bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Moral Panic at the English Bar: Paternal vs. Commercial Ideologies of Legal Practice in the 1860s
Authors: Pue W. Wesley
Published: July 2006

This article examines a period of profound crisis about the English bar. The metaphor of “moral panic” is invoked in assessing the impact of five notorious cases of barristers’ misconduct which riveted public attention between 1859 and 1863. Four of the barristers involved were subjected to “professional discipline” in what was the first spate of disciplinary proceedings for breaches of bar “etiquette.” Professional “ethics” were applied in remarkably selective ways and amounted to a “shutting down” of laissez-faire professional practices. This was a crucial turning point in the English legd profession, and the effect was to transform the bar from a relatively open, unregulated status group into something akin to a rule-bound disciplinary regime.
Politics and Research: Epistemological Moments
Authors: Villmoare Adelaide H.
Published: July 2006

In reading the essays by David M. Trubek and John Esser and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, I thought about what I call epistemological moments that have provided contexts within which to understand the relationship between social science research and politics. I will sketch four moments and suggest that I find one of them more compelling than the others because it speaks particularly to social scientists with critical, democratic ambitions and to Trubek and Esser's concerns about politics and the intellectual vitality of the law and society movement.
Policing Soviet Society: The Evolution of State Control
Authors: Shelley Louise I.
Published: July 2006

The Soviet militsiia (regular police) has evolved in the past 70 years from a feeble body seeking to ensure the survival of Soviet rule to a massive bureaucracy corrupted by nearly absolute power. As the Soviet militia has developed the focus of its activities, its ethos, professionalism, and its relationship to both the Party and KGB have changed in all periods, the militia has had political, economic, and social responsibilities, but the balance among the three has shifted depending on the conditions of the state.

The militia, like the Soviet state, is currently in crisis. It remains an instrument of the party that is losing its legitimacy among the population. Perestroika's objective of making institutions subordinate to the law is a sharp deviation from existing practice. But even if the militsiia responds to these new expectations, because of the demands of a centrally planned socialist state the regular police will remain we intrusive into the lives of the citizenry than are police in Western democratic societies.
Professional Innovation: Corporate Lawyers and Private Lawmaking
Authors: Powell Michael J.
Published: July 2006

Through an intensive examination of the development and diffusion of a new legal device—the shareholder rights' plan or poison pill—this article demonstrates the entrepreneurial, lawmaking role of corporate lawyers. This study case suggests that corporate lawyers may act as legal entrepreneurs, developing and promoting new legal devices and strategies on behalf of actual and potential clients. If affirmed by the courts, these devices or techniques are rapidly diffused thereby contributing to the creation of new legal knowledge. The creation and successful defense of the shareholder rights' plan led to both new caselaw and statute law. In this way, corporate practitioners contribute to the creation of new legal knowledge, suggesting a bottom-up approach to knowledge creation rather than the conventional top-down view. It is suggested that legal innovations like the shareholder rights' plan are more likely to be developed in newer firms than in established firms and in specialized firms than general service law firms.
Digesting the Past on the Left, Or the Rule of Law and the German Lesson
Authors: Tönnies Sibylle
Published: July 2006

Antiliberal concepts calling the rule of law into question have an easy job with former leftists, for in those circles normative universals have never been esteemed. However, as experience in Germany in the past two centuries reveals, an element of natural law that lies within Marxism—a humanitarian normative element encompassing the ideas of equality, freedom, and justice—should and must be preserved.
Rights, Relationality, and Membership: Rethinking the Making and Meaning of Citizenship
Authors: Somers Margaret R.
Published: July 2006

The republication after 40 years of T. H. Marshall's Citizenship and Social Class signifies a revived interest in sociolegal historical approaches to citizenship rights. For decades students have been guided by Marshall's classic treatise. But can Marshall's argument for the causal power of the “transition from feudalism to capitalism” continue to provide an adequate grounding for sociolegal approaches to citizenship and rights formation? Building on Marshall's path-breaking expansion of the concept of citizenship, I use institutional analysis and causal narrativity to present an alternative explanation. I argue that modem citizenship rights me a contingent outcome of the convergence of England's medieval legal revolutions with its regionally varied local legal and political cultures, not of the emergence of capitalist markets.
Abortion in Israel: Community, Rights, and the Context of Compromise
Authors: Levine Noga Morag
Published: July 2006

In contrast to American understandings of abortion as a uniquely tragic dilemma, the Israeli abortion issue is a tangential controversy in a larger debate over the relationship between the state's national and democratic identity. The divergent paths of abortion politics in Israel and the United States reflect important differences in underlying religious doctrines, geographical size, feminist ideologies, and the immediacy of other social cleavages. More profoundly, the two abortion stories are the product of distinct understandings of the mutual obligations between citizens and their state and of the relationship between individual and collective rights and duties. While these differences may account for the capacity of Israeli activists on both sides to forge pragmatic compromises, the stability of these policies is uncertain both because of changing Israeli priorities and the import of American conceptions of the abortion dispute.
Hail! Langdell!
Authors: Carrington Paul D.
Published: July 2006

