bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Commentary: The Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) Sub-Programme: Opportunity for or Constraint to Land Redistribution, Rural Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation?
Authors: Mapadimeng Mokong Simon
Published: February 2007

Post-apartheid government policy movement on land reform since 1994 is laid out by Mokong Simon Mapadimeng.
Between One and Many: Dramaturgical Praxis at Jump-Start Performance Co.
Authors: Bonin-Rodriguez Paul
Published: February 2007

After a decade of finding dramaturgical support in a Critical Response process created by choreographer Liz Lerman, the directors of Jump-Start Performance Co., a community-based, multi-disciplinary theatre company in San Antonio, have suggested that all upcoming productions include a single dramaturg. The change acknowledges the weaknesses of the previous method, and yet does not dismiss with it altogether. This article argues that by crafting the dramaturg's role within the framework of Lerman's process, the company has fashioned a dramaturgical role unique to its definition and practice and made probable the likelihood of continued theorizing and alteration.
Risky Business
Authors: Palmer Tanya
Published: February 2007

This essay explores the role that risk, both real and perceived, plays in new play programming and new play development. Drawing on two recent articles that argue that the institutional theatre in the United States has embraced the needs of the institution over the art, the author deconstructs the assumption of risk that surrounds programming decisions, and argues that the tendency towards "risk management" over risk taking is antithetical to the very act of new play creation.
Imagining LMDA: Past, Present, and Future
Authors: Volansky Michele
Published: February 2007

For the past twenty years, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) has served the theater community by cultivating, developing and promoting the field of dramaturgy. The author explores the future of the organization, and, by extension, the profession.
A Team Approach to Dramaturgy at Cornish College of the Arts
Authors: Wilson John K. (John Kendall)
Published: February 2007

This article describes a process of team dramaturgy at Cornish College of the Arts. The team was comprised of one student and five faculty from across departments and disciplines. The record of the experience shows how the team gathered material and how they presented it over the first four days of the rehearsal period. The record is not only an example of a unique collaboration, it demonstrates the effective use of dramaturgical presentation during the rehearsal process. Furthermore, it illustrates how dramaturgy can facilitate the integration of the humanities and sciences into the professional arts curriculum.
For Whom the Shoe Fits: Cinderella in the Hands of Victorian Writers and Illustrators
Authors: Cullen Bonnie
Published: February 2007

By studying surviving editions of "Cinderella" at the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum's National Art Library dating from the eighteenth through the early twentieth century, Cullen traces the development in illustration and illustrative elements of the Cinderella story. She parallels these changes with events in society which may have influenced the alterations such as the introduction of pantomime, the emergence of chapbooks, the mid-century popularity of phrenology and physiognomy, magazine publication, the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Victorian notions of femininity.
Security Studies and the end of the Cold War
Authors: Baldwin David A.
Published: February 2007

The end of the cold war has generated numerous reflections on the nature of the world in its aftermath. The reduced military threat to American security has triggered proposals for expanding the concept of national security to include nonmilitary threats to national well-being. Some go further and call for a fundamental reexamination of the concepts, theories, and assumptions used to analyze security problems. In order to lay the groundwork for such a reexamination, the emergence and evolution of security studies as a subfield of international relations is surveyed, the adequacy of the field for coping with the post—cold war world is assessed, and proposals for the future of security studies are discussed. It is argued that a strong case can be made for reintegration of security studies with the study of international politics and foreign policy.
Stability and the Distribution of Power
Authors: Powell Robert
Published: February 2007

The relation between stability and the distribution of power is an important and long-debated problem in international relations theory. The balance-of-powcr school argues that an even distribution of power is more stable, while the preponderance-of-power school argues that a preponderance of power is more stable. Empirical efforts to estimate this relation have yielded contradictory results. This essay examines the relation between stability and the distribution of power in an infinite-horizon game-theoretic model in which two states are bargaining about revising the international status quo. The states make offers and counteroffers until they reach a mutually acceptable settlement or until one of them becomes so pessimistic about the prospects of reaching an agreement that it uses force to impose a new settlement. The equilibrium of the game contradicts the expectations of both schools and offers an explanation for the conflicting empirical estimates. In the model stability is greatest when the status quo distribution of benefits reflects the expected distribution of benefits that the use of force would impose.
Presidents versus Prime Ministers: Shaping Executive Authority in Eastern Europe
Authors: Baylis Thomas A.
Published: February 2007

Open conflict between presidents and prime ministers has become a familiar phenomenon throughout East Central Europe since the fall of communism. While individual personalities and the particular constellations of issues in each country have helped shape individual conflicts, this article seeks to account for them in more fundamental structural terms and to place them in the context of current debates over the relative virtues of presidentialism and parliamentarism. There is a discrepancy between the prestige and popularity of presidents and their modest formal powers; prime ministers, by contrast, enjoy considerable formal power but only limited legitimacy. Since the distribution of authority in newly constituted democracies is ambiguous and fluid, with no established conventions and understandings defining precisely the boundaries among key institutions, presidents seek to utilize the ambiguity to convert their assets of prestige into “real” power over policy, while prime ministers resist what they see as incursions into their areas of responsibility. The article explores the strengths and weaknesses of each side, the terrain of struggle, the tactics employed, the political outcomes to date, and the implications for political consolidation and the future distribution of executive authority in the region's states.
Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative Research
Authors: Collier David , Mahoney James
Published: February 2007

