bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perception of Direct‐To‐Consumer Genetic Testing and Direct‐To‐Consumer Advertising of Genetic Tests among Members of a Large Managed Care Organization
Authors: Rahm Alanna Kulchak , Feigelson Heather Spencer , Wagner Nicole , Le Anh Quynh , Halterman Eve , Cornish Nadine , Dearing James W.
Published: January 2012

This small qualitative study was designed to determine possible attitudes toward and understanding of direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) genetic testing among members of a large managed care organization, and whether differences might exist between population groups. Ten focus groups were conducted by population type (high risk, White, African American, Hispanic/Latino) to determine knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about DTC genetics. Focus group transcripts were coded for attitudes toward and framing of the issue. Study results found participants were negative towards DTC genetic testing but they also found some aspects useful. Participants framed the issue mainly in terms of disease prevention and uncertainty of reaction to results, with some variation between population types. The concept of an “Informed Consumer,” or process to seek information when the issue becomes personally relevant, emerged. This concept suggests that individuals may seek additional assistance to make personally‐appropriate choices when faced with a DTC advertisement or genetic test.
Couples’ Coping in Prodromal Huntington Disease: A Mixed Methods Study
Authors: Downing Nancy R. , Williams Janet K. , Leserman Anne L. , Paulsen Jane S.
Published: January 2012

Huntington disease (HD) includes a prodromal phase with behavioral, cognitive, and motor function decline occurring up to 15 years prior to diagnosis. This study used mixed methods to examine how people in the prodromal phase and their companions coped with noticed changes. Twenty‐three couples completed a semi‐structured interview and Brief COPE. Participants with prodromal HD used acceptance, emotional support, and planning most frequently; companions used acceptance, planning, and active coping. Least frequently used coping strategies for each were denial, behavioral disengagement, and substance use. Qualitative interviews revealed coping strategies not included in the Brief COPE. Participants with prodromal HD used prescription medications, coping as a couple, hope, and self‐monitoring; companions used hope and helping their partners. Many of the coping procedures were rated as effective, especially when changes were not severe. Couples may benefit from counseling that emphasizes using active coping strategies for changes that can be compensated for and acceptance for changes that cannot in prodromal HD. Findings from this study may be helpful for counseling patients and significant others facing other neurodegenerative conditions with prodromal or early phases, such as Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease.
Black-White Disparities in Life Expectancy: How Much Can the Standard SES Variables Explain?
Authors: Geruso Michael
Published: January 2012

This article quantifies the extent to which socioeconomic and demographic characteristics can account for black-white disparities in life expectancy in the United States. Although many studies have investigated the linkages between race, socioeconomic status, and mortality, this article is the first to measure how much of the life expectancy gap remains after differences in mortality are purged of the compositional differences in socioeconomic characteristics between blacks and whites. The decomposition is facilitated by a reweighting technique that creates counterfactual estimation samples in which the distribution of income, education, employment and occupation, marital status, and other theoretically relevant variables among blacks is made to match the distribution of these variables among whites. For males, 80% of the black-white gap in life expectancy at age 1 can be accounted for by differences in socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. For females, 70% percent of the gap is accounted for. Labor force participation, occupation, and (among women only) marital status have almost no additional power to explain the black-white disparity in life expectancy after precise measures for income and education are controlled for.
Gallbladder Needle Decompression during Radiofrequency Ablation of an Adjacent Liver Tumour
Authors: Fernandes Dellano D. , Shyn Paul B. , Silverman Stuart G.
Published: January 2012

Gallbladder perforation with bile leak can result from thermal injury during radiofrequency ablation of liver tumours. Two case studies demonstrate a technique for preventing gallbladder injury to the peritoneal surface of a distended gallbladder adjacent to the anticipated hepatic ablation zone. The use of percutaneous gallbladder needle decompression can safely separate or retract the peritoneal surface of the gallbladder from a contiguous hepatic radiofrequency ablation zone.
GETTING READY FOR THE MARRIAGE MARKET? A REJOINDER
Authors: GRIMPS FLORIAN , SCHNEIDER BJÖRN
Published: January 2012

There is an obvious need for better understanding of people's motives for body weight change, due to the importance of the health-related, social and economic consequences of obesity. In particular, exploration of little-discussed social aspects could provide further insights, but requires, however, close examination. This also applies to the study of the effect of marriage-market-related incentives and divorce risks on individual body mass index (BMI). Nevertheless, the ongoing debate about whether and to what extent the risk of divorce influences the body constitution of middle-aged individuals has as yet failed to mature into a common agreement. This paper will therefore re-examine theoretical assumptions and statistical calculations to clarify still contentious points. Finally, the results of this study suggest once more that there is no significant relationship between country-specific divorce risk and BMI among married individuals in Europe.
XXI. An Account of the Latter Years of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell: his Imprisonment and Death in Denmark, and the Disinterment of his presumed Remains; in a Letter to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.S.A., from the Rev. R. S. Ellis, M.A., Chaplain to Her Majesty's Legation at Copenhagen
Authors: Ellis R. S.
Published: January 2012

