bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evidence From In Vitro and In Vivo Studies Showing that Nuclear Factor‐Kappa B Within the Pituitary Folliculostellate Cells and Corticotrophs Regulates Adrenocorticotrophic Hormone Secretion in Experimental Endotoxaemia
Authors: Mehet D. K. , Philip J. , Solito E. , Buckingham J. C. , John C. D.
Published: January 2012

The hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenocortical (HPA) responses to bacterial infection are mediated, in part, by the actions of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on pituitary folliculostellate (FS) cells that release pro‐inflammatory cytokines [e.g. interleukin (IL)‐6] and thereby facilitate adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) release from neighbouring corticotrophs. In the present study, two murine pituitary cell lines [TtT/GF (FS cells) and AtT20 D16:16 (corticotrophs)], alone and in co‐culture, and an in vivo model of endotoxaemia were used to examine the potential role of nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) in mediating LPS‐induced ACTH secretion. Both cell lines expressed mRNAs for the key components of the LPS signalling system. LPS stimulated IL‐6 release from TtT/GF cells via a glucocorticoid‐sensitive, NF‐κB‐dependent mechanism; it also activated NF‐κB in AtT20 cells, as did corticotrophin‐releasing hormone (CRH). IL‐6 potentiated (but LPS reduced) the stimulatory effects of CRH on ACTH release from AtT20 cells, whereas blockade of NF‐κB (SC‐514) increased the ACTH release induced by CRH in the presence or absence of LPS. In co‐cultures, CRH and LPS acted synergistically to induce release of both IL‐6 and ACTH. However, although SC‐514 suppressed the release of IL‐6 evoked by CRH and LPS, it potentiated the concomitant increase in ACTH release. In vivo both immunological (LPS) and psychological (restraint) stress increased intrapituitary NF‐κB, whereas an NF‐κB inhibitor (PHA781535E) attenuated the LPS‐induced release of ACTH and abolished the HPA response to restraint stress. The results obtained in the present study support the premise that NF‐κB plays an important role in mediating LPS signalling in the anterior pituitary gland, particularly in relation to IL‐6 and ACTH secretion, and provide novel evidence that NF‐κB blockade in vivo compromises stress‐induced ACTH release.
Mesozoic detrital zircon U‐Pb ages of modern river sediments in Korea: implications for migration of arc magmatism in the Mesozoic East Asian continental margin
Authors: Choi Taejin , Lee Yong Il , Orihashi Yuji
Published: January 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 156–165, 2012

U‐Pb ages of detrital zircons collected from the sediments of seven major South Korean rivers were analysed to infer the temporal and spatial distribution of Mesozoic arc magmatism related to the subduction of the palaeo‐Pacific plates. Mesozoic detrital zircon U‐Pb ages indicate continuous arc magmatic activity in the Korean Peninsula throughout the Mesozoic era (249–72 Ma), except for a magmatic gap during 120–162 Ma, with NW–SE spatial migration of the arc magmatic centres: trenchward migration in both the Triassic and the Cretaceous periods, and inland‐directed migration in the Jurassic period. A comparison of these results with the magmatic ages in the adjacent regions such as northeastern China and southwestern Japan suggests that subduction modes of the palaeo‐Pacific plates were changed in the Mesozoic East Asian continental margin due to buoyancy differences caused by the subduction of the Farallon–Izanagi plate ridge or oceanic plateaus and their subducting location shifting with time.
Giant solution‐subsidence structure in the Western Mediterranean related to deep substratum dissolution
Authors: Lofi Johanna , Berné Serge , Tesson Michel , Seranne Michel , Pezard Philippe
Published: January 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 181–188, 2012

Sinkholes are frequently observed where soluble rocks are present, in meteoritic recharge areas or when subsurface dissolution causes ground collapse. Seismic profiles on the inner shelf of the Gulf of Lions (W. Mediterranean) display a giant atypical sub‐circular structure, up to 800‐m thick and 2‐km wide. It is characterized by down‐warped internal seismic reflections forming a concave V‐shaped depression rooted in the substratum, most likely carbonated. This structure is interpreted as a poly‐phased solution‐subsidence/collapse structure of Plio‐Quaternary age. The last phase of deformation probably occurred during the last sea‐level low‐stand phase. The mechanism proposed for the creation of this structure is collapse/dissolution of the soluble substratum, as a result of a combination of several possible factors including pre‐existing deep Messinian palaeo‐karst with active groundwater flows during Plio‐Quaternary lowstands, and deep‐rooted acidic fluids ascending through the substratum.
New constraints on the pre‐Permian continental crust growth of Central Asia (West Junggar, China) by U–Pb and Hf isotopic data from detrital zircon
Authors: Choulet Flavien , Cluzel Dominique , Faure Michel , Lin Wei , Wang Bo , Chen Yan , Wu Fu‐Yuan , Ji Wenbin
Published: January 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 189–198, 2012

