bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CNI Task Force Meeting: A Summary Report
Authors: Riggs Colby
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To provide an overview of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Task Force Meeting, held in Portland, Oregon, December 2004.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive review of the main points from the meeting.

Findings

Participants were offered a rich and diverse set of presentations that advanced and reported on CNI’s programs, showcase projects and issues from Task Force member institutions, and highlighted key activities in the broader field of networked information.

Originality/value

This paper is a useful summary of a conference of interest to library and information management professionals.
NOKS: A Searchable Cultural and Historical Database from Denmark: An ALM Project (Archive‐Library‐Museum)
Authors: Hedegaard Ruth , Hellum Asboern , Topholm Jens
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The aim is to describe and discuss a searchable database on the internet that gives the possibility of searching simultaneously in the collections of three different types of heritage institutions, archives, libraries and museums.

Design/methodology/approach

Provides a description of the setting up of OKS in Denmark, a project which started in 2001.

Findings

The first edition of the database includes the digital catalogue records of these institutions, with 115,000 records, 8,000 of them with photos attached and including items such as printed material, books, leaflets, articles, newspapers and clippings, archives, sound records, films, videos, museum artefacts, among other elements. The records from the different institutions have been collected from the special databases of the three types of institutions and imported into one common database freely available on the internet. At the same time the creation of NOKS has shown the importance of developing standards in the field of cultural history.

Practical implications

A new update is now in progress with several improvements and alterations, the most important being the decision to use Dublin Core as the basic structure.

Originality/value

This article is a useful report of a project of interest to information management professionals and others interested or involved with cultural history.
Short Overview of a Pan‐European Cultural Heritage Project, CALIMERA
Authors: Faletar Sanjica
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To provide an overview of CALIMERA (Cultural Applications: Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resources Access), a Coordination Action under the European Union’s Information Society Technologies Framework Programme 6 – IST FP6.

Design/methodology/approach

A summary of the main points and objectives of the programme.

Findings

The goal of CALIMERA is to assist local cultural institutions – public libraries, museums and archives – to apply and develop innovative technologies and joint strategies for serving ordinary citizens in their everyday lives. The CALIMERA partner network involves directly 52 organisations from 42 European and neighbouring countries, including local and municipal public libraries, museums and archives, national authorities, research institutions and solutions providers. The 18 month Coordination Action which started in December 2003 builds upon the achievements of another EU project, PULMAN Network of Excellence (Public Libraries Mobilising Advanced Networks).

Originality/value

This is a useful summary of a European programme of interest to all those involved iwth information management.
Internet Use at the Balme Library, University of Ghana
Authors: Alemna A. , Adanu T.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Aims to summarise a study of the extent of use of the internet and its services at a library in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a descriptive summary. The study, which was undertaken within a one‐month period, was at the Balme Library, University of Ghana.

Findings

The findings indicate that among the services, e‐mail is the highest used, followed by the use for research. The least use of the internet was for e‐mail/browsing.

Originality/value

This is of interest to library and information management professionals, particularly those interested in information work in Africa.
Annual Conference of the Nigerian Library Association, Delta State Chapter
Authors: Uzezi Otolo Patience
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To provide a report of the 2004 Annual Conference of the Nigeria Library Association Delta State Chapter.

Design/methodology/approach

A brief report of the conference held at the Delta State Polytechnic Ozoro, Delta State in November 2004, with the theme “Libraries: Tools for Education and Development.”

Findings

The Conference had over 150 participants from different libraries all over the State. The focus was on education and development, ICT and new roles for libraries. This regular annual conference is aimed at giving reports, the activities of the association for the past one‐year, deliberations on the activity of the association in the State.

Originality/value

Provides a useful summary of a conference of interest to library and information management professionals.
American Library Association: 2005 Midwinter Meeting Highlights
Authors: Riggs Colby , Han Yan , Gelfand Julia
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Aims to provide highlights from the American Library Association (ALA) 2005 Midwinter meeting.

Design/methodology/approach

Provides a brief report of the meeting held in Boston, MA. in January 2005.

Findings

Outlines how the Public Library Association (PLA) debuted blogging at this meeting and provides a summary of the ever popular ALA Technology Showcase – the highlights of which included shared networks, library data mining and audio archives. Concludes with highlights from various Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) meetings and discussions and a detailed report on the Standards Interest Group.

Originality/value

A report of interest to library and information management professionals.
Tech Ed Annual Conference
Authors: Gelfand Julia , Mondschein Henry
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To report to the 2005 annual TechEd Conference held in Pasadena, California. Design/methodology/approach Introduction and description of conference overview and specific sessions.

Findings

Technology is driving changes in instructional technology in high school, community college and undergraduate education.

Value

Institutions that are offering distance education as a platform for expanding curriculum reforms and reaching out to students in creative ways are finding that technology reform and products are shaping new ways to teach and integrate information sources.

