bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prior intention can locally tune inhibitory processes in the primary motor cortex: direct evidence from combined TMS‐EEG
Authors: Bonnard M. , Spieser L. , Meziane H. B. , De Graaf J. B. , Pailhous J. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractHuman subjects are able to prepare cognitively to resist an involuntary movement evoked by a suprathreshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the primary motor cortex (M1) by anticipatory selective modulation of corticospinal excitability. Uncovering how the sensorimotor cortical network is involved in this process could reveal directly how a prior intention can tune the intrinsic dynamics of M1 before any peripheral intervention. Here, we used combined TMS‐EEG to study the cortical integrative processes that are engaged both in the preparation to react to TMS (Resist vs. Assist) and in the subsequent response to it. During the preparatory period, the contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude was found to be smaller over central electrodes (FC1, C1, Cz) when preparing to resist compared with preparing to assist the evoked movement whereas α‐oscillation power was similar in the two conditions. Following TMS, the amplitude of the TMS evoked‐N100 component was higher in the Resist than in the Assist condition for some central electrodes (FCz, C1, Cz, CP1, CP3). Moreover, for six out of eight subjects, a single‐trial‐based analysis revealed a negative correlation between CNV amplitude and N100 amplitude. In conclusion, prior intention can tune the excitability of M1. When subjects prepare to resist a TMS‐evoked movement, the anticipatory processes cause a decreased cortical excitability by locally increasing the inhibitory processes.
Attenuated behavioural responses to acute and chronic cocaine in GASP‐1‐deficient mice
Authors: Boeuf Julien , Trigo José Manuel , Moreau Pierre‐Henri , Lecourtier Lucas , Vogel Elise , Cassel Jean‐Cristophe , Mathis Chantal , Klosen Paul , Maldonado Rafael , Simonin Frédéric 
Published: August 2009

