bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Courtesan Editor
Authors: Berg Daria
Published: September 2013

This article focuses on female editorship and sexual politics in late Ming and early Qing China, using Hua suo shi, an anthology edited by the courtesan poet Xue Susu, as a case study. It traces textual production and transmission, and reconstructs the literary and cultural contexts of this work to explore the courtesan’s editorial gaze and representation of gender through a close reading of it. The analysis of its two main themes—women as commodities, and women as agents—shows how the courtesan editor re-imagined China’s cultural landscape from her point of view. New examples of female agency are discovered in analyzing the cultural process of editing as a “web of discourses,” providing a window on the emergence of a new female editorial voice in early modern China’s cultural discourse. 

Cet article se concentre sur le rôle éditorial des femmes et sur les politiques sexuelles en Chine à la fin des Ming et au début des Qing. Une anthologie éditée par la courtisane et poétesse Xue Susu, le Hua suo shi, sert d’étude de cas. Le processus de production et de transmission textuelle est examiné et le contexte littéraire et culturel de l’ouvrage restitué, permettant d’explorer le regard éditorial et le jeu de genre de la courtisane à travers une lecture serrée du texte. L’analyse des deux thèmes dominants — la femme comme marchandise, la femme comme agent — démontre la façon dont la courtisane éditrice ré-imagine le paysage culturel chinois de son propre point de vue. D’autres exemples d’intervention féminine se révèlent lorsqu’on analyse le processus culturel d’édition en tant que “réseau de discours”. Ainsi s’ouvre une fenêtre sur l’émergence d’une nouvelle voix éditoriale féminine au sein du discours culturel chinois au début des temps modernes.
Inheritance, calquing, or independent innovation? Reconstructing morphological complexity in Amazonian numerals
Authors: Epps Patience
Published: September 2013

The reconstruction of morphologically complex forms offers familiar problems. As illustrated by textbook examples like Bloomfield’s seemingly reconstructable anachronism—Algonquian ‘fire-water’ for ‘whisky’—the existence of corresponding complex forms across related languages can alternatively be attributed to calquing or parallel independent innovation. This paper considers the problem of accounting for the history of complex forms in the context of the northwest Amazon, where lexical borrowing is actively resisted but calquing is rampant. Where complex forms are widely shared across related and unrelated languages, is there any hope of identifying their source, or establishing their relative age in particular groups of languages? I focus in particular on numeral terms, which reveal considerable complexity among northwest Amazonian languages. I evaluate the challenges encountered in gauging the time-depth and reconstructability of morphologically complex forms, and the criteria—comparative, typological, and geographical—that must be brought to bear in weighing more or less probable histories of complex forms.
Phylogenetic and areal models of Indo-European relatedness: The role of contact in reconstruction
Authors: Drinka Bridget
Published: September 2013

The Indo-European family has traditionally been viewed as a textbook example of genetically related languages, easily fit onto a family tree model. What is less often recognized, however, is that IE also provides considerable evidence for the operation of contact among these related languages, discernable in the layers of innovation that certain varieties share. In this paper, I claim that the family tree model as it is usually depicted, discretely divided and unaffected by external influence, may be a useful representation of language relatedness, but is inadequate as a model of change, especially in its inability to represent the crucial role of contact in linguistic innovation. The recognition of contact among Indo-European languages has implications not only for the geographical positioning of IE languages on the map of Eurasia, but also for general theoretical characterizations of change: the horizontal, areal nature of change implies a stratification of data, a layered distribution of archaic and innovative features, which can help us grasp where contact, and innovation, has or has not occurred.
Relatedness as a Factor in Language Contact
Authors: Bowern Claire
Published: September 2013

Contact-induced change among related languages has been considered problematic for language reconstruction. In this article, I consider several aspects of the theory of language change and ways in which contact might interact with language relatedness. I show that models of language change which extrapolate dialect-contact models to languages and subgroups are problematic, and fail to take into account the unevenness of degrees of difference between languages across families. That is, diffusability clines that apply to speech communities and dialects do not appear to be in evidence for languages and subgroups. I further show that many claims about relatedness as a factor in language contact are confounded by other factors that are distinct from language relatedness, such as geographical proximity. Claims about effects of language contact appear to reduce to the type of interaction that speakers participate in, rather than structural facts about their languages. I argue that our current toolkit for reconstruction is adequate to identify contact features. Finally, I provide a typology of cases where contact might be expected to be problematic for subgrouping.
An Unexplored Stage in the Creation of the First Russian Constitution: Activities Outside and Inside the Conference of High Officials of the State Chancellery (December 1905 - March 1906)
Authors: Куликов Сергей Викторович
Published: September 2013

