bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ANTARES NEUTRINO TELESCOPE: STATUS, FIRST RESULTS AND SENSITIVITY FOR THE DIFFUSE NEUTRINO FLUX
Authors:   on behalf of the ANTARES Collaboration, SPURIO MAURIZIO
Published: October 2009

ANTARES is a neutrino telescope under the Mediterranean Sea, in a site 40 km off the French coast at a depth of 2475 m. It is an array of 12 lines equipped with 884 photomultipliers. The detection mechanism relies on the observation of the Cherenkov light emitted by charged leptons produced by neutrinos interacting in the water and ground surrounding the detector. First studies of the detector performances and preliminary results on reconstruction of atmospheric muons and neutrinos are presented, with the expected sensitivity for a diffuse flux of high energy neutrinos.
EXTENSIONS OF (SUPER) LIE ALGEBRAS
Authors: FIALOWSKI ALICE , PENKAVA MICHAEL
Published: October 2009

In this paper, we give a purely cohomological interpretation of the extension problem for (super) Lie algebras, that is, the problem of extending a Lie algebra by another Lie algebra. We then give a similar interpretation of infinitesimal deformations of extensions. In particular, we consider infinitesimal deformations of representations of a Lie algebra.
RELATIVE CHERN CHARACTER, BOUNDARIES AND INDEX FORMULAS
Authors: ALBIN PIERRE , MELROSE RICHARD
Published: October 2009

For three classes of elliptic pseudodifferential operators on a compact manifold with boundary which have "geometric K-theory", namely the "transmission algebra" introduced by Boutet de Monvel [5], the "zero algebra" introduced by Mazzeo in [9, 10] and the "scattering algebra" from [16], we give explicit formulas for the Chern character of the index bundle in terms of the symbols (including normal operators at the boundary) of a Fredholm family of fiber operators. This involves appropriate descriptions, in each case, of the cohomology with compact supports in the interior of the total space of a vector bundle over a manifold with boundary in which the Chern character, mapping from the corresponding realization of K-theory, naturally takes values.
PROPRIÉTÉ (T) RENFORCÉE BANACHIQUE ET TRANSFORMATION DE FOURIER RAPIDE
Authors: LAFFORGUE VINCENT
Published: October 2009

Let F be a non archimedean local field and let G be an algebraic connected almost F-simple group over F, whose Lie algebra contains sl3(F). We prove that G(F) has strong Banach property (T) in a stronger sense than in the article "Un renforcement de la propriété (T)", published in Duke Math. J. As a consequence, families of expanders built from a lattice in G(F) do not embed uniformly in Banach spaces of type > 1. Also any affine isometric action of G(F) on a Banach space of type > 1 has a fixed point.
Electronic paper's next chapter
Authors: Kroeker Kirk L.
Published: October 2009

The technological challenge for researchers working on the next generation of electronic paper is to render color as brightly as traditional paper, without increasing power requirements or end-user costs.
Privacy and securityUsable security
Authors: Lampson Butler
Published: October 2009

Why does your computer bother you so much about security, but still isn't secure? It's because users don't have a model for security, or a simple way to keep important things safe.
Four billion little brothers?
Authors: Shilton Katie
Published: October 2009

Participatory sensing technologies could improve our lives and our communities, but at what cost to our privacy?
Reconfiguration of IIR filters in response to computer resource availability
Authors: Ferri B. H. , Ferri A. A.
Published: October 2009

This article explores methods to reconfigure infinite impulse response (IIR) filters in processes that utilize computer resource management. A high-performance mode uses a full-length IIR filter, while low resources or a desire to conserve power triggers a low-performance mode where a smaller length filter is used. Two alternatives for algorithms are explored: switching between filter banks of varying lengths, and anytime filters where the later stages can be skipped if computational resources are scarce. Two main challenges are addressed in this article. The first is how to configure an IIR filter as an anytime algorithm, and the second is how to initialize the states of the filters in order to mitigate transients induced by reconfiguration. The performance and feasibility of several common transient management schemes are investigated for use in this application. It is found that an anytime IIR filter outperforms the filter banks in almost every case studied due to its inherently smaller transients and the fact that the reconfiguration happens at the speed of resource management and not at a lower speed typically associated with reconfiguration due to physical system properties.
A truly two-dimensional systolic array FPGA implementation of QR decomposition
Authors: Wang Xiaojun , Leeser Miriam
Published: October 2009

We have implemented a two-dimensional systolic array QR decomposition on a Xilinx Virtex5 FPGA using the Givens rotation algorithm. QR decomposition is a key step in many DSP applications including sonar beamforming, channel equalization, and 3G wireless communication. Compared to previous work that implements Givens rotations using a one-dimensional systolic array, our implementation uses a truly two-dimensional systolic array architecture. As a result, latency scales well for larger matrices. In addition, prior work avoids divide and square root operations in the Givens rotation algorithm by using special operations such as CORDIC or special number systems such as the logarithmic number system (LNS). In contrast, our design uses straightforward floating-point divide and square root implementations, which makes it easier to be used within a larger system. In our design, the input matrix size can be configured at compile time to many different sizes, making it easily scalable to future large FPGAs or over multiple FPGAs. The QR module is fully pipelined with a throughput of over 130MHz for the IEEE single-precision floating-point format. The peak performance for a 12 × 12 input matrix is approximately 35 GFLOPs.
An approximation algorithm for scheduling on heterogeneous reconfigurable resources
Authors: Nahapetian Ani , Brisk Philip , Ghiasi Soheil , Sarrafzadeh Majid
Published: October 2009

