bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Circulating Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 Is an Independent Correlate of Proteinuria in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
Authors: Nagano Makio , Fukami Kei , Yamagishi Sho-ichi , Ueda Seiji , Kaida Yusuke , Matsumoto Takafumi , Yoshimura Junko , Hazama Takuma , Takamiya Yoshimi , Kusumoto Takuo , Gohara Shojiro , Tanaka Hideharu , Adachi Hisashi , Okuda Seiya
Published: August 2008

Background/Aim:Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) has been implicated in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease. However, there is no knowledge about the correlations between serum levels of MMP-2, proteinuria and atherosclerosis in patients with CKD. We investigated whether serum MMP-2 levels were associated with proteinuria, intima media thickness (IMT), and the presence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque in CKD patients. Methods: CKD patients without hemodialysis (n = 99) were enrolled. MMP-2 levels were measured by an ELISA system. IMT and carotid atherosclerotic plaque were evaluated by a high-resolution ultrasonography. Results: Multivariate analyses revealed that low-density lipoprotein (p < 0.001), MMP-2 (p = 0.001) and systolic blood pressure (p = 0.011) were independent correlates of proteinuria. Age- and serum creatinine-adjusted MMP-2 levels were significantly increased (p = 0.001) in proportion to the increasing levels of proteinuria. Further, age (p < 0.001), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.015) and MMP-2 levels (p = 0.042) were independent correlates of IMT. MMP-2 levels were significantly (p < 0.01) higher in patients with atherosclerotic plaque than those without it. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that serum levels of MMP-2 were one of the independent correlates of proteinuria and IMT in patients with CKD. Our results suggest that serum MMP-2 levels may be one of the risk factors for renal damage and atherosclerosis in CKD patients.
Effects of Galanin and Leptin on Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone-Stimulated Luteinizing Hormone Release from the Pituitary
Authors: Peters Elke E.M. , Towler Kathryn L. , Mason Drusilla R. , Evans John J.
Published: August 2008

Background: A number of peptides regulate luteinizing hormone (LH) release. In some cases, these peptides exert an effect at the pituitary, to directly regulate LH release and/or to modulate the effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). A link between nutrition and reproductive function is well established. In this study we investigated the effects of two peptides associated with appetite control, galanin and leptin, on the regulation of LH release from the pituitary. Methods: Using perifused anterior pituitary tissue from freely fed rats, we investigated the effect of galanin on basal LH release and GnRH-stimulated LH release from pituitaries in a high-estrogen (proestrus) and a low-estrogen (metestrus) environment. In addition, we examined the effect of galanin on LH release following GnRH self-priming. The effect of inhibiting protein synthesis, with cycloheximide, was also studied under these conditions. Finally, the effects of leptin alone and on a galanin-modulated LH response were investigated. Results: There was no detectable effect of leptin, either alone or in conjunction with galanin. We observed that galanin enhanced GnRH stimulation of LH secretion, an effect that was dependent on protein synthesis and on an estrogenized environment. In addition, importantly, galanin also enhanced the LH response in GnRH self-primed pulses. Conclusion: Our results provide further details on the effect of galanin on the LH surge, particularly the effect on the response to pulsatile GnRH and the effect of protein production, and thereby indicate a means by which appetite- and nutrition-related peptides may act on the ovulatory cycle at the pituitary.
Effect of Dentin Phosphoprotein on Phosphate-Induced Apoptosis of Odontoblast-Like Cells
Authors: Fujisawa Ryuichi , Mizuno Morimichi , Tamura Masato
Published: August 2008

Dentin phosphoprotein, the major noncollagenous protein in dentin, has effects on differentiation of odontoblast-like cells. This study was designed to investigate the effect of the protein on apoptosis of the cells. The odontoblast-like cells were prepared from the pulp cells of rat incisors. Apoptosis was detected by measuring caspase-3 activity by using DEVD-AMC as a fluorescent substrate. The cells formed calcification nodules in the presence of 2-glycerophosphate and expressed dentin sialophosphoprotein. Apoptosis was not observed in the cells through the differentiation stages. Then, apoptosis was induced by raising inorganic phosphate concentration in the medium. Elevation of phosphate concentration to 5 mM reduced the number of viable cells and increased caspase-3 activity, indicating the induction of apoptosis. Addition of bovine dentin phosphoprotein in the medium suppressed phosphate-induced apoptosis. Phosvitin and poly(Asp) had similar antiapoptotic effects.
Simvastatin-induced endothelial cell detachment and microparticle release are prenylation dependent
Authors: Diamant Michaela , Tushuizen Maarten E. , Abid-Hussein Mohammed N. , Hau Chi M. , Böing Anita N. , Sturk Augueste , Nieuwland Rienk
Published: August 2008

