bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Identification of significant shorebird areas: thresholds and criteria
Authors: Clemens R. S. , Weston M. A. , Haslem A. , Silcocks A. , Ferris J. 
Published: January 2010

AbstractAim  Conservation managers designate significant areas for shorebirds based on imperfect data. Significant wetlands for migratory shorebirds have usually been identified on the basis of whether they exceed certain thresholds, defined either by total abundance (usually 20,000 waterbirds) or percentage of a population (usually 1.0%). We evaluate the performance of existing criteria and determine if lowering thresholds would improve shorebird conservation without adding unreasonable numbers of significant sites.Location  Australia.Methods  We evaluated the best available data, which is used by managers to designate significant areas, to describe the effect of lowering thresholds on the number of significant sites identified and the number of shorebirds these sites support using a range of thresholds in existing criteria. We also investigated factors which may explain interspecific differences evident when lowering thresholds.Results  When the threshold for total abundance was lowered from 20,000 to 2000 shorebirds, an additional 45 shorebird areas, holding 65% more shorebirds, were identified. When thresholds for the percentage of a population criterion were lowered from 1.0 to 0.1%, an additional 86 shorebird areas were identified which held 29% more shorebirds. The proportion of a species population counted within wetlands identified as significant by the application of criteria varied widely between species. The percentage of population criterion always identified a network of areas that included more individuals of each species than the total abundance criterion at all threshold levels tested. The percentage of species populations found in networks of significant areas showed greater increase as thresholds were lowered for species that were abundant, widespread and well represented at existing thresholds.Main conclusions  Our results suggest lowering thresholds will substantially increase the number of shorebirds in identified significant areas. However, some species will remain under‐represented, partly because of interspecific differences in distribution and inadequate sampling of some shorebird habitats.
Lack of effect of the α2C‐adrenoceptor Del322‐325 polymorphism on inhibition of cyclic AMP production in HEK293 cells
Authors: Montgomery MD , Bylund DB 
Published: January 2010

Background and purpose: The α2C‐adrenoceptor has multiple functions, including inhibiting release of noradrenaline from presynaptic nerve terminals. A human α2Cpolymorphism, Del322‐325, a potential risk factor for heart failure, has been reported to exhibit reduced signalling in CHO cells. To further understand the role of the Del322‐325 polymorphism on receptor signalling, we attempted to replicate and further study the reduced signalling in HEK293 cells.Experimental approach: Human α2Cwild‐type (WT) and Del322‐325 adrenoceptors were stably transfected into HEK293 cells. Radioligand binding was performed to determine affinities for both receptors. In intact cells, inhibition of forskolin‐stimulated cyclic AMP production by WT and Del322‐325 clones with a range of receptor densities (200–2320 fmol·mg−1protein) was measured following agonist treatment.Key results: Noradrenaline, brimonidine and clonidine exhibited similar binding affinities for WT and Del322‐325. Brimonidine and clonidine also had similar efficacies and potencies for both receptors for the inhibition of cyclic AMP production at all receptor densities tested. A linear regression analysis comparing efficacy and potency with receptor expression levels showed no differences in slopes between WT and Del322‐325.Conclusions and implications: The α2CWT and Del322‐325 adrenoceptors exhibited similar binding properties. Additionally, inhibition of cyclic AMP production by Del322‐325 was similar to that of WT over a range of receptor densities. Therefore, in intact HEK293 cells, the α2C‐Del322‐325 polymorphism does not exhibit reduced signalling to adenylyl cyclase and may not represent a clinically important phenotype.
Deletion of the distal COOH‐terminus of the A2Badenosine receptor switches internalization to an arrestin‐ and clathrin‐independent pathway and inhibits recycling
Authors: Mundell SJ , Matharu A‐L , Nisar S , Palmer TM , Benovic JL , Kelly E 
Published: January 2010

