bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fluorescence relaxation in 3D from diffraction‐limited sources of PAGFP or sinks of EGFP created by multiphoton photoconversion
Authors: CALVERT P. D. , PEET J. A. , BRAGIN A. , SCHIESSER W. E. , PUGH E. N. 
Published: February 2007

SummaryThe relaxation of fluorescence from diffraction‐limited sources of photoactivatable green fluorescent protein (PAGFP) or sinks of photobleached enhanced GFP (EGFP) created by multiphoton photo‐conversion was measured in solutions of varied viscosity (η), and in live, spherical Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Fluorescence relaxation was monitored with the probing laser fixed, or rapidly scanning along a line bisected by the photoconversion site. Novel solutions to several problems that hamper the study of PAGFP diffusion after multiphoton photoconversion are presented. A theoretical model of 3D diffusion in a sphere from a source in the shape of the measured multiphoton point‐spread function was applied to the fluorescence data to estimate the apparent diffusion coefficient, Dap. The model incorporates two novel features that make it of broad utility. First, the model includes the no‐flux boundary condition imposed by cell plasma membranes, allowing assessment of potential impact of this boundary on estimates of Dap. Second, the model uses an inhomogeneous source term that, for the first time, allows analysis of diffusion from sources produced by multiphoton photoconversion pulses of varying duration. For diffusion in aqueous solution, indistinguishable linear relationships between Dap and η−1 were obtained for the two proteins: for PAGFP, Daq= 89 ± 2.4 μm2 s−1 (mean ± 95% confidence interval), and for EGFP Daq= 91 ± 1.8 μm2 s−1. In CHO cells, the application of the model yielded Dap= 20 ± 3 μm2 s−1 (PAGFP) and 19 ± 2 μm2 s−1 (EGFP). Furthermore, the model quantitatively predicted the decline in baseline fluorescence that accompanied repeated photobleaching cycles in CHO cells expressing EGFP, supporting the hypothesis of fluorophore depletion as an alternative to the oft invoked ‘bound fraction’ explanation of the deviation of the terminal fluorescence recovery from its pre‐bleach baseline level. Nonetheless for their identical diffusive properties, advantages of PAGFP over EGFP were found, including an intrinsically higher signal/noise ratio with 488‐nm excitation, and the requirement for ∼1/200th the cumulative light energy to produce data of comparable signal/noise.
Glutathione conjugates in the vacuole are degraded by γ‐glutamyl transpeptidase GGT3 in Arabidopsis
Authors: Ohkama‐Ohtsu Naoko , Zhao Ping , Xiang Chengbin , Oliver David J. 
Published: February 2007

