bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Renal Artery Hemodynamics in Normal Fetuses Using the Color Doppler Method
Authors: Iura Toshihiko , Makinoda Satoru , Fujita Satoko , Matsuzawa Satsuki , Waseda Tomoo , Ohshima Keiji , Tomizawa Hideki
Published: January 2005

Objective: From analysis of fetal renal artery hemodynamics, we attempted to reveal renal glomerular and tubular function in normal fetuses during pregnancy. Design: The study included 36 cases of normal fetuses from the 20th to the 40th week of gestation; Vmax (the systolic peak velocity of main renal artery), Vmean (time averages of trace of peak velocity) blood flow were initially measured between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation and every 4 weeks thereafter. The measurement was performed a total of five times in a longitudinal study. In addition, the blood flow waveform was concurrently examined. Results: The Vmax was 22.02 ± 0.50 cm/s at 20–24 weeks of gestation. This standard value (100%) was found to increase for each group as follows: 125.2, 149.1, 156.1, and 181.5%. Furthermore, using 20–24weeks of gestation as the standard, the Vmean increased after the 37th week of gestation: 186.7%, respectively. At 20–24 weeks of gestation, the blood flow wave forms consisted of 43.2% type I (only systolic waveforms), and 56.8% type II (both systolic and diastolic waveforms). Type III waveforms (waveforms that extended beyond the diastolic to the next systolic component) were not recognized. In the 33- to 36-week group, 82.6% of the waveforms were type II, and in the 37- to 40-week group, 76.2% of the waveforms were type III. Conclusions: The Vmax and Vmean of the renal artery in normal fetuses exhibit a similar rate increase when 20–24 weeks of gestation is compared to 37–40 weeks of gestation. The blood flow waveforms changed as pregnancy progresses; thus, it was inferred that this finding was related to the development of the renal glomerular and renal tubular function.
Prenatal Diagnosis of Isolated Limb Defects: An Updated Review
Authors: Gramellini Dandolo , Fieni Stefania , Vadora Eugenio
Published: January 2005

Abnormalities of bone segments, either isolated or in combination with others, may affect any single bone. Given the relatively low incidence of such defects and the relevance of the clinical issues involved, it could be useful to evaluate all the diagnostic and procedural aspects that should be considered at prenatal diagnosis, when obstetricians are confronted with an event that is certainly unfamiliar to most of them: a fetus with an isolated limb defect. In fact, with comparatively infrequent abnormalities investigators often tend to neglect some diagnostic aspects that could be useful both in terms of prenatal counseling and of optimum management of the affected fetus. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is required that supplements ultrasound diagnostics with additional tests and examinations, even of the invasive type, depending on the complexity of the condition. This updated review may represent a useful tool to reach the stated objectives.
Intrathoracic Dislodgement of Pleuro-Amniotic Shunt
Authors: Sepulveda Waldo , Galindo Alberto , Sosa Alberto , Diaz Luis , Flores Ximena , De la Fuente Pedro
Published: January 2005

Background: Intrathoracic shunt dislodgement is a rare, although significant, complication of pleuro-amniotic shunting. In a previously reported case, the abnormally located shunt caused constriction of the pulmonary hilum resulting in neonatal death. Cases: Three cases of severe fetal pleural effusion treated by pleuro-amniotic shunting at 33, 26 and 30 weeks of gestation and complicated by dislodgement of the shunt into the fetal chest are presented. These cases were collected from three fetal medicine referral centers, where 15 pleuro-amniotic shunts have been inserted in a total of 13 fetuses (11 unilateral and 2 bilateral procedures), giving prevalence for this complication of 20%. The indication for shunting was severe bilateral pleural effusions and hydrops in one case, and unilateral pleural effusion with marked mediastinal shift in 2 others. Intrathoracic dislodgement was diagnosed by ultrasound at 33, 29 and 39 weeks, and the infants were delivered at 35, 34 and 39 weeks of gestation, respectively. There were no complications associated with the malposition of the shunt within the fetal chest and clinical follow-up from 10 months to 2 years of age has demonstrated asymptomatic infants. Conclusion: The complication of intrathoracic dislodgement of a pleuro-amniotic shunt can be recognized prenatally by ultrasound. Prevention of this complication seems difficult, but if recognized, a conservative approach appears to be a sensible management option. Since the material of the shunt is inert, its presence within the pleural cavity is unlikely to be associated with an inflammatory foreign body response and, therefore, it should not cause long-term pulmonary complications.
Prenatal Diagnosis of Tetralogy of Fallot with Absent Pulmonary Valve Using Advanced Dynamic Flow
Authors: Liezl Augusto , Nobuhiro Hidaka , Yoshihide Chiba
Published: January 2005

Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary valve absence can cause severe respiratory distress immediately after birth; therefore, a prenatal diagnosis is important. In this paper, we report a case using advanced dynamic flow to enhance its diagnosis.
Hemivertebra: Prenatal Diagnosis, Incidence and Characteristics
Authors: Goldstein Israel , Makhoul Imad R. , Weissman Amir , Drugan Arie
Published: January 2005

