bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
European Monetary Union or competing currencies: which way for monetary integration in Europe?
Authors: CURRIE DAVID 
Published: March 2008

In theAntibes in September, Mr. Laws on perplexed and irritated his fellow European finance ministers by proposing a scheme for allowing currencies to compete one against the other in Europe. It perplexed them because it was presented as a basis for proceeding towards monetary union within the European Community in accordance with the resolve of European Heads of State at the Madrid Summit, whereas it appeared as a recipe for monetary confusion, not fusion. It irritated them because it appeared to them to be yet another British manoeuvre to derail agreed progress towards greater economic and monetary integration in Europe. It especially annoyed the potential allies of the UK on this issue who regard the French and Commission attempts to push rapidly towards monetary union as ill‐advised, and who saw the Chancellor's ill‐thought out proposal as playing into their hands.Some political commentators have suggested that Mr. Lawson was seeking to play a clever hand. He is known to favour UK entry to the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System, and on this is at odds with Mrs. Thatcher. Professor Alan Walters, adviser to the Prime Minister, is said to favour the idea of competing currencies in Europe. It may be that the Chancellor was not displeased to have this idea knocked down in the Antibes, leaving a strengthened EMS as the only realistic alternative to full monetary union in Europe. Whatever the truth of this, it seems inevitable that UK opposition to ambitious proposals for European Monetary Union will be met with less sympathy in future as a result of the Antibes meeting. This is a pity. For as we suggested in the June Economic Viewpoint, there is a serious case yet to be made in favour of the idea of competing currencies. This idea need not be in conflict with the objective of exchange rate stability, so that it is not incompatible with the EMS. Competition between currencies need not mean exchange rate instability. Rather it may mean competition over responsible monetary policies, encouraging their spread within Europe. An implication is that full monetary union may not be desirable. If the UK advanced this position in Europe, it may well carry the day. In this Viewpoint, we develop this argument about the direction for further monetary integration in Europe.
On the back of a motorbike: Middle‐class mobility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Authors: TRUITT ALLISON 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACT“Mobility” is a key concept in understanding processes of globalization and class formation. In this article, I examine motorbike mobility in Ho Chi Minh City and its role in reordering social stratification in urban Vietnam. In the years following trade liberalization, motorbikes emerged as exemplary symbols of purchasing power, displaying both monetized and motorized power. In response to the exponential increase in the number of motorbikes, Vietnamese state agencies inscribed streets with divisions to separate different classes of vehicles and regulate the flow of traffic. Motorbikes, I argue, elude attempts to regulate their movement precisely because they embody the very mobility promised by economic reforms. [Vietnam, traffic, commodity, circulation, public space, mobility]
Defiant desire in Namibia: Female sexual–gender transgression and the making of political being
Authors: LORWAY ROBERT 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore local productions of desire in Namibia by focusing on the engagement of young, working‐class lesbians with human rights ideologies of sexual freedom. I discuss how various techniques deployed by a sexual minority‐rights NGO allow youth to amplify and legitimize their embodied sense of sexual–gender difference. In my analysis of their self‐mediated incitement, I regard desire as a moral practice; practices of self‐determination and acts of resistance are generated and authenticated through repeated reflection on the internality of desire. My elaborations also emphasize class‐related issues. I argue that struggles with class and gender inequality destabilize the very notion of “sexual identity” in ways that open up political and erotic possibilities between lesbians and other working‐class women in Namibia, blurring the dividing lines of identity politics and of gender and class politics. [lesbian resistance, African sexuality, moral practice, desire, global queer identity, human rights]
“The Holocaust does not belong to European Jews alone”: The differential use of memory techniques in Israeli high schools
Authors: GOODMAN YEHUDA C. , MIZRACHI NISSIM 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTOn the basis of participant‐observations of classroom discussions in Jewish Israeli high schools during two memorial days, we examine how different ethnoclass groups within a presumably consensual national collectivity remember the nation. We found that teachers use different memory techniques with different groups of students and in relation to different historical memories, and we suggest that doing so variously repositions subgroups toward the public sphere. We argue that, to understand ethnoclass memory work and its differential appropriation and refraction along ethnoclass divides, scholars need to go beyond the contents of historical narratives and collective ceremonies to inquire into the plethora of memory techniques social actors use. [ethnoclass, national memory, memory techniques, citizenship participation, hegemony, Israel, high school]
Standing in the shadows: Of matrilocality and the role of women in a village election in northern Thailand
Authors: BOWIE KATHERINE 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyze a village election in Thailand to show how anthropological insights into kinship systems can provide important avenues into understanding the gender dynamics of electoral politics. Because few women hold public office in Thailand, Thai politics has been considered a male domain. Exploring four social dramas in which conflicts made the hidden role of women visible, I argue that the public domain of electoral politics in rural Thailand is embedded within village practices of matrilocality and matrilineal kinship. [politics, elections, public sphere, women, matrilocality, matrilineages, Thailand]
A house of one's own: Gender, migration, and residence in rural Mexico
Authors: PAULI JULIA 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTGender dynamics in Mexican migrant communities have been conceptualized mainly in terms of transformations in conjugal relations. Other meaningful relations, especially conflict‐laden female in‐law relations, have not been discussed widely in the context of transnational communities. I show how this wider perspective on gender relations is essential for unraveling the social processes behind the boom in house construction that many rural regions in Mexico are experiencing. A growing number of women reduce the length of their often very traumatic residence in their mothers‐in‐law's houses or try to avoid it altogether by creatively appropriating new spaces—building houses—using migradólares, remittances from their husbands who work in the United States. The newly built houses both constitute and express changing gender and kin relations. In the long run, these changes are likely to erode the social security of members of the elderly population. [migration, gender, kinship, postmarital residence, domestic space, social security, Mexico]
Insulin‐Secretagogue Activity of p‐Methoxycinnamic Acid in Rats, Perfused Rat Pancreas and Pancreatic β‐Cell Line
Authors: Yibchok‐anun Sirintorn , Adisakwattana Sirichai , Moonsan Preecha , Hsu Walter H. 
Published: March 2008

