bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genetic polymorphisms of MDM2 and TP53 genes are associated with risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in a Chinese population
Authors: Xiao Mang , Zhang Lei , Zhu Xinhua , Huang Jun , Jiang Huifen , Hu Sunhong , Liu Yuehui
Published: April 2010

Background

The tumor suppressor TP53 and its negative regulator MDM2 play crucial roles in carcinogenesis. Previous case-control studies also revealed TP53 72Arg>Pro and MDM2 309T>G polymorphisms contribute to the risk of common cancers. However, the relationship between these two functional polymorphisms and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) susceptibility has not been explored.

Methods

In this study, we performed a case-control study between 522 NPC patients and 722 healthy controls in a Chinese population by using PCR-RFLP.

Results

We found an increased NPC risk associated with the MDM2 GG (odds ratio [OR] = 2.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.08-3.96) and TG (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.16-2.06) genotypes. An increased risk was also associated with the TP53 Pro/Pro genotype (OR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.58-3.10) compared to the Arg/Arg genotype. The gene-gene interaction of MDM2 and TP53 polymorphisms increased adult NPC risk in a more than multiplicative manner (OR for the presence of both MDM2 GG and TP53 Pro/Pro genotypes = 7.75, 95% CI = 3.53-17.58).

Conclusion

The findings suggest that polymorphisms of MDM2 and TP53 genes may be genetic modifier for developing NPC.
Regulation of MCP-1 chemokine transcription by p53
Authors: Hacke Katrin , Rincon-Orozco Bladimiro , Buchwalter Gilles , Siehler Simone Y. , Wasylyk Bohdan , Wiesmüller Lisa , Rösl Frank
Published: April 2010

Background

Our previous studies showed that the expression of the monocyte-chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, a chemokine, which triggers the infiltration and activation of cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage, is abrogated in human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive premalignant and malignant cells.In silicoanalysis of the MCP-1 upstream region proposed a putative p53 binding side about 2.5 kb upstream of the transcriptional start. The aim of this study is to monitor a physiological role of p53 in this process.

Results

The proposed p53 binding side could be confirmedin vitroby electrophoretic-mobility-shift assays andin vivoby chromatin immunoprecipitation. Moreover, the availability of p53 is apparently important for chemokine regulation, since TNF-α can induce MCP-1 only in human keratinocytes expressing the viral oncoprotein E7, but not in HPV16 E6 positive cells, where p53 becomes degraded. A general physiological role of p53 in MCP-1 regulation was further substantiated in HPV-negative cells harboring a temperature-sensitive mutant of p53 and in Li-Fraumeni cells, carrying a germ-line mutation of p53. In both cases, non-functional p53 leads to diminished MCP-1 transcription upon TNF-α treatment. In addition, siRNA directed against p53 decreased MCP-1 transcription after TNF-α addition, directly confirming a crosstalk between p53 and MCP-1.

Conclusion

These data support the concept that p53 inactivation during carcinogenesis also affects immune surveillance by interfering with chemokine expression and in turn communication with cells of the immunological compartment.
Isolated pancreatic metastasis from rectal cancer: a case report and review of literature
Authors: Lee Chao-Wei , Wu Ren-Chin , Hsu Jun-Te , Yeh Chun-Nan , Yeh Ta-Sen , Hwang Tsann-Long , Jan Yi-Yin , Chen Miin-Fu
Published: April 2010

Isolated pancreatic metastases from a non-pancreatic primary malignancy are very rare. Studies have shown that resection of metastases is of proven benefit in some types of tumors. We report a case of 76-year-old Taiwanese woman with rectal adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and abdominoperineal resection 2 years ago presenting with an asymptomatic mass at the pancreatic tail on a routine follow up abdominal computed tomography scan. The patient underwent distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy under the preoperative impression of a primary pancreatic malignancy. Histological examination of the surgical specimen showed metastatic adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical studies confirmed the diagnosis of pancreatic metastasis from rectal adenocarcinoma. Postoperative chemotherapy in the form of oral capecitabine was given. The patient is alive and disease free 12 months after the surgery. In a patient presenting with a pancreatic mass with history of a non-pancreatic malignancy, a differential diagnosis of pancreatic metastasis should be considered. Surgical resection of a solitary pancreatic mass is justified not only to get the definitive diagnosis but also to improve the survival.
Tumor morphological evolution: directed migration and gain and loss of the self-metastatic phenotype
Authors: Enderling Heiko , Hlatky Lynn , Hahnfeldt Philip
Published: April 2010

Background

Aside from the stepwise genetic alterations known to underlie cancer cell creation, the microenvironment is known to profoundly influence subsequent tumor development, morphology and metastasis. Invasive cluster formation has been assumed to be dependent on directed migration and a heterogeneous environment - a conclusion derived from complex models of tumor-environment interaction. At the same time, these models have not included the prospect, now supported by a preponderance of evidence, that only a minority of cancer cells may have stem cell capacity. This proves to weigh heavily on the microenvironmental requirements for the display of characteristic tumor growth phenotypes. We show using agent-based modeling that some defining features of tumor growth ascribed to directed migration might also be realized under random migration, and discuss broader implications for cause-and-effect determination in general.

