bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bioluminescence imaging reveals inhibition of tumor cell proliferation by Alzheimer's amyloid β protein
Authors: Zhao Hong , Zhu Jinmin , Cui Kemi , Xu Xiaoyin , O'Brien Megan , Wong Kelvin K , Kesari Santosh , Xia Weiming , Wong Stephen TC
Published: June 2009

Background

Cancer and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are two seemingly distinct diseases and rarely occur simultaneously in patients. To explore molecular determinants differentiating pathogenic routes towards AD or cancer, we investigate the role of amyloid β protein (Aβ) on multiple tumor cell lines that are stably expressing luciferase (human glioblastoma U87; human breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB231; and mouse melanoma B16F).

Results

Quantification of the photons emitted from the MDA-MB231 or B16F cells revealed a significant inhibition of cell proliferation by the conditioning media (CM) derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP) over-expressing cells. The inhibition of U87 cells was observed only after the media was conditioned for longer than 2 days with APP over-expressing cells.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that Aβ plays an inhibitory role in tumor cell proliferation; this effect could depend on the type of tumor cells and amount of Aβ.
Corticotropin Releasing Factor promotes breast cancer cell motility and invasiveness
Authors: Androulidaki Ariadne , Dermitzaki Erini , Venihaki Maria , Karagianni Effie , Rassouli Olga , Andreakou Erini , Stournaras Christos , Margioris Andrew N , Tsatsanis Christos
Published: June 2009

Introduction

Cancer cells secrete bioactive peptides that act in an autocrine or paracrine fashion affecting tumor growth and metastasis. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hypothalamic neuropeptide that controls the response to stress, has been detected in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. CRF can affect breast cancer cells in an autocrine or paracrine manner via its production from innervating sympathetic neurons or immune cells.

Methods

In the present study we report our findings regarding the impact of CRF on breast cancer cell motility and invasiveness. For this purpose we used the MCF7 breast cancer cell line and evaluated the effect of CRF on motility and invasiveness using the wound-healing and boyden-chamber assays. In addition, we measured the effect of CRF on molecules that mediate motility by western blot, immunofluorescence, ELISA and RT-PCR.

Results

Our findings show that: 1. CRF transiently inhibited the apoptosis of MCF7 cells. 2. CRF enhanced MCF7 cell motility in a wound healing assay and their invasiveness through extracellular matrix. 3. CRF increased actin polymerization, phosphorylation of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK), providing a potential mechanism for the observed induction of MCF7 motility. 4. CRF induced the expression of Cox-1 but not Cox-2 in MCF7 cells as well as the production of prostaglandins, factors known to promote invasiveness and metastasis.

Conclusion

Overall, our data suggest that CRF stimulates cell motility and invasiveness of MCF7 cells most probably via induction of FAK phosphorylation and actin filament reorganization and production of prostaglandins via Cox1. Based on these findings we postulate that the stress neuropeptide CRF present in the vicinity of tumors (either produced locally by the tumor cells themselves or by nearby normal cells or secreted from the innervations of surrounding tissues) may play an important role on breast tumor growth and metastatic capacity, providing a potential link between stress and tumor progression.
Cip/Kip cyclin-dependent protein kinase inhibitors and the road to polyploidy
Authors: Ullah Zakir , Lee Chrissie Y , DePamphilis Melvin L
Published: June 2009

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) play a central role in the orderly transition from one phase of the eukaryotic mitotic cell division cycle to the next. In this context, p27Kip1(one of the CIP/KIP family of CDK specific inhibitors in mammals) or its functional analogue in other eukarya prevents a premature transition from G1 to S-phase. Recent studies have revealed that expression of a second member of this family, p57Kip2, is induced as trophoblast stem (TS) cells differentiate into trophoblast giant (TG) cells. p57 then inhibits CDK1 activity, an enzyme essential for initiating mitosis, thereby triggering genome endoreduplication (multiple S-phases without an intervening mitosis). Expression of p21Cip1, the third member of this family, is also induced in during differentiation of TS cells into TG cells where it appears to play a role in suppressing the DNA damage response pathway. Given the fact that p21 and p57 are unique to mammals, the question arises as to whether one or both of these proteins are responsible for the induction and maintenance of polyploidy during mammalian development.
Engineering fusogenic molecules to achieve targeted transduction of enveloped lentiviral vectors
Authors: Lei Yuning , Joo Kye-Il , Wang Pin
Published: June 2009

Background

Lentiviral vectors with broad tropism are one of the most promising gene delivery systems capable of efficiently delivering genes of interest into both dividing and non-dividing cells while maintaining long-term transgene expression. However, there are needs for developing lentiviral vectors with the capability to deliver genes to specific cell types, thus reducing the "off-target" effect of gene therapy. In the present study, we investigated the possibility of engineering the fusion-active domain of a fusogenic molecule (FM) with the aim to improve targeted transduction of lentiviral vectors co-displaying an anti-CD20 antibody (αCD20) and a FM.

Results

Specific mutations were introduced into the fusion domain of a binding-deficient Sindbis virus glycoprotein to generate several mutant FMs. Lentiviral vectors incorporated with αCD20 and one of the engineered FMs were successfully produced and demonstrated to be able to preferentially deliver genes to CD-20-expressing cells. Lentiviral vectors bearing engineered FMs exhibited 8 to 17-fold enhanced transduction towards target cells as compared to the parental FM. Different levels of enhancement were observed for the different engineered FMs. A pH-dependent study of vector transduction showed that the broader pH range of the engineered FM is a possible mechanism for the resulted increase in transduction efficiency.

