bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Equal rates of repair of DNA photoproducts in transcribed and non‐transcribed strands in Sulfolobus solfataricus
Authors: Dorazi Robert , Götz Dorothee , Munro Stacey , Bernander Rolf , White Malcolm F. 
Published: December 2006

SummaryThe nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway removes bulky lesions such as photoproducts from DNA. In both bacteria and eukarya, lesions located in transcribed strands are repaired significantly faster than those located in non‐transcribed strands due to damage signalling by stalled RNA polymerase molecules: a phenomenon known as transcription‐coupled repair (TCR). TCR requires a mechanism for coupling the detection of stalled RNA polymerase molecules to the NER pathway, provided in bacteria by the Mfd protein. In the third domain of life, archaea, the pathway of NER is not well defined, there are no Mfd homologues and the existence of TCR has not been investigated. In this report we looked at rates of removal of photoproducts in three different operons of the crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus following UV irradiation. We found no evidence for significantly faster repair in the transcribed strands of these three operons. The rate of global genome repair in S. solfataricus is relatively rapid, and this may obviate the requirement for a specialized TCR pathway. Significantly faster repair kinetics were observed in the presence of visible light, consistent with the presence of a gene for photolyase in the genome of S. solfataricus.
Tryptophanase in sRNA control of the Escherichia coli cell cycle
Authors: Chattoraj Dhruba K. 
Published: December 2006

SummaryThe field of gene regulation underwent a major revolution with the discovery of small non‐coding RNAs (sRNAs) and the various roles they play in organisms from bacteria to man. Escherichia coli has more than 60 sRNAs that are transcribed primarily from intergenic regions. They usually target the leader region of mRNAs and prevent their translation. Protein targets are relatively rare. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Chant and Summers provide an example of a totally unexpected protein target. They show that dimers of plasmid ColE1 make an sRNA that interacts directly with the enzyme tryptophanase and enhances its affinity for its substrate, tryptophan. A breakdown product, indole, then arrests cell division until the dimers are resolved to monomers. The monomerization helps to prevent plasmid loss. Targeting a catabolic enzyme to buy time for recombination is an amazing example of adaptation, which illustrates the power of a selfish element (a plasmid in this case) to exploit the host cell machinery to its advantage.
Horizontal transfer of virulence genes encoded on the Enterococcus faecalis pathogenicity island
Authors: Coburn Phillip S. , Baghdayan Arto S. , Dolan GT , Shankar Nathan 
Published: December 2006

