bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chronic open angle glaucoma: patient awareness of the nature of the disease, topical medication, compliance and the prevalence of systemic symptoms
Authors: Deokule Sunil , Sadiq Saghir , Shah Sunil 
Published: December 2003

AbstractPurpose:  To study the awareness of the nature of the disease, compliance with treatment, and prevalence of systemic symptoms in a group of patients with chronic open angle glaucoma (COAG).Method:  A structured questionnaire was designed and given to 260 consecutive COAG patients attending a general ophthalmology clinic. Questions related to the increased risk of COAG amongst family members, screening of family members, nature of field defects, variation in IOP, topical treatment and availability of a free eye test for a COAG patient in the UK were asked. Compliance and systemic symptoms were also assessed.Results:  Forty‐one per cent (107 of 260) of patients in the study group were aware of the increased risk of COAG in family members and 45.5% (118 of 260) of patient's family members had undergone screening for COAG. Seventy‐three per cent (191 of 260) of the patients were aware of their own and their family members’ entitlement to a free eye test. Seventy‐seven per cent of patients claimed full compliance. Thirty per cent of patients were noted to have systemic symptoms.Conclusions:  The awareness of the nature of COAG in this population was low and incidence of perceived drug related systemic symptoms very high. Both of these may contribute to poor compliance.
Effect of light filters on reading speed in normal and low vision due to age‐related macular degeneration
Authors: Eperjesi Frank , Fowler Colin W. , Evans Bruce J. W. 
Published: December 2003

AbstractPurpose:  To investigate the effects of light filters on reading speed in normal and low vision due to age‐related macular degeneration (AMD).Methods:  Reading speed was determined for 12 subjects with normal vision and 12 subjects with non‐exudative AMD using stationary lowercase nonsensical print in Times Roman font and four light filters; a yellow Corning Photochromic Filter (CPF) 450, a grey neural density (ND) filter, an individual filter obtained using the Intuitive Colorimeter® and a clear filter.Results:  There was no statistically significant light filter effect on reading speed for the normal subjects. The AMD group demonstrated a statistically significant 5% average improvement in reading speed with the CPF450 compared with the other filters although some AMD subjects had improvements of 10–15%.Conclusions:  Light filters obtained using the Intuitive Colorimeter® performed poorly when compared with the CPF450, ND and clear filters for both the study groups. For the AMD group, average reading speed was statistically greater with the CPF450 than the other filters, however it is questionable whether the improvement (5%) would be clinically significant. As some of the subjects with AMD had greater improvements with the CPF450 we advocate clinical assessment of light filters using existing protocols on an individual basis.
Regions: An Illusive Concept
Authors: Page Sheila 
Published: December 2003

Books reviewed in this article:Tan, Joseph L.H. (ed.), AFTA in the Changing International EconomyMenon, Jayant, Adjusting Towards AFTA: The Dynamics of Trade in ASEANBora, Bijit and Findlay, Christopher (eds), Regional Integration and the Asia‐PacificLawrence, Robert Z., Regionalism, Multilateralism, and Deeper Integration
‘Monet makes the world go around’: art history and ‘The Triumph of Impressionism’
Authors: Callen Anthea 
Published: December 2003

Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, or the Triumph of Impressionism: Catalogue raisonnéSteven Z. Levine, Monet, Narcissus and Self‐Reflection: The Modernist Myth of the SelfPaul Hayes Tucker with George T.M. Shackleford and MaryAnne Stevens, Monet in the Twentieth Century
Sculpture and Art History
Authors: Miller Sanda 
Published: December 2003

Books reviewed in this article:Andrew Causey Sculpture since 1945Keith Aspley, Elizabeth Cowling and Peter Sharratt From Rodin to GiacomettiPhillip Lindley Sculpture ConservationTom Flynn The Body in SculptureAnthony Hughes and Erich Ranfft Sculpture and its ReproductionsPhilip Rawson SculptureJames Hall The World as Sculpture
Confrontations with Radical Evil: the ambiguity of myth and the inadequacy of representation
Authors: Zucker Steven 
Published: December 2003

