bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Photosynthetic reaction center protein in nanostructures
Authors: Hajdu Kata , Szabó Tibor , Magyar Melinda , Bencsik Gábor , Németh Zoltán , Nagy Krisztina , Magrez Arnaud , Forró László , Váró György , Hernádi Klára , Nagy László 
Published: August 2011

AbstractPhotosynthetic reaction center (RC) is one of the most important proteins, because it is Nature's solar battery converting light energy into chemical potential in the photosynthetic membrane assuring conditions for carbon reduction in cells. Although it is developed in nanometer scale, and is working in nanoscopic power, this is the protein that assures the energy input practically for the whole biosphere on Earth. The extremely large quantum yield of the primary charge separation (close to 100%) in the RC offers a big challenge to use it in nanodevices. Results of structural (AFM, EM), optical, and electro chemical investigations on RC bio‐nanocomposite materials based on different carrier matrices (e.g., CNTs, ITO) will be presented.
Growth of catalyst‐assisted and catalyst‐free horizontally aligned single wall carbon nanotubes
Authors: Ibrahim Imad , Bachmatiuk Alicja , Rümmeli Mark H. , Wolff Ulrike , Popov Alexey , Boltalina Olga , Büchner Bernd , Cuniberti Gianaurelio 
Published: August 2011

AbstractHere, we report the growth of homogenously horizontally aligned single wall carbon nanotubes on stable temperature cut single crystal quartz using chemical vapor deposition with controllable yield and length from binary metallic mixtures as well as fullerene derivatives. We manage the yield and length of the as‐grown tubes on stable temperature cut single crystal quartz by controlling the surface roughness of the support substrates by thermal treatment in air. Carbon caps derived from pre‐treated fullerenes are also explored for their potential to nucleate growth of single wall carbon nanotubes without the need of a catalyst particle. Exohedrally functionalized fullerenes are apparently better nucleators than C60 fullerenes.Yield of the as‐grown single wall carbon nanotubes on thermally annealed ST‐quartz substrates. magnified image
Reproductive outcomes in women with congenital uterine anomalies: a systematic review
Authors: Chan Y. Y. , Jayaprakasan K. , Tan A. , Thornton J. G. , Coomarasamy A. , Raine‐Fenning N. J. 
Published: August 2011

AbstractObjectiveCongenital uterine anomalies are common but their effect on reproductive outcome is unclear. We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the association between different types of congenital uterine anomaly and various reproductive outcomes.MethodsSearches were performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science. The Newcastle‐Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale was used for quality assessment. Uterine defects were grouped into arcuate uteri, canalization defects (septate and subseptate uteri) and unification defects (unicornuate, bicornuate and didelphys uteri). Pooled risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed using random effects models.ResultsWe identified nine studies comprising 3805 women. Meta‐analysis showed that arcuate uteri were associated with increased rates of second‐trimester miscarriage (RR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.33–4.27, P = 0.003) and fetal malpresentation at delivery (RR, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.54–4.18; P < 0.001). Canalization defects were associated with reduced clinical pregnancy rates (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77–0.96; P = 0.009) and increased rates of first‐trimester miscarriage (RR, 2.89; 95% CI; 2.02–4.14; P < 0.001), preterm birth (RR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.48–3.11; P < 0.001) and fetal malpresentation (RR, 6.24; 95% CI, 4.05–9.62; P < 0.001). Unification defects were associated with increased rates of preterm birth (RR, 2.97; 95% CI, 2.08–4.23; P < 0.001) and fetal malpresentation (RR, 3.87; 95% CI, 2.42–6.18; P < 0.001).ConclusionsCanalization defects reduce fertility and increase rates of miscarriage and preterm delivery. None of the unification defects reduces fertility but some are associated with miscarriage and preterm delivery. Arcuate uteri are specifically associated with second‐trimester miscarriage. All uterine anomalies increase the chance of fetal malpresentation at delivery. Copyright © 2011 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Emerging applications of nanotechnology for the diagnosis and management of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques
Authors: Yu Shann S. , Ortega Ryan A. , Reagan Brendan W. , McPherson John A. , Sung Hak‐Joon , Giorgio Todd D. 
Published: August 2011

