bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The importance of cytosolic glutamine synthetase in nitrogen assimilation and recycling
Authors: Bernard Stéphanie M. , Habash Dimah Z. 
Published: April 2009

SummaryGlutamine synthetase assimilates ammonium into amino acids, thus it is a key enzyme for nitrogen metabolism. The cytosolic isoenzymes of glutamine synthetase assimilate ammonium derived from primary nitrogen uptake and from various internal nitrogen recycling pathways. In this way, cytosolic glutamine synthetase is crucial for the remobilization of protein‐derived nitrogen. Cytosolic glutamine synthetase is encoded by a small family of genes that are well conserved across plant species. Members of the cytosolic glutamine synthetase gene family are regulated in response to plant nitrogen status, as well as to environmental cues, such as nitrogen availability and biotic/abiotic stresses. The complex regulation of cytosolic glutamine synthetase at the transcriptional to post‐translational levels is key to the establishment of a specific physiological role for each isoenzyme. The diverse physiological roles of cytosolic glutamine synthetase isoenzymes are important in relation to current agricultural and ecological issues.
Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a meta‐analysis
Authors: Poorter Hendrik , Niinemets Ülo , Poorter Lourens , Wright Ian J. , Villar Rafael 
Published: April 2009

SummaryHere, we analysed a wide range of literature data on the leaf dry mass per unit area (LMA). In nature, LMA varies more than 100‐fold among species. Part of this variation (c. 35%) can be ascribed to differences between functional groups, with evergreen species having the highest LMA, but most of the variation is within groups or biomes. When grown in the same controlled environment, leaf succulents and woody evergreen, perennial or slow‐growing species have inherently high LMA. Within most of the functional groups studied, high‐LMA species show higher leaf tissue densities. However, differences between evergreen and deciduous species result from larger volumes per area (thickness). Response curves constructed from experiments under controlled conditions showed that LMA varied strongly with light, temperature and submergence, moderately with CO2 concentration and nutrient and water stress, and marginally under most other conditions. Functional groups differed in the plasticity of LMA to these gradients. The physiological regulation is still unclear, but the consequences of variation in LMA and the suite of traits interconnected with it are strong. This trait complex is an important factor determining the fitness
of species in their environment and affects various ecosystem processes.

Contents

Summary
565

I.
LMA in perspective
566

II.
LMA in the field
567

III.
Inherent differences
568

IV.
Relation with anatomy and chemical composition
570

V.
Environmental effects
572

VI.
Differences in space and time
577

VII.
Molecular regulation and physiology
579

VIII.
Ecological consequences
580

IX.
Conclusions and perspectives
582

Acknowledgements
582

References
582

Appendices
587
In vivo over‐expression of interleukin‐10 increases resistance to focal brain ischemia in mice
Authors: De Bilbao Fabienne , Arsenijevic Denis , Moll Thomas , Garcia‐Gabay Irene , Vallet Philippe , Langhans Wolfgang , Giannakopoulos Panteleimon 
Published: April 2009

