bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Data and Services for Research and Applications
Authors: Liu Zhong , Ostrenga Dana , Teng William , Kempler Steven
Published: March 2012

Precipitation is a critical component of the Earth's hydrological cycle. Launched on 27 November 1997, TRMM is a joint U.S.–Japan satellite mission to provide the first detailed and comprehensive dataset of the four-dimensional distribution of rainfall and latent heating over vastly undersampled tropical and subtropical oceans and continents (40°S–40°N). Over the past 14 years, TRMM has been a major data source for meteorological, hydrological, and other research and application activities around the world.

This short article describes how the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) provides TRMM archive and nearreal- time precipitation datasets and services for research and applications. TRMM data consist of orbital data from TRMM instruments at the sensor's resolution, gridded data at a range of spatial and temporal resolutions, subsets, ground-based instrument data, and ancillary data. Data analysis, display, and delivery are facilitated by the following services: (1) Mirador (data search and access); (2) TOVAS (TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System); (3) OPeNDAP (Opensource Project for a Network Data Access Protocol); (4) GrADS Data Server (GDS); and (5) Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) for the GIS community. Precipitation data application services are available to support a wide variety of applications around the world. Future plans include enhanced and new services to address data-related issues from the user community. Meanwhile, the GES DISC is preparing for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2014.
Assessing Contextual Factors That Influence Acceptance of Pedestrian Alerts by a Night Vision System
Authors: Källhammer Jan-Erik , Smith Kip
Published: March 2012

Objective:

We investigated five contextual variables that we hypothesized would influence driver acceptance of alerts to pedestrians issued by a night vision active safety system to inform the specification of the system’s alerting strategies.

Background:

Driver acceptance of automotive active safety systems is a key factor to promote their use and implies a need to assess factors influencing driver acceptance.

Method:

In a field operational test, 10 drivers drove instrumented vehicles equipped with a preproduction night vision system with pedestrian detection software. In a follow-up experiment, the 10 drivers and 25 additional volunteers without experience with the system watched 57 clips with pedestrian encounters gathered during the field operational test. They rated the acceptance of an alert to each pedestrian encounter.

Results:

Levels of rating concordance were significant between drivers who experienced the encounters and participants who did not. Two contextual variables, pedestrian location and motion, were found to influence ratings. Alerts were more accepted when pedestrians were close to or moving toward the vehicle’s path.

Conclusion:

The study demonstrates the utility of using subjective driver acceptance ratings to inform the design of active safety systems and to leverage expensive field operational test data within the confines of the laboratory.

Application:

The design of alerting strategies for active safety systems needs to heed the driver’s contextual sensitivity to issued alerts.
Helen Oyeyemi and the Yoruba gothic: White is for Witching
Authors: Cousins Helen
Published: March 2012

White is for Witching is the vampire story Helen Oyeyemi conceived whilst reading Dracula and, despite its modern setting, it shares generic features and thematic concerns with this nineteenth-century gothic novel. Both can be described as narratives of reverse colonization, as described by Stephen D. Arata, which highlight fears that Englishness will be contaminated by the immigration of racial “others” into England. This article shows how Oyeyemi develops the genre through the introduction of Yoruba tropes, such as abiku, aje, and ancestors, not to create a new subgenre of “Yoruba gothic”, but to draw attention to the cycles of immigration, co-existence, and integration that have always existed in English history. In this way, White is for Witching forms a counter-narrative to the notion of racial purity associated with English nationhood that was crystallized during the colonial period and persists in the present through immigration policies informed by an “imperial ideology”.
The body unbound: Ritual scarification and autobiographical forms in Wole Soyinka’s Aké: The Years of Childhood
Authors: Moolla F. Fiona
Published: March 2012

The scarification in Aké is invested with major significance apropos Soyinka’s ideas on African subjectivity. Scarification among the Yoruba is one of the rites of passage associated with personal development. Scarification literally and metaphorically “opens” the person up socially and cosmically. Personal formation and self-realization are enabled by the Yoruba social code brought into being by its mythology. The meaning of the scarification incident in Aké is profoundly different. Determined by the form of autobiography which creates a self-constituting subject, the enabling Yoruba socio-cultural context is elided. The story of Soyinka’s personal development is allegorical of the story of the development of the modern African subject. For Soyinka, the African subject is a rational subject whose constitution precludes the splitting of the scientific and spiritual which is a consequence of the Cartesian rupture. The African subject should be open to other subjects and the object world. Subjectivity constituted by the autobiographical mode closes off the opening up symbolically signalled by scarification.
Reviving Eva in Tim Winton’s Breath
Authors: McGloin Colleen
Published: March 2012

