bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Grandparental and Extended Kin Relationships
Authors: Euler Harald A. , Michalski Richard L.
Published: September 2007

This chapter argues that grandparenthood may trigger psychological adaptations with relationship-specific features. Grandparental investment cannot be understood adequately without consideration of its Darwinian fitness consequences. Relationships with aunts/uncles and nieces/nephews also cannot be understood without such a consideration. Because parents are mediators of grandparent and grandchild relationships, the evolutionary analysis of grandparenthood sheds light on the seemingly universal plight of in-law relationships, most conspicuous in the conflict between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Investment in progeny and emotional closeness of intergenerational dyads is highly and robustly structured. This structure is parsimoniously and to a considerable extent accounted for by a few basic reproductively relevant variables including sex-specific reproductive strategy and relationship uncertainty.
God's Irishmen
Authors: Gribben Crawford
Published: September 2007

This book is the first comprehensive description of some of the many kinds of Protestantism that competed for the souls of Cromwellian Ireland. Its principal purpose is to document the period's most important theological debates, arguing that they were both a cause and consequence of protestant experiences in that turbulent period and that they illustrate surprising contests between and within several English, Scottish, and Irish varieties of protestant identity. Cromwellian protestants were sometimes less puritan, and often much less united by religious convictions, than has often been supposed. Even their resolute opposition to Roman Catholicism has, at times, been exaggerated. The military campaign and its aftermath have been associated with eschatological stringency and anti‐Catholic rhetoric, but this rhetoric is largely absent from the treatises that survived the 1650s. In fact, where Antichrist does appear, it is almost always within the community of the godly. His presence marks the constantly shifting boundaries of projected systems of truth. These shifting boundaries reflect a sustained introspection that allows historians to trace the evolution of religious identities throughout this period. That introspection provides a key to our understanding of the period's events, for the Cromwellian regime had an evidently religious base, and its exponents worked self‐consciously for a second reformation. Nevertheless, the state failed to endorse an ecclesiastical ideal, and that failure made sectarian disagreements inevitable. This book documents the tenor and impact of these debates.
Stealing the Gold
Authors: Sherrington David
Published: September 2007

The collection of trails blazed by Sam Edwards during half a century of fundamental research in theoretical physics is truly astonishing. He led theoretical physics into uncharted territories from his roots in quantum field theory — beginning with his seminal work on the transport properties of disordered metals, and continuing to the present day with his ground-breaking efforts to create a statistical mechanics of granular materials. Along the way, he and his collaborators developed the first modern theory of polymers in solution and in the rubbery state; created and explored the tube concept, which has had momentous implications for understanding the viscoelasticity of polymer melts; formulated the spin-glass problem and provided its first solutions using the method of replicas — work that has had profound implications in areas as diverse as combinatorial optimization, neural networks, as well as glassy systems; made important contributions to the still-unsolved problem of Navier-Stokes turbulence; and initiated the recent explosion of activity in the dynamics of growing interfaces. This book celebrates Sam's impact by collecting together and reprinting eleven of his papers, each of which played a seminal role and started a new field of study, each followed by one or more original articles by experts in the relevant fields demonstrating how the topics Sam started have developed to the modern day.
Pattern and process in food webs: evidence from running waters
Authors: Woodward Guy , Thompson Ross , Townsend Colin R. , Hildrew Alan G.
Published: September 2007

Studies on streams provide some of the most detailed and best resolved webs yet available, and provide a means to test food web theory. These systems can be used to test patterns in connectance webs and the effect of sampling on the patterns evident. The role of body-size in stream webs is reviewed. This chapter deals with attempts to quantify food webs by measures of energy flow and interaction strengths, and to characterize the circumstances leading to the presence or absence of trophic cascades in food webs. Streams are strongly linked through their food webs with surrounding systems, such as ground water and flood plains, and such cross-system subsidies is considered. The effect of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on food web attributes is addressed. Finally, the relationship between biodiversity/ecosystem functions in stream webs is addressed in the context of environmental stress.
12 Better than Speech: Some Advantages of the Letter in the Second Sophistic
Authors: Hodkinson Owen
Published: September 2007

This chapter suggests some ways of thinking about the epistolary genre and its development in Greek literature, focusing on some particular examples from ‘Second Sophistic’ epistolographers who built upon and added to these developments. Taking examples from fictional letters in which there seems to be no obstacle to verbal communication, this chapter argues that they do not constitute lapses in verisimilitude on the author's part; rather, such letters add variety to the imagined situations of their letter-writers, allowing the reader to reconstruct possible motives for writing where none is mentioned. The authors thus illustrate some potential advantages of the letter over verbal communication.
The Investment Committee
Authors: Acharya Shanta , Dimson Elroy
Published: September 2007

Colleges in Oxford and Cambridge appoint an Investment Committee to oversee the management of endowment assets and related investments. The main tasks of this committee are determining strategic asset allocation, return and risk objectives, spending policy, the selection of fund managers, and an investment consultant; and in the case of the universities, determining the dividend. Investment Committees are therefore the key drivers of investment policy; their decisions directly influence an institution's intergenerational equity. The management structure, membership, demographics, and other characteristics of investment committees are discussed.
4 The ecology of malaria in Italy
Authors: Sallares Robert
Published: September 2007

