bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hepatoprotective Effects of Curcumin Against Dichlorvos-induced Toxicity in Male Wistar Rats
Authors: Adeoye Saka Waidi , Seun Oladepo , Dimeji Igbayilola Yusuff , Ugochukwu Oshinor Emmanuel , Jabba Hamidu Lawan
Published: February 2025

The liver is essential for metabolism, detoxification, and homeostasis, but it is susceptible to toxins such as dichlorvos (DDVP), a common pesticide that, despite its effectiveness, causes multiple organ toxicities, such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which account for 2 million deaths annually (3.5% of all deaths worldwide). Since there are few effective treatment options, liver transplantation is still the only practical option, so research is focused on traditional medicine, specifically curcumin, a bioactive compound with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, to lessen the damage caused by DDVP. This study investigated the effects of curcumin on liver function, oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis markers in male Wistar rats exposed to DDVP. Thirty-two male Wistar rats (180-200g) were divided into four groups (n=8): Group A (Control) received 2 mL/kg of olive oil orally; Group B was exposed to 8 mg/kg of DDVP daily; Group C received both DDVP and curcumin (100 mg/kg orally); Group D received only curcumin (100 mg/kg orally). Treatments lasted six weeks, after which rats were euthanized using ketamine (40 mg/kg) and liver tissue was collected for biochemical assays (ALT, AST, ALP, MDA, GSH, SOD, CAT, TNF-α, IL-1β and CRP) and histological analysis (Hematoxylin and Eosin staining). DDVP exposure significantly elevated hepatic and inflammatory markers, while curcumin treatment reduced these levels, demonstrating its hepatoprotective effects. Histological findings revealed curcumin-mediated regeneration of DDVP-induced hepatic damage. In male Wistar rats, exposure to dichlorvos, curcumin showed notable hepatoprotective effects by reducing oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis while promoting liver regeneration.
Tamarillo Extract Cream Mitigates UVB-Induced Hyperpigmentation in Guinea Pigs
Authors: N.P.E.P Sumarjaya, , I.W Sugiritama, , I.M Muliarta, , I.W.P.S Yasa, , M.A Hendrayana, , D.K Ernawati,
Published: February 2025

Aims: To evaluate the effect of tamarillo fruit ethanol extract cream on the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), tyrosinase enzyme, and melanin in the skin of male guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation.
Study Design: Randomized post-test only control group design.
Place and Duration of Study: Food Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of Agricultural Technology; Integrated Biomedical Laboratory Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University; between September 2024 and December 2024.
Methodology: We included 25 locally bred male guinea pigs, aged three to four months, weighing between 300 and 350 grams, in healthy condition. They were divided into five groups: normal control group (K0), negative control group (K-), and treatment groups administered tamarillo fruit ethanol extract cream at concentrations of 7.5% (P1), 15% (P2), and 30% (P3). K-, P1, P2, and P3 groups were exposed to UVB radiation at a total dose of 390 mJ/cm2 for two weeks. The levels of MDA and the tyrosinase enzyme were measured using the ELISA method, while melanin levels were measured by the Fontana-Masson staining method. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA test followed by a post-hoc test.
Results: The levels of MDA, tyrosinase enzyme, and melanin in K0, P1, P2, and P3 groups were significantly lower compared to group K-. Tyrosinase levels in the 30% treatment group were not significantly different from the 15% group but were lower than the 7.5% group. All three concentrations of tamarillo extract cream (7.5%, 15%, 30%) had the same effectiveness in reducing melanin levels in UVB-exposed guinea pigs.
Conclusion: Tamarillo fruit ethanol extract cream effectively reduced MDA, tyrosinase, and melanin levels in guinea pigs exposed to UVB radiation. The 15% concentration showed potential in preventing hyperpigmentation and could serve as a natural sunscreen. Further research is required to confirm this finding in human use.
The Enlévenment of Lady Grange
Authors: Dalton Tony
Published: February 2025

A Hanoverian supporter, Lady Grange was kidnapped by her husband, Lord Lovat and others in 1732 for threatening to denounce their Jacobite sympathies. After eight years of captivity in Heisker and St Kilda, news of her imprisonment finally reached Edinburgh in December 1740. Even then her captors were able to thwart an attempt of rescue and move the unfortunate woman like so much unwanted baggage from St Kilda to Assynt, Harris, and Skye, where she died in 1745.
None of her family or friends raised objections, choosing to believe her ensconced in some comfortable lodging for her own protection from what they termed as madness. In reality she was immured without any physical or mental comforts, and, to a woman of her class, in utter destitution and isolation. Those are the basic facts, but the true story is more complex, although clouded over the centuries by the retelling of inaccurate accounts of the affair. Influential men still exerted considerable autonomy, especially clan chiefs in the dying years of the old Highland Clan system. Based on years of research, this article seeks to elicit the truth behind the affair, for every account so far, including the latest, contains inaccuracies. New evidence is considered, and the most likely route to the Highlands established.
From medical astrology to medical astronomy:
sol-lunar and planetary theories of disease in
British medicine, c. 1700–1850
Authors: HARRISON MARK
Published: July 2002

