bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterizing the Top Journals in Strategic Management: Orientation, Style, Originality, and Readability
Authors: García-Merino Teresa , Santos-Álvarez Valle
Published: March 2013

This paper characterizes the top journals in strategic management forum with respect to their orientation, style, originality, and readability. Data for the study were obtained from the Emerald Management Reviews database of Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. We analysed the period between 1996 and 2003. The main conclusions to be drawn from the analysis include the increasingly clear research orientation and academic style of the publications. Harvard Business Review figured prominently for its practical orientation, a predominantly professional/journalistic style, together with its readability. The journals that stand out for their originality are Strategic Management Journal and Academy of Management Journal . Although academic, Academy of Management Review also occasionally includes papers with a professional/journalistic style. Finally, we compare experts’ views on the orientation and style of the journals with objective information gathered from the journals about their readership. We observed agreement in some of these, but noticed differences in Strategic Management Journal and in Administrative Science Quarterly .
Sticker Shock and Looming Tsunami: The High Cost of Academic Serials in Perspective
Authors: Baveye Philippe C.
Published: March 2013

Recession is currently causing a resurgence of the academic serials crisis. Profit-mongering by commercial publishers is once again denounced as the key driver of the crisis. However, a critical analysis of institutional and bibliometric data does not reveal excessive corporate greed in recent years; instead, it suggests that the present hurdles stem largely from years of inadequate budget allocations to academic libraries and from a publishing frenzy fuelled by simplistic methods of evaluating faculty productivity. To prevent what is likely to be the publishing equivalent of a tsunami in the next few years, universities and research institutions urgently need to re-emphasize quality over quantity in the publishing process, and they must find ways to include peer-reviewing efficiency among their criteria for productivity and impact. Achieving these goals will require concerted efforts by researchers, librarians, and publishers.
Publishing as a Vocation: The Necessity of Independent Scholarly Media
Authors: Horowitz Irving Louis
Published: March 2013

'Publishing as a Vocation' relates a series of policy decisions and episodes that exemplify the politics of publishing. The emphasis is on case studies that confront scholarly publishers with the political, community, and ideological forces that each must confront in quotidian ways. The essay, written in the spirit of Max Weber's 'Science as a Vocation,' is non-judgemental, but making it clear that manuscript decisions extend far beyond the quality of the works accepted, rejected, or cancelled in a volatile academic and intellectual setting. It is hoped for, rather than argued, that once these extrinsic parameters are confronted, the nature of the service to the professional worlds being served can be understood, and perhaps significantly improved in a new publishing context.
Judging Journal Prices: A Cost Index for Academic Journals
Authors: Day Colin
Published: March 2013

Journal prices have long been a matter of controversy. Lacking has been any objective information on costs that could be used to judge whether price increases have been justified by rising costs. Using a rare, publicly available set of data for the American Economic Review , the premier journal in economics, this article normalizes costs for number of issues per annum, number of pages per issue, and print quantities per issue to construct an index for the costs of producing this journal. It shows that costs have in fact increased more slowly than the general rate of inflation and argues that the cost experience of this journal provides a reference point for academic journals generally.
Musings on Disciplinary Morphology and Nomenclature in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Implications for Book Selection
Authors: Hérubel Jean-Pierre V. M
Published: March 2013

Scholarly publication reflects disciplinary orientation, so much so that publishers and library collections personnel use disciplinary nomenclature as referent. University press publications, as well as other serious academic publication venues, may reflect disciplinary nomenclature, if not alignment with those disciplines featured in the AAUP Directory. Using the Directory's discipline and publisher grid for 2007, the article discusses disciplinary nomenclature with the idea of proposing a model or perspective that illuminates the nuances and organic nature of knowledge not easily captured by disciplinary nomenclature. Commonly accepted currency in the academic enterprise, disciplinary nomenclature may be best seen as an organically foundational approach to knowledge discovery and generation and, ultimately, as situated within scholarly communication venues. As knowledge is organic in nature, it may best be seen through the morphology of disciplinary formation and ecology, permitting nuances to emerge as organic formations and intellectual contours. This useful and flexible definitional approach to disciplinarities – subdisciplinarity as well as multi-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and trans-disciplinarity – permits scholars, publishers, and librarians a perspective subtle enough to consider an intellectual cartography that includes the organic nature of scholarship as well as the publication of that knowledge. Such fields as American studies, Middle Eastern studies, and urban studies offer additional perspective when confronted with disciplinary nomenclature. Without disparaging the received wisdom and attribution commonly ascribed to disciplinary nomenclature as used by researchers, publishers, and librarians, the scholarly communication system requires additional perspective, especially where nomenclature is concerned.
Truth or Hope?: Stimulus and Response in Scholarly Publishing
Authors: Henige David
Published: March 2013

