bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Spontaneous regeneration of intrinsic spinal cord axons in a novel spinal cord slice culture model
Authors: Bonnici Brenda , Kapfhammer Josef P.
Published: May 2008

A substantial problem in research concerned with axonal repair is the use of a wide variety of lesion models and the complexity associated with the respective in vivo lesion paradigms. Organotypic slice cultures are a potential in vitro alternative because the cytoarchitectonic tissue organization is well preserved and the slices can be maintained in culture for several weeks. Until now no spinal cord slice culture model for the study of axonal growth has been available. Here we present a spinal cord slice culture model that is well suited for the study of axonal growth. The spinal cord slices were cut not in the transverse but in the sagittal longitudinal plane such that several spinal cord segments were included in the slice culture. In these cultures the typical ventro‐dorsal polarity of the spinal cord was maintained and intrinsic spinal cord axons formed a strong fibre tract extending along the longitudinal axis of the slice. The axons became myelinated during the culture period and synaptic contacts were present in these cultures. After mechanical lesions the intrinsic spinal cord axons had a substantial potential for axonal growth and regeneration. The number of regenerating axons crossing the lesion site decreased with increasing maturation of the culture, but even in mature cultures a small number of crossing fibres were present. This slice culture model could provide an important tool for several aspects of spinal cord research in the fields of axonal growth and regeneration, synapse formation, formation of intrinsic spinal cord circuits and myelination.
The forced swimming‐induced behavioural immobility response involves histone H3 phospho‐acetylation and c‐Fos induction in dentate gyrus granule neurons via activation of the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate/extracellular signal‐regulated kinase/mitogen‐ and stress‐activated kinase signalling pathway
Authors: Chandramohan Yalini , Droste Susanne K. , Arthur J. Simon C. , Reul Johannes M. H. M.
Published: May 2008

The hippocampus is involved in learning and memory. Previously, we have shown that the acquisition of the behavioural immobility response after a forced swim experience is associated with chromatin modifications and transcriptional induction in dentate gyrus granule neurons. Given that both N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors and the extracellular signal‐regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2 signalling pathway are involved in neuroplasticity processes underlying learning and memory, we investigated in rats and mice whether these signalling pathways regulate chromatin modifications and transcriptional events participating in the acquisition of the immobility response. We found that: (i) forced swimming evoked a transient increase in the number of phospho‐acetylated histone H3‐positive [P(Ser10)‐Ac(Lys14)‐H3+] neurons specifically in the middle and superficial aspects of the dentate gyrus granule cell layer; (ii) antagonism of NMDA receptors and inhibition of ERK1/2 signalling blocked forced swimming‐induced histone H3 phospho‐acetylation and the acquisition of the behavioural immobility response; (iii) double knockout (DKO) of the histone H3 kinase mitogen‐ and stress‐activated kinases (MSK) 1/2 in mice completely abolished the forced swimming‐induced increases in histone H3 phospho‐acetylation and c‐Fos induction in dentate granule neurons and the behavioural immobility response; (iv) blocking mineralocorticoid receptors, known not to be involved in behavioural immobility in the forced swim test, did not affect forced swimming‐evoked histone H3 phospho‐acetylation in dentate neurons; and (v) the pharmacological manipulations and gene deletions did not affect behaviour in the initial forced swim test. We conclude that the forced swimming‐induced behavioural immobility response requires histone H3 phospho‐acetylation and c‐Fos induction in distinct dentate granule neurons through recruitment of the NMDA/ERK/MSK 1/2 pathway.
The circadian pacemaker in the cultured suprachiasmatic nucleus from pup mice is highly sensitive to external perturbation
Authors: Nishide Shin‐ya , Honma Sato , Honma Ken‐ichi
Published: May 2008

The circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN) entrains to non‐photic maternal rhythms in the fetal and neonatal periods of rodents but this capacity disappears in later life. In order to understand the mechanism behind the non‐photic entrainment in the early postnatal period, the phase response of the clock gene (Bmal1) expression rhythm to external stimuli was examined in cultured SCN harvested at postnatal day 6. The SCN was obtained from transgenic mice carrying a bioluminescence reporter for Bmal1 expression. Phase‐dependent phase shifts of circadian rhythm were detected in the pup as well as in the adult for culture medium exchange but the amount of phase shift was significantly larger in the pup than in the adult SCN. Half of the pup SCNs did not show integrated circadian rhythmicities in the first few days in culture. In pups, the circadian period of Bmal1 expression rhythm was shorter and the amplitude of circadian rhythm was much lower than in adults. It is concluded that the responsiveness of cultured SCN to medium exchange is much larger in pups than in adult mice. Immaturity of the structural organization in the circadian system seems to underlie the high responsiveness of the pup SCN.
Evidence for topographically organized endogenous 5‐HT‐1A receptor‐dependent feedback inhibition of the ascending serotonin system
Authors: Commons Kathryn G.
Published: May 2008

