bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (CD143) marks hematopoietic stem cells in human embryonic, fetal, and adult hematopoietic tissues
Authors: Jokubaitis Vanta J. , Sinka Lidia , Driessen Rebecca , Whitty Genevieve , Haylock David N. , Bertoncello Ivan , Smith Ian , Péault Bruno , Tavian Manuela , Simmons Paul J.
Published: November 2007

Previous studies revealed that mAb BB9 reacts with a subset of CD34+ human BM cells with hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) characteristics. Here we map BB9 expression throughout hematopoietic development and show that the earliest definitive HSCs that arise at the ventral wall of the aorta and surrounding endothelial cells are BB9+. Thereafter, BB9 is expressed by primitive hematopoietic cells in fetal liver and in umbilical cord blood (UCB). BB9+CD34+ UCB cells transplanted into nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice contribute 10-fold higher numbers of multilineage blood cells than their CD34+BB9− counterparts and contain a significantly higher incidence of SCID-repopulating cells than the unfractionated CD34+ population. Protein microsequencing of the 160-kDa band corresponding to the BB9 protein established its identity as that of somatic angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). Although the role of ACE on human HSCs remains to be determined, these studies designate ACE as a hitherto unrecognized marker of human HSCs throughout hematopoietic ontogeny and adulthood.
Autoantibodies to the C-terminal subunit of RLIP76 induce oxidative stress and endothelial cell apoptosis in immune-mediated vascular diseases and atherosclerosis
Authors: Margutti Paola , Matarrese Paola , Conti Fabrizio , Colasanti Tania , Delunardo Federica , Capozzi Antonella , Garofalo Tina , Profumo Elisabetta , Riganò Rachele , Siracusano Alessandra , Alessandri Cristiano , Salvati Bruno , Valesini Guido , Malorni Walter , Sorice Maurizio , Ortona Elena
Published: November 2007

Although detection of autoantibodies in the peripheral blood from patients with immune-mediated endothelial dysfunctions has so far failed to provide tools of diagnostic or pathogenetic value, putative bioindicators include anti-endothelial cell antibodies, a heterogeneous family of antibodies that react with autoantigens expressed by endothelial cells. In this study, to identify endothelial autoantigens involved in the autoimmune processes causing endothelial damage, we screened a human microvascular endothelial cell cDNA library with sera from patients with Behçet's disease. We identified antibodies to the C-terminus of Ral binding protein1 (RLIP76), a protein that catalyzes the ATP-dependent transport of glutathione (GSH) conjugates including GSH-4-hydroxy-t-2,3-nonenal, in the serum of a significant percentage of patients with various diseases characterized by immune-mediated endothelial dysfunction, including Behçet disease, systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus and carotid atherosclerosis. These autoantibodies increased intracellular levels of 4-hydroxy-t-2,3-nonenal, decreased levels of GSH and activated C-Jun NH2 Kinase signaling (JNK), thus inducing oxidative stress-mediated endothelial cell apoptosis. The dietary antioxidant alpha-tocopherol counteracted endothelial cell demise. These findings suggest that autoantibodies to RLIP76 play a pathogenetic role in immune-mediated vascular diseases and represent a valuable peripheral blood bioindicator of atherosclerosis and immune-mediated vascular diseases.
Antigen activation and impaired Fas-induced death-inducing signaling complex formation in T-large-granular lymphocyte leukemia
Authors: Yang Jun , Epling-Burnette P. K. , Painter Jeffrey S. , Zou JianXiang , Bai Fanqi , Wei Sheng , Loughran Thomas P.
Published: November 2007

Clonal T-cell expansion in patients with T-large-granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia occurs by an undefined mechanism that may be related to Fas apoptosis resistance. Here, we demonstrate polarized expansion of CD8+ terminal-memory differentiation in such patients, as demonstrated by CD45RA expression and absence of CD62L expression, suggesting repeated stimulation by antigen in vivo. Elimination of antigen-stimulated T cells normally occurs through Fas-mediated apoptosis. We show that cells from LGL leukemia patients express increased levels of c-FLIP and display resistance to Fas-mediated apoptosis and abridged recruitment of proteins that comprise the death-inducing signaling complex (DISC), including the Fas-associated protein with death-domain (FADD) and caspase-8. Exposure to interleukin-2 (IL-2) for only 24 hours sensitized leukemic LGL to Fas-mediated apoptosis with enhanced formation of the DISC, and increased caspase-8 and caspase-3 activities. We observed dysregulation of c-FLIP by IL-2 in leukemic LGL, suggesting a role in Fas resistance. Our results demonstrate that expanded T cells in patients with LGL leukemia display both functional and phenotypic characteristics of prior antigen activation in vivo and display reduced capacity for Fas-mediated DISC formation.
Differential in vivo potential of endothelial progenitor cells from human umbilical cord blood and adult peripheral blood to form functional long-lasting vessels
Authors: Au Patrick , Daheron Laurence M. , Duda Dan G. , Cohen Kenneth S. , Tyrrell James A. , Lanning Ryan M. , Fukumura Dai , Scadden David T. , Jain Rakesh K.
Published: November 2007

