bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Differential properties of human ACL and MCL stem cells may be responsible for their differential healing capacity
Authors: Zhang Jianying , Pan Tiffany , Im Hee-Jeong , Fu Freddie H , Wang James HC
Published: June 2011

Background

The human anterior cruciate ligament (hACL) and medial collateral ligament (hMCL) of the knee joint are frequently injured, especially in athletic settings. It has been known that, while injuries to the MCL typically heal with conservative treatment, ACL injuries usually do not heal. As adult stem cells repair injured tissues through proliferation and differentiation, we hypothesized that the hACL and hMCL contain stem cells exhibiting unique properties that could be responsible for the differential healing capacity of the two ligaments.

Methods

To test the above hypothesis, we derived ligament stem cells from normal hACL and hMCL samples from the same adult donors using tissue culture techniques and characterized their properties using immunocytochemistry, RT-PCR, and flow cytometry.

Results

We found that both hACL stem cells (hACL-SCs) and hMCL stem cells (hMCL-SCs) formed colonies in culture and expressed stem cell markers nucleostemin and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4). Moreover, both hACL-SCs and hMCL-SCs expressed CD surface markers for mesenchymal stem cells, including CD44 and CD90, but not those markers for vascular cells, CD31, CD34, CD45, and CD146. However, hACL-SCs differed from hMCL-SCs in that the size and number of hACL-SC colonies in culture were much smaller and grew more slowly than hMCL-SC colonies. Moreover, fewer hACL-SCs in cell colonies expressed stem cell markers STRO-1 and octamer-binding transcription factor-4 (Oct-4) than hMCL-SCs. Finally, hACL-SCs had less multi-differentiation potential than hMCL-SCs, evidenced by differing extents of adipogenesis, chondrogenesis, and osteogenesis in the respective induction media.

Conclusions

This study shows for the first time that hACL-SCs are intrinsically different from hMCL-SCs. We suggest that the differences in their properties contribute to the known disparity in healing capabilities between the two ligaments.
Central Nervous System Mast Cells in Peripheral Inflammatory Nociception
Authors: Xanthos Dimitris N , Gaderer Simon , Drdla Ruth , Nuro Erin , Abramova Anastasia , Ellmeier Wilfried , Sandkühler Jürgen
Published: June 2011

Background:

Functional aspects of mast cell-neuronal interactions remain poorly understood. Mast cell activation and degranulation can result in the release of powerful pro-inflammatory mediators such as histamine and cytokines. Cerebral dural mast cells have been proposed to modulate meningeal nociceptor activity and be involved in migraine pathophysiology. Little is known about the functional role of spinal cord dural mast cells. In this study, we examine their potential involvement in nociception and synaptic plasticity in superficial spinal dorsal horn. Changes of lower spinal cord dura mast cells and their contribution to hyperalgesia are examined in animal models of peripheral neurogenic and non-neurogenic inflammation.

Results:

Spinal application of supernatant from activated cultured mast cells induces significant mechanical hyperalgesia and long-term potentiation (LTP) at spinal synapses of C-fibers. Lumbar, thoracic and thalamic preparations are then examined for mast cell number and degranulation status after intraplantar capsaicin and carrageenan. Intradermal capsaicin induces a significant percent increase of lumbar dural mast cells at 3 hours post-administration. Peripheral carrageenan in female rats significantly increases mast cell density in the lumbar dura, but not in thoracic dura or thalamus. Intrathecal administration of the mast cell stabilizer sodium cromoglycate or the spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) inhibitor BAY-613606 reduce the increased percent degranulation and degranulated cell density of lumbar dural mast cells after capsaicin and carrageenan respectively, without affecting hyperalgesia.

Conclusion:

The results suggest that lumbar dural mast cells may be sufficient but are not necessary for capsaicin or carrageenan-induced hyperalgesia.
Ethnobotany of religious and supernatural beliefs of the Mising tribes of Assam with special reference to the 'Dobur Uie'
Authors: Sharma Uma Kanta , Pegu Shyamanta
Published: June 2011

Assam is very rich in plant biodiversity as well as in ethnic diversity and has a great traditional knowledge base in plant resources. It is inhabited by the largest number of tribes and they lead an intricate life totally dependent on forest plants. The Mising is the major section and second largest tribal community of Assam and have a rich tradition of religion and culture. Their religious practices and beliefs are based on supernaturalism. A study of the plants related to magico religious beliefs in Dobur Uie of Mising is carried out. The results revealed the use of 30 plants belonging to 23 families. All plant species are used both in religious purpose as well as in the treatment of different ailments. Details of the uses of plants and conservational practices employed in Dobur Uie are provided. Our findings on the use of plants in Dobur Uie ritual reflect that some plants are facing problems for survival and they need urgent conservation before their elimination. Because this elimination may threat the rich tradition of Mising culture. Most of the plants that are domesticated for different rituals are almost same in all Mising populated areas.
Bioavailability of Vitamin D in Malnourished Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa
Authors: DiVasta Amy D. , Feldman Henry A. , Brown Julia N. , Giancaterino Courtney , Holick Michael F. , Gordon Catherine M.
Published: June 2011

Context:

Young women with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a normal vitamin D status. The bioavailability of vitamin D during malnutrition is unknown.

