bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Guinea Pig Neutrophils Infected withMycobacterium tuberculosisProduce Cytokines Which Activate Alveolar Macrophages in Noncontact Cultures
Authors: Sawant Kirti V. , McMurray David N.
Published: February 2007

The early influx of neutrophils to the site of infection may be an important step in host resistance againstMycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, we investigated the effect ofM. tuberculosisinfection on the ability of guinea pig neutrophils to produce interleukin-8 (IL-8; CXCL8) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and to activate alveolar macrophages. Neutrophils and alveolar macrophages were isolated from naïve guinea pigs, cultured together or alone, and infected with virulentM. tuberculosisfor 3, 12, and 24 h. IL-8 protein production in cocultures, as measured by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was found to be additive at 24 h and significantly greater inM. tuberculosis-infected cocultures than in uninfected cocultures and in cultures of the infected neutrophils or macrophages alone. The IL-8 mRNA levels, determined by real-time reverse transcription-PCR, were elevated at 24 h in infected cocultures and infected cells cultured alone. In order to elucidate the contributions of neutrophils and their soluble mediators to the activation of alveolar macrophages, neutrophils and alveolar macrophages were cultured in a contact-independent manner by using a Transwell insert system. Neutrophils were infected with virulentM. tuberculosisin the upper wells, and alveolar macrophages were cultured in the lower wells. The release of hydrogen peroxide from alveolar macrophages exposed to soluble products from infected neutrophils was significantly increased compared to that from unexposed alveolar macrophages. Significant up-regulation of IL-1β and TNF-α mRNA levels in alveolar macrophages was observed at 24 and 30 h, respectively, compared to those in cells not exposed to soluble neutrophil products. Treatment with anti-guinea pig TNF-α polyclonal antibody completely abolished the response of alveolar macrophages to neutrophil products. This finding suggests that TNF-α produced by infected neutrophils may be involved in the activation of alveolar macrophages and hence may contribute to the containment ofM. tuberculosisinfection during the early period of infection.
In Vivo Adaptation of the Wayne Model of Latent Tuberculosis
Authors: Woolhiser Lisa , Tamayo Marcela Henao , Wang Baolin , Gruppo Veronica , Belisle John T. , Lenaerts Anne J. , Basaraba Randall J. , Orme Ian M.
Published: February 2007

Cultures of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
grown under oxygen depletion conditions enter into a state of nonreplicating persistence that may reflect a physiologically latent state. When these cultures were harvested and injected intranasally into mice, no bacteria could be recovered from the lungs for about 3 weeks, but after that evidence of regrowth was observed. Preimmunization of mice with a panel of selected vaccine candidates slowed or prevented this event. This simple model has potential for identifying vaccines targeting latent tuberculosis.
Molecular Factors and Biochemical Pathways Induced by Febrile Temperature in Intraerythrocytic
Plasmodium falciparum
Parasites
Authors: Oakley Miranda S. M. , Kumar Sanjai , Anantharaman Vivek , Zheng Hong , Mahajan Babita , Haynes J. David , Moch J. Kathleen , Fairhurst Rick , McCutchan Thomas F. , Aravind L.
Published: February 2007

Intermittent episodes of febrile illness are the most benign and recognized symptom of infection with malaria parasites, although the effects on parasite survival and virulence remain unclear. In this study, we identified the molecular factors altered in response to febrile temperature by measuring differential expression levels of individual genes using high-density oligonucleotide microarray technology and by performing biological assays in asexual-stage
Plasmodium falciparum
parasite cultures incubated at 37°C and 41°C (an elevated temperature that is equivalent to malaria-induced febrile illness in the host). Elevated temperature had a profound influence on expression of individual genes; 336 of approximately 5,300 genes (6.3% of the genome) had altered expression profiles. Of these, 163 genes (49%) were upregulated by twofold or greater, and 173 genes (51%) were downregulated by twofold or greater. In-depth sensitive sequence profile analysis revealed that febrile temperature-induced responses caused significant alterations in the major parasite biologic networks and pathways and that these changes are well coordinated and intricately linked. One of the most notable transcriptional changes occurs in genes encoding proteins containing the predicted Pexel motifs that are exported into the host cytoplasm or inserted into the host cell membrane and are likely to be associated with erythrocyte remodeling and parasite sequestration functions. Using our sensitive computational analysis, we were also able to assign biochemical or biologic functional predictions for at least 100 distinct genes previously annotated as “hypothetical.” We find that cultivation of
P. falciparum
parasites at 41°C leads to parasite death in a time-dependent manner. The presence of the “crisis forms” and the terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling-positive parasites following heat treatment strongly support the notion that an apoptosis-like cell death mechanism might be induced in response to febrile temperatures. These studies enhance the possibility of designing vaccines and drugs on the basis of disruption in molecules and pathways of parasite survival and virulence activated in response to febrile temperatures.
Coinfection with
Schistosoma mansoni
Reactivates Viremia in Rhesus Macaques with Chronic Simian-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Clade C Infection
Authors: Ayash-Rashkovsky Mila , Chenine Agnès-Laurence , Steele Lisa N. , Lee Sandra J. , Song Ruijiang , Ong Helena , Rasmussen Robert A. , Hofmann-Lehmann Regina , Else James G. , Augostini Peter , McClure Harold M. , Secor W. Evan , Ruprecht Ruth M.
Published: February 2007

