bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effect of previous psychotic mood episodes on cognitive impairment in euthymic bipolar patients
Authors: Bora Emre , Vahip Simavi , Akdeniz Fisun , Gonul Ali Saffet , Eryavuz Ayse , Ogut Melise , Alkan Muge
Published: August 2007

Objectives:  Cognitive dysfunctions in several domains were proposed to be trait markers of bipolar patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of previous psychotic features on neuropsychological measures, including sustained attention, in remitted bipolar patients.

Methods:  The study participants were 40 euthymic psychotic, 25 non‐psychotic bipolar I patients and 30 healthy control subjects. Participants were assessed with a battery of neuropsychological tests targeting attention, executive functions, psychomotor speed, verbal learning and memory.

Results:  Euthymic psychotic bipolar patients performed worse than controls on most of the measures, after controlling for the confounding effects of education, age and residual symptoms. Non‐psychotic patients were also impaired on tasks of attention, fluency and psychomotor speed. ‘Number of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) categories’ achieved was the only measure on which psychotic patients performed significantly worse compared to non‐psychotic patients. Differences among patient groups were not explained by illness severity measures. The duration of illness was related to slowness in psychomotor speed tasks. Verbal memory deficits may be related to serum lithium levels and age of onset of disease.

Conclusions:  Deficits in cognitive flexibility may be a candidate for being a trait marker of psychotic features among bipolar patients. However, verbal fluency, psychomotor speed and sustained attention deficits may be candidates for vulnerability indicators of bipolar disorder in general.
Isolation, propagation and characterization of primary tubule cell culture from human kidney (Methods in Renal Research)
Authors: QI WEIER , JOHNSON DAVID W , VESEY DAVID A , POLLOCK CAROL A , CHEN XINMING
Published: August 2007

SUMMARY:  Proximal tubule cells (PTC) are the major cell type in the cortical tubulointerstitium. Because PTC play a central role in tubulointerstitial pathophysiology, it is essential to prepare pure PTC from kidney tissue to explore the mechanisms of tubulointerstitial pathology. The authors have successfully refined and characterized primary cultures of human PTC using Percoll density gradient centrifugation as a key PTC enrichment step. The cells obtained by this method retain morphological and functional properties of PTC and are minimally contaminated by other renal cells. In particular, the primary isolates have characteristics of epithelial cells with uniform polarized morphology, tight junction and well‐formed apical microvilli. Cytokeratin is uniformly and strongly expressed in the isolates. Brush border enzyme activities and PTC transport properties are retained in the isolates. This method therefore provides an excellent in vitro model for the physiologic study of the human proximal tubule.
A hermeneutic study of the concept of ‘focusing’ in critical care nursing practice
Authors: Walters Allan John
Published: August 2007

A phenomenological hermeneutic study of the lifeworld of critical care nursing was undertaken, from which emerged the concept of ‘focusing’. Focusing is defined as empathizing concern for the critically ill person and his/her family amid the high technology of the intensive care unit. When nurses focus on the patient and the patient's family they are able to empathize with die personal dimensions of caring. The study used a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to describe die nature of the lived experience of clinical nursing practice in a high technology environment.
The ethics of nursing care and ‘the ethic of care’
Authors: Bowden Peta Lyn
Published: August 2007

Recent discussions concerning the ethics of nursing care have gained added impetus from articulations of die so‐called ‘ethic of carersquo; in moral philosophy. This paper addresses the question of recognizing and elaborating the ethics of nursing care by exploring the problems and the possibilities of diese intersecting discourses. In the first part of the paper it is argued that appropriation of ‘the ethic of care’ by nursing theorists as the central value of nursing, in contradistinction to other moral values such as beneficence or justice, runs the risk of reinforcing the conventional approaches to ethics that ‘the ethic of care’ seeks to overturn. Central to ‘the ethic of care’ is the recognition that caring entails a focus on the particularities and context of the relationships in which it is expressed. Accordingly die application of a unitary concept of care to the context of nursing relations may seriously distort dieir diverse and complex‐specific ediical possibilities. The dynamic complexity of nursing ethics may be more adequately understood by working through an array of specific examples of nursing practice highlighting the differences and similarities between them and other ethical practices of care. Experience of a set of examples in this way will draw attention to the multiplicity, ambiguity, and particularity of the ethics of nursing while facilitating the ability to recognize how other practices may or may not be understood as examples of ediical nursing care. In the second part of the paper a beginning is made on this project by addressing the work of several different theorists of care who have examined different practices of nursing from the overlapping perspectives of nurses, patients and the socio‐historical construction of their relationships.
A magnificent chaos: feminist (nursing) comments on Western philosophy
Authors: Emden Carolyn
Published: August 2007