Abstract:  This study investigated the effect of p‐methoxycinnamic acid (p‐MCA) on plasma glucose and insulin concentrations in normal and streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats. In both fasting and glucose‐loading conditions, an oral administration of p‐MCA (40–100 mg/kg) significantly decreased plasma glucose and also increased plasma insulin concentrations in both normal and diabetic rats. The onset of the p‐MCA‐induced antihyperglycaemia/hypoglycaemia was observed at 1 hr after administration. In perfused rat pancreas, p‐MCA (10–100 µM) stimulated insulin secretion about 1.4‐ and 3.1‐fold of basal–control group. In addition, p‐MCA (10 µM) enhanced glucose‐induced insulin secretion. Moreover, p‐MCA stimulated insulin secretion and increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in insulinoma‐1 cells. Taken together, our findings suggested that p‐MCA exerted antihyperglycaemic/hypoglycaemic effect by stimulating insulin secretion from pancreas and could be developed into a new potential for therapeutic agent used in type 2 diabetic patients.
Adjustment for gas exchange threshold enhances precision of heart rate-derived VO2 estimates during heavy exercise
Authors: Pettitt Robert W. , Symons J. David , Taylor Julie E. , Eisenman Patricia A. , White Andrea T. 
Published: March 2008

Overestimates of oxygen uptake (VO2) are derived from the heart rate reserve – VO2 reserve (HRR–VO2R) model. We tested the hypothesis that adjusting for differences above and below gas exchange threshold (HRR–GET model) would tighten the precision of HR-derived VO2 estimates during heavy exercise. Seven men and 7 women of various VO2 max levels, on 2 separate days, cycled for 6 min at intensities equal to power at GET, 15% the difference between GET and VO2 max (15% above), and at 30% above GET. A second bout at 15% above GET (15% above (bout 2)) after 3 min of recovery was performed to assess estimates during interval training. Actual VO2 was compared with estimates derived from the HRR–VO2R and the HRR–GET. VO2 values were summed over the 6 min duration of data collection (6 min LO2) and compared with Bland–Altman plots. HRR–VO2R yielded 6 min LO2 (±2 SD) overestimates of 2.0 (±2.5), 1.9 (±2.7), and 1.3 (±3.3) for GET, 15% over, and 30% over, respectively, whereas corresponding 6 min LO2 difference values for the HRR–GET model were –0.42 (±1.6), –0.23 (±1.1), and –0.55 (±1.8), respectively. For 15% above (bout 2), the 6 min LO2 difference for HRR–VO2R was 1.8 (±2.9), whereas the difference for HRR–GET was 0.17 (±1.4). The 6 min LO2 values relative to the subjects’ VO2 max did not vary (r = 0.05 to 0.36); therefore, fitness level did not affect estimates. Sex did not affect accuracy of either estimate model (sex X estimate model interaction, p > 0.95). We observed accurate estimates from the HRR–GET model during heavy exercise.
Increase in depression symptoms with weight loss: association with glucose homeostasis and thyroid function
Authors: Chaput Jean-Philippe , Arguin Hélène , Gagnon Claudia , Tremblay Angelo 
Published: March 2008

