bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Probabilistic Seasonal Forecasting of African Drought by Dynamical Models
Authors: Yuan Xing , Wood Eric F. , Chaney Nathaniel W. , Sheffield Justin , Kam Jonghun , Liang Miaoling , Guan Kaiyu
Published: July 2013

As a natural phenomenon, drought can have devastating impacts on local populations through food insecurity and famine in the developing world, such as in Africa. In this study, the authors have established a seasonal hydrologic forecasting system for Africa. The system is based on the Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2), and the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) land surface model. With a set of 26-yr (1982–2007) seasonal hydrologic hindcasts run at 0.25°, the probabilistic drought forecasts are validated using the 6-month Standard Precipitation Index (SPI6) and soil moisture percentile as indices. In terms of Brier skill score (BSS), the system is more skillful than climatology out to 3–5 months, except for the forecast of soil moisture drought over central Africa. The spatial distribution of BSS, which is similar to the pattern of persistency, shows more heterogeneity for soil moisture than the SPI6. Drought forecasts based on SPI6 are generally more skillful than for soil moisture, and their differences originate from the skill attribute of resolution rather than reliability. However, the soil moisture drought forecast can be more skillful than SPI6 at the beginning of the rainy season over western and southern Africa because of the strong annual cycle. Singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis of African precipitation and global SSTs indicates that CFSv2 reproduces the ENSO dominance on rainy season drought forecasts quite well, but the corresponding SVD mode from observations and CFSv2 only account for less than 24% and 31% of the covariance, respectively, suggesting that further understanding of drought drivers, including regional atmospheric dynamics and land–atmosphere coupling, is necessary.
Efficient Flowline Simulations of Ice Shelf–Ocean Interactions: Sensitivity Studies with a Fully Coupled Model
Authors: Walker Ryan T. , Holland David M. , Parizek Byron R. , Alley Richard B. , Nowicki Sophie M. J. , Jenkins Adrian
Published: July 2013

Thermodynamic flowline and plume models for the ice shelf–ocean system simplify the ice and ocean dynamics sufficiently to allow extensive exploration of parameters affecting ice-sheet stability while including key physical processes. Comparison between geophysically and laboratory-based treatments of ice–ocean interface thermodynamics shows reasonable agreement between calculated melt rates, except where steep basal slopes and relatively high ocean temperatures are present. Results are especially sensitive to the poorly known drag coefficient, highlighting the need for additional field experiments to constrain its value. These experiments also suggest that if the ice–ocean interface near the grounding line is steeper than some threshold, further steepening of the slope may drive higher entrainment that limits buoyancy, slowing the plume and reducing melting; if confirmed, this will provide a stabilizing feedback on ice sheets under some circumstances.
An Overview of the China Meteorological Administration Tropical Cyclone Database
Authors: Ying Ming , Zhang Wei , Yu Hui , Lu Xiaoqin , Feng Jingxian , Fan Yongxiang , Zhu Yongti , Chen Dequan
Published: July 2013

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA)’s tropical cyclone (TC) database includes not only the best-track dataset but also TC-induced wind and precipitation data. This article summarizes the characteristics and key technical details of the CMA TC database. In addition to the best-track data, other phenomena that occurred with the TCs are also recorded in the dataset, such as the subcenters, extratropical transitions, outer-range severe winds associated with TCs over the South China Sea, and coastal severe winds associated with TCs landfalling in China. These data provide additional information for researchers. The TC-induced wind and precipitation data, which map the distribution of severe wind and rainfall, are also helpful for investigating the impacts of TCs. The study also considers the changing reliability of the various data sources used since the database was created and the potential causes of temporal and spatial inhomogeneities within the datasets. Because of the greater number of observations available for analysis, the CMA TC database is likely to be more accurate and complete over the offshore and land areas of China than over the open ocean. Temporal inhomogeneities were induced primarily by changes to the nature and quality of the input data, such as the development of a weather observation network in China and the use of satellite image analysis to replace the original aircraft reconnaissance data. Furthermore, technical and factitious changes, such as to the wind–pressure relationship and the satellite-derived current intensity (CI) number–intensity conversion, also led to inhomogeneities within the datasets.
Sierra Barrier Jets, Atmospheric Rivers, and Precipitation Characteristics in Northern California: A Composite Perspective Based on a Network of Wind Profilers
Authors: Neiman Paul J. , Hughes Mimi , Moore Benjamin J. , Ralph F. Martin , Sukovich Ellen M.
Published: July 2013

