bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of weight‐reducing agents on glycaemic parameters and progression to Type 2 diabetes: a review
Authors: Lloret‐Linares C. , Greenfield J. R. , Czernichow S. 
Published: October 2008

AbstractWeight loss is associated with improvements in glycaemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors. However, in the diabetic population, weight management is more challenging, in part because of the weight‐promoting effects of the majority of glucose‐lowering therapies. This review summarizes evidence from 23 placebo‐controlled randomized trials, of at least 1 year duration, on the effects of drugs promoting weight loss (orlistat, sibutramine and rimonabant) on glycaemic variables, diabetes incidence and diabetes control. Fifteen studies of non‐diabetic subjects were found, eight of which included a longer treatment period. Eight studies in diabetic patients were reviewed. In non‐diabetic subjects, weight loss agents led to a significant improvement in fasting glucose, fasting insulin and insulin resistance. In the diabetic population, glycated haemoglobin decreased by 0.28–1.1% with orlistat and 0.6% with sibutramine and rimonabant. Orlistat reduces progression to diabetes in patients with glucose intolerance treated for 4 years (risk reduction of 45%). In summary, despite leading to only modest weight loss after 12 months, agents promoting weight loss have beneficial effects on glycaemic parameters, glycaemic control and progression to diabetes. These additional benefits of weight loss agents need to be highlighted in order to increase their judicious use in clinical practice, although this may be limited by their well‐known adverse side effects. The longer‐term safety of these agents beyond a few years is yet to be established.
Specific phenotype associated with diabetes mellitus secondary to chronic hepatitis C infection
Authors: Poussier A. , Lebouvier M. , Penfornis A. , Di Martino V. , Buffier P. , Verges B. , Hillon P. , Petit J. M. 
Published: October 2008

AbstractAim  A link between chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, Type 2 diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance has been suggested by several studies. However, HCV infection appears to be associated with insulin resistance but not with the metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to determine whether chronic HCV infection had an impact on the clinical characteristics of Type 2 diabetes.Methods  We studied retrospectively a group of patients with diabetes mellitus associated with HCV infection (HCV‐DM) and compared them with patients with conventional Type 2 diabetes (DM).Results  The HCV‐DM patients had a lower body mass index (P = 0.001) and systolic blood pressure (P = 0.04) compared with patients with DM diabetes. Ten patients (27.0%) in the HCV‐DM group and 35 (47.3%) in the DM group had microalbuminuria (P = 0.04). DM patients had significantly higher serum creatinine levels than HCV‐DM patients [87 (72–108) vs. 77 (64–86) µmol/l, P = 0.02; median (interquartile range)] but creatinine clearance (Cockroft Gault calculation) was similar. One HCV‐DM patient (2.7%) and 44 DM patients (59.4%) were treated with hypolipidaemic therapy (P = 0.0001). Even although nearly two‐thirds of the overall DM group were prescribed cholesterol‐lowering drugs, DM patients had significantly higher total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels than HCV‐DM patients.Conclusion  Our study provides further evidence that HCV‐DM patients have specific clinical characteristics in comparison with classical DM patients. These data suggest an association between HCV virus infection and the development of insulin resistance or diabetes mellitus without the typical features of the metabolic syndrome.
Generation of stable ‘low phytic acid’ transgenic rice through antisense repression of the 1d‐myo‐inositol 3‐phosphate synthase gene (RINO1) using the 18‐kDa oleosin promoter
Authors: Kuwano Mio , Mimura Tetsuro , Takaiwa Fumio , Yoshida Kaoru T. 
Published: October 2008

