bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Inner City as Site of Cultural Productionsui generis: A Review Essay
Authors: Hutton Thomas A. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractThe creative sector within the inner city constitutes a defining spatial imprint of the cultural economy of the metropolis, and a motive force in the reconstruction of the urban core. The centerpieces of the cultural economy include galleries, museums, theatres, markets, exhibition spaces, and schools of art and design. But amid these institutions thrives a specialized production economy, including computer graphics and imaging, Internet design, software, and video game development, as well as creative industries such as architecture, industrial design, and advertising, complemented by local amenities. The growth trajectory of the cultural economy, the insertion of creative industries within the contested spaces of the inner city, and the rise of a putative creative class concentrated within gentrifying neighbourhoods have stimulated new scholarly discourses and debates, as well as media attention and a prominent place for contemporary culture and its signifiers within the public imagination. This essay traces the origins of cultural production in the central city, and more recent growth processes; examines the mix ofregenerationanddislocationeffects; and offers a synthesis of recent research drawn from instructive cities and sites.
Social Capital: The Panacea for Community?
Authors: Lovell Sarah A. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractSocial capital has captured an extraordinary amount of attention in recent decades, being posed as a cure‐all for society despite unresolved arguments over what exactly it is, how it is created, and why it is in decline in the West. This paper seeks to examine why we see differences of social capital, both within and across communities, and the avenues that exist to remedy these disparities. The major criticism facing social capital is a disconnect between social capital as a means of analysis and social capital as a policy goal. A review of the literature in the context of developed countries indicates that social capital is rarely as lucid or easily implemented at the community level as existing themes within the community development literature such as capacity building (Labonte 1999).
Demography and clinical course of ulcerative colitis in a multiracial Asian population: A nationwide study from Malaysia
Authors: HILMI I , SINGH R , GANESANANTHAN S , YATIM I , RADZI M , CHUA ABS , TAN HJ , HUANG S , CHIN KS , MENON J , GOH KL 
Published: February 2009

OBJECTIVE:  To establish the clinical course of ulcerative colitis (UC) in the Malaysian population, comparing the three major ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese and Indian.METHODS:  Patients who were diagnosed with UC from seven major medical referral centers in Malaysia were recruited. Their baseline characteristics, and the extent of the disease, its clinical course and complications were recorded.RESULTS:  A total of 118 patients was included. The extent of disease was as follows: proctitis alone in 22 (18.6%), sigmoid colon in 23 (19.5%), descending colon in 16 (13.6%), transverse colon in 11 (9.3%), ascending colon and pancolitis 46 (39%). Most patients had chronic intermittent disease. Extra‐intestinal complications were seen in 27 (22.9%) patients and fulminant colitis was seen in four (3.4%). None developed colorectal cancer. The overall cumulative colectomy rates at 1, 5 and 10 years were 3.4% (CI: 0.9–8.5), 5.9% (CI: 1.9–13.2) and 15.6% (CI: 6.5–29.4), respectively. There was a higher prevalence of extra‐intestinal manifestations and a trend towards more extensive disease among Indian patients. However, no significant differences were seen in the age of onset, the severity of disease (fulminant colitis, refractory disease) and the colectomy rate.CONCLUSION:  As in developed countries, most of our patients have a remitting and relapsing pattern of disease but the clinical course appears to be milder, with lower rates of colectomies. There are differences in clinical presentation among the three major ethnic groups, with Indians having a higher prevalence of extra‐intestinal manifestations and a trend towards more extensive disease.
The efficacy of Combizym in the treatment of Chinese patients with dyspepsia: a multicenter, randomized, placebo‐controlled and cross‐over study
Authors: RAN Zhi Hua , YUAN Yao Zong , LI Zhao Shen , WANG Ji Yao , ZONG Chun Hua , XIE Wei Fen , ZHENG Ping , CHEN Sheng Liang , ZHAN Xian Bao , CHEN Shi Yao , XIAO Shu Dong 
Published: February 2009