After 1700, astrology lost the respect it once commanded in medical circles. But the
belief that the heavens influenced bodily health persisted – even in learned medicine – until well
into the nineteenth century. The continuing vitality of these ideas owed much to the new empirical
and mechanical outlook of their proponents. Taking their cue from the work of Robert Boyle and
Richard Mead, a number of British practitioners amassed statistical evidence which purported to
prove the influence of the Moon upon fevers and other diseases. Such ideas flourished in the
colonies and in the medical services of the armed forces, but their exponents were not marginal
men. Some, like James Lind, were widely respected and drew support for their views from such
influential figures as Erasmus Darwin.
A bank's entitlement to recover the proceeds of a forged cheque
Authors: Fox D.M.
Published: July 2002

BANK of America v. Arnell [1999] Lloyd's L.R. Bank. 399, an application for summary judgment heard before Aikens J., illustrates some of the obstacles that a bank must surmount to recover money paid out on a forged cheque purportedly drawn on its customer's account. First, it must show a sufficient interest in the money to entitle it to sue. Secondly, if the payee of the cheque has passed the proceeds to another person, the bank must trace the money to prove that the defendant received it. Thirdly, the bank will typically have to prove the recipient's fault in receiving the money.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND TAXPAYERS
Authors: TILEY JOHN
Published: July 2002

Is it really worth having all this fuss and bother about the Human Rights Bill? Over the years the Convention has been interpreted to require United Kingdom courts to change their practices in various ways at the personal level, but what about protecting a person from an unjustified demand for tax? Suppose that the Inland Revenue demands tax from you which the courts later determine to be unlawful because the regulation under which the demand was made was not valid. You were not a party to that litigation but you are clearly within the ambit of the decision supplied by the courts. The Inland Revenue then persuades Parliament to deprive you of the benefit of the decision by retroactive legislation, although leaving the actual party to the litigation with the fruits of that enterprise. Is this the stuff on which the judges at Strasbourg will rush to protect the taxpayer from the State? The answer sadly is no — these judges are not going to risk embarrassing the contracting States by making rights bite where that would be expensive: National Provincial Building Society and others v. United Kingdom [1997] S.T.C. 1466. Of course these judges may fear that contracting States would reduce the powers of the court were they do so such a thing; such a fear would not be irrational since the German and UK Governments proposed that direct tax matters should be removed from the European Court of Justice in the sessions leading to the Treaty of Amsterdam. Perhaps a supra-national body is right to be cautious, but what should our own courts do? Once the Convention is incorporated into our domestic law, will our own judges feel a little more strongly about the matter and perhaps grant a declaration that the legislation is incompatible with the Convention? If they have a right to be incensed about the way in which Parliament protects the Revenue at the expense (literally) of the taxpayer, will they do something or will they just couch like lions under the throne of Parliamentary Sovereignty?
Indian Business in South Africa after Apartheid: New and Old Trajectories
Authors: Hart Keith , Padayachee Vishnu
Published: July 2002

We consider here what has happened to one segment of South African capital since the demise of apartheid, of the Indian businessmen of KwaZulu Natal, and especially of its principal port city, Durban. During the long nightmare of apartheid, South Africa's Indians, a small minority constituting only three percent of the national population, suffered many restrictions on their development.
SALINITY BUILD-UP AND CHANGES IN THE RICE–WHEAT SYSTEM OF THE INDO-GANGETIC PLAINS
Authors: GUPTA RAJ K. , ABROL I. P.
Published: July 2002

Green revolution technologies of the 1960s and 1970s have led to the emergence of rice (Oryza sativa)–wheat (Triticum aestivum) (R–W) as a major cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). Expansion of irrigation through a network of canals and privately owned tube wells was one of the key factors in the success of the new technologies. Since canal water supplies are not demand-driven, farmers increasingly relied on the use of ground water by installing shallow tube wells. The strategy of ground water development and its use in conjunction with canal supplies paid rich dividends in control of waterlogging and secondary alkalization and in increasing the pace of alkali soils reclamation programmes in areas underlaid with fresh quality aquifers. Rice–wheat systems were the preferred choice of farmers. Adoption of the R–W system, however, changed the salt and water balance in north-western parts of the IGP. In the north-east of Punjab and Haryana states it led to receding water tables and waterlogging, and in south-west parts to associated problems of secondary salination. In eastern parts of the IGP in West Bengal, development of ground water aquifers to meet irrigation water requirements for the intensification and diversification of agriculture has led to serious problems of ground water contamination due to dissolution of arsenic-bearing minerals under altered soil moisture regimes, conducive to oxidation of pyritic sediments. These experiences suggest that there is an urgent need for a change in the way food is produced in the IGP for sustainability of the natural resource base. This will depend on the ability to predict long-term consequences of intensification and diversification of agriculture on the farm and regional scale. Whereas issues of favourable regional salt and water balances need attention in the north-west of the IGP, rain-water management and alleviating drainage congestion can facilitate the adoption of agricultural technologies and improve productivity of the R–W systems.
ESTIMATION OF SPATIAL VARIABILITY IN PEARL MILLET GROWTH WITH NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHODS
Authors: Gérard B. , Buerkert A.
Published: July 2002

