bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Malignant granular cell tumor with unusual histological features
Authors: Behzatoğlu Kemal , Bahadır Burak
Published: February 2007

Malignant granular cell tumor, although uncommon, should be differentiated from a number of granular cell‐containing tumors. Reported herein is a distinctive variant of malignant granular cell tumor, clinically presenting as a rapidly enlarging scrotal mass, in which some areas morphologically displayed features indistinguishable from Kaposi sarcoma. Cells in areas simulating Kaposi sarcoma were immunohistochemically the same as typical granular cells in other portions of the tumor. The recognition of this pattern is important because it may predominate and overshadow the original nature of tumor.
β‐Blocker use and diabetes symptom score: results from the GEMINI study
Authors: McGill J. B. , Bakris G. L. , Fonseca V. , Raskin P. , Messerli F. H. , Phillips R. A. , Katholi R. E. , Wright J. T. , Iyengar M. , Anderson K. M. , Lukas M. A. , Dalal M. R. , Bell D. S. H.
Published: February 2007

Aim:  The Glycemic Effect in Diabetes Mellitus: Carvedilol–Metoprolol Comparison in Hypertensives (GEMINI) trial compared the metabolic effects of two β‐blockers in people with type 2 diabetes and hypertension treated with renin–angiotensin system (RAS) blockade and found differences in metabolic outcomes. In this paper, we report the results of a prespecified secondary analysis of GEMINI that sought to determine the effect of these two β‐blockers on commonly reported symptoms.

Methods:  The Diabetes Symptom Checklist (DSC), a self‐report questionnaire measuring the occurrence and perceived burden of diabetes‐related symptoms, was completed by GEMINI participants at baseline and at the end of the study (maintenance month 5). The DSC assessed symptoms in eight domains: psychology (fatigue), psychology (cognitive), neuropathy (pain), neuropathy (sensory), cardiology, ophthalmology, hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia.

Results:  Comparison of the mean change in self‐reported diabetes‐related symptoms indicated a significant treatment difference favouring carvedilol over metoprolol tartrate in overall symptom score (−0.08; 95% CI −0.15, −0.01; p = 0.02) and in the domains for hypoglycaemia symptoms (−0.12; 95% CI −0.23, −0.02; p = 0.02) and hyperglycaemia symptoms (−0.16; 95% CI −0.27, −0.05; p = 0.005). Carvedilol resulted in fewer perceived diabetes‐related symptoms in patients with diabetes and hypertension.

Conclusion:  Carvedilol resulted in a lower perceived burden of diabetes‐related symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension. The addition of a well‐tolerated β‐blocker to RAS blockade may improve hypertension treatment and quality of life in patients with diabetes.
The influence of age and body mass index on the metabolic syndrome and its components
Authors: Alexander C. M. , Landsman P. B. , Grundy S. M.
Published: February 2007

Objective:  The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of ageing and body mass index (BMI) on the revised National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)‐defined metabolic syndrome, its components, diabetes and coronary heart disease prevalence using the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Methods:  Data from adults aged 20 and older who received morning physical examinations after a fast of at least 9 h (n = 7959), representing 196.8 million Americans were used in this analysis. The population was stratified by age deciles and BMI categories using standard definitions of overweight and obesity. Due to small sample size, those few individuals with BMI <18.5 were excluded.

Results:  Fasting glucose, diabetes and systolic blood pressure (SBP) seem to have a linear relationship with age and BMI, that is, increasing BMI seems to linearly reduce the age decile when the mean exceeds the NCEP cutpoint. Regardless of BMI, the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension increases with age. Triglyceride levels and prevalence of metabolic syndrome follow a pattern that is less linear. Fasting insulin and C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels correlate better with BMI than age. Diastolic BP and HDL cholesterol for men and women (analysed separately) did not correlate with either age or BMI.

Conclusion:  For each component of the metabolic syndrome and associated factors, there is a complex interaction between ageing and obesity. Some components are associated with obesity but not ageing (e.g. CRP), while others are associated with both obesity and ageing (e.g. glucose). Even when the association exists, the specific relationship can appear to be more (e.g. SBP) or less (e.g. triglycerides) linear.
N‐butyldeoxynojirimycin causes weight loss as a result of appetite suppression in lean and obese mice
Authors: Priestman D. A. , Van Der Spoel A. C. , Butters T. D. , Dwek R. A. , Platt F. M.
Published: February 2007

Aim:  To determine the mechanism of weight loss caused by high doses of N‐butyldeoxynojirimycin (NB‐DNJ) in healthy lean and leptin–deficient obese (ob/ob) mice.

Methods:  Healthy lean and obese mice were treated with NB‐DNJ by the following methods: admixed with their diet, delivered by subcutaneously implanted mini‐pumps or by intraperitoneal or intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection. Daily changes in body weight and food intake were recorded during the experimental period. The effect of NB‐DNJ treatment on subcutaneous adipose tissue and on epididymal fat pads was measured.