A magnificent chaos: feminist (nursing) comments on Western philosophy

This paper primarily concerns feminists' problems with Western philosophy and the implications of these for nursing. My interest arises from some reading of philosophy and a profound disenchantment with its male bias. As Susan Moller Okin says, readers should not be misled by the use of supposedly generic terms like ‘mankindrsquo; and allegedly inclusive pronouns, into thinking philosophers intended to refer to the whole human race. Moira Gatens takes the view that feminists cannot ignore the frameworks and assumptions of traditional philosophy and identifies three major ways in which the relationship between feminist theory and philosophical discourse can be characterized. In contrasting Gatens' thesis with a nursing case in point about ways of viewing disciplines, some ideas emerge for nurses to find positive ways forward in the philosophical enterprise. The topic extends to feminists' reactions to postmodern thinking and subsequent questions raised by these for nurses and nursing.
Transformative ‘cultural shifts' in nursing: participatory action research and the ’project of possibility‘
Authors: Robinson Andrew
Published: August 2007

Transformative ‘cultural shifts’ in nursing: participatory action research and the lsquo;project of possibility’

For some time scholars have called for changes in nursing in order to address the subjugated position of nurses within health care. This paper argues that through an engagement with participatory action research, nurses open up a possibility to bring about transformative shifts in nursing culture. The motivation for nurses to engage with this research process arises out of an acknowledgement that they can no longer live with the sense of pain and crisis endemic in much of their nursing practice, and a desire to take action to bring about transformative change within their local ward cultures. However, their participation in critical reflective and collaborative processes that underpin action research exposes an array of minor scattered nursing practices which frustrate possibilities for transformative change. Drawing on empirical accounts from research conducted by the author, the paper argues that once made explicit, these minor practices and the regimes of truth that nurture and sustain them, can be reconstructed and the possibility of transformative cultural shifts in nursing will then emerge.
Professionalism as ideology: a socio‐historical analysis of the discourse of professionalism in nursing
Authors: Turkoski Beatrice B.
Published: August 2007

Professionalism as ideology: a socio‐historical analysis of the discourse of professionalism in nursing

For most of this century, extensive and heated discourse has surrounded defining, conceptualizing, and implementing nursing professionalism. These discussions, for the most part, have approached professionalism as a set of universal, unchanging, objectively‐measured criteria. This study explores professionalism as an ideology; an image drat a social group gives of itself to itself, as a community with a history and identity. Analyses of eight decades of the American Journal of Nursing identify ways that the language of professionalism gives meaning to changing and competing social structures through rationalization and legitimation. The study further identifies how change has often been illusionary, illuminating how the language of professionalism has served to legitimate, and conceal reality. Identifying and understanding how political, social, and economic domination and asymmetry are rationalized and legitimated through language and ideology will allow nursing to demystify constraints and coercion in the delivery of health care.

School of Nursing Graduate Faculty, Kent State University, Kent OH 44242, USA
Our pictures of us
Authors: Short Peter
Published: August 2007

Our pictures of us

Photographs of nurses taken by Mable Balmer more than 70 years ago provide an opportunity for nurses to see and situate themselves in the history of nursing.
Giving permission to embodied knowing to inform nursing research methodology: the poetics of voice (s)
Authors: King Alison
Published: August 2007

Giving permission to embodied knowing to inform nursing research methodology: die poetics of voice(s)

This paper originated from my experience of trying to find an authentic way to research women's experience of the pre‐menstruum. I describe how personal change informed an evolving methodological approach. This change occurred when I felt tension between two strong voices. Conflict and insecurities originated from the pressure of my academic voice to conform to the dominant culture in what often seemed a disempowering way; a way that denied my body voice by emphasizing theory over experience. The construction of a poetic of voice (s) to illustrate how I eventually found an embodied voice is used to provide space for the reader's own interpretive process. The evolving embodied voice integrates my experience as a woman/nurse/researcher, validating my knowing bodily, practically, experientially and academically that I was able to help the participants to disclose their embodied knowing. This approach has wider implications when considering the value nurse researchers and academics give to embodied wisdom.
Historical continuities and constraints in the professionalization of nursing
Authors: Forsyth Sue
Published: August 2007

Historical continuities and constraints in the professionalization of nursing

The support of medicine and the state may be crucial to nursing's current professional aspirations for legitimation and implementation of nursing reforms and for new roles for nurses in health care. As such, medicine and the state are in the invidious position of influencing nursing's occupational future. This situation is not new. An historical analysis of the establishment of nursing at Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia, at the end of the nineteenth century reveals that the State Government of NSW and the medical profession supported nursing's occupational development, yet set the framework within which this could occur. For instance, the state provided patronage to nursing through recommendations of the 1873 Royal Commission and because it financially backed Prince Alfred Hospital, while the medical profession defined nursing knowledge and practice through its control of the nursing curriculum. Membership of the hospital board provided both medicine and the state with powerful positions over hospital policies that affected nursing. While nursing became established as a distinct occupation for women with the aid of State and medical support, its subordinate position in health care was, and continues to be, constrained by these traditional supporters. This relationship between nursing, medicine and the state has implications for nursing's current professionalization strategies and aspirations.
The inner ache: an experiential perspective on loneliness
Authors: Casey Marie S. , Holmes Colin A.
Published: August 2007

