bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Peri‐operative morbidity and changes in symptom scores after transurethral prostatectomy in Switzerland: results of an independent assessment of outcome
Authors: MÜNTENER MICHAEL , AELLIG SONJA , KÜTTEL ROLF , GEHRLACH CHRISTOPH , HAURI DIETER , STREBEL RÄTO T. 
Published: May 2006

OBJECTIVESTo assess, in a prospective study, the contemporary outcome of transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in Switzerland, by evaluating peri‐operative morbidity and changes in lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).PATIENTS AND METHODSBetween January 2000 and January 2005, 11 hospitals in Switzerland participated in the study. The hospitals were required to inform Verein Outcome (VO), an independent institution specialising in outcome measurements in the Swiss healthcare system, about patients with BPH who were scheduled for TURP. Later, the hospitals provided data on peri‐operative complications in these patients. The patients’ Danish Prostate Symptom Score (DAN‐PSS) was obtained by VO before and 4 months after TURP (via mailed questionnaires).RESULTSData on peri‐operative complications from 1014 patients were included in this analysis. The mean (range) age of the patients was 69 (43–91) years. The most common complication after TURP was urinary retention, in 4.5% of the patients; the overall peri‐operative complication rate was 9%. In all, 468 patients returned questionnaires both before and after TURP. The mean total DAN‐PSS before and 4 months after surgery was 25.2 and 6.2, respectively (P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONSThe results of this prospective multicentre study showed that the current peri‐operative morbidity of TURP is lower than that reported from older large‐scale trials. The independent assessment of symptom scores confirms that TURP is highly effective in alleviating bothersome LUTS due to BPH.
Concurrent radical retropubic prostatectomy and Lichtenstein inguinal hernia repair through a single modified Pfannenstiel incision: a 3‐year experience
Authors: MANOHARAN MURUGESAN , VYAS SACHIN , ARAKI MOTOO , NIEDER ALAN M. , SOLOWAY MARK S. 
Published: May 2006

OBJECTIVETo present the results of a 3‐year experience of radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) through a modified Pfannenstiel incision and concomitant repair of an inguinal hernia at the time of RRP, using a tension‐free technique with a mesh, as described by Lichtenstein, with no additional incision(s), as 5–10% of patients with clinically localized prostate cancer have a detectable inguinal hernia.PATIENTS AND METHODSPatients who had RRP between October 2002 and July 2005 were included; we used a standard open RRP, in all cases using a modified Pfannenstiel incision. If the patient had an inguinal hernia, we approached the inguinal canal through the same incision and performed a Lichtenstein mesh repair, through the inguinal canal and avoiding placing mesh within the pelvis. Patients were followed at 1 and 6 weeks, 3‐monthly for 1 year and 6‐monthly thereafter. All clinical variables were entered into a database and analysed.RESULTSIn all, 450 men underwent RRP; 44 (10%) had inguinal hernia and in all, 56 hernias were repaired (32 unilateral and 12 bilateral; 16 indirect, 22 direct, six both) The mean (sd) age of the patients was 60 (7) years. Most patients were discharged within 36 h. The mean (sd) follow‐up was 9 (8) months. Two patients had a superficial inguinal haematoma and one had a scrotal haematoma. They were treated conservatively with no sequelae. There were no wound infections. One patient developed a recurrent inguinal hernia. None had any clinical evidence of testicular atrophy or chronic pain.CONCLUSIONConcurrent formal mesh repair of the inguinal hernia and RRP through a single modified Pfannenstiel incision is safe and effective. The complications were minimal and recurrence rates were low. This procedure eliminates the risks involved with the preperitoneal mesh repair and avoids multiple incisions.
Quiescence induced by iron challenge protects neuroblastoma cells from oxidative stress
Authors: Mura Casilda V. , Delgado Ricardo , Aguirre Pabla , Bacigalupo Juan , Núñez Marco T. 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThe brain uses massive amounts of oxygen, generating large quantities of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Because of its lipid composition, rich in unsaturated fatty acids, the brain is especially vulnerable to ROS. Furthermore, oxidative damage in the brain is often associated with iron, which has pro‐oxidative properties. Iron‐mediated oxidative damage in the brain is compounded by the fact that brain iron distribution is non‐uniform, being particularly high in areas sensitive to neurodegeneration. This work was aimed to further our understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells adapt to, and survive increasing iron loads. Using an iron accumulation protocol that kills about 50% of the cell population, we found by cell sorting analysis that the SHSY5Y sub‐population that survived the iron loading arrested in the G0phase of the cell cycle. These cells expressed neuronal markers, while their electrical properties remained largely unaltered. These results suggest that upon iron challenge, neuroblastoma cells respond by entering the G0phase, somehow rendering them resistant to oxidative stress. A similar physiological condition might be involved in neuronal survival in tissues known to accumulate iron with age, such as the hippocampus and thesubstantia nigra pars compacta.
