bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Haemodynamic effects of −75 mmHg negative pressure therapy in a porcine sternotomy wound model
Authors: Mokhtari Arash , Gustafsson Ronny , Sjögren Johan , Nilsson Johan , Lindstedt Sandra , Malmsjö Malin , Ingemansson Richard 
Published: March 2009

AbstractPrevious research has shown −125 mmHg to be the optimal negative pressure for creating an environment that promotes wound healing, and this has therefore been adopted as a standard pressure for patients with deep sternal wound infection. However, it has not yet been clearly shown that −125 mmHg is the optimal pressure from a haemodynamic point of view. Furthermore, there have been reports of cardiac rupture during −125 mmHg negative pressure therapy. We therefore studied the effects of a lower pressure: −75 mmHg. Twelve pigs were used. After median sternotomy, sealed negative pressure therapy of −75 mmHg was applied. Baseline measurements were made and continuous recording of the cardiac output, end‐tidal CO2 production, mean arterial pressure, mean pulmonary pressure (pulmonary artery pressure), systemic vascular resistance, pulmonary vascular resistance, left atrial pressure and central venous pressure was started. Six pigs served as controls. No statistically significant difference was observed in any of the haemodynamic parameters studied, compared with the controls. The present study shows that, with a suitable foam application technique, −75 mmHg can be applied without compromising the central haemodynamics.
Assessment of Vascular Effects of Tamoxifen and Its Metabolites on the Rat Perfused Hindquarter Vascular Bed
Authors: Montenegro Marcelo F. , Pessa Lisandra R. , Gomes Valéria A. , Desta Zeruesenay , Flockhart David A. , Tanus‐Santos Jose E. 
Published: March 2009

Abstract: Tamoxifen has been suggested to produce beneficial cardiovascular effects, although the mechanisms for these effects are not fully known. Moreover, although tamoxifen metabolites may exhibit 30–100 times higher potency than the parent drug, no previous study has compared the effects produced by tamoxifen and its metabolites on vascular function. Here, we assessed the vascular responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside on perfused hindquarter vascular bed of rats treated with tamoxifen or its main metabolites (N‐desmethyl‐tamoxifen, 4‐hydroxy‐tamoxifen, and endoxifen) for 2 weeks. Plasma and whole‐blood thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) concentrations were determined using a fluorometric method. Plasma nitrite and NOx (nitrite + nitrate) concentrations were determined using an ozone‐based chemiluminescence assay and Griess reaction, respectively. Treatment with tamoxifen reduced the responses to acetylcholine (pD2 = 2.2 ± 0.06 and 1.9 ± 0.05 after vehicle and tamoxifen, respectively; P < 0.05), while its metabolites improved these responses (pD2 = 2.5 ± 0.04 afterN‐desmethyl‐tamoxifen, 2.5 ± 0.03 after 4‐hydroxy‐tamoxifen, and 2.6 ± 0.08 after endoxifen; P < 0.01). Tamoxifen and its metabolites showed no effect on endothelial‐independent responses to sodium nitroprusside (P > 0.05). While tamoxifen treatment resulted in significantly higher plasma and whole blood lipid peroxide levels (37% and 62%, respectively; both P < 0.05), its metabolites significantly decreased lipid peroxide levels (by approximately 50%; P < 0.05). While treatment with tamoxifen decreased the concentrations of markers of nitric oxide formation by approximately 50% (P < 0.05), tamoxifen metabolites had no effect on these parameters (P > 0.05). These results suggest that while tamoxifen produces detrimental effects, its metabolites produce counteracting beneficial effects on the vascular system and on nitric oxide/reactive oxygen species formation.
Microsatellite markers for the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Lactarius mammosus
Authors: HÖGBERG N. , GUIDOT A. , JONSSON M. , DAHLBERG A. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractWe report the characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Lactarius mammosus Fr. Two enrichment protocols were used to isolate microsatellite loci and polymorphism was explored within 31 sporocarps originating from a forest site in northern Sweden. We found nine variable microsatellite loci with the number of alleles per locus varying between 2 and 5, and expected heterozygosities ranging from 0 to 0.84. These loci are available for the analysis of genetic structure and gene flow in L. mammosus populations.
Polymerase chain reaction primers for polymorphic microsatellite loci in the ant Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Formicidae: Pseudomyrmecinae)
Authors: SCHMID VOLKER S. , KAUTZ STEFANIE , TRINDL ANDREAS , HEINZE JÜRGEN 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe elongate twig ant Pseudomyrmex gracilis is widely distributed in the New World ranging from southern USA to Brazil and northern Argentina. To investigate its within‐colony relatedness, we developed primers for nine polymorphic microsatellite loci. High levels of within‐population variation were observed, with number of alleles ranging from two to 13, and heterozygosity from 0.28 to 0.90. The loci showed no deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and no linkage disequilibrium.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from rock shell, Thais clavigera
Authors: HWANG G. , MYUNG C. S. , PARK S. I. , SONG S. J. , MACLEAN N. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractImposex (superimposition of male genital organs on female phenotype) of the rock shell or whelk, Thais clavigera, shows typical evidence of endocrine disruption by organotin compounds within inter‐tidal zones polluted by such compounds. It will be informative to see how low fertility caused by imposex of this species finally affects the genetic diversity of polluted populations. For future use in population genetic research of the rock shell, we report the isolation and characteristics of 11 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers with a mean of 11.7 alleles per locus. We observed heterozygosities of these sequences ranging from 0.43 to 0.95. These markers will be useful for future ecological genetic studies of rock shell.
Isolation and characterization of 11 tetranucleotide microsatellite loci in the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon)
Authors: RODRIGUES MÓNICA , FERNANDES CARLOS A. , PALOMARES FRANCISCO , AMORIM ISABEL R. , BRUFORD MICHAEL W. , SANTOS‐REIS MARGARIDA 
Published: March 2009