Qualitative analysts have received stern warnings that the validity of their studies may be undermined by selection bias. This article provides an overview of this problem for qualitative researchers in the field of international and comparative studies, focusing on selection bias that may result from the deliberate selection of cases by the investigator. Examples are drawn from studies of revolution, international deterrence, the politics of inflation, international terms of trade, economic growth, and industrial competitiveness. The article first explores how insights about selection bias developed in quantitative research can most productively be applied in qualitative studies. The discussion considers why qualitative researchers need to be concerned about selection bias, even if they do not care about the generality of their findings, and it considers distinctive implications of this form of bias for qualitative research, as in the problem of what is labeled “complexification based on extreme cases.” The article then considers pitfalls in recent discussions of selection bias in qualitative studies. These discussions at times get bogged down in disagreements and misunderstandings over how the dependent variable is conceptualized and what the appropriate frame of comparison should be, issues that are crucial to the assessment of bias within a given study. At certain points it becomes clear that the real issue is not just selection bias, but a larger set of trade-offs among alternative analytic goals.
Modernization: Theories and Facts
Authors: Przeworski Adam , Limongi Fernando
Published: February 2007

What makes political regimes rise, endure, and fall? The main question is whether the observed close relation between levels of economic development and the incidence of democratic regimes is due to democracies being more likely to emerge or only more likely to survive in the more developed countries. We answer this question using data concerning 135 countries that existed at any time between 1950 and 1990. We find that the level of economic development does not affect the probability of transitions to democracy but that affluence does make democratic regimes more stable. The relation between affluence and democratic stability is monotonic, and the breakdown of democracies at middle levels of development is a phenomenon peculiar to the Southern Cone of Latin America. These patterns also appear to have been true of the earlier period, but dictatorships are more likely to survive in wealthy countries that became independent only after 1950. We conclude that modernization need not generate democracy but democracies survive in countries that are modern.
Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research
Authors: Collier David , Levitsky Steven
Published: February 2007

The recent trend toward democratization in countries across the globe has challenged scholars to pursue two potentially contradictory goals. On the one hand, they seek to increase analytic differentiation in order to capture the diverse forms of democracy that have emerged. On the other hand, they are concerned with conceptual validity. Specifically, they seek to avoid the problem of conceptual stretching that arises when the concept of democracy is applied to cases for which, by relevant scholarly standards, it is not appropriate. This article argues that the pursuit of these two goals has led to a proliferation of conceptual innovations, including numerous subtypes of democracy—that is to say, democracy “with adjectives.” The article explores the strengths and weaknesses of alternative strategies of conceptual innovation that have emerged: descending and climbing Sartori's ladder of generality, generating “diminished” subtypes of democracy, “precising” the definition of democracy by adding defining attributes, and shifting the overarching concept with which democracy is associated. The goal of the analysis is to make more comprehensible the complex structure of these strategies, as well as to explore trade-offs among the strategies. Even when scholars proceed intuitively, rather than self-consciously, they tend to operate within this structure. Yet it is far more desirable for them to do so selfconsciously, with a full awareness of these trade-offs.
Fiscal Decentralization: A Political Theory with Latin American Cases
Authors: Garman Christopher , Haggard Stephan , Willis Eliza
Published: February 2007

Theories of fiscal federalism explain the efficiency and other economic gains from decentralization but do not explain its extent and nature in practice. The authors develop a political theory of decentralization that focuses on the lines of political accountability between politicians at different levels of government. The more accountable central-level politicians—presidents and legislators—are to subnational politicians, the greater the extent of decentralization and the more it will conform to the preferences of subnational politicians, for example, with respect to the degree of the center's discretion. The model is tested on five Latin American countries that, although formally decentralized, in fact exhibit wide differences in the distribution of spending and revenue responsibilities. The theory also helps explain a number of problems governments have encountered in decentralizing, including subnational debt crises and a mismatch between responsibilities and resources.
Inequality, Growth, and Democracy
Authors: Landa Dimitri , Kapstein Ethan B.
Published: February 2007

The analysis of the relationship between inequality and economic growth in distinct politi-coeconomic environments has been one of the central preoccupations of the extensive theoretical and empirical work on growth in the last decade. The authors argue that the empirical evidence available to date strongly indicates the relevance of this work for understanding the elusive causal connection between economic development and democracy. The state of the literature suggests considerable sophistication in conceptualizing the direct economic effects of inequality and contains critical insights into politically unconstrained policy-making aimed at the alleviation of their negative economic impact. However, the political feasibility of the recommended policy measures and the politically mediated effects of inequality and redistributive policy on growth and on the strength and stability of democratic regimes are understood less well. The authors discuss the critical factors influencing these effects and sketch several approaches to creating a comprehensive politicoeconomic account of the interaction between inequality, redistributive policy-making, and political regimes.
Competitive Corruption: Factional Conflict and Political Malfeasance in Postwar Italian Christian Democracy
Authors: Golden Miriam A. , Chang Eric C. C.
Published: February 2007