OBJECTIVE:  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Combizym treatment in Chinese patients with dyspepsia.METHODS:  In this multicenter, randomized, placebo‐controlled cross‐over study, a total of 151 patients (76 men and 75 women, mean age: 44.67 ± 6.46 years, range: 22–67 years) with dyspepsia whose symptoms were not relieved by placebos were recruited. They were randomly divided into group A (79 patients, 2 weeks of Combizym treatment, two tablets post‐meal, t.i.d.; then 1 week of wash‐out, followed by 2 weeks of placebo treatment, two tablets post‐meal, t.i.d.) or group B (72 patients, 2 weeks of placebo treatment, two tablets post‐meal, t.i.d. then one week of wash‐out, followed by 2 weeks of Combizym treatment, 2 tablets post‐meal, t.i.d.). The index of severity of the dyspepsia symptoms was evaluated before and after each treatment phase with Combizym or the placebo.RESULTS:  Compared with the placebo, 2 weeks of Combizym treatment decreased the severity index of dyspepsia symptoms significantly (27.64 ± 1.77 to 9.72 ± 1.33 vs 23.99 ± 1.28 to 22.03 ± 1.40, P < 0.01). The efficacy rates of Combizym and the placebo on dyspepsia were 89.63% and 21.68%, respectively (P < 0.01). According to the improvement of symptoms index, individual dyspepsia symptoms that could be attenuated by Combizym therapy were anepithymia, abdominal distension, belching, diarrhea, abdominal pain, epigastric burning. None of patients reported adverse events during the study.CONCLUSION:  Combizym treatment effectively ameliorates dyspepsia symptoms in Chinese patients, with satisfactory safety and compliance.
Fermented milk containing Bifidobacterium lactis DN‐173 010 improved self‐reported digestive comfort amongst a general population of adults. A randomized, open‐label, controlled, pilot study
Authors: GUYONNET Denis , WOODCOCK Alison , STEFANI Blandine , TREVISAN Cristina , HALL Claire 
Published: February 2009

AIM:  Some probiotics improve digestive comfort of people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but this needs confirmation in a healthy population. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of consuming fermented milk containing the probiotics Bifidobacterium lactis DN‐173010 and yoghourt strains (test product) on digestive comfort and symptoms amongst adults without diagnosed gastrointestinal disorders.METHODS:  The study was designed to approximate a real‐life situation, by using a branded product in the intervention groups. In an open‐label, randomized, controlled trial, 371 adults reporting digestive discomfort were randomized into three groups who had a daily consumption of either one or two pots of test product over 2 weeks, or to follow their usual diet. Digestive comfort and bother from digestive symptoms were assessed by questionnaire at baseline and follow‐up (per protocol population n = 360). Self‐reported change in digestive comfort and computed change between baseline and follow‐up for each of 20 items were compared between groups (Cochran‐Mantel‐Haenszel test).RESULTS:  A higher percentage of participants consuming the test product reported improved digestive comfort (1‐pot group 82.5%; 2‐pot group 84.3%), than controls (2.9%). Their self‐reported change scores differed significantly (P < 0.001). For both test product groups, almost all symptom scores improved significantly more than controls (P < 0.001). There were no significant differences between 1‐pot and 2‐pot groups.CONCLUSIONS:  This pilot study shows that daily consumption of a probiotic food in real‐life conditions may be useful in improving digestive comfort and symptom experience of adults from general population. Further double‐blind randomized controlled studies are required to confirm these health benefits.
Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci from Octodon degus
Authors: QUAN Y. F. , MACMANES M. D. , EBENSPERGER L. A. , LACEY E. A. , HAYES L. D. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractQuantifying genetic kinship and parentage is critical to understanding the adaptive consequences of sociality. To measure fitness in a species with variable group structure, we isolated 14 microsatellite loci from Octodon degus, a semi‐fossorial rodent endemic to Chile. The number of alleles per locus ranged from four to 14. Thirteen loci were in Hardy–Weinberg proportions, with values of observed heterozygosity ranging from 0.550 to 0.950. These markers provide the basis for future studies of the direct fitness consequences of sociality in O. degus.
TheToxoplasma gondii-Shuttling Function of Dendritic Cells Is Linked to the Parasite Genotype
Authors: Lambert Henrik , Vutova Polya P. , Adams William C. , Loré Karin , Barragan Antonio 
Published: February 2009