Christopher Columbus Langdell (whose career ended a century ago) achieved fame by devising the case method to turn law into a laboratory science divorced from politics and to make his course so rigorous that it would attract able students seeking to test and prove themselves with the severest academic challenge. The method was adapted by many law teachers who were unpersuaded by the idea of law as apolitical science. These included Langdell's colleagues, James Bradley Thayer and John Chipman Gray, who shared Holmes's disdain for the theory. The method survived and flourished despite its theoretical weakness because it worked in practice. No mere rite of passage, it developed numerous traits and skills useful to lawyers, it revealed a true picture of the political and atomized nature of American law, and it nurtured many of the civic virtues that American law teachers have sought to nurture since the time of George Wythe.
“The More Things Change…”: Business Litigation and Governance in the American Automobile Industry
Authors: Kenworthy Lane , Macaulay Stewart , Rogers Joel
Published: July 2006

Business litigation is a relatively neglected area of corporate governance, particularly given its enormous rise in the United States over the past generation. As a preliminary effort to engage this issue, we examine dispute avoidance and resolution in the automotive sector since the early 1970s-focusing on relationships between auto manufacturers and their suppliers and dealers. We generally presume intercorporate litigation to be a “last resort” in business practice, chosen only on the breakdown of less costly means of dispute avoidance or resolution; we take such breakdown typically to be caused by shifts in the terms of competition among firms (e. g., increased competition, instability, uncertainty); and we expect that, over time, the costs of litigation will motivate efforts to construct new structures of nonlitigious dispute resolution. In the case of the U. S. auto industry, we find disruptive shifts in the terms of competition and increased recourse to litigation. Throughout, however, this litigation effect is mitigated by the dominance of major manufacturers over their suppliers and dealers. Over time, it is further dampened by industry development of mechanisms for arbitration or other nonlitigious dispute resolution.
Too Little, Too Late: Prosecutors' Pre-court Preparation of Rape Survivors
Authors: Konradi Amanda
Published: July 2006

Little research has been conducted on the behaviors of prosecuting attorneys and their interactions with rape survivors between charging and court events. Yet this period, during which prosecutors prepare rape survivors for their witness roles, may be crucial for obtaining successful convictions. Using intensive interviews with 32 rape survivors and background interviews with prosecutors, victim witness advocates, and rape crisis workers, I evaluated the nature of directives and information given to rape survivors and the frequency with which directives were conveyed before preliminary hearings and court events. I concluded that prosecutors employ 20 modes of preparation to construct rape survivors as credible victims for judges and jurors. They orient the rape survivor to the scope of the witness role and her place in the interaction with legal actors, direct her to enhance the credibility of her story, and enhance the credibility of her self'presentation. Research showed that prosecutors prepared respondents more thoroughly for trials than for preliminary hearings, but little overall. A large minority of respondents, consequently, reported dissatisfaction with the preparation they received. On the basis of the findings, I call for an extension of Martin and Powell's “politics of victim's needs,” attention to the importance of maintaining a perception of procedural justice among rape survivors, and further research into pre-court preparation.
Boundaries of Legitimacy: Sex, Violence, Citizenship, and Community in a Local Sexual Economy
Authors: Sanchez Lisa E.
Published: July 2006

Studies of prostitution have overlooked the role of law in constituting the identities and sexual practices of women in the sex trade and defining the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate violence in the sexual economy. Drawing on field work with sex trade participants in a northwestern United States city, this paper explores how the cultural logic of modern liberal law shapes women's identities and interpretations of their actions. In positioning women in the sex trade as “sexual outlaws” to be managed and subjected to the full scope of legal authority, the law simultaneously limits women's citizenship and withdraws its protection. Moreover, in restricting women's capacity to invoke fundamental legal rights, the law effectively sanctions “private” or extralegal forms of discipline and creates a space for violence. Given the paradoxical position these women hold as sexual outlaws on the one hand and frequent victims of physical and sexual assault on the other, I explore how they negotiate consent and resist violence.
Contingent-Fee Lawyers and Their Clients: Settlement Expectations, Settlement Realities, and Issues of Control in the Lawyer-Client Relationship
Authors: Kritzer Herbert M.
Published: July 2006

One hallmark of Herb Jacob's analyses of criminal courts—extensive consideration of the interaction among actors—was less pronounced in his work on civil justice, which was more focused on institutions and the politics behind the laws that those institutions administered. In the research I report here, my emphasis is squarely on the actors in the civil justice process: the relationship between contingency-fee lawyers and clients, and how that relationship plays out in the settlement process. In Felony Justice, Herb, and his coauthor James Eisenstein, focus on the courtroom workgroup as a case-processing (and, largely, case-settling) machine; clients are relatively peripheral. In my account, clients, both current and future, are extremely important in how the lawyer works to settle cases. In the criminal court workgroup, lawyers do not worry about where future clients will come from because police secure them. In contrast, the contingency-fee lawyer has constant concerns about future clients, and I argue, this concern provides a control over lawyers that prior analyses of the contingency fee have largely missed. This dynamic also may explain why the courtroom workgroups, or court communities, found in the criminal courts do not appear to exist in the civil justice system.
“Won't You Please Help Me Get My Son Home”: Peonage, Patronage, and Protest in the World War II Urban South
Authors: Goluboff Risa L.
Published: July 2006

