bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Slavonic Music and the Western World
Authors: Abraham Gerald
Published: January 2007

The subject of the present paper suggested itself to me while I was working on two very different subjects: Czech and Polish church-music in the sixteenth century, and the solo art-song in the Slavonic countries generally. It has nothing to do with the Iron Curtain and its effect on the world of music today. There is a much older curtain between Slavonic music and the Western world, which I should like to pull aside a little: a curtain woven by the group of languages spoken and written by the Slav peoples. It is true that a certain number of vocal works—mostly Russian operas of the period 1870–1910—have thrust their way through by sheer force of genius and we have learned to enjoy Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Tchaikovsky, in more or less unsatisfactory English or French translations, or even in Russian. (Sometimes, at Covent Garden, in three languages simultaneously. But operatic audiences are accustomed to enjoying opera in languages they don't really understand.) But not more than three Czech operas have made any real impact on Western Europe and not a single Polish one; even Russian opera is known only by a handful of works. In the field of solo song the position is much worse. We know Mussorgsky was a great song-composer but we know that mainly because of intensive propaganda rather than from direct experience; it can hardly be otherwise so long as Western singers fight shy of Russian; we should still know Hugo Wolf by hearsay rather than by hearing if we had to rely on translations. Russian is at least as musical a language as German, and as subtle, and the best Russian song-composers—not only Mussorgsky—write vocal lines that reflect and intensify the sense of the words, that are moulded to a certain arrangement of vowels and consonants, like good song-composers in any other language. All this, the great corpus of Russian song, remains almost unknown—or known by its least fine and subtle examples. And not only Russian song; Poland has produced at least two remarkable song-writers, Moniuszko in the last century and Szymanowski in the present one, of whom Szymanowski is known only in German translations and Moniuszko not at all, for his songs have never been translated into English and the wretched French selection is a hundred years old.
Did Purcell Set The Tempest?
Authors: Laurie Margaret
Published: January 2007

Shakespeare was both deeply reverenced and whole-heartedly misunderstood in the Restoration period. Several of his plays were popular, but nearly all of these were more or less drastically altered to suit contemporary taste. The Tempest was perhaps the most maltreated of them all.
Music in a Vernacular Catholic Liturgy
Authors: Milner Anthony
Published: January 2007

We are all accustomed to regard the music for the Latin rites of the Catholic Church as a glorious part (for at least seven centuries the main part) of the heritage of Western music. So of course, it is. But if its development be examined from the pastoral aspect, if we ask how far this music has assisted the majority of worshippers in understanding and participating in the liturgy as ‘the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery and the real nature of the true Church’, a very different picture results. To understand the need for changes in liturgical music today and the reasons why it has taken so long for this need to be openly admitted and changes officially sanctioned, requires a brief historical introduction.
Beethoven Sketchbooks in the British Museum
Authors: Kerman Joseph
Published: January 2007

The Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum owns an appreciable number of Beethoven letters and also of musical manuscripts from his hand. These comprise holographs of finished compositions, sketchbooks and sketch sheets, corrected printer's copy, and the like. At one period, from around 1870 to 1895, the Museum would appear to have been in the market for Beethoven material, in a small but discriminating way; and its holdings have been augmented by occasional gifts and bequests, from the time of Vincent Novello (1843) to E. H. W. Meyerstein (1952).
The Problem of Pitch in sixteenth-Century English Vocal Music
Authors: Wulstan David
Published: January 2007

In sixteenth-century choral music there are two problems of performance that prove most vexing to sensitive choirmasters and to those musicologists who are hot tone deaf: they are the twin problems of pitch and vocal scoring. There are, of course, those ostriches who cannot see such difficulties, having a touching belief in the absolute quality of the written pitch. Such a fundamentalist faith is not exceeded by the claims of the Jehovah's Witnesses or by the dear old lady who protested against a new translation of the New Testament with the words: ‘The Authorized Version was good enough for St. Paul, and it's good enough for me’. Assuming the present gathering to be rather more scientific, I shall illustrate these problems by concentrating on English music of the period, not because of parochialism, but because of the limitation of time and my belief that our prophets deserve honour even in their own country.
Issues and the Dynamics of Party Identification: A Methodological Critique
Authors: Schickler Eric , Green Donald
Published: January 2007

Using data from the 1956–60 and 1972–76 National Election Studies (NES), we replicate the issues/party identification (PID) models set forth in Franklin (1992) and Franklin and Jackson (1983). Mild constraints on the signs of the parameters in a full-information model reduce to insignificance the apparent causal influence of issue proximities on partisanship. Furthermore, alternative specifications of the issues/PID relationship yield no evidence that citizens update their partisanship based on their ideological distance from the parties.
Static and Dynamic Characterization of a Bump-Type Foil Bearing Structure
Authors: Le Lez Sébastien , Arghir Mihai , Frene Jean
Published: January 2007

