bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Survey of dental radiographical practice in States of Punjab and Haryana in India
Authors: Sheikh Soheyl , Pallagatti Shambulingappa , Singla Isha , Gupta Rajesh , Aggarwal Amit , Singh Ravinder , Gupta Deepak 
Published: December 2012

AbstractBackgroundRadiographs are used extensively in dentistry to supplement the clinical examination of the patients. Technical advances in X‐ray equipment and imaging systems have allowed significant reduction in radiation doses of patients during intraoral and extraoral radiography.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the level of awareness of dental professionals of northern India regarding dose‐reduction techniques and radiographic equipment.MethodsThe survey covered 370 dentists in the states of Punjab and Haryana in northern India. Information on the demographic characteristics of the dentists, radiographic equipment, techniques, and radiation protection was obtained with a 30‐point questionnaire.ResultsThe respondents knowledge concerning the technical details of their equipment was limited, with 82.3% not being aware about the kilovoltage peak of their machine. Up to 10.8% dentists were not aware about the speed of film. The most preferred technique for periapical radiography was the bisecting angle technique, which was used by 94.1% dentists.ConclusionIn the present study the results indicate that for minimizing any unnecessary radiation, attempts should be made to improve dentists' knowledge about radiation‐dose‐reduction techniques.
Cryotherapy reduces skeletal muscle damage after ischemia/reperfusion in rats
Authors: Puntel Gustavo O. , Carvalho Nélson R. , Dobrachinski Fernando , Salgueiro Andréia C. F. , Puntel Robson L. , Folmer Vanderlei , Barbosa Nilda B. V. , Royes Luiz F. F. , Rocha João Batista T. , Soares Félix A. A. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThe aim of this study was to analyze the effects of cryotherapy on the biochemical and morphological changes in ischemic and reperfused (I/R) gastrocnemius muscle of rats. Forty male Wistar rats were divided into control and I/R groups, and divided based on whether or not the rats were submitted to cryotherapy. Following the reperfusion period, biochemical and morphological analyses were performed. Following cryotherapy, a reduction in thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances and dichlorofluorescein oxidation levels were observed in I/R muscle. Cryotherapy in I/R muscle also minimized effects such as decreased cellular viability, levels of non‐protein thiols and calcium ATPase activity as well as increased catalase activity. Cryotherapy also limited mitochondrial dysfunction and decreased the presence of neutrophils in I/R muscle, an effect that was corroborated by reduced myeloperoxidase activity in I/R muscle treated with cryotherapy. The effects of cryotherapy are associated with a reduction in the intensity of the inflammatory response and also with a decrease in mitochondrial dysfunction.
Melatonin improved rat cardiac mitochondria and survival rate in septic heart injury
Authors: Zhang Hongmin , Liu Dawei , Wang Xiaoting , Chen Xiukai , Long Yun , Chai Wenzhao , Zhou Xiang , Rui Xi , Zhang Qing , Wang Hao , Yang Quanhui 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThe pathogenesis of septic myocardial depression is complicated. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been suggested to be one of the main reasons for the reduced cardiac function. As melatonin is an antioxidant with the potential to scavenge radicals in mitochondria, we therefore employed a sepsis model, that is, cecal ligation and double puncture (CLP) in rats, to study the melatonin effects on: (i), myocardial mitochondrial function; (ii), heart systolic function; and (iii), prognosis of septic rats. We demonstrate that melatonin treatment (30 mg/kg, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 hr after CLP) (i) improved myocardial cytochrome c oxidase (CcOX) activity and blood lactate level, (ii) attenuated heart dysfunction with a higher left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), and (iii) promoted 48‐h survival of the rats compared to CLP animals with no melatonin treatment. In conclusion, our results show that rat myocardial mitochondrial CcOX activity was depressed during severe sepsis accompanied by myocardial depression characterized by the decline of EF. In septic rats, melatonin increased the CcOX activity, improved heart systolic function, and lowered mortality rate. The clinical use of melatonin in septic myocardial depression should be tested in the future.