Tissue engineering requires formation of a de novo stable vascular network. Because of their ability to proliferate, differentiate into endothelial cells, and form new vessels, blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are attractive source of cells for use in engineering blood vessels. However, the durability and function of EPC-derived vessels implanted in vivo are unclear. To this end, we directly compared formation and functions of tissue-engineered blood vessels generated by peripheral blood– and umbilical cord blood–derived EPCs in a model of in vivo vasculogenesis. We found that adult peripheral blood EPCs form blood vessels that are unstable and regress within 3 weeks. In contrast, umbilical cord blood EPCs form normal-functioning blood vessels that last for more than 4 months. These vessels exhibit normal blood flow, perm-selectivity to macromolecules, and induction of leukocyte-endothelial interactions in response to cytokine activation similar to normal vessels. Thus, umbilical cord blood EPCs hold great therapeutic potential, and their use should be pursued for vascular engineering.
Adherence to macrophages in erythroblastic islands enhances erythroblast proliferation and increases erythrocyte production by a different mechanism than erythropoietin
Authors: Rhodes Melissa M. , Kopsombut Prapaporn , Bondurant Maurice C. , Price James O. , Koury Mark J.
Published: November 2007

Erythroblasts adhere to central macrophages forming erythroblastic islands in hematopoietic tissues, but the function of these islands is not understood. Murine erythroblastic islands were reconstituted in vitro with macrophages and developmentally synchronous proerythroblasts. Erythroblasts cocultured with macrophages proliferated 3-fold greater than erythroblasts cultured alone. Direct contact with the macrophages was necessary for this enhanced erythroblast proliferation, which resulted from decreased transit time in the G0/G1 phase of cell cycle. Increased erythroblast proliferation in erythroblastic islands occurred over a wide range of erythropoietin concentrations and was the result of a mechanism different from the antiapoptotic effect of erythropoietin. Erythroblasts adherent to macrophages had slightly delayed enucleation, but otherwise differentiation was similar to erythroblasts cultured alone or those that became nonadherent in cocultures. These results suggest a mechanism for the development of anemias associated with abnormal macrophage function and for reduced responsiveness of those anemias to erythropoietin therapy.
NKG2D ligand expression in AML increases in response to HDAC inhibitor valproic acid and contributes to allorecognition by NK-cell lines with single KIR-HLA class I specificities
Authors: Diermayr Stefan , Himmelreich Heike , Durovic Bojana , Mathys-Schneeberger Arina , Siegler Uwe , Langenkamp Ulrich , Hofsteenge Jan , Gratwohl Alois , Tichelli André , Paluszewska Monika , Wiktor-Jedrzejczak Wieslaw , Kalberer Christian P. , Wodnar-Filipowicz Aleksandra
Published: November 2007

This study exploited alloreactivity of natural killer (NK) cells for augmenting the recognition of human acute myeloid leukemia (AML). To circumvent the inhibitory effect of killer immunoglobulin receptor (KIR) signaling, we generated NK-cell lines with single KIR specificities for major human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I allotypes. We demonstrated efficient cytolysis of KIR-HLA class I–mismatched primary AML blasts even at low effector-to-target ratios. To define the impact of tumor-associated activating NKG2D-ligands (NKG2D-L), 66 AML patients at diagnosis were analyzed. NKG2D-L were selectively expressed on monoblastic cells in AML M4 and M5 yet absent or weakly expressed on myeloblastic cells in all AML subtypes. Paucity of cell-surface NKG2D-L was not the result of shedding because levels of soluble ULBP1 ligand measured in AML plasma were in the normal range. Notably, purified NKG2D-L+ monoblastic cells were more susceptible to NK-mediated killing than NKG2D-L− myeloblastic cells. Accordingly, induction of cell-surface NKG2D-L by treatment with the histone deacetylase inhibitor, valproic acid, rendered cells more sensitive to NK cytolysis. These data suggest that adoptive transfer of selected populations of alloreactive HLA class I–mismatched NK cells in combination with pharmacologic induction of NKG2D-L merits clinical evaluation as novel approaches to immunotherapy of human AML.
Oxidized high-density lipoprotein inhibits platelet activation and aggregation via scavenger receptor BI
Authors: Valiyaveettil Manojkumar , Kar Niladri , Ashraf Mohammad Z. , Byzova Tatiana V. , Febbraio Maria , Podrez Eugene A.
Published: November 2007

Numerous studies have reported the presence of oxidatively modified high-density lipoprotein (OxHDL) within the intima of atheromatous plaques as well as in plasma; however, its role in the pathogenesis of thrombotic disease is not established. We now report that OxHDL, but not native HDL, is a potent inhibitor of platelet activation and aggregation induced by physiologic agonists. This antithrombotic effect was concentration and time dependent and positively correlated with the degree of lipoprotein oxidation. Oxidized lipoproteins are known ligands for scavenger receptors type B, CD36 and scavenger receptor B type I (SR-BI), both of which are expressed on platelets. Studies using murine CD36−/− or SR-BI−/− platelets demonstrated that the antithrombotic activity of OxHDL depends on platelet SR-BI but not CD36. Binding to SR-BI was required since preincubation of human and murine platelets with anti–SR-BI blocking antibody abrogated the inhibitory effect of OxHDL. Agonist-induced aggregation of platelets from endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)−/−, Akt-1−/−, and Akt-2−/− mice was inhibited by OxHDL to the same degree as platelets from wild-type (WT) mice, indicating that the OxHDL effect is mediated by a pathway different from the eNOS/Akt pathway. These novel findings suggest that contrary to the prothrombotic activity of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL), HDL upon oxidation acquires antithrombotic activity that depends on platelet SR-BI.
Defective angiogenesis, endothelial migration, proliferation, and MAPK signaling in Rap1b-deficient mice
Authors: Chrzanowska-Wodnicka Magdalena , Kraus Anna E. , Gale Daniel , White Gilbert C. , VanSluys Jillian
Published: November 2007