AbstractEarly studies showed that the administration of the anti‐inflammatory cytokine interleukin‐10 (IL10) protects against permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in mice. In this study, transgenic mice expressing murine IL10 (IL10T) directed by the major histocompatibility complex Ea promoter were produced and used to explore the effect of chronically increased IL10 levels on MCAO‐related molecular mechanisms. IL10 was over‐expressed in astrocytes, microglia, and endothelial brain cells in IL10T compared with wild type mice. Four days following MCAO, IL10T mice showed a 40% reduction in infarct size which was associated to significantly reduced levels of active caspase 3 compared with wild type mice. Under basal conditions, anti‐inflammatory factors such as nerve growth factor and GSH were up‐regulated and the pro‐inflammatory cytokine IL1β was down‐regulated in the brain of IL10T animals. In addition, these mice displayed increased basal GSH levels in microglial and endothelial cells as well as a marked increase in manganese superoxide dismutase in endothelial lining blood vessels. Following ischemia, IL10T mice showed a marked reduction in pro‐inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor‐α, interferon‐γ, and IL1β. Our data indicate that constitutive IL10 over‐expression is associated with a striking resistance to cerebral ischemia that may be attributed to changes in the basal redox properties of glial/endothelial cells.
Three amino acids in the D2dopamine receptor regulate selective ligand function and affinity
Authors: Cummings David F. , Ericksen Spencer S. , Schetz John A. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractThe D2dopamine receptor is an important therapeutic target for the treatment of psychotic, agitated, and abnormal behavioral states. To better understand the specific interactions of subtype‐selective ligands with dopamine receptor subtypes, seven ligands with high selectivity (>120‐fold) for the D4subtype of dopamine receptor were tested on wild‐type and mutant D2receptors. Five of the selective ligands were observed to have 21‐fold to 293‐fold increases in D2receptor affinity when three non‐conserved amino acids in TM2 and TM3 were mutated to the corresponding D4amino acids. The two ligands with the greatest improvement in affinity for the D2mutant receptor [i.e., 3‐{[4‐(4‐iodophenyl) piperazin‐1‐yl]methyl}‐1H‐pyrrolo[2,3‐b]pyridine (L‐750,667) and 1‐[4‐iodobenzyl]‐4‐[N‐(3‐isopropoxy‐2‐pyridinyl)‐N‐methyl]‐aminopiperidine (RBI‐257)] were investigated in functional assays. Consistent with their higher affinity for the mutant than for the wild‐type receptor, concentrations of L‐750,667 or RBI‐257 that produced large reductions in the potency of quinpirole’s functional response in the mutant did not significantly reduce quinpirole’s functional response in the wild‐type D2receptor. In contrast to RBI‐257 which is an antagonist at all receptors, L‐750,667 is a partial agonist at the wild‐type D2but an antagonist at both the mutant D2and wild‐type D4receptors. Our study demonstrates for the first time that the TM2/3 microdomain of the D2dopamine receptor not only regulates the selective affinity of ligands, but in selected cases can also regulate their function. Utilizing a new docking technique that incorporates receptor backbone flexibility, the three non‐conserved amino acids that encompass the TM2/3 microdomain were found to account in large part for the differences in intermolecular steric contacts between the ligands and receptors. Consistent with the experimental data, this model illustrates the interactions between a variety of subtype‐selective ligands and the wild‐type D2, mutant D2, or wild‐type D4receptors.
Influence of interocular differences in the Strehl ratio on binocular summation
Authors: Castro José J. , Jiménez José R. , Hita Enrique , Ortiz Carolina 
Published: April 2009

AbstractThe aim of this work is to determine the influence of interocular differences in retinal image quality on binocular visual performance. We measured the contrast sensitivity function (both monocular and binocular) and we computed binocular summation. Data on retinal image quality were taken from a double‐pass device (oqas™, Optical Quality Analysis System; Visiometrics SL. Tarrasa, Spain), providing the Strehl ratio as a parameter to quantify retinal image quality. A total of 28 observers took part in the experiments. Binocular summation for the contrast sensitivity function was found to be significantly (p < 0.001) correlated with interocular differences in the Strehl ratio. The higher the interocular differences in the Strehl ratio, the lower the binocular summation. Binocular summation is less effective as the interocular differences in retinal image increase.
Light scattering in artificial fog and simulated with light scattering filter
Authors: Ikaunieks Gatis , Colomb Michéle , Ozolinsh Maris 
Published: April 2009

