bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘I Want to Look Like That!’: Cosmetic Surgery and Celebrity Culture
Authors: Elliott Anthony
Published: March 2011

This article critically examines the power of celebrity culture in relation to the rise of cosmetic surgery. The perspective developed is one that attempts to bridge certain developments in social theory and psychoanalytic studies. By drawing on Horton and Wohl’s notion of ‘para-social interaction’, as well as Thompson’s idea of ‘intimacy at a distance’, a critical cultural approach is developed for the analysis of how celebrity bodies become key sites of identification, imitation and desire. The article also draws from the psychoanalytic notion of identification in order to recast the relationship between fandom and celebrity. My argument is that popular and media cultures today are introducing a wholesale shift away from a focus on personalities to celebrity body-parts and their artificial enhancement. To view the body in the light of celebrity culture means, in effect, to see the self increasingly in terms of possible surgical alterations.
Meta-analysis of Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes After Arthroscopic Single-Row Versus Double-Row Rotator Cuff Repair
Authors: Perser Karen , Godfrey David , Bisson Leslie
Published: March 2011

Context: Double-row rotator cuff repair methods have improved biomechanical performance when compared with single-row repairs.

Objective: To review clinical outcomes of single-row versus double-row rotator cuff repair with the hypothesis that double-row rotator cuff repair will result in better clinical and radiographic outcomes.

Data Sources: Published literature from January 1980 to April 2010. Key terms included rotator cuff, prospective studies, outcomes, and suture techniques.

Study Selection: The literature was systematically searched, and 5 level I and II studies were found comparing clinical outcomes of single-row and double-row rotator cuff repair. Coleman methodology scores were calculated for each article.

Data Extraction: Meta-analysis was performed, with treatment effect between single row and double row for clinical outcomes and with odds ratios for radiographic results. The sample size necessary to detect a given difference in clinical outcome between the 2 methods was calculated.

Results: Three level I studies had Coleman scores of 80, 74, and 81, and two level II studies had scores of 78 and 73. There were 156 patients with single-row repairs and 147 patients with double-row repairs, both with an average follow-up of 23 months (range, 12-40 months). Double-row repairs resulted in a greater treatment effect for each validated outcome measure in 4 studies, but the differences were not clinically or statistically significant (range, 0.4-2.2 points; 95% confidence interval, –0.19, 4.68 points). Double-row repairs had better radiographic results, but the differences were also not statistically significant (P = 0.13). Two studies had adequate power to detect a 10-point difference between repair methods using the Constant score, and 1 study had power to detect a 5-point difference using the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) score.

Conclusions: Double-row rotator cuff repair does not show a statistically significant improvement in clinical outcome or radiographic healing with short-term follow-up.
Endocrine and metabolic emergencies: hypoglycaemia
Authors: Mukherjee Elora , Carroll Richard , Matfin Glenn
Published: March 2011

Hypoglycaemia is rare in healthy individuals owing to the numerous elegant hormonal and neuronal mechanisms that maintain glucose homeostasis. Glucose is an obligate metabolic fuel for cerebral tissue and therefore hypoglycaemia, if uncorrected, can have disastrous consequences including death. Clinical hypoglycaemia is defined as a plasma (or serum) glucose concentration low enough to cause symptoms and/or signs, including impairment of brain function. However, no single plasma (or serum) glucose concentration categorically defines hypoglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia is probably the most common endocrine and metabolic emergency in clinical practice. The overwhelming majority of occurrences of hypoglycaemia occur in patients with diabetes, either as a result of treatment-induced hypoglycaemia and/or abnormalities that affect the normal counterregulatory response to hypoglycaemia. The differential for nondiabetes-associated hypoglycaemia is broad and includes insulinoma, drugs, hormone deficiencies, and critical illness. The acute management of hypoglycaemia is discussed along with a review of the pathophysiology and aetiology of this commonly encountered clinical problem.
Lack of perceived social support among immigrants after a disaster: comparative study
Authors: Drogendijk Annelieke N. , van der Velden Peter G. , Gersons Berthold P. R. , Kleber Rolf J.
Published: March 2011

Background

Disaster research suggests that immigrant groups who are affected by a disaster receive less emotional support than their native counterparts. However, it is unclear to what extent these differences can be attributed to post-disaster mental health problems or whether they were present before the event.

Aims

To examine the association between lack of social support, immigration status and victim status, as well as differences in support between immigrants and Dutch natives with disaster-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Method

Social support and psychological distress were assessed among immigrants and Dutch natives, among affected and non-affected individuals 4 years post disaster. Post-traumatic stress disorder was examined in the affected groups.

Results

Affected immigrants more often lacked various kinds of perceived social support compared with affected Dutch natives. Remarkably, we found no differences in support between affected immigrants and non-affected immigrants. Immigrants with PTSD differ on only two out of six aspects of support from the Dutch natives with PTSD.

