bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anesthetic agents and complications in Vietnamese potbellied pigs: 27 cases (1999–2006)
Authors: Trim Cynthia M. , Braun Christina
Published: July 2011

Objective—To document complications associated with preanesthetic and anesthetic agents used in Vietnamese potbellied pigs and identify predictors of complications.

Design—Retrospective case series.

Animals—27 potbellied pigs (14 female and 13 male) ranging in age from 0.25 to 15 years old and ranging in body weight from 5.9 to 169 kg (13.0 to 371.8 lb) that were anesthetized on 32 occasions between 1999 and 2006.

Procedures—Data, including perianesthetic management, anesthetic agents and dosages, complications, and outcome, were retrieved from medical records. Patient information, anesthetic agents, and duration of anesthesia were evaluated as predictors for development of complications.

Results—Anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane or sevoflurane during 30 anesthetic episodes. Commonly used premedicants were butorphanol, atropine, and midazolam administered in combination with xylazine or medetomidine and a combination of tiletamine-zolazepam and butorphanol. Anesthesia was induced with an inhalation agent on 15 occasions, via injection of ketamine on 10 occasions, and via injection of propofol on 3 occasions. Complications included hypoventilation (16/24 [67%]), hypotension (16/25 [64%]), hypothermia (15/31 [48%]), bradycardia (9/32 [28%]), and prolonged recovery time (7/32 [22%]). None of the factors evaluated were associated with development of these complications. All pigs survived anesthesia.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results suggested that a variety of anesthetic agent combinations can be used to provide anesthesia in potbellied pigs with satisfactory outcomes. Although there were high incidences of hypoventilation, hypotension, and hypothermia, no specific anesthetic agent was associated with development of these complications.
Radical excision with five-centimeter margins for treatment of feline injection-site sarcomas: 91 cases (1998–2002)
Authors: Phelps Holly A. , Kuntz Charles A. , Milner Rowan J. , Powers Barbara E. , Bacon Nicholas J.
Published: July 2011

Objective—To evaluate outcomes of radical excision of feline injection-site sarcomas (ISS) via assessment of local recurrence and metastasis rates, survival times, and complications associated with surgery.

Design—Retrospective case series.

Animals—91 cats with ISS.

Procedures—Medical records of cats that had radical excision of ISS without adjunctive treatment were reviewed. Information extracted included sex, type of surgical procedure, histologic tumor grade, tumor diameter, time from tumor detection to definitive surgery, complications associated with surgery, whether tumors recurred locally or metastasized, and survival times. Diagnosis of ISS was histologically confirmed, and additional follow-up was performed.

Results—Overall median survival time was 901 days. Thirteen of 91 (14%) cats had local tumor recurrence; 18 (20%) cats had evidence of metastasis after surgery. Median survival time of cats with and without recurrence was 499 and 1,461 days, respectively. Median survival time of cats with and without metastasis was 388 and 1,528 days, respectively. Tumor recurrence and metastasis were significantly associated with survival time, whereas other examined variables were not. Major complications occurred in 10 cats, including 7 with incisional dehiscence.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Radical excision of ISS resulted in a metastasis rate similar to rates reported previously; the local recurrence rate appeared to be substantially less than rates reported after less aggressive surgeries, with or without adjuvant treatment. Major complication rates were similar to rates reported previously after aggressive surgical resection of ISS. Radical excision may be a valuable means of attaining an improved outcome in the treatment of feline ISS.
Frequency of Met129Val allele associated with predisposition to variant Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease in the Middle ages
Authors: Kołodziejczak-Przekwas Magdalena , Witas Henryk
Published: June 2011

Direct deciphering of past genes may reflect real characteristics of forebears, even of whole ancestral populations. This is obviously one of the most powerful and direct methods to follow evolutionary changes of the species. We attempted to apply ancient DNA (aDNA) technology to analyse a polymorphism at codon 129 of PRNP which probably plays a role in susceptibility to a variant Creutzfeldt - Jakob (vCJD) disease. As previously suggested, 129 Val-Val and heterozygous individuals are nearly completely protected from vCJD, in contrast to 129 Met-Met homozygous ones. We examined the frequency of the alleles encoding methionine and valine at codon 129 in DNA isolated from 100 skeletal remains of individuals who lived between 10th and 13th century. Our results confirmed significant alteration in previously studied alleles frequency between the populations of medieval Polish Lands and contemporaries. The calculated frequency of the alleles in medieval Poland (51% as compared to contemporary 65% for 129Met, and appropriately 49% vs. 35% for 129Val) implies a selection process that shaped 129 Met-Val distribution profiles in the Middle Ages. We suggest that the study of the genetic relationship between past and present-day populations could be a useful tool to follow allelic composition of particular genes (here: of the PRNP) over a span of time which may contribute to the understanding of evolutionary and selective mechanisms including epidemiological cases.
Comparison of insulin sensitivity indices properties calculated from OGTT
Authors: Chrenova Jana , Rausova Zuzana , Penesova Adela , Dedik Ladislav
Published: June 2011