In situ U–Pb geochronology of detrital zircons from various Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks of West Junggar accretionary complexes (Central Asia) suggests two distinct episodes of arc magmatism, and an evolution in three steps: (i) Ordovician‐Silurian subduction generating juvenile arc crust; (ii) Late Silurian subduction jamming, erosion and intraplate magmatism; (iii) development of two new opposed Devonian‐Carboniferous subductions recycling the Early Palaeozoic crust. Zircon Hf isotopes document three pre‐Permian episodes of mantle‐derived magmatic input into the crust: (1) Neoproterozoic (850–550 Ma), (2) Early Palaeozoic (530–450 Ma) and (3) Late Palaeozoic (380–320 Ma). Zircons also record the recycling of Neoproterozoic and Early Palaeozoic juvenile crusts during the Early and Late Palaeozoic. These data support a model of episodic continental crust growth in Central Asia.
Location of the Rheic suture in the eastern Bohemian Massif: evidence from detrital zircon data
Authors: Mazur Stanisław , Szczepański Jacek , Turniak Krzysztof , McNaughton Neal J.
Published: January 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 199–206, 2012

Three detrital zircon concentrates from the metasediments of the Orlica‐Śnieżnik dome, Bohemian Massif, have been dated using Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe. They yielded Precambrian age spectra similar to those that are characteristic of the Cadomian terranes: (1) Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic zircons scattered between 3380 and 1860 Ma, and (2) abundant Neoproterozoic zircons dated at 770–560 Ma. Two of the analysed samples also contain Early Cambrian and Early‐Late Cambrian zircons. The estimated maximum sedimentation ages are: 563 ± 6 Ma for the Młynowiec paragneisses, 532 ± 6 Ma for the Stronie schist and 490 ± 9 Ma for the Goszów quartzite that are interpreted as three distinct metasedimentary successions. They represent a Neoproterozoic back‐arc basin, Early Cambrian incipient rift basin and a Lower Ordovician post‐rift succession respectively. These successions are the deformed and metamorphosed, allochthonous equivalent to the passive Saxo‐Thuringian margin. They were subducted during a Variscan collision and then exhumed in front of the rigid buttress of Brunia/East Avalonia.
Burial and exhumation across the Alps–Apennines junction zone constrained by fission‐track analysis on modern river sands
Authors: Malusà Marco G. , Balestrieri Maria Laura
Published: January 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 221–226, 2012

We applied fission‐track analysis on modern river sands to constrain the Cenozoic evolution of the Alps–Apennines junction zone. West of the Villalvernia‐Varzi‐Ottone fault, samples yielded major peaks at 33–36 and 62–65 Ma, showing that apatites in the eroded wedge‐top successions were largely unreset. To the east, samples yielded prominent peaks at 4.0–4.7, 6.5–6.7 and 19 Ma, probably formed by reset ages. Our results indicate that the Alpine orogenic wedge originally tapered out to the south. The Northern Apennines were buried beneath a thick and widespread Epiligurian cover, now almost completely eroded, and experienced major uplift and erosional exhumation since early Pliocene times, at average rates of 1 km Ma−1. A large amount of Alpine‐derived detritus, previously stored on top of the orogenic wedge, was transferred into the Po Plain. Sediment recycling thus overwhelmed any eventual effect of climate change on Plio‐Quaternary sedimentation rates south of the Alps.
High frequency of GJA12/GJC2 mutations in Turkish patients with Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease
Authors: Bilir B , Yapici Z , Yalcinkaya C , Baris I , Carvalho CMB , Bartnik M , Ozes B , Eraksoy M , Lupski JR , Battaloglu E
Published: January 2012

Bilir B, Yapici Z, Yalcinkaya C, Baris I, Carvalho CMB, Bartnik M, Ozes B, Eraksoy M, Lupski JR, Battaloglu E. High frequency of GJA12/GJC2 mutations in Turkish patients with Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease.

Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease is an early onset dysmyelinating leukodystrophy. About 80% of PMD cases have been associated with duplications and mutations of the proteolipid protein 1 (PLP1) gene. Pelizaeus–Merzbacher‐like disease is a genetically heterogeneous autosomal recessive disease and rarely caused by mutations in gap junction protein α12 (GJA12/GJC2) gene. The molecular basis of the disease was investigated in a cohort of 19 Turkish families. This study identified novel chromosomal rearrangements proximal and distal to, and exclusive of the PLP1 gene, showed equal frequencies of PLP1 and GJA12/GJC2 mutations at least in our cohort, and suggested further genetic heterogeneity.
A puzzle over several decades: eye anomalies with FRAS1 and STRA6 mutations in the same family
Authors: Ng WY , Pasutto F , Bardakjian TM , Wilson MJ , Watson G , Schneider A , Mackey DA , Grigg JR , Zenker M , Jamieson RV
Published: January 2012

Ng WY, Pasutto F, Bardakjian TM, Wilson MJ, Watson G, Schneider A, Mackey DA, Grigg JR, Zenker M, Jamieson RV. A puzzle over several decades: eye anomalies with FRAS1 and STRA6 mutations in the same family.

