bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lessons from the modular organization of the transcriptional regulatory network of Bacillus subtilis
Authors: Freyre-González Julio A , Manjarrez-Casas Alejandra M , Merino Enrique , Martinez-Nuñez Mario , Perez-Rueda Ernesto , Gutiérrez-Ríos Rosa-María
Published: November 2013

Background

The regulation of gene expression at the transcriptional level is a fundamental process in prokaryotes. Among the different kind of mechanisms modulating gene transcription, the one based on DNA binding transcription factors, is the most extensively studied and the results, for a great number of model organisms, have been compiled making it possible the in silico construction of their corresponding transcriptional regulatory networks and the analysis of the biological relationships of the components of these intricate networks, that allows to elucidate the significant aspects of their organization and evolution.

Results

We present a thorough review of each regulatory element that constitutes the transcriptional regulatory network of Bacillus subtilis. For facilitating the discussion, we organized the network in topological modules. Our study highlight the importance of σ factors, some of them acting as master regulators which characterize modules by inter- or intra-connecting them and play a key role in the cascades that define relevant cellular processes in this organism. We discussed that some particular functions were distributed in more than one module and that some modules contained more than one related function. We confirm that the presence of paralogous proteins confers advantages to B. subtilis to adapt and select strategies to successfully face the extreme and changing environmental conditions in which it lives.

Conclusions

The intricate organization is the product of a non-random network evolution that primarily follows a hierarchical organization based on the presence of transcription and σ factor, which is reflected in the connections that exist within and between modules.
Sailing in the Shadow of the Vietnam War: The GDR Government and the "Vietnam Bonus" of the Early 1970s
Authors: Horten Gerd
Published: November 2013

In concert with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries, the East German government vigorously opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s and supported North Vietnam politically and economically. Concurrently, it sponsored ongoing solidarity campaigns in support of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) against the US-led coalition. As the American war effort deteriorated, the East German government reaped a significant boost both internationally and domestically as a result of these campaigns. This "Vietnam Bonus" helped to enhance the international stature of the GDR and increased the domestic stability of the SED government in the early 1970s.
Beyond Repetition: Karl Kraus's "Absolute Satire"
Authors: Linden Ari
Published: November 2013

This article reassesses the theoretical import of the Viennese satirist Karl Kraus, arguing that his satire challenges conventional understandings of the genre. Most notably in The Last Days of Mankind ( Die letzten Tage der Menschheit ), Kraus's satire delegitimizes any given historical or political position, addressing, rather, what he calls "posterity" as the only viable alternative. This moment lies beyond the repetitive structures inherent to modernity, specifically as they were articulated in the First World War. Kraus's "absolute satire" (Hermann Broch) thus contains a temporal dimension insofar as its intended audience is one that does not yet exist.
Importance of Vitamin D and Vitamin D levels Status in Puerto Ricans
Authors: Suárez-Martínez Edu B. , Pérez Cynthia M. , Cruz Sofia K. , Khorsandi Shayan , Chardón Camile , Ferder Leon
Published: November 2013

There is growing and compelling evidence demonstrating the extra-skeletal role of vitamin D and the importance of maintaining adequate levels of this nutrient. Currently, there is very limited information available on the vitamin D status in children and adults in underserved groups, including Puerto Ricans. We assessed the vitamin D status of 4,090 Puerto Ricans living in six geographical regions in the island. Only 31.5% of the studied population had sufficient vitamin D levels (>30 ng/ml). The 18–39 year age group and the females showed inadequate (<30 ng/ml) levels of vitamin D (76.9% and 69.8%, respectively). Participants aged 60 or older showed the highest mean values of serum 25(OH)D (28.8 ng/ml) and the highest percentage (37.1%) of sufficient levels (>30 ng/ml). Future studies are certainly warranted to understand the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and influencing factors (including obesity) in Puerto Ricans.
Fractionated Ocimum gratissimum Leaf Extract Inhibit Prostate Cancer (PC3·AR) Cells Growth by Reducing Androgen Receptor and Survivin Levels
Authors: Ekunwe Stephen I.N. , Hall Sakeli M. , Luo Xuan , Wang Hengshan , Begonia Gregorio B.
Published: November 2013

In this study, the antiproliferative activity of the organic solvent-soluble and aqueous extracts of Ocimum gratissimum leaf against the prostate cancer cells PC3·AR were evaluated by their inhibitory effects on the Androgen Receptor (AR) and Survivin protein. Two organic solvent-soluble extracts P 2 and P3–2, and a water- soluble extract, PS/PT1, were found to reduce AR and Survivin levels in a time-dependent manner. In addition, extract PS/PT1, also exhibited the inhibitory activity in a dose-dependent manner. This is the first time that the inhibitory eff ects of  O. gratissimum extracts have been evaluated on the Androgen Receptor (AR) and Survivin protein. The results encouraged the further studies of  O. gratissimum as a potential treatment of prostate cancer.
Apolipoprotein E4 Prevents Growth of Malaria at the Intraerythrocyte Stage: Implications For Diff erences in Racial Susceptibility to Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Fujioka Hisashi , Phelix Clyde F. , Friedland Robert P. , Zhu Xiongwei , Perry Elizabeth A. , Castellani Rudy J. , Perry George
Published: November 2013

