bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Calcineurin-Crz1 Signaling in Lower Eukaryotes
Authors: Thewes S. 
Published: March 2014

ABSTRACT

Calcium ions are ubiquitous intracellular messengers. An increase in the cytosolic Ca
2+
concentration activates many proteins, including calmodulin and the Ca
2+
/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase calcineurin. The phosphatase is conserved from yeast to humans (except in plants), and many target proteins of calcineurin have been identified. The most prominent and best-investigated targets, however, are the transcription factors NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) in mammals and Crz1 (calcineurin-responsive zinc finger 1) in yeast. In recent years, many orthologues of Crz1 have been identified and characterized in various species of fungi, amoebae, and other lower eukaryotes. It has been shown that the functions of calcineurin-Crz1 signaling, ranging from ion homeostasis through cell wall biogenesis to the building of filamentous structures, are conserved in the different organisms. Furthermore, frequency-modulated gene expression through Crz1 has been discovered as a striking new mechanism by which cells can coordinate their response to a signal. In this review, I focus on the latest findings concerning calcineurin-Crz1 signaling in fungi, amoebae and other lower eukaryotes. I discuss the potential of Crz1 and its orthologues as putative drug targets, and I also discuss possible parallels with calcineurin-NFAT signaling in mammals.
Role of Force-Sensitive Amyloid-Like Interactions in Fungal Catch Bonding and Biofilms
Authors: Chan Cho X. J. , Lipke Peter N. 
Published: March 2014

ABSTRACT

The
Candida albicans
Als adhesin Als5p has an amyloid-forming sequence that is required for aggregation and formation of model biofilms on polystyrene. Because amyloid formation can be triggered by force, we investigated whether laminar flow could activate amyloid formation and increase binding to surfaces. Shearing
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
cells expressing Als5p or
C. albicans
at 0.8 dyne/cm
2
increased the quantity and strength of cell-to-surface and cell-to-cell binding compared to that at 0.02 dyne/cm
2
. Thioflavin T fluorescence showed that the laminar flow also induced adhesin aggregation into surface amyloid nanodomains in Als5p-expressing cells. Inhibitory concentrations of the amyloid dyes thioflavin S and Congo red or a sequence-specific anti-amyloid peptide decreased binding and biofilm formation under flow. Shear-induced binding also led to formation of robust biofilms. There was less shear-activated increase in adhesion, thioflavin fluorescence, and biofilm formation in cells expressing the amyloid-impaired V326N-substituted Als5p. Similarly,
S. cerevisiae
cells expressing Flo1p or Flo11p flocculins also showed shear-dependent binding, amyloid formation, biofilm formation, and inhibition by anti-amyloid compounds. Together, these results show that laminar flow activated amyloid formation and led to enhanced adhesion of yeast cells to surfaces and to biofilm formation.
Heterologous Expression of Bartonella Adhesin A in Escherichia coli by Exchange of Trimeric Autotransporter Adhesin Domains Results in Enhanced Adhesion Properties and a Pathogenic Phenotype
Authors: Schmidgen Thomas , Kaiser Patrick O. , Ballhorn Wibke , Franz Bettina , Göttig Stephan , Linke Dirk , Kempf Volkhard A. J. 
Published: March 2014

ABSTRACT

Human-pathogenic
Bartonella henselae
causes cat scratch disease and vasculoproliferative disorders. An important pathogenicity factor of
B. henselae
is the trimeric autotransporter adhesin (TAA)
Bartonella
adhesin A (BadA), which is modularly constructed, consisting of a head, a long and repetitive neck-stalk module, and a membrane anchor. BadA is involved in bacterial autoagglutination, binding to extracellular matrix proteins and host cells, and in proangiogenic reprogramming. The slow growth of
B. henselae
and limited tools for genetic manipulation are obstacles for detailed examination of BadA and its domains. Here, we established a recombinant expression system for BadA mutants in
Escherichia coli
allowing functional analysis of particular BadA domains. Using a BadA mutant lacking 21 neck-stalk repeats (BadA HN23), the BadA HN23 signal sequence was exchanged with that of
E. coli
OmpA, and the BadA membrane anchor was additionally replaced with that of
Yersinia
adhesin A (YadA). Constructs were cloned in
E. coli
, and hybrid protein expression was detected by immunoblotting, fluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. Functional analysis revealed that BadA hybrid proteins mediate autoagglutination and binding to collagen and endothelial cells.
In vivo
, expression of this BadA construct correlated with higher pathogenicity of
E. coli
in a
Galleria mellonella
infection model.
Mental health admissions in paediatric populations in North Wales: two cohorts compared 1875–1924 and 1994–2008
Authors: Basa Fouad B , Harris Margret , Syed Mujahid Ali , Le Noury Joanna , Healy David 
Published: March 2014