AbstractG protein‐coupled receptor (GPCR) associated sorting protein 1 (GASP‐1) interacts with GPCRs and is implicated in their postendocytic sorting. Recently, GASP‐1 has been shown to regulate dopamine (D2) and cannabinoid (CB1) receptor signalling, suggesting that preventing GASP‐1 interaction with GPCRs might provide a means to limit the decrease in receptor signalling upon sustained agonist treatment. In order to test this hypothesis, we have generated and behaviourally characterized GASP‐1 knockout (KO) mice and have examined the consequences of the absence of GASP‐1 on chronic cocaine treatments. GASP‐1 KO and wild‐type (WT) mice were tested for sensitization to the locomotor effects of cocaine. Additional mice were trained to acquire intravenous self‐administration of cocaine on a fixed ratio 1 schedule of reinforcement, and the motivational value of cocaine was then assessed using a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. The dopamine and muscarinic receptor densities were quantitatively evaluated in the striatum of WT and KO mice tested for sensitization and self‐administration. Acute and sensitized cocaine‐locomotor effects were attenuated in KO mice. A decrease in the percentage of animals that acquired cocaine self‐administration was also observed in GASP‐1‐deficient mice, which was associated with pronounced down‐regulation of dopamine and muscarinic receptors in the striatum. These data indicate that GASP‐1 participates in acute and chronic behavioural responses induced by cocaine and are in agreement with a role of GASP‐1 in postendocytic sorting of GPCRs. However, in contrast to previous studies, our data suggest that upon sustained receptor stimulation GASP‐1 stimulates recycling rather than receptor degradation.
Circadian rhythms of extracellular ATP accumulation in suprachiasmatic nucleus cells and cultured astrocytes
Authors: Womac Alisa D. , Burkeen Jeff F. , Neuendorff Nichole , Earnest David J. , Zoran Mark J. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThe master circadian pacemaker located within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the mammalian brain controls system‐level rhythms in animal physiology. Specific SCN outputs synchronize circadian physiological rhythms in other brain regions. Within the SCN, communication among neural cells provides for the coordination of autonomous cellular oscillations into ensemble rhythms. ATP is a neural transmitter involved in local communication among astrocytes and between astrocytes and neurons. Using a luciferin–luciferase chemiluminescence assay, we have demonstrated that ATP levels fluctuate rhythmically within both SCN2.2 cell cultures and the rat SCN in vivo. SCN2.2 cells generated circadian oscillations in both the production and extracellular accumulation of ATP. Circadian fluctuations in ATP accumulation persisted with an average period (τ) of 23.7 h in untreated as well as vehicle‐treated and forskolin‐treated SCN2.2 cells, indicating that treatment with an inductive stimulus is not necessary to propagate these rhythms. ATP levels in the rat SCN in vivo were marked by rhythmic variation during exposure to 12 h of light and 12 h of dark or constant darkness, with peak accumulation occurring during the latter half of the dark phase or subjective night. Primary cultures of cortical astrocytes similarly expressed circadian oscillations in extracellular ATP accumulation that persisted for multiple cycles with periods of about 23 h. These results suggest that circadian oscillations in extracellular ATP levels represent a physiological output of the mammalian cellular clock, common to the SCN pacemaker and astrocytes from at least some brain regions, and thus may provide a mechanism for clock control of gliotransmission between astrocytes and to neurons.
Axonal projections of auditory cells with short and long response latencies in the medial geniculate nucleus: distinct topographies in the connection with the thalamic reticular nucleus
Authors: Kimura Akihisa , Imbe Hiroki , Donishi Tomohiro 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThe thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is a crucial anatomical node of thalamocortical connectivity for sensory processing. In the rat auditory system, we determined features of thalamic projections to the TRN, using juxtacellular recording and labeling techniques. Two types of auditory cells (short latency, SL, and long latency, LL), exhibiting unit discharges to noise burst stimuli (duration, 100 ms) with short (< 50 ms) and long (> 100 ms) response latencies, were obtained from the ventral division of the medial geniculate nucleus (MGV). Both SL and LL cells had a propensity to exhibit reverberatory discharges in response to sound stimuli. The primary discharges of SL cells were mostly single spikes while the non‐primary discharges of SL cells and the whole discharges of LL cells were mostly burst spikes. SL cells sent topographic projections to the TRN along the dorsoventral and rostrocaudal neural axes while LL cells only along the rostrocaudal axis. As tonotopy‐related cortical projections to the TRN are topographic primarily along the dorsoventral extent of the TRN and the MGV is tonotopically organized along the dorsoventral axis, SL cells, directly activated by ascending auditory inputs, may be closely involved in tonotopic thalamocortical connectivity. On the other hand, LL cells, which are suppressed by ascending inputs and could be driven to discharge by corticofugal inputs, are assumed to activate the TRN in a manner less related to tonotopic organization. There may exist heterogeneous projections from the MGV to the TRN, which, in conjunction with corticofugal connections, could constitute distinct channels of auditory processing.
Dorsal hippocampal regulation of memory reconsolidation processes that facilitate drug context‐induced cocaine‐seeking behavior in rats
Authors: Ramirez Donna R. , Bell Guinevere H. , Lasseter Heather C. , Xie Xiaou , Traina Stephanie A. , Fuchs Rita A. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractExposure to a cocaine‐paired context increases the propensity for relapse in cocaine users and prompts cocaine‐seeking behavior in rats. According to the reconsolidation hypothesis, upon context re‐exposure, established cocaine‐related associations are retrieved and can become labile. These associations must undergo reconsolidation into long‐term memory to effect enduring stimulus control. The dorsal hippocampus (DH), dorsolateral caudate–putamen and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex are critical for the expression of context‐induced cocaine seeking, and these brain regions may also play a role in the reconsolidation of cocaine‐related memories that promote this behavior. To test this hypothesis, rats were trained to press a lever for unsignaled cocaine infusions (0.2 mg/infusion, i.v.) in a distinct environmental context (cocaine‐paired context), followed by extinction training in a different context (extinction context). Rats were then re‐exposed to the cocaine‐paired context for 15 min in order to reactivate cocaine‐related memories or received comparable exposure to a novel unpaired context. Immediately thereafter, rats received bilateral microinfusions of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin, the sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin or vehicle into one of the above brain regions. After additional extinction training in the extinction context, reinstatement of cocaine‐seeking behavior (i.e., non‐reinforced lever presses) was assessed in the cocaine‐paired context. Tetrodotoxin, but not anisomycin, administered into the DH inhibited drug context‐induced cocaine‐seeking behavior in a memory reactivation‐dependent manner. Other manipulations failed to alter this behavior. These findings suggest that the DH facilitates the reconsolidation of associative memories that maintain context‐induced cocaine‐seeking behavior, but it is not the site of anisomycin‐sensitive memory restabilizationper se.
Combined antegrade and retrograde endoscopic retroperitoneal bypass of ureteric strictures: a modification of the ‘rendezvous’ procedure
Authors: Yates David R. , Mehta Sampi S. , Spencer Paul A. , Parys Bo T. 
Published: August 2009

