bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tidal modulation of eruptive activity at open‐vent volcanoes: evidence from Stromboli, Italy
Authors: Sottili Gianluca , Palladino Danilo M. 
Published: February 2012

Terra Nova, 24, 233–237, 2012AbstractThe role of Earth tides as a relevant controlling factor of a variety of geological processes, including seismicity and volcanism, is widely debated. Stromboli Volcano, Italy, is well known for its persistent explosive activity and represents an ideal setting to investigate tidal effects on the energy release and eruptive behaviour of volcanoes. Herein, we report new evidence that tidal stresses may modulate the timing of eruptive activity at volcanoes in an open‐vent state. We report statistically significant correlations of the peak eruption frequencies to fortnightly tidal maxima (i.e. full and new moon) during a 17‐month‐long period of activity in 2010–2011: in fact, the number of explosive events per hour increases by >85% during tidal maxima with respect to the average values. We suggest that tidally induced cycles of compression–decompression of country rocks controls fluctuating magma supply rate from the shallow plumbing system and, thus, eruption frequency.
The peptide growth factor, phytosulfokine, attenuates pattern‐triggered immunity
Authors: Igarashi Daisuke , Tsuda Kenichi , Katagiri Fumiaki 
Published: February 2012

SummaryPattern‐triggered immunity (PTI) is triggered by recognition of elicitors called microbe‐associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). Although immune responses may provide good protection of plants from pathogen attack, excessive immune responses have negative impacts on plant growth and development. Thus, a good balance between positive and negative effects on the immune signaling network is important for plant fitness. However, little information is known about the molecular mechanisms that are involved in attenuation of PTI. Here, we describe a growth‐promoting peptide hormone, phytosulfokine (PSK), as attenuating PTI signaling in Arabidopsis. This research was motivated by the observation that expression of the PSK Receptor 1 (PSKR1) gene was induced by MAMP treatment. Plants homozygous for pskr1 T‐DNA insertions showed enhanced defense gene expression and seedling growth inhibition triggered by MAMPs. The pskr1 plants also showed enhanced PTI against the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. These results indicate that the PSKR‐mediated signaling attenuates immune responses. Tyrosyl protein sulfotransferase (TPST) is an enzyme required for production of the mature sulfated PSK. Like pskr1 mutants, a tpst T‐DNA insertion line exhibited enhanced MAMP‐triggered seedling growth inhibition, which was suppressed by exogenous application of PSK. Thus, PSK signaling mediated by PSKR1 attenuates PTI but stimulates growth.
Effects of woodchip mulch and barley intercropping on weeds in lentil crops
Authors: WANG L , GRUBER S , CLAUPEIN W 
Published: February 2012

Wang L, Gruber S & Claupein W (2012). Effects of woodchip mulch and barley intercropping on weeds in lentil crops. Weed Research 52, 161–168.SummaryThe effect of woodchip mulch on weed infestation and crop yield of lentil (Lens culinaris) was tested in a 2‐year field experiment at the organic research station Kleinhohenheim, University of Hohenheim, Germany, in 2009 and 2010. The treatments included no mulch and an amount of 160 m3 ha−1 (fresh matter) woodchips (a mixture of hedgerow shrub species) applied both in spring‐sown lentil sole cropping and in lentil–barley mixed cropping systems after the crops were well established. Averaged over the two years, woodchip mulch reduced weed biomass and weed density (plants m−2) in both cropping systems, with a reduction by 43% and 29% (sole), and by 51% and 30% (mixed) respectively. Compared with lentil sole cropping, lentil–barley mixed cropping decreased weed biomass significantly; however, there was no effect on weed density. Lentil grain yield from sole and mixed cropping was 3.0–3.4  t ha−1 and 2.1–2.2 t ha−1 in 2009 and 1.0–1.1 t ha−1 and 0.8–0.9 t ha−1 in 2010. Barley grain yield was 1.4 t ha−1 in 2009 and 0.7 t ha−1 in 2010. Despite decreasing weeds, the mulch did not improve grain yields of lentil or barley in mixed or sole cropping. In conclusion, the combination of woodchip mulch and mixed cropping is useful to reduce weed infestation in cropping systems where chemical or mechanical weed control is not possible and for crops with a low capacity for competition against weeds.
Experimental Study on the Location of Neurons Associated with the First Sacral Sympathetic Trunk Ganglion of the Pig
Authors: Ragionieri L. , Botti M. , Gazza F. , Minelli L. Bo , Panu R. 
Published: February 2012