Fraser syndrome (FS) and microphthalmia syndromic 9 (MCOPS9) are autosomal recessive conditions with distinct, and some overlapping features affecting the ocular, respiratory and cardiac systems. Mutations in FRAS1 and FREM2 occur in FS, and mutations in STRA6 occur in MCOPS9. We report two sibships, in the same family, where four deceased offspring had ocular, respiratory and cardiac abnormalities. Two sibs with microphthalmia had syndactyly and laryngeal stenosis, suggesting a clinical diagnosis of FS. Our results indicate that they were compound heterozygotes for novel FRAS1 mutations, p.Cys729Phe and p.Leu3813Pro. The other two sibs, first cousins to the first sib pair, had anophthalmia, lung hypoplasia and cardiac anomalies, suggesting a retrospective diagnosis of MCOPS9. Our results indicate compound heterozygous STRA6 mutations, a novel frameshift leading to p.Tyr18* and a p.Thr644Met mutation. The one surviving individual from these sibships is heterozygous for the p.Tyr18*STRA6 mutation and has bilateral ocular colobomata and microphthalmia. This work emphasises the need for careful phenotypic characterisation to determine genes for assessment in ocular syndromic conditions. It also indicates that heterozygous STRA6 mutations may rarely contribute to microphthalmia and coloboma.
High rate of unperceived hearing loss in patients after liver transplantation
Authors: Rifai Kinan , Pischke Sven , Agne Clemens , Rosenau Jens , Klempnauer Jürgen L. , Manns Michael P.
Published: January 2012

Rifai K, Pischke S, Agne C, Rosenau J, Klempnauer JL, Manns MP. High rate of unperceived hearing loss in patients after liver transplantation.

Abstract:  Aim:  We recently published the high frequency of perceived hearing impairment in adults after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). To obtain objective data in addition to the questionnaires, audiometric data of 70 patients’ post‐OLT were analyzed.

Methods:  Hearing tests were obtained from 70 patients who were in follow‐up 6.5 ± 4.3 yr after OLT. Thirty‐eight of these patients (53%) reported the development of a hearing problem post‐OLT, while 14 patients already noticed hearing loss prior to OLT (21%). Eighteen patients did not report any hearing problems (26%).

Results:  Audiometry was within the normal range only in five patients (7%). Signs of mild or moderate hearing loss were found in 12 (17%) and 28 patients (40%), respectively. In 25 patients, audiometry revealed even severe hearing loss (36%). In 86% of patients, hearing loss was bilateral affecting all frequency areas in 63%. Of the 18 patients without subjective hearing impairment, moderate or severe hearing loss was found in 50% of audiometries. Mean maximal hearing loss was −62 ± 30 dB with worse results in patients reporting hearing problems (p < 0.03).

Conclusions:  We confirmed the high incidence of reported hearing loss in adults post‐OLT by objective audiometric data. Pathological hearing tests were even found in many patients without perception of hearing impairment.
Viewpoint: The future of research in pediatric allergy: What should the focus be?
Authors: Van Bever Hugo P. S. , Lee Bee Wah , Shek Lynette
Published: January 2012

To cite this article: Van Bever HPS, Lee BW, Shek L. Viewpoint: The future of research in pediatric allergy: What should the focus be? Pediatric Allergy Immunology 2012: 23: 5–10.

Allergic diseases have been increasing during the last three decades, and exact reasons for this are still debated. Despite intense ongoing research, a lot of aspects of allergic diseases are still poorly understood, resulting in limitations in current therapeutic approach to allergies. In this viewpoint, important unanswered research questions are raised mainly on novel therapeutic approaches to allergic children, and suggestions for future research are raised. Three aspects of pediatric allergy are distinguished: the prevention, control, and cure.
Evaluation of reproductive barriers and realisation of interspecific hybridisations depending on genetic distances between species in the genus Helleborus
Authors: Meiners J. , Winkelmann T.
Published: January 2012

The genus Helleborus comprises 22 species, which are allocated to six sections. H. x hybridus and H. niger, which belong to different Helleborus sections, are economically important ornamentals. Several other species with minor impact exhibit interesting features, e.g. flower size, flower colour, foliage, scent and disease resistance, which should be introgressed into H. x hybridus or H. niger through interspecific hybridisation. The aims of this study were to investigate whether and which kind of hybridisation barriers occur in crosses between Helleborus species and if they differ in their manifestations, depending on the genetic distance of the respective partners. In order to obtain interspecific hybrids despite crossing barriers, a method to overcome these barriers should be developed. Crossing barriers in Helleborus were localised as predominantly post‐zygotic according to in situ pollen tube staining with aniline blue. For certain crosses, pre‐zygotic barriers could also be assumed, but pollen tube growth was not totally inhibited. Therefore, embryo rescue techniques via ovule culture were established to overcome the post‐zygotic barriers. Ovules were isolated from maternal plants 5–7 weeks after pollination in most cases and then cultured in vitro. Overall, 219 hybrids were successfully obtained, of which 16 were derived from inter‐sectional crosses. Hybrids were verified by flow cytometry and/or by molecular DNA markers.
The regulation of plant growth by the circadian clock
Authors: Farré E. M.
Published: January 2012

