bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Psychoanalytic Film Theory
Authors: McGowan Todd
Published: February 2012

Psychoanalytic film theory occurred in two distinct waves. The first, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, focused on a formal critique of cinema’s dissemination of ideology, and especially on the role of the cinematic apparatus in this process. The main figures of this first wave were Christian Metz, Jean-Louis Baudry, and Laura Mulvey. They took their primary inspiration from the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and they most often read Lacan through the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser’s account of subject formation. The second wave of psychoanalytic film theory has also had its basis in Lacan’s thought, though with a significantly different emphasis. Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this manifestation of psychoanalytic film theory, which continues to remain productive even today, shifted the focus from cinema’s ideological work to the relationship between cinema and a trauma that disrupts the functioning of ideology. In Lacan’s terms, the terrain of psychoanalytic film theory shifted from the axis of the symbolic order and the imaginary to that of the symbolic order and the real. Although psychoanalytic film theorists continue to discuss cinema’s relationship to ideology, they have ceased looking for ideology in the cinematic apparatus itself and begun to look for it in filmic structure. Cinema remains a site for the dissemination of ideology, but it has also become a potential site of political and psychic disruption. The main proponents of this second wave of psychoanalytic film theory are Joan Copjec and Slavoj Žižek. Though the latter has received much more recognition and has produced far more work, one could contend that Copjec’s early work was more revolutionary, as it was her reading of Laura Mulvey’s critique of the male gaze as a Foucaultian critique rather than as a Lacanian one that genuinely commenced the new epoch of psychoanalytic film theory. According to the main figures of the second wave, the initial wave of psychoanalytic film theory failed to be psychoanalytic enough, and the result was a hodgepodge of Marxism and psychoanalysis that produced a straw position that anti-theorists such as David Bordwell could easily attack. The initial aim of the second wave was to create an authentic Lacanian film theory that would approach the cinema with the complexity that it merited. Though there have been isolated works of film theory and criticism dealing with other psychoanalytic thinkers (such Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, or D. W. Winnicott), the primary source for both waves of psychoanalytic film theory has remained Jacques Lacan and, to a lesser extent, Sigmund Freud.
Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
Authors: Rehak Bob
Published: February 2012

Computer-generated imagery or CGI is an area of digital visualization and image manipulation practices that, following its emergence in the late 1960s, quickly came to hold a privileged relationship to film production—affecting in particular visual effects, animation, and the big-budget blockbuster. In these areas, digital imaging is consistently pushed to its limits by an ever-advancing state of the art. In a view promoted by the industry through plentiful “making-of” coverage, CGI is strongly identified in the popular imagination with spectacular visual effects, demonstrating Hollywood’s prowess at realizing fantastic visions. But CGI plays a more significant if quieter role in its so-called invisible effects, which begin with the unnoticeable retouching of filmed “truth” and ripple outward to what some have warned is the destabilization of the cinematic medium itself, replacing the industry at every level—from production to exhibition and distribution—with its digital other. Academic attention to CGI grew slowly alongside its emergence as a powerful if alien force in filmmaking and film culture during the 1980s and 1990s but took off after the crucial year of 1999, when The Matrix heralded the fusion of analogue and digital cinema. CGI has become a key focus of popular attention on “behind the scenes” information, and an industrial entry point for fledgling filmmakers with access to cheap digital production tools. But even as it extends the powers and profits of the film industry, CGI has challenged established practices and definitions, destabilizing film’s ontological base, its indexical relationship to reality, the tenets of classical narrative structure, and even the boundaries separating film from other media such as video games, experimental art, and virtual reality.
American Cinema, 1895-1915
Authors: Keil Charlie
Published: February 2012

The study of early American cinema was both the beneficiary and the instigator of a wave of revisionist historiography that gained momentum from the mid-1970s onward. While previous accounts of American cinema prior to the advent of features had concentrated on those artistic achievements that led “inevitably” to the mature work of the Hollywood studio system, isolating the contributions of Porter, Ince, and Griffith, the first wave of revisionist efforts, ushered in largely by the findings of scholars still in graduate school, redefined the early cinema landscape. Aided by archivists, who provided them access to large swaths of previously unwatched or underregarded films, and prepared to wade through untold issues of contemporaneous trade journals recorded on microfilm, these young scholars reclaimed the terrain of early American cinema with a historiographically sophisticated fervor. Much of this work did not always distinguish American filmmaking from that of other nations, acknowledging perhaps the porous boundaries of global film exchange, particularly prior to World War I; more often than not, however, emphasis gravitated toward the United States. Most significantly, scholarship in this burgeoning subfield marked off the years prior to 1915 as important in their own right, distinctive for their formal features, audience address, patterns of industrial development, and intertextual references. As the study of early American cinema developed over the next several decades, attention shifted from insightful studies of the films’ formal patterns and groundbreaking examinations of early exhibition and production to consideration of how early American cinema engaged with a host of issues: the dynamics of race and gender, the concurrent emergence of the culture of modernity, audiences in a variety of settings and locales, and the institutional and intermedial contexts for cinema’s emergence during the crucial years before features took hold.
Marlon Brando
Authors: Gabbard Krin
Published: February 2012

