bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Understanding influenza virus-specific epidemiological properties by analysis of experimental human infections
Authors: LIAO C.-M. , YANG S.-C. , CHIO C.-P. , CHEN S.-C. 
Published: November 2009

SUMMARYThis study aimed to estimate the natural history and transmission parameters based on experimental viral shedding and symptom dynamics in order to understand the key epidemiological factors that characterize influenza (sub)type epidemics. A simple statistical algorithm was developed by combining a well-defined mathematical scheme of epidemiological determinants and experimental human influenza infection. Here we showed that (i) the observed viral shedding dynamics mapped successfully the estimated time-profile of infectiousness and (ii) the profile of asymptomatic probability was obtained based on observed temporal variation of symptom scores. Our derived estimates permitted evaluation of relationships between various model-derived and data-based estimations, allowing evaluation of trends proposed previously but not tested fully. As well as providing insights into the dynamics of viral shedding and symptom scores, a more profound understanding of influenza epidemiological parameters and determinants could enhance the viral kinetic studies of influenza during infection in the respiratory tracts of experimentally infected individuals.
Quasi-Messianism and the Disenchantment of Politics
Authors: van Kersbergen Kees 
Published: November 2009

AbstractThe study of political religion has focused on how religious structure and substance came to permeate grand political ideologies such as fascism and communism. The relevance of various relatively veiled forms of religion in modern day-to-day democratic politics has been undervalued and we therefore fail to appreciate to what extent, and how religious structure and substance have also penetrated conventional democratic politics. As a result, we do not comprehend that it is the progressive abolition of “quasi-messianism” in politics that is currently causing the existential problem of democracy, namely massive political disaffection. Quasi-messianism concerned the visionary anticipation of a better world that is attainable, here and in the distant, yet foreseeable future. This promise accorded politics an enchanting quality. Quite down-to-earth political ventures got charged with an inspiring and imaginative sense of purpose, direction, and meaning, but equally with this-worldly catalysts, which, in contrast to the political-religious grand utopias, were operational and practical. In this quality, some mass political projects or elite missions developed a capacity to enchant the political elite and the public alike. Hence the thesis that it is the disenchantment of politics, which lies at the heart of the contemporary phenomenon of waning political allegiance.
Cross-Validating Measures of Global Religious Intolerance: Comparing Coded State Department Reports with Survey Data and Expert Opinion
Authors: Grim Brian J. , Wike Richard 
Published: November 2009

AbstractWe address a pressing substantive issue as well as evaluate several methodologies in this article. Substantively, we ask whether the U.S. State Department has a clear understanding of the level of cross-national religious intolerance that triggers daily headlines around the globe. Methodologically, we ask whether data on social attitudes coded from systematic qualitative reports can reliably represent cross-national public opinion. We empirically address these questions by comparing cross-national levels of religious intolerance coded from the State Department's annual international religious freedom reports with relevant population survey data from the World Values Survey and the Pew Research Center, as well as with data from written interviews of country experts conducted by the Hudson Institute. The results indicate that the understanding of social religious intolerance embodied in the State Department reports is comparable with the results of population surveys and individual expert opinion. Methodologically, this suggests that cross-national public opinion survey data can be cross-validated with coded data from systematic qualitative analysis as well as with expert opinion.
Deficiency in activation-induced cytidine deaminase promotes systemic autoimmunity inlprmice on a C57BL/6 background
Authors: Chen L , Guo L , Tian J , Zheng B , Han S 
Published: November 2009