The unprecedented violence at the end of World War II prompted a number of Abstract Expressionists to abandon mythology as a means to explore contemporary evil. Myth, as used by these American artists, was essentially a synthesis of psychoanalytic theory, and cultural and physical anthropology, offering a structure with which contemporary events could be expressed without resorting to the illustrative documentation of the Regionalists or the Surrealists. The critical literature that treats the early New York School dismisses myth as a preparatory phase which was replaced by the purer forms of the painters’ signature abstraction by 1946 and 1947. Absent is an evaluation of the motives which led these artists actively to repudiate myth as a means to explore evil. An examination of this rejection of the last traces of narrative must also take into account the function and limitations of myth in early postwar American art.An assessment of these limitations is undertaken by intrepreting the work of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, David Smith and other Abstract Expressionists in the context of Hannah Arendt’s coeval political philosophy and especially her early conception of radical evil. Additionally, the writings of Theodore Adorno, Pär Lagerkvist, Herman Melville, Barnett Newman, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner offer a relevant context within which to analyse the dynamics that transformed the American use of the archaic from a celebration of the irrational into a condemnation of its moral ambiguity. Myth was not simply shed to make way for the breakthrough abstractions of the artists but was rejected because of its ideological dangers. In the postwar era, myth had become untenable.
Antiquity and Improvement in the National Landscape: The Bucks’ Views of Antiquities 1726–42
Authors: Kennedy Andrew 
Published: December 2003

Andrew Kennedy studied at the Courtauld Institute and was awarded his PhD in 1998. His doctoral thesis was a study of British topographical print series 1720–1840, focusing on the marketing of an imagery of national and local identities to diverse and changing domestic audiences. He has a chapter, ‘Representing the Three Kingdoms: Hanoverianism and the Virtuosi’s Museum’, in the multi–authored volume to be published shortly, based on the proceedings of the 2001 ‘Landscape and Politics’ conference. His article, written jointly with Annie Richardson, ‘Blotting and Blurring One against the Other: Reynolds, Gainsborough and Narratives of the Artist’, was published in the Oxford Art Journal, January 2002. He has taught at Winchester School of Art and Reading University, among other institutions, and currently teaches at Kingston and East London Universities and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.This article examines the possible contemporary meanings of the engraved views of English and Welsh antiquities published between 1726 and 1742 by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck. The category of ‘antiquity’ automatically existed in a binary relation to the category of ‘improvement’ at this period (as it still does, in some sense). William Stukeley, who was very much associated with the Bucks’ project, found that engravings were ideal for capturing and rendering manageable the promiscuous variety of Britain’s landscape, with its mixture of antiquity and improvement, as it presented itself to the traveller. The nation’s past history, as evidenced by these medieval remains, legitimated and was simultaneously redeemed by a dynamic, improving present, one which a number of the Bucks’ subscribers were actively involved in constructing. Not only are the plates invariably dedicated to the owners of the remains that they depict, but antiquarian study itself is linked to a wider state of propertied prosperity. Given this context, it does not seem so strange, for example, that a series depicting mainly ‘Gothic’ antiquities should attract subscriptions from leading proponents of English Palladianism, that classicizing, modernizing, improving style, when it might be thought that they would have patronized Romano–British antiquarianism exclusively.
The Legacy of Knut Wicksell to Capital Theory
Authors: Malinvaud Edmond 
Published: December 2003

AbstractWicksell's contributions to capital theory focused on stationary states in four distinct models intended to account for the time dimension of production in market economies. We now have a better understanding of the true challenges because of two developments: a full theory of intertemporal general equilibria and a methodology for comparative analysis as explained by Hicks. In Wicksell's equilibria, the real interest rate turns out to be equal to the marginal productivity of the volume of social capital, a concept that Wicksell could not master and hence avoided. Challenges remain, particularly regarding the best way to account for complementarities and substitutions over time.
Wicksell, Lindahl and the Theory of Public Goods
Authors: Silvestre Joaquim 
Published: December 2003