Statins reduce cardiovascular disease risk and affect endothelial function by cholesterol-dependent and independent mechanisms. Recently, circulating (detached) endothelial cells and endothelial microparticles (EMP) have been associated with endothelial functioning in vitro and in vivo.We investigated whether simvastatin affects endothelial detachment and release of EMP. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated with clinically relevant concentrations of simvastatin (1.0 and 5.0 µM), with or without mevalonic acid (100 µM) or gera-nylgeranylpyrophosphate (GGPP; 20 µM) for 24 hours, and analyzed by flowcytometry andWe stern blot. Simvastatin at 1.0 and 5.0 µM increased cell detachment from 12.5 ± 4.1% to 26.0 ± 7.6% (p=0.013) and 28.9 ± 2.2% (p=0.002) as well as EMP release (p=0.098 and p=0.041, respectively).The majority of detached cells was apoptotic, although the fraction of detached cells that showed signs of apoptosis (>70%) was unaffected by simvastatin. Detached cells and EMP contained caspase 3 and caspase 8,but not caspase 9. Restoring either cholesterol biosynthesis and prenylation (mevalonate) or prenylation alone (GGPP) reversed all simvastatin-induced effects on cell detachment and EMP release. Adherent cells showed no signs of simvastatin-induced apoptosis. Simvastatin promotes detachment and EMP release by inhibiting prenylation, presumably via a caspase 8-dependent mechanism. We hypothesize that by facilitating detachment and EMP release, statins improve the overall condition of the remaining vascular endothelium.
Hereditary and acquired thrombophilia in patients with upper extremity deep-vein thrombosis
Authors: Meister Florian , Schwonberg Jan , Schindewolf Marc , Zgouras Dimitrios , Lindhoff-Last Edelgard , Linnemann Birgit
Published: August 2008

The prevalence of coagulation disorders in patients with upper extremity deep-vein thrombosis (UE-DVT) is unknown due to only a few observational studies of limited size reporting varying results. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of thrombophilia in patients with UE-DVT compared to patients with lower extremity deep vein thrombosis (LE-DVT). One hundred fifty consecutive patients (15 to 91 years of age) with UE-DVT were recruited from the MAISTHRO (MAin-ISar-THROmbosis) registry. Three hundred LE-DVT patients matched for gender and age served as controls. Thrombophilia screening included tests for the factor V Leiden mutation, the prothrombin G20210A mutation, antiphospholipid antibodies and factor VIII (FVIII), protein C, protein S and antithrombin activities. At least one thrombophilia was present in 34.2% of UE-DVT and 39.2% in UE-DVT that was unrelated to venous catheters relative to 55.3% in LE-DVT patients (p<0.001). In particular, a persistently elevated FVIII is less likely to be found in UE-DVT patients than in those with LE-DVT and is the only thrombophilia that is differentially expressed after controlling for established VTE risk factors [OR 0.46, (95% CI 0.25–0.83)]. Although less prevalent than in LE-DVT patients, thrombophilia is a common finding in patients with UE-DVT, especially in those with thrombosis that is unrelated to venous catheters.
ABO(H) blood groups and pre-eclampsia
Authors: Wu Olivia , Clark Peter
Published: August 2008

pre-eclampsia is associated with both placental thrombosis and thrombophilia. The ABO(H) blood group influences von Willebrand factor, which is a risk factor for arterial and venous thrombosis. Over many years a number of studies have examined the relationship between ABO(H) and pre-eclampsia, but no consensus exists as to whether there is a true association. Correspondingly, a systematic review of studies reporting an association between ABO(H) blood group and pre-eclampsia syndromes was performed. From the 17 eligible studies there was no consistent link between blood group AB and pre-eclampsia, with a pooled odds ratio of group AB versus the remainder of 1.02 (95%CI 0.86 to 1.22).There was no evidence of heterogeneity and individual study estimates were relatively consistent. Comparing a combined group of non-Os (i.e.AA, AB and BB) with group O gave similar results, with a pooled odds ratio of 1.01 (95%CI 0.91 to 1.12), but with some evidence of heterogeneity (p=0.01) and individual study estimate inconsistency (I2 49%).However, no specific feature (disease definition, disease severity, date of publication, or ABO(H) distribution in controls) distinguished those few studies giving any form of positive association from the remainder. In summary, no clear association between any ABO(H) blood group and pre-eclampsia can be made from available studies. However, existing data does not allow exclusion of an effect limited to those expressing the least O(H) antigen.
Good Vibrations: Cross-frequency Coupling in the Human Nucleus Accumbens during Reward Processing
Authors: Cohen Michael X , Axmacher Nikolai , Lenartz Doris , Elger Christian E. , Sturm Volker , Schlaepfer Thomas E.
Published: August 2008