Results

Considering only the properties of random migration in tumors composed of stem cells and committed cells, we are able to recapitulate a characteristic clustering feature of invasive tumor growth, a property we attribute to "self-metastatic" growth. When the additional influence of directed migrations under chemotactic environments are considered, we find that tumor growth and invasive morphology are supported while the tumor is distant from the source, but are progressively discouraged as the tumor converges about that source.

Conclusions

We show that invasive clustering can derive from basic kinetic assumptions often neglected in more complex models. While higher-order mechanisms, e.g. directed migration upon chemotactic stimuli, may result in clustering growth morphologies, exclusive attributions of this phenotype to this or other structured microenvironments would be inappropriate, in light of our finding these features are observable in a homogeneous environment. Furthermore, directed migration will result in loss of the invasive phenotype as the tumor approaches the attractor source. Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Mark Little and Glen Webb.
Oscillatory dynamics in a model of vascular tumour growth - implications for chemotherapy
Authors: Stamper IJ , Owen MR , Maini PK , Byrne HM
Published: April 2010

Background

Investigations of solid tumours suggest that vessel occlusion may occur when increased pressure from the tumour mass is exerted on the vessel walls. Since immature vessels are frequently found in tumours and may be particularly sensitive, such occlusion may impair tumour blood flow and have a negative impact on therapeutic outcome. In order to study the effects that occlusion may have on tumour growth patterns and therapeutic response, in this paper we develop and investigate a continuum model of vascular tumour growth.

Results

By analysing a spatially uniform submodel, we identify regions of parameter space in which the combination of tumour cell proliferation and vessel occlusion give rise to sustained temporal oscillations in the tumour cell population and in the vessel density. Alternatively, if the vessels are assumed to be less prone to collapse, stable steady state solutions are observed. When spatial effects are considered, the pattern of tumour invasion depends on the dynamics of the spatially uniform submodel. If the submodel predicts a stable steady state, then steady travelling waves are observed in the full model, and the system evolves to the same stable steady state behind the invading front. When the submodel yields oscillatory behaviour, the full model produces periodic travelling waves. The stability of the waves (which can be predicted by approximating the system as one ofλ-ωtype) dictates whether the waves develop into regular or irregular spatio-temporal oscillations. Simulations of chemotherapy reveal that treatment outcome depends crucially on the underlying tumour growth dynamics. In particular, if the dynamics are oscillatory, then therapeutic efficacy is difficult to assess since the fluctuations in the size of the tumour cell population are enhanced, compared to untreated controls.

Conclusions

We have developed a mathematical model of vascular tumour growth formulated as a system of partial differential equations (PDEs). Employing a combination of numerical and analytical techniques, we demonstrate how the spatio-temporal dynamics of the untreated tumour may influence its response to chemotherapy.

Reviewers

This manuscript was reviewed by Professor Zvia Agur and Professor Marek Kimmel.
The use of medicinal plants in the trans-himalayan arid zone of Mustang district, Nepal
Authors: Bhattarai Shandesh , Chaudhary Ram P , Quave Cassandra L , Taylor Robin SL
Published: April 2010

Background

This study documents the use of medicinal plants from the Mustang district of the north-central part of Nepal. Traditional botanical medicine is the primary mode of healthcare for most of the population of this district and traditional Tibetan doctors (Amchi) serve as the local medical experts.

Methods

Field research was conducted in 27 communities of the Mustang district in Nepal from 2005-2007. We sampled 202 interviewees, using random and snowball sampling techniques. After obtaining prior informed consent, we collected data through semi-structured interviews and participant-observation techniques. Voucher specimens of all cited botanic species were deposited at TUCH in Nepal.

Results

We recorded the traditional uses of 121 medicinal plant species, belonging to 49 vascular plant and 2 fungal families encompassing 92 genera. These 121 species are employed to treat a total of 116 ailments. We present data on 58 plant species previously unknown for their medicinal uses in the Mustang district. Of the medicinal plants reported, the most common growth form was herbs (73%) followed by shrubs, trees, and climbers. We document that several parts of individual plant species are used as medicine. Plant parts were generally prepared using hot or cold water as the 'solvent', but occasionally remedies were prepared with milk, honey, jaggery, ghee and oil. Amchis recommended different types of medicine including paste, powder, decoction, tablet, pills, infusion, and others through oral, topical, nasal and others routes of administration.