Like it or not, errors occur throughout scholarly publishing. Some creep in, while others leap in. Some are utterly inconsequential, whereas others are foundational. Some result from the Rush to Pronounce, while others betray insufficient searches for, or misuse of, evidence. It falls to the academy to correct as many of these as possible, but there is a palpable reluctance to be bothered, as though correcting error were a second-rate activity. As a result, errors either go uncorrected or are corrected in conditions of lower visibility. In this article, the author discusses a few such examples and brings to bear some quantitative data to support the conclusion that, once insinuated into the public domain, errors continue to live on far more frequently than is desirable.
The Price of University Press Books: 2009-2011
Authors: Greco Albert N. , Wharton Robert M. , Sen Falguni
Published: March 2013

Drawing on the data collected by Yankee Book Peddler, this article analyses the average prices and title output of books published by university presses and commercial scholarly and professional publishers in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The authors also sought to answer a series of questions that have long perplexed the entire university press community: First, are too many scholarly books being published in North America; second, what are the channels of distribution for these books, and have they changed recently; and third, can university presses develop a strategy that will enable them to maintain their role as the pivotal source of substantive scholarly research?
Homo Sapiens as Homo Dei : Paleoanthropology, Human Uniqueness, and the Image of God
Authors: Peterson James C.
Published: March 2013

The biology of Homo sapiens is continuous with other hominids and the rest of life. Yet in Homo sapiens we find emergent capabilities that constitute a unique being. It is this being to whom God introduces God’s self, making possible the bearing of the imago Dei , the image of God. Much more than just a special capacity, the imago Dei is also a relationship with God and a way of life that follows. That relationship with God and resulting ethic is the highest purpose of human capacity and uniqueness, when by God’s continuing provision Homo sapiens can be welcomed as Homo Dei , people of God.
The Vertical Restraints Paradox: Justifying the Different Legal Treatment of Price and Non-Price Vertical Restraints
Authors: Paldor Ittai
Published: March 2013

Over the past fifty years anti-trust theorists and economists have advanced several pro-competitive explanations for minimum resale price maintenance, or RPM. In addition, scholars have argued that non-price vertical restraints (such as territorial exclusivity) and RPM have similar effects on price and quantity and should therefore be treated similarly by law. Nearly thirty years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that non-price vertical restraints should be subject to a rule of reason, acknowledging their pro-competitive potential. Since no explanation has been forwarded to justify treating RPM differently, there seems to be good reason to subject RPM to a rule of reason as well. And, indeed, a divided US Supreme Court has recently decided to overrule the longstanding per se illegality rule that was, for nearly a century, applicable to RPM. In the following I argue that the approach still upheld by policy makers in most jurisdictions, namely the per se prohibition on RPM, is economically justified. I show that all pro-competitive explanations for RPM suffer from a common flaw, the possibility of non-price competition, which challenges RPM's ability to achieve any of the pro-competitive goals attributed to it. I then show that non-price vertical restraints are capable of achieving the pro-competitive goals that RPM is incapable of achieving. This justifies both applying a per se illegality rule to RPM and applying a different rule, namely a rule of reason, to other vertical restraints.
'To heap distress upon distress?: 'Comparative reflections on interest-rate ceilings
Authors: Ramsay Iain
Published: March 2013

Interest-rate ceilings are often proposed as a protection for lower-income consumers in the credit market. Economists are generally sceptical of the protective role of ceilings, arguing that they often have undesirable substitution and exclusionary effects, may be circumvented, and hurt most those whom they are intended to protect. More competition, better information, and financial literacy are proposed as alternative policies, together with more effective redistribution through the social system. This was the conclusion of David Cayne and Michael Trebilcock in 1973 in their examination of the problem that 'the poor pay more.' Notwithstanding these economic critiques of ceilings, many European countries retain ceilings, and Japan recently lowered its existing ceiling. There does not seem to be an 'end of history' as nations converge on a 'modern' understanding of ceilings. This article sketches recent debates in the United Kingdom (no ceilings) and France (ceilings) where both countries view their policies as protection against financial exclusion. The author outlines the role of empirical knowledge and the value assumptions in these debates, raises the question of whether the differences represent distinct national cultural preferences, and suggests that explanations of consumer credit regulation should be sought in the dynamics of political interest-group influence and its institutional setting in both countries.
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
Authors: Dorfman Avihay
Published: March 2013

In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can be cast into sharp relief by elaborating the legitimation question that captures its moral centre - that is, a concern about how political authority is possible in the context of legislating new forms of property right. I insist, in this regard, that the conception of political legitimation that characterizes the creation of novel forms of property right is that of democratic self-governance.
Why compare?: Comments on Kevin Jon Heller and Markus D Dubber's The Handbook of Comparative Criminal Law
Authors: Zaibert Leo
Published: March 2013

In this review essay, I welcome the publication of this much-needed Handbook . Comparative criminal law has not received, in the anglophone traditions, the attention that it deserves, and this Handbook is an important corrective. But I also take the opportunity to discuss some dangers inherent in any comparativist enterprise, and suggest that some of these dangers are present in the editor approach to comparative criminal law.
Errors of fact and law: Race, space, and hockey in
Christie v York
Authors: Adams Eric M
Published: March 2013

