bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Emerging Organizational Structures in the Ambulance Industry in the United States
Authors: Narad Richard A. 
Published: July 2015

AbstractThis analysis seeks to identify emerging forms of organizations in emergency medical services (EMS) in the United States, to provide examples of them, to relate them to changes in healthcare generally, and to apply a classification scheme. Public policy issues related to these new forms of organizations and lessons from other areas of the healthcare system are identified.Recent changes in the healthcare system in the United States have been marked by modifications in the structure of organizations that provide and pay for health services. New forms of organizations and alliances among existing organizations have emerged in an effort to improve the efficiency of the services provided and to improve organizations' market positions.Reflecting increased competition within EMS and the demands of the changing health-care delivery system, several types of organizations have begun to emerge in EMS that resemble those occurring in health care generally. These include forms of horizontal integration, such as consolidated ambulance services and various models of ambulance service networks; and forms of vertical integration, such as demand management programs and public-private joint ventures. The ultimate end might be complete integration with a carve-out of all non-scheduled care.Although changes in EMS organizations result largely from marketplace decisions by sellers and purchasers, this does not mean that there is no public policy role. While new organizational forms may increase the ambulance industry's efficiency, public policy makers must be concerned about quality and access as well. Some policy responses will promote marketplace changes, others will accept them generally, but will seek to correct problems, and a third group will attempt to restrain the market.
TP53 mutations in de novo acute myeloid leukemia patients: longitudinal follow-ups show the mutation is stable during disease evolution
Authors: Hou H-A , Chou W-C , Kuo Y-Y , Liu C-Y , Lin L-I , Tseng M-H , Chiang Y-C , Liu M-C , Liu C-W , Tang J-L , Yao M , Li C-C , Huang S-Y , Ko B-S , Hsu S-C , Chen C-Y , Lin C-T , Wu S-J , Tsay W , Chen Y-C , Tien H-F 
Published: July 2015

AbstractThe TP53 mutation is frequently detected in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with complex karyotype (CK), but the stability of this mutation during the clinical course remains unclear. In this study, TP53 mutations were identified in 7% of 500 patients with de novo AML and 58.8% of patients with CK. TP53 mutations were closely associated with older age, lower white blood cell (WBC) and platelet counts, FAB M6 subtype, unfavorable-risk cytogenetics and CK, but negatively associated with NPM1 mutation, FLT3/ITD and DNMT3A mutation. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that TP53 mutation was an independent poor prognostic factor for overall survival and disease-free survival among the total cohort and the subgroup of patients with CK. A scoring system incorporating TP53 mutation and nine other prognostic factors, including age, WBC counts, cytogenetics and gene mutations, into survival analysis proved to be very useful to stratify AML patients. Sequential study of 420 samples showed that TP53 mutations were stable during AML evolution, whereas the mutation was acquired only in 1 of the 126 TP53 wild-type patients when therapy-related AML originated from different clone emerged. In conclusion, TP53 mutations are associated with distinct clinic-biological features and poor prognosis in de novo AML patients and are rather stable during disease progression.
Muscle LIM protein/CSRP3: a mechanosensor with a role in autophagy
Authors: Rashid M M , Runci A , Polletta L , Carnevale I , Morgante E , Foglio E , Arcangeli T , Sansone L , Russo M A , Tafani M 
Published: July 2015

AbstractMuscle LIM protein (MLP) is a microtubule-associated protein expressed in cardiac and muscle tissues that belongs to the cysteine-rich protein (CSRP/CRP) family. MLP has a central role during muscle development and for architectural maintenance of muscle cells. However, muscle cells rely on autophagy during differentiation and for structural maintenance. To study the role of MLP in autophagy, we have used C2C12 mouse myoblasts silenced or overexpressing MLP. Our results show that MLP contributes to the correct autophagosome formation and flux by interacting with LC3 as demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitation and PLA assay. In fact, MLP silencing results in decreased LC3-II staining and absent degradation of long-lived proteins. Moreover, MLP silencing impaired myoblasts differentiation as measured by decreased expression of MyoD1, MyoG1 and myosin heavy chain. Ultrastructural analysis revealed the presence of large empty autophagosomes in myoblasts and multimembranous structures in myotubes from MLP-silenced clones. Impaired autophagy in MLP-silenced cells resulted in increased susceptibility to apoptotic cell death. In fact, treatment of MLP-silenced C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes with staurosporine resulted in increased caspase-3 and PARP cleavage as well as increased percentage of cell death. In conclusion, we propose that MLP regulates autophagy during muscle cell differentiation or maintenance through a mechanism involving MLP/LC3-II interaction and correct autophagosome formation.
Diverse, rare microbial taxa responded to the Deepwater Horizon deep-sea hydrocarbon plume
Authors: Kleindienst Sara , Grim Sharon , Sogin Mitchell , Bracco Annalisa , Crespo-Medina Melitza , Joye Samantha B 
Published: July 2015

