bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Left Atrial Flutter Following Pulmonary Vein Antrum Isolation with Radiofrequency Energy: Linear Lesions or Repeat Isolation
Authors: CUMMINGS JENNIFER E. , SCHWEIKERT ROBERT , SALIBA WALID , HAO STEVEN , MARTIN DAVID O. , MARROUCHE NASSIR F. , BURKHARDT J. DAVID , KILICASLAN FETHI , VERMA ATUL , BEHEIRY SALWA , BELDEN WILLIAM , NATALE ANDREA 
Published: March 2005

Introduction:

Left atrial flutter (LAFL) is a known complication of pulmonary vein isolation. Treatment of this arrhythmia currently involves both linear lesions as well as re‐isolation. However, it is unknown if re‐isolation alone is sufficient to prevent recurrence. This study reviews the incidence of LAFL following segmental PV antrum isolation (PVAI) in a large patient population and evaluates if re‐isolation alone is sufficient to prevent recurrence.
Methods and Results:

Seven hundred thirty‐seven patients underwent PVAI. Twenty‐three patients (3.1%) developed post‐PVAI LAFL. All patients underwent a second procedure in which only repeat PVAI was done. During the second procedure, all flutter circuits were electroanatomically mapped. All patients were followed at 3, 6, and 12 months. All 23 patients demonstrated recovery in one or more PV. After repeat isolation of the PVs, 61% of patients were arrhythmia free off all antiarrhythmic drugs. A relationship between the presence/absence of pre‐existing left atrial (LA) scar was observed. Of the 11 patients with pre‐existing LA scar, 36% remained arrhythmia free off antiarrhythmic drugs. In contrast, of the 12 patients without pre‐existing LA scar, 83% remained arrhythmia free off antiarrhythmic drugs (P = 0.03).
Conclusion:

