bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sex Differences in Patients With Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque
Authors: Ota Hideki , Reeves Mathew J. , Zhu David C. , Majid Arshad , Collar Alonso , Yuan Chun , DeMarco J. Kevin
Published: July 2010

Background and Purpose—

Stroke prevention with carotid endarterectomy in asymptomatic men with carotid stenosis is greater than in women. Men have a higher incidence of stroke <75 years of age. Sex differences in plaque characteristics may help explain this, because several plaque features, including a thin/ruptured fibrous cap, larger lipid-rich/necrotic core, and hemorrhage, are associated with increased risk of stroke. We hypothesize that MRI carotid plaque features will demonstrate sex differences indicative of higher-risk plaque in men.

Methods—

One hundred thirty-one patients (men, 67; women, 64) with ≥50% asymptomatic carotid stenosis on duplex ultrasound were included. Two blinded reviewers interpreted multicontrast MRI. Presence of a thin/ruptured fibrous cap, plaque components (lipid-rich/necrotic core, hemorrhage, and calcification), and percent component volume were documented. The associations between sex and individual plaque characteristics were examined using logistic and linear regression models (2-part models) controlling for demographic characteristics and MR angiographic findings.

Results—

Presence of a thin/ruptured fibrous cap (48% versus 17%, adjusted OR=4.41,
P
<0.01) and lipid-rich/necrotic core (73% versus 50%, adjusted OR=3.66,
P
=0.01) were more common in men. There was a trend for more highly prevalent hemorrhage (33% versus, 17%, adjusted OR=2.15,
P
=0.07) in men. Calcification was not significantly associated with sex. Men demonstrated larger volumes of percent lipid-rich/necrotic core (median, 7.7% versus 3.2%,
P
=0.01), and percent hemorrhage (median, 6.1% versus 1.5%,
P
<0.01).

Conclusion—

In patients with asymptomatic ≥50% carotid stenosis by duplex ultrasound, men had higher-risk plaque features compared with women after controlling for potential confounders. These findings may help explain sex differences in stroke incidence and prevention.
Risk Factors Associated With Severity and Location of Intracranial Arterial Stenosis
Authors: Turan Tanya N. , Makki Achraf A. , Tsappidi Samuel , Cotsonis George , Lynn Michael J. , Cloft Harry J. , Chimowitz Marc I.
Published: July 2010

Background and Purpose—

We sought to determine the vascular risk factors and demographic features associated with the severity and location of intracranial stenosis.

Methods—

Data on patients enrolled in the Warfarin-Aspirin Symptomatic Intracranial Disease (WASID) trial were used for the analyses. Demographic features and vascular risk factors were compared in patients with moderate stenosis (n=336) versus severe stenosis (n=225) and according to the location of intracranial stenosis (middle cerebral, internal carotid, basilar, or vertebral artery).

Results—

History of a lipid disorder (77% in severe vs 67% in moderate,
P
=0.01), metabolic syndrome (63% in severe vs 53% in moderate,
P
=0.05), and diabetes (43% in severe vs 35% in moderate,
P
=0.04) were more common in patients with severe intracranial stenosis by univariate analyses. A history of a lipid disorder was independently associated with severe stenosis (odds ratio=1.62; 95% CI, 1.09 to 2.42;
P
=0.02). The distribution of stenosis location differed among age groups (
P
=0.0015), sexes (
P
=0.0001), races (
P
=0.0243), qualifying events (
P
=0.0156), diabetes (
P
=0.0030), coronary artery disease (
P
=0.0030), and hyperlipidemia (
P
=0.054). Patients with basilar artery stenoses were older and more likely to have hyperlipidemia. Patients with middle cerebral artery stenoses were more likely to be women and black. Patients with internal carotid artery stenoses were more likely to have diabetes. Patients with vertebral artery stenoses were more likely to have coronary artery disease.

Conclusions—

History of a lipid disorder had the strongest association with severity of intracranial stenosis and should be the target of prevention therapies. Different locations of intracranial stenoses are associated with different vascular risk factors and demographic features, suggesting that there may be a difference in the underlying pathophysiology of stenoses among the intracranial arteries.
Repeated Thrombolysis for Chronologically Separated Ischemic Strokes
Authors: Sauer Roland , Huttner Hagen B. , Breuer Lorenz , Engelhorn Tobias , Schellinger Peter D. , Schwab Stefan , Köhrmann Martin
Published: July 2010

Background and Purpose—

Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is used for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and acute ischemic stroke. With many years since approval of the drug and an aging population, chances increase that patients are treated twice for chronologically separated events.

Methods—

We identified patients from the prospective Erlangen Stroke and Thrombolysis Database who received repeated thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. Baseline demographic data and clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings were analyzed. Functional outcome was assessed after 3 months.