Angiogenesis is the main mechanism of vascular remodeling during late development and, after birth, in wound healing. Perturbations of angiogenesis occur in cancer, diabetes, ischemia, and inflammation. While much progress has been made in identifying factors that control angiogenesis, the understanding of the precise molecular mechanisms involved is incomplete. Here we identify a small GTPase, Rap1b, as a positive regulator of angiogenesis. Rap1b-deficient mice had a decreased level of Matrigel plug and neonatal retinal neovascularization, and aortas isolated from Rap1b-deficient animals had a reduced microvessel sprouting response to 2 major physiological regulators of angiogenesis: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblasts growth factor (bFGF), indicating an intrinsic defect in endothelial cells. Proliferation of retinal endothelial cells in situ and in vitro migration of lung endothelial cells isolated from Rap1b-deficient mice were inhibited. At the molecular level, activation of 2 MAP kinases, p38 MAPK and p42/44 ERK, important regulators of endothelial migration and proliferation, was decreased in Rap1b-deficient endothelial cells in response to VEGF stimulation. These studies provide evidence that Rap1b is required for normal angiogenesis and reveal a novel role of Rap1 in regulation of proangiogenic signaling in endothelial cells.
A manually curated database of tetrapod mitochondrially encoded tRNA sequences and secondary structures
Authors: Popadin Konstantin Yu , Mamirova Leila A , Kondrashov Fyodor A
Published: November 2007

Background

Mitochondrial tRNAs have been the subject of study for structural biologists interested in their secondary structure characteristics, evolutionary biologists have researched patterns of compensatory and structural evolution and medical studies have been directed towards understanding the basis of human disease. However, an up to date, manually curated database of mitochondrially encoded tRNAs from higher animals is currently not available.

Description

We obtained the complete mitochondrial sequence for 277 tetrapod species from GenBank and re-annotated all of the tRNAs based on a multiple alignment of each tRNA gene and secondary structure prediction made independently for each tRNA. The mitochondrial (mt) tRNA sequences and the secondary structure based multiple alignments are freely available as Supplemental Information online.

Conclusion

We compiled a manually curated database of mitochondrially encoded tRNAs from tetrapods with completely sequenced genomes. In the course of our work, we reannotated more than 10% of all tetrapod mt-tRNAs and subsequently predicted the secondary structures of 6060 mitochondrial tRNAs. This carefully constructed database can be utilized to enhance our knowledge in several different fields including the evolution of mt-tRNA secondary structure and prediction of pathogenic mt-tRNA mutations. In addition, researchers reporting novel mitochondrial genome sequences should check their tRNA gene annotations against our database to ensure a higher level of fidelity of their annotation.
Alzheimer's Disease Peptide Epitope Vaccine Reduces Insoluble But Not Soluble/Oligomeric Aβ Species in Amyloid Precursor Protein Transgenic Mice
Authors: Petrushina Irina , Ghochikyan Anahit , Mktrichyan Mikayel , Mamikonyan Gregory , Movsesyan Nina , Davtyan Hayk , Patel Archita , Head Elizabeth , Cribbs David H. , Agadjanyan Michael G.
Published: November 2007

Active vaccination of elderly Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with fibrillar amyloid-β peptide (Aβ42), even in the presence of a potent Th1 adjuvant, induced generally low titers of antibodies in a small fraction (∼20% responders) of those that received the AN-1792 vaccine. To improve the immunogenicity and reduce the likelihood of inducing adverse autoreactive T-cells specific for Aβ42, we previously tested in wild-type mice an alternative approach for active immunization: an epitope vaccine that selectively initiate B cell responses toward an immunogenic self-epitope of Aβ in the absence of anti-Aβ T cell responses. Here, we describe a second generation epitope vaccine composed of two copies of Aβ1–11fused with the promiscuous nonself T cell epitope, PADRE (pan human leukocyte antigen DR-binding peptide) that completely eliminates the autoreactive T cell responses and induces humoral immune responses in amyloid precursor protein transgenic 2576 mice with pre-existing AD-like pathology. Based on the titers of anti-Aβ1–11antibody experimental mice were divided into low, moderate and high responders, and for the first time we report a positive correlation between the concentration of anti-Aβ1–11antibody and a reduction of insoluble, cerebral Aβ plaques. The reduction of insoluble Aβ deposition was not associated with adverse events, such as CNS T cell or macrophage infiltration or microhemorrhages. Surprisingly, vaccination did not alter the levels of soluble Aβ. Alternatively, early protective immunization before substantial neuropathology, neuronal loss and cognitive deficits have become firmly established may be more beneficial and safer for potential patients, especially if they can be identified in a preclinical stage by the development of antecedent biomarkers of AD.
Differential Effects of Blockade of Dopamine D1-Family Receptors in Nucleus Accumbens Core or Shell on Reinstatement of Heroin Seeking Induced by Contextual and Discrete Cues
Authors: Bossert Jennifer M. , Poles Gabriela C. , Wihbey Kristina A. , Koya Eisuke , Shaham Yavin
Published: November 2007

