bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterization of true‐branching cyanobacteria from geothermal sites and hot springs of Costa Rica
Authors: Finsinger Karin , Scholz Ingeborg , Serrano Aurelio , Morales Saylen , Uribe‐Lorio Lorena , Mora Marielos , Sittenfeld Ana , Weckesser Jürgen , Hess Wolfgang R.
Published: March 2008

Costa Rica is at the centre of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot. Little is known about cyanobacteria from this region so far. Here, four isolates of the order Stigonematales (section V) were characterized in a polyphasic approach. All strains were isolated from geothermal sites and hot springs of Costa Rica. However, one of them, identified as Westiellopsis sp. Ar73, did not grow at more than 40°C. Based on its identical 16S rRNA to several previously isolated Westiellopsis sp. and Fischerella muscicola strains, a ubiquitous distribution throughout tropical and subtropical regions can be implied. In contrast, the isolates MV9, MV11 and RV14 grew well up to 50–55°C. Based on morphologic, ultrastructural, molecular and physiologic data, MV9, MV11 and RV14 were identified to belong to the genus Fischerella. Two distinct intergenic transcribed spacer (ITS) types, with or without tRNA genes, were detected for all Stigonematales analysed here, indicating ITS polymorphism as a characteristic feature of heterocystous cyanobacteria. In phylogenetic trees, these Fischerella spp. formed a new and distinct clade within the wider lineage of thermophilic Fischerella (Mastigocladus cf. laminosus), which might represent a geographic lineage. Thus, geographic isolation may be an underestimated aspect of microbial evolution. The strains presented here are suitable as new models to study this group of cyanobacteria.
The role of the nitrate respiration element of Thermus thermophilus in the control and activity of the denitrification apparatus
Authors: Cava Felipe , Zafra Olga , Da Costa Milton S. , Berenguer José
Published: March 2008

The nitrate conjugative element (NCE) encodes the ability to respire nitrate in the facultative Thermus thermophilus NAR1 strain. This process is carried out by two heterotetrameric enzymes that catalyse the oxidation of NADH (Nrc) and the reduction of nitrate (Nar), whose expression is activated by the NCE‐encoded transcription factors DnrS and DnrT. We report the presence of NCE in other facultative strains of T. thermophilus and analyse its role in subsequent steps of the denitrification pathway. We encountered that nrc mutants of denitrifying strains show a decrease in anaerobic growth rates not only with nitrate, but also with nitrite, NO and N2O, which is concomitant to their lower NADH oxidation activities in vitro. We show that nitrate, nitrite and NO are activating signals for transcription of nrc in these strains. Finally, we demonstrate that DnrS and DnrT are required for anaerobic growth not only with nitrate, but also with nitrite, NO and N2O. These data allow us to conclude that: (i) Nrc constitutes the main electron donor for the four reductases of the denitrification pathway, and (ii) the NCE controls the expression of the whole denitrification pathway and the repression of the aerobic respiration through the transcription factors DnrS and DnrT.
Aurora kinase B is an independent protective factor in superficial bladder tumours with a dysfunctional G1 checkpoint
Authors: Bruyere Franck , Corcoran Niall M. , Berdjis Navid , Namdarian Benjamin , Pedersen John , Ockrim Jeremy , Voelzke Bryan B. , Costello Anthony J. , Hovens Christopher M.
Published: March 2008

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the clinical role of Aurora kinases (essential for regulating mitosis) in human bladder pathogenesis, by quantifying Aurora kinase A and B, phospho‐Aurora A, and phospho‐Rb and p53 in bladder tumours, analysing the correlations between expression and clinicopathological features.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We evaluated levels of Aurora A, B, phospho‐Aurora A, phospho‐Rb and p53 in 73 superficial bladder tumours using tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry, and correlated expression with pathological variables and clinical outcome.

RESULTS

None of the Aurora proteins, when analysed alone, significantly predicted either tumour recurrence or progression. In tumours with an aberrant G1 checkpoint, assessed by phospho‐Rb and p53 status, expression of neither Aurora A nor its phosphorylated form predicted either tumour recurrence or progression. Surprisingly, high expression of Aurora B in tumours with an aberrant G1 checkpoint significantly protected from tumour recurrence. On multivariate analysis, Aurora B was the only significant factor that predicted tumour recurrence in the presence of either phospho‐Rb or mutated p53. This difference was not evident in tumours with an intact G1 checkpoint.

CONCLUSIONS

High expression of Aurora B in superficial bladder tumours with an aberrant G1 checkpoint significantly protects patients from tumour recurrence. The potential application of nonspecific Aurora kinase inhibitors in non‐muscle‐invasive bladder cancer might be detrimental.
The development of personal models of diabetes in the first 2 years after diagnosis: a prospective longitudinal study
Authors: Lawson V. L. , Bundy C. , Harvey J. N.
Published: March 2008

Aims  Personal models of diabetes comprise beliefs about symptoms, treatment effectiveness, consequences and emotional responses to possible future complications. They are associated with, and influence, self‐care behaviour. Little work has examined potential influences on the development and maintenance of personal models. The aims of this study were: (i) to assess changes in personal models over 2 years from diagnosis of diabetes; and (ii) to examine the relative contributions of health threat communication (at diagnosis, since diagnosis, during follow‐up care) and personality to personal models of diabetes 2 years post‐diagnosis.

