bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Regulation of cathepsin X overexpression in H. pylori‐infected gastric epithelial cells and macrophages
Authors: Krueger Sabine , Kuester Doerthe , Bernhardt Anja , Wex Thomas , Roessner Albert
Published: November 2008

Cathepsin X (CTSX) is strongly up‐regulated in Helicobacter pylori‐infected gastric mucosa and intestinal‐type gastric cancer. The overexpression of CTSX is mediated predominantly by associated macrophages; depends on a functional type IV‐secretion system; and leads to increased migration of gastric epithelial cells. In the present study, we analysed the role of CagA in CTSX overexpression and identified H. pylori‐induced inflammatory factors and signalling pathways required for stimulating CTSX expression by H. pylori. Gastric epithelial cells were co‐cultured with macrophages in Transwell chambers of 0.4 µm pore size, enabling exchange of fluids but retracting H. pylori. N87 gastric epithelial cells were infected with H. pylori P1 wild‐type strain in the presence of inhibitors for p38, JNK, and ERK1/2 signal transduction pathways. Furthermore, cytokines and growth factors were tested for their regulatory function using inhibitory antibodies, and their gene expression was studied by quantitative RT‐PCRs and western blots. CTSX is strongly up‐regulated at both the mRNA and the protein levels by TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6, and IL‐8, depending on cell type. All these cytokines were found to be increased by five‐ to ten‐fold in macrophages by H. pylori infection of co‐cultured N87 gastric epithelial cells. In macrophages, H. pylori up‐regulated CTSX via ERK1/2 signalling pathways, and in N87 cells via JNK irrespective of p38 signalling. Our results suggest that H. pylori induced overexpression of CTSX in macrophages and epithelium through specific cytokines that are initiated by CagA‐dependent pathways in a cell type‐dependent manner. Copyright © 2008 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
NOLA1 gene mutations in acquired aplastic anemia
Authors: Pigullo Simona , Pavesi Elisa , Dianzani Irma , Santamaria Giuseppe , Svahn Johanna , Risso Marco , Van Lint Maria Teresa , Pillon Marta , Iori A.P. , Longoni Daniela , Ramenghi Ugo , Lanciotti Marina , Dufour Carlo
Published: November 2008

Background

Telomerase complex genes mutations (DKC1, TERC, TERT, and NOP10) lead to premature telomere shortening and are responsible for different forms of dyskeratosis congenita. TERC and TERT mutations were also found in patients with aplastic anemia. The aim of this work is to analyze the possible involvement of the telomerase complex gene NOLA1, in a population of Italian AA patients.

Procedure

DNA of 108 AA patients and 170 normal controls was amplified by PCR and analyzed by DHPLC. For each abnormal elution profile PCR products was directly sequenced using ABI prism 3100 Genetic Analyzer.

Results

We identified, in two patients and two control, the new c.390A > T variation, which is not reported in GenBank, and leads to p.H28L amino acidic change. Telomere analysis shows that the subjects carrying the change have a telomere length comparable to that of healthy controls thus suggesting that this variation has no effect on telomerase complex activity.

Conclusions

We did not find any clear disruptive mutation in NOLA1 gene. The non‐conservative variation identified in our sample has no effect on telomeres length. This result suggests that heterozygous point mutations in NOLA1 gene are not responsible for AA in our patients at least acting via telomere. However, in our experience, molecular analysis of other telomerase complex gene (TERC, TERT) is important for AA patients and family members in order to set up an adequate therapeutic or surveillance program and identify carriers or exclude them as potential bone marrow donors. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2009;52:376–378. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessment of selection bias in clinic‐based populations of childhood cancer survivors: A report from the childhood cancer survivor study
Authors: Ness Kirsten K. , Leisenring Wendy , Goodman Pam , Kawashima Toana , Mertens Ann C. , Oeffinger Kevin C. , Armstrong Gregory T. , Robison Leslie L.
Published: November 2008

Background

It is not known to what extent prevalence estimates of late effects among childhood cancer survivors derived from clinic based samples represent the actual estimates that would be derived if the entire population of childhood cancer survivors was recruited and evaluated for a particular outcome.

Procedure

In a large retrospective cohort study of childhood cancer survivors, the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), the prevalence of chronic health conditions among participants who reported being seen in a cancer center or long‐term follow‐up clinic was compared to the prevalence of chronic conditions in the entire cohort.

Results

When compared to survivors who had no medical care in the previous 2 years, survivors accessing medical follow‐up were significantly more likely to have chronic health conditions. Relative risks of reporting a chronic health condition were 1.4 (95% CI: 1.3–1.5) if seen in a cancer center or long‐term follow‐up clinic and 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1–1.3) if seen in a general medical care setting. Estimates derived from only those childhood cancer survivors who were seen in a cancer center or long‐term follow‐up clinic overestimate the prevalence of any chronic disease by 9.3% (95% CI: 7.0–11.6).