AbstractDisability glare, affecting e.g. road safety at night, may result either from intraocular light scattering or from external conditions such as fog. Measurements were made of light scattering in fog and compared with intraocular straylight data for normal eyes and eyes with simulated cataract. All measurements were made with a direct compensation flicker method. To estimate light scattering levels in fog, straylight measurements were carried in a fog chamber for different densities of fog. Density was characterized by the meteorological term visibility V and ranged from 7 to 25. Test distance for measurements in the fog was constant at 5 m. Cataract eye conditions were simulated by placing a light scattering polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) filter with scatterers of submicron size in front of the normal eye. All measurements were made using each of three broad‐band color stimuli – red, green and blue (produced either with LEDs or a color CRT monitor). Differences were found in both the level and the spectral characteristics of scattering under the different conditions. The measured values of the straylight parameter, s, in artificial fog showed no noticeable spectral dependence at any visibility range. Increasing the visibility range caused an exponential decrease in the straylight. Intraocular straylight measured with the clear eye showed an increase at the red and blue ends of the spectrum as compared to the green. Straylight measured using PDLC plates with different transparency levels showed a spectral dependence which decreased with wavelength. The scattering introduced by the PDLC plate therefore failed to give a valid simulation of cataract and fog conditions for polychromatic stimuli, due to its erroneous spectral dependence.
The Economics of a Temporary VAT Cut*
Authors: Crossley Thomas F. , Low Hamish , Wakefield Matthew 
Published: April 2009

AbstractThis paper analyses the likely implications of the temporary cut in VAT in the UK to 15 per cent, with a return to 17.5 per cent in place for the end of 2009. We distinguish between the income effect of the cut and the (intertemporal) substitution effect. The former is likely to be small because the change in lifetime income is minimal. The second effect is likely to be much more important because the reduction in the price of goods bought in 2009 compared with 2010 gives an incentive to increase consumer spending this year. With an elasticity of intertemporal substitution of about 1, we would expect the cut in VAT to boost consumer spending by about 1.2 per cent over what it would otherwise be. The distributional consequences of the VAT cut are regressive because goods subject to VAT tend to be luxuries. Unlike a cut in interest rates, there is no difference in the distributional consequences for borrowers compared with savers.
Assessing the Temporary VAT Cut Policy in the UK*
Authors: Blundell Richard 
Published: April 2009

AbstractThis paper concerns the likely impact of a temporary VAT cut stimulus policy on consumer demand in the UK. It suggests that around 75 per cent of the VAT reduction will be passed on to consumers and that consumers will react by maintaining their expenditure levels and therefore increasing their demand for consumption goods. The uncertainty caused by the downturn makes this a more muted impact than we might have hoped, especially on the demand for durable goods. Nevertheless, it is a substantive impact. In general, the uncertainty caused by the recession will tend to reduce the impact of any stimulus package. It is also argued that synchronising the subsequent rise with the economic upturn is critical.
What is the After‐Tax Price of R&D? An Interstate Comparison*
Authors: Paff Lolita , Watkins Todd A. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractAs of 2005, 31 US states offered corporate income tax credits on research and development (R&D) expenses in order to encourage more in‐state innovation activities. Empirical questions about the efficacy of such tax breaks at the state level persist, in part because the complexity of the tax laws means that simple credit‐rate comparisons across states do not fully capture the differential variation in effective after‐tax price incentives firms face in choosing where to locate R&D activities. We are unaware of any research analysing and comparing the effective prices of R&D faced by firms, across all US states and utilising micro‐level data. Using data extracted from detailed reading of individual firms' 10‐K and S‐1 filings and of state‐level tax credit rules, we estimate the effective after‐tax price of basic and qualified research expenditure each firm would have faced in each of the 50 states had they been located there. Our methodology simulates the effective tax price of each firm's marginal dollar of research expenditure, assuming the firm chose to move all of its R&D operations to each of the 49 other states. Through Monte Carlo techniques, we consider the sensitivity of our interstate comparative results to several modelling assumptions. We find significant variation in after‐tax R&D prices across states with quite different R&D tax laws. Prices range from $0.176 to $0.520 on a marginal dollar of R&D in Virginia and Washington State, respectively. We also find that the interstate variability is generally more important – indeed, much wider than we had anticipated before investigating state‐by‐state regulations – than the inter‐firm variability within states.
Borrowing to Finance Public Investment? The ‘Golden Rule of Public Finance’ Reconsidered in an Endogenous Growth Setting*
Authors: Minea Alexandru , Villieu Patrick 
Published: April 2009