Objective: Hemivertebra is a rare congenital spinal anomaly where only one side of the vertebral body develops, resulting in deformation of the spine, such as scoliosis, lordosis, or kyphosis. We aimed to determine the incidence and clinical characteristics of hemivertebra. Patients and Methods: We present three fetuses with a prenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of hemivertebra at 15–22 weeks’ gestation, and we determine the incidence and clinical characteristics of hemivertebra among 78,500 live-born infants at a tertiary medical center in Israel. Results: There were 26 cases of hemivertebra (0.33/1,000 live-born infants): male/female ratio 1/1, Jewish/Arab ratio 10/16, and ratio of single/multiple type of hemivertebrae 17/9. Twenty-three out of 26 infants (88.5%) with hemivertebra had additional congenital anomalies (cranial, cardiac, renal, intestinal, and skeletal). Conclusions: Hemivertebra is not an infrequent finding in fetuses and live-born infants. Comprehensive ultrasonographic screening of the fetus allows early prenatal diagnosis of hemivertebra, and provides parents with helpful information for their decision regarding the fate of pregnancy.
Ultrasonographic Diagnosis of Jarcho-Levin Syndrome at 20 Weeks’ Gestation in a Fetus without Previous Family History
Authors: del Río Holgado María , Martínez Josep M. , Gómez Olga , Casals Gemma , Bargalló Nuria , Fortuny Albert , Puerto Bienvenido
Published: January 2005

Jarcho-Levin syndrome (JLS; spondylothoracic dysplasia) is a congenital disease characterized by multiple vertebral and rib malformations, causing a short trunk dwarfism commonly leading to respiratory insufficiency and death during the first years of life. We describe a case diagnosed during the second trimester routine ultrasound scan for screening of fetal anomalies without a previous family history. The fetus had a severe disorganization of the spine and ribs, skeletal kyphosis, with several hemivertebrae and a small thorax. All of the findings at postmortem examination confirmed the ultrasound features and were consistent with the JLS. To the best of our knowledge there is only one case reported in the literature of a prenatal diagnosis of the syndrome in a family with low risk for the condition.
When Movement Must Be Blocked: A Reply to Embick and Noyer
Authors: Hankamer Jorge , Mikkelsen Line
Published: January 2005

Embick and Noyer (2001) develop an analysis of definiteness marking in Danish and Swedish employing the central assumptions of Distributed Morphology (DM) together with the syntactic operation of head movement of N to D. We expose some theoretical and empirical shortcomings of the analysis and conclude that the assumption of N-to-D movement is incompatible with the central assumptions of DM. We further show how these shortcomings are avoided by the lexicalist analysis proposed by Hankamer and Mikkelsen (2002) and compare it with an alternative DM analysis that does not rely on head movement in the syntax. We conclude that while a lexicalist or a DM analysis is viable, with interesting trade-offs, neither of the viable analyses involves any movement.
The Durawall of Faith: Pentecostal Spirituality in Neo-Liberal Zimbabwe
Authors: Maxwell David
Published: January 2005

This paper considers the nature of Pentecostal spirituality in contemporary Zimbabwe, taking as its case study Zimbabwe Assemblies of God, Africa (ZAOGA), one of the continent's largest and most vital Pentecostal movements. The analysis centres upon a lexicon of key words, phrases and narratives used in song, preaching, testimony and prayer. For example, there is a preponderance of images of security, including the 'durawall', the protective concrete fencing surrounding a factory or a suburban home. The paper demonstrates how Pentecostalism, as quintessential popular religion, is able both to satisfy deep existential passions and to aid those struggling for survival in the specific social conditions of neo-liberal Zimbabwe. While Pentecostalism helps create an acquisitive, flexible person better suited to coping with neo-liberalism's economic agenda, it rejects the neo-liberal cultural project. Instead Pentecostal communities provide believers with security in the face of state retrenchment, the capriciousness of global capitalism and growing levels of violence and crime. Pentecostal religion also offers hope to those suffering from a sense of personal abjection created by the shattered hopes of independence and the elusive promise of modernity.
'"Christ is the Answer": What is the Question?' A Ghana Airways Prayer Vigil and its Implications for Religion, Evil and Public Space
Authors: Asamoah-Gyadu J. Kwabena
Published: January 2005

Religion and life, both private and public, remain strongly linked in Africa. This was recently expressed in a prayer vigil organized by Ghana Airways when the staff and management invited a London-based Ghanaian evangelist, Lawrence Tetteh, to lead a 'healing and deliverance' service aimed at exorcizing evil spirits from the affairs of the airline and releasing it from its predicaments. The organization of a healing and deliverance session by a public corporation, it is argued, is symptomatic of the quick African resort to the sphere of religion in the search for solutions to life's difficulties. Religious functionaries including Pentecostal/ Charismatic pastors are important in Africa as purveyors of powerful prayers, potent medicines, and amulets for protection against evil. The Pentecostal 'healing and deliverance' ministry has become popular in African contexts like that of Ghana because it takes African worldviews of mystical causality seriously. This Christianity promises Christian alternatives to the search for security that drives people into the courts of other religious functionaries.
New African Initiated Pentecostalism and Charismatics in South Africa
Authors: Anderson Allan
Published: January 2005

