bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
In vitro cytotoxicity of Gymnema montanum in human leukaemia HL‐60 cells; induction of apoptosis by mitochondrial membrane potential collapse
Authors: Ramkumar K. M. , Manjula C. , Elango B. , Krishnamurthi K. , Saravana Devi S. , Rajaguru P. 
Published: May 2013

AbstractObjectivesGymnema montanum Hook, an Indian Ayurvedic medicinal plant, is used traditionally to treat a variety of ailments. Here, we report anti‐cancer effects and molecular mechanisms of ethanolic extract of G. montanum (GLEt) on human leukaemia HL‐60 cells, compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells.Materials and methodsHL‐60 cells were treated with different concentrations of GLEt (10–50 μg/ml) and cytotoxicity was assessed by MTT assay. Levels of lipid peroxidation, antioxidants, mitochondrial membrane potential and caspase‐3 were measured. Further, apoptosis was studied using annexin‐V staining and the cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry.ResultsGLEt had a potent cytotoxic effect on HL‐60 cells (IC50‐20 μg/ml), yet was not toxic to normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Exposure of HL‐60 cells to GLEt led to elevated levels of malonaldehyde formation, but to reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities (P < 0.05). Induction of apoptosis was confirmed by observing annexin‐V positive cells, associated with loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. Cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 was observed in GLEt‐treated HL‐60 cells, indicating its potential at inducing their apoptosis.ConclusionsFindings of the present study suggest that G. montanum induced apoptosis in the human leukaemic cancer cells, mediated by collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential, generation of reactive oxygen species and depletion of intracellular antioxidant potential.
Molecular mechanisms of Lycoris aurea agglutinin‐induced apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, both in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Li C.‐Y. , Wang Y. , Wang H.‐L. , Shi Z. , An N. , Liu Y.‐X. , Liu Y. , Zhang J. , Bao J.‐K. , Deng S.‐P. 
Published: May 2013

AbstractObjectivesLycoris is aurea agglutinin (LAA) has attracted rising attention due to its remarkable bioactivities. Here, we aimed at investigating its anti‐tumor activities.Material and MethodsIn vitro methods including MTT, cellular morphology observation, FCM and immunoblotting were performed. In vivo methods like detection of tumor volume, body weight and survival ratio, as well as TUNEL staining were performed.Results and ConclusionLAA triggers G2/M phase cell cycle arrest via up‐regulating p21expression as well as down‐regulating cdk‐1cyclinA singling pathway, and induces apoptotic cell death through inhibiting PI3K‐Akt survival pathway in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. While LAA has no significant cytotoxic effect toward normal human embryonic lung fibroblast HELF cells, and moreover, LAA could amplify the antineoplastic effects of cisplatin toward A549 cells. Lastly LAA also bears anti‐cancer and apoptosis‐inducing effects in vivo, and it could decrease the volume and weight of subcutaneous tumor mass obviously as well as expand lifespan of mice. These findings may provide a new perspective for elucidating the complicated molecular mechanisms of LAA‐induced cancer cell growth‐inhibition and death, providing a new opportunity of LAA as a potential candidate anti‐neoplastic drug for future cancer therapeutics.
Pore shape and organic compounds drive major changes in the hydrological characteristics of agricultural soils
Authors: Czachor H. , Hallett P. D. , Lichner L. , Jozefaciuk G. 
Published: May 2013

