bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Phytochemical analysis of Convolvulus hystrix Vahl and its biological effects in rats
Authors: Rezq AM , Al-Malki Abdulrahman L , Refai Mohamed Y , Kumosani Taha A , Moselhy Said S
Published: January 2013

“ Convolvulus hystrix Vahl” is a plant that has been known to Ancient Egyptians and to Arabs and its root was used traditionally as a purgative. Our attention was directed to the root bark as we observed that the largest part of the plant is deeply impeded underground. The work plan involved testing experimental animals for the influence of aqueous root bark extract on carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolisms as reflected on the growth and relevant laboratory metabolic assessment parameters. Proximate analysis showed high percentages of moisture (85%) and total lipids (7.2%) and surprising amounts of elements such as barium, strontium, rhodium and tellurium (1.7 mg, 3.1 mg, 8 mg and 9.1 mg/g ash, respectively). Random serum glucose value showed a significant decrease in the treated female group ( p < 0.05). Serum total proteins of treated female group were found to be increased significantly ( p < 0.001), while it was found to be decreased in the relevant treated male group ( p < 0.01), together with a significant decrease in blood urea nitrogen ( p < 0.05), with a significant increase in the serum creatinine ( p < 0.05). Concerning serum fat metabolic parameters, a significant decrease in the serum triglycerides and high-density lipoproteins ( p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively) were found. We concluded that the presence of huge amount of polyphenolics such as tannins is responsible for the overall results documented as growth retarding and antinutritional factors. The results were motivating and pointed out to the possible opening of vast areas of research in the field of natural products. We recommend a series of biochemical and pharmacological studies concerning different parts of the plant as well.
Hypolipidemic effect of fruit fibers in rats fed with high dietary fat
Authors: Esmael O.A. , Sonbul S.N. , Kumosani T.A. , Moselhy S.S
Published: January 2013

The hypolipidemic effect of 10% fruit fibers in rats fed with high-fat diet (HFD) was evaluated. This study was conducted on a total of 50 male Albino rats divided into 10 equal groups fed with different types of dietary fruits. The feeding period lasted for 24 weeks. Fasting blood samples were collected and sera separated and subjected to lipid profile assay and atherogenic index. In addition, total antioxidant activity of different fruits was determined. The results obtained showed that pomegranate had higher content of antioxidants followed by apple, strawberry and guava compared with other fruits. Rats fed with 20% coconut oil showed a highly significant elevation in the levels of serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and atherogenic factor while the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was significantly decreased when compared with control rats. Histological examination revealed that there was a large lipid and cholesterol deposition in the livers of rats fed with HFD. The potential in lowering the levels of plasma total cholesterol and triglyceride is in the following order: pomegranate > apple > strawberry > guava > papaya > mandarin and orange. Accumulation of hepatic lipid droplets was diminished when compared with the HFD group. Also, antiatherogenic is better than the untreated groups. Accordingly these hypolipidemic effects may be due to high-fiber content and antioxidant activity of these fruits.
Intimate Partner Violence and Depressive Symptoms Before Pregnancy, During Pregnancy, and After Infant Delivery
Authors: Ogbonnaya Ijeoma Nwabuzor , Macy Rebecca J. , Kupper Lawrence L. , Martin Sandra L. , Bledsoe-Mansori Sarah E.
Published: January 2013

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy also tend to experience depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, little is known about how victimized women’s levels of depressive symptoms change longitudinally before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after infant delivery. In addition, few studies have used a comparison group of women to determine if levels of depressive symptoms among victimized women differ from depressive symptom levels in women who have not experienced IPV. To help address these knowledge gaps, we examined longitudinal trends in levels of depressive symptoms among a sample of 76 women who did ( n = 33) and did not ( n = 43) experience physical IPV during pregnancy. Using multilevel analysis, we estimated the relationship of physical IPV victimization and women’s depressive symptom levels across six time periods: (a) the year before pregnancy, (b) first and second trimesters, (c) third trimester, (d) the first month postpartum, (e) Months 2 to 6 postpartum, and (f) Months 7 to 12 postpartum. Women who experienced physical IPV victimization during pregnancy had significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms during each time period ( p < .05). No significant difference between the two groups was found in the rate of change in levels of depressive symptoms over time. These findings point to the importance of screening for IPV within health care settings and suggest that women physically abused during pregnancy need safety interventions that are coordinated with interventions targeting symptoms of depression.
Displaced Discretion
Authors: Vance Stephen E. , Oleson J. C.
Published: January 2013

