bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The 419 Code as Business Unusual: Youth and the Unfolding of the Advance Fee Fraud Online Discourse
Authors: Adogame Afe 
Published: July 2009

AbstractOne issue that has launched Nigeria into international réclame and public ignominy, especially in the last decade, is the Advance Fee Fraud (a.k.a. '419'), a code which refers originally to the section of the Nigerian Penal Law that deals with specific fraud schemes. The paper located the economic and socio-political upheavals in Nigeria from the late 1970s as the leverage for the advent and consolidation of fraudulent schemes. It demonstrated how youths have increasingly appropriated the Internet as a gateway to the world and as conduits for information enhancement, economic empowerment or a means to achieving their own ends. Through a careful analysis of 150 documented scam letters, this paper describes the emerging variations of a theme. As a transnational organised crime, this paper demonstrates how its increasing complexity and sophistication, with the target audience of individuals and corporate bodies within the domestic and international frontiers, has attracted local-global security attention and action. The paper concludes that the changing anatomy and the elasticity of the criminal transnational networks can be better grasped, and the preventive measures by individual, government and corporate security agencies prove efficacious, when understood and located within local-global contexts and wider operational frameworks.
Theorising Patriarchy: The Bangladesh Context
Authors: Chowdhury Farah Deeba 
Published: July 2009

AbstractIn Bangladesh, men dominate, oppress and exploit women through private and public patriarchy. Private patriarchy is maintained in the family through the misinterpretation of religion and the non-recognition of unpaid work done by women at home. In the family women are considered as passive dependants and property of their husbands. Women are also excluded from economic and political power through public patriarchy. In the public arena women are only considered as sexual objects and patriarchy is maintained through sexual harassment. Capital accumulation further strengthens patriarchy in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, men's attitudes towards women are shaped by advertisements, films, beauty contests and pornography where women are used as sexual objects to accumulate capital. Increasingly, men have started to use the dowry system for capital accumulation. Thus men in Bangladesh accumulate capital through private and public patriarchy.
K. Balachander: An Innovative Filmmaker
Authors: Chinniah Sathiavathi 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThis study aims to contribute to existing literature on Indian cinema by exploring the works of K. Balachander. An academic enquiry into K. Balachander's films is justified given his presence in the Tamil film industry for some 40 years and the numerous awards he had obtained over this period for his filmic contributions, including the prestigious Padmashree Award which he won in 1987. In the bigger study of which this is a small part, I also study female representation in his films, as well as how various groups of audience interpret the portrayal of women in three specific films directed by him. Keeping in mind the varied audience groups of Tamil cinema, three different groups have been selected for this purpose, namely the rural and urban audiences in India and the diaspora audience in Singapore. Emphasis on the audience allows this study to build on earlier research on the reception of films at the point of consumption. I hope in this to provide a new perspective on audience reception of female portrayals in Tamil films.
East India Company in Sumatra: Cross-Cultural Interactions
Authors: Silva Jayasuriya Shihan de 
Published: July 2009

AbstractFor scholars concerned with historical studies of cross-continental movement, migration from Africa to Asia poses challenges. Administrative records of the East India Company reveal the multi-ethnicity of slaves, trends of slavery, resistance to slavery and the circumstances that led to emancipation of the slaves. Through a case study on Sumatra, this paper considers how transition from British to Dutch control affected the emancipated slaves, what rights they had and their eventual fate. It suggests that descendants of African slaves could still be living in Southeast Asia although creolisation and assimilation may have rendered them invisible.
Cross-Cultural Influences on the Language of the Sri Lankan Malays
Authors: Silva Jayasuriya Shihan de 
Published: July 2009

