bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mitigation of Pedestrian-induced Vibrations in Suspension Footbridges via Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers
Authors: Carpineto Nicola , Lacarbonara Walter , Vestroni Fabrizio
Published: April 2010

The dynamic response of suspension footbridges to pedestrian-induced excitations and its passive mitigation, via multiple tuned mass dampers (TMDs), are investigated. First, the nonlinear equations of motion are obtained assuming finite planar motions of the suspension bridge. A suitable approximate version of the equations of motion is shown to be in agreement with existing theories and its linearization is then employed in the structural dynamics analyses. A Galerkin discretization is exploited to calculate both the free and forced dynamic response towards the design of the vibration control system. First, the leading characteristics of the bridge dynamic response are outlined. Resonant vibrations induced by the passage of pedestrians are shown to be effectively reduced using viscoelastic TMDs. As the frequencies of the lowest two modes in suspension footbridges can be very close in the proximity of the crossover phenomenon, three different design scenarios are considered: below, near and above the crossover. In particular, the influence of these scenarios on the passive control architecture is investigated.
Identities (Academic + Private) = Subjectivities(desire): Re:collecting Art∙I/f/acts
Authors: Brogden Lace Marie
Published: April 2010

Expanding upon previous theorizing of Art·I/f/act·ology published in Qualitative Inquiry in 2008, this article offers autoethnographic re:collections of a performance/paper presented at the international Academic Identities in Crisis? conference at the University of Central Lancashire, held in September 2008. The conference version used textual and photographic bricolage as a method for re:viewing public and private subjectivities in the continually becoming of an academic. The artifacts highlighted during the performance/paper combined the (mostly) public—including but not limited to drafts, publications, ah-ha moments, and setbacks of a PhD journey—with the (mostly) private—photographs and poetries of mothering and daily life. As with the performance/paper that preceded it, the contribution of this work se veut (wants to be) an approach to working with shadows of embodied knowing/becoming as/in academia.
The Adoption and Practice of Mixed Methods: U.S. Trends in Federally Funded Health-Related Research
Authors: Plano Clark Vicki L.
Published: April 2010

Mixed methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches is an emergent method that is achieving increasing acceptance and use across disciplines. Despite the importance of funding to the adoption of a new research approach, there is no clear understanding of U.S. funding agencies’ support for mixed methods. This study examines recent trends in health-related mixed methods projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and similar federal agencies. The results indicate that mixed methods projects are getting funded and their numbers are increasing but that their prevalence is still low overall. The nature of the projects indicates that researchers are adopting many conventions of the field of mixed methods research and planning approaches that integrate advanced qualitative and quantitative designs and procedures. The article concludes with recommendations to enhance the dynamic relationship between researchers’ decisions to propose mixed methods studies and existing extramural funding mechanisms.
Use of the Transformative Framework in Mixed Methods Studies
Authors: Sweetman David , Badiee Manijeh , Creswell John W.
Published: April 2010

A concern exists that mixed methods studies do not contain advocacy stances. Preliminary evidence suggests that this is not the case, but to address this issue in more depth the authors examined 13 mixed methods studies that contained an advocacy, transformative lens. Such a lens consisted of incorporating intent to advocate for an improvement in human interests and society through addressing issues of power and social relationships. Included for review were 10 criteria for a transformative study and rigorous procedures for mixed methods research. The findings of this study suggested that several transformative criteria are being used in published mixed methods studies but that some are underutilized. This analysis helped advance eight key elements that authors might use for incorporating a transformative lens into a mixed methods study.
Qualitative Approaches to Mixed Methods Practice
Authors: Hesse-Biber Sharlene
Published: April 2010

This article discusses how methodological practices can shape and limit how mixed methods is practiced and makes visible the current methodological assumptions embedded in mixed methods practice that can shut down a range of social inquiry. The article argues that there is a “methodological orthodoxy” in how mixed methods is practiced that currently favors quantitative methodologies, with a mixed methods praxis that positions qualitative methods second and quantitative methods as primary with an overall mixed methods design that is in the service of testing out quantitatively generated theories about the social world. This article upends the current methodological focus on positivism by centering qualitative approaches to mixed methods practice. A qualitative approach seeks to empower individuals’ stories with the goal of understanding how they how make meaning within their social world. Through intensive case studies this article demonstrates the synergy of combining methods in the service of qualitatively driven approaches.
Consciousness in the Study of Human Life and Experience: “Higher Aspects” and Their Nature
Authors: Witz Klaus G. , Lee Hyunju , Wanju Huang
Published: April 2010

