bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ammonia increases nitric oxide, free Zn2+, and metallothionein mRNA expression in cultured rat astrocytes
Authors: Kruczek Carolin , Görg Boris , Keitel Verena , Bidmon Hans J. , Schliess Freimut , Häussinger Dieter 
Published: November 2011

AbstractAmmonia is a major player in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and affects astrocyte function by triggering a self-amplifying cycle between osmotic and oxidative stress. We recently demonstrated that hypoosmotic astrocyte swelling rapidly stimulates nitric oxide (NO) production and increases intracellular free Zn2+concentration ([Zn2+]i). Here we report effects of ammonia on [Zn2+]ihomeostasis and NO synthesis. In cultured rat astrocytes, NH4Cl (5 mm) increased within 6 h both cytosolic and mitochondrial [Zn2+]. The [Zn2+]iincrease was transient and was mimicked by the nonmetabolizable CH3NH3Cl, and it was dependent on NO formation, as evidenced by the sensitivity toward the nitric oxide synthase inhibitorNG-monomethyl-l-arginine. The NH4Cl-induced NO formation was sensitive to the Ca2+chelator 1,2-bis(o-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid tetra(acetoxymethyl) ester and increases in both NO and [Zn2+]iwere blocked by theN-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist MK-801. The NH4Cl-triggered increase in [Zn2+]iwas followed by a Zn2+-dependent nuclear appearance of the metal response element-binding transcription factor and metallothionein messenger RNA (mRNA) induction. Metallothionein mRNA was also increasedin vivoin rat cerebral cortex 6 h after an NH4Ac challenge. NH4Cl increased peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) protein expression, whereas PBR mRNA levels were decreased in a Zn2+-independent manner. The Zn2+-dependent upregulation of metallothionein following ammonia intoxication may reflect a cytoprotective response, whereas the increase in PBR expression may augment HE development.
Detection of internal tandem duplications in the FLT3 gene by different electrophoretic methods
Authors: Bubán Tamás , Koczok Katalin , Földesi Róza , Szabó Gabriella , Sümegi Andrea , Tanyi Miklós , Szerafin László , Udvardy Miklós , Kappelmayer János , Antal-Szalmás Péter 
Published: November 2011

AbstractIn acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the internal tandem duplication (ITD) in the juxtamembrane domain of theA complex evaluation of the analytical properties of the three most frequently used detection methods – PCR followed by agarose (AGE), polyacrylamide (PAGE) or capillary electrophoresis (CE) – was performed on 95 DNA samples obtained from 73 AML patients.All the three methods verified the presence of a mutant allele in 20 samples from 18 patients. AGE and PAGE could detect the presence of 1%–2% mutant allele, while the detection limit of CE was 0.28%. However, acceptable reproducibility (inter-assay CV <25%) of the mutant allele rate determination was only achievable above 1.5% mutant/total allele rate. The reproducibility of the ITD size determination by CE was much better, but the ITD size calculated by PeakScanner or GeneScan analysis was 7% lower as compared to values obtained by DNA sequencing. The presence of multiple ITD was over-estimated by PAGE and AGE due to the formation of heteroduplexes.This study suggests the use of PCR+CE in the diagnostics and the follow-up of AML patients. The data further supports the importance of proper analytical evaluation of home-made molecular biological diagnostic tests.
School bullying: its nature and ecology
Authors: Espelage Dorothy L. , De La Rue Lisa 
Published: November 2011