SummaryA small increase in soil organic matter (SOM) content can change soil hydrological properties from a completely wettable to a partially water‐repellent state. Although considerable research describes hydrophobic compounds as a primary driver of this shift, the influence of pore shape has only been considered in a few studies and none of these has emphasized the role of different carbon compounds. Using a capillary bundle model of non‐cylindrical (wavy) capillaries, we described measured hydrological properties of five agricultural soils that have a small degree of water repellency and textures ranging from coarse sand to heavy clay. To isolate the influence of SOM, it was removed by combustion to provide an SOM‐free treatment. Water and methanol sorptivities quantified infiltration rates and soil‐water wetting angles in packed soil cores. Different cores were sectioned to measure wetting profiles and calculate diffusivity. The results from natural soils were supplemented by measurements carried out on model ‘soils’ consisting of quartz particles (50–200 µm) with four different hydrophobic states. Soil organic matter removal increased water sorptivity from about 60% for a coarse sandy soil (Haplic Arenosol) to about 290% for a heavy clay soil (Haplic Leptosol), corresponding to a decreased apparent wetting angle of 20–30°. Application of the wavy pore model suggests that the apparent wetting angle resulting from SOM removal can be several times smaller than its Young value. Generally, SOM removal increased water diffusivity values by one to two orders of magnitudes. The SOM components having the greatest impact on contact angle were hexanedioic acid and heneicosanoic acid (both hydrophilic) and docosane (hydrophobic).
Species richness declines and biotic homogenisation have slowed down for NW‐European pollinators and plants
Authors: Carvalheiro Luísa Gigante , Kunin William E. , Keil Petr , Aguirre‐Gutiérrez Jesus , Ellis Willem Nicolaas , Fox Richard , Groom Quentin , Hennekens Stephan , Van Landuyt Wouter , Maes Dirk , Van de Meutter Frank , Michez Denis , Rasmont Pierre , Ode Baudewijn , Potts Simon Geoffrey , Reemer Menno , Roberts Stuart Paul Masson , Schaminée Joop , WallisDeVries Michiel F. , Biesmeijer Jacobus Christiaan 
Published: May 2013

AbstractConcern about biodiversity loss has led to increased public investment in conservation. Whereas there is a widespread perception that such initiatives have been unsuccessful, there are few quantitative tests of this perception. Here, we evaluate whether rates of biodiversity change have altered in recent decades in three European countries (Great Britain, Netherlands and Belgium) for plants and flower visiting insects. We compared four 20‐year periods, comparing periods of rapid land‐use intensification and natural habitat loss (1930–1990) with a period of increased conservation investment (post‐1990). We found that extensive species richness loss and biotic homogenisation occurred before 1990, whereas these negative trends became substantially less accentuated during recent decades, being partially reversed for certain taxa (e.g. bees in Great Britain and Netherlands). These results highlight the potential to maintain or even restore current species assemblages (which despite past extinctions are still of great conservation value), at least in regions where large‐scale land‐use intensification and natural habitat loss has ceased.
The Causes and Consequences of the Collegial Implementation of European Competition Law
Authors: Karagiannis Yannis 
Published: May 2013

AbstractA major achievement of the new institutionalism is the formalisation of the idea that certain policies, such as competition law, are more efficient when administered by a politically independent organisation. Based on this insight, several practitioners and scholars criticise the European Community for relying too much on a multitask, collegial, and therefore politicised organisation, the European Commission. Defining collegiality as the involvement of non‐expert commissioners in the implementation of the EC competition law, this article offers the first interdisciplinary analysis of the causes and consequences of that peculiar European institution. The central finding is that, far from being a mistake or the product of unanticipated consequences, collegiality was a necessary condition for the creation of supranational European law.
The Right to Have What Rights? EU Citizenship in Need of Clarification
Authors: Kochenov Dimitry 
Published: May 2013

AbstractThis paper provides a brief critical overview of the recent EU citizenship case‐law of the Court of Justice including Rottmann, Ruiz Zambrano, McCarthy and Dereci. While these cases open a number of new avenues of fundamental importance for the development of EU law, they also undermine legal certainty and send contradictory signals as to the essence of the EU citizenship status and the role it ought to play in the system of EU law. Most importantly, the Court's reluctance to specify what is meant by the ‘essence of rights’ of EU citizenship potentially has disastrous consequences following its own determination that such rights play a crucial role in moving particular factual constellations within the material scope of EU law. The substance and meaning of such rights is however left in suspense to harmful effects. An urgent clarification is needed.
General Principles in EU Law between a Compensatory Role and an Intrinsic Value
Authors: Semmelmann Constanze 
Published: May 2013

