bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Aspergillus Section Flavi and aflatoxins in dusts generated by agricultural processing facilities in the Philippines
Authors: Sales Anthony C , Yoshizawa Takumi 
Published: October 2006

AbstractRelatively few data exist regarding concentrations of aflatoxins and their causative organisms in dusts within occupational environments. Here, we examined Aspergillus Section Flavi populations and aflatoxin levels in 54 samples of dusts generated by agricultural processing facilities as possible indicators of aflatoxin exposure in the Philippines. The average incidence of Aspergillus Section Flavi expressed as a percentage of total mould populations in rice dust, corn dust, feed dust and copra dust were 8, 4, 31 and 10%, respectively. Predominant aflatoxigenic fungi isolated were Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus with ratios of 31:1, 40:5, 16:4 and 1:1 in rice dust, corn dust, feed dust and copra dust, respectively. Aflatoxins produced by selected isolates in in vitro rice culture ranged from 100 µg kg−1 to 100.5 mg kg−1. Toxigenicity of isolates based on the average aflatoxin concentrations produced by positive isolates were in the order of copra dust > corn dust > rice dust > feed dust. Average natural concentrations of aflatoxins in rice dust, corn dust, feed dust, and copra dust were 25, 6, 15 and 10 µg kg−1, respectively. Estimates of the amount of inhaled aflatoxins by workers in an 8‐h work shift ranged from 0.06 to 114 ng, the average of which is higher than the amount of aflatoxins ingested by Filipinos due to the consumption of polished rice. The presence of highly toxigenic Aspergillus Section Flavi and aflatoxins in agricultural dust is a critical health risk for workers, considering the frequency of exposure and the possibility of inhalation and subsequent absorption of aflatoxins in the respiratory tract. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry
Digital image analysis of the flagellar beat of activated and hyperactivated suncus spermatozoa
Authors: Kaneko Takane , Mōri Takayuki , Ishijima Sumio 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe flagellar beat of hyperactivated Suncus spermatozoa was analyzed by digital imaging and was compared to that of the nonhyperactivated (activated) spermatozoa in order to examine the function of the accessory fibers during the flagellar beat and the sliding filament mechanism inducing the motility of the hyperactivated spermatozoa. Unusual large and long characteristics of the accessory fibers were involved in generating the gently curved bends and a low beat frequency. Examination of the motility parameters of the flagellar beat of the activated and hyperactivated spermatozoa attached to a slide glass by their heads revealed that there were two beating modes: a frequency‐curvature dependent mode in the activated flagellar beat and a nearly constant frequency mode in the hyperactivated flagellar beat. The hyperactivated flagellar beat was characterized by sharp bends in the proximal midpiece and a low beat frequency. The sharp bends in the proximal midpiece were induced by the increase in the total length of the microtubule sliding at the flagellar base. The rate of microtubule sliding (sliding velocity) in the axoneme remained almost constant in the flagellar beat of both the activated and hyperactivated spermatozoa. Comparison of the sliding velocity in Suncus, golden hamster, monkey, and sea urchin sperm flagella with their stiffness suggests that the sliding velocity is determined by the stiffness at the flagellar base and that the same sliding microtubule system functions in both mammalian and echinoderm spermatozoa. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 478–485, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Glycoproteins of the vitelline envelope of Amphibian oocyte: Biological and molecular characterization of ZPC component (gp41) in Bufo arenarum
Authors: Barisone Gustavo A. , Krapf Darío , Correa‐Fiz Florencia , Arranz Silvia E. , Cabada Marcelo O. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe vitelline envelope (VE) participates in sperm‐egg interactions during the first steps of fertilization. In Bufo arenarum, this envelope is composed of at least four glycoproteins, with molecular masses of 120, 75, 41, and 38 kDa and molar ratio of 1:1.3:7.4:4.8, respectively. These components were isolated and covalently coupled to silanized glass slides in order to study their sperm‐binding capacity. When considering the molar ratio of the glycoproteins in the egg‐envelope and assuming that each protein is monovalent for sperm, the assay showed that gp41 and gp38 possess 55 and 25% of total sperm‐binding activity. We obtained a full‐length cDNA of gp41 (ZPC), comprising a sequence for 486 amino acids, with 43.3% homology with Xenopus laevis ZPC. As in the case of mammalian ZP3 and Xenopus ZPC, Bufo ZPC presented a furin‐like (convertase) and a C‐terminal transmembrane domain (TMD) reflecting common biosynthetic and secretory pathways. As it was reported for some fishes, we obtained evidence that suggests the presence of more than one zpc gene in Bufo genome, based on different partial cDNA sequences of zpc, Southern blots and two‐dimensional SDS–PAGE of deglycosylated egg‐envelope components. As far as we are aware, this is the first observation of the presence of different zpc genes in an Amphibian species. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 629–640, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Intake of 13C‐4 creatine enables simultaneous assessment of creatine and phosphocreatine pools in human skeletal muscle by 13C MR spectroscopy
