bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rosiglitazone is more effective than metformin in improving fasting indexes of glucose metabolism in severely obese, non‐diabetic patients
Authors: Brunani A. , Caumo A. , Graci S. , Castagna G. , Viberti G. , Liuzzi A. 
Published: March 2007

Aim:  In obese patients, the diet‐induced weight loss markedly improves glucose tolerance with an increase in insulin sensitivity and a partial reduction of insulin secretion. The association with metformin treatment might potentiate the effect of diet alone.Methods:  From patients admitted to our Nutritional Division for diet programme, we selected obese, non‐diabetic, uncomplicated patients with age 18–65 years and body mass index 35–50 kg/m2 and studied the effects of a 6‐month pharmacological treatment with either metformin (850 mg twice daily) or rosiglitazone (4 mg twice daily) on possible changes in body weight, fat mass, glucose and lipids metabolism.Results:  A significant weight loss and reduction of fat mass was demonstrated with metformin (−9.7 ± 1.8 kg and −6.6 ± 1.1 kg) and also with rosiglitazone (−11.0 ± 1.9 kg and −7.2 ± 1.8 kg), without fluid retention in either treatment group. Rosiglitazone administration induced a significant decrease in glucose concentration (4.7 ± 0.1 vs. 4.4 ± 0.1 mmol/l, p < 0.005) and insulin‐circulating level (13.6 ± 1.5 vs. 8.0 ± 0.,7 μU/ml, p < 0.005), an increase in insulin sensitivity as measured by homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) of insulin sensitivity (68.9 ± 8.8 vs. 109.9 ± 10.3, p < 0.005) with a concomitant decrease in β‐cell function as measured by HOMA of β‐cell function (163.2 ± 16.1 vs. 127.4 ± 8.4, p < 0.005). In contrast, metformin did not produce any significant effect on blood glucose concentration, insulin level and HOMA2 indexes. No adverse events were registered with pharmacological treatments.Conclusion:  Our study shows that in severely obese, non‐diabetic, hyperinsulinaemic patients undergoing a nutritional programme, rosiglitazone is more effective than metformin in producing favourable changes in fasting‐based indexes of glucose metabolism, with a reduction of both insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia. In spite of previous studies reporting rosiglitazone‐induced body weight gain, in our study the joint treatment with diet and rosiglitazone was accompanied by weight loss and fat mass reduction.
Fluid circulation related to post‐Messinian extension, Thassos Island, North Aegean
Authors: BOULVAIS P. , BRUN J.‐P. , SOKOUTIS D. 
Published: March 2007

AbstractIn the North Aegean Domain, Thassos Island contains a Plio‐Pleistocene basin controlled by a large‐scale flat‐ramp extensional system with a potential décollement located at depth within a marble unit. Numerous mineralizations associated with normal faults of Plio‐Pleistocene age are the sign of fluid circulation during extension. Two main generations of fluid flow are recognized, related to Plio‐Pleistocene extension. A first circulation under high‐temperature conditions (about 100–200°C) resulted in dolomitization of marbles near the base of the Plio‐Pleistocene basin. The dolomites are characterized by low δ18O values (down to 11‰ versus Standard Mean Ocean Water). Some cataclastic deformation affected the dolomites. Hydrothermal quartz that crystallized in extension veins above a blind ramp also has low δ18O values (about 13‰). This shows that high‐temperature fluids moved up from the décollement level toward the surface. A second downward circulation of continental waters at near‐surface temperature is documented by calcite veins in fault zones and at the base of the Plio‐Pleistocene basin. These veins have O isotope values relatively constant at about 23–25‰ and C isotope values intermediate between the high δ13C value of the carbonate host rock (about 1–3‰ versus Peedee Belemnite) and the low δ13C value of soil‐derived carbon (−10‰). The calcites associated with the oxidative remobilization of primary sulphide Zn–Pb mineralization of Thassos carbonates have comparable O and C isotope compositions. Hot fluids, within the 100–200°C temperature range, have likely contributed to the weakening of the lower marble unit of Thassos and, thus, to the process of décollement.
Revascularization and remodelling of pancreatic islets grafted under the kidney capsule
Authors: Morini Sergio , Brown Melissa L. , Cicalese Luca , Elias George , Carotti Simone , Gaudio Eugenio , Rastellini Cristiana 
Published: March 2007