Conclusions

Results clearly indicate that differences in support between immigrants and Dutch natives are not so much a consequence of the disaster but were largely present before the disaster.
Time course of regional brain activity accompanying auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia
Authors: Hoffman Ralph E. , Pittman Brian , Constable R. Todd , Bhagwagar Zubin , Hampson Michelle
Published: March 2011

Background

The pathophysiology of auditory verbal hallucinations remains poorly understood.

Aims

To characterise the time course of regional brain activity leading to auditory verbal hallucinations.

Method

During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 11 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder signalled auditory verbal hallucination events by pressing a button. To control for effects of motor behaviour, regional activity associated with hallucination events was scaled against corresponding activity arising from random button-presses produced by 10 patients who did not experience hallucinations.

Results

Immediately prior to the hallucinations, motor-adjusted activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus was significantly greater than corresponding activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus. In contrast, motor-adjusted activity in a right posterior temporal region overshadowed corresponding activity in the left homologous temporal region. Robustly elevated motor-adjusted activity in the left temporal region associated with auditory verbal hallucinations was also detected, but only subsequent to hallucination events. At the earliest time shift studied, the correlation between left inferior frontal gyrus and right temporal activity was significantly higher for the hallucination group compared with non-hallucinating patients.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that heightened functional coupling between the left inferior frontal gyrus and right temporal regions leads to coactivation in these speech processing regions that is hallucinogenic. Delayed left temporal activation may reflect impaired corollary discharge contributing to source misattribution of resulting verbal images.
Polygenic dissection of the bipolar phenotype
Authors: Hamshere M. L. , O'Donovan M. C. , Jones I. R. , Jones L. , Kirov G. , Green E. K. , Moskvina V. , Grozeva D. , Bass N. , McQuillin A. , Gurling H. , Clair D. St , Young A. H. , Ferrier I. N. , Farmer A. , McGuffin P. , Sklar P. , Purcell S. , Holmans P. A. , Owen M. J. , Craddock N.
Published: March 2011

Background

Recent data provide strong support for a substantial common polygenic contribution (i.e. many alleles each of small effect) to genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia and overlapping susceptibility for bipolar disorder.

Aims

To test hypotheses about the relationship between schizophrenia and psychotic types of bipolar disorder.

Method

Using a polygenic score analysis to test whether schizophrenia polygenic risk alleles, en masse, significantly discriminate between individuals with bipolar disorder with and without psychotic features. The primary sample included 1829 participants with bipolar disorder and the replication sample comprised 506 people with bipolar disorder.

Results

The subset of participants with Research Diagnostic Criteria schizoaffective bipolar disorder (n = 277) were significantly discriminated from the remaining participants with bipolar disorder (n = 1552) in both the primary (P = 0.00059) and the replication data-sets (P = 0.0070). In contrast, those with psychotic bipolar disorder as a whole were not significantly different from those with non-psychotic bipolar disorder in either data-set.

Conclusions

Genetic susceptibility influences at least two major domains of psychopathological variation in the schizophrenia–bipolar disorder clinical spectrum: one that relates to expression of a ‘bipolar disorder-like’ phenotype and one that is associated with expression of ‘schizophrenia-like’ psychotic symptoms.
Clozapine: dangerous orphan or neglected friend?
Authors: Farooq Saeed , Taylor Mark
Published: March 2011

Evidence concerning the superior efficacy and effectiveness of clozapine has not fully informed routine clinical practice. This is possibly because of the perception that clozapine is a dangerous therapeutic agent. Clozapine use may actually promote longevity, and earlier use of clozapine in adequate dosages represents a neglected therapeutic opportunity in this age of stagnated antipsychotic innovation.
Drug-Related Pneumonitis in Patients With Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma Treated With Temsirolimus
Authors: Maroto Jose Pablo , Hudes Gary , Dutcher Janice P. , Logan Theodore F. , White Charles S. , Krygowski Mizue , Cincotta Maria , Shapiro Mark , Duran Ignacio , Berkenblit Anna
Published: March 2011

Purpose

Pneumonitis has occurred in patients treated with inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). In a phase III study of patients with previously untreated, poor-prognosis, advanced renal cell carcinoma (ARCC), the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus improved survival compared with interferon. We performed a retrospective, independent, blinded radiographic review of chest computed tomography (CT) images of patients in this study to characterize temsirolimus-related pneumonitis.

Patients and Methods

Patients were treated with intravenous temsirolimus 25 mg once weekly or subcutaneous interferon alfa 3 million units, with an increase to 18 million units, thrice weekly. Drug-related pneumonitis was identified based on sequential chest CT images, required every 8 weeks, showing changes consistent with pneumonitis and not pneumonia (infection) or disease progression as correlated with clinical data. Cumulative probability of drug-related pneumonitis was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results

Eight (6%) of 138 and 52 (29%) of 178 evaluable patients on interferon and temsirolimus treatment, respectively, developed radiographically identified drug-related pneumonitis. Time to onset of pneumonitis was significantly shorter on the temsirolimus arm than on the interferon arm (log-rank P < .001). Estimated cumulative probability of pneumonitis at 8 and 16 weeks from first dose was 21% and 31%, respectively, on the temsirolimus arm and 6% and 8%, respectively, on the interferon arm. Respiratory symptoms were observed around time of onset of radiographically diagnosed temsirolimus-related pneumonitis in 16 (31%) of 52 patients.