Objective:

The objective of the study was to examine the serum response to oral ergocalciferol in AN.

Design/Setting:

This was a prospective cohort study, conducted in 2007–2009 at a tertiary care center.

Patients/Interventions:

Twelve adolescents with AN (age 19.6 ± 2.0 yr, body mass index 16.5 ± 1.4 kg/m2) and 12 matched healthy controls (20.0 ± 2.4 yr, 22.7 ± 1.0 kg/m2) received one baseline 50,000 IU oral dose of ergocalciferol.

Main Outcomes:

Serum D2, D3, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, collected before ingestion, at 6 and 24 h and weekly for 4 wk, and body composition measures were measured.

Results:

The AN group was severely malnourished (77.2 ± 6.3% median body weight), whereas the control group was normal weighted (106.2 ± 6.2%). From a common baseline D2 (1.5 ± 1.6 nmol/liter, P =0.34) the groups diverged (time × group interaction P = 0.04), peaking at 70 ± 34 nmol/liter at 6 h in controls compared with 43 ± 28 nmol/liter in AN subjects (P = 0.008). The D2 trajectories converged at 24 h (57 nmol/liter, P = 0.98) and returned to near baseline at 1 wk. Baseline D3 was higher in AN subjects (12.1 ± 9.6 vs. 3.1 ± 2.3 nmol/liter, P < 0.001) and remained higher throughout. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D followed a common trajectory (time × group interaction P = 0.15), rising to 45 ± 10 nmol/liter at 24 h but returning to baseline by wk 3 (P = 0.36). Correlating vitamin D levels with fat measures (body mass index, body fat) produced similar findings.

Conclusions:

Despite severe malnutrition, young women with AN had a similar bioavailability of oral ergocalciferol as the healthy-weighted controls. Vitamin D dosing for patients suffering from malnutrition may not differ from that for normal-weighted adolescents.
Emotions and the Structuring of Narrative Responses
Authors: Miall David S.
Published: June 2011

Research that suggests the primacy of the emotions provides the context for a study of some of the processes sustained by the emotions during literary reading. In particular, the early processing of emotion in response to language, including narrative, is shown by several ERP (evoked-response potentials) studies that focus on the first 500 msecs of response. These studies suggest the possibility that emotion plays a key role in subsequent cognitive processing, including the making of inferences, invoking the reader's memory, or relating empathically to a character. Emotions evoked in these ways during literary reading embody a number of distinctive processes, and some of their implications are then examined here. These include self-reference (e.g., autobiographical memory), which may occur more often in response to literary than to other texts; anticipation (e.g., suspense, forming goals for characters), which also seems more frequent among literary readers; an inherent narrativity of emotions that prompts us to construe situations in narrative terms; a capacity of emotion to integrate experiences, whether through similarities across conventional boundaries or through a process in which one emotion modifies another; and a tendency to animism, the interpretation of objects and events through human emotions, especially in the early phases of response, prior to consciousness.
The Ethics of Neurobiological Narratives
Authors: Narvaez Darcia
Published: June 2011

Narratives are embedded in human biology. Each individual's emotional system is shaped by early experience and can be viewed as a biosocial personal grammar for the social life. A child builds a biosocial grammar initially from caregiver treatment. Caregivers and cultures help structure event memory and co-construct the narratives that children use for self and moral identities. The bioemotional landscape formed by experience influences the narratives that shape the life course. Initially, this occurs nonverbally through touch and emotional response; later, it occurs through explicit discourse and cultural practice. Triune ethics theory draws on evolutionary neurobiology, virtue ethics, and multiple human sciences to illustrate three ethics that represent basic neurobiological narratives that are formed by early experience and by climates and cultures. The three basic ethical orientations are Security, Engagement, and Imagination. One or more can become a dispositional orientation and each can be situationally primed. Cultures encourage one or another ethic through their support systems and common discourse. Mature moral behavior in most traditions involves self-actualization in selecting and cultivating the moral narratives that lead to peaceful coexistence.
Poetics of Emotion in Times of Agony: Letters from Exile, 1933–1940
Authors: Andringa Els
Published: June 2011

After the National Socialist party came to power in Germany in 1933 and in Austria in 1938, many writers and intellectuals fled these countries. As a result, a dense network of correspondences was established among exiles from many different countries in and out of Europe. This article explores the expression of highly emotional experience in private letters, written at the time by professional literary writers and now available in print. Starting from existing linguistic, stylistic, and narrative studies of verbal emotional expression, a selection of representative epistolary texts is analyzed. The analyses show a wide and intricate repertoire of devices and strategies on all linguistic and textual levels, from graphemic markings to narrative composition, used to express and communicate emotional experience; these choices also bear on various communicative intentions, such as reestablishing contact, asking for help, or sharing concerns and opinions. Furthermore, the selected letters reveal that in the agonizing situation of exile, emotions consist of multiphase changes and processes, rather than of momentary reactions.
Suspicious Minds
Authors: Felski Rita
Published: June 2011

