bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Living Standards and Economic Development in Shanghai and Taiwan
Authors: Nickum James E. , Schak David C.
Published: March 2009

How people live under different economic systems is always of enormous interest, although comparison is handicapped in practice by the presence of other, non-systemic differences, such as culture and the level of economic development. Significant comparisons of living standards in the market-orientated Taiwan and the plan-orientated mainland portions of China, where the inherited culture is similar, have been precluded by the wide disparities in size, urban-rural mix, and level of development. Yet an interesting, and perhaps useful comparison can be made between Taiwan and a counterpart region within the People's Republic, such as Shanghai.
Reform of State Enterprise Management in China
Authors: Jackson Sukhan
Published: March 2009

The shift in China's economic strategy following the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1978 was an attempt to readjust and reform the economic system. First, reform measures were introduced in the agricultural sector. Secondly, the commercial sector was gradually being adjusted to allow the market mechanism to play a role under the “guidance” of state planning. Thirdly, there was more investment in transport and communications. Fourthly, the rate of accumulation by the state was reduced while the rate of consumption by the people was raised through higher incomes and the availability of more consumer goods. Fifthly, there were attempts to readjust the investment pattern between agriculture, heavy industry and light industry. Last, but not least, reform measures were introduced in the management of state enterprises. The article is concerned with this reform.
The Politics of Destabilization and Confrontation: the Campaign against Lin Biao and Confucius in Zhejiang Province, 1974
Authors: Forster Keith
Published: March 2009

In the five years between the disappearance of Lin Biao in 1971 and the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 the Chinese political scene was highly volatile. Mass campaigns erupted regularly, disrupting and diverting efforts to normalize political, economic and social activities, which had originally been thrown into chaos during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. After the 10th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in August 1973 the question of succession to the ageing Mao and ailing Premier Zhou Enlai became a matter of urgency to the political elite. At issue was the direction China would take in the post-Mao era, central to which was an assessment of the validity of Mao's thesis concerning the continuation of class struggle in socialist society, and his attempt to put into operation the conclusions he drew from this analysis.
The Current State of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Japan
Authors: Kokubun Ryosei
Published: March 2009

Sino-Japanese ties have been expanding since formal diplomatic relations were established in 1972. Recently, both governments organized a China–Japan Friendship Committee for the 21 st Century, a Sino-Japanese version of the U.S.–Japan Wiseman's Group, which has played an important role in cementing links between the United States and Japan through the years. The new China–Japan Committee is jointly headed by Tadao Ishikawa, president of Keio University and a scholar of Chinese politics, and by Wang Zhaoguo, the 45 yearold head of the general office of the Chinese Communist Party. This committee holds annual meetings to explore Sino-Japanese relations in depth. In addition, since 1982, a China–Japan Civilian Meeting has been convened, alternately in Tokyo and Beijing, bringing together over 100 Chinese and Japanese businessmen, politicians and scholars to survey Sino-Japanese relations. Finally, since 1980, at an annual ministerial meeting, the top ministers of each government review their activities.
The Relevance of Border-region Experience to Nation-Building in China, 1949–52
Authors: Keith Ronald C.
Published: March 2009

In the course of establishing an interpretative chronology of the post-1949 political and economic development of China, scholars have often assumed that in the early and mid-1950s there was a continuum in terms of the progressive application of Soviet organizational methods and strategic perspectives in China. In other words, the Chinese Communist leadership in the early 1950s not only “leaned to one s side” in international terms, it endorsed and implemented an essentially Stalinist strategy with its consequent implications of rigid hierarchical management and lop-sided investment patterns in favour of rapid heavy industrialization at the expense of agricultural production in the countryside.
The Ashes of Defeat
Authors: Wilbur C. Martin
Published: March 2009

An interesting reconstruction and description of the Nanchang Uprising of August 1, 1927, which the Chinese Communist Party and the people on the Mainland now celebrate as Red Army Day, was given by Colonel Guillermaz in The China Quarterly, No. 11. As a footnote I present translations of four accounts by three participants—Li Li-san, Chang Kuo-t'ao and Chou I-ch'ün—all written within a few weeks of the smashing of the revolt on about October 1 near Swatow, together with four other nearly contemporary Communist items.
General de Gaulle's Recognition of Peking
Authors: Erasmus Stephen
Published: March 2009

On January 27 a communiqué was issued in Paris and Peking which read, somewhat baldly:

The Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the French Republic have decided in mutual agreement to establish diplomatic relations.