Conclusion

Patients with ARCC receiving temsirolimus should be monitored closely for development of pneumonitis, and their management should be altered if clinical symptoms appear.
Perioperative Chemotherapy Compared With Surgery Alone for Resectable Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma: An FNCLCC and FFCD Multicenter Phase III Trial
Authors: Ychou Marc , Boige Valérie , Pignon Jean-Pierre , Conroy Thierry , Bouché Olivier , Lebreton Gilles , Ducourtieux Muriel , Bedenne Laurent , Fabre Jean-Michel , Saint-Aubert Bernard , Genève Jean , Lasser Philippe , Rougier Philippe
Published: March 2011

Purpose

After curative resection, the prognosis of gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma is poor. This phase III trial was designed to evaluate the benefit in overall survival (OS) of perioperative fluorouracil plus cisplatin in resectable gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Patients and Methods

Overall, 224 patients with resectable adenocarcinoma of the lower esophagus, gastroesophageal junction (GEJ), or stomach were randomly assigned to either perioperative chemotherapy and surgery (CS group; n = 113) or surgery alone (S group; n = 111). Chemotherapy consisted of two or three preoperative cycles of intravenous cisplatin (100 mg/m2) on day 1, and a continuous intravenous infusion of fluorouracil (800 mg/m2/d) for 5 consecutive days (days 1 to 5) every 28 days and three or four postoperative cycles of the same regimen. The primary end point was OS.

Results

Compared with the S group, the CS group had a better OS (5-year rate 38% v 24%; hazard ratio [HR] for death: 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.95; P = .02); and a better disease-free survival (5-year rate: 34% v 19%; HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.89; P = .003). In the multivariable analysis, the favorable prognostic factors for survival were perioperative chemotherapy (P = .01) and stomach tumor localization (P < .01). Perioperative chemotherapy significantly improved the curative resection rate (84% v 73%; P = .04). Grade 3 to 4 toxicity occurred in 38% of CS patients (mainly neutropenia) but postoperative morbidity was similar in the two groups.

Conclusion

In patients with resectable adenocarcinoma of the lower esophagus, GEJ, or stomach, perioperative chemotherapy using fluorouracil plus cisplatin significantly increased the curative resection rate, disease-free survival, and OS.
The Sogdians: Prime Movers between Boundaries
Authors: Rose Jenny
Published: March 2011

This article provides a nuanced look at an eastern Iranian people whose contribution to both the material and ideological culture of the “Silk Road” is just beginning to come to light. The centrality of Sogdian involvement in trade with both China and India is evidenced from recently deciphered textual sources dating to the fourth and fifth centuries CE, respectively, and from the fact that Sogdian was a lingua franca of the merchant routes through Central Asia into China. Although Sogdian became the main language of dissemination of Buddhist, Manichaean, and Christian texts to the Chinese, both iconographic and textual evidence attest to the continuity of the indigenous Zoroastrian tradition in both Sogdiana and among the Sogdian communities from Turpan to Changan.
Are Long-Run Inflation Expectations Anchored More Firmly in the Euro Area than in the United States?
Authors: Beechey Meredith J , Johannsen Benjamin K , Levin Andrew T
Published: March 2011

This paper compares the evolution of long-run inflation expectations in the euro area and the United States, using evidence from financial markets and surveys of professional forecasters. Survey data indicate that long-run inflation expectations are reasonably well anchored in both economies but reveal substantially greater dispersion across forecasters' long-horizon projections of US inflation. Analysis of daily data on inflation swaps and nominal-indexed bond spreads, which gauge compensation for expected inflation and inflation risk, also suggests that long-run inflation expectations are more firmly anchored in the euro area than in the United States. (JEL D84, E31, E37, E52, E58)
Did Improvements in Household Technology Cause the Baby Boom? Evidence from Electrification, Appliance Diffusion, and the Amish
Authors: Bailey Martha J , Collins William J
Published: March 2011

We examine the hypothesis that advances in household technology caused the US baby boom, and we find no support for this claim. Advances in household technology occurred before the baby boom, while fertility declined. From 1940 to 1960, levels/changes in county-level appliance ownership and electrification negatively predict levels/changes in fertility rates. Exposure to electricity in early adulthood and children-ever-born are negatively correlated for the relevant cohorts. The Amish, who used modern technologies much less than other US households, experienced a coincident baby boom. This evidence can be reconciled with economic theory if other home-produced goods are substitutes with children. (JEL D12, J13, N32, N92, O33)
Four cases of autosomal dominant hypocalcaemia with hypercalciuria including two with novel mutations in the calcium-sensing receptor gene
Authors: Schouten Belinda J , Raizis Anthony M , Soule Steven G , Cole David R , Frengley Patrick A , George Peter M , Florkowski Christopher M
Published: March 2011