AbstractIn this paper, we look for long‐run and short‐run effects of fiscal deficits on economic growth and welfare in a standard endogenous growth model. We show that, under very general hypotheses, the ‘golden rule of public finance’, which allows a government to run public‐investment‐oriented fiscal deficits, leads to a lower balanced‐growth path in the long run, and eventually in the short run, compared with balanced‐budget rules. Welfare effects are more difficult to assess, and depend on the form of the utility function. Our model shows that debt rules such as the golden rule may improve (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘low’) or weaken (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘high’) intertemporal welfare. Consequently, a balanced‐budget rule does not necessarily dominate debt rules from the point of view of welfare, while it does from the point of view of long‐run economic growth.
A review of sentinel lymph node evaluation and the need for its incorporation into veterinary oncology
Authors: Tuohy J. L. , Milgram J. , Worley D. R. , Dernell W. S. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractBeing the first lymph node or nodes to which many primary tumours reliably drain, the disease status of the sentinel lymph node/s (SLN) is important in the prediction of survival. SLN identification and biopsy are critical in the staging of human cancers. The status of the SLN helps determine prognosis and shape treatment plans. SLN evaluation is currently not routinely performed in veterinary oncology, not even at specialty oncology practices. Given the prognostic importance of lymph node involvement in tumours such as mammary gland carcinoma, osteosarcoma, synovial cell sarcoma and mast cell tumours, SLN evaluation should be incorporated into routine clinical practice so as to improve our clinical assessment of veterinary oncologic patients.
Folate, Vitamin B12, Homocysteine, and Depressive Symptoms in a Population Sample of Older Chinese Adults
Authors: Ng Tze‐Pin , Feng Lei , Niti Mathew , Kua Ee‐Heok , Yap Keng‐Bee 
Published: April 2009

