bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Protective effects of dietary ginger (Zingiber officinales Rosc.) on lindane‐induced oxidative stress in rats
Authors: Ahmed Rafat S. , Suke Sanvidhan G. , Seth Vandana , Chakraborti Ayanabha , Tripathi Ashok K. , Banerjee Basu D. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe protective effect of dietary feeding of Zingiber officinales Rosc. (ginger) against lindane‐induced oxidative stress was investigated in male albino rats. Oxidative stress was monitored by estimating the extent of lipid peroxidation, activities of the oxygen free radical (OFR) scavenging enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) and the status of the glutathione redox cycle antioxidants. Lindane administration (30 mg/kg bw orally for 4 weeks) was associated with enhanced lipid peroxidation and compromised antioxidant defenses in rats fed a normal diet. Concomitant dietary feeding of ginger (1%w/w) significantly attenuated lindane‐induced lipid peroxidation, accompanied by modulation of OFR scavenging enzymes as well as reduced glutathione (GSH) and the GSH dependent enzymes glutathione peroxidase (Gpx), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) in these rats. These findings suggest that a diet containing naturally occurring compounds is effective in exerting protective effects by modulating oxidative stress. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of SBD.4A – a defined multicomponent preparation of Angelica sinensis – in periodontal regeneration models
Authors: Zhao Hui , Alexeev Alexei , Sharma Vrushali , Guzman Lorenzo Dave T. , Bojanowski Krzysztof 
Published: April 2008

AbstractPeriodontitis is a major cause of tooth motility and loss, resulting in destruction of the supporting structures of the tooth, including periodontal ligaments and alveolar bone. Periodontal surgery can slow the progression of the disease, but is costly, invasive, limited by contraindications and technique‐sensitive. Recently, non‐invasive pharmacological treatments using proteinaceous biologicals have become available. Here, for the first time, the bone‐regenerative capabilities of a non‐proteinaceous biological – SBD.4A – a novel, stable multicomponent growth factor isolated from a medicinal plant Angelica sinensis are reported. SBD.4A was tested in osteoblast proliferation and differentiation systems, as well as in a fibroblast‐secreted hyaluronic acid assay. Furthermore, SBD.4A was formulated in a slow release matrix and tested in the rat calvarial defect model. Apart from the previously reported strong stimulation of angiogenesis, fibroblast growth and collagen synthesis – the activities needed for periodontal regeneration – SBD.4A enhanced the deposition of hyaluronic acid and proliferation of osteoblasts in vitro, as well as bone regeneration in the rat calvarial defect model. Together, these results indicate the beneficial effect of SBD.4 on periodontal ligament and bone regeneration making the case for further development of this botanical growth factor. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of Soymida febrifuga leaf extracts
Authors: Reddy Boreddy Srinivas , Reddy Boreddy Purushotham , Raghavulu Sapireddy Veer , Ramakrishna Sistla , Venkateswarlu Y. , Diwan Prakash V. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe present study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of hexane (LH), methanol (LM) and aqueous (LA) extracts of Soymida febrifuga (Maliaceae) leaves, which is a traditional folk medicine in India. No pharmacological evaluation of this plant (except antiplasmodial activity) has been reported to date. Antioxidant activity of different extracts was evaluated by DPPH free radical scavenging activity, taking total phenolic content (TPC) as an index. Antimicrobial activity was tested against six bacterial and five fungal strains using the agar hole diffusion method and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) were determined for all the test organisms against the extracts. The results showed that the methanol and aqueous extracts of leaf had a higher antioxidant activity and total phenolic content than the hexane extract. The antioxidant activity and TPC of the extracts were highly correlated. Extracts also showed several degrees of antimicrobial activity against different microbes. The methanol extract was more potent against Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida tropicana. The lowest MIC values obtained for LM, LA and LH were 78, 156, 625 µg/mL against A. fumigatus, C. tropicana and C. albicans, respectively. Hence, this study confirms that Soymida febrifuga leaves possess potent antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Far‐upstream precursors of heavy precipitation events on the Alpine south‐side
Authors: Martius O. , Schwierz C. , Davies H. C. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis study examines the upper‐level flow pattern that foreshadows the comparatively frequent co‐occurrence of heavy precipitation events on the Alpine south‐side together with potential vorticity (PV) streamers aloft over western Europe. It is hypothesized that each streamer is itself preceded by a dynamically distinctive and a thermodynamically active flow associated with the space–time development, and the ultimate breaking over Europe, of synoptic‐scale Rossby waves.The ECMWF (European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts) ERA‐40 dataset is used to examine the nature of a streamer's coherent precursor pattern by deriving seasonal composites of refined Hovmöller diagrams, the upper‐level pattern of the PV and its gradient, and mid‐tropospheric diabatic heating. For the autumn and winter seasons, the composites reveal a significant and coherent wave‐packet precursor signal in the PV field that can be traced back ∼1 week to the central and eastern Pacific. Contemporaneously, the coherent signatures in the composite PV gradient field and diabatic heating fields are conducive to triggering and/or supporting the wave signal, and also contribute to subsequent downstream wave‐breaking. In spring the composite precursor PV signal appears over, and propagates eastward from, the Atlantic basin, and its limited zonal extent is attributed to the lack of a coherent PV waveguide. In summer, the signal appears essentially in situ in the Hovmöller analysis but extends across the Atlantic basin in the PV composite results.An indication is also provided of the extent to which the composite characteristics are evident in two individual events, and note is made of the study's implications for medium‐range forecasting. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society
Halogen‐substituted phenylalanines as enantioselective selectors for enantioselective discrimination of amino acids: effect of halogen
Authors: Kumari S. , Prabhakar S. , Vairamani M. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractHalogen‐substituted phenylalanines with a halogen X (X = F, Cl, Br or I) in the para position in the aromatic ring of L‐phenylalanine are used as enantioselective selectors to explore the effect of the halogen substituent on the enantioselective discrimination of amino acids. Enantioselective discrimination is achieved by investigating the collision‐induced dissociation spectra of the trimeric complex ion, [CuII(ref)2(A)‐H]+, generated by electrospraying a solution of a mixture of D‐ or L‐analyte amino acid (A), enantioselective reference ligand (ref) and CuCl2. The relative abundances of fragment ions resulting from the competitive loss of reference and analyte amino acids are considered for measuring the degree of enantioselective discrimination by applying the kinetic method. The enantioselectivity of the p‐halogenated derivatives of L‐Phe increases from fluorine to iodine for the studied amino acids (except for acidic amino acids). The validity of the present method has also been checked by cross enantioselective experiments using p‐iodo‐D‐phenylalanine as the reference in place of p‐iodo‐L‐phenylalanine. The enantioselectivity of fluoro‐substituted L‐phenylalanine is less than that obtained with L‐phenylalanine. The high inductive effect of the fluorine atom decreases the strength of the π‐π stacking interaction. The presence of halogen affects the enantioselectivity by inductive and steric effects. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hydrophilic interaction chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry analysis of carbohydrate‐related metabolites from Arabidopsis thaliana leaf tissue
Authors: Antonio Carla , Larson Tony , Gilday Alison , Graham Ian , Bergström Ed , Thomas‐Oates Jane 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis work describes the development and application of an on‐line liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) method using hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) coupled to negative ion mode electrospray ionisation ion trap mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) for the analysis of highly polar carbohydrate‐related metabolites commonly found in plants, ranging from reducing and non‐reducing sugars and sugar alcohols to sugar phosphates. Using this method, separation and detection of a mixture of eight authentic standard compounds containing glucose (Glc), sucrose (Suc), raffinose, verbascose, mannitol, maltitol, glucose‐6‐phosphate (Glc6P) and trehalose‐6‐phosphate (Tre6P) were achieved in less than 15 min. The method is rapid, robust, selective, and sensitive, with limits of detection (LODs) ranging from 0.2 µM obtained for neutral sugars, to 1.0 µM obtained for sugar alcohols, and 2.0 µM obtained for negatively charged sugar phosphates. We have studied the negative ion collision‐induced dissociation (CID) fragmentation behaviour of the non‐reducing raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose. Mainly Bi and Ci glycosidic and Ai cross‐ring structurally informative cleavages are observed. We have applied this HILIC/ESI‐MS method for the analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana wild‐type Columbia‐0 (Col‐0) and its starchless phosphoglucomutase mutant (pgm1) leaf extracts. The method was used to quantify Glc, Suc, raffinose, and Glc6P in A. thaliana extracts. Data obtained using this HILIC/ESI‐MS method were compared with those obtained using a comparable porous graphitic carbon‐based LC/ESI‐MS method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rapid screening for cyclo‐dopa and diketopiperazine alkaloids in crude extracts of Portulaca oleracea L. using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Xing Jie , Yang Zijuan , Lv Beibei , Xiang Lan 
Published: April 2008

AbstractA simple and rapid qualitative liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method was developed and validated for screening cyclo‐dopa and diketopiperazine alkaloids in crude extracts of Portulaca oleracea L. at sub‐ppm levels. An electrospray ionization orbitrap mass spectrometer, which provides accurate full scan MS and MS/MS data, was used in this study. After simple extraction with ethanol and purification by AB‐8 resin, the extracts were subjected to LC/MS/MS analysis. A high mass tolerance (10 ppm) was used in the initial screening to filter the full scan MS data. The cyclo‐dopa and diketopiperazine alkaloid standards gave limits of detection (LODs) at or below 5 ng/mL. The results also indicated that the method had an acceptable precision for day‐to‐day use in the identification of compounds. The alkaloids could be identified based on their MS/MS data, elemental compositions, and retention behavior. This system was used to assay trace amounts of cyclo‐dopa and diketopiperazine alkaloids in crude extracts of Portulaca oleracea L., leading to the identification of 5/2 confirmed/unconfirmed cyclo‐dopa and 7/6 confirmed/unconfirmed diketopiperazine alkaloids, respectively. The screening method considerably reduces the time and cost involved in the identification of cyclo‐dopa and diketopiperazine alkaloids in Portulaca oleracea L., as well as being a simple and convenient approach to the identification of other structural families of natural products. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Small area random effects models for capture/recapture methods with applications to estimating coverage error in the U.S. Decennial Census