Conclusions

Applying chronic condition prevalence estimates from a clinical population to the general population of childhood cancer survivors must be undertaken with caution. Survivorship research must maintain a high level of scientific rigor to ensure that results reported in the literature are interpreted within the appropriate context. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2009;52:379–386. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Maternal serum placental growth factor (PlGF) in small for gestational age pregnancy at 11+0 to 13+6 weeks of gestation
Authors: Poon Leona C. Y. , Zaragoza Edgar , Akolekar Ranjit , Anagnostopoulos Evangelos , Nicolaides Kypros H.
Published: November 2008

Objective

To investigate the pathogenesis of pregnancies delivering small for gestational age (SGA) neonates by examining biochemical and Doppler indices of placental development during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Method

The concentration of placental growth factor (PlGF) at 11+0–13+6 weeks was measured in 296 cases, which delivered SGA neonates, and 609 controls. The newborn was considered to be SGA if the birth weight was less than the fifth percentile after correction for gestation at delivery and sex, maternal racial origin, weight, height and parity. The distributions of uterine artery pulsatility index (PI), PlGF and PAPP‐A, expressed in multiples of the median (MoM), in the control and SGA groups were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine if significant contribution is provided by maternal factors, PlGF, PAPP‐A and uterine artery PI in predicting SGA.

Results

The median PlGF (0.900 MoM) and PAPP‐A (0.778 MoM) were lower and uterine artery PI was higher (1.087 MoM) in the SGA group than in the controls (PlGF: 0.991 MoM; PAPP‐A: 1.070 MoM; uterine artery PI: 1.030 MoM). In the SGA group there was a significant association between PlGF and PAPP‐A (r = 0.368, p < 0.0001) and uterine artery PI (r = 0.191, p = 0.001). Significant contributions for the prediction of SGA were provided by maternal factors, PlGF and PAPP‐A and with combined screening the detection rate was 27% at a false‐positive rate of 5%.

Conclusion

Birth weight is predetermined by placental development during the first trimester of pregnancy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Normal sonographic development of the central nervous system from the second trimester onwards using 2D, 3D and transvaginal sonography
Authors: Monteagudo Ana , Timor‐Tritsch Ilan E.
Published: November 2008

The developmental changes of the fetal central nervous system (CNS) during the second and third trimesters, specifically the brain, relate mostly to changes in size. However, other changes do occur in the fetal brain during the second and third trimester such as: the union of the cerebellar hemispheres, development of the corpus callosum (CC), and increasing complexity of the cerebral cortex. These changes follow a well‐defined developmental timeline recognizable by sonography.

The fetal neuroscan can be divided into a ‘basic scan’ which is performed transabdominally and a ‘targeted Exam or neurosonogram’ which uses a multiplanar approach, which preferably should be performed transvaginally. During the ‘basic scan’, several brain structures are imaged in addition to obtaining important biometric measurements. The ‘neurosonogram’ is a more extensive or detailed fetal study during which the emphasis is on the addition of coronal and sagittal planes. The easiest way to obtain these planes, if the fetus is in a cephalic presentation, is the transvaginal route. Three‐dimensional (3D) sonography should, if possible, be performed transvaginally using the multiplanar approach. An added benefit of 3D sonography is the ability to display and render the volume in a variety of ways which may enhance the detection of pathology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Personality traits and mental health treatment utilization
Authors: Hopwood Christopher J. , Quigley Brian D. , Grilo Carlos M. , Sanislow Charles A. , McGlashan Thomas H. , Yen Shirley , Shea M. Tracie , Zanarini Mary C. , Gunderson John G. , Skodol Andrew E. , Markowitz John C. , Morey Leslie C.
Published: November 2008

Recent theory and research suggest a relation between five‐factor model personality traits and mental health treatment utilization, even after controlling for psychiatric disorders and global functioning. The current report further tests this hypothesis in a large clinical sample, using a wider array of treatment modalities than has been previously studied. Overall, results were limited and inconsistent. Although neuroticism was related to utilization across treatment modalities, many of these relationships resulted from its association with psychiatric diagnoses. Other traits showed limited and inconsistent relations to the use of psychosocial and psychiatric treatments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two‐dimensional electrophoresis‐based characterization of post‐translational modifications of mammalian 20S proteasome complexes
Authors: Zong Chenggong , Young Glen W. , Wang Yueju , Lu Haojie , Deng Ning , Drews Oliver , Ping Peipei
Published: November 2008