AbstractWe report the isolation of 11 polymorphic tetranucleotide microsatellite loci in the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon). In a sample of 27 individuals, we observed between 4 and 7 alleles per locus and their observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.37 to 0.85 and from 0.44 to 0.79, respectively. All genotypic frequencies conformed to Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium expectations and there were no instances of linkage disequilibrium detected between pairs of loci.
Evaluating the global ‘Evidence Footprint’: how can evidence better serve the needs of global public health?
Authors: Pang Tikki , Tharyan Prathap 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe Cochrane Collaboration must strive to become a more global organization and help facilitate the use of evidence to improve public health, especially in the developing world. It can do so by improving the scope and relevance of its sytematic reviews, by building capacity in countries to synthesize and use evidence for health policy development, and by addressing the challenge of developing methodologies for dealing with different types of evidence commonly used by health decision‐makers in resource‐ and evidence‐challenged settings.
Brauer–Manin obstruction for integral points of homogeneous spaces and representation by integral quadratic forms
Authors: Colliot-Thélène Jean-Louis , Xu Fei 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAn integer may be represented by a quadratic form over each ring ofp-adic integers and over the reals without being represented by this quadratic form over the integers. More generally, such failure of a local-global principle may occur for the representation of one integral quadratic form by another integral quadratic form. We show that many such examples may be accounted for by a Brauer–Manin obstruction for the existence of integral points on schemes defined over the integers. For several types of homogeneous spaces of linear algebraic groups, this obstruction is shown to be the only obstruction to the existence of integral points.
Concurrent Titration and Determination of Antibiotic Resistance in
Ureaplasma
Species with Identification of Novel Point Mutations in Genes Associated with Resistance
Authors: Beeton Michael L. , Chalker Victoria J. , Maxwell Nicola C. , Kotecha Sailesh , Spiller O. Brad 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACT

Antibiotic resistance determination of
Ureaplasma
spp. (
Ureaplasma parvum
and
Ureaplasma urealyticum
) usually requires predetermination of bacterial titer, followed by antibiotic interrogation using a set bacterial input. This 96-well method allows simultaneous quantification of bacteria in the presence and absence of antibiotics. A method for determining precise MICs and a method for screening against multiple antibiotics using breakpoint thresholds are detailed. Of the 61
Ureaplasma
-positive clinical isolates screened, one (1.6%) was resistant to erythromycin (MIC, >64 mg/liter) and clarithromycin (MIC, 4 mg/liter), one to ciprofloxacin (1.6%), and one to tetracycline/doxycycline (1.6%). Five isolates were also consistently found to have an elevated MIC of 8 mg/liter for erythromycin, but this may not represent true antibiotic resistance, as no mutations were found in the 23S rRNA operons or ribosome-associated L4 and L22 proteins for these strains. However, two amino acids (R66Q67) were deleted from the L4 protein of the erythromycin-/clarithromycin-resistant strain. The
tetM
genetic element was detected in the tetracycline-resistant clinical isolate as well as in the positive control Vancouver strain serotype 9. The
tetM
gene was also found in a fully tetracycline-susceptible
Ureaplasma
clinical isolate, and no mutations were found in the coding region that would explain its failure to mediate tetracycline resistance. An amino acid substitution (D82N) was found in the ParC subunit of the ciprofloxacin-resistant isolate, adjacent to the S83L mutation reported by other investigators in many ciprofloxacin-resistant
Ureaplasma
isolates. It is now possible to detect antibiotic resistance in
Ureaplasma
within 48 h of positive culture without prior knowledge of bacterial load, identifying them for further molecular analysis.
Molecular Mechanisms of Macrolide Resistance in Clinical Isolates of
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
from China
Authors: Xin Deli , Mi Zuhuang , Han Xu , Qin Ling , Li Jing , Wei Tianli , Chen Xiaogeng , Ma Shaojie , Hou Ancun , Li Gui , Shi Dawei 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACT

Fifty clinical
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
strains were isolated from 370 children with respiratory tract infections. Four strains were susceptible to macrolides, while the other 46 (92%) were macrolide resistant. The molecular mechanism of resistance was shown to be associated with point mutations in 23S rRNA at positions 2063 and 2064.
Inactivation of the Glycoside Hydrolase NagZ Attenuates Antipseudomonal β-Lactam Resistance in
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Asgarali Azizah , Stubbs Keith A. , Oliver Antonio , Vocadlo David J. , Mark Brian L. 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACT

The overproduction of chromosomal AmpC β-lactamase poses a serious challenge to the successful treatment of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
infections with β-lactam antibiotics. The induction of
ampC
expression by β-lactams is mediated by the disruption of peptidoglycan (PG) recycling and the accumulation of cytosolic 1,6-anhydro-
N
-acetylmuramyl peptides, catabolites of PG recycling that are generated by an
N
-acetyl-β-
d
-glucosaminidase encoded by
nagZ
(PA3005). In the absence of β-lactams,
ampC
expression is repressed by three AmpD amidases encoded by
ampD
,
ampDh2
, and
ampDh3
, which act to degrade these 1,6-anhydro-
N
-acetylmuramyl peptide inducer molecules. The inactivation of
ampD
genes results in the stepwise upregulation of
ampC
expression and clinical resistance to antipseudomonal β-lactams due to the accumulation of the
ampC
inducer anhydromuropeptides. To examine the role of NagZ on AmpC-mediated β-lactam resistance in
P. aeruginosa
, we inactivated
nagZ
in
P. aeruginosa
PAO1 and in an isogenic triple
ampD
null mutant. We show that the inactivation of
nagZ
represses both the intrinsic β-lactam resistance (up to 4-fold) and the high antipseudomonal β-lactam resistance (up to 16-fold) that is associated with the loss of AmpD activity. We also demonstrate that AmpC-mediated resistance to antipseudomonal β-lactams can be attenuated in PAO1 and in a series of
ampD
null mutants using a selective small-molecule inhibitor of NagZ. Our results suggest that the blockage of NagZ activity could provide a strategy to enhance the efficacies of β-lactams against
P. aeruginosa
and other gram-negative organisms that encode inducible chromosomal
ampC
and to counteract the hyperinduction of
ampC
that occurs from the selection of
ampD
null mutations during β-lactam therapy.
The effect of retail cigarette pack displays on unplanned purchases: results from immediate postpurchase interviews: Table 1
Authors: Carter O B J , Mills B W , Donovan R J 
Published: March 2009