The hermeneutics of suspicion is a term coined by Paul Ricoeur to describe the practice of reading texts against the grain to expose their repressed or hidden meanings. This essay examines the distinctive features of such a hermeneutics as they have shaped literary theory and criticism in recent decades. Suspicious reading, it proposes, is not only an intellectual exercise in demystification, but also a critical style and scholarly sensibility that offers specific pleasures. These pleasures include the aesthetic and ethical satisfactions of fashioning detective-fiction-style plots. The literary critic, like the detective, interprets clues, establishes causal connections, and identifies a guilty party: namely, the literary work accused of whitewashing or concealing social oppression. Deconstructionist critics like Shoshana Felman seek to expose the dangers of such a suspicious hermeneutics but remain thoroughly entangled in the very method they seek to repudiate. The goal of the essay, then, is not to critique and be suspicious of suspicion. Rather, it seeks to take the hermeneutics of suspicion seriously and to understand why it has proved so attractive to contemporary scholars. At the same time, it also suggests that the present-day ubiquity and predictability of this critical method makes its claims to intellectual novelty or political boldness ever harder to sustain.
Secularism, Ethics, Philosophy: A Case for Epistemic Humility
Authors: Babbitt Susan E.
Published: June 2011

Secularists have aimed to make reason the motor of human progress to counter the supposed rigidity, absolutism, and condescending superiority of religious thought. I argue that reason cannot play this role, at least not as reason is most popularly conceived. In a world with a single dominant ideology, it is not religion but instead a certain arrogant approach to both reason and philosophy that should be the target of secularists desiring human freedom. Epistemic humility is identified as the key to genuinely free and progressive philosophical inquiry. I suggest that such humility is probably even rarer among nonreligious analytic ethicists than it is among religious ethicists.
Two Concepts of Secularism
Authors: Jahanbegloo Ramin
Published: June 2011

Secularism, for many of us, is not a terra incognita, and yet it is certainly an improperly defined and unexplained concept. For more than 150 years, intellectuals, politicians, and theologians have used secular and secularism in a rather ambiguous way. These terms therefore need to be clarified. The time has come to rethink our whole approach to the question of secularism. Given the inapplicability of the French model of secularism to the Muslim world, it becomes necessary to find a criterion by which state involvement, when it occurs in the domain of religion, can appear to the members of a religious group as both legitimate and fair. The Indian concept of secularism based on the toleration and equal protection of all religious communities without being supportive of any particular religion can supply this criterion. That said, to pursue a secular politics of rejecting sectarianism and demanding toleration requires that strategic priorities be rearranged without making historical shortcuts. In this case, a secular politics of toleration is a twofold struggle, a resistance to uniformization and an invitation to democratization. If such a strategy is to find any role in the regulation of the lives and activities of Islamic societies today, an alternative concept of secularism, rather than simply an alternative to it, needs to be worked out. The challenge is not to abandon secularism but to formulate it as a philosophy with spiritual values, rather than solely a policy of the state. This is the only way of rethinking our whole approach to the future in Muslim societies to the extent that the pluralist model of a “shared home” can be presented as “a third way” solution to the crisis of political societies in the Middle East and in opposition to the secular authoritarianism of the state and the rise of religious fundamentalism in civil society.
Faithful Life in an Urfi State
Authors: Yusefi-Eshkevari Hassan
Published: June 2011

This essay's purpose is twofold: to problematize the question of the urfi (secular) system versus the religious system and to examine the question of faithful life in a modern and urfi world. As for the first part, the Islamic state is defined by “divine legitimacy of power” and “full implementation of Sharia” as a political platform sanctioned by revelation. This essay suggests that neither claim is legitimate. Political power is a worldly question. Neither the Koran nor Prophet Muhammad himself claimed that he ruled on behalf of God. Nor did Muslims in the early age of Islam have such a perception about the Prophet's authority. The Prophet's rule in Medina was the result of a social contract. As for the full implementation of Sharia law, if governance is not defined and sanctioned by divine authority, then Sharia too, which is in part social regulations and laws within the jurisdiction of the state, cannot be divine. Laws and the legal system are contingent on the existing realities; no law is eternal. As for the second part, the faithful, to live faithfully in an urfi and nonreligious political system is not only possible, but it is indeed preferable. The ideological monopoly of the Sharia-centered system makes free faith much more difficult than it is under nonreligious dictatorships. Nonetheless, historical and existing experiences also reveal that the faithful can have something constructive to offer in civil society and in the public sphere. Religion is not and cannot be fully separable from politics as a social matter. While we can normatively separate the institution of religion and the institution of state, the role that religion can play in politics must nevertheless be acknowledged.
Creeping Secularism
Authors: Ashouri Daryoush
Published: June 2011