The purpose of this study was to assess the potential impact of weight loss up to a state of plateau on symptoms of depression. Eleven obese men (mean body mass index (BMI) = 33.4 kg·m–2, mean age = 38 y) participated in this repeated-measures, within-subjects, clinical intervention. They were subjected to a weight-loss program that consisted of a supervised diet and exercise clinical intervention. The phases investigated were (i) baseline; (ii) after 5 ± 1 kg loss of body mass (phase 1); (iii) after 10 ± 1 kg weight loss (phase 2); and (iv) at resistance to further weight loss (plateau). At each phase of the weight-reducing program, glucose homeostasis markers were determined using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), total triiodothyronine (T3), and free thyroxine (fT4) concentrations were also measured and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered. The weight loss plateau occurred after 7.4 ± 1.9 months of intervention and corresponded to a loss of 11.2% of initial body weight (93.9% of which was from fat stores). This amount of weight loss induced a significant decrease in resting metabolic rate (RMR) (p < 0.05) and a significant increase in desire to eat (p < 0.05) and in depression symptoms (p < 0.01) compared with baseline. Intriguingly, the glucose area below fasting values (GABF) at plateau was significantly higher as compared with other phases of the program (p < 0.01). We found a strong negative correlation (r = –0.77, p < 0.01) between the change in glucose concentrations at 180 min of the OGTT and the change in BDI scores between plateau and baseline values. Similarly, highly significant relationships were found between the change in T3 or fT4 concentrations and the change in BDI scores (r = –0.71 and r = –0.68, respectively; p < 0.01). Weight loss until plateauing is associated with a trend toward hypoglycemia at the end of the oral glucose challenge and with a decrease in T3 and fT4 levels. These physiological changes are shown to be highly linked with the increase in depression symptoms observed at plateau. Taken together, these data emphasize the relevance of caution and reasonable objectives when prescribing a weight reduction program to obese individuals.
Impact of metformin on peak aerobic capacity
Authors: Braun Barry , Eze Pamela , Stephens Brooke R. , Hagobian Todd A. , Sharoff Carrie G. , Chipkin Stuart R. , Goldstein Benjamin 
Published: March 2008

Individually, exercise and the drug metformin have been shown to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. Metformin mildly inhibits complex I of the electron transport system and may impact aerobic capacity in people exercising while taking metformin. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of metformin on maximal aerobic capacity in healthy individuals without mitochondrial dysfunction. Seventeen healthy, normal-weight men (n = 11) and women (n = 6) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Peak aerobic capacity was measured twice using a continuous, incrementally graded protocol; once after 7–9 d of metformin (final dose = 2000 mg/d) and once with placebo, with 1 week between tests. The order of the conditions was counterbalanced. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2 peak), heart rate (HR), ventilation (VE), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and test duration were compared across conditions using paired t tests with the R statistical program. VO2 peak (–2.7%), peak heart rate (–2.0%), peak ventilation (–6.2%), peak RER (–3.0%), and exercise duration (–4.1%) were all reduced slightly, but significantly, with metformin (all p < 0.05). There was no effect of metformin on RPE or ventilatory breakpoint. Correlations between the decrement in VO2 peak and any of the other outcome variables were weak (r2 < 0.20) and not significant. Short-term treatment with metformin has statistically significant, but physiologically subtle, effects that reduce key outcomes related to maximal exercise capacity. Whether this small but consistent effect is manifested in people with insulin resistance or diabetes who already have some degree of mitochondrial dysfunction remains to be determined.
Nitric oxide and muscle blood flow in exercise
Authors: Tschakovsky Michael E. , Joyner Michael J. 
Published: March 2008