Results:  Lean mice treated with NB‐DNJ, admixed with their diet, lost weight in the form of adipose tissue. This resulted in a 40% reduction in skin thickness (control, 358 ± 11 μm; NB‐DNJ treated 203 ± 6 μm) and a reduction in epididymal fat pad weights after 5 weeks of treatment at 2400 mg/kg/day (control, 0.0154 ± 0.001; NB‐DNJ treated, 0.0026 ± 0.0005 as ratios of fat pad weight to total body weight). Following the depletion of adipose tissue mass, the mice grew normally and did not have any reduction in lean mass. Obese mice treated with NB‐DNJ also lost weight or gained weight at a greatly reduced rate compared with non‐treated controls. Body weights at 6 months of age were: lean control, 29.10 ± 1.15 g; lean NB‐DNJ treated, 22.73 ± 0.29 g; obese control, 63.25 ± 1.5 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated from 5 weeks of age, 35.30 ± 1.68 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated from 12 weeks of age, 38.84 ± 1.26 g. Both the lean and obese groups of mice treated with NB‐DNJ ate up to 30% less than untreated controls. Daily food intake (powder diet) were: lean control, 4.15 ± 0.54 g; obese control, 4.14 ± 0.2 g; lean NB‐DNJ treated 2.9 ± 0.37 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated, 2.88 ± 0.47 g. Mice treated with the N‐substituted galactose imino sugar analogue, N‐butyldeoxygalactonojirimycin (NB‐DGJ) did not lose weight. Mice experienced similar weight loss or lack of weight gain when fed a restricted diet that mimics the drug‐induced level of food consumption. Delivery of 2 nmol NB‐DNJ by ICV injection into lean mice also caused similar reductions in food intake. Food intake: saline vehicle, 4.30 ± 0.12 g; NB‐DNJ, 3.37 ± 0.19 g; NB‐DGJ, 4.03 ± 0.16 g; 2‐deoxyglucose, 4.7 ± 0.15 g.

Conclusion:  NB‐DNJ causes weight loss as a result of reduced food consumption due to central appetite suppression.
Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The Struggle for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development
Authors: Cornwall Andrea , Harrison Elizabeth , Whitehead Ann
Published: February 2007

Gender and development has grown enormously as a field over the last thirty years. In this introduction, we interrogate the ambivalence that underpins feminist engagement with development and examine what current dilemmas may suggest about the relationship between feminist knowledge and development practice. In recent years, there has been growing frustration with the simplistic slogans that have come to characterize much gender and development talk, and with the gap between professed intention and actual practice in policies and programmes. Questions are now being asked about what has become of ‘gender’ in development. This collection brings together critical reflections on some ideas about gender that have become especially resonant in development narratives, particularly those that entail popularization and the deployment of iconic images of women. This introduction explores more closely the issues raised by such myth‐making, arguing that these myths stem from exigencies within the politics and practices of development bureaucracies, within the difficult politics of feminist engagement with development policy and practice and within feminist politics itself.
Earth Mother Myths and Other Ecofeminist Fables: How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell
Authors: Leach Melissa
Published: February 2007

The notion that women are ‘closer to nature’, naturally caring for land, water, forests and other aspects of the environment, has held powerful sway in certain development circles since the 1980s. Along with the rise in global environmental concern, ‘women, environment and development’ (WED) perspectives gained ground among many donor agencies and NGOs, complementing and sharing core assumptions with earlier‐established ‘women in development’ (WID) discourses. The materialist dimensions of WED were bolstered by fables about women's natural, cultural or ideological closeness to nature grounded in varieties of ecofeminist analysis. This proved a seductive mix for agencies wishing simultaneously to promote environmental protection and WID, as well as for certain forms of feminist activism and sisterhood‐construction, such as those around the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. This contribution revisits these narratives and the politics of this strategic fix in the development of international environmentalism and explores the sustained critiques of these ecofeminist fables by feminist scholars and activists from the early 1990s onwards. It provides a critical review of the approach to gender and the environment in some current donor, NGO and other policy documents, which draw little from the feminist critiques of the 1990s. The author reflects on how, and for whom, women–nature links might have practical or strategic value today.
Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti‐Corruption Force?
Authors: Goetz Anne Marie
Published: February 2007

There is currently a myth in the making: that women are less corrupt than men. Recently some aid donors have cited statistical evidence that countries with larger numbers of women in politics and in the workforce have lower levels of corruption. That this finding can be explained by the fact that there are more women in politics and the workforce in liberal democracies that are anyway less corrupt than poorer less liberal regimes does not detract from the eagerness with which some development actors are seizing upon the potential role women might play in fighting corruption. The myth of women's incorruptibility is not, of course, new. It is grounded in essentialist notions of women's higher moral nature and an assumed propensity to bring this to bear on public life, and particularly on the conduct of politics. After demonstrating that some of the recent studies about gender and corruption record perceptions about propensities to engage in corrupt behaviour, this contribution suggests rather that the gendered nature of access to politics and public life shapes opportunities for corruption. In addition, corruption can be experienced differently by women and men, which has implications for anti‐corruption strategies. A gendered analysis of corruption is in fact a useful entry‐point to the examination of the gendered nature of accountability failures, and of gender‐specific gaps in current attempts to promote good governance.
Listening to language at birth: evidence for a bias for speech in neonates
Authors: Vouloumanos Athena , Werker Janet F.
Published: February 2007

