bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contribution of nitric oxide in the contraction-induced rapid vasodilation in young and older adults
Authors: Casey Darren P. , Walker Branton G. , Ranadive Sushant M. , Taylor Jennifer L. , Joyner Michael J.
Published: June 2013

We tested the hypothesis that reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability contributes to the attenuated peak and total vasodilation following single-muscle contractions in older adults. Young ( n = 10; 24 ± 2 yr) and older ( n = 10; 67 ± 2 yr) adults performed single forearm contractions at 10, 20, and 40% of maximum during saline infusion (control) and NO synthase (NOS) inhibition via NG-monomethyl-l-arginine. Brachial artery diameters and velocities were measured using Doppler ultrasound and forearm vascular conductance (FVC; in ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1) was calculated from blood flow (ml/min) and blood pressure (mmHg). Peak and total vasodilator responses [change (Δ) in FVC from baseline] were attenuated in older adults at all intensities ( P < 0.05). NOS inhibition reduced the peak ΔFVC at 10% (88 ± 12 vs. 52 ± 9 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1), 20% (125 ± 13 vs. 83 ± 13 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1), and 40% (207 ± 26 vs. 133 ± 20 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1) in young subjects, ( P < 0.05 for all) and in older adults at 10% (59 ± 5 vs. 47 ± 7 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1, P < 0.05) and 20% (88 ± 9 vs. 68 ± 9 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1, P < 0.05), but not 40% (128 ± 12 vs. 105 ± 11 ml·min−1·100 mmHg−1, P = 0.11). The relative (%) reduction in peak ΔFVC due to NOS inhibition was greater in young vs. older adults at 20% (−36 ± 5 vs. −23 ± 5%, P < 0.05) and 40% (−35 ± 6 vs. −16 ± 7%, P < 0.05). The reduction in the total vasodilator response (area under the curve) with NOS inhibition was also greater in young vs. older adults at all intensities. Our data suggest that contraction-induced rapid vasodilation is mediated in part by NO, and that the contribution of NO is greater in young adults.
Cotargeting Androgen Receptor and Clusterin Delays Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer Progression by Inhibiting Adaptive Stress Response and AR Stability
Authors: Matsumoto Hiroaki , Yamamoto Yoshiaki , Shiota Masaki , Kuruma Hidetoshi , Beraldi Eliana , Matsuyama Hideyasu , Zoubeidi Amina , Gleave Martin
Published: June 2013

Although androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibitors prolong survival in castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), resistance rapidly develops and is often associated with increased stress-activated molecular chaperones like clusterin (CLU) and continued AR signaling. Because adaptive pathways activated by treatment facilitate development of acquired resistance, cotargeting the stress response, activated by AR inhibition and mediated through CLU, may create conditional lethality and improve outcomes. Here, we report that CLU is induced by AR antagonism and silencing using MDV3100 and antisense, respectively, to become highly expressed in castrate- and MDV3100-resistant tumors and cell lines. CLU, as well as AKT and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalosomes, increase in response to MDV3100-induced stress. Mechanistically, this stress response is coordinated by a feed-forward loop involving p90rsk (RPS6KA)-mediated phosphoactivation of YB-1 with subsequent induction of CLU. CLU inhibition repressed MDV3100-induced activation of AKT and MAPK pathways. In addition, when combined with MDV3100, CLU knockdown accelerated AR degradation and repressed AR transcriptional activity through mechanisms involving decreased YB-1–regulated expression of the AR cochaperone, FKBP52. Cotargeting the AR (with MDV3100) and CLU (with OGX-011) synergistically enhanced apoptotic rates over that seen with MDV3100 or OGX-011 monotherapy and delayed CRPC LNCaP tumor and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression in vivo. These data indicate that cotargeting adaptive stress pathways activated by AR pathway inhibitors, and mediated through CLU, creates conditional lethality and provides mechanistic and preclinical proof-of-principle to guide biologically rational combinatorial clinical trial design. Cancer Res; 73(16); 5206–17. ©2013 AACR.
Lysine Acetyltransferase PCAF Is a Key Regulator of Arteriogenesis
Authors: Bastiaansen Antonius J.N.M. , Ewing Mark M. , de Boer Hetty C. , van der Pouw Kraan Tineke C. , de Vries Margreet R. , Peters Erna A.B. , Welten Sabine M.J. , Arens Ramon , Moore Scott M. , Faber James E. , Jukema J. Wouter , Hamming Jaap F. , Nossent A. Yaël , Quax Paul H.A.
Published: June 2013

Objective—

Therapeutic arteriogenesis, that is, expansive remodeling of preexisting collaterals, using single-action factor therapies has not been as successful as anticipated. Modulation of factors that act as a master switch for relevant gene programs may prove more effective. Transcriptional coactivator p300-CBP–associated factor (PCAF) has histone acetylating activity and promotes transcription of multiple inflammatory genes. Because arteriogenesis is an inflammation-driven process, we hypothesized that PCAF acts as multifactorial regulator of arteriogenesis.