For this purpose, the two Governments have agreed to appoint their ambassadors within three months.
A Historical Note on the Sino-Indian Dispute over the Aksai Chin
Authors: Huttenback R. A.
Published: March 2009

The Sino-Indian conversations that followed the border clashes of late 1959 were undertaken partly for the purpose of examining in detail the historical evidence with which both sides supported their border claims. It is always difficult, however, to use historical evidence to bolster claims to areas which have for centuries been removed from the main stream of human existence. The Aksai Chin, in the extreme north-east of Ladakh, upon which much of the negotiations centred, is such a region; a bleak uninhabited highland which in the past was visited only by the inhabitants of adjacent territories in quest of salt and by occasional hunters. In 1717, however, the Aksai Chin was traversed by the Tsungar invaders of Tibet and 233 years later it was used for the same purpose by the Chinese. The success of this second venture led to the construction of a major road link between Sinkiang and Tibet, the existence of which precipitated the hostilities of 1959 and the discussions of 1960.
Mao Tse-tung's Materialistic Dialectics
Authors: Holubnychy Vsevolod
Published: March 2009

The thesis of this article is that Mao Tse-tung's materialistic dialectics has a definite place of its own in the realm of the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist philosophy. Although it is undoubtedly consanguineous with the dialectics of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and the modern Russian and other Communist philosophy, it is also discernibly different. In addition, it is also somewhat related to the dialectics of classical Chinese philosophy. One demonstrable reason for all these relationships is that Mao Tsetung's readings in Marxian classics were not very extensive, possibly less extensive than his readings in Chinese classics. The rest of the differences and peculiarities came from his own thinking.
Mao Tun: The Critic (Part I)
Authors: Shih Vincent Y. C.
Published: March 2009

More than forty years have passed since Hu Shih and Ch'en Tu-hsiu wrote their polemics on literary reform and revolution. During this period many important so-called literary works have appeared, but they are more important as documents of social protest and political propaganda. We have yet to see anything which is important as literature in its own right. There have been many explanations for this literary paucity, and the most often repeated one is that of the political millstone around the writer's neck. This was one of the reasons Hu Shih gave.1 While it is true that political pressure accounts for most of this unhealthy literary phenomenon, I believe a more direct reason can be found in the fact that many critics have tried to make literature subservient to social and political interests.
Chinese Grain Production: An Interpretation of the Data
Authors: Michael Field Robert , Kilpatrick James A.
Published: March 2009

By 1975, after a period of widely divergent estimates for Chinese grain production, a consensus appeared to be emerging. Consider, for example, the estimates that were published at the time (in million tons):

Not only was there a consensus, but it was widely assumed that the figures were consistent with those published in the late 1950s. Since then, evidence has been accumulating that the definition of grain has changed and that not all of the figures released in any given year conform to the definition commonly used at the time. We will review the changes in the definition of grain and present our interpretation of the data that have been released in the past 20 years.
Administration of the Pharmaceutical, Research, Public Health, and Population Bureaucracies
Authors: Lampton David M.
Published: March 2009

During my brief stay in the People's Republic of China I sought to obtain systematic and reliable information which would enable me to begin to answer the following questions: (1) How are decisions about drug safety, distribution, production levels, and price made and what have been the implicit or explicit trade-offs? (2) How do the pharmaceutical, research, public health, and population bureaucracies interrelate, how is inter-agency co-ordination achieved, and what have been the successes and problems encountered in this regard? (3) How are decisions made to initiate and discontinue research? (4) How extensive has decentralization of drug research and pharmaceutical production become in the post-Cultural Revolution period? If decentralization has occurred, what tangible consequences has it had? (5) What mechanisms exist to assure public health and environmental quality and what problems have arisen in the process of trying to achieve results in these areas? While there is much that I was unable to learn, if for no other reason than I had no opportunity to meet with relevant government officials, I was able to learn a great deal from the factory managers, researchers, doctors, and administrators with whom I spoke.
Performance and the Chinese Political System: A Preliminary Assessment of Education and Health Policies
Authors: Lampton David M.
Published: March 2009

Having a number of studies on what Kenneth Dolbeare has called “fundamental policies” in the education and health fields, we are now able to make a preliminary assessment of how the Chinese political system has performed along three important dimensions. With what degree of equity have services been provided across provinces? What have been the aggregate growth trends in education and health and what have been the long- and short-term costs of these patterns? Finally, what impact have the programmes had on the problems they were designed to overcome?
Hua Kuo-feng and the Arrest of the “Gang of Four”
Authors: Onate Andres D.
Published: March 2009

On 9 September 1976, at 4 p.m., Peking time, Radio Peking announced that Chairman Mao Tse-tung had died that morning at ten minutes past midnight, at the age of 82, because of his steadily worsening physical condition. The actual cause of death, beyond his age, was not given, but it was generally believed that he died of advanced Parkinson's disease or cerebral arteriosclerosis.
The Role of Law in Communist China
Authors: Li Victor H.
Published: March 2009