The aim of this study was to present the properties of insulin sensitivity indices formulas to justify selection of formulas to evaluate of insulin sensitivity for calculation from an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) data. Twelve of the most applicable formulae for ISI calculation were analyzed in the view of two sets of results: 1) point contrasts, calculated as the ratio of average ISI values in lean and obese groups of patients; and 2) interval contrasts, calculated as ratios of T from the two-sided t-test, evaluated as dimensionless, mutually comparable contrasts within a continuous scale. Statistical significance of individual ISIs in terms of their contrasts was evaluated by two-sided t-tests. P<0.001 was a considered statistically significance between a group of 59 healthy volunteers with BMI<25 kg/m2 and a group of 63 volunteers with BMI≥25 kg/m2 who underwent frequent OGTT sampling. To compare data of an individual subject with the standard, we recommend selecting the formulas with a high point contrast. To compare of data of several subject groups, we recommend using the formulas with a high interval contrast.
Melanocortin system in cancer-related cachexia
Authors: Bienertová-Vašků Julie , Bienert Petr , Valík Dalibor , Vašků Anna
Published: July 2011

The melanocortin system plays a pivotal role in the regulation of appetite and energy balance. It was recognized to play an important role in the development of cancer-related cachexia, a debilitating condition characterized by progressive body wasting associated with anorexia, increased resting energy expediture and loss of fat as well as lean body mass that cannot be simply prevented or treated by adequate nutritional support.

The recent advances in understanding of mechanisms underlying cancer-related cachexia led to consequent recognition of the melanocortin system as an important potential therapeutic target. Several molecules have been made available for animal experiments, including those with oral bioavailability, that act at various checkpoints of the melanocortin system and that might confer singificant benefits for the patients suffering from cancer-related cachexia. The application of melanocortin 4 receptor antagonists/agouti-related peptide agonists has been however restricted to animal models and more pharmacological data will be necessary to progress to clinical trials on humans. Still, pharmacological targeting of the melanocortin system seem to represent an elegant and promising way of treatment of cancer-related cachexia.
Longitudinal Analysis of Maternal Risk Factors for Childhood Sexual Abuse: Early Attitudes and Behaviours, Socioeconomic Status, and Mental Health
Authors: Martin Andrew , Najman Jake M. , Williams Gail M. , Bor William , Gorton Emma , Alati Rosa
Published: June 2011

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether maternal factors such as socioeconomic status (SES), attitudes towards the baby, and mental health at 6 months or earlier, are associated with non-penetrative and penetrative childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in her offspring.

Methods: This was a prospective birth cohort study followed up to 21 years. Set in one of two obstetric hospitals in Brisbane, Australia, the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) involves a prospective birth cohort from a population based sample of 7223 singletons whose mothers were enrolled between 1981 and 1984 at the first antenatal visit. The present cohort consisted of 2664 participants who provided CSA data, and whose mothers had responded to all relevant questions.

Results: About 16% of young adults reported non-penetrative sexual abuse before the age of sixteen and 9% reported penetrative abuse. After adjusting for all variables in the model, an increased risk for non-penetrative CSA was associated with the child being female, unwanted pregnancy, mother being a heavy smoker, and maternal anxiety. Increased risk for penetrative CSA was associated with the child being female, the mother having failed to complete a high school level education, living in an alternative arrangement other than marriage, and being either a moderate or heavy smoker. We found no associations between maternal age and CSA after correcting for other predictors.

Conclusion: CSA was not uncommon in this cohort with one in four reporting some form of sexual abuse before 16. The results suggest that several early factors may predict later CSA and that the associations are different according to type of CSA.
Freedom Through Contamination: Collapsed Boundaries in Charles Johnson’s Oxherding Tale and Middle Passage
Authors: Ouimet Lorraine
Published: June 2011

In recent scholarship, much attention has been paid to what seems to be a new direction for the African American literary tradition(s). Many contemporary authors (Octavia Butler, Ernest Gaines, Gayl Jones, Paule Marshall, Toni Morri­son, Ishmael Reed, and Sherley Anne Williams, to name but a few)—amongst whom Charles Johnson is often included—re-create in their fiction the conditions of slavery and of the Middle Passage. They do so, according to Timothy L. Parish, “in order to connect the receding past to the living present,” a process through which African Americans “begin to understand [themselves] and American and African American culture in general” (Rampersad qtd. in Parish 81). The African American writers who participate in this rewriting of history are “resisting the ‘master’s’ versions of historical experience” (Robbins 531). Yet I am reluctant to agree with the contention that Charles Johnson is one of these contemporary authors. Johnson, I would argue, is not only revising the master’s version of his­tory; he is also resisting the (ex-)slave’s revision of the master’s historical con­struction. His appropriation of the form of the slave narrative for the novels Oxherding Tale and Middle Passage critiques white historiography of slavery, as well as black literary traditions.
Roberta Fernández’s Intaglio: Border Crossings and Mestiza Feminism in the Borderlands
Authors: Sumanth Muthyala John
Published: June 2011