Approach and Results—

After induction of hindlimb ischemia, blood flow recovery was impaired in both PCAF
−/−
mice and healthy wild-type mice treated with the pharmacological PCAF inhibitor Garcinol, demonstrating an important role for PCAF in arteriogenesis. PCAF deficiency reduced the in vitro inflammatory response in leukocytes and vascular cells involved in arteriogenesis. In vivo gene expression profiling revealed that PCAF deficiency results in differential expression of 3505 genes during arteriogenesis and, more specifically, in impaired induction of multiple proinflammatory genes. Additionally, recruitment from the bone marrow of inflammatory cells, in particular proinflammatory Ly6C
hi
monocytes, was severely impaired in PCAF
−/−
mice.

Conclusions—

These findings indicate that PCAF acts as master switch in the inflammatory processes required for effective arteriogenesis.
Asymmetric Dimethylarginine in Response to Recombinant Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator and Erythropoietin in Acute Stroke
Authors: Worthmann Hans , Martens-Lobenhoffer Jens , Joumaah Majed , Li Na , Lichtinghagen Ralf , Hecker Hartmut , Kielstein Jan T. , Ehrenreich Hannelore , Bode-Böger Stefanie M. , Weissenborn Karin
Published: June 2013

Background and Purpose—

In the German Multicenter Erythropoietin (EPO) Stroke Trial, patients not receiving thrombolysis most likely benefited from EPO on clinical recovery, whereas a combination of rtPA and EPO was associated with increased mortality. We investigated whether the combination of rtPA and EPO increased release of the endogenous NO synthase inhibitor asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), and thereby potentially deteriorated ischemic stroke outcome, as suggested from experimental data.

Methods—

ADMA was determined in serum samples from 90 patients of the German Multicenter EPO Stroke Trial taken at days 1 (within 6 hours after symptom onset), 2, 3, 4, and 7 after stroke using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. ADMA was analyzed for the different treatment groups (EPO, n=25; placebo, n=30; rtPA+placebo, n=18; EPO+rtPA, n=17). Clinical outcome was expressed as difference between National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at baseline and 90 days.

Results—

ADMA levels significantly increased during the observation time in EPO, EPO+rtPA, and placebo groups (
P
<0.05). A treatment effect on ADMA levels was revealed by repeated measures ANOVA only in the rtPA+placebo group (
P
=0.027). Here, ADMA levels were decreased compared with the placebo group (
P
<0.05). Both the EPO and the rtPA+placebo groups in the Hannover subgroup of the EPO trial had better outcome than the placebo group (
P
<0.05).

Conclusions—

Our data underscore the potential benefit of EPO in ischemic stroke. The hypothesis from experimental data, that EPO treatment increases ADMA in stroke patients, was disproved. Further studies are needed to clarify whether decreased ADMA might contribute to therapeutic rtPA effects.
Permutations of Sovereignty in the Priestly Tradition
Authors: Brett Mark G.
Published: June 2013

Abstract

According to P and H, Israelites can in some respects be seen as “sojourners” (גרים) not just in foreign lands but also in the land given to Abraham’s seed. As one would expect, Israelites are also viewed as citizens in their own land, yet ironically this is affirmed in H passages such as Lev. 24:22 and Exod. 12:49 which call for equality between natives and immigrants. The paper suggests that P and H are engaged in a debate with the Deuteronomistic traditions about the significance of political sovereignty and citizenship. The priestly writers mimic imperial symbolism and imply that the “many nations” descended from Abraham (Gen. 17:4), and the “assembly of nations” descended from Jacob-Israel (Gen. 35:11), would embody an imperial rather than national sovereignty.
A Suggestion Regarding the Meaning of 2 Kings 17:9 and the Composition of 2 Kings 17:7-23
Authors: Goldstein Ronnie
Published: June 2013

Abstract

This article adduces Akkadian idioms to explain three formulations in 2 Kgs 17:9-11 which differ from the standard Deuteronomistic phraseology employed in 2 Kgs 17:7-23. The awkward Hebrew phrase ויחפאו. . . דברים is interpreted as a loan from Akkadian hepû + dibbu = “to break an agreement”, the following expression דברים אשר לא כן compared with the Akkadian dibbu ša lā kinnu = “disloyal talk”, and the ending of v. 11 understood in the light of an Akkadian idiom. On this analysis, vv. 9-11 appear to be composed of two strata, the original core—composed during the Neo-Assyrian period—and a later Deuteronomistic redaction which reinterpreted the initial text. The former can be understood as a very early theological response to the destruction of Samaria and Assyrian imperial claims regarding its fall which utilizes Neo-Assyrian covenantal terminology to describe the relationship between the God of Israel and His people.
The Roots of Anger: An Economic Perspective on Zephaniah’s Oracle Against the Philistines
Authors: Welch Eric Lee
Published: June 2013

Abstract

The superscription of the book of Zephaniah places the composition in the 7th century BCE, during the reign of King Josiah of Judah. While some scholars support a monarchic date for composition on the grounds of geopolitical details, others have accepted the book as a post-monarchic composition, in which geopolitical details are merely functions of literary techniques. Critical in the discussions of date and historicity are the oracles found in the book’s second chapter. This essay examines the introductory poem found in Zeph 2:4 and argues that the oracle is representative of 7th century Judean sentiments toward the city of Ekron because of a specific pun, which should be read in light of the city’s impressive olive oil industry dating to the 7th century BCE.
The Structure and Substance of Numbers 15
Authors: Baden Joel S.
Published: June 2013