Despite being the subject of investigation for well over 100 years, the nature of exercising muscle blood flow control remains, in many respects, poorly understood. In this review we focus on the potential role of nitric oxide in vasodilation of muscle resistance vessels during a bout of exercise. Its contribution is explored in the context of whether it contributes to steady-state exercise hyperemia, the dynamic adjustment of muscle blood flow to exercise, or the modulation of sympathetic vasoconstriction in exercising muscle. It appears that the obligatory role of nitric oxide in all three of these categories is modest at best. The elucidation of the integrated nature of exercise hyperemia control in terms of synergy and redundancy of mechanism interaction remains in its infancy, and much more remains to be learned about the role of nitric oxide in this type of integrated control.
Influence of exercise intensity on pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics at the onset of exercise and recovery in male adolescents
Authors: Lai Nicola , Nasca Melita M. , Silva Marco A. , Silva Fatima T. , Whipp Brian J. , Cabrera Marco E. 
Published: March 2008

The dynamics of the pulmonary oxygen uptake (VO2) responses to square-wave changes in work rate can provide insight into bioenergetic processes sustaining and limiting exercise performance. The dynamic responses at the onset of exercise and during recovery have been investigated systematically and are well characterized at all intensities in adults; however, they have not been investigated completely in adolescents. We investigated whether adolescents display a slow component in their VO2 on- and off-kinetic responses to heavy- and very heavy-intensity exercise, as demonstrated in adults. Healthy African American male adolescents (n = 9, 14–17 years old) performed square-wave transitions on a cycle ergometer (from and to a baseline work rate of 20 W) to work rates of moderate (M), heavy (H), and very heavy (VH) intensity. In all subjects, the VO2 on-kinetics were best described with a single exponential at moderate intensity (τ1, on = 36 ± 11 s) and a double exponential at heavy (τ1, on = 29 ± 9 s; τ2, on = 197 ± 92 s) and very heavy (τ1, on = 36 ± 9 s; τ2, on = 302 ± 14 s) intensities. In contrast, the VO2 off-kinetics were best described with a single exponential at moderate (τ1, off = 48 ± 9 s) and heavy (τ1, off = 53 ± 7 s) intensities and a double exponential at very heavy (τ1, off = 51 ± 3 s; τ2, off = 471 ± 54 s) intensity. In summary, adolescents consistently displayed a slow component during heavy exercise (on- but not off- transition) and very heavy exercise (on- and off-transitions). Although the overall response dynamics in adolescents were similar to those previously observed in adults, their specific characterizations were different, particularly the lack of symmetry between the on- and off-responses.
Topoisomerase IIα Expression as an Independent Prognostic Factor in Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Authors: Doussis-Anagnostopoulou Ipatia A. , Vassilakopoulos Theodoros P. , Thymara Irini , Korkolopoulou Penelope , Angelopoulou Maria K. , Siakantaris Marina P. , Kokoris Styliani I. , Dimitriadou Evangelia M. , Kalpadakis Christina , Matzouranis Marina , Kaklamanis Loukas , Panayiotidis Panayiotis , Kyrtsonis Marie-Christine , Androulaki Athina , Patsouris Efstratios , Kittas Christos , Pangalis Gerassimos A. 
Published: March 2008

Abstract
Purpose: To correlate the immunohistochemical expression of topoisomerase IIα (topoIIα) in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) with clinicopathological parameters, the expression of Ki-67 and the outcome of patients, who had been homogenously treated with ABVD or equivalent regimens.
Experimental Design: Immunohistochemistry using the monoclonal antibody Ki-S1 (topoIIα) was performed in 238 HL patients. MiB1 (Ki-67) expression was evaluated in 211/238.
Results: The mean ± SD percentage of topoIIα- and Ki-67–positive Hodgkin-Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells was 63 ± 19% (5%-98%) and 73 ± 19% (8%-99%), respectively. The median percentage of topoIIα-positive HRS cells was 64% (interquartile range, 51-78%). There was no correlation between topoIIα expression and patient characteristics. TopoIIα and Ki-67 expression were correlated (Spearman's Rho 0.255, P &lt; 0.001). TopoIlα expression within the highest quartile of this patient population was predictive of failure free survival (FFS) (10-year rates 82 ± 3% vs 68 ± 7%, P = 0.02 for patients falling into the quartiles 1-3 and 4 respectively). In multivariate analysis topoIIα expression was independently predictive of FFS.
Conclusion: TopoIIα was expressed in all cases of HL showing a correlation with Ki-67 expression. Under current standard therapy including drugs inhibiting its activity, topoIIα was an independent adverse predictor of FFS with no statistically significant correlation with other established prognostic factors.
Irinotecan Pharmacogenetics: Influence of Pharmacodynamic Genes
Authors: Hoskins Janelle M. , Marcuello Eugenio , Altes Albert , Marsh Sharon , Maxwell Taylor , Van Booven Derek J. , Paré Laia , Culverhouse Robert , McLeod Howard L. , Baiget Montserrat 
Published: March 2008