Dynamic reconfiguration imposes significant penalties in terms of performance and energy. Scheduling the execution of tasks on a dynamically reconfigurable device is therefore of critical importance. Likewise, other application domains have cost models that are effectively the same as dynamic reconfiguration; examples include: data transmission across multiprocessor systems; dynamic code updating and reprogramming of motes in sensor networks; and module allocation, wherein the sharing of resources effectively eliminates inherent reconfiguration costs. This article contributes a fully polynomial time approximation algorithm for the problem of scheduling independent tasks onto a fixed number of heterogeneous reconfigurable resources, where each task has a different hardware and software latency on each device; the reconfiguration latencies can also vary between resources. A general-purpose processor and a field programmable gate array were used to experimentally validate the proposed technique using a pair of encryption algorithms. The latencies of the schedules obtained by the approximation scheme were at most 1.1× longer than the optimal solution, which was found using integer linear programming; this result is better than the theoretical worst-case guarantee of the approximation algorithm, which was 1.999×. The length of the schedules obtained using list scheduling, a well-known polynomial time heuristic, were at most 2.6× longer than optimal.
Slotless module-based reconfiguration of embedded FPGAs
Authors: Patterson C. , Athanas P. , Shelburne M. , Bowen J. , Surís J. , Dunham T. , Rice J.
Published: October 2009

The difficult aspect of hardware reconfiguration is not creating the computational blocks, which are generally available from FPGA vendors and third parties, but linking the blocks in a manner that suits each application's unique connectivity, bandwidth, and latency requirements. Our approach uses the standard Xilinx implementation tools to generate dynamic module partial bitstreams, but choosing the module's coordinates and completing connections to other modules are runtime operations. Scripts automatically add interface wrappers to dynamic modules and generate a library of relocatable partial bitstreams. The library is used by an efficient runtime system that completes application requests for instancing and connecting modules, effectively insulating the designer from FPGA reconfiguration complexities. In this way, a large sandbox may be allocated to dynamic modules rather than fixed module slots and interconnect. Application engineers interact with the Wires on Demand (WoD) system through a runtime software API, and do not have to master hardware description languages and implementation tools.
REDEFINE
Authors: Alle Mythri , Varadarajan Keshavan , Fell Alexander , C. Ramesh Reddy , Joseph Nimmy , Das Saptarsi , Biswas Prasenjit , Chetia Jugantor , Rao Adarsh , Nandy S. K. , Narayan Ranjani
Published: October 2009

Emerging embedded applications are based on evolving standards (e.g., MPEG2/4, H.264/265, IEEE802.11a/b/g/n). Since most of these applications run on handheld devices, there is an increasing need for a single chip solution that can dynamically interoperate between different standards and their derivatives. In order to achieve high resource utilization and low power dissipation, we propose REDEFINE, a polymorphic ASIC in which specialized hardware units are replaced with basic hardware units that can create the same functionality by runtime
re
-composition. It is a “future-proof” custom hardware solution for multiple applications and their derivatives in a domain. In this article, we describe a compiler framework and supporting hardware comprising compute, storage, and communication resources.

Applications described in high-level language (e.g., C) are compiled into application substructures. For each application substructure, a set of compute elements on the hardware are interconnected during runtime to form a pattern that closely matches the communication pattern of that particular application. The advantage is that the bounded CEs are neither processor cores nor logic elements as in FPGAs. Hence, REDEFINE offers the power and performance advantage of an ASIC and the hardware reconfigurability and programmability of that of an FPGA/instruction set processor.

In addition, the hardware supports custom instruction pipelining. Existing instruction-set extensible processors determine a sequence of instructions that repeatedly occur within the application to create custom instructions at design time to speed up the execution of this sequence. We extend this scheme further, where a kernel is compiled into custom instructions that bear strong producer-consumer relationship (and not limited to frequently occurring sequences of instructions). Custom instructions, realized as hardware compositions effected at runtime, allow several instances of the same to be active in parallel. A key distinguishing factor in majority of the emerging embedded applications is stream processing. To reduce the overheads of data transfer between custom instructions, direct communication paths are employed among custom instructions.

In this article, we present the overview of the hardware-aware compiler framework, which determines the NoC-aware schedule of transports of the data exchanged between the custom instructions on the interconnect. The results for the FFT kernel indicate a 25% reduction in the number of loads/stores, and throughput improves by log(n) for n-point FFT when compared to sequential implementation. Overall, REDEFINE offers flexibility and a runtime reconfigurability at the expense of 1.16× in power and 8× in area when compared to an ASIC. REDEFINE implementation consumes 0.1× the power of an FPGA implementation. In addition, the configuration overhead of the FPGA implementation is 1,000× more than that of REDEFINE.
Virtual platform architectures for resource metering in datacenters
Authors: Iyer Ravi , Illikkal Ramesh , Zhao Li , Newell Don , Moses Jaideep
Published: October 2009

