bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anti-Glycan Antibodies as Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Prognosis
Authors: Dotan N , Altstock RT , Schwarz M , Dukler A
Published: August 2006

Glycans (sugars or carbohydrates) are predominant surface components of cells such as erythrocytes, immune cells and microorganisms. As such, they give rise to high levels of anti-glycan antibodies of all classes. Antibodies to certain defined mono, di and oligosaccharides that are common in bacterial, fungal and parasite cells exist in human sera and can be profiled using glycan arrays. The use of glycan arrays for systematic screening of blood samples from multiple sclerosis (MS) and Crohn’s disease (CD) patients in versus to blood samples from control groups, have lead to the discovery of a few anti glycan antibodies biomarkers enabling diagnosis and prognosis in MS and CD patients. Anti-Glc( α1,4)Glc( α) IgM antibodies were found to be specific for MS patients, enabling differentiation between MS patients and patients with other neurological diseases, with 54% sensitivity and 85% specificity. Anti-Glc( α1,4)Glc( α) IgM were found to be predictive for the conversion of patients in first acute neurological event to clinically defined MS. Anti-laminaribioside (ALCA), anti-mannobioside (AMCA) and anti-chitobioside (ACCA) antibodies were found to be specific for CD. The combined use of these antibodies enables improved diagnosis of CD versus ulcerative colitis and other gastrointestinal diseases, as well as stratification of CD patients with a more complicated disease and high risk for surgery. Anti-glycan antibodies profiling (AGAP) is a new and promising approach for development of biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis.
Measurement of Electrical Skin Impedance of Dermal-Visceral Zones as a Diagnostic Tool for Disorders of the Immune System
Authors: Gerosa M , Zimlichman E , Ventura D , Fanelli V , Riboldi P , Meroni PL
Published: August 2006

Among complementary medicine approaches, diagnostic screening tools based on neuroreflexology have been recently developed. Such techniques are based on the rationale that measurement of electrical impedance of specific dermal zones might reflect the occurrence of pathological states in the corresponding internal organs or systems. Our objective was to evaluate the reliability of a neuroreflexology-based diagnostic test in diagnosing immune-mediated diseases in a blinded single centre study. Seventy-eight patients with immune-mediated diseases (38 patients with autoimmune diseases (AD), and 40 allergic patients) were included in the study. Thirty age and sex matched healthy subjects were also evaluated as a control group. All the patients and subjects underwent conventional medical history and physical examination. We evaluated a device manufactured by Medex Screen Ltd (Arad, Israel). The Medex Test analysis was carried out by a second physician who was blinded to the previous diagnosis. A high correlation between the formal clinical diagnosis and the results of the measurement of electrical skin impedance was reported, with a specificity of 93.3% and a sensitivity of 81.2%. Both sensitivity and specificity dropped when analysing the autoimmune and the allergic group separately, but remained significant for the autoimmune diseases. Degree of activity of the allergic disorders, or specific treatment, did not affect the diagnostic properties of the described device. The Medex Test neurophysiology based technique has the potential to serve as a diagnostic tool for immune based pathologies. Future studies will define this tool place in routine evaluation and potential screening ability.
Insights in the Laboratory Diagnosis of Celiac Disease
Authors: Basso D , Guariso G , Fogar P , Navaglia F , Zambon C-F , Plebani M
Published: August 2006

The present report focuses on the diagnosis of celiac disease and its pathogenesis, which depends on a genetic predisposition (HLA DQ2 or DQ8 haplotypes), gluten ingestion and T cell activation, type II transglutaminase (TG2), the autoantigen recognized by the antiendomysial antibody playing a key role. IgA class antibody anti-environmental (gliadin) and endogenous (TG2) antigens are present in the sera of patients with celiac disease. The anti-TG2 antibody has the best available diagnostic accuracy, especially when measured employing second generation ELISA tests, which use the human TG2 antigen, or immunochemiluminescent assay, which is highly sensitive. A diagnosis of celiac disease must always be confirmed by the histological evaluation of multiple duodenal mucosa specimens, and serology is recommended for follow-up controls.
Autoimmune Hemolytic Anaemia in the Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Authors: Rottem M , Krause I , Fraser A , Stojanovich L , Rovensky J , Shoenfeld Y
Published: August 2006

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a multisystem disease with recurrent thrombosis in the presence of antiphosphlipid antibodies, which may include cardiac, neurological, gastrointestinal, hematologic or cutaneous manifestations. The occurrence of autoimmune hemolytic anaemia (AIHA) in APS has not been well established. The purpose of this study was to review the occurrence of AIHA in patients with APS and its relation to other disease manifestations. Three-hundred and eight patients with APS from seven medical centers in Israel, Serbia and the Slovac Republic were included and evaluated for associations between AIHA and various manifestations of APS. AIHA was documented in 32 patients(10.4%). The odds ration for AIHA was increased in the presence of anticardiolipin antibodies and livedo reticularis (5.4 and 7.8, respectively). There was a highly significant association between AIHA and cardiac valvular vegetations and thickening ( P < 0.0001), arterial thrombosis ( P < 0.02), livedo reticularis ( P < 0.0001) and CNS signs of epilepsy or chorea ( P < 0.02 and P < 0.03, respectively). Thus, APS patients with AIHA are at risk of developing these manifestations, and should therefore be investigated for them. In addition, the occurrence of AIHA may define a subgroup of patients with a significant risk for subsequent development of SLE.
Atherogenic Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein/β2-Glycoprotein I (oxLDL/β2GPI) Complexes in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Authors: Matsuura E , Kobayashi K , Hurley BL , Lopez LR
Published: August 2006