Methods  Newly diagnosed patients were interviewed at diagnosis (< 3 months; time 1) and 6 months (time 2), 1 year (time 3) and 2 years (time 4) after diagnosis. Data were available for 158 patients at time 1 (32 Type 1 patients and 126 Type 2 patients), 147 at time 2, 142 at time 3 and 138 at time 4.

Results  Perceptions of symptoms, consequences, course and control of diabetes remained stable over time. Emotional responses decreased and illness coherence (perceived understanding) increased over time. Health threat communication was a stronger predictor of personal models than personality. Emotional responses to diabetes 2 years after diagnosis were predicted by perceptions of a threatening health message (at diagnosis 18%, at follow‐up 5%). Health threat communication predicted perceptions of serious consequences (at diagnosis 5%, at follow‐up 9%). Perceptions of a reassuring message during follow‐up were related to beliefs of treatment effectiveness (26%).

Conclusions  The communication of information and the way it is perceived is an important determinant of the patient's view of their diabetes. The initial effects of the education process at diagnosis persisted 2 years after diagnosis.
Should liver function tests be included in definitions of metabolic syndrome? Evidence from the association between liver function tests, components of metabolic syndrome and prevalent cardiovascular disease
Authors: Devers M. C. , Campbell S. , Shaw J , Zimmet P. , Simmons D.
Published: March 2008

Aims  The definition of metabolic syndrome (MS) continues to be debated and does not include abnormal liver function tests (LFTs). This study aims to determine: (1) the association between the five ATP3 MS diagnostic components and different LFTs, and (2) the association between raised LFTs and prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods  A total of 1357 patients, without alcoholism or known liver disease, from randomly selected households from rural Victoria, Australia, attended for biomedical assessment. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) areas under the curve (AUC) were determined for associations between the ATP3 diagnostic components, and between LFTs and ATP3 diagnostic components.

Results  The range of ROC AUC for ATP3 diagnostic components was 0.60–0.77. Waist had the strongest association and blood pressure the weakest. The strength of association between ATP3 diagnostic components and gamma GT (GGT) was similar (0.63–0.72), but was less for alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase. Using the ROC‐derived GGT cut‐off (men 27 IU, women 20 IU), those with MS and a high GGT had more CVD than those with MS and a low GGT, and those without MS (18% vs. 10% vs. 7%, respectively; P < 0.001). Among those with MS, after adjusting for covariates, the odds ratio of CVD was 2.66 (1.18–5.96) for a high GGT compared to a low GGT. CVD was not significantly more prevalent in MS patients with a low GGT compared to non‐MS patients.

Conclusions  We suggest that including a raised GGT in the criteria for MS could increase its predictive nature for CVD. Prospective studies are needed to confirm this finding.
Varenicline may trigger severe hypoglycaemia in Type 1 diabetes
Authors: Kristensen P. L. , Pedersen‐Bjergaard U. , Thorsteinsson B.
Published: March 2008

Background  Varenicline is a new drug indicated for smoking cessation. It has primarily been investigated in healthy adults. The commonest side‐effects are nausea, headache, sleep disturbance, constipation, flatulence and vomiting. Hypoglycaemia has not been reported. As smoking cessation is important to reduce risk of cardiovascular morbidity, especially in diabetes, use of effective drugs indicated for smoking cessation is rational.

Case report  We report multiple episodes of severe hypoglycaemia after starting varenicline in a 53‐year‐old woman with Type 1 diabetes. Since onset of diabetes at age 25 years and until start of varenicline therapy, she had only experienced one episode of severe hypoglycaemia and hypoglycaemia awareness was not impaired. The severe hypoglycaemic episodes disappeared after withdrawal of varenicline.

Conclusions  We recommend cautious prescription of varenicline, intensified blood glucose monitoring and careful education of patients with diabetes treated with varenicline. Further investigation of the use of varenicline in patients with diabetes is warranted.
Generation of glyco‐engineered Nicotiana benthamiana for the production of monoclonal antibodies with a homogeneous human‐like N‐glycan structure
Authors: Strasser Richard , Stadlmann Johannes , Schähs Matthias , Stiegler Gabriela , Quendler Heribert , Mach Lukas , Glössl Josef , Weterings Koen , Pabst Martin , Steinkellner Herta
Published: March 2008

