bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Twelve weeks’ treatment with diazoxide without insulin supplementation in Type 2 diabetes is feasible but does not improve insulin secretion
Authors: Radtke M. , Kollind M. , Qvigstad E. , Grill V. 
Published: January 2007

AbstractAims  Treatment with K‐ATP channel openers, such as diazoxide, can have beneficial effects on insulin secretion in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. However, the precise conditions for obtaining beneficial effects without untoward events have not been determined. We tested the hypothesis that intermittent administration of diazoxide at bedtime for 12 weeks could produce beneficial effects in the absence of side‐effects in Type 2 diabetic patients who were not taking insulin.Methods  After an 8‐week run‐in period, during which treatment with repaglinide and metformin was optimized, we randomized 26 patients to either diazoxide, 100 mg at bedtime, or placebo.Results  Side‐effects were absent or minimal. HbA1c did not change. However day‐time glucose concentrations by home glucose monitoring were ∼1.5 mmol/l higher with diazoxide vs. placebo. Stimulation tests (C‐peptide‐glucagon and breakfast) did not indicate improved pancreatic B‐cell function, except by posthoc analysis, in a subgroup of younger age.Conclusion  Compared with previous results with diazoxide together with bedtime insulin, the present results are less favourable and indicate that concomitant insulin treatment is needed during intervention with K‐ATP channel openers.
S‐nitrosoglutathione‐containing hydrogel accelerates rat cutaneous wound repair
Authors: Amadeu TP , Seabra AB , De Oliveira MG , Costa AMA 
Published: January 2007

AbstractBackground  Nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in wound repair and S‐nitrosothiols like S‐nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) are well known NO donors.Methods  Animals were separated in two groups and submitted to excisional wounds on the dorsal surface at the first day. GSNO (100 µm)‐containing hydrogels were topically applied on the wound bed in the GSNO group, daily, during the first 4 days. Control group was topically treated with hydrogel without GSNO for the same period. Wound contraction and re‐epithelialization were measured. Animals were sacrificed 21 days after wounding. Samples of lesion and normal tissue were formalin‐fixed, paraffin embedded for histological analysis.Results  Wound contraction, measured 14 and 21 days after wounding, was greater in the GSNO group than in the control group (P < 0.05 for both). The re‐epithelialized wound area, measured 14 days after wounding, was higher in the GSNO group than in the control group (P < 0.05). A higher amount of inflammatory cells was observed in superficial and deep areas of the granulation tissue of the control group compared to the GSNO group. Twenty‐one days after wounding, thin red‐yellow collagen fibers arranged perpendicularly to the surface were found in the granulation tissue of the control group, whereas in the GSNO‐treated group collagen fibers were thicker and arranged parallel to the surface. Increased number of mast cells was observed in the GSNO group compared with that in the control group. Vascularization and myofibroblast distribution were similar in both groups.Conclusion  Topical application of GSNO‐containing hydrogel during the early phases of rat cutaneous wound repair accelerates wound closure and re‐epithelialization and affects granulation tissue organization.
Effects of polyphenols on skin damage due to ultraviolet A rays: an experimental study on rats
Authors: Sevın A , Öztaş P , Senen D , Han Ü , Karaman Ç , Tarimci N , Kartal M , Erdoǧan B 
Published: January 2007

