied literature on propensity scores has often cited the c‐statistic as a measure of the ability of the propensity score to control confounding. However, a high c‐statistic in the propensity model is neither necessary nor sufficient for control of confounding. Moreover, use of the c‐statistic as a guide in constructing propensity scores may result in less overlap in propensity scores between treated and untreated subjects; this may require the analyst to restrict populations for inference. Such restrictions may reduce precision of estimates and change the population to which the estimate applies. Variable selection based on prior subject matter knowledge, empirical observation, and sensitivity analysis is preferable and avoids many of these problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Role of key informants and direct patient interviews in epidemiological studies of substance abuse
Authors: Cicero Theodore J. , Ellis Matthew S. , Paradis Alethea , Ortbal Zachary
Published: December 2010

Purpose

The present study was undertaken to assess the degree to which key informants' perceptions of relative abuse liability of opioids in their communities correspond to actual drug use in their patients.

Methods

Key informants (n = 49) and their patients (n = 738) were asked to complete anonymous, independent paper surveys about perceived or actual abuse of nine targeted opioid drugs: buprenorphine, fentanyl, heroin, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone and tramadol.

Results

There was a strong correspondence (R = 0.98) between KI rankings of relative abuse of opioids in their patient population and the actual rank order calculated from their patients' selection of a primary euphorigenic opioid. The patient surveys not only validated the KI's conclusions, but also provided a great deal of important information about the nature of the abuse patterns. Notably, significant co‐morbidity was found in the patient population: 55% had a history of psychiatric problems; chronic pain of moderate intensity was common; 67% were nicotine dependent; and 43% were diagnosed alcoholics.

Discussion

Our results demonstrate that KI's perceived rank order of drugs of choice correlated almost perfectly with their patients' choice of a primary drug. These data suggest that key informants, as they have for decades in epidemiological research, provide a reliable, high‐level view of substance abuse in their catchment area. As such, KIs provide valid and reliable information on scope and patterns of abuse, but if more detail is required about the characteristics of abuse, such as that required for FDA‐mandated Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, then direct interviews with the abusers themselves seem more appropriate. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Progress towards III‐nitrides HEMTs on free‐standing diamond substrates for thermal management
Authors: Trejo Manuel , Jessen Gregg H. , Chabak Kelson D. , Gillespie James K. , Crespo Antonio , Kossler Mauricio , Trimble Virginia , Langley Derrick , Heller Eric R. , Claflin Bruce , Walker Dennis E. , Poling Brian , Gilbert Ryan , Via Glen D. , Hoelscher John , Roussos Jason , Ejeckam Felix , Zimmer Jerry
Published: December 2010

In this paper, we discuss the progress in the application of silicon‐on‐diamond (SOD) and chemically vapour deposited (CVD) diamond wafers as an alternative solution to silicon and silicon carbide (SiC) substrates to enhance heat dissipation away from the active region of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) while decreasing thermal degradation due to thermal effects. The superior thermal conductivity and insulating properties of polycrystalline diamond (8–15 Wcm/K) free‐standing wafers have demonstrated certain advantages, mostly evident in the device performance and reliability. Two unique diamond growth applications engineered by sp3Diamond Technologies Inc., and Group4 Labs Inc., are discussed and device performance data is presented from early attempts to our most current device research efforts. As single‐crystalline diamond wafers (∼20 Wcm/K) become more accessible and affordable, it is expected to see significant improvement over the current state of this technology.

magnified image

Group4 employs an atomic bonding process of the AlGaN/GaN layers onto a polycrystalline CVD diamond wafer while sp3grows the AlGaN/GaN layers on a thin silicon template layer which covers the diamond.
A Sliding‐window Smooth Support Vector Regression Model for Nonlinear Blast Furnace System
Authors: Jian Ling , Gao Chuanhou , Xia Zunquan
Published: December 2010