During World War II, young African Americans from southern cities left their homes for what appeared to be patriotic job opportunities harvesting sugar cane in Florida. When returning workers described peonage and slavery instead, parents worried about their children's safety. After attempting to contact their children directly, the parents appealed to the federal government. Their decision to mobilize the federal government and the strategies they used to do so reveal important aspects of wartime African American protest that historians have previously overlooked. This article focuses on families instead of atomized individuals, revealing the importance of families, neighborhoods, and communities to the emergence of rights consciousness. It also complicates the historiographical dichotomy between rights consciousness and patronage relationships. Patrons served as liaisons with law enforcement agencies and provided links to a law-centered rights consciousness. For many historians, until protest exits the realm of patronage ties, it is not really protest, and once interactions with government themselves become bureaucratized they cease to be protest any longer. The efforts of the peons' families challenge both ends of this narrow category of protest; they both used patronage relations to lodge their protests and also forged rights consciousness within the legal process itself.
Two Properties, One Land: Law and Space in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand
Authors: Banner Stuart
Published: July 2006

If we use the word land to refer to the physical substance, and reserve the word property for the intellectual apparatus that organizes rights to use land, we can say that in colonial New Zealand, the British and the Maori overlaid two dissimilar systems of property on the same land. That difference in legal thought structured each side's perception of what the other was doing, in ways that illustrate unusually clearly the power of law to organize our awareness of phenomena before they reach the level of consciousness. Over the course of the nineteenth century, as the balance of power gradually swung to the side of the British, they were largely able to impose their property system on the Maori. The centrality of property within the thought of both peoples, however, meant that the transformation of Maori into English property rights involved much more than land. Religious belief, engagement with the market economy, political organization—all were bound up in the systems by which both peoples organized property rights in land. To anglicize the Maori property system was to revolutionize Maori life.
Road Closed: Evaluating the Judicial Bypass Provision of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act
Authors: Silverstein Helena
Published: July 2006

This paper examines the extent to which Pennsylvania county courts are prepared to implement the judicial bypass provision of the state's abortion statute. Under the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act it is illegal for physicians to perform abortions on pregnant minors without parental consent. The constitutionality of this requirement has been upheld, but only when states provide a mechanism allowing a minor to bypass parental involvement. The Pennsylvania statute includes a judicial bypass provision that is formally consistent with legal precedent. However, based on a study of how county courts respond to inquiries into the judicial bypass procedure, this paper demonstrates that most courthouses are not prepared to implement or provide accurate information on bypass proceedings. Since the constitutionality of parental involvement requirements is conditioned on the availability of a bypass option, the paper argues that the courts' lack of readiness poses a significant threat to the rights of pregnant minors.
The Political Origins of Judicial Empowerment through Constitutionalization: Lessons from Four Constitutional Revolutions
Authors: Hirschl Ran
Published: July 2006

Drawing upon an analysis of the political vectors behind constitutional reform in Israel (1992), Canada (1982) New Zealand (1990), and South Africa (1993), the article suggests that the trend toward constitutionalization in culturally divided polities has not been adequately delineated by extant theories of constitutional transformation. An examination of the political origins of these four constitutional revolutions suggests that judicial empowerment is in many cases the consequence of a conscious strategy undertaken by threatened political and economic elites seeking to preserve their hegemony vis-a-vis the growing influence of “peripheral” groups in crucial majoritarian policymaking arenas. In response to perceived threats by peripheral groups, elites who possess disproportionate access to and influence upon the legal arena often initiate a constitutional entrenchment of rights in order to insulate policymaking from popular political pressure. Power is transferred from majoritarian decision-making arenas to national high courts, where they assume their policy preferences will find greater support. This process of conscious judicial empowerment is likely to occur (a) when the judiciary's public reputation for political impartiality and rectitude is relatively high and (b) when the courts are likely to rule, by and large, in accordance with the cultural propensities and policy preferences of the traditionally hegemonic elites.
Investment Rules and the New Constitutionalism
Authors: Schneiderman David
Published: July 2006

The new model for economic and political renovation mandates the entrenchment, beyond the reach of majoritarian control, of rules for the free movement of transnational capital. This “new constitutionalism” removes key aspects of economic life from the influence of domestic politics within nation states. A manifestation of this new orthodoxy is the network of bilateral investment treaties designed to ensure foreign investors security from “discrimination” and “expropriation,” and conferring standing on investors to sue in the event that their investment interests are impaired. This paper examines the agency of the state in promoting this self-binding regime of investment rules and its potential impact on domestic constitutional regimes. Of particular concern here are constitutional arrangements that protect property, such as that recently enacted in the Republic of South Africa, that deviate from the norms expressed in the transnational investment-rules regime.
Contradictions, Law, and State Socialism
Authors: Savelsberg Joachim J.
Published: July 2006