Practical implications

Many case studies and presentations were made about different applications and introduced a range of products. Not always library focused but about teaching, learning, administration and related applications.
Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) National Conference
Authors: Gelfand Julia , Jackson Susan
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Contributions describing the 12th ACRL National Conference, covering selective highlights of papers, presentations and the overall context of this meeting.

Design/methodology/approach

Observations and descriptions of key themes and ideas that were presented in a conference framework.

Findings

Significant participation at this conference.

Value

This is the primary forum for the exploration of issues and challenges facing academic college and research libraries in North America with significant analogies to the global community.

Research limitations/implications

How problems and issues are resolved by other institutions and realizing that the power of sharing information is greatest when solutions are creative and openly shared. The full academic library experience is covered intensely via a wide range of conference presentations.

Practical implications

Good to share information and network with colleagues and participate in an active tradeshow.
An investigation into the antecedents of goal congruence in retail‐service settings
Authors: Coote Leonard V. , Price Evan , Ackfeldt Anna‐Lena
Published: July 2005

The authors report the results of two studies that model the antecedents of goal congruence in retail‐service settings. They draw the antecedents from extant research and propose that goal congruence is related to employees' perceptions of morale, leadership support, fairness in reward allocation, and empowerment. They hypothesize and test direct and indirect relationships between these constructs and goal congruence. Results of structural equations modeling suggest an important mediating role for morale and interesting areas of variation across retail and service settings.
Is it working? Assessing the value of the Canadian Data Liberation Initiative
Authors: Humphrey Charles , Hamilton Elizabeth
Published: July 2005

This paper examines the assessment of the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), a data consortium, from the perspective of the program's functionality and fulfilment of stakeholder objectives. Two models are described which help assess how well the program succeeded in doing what it was intended to do, and which provide a measure of the program's impact. This study presents correlational evidence between the volume of research outcomes and the increased access to National Population Health Survey data through the DLI. It is hoped that some of the experiences in this evaluation of DLI might be beneficial in assessing other non‐standard programs.
Work is not play
Authors: Maxymuk John
Published: July 2005

Bibliographic instruction has evolved from classroom sessions to present‐day online tutorials that range from brief Web pages to fully‐functional distance‐learning modules. Though libraries use a variety of tools (video clips, games, built‐in quizzes, guided screen capture, cross links, etc.) to create engaging tutorials for bibliographic instruction, the dullness and complexity of the subject‐matter ensures that most tutorials will be little used. The author suggests that the best online bibliographic instruction may use a format already familiar to computer users – an extensive, searchable set of frequently asked questions and their answers.
Strategic alliances in food and beverage and executive recruiting industries
Authors: Cante Charles J. , Calluzzo Vincent J. , Schwartz Deborah P. , Schwartz Theodore M.
Published: July 2005

Strategic alliances, one component of a total quality management program, break down linkages of a supply chain and help alliance partners to address new markets that could not be economically satisfied by a single firm. In recent years, through numerous press releases and anecdotal references, there have been an increased number of reported strategic alliances. However, there have been no systematic studies of the prevalence and impact of strategic alliances in specific industries and no way to obtain information on the costs and benefits of these formal relationships. This current research addresses these gaps. As part of a long‐term longitudinal research program covering diverse industries, two different industries, one in products (food and beverages) and the other in services (executive recruiting) were studied to determine the extent of penetration and effectiveness of strategic alliances. This paper presents examples of strategic alliances and the survey results describing penetration, types of alliances, business benefits, and expected costs.
Supply chain coordination in a fashion firm
Authors: Simatupang Togar M. , Victoria Sandroto Indah , Hari Lubis S.B.
Published: July 2005

Supply chain coordination plays a critical role in integrating different actors along the supply chain to enhance performance. This research focuses on supply chain coordination and its three determinants: namely, responsibility interdependence, uncertainty, and interfunctional conflict. Research propositions were developed to conceptualise how supply chain coordination is driven by its determinants. The propositions were tested by a case study in a fashion firm to examine the differences between the theory and the practice of coordination. Findings showed that the firm carried out only piecemeal coordination in defining and fulfilling customer needs.
Empire is the Enemy of Love: Edith Noor's Progress and Other Stories
Authors: Tabili Laura
Published: July 2005

Cases discovered in the British Colonial Office archives of the 1920s and 1930s show how different branches of the imperial state struggled with interracial couples and families to define their rightful place in the empire. As discursive analysis historically contextualised shows, state servants striving to maintain colonial power relations held assumptions about racial and cultural differences that reacted in unpredictable ways with their deeply gendered and classed judgements about interracial marriages and the women in them. This evidence reveals that racial distinction or ‘whiteness’ was neither the sole nor even the primary variable driving these decisions. Discourses of gender, class, culture, sexual danger and spatial location were equally powerful.
White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War
Authors: Bland Lucy
Published: July 2005