The Islamic revolution in Iran at the closing decades of the twentieth century was a shocking, unexpected phenomenon in the context of modern history. Its religious emblem, the presence of the Shiite clerics as it's mobilizing motor for mass demonstrations and, eventually, the bizarre composition of Islam and revolution—an amalgam of two conceptually alien elements, with unprecedented ideological claims— created a new peculiar model of state and statecraft. The substitution of a fundamentalist regime for a semisecular monarchy replaced the crown with the turban as the paramount symbol of the Iranian national sovereignty, under the fundamentalist formulation of the “governance of the canonist” (velayat-e faqih). This new state manifesting itself through specific signs, symbols, slogans, discourses, and behaviors, as well as by appropriation of modern means of ideological propaganda, the use of revolutionary violence, and organized terror, embodied in the very structure of a state, addressed itself to the world as a new militant ideological and political power aiming, once again, to change the world. How could this extremely unexpected event happen? Explanations are various and they focus either on the dictatorial manners and erroneous actions of the shah, alongside the role played by the Western powers, specifically the United States, or on the presence and the political role of Shiism and its clergy in Iranian history. However, a few fundamental questions remain unanswered. How could a radically traditionalist religious establishment, which was normally marked by modern revolutionaries as reactionary, merge with the most radical revolutionary groups and views? What are the universal results of such a “chemical” composition for both the otherworldly religionism and secular revolutionism? How do they essentially differ in action and discourse from what they had been previously? What were the innermost historical forces that made possible this seemingly impossible phenomenon?
Egyptian Views of Ottoman Rule: Five Historians and Their Works, 1820–1920
Authors: Reimer Michael J.
Published: June 2011

The Ottoman sultan was Egypt's titular sovereign until 1914, but in the late nineteenth century some historians of Egypt were already locating the terminus of Ottoman rule in the French invasion (1798) and the inauguration of Mehmet `Ali's government (1805). This periodization was later canonized in Egyptian academia, so that Egypt's Ottoman history was defined as beginning in 1517 and ending in 1798. However, the vagaries of Egypt's relationship with Istanbul meant that this periodization was neither obvious nor uncontested. The purpose of this article is to compare evolving, discordant interpretations of Ottoman history presented in four works by notable Egyptian historians: `Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (ca. 1824), `Ali Pasha Mubarak (ca. 1889); Muhammad Farid (ca. 1912); and `Umar al-Iskandari and Salim Hasan (ca. 1919). The article investigates how the defeated Mamluk sultanate (which preceded the Ottomans) is related to Egypt's identity in these works, how the Ottomans are positioned in the flow of Egyptian and Islamic history, and how their conquest and rule over Egypt is characterized. The article also reviews these authors' reflections on the causes of Ottoman “decline” and analyzes what Mehmet Ali's rule portended for Egypt. The findings show that Egyptian historians differed radically on the relationship between the Mamluks and Egypt—oppressors versus protonationalists—and in their assessment of the Ottoman conquest's impact. There is no linear evolution of opinion before Egypt's independence in 1922 or a strict correlation between an Egyptian-nationalist orientation and attitudes toward the Ottoman state: Mubarak was a moderate nationalist but anti-Ottoman/anti-Turk, while Farid was an ardent and outspoken nationalist but treasured and promoted Egypt's organic bond with the Ottoman Empire. Broadly, one may distinguish between an appreciation of the Ottomans in their defense of Islam and implementation of Muslim justice (al-Jabarti and Farid), and a repudiation of the Ottoman period as Egypt's “dark ages” (Mubarak, Iskandari, and Hasan). However, Iskandari and Hasan's book's acceptance as a secondary school textbook represents the fixing of a historiographical orthodoxy that categorized Ottoman rule as alien, corrupt, and retrograde, a view that remains dominant in Egyptian popular consciousness until today.
Ottoman Beirut: Crisis, History, and Sectarian Memory
Authors: Reilly James A.
Published: June 2011

History writing is a powerful tool in the construction of collective memory. Typically in postcolonial states, history is linked to a national project. Methods and tropes of national history writing aim to create or reinforce a sense of shared identity rooted in past experience. Particular historical actors are valorized and emphasized, as they become protagonists of the national narrative. Often the outlines of the present-day state are anachronistically projected backward as part of attempts to construct a modern national identity. Lebanon's contested history offers a window—or indeed a laboratory—for considering the uses of history in addressing issues of subnational identity. Alongside attempts to construct a national Lebanese narrative rooted in the politics and history of the country's Christian and Druze mountain communities, there exists a counternarrative of the major coastal cities and their predominantly Sunni Muslim populations. Shifting the geographic focus this way means that some of the same tropes and methods used to construct putative national histories can be applied to develop subnational sectarian narratives. This article studies the 1980s-era output of a prolific Sunni Muslim historian of Ottoman Beirut, Hassan Hallak. Hallak's construction of history is interesting by virtue of his close links to Beirut's Sunni communal power structure. His books, published during a period of crisis and trauma in Beirut's and Lebanon's modern experience, paint Beirut in essentialist terms as a timeless Arab and Muslim space. Ottoman-era materials provide the documentary and material evidence to support this interpretation or claim. The present article explores and analyzes Hallak's invocation of the Ottoman past to support a confessionally partisan vision of Beirut's present.
When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The Inception of an Ottoman Past in Early Republican Turkey
Authors: Philliou Christine
Published: June 2011

