bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Westernization and cultural resistance in tattooing practices in contemporary Japan
Authors: Yamada Mieko
Published: June 2009

This article examines the popular culture of tattooing in Japan and sheds light on attempts by traditional tattooists to retain a vital presence in the modern-to-postmodern transitional periods. Explaining the values, beliefs and practices associated with tattooing during the pre-modern period, it discusses how these are shaped and modified by modern cultural practices, and how they are being impacted by globalization. While drawing on historical and cross-cultural research on tattooing in Japan, this article incorporates three tattooists' experiences as examples of contemporary practices. By resisting the impact of globalization, traditional tattooists preserve their own practices and pass them on to the next generation.
Eating the past
Authors: Karaosmanoglu Defne
Published: June 2009

Culinary issues introduce a particular way of dealing with the construction of history and the processes of differentiation, commodification and exoticism. Food is related to sensory experiences, and taste and smell play a crucial role in the creation and representation of the past. This article studies the past as/through text and performance by looking at how history is brought back, represented and performed by food practices in the present. It analyses a number of Ottoman restaurants in terms of their expression of the Ottoman past and their ways of performing `Ottomanness' in the city of Istanbul.
Setting the stage for a `Festival of Lies'
Authors: Hoffman Danny
Published: June 2009

This article is a two-part essay resulting from the author's experience as a public commentator on a performance in Seattle, USA by the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. The first part of the article explores the difficulties and opportunities that arise when Africanist scholars are asked to serve as cultural experts for a general audience. I outline some of the considerations in agreeing to provide commentary on a performance for which I could claim only a `close enough' kind of expertise, but which nevertheless seemed ideally suited for engaged public humanities scholarship. The second half of the article is the text of the resulting podcast. It first traces the historical background to Linyekula's `Festival of Lies', then presents general observations on African political performance. The script concludes with a reflection on the specificities and implications of viewing Linyekula's performance in Seattle.
The cultural sublime and the temporal dimension of media
Authors: Leurs Rob
Published: June 2009

The responses to the escape of child murderer Marc Dutroux are on the one hand characterized by bewilderment concerning his horrific actions and on the other hand by relief on his renewed imprisonment. The initial response of bewilderment can be considered an `interruption' of the process of making meaning: it is a temporary state of inability to give meaning to news reports. With this line of approach, this article emphasizes the temporal dimension of identity constructions. This is of importance to cultural studies, which has paid a lot of attention to spatiality (`spaces of belonging', etc.) but would be better served with more instruments for analysing temporal structures. To understand bewilderment and the temporal dimension of identity construction this article makes use of Kant's and Lyotard's theory on `the sublime': central to the sublime is the experience of the limits of our ability to comprehend. It will become evident that the responses of bewilderment to Dutroux's escape can best be understood with Kant's modernistic theory of the sublime rather than with Lyotard's postmodernist version. This makes it possible to use theories on the sublime to examine both the modernist versus postmodernist nature of our society, and an important part of the temporal dimension of identity constructions (namely responses to events causing bewilderment). It is appropriate to rename the (Kantian) aesthetic sublime, which has a singular cause, as the cultural sublime: the cultural sublime is the consequence of coherent texts and images, in other words: of media discourses.
Bourdieu, Cultural Intermediaries and Good Housekeeping 's George Marek
Authors: Doane Randal
Published: June 2009

This article explores the nexus of class, gender, and musical taste for the white middle-class family in the USA from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. Cultural intermediaries in the western concert music field embraced an upper-middlebrow aesthetic and, in the anomic age of the reconversion era, buttressed the symbolic boundaries of whiteness for their middle-class readership. Using Bourdieu's work on fields and taste, I examine the representation of the classificatory schemes of western concert music in George Marek's music column in Good Housekeeping , one of the era's most popular magazines. I also examine how musical practices were gendered in the familial embodiment of cultural capital.This study concludes with an elaboration of Bourdieu's work on fields and Negus's work on cultural intermediaries, in order to highlight the connections between the privileges of musical taste and racialization in the USA, at mid-century and today.
Crossing Divides
Authors: Trentmann Frank
Published: June 2009

This article has two aims. First, it seeks to raise awareness about three competing frameworks that are currently dominating the debate about consumption and globalization: 18th-century global exchanges; Americanization; and consumerism. These have tended to operate in virtual isolation and ignorance from each other. Second, through a critical discussion of recent research, the article sets out to complicate conventional chronologies of tradition/modernity/late modernity that continue to underpin much research on consumer cultures. Instead of a linear progression from diversity to standardization, from gift-exchange to commodity-exchange, and from public engagement to privatized materialism, the article points to the dynamic interaction between these forms across time. An appreciation of these longer, deeper, and more variegated histories means that it is problematic to equate consumer culture with the `age of affluence' after the Second World War. In turn, it calls on critics of consumerism to adopt a more realistic and historically sensitive approach that engages with the longer evolution of consumer culture and avoids idealized images of a recent pre-consumerist past.
Manufacturing Customers
Authors: Zwick Detlev , Denegri Knott Janice
Published: June 2009

