bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) attenuates sperm hyperactivity and spontaneous acrosome reaction
Authors: Efrat M. , Stein A. , Pinkas H. , Breitbart H. , Unger R. , Birk R. 
Published: September 2018

AbstractBackgroundSperm capacitation is essential for proper fertilization and is associated with increased sperm hyperactivity (HA) and acrosome reaction (AR). For successful fertilization,ARtiming is critical; accordingly, early spontaneousARmay not facilitate fertilization. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) possesses antioxidant properties which affect sperm capacitation. The association betweenPON1, semen parameters, and capacitation is not fully understood.ObjectiveTo studyPON1 activity in relation to human sperm hyperactivity andAR.Materials and MethodsSemen samples were collected, and parameters were determined (volume, concentration, total sperm count, percentage total motility, and percentage normal morphology) according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.ARand hyperactivity were evaluated usingFITC‐PSA, staining, and computer‐aided sperm analysis (CASA).PON1 activity was assessed using arylesterase activity assay.ResultsPurifiedPON1 inhibited both sperm hyperactivity andARin a dose‐dependent manner. Native semenPON1 activity was positively associated with higher sperm concentration and negatively associated with spontaneous acrosome reaction (sAR).Discussion and conclusionPON1 may have a positive effect on fertility via its ability to prevent early spontaneous sperm capacitation andARbefore reaching the female genital tract.
Intrahepatic recurrence of single nodular hepatocellular carcinoma after surgical resection: an analysis by segmental distribution
Authors: Kim Jin‐Min , Lee Seung‐Hyun , Shin Woo Young , Lee Keon‐Young , Kim Jun Mee , Ahn Seung‐Ik 
Published: September 2018

BackgroundIntrahepatic recurrence is the major cause of management failure after surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we analysed intrahepatic recurrence by HCC distribution using Couinaud's liver segments.MethodsRecurrence proximity levels were defined with respect to primary tumour locations from Level LR (locoregional) to Level IV. Initial and recurrent tumours were compared with segmental distribution of their locations, and recurrence proximity levels were compared with initial tumour locations and disease‐free survival.ResultsEighty‐five (58.2%) of 146 patients with single nodular HCC experienced intrahepatic recurrence after surgical resection with a mean disease‐free survival of 20.8 ± 21.1 months. Segmental distributions of initial and recurrent tumour locations were not significantly different (P > 0.05), and both were similar to the normal segmental volume distribution except segments S5, S6 and S8. Recurrences in proximity levels LR to IV were 11.1%, 34.9%, 25.4%, 21.4%, and 7.1%, respectively, and this distribution agreed well with theoretical proximity level distribution (P > 0.05). Disease‐free survivals for different recurrence levels were not different (P = 0.530).ConclusionIntrahepatic recurrences after surgical resection of single nodular HCC occurred evenly in the remnant liver, and the timing was independent of the proximity between initial and recurrent tumours. Prevention was found to be proportional to the amount of liver segments removed. Surgical plans should take this into consideration.
Ethical issues in research on substance‐dependent parents: The risk of implicit normative judgements by researchers
Authors: Snoek Anke , Horstkötter Dorothee 
Published: September 2018

AbstractWhen doing research among vulnerable populations, researchers are obliged to protect their subjects from harm. We will argue that traditional ethical guidelines are not sufficient to do this, since they mainly focus on direct harms that can occur: for example, issues around informed consent, fair recruitment and risk/harm analysis. However, research also entails indirect harms that remain largely unnoticed by research ethical committees and the research community. Indirect harms do not occur during data collection, but in the analysis of the data, and how the data is presented to the scientific and wider societal community. Highly stigmatized research subjects, like substance‐dependent parents, are especially at risk of encountering indirect harm, because the prejudice against them is so persistent. In this paper we discuss two forms of indirect harm. First, researchers have to be aware how their results will be preceived by society. Even when subjects are presented in an objective way, further, out of porportion stigmatization can occur. Researchers sometimes try to counteract this by whitewashing their results, at the risk of downplaying their respondents’ problems. The second risk researchers face is that their own normative judgements influence how they question such parents, report results and interpret statements. Researchers’ own normative judgements may influence the way they present their subjects. This article reviews a broad range of research that exhibits such indirect harms, discussing how and why indirect harms occur and formulating corresponding recommendations on how to prevent them.
Novel bioactive peptides demonstrating anti‐dengue virus activity isolated from the Asian medicinal plant Acacia Catechu
Authors: Panya Aussara , Yongpitakwattana Petlada , Budchart Prapaphan , Sawasdee Nunghathai , Krobthong Sucheewin , Paemanee Atchara , Roytrakul Sittiruk , Rattanabunyong Siriluk , Choowongkomon Kiattawee , Yenchitsomanus Pa‐thai 
Published: September 2018