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) interacts in vitro with β2-glycoprotein I ( β2GPI) via LDL-derived specific ligands forming oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes. Circulating oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes have been demonstrated in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Autoimmune vascular inflammation and oxidative stress contribute to oxLDL/ β2GPI complex formation. Immunohistochemical staining of atherosclerotic lesions suggest that these complexes are formed in the arterial wall and released into circulation. The demonstration of antibodies to oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes indicates that these complexes are immunogenic, and the coexistence of complexes and antibodies suggest an active pro-thrombotic/pro-atherogenic role in the development of autoimmune vascular complications. Circulating oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes can be measured by ELISA using a monoclonal antibody specific to complexed human β2GPI to capture β2GPI bound to oxLDL. An enzyme-conjugated monoclonal antibody to human Apo B 100 allows the specific detection of oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes. OxLDL/ β2GPI complexes were common in SLE and APS patients suggesting an underlying process of inflammation and oxidation. Using oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes as capture antigen, antibodies to oxLDL/ β2GPI can be measured by ELISA. Serum levels of IgG anti-oxLDL/ β2GPI antibodies were significantly higher in SLE patients with APS compared to SLE controls without APS. Further, high titers of these IgG antibodies were observed in APS patients with a history of arterial thrombosis. The presence of circulating oxLDL/ β2GPI complexes and IgG antibodies to these complexes indicates significant vascular injury and oxidative stress as well as an active role in autoimmune-mediated atherothrombosis.
Specificities of Platelet Autoantibodies and Platelet Activation in Lupus Anticoagulant Patients: A Relation to their History of Thromboembolic Disease
Authors: Schallmoser K , Rosin C , Vormittag R , Brunner M , Dunkler D , Pabinger I , Panzer S
Published: August 2006

Lupus anticoagulants (LA) prolong in vitro phospholipid-dependent coagulation tests, but are associated with thromboembolic disease (TE). However, a subgroup of individuals with LA has no TE, and it is therefore desirable to distinguish those at risk for TE from those without. Whether platelets have a primary role in the development of TE is not clear yet. We determined platelet autoantibodies to identify a specific platelet target which is associated with platelet activation in 97 patients with a long history of detectable LA, 65 patients with TE (LA/TE+), and 32 individuals without TE (LA/TE+). Thrombocytopenia was more common in the LA/TE- than in the LA/TE+ group ( P < 0.05). Both groups had platelet antibodies, but the frequency of antibodies was lower in LA/TE+ than LA/TE- patients ( P < 0.01), who had higher antibody titres against glycoprotein IIb/IIIa and glycoprotein Ib/IX ( P < 0.05). Also, their platelets were more activated, as determined by PAC-1 binding ( P < 0.01). These differences were also noted if patients with arterial thrombosis were evaluated separately. These findings in LA/TE- individuals were similar to those in patients with chronic autoimmune thrombocytopenia. However, there was no autoantibody target identifiable to distinguish between LA/TE- from LA-TE+ individuals. We therefore conclude that the presence of platelet antibodies, even if associated with platelet activation, is not sufficient to dispose LA patients to thromboembolic disease.
Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis
Authors: Ioachimescu O C , Kavuru M S
Published: August 2006

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is a rare syndrome characterized by intra-alveolar accumulation of surfactant components and cellular debris, with minimal interstitial inflammation or fibrosis. The condition has a variable clinical course, from spontaneous resolution to respiratory failure and death due to disease progression or superimposed infections. The standard of care for alveolor proteinosis therapy is represented by whole lung lavage. Important discoveries have been made in the last decade with respect to disease pathogenesis and therapy of both congenital and acquired forms of the disease. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) pathway has been shown to be involved in the disease pathogenesis of both acquired and congenital disease. Furthermore, anti-GMCSF blocking autoantibodies have been found in the serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and seem to interfere with the surfactant clearance by alveolar macrophages in many acquired cases. In the congenital form, the most common defects identified to date are several mutations of the genes encoding GM-CSF receptor subunits or surfactant proteins. Using GM-CSF as a therapeutic tool has also been shown to be effective in at least half of the acquired cases treated, while the importance of quantitative determination of anti-GM-CSF antibodies before and during the course of the therapy, as well as the autoantibody titer-GM-CSF dose relationship are to be elucidated. The congenital form of the disease does not respond to therapy with GM-CSF, consistent with the known primary defects and differences in disease pathogenesis.
Providing patients with reviews of evidence about COPD treatments: a controlled trial of outcomes
Authors: Harris M , Smith B J , Veale A , Esterman A , Frith P A , Selim P
Published: August 2006

