bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Association of Common Haplotypes of Surfactant Protein A1 and A2 (SFTPA1 and SFTPA2) Genes with Severity of Lung Disease in Cystic Fibrosis
Authors: Choi Eun Hwa , Ehrmantraut Mary , Foster Charles B. , Moss Joel , Chanock Stephen J. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractMost individual cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mutations appear not to correlate directly with severity of lung damage in cystic fibrosis (CF). Components of innate immunity, namely, mannose‐binding lectin (MBL2), and surfactant protein A1 and A2 genes (SFTPA1 and SFTPA2), were shown to be critical in pulmonary host defenses. A pilot association study was conducted to identify genetic modifiers of lung disease in adult patients with CF. The structural and promoter (−221x/y) variants of MBL2, variants at codons 19, 50, 62, and 219 of SFTPA1, and at codons 9, 91, and 223 for SFTPA2, were studied in 135 adults with CF and compared to their forced expired volume in 1 sec (FEV1), diffusion of CO (DLCO), and other pulmonary scores. Predicted FEV1 was significantly lower in adults with the SFTPA1 6A3 allele and SFTPA2 1A1 allele (P = 0.01 and 0.009, respectively). The extended haplotype 6A3/1A1, which includes SFTPA1 and SFTPA2, was associated with lower pulmonary function, using FEV1 (P = 0.005) and poor pulmonary scores which were determined by American Medical Association, American Thoracic Society, and modified Shwachman‐Kulczycki scores. Lower FEV1 and DLCO values were associated with MBL2 coding variants in those who had the ΔF508 CFTR mutation (P = 0.03 and 0.004, respectively). These results support the current hypothesis that variants in pulmonary host defense molecules are potentially genetic modifiers of pulmonary disease in CF. Further work in larger populations is required to provide important new insights into the pathogenesis of CF. Pediatr Pulmonol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterizations of chitosan‐ammonium triflate (NH4CF3SO3) complexes by FTIR and impedance spectroscopy
Authors: Ahmad Khiar A. S. , Puteh R. , Arof A. K. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractPolymer electrolytes using chitosan and ammonium triflate (NH4CF3SO3) were prepared using the solution cast technique. FTIR confirms the complexation of chitosan and NH4CF3SO3 with shifting of the amine peak at 1591 cm–1 to 1573 cm–1. The highest conducting sample contains 50 wt% of NH4CF3SO3 and at room temperature has a conductivity of 8.91 × 10–7 S cm–1. The model of Rice and Roth has been used to calculate the number density of mobile ions (n), mobility (μ) and diffusion constant (D). Conductivity was found to be dependent on the number of mobile ions. Analysis of electrical modulus and dissipation factor (tan δ) shows that charge transport occurs through a hopping mechanism. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Observation of enhanced long‐lasting phosphorescence in Y2O2S:RE3+ (RE = Lu, Gd) phosphors
Authors: Liu Chunbo , Che Guangbo 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThe long‐lasting phosphorescence properties of Y2O2S:RE3+ (RE = Lu, Gd) phosphors and the undoped Y2O2S matrix are systematically investigated in this paper. The brightness and persistent time of the defect‐related emission around 540 nm in the undoped Y2O2S matrix are greatly enhanced when doped with Lu3+ or Gd3+ ions. Thermoluminescence measurement has been performed and the possible mechanism of this phenomenon was also investigated on the basis of the thermoluminescence data. Based on the time dependence of the phosphorescence intensity, the long‐lasing phosphorescence in this system is considered to be due to the thermally activated electron–hole recombination at shallow traps. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Influence of the electric field on BN conical structures
Authors: Azevedo Sérgio , de Brito Mota Fernando 
Published: January 2006

AbstractWe apply first‐principles calculations to investigate the effect of the electric field on boron nitride conical structures. The studies involve nanocones with different disclination angles. We applied fields of 0.3 V/Å and 0.6 V/Å parallel to the cone axis. It is shown that a small field does not affect the stability of such structures; however, for a larger field, a decrease of 0.1 eV/atom for all structures is observed. We also find modification in the energy gap due to the intensity of the electric field. The bandgap decreased proportionally to the intensity of the electric field, indicating that these results have consequences in the field emission properties of these structures. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2006
Predicting identity consolidation from self‐construction, eudaimonistic self‐discovery, and agentic personality
Authors: Schwartz Seth J. 
Published: January 2006

