bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cellular immunity, low-density lipoprotein and atherosclerosis: Break of tolerance in the artery wall
Authors: Ketelhuth Daniel , Hansson Göran 
Published: October 2011

SummaryAtherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease. Atherosclerotic plaques contain abundant immune cells that can dictate and effect inflammatory responses. Among them, T cells are present during all stages of the disease suggesting that they are essential in the initiation as well as the progression of plaque. Experimental as well as clinical research has demonstrated different T cell subsets, i.e. CD4+ Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg as well as CD8+ and NKT cells in the plaque. Moreover, candidate antigens inducing T cell responses have been identified. Knowledge about the pathological role of these cells in atherogenesis may lead to development of new therapies. This review provides an overview of the research field of cellular immunity in atherosclerosis. It emphasises the events and findings involving antigen specific T cells, in particular low-density lipoprotein-specific T cells.
Diabetes does not influence activation of coagulation, fibrinolysis or anticoagulant pathways in Gram-negative sepsis (melioidosis)
Authors: Meijers Joost , Maude Rapeephan , Limmathurotsakul Direk , Day Nicholas , Peacock Sharon , Poll Tom , Wiersinga Willem , Koh Gavin 
Published: October 2011

SummaryDiabetes is associated with a disturbance of the haemostatic balance and is an important risk factor for sepsis, but the influence of diabetes on the pathogenesis of sepsis remains unclear. Melioidosis (Burkholderia pseudomallei infection) is a common cause of community-acquired sepsis in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. We sought to investigate the impact of pre-existing diabetes on the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems during sepsis caused by B. pseudomallei. We recruited a cohort of 44 patients (34 with diabetes and 10 without diabetes) with culture-proven melioidosis. Diabetes was defined as a pre-admission diagnosis of diabetes or an HbA1c>7.8% at enrolment. Thirty healthy blood donors and 52 otherwise healthy diabetes patients served as controls. Citrated plasma was collected from all subjects; additionally in melioidosis patients follow-up specimens were collected seven and ≥28 days after enrolment where possible. Relative to uninfected healthy controls, diabetes per se (i.e. in the absence of infection) was Characterised by a procoagulant effect. Melioidosis was associated with activation of coagulation (thrombin-antithrombin complexes (TAT), prothrombin fragment F1+2 and fibrinogen concentrations were elevated; PT and PTT prolonged), suppression of anti-coagulation (antithrombin, protein C, total and free protein S levels were depressed) and abnormalities of fibrinolysis (D-dimer and plasmin-antiplasmin complex [PAP] were elevated). Remarkably, none of these haemostatic alterations were influenced by pre-existing diabetes. In conclusion, although diabetes is associated with multiple abnormalities of coagulation, anticoagulation and fibrinolysis, these changes are not detectable when superimposed on the background of larger abnormalities attributable to B. pseudomallei sepsis.
Indigenous Resistance and the Law
Authors: Vanegas Farid Samir Benavides 
Published: October 2011

The indigenous peoples of Colombia have used various forms of resistance to attempt to change their identities and appropriate their lands. Over time the emphasis has shifted from law and legal titles to marches and land occupations to armed resistance and back again to the law. The legal liberalism that emerged with the 1991 Constitution in Colombia led to the demobilization of the indigenous movement of the time as marches and land occupations were abandoned in favor of lawsuits that identified violations of rights. Success in the courts did not result in any change in the government’s policies or its model of development. As the focus shifted from the local to the national level, indigenous peoples’ problems on the ground remained unresolved. In recent years, however, local organizations have rediscovered old forms of resistance and use the law as just one tool among many for protecting their rights. Los indígenas colombianos han empleado diversas estrategias de resistencia en sus intentos por cambiar su identidad y conservar sus tierras. Lo que en un principio se manifestó como apelaciones a la ley y títulos legales dio, posteriormente, lugar a marchas, ocupación de tierras y resistencia armada, para eventualmente volver a la ley. El liberalismo legal producto de la Constitución de 1991 llevó a la desmovilización del movimiento indígena y las marchas y ocupaciones fueron sustituidas por demandas legales en torno a violación de derechos. Los éxitos obtenidos en la corte, sin embargo, no alteraron la política gubernamental o el modelo de desarrollo. Conforme la atención pasó de los niveles locales al entorno nacional, los problemas indígenas continuaron sin resolución alguna. Recientemente, algunas organizaciones locales han redescubierto antiguas formas de resistencia y utilizan la ley como una herramienta más para proteger sus derechos.
A retrospective cohort study of stroke onset: implications for characterizing short term effects from ambient air pollution
Authors: Johnson Julie YM , Villeneuve Paul J , Pasichnyk Dion , Rowe Brian H 
Published: October 2011