Objective:To assess the influence of point-of-sale (POS) cigarette displays on unplanned purchases.Methods:Intercept interviews were conducted with customers observed purchasing cigarettes from retail outlets featuring POS cigarette displays. Measures included intention to purchase cigarettes prior to entering the store, unprompted and prompted salience of POS tobacco displays, urge to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the POS display, brand switching and support for a ban on POS cigarette displays.Results:In total, 206 daily smokers aged 18–76 years (90 male, 116 female) were interviewed. Unplanned cigarette purchases were made by 22% of participants. POS displays influenced nearly four times as many unplanned purchases as planned purchases (47% vs 12%, p<0.01). Brand switching was reported among 5% of participants, half of whom were influenced by POS displays. Four times as many smokers were supportive of a ban on POS tobacco displays than unsupportive (49% vs 12%), and 28% agreed that such a ban would make it easier to quit.Conclusions:POS tobacco displays act as a form of advertising even in the absence of advertising materials. They stimulate unplanned cigarette purchases, play an important role in brand selection and tempt smokers trying to quit. This justifies removing POS tobacco displays from line of sight—something that very few smokers in our sample would object to.
CTrigger
Authors: Park Soyeon , Lu Shan , Zhou Yuanyuan 
Published: March 2009

Multicore hardware is making concurrent programs pervasive. Unfortunately, concurrent programs are prone to bugs. Among different types of concurrency bugs, atomicity violation bugs are common and important. Existing techniques to detect atomicity violation bugs suffer from one limitation: requiring bugs to manifest during monitored runs, which is an open problem in concurrent program testing.
This paper makes two contributions. First, it studies the interleaving characteristics of the common practice in concurrent program testing (i.e., running a program over and over) to understand why atomicity violation bugs are hard to expose. Second, it proposes CTrigger to effectively and efficiently expose atomicity violation bugs in large programs. CTrigger focuses on a special type of interleavings (i.e., unserializable interleavings) that are inherently correlated to atomicity violation bugs, and uses trace analysis to systematically identify (likely) feasible unserializable interleavings with low occurrence-probability. CTrigger then uses minimum execution perturbation to exercise low-probability interleavings and expose difficult-to-catch atomicity violation.
We evaluate CTrigger with real-world atomicity violation bugs from four sever/desktop applications (Apache, MySQL, Mozilla, and PBZIP2) and three SPLASH2 applications on 8-core machines. CTrigger efficiently exposes the tested bugs within 1--235 seconds, two to four orders of magnitude faster than stress testing. Without CTrigger, some of these bugs do not manifest even after 7 full days of stress testing. In addition, without deterministic replay support, once a bug is exposed, CTrigger can help programmers reliably reproduce it for diagnosis. Our tested bugs are reproduced by CTrigger mostly within 5 seconds, 300 to over 60000 times faster than stress testing.
PowerNap
Authors: Meisner David , Gold Brian T. , Wenisch Thomas F. 
Published: March 2009

Data center power consumption is growing to unprecedented levels: the EPA estimates U.S. data centers will consume 100 billion kilowatt hours annually by 2011. Much of this energy is wasted in idle systems: in typical deployments, server utilization is below 30%, but idle servers still consume 60% of their peak power draw. Typical idle periods though frequent--last seconds or less, confounding simple energy-conservation approaches.
In this paper, we propose PowerNap, an energy-conservation approach where the entire system transitions rapidly between a high-performance active state and a near-zero-power idle state in response to instantaneous load. Rather than requiring fine-grained power-performance states and complex load-proportional operation from each system component, PowerNap instead calls for minimizing idle power and transition time, which are simpler optimization goals. Based on the PowerNap concept, we develop requirements and outline mechanisms to eliminate idle power waste in enterprise blade servers. Because PowerNap operates in low-efficiency regions of current blade center power supplies, we introduce the Redundant Array for Inexpensive Load Sharing (RAILS), a power provisioning approach that provides high conversion efficiency across the entire range of PowerNap's power demands. Using utilization traces collected from enterprise-scale commercial deployments, we demonstrate that, together, PowerNap and RAILS reduce average server power consumption by 74%.
Leak pruning
Authors: Bond Michael D. , McKinley Kathryn S. 
Published: March 2009