This article examines miscegenation fears in Britain in the period after World War I, noting three dominant discourses: that miscegenation leads inevitably to violence between white and black men (focusing on the 1919 race riots), that these relationships involve sexual immorality (analysing the 1920 ‘Black Horror on the Rhine’, a case involving a white woman, a Chinese man and drugs and a trial of a white woman for killing her Egyptian husband) and that miscegenation has ‘disastrous’ procreative consequences. It is suggested that miscegenation stood as one British boundary marker, separating the nationally acceptable and the nationally threatening. The parties concerned – the ‘primitive’ man of colour, the white woman of a ‘low type’ and the ‘misfit’ offspring – were each pathologised in terms of their deviant sexuality. Yet interracial relationships did not decrease, quite the contrary. The move in Britain towards a more racially mixed community began in the years after the Great War, when certain white women made choices against the norms of respectable femininity.
Women, Gender and Migration along a Mediterranean Frontier: Pre‐Colonial Tunisia, c.1815–1870
Authors: Clancy‐Smith Julia
Published: July 2005

This paper investigates gendered mechanisms for regulating migrants and migration in a pre‐colonial Muslim state, Tunisia, from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the eve of colonialism. Trans‐Mediterranean migration to, and permanent settlement in, nineteenth‐century Tunis, the capital city, constituted a major stimulus for political, cultural and social transformations that endured into the colonial period. Employing diverse documentation, the case study analyses this Mediterranean migratory current of ordinary women and men to test the theoretical literature based primarily on trans‐Atlantic movements, which has emphasised the ‘diversity of social positioning’ for women migrants. The paper argues that for pre‐colonial Tunisia, a state that was both an Ottoman province and a part of the larger Mediterranean world, the system of diplomatic protection represented a critical form of positioning. Moreover, Mediterranean states, both European and Muslim, had a long tradition of controlling the movements of women in port cities. Two distinct historical moments in the settlement of women from the Mediterranean islands in pre‐colonial Tunisia are compared. This approach not only enables an assessment of whether women's movements across international borders can attenuate, if only momentarily, patriarchal authority, but also encourages reflection on how gender explains historical variations in global migratory displacements as well as to what extent colonialism serves as an satisfactory explanatory framework for the gendering of communal boundaries.
Mothers and Non‐Mothers: Gendering the Discourse of Education in South Asia
Authors: Kumar Nita
Published: July 2005

This essay brings together and complicates three stories within South Asian education history by gendering them. Thus modern education was actively pursued by mothers for their sons; indigenous education should be understood as continuing at home; and women were crucial actors in men's reform and nationalism efforts through both collaboration and resistance. Gendered history should go beyond the separate story of girls and women, or the understanding of women as mothers and mothers as the nation, to see these three processes as gendered. The paper argues for the coming together of historical and anthropological arguments and for using literature imaginatively.
Elizabeth Elstob (1674–1752): England's First Professional Woman Historian?
Authors: Clarke Norma
Published: July 2005

Elizabeth Elstob was a scholar of Anglo‐Saxon, who published two important books and was admired by the leaders of the new movement for Anglo‐Saxon studies in the early eighteenth century. She was able to be part of this community because her brother William encouraged and enabled it. His death in 1715 was a catastrophe, marking the end of her productive life as an intellectual and plunging her into poverty. She disappeared for almost twenty years, but was discovered and rescued by the first generation of bluestockings. A project she had begun – a history of intellectual women – was taken up and completed by George Ballard. His Memoirs of British Ladies(1752) included Elstob's memories about Mary Astell, and is, among other things, the single most important source of information about this pioneer feminist.
Induction and assessment methods used in experimental adhesion studies
Authors: Ozel Hakan , Avsar Fatih M. , Topaloglu Serdar , Sahin Mustafa
Published: July 2005

Infertility and intestinal obstruction are well‐known complications, arising from adhesion formation after intra‐abdominal operations. Basic principles of adhesion formation have been found through animal studies. In addition, examination of agents for the prevention of adhesions can be easily made using experimental studies. However, lack of uniformity in study design makes assessment of the efficacy of any prophylactic regimen difficult. In this review, the material and methods used in experimental studies designed for adhesion formation or prevention were evaluated in detail, with experimental studies published in the literature from 1960 to 2003 being evaluated. Several methods for adhesion induction have been described in the literature. Severity of the adhesion varies from method to method, with the main problem being the lack of uniform expression of study results. Extensive use of complex adhesion classification systems should be used to resolve this discordance between experimental studies.
Activated caspase expression and apoptosis increase in keloids: cytochrome c release and caspase‐9 activation during the apoptosis of keloid fibroblast lines
Authors: Akasaka Yoshikiyo , Ito Kinji , Fujita Kazuko , Komiyama Kazuo , Ono Ichiro , Ishikawa Yukio , Akishima Yuri , Sato Hiroko , Ishii Toshiharu
Published: July 2005

