bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Incorporation of 3-Hydroxy-4-Methylvalerate Unit into Biosynthetic Polyhydroxyalkanoate Using Leucine as a Precursor
Authors: Saika Azusa , Watanabe Yoriko , Sudesh Kumar , Abe Hideki , Tsuge Takeharu
Published: June 2011

Ralstonia eutropha PHB-4 expressing Pseudomonas sp. 61-3 polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase 1 (PhaC1Ps) synthesizes PHA copolymer containing 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and a small amount (0.5 mol%) of 3-hydroxy-4-methylvalerate (3H4MV) from fructose as a carbon source. In this study, enhanced incorporation of 3H4MV into PHA was investigated using branched amino acid leucine as a precursor of 3H4MV. Leucine has the same carbon backbone as 3H4MV and is expected to be a natural and self-producible precursor. We found that the incorporation of 3H4MV was enhanced by the supplementation of excess amount (10 g/L) of leucine in the culture medium. This finding indicates that 3H4MV can be derived from leucine. To increase metabolic flux to leucine biosynthesis in the host strain by eliminating the feedback inhibition, the cells were subjected to N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) mutagenesis and leucine analog resistant mutants were generated. The mutants showed statistically higher 3H4MV fraction than the parent strain without supplementing leucine. Additionally, by supplying excess amount of leucine, the mutants synthesized 3HB-based PHA copolymer containing 3.1 mol% 3H4MV and 1.2 mol% 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) as minor constituents, which significantly affected the thermal properties of the copolymer. This study demonstrates that it is possible to enhance the monomer supply of 3H4MV into PHA by manipulating leucine metabolism.
“Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!” Mutant Superheroes and the Cultural Politics of Popular Fantasy in Postwar America
Authors: Fawaz Ramzi
Published: June 2011

Dismissed for decades as juvenile entertainment, comic books had by the early 1970s come of age as America's “native art”: taught on Ivy League campuses, studied by European scholars and filmmakers, and taken up as a new generation's cultural critique of American society. The cultural regeneration of the comic book was made possible by the revamping of a key American fantasy figure, the superhero, from a transparent champion of the national interest to a genetic and species outcast mapping the limits of the human. This refashioning was most visible in the invention of the “mutant superhero”—a figure popularized in Marvel Comics's acclaimed X-Men series—whose genetic difference from humanity positioned the superhero as a cultural outsider akin to racial, gender, and sexual minorities struggling for political recognition in the post–Civil Rights period. In this essay, Fawaz theorizes the concept of “popular fantasy” to describe how tropes of literary enchantment are deployed to make sense of emergent real-world social and political relations. Through a close reading of the X-Men in the mid-to-late 1970s, Fawaz shows how the comic book visually absorbed the cultural politics of the women's movement and the gay liberation movement to figure “mutation” as an expansive form of cultural difference that wedded fantasy to the ideals of radical politics. By linking the fictional category of mutation to lived categories of difference, the X-Men series produced a mainstream popular fantasy that legitimized and helped shape readers' inchoate affective investments in antiracist and antisexist ideals in the 1970s.
L'enfant terrible at 30: the maturation of evolutionary developmental biology
Authors: Haag Eric S. , Lenski Richard E.
Published: June 2011

The recent Keystone Symposium on Evolutionary Developmental Biology at Tahoe City in February 2011 provided an opportunity to take stock of where the past three decades have brought this interdisciplinary field. It revealed maturation on several fronts, including increased experimental rigor, the softening of dichotomies that were crucial to its founding and growth, and its growing relevance to both basic and biomedical biology.
Moving Window Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis for Identification of Different Kinds of Bezoar Samples by near Infrared Spectroscopy and Comparison of Different Pattern Recognition Methods
Authors: Fu Hai-Yan , Huan Shuang-Yan , Xu Lu , Tang Li-Juan , Jiang Jian-Hui , Wu Hai-Long , Shen Guo-Li , Yu Ru-Qin
Published: June 2011

Moving window partial least-squares (MWPLS) regression was coupled with near infrared (NIR) spectra as an interval selection method to improve the performance of partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models. This method was applied to the identification of artificial bezoar, natural bezoar and artificial bezoar in natural bezoar and compared with some traditional pattern recognition methods, such as principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and PLSDA. The introduction of MWPLS enhanced the performance of PLSDA model. The results obtained showed that moving window partial least-squares discriminant analysis (MWPLSDA) can extract wavelength intervals with useful information and build simple yet effective classification models that can significantly improve the classification accuracy. Then MWPLSDA was used to identify natural bezoar by geographical origin; a promising result was achieved. The work showed that MWPLSDA could be a promising method for quality analysis and discrimination of chinese medical herbs according to geographical origin.
Baicalein potently suppresses angiogenesis induced by vascular endothelial growth factor through the p53/Rb signaling pathway leading to G1/S cell cycle arrest
Authors: Ling Yun , Chen Yan , Chen Pu , Hui Hui , Song Xiuming , Lu Zhijian , Li Chenglin , Lu Na , Guo Qinglong
Published: June 2011

