bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Entacapone to tolcapone switch: Multicenter double‐blind, randomized, active‐controlled trial in advanced Parkinson's disease
Authors:   The Entacapone to Tolcapone Switch Study Investigators
Published: November 2006

AbstractThis double‐blind study examined the efficacy and safety of replacing entacapone with tolcapone in fluctuating Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Patients receiving entacapone for ≥15 days were randomly assigned to continue entacapone (n = 75) or switch to tolcapone (n = 75) and were followed up for 3 weeks. Efficacy measures included changes in on time (without disabling dyskinesia) and an investigator's global assessment (IGA). The on time increased by ≥1 hour/day (primary efficacy measure) in 43% of entacapone‐treated patients and 53% of tolcapone‐treated patients, and by ≥3 hours/day in 13% and 25%, respectively. The IGA indicated moderate/marked improvements in 25% of entacapone patients and 39% receiving tolcapone. Response rates (the proportion of patients with ≥1 hour/day increase in on time and improvements on IGA) were 17% with entacapone and 32% with tolcapone. Dyskinesia was the most common adverse event affecting 29% of entacapone and 31% of tolcapone recipients. One patient in each group had elevated liver enzymes, resulting in treatment withdrawal (levels returned to normal thereafter in both cases). In conclusion, within the limits of the protocol, there was a tendency for tolcapone to offer enhanced efficacy in patients with fluctuating PD, despite optimized entacapone therapy. Tolcapone can be considered, therefore, for patients whose motor fluctuations are inadequately controlled by their existing regimen. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society
Diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging differentiates Parkinsonian variant of multiple‐system atrophy from progressive supranuclear palsy
Authors: Paviour Dominic C. , Thornton John S. , Lees Andrew J. , Jäger H. Rolf 
Published: November 2006

AbstractProgressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and the parkinsonian variant of multiple‐system atrophy (MSA‐P) may present with a similar phenotype. Magnetic resonance diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) has been shown to be a sensitive discriminator of MSA‐P from Parkinson's disease (PD). We studied 20 PSP, 11 MSA‐P, 12 PD patients and 7 healthy controls in order to investigate whether regional apparent diffusion coefficients (rADCs) help distinguish PSP and MSA‐P; whether rADCs are correlated with clinical disease severity scores; and the relationship between brainstem and cerebellar volumes and rADCs in PSP and MSA‐P. The Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Hoehn and Yahr score, Mini Mental State Examination, and frontal assessment battery were recorded in all patients. Regional ADCs were measured in the middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), caudal and rostral pons, midbrain, decussating fibers of the superior cerebellar peduncle, thalamus, putamen, globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, corpus callosum, frontal and parietal white matter, as well as the centrum semiovale. In MSA‐P, rADCs in the MCP and rostral pons were significantly greater than in PSP (P < 0.001 and 0.009) and PD (P < 0.001 and = 0.002). Stepwise logistic regression revealed that the MCP rADC distinguishes MSA‐P from PSP with a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 84%. Increased brainstem rADCs were associated with motor deficit in MSA‐P and PSP. Increased rADCs in the pons and MCP were associated with smaller pontine and cerebellar volumes in MSA‐P. rADCs distinguish MSA‐P from PSP. These have a clinical correlate and are associated with reduced brainstem and cerebellar volumes. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society
Cyclic preference scheduling for nurses using branch and price
Authors: Purnomo Hadi W. , Bard Jonathan F. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThis paper presents a new methodology to solve the cyclic preference scheduling problem for hourly workers. The focus is on nurse rostering but is applicable to any organization in which the midterm scheduling decision must take into account a complex of legal, institutional, and preferential constraints. The objective is to strike a balance between satisfying individual preferences and minimizing personnel costs. The common practice is to consider each planning period independently and to generate new rosters at the beginning of each. To reduce some of the instability in the process, there is a growing trend toward cyclic schedules, which are easier to manage and are generally perceived to be more equitable. To address this problem, a new integer programming model is presented that combines the elements of both cyclic and preference scheduling. To find solutions, a branch‐and‐price algorithm is developed that makes use of several branching rules and an extremely effective rounding heuristic. A unique feature of the formulation is that the master problem contains integer rather than binary variables. Computational results are reported for problem instances with up to 200 nurses. Most were solved within 10 minutes and many within 3 minutes when a double aggregation approach was applicable. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007.