ABSTRACTThe present study was conducted to ascertain the extent to which three alternative perspectives on identity development (self‐construction, eudaimonistic self‐discovery, and agentic personality) relate to various indices of identity consolidation drawn from Erikson, identity status, and identity capital. A total of 183 participants (21% males; 78% ethnic minorities) completed measures drawn from Eriksonian, identity status, self‐construction, eudaimonistic self‐discovery, and identity capital perspectives. Self‐construction, eudaimonistic self‐discovery, and agentic personality (as operationalized within the identity capital model) each showed differential patterns of relationships to measures of identity consolidation, suggesting that all three strategies can be used to develop a sense of identity.
Multiple solutions of supercritical elliptic problems in perturbed domains
Authors: Molle Riccardo , Passaseo Donato 
Published: January 2006

We are concerned with existence and multiplicity of nontrivial solutions for the Dirichlet problem

\mathrm{\Delta }u + |u|^{p−2}u = 0

in

Ω

,

u = 0

on

∂Ω

, where

Ω

is a bounded domain of

\mathbb{R}^{n}

,

n \geq 3

, and

p > \frac{2n}{n−2}

. We show that suitable perturbations of the domain, which modify its topological properties, give rise to a number of solutions which tends to infinity as the size of the perturbation tends to zero (some examples show that the perturbed domains may be even contractible). More precisely, we prove that for all

k \in \mathbb{N}

, if the size of the perturbation is small enough (depending on

k

), there exist at least

k

pairs of nontrivial solutions, which concentrate near the perturbation as the size of the perturbation tends to zero. The method we use, which is completely variational, gives also further informations on the qualitative properties of the solutions; in particular, these solutions (which may change sign) do not have more than

k

nodal regions and at least two solutions (which minimize the corresponding energy functional) have constant sign.

Résumé

Nous étudions l'existence et la multiplicité de solutions pour le problème de Dirichlet

\mathrm{\Delta }u + |u|^{p−2}u = 0

,

u≢0

en

Ω

,

u = 0

sur

∂Ω

, où

Ω

est un ouvert borné de

\mathbb{R}^{n}

,

n \geq 3

, et

p > \frac{2n}{n−2}

. Nous démontrons que l'existence et le nombre de solutions sont liés à certaines perturbations du domaine, qui modifient ses propriétés topologiques. Chaque perturbation dépend d'un paramètre

ɛ

(l'épaisseur de la perturbation) ; quand

ɛ\rightarrow 0

, le nombre de solutions tend à l'infini et les solutions se concentrent près de la perturbation (des examples montrent que les domaines perturbés peuvent même être contractiles). Plus précisément, nous prouvons que pour tout

k\in \mathbb{N}

il existe

ɛ_{k} > 0

tel que, pour tout

ɛ\in ]0,ɛ_k[

, le problème a au moins

k

paires de solutions. La méthode que nous suivons, qui est complètement variationnelle, donne aussi des informations sur les propriétés qualitatives des solutions. En particulier, ces solutions (qui peuvent changer de signe) ne peuvent pas avoir plus que

k

régions nodales ; de plus, au moins deux solutions (qui minimisent la fonctionnelle de l'énergie) ont signe constant.
Forced vibrations of wave equations with non-monotone nonlinearities
Authors: Berti Massimiliano , Biasco Luca 
Published: January 2006

We prove existence and regularity of periodic in time solutions of completely resonant nonlinear forced wave equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions for a large class of non-monotone forcing terms. Our approach is based on a variational Lyapunov–Schmidt reduction. It turns out that the infinite dimensional bifurcation equation exhibits an intrinsic lack of compactness. We solve it via a minimization argument and a-priori estimate methods related to the regularity theory of [P. Rabinowitz, Periodic solutions of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 20 (1967) 145–205].