Christie v York has pride of place among decisions wrongly decided in Canadian legal history. Fred Christie and two friends were on their way to a hockey game when they entered the York Tavern at the Montreal Forum, seeking a beer before the game, and the York denied them service on the grounds of race. Or so the facts tell us. As it turns out, a significant error has long been woven into the story of Christie v York . What were Christie and his friends doing that night at the Forum? This article reveals that they were not attending a hockey game. The real facts, long hidden from view, involve a hot summer night, the Canadian Olympic boxing trials, Joe Louis, American race riots, and a local black boxer. And yet, even in error, hockey matters in the case, especially in Justice Henry Davis's famous dissent. Recasting Christie as a case that turns on the judicial construction of facts, this article highlights the importance of real space and circumstance in creating notions of identity, belonging, and equality. While Christie 's errors of law have been the principal source of interest among legal scholars to date, this article argues that Christie 's facts, both real and imagined, provide a far richer contribution to the legal history of the complex relationship among race and space and law.
'Alles, was ist, endet:' On Dramatic Text, Absolute Music, Adorno, and Wagner's Ring
Authors: Lee Sherry D.
Published: March 2013

The crux of the operatic genre has always been the perennially problematic relationship between text and music. Richard Wagner attempted to solve this conundrum in his new art form of music drama - first embodied in his monumental Ring cycle - which he theorized in gendered terms as a union of poetry (male) and music (female), an imagined marriage between the qualities of Shakespearean drama and Beethovenian symphony. But according to Theodor Adorno, the very notion of symphonic music, which follows its own musical logic, is antithetical to the genre of opera, which demands that music construct itself according to its relationship to language. From the impasse between the demands of the operatic art form and the increasingly autonomous music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he theorized the end of opera itself in the age of modernism. This article entwines Wagner's concept of music drama, the musico-dramatic character of Erda who prophesies the end of the world in the Ring , and Adorno's diagnosis of opera's fatal condition in the decades following Wagner, to examine the principle of ending in opera, and of opera, and how the former can be read as a prefiguration of the latter.
‘humble but respectable’: Recovering the Neighbourhood Surrounding William and Catherine Blake’s Last Residence, No. 3 Fountain Court, Strand, c. 1820–27
Authors: Whitehead Angus
Published: March 2013

In this paper, drawing upon a wide range of unpublished archival sources, I present a detailed reconstruction of Fountain Court and its residents, William and Catherine Blake during the period William and Catherine Blake were resident at No. 3 Fountain Court (c. 1820–27). The paper presents important new information concerning the society and milieu in Fountain Court and its neighbourhood during 1820–27. This fresh archival evidence enables us to identify and precisely locate for the first time the ’humble but respectable’ fellow lodgers and neighbours living in Fountain Court during William and Catherine Blake’s period of residence, and provides a detailed picture of life in the Blakes’ neighbourhood during this period, and of trades conducted in the court, as well as the close familial and social relationships existing between a number of households immediately surrounding the Blakes’ residence. Such relationships provide a context for William and Catherine’s own relationships with their brother-in-law and landlord at 3 Fountain Court, Henry Banes and his wife Sarah Banes (née Boucher) and two of their neighbours and fellow lodgers in the court, the carver and gilder John George Lohr, and Blake’s employer and fellow artist John Barrow. The Blakes’ last residence was not in a sleepy, forgotten backwater, as some contemporary accounts and later biographers appear to suggest. As my paper demonstrates, Fountain Court in the 1820s, leading directly off the Strand, a major commercial thoroughfare of the largest metropolis of the period, was comprised of a small community, thriving with social and commercial activity. The reconstruction provides a detailed immediate context in which to view afresh William and Catherine’s years living and working in Fountain Court.
Remember Me! Customs and Costumes of Blake’s Gift Book
Authors: Bentley G. E.
Published: March 2013

The gift book Remember Me ! with Blake’s wonderful engraving of the ‘Hiding of Moses’ was more remarkable for its decorations than for its literary contents. Of the twenty-four copies recorded, each differs from the others in the pattern of binding, colour of fore-edges, endpapers, and the decorated sleeve-case. Despite this varied elegance, the work had only a modest sale, and the same sheets were re-issued in 1825 for the 1826 gift-giving season. This paucity of sales may be related to the fact that the publisher John Poole had little experience of book distribution. His speciality was as a maker of Marble Paper and Fancy Pocket-Books, not in selling them.
‘Without Contraries There is No Progression’: Cinematic Montage and the Relationship of Illustration to Text in William Blake’s The [First] Book of Urizen
Authors: Leonard Garry
Published: March 2013

My claim is that Blake’s illustrations are not a supplement depicting what happens in the text, but a translation into visual terms of his central tenet, at play throughout The [First] Book of Urizen , that ‘[w]ithout Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence’ ( The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , Plate 3). And I am claiming further that this strategy is comparable to the cinematic technique of montage: whereas the collision of two contrary images in montage creates an explosion famously described by Benjamin as ‘the dynamite of the tenth of a second’. Blake, too, creates tension and ‘collision’ in his illustrations in order to depict not the actual image of Los delivering his hammer blows, for example, but rather the hoped for effect of these blows – the breaking apart of Urizen’s ‘solid without fluctuation’ ( The [First] Book of Urizen , Plate 4). This ‘solid,’ if allowed to stand, imposes a restrictive view of the cosmos that reduces our visionary capacity to that of ‘two little orbs. . .fixed in two little caves/Hiding carefully from the wind. . .’ ( The [First] Book of Urizen , Plate 12).
‘In the Mouth of a True Orator’ ( Jerusalem’s Operating Instructions)
Authors: Sklar Susanne
Published: March 2013