PTMs serve as key regulatory mechanisms for 20S proteasome functions. Alterations in 20S PTMs have been previously observed with changes in modified protein degradation patterns and altered cellular phenotypes. Despite decades of investigation, our knowledge pertaining to the various PTMs of 20S complexes and their biological significance remain limited. In this investigation, we show that 2‐DE offers an analytical tool with high resolution and reproducibility. Accordingly, it has been applied for the characterization of PTMs including glycosylation, phosphorylation, oxidation, and nitrosylation. The PTMs of murine cardiac 20S proteasomes and their associating proteins were examined. Our 2‐DE analyses displayed over 25 spots for the 20S complexes (17 subunits), indicating multiply modified subunits of cardiac proteasomes. The identification of specific PTM sites subsequent to 2‐DE was supported by MS. These PTMs included phosphorylation and oxidation. Most of the PTMs occurred in low stoichiometry and required enrichment to enhance the detection sensitivity. In conclusion, our studies support 2‐DE as a central tool in the analyses of 20S proteasome PTMs. The approaches utilized in this investigation demonstrate their application in mapping the PTMs of the 20S proteasomes in cardiac tissue, which are applicable to other samples and biological conditions.
Plasma Process. Polym. 9/2008
Authors: Kutasi Kinga , Saoudi Bachir , Pintassilgo Carlos D. , Loureiro Jorge , Moisan Michel
Published: November 2008

Cover: The cover presents a pseudo‐color plot of the calculated density distributions of molecules in the NO(A) state (left), and of O(3P) (middle) and N(4S) (right) atoms in an N2‐O2 discharge‐afterglow. The flow of plasma enters from the left, along the chamber axis (z=140 mm) and the graphs represent the x‐z plane at fixed y. The concentration of NO(A) species, the ones that emit biocidal UV photons from the NOγ molecular system, is nearly uniform at p=2 Torr, our standard pressure for sterilization, but calculations predict a strong non‐uniformity at 10 Torr. Further details can be found in the article by K. Kutasi,* B. Saoudi, C. D. Pintassilgo, J. Loureiro, and M. Moisan on page 840.
Detection and assessment of co‐association in inhalable drug particles using aerosol time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry
Authors: New Anthony , Prime Dave , Zomer Simeone , Elder David , Donovan Robert , Freney Evelyn
Published: November 2008

Aerosol Time‐of‐Flight Mass Spectrometry (AToFMS) was used to examine co‐association between two inhaled drugs, fluticasone propionate (FP) and salmeterol xinofoate (SX), in fine aerosolised particles emitted from Seretide®/Advair® inhaled combination products. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify fragmentation patterns indicative of either pure or co‐associated particles (particles containing both drugs). A third component of the particles emitted from dry powder inhalers (DPIs), lactose, gave only a very weak mass spectral signal and no interpretable data was acquired for this compound; however, it was not found to interfere with the detection of the two drug substances. High levels of co‐association were found in the emitted doses from both pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI) and dry powder inhaler (DPI) products. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Assessment of the repeatability and reproducibility of hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry measurements
Authors: Burkitt William , O'Connor Gavin
Published: November 2008

A system to perform automated hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry measurements was constructed using an XYZ robotic autosampler that was capable of performing solvent manipulations and a 4.7 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT‐ICR) mass spectrometer. The system included features such as the first demonstration of a ‘dual column’ high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) setup, and a novel digestion strategy. The performance of the system, in terms of the repeatability and reproducibility of the measurement of protein hydrogen/deuterium exchange, was assessed over a 2‐month period. The sensitivity of the measurement of hydrogen exchange towards several parameters was assessed, which allowed their impact on the reproducibility to be discussed. The parameters assessed were the temperature of the HPLC columns and switching valves, the temperature of the quench solutions, the pH of the mobile phase, the pH of the quenched solution, the acid used in the mobile phase and the analytical column used. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Improved desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry performance using edge sampling and a rotational sample stage
Authors: Kertesz Vilmos , Van Berkel Gary J.
Published: November 2008

The position of the surface to be analyzed relative to the sampling orifice or capillary into the mass spectrometer has been known to dramatically affect the observed signal levels in desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI‐MS). In analyses of sample spots on planar surfaces, DESI‐MS signal intensities as much as five times greater were routinely observed when the bottom of the sampling capillary was appropriately positioned beneath the surface plane (‘edge sampling’) compared with when the capillary just touched the surface. To take advantage of the optimum ‘edge sampling’ geometry and to maximize the number of samples that could be analyzed in this configuration, a rotational sample stage was integrated into a typical DESI‐MS setup. The rapid quantitative determination of caffeine in two diet sport drinks spiked with an isotopically labeled internal standard demonstrated the utility of this approach. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A piecewise analysis method to stability analysis of linear continuous/discrete systems with time‐varying delay
Authors: Yue Dong , Tian Engang , Zhang Yijun
Published: November 2008

The delay‐dependent stability problem of linear continuous/discrete systems with time‐varying delay is investigated based on a piecewise analysis method (PAM). In the method, the variation interval of the time delay is firstly divided into several subintervals. By checking the variation of the Lyapunov functional in every subinterval, some new delay‐dependent stability criteria are derived. Several numerical examples show that our method can lead to much less conservative results than those in the existing references. Moreover, when the number of the divided subintervals increases, the corresponding criteria can provide an improvement on the results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The relationship between product and international diversification: the effects of short‐run constraints and endogeneity
Authors: Kumar M.V. Shyam
Published: November 2008