AbstractWicksell's and Lindahl's ideas on public goods and decisions are reviewed in light of later developments in the theoretical economics literature. I begin by discussing their normative ideals, in particular the notion of justness, and the sources of the difficulties in reaching them. Wicksell's and Lindahl's ideal states, as well as the obstacles that they perceive, are compared to more recent views on free riding and on the behavior of elected representatives. Their views on political bargaining are then related to later concepts, in particular to the core of the economy.
Multinational Companies, Technology Spillovers and Plant Survival*
Authors: Görg Holger , Strobl Eric 
Published: December 2003

AbstractHow does the presence of multinational companies affect plant survival in the host country? We postulate that multinational companies can impact positively on plant survival through technology spillovers. We examine the nature of the effect of multinationals using a Cox proportional hazard model, which we estimate using plant‐level data for Irish manufacturing industries. Our results show that the presence of multinationals has a life‐enhancing effect only on indigenous plants in high‐tech industries, suggesting the presence of technology spillovers. In contrast, multinationals compete with each other in low‐tech sectors in the host country.
Heroin Consumption, Prices and Addiction: Evidence from Self‐reported Panel Data*
Authors: Line Bretteville‐Jensen Anne , Biørn Erik 
Published: December 2003

AbstractEstimation models of drug demand should encompass the aspect of addiction. Here, we consider two static panel data regression models and two cross‐section models with lags or leads in drug consumption as additional regressors. Heroin injectors attending a needle exchange service in Oslo were interviewed twice, with a one‐year interval. Despite our relatively small sample, we obtain statistically significant price and income responses for nearly all of the models and specifications applied. The sample is split by dealing status, with dealers obtaining price elasticities in the range of [−0.15, −1.51] and non‐dealers [−0.71, −1.69]. Somewhat surprisingly, the estimates of the variance of the latent individual‐specific variable are rather low in the panel data models, although higher for non‐dealers than for dealers.
Involvement of multiple human cytochromes P450 in the liver microsomal metabolism of astemizole and a comparison with terfenadine
Authors: Matsumoto Shigeki , Yamazoe Yasushi 
Published: December 2003

Aims  The aims of the present study were to investigate the metabolism of astemizole in human liver microsomes, to assess possible pharmacokinetic drug‐interactions with astemizole and to compare its metabolism with terfenadine, a typical H1 receptor antagonist known to be metabolized predominantly by CYP3A4.Methods  Astemizole or terfenadine were incubated with human liver microsomes or recombinant cytochromes P450 in the absence or presence of chemical inhibitors and antibodies.Results  Troleandomycin, a CYP3A4 inhibitor, markedly reduced the oxidation of terfenadine (26% of controls) in human liver microsomes, but showed only a marginal inhibition on the oxidation of astemizole (81% of controls). Three metabolites of astemizole were detected in a liver microsomal system, i.e. desmethylastemizole (DES‐AST), 6‐hydroxyastemizole (6OH‐AST) and norastemizole (NOR‐AST) at the ratio of 7.4 : 2.8 : 1. Experiments with recombinant P450s and antibodies indicate a negligible role for CYP3A4 on the main metabolic route of astemizole, i.e. formation of DES‐AST, although CYP3A4 may mediate the relatively minor metabolic routes to 6OH‐AST and NOR‐AST. Recombinant CYP2D6 catalysed the formation of 6OH‐AST and DES‐AST. Studies with human liver microsomes, however, suggest a major role for a mono P450 in DES‐AST formation.Conclusions  In contrast to terfenadine, a minor role for CYP3A4 and involvement of multiple P450 isozymes are suggested in the metabolism of astemizole. These differences in P450 isozymes involved in the metabolism of astemizole and terfenadine may associate with distinct pharmacokinetic influences observed with coadministration of drugs metabolized by CYP3A4.
Effect of diuretics on fetal growth: A drug effect or confounding by indication? Pooled Danish and Scottish cohort data
Authors: Olesen Charlotte , De Vries Corinne S. , Thrane Nana , MacDonald Tom M. , Larsen Helle , Sørensen Henrik Toft , Group The EuroMap 
Published: December 2003