This article contains, first, an analysis of some of the work done to date on the Ottoman legacy in republican Turkey, and, second, a consideration of the moment of transition from Ottoman to Turkish history. It argues that while a range of approaches and issues have been raised regarding the memory of the Ottoman past in the Turkish national present, little attention has been paid in this discussion to the moment the Turkish national present came into being—the 1920s. A short story, “Bir guguklu satin azizliği” (“A Cuckoo Clock's Prank”), published in 1922, and a satirical play, titled, Deli (Mad), written in 1930, both by by Refik Halit Karay, an intellectual and journalist living in exile in Aleppo, serve as two points of entry into this decade. The plot of the play, in which a man falls into a coma two days before the restoration of the constitution in 1908 and wakes up in the republican Turkey of 1929, serves as an excellent opportunity, both for the play's author and for readers today, to consider the experience of transition from Ottoman past to Turkish national present from a new vantage point. The short story, about a tea party in 1922 Istanbul, betrays a similarly critical distance on a very different set of circumstances and serves as a foil to “Deli.” Karay's position was not only geographically outside the Turkish nation-state but it was also an elite view that was intellectually removed from the Kemalist project, both as it took shape in 1922 and at its apex in 1930.
The Ottoman Legacy: Urban Geographies, National Imaginaries, and Global Discourses of Tolerance
Authors: Mills Amy
Published: June 2011

Turkey emerged from the ruins of the multiethnic Ottoman Empire to become a secular, ethnically Turkish, and culturally Sunni Muslim nation. While the Ottoman legacy refers to an ideal of multiethnic tolerance located in the distant past, and is deployed as a critique against a presumably intolerant state, this legacy is produced by a diversity of social groups that compete for different imaginations of Turkey's national identity. This essay argues that the Ottoman legacy, and the discourse of tolerance it represents, has two important geographic dimensions. First, the Ottoman legacy relies on and is reproduced through Istanbul's urban geography; places and landscapes that represent a multiethnic tolerant past come to serve as evidence for what the Ottoman legacy represents. Second, while discourses of Ottoman tolerance are grounded in a local past, they are informed by, and thus respond to, very contemporary geopolitical notions of cosmopolitanism and of an imagined dichotomy between East and West. The Ottoman legacy is produced locally, in engagement with national imaginaries, while it is also meant to locate Istanbul internationally as a global city. The open struggle to critique state intolerance by invoking and representing an Ottoman legacy of multiethnic harmony illuminates the dynamic and contested nature of national identity in Turkey even while it is employed in processes that redraw national boundaries of belonging and exclusion.
The 3-blackboard method as consensus-development exercise for building care pathways
Authors: Vanhaecht K , Van Zelm R , Van Gerven E , Sermeus W , Bower K , Panella M , Deneckere S
Published: June 2011

The development and implementation of a care pathway is a complex intervention. One of the goals is to standardize the interprofessional teamwork. During the development of the care pathway, the team can use the 3-blackboard method to systematically define the goals, describe the organization of the care process and develop a list of topics for further analysis. The 3-blackboard method is a consensus development exercise which can be used for pathway projects but also during other quality and patient safety improvement exercises.
Knowing Where You Stand: Physical Isolation, Perceived Respect, and Organizational Identification Among Virtual Employees
Authors: Bartel Caroline A. , Wrzesniewski Amy , Wiesenfeld Batia M.
Published: June 2011

This research investigates the relationship between virtual employees' degree of physical isolation and their perceived respect in the organization. Respect is an identity-based status perception that reflects the extent to which one is included and valued as a member of the organization. We hypothesize that the degree of physical isolation is negatively associated with virtual employees' perceived respect and that this relationship explains the lower organizational identification among more physically isolated virtual employees. In two field studies using survey methods, we find that perceived respect is negatively associated with the degree of physical isolation, and respect mediates the relationship between physical isolation and organizational identification. These effects hold for shorter- and longer-tenured employees alike. Our research contributes to the virtual work literature by drawing attention to physical isolation and the important but neglected role of status perceptions in shaping virtual employees' organizational identification. We also contribute to the literature on perceived respect by demonstrating how respect is affected by the physical context of work.
Health Status and Health Risks of the “Hidden Majority” of Adults With Intellectual Disability
Authors: Emerson Eric
Published: June 2011

Little is known about the health status of and health risks faced by adults with intellectual disability who do not use intellectual disability services. Self-report data collected from 1,022 people with mild intellectual disability in England indicated that people who do not use intellectual disability services are more likely to smoke tobacco and less likely to access some health services and promotion activities than those who do use these services. In addition, they are more likely to be exposed to some known social determinants of poorer health (greater material hardship, greater neighborhood deprivation, reduced community, and social participation).
Students with visual impairments in Israel: quality of life as a subjective experience
Authors: Hess Itay
Published: June 2011