In humans, exposure to environmental contexts previously associated with heroin intake can provoke drug relapse, but the neuronal mechanisms mediating this relapse are unknown. Using a drug relapse model, we found previously that reexposing rats to heroin-associated contexts, after extinction of drug-reinforced responding in different contexts, reinstates heroin seeking. This effect is attenuated by inhibition of glutamate transmission in the ventral tegmental area and medial accumbens shell, components of the mesolimbic dopamine system. Here, we explored the role of dopamine of the accumbens in context-induced reinstatement by using the D1-family receptor antagonist SCH 23390 [R(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine hydrochloride]. Rats were trained to self-administer heroin for 12 d; drug infusions were paired with a discrete tone–light cue. Subsequently, the heroin-reinforced lever pressing was extinguished in the presence of the discrete cue in a context that differed from the drug self-administration context in terms of visual, auditory, tactile, and circadian cues. When tested in the original drug self-administration context, systemic and medial or lateral accumbens shell SCH 23390 injections attenuated context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking, whereas accumbens core SCH 23390 injections were ineffective. In contrast, core but not lateral or medial shell SCH 23390 injections attenuated discrete-cue-induced reinstatement in a nondrug context after extinction of lever presses without this cue. Results indicate that activation of medial and lateral accumbens shell D1-family dopamine receptors mediate context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking and provide the first demonstration for a role of lateral shell dopamine in conditioned drug effects. Results also demonstrate novel dissociable roles of accumbens core and shell in context- versus discrete-cue-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking.
Painted Memories
Authors: kirshenblatt mayer , kirshenblatt-gimblett barbara
Published: November 2007

Mayer Kirshenblatt remembers in words and paintings the daily diet of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust. Born in 1916 in Opatóów (Apt in Yiddish), a small Polish city, this self-taught artist describes and paints how women bought chickens from the peasants and brought them to the shoykhet (ritual slaughterer), where they plucked the feathers; the custom of shlogn kapores (transferring one's sins to a chicken) before Yom Kippur; and the role of herring and root vegetables in the diet, especially during the winter. Mayer describes how his family planted and harvested potatoes on leased land, stored them in a root cellar, and the variety of dishes prepared from this important staple, as well as how to make a kratsborsht or scratch borsht from the milt (semen sack) of a herring. In the course of a forty-year conversation with his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who also interviewed Mayer's mother, a picture emerges of the daily, weekly, seasonal, and holiday cuisine of Jews who lived in southeastern Poland before World War II.
Carlos Poveda's Menu
Authors: ross marjorie
Published: November 2007

Carlos Poveda's Domestic Landscapes are linked to a history of food and art that reaches back to Greco-Roman antiquity and becomes empowered with contemporary artists who sculpt or paint their works in edible materials to be devoured by spectators. Poveda's Landscapes, however, offer food that is symbolic——inedible.

He reinvents the organic by using industrial refuse that he converts, colors, and models in a cauldron in a process as akin to alchemy as to cooking. His is not a faithful transcription of meals in the style of classical still lifes, but rather an artistic overlapping of emotions, that surround the idea of the edible. Looking at his sculptures we may feel revulsion, but what sickens us is not so much his creation as the awareness it brings of our intrinsically predatory nature. He gives us an art form that not only fails to provoke appetite but also touches our deepest culinary memories and leads us back to a primal past by asserting the significance of food in our collective memory.

Ultimately, our strongest reaction to his work may be the fear that we won't be able to digest the absurdity of our daily life.
Notas sobre territorialidad, sacralidad y economía políticabennizá/binigula'/beneshon
Authors: Varese Stefano , Grofe Michael
Published: November 2007

In the following paper, we attempt to re-evaluate the rise of complex societies in the Valley of Oaxaca based on indigenous conceptualizations of land, territory and “resources” as components within a broader Mesoamerican cosmological system. In so doing, we challenge Eurocentric theoretical models of the emergence of civilization that rely on a uniform linear progression, and we articulate an approach that seeks to integrate both material and ideological perspectives.
Caiu na rede, é peixe: a industrialização tardia e suas implicações sobre o trabalho, o ambiente e a saúde no Estado do Ceará, Brasil
Authors: Rigotto Raquel Maria
Published: November 2007