SummaryActivation-induced deaminase (AID) is a prerequisite for immunoglobulin (Ig) class-switch recombination and somatic hypermutation, which is critical for antibody affinity maturation. IgM and IgG autoantibodies are characteristic of the systemic autoimmune disorders such as lupus. However, the relative contributions of hypermutated high-affinity IgG antibodies and germline-encoded IgM antibodies to systemic autoimmunity are not defined fully. The role of AID in autoimmunity is unclear. The current study used AID-deficient mice to investigate the role of AID in the development and pathogenesis of murine lupus. C57BL/6 mice deficient in both Fas and AID were generated. Compared to their AID-competent littermates, AID−/− lymphoproliferative (lpr) mice produced significantly elevated levels of IgM autoreactive antibodies with enhanced germinal centre (GC) response, developed more advanced splenomegaly and exhibited more severe glomerulonephritis. Thus, AID may play an important role in the negative regulation of systemic autoimmune manifestations in murine lupus. The results also indicate that hypermutated high-affinity IgG antibodies are not necessary for the development of autoimmune syndrome in lpr mice on a C57BL/6 background.
Quality of life and health‐related utility analysis of adults with moderate and severe atopic dermatitis treated with tacrolimus ointment vs. topical corticosteroids
Authors: Poole CD , Chambers C , Allsopp R , Currie CJ 
Published: November 2009

AbstractBackground  The purpose of this study was to measure change in quality of life (QoL) and estimate health‐related utility in adults with moderate and severe atopic dermatitis (AD) following the use of either tacrolimus ointment or topical corticosteroids.Methods  Data were analysed from a double‐blind, randomized controlled trial comparing the treatment of adults with moderate and severe AD with either tacrolimus ointment or a standard corticosteroid regimen. Following randomisation, patients applied their medication twice‐daily for 6 months. Monthly assessments determined response and QoL. Health‐related utility (EQ5Dindex) was estimated by Monte Carlo simulation from SF‐12 responses via a published mapping algorithm.Results  At baseline, estimated utility data were available for 926 (95%) of the intention‐to‐treat patients, 57% of whom had AD of moderate severity (43% severe). The mean age at baseline was 32.5 years (SD ± 11.8), 46.2% were male, with a mean EQ5Dindex for moderate cases of 0.770 (SD ± 0.157), and 0.665 (SD ± 0.225) for those with severe disease (P < 0.001). Patients treated with tacrolimus ointment showed significantly greater improvement in all but one domain of the SF‐36. At baseline, there was no difference in estimated utility between the two groups; however, a difference in utility in favour of tacrolimus ointment emerged after 1 month’s treatment (0.849 vs. 0.820; P = 0.004). Over the 6‐month study period, the mean, marginal utility difference between the study arms was 0.032 U (utility) in favour of tacrolimus (P < 0.001).Conclusion  Treatment with 0.1% tacrolimus ointment rather than a standard topical corticosteroid ointment regimen was associated with clinically significant, incremental improvement in QoL, sustained over a 6‐month period. A within‐trial cost‐utility estimate based on study medication cost alone suggests that tacrolimus ointment is highly cost‐effective given existing willingness‐to‐pay thresholds.
Stem cells in the adult rat spinal cord: plasticity after injury and treadmill training exercise
Authors: Foret Ariane , Quertainmont Renaud , Botman Olivier , Bouhy Delphine , Amabili Philippe , Brook Gary , Schoenen Jean , Franzen Rachelle 
Published: November 2009

J. Neurochem. (2010) 112, 762–772.AbstractEpendymal cells located around the central canal of the adult spinal cord are considered as a source of neural stem cells (NSCs) and represent an interesting pool of endogenous stem cells for repair strategies. Physical exercise is known to increase ependymal cell proliferation, while improving functional recovery. In this work, we further characterized those endogenous NSCs within the normal and injured adult rat spinal cord and investigated the effects of treadmill training using immunohistochemical and behavioral studies. In uninjured untrained rats, Sox‐2, a NSC marker, was detected in all ependymal cells of the central canal, and also scattered throughout the parenchyma of the spinal cord. Within the lesion, Sox‐2 expression increased transiently, while the number of nestin‐positive ependymal cells increased with a concomitant enhancement of proliferation, as indicated by the mitotic markers Ki67 and bromo‐deoxyuridine. Exercise, which improved functional recovery and autonomous micturition, maintained nestin expression in both injured and uninjured spinal cords, with a positive correlation between locomotor recovery and the number of nestin‐positive cells.
Poor Prognosis of Acute Stroke Patients Denied Thrombolysis Due to Early CT Findings
Authors: Joshi Nishith , Chaturvedi Seemant , Coplin William M. 
Published: November 2009

