bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A novel pH‐sensitive and freeze‐thawed carboxymethyl chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) blended hydrogel for protein delivery
Authors: Li Yan , Du Yumin , Tang Yufeng , Wang Xiaoying 
Published: August 2009

AbstractBACKGROUND: Blended hydrogels are widely applied in medical fields. They can provide many advantages, such as biocompatibility and biodegradability. Many materials and methods are used to obtain blended hydrogels. In this work, carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blended hydrogels were prepared using the freezing and thawing technique. The properties of the hydrogels prepared, i.e. gel fraction, swelling and pH‐responsive behaviors, were investigated.RESULTS: The gel fraction increased with increasing time of freezing and thawing as determined through gravimetric analysis. It was also found that the equilibrium degree of swelling improved obviously due to the addition of CMCS compared to pure PVA hydrogel. The blended hydrogel with composition CMCS/PVA 80/20 (by weight) possessed the highest swelling ratio. The results of the influence of pH values on the swelling behavior showed that minimum swelling ratios of the hydrogels occurred near the isoelectric point of CMCS. Protein release studies were performed under various pH conditions: the release was much slower under acid than under basic conditions. The release showed a burst in the first 15 h and then steadily increased.CONCLUSION: The addition of CMCS can improve the physical properties of pure PVA hydrogels and provide pH sensitivity. It is concluded that PVA hydrogels containing CMCS could be potentially applied as oral delivery systems for protein drugs. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
Carboxy group derivatization for enhanced electron‐transfer dissociation mass spectrometric analysis of phosphopeptides
Authors: Zhang Lijuan , Xu Yawei , Lu Haojie , Yang Pengyuan 
Published: August 2009

AbstractA novel strategy based on carboxy group derivatization is presented for specific characterization of phosphopeptides. By tagging the carboxy group with 1‐(2‐pyrimidyl) piperazine (PP), the ion charge states of phosphopeptides can be largely enhanced, showing great advantages for sequencing phosphorylated peptides with electron‐transfer dissociation MS. Besides, after PP‐derivatization, most non‐specific bindings can be avoided by eliminating the interaction between the carboxy group and TiO2, greatly improving the specificity of TiO2‐based phosphopeptide enrichment strategy. Moreover, being tagged with a hydrophobic group, the retention time of phosphopeptides in RPLC can be prolonged, overcoming the difficulty of separating phosphopeptides in RPLC‐based approach. Together with several other advantages, such as ease of handling, rapid reaction time, broad applicability and good reproducibility, this PP‐derivatization method is promising for high‐throughput phosphoproteome research.
Mobility shift detection of phosphorylation on large proteins using a Phos‐tag SDS‐PAGE gel strengthened with agarose
Authors: Kinoshita Eiji , Kinoshita‐Kikuta Emiko , Ujihara Hiromi , Koike Tohru 
Published: August 2009

AbstractWe describe a novel technique of phosphate‐affinity SDS‐PAGE using Phos‐tag to analyze large phosphoproteins with molecular masses of more than 200 kDa. The protein phosphoisotypes were clearly separated as up‐shifted migration bands in a 3% w/v polyacrylamide gel containing 20 μM Phos‐tag and 0.5% w/v agarose. In subsequent immunoblotting, the procedure permitted the determination of the phosphoisotypes of high‐molecular‐mass proteins, such as mTOR (289 kDa), ATM kinase (350 kDa), and 53BP1 (213 kDa).
Autoantibody to glial fibrillary acidic protein in the sera of cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Authors: Nomura Sachiko , Miyasho Taku , Maeda Naoyuki , Doh‐ura Katsumi , Yokota Hiroshi 
Published: August 2009