SummaryPhytic acid acts as the major storage form of phosphorus in plant seeds and is poorly digested by monogastric animals. The degradation of phytic acid in animal diets is necessary to overcome both environmental and nutritional issues. The enzyme 1d‐myo‐inositol 3‐phosphate [Ins(3)P1] synthase (EC 5.5.1.4) catalyses the first step of myo‐inositol biosynthesis and directs phytic acid biosynthesis in seeds. The rice Ins(3)P1 synthase gene (RINO1) is highly expressed in developing seed embryos and in the aleurone layer, where phytic acid is synthesized and stored. In rice seeds, 18‐kDa oleosin (Ole18) is expressed in a seed‐specific manner, and its transcripts are restricted to the embryo and the aleurone layer. Therefore, to effectively suppress phytic acid biosynthesis, antisense RINO1 cDNA was expressed under the control of the Ole18 promoter, directing the same spatial pattern in seeds as RINO1 in transgenic rice plants. The generated transgenic rice plants showed strong ‘low phytic acid’ (lpa) phenotypes, in which seed phytic acid was reduced by 68% and free available phosphate was concomitantly increased. No negative effects on seed weight, germination or plant growth were observed. The available phosphate levels of the stable transgenic plants surpassed those of currently available rice lpa mutants.
Post‐conflict Statebuilding and State Legitimacy: From Negative to Positive Peace?
Authors: Roberts David 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article is concerned with the potential that statebuilding interventions have to institutionalize social justice, in addition to their more immediate ‘negative’ peace mandates, and the impact this might have, both on local state legitimacy and the character of the ‘peace’ that might follow. Much recent scholarship has stressed the legitimacy of a state's behaviour in relation to conformity to global governance norms or democratic ‘best practice’. Less evident is a discussion of the extent to which post‐conflict polities are able to engender the societal legitimacy central to political stability. As long as this level of legitimacy is absent (and it is hard to generate), civil society is likely to remain distant from the state, and peace and stability may remain elusive. A solution to this may be to apply existing international legislation centred in the UN and the ILO to compel international organizations and national states to deliver basic needs security through their institutions. This has the effect of stimulating local‐level state legitimacy while simultaneously formalizing social justice and positive peacebuilding.
Patronage or Participation? Community‐based Natural Resource Management Reform in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Authors: Nelson Fred , Agrawal Arun 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article examines the institutional factors that account for the outcome of efforts to decentralize control over natural resources to local communities. It focuses on the political nature of institutional processes associated with decentralization in sub‐Saharan Africa through a comparative analysis of wildlife management reforms in seven east and southern African countries. Institutional reforms are largely dependent on state authorities' patronage interests, which in turn are shaped by the relative economic value of wildlife, the degree of central control over commercial utilization, and the accountability of governance institutions. Our findings have a range of practical implications for the design of CBNRM initiatives and institutional reform strategies.
Challenging Orthodoxies: Understanding Poverty in Pastoral Areas of East Africa
Authors: Little Peter D. , McPeak John , Barrett Christopher B. , Kristjanson Patti 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTUnderstanding and alleviating poverty in Africa continues to receive considerable attention from a range of diverse actors, including politicians, international celebrities, academics, activists and practitioners. Despite the onslaught of interest, there is surprisingly little agreement on what constitutes poverty in rural Africa, how it should be assessed, and what should be done to alleviate it. Based on data from an interdisciplinary study of pastoralism in northern Kenya, this article examines issues of poverty among one of the continent's most vulnerable groups, pastoralists, and challenges the application of such orthodox proxies as incomes/expenditures, geographic remoteness, and market integration. It argues that current poverty debates ‘homogenize’ the concept of ‘pastoralist’ by failing to acknowledge the diverse livelihoods and wealth differentiation that fall under the term. The article concludes that what is not needed is another development label (stereotype) that equates pastoralism with poverty, thereby empowering outside interests to transform rather than strengthen pastoral livelihoods.
Women's Property, Women's Agency in China's ‘New Enclosure Movement’: Evidence from Zhejiang
Authors: Sargeson Sally 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTWho gets what, why and how, when Chinese villagers' land is enclosed? Focusing specifically on changes in women's property rights and drawing on data from Zhejiang province, this article shows that state, village and household institutions interact to produce significant gender disparities in both the compensation paid to expropriated villagers and the registration of ownership of household assets. Yet it would be incorrect to conclude that, dispossessed, women thereby lack agency. Analysis of women's responses to expropriation suggests that by selectively deploying laws, rules and norms in different settings, women are influencing not only compensation distribution, but also the terms under which the state compensates villagers for their expropriation and the gender relations in which property is embedded.
Negotiating Remote Borderland Access: Small‐Scale Trade on the Vietnam–China Border
Authors: Schoenberger Laura , Turner Sarah 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article explores the cross‐border trading networks and practices of highland residents in north‐west Vietnam. It reveals how such individuals, of highland minority and majority Kinh ethnicities, negotiate the political reality of an international border in highly pragmatic ways as they augment their livelihoods by trading commodities with inhabitants in south‐west China. We follow four particular commodities, traded across different political tiers of border crossing (each with specific rules, regulations and negotiations), by a diverse range of traders. In doing so we argue that border access is mediated by a complex and multifaceted set of social and structural components including not only state policy, but ethnically‐embedded social relations and specific geographic variables that, in turn, are engendering disparate economic opportunities.
UNEMPLOYMENT, LABOR MARKET TRANSITIONS, AND RESIDUAL WAGE DISPERSION
Authors: Fitzenberger Bernd , Garloff Alfred 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTIt is commonplace in the debate on Germany's labor market problems to argue that low wage dispersion is a major reason for the high unemployment rate. This paper analyzes the relationship between unemployment and residual wage dispersion for individuals with comparable attributes. In the conventional neoclassical point of view, wages are determined by the marginal product of the workers. Accordingly, increases in union minimum wages result in a decline of residual wage dispersion and higher unemployment. A competing view regards wage dispersion as the outcome of search frictions and the associated monopsony power of the firms. Accordingly, an increase in search frictions causes both higher unemployment and higher wage dispersion. The empirical analysis attempts to discriminate between the two hypotheses for West Germany analyzing the relationship between wage dispersion and both the level of unemployment as well as the transition rates between different labor market states. The findings are not completely consistent with either theory. However, as predicted by search theory, one robust result is that unemployment by cells is not negatively correlated with the within‐cell wage dispersion.
SYNCHRONISING DEREGULATION IN PRODUCT AND LABOUR MARKETS
Authors: Seldeslachts Jo 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTDeregulation typically comes with redistribution of rents and thus with opposition from the losing interest groups. We show that, by exploiting complementarities, synchronising deregulation across markets makes this opposition lower. Indeed, a particular deregulation may reduce rents for one interest group, but may result in gains for another interest group. Synchronising reforms can therefore offer a way out of the ‘sclerosis’ of especially European markets. For this effect, we build a microeconomic model based on two assumptions: Cournot competitionà laVives in the product markets and firms hiring workers in accordance with an efficiency wage in the labour markets. As being particularly relevant for European economies, we focus on product market regulation that determines the degree of market integration and labour market regulation that determines the degree of employment protection.
‘BRAIN DRAIN’ OR ‘BRAIN CIRCULATION’: EVIDENCE FROM OECD'S INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND R&D SPILLOVERS
Authors: Le Thanh 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper empirically investigates whether labour mobility can transfer technology across borders based on the panel cointegration method. Estimates of specifications on a cross‐section of 19 OECD countries during 1980–1990 lend strong support to this thesis. Data indicate that international labour movement may help transfer technology across borders in both directions: from donor countries to host countries and vice versa. This suggests that migration may more likely create a ‘brain circulation’ rather than a ‘brain drain’. In addition, human capital has a significant impact on the research and development (R&D) diffusion process as it enhances a country's capacity to learn from a foreign technology base.
ASSESSING THE ASSESSMENT OR, THE RAE AND THE OPTIMAL ORGANIZATION OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
Authors: La Manna Manfredi M. A. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThe UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is assessed as an incentive scheme affecting the allocation of research talent of varying ‘quality’ across departments. The ‘centres of excellence’ policy implicitly pursued through the RAE is an optimal allocation strategy only if all departments in all disciplines are of the generalist variety, i.e. each pursues a research path through all its stages. Conversely, the RAE‐induced research allocation minimizes efficiency if applied to specialist departments, when resources are concentrated on one specific research obstacle. It is argued that the RAE should not take the organization of University research as exogenous, but rather should encourage specialization. All results are obtained by applying to University research concepts and solutions borrowed from the mathematical theory of systems reliability.
Cerebrospinal fluid antibodies to tubulin are elevated in the patients with multiple sclerosis
Authors: Švarcová J. , Fialová L. , Bartoš A. , Šteinbachová M. , Malbohan I. 
Published: October 2008