Background and purpose: We have investigated the effect of deletions of a postsynaptic density, disc large and zo‐1 protein (PDZ) motif at the end of the COOH‐terminus of the rat A2Badenosine receptor on intracellular trafficking following long‐term exposure to the agonist 5′‐(N‐ethylcarboxamido)‐adenosine.Experimental approach: The trafficking of the wild type A2Badenosine receptor and deletion mutants expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells was studied using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in combination with immunofluorescence microscopy.Key results: The wild type A2Badenosine receptor and deletion mutants were all extensively internalized following prolonged treatment with NECA. The intracellular compartment through which the Gln325‐stop receptor mutant, which lacks the Type II PDZ motif found in the wild type receptor initially trafficked was not the same as the wild type receptor. Expression of dominant negative mutants of arrestin‐2, dynamin or Eps‐15 inhibited internalization of wild type and Leu330‐stop receptors, whereas only dominant negative mutant dynamin inhibited agonist‐induced internalization of Gln325‐stop, Ser326‐stop and Phe328‐stop receptors. Following internalization, the wild type A2Badenosine receptor recycled rapidly to the cell surface, whereas the Gln325‐stop receptor did not recycle.Conclusions and implications: Deletion of the COOH‐terminus of the A2Badenosine receptor beyond Leu330switches internalization from an arrestin‐ and clathrin‐dependent pathway to one that is dynamin dependent but arrestin and clathrin independent. The presence of a Type II PDZ motif appears to be essential for arrestin‐ and clathrin‐dependent internalization, as well as recycling of the A2Badenosine receptor following prolonged agonist addition.
Microembolic Air Load During Contrast‐Transcranial Doppler: A Trigger for Migraine With Aura?
Authors: Caputi Luigi , Usai Susanna , Carriero Maria R. , Grazzi Licia , D'Amico Domenico , Falcone Chiara , Anzola Gian P. , Del Sette Massimo , Parati Eugenio , Bussone Gennaro 
Published: January 2010

(Headache 2010;50:1320‐1327)Background.— There is a well‐known association between migraine with aura (MA) and right‐to‐left shunt (RILES) because of patent foramen ovale (PFO). The occurrence of MA attacks after microbubble (MB) injection during contrast‐enhanced transcranial Doppler (ce‐TCD) has been recently described.Objectives.— The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of RILES in a consecutive cohort of MA patients and to characterize the occurrence of MA attacks after diagnostic ce‐TCD.Methods.— A total of 159 consecutive MA patients underwent ce‐TCD with air‐mixed saline to disclose RILES. RILES was characterized in terms of MB amount (small‐moderate or large) and occurrence at rest and/or during Valsalva maneuver (permanent or latent).Results.— RILES was revealed in 79/159 patients (∼50%). Permanent RILES were detected in 56/79 (71%) and latent RILES in 23/79 (29%) MA patients. The occurrence of a typical MA attack was overall observed in 12/159 patients (7.5%; 95% CI: 4‐12.8%), but arose only in RILES‐positive ones, immediately after ce‐TCD (12/79; 15.2%; P < .001). All 12 patients had permanent RILES (12/56; 21.4%; P = .015) and MA attack was mostly observed in large RILES‐positive patients, even without statistical significance (P = .118).Conclusions.— Microembolic air load could act as a trigger of MA attack. According to recent studies and to the clinical characteristics observed in our patients, microembolization because of MB injection might provoke a decrease in cerebral oxygen saturation, thus triggering cortical spreading depression and, thereafter, MA attack. Larger and prospective studies will be necessary to confirm our data and observe a wider correlation.
Individual Differences in Alcohol Drinking Frequency Are Associated With Electrophysiological Responses to Unexpected Nonrewards
Authors: Franken Ingmar H. A. , Van den Berg Ivo , Van Strien Jan W. 
Published: January 2010

