bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Providing for women offenders
Authors: Gelsthorpe Loraine , Hedderman Carol
Published: December 2012

While the evidence base for what works with male offenders is imperfect, that for women is even more limited. This reflects the general tendency in penal policy and practice and in criminological research to neglect women who offend either because it is assumed that what works for men will work for women, or because their small numbers lead to women being ignored entirely. In this article, the emerging evidence on women is reviewed in order to consider what we now know about women’s needs and about best practice in responding to those needs. The extent to which this evidence provides a sufficiently robust and definitive base for the development of a criminal justice ’market’ is then considered in relation to the four main potential benefits claimed for a payment by results approach: greater efficiency; greater innovation; reduced cost; and a broader range of services. The results suggest that a number of important challenges may stand in the way of such benefits being realized in practice in relation to promoting and sustaining community based services for women. These include: defining, estimating and measuring impact; achieving a level of change which is sufficient to attract suppliers; and an inability to value outcomes and to identify and allocate benefits.
Introduction to the Special Issue on “Social and Motivational Processes in After-School Settings: Bridging Gaps Between Theory, Research, and Practice”
Authors: Kuperminc Gabriel P. , Smith Emilie P. , Henrich Christopher C.
Published: December 2012

This special issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence presents research exploring the social and motivational processes thought to contribute to early adolescent engagement and participation in after-school and out-of-school time as well as to targeted proximal and more distal developmental outcomes. Articles in the special issue address three broad themes, including (a) the role of internally and externally regulated motivation in joining programs and sustaining participation over time, (b) how programs may meet the developmental and relational needs of participants, and (c) social processes as mediators of proximal outcomes. Directions for future research on social and motivational processes in after-school programs are discussed.
Youth Empowerment Programs for Improving Adolescents’ Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem
Authors: Morton Matthew H , Montgomery Paul
Published: December 2012

Objectives: Assess the state of evidence regarding impacts of youth empowerment programs (YEPs) on adolescents’ (ages 10–19) self-efficacy and self-esteem, as well as other social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Method: Systematic searches of databases combined with an international outreach to identify experimental or quasi-experimental trials of community interventions that regularly involved youths in decision making. Results: Of the 8,789 citations identified, 3 studies met the inclusion criteria. None reported significant effects on the review’s primary outcomes. Data from only two studies on self-efficacy could be meta-analyzed (combined N = 167). Results found no significant intervention effect on self-efficacy ( z = 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI]: [−0.12, 0.49]). Significant effects were found for some secondary outcomes, but these were inconsistent across studies. Conclusions: The review reveals insufficient evidence of YEPs’ impacts. Further research is needed using well-implemented models with clear theories of change, larger samples, and rigorous impact study designs complemented by mixed-methods process evaluation.
Dealing with customer misbehaviour
Authors: Echeverri Per , Salomonson Nicklas , Åberg Annika
Published: December 2012

Much current research fails to provide in-depth explanations as to how and with what resources frontline employees deal with incidents where customers display dysfunctional behaviour. By drawing on theory of implicit knowledge and practical judgement this paper aims to explain this and conceptualize inherent structures and sub-mechanisms, central to service marketing. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews and narratives from four different industries, each representing service provision wherein customer misbehaviour is found to be frequent. The results display linkages between the central dimensions of dealing with customer misbehaviour. When incidents of misbehaviour occur they are met by tactics ranging from routinized action to more analytical and strategic approaches. These tactics are guided by underlying mechanisms in the form of practical judgements based on rules, balanced adjustment or reflection, with the judgements in turn being informed by implicit knowledge based on norms, schemes, or multi-perspective thinking. The study reveals patterns of linkages between these.
Piecewise transition models with random effects for unequally spaced longitudinal measurements
Authors: Rikhtehgaran Reyhaneh , Kazemi Iraj , Verbeke Geert , de Kort Wim , Lesaffre Emmanuel
Published: December 2012

In this paper, we consider the analysis of unequally spaced longitudinal data using transition regression models with random effects. Diffusion as well as stabilization processes will be discussed, but our main focus will be on the latter. The initial conditions problem, which usually arises in transition models with random effects, is addressed. The usefulness of the proposed model is assessed on a large database of longitudinal haemoglobin values collected from blood donations by a Dutch private organization.
Nietzsche in the Tropics: Colonialism and the Photographic Imagination
Authors: Sen Satadru
Published: December 2012

The objective of this article is to highlight a tension within colonialism between the possibilities of individual pleasure, self-aggrandisement and experimentation on the one hand, and on the other, statist projects that privilege the racialised community of committed citizens, administrators and employees. Simultaneously examining Joseph Conrad’s ‘fictional’ Congo and M.V. Portman’s ‘real’ Andaman Islands, it argues that the tension produces an identifiable cultural and political entity: the rogue coloniser who appears to be revelling in, and to be infected by, the ‘sickness’ of his tropical environment. It further argues that this rogue entity—which is in fact normative within the colony—is deeply implicated in the modern tendency to ‘acquire’ the world by imagining it as a set of photographs.
Balancing between Politics and Development: The Multiple Roles Played by Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations in Nepal
Authors: Tanaka Masako
Published: December 2012