Abstract
The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil well blowout generated an enormous plume of dispersed hydrocarbons that substantially altered the Gulf of Mexico’s deep-sea microbial community. A significant enrichment of distinct microbial populations was observed, yet, little is known about the abundance and richness of specific microbial ecotypes involved in gas, oil and dispersant biodegradation in the wake of oil spills. Here, we document a previously unrecognized diversity of closely related taxa affiliating with Cycloclasticus, Colwellia and Oceanospirillaceae and describe their spatio-temporal distribution in the Gulf’s deepwater, in close proximity to the discharge site and at increasing distance from it, before, during and after the discharge. A highly sensitive, computational method (oligotyping) applied to a data set generated from 454-tag pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene V4–V6 regions, enabled the detection of population dynamics at the sub-operational taxonomic unit level (0.2% sequence similarity). The biogeochemical signature of the deep-sea samples was assessed via total cell counts, concentrations of short-chain alkanes (C1–C5), nutrients, (colored) dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, as well as methane oxidation rates. Statistical analysis elucidated environmental factors that shaped ecologically relevant dynamics of oligotypes, which likely represent distinct ecotypes. Major hydrocarbon degraders, adapted to the slow-diffusive natural hydrocarbon seepage in the Gulf of Mexico, appeared unable to cope with the conditions encountered during the DWH spill or were outcompeted. In contrast, diverse, rare taxa increased rapidly in abundance, underscoring the importance of specialized sub-populations and potential ecotypes during massive deep-sea oil discharges and perhaps other large-scale perturbations.
Snapshot prediction of carbon productivity, carbon and protein content in a Southern Ocean diatom using FTIR spectroscopy
Authors: Sackett Olivia , Petrou Katherina , Reedy Brian , Hill Ross , Doblin Martina , Beardall John , Ralph Peter , Heraud Philip 
Published: July 2015

Abstract
Diatoms, an important group of phytoplankton, bloom annually in the Southern Ocean, covering thousands of square kilometers and dominating the region’s phytoplankton communities. In their role as the major food source to marine grazers, diatoms supply carbon, nutrients and energy to the Southern Ocean food web. Prevailing environmental conditions influence diatom phenotypic traits (for example, photophysiology, macromolecular composition and morphology), which in turn affect the transfer of energy, carbon and nutrients to grazers and higher trophic levels, as well as oceanic biogeochemical cycles. The paucity of phenotypic data on Southern Ocean phytoplankton limits our understanding of the ecosystem and how it may respond to future environmental change. Here we used a novel approach to create a ‘snapshot’ of cell phenotype. Using mass spectrometry, we measured nitrogen (a proxy for protein), total carbon and carbon-13 enrichment (carbon productivity), then used this data to build spectroscopy-based predictive models. The models were used to provide phenotypic data for samples from a third sample set. Importantly, this approach enabled the first ever rate determination of carbon productivity from a single time point, circumventing the need for time-series measurements. This study showed that Chaetoceros simplex was less productive and had lower protein and carbon content during short-term periods of high salinity. Applying this new phenomics approach to natural phytoplankton samples could provide valuable insight into understanding phytoplankton productivity and function in the marine system.
RTN1 mediates progression of kidney disease by inducing ER stress
Authors: Fan Ying , Xiao Wenzhen , Li Zhengzhe , Li Xuezhu , Chuang Peter Y. , Jim Belinda , Zhang Weijia , Wei Chengguo , Wang Niansong , Jia Weiping , Xiong Huabao , Lee Kyung , He John C. 
Published: July 2015

