bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reactivation of dormant cutaneous Leishmania infection in a kidney transplant patient
Authors: Mirzabeigi Marjan , Farooq Uzma , Baraniak Sean , Dowdy Lorraine , Ciancio Gaetano , Vincek Vladimir 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Leishmaniasis is an infection caused by a protozoan parasite belonging to genus Leishmania and transmitted by the Phlebotomus sandfly. Clinical presentations of infection include visceral, cutaneous, and mucocutaneous forms. Leishmaniasis is endemic in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and southern part of North America. This infection is extremely rare in the US and is mostly found among travelers coming from endemic areas. Cases of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis have been reported in organ transplant recipients in endemic areas.Case report:  We describe a case of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a kidney transplant patient, originally from Bolivia, who resides in the area known to be non‐endemic for leishmaniasis and who is known not to travel within or outside of the US after the transplantation.Results:  Histologic examination of cutaneous lesion revealed extensive subcutaneous lymphohistiocytic inflammation with clusters of amastigote within histiocytes.Conclusion:  To our knowledge, this is the first case of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a kidney transplant patient residing in the US in an area known to be non‐endemic for leishmaniasis, probably after reactivation of a previously dormant infection acquired outside of the US at least 9 months prior to developing clinical symptoms.
Narrow‐spectrum staining pattern of Pityrosporum*
Authors: Veerappan Ranjitha , Miller Lou Ellen , Sosinski Christina , Youngberg George A. 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Broad‐spectrum fungal stains are used to detect fungal organisms, but narrow‐spectrum stains can assist in fungal differential diagnosis. These stains include mucicarmine and Fontana–Masson (FM) for Cryptococcus, Alcian Blue for Cryptococcus and Blastomyces, Congo Red for Blastomyces and Coccidioides, and Ziehl–Neelsen for some examples of Blastomyces and Histoplasma. Pityrosporum is increasingly being recognized as a pathogen capable of significant cutaneous and systemic infections, but the narrow‐spectrum staining pattern of Pityrosporum has not yet been systematically studied and reported.Methods:  Paraffin‐embedded archival tissue from 10 skin biopsies containing Pityrosporum was stained with Alcian Blue, Congo Red, Ziehl–Neelsen acid‐fast stain, and FM stain. In addition to the 60‐min staining time, a modified FM stain with 15‐, 30‐, and 45‐min staining times was also performed.Results:  All cases stained positive with Alcian Blue, Congo Red, and FM stains and negative with the Ziehl–Neelsen stain. The modified FM stain with the 15‐min staining time showed significant staining in more than 50% of the cases.Discussion:  The narrow‐spectrum staining pattern of Pityrosporum distinguishes it from Cryptococcus, Blastomyces, Candida, Histoplasma, and Coccidioides.
Non‐bullous neutrophilic dermatosis: an uncommon dermatologic manifestation in patients with lupus erythematosus
Authors: Gleason Briana C. , Zembowicz Artur , Granter Scott R. 
Published: August 2006