This article studies the relationship between cartels of politicians and systemic political corruption in a democratic setting. Some electoral systems, including open-list systems of proportional representation, encourage intraparty competition for office. The authors analyze the relationship between intraparty conflict in postwar Italy's dominant political party, the Christian Democrats, and charges of malfeasance against Christian Democratic members of the Chamber ofDeputies in the years between thefirstpostwar parliamentary elections of 1948 and the end of the XI legislature in 1994, when the electoral system was substantially modified. Suspected malfeasance is operationalized as requests by the judiciary to lift parliamentary immunity in order to proceed with an investigation of a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

Results show a significant statistical relationship between intraparty conflict and alleged corruption on the part of DC deputies starting in the early 1970s. These results are interpreted to mean that the dramatic levels of political corruption observed in Italy in recent decades were in part an outgrowth of the search for campaign funds by incumbent DC members of parliament in competition with other candidates from the same party. Electoral competition with other parties did not significantly affect the extent of charges of malfeasance against DC deputies. Using maps, the authors also provide preliminary evidence that Italian corruption did not spread from south to north in a process of cultural contagion, as is commonly believed. Instead, theyfind,the determinants of corruption appear to be endogenous to institutions of the postwar political system.
Politics, Pressure, and Economic Policy: Explaining Japan's Use of Economic Stimulus Policies
Authors: Patterson Dennis , Beason Dick
Published: February 2007

While supplementary budgeting has long been part of the Japanese fiscal cycle, substantive and procedural aspects of the process have changed. First, since the late 1970s, supplementary budgets have been used to fund government economic stimulus efforts (keizai taisaku), and second, since the late 1980s, these budgets have been assembled several months after the announcement of the actual stimulus packages. Such stimulus policies do not fit the prevailing model of the Japanese electoral business cycle, which emphasizes the targeting of benefits by the Liberal Democratic Party (ldp) at its constituents at election time. This article addresses this anomoly by developing a theory of how governing parties use the economic policy process to serve their electoral interests, particularly through broadly gauged policies designed to improve macroeconomic conditions. The authors amend the prevailing model to allow an adequate test of their electoral theory to be conducted. The results suggest that Japanese economic stimulus policies were the result of governing parties' attempts to expand their support at election time and to satisfy U.S. pressure to usefiscalpolicy to stimulate domestic demand.
Ethnic Mobilization without Prerequisites: The East European Gypsies
Authors: Barany Zoltan
Published: February 2007

This article proposes a model that provides a tool to gauge the preparedness of ethnic and other groups for political mobilization. It argues that successful ethnic mobilization requires a well-specified bundle of “mobilization prerequisites” that can be used to evaluate political and social movements in a variety of contexts. The model is applied to elucidate the East European Gypsy communities' modest success at ethnic political mobilization. The article assesses the explanatory power of the independent variables and explains Gypsy electoral politics and behavior.
War and Peace
Authors: Rosecrance Richard N.
Published: February 2007

John Mearsheimer'sTragedy of Great Power Politicserrs in claiming that all national security decisions are rational ones. In contrast, sometimes state ambitions and actions go beyond what “rationality” typically would permit; sometimes states do not assert capabilities which they clearly possess. The explanations for such outcomes reside in realms that Mearsheimer either does not consider or dismisses too readily, such as alignments, democracy, ideology, and economic relationships. He also charts a role for the United States (a state confronting “the stopping power of water” that is too limited given the objectives (a balance of power) which he believes it should seek to create. His theory of war is too restricted and so therefore is his theory of peace. But he has fashioned one of the first new empirical essays in general realist theory in recent years and deserves to be commended. His approach will be the focus of debate and analysis for some time to come.
Why is Trade Reform So Popular in Latin America?: A Consumption-Based Theory of Trade Policy Preferences
Authors: Baker Andy
Published: February 2007

Despite wavy national economies and a perception among observers that economic globalization is growing increasingly unpopular, aggregate support for free trade remains quite high across Latin America. This finding is robust to the wording of survey questions and has been quite resilient through time, even in the face of economic stagnation. Current theories of trade preferences, including the widely applied Heckscher-Ohlin model, do not explain this trend. Instead, the author proposes a theory of trade preferences based not on what citizens produce but on what they consume. Statistical analyses of different surveys, including one conducted in fourteen Latin American countries, demonstrate that a consumption-based approach best accounts for trade preferences across individuals and countries. Moreover, the theory provides an explanation for the overall popularity of free trade in Latin America: citizens recognize and appreciate the lower price, increased variety, and higher quality of goods that have come in the wake of trade liberalization.
What Remains of Jean Genet?
Authors: De Gennaro Mara
Published: February 2007