We examine the relationship between growth along the product and international dimension in the short run. We argue that while the presence of fungible intangible resources and economies of scope may create opportunities for a firm to expand along both dimensions, the effect of short‐ run constraints may lead to a trade‐off and a negative association between the two dimensions. In addition, we suggest that rather than being independent, decisions concerning the extent of growth along the two dimensions are likely to be made simultaneously and endogenously by firms after taking into consideration the availability of various resources. We test these propositions by observing a sample of 1,299 firms over the period of 1993–1997. Our results show strong evidence of endogeneity and a negative association between growth along the two dimensions. These findings provide important support for theories of firm growth that have long held that firms are limited in the number of opportunities they can exploit in the short run by various constraints. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Foreign ownership and long‐term survival
Authors: Kronborg Dorte , Thomsen Steen
Published: November 2008

We study the relative survival of foreign‐ and domestically owned companies in Denmark over more than a century (1895–2005). Contrary to previous studies that have emphasized the liability of foreignness, we find evidence of a significant survival premium for foreign‐owned companies; however, the premium declines over time and disappears entirely in the last decade leading up to 2005. Further evidence indicates that the foreign survival premium is negatively influenced by new foreign entry, and that the long‐run decline is caused by increasing competition between foreign subsidiaries. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Strategies for online communities
Authors: Miller Kent D. , Fabian Frances , Lin Shu‐Jou
Published: November 2008

This study examines the participation of firms in online communities as a means to enhance demand for their products. We begin with theoretical arguments and then develop a simulation model to illustrate how demand evolves as a function of interpersonal communication and a firm's chosen strategy. In this model, the firm's strategy involves allocating advocates who promote its product in online communities. Our model results point to some key parameters informing firms' strategies when social learning processes shape demand. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
SLM‐based data position permutation method for PAPR reduction in OFDM systems
Authors: Wen Jyh‐Horng , Lee Shu‐Hong , Kung Chih‐Chung
Published: November 2008

The high peak‐to‐average power ratio (PAPR) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems not only increases the complexity of the analog‐to‐digital (A/D) and digital‐to‐analog (D/A) converters but also reduces the efficiency of the radio frequency (RF) power amplifier. In this paper, we present a data position permutation (DPP) method, which is based on a selected mapping (SLM) scheme, for reducing the PAPR in OFDM systems. The candidate signal on each branch of the SLM scheme is generated by permuting the position and rotating the phase of the original data. In addition, a modified DPP method with lower bit error rate (BER) is proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed method provides better performance with regard to complexity, spectrum efficiency, and BER as compared to that of the SLM‐based dummy sequence insertion (SLM‐DSI) method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Role of viral induced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production in pleural effusion and malignant mesothelioma
Authors: Wörnle Markus , Sauter Matthias , Kastenmüller Kathrin , Ribeiro Andrea , Roeder Maximilian , Mussack Thomas , Ladurner Roland , Sitter Thomas
Published: November 2008

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a key role in formation of pleural effusions and in tumorigenesis and progression of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelial cells (MC) express the viral receptors Toll‐like receptor 3 (TLR3), RIG‐I and MDA5. Activation of these receptors by viral RNA exemplified by poly(I:C) RNA leads to a time‐ and dose‐dependent increase of mesothelial VEGF synthesis. To show the specific effect of viral receptors knockdown experiments with siRNA for TLR3, RIG‐I and MDA5 were performed. This finding of viral induced mesothelial VEGF synthesis may indicate a novel link between viral infections and formation of pleural effusions and progression of malignant mesothelioma.
Alterations in circulating activin A, GDF‐15, TGF‐β3 and MMP‐2, ‐3, and ‐9 during one year of left ventricular reverse remodelling in patients operated for severe aortic stenosis
Authors: Bjørnstad Johannes L. , Neverdal Nils O. , Vengen Øystein A. , Knudsen Cathrine Wold , Husebye Trygve , Pepper John , Lie Mons , Christensen Geir , Tønnessen Theis
Published: November 2008

Background:

Patients with aortic stenosis (AS) develop left ventricular remodelling with cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and increased fibrosis. Following aortic valve replacement (AVR) reverse remodelling usually takes place.

Aims:

To examine circulating levels of members of the transforming growth factor (TGF) superfamily and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), known to have important effects on hypertrophy and extracellular matrix, in patients operated for AS.

Methods:

Circulating levels of activin A, GDF‐15, TGF‐β3, MMP‐2, ‐3, and ‐9 were measured in twenty‐two patients undergoing AVR preoperatively, and 2 days, six months and 12 months postoperatively. Echocardiography and a six minute walking test evaluated reverse remodelling and physical performance.

Results:

Activin A increased at six (1081.00±98.05 pg/ml, p<0.05) and twelve months (1263.09±141.43 pg/ml, p<0.05) compared to the preoperative value (855.00±76.30 pg/ml) and correlated negatively to physical performance. The preoperative value was also increased compared to controls (639.54±63.05 pg/ml, p<0.05). GDF‐15, MMP‐3 and ‐9 were all increased at two days postoperatively (p<0.05). MMP‐3 correlated with left ventricular end diastolic dimension (p<0.05). MMP‐2 did not change during the study period. TGF‐β3 was only slightly reduced at six months postoperatively.

