bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Proliferation zones in the axolotl brain and regeneration of the telencephalon
Authors: Maden Malcolm , Manwell Laurie A , Ormerod Brandi K
Published: January 2013

Background

Although the brains of lower vertebrates are known to exhibit somewhat limited regeneration after incisional or stab wounds, the Urodele brain exhibits extensive regeneration after massive tissue removal. Discovering whether and how neural progenitor cells that reside in the ventricular zones of Urodeles proliferate to mediate tissue repair in response to injury may produce novel leads for regenerative strategies. Here we show that endogenous neural progenitor cells resident to the ventricular zone of Urodeles spontaneously proliferate, producing progeny that migrate throughout the telencephalon before terminally differentiating into neurons. These progenitor cells appear to be responsible for telencephalon regeneration after tissue removal and their activity may be up-regulated by injury through an olfactory cue.

Results

There is extensive proliferation of endogenous neural progenitor cells throughout the ventricular zone of the adult axolotl brain. The highest levels are observed in the telencephalon, especially the dorsolateral aspect, and cerebellum. Lower levels are observed in the mesencephalon and rhombencephalon. New cells produced in the ventricular zone migrate laterally, dorsally and ventrally into the surrounding neuronal layer. After migrating from the ventricular zone, the new cells primarily express markers of neuronal differentiative fates. Large-scale telencephalic tissue removal stimulates progenitor cell proliferation in the ventricular zone of the damaged region, followed by proliferation in the tissue that surrounds the healing edges of the wound until the telencephalon has completed regeneration. The proliferative stimulus appears to reside in the olfactory system, because telencephalic regeneration does not occur in the brains of olfactory bulbectomized animals in which the damaged neural tissue simply heals over.

Conclusion

There is a continual generation of neuronal cells from neural progenitor cells located within the ventricular zone of the axolotl brain. Variable rates of proliferation were detected across brain regions. These neural progenitor cells appear to mediate telencephalic tissue regeneration through an injury-induced olfactory cue. Identification of this cue is our future goal.
EnRICH: Extraction and Ranking using Integration and Criteria Heuristics
Authors: Zhang Xia , Greenlee M Heather West , Serb Jeanne M
Published: January 2013

Background

High throughput screening technologies enable biologists to generate candidate genes at a rate that, due to time and cost constraints, cannot be studied by experimental approaches in the laboratory. Thus, it has become increasingly important to prioritize candidate genes for experiments. To accomplish this, researchers need to apply selection requirements based on their knowledge, which necessitates qualitative integration of heterogeneous data sources and filtration using multiple criteria. A similar approach can also be applied to putative candidate gene relationships. While automation can assist in this routine and imperative procedure, flexibility of data sources and criteria must not be sacrificed. A tool that can optimize the trade-off between automation and flexibility to simultaneously filter and qualitatively integrate data is needed to prioritize candidate genes and generate composite networks from heterogeneous data sources.

Results

We developed the java application, EnRICH (
E
xtractio
n
and
R
anking using
I
ntegration and
C
riteria
H
euristics), in order to alleviate this need. Here we present a case study in which we used EnRICH to integrate and filter multiple candidate gene lists in order to identify potential retinal disease genes. As a result of this procedure, a candidate pool of several hundred genes was narrowed down to five candidate genes, of which four are confirmed retinal disease genes and one is associated with a retinal disease state.

Conclusions

We developed a platform-independent tool that is able to qualitatively integrate multiple heterogeneous datasets and use different selection criteria to filter each of them, provided the datasets are tables that have distinct identifiers (required) and attributes (optional). With the flexibility to specify data sources and filtering criteria, EnRICH automatically prioritizes candidate genes or gene relationships for biologists based on their specific requirements. Here, we also demonstrate that this tool can be effectively and easily used to apply highly specific user-defined criteria and can efficiently identify high quality candidate genes from relatively sparse datasets.
Preclinical evaluation of carbon-11 and fluorine-18 sulfonamide derivatives for in vivo radiolabeling of erythrocytes
Authors: Gheysens Olivier , Akurathi Vamsidhar , Chekol Rufael , Dresselaers Tom , Celen Sofie , Koole Michel , Dauwe Dieter , Cleynhens Bernard J , Claus Piet , Janssens Stefan , Verbruggen Alfons M , Nuyts Johan , Himmelreich Uwe , Bormans Guy M
Published: January 2013

Background

To date, few PET tracers for in vivo labeling of red blood cells (RBCs) are available. In this study, we report the radiosynthesis and in vitro and in vivo evaluation of 11C and 18F sulfonamide derivatives targeting carbonic anhydrase II (CA II), a metallo-enzyme expressed in RBCs, as potential blood pool tracers. A proof-of-concept in vivo imaging study was performed to demonstrate the feasibility to assess cardiac function and volumes using electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated positron emission tomography (PET) acquisition in comparison with cine magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) in rats and a pig model of myocardial infarction.