Blake declares that every word of Jerusalem has been chosen to suit ‘the mouth of a true Orator.’ Though it is not written in the form of a play, the poem has been designed to be read aloud and heard. When I try to be a ‘true Orator,’ the poem’s peculiar language, characters, and structure become clearer, and its complexities less baffling. This article discusses why oral interpretation is appropriate to the ‘Sublime Allegory’ Blake has created, and how oral interpretation delivers us from misinterpretations of the poem’s eponymous heroine. Giving voice to the poem opens up the possibilities for historical antecedents for the character in the poem called Hand, and supports G.E. Bentley, Jr’s recent observations about the dating of the poem.
Mending the Acadian Diaspora: Strategies of Remediation in Nicolas Dickner's Nikolski (2005)
Authors: Porter Laurence M.
Published: March 2013

Dickner's brilliant, witty first novel finds inspiration in the parody and paradox of the OULIPO writers, Jorge Luís Borges, and Michel Tournier - particularly the latter's ingenious exploitation of the archetype of inversion. Nikolski 's thematic deep structure, however, derives from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and from the stories of Jonah (Jonas, in French) and Noah in the Book of Genesis. Through the mediation of these intertexts, Dickner reflects on the tragic diaspora of the Acadians starting with their violent deportation from the Maritime Provinces in 1755. Three contemporary Acadian protagonists (one may be descended from Caribbean pirates, one is half Native American, and one half Québécois) separately attempt to reconstitute their lost culture. They transcend their initial failures, forsaking paralyzing nostalgia to join new, multiethnic communities of marginalized peoples. Thus Dickner updates the reparative efforts of Longfellow's Evangeline and Antonine Maillet's folk epic Pélagie la charrette , with his thoroughly urban, postmodern sensibility.
Eighteenth-Century Literary Precursors of Mrs Warren's Profession
Authors: Kent Brad
Published: March 2013

Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession is almost solely discussed in terms of its portrayal of prostitution in relation to the theatre of its day. In this light, his work is defined as a decisive break with what came before it. But Shaw warned against this tendency to label literature that challenges contemporary norms as necessarily original. Instead, he called on his audience to recognize the cyclical nature of literature, noting that what is new to one generation is most often merely that which was discarded by the previous one. By adopting the longer view, this essay examines Mrs Warren's Profession alongside some well-known prostitute narratives of the eighteenth century to argue that while Shaw might have overturned one tradition, there is much to suggest that he concurrently tapped into another.
Photographie et récit de filiation: L'Africain de J. M. G. Le Clézio
Authors: Vernier-Larochette Béatrice
Published: March 2013

Dans le court récit intitulé L'Africain , J. M. G. Le Clézio évoque son père en alliant souvenirs personnels et photos prises par ce médecin en Afrique dans les années 1930. Le Clézio a cependant délibérément soustrait au public l'image paternelle puisqu'elle n'apparaît pas sur les clichés insérés au récit. Cette étude vise à saisir le rôle de la photographie dans cet écrit en tant que « récit de filiation » où l'auteur retrace la vie d'un ascendant décédé resté énigmatique. Nous montrons que les photos commentées et exposées soutiennent l'entreprise de (re)découverte du père, le réhabilitent par rapport à son travail de médecin pionnier durant la colonisation. L'absence de représentation paternelle a pour objectif d'insister sur l'importance de l'Afrique dans la vie de cet homme et dans celle de Le Clézio puisque ce dernier découvre que c'est ce continent qui le relie à cet homme.
From 1727 Bedford Street to 1839 Wylie Avenue: Home in August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle
Authors: Wardi Anissa Janine
Published: March 2013

August Wilson had a fraught relationship to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the city of his birth, yet in his literary imagination he returned again and again to his hometown, setting nine out of the ten plays in the neighbourhood of the Hill District. For Wilson, home is collapsed with exile, and such a schism – the pull toward , and the problems of , claiming a home – is manifest throughout his dramaturgy in the repeated tropes of deeds, property, land, and fences, which find particular resonance in Radio Golf , a play he was finishing in the final weeks of his life. Wilson's dramatic vision of home, which he relentlessly probed throughout his career, pivots on the axis of displacement. This article maintains that, in Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, the gentrification of the Hill District (which was the result of a national urban renewal project) and urban migration are metonyms of the African diaspora, the initial and most devastating breach of home.
Beyond Documentation: The Exhibition Photography of Shunk-Kender and Balthasar Burkhard
Authors: Sherman Arden
Published: March 2013