Raphe and extra‐raphe 5‐HT‐1A receptors contribute to feedback inhibition of serotonin (5‐HT) neurons; however, the endogenous function of 5‐HT‐1A receptor‐dependent feedback inhibition remains poorly understood. Here, the possibility that 5‐HT‐1A‐mediated feedback inhibition of the raphe nuclei is topographically organized was examined. This was done by testing the effect of systemic blockade of 5‐HT‐1A receptors on Fos expression in 5‐HT neurons in the dorsal raphe (DR) and median raphe (MR). The premise was that appearance of Fos after 5‐HT‐1A receptor blockade would implicate endogenous inhibition via 5‐HT‐1A‐dependent processes. 5‐HT‐1A receptor antagonist administration (WAY‐100635) in rats returned to their home cage significantly increased the number of Fos‐containing 5‐HT cells in the lateral wings and the ventral caudal part of the DR as compared to vehicle‐injected controls, suggesting that tonic activity of brain 5‐HT‐1A receptors impacts on these regions. In rats receiving vehicle injections, swim, a behavior known to influence 5‐HT neurotransmission, increased the number of Fos‐containing 5‐HT cells only in the caudal third of DR. Administration of WAY‐100635 preceding a swim did not change the amount of Fos in the caudal DR, but increased the number of Fos‐containing 5‐HT cells in the rostral DR, lateral wings of the DR, and MR. These results confirm, using an imaging approach, that 5‐HT‐1A receptor‐dependent feedback inhibition depends on behavioral state (return to home cage vs. swim). Moreover, they reveal that the effect of 5‐HT‐1A receptor blockade in each case is subregionally organized.
Abundant and diverse bacteria involved in DMSP degradation in marine surface waters
Authors: Howard Erinn C. , Sun Shulei , Biers Erin J. , Moran Mary Ann
Published: May 2008

An expanded analysis of oceanic metagenomic data indicates that the majority of prokaryotic cells in marine surface waters have the genetic capability to demethylate dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). The 1701 homologues of the DMSP demethylase gene, dmdA, identified in the (2007) Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) metagenome, are sufficient for 58% (±9%) of sampled cells to participate in this critical step in the marine sulfur cycle. This remarkable frequency of DMSP‐demethylating cells is in accordance with biogeochemical data indicating that marine phytoplankton direct up to 10% of fixed carbon to DMSP synthesis, and that most of this DMSP is subsequently degraded by bacteria via demethylation. The GOS metagenomic data also revealed a new cluster of dmdA sequences (designated Clade E) that implicates marine gammaproteobacteria in DMSP demethylation, along with previously recognized alphaproteobacterial groups Roseobacter and SAR11. Analyses of G+C content and gene order indicate that lateral gene transfer is likely responsible for the wide distribution of dmdA among diverse taxa, contributing to the homogenization of biogeochemical roles among heterotrophic marine bacterioplankton. Candidate genes for the competing bacterial degradation process that converts DMSP to the climate‐active gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) (dddD and dddL) occur infrequently in the (2007) GOS metagenome, suggesting either that the key DMS‐producing bacterial genes are yet to be identified or that DMS formation by free‐living bacterioplankton is insignificant relative to their demethylation activity.
Magnetic resonance imaging accuracy in assessing tumour down‐staging following chemoradiation in rectal cancer
Authors: Suppiah A. , Hunter I. A. , Cowley J. , Garimella V. , Cast J. , Hartley J. E. , Monson J. R. T.
Published: May 2008

Objective  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly accepted as the radiological modality of choice staging rectal cancer but is subject to error. Neoadjuvant therapy is increasingly used in rectal cancer and MRI is used to stage response and occasionally plan surgery. We aim to assess the staging accuracy of MRI following chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer.

Method  Retrospective analysis of 86 patients with MRI stage pre‐ and postlong‐course chemoradiotherapy and comparison with pathological assessment.

Results  Fourty‐nine patients (34 men, 15 women) with median age 68 years (60–74) were analysed. The median time from completion of CRT to MRI was 32 days (16–37). Chemoradiotherapy led to significant down‐staging (P < 0.001). MRI‐staging accuracy was 43% (21/49) with over‐ and under‐staging in 43% (21/49) and 14% (7/49) respectively. T‐stage accuracy was 45% (22/49) with over‐staging in 33% (16/49) and under‐staging in 22% (11/49). MRI stage correlated poorly with pathological assessment for International Union Against Cancer (κ = 0.255) and T stages (κ = 0.112). MRI nodal assessment was 71% (35/49) accurate, with 82% (9/11) sensitivity, 68% (26/38) specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of 43% (9/21) and negative predictive value of 93% (26/28). There was a significant difference in node positivity between MRI and pathological staging (P = 0.005, Fisher’s exact). Complete radiological response was observed in 4% (2/49). Complete pathological response was observed in 10% (5/49), which were staged 0(1), I(1), II(2) and III(1) postchemoradiotherapy by MRI.