My dear Uncle,—For some years past I have occupied my leisure time in collecting information of such of my countrymen as have dwelt in Denmark, or of whom memorials may here be found. These have been partly made use of in a small work entitled “Copenhagen and its Environs,” published by me a few years ago for the use of English travellers.
XXVI. Notices of John Lord Stanhope of Harrington, with reference to certain Letters to him, communicated to the Society by the Earl Stanhope, President, and by Richard Almack, Esq. F.S.A.; together with some Account of Sir Thomas Holcroft and Sir John Wotton, the writers of two of those Letters
Authors: Corner George R.
Published: January 2012

On the 17th of June, 1858, several interesting original letters of and to members of the Stanhope family, in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James I., were communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Richard Almack, Esq. F.S.A., but, being produced late in the evening of the last meeting of the season, I think they hardly received so much attention as they deserved. Among those letters were several to John Lord Stanhope of Harrington, to whom was addressed the highly interesting letter communicated to the Society by our noble President, and read, with observations by Robert Lemon, Esq. F.S.A., on the 22nd December last.
XXVIII.—Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet
Authors: Akerman John Yonge
Published: January 2012

In attempting to investigate the origin and history of the bayonet, we encounter, at the outset, considerable difficulty; even the derivation of its name is involved in obscurity. In the dictionary of Cotgrave, first published in 1611, we find, “Bayonnette, a kind of small flat pocket-dagger, furnished with knives; or a great knife to hang at the girdle, like a dagger.” The same authority gives us “Bayonnier, as arbalestier (an old word).” In the “Glossaire de la Langue Romane,” of Roquefort, “Baionier” is explained as a crossbow-man. Neither of these words occurs in the dictionary of Palsgrave, published in 1530.
XIX.—Notes on the Imagery of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster
Authors: Micklethwaite John Thomas
Published: January 2012

The Chapel of King Henry the Seventh, orbis miraculum, as Leland calls it, has passed through troublous times with less injury to itself than most of our ecclesiastical buildings have, and than its especially exposed position might lead us to expect; and it still possesses much of the rich furniture and decorations with which it was originally fitted up. Amongst the latter, of one hundred and seven stone images in niches which once adorned the interior, not less than ninety-five remain, and of the twelve missing ones, we can discover the subjects of some, and explain the absence of all. The outside was once also rich in images, as the empty niches still testify, and they seem to have stood there until the beginning of the last century. I have not found the exact date of their removal, but Dart says they were “taken away lest they should fall upon the heads of those who attend the Parliament.” They were forty-eight in number, the six eastern turrets having four niches apiece, and the eight others three. The outside of the Chapel is all new, but is a very good copy for the time when it was done. The pedestal under each niche has a scroll, with a name, as it were that of the figure formerly above, but, I fear, not worth much as evidence of what was originally there. The selection has a very modern look, and there seems to be no system of arrangement. Apostles, prophets, and kings are mixed up in the most complete confusion; but the apostles and evangelists are all there, as are the greater and lesser prophets.
XXI.—The Diamond Signet of Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I
Authors: Fortnum Charles Drury Edward
Published: January 2012

It has long been known that King Charles I. of England, some two years or little more after his accession to the throne and marriage with Henrietta Maria, a daughter of Prance, ordered that a diamond should be engraved with his arms, as a signet, designing it probably for his Queen's private use.

Although such signet has been lost sight of and forgotten, the record still exists of payment made to the artist for executing the work, and from it alone have we hitherto derived that knowledge.
XXV.—On a Wall-Tainting discovered at Westminster Abbey in 1882
Authors: Middleton John Henry
Published: January 2012

A discovery was made this afternoon in part of the monastic buildings of Westminster Abbey, which appears to me to be of sufficient interest to be worth laying before the Society of Antiquaries.
XXVI.—On Two Bronze Fragments of an unknown object, portions of the Petrie Collection, in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
Authors: Stokes Margaret
Published: January 2012

It is now twenty-three years since Mr. John Mitchell Kemble, in an address delivered before the Royal Irish Academy, drew attention to a small bronze object of unknown use in the museum of Dr. Petrie in Dublin. I have to acknowledge with much regret that so long a time has been allowed to elapse, and yet no illustration or complete description of this object has yet appeared; and I beg to offer the Society my sincere thanks for the opportunity now afforded of submitting to your consideration such drawings and photographs as I have been able to obtain of this interesting relic.
XXVIII.—On an unexplained Figure in Henry the Seventh's Chapel
Authors: Micklethwaite John Thomas
Published: January 2012

When some time ago I was describing the figures in Henry the Seventh's Chapel to the Society, there was one which I was unable to explain, but which had so many distinguishing marks that I suggested that it must be the image of All Hallows which the people of South Cave, in Yorkshire, wanted in 1495. The suggestion was not then made seriously, and was not printed with the description. I now, however, venture to repeat it, with a few remarks intended to show that this may after all be the true explanation of the figure.
VII.—On a Votive Painting of St. George and the Dragon, with kneeling Figures of Henry VII., his Queen and Children, formerly at Strawberry Hill, and now in the possession of Her Majesty the Queen
Authors: Scharf George
Published: January 2012

The Picture which, by Her Majesty's gracious permission, is exhibited before the Society this evening, may be regarded as one of the accepted landmarks of historical painting in England.