The relationship of law to antagonisms and contradictions within state socialism is explored from a Weberian and a Marxian perspective. Examining legislation, court decision making, legal control of economic behavior, and law enforcement reveals contradictions between (I) a radical participatory ideology versus muted or extinct civil society; (2) the ideology of comprehensive planning versus the impotence of law; (3) strategies aiming at total control of public life versus the emergence of a niche society outside the reach of the state; (4) regulatory norms versus the functional necessity of norm-breaking behavior; (5) reliance on a revolutionary sense of justice versus the cultivation of “doublethought”; (6) a program of total control of economic behavior versus the emergence of deviant, even criminal, forms of organization to fulfill functionally necessary but ideologically unapproved economic tasks; and finally, (7) two distinct practices of law, responsive or postliberal versus repressive. Yet, contradictions typically did not lead through conflict to subsequent reform during the state socialist era, as conflicts were repressed. When reforms were attempted, they furthered conflict and system breakdown.
Michigan's Minority Graduates in Practice: The River Runs Through Law School
Authors: Lempert Richard O. , Chambers David L. , Adams Terry K.
Published: July 2006

This paper reports the results of a 1997–98 survey designed to explore the careers of the University of Michigan Law School's minority graduates from the classes of 1970 through 1996, and of a random sample of Michigan Law School's white alumni who graduated during the same years. It is to date the most detailed quantitative exploration of how minority students fare after they graduate from law school and enter law practice or related careers. The results reveal that almost all of Michigan Law School's minority graduates pass a bar exam and go on to have careers that appear successful by conventional measures. In particular, the survey indicates that minority graduates (defined so as to include graduates with African American, Latino, and Native American backgrounds) are no less successful than white graduates, whether success is measured by the log of current income, self-reported satisfaction, or an index of service contributions. Also, although an admissions index that combines LSAT scores and undergraduate grade-point average is a significant predictor of law school grades, it does not predict career success on any of our three outcome measures. Michigan is a highly selective law school; our results may not generalize to people who have graduated from other law schools.
Minority Graduates from Michigan Law School: Differently Successful
Authors: Nelson Robert L. , Payne Monique R.
Published: July 2006

Lempert, Chambers, and Adams (2000; hereafter LCA) make an important contribution to both the debate on affirmative action in legal education and the sociology of the legal profession. We find their empirical results credible and agree with their interpretations of the data related to arguments about the role of affirmative action in Michigan's admissions policies. Yet, in crafting an analysis to demonstrate the similarities in the career outcomes of minority and white graduates, they have minimized evidence that points to substantial continuing patterns of inequality by race and gender within the legal profession. Moreover, LCA only begin to illuminate the mechanisms that produce the career patterns they document. Of particular importance is the question of how race, class, and gender interact to shape lawyers' careers-a topic LCA largely reserve for future analyses.
Confrontations and Compromise: Dispute Resolution at a Worker Cooperative Coal Mine
Authors: Hoffmann Elizabeth A.
Published: July 2006

This paper compares dispute-resolution behavior at a large coal mine in South Wales at two times: when the mine was run as a conventional, hierarchical organization by British Coal and, several years later, when it was bought out by the employees and converted into a worker cooperative. Synthesizing themes from law and society, organizational theory, and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) research, I demonstrate how shared ownership, flattened hierarchy, and cooperative ideology impact on disputing behavior. By changing from a hierarchical organization to a worker cooperative, the coal mine increased is level of procedural justice and transformed its dispute-resolution behavior to rely much more on informal resolution. Using qualitative methods, this research draws on 42 in-depth open interviews with miners and managers.
Fractalkine stimulates angiogenesis by activating the Raf-1/MEK/ERK- and PI3K/Akt/eNOS-dependent signal pathways
Authors: Lee Seon-Jin , Namkoong Seung , Kim Young-Mi , Kim Chun-Ki , Lee Hansoo , Ha Kwon-Soo , Chung Hun-Taeg , Kwon Young-Guen , Kim Young-Myeong
Published: July 2006