The nucleus accumbens is critical for reward-guided learning and decision-making. It is thought to “gate” the flow of a diverse range of information (e.g., rewarding, aversive, and novel events) from limbic afferents to basal ganglia outputs. Gating and information encoding may be achieved via cross-frequency coupling, in which bursts of high-frequency activity occur preferentially during specific phases of slower oscillations. We examined whether the human nucleus accumbens engages such a mechanism by recording electrophysiological activity directly from the accumbens of human patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. Oscillatory activity in the gamma (40–80 Hz) frequency range was synchronized with the phase of simultaneous alpha (8–12 Hz) waves. Further, losing and winning small amounts of money elicited relatively increased gamma oscillation power prior to and following alpha troughs, respectively. Gamma–alpha synchronization may reflect an electrophysiological gating mechanism in the human nucleus accumbens, and the phase differences in gamma–alpha coupling may reflect a reward information coding scheme similar to phase coding.
Developmental Increase in Top–Down and Bottom–Up Processing in a Phonological Task: An Effective Connectivity, fMRI Study
Authors: Bitan Tali , Cheon Jimmy , Lu Dong , Burman Douglas D. , Booth James R.
Published: August 2008

We examined age-related changes in the interactions among brain regions in children performing rhyming judgments on visually presented words. The difficulty of the task was manipulated by including a conflict between task-relevant (phonological) information and task-irrelevant (orthographic) information. The conflicting conditions included pairs of words that rhyme despite having different spelling patterns (jazz–has), or words that do not rhyme despite having similar spelling patterns (pint–mint). These were contrasted with nonconflicting pairs that have similar orthography and phonology (dime–lime) or different orthography and phonology (press–list). Using fMRI, we examined effective connectivity among five left hemisphere regions of interest: fusiform gyrus (FG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), intraparietal sulcus (IPS), lateral temporal cortex (LTC), and medial frontal gyrus (MeFG). Age-related increases were observed in the influence of the IFG and FG on the LTC, but only in conflicting conditions. These results reflect a developmental increase in the convergence of bottom–up and top–down information on the LTC. In older children, top–down control process may selectively enhance the sensitivity of the LTC to bottom–up information from the FG. This may be evident especially in situations that require selective enhancement of task-relevant versus task-irrelevant information. Altogether these results provide a direct evidence for a developmental increase in top–down control processes in language processing. The developmental increase in bottom–up processing may be secondary to the enhancement of top–down processes.
Sentence Syntax and Content in the Human Temporal Lobe: An fMRI Adaptation Study in Auditory and Visual Modalities
Authors: Devauchelle Anne-Dominique , Oppenheim Catherine , Rizzi Luigi , Dehaene Stanislas , Pallier Christophe
Published: August 2008

Priming effects have been well documented in behavioral psycholinguistics experiments: The processing of a word or a sentence is typically facilitated when it shares lexico-semantic or syntactic features with a previously encountered stimulus. Here, we used fMRI priming to investigate which brain areas show adaptation to the repetition of a sentence's content or syntax. Participants read or listened to sentences organized in series which could or not share similar syntactic constructions and/or lexico-semantic content. The repetition of lexico-semantic content yielded adaptation in most of the temporal and frontal sentence processing network, both in the visual and the auditory modalities, even when the same lexico-semantic content was expressed using variable syntactic constructions. No fMRI adaptation effect was observed when the same syntactic construction was repeated. Yet behavioral priming was observed at both syntactic and semantic levels in a separate experiment where participants detected sentence endings. We discuss a number of possible explanations for the absence of syntactic priming in the fMRI experiments, including the possibility that the conglomerate of syntactic properties defining “a construction” is not an actual object assembled during parsing.
Dynamic Changes in the Mental Rotation Network Revealed by Pattern Recognition Analysis of fMRI Data
Authors: Mourao-Miranda Janaina , Ecker Christine , Sato Joao R. , Brammer Michael
Published: August 2008

We investigated the temporal dynamics and changes in connectivity in the mental rotation network through the application of spatio-temporal support vector machines (SVMs). The spatio-temporal SVM [Mourao-Miranda, J., Friston, K. J., et al. (2007). Dynamic discrimination analysis: A spatial-temporal SVM. Neuroimage, 36, 88–99] is a pattern recognition approach that is suitable for investigating dynamic changes in the brain network during a complex mental task. It does not require a model describing each component of the task and the precise shape of the BOLD impulse response. By defining a time window including a cognitive event, one can use spatio-temporal fMRI observations from two cognitive states to train the SVM. During the training, the SVM finds the discriminating pattern between the two states and produces a discriminating weight vector encompassing both voxels and time (i.e., spatio-temporal maps). We showed that by applying spatio-temporal SVM to an event-related mental rotation experiment, it is possible to discriminate between different degrees of angular disparity (0° vs. 20°, 0° vs. 60°, and 0° vs. 100°), and the discrimination accuracy is correlated with the difference in angular disparity between the conditions. For the comparison with highest accuracy (0° vs. 100°), we evaluated how the most discriminating areas (visual regions, parietal regions, supplementary, and premotor areas) change their behavior over time. The frontal premotor regions became highly discriminating earlier than the superior parietal cortex. There seems to be a parcellation of the parietal regions with an earlier discrimination of the inferior parietal lobe in the mental rotation in relation to the superior parietal. The SVM also identified a network of regions that had a decrease in BOLD responses during the 100° condition in relation to the 0° condition (posterior cingulate, frontal, and superior temporal gyrus). This network was also highly discriminating between the two conditions. In addition, we investigated changes in functional connectivity between the most discriminating areas identified by the spatio-temporal SVM. We observed an increase in functional connectivity between almost all areas activated during the 100° condition (bilateral inferior and superior parietal lobe, bilateral premotor area, and SMA) but not between the areas that showed a decrease in BOLD response during the 100° condition.
N250 ERP Correlates of the Acquisition of Face Representations across Different Images
Authors: Kaufmann Jürgen M. , Schweinberger Stefan R. , Burton A. Mike
Published: August 2008