AbstractThe therapeutic activities of food‐derived bioactive proteins and peptides are attracting increased attention within the research community. Medicinal plants used in traditional medicines are an excellent source of bioactive proteins and peptides, especially those traditionally prepared by water extraction for use as tea or food supplement. In this study, novel bioactive peptides were isolated from enzymatic digests of 33 Thai medicinal plants. The inhibitory activity of each against dengue virus (DENV) infection was investigated. Of 33 plants, peptides from Acacia catechu extract demonstrated the most pronounced anti‐DENV activity. Half maximal inhibitory concentration of 0.18 μg/ml effectively inhibited DENV foci formation. Treatment with 1.25 μg/ml crude peptide extract could reduce virus production less than 100‐fold with no observable cell toxicity. Peptide sequences were determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Two bioactive peptides isolated from Acacia catechu inhibited DENV foci formation >90% at the concentration of 50 μM; therefore, they are recommended for further investigation as antiviral peptides against DENV infection.
Impaired histaminergic neurotransmission in children with narcolepsy type 1
Authors: Franco Patricia , Dauvilliers Yves , Inocente Clara Odilia , Guyon Aurore , Villanueva Carine , Raverot Veronique , Plancoulaine Sabine , Lin Jian‐Sheng 
Published: September 2018

AbstractObjectiveNarcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized in humans by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy. Greater than fifty percent of narcoleptic patients have an onset of symptoms prior to the age of 18. Current general agreement considers the loss of hypothalamic hypocretin (orexin) neurons as the direct cause of narcolepsy notably cataplexy. To assess whether brain histamine (HA) is also involved, we quantified the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of HA and tele‐methylhistamine (t‐MeHA), the direct metabolite of HA between children with orexin‐deficient narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) and controls.MethodsWe included 24 children with NT1 (12.3 ± 3.6 years, 11 boys, 83% cataplexy, 100% HLA DQB1*06:02) and 21 control children (11.2 ± 4.2 years, 10 boys). CSF HA and t‐MeHA were measured in all subjects using a highly sensitive liquid chromatographic‐electrospray/tandem mass spectrometric assay. CSF hypocretin‐1 values were determined in the narcoleptic patients.ResultsCompared with the controls, NT1 children had higher CSF HA levels (771 vs 234 pmol/L, P < 0.001), lower t‐MeHA levels (879 vs 1924 pmol/L, P < 0.001), and lower t‐MeHA/HA ratios (1.1 vs 8.2, P < 0.001). NT1 patients had higher BMI z‐scores (2.7 ± 1.6 vs 1.0 ± 2.3, P = 0.006) and were more often obese (58% vs 29%, P = 0.05) than the controls. Multivariable analyses including age, gender, and BMI z‐score showed a significant decrease in CSF HA levels when the BMI z‐score increased in patients (P = 0.007) but not in the controls. No association was found between CSF HA, t‐MeHA, disease duration, age at disease onset, the presence of cataplexy, lumbar puncture timing, and CSF hypocretin levels.ConclusionsNarcolepsy type 1 children had a higher CSF HA level together with a lower t‐MeHA level leading to a significant decrease in the t‐MeHA/HA ratios. These results suggest a decreased HA turnover and an impairment of histaminergic neurotransmission in narcoleptic children and support the use of a histaminergic therapy in the treatment against narcolepsy.
Defining the balance point between conservation and development
Authors: Tian Dexin , Xie Yan , Barnosky Anthony D. , Wei Fuwen 
Published: September 2018

AbstractIn the face of the current global ecological crisis and the threats it poses to human survival and security, the fundamental solution is to resolve the deep contradiction between conservation and economic development. We considered the 3 key and basic questions of why to protect, how much to protect, and where to protect natural areas. Human survival depends on functioning ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide. In this regard, conserving core biodiversity conservation priority areas (BCPAs) can provide maximum conservation benefit. The goals of protected area (PA) systems globally and nationally must be clearly defined so as to sustain the survival and development of people and to coordinate and balance other objectives with this goal at the center. There is an urgent need to study, calculate, and define the extent of the natural world to ensure the well‐being of people. We call this area over which natural areas of land and sea extend across the world or a country nature proportion (N%). Especially, a minimum area that ensures human survival should be protected, and we suggest that this area should cover core BCPAs so that it can achieve the maximum conservation benefit. These recommendations could be applied at global or national levels. The Chinese government proposes “developing a protected‐area system composed mainly of national parks,” and it has unified the administration of PAs into a central management authority. At this key time in the reform of the PA system, should this proposal be adopted, conservation will garner the greatest social consensus and support, and planning at the national level for BCPA coverage will be improved. We believe these recommendations are critical for China and other countries and extremely important for the world because they will pave the way toward a balance between nature conservation and human development as the projected human population reaches 10 billion by 2050.
Deployment of Supply Chain Security Practices: Antecedents and Consequences
Authors: Lu Guanyi , Koufteros Xenophon , Talluri Srinivas , Hult G. Tomas M. 
Published: September 2018