Conclusions

The traditional pharmacopoeia of the Mustang district incorporates a myriad of diverse botanical flora. Traditional knowledge of the remedies is passed down through oral traditions and dedicated apprenticeships under the tutelage of senior Amchi. Although medicinal plants still play a pivotal role in the primary healthcare of the local people of Mustang, efforts to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal species are necessary.
Part II, Provider perspectives: should patients be activated to request evidence-based medicine? a qualitative study of the VA project to implement diuretics (VAPID)
Authors: Buzza Colin D , Williams Monica B , Vander Weg Mark W , Christensen Alan J , Kaboli Peter J , Reisinger Heather Schacht
Published: April 2010

Background

Hypertension guidelines recommend the use of thiazide diuretics as first-line therapy for uncomplicated hypertension, yet diuretics are under-prescribed, and hypertension is frequently inadequately treated. This qualitative evaluation of provider attitudes follows a randomized controlled trial of a patient activation strategy in which hypertensive patients received letters and incentives to discuss thiazides with their provider. The strategy prompted high discussion rates and enhanced thiazide-prescribing rates. Our objective was to interview providers to understand the effectiveness and acceptability of the intervention from their perspective, as well as the suitability of patient activation for more widespread guideline implementation.

Methods

Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 21 primary care providers. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and reviewed by the interviewer before being analyzed for content. Interviews were coded, and relevant themes and specific responses were identified, grouped, and compared.

Results

Of the 21 providers interviewed, 20 (95%) had a positive opinion of the intervention, and 18 of 20 (90%) thought the strategy was suitable for wider use. In explaining their opinions of the intervention, many providers discussed a positive effect on treatment, but they more often focused on the process of patient activation itself, describing how the intervention facilitated discussions by informing patients and making them more pro-active. Regarding effectiveness, providers suggested the intervention worked like a reminder, highlighted oversights, or changed their approach to hypertension management. Many providers also explained that the intervention 'aligned' patients' objectives with theirs, or made patients more likely to accept a change in medications. Negative aspects were mentioned infrequently, but concerns about the use of financial incentives were most common. Relevant barriers to initiating thiazide treatment included a hesitancy to switch medications if the patient was at or near goal blood pressure on a different anti-hypertensive.

Conclusions

Patient activation was acceptable to providers as a guideline implementation strategy, with considerable value placed on the activation process itself. By 'aligning' patients' objectives with those of their providers, this process also facilitated part of the effectiveness of the intervention. Patient activation shows promise for wider use as an implementation strategy, and should be tested in other areas of evidence-based medicine.

Trial registration

National Clinical Trial Registry number NCT00265538
Use of kilovoltage X-ray volume imaging in patient dose calculation for head-and-neck and partial brain radiation therapy
Authors: Hu Weigang , Ye Jinsong , Wang Jiazhou , Ma Xuejun , Zhang Zhen
Published: April 2010

Background

To evaluate the accuracy of using kilovoltage x-ray cone-beam computed tomography (kV-CBCT) imaging for in vivo dose calculations.

Methods

A Region-of-Interest (ROI) CT number mapping method was developed to generate the cone-beam CT number vs. relative electron density calibration curve for 3D dose calculations. The stability of the results was validated for three consecutive months. The method was evaluated on three brain tumors and three head-and-neck tumor cases. For each patient, kV-CBCT images were acquired on the first treatment day and two-week intervals on the Elekta XVI system. The delivered dose distributions were calculated by applying the patients' treatment plans to the kV-CBCT images. The resulting dose distributions and dose volume histograms (DVHs) of the tumor and critical structures were compared to the original treatment plan.

Results

The kV-CBCT electron density calibration was stable within 1.5% over a three-month period. The DVH and dose distribution comparison based on the planning CT and the initial kV-CBCT showed good agreements for majority of cases. The doses calculated from the planning CT and kV-CBCT were compared on planes perpendicular to the beam axes and passing through the isocenter. Using γ analysis with a criterion of 2 mm/2% and a threshold of 10%, more than 99.5% of the points on the iso-planes exhibited γ <1. For one patient, kV-CBCT images detected 5.8% dose variation in the right parotid due to tumor shrinkage and patient weight loss.

Conclusions

ROI mapping method is an effective method for the creation of kV-CBCT electron density calibration curves for head-and-neck and brain tumor patients. Dose variations as monitored using kV-CBCT imaging suggest that some patients can benefit from adaptive treatment plan re-optimization.
Estimating the cost of care giving on caregivers for people living with HIV and AIDS in Botswana: a cross‐sectional study
Authors: Ama Njoku O , Seloilwe Esther S
Published: April 2010

Background

Community home‐based care is the Botswana Government's preferred means of providing care for people living with HIV (PLHIV). However, primary (family members) or volunteer (community members) caregivers experience poverty, are socially isolated, endure stigma and psychological distress, and lack basic care‐giving education. Community home‐based care also imposes considerable costs on patients, their caregivers and families in terms of time, effort and commitment. An analysis of the costs incurred by caregivers in providing care to PLHIV will assist health and social care decision makers in planning the most appropriate ways to meet future service needs of PLHIV and their caregivers.

Methods

This study estimated the cost incurred in providing care for PLHIV through a stratified sample of 169 primary and volunteer caregivers drawn from eight community home‐based care groups in four health districts in Botswana.