AbstractThe revascularization and the structural changes resulting from interactions between the graft and the host were investigated in transplanted pancreatic islets under the kidney capsule. Islets were isolated from mice pancreata and transplanted in syngeneic diabetic animals. Graft‐bearing kidneys were collected on different days post‐transplant and processed for light microscopy, immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy. A numerical analysis was performed in order to compare the percentage number of the different types of cells in native islets and at different time points after the transplant. Recipient animals reversed diabetes within 4 days. An intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test was performed to determine islet functionality under stressful conditions. During the initial few days post‐transplant, the islets showed peculiar shapes and the graft tended to aggregate along the vessels. Starting at days 4–7 post‐transplant, islets were revascularized from vessels connected to both the cortical and the capsular vascular network of the kidney. From day 7–14 post‐transplant, the vessels progressively appeared more similar in features and size to those of in situ pancreatic islets. Both the percentage number of the different cell types and the distribution of Alpha, Beta and Delta cells inside the graft were significantly different as compared with intact islets, demonstrating quantitative and structural changes after the engraftment. No concomitant proliferation of Beta cells was detected using a bromodeoxyuridin staining method. Despite the fact that quick revascularization preserved a large mass of tissue, the remodelling process of the graft and the newly formed vascularization led to a different organization of the endocrine tissue as compared with intact in situ islets. This constitutes the morphological basis for alterations of the normal intercellular interactions and may explain the altered secretory cell function often observed in transplant.
Neuronal preconditioning with the antianginal drug, bepridil
Authors: Gáspár Tamás , Kis Béla , Snipes James A. , Lenzsér Gábor , Mayanagi Keita , Bari Ferenc , Busija David W. 
Published: March 2007

AbstractIt has recently been shown that the antianginal drug bepridil (BEP) activates mitochondrial ATP‐sensitive potassium (mitoKATP) channels and thus confers cardioprotection. Our aim was to investigate whether BEP could induce preconditioning in cultured rat cortical neurons. Although BEP depolarized isolated and in situ mitochondria and increased reactive oxygen species generation, no acute protection was observed. However, a 3‐day BEP‐treatment elicited dose‐dependent delayed neuroprotection against 180 min of oxygen–glucose deprivation (cell viability: untreated, 52.5 ± 0.85%; BEP 1 μmol/L, 59.6 ± 1.53%*; BEP 2.5 μmol/L, 71.9 ± 1.23%*; BEP 5 μmol/L, 95.3 ± 0.89%*; mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05 vs. untreated) and 60 min of glutamate excitotoxicity (200 μmol/L; cell viability: untreated, 54.1 ± 0.69%; BEP 1 μmol/L, 61.2 ± 1.19%*; BEP 2.5 μmol/L, 78.1 ± 1.67%*; BEP 5 μmol/L, 91.2 ± 1.20%*; mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05 vs. untreated), and inhibited the reactive oxygen species surge upon glutamate exposure. The protection was antagonized with co‐application of the superoxide dismutase mimetic M40401, but not with reduced glutathione, catalase, or with the mitoKATP blocker 5‐hydroxydecanoate. Furthermore, BEP treatment resulted in increased levels of phosphorylated protein kinase C, manganese‐dependent superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and Bcl‐2. Our results indicate that BEP induces delayed neuronal preconditioning which is dependent on superoxide generation but perhaps not on direct mitoKATP activation.
Minimal role for caspase 12 in the unfolded protein response in oligodendrocytes in vivo
Authors: Sharma Ramaswamy , Gow Alexander 
Published: March 2007

AbstractThe unfolded protein response (UPR) is implicated in many neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer, Parkinson and prion diseases, and the leukodystrophy, Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease (PMD). Critical features of degeneration in several of these diseases involve activation of cell death pathways in various neural cell populations, and the initiator caspase 12 has been proposed to play a central role. Accordingly, pharmacological strategies to inhibit caspase 12 activity have received remarkable attention in anticipation of effecting disease amelioration. Our investigation in animal models of PMD demonstrates that caspase 12 is activated following accumulation of mutant proteins in oligodendrocytes; however, eliminating caspase 12 activity does not alter pathophysiology with respect to levels of apoptosis, oligodendrocyte function, disease severity or life span. We conclude that caspase 12 activation by UPR signaling is an epiphenomenon that plays little discernable role in the loss of oligodendrocytes in vivo and may portend the inconsequence of caspase 12 to the pathophysiology of other protein conformational diseases.
Personnel in cadaveric organ transplant‐related hospital units faced with living liver donation: an attitudinal study in a Spanish hospital with a cadaveric and living liver transplant programme
Authors: Ríos A. , Ramírez P. , Rodríguez M. M. , Martínez L. , Montoya M. J. , Lucas D. , Parrilla P. 
Published: March 2007

