bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ischemia-modified albumin and NT-prohormone-brain natriuretic peptide in peripheral arterial disease
Authors: Montagnana Martina , Lippi Giuseppe , Fava Cristiano , Minuz Pietro , Lechi Santonastaso Clara , Arosio Enrico , Cesare Guidi Gian 
Published: February 2006

AbstractCardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Western countries. Despite its remarkable medical and social consequences, the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is often underestimated among atherosclerotic disorders. So far, little is known about the behavior of traditional and emerging markers of ischemic heart disease that should allow the reliable identification of PAD patients at increased risk of developing myocardial ischemia and heart failure or dysfunction. To investigate this topic, we measured cardiac troponin T (cTnT), ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) and NT-prohormone-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)in 35 consecutive patients with clinically ascertained PAD (stage 2–4, according to Lériche-Fontaine) asymptomatic for chest pain and current heart failure, and 20 controls displaying moderate to high cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia), but with no clinical evidence of PAD. Although the concentrations of cTnT and IMA were not statistically increased in PAD patients, NT-pro-BNP values were substantially higher in PAD patients than in controls (62.6 vs. 7.4pmol/L, p<0.0001). Thepercentage of subjects displaying values exceeding the specific NT-proBNP diagnostic threshold (>14.8pmol/L) was also significantly different between PAD patients and controls (74% vs. 10%, p<0.001). After excluding PAD patients exceeding the 0.01ng/mL cTnT cutoff value indicative of current ischemic cardiac involvement, the median concentration of NT-proBNP remained statistically increased (28.0 vs. 5.8pmol/L, p<0.0001). Taken together, these results indicate that NT-proBNP, but not IMA, is substantially increased in PAD patients. This finding suggests that such patients, even though asymptomatic, might develop myocardial dysfunction, and thus warrant further investigation.
Nitration of human plasminogen by RAW 264.7 macrophages reduces streptokinase-induced plasmin activity
Authors: Hathuc Chinhnam , Hermo Ricardo , Schulze John , Gugliucci Alejandro 
Published: February 2006

AbstractDespite many years of study, clinical trials of new drugs to prevent thrombosis have often been disappointing. Part of the problem lies in our incomplete understanding of the regulation of plasminogen activation and/or inhibition in vivo. We have previously shown that in vitro nitration of plasminogen in plasma by peroxynitrite resulted in decreased plasmin activity. We hypothesized that macrophages may be agents of plasminogen nitration and designed this study to prove this hypothesis. We first better characterized our previous observations using purified plasminogen instead of whole plasma, studied the time and concentration dependence of these reactions, and co-incubated plasminogen with macrophages, as well as with non-inflammatory cells as controls, to assess nitration and impaired activity. When plasminogen (10μmol/L) is incubated in the presence of SIN-1 (0.01–2mmol/L), plasmin activity (generated by streptokinase) is reduced in a time- and concentration-dependent fashion. We performed experiments incubating human plasminogen in the presence of murine RAW264.7 macrophages, allowing for free diffusion of reactive oxygen species, while preventing the action of proteases. In this way we show that incubation of plasminogen with macrophages also decreases plasmin activity, while increasing nitration of the molecule, an effect that is already apparent after 2h and reaches a plateau of 60% inhibition after 24h of incubation. This effect appears specific for macrophages, since 31EG4 murine mammary cells used in parallel and under the same conditions failed to produce any deleterious changes in plasminogen. Our data on quick functional inactivation of plasminogen by nitration, mediated by macrophages, adds a new pathophysiological dimension to our previous work showing plasminogen as a target for peroxynitrite damage. Nitrosative stress may be implicated in impaired fibrinolysis. New therapeutic approaches for nitrosative stress in atherosclerosis and diabetes should limit the formation of superoxides and peroxynitrite.
Ignition of Combustion Modified Polyurethane Foam
Authors: Putzeys OM , Carlos Fernandez-Pello A , Urban DL 
Published: February 2006

