bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Antiplatelet therapy mitigates cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in congestive heart failure due to myocardial infarctionThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the special issue Bridging the Gap: Where Progress in Cardiovascular and Neurophysiologic Research Meet.
Authors: Sanganalmath Santosh K. , Barta Judit , Takeda Nobuakira , Kumamoto Hideo , Dhalla Naranjan S. 
Published: April 2008

Antiplatelet agents such as sarpogrelate (SAR), a 5-hydroxytryptamine antagonist, and cilostazol (CIL), a phosphodiesterase-III inhibitor, are used in the management of peripheral vascular disease. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that both SAR and CIL prevent cardiac remodeling and improve cardiac function in congestive heart failure (CHF) due to myocardial infarction (MI). Post-MI rats (3 weeks after the occlusion of coronary artery) received either vehicle (MI+V, n = 36), SAR (MI+SAR; 5 mg·kg–1·day–1, n = 35) or CIL (MI+CIL; 5 mg·kg–1·day–1, n = 34) from day 21 to day 56. Sham-operated rats (n = 29) served as controls. Electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and hemodynamic parameters were measured on day 56. Treatment of infarcted animals with SAR or CIL significantly improved the left ventricular (LV) dimensions, LV fractional shortening, cardiac output, stroke volume, mean arterial pressure, LV diastolic function, and LV systolic pressure, as well as rates of LV pressure development and pressure decay. Although cardiac hypertrophy was reduced, both SAR and CIL had no effect on infarct size or MI-associated QTc prolongation. However, SAR decreased whereas CIL increased the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias and the mean number of episodes in infarcted animals. Mortality during the treatment period was decreased by 17% with SAR and increased by 10% with CIL, but these changes were not significant statistically. The data in this study suggest that both SAR and CIL prevent cardiac remodeling and improve cardiac function in MI-induced CHF; however, CIL unlike SAR increased the incidence of arrhythmias and adversely affected patient mortality.
Genetic possibilities for altering sunflower oil quality to obtain novel oilsThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the special issue Bridging the Gap: Where Progress in Cardiovascular and Neurophysiologic Research Meet.
Authors: Škorić Dragan , Jocić Siniša , Sakač Zvonimir , Lečić Nada 
Published: April 2008

The sunflower is one of the four most important oilseed crops in the world, and the nutritional quality of its edible oil ranks among the best vegetable oils in cultivation. Typically up to 90% of the fatty acids in conventional sunflower oil are unsaturated, namely oleic (C 18:1, 16%–19%) and linoleic (C 18:2, 68%–72%) fatty acids. Palmitic (C 16:0, 6%), stearic (C 18:0, 5%), and minor amounts of myristic (C 14:0), myristoleic (C 14:1), palmitoleic (C 16:1), arachidic (C 20:0), behenic (C 22:0), and other fatty acids account for the remaining 10%. Advances in modern genetics, most importantly induced mutations, have altered the fatty acid composition of sunflower oil to a significant extent. Treating sunflower seeds with γ- and X-rays has produced mutants with 25%–30% palmitic acid. Sunflower seed treatment with X-rays has also resulted in mutants having 30% palmitoleic acid, while treatments with mutagenic sodium azide have produced seeds containing 35% stearic acid. The most important mutations have been obtained by treatment with dimethyl sulfate, which produced genotypes with more than 90% oleic acid. Mutants have also been obtained that have a high linoleic acid content (>80%) by treating seeds with X-rays and ethyl methanesulfonate. Of the vitamin E family of compounds, sunflower oil is known to predominantly contain α-tocopherol (>90%). Spontaneous mutations controlled by recessive genes have been discovered that significantly alter tocopherol forms and levels. The genes in question are tph1 (50% α- and 50% β-tocopherol), tph2 (0%–5% α- and 95%–100% γ-tocopherol), and tph1tph2 (8%–40% α-, 0%–25% β-, 25%–84% γ-, and 8%–50% δ-tocopherol). The existence of (mutant) genes for increased levels of individual fatty acids and for different forms and levels of tocopherol enables the development of sunflower hybrids with different oil quality. The greatest progress has been made in developing high-oleic hybrids (>90% oleic acid). There has been considerable work done recently on the development of high-oleic hybrids with altered tocopherol levels, the oil of which will have 10–20 times greater oxidative stability than that of conventional sunflower oil. While sunflower breeders work on developing hybrids with altered oil quality, medical scientists in general and nutritionists in particular will determine the parameters for the use of these novel types of oil that can improve human nutrition and be used in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
Dose-dependent anticonvulsive effect of ethanol on lindane-induced seizures in ratsThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the special issue Bridging the Gap: Where Progress in Cardiovascular and Neurophysiologic Research Meet.
Authors: Mladenović Dušan , Hrnčić Dragan , Radosavljević Tatjana , Vučević Danijela , Djurić Dragan , Rašić-Marković Aleksandra , Macut Djuro , Šušić Veselinka , Šćepanović Ljiljana , Stanojlović Olivera 
Published: April 2008