AbstractPurpose: Irinotecan is an important drug for the treatment of solid tumors. Although genes involved in irinotecan pharmacokinetics have been shown to influence toxicity, there are no data on pharmacodynamic genes. CDC45L, NFKB1, PARP1, TDP1, and XRCC1 have been shown to influence the cytotoxic action of camptothecins, including irinotecan. Polymorphisms in the drug target of camptothecins, topoisomerase I (TOP1), and downstream effectors may influence patient outcomes to irinotecan therapy. We undertook a retrospective candidate gene haplotype association study to investigate this hypothesis.Experimental Design: Haplotype compositions of six candidate genes were constructed in European (n = 93), East Asian (n = 94), and West African (n = 95) populations. Haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (htSNP) were selected based on genealogic relationships between haplotypes. DNA samples from 107 European, advanced colorectal cancer patients treated with irinotecan-based regimens were genotyped for htSNPs as well as three coding region SNPs. Associations between genetic variants and toxicity (grade 3/4 diarrhea and neutropenia) or efficacy (objective response) were assessed.Results: TOP1 and TDP1 htSNPs were related to grade 3/4 neutropenia (P = 0.04) and response (P = 0.04), respectively. Patients homozygous for an XRCC1 haplotype (GGCC-G) were more likely to show an objective response to therapy than other patients (83% versus 30%; P = 0.02). This effect was also seen in a multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 11.9; P = 0.04). No genetic variants were associated with diarrhea.Conclusions: This is the first comprehensive pharmacogenetic investigation of irinotecan pharmacodynamic factors, and our findings suggest that genetic variation in the pharmacodynamic genes may influence the efficacy of irinotecan-containing therapies in advanced colorectal cancer patients.
Pfetin as a Prognostic Biomarker of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Revealed by Proteomics
Authors: Suehara Yoshiyuki , Kondo Tadashi , Seki Kunihiko , Shibata Tatsuhiro , Fujii Kiyonaga , Gotoh Masahiro , Hasegawa Tadashi , Shimada Yasuhiro , Sasako Mitsuru , Shimoda Tadakazu , Kurosawa Hisashi , Beppu Yasuo , Kawai Akira , Hirohashi Setsuo 
Published: March 2008

AbstractPurpose: We aimed to develop prognostic biomarkers for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) using a proteomic approach.Experimental Design: We examined the proteomic profile of GISTs using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis. The prognostic performance of biomarker candidates was examined using a large-scale sample set and specific antibodies.Results: We identified 43 protein spots whose intensity was statistically different between GISTs with good and poor prognosis. Mass spectrometric protein identification showed that the 43 spots corresponded to 25 distinct gene products. Eight of the 43 spots derived from pfetin, a potassium channel protein, and four of the eight pfetin spots had a high discriminative power between the two groups. Western blotting and real-time PCR showed that pfetin expression and tumor metastasis were inversely related. The prognostic performance of pfetin was also examined by immunohistochemistry on 210 GIST cases. The 5-year metastasis-free survival rate was 93.9% and 36.2% for patients with pfetin-positive and pfetin-negative tumors, respectively (P &lt; 0.0001). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that pfetin expression was a powerful prognostic factor among the clinicopathologic variables examined, including risk classification and c-kit– or platelet-derived growth factor receptor A mutation status.Conclusions: These results establish pfetin as a powerful prognostic marker for GISTs and may provide novel therapeutic strategies to prevent metastasis of GIST.