While research indicates that sentencing guidelines systems often reduce sentencing disparity, few studies have examined whether sentencing guidelines shift discretion and disparity from judges to prosecutors. Some critics assert that guidelines do shift judicial discretion to prosecutors, but empirical evidence is scarce. This study seeks to provide some empirical data on the underresearched topic of hydraulic displacement of discretion. Using data from the District of Columbia Superior Court, the study asked whether charge bargaining practices changed after the District of Columbia adopted a regime of sentencing guidelines. The analyses indicate that some changes in the plea bargaining process did occur after the guidelines were implemented but that most were not statistically significant. Policy implications of the displacement thesis and the current findings are discussed.
Simple Hardworking Christian Folks, or the Self-Image of Contemporary Belarusian Kolkhozniks
Authors: Engelking Anna
Published: January 2013

This article concerns the anthropological inquiry about collective identity of contemporary Belarusian kolkhozniks. The author had conducted her field research (1993-2011) in both west and east Belarus. Source materials consist of about seven hundred conversations with individuals overwhelmingly more than sixty years of age. By analyzing and interpreting their narrative, the author traced the implicit values, norms, rules, basic semiotic dichotomies, and distinctive attributes in search of an unbiased insight into the content, structure, and building process of collective identity of the subjects under study. She concludes that the dichotomies, constitutive for collective identity of kolkhozniks—“peasant” versus “lord,” “peasant” versus “Jew,” and “Christian” versus “Jew”—result in the self-definition of muzhik-kolkhoznik as a simple, hard-working man “from here” belonging to a “Christian nation.” Neither the nation nor motherland, state nor language, belongs to the principal values of this group, which are “working the land” and “faith in God.” As a result of the petrifaction of the old model of the serfdom manor by the Soviet kolkhoz system, in a Belarusian village we presently encounter one of the last European residuals of premodern mentality and social identity. The image of Belarusian kolkhozniks’ collective identity has little to do with the popular category of Homo sovieticus and with the common stereotype of the kolkhoz. The human subject of the author’s anthropological reflection shows up as a person dealing amazingly well with extremely difficult living conditions and the modern, vivid personification of the archaic Homo religiosus.
Reactive Sequences in the Evolution of Maryland’s Consequential Accountability Regime
Authors: Mawhinney Hanne B.
Published: January 2013

An institutional analysis is presented of the policy, political, and legislative events associated with the failure of an attempt in 2006 by the state of Maryland to take control of 11 schools in Baltimore City and turn them over to independent managers or into charter schools under No Child Left Behind. The place of the failed takeover-to-turnover is analyzed using a path dependent approach. Analysis suggests although state–local governing cultures may mediate the evolution of state education accountability regimes, they do so in embedded sequences of reactions and counterreactions. Findings have implications for further research on localized, performance-based federalism.
Commitment and collective identity of long-term union participation: the case of women union leaders in the UK and USA
Authors: Kirton Gill , Healy Geraldine
Published: January 2013

This article asks what sustains women union leaders’ long-term union participation given an internal environment often hostile to women and an external context antagonistic to unions. This article considers the dynamics of long-term participation by drawing on social movement interrelated concepts of commitment and collective identity in the context of a comparative study of American and British women union leaders. The study explores the experiences of 134 women union leaders, the majority of whom are long-term union participants. The findings reveal that commitment is strengthened by women’s experience of both expressive and intrinsic rewards but that such rewards are offset by costs, some of which are universal to union leadership, but others are particularly gendered. It was found that while a gendered collective identity may inform union collective identity, it is the union collective identity and associated solidarity that remains dominant in contemporary British and American women’s union leadership.
A new interface element with progressive damage and osseointegration for modeling of interfaces in hip resurfacing
Authors: Caouette Christiane , Bureau Martin N , Lavigne Martin , Vendittoli Pascal-André , Nuño Natalia
Published: January 2013

Finite element models of orthopedic implants such as hip resurfacing femoral components usually rely on contact elements to model the load-bearing interfaces that connect bone, cement and implant. However, contact elements cannot simulate progressive degradation of bone–cement interfaces or osseointegration. A new interface element is developed to alleviate these shortcomings. This element is capable of simulating the nonlinear progression of bone–cement interface debonding or bone–implant interface osseointegration, based on mechanical stimuli in normal and tangential directions. The new element is applied to a hip resurfacing femoral component with a stem made of a novel biomimetic composite material. Three load cases are applied sequentially to simulate the 6-month period required for osseointegration of the stem. The effect of interdigitation depth of the bone–cement interface is found to be negligible, with only minor variations of micromotions. Numerical results show that the biomimetic stem progressively osseointegrates (α averages 0.7 on the stem surface, with spot-welds) and that bone–stem micromotions decrease below 10 µm. Osseointegration also changes the load path within the femoral bone: a decrease of 300 µε was observed in the femoral head, and the inferomedial part of the femoral neck showed a slight increase of 165 µε. There was also increased stress in the implant stem (from 7 to 11 MPa after osseointegration), indicating that part of the load is supported through the stem. The use of the new osseointegratable interface element has shown the osseointegration potential of the biomimetic stem. Its ability to model partially osseointegrated interfaces based on the mechanical conditions at the interface means that the new element could be used to study load transfer and osseointegration patterns on other models of uncemented hip resurfacing femoral components.
Effect of complex wavelet transform filter on thyroid tumor classification in three-dimensional ultrasound
Authors: Acharya U Rajendra , Sree S Vinitha , Swapna G , Gupta Savita , Molinari Filippo , Garberoglio R , Witkowska Agnieszka , Suri Jasjit S
Published: January 2013