AbstractBackground:Recent youth suicides only highlight a persistent problem in schools – bullying and sustained peer victimization. Being a target or victim of bullying has long been recognized has having short- and long-term psychological effects on children and adolescents across the world today. School bullying is one of the most significant public health concerns facing children and adolescents.Objective:Involvement in the social phenomena of school bullying is often explained as emerging from a wide range of risk and protective factors within the social-ecology of youth. The social-ecological model posits that bullying behaviors are shaped by various interrelated contexts including individual characteristics, family, peers and the school environment.Methods:Research is reviewed to highlight the correlates of bullying involvement across these context using social-ecological and social-learning frameworks. Meta-analytic studies are reviewed on the short- and long-term impact of bullying involvement and efficacy of bullying prevention programs. Specific recommendations for prevention planning and future research efforts are provided.Conclusions:Bullying is a multi-faceted issue, which is best understood in the larger social context in which it occurs. Individual characteristics of students contribute to bullying involve­ment when students have families that promote violence, teachers that ignore or dismiss bullying, schools that have negative climates and students who socialize with friends who bully. These social contexts need to be targeted in bully prevention programs to reduce bullying and peer victimization in schools.
Comparison of Daily Motion of the Cervical and Lumbar Spine to ASTM F2423-11 and ISO 18192-1.2011 Standard Testing
Authors: Cobian Daniel , Heiderscheit Bryan , Daehn Nicole , Anderson Paul A. 
Published: November 2011

Abstract
Background–The purpose of this investigation is to measure the normal neck and trunk motion of daily living and to compare this to annualized movements as defined by the ASTM F2423-11 and ISO 18192-1:2011 standards. Methods–Ten volunteers wore a custom sensor system that monitored their upper and lower spine motion. The system allows continuous measurement of the frequency and magnitude of spinal motion about all three axes. The angular motion can then be determined for the upper and lower spinal segments. The results were extrapolated to yield the yearly frequency and magnitudes of movements. The data were compared to ASTM and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. Results–The median magnitude of neck motion was 14.3°, 13.8°, and 21.6°, and the mean annual frequency of cervical motion was 10.6 × 106, 8.5 × 106, and 5.6 × 106 movements in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation, respectively. The observed-to-standard (ASTM) ratio of annual cervical excursion was 1.22, 1.09, and 0.69, and for ISO the ratios were 1.22, 1.09, and 1.04 in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation, respectively. The median range of motion for the thorax relative to the iliac crest (lumbar) was 11.2°, 10.3°, and 12.5°, and the estimated number of annual movements was 6.8 × 106, 5.2 × 106, and 3.8 × 106 in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and rotation. The observed-to-standard ratios from ASTM were 0.63, 0.56 and 1.6, and for ISO they were 1.5, 1.68, and 1.59, in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and rotation respectively. Discussion–Neck and lumbar movements in healthy young adults aremore frequent that 1 × 106 times per annum. The amplitude is smaller than specified in current standards. Overall, the total annual angular excursions specified by ASTM correlated well with results, whereas the ISO specified smaller ranges of motion for the lumbar spine, and therefore the observed angular motions were greater than specified. New testing standards should consider using more physiologic movement patterns.
Prior Exposure to Interviewee's Truth-Telling (Baselining) and Deception-Detection Accuracy in Interviews
Authors: Lee Chih-Chen , Welker Robert B. 
Published: November 2011

ABSTRACT
Professional accounting guidance recommends that interviewers attend to deception detection in audit interviews. Prior studies suggest that interviewers are poor detectors of a stranger's deceptions. This study assesses whether behavioral baselining (acquiring familiarity with truth-telling style prior to initiating an interview of an unfamiliar interviewee), a recommended procedure for investigative interviews, improves the ability to detect the deceptions of an unfamiliar interviewee in accounting interviews. In the present study, interviewers conducted five preliminary interviews of a truth-telling interviewee prior to the focal accounting interview. This exposure to the interviewee's truth telling increased the accuracy of detecting truths as opposed to lies, suggesting that behavioral baselining of truth telling aided the detection of primarily truth telling. These findings suggest that behavioral baselining may not facilitate the auditor's objective, that is, the detection of lies.
Data Availability: Confidentiality agreements with participants, written with the assistance of human subjects committees, prevent the sharing of data with others.
Lobbying of the IASB: An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Hansen Thomas Bowe 
Published: November 2011