Authors: Kan H.E. , van der Graaf M. , Klomp D.W.J. , Vlak M.H.M. , Padberg G.W. , Heerschap A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe feasibility of a novel method for the noninvasive and local assessment of creatine (Cr) and phosphocreatine (PCr) dynamics in human skeletal muscle based on 13C magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy is presented. A high dose of Cr, labeled at the guanidino C‐4 position with 13C 11% enrichment, was administered orally to a human subject for 5 days. Using a surface coil, 13C MR spectra of the lower leg were acquired on a 1.5T MR system at regular time intervals during and after Cr supplementation. An almost twofold increase in the intensities of the resolved PCr and Cr 13C‐4 signals was observed during this period. The slow decrease in these signals to normal values after supplementation reflects the slow daily turnover of Cr. The PCr/Cr ratio did not appear to change over the whole measurement period. During exercise of the leg, reversible changes in PCr and Cr signals were observed, reflecting conversion by the Cr kinase reaction. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Technical note: Find a hidden “treasure”
Authors: Garnaev A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis paper deals with a two searchers game and it investigates the problem of how the possibility of finding a hidden object simultaneously by players influences their behavior. Namely, we consider the following two‐sided allocation non‐zero‐sum game on an integer interval [1,n]. Two teams (Player 1 and 2) want to find an immobile object (say, a treasure) hidden at one of n points. Each point i ∈ [1,n] is characterized by a detection parameter λi (μi) for Player 1 (Player 2) such that pi(1 − exp(−λixi)) (pi(1 − exp(−μiyi))) is the probability that Player 1 (Player 2) discovers the hidden object with amount of search effort xi (yi) applied at point i where pi ∈ (0,1) is the probability that the object is hidden at point i. Player 1 (Player 2) undertakes the search by allocating the total amount of effort X(Y). The payoff for Player 1 (Player 2) is 1 if he detects the object but his opponent does not. If both players detect the object they can share it proportionally and even can pay some share to an umpire who takes care that the players do not cheat each other, namely Player 1 gets q1 and Player 2 gets q2 where q1 + q2 ≤ 1. The Nash equilibrium of this game is found and numerical examples are given. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007
Time‐dependent density functional theory study of electronic spectrum property for carbazolyl–pyridinyl alternating copolymers
Authors: Wang Hanlu , Wang Xueye , Wang Ling , Wang Hengliang , Liu Aihong 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThree A‐B‐type fluorescent copolymers comprised of alternating carbazolyl and pyridinyl units, poly[(2,7‐(N‐(2‐ethylhexyl)carbazolyl)‐alt‐(3,5‐pyridinyl))](PEHCP‐35), poly[(2,7‐(N‐(2‐ethylhexyl)carbazolyl)‐alt‐(2,6‐pyridinyl))] (PEHCP‐26) and poly[(2,7‐(N‐(2‐ethyl‐hexyl)carbazolyl)‐alt‐(2,5‐pyridinyl))] (PEHCP‐25), are studied by means of the density functional theory (DFT/B3LYP/6‐31G). Based on the optimized geometries, the optical properties are calculated by employing time‐dependent density functional theory (TD‐DFT). The bandgaps and optical properties are saturated quickly in PEHCP‐35 and PEHCP‐26. It is known from experiment that PEHCP‐25 is actually an oligomer with a polymerization degree of 4. So the tetramers of PEHCP‐35, PEHCP‐26, and PEHCP‐25 are adopted to study the electronic and optical properties, and the calculated results are in close agreement with experiment. The calculated bandgaps of copolymers obtained from two ways, i.e., HOMO–LUMO gaps and the lowest excitation energies, decrease in the following order PEHCP‐35 > PEHCP‐26 > PEHCP‐25, the same trend as the data obtained from the edge of the electric band but different from the electrochemically obtained data from experiment (PEHCP‐25 > PEHCP‐26 > PEHCP‐35). The outcomes showed that, when excited, a charge transfer from carbazolyl unit to pyridinyl unit occurs, and the lumophor is mainly carbazolyl units. The UV absorption and emission wavelengths both exhibit bathochromic shifts: PEHCP‐35 < PEHCP‐26 < PEHCP‐25. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2007
Automatic extraction of bilingual word pairs from parallel corpora with various languages using learning for adjacent information
Authors: Echizen‐ya Hiroshi , Araki Kenji , Momouchi Yoshio 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis paper presents a learning method using adjacent information as the method to extract bilingual word pairs efficiently from parallel corpora with various languages for which language resources are insufficient. In our method, information about correspondence between source language words and target language words is acquired automatically using the word strings that adjoin bilingual word pairs. That acquired information is used to solve the ambiguity problem of correspondence between source language words and target language words in various bilingual sentence pairs. First, the system using our method automatically acquires templates as information that indicates correspondence between source language words and target language words. The templates are based on word strings that adjoin the bilingual word pairs. Moreover, the system using our method efficiently extracts bilingual word pairs from bilingual sentence pairs using the acquired templates. Evaluation experiments showed that the system using our method extracted bilingual word pairs from parallel corpora with five kinds of languages. Results show that the total extraction rate was 60.1%. The total extraction rate was better by 8.0 percentage points compared to that obtained using a system based only on the Dice coefficient without our method. Those results confirm the effectiveness of our method. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 37(13): 40–53, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.20534
Object tracking by comparing multiple viewpoint images to CG images
