bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Late-Twentieth-Century Fertility Decline in Moldova: Interplay of Female Autonomy, Wealth, and Education
Authors: Ryabov Igor
Published: January 2010

The aim of this article is to empirically assess the impact of female decision-making autonomy, educational attainment, and wealth on risks of having low-parity births and fertility preferences in the Republic of Moldova. The empirical analysis uses data from the 2005 Moldova Demographic and Health Survey. Hazard modeling is applied to study the transition to first, second, and third birth, while logistic regression is used to model desire for children. Considered for the first time are female decision-making autonomy measures, indicators that are essential in evaluating premises of gender equity theory. The main focus of the analysis is to assess the relative importance of female decision-making autonomy, education, and wealth for the timing of fertility, odds of having low-parity births, and desired fertility in Moldova.
Cost optimization of a real-time GIS-based management system for hazardous waste transportation
Authors: Yun Zhu  , Lin Che-Jen , Yilong Zhong  , Qing Zhou  , Lin Che-Jen , Chunyi Chen
Published: January 2010

In this paper, the design and cost analysis of a real-time, geographical information system (GIS) based management system for hazardous waste transportation are described. The implementation of such a system can effectively prevent illegal dumping and perform emergency responses during the transportation of hazardous wastes. A case study was conducted in Guangzhou, China to build a small-scale, real-time management system for waste transportation. Two alternatives were evaluated in terms of system capability and cost structure. Alternative I was the building of a complete real-time monitoring and management system in a governing agency; whereas alternative II was the combination of the existing management framework with a commercial Telematics service to achieve the desired level of monitoring and management. The technological framework under consideration included locating transportation vehicles using a global positioning system (GPS), exchanging vehicle location data via the Internet and Intranet, managing hazardous waste transportation using a government management system and responding to emergencies during transportation. Analysis of the cost structure showed that alternative II lowered the capital and operation cost by 38 and 56% in comparison with alternative I. It is demonstrated that efficient management can be achieved through integration of the existing technological components with additional cost benefits being achieved by streamlined software interfacing.
Waste brick’s potential for use as a pozzolan in blended Portland cement
Authors: Lin Kae-Long , Chen Bor-Yann , Chiou Chyow-San , An Cheng
Published: January 2010

This study investigated the pozzolanic reactions and engineering properties of waste brick-blended cements in relation to various replacement ratios (0—50%). The waste brick consisted of SiO2 (63.21%), Al2O3 (16.41%), Fe2O3 (6.05%), Na2O (1.19%), K2O (2.83%) and MgO (1.11%), and had a pozzolanic activity index of 107%. The toxic characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) results demonstrate that the heavy-metal content in waste bricks met the Environmental Protection Agency regulatory limits. Experimental results indicate that 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of cement can be replaced by waste brick, which causes the initial and final setting times to increase. Compressive strength development was slower in waste brick-blended cement (WBBC) pastes in the early ages; however, strength at the later ages increased significantly. Species analyses demonstrate that the hydrates in WBBC pastes primarily consisted of Ca(OH)2 and calcium silicate hydrate (C—S—H) gel, like those found in ordinary Portland cement (OPC) paste. Pozzolanic reaction products formed in the WBBC pastes, in particular, various reaction products, including hydrates of calcium silicates (CSH), aluminates (CAH) and aluminosilicates (CASH), formed as expected, resulting in consumption of Ca(OH)2 during the late ages of curing. The changes in the properties of WBBC pastes were significant as blend ratio increased, due to the pores of C—S—H gels and CAH filling via pozzolanic reactions. This filling of gel pores resulted in densification and subsequently enhanced the gel/space ratio and degree of hydration. Experimental results demonstrate waste brick can be supplementary cementitious material.
Methodology for assessing determinants of manure use in urban areas of Africa
Authors: Suman Paul , Thys Eric , Mfoukou-Ntsakala André , Ali Laouali , Ouedraogo Mamadou , Van den Bossche Peter , Van Huylenbroeck Guido , Berkvens Dirk , Speybroeck Niko
Published: January 2010

The objectives of this study were to identify the major determinants (e.g. zootechnical and socio-economic parameters) of manure management practised by urban livestock keepers. Data were collected from four single-visit, multi-object surveys in three cities of Africa. The livestock keepers were classified either as ‘good user’ or ‘bad user’ of manure depending on how they use the manure. The results of this study indicate that the habit of manure utilization shows geographical differences. In general, livestock keepers engaged in agricultural activities are good manure users. Furthermore, manual workers, traders or the self-employed are better manure users than other professional groups. The manure utilization varies also in function of the livestock numbers. In Brazzaville, the habit of selling animals influenced manure management positively. Experience of keeping livestock before the civil war in Brazzaville was also a determining factor of manure use in the post-war urban livestock keeping in 2001. When designing policies to reduce the environmental effects of urban livestock keeping, the highlighted factors can assist city planners to understand how urban livestock keepers use manure. Using the non-parametric classification tree method CART, two approaches were used to select an optimal classification of ‘bad’ manure users: the ‘Cook and Goldman rule’ and the ‘Classification with different misclassification cost ratios’ method. The optimal tree was selected by using receiver operating characteristics curve information. This method can be useful in assessing other aspects of waste management.
Diabetes and Cognitive Decline: Investigating the Potential Influence of Factors Related to Health Disparities
Authors: Crowe Michael , Sartori Andrea , Clay Olivio J. , Wadley Virginia G. , Andel Ross , Wang Hui-Xin , Sawyer Patricia , Allman Richard M.
Published: January 2010