Studies in many countries have identified gaps between what is known from research evidence and what is done in clinical practice. Merely making research evidence available to practitioners does not cause much change in their behaviour, and researchers are now looking for more effective ways to improve the implementation of evidence. We report outcomes at three months of a parallel group trial of an evidence based patient manual designed to improve implementation of evidence by the patient’s doctors. The patient manual was produced with extensive patient and professional input. It contained summaries of the evidence for treatments used in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and prompted discussion of evidence with doctors. Participants in the intervention arm of the trial ( n - 125) were supplied with the manual and participants in the control arm ( n - 124) were supplied with a pamphlet about COPD produced by the Australian Lung Foundation. The primary outcome measure (rates of current influenza vaccination and bone density testing) was an indicator of evidence based management of COPD. Secondary outcomes were quality of life (mastery component), satisfaction with information, communication with usual doctor, and anxiety. At three months no pattern of benefit in outcome measures was found for either group. Process measures showed high levels of personal use of the manual but progression to conversations with doctors for fewer than half of participants, and little treatment change. The findings highlight the difficulties of promoting changes in health behaviour and show that even when all stakeholders are consulted success is not guaranteed. Further research is required to identify those patients most likely to use manuals such as the one reported here, and how to make patient mediated interventions more effective for a greater proportion of the target population.
Gender differences in the performance of activities of daily living among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Authors: Skumlien S , Haave E , Morland L , Bjørtuft Ø , Ryg M S
Published: August 2006

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) limits the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). The Pulmonary Functional Status and Dyspnoea Questionnaire (PFSDQ) measures general dyspnoea, dyspnoea during ADL (dyspnoea score) and loss of functional performance (activity score) for a large number of activities commonly performed by adults. The questionnaire is only validated for male patients. The aim of our study was therefore to validate the PFSDQ for women with COPD. We then wanted to investigate possible gender differences in responses to the PFSDQ and whether associations between the PFSDQ and pulmonary function, exercise capacity, health related quality of life (HRQoL) and general quality of life (QoL) were influenced by gender. This cross-sectional, observational study included 110 COPD patients. Sixty-five men and 45 women, referred to pulmonary rehabilitation participated. Pulmonary function and six-minute walking distance (6MWD) were measured. Patients completed PFSDQ, St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ, HRQoL) and Perceived Quality of Life Scale (PQoL, QoL). No gender differences were found in pulmonary function (% of predicted), 6MWD, SGRQ or PQoL. Most items in the PFSDQ were found relevant by both women and men. Activity Scores were only different for men and women for items concerning home management; women had changed their functional performance the most, particularly for the heaviest chores. No gender differences were found in dyspnoea scores. Moderate correlations were found between PFSDQ and 6MWD, SGRQ and PQoL. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that these relations were not influenced by gender. We consider PFSDQ as applicable to women as to men as a comprehensive measure of functional performance and dyspnoea. The questionnaire gives information complementary to measures of exercise capacity, HRQOL and QOL. The larger loss of functional performance in home management among women should be taken into account in the treatment of COPD patients.
Respiratory health and lung research in New Zealand
Authors: Town G I , Crane J
Published: August 2006

This article summarizes the recent history of respiratory research in New Zealand which was triggered by an epidemic of asthma mortality in the 1980s and which led to the rapid emergence of quality research groups. This unique event led to major initiatives to improve the standards of care for people with asthma in New Zealand. Perspectives on other lung health issues including tobacco control, the COPD epidemic and the emergence of bronchiectasis as a serious respiratory disease are also provided.
Making History: Representation and ‘Forgetting to Forget’
Authors: Kellogg Catherine
Published: August 2006

This paper attempts to delink a politics of emancipation from a narrative of hope. It does so through examining the strong link between our persistent desire for a progressive notion of history, and the peculiar kind of memory at work in our practice of historical consciousness, that I call here ‘forgetting’ to forget. Following from a reading of Freud, Marx and Hegel, I suggest that the past which issues from progressive ‘historical consciousness’ is not the origin of that memory, but rather its illusory effect. Using Jacques Derrida's notion of the ‘revenant’ I argue that the ghost in the ‘machine’ of historical consciousness is none other than the progressive notion of history we inhabit, in which we can no longer believe, but whose loss we cannot fully metabolize.
Prolegomenon to a Theory of Punishment'
Authors: Zaibert Leo
Published: August 2006

The expression “Theory of Punishment” is rather obscure; typically conflating two different enterprises: first, a purely descriptive enterprise which seeks to define punishment, and, second, a normative enterprise which seeks to justify punishment. While some authors have asserted that these two enterprises are inescapably linked, others have tried to keep them distinct. I think that the latter approach is on the right track, but that its proponents have not remained faithful to the very separation that they recommend. Thus I discuss here the standard account of punishment found in the philosophical literature, together with what I suggest are its shortcomings. I then present my own account of punishment, which I think overcomes the shortcomings of the standard account. While solving some problems, my account could be seen as creating new problems of its own, but I endeavor to show that these allegedly new problems are, at best, not really problems at all, or, at worst, are not terribly worrisome.
The Future of Confession
Authors: Brooks Peter
Published: August 2006