Blast furnace is one of the most complex industrial reactors and remains some unsolved puzzles, such as blast furnace automation, prediction of the inner thermal state, etc. In this work, a sliding‐window smooth support vector regression model is presented to address the issue of predicting the blast furnace inner thermal state, represented by the silicon content in blast furnace hot metal in the context. Different from the traditional numerical prediction models of silicon, the constructed SW‐SSVR model is devoted to predicting the changing trend of silicon and exhibits good performance with high percentage of successful trend prediction, competitive computational speed and timely online service. Additionally, some sharp fluctuation trend in the silicon test data can also be followed well by the SW‐SSVR model, which is always difficult for traditional data–driven based silicon prediction models. All of these indicate that the SW‐SSVR model is a good candidate to predict the change of blast furnace inner thermal state, and may provide a guide for operators to take proper action on operating blast furnace in advance.
Load Relaxation Behavior of Metastable Austenitic Stainless Steels at Quasi‐Static Strain Rates
Authors: Isakov Matti , Kuokkala Veli‐Tapani , Ruoppa Raimo
Published: December 2010

Instantaneous strain rate sensitivity of metastable austenitic stainless steel EN 1.4318 was studied at quasi‐static strain rates (2 × 10−4 ... 10−1 s−1) using load relaxation tests carried out at room temperature. The results indicate that at the studied deformation conditions the instantaneous strain rate sensitivity of the test material decreases with decreasing strain rate but increases with increasing plastic strain. Rapid strain aging was also observed to occur at the studied deformation conditions.
The Rho Kinase Pathway Regulates Mouse Adult Neural Precursor Cell Migration
Authors: Leong Soo Yuen , Faux Clare H. , Turbic Alisa , Dixon Kirsty J. , Turnley Ann M.
Published: December 2010

Adult neural precursor cells (NPCs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) normally migrate via the rostral migratory stream (RMS) to the olfactory bulb (OB). Following neural injury, they also migrate to the site of damage. This study investigated the role of Rho-dependent kinase (ROCK) on the migration of NPCs in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, using neurospheres or SVZ explants, inhibition of ROCK using Y27632 promoted cell body elongation, process protrusion, and migration, while inhibiting NPC chain formation. It had no effect on proliferation, apoptosis, or differentiation. Both isoforms of ROCK were involved. Using siRNA, knockdown of both ROCK1 and ROCK2 was required to promote NPC migration and morphological changes; knockdown of ROCK2 alone was partially effective, with little/no effect of knockdown of ROCK1 alone. In vivo, infusion of Y27632 plus Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) into the lateral ventricle for 1 week reduced the number of BrdU-labeled NPCs in the OB compared with BrdU infusion alone. However, ROCK inhibition did not affect the tangential-to-radial switch of NPC migration, as labeled cells were present in all OB layers. The decrease in NPC number at the OB was not attributed to a decrease in NPCs at the SVZ. However, ROCK inhibition decreased the density of BrdU-labeled cells in the RMS and increased the distribution of these cells to ectopic brain regions, such as the accessory olfactory nucleus, where the majority differentiated into neurons. These findings suggest that ROCK signaling regulates NPC migration via regulation of cell-cell contact and chain migration.
Performance of tall buildings in Viña del Mar in the 27 February 2010 offshore Maule, Chile earthquake
Authors: Carpenter Lauren D. , Naeim Farzad , Lew Marshall , Youssef Nabih F. , Rojas Fabian , Saragoni G. Rodolfo , Adaros Macarena Schachter
Published: December 2010

After the devastating offshore Maule, Chile earthquake of moment magnitude 8.8 on 27 February 2010, the Los Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design Council (LATBSDC) organized a reconnaissance team to visit the Santiago, Concepción and Viña del Mar areas. This report summarizes the highlights of the damage observed in the Viña del Mar area on the coast 120  km west‐north‐west of Santiago and much closer to the subduction rupture zone than Santiago. A significant portion of Viña del Mar is uniquely situated on variable ground conditions, particularly in the area with most of the damaged buildings. The Viña del Mar area also included tall buildings constructed before and damaged by the large 3 March 1985 magnitude 7.8 Offshore Valparaiso earthquake, which were damaged again in the 2010 earthquake.

The predominant observation in these buildings was the lack of confinement and ductile detailing of shear walls. The second observation was the high demand in the localized Viña del Mar area.

The apparently high demand on buildings clustered in the Viña del Mar area may be an observation based on the damage since most of the taller structures in the area are somewhat clustered in Viña. But significant damage was not reported in Valparasio, which is largely, situated on higher ground which steps downward to a narrow flat area along the ocean. Similarly, significant damage was not reported in new buildings along the coast just North of Viña del Mar. The authors' conclusion based on these observations is that the ground conditions in Viña del Mar relate to the level of demand and the level of demand is higher.