Growth variability in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) over short distances is a severe constraint on the interpretation of agricultural experiments in the West African Sahel. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to compare different non-destructive methods to estimate, spatially, millet growth and final yields. Aerial photography, georeferenced radiometric measurements and a chlorophyll meter were tested during three rainy seasons in a nitrogen rate×density×genotype experiment in western Niger. For the radiometric measurements, normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) obtained and calibrated for individual millet hills spaced 1.5 m apart were aggregated for the entire experiment with 6000 samples per hectare. A simple calibration procedure was used to correct for variation in soil background reflectance and incident light. For NDVI measurements of individual planting hills, the correlation between plant total dry matter (TDM), leaf weight, leaf area and NDVI was high (r2 = 0.89–0.91) and regression parameters were genotype-specific. Aggregated georeferenced NDVI measurements at the plot level correlated with grain and TDM at harvest (r2 = 0.40–0.87). The analysis of true-colour and infrared aerial photographs permitted the monitoring of millet growth and the quantitative evaluation of treatment responses throughout the growing season. The infrared images were the most efficient in the detection of vegetation followed by the normalized green band of true-colour images. The red band was the least effective because of the influence of soil albedo and image vignetting. Although chlorophyll meter measurements reflected relative differences in plant nitrogen status between treatments, their interpretation required destructive sampling and proved unsuitable to predict millet yields. The results demonstrate the potential of georeferenced radiometric data and aerial photographs to improve soil sampling strategies, sequential plant growth monitoring and the statistical design and analysis of experiments. By providing intermediate data sets, the tested tools can also help in the upscaling of ground truth to satellite data in yield prediction studies.
Efficient marker-based recurrent selection for multiple quantitative trait loci
Authors: HOSPITAL F. , GOLDRINGER I. , OPENSHAW S.
Published: July 2002

We studied the efficiency of recurrent selection based solely on marker genotypes (marker-based
selection), in order to increase favourable allele frequency at 50 previously detected quantitative
trait loci (QTLs). Two selection procedures were investigated, using computer simulations: (1)
Truncation Selection (MTS), in which individuals are ranked based on marker score, and best
individuals are selected for recombination; and (2) QTL Complementation Selection (QCS), in
which individuals are selected such that their QTL composition complements those individuals
already selected. Provided QTL locations are accurate, marker-based selection with a population
size of 200 was very effective in rapidly increasing frequencies of favourable QTL alleles. QCS
methods were more effective than MTS for improving the mean frequency and fixation of
favourable QTL alleles. Marker-based selection was not very sensitive to a reduction in population
size, and appears valuable to optimize the use of molecular markers in recurrent selection
programmes.
Mutation–selection models solved exactly with methods of statistical mechanics
Authors: BAAKE ELLEN , WAGNER HOLGER
Published: July 2002

We reconsider deterministic models of mutation and selection acting on populations of sequences, or, equivalently, multilocus systems with complete linkage. Exact analytical results concerning such systems are few, and we present recent and new ones obtained with the help of methods from quantum statistical mechanics. We consider a continuous-time model for an infinite population of haploids (or diploids without dominance), with N sites each, two states per site, symmetric mutation and arbitrary fitness function. We show that this model is exactly equivalent to a so-called Ising quantum chain. In this picture, fitness corresponds to the interaction energy of spins, and mutation to a temperature-like parameter. The highly elaborate methods of statistical mechanics allow one to find exact solutions for non-trivial examples. These include quadratic fitness functions, as well as ‘Onsager's landscape’. The latter is a fitness function which captures some essential features of molecular evolution, such as neutrality, compensatory mutations and flat ridges. We investigate the mean number of mutations, the mutation load, and the variance in fitness under mutation–selection balance. This also yields some insight into the ‘error threshold’ phenomenon, which occurs in some, but not all, examples.
Facies characteristics and cyclicity of Lower Siwalik sediments, Jammu area: a new perspective
Authors: SHARMA SHIKHA , SHARMA MANEESH , BIR SINGH INDRA
Published: July 2002

The Lower Siwalik succession of the Jammu area has been distinguished into three major
lithofacies associations: a sand-dominant association, a sandy-mud-dominant association, and a silty-heterolithic
association. The sand-dominant association is made up of three lithofacies: cross-bedded
sandstone, rippled silty sandstone and bioturbated sandy siltstone, which are organized in multi-storeyed
sandbodies representing deposition in major river channels. The sandy-mud-dominant association
is made up of two lithofacies, mottled clayey siltstone and interbedded sandstone, siltstone and
mudstone, representing deposition in overbank areas of flood-plain and natural levee-crevasse splays.
The sand-dominant association and sandy-mud-dominant association are grouped together as a channel-related
succession and are products of processes in the river channel. The silty-heterolithic association
consists of four lithofacies: mottled siltstone, mottled silty sandstone, bedded calcrete and
mottled mudstone. They are considered to be deposits of Doab (upland interfluve) areas operating
independently of present-day major river channels. These deposits have been formed in minor channels,
sloping surfaces, and lakes and ponds of the interfluve regions. The cyclicity of both successions
(channel-related and Doab-related) has been determined using a partial-independence statistical
model.
Emplacement and deformation of granite pegmatite dykes

in a mid-crustal regime of late-orogenic extension,

southwest Grenville Province, Ontario, Canada
Authors: KLEMENS WERNER P. , SCHWERDTNER W. M.
Published: July 2002

The horizontal opening of vertical fractures during emplacement
of

pegmatite-dyke swarms is

an important mid-crustal mechanism of large-scale horizontal extension.
This

is documented in the south-western

Grenville Province, a deeply eroded part of the collisional Grenville orogen.