What are the current status and future prospects of confession, in the law and in cultural practices? Recent Supreme Court decisions in Missouri v. Seibert and United States v. Patane raise new questions about Miranda doctrine that one thought had been laid to rest in Dickerson v. United States, in 2000. Seibert revives Oregon v. Elstad, and its worries about endowing psychological issues with constitutional significance—and this may be something of a key to the Court's uncertainties as to what kind of reading it wants to give to Miranda. In general, the place of confession in the law remains troubled and uncertain, all the more so in that the law, like the culture at large, seems addicted to confessions.
Democracy and Equality
Authors: Post Robert
Published: August 2006

This article defines democracy as that form of government which aspires to realize the value of collective self-determination. It inquires into the relationship between democracy, so understood, and the values of equality. The article argues that although democracy intrinsically requires that persons be treated equally as self-determining agents, democracy does not require the forms of substantive equality often associated with theories of distributive justice and fairness. These forms of substantive equality are in fact often in tension with the self-governance required by democracy, as is signified by their enshrinement in a tradition of rights that restricts the ambit of self-determination. But because democracy requires that citizens have the warranted conviction that they are engaged in the process of governing themselves, and because this requirement can be satisfied only if citizens identify with the processes by which public opinion is formed, infringements of substantive equality can sometimes alienate citizens and impair the forms of identification that make up the autonomous self-determination that defines democracy. Democracy and substantive egalitarian commitments are thus bound in an indissoluble knot, mutually reinforcing and mutually antagonistic.
Unquestionable Freedom in a Psychotic West
Authors: Rogers Juliet
Published: August 2006

Freedom is not something to be thought about since September 11 and since freedom can be both given to the Iraqis as a gift from the ‘coalition of the willing,’ and purchased in the form of ‘freedom jeans,’ ‘freedom cars,’ and ‘freedom perfume.’ Freedom, in its unthinkable presence as gift, product and foundational premise of Western democracy, has assumed a psychotic structure in the psyche of the Western subject. The status of freedom as a product to be chosenand purchased, and as a gift given to the Iraqis via military intervention, offers an ontological status to the psychotic subject of the West as a being in a state of being unquestionably, unthinkingly free. The questionable ontological status of the Western subject–who I refer to in this paper as West–as a free subject, is collapsed into a signifier without paternity; a signifier whichdisables questions about whetherone is or isn'tfree in the free West. This article discusses the signification of freedom represented in political and popular culture discourse as product and gift in the West and, using Maurice Sendak's protagonist, Max, in Where the Wild Things Are, Renata Salecl's discussion of forced choice for the subject of and in democracy and Jacques Derrida's discussion of the ‘madness’ of ‘the gift,’ considers the situation of West before the originary violence of democracy. Lacanian psychoanalysis is utilised specifically to extrapolate West's position and to diagnose his condition as psychotic. Psychoanalysis as socio-analysis–that is, the analysis of the social, as if there is only one West–is explored for its representation of a monolithic subjectivity as the subjectivity. Socio-psychoanalysis and the contemporary extrapolations of democracy in the West are discussed for their similarity in representing a particular and limited type of ‘speaking back’ of the monolithic subject, and thus, their active participation in the subjugation of resistance; in their subjugation of the question of what this freedom is that the West supposedly has to give?
Wolf-man and the Fate of Democratic Culture: Four Fragments
Authors: Dumm Thomas L.
Published: August 2006

This essay is a series of connected reflections on the fate of the wolf-man, suggesting from a variety of perspectives that democracy, thought of as an aspiration, cannot exist without the presence of this wild thing that exists by definition as a liminal figure, between animal and human. Wolf-man is beyond law, urging law on, in its futility.
“The Jews are Coming”: Vengeance and Revenge in post-Nazi Europe
Authors: Lavi Shai
Published: August 2006

This paper explores two different modes of revenge practiced by Jewish soldiers and partisans in post-Nazi Europe. The first, revenge proper, involved the targeting and killing of individual war criminals. The second, vengeance, sought in its most extreme form, to repay the German people as a whole. The paper questions the common understanding of these events as spontaneous acts of violence emerging from a universal wish for justice. Vengeance and revenge are better understood as planned and historically bound attempts of modern-national Jews not only to achieve justice but more importantly to form a new Jewish identity based on active resistance rather than passive suffering. The paper concludes by suggesting some broader implications of this history, and offers to see vengeance and revenge as a vantage point from which Zionism and more generally the liberal nationstate and its promise for justice can be assessed.
Vengeance and Virtue in Contemporary Criminal Justice
Authors: Prud'homme Joseph
Published: August 2006

This work analyzes changes to criminal procedure that express calls for revenge. It specifically addresses the role of the victims' rights movement in supporting changes to the rules of evidence, and especially the rules concerning character evidence. Recent changes have relaxed the prohibition on character evidence and have increased the importance of judicial discretion. Against recent calls to restrict discretion by reinstating a form of legalism, this work argues that reinstituting rules is unlikely in light of the strong influence of the victims' rights movement. As such, attention must be placed on improving the exercise of discretion by trial judges.
Parables of Revenge and Masculinity in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River
Authors: Berkowitz Roger , Cornell Drucilla
Published: August 2006