Summary γ‐Glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) is the enzyme responsible for breaking the γ‐glutamyl bond between Glu and Cys in glutathione (GSH). We are using this gene family to study GSH degradation in plants. There are four putative GGT genes in Arabidopsis, and one of them, GGT3 (At4g29210), is analyzed in this study. GGT3 is localized to the vacuole based on organelle‐targeting programs, subcellular distribution of GFP fusion proteins during transient expression in onion (Allium cepa) epidermal tissues, and its ability to metabolize vacuolar substrates in Arabidopsis plants. While Northern blots and promoter:GUS expression patterns have suggested that GGT3 is transcribed at relatively high levels in all parts of the plant, a comparison of enzyme activities in different organs of wild‐type and a ggt3 knockout mutant showed that GGT3 was a major contributor to total GGT activity in roots, but a relatively minor contributor in other tissues. Wild‐type Arabidopsis plants treated with monobromobimane (mBB) form a fluorescent GSH–mBB conjugate that is moved into the vacuole and then metabolized to Cys‐Gly–mBB and Cys–mBB in that order. The first step is catalyzed by GGT3, and GSH–mBB metabolism is completely blocked in the roots of ggt3 knockout plants. In ggt3 leaves, some GSH–mBB metabolism still proceeds using the apoplastic GGT1. This identifies GGT3 as catalyzing the obligate initial step in GSH conjugate metabolism, and suggests that it has an important role in protecting plants from some xenobiotic chemicals.
Contrasting genetic diversity with phenotypic diversity in coloration and size in Xantho poressa (Brachyura: Xanthidae), with new results on its ecology
Authors: Reuschel Silke , Schubart Christoph D. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe ecology of Xantho poressa (Olivi, 1792) (Brachyura) was studied during field trips to the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Spanish Atlantic Ocean. Our results reveal that X. poressa lives from the intertidal to the shallow subtidal zone, and inhabits relatively protected rocky shores, often with pebble underground, from juvenile to adult stages. A mark–recapture experiment revealed a high population density in this habitat. All stages, but predominantly juveniles, show a variability of colour patterns, which allow the crabs to blend in with the rocky substratum, thereby hiding from predators as passive defence. Adulthood can be reached with a carapace length smaller than 6 mm. The morphometric analysis of the species revealed allometric growth in carapace shape. Variability in overall size could be observed at different collecting sites. Neither the colour morphs nor the size differences could be attributed to differences of Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I mitochondrial DNA sequences, suggesting that ecological rather than genetic patterns are responsible for the different phenotypes.
Widening the gene pool of cultivated lentils through introgression of alien chromatin from wild Lens subspecies
Authors: Gupta D. , Sharma S. K. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractWild Lens species/subspecies are a potential source for increasing genetic diversity in cultivated lentil. Four intraspecific crosses were attempted between cultivated and wild lentils. Viable hybrids were produced between L. culinaris ssp. culinaris × L. culinaris ssp. orientalis and L. culinaris ssp. culinaris × L. culinaris ssp. odomensis. Normal meiosis and pollen fertility were observed in the first set of crosses, whereas chromosomal abnormalities and reduced pollen fertility were observed in the second set of crosses. These crosses were also studied for some quantitative traits. The range, mean and coefficient of variation were calculated in parents, F1, F2 and BC1 generations to determine the extent of variability generated in the cultivated lentil through introgression of genes from wild lentil. The cultivated lentil × L. culinaris ssp. orientalis crosses showed substantially higher variability for all the traits than crosses involving cultivated lentil ×L. culinaris ssp. odomensis. The results of the present study indicated that these wild subspecies can be exploited for breeding purposes and their variation can easily be utilized to widen the genetic base of the cultivated lentil.
β‐Blocker use and diabetes symptom score: results from the GEMINI study
Authors: McGill J. B. , Bakris G. L. , Fonseca V. , Raskin P. , Messerli F. H. , Phillips R. A. , Katholi R. E. , Wright J. T. , Iyengar M. , Anderson K. M. , Lukas M. A. , Dalal M. R. , Bell D. S. H. 
Published: February 2007

Aim:  The Glycemic Effect in Diabetes Mellitus: Carvedilol–Metoprolol Comparison in Hypertensives (GEMINI) trial compared the metabolic effects of two β‐blockers in people with type 2 diabetes and hypertension treated with renin–angiotensin system (RAS) blockade and found differences in metabolic outcomes. In this paper, we report the results of a prespecified secondary analysis of GEMINI that sought to determine the effect of these two β‐blockers on commonly reported symptoms.Methods:  The Diabetes Symptom Checklist (DSC), a self‐report questionnaire measuring the occurrence and perceived burden of diabetes‐related symptoms, was completed by GEMINI participants at baseline and at the end of the study (maintenance month 5). The DSC assessed symptoms in eight domains: psychology (fatigue), psychology (cognitive), neuropathy (pain), neuropathy (sensory), cardiology, ophthalmology, hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia.Results:  Comparison of the mean change in self‐reported diabetes‐related symptoms indicated a significant treatment difference favouring carvedilol over metoprolol tartrate in overall symptom score (−0.08; 95% CI −0.15, −0.01; p = 0.02) and in the domains for hypoglycaemia symptoms (−0.12; 95% CI −0.23, −0.02; p = 0.02) and hyperglycaemia symptoms (−0.16; 95% CI −0.27, −0.05; p = 0.005). Carvedilol resulted in fewer perceived diabetes‐related symptoms in patients with diabetes and hypertension.Conclusion:  Carvedilol resulted in a lower perceived burden of diabetes‐related symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension. The addition of a well‐tolerated β‐blocker to RAS blockade may improve hypertension treatment and quality of life in patients with diabetes.
The influence of age and body mass index on the metabolic syndrome and its components
Authors: Alexander C. M. , Landsman P. B. , Grundy S. M. 
Published: February 2007

