Anonymous Person Research Articles

Short Communication: Prevalence of HIV Type 1 Transmitted Drug Resistance in Slovenia: 2005–2010

Slovenia is a small European country with a total of 547 HIV-infected individuals cumulatively reported by the end of 2011. However, the estimated incidence rate of HIV infections increased from 7.0 per million in 2003 to 26.8 per million in 2011. In this study, we assessed the prevalence of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) in the past 6 years (2005-2010) and analyzed the time trend of the proportion of men having sex with men (MSM) and HIV-1 subtype B among newly diagnosed individuals in a 15-year period (1996-2010) in Slovenia. Among 150 patients included in the study, representing 63% of HIV-1 newly diagnosed patients in 2005-2010, TDR was found in seven patients (4.7%). The prevalence of TDR to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and protease inhibitors was 2% (3/150), 2% (3/150), and 0.7% (1/150), respectively. The majority of patients were infected with subtype B (134/150, 89%), while subtype A was detected in 6.0% (9/150), subtype D in 1.3% (2/150), and subtype G and CRF02_AG in 0.7% (one patient each). Three of 150 sequences could not be typed. Infection with subtype B was found to be significantly associated with male gender, Slovenia being reported as the country of the patient's nationality and origin of the virus, CDC class A, mode of transmission with homosexual/bisexual contact, sex with an anonymous person, and a higher CD4(+) count. Among patients carrying the subtype B virus, an MSM transmission route was reported in 87% of patients. Although the prevalence of TDR in Slovenia is still below the European average, active surveillance should be continued, especially among MSM, the most vulnerable population for HIV-1 infection in this part of Europe.

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader ed. by Brian Carpenter, Tom Franklin

BOOK REVIEWS Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader. Ed. Brian Carpenter and Tom Franklin. Columbia: U of South Carolina Press, 2012. 336 pp. $24.95 paper. SOMEBOOKSHAVEAWFULTITLES—MISLEADING OR VAGUE OR TOO LONG OR overly clever or pseudo-poetic. Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader isn’t one of them. And as if this anthology’s title isn’t clear and evocative enough, the cover photo is a close-up of the scuffed, filthy boots and blue-jeaned ankles of an anonymous person lying in the open bed of a pickup truck. We can’t see above the ankles but can assume that this person is either drunk, sleeping, lazing, or dead. This collection of twenty-eight stories, novel excerpts, and memoir pieces presents life on the wrong side of the tracks, on the hotter side of the Mason Dixon line. Brian Carpenter’s twenty-page critical introduction makes a case for the book’s contemporary focus, beginning with Harry Crews rather than William Faulkner or Mark Twain. It then discusseskeyelements of the “Rough South” genre (whichhecategorizes as a subgenre of “Grit Lit”), namely that it tends to be “hypermasculine” as well as “mostly poor, white, rural, and unquestionably violent—Grit Lit’s wilder kin or Grit Lit with its back against the wall and somebody’s going to get hurt” (xxvii). In these pages, a lot of somebodies get hurt. Carpenter isn’t the first to emphasize the undeniable influence of violence on character-formation, but his point is well articulated and hard to refute: in Rough South literature, violence is both destiny and “a means of moral reckoning” (xxii). In many of these pieces, violence also provides a thrill—for the characters committing it, and vicariously for the reader. When Harry Crews, in the excerpt from his memoir A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, describes a man named Bad Eye chopping off the hand of his neighbor, Jay, with an axe for trying to scale the fence into his yard, a reader can’t help imagining Crews smiling a little as he wrote the gory scene. Jay tied off his arm with his belt and then fainted in the ditch. When he woke up, Bad Eye was sitting on the woodpile with the bloody stump of a hand. “This here hand belongs to me now, sumbitch. Found it on my land.” (12) 620 Mississippi Quarterly Fueling much of the violence in this book is an excess of alcohol—typically, liquor (or likker) drunk straight from the bottle, and not purchased in any store. Booze in these works exists for the reasons it exists outside of them: for entertainment, habit, escape. And as in real life, booze has a way of igniting the violence that otherwise would fester as silent rage and humiliation. “He was a damn good boy when sober,” a character explains about his nephew in the excerpt from Tim McLaurin’s novel The Acorn Plan, “but lately Billy got a mean streak in him when he drank too much” (111). That mean streak leads Billy to pick a knife-fight with a soldier passing through town. Yet what ultimately underlies and unites these works, beyond a shared geography of the rural South, is poverty—and it’s poverty that seems to beget the boozing and the violence and any number of destructive and self-destructive acts. The poverty in Grit Lit includes the metaphorical kinds—ethical, spiritual, an impoverished sense of opportunity—yet the metaphorical kinds all spring from the literal. In “Deciding to Live,” Dorothy Allison writes about her childhood as “that long terrible struggle to simply survive” (17). Even when she finally moves away, she hasn’t really escaped: I took a bus to the city and spoke to no one, signed the papers that made me a low-level government clerk, and wound up sitting in a motel room eating peanut butter sandwiches so I could use the per diem to buy respectable skirts and blouses—the kind of clothes I had not worn since high school. (18) To the extent that a theme runs through Grit Lit, it is the effect of poverty on individual psyches and entire communities where the...