ABSTRACTFollowing intestinal invasion, the processes leading to systemic dissemination of the obligate intracellular protozoanToxoplasma gondiiremain poorly understood. Recently, tachyzoites representative of type I, II and IIIT. gondiipopulations were shown to differ with respect to their ability to transmigrate across cellular barriers. In this process of active parasite motility, type I strains exhibit a migratory capacity superior to those of the type II and type III strains. Data also suggest that tachyzoites rely on migrating dendritic cells (DC) as shuttling leukocytes to disseminate in tissue, e.g., the brain, where cysts develop. In this study,T. gondiitachyzoites sampled from the three populations were allowed to infect primary human blood DC, murine intestinal DC, or in vitro-derived DC and were compared for different phenotypic traits. All three archetypical lineages ofT. gondiiinduced a hypermigratory phenotype in DC shortly after infection in vitro. Type II (and III) strains induced higher migratory frequency and intensity in DC than type I strains did. Additionally, adoptive transfer of infected DC favored the dissemination of type II and type III parasites over that of type I parasites in syngeneic mice. Type II parasites exhibited stronger intracellular association with both CD11c+DC and other leukocytes in vivo than did type I parasites. Altogether, these findings suggest that infected DC contribute to parasite propagation in a strain type-specific manner and that the parasite genotype (type II) most frequently associated with toxoplasmosis in humans efficiently exploits DC migration for parasite dissemination.
Polymorphisms in Erythrocyte Binding Antigens 140 and 181 Affect Function and Binding but Not Receptor Specificity in
Plasmodium falciparum
Authors: Maier Alexander G. , Baum Jake , Smith Brian , Conway David J. , Cowman Alan F. 
Published: February 2009

ABSTRACT

Invasion of human erythrocytes by the malaria parasite
Plasmodium falciparum
utilizes multiple ligand-receptor interactions involving erythrocyte receptors and parasite erythrocyte binding proteins of the Duffy binding-like family. Erythrocyte binding antigen 175 (EBA-175) binds to glycophorin A, the most abundant protein on the human erythrocyte surface and EBA-140 (also known as BAEBL) binds to glycophorin C, while the receptor for EBA-181 (also known as JESEBL) remains unknown. EBA binding is mediated via region II, a highly structured extracellular domain that shows a degree of sequence variability between different laboratory strains/isolates. Here, we determined the influence of region II polymorphisms on host cell receptor binding and overall function during invasion of EBA-140, EBA-175, and EBA-181. Polymorphisms in the binding domains of EBA-140 and EBA-181 have been suggested previously to alter their respective receptor specificities. In our hands, these polymorphisms affected the levels of EBA-140 and EBA-181 binding to receptors but, critically, not the receptor specificities of these proteins. The degree of EBA-140 binding to glycophorin C correlates with the level of function for this ligand-receptor interaction in merozoite invasion. In contrast, EBA-175, which is highly polymorphic in region II, shows no variability in its ability to bind to its receptor, glycophorin A. Combined, these data highlight the importance of sequence variability in EBAs as driven by immune selection but not by receptor specificity.
Analysis of a Unique Interaction between the Complement Regulatory Protein Factor H and the Periodontal PathogenTreponema denticola
Authors: McDowell John V. , Huang Bernice , Fenno J. Christopher , Marconi Richard T. 
Published: February 2009

ABSTRACTTreponema denticola, a spirochete associated with periodontitis, is abundant at the leading edge of subgingival plaque, where it interacts with gingival epithelia.T. denticolaproduces a number of virulence factors, including dentilisin, a protease which is cytopathic to host cells, and FhbB, a uniqueT. denticolalipoprotein that binds complement regulatory proteins. Earlier analyses suggested that FhbB specifically bound to factor H (FH)-like protein 1 (FHL-1). However, by using dentilisin-deficient mutants ofT. denticola, we found thatT. denticolapreferentially binds FH and not FHL-1, and that FH is then cleaved by dentilisin to yield an FH subfragment of ∼50 kDa. FH bound to dentilisin-deficient mutants but was not cleaved and retained its ability to serve as a cofactor for factor I in the cleavage of C3b. To assess the molecular basis of the interaction of FhbB with FH, mutational analyses were conducted. Replacement of specific residues in widely separated domains of FhbB and disruption of a central alpha helix with coiled-coil formation probability attenuated or eliminated FH binding. The data presented here are the first to demonstrate the retention at the cell surface of a proteolytic cleavage product of FH. The precise role of this FH fragment in the host-pathogen interaction remains to be determined.
Development of Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Analysis for Molecular Typing of
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
Authors: Dégrange S. , Cazanave C. , Charron A. , Renaudin H. , Bébéar C. , Bébéar C. M. 
Published: February 2009