Authors: Moritani Takayuki , Hiura Shinsaku , Sato Kosuke 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThere has recently been much research into real‐time tracking of object location and orientation tracking. However, many of the current methods use explicit image features such as corners, edges or silhouettes, etc. and are, therefore, not well suited to tracking curved and smooth objects from which it is difficult to extract features. On the other hand, with methods that attempt to estimate the movement of an object from the optical flow obtained from the pixel intensity gradient, it is difficult to avoid tracking errors accumulated during tracking. Therefore, in this paper we propose a method for estimating the movement of an object with six degrees of freedom without extracting features from the images. In particular, the difference between real images and CG (computer graphics) images is minimized based on the principle of intensity gradient images. CG images can be generated using an object model which consists of shape and color information with location and orientation parameters of the object. Here we show that by using images obtained simultaneously from multiple cameras at different angles, the stability of this tracking method is improved. We present experiments in which we construct an object tracking system that uses multiple cameras and show that we can perform object tracking with six degrees of freedom at a speed of approximately five frames per second for a rigid and arbitrarily curved object from which it is difficult to extract features. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 37(13): 28–39, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.20546
Natural mentor relationships among latina adolescent mothers: Psychological adjustment, moderating processes, and the role of early parental acceptance
Authors: Rhodes Jean E. , Contreras Josefina M. , Mangelsdorf Sarah C. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractInvestigated the antecedents, effects, and underlying characteristics of natural mentor relationships in a sample of 54 inner‐city, Latina adolescent mothers. Women with mentors reported significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety than those without mentors despite similar levels of stress exposure and overall support resources. Young women with natural mentors were also more satisfied with their support resources and appeared better able to cope effectively with relationship problems. Finally, women with mentors recalled their childhood relationships with their mothers as more accepting. Mentor relationships appear to enhance young women's capacity to benefit from their support resources and offset the effects of relationship problems. Implications for future research and intervention strategies are discussed.
Empowering lesbian and gay communities: A call for collaboration with community psychology
Authors: Garnets Linda D. , D'Augelli Anthony R. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis article traces the history of empowerment efforts in lesbian and gay communities. Despite considerable progress, lesbians and gay men remain marginalized in American society. Their personal, family, and community development is hampered by social and institutional barriers to empowerment. Three powerful disempowering problems of contemporary lesbian and gay communities are detailed: (1) stresses related to coming out; (2) heterosexism; and, (3) difficulties identifying with a community. Four domains are suggested for future collaboration between community psychologists and lesbian/gay communities: (1) anti‐lesbian/anti‐gay prejudice, discrimination, and violence; (2) mental health and health enhancement; (3) the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and, (4) civil rights. Future collaborations must build on successful‐social change strategies already used by activists in lesbian and gay communities.
Latinos and latinas in community psychology: A review of the literature
Authors: Bernal Guillermo , Enchautegui-de-Jesús Noemí 
Published: October 2006

AbstractLatinos and Latinas are one of the largest minority groups in the United States yet they remain a silent group. The article begins by considering the social, historical, and economic backgrounds of Latino and Latina groups in the U.S. as a context for understanding diversity and as a resource for explaining the participation of this minority group in community psychology. This article then examines the extent to which Latinos and Latinas are present and participate in community psychology throughout its publications and explores the nature of their participation through a thematic analysis of the published literature. A content analysis was conducted on 1,851 articles published from 1973 through 1992 in theAmerican Journal of Community Psychology and theJournal of Community Psychology to evaluate the presence of Latinos and Latinas in the community psychology literature. The quantitative analysis revealed that 3.7% (n=69) of all the articles reviewed focused on Latinos and Latinas or had samples with at least 15% of the participants coming from this ethnic group. Mexican Americans/Chicanos were the focus of the largest number of articles about specific Latino and Latina subgroups, followed by Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The results indicated less attention to Latino and Latina populations in the community psychology literature than would be expected from the field's goals. However, a qualitative review of the articles was more encouraging since many articles by and about Latinos and Latinas reflected values consonant with the field such as cultural pluralism or employed conceptual tools of the discipline such as empowerment or ecological approaches. Nevertheless, some of the articles reviewed also lacked a concern for the field's values in relation to Latinos and Latinas as a group. Finally, suggestions and strategies to empower this group are offered.