This article deals with the consciousness in a person when one tries to understand her more deeply and as a whole, as is done in studies using the “Participant as Ally—Essentialist Portraiture” approach, and focuses on “higher aspects” or moral-ethical, metaphysical, social and religious ideals, values, commitments, or inspiration in a person. The main thesis is that a higher aspect represents a “subtle and pervasive inner consciousness” in a person and that it manifests to an outsider as an expression of that consciousness. As the person grows older, this inner consciousness tends to become more independent and bereft of particular experiences and concepts. Although it is continually subtly changing, it keeps its identity for the person for years or even decades, and is connected with the person’s feeling of “I” and with how she thinks of herself.
Cytokeratin 20 and vascular endothelial growth factor as molecular markers in Egyptian patients with colorectal cancer
Authors: Auf Fatma A , El-Eibdy Gamal K , Mosaad Youssef M , El-Ghannam Doaa M , El-Masry Emad E
Published: April 2010

Purpose. To investigate the expression of cytokeratin 20 (CK20) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the peripheral blood of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, and correlate the findings with the pathologic data of the patients.

Methods. This study was carried out on 50 subjects, 40 patients with histologically confirmed colorectal carcinoma undergoing elective surgery and 10 healthy individuals matched for age and sex. Total RNA extraction followed by real time quantitative RT-PCR and real time TaqMan quantitative assay for peripheral blood expression of CK20 and VEGF was done for both patients and controls.

Results. (1) Statistically significant high levels of CK20,VEGF, CEA (p = 0.000 each) and CA19-9 (p = 0.002) in CRC patients when compared with controls; (2) Statistically significant increase in the expression of CK20 in advancing CRC stage C (p = 0.001) and with LN metastasis (p = 0.000); (3) Statistically significant increase in the expression of VEGF in advancing CRC stage C (p = 0.002), pathologic grade (p = 0.038), and with LN metastasis (p = 0.004); and (4) statistically positive correlation between CK20 and VEGF expressions, and also between these markers and CEA level. Conclusion. CK20 and VEGF expressions in peripheral blood of CRC patients are promising molecular markers for CRC progression and metastasis.
The development of a competency framework for pharmacists providing cancer services
Authors: Carrington Christine , Weir Janet , Smith Peter
Published: April 2010

Background: Health practitioners should possess relevant, up to date skills and be able to perform within their required scope of practice to ensure that they are competent. Maintaining the competency of health care professionals is a key principle of clinical governance and risk management. The aim of this project was to develop a competency framework for pharmacists providing pharmaceutical care to cancer patients.

Methodology: An initial draft framework was developed based on existing documentation and adapted to the needs of Queensland Health (QH) facilities. Pharmacists in QH and interstate were asked to review the framework for content and applicability. Cancer care pharmacists in QH were invited to evaluate and score the usefulness and relevance of the final framework.

Results: The framework consists of competency clusters, which describe core activities within three areas: patient care competencies, knowledge competencies, and advanced level competencies. The characteristics of the levels of practice at foundation, advanced, and consultant are defined. Twelve pharmacists evaluated the framework by self-assessing their own practice. Respondents reported that the framework was very to somewhat reflective of what they usually do and gave overall support for the content and applicability to practice.

Discussion: The framework has been developed using national and international documents and the input of experienced practitioners across Australia. It represents a set of key competencies for the pharmaceutical delivery of cancer care. The next essential step of the competency framework is to implement and integrate the framework into practice and to develop accompanying training tools.
Fall Prevention: Core Characteristics and Practical Interventions
Authors: Rowe Rev. Jimmy
Published: April 2010

The article explores the range of core characteristics that make up the construct of falls. It seeks to magnify what these core elements are in the concept of fall prevention. The article provides practical interventions regarding home safety issues and how to correctly get up after a fall.
Expanding the Role of Patrol in Criminal sa Investigations: Houston’s Investigative First Responder Project
Authors: Kenney Dennis Jay , White Michael D. , Ruffinengo Marc A.
Published: April 2010

Research in the late 1970s discovered two on-going problems with criminal investigations. The first problem involved the inefficiency in the work done by detectives, and the second centered on the misunderstood role of patrol officers in those investigations. In recognition of these ongoing problems, the Houston police department (HPD) sought to improve its investigative capacity and effectiveness through the Investigative First Responder (IFR) project, a pilot program initiated in early 2007 that specially trained and reassigned 45 patrol officers to investigative status so that they could assume responsibility for Part 1 crimes. This article examined the impact of the IFR project through pre—post comparisons of calls for service, response times, and quality and content of investigative reports, as well as surveys of both IFR and non-IFR officers on their perceptions of the program. Findings suggested that the program increased the HPD’s investigative capacity and effectiveness without negatively affecting workload among the remaining patrol staff, though inconsistent survey responses raised questions about patrol officers’ acceptance of the project. The implications of the findings for police policy and practice with regard to criminal investigation were also taken into consideration, for further discussion in this article.
Effective Police Interactions With Youth: A Program Evaluation
Authors: LaMotte Valerie , Ouellette Kelly , Sanderson Jessica , Anderson Stephen A. , Kosutic Iva , Griggs Julie , Garcia Marison
Published: April 2010