The role of physiological markers of health in the association between demographic factors and periodontal disease
Authors: Levine M. E. , Kim J. K. , Crimmins E. M. 
Published: December 2012

Background and ObjectiveAge is highly related to oral health status. The higher prevalence of oral disease within subgroups of the population may reflect a tendency towards “early aging” and dysregulation of multiple physiological systems. This study examines whether the association between periodontal disease and demographic factors is mediated by physiological measures of health.Material and MethodsLogistic regression was used to examine whether biomarkers and demographic factors, such as socio‐economic status (SES) and race/ethnicity, were associated with periodontal disease, and then whether the strength of these relationships could be attributed to associations between demographic variables and physiological measures of systemic health.ResultsPeriodontal disease was associated with measures of SES and race/ethnicity. Furthermore, 1‐unit increases in cytomegalovirus (CMV), optical density, C‐reactive protein (CRP) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were associated with a 25% [odds ratio (OR) = 1.25; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14–1.36], 13% (OR = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.03–1.24) and 19% (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.12–1.27) increased likelihood of periodontal disease, respectively. However, when biomarkers and socio‐demographic variables were both included in the model, their associations with periodontal disease were significantly reduced or eliminated.ConclusionsThe risk of periodontal disease is higher among black and/or low‐income individuals; however, these associations appear to be partly due to the greater probability of elevated levels of CRP, CMV or HbA1c among these groups.
Functional implications of the intertarsal joint shape in a terrestrial (Coturnix coturnix) versus a semi‐aquatic bird (Callonetta leucophrys)
Authors: Provini P. , Simonis C. , Abourachid A. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractAs birds have a diversity of locomotor behaviors, their skeleton is subjected to a variety of mechanical constraints (gravitational, aerodynamic and sometimes hydrodynamic forces). Yet, only minor modifications in post‐cranial skeleton shape are observed across the diversity of avian species in comparison with other vertebrates. The goal of this study was to explore potential morphological adjustments that allow locomotion in different habitats in Anatidae. Specifically, we compared a strictly terrestrial bird, the common quail Coturnix coturnix, and a semi‐aquatic bird, the ringed teal Callonetta leucophrys, to explore whether their anatomy reflects the constraints of locomotion in different habitats (water vs. land). We compared the tibiotarsus and the tarsometatarsus shape between the two species using a geometric morphometric approach. Our data illustrate distinct differences between species with a more medially oriented intertarsal joint in the ringed teal than in the common quail, which may be linked to the kinematics of walking and paddling. This study lays the foundations to understand the functional requirements for moving in both terrestrial and aquatic environments in Anatidae, and suggests morphological characteristics of the bird hindlimb skeleton that may help to predict the motions it is capable of.
Geographical distribution and ecological diversification of South American octodontid rodents
Authors: Ojeda A. A. , Novillo A. , Ojeda R. A. , Roig‐Juñent S. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractCaviomorph rodents represent one of the most distinctive groups of mammals in southern South America drylands; they colonized South America from Africa via trans‐oceanic dispersions in the Eocene (40–50 Ma) and underwent an extraordinary ecological radiation after their arrival, thus making this group of great interest for biogeographic and evolutionary studies. The aim of this article was to provide a working hypothesis regarding the biogeographical history and ecological diversification of one of its conspicuous families, the Octodontidae. We reconstruct the evolutionary theater where their ecological diversification took place, and potential events of dispersal, vicariance and extinctions. We analyzed the historical biogeography of the Octodontidae across the eight ecoregions where they occur, based on species phylogeny and divergence times. Four approaches were used to reconstruct ancestral area: (1) Statistical Dispersal–Vicariance Snalysis (S‐DIVA); (2) Bayesian binary Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis implemented in Reconstruct Ancestral State in Phylogenies (RASP); (3) Fitch optimization method; and (d) weighted ancestral area analysis (WAAA). Parsimony ancestral state reconstructions were implemented in order to explore the evolutionary history of an ecological character, mode of life. We propose the northern portion of the Monte desert ecoregion as the ancestral area in the evolution of the Octodontidae, with subsequent dispersal and enlargement of the family geographic range. The evolution of their ecological specialization (i.e. modes of life) suggests an ambiguous ancestral condition (saxicolous, generalist terrestrial, semifossorial) linked to species adaptation to arid environments, with fossoriality appearing later in octodontid evolution. The evolution of the Octodontidae is associated with contrasting environmental conditions (i.e. climate and vegetation) produced by the Andean Uplift between eastern and western sides.