This article examines the role of the State Chancellery in the creation of the Fundamental Laws of 1906. It establishes that the draft of the Fundamental Laws prepared by the chancellery was discussed in March 1906 by the Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of Sergei Iul’evich Witte, and it was discussed again in April 1906 by a Special Convocation under the chairmanship of Emperor Nicholas II. The article draws on new sources to establish the personnel involved in meetings of high-ranking officials within the State Chancellery in January 1906, and to trace their discussions of drafts of the Fundamental Laws prepared by P.A. Kharitonov, A. P. Salomon and Count A. F. Geiden. On the basis of this evidence, the article suggests that debates over the Fundamental Laws intensified the ongoing process of political differentiation within the upper bureaucracy connected with the reforms of 1905 – 1906.
Two new species of the genus Munnogonium (Isopoda: Asellota: Paramunnidae) from Argentina
Authors: DOTI BRENDA L. , ROCCATAGLIATA DANIEL
Published: September 2013

Two new species of paramunnid isopods from Argentina are described: Munnogonium quequensis n. sp. from Buenos Aires Province (Quequén) and M. diplonychia n. sp. from Patagonia (Comodoro Rivadavia, Rada Tilly and Puerto Deseado). Both species are distinguished from their congeners by having a tight tuft of setae on the frontal margin. These setae have been discovered after examining the specimens under scanning electron microscope; under dissecting microscope they look like a short blunt median projection. M. diplonychia n. sp. differs from M. quequensis n. sp. by having bifid claws on pereopods II–IV. Eighty of the 92 specimens of M. quequensis n. sp. examined were found attached to the sea star Astropecten brasiliensis, a fact that suggests an association between these two species.
A new species of lizard genus Potamites from Ecuador
(Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae)
Authors: ALTAMIRANO-BENAVIDES MARCO , ZAHER HUSSAM , LOBO LUCIANA , GRAZZIOTIN FELIPE GOBBI , NUNES PEDRO MURILO SALES , RODRIGUES MIGUEL TREFAUT
Published: September 2013

Potamites flavogularis sp. nov. is described from the Napo and Tungurahua Provinces around 1800 m elevation in eastern Ecuador. The new species is closely related, sibling, and sympatric to Potamites cochranae to which it has been previously confused. It is characterized by the absence of isolated basal flounces of spines and presence of calcareous spinules on flounces of the hemipenis, a short (1,30–1,41 times SVL) and slightly compressed tail without tubercles, tympanum slightly recessed, subimbricate ventral scales, lateral body scales lacking conspicuous enlarged tubercles, four longitudinal rows of dorsal tubercles, 6 transverse series of ventral scales, absence of intercalated scales along sides of tail, and absence of tubercles on sides of neck and gular regions. Like their congeners, the new species was found close to vegetation surrounding streams in primary and secondary forests.
A review of the family Eucharitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) of Egypt
Authors: GADALLAH NEVEEN S. , EDMARDASH YUSUF A. , HERATY JOHN M.
Published: September 2013

The species of Eucharitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) of Egypt are reviewed. Three species of Eucharis Westwood are reported, Eucharis (Eucharisca) bytinskisalzi Bouček, E. (Psilogastrellus) cuprea (Blanchard) and E. (Psilogastrellus) punctata Förster. Primary type material of E. bytinskisalzi and E. cuprea is illustrated through macrophotography and a key to separate the three species is provided. Eucharis bytinskisalzi is listed as a new record for the Egyptian fauna.
Three-Dimensional Evaluation of Masseter Muscle in Different Vertical Facial Patterns
Authors: Lione Roberta , Franchi Lorenzo , Noviello Andrea , Bollero Patrizio , Fanucci Ezio , Cozza Paola
Published: September 2013

The aim of the present study was to analyze the anatomical three-dimensional (3D) characteristics of masseter muscle in growing subjects with different vertical patterns by using an ultrasound (US) method. The sample comprised 60 prepuberal subjects (33 males, 27 females) with a mean age of 11.5 ± 1.6 years with late mixed or permanent dentition and Class I molar and skeletal relationship. For each subject, a lateral cephalogram was required, and according to the mandibular plane angle (Frankfort horizontal plane/mandibular plane angle [FMA]), the subjects were divided into three groups of different underlying vertical facial patterns: brachyfacial: FMA < 22°, mesofacial: 22° ≤ FMA ≤ 28°, and dolichofacial: FMA > 28°. For each subject, an US scan was carried out to analyze the width, the thickness, the cross-sectional area, and the volume of the masseter muscle. Mean differences in measurements between vertical facial subgroups were contrasted by means of analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s post hoc tests ( p < 0.05). Measurements of the whole masseter in dolichofacial patients were significantly smaller when compared with brachyfacial and mesofacial individuals during relaxation and contraction. The volume of the masseter decreased significantly by 10% going from the brachyfacial group to the mesofacial group and from the mesofacial group to the dolichofacial group with no difference between the left and the right sides. A significant negative correlation was found between the US measurements and the divergency (FMA°). Ultrasound is a technique indicated in children for evaluating muscles of mastication in vivo. Growing patients with a dolichofacial vertical pattern present with a reduced dimension of the masseter when compared with brachyfacial and mesofacial subjects.
Rapid Breast Density Analysis of Partial Volumes of Automated Breast Ultrasound Images
Authors: Moon Woo Kyung , Lo Chung-Ming , Chang Jung Min , Bae Min Sun , Kim Won Hwa , Huang Chiun-Sheng , Chen Jeon-Hor , Kuo Ming-Hong , Chang Ruey-Feng
Published: September 2013