Objective:  The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of ageing and body mass index (BMI) on the revised National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)‐defined metabolic syndrome, its components, diabetes and coronary heart disease prevalence using the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Methods:  Data from adults aged 20 and older who received morning physical examinations after a fast of at least 9 h (n = 7959), representing 196.8 million Americans were used in this analysis. The population was stratified by age deciles and BMI categories using standard definitions of overweight and obesity. Due to small sample size, those few individuals with BMI <18.5 were excluded.Results:  Fasting glucose, diabetes and systolic blood pressure (SBP) seem to have a linear relationship with age and BMI, that is, increasing BMI seems to linearly reduce the age decile when the mean exceeds the NCEP cutpoint. Regardless of BMI, the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension increases with age. Triglyceride levels and prevalence of metabolic syndrome follow a pattern that is less linear. Fasting insulin and C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels correlate better with BMI than age. Diastolic BP and HDL cholesterol for men and women (analysed separately) did not correlate with either age or BMI.Conclusion:  For each component of the metabolic syndrome and associated factors, there is a complex interaction between ageing and obesity. Some components are associated with obesity but not ageing (e.g. CRP), while others are associated with both obesity and ageing (e.g. glucose). Even when the association exists, the specific relationship can appear to be more (e.g. SBP) or less (e.g. triglycerides) linear.
N‐butyldeoxynojirimycin causes weight loss as a result of appetite suppression in lean and obese mice
Authors: Priestman D. A. , Van Der Spoel A. C. , Butters T. D. , Dwek R. A. , Platt F. M. 
Published: February 2007

