bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
New insights into male (in)fertility: the importance ofNO
Authors: Buzadzic B , Vucetic M , Jankovic A , Stancic A , Korac A , Korac B , Otasevic V 
Published: March 2014

Infertility is a global problem that is on the rise, especially during the last decade. Currently, infertility affects approximately 10–15% of the population worldwide. The frequency and origin of different forms of infertility varies. It has been shown that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROSandRNS) are involved in the aetiology of infertility, especially male infertility. Various strategies have been designed to remove or decrease the production ofROSandRNSin spermatozoa, in particular duringin vitrofertilization. However, in recent years it has been shown that spermatozoa naturally produce a variety ofROS/RNS, including superoxide anion radical (O2⋅−), hydrogen peroxide andNO. These reactive species, in particularNO, are essential in regulating sperm capacitation and the acrosome reaction, two processes that need to be acquired by sperm in order to achieve fertilization potential. In addition, it has recently been shown that mitochondrial function is positively correlated with human sperm fertilization potential and quality and thatNOandNOprecursors increase sperm motility by increasing energy production in mitochondria. We will review the new link between spermNO‐driven redox regulation and infertility herein. A special emphasis will be placed on the potential implementation of new redox‐active substances that modulate the content ofNOin spermatozoa to increase fertility and promote conception.Linked ArticlesThis article is part of a themed section on Pharmacology of the Gasotransmitters. To view the other articles in this section visithttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2015.172.issue-6
Local control and survival after extralevator abdominoperineal excision for locally advanced or low rectal cancer
Authors: Palmer G. , Anderin C. , Martling A. , Holm T. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractAimConventional, synchronous combined, abdominoperineal excision (APE) for low rectal cancer is associated with intra‐operative tumour perforation and tumour involvement of the circumferential resection margin (CRM+). Several studies have demonstrated worse rates of local recurrence and survival after APE than after low anterior resection (LAR). Extralevator APE (ELAPE) in the prone position may reduce the risk of perforation and involvement of resection margins and may therefore improve outcome. The aim of this study was to report the outcome after the introduction of ELAPE in a prospective study of consecutive patients from a single colorectal unit.MethodBetween January 2000 and March 2013, 193 patients with low rectal cancer were treated with ELAPE at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. All patients were recorded in the regional rectal cancer quality registry, where data on treatment and follow‐up are prospectively reported.ResultsPreoperative staging with MRI assessed the tumour to be locally advanced (mrT4) in 126 (65%) of the 193 patients. The median tumour level above the anal verge was 3 cm. Intra‐operative perforation occurred in 19 patients (10%) and histopathology revealed a positive CRM in 39 patients (20%). Until August 2013 [median follow‐up 31 (0–156) months] local recurrence was detected in 12 patients. Five‐year cancer specific survival was estimated to 68%.ConclusionGood local control and survival may be achieved with ELAPE in patients with low, advanced rectal cancer.
Has industry funding biased studies of the protective effects of alcohol on cardiovascular disease? A preliminary investigation of prospective cohort studies
Authors: McCambridge Jim , Hartwell Greg 
Published: March 2014

AbstractIntroduction And AimsThere have been no previous quantitative analyses of the possible effects of industry funding on alcohol and health research. This study examines whether findings of alcohol's protective effects on cardiovascular disease may be biased by industry funding.Design and MethodsFindings from a recent systematic review of prospective cohort studies were combined with public domain data on alcohol industry funding. The six outcomes evaluated were alcohol's effects on cardiovascular disease mortality, incident coronary heart disease, coronary heart disease mortality, incident stroke, stroke mortality and mortality from all causes.ResultsWe find no evidence of possible funding effects for outcomes other than stroke. Whether studies find alcohol to be a risk factor or protective against incident stroke depends on whether or not there is possible industry funding [risk ratio (RR) 1.07 (0.97–1.17) for those without concern about industry funding compared with RR 0.88 (0.81–0.94)]. For stroke mortality, a similar difference is not statistically significant, most likely because there are too few studies.Discussion and ConclusionsDedicated high‐quality studies of possible alcohol industry funding effects should be undertaken, and these should be broad in scope. They also need to investigate specific areas of concern, such as stroke, in greater depth. [McCambridge J, Hartwell G. Has industry funding biased studies of the protective effects of alcohol on cardiovascular disease? A preliminary investigation of prospective cohort studies. Drug Alcohol Rev 2015;34:58–66]
Environmental filtering of foraging strategies mediates patterns of coexistence in the fire antsSolenopsis geminataandSolenopsis xyloni, and their interspecific hybrids
Authors: AXEN HEATHER J. , WILDERMUTH AMANDA , HELMS CAHAN SARA 
Published: March 2014