Background and purpose:  The aim of this study was to compare the levels of anti‐tubulin antibodies (anti‐TU) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum using bovine tubulin as the antigen in one enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method (anti‐TUb antibodies) and a synthetic neuron‐specific octapeptide of tubulin in a second ELISA method (anti‐TUs antibodies).Methods:  Paired CSF and serum samples were obtained from 34 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, 13 patients with various other neurological diseases (control diseases) and 17 normal control patients (CN).Results:  CSF levels of anti‐TUs and anti‐TUb antibodies were significantly lower in the CN group when compared to those in the MS group. On the contrary, serum levels of anti‐TU antibodies did not differ among groups. The intrathecal synthesis of anti‐TUs antibodies in comparison with anti‐TUb was significantly increased in all groups. Significant correlations between anti‐TUb and anti‐TUs antibodies were observed in the CSF of all three groups. However, with regard to serum, a similar relationship was only found in the MS group.Conclusions:  The estimation of anti‐TU in CSF can contribute to the overall assessment of axonal damage; on the contrary serum anti‐tubulin antibodies were not useful for differential purposes in MS. The antibodies to the neuron‐specific portion of tubulin seemed to be synthesised predominantly intrathecally.
Isobel’s images – one woman’s experience of art therapy
Authors: White Isobel , Bull Stephanie , Beavis Mary 
Published: October 2008

Accessible summary

Isobel is a woman with a mild learning disability who had art therapy for four years.
She tells us how art therapy helped her to think about her feelings.
She also tells us why the relationship with the art therapist was important.