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key modulator of angiogenesis. Recent studies have shown that VEGF stimulates endothelial cell growth and modulates the cell cycle by reactivation of G0 cells and by reducing the duration of the G1 phase. This study examined the effect of baicalein, a well-known flavonoid, on VEGF-induced angiogenesis and further investigated the role of cell cycle regulators on the antiangiogenic effects of baicalein. Classic in vivo and in vitro models, including a rat aortic ring model, a wound healing model and a tube formation model were used to evaluate angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro. Baicalein exerted marked inhibition of angiogenesis, significantly inhibited migration of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), suppressed tube formation and reduced new blood vessel growth inducted by VEGF. Baicalein reduced phosphorylation of VEGF receptor 2 and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase, two major signaling elements modulating endothelial cell proliferation. Baicalein also inhibited colony formation by HUVECs, further confirming the suppression of proliferation. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that baicalein-treated HUVECs were arrested in the G1/S phase. Baicalein also induced a decline in the expression of G1-related proteins that normally promote transition from the G1 phase to the S phase, including cyclin D, cyclin E, cdk-4, cdk-6 and p-Rb. In contrast, several proteins upstream of cdks and cyclins, including p16, p21, p27 and p53, were up-regulated by baicalein, indicating that baicalein may inhibit angiogenesis, at least in part, by effects on the p53/Rb signaling pathway. Baicalein could exert antitumor effects by inhibiting VEGF-induced angiogenesis and endothelial cell proliferation.
Modeling Indirect Effects of Paid Search Advertising: Which Keywords Lead to More Future Visits?
Authors: Rutz Oliver J. , Trusov Michael , Bucklin Randolph E.
Published: June 2011

Many online shoppers initially acquired through paid search advertising later return to the same website directly. These so-called “direct type-in” visits can be an important indirect effect of paid search. Because visitors come to sites via different keywords and can vary in their propensity to make return visits, traffic at the keyword level is likely to be heterogeneous with respect to how much direct type-in visitation is generated.

Estimating this indirect effect, especially at the keyword level, is difficult. First, standard paid search data are aggregated across consumers. Second, there are typically far more keywords than available observations. Third, data across keywords may be highly correlated. To address these issues, the authors propose a hierarchical Bayesian elastic net model that allows the textual attributes of keywords to be incorporated.

The authors apply the model to a keyword-level data set from a major commercial website in the automotive industry. The results show a significant indirect effect of paid search that clearly differs across keywords. The estimated indirect effect is large enough that it could recover a substantial part of the cost of the paid search advertising. Results from textual attribute analysis suggest that branded and broader search terms are associated with higher levels of subsequent direct type-in visitation.
A database tool for process chemists and chemical engineers to gauge the material and synthetic efficiencies of synthesis plans to industrially important targets
Authors: Andraos John
Published: June 2011

After 20 years of green chemistry research, a complete algorithm for the determination of material and synthetic strategy efficiencies for synthesis plans to any chemical target has been achieved. This paper presents the first announcement of a comprehensive database consisting of green metrics calculations for 1060 plans to 220 targets of interest to the chemical industry in the following categories: commodity industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agrichemicals, dyestuffs and colorants, natural products, flavorings, fragrances, and sweeteners, and molecules of theoretical interest. Data mining of the original literature covered the period 1828–2010. A summary of trends in achieving green chemistry strategies is presented, including an unbiased method of ranking plans using a suite of parameters, ring construction strategies, and implications on the development of new kinds of smart structure search databases. The take-home message is that targeted optimization is a multivariable problem that requires synergistic maximization and minimization of key variables. Problems in the reporting of chemical syntheses in scientific journals and patents are discussed as well as setting guidelines for their standardization and normalization. The merits of spreadsheet tools are presented from decision making in route selection all the way to fast and accurate proofreading of the final plan chosen.
Motivation, Cognitive, and Affective Factors that Predict Smoking Relapse: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Filipino Sample
Authors: Bello Aylin M. , Robles Jennifer N. , Sarmiento Arsthel F. , Tuliao Antover P. , Reyes Rachel C.
Published: June 2011

In the plethora of international research on smoking relapse there are findings that suggest distinct ethnocultural differences in relapse predictors. This study aimed to uncover cognitive and affective factors that contribute to relapse in a sample of Filipino adult smokers (N = 115). Using discriminant function analysis, results suggest that self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, craving and the subdomains of motivation to change contemplation and action are accurate relapse predictors, whereas negative emotional states are not. An integrative framework was used in the discussion to account for inconsistencies in the results. Implications for understanding the relapse cycle, the connection between smoking relapse and substance use, as well as suggestions for future studies on smoking relapse, are also discussed.
Using Delphi Methods to Project Smoking Cessation in Northern England
Authors: Gandy Robert John , Coladangelo Rino Casmira
Published: June 2011