Background: Rare cases of a non‐bullous neutrophilic dermatosis occurring in patients with lupus erythematosus (LE) have been reported, often as the presenting manifestation of the disease.Methods: We reviewed hematoxylin and eosin‐stained slides and obtained clinical information from four additional patients, two of whom had no prior history of LE.Results: All patients were female, aged 16–59 (mean age 37). Clinically, the skin lesions were characterized by widely distributed pruritic papules and plaques. Three patients presented with systemic symptoms, including fever, arthritis and malaise. Histopathologic examination in all cases showed a superficial perivascular and interstitial neutrophilic infiltrate with leukocytoclasis. There was no evidence of vasculitis. Mild focal vacuolar change was a subtle feature seen only in the biopsies of the two patients with a prior history of LE.Conclusions: It is important to consider LE in the differential diagnosis of non‐bullous neutrophilic dermatoses.
Detection of clonal rearrangement of T‐cell receptor genes in the diagnosis of primary cutaneous CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorders
Authors: Greisser Johannes , Palmedo Gabriele , Sander Christian , Kutzner Heinz , Kazakov Dmitry V. , Roos Malgorzata , Burg Günter , Kempf Werner 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Detection of clonality has been reported to be a helpful tool in the diagnosis of cutaneous lymphomas. Monoclonal rearrangement of T‐cell receptor genes (TCR) was reported in fresh frozen tissue of lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) and primary cutaneous anaplastic large‐cell lymphoma (ALCL), but the diagnostic value of T‐cell clonality in formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded biopsies has so far not been assessed.Methods:  Detection of clonal rearrangement of TCRγ genes by highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction‐based automated high‐resolution fragment analysis (AHRFA) in archival LyP (n = 18) and ALCL (n = 17) tissue.Results:  Detection of clonality differed significantly among the histologic forms of LyP as well as between LyP and ALCL with clonality found in none of the 10 biopsies of LyP type A and B, in 4/8 (50%) of the LyP type C specimens, and in 11/17 (65%) of ALCL cases.Conclusions:  T‐cell clonality can only be found in a minority (four of 18; 22%) of archival LyP specimens, even when employing a highly sensitive detection method and is thus of limited diagnostic value. Final diagnosis of LyP has to be based mainly on clinical, histologic, and immunohistochemical findings rather than on results of clonality studies.
Examination of bcl‐2 and p53 expressions and apoptotic index by TUNEL method in psoriasis
Authors: Gündüz Kamer , Demireli Peyker , Vatansever Seda , Inanir Isil 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Psoriasis is characterised by hyperproliferation and by aberrant differentiation. Blockage of the normal apoptotic process is one of the factors implicated in the pathogenesis.Objective:  To determine the apoptotic features by using TUNEL method and also bcl‐2 and p53 expressions in psoriatic epidermis.Materials and methods:  Biopsies of 35 patients with psoriasis vulgaris and 14 normal skin were evaluated. Apoptotic cells were detected using the dUTP nick‐end labelling assay; bc1‐2 and p53 expressions were assessed by using immunohistochemical techniques. A semi‐quantitative grading system (HSCORE) was used for comparison.Results:  Bcl‐2 was strongly expressed in basal keratinocytes of normal skin, while no expression was observed in 13 (37.2%) of the psoriatic samples and it was weakly expressed in the spinous cell layer of 22 (62.8%) samples. Moderate p53 expression was observed in the psoriasis group, while it was weak in the control. The percentage of TUNEL positive cells were significantly increased in the psoriasis group (65±2.30) when compared with the control (32.84±7.16).Conclusion:  Apoptotic index besides bc1‐2 and p53 expressions in psoriasis differ from normal epidermis. Down‐regulation of bc1‐2 is consistent with the dynamics of psoriasis but increased TUNEL positive cells and p53 expression has not been fully elucidated yet.
Matrix metalloproteinases in the progression and regression of Kaposi’s sarcoma
Authors: Pantanowitz Liron , Dezube Bruce J. , Hernandez‐Barrantes Sonia , Tahan Steven R. , Dabbous Mustafa K. 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) tumorigenesis. To date, only a few MMPs have been studied in KS lesions. Their role in KS regression has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of multiple MMPs in developing and pharmacologically regressed KS lesions.Methods:  Nine samples of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)‐related and classic cutaneous KS lesions at various histological stages were studied. Regressing KS lesions from three patients treated with systemic therapy were procured after one and two cycles of chemotherapy. Tissue sections from all specimens were immunostained using monoclonal antibodies to MMP‐1, MMP‐2, MMP‐3, MMP‐7, MMP‐9, MMP‐13, and MMP‐14.Results:  KS lesional cells were immunoreactive for all MMPs, except MMP‐14. Admixed inflammatory cells were immunoreactive for MMP‐1, MMP‐2, MMP‐7, MMP‐9, and MMP‐13. The MMP immunoprofile in residual KS lesional cells was unaltered in regressed lesions. Increased extracellular matrix (ECM) and macrophage immunoreactivity for MMPs was identified in regressed specimens.Conclusions:  These data show that developing KS lesional cells express collagenases (MMP‐1, MMP‐13), gelatinases (MMP‐2, MMP‐9), stromelysin‐1 (MMP‐3), and matrilysin (MMP‐7) but not the membrane‐type MMP‐14. This MMP expression profile is retained by residual KS cells and also expressed by infiltrating macrophages in regressed KS lesions.
Protein expression of melanocyte growth factors (bFGF, SCF) and their receptors (FGFR‐1, c‐kit) in nevi and melanoma
Authors: Giehl K. A. , Nägele U. , Volkenandt M. , Berking C. 
Published: August 2006