AbstractIntroduction: The attitude of health‐care personnel is fundamental for the procurement of transplant organs, especially in those services that are related to transplantation. The objective of this study is to find out the attitude towards living liver donation among personnel who work in transplant‐related services in a hospital with a cadaveric and living organ transplant programme.Materials and Methods: A random sample was taken and stratified by type of service and job category (N=330), in services related to transplantation (procurement units, transplant units and follow‐up units). Attitude was evaluated using a validated psychosocial questionnaire. Control group: a random sample of personnel in clinical services that do not have any direct contact with solid organ transplantation. Student's t‐test and the χ2 test complemented by a logistical regression analysis were applied in the statistical analysis.Results: The questionnaire completion rate was 94% (N=309). Only 10% (N=31) of respondents are in favour of living liver donation if it is unrelated, but another 67% (N=207) are in favour if donation were for a relative. Of the rest, 11% (N=33) do not agree with living liver donation and the remaining 12% (N=38) are undecided. In the control group, attitude towards living liver donation is favourable in 82% (N=344) (P=0.0908). An analysis of the variables that influence attitude shows that the following factors are significantly related: (1) age (P=0.037); (2) a respondent's belief that he or she may need a transplant in the future (P=0.013); and (3) if it were necessary, a willingness to receive a donated living liver organ (P=0.000). Of the variables that have the most influence on attitude towards living liver donation in the bivariate analysis, there are two variables that are statistically significant in the multivariate analysis: (1) age and (2) willingness to accept a donated living liver organ from a relative if it were needed (OR=14.19). There is also a close relationship between attitude towards living liver donation and attitude towards living kidney donation (P=0.000)Conclusions: There is a favourable attitude towards living liver donation among personnel in units related to the transplantation and donation process, although it is less favourable than expected. Therefore, it will be necessary to increase this level of acceptance and to improve information about the matter if we want to encourage living liver donation. The youngest workers in these units are those who are most in favour, which leads us to believe that there is a hopeful future for this type of liver donation that is so necessary given the cadaveric organ deficit.
Profound suppression of chronic hepatitis C following superinfection with hepatitis B virus
Authors: Coffin Carla S. , Mulrooney‐Cousins Patricia M. , Lee Samuel S. , Michalak Tomasz I. , Swain Mark G. 
Published: March 2007

AbstractBackground: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) share similar transmission routes; thus, coinfection is frequent. The consequences of acute HBV infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C are unknown.Methods: We describe a 47‐year‐old male with chronic hepatitis C who acquired HBV and then spontaneously and apparently completely cleared HCV but developed chronic hepatitis B. Five serum samples collected over 14 months and lymphoid cells obtained after acquiring HBV were tested for HCV and HBV by both standard assays and ultra‐sensitive polymerase chain reaction/nucleic acid hybridization (PCR/NAH) (sensitivity ∼2 IU/ml).Results: After superinfection with HBV, HBV surface antigen‐positive chronic hepatitis developed with readily detectable HBV DNA. All sera collected after acquisition of HBV, which tested negative for HCV RNA by standard laboratory assay, were positive for HCV genomes when analysed by PCR/NAH. Peripheral lymphoid cells carried HBV DNA and covalently closed circular DNA, but were negative for HCV.Conclusions: This is the first reported case of profound suppression of chronic hepatitis C after superinfection with HBV and establishment of chronic hepatitis B. It is hypothesized that HBV infection precipitated generalized and/or virus‐specific cellular immune responses that profoundly suppressed HCV replication and yet failed to inhibit progression to chronic hepatitis B.
The Bounded Rationality Bias in Managerial Valuation of Real Options: Theory and Evidence from IT Projects*
Authors: Tiwana Amrit , Wang Jijie , Keil Mark , Ahluwalia Punit 
Published: March 2007