Demand is variable geoseismically but with the local history of many earthquakes from the same source zone, the characterization should be regularized. However, structural response is much better defined at least for confined elements with tested and predictable analytical characterization. Regardless, the detailing of reinforcing in reinforced concrete must relate to the expected demand and duration. In addition, the structural system and elements need to be designed and detailed to prepare a building to survive a higher unanticipated demand without collapse.

However, despite the apparently large demands due to the large magnitude earthquake with strong aftershocks and the long duration of seismic motions, building collapses did not occur even with limited capability due to non‐ductile and non‐confined detailing. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
College students' temporal‐magnitude recognition ability associated with durations of scientific changes
Authors: Lee Hee‐Sun , Liu Ou Lydia , Price C. Aaron , Kendall Amber L.M.
Published: December 2010

The purpose of this study was to explore college students' recognition of temporal magnitudes associated with durations of scientific changes through construct validation of a 30‐item instrument. We administered the instrument to 514 students from 10 higher education institutions in the United States. Among them, 419 students took the instrument at the end of science courses. The remaining 95 students took the instrument before and after a course on cosmic evolution, and additionally answered whether they knew, estimated, or randomly guessed at the temporal magnitude of each item in the instrument. We also collected exam scores for the cosmic evolution course students. Using descriptive statistics and a Rasch analysis, we investigated construct validity of the instrument in terms of psychological relevance, psychometric conformity, and instructional sensitivity. Results of this study indicate that (1) the temporal‐magnitude recognition ability is a measurable construct, (2) extremely small duration items are significantly more difficult for students to recognize accurate temporal magnitudes than other duration range items, (3) direct knowledge of the magnitude contributes to the measurement of the construct, (4) the instrument is sensitive to instruction designed to improve the construct, and (5) the temporal‐magnitude recognition ability is not significantly correlated with knowledge about the related scientific changes. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 317–335, 2011
Cloning and functional characterization of the UDP‐glucosyltransferase UgtB1 involved in sophorolipid production by Candida bombicola and creation of a glucolipid‐producing yeast strain
Authors: Saerens Karen M. J. , Zhang Jinxin , Saey Lien , Van Bogaert Inge N. A. , Soetaert Wim
Published: December 2010

Sophorolipids produced by the non‐pathogenic yeast Candida bombicola ATCC 22214 are glycolipid biosurfactants applied commercially as biodegradable and eco‐friendly detergents. Their low cell toxicity, excellent wetting capability and antimicrobial activity attract the attention of high‐value markets, such as the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Although sophorolipid production yields have been increased by the optimization of fermentation parameters and feed sources, the biosynthetic pathway and genetic mechanism behind sophorolipid production still remains unclear. Here we identify a UDP‐glucosyltransferase gene, UGTB1, with a key function in this economically important pathway. The protein shows sequence and structural homology to several bacterial glycosyltransferases involved in macrolide antibiotic synthesis. Deletion of UGTB1 in C. bombicola did not affect cell growth and resulted in a yeast producing glucolipids, thereby opening the route for in vivo production of these glycolipid intermediates. Activity assays on cell lysates confirmed that the identified gene is responsible for the second glucosylation step during sophorolipid production and illustrated that sophorolipid production in C. bombicola involves the stepwise action of two independent glucosyltransferases. The complete UGTB1 sequence data have been submitted to the GenBank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) under Accession No. HM440974. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A mutation in the COX5 gene of the yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis alters utilization of amino acids as carbon source, ethanol formation and activity of cyanide insensitive respiration
Authors: Freese Stefan , Passoth Volkmar , Klinner Ulrich
Published: December 2010