Smoking prevalence, at any point in time, accounts for the balance of smokers ending the habit and people starting or returning to smoking. Very different scenarios can result in the same prevalence, and each can have different implications for health services. Therefore understanding the degree of churn in the smoking population is essential. This is an area where there is little or no data. In such circumstances, Delphi methods utilising expert opinion can provide robust forecasts for planning purposes. A Delphi survey, involving 300+ general practitioners (GPs) in Northern England, projected a modest 2.2% reduction in smoking prevalence over 10 years, but this involved a reduction of nearly 30% in the existing cohort of smokers, countered by new/returning smokers equivalent to 21% of the cohort. Different age groups showed different patterns. The findings suggest that approximately 1 in 6 smokers need to set a quit date each and every year to achieve even a 2.2% reduction. Currently, 1 in 16 smokers set a quit date each year. Although ‘early wins’ may have been achieved, the challenges to achieve continuing reductions in smoking prevalence are considerable. Preventing young people starting to smoke is key.
Jumping the Hurdles for Smoking Cessation in Pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Australia
Authors: Gould Gillian S. , McEwen Andy , Munn Joanne
Published: June 2011

Tobacco smoking perpetuates the disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Tobacco smoking is a risk factor for poor maternal and infant outcomes in pregnancy. Over half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women smoke during pregnancy and few successfully quit. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women face many intrinsic barriers to quitting such as low socioeconomic disadvantage and patterns of use in family networks. There are also several extrinsic hurdles surrounding current practice guidelines and policy that may limit success in reducing smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women during pregnancy: the use of the Stages of Change (SOC) model; delay in the use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT); and the absence of subsidised intermittent NRT. A more proactive approach towards smoking cessation for pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women may be necessary, including moving away from the SOC model approach and subsidised provision of intermittent NRT. Comprehensive programs that take into account the family network and wider social context are also recommended.
Conflict About Quitting Predicts the Decision to Stop Smoking Gradually or Abruptly: Evidence From Stop Smoking Clinics in Malaysia
Authors: Wee Lei Hum , Shahab Lion , Bulgiba Awang , West Robert
Published: June 2011

Background: Little is known about the extent to which smokers attending stop-smoking clinics experience conflicting motivations about their quit attempt, whether such conflict can be understood in terms of a single dimension and if this ‘conflict about quitting’ differs from motivation to stop smoking and is associated with a smoker's choice of method to stop smoking (stopping gradually or abruptly). Method: Sociodemographic, smoking and quit attempt characteristics as well as measures relating to conflict about stopping smoking were recorded in a cross-sectional survey of 198 smokers attending five quit smoking clinics in Malaysia. Results: Five measures (having seriously thought about quitting before, being happy about becoming a non-smoker, being strongly motivated to stop, intending to stop smoking completely and believing in stopping for good this time) were loaded onto a single factor that could be labelled ‘conflict about quitting’. The resultant scale had moderate internal reliability (Cronbach's α= .625). Most smokers exhibited conflicting motivations about stopping smoking, with over half (52.0%, 95% CI 45.1–59.1) scoring 2 or higher on the 5-point conflict scale. ‘Conflict about quitting’ was significantly associated with the decision to stop smoking gradually rather than abruptly controlling for other variables (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.05–1.76) and was more strongly associated with the choice of smoking cessation method than motivation to stop smoking. Conclusions: ‘Conflict about quitting’ can be conceptualised as a single dimension and is prevalent among smokers voluntarily attending stop-smoking clinics. The finding that smokers who display greater conflict about quitting are more likely to choose gradual cessation may explain contradictory findings in the literature regarding the effectiveness of different methods of smoking cessation.
Smoking Cessation Among Persons With Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorder and Mental Illness
Authors: Okoli Chizimuzo T.C. , Khara Milan
Published: June 2011

Aims:A history of either a substance use disorder (SUD) or psychiatric disorder (PD) is associated with tobacco use. However, there is limited information available on tobacco dependence treatment outcomes among individuals with co-occurring SUD and PD.Methods:Data from 202 participants enrolled in a tobacco dependence treatment program in an outpatient clinic setting were analysed.Findings:In multivariate analysis, having a history of SUD only (OR =.11, 95% CI = .02–.76) and having a co-occurring SUD and PD (OR = .13, 95% CI = .02–.81), as compared to having neither, were significant predictors of a lower likelihood of achieving smoking abstinence.Conclusions:A history of SUD and PD is an important predictor of poor smoking cessation outcomes; however, using more intensive, tailored approaches to tobacco dependence treatment appears to be promising. Future studies may need to further address the nature of tobacco dependence treatment in settings were PDs and other SUDs are managed in order to achieve optimal outcomes.
Drums are not for Gentlemen: Class and race in Langston Hughes' Haitian encounter
Authors: White Russell
Published: June 2011