Many critics have called Marlon Brando (b. 1924–d. 2004) the greatest American actor of the 20th century. Frank Sinatra, who tangled with Brando when they costarred in Guys and Dolls (1955), was among those who were less impressed, referring to Brando as the world’s most overrated actor. Born in Nebraska and raised in Illinois, Brando arrived in New York when teachers such as Stella Adler were introducing new inner-directed acting techniques based on the writings of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky and commonly known as “The Method.” With roots in this new approach, Brando stunned critics and audiences when he played Stanley Kowalski on stage in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. After his New York triumph, Brando began appearing in films, first in The Men (1950). He reprised his role as Stanley in the film version of Streetcar in 1951, inaugurating a new style of screen acting that has since become an essential feature of the American cinema. With his mumbling, his mood swings, his obscure gestures, and his impressions of a confused child in the body of a blustering adult, Brando radically changed the resources of the male actor. In the middle of his life, however, Brando lost interest in the craft of acting, regularly disparaging his own work and denying that a film could be a work of art. When he won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Godfather (1972), he refused to accept the award. In 1966 Brando took a 99-year lease on an island near Tahiti, where he lived for the last half of his life. His half-hearted, even parodic performances during this period were accompanied by several family tragedies, including the murder of one of his daughter’s lovers by his son Christian. Nevertheless, Brando left behind an extraordinary body of work that continues to inspire young (and old) actors.
Women and Film
Authors: Fischer Lucy
Published: February 2012

“Women and Film” encompasses numerous issues in academic film studies, including the histories of female practitioners in the industry; the works they produced; female audiences; female critics, historians, archivists, and theorists; and the portrayals of women on the movie screen. In the early years of cinema, women played a significant role in filmmaking (e.g., the director Lois Weber and the scenarist Frances Marion in the United States), but these individuals were soon forgotten as the industry became male dominated. Thus, it was not until the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1970s and 1980s that the work of these pioneers was revived and documented. By then, of course, another generation of female filmmakers had surfaced internationally (e.g., Lina Wertmuller in Italy and Margarethe von Trotta in Germany). Not only were the careers of these artists studied, but also their works were analyzed in monographs and articles, often focusing on whether or not they evinced a specific female point of view or style. Female critics and theorists were also known in the silent era (e.g., H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) in the United States and Iris Barry in the United Kingdom), but it was not until the contemporary period that a field of feminist film history, criticism, and theory emerged. This comprised several subareas: readings of the images of women in film—be it flapper or femme fatale; studies of women in particular film genres; monographs on individual artists; analyses of iconic actresses; analyses of female audiences; and formulations of feminist theory. In the 21st century, the field has expanded further to correct certain prejudices and limitations. An early emphasis on the white woman has been rectified by studies of race and ethnicity. The latest scholarship has also moved beyond a concentration on the United States and Europe to embrace studies of women and film in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Finally, while early writing on the topic privileged the heterosexual female (as screen subject and viewer), more recent writing has examined questions of lesbianism, bisexuality, and the transgendered body as applied to questions of women and cinema.
The City
Authors: Humpherys Anne
Published: February 2012

The 19th century saw the rise of the world’s first great metropolis, London, and the transformation of several northern British small towns into the first major industrial cities. These great cities offered the pleasures of anonymity and the dangers of alienation. Urbanization was both a great leveler and a producer of new classes such as the merchant, the professional classes, and the gentry. Perhaps the most important element in these developments was the railway, the building of which transformed the landscape, the cityscape, and individual lives. Though at the beginning of the century little could be recognized as modern, by the end all the elements that would identify the modern world were in place—seemingly infinite variety, endless change in the built environment, and startling contrasts, as well as overcrowding, dirt, noise, crime, poverty, and ostentatious display. New opportunities of all sorts also arose in these cities—for work, for criminal activity, for adventure, and for pleasure and distress. The Victorians themselves were both fascinated and horrified by their cities, especially London, which, though not an industrial city, also presented the combined effects of rapid and uncontrolled growth. The contradictory responses generated by all this change and development resulted in an impressive amount of writing, especially in the periodical press, which itself was a product of urbanization. Journalists, a new class dubbed the Fourth Estate, tried to gain an overview of the constantly changing city, and novelists devised narrative and symbolic ways to represent the totality of the city. Much of this work was about the social problems, but there were also many sketches that were full of delight at the variety and oddity of city life. Most serious scholarship on the Victorian city, however, began only after World War II, partly due to early-20th-century negative responses to the Victorians’ perceived moralistic values and limitations on personal development. Among the first to react against anti-Victorianism were campaigners seeking to preserve Victorian buildings—the founding of the Victorian Society in 1957 was a sign of this shift. Historians were not far behind in collecting and mining the archives not only of London but of all the great cities, especially Manchester. Literary scholars also began to analyze the impact of the city on literary and artistic production. Though the scholarly interest in urban history never ceased, later-20th-century scholars and critics also began to write about more specific aspects of the city—gender, nationalism, race, and sectarianism. Finally, the subject of the problematics of representing the city, in particular London, came under critical attention in the first decade of the 21st century.
Sex and Gender
Authors: Chrisler Joan C. , Nobel Murray Alexandra
Published: February 2012