Abstract

Background
Case-crossover studies used to investigate associations between an environmental exposure and an acute health response, such as stroke, will often use the day an individual presents to an emergency department (ED) or is admitted to hospital to infer when the stroke occurred. Similarly, they will use patient's place of residence to assign exposure. The validity of using these two data elements, typically extracted from administrative databases or patient charts, to define the time of stroke onset and to assign exposure are critical in this field of research as air pollutant concentrations are temporally and spatially variable. Our a priori hypotheses were that date of presentation differs from the date of stroke onset for a substantial number of patients, and that assigning exposure to ambient pollution using place of residence introduces an important source of exposure measurement error. The objective of this study was to improve our understanding on how these sources of errors influence risk estimates derived using a case-crossover study design.

Methods
We sought to collect survey data from stroke patients presenting to hospital EDs in Edmonton, Canada on the date, time, location and nature of activities at onset of stroke symptoms. The daily mean ambient concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5 on the self-reported day of stroke onset was estimated from continuous fixed-site monitoring stations.

Results
Of the 336 participating patients, 241 were able to recall when their stroke started and 72.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 66.9 - 78.3%) experienced stroke onset the same day they presented to the ED. For subjects whose day of stroke onset differed from the day of presentation to the ED, this difference ranged from 1 to 12 days (mean = 1.8; median = 1). In these subjects, there were no systematic differences in assigned pollution levels for either NO2 or PM2.5 when day of presentation rather than day of stroke onset was used. At the time of stroke onset, 89.9% (95% CI: 86.6 - 93.1%) reported that they were inside, while 84.5% (95% CI: 80.6 - 88.4%) reported that for most of the day they were within a 15 minute drive from home. We estimated that due to the mis-specification of the day of stroke onset, the risk of hospitalization for stroke would be understated by 15% and 20%, for NO2 and PM2.5, respectively.

Conclusions
Our data suggest that day of presentation and residential location data obtained from administrative records reasonably captures the time and location of stroke onset for most patients. Under these conditions, any associated errors are unlikely to be an important source of bias when estimating air pollution risks in this population.
Blow-up for an evolution p-laplace system with nonlocal sources and inner absorptions
Authors: Zhang Yan , Liu Dengming , Mu Chunlai , Zheng Pan 
Published: October 2011

Abstract
This paper investigates the blow-up properties of positive solutions to the following system of evolution p-Laplace equations with nonlocal sources and inner absorptions

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with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in a smooth bounded domain Ω ∈ R

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(N ≥ 1), where p, q > 2, m, n, r, s ≥ 1, α, β > 0. Under appropriate hypotheses, the authors discuss the global existence and blow-up of positive weak solutions by using a comparison principle.

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 35B35; 35K60; 35K65; 35K57.
The use of complete-case and multiple imputation-based analyses in molecular epidemiology studies that assess interaction effects
Authors: Desai Manisha , Esserman Denise A , Gammon Marilie D , Terry Mary B 
Published: October 2011

Abstract
Background
In molecular epidemiology studies biospecimen data are collected, often with the purpose of evaluating the synergistic role between a biomarker and another feature on an outcome. Typically, biomarker data are collected on only a proportion of subjects eligible for study, leading to a missing data problem. Missing data methods, however, are not customarily incorporated into analyses. Instead, complete-case (CC) analyses are performed, which can result in biased and inefficient estimates.