AbstractBackground  Ultraviolet (UV) radiation causes many acute and chronic conditions such as oedema of the skin, sunburn, immunosuppression, photo‐ageing and skin cancer. The use of antioxidants has become of paramount importance in prevention of the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. Epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG), one of the main components of green tea, has been reported to have anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties.Aim  The aim of this experimental study was to investigate to what extent EGCG prevented acute skin damage caused by UVA.Material and method  The sample contained 2% EGCG, which was prepared in hydrophilic ointment (USP XXIV) as the vehicle. Twenty‐four 12‐week‐old Wistar albino rats are included in the study and divided into four groups, each containing six rats. Group I was formed to be the control group, which was not applied any topical medication or exposed to UV radiation. Group II was formed to observe acute effects of UVA on the skin, Group III was formed to observe effectiveness of topical EGCG on the skin applied 30 min after exposure to UVA, and Group IV was formed to observe topical EGCG applied 30 min before exposure to UVA. All groups were examined for sunburn cells, leucocyte infiltration, dermo‐epidermal activity, collagen changes and elastic fibre pathologies on 24 and 72 h. Statistical analysis was performed using spss 11.5, and chi‐squared test was used for the evaluation of parameters.Results  Group IV showed a statistically significant decrease in sunburn cells and dermo‐epidermal activation compared with Group II. Group II showed significant increase in all parameters compared with Group I, showing the effects of UV exposure alone, and no difference was detected in Group II and III.Conclusion  These results show a protective effect of EGCG when applied topically before UVA exposure. No benefit was detected when EGCG was applied after UV exposure.
Increasing rates of quinolone‐resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Paris, France
Authors: Farhi D , Gerhardt P , Falissard B , Poupet H , Poyart C , Dupin N 
Published: January 2007

AbstractBackground  Quinolone‐resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (QRNG) rates are increasing worldwide.Objectives  (i) To assess the rate of QRNG among patients referred to a venereology clinic in Paris between 2000 and 2004; and (ii) to assess associated epidemiological factors.Methods  Retrospective study of consecutive cases over 2000–2004. Indications and techniques of swabbing and culture were constant over 2000–2004. Susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae was tested to six antibiotics: ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin, cefotaxime, tetracycline, erythromycin, and spectinomycin. Epidemiological data and anatomical site of N. gonorrhoeae infection were collected.Results  Annual numbers of cases decreased (P < 10−4) from 2000 (n = 41) to 2002 (n = 12), then increased (P < 10−4) in 2004 (n = 60). Anorectal gonorrhoea was more frequent in 2003–2004 (22.0%, n = 18/82) than in 2000–2002 (3.9%, n = 3/76). QRNG rates increased from the period 2000–2002 (1.3%) to 2003 (22.7%, P < 0.01), and 2004 (30.2%, P < 0.005). All QRNG strains had a minimal inhibitory concentration of ciprofloxacin > 1.0 mg/L, thus fitting the international definition of quinolone resistance. There were no significant changes in rates of N. gonorrhoeae resistance to the five other antibiotics. QRNG tended to be more frequent among men who have sex with men (MSM; 16.7% vs. 7.1%), HIV‐infected patient (20.5% vs. 11.9%), and patients having more than five partners during the last year (24.4% vs. 17.1%), but statistical significance was not reached in multivariate analyses.Conclusion  We recommend (i) avoiding fluoroquinolones as first‐line treatment for N. gonorrhoeae infections in Paris; (ii) that first‐line treatment relies on third‐generation cephalosporins or spectinomycin; and (iii) reinforcing targeted screening and prevention of gonorrhoea, especially among HIV‐positive patients and MSM.
Female sexual dysfunction in Lower Egypt
Authors: Elnashar AM , EL‐Dien Ibrahim M , EL‐Desoky MM , Ali OM , El‐Sayd Mohamed Hassan M 
Published: January 2007