A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of tension. —Gloria Anzaldúa The Border is the site of translation —David E. Johnson With the signing of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo in 1848, the US annexed large sections of northern Mexico that included California, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah.1 But even as the inhabitants of these newly acquired territories of the US found themselves “without land, without a country, and without a voice” (Saldívar 12) and had to sever all ties with Mexico, they were not completely assimilated into mainstream American culture. Soon, a distinct culture began to emerge in this region, in the interstices of Anglo-Ameri­can and Mexican traditions, a culture that was neither fully Mexican nor com­pletely American. It was the culture of the borderlands.
The Contestation over National Identity: Nineteenth-Century Black Americans in Canada
Authors: Rhodes Jane
Published: June 2011

This paper examines black Americans and their search for safety, liberty, and what Floyd Miller called “a black nationality,” on the eve of the Civil War. It is concerned with those nineteenth-century African Americans whose spatial move­ments, and their relationships to the state, can be defined and understood through their crossing of the forty-ninth parallel into Canada at some point dur­ing their lives. In Canadian towns and cities like Toronto, Windsor, Chatham, and Amherstburg, black American expatriates grappled with questions of political and national allegiance. They used Canada West as an outpost where they could devise strategies to confront the racial oppression that gripped their lives and enslaved their families. Through their newspapers, conventions, and churches, black subjects on both sides of the border engaged in a wide-ranging debate about where they belonge, and where to invest their hopes for the future (Miller).
Hands Across the Border: The Abortive Extradition of Solomon Moseby
Authors: Murray David
Published: June 2011

Four years after the abolition of slavery within the British Empire in 1833, the government of Upper Canada authorized the return of Solomon Moseby, a fugi­tive slave, to Kentucky. Moseby had escaped slavery in Kentucky by stealing his master’s horse and riding to Buffalo, where he had then crossed the border into Upper Canada and, as he believed, to freedom. Alexander McLeod, the deputy sheriff of the Niagara district, took Moseby into custody and confined him in the Niagara jail until he received the orders to deliver Moseby into the hands of his former American master, who had journeyed to Canada to reclaim him. The local population of African Canadians had other ideas. They were not going to let a brother who had successfully made the journey to freedom on British soil be returned to slavery by British authorities. Led by their preacher, Herbert Holmes, a group of determined men and women mounted a vigil at the jail for three weeks in late August and September 1837 to prevent the authorities from sneaking Moseby across the border. When McLeod finally received orders to extradite Moseby, he surrounded himself with special armed constables and some soldiers from the nearby British detachment at Fort George. With this armed escort, he then tried to deliver Moseby to the Americans. What happened next constitutes the first race riot in Upper Canada.
The Children’s Hour: A Postcolonial Turn of the Screw
Authors: Martin Robert K.
Published: June 2011

I run the risk, I realize, of sounding like Persse McGarrigle, the hapless young scholar from Limerick, in David Lodge’s wicked satire of the MLA, Small World.The comically innocent McGarrigle is, you may recall, working on a thesis on Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot—not, however, as the others assume, on the influence of Shakespeare on Eliot but rather on the influence of Eliot on Shakespeare. The novel takes such a project to be inherently funny, a sign of the madness of fash­ionable scholarship. But Persse’s explanation of his project is not really all that foolish: As he puts it, “we can’t avoid reading Shakespeare through the lens of T.S. Eliot’s poetry” (Lodge 52).
Metaphor, Metonymy, and the Constitution of Identity in The Wings of the Dove
Authors: Buelens Gert
Published: June 2011

In The Prison-House of Language, Fredric Jameson writes Language has of necessity recourse to indirection, to substitution: … it must replace [an] empty center of content with something else, and it does so either by saying what the content is like (metaphor), or describing its context and the contours of its absence, listing the things that border around it (metonymy). Thus language, by its very nature, is either analogical or fetishistic….” (122–23) The phrase “empty center of content” is a particularly suggestive one when applied to Henry James’s novel The Wings of the Dove. It is easily reminiscent of the young woman around whose “really larger vagueness,” in the words of a wholly sympathetic character, the novel’s action revolves (James, Wings 82). Criti­cal interpretations that regard Milly as an essentially “empty” quantity are legion, some finding fault with her for being “too much like emptiness.” “She isn’t there,” F.R. Leavis complains, “and the fuss the other characters make about her … has the effect of an irritating sentimentality”(183).
De l’ « autonomie de l’État » à l’art du compromis politique : la réforme des pensions de vieillesse à la fin du New Deal
Authors: Béland Daniel
Published: June 2011

Dans son discours sur l’état de l’Union de janvier 1999, le président Clinton (1999) proposait de détourner soixante pour-cent des futurs surplus budgétaires fédéraux vers le fonds de réserve de la caisse d’assurance-vieillesse [Social Security trust fund].1 Cette proposition s’inscrit dans le cadre du débat sur le financement à long terme du programme fédéral d’assurance-vieillesse. Durant la dernière campagne présidentielle, cette question oppose d’ailleurs le candidat démocrate Al Gore à son adversaire républicain George W. Bush, qui propose la « privatisation » de ce programme (« Ducking the Hard One »). En raison de son importance économique et budgétaire, la question de l’avenir du plus imposant programme fédéral de protection sociale occupe donc une place essentielle dans la vie politique américaine contemporaine (Béland et Waddan 2000 ; Quadagno 1984).
Gidget Goes to the Convent: Taking the Veil as a Girl’s Adventure in The Flying Nun
Authors: Sullivan Rebecca
Published: June 2011