ApolipoproteinE 4 (ApoE 4) has been linked to pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and has been suggested to be maintained through evolutionary pressure via a protective role in malaria infection. We evaluated Plasmodium falciparum viability at the intraerythrocyte stage by exposure to plasma from human subjects with ApoE 4/4 or ApoE 3/3. Plasma samples from ApoE 4/4 but not ApoE 3/3 donors inhibited growth and disrupted morphology of P. falciparum . Evolutionary history is characterized by war between pathogenic microorganisms and defense mechanisms countering their pathogenicities. ApoE 4 frequency is highest in sub-Saharan Africa and other isolated populations (e.g., Papua New Guinea) that exhibit endemic malaria. High ApoE frequency may offer selective advantage protecting against some infectious diseases (e.g., Plasmodium falciparum ). These results implicate evolutionary pressure by malaria selecting humans with ApoE 4/4, even considering lower survival in late life. These selective advantages may be relevant in the exploration of possible disparities between Black and Whites in the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Reproductive Health Assessment After Disasters: Embedding a Toolkit within the Disaster Management Workforce to Address Health Inequalities among Gulf-Coast Women
Authors: Arosemena Farah A. , Fox Laila , Lichtveld Maureen Y.
Published: November 2013

Gulf Coast women are especially vulnerable to the effects of disaster and for many this vulnerability is compounded by existing poor health-related quality of life. Post-Hurricane Isaac, a baseline survey battery utilizing the Reproductive Health Assessment After Disasters (RHAD) Toolkit, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used quantitatively to assess reproductive health risks, services, and outcomes and to explore the psychosocial effects of disaster among pregnant and postpartum women aged 18–45 years (N=300). The pilot study included trained community health workers and patient navigators to implement a community needs assessment in Southeast Louisiana. The community health navigation corps administered RHAD and the brief psychosocial battery to gain a closer understanding of post-disaster reproductive health needs. Findings demonstrate the importance of making a transition from patient navigation into disaster management in order to reduce fragmentation in health care systems and to implement innovative approaches in survey methodology.
HIV/AIDS in the Puerto Rican Elderly: Immunological Changes between Gender and Body Mass Index
Authors: Maldonado-Martínez Gerónimo , Fernández-Santos Diana M. , Ríos-Olivares Eddy , Mayor Angel M. , Hunter-Mellado Robert F.
Published: November 2013

Purpose . Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the elderly population has serious repercussions. The elderly are underdiagnosed for HIV and the costs associated with their late-stage care represent a financial burden to the public health system. The purpose is to analyze various profiles among a cohort of elderly patients with HIV/AIDS. Methods. This is a baseline cohort 60 years or older seen in the Retrovirus Research Center between January 2000 to December 2011. We present the profiles of our cohort stratified by gender and body mass index viewed as a covariate of interest. Results . A total of 266 people (68% males and 32% females) seen at the Center were older than 60 years of age. Males were significantly more often overweight ( p <.05). Females were significantly more underweight with chronic conditions ( p <.05). Women had higher CD4 count and lower HIV viral loads ( p <.05). Underweight elderly males were more heavily affected with the burden of HIV infection compared with women.
Designing Their Own: Increasing Urban High School Teacher Capacity for Creating Interim Assessments
Authors: Ado Kathryn
Published: November 2013

This case study analyzes and documents factors that affect teacher learning and instructional practices in connection to the design your own (DYO) interim or periodic assessment process at one newly developed high school in New York City. Examining these factors through Riggan and Nabors Olah's (2011) conceptual framework offers insights into the complexity of using DYO periodic assessments to shift instructional practice and improve student achievement. Specifically, competing assessment purposes and teacher capacity in assessment development impacted assessment quality and resulting data and its use. Structures and systems for data reporting and use facilitated these processes. These insights can inform strategies for school leaders and policy makers seeking to support the use of DYO periodic assessments in school reform efforts.
Voices of Early College High School Graduates in Texas: A Narrative Study
Authors: Woodcock JoDee Baker , Olson Beal Heather K.
Published: November 2013

School districts across the U.S. are experimenting with various reforms in an attempt to bridge the gap between secondary and postsecondary education and create greater access to postsecondary education for all students. One such reform initiative is the Early College High School (ECHS) model, which allows high school students to earn a diploma and two years of college credit. This qualitative study employed a narrative non-fiction approach, which enabled us to highlight students' voices and experiences in order to examine the social and academic experiences of ECHS graduates in post-secondary environments. Data sources included one-on-one interviews with participants. After the data collection, narrative texts were created from the stories collected so that readers can better identify with the lives of the participants. The narrative texts were then analyzed for common themes, including academic preparation, support services, costs of ECHS participation, and relationships with peers. Participants felt that ECHS attendance positively impacted their academic and social experiences at the post-secondary level and also attested to the sacrifice and determination the ECHS program demanded.
The Politics of Article 18: Religious Liberty in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Authors: Lindkvist Linde
Published: November 2013