The new Pentecostal churches in South Africa, while not as numerically significant as those elsewhere in Africa, follow similar patterns. Tracing the rise of white megachurches in the 1980s and the subsequent emergence of black Charismatic churches similar to those found elsewhere in Africa, this article outlines their ambivalent relationship with the apartheid regime and the increasing disillusionment of black Pentecostals in the run-up to the 1994 elections. It traces the roles of Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders in the new South Africa and the impact of African Charismatic preachers from elsewhere, pilgrimages to other Pentecostal centres and other factors of globalization. After a survey of different Pentecostal churches, it discusses how new South African Pentecostals illustrate Coleman's dimensions of a globalized Charismatic Christianity.
School-Business Partnerships, Developmental Assets, and Positive Outcomes among Urban High School Students
Authors: Scales Peter C. , Foster Karen C. , Mannes Marc , Horst Megan A. , Pinto Kristina C. , Rutherford Audra
Published: January 2005

This article reports the connections among urban students’ school-business partnership experiences, developmental assets or strengths they report in their lives, and positive developmental outcomes. Surveys were completed by 429 9th-to 12th-grade Hispanic and African American students, mostly low income in an inner-city high school, and 76 students, parents, school staff, and business partners participated in observations, interviews, and focus groups. Urban youth with higher level developmental assets reported fewer risk behaviors and more thriving. Students with higher level exposure to school-business partnerships reported higher levels of developmental assets and positive developmental outcomes, including better grades, better school attendance, and more academic motivation. The most impactful partnership experiences emphasized the building of relationships between students and caring adults. These relationships engaged, affirmed, and activated students’ inner resources for school success. The results suggest that promoting students’ broad physical, cognitive, emotional, and social well-being can pay academic and other developmental dividends.
Are you Privileged or Oppressed?
Authors: Chizhik Estella Williams , Chizhik Alexander Williams
Published: January 2005

Given the preponderance of research on students’ resistance to multicultural courses, the authors begin to ponder this resistance by exploring students’ preconceptions of social justice concepts. They present two mixed-methods studies to examine students’ preconceived notions regarding two terms associated with social justice education: privilege and oppression. In Study 1, the authors conducted a qualitative investigation of students’ self-definitions of whether they believe themselves to be privileged or oppressed. In Study 2, they take a quantitative look at students’ reactions to hypothetical character scenarios differentiated based on two variables: (a) privilege or oppression and (b) socially conscious aspirations. The findings indicate specific ways that Whites, especially White men, view privilege and oppression differently from people of color. Findings are discussed in terms of students’ resistance to multicultural education, with a focus on lack of intersubjectivity, sense of privilege, downplaying the existence of oppression, and lack of commitment to social activism.
Away from Home
Authors: Gamber Wendy
Published: January 2005

Most scholars would agree that the nineteenth century was the golden age of the home as a cultural ideal, a concept that novelists, advice writers, poets, journalists, lyricists, and ordinary Americans celebrated ad nauseam. Residences that failed to approximate this middle-class model invited contempt, none more than boardinghouses. Nonetheless, in cities andprobablymany towns as well, Americansofall classes were more likely to live in boardinghousesthan in homes. This article takes a close look at the experiences of three middle-class urban boarders, examining how each negotiated the always-permeable boundaries between house and home.
Presenting and Consuming the Past
Authors: Zelljadt Katja
Published: January 2005

This article examines Old Berlin, part of the Berlin Industrial Exhibition of 1896. The exhibit presented a stylized vision of the city circa 1650 to almost 2 million visitors, making it Berlin’s largest public historical attraction during the period before World War I. Analysis of the exhibit shows the ways in which popular history helped to create and foster a sense of city pride. This local cosmopolitan identity ran parallel to and at times even supplanted the German national identity considered central to this period. In addition, amateur historians relied on modern technology to mount and market the exhibit, thereby making it a union of progressive means and nostalgic views of the past.
The Bourgeois after the Bourgeois Revolution
Authors: Harrison Carol E.
Published: January 2005

Recent research on the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution has questioned the notion of the bourgeoisie as the revolutionary class of the nineteenth century. European historians thus face the challenge of developing new accounts of a middle class or bourgeoisie that do not depend on Marxist narratives of the dual revolutions. Scholars’ responses have moved in two apparently divergent directions. One account focuses on language, arguing that the middle class is essentially a linguistic construction, largely independent of any socioeconomic referent, that functions as a political tool. The second account emphasizes cultural practice, finding markers of class in aspects of daily life such as sociability or consumer behavior. The article concludes with a discussion of the differences between these two approaches and suggests that historians can, in fact, incorporate both in a revised understanding of a European bourgeoisie.
Customers as Good Soldiers: Examining Citizenship Behaviors in Internet Service Deliveries
Authors: Groth Markus
Published: January 2005