Circadian regulated changes in growth rates have been observed in numerous plants as well as in unicellular and multicellular algae. The circadian clock regulates a multitude of factors that affect growth in plants, such as water and carbon availability and light and hormone signalling pathways. The combination of high‐resolution growth rate analyses with mutant and biochemical analysis is helping us elucidate the time‐dependent interactions between these factors and discover the molecular mechanisms involved. At the molecular level, growth in plants is modulated through a complex regulatory network, in which the circadian clock acts at multiple levels.
The Levels of Speech Usage rating scale: comparison of client self‐ratings with speech pathologist ratings
Authors: Gray Christina , Baylor Carolyn , Eadie Tanya , Kendall Diane , Yorkston Kathryn
Published: January 2012

Abstract  Background: The term ‘speech usage’ refers to what people want or need to do with their speech to fulfil the communication demands in their life roles. Speech–language pathologists (SLPs) need to know about clients’ speech usage to plan appropriate interventions to meet their life participation goals. The Levels of Speech Usage is a categorical scale intended for client self‐report of speech usage, but SLPs may want the option to use it as a proxy‐report tool. The relationship between self‐report and clinician ratings should be examined before the instrument is used in a proxy format.

Aims: The primary purpose of this study was to compare client self‐ratings with SLP ratings on the Levels of Speech Usage scale. The secondary purpose was to determine if the SLP ratings differed depending on whether or not the SLPs knew about the clients’ medical condition.

Methods & Procedures: Self‐ratings of adults with communication disorders on the Levels of Speech Usage scale were available from prior research. Vignettes about these individuals were created from existing data. Two sets of vignettes were created. One set contained information about demographic information, living situation, occupational status and hobbies or social activities. The second set was identical to the first with the addition of information about the clients’ medical conditions and communication disorders. Various communication disorders were represented including dysarthria, voice disorders, laryngectomy, and mild cognitive and language disorders. Sixty SLPs were randomly divided into two groups with each group rating one set of vignettes. The task was completed online. While this does not replicate typical in‐person clinical interactions, it was a feasible method for this study. For data analysis, the client self‐ratings were considered fixed points and the percentage of SLP ratings in agreement with the self‐ratings was calculated.

Outcomes & Results: The percentage of SLP ratings in exact agreement with client self‐ratings was 44.9%. Agreement was lowest for the less‐demanding speech usage categories and highest for the most demanding usage category. There was no significant difference between the two groups of SLPs based on knowledge of medical condition.

Conclusions & Implications: SLPs often need to document the speech usage levels of clients. This study suggests the potential for SLPs to misjudge how clients see their own speech demands. Further research is needed to determine if similar results would be found in actual clinical interactions. Until then, SLPs should seek the input of their clients when using this instrument.
Reply to Camargo et al
Authors: Nair S. , Hardy K. J. , Wilding J. P. H.
Published: January 2012

Diabet. Med. 29, 1086–1087 (2012)
Effect of screening for Type 2 diabetes on population‐level self‐rated health outcomes and measures of cardiovascular risk: 13‐year follow‐up of the Ely cohort
Authors: Rahman M. , Simmons R. K. , Hennings S. H. , Wareham N. J. , Griffin S. J.
Published: January 2012

Diabet. Med. 29, 886–892 (2012)

Aims  There is continuing uncertainty regarding the overall net benefits of population‐based screening for Type 2 diabetes. We compared clinical measures, prescribed medication, cardiovascular morbidity and self‐rated health in individuals without diabetes in a screened vs. an unscreened population.

Methods  A parallel‐group, cohort study of people aged 40–65 years, free of known diabetes, identified from the population register of a general practice in Ely, Cambridgeshire (n = 4936). In 1990–1992, one third (n = 1705), selected randomly, received an invitation for screening for diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors at 5‐yearly intervals (screened population). From the remainder of the sampling frame, 1705 randomly selected individuals were invited to diabetes screening 10 years later (unscreened population). Patients without known diabetes from both populations were invited for a health assessment.

Results  Of 3390 eligible individuals without diabetes, 1442 (43%) attended for health assessment, with no significant difference in attendance between groups. Thirteen years after the commencement of screening, self‐rated functional health status and health utility were identical between the screened and unscreened populations. Clinical measures, self‐reported medication and cardiovascular morbidity were similar between the two groups.

Conclusions  Screening for diabetes is not associated with long‐term harms at the population level. However, screening has limited long‐term impact on those testing negative; benefits may largely be restricted to those whose diabetes is detected early through screening.
Ethnicity modifies the relation between fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c in Indians, Malays and Chinese
Authors: Venkataraman K. , Kao S. L. , Thai A. C. , Salim A. , Lee J. J. M. , Heng D. , Tai E. S. , Khoo E. Y. H.
Published: January 2012

Diabet. Med. 29, 911–917 (2012)

Aims  To study whether HbA1c, and its relationship with fasting plasma glucose, was significantly different among Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore.

Methods  A sample of 3895 individuals without known diabetes underwent detailed interview and health examination, including anthropometric and biochemical evaluation, between 2004 and 2007. Pearson’s correlation, analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the influence of ethnicity on HbA1c.