The ephemeral, site-specific, installation-based and performative artworks of the 1960s and 1970s relied heavily on documentation. Likewise, exhibitions depended on photographs like never before, engendering new modes of collaboration between curator and photographer. The advent of
the curator-auteur created new opportunities, not only for the camera’s use in making and documenting art, but also for distribution and promotion. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, photographers Balthasar Burkhard and the duo of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender documented exhibitions
– both in process and after completion – and created a body of work that could be said to exemplify the nascent genre of ‘exhibition photography’.
On the Morse–Sard property and level sets of W
n,1 Sobolev functions on ℝ
n
Authors: Bourgain Jean , Korobkov Mikhail V. , Kristensen Jan
Published: March 2013

We establish Luzin N and Morse–Sard properties for functions
from the Sobolev space

W

n
,
1

(

ℝ
n

)

$\mathrm {W}^{n,1}(\mathbb {R}^n)$

. Using these results we
prove that almost all level sets are finite disjoint unions of

C
1

$\mathrm {C}^1$

-smooth compact manifolds of dimension n - 1. These results
remain valid also within the larger space of functions of bounded
variation

BV
n

(

ℝ
n

)

$\mathrm {BV}_n(\mathbb {R}^n)$

. For the proofs we establish and use some
new results on Luzin-type approximation of Sobolev and

BV

$\mathrm {BV}$

-functions by

C
k

$\mathrm {C}^k$

-functions, where the exceptional sets
have small Hausdorff content.
The incorporation of europium into apatite: anew explanation
Authors: Holliday Kiel S. , Dardenne Kathy , Walther Clemens , Stumpf Th.
Published: March 2013

Time resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) are used as complimentary techniques to show that the hetero-valent incorporation of europium into apatite at temperatures relevant to environmental and biological processes occurs at grain boundaries and not the crystallographic calcium sites as previously presumed. For this study, we focus on mechanisms at the solid solution interface and therefore define this temperature regime as the range in which liquid water exists (0–100 ºC). Site-selective TRLFS show that the local Eu3+symmetry does not match the presumed crystallographic site of incorporation. This is confirmed by XAFS results that show a deviation from the local environment in apatite. The transition of this amorphous europium to acrystallographic calcium site upon heating is then explained by grain growth and followed through a transition species by TRLFS.
Interferon-β is a potent inhibitor of cell growth and cortisol production in vitro and sensitizes human adrenocortical carcinoma cells to mitotane
Authors: van Koetsveld Peter M , Vitale Giovanni , Feelders Richard A , Waaijers Marlijn , Sprij-Mooij Diana M , de Krijger Ronald R , Speel Ernst-Jan M , Hofland Johannes , Lamberts Steven W J , de Herder Wouter W , Hofland Leo J
Published: March 2013

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive tumor with very poor prognosis. Novel medical treatment opportunities are required. We investigated the effects of interferon-β (IFN-β), alone or in combination with mitotane, on cell growth and cortisol secretion in primary cultures of 13 human ACCs, three adrenal hyperplasias, three adrenal adenomas, and in two ACC cell lines. Moreover, the interrelationship between the effects of IGF2 and IFN-β was evaluated. Mitotane inhibited cell total DNA content/well (representing cell number) in 7/11 (IC50: 38±9.2 μM) and cortisol secretion in 5/5 ACC cultures (IC50: 4.5±0.1 μM). IFN-β reduced cell number in 10/11 (IC50: 83±18 IU/ml) and cortisol secretion in 5/5 ACC cultures (IC50: 7.3±1.5 IU/ml). The effect of IFN-β on cell number included the induction of apoptosis. IFN-β strongly inhibited mRNA expression of STAR, CYP11A1, CYP17A1, and CYP11B1. Mitotane and IFN-β induced an additive inhibitory effect on cell number and cortisol secretion. IGF2 (10 nM) inhibited apoptosis and increased cell number and cortisol secretion. These effects were counteracted by IFN-β treatment. Finally, IFN-β inhibited IGF2 secretion and mRNA expression. In conclusion, IFN-β is a potent inhibitor of ACC cell growth in human primary ACC cultures, partially mediated by an inhibition of the effects of IGF2, as well as its production. The increased sensitivity of ACC cells to mitotane induced by treatment with IFN-β may open the opportunity for combined treatment regimens with lower mitotane doses. The inhibition of the expression of steroidogenic enzymes by IFN-β is a novel mechanism that may explain its inhibitory effect on cortisol production.
Heliox Therapy in Bronchiolitis: Phase III Multicenter Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Chowdhury Mina M. , McKenzie Sheila A. , Pearson Christopher C. , Carr Siobhan , Pao Caroline , Shah Arvind R. , Reus Elizabeth , Eliahoo Joseph , Gordon Fabiana , Bland Hubert , Habibi Parviz
Published: March 2013

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:

Supportive care remains the mainstay of therapy in bronchiolitis. Earlier studies suggest that helium-oxygen therapy may be beneficial, but evidence is limited. We aimed to compare efficacy of 2 treatment gases, Heliox and Airox (21% oxygen + 79% helium or nitrogen, respectively), on length of hospital treatment for bronchiolitis.