Methods

The inhibition constants (K
i) of CA II were determined in vitro for the different compounds by assaying CA-catalyzed CO2 hydration activity. Binding to human RBCs was estimated after in vitro incubation of the compounds with whole blood. Biodistribution studies were performed to evaluate tracer kinetics in NMRI mice. ECG-gated PET acquisition was performed in Wistar rats at rest and during pharmacological stress by infusing dobutamine at 10 μg/kg/min and in a pig model of myocardial infarction. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and volumes were compared with values from cMRI.

Results

The K
i of the investigated compounds for human CA II was found to be in the range of 8 to 422 nM. The fraction of radioactivity associated with RBCs was found to be ≥90% at 10- and 60-min incubation of tracers with heparinized human blood at room temperature for all tracers studied. Biodistribution studies in mice indicated that 30% to 67% of the injected dose was retained in the blood pool at 60 min post injection. A rapid and sustained tracer uptake in the heart region with an average standardized uptake value of 2.5 was observed from micro-PET images. The LVEF values obtained after pharmacological stress in rats closely matched between the cMRI and micro-PET values, whereas at rest, a larger variation between LVEF values obtained by both techniques was observed. In the pig model, a good agreement was observed between PET and MRI for quantification of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction.

Conclusions

The 11C and 18F sulfonamide derivatives can be used for efficient in vivo radiolabeling of RBCs, and proof-of-concept in vivo imaging studies have shown the feasibility and potential of these novel tracers to assess cardiac function.
Contrast-enhanced small-animal PET/CT in cancer research: strong improvement of diagnostic accuracy without significant alteration of quantitative accuracy and NEMA NU 4–2008 image quality parameters
Authors: Lasnon Charline , Quak Elske , Briand Mélanie , Gu Zheng , Louis Marie-Hélène , Aide Nicolas
Published: January 2013

Background

The use of iodinated contrast media in small-animal positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) could improve anatomic referencing and tumor delineation but may introduce inaccuracies in the attenuation correction of the PET images. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance and accuracy of quantitative values in contrast-enhanced small-animal PET/CT (CEPET/CT) as compared to unenhanced small animal PET/CT (UEPET/CT).

Methods

Firstly, a NEMA NU 4–2008 phantom (filled with 18F-FDG or 18F-FDG plus contrast media) and a homemade phantom, mimicking an abdominal tumor surrounded by water or contrast media, were used to evaluate the impact of iodinated contrast media on the image quality parameters and accuracy of quantitative values for a pertinent-sized target. Secondly, two studies in 22 abdominal tumor-bearing mice and rats were performed. The first animal experiment studied the impact of a dual-contrast media protocol, comprising the intravenous injection of a long-lasting contrast agent mixed with 18F-FDG and the intraperitoneal injection of contrast media, on tumor delineation and the accuracy of quantitative values. The second animal experiment compared the diagnostic performance and quantitative values of CEPET/CT versus UEPET/CT by sacrificing the animals after the tracer uptake period and imaging them before and after intraperitoneal injection of contrast media.

Results

There was minimal impact on IQ parameters (%SDunif and spillover ratios in air and water) when the NEMA NU 4–2008 phantom was filled with 18F-FDG plus contrast media. In the homemade phantom, measured activity was similar to true activity (−0.02%) and overestimated by 10.30% when vials were surrounded by water or by an iodine solution, respectively. The first animal experiment showed excellent tumor delineation and a good correlation between small-animal (SA)-PET and ex vivo quantification (r
2 = 0.87, P < 0.0001). The second animal experiment showed a good correlation between CEPET/CT and UEPET/CT quantitative values (r
2 = 0.99, P < 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated better diagnostic accuracy of CEPET/CT versus UEPET/CT (senior researcher, area under the curve (AUC) 0.96 versus 0.77, P = 0.004; junior researcher, AUC 0.78 versus 0.58, P = 0.004).

Conclusions

The use of iodinated contrast media for small-animal PET imaging significantly improves tumor delineation and diagnostic performance, without significant alteration of SA-PET quantitative accuracy and NEMA NU 4–2008 IQ parameters.
Elafin, an inhibitor of elastase, is a prognostic indicator in breast cancer
Authors: Hunt Kelly K , Wingate Hannah , Yokota Tomoya , Liu Yanna , Mills Gordon B , Zhang Fan , Fang Bingliang , Su Chun-Hui , Zhang Ming , Yi Min , Keyomarsi Khandan
Published: January 2013

Introduction

Elafin is an elastase-specific inhibitor with increased transcription in normal mammary epithelial cells compared to mammary carcinoma cells. In this report, we test the hypothesis that inhibition of elastase, through induction of elafin, leads to inhibition of human breast cancer cell viability and, therefore, predicts survival in breast cancer patients.

Methods

Panels of normal and immortalized breast epithelial cells, along with breast carcinoma cells, were used to examine the impact of adenoviral-mediated elafin expression or shRNA-mediated inhibition of elastase on the growth of cells and xenografts in nude mice. To determine the prognostic significance of decreased elafin in patients with invasive breast cancer, previously published gene array datasets were interrogated.