This paper matters because there may be other people with learning disabilities who would find art therapy helpful too.SummaryThis paper explores the aims and purpose of long term art therapy. This is done by focusing on the experience of a woman with learning disabilities whom we have called Isobel White (pseudonym). In this paper we set out a theoretical context and then consider key aspects of the therapy process. We have included excerpts from reflective discussions between the three authors.
National Release of the Nursing Home Quality Report Cards: Implications of Statistical Methodology for Risk Adjustment
Authors: Li Yue , Cai Xueya , Glance Laurent G. , Spector William D. , Mukamel Dana B. 
Published: October 2008

Objective. To determine how alternative statistical risk‐adjustment methods may affect the quality measures (QMs) in nursing home (NH) report cards.Data Sources/Study Settings. Secondary data from the national Minimum Data Set files of 2004 and 2005 that include 605,433 long‐term residents in 9,336 facilities.Study Design. We estimated risk‐adjusted QMs of decline in activities of daily living (ADL) functioning using classical, fixed‐effects, and random‐effects logistic models. Risk‐adjusted QMs were compared with each other, and with the published QM (unadjusted) in identifying high‐ and low‐quality facilities by either the rankings or 95 percent confidence intervals of QMs.Principal Findings. Risk‐adjusted QMs showed better overall agreement (or convergent validity) with each other than did the unadjusted versus each adjusted QM; the disagreement rate between unadjusted and adjusted QM can be as high as 48 percent. The risk‐adjusted QM derived from the random‐effects shrinkage estimator deviated nonrandomly from other risk‐adjusted estimates in identifying the best 10 percent facilities using rankings.Conclusions. The extensively risk‐adjusted QMs of ADL decline, even when estimated by alternative statistical methods, show higher convergent validity and provide more robust NH comparisons than the unadjusted QM. Outcome rankings based on ADL decline tend to show lower convergent validity when estimated by the shrinkage estimator rather than other statistical methods.
Organizational Cost of Quality Improvement for Depression Care
Authors: Liu Chuan‐Fen , Rubenstein Lisa V. , Kirchner JoAnn E. , Fortney John C. , Perkins Mark W. , Ober Scott K. , Pyne Jeffrey M. , Chaney Edmund F. 
Published: October 2008

Objective. We documented organizational costs for depression care quality improvement (QI) to develop an evidence‐based, Veterans Health Administration (VA) adapted depression care model for primary care practices that performed well for patients, was sustained over time, and could be spread nationally in VA.Data Sources and Study Setting. Project records and surveys from three multistate VA administrative regions and seven of their primary care practices.Study Design. Descriptive analysis.Data Collection. We documented project time commitments and expenses for 86 clinical QI and 42 technical expert support team participants for 4 years from initial contact through care model design, Plan–Do–Study–Act cycles, and achievement of stable workloads in which models functioned as routine care. We assessed time, salary costs, and costs for conference calls, meetings, e‐mails, and other activities.Principle Findings. Over an average of 27 months, all clinics began referring patients to care managers. Clinical participants spent 1,086 hours at a cost of $84,438. Technical experts spent 2,147 hours costing $197,787. Eighty‐five percent of costs derived from initial regional engagement activities and care model design.Conclusions. Organizational costs of the QI process for depression care in a large health care system were significant, and should be accounted for when planning for implementation of evidence‐based depression care.
Placement of a Catheter through the Struts of a Previously Placed Stent for Maintenance Hemodialysis: A Case Report
Authors: Joseph Rajesh , Keshava Shyamkumar N. , Surendrababu Narayanam R. S. , John George T. 
Published: October 2008

AbstractVenous accesses for hemodialysis are beset with thrombosis and stenosis, often resulting in loss of central venous access. We report a case in which an alternate access was created by placement of hemodialysis catheter into the central vasculature by penetrating a stent previously placed in the stenosed right brachio‐cephalic vein. To our knowledge, this is the first such report.
Anterior Chest Wall Arteriovenous Grafts: An Underutilized Form of Hemodialysis Access
Authors: Niyyar Vandana Dua 
Published: October 2008

AbstractVascular access dysfunction is a major cause of morbidity in hemodialysis (HD) patients and the maintenance of a functional vascular access is an ongoing challenge. An upper extremity autogenous arteriovenous fistula (AVF) that preferentially involves the cephalic vein is the access of choice for hemodialysis patients, followed by autogenous AVF utilizing the basilic vein and the use of prosthetic arteriovenous grafts (AVG). Unfortunately, upper extremity options for vascular access rapidly become exhausted in a sub‐group of patients and use of alternative sites for access becomes necessary. An anterior chest wall graft, in which the axillary artery is anastomosed to either the ipsilateral or contralateral axillary veins, is a reasonable option in patients who have exhausted their upper extremity as vascular access sites, but still have patent central veins. Major indications include patients predisposed to steal syndrome as well as those with stenotic outflow veins necessitating over the shoulder extension of a brachio‐axillary graft. Recent data suggest that primary and secondary patency rates in anterior chest wall grafts are equivalent to upper extremity AVGs, making them a reasonable alternative vascular access option. This review will discuss the anatomical variations, percutaneous interventions, patency and longevity of anterior chest wall AV grafts.