SummaryThe neurons associated with the left first sacral sympathetic trunk ganglion (STG S1), an autonomic ganglion particularly concerned in the innervation of the smooth and striated musculature associated with pelvic organs, were identified in the pig, using the non‐trans‐synaptic fluorescent retrograde neuronal tracer Fast Blue. The labelled neurons were located mostly ipsilaterally, in the intermediolateral nucleus of the spinal cord segments T10‐L5, in the sympathetic trunk ganglia L3‐Co1, in the caudal mesenteric ganglia, in the pelvic ganglia, and in the spinal ganglia T13‐S4. Our results could indicate the existence of visceral neuronal circuits concerning the ganglia of the sympathetic trunk and the caudal mesenteric, pelvic and spinal ganglia with or without the intervention of the central nervous system, whose identification and preservation during surgical treatments could be helpful in reducing the risk of subsequent urinary and sexual disfunctions.
The relationship between the plasma concentration of blonanserin, and its plasma anti‐serotonin 5‐HT2A activity/anti‐dopamine D2 activity ratio and drug‐induced extrapyramidal symptoms
Authors: Suzuki Hidenobu , Gen Keishi 
Published: February 2012

Aims:  Blonanserin is a second‐generation antipsychotic that was developed in Japan. We investigated the relationships between plasma concentration, the plasma anti‐5‐HT2A activity/anti‐D2 activity (S/D) ratio and extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) in blonanserin dosing.Methods:  The subjects were 29 outpatients with schizophrenia. We assessed EPS using the Drug‐Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale (DIEPSS). The plasma concentrations were measured by high performance liquid chromatography, and the plasma anti‐D2 and anti‐5‐HT2A activities were measured by [3H]‐spiperone and [3H]‐ketanserin radioreceptor assays.Results:  The results revealed that there were significant correlations between both the plasma concentration and the DIEPSS total score (P < 0.05). A negative correlative tendency was found between the S/D ratio and the DIEPSS total score. Furthermore, the plasma concentrations were divided into a low plasma concentration group and a high plasma concentration group, and the S/D ratios were divided into a low S/D ratio group and a high S/D ratio group. We then compared each group based on the DIEPSS total scores. The score in the high plasma concentration‐low S/D ratio group was significantly higher than in the high plasma concentration‐high S/D ratio, low plasma concentration‐high S/D ratio and low plasma concentration‐low S/D ratio groups (P < 0.05 for all).Conclusions:  These findings indicate that the incidence of EPS during treatment with blonanserin is mainly determined by plasma concentration, but the incidence of EPS may be inhibited when anti‐5HT2A activity is predominant over anti‐D2 activity.
Cerebral blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex correlates with treatment response to low‐frequency right prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression
Authors: Kito Shinsuke , Hasegawa Takashi , Koga Yoshihiko 
Published: February 2012

Aims:  Low‐frequency right prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is effective in treating depression, and its antidepressant effects have proven to correlate with decreases in cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the orbitofrontal cortex and subgenual cingulate cortex. However, a predictor of treatment response to low‐frequency right prefrontal rTMS in depression has not been identified yet. The aim of this study was to estimate regional CBF in the frontal regions and investigate the correlation with treatment response to low‐frequency right prefrontal rTMS in depression.Methods:  We examined 26 depressed patients for the correlation between treatment response to rTMS and regional CBF in the frontal regions, by analyzing their brain scans with 99mTc‐ethyl cysteinate dimer before rTMS treatment. CBF in 16 brain regions was estimated using fully automated region of interest analysis software. Two principal components were extracted from CBF in 16 brain regions by factor analysis with maximum likelihood method and Promax rotation with Kaiser normalization.Results:  Sixteen brain regions were divided into two groups: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (superior frontal, medial frontal, middle frontal, and inferior frontal regions) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (anterior cingulate, subcallosal, orbital, and rectal regions). Treatment response to rTMS was not correlated with CBF in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, but it was correlated with CBF in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.Conclusion:  These findings suggest that CBF in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be a potential predictor of low‐frequency right prefrontal rTMS, and depressed patients with increased CBF in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may show a better response.
Genetic polymorphism of angiotensin I‐converting enzyme (ACE), but not angiotensin II type I receptor (ATr1), has a gender‐specific role in panic disorder
Authors: Bayoglu Burcu , Cengiz Mujgan , Karacetin Gul , Uysal Omer , Kocabasoğlu Nese , Bayar Reha , Balcioglu Ibrahim 
Published: February 2012