Chronic ethanol consumption is a major risk factor for epilepsy, and seizures frequently occur during the withdrawal period. The aim of our study was to investigate effects of ethanol on lindane-induced seizures in rats. Male Wistar rats were injected i.p. with one of the following 5 treatments: (i) saline, (ii) dimethylsulfoxide, (iii) lindane (8 mg/kg) (L), (iv) ethanol in doses of 0.5 g/kg (E0.5), 1 g/kg (E1), and 2 g/kg (E2), and (v) groups that received ethanol 30 min before lindane (LE0.5, LE1, and LE2). Behavioral changes were described by using a descriptive scale as follows: 0, no response; 1, head nodding, lower jaw twitching; 2, myoclonic body jerks, bilateral forelimb clonus; 3, generalized tonic–clonic convulsions; 4, status epilepticus. The incidence of convulsions in the LE2 group was significantly lower than the incidence in the L (p < 0.01) and LE0.5 groups (p < 0.05). The median grade of convulsive behavior was significantly lower in the LE2 (p < 0.01) and LE1 groups (p < 0.05) compared with the L group. Latencies to the first seizure response were not significantly different among groups. ED50 of ethanol was 1.40 (1.19–1.65). Our findings suggest that ethanol decreased severity and incidence of lindane-induced seizures in a dose-dependent manner.
SINGULAR POINTS OF QUADRATIC SYSTEMS: A COMPLETE CLASSIFICATION IN THE COEFFICIENT SPACE ℝ12
Authors: ARTES JOAN C. , LLIBRE JAUME , VULPE NICOLAE 
Published: April 2008