AbstractAlthough Sri Lanka has had links with the Malays from ancient times, the Sri Lankan Malays trace their ancestry only from the mid-seventeenth century. Taking into account the process of global commercial interactions and territorial expansion, this paper demonstrates the effects of cross-cultural contact in the language of the Sri Lanka Malays illustrated through typological alterations and lexical changes in a multilingual and multicultural setting.
The Myth of the Sultans in the Western Indian Ocean during the Nineteenth Century: A New Hypothesis
Authors: Nicolini Beatrice 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThe power of the Al Bu Sa'id Sultans of Oman was widely known as based on delicate balances of forces (and ethnic-social groups), deeply different among them. In fact, the elements that composed the nineteenth century Omani leadership were, and had always been, generally 'divided' amongst three different ethnic groups: the Baluch, the Asian merchant communities and the African regional leaders (Mwiny Mkuu). Within this framework, the role played by European Powers, particularly by the Treaties signed between the Sultans of Oman and the East India Company for abolishing slavery, and by the arms trade was crucial for the development of the Gulf and the Western Indian Ocean international networks They highly contributed to the gradual 'shifting' of the Omanis from the slave trade to clove and spice cultivation – the major economic source of Zanzibar Island – along the coastal area of Sub-Saharan East Africa. The role played by the Omani Sultans – the myth – within the western traditional historiography, which often described them as firmly controlling both the Arabian and African littorals and the major trading ports of the Western Indian Ocean during the nineteenth century, will be reexamined in this paper, taking into account recent research studies and international debates in the topic. The new hypothesis consists of a different perception of the concepts of power and control (political and territorial) of the Western Indian Ocean littorals by the most famous of the Sultans of Oman during the nineteenth century: Saiyid Sa'id bin Sultan Al Bu Sa'id.
Eurasian Women as Tawa'if Singers and Recording Artists: Entertainment and Identity-making in Colonial India
Authors: Sachdeva Jha Shweta 
Published: July 2009

AbstractScholarship on Eurasians has often addressed issues of migration, collective identity and debates around home. Women performers however do not find themselves discussed in these histories of Eurasian peoples in India. This paper aims to account for individual agency in shaping one's identity within the meta-narratives of collective identity of migrant peoples. I focus on two Eurasian women entertainers in the colonial cities of Benares and Calcutta who chose to forget their mixed-race past to fashion successful careers using new identities as tawa'if singers and actors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This, I shall argue, was possible within the wider context of emergent colonial modernities in colonial India. By choosing micro-level case histories of these celebrity entertainers, I want to argue for including popular culture as an arena of identity-making within histories of migration and gender. To engage with popular culture, I shall extend our perception of historical 'archive' to include a varied set of materials such as biographical anecdotes, discographies, songbooks, and address the fields of poetry, music and history. Through this project I hope to rethink ideas of gender, culture and agency within wider debates of migration and identity-making.
From Ocean to Lakes: Cultural Transformations of Yemenis in Kenya and Uganda
Authors: Beckerleg Susan 
Published: July 2009

AbstractMigration from Yemen to East Africa has been occurring for centuries and continued well into the twentieth century. Since the European explorations of the nineteenth century the term 'Arab-Swahili', as distinguished from 'African', has been in use. The ways that Yemenis have both adopted and changed Swahili culture in Kenya are outlined in this paper. Most Yemeni migrants who settled in Uganda passed through Mombasa, acquiring some knowledge of the Swahili language en route. However, the Yemenis of Uganda are not Swahili, despite using the Swahili language as a major medium of communication, even at home. Ugandan 'Arab' food eaten at home and cooked by Yemenis in cafes is actually Indian/Swahili cuisine. The ways that Yemenis have promoted the cultivation of qat across Uganda and have made its consumption a marker of identity are described. The degree that the terminology of diaspora studies can be applied to Yemenis in Kenya and Uganda is assessed, and concludes that the migrants are both 'cultural hybrids' and 'transnationals'.
Cytokine-dependent and–independent gene expression changes and cell cycle block revealed in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected host cells by comparative mRNA profiling
Authors: Costales Jaime A , Daily Johanna P , Burleigh Barbara A 
Published: July 2009

Abstract

Background
The requirements for growth and survival of the intracellular pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi within mammalian host cells are poorly understood. Transcriptional profiling of the host cell response to infection serves as a rapid read-out for perturbation of host physiology that, in part, reflects adaptation to the infective process. Using Affymetrix oligonucleotide array analysis we identified common and disparate host cell responses triggered by T. cruzi infection of phenotypically diverse human cell types.