To characterize apoptosis in keloids and the mechanisms responsible for this process, the expression of activated caspase‐9 and ‐3 in fibroblasts obtained from keloids was analyzed. Immunohistochemistry revealed that the number of fibroblasts positive for terminal deoxynucleotide transferase‐mediated dUTP nick‐end labeling (TUNEL) or activated caspase‐9 or ‐3 was low but was significantly higher in keloid tissues than in normal scar tissues. Significant relationships between the number of caspase‐positive fibroblasts and TUNEL‐positive fibroblasts suggested that the activation of caspase‐9 and ‐3 induces apoptosis in a subpopulation of keloid fibroblasts. All keloid fibroblast cell lines established in this study showed activation of caspase‐9 and ‐3 after serum deprivation for 3 or 4 hours, as shown using Western blotting. Furthermore, serum deprivation‐induced apoptosis in a keloid fibroblast line was blocked by a caspase‐9 inhibitor (acetyl‐Leu‐Glu‐His‐Asp‐al), indicating that activation of caspase‐9 was necessary for the process of apoptosis in keloid fibroblasts. Although serum deprivation did not significantly change the level of apoptosis protease activating factor‐1 in any of the lines, cytochrome c release was detected in cytosolic fractions of the lines after serum deprivation for 3 or 4 hours. These results strongly suggest that keloid fibroblasts are predisposed to apoptosis and cytochrome c release and that caspase‐9 activation may underlie regulation of apoptosis in keloid fibroblasts in vivo.
Nitrosoglutathione triggers collagen deposition in cutaneous wound repair
Authors: Achuth Hosur N. , Moochhala Shabbir M. , Mahendran Ratha , Tan Walter Tiang Lee
Published: July 2005

The presence of nitric oxide (NO) is associated with enhanced wound fibroblast collagen synthesis; previous observations have focused on the effect of NO on wound collagen content. This article emphasizes the effect of nitrosothiols on wound collagen deposition and matrix‐metalloproteinase activity, which is the primary breakdown pathway of collagen. We examined the effects of S‐nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and glutathione (GSH) on rat scar tissue. Hydroxyproline content, matrix metalloproteinase activity, total glutathione, and total nitrite of scar tissue were measured 3, 5, 7, and 10 days after wounding. It was observed that, at Day 5 and Day 10, wound collagen content was 52.0 percent and 47.5 percent higher, respectively, after GSNO administration than in controls (p < 0.05). GSH administration decreased wound collagen deposition 76.5 percent by Day 5 (p < 0.05). GSH lowered the matrix metalloproteinase activity 67 percent at Day 5 and 50 percent (p < 0.05) at Day 10. Nitrite and nitrate levels were 55 percent higher in the GSNO treated rats than in the control group (p < 0.05) at Day 3, whereas the GSH‐treated groups showed no changes. GSNO increased systemic nitrite 53 percent 3 hours after intraperitoneal injection. Our findings suggest that collagen deposition increases in cutaneous wound healing after the administration of GSNO and that this nitrosothiol does not interfere with the collagenolytic pathway, thus maintaining the physiological conditions necessary for wound healing.
ß2‐adrenergic receptor activation delays dermal fibroblast‐mediated contraction of collagen gels via a cAMP‐dependent mechanism
Authors: Pullar Christine E. , Isseroff R. Rivkah
Published: July 2005

Dermal fibroblasts actively contribute to wound healing by migrating to the wound, synthesizing extracellular matrices, and generating mechanical forces within the wound to initiate wound contraction. Fibroblast‐seeded collagen gels provide an in vitro model to study wound contraction. The authors are evaluating the role of the adrenergic signaling system in cutaneous wound repair and recently found that β2‐adrenergic receptor (β2‐AR) activation markedly decreases keratinocyte migration, an essential step in wound reepithelialization. Because the β2‐ARs are also expressed on dermal fibroblasts, a study was initiated to determine the effects of β‐adrenergic agonists on dermal fibroblast‐mediated collagen gel contraction. A β‐agonist (isoproterenol) delayed gel contraction in a dose‐dependent manner. A β2‐AR specific antagonist (ICI 118,551) prevented the delay, indicating that the β2‐AR alone mediated the delay. The active cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) analog also delayed collagen gel contraction, whereas an inactive cAMP analog partially prevented the delay, suggesting that the mechanism for β‐AR agonist–mediated delay was partly cAMP‐dependent. Identifying and characterizing agents that modulate wound contraction improves understanding of the wound healing process and could result in novel therapeutic strategies for preventing unwanted wound contraction in burn and trauma patients.
Comparison of in vitro disc diffusion and time kill‐kinetic assays for the evaluation of antimicrobial wound dressing efficacy
Authors: Gallant‐Behm Corrie L. , Yin Hua Q. , Liu Shijie , Heggers John P. , Langford Rita E. , Olson Merle E. , Hart David A. , Burrell Robert E
Published: July 2005