Fractalkine (FKN) has been implicated in modulation of angiogenesis and vascular inflammation, but the underlying mechanism has not been elucidated. We have investigated the molecular mechanism by which FKN regulates angiogenesis. We found that recombinant FKN increases in vitro proliferation, migration, and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells and stimulates in vivo angiogenesis. FKN-induced angiogenesis was accompanied by phosphorylation of ERK, Akt, and endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS), as well as an increase in NO production. These biochemical events and angiogenesis were completely inhibited by the G protein-coupled receptor inhibitor pertussis toxin. Inhibitors of Raf-1, MEK, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and eNOS or transfection with dominant-negative forms of ERK and Akt significantly suppressed the angiogenic activity of FKN. However, inhibitors of Raf-1 and MEK or a dominant-negative ERK mutant blocked FKN-induced ERK, but not Akt and eNOS, phosphorylation. The PI3K inhibitor and a dominant-negative mutant of Akt suppressed Akt and eNOS phosphorylation and NO production. Our results demonstrated that FKN stimulated angiogenesis by activating the Raf-1/MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt/eNOS/NO signal pathways via the G protein-coupled receptor CX3CR1, indicating that two pathways are required for full angiogenic activity of FKN. This study suggests that FKN may play an important role in the pathophysiological process of inflammatory angiogenesis.
Role of the α2-isoform of AMP-activated protein kinase in the metabolic response of the heart to no-flow ischemia
Authors: Zarrinpashneh Elham , Carjaval Karla , Beauloye Christophe , Ginion Audrey , Mateo Philippe , Pouleur Anne-Catherine , Horman Sandrine , Vaulont Sophie , Hoerter Jacqueline , Viollet Benoit , Hue Louis , Vanoverschelde Jean-Louis , Bertrand Luc
Published: July 2006

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a major sensor and regulator of the energetic state of the cell. Little is known about the specific role of AMPKα2, the major AMPK isoform in the heart, in response to global ischemia. We used AMPKα2-knockout (AMPKα2−/−) mice to evaluate the consequences of AMPKα2 deletion during normoxia and ischemia, with glucose as the sole substrate. Hemodynamic measurements from echocardiography of hearts from AMPKα2−/− mice during normoxia showed no significant modification compared with wild-type animals. In contrast, the response of hearts from AMPKα2−/− mice to no-flow ischemia was characterized by a more rapid onset of ischemia-induced contracture. This ischemic contracture was associated with a decrease in ATP content, lactate production, glycogen content, and AMPKβ2 content. Hearts from AMPKα2−/− mice were also characterized by a decreased phosphorylation state of acetyl-CoA carboxylase during normoxia and ischemia. Despite an apparent worse metabolic adaptation during ischemia, the absence of AMPKα2 does not exacerbate impairment of the recovery of postischemic contractile function. In conclusion, AMPKα2 is required for the metabolic response of the heart to no-flow ischemia. The remaining AMPKα1 cannot compensate for the absence of AMPKα2.
Genomic insights into acute inflammatory lung injury
Authors: Garcia Joe G. N. , Moreno Vinasco Liliana
Published: July 2006

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a devastating syndrome (usually associated with sepsis) that represents a major healthcare burden in the United States. We have focused our studies on unraveling the genetic underpinnings of this syndrome utilizing a candidate gene approach to identify novel genes for ALI susceptibility. Two novel genes identified by this approach include pre-B cell colony-enhancing factor (PBEF) and the gene for myosin light chain kinase (MLCK). PBEF protein levels were elevated in human bronchoalveolar lavage and serum samples from patients with ALI, and DNA sequencing identified two single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PBEF promoter (T-1001G, C-1543T) that were overrepresented in patients with sepsis-induced ALI. More recently, we found MLCK single polymorphisms and haplotypes to be associated with human ALI with unique variants observed in African-Americans with ALI. Thus genomic and genetic approaches represent powerful strategies in the identification of novel candidate genes and potential targets for ALI therapies.
Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (HDI) Cause DNA Damage in Leukemia Cells: A Mechanism for Leukemia-Specific HDI-Dependent Apoptosis?
Authors: Gaymes Terry J. , Padua Rose Ann , Pla Marika , Orr Stephen , Omidvar Nader , Chomienne Christine , Mufti Ghulam J. , Rassool Feyruz V.
Published: July 2006

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDI) increase gene expression through induction of histone acetylation. However, it remains unclear whether increases in specific gene expression events determine the apoptotic response following HDI administration. Herein, we show that a variety of HDI trigger in hematopoietic cells not only widespread histone acetylation and DNA damage responses but also actual DNA damage, which is significantly increased in leukemic cells compared with normal cells. Thus, increase in H2AX and ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) phosphorylation, early markers of DNA damage, occurs rapidly following HDI administration. Activation of the DNA damage and repair response following HDI treatment is further emphasized by localizing DNA repair proteins to regions of DNA damage. These events are followed by subsequent apoptosis of neoplastic cells but not normal cells. Our data indicate that induction of apoptosis by HDI may result predominantly through accumulation of excessive DNA damage in leukemia cells, leading to activation of apoptosis. (Mol Cancer Res 2006;4(8):563–73)
The Microemulsion Synthesis of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Silicon Nanocrystals
Authors: Tilley R. D. , Yamamoto K.
Published: July 2006

