bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Expression of melatonin receptor MT1 in cells of human invasive ductal breast carcinoma
Authors: Jablonska Karolina , Pula Bartosz , Zemla Agata , Owczarek Tomasz , Wojnar Andrzej , Rys Janusz , Ambicka Aleksandra , Podhorska‐Okolow Marzena , Ugorski Maciej , Dziegiel Piotr 
Published: December 2012

AbstractIn humans, two main types of membrane melatonin receptors have been identified, MT1 and MT2. Expression of MT1 in neoplastic cells seems to increase the efficacy of melatonin's oncostatic activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution and the intensity of MT1 expression in breast cancer cells and to correlate it with clinicopathological factors. Immunohistochemical studies (IHC) were conducted on 190 cases of invasive ductal breast carcinomas (IDC) and molecular studies were performed on 29 cases of frozen tumor fragments and selected breast cancer cell lines. Most of the studied tumors manifested a membranous/cytoplasmic IHC expression of MT1. In IDC, the MT1 expression was higher than in fibrocystic breast disease. MT1 expression was higher in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and HER2 positive (HER2+) tumors. Triple negative tumors (TN) manifested the lowest MT1 expression level. The lowest MT1 protein expression level was noted in the TN breast cancer cell line MDA‐MB‐231 compared with ER+ cell lines MCF‐7 and SK‐BR‐3. MT1 mRNA expression was negatively correlated with the malignancy grade of the studied IDC cases. Moreover, higher MT1 expression was associated with patients' longer overall survival (OS) in the group of ER+ breast cancers and treated with tamoxifen. Multivariate analysis indicated that MT1 was an independent prognostic factor in the ER+ tumors for OS and event‐free survival in the ER+ tumors. The results of this study may point to a potential prognostic and therapeutic significance of MT1 in IDC.
Severity of Virilization Is Associated with Cosmetic Appearance and Sexual Function in Women with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: van der Zwan Yvonne G. , Janssen Eefje H.C.C. , Callens Nina , Wolffenbuttel Katja P. , Cohen-Kettenis Peggy T. , van den Berg Marjan , Drop Stenvert L.S. , Dessens Arianne B. , Beerendonk Catharina 
Published: December 2012

ABSTRACT

Introduction
Women with the classical form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are born with different degrees of virilization of the external genitalia. Feminizing surgery is often performed in childhood to change the appearance of the genitalia and to enable penile–vaginal intercourse later in life. There are suggestions that this affects sexual functioning.

Aims
The aim is to study the anatomical, surgical, cosmetic, and psychosexual outcomes in women with CAH.

Methods
Forty women with CAH, aged over 15 years, from two referral centers for management of Disorders of Sex Development in the Netherlands were included. Physical and functional status were assessed by a gynecological interview and examination. Sexual functioning was assessed with the Female Sexual Function Index and Female Sexual Distress Scale—Revised scales and compared with a reference group.

Mean Outcome Measures
Surgery performed, anatomy, cosmetic score, sexual function and distress.

Results
Thirty-six of the 40 women had undergone feminizing surgery; 25 women (69%) underwent more than one operation. Resurgery was performed in seven of the 13 (54%) women who had had a single-stage procedure. Anatomical assessment showed reasonable outcomes. Multiple linear regression showed that only level of confluence had a significant effect on cosmetic outcome, the impact depending on the number of surgeries performed. Cosmetic evaluations did not differ between the women and the gynecologists. Only 20 women had experience of intercourse. Eight women reported dyspareunia; seven women reported urinary incontinence. The women's perceived sexual functioning was less satisfactory than in the reference group, and they reported more sexual distress.

