bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Structure and allometry of genitalia in males and females of a social African ground squirrel with high polygynandry
Authors: Manjerovic M. B. , Kinahan A. A. , Waterman J. M. , Bennett N. C. , Bateman P. W. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractThe few studies that have looked at genital allometry in mammals have typically shown a positively allometric relationship with body size and high coefficients of variation. Cryptic female choice, sexual conflict or sperm competition are mechanisms underlying genital evolution and as these are not mutually exclusive, they are often difficult to disentangle. In addition, these mechanisms are affected by both male and female social structure and/or mating strategies and, as such, pre‐ and post‐copulatory behaviours have been shown to alter selection on genitalia. We examined genital traits and allometry in a polygynandrous and social ground squirrel Xerus inauris. We found that male testes are positively allometric and account for 1.5% of their body weight, one of the highest percentages known for sciurids. The penis, at 42.4% of head/body length, was isometric while the female reproductive tract, 22.4% head/body length, demonstrated no such relationship. Based on the allometric relationships of both males and females presented here, in conjunction with high levels of competition for females and lack of male aggression and territoriality, we suggest that sperm competition is the most likely mechanism for the evolution of the extremely large genitalia in this species.
Diving behaviour, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties: a comparison of hatchling and juvenile Australian turtles
Authors: Clark N. J. , Gordos M. A. , Franklin C. E. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractAustralia has a number of bimodally respiring freshwater turtle species that use aquatic respiration to extend their aerobic dive limit. While species variations in reliance on aquatic respiration are reflected in the diving behaviour and ecology of adults, it is unknown whether these relationships also occur in hatchling and juvenile turtles. This study compared the diving behaviour, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties of hatchling and juveniles from five species of Australian freshwater turtles: Rheodytes leukops, Elusor macrurus, Elseya albagula, Elseya latisternum and Emydura signata. Both diving behaviour and physiology differed significantly between species as well as age classes. Dive duration in R. leukops was 17 times longer than the other species, with two hatchlings remaining submerged for the entire 72 h recording period. The long dive duration recorded for R. leukops was supported by a high reliance on aquatic respiration (63–73%) and high blood oxygen affinity (P50=17.24 mmHg). A correlation between dive duration, aquatic respiration and blood respiratory properties was not observed in the remaining turtle species where, despite the longer dive duration of Els. albagula and Elu. macrurus compared with Em. signata and Els. latisternum, there was no difference observed in per cent aquatic respiration or blood oxygen affinity between these species. When compared with adult individuals (data from previous studies), dive duration was positively correlated with body size in Em. signata, Els. albagula and R. leukops, but a negative relationship occurred in Els. latisternum and Elu. macrurus.
Recurrences in heart rate dynamics are changed in patients with diabetes mellitus
Authors: Javorka Michal , Trunkvalterova Zuzana , Tonhajzerova Ingrid , Lazarova Zuzana , Javorkova Jana , Javorka Kamil 
Published: May 2008