Conclusion  MRI staging following chemoradiation is poor. Over‐staging occurs three times more commonly than under‐staging. Over‐staging is due to poor PPV of nodal assessment.
The correlation between tumour regression grade and lymph node status after chemoradiation in rectal cancer
Authors: Berho M. , Oviedo M. , Stone E. , Chen C. , Nogueras J. , Weiss E. , Sands D. , Wexner S.
Published: May 2008

Objective  To determine the correlation between tumour response to preoperative RCTX and lymph node status, an established parameter of clinical outcome.

Method  After IRB approval, 86 consecutive rectal cancer patients who received preoperative RCTX were identified. Fifty seven were males. Mean age 62 years. Preoperative staging by ultrasound was available in 60 patients. Radiotherapy consisted of (40–60 g) and chemotherapy of 5‐FU infusion (1500 mg/m2 week), assessed using Dworak’s system.

Results  Tumour response according to Tumor regression grade (TRG) were: TRG 0: 8 (9.3%); TRG 1: 15 (17.4%); TRG 2: 14 (16.2%); TRG 3: 31 (36%); TRG 4: 18 (20%). Eighteen patients had tumour stage 0 (20.9%); while 8 (9.2%), 28 (32.1%), 30 (34.5%) and three had tumours stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Evaluation of nodal status revealed no involvement in 65 patients (N0), and positive nodes in 21 (14 N1, 7 N2). Response to RCTX was significantly associated with node stage, hence individuals without node involvement (N0) had 66% of positive tumour response (TRG 4), while individuals with node metastasis had less response to RCTX (TRG 0, 1 and 2) 35% N1 and 14% for N2 (P = 0.007). Node status was independently associated to poor response to preoperative RCTX, even after adjusting for tumour stage, age and gender (OR 0.02, 95% CI 0.0009–0.67).

Conclusion  Tumour shrinkage by preoperative RCTX appears to correlate with lymph node metastasis suggesting that neoadjuvant RCTX may have a positive impact in overall patient survival.
Pioglitazone and cardiovascular risk. A comprehensive meta‐analysis of randomized clinical trials
Authors: Mannucci E. , Monami M. , Lamanna C. , Gensini G. F. , Marchionni N.
Published: May 2008

Aim:  The aim of this meta‐analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCT) was to assess whether pioglitazone is also associated with increased cardiovascular risk, as recently reported for rosiglitazone.

Methods:  RCT of pioglitazone were retrieved from Medline (any date up to 31 August 2007; English language only). Unpublished RCT were identified through http://www.clinicaltrials.gov or http://www.fda.gov websites, and results on cardiovascular outcomes were retrieved from investigators and/or sponsors, whenever possible. RCT were included in meta‐analysis if pioglitazone was compared with other treatments (placebo, active comparators or no treatment) for at least 4 weeks. Ninety‐four trials, 10 of which were unpublished, were retrieved; those included in the analysis, which excluded PROspective PioglitAzone Clinical Trial In MacroVascular Events (PROACTIVE), enrolled 11 268 and 9912 patients in the pioglitazone and comparator groups respectively. Data for analysis, extracted independently by two observers, included all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality and incidence of non‐fatal coronary events and heart failure. Proportions of outcome measures across treatment groups were compared by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval.

Results:  Pioglitazone was associated with reduced all‐cause mortality [OR 0.30 (0.14–0.63); p < 0.05], with no relevant effect on non‐fatal coronary events. The observed increase in incidence of non‐fatal heart failure was not statistically significant [OR 1.38 (0.90–2.12)].

Conclusion:  The use of pioglitazone does not appear to be harmful in terms of cardiovascular events and all‐cause deaths.
Structure of sperm, spermatozeugmata and ‘lateral organs’ in the bivalve Arthritica (Galeommatoidea: Leptonidae)
Authors: Jespersen Åse , Lützen Jørgen
Published: May 2008

The position and structure of paired ‘lateral organs’ in the foot of Arthritica semen and Arthritica bifurca might indicate a chemosensory function. In both species part of the organ is also glandular. In A. semen the glandular epithelium is detached piecemeal and, probably by means of the foot, is moved to and grafted upon the gills of the same individual. The transferred epithelia appear as disk‐shaped actively secretory ‘gill bodies’ which, attached to the abfrontal side of the inner demibranch, replace the ordinary unciliated gill epithelium. The secretion is liberated into the suprabranchial chamber, which serves as a marsupium, but its function is uncertain. Arthritica semen is a protandric hermaphrodite and produces very large ova that undergo a direct development that results in a non‐planktonic lecithotrophic crawling juvenile stage. The sperm cells have filiform nuclei that are straight in the euspermatozoa and more or less helicoidal in what is considered to represent paraspermatozoa. By a process of aggregation, spermatozeugmata are formed which consist exclusively either of euspermatozoa or paraspermatozoa. Spermatozoa are stored in the oviduct in A. semen but in paired seminal receptacles in A. bifurca.
Structure of the ovaries of the primitive aphids Phylloxera coccinea and Phylloxera glabra (Hemiptera, Aphidinea: Phylloxeridae)
Authors: Szklarzewicz Teresa , Jankowska Władysława , Wieczorek Karina , Węgierek Piotr
Published: May 2008