ABSTRACT Objectives. Whether acute stroke patients with major early infarct signs on computed tomography (CT) should be treated with intravenous (IV) thrombolysis remains controversial. The authors sought to define the outcomes in 5 consecutive patients who were not treated with IV thrombolysis, according to established guidelines. Methods. The authors retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of a consecutive series of 5 patients evaluated by an acute stroke team at a university medical center and who were denied IV tissue plasminogen activator due to early CT changes. Results. Five patients with a median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 22 (range 20—28) were evaluated. Despite aggressive care (e.g., hemicraniectomy), 2 patients died owing to herniation, 1 patient died of cardiac causes, and neither of the 2 surviving patients achieved a 3‐month Rankin score below 4 (moderately severe disability). Conclusions. Given the poor prognosis of patients with hemispheric stroke and early CT changes, alternative treatment modalities such as intra‐arterial thrombolysis, early hemicraniectomy, and neuroprotective therapy should be vigorously pursued.
Solitary Intramedullary Neurosarcoidosis: Role of MRI in Early Detection
Authors: Hayat Ghazala R. , Walton Timothy P. , Smith Kenneth R. , Martin David S. , Manepalli Anantha N. 
Published: November 2009

ABSTRACT Background. Intramedullary neurosarcoidosis may be the first manifestation of the disease and may mimic a tumor clinically and radiographically. Two patients who presented with cervical intramedullary lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were found to have neurosarcoidosis. Clinical presentation. Two patients with negative past medical history presented with progressive myelopathic features, and intramedullary cervical lesions were detected on MRI scan; the diagnosis was made on biopsy of the lesions. Early therapeutic intervention led to a favorable outcome. Conclusion. Intramedullary neurosarcoidosis, especially in the cervical cord, can be the initial presentation of the disease, mimicking a tumor. MRI scan, biopsy, and, in fewer cases, angiotensin‐converting enzyme levels can help with the diagnosis and may lead to a favorable outcome.
Lack of Relation Between Severity of Stroke and Severity of Extracranial Internal Carotid Artery Lesions in Taiwanese First‐Ever Ischemic Stroke Patients
Authors: Tan Teng‐Yeow , Chang Ku‐Chou , Liou Chia‐Wei , Reynolds Patrick S. , Tegeler Charles H. 
Published: November 2009

ABSTRACT Background and Purpose. The authors attempt to determine whether hemodynamically significant extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) lesions correlate with the severity of first‐ever hemispheric ischemic stroke. Methods. Carotid duplex was used to evaluate carotid arteries. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was used to describe the severity of the stroke and was stratified as follows: 1–6 = mild, 7–15 = moderate, >15 = severe. Duplex findings were categorized according to velocity criteria into <50% stenosis if ICA peak systolic velocity (PSV) (cm/s) <140 and >50% stenosis if ICA PSV >140 or ratio of ICA and common carotid artery in PSV >2. No detectable flow at ICA was considered occlusion. Stroke subtype was classified according to TOAST criteria. Results. Two hundred nineteen consecutive patients were enrolled, including 127 with mild, 65 with moderate, and 27 with severe stroke. The prevalence of ICA stenosis >50% in each group was 3.6%, 1.4%, 0.9%, respectively. Two patients in the severe group had total ICA occlusion. The overall prevalence of significant ICA lesions was 6.8%. Conclusions. There is no positive correlation of stroke severity with the severity of duplex findings, which may be due to low prevalence of significant ICA lesions or other stroke mechanisms. Most of the patients had mild stroke, and the majority had ICA stenosis <50%. Small‐vessel occlusion tended to have mild severity of stroke. Intracranial artery lesions or other factors causing stroke in Taiwanese should be investigated. Given the low incidence of significant extracranial carotid disease in symptomatic Taiwanese stroke patients, routine screening of symptomatic Taiwanese for extracranial carotid artery disease does not provide enough information to determine stroke mechanism, and transcranial Doppler should be added to the screening tests.
Lessons from Latin America's neo‐liberal experiment: An overview of labour and social policies since the 1980s
Authors: FRAILE Lydia 
Published: November 2009