The performance of gas foil bearings (GFBs) relies on a coupling between a thin gas film and an elastic structure with dissipative characteristics. Because of the mechanical complexity of the structure, the evaluation of its stiffness and damping is still largely inaccurate if not arbitrary. The goal of this paper is to improve the understanding of the behavior of the bump-type FB structure under static and dynamic loads. The structure was modeled with finite elements by using a commercial code. The code employed the large displacements theory and took into account the friction between the bumps and the support and between the bumps and the deformable top foil. Static simulations enabled the estimation of the static stiffness of each bump of a strip. These simulations evidence a lack of reliable analytical models that can be easily implemented in a FB prediction code. The models found in the literature tend to overestimate the foil flexibility because most of them do not consider the interactions between bumps that seem to be highly important. The transient simulations allowed the estimation of the dynamic stiffness and the damping of a single bump of the FB structure. The presence of stick slip in the structure is evidenced, and hysteretic plots are obtained. The energy dissipation due to Coulomb friction is quantified in function of materials, excitation amplitude, and frequency. Some energetic considerations allow the calculation of the equivalent viscous damping coefficient, and the results are related to experimental data found in literature. The influence of the number of bumps is also briefly addressed.
Antitumor Activity of Novel Indirubin Derivatives in Rat Tumor Model
Authors: Kim Soo-A , Kim Yong-Chul , Kim Si-Wouk , Lee Sang-Ho , Min Jung-Joon , Ahn Sang-Gun , Yoon Jung-Hoon
Published: January 2007

Purpose: The novel indirubin derivatives 5′-nitro-indirubinoxime, 5′-fluoro-indirubinoxime, and 5′-trimethylacetamino-indirubinoxime were designed and tested for antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo using rat tumor model.

Experimental Design: Three-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were inoculated s.c. on the left flank with 107 RK3E-ras rat kidney epithelial cells harboring k-ras gene. Alternatively, 5 × 106 RK3E-ras cells were injected into the oral mucosa. Indirubin derivative treatment began on the 3rd or 6th day after oral or s.c. cell injection, respectively. Indirubin derivatives were directly injected into the tumor every other day for a total of five times. Animals were monitored daily and tumor volume was measured by caliper.

Results: Indirubin derivatives showed potent antiproliferative activity on various human cancer cells and oncogenic RK3E-ras rat kidney cells, with IC50 ranging from 1 to 12 μmol/L. Treatment with indirubin derivatives induced the activation of caspase-7 followed by apoptosis in RK3E-ras cells. Indirubin derivatives showed strong antitumor activity in rat solid and oral tumor models. Direct injection of indirubin derivatives every other day for 10 days induced significant inhibition of tumor growth in Sprague-Dawley rats bearing RK3E-ras-induced tumors. Histologically, treatment with indirubin derivatives caused significant inhibition of tumor formation with increased apoptosis and decreased tumor cell proliferation.

Conclusions: Our data showed that novel indirubin derivatives 5′-nitro-indirubinoxime, 5′-fluoro-indirubinoxime, and 5′-trimethylacetamino-indirubinoxime effectively arrested the tumor growth by inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis. These findings provide the potential value of indirubin derivatives as novel candidates for antitumor agents.
Prognostic Value of Tumor Architecture, Tumor-Associated Vascular Characteristics, and Expression of Angiogenic Molecules in Pancreatic Endocrine Tumors
Authors: Takahashi Yu , Akishima-Fukasawa Yuri , Kobayashi Noritoshi , Sano Tsuyoshi , Kosuge Tomoo , Nimura Yuji , Kanai Yae , Hiraoka Nobuyoshi
Published: January 2007

Purpose: It is difficult to predict the biological behavior of pancreatic endocrine tumors (PETs). Our aim was to evaluate the prognostic significance of certain variables in PETs.

Experimental Design: The following variables were examined in 37 patients with PETs and then compared with other clinicopathologic characteristics: histologic tumor structure; microvessel density (MVD) measured by three different methods, including a unique method involving calculation of solid area MVD; endothelial proliferation; and the immunohistochemical expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-A and CXC chemokine CXCL-12. Intratumoral vascular structures were analyzed by double immunofluorescence using 30-μm-thick sections.

Results: The presence of focal and intensive solid growth of tumor cells (large solid nests; P = 0.003), low solid area MVD (P = 0.002), a high endothelial cell proliferation index (EPI; P = 0.005), and high expression of CXCL-12 in PET cells (P = 0.018) were significant unfavorable prognostic indicators. The predominant structure of the overall tumor histology and the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-A did not separate aggressive PETs. In areas of focal solid growth, tumor-associated blood vessels had obviously low MVD and high EPI, and their structures were poorly formed with highly abnormal features, in comparison with other areas. High expression of CXCL-12 in tumor cells was significantly associated with variables representing tumor growth, hematogenous tumor spread, low MVD, high EPI, and the presence of large solid nests.

Conclusions: This study has provided novel findings on the prognostic features of tumor architecture and tumor-associated angiogenesis in PETs. CXCL-12 is the first candidate molecule in association with neoangiogenesis in PETs.
Inhibition of Breast Cancer Cell Growth In vitro and In vivo: Effect of Restoration of Wwox Expression
Authors: Iliopoulos Dimitrios , Fabbri Muller , Druck Teresa , Qin Haiyan R. , Han Shuang-Yin , Huebner Kay
Published: January 2007

Purpose: The WWOX gene is down-regulated in breast cancer and loss of Wwox expression correlates with important clinical features of breast cancer. Thus, we have examined the effect of restoration of Wwox expression in breast cancer-derived cells.