SummaryDetection of subclinical autonomic dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) is of vital importance for risk stratification and subsequent management. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a sensitive tool for assessment of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction. As the heart is controlled by non‐linear deterministic system, the non‐linear dynamics measures should be preferred. Recurrence plot (RP) is able to analyse recurrences within system dynamics. The aim of the study was to detect heart rate dysregulation in DM by RP and to ascertain which of the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) measures are changed in patients with DM compared to control group. We analysed HRV recordings from 17 young patients with type 1 DM and 17 healthy matched control subjects. RQA was performed on RPs with a fixed value of recurrence points percentage. From RQA measures based on diagonal lines, we have found higher percentage of determinism in DM group (P = 0·038). Trapping time measure was also higher in DM (P = 0·022). RQA revealed changes in dynamics recurrences with reduced complexity of heart rate control in young diabetic patients. As RQA parameters are independent of overall HRV, parameters of RP should be used together with linear HRV parameters for better description of heart rate dysregulation in patients with diabetics.
Rosamond's complaint: Daniel, Ovid, and the purpose of poetry
Authors: Guy‐Bray Stephen 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACTSamuel Daniel's The Complaint of Rosamond was first published in 1592 as the second half of Daniel's first book. In this poem, the ghost of Henry II's mistress Rosamond appears to Daniel to commission a poem. Daniel's precedents for his poem are the complaint poems written in the late 1580s and early 1590s and, ultimately, Ovid's Heroides. The Heroides provide a female perspective on love stories usually told from the male point of view; they are also hopelessly belated texts that have no effect on the narratives to which they contribute. For Daniel, the Heroides are a useful precedent as they allow him to raise questions about the effect of poetry. Can poetry do or change anything? This is an especially pertinent question for Daniel, whose sonnet sequence Delia chronicles the speaker's repeated failure to make any impression on the hard heart of the woman he loves. Related to this is a second question: is poetry justified if its end is immoral? The Complaint of Rosamond functions as a comment both on the Heroides themselves and on Daniel's own sense of himself as a poet.
Sexual and political liberty and neo‐Latin poetics: the Heroides of Mark Alexander Boyd
Authors: Paleit Edward 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACTThis article examines responses to the Heroides by the Scottish neo‐Latin poet Mark Alexander Boyd, composed whilst in ‘exile’ in France during the 1580s and early 1590s. Boyd's engagements reflect the priorities of contemporary humanist interpretations of the Heroides, on the one hand positioning Ovid's poems as models for elegant Latin verse composition, and on the other reading them as guides to female sexual (mis)conduct. Such an approach tended to reinforce Renaissance prejudices about sex and gender, as Boyd's efforts amply reveal. Yet the exorbitance of female love elegy also permitted a limited critique of such norms, and this is demonstrated in Boyd's second set of responses, the Heroides et Hymni (1592), which suggestively collocate his personal political difficulties with women's sexual freedom.
Ovid's Heroides, Drayton and the articulation of the feminine in the English Renaissance
Authors: Clarke Danielle 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that Michael Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles engages in a highly productive and transformative relationship with Ovid's Heroides, one which focuses on the utility and application of the female voice. By adapting the Ovidian model to a distinctively patterned version of English history, Drayton manages to invest the female voice with both authority and political meaning, as the various female figures outline the symbolic importance of the feminine to the public sphere and to dynastic stability. The means by which Drayton does this are heavily indebted to the practices of imitation and invention, yet in the process, Drayton produces heroines who critique and comment on male conduct, particularly sexual conduct, whilst manipulating early modern culture's norms for women's textual production. At the same time, Drayton also attempts to enhance his own poetic authority by his overt competition with Ovid.
The early modern afterlife of Ovidian erotics: Dryden's Heroides
Authors: Andreadis Harriette 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACTThis essay examines translations of Ovid's Heroides as they evolve from the late sixteenth century into the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It focuses on the figure of Sappho in Ovid's fifteenth epistle as the principal guide to the trajectory of an Ovidian erotics that develops within a changing literary and cultural context in early modern London. The analysis begins with a brief survey of early translations and then explores in detail the additions, variations, and accretions that occur in the many editions (from 1680 until after 1720) of Ovid's Epistles, translated by several hands, originally gathered by John Dryden and published by Jacob Tonson both during and after Dryden's lifetime, as well as the significance of the parodies of Dryden's collection and the independent life taken on, a century later, by Sir Carr Scrope's translation for Dryden of ‘Sappho to Phaon’. The essay contributes to our knowledge of the life of literary coteries in early modern London, of early book history as it was guided by an important London publisher, and of early modern gender dynamics as they were mediated by London literary circles and their relation to the classics.
Would African Countries Benefit from the Termination of Kenya’s Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU? An Analysis of EU Demand for Imported Roses
Authors: Muhammad Andrew 
Published: May 2008

AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of Kenya’s preferential status on EU demand for imported roses by country. Import demand equations were estimated using a production version of the Rotterdam model in an Armington framework. With the expiration of the Lomé Convention, tariffs (up to 24%) on Kenyan roses were likely if an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was not signed by January 2008. Roses from African countries not subject to tariffs were expected to displace Kenya’s exports in the future. However, results of this study showed that roses from African countries were complements in the EU market and those exports from Zimbabwe and Other African countries would have been negatively impacted if a Kenya–EU EPA was unsuccessful. Given the maximum import duty on Kenyan roses, EU imports from Kenya would decrease by 9.1% and imports from Zimbabwe and Other African countries would decrease by 6% and 4%, respectively.
The Martin Marprelate Tracts (1588–89) and the Popular Voice1
Authors: Black Joseph L. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractThe Martin Marprelate Tracts (1588–89), long regarded as some of the finest and most influential Elizabethan prose satires, have recently played a justifiably key role in discussions of pamphlet warfare, libel, late sixteenth‐century communication practices, and the development of an early modern English public sphere. This article argues that the primary aim of the Marprelate project was to create a polemic that would generate and legitimate popular discussion of controverted issues. Evidence that the project succeeded in this aim is more elusive, but local examples of ‘Martinism’ in action do exist, and the wave of hostile response they generated reveals that the Marprelate tracts shaped contemporary perceptions of both the dangers and the possibilities of a public sphere – even if that sphere might not yet have fully existed.
‘Falsified by History’: Menzies, Asia and Post‐Imperial Australia
Authors: Clausen Mads 
Published: May 2008

Abstract This essay won the 2007

History Compass

Graduate Essay Prize, Australasia & Pacific Section. Former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies gave the East‐West Center's 1969 Dillingham Lecture at the University of Hawaii. Menzies, then almost four years into retirement, seized the opportunity not only to give his assessment of contemporary politics in the Asia‐Pacific, but also to assert that he had been ‘the first Australian Prime Minister to put Australia squarely into the Pacific rather than the Atlantic world’. In recent years, senior Liberals have echoed this sentiment and, like the Dillingham Lecture, pointed to Menzies's April 1939 radio address as initiating ‘engagement with Asia’. In this address, Menzies had suggested that: ‘In the Pacific we have what I might call primary responsibilities and primary risks’. The Dillingham Lecture constitutes Menzies's most considered attempt to claim ownership of Australia's regional relations, but similar arguments can be found in his autobiographical writings. Several Liberal contemporaries made similar assertions in the mid‐to‐late‐1960s, attempting to align themselves with increasingly resonant narratives about an emergent Asia. While acknowledging that the emergence of Australia's regional dialogue with Asia has been a bipartisan process, this article argues that such narratives, rather than confirming and extending the teleologies posited by past and contemporary policymakers, instead issued from the decline of Britishness as a foundational national story and the exigencies of Australia's emergence into post‐imperial nationhood. As such, they can more usefully be understood as interventions in a longstanding conversation about nation and belonging than as markers of a putative shift in foreign policy orthodoxy or, alternatively, as concern about material Asian realities.
Isolation of monocytes from leukapheretic products for large‐scale GMP‐grade generation of cytomegalovirus‐specific T‐cell lines by means of an automated elutriation device
Authors: Perseghin Paolo , D'Amico Giovanna , Dander Erica , Gaipa Giuseppe , Dassi Maria , Biagi Ettore , Biondi Andrea 
Published: May 2008

BACKGROUND: Dendritic cells (DC) act as antigen‐presenting cells in immune response–mediated mechanisms against malignant cells and/or viral or fungal pathogens. CD14+ monocytes have been so far isolated by techniques of plastic adherence or by using immunomagnetic methods. Here the effectiveness of a commercially available cell separation system (Elutra, Gambro BCT) in the separation of monocytes and the large‐scale production of cytomegalovirus (CMV)‐specific T‐cell lines were investigated.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Six mononuclear cell (MNC) collections were processed with the Elutra system. Monocyte‐enriched fraction was differentiated into DCs by addition of granulocyte‐macrophage–colony‐stimulating factor and interleukin (IL)‐4. After 6 days of culture, DCs were matured in the presence of interferon (IFN)‐γ, IFN‐α, IL‐1β, tumor necrosis factor‐α, and poly(I:C) and pulsed with a pool of 48 MHC Class I and II–binding CMV peptides. Lymphocytes were then stimulated with mature autologous CMV peptide–pulsed DCs.RESULTS: After elutriation, the mean monocyte yield was 0.89 × 109 ± 0.65 × 109, with a 51.0 ± 31.6 percent recovery and a 51.1 ± 35.4 percent purity. A significant correlation was observed when basal monocyte content was related to the postelutriation recovery (p < 0.0116). More than 60 percent of plated monocytes were differentiated into DCs, which after pulsing with CMV peptides, were able to stimulate a robust enrichment in CMV antigen–specific T cells in all tested samples (mean percentage of pentamer‐positive CD8+ cells, 35% compared to the initial 2%).CONCLUSION: Our findings might be helpful for an appropriate MNC collection, to maximize the efficiency of the elutriation system and subsequently obtain an optimal monocyte‐enriched yield for further DC generation and T‐cell stimulation.
Disparity in the management of iron overload between patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia who received transfusions
Authors: Fung Ellen B. , Harmatz Paul R. , Milet Meredith , Balasa Vinod , Ballas Samir K. , Casella James F. , Hilliard Lee , Kutlar Abdullah , McClain Kenneth L. , Olivieri Nancy F. , Porter John B. , Vichinsky Elliott P. ,   the Multi‐Center Iron Overload Research Group
Published: May 2008