A common argument against using plants as a production system for therapeutic proteins is their inability to perform authentic human N‐glycosylation (i.e. the presence of β1,2‐xylosylation and core α1,3‐fucosylation). In this study, RNA interference (RNAi) technology was used to obtain a targeted down‐regulation of the endogenous β1,2‐xylosyltransferase (XylT) and α1,3‐fucosyltransferase (FucT) genes in Nicotiana benthamiana, a tobacco‐related plant species widely used for recombinant protein expression. Three glyco‐engineered lines with significantly reduced xylosylated and/or core α1,3‐fucosylated glycan structures were generated. The human anti HIV monoclonal antibody 2G12 was transiently expressed in these glycosylation mutants as well as in wild‐type plants. Four glycoforms of 2G12 differing in the presence/absence of xylose and core α1,3‐fucose residues in their N‐glycans were produced. Notably, 2G12 produced in XylT/FucT‐RNAi plants was found to contain an almost homogeneous N‐glycan species without detectable xylose and α1,3‐fucose residues. Plant‐derived glycoforms were indistinguishable from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)‐derived 2G12 with respect to electrophoretic properties, and exhibited functional properties (i.e. antigen binding and HIV neutralization activity) at least equivalent to those of the CHO counterpart. The generated RNAi lines were stable, viable and did not show any obvious phenotype, thus providing a robust tool for the production of therapeutically relevant glycoproteins in plants with a humanized N‐glycan structure.
Hukou and Graduates’ Job Search in China*
Authors: Wang Wen , Moffatt Peter G.
Published: March 2008

This paper presents evidence that graduates from rural areas, classified as non‐urban Hukou, choose to invest in higher levels of job‐search effort (as measured by number of different search methods used and the number of employers contacted) and also set a lower reservation wage, reflected in acceptance of a lower starting salary, than do comparable graduates of urban Hukou, in China. The former also appear to have higher probabilities of being employed, in terms of both their higher probabilities of receiving offers and, more importantly, their higher probabilities of acceptance. The evidence thus suggests that graduates with non‐urban Hukou face more intense pressure to gain employment in the period leading up to graduation, than do their urban counterparts. More generally, the evidence suggests that effort invested in job search is rewarded in the graduate labor market in China.
Food Processing Business and Agriculture Cooperatives in Japan: Market Power and Asymmetric Information*
Authors: Mikami Kazuhiko , Tanaka Satoru
Published: March 2008

Food processing businesses run by agriculture cooperatives (in this paper referred to as food processing cooperatives) are basically firms that are owned by the suppliers of raw materials. Typically, in this type of firm, corporate decision‐making is the responsibility of member farmers through the one member one–vote rule, and the surplus of the business is divided among them according to the amount of raw agricultural products they have supplied to the firm. This is in contrast to a conventional capitalistic firm, in which corporate decision‐making is ultimately made by the stockholders through the one share–one vote rule, and the profit is divided among them according to the amount of financial capital they have supplied to the firm. Based upon statistical data and case studies, the present paper considers some economic factors that might influence the establishment of food processing cooperatives.
Cross‐constituency Organizing in Canadian Unions
Authors: Briskin Linda
Published: March 2008

This article explores cross‐constituency organizing inside three Canadian unions that involves dual, parallel and integrated structures. It assesses these approaches with reference to the conceptual frame of intersectional political practice. In particular, this study highlights the institutionalization of intersectionality through constitutional, organizational and representational intersectionality. The paradigm of autonomy and integration is used to identify effective mechanisms for cross‐constituency vehicles. Cross‐constituency organizing is a form of coalition‐building inside unions It is a vehicle for building solidarities across identities and advancing equity organizing in Canadian unions that supports, at one and the same time, union revitalization and the union equity project.
Tropical Hong Kong: Narratives of absence and presence in Hollywood and Hong Kong films of the 1950s and 1960s
Authors: Gan Wendy
Published: March 2008

Despite being subtropical, Hong Kong, in both Hollywood and Hong Kong films of the 1950s and 1960s, is often filmically represented as tropical. This subtle climatic elision, I argue, holds a particular political valence that varies according to filmic tradition. In Hollywood narratives, Hong Kong's tropicality is a means to exoticize and, ultimately, marginalize the realities of the local. It is a way to turn Hong Kong's physical presence into an absence. In Hong Kong films in that same cold war environment, the relative blandness of the city is an attempt to realign its film industry with the free nations of Southeast Asia. For Hong Kong films, the strategy of tropicalization was thus a means to turn away from China and redefine Hong Kong as part of a network of capitalist, modern, overseas Chinese cities located in the sunny tropics of Southeast Asia.
ON THE CONSISTENCY OF THE LUCAS PRICING FORMULA
Authors: Aase Knut K.
Published: March 2008

In order to find the real market value of an asset in an exchange economy, one would typically apply the Lucas formula, developed in a discrete time framework. This theory has also been extended to continuous time models, in which case the same pricing formula has been universally applied.

While the discrete time theory is rather transparent, there has been some confusion regarding the continuous time analogue. In particular, the continuous time pricing formula must contain a certain type of a square covariance term that does not readily follow from the discrete time formulation. As a result, this term has sometimes been missing in situations where it should have been included.

In this paper, we reformulate the discrete time theory in such a way that this covariance term does not come as a mystery in the continuous time version.

In most real life situations dividends are paid out in lump sums, not in rates. This leads to a discontinuous model, and adding a continuous time framework, it appears that our framework is a most natural one in finance.