Conclusion

The fusion domain of Sindbis virus glycoprotein is amenable for engineering and the engineered proteins provide elevated capacity to mediate lentiviral vectors for targeted transduction. Our data suggests that application of such an engineering strategy can optimize the two-molecular targeting method of lentiviral vectors for gene delivery to predetermined cells.
Does metformin affect ovarian morphology in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome? A retrospective cross-sectional preliminary analysis
Authors: Falbo Angela , Orio Francesco , Venturella Roberta , Rania Erika , Materazzo Caterina , Tolino Achille , Zullo Fulvio , Palomba Stefano
Published: June 2009

Background

The significance of polycystic ovarian morphology and its relation to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is unclear, but probably it is associated with higher androgen and insulin levels and lower sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in absence of identifiable differences in gonadotropin dynamics. The aim of this study was to evaluate ovarian morphology in patients affected by PCOS with different ovulatory responses to metformin.

Methods

In this cross-sectional analysis, we studied 20 young normal-weight PCOS patients who had received a six-month course of metformin treatment. Ten of these patients remained anovulatory (anovulatory group), whereas other ten became ovulatory, but failed to conceive (ovulatory group). Other ten age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched PCOS subjects were also enrolled as controls and observed without any treatment (control group).

Results

After six months of metformin, in both PCOS treated groups, a similar improvement in testosterone (T) and insulin resistance indexes was observed. Moreover, in one (10.0%) and nine (90.0%) subjects from anovulatory and ovulatory PCOS groups, respectively, ovarian morphology changed, whereas a significant reduction in ovarian dimension was observed in the PCOS ovulatory group only.

Conclusion

PCOS patients under metformin administration demonstrate a change in ovarian morphology closely related to ovulatory response.
Closing gaps in the human genome using sequencing by synthesis
Authors: Garber Manuel , Zody Michael C , Arachchi Harindra M , Berlin Aaron , Gnerre Sante , Green Lisa M , Lennon Niall , Nusbaum Chad
Published: June 2009

The most recent release of the finished human genome contains 260 euchromatic gaps (excluding chromosome Y). Recent work has helped explain a large number of these unresolved regions as 'structural' in nature. Another class of gaps is likely to be refractory to clone-based approaches, and cannot be approached in ways previously described. We present an approach for closing these gaps using 454 sequencing. As a proof of principle, we closed all three remaining non-structural gaps in chromosome 15.
Dasatinib in the Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Accelerated Phase After Imatinib Failure: The START A Trial
Authors: Apperley Jane F. , Cortes Jorge E. , Kim Dong-Wook , Roy Lydia , Roboz Gail J. , Rosti Gianantonio , Bullorsky Eduardo O. , Abruzzese Elisabetta , Hochhaus Andreas , Heim Dominik , de Souza Carmino A. , Larson Richard A. , Lipton Jeffrey H. , Khoury H. Jean , Kim Hyeoung-Joon , Sillaber Christian , Hughes Timothy P. , Erben Philipp , Van Tornout Jan , Stone Richard M.
Published: June 2009

Purpose

Patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in accelerated phase (CML-AP) that is resistant or intolerant to imatinib have limited therapeutic options. Dasatinib, a potent inhibitor of BCR-ABL and SRC-family kinases, has efficacy in patients with CML-AP who have experienced treatment failure with imatinib. We now report follow-up data from the full patient cohort of 174 patients enrolled onto a phase II trial to provide a more complete assessment of the efficacy and safety of dasatinib in this population.

Patients and Methods

Patients with imatinib-resistant (n = 161) or -intolerant (n = 13) CML-AP received dasatinib 70 mg orally twice daily.

Results

At a median follow-up of 14.1 months (treatment duration, 0.1 to 21.7 months), major and complete hematologic responses were attained by 64% and 45% of patients, respectively, and major and complete cytogenetic responses were achieved in 39% and 32% of patients, respectively. Responses were achieved irrespective of imatinib status (resistant or intolerant), prior stem-cell transplantation, or the presence of prior BCR-ABL mutation. The 12-month progression-free survival and overall survival rates were 66% and 82%, respectively. Dasatinib was generally well tolerated; the most frequent nonhematologic severe treatment-related adverse event was diarrhea (52%; grade 3 to 4, 8%). Cytopenias were common, including grade 3 to 4 neutropenia (76%) and thrombocytopenia (82%). Pleural effusion occurred in 27% of patients (grade 3 to 4, 5%).

Conclusion

Dasatinib is effective in patients with CML-AP after imatinib treatment failure.
Metformin and Pathologic Complete Responses to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Diabetic Patients With Breast Cancer
Authors: Jiralerspong Sao , Palla Shana L. , Giordano Sharon H. , Meric-Bernstam Funda , Liedtke Cornelia , Barnett Chad M. , Hsu Limin , Hung Mien-Chie , Hortobagyi Gabriel N. , Gonzalez-Angulo Ana M.
Published: June 2009

Purpose

Population studies have suggested that metformin use in diabetic patients decreases cancer incidence and mortality. Metformin inhibits the growth of cancer cells in vitro and tumors in vivo. However, there is little clinical data to support this. Our purpose was to determine whether metformin use was associated with a change in pathologic complete response (pCR) rates in diabetic patients with breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Patients and Methods

We identified 2,529 patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer between 1990 and 2007. Patients were compared by groups: 68 diabetic patients taking metformin, 87 diabetic patients not taking metformin, and 2,374 nondiabetic patients. pCR rates were compared between the three groups using χ2 tests of independence and compared pair- wise using a binomial test of proportions. Factors predictive of pCR were assessed using a multivariate logistic regression model.