This article presents evaluation results of a police training curriculum to reduce disproportionate minority contact (DMC). The Effective Police Interactions With Youth training curriculum is developed in conjunction with a police task group to address the greater proportion of minority youth entering the juvenile justice system relative to the number of White youth. A pretest—posttest experimental design that included follow-up is used to assess changes in patrol officers’ knowledge of and attitudes toward youth. A total of 468 Connecticut patrol officers participate in the evaluation. Results support the effectiveness of the training curriculum in enhancing police officers’ knowledge of DMC, youth behavior, and effective strategies for interacting with youth.
The Future Is Here: Media, Memory, and Futurity in Shanghai
Authors: Lagerkvist Amanda
Published: April 2010

Thriving on its long-term collective memory of possessing futurity, Shanghai resurges with large-scale ambitions of becoming the world center of trade and finance as well as the information and communication hub of the Asia-Pacific region with an Infoport advancing beyond the era of the Internet. This article ponders the relationship between memory and futurity in Shanghai, and suggests that in celebrating temporal coexistence, Shanghai offers the contours an alternate social ordering of retromodernity. In this media city, media forms constitute a backbone of the Shanghai imaginary, and the enthusiasm for new communication technologies in Shanghai today is reminiscent of the role that media forms played in modernizing Shanghai in the past. Probing how memories of media futures past may trigger digitalization, the author argues that temporal anchoring in Shanghai does not represent a refusal to partake in the fast-paced world; instead, it pursues a memory of modernity and anchors in a “Bergsonian terrain” where mobility is, in effect, its “natural tradition.”
The Slum Pastoral: Helicopter Visuality and Koolhaas’s Lagos
Authors: Hecker Tim
Published: April 2010

This article explores issues of aerial visuality through Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s recent work on urban planning in Lagos, Nigeria. In particular, it focuses on the prevalence of the low-oblique plane of vision in Koolhaas’s helicopter-based photographs of the immense, sprawling complexity of Lagos. This essay also examines the inherent political economy of such an aerial plane of vision. Furthermore, it raises the question of to what extent this representational strategy promotes a fidelity to the subject matter, in this case the citizens and the city of Lagos, by portraying a city through an aesthetics of immensity and the apocalyptic sublime.
Evaluating Efficiency in the Implementation of Structural Funds Operations
Authors: Marchante Andrés J. , Ortega Bienvenido
Published: April 2010

This article proposes a methodology to assess the efficiency of the European Union Structural Funds (SF) operations using two alternative approaches: first, by a unit cost analysis of the programme’s output indicators; second, by the comparative study of the tendering, contract-awarding and implementation costs of a sample of projects. This methodology has been applied to the mid-term evaluation of the 2000—2006 Integrated Operational Programme of Andalusia, employing the information provided by the programme’s monitoring system and using primary data obtained from the interventions’ direct managers. This process of accessing data sources itself provides useful insights into programme assessment given that — by requesting data regarding programmed and effective unit costs for each indicator from the direct managers — their capacity to programme can be verified as well as the reliability of the data provided to the monitoring system, promoting a culture of evaluation and accountability.
Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in Producing Research Syntheses for Decision-and Policy-Making: An Illustrative Case in Primary Healthcare
Authors: Pineault Raynald , Lamarche Paul , Beaulieu Marie-Dominique , Haggerty Jeannie , Larouche Danielle , Jalhay Jean-Marc , Contandriopoulos André-Pierre , Denis Jean-Louis
Published: April 2010

This article presents and discusses five challenges encountered in conducting a knowledge synthesis on primary healthcare, commissioned by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. These challenges are (1) conceptualizing, defining and operationalizing complex interventions; (2) integrating quantitative and qualitative studies and assessing strength of evidence; (3) incorporating expert opinions and decision-makers’ viewpoints; (4) producing timely results; and (5) presenting the results in a concise yet understandable form. We also propose methods and operational tools to deal with these issues, particularly regarding integration of qualitative and quantitative evidence and incorporation of expert opinions into syntheses. The major challenge of the synthesis was to provide pertinent and useful information for decision- and policy-makers, while maintaining an acceptable level of scientific rigour. This approach seems promising for knowledge syntheses, which sustain a deliberative process that leads to more enlightened decision and policy-making.
Multicultural Awareness in Evaluation: Dilemmas and Challenges
Authors: Hanberger Anders
Published: April 2010

