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Inpatients with culture-positive diabetic foot infections are at elevated risk for subsequent invasive infection with the same causative organism. In outpatients with index diabetic foot ulcers, we found that wound culture positivity was independently associated with increased odds of 1-year admission for systemic infection when compared with culture-negative wounds.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo annually during his time as Prime Minister, a total of six times. Each visit resulted in protests by Japan's neighbors, specifically China and South Korea. Koizumi could not understand why there was such a conflict, and many conservatives in Japan lament that they cannot openly visit the shrine. Why is it that these visits are so controversial? There is a deeper history to these visits, rooted in the meaning of the Shrine itself, but most importantly in how the Japanese government has treated its war criminals vis-a-vis the shrine. This paper outlines four arguments why Japan's neighbors can be upset. First is the way Japan's War Dead are honored, or more specifically who is determined to be war dead and who is not. Second is the manner in which Japan's 28 Class A war criminals were decriminalized following the war, including the enshrinement of 14 of them as "Martyrs of the State." Third is the manner in which the Japanese Diet responded to each action of reconciliation in Japan with reciprocal conservative legislation. Finally, this paper argues that visits to the shrine, where all of these actions are manifested in real space, represent a tacit endorsement by the state of a revision of Japanese history and denial of the Tokyo Trials. Together, these four arguments outline some of the controversies surrounding the Yasukuni Shrine and the visits by Japan's head of government. Each of these areas are ripe for further research, and individually they also illustrate a mindset surrounding the shrine, and clearly demonstrate how complex the controversies surrounding the shrine are. This paper provides a clarification for why Japan's neighbors can find visits to the Yasukuni Shrine so controversial, and also illustrate why visits to the shrine are controversial within Japan itself. This understanding, it is hoped, will provide a solid foundation for future reconciliation between the Japanese government and its neighbors, specifically the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. NOTE: This paper is an abstract of a longer thesis, submitted as part of the requirements for a Master of Arts in Public Administration at International Christian University submitted May 15, 2006. The thesis provides this same argument, but also outlines the history of the shrine, with a full explanation noting the shrines dual nature as a religious entity serving a state purpose as well as the controversy in Japan spawned by the Shinto Directive of 1945 and Article 20 of Japan's 1947 Constitution, especially the official or non-official nature of prime ministerial visits to the shrine. The thesis is available both in the ICU Library, and has also been published through dissertation.com (ISBN: 1581123345).

New sustainable neighborhood developments are multiplying worldwide. Embedded in these model neighborhoods are not only particular ideas about better urban form, but also particular ideas about better organization of urban governance and development responsibilities, and how these guide social development and, ultimately, urban life. Numerous frameworks, certifications, and labels have emerged from a range of organizations and actors, intending to offer a level of predictability and certainty in what is included in a sustainable neighborhood, but the majority of these frameworks have yet to be implemented in more than a handful of cases. In this article, we consider two “second generation” ecourban neighborhood frameworks, the Living Community Challenge and EcoDistricts Protocol. We examine these frameworks in terms of seven principles of ecourbanism, and consider the potential of each to guide practice toward an extreme in any particular dimension, or toward an integrated approach. Next, building upon a conceptualization of the demand for intermediary organizations in managing transitions toward urban sustainability, we examine the emergence of these frameworks as they are playing or could play an intermediary or ‘backbone’ role, in building towards collective impact in the realm of ecourbanism. Intermediaries are necessary to advance the practice of transition because none of the key actor groups, while they are necessary and instrumental to bringing particular ecourban neighborhoods into being, are invested with any particular role, responsibility or power to spread the practice of ecourbanism more broadly.

In his essay, Daniel Sturgeon argues that while Barack Obama was a special candidate, he was no messiah. He was well organized, consistently on message, made few mistakes, and otherwise ran a solid campaign that will be studied for years to come., Dans son essai, Daniel Sturgeon démontre que si Barack Obama était bien un candidat spécial, il n'était pas un messie. Il était excellemment bien organisé, répétant un message invariable, a fait peu d'erreurs, et a également mené une campagne qui sera étudiée sur les années à venir.

Although often considered a strict human pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae has been reported to infect and cause pneumonia in horses, although the pathology appears restricted compared to that of human infections. Here we report on the molecular characterization of a group of S. pneumoniae isolates obtained from horses in England and Ireland. Despite being obtained from geographically distinct locations, the isolates were found to represent a tight clonal group, virtually identical to each other but genetically distinguishable from more than 120 divergent isolates of human S. pneumoniae . A comprehensive analysis of known pneumococcal virulence determinants was undertaken in an attempt to understand the pathogenicity of equine pneumococci. Surprisingly, equine isolates appear to lack activities associated with both the hemolytic cytotoxin pneumolysin, often considered a major virulence factor of pneumococci, and the major autolysin gene lytA , also considered an important virulence factor. In support of phenotypic data, molecular studies demonstrated a deletion of parts of the coding sequences of both lytA and ply genes in equine pneumococci. The implications of these findings for the evolution and pathogenicity of equine S. pneumoniae are discussed.