ABSTRACT

In this study we report on the development of a multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) method for the molecular typing of
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
. The genomic content of
M. pneumoniae
M129 was analyzed for VNTRs, and 5 of the 17 VNTRs identified were selected for use in an MLVA assay. The method was based on a GeneScan analysis of VNTR loci labeled with fluorescent dyes by multiplex PCR and capillary electrophoresis. This approach was applied to a collection of 265 isolates from various European countries, Japan, and Tunisia; and 26 distinct VNTR types were found. The VNTR assay was compared to the P1 adhesin PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing method and showed a far better resolution than the P1 PCR-RFLP method. The discriminatory power of MLVA (Hunter-Gaston diversity index [HGDI], 0.915) for the 265 isolates was significantly higher than that of the P1 PCR-RFLP method (HGDI, 0.511). However, there was a correlation between the typing results obtained by MLVA and the P1 gene PCR-RFLP method. The potential value of MLVA of
M. pneumoniae
as an epidemiological tool is discussed, and the use of the VNTR markers in further investigations of the potential use of MLVA in outbreaks of
M. pneumoniae
infections is proposed.
Using a Commercial DiversiLab Semiautomated Repetitive Sequence-Based PCR Typing Technique for Identification of
Escherichia coli
Clone ST131 Producing CTX-M-15
Authors: Pitout Johann D. D. , Campbell Lorraine , Church Deirdre L. , Wang Pauline W. , Guttman David S. , Gregson Daniel B. 
Published: February 2009

ABSTRACT

A study was designed to evaluate the ability of the DiversiLab fingerprinting kit, a type of repetitive element PCR (rep-PCR), to identify
Escherichia coli
clone ST131 producing β-lactamase CTX-M-15. A set of 53 nonduplicate isolates of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing
E. coli
underwent rep-PCR, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and multilocus sequence typing. The DiversiLab system successfully identified
E. coli
clone ST131 producing CTX-M-15 and provides a simple standardized typing protocol for monitoring the spread of this clone.
On the exploitation of loop-level parallelism in embedded applications
Authors: Kejariwal Arun , Veidenbaum Alexander V. , Nicolau Alexandru , Girkar Milind , Tian Xinmin , Saito Hideki 
Published: February 2009

Advances in the silicon technology have enabled increasing support for hardware parallelism in embedded processors. Vector units, multiple processors/cores, multithreading, special-purpose accelerators such as DSPs or cryptographic engines, or a combination of the above have appeared in a number of processors. They serve to address the increasing performance requirements of modern embedded applications. To what extent the available hardware parallelism can be exploited is directly dependent on the amount of parallelism inherent in the given application and the congruence between the granularity of hardware and application parallelism. This paper discusses how loop-level parallelism in embedded applications can be exploited in hardware and software. Specifically, it evaluates the efficacy of automatic loop parallelization and the performance potential of different types of parallelism, viz., true thread-level parallelism (TLP), speculative thread-level parallelism and vector parallelism, when executing loops. Additionally, it discusses the interaction between parallelization and vectorization. Applications from both the industry-standard EEMBC®,11.1, EEMBC 2.0 and the academic MiBench embedded benchmark suites are analyzed using the Intel®2C compiler. The results show the performance that can be achieved today on real hardware and using a production compiler, provide upper bounds on the performance potential of the different types of thread-level parallelism, and point out a number of issues that need to be addressed to improve performance. The latter include parallelization of libraries such as libc and design of parallel algorithms to allow maximal exploitation of parallelism. The results also point to the need for developing new benchmark suites more suitable to parallel compilation and execution.1Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.2Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
Using eventually consistent compasses to gather memory-less mobile robots with limited visibility
Authors: Souissi Samia , Défago Xavier , Yamashita Masafumi 
Published: February 2009