We used ERPs to investigate neural correlates of face learning. At learning, participants viewed video clips of unfamiliar people, which were presented either with or without voices providing semantic information. In a subsequent face-recognition task (four trial blocks), learned faces were repeated once per block and presented interspersed with novel faces. To disentangle face from image learning, we used different images for face repetitions. Block effects demonstrated that engaging in the face-recognition task modulated ERPs between 170 and 900 msec poststimulus onset for learned and novel faces. In addition, multiple repetitions of different exemplars of learned faces elicited an increased bilateral N250. Source localizations of this N250 for learned faces suggested activity in fusiform gyrus, similar to that found previously for N250r in repetition priming paradigms [Schweinberger, S. R., Pickering, E. C., Jentzsch, I., Burton, A. M., & Kaufmann, J. M. Event-related brain potential evidence for a response of inferior temporal cortex to familiar face repetitions. Cognitive Brain Research, 14, 398–409, 2002]. Multiple repetitions of learned faces also elicited increased central–parietal positivity between 400 and 600 msec and caused a bilateral increase of inferior–temporal negativity (>300 msec) compared with novel faces. Semantic information at learning enhanced recognition rates. Faces that had been learned with semantic information elicited somewhat less negative amplitudes between 700 and 900 msec over left inferior–temporal sites. Overall, the findings demonstrate a role of the temporal N250 ERP in the acquisition of new face representations across different images. They also suggest that, compared with visual presentation alone, additional semantic information at learning facilitates postperceptual processing in recognition but does not facilitate perceptual analysis of learned faces.
Stop and Go: The Neural Basis of Selective Movement Prevention
Authors: Coxon James P. , Stinear Cathy M. , Byblow Winston D.
Published: August 2008

Converging lines of evidence show that volitional movement prevention depends on the right prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Selective movement prevention refers to the rapid prevention of some, but not all, movement. It is unknown whether the IFG, or other prefrontal areas, are engaged when movement must be selectively prevented, and whether additional cortical areas are recruited. We used rapid event-related fMRI to investigate selective and nonselective movement prevention during performance of a temporally demanding anticipatory task. Most trials involved simultaneous index and middle finger extension. Randomly interspersed trials required the prevention of one, or both, finger movements. Regions of the right hemisphere, including the IFG, were active for selective and nonselective movement prevention, with an overlap in the inferior parietal cortex and the middle frontal gyrus. Selective movement prevention caused a significant delay in movement initiation of the other digit. These trials were associated with activation of the medial frontal cortex. The results provide support for a right-hemisphere network that temporarily “brakes” all movement preparation. When movement is selectively prevented, the supplementary motor cortex (SMA/pre-SMA) may participate in conflict resolution and subsequent reshaping of excitatory drive to the motor cortex.
The Main Sources of Intersubject Variability in Neuronal Activation for Reading Aloud
Authors: Kherif Ferath , Josse Goulven , Seghier Mohamed L. , Price Cathy J.
Published: August 2008

The aim of this study was to find the most prominent source of intersubject variability in neuronal activation for reading familiar words aloud. To this end, we collected functional imaging data from a large sample of subjects (n = 76) with different demographic characteristics such as handedness, sex, and age, while reading. The subject-by-subject error variance was estimated from a one-sample t test (on all 76 subjects) and was reduced to a lower dimension using principal components decomposition. A Gaussian Mixture Model was then applied to dissociate different subgroups of subjects that explained the main sources of variability in the data. This resulted in the identification of four different subject groups. The comparison of these subgroups to the subjects' demographic details showed that age had a significant effect on the subject partitioning. In addition, a region-by-group dissociation in the dorsal and the ventral inferior frontal cortex was consistent with previously reported dissociations in semantic and nonsemantic reading strategies. In contrast to these significant findings, the groupings did not differentiate subjects on the basis of either sex or handedness, nor did they segregate the subjects with right- versus left-lateralized reading activation. We therefore conclude that, of the variables tested, age and reading strategy were the most prominent source of variability in activation for reading familiar words aloud.
Functional Neuroanatomy of Mental Rotation
Authors: Milivojevic Branka , Hamm Jeff P. , Corballis Michael C.
Published: August 2008