Planar quadratic differential systems occur in many areas of applied mathematics. Although more than one thousand papers were written on these systems, a complete understanding of this class is still missing. Classical problems, and in particular, Hilbert's 16th problem [Hilbert,1900], are still open for this class. Even when not dealing with limit cycles, still some problems have remained unsolved like a complete classification of different phase portraits without limit cycles.For some time it was thought (see [Coppel, 1966]) there could exist a set of algebraic functions whose signs would completely determine the phase portrait of a quadratic system. Nowadays we already know that this is not so, and that there are some analytical, nonalgebraic functions that also play a role when dealing with limit cycles and separatrix connections.However, it is possible to find out a set of algebraic functions whose signs determine the characteristics of all finite and infinite singular points. Most of the work up to now has dealt with this problem studying it using different normal forms adapted to some subclasses of quadratic systems. A general work useful for any quadratic system regardless of affine changes has only been done for the study of infinite singular points [Schlomiuk et al., 2005].In this paper, we give a complete global classification of quadratic differential systems according to their topological behavior in the vicinity of the finite singular points. Our classification Main Theorem gives us a complete dictionary describing the local behavior of finite singular points using algebraic invariants and comitants which are a powerful tool for algebraic computations. Linking the result of this paper with the main one of [Schlomiuk et al., 2005] which uses the same algebraic invariants, it is possible to complete the algebraic classification of singular points (finite and infinite) for quadratic differential systems.
Combining Modalities with Different Latencies for Optimal Motor Control
Authors: Bissmarck Fredrik , Nakahara Hiroyuki , Doya Kenji , Hikosaka Okihide 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
Feedback signals may be of different modality, latency, and accuracy. To learn and control motor tasks, the feedback available may be redundant, and it would not be necessary to rely on every accessible feedback loop. Which feedback loops should then be utilized? In this article, we propose that the latency is a critical factor to determine which signals will be influential at different learning stages. We use a computational framework to study the role of feedback modules with different latencies in optimal motor control. Instead of explicit gating between modules, the reinforcement learning algorithm learns to rely on the more useful module. We tested our paradigm for two different implementations, which confirmed our hypothesis. In the first, we examined how feedback latency affects the competitiveness of two identical modules. In the second, we examined an example of visuomotor sequence learning, where a plastic, faster somatosensory module interacts with a preacquired, slower visual module. We found that the overall performance depended on the latency of the faster module alone, whereas the relative latency determines the independence of the faster from the slower. In the second implementation, the somatosensory module with shorter latency overtook the slower visual module, and realized better overall performance. The visual module played different roles in early and late learning. First, it worked as a guide for the exploration of the somatosensory module. Then, when learning had converged, it contributed to robustness against system noise and external perturbations. Overall, these results demonstrate that our framework successfully learns to utilize the most useful available feedback for optimal control.
Two Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Semantic Integration during the Comprehension of Visual Real-world Events
Authors: Sitnikova Tatiana , Holcomb Phillip J. , Kiyonaga Kristi A. , Kuperberg Gina R. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractHow do comprehenders build up overall meaning representations of visual real-world events? This question was examined by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants viewed short, silent movie clips depicting everyday events. In two experiments, it was demonstrated that presentation of the contextually inappropriate information in the movie endings evoked an anterior negativity. This effect was similar to the N400 component whose amplitude has been previously reported to inversely correlate with the strength of semantic relationship between the context and the eliciting stimulus in word and static picture paradigms. However, a second, somewhat later, ERP component—a posterior late positivity—was evoked specifically when target objects presented in the movie endings violated goal-related requirements of the action constrained by the scenario context (e.g., an electric iron that does not have a sharp-enough edge was used in place of a knife in a cutting bread scenario context). These findings suggest that comprehension of the visual real world might be mediated by two neurophysiologically distinct semantic integration mechanisms. The first mechanism, reflected by the anterior N400-like negativity, maps the incoming information onto the connections of various strengths between concepts in semantic memory. The second mechanism, reflected by the posterior late positivity, evaluates the incoming information against the discrete requirements of real-world actions. We suggest that there may be a tradeoff between these mechanisms in their utility for integrating across people, objects, and actions during event comprehension, in which the first mechanism is better suited for familiar situations, and the second mechanism is better suited for novel situations.
Action Co-representation is Tuned to Other Humans
Authors: Tsai Chia-Chin , Kuo Wen-Jui , Hung Daisy L. , Tzeng Ovid J. L. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
The present study attempts to explore the process by which knowledge of another's intentional behavior in a joint-action scenario is represented through the action observation and execution network—also known as the common coding system. Participants (n = 18) were instructed to perform the complementary social Simon task under the implemented belief of interaction with either an unseen human (biological agent) or a computer program, where in fact, all response sequences from either “partner” were generated by computer. Results provide behavioral and neurophysiological evidence (P3 and S-LRP) that the believed intentionality of another person's actions is sufficient to facilitate a strong-enough agency-dependent social Simon effect to modulate action planning and anticipation. We suggest that the co-representation of human action may be an evolved biologically tuned default of the human motor system.
From High Hopes to Disillusionment: Indigenous Peoples' Struggle to (re)Gain Their Right to Self-determination
Authors: Koivurova Timo 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis article will examine three international processes wherein the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples has been taken up: the process whereby the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration), the intention to negotiate a Nordic Saami Convention (Draft Convention) and the practice of the Human Rights Committee (HRC) in monitoring the observance of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Covenant). All of these processes have enunciated indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, but any claim to such a right has met with resistance from the states, with the reasons for such resistance examined here. The aim is to study why it is so difficult to insert indigenous peoples into international law as category and, in particular, to have states accept their right to self-determination. In the conclusions, it is useful to ask whether the problems experienced in promoting the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples are mere setbacks or whether they contain elements that might inform the international movement of indigenous peoples more generally.
Cicero de Oratore 2.51-64 and Rhetoric in Historiography
Authors:   Northwood
Published: April 2008