Abstract.Introducing the six country studies that follow, this analytical overview shows that the social and labour policies inspired by the Washington Consensus – implemented across much of Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s – consistently failed to deliver the expected improvements. Labour flexibilization, decentralization of collective bargaining, pension privatization and other measures to increase market provision of welfare typically resulted in growing informality, widening inequalities and shrinking social protection coverage, while also failing to stimulate employment growth. But the lessons have been learned: many such policies have recently been reconsidered and there are signs that a more balanced policy approach may be emerging in Latin America.
Accounting for the Unaccountable: Lesbianism and the History of Sexuality in Eighteenth‐Century Britain
Authors: Binhammer Katherine 
Published: November 2009

AbstractWhat is the history of sexuality a history of? This article provides an overview of scholarship in the field of 18th‐century studies and the history of sexuality, paying particular attention to the exemplary case of female same sex desire in order to explore the hermeneutical problems faced by this area of study. Unlike, for example, the history of women which has its object of study defined within its title, the history of sexuality is, in many ways, a history without a proper object. Is it a history of sexual practices such as prostitution, homosexuality or adultery? Is it a history of sexual identities like the sodomite, the sadist or the virgin? This essay argues that it is a history of ideas and ideologies surrounding sexuality’s discursive significance and reads how what we know about the past is grounded in our present cultural understandings of sexuality. Concentrating on the history of lesbianism and the emergence of a bourgeois discourse of heteronormativity in the 18th century, the article demonstrates how what we know about sex in the past is determined by who speaks, from where, and when.
Targeted Drug and Gene Delivery Systems for Lung Cancer Therapy
Authors: Sundaram Sneha , Trivedi Ruchit , Durairaj Chandrasekar , Ramesh Rajagopal , Ambati Balamurali K. , Kompella Uday B. 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of a novel docetaxel derivative of deslorelin, a luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, and its combination in vivo with RGD peptide conjugated nanoparticles encapsulating an antiangiogenic, anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) intraceptor (Flt23k; RGD-Flt23k-NP) in H1299 lung cancer cells and/or xenografts in athymic nude BALB/c mice.
Experimental Design: The in vitro and in vivo efficacy of the deslorelin-docetaxel conjugate was evaluated in H1299 cells and xenografts in athymic nude mice. Coadministration of deslorelin-docetaxel conjugate and RGD-Flt23k-NP was tested in vivo in mice. Tumor inhibition, apoptosis, and VEGF inhibition were estimated in each of the treatment groups.
Results: The conjugate enhanced in vitro docetaxel efficacy by 13-fold in H1299 cells compared with docetaxel at 24 hours, and this effect was inhibited following reduction of LHRH receptor expression by an antisense oligonucleotide. Combination of the conjugate with the RGD-Flt23k-NP in vivo resulted in an 82- and 15-fold tumor growth inhibition on day 39 following repeated weekly i.v. injections and a single intratumoral (i.t.) injection, respectively. These effects were significantly greater than individual targeted therapies or docetaxel alone. Similarly, apoptotic indices for the combination therapy were 14% and 10% in the i.v. and i.t. groups, respectively, and higher than the individual therapies. Combination therapy groups exhibited greater VEGF inhibition in both the i.v. and i.t. groups.
Conclusions: Docetaxel efficacy was enhanced by LHRH receptor–targeted deslorelin conjugate and further improved by combination with targeted antiangiogenic nanoparticle gene therapy. Combination of novel targeted therapeutic approaches described here provides an attractive alternative to the current treatment options for lung cancer therapy. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(23):7299–308)
Timing Patterns in French
Authors: Grompton Andrew 
Published: November 2009