Experimental Design: Wwox protein expression was restored by the following: (a) infection with a recombinant adenovirus carrying WWOX cDNA (Ad-WWOX) or (b) treatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine, to activate the endogenous WWOX gene, in breast cancer-derived cells in vitro and in vivo.

Results: Restoration of Wwox expression led to suppression of growth of Wwox-deficient breast cancer-derived cells, through activation of the intrinsic caspase pathway, but did not affect growth of Wwox-sufficient MCF7 cells. Intratumoral Wwox restoration, through Ad-WWOX infection or endogenous Wwox reactivation by 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine injection, suppressed tumor growth in nude mice by inducing apoptosis. Alteration of global methylation levels was not observed.

Conclusions: The results confirm that overexpression of exogenous Wwox inhibits breast cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo and, perhaps more importantly, shows that restoration of endogenous Wwox expression, and likely other proteins, by treatment with a de novo methyltransferase inhibitor, also inhibits breast cancer cell growth and reverses breast cancer xenograft growth.
Obesity and Sex Steroids during Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist Treatment for Prostate Cancer
Authors: Smith Matthew R.
Published: January 2007

Purpose: To evaluate effects of obesity on sex steroid levels during treatment with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist in men with prostate cancer.

Experimental Design: Forty-nine hormone-naïve men with recurrent or locally advanced prostate cancer were included in the analyses. All subjects were treated with leuprolide 3-month depot for 48 weeks. Serum levels of estradiol, sex hormone–binding globulin, total testosterone, and free testosterone were assessed at baseline, 24 weeks, and 48 weeks. Subjects were categorized by body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat.

Results: Pretreatment serum sex hormone–binding globulin and total testosterone levels were significantly lower in overweight and obese men than in men with normal BMI. In the overall study population, mean serum testosterone concentrations decreased from 372 ± 18 ng/dL at baseline to 13 ± 1 ng/dL at week 48 (P < 0.001). Free testosterone decreased from 6.75 ± 0.33 ng/dL at baseline to 0.21 ± 0.02 ng/dL at week 48 (P < 0.001). During treatment with leuprolide, obese men had significantly higher total and free testosterone levels than men with normal BMI. Compared with normal men, total and free testosterone levels during treatment were 1.8-fold and 2.3-fold higher in obese men. Similar results were observed when subjects were categorized by body fat.

Conclusions: Despite lower pretreatment serum testosterone levels, obese men have higher total and free testosterone levels during leuprolide treatment than men with normal BMI. These differences may contribute to the association between obesity and increased prostate cancer mortality.
Potential for Donation After Cardiac Death in a Children's Hospital
Authors: Durall Amy L. , Laussen Peter C. , Randolph Adrienne G.
Published: January 2007

OBJECTIVES. A task force was convened to decide whether a donation after cardiac death policy should be implemented at Children's Hospital Boston. As part of this process, we sought to determine the number of potential kidney donation after cardiac death donors in our PICUs.

METHODS. We examined all 254 deaths in the Medical/Surgical ICU and the Cardiac ICU from 2002 to 2004 and identified potential donation after cardiac death donors. Inclusion criteria were age ≥3 months, mechanical ventilation, and creatinine ≤1.5 mg/dL. Exclusion criteria were HIV infection, malignancy other than primary brain tumor or nonmelanoma skin cancer, evidence of ongoing infection, death despite resuscitation attempts, and brain death.

RESULTS. Twenty-one of the 254 deaths met criteria for brain death, and 233 patients did not. Of the 116 patients >3 months of age for whom life support was withdrawn, 92 were not suitable for kidney donation after cardiac death. Of the 24 children identified as potentially eligible for donation after cardiac death, 14 died within 1 hour of withdrawal of support and could have proceeded with donation after cardiac death. In the other 10 children, donation would have been aborted because of prolonged time to death.

CONCLUSIONS. Of all patients who died in our ICUs, 5.5% would have been potential candidates for donation after cardiac death. Assuming the rates of parental consent are similar to that of our heart-beating organ donors (47%), a donation after cardiac death protocol could have potentially yielded 7 additional organ donors and 14 additional kidneys over this 3-year period.
Childhood Mental Ability in Relation to Food Intake and Physical Activity in Adulthood: The 1970 British Cohort Study
Authors: Batty G. David , Deary Ian J. , Schoon Ingrid , Gale Catharine R.
Published: January 2007

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this work was to examine the relation of scores on tests of mental ability in childhood with food consumption and physical activity in adulthood.

METHODS. Based on a cohort of >17000 individuals born in Great Britain in 1970, 8282 had complete data for mental ability scores at 10 years of age and reported their food intake and physical activity patterns at 30 years of age.

RESULTS. Children with higher mental ability scores reported significantly more frequent consumption of fruit, vegetables (cooked and raw), wholemeal bread, poultry, fish, and foods fried in vegetable oil in adulthood. They were also more likely to have a lower intake of chips (French fries), nonwholemeal bread, and cakes and biscuits. There was some attenuation in these associations after adjustment for markers of socioeconomic position across the life course, which included educational attainment, with statistical significance lost in some analyses. Higher mental ability was positively associated with exercise habit, in particular, intense activity (defined by being out of breath/sweaty). The associations between mental ability and these behaviors were similar in both men and women, and they were somewhat stronger for verbal than nonverbal ability.