There is a plethora of new silver‐containing dressings on the market today. Various manufacturers attempt to show that their dressings are the most efficacious and therefore should be preferentially employed by health care workers based on the results of their in vitro tests. However, there have been no studies that clearly identify which tests are appropriate for comparison purposes. The purpose of this study was to determine which in vitro test is most appropriate for evaluating the antimicrobial efficacy of silver‐containing dressings. This was done by testing seven silver‐containing dressings and two non‐silver‐containing topical agents against 17 clinically relevant microorganisms using zone of inhibition assays and time‐kill kinetic assays in complex media. The results for the two assays were then correlated to determine whether the methods generated similar results. It was determined that the two methods do not correlate at all. This is most likely a result of the silver interacting with the media in the zone of inhibition test, thus invalidating the results of this test. We therefore conclude that zone of inhibition data generated for silver‐containing dressings is of little value when assessing antimicrobial efficacy and that time‐kill assays are of greater use.
Maggots and wound healing: an investigation of the effects of secretions from Lucilia sericata larvae upon the migration of human dermal fibroblasts over a fibronectin‐coated surface
Authors: Horobin Adele J. , Shakesheff Kevin M. , Pritchard David I.
Published: July 2005

Lucilia sericata larvae, or greenbottle fly maggots, placed within chronic wounds have been observed to remove necrotic tissue and infection. They are also believed to actively promote granulation tissue formation. Interactions between fibroblasts and the surrounding extracellular matrix play a crucial role in tissue formation, influencing fibroblast proliferation, migration, and tissue remodeling. For example, the strength of cell adhesion to surfaces coated with extracellular matrix influences cell motility. L. sericata larval excretory/secretory products having previously been shown to modify fibroblast adhesion to collagen and particularly fibronectin, it was hypothesized that these products would alter fibroblast migration. This was investigated using a two‐dimensional in vitro wound assay, time‐lapse digital photography, enzyme class‐specific substrates and inhibitors, and gel electrophoresis. Results showed that L. sericata excretory/secretory products promoted fibroblast migration upon a fibronectin‐coated surface. This was related to the degradation of fibronectin by serine proteinases within maggot excretion/secretions. The presence of a metalloproteinase activity may also have played a role. Thus, a possible mechanism by which maggots enhance tissue formation within wounds may be via the promotion of fibroblast motility, providing for a wider distribution of viable fibroblasts.
Early cellular changes of human mesenchymal stem cells and their interaction with other cells
Authors: Akino Kozo , Mineda Takao , Akita Sadanori
Published: July 2005

Cell‐to–cell interactions between human mesenchymal stem cells and potential adjacent cells such as endothelial cells, dermal fibroblasts, and epidermal keratinocytes was investigated. A modified dual Boyden chamber assay using 8‐µm pores revealed a more powerful chemotactic cell migration of human mesenchymal stem cells toward human epidermal keratinocytes than other cells, such as umbilical artery endothelial cells and dermal fibroblasts, during 16 hours of incubation (336.2 ± 52.33, 36.0 ± 11.20, and 62.7 ± 18.16, cells/field, respectively, p < 0.01; comparison between endothelial cells and keratinocytes, and fibroblasts and keratinocytes). Scanning electron microscopy showed human mesenchymal stem cell migration through the pores, with endothelial cells, fibroblasts, or keratinocytes in the lower chambers. Mesenchymal stem cell ultrastructural changes occurred, including a larger euchromatin nucleus, when the cells were placed in medium containing 10 percent fetal bovine serum, whereas basic fibroblast growth factor maintained the immature cell morphology for 4 days. Monolayer coculture also showed human mesenchymal stem cell changes in ultrastructural morphology in the vicinity of the epidermal keratinocytes. These data suggest that human mesenchymal stem cells may interact with human epidermal keratinocytes to accelerate wound healing and coverage.
Reconstitution of lymphocyte subpopulations in children with inherited metabolic storage diseases after haematopoietic cell transplantation
Authors: Corti Paola , Peters Charles , Balduzzi Adriana , Bertagnolio Barbara , Biondi Andrea , Bugarin Cristina , Dassi Maria , Furlan Francesca , Gaipa Giuseppe , Longoni Daniela , Maglia Oscar , Parini Rossella , Perseghin Paolo , Uderzo Cornelio , Uziel Graziella , Masera Giuseppe , Rovelli Attilio
Published: July 2005

We prospectively evaluated the reconstitution of lymphocyte subpopulations in nine children with lysosomal diseases who underwent 11 allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplants (HCTs) following CD34+ immunomagnetic enrichment, limited T‐cell addback and in vivo B‐cell depletion. Absolute lymphocyte count recovery was slow to cross the 5th percentile, occurring at a median of 10 months after HCT in patients with full chimaerism. Natural killer cells represented up to 90% of the total lymphoid population during the first 3 months. CD4+ lymphocyte recovery occurred 9–18 months after HCT. In most patients, CD8+ lymphocyte recovery was slow and comparable with that of CD4+ lymphocytes. The CD4+/CD8+ ratio normalised by 3–7 months after HCT in 50% of the patients. CD8+ lymphocyte recovery was enhanced in patients with viral reactivation. Reconstitution of B‐lymphocytes was particularly delayed in patients treated with rituximab. Declining chimaerism, rejection and viral reactivation were the most common problems in our series. Because of the unique graft manipulation, the pace of lymphocyte reconstitution was particularly slow, suggesting that these patients are at a significantly increased risk of infections for up to 2 years after HCT.
Role of extracorporeal photochemotherapy in patients with refractory chronic graft‐versus‐host disease
Authors: Rubegni P. , Cuccia A. , Sbano P. , Cevenini G. , Carcagnì M.R. , D'Ascenzo G. , De Aloe G. , Guidi S. , Guglielmetti P. , Marotta G. , Lauria F. , Bosi A. , Fimiani M.
Published: July 2005