This essay argues that Jean Genet's critique of racism in his play The Blacks shares with his contemporaneous art theory an idealist subordination of historical particularities to what exceeds or endures beyond such particularities. Reading "The Studio of Alberto Giacometti" and "The Strange Word of . . . " together with The Blacks illuminates some otherwise cryptic images of death and ruins in the play and, in the process, indicates the distance between Genet's frequent recourse to the figure of remains in protesting social injustice throughout the late 1950s and early '60s, and subsequent multiculturalist efforts to critique racism through the historical contextualization and defense of diversity.
Why Performance? Why Now? Textuality and the Rearticulation of Human Presence
Authors: Walker Julia A.
Published: February 2007

This essay traces the history of the text/performance split against the emergence of literary modernism to reveal how the category of the literary bears within it an "anti-performative" bias. Walker shows how this bias not only informs the metaphor of culture-as-text, so important to twentieth-century thought, but persists in contemporary social and cultural theory. Analyzing the work of Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, she demonstrates how this bias is being provisionally dismantled with the recent turn to the metaphor of performance.
Retrograde Regulation of GABA Transmission by the Tonic Release of Oxytocin and Endocannabinoids Governs Postsynaptic Firing
Authors: Oliet Stéphane H. R. , Baimoukhametova Dinara V. , Piet Richard , Bains Jaideep S.
Published: February 2007

The probability of neurotransmitter release at the nerve terminal is an important determinant of synaptic efficacy. At some central synapses, the postsynaptic, or target, neuron determines neurotransmitter release probability (Pr) at the presynaptic terminal. The mechanisms responsible for this target-cell dependent control ofPrhave not been elucidated. Using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from magnocellular neurosecretory cells in the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei of the hypothalamus, we demonstrate that inhibitory, GABA synapses specifically onto oxytocin (OT)-producing neurosecretory cells exhibit a lowPrthat is relatively uniform at multiple synapses onto the same cell. This lowPrresults from a two-step process that requires the tonic release of OT from the postsynaptic cell. The ambient extracellular levels of neuropeptide are sufficient to activate postsynaptic OT receptors and trigger the Ca2+-dependent production of endocannabinoids, which act in a retrograde manner at presynaptic cannabinoid CB1receptors to decrease GABA release. The functional consequence of this tonic inhibition of GABA release is that all inhibitory inputs facilitate uniformly when activated at high rates of activity. This causes inhibition in the postsynaptic cell that is sufficiently powerful to disrupt firing. Blockade of CB1receptors increasesPrat these synapses, resulting in a rapid depression of IPSCs at high rates of activity, thereby eliminating the ability of afferent inputs to inhibit postsynaptic firing. By playing a deterministic role in GABA release at the afferent nerve terminal, the postsynaptic OT neuron effectively filters synaptic signals and thereby modulates its own activity patterns.
Identification of an Intersubunit Cross-Link between Substituted Cysteine Residues Located in the Putative ATP Binding Site of the P2X1Receptor
Authors: Marquez-Klaka Benjamin , Rettinger Jürgen , Bhargava Yogesh , Eisele Thomas , Nicke Annette
Published: February 2007

P2X receptors are ATP-gated nonselective cation channels. Functional receptors are assembled as homotrimers or heterotrimers of seven cloned subunits. Each subunit contains two transmembrane domains linked by a large extracellular loop that is required for agonist binding. So far, there is no direct evidence indicating whether the agonist binding site is formed within one subunit or at the interface of two neighboring subunits. Here we used a disulfide cross-linking approach to identify pairs of residues that are in close proximity within the ATP binding site of the P2X1homotrimer. Eight amino acid residues that have previously been shown to be essential for high ATP potency (K68, K70, F185, K190, F291, R292, R305, and K309) were substituted by cysteine residues, and the respective mutant subunits were pairwise expressed inXenopus laevisoocytes. Nonreducing SDS-PAGE analysis of the purified receptors revealed a spontaneous and specific dimer formation between the K68C and F291C mutants. An almost complete cross-link into trimers was achieved with the K68C/F291C double mutant, consistent with the formation of intersubunit disulfide bridges. In support of this interpretation, two-electrode voltage-clamp analysis of the K68C/F291C mutations introduced into a nondesensitizing P2X2–1chimera showed only small ATP-activated currents that, however, increased ∼60-fold after extracellular application of the reducing agent dithiothreitol. In addition, we show that a K68C/K309C double mutant is nonfunctional and can be functionally rescued by coexpression with nonmutated subunits. Our data are consistent with loops from neighboring P2X subunits forming the ATP-binding site in P2X receptors.
Recurrent Circuits in Layer II of Medial Entorhinal Cortex in a Model of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Authors: Kumar Sanjay S. , Jin Xiaoming , Buckmaster Paul S. , Huguenard John R.
Published: February 2007