The first section of this chapter discusses the mosquito vectors of malaria. Attention is drawn to the phenomenon of anophelism without malaria, and ancient knowledge of mosquitoes is considered a prelude to ancient concepts of malaria. The second section investigates the various environments of central Italy that were notorious for malaria in the past, including the seasonality of malaria and its relationships to altitude and wetlands; the requirements (such as the degree of salinity of the water) of mosquito larvae for breeding purposes; and the effects of drainage schemes. This section includes case studies of malaria in antiquity at Lugnano in Umbria, Ostia, and Ravenna. The third section discusses malaria on Sardinia in antiquity. The fourth section assesses the effects on malaria of man-made factors, such as roads and housing. The fifth section analyses the effects of climate change on malaria, a temperature-dependent disease. The sixth section considers the role of deforestation and agricultural change.
Digressive Voices in Early Modern English Literature
Authors: Cotterill Anne
Published: September 2007

This book begins and ends with the intellectual and imaginative pleasures of narrative wandering. ‘To digress’ in early modern England carried a range of associations with authority and gender, from amplitude and escape to deviance and transgression. The book argues that writers classically trained in verbal contest used the liberty of digression to create a complex form of underground writing and self-definition in some of the richest non-dramatic texts of 17th-century England; such a pointed use of digressiveness in the period has not been recognized. Within these textual mazes writers captured the ambiguities of political occasion and patronage, while they anatomized enemies and mourned personal loss. The narrator of each text addresses a specter of speechlessness as well as loss of self through a figurative descent to an unstable underworld associated with a female or effeminate weakness. In fresh readings of Donne's Anniversaries, Marvell's Upon Appleton House, Sir Thomas Browne's The Garden of Cyrus, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dryden's The Hind and the Panther and A Discourse of Satire, and Swift's A Tale of a Tub, the book draws attention to the expansiveness of many of the period's literary forms, such as country-house poem, literary anatomy, dedicatory epistle, beast fable, and epic. Turning current sensitivity toward the silenced voice in a new direction, the book argues that rhetorical amplitude might suggest anxieties about speech and silence for early modern men forced to be competitive yet circumspect to make their voices heard.
Modularization in the Car Industry
Authors: Takeishi Akira , Fujimoto Takahiro
Published: September 2007

This chapter analyses modularization in the world automotive industry. Modularization has involved architectural changes in product, production, and supplier systems in the industry. As an attempt to understand such multi-faceted, complex processes, this chapter proposes a conceptual framework that sees development/production activities as multiple hierarchies of products, processes, and inter-firm boundaries that are interlinked. Using this framework and drawing on case studies and questionnaire survey data, the chapter examines the ongoing processes of modularization in the industry and argues that tensions exist among the three hierarchies. Such tensions may lead to further changes in product, production, and supplier-system architectures.
Gellius and Fronto on Loanwords and Literary Models
Authors: Garcea Alessandro , Lomanto Valeria
Published: September 2007

This chapter considers the linguistic categories ‘Latin’, ‘Greek’, and ‘barbarian’, with particular reference to the debate in Gellius 19.13 over the status in Latin of the word, nanus (dwarf), thought barbarian by Fronto but proved Greek by Sulpicius Apollinaris. As such, it is admissible in Latin (where indeed it had been used by Helvius Cinna in relation to ponies); but even if not, use by Fronto would have conferred on it a higher standing than the vulgarisms introduced by Laberius enjoyed. It is demonstrated that grammatical tradition treats Latin as a form of Aeolic Greek, so that Greek loanwords are not intruders as barbarian words are. The chapter also considers the difference between the historical Fronto's approval for Laberius' word-choices and Gellius' own, on the whole unfavourable judgement on them.
Educational Values
Authors: Morgan Teresa
Published: September 2007

The chapter shows how despite being an unsystematic miscellany, the Attic Nights can be seen as an educational and ethical text. Taken as a whole, Gellius' collection of pieces of knowledge and anecdotes presents education as worth having, enjoyable, social, useful, and moral in a world in which belonging to a group is one of the prime rewards of education. In particular, grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and law are all socially functional and worth having because they make good citizens in both public and private life. Using intuitions of modern Practical Ethics, the chapter shows how a collection of stories, exempla, etc., can exhibit a set of values, some of which are more prominent than others, and a general concept of ethics in which being good means being good of one's kind, the kind being defined by belonging to three main groups: Roman state, friends, and family.
Gellius in the French Renaissance
Authors: Heath Michael
Published: September 2007

This chapter traces the editorial tradition of Gellius in France from 1508 down to Carrio's edition of 1585, with extensive paratextual matter by Henri Estienne, in particular the essays named in homage Noctes Parisinae. It then notes the use made of Gellius by scholars such as Guillaume Budé and Julius Caesar Scaliger, and in literature at large. He provided miscellanists with engaging anecdotes, presenting a framework and some ready-made chapters for such widely read compilations as Simon Goulart's Histoires admirables and Laurent Joubert's Erreurs populaires. Through such authors but also directly, he supplied material for Rabelais, for the anonymous satirist who wrote the controversial Cymbalum mundi, and above all for Montaigne, who makes continual use of Gellius while reworking him as he sees fit. The chapter ends by considering the affinities between the two authors.
The Metahistory of Denial: The Irving/Lipstadt Libel Case and Holocaust Denial
Authors: Eaglestone Robert
Published: September 2007