With cloud and utility computing models gaining significant momentum, data centers are increasingly employing virtualization and consolidation as a means to support a large number of disparate applications running simultaneously on a CMP server. In such environments, it is important to meter the usage of resources by each datacenter application so that customers can be charged accordingly. In this paper, we describe a simple metering and chargeback model (pay-as-you-go) and describe a solution based on virtual platform architectures (VPA) to accurately meter visible as well as transparent resources.
Parallel programming with object assemblies
Authors: Lublinerman Roberto , Chaudhuri Swarat , Cerny Pavol
Published: October 2009

We present
Chorus
, a high-level parallel programming model suitable for irregular, heap-manipulating applications like mesh refinement and epidemic simulations, and
JChorus
, an implementation of the model on top of Java. One goal of Chorus is to express the
dynamic
and instance-dependent patterns of memory access that are common in typical irregular applications. Its other focus is
locality of effects
: the property that in many of the same applications, typical imperative commands only affect small, local regions in the shared heap.

Chorus addresses dynamism and locality through the unifying abstraction of an
object assembly
: a local region in a shared data structure equipped with a short-lived, speculative thread of control. The thread of control in an assembly can only access objects within the assembly. While objects can migrate from assembly to assembly, such migration is
local
--i.e., objects only move from one assembly to a neighboring one--and does not lead to aliasing. Programming primitives include a
merge
operation, by which an assembly merges with an adjacent assembly, and a
split
operation, which splits an assembly into smaller ones. Our abstractions are race and deadlock-free, and inherently data-centric.

We demonstrate that Chorus and JChorus allow natural programming of several important applications exhibiting irregular data-parallelism. We also present an implementation of JChorus based on a many-to-one mapping of assemblies to lower-level threads, and report on preliminary performance numbers.
Grace
Authors: Berger Emery D. , Yang Ting , Liu Tongping , Novark Gene
Published: October 2009

The shift from single to multiple core architectures means that programmers must write concurrent, multithreaded programs in order to increase application performance. Unfortunately, multithreaded applications are susceptible to numerous errors, including deadlocks, race conditions, atomicity violations, and order violations. These errors are notoriously difficult for programmers to debug.

This paper presents Grace, a software-only runtime system that eliminates concurrency errors for a class of multithreaded programs: those based on fork-join parallelism. By turning threads into processes, leveraging virtual memory protection, and imposing a sequential commit protocol, Grace provides programmers with the appearance of deterministic, sequential execution, while taking advantage of available processing cores to run code concurrently and efficiently. Experimental results demonstrate Grace's effectiveness: with modest code changes across a suite of computationally-intensive benchmarks (1-16 lines), Grace can achieve high scalability and performance while preventing concurrency errors.
Inferred call path profiling
Authors: Mytkowicz Todd , Coughlin Devin , Diwan Amer
Published: October 2009

Prior work has found call path profiles to be useful for optimizers and programmer-productivity tools. Unfortunately, previous approaches for collecting path profiles are expensive: they need to either execute additional instructions (to track calls and returns) or they need to walk the stack. The state-of-the-art techniques for call path profiling slow down the program by 7% (for C programs) and 20% (for Java programs). This paper describes an innovative technique that collects minimal information from the running program and later (offline) infers the full call paths from this information.

The key insight behind our approach is that readily available information during program execution - the height of the call stack and the identity of the current executing function - are good indicators of calling context. We call this pair a
context identifier
. Because more than one call path may have the same context identifier, we show how to disambiguate context identifiers by changing the sizes of function activation records. This disambiguation has no overhead in terms of executed instructions.

We evaluate our approach on the SPEC CPU 2006 C++ and C benchmarks. We show that collecting context identifiers slows down programs by 0.17% (geometric mean). We can map these context identifiers to the correct unique call path 80% of the time for C++ programs and 95% of the time for C programs.
Self type constructors
Authors: Saito Chieri , Igarashi Atsushi
Published: October 2009

Bruce and Foster proposed the language LOOJ, an extension of Java with the notion of
MyType
, which represents the type of a self reference and changes its meaning along with inheritance.
MyType
is useful to write extensible yet type-safe classes for objects with recursive interfaces, that is, ones with methods that take or return objects of the same type as the receiver.

Although LOOJ has also generics,
MyType
has been introduced as a feature rather orthogonal to generics. As a result, LOOJ cannot express an interface that refers to the same generic class recursively but with different type arguments. This is a significant limitation because such an interface naturally arises in practice, for example, in a generic collection class with method map(), which converts a collection to the same kind of collection of a different element type. Altherr and Cremet and Moors, Piessens, and Odersky gave solutions to this problem but they used a highly sophisticated combination of advanced mechanisms such as abstract type members, higher-order type constructors, and F-bounded polymorphism.