Results

Elafin expression had no effect on non-tumorigenic cells but resulted in marked inhibition of cell growth in breast cancer cell lines. Control-treated xenografts generated a tumor burden that necessitated sacrifice within one month of initial treatment, whereas xenograft-bearing mice treated with Ad-Elafin were alive at eight months with marked reduction in tumor growth. Elastase inhibition mimicked these results, showing decreased tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Low expression of elafin gene correlated with significantly reduced time to relapse, and when combined with high expression of elastase gene was associated with decreased survival in breast cancer patients.

Conclusion

Our data suggest that elafin plays a direct role in the suppression of tumors through inhibition of elastase and thus serves as a prognostic indicator for breast cancer patients.
Surrogate consent for critical care research: exploratory study on public perception and influences on recruitment
Authors: Lim Daphne AFN , Chan Moon Fai , Childs Charmaine
Published: January 2013

Introduction

Critical Care research involves an increasing level of technical and clinical interventions for the unconscious patient. If the general public has a negative (unfavourable) view of surrogate consent, low recruitment rates are likely. Results bias will be introduced if study populations are small, hindering knowledge generation and transfer through research. In the rapidly expanding healthcare industry of South East Asia, opportunities for critical care research will grow given a positive willingness (favourability) by the general public to act as a surrogate in the consent process when the (unconscious) patient cannot consent for him/herself.

Methods

To determine public willingness for surrogate consent, a quantitative cross-sectional study was undertaken at a University Teaching Hospital in South East Asia during a three month interval. Four hypothetical critical care research scenarios were presented and responses from the public were analysed using a three-part questionnaire.

Results

Three hundred and five members of the public were recruited. In general, participants had a positive view of research. The level of education was significantly associated with a person's views about research especially in studies regarded as high risk. For low risk studies, a person's perception of research and willingness to be recruited to a study in the event that they were the (unconscious) patient, was the same whether they were the study subject or the person (legally acceptable representative) giving surrogate consent' on behalf of another (spouse, parent, child). Across all study scenarios, 60-80% of the public preferred to be approached by doctors to discuss the surrogate consent process.

Conclusion

Given the hypothetical scenarios presented in this study, the odds of a person having a positive view and willingness to be consented to a critical care research study on the advice of another (surrogate consent) was greater than for those who had a negative or unfavourable view. Nurses may be disadvantaged in leading on the recruitment process due to a preference for information to be delivered by medically qualified clinicians. In the setting of South East Asia, cultural attitudes to nurse-led research in critical care must be taken in to consideration in the multidisciplinary approaches to building the research team.
Complex, Not Monosomal, Karyotype Is the Cytogenetic Marker of Poorest Prognosis in Patients With Primary Myelodysplastic Syndrome
Authors: Valcárcel David , Ademà Vera , Solé Francesc , Ortega Margarita , Nomdedeu Benet , Sanz Guillermo , Luño Elisa , Cañizo Consuelo , de la Serna Javier , Ardanaz Maite , Marco Victor , Collado Rosa , Grau Javier , Montoro Julia , Mallo Mar , Vallespí Teresa
Published: January 2013

Purpose

Complex karyotype (CK) is the poorest risk factor in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). It has recently been reported that monosomal karyotype (MK) worsens the prognosis of patients with CK.

Patients and Methods

We analyzed 1,054 adult patients with MDS with an abnormal karyotype from the Spanish Registry of MDS. The aim of the study was to describe the incidence, characteristics, and prognosis of MK; the main end points were overall survival (OS) and leukemia-free survival.

Results

MK was identified in 172 patients (16%), most of whom (88%) presented with CK. Variables significantly associated with OS were age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.90; P < .001), bone marrow (BM) blast percentage (HR, 1.05; P < .001), hemoglobin level (HR, 1.71; P < .001), platelet count (HR, 1.41; P < .001), karyotype complexity (CK [three abnormalities]: HR, 1.81; P = .003; very CK [> three abnormalities]: HR, 2; P < .001), and abnormalities of chromosome 5 and/or 7 (HR, 1.89; P < .001). Variables significantly related to the risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were higher BM blast percentage (HR, 1.12; P < .001) and karyotype complexity (CK: HR, 2.53; P = .002; very CK: HR, 2.77; P < .001).

Conclusion

After accounting for karyotype complexity, MK was not associated with OS or evolution to AML. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that the prognostic value of MK in MDS is not independent and is mainly the result of its strong association with number of chromosomal abnormalities.
Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s African Cyborgian Thought
Authors: Omelsky Matthew
Published: January 2013

This article elucidates how Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s 2006 film Les saignantes rearticulates cyborgian thought in an effort to remap dominant modes of social consciousness among African youth. Bekolo uproots hegemonic tropes of African pathology; recasts narratives of African tradition in a way that forecloses singular, fixed interpretations; and depicts two young women who illustrate the potential for body and machine to merge in opposition to masculinist state power. Bekolo combines the oppositional postmodern thought of the cyborg with critical issues of gender, corruption, and tradition pertinent to the current African moment. He breaks down dualisms such as “traditional/modern” and “developed/underdeveloped” and calls into question the grand narratives and myths that purportedly structure African societies as well as the continent’s global image.
Conspicuous Nationalisms in African Art at the 54th Venice Biennale
Authors: Flake Rebekah
Published: January 2013