METHODS:

This was a multicenter randomized blinded controlled trial of 319 bronchiolitic infant subjects randomly assigned to either gas; 281 subjects completed the study (140 Heliox, 141 Airox), whose data was analyzed. Treatment was delivered via facemask (nasal cannula, if the facemask intolerant) ± continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Severe bronchiolitics received CPAP from the start. Primary end point was length of treatment (LoT) required to alleviate hypoxia and respiratory distress. Secondary end-points were proportion of subjects needing CPAP; CPAP (LoT); and change in respiratory distress score.

RESULTS:

Analysis by intention to treat (all subjects); median LoT (inter-quartile range, days): Heliox 1.90 (1.08–3.17), Airox 1.87 (1.11–3.34), P = .41. Facemask tolerant subgroup: Heliox 1.46 (0.85–1.95), Airox 2.01 (0.93–2.86), P = .03. Nasal cannula subgroup: Heliox 2.51 (1.21–4.32), Airox 2.81 (1.45–4.78), P = .53. Subgroup started on CPAP: Heliox 1.55 (1.38–2.01), Airox 2.26 (1.84–2.73), P = .02. Proportion of subjects needing CPAP: Heliox 17%, Airox 19%, O.R. 0.87 (0.47–1.60), P = .76. Heliox reduced respiratory distress score after 8 hours (mixed models estimate, −0.1298; P < .001). The effect was greater for facemask compared with nasal cannula (mixed models estimate, 0.093; P = .04).

CONCLUSIONS:

Heliox therapy does not reduce LoT unless given via a tight-fitting facemask or CPAP. Nasal cannula heliox therapy is ineffective.
Innervation of papilla vallata in diabetic rats
Authors: Hevér Helén , Altdorfer Károly , Zelles Tivadar , Batbayar Bayarchimeg , Fehér Erzsébet
Published: March 2013

Introduction: Abnormal sensations such as pain and impairment of taste are symptoms of approximately 10% of patients having diabetes mellitus. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate and quantify the different neuropeptide containing nerve fibres in the vallate papilla of the diabetic rat. Methods: Immunohistochemical methods were used to study the changes of the number of different neuropeptide containing nerve terminals located in the vallate papillae in diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced in the rats with streptozotocin. Results: Two weeks after streptozotocin treatment the number of the substance P, galanin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and neuropeptide Y immunoreactive nerve terminals was significantly increased (p<0.05) in the tunica mucosa of the tongue. The number of the lymphocytes and mast cells was also increased significantly. Some of the immunoreactive nerve terminals were located in the lingual epithelium both intragemmally and extragemmally and were seen to comprise dense bundles in the lamina propria just beneath the epithelium. No taste cells were immunoreactive for any of the investigated peptides. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and neuropeptide Y immunoreactive nerve fibres were not detected in the taste buds. For weeks after streptozotocin administration the number of the substance P, calcitonin gene related peptide and galanin immunoreactive nerve terminals was decreased both intragemmally and intergemmally. In case of immediate insulin treatment, the number of the immunoreactive nerve terminals was similar to that of the controls, however, insulin treatment given 1 week later to diabetic rats produced a decreased number of nerve fibers. Morphometry revealed no significant difference in papilla size between the control and diabetic groups, but there were fewer taste buds (per papilla). Conclusions: Increased number of immunoreactive nerve terminals and mast cells 2 weeks after the development of diabetes was the consequence of neurogenic inflammation which might cause vasoconstriction and lesions of the oral mucosa. Taste impairment, which developed 4 weeks after streptozotocin treatment could be caused by neuropathic defects and degeneration or morphological changes in the taste buds and nerve fibres. Orv. Hetil., 2013, 154, 443–448.
Neotectonics in Marajó Island, State of Pará (Brazil) revealed by vertical electric sounding integrated with remote sensing and geological data
Authors: SOUZA LENA S.B. , ROSSETTI DILCE F. , ELIAS VAGNER R. , PRADO RENATO L.
Published: March 2013

Studies suggest that the Marajó Island has experienced neotectonic activity during its latest evolution. However, there are no data demonstrating the presence of tectonic structures in its shallow subsurface. This work integrates vertical electric sounding, morphostructural lineaments, and geological data aiming to show fault control on the Late Pleistocene-Holocene sedimentation of this area. Resistivity values were related to mud (< 90 Ωm), clayey sand (90 and 200 Ωm), sand (200 and 500 Ωm), as well as Fe-bearing sand and laterite (> 500 Ωm). The latest values were related to the unconformity with lateritic paleosol at the top of the Barreiras Formation. Despite the values ≤ 500 Ωm of both the Barreiras Formation and the Late Pleistocene-Holocene unit, the latter was distinguished along four electric sections due to the presence of this unconformity, combined with the integration of available 14C, and luminescence ages of Quaternary sediments. The electric sections recorded several places with lateral interruptions of resistivity values within short distances, which were related to faults. The Miocene strata were vertically displaced by normal faults, giving rise to new accommodation space where Late Pleistocene-Holocene sediments were deposited. Fault reactivation was crucial to renew sedimentation in eastern Marajó Island during its latest evolutionary stage.
Pedology and plant physiognomies in the cerrado, Brazil
Authors: NERI ANDREZA V. , SCHAEFER CARLOS E.G.R. , SOUZA AGOSTINHO L. , FERREIRA-JUNIOR WALNIR G. , MEIRA-NETO JOÃO A.A.
Published: March 2013