Study Type – Therapy (case series) Level of Evidence 4OBJECTIVETo evaluate our experience of treating complicated iatrogenic ureteric strictures with a combined antegrade and retrograde endoscopic retroperitoneal bypass technique, a modification of the so‐called ‘rendezvous’ procedure.PATIENTS AND METHODSSeven patients presented to our institution between 2004 and 2008 after developing a complicated iatrogenic ureteric stricture, impassable with solitary antegrade or retrograde stenting techniques. In most cases there was a significant loss of ureteric continuity, with some strictures of up to 10–12 cm. After initial temporizing management with a percutaneous nephrostomy, each patient had a radiological ‘rendezvous’ procedure to insert a JJ stent and restore ureteric continuity. After 6 months, the JJ stents were removed and the patients evaluated by symptom assessment, serial measurements of serum creatinine and diuretic renography (F‐15 mercaptoacetyl triglycine).RESULTSAll seven ‘rendezvous’ procedures were successful and a ureteric stent was inserted across or around the stricture in all cases. Five of seven patients whose follow‐up was >6 months had their stent removed successfully. At a median follow‐up of 21 months, all patients are alive and none has required subsequent surgery. Six of the seven patients presented with significant symptoms and they are all currently symptom‐free, which we consider to be a successful clinical outcome. No patient has developed significant renal impairment (estimated glomerular filtration rate (<30 mL/min) but we could only confirm successful unequivocal renographic drainage in one patient.CONCLUSIONCombining antegrade radiological and retrograde endourological techniques, it is possible to restore ureteric continuity with a JJ stent, even in situations with extensive loss of the ureteric lumen. This reduces the need for morbid open surgical repair and offers a long‐term solution to patients who might otherwise be consigned to less favourable conservative measures.
Exchange Rates and Outward Foreign Direct Investment: US FDI in Emerging Economies
Authors: Udomkerdmongkol Manop , Morrissey Oliver , Görg Holger 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThis paper investigates the effect of exchange rates on US foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to a sample of 16 emerging market countries using annual panel data for the period 1990–2002. Three separate exchange rate effects are considered: the value of the local currency (a cheaper currency attracts FDI); expected changes in the exchange rate (expected devaluation implies FDI is postponed); and exchange rate volatility (discourages FDI). The results reveal a negative relationship between FDI and more expensive local currency, the expectation of local currency depreciation, and volatile exchange rates. Stable exchange rate management can be important in attracting FDI.
Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Inequality in China
Authors: Wei Kailei , Yao Shujie , Liu Aying 
Published: August 2009