Indigenous People’s Organisations (IPOs) are emerging agents in Nepal. The Nepal Chepang Association (NCA) is a well-known IPO actively involved in development projects. It is also led by a member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly who is himself closely affiliated with an outside political party. NCA members juggle non-political responsibilities, such as those relating to development with political responsibilities, thus requiring them to navigate different situations. It is through development projects that NCA attracts its members, yet keeping members satisfied when development projects have reached their end is a challenge. Based on interviews with NCA members, staff, leaders and non-Chepang supporters, this article will illustrate NCA’s different roles and changing perceptions towards the Chepang in Nepal.
High rate of transplacental infection and transmission of Neospora caninum following experimental challenge of cattle at day 210 of gestation
Authors: Benavides Julio , Katzer Frank , Maley Stephen W , Bartley Paul M , Cantón Germán , Palarea-Albaladejo Javier , Purslow Caroline A , Pang Yvonne , Rocchi Mara S , Chianini Francesca , Buxton David , Innes Elisabeth A
Published: December 2012

In order to investigate the pathogenesis of neosporosis following a primary infection in late pregnancy, cattle were subcutaneously challenged with 5 × 108Neospora caninum(NC1 isolate) tachyzoites at day 210 of gestation and serial necropsies were then carried out at 14, 28, 42 and 56 days post-infection (dpi). No abortions occurred and all the foetuses were viable at the time of euthanasia. There was a high rate of vertical transmission, as parasites were detected by immunohistochemical labelling and PCR in all the foetuses from 28 dpi. Focal necrotic lesions were observed in the placentomes of the placenta from 28 dpi and showed resolution during later time points, denoted by infiltration of inflammatory cells at 42 dpi and fibrosis at 56 dpi. Foetuses at 28 and 42 dpi showed scarce and isolated lesions which are unlikely to represent a threat to foetal viability. No lesions were observed in the foetuses at 14 or 56 dpi suggesting control of the infection and resolution of the lesions by maternal and foetal immune responses. Once infection was established, it could not be cleared from the host and vertical transmission of the parasite occurred in all infected hosts. Parasite was detected in the placenta at 28 dpi, while in previous experimental infections of cattle at day 70 and 140 of gestation using the same challenge model, it was already present at day 14 post infection. This suggests that a change in the maternal immune response plays a crucial role in limiting the initial infection during the last term of pregnancy.
Drosophila king tubby (ktub) mediates light-induced rhodopsin endocytosis and retinal degeneration
Authors: Chen Shu-Fen , Tsai Yu-Chen , Fan Seng-Sheen
Published: December 2012

Background

Background

The tubby (tub) and tubby-like protein (tulp) genes encode a small family of proteins found in many organisms. Previous studies have shown that TUB and TULP genes in mammalian involve in obesity, neural development, and retinal degeneration. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Drosophila king tubby (ktub) in rhodopsin 1 (Rh1) endocytosis and retinal degeneration upon light stimulation.

Results

Drosophila ktub mutants were generated using imprecise excision. Wild type and mutant flies were raised in dark or constant light conditions. After a period of light stimulation, retinas were dissected, fixed and stained with anti-Rh1 antibody to reveal Rh1 endocytosis. Confocal and transmission electron microscope were used to examine the retinal degeneration. Immunocytochemical analysis shows that Ktub is expressed in the rhabdomere domain under dark conditions. When flies receive light stimulation, the Ktub translocates from the rhabdomere to the cytoplasm and the nucleus of the photoreceptor cells. Wild type photoreceptors form Rh1-immunopositive large vesicles (RLVs) shortly after light stimulation. In light-induced ktub mutants, the majority of Rh1 remains at the rhabdomere, and only a few RLVs appear in the cytoplasm of photoreceptor cells. Mutation of norpA allele causes massive Rh1 endocytosis in light stimulation. In ktub and norpA double mutants, however, Rh1 endocytosis is blocked under light stimulation. This study also shows that ktub and norpA double mutants rescue the light-induced norpA retinal degeneration. Deletion constructs further demonstrate that the Tubby domain of the Ktub protein participates in an important role in Rh1 endocytosis.

Conclusions

The results in this study delimit the novel function of Ktub in Rh1 endocytosis and retinal degeneration.
Molecular phylogeny of microhylid frogs (Anura: Microhylidae) with emphasis on relationships among New World genera
Authors: de Sá Rafael O , Streicher Jeffrey W , Sekonyela Relebohile , Forlani Mauricio C , Loader Simon P , Greenbaum Eli , Richards Stephen , Haddad Célio F B
Published: December 2012

Background

Over the last ten years we have seen great efforts focused on revising amphibian systematics. Phylogenetic reconstructions derived from DNA sequence data have played a central role in these revisionary studies but have typically under-sampled the diverse frog family Microhylidae. Here, we present a detailed phylogenetic study focused on expanding previous hypotheses of relationships within this cosmopolitan family. Specifically, we placed an emphasis on assessing relationships among New World genera and those taxa with uncertain phylogenetic affinities (i.e.,incertae sedis).