The grouping of the figures has been made familiar to all students of art by a well executed line engraving taken from the picture in 1762, by Ch. Grignion, and published in the 4to. edition of Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting issued at that date. This was copied on a somewhat smaller scale by Ph. Audinet for the Rev. James Dallaway's edition of the Anecdotes published in 1826, and employed again in the more amplified reprint annotated by Ralph Nicholson Wornum in 1849. The plate which accompanies this paper is a photographic reproduction of a choice impression of Grignion's original engraving in 1762.
X.—Gundulf's Tower at Rochester, and the first Norman Cathedral Church there
Authors: Hope W.H. St. John
Published: January 2012

The first Norman cathedral church erected at Rochester was a building presenting remarkable, and in some respects unique, features. Though very little of the original fabric remains above ground, discoveries made from time to time, and fortunately put on record, enable us to ascertain its precise extent. Its documentary history, too, is fairly clear.
XII.—Remarks on the Dorian Peninsula and Gulf, with Notes on a Temple of Latona there
Authors: Spratt T.A.B.
Published: January 2012

The south-western extremity of Asia Minor, opposite the Island of Cos and Rhodes, is noted for a remarkable promontory, extending nearly east and west towards the former island for a length of thirty-seven miles.

The promontory separates two gulfs, the northern one being the ancient Ceramicus Sinus, but now called the Grulf of Boudroum (from the Turkish town and castle of Boudroum, occupying the site of the celebrated city of Halicarnassus within it), and the Southern the Dorian Gulf.
XIII.—Antiquarian Researches at Civita Lavinia
Authors: Lumley John Savile
Published: January 2012

Before offering a description of the interesting, although as yet incomplete, results of the excavations which I undertook last year at Civita Lavinia at the suggestion of my friend Mr. Pullan, and which I am still carrying on there, I will briefly recapitulate such particulars of the topographical position and historical notices of the ancient city of Lanuvium, which formerly occupied the site of our present researches, as are necessary for the appreciation of my subject.
XV.—The Temple and Atrium of Vesta and the Regia
Authors: Middleton John Henry
Published: January 2012

Before describing the very interesting remains of these buildings recently brought to light, it may be well to give a short account of the worship of Vesta and the rules relating to her priestesses.

This cult was (according to tradition) brought to Rome from Alba Long, either in the reign of Romulus or of Numa.
XVI.—The Rostra and the Graecostasis, with the Umbilicus Romae and the Milliarium Aureum
Authors: Middleton John Henry
Published: January 2012

The recent removal of the road which ran across the Forum Romanum by the Arch of Severus has at last brought to light the whole of the existing remains of the Rostra, and finally settled the oft-disputed question as to the size and form of this historically most interesting structure. The original Rostra stood on a different site; they were on the north side of the Forum Romanum, and were constructed the Comitium, which was a paved area in front of the Curia, probably surrounded by a rail or low screen. There is very strong evidence to show that the church of St. Adriano is the Curia as it was finally rebuilt by Diocletian; the brick-facing of the front of this building, with its enriched mouldings of fine hard stucco (opus albarium), is clearly work of the time of Diocletian; even in minute details it corresponds with certain parts of the Thermae of that emperor. The Comitium then must have been in the space between St. Adriano and the Arch of Severus—now occupied by a modern road, which buries the original level to the depth of about twenty feet. It appears to have been a paved area, not raised above the Forum but a few steps below it.
XVIII.—On a Military Decoration relating to the Roman Conquest of Britain
Authors: Evans John
Published: January 2012

Any discovery connected with the Roman Conquest of Britain is of such general as well as antiquarian interest that I need no apology for calling the attention of the Society to a remarkable relic recording the success of the Roman invaders, even though it will not be now described for the first time.
XIV.—On a Late-Celtic Urn-Field at Aylesford, Kent, and on the Gaulish, Illyro-Italic, and Classical Connexions of the Forms of Pottery and Bronze-work there discovered
Authors: Evans Arthur John
Published: January 2012

In November, 1886, being at Aylesford in company with my father Dr. John Evans and with Dr. Sebastian Evans, we paid a visit to the sand and gravel pit belonging to Messrs. Silas Wagon and Son, our immediate object being to search for palaeolithic implements which had been discovered at this spot. Our attention was then called to another and highly interesting discovery that had just been made whilst removing the surface earth, which here to a depth of about three feet covers the old river deposits. This consisted of a bronze pail or situla (fig. 11), and a small fragment of another, an ænochoê (fig. 14), a long-handled pan or patella (fig. 16), and two fibulæ (figs. 17, 18), also of bronze, together with calcined bones and fragments of earthenware vases. On examination the situla proved to be a characteristic example of that peculiar style of art which had taken root in Britain during the century or so that preceded the Roman Conquest, and to which Mr. Franks has given the name of “Late-Celtic.” The ænochoê, or bronze vase, the pan and fibulæ were also of great interest as representing imported specimens of late Greek or Italian fabrics. The earthenware vases themselves exhibited an elegance of form and a style of manufacture such as had not yet been associated with British remains in this country, and which, as I hope to show, point not less distinctly to Gaulish and in a somewhat remoter degree to North Italian connexions.
XVII.—Notes on a recent discovery of part of the Roman Wall of London
Authors: Fox George E.
Published: January 2012

The following notes, mostly made on the spot, record the discovery of a further portion of the Roman wall of London, and give such details respecting its construction as it has been possible to observe.