Aims:  Angiotensins were shown to have some role in the development of panic disorder (PD). In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of polymorphisms in two angiotensin‐related genes, angiotensin I‐converting enzyme (ACE) and angiotensin II type I receptor (ATr1), in a sample of Turkish patients with PD and to evaluate their association with PD development.Methods:  Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to analyze ATr1 A1166C polymorphism, and only polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze functional ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in 123 patients with PD and in 169 similarly aged disease‐free controls.Results:  There was no significant difference in the genotype distribution between PD patients and controls for each polymorphism (P > 0.05). Allele frequency of ACE insertion/deletion was borderline statistically significant between the groups (P = 0.055; odds ratio: 1.39; 95% confidence interval: 0.99–1.95), and allele frequency of ATr1 A1166C was not significantly different between the groups (P = 0.32; odds ratio: 0.81; 95% confidence interval: 0.53–1.22).Conclusion:  This study suggests that polymorphisms of ACE I/D and ATr1 A1166C are not associated with risk of PD in Turkish patients. However, in ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism, the insertion allele was found to be more frequent in the male subgroup of patients (χ2 = 4.61, P = 0.032) than in controls, suggesting a potential male‐specific role of the less active ACE insertion allele in the pathogenesis of PD.
Transient receptor potential A1 receptor‐mediated neural cross‐talk and afferent sensitization induced by oxidative stress: Implication for the pathogenesis of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome
Authors: Furuta Akira , Suzuki Yasuyuki , Hayashi Norihiro , Egawa Shin , Yoshimura Naoki 
Published: February 2012

AbstractAlthough the pathogenesis of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome remains unknown, there is a significant correlation of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome with other chronic pain disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis and fibromyalgia syndrome. In this review, we highlight evidence supporting neural cross‐talk in the dorsal root ganglia, spinal cord and brain levels, which might play a role in the development of chronic pain disorders through central sensitization. In addition, we focus on transient receptor potential V1 and transient receptor potential A1 as the receptor targets for chronic pain conditions, because transient receptor potential V1 and transient receptor potential A1 act as a nocisensor to mediate not only an afferent signal to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, but also an efferent signal in the periphery through secretion of inflammatory agents, such as substance P and calcitonin gene‐related peptide in nociceptive sensory neurons. Furthermore, peripheral inflammation produces multiple inflammatory mediators that act on their cognate receptors to activate intracellular signal transduction pathways and thereby modify the expression and function of transient receptor potential V1 and transient receptor potential A1 (peripheral sensitization). During tissue damage and inflammation, oxidative stress, such as reactive oxygen species or reactive carbonyl species is also generated endogenously. The highly diffusible nature might account for the actions of free radical formation far from the site of injury, thereby producing systemic pain conditions without central sensitization through neural cross‐talk. Because oxidative stress is considered to induce activation of transient receptor potential A1, we also discuss exogenous and endogenous oxidative stress to elucidate its role in the pathogenesis of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and other chronic pain conditions.
Preparation, clinical support, and confidence of speech–language therapists managing clients with a tracheostomy in the UK
Authors: Ward Elizabeth , Morgan Tessa , McGowan Sue , Spurgin Ann‐Louise , Solley Maura 
Published: February 2012

Abstract Background:Literature regarding the education, training, clinical support and confidence of speech–language therapists (SLTs) working with patients with a tracheostomy is limited; however, it suggests that many clinicians have reduced clinical confidence when managing this complex population, many face role and team challenges practising in this area, and most are seeking more opportunities for professional development and training.Aims:To investigate the education, training, clinical support and confidence of SLTs in the UK who manage patients with a tracheostomy in order to identify current challenges and inform the future clinical training needs of this professional group.Methods & Procedures:Via an online survey, the clinical training, clinical support and confidence of SLTs with more than one year of clinical experience was examined. A total of 106 SLTs from the UK completed the survey. Within the questionnaire, clinicians were also asked to identify if their workplace had a tracheostomy competency training programme (CTP) to allow further exploration of the preparation, clinical support and confidence of respondents with (43% of respondents) and without (32% of respondents) a CTP.Outcomes & Results:Most SLTs (71%) were confident managing patients with a tracheostomy. The majority were accessing professional development and receiving expert support, though many identified specific areas where more support and training was needed. Less than half the group felt up to date with the current evidence. Only 35% of clinicians felt they worked in an optimal team for tracheostomy management, and poor recognition of the role of the SLT in managing dysphagia in patients with a tracheostomy was an issue for many clinicians, particularly on more general care wards. SLTs in workplaces with a CTP were found to have received significantly more expert support, on‐the‐job training, access to evidence‐based practice and were significantly more confident in managing ventilator‐assisted patients.Conclusions & Implications:SLTs are eager to access further professional development and training; however, such training needs to target specific areas of need. The significant difference in the preparation, support and confidence of SLTs with CTPs in their workplace highlights potential benefits that can be achieved through workplace training and support.
Urine survivin as a diagnostic biomarker for bladder cancer: a systematic review
Authors: Ku Ja Hyeon , Godoy Guilherme , Amiel Gilad E. , Lerner Seth P. 
Published: February 2012