AbstractIt is desirable to make the diagnosis in live cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and thus surrogate markers for the disease have been eagerly sought. Serum proteins from BSE cattle were analyzed by 2‐D Western blotting and TOF‐MS. Autoantibodies against proteins in cytoskeletal fractions prepared from normal bovine brains were found in the sera of BSE cattle. The protein recognized was identified to be glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which is expressed mainly in astrocytes in the brain. The antigen protein, GFAP, was also found in the sera of BSE cattle. The percentages of both positive sera in the autoantibody and GFAP were 44.0% for the BSE cattle, 0% for the healthy cattle, and 5.0% for the clinically suspected BSE‐negative cattle. A significant relationship between the presence of GFAP and the expression of its autoantibody in the serum was recognized in the BSE cattle. These findings suggest a leakage of GFAP into the peripheral blood during neurodegeneration associated with BSE, accompanied by the autoantibody production, and might be useful in understanding the pathogenesis and in developing a serological diagnosis of BSE in live cattle.
Cliques in mitotic spindle network bring kinetochore‐associated complexes to form dependence pathway
Authors: Chen Tzu‐Chi , Lee Sheng‐An , Chan Chen‐Hsiung , Juang Yue‐Li , Hong Yi‐Ren , Huang Yei‐Hsuan , Lai Jin‐Mei , Kao Cheng‐Yan , Huang Chi‐Ying F. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThe mitotic spindle is an essential molecular machine for chromosome segregation during mitosis. Achieving a better understanding of its organization at the topological level remains a daunting task. To determine the functional connections among 137 mitotic spindle proteins, a protein–protein interaction network among queries was constructed. Many hub proteins, which connect more than one query and serve as highly plausible candidates for expanding the mitotic spindle proteome, are ranked by conventional degree centrality and a new subnetwork specificity score. Evaluation of the ranking results by literature reviews and empirical verification of SEPT6, a novel top‐ranked hub, suggests that the subnetwork specificity score could enrich for putative spindle‐related proteins. Topological analysis of this expanded network shows the presence of 30 3‐cliques and six 4‐cliques (fully connected subgraphs) that, respectively, reside in eight kinetochore‐associated complexes, of which seven are evolution conserved. Notably, these complexes strikingly form dependence pathways for the assembly of the kinetochore complex. These analyses indicate the feasibility of using network topology, i.e. cliques, to uncover novel pathways to accelerate our understanding of potential biological processes.
Helically chiral poly(quinoxalin‐2,3‐diyl)s: Toward the synthesis of stereoregular polymeric organocatalysts
Authors: Reggelin Michael , Scholz Johannes , Hamburger Manuel 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThe synthesis of seven new aromatic diisocyanide monomers is described and a rationale for their stability is given, as well as their behavior in the palladium‐mediated aromatizing polymerization yielding helically chiral poly(quinoxalin‐2,3‐diyl)s (PQs). Acceleration of the otherwise slow polymerization by microwave heating was observed. The polymers are designed to display potential organocatalytically active functionalities (e.g., phenols, pyridines) nearby stereolabile biaryl axes, which are asymmetrically governed by the configurationally stable helical backbone. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 4830–4839, 2009
Comparison of structure‐based and threading‐based approaches to protein functional annotation
Authors: Brylinski Michal , Skolnick Jeffrey 
Published: August 2009

AbstractTo exploit the vast amount of sequence information provided by the Genomic revolution, the biological function of these sequences must be identified. As a practical matter, this is often accomplished by functional inference. Purely sequence‐based approaches, particularly in the “twilight zone” of low sequence similarity levels, are complicated by many factors. For proteins, structure‐based techniques aim to overcome these problems; however, most require high‐quality crystal structures and suffer from complex and equivocal relations between protein fold and function. In this study, in extensive benchmarking, we consider a number of aspects of structure‐based functional annotation: binding pocket detection, molecular function assignment and ligand‐based virtual screening. We demonstrate that protein threading driven by a strong sequence profile component greatly improves the quality of purely structure‐based functional annotation in the “twilight zone.” By detecting evolutionarily related proteins, it considerably reduces the high false positive rate of function inference derived on the basis of global structure similarity alone. Combined evolution/structure‐based function assignment emerges as a powerful technique that can make a significant contribution to comprehensive proteome annotation. Proteins 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Template‐based and free modeling by RAPTOR++ in CASP8
Authors: Xu Jinbo , Peng Jian , Zhao Feng 
Published: August 2009

