bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Open label study of intranasal sumatriptan (Imigran) for footballer’s headache
Authors: McCrory P , Heywood J , Ugoni A
Published: July 2005

Objective:To study the efficacy and practicality of treating headache in professional footballers with intranasal sumatriptan.

Methods:An open label drug trial was performed in elite Australian footballers using intranasal sumatriptan (20 mg) treatment for acute headache. The main outcome measures were treatment response at 30 minutes, two hours, and 24 hours using two criteria: (a) initial severity moderate or severe to nil or mild; (b) stricter criteria of initial severity moderate to severe to subsequent nil headache.

Results:Thirty eight attacks were analysed. The two hour response showed that 86% of attacks of migraine with aura and all of the attacks of migraine without aura responded to treatment with sumatriptan nasal spray. Complete relief of headache at two hours was reported by 71% of players with migraine with aura and 90% of those without aura. Recurrence rates were generally low, with 0% of migraine headaches and 25% non-migraine attacks recurring at 24 hours. Minor side effects were reported in 28 attacks.

Conclusions:This pilot open label trial suggests that sumatriptan nasal spray may be a valuable, effective, and convenient treatment of headache in professional sport. There are potential risks of this drug that need to be considered.
Effects of six weeks of detraining on retention of functional fitness of old people after nine weeks of multicomponent training
Authors: Toraman N F , Ayceman N
Published: July 2005

Objectives:To examine the effects of age on functional fitness after six weeks of detraining.

Methods:Elderly subjects, aged 60–86 years, completed a nine week multicomponent exercise training programme. They performed the senior fitness test every two weeks during the six week detraining period, and the responses of 12 young-old subjects (YO, aged 60–73 years) and nine older subjects (O, aged 74–86 years) were compared.

Results:Functional fitness improved during the exercise training period. Performances in the chair stand and six minute walk for the O group had significantly declined compared with post-training values after two weeks of detraining (p<0.01), whereas there were no significant changes in the YO group. Scores on the functional fitness tests declined further between two and four weeks of detraining in both of the groups (p<0.01). In the YO group, there were significant losses in performance on the chair stand, chair sit and reach, and six minute walk tests, and in the O group on the chair stand and up and go tests after six weeks of detraining compared with after four weeks of detraining (p<0.01). The components of functional fitness most affected by detraining were lower extremity flexibility after two and four weeks of detraining, and agility/dynamic balance after six weeks of detraining.

Conclusion:Changes in lower extremity flexibility, up and go, and six minute walk performances in response to six weeks of detraining are affected by age in elderly adults.
Surgical repair of complete proximal hamstring tendon ruptures in water skiers and bull riders: a report of four cases and review of the literature
Authors: Chakravarthy J , Ramisetty N , Pimpalnerkar A , Mohtadi N
Published: July 2005

Objective:Hamstring strains are one of the most common muscle strains in athletes; however, complete rupture of the proximal hamstring origin is rare and results from significant trauma. The objective of this paper is to present our experience of management of complete ruptures where surgical repair resulted in good results in both acute and delayed cases.

Methods:Two water skiers and two bull riders sustained complete rupture of the proximal origin of the hamstring muscles. All underwent repair of the hamstring origin and sciatic nerve neurolysis. A post operative hamstring rehabilitation programme was instituted. Regular follow up was performed at 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.

Results:At a minimum final follow up of 12 months all patients had regained functional knee flexion strength with no pain and a near normal range of knee flexion. All four individuals were able to return to their previous line of work and three were able to return to their pre-injury level of sport.

Conclusion:Complete rupture of the hamstring origin is a potentially devastating sports injury that has implications affecting the individual’s activities of daily living as well as potential as a sportsperson. Surgical repair restores the distorted anatomy, allows early functional rehabilitation, and avoids the potential debilitating neurological problem of gluteal sciatica.
Incidence of serious injury and death during sport and recreation activities in Victoria, Australia
Authors: Gabbe B J , Finch C F , Cameron P A , Williamson O D
Published: July 2005

Background:Participation in sport and recreation is widely encouraged for general good health and the prevention of some non-communicable diseases. However, injury is a significant barrier to participation, and safety concerns are a factor in the decision to participate. An understanding of the sport/recreation activities associated with serious injury is useful for informing physical activity choices and for setting priorities for the targeting of injury prevention efforts.

Objectives:To describe the epidemiology of serious injuries sustained in sport/recreation activities by adults in Victoria, Australia.

Methods:The Victorian State Trauma Registry and the National Coroner’s Information Service were used to identify and describe sport/recreation related serious injuries, including deaths, occurring during the period July 2001 to June 2003. Age adjusted rates of serious injury and death were calculated using participation figures for each sport and general population data.