Results—

Eight patients treated twice and one patient with 3 treatments were identified. The median time span between first and second thrombolysis was 10 (3 to 48) months. All patients had a favorable outcome after the first treatment, and 67% of patients had a favorable outcome after the second thrombolysis. Neither allergic reactions nor other immunoreactive events were observed.

Conclusions—

Repeated administration of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator for chronologically separate ischemic strokes does not appear to be associated with severe immune reactions. Larger case numbers are needed to evaluate safety and efficacy of repeated systemic thrombolysis.
Comparing Segmentation by Time and by Motion in Visual Search: An fMRI Investigation
Authors: Dent Kevin , Allen Harriet , Humphreys Glyn W.
Published: July 2010

Brain activity was recorded while participants engaged in a difficult visual search task for a target defined by the spatial configuration of its component elements. The search displays were segmented by time (a preview then a search display), by motion, or were unsegmented. A preparatory network showed activity to the preview display, in the time but not in the motion segmentation condition. A region of the precuneus showed (i) higher activation when displays were segmented by time or by motion, and (ii) correlated activity with larger segmentation benefits behaviorally, regardless of the cue. Additionally, the results revealed that success in temporal segmentation was correlated with reduced activation in early visual areas, including V1. The results depict partially overlapping brain networks for segmentation in search by time and motion, with both cue-independent and cue-specific mechanisms.
Spaced Learning Enhances Subsequent Recognition Memory by Reducing Neural Repetition Suppression
Authors: Xue Gui , Mei Leilei , Chen Chuansheng , Lu Zhong-Lin , Poldrack Russell , Dong Qi
Published: July 2010

Spaced learning usually leads to better recognition memory as compared with massed learning, yet the underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. One open question is whether the spacing effect is achieved by reducing neural repetition suppression. In this fMRI study, participants were scanned while intentionally memorizing 120 novel faces, half under the massed learning condition (i.e., four consecutive repetitions with jittered interstimulus interval) and the other half under the spaced learning condition (i.e., the four repetitions were interleaved). Recognition memory tests afterward revealed a significant spacing effect: Participants recognized more items learned under the spaced learning condition than under the massed learning condition. Successful face memory encoding was associated with stronger activation in the bilateral fusiform gyrus, which showed a significant repetition suppression effect modulated by subsequent memory status and spaced learning. Specifically, remembered faces showed smaller repetition suppression than forgotten faces under both learning conditions, and spaced learning significantly reduced repetition suppression. These results suggest that spaced learning enhances recognition memory by reducing neural repetition suppression.
Decrements in Hippocampal Activity with Item Repetition during Continuous Recognition: An fMRI Study
Authors: Suzuki Maki , Johnson Jeffrey D. , Rugg Michael D.
Published: July 2010

fMRI (1.5 mm isotropic voxels) was employed to investigate the relationship between hippocampal activity and memory strength in a continuous recognition task. While being scanned, subjects were presented with colored photographs that each appeared on four occasions. The requirements were to make one response when an item was presented for the first or the third time and to make a different response when an item appeared for the second or the fourth time. Consistent with prior findings, items presented for the first time elicited greater hippocampal and parahippocampal activity than repeated items. The activity elicited by repeated items declined linearly as a function of number of presentations (“graded” new > old effects). No medial-temporal lobe regions could be identified where activity elicited by repeated items exceeded that for new items or where activity elicited by repeated items increased with number of presentations. These findings are inconsistent with the proposal that retrieval-related hippocampal activity is positively correlated with memory strength. We also identified graded new > old effects in several cortical regions outside the medial-temporal lobe, including the left retrosplenial/posterior cingulate cortex and the right lateral occipito-temporal cortex. By contrast, graded old > new effects were evident in bilateral mid-intraparietal sulcus and precuneus.
Control of Reflexive Saccades following Hemispherectomy
Authors: Reuter-Lorenz Patricia A. , Herter Troy M. , Guitton Daniel
Published: July 2010

Individuals who have undergone hemispherectomy for treatment of intractable epilepsy offer a rare and valuable opportunity to examine the ability of a single cortical hemisphere to control oculomotor performance. We used peripheral auditory events to trigger saccades, thereby circumventing dense postsurgical hemianopia. In an antisaccade task, patients generated numerous unintended short-latency saccades toward contralesional auditory events, indicating pronounced limitations in the ability of a single hemicortex to exert normal inhibitory control over ipsilateral (i.e., contralesional) reflexive saccade generation. Despite reflexive errors, patients retained an ability to generate correct antisaccades in both directions. The prosaccade task revealed numerous contralesional express saccades, a robust contralesional gap effect, but the absence of both effects for ipsilesional saccades. These results indicate limits to the saccadic control capabilities following hemispherectomy: A single hemicortex can mediate antisaccades in both directions, but plasticity does not extend fully to the bilateral inhibition of reflexive saccades. We posit that these effects are due to altered control dynamics that reduce the responsivity of the superior colliculus on the intact side and facilitate the release of an auditory-evoked ocular grasp reflex into the blind hemifield that the intact hemicortex has difficulty suppressing.
Effects of Selective Attention on Syntax Processing in Music and Language
Authors: Maidhof Clemens , Koelsch Stefan
Published: July 2010