The fundamental question we pose in this article is how should we understand marketing in the age of increasingly integrated and networked customer databases? This article argues that new forms of database marketing are best described as customer production processes that rely on the exploitation of the multitude of consumer life.We suggest that the recent increase in available consumer data, computational power and analytical skills leads to a reorganization of the gaze of marketers and increasingly reverses the Fordist articulation of production and consumption. More specifically, instead of flexibly adjusting production regimes to shifting consumption patterns, database marketers collapse the production—consumption dichotomy by manufacturing customers as commodities. Hence, theories about the role of surveillance and simulation technologies for strategies of economic value creation need to be updated in order to acknowledge the evolution of database marketing into a central site of flexible accumulation processes in information capitalism.The result of our undertaking is a model of customer databases that foregrounds the far-reaching effect of potent simulational capabilities intersecting with constantly increasing computational power to transform the database into the factory of the 21st century.
Practices of Object Maintenance and Repair
Authors: Gregson Nicky , Metcalfe Alan , Crewe Louise
Published: June 2009

This article examines the practices of object maintenance in the home. Drawing on depth ethnographic research with households in north-east England, the article uses three object stories to show that ordinary consumer objects are continually becoming in the course of their lives in the home and that practices of object maintenance are central to this becoming. Located in a field of action and practice, consumer objects are shown to display traces of their consumption.The practices of object maintenance are shown to attempt to arrest these traces, not always successfully. A spectrum of practices of object maintenance is identified, ranging from routine cleaning, wiping and polishing, through quick-fix repair, to the more thorough-going restoration.The object stories show how restorative acts generally rekindle consumer objects; how other forms of repair (the quick-fix mask) are socially problematic, signalling the devaluation of objects; and how the failure of object maintenance can connect to the sabotage of objects.The success or failure of object maintenance is shown to have profound consequences for the social lives of consumer objects. More broadly, the article highlights the importance of consumer competences (and incompetence) with respect to object maintenance, and argues that object maintenance works to integrate consumption, connecting home interiors with acts of acquisition, purchase and ridding.
Modeling Consumption
Authors: Wissinger Elizabeth
Published: June 2009

Fashion and branding have become powerful forces in the contemporary world. Fashion models, central players in these developments, are both lightning rods for controversy and objects of desire.To avoid the kinds of polarizing or sensationalist views of modeling that are common in academic and popular circles, this article focuses on modeling as work, to explore what models do when they fascinate or repel us via their engagement in commodification and branding processes that promote consumption. Using data from interviews with fashion models and those who work with them, the article argues that models promote consumption in far more complex ways than merely smiling for the camera.The article considers models as cultural intermediaries, discussing how they frame consumer experiences and encounters with commodities in the selection, styling and dissemination of images populated by models.Viewing models' self-commodification as forms of aesthetic, entrepreneurial, and immaterial labor, the article illustrates how these practices of compulsory image management and socializing glamorize the model `life' and so play into processes used to brand and sell urban space. Placing these activities in the context of new branding practices, the article concludes with a discussion of how the model life and the experience of being `in fashion' are being packaged and sold as a commodity in and of itself. By working hard to produce the image of living the `model life', workers in this industry model a lifestyle that is then packaged and sold to consumers as an experience that can be had for the price of their attention.
Threshold concepts
Authors: Irvine Naomi , Carmichael Patrick
Published: June 2009

Participants with teaching and research experience across eight disciplinary areas were introduced to the idea of `threshold concepts' and were then invited to identify potential threshold concepts in their own disciplines through small-scale research activities. Participants conceptualized their involvement in different ways: for some it provided a means of initiating changes in practice at faculty, department or course level, while others couched their involvement in terms of professional development or intellectual curiosity. This article describes how three selected disciplines — Sports Science, English Literature and Engineering — carried out enquiries into threshold concepts, and the ways in which they reflected on their participation in interdisciplinary seminars and disciplinary enquiry. These accounts highlight the importance of promoting a culture in which enquiry and reflection are central, while at the same time recognizing the value of appropriate `points of focus' for these activities and the importance of context-specific ideas of `quality' in practitioner research.
Mapping the maze of assessment
Authors: Gillett Andy , Hammond Angela
Published: June 2009

This article presents the results of a preliminary survey of assessment tasks undertaken by students in higher education at a particular university. A key premise of the study was that the ability to handle assessment is central to the development of academic and professional literacy. Much of the current literature on assessment demonstrates a concern that it is not currently achieving this end. A grid of various features of assessment has been developed, onto which are mapped tasks used at all levels and within all disciplines in the institution. Considerable differences in the type and range of assessment tasks used across schools and disciplines are identified, and also a gap between the variation in tasks and the relatively narrow range of activities and techniques covered in most study skills manuals. It is argued that generic materials should broaden their base and that subject-specific material needs to be developed to accommodate the realities of lifelong learning.
Learning to teach with problem-based learning
Authors: Spronken-Smith Rachel , Harland Tony
Published: June 2009