ObjectivesTo investigate frequency of under-18s admitted to mental health services (MHS) in North West Wales (NWW) between 1875 and 2008. There are claims that 1 in 10 children have a mental illness, but there are little data on their inpatient MHS utilisation.SettingLooking at admissions at the secondary care level, three data samples were included; the first comprises historical asylum admissions, the second comprises contemporary admissions to acute psychiatric beds, and the third comprises admissions to district general hospital (DGH) beds that resulted in a mental health coding.ParticipantsAll were under 18. There were 65 historical patients, 41 contemporary mental illness admissions and 943 DGH admissions.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcome measures were diagnoses based on case notes of the historical cohort between 1875 and 1924, as well as details of paediatric admissions to MHS from 1994 to 2008 and paediatric admissions with a mental health component to the DGH in NWW.ResultsThe incidence of admission to a mental health bed was 1.55 per year in the historical cohort compared with 2.9 in the contemporary. The overall incidence of admission to any bed in the contemporary cohort was 129 patients per year. There has been a twofold increase in the incidence of admissions for schizophrenia and related psychosis, but this most likely stems from an earlier age of admission rather than a true increase.ConclusionsThere is a greater frequency of hospital admissions for youth under the age of 18 in NWW for mental health today than previously. The rates reported in the DGH sample are consistent with data from community surveys of patients meeting criteria for mental disorders and complement such data when it comes to planning for paediatric MHS. However, they also raise questions about the boundaries between disease and distress.
Acute hospital-based services utilisation during the last year of life in New South Wales, Australia: methods for a population-based study
Authors: O'Connell Dianne L , Goldsbury David E , Davidson Patricia , Girgis Afaf , Phillips Jane L , Piza Michael , Wilkinson Anne , Ingham Jane M 
Published: March 2014

ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to describe healthcare utilisation in the last year of life for people in Australia, to help inform health services planning. The methods and datasets that are being used are described in this paper.Design/SettingLinked, routinely collected administrative health data are being analysed for all people who died in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, in 2007. The data comprised linked death records (2007), hospital admissions and emergency department presentations (2006–2007) and cancer registrations (1994–2007).ParticipantsThere were 46 341 deaths in NSW in 2007. The initial analyses include 45 760 decedents aged 18 years and over.Outcome measuresThe primary measures address the utilisation of hospital-based services at the end of life, including number and length of hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, intensive care admissions, palliative-related admissions and place of death.ResultsThe median age at death was 80 years. Cause of death was available for 95% of decedents and 85% were linked to a hospital admission record. In the greater metropolitan area, where data capture was complete, 83% of decedents were linked to an emergency department presentation. 38% of decedents were linked to a cancer diagnosis in 1994–2007. The most common causes of death were diseases of the circulatory system (34%) and neoplasms (29%).ConclusionsThis study is among the first in Australia to give an information-rich census of end-of-life hospital-based experiences. While the administrative datasets have some limitations, these population-wide data can provide a foundation to enable further exploration of needs and barriers in relation to care. They also serve to inform the development of a relatively inexpensive, timely and reliable approach to the ongoing monitoring of acute hospital-based care utilisation near the end of life and inform whether service access and care are optimised.
Caring for those who die at home: the use and validation of ‘Care Of the Dying Evaluation’ (CODE) with bereaved relatives
Authors: Mayland Catriona R , Lees Carolyn , Germain Alison , Jack Barbara A , Cox Trevor F , Mason Stephen R , West Angela , Ellershaw John E 
Published: March 2014

BackgroundAs well as facilitating patients’ wish to die at home, evaluating quality of care in this setting is essential. Postbereavement surveys with family members represent one assessment method. ‘Care Of the Dying Evaluation’ (CODE) is a 40-item self-completion postbereavement questionnaire, based on the key components of best practice for care of the dying.AimTo assess the validity and reliability of CODE by conducting: cognitive ‘think aloud’ interviews; test–retest analysis; and assessing internal consistency and construct validity of three key composite scales.DesignPostbereavement survey to next-of-kin (NOK).Setting/participants291 NOK to patients who died at home in Northwest England from an advanced incurable illness were invited to complete the CODE questionnaire. Additionally, potential participants were asked to undertake a cognitive interview and/or complete CODE for a second time a month later.Results72 bereaved relatives (24.7% response rate) returned the completed CODE questionnaire, and 25 completed CODE for a second time. 15 cognitive interviews were undertaken. All interviewees found CODE sensitively worded and easy to understand. Minor revisions were suggested to provide additional clarity. Test–retest analysis showed all except one question had moderate or good stability. Although the ENVIRONMENT scale was not as relevant within the home setting, all three key composite scales showed good internal consistency and construct validity.Conclusions‘CODE’ represents a user-friendly, comprehensive outcome measure for care of the dying and has been found to be valid and reliable. CODE could potentially be used to benchmark individual organisations and identify areas for improvement.
Potential triggers for the holistic assessment of people with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: analysis of multiperspective, serial qualitative interviews
Authors: Cawley D , Billings J , Oliver D , Kendall M , Pinnock H 
Published: March 2014