AbstractIdentification of new biomarkers and drug targets for chronic kidney disease (CKD) is required for the development of more effective therapy. Here we report an association between expression of reticulon 1 (RTN1) and severity of CKD. An isoform-specific increase in the expression of RTN1A is detected in the diseased kidneys from mice and humans, and correlates inversely with renal function in patients with diabetic nephropathy. RTN1 overexpression in renal cells induces ER stress and apoptosis, whereas RTN1 knockdown attenuates tunicamycin-induced and hyperglycaemia-induced ER stress and apoptosis. RTN1A interacts with PERK through its N-terminal and C-terminal domains, and mutation of these domains prevents this effect on ER stress. Knockdown of Rtn1a expression in vivo attenuates ER stress and renal fibrosis in mice with unilateral ureteral obstruction, and also attenuates ER stress, proteinuria, glomerular hypertrophy and mesangial expansion in diabetic mice. Together, these data indicate that RTN1A contributes to progression of kidney disease by inducing ER stress.
Superconductivity-induced re-entrance of the orthorhombic distortion in Ba1−xKxFe2As2
Authors: Böhmer A. E. , Hardy F. , Wang L. , Wolf T. , Schweiss P. , Meingast C. 
Published: July 2015

AbstractDetailed knowledge of the phase diagram and the nature of the competing magnetic and superconducting phases is imperative for a deeper understanding of the physics of iron-based superconductivity. Magnetism in the iron-based superconductors is usually a stripe-type spin-density-wave, which breaks the tetragonal symmetry of the lattice, and is known to compete strongly with superconductivity. Recently, it was found that in some systems an additional spin-density-wave transition occurs, which restores this tetragonal symmetry, however, its interaction with superconductivity remains unclear. Here, using thermodynamic measurements on Ba1−xKxFe2As2 single crystals, we show that the spin-density-wave phase of tetragonal symmetry competes much stronger with superconductivity than the stripe-type spin-density-wave phase, which results in a novel re-entrance of the latter at or slightly below the superconducting transition.
Marine Sediments Remotely Unveil Long-Term Climatic Variability Over Northern Italy
Authors: Taricco Carla , Alessio Silvia , Rubinetti Sara , Zanchettin Davide , Cosoli Simone , Gačić Miroslav , Mancuso Salvatore , Rubino Angelo 
Published: July 2015

AbstractA deep understanding of natural decadal variability is pivotal to discuss recently observed climate trends. Paleoclimate proxies allow reconstructing natural variations before the instrumental period. Typically, regional-scale reconstructions depend on factors like dating, multi-proxy weighting and calibration, which may lead to non-robust reconstructions. Riverine records inherently integrate information about regional climate variability, partly overcoming the above mentioned limitation. The Po River provides major freshwater input to Eastern Mediterranean, as its catchment encompasses a large part of Northern Italy. Here, using historical discharge data and oceanographic measurements, we show that Po River discharge undergo robust decadal fluctuations that reach the Ionian Sea, ~1,000 km South of Po River delta, through propagating salinity anomalies. Based on this propagation, we use a high-resolution foraminiferal δ18O record from a sediment core in the Ionian Sea to reconstruct North Italian hydrological variability on millennial-scale for the first time. The reconstruction reveals highly significant decadal variability that persists over the last 2,000 years. Many reconstructed extremes correspond to documented catastrophic events. Our study provides the first millennial-scale reconstruction of the strength of decadal hydrological variability over Northern Italy. It paves the way to assess the persistence of large-scale circulation fingerprints on the North Italian climate.
miR-628, a microRNA that is induced by Toll-like receptor stimulation, regulates porcine innate immune responses
Authors: Jun He , Ying He , Daiwen Chen , Bing Yu , Xiangbing Mao , Ping Zheng , Jie Yu , Zhiqing Huang , Junqiu Luo 
Published: July 2015