Background:  Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and stem cell factor (SCF) are essential growth factors for melanocytes which carry the receptors FGFR‐1 for bFGF and c‐kit for SCF. Because both factors may be involved in melanoma development, the expression of bFGF/FGFR‐1 and SCF/c‐kit was investigated in melanocytic tumors of different progression stages.Methods:  Fifty primary melanomas and 44 melanocytic nevi were analyzed for the expression of SCF, c‐kit, bFGF, and FGFR‐1 by immunohistochemistry.Results:  In melanoma, SCF and c‐kit were expressed in 76 and 84%, respectively, and coexpressed in 66%. bFGF and FGFR‐1 were expressed in 45 and 86%, respectively, and coexpressed in 46%. In melanocytic nevi, SCF was expressed in 23% and c‐kit in 70% while coexpression was more common in dysplastic (39%) than non‐dysplastic subtypes (8%). bFGF and FGFR‐1 were expressed in 55 and 67%, respectively, while coexpression was found in 47% but varied considerably between different histological subtypes.Conclusions:  SCF and c‐kit were frequently expressed by melanomas and dysplastic nevi suggesting an autocrine growth mechanism as described for bFGF. In both nevi and melanoma, c‐kit was almost exclusively found in the epidermis while bFGF was more common in the dermis. Thus the growth factor/receptor expression seems to depend on the cutaneous localization of the melanocytic tumors.
Humanity: Our Priority Now and Always
Authors: Sommaruga Cornelio 
Published: August 2006

Thomas Weiss oversimplifies when he identifies the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with the classicist position of nonconfrontation. The ICRC defines humanitarian action to include advocacy through public and private channels to protect individuals and communities against violations of international humanitarian law. Weiss rightly points out the difficulty of making belligerents, or “unprincipled actors,” understand the value of nonpartisan and impartial action.Still, the ICRC remains committed to finding new language for communicating the principles of humanitarian action and new techniques of negotiation. In this regard the ICRC is classicist. But this classicism places the ICRC on the side of the solidarists in defending the interests of individuals and communities in distress, and on the side of the maximalists in its advocacy of international humanitarian law.
Reckoning with Past Wrongs: A Normative Framework
Authors: Crocker David A. 
Published: August 2006

This essay formulates eight goals that have emerged from worldwide moral deliberation on “transitional justice” and that may serve as a useful framework when particular societies consider how they should reckon with violations of internationally recognized human rights. These goals include: truth, a public platform for victims, accountability and punishment, the rule of law, compensation to victims, institutional reform and long-term development, reconciliation, and public deliberation.These eight goals are used to identify and clarify (1) the variety of ethical issues that emerge in reckoning with past wrongs, (2) widespread agreements about initial steps for resolving each issue, (3) leading options for more robust solutions of each issue, and (4) ways to weight or trade off the norms when they conflict. The aim is to show that there are crucial moral aspects in reckoning with the past and to clarify, criticize, revise, apply, and diffuse eight moral norms. These goals are not a “one-size-fits-all” blueprint but rather a framework by which societies confronting past atrocities can decide–through cross-cultural and critical dialogue–what is most important to accomplish and the morally best ways to do so.
A Different Kind of Justice: Dealing with Human Rights Violations in Transitional Societies
Authors: Little David 
Published: August 2006