Breath by Tim Winton is an Australian surfing narrative. As a postcolonial novel, the novel’s absence of indigenous representation and its portrayal of the central female character, Eva Sanderson, solicit a reading that attempts to make sense of the intersections between gender and race central to many such texts. In this paper, I explore the representation of Eva and provide a feminist reading of the novel that re-considers its racialized, gendered, and nationalist dimensions. It is Eva, I suggest, who provides the potential for reconfiguring white surfing masculinities, but whose over-determined masculinization and often misogynistic representation within the patriarchal logic that structures the work, hinder attempts to realize this potential. This attempt is further restricted by the text’s erasure of indigenous people from the landscape.
Biomechanically Preferred Consonant-Vowel Combinations Fail to Appear in Adult Spoken Corpora
Authors: Whalen D. H. , Giulivi Sara , Nam Hosung , Levitt Andrea G. , Hallé Pierre , Goldstein Louis M.
Published: March 2012

Certain consonant/vowel (CV) combinations are more frequent than would be expected from the individual C and V frequencies alone, both in babbling and, to a lesser extent, in adult language, based on dictionary counts: Labial consonants co-occur with central vowels more often than chance would dictate; coronals co-occur with front vowels, and velars with back vowels (Davis & MacNeilage, 1994). Plausible biomechanical explanations have been proposed, but it is also possible that infants are mirroring the frequency of the CVs that they hear. As noted, previous assessments of adult language were based on dictionaries; these “type” counts are incommensurate with the babbling measures, which are necessarily “token” counts. We analyzed the tokens in two spoken corpora for English, two for French and one for Mandarin. We found that the adult spoken CV preferences correlated with the type counts for Mandarin and French, not for English. Correlations between the adult spoken corpora and the babbling results had all three possible outcomes: significantly positive (French), uncorrelated (Mandarin), and significantly negative (English). There were no correlations of the dictionary data with the babbling results when we consider all nine combinations of consonants and vowels. The results indicate that spoken frequencies of CV combinations can differ from dictionary (type) counts and that the CV preferences apparent in babbling are biomechanically driven and can ignore the frequencies of CVs in the ambient spoken language.
Supporting dynamic simulations with Simulation Modeling Architecture (SiMA): a Discrete Event System Specification-based modeling and simulation framework
Authors: Deniz Fatih , Alpdemir M Nedim , Kara Ahmet , Oğuztüzün Halit
Published: March 2012

In this paper, we present our approach to introduce dynamism support to simulation environments, which adopts a Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS)-based modeling and simulation approach and builds upon previous work on Simulation Modeling Architecture (SiMA), a DEVS-based simulation framework developed at TUBITAK UEKAE. In the relevant literature there are already proposed solutions to the dynamism support problem. One particular contribution offered in this study over previous approaches is the systematic framework support for post-structural-change state synchronization among models with related couplings, in a way that benefits from the strongly typed execution environment SiMA provides. In addition to introducing theoretical extensions to basic SiMA, we report the results of performance measurements to illustrate the added value of dynamism extensions over the basic version, using a sample wireless sensor network simulation.
Ruling the Womb
Authors: Peña Alejandra Brito , Aguayo Beatriz E. Cid , Orellana Carla Donoso
Published: March 2012

In Chile, sexual and reproductive rights have been at the core of an ideological and material struggle during the past decade between the women’s movement—the grassroots, academic, and nongovernmental organizations that work for women’s rights, whether or not they call themselves feminists—and conservative forces. The 2006 election of Michelle Bachelet, a divorced socialist and single mother, as president led to governmental attempts to advance reproductive rights, principally distribution of the emergency contraceptive pill in public health care centers. This effort was unsuccessful for most of Bachelet’s term. Although in 2010 a new emergency contraception law finally allowed the public health system to distribute the “morning-after pill,” the political debate over other reproductive rights such as abortion is still dominated by conservative positions.

En Chile, los derechos sexuales y reproductivos se han visto al centro de una lucha ideológica y material durante la década pasada, una lucha entre el movimiento a favor de los derechos de las mujeres—grupos de base, académicos y ONGs, se refieran o no a sí mismos como feministas—y las fuerzas conservadoras. La elección de Michelle Bachelet, una divorciada socialista y madre soltera, como presidenta en 2006 dio lugar a una serie de intentos gubernamentales por avanzar los derechos reproductivos, sobre todo a través de la distribución de píldoras anticonceptivas en los centros de salud públicos. Este proyecto tuvo muy poco éxito a lo largo del gobierno de Bachelet. Aunque en 2010 una nueva ley sobre contraceptivos de emergencia permitió que el sistema de salud pública distribuyera la “píldora del día después,” el debate político sobre los derechos reproductivos en áreas tales como el aborto aún se encuentra dominado por posturas conservadoras.
Schools and Housing in Metropolitan History
Authors: Lassiter Matthew D.
Published: March 2012

This essay introduces a special section in the Journal of Urban History that explores the interplay between educational policies and housing markets in metropolitan U.S. history during the twentieth century. A review of the literature in urban/suburban history reveals that most scholars have emphasized the centrality of housing policies and real estate markets in establishing patterns of racial segregation and metropolitan inequality while marginalizing or neglecting the educational policies and public school markets that simultaneously shaped these processes. The evidence in this forum challenges the dominant view that housing policies structured educational outcomes in American cities and suburbs, revealing that school policies often shaped housing outcomes as well.
Shopping for Schools
Authors: Dougherty Jack
Published: March 2012