The present study investigated the effects of auditory selective attention on the processing of syntactic information in music and speech using event-related potentials. Spoken sentences or musical chord sequences were either presented in isolation, or simultaneously. When presented simultaneously, participants had to focus their attention either on speech, or on music. Final words of sentences and final harmonies of chord sequences were syntactically either correct or incorrect. Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN), whose amplitude was decreased when music was simultaneously presented with speech, compared to when only music was presented. However, the amplitude of the ERAN-like waveform elicited when music was ignored did not differ from the conditions in which participants attended the chord sequences. Irregular sentences elicited an early left anterior negativity (ELAN), regardless of whether speech was presented in isolation, was attended, or was to be ignored. These findings suggest that the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of syntactic structure of music and speech operate partially automatically, and, in the case of music, are influenced by different attentional conditions. Moreover, the ERAN was slightly reduced when irregular sentences were presented, but only when music was ignored. Therefore, these findings provide no clear support for an interaction of neural resources for syntactic processing already at these early stages.
Biogeochemistry of the Amazonian Floodplains: Insights from Six End-Member Mixing Models*
Authors: Bustillo Vincent , Victoria Reynaldo Luiz , de Moura Jose Mauro Sousa , de Castro Victoria Daniel , Toledo Andre Marcondes Andrade , Collicchio Erich
Published: July 2010

The influence of Amazonian floodplains on the hydrological, sedimentary, and biogeochemical river budget was investigated along the Vargem Grande–Óbidos reach, by applying six mixing models based on variable regional and/or variable hydrological sources. By comparing the output of many different models designed for different purposes, the nature and the magnitude of processes linking water and biogeochemical budgets of the Amazonian floodplains were clarified. This study reveals that most of the chemical baseline of the Amazon River basin is acquired before the studied 2000-km Amazonian reach. However, the tight connection between the hydrograph stage of the river and the chemical signals provides insightful information on the dynamics of its floodplains. The chemical expression of biotic and abiotic processes occurring in the Amazonian floodplains can be particularly perceived during falling waters. It appears delayed in time compared to the maximum extension of submerged area, because the alternating water circulation polarity (filling versus emptying) between the main channel and the adjacent floodplains determines delayed emptying of floodplains during falling waters. It results also in a longer time of residence in the hydrograph network, which strengthens the rate of transformation of transiting materials and solutes. Biotic and biologically mediated processes tend to accentuate changes in river water chemistry initiated upstream, in each subbasin, along river corridors, indicating that processes operating downstream prolong those from upstream (e.g., floodplains of the large tributaries). Conversely, the flood wave propagation tends to lessen the seasonal variability as a result of the water storage in the floodplains, which admixes waters of distinct origins (in time and space). The morphology of floodplains, determining the deposition and the diagenesis of the sediments as well as the variable extension of submerged areas or the chronology of floodplains storage/emptying, appears to be the main factor controlling the floodplains biogeodynamics. By coupling classical end-member mixing models (providing insight on hydrological source) with a variable regional contribution scheme, relevant information on the biogeochemical budget of the Amazonian floodplains can be achieved.
Observational Characterization of the Downward Atmospheric Longwave Radiation at the Surface in the City of São Paulo
Authors: Barbaro Eduardo , Oliveira Amauri P. , Soares Jacyra , Codato Georgia , Ferreira Maurício J. , Mlakar Primož , Božnar Marija Z. , Escobedo João F.
Published: July 2010

This work describes the seasonal and diurnal variations of downward longwave atmospheric irradiance (LW) at the surface in São Paulo, Brazil, using 5-min-averaged values of LW, air temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation observed continuously and simultaneously from 1997 to 2006 on a micrometeorological platform, located at the top of a 4-story building. An objective procedure, including 2-step filtering and dome emission effect correction, was used to evaluate the quality of the 9-yr-long LW dataset. The comparison between LW values observed and yielded by the Surface Radiation Budget project shows spatial and temporal agreement, indicating that monthly and annual average values of LW observed in one point of São Paulo can be used as representative of the entire metropolitan region of São Paulo. The maximum monthly averaged value of the LW is observed during summer (389 ± 14 W m−2; January), and the minimum is observed during winter (332 ± 12 W m−2; July). The effective emissivity follows the LW and shows a maximum in summer (0.907 ± 0.032; January) and a minimum in winter (0.818 ± 0.029; June). The mean cloud effect, identified objectively by comparing the monthly averaged values of the LW during clear-sky days and all-sky conditions, intensified the monthly average LW by about 32.0 ± 3.5 W m−2 and the atmospheric effective emissivity by about 0.088 ± 0.024. In August, the driest month of the year in São Paulo, the diurnal evolution of the LW shows a minimum (325 ± 11 W m−2) at 0900 LT and a maximum (345 ± 12 W m−2) at 1800 LT, which lags behind (by 4 h) the maximum diurnal variation of the screen temperature. The diurnal evolution of effective emissivity shows a minimum (0.781 ± 0.027) during daytime and a maximum (0.842 ± 0.030) during nighttime. The diurnal evolution of all-sky condition and clear-sky day differences in the effective emissivity remain relatively constant (7% ± 1%), indicating that clouds do not change the emissivity diurnal pattern. The relationship between effective emissivity and screen air temperature and between effective emissivity and water vapor is complex. During the night, when the planetary boundary layer is shallower, the effective emissivity can be estimated by screen parameters. During the day, the relationship between effective emissivity and screen parameters varies from place to place and depends on the planetary boundary layer process. Because the empirical expressions do not contain enough information about the diurnal variation of the vertical stratification of air temperature and moisture in São Paulo, they are likely to fail in reproducing the diurnal variation of the surface emissivity. The most accurate way to estimate the LW for clear-sky conditions in São Paulo is to use an expression derived from a purely empirical approach.
Identification of Small Ice Cloud Particles Using Passive Radiometric Observations
Authors: Cooper Steven J. , Garrett Timothy J.
Published: July 2010