Results
We report significant changes in transcript abundance in T. cruzi-infected fibroblasts, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells (2852, 2155 and 531 genes respectively; fold-change ≥ 2, p-value < 0.01) 24 hours post-invasion. A prominent type I interferon response was observed in each cell type, reflecting a secondary response to secreted cytokine in infected cultures. To identify a core cytokine-independent response in T. cruzi-infected fibroblasts and endothelial cells transwell plates were used to distinguish cytokine-dependent and -independent gene expression profiles. This approach revealed the induction of metabolic and signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, amino acid catabolism and response to wounding as common themes in T. cruzi-infected cells. In addition, the downregulation of genes involved in mitotic cell cycle and cell division predicted that T. cruzi infection may impede host cell cycle progression. The observation of impaired cytokinesis in T. cruzi-infected cells, following nuclear replication, confirmed this prediction.

Conclusion
Metabolic pathways and cellular processes were identified as significantly altered at the transcriptional level in response to T. cruzi infection in a cytokine-independent manner. Several of these alterations are supported by previous studies of T. cruzi metabolic requirements or effects on the host. However, our methods also revealed a T. cruzi-dependent block in the host cell cycle, at the level of cytokinesis, previously unrecognized for this pathogen-host cell interaction.
MHC-linked and un-linked class I genes in the wallaby
Authors: Siddle Hannah V , Deakin Janine E , Coggill Penny , Hart Elizabeth , Cheng Yuanyuan , Wong Emily SW , Harrow Jennifer , Beck Stephan , Belov Katherine 
Published: July 2009

Abstract

Background
MHC class I antigens are encoded by a rapidly evolving gene family comprising classical and non-classical genes that are found in all vertebrates and involved in diverse immune functions. However, there is a fundamental difference between the organization of class I genes in mammals and non-mammals. Non-mammals have a single classical gene responsible for antigen presentation, which is linked to the antigen processing genes, including TAP. This organization allows co-evolution of advantageous class Ia/TAP haplotypes. In contrast, mammals have multiple classical genes within the MHC, which are separated from the antigen processing genes by class III genes. It has been hypothesized that separation of classical class I genes from antigen processing genes in mammals allowed them to duplicate. We investigated this hypothesis by characterizing the class I genes of the tammar wallaby, a model marsupial that has a novel MHC organization, with class I genes located within the MHC and 10 other chromosomal locations.

Results
Sequence analysis of 14 BACs containing 15 class I genes revealed that nine class I genes, including one to three classical class I, are not linked to the MHC but are scattered throughout the genome. Kangaroo Endogenous Retroviruses (KERVs) were identified flanking the MHC un-linked class I. The wallaby MHC contains four non-classical class I, interspersed with antigen processing genes. Clear orthologs of non-classical class I are conserved in distant marsupial lineages.

Conclusion
We demonstrate that classical class I genes are not linked to antigen processing genes in the wallaby and provide evidence that retroviral elements were involved in their movement. The presence of retroviral elements most likely facilitated the formation of recombination hotspots and subsequent diversification of class I genes. The classical class I have moved away from antigen processing genes in eutherian mammals and the wallaby independently, but both lineages appear to have benefited from this loss of linkage by increasing the number of classical genes, perhaps enabling response to a wider range of pathogens. The discovery of non-classical orthologs between distantly related marsupial species is unusual for the rapidly evolving class I genes and may indicate an important marsupial specific function.
Characterization and isolation of a T-DNA tagged banana promoter active during in vitro culture and low temperature stress
Authors: Santos Efrén , Remy Serge , Thiry Els , Windelinckx Saskia , Swennen Rony , Sági László 
Published: July 2009

Abstract

Background
Next-generation transgenic plants will require a more precise regulation of transgene expression, preferably under the control of native promoters. A genome-wide T-DNA tagging strategy was therefore performed for the identification and characterization of novel banana promoters. Embryogenic cell suspensions of a plantain-type banana were transformed with a promoterless, codon-optimized luciferase (luc
+) gene and low temperature-responsive luciferase activation was monitored in real time.