Results  As fasting plasma glucose increased, HbA1c increased more in Malays and Indians compared with Chinese after adjustment for age, gender, waist circumference, serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (P‐interaction < 0.001). This translates to an HbA1c difference of 1.1 mmol/mol (0.1%, Indians vs. Chinese), and 0.9 mmol/mol (0.08%, Malays vs. Chinese) at fasting plasma glucose 5.6 mmol/l (the American Diabetes Association criterion for impaired fasting glycaemia); and 2.1 mmol/mol (0.19%, Indians vs. Chinese) and 2.6 mmol/mol (0.24%, Malays vs. Chinese) at fasting plasma glucose 7.0 mmol/l, the diagnostic criterion for diabetes mellitus.

Conclusions  Using HbA1c in place of fasting plasma glucose will reclassify different proportions of the population in different ethnic groups. This may have implications in interpretation of HbA1c results across ethnic groups and the use of HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes mellitus.
NEW GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS AT THE INTERSECTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOREST POLICY: INSTITUTIONAL, POLITICAL AND REGULATORY DIMENSIONS
Authors: DOELLE MEINHARD , HENSCHEL CHRIS , SMITH JENNIFER , TOLLEFSON CHRIS , WELLSTEAD ADAM
Published: January 2012

This article investigates emerging governance arrangements at the intersection between forest management and climate policy. The authors deploy the symposium's three‐dimensional framework to describe and evaluate developments within two distinct policy sectors (forestry/climate change adaptation and mitigation) at several levels of governance (bi‐national, national, and sub‐national) to explore the nature and operation of the emerging governance arrangements, and assessing and measuring change within these arrangements over time. Drawing on four contemporary case studies from the US and Canada, New Zealand, British Columbia and Alaska, the authors discern little evidence of a generalized, linear trend from ‘government to governance’. Instead, they conclude, across institutional, political and regulatory dimensions of governance, a more variegated and diverse picture emerges. Their analysis also lends support for the Trubek and Trubek (2007) hypothesis that emerging governance arrangements typically interact with extant ones through modalities of rivalry, complementarity and transformation.
Discrimination in Scientific Review: A Natural Field Experiment on Blind versus Non‐Blind Reviews*
Authors: Carlsson Fredrik , Löfgren Åsa , Sterner Thomas
Published: January 2012

Using papers submitted to an international conference on economics held in Sweden in 2008, we analyze how gender, as well as other characteristics of the authors and reviewers, affects the grading of these papers by the reviewers. Correcting for other variables, including the country and research field, as well as the academic level of the author, we focus on the difference in grades between blind and non‐blind review treatments. We find that non‐blind reviewing has little effect, and there is no significant evidence of gender discrimination. Furthermore, we do not find any significant difference between the average grading by female and male reviewers.
Regulation of Investments in Infrastructure: The Interplay between Strategic Behaviors and Initial Endowments
Authors: CLAUDE DENIS , FIGUIÈRES CHARLES , TIDBALL MABEL
Published: January 2012

This paper explores the dynamic properties of price‐based policies in a model of competition between two jurisdictions. Jurisdictions invest over time in infrastructure to increase the quality of the environment, a global public good. They are identical in all respects but one: initial stocks of infrastructure. This is a dynamic type of heterogeneity that disappears in the long run. Therefore, at the steady state, usual intuitions from static settings apply: identical jurisdictions inefficiently underinvest, calling for public subsidies. In the short run, however, counterintuitive properties are established: (i) the evolution of capital stocks can be nonmonotonic and (ii) one jurisdiction can be temporarily taxed, even though it should increase its investment, whereas the other is subsidized. It is shown how these phenomena are related to initial conditions and the kind of interactions between infrastructure capitals, complementarity or substitutability.
Public Sector Rationing and Private Sector Selection
Authors: GRASSI SIMONA , MA CHING‐TO ALBERT
Published: January 2012

We study the interaction between nonprice public rationing and prices in the private market. Under a limited budget, the public supplier uses a rationing policy. A private firm may supply the good to those consumers who are rationed by the public system. Consumers have different amounts of wealth, and costs of providing the good to them vary. We consider two regimes. First, the public supplier observes consumers’ wealth information; second, the public supplier observes both wealth and cost information. The public supplier chooses a rationing policy, and, simultaneously, the private firm, observing only cost but not wealth information, chooses a pricing policy. In the first regime, there is a continuum of equilibria. The Pareto dominant equilibrium is a means‐test equilibrium: poor consumers are supplied while rich consumers are rationed. Prices in the private market increase with the budget. In the second regime, there is a unique equilibrium. This exhibits a cost‐effectiveness rationing rule; consumers are supplied if and only if their cost–benefit ratios are low. Prices in the private market do not change with the budget. Equilibrium consumer utility is higher in the cost‐effectiveness equilibrium than the means‐test equilibrium.
Corporate Debt, Hybrid Securities, and the Effective Tax Rate
Authors: PANTEGHINI PAOLO M.
Published: January 2012

Effective tax rates (ETRs) are useful tools to make comparisons between different tax systems. However, the existing ETR measures are based on rather simplifying assumptions. In particular, they disregard the existence of different kinds of debt and hybrid securities. In this paper, we use contingent‐claim analysis to calculate the ETR. We will therefore deal with both pure debt and two of the most well‐known hybrid securities, that is, convertible and reverse convertible bonds. We will show that effective taxation crucially depends on the characteristics of debt and that the existing measures of ETR can be dramatically biased, since they account neither for default risk nor for the ability to convert debt into equity.
Writing Clearly: The ECB’s Monetary Policy Communication
Authors: Bulíř Aleš , Čihák Martin , Šmídkova Kateřina Š
Published: January 2012