Scheffersomyces stipitis PJH was mutagenized by random integrative mutagenesis and the integrants were screened for lacking the ability to grow with glutamate as sole carbon source. One of the two isolated mutants was damaged in the COX5 gene, which encodes a subunit of the cytochrome c oxidase. BLAST searches in the genome of Sc. stipitis revealed that only one singular COX5 gene exists in Sc. stipitis, in contrast to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, where two homologous genes are present. Mutant cells had lost the ability to grow with the amino acids glutamate, proline or aspartate and other non‐fermentable carbon sources, such as acetic acid and ethanol, as sole carbon sources. Biomass formation of the mutant cells in medium containing glucose or xylose as carbon source was lower compared with the wild‐type cells. However, yields and specific ethanol formation of the mutant were much higher, especially under conditions of higher aeration. The mutant cells lacked both cytochrome c oxidase activity and cyanide‐sensitive respiration, whereas ADH and PDC activities were distinctly enhanced. SHAM‐sensitive respiration was obviously essential for the fermentative metabolism, because SHAM completely abolished growth of the mutant cells with both glucose or xylose as carbon source. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Acute liver failure with subsequent cirrhosis as the primary manifestation of TRMU mutations
Authors: Schara Ulrike , von Kleist‐Retzow Jürgen‐Christoph , Lainka Elke , Gerner Patrick , Pyle Angela , Smith Paul M. , Lochmüller Hanns , Czermin Birgit , Abicht Angela , Holinski‐Feder Elke , Horvath Rita
Published: December 2010

Combined respiratory chain deficiency accounts for about 30% of mitochondrial respiratory chain deficiencies and is frequently associated with mtDNA depletion, deletions or point mutations. However combined respiratory chain deficiency may also be caused by mutations in nuclear genes affecting mitochondrial translation. Here we describe a 2‐year‐old girl, who developed an acute, isolated, severe liver failure with mitochondrial pathology and decreased respiratory chain enzyme activities both in liver and skeletal muscle at 4 months of age. Her liver function improved significantly within a month, liver function tests returned to normal. Liver cirrhosis remained without any further complications so far. Pathogenic compound heterozygous mutations were identified in the TRMU gene. This condition is one of the few mitochondrial disorders with a life‐threatening onset showing recovery later in life, therefore a prompt diagnosis and treatment of these patients has great importance in clinical practice. We suggest that TRMU deficiency should be considered in infants with acute liver disease.
Response of Postpoliomyelitis Patients to Bisphosphonate Treatment
Authors: Alvarez Arodi , Kremer Richard , Weiss Deborah R. , Benedetti Andrea , Haziza Muriel , Trojan Daria A.
Published: December 2010

Objective

To evaluate (1) the rate of change of bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip in postpolio patients treated with bisphosphonates compared with the rate of change in BMD in (a) postpolio patients not treated with bisphosphonates and (b) non‐postpolio patients treated with bisphosphonates; and (2) to compare the fracture rate in postpolio patients before and after treatment.

Design

Retrospective chart review.

Setting

University‐affiliated hospital postpolio clinic and bone metabolism clinic.

Participants

Patients with at least 2 BMD assessments. We included 144 postpolio patients and 112 non‐postpolio patients. For the fracture analysis, 32 postpolio patients with a history of fractures and treatment with bisphosphonates were included.

Methods

The effect of treatment on BMD in postpolio patients was analyzed with use of a multiple linear regression model and a mixed effects model, with the rate of change in hip BMD and the change in BMD from baseline, respectively, as the dependent variables. The effect of treatment on occurrence of fractures in postpolio patients was analyzed with use of conditional logistic regression and Poisson regression.

Main Outcome Measures

BMD measurements at the femoral neck (g/cm2) and occurrence of fractures before and after initiation of treatment.

Results

In an adjusted model, postpolio patients treated with bisphosphonates (54/144) had a greater rate of change in BMD (0.031 g/cm2/year; 95% confidence interval 0.010‐0.052) compared with nontreated postpolio patients. The effect of treatment in postpolio patients was similar to that in non‐postpolio patients. Evidence indicated that treated postpolio patients have a lower risk of fracture after treatment (odds ratio 0.3, P = .046; rate ratio 0.4, P = .183).

Conclusions

In this retrospective study, it was found that treatment with oral bisphosphonates significantly increases BMD at the hip in postpolio patients. The effect of bisphosphonate treatment appears to be similar in postpolio patients compared with a control group without polio. Treatment with bisphosphonates may have a protective effect on fracture risk in this population.
Differences in Activity Limitation Between 2 Low Back Pain Subgroups Based on the Movement System Impairment Model
Authors: Hoffman Shannon L. , Harris‐Hayes Marcie , Van Dillen Linda R.
Published: December 2010

Objective

To examine if activity limitation differs between 2 low back pain (LBP) subgroups in the Movement System Impairment (MSI) model.

Design

Cross‐sectional observational study.

Setting

University medical center musculoskeletal analysis laboratory.