This research explores the experiences of a group of academics learning to teach with problem-based learning (PBL) and how a community of practice (COP) supported this transition. An action-research project evaluated both PBL experiences and group processes. Teachers were enthusiastic about PBL but experienced a variety of problems during the transition. Those new to teaching had particular difficulty taking on the PBL role of `facilitator'. All teachers struggled to work within the `rules' of PBL. Of specific concern was the varied input teachers provided for their tutor groups and possible inequalities for student learning. The COP enabled professional learning about teaching PBL, but the dynamics of the group were perceived as too hierarchical. The group could have functioned better if it had adopted the principles underpinning a COP so that teachers could take a more critical stance towards how they operated within the group and how they taught PBL.
Different students, same difference?
Authors: Bartram Brendan , Bailey Carol
Published: June 2009

Recent years have seen a considerable growth in the numbers of international students coming to study in the UK. In an attempt to identify the extent to which differences in understandings and expectations of `effective teaching practice' might impede their successful integration into academic life, the following article offers a comparative analysis of the ways in which UK and overseas students define good teaching. Focusing on survey results at one university, the study identifies and explores four key areas that underpin student understandings of effective teaching: teaching skills, teacher attributes, staff—student relationships and teacher knowledge. Results indicate that UK and international students appear to share broadly similar views and, despite some differences in emphasis, particular teaching skills emerge as most important, while teacher knowledge appears to be afforded a much lower priority. Potential explanations for the degree of commonality in student thinking and prioritization are investigated, and a number of conclusions considered.
Implications of the global diabetes epidemic
Authors: Steiner George
Published: June 2009

The dramatic increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, largely as a result of increasing obesity and sedentary lifestyle, signals an impending public health crisis for the 21 st century. Individuals with type 2 diabetes have a two to four-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease, evident even before clinical diagnosis of diabetes. Guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease clearly identify the increased risk associated with type 2 diabetes and advocate intensive risk factor management. The atherogenic dyslipidaemia associated with type 2 diabetes, characterised by elevated triglycerides (TG), a low level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and an increase in the number of small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles (although LDL-C levels may be normal or only modestly elevated), is a key modifiable risk factor, and warrants early and intensive intervention.
Lipid-lowering therapy in type 2 diabetes: a review of the evidence
Authors: Steinmetz Armin
Published: June 2009

Current treatment guidelines highlight the importance of lipid-lowering therapy in reducing cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes. Statins have been shown to be effective in reducing cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes, but they fail to address adequately the coronary risk associated with low plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and elevated triglycerides, commonly reported in these patients. Fibrates are effective against all three components of the atherogenic dyslipidaemic profile that characterises type 2 diabetes.

Clinical studies such as the Veterans Affairs HDL Intervention Trial (VA-HIT), which showed a marked and statistically significant reduction in coronary heart disease death and stroke, as well as the Diabetes Atherosclerosis Intervention Study (DAIS), which showed that treatment with fenofibrate produced significantly less progression in markers of focal coronary artery disease, support a role for fibrate therapy in cardiovascular risk reduction in type 2 diabetes. Together, these data provided the rationale for the Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) trial, the largest study to date in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Reducing vascular risk in the diabetic patient: implications from the FIELD study
Authors: Zambon Alberto
Published: June 2009

The Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study, involving 9, 795 patients with type 2 diabetes, is the largest study to date investigating the role of a lipid-modifying therapy in reducing cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetes. Although the reduction in the primary end point (non-fatal myocar-dial infarction [MI] and coronary heart disease [CHD] death) did not reach statistical significance, fenofibrate treatment was associated with a significant reduction in total cardiovascular events, largely driven by reductions in non-fatal MI and revascularisation procedures.

Subgroup analyses demonstrated greater treatment effect in patients without prior cardiovascular disease than in those with established cardiovascular disease (relative risk reduction for CHD events of 25%, p=0.014 vs. a non-significant 8% increase, respectively; and for total cardiovascular events of 19%, p=0.004 vs. no effect). Differences in the magnitude of the reduction in cardiovascular risk between studies emphasise the importance of considering patient characteristics, such as duration of diabetes, concomitant lipid-modifying therapy, glycaemic control and prior cardiovascular disease, which may all influence treatment response.