Brain regions involved in mental rotation were determined by assessing increases in fMRI activation associated with increases in stimulus rotation during a mirror-normal parity-judgment task with letters and digits. A letter–digit category judgment task was used as a control for orientation-dependent neural processing unrelated to mental rotation per se. Compared to the category judgments, the parity judgments elicited increases in activation in both the dorsal and the ventral visual streams, as well as higher-order premotor areas, inferior frontal gyrus, and anterior insula. Only a subset of these areas, namely, the posterior part of the dorsal intraparietal sulcus, higher-order premotor regions, and the anterior insula showed increased activation as a function of stimulus orientation. Parity judgments elicited greater activation in the right than in the left ventral intraparietal sulcus, but there were no hemispheric differences in orientation-dependent activation, suggesting that neither hemisphere is dominant for mental rotation per se. Hemispheric asymmetries associated with parity-judgment tasks may reflect visuospatial processing other than mental rotation itself, which is subserved by a bilateral fronto-parietal network, rather than regions restricted to the posterior parietal.
An Improved Method for Estimating Global Evapotranspiration Based on Satellite Determination of Surface Net Radiation, Vegetation Index, Temperature, and Soil Moisture
Authors: Wang Kaicun , Liang Shunlin
Published: August 2008

A simple and accurate method to estimate regional or global latent heat of evapotranspiration (ET) from remote sensing data is essential. The authors proposed a method in an earlier study that utilized satellite-determined surface net radiation (Rn), a vegetation index, and daytime-averaged/daily maximum air temperature (Ta) or land surface temperature (Ts) data. However, the influence of soil moisture (SM) on ET was not considered and is addressed in this paper by incorporating the diurnal Ts range (DTsR). ET, measured by the energy balance Bowen ratio method at eight enhanced facility sites on the southern Great Plains in the United States and by the eddy covariance method at four AmeriFlux sites during 2001–06, is used to validate the improved method. Site land cover varies from grassland, native prairie, and cropland to deciduous forest and evergreen forest. The correlation coefficient between the measured and predicted 16-day daytime-averaged ET using a combination of Rn, enhanced vegetation index (EVI), daily maximum Ts, and DTsR is about 0.92 for all the sites, the bias is −1.9 W m−2, and the root-mean-square error (RMSE) is 28.6 W m−2. The sensitivity of the revised method to input data error is small. Implemented here is the revised method to estimate global ET using diurnal Ta range (DTaR) instead of DTsR because DTsR data are not available yet, although DTaR-estimated ET is less accurate than DTsR-estimated ET. Global monthly ET is calculated from 1986 to 1995 at a spatial resolution of 1° × 1° from the International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Initiative II global interdisciplinary monthly dataset and is compared with the 15 land surface model simulations of the Global Soil Wetness Project-2. The results of the comparison of 118 months of global ET show that the bias is 4.5 W m−2, the RMSE is 19.8 W m−2, and the correlation coefficient is 0.82. Incorporating DTaR distinctively improves the accuracy of the estimate of global ET.
Evaluation of TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) and Its Utility in Hydrologic Prediction in the La Plata Basin
Authors: Su Fengge , Hong Yang , Lettenmaier Dennis P.
Published: August 2008

Satellite-based precipitation estimates with high spatial and temporal resolution and large areal coverage provide a potential alternative source of forcing data for hydrological models in regions where conventional in situ precipitation measurements are not readily available. The La Plata basin in South America provides a good example of a case where the use of satellite-derived precipitation could be beneficial. This study evaluates basinwide precipitation estimates from 9 yr (1998–2006) of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA; 3B42 V.6) through comparison with available gauged data and the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) semidistributed hydrology model applied to the La Plata basin. In general, the TMPA estimates agreed well with the gridded gauge data at monthly time scales, most likely because of the monthly adjustment to gauges performed in TMPA. The agreement between TMPA and gauge precipitation estimates was reduced at daily time scales, particularly for high rain rates. The TMPA-driven hydrologic model simulations were able to capture the daily flooding events and to represent low flows, although peak flows tended to be biased upward. There was a good agreement between TMPA-driven simulated flows in terms of their reproduction of seasonal and interannual streamflow variability. This analysis shows that TMPA has potential for hydrologic forecasting in data-sparse regions.
Effects of Spatial Aggregation of Initial Conditions and Forcing Data on Modeling Snowmelt Using a Land Surface Scheme
Authors: Dornes Pablo F. , Pomeroy John W. , Pietroniro Alain , Verseghy Diana L.
Published: August 2008

Small-scale topography and snow redistribution have important effects on snow-cover heterogeneity and the timing, rate, and duration of spring snowmelt in mountain tundra environments. However, land surface schemes (LSSs) are usually applied as a means to provide large-scale surface states and vertical fluxes to atmospheric models and do not normally incorporate topographic effects or horizontal fluxes in their calculations

A study was conducted in Granger Creek, an 8-km2 catchment within Wolf Creek Research Basin in the Yukon Territory, Canada, to examine whether inclusion of the effects of wind redistribution of snow between landscape units, and slope and aspect in snowmelt calculations for tiles, could improve the simulation of snowmelt by an LSS.