Background:  It has been suggested that alcohol use is related to sensitivity of the reward system. Although there are several studies using self‐reported measures supportive of this notion, objective biological data in humans on this issue are lacking.Aims:  This study is designed to test whether alcohol drinking frequency is associated with electrophysiological indices of reward processing.Materials and Methods:  In a passive gambling task, stimuli predicted the presence (reward) and absence (nonreward) of rewards resulting in P2 and medial frontal negativity (MFN) indices of reward processing. Forty‐seven undergraduate students were asked about their habitual drinking frequency and the P2 and MFN to stimuli predicting reward were measured.Results:  Most importantly, the MFN to unpredicted nonrewards at the frontal midline (Fz) location correlated significantly with drinking frequency, with frequent drinkers showing larger MFN amplitudes. The results did not show a significant association between frequency and alcohol drinking and P2.Discussion:  Although several studies showing increased reward‐sensitivity in addictive behaviors, the present results indicate that, in frequent alcohol drinkers, electrophysiological responsiveness is particularly activated by unpredicted nonrewards. In general, this may point to the involvement of the reward system in alcohol drinking frequency.Conclusion:  More specifically, the results demonstrate an increased vulnerability of high frequency drinkers to signals of (frustrative) nonrewards.
Technology's Effect on Property–Casualty Insurance Operations
Authors: Puelz Robert 
Published: January 2010

AbstractThe post‐Glass–Steagall era has presented insurers with new opportunities and risks during a time when information flows and business processes are being impacted by changing technology. In this article, we explore how insurers use and perceive current technology to carry out their operations by reporting results from a sample of insurers that includes some of the nation's largest property and casualty insurers. We find among insurers in our sample that an online channel is having a significant impact on customer retention and revenue enhancement, but a lesser impact on cost reduction. Interestingly, about two‐thirds of our sample has experienced an increase in their overall number of transactions following the adoption on an online channel. Moreover, while the Internet is perceived as giving marketing benefits it is not being used as a substitute for agents. We find that 65 percent of respondents have used technology to integrate customer data across functional areas and another 23 percent plan to do so in the next 3 years. Nearly 71 percent of respondents have or plan to adopt service‐oriented architecture in their technology infrastructure.
First‐Party Versus Third‐Party Compensation for Automobile Accidents: Evidence From Canada
Authors: Kelly Mary , Kleffner Anne , Tomlinson Maureen 
Published: January 2010

AbstractInsurance regimes for compensating losses arising from automobile accidents vary by jurisdiction, ranging from a pure tort system to a pure no‐fault system, with both systems having well‐documented benefits and costs. The majority of published research focuses on the benefits and costs associated with the compensation for bodily injury. This article extends the existing literature by examining the differences between first‐party and third‐party recovery for both physical damage and bodily injury losses in Canada. Our comparison of auto insurance costs per insured vehicle suggests that government‐run, pure no‐fault provinces have lower average costs than provinces with private tort and modified no‐fault. Lower costs arise from the elimination of tort costs associated with noneconomic damages, lower claims settlement costs due to first‐party compensation, and scales of economy arising from monopoly power. The second goal of the article is to examine the impact of first‐ versus third‐party compensation on the settlement of property damage claims. We analyze the claim files of a large insurer that operates within both a traditional tort (third‐party) environment and a first‐party recovery environment for property damage. We find that in a first‐party recovery regime claims are settled sooner, settlement costs are lower, and not‐at‐fault drivers are compensated at a higher rate than in the traditional tort environment.
Ethics, tradition, authority: Toward an anthropology of the fatwa
Authors: AGRAMA HUSSEIN ALI 
Published: January 2010

ABSTRACTPrevailing approaches to the fatwa construe it as primarily an instrument of Islamic doctrinal change and reform, as bridging the constant gap between a settled doctrinal past and a future of continual novelty. Underpinning these approaches are familiar but questionable assumptions about temporality, imitation, creativity, and tradition that obscure the fatwa's integral ethical dimensions and our understandings of its pervasive authority. This article unsettles these assumptions and, through ethnography of the Fatwa Council of Al‐Azhar in Cairo, offers a different view of the fatwa that helps us both understand its ethical authority and challenges conventional oppositions between authority and ethical agency.
Resting at creation and afterlife: Distant times in the ordinary strategies of Muslim women in the rural Fouta Djallon, Guinea
Authors: SMID KAREN 
Published: January 2010