CONCLUSIONS. It is plausible that the skills captured by IQ tests, such as the ability to comprehend and reason, may be important in the successful management of a person's health behaviors.
Chemotherapy for metastatic melanoma
Authors: Gogas Helen J. , Kirkwood John M. , Sondak Vernon K.
Published: January 2007

Melanoma is a neoplasm with a rising incidence. Early‐stage melanoma is curable, but advanced, metastatic melanoma almost uniformly is fatal, and patients with such advanced disease have a short median survival. Systemic therapy remains unsatisfactory, inducing complete durable responses in a small minority of patients. For the current review, the authors focused on the current role of cytotoxic chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic melanoma and the future prospects for improvements for multiagent chemotherapy and chemotherapy combined with immunomodulatory and/or molecularly targeted agents. They discuss roles of single‐agent chemotherapy, combination chemotherapy, combinations of chemotherapy with immunomodulatory or hormone agents, biochemotherapy, and combination chemotherapy with targeted therapies. Cancer 2007;109:455–464. © 2007 American Cancer Society.
New assay using fluorogenic substrates and immunofluorescence staining to measure cysteine cathepsin activity in live cell subpopulations
Authors: Creasy Blaine M. , Hartmann Constance B. , White Frances K. Higgins , McCoy Kathleen L.
Published: January 2007

Background:

Cathepsins are endosomal/lysosomal proteases that play important roles in regulating cell physiological processes in cardiovascular, neurological, musculoskeletal, and immunological systems. Pathophysiological processes are often associated with a change in cathepsin expression and activity, leading to the possibility of using cathepsins as disease markers for diagnosis and prognosis.

Methods:

We describe a new assay utilizing an argon laser flow cytometer to measure activities of cysteine cathepsins B, L, and S in live cells using cell permeable fluorogenic cresyl violet‐conjugated peptides as selective substrates. Substrate concentration dependency and time kinetics studies were performed. The activity assay was combined with immunofluorescence staining to detect cell lineage‐specific molecules and assess cathepsin activities in a heterogeneous cell population.

Results:

Substrate concentrations utilized were not limiting, because MFI significantly increased in a macrophage cell line stimulated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Selective cathepsin inhibitors demonstrated the selectivity of substrate cleavage. Cells fixed and stored before analysis had no loss of fluorescence product. Activities of cathepsins B, L and S in splenic B cells, T cells and macrophages identified by immunofluorescence staining were analyzed.

Conclusion:

This novel technique determines cathepsin activities on a per cell basis without requiring purification of different cell types from a heterogeneous cell population. © 2007 International Society for Analytical Cytology.
Statistical considerations for enumeration of circulating tumor cells
Authors: Tibbe Arjan G. J. , Miller M. Craig , Terstappen Leon W. M. M.
Published: January 2007

Background:

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with carcinomas are extremely rare. In metastatic breast cancer, the presence of ≥5 CTCs in 7.5 ml of blood has been associated with short survival. As this threshold has clinical implications, it is important to recognize the limitations associated with the detection and enumeration of CTCs.

Methods:

Statistical analyses were performed on data generated from a multi‐center clinical trial that utilized the CellSearch™ System to isolate and enumerate CTCs in 7.5 ml blood samples. The statistical issues associated with each step of the process, from blood collection to final image analysis and CTC enumeration, were determined and implemented into a model.

Results:

A model describing the statistics of the different process steps that are needed for the isolation and detection of CTCs was developed. The model uses the Poisson distribution for blood collection and empirically determined distributions for the isolation and identification of CTCs. The variability between readers was identified as one of the main sources of errors responsible for the current threshold level of five CTCs.

Conclusions:

Elimination of the errors made in the identification of tumor cells isolated from 7.5 ml of blood could potentially reduce the CTC threshold for the identification of patients with a poor prognosis from the current value of five CTCs to one CTC per 7.5 ml of blood. © 2007 International Society for Analytical Cytology.
Half‐Sandwich η5‐Indenyl‐ and η6‐Areneruthenium(II) Complexes Bearing the Chiral Ligand (4S)‐2‐[(Sp)‐2‐(Diphenylphosphanyl)ferrocenyl]‐4‐(methylethyl)oxazoline (FcPN)
Authors: García‐Fernández Almudena , Gimeno José , Lastra Elena , Madrigal Cesar A. , Graiff Claudia , Tiripicchio Antonio
Published: January 2007