Participants

Convenience sample of 83 subjects with chronic LBP who were subgrouped as rotation (Rot) or rotation with extension (RotExt) according to the MSI model.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measurements

Subjects completed the modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire and the physical function subscale of the 36‐Item Short‐Form Health survey (SF‐36 PFS) to assess activity limitation. Subjects also completed baseline measures related to demographics, LBP history, pain intensity, habitual activity level, general health status, and fear‐avoidance behavior. Independent‐samples t‐tests, χ2 tests of independence, and 2‐way analysis of variance tests were used to analyze the data.

Results

Subjects in the Rot subgroup reported greater activity limitation on the modified Oswestry Questionnaire (P = .02) and SF‐36 PFS (P = .03) than subjects in the RotExt subgroup. No other differences between LBP subgroups were significant (P > .05), except gender. More women (71%) than men (29%) were in the RotExt subgroup (P = .03). However, there was no main effect of gender and no interaction effect of gender and LBP subgroup on the modified Oswestry Questionnaire or the SF‐36 PFS (P > .05).

Conclusions

These results support that the Rot and RotExt LBP subgroups based on the MSI model differ with regard to variables that index activity limitation, with the Rot subgroup reporting greater limitation on both activity limitation measures. These differences are not the result of differences in other baseline measures.
Plant and animal protein intake and its association with overweight and obesity among the Belgian population
Authors: Lin Yi , Bolca Selin , Vandevijvere Stefanie , De Vriese Stephanie , Mouratidou Theodora , De Neve Melissa , Polet Anja , Van Oyen Herman , Van Camp John , De Backer Guy , De Henauw Stefaan , Huybrechts Inge
Published: December 2010

The objective of the present study was to assess animal and plant protein intakes in the Belgian population and to examine their relationship with overweight and obesity (OB). The subjects participated in the Belgian National Food Consumption Survey conducted in 2004. Food consumption was assessed by using two non-consecutive 24 h dietary recalls. About 3083 participants ( ≥ 15 years of age; 1546 males, 1537 females) provided completed dietary information. Animal protein intake (47 g/d) contributed more to total protein intakes of 72 g/d than plant protein intake, which accounted for 25 g/d. Meat and meat products were the main contributors to total animal protein intakes (53 %), whereas cereals and cereal products contributed most to plant protein intake (54 %). Males had higher animal and plant protein intakes than females (P < 0·001). Legume and soya protein intakes were low in the whole population (0·101 and 0·174 g/d, respectively). In males, animal protein intake was positively associated with BMI (β = 0·013;P = 0·001) and waist circumference (WC; β = 0·041;P = 0·002). Both in males and females, plant protein intake was inversely associated with BMI (males: β = − 0·036;P < 0·001; females: β = − 0·046;P = 0·001) and WC (male: β = − 0·137;P < 0·001; female: β = − 0·096;P = 0·024). In conclusion, plant protein intakes were lower than animal protein intakes among a representative sample of the Belgian population and decreased with age. Associations with anthropometric data indicated that plant proteins could offer a protective effect in the prevention of overweight and OB in the Belgian population.
Changes in macular pigment optical density and serum concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin in response to weight loss
Authors: Kirby Mark L. , Beatty Stephen , Stack Jim , Harrison Michael , Greene Isabelle , McBrinn Sean , Carroll Paula , Nolan John M.
Published: December 2010

The objective of the present study was to investigate whether weight loss is associated with changes in serum concentrations of lutein (L) and zeaxanthin (Z), and/or macular pigment optical density (MPOD). We recruited 104 overweight subjects into this randomised controlled weight loss study. For the intervention group (I group), weight was assessed weekly and body composition, including BMI (kg/m2) and body fat (kg and percentage), was assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Weight loss was encouraged using dietary and exercise programmes. MPOD was measured by heterochromatic flicker photometry and serum concentrations of L and Z by HPLC (at baseline, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months). The control (C) group was assessed at baseline and 12 months. Repeated-measures ANOVA (RMA) demonstrated significant weight loss in the I group over the study period (P = 0·000). There was no significant weight change in the C group (P = 0·993). RMA of dietary L and Z, serum L and Z, and MPOD demonstrated no significant time or time × group interaction effect in any of these parameters (P>0·05 for all), with the exception of a significant decrease in the dietary intake of Z seen in both groups, over the study period (P < 0·05). There was a positive and significant relationship between body fat loss (kg) and increase in serum concentrations of L in the I group (r 0·521; P = 0·006). Our finding that a reduction in body composition (e.g. fat mass) is related to increases in serum concentrations of L is consistent with the hypothesis that body fat acts as a reservoir for this carotenoid, and that weight loss can positively influence circulating carotenoid levels.
EIGENVALUE PROBLEMS FOR SINGULAR ODES
Authors: O'REGAN DONAL , ORPEL ALEKSANDRA
Published: December 2010