Results

One mitochondrial and three nuclear genes (about 2.8 kb) were sequenced to assess phylogenetic relationships. We utilized an unprecedented sampling of 200 microhylid taxa representing 91% of currently recognized subfamilies and 95% of New World genera. Our analyses do not fully resolve relationships among subfamilies supporting previous studies that have suggested a rapid early diversification of this clade. We observed a close relationship betweenSynapturanusandOtophryneof the subfamily Otophryninae. Within the subfamily Gastrophryninae relationships between genera were well resolved.

Conclusion

Otophryninae is distantly related to all other New World microhylids that were recovered as a monophyletic group, Gastrophryninae. Within Gastrophryninae, five genera were recovered as non-monophyletic; we propose taxonomic re-arrangements to render all genera monophyletic. This hypothesis of relationships and updated classification for New World microhylids may serve as a guide to better understand the evolutionary history of this group that is apparently subject to convergent morphological evolution and chromosome reduction. Based on a divergence analysis calibrated with hypotheses from previous studies and fossil data, it appears that microhylid genera inhabiting the New World originated during a period of gradual cooling from the late Oligocene to mid Miocene.
Feasibility of using 454 pyrosequencing for studying quasispecies of the whole dengue viral genome
Authors: Chin-inmanu Kwanrutai , Suttitheptumrong Aroonroong , Sangsrakru Duangjai , Tangphatsornruang Sithichoke , Tragoonrung Somvong , Malasit Prida , Tungpradabkul Sumalee , Suriyaphol Prapat
Published: December 2012

Background

Dengue is the world's most common mosquito-borne viral disease. Poor proofreading by RNA polymerase during its replication results in the accumulation of mutations in its genome. This leads to a diversity of genotypes in the viral population termed quasispecies. Quasispecies play an important role in disease severity. The study of quasispecies in dengue has been hindered because of the requirement for large amounts of cloning and sequencing, which could be overcome by 454 pyrosequencing. In this study, we attempted to demonstrate the feasibility of using 454 pyrosequencing to study genome diversity of dengue virus quasispecies by sequencing a pool of known dengue viral strains.

Results

Two sets of dengue DNA templates were sequenced by 454/Roche GS FLX. The total number of reads for data 1 and data 2 were 54,440 and 134,441, with average lengths of 221 and 232 bp, respectively. Reads containing ambiguous base Ns were excluded (6.00% in data 1, 7.05% in data 2). More than 99% of reads could be aligned back to the correct serotypes by BLAST. The reads covered the whole genome without any gaps, and the minimum coverage depth was 50×. Frequencies of known strains detected from each data set were highly correlated with the input ratios. We also explored criteria for filtering error reads and artifacts from true variations.

Conclusions

This study showed that 454 pyrosequencing, coupled with our analysis procedure, could sequence the whole genome of dengue virus with good coverage. The ratio of detected variants in the sequencing data reflected the starting ratio, proving that the proposed technique could be used to study the frequencies of variants in quasispecies.
The prevalence of anal human papillomavirus among young HIV negative men who have sex with men
Authors: Zou Huachun , Fairley Christopher K , Hocking Jane S , Garland Suzanne M , Grulich Andrew E , Chen Marcus Y
Published: December 2012

Men who have sex with men (MSM) especially those who are HIV positive are at risk for HPV-associated anal cancer. We systematically reviewed studies with data on the prevalence of vaccine preventable anal HPV among men who have sex with men aged 25 or younger and identified 6 studies. None of these studies were specifically designed to determine the prevalence of HPV in this population. Available data, albeit limited, suggest many young MSM may not already be HPV infected. Further studies using representative sampling focused on teenage MSM are required to confirm this.
Molecular typing and characterization of nasal carriage and community-onset infection methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureusisolates in two Taiwan medical centers
Authors: Chen Feng-Jui , Siu Leung-Kei Kristopher , Lin Jung-Chung , Wang Chen-Her , Lu Po-Liang
Published: December 2012

Background

Compared to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), characteristics of nasal carriage and community-onset infection methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) are less well known. No characteristics of MSSA in Taiwan have been reported previously.

Methods

We analyzed 100 nasal carriage and 34 community-onset infection MSSA isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), spa typing, multi-locus sequence typing, agr typing, virulence gene detection, growth rate measurement, and antimicrobial susceptibility.

Results

In PFGE analysis, most (68%) infection isolates could be grouped in one major cluster using a 70% similarity cutoff. In contrast, only 17% of nasal carriage isolates belonged to this cluster. A similar classification was obtained using Based Upon Repeat Pattern analysis of spa types. The MSSA infection isolates cluster was closely related to the virulent clones of clonal complex 1 (CC1), which includes strains MW2 (USA400) and MSSA476. ST188 of CC1 was the predominant clone detected for community-onset MSSA infections. The only common ST type for MSSA and MRSA in Taiwan was ST59, the community-associated MRSA clone. It is likely, therefore, that MRSA originated from MSSA clones through SCCmec transfer. Compared to nasal carriage isolates, infection isolates less frequently possessed egc, tst and hlg genes, were more commonly susceptible to erythromycin (91% vs. 54%), and had shorter mean doubling times (38 min vs. 55 min).