Conclusion
The level of confluence was the major determinant for cosmetic outcome; the impact depended on the number of surgeries performed. Fifty-four percent of the women required resurgery after a single-stage procedure in childhood. Anatomical assessment showed reasonable outcomes. The women evaluated their sexual functioning and functional outcome less favorable than the reference group, and they experienced less often sexual intercourse.
Past, Present, and Future of Digital Medievalism
Authors: Swain Larry 
Published: December 2012

AbstractIn this article, the author looks back at over 30 years of experience with “Digital Humanities” and argues that while our media for research, delivery, have changed, our methodologies have not. That fact poses a significant challenge for Digital Medievalists because the author believes and advocates for a significant change not just in our delivery systems, but that the digital tools we now have should be changing the way we think and do research, teach, and advertise Medieval Studies as a whole. At once a personal story of experience in the field and an analysis of current practices, this article critiques practices frequently touted as innovative and the wave of the future as nothing more than the same old packages using a new delivery system that may or may not be as effective as the previous delivery system. This critique in the author’s view applies to our teaching as well as to our research. Finally, the author offers some suggestions for both research and teaching that attempt to break out of the old molds and methods and use the digital tools we have in innovative ways that do change the way medievalists research and teach and take fuller advantage of what working digitally offers the field.
Anglo‐Saxon Studies and Digital Technologies: Past, Present, and Future
Authors: Lee Stuart D. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractOld English and Anglo‐Saxon studies have consistently embraced the opportunities offered by IT and the new technologies. Taking a retrospective look to begin with this article will consider the range of applications, why this might have been so, and then look to present future directions. This will cover online learning (elearning), digitization, text analysis, social media and user‐generated content, finishing with a warning about the new skillset that scholars in the field will need to acquire.
Views, Comments and Statistics: Gauging and Engaging the Audience of Medievalist Blogging
Authors: Jarrett Jonathan 
Published: December 2012

AbstractA blog without an audience is no more than a constrained word processor; the point of blogging is surely to find an audience. But how can we go about gauging the audience that is attracted? Can it be measured or assessed, can it be courted, can it be deterred? Is the audience a blogger gets the one they want? This article looks, through the lens of the author’s experience with an academic blog on medieval history, at these questions and concludes that although the largest portion of the audience remains invisible, unengaged and perhaps accidental, the members of the audience of a successful blog who do interact and respond are the real necessity for a fruitful collaborative space that benefits readers as well as authors.
Authority, Interoperability, and Digital Medieval Scholarship
Authors: Fisher Matthew 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThe offline relationships between scholars and institutions have shaped the gateways to publishing, and the nature of the work published. The trust and credibility relationships that are part of those offline academic networks are an essential component of the authenticating strategies that frame both publication and citation, something made increasingly visible through online social networking tools. Although crowd‐sourced projects such as Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg attest to the incredible dynamism of online work, the digital humanities have been less successful at bringing together the energy of online discussions and the quality scholarship of print publications. By considering how data is trapped in the silos of digital medieval projects, and using RegEx searches to generate philological data from the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, I suggest that it is the democratization of interoperable digital tools, along with updated frameworks for trust and authority, that are essential for progress in the digital humanities.
Online Teaching of Old English: Wave of the Future or Wave Goodbye?
Authors: McGillivray Murray 
Published: December 2012