Objectives: The authors investigated whether factors related to health disparities—race, rural residence, education, perceived racial discrimination, vascular disease, and health care access and utilization—may moderate the association between diabetes and cognitive decline. Method: Participants were 624 community-dwelling older adults (49% African American and 49% rural) who completed in-home mini-mental state examination at baseline and 4-year follow-up. Results: Diabetes at baseline predicted four-year cognitive decline in regression models adjusted for a number of possible confounds. Only perceived discrimination and health utilization showed significant interaction effects with diabetes. Among African Americans who reported experiencing racial discrimination, there was a stronger relationship between diabetes and cognitive decline. Among participants who reported absence of visiting a physician within the past 6 months, the association between diabetes and cognitive decline was substantially larger. Discussion: Findings suggest that factors related to health disparities may influence cognitive outcomes among older adults with diabetes.
They Come To Play
Authors: Carpenter Jeffrey , Liati Allison , Vickery Brian
Published: January 2010

Our experiment challenges the standard, social preference, interpretation of choices in the double blind dictator game played in the lab without any context. We present treatments formulated to minimize the social preference reasons to give and, despite this, the allocations are identical to our replication of the standard double blind game, implying that altruism might be the wrong interpretation of giving. Instead, we hypothesize that giving might be driven by participants coming to the lab ready ‘to play’. The fact that there are strong correlations between participant responses to an attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder questionnaire and both the rate and level of giving provides direct support for the hypothesis that lab participants impulsively give money away. However, we also show that having players earn their endowments attenuates the bias.
Gender, Simulation, and Gaming: Research Review and Redirections
Authors: Jenson Jennifer , de Castell Suzanne
Published: January 2010

This review of gender and gameplay research over the past three decades documents a set of persistent methodological repetitions that have systematically impeded its progress since the inception of this trajectory of research. The first is, in fact, a refusal to consider gender at all: Conflating gender with sex impedes possibilities to identify nonstereotypical engagements by girls and women. Second is the persistent attempt to identify sex-specific “patterns” of play and play preferences “characteristic” of girls and women mainly to support and promote these in the name of “gender equity,” whether in women’s involvement in the game industry as designers, in the development and marketing of “games for girls,” or the access and uses of digital games for education, training, and entertainment. Third, it is found that “gender” is an issue in research studies only long enough to dismiss it as a significant variable, which in turn makes any deeper critical interrogation unproductive.
Intracerebroventricular Morphine for Refractory Cancer Pain: Transitioning to the Home Setting
Authors: Adolph Michael D. , Stretanski Michael F. , McGregor John M. , Rawn Bonnie L. , Ross Patrick M. , Benedetti Costantino
Published: January 2010

Refractory cancer pain may be effectively controlled by titrating intracerebroventricular (ICV) preservative-free opioid. In this case report, a continuous infusion of ICV morphine permitted our patient with lung cancer and painful spinal metastases to be discharged to home hospice with family. The approach exploits the high potency of morphine injected into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Sterile, injectable, preservative-free morphine is directly infused into CSF through a subcutaneous Ommaya reservoir placed under the scalp by a neurosurgeon, with an attached catheter passed through a burr hole in the skull with its tip in a cerebral ventricle. Although investigators have described home care of patients receiving intraspinal analgesics, no report describes the process of transitioning the patient receiving continuous ICV morphine infusion to the home setting.
What Influences Individuals to Engage in Advance Care Planning?
Authors: Levi Benjamin H. , Dellasega Cheryl , Whitehead Megan , Green Michael J.
Published: January 2010

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is an underutilized process that involves thinking about what kind of life-prolonging medical care one would want should the need arise, identifying a spokesperson, and then communicating these wishes. Objective: To better understand what influences individuals to engage in ACP. Design: Three focus groups using semistructured interactive interviews were conducted with 23 older individuals from 3 diverse populations in central Pennsylvania. Results: Four categories of influences for engaging in ACP were identified: (1) concern for self; (2) concern for others; (3) expectations about the impact of ACP; and (4) anecdotes, stories, and experiences. Conclusions: The motivations for undertaking ACP that we have identified offer health care providers insight into effective strategies for facilitating the process of ACP with their patients.
Noninvasive Neuromodulation with Ultrasound? A Continuum Mechanics Hypothesis
Authors: Tyler William J.
Published: January 2010