Conclusions

The clonal lineages of MSSA nasal carriage and infection isolates differed in our sample of Taiwan isolates. Most community-onset MSSA infections resulted from relatively few clonal lineages. Nasal carriage isolates more frequently possessed the egc, tst and hlg genes, were more resistant to erythromycin, and grew more slowly.
Assessment of renal function in mice with unilateral ureteral obstruction using 99mTc-MAG3 dynamic scintigraphy
Authors: Tantawy Mohammed N , Jiang Rosie , Wang Feng , Takahashi Keiko , Peterson Todd E , Zemel Dana , Hao Chuan-Ming , Fujita Hiroki , Harris Raymond C , Quarles Christopher C , Takahashi Takamune
Published: December 2012

Background

Renal scintigraphy using 99mTc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3) is widely used for the assessment of renal function in humans. However, the application of this method to animal models of renal disease is currently limited, especially in rodents. Here, we have applied 99mTc-MAG3 renal scintigraphy to a mouse model of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) and evaluated its utility in studying obstructive renal disease.

Methods

UUO mice were generated by complete ligation of the left ureter. Sham-operated mice were used as a control. Renal function was investigated on days 0, 1, 3, and 6 post-surgery using dynamic planar imaging of 99mTc-MAG3 activity following retro-orbital injection. Time-activity curves (TACs) were produced for individual kidneys and renal function was assessed by 1) the slope of initial 99mTc-MAG3 uptake (SIU), which is related to renal perfusion; 2) peak activity; and 3) the time-to-peak (TTP). The parameters of tubular excretion were not evaluated in this study as 99mTc-MAG3 is not excreted from UUO kidneys.

Results

Compared to sham-operated mice, SIU was remarkably (>60%) reduced in UUO kidneys at day 1 post surgery and the TACs plateaued, indicating that 99mTc-MAG3 is not excreted in these kidneys. The plateau activity in UUO kidneys was relatively low (~40% of sham kidney’s peak activity) as early as day1 post surgery, demonstrating that uptake of 99mTc-MAG3 is rapidly reduced in UUO kidneys. The time to plateau in UUO kidneys exceeded 200 sec, suggesting that 99mTc-MAG3 is slowly up-taken in these kidneys. These changes advanced as the disease progressed. SIU, peak activity and TTPs were minimally changed in contra-lateral kidneys during the study period.

Conclusions

Our data demonstrate that renal uptake of 99mTc-MAG3 is remarkably and rapidly reduced in UUO kidneys, while the changes are minimal in contra-lateral kidneys. The parametric analysis of TACs suggested that renal perfusion as well as tubular uptake is reduced in UUO kidneys. This imaging technique should allow non-invasive assessments of UUO renal injury and enable a more rapid interrogation of novel therapeutic agents and protocols.
Phosphorylation of p90RSK is associated with increased response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in ER-positive breast cancer
Authors: Moon Hyeong-Gon , Yi Jae Kyo , Kim Hee Sung , Lee Hea Young , Lee Kyung-Min , Yi Minju , Ahn Sookyung , Shin Hee-Chul , Ju Ji-hyun , Shin Incheol , Han Wonshik , Noh Dong-Young
Published: December 2012

Background

The clinical implication of Ras/Raf/ERK pathway activity in breast cancer tissue and its association with response to chemotherapy is controversial. We aimed to explore the value of p90RSK phosphorylation, a downstram molecule of the pathway, in predicting chemotherapy response in breast cancer.

Methods

The expression of phosphorylated p90RSK (phospho-p90RSK) and chemotherapy response was measured in 11 breast cancer cell lines and 21 breast cancer tissues. The predictive value of phospho-p90RSK was validated in core needle biopsy specimens of 112 locally advanced breast cancer patients who received anthracycline and taxane-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Results

In 11 breast cancer cell lines, the relative expression of phospho-p90RSK was inversely correlated with cell survival after doxorubicin treatment (p = 0.021). Similar association was observed in fresh tissues from 21 breast cancer patients in terms of clinical response. In paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed tissues from core needle biopsy tissues from 112 patients, positive phospho-p90RSK expression was associated with greater tumor shrinkage and smaller post-chemotherapy tumor size. The association between phospho-p90RSK expression and chemotherapy response was more evident in estrogen receptor(ER)-positive tumors. The expression of phosphor-p90RSK did not show a significant relationship with the incidence of pCR. P90RSK silencing using siRNA did not affect the cancer cell’s response to doxorubicin, and the expression of phospho-p90RSK was highly correlated with other Ras/Raf/ERK pathway activation.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that phospho-p90RSK expression, which reflects the tumor’s Ras/Raf/ERK/p90RSK pathway activation can be a potential predictive marker for chemotherapy response in ER-positive breast cancer which needs further independent validation.
Phase I study of imatinib, cisplatin and 5-fluoruracil or capecitabine in advanced esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma
Authors: Mayr Martina , Becker Karen , Schulte Nadine , Belle Sebastian , Hofheinz Ralf , Krause Annekatrin , Schmid Roland M , Röcken Christoph , Ebert Matthias P
Published: December 2012

Background

Despite all benefit provided by established therapies prognosis of gastric cancer remains poor. Targeted inhibition of platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) by imatinib may influence tumor growth and amplify chemotherapeutic effects.

