bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The community structures of the coniferous and deciduous dead wood‐dwelling arthropods in Korea
Authors: Kim Hyun Jung , Nam Jong Woo , Yi Hoonbok 
Published: August 2013

AbstractWe examined the structure of the arthropod community among deciduous and coniferous dead woods along the process of wood decay. We collected dead wood‐dwelling arthropods from April 2010 to October 2011 by using a vacuum aspirator and an electric chain saw in three areas (Mt. Woonak, Mt. Wolchul, Mt. Jingang) in Korea. We identified them to species levels and classified them into functional groups. We collected 8792 arthropods (5 classes, 20 orders, 58 families, and 93 species). The species richness and abundance of arthropods increased with the progress of decay in dead woods. The evenness index seemed to be shown at a lower value at late decay stage than at early‐ and mid‐decay stages. The diversity index (H′) in conifers was lower than that in deciduous dead woods at the early decay stage but this situation was reversed at the late decay stage. Arthropod communities of functional groups, except the xylophagous insects, did not differ in the variables, but the proportion of xylophagous insects increased as the decay stages progressed. The abundance of arthropods and xylophagous was statistically significantly different. The patterns generated by non‐metric multidimensional scaling in the overall arthropod community composition revealed that the species composition between study areas were significantly different. We confirmed that dead woods play very important roles as arthropods' habitats. Thus, we suggest that the role of dead woods should be emphasized in the management of forest ecosystems.
Impact of heart magnetic resonance imaging on chelation choices, compliance with treatment and risk of heart disease in patients with thalassaemia major
Authors: Origa Raffaella , Danjou Fabrice , Cossa Stefano , Matta Gildo , Bina Patrizio , Dessì Carlo , Defraia Elisabetta , Foschini Maria L. , Leoni GiovanBattista , Morittu Maddalena , Galanello Renzo 
Published: August 2013

SummaryThis study aimed to verify the impact of heart magnetic resonance imaging on chelation choices and patient compliance in a single‐institution cohort as well as its predictive value for heart failure and arrhythmias. Abnormal cardiac T2* values determined changes in treatment in most subjects. Heart T2* was confirmed to be highly predictive over 1 year for heart failure and arrhythmias. The choice of chelation regimens known to remove heart iron efficiently was not sufficient by itself to influence the risk. Compliance with treatment had a more remarkable role.
A randomized, open‐label, phase I/II trial to investigate the maximum tolerated dose of the Polo‐like kinase inhibitor BI 2536 in elderly patients with refractory/relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia
Authors: Müller‐Tidow Carsten , Bug Gesine , Lübbert Michael , Krämer Alwin , Krauter Jürgen , Valent Peter , Nachbaur David , Berdel Wolfgang E. , Ottmann Oliver G. , Fritsch Holger , Munzert Gerd , Garin‐Chesa Pilar , Fleischer Frank , Taube Tillmann , Döhner Hartmut 
Published: August 2013

SummaryPolo‐like kinases (Plks) play an important role in cell cycle checkpoint controls and are over‐expressed in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). BI 2536, a novel Plk inhibitor, induces mitotic arrest and apoptosis. In this phase I/II trial of BI 2536 in 68 elderly patients with relapsed/refractory AML, three schedules were investigated (day 1, days 1–3, and days 1 + 8). Maximum tolerated dose was 350 and 200 mg in the day 1 and days 1 + 8 schedules, respectively. The day 1–3 schedule appeared equivalent to the day 1 schedule and was discontinued early. BI 2536 exhibited multi‐compartmental pharmacokinetic behaviour. The majority of patients showed an increase of bone marrow cells in G2/M with a characteristic pattern of mitotic catastrophe. The overall response rate in the day 1 and day 1 + 8 schedules was 9% (5/54) with 2 complete and 3 partial responses. The majority of drug‐related adverse events grade ≥3 were haematological. Taken together, Plk inhibition induced cell cycle arrest in AML blasts in vivo and BI 2536 monotherapy showed modest clinical activity in this poor prognosis patient group.
Paediatric essential thrombocythaemia: clinical and molecular features, diagnosis and treatment
Authors: Fu Rongfeng , Zhang Lei , Yang Renchi 
Published: August 2013