This chapter looks at the significance of metahistory in combating Holocaust Denial, and takes as its case study the Irving/Lipstadt Libel Case from 2000. After describing the metahistorical commitments of denial, the chapter outlines a postmodern understanding of historical writing as a genre, developing the ideas of Jean-François Lyotard in The Differend, with generic rules, including conventions about evidence, context, and reasonable argument. It then argues that the trial showed that David Irving did not follow these conventions, and that, as the Judge made clear — it was this that showed Irving to be no historian. This analysis of the trial is then used to illuminate problems in empiricist defences of history, and to defend postmodern thought against the charge that it allows Holocaust denial.
Language in the Confessions of Augustine
Authors: Burton Philip
Published: September 2007

This book argues that Augustine's Confessions may fruitfully be read as a series of encounters with language and signs: as a baby learning to speak, as a schoolboy orator, student, professor of rhetoric, and Christian exegete. While language is a universal human characteristic, the fact of languages tends to divide humans into arbitrary and uncomprehending communities; and even in individual communities, language can be manipulated or simply misunderstood. On the theological level, Augustine faces question of how to describe (and invoke) an absolute and immutable God in language that is necessary arbitrary and mutable. This book seeks to explore these questions through a close analysis of specific linguistic features of the work, such as his use of the language of Roman comedy, his attitudes towards Greek, or his use of biblical Latin. Consideration is given also to such ‘paralinguistic’ activities as singing or laughing, and to the relationship between the spoken and the written word.
The Worldwide Diffusion of Codes of Good Governance
Authors: Cuervo-Cazurra Alvaro , Aguilera Ruth V.
Published: September 2007

This chapter goes beyond the convergence/divergence dilemma by analysing change in CG practice in terms of the adoption of some codes of good governance rather than as the adoption of one particular model. It considers the speed of adoption of a code as a process of knowledge transfer across countries, driven by a mixture of effectiveness and legitimization reasons. The empirical study considers fifteen common-law countries and twenty civil-law countries, and finds that the development of a first code of CG was faster in countries with greater exposure to foreign investment (but not to foreign trade) and with a common law system.
Denmark, 1513–1660
Authors: Lockhart Paul Douglas
Published: September 2007

One of the largest states in Europe and the greatest of the Protestant powers, Denmark, in the 16th and 17th centuries was at the height of its influence. Embracing Norway, Iceland, portions of southern Sweden, and northern Germany, the Danish monarchy dominated the vital Baltic trade. However, its geopolitical importance far exceeded its modest resources. This book examines the short and perhaps unlikely career of Denmark as the major power of northern Europe, exploring its rise to the forefront of European affairs and its subsequent decline in fortunes following its disastrous involvement in the Thirty Years' War. The book focuses on key issues, from the dynamic role of the Oldenburg monarchy in bringing about Denmark's ‘European integration’, to the impact of the Protestant Reformation on Danish culture. The multi-national character of the Danish monarchy is explored in-depth, in particular how the Oldenburg kings of Denmark sought to establish their authority over their sizable — and oftentimes contentious — Norwegian, Icelandic, and German minorities. Denmark's participation in international politics and commerce is also investigated, along with the power struggle between Denmark and its rival Sweden over Baltic dominion, and the Danes' unique approach to internal governance.
Athens in Paris
Authors: Leonard Miriam
Published: September 2007

Why was Derrida reading Plato as students stormed the Sorbonne in May '68? Why was Foucault writing about Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus while fighting for the rights of prisoners with Vidal-Naquet? What has Vernant the resistance fighter to do with Vernant theorist of the ancient polis? This book investigates how post-war France turned to ancient Greece to formulate a new interrogation of the political. It investigates why a group of highly influential Parisian thinkers rediscovered ancient Athens to debate the role of political subjectivity and ethical choice in the life of the modern citizen. The book explores the ways in which the writings of the ancient Greeks played a decisive part in shaping the intellectual projects of structuralism and post-structuralism — arguably the most significant currents of thought of the post-war era. The authors investigated, including Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, and Vernant, have had an incalculable influence on the direction of classical studies over the last thirty years, but classicists have yet to give due attention to the crucial role of the ancient world in the development of their philosophy.
Aristotle on the Common Sense
Authors: Gregoric Pavel
Published: September 2007