Results

The rate of pCR was 24% in the metformin group, 8.0% in the nonmetformin group, and 16% in the nondiabetic group (P = .02). Pairwise comparisons between the metformin and nonmetformin groups (P = .007) and the nonmetformin and nondiabetic groups (P = .04) were significant. Comparison of the pCR rates between the metformin and nondiabetic groups trended toward but did not meet significance (P = .10). Metformin use was independently predictive of pCR (odds ratio, 2.95; P = .04) after adjustment for diabetes, body mass index, age, stage, grade, receptor status, and neoadjuvant taxane use.

Conclusion

Diabetic patients with breast cancer receiving metformin and neoadjuvant chemotherapy have a higher pCR rate than do diabetics not receiving metformin. Additional studies to evaluate the potential of metformin as an antitumor agent are warranted.
Haemoglobin A1c: evaluation of a new HbA1c point-of-care analyser Bio-Rad in2it in comparison with the DCA 2000 and central laboratory analysers
Authors: Yeo Chin-Pin , Tan Carol Hui-Chen , Jacob Edward
Published: June 2009

Background

Point-of-care-testing (POCT) of haemoglobin Alc (HbA1c) is popular due to its fast turnaround of results in the outpatient setting. The aim of this project was to evaluate the performance of a new HbA1c POCT analyser, the Bio-Rad in2it, and compare it with the Siemens DCA 2000, Bio-Rad Variant II and Roche Tina-quant HbA1c Gen 2 assay on the cobas c501.

Methods

Imprecision of the four methods were compared by computing total imprecision from within-run and between-run data. A total of 80 samples were also compared and analysed by Deming regression and Altman–Bland difference test.

Results

Study of total imprecision of the in2it at HBA1c levels of 6.0% and 10.4% produced a coefficient of variation (%CV) of 3.8% and 3.7%, respectively. These results were more favourable as compared with the DCA 2000 but did not match the low imprecision of the central laboratory methods, the Bio-Rad Variant II and the Roche cobas c501. Comparison between the in2it and the central laboratory analysers, Bio-Rad variant II and cobas c501, revealed positive bias of 12% and 10%, respectively, supported by corresponding Deming regression equation slopes of +1.18 and +1.14. Comparison between the DCA 2000 and the central laboratory analysers revealed a bias that became increasingly positive with rising HbA1c concentrations with Deming regression analysis also revealing proportional and constant differences.

Conclusions

The in2it is a suitable POCT analyser for HbA1c but its less than ideal precision performance and differences with the central laboratory analysers must be communicated to and noted by the users.
Sweat testing for cystic fibrosis: standards of performance in Australasia
Authors: Coakley John , Scott Sue , Mackay Richard , Greaves Ronda , Jolly Lisa , Massie John , Mishra Avantika , Bransden Anna , Doery James C G , Chiriano Angela , Robins Heather
Published: June 2009

Background

Accurate measurement of sweat chloride concentration is essential for the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF). We surveyed all laboratories enrolled in the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program (QAP) for Sweat Electrolytes to determine how closely they comply with the Australian Guidelines for the performance of the sweat test for the diagnosis of CF.

Methods

A detailed questionnaire covering most aspects of sweat collection and analysis was sent to all participating laboratories in 2007.

Results

Twenty out of 38 laboratories completed the questionnaire. While adherence to accepted guidelines was noted in many areas, the following main variations were recorded: some laboratories were not doing enough sweat tests to maintain expertise; some were not collecting sweat for the recommended collection time; sweat conductivity was the only test available in some laboratories; there was a lack of agreement between the sweat chloride concentration used to indicate CF or define an equivocal result.

Conclusions

There is room for improvement in the performance of the sweat test in some laboratories in Australasia. The Sweat Testing Working Party of the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists is the appropriate body to address the problems involved in sweat testing and to bring about change.
Arms Race or Détente? How Interfirm Alliance Announcements Change the Stock Market Valuation of Rivals
Authors: Oxley Joanne E. , Sampson Rachelle C. , Silverman Brian S.
Published: June 2009

Most prior event studies find that the announcement of a new alliance is accompanied by a positive stock market response for the partners. This result has usually been interpreted as evidence for the prevailing view that alliances are effective vehicles for partners to acquire or access new skills and thus become stronger competitors. However, partners should also earn positive abnormal returns if alliances are used to shape competitive interactions, attenuating competitive intensity industry-wide.

In this study, we disentangle these different mechanisms by examining how alliance announcements affect the stock market's evaluation of allying firms' rivals: if an alliance is expected to make partner firms more competitive, this should lead to negative abnormal returns for partners' rivals; if an alliance is expected to facilitate a reduction in competitive intensity, this should lead to positive abnormal returns for rivals. Results from an event study analysis of research and development alliances in the telecommunications and electronics industries during 1996–2004 provide evidence consistent with competition attenuation in some alliances. Our research thus challenges the increasingly narrow focus on learning and resource accumulation through alliances, and calls for broader consideration of the roles and effects of collaboration, both for individual firms and for industry structure.
Nutrition and Adults With Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities: Systematic Literature Review Results*
Authors: Humphries Kathleen , Traci Meg Ann , Seekins Tom
Published: June 2009