Authors: Malec Donald , Maples Jerry 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe synthetic estimation approach currently in use for estimating net coverage error in the U.S. Census is evaluated using random effects models. The synthetic estimates from the 2000 Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (ACE) Revision II are evaluated in two parts. First, a model is used, which produces the synthetic estimate components and, second, the model is enlarged to include random effects at the small area level. Retaining all the fixed effects that characterize the synthetic model produces an extremely large, saturated random effects model. Hence, we selectively reduce the random effects model with an aim towards keeping all fixed effects in order to fairly evaluate the synthetic model. A super‐population model is used for the bivariate outcome of erroneous enumeration rate and census omission rate. Both these outcomes were previously estimated using the current synthetic estimation approach. A major hurdle in this project was the development of defensible input data for the small areas due to the large number of effects in the synthetic model, which render simple design‐based estimates for small areas crossed with post‐strata, mostly, unusable. For this initial approach, the small areas were the 540 local census offices. Bayesian methods are employed to evaluate these models. The advantage of this model is that it can evaluate a key assumption about the homogeneity of rates within a post‐stratum and if the assumption holds, then this model reduces to the current synthetic model. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Some Properties of Starch Extracted from Three Thai Aromatic Fruit Seeds
Authors: Tongdang Taewee 
Published: April 2008

AbstractStarches extracted from three Thai aromatic fruit seed, chempedak (Artocarpus integer), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.), and durian (Durio zibethinus L./ Murr) – with mung bean starch for comparison – were investigated for chemical compositions, amylose content, resistant starch content, granule morphology and size distribution, crystalline pattern, swelling power and solubility, pasting and thermal properties. The extracted starches were of very high purity. The fruit seed starches had lower amylose contents and much smaller granule size than mung bean starch and hence lower pasting viscosities. Chempedak and jackfruit seed starches were very similar in swelling power, solubility, gelatinization temperature and enthalpy, while the properties of durian seed starch were close to those of mung bean starch. The information obtained in this work could be very useful for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics applications. Further study on other functional and molecular properties should be considered.
Consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages for 10 weeks increases postprandial triacylglycerol and apolipoprotein-B concentrations in overweight and obese women
Authors: Swarbrick Michael M. , Stanhope Kimber L. , Elliott Sharon S. , Graham James L. , Krauss Ronald M. , Christiansen Mark P. , Griffen Steven C. , Keim Nancy L. , Havel Peter J. 
Published: April 2008

Fructose consumption in the USA has increased over the past three decades. During this time, obesity, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome have also increased in prevalence. While diets high in fructose have been shown to promote insulin resistance and increase TAG concentrations in animals, there are insufficient data available regarding the long-term metabolic effects of fructose consumption in humans. The objective of the present study was to investigate the metabolic effects of 10-week consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages in human subjects under energy-balanced conditions in a controlled research setting. Following a 4-week weight-maintaining complex carbohydrate diet, seven overweight or obese (BMI 26·8–33·3 kg/m2) postmenopausal women were fed an isoenergetic intervention diet, which included a fructose-sweetened beverage with each meal, for 10 weeks. The intervention diet provided 15 % of energy from protein, 30 % from fat and 55 % from carbohydrate (30 % complex carbohydrate, 25 % fructose). Fasting and postprandial glucose, insulin, TAG and apoB concentrations were measured. Fructose consumption increased fasting glucose concentrations and decreased meal-associated glucose and insulin responses (P = 0·0002,P = 0·007 andP = 0·013, respectively). Moreover, after 10 weeks of fructose consumption, 14 h postprandial TAG profiles were significantly increased, with the area under the curve at 10 weeks being 141 % higher than at baseline (P = 0·04). Fructose also increased fasting apoB concentrations by 19 % (P = 0·043v.baseline). In summary, consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages increased postprandial TAG and fasting apoB concentrations, and the present results suggest that long-term consumption of diets high in fructose could lead to an increased risk of CVD.