Ovaries of phylloxerids consist of short telotrophic ovarioles. Ovaries of wingless morphs contain four ovarioles whereas those of winged morphs contain one or two ovarioles. The individual ovariole of the adult female is differentiated into a terminal filament, trophic chamber (tropharium), vitellarium and short ovariole stalk (pedicel). The number of germ cells constituting ovarioles is not stable and ranges between 49 and 64. The tropharia enclose individual trophocytes and arrested oocytes. The vitellaria contain usually two oocytes, which develop through three stages: previtellogenesis, vitellogenesis and choriogenesis. Endosymbiotic microorganisms do not occur in the germ cells. In the light of the obtained results, the phylogenetic relationships between aphid families are discussed.
Symptoms of depression in people with impaired glucose metabolism or Type 2 diabetes mellitus: The Hoorn Study
Authors: Adriaanse M. C. , Dekker J. M. , Heine R. J. , Snoek F. J. , Beekman A. J. , Stehouwer C. D. , Bouter L. M. , Nijpels G. , Pouwer F.
Published: May 2008

Objective  To study the prevalence and risk factors of depressive symptoms, comparing subjects with normal glucose metabolism (NGM), impaired glucose metabolism (IGM) or Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2).

Research design and methods  Cross‐sectional data from a population‐based cohort study conducted among 550 residents (276 men and 274 women) of the Hoorn region, the Netherlands. Levels of depressive symptoms were measured using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES‐D score ≥ 16). Glucose metabolism status was determined by means of fasting and post‐load glucose levels.

Results  The prevalence of depressive symptoms in men with NGM, IGM and DM2 was 7.7, 7.0 and 15.0% (P = 0.19) and for women 7.7, 23.1 and 19.7% (P < 0.01), respectively. Depression was significantly more common in women with IGM [odds ratio (OR) = 3.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.57 to 8.28] and women with DM2 (OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 1.31 to 7.74). In men, depression was not associated with IGM (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.32 to 2.57) and non‐significantly more common in DM2 (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 0.75 to 5.49). Adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular disease and diabetes symptoms reduced the strength of these associations.

Conclusions  Depressive symptoms are more common in women with IGM, but not men. Adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular disease and diabetes symptoms partially attenuated these associations, suggesting that these variables could be intermediate factors.
Genetic engineering of improved nitrogen use efficiency in rice by the tissue‐specific expression of alanine aminotransferase
Authors: Shrawat Ashok K. , Carroll Rebecka T. , DePauw Mary , Taylor Gregory J. , Good Allen G.
Published: May 2008

Nitrogen is quantitatively the most essential nutrient for plants and a major factor limiting crop productivity. One of the critical steps limiting the efficient use of nitrogen is the ability of plants to acquire it from applied fertilizer. Therefore, the development of crop plants that absorb and use nitrogen more efficiently has been a long‐term goal of agricultural research. In an attempt to develop nitrogen‐efficient plants, rice (Oryza sativa L.) was genetically engineered by introducing a barley AlaAT (alanine aminotransferase) cDNA driven by a rice tissue‐specific promoter (OsAnt1). This modification increased the biomass and grain yield significantly in comparison with control plants when plants were well supplied with nitrogen. Compared with controls, transgenic rice plants also demonstrated significant changes in key metabolites and total nitrogen content, indicating increased nitrogen uptake efficiency. The development of crop plants that take up and assimilate nitrogen more efficiently would not only improve the use of nitrogen fertilizers, resulting in lower production costs, but would also have significant environmental benefits. These results are discussed in terms of their relevance to the development of strategies to engineer enhanced nitrogen use efficiency in crop plants.
The Council for the Australian Federation: A New Structure of Australian Federalism
Authors: Tiernan Anne
Published: May 2008

In October 2006, state premiers and territory chief ministers gathered in Melbourne for the first meeting of the Council for the Australian Federation (CAF). This little‐heralded event marked the beginning of the first formalised structure for state and territory only collaboration since Federation. This article describes the genesis and creation of this new structural response to ongoing state concerns about the trend to an increasingly centralised pattern of Commonwealth‐state relations. It identifies the intended functions of the Council, which include: acting as a mechanism for coordinating approaches to negotiations with the Commonwealth; operating as a clearing house for policy ideas in Australia and internationally; harmonising regulatory frameworks; and developing improvements to service delivery in areas of state responsibility.