Abstract
Results are presented from an experimental study on the ignition of the combustion modified (fire retarded) polyurethane foam Pyrell® (35.3 kg/m3 and 64.0 kg/m3) in elevated oxygen concentrations, ranging from 30 % to 60 %. The samples are exposed to an external flow and variable radiant heat flux on one face, and insulated on the other faces. The experiments show that Pyrell® undergoes a weak smoldering reaction that requires significant assistance in the form of external heat input in order to propagate. The results also show that given sufficient oxygen and radiant heat flux, the smoldering reaction can produce enough volatile fuel and heat to trigger a gas-phase ignition, i.e. a transition from smoldering to flaming, in pores in the char region. The experiments also indicate that high-density Pyrell® is more ignitable than low-density Pyrell®, which could be explained by the greater solid surface area for smoldering reactions to take place.
Comparison of Carbon Dioxide and Helium as Fire Extinguishing Agents for Spacecraft
Authors: Son Y , Zouein G , Gokoglu S , Ronney PD 
Published: February 2006

Abstract
The rates of flame spread and minimum oxygen concentrations supporting flame spared over thermally thick fuel beds were determined at earth gravity and microgravity for varying concentrations of a gaseous extinguishing agent (N2, CO2, or He) added to “baseline” O2-N2 atmospheres. Drop towers were used to obtain microgravity, and foam fuels were employed to obtain sufficiently rapid flame spread in these short-duration facilities. At earth gravity, CO2 was the most effective on a molar basis at reducing spread rate whereas at microgravity, He was the most effective at reducing spread rate and causing flame extinction. These findings are proposed to result from the transition from a high-speed blow off-type limit at earth gravity to a low-speed radiative heat loss-induced limit at microgravity. CO2 is less effective as an extinguishment agent at microgravity because it reabsorbs radiation from flame and reradiates it back to the fuel bed at microgravity, whereas with N2 and He this phenomena is not evident at microgravity because these two gases are radiatively nonparticipating. He is particularly effective at microgravity because its high thermal diffusivity leads to much larger flame thicknesses resulting in much greater volume for radiative heat losses. Radiative effects are unimportant at earth gravity because convective flow is significantly faster, leading to thinner flames with much lower ratios of radiative to conductive/convective heat transfer. These results are particularly noteworthy considering that the International Space Station employs CO2 as fire extinguishers; our results suggest that helium may be a better suppressant agent on both mass and mole bases at microgravity even though CO2 is much better on a mole basis at earth gravity.
Ellen Gleditsch: Duty and responsibility in a research and teaching career, 1916-1946
Authors: LYKKNES ANNETTE , KVITTINGEN LISE , BØRRESEN ANNE KRISTINE 
Published: February 2006

ABSTRACT
Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968) became Norway's first authority of radioactivity and the country's second female professor. After several years in international centers of radiochemistry, Gleditsch returned to Norway, becoming associate professor and later full professor of chemistry. Between 1916 and 1946 Gleditsch tried to establish a laboratory of radiochemistry at the University of Oslo, a career which included network building, grant applications, travels abroad, committee work, research, teaching, supervision, popularization, and war resistance work. Establishing a new field was demanding; only under her student, Alexis Pappas, was her field institutionalized at Oslo. This paper presents Gleditsch's everyday life at the Chemistry Department, with emphasis on her formation of a research and teaching laboratory of radiochemistry. Her main scientific work during this period is presented and discussed, including atomic weight determination of chlorine, age calculations in minerals, the hunt for actinium's ancestor and investigations on 40K.
Ions, electrometers, and physical constants: Paul Langevin's laboratory work on gas discharges, 1896-1903
Authors: LELONG BENOIT 
Published: February 2006