Rapid volume density analysis (RVDA) for automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) has been proposed as a more efficient method for estimating breast density. In the current experiment, ABUS images were obtained for 67 breasts from 40 patients. For each case, three rectangular volumes of interest (VOIs) were extracted, including the VOIs located at the 6 and 12 o’clock positions relative to the nipple in the anterior to posterior pass and the lateral position relative to the nipple in the lateral pass. The centers of these VOIs were defined to align with the center of nipple, and the depths reached the retromammary fat boundary. The fuzzy c-means classifier was applied to differentiate the fibroglandular and fat tissues to estimate the density. The classification results of the three VOIs were averaged to obtain the breast density. The density correlations between the RVDA and the ABUS methods were 0.98 and 0.96 using Pearson’s correlation and linear regression coefficients, respectively. The average computation times for RVDA and ABUS were 4.2 and 17.8 seconds, respectively, using an Intel® Core™2 2.66 GHz computer with 3.25 GB memory. In conclusion, the RVDA method offers a quantitative and efficient breast density estimation for ABUS.
Homing Ecophobia
Authors: Alex Rayson K.
Published: September 2013

This article is an attempt at analyzing a YouTube video that documents the tsunami when it hit Chennai in 2004. Ecophobia (the fear of/relating to natural elements), an ecocritical theory, forms the basis of the analysis. Originally a psychoanalytical concept, ecophobia is employed to analyze relationships between natural entities and human beings. The hypothesis of the article is that there is a conflict between open and closed spaces which brings about this fear of (or relating to) natural elements. ‘Sea’ is a universal image for ‘separation’ and is appropriated in the article using early Tamil poetry. The theoretical framework of tinai (especially the concepts of akam and puram) that the Sangam poetry offers helps in a better understanding of ecophobia in the article. The transiency and insecurity caused by the sea—the image of separation—is traced in the clip. The idea of home, derived from the concept of tinai, provides contextual meaning to the YouTube clip analyzed. The responses of students to the clip, after a public screening of the clip, are also analyzed ecophobically. The article argues that ecophobia is manifested in two ways—as fear of death caused by the sea and as fear of relationship with the sea.
The Mullaperiyar Dam
Authors: Pillai Meena T.
Published: September 2013

This article argues that media plays a crucial role in the constitution and representation of risk in modern societies. The transition from an industrial society to the risk society, involving an active critique of modernity, harnesses numerous mediated discourses that manufacture uncertainty. Therefore, the necessity of analyzing the various processes involved in the staging of a confrontation between the basis of modernization and its effect. The media plays a key role in both creating and voicing the distributional conflicts engendered by the transition into a risk society, as also in their legitimization and control. The media through creating, channeling, packaging and marketing effect, can in the absence of earlier tight knit social and cultural spaces of traditional institutions, help integrate new affinity groups or reflect the ideological preoccupations of existing ones. In the context of the Mullaperiyar Dam controversy in southern India, this article seeks to analyze the discourses generated by media for reflexive modernization as also the ideological premises of these discourses which yield vital clues to read the political, regional and material contingencies that shape them and their reception.
In the Name of Mera Shahar
Authors: Bhattacharya Somdatta
Published: September 2013

This article reads the city of Mumbai as a locus of terrorist disasters and impending/imminent terrorist threats. It primarily draws upon readings of three Hindi films released in 2008— Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday and Aamir—to decode the narratives of anxiety, fear, retribution and unrest constructed around real or imagined or expected terrorist threats to the cityscape. The article will argue that these films construct such narratives on several levels: a narrative that posits the various elements of the physical urban landscape with possibilities of danger or vulnerability to terror strikes, thus creating a ‘disaster-scape’ accentuated by its constant surveillance by the state as well as vigilante figures; a narrative of shared anxiety and paranoia that characters from all the three films share; a narrative that justifies vigilante action in the face of continued inaction on the part of the law and order system; and a narrative that demands symbolic atonement from the perceived ‘aggressor’. These narratives, in the final analysis, collapse into an overarching narrative of shared anxiety and paranoia that crystallises an imagined cityscape, an ‘essential’ Mumbai, which camouflages the innumerable differences and conflicts that the urban landscape is witness to.
Locating a City’s Conscience
Authors: Mukherjee Sipra
Published: September 2013

This article will look at the media coverage of the devastating fire that occurred at a Kolkata hospital in December, 2011. A preventable one despite the catastrophic proportions it grew to, the fire killed over 90 people. The absolutely inept and callous way in which the fire was handled by the hospital staff shocked the city, and the media understandably gave it wide coverage. This article will focus on the city editions of the English newspapers to explore which issues received media attention and which got marginalized when this overwhelming tragedy was reported. In the painful exercise of interpreting and categorizing such extreme experiences, it is usually the media that carries out the job of disseminating information, images and ideas concerning the nature of the events. Through the coverage or non-coverage of these issues, the media reflects society’s attempts to come to terms with such horrific tragedies. Using the reporting by the newspapers, the article will seek to enquire how the concepts of duty, responsibility and accountability are redefined by circumstances.
'If the US Sneezes, India Need not Catch a Cold'
Authors: De Rahul
Published: September 2013