Although many remember Sally Field as the all-American girl in the ABC sitcom Gidget, her more successful television series was her second vehicle, The Flying Nun. With only one year between the two sitcoms, it is easy to see Gidget—whom everyone must have thought was destined to become a suburban housewife—in the new character of Sister Bertrille. This relationship was directly alluded to by Variety Magazine in a review of the pilot episode. Dismissing it as “Gidget Takes the Veil,” the reviewer complained, “the effect is that she’s playing an old role in a new guise. They might aptly have called the opus, ‘I Was A Teenage Nun’” (qtd. in Prouty n. pag.). As acerbic as this review may be, it begs the question, What’s wrong with a teenage nun? Certainly in the 1950s and 1960s the majority of new religious vocations were made by teenage girls, usually right after high school (Wakin and Sheuer, De-Romanization 38). For Catholic girls, the convent could be perceived as an exciting option for an adventurous life as far away from middle-American suburbs as they could go without actually crossing any boundaries of proper femininity. The association of a vocation with adventure and romance was reinforced by many religious sisters, and with good reason. American women religious were experiencing unprecedented liberty and, along with that, confu­sion as they underwent an intense period of reflection and renewal during these two decades. This period began in 1951 with the Call for Renewal initiated by Pius XII and continued beyond the Second Vatican Council from 1962–1965. Denied any decision-making authority and banished from voting privileges in the Vatican hierarchy, women religious were nonetheless crucial to the implementa­tion of the new attitudes of matching spiritual fortitude with social justice. They were the ones who implemented many of the experiments and tested the limits of reform. Furthermore, they were teaching the next generation of Catholics, inspir­ing girls to consider joining a convent themselves.
The US Civil War as a Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South
Authors: Sebest Edward H. , Hague Euan
Published: June 2011

IntroductionFormed in Alabama in 1994, the League of the South is a nationalist organization that advocates secession from the United States of America and the establishment of a fifteen-state Confederate States of America (CSA) – four states more than seceded during the US Civil War (1861–1865), the additional states being Okla­homa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland (Southern Patriot). With over ten thou­sand members, the League professes a commitment to constructing this new CSA based on a reading of Christianity and the Bible that can be identified as “Chris­tian nationalist.” This position is centred upon what we identify as the theological war thesis, an assessment that interprets the nineteenth-century CSA to be an orthodox Christian nation and understands the 1861–1865 US Civil War to have been a theological war over the future of American religiosity fought between devout Confederate and heretical Union states. In turn, this reasoning leads to claims that the “stars and bars” battle flag and other Confederate icons are Chris­tian symbols and the assertion that opposition to them equates to a rejection of Christianity.
U.S. Presidents and the Image of the American Public Service
Authors: Slac James D. , Feese Mark , Pallette JuLee A.
Published: June 2011

One cultural factor that has shaped the American public service is an on-going concern about image—how the apparatus of government is viewed by citizens, elected officials, and appointed public serv­ants.1 Answers to the “image question” typically are not very posi­tive. The public service, especially when defined as the federal bureaucracy, is often depicted negatively in popular and academic cultures alike (Goodsell). This phenomenon is really nothing new. Public opinion polls, academic surveys, and scholarly studies con­ducted since the mid-twentieth century indicate a general pattern of distrust toward, and lack of confidence in, American governmental institutions.2 It seems that anti-bureaucratic (Karl) and anti-govern­mental (Stokes; Pfiffner) attitudes are intrinsically woven into the fabric of American political culture, the cloth from which many poli­ticians are more than willing to cut to suit political needs.
Hollywood Intellect
Authors: Bloom James D.
Published: June 2011

At least since the introduction of talking movies some seventy years ago, Hollywood screenwriters have sometimes functioned as and often assumed the role of so-called public intellectuals. Over the past decade, familiar laments over the decline of public intellectuals and their influence have made acknowledging this legacy and its persis­tence increasingly noteworthy. Such an acknowledgment is likely to reveal especially provocative and culturally productive tensions because commercial movie making manufactures and markets enchantment, while the modern intellectual’s agenda, according to Max Weber, aims at disenchantment (155). “Self appointed Holly­woodologist” (“Any” 55) and intellectual aspirant Budd Schulberg has, metaphorically, echoed Weber’s formulation in maintaining that pursuing a traditional intellectual’s agenda in Hollywood entails walking a “treadmill of disenchantment” (Sanctuary 159). Antagonism between these aspirations provides the would-be Hol­lywood intellectual such as Schulberg with a particularly vexing and especially illuminating vantage point.
Uncontainable Metaphor: George F. Kennan’s ‘‘X’’ Article and Cold War Discourse1
Authors: Diemert Brian
Published: June 2011