Methods

This phase I study evaluated dose limiting toxicity (DLT) of imatinib combinated with chemotherapy according to a 3-patient cohort dose-escalating design. Thirty-five patients received cisplatin (60 mg/m2 d1 q 3w)/ capecitabine (1250 mg/m2 bid d1-14 q 21) or cisplatin (50 mg/m2 d1 q 2w)/ 5-fluoruracil (2 g/m2 d1, q 1w). Imatinib was started d - 4 with dose escalation from 300 to 700 mg QD in 100 mg steps.

Results

At imatinib dose level 1 (300mg) one DLT was observed, three more patients were enrolled without further DLT. At dose level 5 (700 mg) two gastric perforations occurred, so 600 mg imatinib emerged as the maximum tolerated dose. Major grade 3/4 toxicities were nausea (6%), anemia (6%) and fatigue (3%). Response evaluation revealed partial response in 27% and stable disease in 43% of the assessable patients.

Conclusions

Combination of imatinib and chemotherapy is well tolerated. Response rates were not superior to those of standard therapy. Further investigations of a larger group of patients are required to confirm the amplification of chemotherapy effects by imatinib.

Trial registration

European Clinical Trials Database: Eudra-CT2006-005792-17 and Clinical Trials Database: NCT00601510
Barriers to healthy nutrition: perceptions and experiences of Iranian women
Authors: Farahmand Maryam , Tehrani Fahimeh Ramezani , Amiri Parisa , Azizi Fereidoun
Published: December 2012

Background

A sound understanding of community perceptions and experiences regarding barriers to a healthy diet is a prerequisite for the design of effective interventions aimed at prevention of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study focused on exploring barriers to healthy nutrition as experienced by women participating in the Tehran Lipid Glucose Study (TLGS).

Methods

A grounded theory approach was used for analyzing the participants’ experiences and their perceptions regarding these barriers. Data collection was conducted through sixteen semi-structured focus group discussions, between 2008 and 2009. Participants were 102 women, aged 25-65 years, selected and recruited from the TGLS cohort. All interviews and focus group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Constant comparative analysis of the data was conducted manually according to the Strauss and Corbin analysis method.

Results

The study revealed that the most important barriers to healthy nutrition were: 1) Interpersonal/cultural effects, 2) Lack of access to healthy foods, and 3) Food preferences.

Conclusions

Understanding these barriers might contribute to existing literature by providing evidence from a different culture, and help design effective preventive strategies, and implement appropriate interventions among Tehranian families.
Regional inequality and vaccine uptake: a multilevel analysis of the 2007 Welfare Monitoring Survey in Malawi
Authors: Abebe Dawit Shawel , Nielsen Vibeke Oestreich , Finnvold Jon Erik
Published: December 2012

Background

A significant part of childhood mortality can be prevented given the existence of a well functioning health care system that can deliver vaccines to children during their first year of life. This study assesses immunization differentials between regions in Malawi, and attempts to relate regional disparities in immunization to factors on individual, household and village level.

Method

We used data from the 2007 Welfare Monitoring Survey which includes 18 251 children ages 10–60 months. Multilevel logistic regression models were applied for data analysis.

Results

Major differences in full vaccine coverage (children receiving all of the 9 recommended vaccines) were documented between the 27 official regions, called districts, of Malawi. The vaccine coverage among regions varied from 2% to 74% when all children 10 – 60 months old were included. Vaccine coverage was significantly higher for women that had their delivery attended by a midwife/nurse, or gave birth at a hospital or maternity clinic. Regions with a high percentage of deliveries attended by health personnel were also characterized by a higher coverage. Characteristics of health care utilization on the individual level could in part account for the observed regional variations in coverage.

Several factors related to socio-demographic characteristics of individuals and households were significantly correlated with coverage (child’s age, illiteracy, income, water and sanitary conditions), implying a lower coverage among the most vulnerable parts of the population. However, these factors could only to a minor extent account for the regional variation in coverage.

Conclusions

The persistent regional inequalities suggest that the low immunization coverage in Malawi is less likely to be a result of geographical clustering of social groups with difficult level-of living conditions. Although the mean vaccine coverage in Malawi is low, some regions have succeeded in reaching a relatively high proportion of their children. The relative success of some regions implies that there is a substantial potential for political intervention to improve vaccine coverage. One important negative implication of regional inequality is the presence of clusters with under-vaccinated children, leading to an increased vulnerability during outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
A comprehensive approach to women’s health: lessons from the Mexican health reform
Authors: Frenk Julio , Gómez-Dantés Octavio , Langer Ana
Published: December 2012

Background

This paper discusses the way in which women’s health concerns were addressed in Mexico as part of a health system reform.