SummaryThe incidence of essential thrombocythaemia (ET) in children (age ≤18 years) is extremely low. The natural course of the disorder in children has not been clarified. The rarity of patients and the variability of tested parameters make it difficult to draw any definitive conclusion in pathogenesis and diagnosis of paediatric ET. What makes the onset of thrombocytosis earlier in children is still uncertain. A diagnostic algorithm for paediatric ET has not been established, and current risk stratification used to guide therapeutic decisions in adults has not been validated in children. Vascular complications and transformation to myelofibrosis and leukaemia in this special entity have been reported, suggesting that ET in children is not an entirely benign disease. The crucial question is how to identify patients who are at high risk of complications and need treatment. There are insufficient data to recommend a specific agent in children. The purpose of this review is to outline the most recent progress in paediatric ET and to help with understanding the clinical course, molecular features, diagnosis and treatment strategies in this special group.
Waves of (Dis)Satisfaction: Effects of the Numerus Clausus system in Portugal
Authors: Fonseca Madalena , Dias Diana , Sá Carla , Amaral Alberto 
Published: August 2013

Access to higher education in Portugal is governed by a quota system (numerus clausus).The purpose of this article is to answer two questions: First, how does the numerus clausus system shape the demand for medical studies? Second, how do non‐enrolled medical candidates influence the global allocation system and generate waves of dissatisfaction?The results show that students who do not succeed in entering medicine register in other programmes, such as pharmacy, veterinary medicine and dental studies, generating a first wave of dissatisfaction. Because students who are not placed in medicine occupy a large share of the places available in those other programmes, the wave of dissatisfaction propagates, with students being pushed to other programmes, especially biology and biochemistry. This process has also been analysed from a spatial perspective. Apparently, when students are competing to obtain a study place in a programme with prestige and good professional career perspectives such as medicine moving to a more peripheral region becomes more frequent.
From feedback inhibition to allostery: the enduring example of aspartate transcarbamoylase
Authors: Gerhart John 
Published: August 2013

Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) of Escherichia coli, the first enzyme of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway, is inhibited by CTP and UTP, the nucleotide end‐products of the pathway. First discovered by Yates and Pardee in 1956 [Yates R & Pardee AB (1956) J Biol Chem 221, 743–756; Yates RA & Pardee AB (1956) J Biol Chem 221, 757–770], these interactions establish feedback inhibition in vivo, a key means of metabolic regulation by which end‐product production by the pathway is adjusted to end‐product usage in macromolecule synthesis. Activation of the enzyme by the purine nucleotide ATP may also have regulatory significance. ATCase and threonine deaminase of E. coli were the first enzymes to be characterized with regard to their allosteric properties, namely, sigmoidal saturation with regard to substrates, reflecting cooperative ligand binding at the active site, and inhibition and activation by nucleotides of very different chemical structure from the substrates. In the case of ATCase, the nucleotides bind at regulatory sites located on protein subunits different from those bearing the active sites. The early characterization of ATCase proved useful in the 1965 conceptualization of the allosteric transition by Monod, Wyman, and Changeux [Monod J et al. (1965) J Mol Biol 12, 88–118], and the protein in subsequent years has proved useful in the experimental analysis of the interactions of sites and of conformational changes in allosteric proteins. This is an account of the early years of work on ATCase, up to 1965.
Depth‐specific variation in carbon isotopes demonstrates resource partitioning among the littoral zoobenthos
Authors: Devlin Shawn P. , Vander Zanden M. Jake , Vadeboncoeur Yvonne 
Published: August 2013

Summary

Benthic animals readily consume benthic algae, phytoplankton and terrestrial organic matter and are themselves a major component of fish diets. However, the effect of variation in resource availability on resource use by littoral macroinvertebrates remains poorly resolved.

Using stable isotopes of carbon, we quantified depth‐specific resource use by zoobenthic functional feeding groups in five lakes in northern Wisconsin. The littoral zoobenthos was collected from soft sediments at several depths in conjunction with samples of bulk periphyton (top 5 mm of sediment and biofilm) and measurements of benthic algal primary productivity.

Periphyton δ13C was positively correlated with depth‐specific benthic algal primary productivity, but grazer δ13C was consistently higher than that of the periphyton.

The δ13C of infaunal collectors and predators was tightly correlated with, and nearly identical to, bulk periphyton δ13C (collectors: R2, 0.88; slope, 0.97; P < 0.0001; predators: R2, 0.78; slope, 0.88; P < 0.0001). Reliance of collectors and predators on benthic algal carbon varied between 43 and 100%, depending on whether grazers or bulk periphyton was used as the benthic algal end‐member.