Résumé
On prouve l'existence et la régularité de solutions périodiques en temps d'équations des ondes non linéaires forcées, complètement résonnantes, avec des conditions au bord de Dirichlet, pour une grande classe de termes forcants non-monotones. Notre approche est basée sur une réduction de Lyapunov–Schmidt variationnelle. L'équation de bifurcation en dimension infinie présente un manque intrinsèque de compacité. Nous la résolvons par un argument de minimisation et à l'aide d'estimations a priori inspirées de la théorie de la régularité de [P. Rabinowitz, Periodic solutions of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 20 (1967) 145–205].
Inhibition of MCF‐7 breast cancer cell proliferation by MCF‐10A breast epithelial cells in coculture
Authors: Spink Barbara C. , Cole Richard W. , Katz Barbara H. , Gierthy John F. , Bradley Laurie M. , Spink David C. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractA coculture system was developed to investigate the interactions between MCF‐10A breast epithelial cells and MCF‐7 breast cancer cells stably expressing the green fluorescent protein (MCF‐7‐GFP). Studies with this MCF‐10A/MCF‐7‐GFP coculture system on microtiter plates and on reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel), revealed paracrine inhibition of MCF‐7‐GFP cell proliferation. Epidermal growth factor, which in monocultures modestly enhanced MCF‐7‐GFP and markedly increased MCF‐10A cell proliferation, greatly inhibited MCF‐7‐GFP cell proliferation in MCF‐10A/MCF‐7‐GFP cocultures. 17β‐Estradiol, which stimulated MCF‐7‐GFP but not MCF‐10A cell proliferation in monoculture, inhibited MCF‐7‐GFP cell proliferation in MCF‐10A/MCF‐7‐GFP cocultures, an effect that was blocked by the antiestrogen, ICI 182,780. On Matrigel, complex MCF‐10A/MCF‐7‐GFP cellular interactions were observed in real time that resulted in the formation of acinus‐like structures. These results indicate a role of normal epithelial cells in inhibiting tumor‐cell proliferation and demonstrate the utility of this coculture system as a model of early paracrine control of breast cancer.
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor inhibition in transgenic Alzheimer‐like Tg2576 mice by scopolamine favours the amyloidogenic route of processing of amyloid precursor protein
Authors: Liskowsky Wolfgang , Schliebs Reinhard 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThe molecular mechanisms of the interrelationship between cholinergic neurotransmission, processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and β‐amyloid (Aβ) production in vivo are still less understood. To reveal any effect of cholinergic dysfunction on APP processing in vivo, 11‐month‐old transgenic Tg2576 mice with Aβ plaque pathology received intraperitoneal injections of scopolamine at a daily dosage of 2 mg/kg body weight for 14 days in order to suppress cortical cholinergic transmission by chronic inhibition of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Scopolamine treatment of transgenic Tg2576 mice resulted in increased levels of fibrillar Aβ(1–40) and Aβ(1–42), while the soluble, SDS‐extractable Aβ level remained unchanged as compared to vehicle‐injected Tg2576 mice. α‐Secretase activity determined in cortical tissue from scopolamine‐treated Tg2576 mice was lower by about 30% as compared to that assayed in control mice, while β‐secretase activity and BACE1 protein expression appeared unaffected by scopolamine treatment. The amount of sAPPα, the product secreted by α‐secretase‐mediated APP cleavage, and the unprocessed APP were assayed in the soluble and membrane fraction, respectively, of cortical tissue preparations from treated and control mice by Western blotting. Using the anti antibody 6E10 which specifically labels human sAPPα and full length APP in transgenic Tg2576, an enhanced APP level was detected in the membrane fraction from treated mice as compared to controls, while in the soluble fraction scopolamine treatment did not affect the protein level of sAPPα. These data indicate an accumulation of APP in cortical membrane fraction in scopolamine‐treated Tg2576 mice presumably due to the decreased level of α‐secretase‐mediated APP cleavage, and further suggest that chronic suppresion of cortical muscarinic cholinergic transmission may alter the balance between α‐ and β‐secretory APP processing by favouring the amyloidogenic route.
Postpartum hemorrhage in resource‐poor settings
Authors: Geller S.E. , Adams M.G. , Kelly P.J. , Kodkany B.S. , Derman R.J. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractDespite the strong interest of international health agencies, worldwide maternal mortality has not declined substantially over the past 10 years. Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the most common cause of maternal death across the world, responsible for more than 25% of deaths annually. Although effective tools for prevention and treatment of PPH are available, most are not feasible or practical for use in the developing world where many births still occur at home with untrained birth attendants. Application of many available clinical solutions in rural areas would necessitate substantial changes in government infrastructure and in local culture and customs surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Before treatment can be administered, prompt and accurate diagnosis must be made, which requires training and appropriate blood measurement tools. After diagnosis, appropriate interventions that can be applied in remote settings are needed. Many uterotonics known to be effective in reducing PPH in tertiary care settings may not be useful in community settings because they require refrigeration and/or skilled administration. Moreover, rapid transfer to a higher level of care must be available, a challenge in many settings because of distance and lack of transportation. In light of these barriers, low‐technological replacements for treatments commonly applied in the developed‐world must be utilized. Community education, improvements to emergency care systems, training for birth attendants, misoprostol, and Uniject™ have shown promise as potential solutions. In the short term, it is expedient to capitalize on practical opportunities that utilize the existing strengths and resources in each community or region in order to implement appropriate solutions to save the lives of women during childbirth.
Disentangling leanness and agility: An empirical investigation
Authors: Narasimhan Ram , Swink Morgan , Kim Soo Wook 
Published: January 2006