This review considers the curatorial strategies employed by each pavilion at the Fifty-Fourth Venice Biennale in 2011 and the ways that they represent national perspectives through themed group exhibitions. The works of individual artists are discussed in terms of their contribution to the curators’ intentions. The new pavilions representing Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Haiti brought an influx of artistic positions to Venice but also demonstrated anxiety about under-or misrepresenting their art scenes back home.
PBX/extradenticle is required to re-establish axial structures and polarity during planarian regeneration
Authors: Blassberg Robert A. , Felix Daniel A. , Tejada-Romero Belen , Aboobaker A. Aziz
Published: January 2013

Recent advances in a number of systems suggest many genes involved in orchestrating regeneration are redeployed from similar processes in development, with others being novel to the regeneration process in particular lineages. Of particular importance will be understanding the architecture of regenerative genetic regulatory networks and whether they are conserved across broad phylogenetic distances. Here, we describe the role of the conserved TALE class protein PBX/Extradenticle in planarians, a representative member of the Lophotrocozoa. PBX/Extradenticle proteins play central roles in both embryonic and post-embryonic developmental patterning in both vertebrates and insects, and we demonstrate a broad requirement during planarian regeneration. We observe that Smed-pbx has pleiotropic functions during regeneration, with a primary role in patterning the anterior-posterior (AP) axis and AP polarity. Smed-pbx is required for expression of polarity determinants notum and wnt1 and for correct patterning of the structures polarized along the AP axis, such as the brain, pharynx and gut. Overall, our data suggest that Smed-pbx functions as a central integrator of positional information to drive patterning of regeneration along the body axis.
Evidence for dynamic rearrangements but lack of fate or position restrictions in premigratory avian trunk neural crest
Authors: McKinney Mary C. , Fukatsu Kazumi , Morrison Jason , McLennan Rebecca , Bronner Marianne E. , Kulesa Paul M.
Published: January 2013

Neural crest (NC) cells emerge from the dorsal trunk neural tube (NT) and migrate ventrally to colonize neuronal derivatives, as well as dorsolaterally to form melanocytes. Here, we test whether different dorsoventral levels in the NT have similar or differential ability to contribute to NC cells and their derivatives. To this end, we precisely labeled NT precursors at specific dorsoventral levels of the chick NT using fluorescent dyes and a photoconvertible fluorescent protein. NT and NC cell dynamics were then examined in vivo and in slice culture using two-photon and confocal time-lapse imaging. The results show that NC precursors undergo dynamic rearrangements within the neuroepithelium, yielding an overall ventral to dorsal movement toward the midline of the NT, where they exit in a stochastic manner to populate multiple derivatives. No differences were noted in the ability of precursors from different dorsoventral levels of the NT to contribute to NC derivatives, with the exception of sympathetic ganglia, which appeared to be ‘filled’ by the first population to emigrate. Rather than restricted developmental potential, however, this is probably due to a matter of timing.
ZHOUPI controls embryonic cuticle formation via a signalling pathway involving the subtilisin protease ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1 and the receptor kinases GASSHO1 and GASSHO2
Authors: Xing Qian , Creff Audrey , Waters Andrew , Tanaka Hirokazu , Goodrich Justin , Ingram Gwyneth C.
Published: January 2013

Seed production in angiosperms requires tight coordination of the development of the embryo and the endosperm. The endosperm-specific transcription factor ZHOUPI has previously been shown to play a key role in this process, by regulating both endosperm breakdown and the formation of the embryonic cuticle. To what extent these processes are functionally linked is, however, unclear. In order to address this issue we have concentrated on the subtilisin-like serine protease encoding gene ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1. Expression of ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1 is endosperm specific, and dramatically decreased in zhoupi mutants. We show that, although ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1 is required for normal embryonic cuticle formation, it plays no role in regulating endosperm breakdown. Furthermore, we show that re-introducing ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1 expression in the endosperm of zhoupi mutants partially rescues embryonic cuticle formation without rescuing their persistent endosperm phenotype. Thus, we conclude that ALE1 can normalize cuticle formation in the absence of endosperm breakdown, and that ZHOUPI thus controls two genetically separable developmental processes. Finally, our genetic study shows that ZHOUPI and ABNORMAL LEAF-SHAPE1 promotes formation of embryonic cuticle via a pathway involving embryonically expressed receptor kinases GASSHO1 and GASSHO2. We therefore provide a molecular framework of inter-tissue communication for embryo-specific cuticle formation during embryogenesis.
The early retinal progenitor-expressed gene Sox11 regulates the timing of the differentiation of retinal cells
Authors: Usui Ayumi , Mochizuki Yujin , Iida Atsumi , Miyauchi Emako , Satoh Shinya , Sock Elisabeth , Nakauchi Hiromitsu , Aburatani Hiroyuki , Murakami Akira , Wegner Michael , Watanabe Sumiko
Published: January 2013