Ultrasonography has great potential in differentiating malignant thyroid nodules from the benign ones. However, visual interpretation is limited by interobserver variability, and further, the speckle distribution poses a challenge during the classification process. This article thus presents an automated system for tumor classification in three-dimensional contrast-enhanced ultrasonography data sets. The system first processes the contrast-enhanced ultrasonography images using complex wavelet transform–based filter to mitigate the effect of speckle noise. The higher order spectra features are then extracted and used as input for training and testing a fuzzy classifier. In the off-line training system, higher order spectra features are extracted from a set of images known as the training images. These higher order spectra features along with the clinically assigned ground truth are used to train the classifier and obtain an estimate of the classifier or training parameters. The ground truth tells the class label of the image (i.e. whether the image belongs to a benign or malignant nodule). During the online testing phase, the estimated classifier parameters are applied on the higher order spectra features that are extracted from the testing images to predict their class labels. The predicted class labels are compared with their corresponding original ground truth to evaluate the performance of the classifier. Without utilizing the complex wavelet transform filter, the fuzzy classifier demonstrated an accuracy of 91.6%, while utilizing the complex wavelet transform filter, the accuracy significantly boosted to 99.1%.
‘Pole-arized’ discourse: An analysis of responses to Miley Cyrus’s Teen Choice Awards pole dance
Authors: Lamb Sharon , Graling Kelly , Wheeler Emily E
Published: January 2013

Sexualization of girlhood is a current issue in the US and around the world. Concerns that girls are asked to self-sexualize at younger and younger ages have led to an examination of the influence of media on girls. The current study attempts to explore public views on the ‘self-sexualization’ of a Disney pop star, Miley Cyrus, in what was called a ‘pole dance’ by the media. This performance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards stirred considerable debate in the news and on public websites. The current analysis examines website responses of 13 websites through a qualitative, thematic analysis of over 500 individual responses. Analysis of internet comments revealed themes of agency and innocence in adolescent female sexuality as well as the function of these themes in US culture. The dominant themes are discussed in light of the largely absent gendered analysis of the performance and its significance.
The effect of public library use on the social capital of rural communities
Authors: Johnson Catherine A. , Griffis Matthew R.
Published: January 2013

This paper reports on a study that investigated the relationship between social capital and public library use in small towns in Ontario, Canada. Comparisons were also made with the findings of a similar study that was conducted in a medium-sized urban centre. Data for this study were collected through questionnaires administered to both library users and non-users and interviews with library staff and frequent library users. Both Robert Putnam’s and Nan Lin’s conceptualizations of social capital informed the design of this study. The study found that participants from small towns had higher levels of social capital than the urban participants. However, in contrast with urban participants, library use had no significant association with levels of social capital for small town participants. The findings suggest that small town libraries cater mainly to middle-class residents who maintain their high level of social capital through participation in a variety of community activities and organizations.
E-books in academic libraries: Challenges for sharing and use
Authors: Walters William H.
Published: January 2013

This paper reviews the recent literature on e-book sharing and use in post-secondary libraries, exploring current restrictions on viewing, printing, downloading, circulation, and interlibrary loan. It also discusses the ways in which these restrictions influence the library lending of e-book readers and other mobile devices. The most fundamental problems include restrictive license provisions, proprietary software and file formats, digital rights management (DRM), and the single-user business model adopted by many e-book vendors.
Bridging the knowledge gap: An analysis of Albert Einstein’s popularized presentation of the equivalence of mass and energy
Authors: Kapon Shulamit
Published: January 2013

This article presents an analysis of a scientific article written by Albert Einstein in 1946 for the general public that explains the equivalence of mass and energy and discusses the implications of this principle. It is argued that an intelligent popularization of many advanced ideas in physics requires more than the simple elimination of mathematical formalisms and complicated scientific conceptions. Rather, it is shown that Einstein developed an alternative argument for the general public that bypasses the core of the formal derivation of the equivalence of mass and energy to provide a sense of derivation based on the history of science and the nature of scientific inquiry. This alternative argument is supported and enhanced by variety of explanatory devices orchestrated to coherently support and promote the reader’s understanding. The discussion centers on comparisons to other scientific expositions written by Einstein for the general public.
Effects of Structural Family Therapy on Child and Maternal Mental Health Symptomatology
Authors: Weaver Addie , Greeno Catherine G. , Marcus Steven C. , Fusco Rachel A. , Zimmerman Tina , Anderson Carol
Published: January 2013