SummaryEnterococcus faecalis, a leading cause of nosocomial antibiotic resistant infections, frequently possesses a 150 kb pathogenicity island (PAI) that carries virulence determinants. The presence of excisionase and integrase genes, conjugative functions and multiple insertion sequence elements suggests that the PAI, or segments thereof, might be capable of horizontal transfer. In this report, the transfer of the E. faecalis PAI is demonstrated and a mechanism for transfer elucidated. In filter matings, chloramphenicol resistance was observed to transfer from strain MMH594b, a clinical isolate possessing the PAI tagged with a cat marker, to OG1RF (pCGC) with a frequency of 3.2 × 10−10 per donor. Secondary transfer from primary transconjugant TCRFB1 to strain JH2SS in filter and broth matings occurred with a frequency of 1 and 2 × 10−1 per donor respectively. Analysis of the transconjugants demonstrated that a 27 744 bp internal PAI segment was capable of excision and circularization in the donor, and is mobilized as a cointegrate with a pTEF1‐like plasmid. High‐frequency transfer also occurred from TCRFB1 to JH2SS during transient colonization of the mouse gastrointestinal tract. This is the first demonstration of the horizontal transfer of PAI‐encoded virulence determinants in E. faecalis and has implications for genome evolution and diversity.
Why are some species more commonly afflicted by arthritis than others? A comparative study of spondyloarthropathy in primates and carnivores
Authors: NUNN C. L. , ROTHSCHILD B. , GITTLEMAN J. L. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractSpondyloarthropathy is a painful arthritic affliction of humans that also occurs in wild mammals. Important questions remain concerning the underlying causes of spondyloarthropathy in mammals, particularly regarding whether it is infectious in origin or driven by genetic predisposition and environmental stressors. Moreover, spondyloarthropathy has negative effects on host fitness, leading to potential conservation concerns if it impacts threatened species. Using a comparative data set on the prevalence of joint disease in 34 primate species and 100 carnivore species, we tested predictions involving the epidemiological correlates of spondyloarthropathy in wild mammals. Analyses revealed that 5.6% of primates and 3.6% of carnivores exhibited signs of spondyloarthropathy, with maximum incidence as high as 22% in great apes and 27% in bears. We tested whether prevalence of spondyloarthropathy increases with population density and group size, greater contact with soil, a slower host life history, increased ranging, dietary factors and body mass. We found general support for an effect of body mass, with larger bodied primates and carnivores exhibiting a higher prevalence of spondyloarthropathy. In addition, more threatened species experienced higher rates of spondyloarthropathy, with this association influenced by body mass and phylogeny. The effect of body mass could reflect that larger animals are exposed to more pathogens through greater consumption of resources, or that joints of larger bodied mammals experience greater biomechanical stresses, resulting in inflammation and activation of local joint infections.
When does diversity fit null model predictions? Scale and range size mediate the mid‐domain effect
Authors: Dunn Robert R. , McCain Christy M. , Sanders Nathan J. 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTAim  Recently, a flurry of studies have focused on the extent to which geographical patterns of diversity fit mid‐domain effect (MDE) null models. While some studies find strong support for MDE null models, others find little. We test two hypotheses that might explain this variation among studies: small‐ranged groups of species are less likely than large‐ranged species to show mid‐domain peaks in species richness, and mid‐domain null model predictions are less robust for smaller spatial extents than for larger spatial extents.Location  We analyse data sets from elevational, riverine, continental and other domains from around the world.Methods  We use a combination of Spearman rank correlations and binomial tests to examine whether differences within and among studies and domains in the predictive power of MDE null models vary with spatial scale and range size.Results  Small‐ranged groups of species are less likely to fit mid‐domain predictions than large‐ranged groups of species. At large spatial extents, diversity patterns of taxonomic groups with large mean range sizes fit MDE null model predictions better than did diversity patterns of groups with small mean range sizes. MDE predictions were more explanatory at larger spatial extents than at smaller extents. Diversity patterns at smaller spatial extents fit MDE predictions poorly across all range sizes. Thus, MDE predictions should be expected to explain patterns of species richness when ranges and the scale of analysis are both large.Main conclusions  Taken together, the support for these hypotheses offers a more sophisticated model of when MDE predictions should be expected to explain patterns of species richness, namely when ranges and the scale of analysis are both large. Thus the circumstances in which the MDE is important are finite and apparently predictable.
From Universal Values to Millennium Development Goals: Lost in Translation
Authors: Saith Ashwani 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTAre the Millennium Development Goals just a string of global wish lists? Are they simply a distraction or gimmick? This contribution argues that there is more to the enveloping global exercise of the MDGs than meets the eye. Despite its alarming and terminal weaknesses with regard to theory, method and scope, and notwithstanding its multitude of errors of commission and omission, the MDG phenomenon carries the potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as the catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of the political economy of development at the global level. The question is whether this realignment will be of a benign character that reflects the emancipatory aspirations so readily evoked in the Millennium Declaration.
Cosmopolitan Presumptions? On Martha Nussbaum and her Commentators
Authors: Gasper Des 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTThis article presents a framework for analysis of discourses on ethical cosmopolitanism, and applies it to Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice (2006), with comparisons to the views of other authors. After outlining the book's form of ethical cosmopolitanism, the article considers the psychological, philosophical and sociological presumptions, the methodology of abstraction, the implicit audiences, and the programmatic targets and implied strategy of social change. It links and comments on sister papers by Giri, McCloskey, Murphy, Nederveen Pieterse and Truong.
One Humanity, Many Consciousnesses: Unresolved Issues in Nussbaum's New Frontiers of Justice
Authors: Truong Thanh‐Dam 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTTaking the work of Martha Nussbaum as one point of departure, this contribution addresses three questions related to capabilities theory: how it can reconcile its pursuit of universal ethical principles with a world of diversity; whether it can liberate itself from neoliberal discourse; and whether it can deal with compassion and care. The challenge for global justice is to gain universal acceptance through dialogue and mutual transformation between paradigms. This requires a modification of Eurocentric orientations in moral reasoning to overcome differences of epistemic practices.
Cosmopolitanism and Beyond: Towards a Multiverse of Transformations
Authors: Giri Ananta Kumar 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTA revival of cosmopolitanism seems to be underway in both discourse and practice. However, much of this revival draws from only one trajectory of cosmopolitanism, and fails to build upon different traditions of cosmopolitan thinking and experimentation. Cosmopolitanization is an ongoing process of critique, creativity and border‐crossing which involves transformations in self, culture, society, economy and polity. It requires multi‐dimensional processes of self‐development, inclusion of the other, and planetary realizations. Against this background, this contribution explores the multiverse of transformations that confront contemporary discourses of cosmopolitanism. It also discusses the issue of cosmopolitan responsibility, noting three major challenges: global justice; cross‐species dignity; and dialogue among civilizations, cultures, religions and traditions.
GLOBALISATION, FIRM UPGRADING AND IMPACTS ON LABOUR
Authors: KNORRINGA PETER , PEGLER LEE 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTThe question that drives this paper is: When can we expect firm upgrading by developing‐country suppliers in global value chains will lead to improvements in labour conditions? To deal with this question we, (a) position firm upgrading in the global value chain approach, (b) investigate existing evidence and conceptualisations on how economic globalisation impacts on labour, and (c) develop some hypotheses on when we can expect firm upgrading and improvements in labour conditions to go together. We conclude that firm upgrading in developing‐country suppliers in global value chains as a rule does not lead to improvements in labour conditions. Instead, the much broader and more forceful process of immiserising growth makes it very unlikely that workers in such relatively low‐skilled production activities will enjoy improvements in labour conditions. Ethical sourcing may lead to improvements in labour conditions of core workers in final product manufacturers and key supplier firms, but it is as yet unclear to what extent such a business model can and will be disseminated. More generally, even though economic globalisation does selectively create new jobs, even labour conditions of core workers may be under pressure while the overall proportion of core workers appears to be declining.
LA LAGUNA: OF EXPORTING JEANS AND CHANGING LABOUR RELATIONS
Authors: DOOREN ROBINE VAN 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses the development of a garment cluster in La Laguna, North Mexico, since the coming into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Employment in the local garment industry increased rapidly and working conditions improved, due to increasingly stringent buyer standards. However, both buyer‐supplier and employee‐worker relations became strained, causing some entrepreneurs to relocate operations to cheaper sites and others to adopt a modular production strategy to save on labour costs – and shift co‐ordination and management risk onto workers. La Laguna's specialisation of jeans production for export is a form of hyper specialisation that may well be required in global markets, for the sake of cost efficiency, but it also enhances the vulnerability of a cluster in the face of fluctuating world demand and changing international trade policies. As the cluster is an important part of the regional economy, the problems of the cluster have a great impact on the region.
GLOBALISATION AND GOOD WORK: IMPIVA, A SPANISH PROJECT TO REGENERATE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS
Authors: HOLMSTRÖM MARK 
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACTHow can clusters of small and medium enterprises meet global competition? The point is not just to create jobs, but good work (decent conditions, autonomy, and opportunities to improve skills and build a career). Impiva, a Valencian regional government agency, has set up technological institutes for established industries, and local business innovation centres to back new projects, following the examples of Emilia Romagna (Italy), Baden‐Württemberg (Germany) and Denmark, though Spain lacks the levels of trust between entrepreneurs found in those regions. The Institute for toys (AIJU) is in Ibi, a town which makes most Spanish toys but must diversify because of Chinese competition; so AIJU has become an all‐purpose local development agency, like Baden‐Württemberg's technology transfer centres. The Baden‐Württemberg model – catering for established industries and diversification – can be adapted to local conditions. Places like Ibi can provide good work, if local firms keep some control over design, innovation and problem‐solving.
Measuring Conditional Persistence in Nonlinear Time Series*
Authors: Kapetanios George 
Published: December 2006