Results
Around 16,000 transgenic cell colonies were screened for baseline luciferase activity at room temperature 2 months after transformation. After discarding positive colonies, cultures were re-screened in real-time at 26°C followed by a gradual decrease to 8°C. The baseline activation frequency was 0.98%, while the frequency of low temperature-responsive luciferase activity was 0.61% in the same population of cell cultures. Transgenic colonies with luciferase activity responsive to low temperature were regenerated to plantlets and luciferase expression patterns monitored during different regeneration stages. Twenty four banana DNA sequences flanking the right T-DNA borders in seven independent lines were cloned via PCR walking. RT-PCR analysis in one line containing five inserts allowed the identification of the sequence that had activated luciferase expression under low temperature stress in a developmentally regulated manner. This activating sequence was fused to the uidA reporter gene and back-transformed into a commercial dessert banana cultivar, in which its original expression pattern was confirmed.

Conclusion
This promoter tagging and real-time screening platform proved valuable for the identification of novel promoters and genes in banana and for monitoring expression patterns throughout in vitro development and low temperature treatment. Combination of PCR walking techniques was efficient for the isolation of candidate promoters even in a multicopy T-DNA line. Qualitative and quantitative GUS expression analyses of one tagged promoter in a commercial cultivar demonstrated a reproducible promoter activity pattern during in vitro culture. Thus, this promoter could be used during in vitro selection and generation of commercial transgenic plants.
Strategies for achieving a high response rate in a home interview survey
Authors: Kiezebrink Kirsty , Crombie Iain K , Irvine Linda , Swanson Vivien , Power Kevin , Wrieden Wendy L , Slane Peter W 
Published: July 2009

AbstractBackgroundResponse rates in surveys have been falling over the last 20 years, leading to the need for novel approaches to enhance recruitment. This study describes strategies used to maximise recruitment to a home interview survey of mothers with young children living in areas of high deprivation.MethodsMothers of two year old children received a letter from their GP inviting them to take part in a survey on diet. Participants were subsequently recruited by a researcher. The researcher first tried to contact potential participants by telephone, to discuss the study and make an appointment to conduct a home interview. Where telephone numbers for women could not be obtained from GP records, web searches of publicly available databases were conducted. After obtaining correct telephone numbers, up to six attempts were made to establish contact by telephone. If this was unsuccessful, a postal request for telephone contact was made. Where no telephone contact was achieved, the researcher sent up to two appointments by post to conduct a home interview.ResultsParticipating GPs invited 372 women to take part in a home based interview study. GP practices provided telephone numbers for 162 women, of which 134 were valid numbers. The researcher identified a further 187 numbers from electronic directories. Further searches of GP records by practice staff yielded another 38 telephone numbers. Thus, telephone numbers were obtained for 99% of potential participants.The recruitment rate from telephone contacts was 77%. Most of the gain was achieved within four calls. For the remaining women, contact by post and home visits resulted in 18 further interviews, corresponding to 35% of the women not recruited by telephone. The final interview rate was 82%. This was possible because personal contact was established with 95% of potential participants.ConclusionThis study achieved a high response rate in a hard to reach group. This was mainly achieved by first establishing contact by telephone. The use of multiple sources identified the telephone numbers of almost all the sample. Multiple attempts at telephone contact followed by postal approaches led to a high home interview rate.
TNF-α-induced up-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines is reduced by phosphatidylcholine in intestinal epithelial cells
Authors: Treede Irina , Braun Annika , Jeliaskova Petia , Giese Thomas , Füllekrug Joachim , Griffiths Gareth , Stremmel Wolfgang , Ehehalt Robert 
Published: July 2009