Objective: This pilot study examined the effect of structural family therapy (SFT) on children’s impairment and depressive symptomatology and mothers’ depressive symptomatology and anxiety for 31 families served by a community mental health clinic. Method: A one group predesign/postdesign, with a baseline and two follow-up time points, was used. Results: A series of repeated measures analyses of variance showed significant improvement for mothers’ depression, F(2, 36) = 6.93, p = .003, η2 = .278, and anxiety, F(2, 34) = 6.44, p = .004, η2 = .275. Mothers’ ratings of their children’s impairment significantly improved, F(2, 42) = 6.27, p = .005, η2 = .270, though children’s self-rated impairment and depressive symptomatology did not change. Results were confirmed using random regression analyses. Conclusion: SFT has promise for simultaneously addressing mothers’ and children’s needs in community mental health settings. However, structural barriers impacting feasibility were identified and discussed.
Induced Altruism in Religious, Military, and Terrorist Organizations
Authors: Qirko Hector N.
Published: January 2013

Human altruism in non-kin, unreciprocated contexts is difficult to understand in evolutionary terms. However, neo-Darwinian theories remain a potentially useful means of illuminating this behavior. In particular, induced altruism, wherein cues of genetic relatedness are manipulated to elicit costly behaviors for the benefit of non-kin, appears highly relevant. This article reviews cross-cultural data on several examples of extremely costly altruism—vows of celibacy, suicide bombings, and combat suicide—as exhibited in organizational and institutional contexts. Two predictions are used to test the relevance of induced altruism to the reinforcement of altruistic commitment to these behaviors. First, different organizations requiring costly sacrifice by their members should employ similar practices involving patterns of association, phenotypic similarity, and kinship terminology that are associated with kin cue-manipulation. Second, these organizational practices should be adopted as a consequence of recruit pools growing increasingly larger and, thus, less genetically related. There appears to be support for both predictions, suggesting that cross-cultural analyses could provide an effective avenue through which to test this and other evolutionary theories related to human unreciprocated altruism in non-kin contexts.
Predictive Value of Elevated Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio in Patients Undergoing Primary Angioplasty for ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Ergelen Mehmet , Uyarel Huseyin , Altay Servet , Kul Şeref , Ayhan Erkan , Isık Turgay , Kemaloğlu Tuba , Gül Mehmet , Sönmez Osman , Erdoğan Ercan , Turfan Murat
Published: January 2013

Objectives: The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been investigated as a new predictor for cardiovascular risk. Admission NLR would be predictive of adverse outcomes after primary angioplasty for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: A total of 2410 patients with STEMI undergoing primary angioplasty were retrospectively enrolled. The study population was divided into tertiles based on the NLR values. A high NLR (n = 803) was defined as a value in the third tertile (>6.97), and a low NLR (n = 1607) was defined as a value in the lower 2 tertiles (≤6.97). Results: High NLR group had higher incidence of inhospital and long-term cardiovascular mortality (5% vs 1.4%, P < .001; 7% vs 4.8%, P = .02, respectively). High NLR (>6.97) was found as an independent predictor of inhospital cardiovascular mortality (odds ratio: 2.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.37-5.74, P = .005). Conclusions: High NLR level is associated with increased inhospital and long-term cardiovascular mortality in patients with STEMI undergoing primary angioplasty.
The Emotional Landscapes of Literacy Coaching
Authors: Hunt Carolyn S. , Handsfield Lara J.
Published: January 2013

In this article, the researchers use positioning theory and de Certeau’s theoretical insights into cultural production in everyday life to examine how first-year literacy coaches negotiate issues of power, positioning, and identity during their professional development. Data were collected during a yearlong qualitative study of literacy coaches participating in a district–university partnership to provide professional development to first-year literacy coaches. The researchers used positioning analysis of three small stories drawn from interviews with literacy coaches and one vignette from a professional development session to investigate how the literacy coaches positioned themselves within the moral order of the district’s literacy and professional development model. Findings demonstrate how the literacy coaches both shaped and were shaped by the institutional spaces through which they moved as they tactically negotiated conflicting expectations and discourses about coaching. These negotiations highlight the emotional nature of literacy coaches’ work as they co-constructed their identities and negotiated understandings of how school spaces are used and the purposes of literacy coaching. The researchers argue that it is necessary to move beyond current conceptions of literacy coaching as a series of roles and tasks to recognize the complexities of literacy coaching and to offer more meaningful professional development for literacy coaches.
The Production of Space in the Franchise City Film
Authors: Trifonova Temenuga
Published: January 2013