In the Georgian Bay

region of central Ontario, Grenville gneisses host c. 990 Ma old,

angular dykes which attest not only to

horizontal extension but also to vertical thinning. The original dilation

dykes probably varied in strike and

were statistically vertical. However, many dykes had subhorizontal or

inclined segments that were oblique

or quasi-concordant to the gneissic foliation in the host rocks. The number

of dykes exposed per 0.25 km2

varies on the scale of a few kilometres, and this is indicative of heterogeneous

late orogenic extension of

the Grenville gneisses. The apparent absence of regional gradients of peak

palaeo-pressure, at the present

erosion level, suggests that the extension was horizontal and initially

unaccompanied by vertical contraction

of the host gneisses. Subsequent buckling of the pegmatite dykes led to
gentle,

open or close folds with

vertical enveloping surfaces. The geometric effects of gentle buckling
of

pegmatite dykes can be difficult to

recognize in the field, especially where the late-stage vertical thinning
is

relatively weak. Among the geometric

indicators of buckle-shortened dykes, the characteristic deflection

(‘fanning’) of coplanar, inherited

folia in gneissic host rocks is most sensitive. Systematic changes in the

local degree of vertical shortening

are indicative of heterogeneous vertical thinning, and may be associated

with pull-apart structures at the

horizontal scale of several kilometres.
A biota of Ediacaran aspect from lower Cambrian strata on the Digermul Peninsula, Arctic Norway
Authors: CRIMES T. P. , McILROY D.
Published: July 2002

Three elements of the ‘Ediacara fauna’ are described from lower Cambrian strata on the
Digermul Peninsula, Norway. Nimbia occlusa Fedonkin, 1980 and Tirasiana sp. occur approximately
80 m above the base of the Lower Breivik Member, which approximately coincides with the
Neoproterozoic–Cambrian boundary. A specimen of Cyclomedusa sp. has also been found in the
Lower Duolbasgaissa Member about 600 m above the boundary, in rocks of trilobite-bearing age.

These discoveries add to a growing body of evidence that some elements of the dominantly
Neoproterozoic Ediacara fauna continue into the Phanerozoic, thereby diminishing the scope of a
possible late Neoproterozoic mass-extinction event.

The taxa described here, particularly Nimbia and Cyclomedusa, also occur at many other localities
within Neoproterozoic strata and, in common with other elements of the Ediacara fauna, display
remarkable morphological variation. Some of this diversity in form is probably caused by environmental
and preservational factors. The possibility that it may, at least in part, reflect an inability of these
early life forms to replicate faithfully their genes during reproduction should, however, not be overlooked.
READING CHILDREN'S BOOKS IN LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DISSENTING FAMILIES
Authors: FYFE AILEEN
Published: July 2002

The eighteenth-century commodifications of childhood and the sciences overlapped in the
production of science books for children. This article examines a children's book written by two
members of the Unitarian circle around Warrington Academy in the 1790s, and contrasts it with a
Church of England work. The analysis reveals the extent to which religious differences could affect
parental attitudes to the natural world, reason, the uses of the sciences, and the appropriate way to read
and discuss books. Although the sciences were admitted as suitable for children, the issues of the
subjects to be chosen, the purposes they were intended for, and the pedagogical methods by which they
were presented, were still contested. This article also goes beyond the usual studies of children's books
by focusing on non-fiction, and by emphasizing readers and use, rather than authors or publishers. Yet
producing a history of reading based entirely on actual readers will be exceedingly difficult, so this
article suggests an alternative, by combining accounts of actual readers' experiences with attitudes
towards practices like orality and discussion.
DREAM WORLDS? RELIGION AND THE EARLY SOCIALISTS IN FRANCE
Authors: PILBEAM PAMELA
Published: July 2002

This article gives chronology, nuance, and context to an analysis of how early socialist
attitudes to religion changed. It asks why socialists argued with increasing fervour between the early
1830s and 1848 that social reform had to be rooted in spiritual as well as moral values. Two of the
largest groups, the Icarians and the Fourierists, moved from a rational deism to Christianity. Both
were driven by the need to defend themselves from accusations of immorality levelled against Fourier
and the Saint-Simonians because of their rejection of monogamous marriage. The Fourierists, strongly
influenced by their dominant female members, transformed Fourier's diety into a Christian God. Cabet,
under pressure of ‘moral outrage’ from his critics, did likewise and found that this corresponded to the
experiences of the Icarians in their artisan organizations. The religion of the early socialists was a
democratic and a pragmatic morality, derived from artisan corporations, and seen as a vital base for
fraternal association which was their solution to the ills of society.
HANNA BATATU, Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999). Pp. 431. $39.95 cloth.
Authors: Heydemann Steven
Published: July 2002