Deep brain stimulation and vagal nerve stimulation are therapeutically effective in treating some neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. Optogenetic-based neurostimulation approaches are capable of activating individual synapses and yield the highest spatial control over brain circuit activity. Both electrical and light-based neurostimulation methods require intrusive procedures such as surgical implantation of electrodes or photon-emitting devices. Transcranial magnetic stimulation has also shown therapeutic effectiveness and represents a recent paradigm shift towards implementing less invasive brain stimulation methods. Magnetic-based stimulation, however, has a limited focusing capacity and lacks brain penetration power. Because ultrasound can be noninvasively transmitted through the skull to targeted deep brain circuits, it may offer alternative approaches to currently employed neuromodulation techniques. Encouraging this idea, literature spanning more than half a century indicates that ultrasound can modulate neuronal activity. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of potential mechanisms underlying the actions of ultrasound on neuronal excitability, here, I propose the continuum mechanics hypothesis of ultrasonic neuromodulation in which ultrasound produces effects on viscoelastic neurons and their surrounding fluid environments to alter membrane conductance. While further studies are required to test this hypothesis, experimental data indicate ultrasound represents a promising platform for developing future therapeutic neuromodulation approaches.
Hematopoiesis and its disorders: a systems biology approach
Authors: Whichard Zakary L. , Sarkar Casim A. , Kimmel Marek , Corey Seth J.
Published: January 2010

Scientists have traditionally studied complex biologic systems by reducing them to simple building blocks. Genome sequencing, high-throughput screening, and proteomics have, however, generated large datasets, revealing a high level of complexity in components and interactions. Systems biology embraces this complexity with a combination of mathematical, engineering, and computational tools for constructing and validating models of biologic phenomena. The validity of mathematical modeling in hematopoiesis was established early by the pioneering work of Till and McCulloch. In reviewing more recent papers, we highlight deterministic, stochastic, statistical, and network-based models that have been used to better understand a range of topics in hematopoiesis, including blood cell production, the periodicity of cyclical neutropenia, stem cell production in response to cytokine administration, and the emergence of imatinib resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia. Future advances require technologic improvements in computing power, imaging, and proteomics as well as greater collaboration between experimentalists and modelers. Altogether, systems biology will improve our understanding of normal and abnormal hematopoiesis, better define stem cells and their daughter cells, and potentially lead to more effective therapies.
Activated Ras alters lens and corneal development through induction of distinct downstream targets
Authors: Burgess Daniel , Zhang Yan , Siefker Ed , Vaca Ryan , Kuracha Murali R , Reneker Lixing , Overbeek Paul A , Govindarajan Venkatesh
Published: January 2010

Background

Mammalian Ras genes regulate diverse cellular processes including proliferation and differentiation and are frequently mutated in human cancers. Tumor development in response to Ras activation varies between different tissues and the molecular basis for these variations are poorly understood. The murine lens and cornea have a common embryonic origin and arise from adjacent regions of the surface ectoderm. Activation of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling pathway induces the corneal epithelial cells to proliferate and the lens epithelial cells to exit the cell cycle. The molecular mechanisms that regulate the differential responses of these two related tissues have not been defined. We have generated transgenic mice that express a constitutively active version of human H-Ras in their lenses and corneas.

Results

Ras transgenic lenses and corneal epithelial cells showed increased proliferation with concomitant increases incyclin D1andD2expression. This initial increase in proliferation is sustained in the cornea but not in the lens epithelial cells. Coincidentally, cdk inhibitorsp27Kip1andp57Kip2were upregulated in the Ras transgenic lenses but not in the corneas. Phospho-Erk1 and Erk2 levels were elevated in the lens but not in the cornea andSpry 1andSpry 2, negative regulators of Ras-Raf-Erk signaling, were upregulated more in the corneal than in the lens epithelial cells. Both lens and corneal differentiation programs were sensitive to Ras activation. Ras transgenic embryos showed a distinctive alteration in the architecture of the lens pit. Ras activation, though sufficient for upregulation ofProx1, a transcription factor critical for cell cycle exit and initiation of fiber differentiation, is not sufficient for induction of terminal fiber differentiation. Expression of Keratin 12, a marker of corneal epithelial differentiation, was reduced in the Ras transgenic corneas.

Conclusions

Collectively, these results suggest that Ras activation a) induces distinct sets of downstream targets in the lens and cornea resulting in distinct cellular responses and b) is sufficient for initiation but not completion of lens fiber differentiation.
BACTIBASE second release: a database and tool platform for bacteriocin characterization
Authors: Hammami Riadh , Zouhir Abdelmajid , Le Lay Christophe , Ben Hamida Jeannette , Fliss Ismail
Published: January 2010

Background

BACTIBASE is an integrated open-access database designed for the characterization of bacterial antimicrobial peptides, commonly known as bacteriocins.