Objective  The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) in Lower Egypt.Design  A cross‐sectional clinic‐/hospital‐based survey.Setting  Five district medical centres in Dakahlia Governorate: Shirbin, Bilquas, Samblawen, Dekrinis and Mansoura City.Population  One thousand married women aged between 16 and 49 years.Methods  Data were collected by personal interview in a questionnaire format in addition to physical examination (when allowed).Main outcome measures  FSD and associated risk factors.Results  The response rate was 93.6%. 68.9% of women had one or more sexual problems; however, 23% of the women with sexual problems were not distressed by these issues. 31.5% of women suffered from dyspareunia. 49.6% of the women had decreased sexual desire, 36% had difficult arousal and 16.9% had anorgasmia (primary and secondary). Marital disharmony, ‘hate’ and unfavourable socio‐economic circumstances were the most common aggravating factors (28.1%) for sexual dysfunction among the participants, followed by pregnancy‐related events (15.7%). Most women (84.5%) received no help for their sexual problems. 90.3% of the women were circumcised. Only 7.1% (46 of 645) of women with sexual problems had received treatment, with no real improvement reported in 58.7% (27 of the 46 women).Conclusions  FSD is a highly prevalent problem within the scope of this study. Low reporting rates and very low treatment rates were identified in the sample from Lower Egypt.
Psychological and biological markers of stress and bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women
Authors: Harville EW , Savitz DA , Dole N , Thorp JM , Herring AH 
Published: January 2007

Objectives  To determine whether stress is associated with risk of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnant women.Design  Prospective cohort study.Setting  The prenatal care clinics at the University of North Carolina. The residents’ clinic sees mostly government‐insured and uninsured women, and the physicians’ clinic sees mostly those with private health insurance.Population  A total of 897 women gave samples for BV analysis. Study participants were 22% African‐American, 68% white; 24% unmarried and 44% nulliparous. More than half had completed college.Methods  Women completed two questionnaires and two interviews reporting stress and psychological aspects of their lives. Measurement scales included the Sarason life events questionnaire, the Cohen perceived stress scale, Spielberger state–trait anxiety, the John Henryism coping style and the Medical Outcomes Study social support inventory. Two stress hormones, corticotrophin‐releasing hormone and cortisol, were also measured.Main outcome measures  BV at 15–19 and 24–29 weeks of gestation was diagnosed by Gram’s stain.Results  Women in the highest quartile of stress measures, particularly state anxiety (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.2–3.3), perceived stress (OR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.5–3.9) and total life events (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.3–3.2), had the highest risk of BV. Adjustment for confounders, especially age, race, and income, reduced these associations (state anxiety: OR = 1.3, 95% CI 0.7–2.4; perceived stress: OR = 1.4, 95% CI 0.8–2.5; total life events: OR = 1.3, 95% CI 0.7–2.4). No clear pattern of association was seen between stress hormones and BV.Conclusions  Few associations between stress and BV were seen after adjustment for confounders.
REVOLUTION, REACTION, AND REFORM: THE CHANGE THEORY OF PARSONS'S MIDDLE PERIOD
Authors: Alexander Jeffrey C. 
Published: January 2007

ABSTRACTThe “conflict school” in contemporary sociology emerged in large part as a critique of the theory of social change that Talcott Parsons developed during his middle period, which began with the empiricallyoriented essays that appeared after The Structure of Social Action (Parsons, 1937), and extended through the simultaneous publication of Towards a General Theory of Action (Parsons and Shils, 1951) and The Social System (Parsons, 1951). The conflict critique, now enshrined in textbook lore and highbrow writing alike, accused Parsons of a static, idealist bias that ignored issues of process, conflict, and change. While Parsons's attitude toward change, during this and later periods of his development, was complex and often ambiguous, this evaluation was certainly incorrect. I will demonstrate, in fact, that in this middle period Parsons actually produced a more systematic and compelling approach to conflict and change than the theories produced by the conflict critics themselves.In the first part of this paper, I will present the formal elements of Parsons's change theory. The second part will add substance to this theory by showing how Parsons applied it to the empirical problematics of recent Western development. In the third section, I will relate this formal and substantive theorizing to the vastly misunderstood deviance paradigm from The Social System. In conclusion, I will return to the question with which I began: What is the real relationship between the conflict theorists and their very useful straw man, “Talcott Parsons”?1
The Quaker Ethic and the Fixed Price Policy: Max Weber and Beyond*
Authors: Kent Stephen A. 
Published: January 2007