Recent studies suggest that extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) may be beneficial in patients with steroid‐refractory chronic graft‐versus‐host disease (cGvHD). However, it is not yet clear whether certain conditions, such as age, mode of onset of cGvHD etc., influence clinical response and whether certain affected organs are more sensitive to ECP than others. We analysed the main clinical and laboratory parameters related to evolution of the disease in 32 steroid‐refractory cGvHD patients, to identify any useful response predictors to ECP. ECP affected the course of the disease positively in 78% (25/32) of our cases.
Rapid and sensitive detection of internal tandem duplication and activating loop mutations of FLT3
Authors: Mills Ken I. , Gilkes Amanda F. , Walsh Val , Sweeney Marion , Gale Rosemary
Published: July 2005

Mutations of the FLT3 gene, a receptor tyrosine kinase, are the most frequent genetic alteration reported in acute myeloid leukaemia, with internal tandem duplications (ITD) or mutations within the activating loop (AL) reported at a frequency of around 24% and 6%, respectively. ITD mutations have associated with a poor prognosis. In this study we have used polymerase chain reaction (PCR), combined with restriction enzyme digestion for the detection of AL mutations, with the DNA products separated on the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyser using a DNA‐500 kit. This analysis enabled the rapid identification of mutations in FLT3, approximate sizing of the ITD, an estimate of the proportion of mutant RNA and in some cases, specific heteroduplex patterns associated with triplet deletions. Our data shows that approximately 16% of the patients examined had an ITD mutation and over 13% had a mutation in the AL including triplet deletions involving codons 835/836 and point mutations in codon D839. Based on the sensitivity and speed of the bioanalyser, we suggest that this method is invaluable and provides an improvement to the current use of agarose gels for the analysis of FLT3 PCR products.
Impact of FLT3 mutations and promyelocytic leukaemia‐breakpoint on clinical characteristics and prognosis in acute promyelocytic leukaemia
Authors: Kuchenbauer Florian , Schoch Claudia , Kern Wolfgang , Hiddemann Wolfgang , Haferlach Torsten , Schnittger Susanne
Published: July 2005

In the present study 170 newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukaemia patients (M3: n = 121; M3v: n = 49) were molecularly characterised with respect to PML breakpoint and additional molecular mutations. In total, 83 patients were positive for bcr1 (49%), five for bcr2 (3%) and 82 for bcr3 (48%). Bcr3 was more frequent in M3v (65·3%) compared with M3 (41·3%) (P = 0·005). Cases with bcr3 showed a significantly higher white blood cell count (median: 3·65 × 109/l vs. 1·59 × 109/l, P = 0·003), as well as a higher PML‐RARAABL expression ratio (14·8% vs. 72·7%, P < 0·005) compared with bcr1. FLT3‐length‐mutations were detected more frequently together with bcr3 compared with bcr1 (56·5% vs. 19·4%, P < 0·001) and in M3v compared with M3 (64·5% vs. 24·1%, P < 0·005). FLT3 tyrosine kinase mutations were found in eight cases (6·4%) and were distributed equally within the total group. Analysis for further mutations revealed no MLL‐PTD and KIT mutations and only two cases of 99 analysed (2%) with NRAS mutations. FLT3‐mutations were detected in 62 of 139 cases (44·6%) and associated with a significant lower overall survival (P = 0·0339). In addition, cases with bcr3 showed a tendency for a worse event‐free survival (P = 0·0795) compared with the bcr1 group.
Control of advanced and refractory acute myelogenous leukaemia with sirolimus‐based non‐myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation
Authors: Claxton David F. , Ehmann Christopher , Rybka Witold
Published: July 2005

Non‐myeloablative conditioning has extended the use of allogeneic haematopoietic transplant to many previously ineligible patients. We added the immunosuppressive and antitumour agent sirolimus (rapamycin) to an established transplant regimen of fludarabine 25 mg/m2 days −7 through −3 and cyclophosphamide 1000 mg/m2 days −7 and −6, with tacrolimus and methotrexate immunoprophyllaxis. A total of 23 patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) were treated, with a median age of 59 years (range: 28–72) at transplant. Only seven patients in total were in complete remission prior to transplantation. Nine patients were in chemotherapy‐refractory progression and seven were primarily refractory to induction therapy. Six patients received matched sibling, 11 unrelated donor, 1–5/6 matched and five haploidentical (haplo – three of six or four of six matched) transplants. The haplo‐recipients also received antithymocyte globulin, all patients engrafted. Only two, both recipients of haploidentical cells, have died from transplant‐related causes. Twelve of 23 patients survived at 198–1162‐d post‐transplant (median 578). Four of 12 survivors relapsed at 83, 88, 243 and 508 d and three were in remission after chemotherapy and donor lymphocyte infusion. Although follow up is short, this data suggests that non‐myeloablative haematopoietic cell transplantation with sirolimus (rapamycin)‐based immunosuppression may provide disease control over several years in some patients with advanced and poor prognosis AML.
Relationship between aeroallergen and food allergen sensitization in childhood
Authors: Roberts G. , Peckitt C. , Northstone K. , Strachan D. , Lack G. , Henderson J. , Golding J. ,   the ALSPAC Study Team
Published: July 2005