Law is a social institution designed to help society operate in a harmonious and efficient manner. It fosters orderly relations among individuals and groups by formulating and enforcing some basic rules of conduct, providing mechanisms for the resolution of some major disagreements, and defining the structure and mode of government. The precise shape, content and manner of operation of this institution are determined by the resources, needs, problems, historical development and general conditions of the society in which it functions. As these factors differ from society to society, so also differ the attitudes towards law, the forms of legal systems and the specific legal norms and rules.
China and India: the Un-Negotiated Dispute
Authors: Maxwell Neville
Published: March 2009

During the long-sustained diplomatic polemics which accompanied and expressed the Sino-Indian boundary dispute, each side accused the other of refusing to negotiate. The argument became involved and finally confused, with each blaming the other for setting unreasonable pre-conditions. All that is clearly appreciated is that, after the abortive Nehru-Chou En-lai summit meeting of April 1960, the boundary dispute between India and China was never submitted to negotiation. Since both parties to this dispute had repeatedly affirmed their commitment to negotiations as the only proper means of resolving international differences, the failure to resort to negotiations in this instance is striking—and it left the quarrel to the arbitrament of force in the 1962 border war. This article will follow the subject of negotiations through the diplomatic exchanges, and attempt to show why the dispute remained un-negotiated. This isolation of a single—though crucial—element in an extended and complex dispute will inevitably leave some questions unanswered and loose ends in the narrative: these, the writer hopes, are dealt with in his full study of the Sino-Indian dispute.
The Hungarian Revolution and the Hundred Flowers Campaign
Authors: Rádvanyi János
Published: March 2009

In the years 1955–56, when it had already become evident that the star of the Stalinist Rákosi-Gerö clique was on the wane in Hungary, Ho Te-ch'ing was the Chinese Ambassador in Budapest. It soon became apparent that he was quietly establishing connexions with the opposition. Not only did he have free access to the highest Party circles and maintained regular contact with the Foreign Ministry (as could be expected of a Party and state representative) but the Chinese Embassy sponsored an extensive intelligence apparatus and was generally regarded as the best informed foreign post in the Hungarian capital. The Cultural Attaché, who spoke Hungarian fluently, maintained contact with Hungarian intellectuals. At the same time, correspondents of the New China News Agency and the Chinese exchange students in Budapest reported to the Ambassador on the activities of the revolutionary Petöfi Circle and the universities. The Ambassador himself travelled widely in the country, becoming acquainted with the local Party secretaries, councilmen and other leaders in the towns and villages. He was also prominent in the social life of the Hungarian capital; his two cooks and staff providing a lavish Oriental touch. While the Soviet Embassy invited Hungarian Stakhanovists (elite workers) to its receptions, Ho was more interested in entertaining leading writers, artists, economists and newspapermen, even those who were not outspoken supporters of the regime.
The Chinese Communist Party in the 1960s: Prelude to the Cultural Revolution
Authors: Neuhauser Charles
Published: March 2009

The recent events in China are surely drama of the highest order, but at times it has seemed that the actors themselves were not entirely sure who was writing the lines. In fact what we seem to be witnessing is a form of commedia dell'arte: improvisation within a certain tacitly understood framework. The cultural revolution appears to have taken new turns and to have broken into new channels precisely because the actors have been faced with new and unforeseen circumstances as it has run its course. No faction in the struggle has been able to impose its will on the Party or the country by fiat; new devices and stratagems have been brought into play in what has looked like desperate attempts to gain the upper hand. It has clearly been a battle of the utmost seriousness, but there appear to have been limitations on the resultant chaos. Economic disorganisation does not seem to have occurred on the scale of the later stages of the Great Leap Forward. Nor, despite the clashes, confusion and bitter infighting, have new centres of power, totally divorced from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself, arisen. The cultural revolution has been pre-eminently a struggle within the Party.
Mao Tun: The Critic (Part 2)
Authors: Shih Vincent Y. C.
Published: March 2009

If as a theorist Mao Tun was without a theory, as a polemicist he was without a polemic. What plagued him there also hurt him here, and for the same reason: he did not as yet have any firm conviction regarding his standpoint. He did not have a solid base to operate from.
China's Modern Economic History in Communist Chinese Historiography
Authors: Feuerwerker Albert
Published: March 2009

It will be evident to a reader of historical works produced in the People's Republic of China that this article, in the choice of subject-matter and in its treatment, is decidedly influenced by the current domestic and foreign political “line” of the Communist Party and Government. This is a relative matter, not absolute, but I would suggest that the dominant “class viewpoint” of the first decade of the Peking régime which produced an anonymous history of dynasties without “feudal” emperors or bureaucrats, literature minus the landlord-scholar-official literatus and nameless peasant rebellions as the central matter of China's history, was to a degree correlated with the process of the internal consolidation of power which may more or less be said to have been accomplished with the completion of the collectivisation of agriculture. The more recent “historicist” trend, which while not rejecting entirely its predecessor concentrates on what may be “positively inherited” from the “feudal” past, represents a quickening of Chinese nationalism fanned to a red-hot intensity, one cannot resist the temptation to conjecture, by the increasingly severe quarrel with the Soviet Union. Soviet Russian commentary on recent Chinese historiography, for example, accuses the Chinese of the “introduction of dogmatic, anti-Marxist and openly nationalistic and racist views.” The Chinese, for their now relatively favourable view of the thirteenth-century Mongol conquests (which are seen as calamitous by the Russians and other Europeans), for their claim that Chinese “feudalism” is the classical model of this historical phenomenon, and because they exaggerate the role of Confucian ideas and their influence on Western philosophy, are roundly condemned by the Russians for “bourgeois nationalism.”
The National People's Congress
Authors: Bridgham Philip L.
Published: March 2009