This paper offers a reading of Clint Eastwood's film Mystic River. Mystic River differs from archetypal Hollywood revenge movies in one important way: the act of revenge kills the wrong man. Moreover, instead of abandoning its wayward avenger, the movie strives to defend or at least to understand the act of wrongful vengeance as the loving act of a kingly father. To explore the connection between trauma, masculinity, and revenge, the paper follows the stories of the film's three male protagonists. Dave is defeated by his boyhood trauma and never recovers. Jimmy, the film's avenger, forcefully resists the dehumanizing power of the loss of his daughter by taking revenge. Sean neither succumbs to trauma nor masters it. Instead, Sean –when confronted by his wife's silent departure and with the fact of Jimmy's vengeance –responds by admitting his vulnerability. An upright man struggling to balance his masculinity with the reality of his tragic limitations, Sean's willingness to accept his human finitude is set against Jimmy's rebellious insistence on his superhuman justice based on the prerogative of vengeance.
Revenge as a “Medium Good” in the Twelfth Century
Authors: Shoemaker Karl
Published: August 2006

This essay explores the moral register of revenge-taking in key twelfth-century sources. While a long tradition of legal history scholarship has cast medieval revenge practices as evidence of pre-modern lawlessness, this essay examines a particular moral register for good revenge that appears in certain twelfth-century canon law and narrative texts. According to this register, the man who pursued revenge on behalf of himself, his wronged dependants, or the Church did so both in the image of God and in imitation of an earthly ideal of lordship. In fact, the revenge-taker ultimately repaid evil with good and injustice with justice.
Reprising Revenge
Authors: Culbert Jennifer L.
Published: August 2006

In Violence and the Sacred, René Girard argues that vengeance is a vicious circle that is broken only when the power to seek reprisal is consolidated in a sovereign authority. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt, and in particular her concept of natality, I argue that Girard fails to appreciate how revenge is an act that may be repeated with a difference. When this possibility is admitted, we need no longer depend upon sovereign authority to disrupt the cycle of vengeance and, practicing humble resolve, may be surprised by what unfolds.
The Spectacle of the Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes, Guy Debord and Walter Benjamin on Representation and its Misuses
Authors: Martel James
Published: August 2006

In this paper, I compare Thomas Hobbes’ notion of demonology with contemporary notions of “the spectacle”, an idea articulated by Guy Debord and embellished (albeit in a somewhat different way and with a different name) by Walter Benjamin. I note that despite the three centuries that separate these authors (and despite Hobbes’ apparent enthusiasm for the spectacle itself as displayed in the frontispiece to Leviathan), Hobbes’ notion of demonology very much echoes these later thinkers–understandings. For Hobbes’ demonology is the practice of taking things that are not for things that are, a confusion between representations and reality. The spectacle functions in much the same way, although in the hands of Debord and Benjamin it takes its particular form as a production of capitalism. In this paper, I argue that Hobbes offers these later thinkers a useful distinction between his notions of idolatry and worship, a distinction that helps (particularly in Debord's case) avoid a choice between a lost and true “reality” and the miasma of the spectacle itself. For Hobbes, idolatry occurs when a graven image is taken to actually be God. This is a sin because it replaces God with a representation. In worship, the worshipper knows that the idol is just that, a representation with no truth of its own. This insight, I argue, arms Hobbes against the demonologists that he attacks in his own lifetime. With worship, Hobbes does not need to know “the truth” but can accept representation for what it is. At the same time, he is armed by this realization against the lies of the demonologists because he has the ability to recognize and expose representation as such. This is an insight that I argue helps explain, buttress and flesh out the ideas of Debord and Benjamin, insofar as both of these authors wish to “fight the spectacle on its own terms”, that is to say to use image against image and figure against figure.
Immimanence; Law's Language Lesson
Authors: van der Walt Johan
Published: August 2006

This article aims to illuminate the fundamental problems of law and jurisprudence with reference to the fundamental tension between the immanence and imminence of language. The irreducible tension between the immanence and imminence of language constitutes the complex interface between language and itself, or between the two fundamental linguistic modes through which language becomes language. The article economically refers to this complex interface as the immimanence of language. The complex structure or structuration of this interface, it argues, goes to the heart of the relation between justice and law. In other words, it goes to the heart of the fundamental problem of jurisprudence. The paper explores this interface of immimanence that conditions both language and just law with reference to Wittgenstein on the one hand (immanence), and Derrida and Agamben on the other (imminence).
Some Myths About Legal Language
Authors: Tiersma Peter M.
Published: August 2006

Over the centuries, much has been written about the language of the law. The language of lawyers is archaic and conservative. It is full of Latin and French. It is wordy and redundant, pompous and dull, and either highly precise or maddeningly indeterminate. Perhaps the most interesting suggestion is that legal language is itself a myth, in that it is really just ordinary language with a great deal of technical terminology. Some of these assertions have more than a kernel of truth, others are complete myths, and yet others should be relegated to that status as quickly as possible.
Freedom of Speech and Philosophical Citizenship in Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise
Authors: Cooper Julie E.
Published: August 2006