AbstractForeign direct investment (FDI) is blamed for being one of the main factors widening regional inequality in Chinese regions since it is highly unevenly distributed spatially. If this logic were true, then controlling the scale of FDI could be a solution to reduce regional inequality. However, it is difficult to reconcile the positive effect of FDI on economic growth with its potential “negative” effect on regional inequality. Using the largest panel dataset covering all the Chinese regions over the entire period 1979–2003 and employing an augmented Cobb–Douglas production function, this paper proves that FDI has been an important factor responsible for regional growth differences in China. However, it suggests that FDI cannot be blamed for rising regional inequality. It is the uneven distribution of FDI instead of FDI itself that has caused regional growth differences. The research results have important policy implications on regional development in China relating to FDI.
Cultural ‘Diskontinuität’ and Thematic Continuity: Ernst Wiechert after 1945
Authors: Klapper John 
Published: August 2009

ABSTRACTDespite his early reputation as a writer in sympathy with Nazi ideals, Wiechert's writing from the late 1920s, his public speeches in Nazi Germany, and his brave public defence of Martin Niemöller ensured he was seen in the immediate post‐war period as a champion of the ‘other Germany’ and a leading ‘inner emigrant’. Subsequent disagreements with the American occupation powers, the civil authorities and returning exiled writers, allied to his instinctively anti‐democratic mindset and deeply traditional artistic ideas, meant the author could never feel at home in a world of simplistic denazification, enforced democratisation and radical literary ‘Kahlschlag’. The ideas expressed in a range of post‐war essays and the thematic concerns of his last two novels reveal a very different writer from the anti‐Nazi whom the allies had originally hoped to harness to their cause. His enduring national conservativism, the inwardness and the resigned turning away from political reality, along with the affirmation of eternal spiritual values and a deep‐seated historical and cultural pessimism, all confirm positions and ideas adumbrated in the archetypal novel of ‘inner emigration’, Das einfache Leben (1939), and suggest a thematic and ideological continuity beyond the 1945 divide.
Turkish Girls, Allah's Daughters, and the Contemporary German Subject: Itinerary of a Figure1
Authors: Yildiz Yasemin 
Published: August 2009

ABSTRACTThis essay considers the very recent emergence of the category of ‘Muslim’ in German public discourse and through it examines current German self‐understandings. In contemporary Germany, the notion of a resident ‘Muslim’ minority has been primarily created by relabelling and recasting immigrants from Turkey, the country's largest minority. I argue that the rearticulation of longstanding storylines about abused women of Turkish background – increasingly presented as ‘Muslim’– serves as a key point of transfer in this shift from ethnonational to religious framings. Analysing exemplary media sources as well as the sociologist Necla Kelek's influential non‐fiction bookDie fremde Braut(2005), I point to the crucial and multilayered work done by gender in this shift as well as its large‐scale implications for reimagining Germany and Europe.
Industry differences in the neoliberal transformation of Australian industrial relations
Authors: Bray Mark , Underhill Elsa 
Published: August 2009

ABSTRACTThis article argues that our theoretical understanding of neoliberalism and empirical understanding of the transformation of industrial relations in Australia since the early 1990s can be improved by disaggregating analysis from national to industry level, and by focusing on the dual neoliberal objectives of decollectivisation and individualisation.
Individual contracting, collective bargaining and wages in Australia
Authors: Peetz David , Preston Alison 
Published: August 2009

ABSTRACTWe examine wages in Australia under federally registered individual contracts and collective agreements (CAs) using unpublished data from a national earnings survey. The distribution of earnings under registered individual contracts was more unequal than under CAs. Average and median earnings under registered individual contracts were lower than under CAs. There was little evidence that individual contracting raised wages through raising productivity. The link between contracting and pay appears contingent, varying between occupations, industries, and firm size bands and dependent upon employees' position in the labour market and employers' use of union avoidance strategies. This has implications for the interpretation of studies of union wage effects.
Fluorescence and coloration of grey hair
Authors: Daly S. , Bianchini R. , Polefka T. , Jumbelic L. , Jachowicz J. 
Published: August 2009