This article focuses on the trip to Haiti made by Langston Hughes in the spring of 1931. It examines Hughes' reflections on Haitian class and race relations as they were articulated in two short essays, People without Shoes and White Shadows in Black Land, as well as in his autobiography
I Wonder as I Wander (1956). All three texts explore the cultural differences between a large peasantry which spoke Kreyl and worshipped vodou, and a smaller, French-speaking Catholic elite. One of the prime movers of the New Negro Movement, Hughes' writing on Haiti, a
nation of totemic significance in the Black Atlantic world, but occupied by American forces since July 1915, positioned the loa-worshipping peasantry closer to Africa, and hence to the locus of an authentic blackness, than the elite who privileged French culture, and had therefore sold out
their black cultural heritage. The article also examines the connections between Hughes' thinking and the cultural and political agenda expounded by those poets and writers associated with Haitian indignisme. Hughes thus emerges from the article as a central figure in internationally
constructed debates: about black identity, about an emergent black consciousness, and about the connections between diasporic black culture and an African heritage.
Black women writers, modernism, and Paris
Authors: Garcia Claire Oberon
Published: June 2011

This article examines the lives and careers of two black women living and working in Paris between the wars to invite more scholarship on black women writers and transatlantic modernism. Jessie Fauset and Paulette Nardal have been described as midwives of the Harlem Renaissance and
Negritude movements respectively, despite the fact that they were racial activists and prolific writers in a variety of genres themselves. Focusing on the tropes of dislocation, (mis)translation, and (mis)representation as they interact with the imaginary of Paris between the wars, the author
sees the work of both African-American and Francophone black women writers as central to the creation of Afromodernisms and twentieth-century feminisms. Afromodernist women map interwar Paris, and, by extension, the relationship between the Americas, Europe, and Africa differently to their
male colleagues, as the interaction between the black female body and the actual and imaginary spaces it negotiates are quite distinct from the male. Reading the work of Fauset, Nardal, and their contemporaries Gwendolyn Bennett, Jane Nardal, Suzanne Lacascade, Anita Thompson Dickinson and
Suzanne Csaire, shows us that a black feminist modernism was emerging in discourses that circulated through Paris, Harlem, and the Antilles. This feminism constitutes a significant aspect of the veil de conscience du race that characterized the New Negro and Negritude movements. Understanding
that their work and thought are more than footnotes to a patriarchal genealogy of black liberation movements helps us to appreciate more richly this perennially fascinating and influential era.
From Haiti to Mississippi: Faulkner and the making of the Southern master-class
Authors: King Richard
Published: June 2011

William Faulkner had a real, if oblique, relationship to Haiti as a place whose tortured history helped shape the history of the US South. This article examines the way Faulkner's work exemplifies the literary modernism of the interwar years and also put it alongside the explosion of cultural creativity in the Black Atlantic in that same period. In fact, Faulkner's work belongs to the literary history of the Black Atlantic. This study traces the importance of Haiti in the life-story of the central figure inAbsalom, Absalom!(1936), Thomas Sutpen, a white slave owner in Mississippi between the 1830s and Reconstruction. Absalom tells the story of how a white master was made out of a young man of poor white origins rather than being descended from Virginian or European aristocracy. The article also explores the ways Hegel's paradigm of domination, the master-slave relationship, is reproduced in, and helps illuminate, Sutpen's story. Thus the Hegelian analysis explains not only how slaves, but also how masters, are produced.
Lignins as agents for bio-protection of wood
Authors: Chirkova Jelena , Andersone Ingeborga , Irbe Ilze , Spince Baiba , Andersons Bruno
Published: June 2011

Pinewood was modified by vacuum impregnation with various aqueous lignin solutions of low concentration (0.5– 1.0%) and its decay resistance was tested by the standard procedure EN 113. Five lignin types were tested against three brown rot and one white rot fungi. The bio-durability of wood was considerably increased by the treatment. The highest effect of modification was for alkali, kraft, hydrolysis lignins and industrial lignosulfonate, when mass losses of wood for brown-rot fungi were negligible. The effect of the modification with certified lignosulfonates was insignificant. Chemical analysis revealed that phenols, which are leached from lignin and are adsorbed by wood in the impregnation process, could act as a biocide. The hydrophilic properties of wood either did not change (certified lignins) or were enhanced because of some change in the pore structure (industrial lignins). Further tests are needed to verify the positive effects of this technologically simple and environmentally friendly treatment.
Structure and antioxidant activity of diarylheptanoids extracted from bark of grey alder (Alnus incana) and potential of biorefinery-based bark processing of European trees
Authors: Telysheva Galina , Dizhbite Tatiana , Bikovens Oskars , Ponomarenko Jevgenija , Janceva Sarmite , Krasilnikova Jelena
Published: June 2011

