bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Monitoring nasal allergic inflammation by measuring the concentration of eosinophil cationic protein and eosinophils in nasal secretions
Authors: Wang D. , Clement P. , Smitz J. , de Waele M. , Derde M.‐P.
Published: September 2010

Quantitative measurement of the eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) concentration and the percentage of eosinophils in nasal secretions has greatly improved our understanding of the inflammatory process after natural allergen exposure. ECP and eosinophils were measured in the nasal secretions of 40 symptomatic patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis during the pollen season. Results showed a significant relationship between a high concentration of ECP (median: 410 ng/g, range: 6–2380 ng/g) and a high percentage of eosinophils (median: 13.5%, range: 1–85%). This quantitative study again demonstrated that infiltration by eosinophils and release of ECP play a key role in allergic rhinitis. It also suggests that the combined measurement of the percentage of eosinophils together with the ECP concentration in nasal secretions seems to be a very useful model in monitoring and assessing the condition of chronic nasal inflammation in patients with allergic rhinitis.
Long‐term evaluation of usefulness of skin and incremental challenge tests in patients with history of adverse reaction to local anesthetics
Authors: Wasserfallen J.‐B. , Frei P. C.
Published: September 2010

A variety of adverse reactions to local anesthetics has been described, some of which are thought to be allergic. Different protocols of prick and intradermal skin tests as well as subcutaneous challenge tests are used to select a local anesthetic which can safely be used. Their long‐term effectiveness has not yet been assessed. Twenty‐eight patients with a history of adverse reaction to local anesthetics were evaluated over a 3‐year period. Loss of consciousness occurred in eight patients, skin reaction in nine, and vagal symptoms in eight. Various reactions were recorded in the remaining three patients. Rapid spontaneous recovery was the rule, suggesting that immediate allergic reaction and, in particular, anaphylactic reaction were unlikely. Investigation allowed the selection of a tolerated anesthetic in all cases. Reexposure occurred in 19 patients 16–50 months after evaluation and 6.8 ± 5.5 years after the first reaction. No patient presented a second reaction. In conclusion, adverse reactions to local anesthetics seem to be, in most cases, not allergic in nature. Evaluation protocols are effective in selecting an agent susceptible to tolerance, but are time consuming. However, they probably contribute to an important reassurance effect that is likely to increase tolerance to subsequent local anesthetic administration. Simplification of the protocols and better patient selection are proposed.
Severe anaphylactic reaction to bovine serum albumin at the first attempt of artificial insemination
Authors: Wüthrich B. , Stern A. , Johansson S. G. O.
Published: September 2010

A 33‐year‐old woman without history of previous atopic diseases or drug allergies developed a severe anaphylactic reaction with asthma, vomiting, itching, generalized urticaria, and angioedema during artificial insemination with her husband's sperm. The sperm‐processing medium contained bovine serum albumin (BSA). Skin prick test and RAST demonstrated an IgE‐mediated hypersensitivity to BSA as well as a polyvalent atopic sensitization to pollens, animal danders, cow's milk, beef, pork, and mutton. SDS—PAGE studies indicated serum albumin to be the appropriate allergen with a high degree of cross‐reactivity between serum albumin from different animal species. Artificial insemination with fluid containing potential allergens can, therefore, represent an unnecessary risk for atopic females, even in the absence of prior clinical symptoms of allergic diseases. Preoperative testing with the medium is recommended.
Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in the treatment of BK viremia and nephropathy in pediatric renal transplant recipients
Authors: Anyaegbu E. I. , Almond P. S. , Milligan T. , Allen W. R. , Gharaybeh S. , Al‐Akash S. I.
Published: September 2010

Anyaegbu EI, Almond PS, Milligan T, Allen WR, Gharaybeh S, Al‐Akash SI. Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in the treatment of BK viremia and nephropathy in pediatric renal transplant recipients.  Pediatr Transplantation 2012: 16: E19–E24. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Abstract:  Polyoma BKVN is a significant cause of allograft dysfunction and loss in renal transplant recipients. Reduction in immunosuppression is accepted as first‐line therapy to decrease viral load and prevent allograft injury and dysfunction. We report our experience with persistent BKV after reduction in immunosuppression followed by successful clearance of BKV in three pediatric renal transplant recipients and histological resolution of BKVN in a fourth patient following therapy with IVIG. Once BKV was detected, immunosuppression was reduced and BKV was monitored until clearance was achieved. All four patients were given IVIG in a dose of 2 g/kg. Allograft function remained stable in all patients. Early routine screening for BKV allows early intervention to prevent the development of BKVN and permanent allograft damage. While immunosuppression reduction is a logical first‐line therapy, second‐line therapy is not well established. IVIG seems to be an effective treatment for persistent BKV after reduction in immunosuppression and for BKVN and can therefore be considered as a therapeutic option in these patients.
Opportunistic virus DNA levels after pediatric stem cell transplantation: serostatus matching, anti‐thymocyte globulin, and total body irradiation are additive risk factors
Authors: Kullberg‐Lindh C. , Mellgren K. , Friman V. , Fasth A. , Ascher H. , Nilsson S. , Lindh M.
Published: September 2010