AbstractAn estimated 16 million people in the United States have coronary artery disease (CAD), and approximately 325,000 people die annually from cardiac arrest. About two‐thirds of unexpected cardiac deaths occur without prior recognition of cardiac disease. A vast majority of these deaths are attributable to the rupture of ‘vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques’. Clinically, plaque vulnerability is typically assessed through imaging techniques, and ruptured plaques leading to acute myocardial infarction are treated through angioplasty or stenting. Despite significant advances, it is clear that current imaging methods are insufficiently capable for elucidating plaque composition—which is a key determinant of vulnerability. Further, the exciting improvement in the treatment of CAD afforded by stenting procedures has been buffered by significant undesirable host‐implant effects, including restenosis and late thrombosis. Nanotechnology has led to some potential solutions to these problems by yielding constructs that interface with plaque cellular components at an unprecedented size scale. By leveraging the innate ability of macrophages to phagocytose nanoparticles, contrast agents can now be targeted to plaque inflammatory activity. Improvements in nano‐patterning procedures have now led to increased ability to regenerate tissue isotropy directly on stents, enabling gradual regeneration of normal, physiologic vascular structures. Advancements in immunoassay technologies promise lower costs for biomarker measurements, and in the near future, may enable the addition of routine blood testing to the clinician's toolbox—decreasing the costs of atherosclerosis‐related medical care. These are merely three examples among many stories of how nanotechnology continues to promise advances in the diagnosis and treatment of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2011 3 620–646 DOI: 10.1002/wnan.158This article is categorized under:

Diagnostic Tools > In Vitro Nanoparticle-Based Sensing
Implantable Materials and Surgical Technologies > Nanomaterials and Implants
Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Cardiovascular Disease
Do enzyme activities during decomposition follow predicted patterns? A test of the conceptual model of litter decay.
Authors: Rinkes Zachary , Weintraub Michael , DeForest Jared , Moorhead Daryl 
Published: August 2011

AbstractSurprisingly, there remains a paucity of research examining specific interactions between the relationship between microbial community behavior and plant litter chemistry during decomposition. A more mechanistic understanding of the relationship between these drivers will ultimately help determine the trajectory of litter decomposition and the conditions in which soils serve as either a source or sink for atmospheric C. In order to examine these relationships, a laboratory incubation was established using Acer saccharum litter and a sandy soil (< 1.5% organic matter). Extracellular enzyme activities ([BETA]-glucosidase, N-acetyl glucosaminidase, leucine-amino peptidase, acid phosphatase, phenol oxidase, and peroxidase) were monitored on a consistent basis along with instantaneous rates of carbon dioxide production, microbial biomass (carbon and nitrogen) and phospholipid fatty acid biomarkers (PLFA), and nitrogen and phosphorus availability. Microbial biomass and microbial respiration peaked within the first week of the experiment. This was likely due to the high availability of water soluble substrates early in decay that can be obtained without the production of extracellular enzymes. [BETA]-glucosidase (BG), N-acetyl glucosaminadase (NAG), and acid phosphatase activities increased quickly following the first week and peaked within the first month (at approximately 15% mass loss). Leucine amino peptidase was not detected during the incubation, which may be due to its strong positive correlation with soil pH, while other hydrolytic enzymes tend to track concentrations of soil organic matter. Phenol oxidase and peroxidase activities were not measurable until the second month of the experiment (> 25% mass loss), likely following the depletion of more labile substrates. A second increase in BG activity was observed between Days 83-111, which may be due to an increase in the availability of cellulose that was previously shielded by lignin, since oxidative enzyme activity was first detected on Day 68. We also observed some shifts in microbial PLFAs along with enzyme activities during decomposition. Prior to the increases in enzyme activity we observed a high proportion of PLFA 18:1[omega]7c, which is a bacterial biomarker. As enzyme activities increased, we observed a decrease in this biomarker and an increase in 18:2[omega]6,9c, a fungal biomarker that was correlated with BG and NAG activity. We did not observe any clear relationships between PLFAs and lignolytic enzyme activity, however. Overall, we observed a distinct functional shift in microbial substrate use that may be associated with either changes in composition of the microbial community or community shifts in enzyme production.
OrganismTagger: detection, normalization and grounding of organism entities in biomedical documents
Authors: Naderi Nona , Kappler Thomas , Baker Christopher J. O. , Witte René 
Published: August 2011

AbstractMotivation: Semantic tagging of organism mentions in full-text articles is an important part of literature mining and semantic enrichment solutions. Tagged organism mentions also play a pivotal role in disambiguating other entities in a text, such as proteins. A high-precision organism tagging system must be able to detect the numerous forms of organism mentions, including common names as well as the traditional taxonomic groups: genus, species and strains. In addition, such a system must resolve abbreviations and acronyms, assign the scientific name and if possible link the detected mention to the NCBI Taxonomy database for further semantic queries and literature navigation.Results: We present the OrganismTagger, a hybrid rule-based/machine learning system to extract organism mentions from the literature. It includes tools for automatically generating lexical and ontological resources from a copy of the NCBI Taxonomy database, thereby facilitating system updates by end users. Its novel ontology-based resources can also be reused in other semantic mining and linked data tasks. Each detected organism mention is normalized to a canonical name through the resolution of acronyms and abbreviations and subsequently grounded with an NCBI Taxonomy database ID. In particular, our system combines a novel machine-learning approach with rule-based and lexical methods for detecting strain mentions in documents. On our manually annotated OT corpus, the OrganismTagger achieves a precision of 95%, a recall of 94% and a grounding accuracy of 97.5%. On the manually annotated corpus of Linnaeus-100, the results show a precision of 99%, recall of 97% and grounding accuracy of 97.4%.Availability: The OrganismTagger, including supporting tools, resources, training data and manual annotations, as well as end user and developer documentation, is freely available under an open-source license at http://www.semanticsoftware.info/organism-tagger.Contact: witte@semanticsoftware.info
miR393 and Secondary siRNAs Regulate Expression of the TIR1/AFB2 Auxin Receptor Clade and Auxin-Related Development of Arabidopsis Leaves
Authors: Si-Ammour Azeddine , Windels David , Arn-Bouldoires Estelle , Kutter Claudia , Ailhas Jérôme , Meins Frederick , Vazquez Franck 
Published: August 2011