We tested the hypothesis that helminth parasite coinfection would intensify viremia and accelerate disease progression in monkeys chronically infected with an R5 simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) encoding a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) clade C envelope. Fifteen rhesus monkeys with stable SHIV-1157ip infection were enrolled into a prospective, randomized trial. These seropositive animals had undetectable viral RNA and no signs of immunodeficiency. Seven animals served as virus-only controls; eight animals were exposed to
Schistosoma mansoni
cercariae. From week 5 after parasite exposure onward, coinfected animals shed eggs in their feces, developed eosinophilia, and had significantly higher mRNA expression of the T-helper type 2 cytokine interleukin-4 (
P
= 0.001) than animals without schistosomiasis. Compared to virus-only controls, viral replication was significantly increased in coinfected monkeys (
P
= 0.012), and the percentage of their CD4
+
CD29
+
memory cells decreased over time (
P
= 0.05). Thus,
S. mansoni
coinfection significantly increased viral replication and induced T-cell subset alterations in monkeys with chronic SHIV clade C infection.
The
rag
Locus of
Porphyromonas gingivalis
Contributes to Virulence in a Murine Model of Soft Tissue Destruction
Authors: Shi Xiaoju , Hanley Shirley A. , Faray-Kele Marie-Claire , Fawell Stuart C. , Aduse-Opoku Joseph , Whiley Robert A. , Curtis Michael A. , Hall Lucinda M. C.
Published: February 2007

The
rag
locus of
Porphyromonas gingivalis
encodes a putative TonB-dependent outer membrane receptor, RagA, and a 55-kDa immunodominant antigen, RagB. Inactivation of either
ragA
or
ragB
prevented expression of both RagA and RagB. Both the
ragA
and
ragB
mutants were significantly less virulent than wild-type strains in a murine model of infection.
Antigen-Specific CD4+T Cells Recognize Epitopes of Protective Antigen following Vaccination with an Anthrax Vaccine
Authors: Laughlin Elsa M. , Miller Joseph D. , James Eddie , Fillos Dimitri , Ibegbu Chris C. , Mittler Robert S. , Akondy Rama , Kwok William , Ahmed Rafi , Nepom Gerald
Published: February 2007

Detection of antigen-specific CD4+T cells is facilitated by the use of fluorescently labeled soluble peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) multimers which mirror the antigen specificity of T-cell receptor recognition. We have used soluble peptide-MHC class II tetramers containing peptides from the protective antigen (PA) ofBacillus anthracisto detect circulating T cells in peripheral blood of subjects vaccinated with an anthrax vaccine. PA-specific HLA class II-restricted T lymphocytes were isolated which displayed both TH1- and TH2-like characteristics, indicating heterogeneity of the lymphocyte lineage within the CD4+response. Presentation of antigen to these T-cell clones by HLA-matched antigen-presenting cells exposed to the intact PA protein confirmed that the identified epitopes are indeed naturally processed by the human immune system. Specific tetramer-derived T-cell profiling may be useful for monitoring helper CD4+T-cell responses to anthrax vaccination.
Trypanosoma cruziInfection Induces Differential Modulation of Costimulatory Molecules and Cytokines by Monocytes and T Cells from Patients with Indeterminate and Cardiac Chagas' Disease
Authors: Souza Paulo E. A. , Rocha Manoel O. C. , Menezes Cristiane A. S. , Coelho Janete S. , Chaves Andréa C. L. , Gollob Kenneth J. , Dutra Walderez O.
Published: February 2007

Interactions between macrophages and lymphocytes through costimulatory molecules and cytokines are essential for mounting an efficient immune response and controlling its pathogenic potential. Here we demonstrate the immunomodulatory capacity ofTrypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, through its ability to induce differential expression of costimulatory molecules and cytokines by monocytes and T cells. Costimulatory molecule and cytokine modulation was evaluated using cells from noninfected individuals and from patients with the asymptomatic indeterminate form and those with the severe cardiac clinical form of Chagas' disease. Our results show that while exposure of monocytes to liveT. cruzileads to an increase in the frequency of CD80+monocytes in all groups, it decreases both the frequency and intensity of CD86 expression by monocytes from patients with the cardiac form but not from those with the indeterminate form. Conversely, exposure of lymphocytes to monocytes infected withT. cruziincreased the surface expression of cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) by T cells from indeterminate but not from cardiac patients, compared to that from control patients. These data suggest thatT. cruziinduces a potentially down-regulatory environment in indeterminate subjects, which is associated with higher CD80 and CTLA-4 expression. To test the functional importance of this modulation, we evaluated the expression of cytokines after in vitro infection. Although exposure of lymphocytes to parasite-infected monocytes induced high expression of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines by T cells in all groups, indeterminate patients displayed a higher ratio of monocytes expressing interleukin 10 than tumor necrosis factor alpha following infection than did controls. These data show the ability ofT. cruzito actively change the expression of costimulatory molecules and cytokines, suggesting molecular mechanisms for the differential clinical evolution of human Chagas' disease.
Role of N-Acetyl-Seryl-Aspartyl-Lysyl-Proline in the Antifibrotic and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of the Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Captopril in Hypertension
Authors: Peng Hongmei , Carretero Oscar A. , Liao Tang-Dong , Peterson Edward L. , Rhaleb Nour-Eddine
Published: February 2007