The purpose of this article is to discuss what is meant by multicultural competence in evaluation and how policies and programmes aiming at multicultural awareness and ‘validity’ can be evaluated. The article discusses three main ways of understanding multiculturalism and how multicultural competence in evaluation can be defined. It also develops evaluation criteria that can be used for assessing the multicultural implications of policies and programmes. The article suggests that a multiculturally competent evaluator should be well informed about minority and majority norms and also familiar with different models of multiculturalism. The multiculturally aware evaluator employs an appreciative approach to traditional cultures that is consistent with human rights and international law. A multiculturally relevant evaluation should stimulate a discussion that facilitates inter-cultural understanding and multicultural awareness. Developing multicultural awareness in evaluation can be seen as a way of developing democratic evaluation.
What Do You Think of When You Think of Patient Education? An Interview With Kate Lorig
Authors: Gilkey Melissa , Garcia Cezanne
Published: April 2010

This article interviews Dr. Kate Lorig on her career accomplishments and insights on self-management support, self-efficacy, and future directions for patient education.
Moderating the Extreme: The Role of Vladimir Pozner’s Vremena in Russian State Television Responses to the Rise of Xenophobia
Authors: Miazhevich Galina
Published: April 2010

This article addresses the mediation of interethnic cohesion issues in Russian news and discussion programs, exploring the contradictions inherent in media consensus building in a post-totalitarian Russia beset by rising xenophobia. Operating under the theoretical umbrella of Laclauan hegemony modified for the post-Soviet context, it treats issues of framing, voice, structure of dialogue, and the role of the host. The article focuses on coverage of the ethnic tensions awakened in summer 2006 by the Kondopoga riots. In a case study of the political discussion show Vremena, it highlights the difficulties the state encounters in grounding the official tolerance program promoted by evening news bulletins in a consensus position on ethnic cohesion. Consequently, it argues that Vremena becomes both the site for an ill-managed outpouring of xenophobia and a platform for its host’s pseudo-liberalism. Finally, this dual problematic is mapped onto two competing elements in the show’s hybrid format.
“The Guardians of the General Interest”: Discourses of Knowledge in QI
Authors: Mills Brett
Published: April 2010

Through an analysis of the British comedy quiz show QI (BBC2/BBC4, 2003—7; BBC1, 2008—), this article examines the ways in which “knowledge” as a discourse is constructed, maintained, and disseminated in popular television. The article draws on the work on discourse of Michel Foucault as well as sociological analyses of education and knowledge from writers such as Karl Mannheim and Pierre Bourdieu. The analysis explores the ways in which being knowledgeable is performed as well as the ways in which knowledge is related to issues of class and gender, particularly in a British context.The article argues that knowledge in QI is dependent on empiricism and posits the value of knowledge as being related to ideas of the civilized gentleman, showing how it is used to promote idea of “appropriate” behavior. While acknowledging the ways in which participants in the program may dissent against its discourses, the article concludes that, while the series may aim to undercut conventional ideas of education, it nevertheless resolutely upholds and promotes ideas of knowledge that sociologists have demonstrated maintain social divisions and power hierarchies.
The Unexplored Challenges of Television Distribution: The Case of Azteca America
Authors: Piñon Juan
Published: April 2010

The goal of the Azteca America television network, a new arrival within the U.S. Latino field, has challenged the long-standing duopoly held by Univision and Telemundo. Because the Azteca network was launched with a limited coverage of 18 percent of U.S. Hispanic households, its economic viability depended on the expansion of its coverage through co-opting TV affiliates. The dynamics of television programming distribution remain largely understudied by media studies. The author argues that the site of distribution is a structured space that not only defines the access and future success of newcomers in the television business but also demonstrates the institutional culture and business practices in which televisual media represent acquired economic value. At the core of Azteca America’s corporate distribution efforts to reach nationwide coverage lies a process of making the network attractive and valuable to future TV station affiliates, advertising agencies, and corporate clients. The way executives add economic value by deploying Mexicanness by means of the hybrid Azteca America identity and the network institutional business culture allows for the interrogation of longstanding assumptions held by media professionals about the Hispanic market, the U.S. Spanish-language television industry, and its constituency, the Latino audience.
Exporting Exile on TV Martí
Authors: Johnson Mariana
Published: April 2010

This essay focuses on U.S. broadcasting to Cuba, specifically the development and programming of TV Martí, a channel whose ostensible aim is to undermine the communist Cuban government and promote democratic transition. Since TV Martí’s first broadcast in 1990, Cuba has successfully jammed the signal, and the question of why the United States should continue to fund a station with no viewers has been the subject of ongoing discussion. Issues of reception have so overdetermined the debate as to obviate analysis of the productions themselves.This article argues that the existence of TV Martí is best understood in relation to Cuban exile nationalism. Fundamental confusion exists on the issues of what TV Martí is supposed to represent and for whom it is created, raising questions not only about its effectiveness as propaganda meant to interpellate Cuban nationals—if there are any watching—but also about what is at stake in exporting the exilic national imaginary.
What comes after Sovereignty?
Authors: Guardiola-Rivera Oscar
Published: April 2010