The nature and origin of the human capacity for acquiring language is not yet fully understood. Here we uncover early roots of this capacity by demonstrating that humans are born with a preference for listening to speech. Human neonates adjusted their high amplitude sucking to preferentially listen to speech, compared with complex non‐speech analogues that controlled for critical spectral and temporal parameters of speech. These results support the hypothesis that human infants begin language acquisition with a bias for listening to speech. The implications of these results for language and communication development are discussed.
The role of type and token frequency in using past tense morphemes correctly
Authors: Nicoladis Elena , Palmer Andrea , Marentette Paula
Published: February 2007

Type and token frequency have been thought to be important in the acquisition of past tense morphology, particularly in differentiating regular and irregular forms. In this study we tested the role of frequency in two ways: (1) in bilingual children, who typically use and hear either language less often than monolingual children and (2) cross‐linguistically: French and English have different patterns of frequency of regular/irregular verbs. Ten French‐English bilingual children, 10 French monolingual and 10 English monolingual children between 4 and 6 years watched a cartoon and re‐told the story. The results demonstrated that the bilingual children were less accurate than the monolingual children. Their accuracy in both French and English regular and irregular verbs corresponded to frequency in the input language. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that children learn past tense morphemes by analogy with other words in their vocabularies. We propose a developmental sequence based on conservative generalization across a growing set of verbs.
Immigration Geopolitics Beyond the Mexico–US Border
Authors: Coleman Mathew
Published: February 2007

Despite the centrality of Mexico–US border policing to pre‐ and post‐9/11 US immigration geopolitics, perhaps the most significant yet largely ignored immigration‐related fallout of the so‐called war on terrorism has been the extension of interior immigration policing practices away from the southwest border. As I outline in this paper, these interior spaces of immigration geopolitics—nominally said to be about fighting terrorism, but in practice concerned with undocumented labor migration across the Mexico–US border—have not emerged accidentally. Rather, the recent criminalization of immigration law, the sequestering of immigration enforcement from court oversight and the enrollment of proxy immigration officers at sub‐state scales have been actively pursued so as to make interior enforcement newly central to US immigration geopolitics. I argue here that these embryonic spaces of localized immigration geopolitics shed new light on the spatiality of US immigration governance, which has typically been thought of by geographers as active predominantly at the territorial margins of the state. I conclude the paper with some thoughts as to how geographers might rethink the what and where of contemporary US immigration geopolitics.
Leaky Borders and Solid Citizens: Governing Security, Prosperity and Quality of Life in a North American Partnership
Authors: Gilbert Emily
Published: February 2007

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States in March 2005, proposes a dramatic reshaping of the continent. This is no simple plan for the intensification of economic and security cooperation. The SPP is much more expansive and includes quality of life issues such as education, science and technology, the environment, and health. But what does it mean that there is an emergent concern with biopolitics, that is, with the lives and bodies of the region's citizens, at the trilateral level? How are these citizens being imagined in the new regional vision? What are the implications for states and sovereignty? This paper addresses these questions by turning first to the trope of “partnership” as it emerges in the SPP, and then to the ways that borders and population mobility are being construed. The discourse of “partnership” signals a new political rationality that is reconfiguring the relationship between the North American states, their markets and their citizens. The repercussions for citizens and citizenship are especially significant, and are most clearly apparent vis‐à‐vis border policies, as I discuss in the following section. While external borders are being hardened against most foreign nationals, mobility across internal borders is becoming more differentiated: more penetrable for some, and impassable for others. The SPP thus promotes a divisive and striated regional space that will help perpetuate the ongoing tensions around illegal immigrants and undocumented workers in North America.
“Skilled, Cheap, and Desperate”1: Non‐tenure‐track Faculty and the Delusion of Meritocracy
Authors: Purcell Mark
Published: February 2007

Over the past 25 or so years, geographers have produced sophisticated critical tools to examine systems like patriarchy, racism, and heteronormativity. However, they have not used those critical tools to examine the problem of institutional hierarchy in the academy. There are many kinds of institutional hierarchy, but the paper focuses on one particular structure: the difference between tenure‐track and non‐tenure‐track faculty. I call for much greater critical reflection on the existence and experience of non‐tenure‐track faculty in geography. I argue that it is essential to undermine the structures and assumed wisdom of the hierarchy, for the sake of non‐tenure‐track faculty, the discipline, and the academy as a whole. Destabilizing the structures requires multiple strategies. I argue that one key strategy is for non‐tenure‐track faculty to tell their stories, to offer their critical perspective from the lower rungs of the hierarchy. The last part of the paper is an autobiographical account designed to give a better idea of how one such story might look.
Reconfiguring North–South Solidarity: Critical Reflections on Experiences of Transnational Resistance
Authors: Sundberg Juanita
Published: February 2007