AbstractMammalian innate and acquired immune responses involve a coordinated, sequential and self limiting sequence of events controlled by positive and negative regulatory mechanism. MicroRNAs have been implicated as a negative regulator for diverse biological events including immune responses. However, the involvement of miRNAs in regulating the immune responses is just beginning to be explored. Here, we characterized the expression profiling of 375 microRNAs in porcine monocytes induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and result shows that several of them are endotoxin-responsive genes. Through promoter analysis, the miR-628 was found to be a NF-κB dependent gene. Importantly, miR-628 was predicted to base-pair with sequences in the 3′-UTR of the myeloid differentiation protein 88 (MyD88) gene. And we found that the UTR inhibit expression of a linked reporter gene coding a key adapter molecule downstream of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), resulting in suppressing of the TLR signaling. Therefore, we not only propose a role of miR-628 in control of the TLR signaling through a negative feedback regulation loop involving down-regulation of MyD88 protein levels, but results may also contribute to rational target selection orchestrating the inflammatory responses.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: MicroRNA-320a acts as a tumor suppressor by targeting BCR/ABL oncogene in chronic myeloid leukemia
Authors: Xishan Zhu , Ziying Lin , Jing Du , Gang Liu 
Published: July 2015

AbstractAccumulating evidences demonstrated that the induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with tumorigenesis, tumor progression, metastasis and relapse in cancers, including chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). We found that miR-320a expression was reduced in K562 and in CML cancer stem cells. Moreover, we found that miR-320a inhibited K562 cell migration, invasion, proliferation and promoted apoptosis by targeting BCR/ABL oncogene. As an upstream regulator of BCR/ABL, miR-320a directly targets BCR/ABL. The enhanced expression of miR-320a inhibited the phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT and NF-κB; however, the expression of phosphorylated PI3K, AKT and NF-κB were restored by the overexpression of BCR/ABL. In K562, infected with miR-320a or transfected with SiBCR/ABL, the protein levels of fibronectin, vimentin and N-cadherin were decreased, but the expression of E-cadherin was increased. The expression of mesenchymal markers in miR-320a-expressing cells was restored to normal levels by the restoration of BCR/ABL expression. Generally speaking, miR-320a acts as a novel tumor suppressor gene in CML and miR-320a can decrease migratory, invasive, proliferative and apoptotic behaviors, as well as CML EMT, by attenuating the expression of BCR/ABL oncogene.
Development of bright fluorescent quadracyclic adenine analogues: TDDFT-calculation supported rational design
Authors: Foller Larsen Anders , Dumat Blaise , Wranne Moa S. , Lawson Christopher P. , Preus Søren , Bood Mattias , Gradén Henrik , Marcus Wilhelmsson L. , Grøtli Morten 
Published: July 2015

AbstractFluorescent base analogues (FBAs) comprise a family of increasingly important molecules for the investigation of nucleic acid structure and dynamics. We recently reported the quantum chemical calculation supported development of four microenvironment sensitive analogues of the quadracyclic adenine (qA) scaffold, the qANs, with highly promising absorptive and fluorescence properties that were very well predicted by TDDFT calculations. Herein, we report on the efficient synthesis, experimental and theoretical characterization of nine novel quadracyclic adenine derivatives. The brightest derivative, 2-CNqA, displays a 13-fold increased brightness (εΦF = 4500) compared with the parent compound qA and has the additional benefit of being a virtually microenvironment-insensitive fluorophore, making it a suitable candidate for nucleic acid incorporation and use in quantitative FRET and anisotropy experiments. TDDFT calculations, conducted on the nine novel qAs a posteriori, successfully describe the relative fluorescence quantum yield and brightness of all qA derivatives. This observation suggests that the TDDFT-based rational design strategy may be employed for the development of bright fluorophores built up from a common scaffold to reduce the otherwise costly and time-consuming screening process usually required to obtain useful and bright FBAs.
Influence of electric current pulses on the solidification of Cu-Bi-Sn immiscible alloys
Authors: Hongxiang Jiang , Jie He , Jiuzhou Zhao 
Published: July 2015