C. Kullberg‐Lindh, K. Mellgren, V. Friman, A. Fasth, H. Ascher, S. Nilsson, M. Lindh. Opportunistic virus DNA levels after pediatric stem cell transplantation: serostatus matching, anti‐thymocyte globulin, and total body irradiation are additive risk factors. Transpl Infect Dis 2011: 13: 122–130. All rights reserved

Abstract: Viral opportunistic infections remain a threat to survival after stem cell transplantation (SCT). We retrospectively investigated infections caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), human herpesvirus type 6 (HHV6), or adenovirus (AdV) during the first 6–12 months after pediatric SCT. Serum samples from 47 consecutive patients were analyzed by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction assay. DNAemia at any time point occurred for CMV in 47%, for EBV in 45%, for HHV6 in 28%, and for AdV in 28%. Three patients (6.3%) died of CMV‐, EBV‐, or AdV‐related complications 4, 9, and 24 weeks after SCT, respectively, representing 21% of total mortality. These 3 cases were clearly distinguishable by DNAemia increasing to high levels. Serum positivity for CMV immunoglobulin G in either recipient or donor at the time of SCT, total body irradiation, and anti‐thymocyte globulin conditioning were independent risk factors for high CMV or EBV DNA levels. We conclude that DNAemia levels help to distinguish significant viral infections, and that surveillance and prophylactic measures should be focused on patients with risk factors in whom viral complications rapidly can become fatal.
Effect of methoprene application, adult food and feeding duration on male melon fly starvation survival
Authors: Haq I. , Cáceres C. , Liedo P. , Soriano D. , Jessup A. , Hendrichs J. , Teal P. E. A. , Robinson A. S.
Published: September 2010

The application of methoprene and access to protein in adult diet has been shown to enhance mating success in male melon flyBactrocera cucurbitaeCoquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae), supporting their incorporation into operational area‐wide programmes integrating the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of methoprene, diet including protein and feeding days on male starvation survival to determine the minimum number of feeding days required prior to male release in the field. The study was performed in the laboratory by treating males with (i) both protein and methoprene (M+P+), (ii) only protein (M−P+), (iii) only methoprene (M+P−) or (iv) untreated (M−P−). The males were starved after exposure for an increasing number of days (1–7) to their respective treatment. Mean longevity was highest after 3‐day post‐emergence feeding duration for M+P+, M+P− and M−P− males, but 4 days of feeding for M−P+ males. Additional feeding days after 4 days, did not increase male survival and feeding for 7 days decreased starvation survival of sugar‐fed males. Application of methoprene and/or access to diet including protein had no adverse effect on starvation survival but feeding duration had a significant positive effect on starvation survival. To the contrary, the current study provides a strong evidence for the benefits of methoprene application and protein incorporation into the adult diet of sterile males. Treated males achieve higher sexual success, reach sexual development several days earlier, and are therefore much closer to sexual maturity when released in SIT action programmes after being held in the fly emergence and release facility for a post‐emergence feeding duration of at least 3 days.
Intramuscular AAV delivery of NT‐3 alters synaptic transmission to motoneurons in adult rats
Authors: Petruska Jeffrey C. , Kitay Brandon , Boyce Vanessa S. , Kaspar Brian K. , Pearse Damien D. , Gage Fred H. , Mendell Lorne M.
Published: September 2010

We examined whether elevating levels of neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3) in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion (DRG) would alter connections made by muscle spindle afferent fibers on motoneurons. Adeno‐associated virus (AAV) serotypes AAV1, AAV2 and AAV5, selected for their tropism profile, were engineered with the NT‐3 gene and administered to the medial gastrocnemius muscle in adult rats. ELISA studies in muscle, DRG and spinal cord revealed that NT‐3 concentration in all tissues peaked about 3 months after a single viral injection; after 6 months NT‐3 concentration returned to normal values. Intracellular recording in triceps surae motoneurons revealed complex electrophysiological changes. Moderate elevation in cord NT‐3 resulted in diminished segmental excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) amplitude, perhaps as a result of the observed decrease in motoneuron input resistance. With further elevation in NT‐3 expression, the decline in EPSP amplitude was reversed, indicating that NT‐3 at higher concentration could increase EPSP amplitude. No correlation was observed between EPSP amplitude and NT‐3 concentration in the DRG. Treatment with control viruses could elevate NT‐3 levels minimally resulting in measurable electrophysiological effects, perhaps as a result of inflammation associated with injection. EPSPs elicited by stimulation of the ventrolateral funiculus underwent a consistent decline in amplitude independent of NT‐3 level. These novel correlations between modified NT‐3 expression and single‐cell electrophysiological parameters indicate that intramuscular administration of AAV(NT‐3) can exert long‐lasting effects on synaptic transmission to motoneurons. This approach to neurotrophin delivery could be useful in modifying spinal function after injury.
Depicting more accurate pictures of protistan community complexity using pyrosequencing of hypervariable SSU rRNA gene regions
Authors: Behnke Anke , Engel Matthias , Christen Richard , Nebel Markus , Klein Rolf R. , Stoeck Thorsten
Published: September 2010