This paper presents a critical reflection on transnational solidarity between the movement to close the School of the Americas in the United States and H.I.J.@.S.‐Vancouver, made up of Latin Americans living in exile in Canada. We analyze what solidarity looks and feels like from the insiders' perspective in order to critically reflect on the ways in which “empire as a way of life” in the US shapes the geometries of power in relations of solidarity. Our analysis is the product of a collaborative research and writing project.
CONSTRUCTION OF CROSSOVER DESIGNS WITH CORRELATED ERRORS
Authors: Williams E.R. , John J.A.
Published: February 2007

Crossover experiments are widely used, particularly where a sequence of treatments is given to subjects. Correlations between observations on the same subject are therefore likely and should be considered in both the design and analysis of crossover experiments. This paper presents an algorithm for the generation of efficient crossover designs with autoregressive and linear variance structures. The algorithm has been implemented as a module in the experimental design generation package CycDesigN (Release 3.0; CycSoftware, Hamilton, New Zealand). Output from the algorithm is compared with earlier work. Some results are given from the analysis of a crossover experiment assuming correlated errors.
Work Effort, Moderation in Expulsion, and Illegal Migration
Authors: Stark Oded
Published: February 2007

Illegal migrants supply a valuable productive input: effort. But their status as illegals means that these migrants face a strictly positive probability of expulsion. A return to their country of origin entails reduced earnings when the wage at origin is lower than the wage at destination. This prospect induces illegal migrants to exert more work effort than comparable workers who face no such prospect. The lower the probable, alternative earnings, the harsher the penalty that illegal migrants will be subjected to upon their return, for a given probability of expulsion, and the higher the level of effort they will exert at destination. While the home‐country wage that awaits the illegal migrants upon their return is exogenous to the host country, the probability of their return is not. Given the home‐country wage, a higher probability of expulsion will induce illegal migrants to supply more effort. Hence, different combinations of probabilities of expulsion and home‐country wages yield the same level of effort. Thus, variation in the extent to which receiving countries undertake measures aimed at apprehending and expelling illegal migrants can be attributed not to characteristics of the illegal migrants themselves but to a feature that pertains to the illegal migrants’ country of origin.
The Home Market Effect in Models with Multinational Enterprises
Authors: Larch Mario
Published: February 2007

Trade patterns in new trade theory models and agglomeration patterns in new economic geography models crucially depend on the effect that a higher local demand leads to a larger share of production of these products, namely the home market effect. Multinationals can exploit higher foreign demand without incurring transport costs by setting up a plant abroad. This paper demonstrates that in the presence of multinationals the home market effect appears even in cases where it otherwise would not. But it works via a different channel, relying on the repatriation of profits rather than on interindustry trade.
Effects of Textual Enhancement and Topic Familiarity on Korean EFL Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning of Passive Form
Authors: Lee Sang‐Ki
Published: February 2007

This quasi‐experimental study attempts to incorporate grammatical elements into meaning‐focused reading classes by attracting learner attention to form with minimal interruption to meaning comprehension. Two hundred fifty‐nine Korean English as a foreign language students underwent four different treatments—involving textual enhancement and topic familiarity conditions. The responses of the students were compared with respect to (a) their ability to identify and correct English passive errors and (b) their degree of reading comprehension. The results revealed that textual enhancement aided the learning of the target forms while having unfavorable effects on meaning comprehension. Topic familiarity, by contrast, aided the students' comprehension but was ineffective in terms of their learning of form. I discuss the findings in light of the theoretical relationship between acquisition and comprehension and conclude with implications for meaning‐oriented lessons.
Y‐chromosomal Binary Haplogroups in the Japanese Population and their Relationship to 16 Y‐STR Polymorphisms
Authors: Nonaka I. , Minaguchi K. , Takezaki N.
Published: February 2007

We investigated Y chromosomal binary and STR polymorphisms in 263 unrelated male individuals from the Japanese population and further examined the relationships between the two separate types of data. Using 47 biallelic markers we distinguished 20 haplogroups, four of which (D2b1/‐022457, O3/‐002611*, O3/‐LINE1 del, and O3/‐021354*) were newly defined in this study. Most haplogroups in the Japanese population are found in one of the three major clades, C, D, or O. Among these, two major lineages, D2b and O2b, account for 66% of Japanese Y chromosomes. Haplotype diversity of binary markers was calculated at 86.3%. The addition of 16 Y‐STR markers increased the number of haplotypes to 225, yielding a haplotype diversity of 99.40%. A comparison of binary haplogroups and Y‐STR type revealed a close association between certain binary haplogroups and Y‐STR allelic or conformational differences, such as those at the DXYS156Y, DYS390m, DYS392, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS388 loci. Based on our data on the relationships between binary and STR polymorphisms, we estimated the binary haplogroups of individuals from STR haplotypes and frequencies of binary haplogroups in other Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese Han populations. The present data will enable researchers to connect data from binary haplogrouping in anthropological studies and Y‐STR typing in forensic studies in East Asian populations, especially those in and around Japan.
Looking across the Tasman: New Zealand Exemplars in Australian Indigenous Affairs, 1920s–1970s1
Authors: McGregor Russell
Published: February 2007

This article explores some ways in which those Australians who sought to advance Aboriginal interests looked to New Zealand for guidance and inspiration during the half‐century from the 1920s to the 1970s. I consider this trans‐Tasman interaction under three headings: parliamentary representation, respect and recognition, and land rights. These, according to Australian activists, Maori possessed and Aborigines lacked. Making up the deficiency, they claimed, would promote Aboriginal well‐being. I also look at how and why the prominence of New Zealand exemplars, relative to those from other countries, changed over these fifty years.
Onychomycosis: A 3‐Year Clinicomycologic Hospital‐Based Study
Authors: Sehgal Virendra N. , Aggarwal Ashok K. , Srivastava Govind , Gupta Manish , Chaudhary Anuradha
Published: February 2007

Background. Despite onychomycosis being an established entity, only a few studies are available from the Indian subcontinent. The authors investigated the comprehensive pattern of the condition.

