bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Telomere length and progression of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes
Authors: Fyhrquist F. , Tiitu A. , Saijonmaa O. , Forsblom C. , Groop P.‐H. ,   on behalf of the FinnDiane Study Group
Published: June 2009

Abstract.  Fyhrquist F, Tiitu A, Saijonmaa O, Forsblom C, Groop P‐H, on behalf of the FinnDiane Study Group (Minerva Institute for Medical Research; Helsinki University Central Hospital; and Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics; Helsinki, Finland). Telomere length and progression of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes. J Intern Med 2010; 267: 278–286.Objectives.  To determine whether short telomere length of blood leucocytes from patients with type 1 diabetes is associated with or predictive of progression of diabetic nephropathy.Design and methods.  Two consecutive DNA samples were obtained from 132 patients from the nationwide Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study with type 1 diabetes. Control DNA samples were taken from 44 healthy blood donors. Telomere length was measured by Southern blot. Patients were divided into three groups according to their urinary albumin excretion rate (AER): 48 patients with normoalbuminuria (AER < 20 μg min−1); seven patients with microalbuminuria (AER ≥ 20 μg min−1 <200 μg min−1) and 77 patients with macroalbuminuria (AER ≥ 200 μg min−1). Progression was defined as a change in albuminuria to a higher level.Results.  Progression occurred in 21 patients. Progressors had shorter mean telomere length (8.1 ± 0.7 kb, mean ± SD; P = 0.017) and higher percentage of short telomeres (32.0 ± 8%, P = 0.002) than nonprogressors (8.5 ± 0.7 kb and 27 ± 7.2%, respectively). Thus, both shorter telomeres (HR = 0.190, 95%CI 0.065–0.558, P = 0.0025) and higher proportion of short telomeres (HR = 1.115, 1.039–1.195, P =0.0023) were independent predictors of diabetic nephropathy. Telomere length was not associated with the degree of albuminuria and was not different in patients with type 1 diabetes compared with healthy controls.Conclusions.  Short telomeres are independent predictors of progression of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes.
Suppression of dendritic cell maturation by Trichinella spiralis excretory/secretory products
Authors: LANGELAAR M. , ARANZAMENDI C. , FRANSSEN F. , VAN DER GIESSEN J. , RUTTEN V. , VAN DER LEY P. , PINELLI E. 
Published: June 2009

SummaryEvidence from experimental studies indicates that during chronic infections with certain helminth species a regulatory network is induced that can down‐modulate not only parasite‐induced inflammation but also reduce other immunopathologies such as allergies and autoimmune diseases. The mechanisms however, and the molecules involved in this immunomodulation are unknown. Here, we focus on the effect of Trichinella spiralis excretory/secretory antigens (TspES) on the innate immune response by studying the effect of TspES on DC maturation in vitro. Bone marrow‐derived DC from BALB/c mice were incubated with TspES either alone or in combination with LPS derived from two different bacteria. As indicators of DC maturation, the cytokine production (IL‐1α, IL‐6, IL‐10, IL‐12p70 and TNF‐α) and the expression of various surface molecules (MHC‐II, CD40, CD80 and CD86) were measured. Results indicate that while TspES alone did not change the expression of the different surface molecules or the cytokine production, it completely inhibited DC maturation induced by Escherichia coli LPS (E. coli LPS). In contrast, DC maturation induced by LPS from another bacterium, Neisseria meningitidis, was not affected by TspES. These results were confirmed using TLR4/MD2/CD14 transfected HEK 293 cells. In conclusion, T. spiralis ES antigens lead to suppression of DC maturation but this effect depends on the type of LPS used to activate these cells.
Expression of a bacterial bi‐functional chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydratase modulates primary and secondary metabolism associated with aromatic amino acids in Arabidopsis
Authors: Tzin Vered , Malitsky Sergey , Aharoni Asaph , Galili Gad 
Published: June 2009

SummaryPlants can synthesize the aromatic amino acid Phe via arogenate, but it is still not known whether they also use an alternative route for Phe biosynthesis via phenylpyruvate, like many micro‐organisms. To examine this possibility, we expressed a bacterial bi‐functional PheA (chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydratase) gene in Arabidopsis thaliana that converts chorismate via prephenate into phenylpyruvate. The PheA‐expressing plants showed a large increase in the level of Phe, implying that they can convert phenylpyruvate into Phe. In addition, PheA expression rendered the plants more sensitive than wild‐type plants to the Trp biosynthesis inhibitor 5‐methyl‐Trp, implying that Phe biosynthesis competes with Trp biosynthesis from their common precursor chorismate. Surprisingly, GC‐MS, LC‐MS and microarray analyses showed that this increase in Phe accumulation only had a very minor effect on the levels of other primary metabolites as well as on the transcriptome profile, implying little regulatory cross‐interaction between the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis network and the bulk of the Arabidopsis transcriptome and primary metabolism. However, the levels of a number of secondary metabolites derived from all three aromatic amino acids (Phe, Trp and Tyr) were altered in the PheA plants, implying regulatory cross‐interactions between the flux of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis from chorismate and their further metabolism into various secondary metabolites. Taken together, our results provide insights into the regulatory mechanisms of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis and their interaction with central primary metabolism, as well as the regulatory interface between primary and secondary metabolism.
Genome organization of the tomato sun locus and characterization of the unusual retrotransposon Rider
Authors: Jiang Ning , Gao Dongying , Xiao Han , Van Der Knaap Esther 
Published: June 2009