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) research is extended to the customer domain by examining the role of customer behavior in Internet service deliveries. Based on the OCB framework, it was hypothesized that a conceptual distinction between in-role behaviors (i.e., task performance) and extra-role behaviors (i.e., citizenship behavior) can be extended to customers who participate in service delivery. Survey data show that customers differentiate coproduction behaviors from customer citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, these two behaviors had different sets of predictors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from the perspective of OCB theories.
An Experimental Evaluation of a Control Intervention to Alleviate Job-Related Stress
Authors: Logan Mary S. , Ganster Daniel C.
Published: January 2005

This article reports the results of a randomized field experiment that tested the effects of a control-enhancing stress intervention among unit managers of a trucking company. Individuals who managed geographically dispersed profit centers were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (N = 34) or a no-intervention group (N = 30). The intervention increased perceptions of control after 4 months, but only for those managers with supportive supervisors. In conjunction with supervisory support, the intervention produced improvements in job satisfaction, but not general well-being outcomes. The impact of the intervention and supervisory support on satisfaction was fully mediated by control perceptions.
Information and Knowledge
Authors: Malik Suhail
Published: January 2005

A received criticism of information is that it is an instrumentalization of knowledge. This article questions the conditions for such a critique. Examining developmental systems theory, biology and social sciences, it argues that information is a situated event; that it is intrinsic to the development and (de)structuring of mnemic organization (meaning) at a number of levels; and that such developmental systems are epigenetically constituted. This concept of information leads to: a critique of the statistical-quantitative determination of information that is put forward as its mathematical theorization; a review of characterizations of ‘information societies’; and comprehending instrumentalization as a variant of the event of information at the specific level of the constitution of the human understood as an anthropotechnical complex.
‘Contemplating a Self-portrait as a Pharmacist’
Authors: Lury Celia
Published: January 2005

This article addresses how it is possible to view Damien Hirst as a brand name. It argues that the brand name is not the mark of an originary relation between producer and product but of a set of highly mediated relations between products. In a discussion of the spot paintings, the process of mediation is seen to contribute to the open-endedness of the relations between products or works established in Hirst’s practice. This open-endedness contributes to the distinctiveness of the Hirst brand name as ‘life as it is lived’ or living-ness. This characterization of the distinctiveness of the Hirst brand name draws attention to the ways in which his practice may be seen as a commentary on contemporary science, in particular the bio-sciences. It is further argued that Hirst does not merely represent himself as a scientist, but as a pharmacist, thus drawing attention to the role of branding in shifts in the processes of creativity, invention and discovery across the arts and sciences.
Violence and Legalized Brothel Prostitution in Nevada
Authors: Brents Barbara G. , Hausbeck Kathryn
Published: January 2005

This article examines violence in legalized brothels in Nevada. Debates over prostitution policies in the United States have long focused on questions of safety and risk. These discourses inevitably invoke the coupling of violence and prostitution, though systematic examinations of the relationship between the two are sparse. This article explores the issue of violence in the Nevada brothel industry. By drawing on interviews with prostitutes, managers, and policy makers, this article examines both prostitutes’ perceptions of safety and risk and brothel managers’ practices designed to mitigate violence. Discourses relate to three types of violence: interpersonal violence against prostitutes, violence against community order, and sexually transmitted diseases as violence. The authors conclude by arguing that the legalization of prostitution brings a level of public scrutiny, official regulation, and bureaucratization to brothels that decreases the risk of these 3 types of systematic violence.
Understanding the New Context of the Male Sex Work Industry
Authors: Scott John , Minichiello Victor , Mariño Rodrigo , Harvey Glenn P. , Jamieson Maggie , Browne Jan
Published: January 2005

The article reviews past and recent research on male sex work to offer a context to understand violence in the industry. It provides a critical review of research to show, first, the assumptions made about male sex workers and violence and, second, how such discourses have shaped thinking on the topic. The article presents a case study and original findings from two studies conducted by the authors in Australia and Argentina on violence in the male sex industry. Finally, the article reviews examples of legislative reforms to show how the sex industry is being regulated.
‘Lucky this is anonymous.’ Ethnographies of reception in men’s magazines: a ‘textual culture’ approach
Authors: Benwell Bethan
Published: January 2005