In this essay, I challenge genealogies that anoint Baruch Spinoza the founder of liberal democracy and liberal individualism. Spinoza's departure from mainstream liberal individualism manifests most starkly in his argument for freedom of thought and expression–the argument invariably cited to prove Spinoza's liberal credentials. When Spinoza defends freedom of speech, in The Theologico Political Treatise, he endorses a mode of democratic citizenship, and an ethos of public discourse, devoid of the heroic self-display endorsed by theorists like John Stuart Mill. According to Spinoza, philosophy and democracy are mutually reinforcing: philosophers can pursue challenging lines of inquiry in a democracy that grants freedom of speech, and the democracy that welcomes philosophy proves more resilient than a tyranny that polices opinion. Philosophy enhances democracy because philosophers comport themselves in ways that expand egalitarian community: specifically, philosophers observe anonymous protocol. According to Spinoza, democratic philosophers should aspire to the role of courteous friend–not the role of celebrity, martyr, or disciple. Spinoza's argument for anonymity remains relevant for contemporary democratic theorists: Spinoza offers a compelling alternative to dominant modes of philosophical citizenship.
Criticism, Ethics, and the Problem of Rehabilitation
Authors: Neill Anna
Published: August 2006

This essay will argue that the carceral literature classroom is at odds with the rehabilitative principles that have brought it into being. Teaching literature and criticism behind bars highlights the difference between a normalizing rationality implemented through institutions of correction and the concept of an ethical selffashioning that enables human beings to think and act in ways not determined purely by the force of their passions. While literature classes provide a context for a rich ethical engagement with the self and the social world it encounters, and in this respect seem to adhere to the moral aims and principles of correctional education, the kind of human potential that criticism claims to emancipate couldn’t be more different from that imagined in the discourse of rehabilitation and reform.
The Mild, Mild West: Living by a Code in Canadian Law and Film
Authors: Morgan Ed
Published: August 2006

Canadians live by the rules. If the overriding myth of American history is that of rugged individualism and the conquest of the frontier, the story told of Canada is one of socialized, orderly engagement with and development of the north. This article probes the national image as it appears in the popular and the legal realms. The vehicles for this exploration are Canadian constitutional law and Canadian film. A species of case law–that dealing with the division of powers and, more specifically, with federal criminal jurisdiction–will be juxtaposed with a species of movie–the Canadian NorthWestern and, more specifically, The Grey Fox (1982). The imagery and national aspirations expressed in one medium help illuminate the equivalent motifs in the other. It turns out that if Canadians live by anything it is a code of continuous dissent, since the constitutional rules that govern national life are in an evolving state of debate.
The Logic of Exception: A structural reading of the foundational texts of psychoanalysis
Authors: Voruz Véronique
Published: August 2006

This paper is premised on Lacan's demonstration that the unconscious is structured like a language. Reading psychoanalytic texts structurally shows that the unconscious and civilisation share the same structure, named “Oedipus complex” by Freud and “law of symbolisation” by Lacan. Freud uncovered this structure when a logical inconsistency in his Oedipal theory–the absence of an external prohibitive instance – led him to hypothesise an anthropological account of the origin of law and so civilisation. If Lacan convincingly subsumes this logical inconsistency under his concept of jouissance, Freud's Oedipal fictions remain useful as they formalise the minimal conditions for modern civilisation: an empty place of power, formal equality before the law and an operational ethical system. These requirements are structural and imply nothing as to the value of a given social organisation.
Sigmund Freud and International Law
Authors: Stevens Jacqueline
Published: August 2006

Since antiquity philosophers have debated the necessity of group differences and violent conflict. Analyzing the tensions in Sigmund Freud's modern contribution to this discussion reveals a symptomatic crisis in the history of his thought. Although most of his oeuvre commits Freud to a view that group differences are hereditary and biologically insuperable, his last published work, Moses and Monotheism (1938), for the purpose of saving the law of the father, elaborates a theory of group differences based on formal kinship rules.
How Does the Nation Plug the Hole in Irish Constitutional Discourse?
Authors: Collins Barry
Published: August 2006

This article uses a psychoanalytical methodology to examine how the nation secures the ideological coherency of Irish constitutional discourse. The 1937 Constitution of Ireland makes a claim to embody the nation, but paradoxically it also seeks to invoke the nation as its own authorizing agency. Drawing particularly on the work of Slavoj Žižek, this article explores how the concept of nation, as a little “piece of the Real,” effectively conceals this cognitive gap. The invocation of nation in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland configures political subjectivity by appealing not just to liberal-legal universality, but also simultaneously to a fantasy frame of Irish nationalism. Psychoanalytical theory is valuable in this context because it allows us to treat the ideological address of constitutional discourse as one that fragments rather than constitutes the subject. The ideological operation of the nation is encapsulated by the “inevitability” with which the legal subject finds something of itself in the partial and contradictory accounts of nation that are articulated by Irish constitutional discourse. Crucially, the inconsistencies and contradictions in this melange of national images point not simply to the aporetic nature of legal origins, but to ideological efficacy of the nation as a foundation of legal authority.
Viagra Nation: Sex and the Prescribing of Familial Masculinity
Authors: Thomson Michael
Published: August 2006