The inner ache: an experiential perspective on Ioneliness

This paper examines the various theoretical approaches that have informed both the conceptualizations and the research approaches to investigations of loneliness. A focus on phenomenological and existential perspectives of loneliness can assist in an understanding of what is essentially a subjective distressing experience. The elderly, particularly those residing in nursing homes, are vulnerable to feelings of existential loneliness because following busy lives, often they are left without meaningful roles. Concomitant to this sense of loss of meaning is an alteration in the perception of lived time. It is the purpose of this paper to stimulate research into what is a common but profoundly distressing experience.
The construction of a profession: a study of the history of nursing in Iceland
Authors: Bjornsdottir Kristin
Published: August 2007

This paper aims to provide insights into nursing's place in today's health care through a study of its historical development b Iceland. It is part of recent attempts by feminist scholars to shed light on the history of women in public life. Based on an analysis of the different discourses on nursing, the role of the nurse, die material conditions mat have shaped the life of nurses and structural influences upon health care, conflicting and contrasting understandings of nursing have emerged. Whereas physicians tended to define the nurse as a lowly assistant with the status of a servant, the nurses themselves understood nursing as an independent occupation charged with die responsibility of meeting the needs of die public for assistance and education in matters related to health and well‐being. Late in the 19th century this clearly articulated mission became somewhat blurred and their work was reduced to a rather narrow understanding of performing routine tasks and following orders. A number of interrelated factors contributed to this development
Nurses, doctors and the body of the patient: medical dominance revisited
Authors: Brown Claire , Seddon Jennifer
Published: August 2007

Medical dominance is one of the most obvious features of the health care system and is particularly apparent in the relationship between doctors and nurses. Reasons given for the subordination of nurses to doctors have included matters of gender, class and state patronage of medicine. This paper, through an examination of university curricula and journal content, explores the notion that control over the model of the body is a major way in which medicine preserves its dominance over nursing. One reason for medicine maintaining its superior position is that nursing is not challenging this model of the body.
Nursing in quality space: technologies governing experiences of care
Authors: Purkis Mary Ellen
Published: August 2007

This paper challenges contemporary portrayals in the nursing literature of the spaces within which care of patients in hospital settings is conducted. Within the wider discourse of fiscal restraint on health care spending, professional nursing has cast its disciplined eyes on details of the nurse‐patient relationship for the ostensible purpose of repairing that which is treated as individual failings of nurses to practise in ways prescribed by nursing theories. Set aside in this approach to the so‐called ‘problems’ of nursing practice has been an examination of the conditions within which nurses come in contact with patients, and a critical recognition that such contacts represent skilled accomplishments of social action. In this paper, these conditions are treated as resources available to both nurses and patients to generate accounts for the nurse's presence as well as the nurse's absence. Examples from an ethnographic study of nursing practice are used to illustrate how the spaces operating between nurses and patients are not empty voids but aresocialspaces through which particular meanings about nursing care can be conveyed.
(Re)writing ethnography: the unsettling questions for nursing research raised by post‐structural approaches to ‘the field’
Authors: Rudge Trudy
Published: August 2007

Positivist ethnographic research situates the participant observer in an objectivist position towards the field. Using poststructural perspectives to analyse the field challenges and unsettles objectivist assumptions underpinning ethnography. Neither is merging of the two approaches completely unproblematic. A crucial element in a coherent amalgam centres around resolution of potential contradictions emanating from the place of field notes in ethnographic research, and the position of the researcher (author) vis‐a‐vis such notes. Contemporary approaches to field notes maintain that such notes are not an objective description of the field, unaffected by the voice of the researcher. Rather, observational records are to be regarded as text, with characteristics in common with all texts. The ethnographic record is constituted as much by the positionality of the researcher as by the research participants. The nurse researcher can be viewed as participant in the constitution of the field. In unsettling and challenging taken‐for‐granted understandings about nursing practice, I am affirming the centrality of the position of the nurse in nursing research.
Reflective inquiry in nursing practice or 'revealing images'
Authors: Cash Penelope , Brooker Jenny , Penney Wendy , Reinbold Janet , Strangio Laurence
Published: August 2007

Reflective inquiry in nursing practice or 'revealing images'

Nurses live and work in complex practice worlds; worlds of shrinking resources and expanding needs. Reflection through journaling offers unique opportunities to gain insight into practice. What might we learn from one's journal? A reflective journal can be a source of interplay between the self as written and the self as other. Likewise, the journal may act to situate ourselves in practice, while at the same time enabling us to illuminate how and in what ways our understandings have become distorted. The extent to which one's journal is educative depends upon the manner in which one chooses to use it as a transformative tool, a tool that might well be described as a process of healing and enlightenment. In order to illustrate the reflexive nature of journaling, this paper is presented as a play reading, where a conversation about practice stories between the different aspects of the nurse's self is depicted. In adopting a play reading, an alternative pedagogical tool is used to illustrate different methodologies exemplifying the emergence of how and in what ways we develop and reconstruct our understanding in nursing.
A feminist model for women's health care
Authors: Andrist Linda
Published: August 2007