The present paper is based on research that investigated the quality of life of students with visual impairments, included in the regular education system, according to their own perceptions as reported in individual open interviews. The research comprised 19 students between the ages of 14 and 19 years. The main findings revealed three major themes: life in school with a focus on teachers’ behavior towards the pupil; peers’ reactions and the impact of stigma; family coping with the disability. Mixed feelings appeared in the first two themes. Regarding their teachers, the students reported support while at the same time they also felt a lack of sincere respect. Concerning peers, students felt that stigma affected their friendship behavior. Finally, most reports indicated satisfaction with the family bonds. Yet, there is almost no direct reference to the visual problem.
Walking East of West LA
Authors: George Lynell
Published: June 2011

The Los Angeles locales photographer Kevin McCollister takes you to the places you can’t buy a ticket to. His blog and book project that grew out of it, East of West L.A., tells a different L.A. story — one that is subtler, nuanced and found only through patience. McCollister takes in the city by foot, armed with two cameras. Sometimes observing more than actually documenting. The city that emerges within these frames isn’t the one of iconic palm streets, expensive cars, expansive civic-center vistas — but one that lives in the shadows of our imagination. Workaday strivers, lost-people, forgotten emotional territories. The work tells us stories about the space between the L.A. dream and reality.

While McCollister is certainly “documenting” Los Angeles — his images evoke something more chambered — internal, contemplative, elegantly transitory. They play like memory and fantasy fused and evoke a Los Angeles that feels personal: one that’s private, but not exclusive. The images open a window on an unexpected L.A., contradictory, complex, and elusive as the city is itself.
Different gene expression profiles in metastasizing midgut carcinoid tumors
Authors: Edfeldt Katarina , Björklund Peyman , Åkerström Göran , Westin Gunnar , Hellman Per , Stålberg Peter
Published: June 2011

The genetic events leading the progression of midgut carcinoid tumors are largely unknown. The disease course varies from patient to patient, and there is a lack of reliable prognostic markers. In order to identify genes involved in tumor progression, gene expression profiling was performed on tumor specimens. Samples comprised 18 primary tumors, 17 lymph node (LN) metastases, and seven liver metastases from a total of 19 patients. Patients were grouped according to clinical data and histopathology into indolent or progressive course. RNA was subjected to a spotted oligo microarray and B-statistics were performed. Differentially expressed genes were verified using quantitative real-time PCR. Self-organizing maps demonstrated three clusters: 11 primary tumors separated in one cluster, five LN metastases in another cluster, whereas all seven liver metastases, seven primary, and 12 LN metastases formed a third cluster. There was no correlation between indolent and progressive behavior. The primary tumors with Ki67 >5%, with low frequency of the carcinoid syndrome, and a tendency toward shorter survival grouped together. Primary tumors differed in expression profile from their associated LN metastases; thus, there is evidence for genetic changes from primary tumors to metastases.ACTG2, GREM2, REG3A, TUSC2, RUNX1, TPH1, TGFBR2, andCDH6were differentially expressed between clusters and subgroups of tumors. The expression profile that assembles tumors as being genetically similar on the RNA expression level may not be concordant with the clinical disease course. This study reveals differences in gene expression profiles and novel genes that may be of importance in midgut carcinoid tumor progression.
Deficiências de kacronutrientes e de boro em seringueira (Hevea brasiliensis L.)
Authors: Amaral W. do , Sarruge J.R. , Sfredo G.J.
Published: June 2011

Plantas de seringueira (Hevea brasiliensis L.) foram cultivadas em casa de vegetação, em quartzo moído, irrigado com soluções nutritivas, e submetidas aos seguintes tratamentos: completo, omissão de N, omissão de P, omissão de Ca, omissão de Mg, omissão de S e omissão de B, com o objetivo de: (a) obter sintomas de deficiências de macronutrientes e de boro; (b) analisar o crescimento das plantas através da produção de matéria seca; (c) determinar a concentração de macro e micronutrientes nas folhas, caule e raízes das plantas cultivadas nos diversos tratamentos. Os sintomas visuais de deficiência foram identificados e descritos. As plantas foram coletadas e separadas em raiz, caule e folhas, e determinaram-se os teores de macro e micronutrientes . Os resultados mostraram: - foram identificados sintomas de deficiências para todos os tratamentos com omissão de nutrientes (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S e B); - a omissão de N, K, Mg ou B da solução nutritiva diminuiu o crescimento das plantas; - as concentrações dos elementos nas folhas de plantas com sintomas e sem sintomas de deficiência foram, respectivamente: N% = 1,94 e 3,40; P% = 0,14 e 0,25; K% = 0,79 e 2,22; Ca% = 0,59e 1,28; Mg% = 0,26 e 0,50; S% = 0,10 e 0,10; Bppm = 31 ,3 e 171,8.
Nutrição mineral da seringueira: II. Recrutamento de micronutrientes no período de quatro anos na região de Rio Branco, AC
Authors: Guerrini I.A. , Haag H.P. , Weber H. , Dechen A.R.
Published: June 2011