We present four cases with clinical and biochemical hypocalcaemia and evidence supportive of hypoparathyroidism. One case had been previously ascribed a diagnosis of idiopathic hypoparathyroidism. Following the detection of relative hypercalciuria, all cases were found to have autosomal dominant hypocalcaemia with hypercalciuria and mutations of the calcium-sensing receptor gene, of which two were novel. Increased awareness of this condition and access to genotyping enables prompt accurate diagnosis and cascade screening of first-degree relatives.
Interference by antiruthenium antibodies in the Roche thyroid-stimulating hormone assay
Authors: Buijs M M , Gorgels J P M C , Endert E
Published: March 2011

There are many causes of interference in immunoassays causing erratic patient results. A method-specific interference due to antiruthenium antibodies in Roche free thyroxine (fT4) and free triiodothyronine (fT3) assays has been described previously. As a result, a new generation fT4 assay has been introduced by Roche. We describe six cases of interference due to antiruthenium antibodies, where in four cases interference in the Roche thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) assay was found as well. This raised the question as to whether other assays on this platform would also give incorrect results in patients with antiruthenium antibodies. Interference due to antiruthenium antibodies was suspected because of discrepancies between clinical presentation and/or TSH, fT4 and fT3 results. Samples of these six patients were re-analysed in Roche Diagnostics Laboratory, where it was demonstrated that the found discrepancies were indeed caused by interfering antiruthenium antibodies. Subsequently, these patients were asked to donate some blood once more for further evaluation, and three subjects agreed to participate. Their plasma was used to assay 18 analytes on Modular E and on a ruthenium-independent platform. The results were compared taking into account the known differences between distinct methods. As expected, significant interference was found in TSH. Also, in the new generation fT4 assay, ruthenium-induced interference was still present. However, the other assays, both competitive and immunometric, did not show clear interference. We therefore conclude that although antiruthenium antibodies theoretically can interfere in all assays on the Modular E platform, this kind of interference is found in the thyroid hormone assays, without marked interference in the other assays.
Acute haemolytic crisis due to concomitant presence of infection and possible altered acetaminophen catabolism in a Philipino child carrying the G6PD-Vanua Lava mutation
Authors: Minucci Angelo , De Luca Daniele , Torti Eleonora , Concolino Paola , Maurizi Palma , Giardina Bruno , Zuppi Cecilia , Capoluongo Ettore
Published: March 2011

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), an X-linked hereditary deficiency, is the most common of all clinically significant enzyme defects. While many drugs are responsible for haemolytic anaemia in G6PD-deficient patients, acetaminophen's imputability is still under debate, although an overdose of this drug can provoke acute haemolytic events. We report a case of a Philipino child carrying the G6PD-Vanua Lava mutation with acute haemolytic crisis related to infection in progress and acetaminophen's administration. Fever and concomitant infection, through an increment of erythrocyte glutathione depletion, sensitized the infant to the haemolytic event. In this condition, acetaminophen (or paracetamol [PCM]) was capable of inducing a haemolytic crisis in our G6PD-deficient patient although administered under standard conditions. PCM seems to have induced the haemolytic event, probably by the alteration of its catabolism due to dehydration and fever. The enzymatic G6PD instability associated to the presence of the G6PD-Vanua Lava mutation could have led to an increment of red blood cells' sensitivity to lysis; hence, it is possible that PCM toxicity may also be due to the presence of this particular mutation. Finally, we propose a new biochemical classification of this G6PD variant.
Comparison of high sensitivity and contemporary troponin assays for the early detection of acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department
Authors: Aldous Sally J , Florkowski Chris M , Crozier Ian G , Elliott John , George Peter , Lainchbury John G , Mackay Richard J , Than Martin
Published: March 2011

Background

Current guidelines define acute myocardial infarction (AMI) by the rise and/or fall of cardiac troponin with ≥1 value above the 99th percentile. Past troponin assays have been unreliable at the lower end of the range. Highly sensitive assays have therefore been developed to increase the clinical sensitivity for detection of myocardial injury.

Methods

Three hundred and thirty-two patients with chest pain suggestive of AMI were prospectively recruited between November 2006 and April 2007. Serial blood samples were analysed to compare Roche Elecsys high sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT), Abbott Architect troponin I 3rd generation (TnI 3) and Roche Elecsys troponin T (TnT) for the diagnosis of AMI.