Max Weber undertook his research on the Quakers and their fixed price policy as part of his attempt to understand the role of the Puritan sects in the rise of early modern capitalism. Although his comments on the group were sympathetic and penetrating, they suffered from inattention to the historical context. He failed to see, for instance, that the Quakers’economic policies in large part reflected their resentful frustration over the Puritans’failure to institute popular political, economic, and religious proposals.This paper corrects Weber's portrait of the Quakers and their unique fixed price policy by paying close attention to the social climate in which they formulated this economic innovation. In doing so the research establishes an important relationship between religious doctrines and social frustrations that Weber himself did not see, but that existed in Nietzsche's theory of “resentment,” and in Eduard Bernstein's analysis of the earliest Quakers.
War Painters and Western Science
Authors: Chubin Daryl E. , Weinstein Jay 
Published: January 2007

This essay focuses on one epoch in one culture, the “war painter” system in Nazi Germany, and considers its social trappings (professional, political) as characteristics shared by another epoch and culture, evaluation systems in contemporary Western science. The parallels are instructive not only for a self‐critical sociology of knowledge such as that envisioned by Karl Mannheim and Alvin Gouldner, but moreover as an anthropological test of cultural relativism as explanation.If society with its fixed hierarchies can no longer give us a safe orientation and a basis for self evaluation, we must for that very reason meet the challenge of developing a new pattern of orientation based upon a deeper and more genuine human truth…. This is the real task of the democratized age, and it is a task yet to be done.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Folse Kimberly A. 
Published: January 2007

Book reivewed in this article:The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians' Debate, by Jurgen Habermas. Ed. and trans. by Shierry Weber Nicholsen. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990, 200 pages, $19.95, hardback.Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order, by Cynthia B. Fuchs Epstein. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988, 300 pages, $25.00, hardback.Medical Work in America: Essays on Health Care, by Eliot Freidson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989, 274 pages, $30.00, cloth, $15.95, paper.Philosophy of Science and Its Discontents, by Steve Fuller. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 188 pages, $32.95, hardcover.Friendship: Developing a Sociological Perspective, by Graham Allan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 174 pages, $16.95, hardback.The Urban Web: Politics, Policy, and Theory, by Lawrence J.R. Herson and John M. Bolland. Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall Publishers, 1990, 512 pages, $22.95, paper, $29.95, hardback.The Real Disaster is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social Conflict, by J. Stephen Kroll‐Smith and Stephen Robert Couch. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990, 200 pages, $24.00, hardback.The Power Elite and the State: How Policy is Made in America, by G. William Domhoff. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990, 315 pages, $47.95, hardback, $19.95, paper.Locality and Inequality: Farm and Industry Structure and Socioeconomic Conditions, by Linda M. Lobao. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press, 1990, 291 pages, $49.50, hardback, $14.95, paper.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Folse Kimberly A. 
Published: January 2007

Book reviewed in this article: Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, by Jörgen Habermas. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991, 228 pages, $19.95, hardback. Models and Interpretations: Selected Essays, by J. A. Barnes. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1990, 273 pages, $47.50, hardback. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community, Elijah Anderson. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago, 1990, 276 pages, $19.95, cloth. Status Inequality: The Self in Culture, by George A. De Vos and Marcelo Suarez‐Orozco. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc. 1990, 311 pages, $39.95, hardback.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Folse Kimberly A. 
Published: January 2007

Book reviewed in this article: Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences. Graham Button (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Text in Context: Contributions to Ethnomethodology. Graham Watson and Robert M. Seiler (eds.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Shooting Dope: Career Patterns of Hard‐Core Heroin Users, by Charles E. Faupel. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1991, 220 pages, $27.95, hardcover. Capitalist Development and Democracy, by Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 387 pages, $45.00, hardback, $19.95, paper. What Does the Lord Require? How American Christians Think about Economic Justice, by Stephen Hart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, 251 pages, $24.95, hardback. Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory, by Philomena Essed. Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1991, 322 pages, $44.00, cloth. The Search for Rational Drug Control, by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 219 pages, $24.95, hardback. Micropolitics of Knowledge: Communication and Indirect Control in Workgroups, by Emmanuel Lazega. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992, 149 pages, $37.95, hardback, $16.95, paperback. Studying Collective Action, Sage Modern Politics Series Volume 30, sponsored by the European Consortium for Political Research/ECPR, edited by Mario Diani and Ron Eyerman. London: Sage, 1992, 263 pages, $60.00, hardback.
Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in “Them” Versus “Us”*
Authors: Meyrowitz Joshua 
Published: January 2007