Sex and gender are fundamental to the understanding of human behavior. Perhaps the first thing people notice when they are introduced to someone new to them is that person’s sex. From an evolutionary perspective, sex is so important to humans because it signals whether or not other people are potential mates. However, sex (i.e., biological aspects of physical bodies) is generally associated with gender (i.e., personality and behavior styles). From a social psychological perspective, gender is important because it is one of the variables that signals a person’s social status. People also rely on what they know about gender roles and stereotypes to make assumptions about how others will act; what their abilities, interests, and preferences might be; and what roles are most important to them. The assumption that women and men are very different from each other is built into the metaphors we use in our everyday language. The ubiquitous phrase “opposite sex” suggests that whatever men are (e.g., strong, aggressive), women are not (i.e., weak, passive); whatever women are (e.g., kind, gentle), men are not (i.e., mean, rough). Bestselling books such as John Gray’s Mars/Venus series and Deborah Tannen’s You Just Don’t Understand suggest that women and men are alien species who cannot even communicate with each other. The search for sex differences has a long history in psychology, but recent research shows far fewer (and generally smaller) differences than were reported in the past. Societal changes caused by the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s–1970s have resulted in greater educational, athletic, and economic opportunity for girls and women. Gender roles have become less strict over time, although men and boys have changed less than women and girls have. The gay rights movement has resulted in changes in social attitudes and cultural portrayals of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people, and this has also contributed to changes in gender roles. In fact, transpeople and intersexuals have demonstrated the possibility that sex and gender can be separated in daily life, that people can choose their gender, and, in some cases, their sex as well. Changes in culture and society mean that the psychological study of sex and gender is a vibrant, active research area that crosses all subdisciplines in psychology. Researchers who specialize in the psychology of women; the psychology of men and masculinity; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) psychology all contribute to our understanding of sex and gender. Much of the work in this area is conducted from a feminist perspective because feminist psychologists interested in the psychology of women were the primary founders of the study of gender as we know it today.
Anesthetic Propofol Causes Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β-regulated Lysosomal/Mitochondrial Apoptosis in Macrophages
Authors: Hsing Chung-Hsi , Chen Yu-Hong , Chen Chia-Ling , Huang Wei-Ching , Lin Ming-Chung , Tseng Po-Chun , Wang Chi-Yun , Tsai Cheng-Chieh , Choi Pui-Ching , Lin Chiou-Feng
Published: February 2012

Background

Overdose propofol treatment with a prolong time causes injury to multiple cell types; however, its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Activation of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β is proapoptotic under death stimuli. The authors therefore hypothesize that propofol overdose induces macrophage apoptosis through GSK-3β.

Methods

Phagocytic analysis by uptake of Staphylococcus aureus showed the effects of propofol overdose on murine macrophages RAW264.7 and BV2 and primary human neutrophils in vitro. The authors further investigated cell apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, lysosomal membrane permeabilization, and the loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP) by propidium iodide, annexin V, acridine orange, and rhodamine 123 staining, respectively. Protein analysis identified activation of apoptotic signals, and pharmacologic inhibition and genetic knockdown using lentiviral-based short hairpin RNA were further used to clarify their roles.

Results

A high dose of propofol caused phagocytic inhibition and apoptosis in vitro for 24 h (25 μg/ml, in triplicate) and in vivo for 6 h (10 mg/kg/h, n = 5 for each group). Propofol induced lysosomal membrane permeabilization and MTP loss while stabilizing MTP and inhibiting caspase protected cells from mitochondrial apoptosis. Lysosomal cathepsin B was required for propofol-induced lysosomal membrane permeabilization, MTP loss, and apoptosis. Propofol decreased antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins and then caused proapoptotic Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) activation. Propofol-activated GSK-3β and inhibiting GSK-3β prevented Mcl-1 destabilization, MTP loss, and lysosomal/mitochondrial apoptosis. Forced expression of Mcl-1 prevented the apoptotic effects of propofol. Decreased Akt was important for GSK-3β activation caused by propofol.