A feminist model for women's health care

A feminist model of practice is grounded in feminist theories that are applicable to the health and health care of women. The goal of this model is to change how health care is delivered to individual women, but also to seek social transformation. Four major themes recur in this model: symmetry in provider‐patient relationships, access to information, shared decisionmaking, and social change. This article describes ways in which clinicians can integrate these themes into practice. Suggestions for maintaining symmetry in the traditional power relationship include decreasing physical, social and personal barriers and attentive listening to patients' stories. Access to information involves creating an atmosphere that is conducive to teaching and learning, but also helping patients access other sources of information. Shared decision‐making is central to feminist practice and is attainable when patients have been empowered and are knowledgeable about their healthcare needs. Social change entails the ever vigilant clinician who is familiar with the latest literature, both professional and lay, in order to critically analyse research studies, our colleagues' interpretations of those studies and how recommendations for practice are reached. Collectively, clinicians work with the public to strive for change within the healthcare system and society as a whole.
The (im)possibilities of poststructuralist and critical social nursing inquiry
Authors: Heslop Liza
Published: August 2007

Methodologies of poststructuralist theory and critical social theory may be appropriated for nursing research and practice. Researchers using either methodology employ an analysis of power to explore experiences in various fields, and raise issues diat are highly relevant to nursing. However, the two methodologies differ and, often, die respective dieories are sharply opposed. In diis paper, die differences bodi from widiin and between each approach are explored, showing dieir tensions and limits. I contend that a reflexive approach to discourse analysis provides insight into some of die methodological challenges diat arise in die context of bodi dieories. It is argued diat die differences between poststructuralism and critical social dieory seem likely to be mellowed by encounters diat treat each other with respect. To some extent, such encounters may tend to converge die two positions.
Voiding patterns in men and women with lower urinary tract symptoms combined with nocturia
Authors: Paick Jae‐Seung , Kim Soo Woong , Oh Seung‐June , Ku Ja Hyeon
Published: August 2007

Aim:  We evaluated differences between men and women with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) combined with nocturia.

Methods:  A total of 71 age‐matched female‐male pairs (median 58, range 20–81 years) who had moderate to severe LUTS and nocturia of more than once per night were enrolled in this study.

Results:  In the younger group (<50 years), the International Prostate Symptom Score (I‐PSS) results of the sexes were not significantly different. However, although total I‐PSS results in the elderly group (≥50 years) were not significantly different, quality of life index scores for women were higher (P = 0.002). On frequency‐volume (FV) charts, mean total daytime voided volume (DVV) was significantly higher in younger men than in younger women (P = 0.017), but the mean nocturnal polyuria index (NPi) for women was higher than that for men (P = 0.047). However, maximum DVV (P = 0.009), mean DVV (P < 0.0001), total DVV (P < 0.0001), and mean nocturnal urine volume (P = 0.009) were significantly higher in elderly men than in elderly women. However, numbers of daytime voids were not different.

Conclusion:  Elderly women with LUTS have lower functional bladder capacities than elderly men, as suggested by their smaller mean voided volumes. However, no significant differences were observed between numbers of daytime voids, which was probably due to the smaller total daytime voided volumes of elderly women. In addition, although NPi for younger women and nocturnal urine volume for elderly men was higher, no other differences were observed in terms of other night‐time parameters.
Evaluation of intravesical potassium sensitivity test and bladder biopsy in patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome
Authors: Hassan Ayman A , Elgamal Samir A , Sabaa Magdy A , Salem Khalid
Published: August 2007

Aim:  We evaluated the possibility that patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) might have similar histological and physiological bladder changes as that documented in patients with painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis (PBS/IC).

Methods:  Thirty‐five known patients of CP/CPPS according to the clinical criteria of National Institutes of Health (NIH) were evaluated. The severity of the symptoms was evaluated according the NIH‐Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index. All patients underwent a potassium sensitivity test (PST) and bladder cystoscopy. Bladder biopsy was obtained from 17 patients with prostatitis and four control patients.

Results:  Urinary symptoms were present in 31 (88.6%) patients. Pelvic pain was reported in all patients. PST was positive in 26 (84%) of 31 patients that presented with urinary symptoms in its filling phase. In the voiding phase, 10 (28.5%) patients experienced urethral pain. Of these patients, five had negative filling PST. There were only two (5.7%) patients that had negative PST in both of its phases for an overall positive PST rate of 94.3%. The severity of PST was not correlated with the total symptom score (P = 0.37). However, patients with severe urinary symptoms were more likely to score higher grades with PST (P = 0.01). Of the 17 patients who underwent bladder biopsy, a significant increase in the number of mast cells (MC) was present in 11 (64.7%) patients. Glomerulations with bladder cystoscopy was observed in 24 (68.6%) patients.