Results

One hundred and ten (33.1%) patients were diagnosed with AMI. Test performance for the diagnosis of AMI, as quantified by receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (95% confidence intervals) for baseline/follow-up troponins were as follows: hsTnT 0.90 (0.87–0.94)/0.94 (0.91–0.97), TnI 3 0.88 (0.84–0.92)/0.93 (0.90–0.96) and TnT 0.80 (0.74–0.85)/0.89 (0.85–0.94). hsTnT was superior to TnT ( P < 0.001/0.013 at baseline/follow-up) but equivalent to TnI 3. For patients with a final diagnosis of AMI, baseline troponins were raised in more patients for hsTnT (83.6%) than TnI 3 (74.5%) and TnT (62.7%). A delta troponin of ≥20% increased the specificity of hsTnT from 80.6% to 93.7% but reduced sensitivity from 90.9% to 71.8%.

Conclusion

hsTnT was superior to TnT but equivalent to TnI 3 for the diagnosis of AMI. Serial troponin measurement increased test performance. hsTnT was the most likely to be raised at baseline in those with AMI. A delta troponin increases specificity but reduces sensitivity.
High sensitivity troponin outperforms contemporary assays in predicting major adverse cardiac events up to two years in patients with chest pain
Authors: Aldous Sally J , Florkowski Chris M , Crozier Ian G , George Peter , Mackay Richard , Than Martin
Published: March 2011

Background

Previous studies have shown a risk of subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes (ACSs) and elevated cardiac troponin. The aim of this study was to compare prognostic utility of high-sensitivity troponin with contemporary troponin assays in such patients.

Methods

In total, 332 patients with suspected ACS were investigated between November 2006 and April 2007; all were followed for two years. Blood samples were analysed to compare Roche Elecsys high-sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT), Abbott Architect troponin I 3rd generation (TnI 3) and Roche Elecsys troponin T (TnT), for the prediction of MACE (composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction and revascularization).

Results

Sixty-eight patients (20.5%) experienced MACE between discharge and two years. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve derived area under the ROC curve (95% confidence intervals) for baseline hsTnT were 0.70 (0.63–0.76), TnI 3 0.66 (0.59–0.73) and TnT 0.61 (0.53–0.69). hsTnT ( P = 0.001) was superior to TnT and TnI 3 trended ( P = 0.094) to superiority but were equivalent to each other. hsTnT best stratified patients with cumulative event rates for two-year MACE of 35.6% for levels ≥99th percentile, 17.9% for levels between the limit of detection (LOD) and 99th percentile and 5.4% for levels <LOD compared with TnI 3: 33.0%, 31.1% and 10.9%, respectively. TnT had MACE rates of 36.7% when ≥99th percentile and 15.4% when <99th percentile (=LOD).

Conclusions

hsTnT outperformed contemporary TnI and TnT assays for the prediction of MACE at two years. Those with levels below the LOD for hsTnT identified a group of patients at very low risk for adverse events.
Prp8, the pivotal protein of the spliceosomal catalytic center, evolved from a retroelement-encoded reverse transcriptase
Authors: Dlakić Mensur , Mushegian Arcady
Published: March 2011

Prp8 is the largest and most highly conserved protein of the spliceosome, encoded by all sequenced eukaryotic genomes but missing from prokaryotes and viruses. Despite all evidence that Prp8 is an integral part of the spliceosomal catalytic center, much remains to be learned about its molecular functions and evolutionary origin. By analyzing sequence and structure similarities between Prp8 and other protein domains, we show that its N-terminal region contains a putative bromodomain. The central conserved domain of Prp8 is related to the catalytic domain of reverse transcriptases (RTs) and is most similar to homologous enzymes encoded by prokaryotic retroelements. However, putative catalytic residues in this RT domain are only partially conserved and may not be sufficient for the nucleotidyltransferase activity. The RT domain is followed by an uncharacterized sequence region with relatives found in fungal RT-like proteins. This part of Prp8 is predicted to adopt an α-helical structure and may be functionally equivalent to diverse maturase/X domains of retroelements and to the thumb domain of retroviral RTs. Together with a previously identified C-terminal domain that has an RNaseH-like fold, our results suggest evolutionary connections between Prp8 and ancient mobile elements. Prp8 may have evolved by acquiring nucleic acid–binding domains from inactivated retroelements, and their present-day role may be in maintaining proper conformation of the bound RNA cofactors and substrates of the splicing reaction. This is only the second example—the other one being telomerase—of the RT recruitment from a genomic parasite to serve an essential cellular function.
miTALOS: Analyzing the tissue-specific regulation of signaling pathways by human and mouse microRNAs
Authors: Kowarsch Andreas , Preusse Martin , Marr Carsten , Theis Fabian J.
Published: March 2011

