bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Individual discrimination following 24 h of pair contact in one- and seven-day-old Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)
Authors: Béry Amandine , Porter Richard , Arnould Cécile
Published: January 2008

This study examined the capacity of young Japanese quail to discriminate between a familiar cagemate (F) and an unfamiliar conspecific (U). Two tests of discrimination were initially compared: a simultaneous double choice test and a pair test allowing social pecking. Discrimination was more clearly demonstrated in the choice test, which was, therefore, used in the subsequent experiments. One-day-old chicks that had been housed in pairs after hatching spent significantly more time near F than a U stimulus bird and more frequently approached and attempted to interact with F. Seven-day-old chicks that were raised in large groups for the first 6 days, then in pairs for 24 h, subsequently displayed no significant differences in their responses to their recent pair partner versus an unfamiliar chick. On the other hand, chicks that were raised in pairs for 6 days, then housed with a new partner (F) for 24 h, more frequently approached and attempted to interact with F than a U bird. These results show that 24 h of pair contact beginning at hatching or 6 days of age is sufficient for quail to discriminate between a familiar cagemate and a stranger. This discrimination ability is influenced by the chicks' early social experience.
Students Evaluate Carl Rogers and His Relationship With Gloria: A Brief Report
Authors: Reilly Joe , Jacobus Veronica
Published: January 2008

The Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (TAP) video series introduces students, both undergraduate and graduate, to three major schools of psychotherapy: client-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, and rational-emotive therapy. A sample of students were asked to watch the TAP video series and were then surveyed on their perceptions of the therapists' practice of psychotherapy and explanation of his theory, and the relationship between the client and therapist, including the therapists interest in and treatment of the client. This article focuses on findings based on Carl Rogers's session with the client, Gloria. Results were consistent in that students were pleased with Rogers's theory, practice, and interaction with Gloria.
Applying Ecological Systems and Micro-Tipping Point Theory for Understanding Tourists' Leisure Destination Behavior
Authors: Woodside Arch G. , Martin Drew
Published: January 2008

Micro-tipping point (MTP) theory includes the proposal that a specific stream of unconscious and conscious thoughts result in a go and no-go discretionary action in a given context (e.g., whether or not to visit a given destination in a given season or year, with particular persons being included or excluded from the trip). The specific stream represents a stream or conjunctive combination of thoughts in context that results in a tourist party actually taking the steps that include booking the trip and experiencing a destination firsthand. Building such contingency models that are applicable to real-life combinations of unconscious and conscious thinking requires collecting data from informants on both implicit and explicit beliefs, attitudes, and thinking rules relevant for a specific yes or no context. This article illustrates applying the long interview for collecting such data and using quantitative comparative analysis for constructing MTP models.
Nine-Year Psychiatric Trajectories and Substance Use Outcomes
Authors: Chi Felicia W. , Weisner Constance M.
Published: January 2008

This study identifies longitudinal psychiatric trajectories of 934 adult individuals entering chemical dependency treatment in a private, managed care health plan and examines the relationship of these trajectories with substance use (SU) outcomes. The authors apply a group-based modeling approach to identify trajectory groups based on repeated measures of psychiatric severity for 9 years and identify four distinct groups. Results of multivariate logistic generalized estimating equation models find an association between psychiatric trajectories and long-term SU. Older cohorts and life course measures of marital status and employment status as individuals changed over time are related to drug and some alcohol outcomes.
Numerical Investigation of Gas Equations of State of the Isotropic Viscoelastic Polymer Membrane in Free and Confined Inflation
Authors: Erchiqui F.
Published: January 2008

In this work, we are interested in numerical simulation in free and confined inflation of a thin, isotropic and incompressible thermoplastic membrane, using the dynamic finite element method. Inflation of the membrane is controlled by the gas equation of state flowing into the enclosed volume. The dynamic pressure loading used in modeling is thus deduced from one of the three equations of state: the Redlich—Kwong, the van der Waals and the ideal equations. The viscoelastic behavior of the Lodge model is considered. The Lagrangian formulation, together with the assumption of the membrane theory, are used. The effect of the gas on the thickness and stress distribution, for the free and confined inflation (thermoforming process), is analyzed for these three gas equations of state.
Structure and Water Absorption of Starch and Polyethylene-Octene Elastomer Composites
Authors: Xiaoya Shang  , Xiong Fu  , Liansheng Yang  , Xudong Chen
Published: January 2008