Aim. To investigate the epidemiologic, clinical, and mycologic factors associated with onychomycosis in 50 patients using a prospective study design.

Methods. Fifty patients with potassium hydroxide positive tests were evaluated according to a predetermined protocal recording details of epidemiologic, clinical, and mycologic characteristics. The collected data were analyzed to determine the correlation of various parameters.

Results. Distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis, total dystrophic onychomycosis, and superficial white onychomycosis variants of onychomycosis were identified, mostly in men 21–30 years of age (mean age, 34.5 years). Epidemiologic characteristics were instrumental to either initiate, perpetuate, or disseminate the disease process. Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes were the main causative dermatophytes; yeasts and molds were less common.

Conclusions. Recognition of onychomycosis is less difficult providing the clinician is aware of the entity. Should the etiologic diagnosis be made, its eradication is desirable to surmount its implication in the society at large.
Antigen recognition by γδ T cells
Authors: Chien Yueh‐hsiu , Konigshofer Yves
Published: February 2007

Summary:  γδ T cells contribute to host immune competence uniquely. This is most likely because they have distinctive antigen‐recognition properties. While the basic organization of γδ T‐cell receptor (TCR) loci is similar to that of αβ TCR loci, there is a striking difference in how the diversity of γδ TCRs is generated. γδ and αβ T cells have different antigen‐recognition requirements and almost certainly recognize a different set of antigens. While it is unclear what most γδ T cells recognize, the non‐classical major histocompatibility complex class I molecules T10 and T22 were found to be the natural ligands for a sizable population (0.2–2%) of murine γδ T cells. The recognition of T10/T22 may be a way by which γδ T cells regulate cells of the immune system, and this system has been used to determine the antigen‐recognition determinants of γδ T cells. T10/T22‐specific γδ T cells have TCRs that are diverse in both V gene usage and CDR3 sequences. Their Vγ usage reflects their tissue origin, and their antigen specificity is conferred by a motif in the TCR δ chain that is encoded by V and D segments and by P‐nucleotide addition. Sequence variations around this motif modulate affinities between TCRs and T10/T22. That this CDR3 motif is important in antigen recognition is confirmed by the crystal structure of a γδ TCR bound to its ligand. The significance of these observations is discussed in the context of γδ T‐cell biology.
T‐cell activation in the intestinal mucosa
Authors: Montufar‐Solis Dina , Garza Tomas , Klein John R.
Published: February 2007

Summary:  The vast majority of peripheral T cells exist as resting lymphocytes until a signal for activation has been received. In response to antigen, this activation involves ligation of the T‐cell receptor (TCR) and signal transmission through the CD3 complex, which then initiates a cascade of intracellular events that lead to the expression of genes used in T‐cell activation. T‐cell activation also requires soluble mediators in the form of cytokines and chemokines that regulate the process in both positive and negative ways, and costimulatory signals received in conjunction with TCR/CD3 signaling are important in the activation of T cells. Unlike T cells in other peripheral immune compartments, small and large intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) bear some but not all properties of activated T cells, suggesting that they constitute a large population of ‘partially activated’ effector cells. Thus, regulation of the IEL activation process must be held in tight check, yet it must be ready to respond to foreign antigen rapidly and effectively. We discuss how costimulatory molecules may hold the key to controlling IEL activation through a multiphase process beginning with cells that have already entered into the early stage of activation.
Curriculum vitae of intestinal intraepithelial T cells: their developmental and behavioral characteristics
Authors: Ishikawa Hiromichi , Naito Tomoaki , Iwanaga Toshihiko , Takahashi‐Iwanaga Hiromi , Suematsu Makoto , Hibi Toshifumi , Nanno Masanobu
Published: February 2007

Summary:  The alimentary tract has an epithelial layer, consisting mainly of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs), that is exposed to the exterior world through the intestinal lumen. The IEC layer contains many intestinal intraepithelial T cells (IELs), and the total number of IELs constitutes the largest population in the peripheral T‐cell pool. Virtually all γδ‐IELs and many αβ‐IELs in the mouse small intestine are known to express CD8αα homodimers. A wide range of evidence that supports extrathymic development of these CD8αα+ IELs has been collected. In addition, while several studies identified cells with precursor T‐cell phenotypes within the gut epithelium, how these precursors, which are dispersed along the length of the intestine, develop into γδ‐IELs and/or αβ‐IELs has not been clarified. The identification of lymphoid cell aggregations named ‘cryptopatches’ (CPs) in the intestinal crypt lamina propria of mice as sites rich in T‐cell precursors in 1996 by our research group, however, provided evidence for a central site, whereby precursor IELs could give rise to T‐cell receptor‐bearing IELs. In this review, we discuss the development of IELs in the intestinal mucosa and examine the possibility that CPs serve as a production site of extrathymic IELs.
γδ T cells: firefighters or fire boosters in the front lines of inflammatory responses
Authors: Nanno Masanobu , Shiohara Tetsuo , Yamamoto Hiroshi , Kawakami Kazuyoshi , Ishikawa Hiromichi
Published: February 2007