The bark of trees has a big potential as a source of green chemicals. The aim of the present work was to valorise the potential of deciduous tree species with this regard. Three widely spread trees in Europe (grey alder, ash tree, aspen) were in focus as a source of polyphenols, and the yields of polyphenolic compound in the extracts were considered as evaluation criteria. The highest yields of hydrophilic extractives were found in barks of grey alder and aspen (36.8 and 22.9%, respectively). In the former, the highest antioxidant activity was found towards free radicals (DPPH• and ABTS•+) and superoxide anion radical. Open chain diarylheptanoids, mainly oregonin, were identified as the major constituents of the grey alder hydrophilic extract. In addition to oregonin, the presence of 2 linear diarylheptanoids [platyphylloside and 1,7-bis-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-heptane-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside] was confirmed. For the first time, the compounds 1,7-bis-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxyheptane-5-O-β-D-xylopyranoside and 1,7-bis-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-heptane-3-one-5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside were detected in grey alder bark. The results of experiments in vitro and in vivo have shown the high potential for diarylheptanoids-containing extracts in prophylaxis and/or treatment of diseases due to the metabolic disorders and ageing. The biological activity of grey alder extract was confirmed in in vitro experiments by incubation of human blood samples. In vivo experiments with rats also showed positive results. The conclusion is that grey alder extracts have a high potential for prevention of ageing related pathologies. Besides diarylheptanoids, the bark contains condensed tannins in commercially available quantity (12.5%). Eco-friendly wood adhesives were obtained on a tannins basis. The bark left after polyphenols isolation can be used in soil melioration and as a sorbent for the removal of oil products from water surface. The investigation of the phenolic pool of grey alder could contribute to cluster technologies within the biorefinery-based bark processing.
Organic Acidurias1
Authors: Sass Jörn Oliver
Published: June 2011

Assessment of urinary organic acids represents an established approach within selective screening for inborn errors of metabolism. Utilizing gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, this analysis can contribute to the diagnosis of dozens of diseases. For diagnostic evaluation of analytical data it is essential that the requesting physician provides basic clinical information. Considering the often available therapeutic options, it is of special importance to increase the awareness of organic acid disorders and to include them in the list of differential diagnoses especially in (pediatric-) neurological disease.
Homoarginin: ein neuer kardiovaskulärer Risikomarker bei Dialysepatienten / Homoarginine: a new cardiovascular risk marker in hemodialysis patients
Authors: Meinitzer Andreas , Drechsler Christiane , Tomaschitz Andreas , Pilz Stefan , Krane Vera , Wanner Christoph , März Winfried
Published: June 2011

Homoarginin ist eine nicht essentielle kationische Aminosäure, die aus Lysin gebildet wird und in vitro und in vivo ähnliche Eigenschaften wie Arginin zeigt. Homoarginin wurde bis vor Kurzem wenig Bedeutung beigemessen. Es wurde in den letzten Jahrzehnten vor allem als interner Standard in der Aminosäureanalytik oder als Marker für die Nährstoffausbeute in der Intensivtierhaltung verwendet. Epidemiologische Untersuchungen in zwei großen unabhängigen Kohorten, nämlich Der Deutschen Diabetes Dialyse (4D) – Studie und der Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) — Studie haben Homoarginin als aussagekräftigen Prädiktor für kardiovaskuläre Ereignisse und Sterblichkeit identifiziert. Über die pathophysiologischen Mechanismen, die diesem Zusammenhang zugrunde liegen, ist bislang noch wenig bekannt. Dieser Artikel fasst die Bedeutung von Homoarginin als prognostischer Marker und die möglichen Wirkungen des Homoarginin im menschlichen Organismus zusammen.
Quantitative solution on dosage of repair agent for healing of cracks in materials: short capsule model vs. two-dimensional crack pattern
Authors: Lv Zhong , Chen Huisu , Yuan Haifeng
Published: June 2011

Cracks are vitally detrimental to the load-bearing capacity of materials and further to the durability and service-life of various structures. Crack-repairing technology via embedded capsules with repair agent is becoming a promising approach to sustain the performance of structural materials. However, the appropriate dosage of capsulated repair agent for autonomic healing is not theoretically solved in the literature. In this study, taking cementitious materials as an example, the surface cracks in materials caused by various mechanisms are firstly simplified as linear cracks and zonal cracks in two-dimensional plane. Then, from the viewpoint of geometrical probability, the theoretical solutions on the exact dosage of capsules required are developed for different types of crack models via the knowledge of integral geometry and the concepts of probability distribution. Finally, reliability of these theoretical solutions is verified via computer modeling technology.
Serum calcium level is associated with metabolic syndrome in the general population: FIN-D2D study
Authors: Saltevo J , Niskanen Leo , Kautiainen Hannu , Teittinen Jorma , Oksa Heikki , Korpi-Hyövälti Eeva , Sundvall Jouko , Männistö Satu , Peltonen Markku , Mäntyselkä Pekka , Vanhala Mauno
Published: June 2011

Background

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between serum calcium and the components of metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Methods

As a part of the national prevention program of diabetes in Finland (FIN-D2D), a randomly selected study population of 4500 middle-aged men and women were recruited from three central hospital district areas. Anthropometric measurements were performed by a trained nurse. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed and serum calcium and lipids were measured. We assessed current medications, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, calcium intake, and vitamin D intake. The MetS was defined according to the criteria of the updated National Education Program. The study population consisted of 2896 individuals: 1396 men (62% of invited individuals) and 1500 women (66.7% of invited individuals).