Chiral indenylruthenium(II) [Ru(η5‐C9H7){κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}(PPh3)][PF6] (1), [Ru(η5‐C9H7)Cl{κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}] (2) and areneruthenium(II) [RuX(η6‐arene){κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}][PF6] [η6‐arene = p‐cymene, X = Cl (6a), H (7), N3 (8); η6‐arene = 1,2,3,4‐tetramethylbenzene, X = Cl (6b)] complexes containing the chiral ligand (4S)‐2‐[(SP)‐2‐(diphenylphosphanyl)ferrocenyl]‐4‐(methylethyl)oxazoline (FcPN) have been synthesised diastereoselectively. Reaction of 2 with terminal alkynes allows the synthesis of alkynyl [Ru(η5‐C9H7)(C≡CR){κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}] [R = Ph (3a), p‐CH3C6H4 (3b)], allenylidene [Ru(η5‐C9H7){κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}(=C=C=CPh2)][PF6] (4) and Fischer‐type carbene [Ru(η5‐C9H7){κ2(P,N)‐FcPN}{=C(OMe)CH=CHPh}][PF6] (5) complexes. The structures of complexes 2, 3a and 6a have been determined by X‐ray diffraction methods. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007)
Preparation and Characterization of Nafion®/Hydrated Phosphor‐Silicate Hybrid Membranes for the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
Authors: Tung S.‐P. , Hwang B.‐J.
Published: January 2007

The characteristics of Nafion®/hydrated phosphor‐silicate hybrid membranes for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are investigated. The effect of the ratio of the hydrated phosphor‐silicate to Nafion® on the morphology, thermal and chemical stabilities, crystalline structure, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability of the hybrid membrane are studied. The thermal and chemical stability as well as the methanol impermeability of the hybrid membrane are superior to those of the Nafion® 117 membrane. The hybrid membranes show higher proton conductivities than the hydrated phosphor‐silicate glass membranes but slightly lower conductivities compared to the Nafion® 117 membrane. It is shown that the crystalline structure of the hybrid membranes changes with the SiO2‐P2O5 particle content. The direct methanol fuel cell with the hybrid membrane shows a maximum power density of about 13.42 mW cm–2 under the conditions of 20 °C in air and 2 M methanol feed solution. The single cell of the hybrid membrane also shows a high open circuit voltage of 0.66 V, indicating that the methanol crossover of the hybrid membranes is low. This shows that the hybrid membrane is indeed a good electrolyte candidate for direct methanol fuel cell applications.
Syntheses, spectral property, and antimicrobial activities of 6‐α‐amino dibenzo [d,f][1,3,2]dioxaphosphepin 6‐oxides
Authors: Kasthuraiah M. , Kumar K. Ananda , Reddy C. Suresh , Reddy C. Devendranath
Published: January 2007

Diethyl α‐aminophosphonates (4) were prepared in excellent yield from three‐component reaction of aldehydes (1), amines (2), and triethylphosphite (3) under solvent‐free conditions in the presence of ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) and were reacted with 2,2′‐dihydroxybiphenyl (5) using p‐toluene sulfonic acid monohydrate (PTSA) as a catalyst to obtain 6‐α‐aminodibenzo[d f][1,3,2]dioxaphosphepin 6‐oxides (6) in good yield. It is a first report on the cyclizations of 4 with 5. An antimicrobial activity of numbers of 6 is evaluated. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 18:2–8, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.20244
Syntheses, characterizations, and crystal structures of phosphonopeptides
Authors: Hua Fang , Meijuan Fang , Xiaoxia Liu , Guo Tang , Yufen Zhao
Published: January 2007

α‐Aminophosphonic acids and their derivatives, as phosphorus analogs of amino acids, have attracted much attention as they show a range of biological activities. In this paper, dialkyl phenyl(4‐pyridylcarbonylamino)methylphosphonates were synthesized via the Mannich reaction (Yuan et al., Synthesis 1990, 3, 256) and peptide coupling. Their structures were confirmed by elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and MS. X‐ray diffraction data of compounds (2a, 2b, 2c) were reported respectively. The antibacterial and antitumor activities of these compounds are first reported in this paper. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 18:9–15, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.20244
The role of MDR‐related proteins in the prognosis of adult acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) with normal karyotype
Authors: Damiani Daniela , Tiribelli Mario , Raspadori Donatella , Michelutti Angela , Gozzetti Alessandro , Calistri Elisabetta , Candoni Anna , Chiarvesio Alexsia , Lenoci Mariapia , Russo Domenico , Fanin Renato
Published: January 2007

Cytogenetic abnormalities are among the most important factors affecting the outcome of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), but approximately 40–50% of AML cases display a normal karyotype at diagnosis. Multidrug resistance (MDR) proteins overexpression is associated with worse prognosis in acute leukaemias, but its role in normal karyotype AML is less defined. We analysed the expression of P‐glycoprotein (PGP), MDR‐related protein (MRP) and lung resistance protein (LRP) in 135 adult patients with normal karyotype AML and its correlation with other biological features of the disease, to evaluate the impact of MDR proteins on response to therapy and on survival. Increased PGP expression was associated with lower rate of complete remission (CR; p = 0.006), similarly to advanced age. Cases overexpressing PGP displayed also a shorter event‐free survival (EFS; 4 vs. 10 months, p = 0.035) and the increased expression of at least one MDR protein was associated with a reduced overall survival (OS; p = 0.038). Also age was predictive of worse prognosis. Our data confirm the prognostic role of MDR proteins, in particular of PGP, also in AML patients with normal karyotype at diagnosis. This finding could be used to stratify patients with different prognosis and to design risk‐adapted therapeutic strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Double cation adduction in matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry of electron deficient anthraquinone derivatives
Authors: Lou Xianwen , Sinkeldam Renatus W. , van Houts Wouter , Nicolas Yohann , Janssen Pim G. A. , van Dongen Joost L. J. , Vekemans Jef A. J. M. , Meijer E. W.
Published: January 2007