Aim:  To determine the mechanism of weight loss caused by high doses of N‐butyldeoxynojirimycin (NB‐DNJ) in healthy lean and leptin–deficient obese (ob/ob) mice.Methods:  Healthy lean and obese mice were treated with NB‐DNJ by the following methods: admixed with their diet, delivered by subcutaneously implanted mini‐pumps or by intraperitoneal or intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection. Daily changes in body weight and food intake were recorded during the experimental period. The effect of NB‐DNJ treatment on subcutaneous adipose tissue and on epididymal fat pads was measured.Results:  Lean mice treated with NB‐DNJ, admixed with their diet, lost weight in the form of adipose tissue. This resulted in a 40% reduction in skin thickness (control, 358 ± 11 μm; NB‐DNJ treated 203 ± 6 μm) and a reduction in epididymal fat pad weights after 5 weeks of treatment at 2400 mg/kg/day (control, 0.0154 ± 0.001; NB‐DNJ treated, 0.0026 ± 0.0005 as ratios of fat pad weight to total body weight). Following the depletion of adipose tissue mass, the mice grew normally and did not have any reduction in lean mass. Obese mice treated with NB‐DNJ also lost weight or gained weight at a greatly reduced rate compared with non‐treated controls. Body weights at 6 months of age were: lean control, 29.10 ± 1.15 g; lean NB‐DNJ treated, 22.73 ± 0.29 g; obese control, 63.25 ± 1.5 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated from 5 weeks of age, 35.30 ± 1.68 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated from 12 weeks of age, 38.84 ± 1.26 g. Both the lean and obese groups of mice treated with NB‐DNJ ate up to 30% less than untreated controls. Daily food intake (powder diet) were: lean control, 4.15 ± 0.54 g; obese control, 4.14 ± 0.2 g; lean NB‐DNJ treated 2.9 ± 0.37 g; obese NB‐DNJ treated, 2.88 ± 0.47 g. Mice treated with the N‐substituted galactose imino sugar analogue, N‐butyldeoxygalactonojirimycin (NB‐DGJ) did not lose weight. Mice experienced similar weight loss or lack of weight gain when fed a restricted diet that mimics the drug‐induced level of food consumption. Delivery of 2 nmol NB‐DNJ by ICV injection into lean mice also caused similar reductions in food intake. Food intake: saline vehicle, 4.30 ± 0.12 g; NB‐DNJ, 3.37 ± 0.19 g; NB‐DGJ, 4.03 ± 0.16 g; 2‐deoxyglucose, 4.7 ± 0.15 g.Conclusion:  NB‐DNJ causes weight loss as a result of reduced food consumption due to central appetite suppression.
Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The Struggle for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development
Authors: Cornwall Andrea , Harrison Elizabeth , Whitehead Ann 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTGender and development has grown enormously as a field over the last thirty years. In this introduction, we interrogate the ambivalence that underpins feminist engagement with development and examine what current dilemmas may suggest about the relationship between feminist knowledge and development practice. In recent years, there has been growing frustration with the simplistic slogans that have come to characterize much gender and development talk, and with the gap between professed intention and actual practice in policies and programmes. Questions are now being asked about what has become of ‘gender’ in development. This collection brings together critical reflections on some ideas about gender that have become especially resonant in development narratives, particularly those that entail popularization and the deployment of iconic images of women. This introduction explores more closely the issues raised by such myth‐making, arguing that these myths stem from exigencies within the politics and practices of development bureaucracies, within the difficult politics of feminist engagement with development policy and practice and within feminist politics itself.
Earth Mother Myths and Other Ecofeminist Fables: How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell
Authors: Leach Melissa 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe notion that women are ‘closer to nature’, naturally caring for land, water, forests and other aspects of the environment, has held powerful sway in certain development circles since the 1980s. Along with the rise in global environmental concern, ‘women, environment and development’ (WED) perspectives gained ground among many donor agencies and NGOs, complementing and sharing core assumptions with earlier‐established ‘women in development’ (WID) discourses. The materialist dimensions of WED were bolstered by fables about women's natural, cultural or ideological closeness to nature grounded in varieties of ecofeminist analysis. This proved a seductive mix for agencies wishing simultaneously to promote environmental protection and WID, as well as for certain forms of feminist activism and sisterhood‐construction, such as those around the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. This contribution revisits these narratives and the politics of this strategic fix in the development of international environmentalism and explores the sustained critiques of these ecofeminist fables by feminist scholars and activists from the early 1990s onwards. It provides a critical review of the approach to gender and the environment in some current donor, NGO and other policy documents, which draw little from the feminist critiques of the 1990s. The author reflects on how, and for whom, women–nature links might have practical or strategic value today.
Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti‐Corruption Force?
Authors: Goetz Anne Marie 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThere is currently a myth in the making: that women are less corrupt than men. Recently some aid donors have cited statistical evidence that countries with larger numbers of women in politics and in the workforce have lower levels of corruption. That this finding can be explained by the fact that there are more women in politics and the workforce in liberal democracies that are anyway less corrupt than poorer less liberal regimes does not detract from the eagerness with which some development actors are seizing upon the potential role women might play in fighting corruption. The myth of women's incorruptibility is not, of course, new. It is grounded in essentialist notions of women's higher moral nature and an assumed propensity to bring this to bear on public life, and particularly on the conduct of politics. After demonstrating that some of the recent studies about gender and corruption record perceptions about propensities to engage in corrupt behaviour, this contribution suggests rather that the gendered nature of access to politics and public life shapes opportunities for corruption. In addition, corruption can be experienced differently by women and men, which has implications for anti‐corruption strategies. A gendered analysis of corruption is in fact a useful entry‐point to the examination of the gendered nature of accountability failures, and of gender‐specific gaps in current attempts to promote good governance.
Listening to language at birth: evidence for a bias for speech in neonates
Authors: Vouloumanos Athena , Werker Janet F. 
Published: February 2007

Abstract The nature and origin of the human capacity for acquiring language is not yet fully understood. Here we uncover early roots of this capacity by demonstrating that humans are born with a preference for listening to speech. Human neonates adjusted their high amplitude sucking to preferentially listen to speech, compared with complex non‐speech analogues that controlled for critical spectral and temporal parameters of speech. These results support the hypothesis that human infants begin language acquisition with a bias for listening to speech. The implications of these results for language and communication development are discussed.
The role of type and token frequency in using past tense morphemes correctly
Authors: Nicoladis Elena , Palmer Andrea , Marentette Paula 
Published: February 2007