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEis) are known to have antifibrotic effects on the heart and kidney in both animal models and humans. N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline is a natural inhibitor of proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells and a natural substrate of ACEi that was reported to prevent cardiac and renal fibrosis in vivo. However, it is not clear whether N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline participates in the antifibrotic effects of ACEi. To clarify this issue, we used a model of aldosterone-salt-induced hypertension in rats treated with the ACEi captopril either alone or combined with an anti-N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline monoclonal antibody. These hypertensive rats had the following: (1) left ventricular and renal hypertrophy, as well as increased collagen deposition in the left ventricular and the kidney; (2) glomerular matrix expansion; and (3) increased ED1-positive cells and enhanced phosphorylated-p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase in the left ventricle and kidney. The ACEi alone significantly lowered systolic blood pressure (
P
=0.008) with no effect on organ hypertrophy; it significantly lowered left ventricular collagen content, and this effect was blocked by the monoclonal antibody as confirmed by the histological data. As expected, the ACEi significantly decreased renal collagen deposition and glomerular matrix expansion, and these effects were attenuated by the monoclonal antibody. Likewise, the ACEi significantly decreased ED1-positive cells and inhibited p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation in the left ventricle and kidney, and these effects were blocked by the monoclonal antibody. We concluded that in aldosterone-salt-induced hypertension, the antifibrotic effect of ACEi on the heart and kidney, is partially mediated by N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline, resulting in decreased inflammatory cell infiltration and p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation.
Influence of Hospital Procedural Volume on Care Process and Mortality for Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery for Mitral Regurgitation
Authors: Gammie James S. , O’Brien Sean M. , Griffith Bartley P. , Ferguson T. Bruce , Peterson Eric D.
Published: February 2007

Background—

Few studies have examined the procedural volume–outcome relationship for heart valve surgery. None have examined process of care factors that may be mediators of this association.

Methods and Results—

This was a retrospective review of outcomes for 13 614 patients having elective surgery for mitral regurgitation between 2000 and 2003 in 575 North American centers participating in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Cardiac Database. Hospital annual mitral valve volume varied widely from 22 cases per year in the lowest-volume quartile to 394 in the highest. Unadjusted mortality rates decreased from 3.08% in the lowest-volume category to 1.11% in the highest-volume category. The risk-adjusted odds ratio for mortality in the highest-volume category compared with the lowest was 0.48 (95% confidence interval 0.28 to 0.82). The rates of mitral valve repair increased from 47.7% in the lowest-volume quartile to 77.4% in high-volume hospitals (
P
<0.0001). Similarly, the rates of bioprosthetic valve use for patients aged >65 years rose from 59% in the lowest-volume quartile to 75% in the highest-volume quartile (
P
=0.0002). The association between volume and mortality was still significant but attenuated when the risk adjustment was modified to adjust for mitral valve repair versus replacement.

Conclusions—

Hospital procedural volume was associated with higher frequency of valve repair, higher frequency of prosthetic valve usage in elderly patients, and lower adjusted operative mortality. Differences in care process may contribute to improved outcomes in higher-volume centers.
C-Reactive Protein and Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease and Global Vascular Events in the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (PROSPER)
Authors: Sattar Naveed , Murray Heather M. , McConnachie Alex , Blauw Gerard J. , Bollen Edward L.E.M. , Buckley Brendan M. , Cobbe Stuart M. , Ford Ian , Gaw Allan , Hyland Michael , Jukema J. Wouter , Kamper Adriaan M. , Macfarlane Peter W. , Murphy Michael B. , Packard Chris J. , Perry Ivan J. , Stott David J. , Sweeney Brian J. , Twomey Cillian , Westendorp Rudi G.J. , Shepherd James
Published: February 2007

Background—

The role of C-reactive protein (CRP) in predicting vascular events and response to statin therapy remains uncertain. Additional large prospective studies are required.