Summary:  Intradermal inoculation of cloned self‐reactive αβ T cells into the footpads of mice induced cutaneous graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD), and after recovery from GVHD, the epidermis became resistant to subsequent attempts to induce GVHD. Resistance to GVHD was not induced in the epidermis of T‐cell receptor δ‐deficient (TCRδ−/−) mice that lacked γδ T cells bearing canonical Vγ5/Vδ1+γδTCRs, known as dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs), and resistance was restored by reconstitution of these mutant mice with precursors of Vγ5+ DETCs. Pulmonary infection by Cryptococcus neoformans induced an increase of γδ T cells in the lung, and in comparison with wildtype mice, TCRδ−/− mice eliminated C. neoformans more rapidly and synthesized more interferon‐γ in the lung. In the mouse small intestine, the absence of γδ T cells is associated with a reduction in epithelial cell turnover and downregulation of the expression of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules. The protective role of γδ T cells was verified in a dextran sodium sulfate‐induced inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) model, whereas in a spontaneous model of IBD, γδ T cells were involved in the exacerbation of colitis in TCRα−/− mice. Taken together, in addition to the homeostatic regulation of epithelial tissues, γδ T cells appear to play a pivotal role in the modification of inflammatory responses induced in many organs containing epithelia.
Repertoire of the αβ T‐cell receptor in the intestine
Authors: Probert Christopher S. J. , Saubermann Lawrence J. , Balk Steven , Blumberg Richard S.
Published: February 2007

Summary:  The majority of T cells in the human and mouse intestine express the T‐cell receptor (TCR) as an αβ heterodimer on their cell surface. As the major recognition element of antigens in the context of major histocompatibility complex‐derived proteins, an examination of the structure of the αβTCR in intestines has provided significant insights into the potential function of these cells and the major determinants that drive their selection. Studies in the human intestine have shown that the repertoires of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), and likely lamina propria lymphocytes, are polyclonal before and shortly after birth, with the repertoire becoming oligoclonal in adults. Similarly, in adult mice the repertoire is oligoclonal, while in the newborn it is polyclonal. Investigations in mice have shown that some T cells may evade thymic selection. The population size and oligoclonality of IELs is influenced by the microbial content of the luminal microenvironment. This microenvironment probably directly determines the TCR repertoire. Studies in human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) indicate that inflammation further skews the TCR repertoire. We speculate that dominant antigens associated with the pathogenesis of IBD are responsible for such skewing and that identifying the antigenic drivers may shed light on the environmental factors that trigger or potentiate human IBD.
The pineal melatonin rhythm and its regulation by light in a subterranean rodent, the valley pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae)
Authors: Reiter Russel J. , Reiter M. Nancy , Hattori Atsuhiko , Yaga Ken , Herbert Damon C. , Barlow‐Walden Lornell
Published: February 2007

Reiter RJ, Reiter MN, Hattori A, Yaga K, Herbert DC, Barlow‐Walden L. The pineal melatonin rhythm and its regulation by light in a subterranean rodent, the valley pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae). J. Pineal Res. 1994; 16: 145–153.

The daytime and nighttime levels of pineal N‐acetyltransferase (NAT) activity, hydroxyindole‐O‐methyltransferase (HIOMT) activity, and melatonin were measured in adult male and female valley pocket gophers, Thomomys bottae. This species was chosen for study because it is a subterranean rodent that inhabits burrows whose openings to the surface are closed. Therefore, under field conditions it is estimated that the pocket gopher spends roughly 99% of its time in absolute darkness in underground burrows. When wild captured pocket gophers were maintained under a light dark cycle (light intensity during the day of roughly 140 μ,W/cm2), nighttime levels of pineal NAT activity and melatonin content were higher than values measured during the day; on the other hand, HIOMT activity in the pineal gland was similar in the day and at night. When pocket gophers were exposed to an extended light period (220 μW/cm2) 4 hr into the night, the rise in melatonin synthesis normally associated with darkness onset was not inhibited. Also, when gophers were acutely exposed to a light intensity of 400 μW/cm2 for 1 hr beginning 4 hr after darkness onset, neither high nocturnal levels of pineal NAT nor pineal melatonin contents were reduced. Finally, when pocket gophers were exposed to a 600 (μW/cm2 light intensity at either 4 hr or 8 hr into the dark period, pineal melatonin synthesis remained elevated at a level comparable to that measured in dark‐exposed controls. The results show that under controlled laboratory conditions the pineal gland of the valley pocket gopher, a species that in its natural habitat spends about 99% of its time in absolute darkness, exhibits higher melatonin synthesis during night than during the day. While the rhythm in pineal melatonin production in the pocket gopher is clearly synchronized by the prevailing light: dark cycle, high nighttime pineal melatonin synthesis is not readily inhibited by light in the intensity range of 220 to 600μW/cm2. In terms of its relative insensitivity to light at night, the pineal gland of the valley pocket gopher resembles that of other diurnally active rodents.
Meta‐analysis of published data on incompletely excised basal cell carcinomas of the ear and nose with introduction of an innovative treatment strategy
Authors: Rogalski Christina , Kauer Friederike , Simon Jan Christoph , Paasch Uwe
Published: February 2007

Background: Auricular/nasal basal cell carcinomas (BCC) often require more surgical procedures than BCCs at other sites.