Conclusion:

The observed alteration in circulating levels of members of the TGF‐β superfamily and MMPs might play a role in the reverse remodelling process following AVR for AS.
Complications with Hydroxyapatite Cement in Mastoid Cavity Obliteration
Authors: Ridenour Janell S. , Poe Dennis S. , Roberson David W.
Published: November 2008

Objective

To determine whether hydroxyapatite (HA) bone cement is a suitable material for mastoid cavity obliteration.

Study Design & Setting

Retrospective case review; tertiary care pediatric hospital.

Patients

Three patients, aged 11 to 16 years, underwent canal wall down mastoidectomy for removal of cholesteatomas.

Intervention

Mastoid cavity obliteration was performed with hydroxyapatite bone cement.

Main Outcome Measures

Failure was defined as the necessity for HA explantation.

Results

All three patients required revision surgery to remove the HA cement. Two patients (one primary and one second look with obliteration) presented with granulations in the mastoid cavity, surrounding the cement. The third patient's intraoperative findings included extensive skull base osteitis with erosion of the posterior and middle fossa dural plates, and fistulae of the lateral and superior semicircular canals. All patients recovered fully after removal of the HA cement.

Conclusion

This study raises concerns over the use of HA cement for mastoid cavity obliteration. Three of three implanted patients required revision surgery, two with delayed failure of integration and infection, and one with severe osteitis and significant complications.
The Secondary Correction of Post‐Traumatic Craniofacial Deformities
Authors: Imola Mario J. , Ducic Yadranko , Adelson Robert T.
Published: November 2008

Objective

To analyze the aesthetic and functional outcomes in a large series of patients who underwent secondary correction of post‐traumatic craniofacial deformities (PTCD) and to highlight the underlying principles and formulate treatment guidelines.

Methods

A single surgeon's retrospective case series of 57 patients who underwent correction of PTCD.

Outcome Measures

Evaluation by multiple surgeons who assessed aesthetic results and functional parameters after secondary correction of PTCD.

Results

A good to excellent aesthetic outcome was achieved in the majority of patients. Traumatic telecanthus, enophthalmos, and occlusal deformity were the deformities most refractory to secondary correction. Aesthetic results were adversely affected by the severity and number of pre‐existing abnormalities and by the presence of established deformities (beyond 6 to 12 months).

Conclusions

The basic principles of treatment include an initial major osseous reconstructive surgery to restore an anatomically correct craniofacial architecture followed by selective ancillary procedures to address soft tissue deficits and functional deformities. Soft tissue deformity is the major deterrent to achieving an ideal outcome.
Specific probiotics in reducing the risk of acute infections in infancy – a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study
Authors: Rautava Samuli , Salminen Seppo , Isolauri Erika
Published: November 2008

A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to determine whether probiotics might be effective in reducing the risk of infections in infancy. Infants requiring formula before the age of 2 months were recruited from community well-baby clinics. Infant formula supplemented with the probioticsLactobacillus rhamnosusGG andBifidobacterium lactisBb-12 or placebo was administered daily until the age of 12 months. Incidence of early infections (before the age of 7 months) and incidence of recurrent (three or more) infections during the first year of life were recorded as the main outcome measures of the study. During the first 7 months of life, seven out of thirty-two (22 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty out of forty (50 %) infants receiving placebo experienced acute otitis media (risk ratio (RR) 0·44 (95 % CI 0·21, 0·90);P = 0·014) and antibiotics were prescribed for ten out of thirty-two (31 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty-four out of forty (60 %) infants receiving placebo (RR 0·52 (95 % CI 0·29, 0·92);P = 0·015). During the first year of life, nine out of thirty-two (28 %) infants receiving probiotics and twenty-two out of forty (55 %) infants receiving placebo encountered recurrent respiratory infections (RR 0·51 (95 % CI 0·27, 0·95);P = 0·022). These data suggest that probiotics may offer a safe means of reducing the risk of early acute otitis media and antibiotic use and the risk of recurrent respiratory infections during the first year of life. Further clinical trials are warranted.
The Emerging Distinction between Theology and Religion at Nineteenth- Century Harvard University
Authors: Shoemaker Stephen
Published: November 2008

Many scholars of religion who teach today in nondenominational schools may take it for granted that these schools have no institutional mandate to espouse a particular religious agenda. Yet, how did this relatively new approach become common during the last century, when in the preceding era the opposite was true? A close reading of one context or institution can reveal broader trends applicable in many other realms. The evolution of the approach to religious scholarship at nineteenth-century Harvard can serve as one such specific, but widely illuminating, point of inquiry. The deliberate shift away from instruction in doctrinal theology toward a more modern approach to religion as an academic field of study became a prominent trend in American higher education, with Harvard leading the way. But why did Harvard pursue this particular agenda in advance of other institutions? This article suggests that the answer lies largely in political concerns. Harvard was concerned with issues of perception and the practical consequences resulting from public expression of disapprobation.
Between-year variation and spatial dynamics ofCryptosporidiumspp. andGiardiaspp. infections in naturally infected rodent populations
Authors: BAJER A.
Published: November 2008