Methods and Results—

Baseline CRP was related to risk over 3.2 years for primary a combined end point (definite or suspected death from coronary heart disease, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and fatal or nonfatal stroke; n=865 events) and secondary (coronary heart disease events or stroke alone) and tertiary (stroke plus transient ischemic attack) end points in the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (n=5804 men and women; age, 70 to 82 years). CRP levels were higher in subjects who had a subsequent primary end-point event compared with those who did not (geometric mean; 3.64 mg/L [SD, 3.08 mg/L] versus 3.01 mg/L [SD, 3.05 mg/L];
P
<0.0001). CRP correlated positively with body mass index and smoking status and negatively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The unadjusted hazard ratio for the primary end point was 1.48 (95% CI, 1.26 to 1.74) in a comparison of top and bottom thirds for CRP, falling to 1.36 (95% CI, 1.15 to 1.61) with adjustment for established predictors and body mass index. Similar results were obtained for other end points or when results were examined separately by history of vascular disease. However, baseline CRP added minimally to risk prediction beyond conventional predictors and did not relate to the magnitude of pravastatin benefit.

Conclusions—

Elevated CRP minimally enhances cardiovascular disease prediction beyond established vascular risk factors and does not predict response to statin therapy in elderly subjects at risk. These data suggest that CRP has limited clinical value in cardiovascular disease risk stratification or predicting response to statin therapy in elderly people.
Prognostic Value of Growth-Differentiation Factor-15 in Patients With Non–ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome
Authors: Wollert Kai C. , Kempf Tibor , Peter Timo , Olofsson Sylvia , James Stefan , Johnston Nina , Lindahl Bertil , Horn-Wichmann Rüdiger , Brabant Georg , Simoons Maarten L. , Armstrong Paul W. , Califf Robert M. , Drexler Helmut , Wallentin Lars
Published: February 2007

Background—

Growth-differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β cytokine superfamily that is induced in the heart after ischemia-and-reperfusion injury. Circulating levels of GDF-15 may provide prognostic information in patients with non–ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome.

Methods and Results—

Blood samples were obtained on admission from 2081 patients with acute chest pain and either ST-segment depression or troponin elevation who were included in the Global Utilization of Strategies to Open Occluded Arteries (GUSTO)-IV Non–ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome trial and from a matching cohort of 429 apparently healthy individuals. GDF-15 levels were determined by immunoradiometric assay. Approximately two thirds of patients presented with GDF-15 levels above the upper limit of normal in healthy controls (1200 ng/L); one third presented with levels >1800 ng/L. Increasing tertiles of GDF-15 were associated with an enhanced risk of death at 1 year (1.5%, 5.0%, and 14.1%;
P
<0.001). By multiple Cox regression analysis, only the levels of GDF-15 and N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide, together with age and a history of previous myocardial infarction, contributed independently to 1-year mortality risk. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses further illustrated that GDF-15 is a strong marker of 1-year mortality risk (area under the curve, 0.757; best cutoff, 1808 ng/L). At this cutoff value, GDF-15 added significant prognostic information in patient subgroups defined by age; gender; time from symptom onset to admission; cardiovascular risk factors; previous cardiovascular disease; and the risk markers ST-segment depression, troponin T, N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide, C-reactive protein, and creatinine clearance.

Conclusions—

GDF-15 is a new biomarker of the risk for death in patients with non–ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome that provides prognostic information beyond that provided by established clinical and biochemical markers.
Effects of Intensive Versus Moderate Lipid-Lowering Therapy on Myocardial Ischemia in Older Patients With Coronary Heart Disease
Authors: Deedwania Prakash , Stone Peter H. , Bairey Merz C. Noel , Cosin-Aguilar Juan , Koylan Nevres , Luo Don , Ouyang Pamela , Piotrowicz Ryszard , Schenck-Gustafsson Karin , Sellier Philippe , Stein James H. , Thompson Peter L. , Tzivoni Dan
Published: February 2007

Background—

Clinical trials have demonstrated that, compared with placebo, intensive statin therapy reduces ischemia in patients with acute coronary syndromes and in patients with stable coronary artery disease. However, no studies to date have assessed intensive versus moderate statin therapy in older patients with stable coronary syndromes.

Methods and Results—

A total of 893 ambulatory coronary artery disease patients (30% women) 65 to 85 years of age with ≥1 episode of myocardial ischemia that lasted ≥3 minutes during 48-hour ambulatory ECG at screening were randomized to atorvastatin 80 mg/d or pravastatin 40 mg/d and followed up for 12 months. The primary efficacy parameter (absolute change from baseline in total duration of ischemia at month 12) was significantly reduced in both groups at month 3 and month 12 (both
P
<0.001 for each treatment group) with no significant difference between the treatment groups. Atorvastatin-treated patients experienced greater low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reductions than did pravastatin-treated patients, a trend toward fewer major acute cardiovascular events (hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.46, 1.09;
P
=0.114), and a significantly greater reduction in all-cause death (hazard ratio, 0.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.13, 0.83;
P
=0.014).