Aims  The diabetogenic effect of diuretics, as well as the indication for prescribing them, may impact on fetal growth. We analysed whether the purchase of prescription drugs for diuretics during pregnancy was associated with measures of fetal growth.Methods  During 1991–98 all women who purchased prescription drugs for diuretics during pregnancy were identified in the Northern Jutland Prescription Database (NJDP), Denmark, and in the Medicines Monitoring Unit's Database (MEMO), Scotland. Information on birth weight and gestational age was obtained from the Danish Birth Registry, the Danish Hospital Discharge Registry and the Scottish Tayside Neonatal Database. Information on diabetes, hypertension and prepregnancy weight were obtained by hospital record review in a sample of women in the Danish cohort. Women who did not purchase prescription diuretics during pregnancy were used as a reference group in both cohorts.Results  Danish women who purchased prescription loop diuretics during pregnancy gave birth to infants with higher birth weights than women who did not use diuretics; mean difference 104.7 g (95% CI; 2.6, 206.9). However, the high prevalence of diabetes (10.3%) among Danish women who purchased prescription loop diuretics during pregnancy might explain this result. Both the Danish and the Scottish women who purchased prescription diuretics during their pregnancy were at increased risk of preterm delivery (< 37 completed weeks); ORs: 1.8 (CI; 1.2, 2.7)NJDP, 1.9 (CI; 0.9, 4.3)MEMO. The proportion of hypertension among women who purchased prescription thiazides was 15.8%, and the risk of having an infant with a birth weight (BW) < 2500 g was increased; ORs: 2.6 (CI; 1.4, 5.0)NJDP, 2.4 (CI; 0.8, 7.8)MEMO.Conclusions  Prescribing diuretics during pregnancy was associated with differences in birth weight and incidence of preterm delivery. Confounding by indication may explain the findings.
Disposition and metabolism of the flavonoid chrysin in normal volunteers
Authors: Walle T. , Otake Y. , Brubaker J. A. , Walle U. K. , Halushka P. V. 
Published: December 2003

Aims  To describe the oral disposition of the dietary flavonoid chrysin in healthy volunteers.Methods  Oral 400 mg doses of chrysin were administered to seven subjects. Chrysin and metabolites were assayed in plasma, urine and faeces by h.p.l.c.Results  Peak plasma chrysin concentrations were only 3–16 ng ml−1 with AUCs of 5–193 ng ml−1 h. Plasma chrysin sulphate concentrations were 30‐fold higher (AUC 450–4220 ng ml−1 h). In urine, chrysin and chrysin glucuronide accounted for 0.2–3.1 mg and 2–26 mg, respectively. Most of the dose appeared in faeces as chrysin. Parallel experiments in rats showed high bile concentrations of chrysin conjugates.Conclusions  These findings, together with previous data using Caco‐2 cells, suggest that chrysin has low oral bioavailability, mainly due to extensive metabolism and efflux of metabolites back into the intestine for hydrolysis and faecal elimination.
Acetylsalicylic acid and other salicylates in relation to Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis
Authors: Kaufman David W. , Kelly Judith P. 
Published: December 2003

Aims  Various nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs are known to increase the risk of Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis. The relationship between salicylate treatment and these conditions is not known.Methods  A case‐control study was conducted in four countries in Europe from 1989 to 1995.Results  Among 373 cases and 1720 controls, the multivariate relative risk estimate for any salicylate use in the previous week was 1.3 (95% confidence interval, 0.8–2.2); no statistically significant elevations were observed for single ingredient preparations or for salicylate‐containing combination products.Conclusions  Acetylsalicylic acid and other salicylates are not associated with a measurable increase in the risk of these rare but severe reactions.
Influence of gender and oral contraceptives on CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 activity in healthy volunteers
Authors: Hägg Staffan , Spigset Olav , Dahlqvist Rune 
Published: December 2003