Taking these factors into account, as well as the promising effects on microangiopathy observed in FIELD, suggests that fenofibrate may have a role as a well-tolerated treatment (most likely in combination with a statin) in patients with early stage type 2 diabetes without evidence of macrovascular disease.
Voter Rolloff in a Low-Information Context
Authors: Streb Matthew J. , Frederick Brian , LaFrance Casey
Published: June 2009

Hall notes that ballot rolloff in supreme court races is substantial but not random. Various institutional, election-specific, state, and district-level contextual forces lead rolloff to increase in some cases and decrease in others. However, it is not clear that Hall's findings apply to lower-level judicial elections because of the low-information environment in which those elections occur. Analyzing rolloff in 755 intermediate appellate court (IAC) elections from 2000 to 2007, we, with a few deviations, replicate Hall's study. The findings indicate that in many ways the variables that affect rolloff in supreme court elections are similar to those in IAC races although some differences do exist.
Racial Context Effects and the Political Participation of Asian Americans
Authors: Rim Kathy H.
Published: June 2009

In 1948, V. O. Key demonstrated how racial context influences political attitudes and behavior in the South. In more recent studies, racial linked fate and racial discrimination have been identified as powerful predictors of minority political behavior. What remains unexplored in the literature is whether race-based predictors such as these vary as a direct function of racial context and, as a result, increases or decreases political participation. Past research has focused on the singular effects of racial linked fate or discrimination but has yet to examine its potential interactive effects with racial context. To assess these potentially interactive effects, this article focuses on Asian Americans living within two distinct racial contexts: Hawaii and the mainland states of California, New York, and Illinois. Although there is no effect on Asian American voting behavior, results indicate significant interactive effects of race-based predictors and racial context on Asian American nonvoting participation.
Counteractive Lobbying in the U.S. Supreme Court
Authors: Solowiej Lisa A. , Collins Paul M.
Published: June 2009

Theories of counteractive lobbying assert that interest groups lobby for the purpose of neutralizing the advocacy efforts of their opponents. We examine the applicability of counteractive lobbying to explain interest group amicus curiae participation in the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions on the merits. Testing the counteractive lobbying hypotheses from 1953 to 2001, we provide strong support for the contention that interest groups engage in counteractive lobbying in the nation's highest court. Our findings indicate that, like the elected branches of government, the Supreme Court is properly viewed as a battleground for public policy in which organized interests clash in their attempts to etch their policy preferences into law.
A Bayesian Prediction Model for the U.S. Presidential Election
Authors: Rigdon Steven E. , Jacobson Sheldon H. , Tam Cho Wendy K. , Sewell Edward C. , Rigdon Christopher J.
Published: June 2009

It has become a popular pastime for political pundits and scholars alike to predict the winner of the U.S. presidential election. Although forecasting has now quite a history, we argue that the closeness of recent presidential elections and the wide accessibility of data should change how presidential election forecasting is conducted. We present a Bayesian forecasting model that concentrates on the Electoral College outcome and considers finer details such as third-party candidates and self-proclaimed undecided voters. We incorporate our estimators into a dynamic programming algorithm to determine the probability that a candidate will win an election.
Bayesian clinical trials at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Authors: Biswas Swati , Liu Diane D , Lee J Jack , Berry Donald A
Published: June 2009

Background The Bayesian approach is being used increasingly in medical research. In particular, it has become a standard in designing clinical trials at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Purpose/Methods To address the extent and nature of Bayesian trials conducted at M. D. Anderson, we reviewed the protocols registered in the Protocol Document Online System between 2000 and early 2005. We summarize our findings and give details for three innovative trials that typify those in which a Bayesian approach has played a major role at the center.

Results Of 964 protocols reviewed, 59% were conducted solely at M. D. Anderson and the rest were multicenter trials. Bayesian designs and analyses were used in about 20% (195/964) of the protocols that we reviewed. Of the 520 protocols identified as phase I or II drug trials, about 34% were Bayesian. Most of the 195 Bayesian trials were designed by M. D. Anderson statisticians. The Bayesian design features most commonly used were the continuous reassessment method in phase I (toxicity) trials, adaptive randomization in phase II trials, and designs to monitor efficacy and toxicity simultaneously. We also provide an insider's view regarding some practical considerations that have made the design and implementation of so many Bayesian trials possible.

Limitations We reviewed only a subset of all M. D. Anderson protocols, but did not exclude any available in electronic form.

Conclusions The large number of Bayesian trials conducted at M. D. Anderson testifies to the receptivity to the Bayesian approach within the center, including principal investigators, regulatory review committees, and patients. Statisticians who take a Bayesian perspective can successfully work to establish a culture of innovation in clinical trial design.
Bayesian Design of Single-arm Phase II Clinical Trials with Continuous Monitoring
Authors: Johnson Valen E , Cook John D
Published: June 2009

Background Bayesian designs are increasingly used to conduct phase II clinical trials. However, stopping boundaries in most Bayesian designs are defined from posterior credible intervals. The use of designs based on posterior credible intervals results in a loss of efficiency when compared to formal stopping rules based on Bayesian hypothesis tests. Such designs also introduce an unnecessary element of subjectivity in the interpretation of trial results.