Methods: A meta‐analysis of incompletely excised BCCs compares those on the ear and nose to other sites. The combination of photodynamic diagnostics (PDD) and fresh‐frozen sections is compared to multi‐stage excisions; in each case, the tissue margins were histographically controlled.

Results: The relative risk of an incomplete excision of a BCC on the ear/nose is 2.5 fold higher than on the rest of the body. The combination of PDD and micrographic surgery with fresh‐frozen sections reduces the length of stay by 42.86 % from median 14 d to 8 d as well as increasing the revenue per patient per day by 41.9 % from 320.61 € to 454.95 € with nearly a comparable rate of recurrences after one year.

Conclusions: PDD in combination with single‐stage surgery is an equivalent therapy with few side effects and conforming to guidelines. It takes into account both quality assurance and patient preferences. Multicenter, randomized trials seem desirable.
Systemically Administered Human Growth Hormone Improves Initial Implant Stability: An Experimental Study in the Rabbit
Authors: Franke Stenport Victoria , Olsson Bob , Morberg Per , Törnell Jan , Johansson Carina B.
Published: February 2007

Purpose: This study was an investigation to determine whether human growth hormone (hGH) continuously adminis‐ tered to rabbits may improve implant integration in bone.

Materials and Methods: Thirty‐two commercially pure titanium (c.P. Ti) implants were inserted in the tibiae of 16 rab‐ bits. Human growth hormone (0.3 U/kg/d) or sodium chloride (NaCl) was administered by subcutaneous pumps. Insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1) levels in blood were measured. Two biomechanical tests were performed (1) every second week resonance frequency analysis (RFA) was used to investigate implant stability or stiffness at the interface and, after 8 weeks of follow‐up, (2) removal torque (a measure of implant integration and stability) was registered. Further evaluation was performed by dual energy x‐ray analysis (DEXA), to evaluate bone mineral density, and histomorphomet‐ ric analysis of tissue‐to‐implant integration on undecalcified cut and ground sections.

Results: A difference in implant stability was detected with the RFA technique after 2 weeks and 8 weeks in favor of the hGH‐treated rabbits. No significant differences were detected with removal torque, DEXA, and histomorphometric mea‐ surements. The blood test demonstrated antibody development in the rabbits treated with hGH after 4 weeks.

Conclusion: Growth hormone has an initial beneficial effect on implant integration; however, owing to rapid antibody formation, this study did not demonstrate whether this effect remains in the long term.
Rapid On‐site Topographic Mapping with a Handheld Laser Range Finder for a Geoarchaeological Survey in Syria
Authors: HAYAKAWA YUICHI S. , OGUCHI TAKASHI , KOMATSUBARA JUNKO , ITO KAORI , HORI KAZUAKI , NISHIAKI YOSHIHIRO
Published: February 2007

A digital elevation model and a topographic map of an archaeological site in Syria were created from a field topographic survey with a handheld laser range finder and data post‐processing using a notebook personal computer with Geographical Information System software. The method enabled rapid on‐site topographical mapping even under technical and political restrictions in the country. In an area of about 1 km2, coordinates of random points on the land surface were measured, and a DEM with a 10 m interval grid was generated from the point cloud using Kriging interpolation. The DEM enables various topographic representations to be constructed, such as contour lines, cross sections and slope distribution maps. The DEM‐derived contour lines with a 1 m interval were combined with vector data showing roads and buildings to provide a topographic map. Topographic cross sections created from the DEM generally agree with sections surveyed with a hand level and a measurement tape. The obtained DEM and map are useful for preliminary field research.
Fictional Characters
Authors: Friend Stacie
Published: February 2007

If there are no fictional characters, how do we explain thought and discourse apparently about them? If there are, what are they like? A growing number of philosophers claim that fictional characters are abstract objects akin to novels or plots. They argue that postulating characters provides the most straightforward explanation of our literary practices as well as a uniform account of discourse and thought about fiction. Anti‐realists counter that postulation is neither necessary nor straightforward, and that the invocation of pretense provides a better account of the same phenomena. I outline and assess these competing theories.
Mental Causation
Authors: Bennett Karen
Published: February 2007

Concerns about ‘mental causation’ are concerns about how it is possible for mental states to cause anything to happen. How does what we believe, want, see, feel, hope, or dread manage to cause us to act? Certain positions on the mind‐body problem – including some forms of physicalism – make such causation look highly problematic. This entry sketches several of the main reasons to worry, and raises some questions for further investigation.
Physiological regulation of the pancreatic β‐cell: functional insights for understanding and therapy of diabetes
Authors: McClenaghan Neville H.
Published: February 2007