Conclusions

These results suggest an essential role of GSK-3β in propofol-induced lysosomal/mitochondrial apoptosis.
Mentoring Nurse Scientists to Meet Nursing Faculty Workforce Needs
Authors: Nies Mary A. , Troutman-Jordan Meredith
Published: February 2012

Research indicates that mentoring has been highly effective in promoting faculty success. Strong mentors in the area of scholarship are extremely valuable for junior faculty, not only because of their research and academic expertise but also for their role modeling behaviors. This paper highlights key components of research mentoring used by a senior nursing faculty member. The senior faculty mentor and junior faculty mentee developed a common vision, relating to research interests in health promotion for vulnerable populations. Impact at the individual, school, university, and society level is discussed, and benefits of mentoring to meet nursing faculty workforce needs are emphasized.
Natural Hypolignification Is Associated with Extensive Oligolignol Accumulation in Flax Stems
Authors: Huis Rudy , Morreel Kris , Fliniaux Ophélie , Lucau-Danila Anca , Fénart Stéphane , Grec Sébastien , Neutelings Godfrey , Chabbert Brigitte , Mesnard François , Boerjan Wout , Hawkins Simon
Published: February 2012

Flax (Linum usitatissimum) stems contain cells showing contrasting cell wall structure: lignified in inner stem xylem tissue and hypolignified in outer stem bast fibers. We hypothesized that stem hypolignification should be associated with extensive phenolic accumulation and used metabolomics and transcriptomics to characterize these two tissues. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance clearly distinguished inner and outer stem tissues and identified different primary and secondary metabolites, including coniferin and p-coumaryl alcohol glucoside. Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry aromatic profiling (lignomics) identified 81 phenolic compounds, of which 65 were identified, to our knowledge, for the first time in flax and 11 for the first time in higher plants. Both aglycone forms and glycosides of monolignols, lignin oligomers, and (neo)lignans were identified in both inner and outer stem tissues, with a preponderance of glycosides in the hypolignified outer stem, indicating the existence of a complex monolignol metabolism. The presence of coniferin-containing secondary metabolites suggested that coniferyl alcohol, in addition to being used in lignin and (neo)lignan formation, was also utilized in a third, partially uncharacterized metabolic pathway. Hypolignification of bast fibers in outer stem tissues was correlated with the low transcript abundance of monolignol biosynthetic genes, laccase genes, and certain peroxidase genes, suggesting that flax hypolignification is transcriptionally regulated. Transcripts of the key lignan genes Pinoresinol-Lariciresinol Reductase and Phenylcoumaran Benzylic Ether Reductase were also highly abundant in flax inner stem tissues. Expression profiling allowed the identification of NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, CUC2) and MYB transcription factors that are likely involved in regulating both monolignol production and polymerization as well as (neo)lignan production.
Structure-Function Analysis of the Coiled-Coil and Leucine-Rich Repeat Domains of the RPS5 Disease Resistance Protein
Authors: Qi Dong , DeYoung Brody J. , Innes Roger W.
Published: February 2012

The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) RESISTANCE TO PSEUDOMONAS SYRINGAE5 (RPS5) disease resistance protein mediates recognition of the Pseudomonas syringae effector protein AvrPphB. RPS5 belongs to the coiled-coil-nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (CC-NBS-LRR) family and is activated by AvrPphB-mediated cleavage of the protein kinase PBS1. Here, we present a structure-function analysis of the CC and LRR domains of RPS5 using transient expression assays in Nicotiana benthamiana. We found that substituting the CC domain of RPS2 for the RPS5 CC domain did not alter RPS5 specificity and only moderately reduced its ability to activate programmed cell death, suggesting that the CC domain does not play a direct role in the recognition of PBS1 cleavage. Analysis of an RPS5-super Yellow Fluorescent Protein fusion revealed that RPS5 localizes to the plasma membrane (PM). Alanine substitutions of predicted myristoylation (glycine-2) and palmitoylation (cysteine-4) residues affected RPS5 PM localization, protein stability, and function in an additive manner, indicating that PM localization is essential to RPS5 function. The first 20 amino acids of RPS5 were sufficient for directing super Yellow Fluorescent Protein to the PM. C-terminal truncations of RPS5 revealed that the first four LRR repeats are sufficient for inhibiting RPS5 autoactivation; however, the complete LRR domain was required for the recognition of PBS1 cleavage. Substitution of the RPS2 LRR domain resulted in the autoactivation of RPS5, indicating that the LRR domain must coevolve with the NBS domain. We conclude that the RPS5 LRR domain functions to suppress RPS5 activation in the absence of PBS1 cleavage and promotes RPS5 activation in its presence.
Child maltreatment: the Lebanese children's experiences
Authors: Usta J. , Farver J. M. , Danachi D.
Published: February 2012

Background  This study examined the prevalence, risk factors and consequences associated with child maltreatment in the home.

Methods  The sample was 1028 (556 boys; 472 girls) Lebanese children aged 8–17 years (M = 11.89; SD = 1.67). Children were administered an interview questionnaire that included the International Child Abuse Screening Tool, the Trauma Symptom Checklist and the Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire.

Results  Approximately 30% of the children reported at least one incident of witnessing violence, 65% reported at least one incident of psychological abuse and 54% reported at least one incident of physical abuse over a 1‐year period. The results showed an overlap between children's reports of witnessing violence in their homes and physical and psychological abuse that were associated with adolescents' trauma symptoms. Family‐related variables significantly predicted three forms of child maltreatment.