Methods
Through simulations, we characterized the performance of CC methods when interaction effects are estimated. We also investigated whether standard multiple imputation (MI) could improve estimation over CC methods when the data are not missing at random (NMAR) and auxiliary information may or may not exist.

Results
CC analyses were shown to result in considerable bias and efficiency loss. While MI reduced bias and increased efficiency over CC methods under specific conditions, it too resulted in biased estimates depending on the strength of the auxiliary data available and the nature of the missingness. In particular, CC performed better than MI when extreme values of the covariate were more likely to be missing, while MI outperformed CC when missingness of the covariate related to both the covariate and outcome. MI always improved performance when strong auxiliary data were available. In a real study, MI estimates of interaction effects were attenuated relative to those from a CC approach.

Conclusions
Our findings suggest the importance of incorporating missing data methods into the analysis. If the data are MAR, standard MI is a reasonable method. Auxiliary variables may make this assumption more reasonable even if the data are NMAR. Under NMAR we emphasize caution when using standard MI and recommend it over CC only when strong auxiliary data are available. MI, with the missing data mechanism specified, is an alternative when the data are NMAR. In all cases, it is recommended to take advantage of MI's ability to account for the uncertainty of these assumptions.
Elevated CSF levels of TACE activity and soluble TNF receptors in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and patients with Alzheimer's disease
Authors: Jiang Hong , Hampel Harald , Prvulovic David , Wallin Anders , Blennow Kaj , Li Rena , Shen Yong 
Published: October 2011

Abstract
We recently reported that expression levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, are significantly changed in the brains and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Moreover, we also found that, in an Alzheimer's mouse model, genetic deletion of TNF receptor (TNFR1) reduces amyloid plaques and amyloid beta peptides (Aβ) production through β-secretase (BACE1) regulation. TNF-α converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM-17) does not only cleave pro- TNF-α but also TNF receptors, however, whether the TACE activity was changed in the CSF was not clear. In this study, we examined TACE in the CSF in 32 AD patients and 27 age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Interestingly, we found that TACE activity was significantly elevated in the CSF from AD patients compared with HCs. Furthermore, we also assayed the CSF levels of TACE cleaved soluble forms of TNFR1 and TNFR2 in the same patients. We found that AD patients had higher levels of both TACE cleaved soluble TNFR1 (sTNFR1) and TNFR2 (sTNFR2) in the CSF compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Levels of sTNFR1 correlated strongly with the levels of sTNFR2 (rs = 0.567-0.663, p < 0.01). The levels of both sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 significantly correlated with the TACE activity (rs = 0.491-0.557, p < 0.05). To examine if changes in TACE activity and in levels of cleaved soluble TNFRs are an early event in the course of AD, we measured these molecules in the CSF from 47 subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is considered as a preclinical stage of AD. Unexpectedly, we found significantly higher levels of TACE activity and soluble TNFRs in the MCI group than that in AD patients. These results suggest that TACE activity and soluble TNF receptors may be potential diagnostic candidate biomarkers in AD and MCI.
A clinically relevant gene signature in triple negative and basal-like breast cancer
Authors: Rody Achim , Karn Thomas , Liedtke Cornelia , Pusztai Lajos , Ruckhaeberle Eugen , Hanker Lars , Gaetje Regine , Solbach Christine , Ahr Andre , Metzler Dirk , Schmidt Marcus , Müller Volkmar , Holtrich Uwe , Kaufmann Manfred 
Published: October 2011

Abstract
Introduction
Current prognostic gene expression profiles for breast cancer mainly reflect proliferation status and are most useful in ER-positive cancers. Triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) are clinically heterogeneous and prognostic markers and biology-based therapies are needed to better treat this disease.