Results

The mean age was 60.3±8.3 years in men and 59.8±8.5 years in women. The prevalence of MetS was 50.7% in women and 55.8% in men. The prevalence of MetS and its components, except high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, increased linearly with increasing serum calcium (P<0.001), even after adjustment for age, physical activity, alcohol, vitamin D intake, calcium intake, and smoking. The threshold value for serum calcium for MetS was 2.50 mmol/l in this population. The association of MetS with total serum calcium was similar even after exclusion of patients treated with hypertensive drugs. The drug treatments for hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes increased in a similar pattern.

Conclusions

Serum calcium level is associated with MetS and its components, except HDL-cholesterol.
Proteasome activator PA28γ stimulates degradation of GSK3-phosphorylated insulin transcription activator MAFA
Authors: Kanai Kenichi , Aramata Shinsaku , Katakami Sayo , Yasuda Kunio , Kataoka Kohsuke
Published: June 2011

MAFA is a member of the MAF family of basic leucine zipper transcription factors and is a critical regulator of insulin gene expression and islet β-cell function. To be degraded by the proteasome, MAFA must be phosphorylated by GSK3 and MAP kinases at multiple serine and threonine residues (Ser49, Thr53, Thr57, Ser61, and Ser65) within its amino-terminal domain. In this study, we report that MAFA degradation is stimulated by PA28γ (REGγ and PSME3), a member of a family of proteasome activators that bind and activate the 20S proteasome. To date, only a few PA28γ-proteasome pathway substrates have been identified, including steroid receptor coactivator 3 (SRC3) and the cell cycle inhibitor p21 (CIP1). PA28γ binds to MAFA, induces its proteasomal degradation, and thereby attenuates MAFA-driven transcriptional activation of the insulin promoter. Co-expression of GSK3 enhanced the PA28γ-mediated degradation of MAFA, but mutants that contained alanine substitutions at the MAFA phosphorylation sites did not bind PA28γ and were resistant to degradation. We also found that a PA28γ mutant (N151Y) that did not stimulate p21 degradation enhanced MAFA degradation, and another mutant (K188D) that promoted greater p21 degradation did not enhance MAFA degradation. These results suggest that PA28γ stimulates MAFA degradation through a novel molecular mechanism that is distinct from that for the degradation of p21.
Percutaneous Thoracic Duct Embolization as a Treatment for Intrathoracic Chyle Leaks in Infants
Authors: Itkin Maxim , Krishnamurthy Ganesh , Naim Maryam Y. , Bird Geoffrey L. , Keller Marc S.
Published: June 2011

Chylothorax is an uncommon complication of cardiothoracic surgery in children that is traditionally treated with either conservative (diet modification, octreotide administration, and percutaneous drainage) or surgical (thoracic duct ligation, pleurodesis, and pleuroperitoneal shunt) approaches. We report here the cases of 2 children (a 6-month-old and a 1-month-old) with postoperative chylous leaks who were treated successfully by percutaneous thoracic duct embolization.
Instruments to Detect Alcohol and Other Drug Misuse in the Emergency Department: A Systematic Review
Authors: Newton Amanda S. , Gokiert Rebecca , Mabood Neelam , Ata Nicole , Dong Kathryn , Ali Samina , Vandermeer Ben , Tjosvold Lisa , Hartling Lisa , Wild T. Cameron
Published: June 2011

CONTEXT:

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) misuse by youth is a significant public health concern. Unanticipated treatment for AOD-related morbidities is often sought in hospital emergency departments (EDs). Screening instruments that rapidly identify patients who require further diagnostic evaluation and/or brief intervention are critically important.

OBJECTIVE:

To summarize evidence on screening instruments that can assist emergency care clinicians in identifying AOD misuse in pediatric patients.

METHODS:

Fourteen electronic databases (including Medline, Embase, and PsycINFO) and reference screening were used. Psychometric and prospective diagnostic studies were selected if the instrument focused on detecting AOD misuse in patients aged 21 years or younger in the ED. Two reviewers independently assessed quality and extracted data. Validity and reliability data were collected for psychometric studies. Instrument performance was assessed by using sensitivity, specificity, and positive (LR+) and negative (LR−) likelihood ratios. Meta-analysis was not possible because of clinical and measurement heterogeneity.

RESULTS:

Of the 1545 references initially identified, 6 studies met inclusion criteria; these studies evaluated 11 instruments for universal or targeted screening of alcohol misuse. Instruments based on diagnostic criteria for AOD disorders were effective in detecting alcohol abuse and dependence (sensitivity: 0.88; specificity: 0.90; LR+: 8.80) and cannabis use disorder (sensitivity: 0.96; specificity: 0.86; LR+: 6.83).