Approximately 4.5 million Americans have an intellectual or developmental disability. Concern is increasing about these individuals' nutrition-related behavior and its implications for their health. This article reports on a systematic search of the current literature listed in the PsycINFO and PubMed databases related to nutritional status of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The authors used key terms for nutrition, secondary conditions, and intellectual and developmental disability and categorized literature pertaining to nutrition-related studies of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities as follows: dietary intake studies, anthropometric assessments of nutritional risks, biochemical indexes, and clinical evaluations.
Parents' Perceptions of Postschool Years for Young Adults With Developmental Disabilities
Authors: Bianco Margarita , Garrison-Wade Dorothy F. , Tobin Romie , Lehmann Jean P.
Published: June 2009

This qualitative study investigated parents' perceptions of the various roles they played in their adult children's lives during the post–high school years. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 9 families of young adults with developmental disabilities. Findings indicated that families perceived the complexity of their roles as balancing between advocating for their adult children's needs while promoting independence and self-determination. The roles parents assumed as their children entered into adult life were those of collaborators, decision makers, and program evaluators, role models, trainers, mentors and instructors, and systems change agents. Parents often felt they were the safety net for their children and the back-up plan for service agencies. Parents' quotes illustrated the complexity of the roles they played as their young adult children with developmental disabilities entered adulthood.
Malevolent Gods and Promethean Birds: Contesting Augury in Augustus's Rome
Authors: Green Steven J.
Published: May 2009

The well-known mythological basis for augury (by which I mean in this paper the specialist consultation of various antics of birds in flight) is that there exists a positive interaction between gods and birds, whereby beneficent gods send reliable signs to expert mortals by means of certain birds, which act as the gods' messengers. The aim of this paper will be to demonstrate that Augustan writers (Livy, Vergil, and Ovid) engage in a lively debate about the hallowed mythological underpinning for augury, a debate which is all the more surprising (and potentially contentious) in light of the Emperor's own promotion of this most ancient religious institution.
Potentes and Potentia in Tacitus's Dialogus de oratoribus
Authors: Gallia Andrew
Published: May 2009

The relationship between the setting of the Dialogus de oratoribus and its content bears closer scrutiny. The claim that a play by Maternus, entitled Cato , has given offense to "the powerful" ( potentes ) is reexamined in light of the role that concepts of power play in the ensuing discussion of eloquence and oratory. This analysis suggests that the potentes targeted by Maternus's drama can be identified as the same powerful advocates whose misdeeds justify his decision to exchange a demanding career in oratory for the quiet life of a poet. The implications of this reading for our understanding of the dynamics of free speech and its repression under the Principate are briefly considered.
Undoing in Sophoclean Drama: Lusis and the Analysis of Irony
Authors: Goldhill Simon
Published: May 2009

This article explores some aspects of how Sophoclean irony works. I begin by looking at one set of words across Sophocles' extant tragedies, a vocabulary which has not been discussed adequately by critics, namely, the language of lusis , "release," "undoing." This group of terms ( lusis, luein, lutêrion, ekluein and so forth) constructs a systematic view of the failure of human hopes for control over narrative, a failure that goes to the heart of Sophocles' view of human action. The hope or proclamation of a solution in Sophocles turns out again and again to be ironically undercut. The second section of the article explores the standard model of dramatic irony, at one level implicit in this analysis of lusis . In the standard model of dramatic irony, the audience recognizes what the characters on stage cannot: the spectators understand and see the meanings concealed from the actors. Here, I investigate four limit cases where an audience cannot be certain how ironic the tragic language is: the very recognition of irony becomes unstable (and with it the secure position of the audience). This analysis focuses on apparently functional and everyday remarks, where the passing-whether humans or words-may shift from the accidental or circumstantial into the realm of significance. Bringing together the two sections, the irony of lusis and the analysis of irony, raises finally a question about tragic ambivalence-one of the most heatedly debated issues in contemporary criticism of tragedy-and the relation between tragic ambivalence and tragic politics.
Sexual and Familial Distortion in Euripides' Phoenissae
Authors: Swift L. A.
Published: May 2009

This article offers a new interpretation of Euripides' Phoenissae , and argues for a new source of unity in the play, by focusing on the theme of mismanaged sexuality. The curse on the Labdacid house is caused by, and takes the form of, abnormalities in sexual and familial roles, and it is these abnormalities which lie behind Antigone's behavior and Menoeceus's suicide: these episodes should therefore be understood not as disjointed but as connected to central concerns. The play also engages with this theme on an imagistic level, and explores it through the imagery of civilization in the choral odes and through the figure of the Sphinx. Finally, it is argued that the Chorus of Phoenician maidens offers a corrective to the destructive cycle in Thebes, and hints at the positive role that well-governed sexuality can play in human societies.
The Elegiac Puella as Virgin Martyr
Authors: Uden James
Published: May 2009

This paper explores the ideological currents running through Maximianus's subversive revival of the genre of Augustan love elegy in the beleaguered Rome of the mid-sixth century. The third elegy narrates an apparent childhood reminiscence of the poet, a failed romance with a young girl, Aquilina. But it soon becomes clear that, in the character of Aquilina, Maximianus has deliberately blurred the literary archetypes of the elegiac puella and the virgin martyr from Christian hagiography. This bizarre configuration allows the elegist simultaneously to provoke questions about the representation of female figures in both genres. By likening the elegiac puella to the martyr, Maximianus highlights the latent violence of elegiac topoi. By likening the martyr to the elegiac puella , Maximianus highlights the eroticism that often has a prominent place in accounts of virgin martyrdom. Not merely a formal experiment or the product of Augustan nostalgia, Maximianus's elegies represent a real attempt to reinvent elegy's questioning stance in a new social and religious context.
This is the Death of the Earth: Crisis Narratives in Archilochus and Mnesiepes
Authors: Hawkins Tom
Published: May 2009