Classical and mixed finite elements for static and dynamic analysis of piezoelectric plates
Authors: Carrera E. , Boscolo M. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThis paper addresses the problem of multilayered plates with embedded piezoelectric layers by finite element method (FEM). Original ideas in previous papers (Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 2002; 195: 191–231, 253–291) have been extended to the static and dynamic analysis of coupled electro‐mechanical problems. Two variational statements, the Principle of Virtual Displacements (PVD) and the Reissner Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT) are employed to derive classical and mixed finite element matrices, respectively. Transverse stress assumptions are made in the framework of RMVT and the resulting finite elements describe a priori interlaminar continuous transverse shear and normal stresses. The unified formulation (UF) has been referred to in order to derive hierarchical finite elements (FEs) in term of a few fundamental nuclei for a large variety of piezoelectric plate theories. Both modellings that preserve the number of variables independent from the number of layers (equivalent single layer models, ESLM) and layer‐wise models (LWM) in which the same variables are independent in each layer have been treated. The expansion order N assumed for displacement, transverse stress and electrical potential fields in the plate thickness direction z as well as the number of the element nodes Nn have been taken as free parameters of the considered formulations. By varying N, Nn, variable treatment (LW or ESL) as well as variational statements (PVD and RMVT), a large number of FEs have been presented. Compliances and/or stiffness are accumulated from layer to multilayered level according to the corresponding variable treatment.The numerical evaluations and assessment for the presented plate elements have been provided. The superiority of RMVT applications with respect to classical ones based on PVD has been confirmed for piezolectric plates. The proposed RMVT elements, in fact, are able to give a quasi‐three‐dimensional description of stress/strain mechanical and electrical fields in multilayered thick and thin piezolectric plates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The determination of the ion selectivity of synthetic ion channels and pores in vesicles
Authors: Sakai Naomi , Matile Stefan 
Published: November 2006

AbstractOrganic chemists entering the field of synthetic ion channels and pores are often restricted to the characterization of their creation by fluorescence kinetics in vesicles and do not have access to conductance experiments in planar bilayer membranes. This limitation excludes the application of methods to evaluate key characteristics such as ion selectivity or voltage gating that are routine in the membrane biophysics community. The objective of this account is to offer to the non‐expert an introduction to the assessment of ion selectivity in vesicles with examples from years of research on functional rigid‐rod molecules in biomembranes (For a complementary introduction to the determination of voltage dependence in vesicles, see Sakai N, Matile S. Chem. Biodiv. 2004, 1: 28). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Free radical scavenging capacity of hydroxycinnamic acids and related compounds
Authors: Pino Eduardo , Campos Ana M. , López‐Alarcón Camilo , Aspée Alexis , Lissi Eduardo 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThe capacity of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives to trap peroxyl radicals was evaluated by competitive kinetics and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) indexes, using c‐phycocyanin and pyranine as target molecules. The pattern of results is similar in all the systems, with the reactivity of the compound determined by the bond dissociation energy (BDE) of the hydrogen atom of the phenolic moiety. However, differences in the relative reactivity are observed depending upon the employed methodology (initial rate of consumption or ORAC‐type methodology) and target molecule employed. These differences are explained in terms of the role played by secondary reactions of the initially formed phenoxyl radicals. This emphasizes the need for performing a complete kinetic analysis of the results in order to obtain meaningful evaluations of the relative reactivity of the tested compounds. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reaction mechanism and chemotaxonomy in the formation of the type I indole alkaloids derived from secologanin