Four modified starches, including gelatinized starch (GS), crosslinked starch (CS), oxidized starch (OS) and esterified starch (ES), were blended with polyethylene-octene elastomer (POE) at 20 wt% starch content. The graft copolymer POE-g-MAH acted as a compatibilizer where 5 wt% was added to POE and various starch blends. The crosslinked starch was blended with POE in different proportions and conditioned at various relative humidities (RH), 11%, 32%, 43%, 75% and 100%, respectively until equilibrium to study the water absorption of POE/starch blends. Although different types of starch were used, the mechanical properties of each POE/starch blend were not significantly different. The compatibilizer had an obvious influence on the morphology and mechanical properties of each POE/starch blend. The starch dispersed in POE matrix better and the interfacial adhesion between starch and POE phase improved after adding the POE-g-MAH, also the tensile strength of POE/starch blends increased. With increasing starch content, both the tensile strength and elongation at break of POE/CS blends decreased. The water uptake of POE/CS blends increased with increasing time and starch content. The POE/CS blends without compatibilizer had higher water uptakes than those samples with compatibilizer. After equilibrium at different RH, the tensile strength of POE/CS blends decreased as RH increased, but the elongation at break increased with increasing RH.
Effect of Compatibilizer on the Properties of Fluorinated and Oxy-fluorinated Short Kevlar fiber Reinforced EP
Authors: Mukherjee M. , Das C.K. , Kharitonov A.P.
Published: January 2008

This paper concentrates on the effect of compatibilizers on the thermal, dynamic mechanical, crystalline and rheological properties of unmodified fluorinated and oxy-fluorinated short Kevlar fiber reinforced ethylene propylene copolymer (EP). The compatibilizers used in this study are maleic anhydride grafted Polypropylene (MA-gPP). The composites were prepared in a brabender mixer and were molded in a compression molding. The compatibilized samples show improved thermal, dynamic mechanical crystalline as well as rheological properties as a result of better adhesion between the fiber and matrix at the interface. The compatibilizing effect is much more pronounced in the case of oxy-fluorinated Kevlar/EP composites in comparison with the untreated and fluorinated Kevlar/EP composites.
Evaluation of CFRP, GFRP and BFRP Material Systems for the Strengthening of RC Slabs
Authors: Chen Z.F. , Wan L.L. , Lee S. , Ng M. , Tang J.M. , Liu M. , Lee L.
Published: January 2008

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of CFRP, GFRP and BFRP materials on the strengthening of reinforced concrete slabs. RC slab specimens were tested on a steel frame with four supporting edges. They were centrally loaded with the actuator of an MTS through a steel plate. The strengthening capacity and the failure mode of slabs strengthened with different material systems were determined and compared. A finite element model (using ANSYS program) was used for predicting the failure process of slabs strengthened with different material systems. The predicted and experimental results are in good agreement.
Higher Order Refined Computational Models for the Free Vibration Analysis of Antisymmetric Angle Ply Plates
Authors: Swaminathan K. , Patil S.S.
Published: January 2008

Analytical formulations using two higher order refined displacement models have been developed and solutions presented for the first time to the natural frequency analysis of antisymmetric angle-ply composite and sandwich plates. These computational models already reported in the literature are based on Taylor's series expansion of the displacements in the thickness coordinate and consider the realistic parabolic distribution of transverse shear strains through the laminate thickness. One of them, with 12 degrees of freedom, considers the effects of both transverse shear and normal strain/stress while the other with 9 degrees of freedom includes only the effect of transverse shear deformation. In addition to above, a few higher order models and the first order model developed by other investigators and available in the literature are also considered for the evaluation. A simply supported plate is considered throughout as a test problem. The equations of motion are obtained using Hamilton's principle. Solutions are obtained in closed form using Navier's technique by solving the eigenvalue equation. Plates with varying slenderness ratios, number of layers, fiber orientations, degrees of anisotropy, edge ratios and thickness of core to thickness of face sheet ratios are considered for the analysis. Accuracy of the theoretical formulations and the solution method is first ascertained by comparing the results with those already available in the literature. After establishing the accuracy of the solutions, extensive numerical results are presented for the free vibration analysis of multilayer antisymmetric angle-ply composite and sandwich plates using all the models, which will serve as a benchmark for future investigations.
Quality Evaluation of Resin Transfer Molded Products
Authors: Babu B.J.C. , Prabhakaran R.T. Durai , Agrawal V.P.
Published: January 2008

The present study introduces a new procedure to evaluate the quality of composite products using the graph theoretic approach, and a composite screw rotors process is considered (manufactured by the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM)). The composite product coming from the manufacturing processes must have good surface finish and high quality without any defects. There are several factors which affect the quality during design and manufacture of the RTM products like screw rotors. These factors form a quality digraph based on the interactions existing between them. Hence, we considered the quality digraph by defining fuzzy crisp scores for the degree of interactions between the factors. A quality index derived from quality permanent function is helpful for quality inspectors on the shop floor to decide whether the product is within benchmark limits. The benchmark limits obtained for the composite product, manufactured by the RTM process by considering the strong and weak interactions existing between the factors defined for quality, are considered as upper and lower bounds in deriving the indices. Therefore the present work proposes a quality index, which is a useful numerical index for quality assurance groups to take proper decisions on the shop floor for the manufacturing process adapted to composites (composite molders).
Effect of Different Bone Substitutes on the Concentration of Growth Factors in Platelet-rich Plasma
Authors: Hee Soon Cho  , Park So-Young , Kim Sukyoung , Sang Keun Bae  , Duk Seop Shin  , Ahn Myun-Whan
Published: January 2008