In this article I address the contribution that a study of reader reception might make to our understanding of the cultural meanings of the discourses to be found in and around men’s magazines. Reception is a cultural site often neglected in linguistic analyses of popular cultural texts, which are commonly treated as discrete, autonomous and ahistorical within these approaches. Conversation Analysis of unstructured interviews with magazine readers is one means of accessing contexts of reception, which, unlike many ethnographic approaches, is properly reflexive about the ontological status of its data. The drawback of a strict ethnomethodological approach, however, is its limited ability in recreating the original context of reading: the interview is arguably a situated account rather than a transparent report of reception. In order to expand the terms of ‘context’ for these interviews, therefore, the article proposes a triangulated method whereby the discourses and categories identified in talk can be intertextually linked (and indeed are sometimes intertextually indexed within the talk itself) to other communicative contexts in the circuit of culture, such as the magazine text, media debates, editorial identities and everyday talk. This ‘textual culture’1 approach to the analysis of popular culture effectively aims to analyse with ethnographic breadth and in discursive depth, the various, intersecting sites of culture within which the material text is formed - of which reception serves as the focal point for this article - and mirrors recent developments in Critical Discourse Analysis.
Critical discourse analysis and social cognition: evidence from business media discourse
Authors: Koller Veronika
Published: January 2005

This article aims at reconciling Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and cognitive linguistics, particularly metaphor research. Although the two disciplines are compatible, efforts to discuss metaphor as a cognitive phenomenon have been scarce in the CDA tradition. By contrast, cognitive metaphor research has recently developed to emphasize the embodied, i.e. neural, origins of metaphor at the expense of its sociodiscursive impact. This article takes up the concept of social cognition, arguing that it organizes the modification of, and access to, cognitive resources, with metaphoric models playing a particularly salient role in the constitution of ideology. In a cyclical process, ideology will help particular models gain prominence in discourse, which will, in turn, impact on cognition. To illustrate the point, the article draws on an extensive corpus of business magazine texts on mergers and acquisitions, showing how that particular discourse centres on an ideologically vested metaphoric model of evolutionary struggle.
Interviews between employees and customers during a company restructuring process
Authors: Morales-López Esperanza , Prego-Vázquez Gabriela , Domínguez-Seco Luzia
Published: January 2005

This article is the result of discursive research carried out at a company involved in a restructuring programme, aimed at implementing a series of changes following the awarding of a new contract to manage a city’s water supply and sewerage system. This change in management from a public (City Hall) to a semi-private enterprise resulted in a great deal of confusion among certain sectors of the population. As a result, employees found themselves having to deal with large numbers of complaints on a daily basis without having received any prior communicative training in order to help them resolve these situations. Our empirical (audio-taped) data consist of 16 interviews between company employees and citizens analysed using methodology based on Interactional Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Our study focuses on conflicts caused by situations of interactional asymmetry between the discourse of employees and customers, the result of the social inequality that exists in terms of citizens’ access to institutional discourse. Analysis of all the interviews reveals that employees use two different strategies in order to mitigate conflicts. These strategies can be classed as personalizing or depersonalizing. Our analysis shows that the use of these strategies is not always appropriate, and that their success or failure depends on the types of customers and their discursive resources. The problem is also frequently made worse by the employees’ rather limited communicative repertory and their consequent inability to redress the asymmetrical imbalance associated with this type of discourse and provide an effective approach and response to the various types of customers visiting the company’s offices.
Discursive representation and enactment of national identities: the case of Generation 1.5 Japanese
Authors: Yamaguchi Masataka
Published: January 2005

This study, as part of a larger ethnographic project, focuses on the language-in-use, in research interviews, of two Generation 1.5 Japanese, who immigrated to the US in their early life stages. To address the issue of construction of national identities, I examine linguistic resources that the participants use to (co-)construct their identities and stances toward Japanese and Americans. By drawing on discourse analysis from a multidisciplinary perspective, I found that: the interview data contain a large number of ‘complaint sequences,’ in which the Japanese participants complain about Japan/Japanese to a Japanese researcher; both participants represent and enact the past self in Japan negatively and the present self in the US positively; the participants take highly negative stances toward Japanese, although paradoxically identifying themselves with Japanese. I discuss the implications of the study for larger social processes that reconsider the complex relationships among language, ethnicities and national identity in late modernity.
Explaining Fiscal Decentralization
Authors: S. Leonardo Letelier
Published: January 2005

This study uses a panel of sixty-four countries to test empirically various hypotheses about the causes of decentralization at the government level and in different functional spending areas. The empirical results find a negative impact of urbanization on decentralization. In the general case, a higher income per capita favors decentralization, with this effect being stronger for high-income countries. However, the use of functional measurements of decentralization shows that income per capita has a negative effect on health decentralization. Urbanization has a negative impact on the fiscal decentralization of health and education, and it has a positive effect on the share of housing expenditures being made by subnational governments.
A Surplus Optimization Approach to Managing Municipal Debt
Authors: Brooks Robert
Published: January 2005

This article considers appropriate debt-funding strategies for state and municipal governments in the presence of a positive, tax-exempt term premium. In this context, the term premium measures the additional expected funding cost from issuing fixed-rate debt as opposed to issuing floating-rate debt. The correlation between a measure of income from rate-sensitive assets and the tax-exempt floating rate is the principal focus of the analysis. A single-period framework is used to identify the most important information required to design the optimal proportion of tax-exempt floating-rate debt for a municipal government. From this analysis, there are several compelling reasons for municipal entities to increase the quantity of floating-rate debt. This framework is used to assess the optimal state government debt maturity structure based on historical data.
Personal Income Tax Decentralization, Inequality, and Social Welfare
Authors: López-Laborda Julio , Onrubia Jorge
Published: January 2005