The Government having determined to erect additional buildings to the General Post Office in St. Martin's le Grand, certain steps were taken in order to ascertain the nature of the ground on which these buildings were to be placed. For this purpose, in the latter part of 1887, shafts were sunk along a line from Aldersgate Street to King Edward Street, some yards south of the old money order office and parallel to Bull and Mouth Street, a street now swept away. In sinking these pits the workmen came upon the Roman wall, and afterwards, as the process of preparing the site for the new buildings proceeded, a considerable fragment of it was unearthed running east and west, and extending from Aidersgate Street on the one side to King Edward Street on the other. It was found that the line of buildings and walls forming the southern boundary of the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldersgate Street, was based upon this wall, and it seems very probable that the churchyard and church above named partly occupy the ground filling up the original ditch.
XX.—On a Roman villa in Spoonley Wood, Gloucestershire; and on Romano-British houses generally
Authors: Middleton J. Henry
Published: January 2012

This recently discovered Roman villa stands at the foot of a hill, in a very beautiful situation, in one of the valleys of the Cotswold hills, about three miles from Winchcombe, in Spoonley Wood.

This elevated and yet sheltered district, with its rich soil and fine timber, appears to have been a favourite place of residence for wealthy Romans.

Remains of several other houses of Roman date have been found within a short distance of Spoonley, and no doubt many others still remain hidden below the soil.
XXI.—On a MS. Pontifical of a Bishop of Metz of the Fourteenth Century
Authors: Dewick E. S.
Published: January 2012

By the courtesy of our Fellow Thomas Brooke, Esq. a MS. Pontifical is exhibited, with pictured subjects of great beauty and in a splendid state of preservation. It has been briefly described in the Catalogue of the Brooke Library under thetitle Pontificate Romanum and is there set down as the work ofan English scribe, and assigned to the thirteenth century, but it will be presently seen that this description needs revision.
Accounts of the New Madrid Earthquakes: Personal Narratives across Two Centuries of North American Seismology
Authors: Valencius Conevery Bolton
Published: January 2012

Argument

The New Madrid earthquakes shook much of North America in the winter of 1811–1812. Accounts of the New Madrid earthquakes originally were collected and employed as scientific evidence in the early nineteenth century. These early accounts were largely ignored when scientific instruments promised more quantitative and exact knowledge. Years later the earthquakes themselves became both more important and less understood because of changes in scientific models. Today, so-called intraplate or stable continental region earthquakes pose a significant problem in seismology. Historical accounts of the New Madrid events offer some of the most significant examples upon which researchers can draw and form the basis for debates over present public policy. The changing function of accounts, from narrative elements of widely-shared scientific discussion, to raw data, and back into wide-ranging conversation once again, demonstrates both deep ruptures and surprising continuities during two centuries of understanding the earth and its movement.
Editorial: Critical Turning Points
Authors: ASTON ELAINE
Published: January 2012

In July 2010 at the IFTR World Congress held in Munich, I sat listening to Helen Gilbert's keynote address: ‘Making Modernity: Indigenous Theatre and Salvage Ethnography’. Aside from the insightful specificities of Gilbert's topic, I was taken immediately by her methodological approach, which involved sifting back through reflections gained from postcolonial cultural studies, sharing the impulse of this work to look at cultures through a transversal lens and to posit their folding together through space and time, this with a view, for example, to challenging received ideas of indigenous cultures as traditional, the West as modern, and so forth. Broadly speaking, both the paper and the Q & A that followed it offered a timely and salutary reminder of how knowledge generation is often a sedimentary process: over time certain ideas get deposited and are endlessly mined; others get washed away or eroded. Moreover, this also means that we can find ourselves digging the same old theoretical spaces without looking at the local sites of theatre, performance or culture in ways that might persuade us to excavate elsewhere with different tools and methods. In brief, critical strategies, such as Gilbert's, that variously encourage us to revisit, rethink, rearrange, reconceptualize or recover are important strategies to keep in mind as means to renew and progress our contributions to bodies of theatre and performance knowledge.
Class and Performance in the Age of Global Capitalism
Authors: MURPHY PAUL
Published: January 2012

This article addresses the relative absence of class-based analysis in theatre and performance studies, and suggests the reconfiguration of class as performance rather than as it is traditionally conceived as an identity predicated solely on economic stratification. It engages with the occlusion of class by the ascendancy of identity politics based on race, gender and sexuality and its attendant theoretical counterparts in deconstruction and post-structuralism, which became axiomatic as they displaced earlier methodologies to become hegemonic in the arts and humanities. The article proceeds to an assessment of the development of sociological approaches to theatre, particularly the legacy of Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu. The argument concludes with the application of an approach which reconfigures class as performance to the production of Declan Hughes's play Shiver of 2003, which dramatizes the consequences of the dot.com bubble of the late 1990s for ambitious members of the Irish middle class.
Identity Politics in Women's Performance in Japan
Authors: ANAN NOBUKO
Published: January 2012