Description

For its second release, BACTIBASE has been expanded and equipped with additional functions aimed at both casual and power users. The number of entries has been increased by 44% and includes data collected from published literature as well as high-throughput datasets. The database provides a manually curated annotation of bacteriocin sequences. Improvements brought to BACTIBASE include incorporation of various tools for bacteriocin analysis, such as homology search, multiple sequence alignments, Hidden Markov Models, molecular modelling and retrieval through our taxonomy Browser.

Conclusion

The provided features should make BACTIBASE a useful tool in food preservation or food safety applications and could have implications for the development of new drugs for medical use. BACTIBASE is available at http://bactibase.pfba-lab-tun.org.
Identification of an unusual Brucella strain (BO2) from a lung biopsy in a 52 year-old patient with chronic destructive pneumonia
Authors: Tiller Rebekah V , Gee Jay E , Lonsway David R , Gribble Sonali , Bell Scott C , Jennison Amy V , Bates John , Coulter Chris , Hoffmaster Alex R , De Barun K
Published: January 2010

Background

Brucellosis is primarily a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella species. There are currently ten Brucella spp. including the recently identified novel B. inopinata sp. isolated from a wound associated with a breast implant infection. In this study we report on the identification of an unusual Brucella-like strain (BO2) isolated from a lung biopsy in a 52-year-old patient in Australia with a clinical history of chronic destructive pneumonia.

Results

Standard biochemical profiles confirmed that the unusual strain was a member of the Brucella genus and the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence was 100% identical to the recently identified B. inopinata sp. nov. (type strain BO1T). Additional sequence analysis of the recA, omp2a and 2b genes; and multiple locus sequence analysis (MLSA) demonstrated that strain BO2 exhibited significant similarity to the B. inopinata sp. compared to any of the other Brucella or Ochrobactrum species. Genotyping based on multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) established that the BO2 and BO1Tstrains form a distinct phylogenetic cluster separate from the other Brucella spp.

Conclusion

Based on these molecular and microbiological characterizations, we propose that the BO2 strain is a novel lineage of the newly described B. inopinata species.
Combined sedation with midazolam/propofol for gastrointestinal endoscopy in elderly patients
Authors: Kerker Astrid , Hardt Christian , Schlief Hans-Eugen , Dumoulin Franz Ludwig
Published: January 2010

Background

Although gastrointestinal endoscopy with sedation is increasingly performed in elderly patients, data on combined sedation with midazolam/propofol are very limited for this age group.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed 454 endoscopic procedures in 347 hospitalized patients ≥ 70 years who had received combined sedation with midazolam/propofol. 513 endoscopic procedures in 397 hospitalized patients < 70 years during the observation period served as controls. Characteristics of endoscopic procedures, co-morbidity, complications and mortality were compared.

Results

Elderly patients had a higher level of co-morbidity and needed lower mean propofol doses for sedation. We observed no major complication and no difference in the number of minor complications. The procedure-associated mortality was 0%; the 28-day mortality was significantly higher in the elderly (2.9% vs. 1.0%).

Conclusions

In this study on elderly patients with high level co-morbidity, a favourable safety profile was observed for a combined sedation with midazolam/propofol with a higher sensitivity to propofol in the elderly.
Factors associated with breastfeeding cessation in nursing mothers in a peer support programme in Eastern Lancashire
Authors: Agboado Gabriel , Michel Elaine , Jackson Elaine , Verma Arpana
Published: January 2010

Background

The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates worldwide and in recent years the Government has made breastfeeding promotion one of its priorities. The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative is likely to increase breastfeeding initiation but not duration. Other strategies which involve provision of support for breastfeeding mothers in the early weeks after birth are therefore required to encourage UK mothers to breastfeed for the recommended duration. This paper examines the effects of maternal socio-demographic factors, maternal obstetric factors, and in-hospital infant feeding practices on breastfeeding cessation in a peer support setting.

Methods

Data on mothers from Blackburn with Darwen (BwD) and Hyndburn in Eastern Lancashire who gave birth at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and initiated breastfeeding while in hospital were linked to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The data were analysed to describe infant feeding methods up to 6 months and the association between breastfeeding cessation, and maternal factors and in-hospital infant feeding practices.

Results

The mean breastfeeding duration was 21.6 weeks (95% CI 20.86 to 22.37 weeks) and the median duration was 27 weeks (95% CI 25.6 to 28.30 weeks). White mothers were 69% more likely to stop breastfeeding compared with non-White mothers (HR: 0.59; 95% CI, 0.52 to 0.67 [White mothers were the reference group]). Breastfeeding cessation was also independently associated with parity and infant feeding practices in hospital. There were no significant associations between breastfeeding cessation and marital status, mode of delivery, timing of breastfeeding initiation and socio-economic deprivation.