Patients and laboratory animal models of temporal lobe epilepsy display loss of layer III pyramidal neurons in medial entorhinal cortex and hyperexcitability and hypersynchrony of less vulnerable layer II stellate cells. We sought to test the hypothesis that loss of layer III pyramidal neurons triggers synaptic reorganization and formation of recurrent, excitatory synapses among layer II stellate cells in epileptic pilocarpine-treated rats. Laser-scanning photo-uncaging of glutamate focally activated neurons in layer II while excitatory synaptic responses were recorded in stellate cells. Photostimulation revealed previously unidentified, functional, recurrent, excitatory synapses between layer II stellate cells in control animals. Contrary to the hypothesis, however, control and epileptic rats displayed similar levels of recurrent excitation. Recently, hyperexcitability of layer II stellate cells has been attributed, at least in part, to loss of GABAergic interneurons and inhibitory synaptic input. To evaluate recurrent inhibitory circuits in layer II, we focally photostimulated interneurons while recording inhibitory synaptic responses in stellate cells. IPSCs were evoked more than five times more frequently in slices from control versus epileptic animals. These findings suggest that in this model of temporal lobe epilepsy, reduced recurrent inhibition contributes to layer II stellate cell hyperexcitability and hypersynchrony, but increased recurrent excitation does not.
A Reevaluation of the Inverse Dynamic Model for Eye Movements
Authors: Green Andrea M. , Meng Hui , Angelaki Dora E.
Published: February 2007

To construct an appropriate motor command from signals that provide a representation of desired action, the nervous system must take into account the dynamic characteristics of the motor plant to be controlled. In the oculomotor system, signals specifying desired eye velocity are thought to be transformed into motor commands by an inverse dynamic model of the eye plant that is shared for all types of eye movements and implemented by a weighted combination of eye velocity and position signals. Neurons in the prepositus hypoglossi and adjacent medial vestibular nuclei (PH-BT neurons) were traditionally thought to encode the “eye position” component of this inverse model. However, not only are PH-BT responses inconsistent with this theoretical role, but compensatory eye movement responses to translation do not show evidence for processing by a common inverse dynamic model. Prompted by these discrepancies between theoretical notions and experimental observations, we reevaluated these concepts using multiple-frequency rotational and translational head movements. Compatible with the notion of a common inverse model, we show that PH-BT responses are unique among all premotor cell types in bearing a consistent relationship to the motor output during eye movements driven by different sensory stimuli. However, because their responses are dynamically identical to those of motoneurons, PH-BT neurons do not simply represent an internal component of the inverse model, but rather its output. They encode and distribute an estimate of the motor command, a signal critical for accurate motor execution and learning.
Similar Neural Representations of the Target for Saccades and Perception during Search
Authors: Eckstein Miguel P. , Beutter Brent R. , Pham Binh T. , Shimozaki Steven S. , Stone Leland S.
Published: February 2007

Are the body's actions and the mind's perceptions the result of shared neural processing, or are they performed largely independently? The brain has two major processing streams, and some have proposed that this division segregates visual processing for action and perception. The ventral pathway is claimed to support conscious experience (perception), whereas the dorsal pathway is claimed to support the control of movement (action). Others have argued that perception and action share much of their visual processing within the primate cortex. During visual search, the brain performs a sophisticated deployment of eye movements (saccadic actions) to gather information to subserve perceptual judgments. The relationship between the neural mechanisms mediating perception and action in visual search remains unexplored. Here, we investigate the visual representation of target information in the human brain, both for perceptual decisions and for saccadic actions during visual search. We use classification image analysis, a form of reverse correlation, to estimate the behavioral receptive fields of the visual mechanisms responsible for saccadic and perceptual responses during the same visual search task. Results show that the behavioral receptive fields mediating the perceptual decisions are indistinguishable from those driving the oculomotor decisions, suggesting that similar neural mechanisms are responsible for both perception and oculomotor action during search. Diverging target representations would result in an inefficient coupling between eye movement planning and perceptual judgments. Thus, a common target representation would be more optimal and might be expected to have evolved through natural selection in the neural systems responsible for visual search.
Gender-Specific Left–Right Asymmetries in Human Visual Cortex
Authors: Amunts Katrin , Armstrong Este , Malikovic Aleksandar , Hömke Lars , Mohlberg Hartmut , Schleicher Axel , Zilles Karl
Published: February 2007