In Japan, it was in the mid-1970s when women artists started to create their own professional theatre companies. This period also saw the development of the women's liberation movement in Japan, but there was no exchange between women theatre artists and activists. While the women artists explored a variety of issues in their work, with some few exceptions feminism was not their primary concern. This trend continues to this day, and accounts for why Tadashi Uchino argues that there has been no feminist theatre in Japan.
Identity Issues in German Feminist Movements and Theatre
Authors: SIEG KATRIN
Published: January 2012

Identity politics, understood as the analysis of the ways in which social roles are inscribed on the body, affects and behaviour, and in which collective experiences of oppression also produce resistant practices, informed German feminisms and performances during the 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, major feminist playwrights have shifted into literary production, or abandoned gender as their central critical concern in view of other urgent issues that arose after reunification, including historical revisionism, economic restructuring, rising racism and xenophobia, and globalization fears. Younger white artists playfully unbundled gender and sex and supported the postfeminist consensus that feminist identity politics had become obsolete. The work of Bridge Markland, which can be found on YouTube, emblematizes a burgeoning transgender and drag culture that was transnationalized through film, video, photography exhibitions and workshops. In this critical vacuum, immigrant and minority women were saddled with intensifying, ever more essentialist discourses of gender and ethnic difference, and continued to grapple with them through deconstructive and historicizing, as well as essentializing, deployments of identity.
The Unsafe Spaces of Theatre and Feminism in India
Authors: DUTT BISHNUPRIYA
Published: January 2012

In April 2011, after thirty-five years in power, the left-oriented progressive rule in Bengal, India, was brought down. Masterminding the overthrow was Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee has enjoyed a political career spanning over twenty years, during which time she has succeeded in maintaining a high public profile in the media and public sphere to become Bengal's first ‘woman’ chief minister. Surprisingly, during her campaign Banerjee neither asserted her identity as a woman nor as the non-feminine, monstrous presence of the public woman (à la Indira Ghandi's media presence in the 1970s), but rather performed a non-threatening, gender-neutral didi (elder sister in Bengali). I attribute this ‘smooth’ identity construction to a comfortable entente between a Western globalized visual culture, indigenous images commodified and circulating on the periphery, and the sudden expansion of electronic media. The convergence of all these factors served to create a non-dialectical identity construction which stood against all feminist politics or, as I would call it, feminism with a political imagination.
Seed banking in ancient forest species: why total sampled area really matters
Authors: Plue Jan , Thompson Ken , Verheyen Kris , Hermy Martin
Published: January 2012

This study investigates how methodological aspects of seed-bank sampling affect seed-bank records in temperate deciduous forests. We focused explicitly on seed-bank records of ancient forest species, which are assumed to lack a persistent seed bank; a hypothesis suspected to be partly due to methodological shortcomings. Through a quantitative review of 31 seed-bank studies in temperate deciduous forests of central and north-west Europe, we quantified the role of sampling methodology in constraining total seed-bank records and seed-bank records of ancient forest species (γ-diversity, average species' retrieval frequency and average seed density). A major methodological trade-off was established between sampled plot area and the number of plots: at an increased number of plots, the area sampled per plot decreased significantly. The total surface area sampled in a study was the primary determinant of γ-diversity, both for overall species richness and for ancient forest species richness. A high retrieval frequency of ancient forest species indicated that few plots were intensively sampled. The parallel increase in total species richness and ancient forest species richness and the non-significance of their ratio in relation to methodological variables suggests that ancient forest species are not particularly rare in the seed bank compared to other species. These results imply that sampling methodology has a far-reaching impact on seed-bank records such as γ-diversity, the detection of ancient forest species and ultimately seed-bank composition. We formulate a set of guidelines to improve the quality of seed-bank studies in temperate deciduous forests.
Cliques in Graphs With Bounded Minimum Degree
Authors: LO ALLAN
Published: January 2012

Letkr(n, δ) be the minimum number ofr-cliques in graphs withnvertices and minimum degree at least δ. We evaluatekr(n, δ) for δ ≤ 4n/5 and some other cases. Moreover, we give a construction which we conjecture to give all extremal graphs (subject to certain conditions onn, δ andr).
Architectural design influences the diversity and structure of the built environment microbiome
Authors: Kembel Steven W , Jones Evan , Kline Jeff , Northcutt Dale , Stenson Jason , Womack Ann M , Bohannan Brendan J M , Brown G Z , Green Jessica L
Published: January 2012