‘‘Unless you are at home in the metaphor, unless you have had your proper poetical education in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere’’ .Robert Frost (39) ‘‘... the development of civilizations is essentially a progression of metaphors’’ .E. L. Doctorow (164) Emerson wrote, ‘‘Every word which is used to express a moral and intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some material appearance’’ (‘‘Nature’’ 911), so every word is a metaphor. Emerson repudiated those such as Hobbes and Locke, who saw metaphor as largely ornamental, and so incompatible with reason 2 to embrace the idea that language was radically metaphorical, saturated with figurative meaning. Yet one does not have to subscribe wholly to his perspective to recognize that metaphor enables us to formulate concepts and to map, ‘‘what is known about one domain onto a less structured domain’’ (Chilton 48). George Lakoff recognized long ago that metaphor has a cog­nitive dimension. It allows us to make sense of a complex world by letting us conceive of the world in terms structured according to pre-conceptual experiences derived from our having bodies that stand erect, move through space, feel sensation, and are separate from each other (14–7; 56). We might again turn to Emerson, who described ‘‘man [as] an analogist’’ (‘‘Nature’’ 911): we can under­stand a particular object, event, or idea because it is like another object, event, or idea—a notion that recalls Kenneth Burke’s point.
Beneath the Suffrage Narrative
Authors: Farrell Grace
Published: June 2011

Abstract: Although the nineteenth-century woman’s movement was never exempt from internecine warfare, Susan B. Anthony, as editor and publisher of the History of Woman Suffrage, presented the movement as a grand narrative with a smooth surface. When the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) merged with the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), the twenty-year rupture between the organizations, the fierce opposition to the merger, and the stratagems involved in pushing it through go unmentioned in Anthony’s official account. The story of the woman who named the newly formed National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), against the opposition of Anthony, was Lillie Devereux Blake, who, during forty years of activism, would win many skirmishes on the battlefront of the woman’s movement but ultimately lose the battle for her rightful place in suffrage history. Her story is illustrative of the fate of other dissidents who were marginalized by a leadership that tolerated little independence. The contributions of Lucy Stone and the AWSA were minimized and its position on the Fifteenth Amendment was distorted, the radical Matilda Joslyn Gage was lost to its history, and the amendment to the constitution that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote became known as the Susan B. Anthony amendment.
Mass Appeal(s): Representations of Women’s Public Speech in Suffrage Literature
Authors: Joseph Maia
Published: June 2011

Abstract: This article considers the emergence of women into the public sphere during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries via portrayals of women’s public speech in three literary texts associated with the suffrage movement—Laura J. Curtis’s Christine: Woman’s Trials and Triumphs (1856), Elizabeth Robins’s The Convert (1907), and The Sturdy Oak: A Composite Novel of American Politics (1917), edited by Elizabeth Jordan. All three novels depict members of the suffrage movement negotiating tensions between private and public, speaker and audience, leader and led, and individual and crowd or collective. Read together, the novels register a transition from an early focus on the female public speaker as an individual set apart from the crowd—and thus as a single, authoritative voice—to an increasing interest in the dynamics of an integrated relationship between speaker and crowd, which ultimately results in the development of a more democratically informed conceptualization of political action and appeal. In this way, the novels offer valuable insight into women’s growing understanding, during the period, of what it means to organize a mass movement and, in a more general sense, to participate in public space.
Sex and the Maiden: Authenticity and the Erotic Adaptation of The Wings of the Dove
Authors: Austin-Smith Brenda
Published: June 2011

Abstract: Iain Softley’s The Wings of the Dove has been the most popular of the recent crop of cinematic adaptations of Henry James and has elicited approving readings from Jamesian critics, who laud its fidelity to aspects of the text. Accompanying the praise, though, is the familiar criticism that the film strays from the true path of Jamesian ambiguity when it substitutes sexually explicit scenes for the subtlety and indirection of the original novel. In an adaptive move that flattens the novel’s ironic treatment of sex, money, and power, the filmic Kate Croy becomes an unambiguous femme fatale, whose sexual desire kills her best friend and alienates her lover. It is in the closing scene of the film, in its depiction of uninhibited but loveless sex, and its delicate allusion to Gustav Klimt’s 1908 painting Danae, that the film adaptation of Kate Croy is paradoxically least, and yet most, satisfying—and so, most authentically Jamesian— in its rendering of both her sexual energy and her sexual entrapment.
Rathke cleft cysts in pediatric patients: presentation, surgical management, and postoperative outcomes
Authors: Jahangiri Arman , Molinaro Annette M. , Tarapore Phiroz E. , Blevins Lewis , Auguste Kurtis I. , Gupta Nalin , Kunwar Sandeep , Aghi Manish K.
Published: July 2011

Object

Rathke cleft cysts (RCC) are benign sellar lesions most often found in adults, and more infrequently in children. They are generally asymptomatic but sometimes require surgical treatment through a transsphenoidal corridor. The purpose of this study was to compare adult versus pediatric cases of RCC.

Methods

The authors retrospectively reviewed presenting symptoms, MR imaging findings, laboratory study results, and pathological findings in 147 adult and 14 pediatric patients who underwent surgery for treatment of RCCs at the University of Californial at San Francisco between 1996 and 2008.