Brussels at the heart of urban legends?

This article presents urban legends told in Brussels which reflect an urban imagination crossed with local characteristics. Presented as news items although their truthfulness is questionable, these stories mentioning Brussels tell of attacks or harm committed against an anonymous person or the friend of a friend, in everyday public spaces, places of constant coming and going, personal itineraries or familiar shops. These legends feature the confrontation with others, machines or nature, and present Brussels as a dangerous place where security is everybody’s business. These legends serve as warnings and allow people to reassert their identity by designating scapegoats. The stories which take place in Brussels may, however, come from elsewhere and be told around the world. The places mentioned are lures intended to increase a feeling of proximity, affects and an identification with the characters. Brussels is featured as an empty shell with the same characteristics as every big city in industrialised western countries – an empty shell necessary for the contemporary imagination.

Perceived risk for cancer in an urban sexual minority

Lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are a sexual minority experiencing elevated cancer risk factors and health disaparites, e.g., elevated tobacco use, disproportionate rates of infection with human immunodeficiency virus. Little attention has been paid to cancer prevention, education, and control in sexual minorities. This study describes cancer risk perceptions and their correlates so as to generate testable hypotheses and provide a foundation for targeting cancer prevention and risk reduction efforts in this high risk population. A cross-sectional survey of affiliates of a large urban community center serving sexual minority persons yielded a study sample of 247 anonymous persons. The survey assessed demographics, absolute perceived cancer risk, cancer risk behaviors, desired lifestyle changes to reduce cancer risk, and psychosocial variables including stress, depression, and stigma. Univariate and multivariate nonparametric statistics were used for analyses. The sample was primarily white non-Hispanic, middle-aged, and > 80% had at least a high school education. Mean values for absolute perceived cancer risk (range 0-100% risk), were 43.0 (SD = 25.4) for females, and for males, 49.3 (SD = 24.3). For females, although the multivariate regression model for absolute perceived cancer risk was statistically significant (P < .05), no single model variable was significant. For men, the multivariate regression model was significant (P < .001), with endorsement of "don't smoke/quit smoking" to reduce personal cancer risk (P < .001), and greater number of sexual partners (P = .054), positively associated with absolute perceived risk for cancer. This study provides novel data on cancer risk perceptions in sexual minorities, identifying correlates of absolute perceived cancer risk for each gender and several potential foci for cancer prevention interventions with this at-risk group.

Cadaver shows stir controversy

Cadaver shows stir controversy

An Anomaly in Classical Chinese Drama: ‘Loyal and Righteous Yu Rang Swallows Charcoal’