The article presents a novel methodology for measuring the clarity of central bank communication using content analysis, illustrating the methodology with the case of the European Central Bank (ECB). The analysis identifies the ECB’s written communication as clear in about 85-95% of instances, which is comparable with, or better than, similar results available for other central banks. We also find that the additional information on risk to inflation and especially projection risk assessment contained in the ECB’s Monthly Bulletins helps to improve communication clarity compared to ECB’s press releases. In contrast, the bulletin’s communication on monetary developments has a negative, albeit small, impact on clarity.
TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS: FOUR MOTIFS OF LEGAL CHANGE FROM EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Authors: WILDER COLIN F.
Published: January 2012

In the past millennium, there have been thousands of polities in Europe and millions of laws. This article contributes to efforts by historians and sociologists to make some sense of this sprawl by constructing common types of law and legal change. Such types constitute distinctive patterns by which historical actors change names, ideas, and applications of rules of law under various circumstances. Three classic forms of change, namely legislation, mutation of custom, and judge‐made law, were described by Max Weber. To Weber's model I add four new types or motifs of change, which I dub legal deeds, voice‐supersession, legal fictions, and anthropological expansion. The major advance of the four motifs is that they each combine what could be called a semantic and a social view of legal change. That is, they take seriously the fact that law is often bound in a self‐conscious tradition of thought and practice. But each motif of change is also characterized by a typified social configuration of legal operators and legal subjects, who apply competing ideas to one another in distinctive ways. The paradigm of law in which the four motifs are embedded is evolutionary, pluralist, and liberal in that it posits creative social organization by multiple, independent, interacting individuals in society, weaving cumulative, complex orders.

This theory makes several significant scholarly interventions. First, it attempts to reconcile outstanding semantic and social theories of legal change. Second, it historicizes legal pluralism while giving evolutionary theory a healthy dose of contingency. Third, the four motifs should also be serviceable to intellectual historians as tools for describing how historical actors interact with traditions generally. Tradition need not be viewed as conservative or even overwhelmingly static. This paradigm may help historians and social scientists assess how the force of the status quo balances against the power of individuals to innovate.
THE INCOMMENSURABILITY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HISTORY
Authors: SCOTT JOAN W.
Published: January 2012

This article argues that, although psychoanalysis and history have different conceptions of time and causality, there can be a productive relationship between them. Psychoanalysis can force historians to question their certainty about facts, narrative, and cause; it introduces disturbing notions about unconscious motivation and the effects of fantasy on the making of history. This was not the case with the movement for psychohistory that began in the 1970s. Then the influence of American ego‐psychology on history‐writing promoted the idea of compatibility between the two disciplines in ways that undercut the critical possibilities of their interaction. The work of the French historian Michel de Certeau provides theoretical insight into the uses of incommensurability, while that of Lyndal Roper demonstrates both its limits and its value for enriching historical understanding.
ARE WE HARD‐WIRED TO THINK ABOUT HISTORY?
Authors: Motzkin Gabriel
Published: January 2012

This book assumes that basic ways of thinking about history are hard‐wired in the brain. Since different styles of discourse with which we talk about the past are hardwired, Blum infers that a protohistorical consciousness is necessary for the existence of language. Historical logics reflect some preconceived part–whole relation. Blum discerns four kinds of part‐whole structure, which he terms continuity, quantum, continuum, and dialectic. Blum believes that these part–whole relations rest on universal, prereflective intuitions. He concludes that humans have different prelinguistic intuitions of time.

Blum claims that people's variable innate temporality is expressed in their historical style. It follows that historical style antedates history as a genre. Hence we are not talking about historical style, but about how individuals apply their sense of the relation between parts and wholes to the problem of time. Our study of historical context becomes secondary to the assumptions we make about the interface between part–whole relations and time. The temporality of history is derivative of a phenomenon that is not historical.

Certain conclusions are suggestive. First, modality precedes tense in evolution. Second, we ourselves are continuing to evolve. Blum believes that we are moving “towards a selection of abstract thinkers ruled by pure reason.” Instead of viewing cultures as organisms, it is more profitable to think of the evolution of structures of thinking, and to show that some are more prominent at present than they have been in the past.