Prevalence and abundance ofCryptosporidiumspp. andGiardiaspp. infections were studied over the 8-year period in 3 species of rodents in N.E. Poland (bank voleMyodes glareolus-1523; yellow-necked mouseApodemus flavicollis-638; common voleMicrotus arvalis-419). Prevalence was 53·8, 28·1 and 62·3% respectively forCryptosporidiumspp. and 58·3, 24·4 and 74·2% respectively forGiardiaspp. Prevalence and abundance of infection varied markedly across 8 years of the study with 1998 and 2002 being years of higher prevalence and abundance, following changes in the densities of host species. The distribution of intestinal protozoa in forest rodents did not vary in the 3 isolated sites during the 4-year study. In the case ofCryptosporidium, fewer older animals carried infection and infections of the oldest bank and common voles were relatively milder. In the case ofGiardiain yellow-necked mice, infections were more common in older age classes (2 and 3). The two species showed significant co-occurrence and in animals carrying both species there was a strong significant positive correlation between abundance of infection with each. These data are discussed in relation to the parasite genotypes identified in this region and in respect of the role of various ecological factors in shaping of intestinal protozoa communities.
Evolution, providence, and Gouldian contingency
Authors: ROTA MICHAEL
Published: November 2008

Stephen Jay Gould and others have argued that what we know about evolution implies that human beings are a ‘cosmic accident’. In this paper I examine an argument for Gould's view and then attempt to show that it fails. Contrary to the claims of Gould, Daniel Dennett, and others, it is a mistake to think that what we have learned from evolutionary biology somehow shows that human beings are mere accidents of natural history. Nor does what we know about the contingency of evolution give us good reason to reject the view that human beings came to be according to a divine providential plan.
The epistemological limits of experience-based exclusive religious belief
Authors: BALDWIN ERIK , THUNE MICHAEL
Published: November 2008

Alvin Plantinga and other philosophers have argued that exclusive religious belief can be rationally held in response to certain experiences – independently of inference to other beliefs, evidence, arguments, and the like – and thus can be ‘properly basic’. We think that this is possible only until the believer acquires the defeater we develop in this paper, a defeater which arises from an awareness of certain salient features of religious pluralism. We argue that, as a consequence of this defeater, continued epistemic support for exclusive religious belief will require the satisfaction of non-basic epistemic criteria (such as evidence and/or argumentation). But then such belief will no longer be properly basic. If successful, we will have presented a challenge not only to Plantinga's position, but also to the general view (often referred to as ‘reformed epistemology’) according to which exclusive religious belief can be properly basic.
The dilemma of divine forgiveness
Authors: PETTIGROVE GLEN
Published: November 2008

The dilemma of divine forgiveness suggests it is unreasonable to be comforted by the thought that God forgives acts that injure human victims. A plausible response to the dilemma claims that the comfort derives from the belief that God's forgiveness releases the wrongdoer from punishment for her misdeed. This response is shown to be flawed. A more adequate response is then developed out of the connection between forgiveness and reconciliation.
Descartes on God's relation to time
Authors: GORHAM GEOFFREY
Published: November 2008

God and time play crucial, intricately related roles in Descartes' project of grounding mathematical physics on metaphysical first principles. This naturally raises the perennial theological question of God's precise relation to time. I argue, against the strong current of recent commentary, that Descartes' God is fully temporal. This means that God's duration is successive, with parts ordered ‘before and after’, rather than permanent or ‘all at once’. My argument will underscore the seamless connection between Descartes' theology and his physics, and the degree to which he was prepared to depart from orthodoxy in the former in order to secure an a priori foundation for the latter. As Newton would later do, Descartes freed time from its traditional dependence on bodily motion and so removed an important barrier to making God temporal. Acting in time, God makes the physical world intelligible in a way He could not were He timeless.
On religious ambiguity
Authors: MCKIM ROBERT
Published: November 2008

I examine, and defend, the idea that human experience is religiously ambiguous. Necessary conditions for there to be ambiguity of any sort are presented. The sort of ambiguity that (it is later argued) is exhibited in the area of religion is clarified in a series of stages. Then the case is made for the application of this notion of ambiguity in the case of religion.
Songs from the bell jar: autonomy and resistance in the music of The Bangles
Authors: Mercer-Taylor Peter
Published: November 2008

The two passages that follow appeared within a few weeks of each other in 1963. At a glance they have little to do with one another:

Between them The Beatles adopt a do-it-yourself approach from the very beginning. They write their own lyrics, design and eventually build their own instrumental backdrops and work out their own vocal arrangements. Their music is wild, pungent, hard-hitting, uninhibited…and personal. The do-it-yourself angle ensures complete originality at all stages of the production. (Barrow 1963)
Interpreting world music: a challenge in theory and practice
Authors: Guilbault Jocelyne
Published: November 2008