SummaryDNA sequences provide useful insights into genome structure and organization as well as evolution of species. We report on a detailed analysis of the locus surrounding the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit‐shape gene SUN to determine the driving force and genome environment that foster the appearance of novel phenotypes. The gene density at the sun locus is similar to that described in other euchromatic portions of the tomato genome despite the relatively high number of transposable elements. Genes at the sun locus include protein‐coding as well as RNA genes, are small in size, and belong to families that were duplicated at the locus an estimated 5–74 million years ago. In general, the DNA transposons at the sun locus are older than the RNA transposons, and their insertion pre‐dates the speciation of S. lycopersicum and S. pimpinellifolium. Gene redundancy and large intergenic regions may explain the tolerance of the sun locus to frequent rearrangements and transpositions. The most recent transposition event at the sun locus involved Rider, a recently discovered high‐copy retrotransposon. Rider probably arose early during the speciation of tomato. The element inserts into or near to genes and may still be active, which are unusual features for a high‐copy element. Rider full‐length and read‐through transcripts past the typical transcription termination stop are detected, and the latter are required for mobilizing nearby sequences. Rider activity has resulted in an altered phenotype in three known cases, and may therefore have played an important role in tomato evolution and domestication.
Orobanche cumana race F: performance of resistant sunflower hybrids and aggressiveness of populations of the parasitic weed
Authors: MOLINERO‐RUIZ M L , GARCÍA‐RUIZ R , MELERO‐VARA J M , DOMÍNGUEZ J 
Published: June 2009

SummaryThe production of sunflower is threatened by Orobanche cumana (broomrape) infections in many countries of southern and eastern Europe. The most virulent race of this parasitic weed, race F, is widespread in Spain. Most of the current commercial hybrids of resistant sunflower do not completely prevent broomrape emergence in the field. The performance (broomrape incidence and severity, final yields and oil contents) of four resistant and two susceptible sunflower hybrids was studied in different years in several O. cumana– infested locations. O. cumana– sunflower interactions were characterised by low severity and intermediate incidence in the resistant hybrids; both depended on the environment. An increase in sunflower yield because of the use of resistant hybrids was most noticeable under heavy field infestations and under drought. Characterisation of 20 populations of O. cumana classified as race F in terms of the standardised area under the degree of attack progress curve (SAUDC) and O. cumana incidence (BI) suggested differential intrinsic pathogenicities. These results highlight the variability within race F of O. cumana, mirroring the environmentally dependent horizontal resistance in sunflower.
SFB‐based S‐haplotyping of apricot (Prunus armeniaca) with DHPLC
Authors: Raz A. , Stern R. A. , Bercovich D. , Goldway M. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractMost cultivars that belong to the Rosaceae are self‐incompatible and depend on cross‐pollination. The pollen donor and pollen recipient have to flower synchronously and must be genetically compatible. Genetic compatibility is governed by the S‐locus, which holds the S‐RNase and S‐haplotype‐specific F‐Box (SFB) genes. Thus, the S‐genotype of cultivars is an important feature and is characterized molecularly by the S‐RNase and SFB alleles which are distinctive for each S‐haplotype. Here, we report the usage of DNA chromatography (denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography – DHPLC) for identifying the S‐genotypes of European apricots on the basis of their SFB alleles. DHPLC is amenable to high‐throughput automation, and therefore is valuable for breeding and for high‐quality plant typing in the nursery.
QTL alleles from a winter feed type can improve malting quality in barley
Authors: Laidò G. , Barabaschi D. , Tondelli A. , Gianinetti A. , Stanca A. M. , Li Destri Nicosia O. , Di Fonzo N. , Francia E. , Pecchioni N. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractMapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) responsible for malting quality traits in barley populations has been the main genetic approach to malting quality breeding. A ‘winter × spring’ doubled haploid barley population ‘Nure’ × ‘Tremois’, where such traits were segregating, has been recently developed. Our objective was to map QTLs for malting quality from 2 years of trials in two contrasting locations. QTLs were found on six chromosomes, with a main cluster on chromosome 1H. For wort viscosity and malt extract, favourable alleles at two loci on chromosome 5H were carried by the winter feeding parent ‘Nure’. Doubled‐haploids with higher quality than the spring malting cultivar ‘Tremois’ showed either a facultative or a winter growth habit and a level of frost tolerance comparable with that of the winter tolerant parent ‘Nure’. Markers and QTLs of quality traits were further validated on a separate set of DH lines, coming from the same cross, by means of marker‐assisted selection. This showed that, at least in the present cross combination, positive contributions to malting quality can be found in winter feed barley.
Costs of managing conditions associated with obesity among Australian teenagers
Authors: Booth Michael L , Dobbins Timothy , Aitken Robert , Denney‐Wilson Elizabeth , Hardy Louise L , Okely Anthony D , George Jacob , Sullivan David , Cowell Christopher T 
Published: June 2009