This paper addresses the question of sovereignty from a perspective that connects the origins of public international law, with a series of onto-theological assumptions about the nature of place that were decisive in the emergence of modern colonialism. It will argue that insofar as sovereignty depends on some form of transcendence, external or internal, it is and has been ‘’impotent’’ from the very outset. However, contrary to the idea expressed in the well-known tale about the emperor’s new clothes, it is not the case that acknowledgement of this impotence would entail the end of sovereignty. Faced with the truth of its ultimate impotence, the sovereign supplements its role as decider with that of the intrigant. This new figure of sovereignty is embodied in the expert politician who announces the coming catastrophe in order to avert it, or contain it, through the use of ‘’limited’’ but ultimately borderless violence.
Dead Hand Rising: Dialectics Beyond Last Wills in The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest
Authors: Jenkins Joseph
Published: April 2010

The Tempest instantiates Shakespeare’s penchant for the young, in battles of will between forebears and followers. While Prospero’s magic seems to render his will omnipotent, the break in the Masque, at 4.1, undermines that appearance, as well as revealing that will’s partiality; Prospero’s will vis-à-vis his daughter is suggested as potentially incestuous. The play’s happy ending is reached through a marriage alliance beyond the wills of Prospero and his ancient enemy, Naples. Here is further evidence of Shakespeare’s penchant for the young: those whose freedom relies on a space protected from the forebear’s will. The broader political relevance of tensions between the wills of forebears and followers is underlined, not only by the crown of Naples’ dependence on the outcome of a passionate father—daughter parting, but also by Prospero’s musings, in 5.1, on the kind of law that would be given by elves who leave no footprints. A forebear giving such a law would refrain from enforcing his will on following generations. Prospero’s magic is representation without enforcement, a lightening of passing law.
A Rose by Another Name: Legal Definitions, Sanitized Terms, and Imagery of Torture in 24
Authors: Lokaneeta Jinee
Published: April 2010

In this paper, I explore the role of popular television imagery of torture in shaping the U.S. legal and political debates over the definition of torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Taking the popular show 24 as an instance of a dominant imagery of torture, I analyze how this imagery of torture informs the definitional distinctions adopted by the United States. I argue that the popular imagery of torture with its emphasis on physical brutality continues to influence the legal and political discourse on torture. Apart from legitimizing a narrow definition of torture, the popular imagery also allows the United States to create an arena of acceptability for apparently less severe forms of violence. Thus, the need to call rose by another name is not just an attempt to deny the presence of torture by using narrow definitions but in addition because of the popular imagery, the present time is represented as an actual moment of progress from earlier more brutal times.
Past and present pasts: Historical labours in modern China
Authors: Hansen Anders Sybrandt
Published: April 2010

Ideological and practical concerns inform the shaping of collective memory in present historical labours, but the legacy of narratives inherited from earlier generations also produce certain restrictions on how history may be envisioned and transmitted in the present. In this article I trace the labour of historical forgetting, invention and remembrance performed in modern China by the May Fourth Movement and the Chinese Communist Party, addressing how this legacy affects currently held views of past, present and future. I argue that China is today witnessing a remarkable and problematic shift in its appraisal of history and tradition, as its guiding trope of history, historical materialism, is undergoing crisis while challenged by a competing vision of a Chinese cultural renaissance.
Memory, power and resistance: The anatomy of a tripartite relationship
Authors: Ryan Lorraine
Published: April 2010

The need to examine the individual response to collective memory narratives has been continually emphasized in the nascent discipline of memory studies.This article examines the relationship between collective memory, power and resistance. In so doing, it seeks to establish a typology of mnemonic resistance, that is, to ascertain the modes by which collective memory may be resisted by the individual or a minoritarian, repressed group. The author contends that this resistance is two fold, dependent on both individual resignification, and the nature of collective memory itself, which, unwittingly, because of its necessarily nebulous character, the not inconsequential influence of both individual reception and generational change in its construction and reception, facilitates its own subversion. Collective memory, therefore, is always negotiated at the interface between the imposition of a public dominant narrative and the reaction of the private individual.
Technical advances in robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
Authors: Turpen Ryan , Atalah Hany , Su Li-Ming
Published: April 2010

Since it was introduced in 1999, the da Vinci Surgical System has become an integral tool in urologic surgery, specifically in the management of localized prostate cancer. The original technique of robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) was developed and standardized in 2000 at the Institut Mutualiste Monsouris. Since that time, the technique of RALP has undergone various modifications. The driving force behind the evolution of the RALP technique in the past decade has been based on efforts to improve upon the three main objectives of surgery, namely the ‘trifecta’ of cancer cure and the preservation of potency and of urinary continence. In this review, we aim to provide an update on the midterm oncologic outcomes of RALP and focus specifically on two technical modifications that have been introduced in an effort to optimize the outcomes of potency and earlier return of urinary continence.
Laparoendoscopic single-site surgery in urology
Authors: Berkowitz Jared R. , Allaf Mohamad E.
Published: April 2010

Background: Since its introduction, the role of laparoscopic surgery has grown and it has now become the standard approach for many surgical procedures. The benefits of smaller incisions, improved pain and convalescence, and shorter hospital stays have greatly improved patient care and satisfaction. In an effort to further minimize the morbidity of surgery, laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS) or single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) has emerged. We review the collective experience with this novel technique and share our initial observations and early results.