Silicon nanocrystals, also called quantum dots, have unique optical properties when in the quantum‐confinement regime. These optical properties make silicon nanocrystals promising materials for a wide variety of applications ranging from optoelectronic devices to fluorophores in biological imaging. A liquid‐phase synthetic approach is reported using surfactant molecules to control particle growth, producing highly monodisperse silicon particles. The surface of the nanocrystals are capped by functional organic molecules that passivate and protect the silicon particles from oxidation, enabling the particles to be used in hydrophobic and hydrophilic applications. The use of hydrophilic silicon quantum dots as optical probes is illustrated by the imaging of Vero cells.
Dimensional anxiety mediates linkage of GABRA2 haplotypes with alcoholism
Authors: Enoch Mary‐Anne , Schwartz Lori , Albaugh Bernard , Virkkunen Matti , Goldman David
Published: July 2006

The GABAAα2 receptor gene (GABRA2) modulates anxiety and stress response. Three recent association studies implicate GABRA2 in alcoholism, however in these papers both common, opposite‐configuration haplotypes in the region distal to intron3 predict risk. We have now replicated the GABRA2 association with alcoholism in 331 Plains Indian men and women and 461 Finnish Caucasian men. Using a dimensional measure of anxiety, harm avoidance (HA), we also found that the association with alcoholism is mediated, or moderated, by anxiety. Nine SNPs were genotyped revealing two haplotype blocks. Within the previously implicated block 2 region, we identified the two common, opposite‐configuration risk haplotypes, A and B. Their frequencies differed markedly in Finns and Plains Indians. In both populations, most block 2 SNPs were significantly associated with alcoholism. The associations were due to increased frequencies of both homozygotes in alcoholics, indicating the possibility of alcoholic subtypes with opposite genotypes. Congruently, there was no significant haplotype association. Using HA as an indicator variable for anxiety, we found haplotype linkage to alcoholism with high and low dimensional anxiety, and to HA itself, in both populations. High HA alcoholics had the highest frequency of the more abundant haplotype (A in Finns, B in Plains Indians); low HA alcoholics had the highest frequency of the less abundant haplotype (B in Finns, A in Plains Indians) (Finns: P = 0.007, OR = 2.1, Plains Indians: P = 0.040, OR = 1.9). Non‐alcoholics had intermediate frequencies. Our results suggest that within the distal GABRA2 region is a functional locus or loci that may differ between populations but that alters risk for alcoholism via the mediating action of anxiety. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Trends in the epidemiology of total shoulder arthroplasty in the United States from 1990–2000
Authors: Jain Nitin B. , Higgins Laurence D. , Guller Ulrich , Pietrobon Ricardo , Katz Jeffrey N.
Published: July 2006

Objective

Longitudinal trends in epidemiology and utilization of total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) have not been previously reported. We evaluated trends in the distribution of age, race, hospital volume and teaching status, outcomes, and indications for TSA during the last decade.

Methods

TSA cases (n = 12,758) were extracted from the 1990–2000 Nationwide Inpatient Sample databases. TSA trends were obtained for 3 time periods: 1990–1993 (period I), 1994–1997 (period II), and 1998–2000 (period III).

Results

Between 1990 and 2000, there were minor increases in the rate of TSA in most age groups. Ninety‐three percent of the patients undergoing TSA in all 3 time periods were white. An increased proportion of patients were operated on in high volume hospitals in period III as compared with period I. Patients discharged to inpatient rehabilitation facilities after surgery had longer lengths of in‐hospital stays as compared with those discharged home. Osteoarthritis was diagnosed in an increasing proportion of patients undergoing TSA (56.6% in period I versus 70.9% in period III).

Conclusion

There was a minor increase in the rate of TSA, and almost no change in use of TSA by nonwhites from 1990 through 2000. Efforts to understand and narrow this apparent underutilization of TSA among nonwhites are required. Further research should determine whether the observed shift of TSA to high volume centers improves surgical outcomes.
Study of subcutaneous fat in children with juvenile dermatomyositis
Authors: Verma Sumit , Singh Surjit , Bhalla Anil Kumar , Khullar Madhu
Published: July 2006

Objective

Lipodystrophy is a recently recognized complication of juvenile dermatomyositis (juvenile DM). Until now, the diagnosis has been based only on the physical appearance of the patient. We quantified the patterns of fat distribution in a cohort of patients with juvenile DM.

Methods

Twenty patients with juvenile DM were enrolled along with a matching number of controls. Both groups underwent standard anthropometric measurements including assessment of skinfold thickness using Harpenden Skinfold Caliper (Holtain, Dyfed, UK). Glucose tolerance test and serum lipid estimates were performed in the study group but not in controls.

Results

Patients with juvenile DM had lower mean weight, height, and mid–upper‐arm circumference as compared with controls; these differences were statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05). Eight (40%) of 20 patients had lipodystrophy on physical appearance. When assessed by skinfold caliper, there was loss of subcutaneous fat at the mid‐axillary site in 65% of patients, at the subscapular in 60%, and at the suprailiac site in 55%. Serum triglyceride levels were increased in 12 of the 18 patients who underwent this test. Oral glucose tolerance test results were normal in all 20 patients.