Tradeoffs in functional traits facilitate species coexistence within communities and are important contributors to community assembly. Two aspects of a life‐history tradeoff known to structure ant communities include foraging efficiency (i.e. resource discovery and retrieval) and competitive dominance (territoriality and survivorship following competition).This work examined these aspects in workers of two fire ant species (Solenopsis xyloniandSolenopsis geminata) and theirF1hybrids using laboratory experiments.Parental foraging strategies were consistent with a tradeoff between discovery efficiency and competitive territorial dominance. Desert‐adaptedS. xyloniwas the most efficient forager but the least effective territory defender; mesic‐adaptedS. geminatawas a less efficient forager, but fared best in competition trials. Hybrid workers were generally intermediate, leading to increased survival by hybrids in competitive encounters withS. geminatacompared with the performance ofS. xyloni.These findings suggest that traits associated with foraging and competitive ability in the parental species are subject to environmental filtering; across habitats, species with a similar dominance rank in their respective communities differ in their placement along the discovery–dominance axis.Interspecific hybridisation may play a role in extending eastern range limits ofS. xylonivia shifting colony allocation towards the strategy of its competitor. In the overlap zone,S. xyloniwith hybrid workers may be sufficiently competitive to persist withS. geminata, while colonies withS. xyloniworkers cannot, providing a substantial selective advantage to hybridisation forS. xyloniqueens that may explain the unusual hybridogenetic social structure of this population.
Modulation of early cortical processing during divided attention to non‐contiguous locations
Authors: Frey Hans‐Peter , Schmid Anita M. , Murphy Jeremy W. , Molholm Sophie , Lalor Edmund C. , Foxe John J. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractWe often face the challenge of simultaneously attending to multiple non‐contiguous regions of space. There is ongoing debate as to how spatial attention is divided under these situations. Whereas, for several years, the predominant view was that humans could divide the attentional spotlight, several recent studies argue in favor of a unitary spotlight that rhythmically samples relevant locations. Here, this issue was addressed by the use of high‐density electrophysiology in concert with the multifocal m‐sequence technique to examine visual evoked responses to multiple simultaneous streams of stimulation. Concurrently, we assayed the topographic distribution of alpha‐band oscillatory mechanisms, a measure of attentional suppression. Participants performed a difficult detection task that required simultaneous attention to two stimuli in contiguous (undivided) or non‐contiguous parts of space. In the undivided condition, the classic pattern of attentional modulation was observed, with increased amplitude of the early visual evoked response and increased alpha amplitude ipsilateral to the attended hemifield. For the divided condition, early visual responses to attended stimuli were also enhanced, and the observed multifocal topographic distribution of alpha suppression was in line with the divided attention hypothesis. These results support the existence of divided attentional spotlights, providing evidence that the corresponding modulation occurs during initial sensory processing time‐frames in hierarchically early visual regions, and that suppressive mechanisms of visual attention selectively target distracter locations during divided spatial attention.
Do grasslands act as a perpetual sink for carbon?
Authors: Smith Pete 
Published: March 2014

AbstractIt is increasingly commonly suggested that grasslands are a perpetual sink for carbon, and that just maintaining grasslands will yield a net carbon sink. I examine the evidence for this from repeated soil surveys, long term grassland experiments and simple mass balance calculations. I conclude that it is untenable that grasslands act as a perpetual carbon sink, and the most likely explanation for observed grassland carbon sinks over short periods is legacy effects of land use and land management prior to the beginning of flux measurement periods. Simply having grassland does not result is a carbon sink, but judicious management or previously poorly managed grasslands can increase the sink capacity. Given that grasslands are a large store of carbon, and that it is easier and faster for soils to lose carbon that it is for them to gain carbon, it is an important management target to maintain these stocks.
Elevated carbon dioxide and ozone alter productivity and ecosystem carbon content in northern temperate forests
Authors: Talhelm Alan F. , Pregitzer Kurt S. , Kubiske Mark E. , Zak Donald R. , Campany Courtney E. , Burton Andrew J. , Dickson Richard E. , Hendrey George R. , Isebrands J. G. , Lewin Keith F. , Nagy John , Karnosky David F. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThree young northern temperate forest communities in the north‐central United States were exposed to factorial combinations of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) and tropospheric ozone (O3) for 11 years. Here, we report results from an extensive sampling of plant biomass and soil conducted at the conclusion of the experiment that enabled us to estimate ecosystem carbon (C) content and cumulative net primary productivity (NPP). ElevatedCO2enhanced ecosystem C content by 11%, whereas elevated O3decreased ecosystem C content by 9%. There was little variation in treatment effects on C content across communities and no meaningful interactions betweenCO2and O3. Treatment effects on ecosystem C content resulted primarily from changes in the near‐surface mineral soil and tree C, particularly differences in woody tissues. Excluding the mineral soil, cumulativeNPPwas a strong predictor of ecosystem C content (r2 = 0.96). ElevatedCO2enhanced cumulativeNPPby 39%, a consequence of a 28% increase in canopy nitrogen (N) content (g N m−2) and a 28% increase in N productivity (NPP/canopy N). In contrast, elevated O3loweredNPPby 10% because of a 21% decrease in canopy N, but did not impact N productivity. Consequently, as the marginal impact of canopy N onNPP(∆NPP/∆N) decreased through time with further canopy development, the O3effect onNPPdissipated. Within the mineral soil, there was less C in the top 0.1 m of soil under elevated O3and less soil C from 0.1 to 0.2 m in depth under elevatedCO2. Overall, these results suggest that elevatedCO2may create a sustained increase inNPP, whereas the long‐term effect of elevated O3onNPPwill be smaller than expected. However, changes in soil C are not well‐understood and limit our ability to predict changes in ecosystem C content.
Do past climate states influence diversity dynamics and the present‐day latitudinal diversity gradient?
Authors: Huang Shan , Roy Kaustuv , Jablonski David 
Published: March 2014