Aim:  To determine the health‐care charges associated with monitoring and managing, over 1 year, the cases of elevated insulin concentration, elevated alanine aminotransferase concentration and dyslipidaemia due to overweight or obesity among 15–19‐year‐old Australian males and females.Methods:  Fasting blood samples (n= 500) were collected in 2004 from a representative population sample of adolescents (n= 496; mean age 15.3 years) attending schools in Sydney, Australia. Full service charges and Medicare expenditures for specialist medical and dietary consultations, pathology tests and radiological investigations, over 1 year, under efficient and inefficient health‐care delivery models, including and excluding participants in the healthy body mass index (BMI) category.Results:  Under an inefficient delivery model and including all participants with elevated risk factors, the Medicare expenditure was $A305.1 million per annum (M pa). Exclusion of participants in the healthy BMI category resulted in an annual Medicare expenditure of $A170.0M pa. Under an efficient delivery model and including all participants with elevated risk factors, the Medicare expenditure was $A295.5M pa. Exclusion of participants in the healthy BMI category reduced annual Medicare expenditure to $A164.8M pa. Medicare expenditure for 15–19‐year‐olds would increase by 48% if only cases among overweight and obese adolescents were treated and by 85% if all cases were identified and treated.Conclusions:  Short‐term management of the health consequences of overweight and obesity among adolescents will increase Medicare expenditure on this group by at least 48%. Failure to treat will delay, but compound, health‐care expenditure.
Productivity and community structure of ectomycorrhizal fungal sporocarps under increased atmospheric CO2 and O3
Authors: Andrew Carrie , Lilleskov Erik A. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractSporocarp production is essential for ectomycorrhizal fungal recombination and dispersal, which influences fungal community dynamics. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3) affect host plant carbon gain and allocation, which may in turn influence ectomycorrhizal sporocarp production if the carbon available to the ectomycorrhizal fungus is dependant upon the quantity of carbon assimilated by the host. We measured sporocarp production of ectomycorrhizal fungi over 4 years at the Aspen FACE (free air CO2 enrichment) site, which corresponded to stand ages seven to 10 years. Total mean sporocarp biomass was greatest under elevated CO2, regardless of O3 concentration, while it was generally lowest under elevated O3 with ambient CO2. Community composition differed significantly among the treatments, with less difference in the final year of the study. Whether this convergence was due to succession or environmental factors is uncertain. CO2 and O3 affect ectomycorrhizal sporocarp productivity and community composition, with likely effects on dispersal, colonization and sporocarp‐dependent food webs.
The Converged Experience of Risk and Disease
Authors: ARONOWITZ ROBERT A. 
Published: June 2009

Context: One underappreciated consequence of modern clinical and public health practices is that the experience of being at risk for disease has been converging with the experience of disease itself. This is especially true for certain chronic diseases, in which early diagnosis and aggressive treatment have led to symptom‐less and sign‐less disease and in which treatments have largely been aimed at altering the disease's future course.Methods: This article reviews the historical scholarship and medical literature pertinent to transformations in the chronic disease and risk experiences.Findings: The experience of chronic disease increasingly resembles or has become indistinguishable from risk because of (1) new clinical interventions that have directly changed the natural history of disease; (2) increased biological, clinical, and epidemiological knowledge about the risk of chronic disease; (3) the recruitment of larger numbers into chronic disease diagnoses via new screening and diagnostic technology and disease definitions; (4) new ways of conceptualizing efficacy; and (5) intense diagnostic testing and medical interventions.Conclusions: The converged experience of risk and disease has led to some unsettling and generally underappreciated consequences that might be subjected to more clinical and policy reflection and response: (1) some puzzling trends in medical decision making, such as the steep and uniform increase in the numbers of women across a broad spectrum of risk/disease in breast cancer who have opted for prophylactic mastectomies; (2) a larger and highly mobilized disease/risk population, resulting in an expanded market for interventions and greater clout for disease advocates; (3) shifts in the perceived severity of the disease, with ripple effects on how people experience and understand their illness and risk of disease; and (4) interventions that promise both to reduce the risk of disease and to treat its symptoms.
European Regional Convergence Revisited: A Weighted Least Squares Approach
Authors: PETRAKOS GEORGE , ARTELARIS PANAGIOTIS 
Published: June 2009