This article focuses on the issue of meanings in ‘world music’ practices. The main questions addressed are how such musical cultures take on meanings, and what meanings are constructed by such cultures. As Deborah Pacini has indicated, the term ‘world music’ in this case does not refer to a musical genre. It is used, rather, ‘[as] a marketing term describing the products of musical cross-fertilisation between the north – the US and Western Europe – and south – primarily Africa and the Caribbean Basin, which began appearing on the popular music landscape in the early 1980s’ (1993, p. 48). From 1985, the expanding ‘world music’ umbrella has come to include practically any musics of cultures of non-European origin.
The wonderful world of IFPI: music industry rhetoric, the critics and the classical marxist critique
Authors: Harker Dave
Published: November 2008

Serious students of popular music and song are rightly curious about the workings of the music business; but when we try to find out about how the industry works, even in terms of economics, we find that virtually all the empirical data comes from internal sources, from the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), or from affiliates such as the British Phonographic Industries (BPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In other words, we get only those statistics and ‘facts’ which this most secretive of industries wishes us to have; so we will look in vain for detailed production figures, or for sales of individual recordings (unless they are outstandingly successful), or for hard numbers relating to what IFPI calls ‘piracy’ (let alone the information on which the published numbers and projections are based). Similarly, from the individual company accounts of Sony, EMI or BMG, we may find numbers relating to pension and investment funds, but we will never find the real profits or losses of any company, let alone the rate of exploitation of any artist (or manufacturing or distributive worker); and in any case it is well-known that the published ‘bottom-line’ on a balance sheet is, at best, an informed opinion.
A music of your own
Authors: Maróthy János
Published: November 2008

Folklore is the only recognised field of musical creativity on a mass scale. Here, ‘every new variant is an archetype, for there is no authoritative original’, even the same folk musician will not repeat the same melodic line unchanged; what folk singers ‘carried in their memories was not a fixed, memorised series of words and notes, but the fluid idea of a song which so far as they were concerned had never had any other existence than in the fresh evocations it received from singers like themselves’ (Bronson 1969, pp. 102–6).
The urbanisation of African music: some theoretical observations
Authors: Coplan David
Published: November 2008

Interest in the processes of change involved in the transformation of rural African recreational music into popular music under urban conditions has grown substantially over the past decade (see Nettl 1978; Mukuna 1980). This interest has largely focused on two complementary problem areas: what such change can tell us about the principles and dynamics of musical development, and what processes of musical change may reveal about human behaviour (see Rycroft 1977, pp. 216–17) and the role of musical expression in social reorganisation. If the study of the urban music of modern Africa is to advance our knowledge in these areas, we must formulate ‘a conceptual framework in which changes and retentions of musical style and context can be understood within a synthesis of social and cultural change’ (Szwed 1970, p. 220). The results of my research into the past three centuries of urban musical change among black South Africans have suggested some tentative steps toward constructing such a framework (see Coplan 1980A).
'Twixt midnight and day: binarism, blues and black culture
Authors: Oliver Paul
Published: November 2008

Well the blues come to Texas lopin' like a mule

Well the blues come to Texas lopin' like a mule

You take a high brown woman man she's hard to fool

You can't ever tell what a woman's got on her mind

Man you can't tell what a woman's got on her mind

You might think she's crazy ‘bout you she's leavin’ you all the time

She ain't so good looking and her teeth don't shine like pearls

She ain't so good looking and her teeth don't shine like pearls

But that nice disposition carries a woman all through the world

I'm goin' to the river gonna carry my rocker chair

Well I'm goin' to the river carry my rocker chair

——— have the worried blues right here

I think I heard my good gal callin' my name

Hey hey good gal called my name

She couldn't call so loud but she called so nice and plain
Rock music: a musical-aesthetic study
Authors: Wicke Peter
Published: November 2008

Music has rarely exerted such positively hypnotic fascination on such masses of listeners as it has since the meteoric rise of the English group, the Beatles, at the begining of the 1960s. Under this influence the leisure behaviour of young people began to undergo lasting change, focusing around music to an extent that no one — despite the periodically recurring waves of enthusiasm for specific vogues within dance music — would have thought possible. Young people in their thousands took up music making as a leisure activity once again, to say nothing of the masses that a single rock concert was capable of mobilising. At the same time, music has become a sociopolitical problem on a scale never seen before, concerning teachers, sociologists and psychologists equally — and it has become so in both capitalist and socialist societies, even though with quite different emphases. Evidently, then, for a whole age group with a lower age limit of about twelve (and steadily falling) and an upper limit of between twenty and twenty-five (when family responsibilities intrude — see Dollase, Riisenberg and Stollenwerk 1978), the process of attainment of selfhood within society is being realised, essentially, with reference to the assimilation of this kind of music.
Soviet crusade against pop
Authors: Bright Terry
Published: November 2008

Since the beginning of summer 1984 a new wave of panic and despair has taken hold of Soviet pop musicians. They have become aware that the Ministry of Culture, under whose supervision pop groups in Russia work and on whose policies their very existence depends, has decided to destroy them.
Jazz in the ghetto: 1950–70
Authors: Rosenthal David H.
Published: November 2008