The task of readjusting the national economy has been basically accomplished; there has been an all-round upsurge in agricultural and industrial production; and the entire economy has taken a turn for the better and is entering a new period of development.

Chou En-lai, “Report on the Work of the Government,” December, 21–22, 1964.
A New Class Structure Emerging in China?
Authors: Malden William
Published: March 2009

The “Socialist education campaign” now in full swing in China was recently commended by Premier Chou En-lai in his report to the National People's Congress as being “of great revolutionary and historic significance.” Such campaigns are no novelty in Communist China. The student of Chinese affairs might indeed be tempted to see in the renewed effort of 1964–65 the lastest manifestation of a recurring phenomenon, for the new campaign bears many features common to post movements and at present at any rate does not promise to be so dramatic in its revelations or as severe in its measures as the Hundred Flowers of 1957. But earlier campaigns such as the Three and Five “Antis” were mainly to eradicate specific errors and failings which were often a part of the old China. Attacking corruption, tax evasion, bureaucracy, etc., these movements, harsh as they were, could be represented in principle as a necessary process in cleaning up and modernising the corrupt social structure of the past. It is true that they were accompanied by a wealth of Party jargon, and were a serious stage in the development of a Communist society, but they dealt largely with the problems of the pre-Communist era. The Hundred Flowers period, although directly concerned with the rectification of ideological mistakes, was still a movement of stern reaction to the bourgeois tendencies of the past. In contrast, the Chinese leaders seem now to have to deal with errors arising from the system which they themselves have created.
The Field Army in Chinese Communist Military Politics
Authors: Whitson William
Published: March 2009

Since their formal organization in February 1949, the “Field Armies” of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have fascinated various students of the Chinese Communist political process. Unfortunately their roles, other than those associated with combat, have never been carefully studied or defined. One of the consequences has been that most observers, especially Western observers, have neglected these institutions in their search for the origins and parameters of contemporary formal and informal power, collective and individual. In part, this neglect has reflected a dearth of essential research on Chinese Communist military biography and military history, without which neither the 1949 nor the 1968 military-political significance of the Field Armies could emerge from the superficial picture of them as triumphant masses of combat forces sweeping across the Mainland in 1950.
Land Reform in Kwangtung 1951–1953: Central Control and Localism
Authors: Vogel Ezra
Published: March 2009

The building of harmonious relationships between the capital and the regions is always a critical task confronting a new regime in any country. In traditional China, the founder of each new dynasty, by virtue of his military conquests, was able to establish fairly firm control over his former enemies in the various regions. But to rise to power in a country of such enormous size, the dynastic founders were forced to form alliances with various local leaders who had assisted them in their conquest. After they achieved victory the conquerors no longer had to subdue enemies but they had to find a way of working smoothly with the regional leaders who had assisted them in their rise to power.
Contradictions in a Totalitarian Society
Authors: Lindsay Michael
Published: March 2009

Some aspects of the Chinese People's Republic have been explained as reversions to traditional Chinese patterns. There are resemblances between the Chinese Communist ideal for society and the traditional Confucian ideal. Both assume that, in a properly ordered society, there should be universal acceptance of a true doctrine and universal agreement on what is right. Paul Linebarger, describing the Confucian ideal, wrote, “Government, once cheng ming has been set in motion, is not a policy making body. There is no question of policy, no room for disagreement, no alternative; what is right is apparent. … government needs only to administer for … the maintenance of the ideology. Once right views are established, no individual is entitled to think otherwise. … control of the individual will devolves upon persons making up his immediate social environment. …” One can compare this with the frequent Chinese Communist statements about the universal validity of Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Tse-tung and the continually appearing assumption that a process of discussion must end with unanimous agreement on what is right. Also, control of the individual by persons in his immediate social environment is a characteristic feature of the Chinese Communist system.
On Activism and Activists: Maoist Conceptions of Motivation and Political Role Linking State to Society
Authors: Solomon Richard H.
Published: March 2009

Few behavioural attributes rank higher in the Chinese Communist system of values than that of activism (chi-chi-hsing). In apparent continuity with the Leninist tradition, the Chinese Communists have made the activist the archetype of their new political man, and a key operational figure in their system of political control. This analysis is an exploration of the Chinese Communist use of the concept of activism as a political value, and of the role that the activist plays in Party efforts to penetrate and control Chinese society.
Historiography in China after “Smashing the ‘Gang of Four’”
Authors: Wakeman Frederic
Published: March 2009