In this paper, we give another solution by introducing
self type constructors
, which integrate
MyType
and generics so that
MyType
can take type arguments in a generic class. Self type constructors are tailored to writing recursive interfaces more concicely than previous solutions. We demonstrate the expressive power of self type constructors by means of examples, formalize a core language with self type constructors, and prove its type safety.
Profile-guided static typing for dynamic scripting languages
Authors: Furr Michael , An Jong-hoon (David) , Foster Jeffrey S.
Published: October 2009

Many popular scripting languages such as Ruby, Python, and Perl include highly dynamic language constructs, such as an eval method that evaluates a string as program text. While these constructs allow terse and expressive code, they have traditionally obstructed static analysis. In this paper we present PRuby, an extension to Diamondback Ruby (DRuby), a static type inference system for Ruby. PRuby augments DRuby with a novel dynamic analysis and transformation that allows us to precisely type uses of highly dynamic constructs. PRuby's analysis proceeds in three steps. First, we use run-time instrumentation to gather per-application profiles of dynamic feature usage. Next, we replace dynamic features with statically analyzable alternatives based on the profile. We also add instrumentation to safely handle cases when subsequent runs do not match the profile. Finally, we run DRuby's static type inference on the transformed code to enforce type safety.

We used PRuby to gather profiles for a benchmark suite of sample Ruby programs. We found that dynamic features are pervasive throughout the benchmarks and the libraries they include, but that most uses of these features are highly constrained and hence can be effectively profiled. Using the profiles to guide type inference, we found that DRuby can generally statically type our benchmarks modulo some refactoring, and we discovered several previously unknown type errors. These results suggest that profiling and transformation is a lightweight but highly effective approach to bring static typing to highly dynamic languages.
Static extraction and conformance analysis of hierarchical runtime architectural structure using annotations
Authors: Abi-Antoun Marwan , Aldrich Jonathan
Published: October 2009

An object diagram makes explicit the object structures that are only implicit in a class diagram. An object diagram may be missing and must extracted from the code. Alternatively, an existing diagram may be inconsistent with the code, and must be analyzed for conformance with the implementation. One can generalize the
global
object diagram of a system into a runtime architecture which abstracts objects into components, represents how those components interact, and can decompose a component into a nested sub-architecture.

A static object diagram represents all objects and inter-object relations possibly created, and is recovered by static analysis of a program. Existing analyses extract static object diagrams that are non-hierarchical, do not scale, and do not provide meaningful architectural abstraction. Indeed, architectural hierarchy is not readily observable in arbitrary code. Previous approaches used breaking language extensions to specify hierarchy and instances in code, or used dynamic analyses to extract dynamic object diagrams that show objects and relations for a few program runs.

Typecheckable ownership domain annotations use existing language support for annotations and specify in code object encapsulation, logical containment and architectural tiers. These annotations enable a points-to static analysis to extract a sound global object graph that provides architectural abstraction by ownership hierarchy and by types, where architecturally significant objects appear near the top of the hierarchy and data structures are further down.

Another analysis can abstract an object graph into a built runtime architecture. Then, a third analysis can compare the built architecture to a target, analyze and measure their structural conformance, establish traceability between the two and identify interesting differences.
Demystifying model transformations
Authors: Nanda Mangala Gowri , Mani Senthil , Sinha Vibha Singhal , Sinha Saurabh
Published: October 2009

Model-driven development (MDD) is widely used to develop modern business applications. MDD involves creating models at different levels of abstractions. Starting with models of domain concepts, these abstractions are successively refined, using transforms, to design-level models and, eventually, code-level artifacts. Although many tools exist that support transform creation and verification, tools that help users in understanding and using transforms are rare. In this paper, we present an approach for assisting users in understanding model transformations and debugging their input models. We use automated program-analysis techniques to analyze the transform code and compute constraints under which a transformation may fail or be incomplete. These code-level constraints are mapped to the input model elements to generate model-level rules. The rules can be used to validate whether an input model violates transform constraints, and to support general user queries about a transformation. We have implemented the analysis in a tool called XYLEM. We present empirical results, which indicate that (1) our approach can be effective in inferring useful rules, and (2) the rules let users efficiently diagnose a failing transformation without examining the transform source code.
NUMA-aware memory manager with dominant-thread-based copying GC
Authors: Ogasawara Takeshi
Published: October 2009

We propose a novel online method of identifying the preferred NUMA nodes for objects with negligible overhead during the garbage collection time as well as object allocation time. Since the number of CPUs (or NUMA nodes) is increasing recently, it is critical for the memory manager of the runtime environment of an object-oriented language to exploit the low latency of local memory for high performance. To locate the CPU of a thread that frequently accesses an object, prior research uses the runtime information about memory accesses as sampled by the hardware. However, the overhead of this approach is high for a garbage collector.

Our approach uses the information about which thread can exclusively access an object, or the
Dominant Thread
(DoT). The dominant thread of an object is the thread that often most accesses an object so that we do not require memory access samples. Our NUMA-aware GC performs DoT based object copying, which copies each live object to the CPU where the dominant thread was last dispatched before GC. The dominant thread information is known from the thread stack and from objects that are locked or reserved by threads and is propagated in the object reference graph.