An Anomaly in Classical Chinese Drama: ‘Loyal and Righteous Yu Rang Swallows Charcoal’ Hongchu Fu “Loyal and Righteous Yu Rang Swallows Charcoal [Zhongyishi Yu Rang tun tan 忠義士豫讓吞炭; hereafter Yu Rang tun tan]” is a Yuan zaju based on the historical anecdote of Yu Rang seeking revenge for the death of his master as recorded mainly in Zhanguo ce and Shiji.1 It depicts Yu Rang as a brave assassin who made two attempts to kill Zhao Xiangzi 趙襄子, the head of the house of Zhao, who had killed Yu Rang’s former master Zhi Bo 智伯. In pursuing his revenge, Yu Rang went as far as smearing his body with lacquer to make it appear leprous and swallowing charcoal to make his voice hoarse in a deliberate effort to disguise himself so as to carry out his mission successfully. The play is quite stirring in its depiction of Yu Rang’s unswerving determination and brave action, and the last two acts are “extremely heroic and moving,” according to Aoki Masaru 青木正兒 (1887–1964), a noted Japanese scholar of Yuan drama.2 Yu Rang tun tan is preserved in only one late Ming edition (Gumingjia zaju 古名家雜劇) printed during the Wanli reign (1573–1619). It is included in Zhao Qimei’s 趙琦美 (1563–1624) private library collection of plays [End Page 85] commonly referred to as Maiwangguan chaojiao ben gujin zaju 脈望館鈔 校本古今雜劇, and reproduced in Guben xiqu congkan si ji 古本戲曲叢刊 四集.3 Modern scholars such as Sui Shusen 隋樹森 (1906–1989) and Wang Jisi 王季思 (1906–1996) have edited the play and collected it in their Yuan qu xuan waibian 元曲選外編 and Quan Yuan xiqu 全元戲曲 respectively.4 The Gumingjia zaju edition of the play, the only pre-modern edition extant today, is a well-preserved edition of the Ming dynasty. It contains the clear division of the play into four acts, providing complete dialogs, song-series, the titles of the tunes of those song-series as well as marking out all the inserted words (chenzi 襯字) in the song-series. In fact, the two modern editions of the play, Sui Shusen’s Yuan qu xuan waibian and Wang Jisi’s Quan Yuan xiqu, have only made corrections in a few words in the original, sorted out songs, recitations from dialogs, and added modern punctuation to facilitate reading. Neither of the two modern editions, however, has set off the inserted words from the main lines of the songs as in the Ming edition of the play. The present translation, therefore, is based on the Gumingjia zaju edition as its primary source and has consulted both modern editions for reference. The play has seldom been mentioned, let alone discussed at length, by drama critics, showing critical neglect of the play. Lu gui bu 錄鬼簿 by Zhong Sicheng 鍾嗣成 (c. 1279–c. 1360) and Lu gui bu xubian 錄鬼簿續編 by an anonymous author do not mention the play; Zhu Quan 朱權 (1378–1448) and Li Yu 李玉 (1610?–1671?) only lists the play by its title with no elaboration in their Taihe zhengyin pu 太和正音譜 and Beici guangzheng pu 北 詞廣正譜 respectively. The play also does not appear in Zang Maoxun’s 臧 懋循 (1550–1620) popular Yuan qu xuan 元曲選, nor is it attributed to Yang Zi 楊梓 (?–1327) specifically in the Gumingjia zaju collection. Instead, it is attributed to an anonymous person. Yao Tongshou 姚桐壽 (fl. 1330) of the Yuan dynasty, however, ascribed the authorship of the play to Yang Zi in his Lejiao siyu 樂郊私語 as follows: Many of the young men of this county [Haiyan 海鹽] are good at singing yuefu 樂府 [lyrics to northern tunes]. This tradition all comes from the Yang family of Ganchuan 澉川 [Ganpu 澉浦]. During his lifetime, [Yang] Kanghui 康惠 [Zi] [End Page 86] had high moral principles and was ready to help others. He was unrestrained in spirit and behavior and was good at music. He formed a close friendship with [Guan] Yunshi 云石 of Wulin [Hangzhou], the [grand-] son of Arigh Qaya. Yunshi was an elegant and dashing young man, and, no matter what he wrote, either yuefu [single lyrics] or santao 散套 [verses and song-series], they were free and unconventional, certainly the best of the age. His voice was high-pitched and could reach even the Heavenly River. It was Kanghui alone who carried on this tradition. Among the zaju nowadays one has...

Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura : Meaning and Invention (review)

Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura: Meaning and Invention. By Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier. (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 267, 12 color plates, 31 figs. $75.00.) Anyone who writes a book on the meaning of the most famous works of Renaissance art and especially of the Roman works which were executed for a pope should know a lot of medieval and Renaissance theology and philosophy in order to appreciate and to explain the full content of the frescoes done by Raphael or by Michelangelo.The new book on the Stanza delta Segnatura presents as its fundamental thesis a repetition of that of the article of Monsignor Kiinzle and affirms that the principal man who gave advice to Raphael was the papal librarian Fedro Inghirami. The book is divided into twelve chapters. The first reaffirms the meaning and function of the Stanza as the library of Julius II. The second deals with the problem of identifying the designer of the program. The third presents the person of the papal librarian. The fourth gives a good explanation of the composition of the ceiling decoration and of the meanings of the four inscriptions on the tablets of the four personifications of the disciplines of poetry, law, philosophy, and theology. The fifth chapter describes the relation of the paintings with the geographic situation of the Stanza on the Vatican Hill and with the four directions on the terrestrial globe.The next four chapters are dedicated to the great wall paintings, the Disputa, the School of Athens, the Parnassus, and Jurisprudence.The last chapter describes for the first time the pattern of the pavement. In the conclusion the author presents her thesis of the exclusive collaboration between the painter Raphael and the poet Inghirami. Now we have to ask ourselves,Is this construction not a little bit simple? There was surely not only one adviser for Raphael. He had always a considerable number of intellectual friends. On the other side, if we find a lot of correspondences in the works of Giles of Viterbo and of the Venetian Cristoforo Marcello, especially for the School of Athens, and in the works of Petrus Galatinus for the colors of the clothes of the three virtues on the Jurisprudence wall, and the explanation for the golden rays in the upper part of the Disputa in the Vexillum fidei of Georgius Benignus, the composition of the program is not to be attributed to one of these outstanding personalities, even less to Tommaso Inghirami, but to a subordinated, still anonymous person, who brought together his knowledge using the works and ideas of the above-mentioned persons. …

Disposition of cryopreserved embryos by infertility patients desiring to discontinue storage

Embryo cryopreservation following in vitro fertilization (IVF) has allowed many patients additional opportunities to conceive without the added costs of a complete stimulation cycle. However, when patients decide they no longer wish to store their embryos, they are faced with a sometimes difficult decision regarding disposition. Possible choices include discarding the embryos, donating the embryos to a known or anonymous person(s), or donating the embryos for use in a research protocol. In 2002, our program began offering patients the additional choice of donating their embryos to research.

Anonymous personalization in collaborative web search

We present an innovative approach to Web search, called collaborative search, that seeks to cope with the type of vague queries that are commonplace in Web search. We do this by leveraging the search behaviour of previous searchers to personalize future result-lists according to the implied preferences of a community of like-minded individuals. This technique is implemented in the I-SPY meta-search engine and we present the results of a live-user trial which indicates that I-SPY can offer improved search performance when compared to a benchmark search engine, across a variety of performance metrics. In addition, I-SPY achieves its level of personalization while preserving the anonymity of individual users, and we argue that this offers unique privacy benefits compared to alternative approaches to personalization.

MtDNA analysis of the human remains buried in the sarcophagus of Federico II

The sarcophagus containing the remains of Federico II, located in the Cathedral of Palermo (Sicily, Italy), was opened on 1998 to perform a multidisciplinary survey [1]. Next to the remains of Federico II and in close contact with them were laying two other skeletons belonging, according to historical records, to Pietro II di Aragona and to an anonymous person (“The Third Individual”), probably a woman. The bones appeared severely deteriorated. Chemical analysis performed on bone samples excluded that the bodies underwent some kind of embalming process. The analysis of mtDNA from bone samples taken from the three skeletons was successful in only one of the two labs involved. The HVR1-mtDNA sequence (region: from nt 16,035 to nt 16,395), obtained from the bone samples of Federico II and “The Third Individual” appear identical but bear double peaks at the same nucleotide positions, suggesting mixing (i.e. contamination) of different mtDNA types. The HVR1 sequence obtained from the bone sample of Pietro II di Aragona does not present double peaks and differ from the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) at six nucleotide positions. Cloning experiment of the Federico II amplicon demonstrated that the mixed mtDNA types are only two: one identical to CRS, the other identical to the sequence of Pietro II di Aragona. A reconstruction of these data are proposed in the Discussion. Due to the problematic context in which this study was carried out (mixed and deteriorated biological material, failure to replicate results in two different labs), our results and reconstruction can only be offered on a tentative basis. It is hoped that the data presented in this study will reveal useful, for future comparison, if further molecular genetics research will be carried out on the royal dynasties that ruled Sicily in the early centuries of the past millennium.