Conclusions—

Compared with moderate pravastatin therapy, intensive atorvastatin therapy was associated with reductions in cholesterol, major acute cardiovascular events, and death in addition to the reductions in ischemia observed with both therapies. The contrast between the therapies’ differing efficacy for major acute cardiovascular events and death and their nonsignificant difference in efficacy for reduction of ischemia suggests that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol–lowering thresholds for ischemia and major acute cardiovascular events may differ. The Study Assessing Goals in the Elderly (SAGE) demonstrates that older men and women with coronary artery disease benefit from intensive statin therapy.
Equality Issues in the CEE Countries: Women and Decision-Making in the Labor Market
Authors: Gromek-Broc Katarzyna
Published: February 2007

This article examines the situation of working women and their career development in Central and Eastern Europe. It looks at the difficulties and the obstacles preventing them from competing effectively with men. It considers the legal protection, or lack thereof, and the enforcement of the principle of equal treatment. It also evaluates the progress in the transposition of EU legal standards on equality and in the implementation of the new multi-faceted strategy, gender mainstreaming, targeting gender issues.First, the article begins with assessment of equal opportunities under communism weighing the incontestable impediments and essential advantages of this period. Secondly, it investigates the changes that have occurred over the last twenty years, mainly market transformation and its impact on women at work. In particular, it critically evaluates the consequences of "unprepared" transition without, however, underestimating the challenges and opportunities. Thirdly, it discusses the evolution in legal protection through the implementation of the EU equality directives. Finally, it looks at progress in the application of the gender mainstreaming strategy stressing the importance of combined efforts in the legal, social, economic and political spheres. In conclusion, this article offers some reflections as to how (best) to remedy some existing problems and, overall, to enhance women's positions in employment.
Blessed Are Those Who Are Seen? Incarnation as Cinema's Destiny
Authors: Vollmer Ulrike
Published: February 2007

This paper takes as its point of departure theories that identify the look in cinema as disembodied, and it explores possibilities for theorizing the cinematic look as an incarnate look through an analysis and interpretation of the film Wings of Desire (dir. Wim Wenders, 1987). Film-theory texts are interpreted in the paper in terms of a lack of reciprocity between those who see and those who are seen in cinema, a lack that results in a theorization of the seeing subject's position as a position of physical absence. In contrast with the texts discussed, Wings of Desire is interpreted as offering an alternative way of imagining vision, a way that locates the seeing eye clearly within a human body of flesh and blood and thus implies the possibility of reciprocal looks. By exposing the film's metaphorical link between a film director and the main character of the film (the angel who becomes incarnate), I interpret the film director's look as an activity of creating, of ensuring that history takes place, and of maintaining relation.
Doctrinal Development and the Demons of History: The Historiography of John Henry Newman
Authors: Wilson James Matthew
Published: February 2007

In response to the emergence of historicism in nineteenth-century intellectual life, John Henry Newman sought to reintroduce typological or "mystical interpretation" into the discourse of his time. Through "vertical" (i.e., typological) and "horizontal" historiography, Newman believed he could reintegrate the practice of historical narrative standard in modern history with a variety of transhistorical and spatial hermeneutic models that gave one a vision of the archetypes present in different temporal periods. Early in his career, he formulated these archetypes in terms of "demons" present in different social forces. In his Arians of the Fourth Century, he formulated a typology between the ancient Alexandrian Church and the modern Anglican. After he determined this model was indefensible, he accepted the Catholic Church as the manifest archetype (the "Church of History") in light of which all other historical forces (revolutions or heresies) and figures (state and sectarian) could be interpreted and judged. Newman's historiography recuperates for the Church the spiritual exegesis that subtends its doctrine, but it also anticipates and indeed influences the historical theories that subtend the major works of modernist literature, most prominently Joyce's Ulysses.
Grave-Goods from a Rich Tomb in Gorgippia(?) Dating from the 2nd Century AD and Now in the Collection of the State Historical Museum (Moscow)
Authors: Treister Mikhail , Zhuravlev Denis
Published: February 2007

In 1982 The State Historical Museum acquired a set of a gold funeral wreath and three pair of earrings from the KGB. According to the given information the objects originated from the clandestine excavations in Anapa or its vicinities. The complex of jewellery discussed is chronologically close to the burial in the tomb II, excavated in 1975 in Gorgippia, which may be dated not later than the middle-third quarter of the 2nd century AD. The fact that the plaque of the funerary wreath finds parallels only among the medallions from Gorgippia, and was most probably hammered in the same matrix as these objects, gives grounds to discuss the complex of finds as most probably originating from the necropolis of Gorgippia. Having in mind the wealth of the complex, the time and the circumstances of its acquisition, it may be tentatively supposed, that the finds originate from a monumental tomb, excavated in Gorgippia in 1978, which was robbed several years before. Regrettably, we will never find out about any other objects and the complete inventory of this tomb will remain unknown.
'Scythian' Archers on Archaic Attic Vases: Problems of Interpretation
Authors: Ivantchik Askold
Published: February 2007