This article studies strategies of representation of the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, in India’s English print media and the construction of this crisis as a ‘natural disaster’ through an ‘outbreak narrative’. This article will demonstrate the similarities in the use of the outbreak narrative between US public health discourse and representations of the global financial crisis. This similarity appears because both conditions face similar problems of representation and visualization.However, there are crucial differences between both representation strategies due to the different ideological contexts within which both discourses arose. Further, it studies the political economy of newspaper reportage about the impact of the crisis in India, through an examination of the ideological context of its construction and the frames through which it was appropriated by different political forces like the UPA government, representatives of capital and representatives of the left. This article argues that there was homogeneity in the appropriation of the outbreak narrative by representatives of the state, capital and left, who each positioned themselves as critiques of American neoliberalism, and saviours of the economy from the impacts of the global financial crisis.
Visual Culture, Spectatorship and Humanitarian Disaster
Authors: Nair Gaana J.
Published: September 2013

This article examines the dialogic encounter between the spectator and the spectacle in the context of war crimes and humanitarian disasters (in this context, the Sri Lankan civil war) in Vanni Eli, a short film by a Sri Lankan Tamizh diasporic filmmaker Tamiliam Subhas. The narrative introduces us not only to the military disaster that is war but also to the humanitarian disasters effected through war. The article studies the role of the spectator who ‘witnesses’ the torture, and thus complicates the ethics of both the act of torture and the viewing of it.

By looking closely at the ingenious ways of narrating torture the article argues that the creative representation of war and disaster implicates within its discourse not merely the participants and the victims of the war alone but also the ‘peripheral’ subjects like the mice (the film’s lead ‘actors’), and by extension, the spectators participating in the discursive construction of the victimized. Despite the symbolic disembodiment and effacement of the tortured, their suffering is recognized as a humanitarian disaster with the shared grammar of suffering common to all.1
Imagining Bio-disaster, Reproducing Social Order
Authors: Sundaram Neeraja
Published: September 2013

This article studies the imagination and representation of biological disaster in contemporary popular cinema. The texts chosen are Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film Contagion, Danny Boyle’s modern zombie-horror classic 28 Days Later (2002), Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend (2007) and Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men (2006). This article is interested in the ‘sensual elaboration’, within filmic narrative, of biological disaster, and will argue that these films not only communicate with but organize their viewers’ perceptions of biological disaster. It studies the narrativizing of the onset and consequences of biological disaster, coded as an ‘invasion’ of the individual and social body in these films. It further argues that the individual and social body in these texts form the key site of negotiating anxieties surrounding their inevitable collapse in the wake of social, cultural and economic breakdown following biological disaster.

The narrativizing of biological disaster in these films, this article will demonstrate, performs a crisis of reproducibility and reproductivity.
Relation of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio With GRACE Risk Score to In-Hospital Cardiac Events in Patients With ST-Segment Elevated Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Oncel Ramazan Can , Ucar Mustafa , Karakas Mustafa Serkan , Akdemir Baris , Yanikoglu Atakan , Gulcan Ali Riza , Altekin Refik Emre , Demir Ibrahim
Published: September 2013

In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score in patients with ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI). We analyzed 101 consecutive patients with STEMI. Patients were divided into 3 groups by use of GRACE risk score. The association between NLR and GRACE risk score was assessed. The NLR showed a proportional increase correlated with GRACE risk score ( P < .001). The occurrence of in-hospital cardiac death, reinfarction, or new-onset heart failure was significantly related to NLR at admission ( P < .001). Likewise, NLR and GRACE risk score showed a significant positive correlation ( r = .803, P < .001). In multivariate analysis, NLR resulted as a predictor of worse in-hospital outcomes independent of GRACE risk score. Our study suggests that the NLR is significantly associated with adverse in-hospital outcomes, independent of GRACE risk score in patients with STEMI.
Carbohydrate utilization and metabolism is highly differentiated in Agaricus bisporus
Authors: Patyshakuliyeva Aleksandrina , Jurak Edita , Kohler Annegret , Baker Adam , Battaglia Evy , de Bruijn Wouter , Burton Kerry S , Challen Michael P , Coutinho Pedro M , Eastwood Daniel C , Gruben Birgit S , Mäkelä Miia R , Martin Francis , Nadal Marina , van den Brink Joost , Wiebenga Ad , Zhou Miaomiao , Henrissat Bernard , Kabel Mirjam , Gruppen Harry , de Vries Ronald P
Published: September 2013

Background

Agaricus bisporus is commercially grown on compost, in which the available carbon sources consist mainly of plant-derived polysaccharides that are built out of various different constituent monosaccharides. The major constituent monosaccharides of these polysaccharides are glucose, xylose, and arabinose, while smaller amounts of galactose, glucuronic acid, rhamnose and mannose are also present.