AbstractWe developed and tested RAPTOR++ in CASP8 for protein structure prediction. RAPTOR++ contains four modules: threading, model quality assessment, multiple protein alignment, and template‐free modeling. RAPTOR++ first threads a target protein to all the templates using three methods and then predicts the quality of the 3D model implied by each alignment using a model quality assessment method. Based upon the predicted quality, RAPTOR++ employs different strategies as follows. If multiple alignments have good quality, RAPTOR++ builds a multiple protein alignment between the target and top templates and then generates a 3D model using MODELLER. If all the alignments have very low quality, RAPTOR++ uses template‐free modeling. Otherwise, RAPTOR++ submits a threading‐generated 3D model with the best quality. RAPTOR++ was not ready for the first 1/3 targets and was under development during the whole CASP8 season. The template‐based and template‐free modeling modules in RAPTOR++ are not closely integrated. We are using our template‐free modeling technique to refine template‐based models. Proteins 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ACE inhibitors: their propertiesand current role in hypertension
Authors: Ooi Sze‐Yuan , Ball Stephen 
Published: August 2009

AbstractACE inhibitors remain the first‐line choice of treatment of hypertension in patients under 55 years, and second line in other patient groups. Our Drug Review considers their properties and the latest evidence for their use in hypertension, followed by further sources of information and an analysis of prescription data. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Interface Ltd.
Robust observer–controller compensator design using the loop shaping design procedure and the algebraic method
Authors: Lee An‐Chen , Pan Yi‐Ren , Huang Yuan‐Yong 
Published: August 2009

AbstractThis paper investigates robust observer‐controller compensator design using Vidyasagar's structure (VS). VS has a unit matrix parameter H similar to the Q parameter for the Youla–Kucera parameterization. VS can be designed based on the left coprimeness of the central controller in the H∞‐loop shaping design procedure (H∞‐LSDP) and therefore can preserve the intrinsic properties of the H∞‐LSDP. This paper introduces algebraic methods to simplify the design of H in the VS controller by solving specific algebraic equations. In particular, the algebraic design of H can achieve two things. First, a dynamic H adjusts the tracking performance and yields the integral action. Second, a dynamic H rejects the input and output sinusoidal disturbances with known frequencies. These attributes are indications of the flexibility of the proposed method since the output‐feedback controller design of the H∞‐LSDP cannot easily deal with such conditions. This paper discusses the achieved loop and the closed‐loop behavior of the system with VS, and also gives two numerical examples. The first example shows that the proposed method results in a better design in many aspects than the resulting from H∞‐LSDP. The second example shows the application of the proposed method to rejecting input and output step disturbances, and input and output multiple sinusoidal disturbances, for which the H∞‐LSDP can hardly be used. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Anatomy‐Specific Pancreatic Stump Management to Reduce the Risk of Pancreatic Fistula After Pancreatic Head Resection
Authors: Tajima Yoshitsugu , Kuroki Tamotsu , Tsuneoka Noritsugu , Adachi Tomohiko , Kosaka Taiichiro , Okamoto Tatsuya , Takatsuki Mitsuhisa , Eguchi Susumu , Kanematsu Takashi 
Published: August 2009

AbstractBackgroundThe anatomical status of the pancreatic remnant after a pancreatic head resection varies greatly among patients. The aim of the present study was to improve management of the pancreatic remnant for reducing pancreatic fistula after pancreatic head resection.MethodsNinety‐five consecutive patients who underwent an end‐to‐side, duct‐to‐mucosa pancreaticojejunostomy after pancreatic head resection were included in the study. To approximate the pancreatic stump to the jejunum, the transfixing and interrupted suture techniques were used in 51 and 44 patients, respectively. We modified the interrupted suture technique according to the anatomical status of the pancreatic remnant, i.e., the shape of the pancreatic stump and the location of the pancreatic duct.ResultsThere was no operative mortality in this study. Overall, 14 patients (15%) developed a clinically relevant pancreatic fistula. Certain anatomical features, including a small pancreatic duct, a soft, nonfibrotic pancreatic gland, and a pancreatic duct adjacent to the posterior cut edge, were significantly associated with pancreatic fistula. The fistula rate in the interrupted suture group was 7%, lower than that (22%) in the transfixing suture group (P = 0.036), and it was not influenced by pancreatic anatomy. Multivariate analysis identified a nonfibrotic pancreas (versus fibrotic pancreas; odds ratio [OR] 12.58, 95% CI 1.2–23.9; P = 0.001), a soft pancreas (versus hard pancreas; OR 4.67, CI 1.2–51.1; P = 0.006), and the transfixing suture technique (versus interrupted suture technique; OR 9.91, CI 1.7–57.5; P = 0.003) as significant predictors of clinically relevant pancreatic fistula.ConclusionsPancreatic anastomosis modified according to the pancreatic anatomy is effective in reducing the risk of pancreatic fistula formation with end‐to‐side, duct‐to‐mucosa pancreaticojejunostomy after pancreatic head resection.
Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) select small seeds when feeding on the fruits of Corema album
Authors: Larrinaga Asier R. 
Published: August 2009