Conclusions:  The data of the present study support the opinion that PBS/IC is under‐diagnosed in male patients that present with urgency, frequency and/or pain. In some patients diagnosed as CP/CPPS, the symptoms might be related to bladder dysfunction rather than prostatic inflammation.
Paclitaxel Carboplatin chemotherapy as a second‐line chemotherapy for advanced platinum resistant urothelial cancer in Japanese cases
Authors: Soga Norihito , Onishi Takehisa , Arima Kiminobu , Sugimura Yoshiki
Published: August 2007

Objective:  We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of Paclitaxel Carboplatin (Pca) therapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancer and platinum based chemotherapy failure.

Patients and Methods:  From April 2001 to September 2005, 18 patients were enrolled in this trial. The patients received methotrexate, vinblastine and doxorubicin cisplatin (M‐VAC) therapy prior to Pca therapy. On day 1, Paclitaxel (175 mg/m2, body surface) was injected followed by Carboplatin area under the curve (AUC) (5) via an external venous line and treatment was repeated on a 21‐day cycle. Cases exhibiting either a response or stable disease were treated until progression of the disease was observed. All patients were examined to determine toxicity (National Cancer Institute common toxicity criteria) and QOL (EORTC QOL‐C30). The survival curves were established using Kaplan‐Meier graphs.

Results:  The median cycle of Pca therapy was 4 cycles (range, 1–9 cycles). The overall survival response was 33% with a partial response in six patients (0 with CR, 6 with PR), stable disease in eight patients (44%) and disease progression in four patients (22%). Grade 3–4 anemia was recognized in 5 (28%), neutropenia in 9 (50%) and thrombocytopenia in 3 (22%). The QOL questionnaire scales showed no significant changes induced by Pca therapy. The progression free survival rates were 33% at 6 months, 16% at 1 year and 5.2% at 2 years. Regarding overall survival period, the 6 month, 1‐year and 2‐year estimates were 78%, 50% and 22%, respectively.

Conclusion:  Since the Pca therapy was well tolerated we consider that this treatment modality has the potential to prolong survival with a high quality of life when used as a second chemotherapy.
Clinicopathological review of 46 primary retroperitoneal tumors
Authors: Tambo Mitsuhiro , Fujimoto Kiyohide , Miyake Makito , Hoshiyama Fumiaki , Matsushita Chie , Hirao Yoshihiko
Published: July 2007

Objectives:  To clarify the clinical factors including diagnostic imaging findings that may correlate with the histopathological malignancy in primary retroperitoneal tumors.

Methods:  The clinical backgrounds and imaging findings of 22 benign and 24 malignant primary retroperitoneal tumors were retrospectively investigated, and the prognosis of patients with malignant retroperitoneal tumors was assessed.

Results:  There were significant correlations between the presence of symptoms and malignancy (P < 0.01), as well as between the irregularity of tumor margins and malignancy (P < 0.01). On dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 90% of malignant tumors showed early enhancement either with quick or slow washout, while 75% of benign tumors showed delayed and no enhancement (P < 0.002). All malignant and benign paraganglioma showed the same early enhancement with quick washout. Malignant lymphoma showed various enhancement patterns. The 2‐year and 5‐year cause‐specific survival rates of the patients with malignant retroperitoneal tumors were 68.0% and 43.2%, respectively. All malignant lymphoma patients were mainly treated with chemotherapy after being diagnosed histologically. Malignant paraganglioma patients who could not meet complete resection needed chemotherapy for promising survival.

Conclusion:  The symptoms, the irregularity of the margins, and the specific enhancement pattern on the dynamic MRI may be important predictive factors of the primary malignant retroperitoneal tumors. Histological diagnosis was needed for malignant definition of paraganglioma because both benign and malignant paraganglioma showed similar clinical and imaging findings. Preoperative biopsy should be considered for selection of the appropriate treatment particularly in patients that are likely to have malignant lymphoma that could not be diagnosed definitively by the clinical and imaging findings.
The transmitter release‐site CaV2.2 channel cluster is linked to an endocytosis coat protein complex
Authors: Khanna Rajesh , Li Qi , Schlichter Lyanne C. , Stanley Elise F.
Published: August 2007