Results

In this study, genes encoding putative enzymes from carbon metabolism were identified and their expression was studied in different growth stages of A. bisporus. We correlated the expression of genes encoding plant and fungal polysaccharide modifying enzymes identified in the A. bisporus genome to the soluble carbohydrates and the composition of mycelium grown compost, casing layer and fruiting bodies.

Conclusions

The compost grown vegetative mycelium of A. bisporus consumes a wide variety of monosaccharides. However, in fruiting bodies only hexose catabolism occurs, and no accumulation of other sugars was observed. This suggests that only hexoses or their conversion products are transported from the vegetative mycelium to the fruiting body, while the other sugars likely provide energy for growth and maintenance of the vegetative mycelium. Clear correlations were found between expression of the genes and composition of carbohydrates. Genes encoding plant cell wall polysaccharide degrading enzymes were mainly expressed in compost-grown mycelium, and largely absent in fruiting bodies. In contrast, genes encoding fungal cell wall polysaccharide modifying enzymes were expressed in both fruiting bodies and vegetative mycelium, but different gene sets were expressed in these samples.
A hierarchical spatial modelling approach to investigate MRSA transmission in a tertiary hospital
Authors: Kong Fiona , Paterson David L , Whitby Michael , Coory Michael , Clements Archie CA
Published: September 2013

Background

Most hospitals have a hierarchical design with beds positioned within cubicles and cubicles positioned within wards. Transmission of MRSA may be facilitated by patient proximity and thus the spatial arrangements of beds, cubicles and wards could be important in understanding MRSA transmission risk. Identifying high-risk areas of transmission may be useful in the design of more effective, targeted MRSA interventions.

Methods

Retrospective data on numbers of multi-resistant and non-multiresistant MRSA acquisitions were collected for 52 weeks in 2007 in a tertiary hospital in Brisbane, Australia. A hierarchical Bayesian spatio-temporal modelling approach was used to investigate spatial correlation in the hierarchically arranged datasets. The spatial component of the model decomposes cubicle-level variation into a spatially structured component and a spatially unstructured component, thereby encapsulating the influence of unmeasured predictor variables that themselves are spatially clustered and/or random. A fixed effect for the presence of another patient with the same type of MRSA in the cubicles two weeks prior was included.

Results

The best-fitting model for non-multiresistant MRSA had an unstructured random effect but no spatially structured random effect. The best-fitting model for multiresistant MRSA incorporated both spatially structured and unstructured random effects. While between-cubicle variability in risk of MRSA acquisition within the hospital was significant, there was only weak evidence to suggest that MRSA is spatially clustered. Presence of another patient with the same type of MRSA in the cubicles two weeks prior was a significant predictor of both types of MRSA in all models.

Conclusions

We found weak evidence of clustering of MRSA acquisition within the hospital. The presence of an infected patient in the same cubicle two weeks prior may support the importance of environmental contamination as a source of MRSA transmission.
Simultaneous display of two large proteins on the head and tail of bacteriophage lambda
Authors: Pavoni Emiliano , Vaccaro Paola , D’Alessio Valeria , De Santis Rita , Minenkova Olga
Published: September 2013

Background

Consistent progress in the development of bacteriophage lambda display platform as an alternative to filamentous phage display system was achieved in the recent years. The lambda phage has been engineered to display efficiently multiple copies of peptides or even large protein domains providing a powerful tool for screening libraries of peptides, proteins and cDNA.

Results

In the present work we describe an original method for dual display of large proteins on the surface of lambda particles. An anti-CEA single-chain antibody fragment and green fluorescent protein or alkaline phosphatase were simultaneously displayed by engineering both gpD and gpV lambda proteins.

Conclusions

Here we show that such modified phage particles can be used for the detection of target molecules in vitro and in vivo. Dual expression of functional moieties on the surface of the lambda phage might open the way to generation of a new class of diagnostic and therapeutic targeted nanoparticles.
The effects of HIV Tat DNA on regulating the immune response of HIV DNA vaccine in mice
Authors: Liu Ye , Li Fusheng , Qi Zhi , Hao Yanling , Hong Kunxue , Liu Yong , Cong Yulong , Shao Yiming
Published: September 2013

Background

HIV trans-activator protein (Tat) is the crucial factor to control HIV transcription, and is usually considered as an important immunogen for the design of HIV vaccine. Recent studies reported some special bio-activities of Tat protein on immunoregulation. However, to date, few studies have focused on exploring the effects of Tat expression plasmid (pTat) on regulating the immune responses induced by HIV DNA vaccines. In this study, our main objective is to investigate the immunoregulation mediated by pTat in mice.

Methods

Four gene-coding plasmids (pTat, pGag, pEnv and pPol) were constructed, and the gene expression was detected by western blot method. The effects of pTat on regulating the immune responses to antigens Gag, Env, Pol were assessed by enzyme-linked immunospot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data was analysed by one-way analysis of variance.