AbstractBackgroundPhosphatidylcholine (PC) is a major lipid of the gastrointestinal mucus layer. We recently showed that mucus from patients suffering from ulcerative colitis has low levels of PC. Clinical studies reveal that the therapeutic addition of PC to the colonic mucus using slow release preparations is beneficial. The positive role of PC in this disease is still unclear; however, we have recently shown that PC has an intrinsic anti-inflammatory property. It could be demonstrated that the exogenous application of PC inhibits membrane-dependent actin assembly and TNF-α-induced nuclear NF-κB activation. We investigate here in more detail the hypothesis that the exogenous application of PC has anti-inflammatory properties.MethodsPC species with different fatty acid side chains were applied to differentiated and non-differentiated Caco-2 cells treated with TNF-α to induce a pro-inflammatory response. We analysed TNF-α-induced NF-κB-activation via the transient expression of a NF-κB-luciferase reporter system. Pro-inflammatory gene transcription was detected with the help of a quantitative real time (RT)-PCR analysis. We assessed the binding of TNF-α to its receptor by FACS and analysed lipid rafts by isolating detergent resistant membranes (DRMs).ResultsThe exogenous addition of all PC species tested significantly inhibited TNF-α-induced pro-inflammatory signalling. The expression levels of IL-8, ICAM-1, IP-10, MCP-1, TNF-α and MMP-1 were significantly reduced after PC pre-treatment for at least two hours. The effect was comparable to the inhibition of NF-kB by the NF-kB inhibitor SN 50 and was not due to a reduced binding of TNF-α to its receptor or a decreased surface expression of TNF-α receptors. PC was also effective when applied to the apical side of polarised Caco-2 cultures if cells were stimulated from the basolateral side. PC treatment changed the compartmentation of the TNF-α-receptors 1 and 2 to DRMs.ConclusionPC induces a prolonged inhibition of TNF-α-induced pro-inflammatory signalling. This inhibition may be caused by a shift of the TNF-α receptors at the surface to lipid rafts. Our results may offer a potential molecular explanation for the positive role of PC seen in clinical studies for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.
Certification of breast centres in Germany: proof of concept for a prototypical example of quality assurance in multidisciplinary cancer care
Authors: Brucker Sara Y , Bamberg Michael , Jonat Walter , Beckmann Matthias W , Kämmerle Andreas , Kreienberg Rolf , Wallwiener Diethelm 
Published: July 2009

Abstract

Background
The main study objectives were: to develop a set of requirements of comprehensive breast centres; to establish a nationwide voluntary certification programme for breast centres based on such requirements, a certified quality management system (QMS), and scheduled independent, external audits and periodic recertification; and to demonstrate the general acceptance of such a certification programme with a view to introducing similar certification programmes for other major cancers.

Methods
Breast centres introduced a QMS and voluntarily participated in an external certification procedure based on guideline-derived Requirements of Breast Centres specifically developed for the application procedure, all subsequent audits and recertification. All data (numbers of pending and successful applications, sites/centre, etc.) were collected by a newly founded, independent organisation for certification of cancer services delivery. Data analysis was descriptive.

Results
Requirements of Breast Centres were developed by the German Cancer Society (DKG), the German Society of Senology (DGS) and other relevant specialist medical societies in the form of a questionnaire comprising 185 essential items based on evidence-based guidelines and the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists' (EUSOMA) requirements of specialist breast units. From late 2002 to mid 2008, the number of participating breast centres rose from 1 to 175. As of mid 2008, 77% of an estimated 50,000 new breast cancers in Germany were diagnosed and treated at certified breast centres, 78% of which were single-site centres.

Conclusion
Nationwide voluntary certification of breast centres is feasible and well accepted in Germany. Dual certification of breast centres that involves certification of breast services to guideline-derived requirements in conjunction with independent certification of a mandatory QMS can serve as a model for other multidisciplinary site-specific cancer centres.