Among patients with LAFL following PVAI, re‐isolation alone is sufficient in preventing recurrence in patients without pre‐existing LA scar. Patients with pre‐existing LA scar tend to have recurrence requiring further ablation including linear lesions, and continue to need antiarrhythmic medications.
‘War No Longer Has Any Logic Whatever’: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Thermonuclear Revolution
Authors: Eardmann Andrew P. N. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
For Eisenhower, it was nuclear weapons’ destructive potential, not the image of a protracted conventional war, that destroyed the ’logic’ of war. He believed that thermonuclear weapons made any notion of victory incoherent. Meaningful defence could then only be deterrence. Facing this new setting, Eisenhower reassessed the dynamics of international relations and altered his behaviour accordingly. During his first three years as president, he relied on the ’Detroit Deterrent’, the belief that the US industrial capacity would enable it to triumph in any such war of attrition. By 1956, however, the combination of thermonuclear weapons and growing Soviet intercontinental delivery capabilities made Detroit Deterrent obsolete in his mind. By the end of his presidency, therefore, superpower relations had begun to operate according to this new logic, the logic of ’thermonuclear revolution’.
Konrad Adenauer: Defence Diplomat on the Backstage
Authors: Messemer Annette 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
For Konrad Adenauer, post‐war international system centred around two revolutionary developments: the decline of Europe and the rise of the US and the Soviet Union to superpower status. For the survival of the ’European cultural supremacy’, Adenauer believed it was necessary to resist dependency on the US, and protect from a Soviet threat. Considering Germany's policy constraints on nuclear armament and its position as the possible nuclear battlefield in a military conflict between the US and the Soviet Union, Adenauer saw the solution in Western European unification as the only way to make West Germany an equal member of the post‐war international order.
CITIZENSHIP AS IDENTITY, CITIZENSHIP AS SHARED FATE, AND THE FUNCTIONS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
Authors: Williams Melissa S. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
This is the second of the four essays in Part II of the book on liberalism and traditionalist education; all four are by authors who would like to find ways for the liberal state to honour the self-definitions of traditional cultures and to find ways of avoiding a confrontation with differences. Melissa Williams examines citizenship as identity in relation to the project of nation-building, the shifting boundaries of citizenship in relation to globalization, citizenship as shared fate, and the role of multicultural education within the view of citizenship-as-shared-fate. She argues the other side of the same coin to that presented by Shelley Burtt in the previous chapter: according to Williams, the liberal state often demands too much in the way of loyalty from traditional groups, and when it does, it runs a strong risk of becoming oppressive and illiberal. Moreover, she holds that there is no need for a single shared identity among citizens of the liberal state. Her conception of people tied together by a shared fate is to this extent compatible with Burtt’s attempt to make liberalism’s commitment to autonomy more hospitable to groups of individuals encumbered by unchosen attachments, but her notion of citizenship as shared fate also goes further than that, and possibly stands in some tension with, Burtt’s view, since it allows and even encourages people to develop primary affiliation to all kind of groups – traditional as well as global.
CIVIC FRIENDSHIP AND DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION
Authors: Blacker David 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
This is the third of the four essays in Part II of the book on liberalism and traditionalist education; all four are by authors who would like to find ways for the liberal state to honour the self-definitions of traditional cultures and to find ways of avoiding a confrontation with differences. David Blacker’s essay on civic friendship and democratic education develops a Rawlsian conception of civic friendship, the scaffolding of which is necessarily provided by the wide range of comprehensive conceptions of the good that characterize democratic societies. Thus, Blacker argues, a democratic civic education ‘allows citizens to embrace democracy on their own terms, drawing support for democracy’s requisite political conceptions from the perspectives of citizens’ many different secular and/or religious comprehensive doctrines’. For Blacker, a conception of civic friendship that is friendly to citizens’ multiple comprehensive doctrines also entails a substantial lowering of the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state so that courts might be more willing than they currently are to allow the use of state funds to support religious groups, in particular where these groups perform functions within public (common) schools that converge with public interests. The essay concludes by proposing and defending two American educational policy initiatives that are consistent with Blacker’s politically liberal ideal of civic friendship – the revival of a ‘school stamps’ plan first proposed in the 1970s, and a modified version of a ‘clergy in the schools’ programme recently struck down by a federal circuit court in Texas.
MULTINATIONAL CIVIC EDUCATION
Authors: McDonough Kevin 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. Kevin McDonough’s essay, on multinational civic education, develops a conception of this that allows for both federal and minority national groups to reinforce conditional civic attachments. This ‘conditionalist’ view of civic education is necessary in multinational federal societies, he argues, because appeals to one set of national attachments may exacerbate rather than alleviate particular injustices in particular circumstances. For example, McDonough argues that when aboriginal women and children are the victims of injustice at the hands of tribal institutions and leaders, they must be able to appeal to their fellow non-aboriginal citizens and federal institutions for assistance, although this is not possible unless citizens – aboriginal and otherwise – have come to regard attachments to the minority nation as conditional rather than absolute. Similarly, citizens whose primary identification is to the federal society must be able to recognize that some of their fellow citizens legitimately have a minority nation as the object of their primary loyalty – otherwise, efforts to support federal intervention in minority national affairs will be vulnerable to forces of cultural insensitivity and arrogance, rather than of liberal justice.
Chapter 3 GENRE
Authors: Currie Gregory 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Outlines a theory of genres: of what they are, what they do, and what they explain. The central notion is that of a genre‐for‐a‐community, which depends on psychological facts concerning tendencies of expectation in the audience. The minimal conditions for a genre to be instantiated are weak; Outlines some stronger conditions which allow us to focus on self‐conscious genre‐based effects. Suggests that genre, even thus strengthened, has only a very weak explanatory role. Gives accounts of genre identity across time, and of genre change.
Duplex ultrasound screening for deep vein thrombosis in Chinese after cesarean section
Authors: Chan L. Y.‐S. , Lam K. Y. M. , Metreweli C. , Lau T. K. 
Published: March 2005