Methods: We performed a literature search to review the published experience with this new technique including the breadth of applications and perioperative outcomes associated with LESS in urology. We also analysed the experience with this emerging technique at our institution.

Results: There are numerous variations with regards to nomenclature as well as types of access to the abdominal cavity as it pertains to LESS. Urologic procedures involving single-port access have acceptable operating room time, blood loss, and postoperative pain, which are in line with standard laparoscopic surgical outcomes with the added benefit of improved cosmesis and smaller incisions.

Conclusions: Further studies and larger cohorts are needed to assess the real benefit of LESS procedures. The additional learning curve needed to master these techniques may be a barrier to wider acceptance, although improvements in instrumentation are likely to bridge this gap.
Effects of Interval Walking on Physical Fitness in Middle-Aged Individuals
Authors: Lalande Sophie , Okazaki Kazunobu , Yamazaki Toshiaki , Nose Hiroshi , Joyner Michael J. , Johnson Bruce D.
Published: April 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a 3-month interval walking program on peak aerobic capacity and cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged sedentary individuals. Participants were divided into 2 groups: a nontraining control group (n = 17) and an interval walking training group (n = 29). Participants in the interval walking training group were instructed to perform 5 or more sets of 3-min low-intensity walking interspersed by 3-min of moderate to high-intensity walking (>70% of peak aerobic capacity) on 4 or more days/week. Measurements of peak aerobic capacity, blood pressure, blood lipids, and glucose concentration were performed before and after training. Twenty-six individuals completed the interval walking program averaging 4 days/week for 34 min, of which 16 min were moderate to high-intensity walking, with a total energy expenditure of 776 kcal/week. Three months of interval walking increased peak aerobic capacity (from 20.4 ± 3.0 to 26.0 ± 5.2 mL/kg/min; P < .001) and reduced resting systolic blood pressure (127 ± 11 to 119 ± 11 mm Hg; P = .01). There was an inverse correlation between initial level and training-induced changes in glucose, HbA1c, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein. Conversely, 3 months of nontraining did not improve physical fitness or cardiovascular risk factors. Very modest amounts of aerobic exercise involving brief periods of interspersed higher intensity exercise can significantly increase peak aerobic capacity and reduce resting systolic blood pressure in middle-aged sedentary individuals and contribute to a normalization of cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with elevated initial values.
Self-association mediated by the Ras association 1 domain of AF6 activates the oncogenic potential of MLL-AF6
Authors: Liedtke Michaela , Ayton Paul M. , Somervaille Tim C. P. , Smith Kevin S. , Cleary Michael L.
Published: April 2010

MLL is a common target for chromosomal translocations associated with acute leukemia resulting in its fusion with a large variety of nuclear or cytoplasmic proteins that may activate its oncogenic properties by distinct but poorly understood mechanisms. The MLL-AF6 fusion gene represents the most common leukemogenic fusion of mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) to a cytoplasmic partner protein. Here, we identified a highly conserved Ras association (RA1) domain at the amino-terminus of AF6 as the minimal region sufficient for MLL-AF6 mediated myeloid progenitor immortalization in vitro and short latency leukemogenesis in vivo. Moreover, the ability of RA1 to activate MLL oncogenesis is conserved with its Drosophila ortholog, Canoe. Although the AF6 RA1 domain has previously been defined as an interaction surface for guanosine triphosphate–bound Ras, single amino acid substitutions known to abolish the AF6-Ras interaction did not abrogate MLL-AF6–mediated oncogenesis. Furthermore, fusion of MLL to heterologous RA domains of c-Raf1 or RalGDS, or direct fusion of MLL to constitutively active K-RAS, H-RAS, or RAP1 was not sufficient for oncogenic activation of MLL. Rather, the AF6 RA1 domain efficiently mediated self-association, suggesting that constitutive MLL self-association is a more common pathogenic mechanism for MLL oncogenesis than indicated by previous studies of rare MLL fusion partners.
Comprehensive analysis of lymph node stroma-expressed Ig superfamily members reveals redundant and nonredundant roles for ICAM-1, ICAM-2, and VCAM-1 in lymphocyte homing
Authors: Boscacci Rémy T. , Pfeiffer Friederike , Gollmer Kathrin , Sevilla Ana Isabel Checa , Martin Ana Maria , Soriano Silvia Fernandez , Natale Daniela , Henrickson Sarah , von Andrian Ulrich H. , Fukui Yoshinori , Mellado Mario , Deutsch Urban , Engelhardt Britta , Stein Jens V.
Published: April 2010