According to the schemata normally used by critics, jazz ceased to be ‘popular music’ with the arrival of bebop in the mid-1940s. While this statement has some truth to it, it also requires a good deal of qualification. Like blues, jazz remained economically viable in black neighbourhoods until driven out by the slicker pop sounds of the late 1960s. That jazz (with the exception of the ‘cool’ style played by Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, etc.) had a primarily black audience is confirmed by Joe Fields, currently with Muse Records and formerly employed by Prestige and Columbia:

Our records sold to some white college kids, but our sales (at Prestige) were overwhelmingly to blacks – not just tenor and organ stuff but hard bop too. That's why what we sold in Boston was nothing compared to Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, Cleveland … Our sales in Los Angeles were much better than in San Francisco.
Copyright and the music business
Authors: Frith Simon
Published: November 2008

For the music industry the age of manufacture is now over. Companies (and company profits) are no longer organised around making things but depend on the creation of rights. In the industry's own jargon, each piece of music represents ‘a basket of rights’; the company task is to exploit as many of these rights as possible, not just those realised when it is sold in recorded form to the public, but also those realised when it is broadcast on radio or television, used on a film, commercial or video soundtrack, and so on. Musical rights (copyrights, performing rights) are the basic pop commodity and to understand the music business in the 1980s we have to understand how these rights work. In this article, then, I begin and end with record companies' uses of copyright law and ideology to defend themselves against current technological and political threats to income, but I also want to ask questions about how the law itself defines music and determines the possibilities of musical ‘exploitation’. And this means putting contemporary arguments (for and against the blank tape levy, for example) in historical perspective.
The popular expression of religious syncretism: the Bauls of Bengal as Apostles of Brotherhood
Authors: Capwell Charles
Published: November 2008

About a thousand years ago in northeastern India a group of spiritual adepts known as siddhācāryas sang poems about the discipline required of the individual who seeks ultimate release. These carýāpadas, as the poems are called, were eventually compiled and recorded in a manuscript found about a century ago in the Nepali Court Library by a Bengali scholar (Sastri), since when concordances have been recognised in the Tibetan scriptures and numerous articles have been written about them by a variety of learned scholars. The carýāpadas have aroused considerable interest, among other reasons, because of their language, which is considered the earliest record of the Bengali tongue (Chatterji 1970, pp. 90–116), and because of their religious precepts, which are based upon tantra (Bagchi 1933, 1956A, B). Tantra teaches the individual to pursue his own release from phenomenal existence through direct, empirical means, through the manipulation of his own physical and psychical constitution, and these means are learned viva voce from a preceptor who also demonstrates the necessary techniques.
Music video in its contexts: popular music and post-modernism in the 1980s
Authors: Straw Will
Published: November 2008

Writing on music video has had two distinctive moments in its brief history. The first wave of treatments tended to come from the culture surrounding rock music and from those who were primarily interested in music video as something which produced effects on that music. Here, two claims were most common, and generally expressed in the terms and the contexts of rock journalism:

(1) that music video had made ‘image’ more important than the experience of music itself, with effects which were to be feared (for example, the potential difficulties for artists with poor ‘images’, the risk that theatricality and spectacle would take precedence over intrinsically ‘musical’ values, etc.);

(2) that music video would result in a diminishing of the interpretative liberty of the individual music listener, who would now have visual or narrative interpretations of song lyrics imposed on him/her, in what would amount to a semantic and affective impoverishment of the popular music experience.
A belated salute to the ‘old way’ of ‘snaking’ the voice on its (ca) 345th birthday
Authors: Wicks Sammie Ann
Published: November 2008

When Joe S. James, a southern singing school teacher, brought out his edition of the long-lived shape-note hymnal The Sacred Harp in 1911, he stated rather forcefully that his readers would find ‘but few of the twisted rills and trills of the unnatural snaking of the voice’ which he had heard while in the company of those yet untutored in the art of singing by note – or ‘regular singing’, as it had been called (James 1911, p. iii). It was not the first time the ‘old way’ of singing and its ‘rills and trills’ had found a critic among champions of some form of the Western European music system, nor would it be the last. Indeed, the history of the quarrel has shown that if there is anything more intransigent than the old way of singing, it is the accompanying opprobrium spread by a musical élite convinced of the superiority of the diatonic system and all that is extrapolated from it.
The early history of West African highlife music
Authors: Collins John
Published: November 2008

Highlife is one of the myriad varieties of acculturated popular dance-music styles that have been emerging from Africa this century and which fuse African with Western (i.e. European and American) and islamic influences. Besides highlife, other examples include kwela, township jive and mbaqanga from South Africa, chimurenga from Zimbabwe, the benga beat from Kenya, taraab music from the East African coast, Congo jazz (soukous) from Central Africa, rai music from North Africa, juju and apala music from western Nigeria, makossa from the Cameroons and mbalax from Senegal.