AbstractOnline teaching of Old English experienced a boom in the 1990s when it was treated as the wave of the future, but this analysis of the field suggests that development has been relatively stagnant since the mid‐2000s, and may even be in decline. This article assesses these trends in online teaching using a case‐study of an online Old English course and telling the story of its development and the limits to further development. Technological change, unsupportive administrative environments, and assessment structures that favor research over teaching may account for some of the arrested development of online Old English teaching, but changing governmental and societal attitudes may also be involved.
The impact of hepatic steatosis on liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy
Authors: Kele Petra G. , van der Jagt Eric J. , Gouw Annette S. H. , Lisman Ton , Porte Robert J. , de Boer Marieke T. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractBackground & AimExperimental studies in animals have suggested that liver regeneration is impaired in steatotic livers. However, few studies have focused on the impact of steatosis in patients undergoing partial hepatectomy (PH). This study aims to determine the role of steatosis on liver regeneration in humans following PH.MethodsEighty‐eight patients undergoing PH were included in this study. All patients underwent CT‐scanning of the liver preoperatively and 7 days after surgery. Additional CT‐scans were performed 6 months post‐operatively. Preoperative and post‐operative volumes of the total liver (TLV), future liver remnant (FLR) and liver remnant (LR) were measured on CT‐scans. Regeneration indices (RI) were calculated at 7 days and 6 months using the formula: (Volume LR−Volume FLR)/Volume FLR × 100%. Based on histological examination of the resected part of the liver, patients were classified into three groups: (1) no steatosis, (2) mild steatosis (1–29%) and (3) moderate‐to‐severe steatosis (≥30%).ResultsThe early RI (at day 7) was 40%, 24% and 20% for patients in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Late RI (at 6 months) was 81% for group 1, 44% for group 2 and 22% for group 3 (P = 0.019). At 7 days, the LR represented 79%, 80% and 79% of the TLV for groups 1–3. At 6 months, this was 93%, 92% and 79% respectively.ConclusionAlthough early RI after PH did not differ in patients with or without steatosis, the late RI in patients with moderate‐to‐severe steatosis was lower, suggesting that late liver regeneration is impaired in these patients.
Precise spatio‐temporal regulation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway leads to petal spot formation in Clarkia gracilis (Onagraceae)
Authors: Martins Talline R. , Berg Jeremy J. , Blinka Steven , Rausher Mark D. , Baum David A. 
Published: December 2012

Summary

Petal spots are widespread in angiosperms and are often implicated in pollinator attraction. Clarkia gracilis petals each have a single red‐purple spot that contrasts against a pink background. The position and presence of spots in C. gracilis are determined by the epistatic interaction of alleles at two as yet unidentified loci.

We used HPLC to identify the different pigments produced in the petals, and qualitative and quantitative RT‐PCR to assay for spatio‐temporal patterns of expression of different anthocyanin pathway genes.

We found that spots contain different pigments from the remainder of the petal, being composed of cyanidin/peonidin‐based, instead of malvidin‐based anthocyanins. Expression assays of anthocyanin pathway genes showed that the dihydroflavonol‐4‐reductase 2 (Dfr2) gene has a spot‐specific expression pattern and acts as a switch for spot production. Co‐segregation analyses implicated the gene products of the P and I loci as trans‐regulators of this switch. Spot pigments appear earlier in development as a result of early expression of Dfr2 and the flavonoid 3′ hydroxylase 1 (F3′h1) gene. Pigments in the background appear later, as a result of later expression of Dfr1 and the flavonoid 3′‐5′ hydroxylase 1 (F3′5′h1) genes.

The evolution of this spot production mechanism appears to have been facilitated by duplication of the Dfr gene and to have required substantial reworking of the anthocyanin pathway regulatory network.
Variation in Arabidopsis developmental responses to oomycete infection: resilience vs changes in life history traits
Authors: Salvaudon Lucie , Shykoff Jacqui A. 
Published: December 2012

Summary

Although plant resistance to aggressors has been well described, there is still little knowledge about the mechanisms underlying their tolerance to pathogens. Tolerance often appears to be mediated by changes in life history traits, shifting host resource investment from growth to reproduction, but whether host phenotype modifications induced after attack are adaptive is not always clear.

Here, we investigated the details of the impact of Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis infection on several biomass, phenology and architectural traits of Arabidopsis thaliana, for three pathogen genotypes and three host plant genotypes that have been shown previously to differ greatly in fecundity and tolerance to infection.

We found that, although host genotype explains most of the variance in life history traits, these three lines differ critically in their response to infection, with delays and biomass losses at bolting, together with changes in inflorescence architecture, observed at one extreme host line, and an advantage at bolting for infected plants and no inflorescence alteration for the other.