This article takes as its focus the discourses that emerged around access to Viagra. More specifically, the construction and privileging of a legal familial masculinity is addressed. These responses to Viagra provide the focus for a number of reasons. The debates marked a shift in public consideration of masculine sexuality in a variety of ways. Most notably, it introduced a degree of transparency in the public consideration of what was and what was not appropriate, and hence deserving, masculinity. The article starts by outlining the understanding of masculinity that underpins the subsequent analysis. It then moves to introduce aspects of the relationship between law and masculinity. It considers how the discourses around access relate to broader legal and cultural matrices that privilege a certain masculinity, one which is heterosexual, genito-centric, naturalistic, and above all familial. Importantly, the privileging of penile/ vaginal contact denies the legitimacy of other connections that do not exist within this economy. Finally, consideration is given to the wider question of what Viagra tells us about techniques of social organization.
Microiontophoretically Applied PACAP Blocks Excitatory Effects of Kainic Acidin Vivo
Authors: ATLASZ TAMAS , K?SZEGI ZSOMBOR , BABAI NORBERT , TAMÁS ANDREA , REGL?DI DORA , KOVÁCS PETER , HERNÁDI ISTVAN , GÁBRIEL ROBERT
Published: August 2006

Abstract: Pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating polypeptide (PACAP) has been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of different brain pathologies, including focal and global cerebral ischemia. The application of glutaminergic excitotoxin kainic acid (KA), similar to ischemic events, may lead to neurodegeneration. In the present article, we investigated the effects of microiontophoretic application of PACAP on the excitatory effects of KA. During recording‐maintained spontaneous activity of single neurons, we microiontophoretized KA, which was followed by the application of PACAP‐38. We found that PACAP could block the excitatory effects of KA in several brain areas (cortex: 89%, hippocampus: 36%, and thalamus: 50%). Moreover, we detected a lower level excitatory effect of PACAP alone (41%). The present results may explain the neuroprotective effects of PACAP observed in experimental models of glutamate (GLU)–receptor‐mediated degenerative processes.
Can PACAP‐38 Modulate Immune and Endocrine Responses During Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐Induced Acute Inflammation?
Authors: BARANOWSKA‐BIK AGNIESZKA , BIK WOJCIECH , WOLINSKA‐WITORT EWA , CHMIELOWSKA MAGDALENA , MARTYNSKA LIDIA , BARANOWSKA BOGUSLAWA
Published: August 2006