This essay provides a historical contextualization of the Universal Declaration’s statement on religious liberty. It suggests that its main components—the stress on the inner dimensions of conscience and belief, as well as the right to change one’s religion—reflected very particular political and intellectual currents in the postwar moment. Article 18 was not the product of an abstract overlapping consensus; instead, it marked a victory for some actors to whom the details of this statement mattered. In this respect, this essay highlights the influence of Charles Malik and the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. What these actors did in the context of writing the UDHR was essentially to recast international religious liberty as primarily concerned with the formation of the individual person’s beliefs, rather than the “free exercise” of religion.
Preface: What Is Visual Citizenship?
Authors: Telesca Jennifer E.
Published: November 2013

As an organizing concept, “visual citizenship” treats participation in political life as something operating and experienced beyond legal properties and pregiven juridical frames. After all, much of what we know about the relations between citizens—and between citizens and non-citizens—happens from a distance, among common strangers, audiovisually. What we see and hear, how we see and hear, according to whom, and where condition the way people in acute and everyday crises debate meaningfully about how they are governed. Rights talk beyond mere expressions of victimhood is an important theme.
A Tour of the Museum of Regime-Made Disasters
Authors: Azoulay Ariella
Published: November 2013

The civil awakening in the Middle East and all over the world reveals more and more facets of regime-made disasters, and the extent to which democracy itself, rather than being their foil, is one of the regime forms wherein such disasters actually take place. This museum, inspired by the Arendtian effort to analyze totalitarian regimes, adopts the widely accepted claim that totalitarian regimes of the kind analyzed by Arendt are a thing of the past, but insists on understanding the disasters afflicting various populations in the world as regime-made ones. The museum follows the way in which such disasters take place and are interlaced in a democratic fiber of life, while being perceived as external to the regime that generates them. This museum is a layout, an outline for visual studies of regime-made disasters and the condition for the emergence of the civil language of revolution.
Refugee Camps of the Western Sahara
Authors: Herz Manuel
Published: November 2013

The Sahrawi refugee camps, located in southern Algeria close to the border with the Western Sahara, give us an opportunity to question the predominant notions connected to refugee camps. This article builds up an urbanistic and architectural reading of these camps—established more than 35 years ago in the middle of the Sahara—and shows how these spaces have developed into a political project of the refugees. Instead of seeing the camps as a spatial manifestation of the state of exception, this article analyzes the Sahrawi camps through the everyday activities taking place there, showing their political and strategic dimensions. The camps, governed by the refugees themselves, not only allow for a process of social emancipation, but they also prefigure the state still denied them.
The Local Was Global: The Singapore Mutiny of 1915
Authors: Streets-Salter Heather
Published: November 2013

This article explores the little-known Singapore Mutiny of 1915 as a case study demonstrating the permeable nature of colonial boundaries in Southeast Asia, and especially the multiple influences at work on colonies in the region outside of their relationships to their respective metropoles. It argues that despite the relative insignificance of the mutiny to larger historical narratives, seemingly local events like this allow a glimpse into the concrete ways larger intercolonial and global connections informed the beliefs and actions of ordinary people. The article begins by exploring the causes of the mutiny and argues that its outbreak cannot be understood without attention to networks and ideologies that crisscrossed the world in 1915, especially with regard to pan-Islamism and radical Indian nationalism. It then explores the responses to the mutiny by a multiplicity of actors, and argues that larger global conditions, alliances, and rivalries fundamentally shaped both official and nonofficial responses to the mutiny, even as they highlighted strong preexisting official networks between colonies and independent nations all over Southeast and East Asia.
Chinese Influences or Images?: Fluctuating Histories of How Enlightenment Europe Read China
Authors: Jacobsen Stefan Gaarsmand
Published: November 2013

This historiographical survey reveals major fluctuations in twentieth-century studies of how early modern Europe received descriptions of China by travelers and missionaries. The article argues that historians working on the cultural history of this reception have alternated between an overall understanding of this interregional entanglement as either an image, in the meaning of a projection, or an actual influence upon European developments. The image approach and the influence approach are shown to be mutually exclusive, and this is explained by relating the specialized results of the field to the debates on “the West” and “the Other” that reached an apex with Edward Said’s Orientalism . Therefore, apart from presenting a complete state of the art for this field, the article analyzes how the ethical and political research debates of the 1970s made the concept of influence untenable until other branches of world history had been insisting on world historical entanglements for almost a decade in the beginning of the 2000s.
Changing Cosmology, Changing Perspectives on History and Politics: Christianity and Yang Tingyun’s 楊庭筠 (1562–1627) Reflections on China
Authors: Cheng Yu-Yin
Published: November 2013

Yang Tingyun, one of the “three pillars of the early Catholic Church” in the late Ming period, has often been studied by scholars seeking to understand why he converted to Christianity and what Christian philosophy he embraced. This article shifts the focus to Yang’s secular concerns after his conversion. The article delves into the issues of Yang’s reassessment of Chinese history and political systems under the influences of Christianity and Western learning. It concludes that Yang’s Christian-centered interpretation of Chinese history and his aspirations for European-style institutions led him to question the importance of monarchy in China, with the result that he shifted his interest to the state, declaring an urgent need for pragmatic learning to strengthen state power. Citing the Jesuit fathers’ swift mastery of the Chinese classics and Western languages’ unlimited applications, Yang further became critical of the Sinocentric worldview of Chinese tradition.
Jose Yglesias: el cronista / dramaturgo de Ybor City (Tampa)
Authors: Rizk Beatriz J.
Published: November 2013