AbstractManufacturing plant managers have sought performance improvements by adhering to the guiding principles of leanness and agility. Lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing paradigms have also received considerable attention in operations management literature. However, paradoxically, the extant literature is lacking in clarity and fails to delineate with sufficient precision how and why leanness and agility differ. Given the resource constraints within which most manufacturing firms have to operate today, it is useful, if not critical, to develop a good understanding of how these paradigms differ and what their constituent dimensions are. Such an understanding is also essential for developing and testing theories relating to leanness and agility.Through a literature review we discuss leanness and agility in two ways: (1) as manufacturing paradigms and (2) as performance capabilities. Our empirical study attempts to determine whether lean and agile forms occur with any degree of regularity in manufacturing plants. The results confirm the existence of homogeneous groups that resemble lean and agile performing plants, and they identify important differences pertaining to their constituent performance dimensions. The results indicate that while the pursuit of agility might presume leanness, pursuit of leanness might not presume agility. While the performance capability differences across the empirically derived groups accord well with expected differences across plants that excel in leanness and agility, the practice differences across the groups are not as clearly distinguished. We discuss the implications of our findings for further research and theory development.
The Restructuring Stages of Israeli Arab Industrial Entrepreneurship
Authors: Sofer Michael , Schnell Izhak 
Published: January 2006

The current pattern of industrial development in Arab settlements in Israel represents, above all, adaptation to restructuring processes operating throughout the Israeli economy. The result may be viewed as a form of peripheral industrialization of small plants specializing in less-advanced industrial production. The peripheralization process and the fact that Israeli Arab industry has remained marginal to the national economy should be understood in the context of the structural conditions in which Arab entrepreneurship is embedded. The impact of three forces is stressed: government policy, large corporations, and the internal sociocultural properties peculiar to the Arab population in Israel. The resulting form of industrialization is based on restructuring processes formatted as a number of distinctive development stages, which must be understood within the wider framework of Israel's economic restructuring. The dominant form of capitalist production affected the transformation of the Israeli Arab economy at each period, from state management to corporate dominance, and currently succeeded by a new accumulation regime affected by globalization processes. Furthermore, majority–minority relations affected it with each pole embedded in its own ethnic milieu. These majority–minority relations, supported by a selective government policy, have since been superseded by the relations conducted between the Jewish-dominated core and the Israeli-Arab-subordinated periphery. The result of this process has diversely affected both economic poles, and continues to influence the form of Arab industrialization, branch selection, and rate of plant openings. Furthermore, the result is a failure by Arab entrepreneurs to penetrate the more privileged sectors of the national economy, partly because of the failure of the Israeli political and economic elite to respond to Arab efforts at expansion into the larger economy.
SUSPECTS: enabling fast and effective prioritization of positional candidates
Authors: Adie E. A. , Adams R. R. , Evans K. L. , Porteous D. J. , Pickard B. S. 
Published: January 2006

Abstract
Summary: SUSPECTS is a web-based server which combines annotation and sequence-based approaches to prioritize disease candidate genes in large regions of interest. It uses multiple lines of evidence to rank genes quickly and effectively while limiting the effect of annotation bias to significantly improve performance.
Availability: SUSPECTS is freely available at
Contact: euan.adie@ed.ac.uk
Supplementary information: A quick-start guide in Macromedia Flash format is available at and Excel spreadsheets detailing the comparative performance of the software are included as Supplementary material.
REMORA: a pilot in the ocean of BioMoby web-services
Authors: Carrere Sébastien , Gouzy Jérôme 
Published: January 2006