Finally, the Gordon growth formula is extended from its deterministic origin, to the present model of uncertainty, and it is indicated how this can be used to to possibly shed some light on the volatility puzzle.
OPTIMAL PORTFOLIOS WITH LOWER PARTIAL MOMENT CONSTRAINTS AND LPM‐RISK‐OPTIMAL MARTINGALE MEASURES
Authors: Leitner Johannes
Published: March 2008

We optimize the ratio over an (arbitrage‐free) linear sub‐space of attainable returns in an incomplete market model. If a solution exists for 1 < r < ∞, then the 1st order optimality condition allows to construct an equivalent martingale measure for , which is shown to be the solution of an appropriate dual minimization problem over the set of all equivalent martingale measures for . The dual minimization problem admits a solution iff there exists an equivalent martingale measure for and its optimal value equals the lowest upper bound of all α‐ratios over . This new type of non‐concave duality also provides an indifference pricing method. The duality result can be extended to the case and leads to a new no (approximate) arbitrage condition: “no great expectations with vanishing risk.”
Changing composition of human capital  The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland1
Authors: Jeong Byeongju , Kejak Michal , Vinogradov Viatcheslav
Published: March 2008

We show that business education/occupations have expanded and that technical education/occupations have contracted in the Czech Republic and Poland since 1990. We interpret these changes as an adjustment necessary for their transition to a market economy. We do not find the same pattern in Hungary, which we attribute to the earlier timing of its transition. We construct an aggregate model in which labour reallocates in response to changing demand structure. When calibrated with the Czech and Polish data, the model generates a large movement of workers with technical education and experience into business occupations in the early 1990s. The discounted sum of output loss due to the gap between the demand structure and the composition of existing human capital amounts to between 8 and 40 percent of 1990 GDP.
The impact of China's millennium labour restructuring program on firm performance and employee earnings1
Authors: Dong Xiao‐Yuan , Xu Lixin Colin
Published: March 2008

Around the turn of the century, China experienced perhaps the largest labour restructuring program in the world. This paper uses a new dataset of Chinese industrial enterprises to examine what leads to downsizing, and tries to understand the effects of labour downsizing on firms’ technical efficiency, financial performance and employee wages. We find that downsizing is more prevalent in state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), and is more likely when enterprises are older, larger and have higher excess capacity. For both SOEs and private firms, downsizing is more likely when the prices of their products drop, but private firms respond more dramatically. Moreover, downsizing has serious short‐term costs in terms of total factor productivity (TFP). For mild downsizing, private firms suffer more deterioration in productivity. The distribution of surplus after downsizing is more favourable to labour in SOEs. For severe downsizing, both SOEs and private firms exhibit lower TFP growth with similar magnitudes. Our findings imply that private firms emphasize profit goals, while SOEs place a greater weight on labour protection.
DRESDEN (2006), TEAMWORX AND TITANIC (1997): GERMAN WARTIME SUFFERING AS HOLLYWOOD DISASTER MOVIE
Authors: Cooke Paul
Published: March 2008

This article examines the extraordinary success of Roland Suso Richter's recent television mini‐series Dresden (2006), one of a number of major television projects produced by Nico Hofmann's TeamWorx company, with the support of the television mogul Jan Mojto. It explores the way this and other productions have exploited both the recent upsurge of cultural interest in German ‘wartime suffering’ and the rediscovery of the disaster movie as a genre by Hollywood. Of particular interest to the discussion is the fact that Dresden avoided much of the controversy that often accompanies the representation of German wartime suffering. Yet while the film's presentation of the bombing of the city was largely accepted by critics, its use of certain genre conventions proved more troubling. Specifically, the manner in which Dresden employs James Cameron's 1997 epic disaster film Titanic as an intertext is examined, along with a number of films by Steven Spielberg, whose production company, DreamWorks, TeamWorx clearly sees as a role model. The controversy the film did generate, it is suggested, is due to the problematic ideological connotations the film's intertexts bring with them, a cultural context that tests the limits of contemporary German ‘normalisation’.
Uneven Development, Inter‐scalar Tensions, and the Politics of Decentralization in South Korea
Authors: PARK BAE‐GYOON
Published: March 2008

In this article, I examine how the spatiality of the state and its associated territorial politics can have an impact on the spatial and scalar restructuring of the state. Building on recent theoretical developments on state space, this article examines how territorial politics can be organized under the particular spatiality of the state, and how that particular form of territorial politics can have an impact on the future restructuring of state spatiality. In particular, by focusing on the spatial processes of state restructuring in South Korea, I will attempt to conceptualize the ways in which the spatiality of top‐down regulatory processes led by the state can generate inter‐scalar tensions between the national and the local; this, in turn, results in the downward rescaling of the state. More specifically, the empirical focus is on how the processes of decentralization in South Korea have been shaped by the influences of various kinds of territorial politics (for example, inter‐scalar tensions between the national and the local, territorialized party politics, etc.) that occur within the context of uneven regional development stemming from the spatial selectivity of state regulation.