Although it is well established that stromal intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), ICAM-2, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) mediate lymphocyte recruitment into peripheral lymph nodes (PLNs), their precise contributions to the individual steps of the lymphocyte homing cascade are not known. Here, we provide in vivo evidence for a selective function for ICAM-1 > ICAM-2 > VCAM-1 in lymphocyte arrest within noninflamed PLN microvessels. Blocking all 3 CAMs completely inhibited lymphocyte adhesion within PLN high endothelial venules (HEVs). Postarrest extravasation of T cells was a 3-step process, with optional ICAM-1–dependent intraluminal crawling followed by rapid ICAM-1– or ICAM-2–independent diapedesis and perivascular trapping. Parenchymal motility of lymphocytes was modestly reduced in the absence of ICAM-1, while ICAM-2 and α4-integrin ligands were not required for B-cell motility within follicles. Our findings highlight nonredundant functions for stromal Ig family CAMs in shear-resistant lymphocyte adhesion in steady-state HEVs, a unique role for ICAM-1 in intraluminal lymphocyte crawling but redundant roles for ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 in lymphocyte diapedesis and interstitial motility.
Interaction of connexin43 and protein kinase C-delta during FGF2 signaling
Authors: Niger Corinne , Hebert Carla , Stains Joseph P
Published: April 2010

Background

We have recently demonstrated that modulation of the gap junction protein, connexin43, can affect the response of osteoblasts to fibroblast growth factor 2 in a protein kinase C-delta-dependent manner. Others have shown that the C-terminal tail of connexin43 serves as a docking platform for signaling complexes. It is unknown whether protein kinase C-delta can physically interact with connexin43.

Results

In the present study, we investigate by immunofluorescent co-detection and biochemical examination the interaction between Cx43 and protein kinase C-delta. We establish that protein kinase C-delta physically interacts with connexin43 during fibroblast growth factor 2 signaling, and that protein kinase C delta preferentially co-precipitates phosphorylated connexin43. Further, we show by pull down assay that protein kinase C-delta associates with the C-terminal tail of connexin43.

Conclusions

Connexin43 can serve as a direct docking platform for the recruitment of protein kinase C-delta in order to affect fibroblast growth factor 2 signaling in osteoblasts. These data expand the list of signal molecules that assemble on the connexin43 C-terminal tail and provide a critical context to understand how gap junctions modify signal transduction cascades in order to impact cell function.
Finishing genomes with limited resources: lessons from an ensemble of microbial genomes
Authors: Nagarajan Niranjan , Cook Christopher , Di Bonaventura MariaPia , Ge Hong , Richards Allen , Bishop-Lilly Kimberly A , DeSalle Robert , Read Timothy D , Pop Mihai
Published: April 2010

While new sequencing technologies have ushered in an era where microbial genomes can be easily sequenced, the goal of routinely producing high-quality draft and finished genomes in a cost-effective fashion has still remained elusive. Due to shorter read lengths and limitations in library construction protocols, shotgun sequencing and assembly based on these technologies often results in fragmented assemblies. Correspondingly, while draft assemblies can be obtained in days, finishing can take many months and hence the time and effort can only be justified for high-priority genomes and in large sequencing centers. In this work, we revisit this issue in light of our own experience in producing finished and nearly-finished genomes for a range of microbial species in a small-lab setting. These genomes were finished with surprisingly little investments in terms of time, computational effort and lab work, suggesting that the increased access to sequencing might also eventually lead to a greater proportion of finished genomes from small labs and genomics cores.
Whole genome assembly of a natto production strain Bacillus subtilis natto from very short read data
Authors: Nishito Yukari , Osana Yasunori , Hachiya Tsuyoshi , Popendorf Kris , Toyoda Atsushi , Fujiyama Asao , Itaya Mitsuhiro , Sakakibara Yasubumi
Published: April 2010

Background

Bacillus subtilis natto is closely related to the laboratory standard strain B. subtilis Marburg 168, and functions as a starter for the production of the traditional Japanese food "natto" made from soybeans. Although re-sequencing whole genomes of several laboratory domesticated B. subtilis 168 derivatives has already been attempted using short read sequencing data, the assembly of the whole genome sequence of a closely related strain, B. subtilis natto, from very short read data is more challenging, particularly with our aim to assemble one fully connected scaffold from short reads around 35 bp in length.