The literary legacy of Jose Yglesias (1919-1995) consists of eight novels, four nonfiction books, four plays, and a great number of essays, short stories, journalistic and academic articles, reviews, and translations. He was born in West Tampa and grew up in Ybor City. In 1937 he moved to New York City where he spent the rest of his life, which did not prevent him from being considered by his peers “the most important writer yet produced by Tampa.” We are concentrating here on his trilogy of plays based on his family and their cigarmaker neighborhood of Ybor City: Chattahooche , which takes place in 1912; The Dictatorship of the Proletariat , in 1920, after the Russian Revolution took place (hence its title); and You Don’t Remember? during the protagonic character / author’s last visit to his hometown in December, 1978. All his work, including his plays, was geared to make “American readers aware of Ybor City and its Latin cigarmakers,” seen from the point of view of the workers themselves, an insight he thought was missing from most fiction and theatre writing.
Algunas meditaciones sobre la representación de la violencia contra las mujeres: el caso de las mujeres asesinadas de Ciudad Juárez
Authors: Nigro Kirsten F.
Published: November 2013

The on-stage representation of extreme violence in 21 st -century theatre poses many challenges for playwrights, especially in Mexico, where violence has reached extreme proportions. This essay explores some of these challenges in five recent plays that deal with the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez, by looking at specific images of violence suggested by the playtexts. A theoretical concern here is whether the stage representation of the real-life extreme violence experienced by these women can fully capture the reality of these “disappeared lives” without erasing their presence as once-living human beings; this essay suggests that photographs used in performance politics may be more effective in recapturing the “absence” of the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez.
Para no olvidar: Teatro y guerra sucia en Argentina y Perú
Authors: Seda Laurietz
Published: November 2013

This essay analyzes how theatre and performance in Argentina and Peru have created an anti-establishment national consciousness that deal with the politics of terror that emerged during the Dirty Wars in both countries. It explains that the different ways in which each country dealt and still deals with the reported number of those who disappeared or were killed are intrinsically related to political, social, ethnic, and cultural problems.
Acts of Witnessing: Site-Specific Performance and Transitional Justice in Postdictatorship Brazil
Authors: Atencio Rebecca J.
Published: November 2013

Over the past twenty-five years, artistic and cultural works engaging with Brazil’s authoritarian past and with the country’s transitional justice process have proliferated. Drawing on the work of sociologist Elizabeth Jelin and performance studies scholar Diana Taylor, the present article examines a prime example of this complex phenomenon, a theatrical work entitled Lembrar é resistir that was written and performed for the express purpose of marking the recovery of a notorious site of repression in the historic center of São Paulo. It argues that the power of the work came from the specific ways in which the embodied actions of the performers and spectators mediated the latter’s encounter with the materiality of the site, transforming the audience members not only into belated witnesses of the building’s grim history, but also into real-time witness-participants in the process of reclaiming the building.
Gorgias on Magic
Authors: Fournier Michael
Published: November 2013

Contemporary scholars tend to speak of Gorgias’ logos as human, secular, and rational; the fact that the power of logos is manifest in mageia and goēteia demystifies magic. Based on a reading of Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen , this essay argues rather that Gorgias divinizes logic than rationalizes magic. For Gorgias in the Helen, logos is, like Helen herself, both human and divine. It is self-evident to Gorgias as well that rhetoric serves the good; thus he clearly wishes to ascribe a divine potency to rhetoric. His conviction that there is something divine about logos helps to explain why, in the Helen , part of Gorgias’ amusement ( paignion ) derived from his attempt to elevate logos to the level of the gods, rather than to drag magic down to earth.
The Social Structure of English in the Text of Theory
Authors: Elliott J. E.
Published: November 2013

A number of explanations have been proposed for the turn from high theory to culture, social justice, and the everyday in Anglo-American English departments in the late 1980s. Some of these accounts focus on the exhaustion of text-centered paradigms of reading, others on the need for incisive responses to socio-political developments of the time. This paper argues that a shift in the governance philosophy of American higher education from public service to private investment drove curricular change and significantly altered the research culture in English studies. High theory marks the transition from the scientific ambitions of the field in an expanding higher education sector between 1950 and 1965 to its complex service and signaling function in the entrepreneurial university of the present. As the most institutionally embedded of high theory's foci, deconstruction provides a detailed symptomatic imaging of changes to the social structure of the discipline through its touchstones of textual ascription, decentering, and performativity. In each case, microscopic evidence testing, terminological abstraction, and the search for laws or properties of textual behavior (however uncanny or self-reflexive) create a scientific anti-science appropriate to a field undergoing an institutional devaluation of its knowledge work. In this view, deconstruction gave way to cultural studies, rather than to new and different forms of theory drawn from the social sciences, not because it was civically disengaged or had run out of interpretive steam but because the consolidation of the market-managerial university in the 1980s and 90s called for a different curricular alignment. This alignment, characterized by service teaching and the articulation of a social justice ("diversity") rationale, better fits the current institutional view of English studies as a field that does not make, study, or promise money, and whose future, therefore, lies not in better knowledge but in better organization.
Wittgenstein, Pedagogy, and Literary Criticism
Authors: Yu Timothy
Published: November 2013