Conclusion

In this study ethnicity, parity and in-hospital infant feeding practices remained independent predictors of breastfeeding cessation in this peer support setting. However other recognised predictors such as marital status, mode of delivery, timing of breastfeeding initiation and socio-economic deprivation were not found to be associated with breastfeeding cessation.
Sirtuin1-p53, forkhead box O3a, p38 and post-infarct cardiac remodeling in the spontaneously diabetic Goto-Kakizaki rat
Authors: Vahtola Erik , Louhelainen Marjut , Forstén Hanna , Merasto Saara , Raivio Johanna , Kaheinen Petri , Kytö Ville , Tikkanen Ilkka , Levijoki Jouko , Mervaala Eero
Published: January 2010

Background

Diabetes is associated with changes in myocardial stress-response pathways and is recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiac remodeling. Using spontaneously diabetic Goto Kakizaki rats as a model of type 2 DM we investigated whether post-translational modifications in the Akt - FOXO3a pathway, Sirt1 - p53 pathway and the mitogen activated protein kinase p38 regulator are involved in post-infarct cardiac remodeling

Methods

Experimental myocardial infarction (MI) was induced by left anterior descending coronary artery ligation in spontaneously diabetic Goto-Kakizaki rats and non-diabetic Wistar controls. Cardiac function was studied by echocardiography. Myocardial hypertrophy, cardiomyocyte apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis were determined histologically 12 weeks post MI or Sham operation. Western blotting was used to study Caspase-3, Bax, Sirt1, acetylation of p53 and phosphorylation of p38, Akt and FOXO3a. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay was used to assess FOXO3a activity and its nuclear localization.

Results

Post-infarct heart failure in diabetic GK rats was associated with pronounced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, increased interstitial fibrosis and sustained cardiomyocyte apoptosis as compared with their non-diabetic Wistar controls. In the GK rat myocardium, Akt- and FOXO3a-phosphorylation was decreased and nuclear localization of FOXO3a was increased concomitantly with increased PTEN protein expression. Furthermore, increased Sirt1 protein expression was associated with decreased p53 acetylation, and phosphorylation of p38 was increased in diabetic rats with MI.

Conclusions

Post-infarct heart failure in diabetic GK rats was associated with more pronounced cardiac hypertrophy, interstitial fibrosis and sustained cardiomyocyte apoptosis as compared to their non-diabetic controls. The present study suggests important roles for Akt-FOXO3a, Sirt1 - p53 and p38 MAPK in the regulation of post-infarct cardiac remodeling in type 2 diabetes.
The potassium channel Ether à go-go is a novel prognostic factor with functional relevance in acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Agarwal Jasmin R , Griesinger Frank , Stühmer Walter , Pardo Luis A
Published: January 2010

Background

The voltage-gated potassium channel hEag1 (KV10.1) has been related to cancer biology. The physiological expression of the human channel is restricted to the brain but it is frequently and abundantly expressed in many solid tumors, thereby making it a promising target for a specific diagnosis and therapy. Because chronic lymphatic leukemia has been described not to express hEag1, it has been assumed that the channel is not expressed in hematopoietic neoplasms in general.

Results

Here we show that this assumption is not correct, because the channel is up-regulated in myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myeloid leukemia and almost half of the tested acute myeloid leukemias in a subtype-dependent fashion. Most interestingly, channel expression strongly correlated with increasing age, higher relapse rates and a significantly shorter overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed hEag1 expression levels in AML as an independent predictive factor for reduced disease-free and overall survival; such an association had not been reported before. As a functional correlate, specific hEag1 blockade inhibited the proliferation and migration of several AML cell lines and primary cultured AML cellsin vitro.

Conclusion

Our observations implicate hEag1 as novel target for diagnostic, prognostic and/or therapeutic approaches in AML.
A rapid method for determining arachidonic:eicosapentaenoic acid ratios in whole blood lipids: correlation with erythrocyte membrane ratios and validation in a large Italian population of various ages and pathologies
Authors: Rizzo Angela M , Montorfano Gigliola , Negroni Manuela , Adorni Laura , Berselli Patrizia , Corsetto Paola , Wahle Klaus , Berra Bruno
Published: January 2010

Background

Omega-3 and -6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA), are important for good health conditions. They are present in membrane phospholipids.

The ratio of total n-6:n-3 LCPUFA and arachidonic acid:eicosapentaenoic acid (AA and EPA), should not exceed 5:1. Increased intake of n-6 and decreased consumption of n-3 has resulted in much higher, ca 10/15:1 ratio in RBC fatty acids with the possible appearance of a pathological "scenario". The determination of RBC phospholipid LCPUFA contents and ratios is the method of choice for assessing fatty acid status but it is labour intensive and time consuming.

Aims of the study

[i] To describe and validate a rapid method, suitable for large scale population studies, for total blood fatty acid assay; [ii] to verify a possible correlation between total n-6:n-3 ratio and AA:EPA ratios in RBC phospholipids and in whole-blood total lipids, [iii] to assess usefulness of these ratio as biomarkers of LCPUFA status.

Methods

[1] Healthy volunteers and patients with various pathologies were recruited.