We demonstrate that our approach can improve the performance of benchmark programs such as SPECpower ssj2008, SPECjbb2005, and SPECjvm2008.We prototyped a NUMAaware memory manager on a modified version of IBM Java VM and tested it on a cc-NUMA POWER6 machine with eight NUMA nodes. Our NUMA-aware GC achieved performance improvements up to 14.3% and 2.0% on average over a JVM that only used the NUMA-aware allocator. The total improvement using both the NUMA-aware allocator and GC is up to 53.1% and 10.8% on average.
Agile anthropology and Alexander's architecture
Authors: Quillien Jenny , Rostal Pam , West Dave
Published: October 2009

During its formative decades the software community looked twice to the theories of Christopher Alexander for inspiration, both times failing to completely master the architect's most useful insights. Now a third opportunity presents itself with Alexander's recent publication,
The Nature of Order
. Serious apprenticeship, however, imposes a prerequisite of sober self-reflection and evaluation. What, really, is the nature of the developer's tasks? Under what philosophical umbrella has the software community matured until now? Do other philosophical traditions offer alternative and perhaps more pertinent epistemologies? What voices, besides Alexander's, might contribute to the community's evolution? We address these questions along with theory building, ethnography, weak links, design heuristics, agility, and complex systems, all of which combine with Alexander's new theories to suggest different ways of doing what we do, better.
Interactions between neurotensin and GnRH neurons in the positive feedback control of GnRH/LH secretion in the mouse
Authors: Dungan Lemko Heather M. , Naderi Roxana , Adjan Valeriya , Jennes Lothar H. , Navarro Victor M. , Clifton Donald K. , Steiner Robert A.
Published: October 2009

In female mammals, increased ovarian estradiol (E2) secretion triggers GnRH release from neurons in the basal forebrain, which drives LH secretion from the pituitary and subsequently induces ovulation. However, the neural circuits that activate this preovulatory GnRH/LH surge remain unidentified. Neurotensin is expressed in neurons of the anteroventral periventricular nucleus (AVPV), a region thought to be critical for generating the preovulatory GnRH/LH surge. E2 induces neurotensin ( Nts) gene expression in this region, and blockade of neurotensin signaling reduces the LH surge in the rat. We postulated that neurotensin signaling plays a similar role in generating the E2-induced GnRH/LH surge in mice. We used in situ hybridization (ISH) to determine whether E2 induces Nts expression in the mouse and found evidence to support this proposition. Next, we determined that the neurotensin receptor (Ntsr2) is present in many GnRH-expressing neurons. Since the kisspeptin gene ( Kiss1) is expressed in the AVPV and is responsive to E2, we predicted that some neurons in this region express both Kiss1 and Nts; however, by double-label ISH, we observed no coexpression of the two mRNAs. We also postulated that Nts mRNA expression would increase in parallel with the E2-induced LH surge and that the central (icv) administration of neurotensin would stimulate LH secretion and activation of GnRH neurons but found no evidence to support either of these hypotheses. Together, these findings suggest that, although neurotensin neurons in the AVPV are targets for regulation by E2, neurotensin does not appear to play a direct role in generating the GnRH/LH surge in the mouse.
Growth without Growth Hormone and Similar Dysmorphic Features in Three Patients with Sporadic Combined Pituitary Hormone Deficiencies
Authors: Gat-Yablonski G. , Lazar L. , Bar M. , de Vries L. , Weintrob N. , Phillip M.
Published: October 2009

Background/Aims: Mutations in the HESX1 gene are associated with a broad spectrum of phenotypes: septo-optic dysplasia, midline defects, pituitary abnormalities with consequent hypopituitarism, isolated growth hormone (GH) deficiency or combined pituitary hormone deficiencies (CPHD). This study examined the prevalence of mutations in the HESX1 gene in patients with CPHD. Patients/Methods: Sixty patients with sporadic CPHD without septo-optic dysplasia were screened for mutations in HESX1. Results: Three patients were found to be heterozygous for the same Asn125Ser variant in the HESX1 gene. In all 3, panhypopituitarism was presented in the neonatal period, manifested by severe hypoglycemia and neonatal jaundice in 2 patients and respiratory distress in 1. Remarkable findings from physical examination included coarse face; prominent, large, low-set ears; and skeletal abnormalities. Magnetic resonance imaging, performed in 2 patients, revealed a hypoplastic anterior and ectopic posterior pituitary without other midline anomalies. Despite persistent GH deficiency and undetectable levels of insulin-like growth factor 1, all patients had normal linear growth along the 10–25th percentile without GH therapy. Conclusion: The present study expands the clinical picture of HESX1 mutations by demonstrating that patients heterozygous for Asn125Ser may have a severe endocrinologic and neuroradiologic phenotype and similar dysmorphic features appearing very early in life.
Classical Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia due to 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency in Croatia between 1995 and 2006
Authors: Dumic Katja , Krnic Nevena , Skrabic Veselin , Stipancic Gordana , Cvijovic Katarina , Kusec Vesna , Stingl Katarina
Published: October 2009