Suburban historians have generally neglected the role of schools as an explanatory factor in the transformation of twentieth-century U.S. metropolitan space, since public education does not fit neatly into their narrative. At the same time, educational historians have focused so intently on the rise and decline of big-city school systems that they have largely failed to account for suburbanization. This article seeks to bridge the gap by examining the rising practice of “shopping for schools,” the buying and selling of private homes to gain access to more desirable public school attendance zones. This case study of three communities near Hartford, Connecticut,traces the convergence of real estate interests, suburban homebuyers, and government officials, particularly as the postwar labor market increasingly rewarded higher levels of educational attainment. Shopping for schools not only brings together educational credentialism and suburban consumerism but also helps to explain increasing stratification among suburbs in recent decades.
Leisure Politics
Authors: Gosseye Janina
Published: March 2012

This article ties the expansion of the (European) welfare state model to Belgian national politics and exemplifies how welfare state concepts, such as universalism and decommodification, were adopted in the political campaign for Flemish nationalism in a country on its path to federalism. It focuses on the construction of leisure infrastructure in Flanders, the northern (Flemish-speaking) region of the country, and scrutinizes the role that planning, urbanism, and architecture played in the political project that was set up to strengthen the Flemish community and craft a sense of Flemish cultural identity. It furthermore relates these developments to the situation of pillarization in the country and explicates the convergence of these different forces by narrating the developments in one (telling) case study municipality (Dilbeek) in the Flemish border of the capital city.
City, Region, and In Between
Authors: Soll David
Published: March 2012

Urban historians have greatly expanded their geographical purview in recent years, incorporating suburbs and hinterlands into their analysis of social and environmental change. Urban environmental historians and suburban historians have played a critical role in the regionalization of urban history over the last decade. This case study of the development of New York City’s water supply reveals the benefits of taking a regional approach to urban history. From the New York Public Library to Central Park’s Great Lawn to neighborhood parks, the New York City landscape bears the traces of the continuous development of the city’s water network. Expansion of the water system in rural hinterlands enabled municipal officials to put urban reservoirs to new uses, creating some of the city’s most beloved public spaces. The rehabilitation of urban infrastructure underscores the intimate linkages between rural development and the urban built environment.
Building Virtual Cities, 1895–1945
Authors: Light Jennifer S.
Published: March 2012

This article traces the development and diffusion of self-governing “miniature municipalities” and “juvenile cities” between the late nineteenth century and World War II. Hundreds of thousands of children enjoyed junior citizenship in these environments in connection with the period’s city improvement schemes. The stories of the men and women who set out to construct virtual cities as a means of addressing the problems of life in real cities introduce a new cast of characters and a new movement to the historiography of urban reform in the United States.
Freezing soil effects on earth-contact heat transfer
Authors: Rees Stephen William , Cleall Peter John , Li Yu-Chao , Shao Kangjie
Published: March 2012

The inclusion of soil freezing and snow cover within the context of a building energy simulation is explored. In particular, a method of including soil freezing within the simulation of heat flow from a building to the neighbouring foundation soils is considered. Non-linear thermal conductivity and heat capacity relations are explored that account for the effect of soil freezing. In addition, the work also considers latent heat generated by phase change that occurs as the soil water temperature reduces and ice forms. A simple approach to represent the insulating effect that snow cover may have on the net heat flow at the ground surface is also provided. The approach is illustrated by application to the simulation of a full-scale ground heat transfer experiment performed by others. The results provide a first indication of the potential significance of the inclusion of ground freezing within the context of modelling heat transfer from a full-scale monitored building. Overall transient temperature variations are shown to be dependent on ice content and latent heat effects. Non-linear, ice-content dependent, thermal conductivity and heat capacity are included in the work. Good correlation between measured and simulated temperature variations has been achieved.

Practical application: The principle application relates to the assessment of heat transfer from buildings through to the underlying foundation soils. In addition, the work is of direct relevance to a wider range of applications, for example, ground source heat pumps, thermo-active piles and foundations. The model lends itself to application with respect to utilisation of ground energy within the context of pavement design, particularly, in relation to the alleviation of winter ice problems. It also applies within the context of assessment of urban heat island phenomenon and heat and moisture transfer beneath freezer foundations.
Misconceptions of Traits Continue to Persist
Authors: Jackson Joshua J. , Hill Patrick L. , Roberts Brent W.
Published: March 2012