AbstractContinuous solidification experiments were carried out with Cu-Bi-Sn alloys under the effects of Electric Current Pulses (ECPs). A model describing the microstructure evolution was developed. The formation of the microstructure in the continuously solidified alloys was calculated. The calculations demonstrated that ECPs mainly affect the solidification process through changing the energy barrier for the nucleation of the minority phase droplets (MPDs). When the matrix liquid has a lower electric conductivity compared to the MPD, the ECPs lead to a decrease in the energy barrier for the nucleation of the MPDs which then promote the formation of a finely dispersed microstructure. When the matrix liquid has a higher electric conductivity compared to the MPD, the ECPs cause an increase in the energy barrier for the nucleation and lead to the formation of a phase segregated microstructure.
Gnathostoma spinigerum Mitochondrial Genome Sequence: a Novel Gene Arrangement and its Phylogenetic Position within the Class Chromadorea
Authors: Liu Guo-Hua , Shao Renfu , Cai Xian-Quan , Li Wen-Wen , Zhu Xing-Quan 
Published: July 2015

AbstractHuman gnathostomiasis is an emerging food-borne parasitic disease caused by nematodes in the genus Gnathostoma. In spite of their significance as pathogens, these parasites remain poorly understood at the molecular level. In the present study, we sequenced the mitochondrial (mt) genome of G. spinigerum, which infects a range of definitive hosts including dogs, cats, tigers, leopards and humans. The mt genome of G. spinigerum is 14,079 bp in size and shows substantial changes in gene order compared to other nematodes studied to date. Phylogenetic analyses of mt genome sequences by Bayesian inference (BI) revealed that the infraorder Gnathostomatomorpha (represented by G. spinigerum) is closely related to the infraorder Ascaridomorpha. G. spinigerum is the first species from the infraorder Gnathostomatomorpha for which a complete mt genome has been sequenced. The new data will help understand the evolution, population genetics and systematics of this medically important group of parasites.
RD-1 encoded EspJ protein gets phosphorylated prior to affect the growth and intracellular survival of mycobacteria
Authors: Singh Pramod K , Saxena Richa , Tiwari Sameer , Singh Diwakar K , Singh Susmita K , Kumari Ruma , Srivastava Kishore K 
Published: July 2015

AbstractMycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) synchronizes a number of processes and controls a series of events to subvert host defense mechanisms for the sake of residing inside macrophages. Besides these, MTB also possesses a wide range of signal enzyme systems, including eleven serine threonine protein kinases (STPKs). The present study describes STPK modulated modification in one of the hypothetical proteins of the RD1 region; EspJ (ESX-1 secretion associated protein), which is predicted to be involved in virulence of MTB. We have employed knock-out MTB and M. bovis BCG as a surrogate strain to elaborate the consequence of the phosphorylation of EspJ. The molecular and mass spectrometric analyses in this study, confirmed EspJ as one of the substrates of STPKs. The ectopic expression of phosphoablative mutants of espJ in M. bovis BCG also articulated the effect of phosphorylation on the growth and in survival of mycobacteria. Importantly, the level of phosphorylation of EspJ also differed between pathogenic H37 Rv (Rv) and non pathogenic H37 Ra (Ra) strains of MTB. This further suggested that to a certain extent, the STPKs mediated phosphorylation may be accountable, in determining the growth and in intra-cellular survival of mycobacteria.
Investigation of temperature-dependent photoluminescence in multi-quantum wells
Authors: Fang Yutao , Wang Lu , Sun Qingling , Lu Taiping , Deng Zhen , Ma Ziguang , Jiang Yang , Jia Haiqiang , Wang Wenxin , Zhou Junming , Chen Hong 
Published: July 2015

AbstractPhotoluminescence (PL) is a nondestructive and powerful method to investigate carrier recombination and transport characteristics in semiconductor materials. In this study, the temperature dependences of photoluminescence of GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs multi-quantum wells samples with and without p-n junction were measured under both resonant and non-resonant excitation modes. An obvious increase of photoluminescence(PL) intensity as the rising of temperature in low temperature range (T < 50 K), is observed only for GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells sample with p-n junction under non-resonant excitation. The origin of the anomalous increase of integrated PL intensity proved to be associated with the enhancement of carrier drifting because of the increase of carrier mobility in the temperature range from 15 K to 100 K. For non-resonant excitation, carriers supplied from the barriers will influence the temperature dependence of integrated PL intensity of quantum wells, which makes the traditional methods to acquire photoluminescence characters from the temperature dependence of integrated PL intensity unavailable. For resonant excitation, carriers are generated only in the wells and the temperature dependence of integrated PL intensity is very suitable to analysis the photoluminescence characters of quantum wells.