bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cardiac sympathetic hyperinnervation in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertensive rats
Authors: Lee Tsung-Ming , Chen Chien-Chang , Chang Nen-Chung 
Published: April 2012

Sympathetic activities are elevated in the central SNSs (sympathetic nervous systems) of hypertensive animals, but it is not known whether sympathetic innervation is also elevated in the heart. Sympathetic hyper-responsiveness in hypertension may result from oxidative stress. The aim of the present study was to investigate sympathetic hyperinnervation in DOCA (deoxycorticosterone acetate)-salt hypertensive rats with established hypertension. At 4 weeks after the start of DOCA-salt treatment and uninephrectomization, male Wistar rats were randomized into three groups for 8 weeks: vehicle, NAC (N-acetylcysteine) and triple therapy (hydralazine, hydrochlorothiazide and reserpine). DOCA-salt was associated with increased oxidant release. DOCA-salt produced concentric left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Sympathetic hyperinnervation was observed in DOCA-salt rats, as assessed by myocardial noradrenaline levels, immunofluorescent analysis of tyrosine hydroxylase, growth-associated factor 43 and neurofilament and Western blotting and real-time quantitative RT–PCR (reverse transcription–PCR) of NGF (nerve growth factor). Arrhythmic scores during programmed stimulation in DOCA-salt rats were significantly higher than those in the control rats. Triple therapy, despite being effective on BP (blood pressure), offered neither attenuated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy nor anti-arrhythmia. The effects of DOCA-salt treatment on NGF expression, sympathetic hyperinnervation and arrhythmias were attenuated by NAC. Furthermore, the effects of NAC on NGF were abolished by administering BSO (L-buthionine sulfoximine), an inhibitor of glutamate–cysteine ligase. In conclusion, DOCA-salt treatment contributes to up-regulation of NGF proteins probably through a free radical-dependent pathway in a BP-independent manner. DOCA-salt rats treated with NAC attenuate sympathetic hyperinnervation and thus show a beneficial effect on arrhythmogenic response to programmed electrical stimulation.
Raising the participation age in historical perspective: policy learning from the past?
Authors: Woodin Tom , McCulloch Gary , Cowan Steven 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe raising of the participation age (RPA) to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015 marks a historic expansion of compulsory education. Despite the tendency of New Labour governments to eschew historical understanding and explanation, RPA was conceived with the benefit of an analysis of previous attempts to extend compulsion in schooling. This paper assesses the value of a historical understanding of education policy. The period from inception to the projected implementation of RPA is an extended one which has crossed over the change of government, from Labour to Coalition, in 2010. The shifting emphases and meanings of RPA are not simply technical issues but connect to profound historical and social changes. An analysis of the history of the raising of the school leaving age reveals many points of comparison with the contemporary situation. In a number of key areas it is possible to gain insights into the ways in which the study of the past can help to comprehend the present: the role of human capital, the structures of education, in curriculum development and in terms of preparations for change.
Local vibrational modes and Fano interaction in p-type ZnO : Sb system
Authors: Samanta K , Arora A K , Katiyar R S 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
Local vibrational modes (LVMs) and asymmetric phonon lineshapes are investigated in ZnO : Sb system. Two LVMs at 186 and 235 cm−1 originating due to the change in reduced mass and reduction of localized interatomic force constant have been identified. Upon Sb-doping, the E1(LO) mode of ZnO was found to shift towards the lower frequency side and broaden asymmetrically. These results are analysed within the framework of the Fano interaction in p-type ZnO. Temperature dependence of the E1(LO) mode frequency and line width shows the conventional anharmonic behaviour in ZnO; whereas, it deviates in ZnO : Sb system. In addition, the carrier–phonon coupling strength was found to reduce at higher temperature.
Effect of High‐Molecular‐Weight Glutenin Subunit Allelic Composition on Wheat Flour Tortilla Quality
Authors: Jondiko Tom O. , Alviola Novie J. , Hays Dirk B. , Ibrahim Amir , Tilley Michael , Awika Joseph M. 