Com o objetivo de obter dados referentes a concentração e acúmulo de micronutrientes em função da idade da planta, foram coletadas amostras de folhas, galhos secos, ponta e base de galhos primários, e ponta, meio e base do tronco de plantas de seringueira clone Fx 3864 com 1 a 4 anos de idade situadas sobre Latossol Vermelho-Amarelo, textura argilosa na área da BONAL S.A. localizada na região de Rio Branco, AC Os resultados mostraram que: 1. As maiores concentrações de nutrientes ocor rem nas folhas com exceção do cobre e zinco; 2. A extração de nutrientes por hectare no quarto ano foi de: B-29,4 g, Cu-18,3 g, Fe - 140 g, Mn - 437,7 g e Zn - 52,2 g; 3. A extração total de nutrientes, em ordem decrescente foi: Fe Mn Zn B Cu.
Trastuzumab
Authors: Boekhout Annelies H. , Beijnen Jos H. , Schellens Jan H.M.
Published: June 2011

Trastuzumab is standard of care in the treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)-2+ early and advanced breast cancer. Recently, it has been approved for the treatment of HER-2+ advanced gastric cancer. Trastuzumab is an IgG1 humanized monoclonal antibody administered by intravenous infusion on a weekly or three weekly schedule. In all registered indications, trastuzumab is almost always given in combination with chemotherapy. In hormonal receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women, trastuzumab can be combined with an aromatase inhibitor. Main toxicity is reduction in the left ventricular ejection fraction, which in a minority of patients can become symptomatic, but in many patients is at least partly reversible. Long-term safety needs to be further determined.
When Hope Is All There Is Left
Authors: Laarhoven Hanneke W.M. , Leget Carlo J.W. , Graaf Winette T.A.
Published: June 2011

One particular patient who was facing the fact that she would die from cancer reveals an important lesson for the oncologist about listening and caring. Medical oncologists have a role beyond offering new treatments to patients with incurable disease: the role of supporter, and of witness, supporting a patient, especially in the last stages of illness, when hope is all there is left.
Cutaneous Melanoma In Situ: Translational Evidence from a Large Population-Based Study
Authors: Mocellin Simone , Nitti Donato
Published: June 2011

Background.

Cutaneous melanoma in situ (CMIS) is a nosologic entity surrounded by health concerns and unsolved debates. We aimed to shed some light on CMIS by means of a large population-based study.

Methods.

Patients with histologic diagnosis of CMIS were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology End Results (SEER) database.

Results.

The records of 93,863 cases of CMIS were available for analysis. CMIS incidence has been steadily increasing over the past 3 decades at a rate higher than any other in situ or invasive tumor, including invasive skin melanoma (annual percentage change [APC]: 9.5% versus 3.6%, respectively). Despite its noninvasive nature, CMIS is treated with excision margins wider than 1 cm in more than one third of cases. CMIS is associated with an increased risk of invasive melanoma (standardized incidence ratio [SIR]: 8.08; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.66–8.57), with an estimated 3:5 invasive/in situ ratio; surprisingly, it is also associated with a reduced risk of gastrointestinal (SIR: 0.78, CI: 0.72–0.84) and lung (SIR: 0.65, CI: 0.59–0.71) cancers. Relative survival analysis shows that persons with CMIS have a life expectancy equal to that of the general population.

Conclusions.

CMIS is increasingly diagnosed and is often overtreated, although it does not affect the life expectancy of its carriers. Patients with CMIS have an increased risk of developing invasive melanoma (which warrants their enrollment in screening programs) but also a reduced risk of some epithelial cancers, which raises the intriguing hypothesis that genetic/environmental risk factors for some tumors may oppose the pathogenesis of others.
Initial Staging Impact of Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer
Authors: Niikura Naoki , Liu Jun , Costelloe Colleen M. , Palla Shana L. , Madewell John E. , Hayashi Naoki , Yu Tse-Kuan , Tokuda Yutaka , Theriault Richard L. , Hortobagyi Gabriel N. , Ueno Naoto T.
Published: June 2011

Purpose.

Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) may reveal distant metastases more accurately than conventional imaging (CT, skeletal scintigraphy, chest radiography). We hypothesized that patients diagnosed with stage III noninflammatory breast cancer (non-IBC) and IBC by conventional imaging with PET/CT have a better prognosis than patients diagnosed without PET/CT.

Patients and Methods.

We retrospectively identified 935 patients with stage III breast cancer in 2000–2009. We compared the relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) times of patients diagnosed by conventional imaging with those of patients diagnosed by conventional imaging plus PET/CT. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess associations between survival and PET/CT.

Results.

RFS and OS times were not significantly different between patients imaged with PET/CT and those imaged without PET/CT. However, the RFS time in IBC patients was significantly different between patients imaged with PET/CT and those imaged without PET/CT on both univariate (hazard ratio [HR], 0.43; p = .014) and multivariate (HR, 0.33; p = .004) analysis. There was a trend for a longer OS duration in IBC patients imaged with PET/CT.

Conclusion.