ABSTRACTA plethora of past studies have concluded that unconditional β‐convergence is present in a broad sample of regions, implying that poor regions grow faster than rich ones. All these econometric studies tend to overlook the relative importance or size of each region in the national setting, treating all regional observations as equal. However, this assumption might lead to unrealistic or misleading results. Convergence analysis could be more meaningful if it included a weighting mechanism taking into account the size of regions. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the inclusion of a weighting mechanism in β‐convergence analysis, giving more weight to larger regions and less to smaller ones, can result in sharply different implications for the regional convergence‐divergence process. For this reason, both unweighted ordinary least squares (OLS) and weighted least squares estimators are used in the analysis of regional (intra‐national) convergence within 10 European Union (EU) countries over the period 1990–2000. The comparison between the two methods reveals that when regions are appropriately weighted for their size, intra‐national divergence, rather than convergence found with the OLS approach, seems to be the dominant experience in the EU.
Redefining “Offshore” in Latin America
Authors: COBB SHARON C. 
Published: June 2009

ABSTRACTOffshoring and outsourcing are two terms—often used interchangeably—that comprise an essential element of the modern post‐industrial global economy. Analysis of this phenomenon in the United States is often framed in the light of job loss and economic decline relating to the manufacturing or low‐end services sectors, but this paper will revisit the traditional offshore industry—that of offshore finance and offshore financial centers (OFCs) and compare OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring in Latin America. This paper argues that some similarities are evident when comparing OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring but many differences exist. Using the framework or “lens” of politics certain OFC offshoring issues and tensions with the onshore world relating to unfair tax competition, money laundering, sovereignty, secrecy, regulation, trust, and reputation are analyzed and are shown to be more onerous, tense and different from those occurring in the mainstream offshoring/outsourcing world. In addition, using the “lens” of cyberspace and e‐commerce, and a case study of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, this paper argues that the creation of an electronic infrastructure in the OFC offshoring world is as necessary as in the onshore world, but the actors and institutions creating and promoting such infrastructures are different. Future work could pursue more reputable and comparative data gathering to further more rigorous statistical modeling of the relationships bothbetweenOFCs as they compete for offshore capital, and between offshore and onshore as the onshore world seeks to further lift the veil of offshore financial opacity, particularly related to issues of money laundering.
Anti‐inflammatory and anti‐peroxidative roles of diacerein are possibly mediated through an alteration in thyroid functions in animal model of inflammation
Authors: Jatwa Rameshwar , Kar Anand 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThis study was designed to reveal the possible involvement of thyroid hormones, if any, in diacerein induced alterations in glucose metabolism and tissue lipid peroxidation (LPO) in the animal model of carrageenan‐induced inflammation. We studied the influence of diacerein administration on the changes in carrageenan‐induced thyroid dysfunction; hepatic, renal and cardiac LPO as well as serum glucose, thyroid hormones and insulin concentrations in Wistar rats. Alterations in paw volume, serum levels of total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C), low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, very low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides as well as hepatic, renal and cardiac reduced glutathione (GSH) contents were also studied as supporting parameters. While a decrease in the level of serum thyroid hormones and HDL‐C and in tissue GSH content was observed in carrageenan‐treated animals, it increased paw volume, the concentration of other serum lipids, glucose and insulin as well as tissue LPO. However, following diacerein administration for 21 days to carrageenan‐treated animals, level of thyroid hormones and all other thyroid dependent parameters were reversed suggesting that the drug might be acting through stimulation in the thyroid functions.
CFO Fiduciary Responsibilities and Annual Bonus Incentives
Authors: INDJEJIKIAN RAFFI , MATĚJKA MICHAL 
Published: June 2009

ABSTRACTWe examine how firms design bonus plans of their CFOs. CFOs participate in decision making much like other executives, but they also have significant fiduciary responsibilities for reporting firms’ financial results. Responsibility for financial reporting raises the question of whether it is appropriate to pay CFOs annual bonuses contingent on self‐reported financial performance. In this paper, we provide a framework that characterizes CFO bonuses as a tradeoff between CFOs’ decision‐making responsibilities and their fiduciary duties over financial reporting. This framework yields a number of implications that we examine empirically using a proprietary survey of CFO compensation practices of public and private firms. Our main finding shows that from 2003 to 2007 public entities (relative to private entities) reduced the percentage of CFO bonuses contingent on financial performance. We interpret this result as evidence that firms mitigate misreporting practices in part by deemphasizing CFO incentive compensation.