Sry-related HMG box (Sox) proteins, Sox11 and Sox4 are members of the SoxC subtype. We found that Sox11 was strongly expressed in early retinal progenitor cells and that Sox4 expression began around birth, when expression of Sox11 subsided. To analyze the roles of Sox11 and Sox4 in retinal development, we perturbed their expression patterns in retinal explant cultures. Overexpression of Sox11 and Sox4 in retinal progenitors resulted in similar phenotypes: an increased number of cone cells and dramatically decreased numbers of rod cells and Müller glia. Birth-date analysis showed that cone cells were produced at a later developmental stage than that in which cone genesis normally occurs. Sox11-knockout retinas showed delayed onset and progress of differentiation of subsets of retinal cells during the embryonic period. After birth, retinal differentiation took place relatively normally, probably because of the redundant activity of Sox4, which starts to be expressed around birth. Overexpression and loss-of-function analysis failed to provide any evidence that Sox11 and Sox4 directly regulate the transcription of genes crucial to the differentiation of subsets of retinal cells. However, histone H3 acetylation of some early proneural genes was reduced in knockout retina. Thus, Sox11 may create an epigenetic state that helps to establish the competency to differentiate. Taking our findings together, we propose that the sequential expression of Sox11 and Sox4 during retinogenesis leads to the fine adjustment of retinal differentiation by helping to establish the competency of retinal progenitors.
Clinical Evaluation of Single-Shot and Readout-Segmented Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in Stroke Patients at 3 T
Authors: Morelli John , Porter David , Ai Fei , Gerdes Clint , Saettele Megan , Feiweier Thorsten , Padua Abraham , Dix James , Marra Michael , Rangaswamy Rajesh , Runge Val
Published: January 2013

Background

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is most commonly performed utilizing a single-shot echo-planar imaging technique (ss-EPI). Susceptibility artifact and image blur are severe when this sequence is utilized at 3 T.

Purpose

To evaluate a readout-segmented approach to DWI MR in comparison with single-shot echo planar imaging for brain MRI.

Material and Methods

Eleven healthy volunteers and 14 patients with acute and early subacute infarctions underwent DWI MR examinations at 1.5 and 3T with ss-EPI and readout-segmented echo-planar (rs-EPI) DWI at equal nominal spatial resolutions. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) calculations were made, and two blinded readers ranked the scans in terms of high signal intensity bulk susceptibility artifact, spatial distortions, image blur, overall preference, and motion artifact.

Results

SNR and CNR were greatest with rs-EPI (8.1±0.2 SNR vs. 6.0±0.2; P <10-4 at 3T).Spatial distortions were greater with single-shot (0.23±0.03 at 3T; P <0.001) than with rs-EPI (0.12±0.02 at 3T).Combined with blur and artifact reduction, this resulted in a qualitative preference for the readout-segmented scans overall.

Conclusion

Substantial image quality improvements are possible with readout-segmented vs. single-shot EPI - the current clinical standard for DWI - regardless of field strength (1.5 or 3 T). This results in improved image quality secondary to greater real spatial resolution and reduced artifacts from susceptibility in MR imaging of the brain.
Adding Pharmacists to Primary Care Teams Increases Guideline-Concordant Antiplatelet Use in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Results from a Randomized Trial
Authors: Gilani Fizza , Majumdar Sumit R , Johnson Jeffrey A , Tsuyuki Ross T , Lewanczuk Richard Z , Spooner Richard , Simpson Scot H
Published: January 2013

BACKGROUND

Antiplatelet therapy is recommended as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, compliance with these guideline-recommended therapies appears to be less than ideal.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effect of adding pharmacists to primary care teams on initiation of guideline-concordant antiplatelet therapy in type 2 diabetic patients.

METHODS

Prespecified secondary analysis of randomized trial data. In the main study, the pharmacist intervention included a complete medication history, limited physical examination, provision of guideline-concordant recommendations to the physician to optimize drug therapy, and 1-year follow-up. Controls received usual care without pharmacist interactions. Patients with an indication for antiplatelet therapy, but not using an antiplatelet drug at randomization were included in this substudy. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients using an antiplatelet drug at 1 year.

RESULTS

At randomization, 257 of 260 study patients had guideline-concordant indications for antiplatelet therapy, but less than half (121; 47%) were using an antiplatelet drug. Overall, 136 patients met inclusion criteria for the substudy (71 intervention and 65 controls): 60% were women, with mean (SD) age 58.0 (11.9) years, diabetes duration 5.3 (6.0) years, and hemoglobin A1c 7.6% (1.5). Sixteen (12%) had established cardiovascular disease at enrollment. At 1 year, 43 (61%) intervention patients and 15 (23%) controls were using an antiplatelet drug (38% absolute difference; number needed to treat, 3; relative increase, 2.6; 95% CI 1.5–4.7; p < 0.001). Of these 58 patients, 52 (90%) were using aspirin 81 mg daily.