Abstract

Numbers 15 has long been seen in scholarship as a vaguely haphazard collection of disparate legal elements, with few obvious connections between them. Although some attempts have been made to find a thematic thread linking the various parts of the chapter, there has been little consensus on how best to understand the rationale behind the location and grouping of these legal passages or their particular order. This paper will make a new suggestion regarding the means by which Numbers 15 came to have its canonical shape.
The Righteous Gentile Interjects (James 2:18-19 and Romans 2:14-15)
Authors: Heath Jane
Published: June 2013

Abstract

Jas 2:18-19 is at the heart of James’ famous (or, to some, infamous) argument about faith and works, but it defies definitive interpretation due to combined difficulties in punctuation and in tracing the literary continuity in James’ argument. This essay approaches the problematic passage in the context of James’ literary intertextuality with Paul. It suggests that the enigmatic objector in James is one of Paul’s righteous gentiles (Rom 2:14-15), who lumps James and his Jewish Christian ‘brothers’ together in charging them with hypocrisy (cf. Rom 2:17-23). James artfully gives this gentile Christian voice to strengthen his own argument, for an audience already alerted to his rich intertextuality with Paul.
Geographic Mobility as a System of Power Relations Inside Business Networks
Authors: Gherardi Laura , Pierre Philippe
Published: June 2013

Abstract

This article focuses on the capacity of business élites to be ubiquitous—present on different scenes, geographically far from one another, simultaneously through the means of the mobility (and immobility) of other people who replace them. Based on interviewers with a sample of 52 people from three French multinationals we find that for many business managers, mobility appears to be more an imperative dictated by their role than a choice. For them an ambiguous interpretation of mobility occurs that fluctuates between it being viewed as a resource and a cost, a reward and a trial. At the same time their mobility facilitates differential accumulation of informational capital and social capital for their superiors.
Police as Nation Builders: Distinguishing between Countries that Contribute Police Officers to United Nations Peace Operations
Authors: den Heyer Garth
Published: June 2013

The involvement of police in post-conflict peacekeeping has experienced exceptional growth. As a result, the countries contributing police officers to United Nations and European Union Missions is increasing. The countries that have contributed police officers to the 24 United Nations Missions that took place between January 2006 and December 2012 are examined and compared with those of military peacekeeping contributing countries. The countries identified as contributing police to peacekeeping missions during this period are different from those contributing military forces and are principally developing nations. These results raise questions in regard to the form of policing being introduced in post-conflict nations and the depriving of the contributing countries of their limited resource.
The Ethnification of Politics and the Galvanization of Fear
Authors: Mujkić Asim
Published: June 2013

The aim of this text is twofold. First, I intend to examine the importance of fear for the creation of ethnonationalist political entities in ex-Yugoslavia, especially in the areas where ethnic borders failed to coincide with political borders, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina after the 1989 Revolution. The region had entered into “a state of suspense and fear, dissolution of the sober little uniformities” (Brinton 1965: 173) and into a series of “aggressions and civil wars (total war) as the most extreme forms of the uncompleted ethnonational revolutions” (Sekulić 2006: 35). This is the first phase of the galvanization of fear, namely, the phase of revolutionary terror, referring to a series of small dictatorships of ethnonationalist extremists “embodied in governmental forms as rough-and-ready centralization” (Brinton 1965: 171). These extremists relied on the illegal use of force, ethnic cleansing and genocide. The second phase of the galvanization of fear excluded armed revolutionary violence due to the intervention of the international community, but implied various mechanisms of ruling ethnonationalist elites in preserving the necessary level of fear in politics for the same purpose of achieving the still unrealized goals of “the territorial-nationalist revolution.”1 My focus in the second part of the text will be how fear is structurally produced and politically organized in an ethnopolitical society such as Bosnia and Herzegovina through democratic institutions, for example political elections, for the purpose of achieving the basic political end – the creation of a (ethno)national state.
Memory, Trust and Fear in Post-Conflict Societies
Authors: Pavićević Djordje
Published: June 2013

The paper deals with the importance of common knowledge based on shared memory for the character of social cooperation. The findings are based on the background of Serbian experience with dealing with the past. The stabilization of a common stock of knowledge is valuable for establishing sustainable patterns of cooperation. The nexus between shared knowledge and different modalities of action is elaborated. Fearful and trustful actions are taken as basic modalities. Both are concerned with uncertainty over time and coping with the freedom of others as independent agents, but they evoke different expectations concerning the prospects of possible cooperation. The common assumptions of mutual expectations are crucial for the choice of cooperative strategy. Trustful cooperation is based on relying on others, while fearful action is based on an apprehension of threat. A “history of play” informs parties on mutual expectations. The irreducibility of shared memories shows that institutional incentives and signals are not able to stabilize shared knowledge on mutual expectations. The paper suggests that different conceptualizations are linked to different modalities of action and that rebuilding damaged relations requires shared reconstruction of a history of mutual relations. The thesis relies on a substantive argument about the particularity of common knowledge and a general argument based on the formal structure of social cooperation.
Upper-Ocean Salinity Variability in the Tropical Pacific: Case Study for Quasi-Decadal Shift during the 2000s Using TRITON Buoys and Argo Floats
Authors: Hasegawa Takuya , Ando Kentaro , Ueki Iwao , Mizuno Keisuke , Hosoda Shigeki
Published: June 2013