Measured snow accumulation, reflecting overwinter wind redistribution of snow, was used to provide initial conditions for the melt simulation, and physically based algorithms from a small-scale hydrological model were used to calculate radiation on slopes during melt. Based on consideration of the spatial distribution of snow accumulation, topography, and shrub cover in the basin, it was divided into five landscapes units (tiles) for simulation of mass and energy balance using an LSS during melt. Effects of averaging initial conditions and forcing data on LSS model performance were contrasted against distributed simulations. Results showed that, in most of the cases, simulations using aggregated initial conditions and forcing data gave unsuccessful descriptions of snow ablation whereas the incorporation of both snow-cover redistribution and slope and aspect effects in an LSS improved the prediction of snowmelt rate, timing, and duration.
Verification of The Weather Channel Probability of Precipitation Forecasts
Authors: Bickel J. Eric , Kim Seong Dae
Published: August 2008

The Weather Channel (TWC) is a leading provider of weather information to the general public. In this paper the reliability of their probability of precipitation (PoP) forecasts over a 14-month period at 42 locations across the United States is verified. It is found that PoPs between 0.4 and 0.9 are well calibrated for near-term forecasts. However, overall TWC PoPs are biased toward precipitation, significantly so during the warm season (April–September). PoPs lower than 0.3 and above 0.9 are not well calibrated, a fact that can be explained by TWC’s forecasting procedure. In addition, PoPs beyond a 6-day lead time are miscalibrated and artificially avoid 0.5. These findings should help the general public to better understand TWC’s PoP forecasts and provide important feedback to the TWC so that they may improve future performance.
Collective Leadership Effects on Student Achievement
Authors: Leithwood Kenneth , Mascall Blair
Published: August 2008

Purpose: This study aimed to estimate the impact of collective, or shared, leadership on key teacher variables and on student achievement. As well, it inquired about the relative contribution of different sources of such leadership and whether differences among patterns of collective leadership were related to differences in student achievement.

Methods: Evidence included 2,570 teacher responses from 90 elementary and secondary schools in which four or more teachers completed usable surveys. Student achievement data in language and math averaged over 3 years were acquired through school Web sites. Data were analyzed using path-analytic techniques.

Findings: Collective leadership explained a significant proportion of variation in student achievement across schools. Higher-achieving schools awarded leadership influence to all school members and other stakeholders to a greater degree than that of lower-achieving schools. These differences were most significant in relation to the leadership exercised by school teams, parents, and students. Principals were awarded the highest levels of influence in schools at all levels of achievement.

Implications: Influence seems to be an infinite resource in schools. The more those in formal leadership roles give it away, the more they acquire.
State Terror and the Law
Authors: Collins Cath
Published: August 2008

The “re-irruption” in the mid- to late 1990s of attempted prosecutions for past human rights crimes in Chile, Argentina, and other parts of Latin America suggests both that the social legacies of massive human rights violations can be long-lasting and that transitional settlements featuring truth-telling and amnesty are not, as was previously thought, definitive. The transitional justice school of thought, which grew out of Latin American experiences of transition in the 1980s, underestimated the extent to which questions of criminal and civil responsibility for state crimes of torture, disappearance, and genocide would persist and eventually resurface in postconflict societies. Extensive field research into accountability trajectories in post-transitional Chile and El Salvador suggests that civil society protagonism through the courts has proved determinant in shaping the medium- and long-term future of the human rights question after political transition. The domestic mix of actor demands, judicial culture, and political-institutional constraints seems to be key in explaining why some countries have experienced successful and largely peaceful reopening of the human rights question while others have not.
SettingLa diablaFree
Authors: Padilla Yajaira M.
Published: August 2008

An analysis of the literary representations of women and violence in three postwar Salvadoran narratives sheds light on El Salvador's new neoliberal reality and provides a basis for understanding the role of women in national reconstruction and democratization. By depicting female characters in traditional roles and as passive victims of violence, Castellanos Moya's La diabla en el espejo exemplifies attempts to disempower and exclude women from the public and cultural sphere. In short stories by Claudia Hernández and Jacinta Escudos, the female protagonists refute this victimization, becoming violent aggressors in their struggle to gain access to the public and cultural sphere.
Solidarity Action Research as Methodology
Authors: Higginbottom Andy
Published: August 2008

Colombian society is in an ongoing violent confrontation in which research is immediately referenced by policy debate. Assumptions about crimes of powerful actors, trusting or skeptical, oblige a choice between a corporate-led and a victim-led investigation. A fresh response to social movements seeking international support to overcome human rights violations takes critical criminology as its framework. The research approach is oriented toward the social movements' experience. Social movements are rendered not simply as victims but as conscious social actors. The role of multinational corporations is analyzed from a social movement standpoint by a methodology that combines NGO- based research with action research.
Adaptive Interventions in Drug Court
Authors: Marlowe Douglas B. , Festinger David S. , Arabia Patricia L. , Dugosh Karen L. , Benasutti Kathleen M. , Croft Jason R. , McKay James R.
Published: August 2008