In “transitional societies” like South Africa and Bosnia, which are currently moving from authoritarianism, and often violent repression, to democracy, questions arise about the appropriate way to deal with serious human rights offenders. Will a system of retributive justice bring about the healing and harmony necessary for peace and stability? Or, is “a different kind of justice” required, one explicitly aimed at reconciliation, and designed to repair and restore relations, and, perhaps, to forgive offenders rather than prosecute them? Are the systems mutually exclusive, or can they be combined in some way?In an effort to clarify terms and sharpen practical choices, this essay distinguishes between retributive and restorative justice and relates the distinction to constructive proposals concerning the ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation. The essay then applies the proposed framework to two recent efforts to cope with the problem: the truth and reconciliation commissions of South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Reconciliation for Realists
Authors: Dwyer Susan 
Published: August 2006

Reconciliation is being urged upon people who have been bitter and murderous enemies, upon victims and perpetrators of terrible human rights abuses, and upon groups of individuals whose very self-conceptions have been structured in terms of historical and often state-sanctioned relations of dominance and submission. The rhetoric of reconciliation is particularly common in situations where traditional judicial responses to past wrongdoing are unavailable because of corruption in the legal system, staggeringly large numbers of offenders, or anxiety about the political consequences of trials and punishment.But what is reconciliation? How is reconciliation to be achieved? And under what conditions should it be sought? The notable lack of answers to these questions prompts the worry that talk of reconciliation is merely a ruse to disguise the fact that a “purer” type of justice cannot be realized–that, in being asked to focus on reconciliation rather than on punishment, victims of past wrongdoing are having to settle for the morally second best. By mining our pretheoretical understandings of reconciliation, the essay arrives at a core concept of reconciliation as narrative incorporation that at the same time suggests a way in which reconciliation might be pursued and grounds a response to moral qualms provoked by the use of an unanalyzed conception of reconciliation.
Latin American Amnesties in Comparative Perspective: Can the Past Be Buried?
Authors: Popkin Margaret , Bhuta Nehal 
Published: August 2006

Throughout Latin America during the past 15 years, new democratic or postwar governments have faced demands for transitional justice following the end of authoritarian rule or the conclusion of internal armed conflicts.Demands for justice for serious past abuses have often been met by threats of destabilization by the perpetrators and calls for forgiving and forgetting in the name of reconciliation.Although recent developments in and interpretations of international law oblige states to punish those responsible for serious human rights violations, many transitional governments insist that reconciliation requires broad amnesty laws. This essay first reviews basic legal and conceptual issues relating to prosecution of, and grants of amnesty to, those responsible for gross human rights abuses during earlier periods. A comparative examination follows, starting with El Salvador, where the amnesty law constitutes the most comprehensive and successful action to end efforts to address past abuses. The essay then reviews the status of efforts in Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, and South Africa, where, despite amnesty laws, civil society and courts have sought to uncover the truth about the past, hold perpetrators accountable, and obtain redress for victims.
Distributive Justice and International Trade
Authors: Kapstein Ethan B. 
Published: August 2006

Public officials frequently assert that nations shape their own economic destiny. This statement implies that the international economy presents a level playing field for all participants. If the rules of globalization were somehow written in favor of certain countries, however, that would not be true, and the legitimacy of the economic system would be cast in doubt. This essay examines the structure of the international trade regime. Following John Rawls, it asserts that “justice is the first virtue of social institutions.” This leads to the question: Is the trade regime just?The essay seeks to answer that question through both a theoretical and empirical exploration of the trading system. Building on the Rawlsian “original position,” it sketches the fundamental principles that would underlie such a regime. It then traces the history of North-South trade relations as a case study.The essay concludes by suggesting that concerns with the trade regime's normative framework have played an important role in shaping its basic principles. But that does not mean that the regime is just. Greater transfers from North to South would be one of the major requirements of justice that currently are not being met
Will There Be a Trial for the Khmer Rouge?
Authors: Chandler David 
Published: August 2006