Results

After two immunizations, mice vaccinated with antigen expressing plasmid (pGag, pEnv or pPol) plus pTat exhibited significantly stronger IFN-gamma response than that vaccinated with the corresponding antigen alone. Moreover, mice receiving two injections of antigen plus pTat exhibited the same strong IFN-gamma response as those receiving three injections of antigen alone did. Furthermore, addition of pTat not only induced a more balanced Th1 and Th2 response, but also broadened IgG subclass responses to antigens Gag and Pol.

Conclusion

pTat exhibited the appreciable effects on modulating immune responses to HIV antigens Gag, Env and Pol, providing us interesting clues on how to optimize HIV DNA vaccine.
Diversity of flora used for the cure of equine diseases in selected peri-urban areas of Punjab, Pakistan
Authors: Goraya Khurram , Iqbal Zafar , Sajid Muhammad Sohail , Muhammad Ghulam , Ain Qurat ul , Saleem Muhammad
Published: September 2013

Background

Plants have widely been used and documented for their therapeutic potential in many parts of the world. There are, however, few reports on the use of plants for the treatment of diseases of equines. To this end, participatory epidemiology and rapid rural appraisal techniques were used to document the plants having pharmacotherapeutic significance against different ailments of equines in selected population of Punjab, Pakistan.

Methods

A survey was conducted to interview a total of 450 respondents (150 from each of the districts of Faisalabad, Lahore and Sargodha of Pakistan) to collect information about disease recognition of the equines and their treatment on a well − structured questionnaire. A total of 60 plants belonging to 40 families were documented. An inventory was developed depicting detailed information of plants used in treatment of different conditions of equines.

Results

The top ten species of plants used were: Allium cepa, Zingiber officinale, Vernonia anthelmintica, Capsicum annum, Brassica campestris, Trachyspermum ammi, Anethum graveolens, Picrorhiza kurroa, Azadirachta indica, and Citrullus colocynthis. Seeds were the most frequently used (n = 16/60) parts, followed by leaves (n = 12/60) and fruits (n = 11/60) of plants. Based on the combination of different parts of plants used in different ratios and variation in their dose or mode of preparation led to a large number of recipes/remedies against wounds, lameness, bronchitis, colic, anorexia, dermatitis, weakness, parasitism (internal & external), fever, heat stress, urine retention, swelling, toxemia, and indigestion.

Conclusions

This study generated lot of data on phytomedicinal approach for the treatment of ailments in the equines in some selected areas. It would, therefore, be imperative to expand similar studies in other parts of Pakistan and elsewhere. Moreover, use of the documented plants may be validated employing standard scientific procedures, which may have their application in the drug discovery/development by the pharmaceutical industry.
Evaluation of the adverse event profile and pharmacodynamics of toceranib phosphate administered to dogs with solid tumors at doses below the maximum tolerated dose
Authors: Bernabe Luis Feo , Portela Roberta , Nguyen Sandra , Kisseberth William C , Pennell Michael , Yancey Mark F , London Cheryl A
Published: September 2013

Background

The receptor kinase inhibitor toceranib phosphate (Palladia) was approved for use in dogs in 2009 using a dose of 3.25 mg/kg administered every other day. Preliminary data suggests that lower doses of toeceranib may be associated with a reduced adverse event profile while maintaining sufficient drug exposure to provide biologic activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the Cmax of toceranib in dogs with solid tumors receiving 2.5-2.75 mg/kg every other day and to document the adverse events associated with this dose rate. Secondary objectives included determination of plasma VEGF concentrations in treated dogs and response to therapy.

Results

Dogs with solid tumors were administered toceranib at an intended target dose ranging from 2.5-2.75 mg/kg every other day and plasma samples were obtained for analysis of toceranib and VEGF plasma concentrations on days 0, 7, 14 and 30 of the study at 6 and 8 hours post drug administration. Additionally, plasma samples were obtained at 0, 1, 2, 6, 8, and 12 hours from dogs on day 30 for confirmation of Cmax. Response to therapy was assessed using standard RECIST criteria and adverse events were characterized using the VCOG-CTCAE. Toceranib administered at doses between 2.4-2.9 mg/kg every other day resulted in an average 6–8 hr plasma concentration ranging from 100–120 ng/ml, well above the 40 ng/ml concentration associated with target inhibition. Plasma VEGF concentrations increased significantly over the 30 day treatment period indicating that VEGFR2 inhibition was likely achieved in the majority of dogs. The lower doses of toceranib used in this study were associated with a substantially reduced adverse event profile compared to the established label dose of 3.25 mg/kg EOD.

Conclusions

Doses of toceranib ranging from 2.4-2.9 mg/kg every other day provide drug exposure considered sufficient for target inhibition while resulting in an adverse event profile substantially reduced from that associated with the label dose of toceranib. This lower dose range of toceranib should be considered for future use in dogs with cancer.
MicroRNA/mRNA profiling and regulatory network of intracranial aneurysm
Authors: Jiang Yugang , Zhang Mingming , He Hua , Chen Jia , Zeng Hua , Li Jia , Duan Ranhui
Published: September 2013

Background

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is one of the most lethal forms of cerebrovascular diseases characterized by endothelial dysfunction, vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation, inflammation and consequently loss of vessel cells and extracellular matrix degradation. Besides environmental factors, genetics seem to be a very important factor in the genesis of this disease. Previous mRNA expression studies revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes between IA and control tissue. However, microRNAs (miRNA), small non-coding RNAs which are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, have been barely studied. Studying miRNAs could provide a hypothetical mechanism underlying rupture of IA.