AbstractThe present contribution starts with an overview of the terminological and conceptual confusion underlying the notion of principle, its generality and the concept of the “general principles” in EU law. Far beyond the delicacy in relation to their genesis and nature, their interaction with other norms at the constitutional or legislative level deserves a closer look. For analytical purposes, a distinction will be drawn between, first, a view that conceives of general principles as self‐standing instruments, secondly, a combined reading of the respective general principle with relevant legislation and, thirdly, a view that is based exclusively on the application of the relevant legislative act. In the light of the Mangold‐Kücükdeveci cases and other cases involving equality or employment matters, the question will be raised of whether general principles merely serve to overcome deficits in relation to directives and are therefore often a transitional and compensatory phenomenon or whether they have an intrinsic value.
Why Methods Matter in European Legal Scholarship
Authors: van Gestel Rob , Micklitz Hans‐Wolfgang 
Published: May 2013

AbstractBoth in the United States and in Europe, there is a debate on methodology in legal research. Doctrinalists and multidisciplinarians appear to be in different camps fighting over the ‘true nature’ of legal scholarship. We wonder where this renewed attention for methodology is coming from and what is behind it. Should European legal scholars follow certain colleagues in the United States who believe that doctrinal research is dead and should we all engage in law and … research now? If not, does this imply that there is nothing wrong with mainstream European doctrinal legal scholarship? We believe the latter is not the case. Our hypothesis is that an ongoing instrumentalisation of law and legal research decreases the attention for methodology, for theory building, and for keeping enough professional distance to one's object of research. This threatens to result in a creeping process of herd behaviour, in copy pasting the methodology of judicial lawmaking to legal scholarship and in a lack of transparency and methodological justification in scholarly legal publications. What is desperately needed is more reflection on methodology and theory building in European legal scholarship.
Innovative Governance in a Federal Europe: Implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Authors: Reiss Jennifer W. 
Published: May 2013

AbstractA recent development in European law, less heralded, but no less path‐breaking than the Treaty of Lisbon, was the ratification by the EU of its first human rights treaty—the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Concluded as a mixed agreement, the CRPD's pioneering monitoring mechanisms demand a high level of cooperation from both the Union and its Member States. It, thus, provides an opportunity for the Union to further develop a distinctly European notion of federalism by the use of new, innovative governance mechanisms. This article looks at the Union as a federalist project through the prism of the mixed agreement, and specifically the ways that federalism may be balanced within it, using the CRPD as an example. Although the Union has an existing Code of Conduct under the Convention, it lacks true engagement with these issues, and this article proposes changes to that end.
Genes encoding 4‐Cys antimicrobial peptides in wheat Triticum kiharae Dorof. et Migush.: multimodular structural organization, instraspecific variability, distribution and role in defence
Authors: Utkina Lyubov L. , Andreev Yaroslav A. , Rogozhin Eugene A. , Korostyleva Tatyana V. , Slavokhotova Anna A. , Oparin Peter B. , Vassilevski Alexander A. , Grishin Eugene V. , Egorov Tsezi A. , Odintsova Tatyana I. 
Published: May 2013