Hanna Batatu's long-awaited study of Syria's peasantry is an extraordinary accomplishment. An exhaustive historical survey of Syria's rural society and the social formation of its current leadership, the book is encyclopedic in its scope and mastery of detail. It is also strikingly ambitious in its effort to link contemporary Syrian politics and the leadership of President Hafiz al-Asad to the transformations that reshaped rural Syria in the 19th and 20th centuries. Syria's Peasantry brings to an English-speaking audience a depth of knowledge that was previously available mostly through the Arabic-language publications of Syrian scholars such as ⊂Abdallah Hana. However, although Batatu's achievement is considerable, Syria's Peasantry is nevertheless flawed, and its ambition is not always realized. It is driven by a vision of peasant society, of Asad, and of Syrian politics that many readers will find unsatisfying, if not problematic.
AMOS ELON, A Blood-Dimmed Tide: Dispatches from the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). Pp. 332. $37.00 cloth, $16.50 paper.
Authors: Divine Donna Robinson
Published: July 2002

An argument that the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians can be resolved no longer seems utopian, and some might even assert that it no longer needs to be made. It is in this sense that this book of essays by the Israeli journalist and essayist Amos Elon is important, for it describes how deeply the conflict has structured regional political developments and how much is involved in breaking the cycles of violence and hostility. Elon's perspective on the prolonged confrontation between Israel and the Arab world conveys a strong sense of contingency: the confrontation that is taken for granted as a fixture of Middle Eastern politics is interpreted by Elon as the result of bad choices made by politicians whose attachment to the past turned into an unbearable burden for the future. With his powerful prose, Elon raises fundamental questions about the authoritarian polities characteristic of the Arab states, as well as about the nature of Israeli democracy and its concentration of political power. These essays, mostly drawn from previously published articles in The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books from 1967 through 1995, provoke a serious critique of Israel's dominant culture even as they are very much a product of it.
THE SALAFI MOVEMENT IN JORDAN
Authors: Wiktorowicz Quintan
Published: July 2002

Since the 1970s, the Salafi movement in Jordan has grown substantially. Today, Salafis are ubiquitous in every major city in the kingdom, and Salafi bookshops, lessons, and activities are common. The purpose of the movement is to institute religious behavior and practices that capture the purity of Islam, as understood by the salaf (early Companions of the Prophet). Salafis believe that because the salaf learned about Islam directly from the Prophet or those who knew him, they commanded a pure understanding of the religion. All decisions in life must therefore be based upon evidence from the Qur⊃an and sunna, as recorded in authentic sayings (had―iths) by the salaf. In instances where particular actions or behaviors were not sanctioned by the original sources of Islam, they are rejected as “not Muslim.” Those who strictly adhere to this religious understanding are considered Salafis.1
Guildsmen, Entrepreneurs and Market Segments: The Case of the Garment Trades in Antwerp and Ghent (Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)
Authors: Deceulaer Harald
Published: July 2002

The present essay links the social, institutional and cultural approaches of guilds and guildsmen with their daily economic practice. Using as the point of departure a case study of the Antwerp and Ghent garment trades during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, a preliminary model is presented, stressing the interrelatedness between divergent strategies, behavioural practices and specific market segments. It is argued that the choice of artisans for a certain market segment implied path dependency and, hence, influenced their investment patterns, their labour relations, their attitude towards the guild, and their personal representation in daily life.
Guilds, Social Mobility and Status in Sixteenth-Century Ghent
Authors: Dambruyne Johan
Published: July 2002

This article investigates the relationship between social mobility and status in guilds and the political situation in sixteenth-century Ghent. First, it argues that Ghent guilds showed neither a static picture of upward mobility nor a rectilinear and one-way evolution. It demonstrates that the opportunities for social promotion within the guild system were, to a great extent, determined by the successive political regimes of the city. Second, the article proves that the guild boards in the sixteenth century had neither a typically oligarchic nor a typically democratic character. Third, the investigation of the houses in which master craftsmen lived shows that guild masters should not be depicted as a monolithic social bloc, but that significant differences in status and wealth existed. The article concludes that there was no linear positive connection between the duration of a master craftsman's career and his wealth and social position.
Effects of weed competition on flag leaf photosynthesis
and grain yield of spring wheat
Authors: IQBAL J. , WRIGHT D.
Published: July 2002