For Blum, historical thinking is a dependent variable. It depends on tense and modality, which are given before language and culture. Historical thinking reflects a primary experience, but it is not such a primary experience itself.
Crime and Criminology in the Eye of the Novelist: Trends in Nineteenth Century Literature
Authors: Burney Elizabeth
Published: January 2012

Many leading novelists of the 19th Century were deeply concerned with crime and its causes, reflecting concerns of the period and often raising ideas which find resonance with modern criminological theories. The structural causes of crime; the negative effect of ill‐treatment and harsh punishment; labelling theory; the possibility of redemption and desistance; the ingrained flaws in individual characters which result in a propensity to crime and deviance, enhanced by bad influences and criminogenic environments; the social pressures (labelled ‘strain theory’ by criminologists) which drive outsiders to gain wealth and status by illegitimate means – all these can be found in fiction of the period. This article takes examples from English, French and Russian literature to illustrate these themes. The article also links fiction to the development of perceptions about crime and criminals as the century progressed.
Is Probation Still Possible?
Authors: Raynor Peter
Published: January 2012

This article is based on the 14th Bill McWilliams Memorial Lecture, delivered at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge on 22 June 2011. It contrasts the present and likely future state of probation services in England and Wales with their good standing and reputation in the third quarter of the 20th Century, and considers whether there are core features of probation which can be identified in its earlier theory and practice which help to account for this. It traces the recent history of probation services in England and Wales in the context of social and political changes, and questions how much a probation service which moves away from help towards punishment can still have in common with earlier visions. Finally, some future possibilities are discussed, together with the political conditions which might help or hinder them.
Inadvertent Advocacy
Authors: WILHERE GEORGE F.
Published: January 2012

Abstract:  Policy advocacy is an issue regularly debated among conservation scientists. These debates have focused on intentional policy advocacy by scientists, but advocacy can also be unintentional. I define inadvertent policy advocacy as the act of unintentionally expressing personal policy preferences or ethical judgments in a way that is nearly indistinguishable from scientific judgments. A scientist may be well intentioned and intellectually honest but still inadvertently engage in policy advocacy. There are two ways to inadvertently engage in policy advocacy. First, a scientist expresses an opinion that she or he believes is a scientific judgment but it is actually an ethical judgment or personal policy preference. Second, a scientist expresses an opinion that he or she knows is an ethical judgment or personal policy preference but inadvertently fails to effectively communicate the nature of the opinion to policy makers or the public. I illustrate inadvertent advocacy with three examples: recovery criteria in recovery plans for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, a scientific peer review of a recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's definition of threatened. In each example, scientists expressed ethical judgments or policy preferences, but their value judgments were not identified as such, and, hence, their value judgments were opaque to policy makers and the public. Circumstances suggest their advocacy was inadvertent. I believe conservation scientists must become acutely aware of the line between science and policy and avoid inadvertent policy advocacy because it is professional negligence, erodes trust in scientists and science, and perpetuates an ethical vacuum that undermines the rational political discourse necessary for the evolution of society's values. The principal remedy for inadvertent advocacy is education of conservation scientists in an effort to help them understand how science and values interact to fulfill the mission of conservation science.
Eliciting Expert Knowledge in Conservation Science
Authors: MARTIN TARA G. , BURGMAN MARK A. , FIDLER FIONA , KUHNERT PETRA M. , LOW‐CHOY SAMANTHA , MCBRIDE MARISSA , MENGERSEN KERRIE
Published: January 2012

Abstract: Expert knowledge is used widely in the science and practice of conservation because of the complexity of problems, relative lack of data, and the imminent nature of many conservation decisions. Expert knowledge is substantive information on a particular topic that is not widely known by others. An expert is someone who holds this knowledge and who is often deferred to in its interpretation. We refer to predictions by experts of what may happen in a particular context as expert judgments. In general, an expert‐elicitation approach consists of five steps: deciding how information will be used, determining what to elicit, designing the elicitation process, performing the elicitation, and translating the elicited information into quantitative statements that can be used in a model or directly to make decisions. This last step is known as encoding. Some of the considerations in eliciting expert knowledge include determining how to work with multiple experts and how to combine multiple judgments, minimizing bias in the elicited information, and verifying the accuracy of expert information. We highlight structured elicitation techniques that, if adopted, will improve the accuracy and information content of expert judgment and ensure uncertainty is captured accurately. We suggest four aspects of an expert elicitation exercise be examined to determine its comprehensiveness and effectiveness: study design and context, elicitation design, elicitation method, and elicitation output. Just as the reliability of empirical data depends on the rigor with which it was acquired so too does that of expert knowledge.
Commentary: Studies on Binge‐Like Ethanol Drinking May Help to Identify the Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying the Transition to Dependence
Authors: Thiele Todd E.
Published: January 2012

Background:

The goals of this commentary are to discuss the important contributions of the work by Kaur and colleagues titled “Corticotropin‐releasing factor acting on corticotropin‐releasing factor receptor type 1 is critical for binge alcohol drinking in mice,” published in this issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, and to highlight the importance of preclinical research aimed at identifying the neurobiology of binge ethanol drinking.

Methods and Results:

The work by Kaur and colleagues provides an important extension of previous pharmacological evidence implicating the corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF) type‐1 receptor (CRF1R) in binge‐like ethanol drinking by verifying the role of the CRF1R using genetic tools, and by establishing that CRF, but not urocortin 1 (Ucn1), is the primary neuropeptide associated with the CRF system that modulates binge‐like ethanol drinking in C57BL/6J mice.