Five 915-MHz wind profilers and GPS receivers across California's northern Central Valley (CV) and adjacent Sierra foothills and coastal zone, in tandem with a 6-km-resolution gridded reanalysis dataset generated from the Weather Research and Forecasting Model, document key spatiotemporal characteristics of Sierra barrier jets (SBJs), landfalling atmospheric rivers (ARs), and their interactions. Composite kinematic and thermodynamic analyses are based on the 13 strongest SBJ cases observed by the Sloughhouse profiler between 2009 and 2011. The analyses show shallow, cool, south-southeasterly (i.e., Sierra parallel) flow and associated water vapor transport strengthening with time early in the 24-h compositing period, culminating in an SBJ core at <1 km above ground over the eastern CV. The SBJ core increases in altitude up the Sierra's windward slope and poleward toward the north end of the CV, but it does not reach the westernmost CV. Above the developing SBJ, strengthening southwesterly flow descends temporally in response to the landfalling AR. The moistening SBJ reaches maximum intensity during the strongest AR flow aloft, at which time the core of the AR-parallel vapor transport slopes over the SBJ. The inland penetration of the AR through the San Francisco Bay gap in the coastal mountains contributes to SBJ moistening and deepening. The SBJ subsequently weakens with the initial cold-frontal period aloft, during which the shallow flow shifts to southwesterly and the heaviest precipitation falls in the Sierra foothills. An orographic precipitation analysis quantitatively links the Sierra-perpendicular (nearly AR parallel) vapor fluxes to enhanced precipitation along the Sierra's windward slope and the SBJ-parallel fluxes to heavy precipitation at the north end of the CV.
The Impact of Political Violence During the Spanish General Election of 1936
Authors: Tardío Manuel Álvarez
Published: July 2013

Political violence was a significant force in Europe between the two world wars, and the Spanish Second Republic (1931–6) was no exception to this general trend. The purpose of this article is to analyse its role in the campaign leading up to the February 1936 general election – the last to be held prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Without doubt, this election constituted a crucial moment in Spain’s new experiment with democratic competition, and for this reason, the presence and characteristics of violence during the campaign are useful tools for analysing the process of democratic consolidation and its peculiar features. Until the present, historians have possessed a certain amount of information on electoral violence in the Spain of February 1936, but this has remained incomplete and is poorly documented. Therefore, this study presents the results of a more thoroughgoing and systematic analysis of the subject, based on a rigorous examination of the available primary sources. In addition, it also introduces a reflection on the comparative prior context of interwar European politics.
The Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality and the African American Organizing Tradition in the Era of Black Power
Authors: Jong Greta de
Published: July 2013

At a time when disillusionment with mainstream institutions and a focus on black power appeared dominant in the struggle for racial equality in the United States, the interracial Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE) carried the ideals of the early civil rights movement into the late 1960s and early 1970s, garnering support from liberal foundations and individual donors for projects that fostered political and economic empowerment among black southerners. This analysis of SEDFRE's work demonstrates the continued role of national organizations and white supporters in the freedom struggle and provides further evidence that there was no clear distinction between the civil rights and black power eras.
Reassessing The Holy Reich: Leading Nazis’ Views on Confession, Community and ‘Jewish’ Materialism
Authors: Koehne Samuel
Published: July 2013

Returning to the Journal of Contemporary History debate on The Holy Reich, this article argues that the notion of ‘positive Christianity’ as a Nazi ‘religious system’ has been largely invented. It offers a close analysis of significant public statements on National Socialism by three leading Nazis: Adolf Hitler, Gottfried Feder and Alfred Rosenberg. In doing so, it demonstrates that in historical context the three key ideas from Point 24 of the NSDAP programme that were meant to form the content of this ‘type of Christianity’ were not promoted as Christian. Instead, they formed a part of the Nazis’ racial ideology.
A Political Park: The Working People’s Cultural Palace in Beijing
Authors: Hung Chang-tai
Published: July 2013

The Working People’s Cultural Palace (WPCP), formerly the Imperial Ancestral Temple, is a celebrated public park near Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing. A closer look at the park, which was created by the government in 1950 to provide recreational activities for the local residents, reveals that it was not primarily used as a conventional urban amenity but rather as an arena for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to launch political campaigns and stage propaganda exhibitions. The park, therefore, under the guise of a recreation area, was used to promote labor policies, international diplomacy and Party politics, thus extending the CCP’s control of people’s lives. Based on recently available archival sources and by comparing the CCP’s use of urban parks to how they were used in the former Soviet Union and in the United States, this article argues that the WPCP reflects the conflict between the state and society, resulting in the domination of the former over the latter and rapid loss of citizens’ private space in China.
Gazing Toward Ghana: African American Agency in the Eisenhower Administration’s Relations with Africa
Authors: Grimm Kevin E.
Published: July 2013

African Americans viewed Ghana as a symbol of black success, capability, and modernity during the 1950s and pressured the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to attribute more importance to the decolonizing nation and its leader, Kwame Nkrumah. Black American leaders thus played a role in shifting American policy in Africa toward a more ‘middle ground' approach balancing European and African desires and also helped cause Vice President Richard Nixon's 1957 trip to Ghana and Nkrumah's 1958 visit to the United States. Such actions reveal domestic influence on international relations, black American agency and a positive outcome of racially based worldviews during the Cold War.
Theorising performance, performing theory: Jacques Derrida and Ornette Coleman at the Parc de la Villette
Authors: Lane Jeremy F.
Published: July 2013