Interaction of the brain‐specific protein p42IP4/centaurin‐α1 with the peptidase nardilysin is regulated by the cognate ligands of p42IP4, PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 and Ins(1,3,4,5)P4, with stereospecificity
Authors: Stricker Rolf , Chow K. Martin , Walther Daniela , Hanck Theodor , Hersh Louis B. , Reiser Georg 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThe brain‐specific protein p42IP4, also called centaurin‐α1, specifically binds phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P3] and inositol 1,3,4,5‐tetrakisphosphate [Ins(1,3,4,5)P4]. Here, we investigate the interaction of p42IP4/centaurin‐α1 with nardilysin (NRDc), a member of the M16 family of zinc metalloendopeptidases. Members of this peptidase family exhibit enzymatic activity and also act as receptors for other proteins. We found that p42IP4/centaurin‐α1 binds specifically to NRDc from rat brain. We further detected that centaurin‐α2, a protein that is highly homologuous to p42IP4/centaurin‐α1 and expressed ubiquitously, also binds to NRDc. In vivo interaction was demonstrated by co‐immunoprecipitation of p42IP4/centaurin‐α1 with NRDc from rat brain. The acidic domain of NRDc (NRDc‐AD), which does not participate in catalysis, is sufficient for the protein interaction with p42IP4. Interestingly, preincubation of p42IP4 with its cognate ligands d‐Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 and the lipid diC8PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 negatively modulates the interaction between the two proteins. d‐Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 and diC8PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 suppress the interaction with virtually identical concentration dependencies. This inhibition is highly ligand specific. The enantiomer l‐Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 is not effective. Similarly, the phosphoinositides diC8PtdIns(3,4)P2, diC8PtdIns(3,5)P2 and diC8PtdIns(4,5)P2 all have no influence on the interaction. Further experiments revealed that endogenous p42IP4 from rat brain binds to glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST)‐NRDc‐AD. The proteins dissociate from each other when incubated with d‐Ins(1,3,4,5)P4, but not with inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P3]. In summary, we demonstrate that p42IP4 binds to NRDc via the NRDc‐AD, and that this interaction is controlled by the cognate cellular ligands of p42IP4/centaurin‐α1. Thus, specific ligands of p42IP4 can modulate the recruitment of proteins, which are docked to p42IP4, to specific cellular compartments.
RETRACTED: Extensive degradation of myelin basic protein isoforms by calpain following traumatic brain injury
Authors: Liu Ming Cheng , Akle Veronica , Zheng Wenrong , Kitlen Jason , O'Steen Barbara , Larner Stephen F. , Dave Jitendra R. , Tortella Frank C. , Hayes Ronald L. , Wang Kevin K. W. 
Published: May 2006

AbstractAxonal injury is one of the key features of traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet little is known about the integrity of the myelin sheath. We report that the 21.5 and 18.5‐kDa myelin basic protein (MBP) isoforms degrade into N‐terminal fragments (of 10 and 8 kDa) in the ipsilateral hippocampus and cortex between 2 h and 3 days after controlled cortical impact (in a rat model of TBI), but exhibit no degradation contralaterally. Using N‐terminal microsequencing and mass spectrometry, we identified a novel in vivo MBP cleavage site between Phe114 and Lys115. A MBP C‐terminal fragment‐specific antibody was then raised and shown to specifically detect MBP fragments in affected brain regions following TBI. In vitro naive brain lysate and purified MBP digestion showed that MBP is sensitive to calpain, producing the characteristic MBP fragments observed in TBI. We hypothesize that TBI‐mediated axonal injury causes secondary structural damage to the adjacent myelin membrane, instigating MBP degradation. This could initiate myelin sheath instability and demyelination, which might further promote axonal vulnerability.
Does the p75 neurotrophin receptor mediate Aβ‐induced toxicity in Alzheimer's disease?
Authors: Coulson Elizabeth J. 
Published: May 2006

AbstractAlzheimer's disease is characterized by the over‐production and accumulation of amyloidogenic Aβ peptide, which can induce cell death in vitro. It has been suggested that the death signal could be transduced by the pan neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR). p75NTR is well known for its ability to mediate neuronal death in neurodegenerative conditions and is inextricably linked with changes that occur in Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, Aβ binds to p75NTR, activating signalling cascades. However, the complexity of p75NTR‐mediated signalling, which does not always promote cell death, leaves open the possibly of Aβ promoting death via an alternative signalling pathway or the regulation of other p75NTR‐mediated actions. This review focuses on the interactions between Aβ and p75NTR in the context of the broader p75NTR signalling field, and offers alternative explanations for how p75NTR might contribute to the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease.