This study is conducted to determine the effect of different kinds of bone substitutes and collagen on the concentration of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor β-1 (TGF β-1) in platelet-rich plasma (PRP). PRP is treated with thrombin, hydroxyapatite (HA), and thrombin, HA alone, collagen-grafted HA, calcium metaphosphate (CMP), and collagen-grafted CMP. The concentrations of PDGF-AB and TGF β-1 are measured. After PRP treated with HA and CMP, the concentrations of PDGF and TGF β-1 are not significantly different from the concentration of them in PRP alone. The concentrations of PDGF in PRP with collagen-grafted HA and collagen-grafted CMP are significantly higher than that of PRP with HA and CMP. The concentrations of PDGF and TGF β-1 in PRP with collagen-grafted CMP are higher than with collagen-grafted HA. The results of multiple regression analysis show that PDGF increased with the use of collagen and thrombin, and is higher in native whole blood with higher platelet counts. However, PDGF decreased with the use of HA. In conclusion, HA and CMP do not seem to be able to activate platelets by themselves. However, if they had collagen grafted onto them, they could activate platelets and release growth factors.
BMP-2 Incorporated in a Tricalcium Phosphate Bone Substitute Enhances Bone Remodeling in Sheep
Authors: Maus Uwe , Andereya Stefan , Gravius Sascha , Ohnsorge Jörg A.K. , Niedhart Christopher , Siebert Christian H.
Published: January 2008

Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is a well-known osteoinductive protein, which requires a carrier for local application. As an alternative to the previously described carriers, an in situ hardening, resorbable, and osteoconductive β-tricalcium phosphate cement (TCP) is tested. Trepanation defects in the bovine distal femoral epiphysis are filled with a composite consisting of TCP and 200 μg rhBMP-2 per cm3 TCP, autologous bone graft, pure TCP, or left empty. A radiological follow-up is performed after 7 weeks and 3 months. The sheep are euthanized and bone samples are analyzed by microradiography, histology, and histomorphometry. Microradiography and histology show similar results for pure TCP and the composite. The defects are filled with trabecular bone and newly formed bone is in close contact with the remaining TCP-particles. The majority of the cement is resorbed, in the composite group the amount of remaining cement particles is reduced. Defects treated with autologous bone graft are filled completely, while untreated defects shows only a small amount of bone originating from the rim of the defect. Histomorphometry of the defects treated with pure TCP shows a significantly increased bone content in comparison to defects treated with the composite or autologous bone graft. Analysis of the remaining cement particles shows significantly less cement in the TCP/rhBMP-2 group in comparison to pure TCP. The sum of bone and cement content in the rhBMP-2 group shows amounts comparable to the calcified structures found following autologous bone grafting. The addition of rhBMP-2 to the TCP leads to faster remodeling of the defect comparable to autologous bone graft, while defects treated with pure TCP are not completely remodeled.
Comparative Study of P19 EC Stem Cell Differentiation in between Conventional Hanging Drop and the Zebrafish Chorion as a Bio-derived Material
Authors: Dae Seok Na  , Lee Hwang , Sun Uk Kim  , Chang Nam Hwang  , Sang Ho Lee  , Ji Yoon Kang  , Jai Kyeong Kim  , James Jungho Pak
Published: January 2008

Various materials including glass and polymers have been widely used for stem cell culture due to their biocompatibility. However, the roles of these materials are fundamentally limited because they cannot realize or imitate the complex biological functions of living tissues, except in very simple cases. Here, the development of a bio-derived material suitable for stem cell culture and improvement of differentiation efficiency to specific cell lineages with no stimulating agents by using a chorion obtained from a fertilized zebrafish egg through the removal of the yolk and embryonic cell mass from the egg is reported. Mouse P19 EC stem cells introduced into the empty chorion form a uniform embryoid body (EB) without addition of any inducing agent. It is demonstrated that the zebrafish chorion with nanopores improves efficiencies greatly in the EB formation, cell proliferation, and lineage-specific differentiations compared to those of the conventional hanging drop culture method.
Defining the Creative Economy: Industry and Occupational Approaches
Authors: Markusen Ann , Wassall Gregory H. , DeNatale Douglas , Cohen Randy
Published: January 2008