BACKGROUND: Transfusion therapy is frequently used to prevent morbidity in sickle cell disease (SCD), and subsequent iron overload is common. The objective of this study was to evaluate the current standard of care in monitoring iron overload and related complications in patients with SCD compared to thalassemia (Thal).STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross‐sectional study was conducted at 31 hematology clinics in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Patients who received transfusions with a mean serum ferritin level of least 2000 ng per mL were eligible. A total of 199 patients with SCD (113 female; 24.9 ± 13.2 years) and 142 with Thal (66 female; 25.8 ± 8.1 years) were recruited, and data were collected between 2001 and 2003 by interview and medical record review.RESULTS: Although both groups were recruited on the basis of significant iron overload, the likelihood of performing a liver biopsy for routine iron monitoring was significantly higher (odds ratio [OR], 3.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2‐5.3) in Thal than SCD. Thal patients were also more likely to be screened for iron‐related organ injury including an echocardiograph for cardiomyopathy (OR, 2.6; p < 0.001; 95% CI, 1.6‐4.2), alanine aminotransferase for liver function (OR, 8.3; CI, 1.05‐64.4), and thyroid‐stimulating hormone for hypothyroidism (OR, 12.3; CI, 7.0‐21.5). For adult SCD patients, those maintained on simple transfusion with a serum ferritin level of greater than 2500 ng per mL were the least likely to have a liver biopsy (p < 0.03).CONCLUSIONS: These data highlight the unsystematic monitoring of iron and related organ injury in SCD. Until the relationship between iron and related comorbidities is better understood, routine monitoring of iron overload in SCD patients who receive transfusions should be considered a standard part of clinical care.
Evaluation of the Roche cobas s 201 system and cobas TaqScreen multiplex test for blood screening: a European multicenter study
Authors: Jarvis Lisa , Becker Janine , Tender Alzira , Cleland Alexander , Queiros Lucinda , Aquiar Ana , Azevedo Joana , Aprili Giuseppe , Bressan Fausto , Torres Pilar , Nieto Serafin , Ursitti Antonella , Montoro Jose , Vila Enrique , Ramada Concha , Saldanha John 
Published: May 2008

BACKGROUND: The Roche cobas TaqScreen test, an automated, multiplex nucleic acid test for blood screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) groups M and O, and HIV‐2 RNA, on the cobas s 201 platform, was evaluated by six European blood screening laboratories.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: The 95 percent limit of detection (LOD) of the cobas TaqScreen test for HBV, HCV, and HIV‐1, using dilutions of the WHO International Standards, were evaluated. The clinical performance was determined by testing between 2000 to 6000 routine donor samples. Some laboratories evaluated the robustness, cross‐contamination, and workflow.RESULTS: The mean 95 percent LOD (95% lower and upper confidence intervals) for HBV, HCV, and HIV‐1 across all the laboratories were 3.8 (range, 3.0‐5.2), 10.8 (range, 8.4‐14.4), and 56.7 (range, 43.0‐79.2) IU/mL, respectively. A total of 23,716 donors were tested in pools of 6. Fourteen initially reactive pools were detected, of which 6 contained a reactive donation, giving a positive predictive value of the pool results of 43 percent. One of the reactive donations was a HBV yield case (hepatitis B surface antigen–negative/anti‐HBc–positive). Evaluation of the workflow for the system showed that an optimized batch loading in which a pipettor (Hamilton Microlab Star IVD) was utilized to half capacity was better than a full batch loading.CONCLUSION: The 95 percent LOD for the three viruses were comparable to those obtained by Roche. The test and platform were shown to be sensitive, specific, flexible, and robust.
A combined flow cytometry–based method for fetomaternal hemorrhage and maternal D
Authors: Radel Darcie J. , Penz Connie S. , Dietz Allan B. , Gastineau Dennis A. 
Published: May 2008