Upper-ocean salinity variation in the tropical Pacific is investigated during the 2000s, when Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network (TRITON) buoys and Argo floats were deployed and more salinity data were observed than in previous periods. This study focuses on upper-ocean salinity variability during the warming period of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-like quasi-decadal (QD)-scale sea surface temperature anomalies over the central equatorial Pacific (January 2002–December 2005; hereafter “warm QD phase”). It is shown that strong negative salinity anomalies occur in the western tropical Pacific and the off-equatorial Pacific in the upper ocean at depths less than 80 m, showing a horseshoe-like pattern centered at the western tropical Pacific during the warm QD phase. TRITON mooring buoy data in the western equatorial Pacific show that low-salinity and high-temperature water could be transported eastward from the western equatorial Pacific to the central equatorial Pacific during the warm QD phase. Similar patterns, but with the opposite sign of salinity anomalies, appear in the cold QD phase during January 2007–December 2009 with negative sea surface temperature anomalies over the central equatorial Pacific. It is suggested that effects from zonal salinity advection and precipitation could contribute to the generation of the salinity variations in the western equatorial Pacific for QD phases during the 2000s. On the other hand, the contribution of meridional salinity advection is much less than that of zonal salinity advection. In addition, El Niño Modoki and La Niña events could affect salinity changes for warm and cold QD phases via interannual-scale zonal salinity advection variations in the western equatorial Pacific during the 2000s.
Possible Root Causes of Surface Westerly Biases over the Equatorial Atlantic in Global Climate Models
Authors: Zermeño-Diaz David M. , Zhang Chidong
Published: June 2013

Most global climate models (GCMs) suffer from biases of a reversed zonal gradient in sea surface temperature (SST) and weak surface easterlies (the westerly bias) in the equatorial Atlantic during boreal spring. These biases exist in atmospheric GCMs (AGCMs) and are amplified by air–sea interactions in atmospheric–oceanic GCMs. This problem has persisted despite considerable model improvements in other aspects. This study proposes a hypothesis that there are two possible root causes for the westerly bias. The first is insufficient lower-tropospheric diabatic heating over Amazonia. The second is erroneously weak zonal momentum flux (entrainment) across the top of the boundary layer. This hypothesis is based on a scale analysis of a simple model for a well-mixed equatorial boundary layer and diagnoses of simulations from eight AGCMs. Severe westerly biases in AGCMs tend to occur when the diabatic heating at low levels (850–700 hPa) over Amazonia is too weak. Deficient low-level diabatic heating weakens the zonal gradient in sea level pressure along the Atlantic equator, introducing westerly biases. In addition, westerly biases may also occur when easterly momentum flux due to entrainment is underestimated.
Long working hours and working-time preferences: Between desirability and feasibility
Authors: Campbell Iain , van Wanrooy Brigid
Published: June 2013

Studies of workers engaged in patterns of long working hours increasingly draw on working-time preference data from large-scale surveys, in particular data on the ‘match’ or ‘mismatch’ of current working hours and preferred working hours. These data are useful, but they are weakened by the common instability of answers to simple working-time preference questions. This article reviews the existing discussion of the causes and implications of this instability. It takes advantage of a small programme of in-depth qualitative interviews in order to examine more closely expressions of working-time preferences among long hours workers. The interview results reveal widespread ambivalence, linked to the fact that employees hold multiple, often conflicting ideas, in particular around the feasibility of a reduction in their working hours. The results point to the need for a careful combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in the study of the causes of long working hours.
System-level change in mental health services in North Wales: An observational study using systems thinking
Authors: Evans S , Huxley PJ , Maxwell N , Huxley KLS
Published: June 2013

Purpose:

To describe changes to mental health services using systems thinking.

Method:

Structured standardized quality of life assessment (Manchester Short Quality of Life Assessment: MANSA) was used to establish service user priorities for changes to service provision (part of a process known as check in systems thinking). Current service performance in these priority areas was identified, and changes to service arrangements were planned, implemented and monitored by task and finish (T&F) groups (making use of a process known as flow in systems thinking).

Results:

81 MANSA assessments were completed at the check stage (by NM). Work finances and leisure activities emerged as service user priority areas for change, and T&F groups were established with representation of all sectors and service users. Ways to make improvements were observed, planned and implemented by T&F groups (the flow stage).