This article examines the production of space (Lefebvre) in the franchise Cities of Love in the context of the history of the city film, from the street film through the city symphony, the genre-inflected city (noir and sci fi), nouvelle vague films, the global city film, the transnational ghetto film to the franchise city film. Unlike the early city film, which not only emphasized the surface aspects of modernity but also offered a critique of modernity, the franchise city film adopts the rhetoric of globalization (simultaneity, coincidence, and multiplicity) without providing a similar critique of postmodernity and globalization. It denies the real effects of globalization (e.g., the increasing significance of “any-space-whatever” [Deleuze] in global cities such as Paris and New York) and insists on the embeddedness of stories in two of the world’s global cities that are defined precisely by their exposure to various processes of disembedding and to the transnational attenuation of local space.
The Hegemony of the Urban/Rural Divide
Authors: Jansson André
Published: January 2013

The urban/rural divide constitutes a socially pervasive lived space, corresponding to what Cresswell calls a moral geography. In modern society, the symbolic association of urbanism, globalism, and mediatization defines the dominant metaphysics of flow, which can be distinguished from the more sedentarist metaphysics of fixity, largely representing rural values and life conditions. This article provides an empirically based account (survey data and qualitative interviews) of how these metaphysics are linked to popular understandings of “the city” and “the countryside” in contemporary Sweden, and how such moral geographies are affected by mediatization processes. The findings suggest that although “the city” occupies a culturally dominant position as the mediated center (Couldry), this position evolves through the mutual interplay between the two metaphysics. Ultimately, it is argued that the mediatized reproduction of an urban/rural divide holds a hegemonic function in contemporary society, annihilating conditions that are neither “urban” nor “rural.”
When does the left do the right thing? A study of party position change on welfare policies
Authors: Schumacher Gijs
Published: January 2013

Why did pro-welfare Social Democrats and Christian Democrats cease to support the welfare state in the 1980s and 1990s, and support measures such as tighter welfare programme conditionality rules and lower social security benefits instead? Building on the party position change literature, I argue and empirically demonstrate that parties with an activist-dominated party organization adapt their position to shifts in the party voter position. Parties with a leadership-dominated party organization adapt their position to shifts in the median voter position. Parties in which neither leaders nor activists dictate party policy shift in the opposite direction of the previous policy shift if they are excluded from office. Using a cross-sectional time-series regression analysis of 181 position shifts of European Socialist, Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties in the period 1977–2003, I find strong evidence that party organization is a crucial mediating variable in explaining when these parties shift to the right or left. Demonstrating that differences in party organizations motivate parties to respond to different incentives, this study has implications for the relationship between party behaviour and welfare state policy-making.
Internet suicide: Communities of affirmation and the lethality of communication
Authors: Niezen Ronald
Published: January 2013

As a tool of instant information dissemination and social networking, the Internet has made possible the formation and affirmation of public identities based on personality traits that are usually characterized by clinicians as pathological. The wide variety of online communities of affirmation reveals new conditions for permissiveness and inclusiveness in expressions of these socially marginal and clinically pathologized identities. Much the same kind of discourse common to these online communities is evident in some suicide forums. Web sites with suicide as their central raison d’être, taken together, encompass a wide range of ideas and commitments, including many that provide collective affirmation outside of (and often with hostility toward) professional intervention. The paradox of a potentially life-affirming effect of such forums runs counter to a stark dualism between online therapy versus “prochoice” forums and, by extension, to simple models of the influence of ideas on the lethality of suicide. Different forums either intensify or mitigate self-destructive tendencies in ways that are significant for understanding the place of communication in the occurrence of suicide and for therapeutic practice.
The traveling Indian gallery, part two
Authors: Denzin Norman K
Published: January 2013

A short three-act play interrogates George Catlin’s highly popular 19th century traveling Indian Gallery, examining Catlin’s paintings, and his use of Native Americans as actors in his plays.
Documentary film and ethical foodscapes: three takes on Caribbean sugar
Authors: Richardson-Ngwenya Pamela , Richardson Ben
Published: January 2013

This article demonstrates how certain stories, voices and values around agro-food networks can be made powerful by documentary film. Our central argument is that documentaries mobilize ethics by presenting a partial and affective account of their subject matter, which makes their audience feel differently about the social relations that underpin the production of food and acts as a focal point for media scrutiny and political interventions. We focus attention on three documentaries about Caribbean sugar to explore multiple and disparate ethical claims made about the farmers, workers and communities that embody Caribbean sugar industries. Through a comparison of the three documentaries, we chart how the production and distribution of these films have entailed quite different ethical narratives, encounters and interventions. A key finding is that the context in which films are received is just as important as the content they deliver. The paper concludes with a guarded endorsement for using documentary film to transform the unequal life conditions experienced in the global food system, stressing the need for empirically-grounded critique of the context of documentaries and suggesting the important role that geographers might play as interlocutors in their reception.
The body, the shelter, and the shebeen: an affective geography of homelessness in South Africa
Authors: Daya Shari , Wilkins Nicola
Published: January 2013