AbstractAimTo identify the role of climate variations over geological time in shaping present‐day diversity patterns, particularly the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG; the decrease of taxonomic diversity from low towards high latitudes), using marine bivalves as a model system.LocationWorld‐wide.MethodsWe use the fossil record of extant and extinct bivalve taxa and information on global palaeoclimate states to evaluate how the climate state at the beginning of the evolutionary history of individual families influenced (a) their diversification dynamics through subsequent climate changes and (b) their present‐day LDG. For (a), we estimated per‐family genus origination and extinction rates during the last cool interval in the late Cenozoic and overall genus origination and extinction rates since the early Palaeozoic. For (b), we compared LDG slopes and oldest fossil occurrences of extant families with palaeoclimate data. We also tested whether such dynamics vary with life habits.ResultsFamilies that originated in warm intervals tend to have higher extinction rates in the (cool) late Cenozoic and occasionally in other cool intervals. However, in contrast to the results of Romdal et al. (Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2013, 22, 344–350), present‐day LDG slopes do not vary with the climate state at the time of family origination, regardless of the palaeoclimatic scheme used. Infaunal living families have marginally higher origination rates in the late Cenozoic, but their LDG slopes do not differ significantly from the epifaunal families. In contrast, feeding habit appears to affect family LDG slopes, but not late Cenozoic diversification rates.Main conclusionFor marine bivalves, ancestral climate state appears to influence subsequent diversification dynamics with clades originating in warm intervals showing higher extinction rates during intervals of global cooling, but ancestral climate has no detectable influence on present‐day LDGs.
Seasonality drives global‐scale diversity patterns in waterfowl (Anseriformes) via temporal niche exploitation
Authors: Dalby Lars , McGill Brian J. , Fox Anthony David , Svenning Jens‐Christian 
Published: March 2014

AbstractAimBirds (class Aves) overall follow the expected latitudinal gradient in species richness. However, there is a poorly understood secondary peak in bird richness at about 45° N latitude, at least in North America. Waterfowl (Anseriformes) species richness conforms to this secondary peak, yet this group is commonly excluded from bird species richness studies and consequently the drivers of waterfowl richness are poorly understood. Here, we explore the drivers of waterfowl richness on a global scale, emphasizing the secondary peak.LocationGlobal.MethodsWe mapped total waterfowl species richness for the breeding and non‐breeding seasons. Considering a wide range of potential environmental drivers (climate, productivity and habitat), we initially ran univariate ordinary least squares models for the candidate set of predictors. We then used regression trees (RT) to multivariately assess their importance for the richness pattern while allowing for nonlinear and non‐stationary processes.ResultsWe found seasonal variability in plant productivity (measured by the normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) to be the most important predictor of breeding season richness in both univariate regressions and multivariate RT models. For the non‐breeding season, winter actual evapotranspiration (AET) was the best predictor. In the regions of highest richness, including the secondary mid‐latitude peak, an overwhelming portion of the species were migratory species.Main conclusionsPredictors commonly used to explain the large‐scale richness patterns of birds, such as annual AET or annual NDVI explained little of the variation in richness in Anseriformes. Instead, measures reflecting intra‐annual variability and seasonal productivity in the relevant season were the best predictors. This finding, combined with the high proportion of migrants in the richness peaks, strongly suggests that the patterns of richness in Anseriformes reflect the group's exploitation of seasonal environmental variability via short‐ and long‐distance migration, i.e. temporal niche exploitation at an annual and global scale.
Ecological role and services of tropical mangrove ecosystems: a reassessment
Authors: Lee Shing Yip , Primavera Jurgene H. , Dahdouh‐Guebas Farid , McKee Karen , Bosire Jared O. , Cannicci Stefano , Diele Karen , Fromard Francois , Koedam Nico , Marchand Cyril , Mendelssohn Irving , Mukherjee Nibedita , Record Sydne 
Published: March 2014