This article reviews conceptual and operational issues in defining the creative sector and its arts and cultural core. Some accounts use establishment data to measure creative industry employment, some use firm-level data, and others use occupational data. The authors examine how cultural-sector employment is conceptualized in three pioneering cultural economy studies driven by distinctive policy agendas and constituencies. Choices about which industries, firms, and occupations to include affect the resulting size and content of the cultural economy. In comparing these three studies and others, the authors show that the Boston metro's creative economy varies in size from less than 1% to 49%, although most cultural definitions range from 1% to 4%. The authors explore how policy makers might use a combination of methods to produce a richer characterization of the regional cultural economy and reflect on the relevance of good numbers to cultural policy and creative region formation.
Meaning in Organizational Communication
Authors: Hogler Raymond , Gross Michael A. , Hartman Jackie L. , Cunliffe Ann L.
Published: January 2008

The authors propose an alternative to the postmodern way of viewing metaphor primarily as an instrumental and functional rhetorical tool designed to influence members of an organization through ideological appeals, a view that depicts rhetoric as merely subjective and manipulable. Our alternative draws from the “aesthetic side of organizational life” and argues that communication exceeds the theoretical reach of the postmodern perspective, which requires a new conceptualization of metaphor as epistemic and capable of signaling meaning that is inseparable from its unique and discrete form.
Resistance, Gender, and Bourdieu's Notion of Field
Authors: Dick Penny
Published: January 2008

Recent conceptualizations of resistance have tended to privilege intentional and conscious acts of resistance and forms of resistance manifested within relations of power that researchers typically define as asymmetrical, such as the labor—management relation. The author argues that these tendencies lead us to overlook forms of resistance manifest in other relations of power that exist in organizations, as well as set ourselves up as arbitrators of what is to be considered “effective” resistance. Using Bourdieu's concepts of capital and field, the author examines how we can read resistance both to the idea of sex discrimination and to patriarchal power relations from the accounts of female career police officers and offers a more perspectival, relativistic account of resistance.
Spectacles of Resistance and Resistance of Spectacles
Authors: Gabriel Yiannis
Published: January 2008

The author explores organizational controls in an era dominated by spectacles, images, and pictures and seeks to identify forms of resistance that subvert and undermine these controls. The author analyzes new forms of resistance, such as whistle-blowing, that are particularly aimed at besmirching an organization's image and reputation and argues that although many employees have lost their collective voice, they occasionally raise their individual voices in opposition, cynical rejection, or questioning of managerial practices and discourses or, more often, resort to exit. The author concludes that many current forms of workplace resistance mirror similar forms of resistance used by individuals as consumers in questioning, disrupting, and, at times, challenging the claims of consumerism.
Decaf Resistance
Authors: Contu Alessia
Published: January 2008

The author reconnects resistance in production to its radical roots. Current literature suggests that resistance in the liberal workplaces of late capitalism has gone underground, becoming mostly evident in unofficial, offstage practices such as cynicism, parody, and humor. The author argues this resistance is too often a decaf resistance. This is a resistance without the cost of radically changing the economy of enjoyment, which ties us to our master. The author argues that resistance, as a real act, which suspends and changes the constellation of power relations, has a cost that cannot be accounted for in advance. To understand this cost, we need an ethics, which the author calls, following Lacan, the Ethics of the Real.
Realistic Evaluation of an Illicit Drug Deterrence Programme
Authors: Leone Liliana
Published: January 2008

This article describes an evaluation conducted in a region of northern Italy, based on the realistic evaluation approach.This case study is related to the application at regional level of national legislative measures against personal drug consumption, the so-called Article 75, through the implementation of a pilot programme. Article 75 DPR 309/90, is a `sanctions-based' intervention mainly based on the mechanism `threat—dissuasion', such that people who are found in possession of illicit drugs for personal use can be temporarily detained by the police, have a mandatory interview and abstinence test and sometimes have an administrative penalty or a mandatory treatment. First, the article describes the sequence of mechanisms anticipated by decision-makers (legislator) and the mechanisms that actually emerged from the programme evaluation; second, the outcomes resulting from the interaction between the mechanisms and the specific contexts are analysed. Finally, a few suggestions are proposed and the advantages of the realistic evaluation approach are discussed.
A Learner-Focused Evaluation Strategy
Authors: Fjellström Mona
Published: January 2008

This article describes and discusses a case of deliberative responsive stakeholder evaluation that was employed as a strategy to support the development of an undergraduate medical programme at a Swedish university. It focuses on received information and reflection about the process of evaluation as a dialogue for learning. By highlighting the complexity of educational work and the expectations on the medical profession, the dialogue supported a holistic and qualification-focused change process. The dialogue contributed to the creation of a qualified and nuanced development process and illuminated an evaluation process that is more associated with learning than quality enhancement. The article begins by presenting the case studied and the theories that underpin the article. It then describes the results of the study, before finally placing the results in the context of higher education development in Sweden and raising issues relating to the present method and objectives of quality assessment in higher education.
The Elementary Forms of Globality
Authors: Inglis David , Robertson Roland
Published: January 2008