Despite the apparent homogeneity of the sediments, benthic grazers and collectors partitioned resources in a consistent way in our study lakes, indicating either selective ingestion or assimilation of different components of the biofilm.
Importance of terrestrial subsidies for native brook trout in Appalachian intermittent streams
Authors: Courtwright Jennifer , May Christine L. 
Published: August 2013

Summary

Recent studies of perennial streams have shown that changes in riparian vegetation can reduce terrestrial invertebrate subsidies to streams and can cause trophic cascades through aquatic food webs. Intermittent stream food webs have received less attention but may be even more dependent on terrestrial invertebrate subsidies because of limited aquatic invertebrate resources.

The objectives of this research were: (i) to quantify the abundance and biomass of aquatic, adult aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates in and entering two Appalachian intermittent streams to determine how these resources vary with environmental factors such as stream flow and (ii) to determine the effects of experimental reductions in terrestrial invertebrate subsidies on brook trout diet.

Stream flow was the main factor driving total invertebrate abundance and biomass, and these resources decreased by 71% as the summer dry season progressed. Terrestrial invertebrates represented only 7% of total resource abundance, but made up 54% of brook trout diet by abundance.

Experimental reductions in terrestrial invertebrate subsidies resulted in a 49% decrease in terrestrial invertebrate abundance, which resulted in a 55% decrease in terrestrial invertebrates in brook trout diet samples. In contrast to studies of other salmonids in perennial streams, brook trout in these intermittent streams did not switch to consuming more aquatic invertebrates when terrestrial invertebrates were experimentally reduced. Therefore, land use or vegetation changes that cause reductions in terrestrial invertebrate resources may adversely affect brook trout populations in intermittent streams by reducing caloric intake as fish prepare for autumn spawning.
How specific is too specific? B‐cell responses to viral infections reveal the importance of breadth over depth
Authors: Baumgarth Nicole 
Published: August 2013

SummaryInfluenza virus infection induces robust and highly protective B‐cell responses. Knowledge gained from the analysis of such protective humoral responses can provide important clues for the design of successful vaccines and vaccination approaches and also provides a window into the regulation of fundamental aspects of B‐cell responses that may not be at play when responses to non‐replicating agents are studied. Here, I review features of the B‐cell response to viruses, with emphasis on influenza virus infection, a highly localized infection of respiratory tract epithelial cells, and a response that is directed against a virus that continuously undergoes genetic changes to its surface spike protein, a major target of neutralizing antibodies. Two aspects of the B‐cell response to influenza are discussed here, namely polyreactive natural antibodies and the role and function of germinal center responses. Both these features of the B‐cell response raise the question of how important antibody fine‐specificity is for long‐term protection from infection. As outlined, the pathogenesis of influenza virus and the nature of the antiviral B‐cell response seem to emphasize repertoire diversity over affinity maturation as driving forces behind the influenza‐specific B‐cell immunity.
Advances in antiviral vaccine development
Authors: Graham Barney S. 
Published: August 2013

SummaryAntiviral vaccines have been the most successful biomedical intervention for preventing epidemic viral disease. Vaccination for smallpox in humans and rinderpest in cattle was the basis for disease eradication, and recent progress in polio eradication is promising. Although early vaccines were developed empirically by passage in live animals or eggs, more recent vaccines have been developed because of the advent of new technologies, particularly cell culture and molecular biology. Recent technological advances in gene delivery and expression, nanoparticles, protein manufacturing, and adjuvants have created the potential for new vaccine platforms that may provide solutions for vaccines against viral pathogens for which no interventions currently exist. In addition, the technological convergence of human monoclonal antibody isolation, structural biology, and high‐throughput sequencing is providing new opportunities for atomic‐level immunogen design. Selection of human monoclonal antibodies can identify immunodominant antigenic sites associated with neutralization and provide reagents for stabilizing and solving the structure of viral surface proteins. Understanding the structural basis for neutralization can guide selection of vaccine targets. Deep sequencing of the antibody repertoire and defining the ontogeny of the desired antibody responses can reveal the junctional recombination and somatic mutation requirements for B‐cell recognition and affinity maturation. Collectively, this information will provide new strategic approaches for selecting vaccine antigens, formulations, and regimens. Moreover, it creates the potential for rational vaccine design and establishing a catalogue of vaccine technology platforms that would be effective against any given family or class of viral pathogens and improve our readiness to address new emerging viral threats.
Interferon induction and function at the mucosal surface
Authors: Durbin Russell K. , Kotenko Sergei V. , Durbin Joan E. 
Published: August 2013