The article analyses the depictions of archers in so-called 'Scythian' clothes (a high sharp cap or a rounded hood, a caftan and trousers) in Attic archaic vase-painting. The author concludes that these figures were neither conceived as real ethnical Scythians, nor associated by vase painters or their customers with this or any other people. The clothes were rather an iconographic conventionality symbolising a second rank character accompanying a hero. The latter was depicted as a hoplite. The 'Scythian' clothes corresponded to the character's function, not to his ethnical identity. This scheme in vase-painting existed between c. 530 and 490 BC, and then went out of use, because after the Greco-Persian wars these clothes began to be associated with ethnical identity, though not Scythian, but Persian. The real prototype of the 'Scythian' archers were the archers of different ethnical groups first of Median, and later of Persian army. The 'Scythian' attire of the archers on the vases, therefore, has nothing to do with the real Scythians of the North Pontic area.
Social Democratic Internationalism and the Welfare State After the ‘Golden Age’
Authors: Kuisma Mikko
Published: February 2007

The ‘Nordic model’ is often seen to exist in political economy, where, according to many commentators, the main components of the model have been the universal welfare state, centralized wage-bargaining structures and high level of taxation. However, the argument in this article is that the ‘Nordic model’ should be seen as a broader concept, ranging from social and economic policy to foreign and security policy. In addition, the central claim here is that the socio-political history of that model is crucially important in providing understanding of the linkages in ideational inspiration across these different policy sectors. The ‘Nordic normative legacy’ and the experience of nation- and state-building and construction of national identity were important in the construction of the welfare state. However, the ‘Nordic model’ was traditionally based on a form of ‘welfare state nationalism’ that is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in the ‘global age’. The main problem comes from confronting the challenges of multiculturalism. It is one of the central arguments here that the decline of Nordic internationalism and the ‘crisis’ of the welfare state are inherently linked. The ‘Nordic model’ is not well equipped to deal with the blurring of the boundaries between internal and external—domestic and foreign. However, as Nordicity and its social foundations are still largely intact, the task now is to rejuvenate the ‘Nordic model’ and move away from welfare state nationalism towards a more inclusive concept of welfare state internationalism.
Branding Nordicity
Authors: Browning Christopher S.
Published: February 2007

This article introduces the idea of brands to debates about Nordic models and identity. Understanding brands to be more strategic and stable than identities, the article shows how a Nordic brand was marketed during the Cold War, but has since been challenged and undermined by a number of pressures. Central to the Nordic brand have been ideas of Nordic ‘exceptionalism’—of the Nordics as being different from or better than the norm—and of the Nordic experience, norms and values as a model to be copied by others. In the post-Cold War period, key aspects of the Nordic brand have been challenged. On the one hand, elements of the Nordic elite appear to have forsaken the brand. On the other, broader recognition of a distinct Nordic brand is being undermined with the melding of Nordic with European practices and processes. The article concludes by asking whether the decline of the Nordic brand matters and further explores the link between Nordicity as a brand and as an identity.
Janus-Faced Solidarity
Authors: Lawler Peter
Published: February 2007

With domestic political cultures in which the values of solidarity, equity and social justice figure large and a long history of internationalism in foreign policy, the Nordic states offer themselves as prototypical ‘good international citizens’. Danish foreign policy long had a passive quality to it, nonetheless it has been broadly consistent with the Nordic internationalist tradition, especially with the adoption of ‘active internationalism’ after 1989. Since the 2001 Election of the first Fogh Rasmussen government, however, the ethico-political rationales underpinning Danish internationalism appear to be changing at the same time as Denmark has enacted a controversially much more restrictive and, critics argue, strongly culturally framed immigration and refugee policy. Although the Fogh Rasmussen governments have not abandoned internationalism, and key aspects of current Danish foreign policy resonate fully with the Nordic internationalist tradition, Denmark is now much more closely aligned with the US and the muscular internationalism that it promotes. It may now be the case that a normatively re-jigged internationalism helps to legitimate an overtly exclusionary Danish national narrative. Since the ‘cartoon crisis’, however, there are signs of a greater sensitivity to cultural politics in Danish foreign policy, but it remains moot whether this will flow through into the government’s handling of the relationship between the peoples that comprise contemporary Denmark.
Struggling over subjectivity: A discursive analysis of strategic development in an engineering group
Authors: Laine Pikka-Maaria , Vaara Eero
Published: February 2007

We have seen growing interest in discursive perspectives on strategy. This perspective holds great promise for development of an understanding on how strategy discourse and subjectivity are intertwined. We wish to add to this existing research by outlining a discursive struggle approach to subjectivity. To understand the complex subjectification and empowering/disempowering effects of organizational strategy discourse, this approach focuses on organization-specific discourse mobilizations and various ways of resistance. Drawing on an analysis of the discourses and practices of ‘strategic development’ in an engineering and consulting group we provide an empirical illustration of such struggles over subjectivity. In particular, we report three examples of competing ways of making sense of and giving sense to strategic development, with specific subjectification tendencies. First, we show how corporate management can mobilize and appropriate a specific kind of strategy discourse to attempt to gain control of the organization, which tends to reproduce managerial hegemony, but also trigger discursive and other forms of resistance. Second, we illustrate how middle managers resist this hegemony by initiating a strategy discourse of their own to create room for manoeuvre in controversial situations. Third, we show how project engineers can distance themselves from management-initiated strategy discourses to maintain a viable identity despite all kinds of pressures. Although our examples are case-specific, we believe that similar discursive dynamics also characterize strategizing in other organizations.
Post-processual challenges for the emerging strategy-as-practice perspective: Discovering strategy in the logic of practice
Authors: Chia Robert , MacKay Brad
Published: February 2007