Methods We derive a new class of Bayesian designs based on formal hypothesis tests. The prior densities used to define the alternative hypotheses in these tests assign no mass to parameter values that are consistent with the null hypotheses and are called nonlocal alternative prior densities.

Results We show that Bayesian designs based on hypothesis tests and nonlocal alternative prior densities are more efficient than common Bayesian designs based on posterior credible intervals and common frequentist designs. In contrast to trial designs based on Bayesian credible intervals, we demonstrate that the mis-specification of the prior densities used to describe the anticipated effect of the experimental treatment in designs based on hypothesis tests cannot increase the expected weight of evidence in favor of the trial agent.

Limitations Extension of test-based designs to phase I—II designs and randomized phase II designs remains an open research question.

Conclusions Phase II single-arm trials designed using Bayesian hypothesis tests with nonlocal alternatives provide better operating characteristics, use fewer patients per correct decision, and provide more directly interpretable results than other commonly used Bayesian and frequentist designs. Because the mis-specification of the prior density on the effect of the experimental agent decreases the expected weight of evidence that is collected in favor of the experimental treatment, the use of Bayesian hypothesis tests to design clinical trials also eliminates a potential source of bias often associated with trials designed using posterior credible intervals.
Scientific and political challenges in North America's first randomized controlled trial of heroin-assisted treatment for severe heroin addiction: Rationale and design of the NAOMI study
Authors: Oviedo-Joekes Eugenia , Nosyk Bohdan , Marsh David C , Guh Daphne , Brissette Suzanne , Gartry Candice , Krausz Michael , Anis Aslam , Schechter Martin T
Published: June 2009

Background Heroin addiction is a chronic relapsing disease, best treated with opioid-agonist substitution therapy such as methadone maintenance. However, a subset of the most severely affected individuals do not benefit sufficiently from this treatment. The North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to evaluate the hypothesis that pharmaceutical-grade heroin, diacetylmorphine (DAM) is more effective in retaining patients and improving their outcomes than Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) among those with chronic, refractory injection opioid dependence.

Purpose/Methods The study aimed at randomizing 253 participants to two intervention arms: (1) MMT alone or (2) injectable opioids (DAM or hydromorphone) plus adjunctive MMT if deemed appropriate. The planned study duration was 3 years, with a 1-year intake period, 1 year of treatment, and an additional year of follow-up. The NAOMI trial was initiated in March 2005 at two Canadian sites (Vancouver and Montreal). This was the first multicenter RCT in North America to compare the relative efficacy of these different therapeutic strategies. We discuss the rationale behind the NAOMI study design, as well as the scientific and political issues and methodological challenges arising from the conduct of a trial that involves the prescription of a controlled substance to individuals with dependence on that substance.

Limitations Restrictive entry criteria led to the exclusion of many otherwise eligible participants, slowing recruitment into the study. Inability to offer DAM treatment beyond 12 months led to artificial boundary effects in the trial. Conclusions Addiction treatment research navigates between science and politics, and evidence-based medicine is many times confronted by moral beliefs. Political considerations influence study design to a further degree than in RCTs treating less-stigmatized disorders with more-reputable medications.
Design, conduct, and analyses of Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98: A randomized, double-blind, phase-III study comparing letrozole and tamoxifen as adjuvant endocrine therapy for postmenopausal women with receptor-positive, early breast cancer
Authors: Giobbie-Hurder Anita , Price Karen N , Gelber Richard D
Published: June 2009

Background Aromatase inhibitors provide superior disease control when compared with tamoxifen as adjuvant therapy for postmenopausal women with endocrine-responsive early breast cancer.

Purpose To present the design, history, and analytic challenges of the Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98 trial: an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, phase-III study comparing the aromatase inhibitor letrozole with tamoxifen in this clinical setting.

Methods From 1998—2003, BIG 1-98 enrolled 8028 women to receive monotherapy with either tamoxifen or letrozole for 5 years, or sequential therapy of 2 years of one agent followed by 3 years of the other. Randomization to one of four treatment groups permitted two complementary analyses to be conducted several years apart. The first, reported in 2005, provided a head-to-head comparison of letrozole versus tamoxifen. Statistical power was increased by an enriched design, which included patients who were assigned sequential treatments until the time of the treatment switch. The second, reported in late 2008, used a conditional landmark approach to test the hypothesis that switching endocrine agents at approximately 2 years from randomization for patients who are disease-free is superior to continuing with the original agent. Results The 2005 analysis showed the superiority of letrozole compared with tamoxifen. The patients who were assigned tamoxifen alone were unblinded and offered the opportunity to switch to letrozole. Results from other trials increased the clinical relevance about whether or not to start treatment with letrozole or tamoxifen, and analysis plans were expanded to evaluate sequential versus single-agent strategies from randomization.

Limitations Due to the unblinding of patients assigned tamoxifen alone, analysis of updated data will require ascertainment of the influence of selective crossover from tamoxifen to letrozole.