Authors: Szabó László F. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThe history of biomolecules is written into the structure of their educts and products. The group of indole alkaloids derived from secologanin and tryptamine has more than 2000 individual compounds isolated mainly from the Rubiaceae, Loganiaceae, and Apocynaceae plant families and having strictosidine as a common precursor. To detect their history in its main lines, the compounds isolated from the same or closely related species were ordered as intermediates into reaction sequences according to the principles of basic organic reaction mechanisms. The analysis is restricted to the main lines of the monomeric alkaloids having one un‐rearranged secologanin subunit (type I) closed to N‐4 atom and one tryptamine subunit in intact or cleaved form. Deglucosylation of strictosidine opens the way for different types of cyclizations. Subsequent key bond‐braking and bond‐making reactions involve bond C‐5C‐6 in the tryptamine subunit, bond C‐15C‐16 in the secologanin subunit, and bond C‐3C‐7 at the attachment of the two subunits, and indicate the crucial importance of a strong long‐range through‐bond interaction between the two nitrogen atoms. With a few principles it was possible to interpret such important biogenetic‐type steps, as the formation of the akuammidan and akuammilan bridges, the transition from the vincosan into the strychnan and further to the aspidospermatan skeleton, the breaking and transformation of the side‐chain of the triptamine subunit and the cleavage of the strategic bond C‐15C‐16 toward the formation of the formation of type II and type III alkaloids. The transformations are finely tuned by the stable chirality of C‐15, and activation of C‐7 and N‐4. Fragmentations and rearrangement are important reactions in these transformations, and abundantly supported by chemotaxonomic data based on the Dictionary of Natural Products Database (Version 14.1, 2006, Chapman and Hall/CRC, New York, London, 2005). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The course of severe fatigue in disease‐free breast cancer patients: a longitudinal study
Authors: Servaes P. , Gielissen M. F. M. , Verhagen S. , Bleijenberg G. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractBackground: We investigated whether fatigue is a persistent problem, and whether persistent fatigue is related to former treatment modalities. In addition, we studied the predictors of persistent fatigue.Methods: At baseline (n=150, mean time since cancer treatment=29 months) patients were asked to fill out several questionnaires on psychological, physical, social, cognitive and behavioral aspects (Ann. Oncol. 2002;13:589–598). During the 2 years after baseline patients were asked to fill out monthly a fatigue questionnaire (CIS‐fatigue). Hundred‐twenty‐one patients completed the study, 10 dropped out and 19 had a disease recurrence.Results: Twenty‐four percent of the patients experienced persistent severe fatigue complaints during the 2‐year observation period. Persistent fatigue seemed to be related to the duration of former treatment but unrelated to type of surgery, type of adjuvant therapy and time since treatment finished. High anxiety, high impairment in role functioning and low sense of control over fatigue symptoms at baseline were predictors of persistent fatigue.Conclusion: Fatigue appears to be a persistent problem for a quarter of a sample of disease‐free breast cancer patients during a 2‐year period. The predictors of persistent fatigue found in this study can be helpful for the development of interventions to reduce post‐treatment fatigue. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Chronic oral administration of ginseng extract results in behavioral change but has no effects in mice models of affective and anxiety disorders
Authors: Einat Haim 
Published: November 2006