Abstract Type and token frequency have been thought to be important in the acquisition of past tense morphology, particularly in differentiating regular and irregular forms. In this study we tested the role of frequency in two ways: (1) in bilingual children, who typically use and hear either language less often than monolingual children and (2) cross‐linguistically: French and English have different patterns of frequency of regular/irregular verbs. Ten French‐English bilingual children, 10 French monolingual and 10 English monolingual children between 4 and 6 years watched a cartoon and re‐told the story. The results demonstrated that the bilingual children were less accurate than the monolingual children. Their accuracy in both French and English regular and irregular verbs corresponded to frequency in the input language. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that children learn past tense morphemes by analogy with other words in their vocabularies. We propose a developmental sequence based on conservative generalization across a growing set of verbs.
Immigration Geopolitics Beyond the Mexico–US Border
Authors: Coleman Mathew 
Published: February 2007

AbstractDespite the centrality of Mexico–US border policing to pre‐ and post‐9/11 US immigration geopolitics, perhaps the most significant yet largely ignored immigration‐related fallout of the so‐called war on terrorism has been the extension of interior immigration policing practices away from the southwest border. As I outline in this paper, these interior spaces of immigration geopolitics—nominally said to be about fighting terrorism, but in practice concerned with undocumented labor migration across the Mexico–US border—have not emerged accidentally. Rather, the recent criminalization of immigration law, the sequestering of immigration enforcement from court oversight and the enrollment of proxy immigration officers at sub‐state scales have been actively pursued so as to make interior enforcement newly central to US immigration geopolitics. I argue here that these embryonic spaces of localized immigration geopolitics shed new light on the spatiality of US immigration governance, which has typically been thought of by geographers as active predominantly at the territorial margins of the state. I conclude the paper with some thoughts as to how geographers might rethink the what and where of contemporary US immigration geopolitics.
Leaky Borders and Solid Citizens: Governing Security, Prosperity and Quality of Life in a North American Partnership
Authors: Gilbert Emily 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States in March 2005, proposes a dramatic reshaping of the continent. This is no simple plan for the intensification of economic and security cooperation. The SPP is much more expansive and includes quality of life issues such as education, science and technology, the environment, and health. But what does it mean that there is an emergent concern with biopolitics, that is, with the lives and bodies of the region's citizens, at the trilateral level? How are these citizens being imagined in the new regional vision? What are the implications for states and sovereignty? This paper addresses these questions by turning first to the trope of “partnership” as it emerges in the SPP, and then to the ways that borders and population mobility are being construed. The discourse of “partnership” signals a new political rationality that is reconfiguring the relationship between the North American states, their markets and their citizens. The repercussions for citizens and citizenship are especially significant, and are most clearly apparent vis‐à‐vis border policies, as I discuss in the following section. While external borders are being hardened against most foreign nationals, mobility across internal borders is becoming more differentiated: more penetrable for some, and impassable for others. The SPP thus promotes a divisive and striated regional space that will help perpetuate the ongoing tensions around illegal immigrants and undocumented workers in North America.
“Skilled, Cheap, and Desperate”1: Non‐tenure‐track Faculty and the Delusion of Meritocracy
Authors: Purcell Mark 
Published: February 2007

AbstractOver the past 25 or so years, geographers have produced sophisticated critical tools to examine systems like patriarchy, racism, and heteronormativity. However, they have not used those critical tools to examine the problem of institutional hierarchy in the academy. There are many kinds of institutional hierarchy, but the paper focuses on one particular structure: the difference between tenure‐track and non‐tenure‐track faculty. I call for much greater critical reflection on the existence and experience of non‐tenure‐track faculty in geography. I argue that it is essential to undermine the structures and assumed wisdom of the hierarchy, for the sake of non‐tenure‐track faculty, the discipline, and the academy as a whole. Destabilizing the structures requires multiple strategies. I argue that one key strategy is for non‐tenure‐track faculty to tell their stories, to offer their critical perspective from the lower rungs of the hierarchy. The last part of the paper is an autobiographical account designed to give a better idea of how one such story might look.