Conclusions:

It is suggested that the evidence for a critical role of the CRF1R in excessive ethanol intake observed in both models of binge‐like ethanol drinking and dependence‐like ethanol intake indicates that overlapping mechanisms may be involved, and that studies that employ models of binge‐like ethanol drinking may provide insight into the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the transition to ethanol dependence.
Factors Noted to Affect Breast Cancer Treatment Decisions of Women Aged 80 and Older
Authors: Schonberg Mara A. , Silliman Rebecca A. , McCarthy Ellen P. , Marcantonio Edward R.
Published: January 2012

Objectives

To identify factors that influence the breast cancer treatment decisions of women aged 80 and older.

Design

Medical record review.

Setting

One academic primary care clinic and two community health centers in Boston.

Participants

Sixty‐five women aged 80 and older diagnosed with breast cancer between 1994 and 2004 and followed through June 30, 2010.

Measurements

Data were abstracted on breast cancer characteristics, comorbidities, treatments received, and outcomes. Notes from primary care physicians, oncologists, and breast surgeons were reviewed to determine factors involved in treatment decision‐making.

Results

Median age at diagnosis was 84.0 (interquartile range 82.0–86.3), 55 (84.6%) were non‐Hispanic white, and 40 (61.5%) had at least one comorbidity. Nine women were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, 42 with a new primary invasive breast cancer, eight with a second primary, and six with a breast cancer recurrence. Sixty‐three (96.9%) received some type of treatment. Fifty‐six (86.2%) had at least one detailed physician note on treatment decision‐making in their charts. The main categories found to influence participant, family, and physician treatment decision‐making were tumor characteristics, ratio of treatment benefits to risks, logistics (e.g., transportation, finances), and participant age, health (including a concurrent diagnosis), and psychosocial characteristics. Family was involved in treatment discussions for 46 (70.8%) participants.

Conclusion

The quality of physician documentation about decision‐making in these women was high. A great amount of thoughtful and complex decision‐making involving patients, family, and physicians occurs after a woman aged 80 and older is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Life‐Space Mobility in Mexican Americans Aged 75 and Older
Authors: Snih Soham Al , Peek Kristen M. , Sawyer Patricia , Markides Kyriakos S. , Allman Richard M. , Ottenbacher Kenneth J.
Published: January 2012

Objectives

To examine the factors associated with life‐space mobility in older Mexican Americans.

Design

Cross‐sectional study involving a population‐based survey.

Setting

Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly survey conducted in the southwestern of United States (Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and California).

Participants

Seven hundred twenty‐eight Mexican‐American men and women aged 75 and older.

Measurements

Sociodemographic factors, self‐reported physician diagnoses of medical conditions (arthritis, diabetes mellitus, heart attack, stroke, hip fracture, and cancer), depressive symptoms, cognitive function, body mass index (BMI), upper and lower extremity muscle strength, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), activities of daily living (ADLs), and the life‐space assessment (LSA) were assessed in in‐home interviews.

Results

The mean age of participants was 84.2 ± 4.2. Sixty‐five percent were female. Mean LSA score was 41.7 ± 20.9. Multiple regression analysis showed that older age, being female, limitation in ADLs, stroke, high depressive symptoms, and a BMI index of 35 kg/m2 and greater were significantly associated with lower LSA scores. Education and better lower extremity function and muscle strength were factors significantly associated with higher LSA scores.

Conclusion

Older Mexican Americans had restricted life‐space, with approximately 80% limited to their home or neighborhood. Older age, female sex, stroke, high depressive symptoms, BMI of 35 kg/m2 or greater, and ADL disability were related to less life‐space. Future studies are needed to examine the association between life‐space and health outcomes and to characterize the trajectory of life‐space over time in this population.
Clinical Presentation and Management of Histoplasmosis in Older Adults
Authors: Ledtke Christopher , Tomford J. Walton , Jain Anil , Isada Carlos M. , van Duin David
Published: January 2012

Objectives

To describe the influence of age on clinical features of histoplasmosis.

Design

Retrospective single‐center cohort study.

Setting

Large tertiary care center.

Participants

All individuals who met criteria for probable or proven histoplasmosis between 1998 and 2008.

Measurements

Participants were divided into the following categories of histoplasmosis: acute pulmonary, chronic pulmonary, asymptomatic, disseminated, and other. Correcting for immune status, the influence of age at diagnosis on presentation, diagnosis, imaging, treatment, and all‐cause mortality was evaluated.

Results

In 347 participants with histoplasmosis, a number of characteristics were associated with age when evaluating participants according to diagnostic category. An age‐associated increase in asymptomatic histoplasmosis was observed (P < .001). In symptomatic pulmonary histoplasmosis, older adults were less likely to present with chest pain (P < .001) and less likely to have hilar lymphadenopathy on imaging (P = .04). Lower rates of seropositivity with older age were seen in asymptomatic (P = .04) but not other forms of histoplasmosis. Cavitary disease was associated with older age in chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis (P = .05). Treatment did not change with age. All‐cause mortality at 6 months was 4% and was associated with older age (P = .02).

Conclusion

Although most studied characteristics of histoplasmosis were similar, notable age‐related differences were present. Chronic cavitary disease and asymptomatic histoplasmosis were more common with older age. In acute histoplasmosis, the lack of chest pain and hilar lymphadenopathy may hinder diagnosis in older adults.