This article elaborates and evaluates a model for the decentralization of a personal income tax that is consistent with the optimal redistribution model. In this study’s model, the regions have individualistic, symmetrical, additively separable, and inequality-averse social welfare functions. Each region applies to its constituents a progressive personal income tax, which measures individuals’ ability to pay with sole regard to their income. The central government has a social welfare function, and its tax-raising power is limited to the establishment of a surcharge (or deduction) proportional to the income of individuals net of the respective regional taxes. This article presents the conditions that permit this model of fiscal decentralization to be recommended as a result of the reduction of inequality and the increase in welfare in each region and in the country as a whole. The theoretical results are applied to the Spanish income tax by the performance of various microsimulation exercises.
Evaluating the Life Cycles of Education-Supporting Lotteries
Authors: Mason Paul M. , Steagall Jeffrey W. , Shapiro Stephen L. , Fabritius Michael M.
Published: January 2005

This article examines the history of total lottery sales for eleven education-supporting lottery states. Controlling for the influence of multistate games, state income differentials, and unemployment, unbalanced fixed-effects models investigating four measures of lottery sales indicate that nominal lottery sales continue to climb, but sales adjusted for inflation are either falling or soon will. Per capita sales across all states have not grown much beyond the first several years in the lottery life cycles, but per student sales are still rising due to declining school-age populations and purchases of lottery tickets made by other than state residents. Forecasts for real per capita lottery sales are provided for each of the states in the sample through 2030.
Parental responses to health care services for children with chronic conditions and their families: a comparison between Hong Kong and Scotland
Authors: Fawcett Tonks N. , Baggaley Sarah E. , Wu Cynthia , Whyte Dorothy A. , Martinson Ida M.
Published: January 2005

Families caring for a chronically-ill child are known to experience a significant degree of stress that often is not fully understood by health professionals. The purpose of this study was to examine, cross culturally, the experience of families caring for children with chronic conditions both in terms of the impact on their lives and the nature of the support received. The responsibility of caring for a child with a chronic condition had considerable impact on family life in both groups, with the disturbance to harmony possibly being felt more keenly in the Hong Kong group. Effective communication with parents was seen in both countries as key for effective practice. Expectations of health services differed between cultures. Implications can be drawn for the design of future health services addressing the specific health needs of families with children with chronic illness.
Development of a functional ability scale for children and young people with myalgic encephalopathy (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Authors: Moss Jill
Published: January 2005

The numerous symptoms and unpredictable pattern of myalgic encephalopathy (ME) make it difficult to describe, especially for children. It was left to carers to guess what the child could achieve each day, often leading to over/underestimates. A functional ability scale was needed, which measured from 0 to 100 percent able and that children and young people themselves designed. A new scale was developed from the Moss Ability Scale using the critique of 251 children and young people from the Association of Young People with ME (AYME). Responding to the shift in emphasis towards patients taking an active role in their own care, it was felt these young people would know whether the scale measured what it had set out to measure, and were asked questions on the face and content validity of the scale. There was a 99 percent agreement between the young people that the final scale was ‘workable’ or better.
Validating the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital Pain Tool in children aged 6-12 years
Authors: Peden Vanessa , Choonara Imti , Vater Mair
Published: January 2005

The Derbyshire Children’s Hospital Paediatric Pain Chart (DPC) is the current pain assessment tool used at the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital. It was originally devised as a simple pain tool for use in the post-operative clinical area. It is applicable across the spectrum of age groups that present for paediatric surgery. The DPC assesses pain by utilizing three parameters: facial expression, verbal (i.e. self-report) and body movement. This exploratory study was undertaken to determine its reliability and validity in children aged 6-12 years. The research nurse assessed 60 children aged 6-12 years undergoing minor and intermediate surgery and compared the DPC against the validated Oucher Scale. Assessments were performed preoperatively and for four hours post-operatively. Any analgesia administered post-operatively was recorded, and its effects noted. This study supports construct validity and inter-rater reliability of the DPC pain assessment tool for children aged 6-12 undergoing minor and intermediate surgery.
Redox active plasma iron in C282Y/C282Y hemochromatosis
Authors: Le Lan Caroline , Loréal Olivier , Cohen Tally , Ropert Martine , Glickstein Hava , Lainé Fabrice , Pouchard Michel , Deugnier Yves , Le Treut André , Breuer William , Cabantchik Z. Ioav , Brissot Pierre
Published: January 2005