Informed by interviews with key players involved with its establishment and documentary sources, this article assesses CAF's performance during its first 18 months of operation. It explores the hopes and aspirations of key CAF stakeholders, and some of the issues that have confronted the fledgling organisation. Personnel changes among the cohort of state and territory leaders, and the election of a federal Labor government in November 2007 have altered the dynamics of CAF. The article argues that CAF's emergence is an attempt by sub‐national governments to develop new capacity and leverage to address the asymmetries that characterise contemporary Australian federalism. However, there are questions about CAF's future, particularly about state and territory governments' capacity to pursue collaborative agendas given the pace and scope of Kevin Rudd's ‘new federalism’ reforms and the demands it is placing on their policy and administrative systems.
Being a Good Senior Manager in Indigenous Community Governance: Working with Public Purpose and Private Benefit
Authors: Sanders Will
Published: May 2008

This article seeks to understand the role of being a senior manager in Indigenous community governance, particularly though not exclusively in remote Aboriginal communities. It argues against the tendency of would‐be reformers of Indigenous community governance to focus on the competence and ethical qualities of those who occupy these roles and asks instead how can isolated managerialism in Indigenous community governance be overcome?

The article begins with an overview of Ralph Folds' analysis of relations between Pintupi settlements and the larger Australian polity. While taking much from Folds' analysis, the article argues that ultimately he relies too heavily on the idea of antithetical worldviews across the settlement interface, on a problematic distinction between the official and private uses of publicly allocated resources and on too idealist a view of the Australian state. The article argues that the state's allocation of public resources inevitably involves a flow of private benefits and that public purposes and private benefits are not different phenomena, but rather different perspectives on state action. In contrast to Folds' idealism about the state, the article outlines a more thoroughly realist or materialist analysis of being a good senior manager in Indigenous community governance. In its concluding section, the article makes some suggestions for overcoming isolated managerialism in Indigenous community governance oganisations.
The White House as a Black Box: Oral History and the Problem of Evidence in Presidential Studies
Authors: Riley Russell L.
Published: May 2008

Scholars who study the American presidency usually have to rely on indirect evidence for understanding the internal operations of the ‘black box’ that is a contemporaneous White House. Most of the direct evidence about White House behavior becomes available only after a president has left office, when confidential communications are opened to the public by the presidential libraries. In recent years, however, such direct evidence has become increasingly inaccessible, because of changes in the record-keeping habits of senior executive branch officials and because of the politics of archival release. This article explores the nature and extent of these problems, and how elite oral history interviewing can compensate for them. It further examines the strengths and weaknesses of oral history as a means of learning about the usually hidden workings of the American presidency.
Failures of Political Thinking
Authors: Freeden Michael
Published: May 2008

The article investigates failures of political thinking as a normal and endemic phenomenon, yet one that is theoretically under-conceptualised. It postulates three criteria for such failure: (1) the failure to deliver ideationally what the political theory in question has itself undertaken through its creator(s) to deliver; (2) the failure to take on board the constraints imposed on the initial construction of a theory or argument by the features and structure of political concepts; and (3) the failure of the specific epistemologies and ideologies that underlie political theorising to confer sufficient conclusiveness on the theories that emerge from them. The underlying causes of those three criteria invoke, in turn, three problems with political language and argument: first, the impossibility of keeping meaning constant over time; second, the indeterminacy that surrounds the eliciting and defining of the concepts and values a theory desires to promote; and third, the inevitable ineffectiveness of offering sufficient comprehensive detail in prescribing paths of political change or reform. Focusing on normatively prescriptive political thinking with regard to the construction of political macro visions and single overarching regulative principles, the article examines classical and contemporary instances of political thought. It studies their failures in the forms of uncontrollable and absent temporal trajectories of argument; conceptual polysemy and decontestation; and the impediments normative thinking encounters when applied to the distinctive circumstances of every individual. Finally, it dismisses any necessary connection between theories of failure and conservatism, arguing instead that liberal epistemologies can accommodate some salient conceptual failures in thinking about politics. The article concludes that modest failure and temporary success may not be that distinct from one another; anything more spectacular in either direction should cause political theorists to ponder.
A Realistic Utopia? Nancy Fraser, Cosmopolitanism and the Making of a Just World Order
Authors: Lawson George
Published: May 2008

Nearly two decades after the end of the Cold War, academics, policy makers and commentators continue to be puzzled by the shape, form and content of contemporary world politics. The fluidity of the post-Cold War era has seen the elevation of largely functional explanations for why things are to a more transcendent set of ideas about how social relations can be made afresh. This shift from ideology to utopia is no idle problem, for what it tends to generate are images which often lie outside historical experience and time and place specificities. This article is an attempt to provide a corrective to at least parts of this malady by carrying out a Zeitdiagnose which questions some of the taken-for-granted assumptions about the current period, in particular the schema offered by the prominent cosmopolitan thinker, Nancy Fraser. The article looks in detail at the historical basis of Fraser's current work, comparing it both to similar visions prevalent in the inter-war years and to contemporary programmes based on the theory of the democratic peace and the policy of democracy promotion. The article develops a construct — realistic utopias — which aims to build from history to mid-range abstractions rather than from general abstractions to events on the ground. As a result, it is argued, a more developed link can be made between theory and practice, abstraction and history, normative project and institutional reality.
Environmental Obligations and the Limits of Transnational Citizenship
Authors: Mason Andrew
Published: May 2008