Methods
We assembled Affymetrix gene expression data for 579 TNBC and performed unsupervised analysis to define metagenes that distinguish molecular subsets within TNBC. We used n = 394 cases for discovery and n = 185 cases for validation. Sixteen metagenes emerged that identified basal-like, apocrine and claudin-low molecular subtypes, or reflected various non-neoplastic cell populations, including immune cells, blood, adipocytes, stroma, angiogenesis and inflammation within the cancer. The expressions of these metagenes were correlated with survival and multivariate analysis was performed, including routine clinical and pathological variables.

Results
Seventy-three percent of TNBC displayed basal-like molecular subtype that correlated with high histological grade and younger age. Survival of basal-like TNBC was not different from non basal-like TNBC. High expression of immune cell metagenes was associated with good and high expression of inflammation and angiogenesis-related metagenes were associated with poor prognosis. A ratio of high B-cell and low IL-8 metagenes identified 32% of TNBC with good prognosis (hazard ratio (HR) 0.37, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.61; P < 0.001) and was the only significant predictor in multivariate analysis including routine clinicopathological variables.

Conclusions
We describe a ratio of high B-cell presence and low IL-8 activity as a powerful new prognostic marker for TNBC. Inhibition of the IL-8 pathway also represents an attractive novel therapeutic target for this disease.
A Lagrangian Heuristic for Robustness, with an Application to Train Timetabling
Authors: Cacchiani Valentina , Caprara Alberto , Fischetti Matteo 
Published: October 2011

Finding robust yet efficient solutions to optimization problems is a major practical issue that received large attention in recent years. Starting with stochastic programming, many of the approaches to robustness lead to a significant change in the problem formulation with respect to the nonrobust (nominal) case. Besides requiring a much larger computational effort, this often results into major changes of the associated software. Lagrangian heuristics form a wide family of methods that work well in finding efficient (i.e., low-cost) solutions for many problems. These methods approximately solve a relaxation of the problem at hand through an iterative Lagrangian optimization scheme and apply several times a basic heuristic driven by the Lagrangian dual information (typically, the current Lagrangian costs) so as to update the current best feasible solution. In this context, the underlying Lagrangian optimization iterative method has the main purpose of producing “increasingly reliable” Lagrangian costs, while diversifying the search in the last iterations, when the Lagrangian bound is very close to convergence. The purpose of this paper is to propose, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a very simple modification of the Lagrangian optimization scheme capable of dealing with robustness. This modification is based on two simple features: (a) We modify the problem formulation by introducing artificial parameters intended to “control” the solution robustness and (b) during Lagrangian optimization, we dynamically change the weight of the control parameters to produce subproblems where robustness becomes more and more important. In this way, during the process we can easily collect a set of, roughly speaking, “Pareto optimal” heuristic solutions that have a different trade-off between robustness and efficiency and leave the final user the choice of the ones to analyze in more details—e.g., through a time-consuming validation tool. As a proof-of-concept, our approach is applied to the well-known aperiodic train timetabling problem on a corridor and is computationally analyzed on real-world test cases from the Italian Railways, showing that it produces within much shorter computing times solutions whose quality is comparable with those produced by existing approaches to robustness. This proves the effectiveness for the specific application, suggesting that a simple modification of existing Lagrangian heuristics is a very promising way to deal with robustness in many other cases.
Reaction of OH and NO at Low Temperatures in the Presence of Water: the Role of Clusters
Authors: Liessmann Matthias , Miller Yifat , Gerber Benny , Abel Bernd 
Published: October 2011