The structural correlates of gender differences in visuospatial processing are essentially unknown. Our quantitative analysis of the cytoarchitecture of the human primary visual cortex [V1/Brodmann area 17 (BA17)], neighboring area V2 (BA18), and the cytoarchitectonic correlate of the motion-sensitive complex (V5/MT+/hOc5) shows that the visual areas are sexually dimorphic and that the type of dimorphism differs among the areas. Gender differences exist in the interhemispheric asymmetry of hOc5 volumes and in the right-hemispheric volumetric ratio of hOc5 to BA17, an area that projects to V5/MT+/hOc5. Asymmetry was also observed in the surface area of hOc5 but not in its cortical thickness. The differences give males potentially more space in which to process additional information, a finding consistent with superior male processing in particular visuospatial tasks, such as mental rotation. Gender differences in hOc5 exist with similar volume fractions of cell bodies, implying that, overall, the visual neural circuitry is similar in males and females.
Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 predicts adiposity in humans
Authors: Kralisch Susan , Bluher Matthias , Tonjes Anke , Lossner Ulrike , Paschke Ralf , Stumvoll Michael , Fasshauer Mathias
Published: February 2007

Objective: Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 is upregulated in fat of obese rodents and promotes adipose tissue development in these animals. However, it is unclear whether TIMP-1 independently predicts adiposity in humans and whether serum levels are increased in s.c. and visceral obesity.

Design: Twenty-four lean, 16 s.c. obese, and 20 visceral obese subjects were studied.

Methods: Plasma TIMP-1 concentrations were quantified using ELISAs and correlated to clinical parameters.

Results: Plasma TIMP-1 levels were significantly different between lean (156 ± 42 μg/l), s.c. obese (186 ± 52 μg/l), and visceral obese (198 ± 42 μg/l) subjects (P < 0.01). Furthermore, TIMP-1 correlated positively with body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), % body fat, fasting insulin, free fatty acids, cholesterol, leptin, interleukin-6, and negatively with adiponectin (P < 0.05). Moreover, TIMP-1 serum levels predicted % body fat but not WHR independent of age, sex, and plasma insulin.

Conclusions: We demonstrate that increased TIMP-1 serum levels are found with increased adiposity in humans.
Significant GH deficiency after long-term cure by surgery in adult patients with Cushing’s disease
Authors: Pecori Giraldi Francesca , Andrioli Massimiliano , De Marinis Laura , Bianchi Antonio , Giampietro Antonella , De Martin Martina , Sacco Eugenia , Scacchi Massimo , Pontecorvi Alfredo , Cavagnini Francesco
Published: February 2007

Objective: Impaired GH secretion usually accompanies Cushing’s syndrome and a variable proportion of patients reportedly fail to recover normal GH secretion after successful treatment. This wide variability is most probably due to differences in the treatment (i.e. surgery and/or radiotherapy), timing of patient re-evaluation after surgery and dynamic tests employed to challenge GH secretion, and hinders a precise assessment of risk of GH deficiency after cure. The aim of the present study is to evaluate GH secretory status after long-term cure of Cushing’s disease achieved by surgery alone.

Design and methods: We studied 34 patients (27 females and 7 males, age range 21–68 years) formerly affected by Cushing’s disease. Patients were studied 2–20 years (median 3.3 years) following remission of hypercortisolism; all patients underwent transsphenoidal surgery with the removal of an ACTH-secreting adenoma; repeat pituitary surgery for relapse was performed in two patients while bilateral adrenalectomy was necessary in two patients. In all subjects, the GH response to GHRH+arginine stimulation was evaluated. At the time of testing, 13 patients were still on steroid replacement therapy.

Results: In long-term surgical remission, 22 patients (65.0%) presented subnormal GH secretion; partial GH deficiency (GH peak <16.5 μg/l) was found in 11 patients and severe GH deficiency (GH peak <9 μg/l) in another 11. Male gender and length of hypercortisolism were risk factors for postsurgical GH deficiency.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the presence of GH deficiency in a high percentage of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term remission of hypercortisolism obtained by surgery alone. Male gender and length of hypercortisolism are the most significant predictors of postsurgical GH deficiency. This finding is significant as it highlights that even the most favourable therapeutical course, i.e. remission achieved by surgery alone, is accompanied by impaired GH secretion. Assessment of GH secretion is therefore recommended for all patients cured from Cushing’s disease, even if not submitted to radiotherapy. Studies on the clinical impact of GH deficiency and the use of GH replacement therapy seem warranted in patients cured from Cushing’s disease.
The association between TSH within the reference range and serum lipid concentrations in a population-based study. The HUNT Study
Authors: Åsvold Bjørn O , Vatten Lars J , Nilsen Tom I L , Bjøro Trine
Published: February 2007

Objective: The association between TSH and serum lipids in people with no apparent thyroid disease is insufficiently understood. We have studied the association between normal thyroid function, defined as TSH within the reference range of a general population, and concentrations of serum lipids.

Design: Cross-sectional, population-based study with 30 656 individuals without known thyroid disease.

Methods: Using general linear models, we calculated mean concentrations of total serum cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides across categories of TSH.

Results: Within the reference range of TSH, there was a linear and significant (P for trend <0.001) increase in total serum cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and a linear decrease (P for trend <0.001) in HDL cholesterol with increasing TSH. Subgroup analyses showed statistically significant associations for all lipids in men above 50 years of age, and for triglycerides in all age groups. For women, associations were statistically significant in all age groups except for HDL cholesterol in women below 50 years of age. The associations with triglycerides and HDL cholesterol were stronger among overweight than normal weight individuals.