Three pot experiments were performed at the University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK during
1993 to determine if differences in the competitive ability of three annual weeds (Chenopodium album
L., Sinapis arvensis L. and Phalaris minor Retz.) were related to their relative effects on leaf growth,
gas exchange and nitrogen uptake of spring wheat (cv. Alexandria). In all experiments, wheat density
(316 plants m−2) was similar to that in a commercial crop and five weed density treatments (between
0 and 600 plants m−2) were tested. Measurements of gas exchange were made on fully expanded,
attached wheat flag leaves on four occasions between emergence and complete senescence in the
control and highest weed density treatments. High weed density resulted in a lowering of net
photosynthetic rate due to stomatal and non-stomatal factors. Lamina area and stomatal density of
wheat flag leaves were decreased, and specific leaf area was increased by weed competition, but the
effects on these variables were smaller than on net photosynthesis. Weed density did not affect wheat
plant height, but dry weight, grain yield and total N-uptake were decreased with an increase in density
of all weed species. The rank order of competitive ability of the species
(C. album>P. minor>S.
arvensis) was unaffected by weed density and was the same irrespective of whether it was based on
the % decreases in wheat grain yield or in total plant dry weight. Averaged over the four
measurements made during the grain-filling period there were only small differences between the weed
species in their effects on net photosynthetic rate. However, when these were combined with effects
on flag leaf area, there were larger differences in calculated net photosynthetic productivity, which
were related to differences in the effects of weeds on grain yield. Differences in the competitive ability
of weeds were not related to differences in their effects on wheat flag leaf lamina area, specific leaf
area, stomatal density or total nitrogen uptake. Differences in competitive ability between weed
species were not related to differences in weed plant height, dry weight or nitrogen uptake. It was
concluded that the observed effects of weeds on wheat were due either to shading, or to competition
for a nutrient other than nitrogen.
Combining ability for aluminium tolerance in triticale
Authors: ZHANG X. G. , JESSOP R. S. , ELLISON F.
Published: July 2002

Root re-growth, following aluminium (Al) stress, has been used as an indicator of Al stress tolerance.
Genetic variation in root re-growth characteristics among eight triticale genotypes was investigated
by a diallel analysis. Highly significant variation due to both general combining ability (GCA) effects
and specific combining ability (SCA) effects indicated that both additive effects and non-additive
effects were important in explaining the genetic variation for Al tolerance. The high estimates of
heritability and the predictability ratio for root re-growth revealed the preponderance of additive
genetic variance in the inheritance of Al tolerance. Differences in patterns of GCA effects and SCA
effects among the parents provided strong evidence that the genetic control of variation for Al
tolerance as assessed by root re-growth was a complex polygenic system. Three Al-tolerant genotypes,
Tahara, Abacus, and 19th ITSN 70–4, were found to be the best general combiners for larger root
re-growth, and they could be used in hybridization programmes to improve Al stress tolerance by
following a simple pedigree method of selective breeding.
Robert Creeley and Robert
Duncan: A World of Contradiction
Authors: ENTWISTLE ALICE
Published: July 2002

Robert Creeley's long and productive writing life has resolutely
witnessed
personal rather than public change. Notoriously self-absorbed, his reticent

poetry is fiercely individual in style and solipsistic in outlook. Like
the
poet, a man of few words, wryly humorous and intelligently self-contained,

Creeley's poems seem determined “to say as little as possible

as often as possible.” Yet the tightly crafted economy of this poetic
idiom
masks a curious amplitude which is easy to overlook. The tension
between the persistent “circularities” in Creeley's work,
his concern with
the dualistic energies of contradiction and paradox, and the brevity with

which such concerns are typically addressed, is worth noting, especially
in
the light of Creeley's abiding friendship with fellow poet, Robert
Duncan,
of whom Creeley once remarked:

I've always felt very close to him as a writer, although our modes
of writing must
seem to readers quite apart. I tend to write very sparely, and Robert has
a lovely,
relaxed and generous kind of movement. But…[he] showed
me kinds of content
that I hadn't previously recognized.
UNDERLYING AND PROXIMATE DETERMINANTS OF DIARRHOEA-SPECIFIC INFANT MORTALITY RATES AMONG MUNICIPALITIES IN THE STATE OF CEARÁ, NORTH-EAST BRAZIL: AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY
Authors: TERRA DE SOUZA ANA CRISTINA , PETERSON KAREN E. , CUFINO ENNIO , INES VASCONCELOS DO AMARAL MARIA , GARDNER JANE
Published: July 2002

This ecological study examines the variations in diarrhoea-specific infant mortality rates among municipalities in the State of Ceará, north-east Brazil, using data from a community health workers’ programme. Diarrhoea is the main cause of postneonatal deaths in Ceará, and diarrhoea mortality rates vary substantially among municipalities, from 7 to 50 per thousand live births. To determine the inter-relationships between potential predictors of diarrhoea-specific infant mortality, eleven variables were classified into proximate determinants (i.e. adequate weight gain and exclusive breast-feeding in first 4 months) and underlying determinants (i.e. health services and socioeconomic variables). The health services variables included percentage with prenatal care up-to-date, participation in growth monitoring and immunization up-to-date, while the socioeconomic factors included female illiteracy rate, per capita gross municipality product and percentage of households with low income, percentage of households with inadequate water supply and inadequate sanitation, and urbanization. Using linear regression analysis variables were included from each group to build regression models. The significant determinants of variability in diarrhoea-specific infant mortality between municipalities were prevalence of infants exclusively breast-feeding, percentage of infants with adequate weight gain, percentage of pregnant women with prenatal care up-to-date, female illiteracy rate and inadequate water supply. These findings suggest that community-based promotion of exclusive breast-feeding in the first 4 months and care-giving behaviours that prevent weight faltering, including weaning practices and feeding during and following diarrhoea episodes, may further reduce municipality-level diarrhoea-specific mortality. Primary heath care strategies addressing these two proximate determinants provide only a partial solution to reducing diarrhoeal disease mortality. Improvements in municipal health services (prenatal care) and socioeconomic status variables, including water supply and maternal education, can also contribute to reduction of infant mortality due to diarrhoea. These results may be used by government health officials to set priorities by considering not only the strength of the association between selected risk factors and diarrhoea mortality rates, but also the prevalence of the risk factors being considered at the municipality level. Finally, the methods used are applicable to other settings with community-based primary health care decentralized to the state or municipal level.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMME AND ITS ROLE IN INFLUENCING FERTILITY CHANGE IN KENYA
Authors: TOROITICH-RUTO CATHY
Published: July 2002