Geographies of homelessness mainly address issues of social exclusion, especially in contexts of urban public space. Recent research focuses on spatial regulation and surveillance, and strategies used by homeless people to resist these forms of control and create spaces for themselves in the city. Relatively little attention is paid, however, to the embodied, affective, emotional and relational geographies of homelessness. We address this absence through an exploration of how material spaces and practices shape a sense of belonging for a group of men living in a homeless shelter in Cape Town. Theorizing belonging as constituted through the materialities of both self-identity and social connections, we examine the three spaces that are most affective in our participants’ everyday lives: (i) their bodies, (ii) the shelter where they live, and (iii) the shebeen (tavern) where they drink. The discursive and embodied accounts of two participants in particular serve as a case study that illuminates the complex ways in which belonging is shaped in spaces of homeless life. These men’s experiences reveal some of the ambivalences and ambiguities of homelessness which are only rendered visible through a theoretical lens that respects their status as emotional and relational subjects, rather than as objects within structures of exclusion. Drinking in particular emerges from this research as an important factor in understanding the contradictory behaviours and feelings in these men’s daily lives. Damaging their bodies and social relationships, alcohol nonetheless provides a sense of belonging by facilitating both a sense of self and connections with others.
Park’s Theory of Conflict and His Fall From Grace in Sociology
Authors: Athens Lonnie
Published: January 2013

Following a brief exposition and new interpretation of Robert Park’s theory of conflict, it is subjected to critical examination. Since Park deduced his explanation of race relations from this more general theory and since his ideas about race relations and work for Booker T. Washington are intimately connected with his loss of favor in sociology, they are included as part of this examination. On the one hand, it is found that the characterizations of Park’s ideas on race relations, especially his famous notion of the “race-relations cycle,” as inherently conservative and his work on behalf of Washington as that of a “race-broker” are misguided. On the other hand, it is found that his general theory of conflict suffers from several shortcomings, including that he failed to (a) distinguish dominance from power, (b) make dominance disputes his basic unit of analysis, and (c) identify the stages which conflicts or, more precisely, dominative disputes, unfold. Dispute these flaws, Park’s analysis of conflict still provides an invaluable fund of ideas for advancing our understanding of social conflict, which should not be dismissed because of mischaracterizations of him and his views. Thus, in my opinion, social scientists would now be well-advised to reexamine both Park’s general model of conflict and his specific application of it to race relations.
Visuospatial and Attentional Abilities Predict Driving Simulator Performance Among Older HIV-infected Adults
Authors: Foley J. M. , Gooding A. L. , Thames A. D. , Ettenhofer M. L. , Kim M. S. , Castellon S. A. , Marcotte T. D. , Sadek J. R. , Heaton R. K. , Gorp W. G. van , Hinkin C. H.
Published: January 2013

Objectives: To examine the effects of aging and neuropsychological (NP) impairment on driving simulator performance within a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected cohort. Methods: Participants included 79 HIV-infected adults (n = 58 > age 50, n = 21 ≤ 40) who completed a NP battery and a personnel computer-based driving simulator task. Outcome variables included total completion time (time) and number of city blocks to complete the task (blocks). Results: Compared to the younger group, the older group was less efficient in their route finding (blocks over optimum: 25.9 [20.1] vs 14.4 [16.9]; P = .02) and took longer to complete the task (time: 1297.6 [577.6] vs 804.4 [458.5] seconds; P = .001). Regression models within the older adult group indicated that visuospatial abilities (blocks: b = −0.40, P <.001; time: b = −0.40, P = .001) and attention (blocks: b = −0.49, P = .001; time: b = −0.42, P = .006) independently predicted simulator performance. The NP-impaired group performed more poorly on both time and blocks, compared to the NP normal group. Conclusions: Older HIV-infected adults may be at risk of driving-related functional compromise secondary to HIV-associated neurocognitive decline.
Popliteal Venous Aneurysm as a Cause of Recurrent Pulmonary Embolism
Authors: Tomko Tomáš , Malý Radovan , Jiška Stanislav , Chovanec Vendelín
Published: January 2013

We report 2 cases of recurrent pulmonary embolism (PE) in popliteal venous aneurysm (PVA). Patients were 78-year-old and 72-year-old women. Both were initially seen for acute PE. Saccular and fusiform PVAs were diagnosed in each patient based on duplex ultrasound. However, despite anticoagulation therapy, both patients had PE. At the time of the event, 1 patient was receiving inadequate dose of low-molecular-weight heparin. The other patient was treated with warfarin and had adequate international normalized ratio at the time of re-embolism, and thus, an inferior vena cava filter was inserted. Both patients underwent successful aneurysm resection without any additional thromboembolic events.
Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress: A Feminine Journey with Dream-Like Qualities
Authors: Chang Yen-Jung
Published: January 2013