São analisadas as características da industrialização tardia, em curso num município do semi-árido cearense, para discutir suas implicações para o trabalho, o ambiente e a saúde, no cenário da mobilidade industrial no capitalismo avançado. Com base na observação direta dos processos de trabalho; entrevistas com gerentes de produção e presidentes de empresas, trabalhadores, gestores públicos e lideranças da sociedade civil; visitas institucionais e análise de dados secundários, caracterizaram-se oito empresas dos setores químico, calçadista, eletrodoméstico, confecção, metal-mecânico e embalagens, recém instaladas em Maranguape, Ceará, Brasil, no tocante às circunstâncias de sua re-localização; tecnologia, organização e relações de trabalho; perfil dos trabalhadores; riscos ocupacionais e ambientais gerados, seus impactos sobre a saúde e os mecanismos regulatórios. A falta de critérios na atração e aceitação destes investimentos - "caiu na rede, é peixe!", a precária qualidade do emprego e das condições ambientais geradas, a magnitude das transformações promovidas no território e dos riscos nele introduzidos, assim como a fragilidade do Estado e da sociedade para lidar com eles, levantam questionamentos sobre a sustentabilidade destes processos de desenvolvimento.
An Evaluation of Nasal Response following Different Treatment Regimes of Oxymetazoline with Reference to Rebound Congestion
Authors: Morris Sara , Eccles Ronald , Martez S. Jawad , Riker Donald K. , Witek Theodore J.
Published: November 2007

This was a randomized, double-blind vehicle controlled study aimed at investigating the effects on nasal function of 7 days treatment with the topical decongestant oxymetazoline (0.05% w/v). Fifty healthy volunteers took part in the study and these were randomly allocated to three treatment groups (i) daily oxymetazoline (b.i.d. 150 μl per nostril) (ii) intermittent oxymetazoline, with oxymetazoline being substituted for vehicle at the morning doses on days 1, 3, and 7; and (iii) daily vehicle (b.i.d. 150 μl per nostril). The nasal airway was assessed by measurement of nasal airway resistance (NAR) using posterior rhinomanometry, subjective scaling of nasal patency by means of a visual analogue scale (VAS), and clinical visual examination. On days 1, 2, 3, and 7, NAR and VAS measurements were obtained before the morning dose and up to 6 hours after dosing; clinical visual examinations were also performed before dosing on these days. NAR and VAS measurements were also made following withdrawal of treatment on Days 8 and 9. Nonparametric analysis of the results showed that therapeutic tolerance to oxymetazoline did not develop over the 7-day treatment period, and visual examination of the nasal mucosa failed to find significant evidence of rhinitis. Evidence of rebound nasal congestion was found following 3 days of oxymetazoline treatment, with baseline NAR within the daily and intermittent oxymetazoline groups being significantly greater on Day 3 compared to Day 1 (p < 0.05). However, there was a trend toward increasing baseline NAR in the vehicle group over the course of the study, suggesting that the vehicle may have contributed to the rebound congestion. Following the withdrawal of treatments, only the intermittent oxymetazoline group had significantly higher NAR on Days 8 and 9 compared to Day 1 (p < 0.05). Subjective VAS measurements generally followed trends in NAR.
Orbital Complications of Pediatric Sinusitis: Treatment of Periorbital Abscess
Authors: Mann Wolf , Amedee Ronald G. , Maurer Jan
Published: November 2007

Twenty-six children requiring surgical intervention for orbital complications of acute sinusitis were treated at our institutions between 1985 and 1995. Twenty patients were successfully treated surgically utilizing endoscopic/microscopic endonasal surgery, or traditional external ethmoidectomy. However, six patients failed to respond to initial surgical attempts and ultimately required a revision. In one of these six patients the development of an intracranial abscess also necessitated a craniotomy for surgical drainage. Analysis of these six failures was performed with special attention given to the reasons for initial surgical failure and possible means for preventing revision surgeries.
Public-Private Partnerships in Highways in Transition Economies
Authors: Queiroz Cesar
Published: November 2007

In many countries the private sector has been involved in financing infrastructure through concessions under a public-private partnership (PPP) program. PPP projects, however, are somewhat underutilized in countries with transition economies, where financing gaps are significant and growing, and there seems to be enormous potential for more private-sector involvement in the financing and operation of highway assets in such countries. The reasons for the low rate of private financing of roads in transition economies include relatively low traffic volumes, lack of appropriate legal frameworks, economic and political instability, and the consequently high perception of risk. As traffic increases on key roads, new legislation is enacted, and institutions and economic growth become more sustainable: it is likely that this sector of transition economies will become more attractive to private investors. This paper reviews the legal framework required for attracting private capital for PPP projects, possible steps that could allow a country to launch a PPP program for highways, the concept of greenfield and road maintenance concession programs, public-sector comparators, competitive selection of concessionaires, and the use of partial risk guarantees to mitigate risks. It also summarizes potential applications of the World Bank Toolkit for PPP in Highways as an instrument to help decision makers and practitioners screen potential PPP projects and define the best approach for a specific country.
Attitudes and Willingness to Pay for Tolled Facilities
Authors: Zmud Johanna , Bradley Mark , Douma Frank , Simek Chris
Published: November 2007

This paper presents the results of an evaluation study of the behavioral impacts of a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane project in Minnesota. The I-394 MnPASS Express Lane Project is the fifth HOT lane project implemented in the United States. HOT lanes remain a new enough concept that there is little empirical information on methods for evaluating them or on their impacts on travel behavior for transportation planners and policy makers to use when making decisions about future facilities. The MnPASS evaluation study is significant not only because it uses a panel design but also because it involved multiple waves of stated preference (SP) experiments. These waves were conducted before and after project implementation. This paper uses information from the evaluation study to examine two significant issues: (a) How applicable is a panel design to evaluating road pricing projects? and (b) How does willingness to pay vary on the basis of before-and-after iterations of the SP experiments?
Methodology for Comparative Analysis to Evaluate Air Travel Service in Alaska
Authors: Abdelghany Ahmed
Published: November 2007