CONCLUSIONS:

On the basis of the current evidence, we recommend that emergency care clinicians use a 2-question instrument for detecting youth alcohol misuse and a 1-question instrument for detecting cannabis misuse. Additional research is required to definitively answer whether these tools should be used as targeted or universal screening approaches in the ED.
Outcome Analysis of Invasive Aspergillosis in Hematologic Malignancy and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients: The Role of Novel Antimold Azoles
Authors: Ramos Elizabeth R. , Jiang Ying , Hachem Ray , Kassis Christelle , Kontoyiannis Dimitrios P. , Raad Issam
Published: June 2011

Background.

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in hematologic malignancy (HM) patients. We evaluated the prognostic factors for IA in HM patients.

Methods.

In this retrospective study, we included all HM patients diagnosed with proven or probable IA between June 1993 and June 2008.

Results.

A total of 449 HM patients were analyzed, the majority of which (75%) had underlying leukemia. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that neutropenia for more than two weeks during IA, steroid use, and intensive care admission were independently associated with failure to respond to antifungal therapy, as well as increased IA-attributable mortality (all p-values < .01). Antifungal therapy with an antimold azole-containing regimen (voriconazole or posaconazole) was also independently associated with improved response to treatment, as well as decreased IA-attributable mortality (all p-values < .0001). Survival analysis showed that primary or salvage therapy with a regimen that contained antimold azoles was significantly associated with improved survival (p < .001).

Conclusions.

In HM patients, persistent neutropenia and the need for intensive care are associated with failure to respond to antifungal therapy. Use of novel antimold azoles, either as primary or salvage therapy, improves the overall outcome and IA-attributable death of HM patients with IA.
Implementing integrated river basin management in the Red River Basin, Vietnam: a solution looking for a problem?
Authors: Molle François , Hoanh Chu Thai
Published: June 2011

Several water policy principles considered to be modern and internationally sanctioned have recently been adopted by Vietnam. This article focuses on the establishment of the Red River Basin Organization but expands its analysis to the wider transformations of the water sector that impinge on the formation and effectiveness of this organization. It shows that the promotion of integrated water resource management icons such as river basin organizations (RBOs) by donors has been quite disconnected from existing institutional frameworks. If policy reforms promoted by donors and development banks have triggered changes, these changes may have come not as a result of the reforms themselves but, rather, due to the institutional confusion they have created when confronted with the emergence of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE). For the MoNRE, the river basin scale became crucial for grounding its legitimacy and asserting its role among the established layers of the administration, while for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, RBOs became a focal point where power over financial resources and political power might potentially be relocated at its expense. Institutional change is shown to result from the interaction between endogenous processes and external pressures, in ways that are hard to predict.
A Qualitative Inquiry of Wisdom Development: Educators' Perspectives
Authors: Chen Li-Ming , Wu Pi-Ju , Cheng Ying-Yao , Hsueh Hsiu-I
Published: June 2011

This study draws on the perspectives of educators to explore the factors and processes underlying wisdom development. We interviewed 25 wise Taiwanese nominees and used a grounded theory method to analyze the qualitative data. The wise nominees mentioned eight facilitative factors, including work experiences, life experiences, social interactions, observations, family teachings, professional development, religion, and reading. The process of wisdom development involves facilitative conditions, inner assimilation and adjustment, transformations of actual actions, and feedback from the results of actions. Findings are discussed in relation to relevant theory and research.
Loneliness, Social Networks, and Mortality: 18 Years of Follow-up
Authors: Iecovich Esther , Jacobs Jeremy M. , Stessman Jochanan
Published: June 2011

We examined the influence of changes in loneliness and social support networks upon mortality during 18 years of follow-up among an elderly cohort and determined the gender-specific nature of this relationship. The study is based on data collected from the Jerusalem Longitudinal Study (1990–2008), which has followed a representative sample of 605 community-dwelling elderly people. Subjects were randomly selected from an age homogenous cohort born 1920–1921 and were aged 70, 78, and 85 when data were collected at baseline in 1990 and at follow-up in 1998 and 2005. All-cause mortality from age 70–88 was determined according to the National Death Registry. Sense of loneliness was found to be stable among the majority of the respondents. Loneliness among men was found in bivariate analyses to be a risk factor for mortality. Although multivariate analyses found that loneliness was not a significant predictor of mortality, nonetheless several social network factors (marital status at the baseline and living arrangements) were found to predict mortality among men. Loneliness and solitude among elderly men can be a risk factor of mortality. The findings imply that attention should be given to this high risk group.
Does the Relation between Volunteering and Well-Being Vary with Health and Age?
Authors: Okun Morris A. , Rios Rebeca , Crawford Aaron V. , Levy Roy
Published: June 2011

Previous studies have established a positive association between organizational volunteering and well-being. In the current study, we examined whether the relations between organizational volunteering and positive affect, negative affect, and resilience are modified by respondents' age and number of chronic health conditions. This study used cross-sectional data from the 2008 Arizona Health Survey of residents 18 years old and older ( N = 4,161). Multiple regression analyses provided no support for the hypothesis that age moderates the association between volunteer status and positive affect, negative affect, and resilience. In contrast, there was a significant ( p < .05) interaction between volunteer status and chronic health conditions on positive affect and resilience. Consistent with the compensatory hypothesis, as number of chronic health conditions increased, the relations between volunteering and positive affect and resilience scores increased. Implications of these findings for increasing volunteering among adults with multiple chronic health conditions are discussed.
Rheological properties and the energetic value of wheat flour substituted by different shares of white and brown rice flour
Authors: Nikolic Nada , Dodic Jelena , Mitrovc Mirjana , Lazic Miodrag
Published: June 2011