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important class of post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that are involved in various cellular and phenotypic processes. A number of studies have shown that miRNA expression is induced by signaling pathways. Moreover, miRNAs emerge as regulators of signaling pathways. Here, we present the miTALOS web resource, which provides insight into miRNA-mediated regulation of signaling pathways. As a novel feature, miTALOS considers the tissue-specific expression signatures of miRNAs and target transcripts to improve the analysis of miRNA regulation in biological pathways. MiTALOS identifies potential pathway regulation by (i) an enrichment analysis of miRNA targets genes and (ii) by using a proximity score to evaluate the functional role of miRNAs in biological pathways by their network proximity. Moreover, miTALOS integrates five different miRNA target prediction tools and two different signaling pathway resources (KEGG and NCI). A graphical visualization of miRNA targets in both KEGG and NCI PID signaling pathways is provided to illustrate their respective pathway context. We perform a functional analysis on prostate cancer-related miRNAs and are able to infer a model of miRNA-mediated regulation on tumor proliferation, mobility and anti-apoptotic behavior. miTALOS provides novel features that accomplish a substantial support to systematically infer regulation of signaling pathways mediated by miRNAs. The web-server is freely accessible at http://hmgu.de/cmb/mitalos.
MicroRNA fate upon targeting with anti-miRNA oligonucleotides as revealed by an improved Northern-blot-based method for miRNA detection
Authors: Torres Adrian G. , Fabani Martin M. , Vigorito Elena , Gait Michael J.
Published: March 2011

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs involved in fine-tuning of gene regulation. Antisense oligonucleotides (ONs) are promising tools as anti-miRNA (anti-miR) agents toward therapeutic applications and to uncover miRNA function. Such anti-miR ONs include 2′-O-methyl (OMe), cationic peptide nucleic acids like K-PNA-K3, and locked nucleic acid (LNA)-based anti-miRs such as LNA/DNA or LNA/OMe. Northern blotting is a widely used and robust technique to detect miRNAs. However, miRNA quantification in the presence of anti-miR ONs has proved to be challenging, due to detection artifacts, which has led to poor understanding of miRNA fate upon anti-miR binding. Here we show that anti-miR ON bound to miR-122 can prevent the miRNA from being properly precipitated into the purified RNA fraction using the standard RNA extraction protocol (TRI-Reagent), yielding an RNA extract that does not reflect the real cellular levels of the miRNA. An increase in the numbers of equivalents of isopropanol during the precipitation step leads to full recovery of the targeted miRNA back into the purified RNA extract. Following our improved protocol, we demonstrate by Northern blotting, in conjunction with a PNA decoy strategy and use of high denaturing PAGE, that high-affinity anti-miRs (K-PNA-K3, LNA/DNA, and LNA/OMe) sequester miR-122 without causing miRNA degradation, while miR-122 targeting with a lower-affinity anti-miR (OMe) seems to promote degradation of the miRNA. The technical issues explored in this work will have relevance for other hybridization-based techniques for miRNA quantification in the presence of anti-miR ONs.
Mutations of highly conserved bases in the peptidyltransferase center induce compensatory rearrangements in yeast ribosomes
Authors: Rakauskaitė Rasa , Dinman Jonathan D.
Published: March 2011

Molecular dynamics simulation identified three highly conserved rRNA bases in the large subunit of the ribosome that form a three-dimensional (3D) “gate” that induces pausing of the aa-tRNA acceptor stem during accommodation into the A-site. A nearby fourth base contacting the “tryptophan finger” of yeast protein L3, which is involved in the coordinating elongation factor recruitment to the ribosome with peptidyltransfer, is also implicated in this process. To better understand the functional importance of these bases, single base substitutions as well as deletions at all four positions were constructed and expressed as the sole forms of ribosomes in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. None of the mutants had strong effects on cell growth, translational fidelity, or on the interactions between ribosomes and tRNAs. However, the mutants did promote strong effects on cell growth in the presence of translational inhibitors, and differences in viability between yeast and Escherichia coli mutants at homologous positions suggest new targets for antibacterial therapeutics. Mutant ribosomes also promoted changes in 25S rRNA structure, all localized to the core of peptidyltransferase center (i.e., the proto-ribosome area). We suggest that a certain degree of structural plasticity is built into the ribosome, enabling it to ensure accurate translation of the genetic code while providing it with the flexibility to adapt and evolve.
Who Should Be Responsible for Software Security? A Comparative Analysis of Liability Policies in Network Environments
Authors: August Terrence , Tunca Tunay I.
Published: March 2011

In recent years, vendor liability for software security vulnerabilities has been the center of an important debate in the software community and a topic gaining government attention in legislative committees and hearings. The importance of this question surrounding vendor security liability is amplified when one considers the increasing emergence of zero-day attacks where hackers take advantage of vulnerabilities before the software vendor has a chance to release protective patches. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of three software liability policies: vendor liability for damages, vendor liability for patching costs, and government imposed security standards. We find that vendor liability for losses is not effective in improving social welfare in the short run, while liability for patching costs can be effective if either patching costs are large and the likelihood of a zero-day attack is low, or patching costs are small and zero-day likelihood is high. In the long run, when the vendor can invest in reducing the likelihood of security vulnerabilities, loss liability is still ineffective when the zero-day attack probability is high but can increase both vendor investment in security and social welfare when zero-day attack likelihood is sufficiently low. When the zero-day attack probability is high, patch liability is ineffective if user patching costs are large, but partial patch liability can boost vendor investment and improve welfare when patching costs are small. In contrast, in an environment with low zero-day attack probability, full vendor patch liability can be optimal. Finally, comparing the effectiveness of the three liability policies under study, we find that government imposed standards on software security investment can be preferable to both patching and loss liability on the vendor, if zero-day attack likelihood is sufficiently low. However, if zero-day attacks are a common occurrence and patching costs are not too high, partial patch liability is the most effective policy.