This pilot study ( N = 30) experimentally examines the effects of an adaptive intervention in a misdemeanor drug court. The adaptive algorithm adjusted the frequency of court hearings and case management sessions according to prespecified criteria in response to participants' performance. Results reveal that the adaptive algorithm was acceptable to clients and staff, was feasible to implement with greater than 85% fidelity, and showed promise for eliciting substantial improvements in drug abstinence and graduation rates. Compared to drug court as usual, participants in the adaptive condition were more likely to receive responses from the drug court team for inadequate performance and received those responses after a shorter period. This suggests the adaptive algorithm more readily focused the team's attention on poorly performing individuals, allowing them to address problems before they developed too fully. These preliminary data justify further research evaluating the adaptive algorithm in a fully powered experimental trial.
Mental Health Court Programs in Rural and Nonaffluent Jurisdictions
Authors: Goss Stephen S.
Published: August 2008

Due to the shift in emphasis from institutional care to community-based treatment for mentally ill patients, many end up in marginal lifestyle situations probably due to lack of funds, strained family and other supports, and no case management. Many do not consistently take their prescriptions or “self-medicate” with alcohol or street drugs. When off their prescription therapy, many of these patients act out. They are arrested, placed in jail, and enter the criminal justice system. Due to their unresolved mental health issues, they get caught in a cyclical pattern of arrests. Our jails have become de facto mental health treatment centers. These cases are crowding court dockets and are filling the jails and state hospitals at taxpayers' expense. The jails should not be community mental health centers. Mental health court programs are responding to these issues. Success is measured by decreased arrests and mental hospital stays, and the overall well-being of such patients.
Treating the Tough Cases in Juvenile Drug Court
Authors: Polakowski Michael , Hartley Roger E. , Bates Leigh
Published: August 2008

Drug Courts are a fundamental change to trial courts. They are considered less adversarial and may alter past notions of treatment for offenders. One goal of drug courts is to provide defendants the opportunity to alter their drug-addicted lifestyles through intense supervision, feedback, treatment, and graduated sanctions and rewards for behavior. This study uses logistic regression to examine measures of failure such as termination from drug court and two measures of offender recidivism. Although the literature on drug courts has been developing for several years, the reality is that universal templates for explanation do not yet exist in the juvenile arena. This paper examines correlates that explain the above measures of failure. The study also proposes the creation of new measures that may assist future research. Findings indicate that participant experiences within the drug court program are the strongest predictors of termination and recidivism.
Recent Legal Developments
Authors: Ross Darrell L.
Published: August 2008

This article provides an assessment of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Scott v. Harris (2007). The assessment provides students, criminal justice scholars, and practitioners with an overview of the current status of case law on police pursuits. Since the 1980s, police pursuits have emerged as a high-profile liability area due to their risk of danger and injury or death to a suspect, officers, and innocent third parties (Alpert, 1998; Gallagher, 1989; Hill, 2002; Kappeler, 2006; Kappeler, Kappeler, & del Carmen, 2001; O'Connor & Norse, 2006; Ross & Bodapoti, 2006). The Scott decision marks the third decision since 1989 in which the topic of police pursuits has been addressed by the Court. The article reviews the Court's prior decisions on the subject, provides an analysis of Scott, and examines how lower courts have applied the decision to high-speed police pursuits.
Fronts and Backs
Authors: Hess Paul M.
Published: August 2008

With New Urbanist ideas reshaping the form of American and Canadian suburban development, this research surveys residents of three Toronto-area neighborhoods to explore how residents use the streets, yards, and alleys immediately adjoining their houses. Despite the presence of attractive front yards and streets, because most of the residents surveyed rely on automobiles stored in alleys for traveling to work or shop, the backdoor is the de facto main entry to their houses. Backyards are also used more frequently and for a wider range of activities than are front yards, and alleys are sites of informal socializing with neighbors. These patterns, however, are not tied to rates of recreational walking or the use of the front yard as an intentional social space, something many residents clearly value.
Expanding Planning's Public Sphere
Authors: Wolf-Powers Laura
Published: August 2008

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a paradigm of activist planning became a new “tributary” feeding the stream of the planning profession. STREET magazine, published from 1971 to 1975 by the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn, NY, offers a lens through which to examine the expansion of the profession to encompass a range of ideas associated with this paradigm. This article, drawing on an extensive review of STREET magazine's content within the historical context in which it was produced, as well as interviews with people involved with the publication, argues that STREET reflected the introduction of new modes of practice into the city planning profession, as well as influencing those modes in a particular place, New York City.
Anemia of Inflammation in Critically Ill Patients
Authors: Sihler Kristen C. , Napolitano Lena M.
Published: August 2008