In an age of apparently endemic globalization and globality, any form of sociological theorizing centred on an understanding of the term `society' which took the latter as being always located within the boundaries of a particular nation-state, would be indictable as being imprisoned within the confines of a naïve and analytically unsatisfactory `methodological nationalism'. A superficial assessment of Durkheim's work might lead one to believe that of all the thinkers of the classical period of sociology, Durkheim is the most methodologically nationalist, and thus the most unpromising resource for analyses of globalization processes in the present day. However, this paper shows that such a view is a serious oversimplification of a multi-stranded oeuvre which contains within it intriguing elements that point towards a Durkheimian account of globalization processes and conditions of globality. While there are indeed methodologically nationalist strains in Durkheim's work, these are more than counter-balanced by certain other, more globally oriented, concerns. First, there are tendencies towards the development of a `cosmopolitan' political theory, a stance which has been fairly well remarked upon by other authors. Second, at a more explicitly `sociological' level, there are also certain orientations towards an account of the genesis and nature of social and cultural globality. This account is scattered throughout various locations in Durkheim's writings, most notably The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, and the paper reconstructs what it takes to be Durkheim's embryonic project in `global sociology' to be found there and in some of his other works. Attention is drawn to the apparent debt Durkheim owed to Fustel de Coulanges in this regard. This paper concludes with the argument that Durkheim's endeavours to understand conditions of globality and planet-wide connectivity should be given serious attention in contemporary re-assessments of the capacities of classical sociologists to deal with globe-spanning processes and institutions.
Max Weber and the `Faustian Universality of Man'
Authors: Wilding Adrian
Published: January 2008

Famously, the final pages of Max Weber's Protestant Ethic present a powerful diagnosis of the condition of modern man trapped in an `iron cage' of impersonal economic processes. Yet just above these famous words Weber tells us something else, that what we have sacrificed in entering the iron cage is `the Faustian universality of man'. What does Weber mean by this phrase, and why does he point us to the writings of Goethe at this key point in the book's conclusion? This paper argues that both the phrase `Faustian universality' and Weber's philosophical footnotes reveal a deeper and hitherto neglected argument, giving us a very different diagnosis of modernity than that usually associated with the `iron cage'. Following the clues Weber left us leads us to a more complex and challenging picture of The Protestant Ethic's lasting message.
Durkheim on Rationality
Authors: Segre Sandro
Published: January 2008

The article explores Durkheim's different notions of rationality, aims to formulate a Durkheimian theory of social integration, which should be both unitary and compatible with a particular version of Rational Choice Theory (RCT), and to this end refers to the whole Durkheimian corpus. To pursue these theoretical goals, it recalls Durkheim's fundamental distinction between an individual and social state of consciousness, which may be related to two distinct conceptions of rationality as may be found in RCT. The article, furthermore, explores the societal preconditions and consequences which, according to Durkheim, characterize each state of consciousness, especially insofar as solidary rules and norms are concerned. A Durkheimian theory of social integration is then formulated, and its relationship with some unresolved issues in RCT is discussed.
Religious place and its interaction with urbanization in the Roman era
Authors: Rogers Adam C.
Published: January 2008

This article examines the issue of urbanization in Roman Britain and its interaction with places of the late pre-Roman Iron Age. Many of these places were complex and highly meaning-laden landscapes and often incorporated ritually imbued watery locations as well as culturally significant activities. The modern western conception of place differs vastly from the past when places were important ways of conceptualizing, experiencing and understanding the world and they were constructed through human action, memory and experience and interaction. `Landscape' is largely a modern term and may be inadequate for attempting to understand place and space in the past. The location of Roman towns in Britain has often been considered predominantly in strategic, economic and practical terms but they will also have been interacting with pre-Roman places, which in turn may have gone on to influence the nature of urbanism itself.
A tale of two tunnels
Authors: Delle James A.
Published: January 2008

The Underground Railroad is a widely known but generally misunderstood historical phenomenon that has recently become a focus of much scholarly and popular attention. To understand the Underground Railroad and the ways it is currently remembered, it is perhaps best to consider it as a simultaneous manifestation of public memory, social memory, and social myth. In examining these processes of collective memorialization, two archaeological sites thought to relate to the Underground Railroad in eastern Pennsylvania — the Parvin Homestead in Berks County, and the Thaddeus Stevens House in Lancaster County — and a planned museum of Thaddeus Stevens and the Underground Railroad are considered.
Hygiene: The Art of Public Health
Authors: Coxall Helen , Skelton Pam , Fletcher Tony
Published: January 2008