Published: April 2012

ABSTRACTWheat cultivars possessing quality attributes needed to produce optimum quality tortillas have not been identified. This study investigated the effect of variations in high‐molecular‐weight glutenin subunits encoded at the Glu‐1 loci (Glu‐A1, Glu‐B1, and Glu‐D1) on dough properties and tortilla quality. Flour protein profiles, dough texture, and tortilla physical quality attributes were evaluated. Deletion at Glu‐D1 resulted in reduced insoluble polymeric protein content of flour, reduced dough compression force, and large dough extensibility. These properties produced very large tortillas (181 mm diameter) compared with a control made with commercial tortilla wheat flour (161 mm). Presence of a 7 + 9 allelic pair at Glu‐B1 increased dough strength (largest compression force, reduced extensibility, and small‐diameter tortillas). Deletion at Glu‐A1 produced large tortillas (173 mm) but with unacceptable flexibility during storage (score <3.0 at day 16). In general, presence of 2* at Glu‐A1, in combination with 5 + 10 at Glu‐D1, produced small‐diameter tortillas that required large force to rupture (tough texture). Presence of 2 + 12 alleles instead of 5 + 10 at Glu‐D1 produced tortillas with a good compromise between diameter (>165 mm) and flexibility during storage (>3.0 at day 16). These allele combinations, along with deletion at Glu‐D1, show promise for tortilla wheat development.
Pattern of Deposition of Cell Wall Polysaccharides and Transcript Abundance of Related Cell Wall Synthesis Genes during Differentiation in Barley Endosperm
Authors: Wilson Sarah M. , Burton Rachel A. , Collins Helen M. , Doblin Monika S. , Pettolino Filomena A. , Shirley Neil , Fincher Geoffrey B. , Bacic Antony 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
Immunolabeling, combined with chemical analyses and transcript profiling, have provided a comprehensive temporal and spatial picture of the deposition and modification of cell wall polysaccharides during barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain development, from endosperm cellularization at 3 d after pollination (DAP) through differentiation to the mature grain at 38 DAP. (1→3)-β-d-Glucan appears transiently during cellularization but reappears in patches in the subaleurone cell walls around 20 DAP. (1→3, 1→4)-β-Glucan, the most abundant polysaccharide of the mature barley grain, accumulates throughout development. Arabino-(1-4)-β-d-xylan is deposited significantly earlier than we previously reported. This was attributable to the initial deposition of the polysaccharide in a highly substituted form that was not recognized by antibodies commonly used to detect arabino-(1-4)-β-d-xylans in sections of plant material. The epitopes needed for antibody recognition were exposed by pretreatment of sections with α-l-arabinofuranosidase; this procedure showed that arabino-(1-4)-β-d-xylans were deposited as early as 5 DAP and highlighted their changing structures during endosperm development. By 28 DAP labeling of hetero-(1→4)-β-d-mannan is observed in the walls of the starchy endosperm but not in the aleurone walls. Although absent in mature endosperm cell walls we now show that xyloglucan is present transiently from 3 until about 6 DAP and disappears by 8 DAP. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of transcripts for GLUCAN SYNTHASE-LIKE, Cellulose Synthase, and CELLULOSE SYNTHASE-LIKE genes were consistent with the patterns of polysaccharide deposition. Transcript profiling of some members from the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes database glycosyl transferase families GT61, GT47, and GT43, previously implicated in arabino-(1-4)-β-d-xylan biosynthesis, confirms their presence during grain development.