ObjectivesThis study explores the narrative accounts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to identify events that potentially could act as triggers for provision of supportive and palliative care. Trigger events must have meaning for the patient/carer, be visible to professionals, and have value in provoking useful actions.MethodsA purposive sample of people with severe COPD, and their informal and professional carers, was recruited from primary/secondary care in Scotland. Indepth participant-led interviews allowed people to tell their illness story. Events occurring throughout the individual's account of the COPD journey were identified, and analysed thematically with regard to the meaning, visibility and use as potential triggers.ResultsEvents identified from 92 transcripts (21 patients, 13 family carers, 18 professionals) punctuated the disease trajectory and crossed multiprofessional boundaries of care. These reflected advancing disease (increasing carer burden, becoming housebound, appointment frequency, increasing burden of disease, shifting priorities of care) or were an intervention addressing the consequences of advancing disease (requesting disabled parking, home adaptations, hospital admissions). Despite being meaningful in terms of increasing disability, many were invisible to professionals. Others were isolated events symptomatic of wider, ongoing disability which could potentially have use as triggers.ConclusionsMeaningful events can be identified within the story of COPD which reflect wider needs, are clearly visible to alert professionals, and be of use in terms of potentially guiding supportive interventions. To achieve this level of usefulness, services will need to promote health and social care integration with clear processes to facilitate holistic assessment when a trigger is detected.
Global educational disparities in the associations between body mass index and diabetes mellitus in 49 low-income and middle-income countries
Authors: Wang Aolin , Stronks Karien , Arah Onyebuchi A 
Published: March 2014