Six anthraquinone derivatives were analyzed using matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF MS). Clear (pseudo) molecular ions were observed for all the compounds. Interestingly, for some derivatives, strong ions with double cation adduction were also recorded in the positive mode. It is remarkable that all these ions are singly charged. In this work, possible mechanisms for the double cation adduction were investigated and discussed. It appears that the double cation adduction was due to the electron deficient nature of the derivatives, and formed by taking up two singly charged cations and one electron. Substituents on the anthraquinone ring were found to have a significant effect on the double cation adduction. In contrast, no considerable influence of the acidity of MALDI matrix/solution was observed, even on the double proton adduction. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that double cation adduction might occur in the MALDI gas‐phase plume. In addition to the anthraquinones, three more electron deficient compounds of different types, i.e. a perylene bisimide derivative (PB), 3,7‐decanoylamino‐4,8‐dihydrobenzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐4,8‐dione (TQ) and 6,6‐phenyl C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), were also analyzed with MALDI TOF MS. The results indicate that the ‘abnormal’ double cation adduction might be a ‘normal’ phenomenon in the MALDI TOF MS analysis of many electron deficient compounds. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Natural‐abundance 15N13C correlation spectra of vitamin B‐12
Authors: Kupče Eriks , Freeman Ray
Published: January 2007

Two‐dimensional nitrogen–carbon NMR correlation spectra have been derived by a new reconstruction technique based on standard two‐dimensional HMQC and HMBC spectra, and operating with natural 15N and 13C isotopic abundances. Compared with conventional three‐dimensional spectroscopy in which 15N and 13C spins must be present in the same molecule, the reconstruction method offers two orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity. Vitamin B‐12 serves as an illustrative example. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Shear band emergence in granular materials—a numerical study
Authors: Ord Alison , Hobbs Bruce , Regenauer‐Lieb Klaus
Published: January 2007

In contrast to continuum systems where localization or shear banding arises through a bifurcation in a predefined system of differential equations, shear bands emerge in numerical simulations of deforming granular systems with no prescribed mathematical relations other than simple contact forces between particles. Shear bands emerge from the self‐organization of large numbers of particles with long‐range geometrical interactions playing a dominant role; both translation and rotation of particles are important. Granular media therefore deform more like materials with non‐local constitutive relations than materials where only first‐order interactions are relevant. In this paper we adopt a thermo‐mechanical approach and explore the fluxes of energy in the evolving granular system (that has cohesion as well as friction between the particles) as it is loaded through the unstable localization regime, and track the evolution of energy dissipation. As in continua, the sign of the second‐order work defines the emergence of instability in the system. Initially, these instabilities decay into stable configurations of particles but with continued loading, force chains collapse locally to generate geometrically necessary fractures. These zones then propagate to generate localization zones. When these fractures form a continuous network, the system is at the percolation thresh‐hold for broken bonds. However, long before this stage, the second‐order work fluctuates in bursts weakly correlated with bursts in kinetic energy as damage accumulates. This behaviour suggests that any continuum constitutive description of granular media must be (i) non‐local in an anisotropic manner, (ii) micro‐polar, and (iii) involve damage evolution. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Material instability in granular assemblies from fundamentally different models
Authors: Sibille L. , Nicot F. , Donzé F. V. , Darve F.
Published: January 2007

Three fundamentally different models: a phenomenological constitutive relation, a micro‐mechanical model and direct numerical simulations by Distinct Element Method (DEM) are compared in this paper. In addition, the local form of Hill's sufficient condition of stability (i.e. the vanishing of the second‐order work d2W) is considered to describe material instabilities in granular assemblies. Stress probes in the axisymmetric plane of stress increments are achieved with all three models to check whether d2W vanishes at different stress–strain states. For all the models, cones of unstable stress directions (cones of stress probe directions for which d2W = 0) are found and they appear for stress states strictly inside the plastic limit condition. Thus, independently of the model, a bifurcation domain exists inside the plastic limit condition which can describe the sudden collapses of sand samples observed in laboratory tests before reaching the Mohr–Coulomb criterion. Taking advantage of the different models considered, the vanishing of the second‐order work is linked to the existence of non‐associated plastic strains and to micro‐mechanical bases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The intervening role of social worldviews in the relationship between the five‐factor model of personality and social attitudes
Authors: Van Hiel A. , Cornelis I. , Roets A.
Published: January 2007