Pioglitazone in acromegaly – an open‐label, prospective study
Authors: Kim David D. W. , Goh Jovina , Panossian Zaven , Gamble Greg , Holdaway Ian , Grey Andrew 
Published: April 2012

SummaryObjectivePreclinical studies demonstrate that thiazolidinediones (TZDs) decrease growth hormone (GH) and insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1) levels, suggesting that they might be effective treatments for acromegaly. This study investigated the effect of pioglitazone on biochemical indices of disease activity in acromegaly.Design and participantsThis was a 4‐month open‐label prospective study in 16 patients with active acromegaly who were attending public hospital endocrinology clinics.MethodsThe intervention was pioglitazone 45 mg/day. The primary outcome was change in serum IGF‐1; the secondary outcome was change in area under the curve of glucose‐suppressed GH.ResultsSerum IGF‐1 did not change during treatment with pioglitazone (P = 0·95). After 4 months, the mean (95% CI) change from baseline was −1 μg/l (−51, 49). GH levels following oral glucose loading were unchanged during pioglitazone therapy. After 4 months, the mean (95% CI) change from baseline in area under curve for glucose‐suppressed GH was 31 μg/l (−75, 138, P = 0·54).ConclusionsShort‐term treatment with conventional doses of pioglitazone did not improve biochemical measures of disease activity in acromegaly.
The demographic impacts of shifts in climate means and extremes on alpine butterflies
Authors: Buckley Lauren B. , Kingsolver Joel G. 
Published: April 2012

Summary1. Climate change impacts organismal performance via both shifts in mean conditions and acute thermal stress events. Yet, we know little about the relative fitness impacts of climate means and extremes, and how phenotypes mediate these effects.2. Here, we incorporate demography in a biophysical model of two alpine butterflies with distinct phenotypes to examine the impacts of recent climate change in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.3. The model suggests that shifts in available flight time (mediated by weather means) and egg viability (mediated by weather extremes) over time have varied between phenotypes and along the elevation gradient. Generally, small declines in egg viability may be more than offset by large increases in available flight time at higher elevations.4. Interactions between environmental conditions and phenotypes may produce unexpected, individualistic responses to climate change.
Net ecosystem exchange modifies the relationship between the autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration with abiotic factors in prairie grasslands
Authors: Gomez‐Casanovas Nuria , Matamala Roser , Cook David R. , Gonzalez‐Meler Miquel A. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractWe investigated the relationships of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE), soil temperature, and moisture with soil respiration rate and its components at a grassland ecosystem. Stable carbon isotopes were used to separate soil respiration into autotrophic and heterotrophic components within an eddy covariance footprint during the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons. After correction for self‐correlation, rates of soil respiration and its autotrophic and heterotrophic components for both years were found to be strongly influenced by variations in daytime NEE – the amount of C retained in the ecosystem during the daytime, as derived from NEE measurements when photosynthetically active radiation was above 0 μmol m−2 s−1. The time scale for correlation of variations in daytime NEE with fluctuations in respiration was longer for heterotrophic respiration (36–42 days) than for autotrophic respiration (4–6 days). In addition to daytime NEE, autotrophic respiration was also sensitive to soil moisture but not soil temperature. In contrast, heterotrophic respiration from soils was sensitive to changes in soil temperature, soil moisture, and daytime NEE. Our results show that – as for forests – plant activity is an important driver of both components of soil respiration in this tallgrass prairie grassland ecosystem. Heterotrophic respiration had a slower coupling with plant activity than did autotrophic respiration. Our findings suggest that the frequently observed variations in the sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature or moisture may stem from variations in the proportions of autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration. Rates of photosynthesis at seasonal time scales should also be considered as a driver of both autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration for ecosystem flux modeling.
Resource concentration by insects and implications for plant populations
Authors: Stephens Andrea E. A. , Myers Judith H. 