AbstractAimTo reassess the capacity of mangroves for ecosystem services in the light of recent data.LocationGlobal mangrove ecosystems.MethodsWe review four long‐standing roles of mangroves: (1) carbon dynamics – export or sink; (2) nursery role; (3) shoreline protection; (4) land‐building capacity. The origins of pertinent hypotheses, current understanding and gaps in our knowledge are highlighted with reference to biogeographic, geographic and socio‐economic influences.ResultsThe role of mangroves as C sinks needs to be evaluated for a wide range of biogeographic regions and forest conditions. Mangrove C assimilation may be under‐estimated because of flawed methodology and scanty data on key components of C dynamics. Peri‐urban mangroves may be manipulated to provide local offsets for C emission. The nursery function of mangroves is not ubiquitous but varies with spatio‐temporal accessibility. Connectivity and complementarity of mangroves and adjacent habitats enhance their nursery function through trophic relay and ontogenetic migrations. The effectiveness of mangroves for coastal protection depends on factors at landscape/geomorphic to community scales and local/species scales. Shifts in species due to climate change, forest degradation and loss of habitat connectivity may reduce the protective capacity of mangroves. Early views of mangroves as land builders (especially lateral expansion) were questionable. Evidence now indicates that mangroves, once established, directly influence vertical land development by enhancing sedimentation and/or by direct organic contributions to soil volume (peat formation) in some settings.Main conclusionsKnowledge of thresholds, spatio‐temporal scaling and variability due to geographic, biogeographic and socio‐economic settings will improve the management of mangrove ecosystem services. Many drivers respond to global trends in climate change and local changes such as urbanization. While mangroves have traditionally been managed for subsistence, future governance models must involve partnerships between local custodians of mangroves and offsite beneficiaries of the services.
Phenomenology and psychopathology of excessive indoor tanning
Authors: Petit Aymeric , Karila Laurent , Chalmin Florence , Lejoyeux Michel 
Published: March 2014

AbstractExcessive indoor tanning, defined by the presence of an impulse towards and repetition of tanning that leads to personal distress, has only recently been recognized as a psychiatric disorder. This finding is based on the observations of many dermatologists who report the presence of addictive relationships with tanning salons among their patients despite being given diagnoses of malignant melanoma. This article synthesizes the existing literature on excessive indoor tanning and addiction to investigate possible associations. This review focuses on the prevalence, clinical features, etiology, and treatment of this disorder. A literature review was conducted, using PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE and PsycINFO, to identify articles published in English from 1974 to 2013. Excessive indoor tanning may be related to addiction, obsessive‐compulsive disorder, impulse control disorder, seasonal affective disorder, anorexia, body dysmorphic disorder, or depression. Excessive indoor tanning can be included in the spectrum of addictive behavior because it has clinical characteristics in common with those of classic addictive disorders. It is frequently associated with anxiety, eating disorders, and tobacco dependence. Further controlled studies are required, especially in clinical psychopathology and neurobiology, to improve our understanding of excessive indoor tanning.
Stable activity of diabetogenic cells with age in NOD mice: dynamics of reconstitution and adoptive diabetes transfer in immunocompromised mice
Authors: Kaminitz Ayelet , Mizrahi Keren , Ash Shifra , Ben‐Nun Avi , Askenasy Nadir 
Published: March 2014

SummaryThe non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is a prevalent disease model of type 1 diabetes. Immune aberrations that cause and propagate autoimmune insulitis in these mice are being continually debated, with evidence supporting both dominance of effector cells and insufficiency of suppressor mechanisms. In this study we assessed the behaviour of NOD lymphocytes under extreme expansion conditions using adoptive transfer into immunocompromised NOD.SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency) mice. CD4+ CD25+ T cells do not cause islet inflammation, whereas splenocytes and CD4+ CD25− T cells induce pancreatic inflammation and hyperglycaemia in 80–100% of the NOD.SCID recipients. Adoptively transferred effector T cells migrate to the lymphoid organs and pancreas, proliferate, are activated in the target organ in situ and initiate inflammatory insulitis. Reconstitution of all components of the CD4+ subset emphasizes the plastic capacity of different cell types to adopt effector and suppressor phenotypes. Furthermore, similar immune profiles of diabetic and euglycaemic NOD.SCID recipients demonstrate dissociation between fractional expression of CD25 and FoxP3 and the severity of insulitis. There were no evident and consistent differences in diabetogenic activity and immune reconstituting activity of T cells from pre‐diabetic (11 weeks) and new onset diabetic NOD females. Similarities in immune phenotypes and variable distribution of effector and suppressor subsets in various stages of inflammation commend caution in interpretation of quantitative and qualitative aberrations as markers of disease severity in adoptive transfer experiments.