This study was carried out in Paraopeba National Reserve. It aims to classify and evaluate the soil of the studied area and to verify the influence of soil attributes on vegetation by testing the following hypotheses: 1) under woodland physiognomies (Cerradão) the soil fertility is higher and the Al content lower; 2) open savanna occurs only in areas with high Al contents. For this purpose, representative soils in the Paraopeba National Reserve were mapped, identified, and samples from five profiles were analyzed. The environmental gradient was easily observed by principal components analyses, where the differences between the sites were highlighted. The Spearman correlation was used to verify the hypothesis. The correlation between vegetation (basal area, density, and richness) and soil (K, Ca2+, and Al3+) was statistically significant. The hypotheses were accepted, but hypothesis 1 only partially. Soil features seem to have an influence on the Cerrado phytophysiognomies and structure. Available phosphorous was an important factor for the maintenance of woodland Cerrado. Also, exchangeable Al3+ plays a major role in the establishment of different Cerrado physiognomies in Paraopeba National Reserve.
Caspase-3 activation and increased procollagen type I in irradiated hearts
Authors: Ferreira-Machado Samara C. , Salata Camila , Rocha Nazareth N. , Corrêa Alexandre F.S. , Côrte-Real Suzana , Peregrino Antônio A.F. , Campos Vera M.A. de , Andrade Cherley B.V. , Bernardo-Filho Mario , Cabral-Neto Januário B. , Dealmeida Carlos E.
Published: March 2013

The caspase-3-cleaved presence was evaluated in this study in the heart of irradiated rats, during the decline of ventricular function. Female Wistar rats were irradiated with a single dose of radiation (15 Gy) delivered directly to the heart and the molecular, histological and physiological evaluations were performed at thirteen months post-irradiation. The expressions of procollagen type I, TGF-ß1 and caspase-3-cleaved were analyzed using Western blotting. Cardiac structural and functional alterations were investigated by echocardiography and electron microscopy. In the irradiated group, the levels of procollagen type I, TGF-ß1 and caspase-3-cleaved are increased. Significant histological changes (degeneration of heart tissue and collagen deposition) and functional (reduced ejection fraction) were observed. Data suggest that the cardiac function decline after exposure to ionizing radiation is related, in part, to increased collagen and increased caspase-3-cleaved.
Nanoparticle-based therapy for respiratory diseases
Authors: SILVA ADRIANA L. DA , SANTOS RAQUEL S. , XISTO DÉBORA G. , ALONSO SILVIA DEL V. , MORALES MARCELO M. , ROCCO PATRICIA R.M.
Published: March 2013

Nanotechnology is an emerging science with the potential to create new materials and strategies involving manipulation of matter at the nanometer scale (<100 nm). With size-dependent properties, nanoparticles have introduced a new paradigm in pharmacotherapy – the possibility of cell-targeted drug delivery with minimal systemic side effects and toxicity. The present review provides a summary of published findings, especially regarding to nanoparticle formulations for lung diseases. The available data have shown some benefits with nanoparticle-based therapy in the development of the disease and lung remodeling in respiratory diseases. However, there is a wide gap between the concepts of nanomedicine and the published experimental data and clinical reality. In addition, studies are still required to determine the potential of nanotherapy and the systemic toxicity of nanomaterials for future human use.
Investigando os distúrbios de aquisição de linguagem a partir das queixas
Authors: Tamanaha Ana Carina , Oshiro Lívia Tamie , Kawano Cinthya Eiko , Okumura Marie , Ghiringhelli Rosângela , Minaguchi Talitha , Rosa Luana Araújo , Sanchez Marina , Perissinoto Jacy
Published: March 2013

OBJETIVO: Investigar as queixas comumente relatadas por pais de crianças com Distúrbio de Linguagem. Além disso, buscou-se analisar as condições de recepção e expressão verbais destas crianças. MÉTODOS: A amostra foi constituída por 55 crianças, na faixa etária entre 2 e 12 anos, de ambos os gêneros. As queixas relatadas pela família no inicio da intervenção terapêutica foram analisadas e subdivididas, considerando-se prejuízo de produção verbal, compreensão verbal e misto (compreensão e produção). Posteriormente, foram analisados os desempenhos das crianças em provas de compreensão verbal e produção nos níveis fonológico, semântico, gramatical e pragmático. RESULTADOS: Ao analisarmos o desempenho de crianças cujos familiares apresentavam queixa quanto à produção verbal (82,6%), observamos que 55,2% delas também apresentavam desvios na compreensão verbal. O comprometimento da produção verbal ocorreu em nível fonológico (97,3%), semântico (76,3%), gramatical (78,9%) e pragmático (5,2%). CONCLUSÃO: Embora a queixa sobre prejuízos na produção verbal seja mais mencionada pelos familiares, os prejuízos na compreensão verbal também são evidenciados em crianças com Distúrbio de Linguagem. Esses achados confirmam a importância da realização de uma avaliação cuidadosa a partir da investigação da queixa relatada pelas famílias.
Association between Interferon Regulatory Factor 6 Gene Polymorphisms and Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate in a Chinese Population
Authors: Zhou Qian , Li Mengjie , Zhu Wenli , Guo Jinzhen , Wang Yun , Li Yong , Li Shuqin
Published: March 2013