Labile plasma iron (LPI) represents the redox active component of non–transferrin-bound iron (NTBI). Its presence in thalassemic patients has been recently reported. The aim of the present study was to quantify LPI in HFE genetic hemochromatosis (GH) and to characterize the mechanisms accounting for its appearance. We studied 159 subjects subdivided into the following groups: (1) 23 with iron overloaded GH; (2) 14 with iron-depleted GH; (3) 26 with dysmetabolic hepatosiderosis; (4) 33 with alcoholic cirrhosis; (5) 63 healthy controls. Both NTBI and LPI were substantially higher in patients with iron-overloaded GH than in those with iron-depleted GH or in healthy controls. LPI was significantly correlated with serum transaminase increase in this group. LPI was elevated in the alcoholic cirrhosis subgroup of severely affected patients. LPI was found essentially when transferrin saturation exceeded 75%, regardless of the etiologic condition. Transferrin saturation above 75% was related to iron overload in GH and to liver failure in alcoholic cirrhosis. LPI is present in C282Y/C282Y hemochromatosis and may be a marker of toxicity due to its potential for catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen radicals in vivo.
Rapamycin induces tumor-specific thrombosis via tissue factor in the presence of VEGF
Authors: Guba Markus , Yezhelyev Maksim , Eichhorn Martin E. , Schmid Gerald , Ischenko Ivan , Papyan Armine , Graeb Christian , Seeliger Hendrik , Geissler Edward K. , Jauch Karl-Walter , Bruns Christiane J.
Published: January 2005

Therapeutic strategies that target and disrupt the already-formed vessel networks of growing tumors are actively pursued. The goal of these approaches is to induce a rapid shutdown of the vascular function of the tumor so that blood flow is arrested and tumor cell death occurs. Here we show that the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor rapamycin, when administered to tumor-bearing mice, selectively induced extensive local microthrombosis of the tumor microvasculature. Importantly, rapamycin administration had no detectable effect on the peritumoral or normal tissue. Intravital microscopy analysis of tumors implanted into skinfold chambers revealed that rapamycin led to a specific shutdown of initially patent tumor vessels. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)–induced tissue factor expression was strongly enhanced by rapamycin. We further show by Western blot analysis that rapamycin interferes with a negative feedback mechanism controlling this pathologic VEGF-mediated tissue factor expression. This thrombogenic alteration of the endothelial cells was confirmed in a one-step coagulation assay. The circumstance that VEGF is up-regulated in most tumors may explain the remarkable selectivity of tumor vessel thrombosis under rapamycin therapy. Taken together, these data suggest that rapamycin, besides its known antiangiogenic properties, has a strong tumor-specific, antivascular effect in tumors.
NY-ESO-1 is highly expressed in poor-prognosis multiple myeloma and induces spontaneous humoral and cellular immune responses
Authors: van Rhee Frits , Szmania Susann M. , Zhan Fenghuang , Gupta Sushil K. , Pomtree Mindy , Lin Pei , Batchu Ramesh B. , Moreno Amberly , Spagnoli Guilio , Shaughnessy John , Tricot Guido
Published: January 2005

The presence of a metaphase cytogenetic abnormality (CA) is the key negative predictor of outcome in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Gene expression profiling (GEP) of such patients showed increased expression of NY-ESO-1 compared to patients with normal cytogenetics (60% versus 31%; P = .004). NY-ESO-1 was also highly expressed in relapsing MM especially patients with CA (100% versus 60.7%; P < .001). GEP findings were confirmed at the protein level by immunostaining of marrow biopsies for NY-ESO-1. We detected spontaneous NY-ESO-1–specific antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 33% of patients with NY-ESO-1+ MM, especially in CA patients (9 of 13; 70%), but in none of the NY-ESO-1- patients with MM (n = 27) or healthy donors (n = 21). Spontaneous NY-ESO-1157-165–specific T cells (0.2%-0.6% of CD8+ T cells) were found in the peripheral blood of NY-ESO-1+ MM with HLA-A*0201/NY-ESO-1157-165 tetramers. These NY-ESO-1–specific T cells, when expanded, killed primary MM cells (50% lysis, effector-target [E/T] ratio, 10:1). Our data demonstrate that NY-ESO-1 is frequently expressed in MM with CA and is capable of eliciting spontaneous humoral and T-cell immunity. The pool of NY-ESO-1–specific cytotoxic T cells expands easily on NY-ESO-1 peptide stimulation and is functionally active. NY-ESO-1 should therefore be an ideal tumor target antigen for immunotherapy of patients with poor-prognosis MM.
Modulation of human dendritic-cell function following transduction with viral vectors: implications for gene therapy
Authors: Tan Peng H. , Beutelspacher Sven C. , Xue Shao-An , Wang Yao-He , Mitchell Peter , McAlister James C. , Larkin D. Frank P. , McClure Myra O. , Stauss Hans J. , Ritter Mary A. , Lombardi Giovanna , George Andrew J. T.
Published: January 2005