There is currently significant uncertainty about the extent to which cirrus clouds are composed of “small” ice crystals smaller than about 20-μm effective radius. This is due in part to concerns that in situ measurements from aircraft are plagued by ice particle shattering on instrument inlets, artificially negatively biasing effective radii. Here, space-based measurements are applied to the problem. It is found that a space-based infrared split-window technique is less sensitive but more accurate than a visible-near-infrared technique for confident assessment of whether thin cirrus clouds have small effective radii, independent of a normal range of retrieval assumptions. Because of the sensitivities of the infrared split-window technique, however, this method can only accurately determine the presence of small particles for ice clouds with optical depths between roughly 0.5 and 3.0. Applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, it is found that a very conservative minimum of 15%–20% of such thin cirrus globally are composed of small ice crystals, but that the actual value could be as high as 40%, and even higher for cold clouds or those in the tropics. Retrievals are found to be in good agreement with airborne probe measurements from the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers–Florida-Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) field campaign, implying that, for the cases examined, the impact of inlet shattering on measurements must have been limited.
African Dust over the Northern Tropical Atlantic: 1955–2008
Authors: Evan Amato T. , Mukhopadhyay Sujoy
Published: July 2010

African dust outbreaks are the result of complex interactions between the land, atmosphere, and oceans, and only recently has a large body of work begun to emerge that aims to understand the controls on—and impacts of—African dust. At the same time, long-term records of dust outbreaks are either inferred from visibility data from weather stations or confined to a few in situ observational sites. Satellites provide the best opportunity for studying the large-scale characteristics of dust storms, but reliable records of dust are generally on the scale of a decade or less. Here the authors develop a simple model for using modern and historical data from meteorological satellites, in conjunction with a proxy record for atmospheric dust, to extend satellite-retrieved dust optical depth over the northern tropical Atlantic Ocean from 1955 to 2008. The resultant 54-yr record of dust has a spatial resolution of 1° and a monthly temporal resolution. From analysis of the historical dust data, monthly tropical northern Atlantic dust cover is bimodal, has a strong annual cycle, peaked in the early 1980s, and shows minimums in dustiness during the beginning and end of the record. These dust optical depth estimates are used to calculate radiative forcing and heating rates from the surface through the top of the atmosphere over the last half century. Radiative transfer simulations show a large net negative dust forcing from the surface through the top of the atmosphere, also with a distinct annual cycle, and mean tropical Atlantic monthly values of the surface forcing range from −3 to −9 W m−2. Since the surface forcing is roughly a factor of 3 larger in magnitude than the top-of-the-atmosphere forcing, there is also a positive heating rate of the midtroposphere by dust.
Analysis and Reduction of Systematic Errors through a Seamless Approach to Modeling Weather and Climate
Authors: Martin G. M. , Milton S. F. , Senior C. A. , Brooks M. E. , Ineson S. , Reichler T. , Kim J.
Published: July 2010

The reduction of systematic errors is a continuing challenge for model development. Feedbacks and compensating errors in climate models often make finding the source of a systematic error difficult. In this paper, it is shown how model development can benefit from the use of the same model across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Two particular systematic errors are examined: tropical circulation and precipitation distribution, and summer land surface temperature and moisture biases over Northern Hemisphere continental regions. Each of these errors affects the model performance on time scales ranging from a few days to several decades. In both cases, the characteristics of the long-time-scale errors are found to develop during the first few days of simulation, before any large-scale feedbacks have taken place. The ability to compare the model diagnostics from the first few days of a forecast, initialized from a realistic atmospheric state, directly with observations has allowed physical deficiencies in the physical parameterizations to be identified that, when corrected, lead to improvements across the full range of time scales. This study highlights the benefits of a seamless prediction system across a wide range of time scales.
An Extended Solar Cycle 23 with Deep Minimum Transition to Cycle 24: Assessments and Climatic Ramifications
Authors: Agee Ernest M. , Cornett Emily , Gleason Kandace
Published: July 2010