Apart from using our eyes to see and our ears to hear, we regularly and effortlessly perform a number of complex perceptual operations that cannot be explained in terms of the five senses taken individually. Such operations include, for example, perceiving that the same object is white and sweet, noticing the difference between white and sweet, or knowing that one's own senses are active. Observing that other animals must be able to perform such operations, and being unprepared to ascribe any share in rationality to them, Aristotle explained such operations with reference to a higher-order perceptual capacity which unites and monitors the five senses. This capacity is known as the ‘common sense’ (koine aisthesis, sensus communis). Unfortunately, Aristotle provides only scattered and opaque references to this capacity. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the exact nature and functions of this capacity have been a matter of perennial controversy. This book offers an extensive and compelling treatment of the Aristotelian conception of the common sense, which has become part and parcel of Western psychological theories from antiquity through to the Middle Ages, and well into the early modern period. This book begins with an introduction to Aristotle's theory of perception and sets up a conceptual framework for the interpretation of textual evidence. In addition to analysing those passages which make explicit mention of the common sense, and drawing out the implications for Aristotle's terminology, this book provides an examination of each function of this Aristotelian faculty.
Historiography at the End of the Republic
Authors: Yarrow Liv Mariah
Published: September 2007

This book starts at the end of Polybius' Histories, and investigates documentation of the Roman empire recorded by non-Romans. Intellectuals, being members of the social elite, controlled the wealth in a community and usually the political decision-making processes as well. After the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, Rome made the transition from military dominance to provincial administration and client states. This left local elites grasping for the remains of their political influence. The products of the intellectuals reflect the concerns of the day. Also the culture of intellectual exchange in place in the Mediterranean gave the local elite a means of communicating their anxieties and expectations. Historical texts offer the most explicit evidence of this trend. The texts of six contemporary historians of this period survive in enough detail to allow productive analysis: the author of 1 Maccabees, Posidonius, Diodorus Siculus, Pompeius Trogus, Nicolaus of Damascus, and Memnon of Heraclea. The book starts with a detailed analysis of the relationship between intellectuals and political authority. However, methodological difficulties are encountered because of the fragmentary nature of most of the surviving historical texts composed by non-Romans. Thus, the discussion continues by laying out an approach to the reliability of different forms of reliquiae. The remainder of the study looks at the political dimensions of the themes present in the contemporary history-writing of non-Romans, how narrative structures help to further the compositional objectives of each historian, and mythological and ethnographical characterizations of the Romans, their domestic affairs, and their involvement with the wider Mediterranean. The study also explores the portrayal of potential rivals for political dominion of the Mediterranean. The book shows that the historians are working not with models of endorsement or resistance, but instead with an eye to the pragmatic issues of harmonious co-existence. Rome is treated as an ultimate authority, intrinsically neither good nor bad.
S-Stem Nouns and Adjectives in Greek and
Proto-Indo-European
Authors: Meissner Torsten
Published: September 2007

This book deals with one aspect of Greek and Proto-Indo-European nominal morphology: the formation, inflection, and semantics of s-stem nouns and adjectives. It uncovers the mechanisms of their creation and shows their limitation. The established view that the nouns are an unproductive category is challenged; at the same time, the expanding and partly changing nature of the basis governing the creation of the adjectives is explained. Morphology and semantics are studied in tandem, and a large chronological span of the Greek language is covered. The historical side is then extended into prehistory, and in particular the Greek evidence is tested against recent theories on Proto-Indo-European ablaut, leading to a reassessment of the morphonological characteristics in question.
Psychological Subjects
Authors: Thomson Mathew
Published: September 2007

This book provides the first history of how psychological thinking developed as a feature of life in 20th-century Britain. It ranges from the start of the century to the 1970s, covering academic and professional psychology, but devoting particular attention to popularization. It offers case studies of the emergence of a discipline and of psychology in relation to self help, the ‘new age’, education, economic life, medicine and psychiatry, the Second World War, and the ‘permissive society’. Questioning previous emphasis on psychology as a tool of governance, it highlights its role in enabling the imagination of not just better selves but a better society. It argues that the appeal of psychological thinking has been underestimated in the British context, partly because its character has been misconstrued. Psychology found a role because rather than shattering values, it offered new life. The book considers the extent to which such an ethical and social psychological subjectivity survived the challenges of an industrial civilization; a crisis in confidence regarding human nature wrought by war and political extremism; and finally the emergence of a permissive society. It concludes that many assumptions about the route to psychological modernity — centred on the rise of psychoanalysis, individualism, and interiority, and focusing on the liberation of emotion, talk, relationships, and sex — need substantial revision, or at least setting alongside a rather different path when it comes to the Britain of 1900-70.
Fourier–Mukai Transforms
Authors: Huybrechts D.
Published: September 2007

This chapter introduces the central notion of a Fourier-Mukai transform between derived categories. It is the derived version of the notion of a correspondence, which has been studied for all kinds of cohomology theories for many decades. In fact, Orlov's celebrated result, which is stated but not proved, says that any equivalence between derived categories of smooth projective varieties is of Fourier-Mukai type. Fourier-Mukai functors behave well in many respects: they are exact, admit left and right adjoints, can be composed, etc. The cohomological Fourier-Mukai transform behaves with respect to grading, Hodge structure, and Mukai pairing.
First Report of Iris yellow spot virus in Commercial Leek (Allium porrum) in Spain
Authors: Córdoba-Sellés C. , Cebrián-Mico C. , Alfaro-Fernández A. , Muñoz-Yerbes M. J. , Jordá-Gutiérrez C.
Published: September 2007

Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV; family Bunyaviridae, genus Tospovirus) has a wide host range, with onion (Allium cepa L.) being one of the most economically important hosts. The first report of IYSV in Spain was from Albacete in 2003 (1) followed by the Canary Islands in 2005. In November of 2006, disease symptoms suspected to be caused by IYSV were observed on the central and outer leaves of commercial leeks plants (cvs. Asthow, Edison, and Shelton) from Alicante, Spain. Symptoms consisted of dry, white-to-straw-colored, spindle-shaped, irregular chlorotic and necrotic lesions on the leaves. Tissue from symptomatic leaves was sampled and analyzed by a double-antibody sandwich (DAS)-ELISA with specific polyclonal antibodies against Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV), Leek yellow stripe virus (LYSV) (Biorad Phyto-Diagnostics, Marnes-La Coquette, France), IYSV, and Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) (Loewe Biochemica, Sauerlach, Germany). Five of seven leek samples belonging to the three cultivars tested were positive for IYSV. All samples were negative for the other viruses tested. The presence of IYSV was verified in the positive samples by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR using primers derived from the nucleocapsid (N) gene of IYSV (1). RT-PCR gave a PCR amplicon of expected size (approximately 790 bp) from symptomatic leek plants. The product of one of the positive leek samples was purified and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. EF427447). Nucleotide sequence analysis confirmed the identity of the amplicon as that of the IYSV N gene. Sequence comparisons showed 99% identity with the sequence of the IYSV Spanish isolate available in GenBank (Accession No. EF419888). Thrips tabaci is the primary vector of IYSV. Although the vector is present in Spain, the efficiency of the Mediterranean ecotype in transmitting the virus is not known. Leek has been reported to be a host of IYSV in countries such as the Netherlands, Reunion Island, Australia, and the United States (2). To our knowledge, this is the first report of natural infection of leek with IYSV in Spain.

References: (1) C. Córdoba-Sellés et al. Plant Dis. 89:1243, 2005. (2) H. F. Schwartz et al. Plant Dis. 91:113, 2007.
Impaired Maturation of Monocyte‐derived Dendritic Cells from Birch Allergic Individuals in Association with Birch‐specific Immune Responses
Authors: Casas R. , Skarsvik S. , Lindström A. , Zetterström O. , Duchén K.
Published: September 2007

Optimal activation of T lymphocytes requires a costimulatory signal provided by the interaction of molecules on the surface of T cells with their ligands expressed on dendritic cells (DC). We investigated whether DC differentiated from monocytes from healthy and birch allergic asthmatic individuals and further maturated by stimulation with cat and birch allergens and LPS differ in their phenotypic receptor expression. Similar expression of DC surface markers, including HLA‐DR, CD80, CD86, CD83, CD1a and CD11c, was detected in monocyte‐derived DC from allergic and healthy individuals. Cells from healthy donors stimulated either antigen showed a similar activation of the CD80 and double CD80/CD86 costimulatory molecules when compared with non‐stimulated cells. In the case of cells from allergic individuals, birch allergen was unable to produce the same increased expression of CD80 alone or in combination with CD80/CD86, in comparison with cells stimulated with cat and LPS. Levels of IL‐6, IL‐8, IL‐10, MCP‐1/MCAF and MIP‐1β were similar in the supernatant of non‐stimulated DC from both groups of subjects. By contrast, the spontaneous secretion of IL‐12p70 and TNF‐α was higher in the supernatant of DC from healthy subjects when compared with that from allergic individuals. Stimulation with birch and LPS resulted in an increased secretion of IL‐12p70 in samples from healthy when compared with that in allergic individuals. The results suggest an impaired specific maturation of DC from birch allergic individuals in association with birch‐specific immune responses. Lower secretion of IL‐12p70 from birch‐stimulated DC from allergic individuals suggests that not only maturation, but also the specific Th1 function of these cells seems to be affected in those individuals.
Neuronal Vacuolation, Myelopathy and Laryngeal Neuropathy in a Mixed‐Breed Dog
Authors: Salvadori C. , Tartarelli C. L. , Baroni M. , Arispici M. , Cantile C.
Published: September 2007

A bilateral and symmetrical neuronal vacuolation associated with spinal cord white matter degeneration and laryngeal neuropathy was observed in a 12‐week‐old male mixed‐breed dog with a history of progressive pelvic limbs ataxia. On clinical examination, signs included inspiratory stridor, spinal ataxia, tetraparesis, and proprioceptive deficits more severe in the pelvic limbs. Examination of the larynx showed bilateral laryngeal paralysis and electromyography revealed fibrillation potentials restricted to the intrinsic laryngeal muscles. Clinical and pathological findings resembled the syndrome of neuronal vacuolation and spinocerebellar degeneration described in Rottweiler dogs. This is the first report of a similar disorder in a dog different from Rottweiler.
Comparison of Blood Glucose Concentrations After Administration of a Glucose Solution via the Jugular Vein and Portal Vein in Cows
Authors: Braun U. , Heusmann B. , Camenzind D. , Haessig M.
Published: September 2007