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the independent associations between folate, B12, and homocysteine levels and depressive symptoms in older adults.DESIGN: Cross‐sectional study.SETTING: Resident population in southeast Singapore.PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred sixty‐nine community‐living noninstitutionalized Chinese adults aged 55 and older.MEASUREMENTS: Laboratory values of folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine were examined for their independent relationships with depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score ≥5).RESULTS: Respondents with depression (n=178) had lower mean serum folate concentrations (21.5 nmol/L) than those without (n=491, 24.0 nmol/L, P=.04). There was a linear relationship between descending quartiles of folate concentrations and increasing odds of association with depressive symptoms, independent of other risk factors (demographic, psychosocial, alcohol and smoking, chronic morbidity, functional status, nutritional risk, albumin, anemia, depression‐inducing medications, use of antidepressants and vitamin supplements), including B12 and homocysteine (P for trend=.02). The odds ratio (OR) of association between low folate (lowest quartile: <14.6 nmol/L) and depressive symptoms independent of other risk factors, including homocysteine and B12, was 1.72 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.11–2.66). Vitamin B12 across a range of values did not show a linear association, but B12 deficiency (<180 pmol/L) appeared to be significantly associated with depressive symptoms (OR=2.68, 95% CI=1.20–6.00), independent of folate and homocysteine.CONCLUSION: Decreasing and low levels of serum folate and deficient levels of B12 were associated with greater risk of depressive symptoms in older Chinese adults.
Conversations with a Polish populist: Tracing hidden histories of globalization, class, and dispossession in postsocialism (and beyond)
Authors: KALB DON 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTBuilding on the work of Jonathan Friedman and of Andre Gingrich and Marcus Banks, I explain the rise of populist, neonationalist sensibilities in Poland as a set of defensive responses by working‐class people to the silences imposed by liberal rule. I trace in detail a sequence of all‐around dispossessions experienced by Polish working‐class sodalities since 1989, when activists with substantial legitimacy among organized workers had claimed de facto and de jure control over assets crucial for working‐class reproduction. “Democratization” and “markets” were shrewd legal ways by which the new liberal capitalist state reappropriated and recentralized those assets from local constituencies. Meanwhile, the reputation of workers, whose fights with the party‐state had been essential for regaining national sovereignty and establishing parliamentary democracy, was systematically annihilated in the public sphere by discourses of “internal orientalism.”[postsocialism, dispossession, class, neonationalism, populism, neoliberalism, globalization, privatization, Europe]
Emulating and/or embodying the ideal: The gendering of temporal frameworks and Islamic role models in Shi‘i Lebanon
Authors: DEEB LARA 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTIn this article, I discuss two of the major temporal frameworks that pious Shi‘i Muslims in Lebanon draw on, as seen through the example of the Battle of Karbala, its annual commemoration during Ashura, and the work that the religious figures Imam Husayn and Sayyida Zaynab do in linking history to the contemporary moment. I suggest that, to fully understand how these two temporalities work, it is necessary to attend to the ways in which they are differently gendered. I conclude by proposing explanations for that gendering that take into account both the Ashura history itself and contemporary local and transnational political contingencies. [temporality, gender, Islam, Shi‘ism, narrative, role models, transnationalism]
The soul freed of cares? Islamic prayer, subjectivity, and the contradictions of moral selfhood in Minangkabau, Indonesia
Authors: SIMON GREGORY M. 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore conceptions and individual experiences of Islamic prayer among Minangkabau people in Indonesia, describing their role in the constitution of selfhood and moral subjectivity. I show how prayer serves as an arena in which the contradictions between conflicting visions of moral selfhood may be engaged, ideally promising reconciliation and transcendence but also inviting experiences of failure. I argue that a rich ethnographic account of Islam's role in constituting selves and subjectivities must address not only the logic and coherence of particular discursive traditions and practices but also the experiential tensions that are central to their application and embodiment. [Islam, prayer, subjectivity, self, morality, Indonesia, Minangkabau]
Outside the glass case: The social life of urban heritage in Kyoto
Authors: BRUMANN CHRISTOPH 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTRecent anthropological and other literature tends to assume that the uses of heritage in modern societies lead to the falsification, petrification, desubstantiation, and enclosure of the things and practices so designated. Yet two traditions of Japan's ancient capital Kyoto—the historic town houses(kyô‐machiya)that have found a new appreciation since the 1990s and the Gion matsuri, one of the most famous festivals of the nation—contradict these assumptions. Their well‐documented histories are not widely distorted; they are not forever fixed but allowed to evolve; they are valued not only for their traditionality but also for other, substantive qualities; and their appreciation is not dominated by a concern for social boundaries. This is influenced by the urban, relatively sophisticated and cosmopolitan background of both traditions, as it is in parallel cases elsewhere. Greater attention to the perspectives of their carriers, however, will very likely show that the social uses of other traditions too are more complex than the standard assumptions lead one to believe. [Japan, cultural heritage, invention of tradition, vernacular architecture, festivals, urban anthropology]
Anticipating and inhabiting institutional identities
Authors: CARR SUMMERSON 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTRather than simply silencing or excluding actors, contemporary U.S. institutions commonly assign ways of speaking to the identities they forge and, therefore, preestablish ways of hearing the people who have come to inhabit them. Although institutional power is thereby reinscribed when “subalterns speak,” people can also inhabit such identities, and speak from these designated locales, in politically efficacious ways. Examining the rhetorical practices of clients and social workers at one institutional site, I highlight the process ofanticipatory interpellation—reading how one is hailed as a particular kind of institutional subject and responding as such. [anticipatory interpellation, language, performativity, politics, representation, social work]
Divination, media, and the networked body of modernity
Authors: SEREMETAKIS C. NADIA 
Published: April 2009

ABSTRACTIn this article, I shed light on linkages among neoliberalism, technology, modernity, postmodernity, and cultural practice. I analyze divination, for example, evil‐eye exorcism and coffee‐cup reading, and related involuntary gestures of the body as practices of holistic, embedded, multisensory exchange in Greece. I show how involuntary gestures refract and register the impact of the social nervous system on the individual and become the media that, in turn, enable the reading of that nervous system. The concept of the “nervous system” originated with Michael Taussig as the sensorial somatic registration of both everyday life and the effects of the social structure. In this study, it is descriptive of involuntary gestures of the body as a form of intersubjective communication that is not part of the mass media apparatus or of dominant public culture. [divination, (post)modernity, media, body, involuntary gestures, sensory exchange, remediation]