Results

The results show that the mean of the total monthly cost (explicit and indirect costs) incurred by the caregivers was $(90.45 ± 9.08) while the mean explicit cost of care giving was $(65.22 ± 7.82). This mean of the total monthly cost is about one and a half times the caregivers' mean monthly income of $66.00 (± 5.98) and more than six times the Government of Botswana's financial support to the caregivers. In addition, the cost incurred per visit by the caregivers was $15.26, while the total expenditure incurred per client or family in a month was $184.17.

Conclusions

The study, therefore, concludes that as the cost of providing care services to PLHIV is very high, the Government of Botswana should substantially increase the allowances paid to caregivers and the support it provides for the families of the clients. The overall costs for such a programme would be quite low compared with the huge sum of money budgeted each year for health care and for HIV and AIDS.
Febrile neutropenia in French emergency departments: results of a prospective multicentre survey
Authors: André Stéphanie , Taboulet Pierre , Elie Caroline , Milpied Noël , Nahon Michel , Kierzek Gérald , Billemont Mariève , Perruche Franck , Charpentier Sandrine , Clément Hélène , Pourriat Jean-Louis , Claessens Yann-Erick
Published: April 2010

Introduction

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is common in cancer patients receiving myelotoxic therapy. The procedures to treat FN are well established in oncology, but it is unclear whether management is adequate in the emergency department (ED).

Methods

This prospective, multicentre, observational study was carried out in 47 French EDs for 6 months. Patients were adults presenting at the ED with FN after myelotoxic treatment for cancer. Severity of infection was defined according to Bone criteria for severe sepsis and septic shock (SS/SSh) and risk was determined according to Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) criteria. The end point was the implementation of guidelines. Management of patients with SS/SSh required: (i) adequate intravenous (IV) antimicrobial therapy for the first 90 min (broad-spectrum beta-lactam with or without an aminoglycoside); (ii) fluid challenge (500 mL); (iii) lactate measurement; (iv) at least one blood culture; and (v) hospitalization. Management of patients without SS/SSh required: (1) no initiation of granulocyte - cell stimulating factor (G-CSF); (2) adequate IV antimicrobial therapy (broad-spectrum beta-lactam) and hospitalization if the patient was high-risk according to MASCC criteria; (3) adequate oral antimicrobial therapy (quinolone or amoxicillin/clavulanate or cephalosporin) and hospital discharge if the patient was low-risk.

Results

198 patients were enrolled; 89 patients had SS/SSh, of whom 19 received adequate antimicrobial therapy within 90 min and 42 received appropriate fluid challenge. Blood cultures were obtained from 87 and lactate concentration was measured in 29. Overall, only 6 (7%) patients with SS/SSh received adequate management. Among 108 patients without SS/SSh, 38 (35%) were high-risk and 70 (65%) low-risk. In the high-risk group, adequate antimicrobial therapy was given to 31 patients, G-CSF was initiated in 4 and 35 were hospitalized. In the low-risk group, 4 patients received adequate oral antimicrobial therapy, IV antimicrobial therapy was prescribed in 59, G-CSF was initiated in 12 and six patients were discharged. Adequate management was given to 26/38 (68%) high-risk and 1/70 low-risk patients. Factors associated with adequate management were absence of SS/SSh (P = 0.0009) and high-risk according to MASCC criteria (P < 0.0001).

Conclusions

In this French sample of cancer patients presenting to the ED with FN, management was often inadequate and severity was under-evaluated in the critically ill.
Restriction Site Tiling Analysis: accurate discovery and quantitative genotyping of genome-wide polymorphisms using nucleotide arrays
Authors: Pespeni Melissa H , Oliver Thomas A , Manier Mollie K , Palumbi Stephen R
Published: April 2010

High-throughput genotype data can be used to identify genes important for local adaptation in wild populations, phenotypes in lab stocks, or disease-related traits in human medicine. Here we advance microarray-based genotyping for population genomics with Restriction Site Tiling Analysis. The approach simultaneously discovers polymorphisms and provides quantitative genotype data at 10,000s of loci. It is highly accurate and free from ascertainment bias. We apply the approach to uncover genomic differentiation in the purple sea urchin.
American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists Guideline Recommendations for Immunohistochemical Testing of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptors in Breast Cancer
Authors: Hammond M. Elizabeth H. , Hayes Daniel F. , Dowsett Mitch , Allred D. Craig , Hagerty Karen L. , Badve Sunil , Fitzgibbons Patrick L. , Francis Glenn , Goldstein Neil S. , Hayes Malcolm , Hicks David G. , Lester Susan , Love Richard , Mangu Pamela B. , McShane Lisa , Miller Keith , Osborne C. Kent , Paik Soonmyung , Perlmutter Jane , Rhodes Anthony , Sasano Hironobu , Schwartz Jared N. , Sweep Fred C.G. , Taube Sheila , Torlakovic Emina Emilia , Valenstein Paul , Viale Giuseppe , Visscher Daniel , Wheeler Thomas , Williams R. Bruce , Wittliff James L. , Wolff Antonio C.
Published: April 2010

Purpose

To develop a guideline to improve the accuracy of immunohistochemical (IHC) estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PgR) testing in breast cancer and the utility of these receptors as predictive markers.