These results suggest that the differences in tolerance observed previously in this pathosystem do not involve plasticity in inflorescence architecture, but may arise from induced changes at the vegetative stage, before plant transition to reproduction.
Financing Empowerment? How Foreign Aid to Southern Ngos and Social Movements Undermines Grass‐Roots Mobilization
Authors: Jalali Rita 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThe article examines why many foreign‐funded, resource‐ rich movements in developing countries have been unable to produce the massive mobilization found in other successful social movements with access to fewer resources. While foreign ties have brought substantial benefits to local movements, many such social movements have limited grass‐roots support. The issue of external aid is at the core of an emerging research agenda in the fields of international relations, social movements, and development studies that focuses on the relationship between participatory development, democratization, and the process of transnationalization. Drawing on research work from these different fields, the article argues that by making constituency support irrelevant, internationalization through financial assistance has transformed conflict movements into consensus movements that follow an institutional, resource‐dependent, non‐conflictual strategy with no deep roots in the community. The article specifies the mechanisms by which foreign funding affects grass‐roots mobilization. These arguments are examined with respect to evidence from around the world.
Diversity in National Legislatures Around the World
Authors: Hughes Melanie M. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractMen from majority racial, ethnic, and religious groups continue to dominate electoral politics in most countries. At the same time, national legislatures are becoming more diverse. Cross‐national research on inequality in national politics focuses most often on women, but occasionally addresses the political representation of other marginalized groups. This review brings together these distinct areas of research – cross‐national studies on the representation of women and minority groups in national legislatures – to think about diversity in politics in a broader way. Such an approach suggests future studies should: (i) acknowledge important differences among women; (ii) focus on more than one type of minority group at a time; and (iii) explicitly examine variation in the overrepresentation of majority men as political elites.
Loop‐mediated isothermal amplification for detection of HLA‐B*58:01 allele
Authors: Kwok J. , Kwong K. M. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractStrong association of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐B*58:01 allele with allopurinol‐induced hypersensitivity was found worldwide, especially in the Han Chinese populations. This study aims to develop and evaluate a loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for rapid detection of HLA‐B*58:01. Two sets of LAMP primers targeting exons 2 and 3 of HLA‐B*58:01 allele were designed and their annealing temperatures were optimized accordingly. The heating devices for LAMP assay were tested. The analytical sensitivities of the two sets of LAMP primers were determined by 1:10 serial dilution of a positive control with homozygous HLA‐B*58:01 allele from 100 ng down to 1 fg. The analytical specificities of the LAMP primers were evaluated by 30 selected University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) DNA Exchange Program samples with known HLA‐B loci typings previously typed by sequencing. Both sets of LAMP primers targeting exons 2 and 3 amplified optimally at 67°C. Thermal cycler is essential in achieving a more precise and specific LAMP result. The sensitivity of the exon 2 LAMP primer set was found to be 1 pg, whereas it was 10 ng for the exon 3 primer set in a 60‐min amplification. The LAMP primers were highly specific because LAMP results were perfectly concordant to the sequencing results. The HLA‐B*58:01 LAMP assay has compatible sensitivity and specificity to routine genotyping assays, and it is potentially an alternative screening test for the detection of HLA‐B*58:01 and ultimately allopurinol‐induced hypersensitivity.
Genetic polymorphisms in innate immunity receptors do not predict the risk of bacterial and fungal infections and acute rejection after liver transplantation
Authors: de Mare‐Bredemeijer E.L.D. , Mancham S. , Utomo W.K. , de Canck I. , van Thielen M. , de Meester E. , Rossau R. , van der Laan L.J.W. , Hansen B.E. , Tilanus H.W. , Kazemier G. , Janssen H.L.A. , Metselaar H.J. , Kwekkeboom J. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractIntroductionWe studied the influence of a broad range of genetic variants in recipient and donor innate immunity receptors on bacterial and fungal infections and acute rejection after liver transplantation (LT).MethodsSeventy‐six polymorphisms in TLR 1‐10, NOD2, LBP, CD14, MD2, SIGIRR, Ficolins 1, ‐2, and ‐3, MASP 1, ‐2, and ‐3, and the complement receptor C1qR1 were determined in 188 LT recipients and 135 of their donors. Associations with clinically significant infections and acute rejection were analyzed for 50 polymorphisms. Significant associations were validated in an independent cohort of 181 recipients and 167 donors.ResultsThree recipient polymorphisms and 3 donor polymorphisms were associated with infections in the identification cohort, but none of these associations were confirmed in the validation cohort. Three donor polymorphisms were associated with acute rejection in the identification cohort, but not in the validation cohort.ConclusionIn contrast to their effect in the general population, 50 common genetic variations in innate immunity receptors do not influence susceptibility to bacterial/fungal infections after LT. In addition, no reproducible associations with acute rejection after LT were observed. Likely, transplant‐related factors play a superior role as risk factors for bacterial/fungal infections and acute rejection after LT.
Cost–utility analysis of oral deferasirox versus infusional deferoxamine in transfusion‐dependent β‐thalassemia patients
Authors: Keshtkaran Ali , Javanbakht Mehdi , Salavati Sedigheh , Mashayekhi Atefeh , Karimi Mehran , Nuri Bijan 
Published: December 2012