Anemia is seen frequently in critically ill patients and has several etiologies. This article reviews the causes with an emphasis on the effects of inflammation, examines the risks and benefits of current therapies, and discusses novel treatment options.
Cerebral Oximetry Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Aids in the Diagnosis of Interrupted Aortic Arch
Authors: Tobias Joseph D.
Published: August 2008

A 3.4-kg, 6-day-old infant presented to the pediatric intensive care unit with a 2-day history of poor feeding and tachypnea. Care at an outside hospital included endotracheal intubation, the administration of isotonic fluid (20 mL/kg), and antibiotics (ampicillin and gentamicin) for presumed sepsis. After arrival at our institution, physical examination revealed absent femoral pulses and hepatomegaly. Cerebral oximetry revealed a right-sided reading of 51% and a left-sided reading of 15%. Given the diminished femoral pulses and the disparity in the cerebral oximetry values, a tentative diagnosis of congenital heart disease with an obstructive left-sided lesion was entertained, and a prostanglandin E 1 infusion was started at 0.05 µg/kg/min. The diagnosis of a type C interrupted aortic arch and a ventricular septal defect was confirmed by echocardiography. After stabilization and correction of metabolic abnormalities, the infant was taken to the operating room for repair of the interrupted aortic arch and placement of a pulmonary artery band.
A Comparison of the Effects of Witnessing Community Violence and Direct Victimization Among Children in Cape Town, South Africa
Authors: Shields Nancy , Nadasen Kathy , Pierce Lois
Published: August 2008

This study is based on a sample of children from the Cape Town area in South Africa. The study compares the effects of witnessing school or neighborhood violence compared with being victimized in each context on psychological distress. The findings suggest that in the context of the school, victimization has a somewhat stronger effect on distress than witnessing violence. However, in the neighborhood, the opposite was the case. “Unknown locus of control” was also analyzed as a moderating variable. The findings are interpreted in the context of violence in South African society. The study also investigates the overlap between witnessing violence, victimization, and perpetration in the child's school and neighborhood. The vast majority of victims had been witnesses as well as perpetrators. Longitudinal research, which could track involvement in various forms of violence starting at a very early age, is needed to clearly assess the differential impact of each form of violence.
Outcomes of Civil Protective Orders
Authors: Diviney Charles L. , Parekh Asha , Olson Lenora M.
Published: August 2008

This study compares final sentencing decisions ordered by judges to federal and state sentencing guidelines for protective order violations. The authors reviewed violations that were pled before the largest district court in Utah and found that in the majority of cases, defendants were not sentenced in accordance with federal and state guidelines. Although state guidelines mandate defendants who violate a protective order to attend a batterer intervention program, less than one fourth of defendants were sentenced to attend such programs. Fewer than half of the defendants were arrested and incarcerated, as opposed to the 100% mandated by state sentencing guidelines. Federal guidelines mandate that all defendants be ordered to surrender firearms, but only six defendants were given that order. This study shows that the judicial system could be more aggressive in improving the safety of victims of intimate partner violence by using the full extent of the sentencing guidelines.
A Unified Beam Finite Element Model for Extension and Shear Piezoelectric Actuation Mechanisms
Authors: Benjeddou A. , Trindade M. A. , Ohayon R.
Published: August 2008

This paper presents a finite element model for adaptive sandwich beams to deal with either extension or shear actuation mechanism. The former corresponds to an elastic core sandwiched beam between two transversely polarized active surface layers; whereas, the latter consists of an axially polarized core, sandwiched between two elastic surface layers. For both configurations, an electric field is applied through thickness of the piezoelectric layers. The mechanical model is based on Bernoulli-Euler theory for the surface layers and Timoshenko beam theory for the core. It uses three variables, through-thickness constant deflection, and the mean and relative axial displacements of the core's upper and lower surfaces. Augmented by the bending rotation, these are the only nodal degrees of freedom of the proposed two-node adaptive sandwich beam finite element. The piezoelectric effect is handled through modification of the constitutive equation, when induced electric potential is taken into account, and additional electric forces and moments. The proposed finite element model is validated through static and dynamic analysis of extension and shear actuated, continuous and segmented, cantilever beam configurations. Finite element results show good comparison with those found in the literature, and indicate that the newly defined shear actuation mechanism presents several promising features over conventional extension actuation mechanism, particularly for brittle piezoceramics use and energy dissipation purposes.
Dynamic Polymeric Membrane Structures for Separation of Proteins
Authors: Zhou Dezhi , Wallace Gordon G. , Too Chee O.
Published: August 2008

Novel dynamic polymeric membrane structures have been successfully prepared. These membranes have the necessary strength and pore size for use in electrochemically facilitated transport and separation of proteins. The transport of proteins can be electrochemically initiated and sustained or hindered when required. A high purity of human serum albumin (HSA) can be separated from a mixture containing equimolar concentrations of HSA and Myoglobin. Quartz crystal microbalance studies show that, in these cases of transport and separation, the overriding controlling factor was electrochemical control, although polymer/protein interactions do affect the transport fluxes.