In his defense of self-efficacy, Bandura (Journal of Management, vol. 38, no. 1) does the field a disservice by misconstruing what constitutes a trait. The authors of this response discuss current definitions of a trait and contrast these conceptions with the definition put forth by Bandura. Integral to this disagreement is the level of specificity across different psychological constructs. The authors suggest that if levels of specificity are acknowledged, traits may be meaningfully integrated into social cognitive models of personality. They contend that integrating traits and social cognitive units can benefit both fields and meaningfully impact applied research.
The Domain of Organizational Cognitive Neuroscience
Authors: Lee Nick , Senior Carl , Butler Michael J. R.
Published: March 2012

In this editorial, the authors respond to the 2011 article in the Journal of Management by Becker, Cropanzano, and Sanfey, titled “Organizational Neuroscience: Taking Organizational Theory Inside the Neural Black Box.” More specifically, the authors build on the ideas of Becker et al. first to clarify and extend their work and then to explore the critical philosophical issues involved in drawing inferences from neuroscientific research. They argue that these problems are yet to be solved and that organizational researchers who wish to incorporate neuroscientific advances into their work need to engage with them.
Entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation as drivers of product innovation success: A study of exporters from a developing economy
Authors: Boso Nathaniel , Cadogan John W. , Story Vicky M.
Published: March 2012

This paper explores how two specific market-based resources, export entrepreneurial-oriented and export market-oriented behaviours, act to drive the performance of firms’ product innovations in their export markets. Drawing upon data from 164 Ghanaian exporters, the results indicate that both export entrepreneurial-oriented behaviour and export market-oriented behaviour drive export product innovation success. Entrepreneurial-oriented behaviour is more likely to be a driver of product innovation success when market-oriented behaviour is strong. This joint effect is more substantial when market dynamism is strong Individually, entrepreneurial-oriented and market-oriented behaviours are more likely to be related to export product innovation success when market dynamism is high. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
A Macromarketing Perspective on Food Safety Regulation
Authors: Bech-Larsen Tino , Aschemann-Witzel Jessica
Published: March 2012

This article discusses the implementation and diffusion of mandatory and voluntary food safety regulations from a marketing systems perspective, and specifically applies this framework to an analysis of the antecedents and implications of the Danish 2003 ban on trans-fatty acids (TFAs). The analysis is based on reviews of published material and on interviews with food marketers, nutrition experts, and policy makers. It is established that the ban was implemented due to scientific proof of health risks associated with the intake of TFAs but also as a result of aligned interests and efforts of the major stakeholders in the Danish food marketing system. Adding to the literature on diffusion of regulatory initiatives, the analysis shows that the Danish ban on trans-fats had—and still has—an important impact on trans-fat regulation in other European and overseas countries. In the final section, insights from the analysis are used as a starting point for a discussion of how public authorities, food marketers, and macromarketing researchers can apply the marketing systems perspective when designing, managing, and studying future cases of food safety regulation.
Garbage matters
Authors: Moore Sarah A.
Published: March 2012

In this article, I critically review important concepts in new geographies of waste. I focus on both the conceptual frameworks that are used to examine issues concerning waste and the political possibilities produced by understanding waste differently. By plotting a range of concepts of waste along two axes – positive versus negative definitions of waste, and dualist versus relational concepts of waste and society – I contextualize scholarship on waste within the broader discussion about the ‘rematerialization’ of geography and social science. Understanding when, how, and why waste matters provides a fruitful lens for examining contemporary sociospatial processes.
Axial Load-Bearing Capacity of an Osteochondral Autograft Stabilized With a Resorbable Osteoconductive Bone Cement Compared With a Press-Fit Graft in a Bovine Model
Authors: Kiss Marc-Olivier , Levasseur Annie , Petit Yvan , Lavigne Patrick
Published: March 2012

Background: Osteochondral autografts in mosaicplasty are inserted in a press-fit fashion, and hence, patients are kept nonweightbearing for up to 2 months after surgery to allow bone healing and prevent complications. Very little has been published regarding alternative fixation techniques of those grafts.

Hypothesis: Osteochondral autografts stabilized with a resorbable osteoconductive bone cement would have a greater load-bearing capacity than standard press-fit grafts.

Study Design: Controlled laboratory study.

Methods: Biomechanical testing was conducted on 8 pairs of cadaveric bovine distal femurs. For the first 4 pairs, 6 single osteochondral autografts were inserted in a press-fit fashion on one femur. On the contralateral femur, 6 grafts were stabilized with a calcium triglyceride osteoconductive bone cement. For the 4 remaining pairs of femurs, 4 groups of 3 adjacent press-fit grafts were inserted on one femur, whereas on the contralateral femur, grafts were cemented. After a maturation period of 48 hours, axial loading was applied on all single grafts and on the middle graft of each 3-in-a-row series.

Results: For the single-graft configuration, median loads required to sink the press-fit and cemented grafts by 2 and 3 mm were 281.87 N versus 345.56 N ( P = .015) and 336.29 N versus 454.08 N ( P = .018), respectively. For the 3-in-a-row configuration, median loads required to sink the press-fit and cemented grafts by 2 and 3 mm were 260.31 N versus 353.47 N ( P = .035) and 384.83 N versus 455.68 N ( P = .029), respectively.