Abstract
Summary: Emerging web-services technology allows interoperability between multiple distributed architectures. Here, we present REMORA, a web server implemented according to the BioMoby web-service specifications, providing life science researchers with an easy-to-use workflow generator and launcher, a repository of predefined workflows and a survey system.
Contact: Jerome.Gouzy@toulouse.inra.fr
Availability: The REMORA web server is freely available at , sources are available upon request from the authors.
Validation of a symptom diary for patients with gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease
Authors: PUHAN M. A. , GUYATT G. H. , ARMSTRONG D. , WIKLUND I. , FALLONE C. A. , HEELS‐ANSDELL D. , DEGL'INNOCENTI A. , VAN ZANTEN S. J. O. VELDHUYZEN , TANSER L. , BARKUN A. N. , CHIBA N. , AUSTIN P. , EL‐DIKA S. , SCHÜNEMANN H. J. 
Published: January 2006

SummaryBackground  Symptom diaries are potentially attractive but, because of concerns about patient compliance, they have had limited use in clinical trials. We assessed the validity and responsiveness of a symptom diary for patients with gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease.Methods  We included 215 patients with gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease after starting treatment for 4 weeks with 40 mg esomeprazole once daily. Patients recorded whether they experienced night‐time heartburn (yes/no), the severity of daytime heartburn on a scale from 1 (no heartburn) to 4 (severe heartburn) and their antacid use. Patients also completed a number of disease‐specific and preference‐based Health‐related Quality of Life questionnaires at baseline and follow‐up.Results  Consistent with a priori predictions, daytime heartburn showed moderate to strong correlations with the Quality of Life in Reflux and Dyspepsia questionnaire (0.36–0.67) and four scales of symptom severity (0.36–0.70) for baseline, follow‐up and change scores, but low correlations with the Standard Gamble. Responsiveness of the daytime heartburn item was excellent with a mean change from baseline to follow‐up of −1.3 (95% CI −1.4 to −1.1) and a standardized response mean of 1.33 while responsiveness of the daily antacid use item was moderate (mean change scores −1.8 tablets taken, 95% CI −2.3 to −1.3 and standardized response mean of 0.64).Conclusions  The excellent psychometric properties of this simple gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease diary make it an attractive measure for future trials.
Healing of lymphocytic gastritis after Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy – a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled multicentre trial
Authors: MADISCH A. , MIEHLKE S. , NEUBER F. , MORGNER A. , KUHLISCH E. , RAPPEL S. , LEHN N. , BAYERDÖRFFER E. , SEITZ G. , STOLTE M. 
Published: January 2006

SummaryBackground  An association between Helicobacter pylori infection and lymphocytic gastritis has been postulated.Aim  To assess the long‐term effect of H. pylori eradication therapy on lymphocytic gastritis in a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, multicentre trial.Methods  Patients with lymphocytic gastritis were randomized to receive either 1‐week triple therapy for eradication of H. pylori or omeprazole plus placebo. Endoscopy and histology was performed at baseline and after 3 and 12 months. Patients of the omeprazole/placebo group with persistent lymphocytic gastritis after 12 months received crossover open‐label triple therapy.Results  Fifty‐one patients were randomized. Intention‐to‐treat analysis revealed a trend to a higher healing rate of lymphocytic gastritis 3 months after triple therapy compared with omeprazole/placebo (83.3% vs. 57.7%, 95% CI for RR: 0.8–2.8, P = 0.06). After 12 months, the healing rate of lymphocytic gastritis was significantly higher after triple therapy compared with omeprazole/placebo (intention‐to‐treat 95.8% vs. 53.8%, 95% CI for RR: 1.1–3.5, P = 0.01). All patients (n = 5) who received crossover triple therapy, showed healing of lymphocytic gastritis after further 12 months.Conclusion  Our study demonstrates that 1‐week triple therapy aiming at eradication of H. pylori leads to a complete and long‐lasting resolution of lymphocytic gastritis in the majority of patients.