AbstractHerbivores are hypothesized to consume fruits and seeds while foraging on the vegetative parts of plants. A small seed size is an important condition for this foliage‐as‐fruit hypothesis to be proved, but has received little attention at the intra‐specific level. We measured Corema album seeds ingested by rabbits and those collected from plants and found that rabbits are actively selecting for small seeds. The mechanisms of this selection remain unclear, although my results discard (1) the phenology of consumption, (2) effects of gut passage, and (3) intra‐plant heterogeneity of seed sizes as possible mechanisms.
Determination of hip reduction in spica cast treatment for DDH: A comparison of radiography and ultrasound
Authors: Eberhardt Oliver , Zieger Michael , Langendoerfer Michael , Wirth Thomas , Fernandez Francisco F. 
Published: August 2009

Purpose In this retrospective study we compared the efficacy of ultrasound and radiography for determining the position of the femoral head after closed or open reduction in DDH. Materials and methods The ultrasound was performed using the van Douveren technique by a transinguinal approach through a perineal window of the spica cast. Sixty-eight a.p. radiographs of the pelvis were correlated to 68 ultrasound images. Results Thirty-two radiographs were not useful for precisely determining the femoral head position, whereas the criteria described by van Douveren et al. could be identified in all ultrasound images. All ultrasound images in the study were useful and gave reliable information about the position of the femoral head. Conclusion Consequently, standard radiographic documentation is no longer used as a standard in our clinic. MRI and CT are reserved for special cases. We recommend transinguinal ultrasound as a standard diagnostic method to determine the position of the femoral head in hip spica casts safely and reliably.
On inertial effects in the Moffatt–Pukhnachov coating-flow problem
Authors: KELMANSON MARK A. 
Published: August 2009

The effects are investigated of including inertial terms, in both small- and large-surface-tension limits, in a remodelling of the influential and fundamental problem first formulated by Moffatt and Pukhnachov in 1977: that of viscous thin-film free-surface Stokes flow exterior to a circular cylinder rotating about its horizontal axis in a vertical gravitational field.An analysis of the non-dimensionalizations of previous related literature is made and the precise manner in which different rescalings lead to the asymptotic promotion or demotion of pure-inertial flux terms over gravitational-inertial terms is highlighted. An asymptotic mass-conserving evolution equation for a perturbed-film thickness is derived and solved using two-timescale asymptotics with a strained fast timescale. By using an algebraic manipulator to automate the asymptotics to high orders in the small expansion parameter of the ratio of the film thickness to the cylinder radius, consistent a posteriori truncations are obtained.Via two-timescale and numerical solutions of the evolution equation, new light is shed on diverse effects of inertia in both small- and large-surface-tension limits, in each of which a critical Reynolds number is discovered above which the thin-film evolution equation has no steady-state solution due to the strength of the destabilizing inertial centrifugal force. Extensions of the theory to the treatment of thicker films are discussed.
Dynamics of photosynthetic picoplankton in a subtropical estuary and adjacent shelf waters
Authors: Lin D. , Zhu A. , Xu Z. , Huang L. , Fang H. 
Published: August 2009