This paper presents a methodology to evaluate air travel service in Alaska and study its possible impact on the state's economic development. The methodology represents a comparative descriptive analysis that relates the airlines service measures in Alaska to those provided for similar destinations. These service measures include the average travel fares to major destinations, the number of airlines that provide service, the number of daily arrivals and departures, and the number of destinations to which direct service is offered. The study indicated that airfares to and from Alaska are generally higher than those for similar destinations. The study also highlighted the possible impact of these relatively high airfares based on the own-price elasticity of air travel demand. The analysis suggested that, in addition to other forgone business opportunities, Alaska could be losing a significant number of potential tourists because of relatively high airfares for travel to and from the state.
Probing Logics of Membership: Contributions on Statism and Nationalism in Germany and Beyond
Authors: Freyberg-Inan Annette
Published: November 2007

Gregg O. Kvistad, The Rise and Demise of German Statism: Loyalty and Political Membership (Providence and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1999)

Hartmut Lehmann and Hermann Wellenreuther (eds.), German and American Nationalism: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford and New York: Berg, 1999)
George L. Mosse Memorial Symposium
Authors: Albert Phyllis Cohen , Sagan Alex
Published: November 2007

George L. Mosse died on January 22, 1999, leaving a legacy of scholarly innovation in the study of European, German, and German-Jewish history. The memorial symposium of October 1, 1999 that produced the following articles brought together some of the many students, colleagues, and friends who were deeply influenced by Mosse’s life and work. They offered reflections on his contributions as researcher, author, teacher, and friend.
George Mosse and Jewish History
Authors: Aschheim Steven E.
Published: November 2007

George Mosse viewed history as a totality. It should come as no surprise, then, that his vision of the modern Jewish experience was in accordance with this predilection. Just as, for him, the political and the religious, the scientific and the aesthetic realms, were intertwined, deeply co-implicated, he refused to pigeon-hole and separate, or to use one of his favorite terms, “ghettoize” Jewish history and cut it off from the larger European whole. When he arrived in the late 1960s at the Hebrew University, I recall, he rather jolted the more conservative historians there not only because they were aghast at the fact that, already then, George was discussing the history of masturbation in his classes(!), but, more pertinently here, also because he challenged the prevailing ethnocentric bias that Jewish history by definition followed its own unique narrative and immanent laws.
Finding Oneself in History and Vice Versa: Remarks on "George's Voice"
Authors: Breines Paul
Published: November 2007

This article is dedicated to John Tortorice, associate director of development

in the library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and

George Mosse’s life-partner. As muse and critic, John worked closely

with George on the latter’s memoir. After George’s death, John saw

the work into print, under the title, Confronting History (University of

Wisconsin Press, 2000). The press did not accept the original title

John had generated, “Finding Myself in History.” This is unfortunate

because it is a fine double entendre that fits the memoir perfectly. To

acknowledge that title and to honor John and the joy and new possibilities

he brought into George’s life, I have borrowed from him in the

title of these remarks.
Book Review
Authors: Neaman Elliot
Published: November 2007

Alon Confino, The Nation as a Local Metaphor; Württemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918 (University of North Carolina Press, 1997)
Adorno's Scars, Bloch's Anacoluthon
Authors: Richter Gerhard
Published: November 2007

Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, newly translated, edited, and with a translator’s introduction by Robert Hullot-Kentor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997)

Ernst Bloch, Literary Essays, trans. Andrew Joron, et. al. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998)
Institutional Change in the East German Transformation Process: The Role of the State in the Reorganization of Property Rights and the Limits of Institutional Transfer
Authors: Lehmbruch Gerhard
Published: November 2007

German social scientists have often stressed that the East German transformation was a process sui generis that differed strongly from the transformation paths of eastern European countries. This difference was of course mainly due to the integration of the former GDR into the Federal Republic of (West) Germany. Indeed, it is commonly assumed that the wholesale transfer of West German institutions left little room for the endogenous paths of transformation observed in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The unintended outcome of this strategy of “exogenous” institutional change was a transformation crisis with the effect of a profound external shock. To be sure, this shock was mitigated by the simultaneous introduction of the West German “social net,” accompanied by massive transfer payments. But many of the dire predictions made by skeptical observers in 1990 have indeed come true.
New Patterns in the East? Differences in Voting Behavior and Consequences for Party Politics in Germany
Authors: Eith Ulrich
Published: November 2007

On 9 November 1989, the government of the German Democratic

Republic decided to open the Berlin Wall, effectively signaling the

collapse of the socialist system in East Germany. The subsequent

transformation of the country’s political structures, and in particular

that of its political parties, took place in two phases. In the first

phase, directly after the fall of the wall, the GDR’s political system

underwent a radical democratic and pluralistic overhaul without

West German involvement—although the existence of a second German

state, the Federal Republic of Germany, naturally influenced

the goals, strategies, and scope of action of the actors concerned.
Reemerged Small-Business Capitalism: The East German Transition Reviewed
Authors: Bluhm Katharina
Published: November 2007