Abstract
The observed timing pattern of an utterance reflects a number of linguistic factors, including rate of utterance, accent, and phonological units such as segment, syllable, stress group, phonological phrase, etc. This investigation seeks to isolate the durational correlates of accent and of the higher-level phonological units. An experimental method is adopted which enables the effects of the other, extraneous factors (rate of utterance, etc.) to be filtered out. Once this has been done, the results show consistent durational correlates for the units phonological word, phonological phrase, etc., but none for accent. An abstract timing pattern for French utterances is proposed.
Creation Myths and the Visual Arts: An Ongoing Dialogue between Word and Image
Authors: Schipper Mineke 
Published: November 2009

AbstractEven though in most arts faculties the verbal and the material arts are usually studied separately, they are closely connected in mutually clarifying ways. The various contributions to this issue demonstrate convincingly how relevant it is to study verbal and visual artistic expressions of creation myths in combination. In practical terms, the first step is to describe the connections and functions of the specific material and verbal genres concerned. African oral myths about the origin of black and white people and wooden sculptures referred to as colons are a case in point. The function of the myth was to explain the origin of racial difference and to answer the question why white people were wealthier and more powerful than black people. The sculptures served to re-appropriate the power and prestige lost to the colonizer in new ways. The example illustrates how the two artistic genres had different functions and played complementary roles in people's dealing with Europe's colonial presence in Africa.
Visualizing Creation in Ancient Greece
Authors: Stafford Emma 
Published: November 2009

AbstractThere is very little direct representation of acts of creation in Greek art. This paper examines the visual potential of the extended creation narrative first related by Hesiod, focusing on the handful of episodes which are to be found in the visual arts—the births of Aphrodite and Athene, Zeus's slaying of Typhon and the Gigantomachy—while attempting to account for their selection. It also considers the remarkable lack of an authoritative account of the creation of mankind in the archaic and classical periods, and the relatively late development of Prometheus's role as man's creator, which contrasts with the much earlier establishment of traditions concerning local “first men” and the creation of the first woman, Pandora.
Evangeline's Mission: Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Unitarianism in Longfellow's Evangeline
Authors: Higgins Andrew 
Published: November 2009

AbstractThough Evangeline has long been considered simply a love story, this article reads the poem as one deeply involved in both the theological and cultural struggles between the Catholic and Protestant churches in the antebellum period. The essay argues that Longfellow's poem about the Acadian Expulsion of 1755 imagines those Catholic refugees as successful immigrants to America. Further, the article argues that Longfellow's vision of Philadelphia at the end of the poem is that of an ideal, ecumenical Christian community, in which Catholicism is able to coexist with various Protestant churches. Thus the poem counters anti-Catholic nativist rhetoric that portrayed Catholics as fundamentally foreign and a threat to the Republic. However, the ecumenical nature of this vision is limited by the fact that Longfellow cannot imagine a fully-realized Catholic Church in the United States; his Catholic community lacks ecclesiastical hierarchy. As such, it reflects Longfellow's connection to the Unitarian Moralists, as group of Harvard Unitarians who sought to transform other denominations rather than to convert individuals to Unitarianism.
Semiconductor‐Gold Nanocomposite Catalysts for the Efficient Three‐Component Coupling of Aldehyde, Amine and Alkyne in Water
Authors: Chng Leng Leng , Yang Jun , Wei Yifeng , Ying Jackie Y. 
Published: November 2009

AbstractAn efficient heterogeneous lead sulfide‐gold catalyst has been successfully developed for the synthesis of propargylic amines via a three‐component coupling reaction of aldehyde, amine and alkyne in water. The process is simple and applicable to a diverse range of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes, amines and alkynes. Furthermore, the catalyst is stable to air and water, and can be easily recovered and reused.