Conclusion

Sixty‐five percent of our patients with juvenile DM were found to have loss of subcutaneous fat on quantification compared with 40% on physical appearance alone. Maximum fat loss occurred at the mid‐axillary skinfold site. A significant number of patients with juvenile DM (66%) had hypertriglyceridemia. We hypothesize that lipodystrophy and hypertriglyceridemia could well be integral components of what may be an expanded juvenile DM syndrome.
Feeling good rather than feeling better matters more to patients
Authors: Tubach Florence , Dougados Maxime , Falissard Bruno , Baron Gabriel , Logeart Isabelle , Ravaud Philippe
Published: July 2006

Objective

To determine the most appropriate means to assess the response to treatment in terms of pain and functional impairment in a chronic rheumatic condition (knee osteoarthritis [OA]) and an acute rheumatic condition (rotator cuff syndrome [RCS]).

Methods

Two prospective studies were conducted consisting of 1,019 outpatients with knee OA and 271 patients with acute RCS. The minimal clinically important improvement and the patient acceptable symptom state were determined for knee OA pain using a visual analog scale, and for knee OA function using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index function subscale; for acute RCS pain, a numeral rating scale was used, and the Neer function subscale was used for RCS function.

Results

The minimal clinically important improvement was shown to be the change required to achieve the patient acceptable symptom state, whatever the baseline level of symptom, the outcome (pain or function), or type of condition (chronic or acute). This acceptable state for pain was higher for chronic (27.0–36.4 across the baseline score) than acute (16.7–24.1) conditions. The level of functional impairment considered satisfactory by patients with knee OA was higher for more disabled patients (43.1) than for less disabled patients (20.4).

Conclusion

Patients consider that they experienced an important improvement only if this improvement allowed them to achieve a state they consider satisfactory. The most appropriate means to assess the response to therapy seems to be to assess whether patients feel good (i.e., achieve the patient acceptable symptom state).
A sensitive inhibition chemiluminescence method for the determination of trace tannic acid using the reaction of luminol–hydrogen peroxide catalysed by tetrasulphonated manganese phthalocyanine
Authors: Yang Ping , Li Yongxin , Wang Po , Wang Lun
Published: July 2006

A novel CL method for the determination of tannic acid (TA) was established based on TA inhibition of the chemiluminescence (CL) emission of the luminol–hydrogen peroxide CL system catalysed by tetrasulphonated manganese phthalocyanine (MnTSPc) under alkaline conditions. The peak height is proportional to the natural logarithm of concentration of TA in the range 1.0 × 10−7–3.0 × 10−10 mol/L with a detection limit of 5.6 × 10−11 mol/L and the relative standard deviation was 2.5% for the determination of 1.0 × 10−8 mol/L TA (n = 11). The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of TA in Chinese gall and industrial wastewater. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Homogeneous electrogenerated chemiluminescence immunoassay for the determination of digoxin employing Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS and carrier protein
Authors: Zhang Chengxiao , Qi Honglan , Zhang Meining
Published: July 2006

A highly sensitive homogeneous electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) immunoassay for the determination of anti‐digoxin antibody and digoxin hapten was developed employing Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS (bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridyl; dcbpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine‐4,4′‐dicarboxylic acid; NHS = N‐hydroxysuccinimide ester) as an electrochemiluminescent label and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a carrier protein. A digoxin hapten was indirectly heavily labelled with Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS through BSA to form Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS–BSA–digoxin conjugate. The ECL intensity of the immunocomplex of the conjugate with anti‐digoxin antibody markedly decreased when the immunoreaction between Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS–BSA–digoxin conjugate and anti‐digoxin antibody took place. Two formats, direct homogeneous immunoassay for anti‐digoxin antibody and competitive immunoassay for digoxin, were developed to determine anti‐digoxin antibody and digoxin, respectively. The anti‐digoxin antibody concentration in the range 7.6 × 10−8–7.6 × 10−6 g/mL was determined by direct homogeneous format. Digoxin hapten was determined throughout the range 4.0 × 10−10–1.0 × 10−7 g/mL with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−10 g/mL by competitive format. The relative standard derivation for 6.0 × 10−9 g/mL was 4.3%. The method has been applied to assaying digoxin in control human serum. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A systems biology approach to study glucose repression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Westergaard Steen Lund , Oliveira Ana Paula , Bro Christoffer , Olsson Lisbeth , Nielsen Jens
Published: July 2006

Glucose repression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has evolved as a complex regulatory system involving several different pathways. There are two main pathways involved in signal transduction. One has a role in glucose sensing and regulation of glucose transport, while another takes part in repression of a wide range of genes involved in utilization of alternative carbon sources. In this work, we applied a systems biology approach to study the interaction between these two pathways. Through genome‐wide transcription analysis of strains with disruption of HXK2, GRR1, MIG1, the combination of MIG1 and MIG2, and the parental strain, we identified 393 genes to have significantly changed expression levels. To identify co‐regulation patterns in the different strains we applied principal component analysis. Disruption of either GRR1 or HXK2 were both found to have profound effects on transcription of genes related to TCA cycle and respiration, as well as ATP synthesis coupled proton transport, all displaying an increased expression. The hxk2Δ strain showed reduced overflow metabolism towards ethanol relative to the parental strain. We also used a genome‐scale metabolic model to identify reporter metabolites, and found that there is a high degree of consistency between the identified reporter metabolites and the physiological effects observed in the different mutants. Our systems biology approach points to close interaction between the two pathways, and our metabolism driven analysis of transcription data may find a wider application for analysis of cross‐talk between different pathways involved in regulation of metabolism. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;96: 134–145. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reevaluation of the Violacein Biosynthetic Pathway and its Relationship to Indolocarbazole Biosynthesis
Authors: Sánchez César , Braña Alfredo F. , Méndez Carmen , Salas José A.
Published: July 2006