In January 1977, People's Daily announced that the scholarly journal Historical Research (Li-shih yen-chiu) had since 1973 been one of the “ periodicals of the ‘ gang of four.’ ” Collective contributors such as the Liang Hsiao and Lo Ssu-ting groups were accused of presenting a dogmatic line only corrected after October 1976, when the “ gang of four ” was smashed and the editorial authority of the journal was handed back to the Academy' s Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences.
On the Making of U.S. China Policy, 1961–9: A Study in Bureaucratic Politics
Authors: Thomson James C.
Published: March 2009

When the history of Sino-American relations since 1949 is written in years to come, it will very likely lump together much of the two decades from the Korean War to the Kissinger-Chou meeting as a period of drearily sustained deadlock. Korean hostilities will be blended rather easily into Indochina hostilities, John Foster Dulles into Dean Rusk. The words and deeds of American East Asian intervention, of the containment and isolation of China, will seem an unbroken continuity. And at the end, under most improbable auspices but for commonsense balance-of-power reasons, will come the Zen-like Nixon stroke that cut the Gordian knot and opened a new era.
Graduates of Chinese Universities:Adjusting the Total
Authors: Orleans Leo A.
Published: March 2009

China's drive towards modernization has been accompanied by a phenomenal increase in the number of statistics available. The statistical hiatus during the Cultural Revolution was followed by a revived and revitalized State Statistical Bureau (SSB) which in recent years has been churning out figures on every conceivable aspect of China's economy and society. Notoriously suspect in the past, China's statistics are now recognized as being much more indicative of the true state of China's development and, what is more, they are improving.
Hong Kong and Chinese Foreign Policy, 1955–60
Authors: Catron Gary
Published: March 2009

The argument presented here is that Hong Kong was sometimes, but not always, an exception to the overall pattern of Chinese foreign policy in the second half of the 1950s. This discrepancy existed because to China, Hong Kong was so many things – a British colony and as such an extension of the West, an Asian neighbour, and a territory to be someday reunited with the mainland. By reacting to Hong Kong in different ways the Chinese were using more discrimination than simply applying their grand strategy to each specific case.
Estimating hepatitis C infection acquired in England, 1986–2000
Authors: BALOGUN M. A. , VYSE A. J. , HESKETH L. M. , KAFATOS G. , PARRY J. V. , RAMSAY M. E.
Published: March 2009

Hepatitis C is a global health problem and in the UK seroprevalence studies have mainly concentrated on specific high-risk groups. The aim of this study was to determine changes in the prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus in England using residual specimens collected between 1986 and 2000 reflecting the general population. A cross-sectional study design using a convenience collection of serum specimens from adult patients submitted to laboratories in the years 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2000 from a total of 19 laboratories around England were investigated. The main outcome was to determine anti-HCV prevalence and the average incidence occurring between 1986 and 2000 and factors associated with infection. Multivariable analysis of results from all years showed there was a significant difference in prevalence between males and females (P<0·001), birth cohort (P<0·001) and by health region (P<0·001). An average of 0·72% (95% CI 0–1·65%) of those susceptible to HCV born between 1950 and 1970 were estimated to have acquired the infection between 1986 and 2000. Analysis of this convenience serum collection suggests that HCV prevalence is low in the general population, and is associated with period of birth, gender and health region. There was evidence to support a low incidence of HCV infection in those born between 1950 and 1970 over the period 1986–2000 which, at the population level, equated to a substantial burden of infection (~106 000 persons). Continued surveillance and prevention targeted at injecting drug users are essential for the control of hepatitis C in the UK.
Report of a hospital neonatal unit outbreak of community-associated methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus
Authors: GOULD I. M. , GIRVAN E. K. , BROWNING R. A. , MACKENZIE F. M. , EDWARDS G. F. S.
Published: March 2009

Community-associated methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(CA-MRSA) with the type IV staphylococcal chromosomal cassettemec(SCCmec) is rarely reported as being acquired in hospital. We report a hospital outbreak, in Grampian, Scotland, of eight cases of skin and soft-tissue infections due to such a strain. All patients had been in the labour, delivery and maternity units of a small community hospital during a 7-month period. Typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed the isolates to be a single strain closely related to the USA800 lineage (paediatric clone) and additional typing confirmed it as ST5-MRSA-IV. Genes for exfoliative toxin A (ETA) and enterotoxin D were detected by PCR in all the isolates although none carried the Panton–Valentine leukocidin gene. Region-wide surveillance of over 6000 MRSA isolates collected from 1998 to 2004 showed that 95 (1·6%) were closely related to the outbreak strain although only 60 carried the ETA gene. The strain has not been seen elsewhere in Scotland.
Population-based contact investigation of a cluster of tuberculosis cases in a small village
Authors: CASTILLA J. , PALMERA R. , NAVASCUÉS A. , ABETI M. , GUILLERMO A. , IRISARRI F. , JIMÉNEZ M. S. , GARCÍA CENOZ M. , BARRICARTE A.
Published: March 2009