Kenya was one of the first sub-Saharan countries to enter the fertility transition, and analysts have suggested various explanations for this. This paper examines the growth in contraceptive availability in Kenya by looking at the Kenya family planning programme and its association with the fertility transition. This is of critical programmatic importance because the fertility transition is not yet underway in many sub-Saharan countries. Policymakers will find the information from this study helpful in evaluating the efficacy of current programmes and replicating the Kenyan programme in areas where fertility decline has not yet occurred. For researchers, the study attempts to highlight some of the major factors driving Kenya’s fertility decline, apart from the conventional arguments about social and economic development.
INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY IN THREE CULTURALLY CONTRASTING STATES OF INDIA
Authors: GRIFFITHS PAULA , HINDE ANDREW , MATTHEWS ZOË
Published: July 2002

Using cross-sectional, individual-level survey data from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh collected under the Indian National Family Health Survey programme of 1992–93, statistical modelling was used to analyse the impact of a range of variables on the survival status of children during their first 2 years of life. Attention was focused on the potential impact of the mother’s autonomy. The strongest predictors of mortality were demographic and biological factors, breast-feeding behaviour, and use and knowledge of health services. Variables that can be interpreted as being related to maternal autonomy, such as the presence of a mother-in-law in the household, did not have a significant direct effect on child survival at the individual level, and their indirect effects were very limited.
LATERALIZED ULTRADIAN RHYTHMS IN TIME AND SPACE: A CHRONOBIOLOGICAL FIELD STUDY IN KENYAN MAASAI
Authors: MEIER-KOLL ALFRED
Published: July 2002

Lateralized ultradian rhythms oscillating separately in the right and left hemispheres of the human brain can be monitored by variations in the tactile discrimination of either hand. A previous study in male German subjects has shown that the tactile error rates determined for the right and left hands oscillate with significantly different periodicities. In the present study, a group of Kenyan Maasai shepherds was tested while the subjects were leading herds on daily feeding routes. The Maasai exhibit considerable ultradian rhythms of about 2 hours in tactile error rates of either hand, but in contrast to the German subjects there is no significant difference between the right and left side. While an individual is en route, his hemispheres proceed through alternating states in matching segments of the path. Ultradian rhythms thus ‘scan’ not only the time of day but also the space, and might provide an intrinsic time-frame for neuronal processes of cognitive mapping.
Flavour sulphides are produced from methionine by two different pathways by Geotrichum candidum
Authors: DEMARIGNY YANN , BERGER CÉLINE , DESMASURES NATHALIE , GUEGUEN MICHELINE , SPINNLER HENRY E.
Published: July 2002

We have investigated the capacities of Geotrichum candidum strains to
produce sulphides from methionine. This attribute is very important in cheese
technology because of the flavouring potential of sulphur compounds. A spectrophotometric
procedure using 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) to determine sulphides was
tested on a collection of G. candidum strains, and confirmed by gas
chromatography–mass spectrometry. The strains were distinguished on the basis of
their ability to produce methanethiol. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry also
made it possible to identify other sulphides, such as dimethyl disulphide, dimethyl
trisulphide and dimethyl sulphide. Using sonicated cells, the specific production of
these four sulphides was studied in presence of L-[S-methyl-2H]methionine. Both
methanethiol and dimethyl sulphide were produced from methionine, but two
different pathways were used by G. candidum.
Lactation failure in crossbred Sahiwal Friesian cattle
Authors: MURUGAIYAH M. , RAMAKRISHNAN P. , SHEIKH OMAR A. R. , KNIGHT C. H. , WILDE C. J.
Published: July 2002