AbstractGinseng is a popular ‘tonic’ herb in Chinese traditional medicine with diverse biological activity. The core of ginseng's therapeutic abilities is thought to be its neuroprotective actions in increasing cellular resilience. These actions coincide with novel theories of affective and anxiety disorders and raise the possibility that ginseng may serve as medication for these common and devastating diseases. The present study was designed to explore the possible effects of chronic ginseng extract, administered in a clinically relevant schedule (similar to antidepressants) in animal models of affective and anxiety disorders.Groups of mice received chronic oral treatment with ginseng extract (500 mg/kg/day for 3 weeks) and were tested in a large open eld, in the emergence test for anxiolytic activity, the forced swim test for antidepressant activity and the amphetamine hyperactivity test for mood stabilizing activity.Chronic ginseng had a signicant effect on reducing spontaneous locomotor activity in the open eld test but not on the distribution of activity and had no inßuence on the performance of mice in any of the specic models.Although the extract used in this study contained signicant levels of ginsenosides, detailed analysis of the brain levels of the active ingredients of ginseng may be needed to make a far reaching conclusion. However, the doses and schedule of administration of ginseng used in the present study induced some behavioral changes but did not inßuence affective‐ and anxiety‐like measures. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An ICA approach to semi‐blind identification of strictly proper systems based on interactor polynomial matrix
Authors: Even Jani , Sugimoto Kenji 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThis paper presents an identification method for strictly proper systems with input signals partially unknown but mutually independent. Due to recent progress in independent component analysis (ICA), it has been feasible to identifybipropersystems with unknown inputs by resorting to a finite impulse response (FIR) approximation. By means of an interactor polynomial matrix, the paper generalizes the existing method to strictly proper systems. The method is further generalized to the case where some input components are known, which is often the case in control engineering. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fetal pleuroamniotic shunting for bronchopulmonary sequestration with hydrops
Authors: Hayashi S. , Sago H. , Kitano Y. , Kuroda T. , Honna T. , Nakamura T. , Ito Y. , Kitagawa M. , Natori M. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractBronchopulmonary sequestration (BPS), a non‐functional pulmonary tissue mass, when complicated by fetal hydrops, carries a high risk of perinatal mortality. However, a limited number of cases of BPS complicated by fetal hydrops with an informative clinical course have been reported. We report here on three cases of BPS complicated by fetal hydrothorax and hydrops that were successfully treated by pleuroamniotic shunting, which should be considered as a treatment option for fetal hydrothorax and hydrops associated with BPS. Copyright © 2006 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Construction, expression, and characterization of a new targeted bifunctional fusion protein: Tumstatin45‐132‐TNF
Authors: Luo Yi‐Qin , Wang Liang‐Hua , Kong Jian‐Xin , Jiao Bing‐Hua 
Published: November 2006

AbstractThe anti‐angiogenic activity of tumstatin45‐132 is mediated by binding to αVβ3 on endothelial cells and tumor vascular endothelium showing increased expression of αVβ3. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) is known to not only possess direct cytotoxicity against tumor cells, but also induces tumor vessel disruption, however, clinical use of TNF‐α as an anticancer drug is hampered by severe systemic toxicity. In this study, we explore the possibility of fusing tumstatin45‐132 with human TNF‐α in the hope of generating a targeting, bi‐functional protein in tumor treatment. Tumstatin45‐132‐TNF was constructed and expressed in E. coli. The recombinant fusion protein was shown to be insoluble and in an inclusion body form. An effective strategy for refolding and purification of tumstatin45‐132‐TNF resulted in final purified yields of 3 mg purified fusion protein recovered from 1 liter of E. coli culture. The refolded tumstatin45‐132‐TNF with a purity of 98% assessed by denaturing SDS ‐ PAGE showed a single band on gels. Endothelial cell proliferation assay and standard cytolytic assays against L929 indicated that the fusion protein maintains tumstatin45‐132 and TNF‐α activity. More importantly, tumstatin45‐132‐TNF inhibits endothelial cell proliferation more than tumstatin45‐132 alone. Cell adhesion assays and competitive binding experiments with anti‐integrin antibodies showed that the tumstatin45‐132 moiety specifically interacts with αVβ3 integrin. These results lay the solid foundation for further investigation of antitumor activity of tumstatin45‐132‐TNF in vivo.