Conclusion  These results highlight the importance of examining children's multiple experiences of violence in their homes in research designs, prevention efforts and policy mandates. However, it should be noted that estimates of prevalence (as opposed to estimates of the relation between variables which is relatively more robust to selection bias) are open to error because of the nature of our sample.
Mothers' questionnaire of preschoolers' language and motor skills: a validation study
Authors: Gudmundsson E. , Gretarsson S. J.
Published: February 2012

Objective  Parent questionnaires of child motor and language skills are useful in many contexts. This study validates one such measure, the Preschool Child Development Inventory (PCDI), a mother‐answered standardized measure of motor (fine and gross) and language (expression and comprehension) skills of 3–6‐year‐old children.

Methods  Eighty‐one mothers answered the inventory and their children were concurrently tested on six verbal subtests of WPPSI‐RIS.

Results  The six language and motor subtests of the PCDI revealed the predicted convergent and divergent correlations with the verbal subtests of the WPPSI‐RIS. As predicted, the motor subtests diverged and the language subtests converged with the expected WPPSI‐RIS subtests. Principal components analysis of all the measures (the PCDI and the WPPSI‐RIS subtests) revealed two components, verbal and motor in content.

Conclusions  The findings support the validity of a mother‐answered inventory to assess language and motor development. It is pointed out that such inventories are a viable brief and cost effective alternative to individual testing, both to supplement such measures in clinical practice and as main information in research, for example on determinants of development. Some suggestions are made for future research and applications.
Functionality of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from tonsillar tissue
Authors: Sada-Ovalle I , Talayero A , Chavéz-Galán L , Barrera L , Castorena-Maldonado A , Soda-Merhy A , Torre-Bouscoulet L
Published: February 2012

For many years, tonsillectomy has been used routinely in children to treat chronic or recurrent acute tonsillitis. Palatine tonsils are secondary lymphoid organs and the major barrier protecting the digestive and respiratory tracts from potential invasive microorganisms. They have been used as sources of lymphoid tissue; however, despite the hundreds of papers published on tonsillectomy, no studies addressing the functionality of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from chronically infected tonsils have yet been published. The aim of this study was to analyse the functionality of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with respect to tonsillar tissue. We used an affordable approach to measure the frequency of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells, the direct ex-vivo cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells, memory T cell phenotype, cytokine profile and DC phenotype. Our results demonstrate that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from tonsillar tissue are totally functional, as shown by their ability to produce cytokines, to degranulate and to differentiate into effector-memory T cells.
Soil frost enhances stream dissolved organic carbon concentrations during episodic spring snow melt from boreal mires
Authors: Ågren Anneli M. , Haei Mahsa , Blomkvist Peder , Nilsson Mats B. , Laudon Hjalmar
Published: February 2012

Changes in winter time conditions at high‐latitude ecosystems could severely affect the carbon exchange processes. Using a 15 year stream record combined with winter field measurements and laboratory experiment, we studied the regulation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in stream water draining boreal mire during snow melt. The most unanticipated finding was that cold soils with deep soil frost resulted in increased snow melt DOC concentrations in the stream runoff. Wintertime field measurements of DOC concentrations below the mire soil frost showed that this phenomenon could be explained by freeze‐out of DOC giving higher levels of DOC in the soil water below the ice as the soil frost developed downwards in the mire. Experimental freezing of water with a certain DOC concentration in the laboratory further corroborated the freeze‐out of DOC. In this experiment, as much as 96% of the DOC was excluded from the ice, whereas the freeze‐out in the mire was less effective (60%). The difference between the proportion of DOC retained in pure water relative to the proportion retained in peat water during freezing is probably due to trapped DOC in the solid peat soil matrix. A simple mass‐balance model showed that to explain the higher stream DOC concentrations during a winter with deep soil frost, approximately 0.5% of the mire area needed to be hydrologically connected to the stream discharge. In the stream records, we also found that the DOC concentrations during snow melt episodic runoff were negatively related to increasing intensity of the snow melt episodes (dilution by low DOC snow melt water) and higher previous export of DOC.
Communication between nurses, children and their parents in asthma review consultations
Authors: Callery Peter , Milnes Linda
Published: February 2012

Aim and objective.  To examine communication between nurses, children and parents in asthma review consultations.

Background.  Communication is an essential component of asthma care, but there has been little examination of nurses’ consultations with children and parents.

Design.  Observation of communication in consultations examined in the context of the perspectives of parents and nurses.

Method.  Qualitative analysis of audio recordings of nine consultations with nurses by children aged 7–12 years and their parents; and interviews with 18 parents and six nurses.