Notions of cosmopolitan and environmental citizenship have emerged in response to concerns about environmental sustainability and global inequality. But even if there are obligations of egalitarian justice that extend across state boundaries, or obligations of environmental justice to use resources in a sustainable way that are owed to those beyond our borders, it is far from clear that these are best conceptualised as obligations of global or environmental citizenship. Through identifying a core concept of citizenship, I suggest that citizenship obligations are, by their nature, owed (at least in part) in virtue of other aspects of one's common citizenship, and that obligations of justice, even when they arise as a result of interconnectedness or past interactions, are not best conceived as obligations of citizenship in the absence of some other bond that unites the parties. Without ruling out the possibility of beneficial conceptual change, I argue that Andrew Dobson's model of ecological citizenship is flawed because there is no good reason to regard the obligations of environmental justice which it identifies as obligations of ecological citizenship, and that other models of cosmopolitan or global citizenship face a similar objection.
The Role of Firm Size and Performance Pay in Determining Employee Job Satisfaction Brief: Firm Size, Performance Pay, and Job Satisfaction
Authors: Artz Benjamin
Published: May 2008

Abstract.  Job satisfaction reflects the on‐the‐job utility of workers and has been found to influence both the behavior of workers and the productivity of firms. Performance pay remains popular and widely used to increase worker productivity and more generally align the objectives of workers and firms. Yet, its impact on job satisfaction is ambiguous. Whereas the increased earnings increase job satisfaction, the increased effort and risk decreases job satisfaction. This paper finds empirical evidence that on net performance pay increases job satisfaction but does so largely among union workers and males in larger firms.
Worker Heterogeneity, New Monopsony, and Training
Authors: Booth Alison L. , Zoega Gylfi
Published: May 2008

Abstract.  A worker's output depends not only on his/her own ability but also on that of colleagues, who can facilitate the performance of tasks that each individual cannot accomplish on his/her own. We show that this common‐sense observation generates monopsony power and is sufficient to explain why employers might expend resources on training employees even when the training is of use to other firms. We show that training will take place in better‐than‐average or ‘good’ firms enjoying greater monopsony power, whereas ‘bad’ firms will have low‐ability workers unlikely to receive much training.
Why Do Women's Wages Increase So Slowly Throughout Their Career? A Dynamic Model of Statistical Discrimination
Authors: Havet Nathalie , Sofer Catherine
Published: May 2008

Abstract.  The aim of this paper is to explain the growing wage differentials between men and women during their working careers. We provide a dynamic model of statistical discrimination, which integrates specific human capital decisions: on‐the‐job training investment and wages are endogenously determined. We reveal a small wage differential at the beginning of women's career, but women's wages increase more slowly; this is partly due to a lower level of human capital investment by women and partly because firms smooth training costs between different periods.
Regression–Discontinuity Analysis: A Survey of Recent Developments in Economics
Authors: Van Der Klaauw Wilbert
Published: May 2008

Abstract.  This paper provides a discussion of recent developments related to the applicability of the regression discontinuity design in economics. It reviews econometric issues, such as identification and estimation methods, as well as a number of sensitivity and validity tests of importance in empirical application.
An Appraisal of Economic Research on Changes in Wage Inequality
Authors: Machin Stephen
Published: May 2008

Abstract.  In this paper (based on my invited lecture to the 2007 Association of Italian Labour Economists) I offer an appraisal of the large economic literature on changes in wage inequality. I describe the origins of the recent work, the sizable body of research trying to understand national and international differences, and discuss the directions in which more recent work has moved. The paper concludes with the observation that, for a number of reasons, research that tries to better understand changing patterns of wage inequality (especially in a cross‐country context) is likely to remain high on the research agenda of empirical labour economists.
Securitization and Rate Setting in the UK Mortgage Market*
Authors: PAIS AMELIA
Published: May 2008

The objective of this paper is to investigate the way mortgage rates are set by lenders funded by deposits versus lenders funded in the capital markets by securitization. The paper tests the response of both types of lenders to changes in market rates using an Error Correction Model. The results obtained here show that the rates of lenders opting for securitization adjust slightly faster to changes in market rates, lowering borrower costs at times of falling interest rates; the difference in mark‐up over the market rate is also lower on average for these lenders although it is not statistically significant. On the contrary, depository institutions seem to engage in more interest rate smoothing, confirming one of the distinctive characteristics of traditional bank lending, the provision of risk‐sharing opportunities to borrowers.
Structure and allometry of genitalia in males and females of a social African ground squirrel with high polygynandry
Authors: Manjerovic M. B. , Kinahan A. A. , Waterman J. M. , Bennett N. C. , Bateman P. W.
Published: May 2008