Abstract: Pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating polypeptide (PACAP) shows a potential anti‐inflammatory activity and interacts with the endocrine system. The aim of the present article was to evaluate the effects of PACAP38 on the endocrine and immune systems during acute inflammation. Rats used in the experiments, divided into four groups, were given intraperitoneal injection of, respectively 0.9% NaCl, LPS, PACAP38, and LPS+PACAP38. Hormone (pituitary, adrenal, and thyroid) and cytokine (TNF‐α, IL‐6, IL10) concentrations were measured 2 and 4 h after the injection. Treatment with LPS + PACAP, as compared to LPS, caused TNF‐α and corticosterone to decrease and T4 to increase after 2 h. These data suggest that PACAP modulates both the endocrine and immune responses in this model of septic shock.
The Glucagon–Miniglucagon Interplay
Authors: BATAILLE DOMINIQUE , FONTÉS GHISLAINE , COSTES SAFIA , LONGUET CHRISTINE , DALLE STÉPHANE
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  Miniglucagon (glucagon 19–29) is the ultimate processing product of proglucagon, present in the glucagon‐secreting granules of the α cells, at a close vicinity of the insulin‐secreting β cells. Co‐released with glucagon and thanks to its original mode of action and its huge potency, it suppresses, inside the islet of Langerhans, the detrimental effect of glucagon on insulin secretion, while it leaves untouched the beneficial effect of glucagon on glucose competence of the β cell. At the periphery, miniglucagon is processed at the surface of glucagon‐ and insulin‐sensitive cells from circulating glucagon. At that level, it acts via a cellular pathway which uses initial molecular steps distinct from that of insulin which, when impaired, are involved in insulin resistence. This bypass allows miniglucagon to act as an insulin‐like component, a characteristic which makes this peptide of particular interest from a pathophysiological and pharmacological point of views in understanding and treating metabolic diseases, such as the type 2 diabetes.
The Glucagon‐Like Peptides
Authors: BRUBAKER PATRICIA L.
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  The glucagon‐like peptides, GLP‐1 and GLP‐2, are cosecreted by intestinal L cells in response to nutrient ingestion. These peptides exert multiple effects on the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas to regulate the digestion, absorption, and assimilation of ingested nutrients, as well as providing feedback signals to the brain to modulate food intake. Tropic effects of GLP‐1 and GLP‐2 on their major peripheral target tissues, the beta cell and the intestinal epithelium, respectively, further enhance capacity for nutrient handling. When taken together, these findings demonstrate the diverse actions of the intestinal glucagon‐like peptides to regulate nutrient homeostasis.
Effects of VIP and VIP–DAP on Proliferation and Lipid Peroxidation Metabolism in Human KB Cells
Authors: CARAGLIA MICHELE , DICITORE ALESSANDRA , GIUBERTI GAIA , CASSESE DIANA , LEPRETTI MARILENA , CARTENÌ MARIA , ABBRUZZESE ALBERTO , STIUSO PAOLA
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  In the present study, we have utilized the transglutaminase (TGase) enzyme to modify the primary structure of VIP with diamminopropane (DAP) at the level of the Gln16. We have investigated the conformational stability of VIP and VIP–DAP in solution by limited proteolysis experiments. The VIP–DAP appears to be more resistant to the proteolytic attack of trypsin, thus indicating that the derivatization in position 16 is able to stabilize the structure of the peptide. However, we have studied their role in cell cycle modulation and antioxidant activity in the oropharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma KB cells.
PACAP and VIP Promote Initiation of Electrophysiological Activity in Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells
Authors: CHAFAI MAGDA , LOUISET ESTELLE , BASILLE MAGALI , CAZILLIS MICHÈLE , VAUDRY DAVID , ROSTÈNE WILLIAM , GRESSENS PIERRE , VAUDRY HUBERT , GONZALEZ BRUNO J.
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  Owing to their capacity to differentiate in vitro into various types of neuronal cells, embryonic stem (ES) cells represent a suitable model for studying the first steps of neuronal differentiation and cerebral development. Since pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating polypeptide (PACAP) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) are known to control maturation of the nervous system, we have investigated the possible effects of these two neuropeptides on the differentiation of ES cells. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis revealed that mouse ES cells express PAC1 and VPAC2 receptors.
Electrophysiological recordings demonstrated that PACAP and VIP facilitate the emission of currents, suggesting that these peptides can initiate the genesis of an electrophysiological activity in differentiating ES cells.
Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide Generates CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells in vivo
Authors: CHORNY ALEJO , GONZALEZ‐REY ELENA , GANEA DOINA , DELGADO MARIO
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) control the immune response to a variety of antigens, including self‐antigens, and several models support the idea of the peripheral generation of CD4+ CD25+ Treg from CD4+ CD25− T cells. However, little is known about the endogenous factors and mechanisms controlling the peripheral expansion of CD4+ CD25+ Treg. We have found that the immunosuppressive neuropeptide vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) induces functional Tregin vivo. The administration of VIP together with specific antigen to TCR‐transgenic mice results in the expansion of the CD4+ CD25+, Foxp‐3/neuropilin 1‐expressing T cells, which inhibit responder T cell proliferation through direct cellular contact. The VIP‐generated CD4+ CD25+ Treg transfer suppression, inhibiting delayed‐type hypersensitivity in the hosts, prevent graft‐versus‐host disease in irradiated host reconstituted with allogeneic bone marrow, and significantly ameliorate the clinical score in the collagen‐induced arthritis model for rheumatoid arthritis and in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis model for multiple sclerosis.
Endogenous Release of Secretin From the Hypothalamus
Authors: CHU J.Y.S. , YUNG W.H. , CHOW B.K.C.
Published: August 2006

Abstract:  Previous studies demonstrated that secretin could be released from the cerebellum, where it exerts a facilitatory action on the GABAergic inputs into the Purkinje neurons. In the present article, we provide evidence of the endogenous release of secretin in the hypothalamus and the mechanisms underlying this release. Incubation of the hypothalamic explants with KCl induces the release of secretin to 4.35 ± 0.45‐fold of the basal level. This K+‐induced release was tetrodotoxin and cadmium sensitive, suggesting the involvement of voltage‐gated sodium and calcium channels. The use of specific blockers further revealed the involvement of L‐, N‐, and P‐type high voltage‐activated (HVA) calcium channels. Results present in the current article provide further and more solid evidence of the role of secretin as a neuropeptide in the mammalian central nervous system.
Expression of PACAP Receptors in the Frog Brain during Development
Authors: CIARLO MONICA , BRUZZONE FEDERICA , ANGELINI CRISTIANO , ALEXANDRE DAVID , ANOUAR YOUSSEF , VALLARINO MAURO , VAUDRY HUBERT
Published: August 2006

Abstract: This study describes the expression of PAC1 and VPAC1 receptor (PAC1‐R and VPAC1‐R) mRNAs in the brain of frog (Rana esculenta) during development. PAC1‐R mRNA was detected in the periventricular and subependymal layers of the thalamus and epithalamus and in the ependymal layer of the mesencephalon and rhombencephalon (stage 20), in the amygdala, in the habenular complex, in the periventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and in the ventral cerebellum (stage 30). VPAC1‐R mRNA expression was observed only at stage 20, in the floor of the hypothalamus. These results suggest that, in amphibians, pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating polypeptide (PACAP) may play a role in brain development.