Conclusion:

The systems approach reveals how services and quality of life have been changed for patients in Wrexham. Further generalizable research is needed into the potential benefits of using systems thinking in mental health service evaluation.
The role of the psychologist in social change
Authors: Kinderman Peter
Published: June 2013

On 1 September 1967, the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech entitled ‘The role of the behavioral scientist in the civil rights movement’ to the American Psychological Association (APA, 1999; King, 1968). With eloquence and passion, Martin Luther King championed the civil rights struggle and spoke to the interests of his audience. He stressed how behavioural scientists could and should support the civil rights movement. King’s eloquent and passionate speech is still relevant today – explaining how psychologists and other mental health professionals could help address today’s pressing social issues.
Motion planning efficient trajectories for industrial bin-picking
Authors: Ellekilde Lars-Peter , Petersen Henrik Gordon
Published: June 2013

This paper presents an algorithm for planning efficient trajectories in a bin-picking scenario. The presented algorithm is designed to provide paths, which are applicable for typical industrial manipulators, and does not require customized research interfaces to the robot controller. The method provides paths (almost) instantaneously, which is important for running efficiently in production. To achieve this, the method utilizes that all motions start and end within sub-volumes of the work envelope. A database of paths can thus be pre-computed, such that all paths are optimized with respect to a specified cost function, thereby ensuring close to optimal solutions. When queried, the method searches the database for a feasible path candidate and adapts it to the specific query. To achieve an efficient execution on the robot, blends are added to ensure a smooth transition between segments. Two algorithms for calculating feasible blends based on the clearance between robot and obstacles are therefore provided. Finally, the method is tested in a real bin-picking application where it solves queries efficiently and provides paths, which are significantly faster than those currently used for bin-picking in the industry.
Consuming an edge: ADHD, stimulant use, and psy culture at the corporate university
Authors: Levinson Jack , McKinney Kelly A.
Published: June 2013

We examine “psy” on the college campus. Psy refers to ways of knowing and acting on ourselves that shape everyday life psychologically. We suggest that there is an “elective affinity” between psy and the neoliberal management strategies that now dominate the “corporate university.” We describe ways that psy organizes college life by drawing on the history of college health services; interviews about mental health and services at a university in Canada; and historical, social, and media accounts of student mental health and pharmaceutical drug use—both prescribed and not—on campus in the US and Canada. By the 1990s, for the first time, many students were arriving at college as already experienced consumers of psy with diagnoses and prescriptions. We approach this and the increased use of medication as an aspect of the psy-campus. We focus on stimulants, using ADHD to illustrate the blurring line between treatment and enhancement. Students who use stimulants—with or without prescription—do so in the same way: instrumentally in relation to academic demands. The blurred line between academic stress and psychiatric distress is further illustrated by “clinic notes,” an institutionalized practice that enables all students to act on academic pressure as a matter of mental health. We describe the links between psy and institutional branding and marketing to illustrate the role of mental health and wellness services in the corporate university.
‘I beg you to tear up my letters...’ Nikos Skalkottas’s last years in Berlin (1928-33)
Authors: Thornley John
Published: June 2013

Nikos Skalkottas (1904-49), the Greek pupil of Schoenberg, was one of the greatest and most prolific atonal and twelve-note composers of the twentieth century, though unrecognised in Athens during his lifetime. The fifty-six letters that he wrote to his patron Manolis Benakis illuminate Skalkottas’s life and his music, the financial and emotional difficulties leading to his enforced departure from Berlin, his aesthetic viewpoint, his opinions on Greece and its musical life, and his reasons for composing the popular ‘36 Greek Dances’. This is the first published account of this important documentary source.
Peasant Names in Fourteenth-Century Macedonia
Authors: Laiou Angeliki E.
Published: June 2013

The historian who is engaged in the study of Byzantine social history is faced with a problem common to pre-industrial societies, or societies in which the majority of the population is both exploited and illiterate. The sources, written as they are by an upper class and largely for an upper class, give relatively abundant information about a small segment of the population, leaving us in darkness about the rest of society. In Byzantine history this is particularly true about the peasantry, which has left us only a very few sources of its own, and rather uninspiring ones at that. The Byzantine upper class wrote its own history, but the Byzantine peasants did not, thus making the task of the modern historian more difficult. Despite these problems, work has been done on both the urban and the rural population of the Empire, and more will probably be done as monastic archives become available. The study of the Byzantine peasantry is of primary importance. For if we are to understand Byzantine society, we must study and understand what happened in the countryside. After all, the Byzantine economy rested on agriculture, and the social relations which determined the fate of the state were, primarily, the social relations prevalent in the countryside.
Andreas Kalvos and the Eighteenth-Century Ethos
Authors: Sherrard Philip
Published: June 2013

In the space of a few years the small isle of Zante, one of the Ionian group, produced three important poets: Hugo Foscolo, Dionysios Solomos, and the subject of this present study, Andreas Kalvos. Kalvos was born in 1792, fourteen years after Foscolo and six years before Solomos. His father’s family may originally have come from Crete. His modier’s family was one of the aristocratic families of Zante—the family name had been inscribed ever since the Venetian occupation of the island in the Gold Book of the island nobility. The marriage of the poet’s parents does not seem to have been a success, for not many years after the birth of his younger brother in 1794, the father, taking the two children with him, left Zante for Leghorn, where his bromer was consul for the Ionian Islands, and where there was a considerable Greek colony. In 1805 Andreas’ mother obtained a divorce fron her husband on the grounds of desertion, and shortly afterwards she married for the second time. She died in 1815, never having seen her children again after their departure from Zante.
The Significance of Unction in Byzantine Iconography
Authors: Walter Christopher
Published: June 2013