BackgroundDeferasirox (DFX) is a novel iron chelator that has been shown to have similar efficacy and safety compared with deferoxamine (DFO) in patients with β‐thalassemia. The aim of this study was to determine the cost utility of DFX versus DFO in β‐thalassemia major patients from Iran's society perspective.Study Design and MethodsA Markov model has been developed to determine lifetime cost and quality‐adjusted life‐years (QALYs) of patients. To estimate the annual cost of each method, a cross‐sectional study was conducted among two groups of patients who received DFO and DFX (n = 100 and n = 45, respectively). Also a time trade‐off method was used to estimate the utility of two strategies. Finally a one‐way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the strength of the results.ResultsOur base‐case analysis showed that estimated total lifetime costs per patient for DFX and DFO were 47,029 international dollar ($Int) and $Int143,522, respectively, while the estimated total discounted QALYs per person were 12.28 and 7.76, respectively. Calculated incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio showed that DSX is a dominant therapy and its estimated lifetime net monetary benefit was $Int273,528.ConclusionWe conclude that the use of DFX instead of DFO represents a cost‐effective use of resources for treatment of iron overload in patients with β‐thalassemia from Iran's society perspective.
Comparison of the diagnostic quality of computed tomography images of normal ocular and orbital structures acquired with and without the use of general anesthesia in the cat
Authors: Collins Sean P. , Matheson Jodi S. , Hamor Ralph E. , Mitchell Mark A. , Labelle Amber L. , O'Brien Robert T. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the diagnostic quality of computed tomography (CT) images of normal ocular and orbital structures acquired with and without the use of general anesthesia in the cat.Animal StudiedEleven privately owned cats with nasal disease presenting to a single referral hospital.ProceduresAll cats received a complete ophthalmic examination. A 16 multislice helicalCTsystem was utilized to acquire images of the skull and neck with and without the use of general anesthesia. Images were acquired before and after the administration of intravenous iodinated contrast. Images of normal ocular and orbital structures were evaluated via consensus by two board‐certified radiologists. Visibility of ocular and orbital structures, degree of motion, and streak artifact were assessed and scored for each image set in the transverse, dorsal, and sagittal planes.ResultsThe use of general anesthesia did not significantly affect the diagnostic quality of images. No motion artifact was observed in anyCTimage. Streak artifact was significantly increased in scans performed in the transverse orientation but not in the dorsal orientation or sagittal orientation and did not affect the diagnostic quality of the images. Contrast enhancement did not significantly enhance the visibility of any ocular or orbital structures.ConclusionDiagnosticCTimages of normal ocular and orbital structures can be acquired without the use of general anesthesia in the cat.