Aims: To evaluate the incidence, gender, symptoms and age at diagnosis among patients with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency in Croatia. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively for all classical CAH patients born or electively aborted following prenatal diagnosis between 01.01.1995 and 31.12.2006 and were compared with the data of the previously conducted study evaluating CAH patients discovered between 1964 and 1984. Results: During a 12-year period, 34 classical CAH patients were born. There were 20 salt-wasting (SW) (12 females/8 males) and 14 simple virilizing (SV) patients (7 females/7 males). If 3 female fetuses, electively aborted, were added, that would be a total of 37 CAH patients. With 532,942 live births and 34 CAH patients born over this period, incidence of classical CAH was estimated to 1:15,574 or 1:14,403 if 3 electively aborted fetuses were included. The lower incidence of SW boys compared to SW girls (8:12) and similar number of SW and SV boys (8:7) indicate that substantial proportion of SW boys die unrecognized. Owing to better health care, diagnosis was established significantly earlier in SW and SV girls compared to the period of 1964–1984 (p < 0.003). During 1995–2006, none of the patients died following the diagnosis of CAH, and there was no erroneous sex assignment. Conclusion: Despite of improvement in health care, diagnosis of CAH in Croatia is still delayed and some of the patients go unrecognized or die. Therefore, we think that the results of our study support the need for the introduction of newborn screening.
Cutaneous Necrosis and Calcinosis Following Electroencephalography
Authors: Mancuso G. , Tosti A. , Fanti P.A. , Berdondini R.M. , Mongiorgi R. , Morandi A.
Published: October 2009

The authors report 2 children who developed circumscribed dystrophic calcifications at the site of electrode placement after electroencephalographic examination. Deep cutaneous necrosis was a prominent clinical feature. A biopsy showed focal dermal calcification confirmed by a diffractometer analysis of a calcific granule. Cutaneous calcinosis is a possible risk of the usage of an electrode paste containing calcium chloride. Prolonged exposure and damaged skin seem to be prerequisites for this uncommon but harmful condition.
Chronic Meningococcemia
Authors: Morier P.
Published: October 2009

A case is reported of a 70-year-old woman with chronic meningococcemia. She had intermittent fever, purpuric papules disseminated on the trunk and limbs, headache, arthralgia and myalgia for 5 weeks. Treatment with ceftriaxone was rapidly successful.
Management of Nonstaphylococcal Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: Follow-Up Study of 16 Case Histories
Authors: Tegelberg-Stassen M.J.A.M. , van Vloten W.A. , de la Faille Baart
Published: October 2009

In this study the clinical and laboratory data of 14 patients who experienced 16 attacks of nonstaphylococcal toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are presented. All patients were treated in the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital of Utrecht. Only 1 patient died. Attention is focused on a successful management consisting of reversed barrier nursing, painstakingly executed skin care, timely use of antibiotics and a therapy consisting of high dosages of corticosteroids. Thorough management in centers experienced in the treatment of TEN is essential for good treatment results. Further investigations concerning the use of corticosteroids in treating TEN are needed.
Effects of Hydroxychloroquine on ‘Band Test’ in Discoid Lupus erythematosus
Authors: Chieregato Giancarlo , Peroni Alberto , Castellani Luca , Nigro Michele A.
Published: October 2009

Ten cases of localized and generalized discoid lupus erythematosus are reported in which previously untreated patients were given hydroxychloroquine sulphate 600 mg daily for 10 days followed by 400 mg for 20 days. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of this drug on the ‘lupus band’ before and after treatment, in diseased, unaffected sun-exposed, and unaffected non sun-exposed skin. A good response from both the clinical and immunopathologic (i.e. reduction or disappearance of the immune reactants) standpoint was evident in 6/10 patients; in another 3 patients a good clinical but not immunopathologic response was recorded, while in 1 case a clinical worsening corresponded to an immunofluorescence improvement. In 5/10 cases (4 females 1 male) one or more immunoglobulin classes which were present in the ‘lupus band’ before therapy remained at the dermoepidermal junction after treatment.
Pemphigus vulgaris Following Cobalt Therapy for Bronchial Carcinoma
Authors: Girolomoni G. , Mazzone E. , Zambruno G.
Published: October 2009

A 52-year-old male patient with bronchial carcinoma developed pemphigus vulgaris 3 weeks after the end of cobalt therapy. The possible role of gamma-radiation in inducing the skin disease is discussed.
Two-Color Flow Cytometry Analysis in Alopecia areata
Authors: Lutz G. , Niedecken H. , Bauer R. , Kreysel H.W.
Published: October 2009

Since previous studies have shown that circulating T cytotoxic/suppressor cells and natural killer cells are reduced in alopecia areata (AA), we attempted to find further imbalances in mononuclear cells by double labeling with these and additional monoclonal antibodies. In all, the blood of 35 patients and 44 controls was examined using the combinations anti-Leu 3a/8, Leu 2a/8, Leu 2a/15, Leu 7/15 and Leu 7/11a. We found a highly significant reduction of the subpopulation Leu 2a+8+ (p < 0.008). The results show that patients with AA have additional abnormalities of the circulating mononuclear cells, whereby the reduced Leu 2a+8+ subpopulation represents a new additional marker.
Atopic Dermatitis – Ichthyosis vulgaris – Hyperlinear Palms – an Ultrastructural Study
Authors: Fartasch Manigé , Diepgen Thomas L. , Hornstein Otto Paul
Published: October 2009

Some 30–50% of cases of atopic dermatitis (AD) are believed to be associated with autosomal dominant ichthyosis vulgaris (ADI). The diagnosis of ADI can be proved by the ultrastructural demonstration of fewer and abnormal keratohyalin (KH) granules in all ADI patients, even in clinically unaffected skin. To prove the suggested frequent association of ADI with AD, an ultrastructural investigation of dry skin of 49 AD patients was performed. Only in 2 (4%) patients ADI could be confirmed by electron microscopy. In 17 patients, including the 2 patients with abnormal KH, hyperlinear palms were clinically seen. The present study yields evidence that hyperlinear palms, if present, and dry skin are in most cases a phenotypic marker of AD and not a sign of concomitant ADI. A histologically absent stratum granulosum in AD does not signify by itself a manifestation of concomitant ADI.
15-Year Survey of Tinea faciei in the Adult
Authors: Alteras Isac , Sandbank Miriam , David Michael , Segal Rina
Published: October 2009