The extended length of solar cycle 23 and the associated deep quiet period (QP) between cycles 23 and 24 have been examined using the international sunspot record from 1755 to 2010. This study has also introduced a QP definition based on a (beginning and ending) mean monthly threshold value of less than 10 for the sunspot number. Features addressed are the length and intensity of cycle 23, the length of the QP and the associated number of spotless days, and the respective relationships between cycle intensity, length, and QP. The length of cycle 23 (153 months) is second only to cycle 4 (164 months), with an average of 132.5 months for the 11-yr cycle. The length of the QP between cycles 23 and 24 ranks eighth, extending from October 2005 through November 2009 (but subject to continued weakness in cycle 24). The number of spotless days achieved within this QP was 751 (and for all days within the transition from cycle 23 to cycle24, a record number of 801 spotless days had been observed through May 2010). Shortcomings of solar-convection-model predictions of sunspot activity and intensity are also noted, including the failure in the initial predictions of cycle-24 onset. The relevance of an extended quiet solar period and the potential reduction of total solar irradiance (TSI) are also discussed, both in the context of climate-model simulations of future climate change as well as with regard to future satellite measurements of TSI.
Hindcasting the January 2009 Arctic Sudden Stratospheric Warming and Its Influence on the Arctic Oscillation with Unified Parameterization of Orographic Drag in NOGAPS. Part I: Extended-Range Stand-Alone Forecast
Authors: Kim Young-Joon , Flatau Maria
Published: July 2010

A very strong Arctic major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event occurred in late January 2009. The stratospheric temperature climbed abruptly and the zonal winds reversed direction, completely splitting the polar stratospheric vortex. A hindcast of this event is attempted by using the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), which includes the full stratosphere with its top at around 65 km. As Part I of this study, extended-range (3 week) forecast experiments are performed using NOGAPS without the aid of data assimilation. A unified parameterization of orographic drag is designed by combining two parameterization schemes; one by Webster et al., and the other by Kim and Arakawa and Kim and Doyle. With the new unified orographic drag scheme implemented, NOGAPS is able to reproduce the salient features of this Arctic SSW event owing to enhanced planetary wave activity induced by more comprehensive subgrid-scale orographic drag processes. The impact of the SSW on the tropospheric circulation is also investigated in view of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index, which calculated using 1000-hPa geopotential height. The NOGAPS with upgraded orographic drag physics better simulates the trend of the AO index as verified by the Met Office analysis, demonstrating its improved stratosphere–troposphere coupling. It is argued that the new model is more suitable for forecasting SSW events in the future and can serve as a tool for studying various stratospheric phenomena.
Supporting students with language learning difficulties in secondary schools through collaboration: The use of concept maps to investigate the impact on teachers’ knowledge of vocabulary teaching
Authors: Wilson Gemma , Nash Marysia , Earl Gill
Published: July 2010

Language difficulties persist in a proportion of young people first identified in their early school years (Bishop and Adams, 1990; Stothard et al., 1998), and speech and language therapy (SLT) within secondary education is a developing area of expertise. This article briefly describes the rationale for collaboration between teachers and SLT within mainstream classes to support students aged 11 years and over with language learning difficulties. One aspect of the collaborative practice — namely, vocabulary teaching using robust vocabulary instruction (Beck et al., 2002, 2008) — is described, together with a preliminary attempt, using concept maps (Novak, 1998), to gauge the impact of this collaboration on teacher understanding and thinking about vocabulary teaching. Using concept maps pre- and post-collaboration with three teachers it was possible to identify positive changes in teacher knowledge and understanding, which may have occurred as a result of the collaborative practice.
High-dose glycine impairs the prepulse inhibition measure of sensorimotor gating in humans
Authors: O’Neill BV , Croft RJ , Mann C , Dang O , Leung S , Galloway MP , Phan KL , Nathan PJ
Published: July 2010

An impaired capacity to filter or ‘gate’ sensory information is a core deficit in cognitive function associated with schizophrenia. These deficits have been linked in part to N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor dysfunction. An association between high levels of glycine, a positive allosteric modulator of the NMDA receptor, and sensorimotor gating impairments (i.e. prepulse inhibition (PPI) deficit) have been reported in animal models of schizophrenia as well as patients with schizophrenia.

This study examined the acute effects of modulating the glycine site of the NMDA receptor (with high-dose glycine) on sensory gating as measured by PPI. Sixteen healthy male subjects (final sample size of 12) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design in which each subject was tested under two acute treatment conditions separated by at least a 5-day washout period; placebo and 0.8 g/kg glycine. PPI was recorded 45 min post treatment using electromyography of the eye-blink response.