The few studies that have looked at genital allometry in mammals have typically shown a positively allometric relationship with body size and high coefficients of variation. Cryptic female choice, sexual conflict or sperm competition are mechanisms underlying genital evolution and as these are not mutually exclusive, they are often difficult to disentangle. In addition, these mechanisms are affected by both male and female social structure and/or mating strategies and, as such, pre‐ and post‐copulatory behaviours have been shown to alter selection on genitalia. We examined genital traits and allometry in a polygynandrous and social ground squirrel Xerus inauris. We found that male testes are positively allometric and account for 1.5% of their body weight, one of the highest percentages known for sciurids. The penis, at 42.4% of head/body length, was isometric while the female reproductive tract, 22.4% head/body length, demonstrated no such relationship. Based on the allometric relationships of both males and females presented here, in conjunction with high levels of competition for females and lack of male aggression and territoriality, we suggest that sperm competition is the most likely mechanism for the evolution of the extremely large genitalia in this species.
Diving behaviour, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties: a comparison of hatchling and juvenile Australian turtles
Authors: Clark N. J. , Gordos M. A. , Franklin C. E.
Published: May 2008

Australia has a number of bimodally respiring freshwater turtle species that use aquatic respiration to extend their aerobic dive limit. While species variations in reliance on aquatic respiration are reflected in the diving behaviour and ecology of adults, it is unknown whether these relationships also occur in hatchling and juvenile turtles. This study compared the diving behaviour, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties of hatchling and juveniles from five species of Australian freshwater turtles: Rheodytes leukops, Elusor macrurus, Elseya albagula, Elseya latisternum and Emydura signata. Both diving behaviour and physiology differed significantly between species as well as age classes. Dive duration in R. leukops was 17 times longer than the other species, with two hatchlings remaining submerged for the entire 72 h recording period. The long dive duration recorded for R. leukops was supported by a high reliance on aquatic respiration (63–73%) and high blood oxygen affinity (P50=17.24 mmHg). A correlation between dive duration, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties was not observed in the remaining turtle species where, despite the longer dive duration of Els. albagula and Elu. macrurus compared with Em. signata and Els. latisternum, there was no difference observed in per cent aquatic respiration or blood oxygen affinity between these species. When compared with adult individuals (data from previous studies), dive duration was positively correlated with body size in Em. signata, Els. albagula and R. leukops, but a negative relationship occurred in Els. latisternum and Elu. macrurus.
Recurrences in heart rate dynamics are changed in patients with diabetes mellitus
Authors: Javorka Michal , Trunkvalterova Zuzana , Tonhajzerova Ingrid , Lazarova Zuzana , Javorkova Jana , Javorka Kamil
Published: May 2008

Detection of subclinical autonomic dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) is of vital importance for risk stratification and subsequent management. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a sensitive tool for assessment of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction. As the heart is controlled by non‐linear deterministic system, the non‐linear dynamics measures should be preferred. Recurrence plot (RP) is able to analyse recurrences within system dynamics. The aim of the study was to detect heart rate dysregulation in DM by RP and to ascertain which of the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) measures are changed in patients with DM compared to control group. We analysed HRV recordings from 17 young patients with type 1 DM and 17 healthy matched control subjects. RQA was performed on RPs with a fixed value of recurrence points percentage. From RQA measures based on diagonal lines, we have found higher percentage of determinism in DM group (P = 0·038). Trapping time measure was also higher in DM (P = 0·022). RQA revealed changes in dynamics recurrences with reduced complexity of heart rate control in young diabetic patients. As RQA parameters are independent of overall HRV, parameters of RP should be used together with linear HRV parameters for better description of heart rate dysregulation in patients with diabetics.
Fatigue Performance of Sandwich Beams With Peel Stoppers
Authors: Bozhevolnaya E. , Jakobsen J. , Thomsen O. T.
Published: May 2008

Abstract:  This paper concerns a newly developed peel stopper for sandwich structures, which may be embedded as a core insert or an edge stiffener. The major purpose of the peel stopper is to prevent large debonds/delaminations between face sheets and core in sandwich structures in the case of failure. Experimental investigations of conventional sandwich beams and beams furnished with peel stoppers, under static and fatigue loading conditions, and with temperature monitoring, were conducted. The experimental programme included investigation of crack initiation and propagation, as well as of fatigue endurance of conventional and modified sandwich beams. The results showed that although the peel stoppers did not significantly influence the fatigue life of the sandwich beams, they were exceptionally effective in re‐routing the crack propagation away from the face–core interface. Moreover, one of the two peel stopper designs presented prevented face–core debonding/delamination and total failure of the sandwich beams.
Rosamond's complaint: Daniel, Ovid, and the purpose of poetry
Authors: Guy‐Bray Stephen
Published: May 2008