Objective

To further confirm the association between two IRF6 single nucleotide polymorphisms and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in a Chinese population.

Participants

A total of 106 nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate case trios and 129 control trios.

Intervention

Two IRF6 single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs2235371 and rs642961, were genotyped for all case and control families. Case-control analysis and family-based linkage analysis were both performed for the two single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Results

The genotype and allele frequencies of rs2235371 (odds ratioAG+AA vs. GG, 0.581; 95% confidence interval, 0.345 to 0.976; P = .039) and rs642961 (odds ratioAG+AA vs. GG, 5.389; 95% confidence interval, 2.936 to 9.893; P = 5e-08) were significantly higher in nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate patients compared with controls. There was an obvious dosage effect of allele A at rs642961. The transmission of a major allele (G) of rs2235371 and a minor allele (A) of rs642961 was in disequilibrium ( P < .05) in complete case-parent trios. The association between the two single nucleotide polymorphisms and nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate was confirmed by the Family-Based Association Test for rs642961 ( P = .008), but there was no significance for rs2235371 ( P = 0.057). Haplotype analysis found that rs2235371 G/rs642961 A haplotype increased the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate ( P = 2.42e-07); whereas, rs2235371 A/rs642961 G haplotype reduced the risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate ( P = 4.37e-05). No evidence of linkage disequilibrium was found between the two single nucleotide polymorphisms (D′ = 0.303, r2 = 0.017).

Conclusion

Our results confirmed the involvement of the IRF6 variants rs642961 and rs2235371 in the etiology of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate in a Chinese population.
Osteology of Concavispina biseridens (Reptilia, Thalattosauria) from the Xiaowa Formation (Carnian), Guanling, Guizhou, China
Authors: Liu Jun , Zhao Li-Jun , Li Chun , He Tao
Published: March 2013

A thalattosaur taxon, Concavispina biseridens, was recently named and briefly described. It is described here in detail and compared with other thalattosaurs, especially Xinpusaurus. Concavispina is characterized by a long skull, measuring approximately half the length of presacral portion of the vertebral column, two rows of blunt teeth on the anterior part of the maxilla, and neural spines that have convex anterior or posterior margins and V-shaped notches in their dorsal margins. Concavispina differs from all thalattosaurs except Xinpusaurus in that the anterior end of the maxilla is curved dorsally, less than five cervical vertebrae are present, and the proximal end of the humerus is wider than the distal end. Phylogenetic analysis of 40 characters suggests that Miodentosaurus occupies a basal position within Askeptosauridea, Paralonectes is the basalmost member of Thalattosauridea, Concavispina may form a clade with Xinpusaurus, and Chinese thalattosaurs do not have a close relationship with eastern Pacific forms as suggested by previous studies. Concavispina may have been similar to Xinpusaurus in overall locomotor style, but probably had a poorer swimming ability. Concavispina likely differed from Xinpusaurus in diet, for example by depending on softer food.
Context‐dependent amphibian host population response to an invading pathogen
Authors: Doddington Benjamin J. , Bosch Jaime , Oliver Joan A. , Grassly Nicholas C. , Garcia Gerardo , Schmidt Benedikt R. , Garner Trenton W. J. , Fisher Matthew C.
Published: March 2013

Amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is an emerging infectious disease that widely threatens amphibian biodiversity. However, population‐level outcomes following the introduction of the pathogen are highly context dependent and are mediated by a broad suite of biotic and abiotic variables. Here, we examine the effect of the introduction of Bd on native island populations of the IUCN red‐listed amphibian species Alytes muletensis, the Mallorcan midwife toad. We show that the outcome of pathogen introduction is not only dependent on biotic factors, but is also dependent on environmental factors that vary across local scales. Our experimental infections confirm that the genotype of Bd occurring on Mallorca is hypovirulent in A. muletensis when compared against the lineage found occurring on mainland Iberia. Long‐term population data show that A. muletensis populations on the island are increasing overall, but trends in highly infected populations are conflicting. We use mathematical models and field data to demonstrate that this divergence in population response to infection can be explained by local environmental differences between infected sites, whereas pathogen genetics, host genetics, and intrinsic epidemiological dynamics driven by fungal load are less likely to be the cause of these differing population trajectories. Our results illustrate the need to take into account the appropriate environmental scale and context when assessing the risk that an emerging pathogen presents to a naïve population or species.