ABSTRACT
Based on a detailed analysis of Langevin's laboratory notebooks, this paper shows that his experimental work between 1896 and 1903 was not a sequence of disconnected research topics. The complex of instruments, formulas, and manual operations involved derived from a set of skills unique to Langevin. Significantly, Thomson, Rutherford, and Bloch had trouble reproducing the results Langevin obtained with the techniques he worked out in several laboratories and research schools in Paris and Cambridge. His experiences affected not only his apparatus and technique but also his research agenda, mode of argumentation, and professional strategies. These last included his importation of Cambridge ion physics into Paris, his fight for the acceptance of microphysics by his French colleagues, and his rise to a professorship at the Collège de France.
Rate Measurement of the Reaction of CF2Cl Radicals with O2
Authors: Codnia Jorge , Azcárate María Laura 
Published: February 2006

ABSTRACTWe have studied the association reaction of the CF2Cl radicals with O2 in presence of N2. The infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) technique with a homemade TEA CO2 laser was used for the CF2Cl radical generation and the vibrational chemiluminiscence technique was set up for the study of the reaction kinetics. The time‐resolved IR fluorescence of the vibrationally excited CF2O photoproduct was used to measure the disappearance rate of these radicals. A kinetic mechanism is presented to account for the rate of production of CF2O*. The CF2Cl radical association reaction rate with O2, evidence of a direct channel of photoproduct formation and its reaction rate, and the CF2O* collisional deactivation rate have been obtained.
How High Can Brook Trout Jump? A Laboratory Evaluation of Brook Trout Jumping Performance
Authors: Kondratieff Matthew C. , Myrick Christopher A. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractQuantitative data on how high brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis can jump are crucial for efforts by fisheries managers to exclude brook trout from streams containing native cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii subspp. and to build effective fishways for brook trout migration. We identified factors that could influence brook trout jumping ability and demonstrated how this knowledge could be applied to improve the design of barriers to brook trout migration or fishways to facilitate their migration. Our objective was to measure brook trout jumping performance under laboratory conditions to identify design features for constructing waterfall‐type barriers or pool‐and‐weir‐type fishways. We used flashboard‐type and flume‐type adjustable waterfall devices to measure brook trout jumping performance at various combinations of vertical or waterfall height (13.5–93.5 cm in 10‐cm increments) and plunge pool depth (10–60 cm in 10‐cm increments) over a 24‐h interval. We tested three size‐classes of brook trout: 10–15 cm total length (TL) (mean ± SD: 13.09 ± 1.67 cm), 15–20 cm (19.30 ± 1.19 cm), and 20 cm or more (26.52 ± 2.13 cm). The 10–15‐cm brook trout could jump a 63.5‐cm‐high waterfall, equivalent to 4.7 times their body length, from a 50‐cm‐deep plunge pool, which was 3.7 times their body length. Larger size‐classes were capable of jumping 73.5‐cm waterfalls, or 2.9–4.0 times their body length, provided the plunge pools were at least 40 cm deep (>1.6 times their body lengths). Shallow plunge pools (10 cm) prevented brook trout from all size‐classes from jumping waterfalls 43.5 cm or more in height. Small fish were capable of jumping a greater number of body lengths over vertical obstacles than large fish. The data analyses identified vertical height, plunge pool depth, fish total length, and fish condition as factors important in predicting brook trout jumping performance.
Prediction of Outstanding Liabilities in Non-Life Insurance
Authors: Norberg Ragnar 
Published: February 2006