Results:There were 150 cases of serious injury and 48 deaths. The rates of serious injury and death were 1.8 and 0.6 per 100 000 participants per year respectively. Motor, power boat, and equestrian sports had the highest rates of serious injury. Most deaths were due to drowning.

Conclusion:Although the risk of serious injury through sport/recreation participation is low, motor, power boat, and equestrian sports should be priorities for further research into injury prevention. Most sport/recreation related deaths are due to drowning, highlighting this area for prevention efforts.
A six year prospective study of the incidence and causes of head and neck injuries in international football
Authors: Fuller C W , Junge A , Dvorak J
Published: July 2005

Objective:To identify those risk factors that have the greatest impact on the incidence of head and neck injuries in international football.

Method:A case–control study of players sustaining head and neck injuries during 20 FIFA tournaments (men and women) from 1998 to 2004. Video recordings of incidents were used to identify a range of parameters associated with the incidents. Team physicians provided medical reports describing the nature of each injury. χ2tests (p⩽0.01) and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess differences in distribution and incidence of injury, respectively.

Results:In total, 248 head and neck injuries were recorded of which 163 were identified and analysed on video sequences. The commonest injuries were contusions (53%), lacerations (20%), and concussions (11%). The incidence of all head and neck injuries was 12.5/1000 player hours (men 12.8, women 11.5) and 3.7 for lost-time injuries (men 3.5, women 4.1). The commonest causes of injury involved aerial challenges (55%) and the use of the upper extremity (33%) or head (30%). The unfair use of the upper extremity was significantly more likely to cause an injury than any other player action. Only one injury (a neck muscle strain) occurred as a result of heading the ball throughout the 20 tournaments equivalent to 0.05 injuries/1000 player hours.

Conclusions:Players’ actions most likely to cause a head or neck injury were the use of the upper extremity or the head but in the majority of cases these challenges were deemed to be fair and within the laws of the game.
Heading in football. Part 1: Development of biomechanical methods to investigate head response
Authors: Shewchenko N , Withnall C , Keown M , Gittens R , Dvorak J
Published: July 2005

Objectives:There has been growing controversy regarding long term effects of repeated low severity head impacts such as when heading a football. However, there are few scientific data substantiating these concerns in terms of the biomechanical head response to impact. The present study aimed to develop a research methodology to investigate the biomechanical response of human subjects during intentional heading and identify strategies for reducing head impact severity.

Methods:A controlled laboratory study was carried out with seven active football players, aged 20–23 and of average stature and weight. The subjects were fitted with photographic targets for kinematic analysis and instrumented to measure head linear/angular accelerations and neck muscle activity. Balls were delivered at two speeds (6 m/s and 8 m/s) as the subjects executed several specific forward heading manoeuvres in the standing position. Heading speeds up to 11 m/s were seen when the head closing speed was considered. One subject demonstrating averaged flexion–extension muscle activity phased with head acceleration data and upper torso kinematics was used to validate a biofidelic 50th percentile human model with a detailed head and neck. The model was exercised under ball incoming speeds of 6–7 m/s with parameter variations including torso/head alignment, neck muscle tensing, and follow through. The model output was subsequently compared with additional laboratory tests with football players (n = 3). Additional heading scenarios were investigated including follow through, non-active ball impact, and non-contact events. Subject and model head responses were evaluated with peak linear and rotational accelerations and maximum incremental head impact power.

Results:Modelling of neck muscle tensing predicted lower head accelerations and higher neck loads whereas volunteer head acceleration reductions were not consistent. Modelling of head–torso alignment predicted a modest reduction in volunteer head accelerations. Exaggerated follow through while heading reduced volunteer head accelerations modestly.

Conclusion:Biomechanical methods were developed to measure head impact response. Changing the biomechanics of currently accepted heading techniques will have inconsistent benefits towards the reduction of head loading. Furthermore, mathematical modelling suggested an increased risk of neck loads with one alternative technique. No consistent recommendations can be made on the basis of the current study for altering heading techniques to reduce impact severity.
Effectiveness of headgear in football
Authors: Withnall C , Shewchenko N , Wonnacott M , Dvorak J
Published: July 2005

Objectives:Commercial headgear is currently being used by football players of all ages and skill levels to provide protection from heading and direct impact. The clinical and biomechanical effectiveness of the headgear in attenuating these types of impact is not well defined or understood. This study was conducted to determine whether football headgear has an effect on head impact responses.

Methods:Controlled laboratory tests were conducted with a human volunteer and surrogate head/neck system. The impact attenuation of three commercial headgears during ball impact speeds of 6–30 m/s and in head to head contact with a closing speed of 2–5 m/s was quantified. The human subject, instrumented to measure linear and angular head accelerations, was exposed to low severity impacts during heading in the unprotected and protected states. High severity heading contact and head to head impacts were studied with a biofidelic surrogate headform instrumented to measure linear and angular head responses. Subject and surrogate responses were compared with published injury assessment functions associated with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).