Inverting the Panopticon: Google Earth, Wonder and Earthly Delights
Authors: Mittman Asa 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThis essay considers the user experience of Google Earth, comparing the world it presents with other world views including static print maps, medieval mappaemundi, and Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. It also considers the scopic environment of Google Earth in relation to Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a theoretical prison design intended to provide a single guard the ability to view every inmate while remaining unobserved. The Google Earth interface generates wonder and geographic longing, but also empowers the user by granting new and flexible controls that differ from those available to users of print and manuscript maps. Ultimately, Google Earth is not an application that provides great utility, as traditionally defined – it does not help us navigate the physical world. Instead, it does something much more powerful: it gives us a new way to contemplate the world in which we live.
Kinetics and prediction of HBsAg loss during therapy with analogues in patients affected by chronic hepatitis B HBeAg negative and genotype D
Authors: Boglione Lucio , D'Avolio Antonio , Cariti Giuseppe , Gregori Gabriella , Burdino Elisa , Baietto Lorena , Cusato Jessica , Ghisetti Valeria , De Rosa Francesco G. , Di Perri Giovanni 
Published: December 2012

AbstractBackground & AimsIn patients affected by chronic hepatitis because of HBV infection, long‐term suppressive therapy with nucleos(t)ides analogues in the HBeAg− patients has shown low effects on HBsAg titre (qHBsAg) decrease, and HBsAg loss is difficult to achieve. Thus, in this type of patients the main goals of antiviral therapy is the suppression of HBV‐DNA and ALT normalization.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated different qHBsAg kinetics in 134 treatment‐naïve patients having the same characteristics: HBeAg‐, infection sustained by HBV genotype D and persistently undetectable HBV‐DNA. Patients were treated with NAs therapy (lamivudine, adefovir, telbivudine, entecavir and tenofovir) for at least 2 years. qHBsAg was performed every 6 months.ResultsOur results showed a significantly greater qHBsAg decline after 2 years in patients treated with tenofovir (0.45 logIU/ml) than in patients treated with telbivudine (0.12 logIU/ml; P < 0.001). The calculated expected time to HBsAg loss was shorter in the tenofovir group than in the telbivudine group (nearly 17 vs 63 years, P < 0.001).ConclusionsHBeAg negative patients infected by HBV genotype D should be treated with more potent NAs such as entecavir or tenofovir to obtain a significant qHBsAg decrease, but the achievement of HBsAg loss seems to require almost two decades of therapy.