Methods

A microarray study was carried out to determine difference in microRNAs and mRNA between patients’ IA tissues and controls. Quantitative RT-PCR assay compared the expression level between two groups (14 IA domes vs. 14 controls) were used for validation. Validated miRNAs were analyzed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) to identify the networks and pathways.

Results

18 miRNAs were confirmed by qPCR to be robustly down-regulated in 14 ruptured IA patients including hsa-mir-133b, hsa-mir-133a, hsa-mir-1, hsa-mir-143-3p, hsa-mir-145-3p, hsa-mir-145-5p, hsa-mir-455-5p, hsa-mir-143-5p, hsa-mir-23b-3p etc., of which 11 miRNAs are clusters: hsa-mir-1/has-mir-133a, hsa-mir-143/hsa-mir-145, hsa-mir-23b/hsa-mir-24-1, and hsa-mir-29b-2/hsa-mir-29c. 12 predicted functions were generated using IPA which showed significant associations with migration of phagocytes, proliferation of mononuclear leukocytes, cell movement of mononuclear leukocytes, cell movement of smooth muscle cells etc.

Conclusion

These data support common disease mechanisms that may be under miRNA control and provide exciting directions for further investigations aimed at elucidating the miRNA mechanisms and targets that may yield new therapies for IA.
Understanding the sequential activation of Type III and Type VI Secretion Systems in Salmonella typhimurium using Boolean modeling
Authors: Das Chandrani , Dutta Anirban , Rajasingh Hannah , Mande Sharmila S
Published: September 2013

Background

Three pathogenicity islands, viz. SPI-1 (Salmonella pathogenicity island 1), SPI-2 (Salmonella pathogenicity island 2) and T6SS (Type VI Secretion System), present in the genome of Salmonella typhimurium have been implicated in the virulence of the pathogen. While the regulation of SPI-1 and SPI-2 (both encoding components of the Type III Secretion System - T3SS) are well understood, T6SS regulation is comparatively less studied. Interestingly, inter-connections among the regulatory elements of these three virulence determinants have also been suggested to be essential for successful infection. However, till date, an integrated view of gene regulation involving the regulators of these three secretion systems and their cross-talk is not available.

Results

In the current study, relevant regulatory information available from literature have been integrated into a single Boolean network, which portrays the dynamics of T3SS (SPI-1 and SPI-2) and T6SS mediated virulence. Some additional regulatory interactions involving a two-component system response regulator YfhA have also been predicted and included in the Boolean network. These predictions are aimed at deciphering the effects of osmolarity on T6SS regulation, an aspect that has been suggested in earlier studies, but the mechanism of which was hitherto unknown. Simulation of the regulatory network was able to recreate in silico the experimentally observed sequential activation of SPI-1, SPI-2 and T6SS.

Conclusions

The present study integrates relevant gene regulatory data (from literature and our prediction) into a single network, representing the cross-communication between T3SS (SPI-1 and SPI-2) and T6SS. This holistic view of regulatory interactions is expected to improve the current understanding of pathogenesis of S. typhimurium.
Editorial: CD73 deficiency and immune dysregulation in HIV infection: cause or effect?
Authors: Thompson Linda F
Published: September 2013

Discussion of the challenges discerning the clinical significance of changes in CD73 expression, in human lymphocyte subsets.
Regulation of vesicular trafficking and leukocyte function by Rab27 GTPases and their effectors
Authors: Catz Sergio Daniel
Published: September 2013

The Rab27 family of GTPases regulates the efficiency and specificity of exocytosis in hematopoietic cells, including neutrophils, CTLs, NK cells, and mast cells. However, the mechanisms regulated by Rab27 GTPases are cell-specific, as they depend on the differential expression and function of particular effector molecules that are recruited by the GTPases. In addition, Rab27 GTPases participate in multiple steps of the regulation of the secretory process, including priming, tethering, docking, and fusion through sequential interaction with multiple effector molecules. Finally, recent reports suggest that Rab27 GTPases and their effectors regulate vesicular trafficking mechanisms other than exocytosis, including endocytosis and phagocytosis. This review focuses on the latest discoveries on the function of Rab27 GTPases and their effectors Munc13-4 and Slp1 in neutrophil function comparatively to their functions in other leukocytes.
Is Anonymous a New Form of Luddism?
Authors: Deseriis Marco
Published: September 2013