Results:For ball impacts, none of the headgear provided attenuation over the full range of impact speeds. Head responses with or without headgear were not significantly different (p>0.05) and remained well below levels associated with MTBI. In head to head impact tests the headgear provided an overall 33% reduction in impact response.

Conclusion:The football headgear models tested did not provide benefit during ball impact. This is probably because of the large amount of ball deformation relative to headband thickness. However, the headgear provided measurable benefit during head to head impacts.
Biomechanical investigation of head impacts in football
Authors: Withnall C , Shewchenko N , Gittens R , Dvorak J
Published: July 2005

Objectives:This study sought to measure the head accelerations induced from upper extremity to head and head to head impact during the game of football and relate this to the risk of mild traumatic brain injury using the Head Impact Power (HIP) index. Furthermore, measurement of upper neck forces and torques will indicate the potential for serious neck injury. More stringent rules or punitive sanctions may be warranted for intentional impact by the upper extremity or head during game play.

Methods:Game video of 62 cases of head impact (38% caused by the upper extremity and 30% by the head of the opposing player) was provided by F-MARC. Video analysis revealed the typical impact configurations and representative impact speeds. Upper extremity impacts of elbow strike and lateral hand strike were re-enacted in the laboratory by five volunteer football players striking an instrumented Hybrid III pedestrian model crash test manikin. Head to head impacts were re-enacted using two instrumented test manikins.

Results:Elbow to head impacts (1.7–4.6 m/s) and lateral hand strikes (5.2–9.3 m/s) resulted in low risk of concussion (<5%) and severe neck injury (<5%). Head to head impacts (1.5–3.0 m/s) resulted in high concussion risk (up to 67%) but low risk of severe neck injury (<5%).

Conclusion:The laboratory simulations suggest little risk of concussion based on head accelerations and maximum HIP. There is no biomechanical justification for harsher penalties in this regard. However, deliberate use of the head to impact another player’s head poses a high risk of concussion, and justifies a harsher position by regulatory bodies. In either case the risk of serious neck injury is very low.
Reproducibility of computer based neuropsychological testing among Norwegian elite football players
Authors: Straume-Naesheim T M , Andersen T E , Bahr R
Published: July 2005

Background:Head injuries account for 4–22% of all football injuries. The rate of brain injuries is difficult to assess, due to the problem of defining and grading concussion. Thus computerised testing programs for cognitive function have been developed.

Objective:To assess the reliability of a computerised neuropsychological test battery (CogSport) among Norwegian professional football players.

Methods:Norwegian professional football league players (90.3% participation) performed two consecutive baseline Cogsport tests before the 2004 season. CogSport consists of seven different subtasks: simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction time (ChRT), congruent reaction time (CgRT), monitoring (MON), one-back (OBK), matching (Match) and learning (Learn).

Results:There was a small but significant improvement from repeated testing for the reaction time measurements of all seven subtasks (SRT: 0.7%, ChRT: 0.4%, CgRT: 1.2%, MON: 1.3%, OBK: 2.7%, Match: 2.0%, Learn: 1.1%). The coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 1.0% to 2.7%; corresponding intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.45 (0.34 to 0.55) to 0.79 (0.74 to 0.84). The standard deviation data showed higher CVs, ranging from 3.7% (Learn) to 14.2% (SRT). Thus, the variance decreased with increasing complexity of the task. The accuracy data displayed uniformly high CV (10.4–12.2) and corresponding low intraclass correlation coefficient (0.14 (0.01 to 0.26) to 0.31 (0.19 to 0.42)).

Conclusion:The reproducibility for the mean reaction time measures was excellent, but less good for measures of accuracy and consistency. Consecutive testing revealed a slight learning effect from test 1 to test 2, and double baseline testing is recommended to minimise this effect.
Impact of ambient air pollution on birth weight in Sydney, Australia
Authors: Mannes T , Jalaludin B , Morgan G , Lincoln D , Sheppeard V , Corbett S
Published: July 2005

Background:Studies in Asia, Europe, and the Americas have provided evidence that ambient air pollution may have an adverse effect on birth weight, although results are not consistent.

Methods:Average exposure during pregnancy to five common air pollutants was estimated for births in metropolitan Sydney between 1998 and 2000. The effects of pollutant exposure in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy on risk of “small for gestational age” (SGA), and of pollutant exposure during pregnancy on birth weight were examined.