Abstract
The phytohormone auxin is a key regulator of plant growth and development that exerts its functions through F-box receptors. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) has four partially redundant of these receptors that comprise the TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESPONSE1/AUXIN SIGNALING F-BOX1 auxin receptor (TAAR) clade. Recent studies have shown that the microRNA miR393 regulates the expression of different sets of TAAR genes following pathogen infection or nitrate treatment. Here we report that miR393 helps regulate auxin-related development of leaves. We found that AtMIR393B is the predominant source for miR393 in all aerial organs and that miR393 down-regulates all four TAAR genes by guiding the cleavage of their mRNAs. A mutant unable to produce miR393 shows developmental abnormalities of leaves and cotyledons reminiscent of enhanced auxin perception by TAARs. Interestingly, miR393 initiates the biogenesis of secondary siRNAs from the transcripts of at least two of the four TAAR genes. Our results indicate that these siRNAs, which we call siTAARs, help regulate the expression of TAAR genes as well as several unrelated genes by guiding the cleavage of their mRNAs. Thus, miR393 and possibly siTAARs regulate auxin perception and certain auxin-related aspects of leaf development.
Age differences in diagnostic criteria of DSM‐IV alcohol dependence among adults with similar drinking behaviour
Authors: Pabst Alexander , Kraus Ludwig , Piontek Daniela , Baumeister Sebastian E. 
Published: August 2011

ABSTRACTAims  To test age differences in the prevalence of DSM‐IV alcohol dependence (AD) diagnostic criteria in the adult general population while controlling for drinking behaviour.Design and setting  Cross‐sectional data from the 2006 German Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA) were used, applying a two‐stage probability sampling design. The survey used self‐administered questionnaires and telephone interviews (mixed‐mode design; 45% response rate).Participants  The analytical sample consisted of n = 6984 individuals aged 18–64 years reporting alcohol consumption within the previous year.Measurements  Age effects on individual AD criteria were estimated using logistic regression models, adjusting for eight mutually exclusive drinking groups (defined in terms of average daily alcohol intake and episodic heavy drinking) and socio‐economic variables.Findings  When controlling for drinking behaviour, 18–24‐year‐olds were more likely to meet the criteria ‘tolerance’, ‘larger/longer’ and ‘time spent’ relative to older age groups. In contrast, the likelihood of experiencing ‘withdrawal’ symptoms increased with age. There was no significant age effect on the diagnosis of AD.Conclusions  Age differences in the prevalence of specific alcohol dependence diagnostic criteria such as ‘tolerance’, ‘drinking larger amount or for longer than intended’ and ‘time spent recovering’ cannot be fully explained by differences in drinking behaviour.
Personal and environmental pathways to participation in young children with and without mild motor disabilities
Authors: Soref B. , Ratzon N. Z. , Rosenberg L. , Leitner Y. , Jarus T. , Bart O. 
Published: August 2011

AbstractObjective Participation in everyday activities has a positive influence upon health and well‐being and is considered as an outcome measure. According to recent models child participation is the product of the dynamic interaction between health states and both individual and environmental factors. Children with mild developmental disabilities often present decreased participation in everyday activities. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which individual and environmental factors explain the participation of young children, with and without mild motor disabilities.Methods The study population included 58 kindergarten children together with their parents (29 children with mild motor disabilities who were referred to occupational therapy and 29 children without motor disabilities). Both groups of children were matched for: age; gender; age of parents; and socio‐economic status (SES). We assessed participation using the Child Participation Questionnaire (intensity, diversity, independence, child enjoyment and parental satisfaction) and we assessed children's self‐efficacy and motor abilities for individual factors. Parental self‐efficacy and SES were collected by questionnaires.Results Participation diversity (number of activities) was predicted by child and mother self‐efficacy and by SES. Child independence and enjoyment as well as parental satisfaction were predicted by child motor ability but mainly by maternal self‐efficacy. Results suggest that the total explained variance is more than double when the environmental variables (parental self‐efficacy and SES) are inserted to the participation model.Conclusions Maternal self‐efficacy and SES serve as facilitators to increased participation and well‐being of children with mild motor disabilities.
Sex differences in immunity and rapid upregulation of immune defence during parental care in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis
Authors: Steiger Sandra , Gershman Susan N. , Pettinger Adam M. , Eggert Anne‐Katrin , Sakaluk Scott K. 
Published: August 2011