SynopsisGrey hair samples were collected from 11 individuals and separated into un‐pigmented and pigmented fibres (International Hair Importers). Fluorescence measurements were obtained by using a double‐grating fluorescence spectrophotometer and a bifurcated fibre optics accessory to measure the spectra directly from the surface of hair at various distances from the fibre root. Colour measurements were carried out by using a Hunter colorimeter. The fluorescence spectra of un‐pigmented hair obtained by the excitation at 290 nm show a peak at 356 nm [tryptophan (Trp)], and multi‐peak emissions in the range from 395 to 500 nm. A significant variation in the Trp emission intensity at 356 nm vs. the intensity of emission in the 395–500 nm range was observed for hair collected from various individuals with yellow coloured hair producing stronger relative emission in 395–500 nm range. Quantitative measurements of coloration and the calculation of the Yellowness Index (YI) showed linear correlation between YI and the ratio of fluorescence intensities I440/I356 The spectra obtained by excitation at 320 nm showed the emission peaks at 395 nm (unidentified), 420 nm (N‐formylkynurenine), 460 nm (kynurenine), and 495 nm (3‐hydroxykynurenine), which are the products of oxidative or metabolic conversion of tryptophan. Un‐pigmented, yellow hair showed a build‐up of the fluorescence band corresponding to 3‐hydroxykynurenine at 495 nm. The data also showed the fluorescence quenching effect of melanin resulting in the lowering of the fluorescence intensity of pigmented hair. The spectra obtained at various positions along the fibres demonstrated gradual photo‐decomposition of hair chromophores during their lifetimes. This was indicated by a decrease of Trp fluorescence intensity, which was relatively fast (8·10−4–1.5·10−3 [day−1] as calculated for hair obtained from various individuals) for un‐pigmented hair and slower for pigmented hair. A decrease in Trp emission was accompanied by an increase in the yellow coloration toward the ends of un‐pigmented fibres.
Water, water everywhere…?
Authors: Matts Paul J. 
Published: August 2009

Citation: IFSCC Magazine, 11 (2008) (3) 201–205Life on earth would not be possible without skin, meaning that it must have unique properties that allow us to exist here. These properties are discussed in this short review, in particular, the physical and chemical barrier characteristics of the stratum corneum, which we now know are only possible due to the presence of water at precise and carefully controlled levels and locations. The review discusses the pivotal role water plays in both stratum corneum mechanics/integrity and stratum corneum regulation/maturation and reinforces the critical role played by cosmetic products, which moisturize and augment stratum corneum barrier function.Keywords:  Skin, stratum corneum, water, barrier, confocal raman, moisturizer, corneocyte
Detection and Identification of Free Radicals Generated by UV and Visible Light in Ex Vivo Human Skin
Authors: Zastrow Leonhard , Groth Norbert , Klein Frank , Kockott Dieter , Lademann Jürgen , Ferrero Louis 
Published: August 2009

Citation: IFSCC Magazine, 11 (2008) (3) 207–215Contrary to the skin biological end points used for determination of the sun protection factor and UVA protection factor, generation of excess free radicals in skin – mainly reactive oxygen species – is potentially the source of much skin damage and so represents a more general biophysical answer to the effects of sun exposure of different wavelengths. By applying electron spin resonance spectroscopy to human skin biopsies, we determined in previous work a free radical action spectrum covering the ultraviolet and visible light range. Convolution of the action spectrum with sunlight spectral irradiance (280–700nm) showed the importance of visible light in free radical generation. This unexpected finding led us to perform further investigations. Firstly, an existing sun simulator was modified so that its output truly mimics the sun's full spectrum, including visible light. Human skin biopsies were irradiated either by this device or a conventional UV source, confirming our previous calculations: half of the free radicals are generated in the 400–700nm visible wavelength range. Secondly, the visible spectrum of the modified sun simulator was divided into narrow‐band lights using different pairs of short‐ and long‐pass filters. Human skin biopsies impregnated with specific spin traps were exposed to the different narrow‐band lights to identify different types of free radicals. Generation of dangerous radical species like •O2‐, •OH and •CH‐R was observed in different parts of the visible range, confirming the relevance of the free radical action spectrum and its ability to predict skin protection.Keywords:  UV + VIS solar simulator, ex vivo human skin, free radicals, action spectrum, Electron Spin Resonance