AIDS: Who Will Pay? And For What?

AIDS: Who Will Pay? And For What?

Cholestasis Familiaris Groenlandica/ Byler-like disease in Greenland — A population study

Objectives. Cholestasis Familiaris Groenlandica (CFG, or progressive familiar intrahepatic cholestasis type 1 (PFIC1)) is a very common lethal recessive inherited disease in Greenland. A missense mutation, 1660G>A (asp554asn) in the gene ATP8B1 causes the disease (Klomp et al. 2000). Study design. A family study examining medical files from the period 1951–2003 from East Greenland resulted in 46 cases of PFIC1 and more than 220 relatives showing carrier status. Further, random blood sample testing 953 anonymous persons from 11 major cities or districts all over Greenland have been analysed for carrier status of the mutation. Methods. A sensitive PCR method is developed to distinguish between normal and mutant alleles for ATP8B1 in the Greenland population. Results. The mutation 1660G>A is found in all areas of Greenland, and the frequency of the mutant allele vary all over the country. A shockingly high frequency for the mutant allele is found in East Greenland in Ittoqqortoormiit (0.16) and in Tasiilaq (0.077), whereas in Northwest Greenland lower frequencies are found in Uummannaq and Ilulissat (0.032), and Maniitsoq (0.005). Conclusions. The high frequency of the mutation in East and Northwest Greenland strongly indicates that routine screening of the population for carrier status should be done.

Addictive consumption of avatars in cyberspace.

Avatars are a unique cyber product that hold much potential to be a market success because they provide consumers with various psychological benefits such as anonymous personalization and an artificial sense of well-being in cyberspace. However, due to the very nature of avatars, consumer psychology, and the way that they are marketed to teenage consumers, avatars may also pose considerable threat to unsuspecting teenagers through addictive consumption and associated negative social consequences causing harm to the teenagers and the general public. This study deals with Korean teenagers' addiction to avatar consumption. Korean teenagers can be very stressed due to the pressure to excel in school. Addictive avatar consumption is thought to be a behavior that might reduce stress. An empirical study was conducted to elucidate this claim. Self-control theory is suggested as an explanation for addictive consumption of avatars.

The economics of fair play.

Imagine that somebody offers you $100. All you have to do is agree with some other anonymous person on how to share the sum. The rules are strict. The two of you are in separate rooms and cannot exchange information. A coin toss decides which of you will propose how to share the money. Suppose that you are the proposer. You can make a single offer of how to split the sum, and the other person-the responder-can say yes or no. The responder also knows the rules and the total amount of money at stake. If her answer is yes, the deal goes ahead. If her answer is no, neither of you gets anything. In both cases, the game is over and will not be repeated. What will you do? Instinctively, many people feel they should offer 50 percent, because such a division is "fair" and therefore likely to be accepted. More daring people, however, think they might get away with offering somewhat less than half of the sum.

The Virtue of Taking Responsibility

The importance of taking for the well-being of others or responding to the needs of others, be it concrete persons nearby, anonymous persons or (in)animus objects, is beyond dispute. However, people seem to live in an age where it is not common to look after the well-being of others, at least that is the message one gets from the media as well as from research. Statistics show that delinquency is growing, especially juvenile delinquency and people seem to be less interested in each other, let alone in each other's well-being. The author believes that it is possible to educate children towards persons who feel they should respond to the needs of others and should attribute to others' well-being. Before describing how to teach children to take responsibility, the author wants to give more clarity about the meaning of responsibility and about the capacities and dispositions of a responsible person. These topics are addressed in the next two sections. These sections will also show that it is not only possible that people take too little responsibility, but also that they take it too much. To substantiate this evaluation, however, the notion of taking too much needs to be elucidated, which will be the focus of the fourth section. The final section offers a general description of educating children to take responsibility, which is based on the described capacities and dispositions of a virtuous responsible person. (Contains 4 notes.)