Cet article examine comment la dimension spatiale de l'Etat et les politiques territoriales afférentes peuvent affecter la restructuration de l'Etat en termes d'espace et d'échelle. A partir de théories récentes sur l'espace de l'Etat, est examinée la manière dont les politiques territoriales peuvent être organisées compte tenu de la spatialité spécifique de l'Etat,et dont cette forme spécifique de politique territoriale peut agir sur la restructuration future de la spatialité de l'Etat. En s'intéressant aux processus spatiaux de restructuration de l'État en Corée du Sud, ce travail tente de concevoir comment la dimension spatiale des processus réglementaires verticaux menés par l'Etat peut générer des tensions entre les échelons national et local, ce qui entraîne une réduction d'échelle de l'Etat. Plus précisément, l'intérêt empirique porte sur la façon dont les processus de décentralisation sud‐coréens ont subi l'influence de diverses sortes de politiques territoriales (comme les tensions entre échelons national et local, les politiques de parti territorialisées, etc.) existant dans le cadre d'un développement régional inégal issu de la sélectivité spatiale de la réglementation étatique.
Building a Vision for the Post‐Apartheid City: What Role for Participation in Johannesburg's City Development Strategy?
Authors: LIPIETZ BARBARA
Published: March 2008

In line with a broader ‘participatory turn’, the collective elaboration of city development strategies (CDSs) has become a leitmotiv in urban development planning, promising to deliver on both democracy‐deepening and pro‐poor concerns. Yet, this promise reposes on somewhat shaky grounds: much depends on the broader political opportunity structures within which CDSs are attempted. Using Johannesburg's recent experiment with city‐wide strategic planning as a case study, this article explores the complex interplay between participatory processes and the broader political machinery of governance. In the messy terrain of late 1990s transition politics, Johannesburg's CDS can be read rather more as an instrument of the ruling ANC party's consolidation of power over the city, than as a ‘genuine’ attempt at collective strategic planning. However, this usurpation of participatory ideals did not entail the demise of equitable or even pro‐poor concerns: more formal processes of participation, such as electoral representation and bureaucratic power, ensured the continued meshing of developmental concerns alongside growth imperatives at the heart of the CDS. The ambiguous relationship between newly entrenched routine participatory processes and the most recent — and arguably more equitable — review of the CDS, meanwhile, raises further questions about the actual function of participatory processes in urban governance.

Parallèlement à un ‘virage participatif’ plus large, l'élaboration collective de stratégies de développement urbain (CDS) est devenue une figure imposée de la planification du développement urbain, tenue d'agir en faveur du renforcement démocratique et des pauvres. Pourtant, cette promesse repose sur des bases plutôt instables : en effet, beaucoup dépend des structures d'opportunités politiques dans lesquelles sont lancés les projets CDS. En prenant comme étude de cas l'expérience récente de Johannesburg en matière de planification stratégique urbaine, l'article explore l'interaction complexe entre les processus participatifs et la machinerie politique générale de la gouvernance. Sur le terrain embrouillé des politiques de transition de la fin des années 1990, les CDS se sont révélés être davantage un instrument de consolidation de l'emprise de l'ANC (parti au pouvoir) sur la ville, qu'une ‘véritable’ tentative de planification stratégique collective. Toutefois, cette usurpation des idéaux participatifs n'a pas mis fin aux intérêts pour l'équité ou en faveur des pauvres : des processus de participation plus formels (comme la représentation électorale ou la bureaucratie) ont garanti un tissage permanent des questions de développement aux côtés des impératifs de croissance, au centre des CDS. Pendant ce temps, la relation ambiguë entre les processus participatifs courants établis depuis peu, et le bilan le plus récent — voir plus équitable — des CDS, soulève des questions supplémentaires sur la fonction effective des processus participatifs dans la gouvernance urbaine.
Comment on ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research’
Authors: FREEMAN LANCE
Published: March 2008

'The eviction of critical perspectives from gentrification research’ offers the premise that scholars are becoming less critical of gentrification and that this trend is detrimental to those most vulnerable to gentrification. This argument falls short on a number of grounds. First, the article does not persuasively show that the scholarly literature on gentrification has indeed become less critical. More significantly, Slater does not consider perhaps the most important reason that gentrification can be accurately described in both critical and less than critical terms — gentrification's impacts are multifaceted, affecting different people differently and even the same individuals in different ways. Finally, those most threatened by gentrification are likely to need a combination of resistance and persuasion to blunt the ill effects of gentrification. Slater's call for more critical approaches may inspire some to resist, but will do little to persuade the larger society to take their concerns seriously. Given that those most threatened by gentrification are among the least powerful, their cause will most benefit from a combination of literature that inspires resistance as well as literature that persuades others that gentrification is truly a predicament. Therefore, literature that not merely criticizes gentrification but offers a rationale for blunting its detrimental effects is needed as well.