CONCLUSIONS

Adding pharmacists to primary care teams significantly and substantially increased the proportion of type 2 diabetic patients using guideline-concordant antiplatelet therapy.
An Organic Commerce: Sociable Selfhood in Eighteenth-Century Georgic
Authors: Genovese Michael
Published: January 2013

"Organic Commerce" argues that eighteenth-century georgic poetry imagines alignments of economic and sentimental intersubjectivity that define profit as the expansion of sociable networks, not the pursuit of private gain. While georgic is often read as a conservative genre complicit in the exploitation of labor, I direct attention to how it adapts paternalistic agricultural traditions to modern commercial practices in order to criticize the excesses and inequalities of those practices without abandoning them. Georgic poetry's critique creates an alternative economics characterized by the melding of mutual feeling with production and the redirection of self-interest towards a cooperative whole governed by sympathy yet conducive to profit. However, this inclusiveness is ultimately secured by a specifically British commerce and an underlying violence that halts the expansion of georgic sociability at the shoreline.
Sarah Wesley, British Methodism, and the Feminist Question, Again
Authors: Koretsky Deanna P.
Published: January 2013

This essay introduces the unpublished poetry of Sarah Wesley (1759-1828), daughter of co-founder and poet of Methodism Charles Wesley. Although Sarah Wesley is a crucial (if unacknowledged) source for our knowledge of early Methodism, her poetry challenges many of the denomination's central tenets, particularly its doctrine of love. What is more, the poetry offers a new tenor to the period's most pressing political concerns, as well as possibilities for reconsidering the relationship between religion and early liberal feminism. Contextualizing Wesley in the incipient feminist debates at the end of the eighteenth century, I give particular regard to the thought of Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More (both of whom Wesley knew), and of Mary Wollstonecraft (whom Wesley anticipates).
Printed in a Book: Negotiating Print and Manuscript Cultures in Fantomina and Clarissa
Authors: Kvande Marta
Published: January 2013

In his dual career as printer and author, Samuel Richardson embodies the dialogue between print and manuscript cultures during the eighteenth century. Like Richardson, Haywood was involved in the book trades and was an accomplished practitioner of the novel-in-letters. Both wrote novels that participated in the ongoing cultural negotiation between print and manuscript cultures. Haywood's Fantomina capitalizes on the distance created by print to creates authority. By contrast, Richardson's Clarissa uses epistolary fiction to misappropriate manuscript culture by creating a nostalgic idea of direct linkage between letter, body, and self which ultimately disempowers the manuscript author and points toward print. In other words, Richardson uses a fantasy of manuscript culture's troubled authenticity to authorize print as the more authoritative material form. Together, these two novels help to suggest just how integral the problem of print's authority was in the shaping of the genre.
Giuseppe Vasi's Nuova Pianta di Roma (1781): Cartography, Prints, and Power in Settecento Rome
Authors: Maier Jessica
Published: January 2013

The map of Rome published in 1781 by Giuseppe Vasi, one of the most successful printmakers active in that city in the eighteenth century, is considered something of a failure. This article reevaluates Vasi's Nuova pianta in light of contemporary mapmaking practice, Vasi's ambitions with regard to his larger corpus, and his intended audience—an inclusive mix of Grand Tourists and prominent Italians. Vasi's map might not embody radical innovation on a technical or artistic level, but is still a highly revealing window onto the art and business of printmaking in Settecento Roman culture.
Johnson, Lilliput, and Eighteenth-Century Miniature
Authors: Rabb Melinda Alliker
Published: January 2013

Samuel Johnson's observation that "there is nothing . . . too little for so little a creature as man" is substantiated by eighteenth-century material culture, which produced thousands of small versions of familiar items. The phenomenon of downsizing indicates changes in the relationships between things, human cognition, and literature. Such changes inform Johnson's work, beginning with his early adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Lilliput, the period's most famous literary miniature. Johnson's reworking of Gulliver's first voyage establishes a cognitive paradigm at the intersection of material culture and moral thought, a paradigm to which Johnson returns in order to test the miniature's promise of comprehending the whole at once.
"Let Them Sink Into Oblivion": Genealogical Form and Familial Forgetting in Susanna Rowson's Reuben and Rachel
Authors: Carrere Marissa
Published: January 2013

This essay examines thematic and structural "forgetting" in Susanna Rowson's 1798 Reuben and Rachel . As the novel moves closer to the postrevolutionary era of its publication, its second volume shifts abruptly from genealogy to sentimental romance, and its eponymous characters actively forget the transatlantic, hemispheric, and hybrid ancestry that the novel heretofore existed to construct and that would otherwise destabilize their emergent national identity. I locate Reuben and Rachel's sibling intimacy at the heart of the contradiction between the second volume's forgetfulness and both the first volume's and Rowson's stated authorial commitments to the transmission of historical memory.
‘I don’t know what I am’: the end of Afrikaner nationalism in post-apartheid South Africa
Authors: Blaser Thomas
Published: January 2013

Afrikaner nationalism achieved notoriety for its power and dominance of the political life of the South African state for much of the latter half of the 20th century. Nearly two decades on from the first democratic elections, in South Africa in 1994, Afrikaner nationalism is a spent force and the question is how to explain its decline. In this article it is argued that one has to look beyond historical and political accounts that focus on the structural factors that enable nationalism and ethnicity. In narratives of the self, young Afrikaners give insights into the formation of identities and modes of existence and lifestyles, or processes of subjectivisation, that indicate the cultural reasons for political actions. Increasing wealth in a growing consumer society has led to the formation of individual identities no longer contained with an ethno-nationalist framework. With the legacy of having contributed to, and benefited from apartheid, young Afrikaners are seeing the possibilities that come with a new, emerging South African nation but also face the challenge of coming to terms with feelings of loss and exclusion. While the cracks of a racist enclosure are widening, the opening of the apartheid mind is still a work in progress.
Understanding protest action: some data collection challenges for South Africa
Authors: Nyar Annsilla , Wray Chris
Published: January 2013