Conclusion: Fixation of osteochondral grafts using bone cement appears to improve immediate stability over the original mosaicplasty technique for both single- and multiple-graft configurations.

Clinical Relevance: Achieving greater primary stability of osteochondral grafts could potentially accelerate postoperative recovery, allowing early weightbearing and physical therapy.
The FIFA 11+ Program Is Effective in Preventing Injuries in Elite Male Basketball Players
Authors: Longo Umile Giuseppe , Loppini Mattia , Berton Alessandra , Marinozzi Andrea , Maffulli Nicola , Denaro Vincenzo
Published: March 2012

Background: Recently, structured training programs for sports injury prevention (“The 11” and “The 11+”) have been validated in soccer. The FIFA 11+ program has not been evaluated in basketball.

Hypothesis: The FIFA 11+ program is effective in reducing the rates of injury in male basketball players.

Study Design: Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1.

Methods: The authors randomized 11 teams of the same club. Seven teams were allocated to the intervention group (80 players; mean [SD] age 13.5 [2.3] years), and 4 teams were allocated to the control group (41 players; mean [SD] age 15.2 [4.6] years). The authors conducted an injury surveillance program during a 9-month season. The primary outcome was any injury to the athletes. The secondary outcome was any injury to the lower extremity (foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, groin, and hip). They included an analysis of the type of exposure (match or training), injury location in the body, and type of injury (acute or overuse).

Results: During the 9-month season, 23 (19%) of the 121 players included in the study sustained a total of 31 injuries (14 in the intervention group and 17 in the control group). In the intervention group, injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures were lower than those in the control group, with statistical significance, for overall injuries (0.95 vs 2.16; P = .0004), training injuries (0.14 vs 0.76; P = .007), lower extremity injuries (0.68 vs 1.4; P = .022), acute injuries (0.61 vs 1.91; P < .0001), and severe injuries (0 vs 0.51; P = .004). The intervention group also had statistically significant lower injury rates for trunk (0.07 vs 0.51; P = .013), leg (0 vs 0.38; P = .007), and hip and groin (0 vs 0.25; P = .023) compared with the control group. There was no statistically significant difference in match injuries, knee injuries, ankle injuries, and overuse injuries between 2 groups. The most frequent acute injury diagnoses were ligament sprains (0.41 and 0.38 in the intervention and control groups, respectively; P < .006) and contractures (0.76 and 0.07 in the control and intervention groups, respectively; P < .003).

Conclusion: The FIFA 11+ warm-up program is effective in reducing the rates of injuries in elite male basketball players.
Predictors of kidney biopsy complication among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Chen TK , Estrella MM , Fine DM
Published: March 2012

Kidney biopsy is essential for the diagnosis and management of lupus nephritis. The risk of bleeding complication, however, is not defined in the systemic lupus erythematosus population. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine predictors of major and minor complications among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus undergoing percutaneous ultrasound-guided kidney biopsy. Major complications included bleeding necessitating intervention, hypotension requiring vasopressors or higher level of care or death. Minor complications included moderate or large (≥ 4 cm in largest diameter) perinephric hematoma, gross hematuria or voiding difficulties. All patients were observed for at least 23 h post-procedure. The overall incidence of bleeding was 10.5% (2.7% major, 7.8% minor). Adjusted logistic regression showed that for every 10,000 cells/mm3 decrease in platelet count, risk for major and any complication increased by 27% (odds ratio 1.27; 95% confidence intervals 1.06–1.51; p = 0.01) and 8% (odds ratio 1.08; 95% confidence intervals 1.02–1.15; p = 0.01), respectively. Patients with a platelet count <150,000 cells/mm3 were 30 times more likely to experience a major complication ( p = 0.002). Other candidate predictors, including steroid exposure, kidney function, hematocrit and histopathology, were not significant. Kidney biopsies are well tolerated in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. However, patients with pre-biopsy platelet counts <150,000 cells/mm3 are at markedly increased risk for a major bleeding complication.
A social capital approach for network policy learning: the case of an established cluster initiative
Authors: Aragón Cristina , Aranguren Mari Jose , Iturrioz Cristina , Wilson James R.
Published: March 2012

Regional development policies to foster innovation and competitiveness have evolved towards a ‘soft’ focus on facilitating relationships of cooperation. This is demonstrated by the popularity of network and cluster policies. However, the development of these policies poses particular challenges since there is insufficient understanding of the factors in the social structure that underpin networking behaviour and network outcomes. The analysis of this social context provides an important base for policy learning and therefore for the development of networking policies. The paper makes both a theoretical contribution (in establishing the framework) and a methodological contribution (in exploring its implementation in an ongoing policy process). The case studied is that of the Basque aeronautics cluster, a medium-sized cluster with 35 members founded in 1997 within the Basque Country (Spain) cluster policy, one of the longest-running cluster policies in Europe. The participatory design carried out in the application of the theoretical framework to the case study enabled a deeper appreciation of the different realities and behaviour of targeted firms and supported strategies to improve policy effectiveness.
Accuracy of Preoperative Biopsies Compared With Surgical Specimens in the Diagnosis of Colorectal Adenocarcinoma
Authors: Luderer Loreley A. , Lustosa Suzana A. S. , Neto Ricardo Artigiani , Lopes Filipe T. , Matos Delcio
Published: March 2012

Objective

Since the first data from a patient with colorectal adenocarcinoma are obtained by biopsy, this study evaluated the accuracy of diagnosis by biopsy as compared with the diagnostic potential of the surgical specimen, considering the histological type, grade of differentiation, and immunohistochemical expression of p53.