Among IBC patients, adding PET/CT to staging based on conventional imaging might detect patients with metastases that were not detected by conventional imaging. The use of conventional imaging with PET/CT for staging in non-IBC patients is not justified on the basis of these retrospective data. The use of conventional imaging plus PET/CT in staging IBC needs to be studied prospectively to determine whether it will improve prognosis.
The Joint Null Criterion for Multiple Hypothesis Tests
Authors: Leek Jeffrey T , Storey John D.
Published: June 2011

Simultaneously performing many hypothesis tests is a problem commonly encountered in high-dimensional biology. In this setting, a large set of p-values is calculated from many related features measured simultaneously. Classical statistics provides a criterion for defining what a “correct” p-value is when performing a single hypothesis test. We show here that even when each p-value is marginally correct under this single hypothesis criterion, it may be the case that the joint behavior of the entire set of p-values is problematic. On the other hand, there are cases where each p-value is marginally incorrect, yet the joint distribution of the set of p-values is satisfactory. Here, we propose a criterion defining a well behaved set of simultaneously calculated p-values that provides precise control of common error rates and we introduce diagnostic procedures for assessing whether the criterion is satisfied with simulations. Multiple testing p-values that satisfy our new criterion avoid potentially large study specific errors, but also satisfy the usual assumptions for strong control of false discovery rates and family-wise error rates. We utilize the new criterion and proposed diagnostics to investigate two common issues in high-dimensional multiple testing for genomics: dependent multiple hypothesis tests and pooled versus test-specific null distributions.
Bacterial Endotoxin Activity in Human Serum Is Associated With Dyslipidemia, Insulin Resistance, Obesity, and Chronic Inflammation
Authors: Lassenius Mariann I. , Pietiläinen Kirsi H. , Kaartinen Kati , Pussinen Pirkko J. , Syrjänen Jaana , Forsblom Carol , Pörsti Ilkka , Rissanen Aila , Kaprio Jaakko , Mustonen Jukka , Groop Per-Henrik , Lehto Markku ,   on behalf of the FinnDiane Study Group
Published: June 2011

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activity in human serum is associated with the components of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in type 1 diabetic patients with various degrees of kidney disease and patients with IgA glomerulonephritis (IgAGN).

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Serum LPS activity was determined with the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate chromogenic end point assay in type 1 diabetic patients with a normal albumin excretion rate (n = 587), microalbuminuria (n = 144), macroalbuminuria (n = 173); patients with IgAGN (n = 98); and in nondiabetic control subjects (n = 345). The relationships of the LPS/HDL ratio and MetS-associated variables were evaluated with Pearson correlation.

RESULTS

The MetS was more prevalent in type 1 diabetic patients (48%) than in patients with IgAGN (15%). Diabetic patients with macroalbuminuria had a significantly higher serum LPS/HDL ratio than patients with IgAGN. In the normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetic group, patients in the highest LPS/HDL quartile were diagnosed as having the MetS three times more frequently than patients in the lowest quartile (69 vs. 22%; P < 0.001). High LPS activity was associated with higher serum triglyceride concentration, earlier onset of diabetes, increased diastolic blood pressure, and elevated urinary excretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1.

CONCLUSIONS

High serum LPS activity is strongly associated with the components of the MetS. Diabetic patients with kidney disease seem to be more susceptible to metabolic endotoxemia than patients with IgAGN. Bacterial endotoxins may thus play an important role in the development of the metabolic and vascular abnormalities commonly seen in obesity and diabetes-related diseases.
Etiological Approach to Characterization of Diabetes Type
Authors: Dabelea Dana , Pihoker Catherine , Talton Jennifer W. , D’Agostino Ralph B. , Fujimoto Wilfred , Klingensmith Georgeanna J. , Lawrence Jean M. , Linder Barbara , Marcovina Santica M. , Mayer-Davis Elizabeth J. , Imperatore Giuseppina , Dolan Lawrence M. ,   for the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study
Published: June 2011

OBJECTIVE

To describe an etiologic approach to classification of diabetes types in youth based on the 1997 American Diabetes Association (ADA) framework, using data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

SEARCH conducted a comprehensive assessment of 2,291 subjects aged <20 years with recently diagnosed diabetes. Using autoimmunity (at least one of two diabetes autoantibodies) and insulin sensitivity (equation validated against hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps) as the main etiologic markers, we described four categories along a bidimensional spectrum: autoimmune plus insulin-sensitive (IS), autoimmune plus insulin-resistant (IR), nonautoimmune plus IS, and nonautoimmune plus IR. We then explored how characteristics, including genetic susceptibility to autoimmunity (HLA genotypes), insulin deficiency, and clinical factors varied across these four categories.

RESULTS

Most subjects fell into either the autoimmune plus IS (54.5%) or nonautoimmune plus IR categories (15.9%) and had characteristics that align with traditional descriptions of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The group classified as autoimmune plus IR (19.5%) had similar prevalence and titers of diabetes autoantibodies and similar distribution of HLA risk genotypes to those in the autoimmune plus IS group, suggesting that it includes individuals with type 1 diabetes who are obese. The group classified as nonautoimmune plus IS (10.1%) likely includes individuals with undetected autoimmunity but may also include those with monogenic diabetes and thus requires further testing.

CONCLUSIONS

The SEARCH study offers researchers and clinicians a practical application for the etiologic classification of diabetes type and at the same time identifies a group of youths who would benefit from further testing.