The scale of what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 is difficult to deal with (over one million Cambodians lost their lives), but efforts are now underway to bring at least some of the surviving leaders of the regime to justice. This essay explores the reasons for delay of the trials, citing:The absence of international precedents prior to the 1990s;The show trial of two Khmer Rouge leaders in 1979; andThe obstacles to a trial arising from geopolitical considerations in the 1980s (in which some powers now calling for a trial, including the United States, were effectively allied with the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese-imposed regime in Phnom Penh).In the 1990s, following the Paris Peace Accords and the brief UN protectorate over Cambodia, demands for a trial came from overseas and from Cambodian human rights groups. The Cambodian regime considered the show trials of 1979 sufficient, however, and in 1998 Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen urged his compatriots to “dig a hole and bury the past.” Eager to regain foreign support for his regime after several brutal incidents in which political opponents were killed, Hun Sen has more recently agreed to limited international participation in a trial. A procedure targeting a few Khmer Rouge leaders seems likely in 2000, but Cambodian government control of the proceedings means that nothing like a truth commission or a wide-ranging inquiry will result.
National Reconciliation, Transnational Justice, and the International Criminal Court
Authors: Méndez Juan E. 
Published: August 2006

Universal jurisdiction and the existence of an International Criminal Court (ICC) under the Rome Statute provide a framework through which true reconciliation can be achieved simultaneously with truth and justice. The ICC and universal jurisdiction can be viewed as laying out objective limits on the power of domestic and international actors to seek peace at any cost.This paper argues that those objective limits are not necessarily inimical to a just peace, nor are an undue burden on peacemakers. On the contrary, they can set parameters whereby a just and lasting peace can be differentiated from impunity achieved through blackmail.The first step is to take a hard look at whether international standards of accountability for gross abuses have been met. At the same time, the examination of any specific scheme of domestic accountability cannot be done on a blanket basis. It will require a close look at conditions prevailing in the country, both at the time the scheme was adopted and later; at the policies adopted and how they were meant to advance the process of national reconciliation; at who adopted those measures and how; and at concrete applications of the scheme to individual cases.Even applying this exacting standard, there will be cases in which the best course of action for the ICC and for third country courts will be to defer to the greater wisdom of local actors operating in good faith, and to decline to prosecute.
Peaceful Transition and Retrospective Justice: Some Reservations
Authors: Roth Brad R. 
Published: August 2006

Although retribution for past human rights violations has its place in post-conflict processes of transition and reconciliation, there are many present and foreseeable circumstances in which the case for immunity, amnesty, or sheer forbearance is significantly stronger than Juan E. Méndez' approach to this question can admit.Disagreement about justice is an ineradicable part of political life and a leading cause of violent conflict. Reconciliation cannot always presuppose or await a shared moral understanding; frequently enough, it requires an agreement to disagree, even about fundamental principles – at least with respect to their retrospective application. Where the parties to violent conflict have seen fit to set aside issues of retrospective justice in the service of peace and reconciliation, outsiders, who do not bear the costs of conflict and instability, should second-guess that decision only with the greatest reluctance. They should not look to international human rights standards and mechanisms for a universal solution.
Why Inequality Matters: Some Economic Issues
Authors: Birdsall Nancy 
Published: August 2006

Many industrialized countries, developing countries, and countries that have recently made the transition from communism to market-oriented economies are characterized by high and increasing income inequality. Trends in income inequality have been understood to have ethical significance for different reasons. Some have argued that lessening income inequality is a valuable goal in itself. This essay, on the other hand, focuses on three instrumental reasons for pursuing economic policies that engender less income inequality, particularly in developing countries.• Inequality can inhibit growth and slow poverty reduction.• Inequality often undermines the political process: that may lead to an inadequate social contract and may trigger bad economic policies-with ill effects on growth, human development, and poverty reduction.• Inequality may undermine civic and social as well as political life, and inhibit certain kinds of collective decision-making; at the societal level it may also generate its own self-justifying tolerance, perpetuating a high inequality equilibrium despite the potential economic and political costs.The author concludes that while societies with relatively high income inequality can, in principle, be equitable, it is more likely that income differentials will compound and aggravate unfairness in the allocation of opportunities, the functioning of the political process, and efforts to improve the well-being of the least advantaged.