Research on the enterprise transformation in East Germany after unification has focused mostly on the role of the Treuhandanstalt as the central actor in this process who widely determined its outcomes. David Stark and László Bruszt (1998) even suggest that this top-down model of transformation was rooted in the special institutional past of East German state socialism. They argue that the “Weberian home-land” was characterized by weak social networks among firms in comparison, for example, with firms in Hungary or Czechoslovakia, while the planning system and the industrial organization were extraordinarily centralized and hierarchical. Hence, social networks could easily be destroyed after German unification by market shock and by breaking up large enterprises into manageable pieces by the Treuhandanstalt. Moreover, the former, intact centralized planning system could easily be replaced by another centralized and cohesive administrative apparatus, now backed by the strong West German state.
Eastern Germany Ten Years After Unification
Authors: Ertman Thomas
Published: November 2007

On October 3, 1990 the territory of the German Democratic Republic was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany, thereby ending forty-five years of German division. At the time, assessments varied widely about whether the wholesale introduction of the West German political, legal, and socioeconomic systems into the formerly communist east would be a success, and what the implications of success or failure would be for the new united Germany. Ten years later, opinions on these fundamental questions remain divided. One group of optimistic observers maintains that the full integration of the east into an enlarged Federal Republic is well underway, though these observers acknowledge that progress has been slower and more uneven than first anticipated. A more pessimistic assessment is provided by those who claim that, if the present pattern of development continues, the east will remain in a position of permanent structural weakness vis-à-vis the west in a way analogous to that of Italy’s Mezzogiorno.
Book Reviews
Authors: McFalls Laurence , Anderson Jeffrey J. , Beck Vanessa
Published: November 2007

Jennifer A. Yoder, From East Germans to Germans? The New Postcommunist Elitesn(Durham: Duke University Press, 1999)

Review by Laurence McFalls

Hölscher, Jens and Anja Hochberg, eds., East Germany’s Economic Development Since Unification: Domestic and Global Aspects (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998)

Review by Jeffrey J. Anderson

Brigitte Young, Triumph of the Fatherland. German Unification and the Marginalization of Women (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999)

Review by Vanessa Beck
Identical with What? Chartering the Unknown Waters of the Concept of Identity
Authors: Hess Andreas
Published: November 2007

Andreas Glaeser Divided in Unity—Identity, Germany, and the Berlin Police (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2000)

Lutz Niethammer Kollektive Identität—Heimliche Quellen Einer Unheimlichen Kultur (Hamburg: Rowohlts Enzyklopädie, 2000)
Power in Helmut Kohl's Republic: The Two Faces of German Democracy
Authors: Sa'adah Anne
Published: November 2007

Even as the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall was being celebrated, a scandal was beginning that seems destined to bring the Kohl era, however it is defined, to a close. My purpose in this article is to propose a framework for thinking about the broader political meaning and possible impact of the CDU’s difficulties. In this instance as in many others, I will argue, events in the Federal Republic are best understood if approached simultaneously from two angles. On the one hand, Germany remains bound to, if not necessarily by, its multiple experiences of dictatorship. Viewed in this context, events acquire meaning and significance as part of an ongoing process of democratization, or of an effort to “master” a past to some degree enduringly unmasterable. On the other hand, a half-century after its creation, the Federal Republic is an established democracy with a remarkable record of success and a predictable roster of problems. From this perspective, developments in Germany illustrate dilemmas and dysfunctions common across the advanced industrial democracies.
Russians, Americans, and Their Germanies
Authors: Livingston Robert Gerald
Published: November 2007

Hannes Adomeit, Imperial Overstretch: Germany in Soviet Policy from Stalin to Gorbachev (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1998 )

W.R. Smyser, From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle over Germany (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999)

Angela E. Stent, Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, The Soviet Collapse, and the New Europe (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Uni- versity Press, 1999)
Toeing the Line: Institutional Rules, Elites, and Party Discipline in Post-Wall Berlin
Authors: Davidson-Schmich Louise K.
Published: November 2007

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc provided students of Germany and eastern Europe with unprecedented opportunities to investigate the attitudes and values of those socialized under communism. Extensive mass and elite opinion studies have documented that after decades of rule by an all-encompassing political party imposing iron discipline, eastern Europeans distrust political parties as well as party discipline. Students of eastern Germany have found similar patterns, both at the mass and elite levels. Eastern German politicians and their voters clearly are skeptical of strict party discipline and united in their belief that common interests should outweigh partisan concerns when legislation is made. These attitudes differ sharply from western German opinion, which is more supportive of both parties as a whole and party discipline in particular.
Crisis or Catharsis? Germany’s CDU After the Party Finance Affair
Authors: Clemens Clay
Published: November 2007