The goals of the present study were to determine whether the infusion of a glucose solution into the portal vein is tolerated in cows and whether the glucose concentration differs after administration of glucose into the jugular vein and portal vein. Fifteen healthy Swiss Braunvieh cows were used. An indwelling catheter was placed in both jugular veins and a balloon‐tipped indwelling catheter with a diameter of 2 mm was placed in the portal vein under the guidance of ultrasonography. Three cows received 500 ml of 20% glucose solution over 60 min via the left jugular vein. Three other cows received the same solution over 60 min via the portal vein. Blood samples were collected from the right jugular vein before and for 24 h after the infusion of glucose for the determination of the concentrations of glucose and bilirubin and the activities of glutamate dehydrogenase, sorbitol dehydrogenase and γ‐glutamyl transferase. Infusion via the portal vein did not result in abnormalities in the general condition of the cows or increases in the concentration of bilirubin or the activities of liver enzymes. The blood glucose concentration increased to the same extent after both intraportal and intrajugular infusion. Over a 12‐h period, three cows received 10 l of 20% glucose solution via the left jugular vein and three others received the same solution over a 12‐h period via the portal vein. Blood samples were collected from the right jugular vein before and for 30 h after the start of infusion. Infusion via the portal vein did not affect the general condition of the cows or the activities of the liver enzymes. There was no significant difference in the blood glucose concentration between the two groups throughout the study.
Ingroup vitality and intergroup attitudes in a linguistic minority
Authors: LIEBKIND KARMELA , JASINSKAJA‐LAHTI INGA , TERÄSAHO MIA
Published: September 2007

In this study we argue that predictions of the impact of group status, status stability and status legitimacy on intergroup attitudes can be refined using the subjective perceptions of various dimensions of ingroup vitality. We tested the main and moderating effects of perceived present, future and the legitimacy of present ingroup vitality and perceived discrimination on intergroup attitudes in a nation‐wide probability sample (N= 1,411) of Swedish‐speaking Finns, controlling for ingroup identification. We found that those who perceived the legitimacy of present ingroup vitality to be low had more negative intergroup attitudes than those who perceived the legitimacy to be high. Perceived present and future ingroup vitality had no main effects on the dependent variable. Instead, perceived future ingroup vitality moderated the effect of perceived discrimination on intergroup attitudes. In addition, the perceived legitimacy of present ingroup vitality mediated the effect of perceived present ingroup vitality on intergroup attitudes.
Subcortical ischaemic changes in young hypertensive patients: frequency, effect on cognitive performance and relationship with markers of endothelial and haemostatic activation
Authors: Consoli D. , Carlo A. Di , Inzitari D. , Lucia D. De , Lamassa M. , D'Avino M. , Baldereschi M. , Muto M. , Mandarino A. , Napolitano M. , Romano M. F. , Caruso D.
Published: September 2007

Information on subcortical ischaemic changes (SIC) in young hypertensive patients is scarce. We evaluated the frequency of SIC at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the possible effect on cognition of these patients, and the role of plasma markers known as indicators of endothelial and haemostatic activation. Inclusion criteria were age ≤54 years, hypertension for at least 2 years and absence of cerebrovascular disease or other conditions possibly related to SIC. Patients with SIC at MRI and two control groups (matched for age, sex and education) of hypertensive patients without SIC and non‐hypertensive healthy subjects underwent an extensive neuropsychological examination and evaluation of plasma markers. Amongst the 200 patients evaluated, 50 (25%) showed SIC at MRI. Mean age was 48.4 ± 4.8 years. Compared with both control groups, hypertensive patients with SIC performed significantly worse in general cognition, attention, memory and executive functions. Moreover, they showed significantly more often increased levels of all plasma markers compared with healthy controls, and of von Willebrand factor (vWF) compared with both control groups (P < 0.001). In young hypertensive patients SIC are frequent, related to a worse cognitive performance and endothelial dysfunction. Our findings suggest vWF as marker of end‐organ damage, underscoring the relevance of treating hypertension at younger age.
Peripartum hysterectomy in the UK: management and outcomes of the associated haemorrhage
Authors: Knight M ,   UKOSS
Published: September 2007

Objectives  To identify women undergoing peripartum hysterectomy in the UK and to describe the causes, management and outcome of the associated haemorrhage.

Design  A population‐based descriptive study using the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS).

Setting  All 229 hospitals with consultant‐led maternity units in the UK.

Population  All women in the UK delivering between February 2005 and February 2006.

Methods  Prospective case identification through the UKOSS monthly mailing.

Main outcome measures  Rates with 95% CIs. Odds ratio estimates.

Results  Three hundred and eighteen women underwent peripartum hysterectomy. The most commonly reported causes of haemorrhage were uterine atony (53%) and morbidly adherent placenta (39%). Women were not universally managed with uterotonic therapies. Fifty women were unsuccessfully managed with B‐Lynch or other brace suture prior to hysterectomy, 28 with activated factor VII and 9 with arterial embolisation. Twenty‐one percent of women suffered damage to other structures, 20% required a further operation and 19% were reported to have additional severe morbidity. Bladder damage was more likely in women with placenta accreta (OR 3.41, 95% CI 1.55–7.48) than in women with uterine atony. There were no significant differences in outcomes between women undergoing total or subtotal hysterectomy. Two women died; case fatality 0.6% (95% CI 0–1.5%).