Satoshi Kon is a Japanese animation film director whose works, story, and imagery suggest altered mental states, such as insanity or dreaming. Millennium Actress (2001), which this author regards as Kon’s magnum opus, uses a dream-like style of animation and filmmaking to create the narrative of a biography of a fictional actress. In this feature-length animated film, Kon reifies theories and findings from the functions of dreaming and the mechanics of dream that have developed over a hundred years since the early 20th century. The oneiric quality of the animation film is explored using both psychoanalytical/psychological theories and neuroscientific frameworks to reveal its story of a feminine journey in relation to the collective unconscious and mythic story structure, and the cinematic editing techniques that help the storytelling lead to the dream state.
Dnmt3b is a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor gene in Myc-induced lymphomagenesis
Authors: Vasanthakumar Aparna , Lepore Janet B. , Zegarek Matthew H. , Kocherginsky Masha , Singh Mahi , Davis Elizabeth M. , Link Petra A. , Anastasi John , Le Beau Michelle M. , Karpf Adam R. , Godley Lucy A.
Published: January 2013

Key Points

Dnmt3b acts as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor in Myc-induced lymphomas.
NRP1 acts cell autonomously in endothelium to promote tip cell function during sprouting angiogenesis
Authors: Fantin Alessandro , Vieira Joaquim M. , Plein Alice , Denti Laura , Fruttiger Marcus , Pollard Jeffrey W. , Ruhrberg Christiana
Published: January 2013

Key Points

NRP1 promotes brain angiogenesis cell autonomously in endothelium, independently of heterotypic interactions with nonendothelial cells. NRP1 plays a key role in endothelial tip rather than stalk cells during vessel sprouting in the brain.
The function of hematopoietic stem cells is altered by both genetic and inflammatory factors in lupus mice
Authors: Niu Haitao , Fang Guoqiang , Tang Yiting , Xie Luokun , Yang Huan , Morel Laurence , Diamond Betty , Zou Yong-Rui
Published: January 2013

Key Points

Genetic lupus risk factors enhance HSC repopulation capacity. Inflammatory cytokines and HMGB1 in lupus mice modify HSC function.
Prostaglandin E2 regulates murine hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells directly via EP4 receptor and indirectly through mesenchymal progenitor cells
Authors: Ikushima Yoshiko Matsumoto , Arai Fumio , Hosokawa Kentaro , Toyama Hirofumi , Takubo Keiyo , Furuyashiki Tomoyuki , Narumiya Shuh , Suda Toshio
Published: January 2013

Key Points

PGE2 signaling positively regulates hematopoietic stem cells both directly and via activation of a nonhematopoietic cell population. EP4 is a major receptor for the PGE2-mediated regulation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.
Fetal origins of hematopoietic failure in a murine model of Fanconi anemia
Authors: Kamimae-Lanning Ashley N. , Goloviznina Natalya A. , Kurre Peter
Published: January 2013

Key Points

Fancc −/− mice experience previously unrecognized late gestational lethality. Fancc −/− fetal mouse hematopoiesis is quantitatively and qualitatively deficient.
The vascular permeabilizing factors histamine and serotonin induce angiogenesis through TR3/Nur77 and subsequently truncate it through thrombospondin-1
Authors: Qin Liuliang , Zhao Dezheng , Xu Jianfeng , Ren Xianghui , Terwilliger Ernest F. , Parangi Sareh , Lawler Jack , Dvorak Harold F. , Zeng Huiyan
Published: January 2013

Key Points

Histamine and serotonin induce, but subsequently truncate, angiogenesis via a thrombspondin-1–mediated negative feedback loop.
Siglec-E is a negative regulator of acute pulmonary neutrophil inflammation and suppresses CD11b β2-integrin–dependent signaling
Authors: McMillan Sarah J. , Sharma Ritu S. , McKenzie Emma J. , Richards Hannah E. , Zhang Jiquan , Prescott Alan , Crocker Paul R.
Published: January 2013

Key Points

First report describing in vivo function of siglec-E as a negative regulator of neutrophil recruitment in acute lung inflammation. Implications for the human functional ortholog, siglec-9, and its potential role in regulating inflammatory lung disease.
Rapid activation of monocyte tissue factor by antithymocyte globulin is dependent on complement and protein disulfide isomerase
Authors: Langer Florian , Spath Brigitte , Fischer Cornelia , Stolz Moritz , Ayuk Francis A. , Kröger Nicolaus , Bokemeyer Carsten , Ruf Wolfram
Published: January 2013

Key Points

ATG induces monocyte TF procoagulant activity dependent on complement activation but independent of de novo protein synthesis. TF decryption requires oxidation of cell surface PDI following C5 activation and phosphatidylserine membrane exposure following C7 insertion.
Climate change, extreme weather events, air pollution and respiratory health in Europe
Authors: De Sario M. , Katsouyanni K. , Michelozzi P.
Published: January 2013