Methods.

The specimens were obtained from 80 patients assisted at Hospital São Paulo. The biopsy and surgical specimen sections were stained by hematoxylin–eosin and immunohistochemistry and compared by 3 pathologists blinded to the evaluations.

Results.

The accuracy for the histological types was 88%. The grade of differentiation presented an accuracy of 70% with Kappa = .48. The expression of protein p53 exhibited an accuracy of 68% with Kappa = .22.

Conclusion.

The preoperative biopsy of colorectal adenocarcinoma presented good accuracy compared with histopathological examination of the surgical specimen, but with weak to moderate effective degree of agreement between the results.
Use of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization to Distinguish Metastatic Uveal From Cutaneous Melanoma
Authors: Fang Yuqiang , Wang Xuan , Dusza Stephen , Jhanwar Suresh , Abramson David , Busam Klaus J.
Published: March 2012

Metastatic lesions of malignant melanoma can on occasion be difficult to classify with regard to the primary site of origin. Given the lack of specificity of light microscopic features, ancillary studies are needed. In this study, the authors explored the possibility of distinguishing metastatic tumors derived from uveal primaries from those known to have originated from a cutaneous melanoma by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using probes for chromosome 3, 8q24, and 1p36. A total of 32 metastatic tumors were analyzed by FISH. Monosomy 3 was detected in 9 out of 16 (56.3%) cases of metastatic uveal melanoma but was not found in any of the 16 metastatic cutaneous melanomas ( P < .001). With regard to 1p36, amplifications were found in 8 out of 16 (50%) cases of metastatic cutaneous melanoma but not in any case of uveal melanoma ( P < .05). 1p36 was deleted in 3 cases of uveal and 1 case of cutaneous melanoma. Amplifications of 8q were found in 15 out of 16 (94%) cases of uveal melanoma metastases and in 12 out of 16 (75%) cases of cutaneous metastases. The findings suggest that FISH for monosomy 3 is a useful adjunct tool in the differential diagnosis of metastatic uveal versus cutaneous melanoma.
Nephrogenic Adenoma of the Urinary Tract
Authors: Alexiev Borislav A. , LeVea Charles M.
Published: March 2012

Nephrogenic adenoma (NA) is an uncommon and intriguing lesion in the urinary tract. The pathogenesis of NA is not entirely clear. NA was considered to be a metaplastic process of the urothelium in response to chronic irritation of the urinary tract. However, recent evidence has shown that NA is not a metaplastic lesion but rather a proliferation of exfoliated and implanted renal epithelial cells in the urinary tract. Histologically, NAs exhibit, singly or in combination, tubules, small papillae, and microcystic structures lined by cells with little cytological atypia and focal hobnail changes. Solid formations and compressed spindled cells within a fibromyxoid background are rarely observed. Differential diagnosis includes, but is not limited to, malignant neoplasms occurring at the same sites, in particular urothelial carcinoma with deceptively bland morphology (with small tubules, microcystic and nested variants), prostatic adenocarcinoma, and clear cell adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical studies with antibodies targeting members of the paired box gene family (PAX2 and/or PAX8) in NAs may be helpful in the differential diagnosis of urothelial lesions and prostatic adenocarcinoma. NAs are most likely to be confused with clear cell adenocarcinoma, especially in small biopsy specimens. This is confounded by both lesions being frequently positive for PAX2, PAX8, and CK7 and not infrequently positive for p504S (α-methylacyl-CoA-racemase, AMACR) by immunohistochemistry. Recognition of its characteristic morphological patterns and awareness of its unusual architectural and cytological features are important in making the diagnosis of NA and distinguishing this lesion from its mimickers.
Polypoid Intestinal Metaplasia of the External Urethral Meatus
Authors: Raspollini Maria Rosaria , Nicita Giulio , Mikuz Gregor
Published: March 2012

A 33-year-old male patient presented with a 1.5-cm polypoid lesion at the edge of the urethral meatus that showed a gross appearance similar to that of a urethral caruncle in the female. The histological features revealed a superficially ulcerated lesion composed of colonic-type mucosal glands with focal regenerative atypia. This case appears to be the first reported one on an intestinal-type polyp in this site. The patient had no further problems after excisional biopsy.
Representations of Foreign versus (Asian) American Identity in a Mass-Shooting Case
Authors: Chuang Angie
Published: March 2012