Genetic modification of dendritic-cell (DC) function is an attractive approach to treat disease, either using mature DCs (mDCs) to immunize patients, or immature DCs (iDCs) to induce tolerance. Viral vectors are efficient at transducing DCs, and we have investigated the effect of transduction with a variety of viral vectors on the phenotype and function of DCs. Adenovirus (Ad), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), equine anemia virus (EIAV), and Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMLV) all up-regulate costimulatory molecules and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression on DCs, as well as, in the case of Ad and lentiviral vectors, inducing production of Th1 and proinflammatory cytokines. Following transduction there is activation of double-stranded (ds) RNA-triggered pathways resulting in interferon (IFN) α/β production. In addition, the function of virally infected DCs is altered; iDCs have an increased, and mDCs a decreased, ability to stimulate a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Viral transduction of mDCs results in up-regulation of the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) enzyme, which down-regulates T-cell responsiveness. Inhibition of IDO restores the ability of mDCs to stimulate an MLR, indicating that IDO is responsible for the modulation of mDC function. These data have important implications for the use of viral vectors in the transduction of DCs.
CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides inhibit RSV-enhanced allergic sensitisation in guinea pigs
Authors: Tayyari F. , Sutton T. C. , Manson H. E. , Hegele R. G.
Published: January 2005

Experimental respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection of guinea pigs is associated with enhanced allergic sensitisation to inhaled ovalbumin (OA) and low-level viral persistence in the lungs. Based on the T-helper (Th)1/Th2 paradigm, in which a Th2 shift is characteristic of an allergic response and less effective anti-viral immunity, the effects of immunotherapy with synthetic cytosine phosphate-guanine-oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODN), which are potent Th1 stimuli, on OA sensitisation with and without RSV infection were evaluated.

Measurements included quantitative histology for airway inflammation by T-cells and eosinophils, semiquantitative RT-PCR for lung Th1/Th2 balance (interferon (IFN)-γ/interleukin (IL)-5 mRNA ratios), and serology for circulating titres of OA-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)G1antibodies. RSV antigens were identified in lung tissue sections by immunohistochemistry.

CpG-ODN immunotherapy did not prevent OA sensitisation of guinea pigs; however, in RSV-infected, OA-sensitised animals, CpG-ODN administration was associated with significant reductions of airway T-cells and eosinophils, increased lung IFN-γ/IL-5 ratios, and decreased OA-specific IgG1antibody titres to levels observed in uninfected, OA-sensitised animals. Viral antigens were identified in a similar proportion of the lungs of RSV-infected animals, irrespective of CpG-ODN immunisation status.

In conclusion, cytosine phosphate-guanine-oligodeoxynucleotides immunotherapy protects guinea pigs against respiratory syncytial virus-enhanced ovalbumin sensitisation and might be a relevant intervention in the context of post-bronchiolitis allergic sensitisation in children.
Latex allergen exposure increases exhaled nitric oxide in symptomatic healthcare workers
Authors: Baur X. , Barbinova L.
Published: January 2005

The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical and diagnostic impact of baseline exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) levels and latex allergen-induced eNO changes in different healthcare worker groups.

Healthcare workers, 31 latex-sensitised and 14 nonsensitised, underwent occupational-type challenge tests with powdered allergenic latex gloves.

Sensitised as well as nonsensitised healthcare workers developed a significant eNO increase 1 h after challenge. Conversely, only latex-sensitised employees showed a significant eNO increase 22 h after challenge, which showed a significant relationship with bronchial obstruction (specific airway resistance changes). However, there was no difference in either baseline eNO level or eNO increase after 22 h between asthmatic (n = 13) and rhinitic only (n = 20) responders. The specificity and sensitivity of a 50% eNO increase after 22 h in responders were 100 and 56%, respectively.

These results support the assumption that the whole respiratory tract is involved in a combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome. Smoking healthcare workers showed reduced baseline exhaled nitric oxide levels, but, as shown for the first time, an allergen-induced exhaled nitric oxide increase comparable to that of nonsmokers. Corticosteroid therapy inhibited the allergen-induced exhaled nitric oxide change but not the clinical response in the challenge test. These findings suggest that cigarette smoke and corticosteroids initiate distinct molecular mechanisms influencing nitric oxide concentrations in the airways.
Metabisulphite-induced occupational asthma in a radiographer
Authors: Merget R. , Korn M.
Published: January 2005

There is epidemiological evidence for an increased prevalence of occupational asthma among radiographers. However, the causes of darkroom disease are not yet defined.

A 37-year-old female radiographer reported work-related asthma ∼2 yrs after starting work in a local hospital. She was atopic and showed bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine. Occupational-type exposure with a fixing agent, but not with a developer, produced an immediate-type asthmatic reaction. As the fixing agent contained sodium metabisulphite (SMBS), a substance known to cause asthma, bronchial challenges with SMBS were performed in the patient and nine asthmatic controls.

The patient showed a positive bronchial immediate reaction on 2 separate days after inhalation of 48 and 96 µg SMBS, and one control also showed a significant fall in forced expiratory volume in one second after inhalation of 12 µg SMBS. The positive reaction in the control subject argues for a greater susceptibility of both persons to SMBS or its reaction product sulphur dioxide, rather than for a new occupational allergen.

It is concluded that sodium metabisulphite exposure should be recognised as a cause of darkroom asthma.