[2] Fatty acid analyses by GC of methyl esters from directly derivatized whole blood total lipids and from RBC phospholipids were performed on fasting blood samples from 1432 subjects categorised according to their age, sex and any existing pathologies.

AA:EPA ratio and the total n-6:n-3 ratio were determined.

Results

AA:EPA ratio is a more sensitive and reliable index for determining changes in total blood fatty acid and it is correlated with the ratio derived from extracted RBC phospholipids.

Conclusions

The described AA:EPA ratio is a simple, rapid and reliable method for determining n-3 fatty acid status.
Detection of dengue virus in saliva and urine by real time RT-PCR
Authors: Poloni Telma R , Oliveira Anibal S , Alfonso Helda L , Galvão Larissa R , Amarilla Alberto A , Poloni Dimair F , Figueiredo Luiz T , Aquino Victor H
Published: January 2010

Early diagnosis of dengue virus (DENV) infection is important for patient management and control of dengue outbreaks. The objective of this study was to analyze the usefulness of urine and saliva samples for early diagnosis of DENV infection by real time RT-PCR. Two febrile patients, who have been attended at the General Hospital of the School of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo University were included in the study. Serum, urine and saliva samples collected from both patients were subjected to real time RT-PCR for DENV detection and quantification. Dengue RNA was detected in serum, urine and saliva samples of both patients. Patient 1 was infected with DENV-2 and patient 2 with DENV-3. Data presented in this study suggest that urine and saliva could be used as alternative samples for early diagnosis of dengue virus infection when blood samples are difficult to obtain, e.g., in newborns and patients with hemorrhagic syndromes.
Flow cytometric characterization of freshly isolated and culture expanded human synovial cell populations in patients with chronic arthritis
Authors: Van Landuyt Kristel B , Jones Elena A , McGonagle Dennis , Luyten Frank P , Lories Rik J
Published: January 2010

Introduction

The synovium is a major target tissue in chronic arthritis and is intensively studied at the cellular and molecular level. The aim of this study was to develop flow cytometry for the quantitative analysis of synovial cell populations pre and post culture and to characterize mesenchymal cell populations residing in the inflammatory synovium.

Methods

Knee synovium biopsies from 39 patients with chronic arthritis and from 15 controls were treated in a short, standardized tissue digestion procedure. Stored, thawed digests were routinely analyzed with flow cytometry including live-dead staining and use of the markers CD45, CD3, CD14, CD20, CD34, CD73, CD105, CD90, CD146, CD163 and HLA-DR to distinguish inflammatory and stromal cells. The influence of the digestion method on the detection of the different surface markers was studied separately. In addition, we studied the presence of a specific cell population hypothesized to be mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) based on the CD271 marker. Cell expansion cultures were set up and a MSC-related surface marker profile in passages 3 and 6 was obtained. Immunohistochemistry for CD34 and von Willebrand factor (vWF) was done to obtain additional data on synovium vascularity.

Results

The cell yield and viability normalized to tissue weight were significantly higher in inflammatory arthritis than in controls. Within the hematopoietic CD45-positive populations, we found no differences in relative amounts of macrophages, T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes between patient groups. Within the CD45-negative cells, more CD34-positive cells were seen in controls than in arthritis patients. In arthritis samples, a small CD271 positive population was detected. Culture expanded cells were found to fulfill the multipotent mesenchymal stromal cell marker profile, except for CD34 negativity. Detection of peripheral blood macrophage and B-cell markers was decreased after enzymatic exposure and mechanical forces, respectively, but stromal markers were not affected.

Conclusions

Flow cytometry can distinguish synovial cell populations in tissue digests. The preparation method can influence the detection levels of macrophage and B-cell populations. However, stromal cell markers seem not affected and quantification is possible, supporting flow cytometry tissue analysis as a tool to study these cell populations in arthritis.
Predicting elasticity in nonclastic rocks with a differential effective medium model
Authors: Ruiz Franklin , Dvorkin Jack
Published: January 2010

Can a theoretical inclusion model — specifically, the differential effective medium (DEM) model — match experimental velocity data in rocks that are not necessarily made of inclusions, such as clastics? It is indeed possible in some cases by using an almost constant inclusion aspect ratio (AR) within wide ranges of porosity and mineralogy. We approach this question by using empirical velocity-porosity equations as proxies for data. By finding a DEM inclusion AR to match these equations, we find that the required range of AR is narrow. Moreover, a constant AR of about 0.13 can be used to accurately match empirical relations in competent sand, shale, and quartz/calcite mixtures. This finding can be utilized practically to predict [Formula: see text] from [Formula: see text]; describe velocity-frequency dispersion between low-frequency and ultrasonic experiments; predict the dry-frame elastic properties from ultrasonic data on liquid-saturated samples where Gassmann’s fluid substitution is not applicable; predict the attenuation of P-wave velocity; and establish tight constraints for ranges of possible variation of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] at a given porosity in some mineralogies. When we apply this approach to laboratory data rather than empirical equations, we confirm a positive answer to the main question, with all applications of this result still valid.
Leveling HEM and aeromagnetic data using differential polynomial fitting
Authors: Beiki Majid , Bastani Mehrdad , Pedersen Laust B.
Published: January 2010