Conclusions  For each woman who dies in the UK following peripartum hysterectomy, more than 150 survive. The associated haemorrhage is managed in a variety of ways and not universally according to existing guidelines. Further investigation of the outcomes following some of the more innovative therapies for control of haemorrhage is needed.
Verrucophora farcimengen. et sp. nov. (Dictyochophyceae, Heterokonta)—a bloom‐forming ichthyotoxic flagellate from the Skagerrak, Norway1
Authors: Edvardsen Bente , Eikrem Wenche , Shalchian‐Tabrizi Kamran , Riisberg Ingvild , Johnsen Geir , Naustvoll Lars , Throndsen Jahn
Published: September 2007

Since 1998, a heterokont flagellate initially namedChattonellaaff. verruculosahas formed recurrent extensive blooms in the North Sea and the Skagerrak, causing fish mortalities. Cells were isolated from the 2001 bloom off the south coast of Norway, and monoalgal cultures were established and compared with theChattonella verruculosaY. Hara et Chihara reference strain NIES 670 from Japan. The cells in Norwegian cultured isolates were very variable in size and form, being large oblong (up to 34 μm long) to small rounded (5–9 μm in diameter) with two unequal flagella, numerous chloroplasts, and mucocysts. The SSU and partial LSU rDNA sequences of strains from Norway and Japan were compared and differed by 0.4% (SSU) and 1.3% (LSU), respectively. Five strains from Norway were identical in the LSU rDNA region. Phylogenetic analyses based on heterokont SSU and concatenated SSU + LSU rDNA sequences placedC. aff.verruculosaand the JapaneseC. verruculosawithin the clade of Dictyochophyceae, with the picoflagellateFlorenciella parvulaEikrem as the closest relative. Ultrastructure, morphology, and pigment composition supported this affinity. We propose the nameVerrucophora farcimensp. et gen. nov. for this flagellate and systematically place it within the class Dictyochophyceae. Our studies also show thatC. verruculosafrom Japan is genetically and morphologically different but closely related toV. farcimen.The species is transferred from the class Raphidophyceae to the class Dictyochophyceae and renamedVerrucophora verruculosa.We propose a new order, Florenciellales, to accommodateV. farcimen,V. verruculosa, andF. parvula.
Electrophysiological responses of the blue willow leaf beetle, Phratora vulgatissima, to volatiles of different Salix viminalis genotypes
Authors: Fernandez Patricia C. , Meiners Torsten , Björkman Christer , Hilker Monika
Published: September 2007

Among numerous other factors, host‐plant volatiles may affect selection of food plants by herbivorous insects. The blue willow leaf beetle, Phratora vulgatissima (L.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is known to differentiate between willow species and genotypes. However, so far no knowledge is available on the physiological abilities of this leaf beetle to respond to willow volatiles. In this study, we recorded electroantennograms of male and female P. vulgatissima to volatiles from two Salix viminalis L. (Salicaceae) genotypes: Jorr and 78021. The headspace of these genotypes were analysed by coupled gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. In addition to known green leaf volatiles (GLV), several terpenoid components were found. Both males and females of P. vulgatissima showed strong responses to the GLVs (Z)‐3‐hexenol and (Z)‐3‐hexenyl acetate, and moderate responses to (E)‐ocimene and β‐caryophyllene. Females, but not males, also responded to R‐(+)‐limonene. This work represents a further step to identify substances relevant for the orientation of P. vulgatissima to host plants.
Noninvasive peripheral perfusion index as a possible tool for screening for critical left heart obstruction
Authors: Granelli A de‐Wahl , Östman‐Smith I
Published: September 2007

Aim: Peripheral perfusion index (PPI) has been suggested as a possible method to detect illness causing circulatory embarrassment. We aimed to establish the normal range of this index in healthy newborns, and compare it with newborns with duct‐dependent systemic circulation.

Design: We conducted a case–control study.

Setting: Our study population comprised 10 000 prospectively recruited newborns from Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Patients: A total of 10 000 normal newborns and 9 infants with duct‐dependent systemic circulation (left heart obstructive disease [LHOD] group) participated in the study.

Methods: We conducted single pre‐ and postductal measurements of PPI with a new generation pulse oximeter (Masimo Radical SET) before discharge from hospital.

Results: PPI values between 1 and 120 h of age show an asymmetrical, non‐normal distribution with median PPI value of 1.70 and interquartile range of 1.18–2.50. The 5th percentile = 0.70 and 95th percentile = 4.50. All infants in the LHOD group had either pre‐ or postductal PPI below the interquartile range, and 5 of 9 (56%) were below the 5th percentile cut‐off of 0.70 (p < 0.0001, Fisher's exact test). A PPI value <0.70 gave an odds ratio for LHOD of 23.75 (95% CI 6.36–88.74).