COMPARING PUBLIC POLICY: An Overview*
Authors: ROSE RICHARD 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTBefore undertaking comparative policy analysis, one must first be clear of the justification for the inordinately large amount of work required. A variety of reasons are reviewed. In order to make comparisons, one must have a conceptual framework to identify the different parts of the policy process. Data must be placed in a process, as well as located in geographical space. It is also important to consider to what extent differences between policy areas (defence, health care, housing, economic policy, etc) influence the policy process. The issues discussed concern problems that arise in within‐nation studies of policy, as well as between‐nation comparisons.
THREATS TO DÉTENTE: INTUITIVE HOPES AND COUNTERINTUITIVE REALITIES
Authors: WEEDE ERICH 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe theoretical perspective behind détente is elaborated. While avoidance of war is the major goal, cooperation, tension‐reduction and improvement of domestic societies are the major means. Cooperation includes trade, legal commitments, functional cooperation within IGOs and routine diplomacy. Tension reduction includes less verbal conflict, less defense expenditures, a slower arms race and possibly multipolarization. Improvement of domestic socieities refers to stability, egalitarianism and democracy within nations. All those détente‐related propositions about means‐ends‐relationships are scrutinized from a quantitative international politics perspective. In general, propositions receive little or no support. A tentative explanation why is suggested by reference to an alternative theoretical framework. It is argued that détente neither affects the security dilemma nor territorial problems nor ideological dissens enough to overcome still irreconcilable conflicts of interest. As long as there are such conflicts of interest, meaningful victory has to be ruled out by deterrence in order to avoid war. While deterrence may help us to survive in the short run, it guarantees doom in the long run. So, there is some true insight behind the drive for détente. Nevertheless détente may prove counterproductive, because it might promote multipolarization and finally nuclear proliferation. While we badly need something better and safer than deterrence, détente doesn't seem to be the solution to our problems of survival.
PARTICIPATORY PLANNING: THE P.C.I.'S NEW APPROACH TO MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
Authors: NANETTI RAFFAELLA Y. , LEONARDI ROBERT 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe thesis of this paper is that the Italian Communists are attempting to implement a top‐initiated response to increasing societal demands for government services and the crisis of confidence in local politics in blending together technocratic‐efficiency elements in the management of public affairs along with sustained grassroots participation. We will attempt to analyze this response by looking at the structural aspects of the urban problem, national legislation on neighborhood government passed in 1976, and an evaluation of the Bologna experiment with urban decentralization. The purpose will be to assess the impact that the PCI's new approach has had on citizen participation in local government as well as part successes at the local and national level.
SEX AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE “FEMALE CULTURE”*
Authors: LAFFERTY WILLIAM M. 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe study of sexual differences in political participation is increasing in analytic specificity. The present article takes its point of departure in the contention that sexual differences are the major source of participatory inequality in Norway. On the basis of survey data (N= 784), it explores a major hypothesis on sexual variation: the possible existence of a “female culture” which conditions women away from greater involvement. Participation is defined as both electoral and interest‐group involvement, and various indicators of the female culture are studied by regression analysis to determine their effect in relation to other socioeconomic factors. There are two major findings: (1) Both positive and negative evidence of the female culture are revealed, but, with the exception of general political interest, none of the personality, attitude, or value components affect political participation. (2) The variable which explains sexual variation most is an interaction variable composed of gender, family status, and work status. Being married and having children appears to exert strong differential effects on the involvement patterns of women and men, and these patterns can be traced out in terms of gender‐specific profiles of organizational attachment and intra‐organizational recruitment. As a conditioner of political involvement, the female culture is best understood as a question of gender‐specific role demands in relation to the productive and reproductive processes, with clear consequences for organizational preference and political activization.
Size and Evaluation of Government: Danish Attitudes towards Politics at Multiple Levels of Government*
Authors: NIELSEN HANS JØRGEN 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe paper starts out from descriptions of Danish voters as protest voters, and the main problem is whether ‘protest’ as measured by distrust towards the national politicians is an indicator of a general negative attitude towards politics. A main distinction is made between distrust and lack of efficacy, and a second between national and local politics. It is found that there is hardly any lack of efficacy among the voters, and, further, that local politics is evaluated more positively than national politics. Hence distrust of national politicians is not synonymous with a general rejection of politics. Further, the more positive evaluation of local politics seems to be an expression of a ‘size factor’ producing not only a difference between state and local government but also between small and large municipalities.