BACKGROUND: The fetomaternal bleed assay by flow cytometry is a semiquantitative test used to determine the volume of fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH). We have enhanced this method by combining the fetomaternal bleed assay with a D antibody in the same tube to determine the maternal D as well as the need for Rh immune globulin (RhIG) administration.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: The performance of the FMB/D assay was compared against the Kleihauer‐Betke (KB) acid elution method for the quantitation of fetal bleed and tube method for the maternal D determination. Peripheral blood cells from the pregnant women were fixed and permeabilized, incubated with monoclonal antibodies directed against fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) and D, and analyzed by flow cytometry. The relative concentration of Hb F‐containing cells to adult cells was used to determine the volume of the FMH. In addition, the cells were identified as D+ or D−.RESULTS: D typing of nonpregnant adult donors matched in all cases with the tube method with a mean value of 0.01% Hb F‐positive cells (n = 25). D typing of pregnant or postpartum samples matched in all cases (n = 100), and the RhIG dose calculated by the percentage of Hb F for each method matched 97 percent (n = 36; p = 0.324). The one discrepant sample was consistent with the acknowledged overestimation when using the KB method.CONCLUSION: The highly precise anti‐Hb F flow cytometric method was combined with maternal D determination by anti‐D. This method correlates well with standard assays eliminating the need for additional testing without sacrificing clinical information.
Recombinant human immunoglobulin (Ig)A1 and IgA2 anti‐D used for detection of IgA deficiency and anti‐IgA
Authors: Nielsen Leif K. , Dziegiel Morten H. 
Published: May 2008

BACKGROUND: To avoid anaphylactic reactions, immunoglobulin (Ig)A‐deficient patients with anti‐IgA should be transfused with IgA‐deficient blood components. There is a need for fast and robust assays for demonstration of IgA deficiency and for detection of anti‐IgA.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Recombinant human IgA1 and IgA2 anti‐D molecules were constructed, expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells, and purified. These antibodies were used to sensitize group O D+ red blood cells (RBCs) for use as indicator cells, either in the format of a passive hemagglutination inhibition assay for detection of IgA deficiency or in a passive hemagglutination assay for detection of anti‐IgA. Both assays were performed in gel card.RESULTS: The sensitivity for IgA detection was adjusted to approximately 100 ng per mL. The assay for demonstration of IgA deficiency correlated with an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay for quantification of IgA. Anti‐IgA were easily detected, and the reactivity with IgA anti‐D–sensitized RBCs could be inhibited by purified IgA1 and/or IgA2 and by normal plasma containing IgA but not by IgA‐deficient plasma. Anti‐IgA was found in 64 percent of IgA‐deficient donors with less than 3 ng of IgA per mL.CONCLUSION: The assays for detection of IgA and anti‐IgA described in this article are fast and robust. Furthermore, they are applicable in all standard blood typing laboratories and are therefore well suited for immediate investigation of transfusion reactions.
Delivering drugs by the transdermal route: review and comment
Authors: Tanner T. , Marks R. 
Published: May 2008

Background: There are many advantages to administering drugs by routes that bypass the gastrointestinal tract. One such route is the transdermal in which the drug agent is applied to the skin in a patch or device of some type so that sufficient quantity penetrates the skin to exert a systemic effect. There are several theoretical advantages to this approach not the least of which is that the drug avoids being metabolized by the liver after absorption and that gastrointestinal irritation is avoided.Aims: To discuss the various ways in which drugs can be persuaded to cross the skin barrier and also to discuss the adverse effects of transdermal administration. Technical advances have permitted an increasing number of drugs to be offered in the transdermal format.