This article is a response to the exhibition Hygiene: The Art of Public Health - a site-specific exhibition of artists’ interventions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in May-July 2002. The event raised the profile of the debate about artists making work on sites dedicated to scientific research and of the nature of art/science collaborations. This article is not intended to be a review of the exhibition - rather it is an opportunity to discuss issues that the artists responded to and the implications of staging these events with a particular focus on the curatorial process. After an introduction to the nature of art/science collaboration, there follows a description of the work itself in the context of the LSHTM. This is followed by an interview by Helen Coxall with the two curators, Pam Skelton and Tony Fletcher.
Quantile regression for rating teams
Authors: W Bassett Gilbert
Published: January 2008

Quantile regression is proposed for modeling game out comes and as the basis for rating teams. The model includes the standard location model for team strength as a special case, while allowing for a richer specification in which teams differ according to the quantiles of the out come distribution. Team ratings are defined as the handicap needed to equalize the out come of a contest. With teams differing by quantiles, this leads to a class of ratings that depend on where in the out come distribution the out come is equalized. Relation ships with betting games are discussed. The approach is illustrated by rating National Football League (NFL) teams based on game results for the 2005 season.
A fast and efficient implementation of qualitatively constrained quantile smoothing splines
Authors: Ng Pin , Maechler Martin
Published: January 2008

We implement a fast and efficient algorithm to compute qualitatively constrained smoothing and regression splines for quantile regression, exploiting the sparse structure of the design matrices involved in the method. In a previous implementation, the linear program involved was solved using a simplex-like algorithm for quantile smoothing splines. The current implementation uses the Frisch-Newton algorithm, recently described by Koenker and Ng (2005b). It is a variant of the interior-point algorithm proposed by Portnoy and Koenker (1997), which has been shown to out perform the simplex method in many applications. The current R implementation relies on the R package S parse M of Koenker and Ng (2003) which contains a collection of basic linear algebra routines for sparse matrices to exploit the sparse structure of the matrices involved in the linear program to further speed up computation and save memory usage. A small simulation illustrates the superior performance of the new implementation.
Improved double kernel local linear quantile regression
Authors: Jones M C , Yu Keming
Published: January 2008

As sample quantiles can be obtained as maximum likelihood estimates of location parameters in suitable asymmetric Laplace distributions, so kernel estimates of quantiles can be obtained as maximum likelihood estimates of location parameters in a general class of distributions with simple exponential tails. In this paper, this observation is applied to kernel quantile regression. In doing so, a new double kernel local linear quantile regression estimator is obtained which proves to be consistently superior in performance to the earlier double kernel local linear quantile regression estimator proposed by the authors. It is also straightforward to compute and more readily affords a first derivative estimate. An alternative method of selection for one of the two bandwidths involved also arises naturally but proves not to be so consistently successful.
Using the Kaleidoscope Career Model to Understand the Changing Patterns of Women's Careers: Designing HRD Programs That Attract and Retain Women
Authors: Sullivan Sherry E. , Mainiero Lisa
Published: January 2008

The problem and the solution. This article explores how a new model of careers can be used to suggest human resource development (HRD) programs that better match the unique career patterns of women. Traditional career stage models, which form the basis of many modern HRD practices, were created by studying men's careers and do not fit the complexities of women's careers. The purpose of this article is to discuss the Kaleidoscope Career Model as a means of understanding the needs of women workers and how organizations can systematically fulfill those needs to gain a competitive advantage. In addition to HRD implications, we also discuss directions for future research.
Improving the Evidence Base for Career Development Programs
Authors: Preskill Hallie , Donaldson Stewart I.
Published: January 2008

The problem and the solution. Though much has been written on the topic of career development, the human resource development field has paid little attention to the ways in which career development programs are evaluated.The lack of sound evidence for the effectiveness of career development interventions may be because of the overreliance on Kirkpatrick's ubiquitous evaluation approach or that traditional research methods such as experimental and quasi-experimental designs are not appropriate or feasible in many organizational settings. In this article, we describe the growing profession and practice of evaluation and discuss how the positive psychology movement provides new insights into how career development programs may be evaluated.
Endovascular Treatment of a Symptomatic Carotid Artery Aneurysm With a Stent Graft
Authors: Bellosta Raffaello , Sesana Marco , Baglini Roberto , Luzzani Luca , Talarico Matteo , Sarcina Antonio
Published: January 2008

Endovascular methods have become more widespread and offer an alternative to surgery, which is often difficult in case of a hostile neck resulting from radiotherapy. Carotid pseudoaneurysm after laryngectomy is a very uncommon complication. We report a case of symptomatic carotid artery pseudoaneurysm treated using a stent graft.
Causes and prognostic factors of remission induction failure in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with all-trans retinoic acid and idarubicin
Authors: de la Serna Javier , Montesinos Pau , Vellenga Edo , Rayón Chelo , Parody Ricardo , León Angel , Esteve Jordi , Bergua Juan M. , Milone Gustavo , Debén Guillermo , Rivas Concha , González Marcos , Tormo Mar , Díaz-Mediavilla Joaquín , González Jose D. , Negri Silvia , Amutio Elena , Brunet Salut , Lowenberg Bob , Sanz Miguel A.
Published: January 2008