ABSTRACTAlthough anthropologists have discredited use of the liberal and secular concept of “agency” for explaining Muslim women's behavior, their evidence comes from women who still appear rather agentive to Western readers, hence, muting the necessity and consequences of discovering and applying the women's own ethical and religious terms in their analysis. In Guinea's rural Fouta Djallon, women are not prone to mobilize and make self‐interested decisions with immediately observable outcomes. Therefore, understanding them on their own terms requires greater attention to their religious frameworks, namely, to their use of visions of creation and afterlife to define themselves and strategize for redemption.
Indigeneity across borders: Hemispheric migrations and cosmopolitan encounters
Authors: DELUGAN ROBIN MARIA 
Published: January 2010

ABSTRACTThe increasing migration of indigenous people from Latin America to the United States signals a new horizon for the study of indigeneity—complexly understood as subjectivities, knowledge, and practices of the earliest human inhabitants of a particular place and including legal and racial identities that refer to these people. Focusing on indigenous migration to San Francisco, California, I explore how government, service providers, and community organizations respond to the arrival of new ethnic groups while also contributing to an expanding Urban Indian collective identity. In addition to reviewing such governmental practices as the creation of new census categories and related responses to indigenous ethnic diversity, I illustrate how some members of a diverse Urban Indian population unite through participation in rituals such as the Maya Waqxaqi’ B’atz’ (Day of Human Perfection), transplanted to San Francisco from Guatemala. The rituals recall homelands near and far in a broader social imagination about being and belonging in the world. The social imagination, borne in part through migration and diaspora, acknowledges the local and the particular in a framework of shared values about what it means to be human. I analyze this meaning making as cosmopolitanism in practice. By merging indigeneity and cosmopolitanism, I join other scholars who strive to decenter classical notions of cosmopolitan “worldliness,” drawing attention to alternative sources of beneficent sociality and for cultivating humanity.
The road: An ethnography of the Albanian–Greek cross‐border motorway
Authors: DALAKOGLOU DIMITRIS 
Published: January 2010

ABSTRACTThis article is an ethnographic study of a 29‐kilometer stretch of cross‐border highway located in South Albania and linking the city of Gjirokastër with the main checkpoint on the Albanian–Greek border. The road, its politics, and its poetics constitute an ideal point of entry for an anthropological analysis of contemporary South Albania. The physical and social construction, uses, and perceptions of this road uniquely encapsulate three phenomena that dominate social life in postsocialist South Albania: the transition to a market economy, new nationalisms, and massive emigration (mainly to Greece). Taking this cross‐border road section as my main ethnographic point of reference, I suggest the fruitfulness of further discussion of the relationship between roads, narratives, and anthropology.
Learning affects prey selection in larvae of a generalist coccinellid predator
Authors: Boivin Guy , Roger Caroline , Coderre Daniel , Wajnberg Eric 
Published: January 2010

AbstractUnder natural conditions, generalist predatory insects have to cope with a variety of potential prey species that are not all equally suitable. Under these circumstances, learning may be adaptive if it allows adjustment to variations in resource quality and availability. Under laboratory conditions, we examined the learning ability and memory in the prey selection process of larvae of the predatory coccinellid Coleomegilla maculata ssp. lengi Timberlake (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Using choice tests, we studied prey rejection behaviour of C. maculata fourth instars towards prey of different quality and we also tested the influence of hunger and prior experience with other food types on the prey rejection behaviour of coccinellid larvae. Coleomegilla maculata larvae gradually changed their behaviour and rejected low‐quality hosts more frequently, whereas high‐quality hosts were nearly always accepted. After 48 h, the learned behaviour appeared to be partially forgotten. Hunger and experience with other food types prior to the test had little effect on the gradual change of behaviour but the quality of the food ingested influenced the initial level of prey rejection. Our results demonstrate that (1) C. maculata larvae can adjust their prey selection behaviour with experience to reject progressively less suitable prey, and (2) previous experience with other prey types can influence their initial preference.
Inhibition of DNA methyltransferase induces G2 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cells via inhibition of JAK2/STAT3/STAT5 signalling
Authors: Xiong Hua , Chen Zhao‐Fei , Liang Qin‐Chuan , Du Wan , Chen Hui‐Min , Su Wen‐Yu , Chen Guo‐Qiang , Han Ze‐Guang , Fang Jing‐Yuan 
Published: January 2010