AbstractAn analysis of Cicero's vocabulary, argumentation, and views on Greek historians in de Orat. 2.51-8 shows that he criticizes the early Roman historians for failings in both style and content. This contradicts A.J. Woodman's claim that the views of Cicero's 'Antonius' have “nothing to do with style”. Furthermore the idea that Cicero considered the exaedificatio of an historical work not to be subject to the leges historiae is based on a mistaken interpretation of de Orat. 2.63. It is argued that this text provides no theoretical foundation for a “hard core” of material subject to the leges historiae and a “superstructure” subject only to the rhetorical requirement of plausibility.
Intercultural Dialogue — An Overrated Means of Acquiring Understanding Examined in the Context of Christian Mission to Africa
Authors: Harries Jim 
Published: April 2008

AbstractIntercultural dialogue is at depth impossible, because mutual understanding is only possible in so far as cultures and languages used are common, and not different. Assuming the wrong topic of conversation will result in a realisation of error and not productive progress. Having a common language (such as English) alone does not bring mutual understanding because languages are integrally rooted in cultures. Conversations always being engaged with a view to potential and actual overhearers of all sorts, means that mutual understanding requires a clear knowledge of overhearers on both sides. Power issues and types of reasoning often being in the context and not the content of dialogue means that failure to realise the context from which someone is dialoguing is in effect misunderstanding.
Probabilistic Forecasts from the National Digital Forecast Database
Authors: Krzysztofowicz Roman , Evans W. Britt 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
The Bayesian processor of forecast (BPF) is developed for a continuous predictand. Its purpose is to process a deterministic forecast (a point estimate of the predictand) into a probabilistic forecast (a distribution function, a density function, and a quantile function). The quantification of uncertainty is accomplished via Bayes theorem by extracting and fusing two kinds of information from two different sources: (i) a long sample of the predictand from the National Climatic Data Center, and (ii) a short sample of the official National Weather Service forecast from the National Digital Forecast Database. The official forecast is deterministic and hence deficient: it contains no information about uncertainty. The BPF remedies this deficiency by outputting the complete and well-calibrated characterization of uncertainty needed by decision makers and information providers. The BPF comes furnished with (i) the meta-Gaussian model, which fits meteorological data well as it allows all forms of marginal distribution functions, and nonlinear and heteroscedastic dependence structures, and (ii) the statistical procedures for estimation of parameters from asymmetric samples and for coping with nonstationarities in the predictand and the forecast due to the annual cycle and the lead time. A comprehensive illustration of the BPF is reported for forecasts of the daily maximum temperature issued with lead times of 1, 4, and 7 days for three stations in two seasons (cool and warm).
The Case of CheckpointWatch: A Study of Organizational Practices in a Women's Human Rights Organization
Authors: Desivilya Helena Syna , Yassour-Borochowitz Dalit 
Published: April 2008