Abstract
There has been a lot of speculation about the role of water in gas phase reactions involving neutrals, radicals and ions. The reaction of NO and OH has attracted a lot of attention in the past due to its relevance for ozone chemistry in the atmosphere. In the present contribution we report low temperature measurements of the recombination of OH and NO at low temperatures in Laval nozzle expansions between 300 K and 60 K. We find an increase of the bimolecular rate constant in the presence of water of up to 40%. This effect has been attributed to water molecules acting either as an efficient collider releasing energy from the intermediate (in collisions) or – which is more likely for the present experimental conditions – as a cluster partner of the reaction intermediate HONO that also dissipates energy via cluster dissociation, which can in turn both stabilize the reaction intermediate, decrease back reaction to OH and NO, and enh ance finally the overall reaction to the products. The supersaturation of water vapor in the cold Laval nozzle expansion strongly favors the formation of clusters in the nozzle throat; their exact concentration is, however, difficult to estimate due to non-equilibrium conditions. The possible role of clusters in the recombination of OH and NO is investigated using ab initio molecular dynamics calculations. Beyond the reaction intermediate HONO and intramolecular proton transfer events also transient HOON was observed in the theoretical study.
Molecular Characterization of a Diverse Maize Inbred Line Collection and its Potential Utilization for Stress Tolerance Improvement
Authors: Wen Weiwei , Araus Jose Luis , Shah Trushar , Cairns Jill , Mahuku George , Bänziger Marianne , Torres Jose Luis , Sánchez Ciro , Yan Jianbing 
Published: October 2011

ABSTRACTA diverse collection of 359 advanced maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) breeding programs for drought, low N, soil acidity (SA), and pest and disease resistance was genotyped using 1260 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Model‐based population partition, neighbor‐joining (NJ) clustering, and principal component analysis (PCA) based on the genotypic data were employed to classify the lines into subgroups. A subgroup largely consisting of lines developed from La Posta Sequía (LPS) consistently separated from other lines when using different methods based on both SNP and SNP haplotype data. Lines related by pedigree tended to cluster together. Nine main subsets of lines were determined based on pedigree information, environmental adaptation, and breeding scheme. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that variation within these subsets was much higher than that among subsets. Genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium (LD) level were tested in the whole panel and within each subset. The potential of the panel for association mapping was tested using 999 SNP markers with minor allelic frequency (MAF) ≥ 0.05 and phenotypic data (grain yield [GY], ears per plant [EPP], and anthesis to silking interval [ASI]). Results show the panel is ideal for association mapping where type I error can be controlled using a mixed linear model (Q + K). Use of pedigree, heterotic group, and ecological adaptation information together with molecular characterization of this panel presents a valuable genetic resource for stress tolerance breeding in maize.
Methods of Assessing Bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon] Responses to HPPD‐Inhibiting Herbicides
Authors: Elmore M. T. , Brosnan J. T. , Kopsell D. A. , Breeden G. K. 
Published: October 2011

ABSTRACTMesotrione, topramezone, and tembotrione inhibit 4‐hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), an enzyme integral to carotenoid biosynthesis. Research was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of visual bleaching and chlorophyll fluorescence yield (Fv/Fm) measurements for estimating common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon(L.) Pers.] carotenoid and chlorophyll concentrations following mesotrione (0.28, 0.35, and 0.42 kg ha−1), topramezone (0.018, 0.025, and 0.038 kg ha−1), and tembotrione (0.092, 0.184, and 0.276 kg ha−1) applications. Measurements of VB and Fv/Fmwere evaluated 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35 d after application. Leaf tissues were sampled on the same dates and assayed for chlorophyll and carotenoid compounds by using high‐pressure liquid chromatography methodology. Carotenoid and total chlorophyll concentrations were regressed upon VB and Fv/Fmon each evaluation date. While significant (P< 0.05) relationships were detected on each date, variation explained by linear regression was modest (R2< 0.65); thus, neither VB nor Fv/Fmassessments are good predictors of carotenoid and chlorophyll concentrations after HPPD‐inhibiting herbicide treatment. Comparisons ofR2values for VB and Fv/Fmdata suggest no advantage in using Fv/Fmin place of VB measurements when evaluating HPPD‐inhibiting herbicide activity.