Conclusions: Within the range of TSH that is considered clinically normal, we found that increasing level of TSH was associated with less favourable lipid concentrations. The association with serum lipids was linear across the entire reference range of TSH.
In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of anaerobic bacteria isolated from caprine footrot
Authors: Lacombe-Antoneli Angela , Píriz S. , Vadillo S.
Published: February 2007

The
in vitro
antimicrobial susceptibility of Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli commonly isolated from footrot in goats was studied. A total of 97 isolates belonging to the genera
Dichelobacter, Fusobacterium, Prevotella, Porphyromonas
and
Bacteroides,
obtained from clinical cases of footrot in south-western Spain between March 2000 and May 2001, were tested against 25 antimicrobial agents comprising β-lactams, aminoglycosides, macrolides, chloramphenicol, quinolones, lincosamides, sulphonamides and tetracyclines in order to optimise antibiotic treatment of this disease in goats. β-lactams, tetracyclines and metronidazole displayed the highest
in vitro
efficacy against the species involved in the pathogenesis of footrot.
Pszichológiai tényezők irritábilis bél szindrómában: a megküzdés és a kötődés vizsgálata
Authors: Seres Gabriella , Bárdos György
Published: February 2007

A vizsgálatban az
irritábilis bél szindróma (IBS) hátterében húzódó feltételezett pszichológiai
tényezők közül a megküzdés és a kötődés szerepét vizsgáltuk abból kiindulva,
hogy mindkettő szerepelhet a stressz betegségkeltő hatásainak kivédésében.
Feltételeztük, hogy az IBS-betegekre a megküzdési módok megváltozott profilja,
a korai anya-gyerek kapcsolat zavara, illetve ritkább biztonságos kötődési
stílus jellemző, és ezek a különbségek összefüggnek. A vizsgált 3 csoport,
IBS-, colitis ulcerosas (CU) betegek, valamint egészséges kontroll­személyek
három kérdőívet töltöttek ki: a Szorongás Leküzdési Mód Preferencia kérdőívet,
a Szülői Bánásmód Kérdőív(H-PBI) anyára vonatkozó részét, valamint a
Kötődés Kérdőív (Relationship Questionnaire) szerzők által rövidített, magyarra
fordított változatát. Eredményeink alapján az IBS-csoport kevésbé használja a
problémafókuszú megküzdési módot, valamint a figyelemelterelést és az
emóciófókuszt a szorongással való megküzdésben, de nem mutat több maladaptív
stratégiát, mint az egészségesek; valamint inkább jellemzi a túlvédő anyai
magatartás az egészségesekhez képest. Emellett az egészséges csoportra
szignifikánsan jellemzőbb a biztonságos felnőtt kötődés, mint a két
betegcsoportra. Azt a hipotézist, hogy a kötődés és az alkalmazott megküzdési
stratégiák között egyértelmű összefüggés van, adataink nem támogatják - igaz,
nem is szólnak ellene.
A munkamemória és nyelvérzék szerepe az intenzív nyelvtanulásban
Authors: Kormos Judit , Sáfár Anna
Published: February 2007

A nyelvtanulás
sikerében legfontosabb szerepet játszó két kognitív változó a nyelvérzék és a
munkamemória. Kutatásunk a verbális munkamemória, a nyelvérzék és a nyelvtudás
kapcsolatát vizsgálja egy budapesti két tannyelvű gimnázium (angol) nyelvi
előkészítő évfolyamának diákjai között. A nyelvérzék komponensei közül az
idegen nyelvi szabályok felismerésének képessége mutatta a legjelentősebb
kapcsolatot az idegen nyelvi teljesítménnyel. A verbális munkamemória
terjedelem közepesen erős kapcsolatban állt az elsajátított idegen nyelvi
szókinccsel és nyelvtani tudással, valamint az idegen nyelvi beszéd
folyékonyságával. Eredményeink alapján azt feltételezzük, hogy a verbális
munkamemória nemcsak az idegen nyelvi szavak, illetve a nyelvi elemek
sorrendjének megtanulásában játszik szerepet, hanem abban is, hogy a
megszerzett tudást a nyelvtanuló sikeresen elő tudja hívni, és hogy a figyelmét
hatékonyan tudja megosztani a tartalmi tervezés és a nyelvi kivitelezés között.
Kutatásunkban nem találtunk összefüggést a nyelvérzék és a verbális
munkamemória terjedelem között, amely azt jelzi, hogy e két változó egymástól
függetlenül járul hozzá a nyelvtanulás sikeréhez.
Placebo és szuggesztió - a gyógyítás szolgálatában
Authors: Varga Katalin
Published: February 2007