Initial environmental pyrosequencing studies suggested highly complex protistan communities with phylotype richness decisively higher than previously estimated. However, recent studies on individual bacteria or artificial bacterial communities evidenced that pyrosequencing errors may skew our view of the true complexity of microbial communities. We pyrosequenced two diversity markers (hypervariable regions V4 and V9 of the small‐subunit rDNA) of an intertidal protistan model community, using the Roche GS‐FLX and the most recent GS‐FLX Titanium sequencing systems. After pyrosequencing 24 reference sequences we obtained up to 2039 unique tags (from 3879 V4 GS‐FLX Titanium reads), 77% of which were singletons. Even binning sequences that share 97% similarity still emulated a pseudodiversity exceeding the true complexity of the model community up to three times (V9 GS‐FLX). Pyrosequencing error rates were higher for V4 fragments compared with the V9 domain and for the GS‐FLX Titanium compared with the GS‐FLX system. Furthermore, this experiment revealed that error rates are taxon‐specific. As an outcome of this study we suggest a fast and efficient strategy to discriminate pyrosequencing signals from noise in order to more realistically depict the structure of protistan communities using simple tools that are implemented in standard tag data‐processing pipelines.
The role of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ in pancreatic β cell function and survival: therapeutic implications for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus
Authors: Gupta D. , Kono T. , Evans‐Molina C.
Published: September 2010

The pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus involves both peripheral insulin resistance and dysfunctional insulin secretion from the pancreatic β cell. Currently, there is intense research focus on delineating the etiologies of pancreatic β cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. However, there remains an unmet clinical need to establish therapeutic guidelines and strategies that emphasize the preservation of pancreatic β cell function in at‐risk and affected individuals. Thiazolidinediones are orally active agents approved for use in type 2 diabetes and act as agonists of the nuclear hormone receptor PPAR‐γ. These drugs improve insulin sensitivity, but there is also a growing appreciation of PPAR‐γ actions within the β cell. PPAR‐γ has been shown to regulate directly key β cell genes involved in glucose sensing, insulin secretion and insulin gene transcription. Further, pharmacologic PPAR‐γ activation has been shown to protect against glucose‐, lipid‐, cytokine‐ and islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP)‐induced activation of numerous stress pathways. This article will review the mechanisms by which PPAR‐γ activation acts to maintain β cell function and survival in type 2 diabetes mellitus and highlight some of the current controversies in this field.
The Changing Nature of Contracting and Trust in Public‐Private Partnerships: The Case of Victorian PPP Prisons
Authors: ENGLISH LINDA , BAXTER JANE
Published: September 2010

This paper examines shifting constructions of contracting and trust that are manifest between pre‐2000 and post‐2000 public‐private partnerships (PPPs) providing prison facilities and/or services in the Australian State of Victoria. As such, this paper is significant because it outlines longitudinal insights into the nature of changing practices sustaining these PPPs. The post‐2000 period examined reflects a change of government and the policy context. Our examination is based on a range of primary and secondary documents. The primary documents comprise three pre‐2000 Prison Services Agreements and two post‐2000 Facilities Services Agreements. A number of government and other reports constitute the secondary documents consulted. While there are many substantive similarities between the contracts, we find five main areas of changed contracting practices over the period examined. These relate to: first, the objectives of the PPP prisons; second, risk management practices; third, the approach to performance measurement and reporting; fourth, the structuring of incentive and payment mechanisms; and fifth, the emphasis on collaboration. Overall, we find that the post‐2000 contracts promote a more overt development of goodwill trust and relational contracting, building on presumptions of contractual and competence forms of trust. However, quite different outcomes have been achieved from particular contractual contexts. Our study suggests that in complex PPP contracts, the influences of both the transacting parties and the transaction environment have been insufficiently recognized in the literature on PPPs.
Web‐Based Disclosure About Value Creation Processes: A Monitoring Perspective
Authors: CORMIER DENIS , AERTS WALTER , LEDOUX MARIE‐JOSÉE , MAGNAN MICHEL
Published: September 2010

Adopting a monitoring perspective, this study aims to explain how and why firms provide web‐based disclosure about their value creation and its underlying processes. We rely on the balanced scoreboard approach to measure disclosure. Our results suggest that costs incurred by capital markets' participants as well as monitoring by the board and the media drive disclosure. Moreover, we argue and document that a firm's disclosure is actually a part of its governance configuration and influences some board processes.
THE DECLINE IN MALE EMPLOYMENT IN AUSTRALIA: A COHORT ANALYSIS
Authors: BLACK DAVID , TSENG YI‐PING , WILKINS ROGER
Published: September 2010