Chondrule trace element geochemistry at the mineral scale
Authors: JACQUET Emmanuel , ALARD Olivier , GOUNELLE Matthieu 
Published: December 2012

Abstract– We report trace element analyses from mineral phases in chondrules from carbonaceous chondrites (Vigarano, Renazzo, and Acfer 187), carried out by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry. Results are similar in all three meteorites. Mesostasis has rare earth element (REE) concentrations of 10–20 × CI. Low‐Ca pyroxene has light REE (LREE) concentrations near 0.1 × CI and heavy REE (HREE) near 1 × CI, respectively. Olivine has HREE concentrations at 0.1–1 × CI and LREE around 10−2 × CI. The coarsest olivine crystals tend to have the most fractionated REE patterns, indicative of equilibrium partitioning. Low‐Ca pyroxene in the most pyroxene‐rich chondrules tends to have the lowest REE concentrations. Type I chondrules seem to have undergone a significant degree of batch crystallization (as opposed to fractional crystallization), which requires cooling rates slower than 1–100 K h−1. This would fill the gap between igneous calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) and type II chondrules. The anticorrelation between REE abundances and pyroxene mode may be understood as due to dilution by addition of silica to the chondrule melt, as in the gas‐melt interaction scenario of Libourel et al. (2006). The rapid cooling rate (of the order of 1000 K h−1) which seems recorded by low‐Ca pyroxene, contrasted with the more diverse record of olivine, may point to a nonlinear cooling history or suggest that formation of pyroxene‐rich chondrule margins was an event distinct from the crystallization of the interior.
Beyond an AFLP genome scan towards the identification of immune genes involved in plague resistance in Rattus rattus from Madagascar
Authors: Tollenaere C. , Jacquet S. , Ivanova S. , Loiseau A. , Duplantier J.‐M. , Streiff R. , Brouat C. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractGenome scans using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers became popular in nonmodel species within the last 10 years, but few studies have tried to characterize the anonymous outliers identified. This study follows on from an AFLP genome scan in the black rat (Rattus rattus), the reservoir of plague (Yersinia pestis infection) in Madagascar. We successfully sequenced 17 of the 22 markers previously shown to be potentially affected by plague‐mediated selection and associated with a plague resistance phenotype. Searching these sequences in the genome of the closely related species Rattus norvegicus assigned them to 14 genomic regions, revealing a random distribution of outliers in the genome (no clustering). We compared these results with those of an in silico AFLP study of the R. norvegicus genome, which showed that outlier sequences could not have been inferred by this method in R. rattus (only four of the 15 sequences were predicted). However, in silico analysis allowed the prediction of AFLP markers distribution and the estimation of homoplasy rates, confirming its potential utility for designing AFLP studies in nonmodel species. The 14 genomic regions surrounding AFLP outliers (less than 300 kb from the marker) contained 75 genes encoding proteins of known function, including nine involved in immune function and pathogen defence. We identified the two interleukin 1 genes (Il1a and Il1b) that share homology with an antigen of Y. pestis, as the best candidates for genes subject to plague‐mediated natural selection. At least six other genes known to be involved in proinflammatory pathways may also be affected by plague‐mediated selection.
Differential introgression reveals candidate genes for selection across a spruce (Picea sitchensis × P. glauca) hybrid zone
Authors: Hamilton Jill A. , Lexer Christian , Aitken Sally N. 
Published: December 2012

Summary

Differential patterns of introgression between species across ecological gradients provide a fine‐scale depiction of extrinsic and intrinsic factors that contribute to the maintenance of species barriers and adaptation across heterogeneous environments.

Introgression was examined for 721 individuals collected from the ecological transition zone spanning maritime to continental climates within the Picea sitchensis–Picea glauca contact zone using a panel of 268 candidate gene single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Geographic clines showed a strong spatial relationship between allele frequencies and both distance from the ocean along major rivers and mean annual precipitation, indicating a strong role for environmental selection. Interspecific patterns of differentiation using outlier tests revealed three candidate genes that may be targets of long‐term divergent selection between the parental species, although contemporary genomic clines within the hybrid zone suggested neutral patterns of introgression for these genes.

This study provides a fine‐scale analysis of locus‐specific introgression, identifying a suite of candidate loci that may be targets of extrinsic or intrinsic selection, with broad application in understanding local adaptation to climate.