Discussion

The first part sets the context by examining the growing complexity that characterizes the global health field, where women’s needs occupy center stage. Part two briefly describes a critical conceptual evolution, i.e. from maternal to reproductive to women’s health. In the third and last section, the novel “women and health” (W&H) approach and its translation into policies and programs in the context of a structural health reform in Mexico is discussed. W&H simultaneously focuses on women’s health needs and women’s critical roles as both formal and informal providers of health care, and the links between these two dimensions.

The most important message of this paper is that broad changes in health systems offer the opportunity to address women’s health needs through innovative approaches focused on promoting gender equality and empowering women as drivers of change.
Detecting DNA synthesis of neointimal formation after catheter balloon injury in GK and in Wistar rats: using 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine
Authors: Guo Jingsheng , Li Dongye , Bai Shiru , Xu Tongda , Zhou Zhongmin , Zhang Yanbin
Published: December 2012

Background

Neointimal formation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of coronary restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), especially in patients with diabetes mellitus. Recently, some studies have shown that 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation can serve as a novel alternative to the 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) antibody detection method for detection of DNA synthesis in regenerating avian cochlea, chick embryo and the adult nervous system. However, few studies have been performed to assess the suitability of EdU for detecting DNA synthesis in vascular neointima.

Methods

The carotid artery balloon injury model was established in Goto-Kakizaki (GK) and Wistar rats. A Cell-LightTM EdU Kit was used to detect EdU-labeled cell nuclei of common carotid arteries at day 7 after catheter balloon injury. Different methods of injecting EdU were tested. The protein levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and p-Akt (Ser473), as well as the mRNA levels of PCNA were evaluated by Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), respectively. Immunohistochemical staining was also employed to visualize PCNA-positive cells.

Results

At day 7 after catheter balloon injury, far more EdU-positive and PCNA-positive cells were observed in GK rats. When comparing groups that received different EdU doses, it was found that the percentage of EdU-positive cells at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight was than at doses of 25 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg. The number of positive cells was significantly higher in the repeated injection group compared to the single injection group. Further, after balloon injury DNA synthesis in GK rats was more notable than in Wistar rats. Neointimal formation in GK rats was more obvious than in Wistar rats. The protein levels of PCNA and p-Akt (Ser473) and the mRNA levels of PCNA were increased in injured rats as compared to uninjured rats, and were significantly higher in GK rats than in Wistar rats.

Conclusion

By intraperitoneal injections of EdU at a dose of 100 mg/kg three times, EdU incorporation can detect carotid arterial DNA synthesis caused by neointimal formation in GK rats and Wistar rats at day 7 after balloon injury by the EdU click reaction quickly and effectively. Moreover, more obvious DNA synthesis in the vascular neointima could be observed in GK rats than in Wistar rats.
Dovitinib preferentially targets endothelial cells rather than cancer cells for the inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma growth and metastasis
Authors: Chen Zhi-Yuan , Shi Ming , Peng Li-Xia , Wei Wei , Li Xin-Jian , Guo Zhi-Xing , Li Shu-Hong , Zhong Chong , Qian Chao-Nan , Guo Rong-Ping
Published: December 2012

Background

Dovitinib is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptors, fibroblast growth factor receptors and platelet-derived growth factor receptor β. Dovitinib is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Method

In this study, we used five HCC cell lines and five endothelial cell lines to validate molecular and cellular targets of dovitinib.

Results

Tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis were significantly suppressed in an orthotopic HCC model. Immunoblotting revealed that among known dovitinib targets, only PDGFR-β was expressed in two HCC cell lines, while four of five endothelial lines expressed PDGFR-β, FGFR-1, and VEGFR-2. Dovitinib inhibited endothelial cell proliferation and motility at 0.04 μmol/L, a pharmacologically relevant concentration; it was unable to inhibit the proliferation or motility of HCC cells at the same concentration. Immunohistochemical analyses showed that dovitinib significantly decreased the microvessel density of xenograft tumors, inhibiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis in HCC cells.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that dovitinib inhibits HCC growth and metastasis preferentially through an antiangiogenic mechanism, not through direct targeting of HCC cells.
Application of receptor models on water quality data in source apportionment in Kuantan River Basin
Authors: Nasir Mohd Fahmi Mohd , Zali Munirah Abdul , Juahir Hafizan , Hussain Hashimah , Zain Sharifuddin M , Ramli Norlafifah
Published: December 2012

Recent techniques in the management of surface river water have been expanding the demand on the method that can provide more representative of multivariate data set. A proper technique of the architecture of artificial neural network (ANN) model and multiple linear regression (MLR) provides an advance tool for surface water modeling and forecasting. The development of receptor model was applied in order to determine the major sources of pollutants at Kuantan River Basin, Malaysia. Thirteen water quality parameters were used in principal component analysis (PCA) and new variables of fertilizer waste, surface runoff, anthropogenic input, chemical and mineral changes and erosion are successfully developed for modeling purposes. Two models were compared in terms of efficiency and goodness-of-fit for water quality index (WQI) prediction. The results show that APCS-ANN model gives better performance with high R