Is Leisure Time Worth More Than Working Time?

Abstract No abstract available.

Isocrates, the Chian intellectuals, and the political context of the Euthydemus

In a brief digression near the end of the Euthydemus (305 b ff.), Socrates describes one of his anonymous critics, who rejects philosophy in general but imagines himself to be both an accomplished thinker and a successful politikos. Clearly, the portrait is that of Isocrates. The similarity between Isocrates' real character and Plato's stylization is so pronounced that we are tempted to describe 305 b ff. as one of Plato's intentional anachronisms (the dramatic date of the dialogue is earlier than the death of Alcibiades, 275 b). The portrait includes several noteworthy points. First, 305 b-c refers to Socrates' opponent as a writer of forensic speeches. To judge from the tone of the entire passage, which is not markedly hostile to the anonymous person (cf. 306 c 6 ff.), that would be an unfair description of Isocrates if written after the publication of the Panegyricus c. 380 BC. Second, Plato defines the unnamed person as both a speechwriter and a practical politician (306 b: ή πολιτικὴ πρᾶξις ‘the statesman's business’). The latter part of the definition does not square with Isocrates' career as schoolmaster and political adviser or, later on, as the author of political pamphlets. Unless it is assumed that 305 b ff. aims at Isocrates' dealing with Realpolitik, he would not have deserved Socrates' criticism that he ‘partakes’ of two different things. In that case, the same reproof for being ‘the border-ground between philosopher and politician’ might have been addressed to Plato himself as a dialectician and, concerning his other activities, as the head of the Academy and the author of such political dialogues as the Gorgias.

Comparison of the clientele of an anonymous HIV test centre and persons tested in the general population

This study compares the clientele of a Swiss anonymous test centre with the general population tested. Information was obtained through similar questionnaires submitted to two samples of HIV-tested people aged from 17 to 45 years: the first administered in the context of a general population telephone survey ( n = 245) and the second completed during face-to-face interviews of the clientele of an anonymous test centre ( n = 250). The test centre sample has higher proportions of younger and single people. Attenders for anonymous testing were more likely to have acquired a new regular partner during the year preceding the interview (48.0% versus 14.4%). These differences remain when controlling for age and gender. Decision to test comes mostly from the respondent's own initiative, but suggestion from a doctor is more frequent in the general population (23.8% versus 0.8%), whereas suggestion from partner or friends is more frequent in the anonymous centre (44.4% versus 3.0%). The anonymous test centre clientele is not different from the general population tested except for the relational situation and origin of decision for testing. The test centre has become a place where the general population finds a response to a situation-specific need for HIV testing.

The Returned

An examination of a series of recent newspaper articles, each of which is about the 're-discovery' of some previously anonymous person who had featured in a classic Australian photograph. I use Benjamin, as well as recent debates within historiography around the filiation of memory from history, to discuss this phenomenon. I discuss the photograph's peculiar relationship to both memory and history. I locate the new role for the historic photograph as somewhere between the artefactual aura of the classic painting and the discursive mutability of the computer file. I claim a new role for the press which now commands and curates a large archive of images from our past and hence, like public monuments and ceremonies, has a stake in recuperating memory to serve history.

The duration and generalization of attraction

Tested in the present study were the propositions that attraction toward others is lasting and that liked and disliked individuals serve as a basis for liking others. On the first day, subjects received interpersonal evaluations (e.g., judging the intelligence of others) which supposedly had originated with an anonymous person. Following a delay of 1 to 3 days, the attraction of some of the subjects toward the anonymous person was assessed while the attraction of other subjects toward a second anonymous person, who presumably had also evaluated the subjects, was also assessed. These latter subjects were never exposed to the alleged evaluation by the second person. Attraction toward the first person tended to endure and to generalize to the second person.