We use Census data to investigate the sources of the decline in the level of employment of working age males in Australia in recent decades. Alternative measures of the male employment rate are considered before settling on two complementary measures: the full‐time employment rate and the full‐time equivalent employment rate. The latter measure weights part‐time jobs according to the fraction of a full‐time job they represent. Models of the determinants of these two employment rates are estimated using data from the Censuses conducted between 1971 and 2001. We construct a pseudo panel by ‘stacking’ the seven Census data sets (Deaton, 1997; Kapteyn, et al., 2005). This facilitates the tracing of birth cohorts over time, in turn making it possible to control for cohort unobserved heterogeneity that may bias cross‐sectional estimates of effects of other characteristics, in particular age and year/time period. We produce evidence that a number of factors have contributed to the decline in male employment, including the decline in couple households with dependent children, growth in income taxes and welfare replacement rates and changes in the structure of labour demand away from traditionally male‐dominated industries. We also find that, all else (observable) constant, more recent birth cohorts have no lower – and possibly higher – employment rates than earlier birth cohorts.
WELFARE‐MAXIMISING PRICING IN A MACROECONOMIC MODEL WITH IMPERFECT COMPETITION AND CONSUMPTION EXTERNALITIES
Authors: CHIN CHI‐TING , LAI CHING‐CHONG , KAO MING‐RUEY
Published: September 2010

This paper develops a simple macroeconomic model with imperfect competition and consumption externalities, and uses it to examine whether the marginal cost pricing rule in the partial equilibrium framework can apply to the general equilibrium framework. It is shown that, for welfare to be maximised, average revenue should be set equal to marginal cost if consumption externalities are either absent or positive. However, for welfare to be maximised, average revenue should be set higher than marginal cost in the presence of negative consumption externalities.
Continuing National History: the 1961 Italian Centennial of Unification Commemoration
Authors: Owen (Quinn) Samantha
Published: September 2010

In 1961 the Italian nation‐state celebrated one hundred years of unification with an official celebration held in the northern capital of Turin. Named Italia‘61, the purpose of the event was to display what comprised and composed a united Italy in 1961 and to showcase what was bringing about a post‐war Italian “renascence”. However, the 1961 celebration could not deliver the new beginning hoped for, as in the tradition of previous celebrations the organisers presented a narrative of the nation that was in support of the party and administration in power and in service of their geopolitical interests. Such intent and purpose become clear by looking at the evolution of the planning of what began as a solitary celebration specific to Turin and became the official national commemoration event for the 1961 Centennial.
1945 – 1949 – 1989: Dealing with Two German Pasts
Authors: Frei Norbert
Published: September 2010

Apart from denazification, the Americans in particular promoted in western Germany after 1945 the “invention” of contemporary history as an academic discipline and as a political and moral task. In this way important foundations were laid for a self‐critical engagement with the past. This engagement — which for decades was associated with the generation of the Flakhelfer— was ultimately able to overcome the counter‐movement in the politics of the past which commenced above all in the Federal Republic from 1949, but which became visible in the GDR as well. Since 1989/90 an open engagement with the rule of the SED and the Stasi has been possible in the East of Germany as well, to quite some extent capable of building on the critical historical research carried out in the West. There is much which speaks in favour of a judicious comparison of the fluctuations in the dealings with both pasts, but it is also apparent that the second cannot be understood in the absence of the first.
Faith in Crisis: Christian University Students in Peace and War
Authors: Lake Meredith
Published: September 2010

This article examines religious belief and political activism among Sydney undergraduates during the 1930s and 1940s. Confronted with such major political issues as the peace movement, the eruption of world war and the question of post‐war reconstruction, a substantial number of students looked for solutions informed by faith. The history of two influential campus groups, the Student Christian Movement and the Evangelical Union, reveals that political activity was often shaped by particular religious views. The SCM's openness to theological liberalism and biblical criticism was accompanied by a willingness to grapple with political issues and question the capitalist structures of society. The theologically conservative EU eschewed political engagement in favour of defending the fundamentals of Christian belief and calling individuals to conversion. The religious differences between these two groups help explain their members' contrasting responses to peace and war during the second quarter of the twentieth century. They also illuminate Christianity's complex and significant contribution to political thought and action at Australia's first university.
An Optimizing Compiler for Automatic Shader Bounding
Authors: Clarberg Petrik , Toth Robert , Hasselgren Jon , Akenine‐Möller Tomas
Published: September 2010

Programmable shading provides artistic control over materials and geometry, but the black box nature of shaders makes some rendering optimizations difficult to apply. In many cases, it is desirable to compute bounds of shaders in order to speed up rendering. A bounding shader can be automatically derived from the original shader by a compiler using interval analysis, but creating optimized interval arithmetic code is non‐trivial. A key insight in this paper is that shaders contain metadata that can be automatically extracted by the compiler using data flow analysis. We present a number of domain‐specific optimizations that make the generated code faster, while computing the same bounds as before. This enables a wider use and opens up possibilities for more efficient rendering. Our results show that on average 42–44% of the shader instructions can be eliminated for a common use case: single‐sided bounding shaders used in lightcuts and importance sampling.
SafeGI: Type Checking to Improve Correctness in Rendering System Implementation
Authors: Ou Jiawei , Pellacini Fabio
Published: September 2010