Both literary critics and philosophers have sought to use the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to provide a firmer foundation for the way we talk about literature. These attempts have generally fallen short in their attempts to extract a positive theory of literature and reading from Wittgenstein. In working through some of Wittgenstein's remarks on music and poetry in Zettel , I suggest that Wittgenstein does not give us a "new" way of reading, but instead gives us tools for clearing up misunderstandings about our process of reading. Reading Wittgenstein may help us give literary criticism peace, allowing us to see that our disagreements about critical styles do not prevent us from carrying forward the day-to-day practice of criticism. Wittgenstein's focus on how we learn to use words turns our attention away from literary theory and toward literary pedagogy, reminding us to think about how we learn and teach the very terms that we debate and question.
Which Is More Consequential: Fields of Study or Institutional Selectivity?
Authors: Ma Yingyi , Savas Gokhan
Published: November 2013

The persisting gender pay gap favoring men among college graduates is a puzzle given women’s remarkable success in postsecondary education. This article examines income disparities among recent college graduates by intersecting gender and social class and evaluating the relative importance of fields of study and institutional selectivity. Data from National Education Longitudinal Studies: 88–2000 and its postsecondary transcript data show that women reap less earnings advantage from selective institutions but similar advantages from lucrative fields compared to men. Our within-gender analysis shows that lucrative fields of study can offset the earnings disadvantages associated with less privileged social class and attending nonselective institutions for women, but not for men.
Exploring a Customer Orientation: Free-Market Logic and College Students
Authors: Saunders Daniel B.
Published: November 2013

This article provides a synthesis of literature on the conceptualization of students as customers and connects the rise of this understanding of students to the expansion of free-market logic into higher education. It details the ways in which the customer orientation appears to be incongruent with the educational lives of college students, and explores the impacts of a customer orientation on students’ educational behaviors and decisions. The conclusion calls for reliable research on the extent to which students actually express a customer orientation and for efforts to resist this orientation and its inherently negative implications.
Trollope’s Honesty
Authors: Sussman Matthew
Published: November 2013

Anthony Trollope is famous among realists for having a disappearing style that seems to provide unmediated access to the represented world. However, the moralization of Trollope’s style as honest and transparent leads to misleading accounts of his stylistic achievement. By recovering Trollope’s neglected philosophy of style as found in An Autobiography, Thackeray , and The Life of Cicero , and examining practical examples from the novel Can You Forgive Her ?, this essay shows how the “virtues” of Trollope’s style—namely ease, lucidity, and harmony—are often motivated by nonmimetic concerns that mark the style with uniquely aesthetic aspects.
Narrative Identity in Wordsworth’s Home at Grasmere
Authors: Stelzig Eugene
Published: November 2013

Home at Grasmere offers a coherent statement of Wordsworth’s identity as a major poet. Some critics have characterized its affirmative assertions as marked by an egotism unable to reach out to the community the poem seeks to affirm. This essay counters such negative readings by viewing the poem in terms of John Eakin’s influential notion of narrative identity: it is the master narrative of a self fully at home and in possession of itself that works in tandem with the notion of a reconstituted family even as the poet confronts the threat of separation, absence, and death.
Salvaging Wreckers: Sir Walter Scott, The Pirate , and Morality at Sea
Authors: Cuddy Elizabeth M.
Published: November 2013

This essay examines Sir Walter Scott’s use of wreckers and wrecking culture in his novel The Pirate (1821). Scott prompts his audience to reconsider the standards by which wreckers’ behavior has been traditionally judged. Urging his readers to look beyond stereotypical renderings of criminality and morality associated with the sea, Scott offers an honest—if ambiguous—commemoration of wreckers and British wrecking culture at its height, even as this culture faded away over the course of the nineteenth century.
Aurora Leigh, A Life-Drama , and Victorian Poetic Autobiography
Authors: LaPorte Charles
Published: November 2013

This essay identifies A Life-Drama , a long poem by the working-class poet Alexander Smith, as a model for Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s epic Aurora Leigh . Barrett Browning wrote Aurora Leigh in part to protest the unevenness of the literary playing field. Since Smith and Barrett Browning became the most salient exceptions to the respective marginalization of working-class and female poets from the highest levels of mid-Victorian critical praise, her strategic reliance upon his techniques becomes a noteworthy point of analysis.
Monitoring of anthelmintic resistance in small strongyles in the Czech Republic in the years 2006–2009
Authors: Bodeček Štěpán , Vavrouchová Eva
Published: November 2013