Reaching agreement among a set of mobile robots is one of the most fundamental issues in distributed robotic systems. This problem is often illustrated by the gathering problem, where the robots must self-organize and meet at some location not determined in advance, and without the help of some global coordinate system. While very simple to express, this problem has the advantage of retaining the inherent difficulty of agreement, namely the question of breaking symmetry between robots. In previous works, it has been proved that the gathering problem is solvable in asynchronous model with oblivious (i.e., memory-less) robots and limited visibility, as long as the robots share the knowledge of some direction, as provided by a compass. However, the problem has no solution in the semi-synchronous model when robots do not share a compass, or when they cannot detect multiplicity.
In this article, we define a model in which compasses may be unreliable, and study the solvability of gathering oblivious mobile robots with limited visibility in the semi-synchronous model. In particular, we give an algorithm that solves the problem in finite time in a system where compasses are unstable for some arbitrary long periods, provided that they stabilize eventually. In addition, we show that our algorithm solves the gathering problem for at most three robots in the asynchronous model. Our algorithm is intrinsically self-stabilizing.
Design and evaluation of a hybrid sensor network for cane toad monitoring
Authors: Hu Wen , Bulusu Nirupama , Chou Chun Tung , Jha Sanjay , Taylor Andrew , Tran Van Nghia 
Published: February 2009

This article investigates a wireless acoustic sensor network application—monitoring amphibian populations in the monsoonal woodlands of northern Australia. Our goal is to use automatic recognition of animal vocalizations to census the populations of native frogs and the invasive introduced species, the cane toad. This is a challenging application because it requires high frequency acoustic sampling, complex signal processing, wide area sensing coverage and long-lived unattended operation.
We set up two prototypes of wireless sensor networks that recognize vocalizations of up to ninth frog species found in northern Australia. Our first prototype consists of only resource-rich Stargate devices. Our second prototype is more complex and consists of a hybrid mixture of Stargates and inexpensive, resource-poor Mica2 devices operating in concert. In the hybrid system, the Mica2s are used to collect acoustic samples, and expand the sensor network coverage. The Stargates are used for resource-intensive tasks such as fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and machine learning.
The hybrid system incorporates four algorithms designed to account for the sampling, processing, energy, and communication bottlenecks of the Mica2s (1) high frequency sampling, (2) thresholding and noise reduction, to reduce data transmission by up to 90%, (3) sampling scheduling, which exploits the sensor network redundancy to increase the effective sample processing rate, and (4) harvesting-aware energy management, which exploits sensor energy harvesting capabilities to extend the system lifetime.
Our evaluation shows the performance of our systems over a range of scenarios, and demonstrate that the feasibility and benefits of a hybrid systems approach justify the additional system complexity.
Energy-efficient link-layer jamming attacks against wireless sensor network MAC protocols
Authors: Law Yee Wei , Palaniswami Marimuthu , Hoesel Lodewijk Van , Doumen Jeroen , Hartel Pieter , Havinga Paul 
Published: February 2009

A typical wireless sensor node has little protection against radio jamming. The situation becomes worse if energy-efficient jamming can be achieved by exploiting knowledge of the data link layer. Encrypting the packets may help to prevent the jammer from taking actions based on the content of the packets, but the temporal arrangement of the packets induced by the nature of the protocol might unravel patterns that the jammer can take advantage of, even when the packets are encrypted.By looking at the packet interarrival times in three representative MAC protocols, S-MAC, LMAC, and B-MAC, we derive several jamming attacks that allow the jammer to jam S-MAC, LMAC, and B-MAC energy efficiently. The jamming attacks are based on realistic assumptions. The algorithms are described in detail and simulated. The effectiveness and efficiency of the attacks are examined. In addition, we validate our simulation model by comparing its results with measurements obtained from actual implementation on our sensor node prototypes. We show that it takes little effort to implement such effective jammers, making them a realistic threat.Careful analysis of other protocols belonging to the respective categories of S-MAC, LMAC, and B-MAC reveals that those protocols are, to some extent, also susceptible to our attacks. The result of this investigation provides new insights into the security considerations of MAC protocols.