AbstractThe persistence properties of economic time series have been a primary object of investigation in a variety of guises since the early days of econometrics. Recently, work on nonlinear modelling for time series has introduced the idea that persistence of a shock at a point in time may vary depending on the state of the process at that point in time. This article suggests investigating the persistence of processes conditioning on their history as a tool that may aid parametric nonlinear modelling. In particular, we suggest that examining the nonparametrically estimated derivatives of the conditional expectation of a variable with respect to its lag(s) may be a useful indicator of the variation in persistence with respect to its past history. We discuss in detail the implementation of the measure and present a Monte Carlo investigation. We further apply the persistence analysis to real exchange rates.
Housing Allowances and Economic Efficiency
Authors: HAFFNER MARIETTA E.A. , BOELHOUWER PETER J. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractHousing allowances aim to make rental housing affordable for the recipients. Whether affordability for tenants is achieved in an economically efficient way is the question that is discussed in this essay. Three aspects of efficiency are focused on: disincentives to work, over‐consumption of housing and horizontal inefficiency. These topics are tackled through a discussion that focuses mainly on the principles, but also on some of the outcomes, of the means‐tested housing allowance systems in six Western countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden. Conclusions concern the apparent unimportance of the poverty trap or the unemployment trap specifically for rental housing, the concept of notional rent used to tackle over‐consumption, and the frequent existence of some form of horizontal inefficiency.
Security or Safety in Cities? The Threat of Terrorism after 9/11
Authors: MARCUSE PETER 
Published: December 2006