A novel family of antifungal peptides was discovered in the wheat Triticum kiharae Dorof. et Migusch. Two members of the family, designated Tk‐AMP‐X1 and Tk‐AMP‐X2, were completely sequenced and shown to belong to the α‐hairpinin structural family of plant peptides with a characteristic C1XXXC2‐X(n)‐C3XXXC4 motif. The peptides inhibit the spore germination of several fungal pathogens in vitro. cDNA and gene cloning disclosed unique structure of genes encoding Tk‐AMP‐X peptides. They code for precursor proteins of unusual multimodular structure, consisting of a signal peptide, several α‐hairpinin (4‐Cys) peptide domains with a characteristic cysteine pattern separated by linkers and a C‐terminal prodomain. Three types of precursor proteins, with five, six or seven 4‐Cys peptide modules, were found in wheat. Among the predicted family members, several peptides previously isolated from T. kiharae seeds were identified. Genes encoding Tk‐AMP‐X precursors have no introns in the protein‐coding regions and are upregulated by fungal pathogens and abiotic stress, providing conclusive evidence for their role in stress response. A combined PCR‐based and bioinformatics approach was used to search for related genes in the plant kingdom. Homologous genes differing in the number of peptide modules were discovered in phylogenetically‐related Triticum and Aegilops species, including polyploid wheat genome donors. Association of the Tk‐AMP‐X genes with A, B/G or D genomes of hexaploid wheat was demonstrated. Furthermore, Tk‐AMP‐X‐related sequences were shown to be widespread in the Poaceae family among economically important crops, such as barley, rice and maize.DatabaseNucleotide sequence data have been deposited in the EMBL database under accession numbers: HF562347, HF562348, HF562349, HF562350, HF562351, HF562352, HF562353, HF562354, HF562355, HF562356, HF562357, HF562358, HF562359, HF562360, HF562361, HF562362, HF562363 and HF562364.
Spatial distribution and range expansion of the Tawny Coster butterfly, Acraea terpsicore (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), in South‐East Asia and Australia
Authors: Braby Michael F. , Bertelsmeier Cléo , Sanderson Chris , Thistleton Brian M. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract

Documenting the range size and range boundaries of species, and understanding the factors determining changes in these spatial components, is crucial given current rates of anthropogenic climate change and habitat loss. Here, we document the establishment of the acraeine butterfly, Acraea terpsicore, in South‐East Asia (Indonesian islands south of Malay Peninsula, and Timor) and Australia for the first time. We estimate its rate of colonisation and potential for further range expansion in the Indo‐Australian region according to bioclimatic niche models.

We modelled the potential distribution of the species in the Indo‐Australian region under current climatic conditions and in 2050 following climate change. The bioclimatic niche models were based on five different modelling techniques, three global circulation models (GCMs) and two CO2 emission scenarios (SRES), yielding 30 individual models that were combined in a consensus model.

Acraea terpsicore became established in Indo‐China (Thailand) during the 1980s and since that time it has spread to other parts of South‐East Asia. It was first recorded on the Australian mainland in the Northern Territory in April 2012 and within a few months of detection was found to occur at six locations, with an estimated extent of occurrence of 4000 km2. Thus, the range size of A. terpsicore has expanded by approximately 6000 km across the equator (c. 32 degrees latitude) in 28 years, with an average rate of colonisation (from Thailand to Australia) of 200 km year−1 (range: 170–230 km year−1).

The bioclimatic niche models identified additional regions with favourable climatic conditions, and within Australia it is likely to occupy coastal and subcoastal savannah woodlands of the entire monsoon tropics, indicating potential for further range expansion. Moreover, the species' potential range is likely to increase with climate change.

We hypothesise that habitat modification, particularly rapid deforestation of tropical forest in South‐East during the past three decades, is a major factor accounting for the range expansion given the species' habitat preference for disturbed and open degraded areas. Climate change may be a contributing factor but is unlikely the sole determinant given the spatial area involved and rate of spread.
Charisma attribution during organizational change: the importance of followers' emotions and concern for well‐being
Authors: Chen Chao C. , Belkin Liuba Y. , McNamee Robert , Kurtzberg Terri R. 
Published: May 2013