On the evening of 1 July 1997, Jacques Derrida made an appearance on stage during a concert by the celebrated African American free jazz saxophonist, Ornette Coleman. Derrida’s attempts to read from a pre-prepared text, as Coleman responded on his saxophone, were interrupted by loud boos and catcalls from the audience. After a few moments, Derrida left the stage, having failed to complete his peroration. By means of a close reading of the text of his aborted intervention, this article argues that Derrida in fact had something very significant to contribute to debates about the nature of improvised jazz performance. More specifically, Derrida’s intervention constitutes an important attempt to challenge and rethink long-held assumptions about the apparently spontaneous, unmediated, and hence supposedly ‘primitive’ nature of improvised jazz performance. In so doing, he was attempting to deconstruct a long tradition of phonocentric, ethnocentric, even racist assumptions that have characterised much jazz criticism, from its origins to the present day.
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed’s performance of universal French citizenship and good Muslim brotherhood
Authors: Provencher Denis M.
Published: July 2013

This article builds on scholarship in performance studies, anthropology, discourse analysis and French studies by examining the performative speech acts of self-identified Maghrebi-French queer men from my recent fieldwork in France. As a point of departure, I draw on José Estaban Muñoz’s notion of ‘disidentification’ (1999) and Mireille Rosello’s notion of ‘declining the stereotype’ (1998) to examine the strategies of resistance for Maghrebi-French queer speakers who ‘work on and against dominant ideology’ and who try ‘to transform cultural logic from within’ a dominant system of identification and assimilation (Muñoz, 1999: 11–12). In my analysis, I examine an interview with one of my Maghrebi-French interlocutors, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, founder of several French associations including Homosexuels musulmans de France (HM2F), and the author of Le Coran et la chair (2012), to show how his speech acts function simultaneously from within contemporary France – and its notion of laïcité – and from within Islam and the Prophet’s own dynamic approach to the Quran, to reinvent both the ‘universal French citizen’ and the ‘good Muslim brother’. Zahed’s story will help us to see how sexual and religious minorities must ‘straddle competing cultural traditions, memories, and material conditions’ and devise ‘a configuration of possible scripts of self/selves that shift according to the situation’ (Manalansan, 2003: x) in order to be heard in contemporary France by their families of origin, their fellow citizens and their Muslim brothers and sisters.
Performance in Sophie Calle’s Prenez soin de vous
Authors: Jordan Shirley
Published: July 2013

This article analyses performance in the work of French project artist Sophie Calle, focusing in detail on the major installation Prenez soin de vous (2007). It argues that performance, which is key to debates about postmodern self-narrative and central to an understanding of Calle’s corpus from the outset, is taken into new terrain with this project, since its scope, variety and ambitious collective dimension become ways not of scrutinising but rather of evacuating the autobiographical subject. The article connects the performativity of Prenez soin de vous with recent post-feminist returns to the romance narrative, explores its indebtedness to representations of the scene of reading in Western art, and also argues for an evaluation of the comic in Calle’s work. Its detailed assessment of Prenez soin de vous as performance is based on the installation as curated in the Salle Labrouste of the former Bibliothèque nationale de France (2008) and an argument is presented for the special significance of this location to Calle’s project.
The ecology of the image: The environmental politics of Philippe Quesne and Vivarium Studio
Authors: Lavery Carl
Published: July 2013

This essay sets out to explore the relationship between French performance and ecology by concentrating on the work of Philippe Quesne and Vivarium Studio, one of the few experimental theatre companies in France to have attracted recognition by French and Anglophone scholars in recent years. The essay proceeds by explaining Quesne’s self-confessed concern with the environment before concentrating on the aesthetic and theoretical difference between ‘ecological images’ and ‘images of ecology’. The final section of the essay pays close attention to how the ecological image functions in several of Quesne’s plays including La Démangeaison des ailes (2003), Expériences (2004), D’après nature (2006a), L’Effet de Serge (2007) and Big Bang (2010). By weaving environmental discourse with aesthetic thought, the essay offers the first in-depth interpretation of Quesne’s work in English and French as well as expanding the discursive parameters of French theatre. In keeping with the fact that ‘ecological thinking’ problematises any attempt to separate the metaphorical from the literal, mind from matter, the aim of this essay is to perform its own act of ecology: by which I mean that my objective is to contest the reductive ‘monoculturism’ of Anglophone theatre research, which has shown little interest in work performed in a language other than English, while simultaneously increasing the ‘biodiversity’ of French theatre criticism, which, to date, has paid little attention to ecology in terms of theme or form.
Objectification and resistance: Dance performances in Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Graine et le mulet (2007) and Vénus noire (2010)
Authors: Morrissey Jim
Published: July 2013