Knowledge about the sites and actions of the numerous physiological and pharmacological factors affecting insulin secretion and pancreatic β‐cell function has been derived from the use of bioengineered insulin‐producing cell lines. Application of an innovative electrofusion approach has generated novel glucose‐responsive insulin‐secreting cells for pharmaceutical and experimental research, including popular BRIN‐BD11 β‐cells. This review gives an overview of the establishment and core characteristics of clonal electrofusion‐derived BRIN‐BD11 β‐cells. As discussed, BRIN‐BD11 cells have facilitated studies aimed at dissecting important pathways by which nutrients and other bioactive molecules regulate the complex mechanisms regulating insulin secretion, and highlight the future potential of novel and diverse bioengineering approaches to provide a cell‐based insulin‐replacement therapy for diabetes. Clonal BRIN‐BD11 β‐cells have been instrumental in: (a) characterization of KATP channel‐dependent and ‐independent actions of nutrients and established and emerging insulinotropic antidiabetic drugs, and the understanding of drug‐induced β‐cell desensitization; (b) tracing novel metabolic and β‐cell secretory pathways, including use of state‐of‐the‐art NMR approaches to provide new insights into the relationships between glucose and amino acid handling and insulin secretion; and (c) determination of the chronic detrimental actions of nutrients and the diabetic environment on pancreatic β‐cells, including the recent discovery that homocysteine, a risk factor for metabolic syndrome, may play a role in the progressive demise of insulin secretion and pancreatic β‐cell function in diabetes. Collectively, the studies discussed in this review highlight the importance of innovative experimental β‐cell physiology in the discovery and characterization of new and improved drugs and therapeutic strategies to help tackle the emerging diabetes epidemic.
Calcium absorption by Cav1.3 induces terminal web myosin II phosphorylation and apical GLUT2 insertion in rat intestine
Authors: Mace Oliver J. , Morgan Emma L. , Affleck Julie A. , Lister Norma , Kellett George L.
Published: February 2007

Glucose absorption in rat jejunum involves Ca2+‐ and PKC βII‐dependent insertion of GLUT2 into the apical membrane. Ca2+‐induced rearrangement of the enterocyte cytoskeleton is thought to enhance paracellular flow. We have therefore investigated the relationships between myosin II regulatory light chain phosphorylation (RLC20), absorption of glucose, water and calcium, and mannitol clearance. ML‐7, an inhibitor of myosin light chain kinase, diminished the phloretin‐sensitive apical GLUT2 but not the phloretin‐insensitive SGLT1 component of glucose absorption in rat jejunum perfused with 75 mm glucose. Western blotting and immunocytochemistry revealed marked decreases in RLC20 phosphorylation in the terminal web and in the levels of apical GLUT2 and PKC βII, but not SGLT1. Perfusion with phloridzin or 75 mm mannitol, removal of luminal Ca2+, or inhibition of unidirectional 45Ca2+ absorption by nifedipine exerted similar effects. ML‐7 had no effect on the absorption of 10 mm Ca2+, nor clearance of [14C]‐mannitol, which was less than 0.7% of the rate of glucose absorption. Water absorption did not correlate with 45Ca2+ absorption or mannitol clearance. We conclude that the Ca2+ necessary for contraction of myosin II in the terminal web enters via an L‐type channel, most likely Cav1.3, and is dependent on SGLT1. Moreover, terminal web RLC20 phosphorylation is necessary for apical GLUT2 insertion. The data confirm that glucose absorption by paracellular flow is negligible, and show further that paracellular flow makes no more than a minimal contribution to jejunal Ca2+ absorption at luminal concentrations prevailing after a meal.
Approximate Direct and Inverse Relationships for Thermal and Stress States in Thick-Walled Vessels Under Thermal Shock
Authors: Segall A. E. , Akarapu R.
Published: February 2007

Approximate solutions were derived for the transient through steady-state thermal-stress fields developed in thick-walled vessels subjected to a potentially arbitrary thermal shock. In order to accomplish this, Duhamel’s integral was first used to relate the arbitrary thermal loading to a previously derived unit kernel for tubular geometries. Approximate rules for direct and inverse Laplace transformations were then used to modify the resulting Volterra equation to an algebraically solvable and relatively simple form. The desired thermoelastic stress distributions were then determined using the calculated thermal states and elasticity theory. Good agreement was seen between the derived temperature and stress relationships and earlier analytical and finite-element studies of a cylinder subjected to an asymptotic exponential heating on the internal surface with convection to the outer environment. It was also demonstrated that the derived relationships can be used to approximate the more difficult inverse (deconvolution) thermal problem for both exponential (monotonic) and triangular (non-monotonic) load histories. The use of polynomial of powers tn∕2 demonstrated the feasibility of employing the method with empirical data that may not be easily represented by standard functions. For any of the direct and inverse cases explored, the resulting relationships can be used to verify, calibrate, and/or determine a starting point for finite-element or other numerical methods.