A cluster of five cases of tuberculosis (TB) in persons aged 19–23 years who were not close contacts was detected in a small village in Spain in 2006. All culture isolates had the same chromosomal-DNA restriction pattern. Contact investigations of family members, friends, workmates and schoolmates were complemented with tuberculin screening offered to the resident population born between 1976 and 1995. Expanded contact tracing detected two new cases of TB, 27 tuberculin conversions and an excess of latent tuberculosis infections (LTI) in persons born between 1978 and 1990. The contacts of two cases had a significantly elevated prevalence of LTI. Two secondary cases of TB, 33·3% of those diagnosed with LTI and 47·8% of the converters were unaware of any contact with the TB cases, but had frequented some of the same bars. This study suggests that a considerable percentage of the episodes of TB transmission in young people may escape detection in conventional contact studies.
Escherichia colishedding patterns in humans and dogs: insights into within-household transmission of phylotypes associated with urinary tract infections
Authors: DAMBORG P. , NIELSEN S. S. , GUARDABASSI L.
Published: March 2009

Within-household transmission ofEscherichia colimay contribute to the pathogenesis of urinary tract infection but understanding of transmission is limited by the lack of longitudinal data on individual shedding patterns. In this study, faecalE. coliwas isolated over 6 months from 18 humans and 13 dogs in eight households. Typing 322E. coliisolates by amplified fragment length polymorphism showed high overall diversity as indicated by the average diversity index (0·66). However, individual shedding patterns varied considerably: two persons carried a single residentE. coliclone throughout the study whereas distinct clones were isolated from other individuals on each sampling time. Nineteen clones were shared within six of the eight households and seven of these clones were shared between humans and dogs. The frequent sharing of clones belonging to phylotypes B2 (n=7) or D (n=4) supports the hypothesis that urovirulentE. coliare transmitted between household members, including dogs, or may be acquired by a common source such as food.
Bistratified ganglion cells of rabbit retina: Neural architecture for contrast-independent visual responses
Authors: FAMIGLIETTI EDWARD V.
Published: March 2009

Bistratified (BS) ganglion cells have long been recognized in vertebrate retina. Thirty years ago, it became clear that bistratification allows the integration of ON and OFF retinal pathways to produce contrast-independent responses in ganglion cells. Best studied is the type 1 bistratified (BS1) ganglion cell of rabbit retina, the physiologically well-characterized ON-OFF directionally selective (DS) ganglion cell, which is co-stratified with the two types of starburst amacrine (SA) cells in sublaminae a and b of the inner plexiform layer (IPL). DS responses have recently been documented in the latter. In this report, BS1 cells are further studied and are used as “fiducials” to characterize a second type of BS ganglion cell. An example of a possible third type is shown to be distinct from examples of BS1 and BS2 cells. All three have two distinct, narrowly stratified arborizations, one in sublamina a and one in sublamina b. All have similar dimensions, except for their dendritic trees, differing also in branching pattern. BS1 cells have compact, regular, highly branched trees; BS2 cells have significantly larger, more sparsely branched, irregular, radiate trees; the proposed BS3 type is intermediate in field size, and its branching pattern is different from the first two. BS2 and BS3 cells are co-stratified, branching nearer to the margins of the IPL, out of range of SA cells. In a previous report by others, illustrating the morphology of intracellularly stained ganglion cells, one example each of both “orientation-selective” ganglion cells and “uniformity detectors” resembles the BS2 cell. A rationale is presented for correlating BS2 cells with uniformity detectors.
Is there an omitted stimulus response in the human cone flicker electroretinogram?
Authors: McANANY J. JASON , ALEXANDER KENNETH R.
Published: March 2009

Omitting a stimulus from a train of repetitive stimuli, by either interrupting or terminating the train, can elicit an electrophysiological response that occurs at the time appropriate for the omitted stimulus. This study investigated whether such an omitted stimulus response (OSR) is present in the flicker electroretinogram (ERG) of the human cone system. ERGs were recorded from 11 visually normal subjects in response to full-field sinusoidal flicker trains presented against a rod-desensitizing adapting field at frequencies ranging from 12.5 to 100 Hz. Recordings were synchronized with the onset of the stimulus trains, and the amplitude and relative delay of any additional ERG responses following the offset of the flicker train were analyzed. At stimulus frequencies below 35 Hz, the number of ERG responses always equaled the number of stimulus cycles. However, over the frequency range of 38.5 to 100 Hz, the ERG contained an extra response following flicker train offset. At stimulus frequencies from 38.5 to 62.5 Hz, there was a constant delay between the peak of the extra ERG response and the time at which the next stimulus would have occurred had the flicker train continued. This constant delay is characteristic of an OSR. In addition, an extra ERG response was apparent at these same stimulus frequencies if the flicker train was interrupted by omitting stimulus cycles from the middle of the train. The pattern of ERG findings is consistent with a recently proposed model of the OSR that attributes the phenomenon to a resonant oscillation in retinal bipolar cells.
Tipping back the balance: recolonization of the Macquarie Island isthmus by king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) following extermination for human gain
Authors: van den Hoff John , McMahon Clive R. , Field Iain
Published: March 2009