The focus of this paper is a particular set of actions which have become broadly known as ‘service delivery’ protests. It considers various protest datasets currently being used to inform understandings of ‘service delivery’ protest action. The limitations of each of these databases are highlighted and discussed in order to stimulate thinking about the possible development of independent, critical and accessible sources of protest data. Recommendations are made as to the improvement of quantitative data sources on protest action. The paper argues that ‘service delivery’ is a complex phenomenon which requires further critical examination as well as rigorous and co-ordinated data-collection initiatives. It concludes that the development of comprehensive, informed and reliable data sources can support improved critical reflections on the meanings and consequences of ‘service delivery’ protest for purposes of transformation and development at community-level.
Questions of visibility and identity: an analysis of representations of the Mr Gay South Africa pageant
Authors: Beetar Matthew
Published: January 2013

The Mr Gay South Africa competition is a nation-wide event aimed at increasing LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) visibility in South Africa. The success of the 2009–2010 crowned winner on the international gay pageant stage has drawn attention to this newly-instated annual event. This paper analyses online queer press sources to offer a reading of what the pageant represents in relation to the role that the media plays and a historical contextualisation of queer visibility in South Africa. It argues that the pageant, although geared toward achieving positive visibility, propagates an assimilationist strategy that ensures the perpetuation of gay identity – as representative for all queer identity – as based on an essentialised and commercialised transnational understanding of homosexuality. The paper ultimately concludes that online representations of the pageant resist the potentially positive development of sexual visibility in South Africa.
Optoacoustic Multispectral Imaging of Radiolucent Foreign Bodies in Tissue
Authors: Page Leland , Maswadi Saher , Glickman Randolph D.
Published: January 2013

Optoacoustic imaging is an emerging medical technology that uniquely combines the absorption contrast of optical imaging and the penetration depth of ultrasound. While it is not currently employed as a clinical imaging modality, the results of current research strongly support the use of optoacoustic-based methods in medical imaging. One such application is the diagnosis of the presence of soft tissue foreign bodies. Because many radiolucent foreign bodies have sufficient contrast for imaging in the optical domain, laser-induced optoacoustic imaging could be advantageous for the detection of such objects. Common foreign bodies have been scanned over a range of visible and near infrared wavelengths by using an optoacoustic method to obtain the spectroscopic properties of the materials commonly associated with these foreign bodies. The derived optical absorption spectra compared quite closely to the absorption spectra generated when using a conventional spectrophotometer. By using the probe-beam deflection technique, a novel, pressure-wave detection method, we successfully generated optoacoustic spectroscopic plots of a wooden foreign body embedded in a tissue phantom, which closely resembled the spectrum of the same object obtained in isolation. A practical application of such spectra is to assemble a library of spectroscopic data for radiolucent materials, from which specific characteristic wavelengths can be selected for use in optimizing imaging instrumentation and provide a basis for the identification of the material properties of particular foreign bodies.
Continuous, Quantitative Monitoring of Roxithromycin in Human Saliva by Flow Injection Chemiluminescence Analysis
Authors: Tan Xijuan , Song Zhenghua
Published: January 2013

Human saliva quantitative monitoring of roxithromycin (ROX) at picomolar-level by flow injection (FI) chemiluminescence (CL) analysis is described for the first time, to our knowledge. Monitoring was based on the CL intensity from luminol–BSA reaction, which can be quenched in the presence of ROX, with the decreasing CL intensity linearly proportional to the logarithm of the ROX concentration, ranging from 0. 6 to 1000 pmol·L−1. The detection limit of the proposed method for the determination of ROX was as low as 0.2 pmol·L−1 (3c), and the relative standard deviations were less than 4.0% ( n = 7). A complete analytical process, including sampling and washing for ROX determination, conducted at a flow rate of 2.0 mL·min−1, was performed completely within 30 s, yielding a sample efficiency of 120 h−1. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of ROX in human saliva and serum samples with recoveries from 90.9% to 110.1%. The continuous monitoring of ROX in human saliva after oral intake showed that the total elimination ratio was 87.1% during 24 h, and the pharmacokinetic parameters were 0.97 ± 0.18 h−1 for the absorption rate constant Ka, 0. 082 ± 0.010 h−1 for the elimination rate constant Ke, and 8.56 ± 1.11 h for the elimination half-life time t1/2. It was also found that ROX in human saliva and urine simultaneously reached the maximum at 2h with the concentration correlate ratio of 0.97.
Further Studies with Isolated Absolute Infrared Spectra of Bacteriorhodopsin Photocycle Intermediates: Conformational Changes and Possible Role of a New Proton-Binding Center
Authors: Hendler Richard W. , Meuse Curtis W. , Smith Paul D. , Kakareka John W.
Published: January 2013