Historically, rendering system development has been mainly focused on improving the numerical accuracy of the rendering algorithms and their runtime efficiency. In this paper, we propose a method to improve the correctness not of the algorithms themselves, but of their implementation. Specifically, we show that by combining static type checking and generic programming, rendering system and shader development can take advantage of compile‐time checking to perform dimensional analysis, i.e. to enforce the correctness of physical dimensions and units in light transport, and geometric space analysis, i.e. to ensure that geometric computations respect the spaces in which points, vectors and normals were defined. We demonstrate our methods by implementing a CPU path tracer and a GPU renderer which previews direct illumination. While we build on prior work to develop our implementations, the main contribution of our work is to show that dimensional analysis and geometric space checking can be successfully integrated into the development of rendering systems and shaders.
Interactive, Multiresolution Image‐Space Rendering for Dynamic Area Lighting
Authors: Nichols Greg , Penmatsa Rajeev , Wyman Chris
Published: September 2010

Area lights add tremendous realism, but rendering them interactively proves challenging. Integrating visibility is costly, even with current shadowing techniques, and existing methods frequently ignore illumination variations at unoccluded points due to changing radiance over the light's surface. We extend recent image‐space work that reduces costs by gathering illumination in a multiresolution fashion, rendering varying frequencies at corresponding resolutions. To compute visibility, we eschew shadow maps and instead rely on a coarse screen‐space voxelization, which effectively provides a cheap layered depth image for binary visibility queries via ray marching. Our technique requires no precomputation and runs at interactive rates, allowing scenes with large area lights, including dynamic content such as video screens.
Two Methods for Fast Ray‐Cast Ambient Occlusion
Authors: Laine Samuli , Karras Tero
Published: September 2010

Ambient occlusion has proven to be a useful tool for producing realistic images, both in offline rendering and interactive applications. In production rendering, ambient occlusion is typically computed by casting a large number of short shadow rays from each visible point, yielding unparalleled quality but long rendering times. Interactive applications typically use screen‐space approximations which are fast but suffer from systematic errors due to missing information behind the nearest depth layer.

In this paper, we present two efficient methods for calculating ambient occlusion so that the results match those produced by a ray tracer. The first method is targeted for rasterization‐based engines, and it leverages the GPU graphics pipeline for finding occlusion relations between scene triangles and the visible points. The second method is a drop‐in replacement for ambient occlusion computation in offline renderers, allowing the querying of ambient occlusion for any point in the scene. Both methods are based on the principle of simultaneously computing the result of all shadow rays for a single receiver point.
A Closed‐Form Solution to Single Scattering for General Phase Functions and Light Distributions
Authors: Pegoraro Vincent , Schott Mathias , Parker Steven G.
Published: September 2010

Due to the intricate nature of the equation governing light transport in participating media, accurately and efficiently simulating radiative energy transfer remains very challenging in spite of its broad range of applications. As an alternative to traditional numerical estimation methods such as ray‐marching and volume‐slicing, a few analytical approaches to solving single scattering have been proposed but current techniques are limited to the assumption of isotropy, rely on simplifying approximations and/or require substantial numerical precomputation and storage. In this paper, we present the very first closed‐form solution to the air‐light integral in homogeneous media for general 1‐D anisotropic phase functions and punctual light sources. By addressing an open problem in the overall light transport literature, this novel theoretical result enables the analytical computation of exact solutions to complex scattering phenomena while achieving semi‐interactive performance on graphics hardware for several common scattering modes.
Interactive Rendering of Non‐Constant, Refractive Media Using the Ray Equations of Gradient‐Index Optics
Authors: Cao Chen , Ren Zhong , Guo Baining , Zhou Kun
Published: September 2010

Existing algorithms can efficiently render refractive objects of constant refractive index. For a medium with a continuously varying index of refraction, most algorithms use the ray equation of geometric optics to compute piecewise‐linear approximations of the non‐linear rays. By assuming a constant refractive index within each tracing step, these methods often need a large number of small steps to generate satisfactory images. In this paper, we present a new approach for tracing non‐constant, refractive media based on the ray equations of gradient‐index optics. We show that in a medium of constant index gradient, the ray equation has a closed‐form solution, and the intersection point between a ray and the medium boundaries can be efficiently computed using the bisection method. For general non‐constant media, we model the refractive index as a piecewise‐linear function and render the refraction by tracing the tetrahedron‐based representation of the media. Our algorithm can be easily combined with existing rendering algorithms such as photon mapping to generate complex refractive caustics at interactive frame rates. We also derive analytic ray formulations for tracing mirages – a special gradient‐index optical phenomenon.
On Floating‐Point Normal Vectors
Authors: Meyer Quirin , Süßmuth Jochen , Sußner Gerd , Stamminger Marc , Greiner Günther
Published: September 2010