Aims
The study was carried out in order to assess the effects of gender and the use of oral contraceptives (OCs) on CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 activities in healthy volunteers.
Methods
Six hundred and eleven Caucasian volunteers (330 males and 281 females; age range 18–49 years) were phenotyped with respect to CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 by means of the probe drugs dextromethorphan and mephenytoin, respectively. Extensive metabolisers were selected for this study.
Results
The median dextromethorphan/dextrorphan metabolic ratio in non‐OC using females was significantly lower than in males (0.067 vs 0.080; P = 0.033) (mean difference in ln dextromethorphan/dextrorphan metabolic ratio 0.023, 95% CI 0.03–0.43). For the mephenytoin S/R ratio, no such difference was observed. However, OC using females had a significantly higher median mephenytoin S/R ratio than non‐OC using females (0.230 vs 0.090; P < 0.001) (mean difference in ln mephenytoin S/R ratio 0.082, 95% CI 0.60–1.04). Moreover, females using combined OCs had a significantly higher median ratio than females using OCs with progestins only (median 0.258 vs 0.135; P = 0.008) (mean difference in ln mephenytoin S/R ratio 0.82, 95% CI 0.21–1.34).
Conclusions
Given certain assumptions, the study indicates that females in the fertile age have a slightly higher CYP2D6 activity compared with males. There was no evidence of a gender difference in CYP2C19 activity. The use of combined OCs reduces the activity of CYP2C19, an effect that seems to be related to the ethinyloestradiol component.
Prescribing patterns in patients using new antidepressants
Authors: Meijer Welmoed E. E. , Heerdink Eibert R. , Pepplinkhuizen Lolke P. , Van Eijk Jacques ThM. , Leufkens Hubert G. M. 
Published: December 2003

Aims  To study possible selective prescribing (‘channelling’) we compared characteristics of patients using the SSRI sertraline with patients using longer available SSRIs.Methods  An observational cohort study in 1251 patients being prescribed an SSRI.Results  In contrast to other studies, we found no evidence for channeling of sertraline. Sertraline was mainly prescribed for the labelled indication (depressive disorder), while older SSRIs were more often prescribed also for other indications. Time on the market was inversely associated to the proportion of patients treated for depressive disorder.Conclusions  We found no evidence for channeling of sertraline compared with prescribing patterns of older SSRIs.
Prescribers prefer people: The sources of information used by doctors for prescribing suggest that the medium is more important than the message
Authors: McGettigan P. , Golden J. , Fryer J. , Chan R. , Feely J. 
Published: December 2003

Aims  The sources of prescribing information are legion but there is little knowledge about which are actually used in practice by doctors when prescribing. The aims of this study were to determine the sources of prescribing information considered important by doctors, establish which were used in practice, and investigate if hospital and primary care physicians differed in their use of the sources.Methods  Two hundred general practitioners (GPs) and 230 hospital doctors were asked to rate information sources in terms of their importance for prescribing ‘old’ and ‘new’ drugs, and then to name the source from which information about the last new drug prescribed was actually derived.Results  Among 108 GPs, the Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin and medical journal articles were most frequently rated as important for information on both old and new drugs while pharmaceutical representatives and hospital/consultant recommendations were more important for information on new drugs, as opposed to old. In practice, information on the last new drug prescribed was derived from pharmaceutical representatives in 42% of cases and hospital/consultant recommendations in 36%, with other sources used infrequently. Among 118 hospital doctors, the British National Formulary (BNF) and senior colleagues were of greatest theoretical importance. In practice, information on the last new drug prescribed was derived from a broad range of sources: colleagues, 29%; pharmaceutical representatives, 18%; hospital clinical meetings, 15%; journal articles, 13%; lectures, 10%. GPs and hospital doctors differed significantly in their use of pharmaceutical representatives (42% vs 18%) and colleagues (7% vs 29%) as sources of prescribing information (P < 0.0001 for both).Conclusions  The sources most frequently rated important in theory were not those most used in practice, especially among GPs. Both groups under‐estimated the importance of pharmaceutical representatives. Most importantly, the sources of greatest practical importance were those involving the transfer of information through the medium of personal contact.