Results:There were 138 056 singleton births in Sydney between 1998 and 2000; 9.7% of babies (13 402) were classified as SGA. Air pollution levels in Sydney were found to be quite low. In linear regression models carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the second and third trimesters had a statistically significant adverse effect on birth weight. For a 1 part per million increase in mean carbon monoxide levels a reduction of 7 (95% CI −5 to 19) to 29 (95% CI 7 to 51) grams in birth weight was estimated. For a 1 part per billion increase in mean nitrogen dioxide levels a reduction of 1 (95% CI 0 to 2) to 34 (95% CI 24 to 43) grams in birth weight was estimated. Particulate matter (diameter less than ten microns) in the second trimester had a small statistically significant adverse effect on birth weight. For a 1 microgram per cubic metre increase in mean particulate matter levels a reduction of 4 grams (95% CI 3 to 6) in birth weight was estimated.

Conclusion:These findings of an association between carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter, and reduction in birth weight should be corroborated by further study.
Perceptions of the impact of depression and anxiety and the medication for these conditions on safety in the workplace
Authors: Haslam C , Atkinson S , Brown S , Haslam R A
Published: July 2005

Background:The number of people taking prescribed medication for anxiety and depression has increased greatly, but little is known of how this medication impacts on safety at work.

Aims:To examine the relation between anxiety and depression, prescribed medication, performance, and safety in the workplace.

Methods:The research involved nine focus groups with sufferers of anxiety and depression to investigate experiences of mental health problems and the impact of psychotropic drugs. A further three focus groups were conducted with staff in human resources, personnel, occupational health, and health and safety departments, to explore organisational perspectives. The sample comprised 74 individuals drawn from a wide range of occupational sectors. Finally, the results were presented to a panel of experts from occupational medicine, general practice, psychology, health and safety, and psychiatry, to consider the implications for practice.

Results:Workers reported that both the symptoms and the medication impaired work performance. Participants described accidents which they attributed to their condition or to the medication. Workers with responsibilities for others, such as teachers, healthcare workers, and managers appeared to present a particular safety risk. Healthcare workers believed that they placed themselves and their patients at risk when carrying out medical procedures.

Conclusions:Respondents in this study felt that their symptoms of anxiety and depression and the medication they took to treat these conditions placed them at risk with respect to safety in the workplace. Drawing on the results, the authors outline areas for improvement in the management of mental health problems at work.
Exposure to traffic related air pollutants: self reported traffic intensity versus GIS modelled exposure
Authors: Heinrich J , Gehring U , Cyrys J , Brauer M , Hoek G , Fischer P , Bellander T , Brunekreef B
Published: July 2005

Background:In epidemiological studies of the potential health effects of traffic related air pollution, self reported traffic intensity is a commonly used, but rarely validated, exposure variable.

Methods:As part of a study on the impact of Traffic Related Air Pollution on Childhood Asthma (TRAPCA), data from 2633 and 673 infants from the Dutch and the German-Munich cohorts, respectively, were available. Parents subjectively assessed traffic intensity at the home address. Objective exposures were estimated by a combination of spatial air pollution measurements and geographic information system (GIS) based modelling using an identical method for both cohorts.

Results:The agreement rates between self reported and GIS modelled exposure—accumulated over the three strata of self assessed traffic intensity—were 55–58% for PM2.5, filter absorbance (PM2.5abs), and nitrogen dioxide in Munich and 39–40% in the Netherlands. Of the self reported low traffic exposed group, 71–73% in Munich and 45–47% in the Netherlands had low modelled exposure to these three air pollutants. Of the self assessed high exposed subgroups in Munich (15% of the total population) and the Netherlands (22% of the total population), only 22–33% and 30–32% respectively had high modelled exposure to the three air pollutants. The subjective assessments tend to overestimate the modelled estimates for PM2.5and NO2in both study areas. When analysis was restricted to the portion of the Dutch cohort living in non-urban areas, the agreement rates were even lower.

Conclusions:Self reported and modelled assessment of exposure to air pollutants are only weakly associated.
Construction work and risk of occupational disability: a ten year follow up of 14 474 male workers
Authors: Arndt V , Rothenbacher D , Daniel U , Zschenderlein B , Schuberth S , Brenner H
Published: July 2005

Aims:Most industrialised countries have public income maintenance programmes to protect workers in case of disability but studies addressing disability risk of specific professional groups are rare. The objective of this study was to establish a detailed pattern of the nature and extent of occupational disability among construction workers.

Methods:A cohort study was set up including 14 474 male workers from the construction industry in Württemberg (Germany) aged 25–64 years who underwent occupational health exams between 1986 and 1992. The cohort was linked to the regional pension register of the manual workers’ pension insurance institution to identify workers who were granted a disability pension during the 10 year follow up. All-cause and cause specific standardised incidence ratios (SIR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using disability rates from the general workforce and from all blue collar workers in Germany as references.