Macrolevel analyses of the influence of different communication technologies are more difficult to test and apply than the results of focused studies of particular media messages. Nevertheless, “medium theory” is of potentially great significance because it outlines how media, rather than functioning simply as channels for conveying information between two or more social environments, are themselves social contexts that foster certain forms of interaction and social identities.This article uses a medium‐theory perspective to address one variable related to “technological communities”—the changing boundaries between “them” and “us.” The ways in which oral, print, and electronic modes of communication each foster a different balance between strangers and “familiars” are outlined.
Appearance Management as Border Construction: Least Favorite Clothing, Group Distancing, and Identity Not!1
Authors: Freitas Anthony , Kaiser Susan , Joan Chandler Davis , Carol Hall Davis , Kim Jung‐Won , Hammidi Tania 
Published: January 2007

Who we say we are and how we strive to look are but part of the negotiation of identity and appearance. While previous research has focused on the construction of who we are, in this paper we examine the negotiation of who we are not. We explore the vantage point and examine statements of identity not, questioning whether they allude to the mere antithesis of identity or to more complex identity ambivalences. Drawing from nearly 300 interviews, we question the primacy of master statuses and attempt to undo the binaries they support by illuminating salient cross‐cutting themes and by introducing descriptors to accompany the categories (age/temporality, gender/sexuality, ethnicity/intersecting cultural identities). In asking about least favorite clothes or about groups one avoids dressing like, we query not so much: What do clothes mean (or not mean)? Rather, we ask: How do we use clothes to negotiate tenuous, fragile, and elastic self/other, past/ present, and present/future relations?Like a barbed wire fence; Strung tight; Strung tense; Prickling with pretense; A borderline. Every income, every age, every fashion‐plated rage, every measure, every gauge, creates a borderline.
Effects of Wind on the Allometry of Two Species of Plants in an Elfin Cloud Forest
Authors: Cordero Roberto A. , Fetcher Ned , Voltzow Janice 
Published: January 2007

ABSTRACTThigmomorphogenesis includes the effects of mechanical perturbation on plant growth. To test whether thigmomorphogenesis is evident at different scales within plants, we investigated the effect of wind on allometric relationships between specific plant parts. We chose two species from the elfin cloud forest of Puerto Rico that have contrasting growth habits, the shrub Clibadiun erosum (Asteraceae) and the palm Prestoea acuminata var. montana (Arecaceae), and subjected them to barrier‐protected and wind‐exposed treatments. For C. erosum, we compared the allometry of stems and branches against three allometric models that predict that plant height or branch length increases at the 1, 2/3, and 1/2 power of stem diameter. Only the geometric similarity model (scaling exponent of 1) seemed to hold when plants were exposed to the wind. We found relatively fewer leaves per number of branches produced and fewer leaves per increment of branch diameter in the plants of C. erosum exposed to the wind. Mean petiole length ratios (petiole length/basal radius) of P. acuminata were higher on leaves of barrier‐protected plants for both simple and compound leaves, indicating that petioles were stouter and mechanically safer in the wind‐exposed plants. We suggest that alteration of the allometric relationships of plant parts, organs, or plant modules (stems and branches of C. erosum and leaves of P. acuminata) and alteration of the number of plant parts (leaves and branches of C. erosum) are adaptive responses resulting from the mechanical perturbation induced by wind in the elfin forest.