The aim of the field study performed in 2006 was to investigate the occurrence and distribution of intestinal helminths in horses based on pre-treatment faecal egg counts. In total, 948 horses bred on 37 farms were tested. Thirty six (97.2%) farms tested were positive for cyathostomins; horses in 9 (24.3%), 6 (16.2%) and 1 (2.7%) different herds tested were positive for Parascaris equorum, Anoplocephala perfoliata and Strongyloides westeri, respectively. In 21 herds, 344 horses with values exceeding 100 eggs per gram were included in the trial for the presence of drug resistant cyathostomins by a faecal egg count reduction test. Horses were treated orally with recommended doses of fenbendazole and ivermectin. Resistance to fenbendazole was detected on 20 farms (95.24%) with values of faecal egg count reduction test ranging from 0 to 90%. Ivermectin remained effective in all tested herds with the value of faecal egg count reduction test 96–100%. In autumn 2008, 178 horses on 10 farms were examined. Of these, only seven horses tested were negative for cyathostomins. One farm was tested positively for Anoplocephala perfoliata, and one for Parascaris equorum. In spring 2009, six farms were examined, four of which were the same farms as in 2006. We found a decreased number of eggs per gram in all horses, but an increase in benzimidazole resistance, which was found in 5 farms out of 6 (faecal egg count reduction test 15.2–84.6%). This is the first wide survey in horses from the Czech Republic. Based on this study, we can conclude that benzimidazole resistant cyathostomins in horses are widespread but ivermectin is still fully effective.
A study of single nucleotide polymorphism of leptin gene effect on serum copper, zinc and iron concentrations in Czech Pied bulls
Authors: Pavlík Aleš , Sláma Petr , Knoll Aleš , Dufek Aleš , Škarpa Petr , Šubrt Jan
Published: November 2013

Leptin, the product of the ob gene, is secreted mainly in adipose tissue. Due to the associations between plasma leptin concentrations and body fat, leptin could be used as an indicator for the in vivo evaluation of carcass composition in breeding programs. Previous studies showed relation between leptin concentrations and some trace elements, suggesting that they might be mediators of leptin production. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of single nucleotide polymorphism of the leptin gene on concentration of trace elements in the serum of 58 Czech Pied bulls. Three experimental groups of bulls were formed depending on different leptin genotypes: group CC (n = 28), group CT (n = 21) and group TT (n = 9). In all groups, the age (at a mean age of 240 days) and the body weight (mean 291 ± 11 kg) difference among the chosen animals was non-significant. Blood samples of all bulls in experimental groups were collected from vena jugularis externa between 8.00 and 9.30 h. Concentrations of copper, zinc and iron in the serum of animals were measured. Significantly lower (P < 0.05) zinc concentrations were recorded in bulls of TT group (13.21 ± 1.81 µmol·l-1) compared to CC (20.09 ± 1.11 µmol·l-1) and CT group (19.67 ± 1.45 µmol·l-1). In case of copper and iron concentrations in serum of animals, no differences were recorded between the tested groups. This is the first study of its kind in Czech Pied cattle. Based on our results, we may assume that zinc plays some role in the metabolism of adipose tissue, havings an effect on beef quality.
Variation in colostral immunoglobulin G concentration in fat tailed sheep and evaluation of methods for estimation of colostral immunoglobulin content
Authors: Tabatabaei Saeid , Nikbakht Gholamreza , Vatankhah Mahmood , Sharifi Hamid , Alidadi Naser
Published: November 2013

In ruminants, colostrum is a vital source of immunoglobulins that provide passive immunity for their offspring during the neonatal period. It is suggested that colostral immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration varies between and within breeds and could also be affected by maternal factors. The aim of this study was to investigate possible effects of litter type and ewe parturition number on colostral IgG concentration in two Iranian fat-tailed breeds of sheep (Shaul and Lori Bakhtyari) as well as usefulness of different methods for estimation of IgG concentrations in colostrum. The colostral IgG concentrations were measured in 38 Shaul and 59 Lori Bakhtyari ewes by single radial immunodiffusion, zinc sulphate turbidity and Biuret methods. Measurement of IgG by single radial immunodiffusion revealed that Lori Bakhtyari ewes had significantly (P <0.05) lower colostral IgG levels (48.82 ± 2.10 mg/ml) than Shaul ewes (62.86 ± 2.48). With regard to the effect of litter type and parturition number, a significant (P <0.05) difference in IgG concentration of colostrum was only observed between the first (65.17 ± 5.74 mg/ml) and third parturition (41.10 ± 4.60 mg/ml) of Lori Bakhtyari ewes. The colostral IgG concentration was not associated with ewe serum IgG concentration (P >0.05). The mortality rate was higher in lambs born to ewes with lower IgG in their colostrum. Single radial immunodiffusion did not correlate either with zinc sulphate turbidity method (r = -0.253,P >0.05) or with Biuret method (r = -0.005,P >0.05). We can conclude that concentration of colostral IgG could be influenced by breed but not by litter type and parturition number.
Effect of diets with different fat contents on the development of diabetes in female Zucker diabetic fatty rat with leptin mutation
Authors: Köhlerová Renata , Sznapková Martina , Slavkovský Rastislav , Jiroutová Alena
Published: November 2013