Results:In total, 2247 (16%) members of the cohort were granted a disability pension. Major causes of disability were musculoskeletal (45%) and cardiovascular diseases (19%). In comparison with the general workforce, construction workers experienced a higher risk of disability from cancer (SIR = 1.26; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.47), respiratory diseases (SIR = 1.27; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.55), musculoskeletal diseases (SIR = 2.16; 95% CI 2.03 to 2.30), injuries/poisoning (SIR = 2.52; 95% CI 2.06 to 3.05), and all causes combined (SIR = 1.47; 95% CI 1.41 to 1.53). When compared with the blue collar reference group, increased risks of disability among construction workers were found for musculoskeletal diseases (SIR = 1.53; 95% CI 1.44 to 1.63), injury/poisoning (SIR = 1.83; 95% CI 1.50 to 2.21), and all causes combined (SIR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.16).

Conclusions:Musculoskeletal diseases and external causes are major factors limiting the work capability of construction workers and lead to an increased proportion of occupational disability.
Japanese spousal smoking study revisited: how a tobacco industry funded paper reached erroneous conclusions
Authors: Yano E
Published: July 2005

Objectives:To provide a participant’s account of the development of a paper commissioned by the tobacco industry examining the reliability of self reported smoking status; to redress the distorted report of this Japanese spousal smoking study which evaluated the reliability and validity of self reported smoking status, and estimated confounding by diet and lifestyle factors.

Design:Repeated interviews on smoking status and its verification by environmental and biological markers for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure.

Setting:Urban wives in Osaka City and Sizuoka City, Japan

Participants:Semi-random sampling of 200 wives in each city. From the Osaka subjects, 100 non-smoking wives were selected for the validity study.

Main outcome measures:Kappa coefficient for reliability of self reported smoking status. Correlation coefficients between environmental nicotine concentration, cotinine in saliva and urine, and self reported smoking status.

Results:The κ coefficient for the repeated interview was high suggesting sufficient reliability of the response. The proportion of self reported current smokers misclassified as non-smokers was equivalent to the misclassified self reported non-smokers. Ambient concentration of nicotine and personal exposure to nicotine correlated with each other and also with salivary cotinine and self reported ETS exposure but not with urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR). There was no major difference in diet and lifestyle related to husband’s smoking status.

Conclusion:Self reported smoking status by Japanese wives shows high reliability. It also shows high validity when verified by both nicotine exposure and salivary cotinine, but not by CCR. A previous report questioning the credibility of self reported smoking status, based on questionable CCR, could thus be of dubious validity. In addition, possible dietary and lifestyle confounding factors associated with smoking husbands were not demonstrable, a finding not reported previously. Using all the data from this project changes the conclusion of the previous published report. In addition to the distortion of scientific findings by a tobacco industry affiliated researcher, anti-smoking campaigners made attempts to intimidate and suppress scientific activities. These distortions of science should be counteracted.
International trade agreements: a threat to tobacco control policy
Authors: Shaffer E R , Brenner J E , Houston T P
Published: July 2005

International covenants establish a role for governments in ensuring the conditions for human health and wellbeing, which has been recognised as a central human right. International trade agreements, conversely, prioritise the rights of corporations over health and human rights. International trade agreements are threatening existing tobacco control policies and restrict the possibility of implementing new controls. This situation is unrecognised by many tobacco control advocates in signatory nations, especially those in developing countries. Recent agreements on eliminating various trade restrictions, including those on tobacco, have expanded far beyond simply international movement of goods to include internal tobacco distribution regulations and intellectual property rules regulating advertising and labelling. Our analysis shows that to the extent trade agreements protect the tobacco industry, in itself a deadly enterprise, they erode human rights principles and contribute to ill health. The tobacco industry has used trade policy to undermine effective barriers to tobacco importation. Trade negotiations provide an unwarranted opportunity for the tobacco industry to assert its interests without public scrutiny. Trade agreements provide the industry with additional tools to obstruct control policies in both developed and developing countries and at every level. The health community should become involved in reversing these trends, and help promote additional measures to protect public health.
Social movements and human rights rhetoric in tobacco control: Table 1
Authors: Jacobson P D , Banerjee A
Published: July 2005

After achieving breathtaking successes in securing state and local restrictions on smoking in public places and restricting youth access to tobacco products, the tobacco movement faces difficult decisions on its future strategic directions. The thesis of this article is that the tobacco control movement is at a point of needing to secure its recent successes and avoiding any public retrenchment. To do so requires rethinking the movement’s strategic direction. We use the familiar trans-theoretical model of change to describe where the movement is currently and the threats it faces. The new tobacco control strategy should encompass a focus on voluntary non-smoking strategies, use human rights rhetoric to its advantage, and strengthen the public health voice to be more effective in political battles. In developing a new strategy, tobacco control advocates need to build a social movement based on a more forceful public health voice, along with the strategic use of human rights rhetoric, to focus on the power of voluntary non-smoking efforts. Using human rights rhetoric can help frame the movement in ways that have traditionally appealed to the American public. Perhaps more importantly, doing so can help infuse the tobacco control movement with a broader sense of purpose and mission.
Ethical and legal aspects of global tobacco control: Table 1
Authors: Novotny T E , Carlin D
Published: July 2005