2
value (0.9680) and small root mean square error (RMSE) value (2.6409) compared to APCS-MLR model. Meanwhile from the sensitivity analysis, fertilizer waste acts as the dominant pollutant contributor (59.82%) to the basin studied followed by anthropogenic input (22.48%), surface runoff (13.42%), erosion (2.33%) and lastly chemical and mineral changes (1.95%). Thus, this study concluded that receptor modeling of APCS-ANN can be used to solve various constraints in environmental problem that exist between water distribution variables toward appropriate water quality management.
Isolation and characterization of a resident tolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain from a spent sulfite liquor fermentation plant
Authors: Sànchez i Nogué Violeta , Bettiga Maurizio , Gorwa-Grauslund Marie F
Published: December 2012

Spent Sulfite Liquor (SSL) from wood pulping facilities is a sugar rich effluent that can be used as feedstock for ethanol production. However, depending on the pulping process conditions, the release of monosaccharides also generates a range of compounds that negatively affect microbial fermentation. In the present study, we investigated whether endogenous yeasts in SSL-based ethanol plant could represent a source of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with a naturally acquired tolerance towards this inhibitory environment. Two isolation processes were performed, before and after the re-inoculation of the plant with a commercial baker’s yeast strain. The isolates were clustered by DNA fingerprinting and a recurrent Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, different from the inoculated commercial baker’s yeast strain, was isolated. The strain, named TMB3720, flocculated heavily and presented high furaldehyde reductase activity. During fermentation of undiluted SSL, TMB3720 displayed a 4-fold higher ethanol production rate and 1.8-fold higher ethanol yield as compared to the commercial baker’s yeast. Another non-Saccharomyces cerevisiae species, identified as the pentose utilizing Pichia
galeiformis, was also recovered in the last tanks of the process where the hexose to pentose sugar ratio and the inhibitory pressure are expected to be the lowest.
Decomposition in upgoing and downgoing fields and inversion of marine CSEM data
Authors: Mittet Rune , Gabrielsen Pål Tunbrumo
Published: December 2012

We describe a data-driven method to estimate the top-formation resistivity using marine controlled-source electromagnetic data. The procedure exploits the fact that the airwave contributions are traveling up or down with a Poynting vector close to the vertical axis. The proposed method is based on forming an impedance in the same way as it is done in magnetotelluric processing. The top-formation resistivity is used to perform up-down decomposition of the electric field below the seabed. This procedure suppresses the contribution from the airwave in the resulting upgoing electric field and increases the data sensitivity to the subsurface resistivity distribution. The upgoing electric field is used in the misfit kernel for an inversion scheme. This is a method that is intended for use in shallow water. Inversion using the upgoing electric field means that the observed electric and magnetic fields contribute to the data misfit. The optimization procedure seeks to reduce the misfit between the observed and predicted data for both fields. We compared this procedure with the conventional procedure of predicting electric fields only. The addition of magnetic data improved the resolution for the synthetic and the real data examples. We performed postinversion modeling on the final resistivity models. The weighted misfit of the electric data was added to the weighted misfit of the magnetic data to form the total error. We found that this total error was smallest for the case in which we used the upgoing electric field in the misfit kernel.
Excitation amplitude imaging condition for prestack reverse-time migration
Authors: Nguyen Bao D. , McMechan George A.
Published: December 2012

An implicitly stable ratio imaging condition for prestack reverse-time migration (RTM) was defined using excitation criteria. Amplitude maxima and their corresponding occurrence times were saved at each grid point during forward source wavefield extrapolation. Application of the imaging condition involves dividing the amplitudes of the back-propagated receiver wavefield by the precomputed maximum source wavefield amplitude only at the grid points that satisfy the image time at each time step. The division normalizes by the source amplitude, so only the highest signal-to-noise ratio portion of the data is used. Provided that the source and receiver wavefield amplitudes are accurate at the reflection points, the peak wavelet amplitudes in the migrated image are the angle-dependent reflection coefficients and low wavenumber artifacts are significantly reduced compared to those in images calculated by crosscorrelation. Using excitation information and time-binning for the imaging condition improves computational and storage efficiency by three or more orders of magnitude when compared to crosscorrelation with the full source wavefield. Numerical tests with synthetic data for the Marmousi2 model have shown this method to be a cost-effective and practical imaging condition for use in prestack RTM.
SPE/SEG workshop on Injection-Induced Seismicity
Authors: Maxwell Shawn , Fehler Michael
Published: December 2012

It was our sincere pleasure to be involved in workshop that brought together industry practitioners and leading scientific experts, for an enthusiastic and stimulating technical discussion of an important environmental topic. On 12–14 September 2012, SEG and SPE partnered to host a workshop on Injection-Induced Seismicity in sunny Broomfield, Colorado. The goal of the workshop was to determine industry knowledge about seismicity accompanying injection activities, identify the gaps in our knowledge, and to discuss possible ways to improve our understanding of such seismicity. Approximately 115 participants, from as far away as Asia and Europe, gathered to share knowledge from diverse regions and experiences.
Reviews
Authors: Bartel David C. , Brittan John
Published: December 2012