Scholarship on media representations of Asian minority identity has established that historic constructions of the Other perpetuate a conflation of ethnic with foreign. Previous studies of Seung-Hui Cho and the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings concluded that though Cho was a South Korean national, news media overemphasized his foreign identity, despite his living in the United States most of his life. This study examines newspaper coverage of the 2009 mass shooting at an immigrant-services center in Binghamton, New York, and of perpetrator Jiverly Wong, who immigrated from Vietnam, had lived in the United States for two decades, and was a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The influence of inoculum composition on selected bioactive and nutritional parameters of grass pea tempeh obtained by mixed-culture fermentation with Rhizopus oligosporus and Aspergillus oryzae strains
Authors: Starzyńska-Janiszewska A , Stodolak B , Duliński R , Mickowska B
Published: March 2012

Tempeh is a popular Indonesian product obtained from legume seeds by solid-state fermentation with Rhizopus sp. The aim of this research was to study the effect of simultaneous mixed-culture fermentation of grass pea seeds on selected parameters of products as compared to traditional tempeh. The inoculum contained different ratios of Rhizopus oligosporus and Aspergillus oryzae spores. The simultaneous fermentation of grass pea seeds with inoculum consisting of 1.2 × 106 R. oligosporus and 0.6 × 106 A. oryzae spores (per 60 g of seeds) resulted in a product of improved quality, as compared with traditionally made tempeh (obtained after inoculation with 1.2 × 106 R. oligosporus spores), at the same fermentation time. This product had radical scavenging ability 70% higher than the one obtained with pure R. oligosporus culture and contained 2.23 g/kg dm of soluble phenols. The thiamin and riboflavin levels were above three (340 µg/g dm) and two (50.50 µg/g dm) folds higher than in traditionally made tempeh, respectively. The product had 65% in vitro bioavailability of proteins and 33% in vitro bioavailability of sugars. It also contained 40% less 3- N-oxalyl-L-2, 3-diaminopropionic acid (0.074 g/kg dm), as compared to traditional tempeh.
Preventing the wound-induced deterioration of Yali pears by chitosan coating treatments
Authors: Li Jian , Yan Jiaqi , Cao Jiankang , Zhao Yumei , Jiang Weibo
Published: March 2012

Yali pears ( Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.) are susceptible to mechanical damage. In this study, the protective effects of chitosan treatments on the quality of bruised pears were evaluated. The fruit were treated with 1.5% chitosan before or after bruise damage, respectively. Then, the fruit were stored at 16 °C and 85–90% relative humidity. Postharvest quality parameters were analyzed during the storage. Bruise damage accelerated the decrease of firmness and the ratio of sugar to acid, while a delay of firmness and sugar-to-acid ratio in those pears treated with chitosan before or after was found. Meanwhile, chitosan treatments both before and after damage delayed the color changes caused by damage, inhibited disease incidence increase, and enhanced the bruise recovery during the storage. Our results suggested that chitosan treatment could be used to control the physiological responses induced by bruise damage.
Putting the damper on
Authors: van de Wardt Marc
Published: March 2012

Do parties de-emphasize issues in response to internal divisions among their supporters, and are niche parties more likely to do so than mainstream parties? This study builds on previous research demonstrating that parties change their issue positions in response to their supporters. Simultaneously, a number of studies have emerged arguing that the linkage between parties and citizens is moderated by the type of party (mainstream versus niche). By means of a pooled time-series analysis of 197 parties in 14 West European countries between 1986 and 2006, this study provides convincing empirical evidence that parties downplay issues in response to internal divisions among their supporters. There are, however, no differences between niche and mainstream parties in their responsiveness to internal disagreement. This study has important implications for the literature on responsiveness between parties and their supporters, as well as for our understanding of the strategic behaviour of niche vis-à-vis mainstream parties.
Perineural fat grafting in the treatment of painful end-neuromas of the upper limb: a pilot study
Authors: Vaienti L. , Merle M. , Battiston B. , Villani F. , Gazzola R.
Published: March 2012

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and middle-term durability of the results achieved with perineural fat grafting of painful neuromas of the upper limb. We retrospectively analysed eight patients, affected by eight neuromas, treated by neuroma excision and fat grafting around the proximal nerve stump. Clinical parameters, the disabilities of the arm shoulder and hand score, and the visual analogue scale were recorded at 2, 6 and 12 months after surgery.

A reduction of 23.2% was observed in the mean disabilities of the arm shoulder and hand scores at 12 months. The spontaneous baseline visual analogue scale score showed a mean improvement of 22% at 12 months, although not this was not statistically significant.