On 28 February 2005, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force as a result of at least 40 countries becoming State Parties through ratification of this first ever health treaty sponsored by the World Health Organization. This article discusses the bioethical, trade, and legal aspects of global tobacco control. Special emphasis is given to globalisation of tobacco use and the challenges it poses to sovereign nations. It also advocates a bioethical basis in the pursuit of global solutions to expanding tobacco use.
The human rights responsibilities of multinational tobacco companies
Authors: Crow M E
Published: July 2005

This article explores various strategies which could be used to hold the tobacco industry accountable for human rights violations precipitated by its conduct. First, a brief overview of the international human rights regime and the tobacco related jurisprudence issued by human rights treaty bodies is provided. The article then explains how tobacco control advocates could promote more systematic consideration of governments’ tobacco related human rights violations by reconceptualising the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in the language of rights. The feasibility of using the existing human rights framework to target the tobacco industry directly is analysed with the conclusion that this approach has serious limitations. Emerging human rights norms, which have greater potential to affect the industry’s conduct, are presented. Finally, given the questionable authoritativeness of these norms, alternative ways that they could be employed to hold tobacco companies accountable for the rights related consequences of their activities are proposed.
Smoking cessation treatment in primary care: prospective cohort study
Authors: Wilson A , Hippisley-Cox J , Coupland C , Coleman T , Britton J , Barrett S
Published: July 2005

Objective:To compare the characteristics of smokers who do and do not receive smoking cessation treatment in primary care.

Design:Prospective cohort study using practices registered with the pilot QRESEARCH database.

Setting:156 550 patients aged 18 years and over from 39 general practices located within four strategic health authorities, representing the former Trent Region, UK.

Subjects:Patients registered with practices between 1 April 2001 and 31 March 2003 aged 18 years and over who were identified as smokers before the two year study period.

Outcome:Prescription for smoking cessation treatment (nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or bupropion) in the two year study period.

Variables:Age, sex, deprivation score, co-morbidity.

Results:Of the 29 492 patients recorded as current smokers at the start of the study period 1892 (6.4%) were given prescriptions for smoking cessation treatment during the subsequent two years. Of these, 1378 (72.8%) were given NRT alone, 406 (21.5%) bupropion alone, and 108 (5.7%) both treatments. Smokers were more likely to receive smoking cessation treatment if they lived in the most deprived areas (odds ratio (OR) for the most relative to the least deprived fifth, adjusted for sex, age, and co-morbidity, 1.50, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26 to 1.78), and if they were aged 25–74 years compared to 18–24 years or 75 and over. Smokers with co-morbidity were also more likely to receive smoking cessation treatment. Smokers were less likely to receive smoking cessation treatment if they were male (adjusted OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.75).

Conclusion:The low proportion of smokers being prescribed these products strongly suggests that a major public health opportunity to prevent smoking related illness is being missed.
Smoking, standard of living, and poverty in China
Authors: Hu T-w , Mao Z , Liu Y , de Beyer J , Ong M
Published: July 2005

Objectives:To analyse differences in smoking behaviour and smoking expenditures among low and high income households in China and the impact of smoking on standard of living of low income households in China.

Methods:About 3400 urban and rural households from 36 townships/districts in southwest China were interviewed in 2002. Cross tabulations and regression analysis were used to examine the differences in major household expenditures, including food, housing, clothing, and education between households with smokers and without smokers.

Results:Lower income households with smokers paid less per pack and smoked fewer cigarettes than higher income households with smokers. Poor urban households spent an average of 6.6% of their total expenditures on cigarettes; poor rural households spent 11.3% of their total expenditures on cigarettes.

Conclusion:Reducing cigarette expenditures could release household resources to spend on food, housing, and other goods that improve living standards.
How Philip Morris built Marlboro into a global brand for young adults: implications for international tobacco control
Authors: Hafez N , Ling P M
Published: July 2005

Objective:To describe Philip Morris’ global market research and international promotional strategies targeting young adults.

Methods:: Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents.

Results:Philip Morris pursued standardised market research and strategic marketing plans in different regions throughout the world using research on young adults with three principle foci: lifestyle/psychographic research, brand studies, and advertising/communication effectiveness. Philip Morris identified core similarities in the lifestyles and needs of young consumers worldwide, such as independence, hedonism, freedom, and comfort. In the early 1990s Philip Morris adopted standardised global marketing efforts, creating a central advertising production bank and guidelines for brand images and promotions, but allowing regional managers to create regionally appropriate individual advertisements.