We investigate eigenvalue intervals for the Dirichlet problem when the nonlinearity may be singular at t = 0 or t = 1. Our approach is based on variational methods and cover both sublinear and superlinear cases. We also study the continuous dependence of solutions on functional parameters.
II. A Stage in the Development of the French Intendants: the Reign of Henri IV
Authors: Buisseret D.
Published: December 2010

The history of the intendants, so important to the understanding of France during the latter two centuries of the ancien régime, remains unwritten. There are of course particular studies of various great intendants of Louis XIV and of Louis XV, but the institution as a whole remains astonishingly ill-known, and this is especially true of its early years. Gabriel Hanotaux did make a brave attempt in 1884 to work out the Origines de l'institution des intendants des provinces, but his arguments have been severely criticized by subsequent writers, whose strictures have most recently been summarized by Roger Doucet in Les institutions de la France au XVIe siècle. As Doucet points out, the source-material used by Hanotaux was limited to a few Parisian manuscripts and, for the reign of Henri IV, essentially to the Lettres Missives of that king. For the reign of Henri III, Doucet adds, his work is weak in that he ignores the increase in the traditional chevauchées (tours of inspection) of the maîtres des requêtes, surely one of the most suggestive of early institutions in our present context. This in turn springs from a more basic weakness, that of using only a titular and not a functional definition for his subject; in refusing to consider any officers other than those who actually held the title intendant (usually de justice). Doucet himself does not carry the investigation any further for, as he remarks, the only way to do this would be by undertaking a series of studies in local archives.
IV. The Disintegration of the Kartell and the Politics of Bismarck's Fall from Power, 1887–90
Authors: Röhl J. C. G.
Published: December 2010

Ever since the First World War, but especially during the Weimar period, Bismarck's dismissal has exercised a strong attraction on German historians, and has probably received more attention than any other event in the history of the Second Reich. In the troubled post-war years, 20 March 1890 seemed to stand out prominently as the fateful turning point of Germany's history. Wilhelm Schvissler, the first to exploit the unprecedented wealth of evidence available in consequence of the monarchy's collapse, did not hesitate to claim that ‘even at that time [1890] the downfall (Untergang) of the German Reich was written in the stars’. ‘Who would doubt’, he asked, ‘that our misfortune began there…and led to the catastrophe of the Imperial Monarchy and the German Reich—exactly 20 years after his [Bismarck's] death!’ This highly emotional approach to the subject was fully shared by Wilhelm Mommsen, whose standard work on the role of the political parties in the crisis appeared in 1924. Bismarck's fall, he wrote, ‘appears to us today as a turning point of German history, and it is only with deep feeling that we can recall the events of March 1890’. It is perhaps partly for this reason that these early writers tended to misinterpret the nature of Bismarck's relations with the parties in the crucial months before his fall. There was, for one thing, an inclination to idealize the bygone age in which ‘the State’ was thought to have stood incorruptibly ‘above the parties’, and as a result the party struggles of 1889 and 1890 were relegated to a self-contained compartment whence, it was held, they were able to influence the course of events only in the negative sense of providing no obstacle to the chancellor's dismissal. The influential work of Hans Rothfels probably typified this attitude, but even Mommsen warned his readers that his study of the parties could throw at best an oblique light on the crisis ‘since the parties had no direct and at any rate no significant effect on the course of those events’. According to Hans Herzfeld's summary of the present state of knowledge on the subject, this view is still widely accepted today.
VI. ‘Het Volk’: The Botha-Smuts Party in the Transvaal, 1904–11
Authors: Garson N. G.
Published: December 2010