52 Things You Should Know About Geophysics, M. Hall and E. Bianco, eds., ISBN 978-0-9879594-0-9, 2012, Agile Libre, 132 pp., US $19, (electronic version available). Atmosphere, Clouds, and Climate, by D. Randall, ISBN 978-0-691-14374-3, 2012, Princeton University Press, 288 pp., US $75 (cloth), $27.95 (paper or electronic version).
Ancients and Moderns: The Origins of Literary History
Authors: Pask Kevin
Published: December 2012

Literary history has largely ignored its own origins in the late Renaissance, and we still lack a full account of how literary history, based in the European vernacular literatures, emerged during the early modern period. Pask attempts to redress this lack by arguing, primarily through English examples, for the long-term significance of the cultural debate between Ancients and Moderns across Europe. The Moderns argued for the possibility of historical change in literary standards; the Ancients, for the putatively unchanging models of the Greek and Roman classics. Probably the most important outcome of this debate was the self-conscious historicity of the European national literatures as they consolidated new forms of cultural authority. The idea of historical change aligned the literary Moderns with a revolution in scientific discourse, including Baconian science. It also produced an account of national literature that was cosmopolitan in scope rather than narrowly chauvinistic.
Who Belongs Where in The Woodlanders?
Authors: Dolin Tim
Published: December 2012

In recent years ecocriticism has renovated the old orthodoxy, demolished forty years ago by Raymond Williams, that Thomas Hardy was the “incomparable chronicler” of an unchanging culture and the “last representative of old rural England.” In particular, The Woodlanders has been reread as the study of a culture of belonging that is infiltrated and undermined by a culture of tourism. This essay argues that Hardy’s novel in fact obliges us to question what belonging means in Wessex, where tourism is already immanent and where the culture of habitat is a consumer fantasy to which Hardy himself contributed as a producer of rural tales for metropolitan markets. Fiction reading and the tourism it complements and engenders both have material consequences, as the novel acknowledges. Reader-tourists see themselves in Grace Melbury, in particular, and recognize in her story a struggle toward a new kind of touristic subjectivity, founded in poetic attentiveness. If they read Hardy aright, they are encouraged to follow Grace in unmaking the self-evidence of the scenic Wessex: to notice it, as she does, for the first time, in an extreme close-up that “disproportions” and denaturalizes it, refuting the sedate long shots of tourist brochures.
Pip, Moby-Dick, Melville's Governmentality
Authors: Pease Donald
Published: December 2012

“Novel governmentality” refers to the role that novels play in shaping and altering what Michel Foucault has called the “conduct of conduct.” To restrict novels to a domain of signifying practices is to pay insufficient attention to the ways in which this cultural technology constitutes, legitimates, and sometimes alters the institutional conditions that regulated disparate aspects of the social order. Because of their capacity to take hold of the processes of behaving, thinking, and feeling immanent to their readers' conduct and to create affective protocols that introduce and secure new forms of life, novels implement heterogeneous governmentalities. This essay examines Ishmael's testimony to the relationship between Pip and Captain Ahab to elucidate the contesting governmentalities at work in Melville's Moby-Dick.
The Nothing in the Novel: Jane Austen and the Food Plot
Authors: Lee Michael Parrish
Published: December 2012

This essay argues that modern Anglo-American reading practices are structured by a system of value that defines the social against material appetite. This system of value is at root novelistic, based in an uneven narrative and characterological dichotomy between sexual desire and gustatory appetite, between the marriage plot that gives the nineteenth-century novelistic social its privileged form and what I call “the food plot.” And it is Jane Austen, I argue, who made this dichotomy central to the way we read. Situating Austen's fiction in relation to Malthusian political economy and shifting conceptions of literary character, I trace how the Austenian marriage plot that so crucially shaped the nineteenth-century British novel trains us to be primarily interested in a form of heterosexually structured interiority that measures its depth, in part, through its distance from appetite.
Relics and Death Culture inWuthering Heights
Authors: Lutz Deborah
Published: December 2012

Heathcliff is in love with someone who has died. This love is steeped in the evangelical death culture of the time, particularly the treasuring of the physical manifestations of dying and the body: a reverence for relics. Understanding mortality—and, in fact, the love between Catherine and Heathcliff—in the novel means “reading” material, texture, the weight and heft of objects. Things, I argue, find animation through being touched, irradiated even, by death.
Community Partnerships: Hope for an Embattled Labor Movement? A Conversation with Andrea Van Den Heever
Authors: MacLean Nancy
Published: December 2012

Contributing editor Nancy MacLean sits down with the remarkable union organizer Andrea van den Heever. A white South African who fled the apartheid regime, van den Heever fortuitously landed a secretarial job at Yale University in 1982, just as HERE's organizing drive among clerical workers was getting off the ground. Soon she had been recruited to a struggle that has never let go of her, first as local steward, today as director of Community Organizing Project for the international union. In wide-ranging reflections with MacLean, van den Heever identifies both the strategies and sensibilities at the core of modern-day unionism as social movement. Among the many highlights of her account is the conceptual link she envisioned between the Freedom Charter in South Africa and the New Social Contract among New Haven workers; her emphasis on the need for twinned attention to African American and Latino community concerns; and the role of both clergy and student and faculty supporters in helping balance an uneven playing field in organizing campaigns.