Identification and mapping of adult‐plant stripe rust resistance in soft red winter wheat cultivar ‘USG 3555’
Authors: Christopher Mark D. , Liu Shuyu , Hall Marla D. , Marshall David S. , Fountain Myron O. , Johnson Jerry W. , Milus Eugene A. , Garland‐Campbell Kimberly A. , Chen Xianming , Griffey Carl A. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractLittle is known about the extent or diversity of resistance in soft red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to stripe rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici. The soft red winter (SRW) wheat cultivar ‘USG 3555’ has effective adult‐plant resistance to stripe rust, which was characterized in a population derived from ‘USG 3555’/‘Neuse’. The mapping population consisted of 99 recombinant inbred lines, which were evaluated for stripe rust infection type (IT) and severity to race PST‐100 in field trials in North Carolina in 2010 and 2011. Genome‐wide molecular‐marker screenings with 119 simple sequence repeats and 560 Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) markers were employed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for stripe rust resistance. QTL on chromosomes 1AS, 4BL and 7D of ‘USG 3555’ explained 12.8, 73.0 and 13.6% of the variation in stripe rust IT, and 13.5, 72.3 and 10.5% of the variation in stripe rust severity, respectively. Use of these and additional diagnostic markers for these QTL will facilitate the introgression of this source of stripe rust resistance into SRW wheat lines via marker‐assisted selection.
The Photochemistry of Thymine in Frozen Aqueous Solution: Trimeric and Minor Dimeric Products
Authors: Shetlar Martin D. , Basus Vladimir J. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractEarly work identified three compounds, namely the c,s cyclobutane dimer, the so‐called (6‐4) photoproduct (5‐hydroxy‐6‐4′‐(5‐methylpyrimidin‐2′‐one)‐5,6‐dihydrothymine) and a trimer hydrate, as products formed upon UV irradiation of thymine in frozen aqueous solution. More recent work has shown that an (α‐4) product, namely α‐4′‐(5′‐methylpyrimidine‐2′‐one)‐thymine, is a likely product formed under these reaction conditions. During a thorough reinvestigation of the photochemistry of Thy in ice at −78.5°C, we found that a variety of other products could be detected. In addition to the c,s dimer, the other three known cyclobutane dimers, namely the c,a, t,s and t,a forms, are produced, although in considerably smaller amounts. The so‐called “spore product” of thymine (5,6‐dihydro‐5‐(α‐thyminyl)thymine) is likewise formed. Two other dimers have been identified as minor products; one of these has been determined to be 5‐(thymin‐3‐yl)‐5,6‐dihydrothymine and the other has been tentatively assigned to be a (5‐4) adduct (6‐hydroxy‐5‐4′‐(5‐methylpyrimidin‐2′‐one)‐5,6‐dihydrothymine). Compounds with the behavior expected of true trimeric compounds have been isolated via HPLC and characterized by mass spectrometry and photochemical behavior. One of these materials, putatively containing an oxetane ring, decomposes thermally to a secondary trimeric product that is then converted into the known trimer hydrate.
From support to pressure: The dynamics of social and governmental influences on environmental law enforcement inGuangzhouCity,China
Authors: Van Rooij Benjamin , Fryxell Gerald E. , Lo Carlos Wing‐Hung , Wang Wei 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThis paper examines how changes in governmental and social influences affect environmental enforcement in Guangzhou city, China, between 2000 and 2006. The paper finds that a form of “decentered regulation” has developed. Regulatory enforcement is no longer the sole affair of the government and the regulatory bureaucracy, but has been increasingly influenced by societal forces. The transformation over time shows the promises and limits of decentered regulation in Guangzhou's dynamic authoritarian setting. Analyzing a set of longitudinal survey data and qualitative interviews, the paper finds that by 2006, the rise of civil society and its increased support for protecting the environment had a double‐edged impact on the enforcement of environmental regulations. The paper demonstrates that on the one hand, by 2006, when government support for enforcement was low, societal forces developed an ability to counterbalance such lack of governmental support and positively influence enforcement. However, it also shows that when government support was high, a concurrent rise in societal support created a negative effect on enforcement. Thus too much societal support can become an enforcement burden.