AbstractTaking a follower‐centric perspective, we examined how charisma attribution to a change leader was influenced by the well‐being concerns and emotions of organizational members. We conducted three studies to examine how college business students and Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) students responded to a grading policy reform aimed at reducing grade inflation. We found that emotions and well‐being concerns such as school year and grade point average influenced charisma attribution by the undergraduate students and that there was a greater divergence of emotional reactions and charisma attribution among undergraduate students than among the executive MBAs. Future directions for follower‐centric leadership research on charismatic leadership are discussed.
Cyber peers’ influence for adolescent consumer in decision‐making styles and online purchasing behavior
Authors: Niu Han‐Jen 
Published: May 2013

AbstractNowadays, there is a boom in online purchasing, especially by adolescents. In fact, scholars and marketers alike have long noticed the emergence of adolescent consumers and their consumption behaviors. This research aims at exploring the effect of adolescent decision‐making styles on online purchasing behavior, with peer influence as a moderating variable. An online questionnaire survey was conducted on 2,419 adolescents and further verified by regression analysis and analysis of covariance. Adolescents with planned purchase behaviors can be considered as rational consumers, in that they do not care about fashion, or recreational, hedonistic shopping consciousness, but rather focus on brand, price value, and high quality. Indeed, adolescent purchase decision making can be strengthened by peer influence.
How job characteristics relate to need satisfaction and autonomous motivation: implications for work effort
Authors: De Cooman Rein , Stynen Dave , Van den Broeck Anja , Sels Luc , De Witte Hans 
Published: May 2013

AbstractTo explore the motivational potential of job design, we linked job demands and job resources, as defined in the job demands–resources model, to the motivational process defined in self‐determination theory. Specifically, we introduced basic need satisfaction and autonomous motivation as consecutive process variables mediating the relationship between job design and work effort. We tested this model by means of structural equation modeling in a sample of 689 employees. The comparison of several competing models provided support for the hypothesized model. We conclude that job demands thwart and job resources promote the fulfillment of 3 psychological needs. High levels of need satisfaction, in turn, are associated with autonomous motivation and, therefore, with high levels of effort.
Commentary: RCT of optimal dose methylphenidate in children and adolescents with severe ADHD and ID ‐ a reply to Arnold (2013)
Authors: Simonoff Emily , Taylor Eric , Baird Gillian , Bernard Sarah 
Published: May 2013

The commentary by Arnold (2013) raises a number of interesting issues and speculations about the action of methylphenidate in children with intellectual disability (ID) and associated neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders. In our article (Simonoff et al., 2013), we were careful to stick closely to the statistical analysis plan drawn up (and approved by the Data Monitoring Committee) during data collection and prior to any exploratory analysis. However, a number of the issues raised by Arnold warrant further response, with the aim of clarifying the lessons that can reasonably be drawn for clinical practice.
Heidegger, Gestell and rehabilitation of the biomedical model
Authors: Borrett Donald S. 
Published: May 2013

AbstractThe biomedical model is the foundation upon which current evaluations in clinical practice are based. In the quest for objective evidence to support clinical interventions, the patient is reduced to a number of technologically generated variables that serve as a surrogate for the patient herself. The biomedical model, as a reflection of Gestell or the essence of technology, carries with it the danger that it may overwhelm the practitioner's perspective so that other perspectives that may include the lived experience of the patient are actively suppressed. An ontology of the patient based on a Heideggerian exegesis is developed as a response to this concern. Morris has suggested that the most fundamental disturbance in the lived experience of the patient is an alteration in the patient's relationship to ecstatic temporality. In ecstatic temporality, the past, present and future are experienced as a unity in which the patient sees herself as her own possibility. Access to this experience is disturbed in illness; the future is no longer experienced as the patient's own possibility but rather as a series of predetermined external events that dictate the patient's affairs. By developing a biologically plausible model of ecstatic temporality, the lived experience of the patient does not have to be considered separate from the physical mechanisms involved in the disease state. As a consequence, the biomedical model cannot suppress the practitioner's humane perspective since the latter is explicitly brought under its purview.