This article compares industrial machine breaking and computer hacking by focusing on the English Luddites and the contemporary hacker network Anonymous. In spite of their apparent differences, the two movements share at least three remarkable features. First, both the Luddites and Anonymous target machines of a specific kind — labor-saving machines in the case of the Luddites, machines that restrict access to information and information technology in the case of Anonymous. Second, both Anonymous and Ned Ludd are collective pseudonyms, or “multiple-use names,” whose wild circulation in the public domain brings previously unrelated struggles within a common discursive space. Third, industrial machine breaking and computer hacking are comparable in that they both reduce the productivity of labor and capital. The article concludes by noting that a fundamental operational difference between industrial machines and cybernetic machines sets in motion processes of subjectivation and class composition that are not reducible to one another.
419 Digilantes and the Frontier of Radical Justice Online
Authors: Byrne Dara N.
Published: September 2013

This article focuses on the rhetorical performance of justice and punishment on the website 419eater.com, one of the largest digilante social networks online. Digilantism refers to the growing practice among some Internet users, mostly based in the United States and the United Kingdom, who mete out extrajudicial punishment to cybercriminals such as scammers, hackers, and pedophiles. Although digilantism is a growing Internet subculture, short of newspaper coverage, little scholarly attention has been paid to the rhetorical, cultural, and sociohistorical dimensions of this new paradigm of do-it-yourself justice. The paucity of digital media research is particularly surprising given the explosion of popular and scholarly rhetoric on cyberterrorism, digital surveillance, and Internet security and safety. This article begins to address the gap in research by exploring the nuances of 419 digilantism to illustrate how the rise of cybercrime and attention to Nigerian criminal behavior in the late 1990s, along with the rhetorical culture of antiblack vigilantism, frames an operational paradigm for these digilantes.
Grassroots Perspectives on Media Justice Organizing
Authors: Davies Lyell
Published: September 2013

In “Grassroots Perspectives on Media Justice Organizing,” community organizers and media justice advocates Rusita Avila (Media Literacy Project), Todd Wolfson (Media Mobilizing Project), and Betty Yu (Center for Media Justice) discuss the meaning of “media justice” as it relates to low-income communities, people of color, immigrants, and other disenfranchised communities and sections of American society. Avila, Wolfson, and Yu describe some of the challenges faced by the disenfranchised with regard to communication and media to argue that an ability to access, generate, and share information is a basic human right. They argue that in recent years the campaign for media justice has been adopted by many organizations and communities that are engaged in social justice struggles, as they recognize that their work is intertwined with issues of media justice. Illustrating their argument with examples, such as the labor organizing work behind a radio show launched by Philadelphia cab drivers and the communications policy work of the national Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, the interviewees argue that media policy must meet the needs of communities — and control of the communication infrastructure must be in the hands of the people. With regard to the kinds of media platforms that can be best used to advance social justice, the interviewees note that digital media is tremendously important, but other preexisting media platforms, such as low-power FM radio and community access TV, are still equally relevant.
A Personal Story and a Collective History of an Uprising
Authors: Khosrowjah Hossein
Published: September 2013

Wael Ghonim's Revolution 2.0 and Tweets from Tahrir, edited by Nadia Idle and Alex Nunns, are two different accounts of the popular anti-Mubarak uprising in January and February 2011. This review considers each book's construction of personal and national narratives of the Egyptian revolution and offers detailed accounts of the events. This review also explores the common central theme in both books: the role that new social media play as new activist tools in Egypt and how Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites function as organizational means and communication channels with the outside world.
Gender and Sexual Differences in 1980s China: Introducing Li Xiaojiang
Authors: Wang Lingzhen
Published: September 2013

The essay introduces Li Xiaojiang and her early works from the 1980s and 1990s in three steps. First, it closely situates Li and her works in both the general historical context of China’s transformation from the socialist to the postsocialist era and the most relevant intellectual discourses and cultural movements of the 1980s. Second, it articulates the historical specificity and contingent meanings of Li’s major concept of sexual and gender differences. And lastly, it explores the theoretical and political innovation and limitation of Li’s postsocialist feminist discourse.
Transgender Performance in Early Modern China
Authors: Kile Sarah E.
Published: September 2013

This essay explores some of the ways people conceived of the relationship between sexed bodies and gendered roles during the slow transition from the Ming (1368-1644) to the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). This was a period of increasing commercialization and significant challenges to traditional Confucian thought, one reflected in the work of the prolific author and cultural entrepreneur Li Yu (1611-80). Given his imbrication in both traditional networks of elite men and in the increasingly important realm of the market economy, Li Yu provides a useful entry point into the analysis of transgender representations in early modern China. Li Yu’s works demonstrate that the representation and performance of ambiguous or trans genders was linked to elite male consumption: that is, transgressive gender presentations were a prime form of entertainment, in fiction as in theater. However, his representation of nonnormative gender presentation also evidences a significant reconfiguring of conceptions of the body, the self, and the family in a world in which money was increasingly able to purchase anything. The author shows that during this tumultuous period, in which men and women grappled with questions of allegiance to the fallen Ming or the foreign Qing, the intersection between fungible currency and the gendered body emerged as a primary locus of elite male experimentation, in life and in literature, with the seemingly boundless possibilities of novelty and the purchasing power of silver.