Methods

The American Society of Clinical Oncology and the College of American Pathologists convened an international Expert Panel that conducted a systematic review and evaluation of the literature in partnership with Cancer Care Ontario and developed recommendations for optimal IHC ER/PgR testing performance.

Results

Up to 20% of current IHC determinations of ER and PgR testing worldwide may be inaccurate (false negative or false positive). Most of the issues with testing have occurred because of variation in preanalytic variables, thresholds for positivity, and interpretation criteria.

Recommendations

The Panel recommends that ER and PgR status be determined on all invasive breast cancers and breast cancer recurrences. A testing algorithm that relies on accurate, reproducible assay performance is proposed. Elements to reliably reduce assay variation are specified. It is recommended that ER and PgR assays be considered positive if there are at least 1% positive tumor nuclei in the sample on testing in the presence of expected reactivity of internal (normal epithelial elements) and external controls. The absence of benefit from endocrine therapy for women with ER-negative invasive breast cancers has been confirmed in large overviews of randomized clinical trials.
The Theo-political Origins of the English Marriage Plot
Authors: O'Connell Lisa
Published: April 2010

My paper re-historicizes the eighteenth-century marriage plot by shifting attention away from both the history of literary genres and the modes of social history that have generally informed accounts of the rise of the novel. Drawing instead on recent historiography of the period's religious-political currents, I argue that the novel's marriage plot emerged as both a cultural agent of the Erastian state and an expression of a highly labile, conservative, patriot opposition. It did so, therefore, as an English marriage plot which placed Anglican ritual and relations between vicars and squires at the heart of an imagined English nation. By returning a key tradition of the novel to its theo-political origins, and by offering an account of how marriage itself gained and retained intense topicality across the long eighteenth century in struggles between church and state, I show how the novel's new marriage plot worked to place prose fiction at the center of the literary field and, by that move, radically to augment literature's social resonance.
Human beyond Understanding: Frederick Douglass's New Liberal Individual
Authors: Pratt Lloyd
Published: April 2010

This essay argues that in his autobiographies, journalism, and speeches, Frederick Douglass carved out a new version of humanism that broke with both the liberalism individualism of Jacksonian America and the anachronistic civic republicanism espoused by white abolitionists. In addition to theorizing this new humanism, which would be based in a politics of interpersonal difference rather than in the assumption of human universals, Douglass practiced a form of cautious self-presentation that underwrote his politics. His tendency to draw a veil across certain pivotal scenes of intimate violence; his mode of address to his former “master”; his attention to the collapse of the line separating public from private life in the South—all of these contributed to Douglass's refiguring of the relationship between his authorial and oratorical personae and his audiences. Douglass does not simply exploit sympathy's strategies for traversing the boundary separating self from other. He constructs a forcefully human persona—an opaque persona whose opacity is its attraction—that anticipates Hannah Arendt's arguments in The Human Condition. In this respect, Douglass's new liberal individual stands at the head of a literary and intellectual tradition that extends through African American writing and into the present moment.
The Marriage Plot in Theory
Authors: Psomiades Kathy Alexis
Published: April 2010

Both the novel and anthropology think about and through marriage and kinship. Furthermore, many of us use theories that ultimately originate in anthropology to think about how marriage and kinship work in the novel. This essay argues that the historical emergence of anthropological theory in Britain in the 1860s changes how British novels depict, make use of, and think about marriage and kinship. Paying attention to this shift to what I call the “post-anthropological novel” requires us to reevaluate what we are doing when we invoke anthropology in literary theory/criticism.
Make No Mistake: Getting It Right in The Princess Casamassima
Authors: Puckett Kent
Published: April 2010

Henry James's The Princess Casamassima is, among other things, a novel about becoming a terrorist. What kind of past suits one to a terrorist's work? What makes this especially interesting is the fact that the novel's main character, Hyacinth Robinson, is offered as both the most and the least likely of practical anarchists; he is small, handsome, vaguely literary, and not at all violent. What seems most to make Hyacinth a good terrorist is the fact that he is not just good (clever, sensitive, etc.), but perfect; he is said by other characters “never to make a mistake.” If The Princess is about making good terrorists out of perfect gentlemen, it is also about making characters make sense within the classic realist novel. Indeed, in his preface, James understands Hyacinth to be an exemplary case of his thinking about character. This essay argues that James offers a productive analogy between making characters and making trouble that undermines the stories we tend to tell about the novel and its subjects.
War, Optics, Fiction
Authors: Saint-Amour Paul K.
Published: April 2010