AbstractA great deal is at issue in the handling of the threat of terrorism in the United States today. Restrictions on the use of public space are a direct consequence, at the urban level, of what is happening. But beyond that, and beyond the various abuses of civil liberties and common sense that have been involved in the governmental misuse of the threat after 9/11, the most serious misuse may be the sale of the threat as a threat to existential security instead of as one danger among others to public safety. It has been manipulated for purposes having nothing to do with terrorism. The intended result has been to reinforce the positions of those in power, to displace the insecurity inherent in a capitalist free market system, and to limit further the freedom that is at the heart of the right to the city. The current treatment of public space illustrates the process.
Tenancy Databases, Professional Practices and Housing Access among Low‐Income Tenants in the Private Rental Sector in Australia
Authors: SHORT PATRICIA , MINNERY JOHN , MEAD ELSPETH , O’FLAHERTY MARTIN , PEAKE ANDREW 
Published: December 2006

AbstractThis essay addresses the impacts of electronic tenancy databases upon social relations in the field of private rental tenancy in Australia. Insights arise from research carried out, in 2002–3, in the eastern, mainland states of Australia that included interviews with tenants and property managers in the private rental sector. Property managers viewed tenancy databases as a tool for efficient, effective and professional risk management, and ‘professional’ practice was held to render misconduct or improper listings extremely unlikely. In this context, tenants were individualized and expected to actively work to construct, maintain and document their reputation as a ‘good tenant’. For tenants, tenancy databases could have a particular, definitive effect. ‘Not being listed’ (along with getting a full rental bond refund, references from previous landlords, and so on) is an indicator that helps build a satisfactory, personal rental history. On the other hand, being ‘listed’ is read as a prime indicator of risk and effectively overriding other aspects of a tenant’s application for tenancy. ‘Listed’ tenants find themselves being forced to shift further and further away from the formal rental market and ultimately into insecure and inappropriate housing arrangements at the periphery.
Psychological Factors Associated with Obtaining Employment
Authors: Hensel Elizabeth , Kroese Biza Stenfert , Rose John 
Published: December 2006

Background  Less than 10% of people with intellectual disabilities are employed. The aim of the present study was to investigate what psychological factors might predict employment outcome for people with intellectual disability who had received a placement in a supported employment service.Method  Sixty people were interviewed whilst they were in the supported employment preparation agency and where possible 3 and 9 months after leaving. The structured interview included a number of psychological measures. Those who subsequently gained employment were compared with those who did not.Results  Those who gained employment were significantly more motivated by status aspiration, and judged themselves significantly less happy than those who did not gain employment, at the first interview.Conclusions  It is possible that people who are more dissatisfied with their life might be more motivated to change their circumstances. Supported employment agencies might consider using a measure of motivation as an entry criterion or as a way of identifying who needs help with developing motivation.
A randomised trial of carbetocin versus syntometrine in the management of the third stage of labour
Authors: Leung SW , Ng PS , Wong WY , Cheung TH 
Published: December 2006

Objective  Syntometrine is an effective uterotonic agent used in preventing primary postpartum haemorrhage but has adverse effects including nausea, vomiting, hypertension and coronary artery spasm. Carbetocin is a newly developed long‐acting oxytocin analogue that might be used as an uterotonic agent. We compare the efficacy and safety of intramuscular (IM) carbetocin with IM syntometrine in preventing primary postpartum haemorrhage.Design  Prospective, double‐blinded, randomised controlled trial.Setting  Delivery suite of a university‐based obstetrics unit.Population  Women with singleton pregnancy achieving vaginal delivery after and throughout 34 weeks.Methods  Three hundred and twenty‐nine eligible women were randomised to receive either a single dose of 100 microgram IM carbetocin or 1 ml IM syntometrine (a mixture of 5 iu oxytocin and 0.5 mg ergometrine) at the end of second stage of labour.Main outcome measures  Difference in haemoglobin drop measured 2 days after delivery between the two groups.Results  There was no difference in the drop of haemoglobin concentration within the first 48 hours between the two groups. The incidence of additional oxytocic injections, postpartum haemorrhage (blood loss ≥ 500 ml) and retained placenta were also similar. The use of carbetocin was associated with significant lower incidence of nausea (relative risk [RR] 0.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.04–0.78), vomiting (RR 0.1, 95% CI 0.01–0.74), hypertension 30 minutes (0 versus 8 cases, P < 0.01) and 60 minutes (0 versus 6 cases, P < 0.05) after delivery but a higher incidence of maternal tachycardia (RR 1.68, 95% CI 1.03–3.57).Conclusions  IM carbetocin is as effective as IM syntometrine in preventing primary postpartum haemorrhage after vaginal delivery. It is less likely to induce hypertension and has a low incidence of adverse effect. It should be considered as a good alternative to conventional uterotonic agents used in managing the third stage of labour.