L'article intitulé The eviction of critical perspectives from gentrification research pose en principe que les chercheurs se font moins critiques sur la ‘gentrification’ et que cette tendance porte préjudice aux plus vulnérables face à ce phénomène. Cet argument ne tient pas pour plusieurs raisons. D'abord, il n'est pas montré de manière probante que la littérature académique sur la ‘gentrification’ soit vraiment devenue moins critique. De façon plus marquante, Slater n'étudie pas la raison, peut‐être la plus importante, pour laquelle la ‘gentrification’ peut être décrit avec exactitude en termes à la fois critiques et moins critiques : en effet, ses impacts revêtent plusieurs aspects, affectant différemment les populations différentes, voire les mêmes populations. Enfin, les plus menacés par la ‘gentrification’ ont sans doute besoin d'un mélange de résistance et de persuasion pour atténuer les effets négatifs du processus. L'appel de Slater à des approches plus critiques peut susciter la résistance chez certains, mais va difficilement convaincre la société de traiter sérieusement le problème. Etant donné que les plus menacés font partie des moins puissants, leur cause bénéficiera surtout d'une combinaison de publications inspirant la résistance et de textes capables de convaincre de toute la complexité de la situation liée à la ‘gentrification’. En conséquence, une littérature qui ne se contente pas de critiquer la ‘gentrification’, mais qui propose un raisonnement pour en atténuer les effets néfastes, a tout autant d'utilité.
The first cosmetic treatise of history. A female point of view
Authors: Cavallo P. , Proto M. C. , Patruno C. , Sorbo A. Del , Bifulco M.
Published: March 2008

Synopsis

The Schola Medica Salernitana was an early medieval medical school in the south Italian city of Salerno and the most important native source of medical knowledge in Europe at the time. The school achieved its splendour between the 10th and 13th centuries, during the final decades of Longobard kingdom. In the school, women were involved as both teachers and students for medical learning. Among these women, there was Trotula de Ruggiero (11th century), a teacher whose main interest was to alleviate suffering of women. She was the author of many medical works, the most notable being De Passionibus Mulierum Curandarum (about women’s diseases), also known as Trotula Major. Another important work she wrote was De Ornatu Mulierum (about women’s cosmetics), also known as Trotula Minor, in which she teaches women to conserve and improve their beauty and treat skin diseases through a series of precepts, advices and natural remedies. She gives lessons about make‐up, suggests the way to be unwrinkled, remove puffiness from face and eyes, remove unwanted hair from the body, lighten the skin, hide blemishes and freckles, wash teeth and take away bad breath, dying hair, wax, treat lips and gums chaps.
Intrinsic and extrinsic factors in skin ageing: a review
Authors: Farage M. A. , Miller K. W. , Elsner P. , Maibach H. I.
Published: March 2008

Synopsis

As the proportion of the ageing population in industrialized countries continues to increase, the dermatological concerns of the aged grow in medical importance. Intrinsic structural changes occur as a natural consequence of ageing and are genetically determined. The rate of ageing is significantly different among different populations, as well as among different anatomical sites even within a single individual. The intrinsic rate of skin ageing in any individual can also be dramatically influenced by personal and environmental factors, particularly the amount of exposure to ultraviolet light. Photodamage, which considerably accelerates the visible ageing of skin, also greatly increases the risk of cutaneous neoplasms. As the population ages, dermatological focus must shift from ameliorating the cosmetic consequences of skin ageing to decreasing the genuine morbidity associated with problems of the ageing skin. A better understanding of both the intrinsic and extrinsic influences on the ageing of the skin, as well as distinguishing the retractable aspects of cutaneous ageing (primarily hormonal and lifestyle influences) from the irretractable (primarily intrinsic ageing), is crucial to this endeavour.
Fluid Ethnicity and Ethnic Transcendence in Multiracial Churches
Authors: MARTI GERARDO
Published: March 2008

Assumptions of racial essentialism lead to inadequate analysis of multiracial churches. Instead, acknowledging ethnic identity as a negotiated phenomenon encourages a richer investigation of how congregational participation stimulates and redefines a person's racial and ethnic identity. The malleability of ethnic identity is such that it is often obscured in favor of other aspects of self. Ethnographic analysis of two multiracial churches, Mosaic and Oasis, indicates that particularistic ethnic affiliations recede when otherworldly, value‐rational interests are emphasized. Ethnic transcendence occurs when members adopt a shared identity based on a uniquely congregational understanding of what it means to be a properly religious person (a proper “Christian,”“Jew,”“Muslim,”“Buddhist,” etc.). In short, the distinctive accomplishment of multiracial congregations is the cultivation of an inclusive religious identity that overrides divisive aspects of ethnic identity. Moreover, recognizing the varying salience of racial and ethnic identity evokes greater caution regarding what can be assumed when researchers apply the label “multiracial” to congregations.
Racially Diverse Congregations: Organizational Identity and the Accommodation of Differences
Authors: DOUGHERTY KEVIN D. , HUYSER KIMBERLY R.
Published: March 2008