Background
Previous studies measuring the prevalence of allergen sensitization have been relatively small and used small numbers of allergens. To effectively evaluate children with atopic disease, we need an accurate knowledge of which allergens are important.

Objective
To measure the prevalence of sensitization within a large unselected birth cohort, to examine the associations between sensitization to different allergens and determine whether atopy can be defined by a small panel of allergens.

Methods
The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children is a population‐based birth cohort of 13 638 singletons surviving to 4 weeks of age. The cohort was skin tested at 7 years of age to house dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus), grass pollens, cat, peanuts, mixed tree nuts and egg and one of three other panels: animal danders, foods or aeroallergens. Sensitization was defined as a weal diameter of 3 mm. The strength of associations between sensitization to different allergens was tested by calculating the odds ratio adjusted for sensitization to D. pteronyssinus and grass pollen and gender.

Results
Valid data were obtained from 6412 singletons. Sensitization was most common to aeroallergens: grass pollens (8.5%), D. pteronyssinus (7.8%), cat (4.9%), D. farinae (3.6%), dog (2.7%), horse (1.4%), rabbit (1.4%). Of the foods tested, the most common sensitization was to peanut (1.4%) and mixed tree nuts (1.0%). More than 95% of subjects with sensitization to any of the 29 allergens tested were sensitized to one of grass, D. pteronyssinus or cat allergen. There were strong associations of multiple sensitizations both within and between different allergen classes (pollens, animals, foods, peanut and tree nuts).

Conclusions
Seven‐year‐old children in the UK are primarily sensitized to aeroallergens, but also to peanuts and tree nuts. There are strong associations between sensitization within allergen groups as well as between allergen groups. Further studies are required to observe whether similar associations are seen with clinical allergy to these allergens.
Main determinants of forest soil respiration along an elevation/temperature gradient in the Italian Alps
Authors: Rodeghiero Mirco , Cescatti Alessandro
Published: July 2005

The main determinants of soil respiration were investigated in 11 forest types distributed along an altitudinal and thermal gradient in the southern Italian Alps (altitudinal range 1520 m, range in mean annual temperature 7.8°C). Soil respiration, soil carbon content and principal stand characteristics were measured with standardized methods. Soil CO2fluxes were measured at each site every 15–20 days with a closed dynamic system (LI‐COR 6400) using soil collars from spring 2000 to spring 2002. At the same time, soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm and soil water content (m3 m−3) were measured at each collar. Soil samples were collected to a depth of 30 cm and stones, root content and bulk density were determined in order to obtain reliable estimates of carbon content per unit area (kg C m−2). Soil respiration and temperature data were fitted with a simple logistic model separately for each site, so that base respiration rates and mean annual soil respiration were estimated. Then the same regression model was applied to all sites simultaneously, with each model parameter being expressed as a linear function of site variables. The general model explained about 86% of the intersite variability of soil respiration. In particular, soil mean annual temperature explained the most of the variance of the model (0.41), followed by soil temperature interquartlile range (0.24), soil carbon content (0.16) and soil water content (0.05).
Species of plants and associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediate mycorrhizal responses to CO2 enrichment
Authors: Johnson Nancy Collins , Wolf Julie , Reyes Melissa A. , Panter Ashley , Koch George W. , Redman Andrea
Published: July 2005

It has been suggested that enrichment of atmospheric CO2 should alter mycorrhizal function by simultaneously increasing nutrient‐uptake benefits and decreasing net C costs for host plants. However, this hypothesis has not been sufficiently tested. We conducted three experiments to examine the impacts of CO2 enrichment on the function of different combinations of plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi grown under high and low soil nutrient availability. Across the three experiments, AM function was measured in 14 plant species, including forbs, C3 and C4 grasses, and plant species that are typically nonmycorrhizal. Five different AM fungal communities were used for inoculum, including mixtures of Glomus spp. and mixtures of Gigasporaceae (i.e. Gigaspora and Scutellospora spp.). Our results do not support the hypothesis that CO2 enrichment should consistently increase plant growth benefits from AM fungi, but rather, we found CO2 enrichment frequently reduced AM benefits. Furthermore, we did not find consistent evidence that enrichment of soil nutrients increases plant growth responses to CO2 enrichment and decreases plant growth responses to AM fungi.