SummaryInterferons (IFNs) are produced in response to virus infection and induce an antiviral state in virtually all cell types. In addition to upregulating the transcription of genes that inhibit virus replication, type I (or ‐α/β) IFNs also act to orchestrate the adaptive immune response to virus infection. Recently a new family of antiviral cytokines, the type III (or ‐λ) IFNs, has been identified that activate the same antiviral pathways via a distinct receptor. Although the identical transcription factor, IFN‐stimulated gene factor 3 is activated by either IFN‐α/β or IFN‐λ signaling, differences in the induction and action of these two cytokine families are beginning to be appreciated. In this article, we review this emerging body of literature on the differing roles these cytokines play in host defense of the mucosal surface. Although many viruses enter the body through the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, we have focused the discussion on influenza A virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and rotavirus, three ubiquitous human pathogens that target the epithelial lining and are associated with a major disease burden.
Temperature Stable Dielectric Behavior of Sol–Gel Derived Compositionally Graded SrTiO3/Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3/SrTiO3 Thin Films
Authors: Šetinc Tina , Spreitzer Matjaž , Kunej Špela , Kovač Janez , Suvorov Danilo 
Published: August 2013

Polycrystalline sol–gel‐derived SrTiO3/Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3/SrTiO3 (ST/NBT/ST) thin films were designed to achieve the electrical isolation of the NBT, and to mediate the temperature dependency of the dielectric properties. Proper thermal annealing of particulate phase enabled us to achieve compositionally graded elemental profiles between individual ST and NBT layers. The dielectric and ferroelectric properties were investigated with respect to the electrical behavior of the monophasic ST and NBT thin films. The dielectric characteristics of the multilayer thin film were marked by a temperature stable behavior (temperature coefficient of dielectric constant of 780 ppm/°C) in the measured −50°C to 200°C range, frequency‐independent response at room temperature and improved dielectric loss characteristics compared with the NBT; however, on the expense of decreased permittivity and a reduced ferroelectric stability. Nevertheless, stable dielectric properties were achieved and properties of multilayer may well be exploited in functional devices that demand insensitive operation over wide temperature and frequency ranges.
The role of dispersal and vicariance in the Pleistocene history of an East African mountain rodent, Praomys delectorum
Authors: Bryja Josef , Mikula Ondřej , Patzenhauerová Hana , Oguge Nicholas O. , Šumbera Radim , Verheyen Erik 
Published: August 2013

AbstractAimSpecies living in East African montane forests have highly fragmented distributions. Plio‐Pleistocene climatic cycles, however, may have allowed temporary contact between forest blocks, thereby allowing gene flow. Our aim was to reconstruct the colonization history of Praomys delectorum, a rodent species adapted to montane forests. We tested two alternative scenarios: (1) the occurrence of a series of vicariance events related to Quaternary climatic changes; and (2) colonization from a single origin through successive dispersal events.LocationMontane forests of East Africa.MethodsAnalyses were based on large‐scale sampling covering the complete range of the species distribution. We assessed genetic structure and historical demography using a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Morphological differences between allopatric populations were analysed using a geometric morphometric approach.ResultsPopulations of P. delectorum are genetically differentiated along the north–south axis of the distribution range, consistent with postulated vicariance events. The oldest vicariance event, which separated the species into three main genetic groups, dates to the beginning of the Pleistocene. Further fragmentation within the three main lineages is consistent with successive vicariance events, probably linked to Pleistocene climatic cycles. Morphological variation between geographically structured populations may indicate local environmental adaptations.Main conclusionsThe most likely explanation for the strong genetic differentiation among fragmented populations is a series of vicariance events caused by periodic fragmentation of montane forests that resulted from climatic oscillations in the Pleistocene, rather than successive dispersal events. The recently proposed splitting of P. delectorum into three allopatric morphospecies only partly reflects the observed genetic structure.
Intellectual disability and co‐occurring mental health and physical disorders in aggressive behaviour
Authors: Crocker A. G. , Prokić A. , Morin D. , Reyes A. 
Published: August 2013

AbstractBackgroundMental and physical health problems are more prevalent among individuals with an intellectual disability (ID) than in the general population. Studies suggest that there may be significant associations between these co‐occurring disorders and aggressive behaviour, but few studies have taken into account multiple mental and physical problems, as well as their level of severity.ObjectivesThe main goal of this study was to identify the associations between different types of aggressive behaviour and various types of physical and mental health problems.MethodsThese associations were explored through a cross‐sectional study of 296 adult men and women with mild or moderate ID living in the community and receiving ID services. Information was gathered through interviews with ID participants, case managers and file review.ResultsThe results show that individuals with ID who have more mental and physical health problems have higher odds of displaying aggressive behaviour than those with fewer and less severe physical health problems.DiscussionThese results can help guide future prevention and intervention strategies for persons with ID who display aggressive behaviour or who are at risk of become aggressive.