Milk producers in Malaysia make extensive use of crossbred Sahiwal Friesian dairy cattle. These animals have, however, been found susceptible to lactation failure. A survey of cows in an experimental herd of F1 Sahiwal Friesian animals indicated that, in 30% of animals, milk yield decreased to negligible levels within the first 8 weeks post partum. Lactation failure was associated with a progressive increase in the amount of residual milk left in the udder after normal milking. By week 3 of lactation, residual milk volume was significantly greater than that in animals that, based on previous lactation history, were not susceptible to lactation failure, and accounted for up to 30% of milk available at the morning milking. The cellular consequences of residual milk accumulation were evident in the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase and galactosyltransferase, key enzyme markers of cellular differentiation, which decreased in glands undergoing lactation failure and were lower than values measured in tissue of control cows. Mammary cell number, estimated by tissue DNA content, was also reduced in animals undergoing lactation failure. These indices of mammary development indicate that lactation failure is the result of premature involution in susceptible animals. Premature involution is a predictable consequence of progressive milk stasis in failing lactation, and attributable to an increase in autocrine feedback by inhibitory milk constituents. The progressive increase in residual milk is, on the other hand, unlikely to be attributable to impaired mammary development. Measurements of milk storage during milk accumulation showed no differences between control and lactation failure cows in the distribution of milk between alveolar and cisternal storage compartments. We conclude that lactation failure in Sahiwal Friesian cows is due to a failure of milk removal, and probably the result of an impaired milk ejection reflex rather than to the glands' milk storage characteristics.
Bovine lactoferrin induces both mucosal and systemic immune
response in mice
Authors: DEBBABI HAJER , DUBARRY MICHEL , RAUTUREAU MICHÈLE , TOMÉ DANIEL
Published: July 2002

Lactoferrin (Lf) is a milk iron-binding glycoprotein that plays
a role in
iron transport and acts as both a bacteriostatic and a growth modulating
agent. The
aim of this study was to investigate the nature of immune responses induced
by
repeated oral administration of bovine milk Lf in mice. Groups of ten female

BALB/c mice were fed daily for 4 weeks with two doses of protein antigen:
a low
(0·05 mg/g body weight per d) or high (1 mg/g body weight
per d) dose of Lf, or
water as a control. A fourth group was immunized intramuscularly with 0·01
mg Lf
in complete Freund's adjuvant. Anti-Lf IgA and IgG were detected in
the intestinal
fluid and serum of mice given Lf. Total immunoglobulins were higher in
the intestinal
fluid in Lf groups than in the control group. No difference could be detected
in the
serum. IgA and IgG secretion was enhanced in Peyer's patches and spleen

from Lf-fed mice, in comparison with controls. [3H]

thymidine uptake into Peyer's patch and
spleen cells from both control and Lf-fed mice was enhanced by 75 μg

Lf/ml in vitro,
but Lf groups had a greater proliferation rate than the control group.
These findings
suggested that Lf could act as an immunostimulating factor on the mucosal
immune
system and that activation of the mucosal immune system is dependent on
the
ability of Lf to bind to the intestinal mucosa.
Effect of endocrine and paracrine factors on protein synthesis and
cell proliferation in bovine hoof tissue culture
Authors: HENDRY KAY A. K. , MacCALLUM AMANDA J. , KNIGHT CHRISTOPHER H. , WILDE COLIN J.
Published: July 2002

Laminitis is a major cause of lameness in dairy cattle, and is
widely
attributed to a defect in the horny tissue that gives the hoof its mechanical
strength.
Defective horn is associated with, and may be preceded by, impaired keratin
deposition in the hoof epidermis. The cause of abnormal keratin deposition
is not
easily identified but, like epidermal keratinization in other tissues,
is likely to be
controlled by hormones and the paracrine action of locally produced growth
factors.
The hormonal regulation of keratin synthesis and cell proliferation in
the bovine hoof
was studied using tissue explants in organ culture. As the highest incidence
of
laminitis is in early lactation, the study focused on insulin, cortisol
and prolactin,
three hormones implicated in lactogenesis and galactopoiesis. Incubation
of tissue
explants for 24 h in medium containing insulin (10–5000 ng/ml)
stimulated protein
synthesis measured by incorporation of 35 S-labelled amino acids.
Histochemical
examination showed that insulin binding co-localized with the site of protein
synthesis. Insulin also stimulated DNA synthesis, an index of cell proliferation,
which was measured by incorporation of [3H]methyl
thymidine. Cortisol
(10–5000 ng/ml) decreased protein synthesis, whereas prolactin
(10–5000 ng/ml) had
no significant effect on protein or DNA synthesis. Epidermal growth factor
(10–200 ng/ml), a potent inhibitor of keratinization in other
tissues, stimulated
protein synthesis compared with untreated controls. Epidermal growth factor
binding was located microscopically to the germinal and differentiating
epidermal
layers. SDS-PAGE and fluorography showed that the population of proteins
synthesized in the presence of any hormone or growth factor combination
did not
differ from that in untreated controls and included the keratins involved
in horn
deposition. The results show that bovine hoof keratinization is under endocrine
and
growth factor control, and suggest that systemic changes in lactogenic
hormones
may act to inhibit keratin deposition.
Highly turbulent Couette–Taylor bubbly flow patterns
Authors: ATKHEN K. , FONTAINE J. , WESFREID J. E.
Published: July 2002

We present the results of experimental study of a Couette–Taylor system with superimposed
axial flow and an upper free surface, in the high Taylor number regime.
At large Taylor numbers, when the rotational speed of the inner cylinder increases,
bubbles created near the free surface are distributed throughout the test section and
permit the study of the spatial and temporal properties of turbulent flows using
visualization techniques. In addition to classic travelling Taylor vortices, intermittent
pulses of vortices with higher phase velocities are also observed. These patterns are
described in terms of the rotational speed and the intensity of the throughflow.