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when blubber oil fuelled house lamps, the king penguin population at Macquarie Island was reduced from two very large (perhaps hundreds of thousands of birds) colonies to about 3000 birds. One colony, located on the isthmus when the island was discovered in 1810, was extinct by 1894 and it took about 100 years for king penguins to re-establish a viable breeding population there. Here we document this recovery. The first eggs laid at Gadget Gully on the isthmus were recorded in late February 1995 but in subsequent years egg laying took place earlier between November and February (this temporal discontinuity is a consequence of king penguin breeding behaviour). The first chick was hatched in April 1995 but the first fledging was not raised until the following breeding season in October 1996. The colony increased on average 66% per annum in the five years between 1995 and 2000. King penguins appear resilient to catastrophic population reductions, and as the island's population increases, it is likely that other previously abandoned breeding sites will be reoccupied.
Diagnosis and management of oral mucosal lesions in older people: a review
Authors: Ewan Victoria , Staines Konrad
Published: March 2009

Oral mucosal lesions occur frequently in older people and are important as they may reduce quality of life, represent pre-malignant change or indicate systemic disease. The commonest mucosal lesions in adults are denture-related lesions such as stomatitis, angular cheilitis, ulcers and hyperplasia, and occur in 8.4% of the adult population. In the hospital setting, oral mucosal lesions may lead to malnutrition, slow rehabilitation and recovery from illness, and adversely affect quality of life. The two major risk factors associated with oral lesions are denture use and smoking, and frequently older people have been exposed to both of these. Commonly used drugs such as antihypertensives, antidepressants and antibiotics may have oral mucosal side-effects, and polypharmacy may worsen these. Decreased awareness of changes in the oral mucosa, or inability to raise concerns due to dementia, delirium, social isolation, or difficulty accessing dental care may further compound the problem. Hospital admission could represent an opportunity to intervene, but oral mucosal lesions, and indeed oral hygiene, are areas which can be overlooked by doctors. This article is intended to highlight common or important oral mucosal diseases and increase awareness of these conditions for the practising hospital or community geriatrician.
Are improvements needed in the management of severe acute skin reactions following completion of breast radiotherapy? A discussion of some possible service options
Authors: Cumming J. , Routsis D.
Published: March 2009

Radiotherapy is a critical component for many patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Most patients develop some degree of acute radiation skin reaction as a result of the treatment. Acute skin reactions range from faint erythema to moist desquamation and often peak within 1 month after completion of treatment.

The emphasis of radiotherapy skincare advice is often during treatment with less attention paid to post-radiotherapy skincare. This article highlights this gap in service provision at one radiotherapy centre and demonstrates the difficulties encountered when there is an inadequate support system. Possible options are discussed for the management of skin reactions after radiotherapy and the potential implications of adopting these strategies. The pragmatic solution introduced to Addenbrookes’ Hospital was to amend patient information providing a supplementary section for health-care professionals overseeing patient care after completion of treatment. This has gone some way to addressing this issue but still has limitations.

Provision of timely and consistent skincare advice and support is vital to provide high-quality patient care. This article emphasises the importance of standardisation of radiotherapy skincare and providing an effective support network for patients after completion of radiotherapy.
Clinical dosimetry optimization in spinal metastases
Authors: Pedrosa P. , Lucena C. , Sainz I.J.
Published: March 2009

Introduction: Radiotherapy is commonly used to treat spinal metastases. The aim of this study was to compare conventional dosimetry (posterior–anterior fields) with an optimized three-dimensional conformal plan (using oblique fields).

Material and Methods: Fifteen patients were selected, and split into three groups of five based on tumour localization: cervical, dorsal and lumbar. Reference planning comprised of two fields: anterior–posterior. The planning target volume (PTV) was covered with 90% of the prescribed doses, minimizing anterior field weight and not exceeding 120%. The alternative consisted of three fields: two oblique posterior fields with wedge and anterior field. The PTV was covered with 95% of the prescription dose, minimizing the anterior field weight with 107% of overdose as a limit. The patient received 8 Gy in one fraction; retreatment with an additional fraction was feasible, safe and effective if persistent or recurrent bone pain was present. Five fractions of 4 Gy were used for cervical cases. To consider the future patients toxicity we evaluated the mean dose, V90 and V70 parameters in each plan.