Synaptic vesicles (SVs) are triggered to fuse with the surface membrane at the presynaptic transmitter release site (TRSs) core by Ca2+ influx through nearby attached CaV2.2 channels [see accompanying paper: Khanna et al. (2007)Eur. J. Neurosci., 26, 547–559] and are then recovered by endocytosis. In this study we test the hypothesis that the TRS core is linked to an endocytosis‐related protein complex. This was tested by immunostaining analysis of the chick ciliary ganglion calyx presynaptic terminal and biochemical analysis of synaptosome lysate, using CaV2.2 as a marker for the TRS. We noted that CaV2.2 clusters abut heavy‐chain (H)‐clathrin patches at the transmitter release face. Quantitative coimmunostaining analysis (ICA/ICQ method) demonstrated a strong covariance of release‐face CaV2.2 staining with that for the AP180 and intersectin endocytosis adaptor proteins, and a moderate covariance with H‐ or light‐chain (L)‐clathrin and dynamin coat proteins, consistent with a multimolecular complex. This was supported by coprecipitation of these proteins with CaV2.2 from brain synaptosome lysate. Interestingly, the channel neither colocalized nor coprecipitated with the endocytosis cargo‐capturing adaptor AP2, even though this protein both colocalized and coprecipitated with H‐clathrin. Fractional recovery analysis of the immunoprecipitated CaV2.2 complex by exposure to high NaCl (∼1 m) indicated that AP180 and S‐intersectin adaptors are tightly bound to CaV2.2 while L‐intersectin, H‐ and L‐clathrin and dynamin form a less tightly linked subcomplex. Our results are consistent with two distinct clathrin endocytosis complexes: an AP2‐containing, remote, non‐TRS complex and a specialised, AP2‐lacking, TRS‐associated subcomplex linked via a molecular bridge. The most probable role of this subcomplex is to facilitate SV recovery after transmitter release.
The subthalamic region is activated during valence‐related emotional processing in patients with Parkinson's disease
Authors: Brücke C. , Kupsch A. , Schneider G.‐H. , Hariz M.I. , Nuttin B. , Kopp U. , Kempf F. , Trottenberg T. , Doyle L. , Chen C. C. , Yarrow K. , Brown P. , Kühn A. A.
Published: August 2007

Visual stimuli are judged for their emotional significance based on two fundamental dimensions, valence and arousal, and may lead to changes in neural and body functions like attention, affect, memory and heart rate. Alterations in behaviour and mood have been encountered in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) undergoing functional neurosurgery, suggesting that electrical high‐frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) may interfere with emotional information processing. Here, we use the opportunity to directly record neuronal activity from the STN macroelectrodes in patients with PD during presentation of emotionally laden and neutral pictures taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) to further elucidate the role of the STN in emotional processing. We found a significant event‐related desynchronization of STN alpha activity with pleasant stimuli that correlated with the individual valence rating of the pictures. Our findings suggest involvement of the human STN in valence‐related emotional information processing that can potentially be altered during high‐frequency stimulation of the STN in PD leading to behavioural complications.
Augmentation of methamphetamine‐induced toxicity in the rat striatum by unpredictable stress: contribution of enhanced hyperthermia
Authors: Tata Despina A. , Raudensky Jamie , Yamamoto Bryan K.
Published: August 2007

Stress is known to enhance the abuse of various drugs. Although the effects of chronic stress and the neurotoxicity of methamphetamine (METH) are influenced, in part, by hyperthermia, the role of hyperthermia in the hypothesized stress‐induced enhancement of METH‐induced dopamine (DA) and serotonin depletions and decreases in vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT‐2) immunoreactivity is unknown. Rats were exposed to 10 days of unpredictable stress and then challenged with METH (7.5 mg/kg, i.p., once every 2 h × 4 injections). There were no differences in the extracellular DA concentrations of stressed and non‐stressed rats administered METH. Prior exposure to chronic unpredictable stress augmented the acute METH‐induced hyperthermia, the decreases in VMAT‐2 immunoreactivity, and the depletions of striatal DA and serotonin content. Prevention of enhanced hyperthermia through cooling of chronically stressed rats to levels exhibited by non‐stressed but METH‐exposed rats blocked the enhanced depletions. This study reports the novel finding that chronic stress enhances METH toxicity through enhanced hyperthermia and suggests that this effect may be mediated by early METH‐induced decreases in VMAT‐2 immunoreactivity.
Acute cocaine exposure alters spine density and long‐term potentiation in the ventral tegmental area
Authors: Sarti Federica , Borgland Stephanie L. , Kharazia Viktor N. , Bonci Antonello
Published: August 2007

Growing evidence indicates that the expression of synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system results in dendritic reorganization and spine remodeling. Although long‐term potentiation of glutamatergic synapses after cocaine exposure in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been proposed as a cellular mechanism underlying addictive behaviors, the relationship between long‐term potentiation and dendritic remodeling induced by cocaine on the dopaminergic neurons of the VTA has not been demonstrated. Here we report that rat VTA cells classified as type I and II showed distinct morphological responses to cocaine, as a single cocaine exposure significantly increased dendritic spine density in type I but not in type II cells. Further, only type I cells had a significant increase in the AMPA receptor : NMDA receptor ratio after a single cocaine exposure. Taken together, our data provide evidence that increased spine density and synaptic plasticity are coexpressed within the same VTA neuronal population and that only type I neurons are structurally and synaptically modified by cocaine.
Co‐localization and functional cross‐talk between A1and P2Y1purine receptors in rat hippocampus
Authors: Tonazzini I. , Trincavelli M. L. , Storm‐Mathisen J. , Martini C. , Bergersen L. H.
Published: August 2007