Results

We applied a comparative genome assembly method, which combines de novo assembly and reference guided assembly, to one of the B. subtilis natto strains. We successfully assembled 28 scaffolds and managed to avoid substantial fragmentation. Completion of the assembly through long PCR experiments resulted in one connected scaffold for B. subtilis natto. Based on the assembled genome sequence, our orthologous gene analysis between natto BEST195 and Marburg 168 revealed that 82.4% of 4375 predicted genes in BEST195 are one-to-one orthologous to genes in 168, with two genes in-paralog, 3.2% are deleted in 168, 14.3% are inserted in BEST195, and 5.9% of genes present in 168 are deleted in BEST195. The natto genome contains the same alleles in the promoter region of degQ and the coding region of swrAA as the wild strain, RO-FF-1.

These are specific for γ-PGA production ability, which is related to natto production. Further, the B. subtilis natto strain completely lacked a polyketide synthesis operon, disrupted the plipastatin production operon, and possesses previously unidentified transposases.

Conclusions

The determination of the whole genome sequence of Bacillus subtilis natto provided detailed analyses of a set of genes related to natto production, demonstrating the number and locations of insertion sequences that B. subtilis natto harbors but B. subtilis 168 lacks. Multiple genome-level comparisons among five closely related Bacillus species were also carried out. The determined genome sequence of B. subtilis natto and gene annotations are available from the Natto genome browser http://natto-genome.org/.
Bacterial diversity at different stages of the composting process
Authors: Partanen Pasi , Hultman Jenni , Paulin Lars , Auvinen Petri , Romantschuk Martin
Published: April 2010

Background

Composting is an aerobic microbiological process that is facilitated by bacteria and fungi. Composting is also a method to produce fertilizer or soil conditioner. Tightened EU legislation now requires treatment of the continuously growing quantities of organic municipal waste before final disposal. However, some full-scale composting plants experience difficulties with the efficiency of biowaste degradation and with the emission of noxious odours. In this study we examine the bacterial species richness and community structure of an optimally working pilot-scale compost plant, as well as a full-scale composting plant experiencing typical problems. Bacterial species composition was determined by isolating total DNA followed by amplifying and sequencing the gene encoding the 16S ribosomal RNA.

Results

Over 1500 almost full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences were analysed and of these, over 500 were present only as singletons. Most of the sequences observed in either one or both of the composting processes studied here were similar to the bacterial species reported earlier in composts, including bacteria from the phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Deinococcus-Thermus. In addition, a number of previously undetected bacterial phylotypes were observed. Statistical calculations estimated a total bacterial diversity of over 2000 different phylotypes in the studied composts.

Conclusions

Interestingly, locally enriched or evolved bacterial variants of familiar compost species were observed in both composts. A detailed comparison of the bacterial diversity revealed a large difference in composts at the species and strain level from the different composting plants. However, at the genus level, the difference was much smaller and illustrated a delay of the composting process in the full-scale, sub-optimally performing plants.
Excellent superiority and specificity of COBAS TaqMan HCV assay in an early viral kinetic change during pegylated interferon alpha-2b plus ribavirin treatment
Authors: Ogawa Eiichi , Furusyo Norihiro , Toyoda Kazuhiro , Taniai Hiroaki , Otaguro Shigeru , Kainuma Mosaburo , Murata Masayuki , Sawayama Yasunori , Hayashi Jun
Published: April 2010

Background

An early virological response (EVR) after the start of interferon (IFN) treatment for chronic hepatitis C leads to a successful virological outcome. To analyze an association between sustained virological response (SVR) and EVR by comparing TaqMan with Amplicor assays in HCV genotype 1-infected patients treated with pegylated (PEG)-IFN alpha-2b plus ribavirin (RBV).

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed a total of 80 HCV genotype 1 patients (39 SVR and 41 non-SVR patients), who received an enough dosage and a complete 48-week treatment of PEG-IFN alpha-2b plus RBV. Serum HCV RNA levels were measured by both TaqMan and Amplicor assays for each patients at Weeks 2, 4, 8 and 12 after the start of the antiviral treatment.

Results

Of the 80 patients with undetectable HCV RNA by Amplicor, 17 (21.3%) patients were positive for HCV RNA by TaqMan at Weeks 12. The quantification results showed that no significant difference in the decline of HCV RNA level between TaqMan and Amplicor 10-fold method assays within the initial 12 weeks of the treatment was found. However, the qualitative analysis showed significant differences of the positive predictive rates for SVR were found between TaqMan (100% at weeks 4 and 100% at weeks 8) and Amplicor (80.0% and 69.6%, respectively).

Conclusions

The COBAS TaqMan HCV assay is very useful for monitoring HCV viremia during antiviral treatment to predict a SVR in HCV genotype 1 patients.