ABSTRACTAlthough real options theory normatively suggests that managers should associate real options with project value, little field research has been conducted to test whether they suffer from systematic biases in doing so. We draw on the notion of bounded rationality in managerial decision making to explore this understudied phenomenon. Using data collected from managers in 88 firms, we show that managers exhibit what we label the bounded rationality bias in their assessments: They associate real options with value only when a project's easily quantifiable benefits are low, but fail to do so when they are high. The study also contributes the first set of empirical measures for all six types of real options. The study contributes to managerial practice by identifying the conditions under which managers must be vigilant about inadvertently neglecting real options and by providing a simple approach for assessing real options in technology development projects.
Dynamic Financial Analysis: Classification, Conception, and Implementation
Authors: Eling Martin , Parnitzke Thomas 
Published: March 2007

AbstractDynamic financial analysis (DFA) models an insurance company's cash flow in order to forecast assets, liabilities, and ruin probabilities, as well as full balance sheets for different scenarios. In the past years DFA has become an important tool for the analysis of an insurance company's financial situation. In particular, it is a valuable instrument for solvency control, which is now becoming important as regulators encourage insurance companies to determine risk‐based capital using internal risk management models. This article considers three aspects: First, we discuss the reasons why DFA is of special importance today. Second, we classify DFA in the context of asset liability management and analyze its fundamental concepts. As a result, we identify several implementation problems that have not yet been adequately considered in the literature, and therefore our third aspect is a discussion of these areas. In particular we consider the generation of random numbers and the modeling of nonlinear dependences in a DFA framework.
Social Security Bonds and the Concept of Reciprocal Responsibility
Authors: Holahan William L. , Kroncke Charles O. 
Published: March 2007

AbstractThe current debate and parallel monologues about Social Security suffer from a failure to distinguish between money and bonds. Consequently, it is impossible to discuss intelligently the solvency or affordability of the Social Security system. In this article, we present a new graph that clarifies this crucial distinction. Bonds are evidence of loans to be repaid on a schedule. These loans can be strictly monetary, as in the private sector, or a mix of monetary and moral, as in the intergenerational reciprocity of obligations. To treat public sector bonds as strictly monetary is economic error as fundamental as denying the existence of public goods.
The Problem of Asymmetric Information: A Simulation of How Insurance Markets Can Be Inefficient
Authors: Eckles David L. , Halek Martin 
Published: March 2007

AbstractThe concept of adverse selection is discussed in virtually all academic insurance textbooks. However, undergraduate students have rarely had the experience of purchasing insurance which may limit their ability to fully comprehend the market inefficiencies created by asymmetric information. We provide a classroom simulation of an insurance market that highlights the concept of adverse selection and its impact on the insurance industry. Participants are asked to make insurance decisions in pursuit of their own interests under different market conditions. In the absence of perfect information, participants actively observe that a socially optimal outcome does not occur.
History, Emotion, and the Body: Mourning in Post‐9/11 Fiction
Authors: Bird Benjamin 
Published: March 2007

AbstractThis article examines the way in which a number of US fiction writers have responded to the political challenge of 9/11 in ways that counter the militaristic response of their government and insist on the necessity for a process of mourning and self‐examination that military action is intended to displace. The fictions I examine emphasize the need for the contemporary US to sharpen its sense of history, in particular, to develop greater understanding of the prehistory of 9/11 and reconsider the past in light of the Al‐Qaeda attacks. They insist on the need for reflection on the body, both as a site of trauma and as a palimpsest‐like history of the human subject, which may be examined for clues to the interrelation of past and present. Moreover, they insist on the need to consider the close connection between American corporations and violence, especially that which is abetted or provoked by corporations in the wider culture. I include discussion of four prose works: ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’, by Jonathan Safran Foer; ‘The Good Life’, by Jay McInerney; ‘Cosmopolis’, by Don DeLillo, and ‘The Suffering Channel’, by David Foster Wallace, a novella‐length piece from his last collection of stories ‘Oblivion’.
‘Where Sydney Cove Her Lucid Bosom Swells’: The Songs of an Imagined ‘Nation’, 1786–1789
Authors: Garvey Nathan 
Published: March 2007