Dynamics ofSynechococcus(Syn),Prochlorococcus(Pro) and picoeukaryotes (Euk) was studied at 92 stations in the Pearl River Estuary and adjacent shelf waters in the winter of 2006 using flow cytometry. The average cell abundance of photosynthetic picoplankon (Pico) was 104cells/ml. Picoeukaryotes was the dominant group in the inner estuary whereProwas absent.Synechococcuswas dominant in the coastal and open waters. The proportion ofProwas higher in the open than in the coastal waters. The change of Pico community structure from the inner estuary to the open waters is related to the changes in hydrochemical dynamics. The vertical variations in the abundance and community composition of Pico were not significant. The abundances ofProandSynwere positively correlated with temperature, salinity and pH, whereas they were negatively correlated with dissolved oxygen (DO), suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon) concentrations. But the correlations between %Euk (as of total pico) and these environmental factors were opposite to those between the abundance of prokaryotic cells (ProandSyn) and the environmental factors. %Euk had significant negative correlations with temperature, salinity and pH, and positive correlations with DO, SSC and nutrients. There were differences in the niches between prokaryotic cells and picoeukaryotes.ProchlorococcusandSynwere dominant in the warm waters with high salinity, low SSC and low nutrient concentrations, while %Euk was higher in the cold waters with low salinity, high SSC and high nutrient concentrations. Results of principal component analysis and regression analysis indicated that the relationship between the abundances of Pico and the environmental factors was a compound function (y = b0(b1)x), and that between the abundances ofPro,Synor %Euk and the environmental factors was a linear function.
Limes Germanicus—Bridge and Frontier
Authors: Briefs Goetz A. 
Published: August 2009

There is great significance in the recent renaming of the Siegfried line, Germany's line of fortifications in the West. By the will of the Fuehrer, the western fortification is now called Limes. The new name is obviously intended to imply something very specific, otherwise it would not have been chosen.“Limes”, a Latin word meaning “borderline”, is a word of great significance in Roman as well as German history. The term was first used by the Roman conquerors to signify the line of fortifications which, after many setbacks, they built around the northernmost reaches of their realm. The Roman Limes enclosed what today is die greater part of Bavaria, the rest of Southern Germany, Switzerland and the Rhinelands. Started under the Roman Emperor Domitian in 83 A.D. and finished in the Second Century, the fortifications signified that the Roman impetus of expansion had reached its limit. It meant a consolidation of the earlier conquests against Teutonic invasion from the North and East.
A Dialectic of Morals—II
Authors: Adler Mortimer J. 
Published: August 2009

TO MAKE a fresh start, let us ask about the meaning of pleasure as a criterion of preference. Precisely what does the student mean when he says that he prefers A to B because A pleases and B displeases, or because A pleases him more than B?The student may be somewhat bewildered by this question, for he has already told us that such judgments as “A pleases me more than B” are equivalent to saying “I like A more than B.” In fact, he confesses, much of the discussion we have had so far has seemed to him to consist in making verbal substitutions of this sort. We started out by admitting that the fact of preference was equivalent to the judgment of “A-better-than-B-for-me” and that in turn became equivalent to two other forms of statement: “A pleases me more than B” and “I like A more than B.” What has been gained by saying the same thing over and over again in different words? Pleasure and displeasure, it would seem, do not explain the fact of preference; far from explaining it, the fact of being pleased (or displeased) seems to be identical with the fact of preferring (or not preferring).One thing the student says is false, but one thing is true. The falsity arises from his failure to remember that something was gained by introducing the notion of pleasure into our discussion.
The Russian Revolution: Twenty-Five Years After
Authors: Timasheff N. S. 
Published: August 2009

Pre- revolutionary Russia was a rapidly advancing society in which a number of definite trends could be detected. Assuming that this development had not been interrupted by war and revolution, certain conjectures of the effects of these trends might be formulated.We may assume that without the revolution the political forces of Russia would have achieved the transformation of the “dual” or “constitutional” monarchy, which ruled Russia since 1906, into a parliamentary monarchy in which the Crown would have yielded actual power to representatives of public opinion. The franchise of the Douma would have been gradually democratized. The establishment of Z.emstvos, that is, provincial and district self-government, which, between 1866 and 1914, had contributed so much to Russia's advance in the fields of public education and public hygiene, would have been extended throughout the Empire, with perhaps the exception of some semi-colonial territories; these agencies would have received a significant re-en-forcement through the modernization of obsolete institutions of peasant self-government. The excellent judicial system which Russia had already enjoyed since 1866, curbed during the reactionary period before the Russo-Japanese war, but partly restored under the Douma, would have been expanded and improved.