Summary1. Immunity may trade‐off against other important life history traits, with recent work suggesting that reproduction and parental care in particular impinge on immune defence. However, whereas the effect of parental care on immunocompetence has been intensively studied in birds and mammals, virtually nothing is known about how it affects insect immunity.2. Burying beetles provide extensive biparental care that includes the burial, preparation and defence of a carcass, as well as the subsequent feeding of the larvae. In addition, they cover the carcass with anal exudates that have been shown to serve an antimicrobial function (social immunity sensu Behavioral Ecology, 21, 663–668). We examined the effect of sex, mating and parental care on measurements of individual and social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis.3. Both males and females showed a rapid upregulation of the encapsulation response upon discovery of a carcass. The high encapsulation rate was maintained during the entire period of parental care. Lytic activity in anal exudates, a measure of social immunity, likewise increased. Mating had no effect on individual or social immunity, but females generally exhibited higher individual immunity than male N. orbicollis.4. Our results suggest that the unusual breeding environment of burying beetles – a microbe‐rich carcass – has selected for an atypical pattern of immune defence, with a significant upregulation of individual and social immunity during the physically demanding period of reproduction and parental care. The simultaneous investment in two life history traits that normally compete for resources may be an adaptive response in species that breed in environments with high densities of micro‐organisms.
A qualitative study exploring the emotional responses of female patients learning to perform clean intermittent self‐catheterisation
Authors: Ramm Dianne , Kane Ros 
Published: August 2011

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study exploring the lived experiences and emotional responses of female patients learning to perform clean intermittent self‐catheterisation (CISC).Background.  There is general consensus that CISC should be considered in preference to in‐dwelling catheterisation wherever feasible. Published literature has tended to focus on quality of life issues and technical and physical aspects. There has been less investigation into patients’ initial perceptions of CISC and into their subsequent experiences of learning the technique.Design.  This qualitative study used a phenomenological research design.Method.  A series of semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were held with a purposive sample of adult female patients performing CISC aged 34–64 years. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using the ‘Framework’ method.Results.  This study identified six recurrent themes: grief and loss, lack of knowledge (regarding female anatomy, bladder dysfunction and catheters), negative associations and stigma, psychological aversion and embarrassment, nursing approaches and coping mechanisms.Conclusion.  Loss of normal bladder function may represent a devastating event and trigger emotional responses associated with grief and loss. Patients may experience a range of reactions whilst learning CISC, including embarrassment and aversion, which may not dissipate over time. However, psychological distress is not inevitable and varies enormously between individuals. The nursing approach is vital, as individualised, empathic care is recognised and valued.Relevance to clinical practice.  This study adds to an emerging body of knowledge providing an enhanced understanding of the lived experiences of patients learning CISC. Nurses need to be alert to a range of potential emotional responses. This will facilitate the adoption of individualised teaching and learning strategies, designed to optimise the patient’s assimilation of CISC into their lifestyle, promoting physical health, psychological wellbeing and independent living.
Periodic leg movements during sleep in narcoleptic patients with or without restless legs syndrome
Authors: PLAZZI GIUSEPPE , FERRI RAFFAELE , FRANCESCHINI CHRISTIAN , VANDI STEFANO , DETTO STEFANIA , PIZZA FABIO , POLI FRANCESCA , DE COCK VALÉRIE C. , BAYARD SOPHIE , DAUVILLIERS YVES 
Published: August 2011

SummaryWe compared periodic and non‐periodic leg movements during sleep and polysomnography in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) with or without restless legs syndrome (RLS) with matched idiopathic RLS (iRLS) and control subjects. We enrolled 100 patients with NC: 17 having RLS were compared with 34 sex‐ and age‐matched patients without RLS and with 17 normal controls and 17 iRLS subjects. Periodic leg movements were highest in iRLS and lowest in controls, with those in NC with RLS very close to iRLS, but higher than those in NC without RLS. The periodicity indexes showed the highest value in iRLS followed by NC with or without RLS and, finally, by controls. The inter‐leg movement intervals peaked between 10 and 50 s in NC with RLS and in iRLS, the former did not display the nocturnal gradual decrease of periodic leg movements typical of iRLS. Periodic leg movements during sleep and polysomnography displayed specific features in RLS and NC, respectively, with NC with RLS showing an intermediate pattern. Even if RLS is only detected by targeted interview in NC, its frequency and impact on night‐time sleep architecture and continuity suggest that this condition should be routinely searched for in NC.