Abstract This essay won the 2006 Literature Compass Graduate Essay Prize, Eighteenth Century Section. In the years between the mooting of the Botany Bay scheme (1786), and the news of the founding of the New South Wales penal colony reaching England (1789), a number of songs were written which envisaged the Botany Bay colony as a new ‘nation’. While the survival of many of these pieces in broadside ballad form have led to their being placed within the Australian ‘transportation ballad’ tradition, they were not folk ballads but popular songs which generally used the themes of transportation and the penal colony to make satirical or comic comment on contemporary English politics and society. This article examines the contexts and meanings of these songs, examining their reception, audiences and publishing history, in an effort to question their placement within the Australian ballad tradition, to interrogate the views expressed on nation‐building and on the structure of eighteenth‐century British society, and to examine the connections between Georgian elite and popular cultures.
Surgical repair of femoral fractures in New World camelids: five cases (1996–2003)
Authors: Shoemaker RW , Wilson DG 
Published: March 2007

Five New World camelids were admitted to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine between 1996 and 2003 for evaluation of femoral fractures. There were three alpacas and two llamas. Four of the animals were female and three were less than 3 months of age. Fracture configurations consisted of distal physeal fractures (three), a comminuted diaphyseal/metaphyseal fracture, and a transverse diaphyseal fracture. Fractures were diagnosed with a combination of physical examination and radiographs in all cases. All five fractures were repaired with internal fixation and three animals were discharged from the hospital with fractures that healed. One cria underwent successful internal fixation but died from pulmonary oedema during recovery from anaesthesia. Postoperative complications were rare and limited to inadequate fracture stability in one alpaca and prolonged recovery to weight bearing in another. One llama with a comminuted metaphyseal fracture, repaired with a 4.5 mm dynamic compression plate, subsequently had catastrophic failure of the bone 17 days after surgery. Overall the clients were pleased with the outcome of discharged animals. Although femoral fractures are considered rare, they pose a unique opportunity for the large animal veterinarian to successfully achieve fracture union with the aid of internal fixation.
Mapping of a disease susceptibility locus in the HLA region for Primary Biliary Cirrhosis in Japan
Authors: Yahagi Kaichiro , Ueno Yoshiyuki , Nomura Eiki , Fukushima Koji , Moritoki Yuki , Kogure Takayuki , Kojima Yasuhiro , Negoro Kenichi , Kinouchi Yoshitaka , Shimosegawa Tooru 
Published: March 2007

Aims:  Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive cholestatic disease of unknown pathogenesis. However, several reports have demonstrated the involvement of genetic backgrounds in this syndrome. The aim of this study is to examine the genetic disequilibrium in the HLA region in Japanese patients using six microsatellite markers.Methods:  Genomic DNAs were obtained from 73 patients with PBC (patient cohort) and 186 healthy volunteers (control cohort). Genetic polymorphisms at six microsatellite markers (D6S1568, DQ.CAR, D6S273, TNF‐d, C1‐2‐A, C3‐2‐11) were determined using fluorescence‐labeled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genetic analyzer. Allele frequencies were estimated by direct counting and the genotypic differentiation test was performed by the Markov chain method using Genepop software.Results:  Among these six microsatellite markers, four markers in the patients significantly (P < 0.05) deviated from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium: DQ.CAR (P = 0.0278), D6S273 (P = 0.0168), TNF‐d (P = 0.0089) and C1‐2‐A (P = 0.0005). Genotypic differentiation test between the patients and controls demonstrated that DQ.CAR (P = 0.0111), TNF‐d (P = 0.0051) and C1‐2‐A (P = 0.0371) were significant. Finally, allelic association test revealed before correction for multiple testing demonstrated allele125 of TNF‐d (P = 0.00065, Pc = 0.0052) and allele246 of C1‐2‐A (P = 0.0026 Pc = 0.033) had significant association after Bonferroni’s correction.Conclusion:  Disequilibrium mapping using microsatellite markers was a useful method to narrow a disease susceptibility locus. The possible susceptibility gene in the HLA region is thought to be localized around or in the TNF gene. Further studies seem feasible using more closely distributed microsatellite markers or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to narrow the susceptibility locus in PBC in Japanese populations.