The present research investigates in a student (N = 183) and a voter sample (N = 276) whether the relationships between the Five‐Factor Model (FFM) personality dimensions and social attitudes (i.e. Right‐Wing Authoritarianism [RWA] and Social Dominance Orientation [SDO]) are mediated by social worldviews (i.e. dangerous and jungle worldviews). Two important results were obtained. First, the perception of the world as inherently dangerous and chaotic partially mediated the relationships of the personality dimensions Openness and Neuroticism and the social attitude RWA. Second, the jungle worldview completely mediated the relationships between Agreeableness and SDO, but considerable item overlap between the jungle worldview and SDO was also noted. It was further revealed that acquiescence response set and item overlap had an impact on social worldviews and attitudes, but that their relationships were hardly affected by these biases. The discussion focuses on the status of social worldviews to explain social attitudes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social closeness of MZ and DZ twin parents towards nieces and nephews
Authors: Segal Nancy L. , Seghers James P. , Marelich William D. , Mechanic Mindy B. , Castillo Ricardo R.
Published: January 2007

Twins' marriages to non‐twins yield genetically and socially informative kinships. Monozygotic (MZ) twins' genetic identity makes them ‘genetic parents’ of their nieces/nephews, and their nieces/nephews their ‘genetic children’. The present study is the first to apply twin‐family models to study social relatedness. Analyses of twin families (MZ: N = 248; DZ: N = 75) tested evolutionary‐based concepts concerning social closeness, perceived similarity and caretaking. Hypotheses based on Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory were supported: MZ twin aunts/uncles expressed greater social closeness towards their nieces/nephews than DZ twin aunts/uncles; and female twins from same‐sex pairs expressed greater closeness towards their nieces/nephews than male twins from same‐sex pairs. This study underlines benefits of associations between behavioural‐genetic and evolutionary psychological theories, methods and interpretations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Shutterless nitrogen flux modulation using a dual‐mode rf‐plasma operation during RF‐MBE growth of GaN
Authors: Katayama Ryuji , Tsurusawa Hideyo , Nakamura Teruyuki , Komaki Hironori , Onabe Kentaro
Published: January 2007

A convenient and efficient version of the nitrogen flux modulation technique is demonstrated, in which the reactive nitrogen flux can be completely switched on and off, utilizing the bistability between the so‐called bright‐ and dark‐mode plasmas instead of using a shutter plate. The reactive nitrogen flux found to be controlled practically as clearly shown by a plasma spectral investigation and the linear variation in the growth rate of GaN with respect to a nitrogen‐supply duration. N‐polarity GaN films were grown using a nitrogen flux modulation as well as a migration enhanced epitaxial growth sequences with different durations of the reactive nitrogen supply. Their structural properties, especially the surface morphology and the density of the screw‐component of threading dislocations estimated from the X‐ray diffraction line width, found to be very sensitive to the nitrogen supply duration as well as the growth sequences. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Maternal cardiac function in fetal growth‐restricted and non‐growth‐restricted small‐for‐gestational age pregnancies
Authors: Bamfo J. E. A. K. , Kametas N. A. , Chambers J. B. , Nicolaides K. H.
Published: January 2007

Objective

To compare maternal cardiac function in women with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) to those with small‐for‐gestational age (SGA) pregnancies (non‐IUGR).

Methods

This was a cross‐sectional study involving maternal echocardiography and uterine, umbilical and fetal middle cerebral artery Doppler assessment in 52 normotensive women at 20–36 weeks' gestation with SGA fetuses (26 IUGR and 26 non‐IUGR).

Results

In the IUGR (compared to the non‐IUGR) group, maternal cardiac output (CO) was lower (4.7 vs. 6.1 L/min, P < 0.001) and total vascular resistance (TVR) was higher (1444 vs. 1088 dynes/s/cm5, P < 0.001). The lower CO was due to a lower preload, demonstrated by a reduced stroke volume (59.9 vs. 73.6 mL, P < 0.01) and smaller left atrial diameter (LAD) (31.5 vs. 34.1 mm, P = 0.01). Mean arterial pressure and diastolic function were similar between the groups. Logistic regression and receiver–operating characteristics curve analysis for detection of IUGR demonstrated that a model using TVR, LAD, fetal middle cerebral artery pulsatility index and gestational age, had a sensitivity of 96.2% and a specificity of 84.6%.

Conclusions

Maternal echocardiography can provide a very sensitive tool for identifying IUGR pregnancies. Copyright © 2007 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Does three‐dimensional power Doppler ultrasound help in discrimination between benign and malignant ovarian masses?
Authors: Jokubkiene L. , Sladkevicius P. , Valentin L.
Published: January 2007

Objectives

To determine if tumor vascularity as assessed by three‐dimensional (3D) power Doppler ultrasound can be used to discriminate between benign and malignant ovarian tumors, if adding 3D power Doppler ultrasound to gray‐scale imaging improves differentiation between benignity and malignancy, and if 3D power Doppler ultrasound adds more to gray‐scale ultrasound than does two‐dimensional (2D) power Doppler ultrasound.

Methods

One hundred and six women scheduled for surgery because of an ovarian mass were examined with transvaginal gray‐scale ultrasound and 2D and 3D power Doppler ultrasound. The color content of the tumor scan was rated subjectively by the ultrasound examiner on a visual analog scale. Vascularization index (VI), flow index (FI) and vascularization flow index (VFI) were calculated in the whole tumor and in a 5‐cm3 sample taken from the most vascularized area of the tumor. Logistic regression analysis was used to build models to predict malignancy.