This essay takes exception with two widespread attitudes toward war and technology. The first is a shopworn optimism that produces an absolute distinction between war and peace by celebrating the peacetime applications of weapons technologies. The second understands peace as nothing more than an efficacious fiction used to mask a state of perpetual war, one in which civilians are the primary targets and anything that can be seen can be destroyed. (The latter attitude, curiously, is held both by military elites and by many of their critics in war and conflict studies.) In resisting these two positions, the essay turns to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow as a novelistic meditation on the target ontologized—that is, on the emergence of a world in which to be is ostensibly to be seen through crosshairs. Although Pynchon's novel at once implicates itself and schools its reader in high-tech reconnaissance and targeting systems, it does so in order to put those systems themselves in the viewfinder, exposing their glitches, their contingencies, and their susceptibility to boosterism. Through its subplot involving the Zone Hereros, Gravity's Rainbow spotlights the colonial violence occluded by the concept of “total war” even as it probes the limits of “visibility” as the field on which military elites and their critics would both construct and target the social totality.
Do Novels Think Electric Thoughts?
Authors: Siskin Clifford
Published: April 2010

The primary analytic tools of modern literary criticism were forged in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries out of print culture's effort to consolidate its hold on society by making more out of its objects. The further we have burrowed in—sacralizing only a few texts, dwelling on each image—the more we have had to say. Canonization, the vector of less, and close reading, the vector of more, are thus the paradoxical countermovements of the modern literary system. Ideology has also served that system well, sharing with close reading the logic of the physical: to grow by making more of itself, to flesh out the “real” by adding more layers, whether of interpretations or of consciousness. Close reading and ideology thus developed hand-in-hand with what I call the practice of “close writing.” The results were the standard forms of modern criticism, including entire books on a single author or just a few texts. These practices also valorized a new set of objects to be close to: in the early nineteenth century, the longest form of prose fiction finally rose in the generic hierarchy after decades down below. As critical close writing fed on creative close writing, and vice versa, the newly instituted novel assumed, physically, Victorian proportions. It became a quantitative phenomenon in the history of the real. This essay outlines that history, from the primacy of the metaphysical to the physical to the virtual. As we enter electronically into that third chapter, Nancy Armstrong's hypothesis will be put to the test: the novel, she has argued, “was not made to reproduce the status quo.”
Remembering the Pleasant Bits: Nostalgia and the Legacies of Modernism
Authors: Stevenson Randall
Published: April 2010

Walter Benjamin's image of the backward-looking angel of history dates from 1944 but is also relevant to earlier parts of the twentieth century, especially after August 1914. Rebecca West's Return of the Soldier is paradigmatic in theme and form of a well-charted modernist inclination toward retrospection. Comparable forms of nostalgia for the Edwardian period persist in 1930s fiction and are explored in this essay, along with an inheritance of modernist narrative techniques, in novels including The Memorial, Eyeless in Gaza, A Scots Quair, and Coming Up for Air. The essay considers the persistence of similar forms and feelings in the 1940s and later, and speculates about their wider role within narrative generally, including in earlier historical periods, and about conclusions that may be drawn about the development of the novel in the twentieth century.
Time Wandering: Problems of Witnessing in the Romantic-Era Novel
Authors: Sussman Charlotte
Published: April 2010

This essay argues that the problem of witnessing in the Romantic-era novel is caught up with the problem of moral epistemology and that both are inflected by temporality. Focusing on Charles Maturin's 1820 gothic Melmoth the Wanderer, this essay argues that, like many of the assumptions of the eighteenth-century novel (and scholarly accounts of it), the connection between witnessing and truth in fiction came under investigation in the Romantic-era novel. Maturin's novel is only one of a clutch of what one might call antihistorical narratives that appeared in these decades, in which a citizen of the past emerges living into the present, or someone survives his or her “native” historical era to become a kind of temporal exile in the present. The gothic has been characterized as the eruption of the past into the present and the past in these narratives is indeed “undead” and unfixed—wandering through both space and time. Examining the consequences of such wandering can tell us a great deal about the relationship of narrative to temporality and the relationship of temporality to theories of moral education.
Resistance on the Circuit: The Novel in the Age of the Post
Authors: Warner William B.
Published: April 2010

It seems quite likely that the emergence of the public post in the late seventeenth century had as profound an effect upon the media culture of the eighteenth century as the emergence of the networked computer has had in our own day. The post is a public system, through which you can openly address anyone, at periodic intervals, with dispatch and presumptive privacy. This new technology for ordinary communication at a distance influenced the novel in many ways. Novels were cast in the form of correspondence by letter; the post facilitated the dissemination of physical novels as well as news about novels; among familiar correspondents, the post increased the buzz about novels. Through a reading of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, this article shows how the writing, posting, arrival, and overseeing of letters in this novel unfolds in ways the characters cannot control. However, it is precisely this adventitious circulation of letters that breaks the information blockage of the novel and opens a pathway to erotic resolution of the love lives of the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne.
Proteomic and functional analysis of the noncanonical poly(A) polymerase Cid14
Authors: Keller Claudia , Woolcock Katrina , Hess Daniel , Bühler Marc
Published: April 2010