We introduce a new technique to level aerogeophysical data. Our approach is applicable to flight-line data without any need for tie-line measurements. The technique is based on polynomial fitting of data points in 1D and 2D sliding windows. A polynomial is fitted to data points in a 2D circular window that contains at least three flight lines. Then the same procedure is done inside a 1D window placed at the center of the 2D window. The leveling error is the difference between 1D and 2D polynomial fitted data at the center of the windows. To demonstrate the reliability of the method, it was tested on a synthetic aeromagnetic data set contaminated by some linear artifacts. Using the differential polynomial fitting method, we can remove the linear artifacts from the data. The method then was applied to two real airborne data sets collected in Iran. The leveling errors are removed effectively from the aeromagnetic data using the differential polynomial fitting. In the case of helicopter-towed electromagnetic (HEM) data, the polynomial fitting method is used to level the measured real (in-phase) and imaginary (quadrature) components, as well as the calculated apparent resistivity. The HEM data are sensitive to height variations, so we introduce an average-height scaling method to reduce the height effect before leveling in-phase and quadrature components. The method also is effective in recovering some of the attenuated anomalies. After scaling, the differential polynomial fitting method was applied to the data and effectively removed the remaining line-to-line artifacts.
Indigenous American Polygraphy and the Dialogic Model of Media
Authors: Brokaw Galen
Published: January 2010

Indigenous American societies pose serious problems for traditional theories of orality, literacy, and writing. This article attempts to deconstruct the orality-literacy dichotomy that has traditionally informed anthropological thought (whether it be of anthropologists, historians, literary critics, or others). Using indigenous American media such as the Andean khipu, Moche fine-line painting, and Mesoamerican iconography as a starting and ending point, it proposes a dialogic model of literacy and subsequently a dialogic model of media that constitutes a revision of the traditional anthropological and historical theory relating to the role of writing/media, its relationship to the development of socioeconomic and political complexity, and its cognitive effects.
Numeral Graphic Pluralism in the Colonial Andes
Authors: Urton Gary
Published: January 2010

What was the meaning, for Inca record keepers, of the knotted cord constructions they produced as administrative records for the Inca state? In particular, how did these administrators think about the knot constructions that (as we now understand) were used to sign numerical values? And what were the consequences for record keeping in the colonial Andes of the encounter between native cord keepers and the Spanish record keepers, with their numeral signs inscribed on parchment or paper? These are the questions that I explore in this paper. While we do not have explicit, first-hand testimony concerning the first two questions, there is a wealth of evidence relating to the interaction between native and European record keepers from the early years of the colony. The paper examines various contexts in which the cord keepers, who continued producing knotted-cord records long after the conquest, would have encountered written numerals and the implications of these encounters for questions of authority and legitimacy in the production of administrative records in the colonial Andes.
Sodomy, Sin, and String Writing: The Moral Origins of AndeanKhipu
Authors: Hyland Sabine
Published: January 2010

According to the anonymous seventeenth-century author of the Quito Manuscript, ancient Andeans once possessed a writing system (qillqa) that they replaced with knotted strings (khipu) as part of the religious and sexual reform of their nation. The manuscript's redactor, Fernando de Montesinos, added to the text his own speculations about Andean writing, which he linked to the Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. For both of these authors, ideas about indigenous “writing” were not neutral, but were intertwined with arguments about the moral and cultural merits of Andean civilization. This essay explores how each author's claims about writing and knotted strings—qillqa and khipu—were intrinsic to their political and theological aims, fitting into a larger discourse about the justification of colonial rule.
INTRODUCTION
Authors: Justice Daniel Heath , Rifkin Mark , Schneider Bethany
Published: January 2010

This special issue proposes that dialogue between Native studies and queer studies can contribute to our understanding of the U.S. nation-state, Native polities and peoplehood, and the complex role of culture(s) in political expression and identification. Native and queer studies have, together and separately, worked to theorize and defend various kinds of diversity as well as individual and collective self-representation in the face of totalizing state legalities and ideologies, and this special issue is devoted to the intersections of those sometimes consonant, sometimes dissonant, interventions. In the introduction, each of the issue's three editors writes about his or her own “take” on the import of the collection. Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee) places the collection in the context of Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit activism, and the scholarship that has grown out of that activism. He warns that times may well be getting worse rather than better for this kind of scholarship and activism, and encourages readers to understand the collection as a rallying call to further and more complex and critical work. Bethany Schneider places the collection in the context of the history of U.S. Indian policy, arguing that readers may well need a primer in how the state has furthered the project of genocide through the violent control of Native genders and sexualities. Mark Rifkin explains why the collection, with its particular focus on the state, seemed so important at this particular moment, and discusses the excitements and troubles of the interface between Native and queer studies. He introduces the essays and asks readers to imagine what it might look like to indigenize queer studies.
“AND THROUGH ITS NAMING BECAME OWNER”
Authors: Dowling Sarah
Published: January 2010