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add?Although many tests for identifying patients with new or recurrent bladder cancer have been used, a reliable method has yet to be established. Recently, increasing attention has focused on the role of survivin in bladder cancer detection.Because urine survivin tests have better sensitivity than cytology, urine survivin could potentially replace routine cytology and might be used as an adjunct method for cystoscopy. However, the clinical utility of urine survivin as a bladder tumour marker identified in the present study remains to be elucidated.To determine the clinical utility of urine survivin as a bladder tumour marker we systematically reviewed the available evidence. A comprehensive literature review was performed, from August 1997 to March 2011, using three search engines in English including PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS. Two reviewers independently evaluated both trial eligibility and methodological quality and data extraction. We included studies that evaluated urine survivin, used cystoscopy and/or histopathology as the reference standard, and allowed the construction of a 2 × 2 contingency table. Bivariate random effect meta‐analyses were used to calculate the summary estimated of sensitivity and specificity and to construct a summary receiver‐operating characteristics curve of urine survivin tests. In all, 14 studies were included in the present review; two studies had two subsets of data. There were 2051 subjects, including 1038 in the case group and 1013 in the control group, and heterogeneity was present among diagnostic studies. The pooled sensitivity and specificity for urine survivin tests were 0.772 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.745–0.797) and 0.918 (95% CI 0.899–0.934), respectively. The area under the curve of urine survivin tests was 0.9392. When a subgroup analysis with six studies was performed, urine survivin tests had better sensitivity than cytology, but did not match cytology for specificity. The clinical utility of urine survivin as a bladder tumour marker identified in the present study remains to be elucidated.
Biodiversity for Billionaires: Capitalism, Conservation and the Role of Philanthropy in Saving/Selling Nature
Authors: Holmes George 
Published: February 2012

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of philanthropy in conservation as a way of exploring how and why conservation might be becoming more neoliberal. It describes how conservation philanthropy supports capitalism both discursively and in more practical ways. Philanthropy is examined in terms of the two forces considered to be driving the neoliberalization of conservation — the need for capitalism to find new ways of making money, and the desire of conservationists to engage with capitalism as the best way of getting things done. It demonstrates how philanthropy can speak to both of these logics simultaneously, particularly through emerging ideas of philanthrocapitalism, which may be enhancing the neoliberalization of both philanthropy and conservation.
Using the Master's Tools? Neoliberal Conservation and the Evasion of Inequality
Authors: Fletcher Robert 
Published: February 2012

The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's HouseAudre Lorde (1983)ABSTRACT Recently, a number of prominent conservationists have declared the last quarter century of global efforts to unite conservation and development through so‐called integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) an overwhelming failure, asserting that there are likely to be irreconcilable trade‐offs between environmental preservation and enhancing human well‐being that future policy will have to take into account. I suggest, however, that such trade‐offs may be less an inherent feature of the world than an artefact of the neoliberal governance model upon which the global conservation movement increasingly relies, as embodied in the ICDP approach. In eschewing questions of resource redistribution and instead depending on economic growth to address social inequality, neoliberal conservation strategies often paradoxically force into opposition the very conservation and development interests they ostensibly seek to reconcile. This thesis is illustrated through discussion of Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, a celebrated biodiversity hotspot where conservation interventions increasingly emphasize neoliberal market mechanisms designed to incentivize preservation by demonstrating the economic value ofin situnatural resources.
How do Investors Value Environmental Harm/Care? Private Equity Funds, Development Finance Institutions and the Partial Financialization of Nature‐based Industries
Authors: Bracking Sarah 
Published: February 2012

ABSTRACT Private equity funds, mostly domiciled in secrecy jurisdictions, are dominant investors in the resource‐based economies of Africa. Some of the investments that these funds make have been speculative and based on perceived high‐value ‘futures’ in biodiversity, bio‐fuels and land, carbon capture or strategic minerals. However, private equity funds are also heavily invested in mining, energy and infrastructure, which also generate wealth from the non‐human world; ‘old’ markets alongside the ‘new’ markets for discovered nature‐based commodities. This article reviews how private equity funds, and their partners in development finance institutions, frame and value the consequential impact of their industries on people and things. It then explores how this valuation, and other related calculative technologies of ‘concern’ for the ‘environment’— such as risk assessment and offsetting — are incorporated into firms’ investment decision making. This enquiry finds that: 1) financiers currently employ thin, partial and pseudo‐mathematical methods of assessing environmental impact and worth; and 2) that environmental and developmental impact ‘science’ is a performative technology,with only marginal relation to the material world it seeks to measure and protect. Using calculative technologies in which financial considerations are privileged, financiers have wrought a dissociated, incomplete and partial valorization of the non‐human world. Nonetheless, 3) these calculative devices assist in legitimizing private equity funds as institutional leaders in pre‐existing power structures which exploit natural resources in Africa for the benefit of money‐holders. These propositions roughly correspond to the technical, empirical and theoretical dimensions of a socio‐technical arrangement applying to nature‐based accumulation, which, overall, performs a political process of financialization.