In a series of 100 adults with tinea faciei various dermatologic manifestations were mimicked, viz.: discoid lupus erythematosus in 52 patients, lymphocytic infiltration in 15, seborrheic dermatitis in 11, rosacea in 8, contacts dermatitis in 7, polymorphous light eruption in 4 and granuloma faciale in 3. Trichophyton rubrum was isolated in 78% of the respective cases, other isolated organisms being Microsporum canis (13 cases), Trichophyton violaceum in 6, Trichophyton mentagrophytes (asteroides) in 2 and Epidermophyton floccosum in 1 case. In 85% of these patients the nails were also involved by the same agent found in the lesions of the face. On the basis of these observations it is recommended that all adult patients with tinea faciei should undergo a comprehensive mycological investigation to find the primary focus, which may be an infected nail.
Comparison of the New Antihistamine Acrivastine (BW 825C) versus Cyproheptadine in the Treatment of Idiopathic Cold Urticaria
Authors: Neittaanmäki Heikki , Fräki Jorma E. , Gibson John R.
Published: October 2009

A double-blind, crossover trial with a new triprolidine derivative, acrivastine (BW 825C; 8 mg 3 times daily), cyproheptadine (4 mg 3 times daily) and placebo was carried out in 18 patients suffering from idiopathic cold urticaria. Acrivastine and cyproheptadine significantly (p < 0.01) reduced weal areas following ice cube challenge when compared to placebo. Acrivastine was found to be significantly more effective (p < 0.01) than cyproheptadine in reducing weal areas. Furthermore, cyproheptadine caused significantly more drowsiness than acrivastine (p = 0.021) or placebo (p = 0.013), which did not differ from each other. This study shows that acrivastine is an effective agent in the treatment of cold urticaria and suggests that acrivastine in the dose used lacks adverse effects, such as drowsiness, traditionally associated with antihistamine therapy.
Thymopentin in the Treatment of Severe Alopecia areata
Authors: Tosti Antonella , Manuzzi Patrizia , Gasponi Aldo
Published: October 2009

Since alopecia areata might be due to an aberrant T-cell-mediated immunity, the purpose of our study was to compare the results obtained with Thymopentin to those of topical sensitizing therapies, such as squaric acid dibutylester or diphencyprone. Statistical analysis showed no differences between the results obtained with these two therapies. Therefore, Thymopentin can be considered to be a new therapeutic agent which, like the classic topical drugs squaric acid dibutylester or diphencyprone, has immunoreactive properties and might provide some hope to patients with severe alopecia areata.
In vitro Acantholysis by Captopril and Thiopronine
Authors: Ruocco V. , de Angelis E. , Lombardi M.L. , Pisani M.
Published: October 2009

The possible acantholytic property of captopril and thiopronine has been investigated using in vitro tissue cultures. Normal human breast skin explants have been cultured in Hanks’ balanced salt solution containing 40% normal inactivated human serum with the addition of L-cysteine, or reduced glutathione (GSH), or captopril, or thiopronine, at four different concentrations (1, 5, 10, 15 mM). Patterns of diffuse, mainly suprabasal acantholysis, with formation of bullae, were observed in the skin explants cultured with captopril or thiopronine at a 15-mM concentration after 5 days of culture; intraepidermal splits were present also at a 10-mM concentration. Focal acantholysis was seen in specimens cultured with L-cysteine or GSH at a 15-mM concentration. No lesions occurred in the samples treated with lower concentrations of the above substances, nor in controls. The results show a biochemical acantholytic potential of both captopril and thiopronine, resembling that of penicillamine in similar experimental conditions, and consonant with clinical observations of pemphigus induced by drugs containing thiol groups in their molecule (SH drugs).
The Mosan Study Group of Pigmented Neoplasms
Authors: Piérard Gérald E.
Published: October 2009

The Mosan Study Group of Pigmented Neoplasms groups 9 dermatopathologists and pathologists from 9 laboratories. We collect information concerning the epidemiology and the histological nature of malignant melanomas and of their precursors in a circumscribed part of Belgium. During the past three decades there has been a steadily increasing number of primary cutaneous malignant melanomas other than those developed on lentigo maligna. Women are twice more often affected than men. Malignant melanomas supervening on a preexisting melanocytic nevus are of rare occurrence.
Cutaneous Malakoplakia
Authors: Palou J. , Torras H. , Baradad M. , Bombí J.A. , Martín E. , Mascaró J.M.
Published: October 2009