Relative to placebo, high-dose glycine significantly impaired sensorimotor gating as demonstrated by a decrease in PPI ( t(11) = −2.983, p < 0.05).

Administration of a high dose of glycine is associated with impairments in PPI supporting earlier observations in animals and patients with schizophrenia. This result, when taken together with findings in patients, suggests that high synaptic levels of glycine may have some clinically relevant detrimental effects and suggests a potential dissociation of clinical symptomatology and sensory information processing as a function of NMDA receptor modulation in schizophrenia.
Emotions Before Paradigms: Elite Anxiety and Populist Resentment from the Asian to Subprime Crises
Authors: Widmaier Wesley W.
Published: July 2010

Emotional forces shape not only market tendencies to ‘manias, panics and crashes’, but also policy debates as they predispose agents to definitions of state and societal interests. Nevertheless, IR scholars often downplay emotional influences, casting them as secondary to coalitional or cognitive forces. In this article, I address these limitations by disaggregating intersubjective understandings into popularly resonant traditions of thought and elite-based paradigmatic frameworks. Drawing on the insights of Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard Hofstadter, I then argue that elite anxieties regarding populism can engender the ‘technocratic repression’ of emotion from paradigmatic debates in ways that paradoxically render policy less stable and pragmatic. Firstly, such repression obscures the emotional bases of market trends and engenders overconfidence in the ability of monetary fine-tuning to restrain manias and to contain panics. Secondly, in isolating paradigmatic debate from everyday language, technocratic repression frustrates deliberation and can exacerbate populist resentments, requiring the construction of crises to advance change. Shifting to an empirical focus, I suggest that tendencies to technocratic repression in the 1990s and early 21st century engendered overconfidence in monetary fine-tuning. In the post-subprime context, the key question is the extent to which this bias in favour of monetary policy has been reversed, or whether constructions of the subprime crisis have legitimated a revived regulatory stress. In sum, this analysis highlights the reality of emotion as an influence on the international political economy.
Geographies of money and finance I: Cultural economy, politics and place
Authors: Hall Sarah
Published: July 2010

In this report, I review the intersection between cultural economy and economic geography research on money and finance. To date, economic geographers have engaged most extensively with cultural economy work on the calculative practices that (re)produce the international financial system. However, I argue that there is scope for economic geography to broaden its engagement with this literature by developing understandings of the co-constitutive relationship between variegated geographical contexts and calculative practices. Such an approach is valuable because it responds to calls for cultural economy research to consider the political and normative dimensions of money and finance more fully.
The response and role of ice cover in lake-climate interactions
Authors: Brown Laura C. , Duguay Claude R.
Published: July 2010

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge pertaining to the interactions of lake ice and climate. Lake ice has been shown to be sensitive to climate variability through observations and modelling, and both long-term and short-term trends have been identified from ice records. Ice phenology trends have typically been associated with variations in air temperatures while ice thickness trends tend to be associated more to changes in snow cover. The role of ice cover in the regional climate is less documented and with longer ice-free seasons possible as a result of changing climate conditions, especially at higher latitudes, the effects of lakes on their surrounding climate (such as increased evaporation, lake-effect snow and thermal moderation of surrounding areas, for example) can be expected to become more prominent. The inclusion of lakes and lake ice in climate modelling is an area of increased attention in recent studies. An important step in improving predictions of ice conditions in models is the assimilation of remote sensing data in areas where in-situ data is lacking, or non-representative of the lake conditions. The ability to accurately represent ice cover on lakes will be an important step in the improvement of global circulation models, regional climate models and numerical weather forecasting.
Programs promoting reading in Spanish prisons
Authors: Pérez Pulido Margarita
Published: July 2010

This paper focuses on a series of studies and findings that document the effectiveness of reading and writing as a tool for the rehabilitation of disadvantaged population groups, including incarcerated people. Today, programs that raise awareness of and encourage reading in prison have been implemented in many countries around the world, but the specific nature and content of these programs, as well as the extent to which they are actually functioning, differ among countries according to both the cultural and legal contexts. Hence the importance of the current analysis of the situation in Spain, which draws attention to the most recent and effective techniques and their application for possible future comparative studies. With this objective, the author identifies examples of best practices, analyzes methodologies, and examines the extent of innovation demonstrated by these programs within the unique prison environment, as well as in the context of the Spanish cultural and legal framework.
In search of marketing excellence in libraries: The IFLA International Marketing Award
Authors: Gupta Dinesh K. , Koontz Christie , McAdam Daisy
Published: July 2010