Results: Dosimetric parameters of organs at risk were not significantly different from one trial to another. The optimized plan followed ICRU criteria, reaching PTV coverage of 95–107% range of the prescription dose. In the conventional plan, high dose had to be accepted to obtain 90% of coverage in the target.

Conclusions: In contrast with the anterior–posterior configuration, oblique fields improve dose conformity and limit high dose all of the body except the spinal cord.
Glutamate elicits release of BDNF from basal forebrain astrocytes in a process dependent on metabotropic receptors and the PLC pathway
Authors: Jean Ying Y. , Lercher Lauren D. , Dreyfus Cheryl F.
Published: March 2009

A key neurotrophin responsible for the survival and function of basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A number of studies now indicate that a source of this factor may be BF astrocytes. This study was designed to define the role of BF-astrocyte-derived BDNF on cholinergic neurons. Moreover, it investigated regulatory events that modulate BDNF content and release. In initial work BDNF derived from BF-astrocyte-conditioned medium (ACM) was found to increase both numbers of BF acetylcholinesterase (AChE+) cholinergic neurons and the cholinergic synthetic enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). Western blots, immunocytochemistry and pharmacological inhibition studies revealed that glutamate, through group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR), increases the intracellular levels of BDNF in BF astrocytes in culture, as well as its release. Furthermore, the release of BDNF is mediated by the actions of PLC, IP3 and internal stores of Ca2+. These results suggest that BF astrocytes serve as local sources of BDNF for cholinergic neurons, and that they may be regulated as such by the neuronal signal, glutamate, through the mediation of group I metabotropic receptors and the PLC pathway.
Making Room for Women of Color: Race and Gender Categories in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
Authors: Junn Jane
Published: March 2009

Race and gender have never been more visible on the national political stage than during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, particularly during the months when Democratic Party rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled in the party's state nomination caucuses and primaries. Clinton stood in for gender, representing all women, while Obama took his place in the category of race, standing in for all people of color. The success of these candidates and the addition of Sarah Palin as vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket was a source of pride for many women and minority Americans. The “default” category for presidential candidates—the white male—had finally been displaced from the top of the ticket on the Democratic side and from the second in command for the Republicans.
The 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd disequilibrium between Polynesian hot spot lavas and the clinopyroxenes they host: Evidence complementing isotopic disequilibrium in melt inclusions
Authors: Jackson Matthew G. , Hart Stanley R. , Shimizu Nobumichi , Blusztajn Jerzy S.
Published: March 2009

We report 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd data on clinopyroxenes recovered from 10 ocean island lavas from three different hot spots (Samoa, Society, and Cook‐Austral island chains). The clinopyroxenes recovered from eight of the 10 lavas analyzed in this study exhibit 87Sr/86Sr disequilibrium with respect to the host lava. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios in clinopyroxene separates are 95–3146 ppm (0.0095–0.31%) different from their respective host whole rocks. Clinopyroxenes in three lavas have 143Nd/144Nd ratios that are 70–160 ppm (0.007–0.016%) different from the host lavas. The 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd disequilibrium in one lava (the oldest lava considered in this study, Mangaia sample MGA‐B‐47) can be attributed to posteruptive radiogenic ingrowth, but the isotope disequilibrium in the other, younger lavas cannot be explained by this mechanism. In five of the lava samples, two populations of clinopyroxene were isolated (black and green, separated by color). In four out of five of these samples, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the two clinopyroxene populations are isotopically different from each other. In addition to 87Sr/86Sr disequilibrium, the two clinopyroxene populations in one of the lavas (Tahaa sample TAA‐B‐26) have 143Nd/144Nd ratios that are ∼100 ppm different from each other. Given the resilience of clinopyroxene to seawater alteration and the likelihood that the Sr and Nd isotope composition of fresh clinopyroxene separates provides a faithful record of primary magmatic compositions, the clinopyroxene‐clinopyroxene isotope disequilibrium in these four lavas provides strong evidence that a mechanism other than seawater alteration has generated the observed isotopic disequilibrium. This study confirms the isotopic diversity in ocean island lavas previously observed in olivine‐hosted melt inclusions. For example, the Sr isotopic variability previously observed in olivine‐hosted melt inclusions is mirrored by the isotopic diversity in clinopyroxenes isolated from many of the same Samoan lavas. The isotopic data from melt inclusions and clinopyroxenes are not consistent with shallow assimilation of sediment or with entrainment of xenocrystic clinopyroxene from the oceanic crust or upper mantle. Instead, the data are interpreted as reflecting isotopic heterogeneity in the mantle sources of the lavas. The isotopic diversity in clinopyroxenes and melt inclusions suggests that a single lava can host components derived from isotopically diverse source regions.