Perineural fat grafting is a quick and useful procedure and could represent a useful primary operation in the treatment of pain syndromes of neuropatic origin.
Improving survival and limiting toxicity: latest advances in treating human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpressing breast cancer
Authors: Abramson Vandana G. , Mayer Ingrid A.
Published: March 2012

In recent years, new strategies for the treatment of breast cancer have focused on extensive target identification and understanding the expression, regulation and function of critical signaling pathways involved in breast cancer initiation and progression. This has led to significant progress in developing and understanding human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeted therapies, which in turn, has translated into significant increases in median survival for patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make specific recommendations for the optimal treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer since the field is evolving so rapidly. However, despite the many randomized trials that have been undertaken showing improvement in survival, the current standard treatment for HER2-overexpressing breast cancer continues to revolve around the addition of chemotherapy to a HER2-targeted agent, which in turn, carries substantial toxicities. This article reviews agents that have recently been investigated to treat HER2-overexpressing breast cancers. The goal is ultimately to increase the magnitude and duration of response to trastuzumab-based treatment while minimizing toxicity. Studies addressing length of therapy duration, the superiority and side-effect profile of the different biological drug combinations, and determination of biomarkers of resistance to HER2 therapy will be instrumental in decreasing morbidity and mortality for patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer.
Feasibility Analysis of Standing Desks for Sixth Graders
Authors: Koepp Gabriel A. , Snedden Bradley J. , Flynn Laurel , Puccinelli Deborah , Huntsman Bowen , Levine James A.
Published: March 2012

Background. In this pilot study, the authors aimed to examine the implementation of standing desks on classroom performance and behavior. They also examined how the standing desks affected in-class physical activity and body mass index. Methods. Eight sixth graders from Hope Lutheran elementary school participated in the study (age 11.3 ± 0.5 years). Baseline and 8-month postintervention measures were step counts using (W4L Classic pedometers), height, weight, and behavioral markers. Results. Data showed that there were no statistically significant changes in the participants’ body mass index (19.4 kg/m2 vs 19.3 kg/m2), step counts (1886 steps vs 2248 steps), and behavioral markers including classroom management, concentration, and discomfort. Height and weight changes were significant and are attributed to the normal growth rate associated with the age of the participants (146.8 cm vs 151.8 cm, P < .0001; 41.4 kg vs 44.5 kg, P > .0007). Conclusions. It is feasible to integrate standing desks into a classroom without negative effects. Although the authors observed over a 19% increase in pedometer activity, it was not statistically significant. This highlights the importance for larger experimental groups and the use of more advanced physical activity tracking and body composition technologies.
Amantadine for olanzapine-induced weight gain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials
Authors: Praharaj Samir Kumar , Sharma Podila Satya Venkata Narasimha
Published: March 2012

Objective:

The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials of amantadine for the treatment of olanzapine-induced weight gain.

Methods:

Studies were identified using online searches of PUBMED/MEDLINE and Cochrane database (CENTRAL), along with websites recording trial information such as ClinicalTrials.gov, Controlled-trials.com, and Clinicalstudyresults.org. Study eligibility criteria included randomized, double-blind clinical trials comparing amantadine with placebo for olanzapine-induced weight gain with body weight as an outcome measure and study duration of at least 12 weeks. The methodological quality of included trials was assessed using the Jadad Scale. Separate meta-analyses were undertaken for each outcome (body weight and frequency of weight loss >7%) and treatment effects were expressed as weighted mean differences (WMD) and Mantel–Haenszel odds ratio for continuous and categorical outcomes, respectively.

Results:

A systematic review of literature revealed six studies that had assessed amantadine for olanzapine-induced weight gain. Of these, two studies ( n = 144) met the review inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. Meta-analysis was performed to see the effect size of the treatment on body weight and frequency of body weight loss >7%. For body weight change, WMD was −1.85 (95% confidence interval [CI] −3.31 to −0.39) kg with amantadine as compared with placebo; the overall effect was statistically significant ( p = 0.01). For frequency of body weight loss >7%, Mantel–Haenszel odds ratio for weight loss was 3.72 (95% CI 1.19–11.62), favoring amantadine as compared with placebo, and the overall effect was significant ( p = 0.02).

Conclusions:

Existing data is limited to two studies, which support the efficacy of amantadine for olanzapine-induced weight gain and a significant proportion of patients might lose weight with amantadine compared with placebo.
Economics and Sociology, Epistemology and Values
Authors: Vasilis Maglaras
Published: March 2012

This article focuses on the Amherst term papers and the early essays of Talcott Parsons, the essays he wrote before he published The Structure of Social Action. In these essays, Parsons attempts to define the theoretical interests of sociology in contrast to those of orthodox economics and positivism. It is argued in this article that the Amherst term papers are of little interest as they do not introduce original ideas, and all the relevant argumentation that is developed in these essays is unsophisticated and fragmentary. In contrast, the essays of the period from 1928 to 1937 present original epistemological analysis and theoretical cohesion. This article also compares the Amherst term papers with 5 of 21 early essays to discover theoretical and epistemological continuities. The comparison shows that there is minimum relevance of the Amherst term papers to the early essays and accentuates certain ideas that can be considered as common to the said essays.