Conclusions BIG 1-98 is an example of an enriched design, involving complementary analyses addressing different questions several years apart, and subject to evolving analytic plans influenced by new data that emerge over time.
The HBS1L-MYB intergenic interval associated with elevated HbF levels shows characteristics of a distal regulatory region in erythroid cells
Authors: Wahlberg Karin , Jiang Jie , Rooks Helen , Jawaid Kiran , Matsuda Fumihiko , Yamaguchi Masao , Lathrop Mark , Thein Swee Lay , Best Steve
Published: June 2009

HBS1L-MYB intergenic polymorphism (HMIP) on chromosome 6q23 is associated with elevated fetal hemoglobin levels and has pleiotropic effects on several hematologic parameters. To investigate potential regulatory activity in the region, we have measured sensitivity of the sequences to DNase I cleavage that identified 3 tissue-specific DNase I hypersensitive sites in the core intergenic interval. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with microarray (ChIP-chip) analysis showed strong histone acetylation in a defined interval of 65 kb corresponding to the core HBS1L-MYB intergenic region in primary human erythroid cells but not in non–MYB-expressing HeLa cells. ChIP-chip analysis also identified several potential cis-regulatory elements as strong GATA-1 signals that coincided with the DNase I hypersensitive sites present in MYB-expressing erythroid cells. We suggest that HMIP contains regulatory sequences that could be important in hematopoiesis by controlling MYB expression. This study provides the functional link between genetic association of HMIP with control of fetal hemoglobin and other hematologic parameters. We also present a large-scale analysis of histone acetylation as well as RNA polymerase II and GATA-1 interactions on chromosome 6q, and α and β globin gene loci. The data suggest that GATA-1 regulates numerous genes of various functions on chromosome 6q.
Novel prognostic subgroups in childhood 11q23/MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia: results of an international retrospective study
Authors: Balgobind Brian V. , Raimondi Susana C. , Harbott Jochen , Zimmermann Martin , Alonzo Todd A. , Auvrignon Anne , Beverloo H. Berna , Chang Myron , Creutzig Ursula , Dworzak Michael N. , Forestier Erik , Gibson Brenda , Hasle Henrik , Harrison Christine J. , Heerema Nyla A. , Kaspers Gertjan J. L. , Leszl Anna , Litvinko Nathalia , Nigro Luca Lo , Morimoto Akira , Perot Christine , Pieters Rob , Reinhardt Dirk , Rubnitz Jeffrey E. , Smith Franklin O. , Stary Jan , Stasevich Irina , Strehl Sabine , Taga Takashi , Tomizawa Daisuke , Webb David , Zemanova Zuzana , Zwaan C. Michel , van den Heuvel-Eibrink Marry M.
Published: June 2009

Translocations involving chromosome 11q23 frequently occur in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are associated with poor prognosis. In most cases, the MLL gene is involved, and more than 50 translocation partners have been described. Clinical outcome data of the 11q23-rearranged subgroups are scarce because most 11q23 series are too small for meaningful analysis of subgroups, although some studies suggest that patients with t(9;11)(p22;q23) have a more favorable prognosis. We retrospectively collected outcome data of 756 children with 11q23- or MLL-rearranged AML from 11 collaborative groups to identify differences in outcome based on translocation partners. All karyotypes were centrally reviewed before assigning patients to subgroups. The event-free survival of 11q23/MLL-rearranged pediatric AML at 5 years from diagnosis was 44% (± 5%), with large differences across subgroups (11% ± 5% to 92% ± 5%). Multivariate analysis identified the following subgroups as independent prognostic predictors: t(1;11)(q21;q23) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.1, P = .004); t(6;11)(q27;q23) (HR = 2.2, P < .001); t(10;11)(p12;q23) (HR = 1.5, P = .005); and t(10;11)(p11.2;q23) (HR = 2.5, P = .005). We could not confirm the favorable prognosis of the t(9;11)(p22;q23) subgroup. We identified large differences in outcome within 11q23/MLL-rearranged pediatric AML and novel subgroups based on translocation partners that independently predict clinical outcome. Screening for these translocation partners is needed for accurate treatment stratification at diagnosis.
Electro- and Photoactive Molecular Assemblies of Liquid Crystals and Physical Gels
Authors: Kato Takashi , Tanabe Kana
Published: June 2009

Self-organized structures of liquid crystals and self-assembled fibers have great potential as new functional materials. This article highlights self-organization of π-conjugated molecules, leading to the induction of photonic, electronic, and electrochemical properties.
Fluorescence Sensor for Water Content in Organic Solvents Based on Covalent Immobilization of Benzothioxanthene
Authors: Li Zhi-Zhang , Niu Cheng-Gang , Zeng Guang-Ming , Qin Pin-Zhu
Published: June 2009