This paper was accepted by Sandra Slaughter, information systems.
How Does Popularity Information Affect Choices? A Field Experiment
Authors: Tucker Catherine , Zhang Juanjuan
Published: March 2011

Popularity information is usually thought to reinforce existing sales trends by encouraging customers to flock to mainstream products with broad appeal. We suggest a countervailing market force: popularity information may benefit niche products with narrow appeal disproportionately, because the same level of popularity implies higher quality for narrow-appeal products than for broad-appeal products. We examine this hypothesis empirically using field experiment data from a website that lists wedding service vendors. Our findings are consistent with this hypothesis: narrow-appeal vendors receive more visits than equally popular broad-appeal vendors after the introduction of popularity information.

This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta, marketing.
The Stock Market in the Driver's Seat! Implications for R&D and Marketing
Authors: Chakravarty Anindita , Grewal Rajdeep
Published: March 2011

The budgets for research and development (R&D) and marketing should be determined by managers to attain product market advantages. However, in response to investor expectations for short-term stock returns, managers may modify these budgets myopically to avoid unexpected short-term earnings shortfalls, at the cost of long-term profitability. We propose that the past behavior of firm stock returns and volatility may create investor expectations of short-term financial performance, which drives managers to modify either R&D or marketing budgets or both. In the context of high-technology firms, a Bayesian vector autoregression model, supported by content analysis, shows that few firms exhibit high levels of managerial myopia by simultaneously cutting both R&D and marketing budgets; instead, firms display moderate myopic reactions, in the form of unanticipated decreases in R&D budgets but increased budgets for marketing functions. The tendency to manage myopically in response to past stock returns and volatility increases as firm size or industry concentration decrease.

This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta and Preyas Desai, special issue editors.

This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta and Preyas Desai, special issue editors.
Overconfidence by Bayesian-Rational Agents
Authors: Van den Steen Eric
Published: March 2011

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one mechanism is slightly ironic: In trying to update optimally, Bayesian agents overweight information of which they overestimate the precision and underweight in the opposite case. This causes overall an overestimation of the precision of the final estimate, which tends to increase as agents get more data.

This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, decision analysis.
Herding in Queues with Waiting Costs: Rationality and Regret
Authors: Veeraraghavan Senthil K. , Debo Laurens G.
Published: March 2011

We study how consumers with waiting cost disutility choose between two congested services of unknown service value. Consumers observe an imperfect private signal indicating which service facility may provide better service value as well as the queue lengths at the service facilities before making their choice. If more consumers choose the same service facility because of their private information, longer queues will form at that facility and indicate higher quality. On the other hand, a long queue also implies more waiting time. We characterize the equilibrium queue-joining behavior of arriving consumers and the extent of their learning from the queue information in the presence of such positive and negative externalities. We find that when the arrival rates are low, utility-maximizing rational consumers herd and join the longer queue, ignoring any contrary private information. We show that even when consumers treat queues as independently evolving, herd behavior persists with consumers joining longer queues above a threshold queue difference. However, if the consumers seek to minimize ex post regret when making their decisions, herd behavior may be dampened.
Product Customization and Customer Service Costs: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Kumar Anuj , Telang Rahul
Published: March 2011

We conduct a field study in a U.S. health insurance firm to examine how product customization affects the firm's cost to serve customers through its call center. In our setting, the product is a complex health insurance plan. The firm incurs substantial costs in serving the customers through its call center and in adjudicating the claims using its information systems. The firm sells either standard plans or in some instances allows customer groups to customize their plans by adding and modifying certain aspects in active collaboration with the firm. Such a collaboration process is akin to the firm cocreating products with its customers. This cocreation process should increase customers' familiarity with their coverage and improve the fit with their medical needs. Better fit and familiarity in turn, reduces customers' incentives to contact the call center for clarifications regarding the firm's product coverage. In particular, we show that customers with a customized plan call 21% less frequently than customers with a standard plan. Our results account for possible self-selection of customers to customized plans. We also show no difference in the claims adjudication cost between a standard and a customized plan exists. Overall, our results suggest customized plans may be operationally cheaper to serve than standard plans. Thus, our paper provides a link between a growing business concern (customer support cost via call centers) and a prevalent business strategy (product customization via cocreation).
Incentives for Transshipment in a Supply Chain with Decentralized Retailers
Authors: Shao Jing , Krishnan Harish , McCormick S. Thomas
Published: March 2011