The relationship between Archilochus's poetry and the account of his life preserved in the Mnesiepes Inscription is intimate but obscure. Here I present one avenue for elucidating this connection by focusing on two episodes of social breakdown. In the first section I propose a reading of Archilochus fragment 230 in terms of wider patterns of ecological collapse. In the second, I contrast this reading with the episode of impotence visited upon the men of Paros as told by Mnesiepes. By reading these crisis narratives against one another we can better understand Mnesiepes' dynamic authorial role in the Hellenistic reception of the iambic tradition.
Prostitutes in the Portico of Pompey?: A Reconsideration
Authors: Evans Jane DeRose
Published: May 2009

Tatian's Oration to the Greeks purports to find prostitutes in the Theater and Portico of Pompey in Rome. I examine this supposition in light of his entire Oration , other sources that mention the decorative program, and reactions to the program within Augustan buildings in Rome. I argue that the "prostitutes" are instead a group of women poets and comedic and tragic heroines, and I place them within the other females in the Portico, including Muses and Conquered Nations, to interpret the decorative program within its Late Republican mileu, and to demonstrate a strong response in the public decorative programs of Augustus.
Hypereides 3 and the Athenian Law of Contracts
Authors: Phillips David D.
Published: May 2009

This article examines the Athenian law of contracts as illuminated by the particular case of Hypereides 3, Against Athenogenes , in which the prosecutor, Epicrates, seeks to void a contract of sale on the grounds that the defendant, Athenogenes, has employed fraud in its formation. Part 1 compares and analyzes the attested variants on the general contract law cited at Hypereides 3.13 and concludes that Hypereides' version is most likely to be correct. Part 2 discusses modifications of the right to contract created by additional legislation and addresses the value and significance of Epicrates' arguments from analogy. Part 3 offers an explanation of the strategy behind Epicrates' attribution of particular laws to Solon.
"An Iridescence Difficult to Account For": Sexual Initiation in Joyce's Fiction of Development
Authors: Valente Joseph , Backus Margot
Published: May 2009

In this essay, we examine sexual initiation in Joyce's narratives of development, focusing on representational strategies that achieve their effects through recourse to a residue of sexualized trauma embedded in language. An understanding of the ways in which Joyce employs ambiguously sexual words and situations that constitute both characters and readers as imperfectly initiated, unable to decode ambiguous signifiers, allows for a fuller appreciation of Joyce's style. It also affords insight into how the social world leaves its imprint upon the individual subject through idiosyncratic and contingent personal experience, and, conversely, how such experience lends intense affect to social movements.
Pictures in Bleak Houses: Slavery and the Aesthetics of Transatlantic Reform
Authors: Teukolsky Rachel
Published: May 2009

This essay explores the conflicted aesthetic modes of Victorian social purpose literature at mid-century, especially in its protests against both American slavery and British wage slavery. Centering on Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House , I argue that the novel critiques other art forms for their commodified status or sensationalist tactics, proposing instead a cold realism as the best technique to rouse a complacent British audience. The essay concludes with a reading of Hannah Crafts's The Bondwoman's Narrative , a slave narrative that rewrites Bleak House as a novel of the American South, and a work that also foregrounds aesthetics in adopting the Dickensian reformist sensibility.
Doing Things with Fanny Hill
Authors: Juengel Scott J.
Published: May 2009

This essay reads John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure within a long history of "doing things with words," including Cleland's own eccentric contributions to enlightenment philology and our contemporary debates about pornography quickened by speech act theory. Much of Fanny's vexation over the signifying potency of language anticipates Cleland's later attempts to reclaim the originary "energy" that links words to things. Cleland's Dictionary of Love, The Way to Things by Words , and other etymological tracts serve to reframe Memoirs as a curious meditation on sense-making, and a crucial text in ongoing deliberations on pornographic thought and action.
The Green and Golden World: Spenser's Rewriting of the Munster Plantation
Authors: Myers Benjamin P.
Published: May 2009

Book six of Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene is often seen as a welcomed escape not only from book five's focus on the English campaign in Ireland but also from the demands of allegory itself, but the shift into pastoral that accompanies the onset of book six offers the poet a chance to refocus his allegory from matters of conquest to matters of settlement. In creating this pastoral vision, Spenser borrows from his experience as an Irish undertaker to represent his vision of a decidedly New-English Ireland, and the Munster plantation is rewritten as the golden world of pastoral.
Personification for the People: On James Thomson's The Seasons
Authors: Keenleyside Heather
Published: May 2009

This essay argues that it is no accident that personification emerges as a term and a central poetic practice in a period that proclaims itself newly modern. But the eighteenthcentury predilection for personification reveals modernity to be marked less by the clear distinction between persons and things than by the persistent instability of these terms. The essay then considers how James Thomson uses personification in The Seasons to locate the instability of both persons and things with issues of agency or animation, developing an alternative account of personhood and of ethical relation on the model of animal motion.
"Exactest Proportion": The Iconoclastic and Constitutive Powers of Metaphor in Milton's Prose Tracts
Authors: Greteman Blaine
Published: May 2009