The aim of the study was to develop a diet which causes stable hyperglycaemia and development of diabetes in female Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. We also examined whether worsened wound healing is caused only by hyperglycaemia or whether it is caused by more factors. Four types of special diets with a different content of fat were fed to eight groups of 3–7 (fa/fa or fa/+) rats. The following diets were used: H1 (24.6% fat), H2 (33.2%), C13004 (25.6%), and St1 (3.4%). We detected significant diet-dependent changes of weight and concentration of glucose in animals with leptin mutation (fa/fa). All examined indicators were significantly (P < 0.001) higher in (fa/fa) animals compared to the fa/+ ones no matter what diet they ate. All diets with high-fat content caused increased glycaemia, but only the diet with 24.6% fat caused a significant (P < 0.01) increase of glycaemia. Our results have proved that this diet is the most suitable to invoke and keep hyperglycaemia. The diet with 25.6% fat is suitable to invoke stable slightly increased glycaemia (10 mmol/l) and hyperinsulinaemia. On the other hand, the diet with 33.2% fat is unsuitable. We did not observe a significant influence of diet on wound healing. We developed a new diet more suitable for induction of stable hyperglycaemia in female ZDF rats than commercially available mixtures. Our study is the first to present recommendations for adjusting a high-fat diet to produce stable hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia in the rat model.
Duodenal morphology and immune responses of broiler chickens fed low doses of deoxynivalenol
Authors: Revajová Viera , Slaminková Zuzana , Grešáková Ľubomíra , Levkut Mikuláš
Published: November 2013

Morphometry and flow cytometry for intraepithelial lymphocyte phenotyping were used to determine the changes in duodenal mucosae after administration of low doses of deoxynivalenol in chickens. Moreover, functions of phagocytes and immunocompetent cells in peripheral blood were evaluated by flow cytometry. In total, sixty chickens of Ross hybrid broilers 308 were used in this experiment. Two experimental groups of 20 birds were continually fed for 14 days a diet containing deoxynivalenol at a dose of 1 and 3 mg·kg-1; 20 birds of the control group were fed uncontaminated diet. Morphometry showed only tendency to decrease the height of villi and surface area of duodenal mucosae in chickens fed the diet supplemented with 3 mg·kg-1 deoxynivalenol. Phenotyping of intraepithelial lymphocytes showed a decrease of CD45+ (P < 0.034) in duodenum of birds fed diets supplemented with deoxynivalenol. Examination of white blood cells showed a decrease of monocytes (P < 0.020) in chickens fed 3 mg·kg-1 of deoxynivalenol. Both experimental groups revealed higher metabolic burst of peripheral blood heterophils (P < 0.001). Phenotyping of immunocompetent cells showed an increase (P < 0.003) of CD3+ and a decrease (P < 0.001) of MHC II+ cells in peripheral blood of chickens fed with 3 mg·kg-1 dose of deoxynivalenol. The experimental feeding of chickens with deoxynivalenol resulted in immunomodulation of immunocompetent cells in duodenum and blood with mild atrophy of intestinal villi, mainly after the feeding of the dose of 3 mg·kg-1. We proved that even low doses of deoxynivalenol can cause changes in haemathological, immunological and morphological profiles already during two weeks, and lead to the activation of compensatory-adaptive mechanisms with unfavourable impact on health and performance of birds.
The relative reactivity of 2,3‐dicarbomethoxy‐5‐norbornenes in metathesis polymerization using the original n‐chelating ruthenium carbene complex
Authors: Ashirov R. V. , Zemlyakov D. , Lyapkov A. A. , Kiselev S. , Vervacke Dirk
Published: November 2013

1H NMR spectroscopy is used to study the kinetics of metathesis copolymerization of three isomeric 2,3‐dicarbomethoxy‐5‐norbornenes using the original N‐chelating ruthenium carbene complex. Based on the experimental data the copolymerization constants of isomeric 2,3‐dicarbomethoxy‐5‐norbornenes are calculated. It is shown that the relative reactivity of endic acid dimethyl ester—(1R,2S,3R,4S)‐dimethyl bicyclo[2.2.1]hept‐5‐ene‐2,3‐dicarboxylate is almost two times lower than the corresponding values for (1R,2R,3S,4S)‐dimethyl bicyclo[2.2.1]hept‐5‐ene‐2,3‐dicarboxylate, which confirms earlier findings of steric hindrance in the orientation of the monomer due to the carbene catalyst. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40130.
Mechanistic study of cationic dye interactions with clay‐polymer dispersions via metachromatic effect, aggregation, and surface charge
Authors: Davis James W. , Kahl Michael S. , Golden Teresa D.
Published: November 2013