Conclusions:Values and lifestyles play a central role in the global marketing of tobacco to young adults. Worldwide counter marketing initiatives, coupled with strong, coherent global marketing policies such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are needed to break associations between young adult values and tobacco brands. As globalisation promotes the homogenisation of values and lifestyles, tobacco control messages that resonate with young adults in one part of the world may appeal to young adults in other countries. Successful tobacco control messages that appeal to young people, such as industry denormalisation, may be expanded globally with appropriate tailoring to appeal to regional values.
Transforming the tobacco market: why the supply of cigarettes should be transferred from for-profit corporations to non-profit enterprises with a public health mandate: Table 1
Authors: Callard C , Thompson D , Collishaw N
Published: July 2005

Current tobacco control strategies seek primarily to decrease the demand for cigarettes through measures that encourage individuals to adopt healthier behaviours. These measures are impeded and undermined by tobacco corporations, whose profit drive compels them to seek to maintain and expand cigarette sales. Tobacco corporations seek to expand cigarette sales because they are for-profit business corporations and are obliged under law to maximise profits, even when this results in harm to others. It is not legally possible for a for-profit corporation to relinquish its responsibility to make profits or for it to temper this obligation with responsibilities to support health. Tobacco could be supplied through other non-profit enterprises. The elimination of profit driven behaviour from the supply of tobacco would enhance the ability of public health authorities to reduce tobacco use. Future tobacco control strategies can seek to transform the tobacco market from one occupied by for-profit corporations to one where tobacco is supplied by institutions that share a health mandate and will help to reduce smoking and smoking related disease and death.
PEER-TO-PEER EXECUTION OF (TRANSACTIONAL) PROCESSES
Authors: SCHULER CHRISTOPH , SCHULDT HEIKO , TÜRKER CAN , WEBER ROGER , SCHEK HANS-J.
Published: July 2005

Standards like SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI facilitate the proliferation of services. Based on these technologies, processes are a means to combine services to applications and to provide new value-added services. For large information systems, a centralized process engine is no longer appropriate due to limited scalability. Instead, in this paper, we propose a distributed and decentralized process engine that routes process instances directly from one peer to the next. Such a peer-to-peer process execution promises good scalability characteristics since it is able to dynamically balance the load of processes and services among all available service providers. Therefore, navigation costs only accumulate on peers that are directly involved in the execution. However, this requires sophisticated strategies for the replication of meta-data for peer-to-peer process execution. Especially, replication mechanisms should avoid frequent accesses to global information repositories. In our system, called OSIRIS (Open Service Infrastructure for Reliable and Integrated Process Support), we deploy a publish/subscribe-based replication scheme together with freshness predicates to significantly reduce replication costs. This way, OSIRIS can support process-based applications in a dynamically evolving system without limiting scalability and correctness. Experiments have shown very promising results with respect to scalability. In addition, OSIRIS provides a flexible infrastructure that can be extended seamlessly in a modular way. This paper demonstrates the extension towards distributed concurrency control.
IMPROVING THE AUTOMATIC PROCUREMENT OF WEB SERVICES USING CONSTRAINT PROGRAMMING
Authors: RUIZ–CORTÉS ANTONIO , MARTÍN–DÍAZ OCTAVIO , DURÁN AMADOR , TORO M.
Published: July 2005

Software solutions to automate the procurement of web services are gaining importance when technology evolves, the number of providers increases and the needs of the clients become more complex. There are several proposals in this field, but they all have important drawbacks, namely: many of them are not able to check offers and demands for internal consistency; selecting the best offer usually relies on evaluating linear objective functions, which is quite a naive solution; the language to express offers is usually less expressive than the language to express demands; and, last but not least, providers cannot impose constraints on their clients. In this article, we present a solution to overcome these problems that relies on constraint programming; furthermore, we present a run-time framework, some experimental results, and a comparison with other proposals.
Switches in Bacteriophage Lambda Development
Authors: Oppenheim Amos B. , Kobiler Oren , Stavans Joel , Court Donald L. , Adhya Sankar
Published: July 2005

The lysis-lysogeny decision of bacteriophage lambda (λ) is a paradigm for developmental genetic networks. There are three key features, which characterize the network. First, after infection of the host bacterium, a decision between lytic or lysogenic development is made that is dependent upon environmental signals and the number of infecting phages per cell. Second, the lysogenic prophage state is very stable. Third, the prophage enters lytic development in response to DNA-damaging agents. The CI and Cro regulators define the lysogenic and lytic states, respectively, as a bistable genetic switch. Whereas CI maintains a stable lysogenic state, recent studies indicate that Cro sets the lytic course not by directly blocking CI expression but indirectly by lowering levels of CII which activates cI transcription. We discuss how a relatively simple phage like λ employs a complex genetic network in decision-making processes, providing a challenge for theoretical modeling.
Echoes from the past – are we still in an RNP world?
Authors: Brosius J.
Published: July 2005