The fission yeast Cid14 protein belongs to a family of noncanonical poly(A) polymerases which have been implicated in a broad range of biological functions. Here we describe an extensive Cid14 protein–protein interaction network and its biochemical dissection. Cid14 most stably interacts with the zinc-knuckle protein Air1 to form the Cid14–Air1 complex (CAC). Providing a link to ribosomal RNA processing, Cid14 sediments with 60S ribosomal subunits and copurifies with 60S assembly factors. In contrast, no physical link to chromatin has been identified, although gene expression profiling revealed that efficient silencing of a few heterochromatic genes depends on Cid14 and/or Air1.
Policy Legends and Folklists: Traditional Beliefs in the Public Sphere
Authors: Fine Gary Alan , O'Neill Barry
Published: April 2010

Although folklorists have seldom concentrated on politics, folklore thrives among decision-making elites and the politically aware citizenry. One genre is the "policy legend," a traditional text that describes institutions or social conditions, often in a historical frame, to call for governmental or collective action. Even though policy legends are typically transmitted in written form, they change continually, adapting to their political contexts and the concerns of their communicators and audiences. They frequently take the form of lists, which we call folklists, and survive through autopoiesis, the propensity of a system to repair and maintain its internal elements and boundaries. This article analyzes three policy legends: the list of historical statistics on the prevalence of war, then-and-now lists of the worst school discipline problems, and an alleged, wordy federal regulation on the price of cabbages.
Trouble in Central America: Guatemala on the Brink
Authors: Isaacs Anita
Published: April 2010

Abstract: Thirteen years after the signing of peace, Guatemalan democracy remains tentative and fragile. Formal democratic procedures are observed, formally democratic institutions are in place and levels of social organization and political participation have substantially increased. Yet these advances barely conceal a state captive to organized crime, a poorly representative and responsive political party system and a fragmented civil society in which the marginalized indigenous population struggles to make its voice heard. The democratic challenges reflect a polity and a society in which exclusionary patterns and structures of power prevail and in which the ethnic and class divisions that fueled 36 years of armed conflict remain perilously close to the surface.
Democracy and Deep Divides
Authors: Glazer Nathan
Published: April 2010

In the annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, Nathan Glazer asks how democracies deal with deep divides—"ineraseable" divisions such as race, ethnicity, religion, and native language. One generalization that emerges from a consideration of two great nations, Canada and India (with side observations on the U.S.) is that free political parties competing for votes, including the votes of minorities, are a key factor in moderating these divides and in bringing forth the measures that produce a degree of stability—firm in Canada, shakier in India.
“My Travail’s History”: Perspectives on the Roads to Othello , Stratford-upon-Avon 1959
Authors: Howard Tony
Published: April 2010

This article seeks to unite theatre history with the 'real' histories of economics, ideology and race by looking beyond conventional archive materials, tracing the genesis of one of the 20th century's most lauded yet also undermined performances: that of singer, actor, athlete, and anti-fascist activist Paul Robeson as Othello in 1959. The study incorporates archival materials from the RSC and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, as well as those from less likely sources, including records held by the FBI and MI5. These materials reveal the tireless efforts of the American and British authorities to prevent Robeson from using the role of Othello as a vehicle for his activism, drawing parallels between the actor's plight and Sergei Yutkevich's 1956 Russian  Othello , in which he was refused the right to star despite having received great acclaim for his performances of the role in London (1930) and on Broadway (1942-45). In contextualising the socio-political backdrops against which these earlier productions were set, the article addresses the racial opposition and misrepresentation faced by Robeson for more than 30 years, shedding light on the ways the actor made Othello a symbol of race relations in the twentieth century and how his opponents, echoing the conflicts in Shakespeare's play.
The Ordering of Things: Allure, Access, and Archives
Authors: Dorney Kate
Published: April 2010

Responding to recent theoretical discussion of the archive as both alluring and an object of hostility, this article examines this hostility towards the archive (evidenced in the work of Helen Freshwater in particular), claiming for workers in the archive a degree of awareness of theoretical critiques of archive use that shows an understanding both of the agency of the archive worker and of the implications that agency holds. It also draws upon the author's personal experience as a curator in order to discuss the presence of Shakespeare in the Theatre & Performance department of London's Victoria & Albert Museum (formerly the Theatre Museum): the largest of its kind in the world. By acknowledging the inherent ephemeral nature of performance, the essay centralises the role of the archive worker as an active agent in the archive's creation process, as well as its literal and metaphorical protector, offering insight into the mediated relationship between archive worker and researcher. By way of response to the notable absence of Shakespeare scholars from the V&A's archive, the article also seeks to highlight the breadth and depth of the collections' Shakespeare holdings by offering a brief survey of some of the archive's most interesting and esoteric items relating to Hamlet.
“Find Direction Out”: In the Archives of Hamlet
Authors: Cornford Tom
Published: April 2010