The present study aims to discern the ways whereby gender-role perceptions and women's perspectives on political conflict and peace processes inform the organizational development process, reflected in organizational structure and processes. In order to achieve this we studied CheckpointWatch, a women's voluntary organization devoted to monitoring and reporting human rights violations of Palestinians crossing Israeli military checkpoints. The research is a qualitative study. Data gathering was designed to collect information from two sources: (1) interviews with key informants in the organization, and (2) documents transmitted over the organization's internal communications network. The findings illustrate the complexities involved in the organizational development processes of a women's peace and human rights organization, its vacillation between transition into a more formalized NGO and its holding on to the social movement organization, grassroots stage. The study also demonstrates the significance of feminist ideology with its embedded complexity and internal paradoxes, which infiltrates into organizational structure, operational processes and activities. Finally, this research highlights the fundamental role of the cultural and sociopolitical context in women's organizational practices. Overall, the study contributes to organization studies by shedding light on the intricacies of organizational dynamics in women's Peace and conflict resolution organizations.
Transition into adulthood and work — findings from Network 1000
Authors: Pavey Sue , Douglas Graeme , Corcoran Christine 
Published: April 2008

This article draws upon data from a large scale project called 'Network 1000'. Network 1000 seeks to survey the changing needs and opinions of visually impaired adults. Data have been collected from 1007 visually impaired people across Great Britain. This analysis focuses upon a sub-sample of approximately 250 adults aged between 18 and 42 years. In all cases, the onset of these participants' visual impairment was during childhood (i.e. under 17 years of age). The analysis presents data in relation to their education and employment, and reflects upon the factors that seem to be associated with both. It appears that earlier onset of visual impairment is associated with higher levels of educational achievement. There was no clear link between the current level of visual impairment (at the time of interview) and educational achievement. In terms of employment, those with higher levels of educational qualification were more likely to be employed. Those with lower levels of qualifications were more likely to describe themselves as 'long term sick and disabled' or 'unemployed'. Employment rates amongst younger visually impaired people appeared higher for those who had childhood visual impairment than those who did not. This suggests a positive impact of education. Also, employment rates were generally much better amongst younger visually impaired people than those over 50 years old. Nevertheless, the reported employment rate of 40 per cent is still very low. Some time is also spent considering visually impaired adults with severe learning and communication difficulties and their lives following compulsory education, including possible explanations for their likely under-representation in the project sample.
Comparison of the Clinical Outcomes of Single- and Double-Row Repairs in Rotator Cuff Tears
Authors: Park Jin-Young , Lhee Sang-Hoon , Choi Jin-Hyung , Park Hong-Keun , Yu Je-Wook , Seo Joong-Bae 
Published: April 2008

Background Although research has demonstrated the superiority of double-row rotator cuff repair over single-row methods from a biological and mechanical point of view, few studies have compared clinical outcome of the 2 methods, and no articles have been published describing the superiority of double-row methods in clinical aspects. Hypothesis Arthroscopic double-row repair of a rotator cuff tear has superior clinical outcome to single-row repair. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods The study included 78 patients operated on for full-thickness rotator cuff tears between May 2002 and May 2004. A single-row fixation method was used in the first consecutive 40 patients, and a double-row fixation method was used in the next consecutive 38 patients. The mean age at surgery was 56 years. At 2 years after surgery, final evaluation was done with American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons and Constant scoring systems and the Shoulder Strength Index. The Shoulder Strength Index is a new evaluation method to estimate relative shoulder strength compared with the unaffected shoulder. Results At final follow-up, the average American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons scores were 91.6 in the single-row group and 93.0 in the double-row group. The Constant score was 76.7 in the single-row group and 80.0 in the double-row group. Functional outcome was improved in both groups after surgery, but there was no significant difference between the 2 groups. When the patients were further divided by size of tear, there was still no difference between the repair techniques in the patients with small to medium (<3 cm) tears. However, in patients with large to massive tears (>3 cm), the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons and Constant scores and Shoulder Strength Index were all significantly better in the group that had double-row repair. Conclusion Small to medium rotator cuff tears should be repaired with the single-row method, and large to massive tears should be repaired with the double-row method.