Background.  To evaluate the incidence of asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in Chinese after cesarean section (CS).Methods.  This is a prospective observational study. Ethnic Chinese women who were asymptomatic for DVT and delivered by CS were included. Duplex ultrasound scan (US) of the lower limbs was carried out 3–7 days after CS.Results.  From July 2000 to March 2001, a total of 93 women were examined. The mean age was 32.1 years (SD 5.0). Forty‐nine of 93 CSs were elective (52.7%). The median time from CS to US was 4 days (interquartile range, 4–5 days). No case of DVT was found in these 93 women.Conclusion.  The incidence of asymptomatic DVT is low in Chinese women after CS. Routine screening for DVT after CS is not warranted.
Changes in bone density and metabolism in pregnancy
Authors: Wisser Josef , Florio Ivrea , Neff Maurus , König Volker , Huch Renate , Huch Albert , Von Mandach Ursula 
Published: March 2005

Objective.  The impact of pregnancy on maternal bone density remains unclear. As a prerequisite to investigate the pathophysiology of gestational bone metabolism, we sought to document the changes in bone metabolism biochemistry in conjunction with those in selective trabecular/cortical osteodensitometry between early and late pregnancy.Methods.  A prospective, controlled study in a university hospital was conducted with 43 healthy women, 34 of them during uneventful pregnancy. The main outcome measures are trabecular and cortical bone density measured in the first and third trimesters using peripheral quantitative computed tomography in conjunction with a panel of bone metabolism parameters, including blood parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, osteocalcin, skeletal alkaline phosphatase, and the urinary desoxypyridinoline/creatinine ratio.Results.  Cortical bone density was unaffected by pregnancy. Trabecular bone density changes showed wide interindividual variation, ranging from +1.3 to −20.7% per year, identified as fast losers (less than −3%) and slow losers (more than −3%). Serum osteocalcin levels were lower in slow versus fast bone losers in both trimesters (first: P = 0.02, third: P = 0.02) and were the only independent parameter to differentiate between fast and slow losers.Conclusions.  Our data suggest that wide interindividual variation and the failure to provide a separate measure of trabecular bone density account for the conflicting evidence in earlier reports. Serum osteocalcin concentration during the first trimester distinguishes between fast and slow losers of trabecular bone and should be evaluated in future studies as predictor for later bone loss (osteoporosis).
Danish parents’ experiences when their new born or critically ill small child is transferred to the PICU – a qualitative study
Authors: Hall Elisabeth OC 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThe aim of this study was to describe Danish parents' experiences when their newborn or small child was critically ill. Thirteen parents were interviewed. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The child's transfer to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) meant either help or death for the parents. The back transfer was experienced as joy and despair. The parents had confidence in most nurses, and they were kind, helpful, informative and capable. Less capable and distressed nurses made the parents feel uncomfortable and insecure. Parents need help and support during their child's transfer to and from the PICU. Critical care nurses have to discuss the policy of family‐centred care.
Inhibitory oligodeoxynucleotides − therapeutic promise for systemic autoimmune diseases?
Authors: Lenert P 
Published: March 2005

SummaryRecent studies have shed new light on a possible link between the innate activation of plasmocytoid dendritic cells and marginal zone B cells and the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. Animal studies have identified that this response requires the Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). Engagement of the TLR9 by various ligands, including non-canonical CpG-motifs, can cause or aggravate pathogenic autoantibody production and cytokine secretion in lupus. Attempts to neutralize this activity either by blocking the acidification of the endosomal compartment with chloroquine and related compounds, or by preventing the interaction between the CpG-DNA sequences and TLR9 using inhibitory oligonucleotides could be a promising therapeutic option for lupus.
Anti-lysobisphosphatidic acid antibodies in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Alessandri C , Bombardieri M , Di Prospero L , Conigliaro P , Conti F , Labbadia G , Misasi R , Sorice M , Valesini G 
Published: March 2005