A derivative of benzothioxanthene, N-(2-methacryloxyethyl)benzo[k,l]thioxanthene-3,4-dicarboximide (MBTD), was used as a fluorescent indicator for determination of water content in organic solvents. MBTD was photocopolymerization-immobilized on a glass surface. The prepared sensor system possesses relatively long lifetime, short response, and recovering time. The reversibility and reproducibility are also adequate for practical measurement.
Mukaiyama Aldol Reaction Catalyzed by Mesoporous Aluminosilicate
Authors: Ito Suguru , Yamaguchi Hitoshi , Kubota Yoshihiro , Asami Masatoshi
Published: June 2009

In the presence of a mesoporous aluminosilicate Al–MCM-41, aldol reaction of various silyl enol ethers with both aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes proceeded under mild reaction conditions to afford the corresponding O-silylated aldol adducts in high yields. The solid acid catalyst was easily recovered and reusable three times.
Periodic Structure in a Fluorene-based Polymer Prepared by Electrochemical Polymerization
Authors: Kawabata Kohsuke , Goto Hiromasa
Published: June 2009

A conjugated copolymer, poly[2,7-di(2-furyl)fluorene], with periodic dielectric microstructure is prepared by electrochemical polymerization using cholesteric liquid crystal as an electrolyte solution. The polymer film thus prepared displays a labyrinthine fingerprint texture formed by a convexo–concave structure, and exhibits a random diffraction grating function. This anisotropic electrochemical polymerization technique is a novel bottom-up approach for preparing one-dimensional photonic crystals.
A Simple Access to Symmetric Diarylamines via Copper(II)-catalyzed Coupling of Aqueous Ammonia with Arylboronic Acids
Authors: Zhou Changfeng , Chen Fan , Yang Dongpeng , Jia Xiaofei , Zhang Lixue , Cheng Jiang
Published: June 2009

A simple and efficient CuII-catalyzed coupling reaction of arylboronic acids with aqueous ammonia under air is described. The reaction was conducted under atmospheric pressure and no additional ligand was required. Benzoic acid was added to tune the basicity of the reaction system.
Ni0-catalyzed Direct Amination of Anisoles Involving the Cleavage of Carbon–Oxygen Bonds
Authors: Tobisu Mamoru , Shimasaki Toshiaki , Chatani Naoto
Published: June 2009

Ni0-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl methyl ethers with amines is described. The use of an N-heterocyclic carbene as a ligand and NaOt-Bu as a base promotes the amination of anisole derivatives via the cleavage of normally unreactive aryl carbon–oxygen bonds.
Phenanthroline Derivatives for Electron-transport Layer in Organic Light-emitting Devices
Authors: Li Yan-Jun , Sasabe Hisahiro , Su Shi-Jian , Tanaka Daisaku , Takeda Takashi , Pu Yong-Jin , Kido Junji
Published: June 2009

A series of novel phenanthroline derivatives (Phens) have been synthesized and their application to organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) as an electron-transport layer was investigated. The OLEDs with a structure of ITO/α-NPD/Alq3/Phen/LiF/Al exhibited remarkable performances and lower operating voltages compared to Alq3-based device, indicating that Phens posses favorable electron-transport properties.
Synthesis of Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polyimides with Siloxane Linkages
Authors: Shoji Yu , Higashihara Tomoya , Watanabe Junji , Ueda Mitsuru
Published: June 2009

Thermotropic liquid crystalline (LC) semi-aliphatic polyimides have been developed from 3,3′,4,4′-tetracarboxybiphenyl dianhydride (BPDA) and diamines containing siloxane spacer units. These polyimides exhibited high thermal stability and lower transition temperature compared to the corresponding polyimides containing alkyl or oxyethylene spacer units.
Intracellular Enzyme-responsive Fragmentation of Nonviral Gene Carriers Leads to Polyplex Destabilization and Enhanced Transgene Expression
Authors: Hashimoto Tomoko , Tachibana Yoichi , Nozaki Hisae , Mazda Osam , Niidome Takuro , Murakami Akira , Yamaoka Tetsuji
Published: June 2009

A novel cationic oligopeptide has been developed for bioprocessing-triggered nonviral gene delivery systems. Intracellular fragmentation of the carrier in response to endogenous enzyme, furin, led to destabilized polyplexes and enhanced transgene expression.
Enantioselective Reduction of Aliphatic Ketones Using Oxazaborolidine Catalyst Generated In Situ from Chiral Lactam Alcohol and Phenoxyborane
Authors: Kawanami Yasuhiro , Mikami Yudai , Hoshino Katsuhiro , Suzue Mikiko , Kajihara Izumi
Published: June 2009

Oxazaborolidine catalyst generated in situ from chiral lactam alcohol 3 and p-iodophenoxyborane at room temperature was found to catalyze the enantioselective borane reduction of various prochiral aliphatic ketones at −20 °C with high enantioselectivity up to 98% ee.
Catalytic Cyclization of Alkenyl N,O-Acetals by Fe(OTf)3
Authors: Komeyama Kimihiro , Igawa Ryoichi , Morimoto Takayuki , Takaki Ken
Published: June 2009