By bringing the Botha-Smuts ministry to power in 1907, the ‘Vereeniging Het Volk’ (the ‘People's Union’) restored supremacy in the Transvaal to the Boers, less than five years after a war fought with the avowed object of wresting that supremacy from them. One might argue that, given the grant of self-government, this achievement owed less to the organizing techniques of Het Volk as a party, than to the numerical strength and the cohesion of the Boers as a community; but even so, the importance of Het Volk would be established as the expression, at the level of a political party, of these social facts. Coming into existence alongside other parties, before the introduction of self-government, Het Volk helped ensure that under the new constitution a fully fledged party system would function from the beginning.
IV. Gladstone and the Composition of the Final Court in Ecclesiastical Causes, 1850–73
Authors: Stephen M. D.
Published: December 2010

The ‘Final Court’ of Appeal in causes ecclesiastical in this period was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as amended by 3 and 4 Viet. c. 86, s. 16, whereby every archbishop or bishop who was a Privy Councillor was made a full member of the Committee for Ecclesiastical Appeals, and one at least of them had to sit. The function of the Judicial Committee as the final arbiter of legal questions which might involve Anglican doctrine and usage was much criticized by churchmen throughout the nineteenth century. Criticism was directed mainly along two channels. It was argued that the Church's freedom to mould her own spiritual life could not be absolute while the Crown, through the Judicial Committee, might, by accident or intention, interfere in questions of doctrine. This argument aimed at removing the Church from all external judicial supervision and implied the eventual dis-solution of the constitutional bond between Church and State—a prospect which a few extreme High Churchmen regarded with equanimity. The other main criticism was that the Judicial Committee, as amended by 3 and 4 Viet, c. 86, was neither a truly civil nor a truly ecclesiastical court, but merely, as Gladstone described it in 1850, ‘pseudo-ecclesiastical’. Of this point of view, Bishop Wilberforce was the most consistent and the most powerful representative.
V. Moltke-Conrad: Relations between the Austro-Hungarian and German General Staffs, 1909–14
Authors: Stone Norman
Published: December 2010

The Eastern Front of the First World War remains, as Winston Churchill called his book on it, ‘The Unknown War’. Whereas in the West, politics were dominated by the military events, the reverse happened in the East: the gigantic struggles which took place from the Baltic to the Black Sea now seem to have been but a prelude to the Revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There has been little interest in the military aspects of the Eastern conflict.
III. Disraeli, Derby and Fusion, October 1865 to July 1866
Authors: Cowling Maurice
Published: December 2010

The Government which Lord Russell formed on Palmerston's death in October 1865 met Parliament first on 6 February 1866. On 12 March it introduced a Reform Bill, the chief objects of which were to lower the Borough Franchise of 1832 from £10 rental to £7 and the County Franchise from £50 to £14, and to give votes to £50 Savings Bank depositors, £10 lodgers and certain others (enfranchising altogether about 400,000 new voters). On 7 May it introduced a Seats Bill which provided for grouping of boroughs with populations smaller than 8000 and removal of second seats from small towns with two members; and which proposed to distribute the 49 seats thus freed so that Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Salford and London would have 10 new seats between them, Scotland 7, London University and a number of new boroughs 1 each and the English counties 26 in all. These measures were recommended by Gladstone, as Leader of the House of Commons, in the hope, which the Queen shared, that they would put an end to the reform question for a generation. Their authors, Russell and Gladstone, intended them to wind up the line of abortive measures which had been presented to Parliament in the previous seventeen years: they expected, innocently as it turned out, that a degree of enfranchisement which the Cabinet had accepted, however reluctantly, which had been tailored in order to pass through Parliament and ‘which we had so much cut down…from the standard of the Palmerston measure of 1860 would be accepted by the Liberal majority in the House of Commons.
IV. The Proposed Madrid Conference on Morocco, 1887–88
Authors: Parsons F. V.
Published: December 2010