Managed languages improve programmer productivity with type safety and garbage collection, which eliminate memory errors such as dangling pointers, double frees, and buffer overflows. However, because garbage collection uses reachability to over-approximate live objects, programs may still leak memory if programmers forget to eliminate the last reference to an object that will not be used again. Leaks slow programs by increasing collector workload and frequency. Growing leaks eventually crash programs.
This paper introduces leak pruning, which keeps programs running by predicting and reclaiming leaked objects at run time. It predicts dead objects and reclaims them based on observing data structure usage patterns. Leak pruning preserves semantics because it waits for heap exhaustion before reclaiming objects and poisons references to objects it reclaims. If the program later tries to access a poisoned reference, the virtual machine (VM) throws an error. We show leak pruning has low overhead in a Java VM and evaluate it on 10 leaking programs. Leak pruning does not help two programs, executes five substantial programs 1.6-81X longer, and executes three programs, including a leak in Eclipse, for at least 24 hours. In the worst case, leak pruning defers fatal errors. In the best case, it keeps leaky programs running with preserved semantics and consistent throughput.
Can Attitudes about Animal Neglect be Differentiated from Attitudes about Animal Abuse?
Authors: Henry Bill 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe past decade has seen an increase in interest relating to the correlates and determinants of attitudes about nonhuman animals, especially attitudes about the use or abuse of animals. However, little research has explicitly addressed individual differences in attitudes about the neglect of animals. The current study employs a factor-analytic approach to explore (a) whether attitudes about animal neglect can be reliably differentiated from attitudes about animal abuse and (b) whether the relationship between attitudes about animal neglect and animal abuse differs as a function of gender. Results indicated that attitudes about abuse and neglect can be reliably differentiated among both men and women. However, the structure of these attitudes appears to differ substantially by sex. This paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of these results.
Tolstoy's Animals
Authors: Donovan Josephine 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIn recent years, critics sensitive to animal issues have begun to theorize a new direction in literary criticism, an animal-centric or animal-standpoint criticism. Such a criticism seeks to examine works of literature from the point of view of how animals are treated therein, often looking to reconstruct the standpoint of the animals in question. This article examines a selection of short stories by Leo Tolstoy considering them exemplary from the point of view of animal-standpoint criticism.
Microfinance and Poverty Reduction in Turkey
Authors: Gurses Didem 
Published: March 2009

AbstractEconomic vulnerability in Turkey is quite high for a middle-income country. About one fifth of the population still have no sufficient means to food, clothes, and shelter; furthermore they have very limited or no access to financial services. This paper, first, aims to provide a general overview of the country's poverty profile and to analyze its microfinance sector. The second objective is to assess the impact of the existing microcredit programs to combat poverty. The programs' effectiveness will be examined in terms of two issues: the success of microfinance programs in reaching the “core poor” and in pulling large segments of the poor population out of poverty.
CXCR4 is a key regulator of neutrophil release from the bone marrow under basal and stress granulopoiesis conditions
Authors: Eash Kyle J. , Means Jacquelyn M. , White Douglas W. , Link Daniel C. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe number of neutrophils in the blood is tightly regulated to ensure adequate protection against microbial pathogens while minimizing damage to host tissue. Neutrophil homeostasis in the blood is achieved through a balance of neutrophil production, release from the bone marrow, and clearance from the circulation. Accumulating evidence suggests that signaling by CXCL12, through its major receptor CXCR4, plays a key role in maintaining neutrophil homeostasis. Herein, we generated mice with a myeloid lineage–restricted deletion of CXCR4 to define the mechanisms by which CXCR4 signals regulate this process. We show that CXCR4 negatively regulates neutrophil release from the bone marrow in a cell-autonomous fashion. However, CXCR4 is dispensable for neutrophil clearance from the circulation. Neutrophil mobilization responses to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), CXCL2, or Listeria monocytogenes infection are absent or impaired, suggesting that disruption of CXCR4 signaling may be a common step mediating neutrophil release. Collectively, these data suggest that CXCR4 signaling maintains neutrophil homeostasis in the blood under both basal and stress granulopoiesis conditions primarily by regulating neutrophil release from the bone marrow.