ABSTRACT
This paper provides evidence on how the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) generates accounting standards in the presence of lobbyists with differing preferences. I develop hypotheses regarding the associations between attributes of lobbyists and their lobbying activity, and their lobbying success. I find that lobbying success is positively related to the ability of the lobbyist to provide information to the IASB; however, this success is dependent on the credibility of the lobbyist. I also find evidence that lobbying success is associated with the impact that the lobbyists have on the viability of the IASB, measured by their financial contributions and the size of the capital market in their home country. However, this association is not present when I look only at cases where lobbyists disagree with IASB proposal drafts. This evidence is useful in evaluating the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) recent considerations regarding the adoption of IFRS by the U.S., as well as the recent change in the structure of the IASB that requires a defined geographic mix of board members by the year 2012.
Data Availability: All data are publicly available from sources indicated in the paper.
Control Privatization, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance: Evidence from China
Authors: Ho Joanna L. Y , Yang Xiongsheng , Li Xiang 
Published: November 2011

ABSTRACT
Governments in transitional economies have long been concerned with whether privatization of state-owned enterprises can improve firm performance and, if so, through which mechanisms this can be achieved. Using 135 publicly listed firms that China privatized via control transfer from 1998 to 2005 as a sample, we investigate whether newly privatized firms enhance incentives of top management and employees and, consequently, whether post-privatization firm performance is improved. Our findings reveal several post-privatization effects: (1) a much lower level of large shareholder expropriation, (2) higher and more performance-sensitive executive compensation, and (3) lower levels of management perk consumption and employment, which increase more slowly when sales grow and decrease more quickly when sales shrink. These enhancements in incentives help explain post-privatization firm performance improvement.
JEL Classifications: G34; M48.
An Education and Enforcement Approach to Dealing with Unscrupulous Tax Preparers
Authors: Bauman Christine C. , Mantzke Katrina L. 
Published: November 2011

In both her 2002 and 2003 Annual Reports to Congress, the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) proposed national registration, examination, certification, and enforcement requirements for all Federal Tax Return Preparers (FTRPs). An FTRP is defined as someone, other than an attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent, who prepares more than five federal tax returns in a calendar year. This proposal was primarily motivated by the NTA's experience in dealing with taxpayers who were exploited by unscrupulous tax preparers, especially with respect to the earned income credit (EIC). Although the IRS believes that all taxpayers should have access to quality tax return preparation, it contends that it is premature to consider a legislative remedy to tax preparer problems since the full extent of the problem is unknown and the related financial impact on limited IRS resources has not been quantified.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the proposed regulation of FTRPs by reviewing the development of similar regulatory proposals over the past several decades, outlining current and proposed federal regulation of tax preparers, discussing state regulation of tax preparers, describing concerns with increased regulation, and offering alternative recommendations to regulation, specifically education and enforcement.
The “Build-to-Suit” Tax-Deferred Exchange
Authors: Sampson Michael P. 
Published: November 2011

Recently skyrocketing real estate prices have caused taxpayers to intensify their efforts to utilize the tax deferral benefits of Internal Revenue Code §1031 to put their newly found tax-free dollars of equity to work to accomplish a variety of business and investment objectives. Goals can range from tax benefits such as creating or increasing depreciation deductions by exchanging into more highly leveraged property to economic benefits such as taxfree diversification or consolidation of investment properties.
Of increasing interest is the use of tax-deferred exchange dollars to build or improve property to suit the specific needs of the taxpayer rather than acquiring existing property that might not be as suitable. Although taxpayers have experimented with these so-called “build-to-suit” exchanges since the Tax Court sanctioned the prototype transaction in its 1962 Baird v. Commissioner decision, subsequent statutory and administrative pronouncements have refined the technique and provided more certainty for structuring a variety of transactions.
This article examines the legislative, judicial, and administrative history of build-to-suit taxdeferred exchanges, and suggests ways to structure transactions in a variety of business and investment scenarios.
Mixed Blessing of Being Designated a Small Business: A Four Country Comparison
Authors: Killian Sheila , Karlinsky Stewart S. , Payne Garry , Arendse Jackie 
Published: November 2011