In this paper we analyze normal vector representations. We derive the error of the most widely used representation, namely 3D floating‐point normal vectors. Based on this analysis, we show that, in theory, the discretization error inherent to single precision floating‐point normals can be achieved by 250.2 uniformly distributed normals, addressable by 51 bits. We review common sphere parameterizations and show that octahedron normal vectors perform best: they are fast and stable to compute, have a controllable error, and require only 1 bit more than the theoretical optimal discretization with the same error.
An Image‐Based Approach for Stochastic Volumetric and Procedural Details
Authors: Gilet G. , Dischler J‐M.
Published: September 2010

Noisy volumetric details like clouds, grounds, plaster, bark, roughcast, etc. are frequently encountered in nature and bring an important contribution to the realism of outdoor scenes. We introduce a new interactive approach, easing the creation of procedural representations of “stochastic” volumetric details by using a single example photograph. Instead of attempting to reconstruct an accurate geometric representation from the photograph, we use a stochastic multi‐scale approach that fits parameters of a multi‐layered noise‐based 3D deformation model, using a multi‐resolution filter banks error metric. Once computed, visually similar details can be applied to arbitrary objects with a high degree of visual realism, since lighting and parallax effects are naturally taken into account. Our approach is inspired by image‐based techniques. In practice, the user supplies a photograph of an object covered by noisy details, provides a corresponding coarse approximation of the shape of this object as well as an estimated lighting condition (generally a light source direction). Our system then determines the corresponding noise‐based representation as well as some diffuse, ambient, specular and semi‐transparency reflectance parameters. The resulting details are fully procedural and, as such, have the advantage of extreme compactness, while they can be infinitely extended without repetition in order to cover huge surfaces.
Constitutionalising an Overlapping Consensus: The ECJ and the Emergence of a Coordinate Constitutional Order
Authors: Sabel Charles F. , Gerstenberg Oliver
Published: September 2010

The European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) jurisprudence of fundamental rights in cases such as Schmidberger and Omega extends the court's jurisdiction in ways that compete with that of Member States in matters of visceral concern. And just as the Member States require a guarantee that the ECJ respect fundamental rights rooted in national tradition, so the ECJ insists that international organisations respect rights constitutive of the EU. The demand of such guarantees reproduces between the ECJ and the international order the kinds of conflicting jurisdictional claims that have shadowed the relation between the ECJ and the courts of the Member States. This article argues that the clash of jurisdiction is being resolved by the formation of a novel order of coordinate constitutionalism in which Member States, the ECJ, the European Court of Human Rights and other international tribunals or organisations agree to defer to one another's decisions, provided those decisions respect mutually agreed essentials. This coordinate order extends constitutionalism beyond its home territory in the nation state through a jurisprudence of mutual monitoring and peer review that carefully builds on national constitutional traditions, but does not create a new, encompassing sovereign entity. The doctrinal instruments by which the plural constitutional orders are, in this way, profoundly linked without being integrated are variants of the familiar Solange principles of the German Constitutional Court, by which each legal order accepts the decisions of the others, even if another decision would have been more consistent with the national constitution tradition, ‘so long as’ those decisions do not systematically violate its own understanding of constitutional essentials. The article presents the coordinate constitutional order being created by this broad application of the Solange doctrine as an instance, and practical development, of what Rawls called an overlapping consensus: agreement on fundamental commitments of principle—those essentials which each order requires the others to respect—does not rest on mutual agreement on any single, comprehensive moral doctrine embracing ideas of human dignity, individuality or the like. It is precisely because the actors of each order acknowledge these persistent differences, and their continuing influence on the interpretation of shared commitments in particular conflicts, that they reserve the right to interpret essential principles, within broad and shared limits, and accord this right to others. The embrace of variants of the Solange principles by many coordinate courts, in obligating each to monitor the others' respect for essentials, creates an institutional mechanism for articulating and adjusting the practical meaning of the overlapping consensus.
Fundamental rights in the EU after Kadi and Al Barakaat
Authors: Isiksel N. Türküler
Published: September 2010

This article takes stock of the emerging scholarship on the European Court of Justice's 2008 Kadi decision and seeks to make sense of the court's apparent evasiveness towards international law. The article argues that Kadi is best understood as an act of civil disobedience prompted by the UN Security Council's misapplication of foundational principles of the international order. In turn, the court's forceful articulation of the stakes in this case signals a prioritisation of basic rights within the supranational constitutional architectonic. In this respect, the ‘domestic’ constitutional implications of Kadi are just as far reaching as its consequences for the EU's status as an actor under international law.
Applying Precaution in EU Authorisation of Genetically Modified Products—Challenges and Suggestions for Reform
Authors: Weimer Maria
Published: September 2010