Results

In both the adult and pediatric groups, most patients were female (78% of adults, 79% of pediatric patients, p = 0.9). Headache was the most common symptom in both groups (reported by 50% of pediatric patients and 33% of adults, p = 0.2). Preoperative hypopituitarism occurred in 41% of adults and 45% of pediatric patients (p = 0.8). Growth delay, a uniquely pediatric finding, was a presenting sign in 29% of pediatric patients. Visual complaints were a presenting symptom in 16% of adult and 7% of pediatric patients (p = 0.4). There was no difference between median cyst size in adults versus pediatric patients (1.2 cm in both, p = 0.7). Temporary or permanent postoperative diabetes insipidus occurred in 12% of adults and 21% of pediatric patients (p = 0.4). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed an 8% RCC recurrence rate at 2 years for each group (p = 0.5).

Conclusions

The incidence of RCCs is much lower in the pediatric population; however, symptoms, imaging findings, and outcomes are similar, suggesting that pediatric RCCs arise from growth of remnants of the embryonic Rathke pouch earlier in life than adult RCCs but do not differ in any other way. It is important to consider RCCs in the differential diagnosis when pediatric patients present with visual impairment, unexplained headache, or hypopituitarism including growth delay. Although the average RCC size was similar in our pediatric and adult patient groups, the smaller size of the pituitary gland in pediatric patients suggests an increased relative RCC size.
A monk from Melrose? St Cuthbert and the Scots in the later middle ages, c. 1371–1560
Authors: Turpie Tom
Published: June 2011

During the early and central middle ages St Cuthbert of Durham (d. 687) was arguably the most important local saint in northern England and southern Scotland. His cult encompassed a region approximately corresponding to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria. While Scottish devotion to the saint in that period has been well researched, the later medieval cult in Scotland has been surprisingly little studied. Following the outbreak of Anglo-Scottish warfare in 1296 a series of English monarchs, the Durham clergy and local political leaders identified Cuthbert with military victories over the Scots. Several historians have assumed that this association between Cuthbert and English arms led to the decline of his cult in Scotland. This article surveys the various manifestations of devotion to St Cuthbert in late medieval Scotland in order to reappraise the role of the saint and his cult north of the border in the later middle ages.
Identification of Candidate Genes and Physiological Pathways Involved in Gonad Deformation in Whitefish (Coregonus spp.) from Lake Thun, Switzerland
Authors: Bittner David , Cossins Andrew R. , Segner Helmut , Excoffier Laurent , Largiadèr Carlo R.
Published: June 2011

In 2000, fishermen reported the appearance of deformed reproductive organs in whitefish (Coregonus spp.) from Lake Thun, Switzerland. Despite intensive investigations, the causes of these abnormalities remain unknown. Using gene expression profiling, we sought to identify candidate genes and physiological processes possibly associated with the observed gonadal deformations, in order to gain insights into potential causes. Using in situ-synthesized oligonucleotide arrays, we compared the expression levels at 21,492 unique transcript probes in liver and head kidney tissue of male whitefish with deformed and normally developed gonads, respectively. The fish had been collected on spawning sites of two genetically distinct whitefish forms of Lake Thun. We contrasted the gene expression profiles of 56 individuals, i.e., 14 individuals of each phenotype and of each population. Gene-by-gene analysis revealed weak expression differences between normal and deformed fish, and only one gene, ictacalcin, was found to be up-regulated in head kidney tissue of deformed fish from both whitefish forms, However, this difference could not be confirmed with quantitative real-time qPCR. Enrichment analysis on the level of physiological processes revealed (i) the involvement of immune response genes in both tissues, particularly those linked to complement activation in the liver, (ii) proteolysis in the liver and (iii) GTPase activity and Ras protein signal transduction in the head kidney. In comparison with current literature, this gene expression pattern signals a chronic autoimmune disease in the testes. Based on the recent observations that gonad deformations are induced through feeding of zooplankton from Lake Thun we hypothesize that a xenobiotic accumulated in whitefish via the plankton triggering autoimmunity as the likely cause of gonad deformations. We propose several experimental strategies to verify or reject this hypothesis.
Nationwide Desert Highway Assessment: A Case Study in China
Authors: Mao Xuesong , Wang Fuchun , Wang Binggang
Published: June 2011

The natural environment affects the construction of desert highways. Conversely, highway construction affects the natural environment and puts the ecological environment at a disadvantage. To satisfy the variety and hierarchy of desert highway construction and discover the spatio-temporal distribution of the natural environment and its effect on highway construction engineering, an assessment of the natural regional divisions of desert highways in China is carried out for the first time. Based on the general principles and method for the natural region division, the principles, method and index system for desert highway assessment is put forward by combining the desert highway construction features and the azonal differentiation law. The index system combines the dominant indicator and four auxiliary indicators. The dominant indicator is defined by the desert’s comprehensive state index and the auxiliary indicators include the sand dune height, the blown sand strength, the vegetation coverage ratio and the annual average temperature difference. First the region is divided according to the dominant indicator. Then the region boundaries are amended according to the four auxiliary indicators. Finally the natural region division map for desert highway assessment is presented. The Chinese desert highways can be divided into three sections: the east medium effect region, the middle medium-severe effect region, and the west slight-medium effect region. The natural region division map effectively paves the way for the route planning, design, construction, maintenance and ongoing management of desert highways, and further helps environmental protection.
The Search for Reliable Biomarkers of Disease in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Other Environmental Intolerances
Authors: De Luca Chiara , Raskovic Desanka , Pacifico Valeria , Thai Jeffrey Chung Sheun , Korkina Liudmila
Published: July 2011