Performance is central to the work of Abdellatif Kechiche. Where male verbal performance took centre stage in the explorations of French national identity undertaken in his first two films, a gradual shift in focus towards female bodily performance in La Graine et le mulet (2007) and Vénus noire (2010) evidences the director’s increased awareness of the complex ways in which gender and ethnicity can combine in exclusionary discourse. This article presents close analyses of key sequences from the latter two films, showing how the representation of the dancing body in Vénus noire may call into question existing readings of the controversial belly dance scene that concludes La Graine et le mulet. Making extended reference to Brigitte Bardot’s mambo dance at the end of Et Dieu … créa la femme (Vadim, 1956), the article shows how dance performances in Kechiche can involve not only the adoption of stereotypical identities that serve to highlight the continuing force of exclusionary discourse, but also assertions of agency on the part of the female ethnic other.
Everyday multiculturalism: Theorising the difference between ‘intersectionality’ and ‘multiple identities’
Authors: Werbner Pnina
Published: July 2013

This paper contrasts intersectionality, the negative definition of identities, and multiple identities, the situational valorisation of positive identities, to argue for a generational shift in the performance of everyday multiculturalism in Britain. In everyday encounters, actors work to sustain the definition of the situation (Goffman) and with it a surface of civility and mutual respect which are nevertheless morally compelling. Everyday relationships flow smoothly and naturally, in an unreflexive, taken-for-granted way, to constitute shared positive identities (Schutz). Such surface civility may, however, be disrupted by communicative breakdowns whenever participants do not share implicit systems of relevancy. Deconstructive analyses that probe beneath the surface of the everyday can also reveal the existence of negative identities, subject to discrimination and stigmatisation. This paper contrasts the experience of first-generation Commonwealth immigrants to Britain with that of successive generations, who unreflexively displayed a shared British identity during the London 2012 Olympics.
‘No smoke without fire’: Strategies of coping with stigmatised migrant identities
Authors: Moroşanu Laura , Fox Jon E
Published: July 2013

This paper examines how ethnicity informs the ways in which Romanian migrants in the UK cope with stigmatisation. Instead of assuming ethnicity’s relevance, our purpose is to examine how responses to stigmatisation may or may not become ethnicised. We consider two strategies. The first strategy invokes and reinforces the salience of ethnicity, albeit in a negative and thus still stigmatised way. Instead of countering stigma with a positive reappraisal of ‘Romanianness’, some Romanians seek to transfer the stigma onto the ethnic Roma with whom they are frequently associated. This strategy thus acknowledges stigma, but attempts to detach it from the self and reattach it to the ethnicised other. The second strategy emphasises individual skills and accomplishments to overshadow the effects of a stigmatised ethnicity. Ethnicity is made less salient by this switch to a register of personal skill and worth. Exploring the interplay of these coping strategies, we highlight the fluctuating relevance, rather than declining relevance, of an ‘ethnic lens’ (Glick Schiller et al., 2006) in individual migrants’ de-stigmatising discourses and practices that produce, transform or at times elide different ethnic boundaries.
Of Hajj and home: Roots visits to Mecca and Bangladesh in everyday belonging
Authors: DeHanas Daniel Nilsson
Published: July 2013

Muslim religiosity and South Asian ethnicities are at times experienced as rival forms of affiliation, especially for the second generation born and brought up in the West. In this article, I investigate the role of ‘roots visits’ to Bangladesh and pilgrimages to Mecca in shaping ethnic/religious affiliations of young second generation Bengalis in London's East End. Building on Glick Schiller (2004), I argue that Bengali translocal ways of being (travel to Bangladesh) have become untethered from Bengali translocal ways of belonging (self-identifications), due in part to the more critical stance on Bengali culture propagated by deculturated Islamic institutions in the East End and to young people's perceptions of their social class difference from Bangladeshi locals. While second generation youth who travel to Bangladesh tend to express a distancing from their ‘roots,’ those who travel on hajj or umra find that this bolsters their sense of rootedness in translocal Muslim belonging.
Kant and Rawls on the cultivation of virtue
Authors: Brewer Talbot
Published: July 2013

In ‘Two conceptions of virtue’, Thomas Hill reconstructs the conceptions of virtue, and of proper moral upbringing, found in Kant and Rawls. Here I offer some brief reflections on these conceptions of virtue and its cultivation. I argue that Kant’s conception of virtue is grounded in a mistaken conception of desire, and that this makes it difficult to account properly for the role of ‘sentimental education’ in a good moral upbringing. I then suggest that, in addition to the explicit conception of moral upbringing to which Hill attends, Rawls has an implicit conception of the cultivation of the virtue of justice. This conception is implicit in Rawls’ philosophical methodology, and it assigns a central and recognizably Hegelian role to reasoned philosophical reflection.
Internal jugular vein thrombosis: an uncommon presentation
Authors: Mittal Sachin , Garg Pradeep , Verma Surender , Bhoriwal Sandeep , Aggarwal Sourabh
Published: July 2013