Our results show that the strength of AM mutualisms vary significantly among fungal and plant taxa, and that CO2 levels further mediate AM function. In general, when CO2 enrichment interacted with AM fungal taxa to affect host plant dry weight, it increased the beneficial effects of Gigasporaceae and reduced the benefits of Glomus spp. Future studies are necessary to assess the importance of temperature, irradiance, and ambient soil fertility in this response. We conclude that the affects of CO2 enrichment on AM function varies with plant and fungal taxa, and when making predictions about mycorrhizal function, it is unwise to generalize findings based on a narrow range of plant hosts, AM fungi, and environmental conditions.
δ13C variation of C3 and C4 plants across an Asian monsoon rainfall gradient in arid northwestern China
Authors: Weiguo Liu , Xiahong Feng , Youfeng Ning , Qingle Zhang , Yunning Cao , Zhisheng A N
Published: July 2005

We have investigated carbon isotopic compositions of four plant genus/species, Bothriochloa ischaemum (C4), Stipa bungeana (C3), Lespedeza sp. (C3) and Heteropappus less (C3), along a precipitation gradient in northwest China in order to assess the impact of water availability on the carbon isotopic discrimination against 13C during carbon assimilation in this area. This information is necessary for reconstruction of paleovegetation, particularly paleo‐C3/C4 plant ratios using δ13C value of organic matter in loess and paleosols in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The δ13C of C3 plants, as a group, exhibits a negative correlation with the annual precipitation amount with a total change and sensitivity of 5‰ and −1.1‰/100 mm, respectively, for the precipitation range from 200 to 700 mm. The C4 grass, B. ischaemum responds to aridity by decreasing 1.7‰ for over the precipitation range from 350 to 700 mm; the plant δ13C is significantly correlated with annual precipitation with a slope −0.61‰/100 mm. This result implies that without considering the effect of water availability on the plant δ13C values, reconstruction of percent C4 vegetation during the last glaciation can be overestimated by about a factor of two.
Soil CN ratio as a scalar parameter to predict nitrous oxide emissions
Authors: Klemedtsson Leif , Von Arnold Karin , Weslien Per , Gundersen Per
Published: July 2005

Forested histosols have been found in some cases to be major, and in other cases minor, sources of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). In order to estimate the total national or global emissions of N2O from histosols, scaling or mapping parameters that can separate low‐ and high‐emitting sites are needed, and should be included in soil databases. Based on interannual measurements of N2O emissions from drained forested histosols in Sweden, we found a strong negative relationship between N2O emissions and soil CN ratios (r2adj=0.96, mean annual N2O emission=ae(−b CN ratio)). The same equation could be used to estimate the N2O emissions from Finnish and German sites based on CN ratios in published data. We envisage that the correlation between N2O emissions and CN ratios could be used to scale N2O emissions from histosols determined at sampled sites to national levels. However, at low CN ratios (i.e. below 15–20) other parameters such as climate, pH and groundwater tables increase in importance as regulating factors affecting N2O emissions.
Landscape‐scale positive feedbacks between fire and expansion of the large tussock grass, Ampelodesmos mauritanica in Catalan shrublands
Authors: Grigulis Karl , Lavorel Sandra , Davies Ian D. , Dossantos Anabelle , Lloret Francisco , Vilà Montserrat
Published: July 2005

In the northern Mediterranean Basin, agricultural land abandonment over the last century has resulted in increasing frequencies of very large, intense fires. In Catalonia (NE Spain) some fires have been locally associated with the expansion of the large, evergreen, resprouting tussock grass Ampelodesmos mauritanica. We tested the hypothesis of a positive feedback between the abundance of A. mauritanica and changing fire regimes.

We used permanent plots distributed across a natural gradient of density of A. mauritanica in the Garraf Natural Park near Barcelona. Total aboveground biomass nearly doubled from plots with low to high density through a combination of A. mauritanica replacing the biomass of other components of the community (predominantly native shrubs), and its absolute standing biomass increasing. The quantity of litter also increased. This increase in fuel load and changes in community functional composition resulted from the simultaneous decrease in shrub productivity and an increase in litter accumulation. Litter accumulation was the consequence of A. mauritanica litter decomposing 30% more slowly than that of shrubs. Under standardized conditions, A. mauritanica and its litter were considerably more flammable than any of the shrub species. This resulted in a more than 40‐fold increase in calculated plot flammability from low‐to‐high‐density plots.

Feedbacks, at the landscape scale, were then analysed using the landscape simulation platform LAMOS. Invasion success and contribution to community biomass of A. mauritanica increased with decreasing fire return intervals. Total area burnt in the landscape during each fire year was positively and exponentially related to the total biomass of A. mauritanica. Simulations showed that landscapes can abruptly switch from regimes of small localized to extensive fires as a result of the spread of A. mauritanica. Therefore, increases in fires under climate change represent threats not only through their direct impacts on ecosystems, but also by promoting invaders such as A. mauritanica, which have the potential to induce powerful feedforward processes and, thereby, fundamental changes to ecosystems.