Economics and Politics in France: Economic Performance and Mass Political Support for Presidents Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing*
Authors: HIBBS DOUGLAS A. , VASILATOS NICHOLAS 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTDuring recent years the state of the economy has been a very salient issue for the mass publics of the industrial democracies, and the French electorate is no exception. In this article the influence of inflation, unemployment and real income growth performance on popular ‘satisfaction’ with Presidents Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing is analysed. The empirical analyses are based on a model of qualitative political responses. The most important features of the model are that people evaluate a President's economic performance relatively rather than absolutely, and that the weights placed upon current and past performance in the formation of contemporaneous political judgments decline geometrically. The empirical results indicate clearly that a President's standing with the mass public depends primarily on the performance of the real economy (in particular, the real income growth rate), rather than on nominal economic conditions (the inflation rate). This suggests that deflationary macroeconomic policies sacrificing employment and real output and income growth in order to achieve price deceleration are not likely to enhance a President's support in the French electorate.
Public Opinion and European Integration: The Crisis of the 1970s*
Authors: HANDLEY DAVID H. 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTPublic support and attitudes toward European integration and the Common Market as a set of integrative institutions traversed a crisis during the 1970s which few suspected. Evidence is presented which suggests that integrative efforts may have seriously lost ground rather than merely stagnating as had been forecast by the more pessimistic theorists and analysts of the 1960s. The decline in support can be linked to both integration‐related events such as the attempts to enlarge the Community and the economic crisis of the mid‐1970s. By the end of the decade, the decline in general support of European integration appears to have been reversed, probably because of the direct European elections and improvement in the economic situation. On the other hand, support for the Community continued to decline in the 1980s.
Local Clientelism in Post‐Industrial Society: The Example of the French Communist Party*
Authors: DONNEUR ANDRE P. , PADIOLEAU JEAN G. 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTCan the concept of clientelism be used to analyse some activities of the PCF at the municipal level? A theoretical and strategical analysis of clientelism is used as the basis of an examination of the peculiarities of PCF clientelism, which has developed in a context where, in addition to the centralization of French politics which hinders the development of widespread local clientelism, the PCF does not have privileged access to the decision‐making bodies of the State.The major preculiarity of PCF clientelism is a kind of symbiosis between municipal power and the party's apparatus, made possible by the financial and political dependency of the mayor and municipal councillors on the party's apparatus. In this context, they tend to appear a representative of a party more than as an individual. In turn, it allows the mayors and municipal councillors to cope with the difficulties encountered in the administration of municipalities because of the policies of the central State, which enables the PCF to publicize its political plan and invite voters to seek a change of government.
Implementation Research as Empirical Constitutionalism
Authors: HJERN BENNY , HULL CHRIS 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this introductory article is to set implementation research in a political science setting. We understand it as having a distinctive and central place within the discipline. We argue that implementation research is not public administration research in disguise. Its frame of reference is not formal constitutional organization but the arrangements and procedures of the living constitution. And implementation research is not just public policy analysis by another name. Its ordering principle is not policy problems as defined and addressed by the ‘political system’ but policy problems as defined and addressed by relevant societal actors. The importance of implementation research for political science is that it offers scope for empirical constitutionalism: to ask, first, what are the organizational arrangements which generate policies and their effects, in order to ask, second, which of those various arrangements are or could be made optimal forms from a prescriptive constitutional perspective. Implementation research acknowledges the written constitution‐but also the living constitution. It is a mind‐set for sceptical enquiry into the structure and functions of policy processes, and to confront these manifestations of the living constitution with the prescriptions of the written.
Regulatory Structures: Enforcement as Implementation
Authors: HANF KENNETH 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe implementation structure approach was developed for research in the area of human services delivery as an alternative to the traditional top‐down model of implementation. A preliminary test of the general applicability of this perspective to other policy types and instruments is presented in this article, which describes the design and assumptions of an international comparison of the implementation of regulatory programmes in the area of air quality control. On the basis of field work and preliminary results, some observations are offered with regard to the contribution the implementation structure approach can make to that comparative analysis on which the cumulative knowledge of implementation processes across policy areas and in different institutional contexts depends. While it is suggested that more work must be done on conceptualizing the analytic unit ‘implementation structure’, experience in this project indicates that the level of analysis demarcated by the bottom‐up perspective, and the general focus on the pattern of interactions through which regulatory outputs are produced, are useful points of departure for description and analysis of implementation in this policy area.
Privatized Policy‐Making: Administrative and Consociational Types of Implementation in Regional Economic Policy in Switzerland*
Authors: ACKERMANN CHARBEL , STEINMANN WALTER 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThis paper reports results of a research project dealing with the role of private actors and semi‐public organizations in inter‐organizational networks of policy implementation. The first part addresses more general and longer‐term issues of how and why mixed public and private implementation networks are generated. The central part of the article describes the results of a case study of regional economic development policy in Switzerland by comparing two models of implementation: an administrative one specifically attuned to the interests of the policy's target (firms), and a ‘consociational’ one emphasizing the participation of regional economic interest groups. Using this comparison we try to evaluate the impact of institutional configurations on policy output.