In this article, I endeavour to examine concrete challenges that arise with regard to implementation of the precautionary principle in the field of European Union regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Developed by the European courts into a general legal principle, precaution requires EU regulators to strike a balance between scientific and political legitimacy when taking decisions on risk‐entailing products. Following this understanding, the current GMO legislation creates precautionary governance structures that allow for a broad input into the authorisation process, not only of scientific, but also of ‘other legitimate factors’. At the same time, it can be criticised for narrowly defining precaution as a decision rule, which, if applied correctly, will lead the decision maker to the ‘right’ decision. I argue that this misconception is one of the reasons why, in the current authorisation practice, the EU institutions fail to apply the principle in a balanced way, falling into the extremes of either purely science‐based decision making or a highly politicised precautionary rhetoric. I suggest that in order not to be paralysing, precaution should be understood as a procedural principle that provides for precautionary governance, thus enabling regulators to make appropriate risk choices.
Interdependencies between Monetary Policy and Foreign Exchange Interventions under Inflation Targeting: The Case of Brazil and the Czech Republic
Authors: Gnabo Jean‐Yves , De Mello Luiz , Moccero Diego
Published: September 2010

Inflation‐targeting central banks often explicitly reserve the right to intervene in foreign exchange markets when the exchange rate ‘deviates from fundamentals’ and/or ‘displays excessive volatility’. In the case of emerging markets, central banks can often ill afford to neglect exchange rate developments when setting monetary policy because of a high pass‐through of nominal exchange rate changes to domestic prices. As a result, interventions and monetary policy are interrelated, a hypothesis that has been overlooked in the literature. To bridge this gap, this paper includes monetary policy indicators in the estimation of intervention reaction functions for Brazil and the Czech Republic since the adoption of inflation targeting. Our main finding is that interventions take place independently of the contemporaneous monetary policy setting in Brazil, but not in the Czech Republic, where both policies appear to be coordinated.
Currency Crashes in Industrial Countries: What Determines Good and Bad Outcomes?*
Authors: Gagnon Joseph E.
Published: September 2010

Sharp exchange rate depreciations, or currency crashes, are associated with poor economic outcomes in industrial countries only when they are caused by inflationary macroeconomic policies. Moreover, the poor outcomes are attributable to inflationary policies in general and not the currency crashes in particular. On the other hand, crashes caused by rising unemployment or external deficits have always been followed by solid economic growth, rising asset prices and stable or falling inflation rates.
Financial Dollarization and European Union Membership
Authors: Neanidis Kyriakos C.
Published: September 2010

We analyse the effect of European Union (EU) membership on financial dollarization for the Central and Eastern European countries. Using a unique monthly data set that spans about two decades, we find that both the accession process towards EU membership and EU entry have a direct impact on deposit dollarization (DD) and loan dollarization (LD). EU membership reduces DD while it increases LD. The negative effect on DD captures the increased confidence of the private sector in the domestic currency, as they consider the EU admission process a reflection of their government's commitment to promoting policies of long‐run currency stability. The positive impact on credit dollarization is the outcome of a greater convergence of exchange rates to the euro and the subsequent anticipation of lower currency risk, which diminishes the cost of foreign currency borrowing.
Evaluation de la barrière cutanée chez l'homme par deux méthodes non‐invasives (vélocimétrie laser Doppler et chromamétrie)
Authors: GUESSANT C. , MARTY J.‐P. , DUPONT Ch.
Published: September 2010

Dans le cadre de travaux concernant la barrière cutanée et ses modifications, notre but a été d'évaluer objectivement, in vivo chez l'homme, la réponse pharmacologique obtenue après application topique de deux réactifs vasoactifs: le nicotinate de méthyle (NM) et le nicotinate d'hexyle (NH). Deux méthodes non‐invasives ont été comparées, la vélocimétrie laser Doppler, par deux appareils: le Periflux PF2 (Perimed, Suède), et le Laser Flo BPM 403 (TSI, USA), et la chromamétrie (Chromamètre CR 200, Minolta, Japon), à l'aide de quatre paramètres: le temps de latence précédant l'apparition de la réponse, l'intensité maximale de cette réponse, le temps pour atteindre cette intensité et le pourcentage de sujets répondeurs présentant une augmentation du flux sanguin cutané et/ou une rougeur cutanée. La vélocimétrie laser Doppler pose le problème de l'effet solvant et/ou sonde, ce qui rend délicate l'interprétation des résultats. C'est pourquoi nous avons choisi la chromamétrie pour apprécier, à l'aide de vasoactifs appropriés (NM dans l'eau et NH dans divers solvants), l'état de la barrière cutanée et son évolution après agression physique par stripping d'intensité croissante.