BackgroundDespite the well-established link between body mass index (BMI) and diabetes mellitus (DM), it remains unclear whether this association is more pronounced at certain levels of education. This study assessed the modifying effect of educational attainment on the associations between BMI and DM—as well as the joint associations of BMI and education with DM—in low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs).MethodsThe authors used cross-sectional data from 160 381 participants among 49 LICs and MICs in the World Health Survey. Overweight and obesity levels were defined using WHO's classification. Educational attainment was classified in four categories: ‘no formal education’, ‘some/completed primary school’, ‘secondary/high school completed’ and ‘college and beyond’. We used random-intercept multilevel logistic regressions to investigate the modifying influence of educational attainment on the associations of different BMI levels—as well as their joint associations—with DM.ResultsWe found positive associations between excessive BMI and DM at each education level in both LICs and MICs. We found that the joint associations of BMI and education with DM were larger than the product of their separate single associations among females in LICs. With joint increases in BMI and education, males and females in LICs had similar increased odds of DM, but males had higher such odds than females in MICs.ConclusionsBMI and education are associated with the DM, but the associations seem to differ in complex ways between LICs and MICs and by gender.
Conscious and Unconscious Representations of Observed Actions in the Human Motor System
Authors: Mattiassi Alan D. A. , Mele Sonia , Ticini Luca F. , Urgesi Cosimo 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
Action observation activates the observer's motor system. These motor resonance responses are automatic and triggered even when the action is only implied in static snapshots. However, it is largely unknown whether an action needs to be consciously perceived to trigger motor resonance. In this study, we used single-pulse TMS to study the facilitation of corticospinal excitability (a measure of motor resonance) during supraliminal and subliminal presentations of implied action images. We used a forward and backward dynamic masking procedure that successfully prevented the conscious perception of prime stimuli depicting a still hand or an implied abduction movement of the index or little finger. The prime was followed by the supraliminal presentation of a still or implied action probe hand. Our results revealed a muscle-specific increase of motor facilitation following observation of the probe hand actions that were consciously perceived as compared with observation of a still hand. Crucially, unconscious perception of prime hand actions presented before probe still hands did not increase motor facilitation as compared with observation of a still hand, suggesting that motor resonance requires perceptual awareness. However, the presentation of a masked prime depicting an action that was incongruent with the probe hand action suppressed motor resonance to the probe action such that comparable motor facilitation was recorded during observation of implied action and still hand probes. This suppression of motor resonance may reflect the processing of action conflicts in areas upstream of the motor cortex and may subserve a basic mechanism for dealing with the multiple and possibly incongruent actions of other individuals.
What J.T. Fraser Gave the World
Authors: Turner Frederick 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
This summary of the fundamental insights of J.T. Fraser dwells on four main themes. The first is the way that Fraser disposes of the ancient struggle between monism and dualism, with its related problem of ontology versus epistemology. His tree-like vision of the evolution of the many out of the one is both ordered and open-ended. The second is his critique of philosophy’s (and science’s) tendency to reify simple, defined, pure, and exclusive abstractions. Subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness, freedom, mind, cause, and the experience of time are shown by him to be composite, present in different degrees and kinds in different organisms and different times, constructed and complex. The third theme is Fraser’s decisive refutation of the metaphor of time as a line, as in clocks, calendars, and the t-axis in science. We must explore other geometries. The fourth theme is Fraser’s rehabilitations of the arts, including literature, as potentially legitimate ways of understanding the world and exploring the nature of time.
Life and Times: The Temporal Habitations of R. A. Kartini
Authors: Hawkins Michael 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThis article explores the remarkable temporal perceptions and attempted historical habitations of a young Javanese noblewoman at the turn of the century in the Dutch East Indies. It examines the ways in which this young woman used the concepts of relative temporality, civilizational evolution, and stagist histories to challenge both the imposition of Dutch colonialism and the conventions of her indigenous culture. Her vivid and thoughtful correspondences reveal a greatly expanded realm of human agency with regard to perceived temporality and one’s mobility within evolutionary time. She demonstrated a much understudied aspect of colonial resistance that is at the heart of the temporal concept of modernity.
Wenn in Time: Linguistic Moments in Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Authors: Mak Su Yin 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThat song is both a concrete musical entity and an abstract metaphor for romantic subjectivity is the central paradox of musical lyricism. This paradox lends the lyric mode in music a self-consciousness that is, I believe, linguistic in character. It invites the listener to hear musical gestures both as signs that participate in the teleology of tonal discourse, and as sounds; and such sounds, in turn, are experienced viscerally at the same time that they serve as an abstract ideal of pure, natural expression. The present article examines, with reference to Schumann’sDichterliebe, the aesthetic and discursive bases for lyricism’s engagement with temporality. Two “linguistic moments” from Schumann’sDichterliebeillustrate how the dialectic between sign and sound plays with the various parameters of musical discourse, reflects or comments upon its own artifice, and breaks the illusion that music is a transparent medium of expression. Finally, the semiotic implications of lyricism’s engagement with temporality are explored with reference to Nietzsche’s conception of theAugenblick.
Augustine of Hippo’s Philosophy of Time Meets General Relativity
Authors: Minguzzi Ettore 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
This paper proposes a cosmological model that uses a causality argument to solve the homogeneity and entropy problems of cosmology. In this model, a chronology violating region of spacetime causally precedes the remainder of the Universe, and a theorem establishes the existence of time functions precisely outside the chronology violating region. This model is shown to nicely reproduce Augustine of Hippo’s thought on time and the beginning of the Universe. In the model, the spacelike boundary representing the Big Bang is replaced by a null hypersurface at which the gravitational degrees of freedom are almost frozen while the matter and radiation content is highly homogeneous and thermalized.
Order in the “Arbitrary”: The Distribution, Content, and Temporal Cycles of English Merchant Tribute in Eighteenth-Century Yemen
Authors: Um Nancy 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
Drawing on the documents of the English East India Company, along with comparative material from the Dutch East India Company and sources in Arabic, this article looks closely at the distribution, content, and timing of merchant tribute in relation to the practices of trade in eighteenth-century Yemen. The goal is to uncover the patterns surrounding English commercial gift practices at a time when European merchants were flocking to the southern Arabian Peninsula to procure coffee beans. This study casts gifts as central and regularized parts of the cycle of exchange, rather than as non-transactional or incidental social accessories of the Indian Ocean trade, thereby allocating an important place for gifts within early modern cross-cultural commercial interactions.
International Law is Western Made Global Law: The Perception of Third-World Category
Authors: Ikejiaku Brian-Vincent 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
The way in which international law has been constructed and reconstructed over the ages in favour of the Western countries has driven some Third-World scholars to perceive international law as ‘a global law made by the West’ for the purpose of controlling global undertakings. In the past, international law was used by the Westerners to legitimise colonialism and all their acts of exploitation in the developing countries. In the modern period, international law is predominantly used to protect, project and promote (3Ps) the interest of the Westerners. This includes their multinational businesses scattered globally, and protectionist bid against terrorist attacks. This paper uses theoretical, critical and multidisciplinary approaches to examine this perception of international law. It concludes that construction and reconstruction of international law in favour of Western countries has been one key instrument that perpetuate severe inequality between the Global North and Global South, which in turn hampers efforts toward global-peace and security.
Separation of Powers and the Application of the Political Question Doctrine in Uganda
Authors: Mhango Mtendeweka 
Published: March 2014

Abstract
In Uganda, courts have considered and applied the political question doctrine since the 1960s. This article examines the case law development and trends in the application of the political question doctrine theme in Ugandan jurisprudence. This article discusses the history of the political question doctrine in Uganda. It examines the case law developments and trends around the application of that doctrine in Uganda, and argues that the doctrine is undoubtedly part of the constitutional law of Uganda.