How agreeable it would be if the art historian could, with the aid of iconographical documents, resolve problems which baffle those who depend primarily upon literary sources for their studies. Unfortunately, such a triumph is rarely afforded to the art historian. Byzantine artists in particular have not left us a detailed record of contemporary events; their productions tell us more about the ideas current in their lifetime than about what actually happened. This is certainly the case for the rite of unction. We have no pictures of a Byzantine emperor being anointed and no evidence that such pictures ever existed. Consequently the art historian cannot directly help towards a firm answer to the question raised by Donald Nicol in his article: after what date should references in chronicle sources to a Byzantine emperor being consecrated by unction be interpreted in a literal rather than in a figurative or metaphorical sense?
Cyriac of Ancona at Thessaloniki
Authors: Vickers Michael
Published: June 2013

At some time in 1431, Cyriac of Ancona visited Thessaloniki, a visit that seems hitherto to have passed unnoticed by scholars who have worked on the history and monuments of that city. A brief account of his stay is to be found in the life compiled by Cyriac’s friend Francesco Scalamonti and completed in 1464. A manuscript copy of Scalamonti’s work by Felice Feliciano is preserved in the Biblioteca Capitolare in Treviso, but the only published version is of a further copy of the Treviso manuscript printed by G. Colucci in 1792. Since the account includes a reference to an otherwise unknown monument of Aemilius Paullus in Thessaloniki and also throws light on what seems to have been the earliest recorded inscription there, it has been thought worthwhile to discuss some of the points raised by the passage.
Marxism and Kazantzakis
Authors: Georgopoulos N.
Published: June 2013

I fight to embrace the entire circle of human activity to the full extent of my ability, to divine which wind is urging all these waves of mankind upward. I bend over the age in which I live, that tiny, imperceptible arc of the vast circle, and struggle to attain a clear view of today’s duty. Perhaps this is the only way man can carry out something immortal within the ephemeral moment of his life: immortal because he collaborates with an immortal rhythm.

Report to Greco

The name of Nikos Kazantzakis continues to arouse controversy. Much of it, especially in Greece, is political in nature and revolves around the confusion concerning Kazantzakis’ relation to Marxism. The confusion arises because of the ways Kazantzakis’ activities and writings have been interpreted. For example, even before the latest military regime in Greece and while he was still alive, Kazantzakis was anathema to the royalists. Consecutive right wing governments, both before and after World War II, waged war against him and his books; he was called immoral, red, and a Bolshevik troublemaker. In the fall of 1924, in his native Crete, he was actually arrested. In the spring of 1928, in Athens, he was accused of being a Russian agent. Yet his books were banned in Russia—particularly those he wrote about that country—and the Greek Communist party refused to include him in its ranks, labelling him bourgeois, decadent and even fascist. In fact, his offer to join the communist controlled resistance in the 1940s was rejected. Such responses neidier prevented the International Peace Committee from offering him the Peace Award in Vienna in 1956 nor did it bar the Chinese communists from inviting him to the Peoples’ Republic of China as one of their ‘chosen Foreigners’ and, upon the occasion of his death in 1957, from praising him: ‘Kazantzakis was not only a great writer. He was actively interested in social and political issues. He was also a devotee of peace’. More recently, views about him have ranged from those in which he is considered an egomaniac, oblivious to the fate of others, a man whom ‘the really important things—political tyranny, social injustice, economic exploitation—interested … the least’, to those in which he is seen as an advocate of equality, peace and the cooperation of the world’s people, one who to the end of his career sided with the ‘ideas of genuine Democracy and Socialism’.
Images of Encirclement and Enchantment in the Poetry of Palamas
Authors: Carroll Margaret
Published: June 2013

The image of the circle recurs again and again, in a wide range of motifs, in Palamas’ poetry. Indeed, some areas of his poetry seem to exhibit a positive preoccupation with circular images of both nature and artifice, the most frequently occurring of which are the sun, moon, crown/garland ring the simple circle and the girdle of embrace Chains also appear to function in some poems as symbols of encirclement. The majority of the contexts in which these images occur are metaphysical in theme and a great number of the images themselves are associated with ideas of daemonic power over Man. The question of the psychological motivation that underlies the symbolism of such images as the ‘ring’ and ‘chains’ in Palamas’ poetry has been discussed to some extent by most of his critics. What I intend to do here is to examine the poet’s use of the whole range of ‘circle’ imagery as an aesmetic device and as a form of symbolism which he clearly considered to convey most effectively his ideas about his own dilemma and about the meaning of existence around him. I shall deal only with those images which can be called ‘specifically’ circular in that they are given expression by one or more of the key words discussed and are not just vague suggestions of some such idea.
Cities of Heraclius
Authors: Brown Thomas S. , Bryer Anthony , Winfield David
Published: June 2013