Psychological empowerment: Issues and illustrations
Authors: Zimmerman Marc A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractDiscussed several issues related to psychological empowerment. The thesis of this paper is that the development of a universal and global measure of psychological empowerment may not be a feasible or appropriate goal. I begin by distinguishing between empowerment processes and outcomes. Underlying assumptions are discussed including the notion that empowerment differs across people, contexts, and times. A nomological network that includes intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral components is also presented. Two examples of psychological empowerment for voluntary service organization members and members of a mutual help organization are described to help illustrate differences in the specific variables that may be used to measure psychological empowerment in different populations and settings.
Citizen participation and emprowerment: The case of local environmental hazards
Authors: Rich Richard C. , Edelstein Michael , Hallman William K. , Wandersman Abraham H. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractLocal environmental hazards place millions of citizens at risk of physical, emotional, and financial harm. While the discovery of such hazards can be fundamentally disempowering for individuals and communities, few scholars have examined the dynamics of empowerment in this context. We explore the relationships among forms of empowerment, citizen participation, and local environmental hazards, and offer a model of the processes of empowerment and disempowerment appropriate to a broad range of citizen issues. On the basis of this analysis we recommend a partnership approach to community decision making that is designed both to reduce the likelihood that local environmental hazards will develop and to minimize the disempowering impact of any threats that do occur.
Individual, organizational, and societal empowerment: A study of the processes in a Nicaraguan agricultural cooperative
Authors: Kroeker C. J. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractDefined and examined the personal (material and psychological), organizational, and societal goals of empowerment. This exploration of empowerment was primarily based on 7 months of participant observation in an agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua in 1989. The research focused on the perspectives of the participants, internal program functioning, and relations to local organizations and the national context. This study shows that some factors in the cooperative setting enhanced empowerment at each level, while others impeded its development. The cooperative met immediate needs, and provided social status and a degree of autonomy in society. Its structure allowed for broad participating in decision making and control. “Sense‐making” and informal consciousness‐raising processes facilitated psychological empowerment. These processes were hidden in apparent disorganization and thus not recognized by local service providers. Fears of speaking in meetings and the reluctance to face crises were intense and influential. Opinions and behavior of outsiders and the environmental context, although seemingly helpful, also had detrimental effects. Parallels are drawn to empowerment theory and findings from other populations.
Speaking truth to power: Empowerment ideology as social intervention and policy
Authors: Perkins Douglas D. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe popularity, and subsequent ambiguity, in the use of the term “empowerment” has created an even greater need for reassessment in the applied context than in the theory and research literatures. This paper outlines some of the areas of community, organizational, and societal level social intervention and policy ostensibly based on the concept of empowerment. These include neighborhood voluntary associations (for environmental protection, community crime prevention, etc.), self‐help groups, competence‐building primary prevention, organizational management, health care and educational reforms, and national and international community service and community development policies. Issues in applying social research to community organizations and to legislative and administrative policy making are reviewed. Ten recommendations are offered, including the value of a dialectical analysis, for helping researchers and policy makers/administrators make more effective use of empowerment theory and research.
Race, gender, and the response to stress: Autoworkers' vulnerability to long‐term unemployment
Authors: Broman Clifford L. , Hamilton V. Lee , Hoffman William S. , Mavaddat Roya 
Published: October 2006

AbstractA three‐wave panel study of auto plant closings focused on the mental health effects of unemployment on blue‐collar workers. This paper explores how the impact of long‐term unemployment varies across race and gender. We also examine whether other demographic factors can themselves modify the impactsof race and gender. Dependent variables include two measures of distress and two drinking measures. Results showed that the effect of long‐term unemployment on distress and drinking was more severe among less educated workers, and responses of blacks were especially sensitive to level of education. In addition, men showed a greater association of long‐term unemployment with depression (and to some extent anxiety) than did women. Marriage affected the responses of men but not of women, and of whites but not of blacks. Explanatory variables—the worker's experiences of financial hardship, other negative life events, and lack of a confidant—largely accounted for male‐female differences. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of these effects and address the limitations of the traditional term “vulnerability” in describing them.