In this essay I read the long poem Tokinish by the Mohawk poet James Thomas Stevens. Stevens borrows passages of prose description from Roger Williams's 1643 Narragansett lexicon, A Key into the Language of America, as well as the earlier text's structure of facing columns of English and Narragansett words. Appropriations from Williams's lexicon introduce the figure of translation into the poem and also allow Stevens to create echoes between present and past. The poem concerns two types of contact: contact as historical phenomenon in the Americas and contact as contemporary sexuality. Stevens brings these two types of contact into relationship, so that the speaker's sexual and romantic experiences are echoed in the ethnographic commentary appropriated from Williams's text. I argue that Stevens uses these echoes to describe queer desire in colonial, proprietary terms, but that it is precisely this proprietary feature of desire, being claimed by the lover as “mine,” that translates the poem's Native speaker from an unrecognizable status into a fully human subject. I also argue, with Stevens, that the way we unthinkingly speak about our desires using colonial metaphors of contact, conquest, exploration, and possession demonstrates the ongoing impact of the history of colonialism in North America.
NOTES TOWARD A THEORY OF ANOMALY
Authors: Justice Daniel Heath
Published: January 2010

Recent laws against same-sex marriage in the Cherokee Nation provide the backdrop for this analysis of alternative models of Cherokee sexual diversity. Rather than seek identifiable historical precedent that is largely unavailable in the historical record and vehemently denied by the predominantly Baptist Cherokee majority, this essay argues instead for a modern queer Cherokee aesthetic that is both responsive to the contemporary experiences of gender- and sexuality-variant Cherokees and inspired by the late Mississippian category of “anomaly” as a queer-inclusive tribal model for belonging.
EXTERMINATION OF THE JOYAS
Authors: Miranda Deborah A.
Published: January 2010

Prior to contact with Europeans, California Indigenous peoples maintained a culture of three genders: male, female, and joya. Spanish missionaries and soldiers, however, viewed joyas as practicing “the execrable, unnatural abuse of their bodies” and reported that “we place our trust in God and expect that these accursed people will disappear with the growth of the missions. The abominable vice will be eliminated to the extent that the Catholic faith and all the other virtues are firmly implanted there, for the glory of God and the benefit of those poor ignorants.” I argue that what Spaniards saw as a religious duty was actually a form of gendercide, the destruction of an entire third gender, and explore the various strategies employed to accomplish this gendercide. Ultimately, this gendercide—while severely destructive to both joyas and the indigenous community—was unsuccessful, and I further argue that we are experiencing a renaissance of joyas in the form of two-spirited indigenous peoples.
RELIGION, IDENTITY, AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
Authors: Runions Erin
Published: January 2010

This essay reviews four books on the role of religion in shaping state policy, political rhetoric, and activism for and against same-sex rights in the United States. These books are instructive in thinking through relations between race and religion, sexuality and race, religion and rights, freedom and democracy, public and private, church and state. They show that the boundaries between church and state, public and private, identity and rights, race, sexuality, and religion are not as clear as they might seem. The solutions they offer push far past demands for identity-based rights. Indeed, all of them explore how identity is problematically tied up with religion, in ways that facilitate the limitation rather than expansion of rights. Together they outline a queer activist agenda.
A putative role for microRNA-205 in mammary epithelial cell progenitors
Authors: Greene Stephanie B. , Gunaratne Preethi H. , Hammond Scott M. , Rosen Jeffrey M.
Published: January 2010

In an effort to understand the potential role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in mammary-gland stem or progenitor cells, miRNA microarrays were performed on subpopulations of the mouse mammary epithelial cell (MEC) line COMMA-DβGeo. This cell line contains a heterogeneous subpopulation of progenitors characterized by the expression of stem cell antigen 1 (Sca-1; encoded by Ly6a). Microarray analysis indicated that the Sca-1 subpopulations have distinct miRNA expression profiles. Functional studies were performed on miR-205, which was highly expressed in the Sca-1-positive (Sca-1+) cells. When miR-205 was overexpressed in vitro, the COMMA-DβGeo cells underwent several significant morphological and molecular changes. miR-205 overexpression led to an expansion of the progenitor-cell population, decreased cell size and increased cellular proliferation. In addition, the colony-forming potential of the two Sca-1 subpopulations was increased. Target prediction for miR-205 indicated that it might regulate the expression of the tumor-suppressor protein PTEN. Overexpression studies using reporter constructs confirmed that PTEN expression is regulated by miR-205. In addition to PTEN, several other putative and previously validated miR-205 targets were identified by microarray analysis, including the previously reported miR-205 targets ZEB1 and ZEB2. Additionally, in normal mouse MECs, high expression of miR-205 was observed in stem-cell-enriched cell populations isolated by FACS using established cell-surface markers.