Published: April 2012

Summary1. The distribution of herbivores among plant patches may be an important factor determining plant population persistence. The resource concentration hypothesis proposes that herbivores are more abundant per unit plant at higher host plant densities and this has been found to occur in many systems. However, the opposite pattern, resource dilution, in which the herbivores are more abundant in low‐density patches and situations in which the number of insect herbivores per unit plant remains constant, also occurs.2. We developed a simulation model to explore how the distribution of insects per plant affects plant population decline and persistence. We varied the numbers of plants per patch and the distribution pattern, i.e. whether insects were found in a resource concentration distribution, a resource dilution distribution or a distribution in which insect abundance increased linearly with plant density.3. Resource concentration resulted in longer persistence of plant populations. Plant populations declined more rapidly with either weak resource dilution or directly proportional insect distribution patterns. As the intensity of resource concentration increased, the decline in plant population density was reduced, and plant persistence increased because of increasing variance in insect load. Under strong resource dilution, increasing variance in the insect load also led to a reduction in plant population decline and an increase in plant persistence.4. We complement our model with field data from the diffuse knapweed, Centaurea diffusa biocontrol system. We compared the relationship with plant density of a successful biocontrol agent, Larinus minutus, and an unsuccessful one, Urophora affinis. Larinus minutus density was directly proportional to plant density, while U. affinis showed a resource concentration pattern with higher rates of attack in high‐density patches.5. Synthesis: Patterns of insect distribution with host plant density will alter the extent to which patches of differing plant densities decline or persist. Resource concentration promotes persistence of the insect–plant system because increased herbivore pressure in high‐density patches leads to negative density‐dependent plant growth. Weak resource dilution and a distribution of insects that is directly proportionate to plant density can accelerate plant population decline. Strong resource dilution leads to positive density dependence with higher population growth in large patches. Our simulation model and field data demonstrate that the relationship between insect distribution and plant densities can influence plant population dynamics and has implications for choices of weed biological control agents.
Topography of descending projections from anterior insular and medial prefrontal regions to the lateral habenula of the epithalamus in the rat
Authors: Kim Uhnoh , Lee Taehee 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe epithalamic lateral nucleus of the habenula (LHb) plays a key role in regulating firing of dopamine and serotonin neurons in the midbrain and is thereby involved in various cognitive and affective behaviors. It is not yet clear, however, from where the LHb receives cognitive and affective information relevant to its regulation of the midbrain monoaminergic systems. The prefrontal cortex would be among the ideal sources. Here, using anterograde and retrograde tracer injections in the rat brain, we characterized the topography of the corticohabenular projections. Following injections of cholera toxin subunit B into the LHb, retrogradely labeled neurons were produced in the anterior insular, cingulate, prelimbic and infralimbic cortices. Consistent with this retrograde tracing, injections of biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) into these cortical regions labeled robust terminals in the LHb. Our quantification of the BDA‐impregnated varicosities revealed that projections from the anterior insula terminated mainly in the intersection regions of the lateral and ventral two‐thirds of the LHb, while projections from the cingulate cortex terminated mainly in the lateral two‐thirds of the LHb. By comparison, BDA‐labeled terminals originating from the medial prefrontal regions were contained mainly in the medial plus ventral one‐third of LHb. Based on these data, we hypothesize that LHb provides a link for conveying cognitive and affective information from prefrontal and insular regions to the midbrain monoaminergic centers.
Different stressors produce excitation or inhibition of mesolimbic dopamine neuron activity: response alteration by stress pre‐exposure
Authors: Valenti Ornella , Gill Kathryn M. , Grace Anthony A. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractStressors can exert a wide variety of responses, ranging from adaptive responses to pathological changes; moreover, recent studies suggest that mild stressors can attenuate the response of a system to major stressful events. We have previously shown that 2‐week exposure to cold, a comparatively mild inescapable stressor, induced a pronounced reduction in ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neuron activity, whereas restraint stress increases DA neuron activity. However, it is not known if these stressors differentially impact the VTA in a region‐specific manner, if they differentially impact behavioral responses, or whether the effects of such different stressors are additive or antagonistic with regard to their impact on DA neuron firing. To address these questions, single‐unit extracellular recordings were performed in anesthetized control rats and rats exposed to chronic cold, and tested after delivery of a 2‐h restraint session. Chronic cold stress strongly attenuated the number of DA neurons firing in the VTA, and this effect occurred primarily in the medial and central VTA regions that preferentially project to reward‐related ventral striatal regions. Chronic cold exposure also prevented the pronounced increase in DA neuron population activity without affecting the behavioral sensitization to amphetamine produced by restraint stress. Taken together, these data show that a prolonged inescapable mild stressor can induce plastic changes that attenuate the DA system response to acute stress.