iubmb Life, 58: 647 ‐ 653, 2006
Structure‐based cross‐linking of NF‐κB p50 homodimer and decoy bearing a novel 2'‐disulfide trapping site
Authors: Metelev Valeri , Romanenkov Andrey , Kubareva Elena , Zubin Evgeniy , Polouchine Nikolai , Zatsepin Timofei , Molochkov Nikolai , Oretskaya Tatiana 
Published: November 2006

AbstractDouble‐stranded oligodeoxyribonucleotides with engineered disulfide units were successfully used for covalent trapping of cysteine containing proteins. In particular, an efficient cross‐linking of NF‐κB p50 homodimer to a sequence‐specific decoy was demonstrated. The results suggest that the synthetic oligonucleotides bearing a novel 2'‐disulfide trapping site can be used as new tools to study and manipulate biological systems.
iubmb Life, 58: 654 ‐ 658, 2006
Sequestration shapes the response of signal transduction cascades
Authors: Blüthgen Nils 
Published: November 2006

AbstractMany signal transduction cascades are composed of covalent modification cycles such as kinase/phosphatase cycles. In the 1980s Goldbeter and Koshland showed that such cycles can exhibit non‐linear input‐output relations when the enzymes are saturated by their substrates, which may facilitate signal processing. Recent papers show that this mechanism is unlikely to cause non‐linearity in mammalian signal transduction cascades as sequestration of the target due to enzyme concentrations present in these cascades will hamper this mechanism. However, sequestration due to high‐affinity enzymes can shape the dynamics and steady‐state behaviour of signal transduction cascades in different ways, some of which are discussed in this review.
iubmb Life, 58: 659 ‐ 663, 2006
Use of response functions in selecting lodgepole pine populations for future climates
Authors: WANG T. , HAMANN A. , YANCHUK A. , O'NEILL G. A. , AITKEN S. N. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractAlthough growth response functions have previously been developed for lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.) populations in British Columbia, new analyses were conducted: (1) to demonstrate the merit of a new local climate model in genecological analysis; (2) to highlight new methods for deriving response functions; and (3) to evaluate the impacts of management options for existing geographically defined seed planning units (SPUs) for reforestation. Results of this study suggest that new methods for anchoring population response functions, and a multivariate approach for incorporating climate variables into a single model, considerably improve the reliability of these functions. These functions identified a small number of populations in central areas of the species distribution with greater growth potential over a wide range of mean annual temperature (MAT). Average productivity of lodgepole pine is predicted to increase (up to 7%) if moderate warming (∼2°C MAT) occurs in the next few decades as predicted, although productivity would substantially decline in some SPUs in southern BC. Severe global warming (>3°C MAT) would result in either a drastic decline in productivity or local populations being extirpated in southern SPUs. New deployment strategies using the best seed sources for future reforestation may not only be able to mitigate the negative impact of global warming, but may even be able to increase productivity in some areas.
The penetration of RealSeal primer and Tubliseal into root canal dentinal tubules: a confocal microscopic study
Authors: Patel D. V. , Sherriff M. , Ford T. R. P. , Watson T. F. , Mannocci F. 
Published: November 2006

AbstractAim  To compare penetration depth into dentinal tubules of RealSeal with that of a well‐established endodontic sealer (Tubliseal) by means of confocal microscopy.Methodology  Twenty sound extracted, single‐rooted premolars were selected. Following completion of root canal instrumentation, the teeth were divided into two groups using a stratified sampling method, ranking teeth according to size. In group 1, 10 teeth were filled with Gutta‐percha and Tubliseal using cold lateral condensation. In group 2, 10 teeth were filled with RealSeal. Both sealers were labelled with Rhodamine B dye. The teeth were sectioned parallel to their long axis resulting in 20 specimens per group. Confocal microscopy was used to assess the penetration depths of the sealers at three sites for each specimen (coronal, middle and apical). Data were analysed statistically using Stata Release 9.1.Results  The penetration depth of RealSeal in each one of the thirds of the root canal was found to be higher than that of Tubliseal (P < 0.05). The penetration depths of the two sealers was found to be significantly different (P = 0.001). The mean penetration value for the RealSeal group was 908.8 μm whereas the mean value for the Tubliseal group was 139.5 μm.Conclusions  The penetration depth of RealSeal into the root dentinal tubules is significantly greater than that of Tubliseal.