ABSTRACTDespite the importance of supply chain security (SCS), there is significant variance regarding the level of deployment of SCS practices across firms and little is known about the efficacy of these practices. This study examines the role of external (coercive pressure) and internal (top management involvement) factors that potentially explain SCS practice deployment and its effect on SCS performance. It also examines the moderating role of organizational culture. In essence, this inquiry examines the role of external and internal forces in a context where organizational action is perhaps effectively mobilized only when both external and internal pressures are salient. Using data from 166 U.S. manufacturing firms, we found that the effects of coercive forces on SCS practice deployment are transmitted via top management involvement. In addition, the effect of top management involvement on SCS practice deployment is more salient for firms with high security‐oriented organizational culture, although a diminishing return was detected. SCS practice deployment was found to be strongly related to SCS performance. We discuss the theoretical contributions and managerial implications based on our findings.
Managerial Time Horizons and the Decision to Put Operational Workers at Risk: The Role of Debt
Authors: Pagell Mark , Wiengarten Frank , Fan Di , Humphreys Paul , Lo Chris K. Y. 
Published: September 2018

ABSTRACTPrevious research has established a link between the debt component of capital structure and managers making risky decisions. Literature in finance and strategy has explored the role of debt and concluded that increases in debt focus managerial decision making on short‐term financial goals, suggesting that increases in debt might also lead to managers making decisions that put operational workers and the firm at long‐term risk. Therefore this research explores if the strategic choice of a firm's level of debt predicts the firm's likelihood of breaching safety regulations. Furthermore, this study explores the short‐ and long‐term financial implications of breaching safety regulations. Secondary safety and financial data collected in the United Kingdom is used to answer the research questions using logistic models and an event study. The results show that decisions on debt are a significant predictor of a firm's likelihood of breaching safety regulation and that breaching safety regulation harms long‐term financial performance. Strategic decisions on debt levels lead to further decisions that place the workforce and profitability of the firm at risk.
Putting placebo‐controlled trials in developing countries to the interpersonal justifiability test
Authors: Webb Jamie 
Published: September 2018

AbstractThis paper considers the ethics of placebo‐controlled trials in developing countries, where a treatment already exists but is not available due to the low local standard of care. Such trials would not be permitted in more developed nations where a higher standard of care is available. I argue that there are moral intuitions against such trials, but a further intuition that if the trials were aimed at producing treatment options for the developing world, that would be more permissible than if the trials were designed with the benefit of rich world people in mind. An approach based upon GA Cohen's work on interpersonal justifiability is suggested to allow us to explain these intuitions. Cohen's framework shows that these trials are ethically problematic because the inequality in healthcare provision between developing and developed nations that allows them to take place is at least partly the pharmaceutical corporations’ fault. Following Cohen's argument, this means the trials are non‐comprehensively justified. This allows for a more complete explanation of our intuitions than to consider such trials as cases of exploitation, because intuitions on the ethicacy of research can vary even when the exploitation relation remains the same. It is then established that there is good empirical evidence to believe that pharmaceutical corporations do fail the interpersonal justifiability test. The policy implications of this judgement are then considered, and it is suggested that the framework might be equally applicable to examining the permissibility of research conducted on vulnerable people within more developed nations.
Increased residual cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes and high versus normal triglycerides despite statin‐controlled LDL cholesterol
Authors: Nichols Gregory A. , Philip Sephy , Reynolds Kristi , Granowitz Craig B. , Fazio Sergio 
Published: September 2018