A case of cutaneous malakoplakia in a 44-year-old woman under immunosuppressive therapy after renal transplantation for nephrosclerosis is reported. A nodular lesion with inflammatory signs appeared on her right buttock. Histopathology showed a dermal infiltrate with histiocytes containing Michaelis-Gutmann bodies. Electron microscopy showed Michaelis-Gutmann bodies with concentric laminar structure (‘target’ appearance). Tissue culture revealed Escherichia coli growth. Lesions recurred on surrounding skin and left buttock after excision. Clofazimine treatment resulted in total remission.
Recurrent Erythema nodosum, Arthritis and IgA Nephropathy
Authors: Dux Shlomo , Grosskopf Itamar , Rosenfeld J.B.
Published: October 2009

Erythema nodosum and IgA nephropathy are nosologic entities with an immunologic background. IgA nephropathy is a specific disease of the kidneys, while erythema nodosum may be associated with other illnesses. We report a unique case in which intermittent hematuria due to IgA nephropathy was superimposed on recurrent attacks of erythema nodosum and arthritis. A common pathophysiology is suggested.
How Do Retinoids Work
Authors: Chytil F. , Sherman D.R.
Published: October 2009

The main physiological function of natural retinoids, i.e. the dietary micronutrient retinol and its metabolite retinoic acid, is in proper differentiation and maintenance of differentiated state of many if not all epithelia. Also, it appears that the metabolism of nonepithelial cells can be affected by these compounds. The effects are diverse. Although the exact molecular mechanisms causing these effects remain to be elucidated, recent research indicates that both retinol and retinoic acid affect genomic expression by activating and simultaneously repressing specific genes. Such action results in the appearance and disappearance of more than 40 specific proteins. The effect on the genomic expression is time-dependent. Some of the genes are influenced very soon in a matter of a few hours. Effects on other genes require considerable time. Whether natural retinoids interact with the genome directly remains to be shown. How such interactions could occur is discussed.
Aggressive Topical Corticosteroid Therapy: A Novel Approach to Mast-Cell-Dependent Cutaneous Disorders
Authors: Lavker Robert M. , Schechter Norman M. , Guzzo Cynthia , Lazarus Gerald S.
Published: October 2009

Topical corticosteroids are utilized in the treatment of a wide variety of skin diseases, primarily those involving an inflammatory component. Recent investigations have revealed that one of the effects of long-term usage of steroids is the depletion of skin mast cells. This led to the treatment of patients with urticaria pigmentosa with topical high potency corticosteroids for 6 weeks. At the end of treatment there was a marked reduction in tissue histamine and an absence of mast cells as well as a disappearance of pruritus and Darier’s sign. Treated areas remained clinically improved for at least 9–12 months. Observations that corticosteroids profoundly affect mast cells in vivo provides a rationale to devise new treatment regimens for mast-cell-related diseases.
Cell Kinetics of the Human Anagen Hair Follicle
Authors: Katsuoka K. , Schell H. , Deinlein E. , Hornstein O.P.
Published: October 2009

Anagen hair follicles obtained from both healthy (n = 7) and uninvolved psoriatic (n = 4) scalps were segmentally analyzed for proliferative activity using DNA flow cytometry. Hair follicle kinetics were almost equal in either group except for the infundibular portion which exhibited significant increase of S-phase values in psoriatic patients. Maximum proliferation was disclosed within the bulbar segment. This study confirms that cell kinetics behavior of hair follicles from uninvolved scalp of psoriatics compared with those from healthy scalps is altered in the infundibular portion only.
Fixed Drug Eruption Due to Naproxen
Authors: Habbema L. , Bruynzeel D.P.
Published: October 2009

A fixed drug eruption due to reported.
Paget’s Disease in an Epidermal Cyst
Authors: Stephenson T.J. , Cotton D.W.K.
Published: October 2009

A case of Paget’s disease involving both the epidermis of the nipple and an adjacent epidermal cyst is reported. Immunohistochemistry showed similarity between the infiltrating cells in both sites and those of the underlying mammary adenocarcinoma. Epidermal cysts may be involved in a variety of disease processes which affect the epidermis in general and, unless they are subjected to careful histopathological examination, these diseases may be overlooked.
Are Lisch Nodules an Ocular Marker of the Neurofibromatosis Gene in Otherwise Unaffected Family Members
Authors: Toonstra J. , Dandrieu M.R. , Ippel P.F. , Delleman J.W. , Rupert, Jr. P.H.J.M. , Huitema H.B.
Published: October 2009

A male patient with classical neurofibromatosis is reported. Examination of the other family members revealed 2 patients with solitary cutaneous neurofibromas and 2 with one or more Lisch nodules without other cutaneous or systemic signs of neurofibromatosis. This suggests that Lisch nodules can be a marker for the neurofibromatosis gene in otherwise unaffected family members.
Solar Urticaria without Inhibitory Spectrum: Demonstration of Both Circulating Photoallergen and Reaginic Antibodies
Authors: Torinuki Wakio , Tagami Hachiro
Published: October 2009

An 18-year-old man with solar urticaria is described. The action spectrum ranged from 400 to 500 nm. No inhibition spectrum was found, i.e., the wheal that is induced by visible light was not inhibited by immediate pre- or postirradiation of test sites with light waves longer than 620 nm. The patient developed a wheal at the site of injection of his own serum that had previously been exposed to light in vitro. Though the ordinary passive transfer reaction yielded a positive result, a passive transfer study with the patient’s serum preheated at 56°C for 2 h showed a negative result. These data suggest that he had both circulating photoallergen and reaginic antibodies.