We examine transshipment incentives in a decentralized supply chain where a monopolist distributes a product through independent retailers. A key insight is that the transshipment price determines whether the firms benefit from, or are hurt by, transshipment. In particular, we show that the manufacturer prefers to set the transshipment price as high as possible, whereas retailers prefer a lower transshipment price. Given the important role of the transshipment price in determining the benefits that each firm gets from transshipment, it is useful to consider transshipment in the case where retailers are under joint ownership (a “chain store”) and the transshipment price does not play a role. This comparison yields two surprising results. First, if decentralized retailers control the transshipment price, they will choose a relatively low transshipment price as a way to mitigate the manufacturer's ability to extract profits by increasing wholesale prices; therefore, the manufacturer may prefer dealing with the chain store, which does not have a transshipment price, rather than with decentralized retailers. Similarly, the decentralized retailers can use a low transshipment price to achieve higher total profits than a chain store.
Contravariantly finite resolving subcategories over commutative rings
Authors: Takahashi Ryo
Published: March 2011

Contravariantly finite resolving subcategories of the category of finitely generated modules have been playing an important role in the representation theory of algebras. In this paper we study contravariantly finite resolving subcategories over commutative rings. The main purpose of this paper is to classify contravariantly finite resolving subcategories over a henselian Gorenstein local ring; in fact there exist only three such subcategories. Our method to obtain this classification also recovers as a by-product the theorem of Christensen, Piepmeyer, Striuli and Takahashi concerning the relationship between the contravariant finiteness of the full subcategory of totally reflexive modules and the Gorenstein property of the base ring.
Community-Academic Partnerships to Reduce Black-White Disparities in Infant Mortality in Florida
Authors: Salihu Hamisu M. , August Euna M. , Alio Amina P. , Jeffers Delores , Austin Deborah , Berry Estrellita
Published: March 2011

Problem: In Florida, data reveal a widening black-white disparity in infant mortality to the disadvantage of black families. Eight Florida counties have a significantly pronounced black-white infant mortality gap: Broward, Duval, Gadsden, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, and Putnam. Purpose: The black Infant Health Community Collaborative (BIHCC) was established to address the rising racial/ethnic disparities in infant mortality. The program used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to enable communities to develop sustainable initiatives to improve community health and reduce infant mortality. Key Points: Grounded in CBPR principles, a community-academic-state partnership was created to address the upsurge in black-white disparity in infant mortality. Community teams from each participating county underwent a 2-year period of capacity building. The culmination of this process was community-driven action plans to alleviate infant health disparities. Conclusion: The BIHCC provides a replicable model for the development of community-academic-state partnerships to enhance capacity for improving infant health outcomes.
Der Zweitspracherwerb des deutschen Kasus in der Präpositionalphrase
Authors: Turgay Katharina
Published: March 2011

Case is one of the grammatical categories that pose great challenges to children acquiring German, both in first and second language acquisition. The paper examines the special case of the second language acquisition of case within prepositional phrases (PPs). A prototypical German PP consists of a preposition selecting a determiner phrase (DP) whose case is governed by the prepositional head. One problem is that the case assigned by a preposition and its semantics are not related to each other, while in the case of socalled two-way prepositions, the semantics of the PP and the case within the DP are closely connected. This conflict between arbitrariness and semantically driven case assignment could pose an additional obstacle for learners of German. I have conducted an experiment in which I examined how case within PPs is acquired by 56 primary school children whose first language is not German. My study shows that the children have great difficulties regarding the dative and that the accusative is used instead very often. This overgeneralization decreases with an increase in age.
Allomorphy in the German genitive. A paradigmatic account
Authors: Fehringer Carol
Published: March 2011

This paper investigates the distribution of the genitive singular allomorphs -es and -s in modern standard German, in the light of current theories of the mental lexicon. It will be shown, using current electronic corpora, that the preference that native speakers demonstrate for one genitive allomorph over the other is determined by a number of interacting factors: phonological, morphological, semantic and frequency-based, and that this preference should not be seen in terms of a simple two-way opposition but is a more subtle matter of degree. Primarily, the paper will argue that: i) the choice of genitive allomorph in non-derived nouns is determined by the token frequency of that noun; ii) the choice of genitive allomorph on the head of compound words is determined by semantic transparency, so that compound heads showing a clear semantic association with the corresponding free-standing noun mirror the behaviour of that noun with respect to their genitive form (e.g. Hundes ‘dog’ – Blindenhundes ‘guide dog’). By contrast, compounds with more opaque meanings tend to act as independent items with respect to genitive allomorph allocation. It will be argued that such data provide evidence for the wholesale lexical listing of genitive forms in the lexicon, which are related to other members of their (inflectional and derivational) paradigm by lexical connections of varying strength.