AbstractDNA methyltransferase inhibitors (MTIs) have recently emerged as promising chemotherapeutic or preventive agents for cancer, despite their poorly characterized mechanisms of action. The present study shows that DNA methylation is integral to the regulation of SH2‐containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP1) expression, but not for regulation of suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS)1 or SOCS3 in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. SHP1 expression correlates with down‐regulation of Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK2/STAT3/STAT5) signalling, which is mediated in part by tyrosine dephosphorylation events and modulation of the proteasome pathway. Up‐regulation of SHP1 expression was achieved using a DNA MTI, 5‐aza‐2′‐deoxycytidine (5‐aza‐dc), which also generated significant down‐regulation of JAK2/STAT3/STAT5 signalling. We demonstrate that 5‐aza‐dc suppresses growth of CRC cells, and induces G2 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis through regulation of downstream targets of JAK2/STAT3/STAT5 signalling including Bcl‐2, p16ink4a, p21waf1/cip1 and p27kip1. Although 5‐aza‐dc did not significantly inhibit cell invasion, 5‐aza‐dc did down‐regulate expression of focal adhesion kinase and vascular endothelial growth factor in CRC cells. Our results demonstrate that 5‐aza‐dc can induce SHP1 expression and inhibit JAK2/STAT3/STAT5 signalling. This study represents the first evidence towards establishing a mechanistic link between inhibition of JAK2/STAT3/STAT5 signalling and the anticancer action of 5‐aza‐dc in CRC cells that may lead to the use of MTIs as a therapeutic intervention for human colorectal cancer.
AMPK‐mediated autophagy inhibits apoptosis in cisplatin‐treated tumour cells
Authors: Harhaji‐Trajkovic L. , Vilimanovich U. , Kravic‐Stevovic T. , Bumbasirevic V. , Trajkovic V. 
Published: January 2010

AbstractThe role of autophagy in cisplatin anticancer action was investigated using human U251 glioma, rat C6 glioma and mouse L929 fibrosarcoma cell lines. A dose‐ and time‐dependent induction of autophagy was observed in tumour cells following cisplatin treatment, as demonstrated by up‐regulation of autophagy‐inducing protein beclin‐1 and subsequent appearance of acridine orange‐stained acidic autophagic vesicles. The presence of autophagosomes in cisplatin‐treated cells was also confirmed by electron microscopy. Inhibition of autophagy with lysosomal inhibitors bafilomycin A1 and chloroquine, or a PI3 kinase inhibitor wortmannin, markedly augmented cisplatin‐triggered oxidative stress and caspase activation, leading to an increase in DNA fragmentation and apoptotic cell death. The mechanisms underlying the protective effect of autophagy apparently involved the interference with cisplatin‐induced modulation of Bcl‐2 family proteins, as inhibition of autophagy potentiated cisplatin‐mediated up‐regulation of proapoptotic Bax and down‐regulation of anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2. Autophagy induction in cisplatin‐treated cells was preceded by activation of adenosine monophosphate‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) and concomitant down‐regulation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)‐mediated phosphorylation of p70S6 kinase. The ability of cisplatin to trigger autophagy was reduced by small interfering RNA (siRNA)‐mediated AMPK silencing, while transfection with mTOR siRNA was sufficient to trigger autophagy in tumour cells. Finally, siRNA‐mediated AMPK down‐regulation and AMPK inhibitor compound C increased cisplatin‐induced tumour cell death, while mTOR siRNA and AMPK activator metformin protected tumour cells from cisplatin. Taken together, these data suggest that cisplatin‐triggered activation of AMPK and subsequent suppression of mTOR activity can induce an autophagic response that protects tumour cells from cisplatin‐mediated apoptotic death.