This essay proposes practical engagement with archived materials as a model for the director's creative process, a process which also considers the play as a form of archival record: that the play-text is itself an archive of its own world. That archive, the article suggests, can be supplemented by historical research and interpreted with techniques and approaches gleaned from the archives of performance practice: a parallel, perhaps, to the dizzingly complex material and cultural exchanges out of which Shakespeare's work originally emerged. To support this hypothesis, the article draws upon the author's personal experiences of directing Hamlet using a research-led approach, in which the production was informed by archival material relating to productions of Hamlet directed or planned by Stanislavski, Gordon Craig, Michael Chekov, Meyerhold and Tarkovsky. While considering the ways in which results and decisions might reveal themselves in researching the recorded processes and methods of theatre practitioners in the archive, the article ultimately suggests that material gleaned from conventional historical research of the play must also be supplemented with discoveries made by reading the play as an archive of its own world, and no other.
"Time to Translate Modernism into a Contemporary Idiom": Pedagogy, Poetics, and Bob Perelman's Pound
Authors: Golding Alan
Published: April 2010

Central to the work of avant-garde U.S. American poets from Ezra Pound to the present have been continuing conflicts between didacticism and coterie exclusiveness, and over the poet's relationship to pedagogical institutions. Within the contemporary poet Bob Perelman's ongoing consideration of the relationship between the avant-garde and pedagogy in all its forms, including but not limited to the academic, Pound has been a constant presence. This essay examines how some of the terms and categories surrounding the idea of "pedagogy"—teaching, learning, reading, knowledge, authority, the new—manifest themselves in Perelman's response to an influential predecessor such as Pound, particularly in poems from his latest book, Iflife . Pound is the precursor point at which all these concerns meet and from which they emanate, the central site for a contemporary avant-gardist's exploration of—and perhaps anxiety about—the nature of poetic learning and poetic knowledge, and for the relationship of that knowledge to poetics and to institutions.
Assessment of Screening Tests for Sleep Apnea Syndrome in the Workplace
Authors: Tanaka Shigemi , Shima Masayuki
Published: April 2010

Assessment of Screening Tests for Sleep Apnea Syndrome in the Workplace: Shigemi Tanaka, et al. Tanaka Internal Medicine Clinic

Objectives

The Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) is often used for screening of sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in the workplace. We conducted pulse oximetry for workers of a large transportation company, who were selected based on their response to a questionnaire that included ESS and breathing pattern during sleep.

Methods

Pulse oximetry was performed for 803 of 3,761 male workers. A 3% oxygen desaturation index (ODI) ≥15 was defined to represent sleep disordered breathing (SDB). We evaluated the frequencies of severe snoring and sleep apnea in the past three months reported by the bed partner or a family member. The relationships between 3% ODI ≥15 and various parameters were analyzed.

Results

Of the 715 workers with valid recordings, 3% ODI was ≥15 in 108. The prevalence of 3% ODI ≥15 was high among workers with a body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/ m2, or for whom severe snoring (≥4 days/wk) or sleep apnea (≥2 days/mo) was reported, but did not correlate with ESS scores. Multivariate analysis showed that 3% ODI ≥15 correlated significantly with BMI, and reported severe snoring and sleep apnea, but not ESS scores. The prevalence of 3% ODI ≥15 was high among obese workers. ESS scores did not correlate with 3% ODI ≥15, irrespective of obesity.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that severe snoring, sleep apnea and BMI, but not ESS, are useful screening tools for SAS.
Risk Factors for Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Call Center Employees
Authors: d'Errico Angelo , Caputo Patrizia , Falcone Umberto , Fubini Lidia , Gilardi Luisella , Mamo Carlo , Migliardi Alessandro , Quarta Denis , Coffano Elena
Published: April 2010

Risk Factors for Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Call Center Employees: Angelo d'Errico, et al. Epidemiology Unit ASL TO3‐Piedmont Region, Italy

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the upper extremity (UE) in a sample of Italian call center (CC) operators, and the relationship between the symptoms and potential workplace risk factors.

Methods

During 2005‐2006, 775 workers from seven CCs in the Turin area participated in a questionnaire survey of exposure to ergonomic, organizational and psychosocial factors at work, socio‐demographics, lifestyle, symptoms and diseases. Musculoskeletal symptoms were defined as self‐reported musculoskeletal symptoms in the UE during the previous 28 days, for which a physician was consulted and/or drugs were taken. Relative risks were estimated through Poisson regression models with the Huber‐White sandwich estimator of variance.

Result

Overall, 45% of workers reported UE symptoms in the last four weeks. Symptoms in the neck were the most prevalent (39%), followed by the shoulder (22%), handwrist (10%) and elbow (4%). Among workplace risk factors, neck‐shoulder symptoms were associated with low job control, elevated noise, poor desk lighting and impossibility to lean back while sitting; whereas elbow‐hand/wrist symptoms were associated with short intervals between calls, insufficient working space, lack of forearm support, job insecurity and long seniority in the CC industry.

Conclusions

The high prevalence of UE symptoms in this sample was similar to that reported by other studies conducted in this industry. Our results confirm previously reported associations, such as poor characteristics of the workstation and psychological stressors. The striking difference between the set of risk factors for neck‐shoulder and elbow/wrist‐hand symptoms indicates that the two regions should be investigated separately.