This article will focus on how four countries' income tax laws define a small business and how the taxing authorities and legislators attempt to prevent small business definitions from being exploited by potentially unintended users or for unintended purposes. We will use the experiences from four diverse countries (Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and the U.S.), which take their roots from the same legal system (England) to see if there are best practices that can be adapted for these and other countries as well.
A fundamental question that arises when discussing tax incentives and disincentives for small business is why carve out special provisions for this segment of the business community? The answer, as discussed below, is two fold: one, the economic benefits that small business yields the economy is material and significant; two, economies of scale as to both regulatory (including tax) compliance costs as well as costs of goods and materials warrant incentives to level the playing field with large businesses.
Dissecting cosmic-ray electron-positron data with Occam’s razor: the role of known pulsars
Authors: Profumo Stefano 
Published: November 2011

Abstract
We argue that both the positron fraction measured by PAMELA and the peculiar spectral features reported in the total electron-positron flux measured by ATIC have a very natural explanation in electron-positron pairs produced by nearby pulsars. While this possibility was pointed out a long time ago, the greatly improved quality of current data potentially allow to reverse-engineer the problem: given the regions of pulsar parameter space favored by PAMELA and by ATIC, are there known pulsars that explain the data with reasonable assumptions on the injected electron-positron pairs? In the context of simple benchmark models for estimating the electron-positron output, we consider all known pulsars, as listed in the most complete available catalogue. We find that it is unlikely that a single pulsar be responsible for both the PAMELA positron fraction anomaly and for the ATIC excess, although two single sources are in principle enough to explain both experimental results. The PAMELA excess positrons likely come from a set of mature pulsars (age ∼ × 106 yr), with a distance of 0.8–1 kpc, or from a single, younger and closer source like Geminga. The ATIC data require a larger (and less plausible) energy output, and favor an origin associated to powerful, more distant (1–2 kpc) and younger (age ∼ × 5 × 105 yr) pulsars. We list several candidate pulsars that can individually or coherently contribute to explain the PAMELA and ATIC data. Although generally suppressed, we find that the contribution of pulsars more distant than 1–2 kpc could contribute for the ATIC excess. Finally, we stress the multi-faceted and decisive role that Fermi-LAT will play in the very near future by (1) providing us with an exquisite measurement of the electron-positron flux, (2) unveiling the existence of as yet undetected gamma-ray pulsars, and (3) searching for anisotropies in the arrival direction of high-energy electrons and positrons.
Atypia predicting prognosis for intracranial extraventricular neurocytomas
Authors: Kane Ari J. , Sughrue Michael E. , Rutkowski Martin J. , Aranda Derick , Mills Stephen A. , Lehil Mandeep , Fang Shanna , Parsa Andrew T. 
Published: November 2011

Object
The literature, at present, provides limited information about extraventricular neurocytomas (EVNs) and is almost exclusively composed of case reports or small case series. Treatment for EVNs has largely been guided by results from central neurocytoma outcome studies. The authors present an analysis of all reported intracranial EVN cases to establish if tumor histopathological features can substratify EVN into groups with differing prognosis and help guide treatment decisions.

Methods
The authors identified studies reporting histology, treatment modality, and outcomes for patients with intracranial EVN. The rates of recurrence and survival for patients were compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Atypical tumors, defined by MIB-1 labeling index exceeding 3% or atypical histological features, were compared with typical tumors, and patients 50 years of age or older were compared with those younger than 50 years of age.