AimTo determine whether high triglycerides (TG) in the presence of statin‐controlled LDL‐C influence the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among patients with diabetes in real‐world clinical practice.Materials and methodsWe identified adults with diabetes from the Southern California and Pacific Northwest regions of Kaiser Permanente. We included patients undergoing statin therapy with LDL‐C from 40‐100 mg/dL who were not undergoing other lipid‐lowering therapies and had a prior diagnosis of atherosclerotic CVD or at least one other CVD risk factor. We grouped patients into high TG (200‐499 mg/dL; n = 5542) or normal TG (<150 mg/dL, n = 22 411) from January 2010 through December 2016 to compare incidence rates and rate ratios of first non‐fatal myocardial infarction (MI), non‐fatal stroke, unstable angina and coronary revascularization. We adjusted multivariable analyses for age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking status, blood pressure, HbA1c, serum creatinine, presence of ischaemic heart disease and study site.ResultsAdjusted rate ratios for the four outcomes were all statistically significantly different. The incidence rate for non‐fatal MI was 30% higher in the high TG group (rate ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.08‐1.58; P = 0.006). The rate was 23% higher for non‐fatal stroke (1.23, 1.01‐1.49, P = 0.037), 21% higher for coronary revascularization (rate ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.02‐1.43; P = 0.027) and was, non‐significantly, 33% higher for unstable angina (rate ratio, 1.33; 95% CI, 0.87‐2.03; P = 0.185).ConclusionsDespite statin‐controlled LDL‐C levels, CV events were greater among patients with diabetes and high TG levels. Because we controlled for cardiometabolic risk factors, it is likely that the difference in TG levels contributed to the excess risk observed in patients with high TGs.
Effect of different K:Na ratios in soil on dispersive charge, cation exchange and zeta potential
Authors: Farahani E. , Emami H. , Fotovat A. , Khorassani R. 
Published: September 2018

SummaryThe role of potassium (K) in clay dispersion in agricultural soils containing large concentrations of K could be similar to Na. This research was carried out to assess the effect of potassium to sodium ratios (K:Na) on net dispersive charge, Gapon selectivity coefficient (KG), zeta potential (ζ) and percentage of dispersible clay. Different K:Na ratios at two electrical conductivity levels (EC = 3 and 6 dS m−1) were added to an agricultural loamy soil. The results demonstrated that the net dispersive charge and percentage of dispersible clay showed positive relations with K concentration and K:Na ratio; also, the percentage of dispersible clay and net dispersive charge had a positive correlation, at both EC levels. Therefore, net dispersive charge as well as percentage of dispersible clay can show the degrading effect of K on soil structure. The KG values for K (KG(K)) were larger than those of Na (KG(Na)) because of large cation selectivity for K in soil. Neither KG(K) nor KG(Na) had a significant effect on the percentage of dispersible clay, but they did influence net dispersive charge, indicating that the status of cation exchange might affect dispersive charge of the soil. At both EC levels, absolute amounts of ζ, as an index of diffuse double layer (DDL) thickness, increased with increasing concentrations of monovalent cations (especially K). In addition, a strong positive correlation was observed between the dispersive charge and ζ. Our results demonstrated that K could affect soil structure because of a change in cation selectivity, with K increasing repulsive forces among clay particles and creating dispersion.Highlights
K created repulsive forces between clay particles that led to clay dispersion.
Net dispersive charge and dispersible clay increased with increasing K concentration and K:Na ratio.
Cation exchange status (KG values) affected soil net dispersive charge significantly.
A positive correlation between dispersive charge and zeta potential was observed.
Multi‐year net ecosystem carbon balance of a restored peatland reveals a return to carbon sink
Authors: Nugent Kelly A. , Strachan Ian B. , Strack Maria , Roulet Nigel T. , Rochefort Line 
Published: September 2018

AbstractPeatlands after drainage and extraction are large sources of carbon (C) to the atmosphere. Restoration, through re‐wetting and revegetation, aims to return the C sink function by re‐establishing conditions similar to that of an undrained peatland. However, the time needed to re‐establish C sequestration is not well constrained due to the lack of multi‐year measurements. We measured over 3 years the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE), methane (), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at a restored post‐extraction peatland (RES) in southeast Canada (restored 14 years prior to the start of the study) and compared our observations to the C balance of an intact reference peatland (REF) that has a long‐term continuous flux record and is in the same climate zone. Small but significant differences in winter respiration driven by temperature were mainly responsible for differences in cumulative NEE between years. Low growing season inter‐annual variability was linked to constancy of the initial spring water table position, controlled by the blocked drainage ditches and the presence of water storage structures (bunds and pools). Half‐hour at RES was small except when Typha latifolia‐invaded drainage ditches were in the tower footprint; this effect at the ecosystem level was small as ditches represent a minor fraction of RES. The restored peatland was an annual sink for CO2 (−90 ± 18 g C m−2 year−1), a source of CH4 (4.4 ± 0.2 g C m−2 year−1), and a source of DOC (6.9 ± 2.2 g C m−2 year−1), resulting in mean net ecosystem uptake of 78 ± 17 g C m−2 year−1. Annual NEE at RES was most similar to wetter, more productive years at REF. Integrating structures to increase water retention, alongside re‐establishing key species, have been effective at re‐establishing the net C sink rate to that of an intact peatland.