Buildings are complex ecosystems that house trillions of microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans and with their environment. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that determine the diversity and composition of the built environment microbiome—the community of microorganisms that live indoors—is important for understanding the relationship between building design, biodiversity and human health. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene to quantify relationships between building attributes and airborne bacterial communities at a health-care facility. We quantified airborne bacterial community structure and environmental conditions in patient rooms exposed to mechanical or window ventilation and in outdoor air. The phylogenetic diversity of airborne bacterial communities was lower indoors than outdoors, and mechanically ventilated rooms contained less diverse microbial communities than did window-ventilated rooms. Bacterial communities in indoor environments contained many taxa that are absent or rare outdoors, including taxa closely related to potential human pathogens. Building attributes, specifically the source of ventilation air, airflow rates, relative humidity and temperature, were correlated with the diversity and composition of indoor bacterial communities. The relative abundance of bacteria closely related to human pathogens was higher indoors than outdoors, and higher in rooms with lower airflow rates and lower relative humidity. The observed relationship between building design and airborne bacterial diversity suggests that we can manage indoor environments, altering through building design and operation the community of microbial species that potentially colonize the human microbiome during our time indoors.
Composition of the summer photosynthetic pico and nanoplankton communities in the Beaufort Sea assessed by T-RFLP and sequences of the 18S rRNA gene from flow cytometry sorted samples
Authors: Balzano Sergio , Marie Dominique , Gourvil Priscillia , Vaulot Daniel
Published: January 2012

The composition of photosynthetic pico and nanoeukaryotes was investigated in the North East Pacific and the Arctic Ocean with special emphasis on the Beaufort Sea during the MALINA cruise in summer 2009. Photosynthetic populations were sorted using flow cytometry based on their size and pigment fluorescence. Diversity of the sorted photosynthetic eukaryotes was determined using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and cloning/sequencing of the 18S ribosomal RNA gene. Picoplankton was dominated by Mamiellophyceae, a class of small green algae previously included in the prasinophytes: in the North East Pacific, the contribution of an Arctic Micromonas ecotype increased steadily northward becoming the only taxon occurring at most stations throughout the Beaufort Sea. In contrast, nanoplankton was more diverse: North Pacific stations were dominated by Pseudo-nitzschia sp. whereas those in the Beaufort Sea were dominated by two distinct Chaetoceros species as well as by Chrysophyceae, Pelagophyceae and Chrysochromulina spp.. This study confirms the importance of Arctic Micromonas within picoplankton throughout the Beaufort Sea and demonstrates that the photosynthetic picoeukaryote community in the Arctic is much less diverse than at lower latitudes. Moreover, in contrast to what occurs in warmer waters, most of the key pico- and nanoplankton species found in the Beaufort Sea could be successfully established in culture.
Influence of Increasing BMI on Insulin Sensitivity and Secretion in Normotolerant Men and Women of a Wide Age Span
Authors: Kautzky‐Willer Alexandra , Brazzale Alessandra R. , Moro Ermanno , Vrbíková Jana , Bendlova Běla , Sbrignadello Stefano , Tura Andrea , Pacini Giovanni
Published: January 2012

The impact of sex and age on glucose metabolism in the development of overweight/obesity is a matter of debate. We hypothesized that insulin sensitivity (IS) and β‐cell function (BF) in a normal white population will differ between males and females and aimed to evaluate the possible effects of BMI and age on metabolic parameters of both sexes. This study is a cross‐sectional analysis of the general community. IS was measured with quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI) and oral glucose insulin sensitivity (OGIS) and BF with the insulinogenic index during 75‐g 2‐h oral glucose‐tolerance tests (OGTTs). We studied 611 females and 361 males with normal glycemia according to both fasting and 2‐h glucose (85 ± 0.3 mg/dl (means ± SE) in females and 89 ± 0.4 in males (P < 0.0001), and 93 ± 1 in females and 89 ± 1 in males (P = 0.005), respectively). Females were younger (37 ± 1 years) than males (40 ± 1, P < 0.0001), but no difference was found in mean BMI (BMI = 25.8 ± 0.2 kg/m2 in both). Student's two‐sample t‐test was used for simple comparison between and within genders, multiple linear regressions to account for covariates. During the OGTT, females had lower glucose (area under the curve (AUC) 133 ± 1 mg/ml·2 h vs. 148 ± 2; P < 0.00001), while insulinemia was comparable (AUC 5.3 ± 0.1 mU/ml·2 h vs. 5.7 ± 0.2, P = 0.15). IS remained higher in females (473 ± 3 ml/min/m2 vs. 454 ± 3, P < 0.0001) also after having accounted for age and BMI (P = 0.015). No difference was observed in fasting insulin or BF. However, BF increased by 46% with BMI and when accounting for age and BMI, BF of females was significantly higher (P < 0.0001). Because IS and BF are higher in females than in males, sex should be considered in metabolic studies and overweight/obese populations.
Sulforaphane Inhibits Mitotic Clonal Expansion During Adipogenesis Through Cell Cycle Arrest
Authors: Choi Kyeong‐Mi , Lee Youn‐Sun , Sin Dong‐Mi , Lee Seunghyun , Lee Mi Kyeong , Lee Yong‐Moon , Hong Jin‐Tae , Yun Yeo‐Pyo , Yoo Hwan‐Soo
Published: January 2012