A potential danger of flexible endoscopy sheaths: a detached tip and how to retrieve it
Authors: Awad Z , Pothier D D 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObjective:To report an unrecognised complication of fibre-optic nasendoscopy, and its management.Case report:A protective, transparent nasendoscopy sheath is often used to reduce nasendoscope ‘downtime’ and to prevent cross infection, with minimal effect on the obtained image quality. We report the case of a subcutaneous tracheostomy procedure during which, without undue strain, the tip of the sheath became detached and acted as a foreign body within the trachea. A urological stone retrieval basket was used to retrieve the sheath, after failure of conventional methods.Discussion:Clinicians should be aware that any instrument introduced into the airway has the potential to fail and in the process produce a foreign body which may cause serious complications. The urological stone retrieval basket may be a useful addition to the current set of instruments used to deal with difficult airway foreign bodies.
Front-line epistaxis management: let's not forget the basics
Authors: Ho E C , Chan J-Y 
Published: April 2008

AbstractObjective:We postulated that epistaxis patients frequently have their nose packed in the accident and emergency department without any reasonable prior attempt at nasal assessment and nasal cautery.Design:Telephone survey of 104 accident and emergency departments.Results:A 100 per cent response rate was achieved. In all but one of the departments surveyed, first line management was carried out by accident and emergency doctors. Seventy-four per cent of accident and emergency doctors perform nasal cautery as first line management. Within accident and emergency departments, the availability and usage of head illumination, nasal speculums, topical anaesthesia and suction was grossly suboptimal. Only one-sixth of the accident and emergency doctors surveyed had received training in the management of epistaxis, whilst 81 per cent of accident and emergency departments would admit nasally packed patients under the ENT team.Conclusion:Despite the majority of accident and emergency doctors claiming to attempt nasal cautery before packing, this is unlikely to be effective if performed without the correct equipment. Better training and equipment need to be provided to accident and emergency doctors in order to optimise the management of epistaxis patients. This could potentially reduce inappropriate admissions.
Aging, health expenditure, proximity to death, and income in Finland
Authors: HÄKKINEN UNTO , MARTIKAINEN PEKKA , NORO ANJA , NIHTILÄ ELINA , PELTOLA MIKKO 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis study revisits the debate on the ‘red herring’, i.e. the claim that population aging will not have a significant impact on health care expenditure (HCE), using a Finnish data set. We decompose HCE into several components and include both survivors and deceased individuals into the analyses. We also compare the predictions of health expenditure based on a model that takes into account the proximity to death with the predictions of a naïve model, which includes only age and gender and their interactions. We extend our analysis to include income as an explanatory variable. According to our results, total expenditure on health care and care of elderly people increases with age but the relationship is not as clear as is usually assumed when a naïve model is used in health expenditure projections. Among individuals not in long-term care, we found a clear positive relationship between expenditure and age only for health centre and psychiatric inpatient care. In somatic care and prescribed drugs, the expenditure clearly decreased with age among deceased individuals. Our results emphasize that even in the future, health care expenditure might be driven more by changes in the propensity to move into long-term care and medical technology than age and gender alone, as often claimed in public discussion. We do not find any strong positive associations between income and expenditure for most non-LTC categories of health care utilization. Income was positively related to expenditure on prescribed medicines, in which cost-sharing between the state and the individual is relatively high. Overall, our results indicate that the future expenditure is more likely to be determined by health policy actions than inevitable trends in the demographic composition of the population.
Characterizing mixed microbial population dynamics using time-series analysis
Authors: Trosvik Pål , Rudi Knut , Næs Tormod , Kohler Achim , Chan Kung-Sik , Jakobsen Kjetill S , Stenseth Nils C 
Published: April 2008

Abstract
Due to a general shortage of temporal population data, dynamic structures in microbial communities remain largely unexplored. Knowledge of community dynamics is, however, essential for understanding the mechanisms by which microbes interact. Here, we have used a computational approach for quantification of bacteria in multispecies populations, generating data for time-series modeling. Moreover, we have used online FR-IR spectroscopy to monitor the main metabolic processes. The approach enabled us to provide a functional description of the parameters governing the population dynamics in a three-species model bacterial community, demonstrating density-dependent regulation, interspecies competition and even a case of cooperation between two species. Since the field of microbial ecology has yet to embrace many of the concepts and methods developed for the study of ecology of higher plants and animals, the realization that microbial systems can be analyzed within the same conceptual framework as other ecosystems is of fundamental importance.