The Hellenistic and Roman passion for founding, or renaming, Eastern cities in honour of their rulers abated only with the decline of urban life itself under the Byzantines, although it was never entirely forgotten. The last notable example seems to be the tragi-comic career of Tralles (Aydin) as Andronikopolis or Palaiologopolis in 1278–82. But the last emperor to have notably bestowed his (or his family’s) name on cities with the old gusto seems to have been Heraclius. It was perhaps part of a recognizable pattern of traits—the complex naming of his sons, the family groups on his coins, the concern for his own title, the quest for the True Cross, and the style of his victory despatch from Nineveh—in which one may glimpse in Heraclius a relentless and self-conscious sense of dynasty and historicity.
A Byzantine Grand Embassy to Russia in 1400
Authors: Obolensky Dimitri
Published: June 2013

The Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitani, published by Miklosich and Müller, contain a pittakion sent by Matthew I, Patriarch of Constantinople (1397–1410), to his subordinate and representative in Moscow, Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia. The document is undated, but it is clear from the contents that it was written either in the last three weeks of December 1399 or, more probably, in 1400. Its professed aim was to persuade the Russian primate to embark on a fund-raising campaign in aid of Constantinople, besieged by the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Bayazid I.
Conversion from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in the Fourteenth Century
Authors: Kolbaba Tia M.
Published: June 2013

Several prominent Byzantines, including the Emperor John V Palaiologos, converted to Roman Catholicism in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This may seem an odd sort of conversion. After all, if the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith are contained in the Nicene Creed, then Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers differ on only one tenet: whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father or from the Father and the Son — the Filioque issue. For a Christian to admit the double procession of the Holy Spirit is hardly on the same level as admitting that Mohammed is the prophet of the one God. Indeed, many members of each church have been willing to call the procession of the Holy Spirit unknowable and leave it at that.
Novel mechanisms for activated protein C cytoprotective activities involving noncanonical activation of protease-activated receptor 3
Authors: Burnier Laurent , Mosnier Laurent O.
Published: June 2013

Key Points

APC activates PAR3 in the presence of EPCR by noncanonical cleavage at Arg41. APC-derived PAR3 tethered-ligand peptides induced APC-like vascular barrier protective effects in vitro and in vivo.
Platelet protein disulfide isomerase is required for thrombus formation but not for hemostasis in mice
Authors: Kim Kyungho , Hahm Eunsil , Li Jing , Holbrook Lisa-Marie , Sasikumar Parvathy , Stanley Ronald G. , Ushio-Fukai Masuko , Gibbins Jonathan M. , Cho Jaehyung
Published: June 2013

Key Points

Platelet PDI regulates αIIbβ3 integrin activation without affecting platelet activation and inside-out integrin signaling. Platelet PDI is essential for platelet accumulation but not for fibrin generation and hemostasis in mice.
MetaPathways: a modular pipeline for constructing pathway/genome databases from environmental sequence information
Authors: Konwar Kishori M , Hanson Niels W , Pagé Antoine P , Hallam Steven J
Published: June 2013

Background

A central challenge to understanding the ecological and biogeochemical roles of microorganisms in natural and human engineered ecosystems is the reconstruction of metabolic interaction networks from environmental sequence information. The dominant paradigm in metabolic reconstruction is to assign functional annotations using BLAST. Functional annotations are then projected onto symbolic representations of metabolism in the form of KEGG pathways or SEED subsystems.

Results

Here we present MetaPathways, an open source pipeline for pathway inference that uses the PathoLogic algorithm to map functional annotations onto the MetaCyc collection of reactions and pathways, and construct environmental Pathway/Genome Databases (ePGDBs) compatible with the editing and navigation features of Pathway Tools. The pipeline accepts assembled or unassembled nucleotide sequences, performs quality assessment and control, predicts and annotates noncoding genes and open reading frames, and produces inputs to PathoLogic. In addition to constructing ePGDBs, MetaPathways uses MLTreeMap to build phylogenetic trees for selected taxonomic anchor and functional gene markers, converts General Feature Format (GFF) files into concatenated GenBank files for ePGDB construction based on third-party annotations, and generates useful file formats including Sequin files for direct GenBank submission and gene feature tables summarizing annotations, MLTreeMap trees, and ePGDB pathway coverage summaries for statistical comparisons.

Conclusions

MetaPathways provides users with a modular annotation and analysis pipeline for predicting metabolic interaction networks from environmental sequence information using an alternative to KEGG pathways and SEED subsystems mapping. It is extensible to genomic and transcriptomic datasets from a wide range of sequencing platforms, and generates useful data products for microbial community structure and function analysis. The MetaPathways software package, installation instructions, and example data can be obtained from http://hallam.microbiology.ubc.ca/MetaPathways.
Proposal of a quantitative PCR-based protocol for an optimal Pseudomonas aeruginosa detection in patients with cystic fibrosis
Authors: Le Gall Florence , Le Berre Rozenn , Rosec Sylvain , Hardy Jeanne , Gouriou Stéphanie , Boisramé-Gastrin Sylvie , Vallet Sophie , Rault Gilles , Payan Christopher , Héry-Arnaud Geneviève
Published: June 2013

Background

The lung of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is particularly sensitive to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium plays an important role in the poor outcome of CF patients. During the disease progress, first acquisition of P. aeruginosa is the key-step in the management of CF patients. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) offers an opportunity to detect earlier the first acquisition of P. aeruginosa by CF patients. Given the lack of a validated protocol, our goal was to find an optimal molecular protocol for detection of P. aeruginosa in CF patients.