Fe(OTf)3, was found to be a good catalyst for the cyclization of alkenyl N,O-acetals to give various nitrogen-containing heterocycles in high yields.
Power equivalence in structural equation modelling
Authors: von Oertzen Timo
Published: June 2009

Implementing large‐scale empirical studies can be very expensive. Therefore, it is useful to optimize study designs without losing statistical power. In this paper, we show how study designs can be improved without changing statistical power by defining power equivalence, a relation between structural equation models (SEMs) that holds true if two SEMs have the same power on a likelihood ratio test to detect a given effect. We show systematic operations of SEMs that maintain power, and give an algorithm that efficiently reduces SEMs to power‐equivalent models with a minimal number of observed parameters. In this way, optimal study designs can be found without reducing statistical power. Furthermore, the algorithm can be used to drastically increase the speed of power computations when using Monte Carlo simulations or approximation methods.
Gender and self‐reported mental health problems: Predictors of help seeking from a general practitioner
Authors: Doherty D. Tedstone , Kartalova‐O'Doherty Y.
Published: June 2009

Objectives

Findings have shown that many people do not seek help when experiencing psychological distress. The main aim of this paper is to examine the socio‐demographic and health status factors that predict help seeking for self‐reported mental health problems for males and females from a general practitioner (GP).

Design

The analysis used data from the HRB National Psychological Wellbeing and Distress Survey – a telephone survey of the population aged 18 years and over.

Methods

Telephone numbers were selected on a random probability basis. An initial set of random clusters was selected from the Geodirectory. Using these sampling areas, random digit dialling was used to generate a random telephone sample. Data were weighted on key variables. Respondents who reported mental health problems in the previous year were included in the current study (382/2,674).

Results

The findings showed gender differences in the models of predictors between males and females with more factors influencing attendance at the GP for males than for females. While only social limitations and access to free health care predicted female attendance, a range of socio‐demographic and psychological factors influenced male attendance.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that a ‘gender sensitive approach’ should be applied to mental health policies and mental health promotion and prevention programmes. Acknowledgement and awareness of the factors that influence help seeking will aid the design of gender specific promotion, prevention, and treatment programmes at primary care level.
Black Children, White Preference: Brown v. Board , the Doll Tests, and the Politics of Self-Esteem
Authors: Bergner Gwen
Published: June 2009

In Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court cited psychologist Kenneth B. Clark for evidence that segregation damaged black children’s self-esteem and hampered their ability to learn. Clark and his wife Mamie had tested black children’s “racial preference” by asking them to choose between black dolls and white dolls, interpreting the choice of white dolls as evidence of damaged self-esteem. After Brown , the Clarks’ studies set the parameters for research on racial identity, self-esteem, and child development—even though they were discredited on methodological and statistical grounds in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Subsequent research showed that the doll tests do not measure self-esteem and, further, that African American children do not have low self-esteem. Nonetheless, social science remains invested in the conception of proper racial identification. The doll tests’ contested history suggests that we need to replace this conception with a model of adaptive, negotiated, and hybrid racial identification.
The Game Theory Narrative and the Myth of the National Security State
Authors: Belletto Steven
Published: June 2009

This essay explores what the author terms the “game theory narrative,” a cultural narrative that gained prominence in American culture in the early years of the Cold War. For many Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s, game theory was a way for scientists, in collusion with the US government, to prevent nuclear exchange by conceptualizing the Cold War as a game, and by playing this game according to specific rational strategies. The first part of the essay describes how the game theory narrative popularized the idea that the rationality of pure mathematics could be applied to manage some major threats of the Cold War—the menace of an unknown enemy and the specter of an accidental nuclear exchange. The following sections explore how this narrative was both exemplified and criticized by a variety of creative works and other artifacts of Cold War culture.
"Circular Reasoning": Recentering Cherokee Women in the Antiremoval Campaigns
Authors: Miles Tiya
Published: June 2009

In 1829-1830 Catharine Beecher, Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney, and numerous white women across the Northeast and Midwest launched a successful petition campaign against Indian removal that has been called the first organized political action undertaken by American women. This article repositions the New England women’s campaign within a longer trajectory of American women’s activism, namely, Cherokee women’s political organizing. In the early 1800s, Cherokee women recognized the threat of removal and rose in defense of themselves and their communities. The Cherokee women’s antiremoval campaign was not only impressive at the time, but it also was likely to have had an impact on the New England women’s later effort. This story introduces Margaret Ann (Peggy) Scott Vann Crutchfield—a Cherokee nationalist, Christian convert, slaveholder, and activist—as a complex yet important figure in Cherokee history, Native American women’s history, and U.S. women’s history.