In a pitched battle over the state's basic terminology, thousands of pamphlets poured from the English press after censorship ended in 1640-41—the meanings of the words "king," "people," and "tyrant" were just a few thrown into question. John Milton quickly entered the fray, and his works have recently been read for their destabilizing tendencies in that struggle, the way their iconoclastic metaphors challenge the language of reified power. This paper examines tells another side of the story, exploring Milton's use of mathematical language to correct metaphor and bring law into harmony with both man's reason and God's will.
"The Business of War": William Godwin, Enmity, and Historical Representation
Authors: Campbell Timothy
Published: May 2009

William Godwin introduces Political Justice through a vision of human history as war. But his revisions of the text increasingly attend to the particular problem of the modern scene of battle, which produces atrocities that no longer depend upon resentment and anger. This essay connects Godwin's distress over modern war to his simultaneous critique of post-1688 English history, in order to address the counterintuitive fascination with enmity that emerges in his philosophy and fiction. Culminating in his historical novel Mandeville , Godwin's broader project of enmity ultimately defies Walter Scott's contemporary attempts to imagine a commercial end to history.
Public Reading and Lyric Pleasure: Eighteenth Century Elocutionary Debates and Poetic Practices
Authors: George Jacqueline
Published: May 2009

This essay argues that a self-conscious participation on the part of readers constitutes the ideal reading of lyric poetry. Moving between a number of primary and secondary sources, the essay articulates the complicated relationships between participants in the scene of public reading: reader, text, audience. It begins by examining the relationship between the British elocutionary movement of the late eighteenth century, then turns to the reading experience and aesthetic understanding of lyric poetry. Using Charlotte Smith's "To Night" as an example, the essay traces how elocutionary instruction could render Smith's audience conscious of their own performances as readers of poetry.
Dialect Poetry, William Barnes and the Literary Canon
Authors: Burton T. L. , Ruthven K. K.
Published: May 2009

Dialectologgy was one of the triumphs of Victorian scholarship. Yet anthologists .argely ignore Victorian dialect poetry. Its marginality is attributed to the teaching of standard English in schools, metropolitan and middle-class condescension towars regional and working-class speech, and the impossibility of representing phonological variance in a print culture without resorting to bizarre spellings or phonetic symobls. Apropos William Barnes's Poems of Rural Life, in the Dorset Dialect (1844), this paper argues that new media technologies will extend the present aural range of Victorian poetry by enabling dialect poems to be heard effortlessly instead of read laboriously.
Romancing the Pacific Isles before Byron: Music, Sex, and Death in Mitford's Christina
Authors: Beshero-Bondar Elisa E.
Published: May 2009

Mary Russell Mitford's four-canto romance poem of 1811, Christina, the Maid of the South Seas , dramatizes the early history of Pitcairn Island, the destination of mutineers and Tahitian exiles following the mutiny on the HMS Bounty . Mitford's adaptation of Pitcairn's early history is unusual in exposing memories of a racial and sexual conflict that destroyed most of the original male founders. Within Christina , Pitcairn's traumatic memory is staged for its first outside visitors in song and oral narration. Mitford's attention to musical performance poses a Romantic tension between verbal authority and nonverbal resistance, echoed in Byron's The Island of 1823.
Extensiver Brandfeldbau und die Ausbreitung der neolithischen Wirtschaftsweise in Mitteleuropa und Südskandinavien am Ende des 5. Jahrtausends v. Chr.
Authors: Schier Wolfram
Published: June 2009

Der Neolithisierungsprozess Europas wird in drei chronologisch deutlich voneinander unterscheidbare Stadien mit je zwei Abschnitten untergliedert. Der Artikel differenziert zwischen der landwirtschaftlichen Produktionsweise des zweiten (Linearbandkeramik) und des dritten Stadiums (frühes Jungneolithikum im Alpenvorland und nordisches Frühneolithikum) der europäischen Neolithisierung. Für dieses dritte Stadium wird dem Brandfeldbau als extensivem Anbausystem eine besondere Rolle bei der Erschließung suboptimaler Ackerbaustandorte und damit bei der Ausweitung der Landwirtschaft über die Altsiedellandschaften hinaus zugeschrieben. Hierfür werden palynologische sowie neue bodenkundliche und experimentalarchäologische Daten erörtert und als Argumente herangezogen. Schließlich werden mögliche Gründe für die verzögerte Übernahme der bäuerlichen Wirtschaftsweise im südwestlichen Ostseeraum diskutiert.
Experimentelle Rekonstruktion eines jungneolithischen Wald-Feldbaus mit Feuereinsatz – ein multidisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt zur Wirtschaftsarchäologie und Landschaftsökologie
Authors: Ehrmann Otto , Rösch Manfred , Schier Wolfram
Published: June 2009

Der Artikel fasst wichtige Ergebnisse eines multidisziplinären Langzeitversuchs zur Ökonomie und Ökologie eines für das Jungneolithikum Südwestdeutschlands rekonstruierten extensiven Brandfeldbaus zusammen. Über rund ein Jahrzehnt wurden frisch eingeschlagene Waldflächen mit Schwachholz überbrannt und darauf für das frühe Jungneolithikum belegtes Getreide angebaut. Im einjährigen Anbau konnten durchwegs hohe bis sehr hohe Erträge erzielt werden, während im Nachbau und auf gehackten Vergleichsflächen die Erträge, insbesondere auf Böden mittlerer und geringerer Güte, nur einen Bruchteil erreichten. Der Artikel dokumentiert die Ertragsdaten sowie ihre bodenkundlichen und agrartechnischen Rahmenbedingungen und stellt eine erste ökonometrische Gesamtbilanz des experimentellen Brandfeldbaus vor.
Dreschgerät und Totenbett. Hölzerne Dreschschlittenfragmente des 1. Jahrhunderts aus einer Nekropole auf der Krim
Authors: Hellström Kirsten , Hochmuth Michael , Zajcev Jurij P.
Published: June 2009