Internal jugular vein (IJV) thrombosis is a rare entity. It is usually secondary to various etiologies such as ovarian hyperstimulation, deep vein thrombosis of upper limbs, venous catheter, malignancy, trauma, infection, and neck surgery and hypercoagulable status. We report an unusual case of internal jugular vein thrombosis with cerebral sinus thrombosis, postpartum in a 22-year-old female patient who presented with a painful swelling on the left side of her neck. Diagnosis was established by color Doppler ultrasonography and magnetic resonance venography. Thorough evaluation of the patient revealed no etiological factor leading to thrombosis. Patient was treated with low-molecular-weight heparin.
Cryopreserved saphenous vein allograft for infragenicular bypass in the presence of foot infection
Authors: Methodius-Rayford Walaya , Combs James M , Wellons Eric D , Poindexter James M , Rosenthal David
Published: July 2013

We report our distal bypass experience with cryopreserved saphenous vein allograft (CSVA) in 12 patients presenting with infection and no autologous saphenous vein available. Twelve patients underwent 13 arterial reconstructions. The mean age of the cohort was 68.4 years. Ninety-two percent (92%) of the patients presented with Rutherford Class 5 or 6 disease which required wide debridement and copious irrigation of all infected tissue beds. All distal anastomoses were to infragenicular vessels. Two patients died with patent grafts during follow-up for an 83% survival rate. Three grafts failed during follow-up between one and 36.3 months, of which two underwent amputation for an 82% limb salvage rate. The primary and primary assisted patency rate was 40% and 60% at 18 months follow-up, respectively, and no recurrent infections. In patients who have complex risk factors and the presence of infection, CSVA appears to be a reasonable option for limb salvage.
Application of preoperative brain natriuretic peptide levels in clinical practice
Authors: Causey Marlin Wayne , McVay Derek P , Oguntoye Morohunranti , Andersen Charles , Singh Niten
Published: July 2013

The purpose of the study was to determine the clinical utility and practical application of preoperative brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels. This is a retrospective review of operating room procedures from November 2006 to March 2009. Preoperative history and physical were reviewed and BNP laboratory levels obtained prior to all procedures and the postoperative course reviewed for incidence of 30-day cardiac complications. A receiver operator curve analysis demonstrated that a preoperative BNP threshold ≥95.5 pg/mL correctly identified 75% of patients with cardiac complications and values ≤18.5 pg/mL identified 100% of patients without adverse postoperative cardiac complications. Multivariable analysis also revealed a history of peripheral arterial disease as the most significant preoperative predictor of cardiac complications followed by BNP above the threshold (odds ratio = 3.7), hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease and prior myocardial infarction. In conclusion, preoperative BNP levels are a useful adjunct in clinical practice to help identify those patients with a high postoperative risk and those with a minimal postoperative risk.
The effects of endovenous radiofrequency ablation on coagulation and the vein wall in an experimental canine model
Authors: Tao Wang , Jian-ping Gu , Xu He , Wen-sheng Lou , Liang Chen , Guo-ping Chen , Hao-bo Su , Jin-hua Song
Published: July 2013

Endovenous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been introduced as a less invasive alternative to traditional surgery for varicose veins, but vein thrombosis after RFA remains a concern. This study investigated the influence of endovenous RFA on coagulable states of canine blood, and changes in the vein wall and lumen. Eight canines underwent RFA of the iliac-femoral vein. Levels of plasma granule membrane protein-140, tissue plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 increased at different time points after RFA, which were monitored by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Venography after ablation showed that there was left iliac-femoral vein occlusion in three canines and vein stenosis in the remaining five. Histological examination revealed intimal injury and inflammatory cell infiltration of the vessel wall. Our findings suggest that RFA is an effective microinvasive technique, which can result in a hypercoagulable state, with venous thrombosis and stenosis.
Combined clopidogrel and aspirin therapy in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy is associated with an increased risk of postoperative bleeding
Authors: Hale Brittani , Pan Wei , Misselbeck Timothy S , Lee Vei-Vei , Livesay James J
Published: July 2013

This present study investigated the influence of combined preoperative clopidogrel and aspirin (ASA) administration on adverse postoperative outcomes and bleeding risk in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA). A retrospective cohort study of all consecutive patients undergoing isolated CEA ( n = 1488) between 1998 and 2005 was performed. Patients were classified into three groups: patients receiving combined preoperative clopidogrel/ASA therapy ( n = 315), patients receiving preoperative ASA only ( n = 639) and patients receiving no preoperative antiplatelet therapy ( n = 518). Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine if combined preoperative clopidogrel and ASA therapy is independently associated with improved perioperative outcomes after CEA in the absence of significant bleeding risk. Clopidogrel/ASA therapy was independently associated with a five-fold increased risk of postoperative bleeding after CEA (odds ratios = 5.1; 95% confidence intervals: 1.8–14.2; P < 0.002). No increase in bleeding risk or reoperation was observed in patients receiving ASA alone. However, the postoperative length of hospital stay (PLOHS) was significantly shorter ( P = 0.01) for patients receiving combined clopidogrel/ASA therapy (2.5 ± 2.3 days) versus those receiving no antiplatelet agents (3.2 ± 5.9 days). Preoperative clopidogrel/ASA therapy increases risk of postoperative bleeding after CEA, yet reduces overall PLOHS.
Coral reef aorta: case report and review of the literature
Authors: Policha Aleksandra , Moudgill Neil , Eisenberg Joshua , Rao Atul , DiMuzio Paul
Published: July 2013