Racial integration in religious congregations is a topic of keen interest to researchers and religious leaders. Although not common, there are congregations that successfully reach across cultural lines to attract adherents. Prior studies tend to dichotomize congregations into categories of multiracial and nonmultiracial and, thereby, miss a wider range of racial variation. Using nationally representative congregational data, this article paints a more representative picture of racial diversity in U.S. congregations and puts forward a theory of congregational identity to account for why some congregations succeed at accommodating multiple racial groups in a society where religious life remains overwhelmingly segregated. The analysis capitalizes on a numeric scale of diversity, which measures the evenness of racial group representation in a congregation. While the external environment creates opportunity for racial diversification in congregations, findings demonstrate racially diverse leadership, charismatic worship, and small groups as internal congregational features also relevant to diversity.
Predicting Reaction to a Message of Ministry: An Audience Analysis
Authors: WRIGHT PAUL JOHN
Published: March 2008

This study investigated whether audience characteristics identified as important in the conversion and religious recruitment literature could predict reaction to a Christianity‐themed recruitment message. More specific goals involved (a) comparing the impact of potential recruits' dispositional attributes and personal motivations versus their situational availability on the persuasive effect of religious recruitment messages; and (b) rank ordering the audience characteristics examined based on their predictive power. Results indicated that dispositional and motivational considerations were more reliable predictors of receivers' responses to the recruitment message than were situational factors. Specifically, five of the six dispositional and motivational variables (i.e., loneliness, perceived childhood attachment history, meaning and purpose, other‐orientation, and problem‐solving perspective) were—at least under certain conditions—related to participants' interest in the church. The two variables representing situational availability, free time and membership status, however, were either unrelated to interest in the church or related to participants' reactions, but in the opposite direction of what was expected.
Functions of Christian Prayer in the Coping Process
Authors: BADE MARY K. , COOK STEPHEN W.
Published: March 2008

This research project sought to examine the multiple functions that prayer serves in the coping process for members of Christian groups. We used concept mapping to describe and organize a small group of participants' perceptions concerning the functions of prayer when coping with personal difficulties, as well as examined the frequency and perceived effectiveness of these prayer functions. The number and variety of items generated by participants indicates that prayer can be used in multiple ways to deal with personal problems. Inspection of these items and the resulting concept map yielded three bipolar dimensions that describe a variety of prayer functions: approach/avoidance; internal focus/external focus; and deferring/self‐directing. The arrangement of items also corresponded roughly to a three‐factor structure found in several existing coping measures. Participants reported that the most effective prayer functions involve seeking guidance and expressing gratitude.
An Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity of the Religious Social Support Scale
Authors: WILLOUGHBY MICHAEL T. , CADIGAN R. JEAN , BURCHINAL MARGARET , SKINNER DEBRA
Published: March 2008

This study evaluates the psychometric properties and criterion validity of the Religious Social Support (RSS) Scale in a diverse, representative community sample of new mothers (N= 1,156). Results indicated that two factors best represented the RSS. Criterion validity was established by demonstrating that the RSS was associated with relational and health outcomes. However, these associations were reduced to statistical insignificance once a general measure of social support was included as a covariate. There were no indications that race moderated either the psychometric properties of the RSS or the relationships between social support and outcomes. Qualitative analyses indicated that religious social support is a salient construct in the lives of women that we studied and suggested ways to improve future developments of RSS scales.
Cognitive control after distraction: Event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) dissociate between different processes of attentional allocation
Authors: Berti Stefan
Published: March 2008

Attentional reallocation after a distracting event is an important function of cognitive control. This process is tapped by the reorienting negativity (RON) event‐related brain potential. It was argued that the RON reflects orientation of attention to relevant information in working memory. To test this hypothesis participants performed an auditory duration discrimination task. The stimuli were presented in a frequent standard or a rare deviant pitch with deviants resulting in behavioral distraction. Participants accomplished this task under two conditions: In the refocus condition participants were asked to respond to every stimulus; in the reorient condition participants were instructed to ignore deviant stimuli and omit a reaction. The results suggest that different functions of attentional allocation are reflected by two RON subcomponents: the fast orientation of the focus of attention in working memory and a subsequent poststimulus evaluation process.
D2 dopamine receptor expression and trafficking is regulated through direct interactions with ZIP
Authors: Kim Ok‐Jin , Ariano Marjorie A. , Namkung Yoon , Marinec Paul , Kim Eunmi , Han Jian , Sibley David R.
Published: March 2008