Results
Eighty-five patients met the inclusion criteria, and 27% of them had an atypical histology. Typical EVNs had a better prognosis than atypical EVNs after primary treatment, with a 5-year recurrence rate of 36% compared with 68% (p < 0.001), and a 5-year mortality rate of 4% compared with 44%, respectively (p < 0.001). Age younger 50 years was associated with a better prognosis than age equal to or greater than 50 years, with a 5-year recurrence rate of 33% and 74%, respectively (p < 0.001), and a 5-year mortality rate of 4% and 52%, respectively (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that atypical EVNs carried significantly increased risk for recurrence (hazard ratio [HR] 4.91, p < 0.001) and death (HR 22.91, p < 0.01). Gross-total resection was superior to subtotal resection (STR) alone in tumor control rates for typical EVNs (95% and 68%, p < 0.05), and there was a trend for adjuvant external-beam radiotherapy to benefit STR. There was suggestion of similar trends in patients with atypical EVNs.

Conclusions
There are at least 2 distinct histological subtypes of EVN, with different prognostic significances. Atypia or MIB-1 labeling index greater than 3% is a significant predictor of poor prognosis for EVNs. Complete resection or more aggressive attempts at providing adjuvant therapy following STR appear to improve the prognosis for patients with EVNs. Although the authors' results are informative, there are limitations to their analysis. Given the relatively modest total number of cases reported, as well as the nature of the disaggregated analysis, the authors were not able to use formal meta-analytical methods to limit the impact of between center heterogeneity. Additionally, they were not able to control for individual differences in data analysis and presentation across the different studies included in their analysis.
Cost per quality-adjusted life year gained of revision neural decompression and instrumented fusion for same-level recurrent lumbar stenosis: defining the value of surgical intervention
Authors: Adogwa Owoicho , Parker Scott L. , Shau David N. , Mendenhall Stephen K. , Aaronson Oran , Cheng Joseph S. , Devin Clinton J. , McGirt Matthew J. 
Published: November 2011

Object
Despite advances in technology and understanding in spinal physiology, reoperation for symptomatic same-level recurrent stenosis continues to occur. Although revision lumbar surgery is effective, attention has turned to the question of the utility and value of revision decompression and fusion procedures. To date, an analysis of cost and heath state gain associated with revision lumbar surgery for recurrent same-level lumbar stenosis has yet to be described. The authors set out to assess the 2-year comprehensive cost of revision surgery and determine its value in the treatment of same-level recurrent stenosis.

Methods
Forty-two patients undergoing revision decompression and instrumented fusion for same-level recurrent stenosis–associated leg and back pain were included in this study. Two-year total back-related medical resource utilization, missed work, and health state values (quality-adjusted life years [QALYs], calculated from the EQ-5D with US valuation) were assessed. Two-year resource use was multiplied by unit costs based on Medicare national allowable payment amounts (direct cost), and patient and caregiver workday losses were multiplied by the self-reported gross-of-tax wage rate (indirect cost). Mean total 2-year cost per QALY gained after revision surgery was assessed.

Results
The mean (± SD) interval between prior and revision surgery was 4.16 ± 4.64 years. Bone morphogenetic protein was used in 7 cases of revision arthrodesis (16.7%). A mean cumulative 2-year gain of 0.84 QALY was observed after revision surgery. The mean total 2-year cost of revision fusion was $49,431 ± $7583 (surgery cost $21,060 ± $4459; outpatient resource utilization cost $9748 ± $5292; indirect cost $18,623 ± $9098). Revision decompression and extension of fusion was associated with a mean 2-year cost per QALY gained of $58,846.

Conclusions
In the authors' practice, revision decompression and fusion provided a significant gain in health state utility for patients with symptomatic same-level recurrent stenosis, with a 2-year cost per QALY gained of $58,846. When indicated, revision surgery for same-level recurrent stenosis is a valuable treatment option for patients experiencing back and leg pain secondary to this disease. The authors' findings provide a value measure of surgery that can be compared with the results of future cost-per-QALY-gained studies of medical management or alternative surgical approaches.