Results.  The triadic relationship between child–nurse–parent was constructed from dyads of nurse–parent, nurse–child and parent–child. Both cooperation and conflict were identified in the analysis of interaction in dyads although direct confrontations were minimised or avoided. Conflicts arose from differing beliefs about asthma and its treatment and from different perspectives on the impact of asthma and the goals of treatments, and about the roles of children, parents and practitioners. There was uncertainty about the appropriate role of children in their asthma management.

Conclusions.  The dyads of nurse–parent, nurse–child and parent–child each make distinct and important contributions to triadic communication. Personal and task elements of therapeutic alliance are important elements in communication between nurses, children and their parents in asthma review consultations.

Relevance to clinical practice.  Communication is an essential component of children’s asthma care. Guidance encourages practitioners to use review consultations to help children and parents to identify areas where they want treatment to have effect and to negotiate personalised action plans with practitioners. There is potential for conflict as well as cooperation. There is a need for more research into nurses’ communication with children and parents to provide an evidence base for practice, education and training.
Use of an individual mandibular advancement device for an obstructive sleep apnoea patient with facial paralysis: a short‐term follow‐up case report
Authors: PIŞKIN B. , SIPAHI C. , KÖSE M. , KARAKOÇ Ö. , ŞEVKETBEYOĞLU H. , ATAÇ G. K.
Published: February 2012

Summary  This case report aimed to describe the fabrication procedure and treatment efficacy of an individual, one‐piece, non‐adjustable mandibular advancement device (MAD) for a moderate obstructive sleep apnoea patient with facial paralysis (FP). Mandibular advancement device was fabricated with autopolymerising acrylic resin. The intermaxillary relations were recorded such as to fix the mandible at a protruded position with increased vertical dimension. Initial evaluation of the MAD was made with axial magnetic resonance imaging and polysomnography on the first day of usage. Following evaluations were made on the third and sixth month. After a follow‐up period of 6 months, Apnoea/Hypopnea Index (AHI) significantly decreased from 26·7 to 3·0. However, the average oxygen saturation did not improve as expected initially. The MAD therapy decreased the AHI scores of a patient with FP. At the end of a follow‐up period of 6 months, the patient did not report any serious complaint except temporary tooth pains.
The mammalian cell entry (Mce) protein of pathogenic Leptospira species is responsible for RGD motif‐dependent infection of cells and animals
Authors: Zhang Lei , Zhang Chenglin , Ojcius David M. , Sun Dexter , Zhao Jinfang , Lin Xuai , Li Liwei , Li Lanjuan , Yan Jie
Published: February 2012

Mammalian cell entry proteins (Mces) contribute to Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence. A mce homologue has been identified in the Leptospira interrogans genome, but its function was unknown. We showed that the mce gene is expressed only by pathogenic Leptospira strains tested. Leptospiral mce mRNA and Mce protein levels increased during infection of macrophages. The ability to infect macrophages was significantly lower in a strain with the mce gene deleted (mce‐). Complementation of the mce gene restored the ability of the mutant strain (mcecom) to adhere to and invade cells. Importantly, the mce gene knock‐in strain (mce+) derived from L. biflexa acquired the ability to infect cells, and the mce+/ΔRAA knock‐in strain (in which the RGD motif was replaced by RAA) was unable to infect cells. The mce‐ mutant was also dramatically less efficient in infecting hamsters than the wild‐type L. interrogans strain, and fewer leptospires of the mutant were found in peripheral blood monocytes and the urine from infected animals. The recombinant Mce protein showed a high binding affinity to the integrins α5β1 and αVβ3. Blockade of the two integrins or the Mce protein decreased leptospiral adherence and invasiveness. The results showed that Mce is an RGD‐motif‐dependent virulence factor in pathogenic Leptospira species.
Protective efficacy evaluation induced by recombinant protein LHD‐Sj23‐GST of Schistosoma japonicum emulsified with three different adjuvants
Authors: ZHU Z. , FU Z. , ZHANG M. , HAN Y. , HONG Y. , LI D. , ZHAO Z. , SHI Y. , LI X. , LIN J.
Published: February 2012

As a complement to chemotherapy and other control approaches, the development of an effective vaccine is necessary to combat Schistosomiasis japonica that remains a serious public health problem in China. In the present study, mice were vaccinated with purified recombinant protein LHD‐Sj23‐GST (large hydrophilic domain of 23 kDa antigen of S. japonicum fused with Sj26GST) emulsified with Freund’s adjuvant (FA), Montanide ISA 206 and Montanide ISA 70M and challenged with cercariae, the protective efficacy induced by the recombinant protein was evaluated, and the LHD‐Sj23‐GST‐specific IgG and its subtypes were determined. The result revealed that a significant worm burden reduction (58.8%, 26.3% and 54.3%; P < 0.05) was obtained in mice vaccinated with LHD‐Sj23‐GST emulsified with three different adjuvants compared to those mice treated with respective adjuvant only. ELISA test suggested that the high‐level production of LHD‐Sj23‐GST‐specific IgG1, IgG2a and IgG3 antibodies may participate in protecting against schistosome infection.
Geological investigation and optical dating of Quaternary siliciclastic sediments near Apalachicola, North‐west Florida, USA
Authors: BURDETTE KEVIN E. , RINK WILLIAM J. , LÓPEZ GLORIA I. , MALLINSON DAVID J. , PARHAM PETER R. , REINHARDT EDUARD G.
Published: February 2012