In order to produce dough with a lower gluten content, more enriched with the
rice components and satisfactory rheological properties, the rheological
properties, energetic value and cake baking properties of wheat and white or
brown rice flour in shares from 3 to 30% (w/w) were investigated in this
paper. The water absorption in wheat-rice flour mixtures was less and
decreased to 53.5 % and 54.0 % along with the increase of the white and the
brown rice flour share, respectively, than in wheat flour, where it was
58.8%, In the dough made from rice flour a gluten network had thinner
filaments, about 2 and 1 ?m in width for white and brown rice flour,
respectively, compared to those in the dough from wheat flour only, where it
was about 7 ?m. The dough from rice flour had almost twice as higher
gelatinization maximum as the gelatinization maximum of the wheat flour
only. The energetic values of the dough from rice flour were smaller than
the energetic value of the wheat flour, for only 1.32%. Based on Cluster
analysis, the white or brown rice flour share of 20% was pointed out.
An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research
Authors: Fenech Marianne
Published: June 2011

This article critically analyses how empirical research investigating quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the period 1980–2008 has conceptualised ‘quality’. Applying Foucault's notion of ‘critique’ to 338 peer-reviewed journal articles uncovered six interconnected truths: quality is an objective reality; quality enhances children's optimal development; quality is the domain of science/psychology; quality can be known from researchers' perspectives; quality can be understood using an ecological framework that is limited to child, familial and childcare variables; and quality ECEC is more pertinent to preschoolers than babies and infants. The article problematises these prevailing truths, arguing that the dominance of positivist discourse in ECEC research has limited how quality ECEC can be thought and talked about. An addressing of the blind spots this article identifies has the potential to lead to more developed and nuanced understandings of quality ECEC.
Health Imperatives, Policy and the Corporeal Device: Schools, Subjectivity and Children's Health
Authors: Evans John , De Pian Laura , Rich Emma , Davies Brian
Published: June 2011

‘Health’ has become a major concern of policy makers internationally in recent years, especially where and when it is reduced to a measurable and, therefore, comparable commodity/‘quality’: weight and obesity levels. Schools in many countries have increasingly been charged with responsibility for safeguarding children's health, ensuring that they eat the right foods, exercise sufficiently, and either lose or maintain ‘ideal weight’. The authors are concerned to highlight that the success of any educational strategy is likely to depend as much on what schools or teachers do, as on what students themselves bring to the ‘learner encounter’ in the way of cultural predispositions and levels of socio-economic, financial and political resource. Drawing on data from research examining the impact of new ‘health imperatives' on schools within the United Kingdom, they explore connections between the corporal and corporeal, and the recontextualising processes that occur as health imperatives flow across and within multiple sites of discourse and are translated into pedagogies and school policies which may have impact upon the subjectivities of young people. Concepts drawn from Bernstein and others that have become central to the authors' work illustrate how individual pupils' needs, interests, abilities and desires are interrelated with, and affected by, the various cultural settings and pedagogies they experience at home, at school, in their peer groups and other social settings.
The Production, Communication, and Contestation of Physical Education Policy: The Cases of Mississippi and Tennessee
Authors: Dyson Ben , Wright Paul M. , Amis John , Ferry Hugh , Vardaman James M.
Published: June 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the production, communication, interpretation and contestation of new physical education (PE) and physical activity (PA) policy initiatives introduced in Mississippi and Tennessee for the academic year 2006–2007. These states provide a relevant context to study such issues, since Mississippi has the highest and Tennessee has the fifth-highest rate of childhood obesity in the United States (Trust for America's Health, 2009). The social-ecological model was used as a theoretical framework to interpret the social, economic, temporal, and political interactions that shaped the development, interpretation, and implementation of these policies (Stokols, 1992). A multiple-level case study design (Yin, 2003) was adopted in which the policy process was analyzed and compared across eight high schools. We purposefully selected four high schools in each state that provided a broad range of contextual differences and collected data in real-time during a one-year period. We conducted 73 interviews with key stakeholders, including policymakers, school administrators, teachers and students, and observed PE lessons and school-based activities. The researchers identified themes from the data: Policy process; Expectation of compliance; Unfunded mandate; Problematic policy enactment; Academic pressure; Marginalized status of PE; Narrow PE curriculum; and Dislike of PE. Even though new PE and PA legislation had been passed in both states, no substantive change occurred in any of the schools during our study. This work moves beyond a superficial understanding of how policy initiatives impact PA and PE provisions within schools, particularly at the secondary level. We recommend the development of support systems within the school through the creation of clear goals, strategic plans, and professional development to implement new policy initiatives.