We recently published procedures describing the isolation of absolute infrared spectra for the intermediates of the bacteriorhodopsin (BR) photocycle and from these, obtaining transitional difference spectra between consecutive intermediates. In that work, we concentrated mainly on proton-binding centers and the route of proton transport across the membrane. In the current study, we used isolated spectra for the amide I, amide II, and amide III envelopes to obtain quantitative information on the extent of conformational change accompanying each transition in the photocycle. Our main finding was that most of the conformational changes occur in the conversion of the MF intermediate to N. In our earlier publication, a new proton acceptor, absorbing at 1650 cm−1 was identified, which appeared to accept a proton from Asp96COOH during the transformation of BR† to L. Below, we present evidence that supports this interpretation and propose a possible role for this new component.
Theoretical Study of Transmission Characteristics of Sub-Wavelength Nano-Structured Metallic Grating
Authors: Liang Yuzhang , Peng Wei
Published: January 2013

Some unique optical properties of sub-wavelength nanometer-sized metallic grating are presented in this paper. We propose a model to predict and explain the transmission of transverse-magnetic polarized light through a metallic grating with no substrate in the visible and near-infrared region. The model is based on a theoretical combination of surface plasmon polariton resonance and Fabry–Perot (FP)-like resonance that was excited by the nano-slit located in the grating. The finite difference time domain method is employed for modeling and simulation, and the minimum and maximum characteristics are analyzed, which shows its extraordinary enhanced transmission that differs from the conventional micrometer-sized metallic grating. This model can also be used to optimize the structural parameters in the design of the sub-wavelength wire-grid polarizer.
Multiwavelength Transmission Spectroscopy Revisited for the Characterization of the Protein and Polystyrene Nanoparticle Interactions
Authors: Serebrennikova Yulia M. , Roth Alison , Huffman Debra E. , Smith Jennifer M. , Lindon Jack N. , Garcia-Rubio Luis H.
Published: January 2013

Multiwavelength transmission ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-Vis–NIR) spectroscopy is an effective technique that has not yet been fully exploited for the characterization of products of protein and particle interactions. Here, it is explored by using bovine serum albumin and National Institute of Standards and Technology-traceable particle size standard having a nominal diameter of 20 nm. Adsorption of bovine serum albumin to the particles is quantitatively ascertained through its effect on the wavelength-dependent transmission spectra of protein and particle mixtures. The experimental results demonstrate that the changes induced in the transmission spectra of protein and particle mixtures because of protein adsorption on particles are detectable and consistent with the expectations set by the light-scattering theory. The size, structure, composition, and relative concentrations of the particle populations present in the protein-particle mixtures can be quantified. Given the considerable dynamic range of multiwavelength transmission UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy for particle analysis and its real-time measurement capabilities, this type of spectroscopy can be effectively used for the characterization of the products of protein-particle interaction and for the continuous real-time monitoring of interaction processes.
Firm lobbying and influence in developing countries: a multilevel approach
Authors: Weymouth Stephen
Published: January 2013

A large literature examines corporate political activity in the United States, but much less is known about firms’ lobbying activities and policy influence in developing countries. I argue that firm-level heterogeneity helps explain firms’ political behavior, while political institutions shape policymakers’ incentives to respond to business interests. The empirical analysis relies on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, which covers over 20,000 firms operating in 42 developing and transition countries, to examine the determinants of lobbying and perceived policy influence. Multilevel estimates support the hypotheses that lobbying and influence increase with the firm's size and market power. Additionally, I find that firms report greater policy influence in democracies than in non-democracies.
Should I stay or should I go? A comparative study of banking sector policies and the strategies of Central American business groups
Authors: Kasahara Yuri
Published: January 2013

The article seeks to explain how policies affect business groups’ decisions to stay or leave a sector of activity in a liberalized economy. The article utilizes a comparative historical approach to explain how business groups in six Central American countries decided to enter, remain in or leave the banking sector. Using case studies of the main banks belonging to business groups in the region, the article seeks to identify how particular sequences of policies lead to the formation of two major strategies. A portfolio one, characterized by a short-term interest in the banking sector; and an organic one, in which the banking sector plays a more important role for the whole group. Looking at the impact of three policies (nationalization, privatization and liberalization), I show that previous nationalization had contributed to a dominant portfolio strategy in Costa Rica and El Salvador. The absence of nationalization favored the dominance of an organic strategy in Guatemala and Honduras. Additionally, the cases of Nicaragua and Panama are analyzed as examples of how other events, such as early internationalization and early liberalization, can favor a more mixed scenario.
Irregular nonlinear operator equations:
Tikhonov's regularization and iterative approximation
Authors: Vasin Vladimir
Published: January 2013

A problem of iterative approximation is investigated for a nonlinear
operator equation regularized by the Tikhonov method. The Levenberg–Marquardt method, its modified analogue, and the steepest descent method are used. For the first and second methods the regularizing properties of iterations are established
and the error of approximate solution is given. For the third method it was proved that iterations are stabilized in a neighborhood of the required solution and satisfy the strong Fejér property.