That old cliche Wechselbad der Emotionen aptly describes how Christian Democrats have felt since Germany’s September 1998 federal election. First came a crushing defeat, their worst showing in decades, and the end of sixteen years in power under Helmut Kohl, “chancellor of unity.” Two of Kohl’s proteges, newly chosen federal party and Bundestag caucus chair, Wolfgang Schäuble, and his handpicked general secretary, Angela Merkel, then helped the CDU to an unexpectedly rapid recovery: during 1999, the party gained ground in every Land-level election and an absolute majority of the vote in several contests. But even before their champagne went flat, party leaders found themselves mired in postwar Germany’s worst political finance scandal, triggered by revelations about Kohl’s penchant for long sustaining a personal slush-fund with large, unreported private contributions, and even by charges of bribery.
From Economic Miracle to Standort Deutschland: Exchanging Economic Metaphors in the Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: Lieberman Ben
Published: November 2007

The history of the Federal Republic of Germany is closely connected with economic achievement. Enjoying a striking economic recovery in the 1950s, the FRG became the home of the “economic miracle.” Maturing into one of the most powerful economies in the world, it became known as the “German model” by the 1970s. Now, however, the chief metaphor for the German economy is “Standort Deutschland,” and therein lies the tale of the new German problem.
Somatic Archive: Exhibiting Nietzsche
Authors: Weineck Silke-Maria
Published: November 2007

This essay concerns one of the strangest exhibits of all time: the display of Friedrich Nietzsche’s live body in Villa Silberblick, a house overlooking Weimar, the “City of European Culture” in 1999. Since Weimar’s self-representation is organized almost entirely around the glory of a handful of long-dead men and the public spaces devoted to them, the town might as well have declared itself “City of Museum Culture.” Indeed, its culture has been strange at times, and its contradictions are not all that badly summed up in the double meaning of Silberblick, which can mean both silver view and cross-eyed vision. In the story of Nietzsche’s final years we will encounter both the silvering and the squinting.
Making Money: The Bundesbank and the German Political Economy
Authors: Zatlin Jonathan R.
Published: November 2007

Stephen F. Frowen and Robert Pringle, eds., Inside the Bundesbank (St. Martins Press: New York, 1998)

Peter A. Johnson, The Government of Money: Monetarism in Germany and the United States (Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 1998)

Karl Kaltenthaler, Germany and the Politics of Europe’s Money (Duke University Press: Durham and London 1998)
A Nation in White: Germany’s Hygienic Consensus and the Ambiguities of Modernist Architecture
Authors: Rollins Williams
Published: November 2007

“White, everything white.” White was the color of the Weimar

Republic, or at least so it seemed to cultural critic J. E. Hammann

writing in the journal Die Form in 1930. In his article Hammann did

not just note the trend toward white in interior design, but rather he

was determined to understand the greater significance in his fellow

Germans’ overwhelming color preference. White, Hammann surmised,

was a “characteristic mark of the way in which we grasp our

age,” a “chief indicator of the times,” and a powerful evocation of

the “new spirit” behind Weimar’s “modern weltanschauung” (121f.).
Ordinary East Germans and the Peaceful Revolution
Authors: Olivo Christiane
Published: November 2007

Linda Fuller, Where Was the Working Class? Revolution in Eastern Germany (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999)

Jonathan Grix, The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the GDR (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000)
Book Review
Authors: Silvia Stephen J.
Published: November 2007

Wolfgang Schroeder, Das Modell Deutschland auf dem Prüfstand. Zur Entwicklung der industriellen Beziehungen in Ostdeutschland (1990-2000) (Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2000)
Environmentalists, Nuclear Waste, and the Politics of Passive Exclusion in Germany
Authors: Hunold Christian
Published: November 2007

In this essay I examine the dispute between the German Green

Party and some of the country’s environmental nongovernmental

organizations (NGOs) over the March 2001 renewal of rail shipments

of highly radioactive wastes to Gorleben. My purpose in

doing so is to test John Dryzek’s 1996 claim that environmentalists

ought to beware of what they wish for concerning inclusion in the

liberal democratic state. Inclusion on the wrong terms, argues

Dryzek, may prove detrimental to the goals of greening and democratizing

public policy because such inclusion may compromise the

survival of a green public sphere that is vital to both. Prospects for

ecological democracy, understood in terms of strong ecological

modernization here, depend on historically conditioned relationships

between the state and the environmental movement that foster

the emergence and persistence over time of such a public sphere.
Cultures of Catastrophe: Understanding the History and Memory of Mass Death in Twentieth-Century Europe
Authors: Kansteiner Wulf
Published: November 2007

Omer Bartov, Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide, and Modern Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Democracy, Federalism, and the European Union: The Pitfalls of Combining Explanation and Normative Theory
Authors: Parsons Craig
Published: November 2007

Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum, eds., Democracy in the European Union (New York: Routledge, 2000)

Dusan Sidjanski, The Federal Future of Europe: From the European Community to the European Union (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2000)
“Ein Staatsmann mit Geschichte”: Joschka Fischer's German Past
Authors: Sa'adah M. Anne
Published: November 2007

Joschka Fischer (b. 1948), Germany’s foreign minister and for several

years one of the country’s most popular politicians, is a man of

the moment, of consequence both domestically and beyond his

country’s borders. Nationally prominent as leader of the “realo” faction

of the Greens, he was instrumental in turning a protest movement

into the partner in power of the Social Democratic Party

(SPD). During the Kosovo crisis, he was a key figure in securing

German participation in the NATO intervention. He has played an

influential role in the unfolding debate about institutional reform

within the European Union. During the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian

violence, he has actively tried to bring the parties to the table.