Obesity is a risk factor for numerous metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Adipocyte differentiation is triggered by adipocyte hyperplasia, which leads to obesity. In this study, the inhibitory effect of sulforaphane, an isothiocyanate, on adipogenesis in 3T3–L1 cells was investigated. Sulforaphane decreased the accumulation of lipid droplets stained with Oil Red O and inhibited the elevation of triglycerides in the adipocytes (half‐maximal inhibitory concentration = 7.3 µmol/l). The expression of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein α (C/EBPα), major transcription factors for adipocyte differentiation, was significantly reduced by sulforaphane. The major effects of sulforaphane on the inhibition of adipocyte differentiation occurred during the early stage of adipogenesis. Thus, the expression of C/EBPβ, an early‐stage biomarker of adipogenesis, decreased in a concentration‐dependent manner when the adipocytes were exposed to sulforaphane (0, 5, 10, and 20 µmol/l). The proliferation of adipocytes treated with 20 µmol/l sulforaphane for 24 and 48 h was also suppressed. These results indicate that sulforaphane may specifically affect mitotic clonal expansion to inhibit adipocyte differentiation. Sulforaphane arrested the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase, increased p27 expression, and decreased retinoblastoma (Rb) phosphorylation. Additionally, sulforaphane modestly decreased the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and Akt. Our results indicate that the inhibition of early‐stage adipocyte differentiation by sulforaphane may be associated with cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase through upregulation of p27 expression.
Dual‐Energy X‐Ray Absorptiometry for Quantification of Visceral Fat
Authors: Kaul Sanjiv , Rothney Megan P. , Peters Dawn M. , Wacker Wynn K. , Davis Cynthia E. , Shapiro Michael D. , Ergun David L.
Published: January 2012

Obesity is the major risk factor for metabolic syndrome and through it diabetes as well as cardiovascular disease. Visceral fat (VF) rather than subcutaneous fat (SF) is the major predictor of adverse events. Currently, the reference standard for measuring VF is abdominal X‐ray computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), requiring highly used clinical equipment. Dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) can accurately measure body composition with high‐precision, low X‐ray exposure, and short‐scanning time. The purpose of this study was to validate a new fully automated method whereby abdominal VF can be measured by DXA. Furthermore, we explored the association between DXA‐derived abdominal VF and several other indices for obesity: BMI, waist circumference, waist‐to‐hip ratio, and DXA‐derived total abdominal fat (AF), and SF. We studied 124 adult men and women, aged 18–90 years, representing a wide range of BMI values (18.5–40 kg/m2) measured with both DXA and CT in a fasting state within a one hour interval. The coefficient of determination (r2) for regression of CT on DXA values was 0.959 for females, 0.949 for males, and 0.957 combined. The 95% confidence interval for r was 0.968 to 0.985 for the combined data. The 95% confidence interval for the mean of the differences between CT and DXA VF volume was −96.0 to −16.3 cm3. Bland‐Altman bias was +67 cm3 for females and +43 cm3 for males. The 95% limits of agreement were −339 to +472 cm3 for females and −379 to +465 cm3 for males. Combined, the bias was +56 cm3 with 95% limits of agreement of −355 to +468 cm3. The correlations between DXA‐derived VF and BMI, waist circumference, waist‐to‐hip ratio, and DXA‐derived AF and SF ranged from poor to modest. We conclude that DXA can measure abdominal VF precisely in both men and women. This simple noninvasive method with virtually no radiation can therefore be used to measure VF in individual patients and help define diabetes and cardiovascular risk.
Elevation in Cardiovascular Disease Risk in South Asians Is Mediated by Differences in Visceral Adipose Tissue
Authors: Lear Scott A. , Chockalingam Arun , Kohli Simi , Richardson Chris G. , Humphries Karin H.
Published: January 2012

South Asians have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) that remains largely unexplained. We hypothesized that the increased CVD risk in South Asians compared to Europeans is mediated through higher levels of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in South Asians compared to total body fat and subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SAT). South Asians (207) and Europeans (201) underwent assessment for demographics, body fat, and risk factors. Linear regression models were created by sex for each risk factor to explore mediation effects of total body fat, SAT, and VAT adjusted for age, income, smoking, and BMI (menopausal status for women). Mediation was based on changes in the ethnicity β coefficient due to additional adjustment for our adipose variable of interest and the Sobel test for mediation. South Asians had worse lipid, glucose, insulin, and C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels than Europeans after adjusting for confounders. Most of these differences remained even after further adjustment by either total body fat or SAT. In contrast, VAT attenuated the ethnic differences in risk factors by 16%–52%. After adjusting for VAT, there were no longer ethnic differences in total cholesterol (TC), LDL‐C, TC/HDL‐C, glucose, and diastolic blood pressure (BP) in men, and in HDL‐C, triglycerides (TG), TC/HDL‐C, and homeostasis model (HOMA) in women, and VAT was a significant mediator for these risk factors. Higher levels of risk factors for CVD in South Asians are predominantly because of the unique phenotype of South Asians having greater VAT than Europeans even at the same BMI.
Adipose Tissue as a Potential Source of Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells
Authors: Błogowski Wojciech , Ratajczak Mariusz Z. , Żyżniewska‐Banaszak Ewelina , Dołęgowska Barbara , Starzyńska Teresa
Published: January 2012