Nauseating Flux: Iris Murdoch on Sartre and Heraclitus
Authors: Robjant David 
Published: April 2012

AbstractI observe Iris Murdoch's distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre's Nausea and show that her usage is persuasive and revolutionary, first as Sartre exegesis, second as Heraclitus exegesis, and throughout as a contribution to the philosophy of language. Murdoch's usage of ‘flux’ frames a comparison of Sartre's Roquentin with other figures who have had similarly flowing experience but without nausea. Roquentin's plight is shown to be ‘a philosopher's plight’ precipitated by a defective theory of descriptive success. I then show how the Heraclitean fragments would support Murdoch's treatment of flux and on close analysis contradict the established view exemplified in the work of Wittgenstein and Jonathan Barnes. Flux is not a variety of change, and the river image ‘cannot be analysed into non‐metaphorical components without a loss of substance’.
Topical corticosteroids in plaque psoriasis: a systematic review of risk of adrenal axis suppression and skin atrophy
Authors: Castela E. , Archier E. , Devaux S. , Gallini A. , Aractingi S. , Cribier B. , Jullien D. , Aubin F. , Bachelez H. , Joly P. , Le Maître M. , Misery L. , Richard M.‐A. , Paul C. , Ortonne J.P. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackground  Topical steroids have been used for more than 50 years in mild‐to‐moderate plaque psoriasis and carry a theoretical risk of adverse events.Objectives The aim of this systematic literature review was to evaluate the risk of hypothalamo‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis suppression and the risk of skin atrophy with topical steroids in the treatment of plaque psoriasis.Methods A systematic search between 1980 and January 2011 in Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases (English, French language, adults), using the keywords ‘psoriasis’/exp/mj AND ‘corticosteroid’/exp/mj,Results  Altogether 1269 references were found. Of these 1124 articles were excluded by reading the abstract and 123 by reading the article. A total of 22 randomized trials were selected.Effects on HPA axis: Thirteen studies, with a sample size varying from 7 to 341 patients, were selected. The effect on HPA axis was evaluated by the morning cortisol level (11 studies), the 24 h urine steroid levels (five studies) and/or by the Synacthen® test (three studies). Reduction of morning cortisol was observed in 0–25% of patients in 10 short‐term studies (two in scalp psoriasis, eight in body psoriasis) and in 48% of patients in the remaining short‐term study (body psoriasis). Only four of these studies with three on body psoriasis evaluated the effect of long‐term treatment defined as 6‐month treatment duration or longer and did not identify HPA axis suppression by cortisol level measurement. The Synacthen® test, considered as the gold standard to assess HPA axis, was always normal. There was no evidence of clinically significant HPA axis suppression due to absorption of topical steroids even when treating the scalp or in patients with extensive disease.Risk of skin atrophy: Thirteen studies with topical steroid evaluating treatment durations from 4 weeks to 1 year were analysed. The frequency of skin atrophy assessed clinically, varied from 0% to 5% of patients.Conclusions  The literature analysis on topical steroids in psoriasis is reassuring although the quality of safety studies is limited with a majority of short‐term studies. Although short‐term biological effects of topical steroids on the HPA axis were observed in several clinical studies, they were not associated with clinical signs. Adequately designed long‐term studies would be necessary to better determine the risk of skin atrophy using modern methods of evaluation such as dermoscopy and echography.