An understanding of the prognostic factors associated with the various forms of induction mortality in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has remained remarkably limited. This study reports the incidence, time of occurrence, and prognostic factors of the major categories of induction failure in a series of 732 patients of all ages (range, 2-83 years) with newly diagnosed APL who received all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) plus idarubicin as induction therapy in 2 consecutive studies of the Programa de Estudio y Tratamiento de las Hemopatias Malignas (PETHEMA) Group. Complete remission was attained in 666 patients (91%). All the 66 induction failures were due to induction death. Hemorrhage was the most common cause of induction death (5%), followed by infection (2.3%) and differentiation syndrome (1.4%). Multivariate analysis identified specific and distinct pretreatment characteristics to correlate with an increased risk of death caused by hemorrhage (abnormal creatinine level, increased peripheral blast counts, and presence of coagulopathy), infection (age >60 years, male sex, and fever at presentation), and differentiation syndrome (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group [ECOG] score >1 and low albumin levels), respectively. These data furnish clinically relevant information that might be useful for designing more appropriately risk-adapted treatment protocols aimed at reducing the considerable problem of induction mortality in APL.
Transcription factor Erg regulates angiogenesis and endothelial apoptosis through VE-cadherin
Authors: Birdsey Graeme M. , Dryden Nicola H. , Amsellem Valerie , Gebhardt Frank , Sahnan Kapil , Haskard Dorian O. , Dejana Elisabetta , Mason Justin C. , Randi Anna M.
Published: January 2008

Tight regulation of the balance between apoptosis and survival is essential in angiogenesis. The ETS transcription factor Erg is required for endothelial tube formation in vitro. Inhibition of Erg expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), using antisense oligonucleotides, resulted in detachment of cell-cell contacts and increased cell death. Inhibition of Erg expression by antisense in HUVECs also lowered expression of the adhesion molecule vascular endothelial (VE)–cadherin, a key regulator of endothelial intercellular junctions and survival. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we showed that Erg binds to the VE-cadherin promoter. Furthermore, Erg was found to enhance VE-cadherin promoter activity in a transactivation assay. Apoptosis induced by inhibition of Erg was partly rescued by overexpression of VE-cadherin–GFP, suggesting that VE-cadherin is involved in the Erg-dependent survival signals. To show the role of Erg in angiogenesis in vivo, we used siRNA against Erg in a Matrigel plug model. Erg inhibition resulted in a significant decrease in vascularization, with increase in caspase-positive endothelial cells (ECs). These results identify a new pathway regulating angiogenesis and endothelial survival, via the transcription factor Erg and the adhesion molecule VE-cadherin.
LTRharvest, an efficient and flexible software for de novo detection of LTR retrotransposons
Authors: Ellinghaus David , Kurtz Stefan , Willhoeft Ute
Published: January 2008

Background

Transposable elements are abundant in eukaryotic genomes and it is believed that they have a significant impact on the evolution of gene and chromosome structure. While there are several completed eukaryotic genome projects, there are only few high quality genome wide annotations of transposable elements. Therefore, there is a considerable demand for computational identification of transposable elements. LTR retrotransposons, an important subclass of transposable elements, are well suited for computational identification, as they contain long terminal repeats (LTRs).

Results

We have developed a software toolLTRharvestfor thede novodetection of full length LTR retrotransposons in large sequence sets.LTRharvestefficiently delivers high quality annotations based on known LTR transposon features like length, distance, and sequence motifs. A quality validation ofLTRharvestagainst a gold standard annotation forSaccharomyces cerevisaeandDrosophila melanogastershows a sensitivity of up to 90% and 97% and specificity of 100% and 72%, respectively. This is comparable or slightly better than annotations for previous software tools. The main advantage ofLTRharvestover previous tools is (a) its ability to efficiently handle large datasets from finished or unfinished genome projects, (b) its flexibility in incorporating known sequence features into the prediction, and (c) its availability as an open source software.

Conclusion

LTRharvestis an efficient software tool delivering high quality annotation of LTR retrotransposons. It can, for example, process the largest human chromosome in approx. 8 minutes on a Linux PC with 4 GB of memory. Its flexibility and small space and run-time requirements makesLTRharvesta very competitive candidate for future LTR retrotransposon annotation projects. Moreover, the structured design and implementation and the availability as open source provides an excellent base for incorporating novel concepts to further improve prediction of LTR retrotransposons.
A simplified approach to disulfide connectivity prediction from protein sequences
Authors: Vincent Marc , Passerini Andrea , Labbé Matthieu , Frasconi Paolo
Published: January 2008

Background

Prediction of disulfide bridges from protein sequences is useful for characterizing structural and functional properties of proteins. Several methods based on different machine learning algorithms have been applied to solve this problem and public domain prediction services exist. These methods are however still potentially subject to significant improvements both in terms of prediction accuracy and overall architectural complexity.