It has been more than 30 years since adipose tissue (AT) has been recognized as a central modulator orchestrating sophisticated process termed “immunometabolism”. Nonetheless, despite its unique involvement in the regulation of immune and endocrine homeostasis, recent studies demonstrated that AT also contains significant number of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) that may be there “settling down” throughout life. In this article we will focus on presenting the current concepts regarding endocrine, immunological, and molecular mechanisms that may contribute to and regulate bone marrow (BM)‐derived HSPCs homing into AT environment, as well as, highlight various structural and morphological similarities between BM and AT that might be involved in creating appropriate tissue niches for BM‐derived HSPCs in AT. Finally, we will discuss how development of obesity or type 2 diabetes may influence balance of homing signals for HSPCs in AT environment.
International thermonuclear experimental reactor-like extended Solovév equilibria with parallel flow
Authors: Throumoulopoulos G. N. , Tasso H.
Published: January 2012

A Solovév-like equilibrium solution is extended to plasmas with incompressible flow parallel to the magnetic field. ITER-like configurations are constructed for Alfvén Mach functions peaked either on or off the magnetic axis. The linear stability of the equilibrium is also examined by applying a sufficient condition.
Microwave, infrared and Raman spectra, r structural parameters, ab initio calculations and vibrational assignment of 1-fluoro-1-silacyclopentane
Authors: Durig James R. , Panikar Savitha S. , Obenchain Daniel A. , Bills Brandon J. , Lohan Patrick M. , Peebles Rebecca A. , Peebles Sean A. , Groner Peter , Guirgis Gamil A. , Johnston Michael D.
Published: January 2012

The microwave spectrum (6500–18 500 MHz) of 1-fluoro-1-silacyclopentane, c-C4H8SiHF has been recorded and 87 transitions for the 28Si, 29Si, 30Si, and 13C isotopomers have been assigned for a single conformer. Infrared spectra (3050-350 cm−1) of the gas and solid and Raman spectrum (3100-40 cm−1) of the liquid have also been recorded. The vibrational data indicate the presence of a single conformer with no symmetry which is consistent with the twist form. Ab initio calculations with a variety of basis sets up to MP2(full)/aug-cc-pVTZ predict the envelope-axial and envelope-equatorial conformers to be saddle points with nearly the same energies but much lower energy than the planar conformer. By utilizing the microwave rotational constants for seven isotopomers (28Si, 29Si, 30Si, and four 13C) combined with the structural parameters predicted from the MP2(full)/6–311+G(d,p) calculations, adjusted r0 structural parameters have been obtained for the twist conformer. The heavy atom distances in Å are: r0(SiC2) = 1.875(3); r0(SiC3) = 1.872(3); r0(C2C4) = 1.549(3); r0(C3C5) = 1.547(3); r0(C4C5) = 1.542(3); r0(SiF) = 1.598(3) and the angles in degrees are: ∠CSiC = 96.7(5); ∠SiC2C4 = 103.6(5); ∠SiC3C5 = 102.9(5); ∠C2C4C5 = 108.4(5); ∠C3C5C4 = 108.1(5); ∠F6Si1C2 = 110.7(5); ∠F6Si1C3 = 111.6(5). The heavy atom ring parameters are compared to the corresponding rs parameters. Normal coordinate calculations with scaled force constants from MP2(full)/6–31G(d) calculations were carried out to predict the fundamental vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities, Raman activities, depolarization values, and infrared band contours. These experimental and theoretical results are compared to the corresponding quantities of some other five-membered rings.
Magnetic phase transitions in the NdFe3(BO3)4 multiferroic
Authors: Zvyagina G. A. , Zhekov K. R. , Bilych I. V. , Zvyagin A. A. , Gudim I. A. , Temerov V. L.
Published: January 2012

Low-temperature studies of the behavior of the sound velocity and attenuation of acoustic modes have been performed on a single crystal NdFe3(BO3)4 Transitions of the magnetic subsystem to the antiferromagnetically ordered state at TN ≈ 30.6 K have been revealed in the temperature behavior of the elastic characteristics. The features in the temperature behavior of elastic characteristics of the neodymium ferroborate and its behavior in the external magnetic field, applied in the basic plane of the crystal, permit us to suppose that the transition to an incommensurate spiral phase is realized in the system. This phase transition behaves as the first order one. H–T phase diagrams for the cases H ∥ a and H ∥ b have been constructed. The phenomenological theory, which explains observed features, has been developed.
Monte Carlo simulation of anisotropic Shastry–Sutherland lattice in the framework of classical Heisenberg model multiferroic
Authors: Slavin V. V. , Krivchikov A. A.
Published: January 2012

Monte Carlo simulation of two-dimensional Shastry–Sutherland lattice has been carried out using heat-bath method. The dependencies of magnetization M on external field H have been obtained in the framework of classical Heisenberg model. In certain interval of exchange parameters ratio the plateau of magnetization corresponding to M = 1/3 has been observed. The influence of exchange anisotropy of “easy-axis” type on this plateau width is studied. It has been shown that even weak anisotropy (∼1−2%) leads to essential enlargement of the plateau. The dependence of critical temperature on exchange parameters ratio has been established.