A tanulmány közös
jellemzőket, valamint megkülönböztető jegyeket azonosít a placebo/nocebo,
illetve a szuggesztió jelenségei között. A placebóhatás jobb megértéséhez
érdemes figyelembe venni azt, hogy a beteg ember szuggesztiók iránti
fogékonysága felfokozott, és egész más szabályok érvényesülnek esetükben a
kommunikatív „üzenetek” értelmezésekor, mint a racionális, éber egészséges
embernél. Így a napi gyógyító munkában - a placebóhatás jobb kihasználása,
illetve a nocebóhatás minimalizálása érdekében - nagyobb szerepet kaphatna a
tudatosan alkalmazott szuggesztív kommunikáció, amely a páciensek elvárás-,
illetve hitrendszerére hatva a legkülönfélébb testi folyamatokat képes
befolyásolni.
Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems in the U.S. Corn Belt
Authors: Sulc R. Mark , Tracy Benjamin F.
Published: February 2007

Agricultural production systems in North America have become increasingly specialized. The lack of diversification has had negative economic, biological, and environmental consequences. One alternative approach to diversify agricultural production is to integrate cash grain cropping with ruminant livestock production. Our objective was to review research applicable to development of diversified crop–livestock systems in the U.S. Corn Belt and discuss research priorities and constraints to adoption of those systems. One form of integration becoming more common in the U.S. Corn Belt occurs through contractual arrangements between spatially separated, specialized crop and livestock production farms. Less common is the spatial and temporal integration of crops and livestock on the same land base, which can occur via rotations of grain crops with perennial pastures, short rotations of grain crops with annual or short‐season pastures, and utilization of grain crop residues for livestock grazing. We feel this latter model is truer to the concept of diversification. Based on published research and preliminary results from an integrated crop–livestock system project in Illinois, we suggest that integration of crops and livestock on the same land base offers tremendous potential to diversify farm ecosystems in the U.S. Corn Belt while being economically competitive and more environmentally compatible than prevailing specialized production systems. Although studies have addressed or are applicable to components of crop–livestock systems in humid–cool environments, there remains a need for systems level research and funding opportunities for addressing the complex environment–plant–animal–economic–social interactions associated with integrated crop–livestock systems.
Molecular Mapping of Male‐Sterility Loci ms2 and ms9 in Soybean
Authors: Cervantes-Martinez I. , Xu M. , Zhang L. , Huang Z. , Kato K. K. , Horner H. T. , Palmer R. G.
Published: February 2007

Markers linked to male‐sterile, female‐fertile loci on the soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] molecular map would facilitate early identification of male‐sterile plants. The objectives were to verify the chromosome location of the ms2 (A00–63) mutation, to determine the allelism and the chromosome location of the suspected ms2 [ms? (A00–39)] mutation, and to determine the chromosome location of the ms9 (T359) mutation. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to molecularly map the male‐sterile, female‐fertile loci reported in this study. Segregating F2 populations were developed from crosses of ms?ms? (A00–39) × ‘Minsoy’ (PI 278901), ms2ms2 (A00–63) × Minsoy, and Minsoy × Ms9ms9 (T359H). The ms? (A00–39) locus was positioned on MLG O at 9.9 centiMorgans (cM) distance from the marker Sat_190. The ms2 (A00–63) locus was positioned on molecular linkage group (MLG) O between markers Sat_190 and Scaa001, with a distance of 6.9 and 9.0 cM, respectively. The ms9 locus was located on MLG N between markers Satt521 and Satt237, with a distance of 8.5 and 16.2 cM, respectively. Classical allelism tests confirmed that mutant ms? (A00–39) was allelic to ms2 (A00–63). The A00–39 mutant line was assigned Genetic Type Collection number T375H and gene symbol Ms2ms2 (Ames 2). Thus Genetic Type T360H, previously identified at Ames, Iowa, becomes Ms2ms2 (Ames 1).
Did Modern Plant Breeding Lead to Genetic Erosion in European Winter Wheat Varieties?
Authors: Huang Xiu-Qiang , Wolf Markus , Ganal Martin W. , Orford Simon , Koebner Robert M.D. , Röder Marion S.
Published: February 2007

The objective of this study was to assess whether modern plant breeding has led to any loss of genetic diversity in modern European winter wheat varieties (Triticum aestivum L.). For this purpose, a collection of 511 widely grown winter wheat varieties of Central and Northern Europe was genotyped with 42 microsatellite markers. In the varieties representing the National List of the UK during the 1980s and 1990s the allelic richness and gene diversity were lower than in the varieties of Recommended Lists covering the time period 1945– 2000. However, no apparent quantitative loss of genetic diversity was found by comparing the different decadal groups of varieties present in the Recommended Lists. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that the variance component among varieties within decadal groups accounted for 96.41% of the genetic variation, but among decadal groups only for 3.59%. The Fst values increased from the 1950s to the 1990s compared to the 1940s with a slight decrease in the 1970s. These results suggested that modern plant breeding has resulted in changes of alleles present in the germplasm; however, it appears that modern plant breeding has resulted in no apparent loss of allele numbers, or genetic diversity, in the investigated European wheat varieties over time.