Coral reef aorta (CRA) is a rare form of atherosclerosis that affects the paravisceral and pararenal aorta and its branches. Patients typically present with arterial insufficiency of the bowels, kidneys and lower extremities. The current mainstay of treatment is operative, typically involving transaortic endarterectomy. Herein, we describe a 54-year-old woman with incapacitating lower extremity claudication secondary to a paravisceral coral reef atheroma treated successfully with transaortic endarterectomy via a left retroperitoneal approach. In addition, we present a complete review of modern English literature on CRA.
Internal carotid artery redundancy and dissection in a young cocaine abuser
Authors: Meghani M , Siddique M N , Bhat T , Samarneh M , Elsayegh S
Published: July 2013

Carotid artery redundancies are common findings on routine imaging studies and are usually considered to be benign variants. We present a case of a 40-year-old man, with a history of cocaine abuse, who was diagnosed with dissection of the right internal carotid artery and looping of the bilateral internal carotid arteries. This report attempts to highlight the possible association between carotid artery redundancy and dissection, especially in the context of vascular injury such as cocaine abuse, as in our case.
Immediate surgery for acute internal carotid artery dissection and thrombosis during filter deployment prior to stenting: a case report
Authors: Tolva V , Bertoni G B , Bianchi P G , Keller G C , Casana R
Published: July 2013

Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is a validated option in the treatment of selected extracranial carotid artery stenosis. Carotid artery dissection during CAS is a rare but potentially devastating complication. We report a case of acute dissection and thrombosis of the left internal carotid artery during filter tip wire engaging maneuvers, complicated by intraoperative complete blindness of the left eye. Immediate conversion to carotid endarterectomy was performed under general anesthesia with electroencephalographic monitoring. The patient was discharged home symptomless and remains asymptomatic eight months after the operation, with normal left internal carotid patency and fully recovered eyesight. In conclusion, the management of acute carotid occlusion during CAS requires emergent evaluation and definitive endovascular or open surgical repair to minimize neurologic morbidity. We advocate that all endovascular procedures are carried out in a well-established surgical environment.
Stent fracture in the brachiocephalic trunk
Authors: Al-Natour M , Renno A , El-Fedaly M , Abbas J , Nazzal M
Published: July 2013

Stents are commonly used as a tool for revascularization of different vascular beds in the body. However, many pitfalls have been reported with their use, such as thrombosis, migration, restenosis or fractures. The latter have been strongly correlated to in-stent restenosis with long-term follow-up. We report a rare case of an early stent fracture in the brachiocephalic trunk with in-stent restenosis and recurrence of symptoms. To our knowledge there has been only one case report of a delayed brachiocephalic stent fracture in the English literature. We believe that our case is the first report of an early stent fracture in the brachiocephalic trunk.
Reduction of iron stores and clinical outcomes in peripheral arterial disease: outcome comparisons in smokers and non-smokers
Authors: DePalma Ralph G , Zacharski Leo R , Chow Bruce K , Shamayeva Galina , Hayes Virginia W
Published: July 2013

A prospective randomized trial suggested that iron (ferritin) reduction improved outcomes in smokers. The present study reanalyzed the trial results in smokers compared with non-smokers. Randomization of 1262 men with peripheral arterial disease (540 smokers and 722 non-smokers) to iron reduction (phlebotomy) or control groups permitted analysis of the effects of iron reduction and smoking on primary (all-cause mortality) and secondary (death plus non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke) endpoints. Iron reduction resulted in significant improvement in the primary (hazard ratio [HR] 0.661, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45, 0.97; P = 0.036) and secondary (HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.46, 0.88; P = 0.006) endpoints compared with controls in smokers but not in non-smokers. Smokers required removal of a greater volume of blood to attain targeted ferritin reduction as compared with non-smokers ( P = 0.003) and also exhibited differing characteristics from non-smokers, including significantly less statin use. Phlebotomy-related outcomes favored smokers over non-smokers. Biological linkages responsible for this unique effect offer promising lines for future iron reduction studies (ClinicalTrial.Gov Identifier: NCT00032357).
Embodied leadership: The aesthetics of gesture
Authors: Bathurst Ralph , Cain Trudie
Published: July 2013