Interactions for a series of aqueous dispersions of a clay, Laponite, and nonionic difunctional triblock copolymer, Pluronic L62, with two cationic dyes, crystal violet and brilliant green, are studied using UV–vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and electrophoretic mobility (EPM) to better understand the adsorption mechanisms. Different concentrations for clay, 0.1–2.0 g/L, mixed with polymer, 0.125–0.5 g/L to produce an organoclay, were tested with a fixed dye concentration, 2.0 × 10−5mol/L. The aggregation states of the cationic dyes interacting with the clay–polymer dispersions were characterized by UV–vis absorbance. The dyes changed aggregation states from monomer to dimer and higher aggregate states upon addition to varying Laponite–polymer dispersion concentrations. DLS was used to understand the adsorbed polymer and dye interactions on the clay particle showing longer relaxation times for the largest aggregates observed from UV–vis absorbance. The EPM was used to characterize the surface charge of the clay relative to the polymer–dye interactions, which showed that the surface charge approached zero as the dyes interacted with clay–polymer dispersions. The most significant changes occurred with a reduction in light scattering intensity and longer relaxation decay at 0.1 g/L Laponite and 0.5 g/L Pluronic L62 concentrations in the presence of cationic dyes. The study of the clay–polymer–dye interactions help to better understand and design chemical templates for removal of contaminates in waste‐water treatment. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci.2014,131, 40141.
Preparation and characterization of crosslinked PVAL membranes loaded with boehmite nanoparticles for fuel cell applications
Authors: Oliveira Paula Nunes , Catarino Margarida , Müller Carmem Maria Oliveira , Brandão Lúcia , Pacheco Tanaka David Alfredo , Bertolino José Roberto , Mendes Adélio M. , Pires Alfredo Tibúrcio N.
Published: November 2013

Composite proton conducting membranes were prepared by doping the membrane, prepared by crosslinking poly(vinyl alcohol) with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA), with boehmite [aluminum oxyhydroxide or γ‐AlO(OH)]. The effect of the SSA and boehmite content on the membrane performance was studied and the results showed that the values for the ion exchange capacity (IEC) of the membranes were in the range of 0.45–4.80 mmol g−1, the water content and the Young's modulus were dependent on the amount of SSA and nanoparticles. The proton conductivity was in the range of 10−4 to 10−2 S cm−1 at 25°C and was directly related to the quantity of sulfonate groups present in the membrane, while the hydrogen permeability at 30°C was in the range of 10−13 to 10−12 mol cm s−1 cm−2 bar. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell tests indicated that the composite membranes have good proton conductivity and very low hydrogen permeability. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40148.
Crosslinked polystyrene beads modified with polar groups for the separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbons
Authors: Yu Huanyang , Cai Zhenzhen , Liu Xianying , Li Ming , Shi Zuosen , Cui Zhanchen
Published: November 2013

Crosslinked polystyrene (CPS) beads modified with polar groups for the separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbons were successfully prepared. The synthesized beads were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The effects of the crosslinking agents and polar groups on the swelling and selectivity performances toward n‐heptane/toluene mixtures were studied. Impressively, the results indicated that the sulfone‐modified CPS beads obtained a high toluene selectivity. Further adsorption tests with a variety of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbons were carried out at 50°C with initial aromatic concentrations of 13 wt %, and the results showed that the beads had a preferential selectivity for aromatic hydrocarbons, in particular, a higher separation factor of 6.76 for benzene/cyclohexane mixtures. We expect that modified CPS beads will serve as an effective material for the selective separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbons in chemical and petrochemical fields. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40156.
Synchronous Bilateral Adrenalectomy for Cushing’s Syndrome: Laparoscopic Versus Posterior Retroperitoneoscopic Versus Robotic Approach
Authors: Raffaelli Marco , Brunaud Laurent , De Crea Carmela , Hoche Guillaume , Oragano Luigi , Bresler Laurent , Bellantone Rocco , Lombardi Celestino P.
Published: November 2013

Background

Synchronous endoscopic bilateral adrenalectomy (BilA) can effectively provide definitive cure of hypercortisolism in ACTH‐dependent Cushing’s syndrome and in primary adrenal bilateral disease. We compared three different approaches for BilA: transabdominal laparoscopic BilA (TL‐BilA), simultaneous posterior retroperitoneoscopic BilA (PR‐BilA), and robot‐assisted BilA (RA‐BilA).

Methods

All patients who underwent BilA between January 1999 and December 2012 at two referral centers (one performing TL‐BilA and PR‐BilA and one performing RA‐BilA) were included. A comparative analysis was performed.

Results

Twenty‐nine patients were included: 5 underwent TL‐BilA, 11 underwent PR‐BilA, and 13 underwent RA‐BilA. No significant difference was found concerning age, gender, diagnosis, and previous abdominal surgery. No conversion to open approach was registered. Operative time was significantly shorter for the PR‐BilA group than for the TL‐BilA and RA‐BilA groups (157.4 ± 54.6 vs 256.0 ± 43.4 vs 221.5 ± 42.2 min, respectively) (P < 0.001). No significant difference was found concerning intraoperative and postoperative complications rate and time to first flatus. Drains were used routinely after PR‐BilA and TL‐BilA and electively in four RA‐BilA patients (P < 0.001). Hospital stay was longer in the TL‐BilA and PR‐BilA groups than in the RA‐BilA group (12.0 ± 5.7 vs 10.8 ± 3.7 vs 4.4 ± 1.7 days, respectively) (P < 0.001). No recurrence or disease‐related death was registered.

Conclusions

Operative time was significantly shorter in the PR‐BilA group, because it eliminates the need to reposition the patient. The number of drains and the length of hospital stay were reduced after RA‐BilA, but this was likely related to different management protocols in different settings. Because no significant difference was found in terms of postoperative outcome, none of the three operative approaches can be considered the preferable one.