Methods

We compared two formerly described qPCR formats in early detection of P. aeruginosa in CF sputum samples: a qPCR targeting oprL gene, and a multiplex PCR targeting gyrB and ecfX genes.

Results

Tested in vitro on a large panel of P. aeruginosa isolates and others gram-negative bacilli, oprL qPCR exhibited a better sensitivity (threshold of 10 CFU/mL versus 730 CFU/mL), whereas the gyrB/ecfX qPCR exhibited a better specificity (90% versus 73%). These results were validated ex vivo on 46 CF sputum samples positive for P. aeruginosa in culture. Ex vivo assays revealed that qPCR detected 100 times more bacterial cells than culture-based method did.

Conclusion

Based on these results, we proposed a reference molecular protocol combining the two qPCRs, which offers a sensitivity of 100% with a threshold of 10 CFU/mL and a specificity of 100%. This combined qPCR-based protocol can be adapted and used for other future prospective studies.
Myopericarditis and exertional rhabdomyolysis following an influenza A (H3N2) infection
Authors: Tseng Guo-Shiang , Hsieh Chung-Yueh , Hsu Ching-Tsai , Lin Jung-Chung , Chan Jenq-Shyong
Published: June 2013

Background

Acute myopericarditis and exertional rhabdomyolysis, two uncommon but well-described diseases with potentially life-threatening effects, are generally considered as independent clinical entities. However, they may in fact be pathophysiologically related under certain circumstances. This is the first ever report of influenza myopericarditis provoked by exertional rhabdomyolysis to the best of our knowledge.

Case presentation

A 25-year-old immunocompetent Chinese man presented with bilateral leg pain, dizziness, and shortness of breath on admission soon after completing vigorous training comprising running drills. Exertional rhabdomyolysis was diagnosed with 44 fold high serum creatine phosphokinase. Then he developed chest pain, pericardial effusion, changes of electrocardiography and positive troponin I suggestive of myopericarditis. Influenza A (H3N2) virus infection was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction analysis of nasopharyngeal wash samples. Other possible infective and autoimmune causes were excluded. Patient recovered completely with anti-inflammatory therapy and the supportive care.

Conclusion

This case suggests that clinicians who treat patients with exertional rhabdomyolysis should be aware of the potential vulnerability to acute myopericarditis, especially in the presence of recent influenza A infection.
Inherited KIF21A and PAX6 gene mutations in a boy with congenital Fibrosis of extraocular muscles and aniridia
Authors: Ying Ming , Han Ruifang , Hao Peng , Wang Liming , Li Ningdong
Published: June 2013

Background

Mutations in the KIF21A gene are detected in the patients with congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles. Mutations in the PAX6 gene are detected in the patients with congenital aniridia.

Case presentation

Herein we report a boy with both congenital fibrosis of extraocular muscles and aniridia. Sequence analysis of his KIF21A and PAX6 genes reveals a 1-bp deletion (c.745delC) in the PAX6 gene and a missense mutation of c.2860C > T (p.Arg954Trp) in KIF21A.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that the occurrence of independent mutations in more than a single gene in a patient may lead to a complex phenotype.
Ultrasonic spectrum analysis for in vivo characterization of tumor microstructural changes in the evaluation of tumor response to chemotherapy using diagnostic ultrasound
Authors: Lin Chun-yi , Cao Long-hui , Wang Jian-wei , Zheng Wei , Chen Yao , Feng Zi-zhen , Li An-hua , Zhou Jian-hua
Published: June 2013

Background

There is a strong need for early assessment of tumor response to chemotherapy in order to avoid the adverse effects of unnecessary chemotherapy and to allow early transition to second-line therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of ultrasonic spectral analysis for the in vivo characterization of changes in tumor microstructure in the evaluation of tumor response to chemotherapy using diagnostic ultrasound.

Methods

Experiments were approved by the regional animal care committee. Twenty-four MCF-7 breast cancer bearing nude mice were treated with adriamycin or sterile saline administered by intraperitoneal injection. Ultrasonic radio-frequency (RF) data was collected using a clinically available ultrasound scanner (6-MHz linear transducer). Linear regression parameters (spectral slope and midband-fit) regarding the calibrated power spectra from the RF signals were tested to monitor tumor response to treatment. The section equivalent to the ultrasound imaging plane was stained with hematoxylin and eosin to allow for assessment of the density of tumor cell nuclei.

Results

Treatment with adriamycin significantly reduced tumor growth in comparison with the control group (p = 0.003). Significant changes were observed in the ultrasonic parameters of the treated relative to the untreated tumors (p < 0.05). The spectral slope increased by 48.5%, from −10.66 ± 2.96 to −5.49 ± 2.69; the midband-fit increased by 12.8%, from −57.10 ± 7.68 to −49.81 ± 5.40. Treated tumors were associated with a significant decrease in the density of tumor cell nuclei as compared with control tumors (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Ultrasonic spectral analysis can detect changes in tumor microstructure after chemotherapy, and this will be helpful in the early evaluation tumor response to chemotherapy.