Due to climate change and other factors, air pollution patterns are changing in several urbanised areas of the world, with a significant effect on respiratory health both independently and synergistically with weather conditions; climate scenarios show Europe as one of the most vulnerable regions. European studies on heatwave episodes have consistently shown a synergistic effect of air pollution and high temperatures, while the potential weather–air pollution interaction during wildfires and dust storms is unknown. Allergen patterns are also changing in response to climate change, and air pollution can modify the allergenic potential of pollens, especially in the presence of specific weather conditions. The underlying mechanisms of all these interactions are not well known; the health consequences vary from decreases in lung function to allergic diseases, new onset of diseases, exacerbation of chronic respiratory diseases, and premature death. These multidimensional climate–pollution–allergen effects need to be taken into account in estimating both climate and air pollution-related respiratory effects, in order to set up adequate policy and public health actions to face both the current and future climate and pollution challenges.
Overexpressed proprotein convertase 1/3 induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition in airway epithelium
Authors: Lee Sang-Nam , Lee Da-Hyung , Sohn Myung Hyun , Yoon Joo-Heon
Published: January 2013

The proprotein convertases (PCs) are serine proteases responsible for the proteolytic maturation of many precursor proteins involved in upper airway remodelling during nasal polyposis. We have previously found that PC1/3 is expressed in human nasal mucosa.

However, whether PC1/3 is related to nasal polyp formation has not been investigated. To gain insight into the functional role of PC1/3 in nasal polyps, we determined PC1/3 expression in nasal polyps by immunostaining, Western blotting and enzyme assays and generated stable cells expressing PC1/3 using airway epithelial cell line NCI-H292.

Nasal polyps exhibit increased PC1/3 expression compared to normal nasal mucosa. PC1/3 was expressed in neuroendocrine cells in normal nasal mucosa and it was also expressed in goblet and ciliated cells in nasal polyps. NCI-H292 cells stably expressing PC1/3 displayed morphological changes, enhanced cell proliferation and migration, downregulation of E-cadherin and cytokeratins and upregulation of N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase-2, collagen-I, snail and twist. Importantly, PC1/3 expression was positively correlated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition in cultured human nasal epithelial cells and in nasal polyps.

Taken together, our data suggest that PC1/3 overexpression induces morphological and phenotypic epithelial-mesenchymal transition changes of airway epithelial cells and these changes may contribute to the pathogenesis of nasal polyps.
Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: animal models
Authors: Mercier Olaf , Fadel Elie
Published: January 2013

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a life-threatening disease due to pulmonary artery obstruction by persistent organised clots related to one or more episodes of acute pulmonary embolism. To date, the pathogenesis of CTEPH remains unexplained. Pulmonary endarterectomy removes obstruction from pulmonary vessels and can cure patients. However, some unreachable distal pulmonary obstruction and/or associated distal pulmonary vasculopathy could induce persistent pulmonary hypertension, the main postoperative complication.

The pathophysiology of CTEPH is not fully understood and improving knowledge of this disease could improve our future surgical and medical management. Many attempts, conducted over several decades, have failed to reproduce this chronic disease in animals. However, several animal models have provided insights into the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of CTEPH. Here, we review all the animal models that have improved the comprehension of CTEPH and hold promise for further investigations. This short review analyses strengths and weaknesses of all animal models available to study the pathophysiology of CTEPH.
Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) of human endobronchial biopsies: asthmaversuscontrols
Authors: Yick Ching Yong , Zwinderman Aeilko H. , Kunst Peter W. , Grünberg Katrien , Mauad Thais , Dijkhuis Annemiek , Bel Elisabeth H. , Baas Frank , Lutter René , Sterk Peter J.
Published: January 2013

The cellular and molecular pathways in asthma are highly complex. Increased understanding can be obtained by unbiased transcriptomic analysis (RNA-Seq). We hypothesised that the transcriptomic profile of whole human endobronchial biopsies differs between asthma patients and controls.

First, we investigated the feasibility of obtaining RNA from whole endobronchial biopsies suitable for RNA-Seq. Secondly, we examined the difference in transcriptomic profiles between asthma and controls. This cross-sectional study compared four steroid-free atopic asthma patients and five healthy nonatopic controls. Total RNA from four biopsies per subject was prepared for RNA-Seq. Comparison of the numbers of reads per gene in asthma and controls was based on the Poisson distribution.

46 genes were differentially expressed between asthma and controls, including pendrin, periostin and BCL2. 10 gene networks were found to be involved in cellular morphology, movement and development.

RNA isolated from whole human endobronchial biopsies is suitable for RNA-Seq, showing different transcriptomic profiles between asthma and controls. Novel and confirmative genes were found to be linked to asthma. These results indicate that biological processes in the airways of asthma patients are regulated differently when compared to controls, which may be relevant for the pathogenesis and treatment of the disease.