The future of Morocco was not an issue which suddenly began to agitate international politics at the beginning of the twentieth century, as a sort of left-over of imperialism belatedly brought to mind. ‘We are living… on the crater of a Volcano’ was neither a new, nor untypical view of the situation as seen from Tangier in 1881. Britain had already made an attempt to regenerate the ‘sick man of the West’, before he could cause as many complications as the fellow Muslim invalid to the East, by taking the initiative which led to the Madrid Conference respecting the right of Protection of Moorish Subjects in 1880. But this was not a success. Nor did the attempts which followed to persuade the so-called Shereefian Empire, in its vital strategic position at the entrance to the Mediterranean, to provide itself with the revenue, tools and incentive necessary for reform by the conclusion of a liberal commercial treaty, gain their objective. France also was concerned with Morocco, and the Algerian military point of view, which stressed the security danger of allowing any other power to establish preponderant influence there, was gradually gaining ground. One French minister at Tangier, Ordega, had gone as far as to try and present his government in 1884 with the fait accompli of a revolution in Morocco, with a French protégé on the Moorish throne. But the Paris authorities were not willing, or at this stage even able, to sanction such a forward policy. Spain was the power which, at official level, had long considered it had the right of reversion to the Moorish heritage. But internal weakness precluded direct action, and Spanish governments were reduced to other approaches. The negative one, associated with the conservative statesman Cánovas del Castillo, stressed the need to ‘prolong the dying agony of Morocco’, until Spain had recovered sufficiently to claim her rights. Others, however, argued for a more active policy, and they had an opportunity in the ‘Liberal’; ministries of the 1880's. It is in this context that the activity of Segismundo Moret, Minister of State from November 1885, was of relevance in bringing Morocco further into the international arena.
IV. The Sunday Trading Riots of 1855
Authors: Harrison Brian
Published: December 2010

Wandering in his mind during his last illness in 1869, Bertrand Russell's maternal grandfather ‘heard a loud noise in the street and thought it was the revolution breaking out’. The memory of the Terror haunted educated early Victorians just as Belsen and Auschwitz haunt the modern intellectual: ‘one cannot shake off the feeling of disgust with such horrors and shame that Human Nature should be so bad’, wrote Wellington to Miss Burdett-Coutts in 1847 after reading a history of the Girondins. Attacks on aristocratic extravagance by William Wilberforce and Queen Victoria were inspired by dread of an English 1789—of those ‘women almost unsexed, men almost unhumanized’ whom Envy might summon forth at any moment from the backstreets of Victorian cities. Such fears helped push many reforming measures through nineteenth-century parliaments. Indeed, ‘the danger of revolution was in some degree as much a cause of change in England as the fact of revolution was abroad’.
III. Ireland and the Ballot Act of 1872
Authors: Hurst Michael
Published: December 2010

It is almost a commonplace nowadays that the passing of the Ballot Act of 1872 revolutionized Irish politics. Sir Robert Ensor is quite categorical: ‘But where the act had revolutionary consequences, which its authors had neither foreseen nor intended, was in Ireland.’ The authority quoted is Charles Stewart Parnell, who had insisted: ‘Hitherto the Irish voter, powerless against the intimidation of his social superiors, had returned members to one or other of the two English parliamentary parties’ and now with secret voting ‘need do so no longer’. By way of conclusion Ensor goes so far as to reflect: ‘that but for the undesigned gift of this act, the whole of his meteoric career, with its profound reactions upon English history for half a century, might never have occurred’. Elsewhere he attributed the emergence of the classic Irish party to agricultural depression and Parnell's magnetic leadership, though without in any way specifically retracting the ballot point.
II. The Commission for Ecclesiastical Promotions, 1681–84: An Instrument of Tory Reaction
Authors: Beddard Robert
Published: December 2010

‘Promotion’, says Holy Scripture, ‘cometh neither from the east, nor from the west: nor yet from the south’. Clerical aspirants knew better than the psalmist the strange geography of preferment in Restoration England, where the return in 1660 of the Stuarts did much to encourage in churchmen a greater sense of direction and purpose. Our present study is to elucidate one particular period in the history of preferment, that spanned by the short-lived and little-known Commission for Ecclesiastical Promotions which sat at the height and at the helm of the Tory Reaction. To place the Commission in its proper perspective, however, something must be said of the Restoration Settlement itself. It was, of course, no accident that the hereditary monarchy and Anglican Church returned together. Sir Edward Hyde, foremost of the statesmen at the exiled Court and, from January 1658, lord chancellor to Charles II, had bent his energies to achieve this very end. Yet, for the Church, it was a re-establishment rather than an unqualified restoration, for the loyalist nobility and gentry-the real architects of Sion's delivery-were careful not to resurrect Laud's persecuting prelacy. To understand the changed circumstances in which the Church found herself, it is essential to take account of what was not, as well as what was restored. Neither the imperious Court of High Commission nor the self-incriminating ex officio oath was brought back. Shorn of the chief weapons with which she had formerly harried the more wayward of the political nation, the Church returned as part of the only workable constitution England had ever known, that is as a buttress of monarchy.