The recent turn to ‘strategy practice’ offers a genuine opportunity for establishing an alternative perspective that is clearly distinct from the traditional strategy process view. The challenge is to clarify and articulate an alternative set of ontological and epistemological premises for founding this new approach to theorizing strategy.What has been called the ‘practice turn’ in social theory provides this alternative basis for a ‘post-processual’ approach to theorizing strategy-as-practice. This ‘practice turn’ involves a radical reformulation of the intractable problem of agency and structure that enables us to bypass the ‘micro/macro’ distinction so intimately tied to the social sciences in general and to strategy research in particular. Already, there are signs that the discourse of the strategy-as-practice research community reflects this awareness and are thus straining towards some form of ‘trans-individual’ explanation that is not restricted to the mere ‘activities’ of strategy actors nor to the traditional emphasis on macro-structures and processes. This article contributes to the clarification of some of the underlying premises of current strategy theorizing and shows how the strategy-as-practice perspective can further differentiate itself from the strategy process view. From the social practices viewpoint, everyday strategy practices are discernible patterns of actions arising from habituated tendencies and internalized dispositions rather than from deliberate, purposeful goal-setting initiatives. We term this epistemological stance ‘post-processual’. Such a post-processual world-view offers a revised understanding of strategy emergence that has profound explanatory implications for the strategy-as-practice movement.
Behavioral complexity theory of media selection: a proposed theory for global virtual teams
Authors: Shachaf Pnina , Hara Noriko
Published: February 2007

This study proposes a behavioral complexity theory for media selection in global virtual teams. This theory captures multiple contingencies into one holistic approach to media selection. Unlike existing linear and mechanistic theories of media selection, this heuristic theory moves away from the universal models that were previously proposed. The behavioral complexity theory assumes ambiguity and complexity of the media selection process in a nonlinear, organic, and holistic way. Behavioral complexity theory of media selection emphasizes the role of media repertoire, the ability of individuals to differentiate situations according to multiple contingencies, and their flexibility to effectively use multiple media in any particular situation. This theory is examined in the context of an exploratory case study of global virtual teams’ media selection in one of the leading Fortune 500 corporations.
Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
Authors: Chell Elizabeth
Published: February 2007

Throughout the 20th century multiple discourses of the nature of enterprise and the entrepreneur have developed. In this article, we trace these discourses and perspectives as a backdrop to understanding social and economic entrepreneurship. The article considers the nature of social enterprise and whether,indeed how, it might be construed as a form of entrepreneurship. It is argued that in the past social enterprises have been modelled on tenets of ‘not-for-profit’ charitable organizations that have attracted human and social capital with pro-social, community-spirited motives, and have engendered survival strategies premised on grant dependency. In the longer term, we argue, social enterprises should be self-sustaining and therefore entrepreneurial in their endeavours.From these premises, we suggest that the definition of entrepreneurship might be modified to include the creation of ‘social and economic value’ and may thus be applied to both private, entrepreneurial ventures as well as social enterprises.
Education and Training for Innovation in SMEs
Authors: Macdonald Stuart , Assimakopoulos Dimitris , Anderson Pat
Published: February 2007

The European Commission (EC) is anxious to increase the innovation, and hence the competitiveness, of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the depressed regions of the European Union (EU). To this end, the EC funds education and training for these firms, arguing that education and training will produce the desired innovation. In the north of England, the Yorkshire and Humberside Universities' Association (YHUA) was entrusted to provide appropriate education and training for the region's SMEs. In the year 2000, the YHUA asked the authors to analyse the effectiveness of this provision. The analysis concluded that the universities providing education and training services benefited from the scheme, rather than the participating SMEs. This article stands back from the basic analysis and considers why this was so.
Transcending the ‘merely material’: secular morality and progressive politics
Authors: Firth Ann
Published: February 2007

In the 18th century Adam Smith argued that in a commercial society based on the division of labour, a rising standard of living for all was possible and desirable. At the same time Smith regretted that a preoccupation with material goods and social status had displaced a more expansive notion of human nature. This tension is a recurrent theme in European social thought. It underlies the social vision of the architects of postwar reconstruction and the welfare state in Australia after the Second World War as it is presented in the writings of Herbert Cole Coombs. Coombs worked to achieve a rising standard of living for ordinary Australians but believed that both living standards and human development could best be achieved through publicly funded services rather than private consumption. Unlike Smith, whose moral philosophy sees human nature as a reflection of God’s nature, Coombs’s social vision was thoroughly secular. This study explores how, in the absence of a religious justification, Coombs formulated the conviction that a life bounded by the aspirations to own a house, a car and the consumer durables that were beginning to be available to ordinary people - in other words to be a ‘good provider’ - lacks an essential element of what it means to be fully human.
Max Weber and Ernst Toller: realists or idealists?
Authors: Adair-Toteff Christopher
Published: February 2007