We have used the yeast two‐hybrid system to identify protein kinase C‐ζ interacting protein (ZIP) as a novel interacting protein for the D2 dopamine receptor (DAR). This interaction was identified by screening a rat brain cDNA library using the third intracellular loop of the D2 DAR as bait. A partial‐length cDNA encoding ZIP was isolated and characterized as specifically interacting with the third intracellular loop of the D2 DAR, but not with the third intracellular loops of other DAR subtypes. Biochemical confirmation of the ZIP–D2 DAR interaction was obtained by expressing the full‐length ZIP and D2 DAR proteins in mammalian cells and demonstrating that they could be co‐immunoprecipitated. We further showed that ZIP and the D2 DAR could be co‐immunoprecipitated from endogenous brain tissues. Immunohistochemical analyses further revealed that ZIP and the D2 DAR were extensively co‐localized within numerous neurons in various brain regions. ZIP exists as three protein isoforms of varying length, which are derived from alternative RNA splicing. All three isoforms were found to interact with the D2 DAR, which allowed for the delineation of the receptor interacting domain to within 38 residues of ZIP. Functionally, over‐expression of ZIP was found to result in decreased expression of the D2 DAR with a corresponding decrease in receptor modulation of cAMP accumulation. Confocal microscopy revealed that ZIP over‐expression also lead to an intracellular accumulation of D2 DAR protein in lysosome compartments. These results suggest that ZIP can physically interact with the D2 DAR leading to increased intracellular trafficking to lysosomes with subsequent down‐regulation of receptor expression and function.
Implication of mast cell degranulation in ischemic preconditioning‐induced prevention of cerebral injury
Authors: Rehni Ashish K , Bhateja Pradeep , Singh Nirmal , Jaggi Amteshwar S.
Published: March 2008

The present study has been designed to pharmacologically investigate the role of mast cell degranulation in ischemic preconditioning‐induced reversal of global ischemia‐ and reperfusion‐induced cerebral injury in mice. Bilateral carotid artery occlusion of 17 min followed by reperfusion for 24 h was employed in present study to produce ischemia‐ and reperfusion‐induced cerebral injury in mice. Cerebral infarct size was measured using triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. Memory was evaluated using Morris water‐maze test. Rota‐rod test was employed to assess motor incoordination. Bilateral carotid artery occlusion followed by reperfusion produced cerebral infarction and impaired memory and motor coordination. Three preceding episodes of bilateral carotid artery occlusion for 1 min and reperfusion of 1 min (ischemic preconditioning) prevented markedly ischemia–reperfusion‐induced cerebral injury measured in terms of infarct size, loss of memory and motor coordination. Sodium cromoglycate (10 mg/kg, i.p.), a mast cell stabilizer attenuated the neuroprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning. It is concluded that neuroprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning may be due to the degranulation of mast cells.
Gender differences in early accommodation and vergence development
Authors: Horwood Anna M. , Riddell Patricia M.
Published: March 2008

A remote haploscopic photorefractor was used to assess objective binocular vergence and accommodation responses in 157 full‐term healthy infants aged 1–6 months while fixating a brightly coloured target moving between fixation distances at 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.33 m. Vergence and accommodation response gain matured rapidly from ‘flat’ neonatal responses at an intercept of approximately 2 dioptres (D) for accommodation and 2.5 metre angles(MA) for vergence, reaching adult‐like values at 4 months. Vergence gain was marginally higher in females (p = 0.064), but accommodation gain (p = 0.034) was higher and accommodative intercept closer to zero (p = 0.004) in males in the first 3 months as they relaxed accommodation more appropriately for distant targets. More females showed flat accommodation responses (p = 0.029). More males behaved hypermetropically in the first two months of life, but when these hypermetropic infants were excluded from the analysis, the gender difference remained. Gender differences disappeared after three months. Data showed variable responses and infants could behave appropriately and simultaneously on both, neither or only one measure at all ages. If accommodation was appropriate (gain between 0.7 and 1.3; r2 > 0.7) but vergence was not, males over‐ and under‐converged equally, while the females who accommodated appropriately were more likely to overconverge (p = 0.008). The apparent earlier maturity of the male accommodative responses may be due to refractive error differences but could also reflect gender‐specific male preference for blur cues while females show earlier preference for disparity, which may underpin the earlier emerging, disparity dependent, stereopsis and full vergence found in females in other studies.
Nearwork‐induced transient myopia (NITM) and permanent myopia – is there a link?
Authors: Ciuffreda Kenneth J. , Vasudevan Balamurali
Published: March 2008

Myopia is a worldwide public health problem. However, its understanding is incomplete, and many of its preventative and therapeutic aspects remain controversial. Nearwork is a primary, environmentally based factor in the aetiology of permanent myopia (PM), with nearwork‐induced transient myopia (NITM) being a possible contributory component. A relationship between PM and NITM has been suggested, but that connection has remained somewhat indirect and elusive. However, based on recent converging evidence from clinical, laboratory and modelling studies, a five‐fold argument will be advanced for a possible link between PM and NITM.
The Cyclical Dynamics and Volatility of Australian Output and Employment*
Authors: SHEPHERD DAVID , DIXON ROBERT
Published: March 2008

In this paper, we examine the volatility of aggregate output and employment in Australia with the aid of a frequency filtering method. This analysis is compared with more traditional methods based on the examination of first differences in the logs of the raw data. We show that the application of univariate AR and bivariate VECM methods to the data results in a detrended series which is dominated by noise and gives break points which are not robust to alternative decomposition methods. When we apply a frequency filtered procedure we find that the detrended series is dominated by cyclical rather than noise variation. We find evidence of a sustained reduction in the cyclical volatility of both the gross domestic product and employment series in 1993–1994, not in 1984. We also find that there is a clear association between output volatility and employment volatility.