Die Identifizierung und dendrochronologische Datierung sekundär verbauter Dreschschlitten in zwei Grablegen aus der Nekropole Ust'-Al'ma führten zum ersten sicheren archäologischen Nachweis für den Gebrauch dieses Ackerbaugerätes seit der Mitte des 1. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. auf der Krim. Insgesamt gliedert sich die Krim in ein Gebiet mit ähnlichen klimatischen Bedingungen und vergleichbarer Wirtschaftsweise zwischen Vorderem Orient und Westeuropa ein, in dem zahlreiche archäologische und ethnographische Beispiele den Gebrauch des Dreschschlittens sicher von der Bronze- bis in die heutige Zeit belegen.

Darüber hinaus bietet der Fundzusammenhang in Kombination mit ethnographischen Parallelen die Möglichkeit, einen neuen Aspekt des Grabrituals und damit auch der Vorstellungswelt der Krimbewohner in späthellenistischer Zeit zu untersuchen. Einige Beispiele belegen, dass die sekundäre Verwendung von Dreschschlitten als Totenbett offenbar kein Einzelfall oder eine lokale Besonderheit war, aber aufgrund der im Allgemeinen schlechten Erhaltungsbedingungen für Holz oftmals unerkannt bleibt. Eine gezielte Durchsicht von weiteren Grabbefunden würde sicherlich die Datenbasis erheblich erweitern können und möglicherweise eine Verbindung zu sehr ähnlichen Funden im Kaukasusgebiet erschließen helfen.
Association Genetics of Coastal Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii, Pinaceae). I. Cold-Hardiness Related Traits
Authors: Eckert Andrew J , Bower Andrew D , Wegrzyn Jill L , Pande Barnaly , Jermstad Kathleen D , Krutovsky Konstantin V , St. Clair J Bradley , Neale David B
Published: June 2009

Adaptation to cold is one of the greatest challenges to forest trees. This process is highly synchronized with environmental cues relating to photoperiod and temperature. Here, we use a candidate gene-based approach to search for genetic associations between 384 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from 117 candidate genes and 21 cold-hardiness related traits. A general linear model approach, including population structure estimates as covariates, was implemented for each marker–trait pair. We discovered 30 highly significant genetic associations [false discovery rate (FDR) Q < 0.10] across 12 candidate genes and 10 of the 21 traits. We also detected a set of 7 markers that had elevated levels of differentiation between sampling sites situated across the Cascade crest in northeastern Washington. Marker effects were small (r2 < 0.05) and within the range of those published previously for forest trees. The derived SNP allele, as measured by a comparison to a recently diverged sister species, typically affected the phenotype in a way consistent with cold hardiness. The majority of markers were characterized as having largely nonadditive modes of gene action, especially underdominance in the case of cold-tolerance related phenotypes. We place these results in the context of trade-offs between the abilities to grow longer and to avoid fall cold damage, as well as putative epigenetic effects. These associations provide insight into the genetic components of complex traits in coastal Douglas fir, as well as highlight the need for landscape genetic approaches to the detection of adaptive genetic diversity.
A Genetic Test for Yeast Two-Hybrid Bait Competency Using RanBPM
Authors: Tucker Chandra L , Peteya Leslie A , Pittman Adrianne M C , Zhong Jing
Published: June 2009

We describe a simple genetic test for assessing the competency of Gal4-based baits prior to a yeast two-hybrid screen, which allows determination of whether a bait protein is expressed appropriately for an interaction to be detected. The novel test, based on interaction with the protein RanBPM, is easier and more predictive than other methods such as Western blotting, allowing identification of ∼80% of incompetent baits prior to screening.
A Drosophila Resource of Transgenic RNAi Lines for Neurogenetics
Authors: Ni Jian-Quan , Liu Lu-Ping , Binari Richard , Hardy Robert , Shim Hye-Seok , Cavallaro Amanda , Booker Matthew , Pfeiffer Barret D , Markstein Michele , Wang Hui , Villalta Christians , Laverty Todd R , Perkins Lizabeth A , Perrimon Norbert
Published: June 2009

Conditional expression of hairpin constructs in Drosophila is a powerful method to disrupt the activity of single genes with a spatial and temporal resolution that is impossible, or exceedingly difficult, using classical genetic methods. We previously described a method (Ni  et al. 2008) whereby RNAi constructs are targeted into the genome by the phiC31-mediated integration approach using Vermilion-AttB-Loxp-Intron-UAS-MCS (VALIUM), a vector that contains vermilion as a selectable marker, an attB sequence to allow for phiC31-targeted integration at genomic attP landing sites, two pentamers of UAS, the hsp70 core promoter, a multiple cloning site, and two introns. As the level of gene activity knockdown associated with transgenic RNAi depends on the level of expression of the hairpin constructs, we generated a number of derivatives of our initial vector, called the “VALIUM” series, to improve the efficiency of the method. Here, we report the results from the systematic analysis of these derivatives and characterize VALIUM10 as the most optimal vector of this series. A critical feature of VALIUM10 is the presence of gypsy insulator sequences that boost dramatically the level of knockdown. We document the efficacy of VALIUM as a vector to analyze the phenotype of genes expressed in the nervous system and have generated a library of 2282 constructs targeting 2043 genes that will be particularly useful for studies of the nervous system as they target, in particular, transcription factors, ion channels, and transporters.
Fetal urology
Authors: Jakobovits Ákos , Jakobovits Antal
Published: May 2009