To recognize libraries in the global community that develop and implement effective marketing programs, the Management and Marketing Section of the IFLA joined to create and sponsor the IFLA International Marketing Award. The IFLA International Marketing Award honours organizations which implement results-oriented marketing projects or campaigns. Three finalists are recognized for their outstanding achievements. From these three finalists, the winner is chosen and is announced in the Press Conference of the IFLA General Assembly and Congress. The IFLA Award was introduced in 2002, attracting 218 applications from 49 countries during the last eight years. The paper discusses the award, its history and geographical representation, winning projects with comments from winners. The analysis is based on the data collected for the seven years of Award applications (2002—2009). The results for the Award for 2010 have also been included.
A Tale of Two Sitings: Contentious Politics in Liquefied Natural Gas Facility Siting in California
Authors: Schaffer Boudet Hilary , Ortolano Leonard
Published: July 2010

The siting of large industrial facilities represents a difficult planning problem. Despite decades of experience and research on siting, many of the same patterns of conflict persist. We focus on four factors drawn largely from the study of social movements—threat, political opportunity, resources and appropriation, and loss of trust—to explain the mobilization efforts of project opponents in two cases of attempts to site liquefied natural gas terminals in California. Findings from these cases indicate that either a significant endowment of resources or a combination of threat and political opportunity is important for mobilization.
A Realist Evaluation Approach to Unpacking the Impacts of the Sentencing Guidelines
Authors: Hunt Kim Steven , Sridharan Sanjeev
Published: July 2010

Evaluations of complex interventions such as sentencing guidelines provide an opportunity to understand the mechanisms by which policies and programs can impact intermediate and long-term outcomes. There is limited previous discussion of the underlying frameworks by which sentencing guidelines can impact outcomes such as crime rates. Guided by a realist evaluation framework, this article examines the impact of linkages of sentencing policy to resource capacity—a cost-control paradigm under which a few states created guidelines to control rising prison populations and expenditures. Additionally, we argue that the moderating influence of this linkage will depend on the severity of the crime. A key conclusion is that in addition to social science theory, evaluation theory is needed to understand how programs work; there is a greater need for identifying conditions under which policies work or do not work. We find the realist approach as a promising approach to build such knowledge.
Garnering Grantee Buy-In on a National Cross-Site Evaluation: The Case of ConnectHIV
Authors: Rogers Susan J. , Ahmed Marie , Hamdallah Myriam , Little Stacey
Published: July 2010

Grantees on national projects are often required by their funders to take part in evaluation activities. While the requirement can encourage compliance, grantees can feel overburdened and disempowered with their evaluation experience. Evaluators in a national cross-site evaluation utilized multiple strategies for obtaining buy-in of participating grantees: (1) an initial evaluation needs assessment to foster a collaborative partnership and inform a plan for capacity building; (2) an ‘evaluation summit’ to facilitate input on the evaluation framework and cross-site measures, encourage relationship-building and evaluation ownership; (3) an Evaluation Advisory Committee to further on-going input and negotiations on evaluation methods and measures; (4) tailored and timely evaluation technical assistance to build capacity and promote peer exchange; and (5) integration of technology (PDAs) to alleviate data collection burden and improve data quality. Use of these methods increased overall grantee trust in the evaluators and buy-in on the evaluation, their increased capacity in evaluation, their expected future investment in evaluation and the availability of data to benefit their agency and clients. It also resulted in the development of acceptable outcomes, measures and instruments for the evaluation, timely IRB approval and increased quality and timeliness of collected data over time. While labor-intensive and challenging, the evaluators found that frequent and creative engagement of stakeholders in the evaluation yielded important benefits both for the evaluators and for grantees. Although these methodologies have direct relevance for evaluators working on large multisite evaluations, they are also applicable to evaluators who are working on smaller, single-site assessments.
Parents’ Experiences One Year On from Their Child’s Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for Primary Immunodeficiency
Authors: McdDowell Elizabeth , Titman Penny , Davidson Sarah
Published: July 2010

This study explored parental experience one year after hematopoietic stem cell transplant for primary immunodeficiency. Eight parents whose child had undergone transplant were interviewed one year after their child’s transplant. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes emerged: parents’ paradoxical existence within an ‘abnormal normality’; isolation felt by parents; gender differences between mothers and fathers; and the ‘positive growth’ parents attribute to their experience. As well as describing stressful or traumatic experiences they identified aspects of post-traumatic growth. The methodology used allowed contrasting experiences to emerge and highlights the importance of follow-up for parents as well as children.
Cultural Production and the Generative Matrix
Authors: Straw Will
Published: July 2010

This article engages with several of the key issues raised by Georgina Born in her article in this issue. It begins with a consideration of the emphasis on ‘production’ in Born’s piece, and argues that production studies are marked by an attentiveness to complexity that is often absent in studies of cultural reception. This response engages polemically with Born’s call for a cultural analysis that includes moments of critical judgement, and argues against approaches to culture that are centrally concerned with questions of human creativity.
The Autopoiesis of the Artworld after the End of Art
Authors: Schinkel Willem
Published: July 2010