Results

There were 79 benign tumors, six borderline tumors and 21 invasive malignancies. A logistic regression model including only gray‐scale ultrasound variables (the size of the largest solid component, wall irregularity, and lesion size) was built to predict malignancy. It had an area under the receiver–operating characteristics (ROC) curve of 0.98, sensitivity of 100%, false positive rate of 10%, and positive likelihood ratio (LR) of 10 when using the mathematically best cut‐off value for risk of malignancy (0.12). The diagnostic performance of the 3D flow index with the best diagnostic performance, i.e. VI in a 5‐cm3 sample, was superior to that of the color content of the tumor scan (area under ROC curve 0.92 vs. 0.80, sensitivity 93% vs. 78%, false positive rate 16% vs. 27% using the mathematically best cut‐off value). Adding the color content of the tumor scan or FI in a 5‐cm3 sample to the logistic regression model including the three gray‐scale variables described above improved diagnostic performance only marginally, an additional two tumors being correctly classified.

Conclusions

Even though 2D and 3D power Doppler ultrasound can be used to discriminate between benign and malignant ovarian tumors, their use adds little to a correct diagnosis of malignancy in an ordinary population of ovarian tumors. Objective quantitation of the color content of the tumor scan using 3D power Doppler ultrasound does not seem to add more to gray‐scale imaging than does subjective quantitation by the ultrasound examiner using 2D power Doppler ultrasound. Copyright © 2007 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A numerical investigation of the Stokes boundary layer in the turbulent regime
Authors: SALON S. , ARMENIO V. , CRISE A.
Published: January 2007

The Stokes boundary layer in the turbulent regime is investigated by using large-eddy simulations (LES). The Reynolds number, based on the thickness of the Stokes boundary layer, is set equal to Reδ = 1790, which corresponds to test 8 of the experimental study of Jensen et al. (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 206, 1989, p. 265).

Our results corroborate and extend the findings of relevant experimental studies: the alternating phases of acceleration and deceleration are correctly reproduced, as is the sharp transition to turbulence, observable at a phase angle between 30° and 45°, and its maximum between 90° and 105°. Overall, a very good agreement was found between our LES first- and second-order turbulent statistics and those of Jensen et al. (1989). Some discrepancies were observed when comparing turbulent intensities in the phases of the cycle characterized by a low level of turbulent activity.

In the central part of the cycle, namely from the mid acceleration to the late deceleration phases, fully developed equilibrium turbulence is present in the flow field, and the boundary layer resembles that of a canonical, steady, wall-bounded flow. In those phases characterized by low turbulent activity, two separate regions can be detected in the flow field: a near-wall one, where the vertical turbulent kinetic energy varies much more rapidly than the other two components, thus giving rise to the formation of horizontal, pancake-like turbulence; and an outer region where both vertical and spanwise velocity fluctuations vary much faster than the streamwise ones, hence producing cigar-like turbulence.

As a side result, the range of application of the plane-averaged dynamic mixed model was assessed based on the qualitative behaviour over the cycle of a significant parameter representing the ratio between a turbulent time scale and a free-stream time scale associated with the oscillatory motion.
Multi-point local temperature measurements inside the conducting plates in turbulent thermal convection
Authors: SUN CHAO , XIA KE-QING
Published: January 2007

An experimental study of local temperature statistics in turbulent thermal convection is presented. The emissions of plumes and plume clusters are detected by an array of thermistors embedded in the top and bottom plates of a 1 m diameter convection cell. We found that the product STST′ of the temperature skewness ST and the skewness of the temperature time derivative ST′ from the embedded thermistors may be used as a measure of the intensity of plume emissions and that STST′ exhibits a pattern that corresponds well to the orientation of the large-scale circulation in the convecting flow. This is despite the fact that the temperature distribution across the plates is highly uniform, as indicated by the mean temperature of the embedded thermistors. By comparing the spatial distributions of STST′ and of the RMS temperature σ, we further find that the maximum temperature fluctuations take place in regions dominated by plume mixing instead of regions of plume emission. It is also found that temperature fluctuations inside the conducting plates have the same statistical and scaling properties as those in the cell centre.
Holocene East Asian monsoon variability: Links to solar and tropical Pacific forcing
Authors: Selvaraj Kandasamy , Chen Chen Tung Arthur , Lou Jiann‐Yuh
Published: January 2007

Sedimentary geochemical records from subalpine Retreat Lake, subtropical Taiwan, document the unstable East Asian monsoon (EAM) climate over the past ∼10,300 years, with a weak EAM between ∼10.3 and 8.6 ky B.P., EAM intensity peaks between 8.6 and 7.7 ky B.P., and then gradually decrease in response to summer insolation, heat and moisture transport. Our proxy record reveals several weak monsoon intervals that correlate to low sea surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific and cold events in the North Atlantic, linking the tropical Pacific, North Atlantic, and Polar climates because weak EAM events at ∼8.2, 5.4 and 4.5–2.1 ky B.P. also correspond to low values of atmospheric methane and periods of reduced North Atlantic Deep Water formation. We therefore suggest that centennial to millennial scale monsoon variability during the Holocene in the northern subtropics is globally‐mediated via a sun‐ocean‐monsoon‐North Atlantic linkage.