Synopsis

Within the framework of our research on the cutaneous barrier functions and their modifications, our objective was to estimate, in vivo in humans, the pharmacological response induced by the topical application of two vasoactive drugs: methyl nicotinate (MN) and hexyl nicotinate (HN). Two noninvasive methods were compared: laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) (with two different types of equipment: Periflux PF2™ (Perimed, Sweden) and Laser Flo BPM 403™ (TSI, USA) and chromametry (Chromameter CR 200, Minolta, Japan). Four parameters were measured and/or calculated: the lag time before the first response, the highest intensity of the response, the time to reach this intensity and the percentage of sites responding with an increase of blood flow and/or a skin redness. Laser Doppler velocimetry shows a problem with the effect of the solvent and/or probe which makes the interpretation of the results difficult. With the vasoactive drugs, MN in water and HN in various solvents, chromametry was preferred for estimating the cutaneous barrier function and its evolution after physical aggression by progressive stripping of the horny layer.
Étude par cryofracture de l'organisation lamellaire de lipides intercellulaires dans le stratum corneum humain après application topique de céramides
Authors: SURLÈVE‐BAZEILLE J.‐É. , MERCIER M. , Le MENN R. , FRUCTUS A. , ARNAUD‐BATTANDIER J.
Published: September 2010

Il est possible de remédier à une carence des complexes lipidiques de la couche cornée grâce à des produits cosmétiques de remplacement. La place prépondérante qu'occupent les céramides parmi les lipides intercellulaires du stratum corneum et dans l'enveloppe des cornéocytes nous a conduits à élaborer une suspension aqueuse de céramides sous forme de liposomes. Ce produit a été appliqué et ses effets analysés sur un modèle de stratum corneum délipidé. La comparaison entre le résultat de cette expérimentation et le stratum corneum normal révèle à l'échelle ultrastructurale la présence de figures intercellulaires multilamellaires très semblables dans les deux cas. Les céramides sous forme de liposomes se sont structurées en feuillets analogues à ceux du ciment naturel. La méthode de cryofracture appliquée ici est particulièrement adaptée pour visualiser et suivre le devenir de ces céramides en microscopie électronique.

Synopsis

The multilamellar structure of intercellular lipids may be examined by cryofracture. These lipids function particularly as a moisture barrier in the stratum corneum (SC) and as an intercellular cement which may be present in excess or be deficient due to physiological abnormalities or external aggression. Any deficiency may be remedied by application of the appropriate cosmetic products. The major role played by ceramides in this cement and in the corneocyte envelope has led to studies of the application of ceramides in the form of liposomes

The object of this paper is to visualize on an ultrastructural scale the fate of ceramides applied to a model SC. The following types of SC have been examined: intact SC; SC defatted by chloroform containing methanol; defatted SC treated by ceramide containing liposomes. These three structures were prepared as cryofracture preparations and examined by transmission electron microscopy. The intact SC samples showed the classic intercellular cement in lamellar 5–10 nm minimum thickness. This cement was absent in the defatted SC. After treatment with ceramide liposomes an intercellular lamellar structure similar to that observed in intact SC could be observed. Cryofracture appears to be a technique well adapted to demonstrate the fate of ceramides in electron microscopy.
Effect of the glyceride of pentadecanoic acid on energy metabolism in hair follicles
Authors: ADACHI K. , YOKOYAMA D. , TAMAI H. , SADAI M. , OBA K.
Published: September 2010

Synopsis

The effect of the glyceride of pentadecanoic acid (PDG) in treating male pattern alopecia has already been confirmed in a double blind controlled clinical test. In order to study the mechanism of the hair growing effect of PDG, ATP levels were measured in the hair follicles of rabbits. The ATP levels in telogen hair follicles increased remarkably with the application of PDG. To examine this effect, the metabolic properties of pentadecanoic acid (PDA) were investigated using the mitochondrial fraction prepared from guinea‐pig hair follicles. It was shown that PDA could be metabolized in hair follicles, and succinic acid, which was formed in the degradation process of PDA, had a remarkable ATP producing ability. These results suggest that the hair growing effect of PDG depends on the efficient supply of energy to hair follicles, and this mechanism seems to be derived from the metabolic property of the odd numbered carbon fatty acid, PDA.

L'effet du monoglycéride de l'acide pentadécanoique (PDG) dans le traitement de l'alopécie de configuration masculine a déjà été confirmé dans un test clinique en double aveugle. Afin d'étudier le mécanisme de l'effet de croissance sur les poils du PDG, les niveaux d'ATP ont été mesurés sur les follicules de poils de lapins. Les niveaux d'ATP des follicules pileux télogènes ont augmenté remarquablement avec l'application du PDG. Pour comprendre cet effet, les propriétés métaboliques de l'acide pentadécanoique (PDA) ont été étudiées en utilisant la fraction mitochondriale préparée à partir des follicules pileux de cobayes. Il a été démontré que le PDA pouvait être métabolisé dans les follicules pileux et que l'acide succinique, formé au cours du procédé de dégradation du PDA, présente une capacité de production d'ATP remarquable. Ces résultats suggérent que l'effet de croissance du PDG dépend de sa propriété de fournir de l'énergie aux follicules pileux, et que ce mécanisme semble être dérivé de leur faculté de métaboliser un acide gras à nombre impair de carbones, le PDA.