Samuel Daniel's The Complaint of Rosamond was first published in 1592 as the second half of Daniel's first book. In this poem, the ghost of Henry II's mistress Rosamond appears to Daniel to commission a poem. Daniel's precedents for his poem are the complaint poems written in the late 1580s and early 1590s and, ultimately, Ovid's Heroides. The Heroides provide a female perspective on love stories usually told from the male point of view; they are also hopelessly belated texts that have no effect on the narratives to which they contribute. For Daniel, the Heroides are a useful precedent as they allow him to raise questions about the effect of poetry. Can poetry do or change anything? This is an especially pertinent question for Daniel, whose sonnet sequence Delia chronicles the speaker's repeated failure to make any impression on the hard heart of the woman he loves. Related to this is a second question: is poetry justified if its end is immoral? The Complaint of Rosamond functions as a comment both on the Heroides themselves and on Daniel's own sense of himself as a poet.
Sexual and political liberty and neo‐Latin poetics: the Heroides of Mark Alexander Boyd
Authors: Paleit Edward
Published: May 2008

This article examines responses to the Heroides by the Scottish neo‐Latin poet Mark Alexander Boyd, composed whilst in ‘exile’ in France during the 1580s and early 1590s. Boyd's engagements reflect the priorities of contemporary humanist interpretations of the Heroides, on the one hand positioning Ovid's poems as models for elegant Latin verse composition, and on the other reading them as guides to female sexual (mis)conduct. Such an approach tended to reinforce Renaissance prejudices about sex and gender, as Boyd's efforts amply reveal. Yet the exorbitance of female love elegy also permitted a limited critique of such norms, and this is demonstrated in Boyd's second set of responses, the Heroides et Hymni (1592), which suggestively collocate his personal political difficulties with women's sexual freedom.
Ovid's Heroides, Drayton and the articulation of the feminine in the English Renaissance
Authors: Clarke Danielle
Published: May 2008

This essay argues that Michael Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles engages in a highly productive and transformative relationship with Ovid's Heroides, one which focuses on the utility and application of the female voice. By adapting the Ovidian model to a distinctively patterned version of English history, Drayton manages to invest the female voice with both authority and political meaning, as the various female figures outline the symbolic importance of the feminine to the public sphere and to dynastic stability. The means by which Drayton does this are heavily indebted to the practices of imitation and invention, yet in the process, Drayton produces heroines who critique and comment on male conduct, particularly sexual conduct, whilst manipulating early modern culture's norms for women's textual production. At the same time, Drayton also attempts to enhance his own poetic authority by his overt competition with Ovid.
The early modern afterlife of Ovidian erotics: Dryden's Heroides
Authors: Andreadis Harriette
Published: May 2008

This essay examines translations of Ovid's Heroides as they evolve from the late sixteenth century into the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It focuses on the figure of Sappho in Ovid's fifteenth epistle as the principal guide to the trajectory of an Ovidian erotics that develops within a changing literary and cultural context in early modern London. The analysis begins with a brief survey of early translations and then explores in detail the additions, variations, and accretions that occur in the many editions (from 1680 until after 1720) of Ovid's Epistles, translated by several hands, originally gathered by John Dryden and published by Jacob Tonson both during and after Dryden's lifetime, as well as the significance of the parodies of Dryden's collection and the independent life taken on, a century later, by Sir Carr Scrope's translation for Dryden of ‘Sappho to Phaon’. The essay contributes to our knowledge of the life of literary coteries in early modern London, of early book history as it was guided by an important London publisher, and of early modern gender dynamics as they were mediated by London literary circles and their relation to the classics.
Would African Countries Benefit from the Termination of Kenya’s Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU? An Analysis of EU Demand for Imported Roses
Authors: Muhammad Andrew
Published: May 2008

This paper assesses the impact of Kenya’s preferential status on EU demand for imported roses by country. Import demand equations were estimated using a production version of the Rotterdam model in an Armington framework. With the expiration of the Lomé Convention, tariffs (up to 24%) on Kenyan roses were likely if an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was not signed by January 2008. Roses from African countries not subject to tariffs were expected to displace Kenya’s exports in the future. However, results of this study showed that roses from African countries were complements in the EU market and those exports from Zimbabwe and Other African countries would have been negatively impacted if a Kenya–EU EPA was unsuccessful. Given the maximum import duty on Kenyan roses, EU imports from Kenya would decrease by 9.1% and imports from Zimbabwe and Other African countries would decrease by 6% and 4%, respectively.
The Martin Marprelate Tracts (1588–89) and the Popular Voice1
Authors: Black Joseph L.
Published: May 2008

The Martin Marprelate Tracts (1588–89), long regarded as some of the finest and most influential Elizabethan prose satires, have recently played a justifiably key role in discussions of pamphlet warfare, libel, late sixteenth‐century communication practices, and the development of an early modern English public sphere. This article argues that the primary aim of the Marprelate project was to create a polemic that would generate and legitimate popular discussion of controverted issues. Evidence that the project succeeded in this aim is more elusive, but local examples of ‘Martinism’ in action do exist, and the wave of hostile response they generated reveals that the Marprelate tracts shaped contemporary perceptions of both the dangers and the possibilities of a public sphere – even if that sphere might not yet have fully existed.