Whilst facing a worldwide fast increase of food and environmental allergies, the medical community is also confronted with another inhomogeneous group of environment-associated disabling conditions, including multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, electric hypersensitivity, amalgam disease and others. These share the features of poly-symptomatic multi-organ cutaneous and systemic manifestations, with postulated inherited/acquired impaired metabolism of chemical/physical/nutritional xenobiotics, triggering adverse reactions at exposure levels far below toxicologically-relevant values, often in the absence of clear-cut allergologic and/or immunologic involvement. Due to the lack of proven pathogenic mechanisms generating measurable disease biomarkers, these environmental hypersensitivities are generally ignored by sanitary and social systems, as psychogenic or “medically unexplained symptoms”. The uncontrolled application of diagnostic and treatment protocols not corresponding to acceptable levels of validation, safety, and clinical efficacy, to a steadily increasing number of patients demanding assistance, occurs in many countries in the absence of evidence-based guidelines. Here we revise available information supporting the organic nature of these clinical conditions. Following intense research on gene polymorphisms of phase I/II detoxification enzyme genes, so far statistically inconclusive, epigenetic and metabolic factors are under investigation, in particular free radical/antioxidant homeostasis disturbances. The finding of relevant alterations of catalase, glutathione-transferase and peroxidase detoxifying activities significantly correlating with clinical manifestations of MCS, has recently registered some progress towards the identification of reliable biomarkers of disease onset, progression, and treatment outcomes.
A Survey of Marine Natural Compounds and Their Derivatives with Anti-Cancer Activity Reported in 2010
Authors: Schumacher Marc , Kelkel Mareike , Dicato Mario , Diederich Marc
Published: June 2011

Although considerable progress in oncology therapeutics has been achieved in the last century, cancer remains one of major death causes in the World and for this reason, the development of novel cancer drugs remains a pressing need. Natural marine compounds represent an interesting source of novel leads with potent chemotherapeutic or chemo-preventive activities. In the last decades, structure-activity-relationship studies have led to the development of naturally-derived or semi-synthetic analogues with improved bioactivity, a simplified synthetic target or less toxicity. We aim here to review a selection of natural compounds with reported anticancer activity isolated of marine sources and their associated analogues published in 2010.
Synthesis of Diblock Copolymer Consisting of Poly(4-butyltriphenylamine) and Morphological Control in Photovoltaic Application
Authors: Tsuchiya Kousuke , Kikuchi Tatsuro , Songeun Malee , Shimomura Takeshi , Ogino Kenji
Published: July 2011

The diblock copolymer PTPA-b-PS consisting of poly(4-butyltripheneylamine) (PTPA) and polystyrene was prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization followed by C–N coupling polymerization. Three types of block copolymers with different contents of polystyrene segment were prepared. The formation of block copolymer was confirmed by 1H NMR spectra and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) profiles. Time of flight (TOF) measurement revealed that the block copolymer showed higher hole mobility up to 1.3 × 10−4 cm2/Vs compared with PTPA homopolymer. The surface morphology of block copolymer films blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was investigated by Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Introduction of polystyrene segment provided microphase-separated structures with domain sizes of around 20 nm. The photovoltaic device based on PTPA-b-PS, PTPA, and PCBM exhibited higher efficiency than that of homopolymer blend system.
Accuracy Enhancement of ASTER Global Digital Elevation Models Using ICESat Data
Authors: Arefi Hossein , Reinartz Peter
Published: July 2011

Global Digital Elevation Models (GDEM) are considered very attractive for current research and application areas due to their free and wide range accessibility. The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model exhibits the highest spatial resolution data of all global DEMs and it is generated for almost the whole globe. Unfortunately, ASTERGDEM data include many artifacts and height errors that decrease the quality and elevation accuracy significantly. This study provides a method for quality improvement of the ASTER GDEM data by correcting systematic height errors using ICESat laser altimetry data and removing artifacts and anomalies based on a segment-based outlier detection and elimination algorithm. Additionally, elevation errors within water bodies are corrected using a water mask produced from a high-resolution shoreline data set. Results indicate that the accuracy of the corrected ASTER GDEM is significantly improved and most artifacts are appropriately eliminated. Nevertheless, artifacts containing lower height values with respect to the neighboring ground pixels are not entirely eliminated due to confusion with some real non-terrain 3D objects. The proposed method is particularly useful for areas where other high quality DEMs such as SRTM are not available.
Le protestantisme français : un christianisme incompris ?
Authors: Abel Olivier
Published: June 2011

Le protestantisme français ne se reconnaît pas tout à fait dans les images qu'en proposent les médias. Ce hiatus, explique l'auteur, est en partie imputable au protestantisme : au style peu médiatique de son discours et aux ambivalences de sa pratique de la représentation. Mais il résulte aussi de ce que la société française est dépourvue de la culture des désaccords qui lui permettrait d'approfondir les débats et refonder le politique. Cela supposerait, pour y parvenir, de chacun des protagonistes qu 'il établisse un rapport vraiment critique avec la tradition dont il est issu (lors même qu'il s'en croirait affranchi) afin de pouvoir la réinterpréter.
L'islam de France peut-il avoir prise sur ses caricatures médiatiques ?
Authors: Lafitte Maria
Published: June 2011