A vese méhen belüli funkciója csak közvetve, a méhen kívüli pedig közvetlenül életfontos. Méhen belül jelentős mértékben járul hozzá a magzatvíz mennyiségéhez. A magzatvíz kellő térfogata teszi lehetővé a magzat légzőmozgásait, amelyek a tüdő fejlődését segítik. Ezek nélkül a tüdő hypoplasiás, ami halálos lehet a világrajövetel után. Megszületés után a vese választja ki a nitrogéntartalmú salakanyagokat, amely funkció hiánya esetén a halálos uraemia következik be. A vesefunkció mellett lényeges a húgyutak épsége, mert nélkülük a felgyülemlett vizelet elsorvasztja a vese állományát. Egyes rendellenességek befolyásolhatók punkcióval vagy sönttel. A vese funkciója azonban már károsodott lehet, és a beavatkozás nem segít. Figyelembe kell venni azt is, hogy a húgyúti rendellenességek egyéb anomáliákkal társulhatnak, amikor hiba lenne a terápiás kísérlet. Nem korrigálható esetekben marad a terhességmegszakítás, ami által a perinatalis halálozás is csökkenthető.
Are bicycle helmets necessary for children? Pros and cons
Authors: Kiss Katalin , Pintér András
Published: May 2009

A magyarországi kerékpáros-halálesetek és a gyermekkori súlyos fejsérülések magas száma arra ösztönzött minket, hogy képet kapjunk a biciklis-bukósisak viselésének szükségességéről és fejsérülésekre kifejtett pozitív-negatív hatásairól gyermekkorban.
Módszer:
Nemzetközi és hazai kutatási eredményeket vettünk alapul a Medline, hivatalos statisztikai adatok és több külföldi balesetvédelmi szervezet vizsgálatainak felhasználásával.
Eredmények:
Már évtizedekkel ezelőtt bebizonyították a bukósisak súlyos fejsérüléseket mérséklő, halálos balesetek számát csökkentő hatását. Számos ország kötelezővé tette a fejvédő használatát, ami a halálozási és fejsérülési mutatók javulásához vezetett. Bebizonyították azt is, hogy a sisak csak akkor hatékony, ha viselője azt rendeltetésének megfelelően használja, különben a fejsérülés kockázata akár növekedhet is. A bizonyítékok ellenére napvilágra kerültek ellenzői érvek is, amelyek a sisak hatékonyságát megkérdőjelezik, sőt, kockázatnövelő hatásról számolnak be. Magyarországon a gyermekek csupán 8%-a visel rendszeresen sisakot biciklizéshez.
Következtetések:
Az irodalomban sokkal nagyobb számban találhatók a sisak hatékonyságát bizonyító tanulmányok. Ez a pozitív hatás azonban csak számos tényező együttes megléte esetén teljesül. Magyarországon is szükség van hatékony balesetvédelmi prevencióra, amelynek egyik módja a sisak megfelelő módon történő viselésének népszerűsítése.
Affect, cognition, awareness and behavior in eating disorders. Comparison between obesity and anorexia nervosa
Authors: Cserjési Renáta
Published: May 2009

A kontinuummodell szerint az evészavarok elhelyezhetőek egy olyan folyamatos spektrumon, aminek az egyik végén a restriktív anorexia, a másik végén a stabil obesitas kórképe található. Számos vizsgálat bizonyítja továbbá azt, hogy a hangulati (depresszió, kóros szorongás és alexitímia), illetve a kognitív zavarok a testkép észlelésének problémájával együtt jelentkeznek az evészavarokban. Ennek ellenére az obesitast még mindig csupán testsúlykezelési problémaként tartják számon a klinikumban.
Célkitűzés:
Azon érzelmi, kognitív, illetve testképzavarok feltárása restriktív anorexiában és túlevés okozta stabil obesitasban, amelyek a kontinuummodell érvényességét igazolhatják, továbbá amelyek az evészavarok patológiájának közös alapját képezhetik.
Módszerek:
Neuropszichológiai tesztekkel vizsgáltuk a kognitív zavarokat, pszichológiai kerdőívekkel a hangulati zavart és az explicit testképértékelést, továbbá affektív priming paradigmát használtunk az implicit attitűdök feltárására.
Eredmények:
A neuropszichológiai tesztek figyelmi problémát mutattak ki mind anorexiában, mind obesitasban. Mind a gyerek-, mind a felnőttobesitasban megjelent a mentális rigiditás és a stratégiaváltás problémája, ami a frontális lebeny végrehajtórendszerének zavarát igazolta. Az elhízott betegek lassabban kategorizálták a szomorúságot kifejező arcokat, míg az anorexiások a mosolygós arcokat. Az elhízott csoport pozitív implicit attitűdöt, az anorexiás csoport negatív attitűdöt mutatott a túlsúlyos, de nem kövér testkép iránt. Anorexiások nem mutattak preferenciát a nagyon vékony testalak iránt.
Következtetések:
Az eredményeink szerint a restriktív anorexia több közös tünetet mutat a szorongásos kórképekkel, míg az elhízás a szenvedélybetegségek sajátosságait mutatta. Így a vizsgálatok nem igazolták egyértelműen a modell érvényességét.