Availability of the human genome sequence and those of other species is unmeasured in their value for a comprehensive understanding of the architecture, function and evolution of genomes and cells. Various mechanisms keep genomes in flux and generate intra- and interspecies variation. The conversion of RNA modules into DNA and their more or less random integration into chromosomes (retroposition) is in many lineages including our own the most pervasive and perhaps the most enigmatic. The proclivity of such events in extant multicellular eukaryotes, even in more recent evolutionary times, gives the impression that the transition period from the RNP (ribonucleoprotein) world to the emergence of modern cells, where DNA became the predominant carrier of genetic information, has lasted billions of years and is an endlessly drawn-out process rather than the punctuated event one might expect. Apart from the impact of such RNA-mediated processes as retroposition, the role of RNA in a wide variety of cellular functions has only recently become more widely appreciated.
Happy together: the life and times of Ty retrotransposons and their hosts
Authors: Lesage P. , Todeschini A.L.
Published: July 2005

The aim of this review is to describe the level of intimacy between Ty retrotransposons (Ty1–Ty5) and their host the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The effects of Ty location in the genome and of host proteins on the expression and mobility of Ty elements are highlighted. After a brief overview of Ty diversity and evolution, we describe the factors that dictate Ty target-site preference and the impact of targeting on Ty and adjacent gene expression. Studies on Ty3 and Ty5 have been especially informative in unraveling the role of host factors (Pol III machinery and silencing proteins, respectively) and integrase in controlling the specificity of integration. In contrast, not much is known regarding Ty1, Ty2 and Ty4, except that their insertion depends on the transcriptional competence of the adjacent Pol III gene and might be influenced by some chromatin components. This review also brings together recent findings on the regulation of Ty1 retrotransposition. A large number of host proteins (over 30) involved in a wide range of cellular processes controls either directly or indirectly Ty1 mobility, primarily at post-transcriptional steps. We focus on several genes for which more detailed analyses have permitted the elaboration of regulatory models. In addition, this review describes new data revealing that repression of Ty1 mobility also involves two forms of copy number control that act at both the trancriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Since S. cerevisiae lacks the conserved pathways for copy number control via transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing found in other eukaryotes, Ty1 copy number control must be via another mechanism whose features are outlined. Ty1 response to stress also implicates activation at both transcriptional and postranscriptional steps of Ty1. Finally, we provide several insights in the role of Ty elements in chromosome evolution and yeast adaptation and discuss the factors that might limit Ty ectopic recombination.
LTR retrotransposons and flowering plant genome size: emergence of the increase/decrease model
Authors: Vitte C. , Panaud O.
Published: July 2005

Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) retrotransposons are ubiquitous components of plant genomes. Because of their copy-and-paste mode of transposition, these elements tend to increase their copy number while they are active. In addition, it is now well established that the differences in genome size observed in the plant kingdom are accompanied by variations in LTR retrotransposon content, suggesting that LTR retrotransposons might be important players in the evolution of plant genome size, along with polyploidy. The recent availability of large genomic sequences for many crop species has made it possible to examine in detail how LTR retrotransposons actually drive genomic changes in plants. In the present paper, we provide a review of the recent publications that have contributed to the knowledge of plant LTR retrotransposons, as structural components of the genomes, as well as from an evolutionary genomic perspective. These studies have shown that plant genomes undergo genome size increases through bursts of retrotransposition, while there is a counteracting process that tends to eliminate the transposed copies from the genomes. This process involves recombination mechanisms that occur either between the LTRs of the elements, leading to the formation of solo-LTRs, or between direct repeats anywhere in the sequence of the element, leading to internal deletions. All these studies have led to the emergence of a new model for plant genome evolution that takes into account both genome size increases (through retrotransposition) and decreases (through solo-LTR and deletion formation). In the conclusion, we discuss this new model and present the future prospects in the study of plant genome evolution in relation to the activity of transposable elements.
How repeated retroelements format genome function
Authors: von Sternberg R. , Shapiro J.A.
Published: July 2005

Genomes operate as sophisticated information storage systems. Generic repeated signals in the DNA format expression of coding sequence files and organize additional functions essential for genome replication and accurate transmission to progeny cells. Retroelements comprise a major fraction of many genomes and contain a surprising diversity of functional signals. In this article, we summarize some features of the taxonomic distribution of retroelements, especially mammalian SINEs, tabulate functional roles documented for different classes of retroelements, and discuss their potential roles as genome organizers. In particular, the fact that certain retroelements serve as boundaries for heterochromatin domains and provide a significant fraction of scaffolding/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs) suggests that the reversed transcribed component of the genome plays a major architectonic role in higher order physical structuring. Employing an information science model, the “functionalist” perspective on repetitive DNA leads to new ways of thinking about the systemic organization of cellular genomes and provides several novel possibilities involving retroelements in evolutionarily significant genome reorganization.