Adenosine and ATP, via their specific P1 and P2 receptors, modulate a wide variety of cellular and tissue functions, playing a neuroprotective or neurodegenerative role in brain damage conditions. Although, in general, adenosine inhibits excitability and ATP functions as an excitatory transmitter in the central nervous system, recent data suggest the existence of a heterodimerization and a functional interaction between P1 and P2 receptors in the brain. In particular, interactions of adenosine A1and P2Y1receptors may play important roles in the purinergic signalling cascade. In the present work, we investigated the subcellular localization/co‐localization of the receptors and their functional cross‐talk at the membrane level in Wistar rat hippocampus. This is a particularly vulnerable brain area, which is sensitive to adenosine‐ and ATP‐mediated control of glutamatergic transmission. The postembedding immunogold electron microscopy technique showed that the two receptors are co‐localized at the synaptic membranes and surrounding astroglial membranes of glutamatergic synapses. To investigate the functional cross‐talk between the two types of purinergic receptors, we evaluated the reciprocal effects of their activation on their G protein coupling. P2Y1receptor stimulation impaired the potency of A1receptor coupling to G protein, whereas the stimulation of A1receptors increased the functional responsiveness of P2Y1receptors. The results demonstrated an A1–P2Y1receptor co‐localization at glutamatergic synapses and surrounding astrocytes and a functional interaction between these receptors in hippocampus, suggesting ATP and adenosine can interact in purine‐mediated signalling. This may be particularly important during pathological conditions, when large amounts of these mediators are released.
Oxytocin injected into the ventral tegmental area induces penile erection and increases extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus of male rats
Authors: Melis Maria Rosaria , Melis Tiziana , Cocco Cristina , Succu Salvatora , Sanna Fabrizio , Pillolla Giuliano , Boi Antonio , Ferri Gian‐Luca , Argiolas Antonio
Published: August 2007

The neuropeptide oxytocin (20–100 ng), induces penile erection when injected unilaterally into the caudal but not rostral mesencephalic ventral tegmental area (VTA) of male Sprague–Dawley rats. Such pro‐erectile effect started 30 min after treatment and was abolished by the prior injection of d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)2‐Orn8‐vasotocin (1 µg), an oxytocin receptor antagonist injected into the same caudal ventral tegmental area or of haloperidol (1 µg), a dopamine receptor antagonist, injected either into the nucleus accumbens shell (NAs) or into the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) ipsilateral to the injected ventral tegmental area. Penile erection was seen 15 min after the occurrence of, or concomitantly to, an increase in extracellular dopamine and its metabolite 3,4‐dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) in the dialysate obtained from the nucleus accumbens or the paraventricular nucleus, which was also abolished by d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)2‐Orn8‐vasotocin (1 µg), injected into the ventral tegmental area before oxytocin. In the caudal ventral tegmental area oxytocin‐containing axons/fibres (originating from the paraventricular nucleus) appeared to closely contact cell bodies of mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons retrogradely labelled with Fluorogold injected into the nucleus accumbens shell, suggesting that oxytocin effects are mediated by the activation of mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons, followed in turn by that of incerto‐hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons impinging on oxytocinergic neurons mediating penile erection. As the stimulation of paraventricular dopamine receptors not only induces penile erection, but also increases mesolimbic dopamine neurotransmission by activating oxytocinergic neurons, these results provide further support for the existence of a neural circuit in which dopamine and oxytocin influence both the consummatory and motivational/rewarding aspects of sexual behaviour.
SURVIVAL LOTTERIES RECONSIDERED
Authors: ØVERLAND GERHARD
Published: July 2007

In 1975 John Harris envisaged a survival lottery to redistribute organs from one to a greater number in order to reduce number of deaths as a consequence of organ failure. In this paper I reach a conclusion about when running a survival lottery is permissible by looking at the reason prospective participants have for allowing the procedure from a contractual perspective.

I identify three versions of the survival lottery. In a National Lottery, everyone within a jurisdiction is a candidate for being a donor for everyone else, disregarding all differences between individuals' eventual possibility of needing an organ. In a Group Specific Lottery, it is a question of running a lottery among members of a specific group who share the same probability of getting organ failure. In a Local Lottery one randomises among individuals who are already in need of a new organ but who happen to be compatible and in need of different organs. While the first is vulnerable to considerations of fairness, it is difficult to perceive a feasible way to implement the second option that does not come with a host of unwelcome consequences. I argue, however, that it is permissible to run Local Lotteries.
POTENTIALITY AND HUMAN EMBRYOS
Authors: LIZZA JOHN P.
Published: July 2007