Summary
Lyso(bis)phosphatidic acid (LBPA) is a novel antigenic target in anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) and antibodies directed against LBPA (aLBPA) have been detected in sera from APS patients. In this study we first evaluated aLBPA in comparison with the most widely used methods (i.e. anticardiolipin [(aCL)-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)] and antibeta-2-glycoprotein-I antibodies (aβ2-GPI-ELISA) utilized to detect antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with primary or secondary APS, systemic lupus erythematosus, chronic HCV infection and healthy subjects. We then assessed the relationship between aLBPA, lupus anticoagulant (LAC) and the main clinical manifestations of APS. Finally, we evaluated the presence of ‘pure’ (i.e. β2-GPI-independent) aLBPA in patients with APS and controls. The results indicate that aLBPA as well as aβ2-GPI display higher specificity but lower sensitivity for APS compared to aCL. Moreover, serum aLBPA correlate closely with aCL and aβ2-GPI in APS patients and are strictly associated with LAC positivity. We demonstrate that β2-GPI binds to LBPA with affinity similar to CL, and antibodies able to react with phosholipid-protein complex exist; however, ‘pure’ aLBPA can also be detected in sera of APS patients. Altogether these data confirm that LBPA may be an antigenic target in APS and that aLBPA are serological markers of APS with similar sensitivity and specificity compared to aβ2-GPI. However, the clinical utility of aLBPA detection alone or in combination with aCL and/or aβ2-GPI remains to be elucidated in larger and longitudinal studies.
Abnormalities of CD4+ T cell subpopulations in ANCA-associated vasculitis
Authors: Marinaki S , Neumann I , Kälsch A-I , Grimminger P , Breedijk A , Birck R , Schmitt W , Waldherr R , Yard B A , Van Der Woude F J 
Published: March 2005

SummaryIn patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), CD25 expression is increased on circulating T cells. Although in animal experiments the role of CD4+ CD25+ T-regulatory-cells (Treg) in protection against autoimmunity is well established, the role of these cells in AAV is unknown. To investigate the hypothesis that an increased expression of CD25 on T cells is related to persistent T cell activation and not to disturbances in Treg cells in AAV (34 patients, six of them after renal transplantation), we investigated CD25 expression in different subpopulations of CD4+ cells and FOXP3 mRNA expression by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion after stimulation with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 and intracellular cytokine production after stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-ionomycin was determined. Controls were non-vasculitic renal transplant patients (n = 9) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 13). In AAV the total number of lymphocytes, CD4+ lymphocytes and the percentage of naive T cells are lower than in HC and RTX. An increased percentage of CD25+ cells was found in AAV and AAV/RTX, irrespective of disease activity, but not in HC or RTX. This was confined to the naive (CD4+ CD45RBhigh) population only. FOXP3 mRNA expression in CD4+ T cells did not differ between AAV patients and healthy controls. In vitro T cell proliferation was enhanced in AAV patients compared to HC (P &lt; 0·01). PBMC of AAV patients produced significantly less interleukin (IL)-10 and interferon (IFN)-γ after anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation. The percentage of IL-10 and IL-12, but not IFN-γ, IL-4 or tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α-producing cells was significantly higher in patients compared to HC. These findings were confined to the memory population of CD4+ cells. We conclude that AAV patients are lymphopenic and have low numbers of CD4+ T cells, which seem to be in a persistent state of activation.
Relationship of granulocyte colony stimulating factor with other acute phase reactants in man
Authors: Noursadeghi M , Pepys M B , Gallimore R , Cohen J 
Published: March 2005