Results

We introduce new methods for predicting disulfide bridges from protein sequences. The methods take advantage of two new decomposition kernels for measuring the similarity between protein sequences according to the amino acid environments around cysteines. Disulfide connectivity is predicted in two passes. First, a binary classifier is trained to predict whether a given protein chain has at least one intra-chain disulfide bridge. Second, a multiclass classifier (plemented by 1-nearest neighbor) is trained to predict connectivity patterns. The two passes can be easily cascaded to obtain connectivity prediction from sequence alone. We report an extensive experimental comparison on several data sets that have been previously employed in the literature to assess the accuracy of cysteine bonding state and disulfide connectivity predictors.

Conclusion

We reach state-of-the-art results on bonding state prediction with a simple method that classifies chains rather than individual residues. The prediction accuracy reached by our connectivity prediction method compares favorably with respect to all but the most complex other approaches. On the other hand, our method does not need any model selection or hyperparameter tuning, a property that makes it less prone to overfitting and prediction accuracy overestimation.
Virulence factor rtx in Legionella pneumophila, evidence suggesting it is a modular multifunctional protein
Authors: D'Auria Giuseppe , Jiménez Núria , Peris-Bondia Francesc , Pelaz Carmen , Latorre Amparo , Moya Andrés
Published: January 2008

Background

The repeats in toxin (Rtx) are an important pathogenicity factor involved in host cells invasion of Legionella pneumophila and other pathogenic bacteria. Its role in escaping the host immune system and cytotoxic activity is well known. Its repeated motives and modularity make Rtx a multifunctional factor in pathogenicity.

Results

The comparative analysis of rtx gene among 6 strains of L. pneumophila showed modularity in their structures. Among compared genomes, the N-terminal region of the protein presents highly dissimilar repeats with functionally similar domains. On the contrary, the C-terminal region is maintained with a fashionable modular configuration, which gives support to its proposed role in adhesion and pore formation. Despite the variability of rtx among the considered strains, the flanking genes are maintained in synteny and similarity.

Conclusion

In contrast to the extracellular bacteria Vibrio cholerae, in which the rtx gene is highly conserved and flanking genes have lost synteny and similarity, the gene region coding for the Rtx toxin in the intracellular pathogen L. pneumophila shows a rapid evolution. Changes in the rtx could play a role in pathogenicity. The interplay of the Rtx toxin with host membranes might lead to the evolution of new variants that are able to escape host cell defences.
Genomic, genetic and structural analysis of pyoverdine-mediated iron acquisition in the plant growth-promoting bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25
Authors: Moon Christina D , Zhang Xue-Xian , Matthijs Sandra , Schäfer Mathias , Budzikiewicz Herbert , Rainey Paul B
Published: January 2008

Background

Pyoverdines (PVDs) are high affinity siderophores, for which the molecular mechanisms of biosynthesis, uptake and regulation have been extensively studied in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. However, the extent to which this regulatory model applies to other pseudomonads is unknown. Here, we describe the results of a genomic, genetic and structural analysis of pyoverdine-mediated iron uptake by the plant growth-promoting bacterium P. fluorescens SBW25.

Results

In silico analysis of the complete, but un-annotated, SBW25 genome sequence identified 31 genes putatively involved in PVD biosynthesis, transport or regulation, which are distributed across seven different regions of the genome. PVD gene iron-responsiveness was tested using 'lacZ fusions to five PVD loci, representative of structural and regulatory genes. Transcription of all fusions increased in response to iron starvation. In silico analyses suggested that regulation of fpvR (which is predicted to encode a cytoplasmic membrane-spanning anti-sigma factor) may be unique. Transcriptional assays using gene expression constructs showed that fpvR is positively regulated by FpvI (an extracytoplasmic family (ECF) sigma factor), and not directly by the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) as for PAO1. Deletion of pvdL, encoding a predicted non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) involved in PVD chromophore biosynthesis confirmed the necessity of PvdL for PVD production and for normal growth in iron-limited media. Structural analysis of the SBW25 PVD shows a partly cyclic seven residue peptide backbone, identical to that of P. fluorescens ATCC13525. At least 24 putative siderophore receptor genes are present in the SBW25 genome enabling the bacterium to utilize 19 structurally distinct PVDs from 25 different Pseudomonas isolates.

Conclusion

The genome of P. fluorescens SBW25 contains an extensively dispersed set of PVD genes in comparison to other sequenced Pseudomonas strains. The PAO1 PVD regulatory model, which involves a branched Fpv signaling pathway, is generally conserved in SBW25, however there is a significant difference in fpvR regulation. SBW25 produces PVD with a partly cyclic seven amino acid residue backbone, and is able to utilize a wide variety of exogenous PVDs.