Conclusion: PPI values lower than 0.70 may indicate illness and a value <0.50 (1st percentile) indicates definite underperfusion. PPI values might be a useful additional tool for early detection of LHOD.
Aetiologic and clinical characteristics of syncope in Chinese children
Authors: Chen Li , Zhang Qingyou , Ingrid Sumou , Chen Jianjun , Qin Jiong , Du Junbao
Published: September 2007

Aim: This study aimed to improve diagnostic efficacy of syncope in children by analyzing the aetiology and clinical characteristics of syncope in Chinese children.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the causes of syncope and diagnostic workup in 154 consecutive children seen in the Department of Pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, China, because of a syncope‐related event.

Results: In all patients with transient loss of consciousness (TLOC), there were 136 (88.31%) patients attributing to syncope, and 18 (11.69%) belonging to nonsyncopal cases. Neurally mediated syncope (NMS) was the most common cause of syncope (99 cases; 64.3%), with cardiac causes ranking second (10 cases; 6.5%). Other nonsyncopal causes included psychiatric problems and neurological and metabolic disorders. In 25 cases (16.2%), the cause was uncertain. Cases of NMS often had clear inducement of syncope and prodromes. Children with cardiac syncope often had a history of cardiac disease, were often younger than those with NMS, and showed exercise‐related syncope, syncope spells in any body position or at an early age, or sudden death in family members but no prodromes. Neurological disorder was suspected in cases of TLOC with seizures, TLOC spells in any position, postictal phase of disorientation or abnormal neurological signs. A metabolic cause is suspected with a history of metabolic disease, prolonged anger, or violent vomiting and diarrhoea. Children with psychiatric disorders were adolescent girls, with prolonged TLOC spells, who had more frequent TLOC. Although many tests were used in diagnosis, most were not goal directed. Now, electrocardiography is recommended in almost all children with syncope. Neurological testing, including electroencephalography and computed tomography were rarely helpful unless with evidence of neurological signs and symptoms. Head‐up tilt test (HUTT) was most useful in children with recurrent syncope in whom heart disease was not suspected.

Conclusion: NMS was the most common cause of syncope. We recommended HUTT as the important basis of the TLOC workup.
Nobel Prizes for discovering the cause of malaria and the means of bringing the disease under control: hopes and disappointments
Authors: Zetterström Rolf
Published: September 2007

It is urgent that influential people living in the malaria belt and with the help of residents in the developed world make all efforts to relieve mothers in poor countries from being ‘tired of weeping’ (27) because of losing their children to malaria.
Immunological patterns in young children with Down syndrome: is there a temporal trend?
Authors: Cocchi Guido , Mastrocola Maura , Capelli Marilu' , Bastelli Annalisa , Vitali Francesca , Corvaglia Luigi
Published: September 2007

Down syndrome is associated with an increased susceptibility to infections due to a deficiency of both specific and nonspecific immunity.

Aim: The aim of the study was to analyze the temporal trends, if any, of some variables related to the immunological status of children affected by Down syndrome.

Methods: Heparinized blood samples were obtained by venipuncture in 30 children with Down syndrome, who were regularly followed in our department and analyzed for hematologic values, lymphocyte subpopulations, immunoglobulin dosage and zinc level. Results were compared with those of the normal population.

Results: In the first 5 years of life, we observed a progressive decrease in the medium values of lymphocytes, CD4+ and plasma zinc levels, and an increase in CD8+, immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M and natural killer, but generally without exceeding the interval of normality.

Conclusions: In Down syndrome children, the immune cellular status is similar to the normal population as far as white blood cell, lymphocyte, CD4+, CD8+, natural killer and immunoglobulins are concerned.

Plasma level of zinc is normal from birth until 5 years but with a temporal trend of progressive reduction.

This observation supports the hypothesis that a pharmacological supplementation may be necessary in Down syndrome children only after 5 years of age.
Novel Model To Study Virulence Determinants of
Escherichia coli
K1
Authors: Khan Naveed Ahmed , Goldsworthy Graham John
Published: September 2007

It is shown here for the first time that locusts can be used as a model to study
Escherichia coli
K1 pathogenesis.
E. coli
K-12 strain HB101 has very low pathogenicity to locusts and does not invade the locust brain, whereas the injection of 2 × 10
6
E. coli
K1 strain RS218 (O18:K1:H7) kills almost 100% of locusts within 72 h and invades the brain within 24 h of injection. Both mortality and invasion of the brain in locusts after injection of
E. coli
K1 require at least two of the known virulence determinants shown for mammals. Thus, deletion mutants that lack outer membrane protein A or cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 have reduced abilities to kill locusts and to invade the locust brain compared to the parent
E. coli
K1. Interestingly, deletion mutants lacking FimH or the NeuDB gene cluster are still able to cause high mortality. It is argued that the likely existence of additional virulence determinants can be investigated in vivo by using this insect system.
The Value Proposition of Indian Biotechnology
Authors: Mazumdar-Shaw Kiran
Published: September 2007

The article written by a very experienced veteran in the biotechnology sector, Dr Mazumdar Shaw describes India's biopharma sector and also shows a sectoral roadmap. It touches on agriculture and food biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, diagnostic biotechnology, regenerative medicine, therapeutic biotechnology, pharmaocogenomics, nanotechnology and bioinformatics.