SummaryThe non-specific acute phase response in mice is associated with increased resistance to bacterial infection, which is critically mediated by granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), but the behaviour of G-CSF in the human acute phase response is not known. Cardiothoracic surgery is a powerful acute phase stimulus and we show here that this procedure caused increased production of G-CSF, in addition to increases in the circulating concentrations of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 and the acute phase plasma proteins C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A protein (SAA). Values of G-CSF correlated positively with IL-6 concentrations and circulating neutrophil counts, but not with CRP values. These results confirm that G-CSF is a physiological component of the acute phase response in humans that shares some of the same regulatory controls as IL-6, but its downstream effects are on neutrophils, not hepatic acute phase protein synthesis. Our observations are compatible with a protective role against bacterial infection for G-CSF in the human acute phase response, and support investigation of the prophylactic use of G-CSF in at-risk patients.
Assessment of CD8+ T cell immune activation markers to monitor response to antiretroviral therapy among HIV-1 infected patients in Côte d’Ivoire
Authors: Ondoa P , Koblavi-Dème S , Borget M-Y , Nolan M L , Nkengasong J N , Kestens L 
Published: March 2005

SummaryBecause of the paucity of plasma HIV RNA viral load (VL) tests in resource-poor settings, the CD4+ T cell count is often used as the sole laboratory marker to evaluate the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-infected patients. In untreated patients, the level of activated T cells is positively correlated with VL and represents a prognostic marker of HIV infection. However, little is known about its value to predict early drug failure, taking into account the relatively high non-specific immune activation background observed in many resource-limited tropical countries. We assessed the use of immune activation markers (expression of CD38 and/or human leucocyte antigen-DR on CD8+ lymphocytes) to predict virological response to ART in a cohort of HIV-1 infected patients in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Correlations between VL, absolute CD4+ T cell counts and immune activation levels were examined in 111 HIV patient samples at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of therapy. The percentage of CD38+ CD8+ T cells appeared to be the best correlate of VL. In contrast, changes in CD4+ T cell counts provided a poor correlate of virological response to ART. Unfortunately, CD38+ CD8+ percentages lacked specificity for the determination of early virological drug failure and did not appear to be reliable surrogates of RNA viral load. CD38+ CD8+ T cell percentages may, rather, provide a sensitive estimate of the overall immune recovery, and be a useful extra laboratory parameter to CD4 counts that would contribute to improve the clinical management of HIV-infected people when VL testing facilities are lacking.
Evidence for involvement of peptidoglycan in the triggering of an oxidative burst byListeria monocytogenesin phagocytes
Authors: Remer K A , Reimer T , Brcic M , Jungi T W 
Published: March 2005

SummaryWe have shown previously that in listeric encephalitis of cattle and rats, nitrotyrosine was produced in microabscesses, implying that both superoxide anion (O2–) and nitric oxide (NO) are present and react with each other. Evidence of local synthesis of NO by macrophages was provided, but the source of O2– remained unknown. Here we have examined whether phagocytes exposed to viable and heat-killed Listeria monocytogenes (LMΔ) produce O2– and, if so, whether this results from direct interaction of phagocytes with the bacterial surface of L. monocytogenes or whether prior opsonization is required. Using lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence (LCL) for the measurement of O2–, we show that LMΔ induces an oxidative burst in human neutrophils, monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages (Mφ). Viability is not required, and opsonization by antibodies and/or complement does not enhance the LCL signal. As Toll-like receptors (TLR) were shown recently to mediate an oxidative burst, TLR agonists representative for pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) were tested for their ability to elicit an oxidative burst. These included lipoteichoic acid (LTA), bacterial peptidoglycan (PGN), recombinant flagellin, CpG-containing DNA and double-stranded RNA. Only PGN and flagellin consistently elicited an LCL signal resembling that induced by LMΔ with regard to the kinetics and cell spectrum stimulated. However, flagellin was unlikely to be responsible for the LMΔ-mediated burst, as a flagellin-deficient mutant showed no decrease in LCL. We therefore assume that in LMΔ, core PGN acts as a PAMP and directly induces an oxidative burst in all phagocyte populations. We conclude that in cerebral lesions superoxide anion is generated locally by phagocytes recognizing bacterial PGN.