Ground penetrating radar and single‐aliquot regenerative‐dose optically stimulated luminescence were used to determine the depositional environments and age of unconsolidated siliciclastic sediments near Apalachicola, Florida. Five direct‐push cores, five vibracores and 28 optically stimulated luminescence samples were collected, as well as 7 km of ground penetrating radar data. A new model of cosmic dose rate calculation, which removes the effect of a much younger aeolian cap, was utilized to calculate more representative optically stimulated luminescence ages. Five radar facies were identified based on reflector amplitude and orientation. The resulting data indicate that the Tertiary/Quaternary Shelly Sediments were deposited before marine isotope stage 6, the Quaternary Alluvium was deposited during marine isotope stage 6 and the Quaternary Beach Ridge and Dune was deposited during the marine isotope stage 5e sea‐level highstand, which peaked at approximately 2·5 m above present sea‐level in this area.
Small RNAs containing the pathogenic determinant of a chloroplast‐replicating viroid guide the degradation of a host mRNA as predicted by RNA silencing
Authors: Navarro Beatriz , Gisel Andreas , Rodio Maria Elena , Delgado Sonia , Flores Ricardo , Di Serio Francesco
Published: February 2012

How viroids, tiny non‐protein‐coding RNAs (∼250–400 nt), incite disease is unclear. One hypothesis is that viroid‐derived small RNAs (vd‐sRNAs; 21–24 nt) resulting from the host defensive response, via RNA silencing, may target for cleavage cell mRNAs and trigger a signal cascade, eventually leading to symptoms. Peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd), a chloroplast‐replicating viroid, is particularly appropriate to tackle this question because it induces an albinism (peach calico, PC) strictly associated with variants containing a specific 12–14‐nt hairpin insertion. By dissecting albino and green leaf sectors of Prunus persica (peach) seedlings inoculated with PLMVd natural and artificial variants, and cloning their progeny, we have established that the hairpin insertion sequence is involved in PC. Furthermore, using deep sequencing, semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR and RNA ligase‐mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), we have determined that two PLMVd‐sRNAs containing the PC‐associated insertion (PC‐sRNA8a and PC‐sRNA8b) target for cleavage the mRNA encoding the chloroplastic heat‐shock protein 90 (cHSP90), thus implicating RNA silencing in the modulation of host gene expression by a viroid. Chloroplast malformations previously reported in PC‐expressing tissues are consistent with the downregulation of cHSP90, which participates in chloroplast biogenesis and plastid‐to‐nucleus signal transduction in Arabidopsis. Besides PC‐sRNA8a and PC‐sRNA8b, both deriving from the less‐abundant PLMVd (−) strand, we have identified other PLMVd‐sRNAs potentially targeting peach mRNAs. These results also suggest that sRNAs derived from other PLMVd regions may downregulate additional peach genes, ultimately resulting in other symptoms or in a more favorable host environment for viroid infection.
Reverse genetic characterization of two paralogous acetoacetyl CoA thiolase genes in Arabidopsis reveals their importance in plant growth and development
Authors: Jin Huanan , Song Zhihong , Nikolau Basil J.
Published: February 2012

Acetoacetyl CoA thiolase (AACT, EC 2.3.1.9) catalyzes the condensation of two acetyl CoA molecules to form acetoacetyl CoA. Two AACT‐encoding genes, At5g47720 (AACT1) and At5g48230 (AACT2), were functionally identified in the Arabidopsis genome by direct enzymological assays and functional expression in yeast. Promoter::GUS fusion experiments indicated that AACT1 is primarily expressed in the vascular system and AACT2 is highly expressed in root tips, young leaves, top stems and anthers. Characterization of T‐DNA insertion mutant alleles at each AACT locus established that AACT2 function is required for embryogenesis and for normal male gamete transmission. In contrast, plants lacking AACT1 function are completely viable and show no apparent growth phenotypes, indicating that AACT1 is functionally redundant with respect to AACT2 function. RNAi lines that express reduced levels of AACT2 show pleiotropic phenotypes, including reduced apical dominance, elongated life span and flowering duration, sterility, dwarfing, reduced seed yield and shorter root length. Microscopic analysis reveals that the reduced stature is caused by a reduction in cell size and fewer cells, and male sterility is caused by loss of the pollen coat and premature degeneration of the tapetal cells. Biochemical analyses established that the roots of AACT2 RNAi plants show quantitative and qualitative alterations in phytosterol profiles. These phenotypes and biochemical alterations are reversed when AACT2 RNAi plants are grown in the presence of mevalonate, which is consistent with the role of AACT2 in generating the bulk of the acetoacetyl CoA precursor required for the cytosol‐localized, mevalonate‐derived isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway.
The placebo puzzle: examining the discordant space between biomedical science and illness/healing
Authors: Pohlman Shawn , Cibulka Nancy J , Palmer Janice L , Lorenz Rebecca A , SmithBattle Lee
Published: February 2012