Consideration of the potentiality of human embryos to develop characteristics of personhood, such as intellect and will, has figured prominently in arguments against abortion and the use of human embryos for research. In particular, such consideration was the basis for the call of the US President's Council on Bioethics for a moratorium on stem cell research on human embryos. In this paper, I critique the concept of potentiality invoked by the Council and offer an alternative account. In contrast to the Council's view that an embryo's potentiality is determined by definition and is not affected by external conditions that may prevent certain possibilities from ever being realized, I propose an empirically grounded account of potentiality that involves an assessment of the physical and decisional conditions that may restrict an embryo's possibilities. In my view, some human embryos lack the potentiality to become a person that other human embryos have. Assuming for the sake of argument that the potential to become a person gives a being special moral status, it follows that some human embryos lack this status. This argument is then used to support Gene Outka's suggestion that it is morally permissible to experiment on ‘spare’ frozen embryos that are destined to be destroyed.
Critical Rationalism: The Problem of Method in Social Sciences and Law*
Authors: ALBERT HANS
Published: August 2007

Abstract. The author characterizes the model of rationality devised by critical rationalism in opposition to the classic model of rationality and as an alternative to this. He illustrates and criticizes the trichotomous theory of knowledge which, going back to Max Scheler, is received in a secularized version by Habermas and Apel, also under the influence of the hermeneutic tradition of Heidegger and Gadamer and of the so‐called “critical theory” of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. The author criticizes historicism as it expects to be an alternative to naturalism and not to make use of the method based on scientific laws. The author proposes as an example of technological social science the model developed in economics starting from Adam Smith. With regard to legal theories, natural law is rejected because of its sociomorphic cosmology. It is proposed that legal science as social technology has two parts. One part aims at efficient interpretations of valid law (for the space‐time region concerned) and a second part aims at the construction of efficient norms for the modification of valid law by legislation
Law as a Bridge Between Is and Ought
Authors: BODENHEIMER EDGAR
Published: August 2007

Abstract. Law has variously been described as part of empirical social reality or as a set of normative prescriptions defining desirable conduct. The author takes the view that a legal system normally represents an amalgam of “is” and “ought” elements. It is operative in part as a living law of actual human conduct, in another part as an instrumentality for transforming unfulfilled social ideals or goals into reality. A different blending of “is” and “ought” factors often occurs in the judicial process, when an application of given legal norms is combined with some injection of law deemed desirable by the judges.
Grounding the Rule of Law
Authors: REYNOLDS NOEL B.
Published: August 2007

Abstract. Although the concept of Rule of Law has been revived and developed vigorously by mid‐twentieth century conservative political theorists, contemporary legal positivists have not been impressed. The author reviews this confrontation, outlines the logic for a strong theory of Rule of Law, and surveys the leading attempts to provide compelling grounds for such a theory.
Towards a Communication‐Concept of Rational Collective Will‐Formation. A Thought‐Experiment
Authors: HABERMAS JÜRGEN
Published: August 2007

Abstract. Contractarian theories are meant to settle the issue of when political authority meets the conditions of rational legitimacy. The author addresses the same issue, but using different premises and a different conceptual frame. He takes as his point of departure the two basic problems which rational collective will‐formation refers to ‐ conflict‐resolution and goal attainment. He then introduces the codes of law and power, with which such will‐formation can be institutionalized. The legitimation gap that then still remains open can be filled by a practical reason which is not limited simply to morality but also permeates the procedures of law application, policy‐formation and legislation. These preliminary considerations remain within the limits of a thought‐experiment.
An Antimony in Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law*
Authors: BULYGIN EUGENIO
Published: August 2007

Abstract. Some important ideas in Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law can be traced back to Kantian tradition, which has been very influential in Kelsen's thought, particularly in his early period. Among them we find the distinction between two radically different worlds (the world of facts and the world of norms), the normativity of legal science and the idea of validity as a binding force, based on the famous doctrine of the basic norm. These tenets and, especially, the use of a normative concept of validity prove to be incompatible with Kelsen's positivistic programme of a value‐free legal science. The science of law cannot state that legal norms are obligatory or binding without trespassing the limits of Kelsen's ideal of a legal science; on the other hand, it is possible to define the concept of a legal system without resorting to the basic norm. So, if Kelsen is to be regarded as a consequent positivist, the Kantian ingredients of his theory must be rejected and the descriptive concept of validity as membership must be substituted for the normative notion of validity as a binding force.
On The Reasonable in Law
Authors: ATIENZA MANUEL
Published: August 2007

Abstract. In practical reasoning, reasonableness ‐ as opposed to rationality ‐ is an important concept. This paper explores the notion of reasonableness as applied exclusively to legal decisions. Conflicting values or legal requirements can make rationally deduced solutions unattainable, and may call for criteria of reasonableness, Conflicting values must be weighed, and weighed against each other, in search of a point of equilibrium between them. Legal cases are more or less difficult to solve, depending on the difficulty of finding a unique optimal equilibrium. The relevance of factual and ideal consensus for the determination of a reasonable legal decision is underlined. Finally, a definition of “reasonable legal decision” is proposed.