This paper proposes that leadership is an embodied process which occurs among those who are in community together. This implies that the dualities between the leader and the follower morph into a set of relationships where bodies move and gesture to one another by inviting and responding to each other in open co-creative spaces. To work through our ideas, we offer an exemplar of Richard Strauss’s song Morgen! as it is rendered in performance. We locate our study within the theory of relational leadership and suggest that effective leadership draws on the abilities of organisational members to offer and respond to gestures as they occur moment-by-moment.
Embodied inter-practices of leadership – Phenomenological perspectives on relational and responsive leading and following
Authors: Küpers Wendelin M
Published: July 2013

This paper offers phenomenological perspectives on leadership as an embodied material and relational practice. Based on Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of embodiment and practice, leadership is interpreted as an emergent process of the inter-practice of leading and following. For showing the enactment of this embodied inter-practicing as a creative one, improvisation is explored as an exemplary media. Finally, some practical, political, theoretical and methodological implications and perspectives on embodied inter-practices of leadership will be outlined.
From perception to flesh: A phenomenological account of the felt experience of leadership
Authors: Ladkin Donna
Published: July 2013

Although growing numbers of scholars are studying the role embodiment plays in leadership, few attend to the most fundamental level at which bodies are involved: that of the felt experience of being within a leadership dynamic. How do we know, at a bodily level when we are being led, or when we are leading? Does the quality of that bodily based experience have an impact on the extent to which we are willing to engage in leadership processes, either as followers or as leaders? This paper draws on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to respond to questions such as these and to elaborate the perceptual processes central to the felt experience of being within a leadership relation. This exploration culminates in a description of Merleau-Ponty’s notion of ‘flesh’, the ‘stuff’ of materiality, as well as the medium through which materiality is experienced. This paper argues that Merleau-Ponty’s ideas provide a holistic approach to understanding perception as a full-bodied activity with important implications for the creation and maintenance of leadership relations. In doing so, his thinking offers a starting point for rendering the invisible intersubjective relations at the heart of leadership more visible, thus enabling their material dimensions to become more evident.
Embodiment of leadership through material place
Authors: Ropo Arja , Sauer Erika , Salovaara Perttu
Published: July 2013

This paper analyses how material places and leadership are related to each other. We do that by exploring the question: How do spaces and places construct and perform leadership? The notion that material places can lead relies on three concepts of leadership. First, we make a distinction between the leader and leadership. Second, we join the growing number of scholars who view leadership as socially constructed, emerging and as meaning making. Third, we consider leadership as an aesthetic, embodied phenomenon and as sensuous experience. Embodiment of leadership refers here to social, relational constructionism as ontology of leadership and to aesthetic epistemology that legitimizes sense-based data such as emotions, bodily sensations, intuitions and mental representations as a basis for knowledge development. To understand the relationship between leadership and material place, we elaborate on the epistemology of embodied experience. We discuss embodied ways of knowing and point out specific aspects of embodied experience with examples from the art field. Our chapter contributes to the understanding the material nature of leadership by conceptualizing the notion of embodiment as an epistemological issue.
Viral infections and the development of asthma in children
Authors: Saglani Sejal
Published: July 2013

Viral aetiology, host susceptibility (in particular allergic predisposition and sensitization), and illness severity, timing and frequency all appear to contribute as synergistic factors to the risk of developing asthma. Experimental models have shown both innate and adaptive immune responses contribute to this risk with lung inflammatory cells showing marked differences in phenotype and function in young compared with older animals, and these differences are further enhanced following virus infection. Findings to date strongly suggest that the impact of infant and preschool viral infections on the maturing immune system and developing lung that subsequently result in an asthma phenotype occur during a critical susceptibility period, and in a genetically susceptible host. There are currently no therapeutic strategies that allow primary or secondary prevention of asthma following early life viral respiratory infections in high-risk children, thus a focus on understanding the mechanisms of progression from viral wheezing in infants and preschool children to asthma development are urgently needed. This review summarizes the data reporting the role of the two most common viruses, that is, respiratory syncytial virus and human rhinovirus, that result in asthma development, comparing risk factors for disease progression, and providing insight into strategies that might be adopted to prevent asthma development.
Clarithromycin, QTc interval prolongation and torsades de pointes: the need to study case reports
Authors: Vieweg W. Victor R. , Hancox Jules C. , Hasnain Mehrul , Koneru Jayanthi N. , Gysel Michael , Baranchuk Adrian
Published: July 2013

Background:

The manufacturers of clarithromycin sought a drug similar in efficacy to erythromycin but with a superior side-effect profile. They generally achieved this outcome, but postmarketing findings identified a series of reports linking clarithromycin to QTc interval prolongation and torsades de pointes (TdP) ultimately leading to a Black Box Warning. We sought to clarify risk factors associated with TdP among case reports of patients receiving clarithromycin linked to QTc interval prolongation and TdP.