La persistance de représentations médiatiques dévalorisantes de l'islam semble en partie le symptôme de l'impasse dans laquelle il se trouve concernant le règlement de sa représentation institutionnelle. Les responsables musulmans perçoivent-ils leur responsabilité lorsque leur souci pour l'image sert leurs stratégies personnelles plutôt qu'il ne répond à la demande de reconnaissance sociale des croyants qu 'ils prétendent représenter ?
Activation of p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Promotes Peritoneal Fibrosis by Regulating Fibrocytes
Authors: Kokubo Satoshi , Sakai Norihiko , Furuichi Kengo , Toyama Tadashi , Kitajima Shinji , Okumura Toshiya , Matsushima Kouji , Kaneko Shuichi , Wada Takashi
Published: July 2011

Background

Peritoneal fibrosis is a serious complication of long-term peritoneal dialysis, and yet the precise pathogenic mechanisms of peritoneal fibrosis remain unknown. Fibrocytes participate in tissue fibrosis and express chemokine receptors that are necessary for migration. The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway regulates the production of chemokines and has been demonstrated to contribute to the pathogenesis of various fibrotic conditions. Accordingly, we used an experimental mouse model of peritoneal fibrosis to examine the dependency of fibrocytes on p38MAPK signaling.

Methods

Peritoneal fibrosis was induced in mice by the injection of 0.1% chlorhexidine gluconate (CG) into the abdominal cavity. Mice were treated with FR167653, a specific inhibitor of p38MAPK, and immunohistochemical studies were performed to detect fibrocytes and cells positive for phosphorylated p38MAPK. The involvement of p38MAPK in the activation of fibrocytes also was also investigated in vitro.

Results

Fibrocytes infiltrated peritoneum in response to CG, and that response was accompanied by progressive peritoneal fibrosis. The phosphorylation of p38MAPK, as defined by CD45+ spindle-shaped cells, was detected both in peritoneal mesothelial cells and in fibrocytes. The level of peritoneal expression of CCL2, a chemoattractant for fibrocytes, was upregulated by CG injection, and treatment with FR167653 reduced the number of cells positive for phosphorylated p38MAPK, the peritoneal expression of CCL2, and the extent of peritoneal fibrosis. Pretreatment with FR167653 inhibited the expression of procollagen type I α1 induced by transforming growth factor-β1

Conclusions

Our results suggest that p38MAPK signaling contributes to peritoneal fibrosis by regulating fibrocyte function.
XX A. MASINĖS STATYBOS GYVENAMŲJŲ KOMPLEKSŲ FENOMENAS LIETUVOJE EUROPINIAME INDUSTRINĖS STATYBOS KONTEKSTE
Authors: Dijokienė Dalia , Džervus Petras
Published: June 2011

At the beginning of the 20th century, urban development in Europe and worldwide was marked by a breakthrough of a new phenomenon in the field of planning and construction – the industrialized housing construction. Residential districts that were constructed in order to meet a massive housing demand determined by intensive urbanization processes have left a significant mark in many European cities. The article analyses residential districts of large-scale construction and circumstances that determined formation of this phenomenon (from ideas to consequences of their implementation). Attention is drawn to crucial political decisions taken by the countries concerned relating to industrialization and promotion of large-scale constructions. A comparative analysis is carried out with a view to determining the scale and characteristics of this phenomenon in various countries. In case of Lithuania, residential complexes and districts of large-scale construction built in six major cities of the country are reviewed, including analysis of their position in the current urban structure, comparison of the size of their territories with that of the towns’ administrative and urbanized areas.

Santrauka

XX a. pradžia pasaulio ir Europos urbanistikos raidoje pasižymi naujo pobūdžio projektavimo ir statybos proveržiu – industrinės gyvenamosios statybos fenomenu. Gyvenamieji rajonai, statyti spartiems miestų urbanizacijos procesams reikalaujant didelio kiekio gyvenamųjų būstų, daugelyje Europos miestų paliko žymų pėdsaką. Straipsnyje nagrinėjami masinės statybos gyvenamieji rajonai bei jų atsiradimo aplinkybės (nuo idėjų iki realizacijos pasekmių). Paliečiami fenomenui esminės įtakos turėję nagrinėjamų valstybių politiniai sprendimai, susiję su masinės statybos industrializavimu ir propagavimu. Atliekama lyginamoji analizė, norint išsiaiškinti esminį fenomeno mastą ir ypatumus skirtingose valstybėse. Lietuvos atveju apžvelgiami šešiuose didžiuosiuose miestuose suprojektuoti ir įgyvendinti masinės statybos gyvenamieji kompleksai bei rajonai, nustatoma jų padėtis dabartinėje miestų struktūroje, užimama teritorija palyginama su miesto administraciniu plotu bei urbanizuotu miesto plotu.