This article critically adapts and applies the views of Niklas Luhmann on the social system of art. Luhmann’s systems theory does not have an adequate account of ‘the artworld’. Yet by conceiving of the artworld as an autopoietic social system, Luhmann’s highly original work can be brought to bear in the sociology of art. This article applies that work by reviewing some historical changes in the autoreference of the artworld as a social system and the type of reference of works of art in the same periods. While 20th-century art saw the dominance of autoreference, which replaced a century-old mimetic reference to reality (social, natural or transcendent), current art seems to be moving in the direction of ‘defamiliarization’, taking social reality as its referent. While some philosophers have noted the ‘end of art’, contemporary art seems to be moving more in the direction of some form of sociology.
Infection prevention and management by community pharmacists
Authors: Woodford Guegan EM
Published: July 2010

This paper reviews the wide-ranging activities of community pharmacists in infection management. Community pharmacists (sometimes referred to as “high street” or “retail” pharmacists) are the general first port of call for patients and as such provide an important public health service. Alongside their secondary care counterparts these staff are actively engaged in advising patients about common and minor infections and selling certain antimicrobial medications. Their frequent contact with patients means that they also play an active role in encouraging good compliance with prescribed anti-infective agents and in resolving any resultant side effects. Newer roles include providing vaccination services and helping to prevent infection in drug misusers.
Infection management by hospital pharmacists
Authors: Woodford Guegan EM , Jamieson CE
Published: July 2010

This paper reviews the wide-ranging activities of hospital pharmacists in infection management. Hospital pharmacists share many roles with primary care colleagues within the area of infection prevention and control including advising on the management of self limiting infectious diseases such as influenza. However, this paper reviews other specialist hospital activities including clinical pharmacy, technical services and medicines information.
The Influence of Late-Night TV Comedy Viewing on Political Talk: A Moderated-Mediation Model
Authors: Landreville Kristen D. , Holbert R. Lance , LaMarre Heather L.
Published: July 2010

This study is focused on the influence of late-night TV comedy viewing on political talk. It is posited that debate viewing serves as a mediator of this relationship, and age is argued to be a moderator of the association between late-night TV comedy viewing and debate viewing. More specific to age, it is hypothesized that the predictive value of late-night TV comedy for political debate consumption will be greater for those audience members who are younger. A secondary analysis of 2004 national Annenberg debate panel data provides evidence of a positive indirect effect of late-night TV comedy viewing on political talk through debate viewing, and the moderator of age functioned as predicted. Thus, this study details a series of positive unintended consequences of late-night TV comedy viewing on what are defined normatively as positive democratic communicative activities (i.e., debate viewing, political discussion), and these media effects are stronger the younger the voter.
On the Contextual Independence of Personality
Authors: Nave Christopher S. , Sherman Ryne A. , Funder David C. , Hampson Sarah E. , Goldberg Lewis R.
Published: July 2010

The continuity of personality’s association with directly observed behavior is demonstrated across two contexts spanning four decades. During the 1960s, elementary school teachers rated personalities of members of the ethnically diverse Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort. The same individuals were interviewed in a medical clinic more than 40 years later. Trained coders viewed video recordings of a subset of these interviews ( N = 144; 68 female, 76 male) and assessed the behavior they observed using the Riverside Behavioral Q-sort Version 3. Children rated by their teachers as “verbally fluent” (defined as unrestrained talkativeness) showed dominant and socially adept behavior as middle-aged adults. Early “adaptability” was associated with cheerful and intellectually curious behavior, early “impulsivity” was associated with later talkativeness and loud speech, and early-rated tendencies to “self-minimize” were related to adult expressions of insecurity and humility.
Spatiotemporal organization, regulation, and functions of tractions during neutrophil chemotaxis
Authors: Shin Myung Eun , He Yuan , Li Dong , Na Sungsoo , Chowdhury Farhan , Poh Yeh-Chuin , Collin Olivier , Su Pei , de Lanerolle Primal , Schwartz Martin A. , Wang Ning , Wang Fei
Published: July 2010

Despite recent advances in our understanding of biochemical regulation of neutrophil chemotaxis, little is known about how mechanical factors control neutrophils' persistent polarity and rapid motility. Here, using a human neutrophil-like cell line and human primary neutrophils, we describe a dynamic spatiotemporal pattern of tractions during chemotaxis. Tractions are located at both the leading and the trailing edge of neutrophils, where they oscillate with a defined periodicity. Interestingly, traction oscillations at the leading and the trailing edge are out of phase with the tractions at the front leading those at the back, suggesting a temporal mechanism that coordinates leading edge and trailing edge activities. The magnitude and periodicity of tractions depend on the activity of nonmuscle myosin IIA. Specifically, traction development at the leading edge requires myosin light chain kinase-mediated myosin II contractility and is necessary for α5β1-integrin activation and leading edge adhesion. Localized myosin II activation induced by spatially activated small GTPase Rho, and its downstream kinase p160-ROCK, as previously reported, leads to contraction of actin-myosin II complexes at the trailing edge, causing it to de-adhere. Our data identify a key biomechanical mechanism for persistent cell polarity and motility.