The biosynthetic pathways for violacein and for indolocarbazoles (rebeccamycin, staurosporine) include a decarboxylative fusion of two tryptophan units. However, in the case of violacein, one of the tryptophans experiences an unusual 1→2 shift of the indole ring. The violacein biosynthetic gene cluster was previously reported to consist of four genes,vioABCD. Here we studied the violacein pathway through expression ofviogenes inEscherichia coliandStreptomyces albus. A pair of genes (vioAB), responsible for the earliest steps in violacein biosynthesis, was functionally equivalent to the homologous pair in the indolocarbazole pathway (rebOD), directing the formation of chromopyrrolic acid. However, chromopyrrolic acid appeared to be a shunt product, not a violacein intermediate. In addition tovioABCD, a fifth gene (vioE) was essential for violacein biosynthesis, specifically for production of the characteristic 1→2 shift of the indole ring. We also report new findings on the roles played by the VioC and VioD oxygenases, and on the origin of violacein derivatives of the chromoviridans type.
Current controversies in high‐dose‐rate versus low‐dose‐rate brachytherapy for cervical cancer
Authors: Stewart Alexandra J. , Viswanathan Akila N.
Published: July 2006

The use of brachytherapy in the treatment of cervical cancer has increased worldwide since its initial introduction over 100 years ago. However, certain aspects of the use of high‐dose‐rate (HDR) versus low‐dose‐rate (LDR) brachytherapy continue to be controversial, particularly the role of HDR in FIGO Stage III cervical cancer and the use of HDR with concurrent chemotherapy. This study represents a systematic literature review of prospective and retrospective series of patients with cervical carcinoma treated with external‐beam radiation (EBRT) followed by either HDR or LDR radiation. The local control rates, survival rates, and treatment‐related complications in patients with Stage III cervical cancer treated with HDR or LDR and those treated with concomitant chemotherapy are examined. Patients with Stage III cervical cancer treated with EBRT and brachytherapy have a local control rate of >50% in most series. Randomized prospective and retrospective studies show overall statistically equivalent local control, overall survival, and complication rates between HDR and LDR. However, LDR may be preferable for large, bulky tumors at the time of brachytherapy. Retrospective studies of HDR and concurrent chemotherapy are limited but have demonstrated toxicity rates similar to those with LDR. Selected patients with Stage III cervical carcinoma who have an adequate response to EBRT and concomitant chemotherapy may be treated with HDR brachytherapy. The existing literature shows no significant increase in complications in patients treated with HDR and concurrent chemotherapy; however, sufficient tumor shrinkage prior to HDR and careful monitoring of the dose to the normal tissues are imperative. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society.
Neuronal expression and interaction with the synaptic protein CASK suggest a role for Neph1 and Neph2 in synaptogenesis
Authors: Gerke Peter , Benzing Thomas , Höhne Martin , Kispert Andreas , Frotscher Michael , Walz Gerd , Kretz Oliver
Published: July 2006

Formation, differentiation, and plasticity of synapses require interactions between pre‐ and postsynaptic partners. Recently, it was shown that the transmembrane immunoglobulin superfamily protein SYG‐1 is required for providing synaptic specificity in C. elegans. However, it is unclear whether the mammalian orthologs of SYG‐1 are also involved in local cell interactions to determine specificity during synapse formation. We used in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and immunogold electron microscopy to study the temporal and spatial expression of Neph1 and Neph2 in the developing and adult mouse brain. Both proteins show similar patterns with neuronal expression starting around embryonic days 12 and 11, respectively. Expression is strongest in areas of high migratory activity. In the adult brain, Neph1 and Neph2 are predominantly seen in the olfactory nerve layer and the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb, in the hippocampus, and in Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. At the ultrastructural level, Neph1 and Neph2 are detectable within the dendritic shafts of pyramidal neurons. To a lesser extent, there is also synaptic localization of Neph1 within the stratum pyramidale of the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 region on both pre‐ and postsynaptic sites. Here it colocalizes with the synaptic scaffolder calmodulin‐associated serin/threonin kinase (CASK), and both Neph1 and Neph2 interact with the PDZ domain of CASK via their cytoplasmic tail. Our results show that Neph proteins are expressed in the developing nervous system of mammals and suggest that these proteins may have a conserved function in synapse formation or neurogenesis.
J. Comp. Neurol. 498:466–475, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.