POHLMAN S, CIBULKA NJ, PALMER JL, LORENZ RA and SMITHBATTLE L. Nursing Inquiry 2013; 20: 71–81  The placebo puzzle: examining the discordant space between biomedical science and illness/healing

The placebo response presents an enigma to biomedical science: how can ‘inert’ or ‘sham’ procedures reduce symptoms and produce physiological changes that are comparable to prescribed treatments? In this study, we examine this puzzle by explicating the discordant space between the prevailing biomedical paradigm, which focuses on a technical understanding of diagnosis and treatment, and a broader understanding of illness and healing as relational and embodied. Although biomedical achievements are impressive, the knowledge resulting from this paradigm is limited by its ontological and epistemological assumptions. When the body and world are objectified, illness meanings, therapeutic relationships, and healing practices are dismissed or distorted. In spite of a robust critique of the tenets of biomedicine for guiding practice, the biomedical paradigm retains a tenacious hold on evidence‐based medicine and nursing, downplaying our clinical understanding of the sentient body, patients’ life‐worlds, and illness and healing. In reality, skilled nurses rely on multiple forms of knowledge in providing high‐quality care to particular patients. Clinically wise nurses integrate their experience and knowledge of patients’ priorities, fears, and illness trajectories along with biomedical findings to make astute judgments and promote health and healing.
Specialization of the posterior temporal lobes for audio‐motor processing – evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of skilled drummers
Authors: Tsai Chen‐Gia , Fan Li‐Ying , Lee Shu‐Hui , Chen Jyh‐Horng , Chou Tai‐Li
Published: February 2012

Sounds of hammering or clapping can evoke simulation of the arm movements that have been previously associated with those sounds. This audio‐motor transformation also occurs at the sequential level and plays a role in speech and music processing. The present study aimed to demonstrate how the activation pattern of the sensorimotor network was modulated by the sequential nature of the auditory input and effector. Fifteen skilled drum set players participated in our functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Prior to the scan, these drummers practiced six drumming grooves. During the scan, there were four rehearsal conditions: covertly playing the drum set under the guidance of its randomly‐presented isolated stroke sounds, covertly playing the drum set along with the sounds of learned percussion music, covertly reciting the syllable representation along with this music, and covertly reciting along with the syllable representation of this music. We found greater activity in the bilateral posterior middle temporal gyri for active listening to isolated drum strokes than for active listening to learned drum music. These regions might mediate the one‐to‐one mappings from sounds to limb movements. Compared with subvocal rehearsals along with learned drum music, covert rehearsals of limb movements along with the same music additionally activated a lateral subregion of the left posterior planum temporale. Our results illustrate a functional specialization of the posterior temporal lobes for audio‐motor processing.
Dispersal ability modulates the strength of the latitudinal richness gradient in European beetles
Authors: Baselga Andrés , Lobo Jorge M. , Svenning Jens‐Christian , Aragón Pedro , Araújo Miguel B.
Published: February 2012

Aim  A debate exists as to whether present‐day diversity gradients are governed by current environmental conditions or by changes in environmental conditions through time. Recent studies have shown that latitudinal richness gradients might be partially caused by incomplete post‐glacial recolonization of high‐latitude regions; this leads to the prediction that less mobile taxa should have steeper gradients than more mobile taxa. The aim of this study is to test this prediction.

Location  Europe.

Methods  We first assessed whether spatial turnover in species composition is a good surrogate for dispersal ability by measuring the proportion of wingless species in 19 European beetle clades and relating this value to spatial turnover (βsim) of the clade. We then linearly regressed βsim values of 21 taxa against the slope of their respective diversity gradients.

Results  A strong relationship exists between the proportion of wingless species and βsim, and βsim was found to be a good predictor of latitudinal richness gradients.

Main conclusions  Results are consistent with the prediction that poor dispersers have steeper richness gradients than good dispersers, supporting the view that current beetle diversity gradients in Europe are affected by post‐glacial dispersal lags.
Pension Funding Constraints and Corporate Expenditures*
Authors: Liu Weixi , Tonks Ian
Published: February 2012

This paper examines the impact of a company's pension contributions (PCs) on its dividend and investment policies. The effects of shocks to cash flows on these corporate expenditures are identified by changes to pension funding regulations. Using a sample of DB pension schemes in FTSE350 UK‐listed firms we find a strong negative relation between PCs and corporate dividends even after controlling for the correlation between funding status and unobserved investment opportunities. We find that the more stringent funding requirements under the Pensions Act 2004 had a more pronounced effect on both dividend and investment sensitivities to PCs.