Max Weber and Ernst Toller are regarded as political opposites with the former viewed as the responsible realist and the latter as an ethical idealist. I argue that this contrast between the two is not as great as is customarily thought.
Solidarity and the Scoobies: an analysis of the -y suffix in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Authors: Mandala Susan
Published: February 2007

This article offers a sociolinguistic analysis of selected dialogue from 66 episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer ( BTVS). While the research record reveals an interest in the use of language on the show, it is argued here that the issue of language in relation to friendship bonds has thus far received insufficient treatment. In response, this study asks if Buffy and her friends (the Scoobies, as they call themselves after the ghost-busting teens in the cartoon Scooby-Doo) are represented as using vernacular variants to demonstrate in-group identity. Marked - y suffix adjectives (e.g. Heart-of-Darkness-y) are adopted as the linguistic variable, and the data are interpreted with reference to Lesley Milroy’s social network theory and Mick Short’s concept of embedded levels of discourse in drama dialogue. The findings demonstrate that marked -y reveals shifting alliances within the Scooby gang, as it characterizes not the gang as a whole, but only certain members. The findings also suggest that knowledge of how language is used in the formation of friendship groups may be part of sociolinguistic competence (as theorized by Michael Canale and Merrill Swain). Further investigation into whether this is accomplished above or below the writer’s level of conscious awareness is offered as a suggestion for future research.
An ‘interactive’ approach to interpreting overlapping dialogue in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (Act 1)
Authors: Ivanchenko Andriy
Published: February 2007

A notable feature of Caryl Churchill’s post-1979 plays is overlapping speech notated in the play script. It can be variously interpreted by readers: as marking interpersonal opposition, lack of interest, self-centredness - or enthusiasm and support. So the reader’s understanding of overlapping may influence his/her interpretation of the dramatic situation and character. I propose that certain discursive features in the play script may affect this interpretation in particular ways. I shall briefly analyse some extracts from Churchill’s Top Girls using a Conversation Analysis- (CA) based ‘interactive’ approach to the overlapping dialogue. Essentially, I suggest that co-participants’ reactions to conversational actions should be attended to as they reflect the discursive significance of those actions. Consequently, interpreting overlaps as disruptive interruptions will to a large extent depend on the interruptee’s response format. An interpretative resource is provided for the analyst with regard to the dramatic situation and character.
Framing Same-sex Marriage in Canada and the United States: Goodridge, Halpern and The National Boundaries of Political Discourse
Authors: Smith Miriam
Published: February 2007

The article draws on post-positivist policy analysis and social movement theory to explore the impact of law in shaping the politics of social movement claims and discursive construction of same-sex marriage as public policy issue in Canadian and American politics. Using the concept of framing, the article discusses the ways in which lesbian and gay rights claimants in Canada and the USA have framed the issue of same-sex marriage in two landmark North American rulings on same-sex marriage, Halpern (Ontario) and Goodridge (Massachusetts). The article finds that, despite differences in legal policy legacies between Canada and the USA, there is a common rights frame governing lesbian and gay struggles over same-sex marriage. Although working with different legal frameworks, judicial precedents, statutory law and human rights protections, courts reached remarkably similar conclusions about same-sex marriage and largely endorsed nearly all of the elements in the rights frame put forth by lesbian and gay litigants. Despite similarities in the framing of lesbian and gay rights issues in the two countries, the article demonstrates that the central difference in the same-sex marriage debate in Canada and the USA concerns the place of the rights frame within the broader political culture.
Poets, Revolutionaries and Shoemakers: Law and the Construction of National Identity in Central Europe During the Long 19th Century
Authors: Pogány István
Published: February 2007

This article examines notions of identity in central Europe during the ‘long’ 19th century and the role of law in defining and in reinforcing the boundaries of the nation. During the 19th century, nationalist thinking in Hungary tended to focus on characteristics such as language, culture and political allegiance rather than on race, ancestry or religion. Consequently, membership of the nation was not necessarily fixed at birth. This inclusive model of the nation contrasts markedly with the rigid, racially informed theories of identity that were to prove so seductive in Hungary, as in much of continental Europe, in the inter-war era and during the Second World War. The article goes on to consider the extent to which the apparently inclusive conception of the Hungarian nation was embedded in social and economic practice as well as in the statute books. Notwithstanding the passage of comprehensive emancipation laws, the evidence suggests that Jews were not readily admitted to public sector employment of various kinds. Thus, the liberal Hungarian laws of this period served, at least in part, to mask rather than to transform illiberal social and economic practices. The article concludes by briefly examining contemporary notions of nationhood in central Europe and the extent to which these have transcended 19th-or early 20th-century ideas concerning national identity.