Methods and results:

In a detailed literature search, we found 15 women, five men, and one boy meeting our search criteria. Among the 17 adults with reported clarithromycin dose and concurrent QTc interval measurement, we found no statistically significant relationship between clarithromycin dose and QTc interval duration. This did not change for the adults who developed TdP. Among adults, major risk factors were female sex (15), old age (11) and heart disease (17). A total of eight adult subjects had all three major risk factors and 14 of the 20 adults had at least two major risk factors. All adult subjects had at least two risk factors besides clarithromycin. A total of four of the 20 adults received cisapride and three received disopyramide. Three adults were considered to suffer from some aspect of the congenital long QT syndrome.

Conclusions:

We believe that the risk factor description for this drug should be refined to emphasize the major risk factors of (1) female sex, (2) old age and (3) heart disease.
Automatic landmark annotation and dense correspondence registration for 3D human facial images
Authors: Guo Jianya , Mei Xi , Tang Kun
Published: July 2013

Background

Traditional anthropometric studies of human face rely on manual measurements of simple features, which are labor intensive and lack of full comprehensive inference. Dense surface registration of three-dimensional (3D) human facial images holds great potential for high throughput quantitative analyses of complex facial traits. However there is a lack of automatic high density registration method for 3D faical images. Furthermore, current approaches of landmark recognition require further improvement in accuracy to support anthropometric applications.

Result

Here we describe a novel non-rigid registration method for fully automatic 3D facial image mapping. This method comprises two steps: first, seventeen facial landmarks are automatically annotated, mainly via PCA-based feature recognition following 3D-to-2D data transformation. Second, an efficient thin-plate spline (TPS) protocol is used to establish the dense anatomical correspondence between facial images, under the guidance of the predefined landmarks. We demonstrate that this method is highly accurate in landmark recognition, with an average RMS error of ~1.7 mm. The registration process is highly robust, even for different ethnicities.

Conclusion

This method supports fully automatic registration of dense 3D facial images, with 17 landmarks annotated at greatly improved accuracy. A stand-alone software has been implemented to assist high-throughput high-content anthropometric analysis.
Stage-specific transcription during development of Aedes aegypti
Authors: Harker Brent W , Behura Susanta K , deBruyn Becky S , Lovin Diane D , Mori Akio , Romero-Severson Jeanne , Severson David W
Published: July 2013

Background

Aedes aegyptiis the most important global vector of dengue virus infection in humans. Availability of the draft genome sequence of this mosquito provides unique opportunities to study different aspects of its biology, including identification of genes and pathways relevant to the developmental processes associated with transition across individual life stages. However, detailed knowledge of gene expression patterns pertaining to developmental stages ofA. aegyptiis largely lacking.

Results

We performed custom cDNA microarray analyses to examine the expression patterns among six developmental stages: early larvae, late larvae, early pupae, late pupae, and adult male and female mosquitoes. Results revealed 1,551 differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) showing significant differences in levels of expression between these life stages. The data suggests that most of the differential expression occurs in a stage specific manner inA. aegypti.Based on hierarchical clustering of expression levels, correlated expression patterns of DETs were also observed among developmental stages. Weighted gene correlation network analysis revealed modular patterns of expression among the DETs. We observed that hydrolase activity, membrane, integral to membrane, DNA binding, translation, ribosome, nucleoside-triphosphatase activity, structural constituent of ribosome, ribonucleoprotein complex and receptor activity were among the top ten ranked GO (Gene Ontology) terms associated with DETs. Significant associations of DETs were also observed with specific KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway modules. Finally, comparisons with the previously reported developmental transcriptome of the malaria vector,Anopheles gambiae, indicated that gene expression patterns during developmental processes reflect both species-specific as well as common components of the two mosquito species.

Conclusions

Our study shows that genes involved in the developmental life cycle ofA. aegyptiare expressed in a highly stage-specific manner. This suggests that transcriptional events associated with transition through larval, pupal and adult stages are largely discrete.
Osteomyelitis pubis caused by Kingella kingaein an adult patient: Report of the first case
Authors: Wilmes Dunja , Omoumi Patrick , Squifflet Jean , Cornu Olivier , Rodriguez-Villalobos Hector , Yombi Jean Cyr
Published: July 2013

Background

Kingella kingae is the second most common pathogen causing paediatric arthritis and is described to be the causative bacteria in some paediatric osteomyelitis. Its microbiological detection is particularly difficult due to its slow growing. To our best knowledge this is the first case description of osteomyelitis pubis caused by this microorganism.

Case presentation

We report the unusual case of pubic osteomyelitis with soft tissue abcess caused by Kingella kingae in an adult patient of 66 years with a history of end-stage renal disease and breast carcinoma. Diagnosis was based on imaging and the microorganism was isolated from Computed Tomography-guided aspiration of synovial fluid. The infection resolved completely after twelve weeks of treatment with oral amoxicillin.

Conclusion

This case description highlights the importance in osteoarticular infections of systematic inoculation of synovial liquid in BACTEC vials to optimise the detection of causative organisms, which can necessitate specific treatments.