AbstractA fully time-continuous approach is taken to the problem of predicting the total liability of a non-life insurance company. Claims are assumed to be generated by a non-homogeneous marked Poisson process, the marks representing the developments of the individual claims. A first basic result is that the total claim amount follows a generalized Poisson distribution. Fixing the time of consideration, the claims are categorized into settled, reported but not settled, incurred but not reported, and covered but not incurred. It is proved that these four categories of claims can be viewed as arising from independent marked Poisson processes. By use of this decomposition result predictors are constructed for all categories of outstanding claims. The claims process may depend on observable as well as unobservable risk characteristics, which may change in the course of time, possibly in a random manner. Special attention is given to the case where the claim intensity per risk unit is a stationary stochastic process. A theory of continuous linear prediction is instrumental.
Equilibrium in a Reinsurance Syndicate; Existence, Uniqueness and Characterization
Authors: Aase Knut K. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThis paper attempts to give an overview of the pricing of risks in a pure exchange economy, where trade takes place at time zero and where uncertainty is revealed at time one. An economic equilibrium model under uncertainty is formulated, where conditions characterizing a Pareto optimal exchange equilibrium are derived. We present two sets of sufficient conditions for the existence of an equilibrium, and demonstrate how equilibria can be characterized through several examples. Uniqueness of equilibrium is also discussed. Special attention is given to the principal components that the premiums in a reinsurance market must depend upon. We also apply the general theory to the risk exchange problem between a policyholder and an insurer, and in particular we compute market premiums of the resulting optimal contracts.It is emphasized throughout how the formulation of a competitive equilibrium, rather than merely a general risk exchange formulation, is of particular interest in deriving a well-defined and unique set of equilibrium premiums in an insurance market. The theory is put into a framework which is fruitful for extensions beyond the one-period case.
Weighted Mortality Rates as Early Warning Signals for Insurance Companies
Authors: Roberts Leigh A. 
Published: February 2006

AbstractWeighted mortality rates are commonly used in actuarial work, but the inter-relationship between the weights used and the underlying mortality rates seems not to have been widely investigated.Calculation of the ratio of weighted mortality rates to conventional mortality rates provides a simple means for an insurance company to track changes in the underlying mortality of its portfolio over time, and acts as an early warning system for possible deterioration of underwriting results. Asymptotic distributions are found for this ratio, and for the mortality rates themselves. It is suggested that insurance companies commence to gather data for the calculation of this ratio for the insurance sector as a whole, for the main annuity and assurance classes.
Evaluation of carbon dioxide laser ablation combined with mitoxantrone and piroxicam treatment in dogs with transitional cell carcinoma
Authors: Upton Melinda L. , Tangner C. H. , Payton Mark E. 
Published: February 2006

Abstract
Case Description—8 dogs that underwent carbon dioxide (CO2) laser ablation of transitional cell carcinoma in the bladder trigone and proximal portion of the urethra and were also treated with mitotranxone and piroxicam.
Clinical Findings—Transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder frequently involves the trigone and urethra and can be difficult to manage surgically. Dogs underwent laser ablation of the primary tumor and were treated with mitoxantrone at a dosage of 5 mg/m2 every 3 weeks for 4 treatments. Piroxicam was given at a dosage of 0.3 mg/kg (0.14 mg/lb) once daily for the remaining life of the dog.
Treatment and Outcome—Median and mean disease-free intervals were 200 and 280 days, respectively. Median and mean survival times were 299 and 411 days, respectively. Adverse treatment effects were observed in 2 dogs; signs included mild, self-limiting inappetance and lethargy. The procedure appeared to be well tolerated; all treated dogs had rapid resolution of clinical signs of disease of the lower portion of the urinary tract.
Clinical Relevance—Although survival times achieved with CO2 laser ablation and treatment with mitoxantrone and piroxicam were similar to survival times associated with chemotherapy alone, resolution of clinical signs was better with the combined treatment.
Cytauxzoon felis infection in cats in the mid-Atlantic states: 34 cases (1998–2004)
Authors: Birkenheuer Adam J. , Le Jaime A. , Valenzisi Amy M. , Tucker Melissa D. , Levy Michael G. , Breitschwerdt Edward B. 
Published: February 2006

Abstract
Objective—To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of feline cytauxzoonosis in the midAtlantic states and compare the Cytauxzoon felis 18S rRNA gene sequences from affected cats with sequences reported from affected cats in other regions.
Design—Retrospective case series.
Animals—34 cats with C felis infection.
Procedure—Medical records of cats in which C felis infection was diagnosed from May 1998 through June 2004 were reviewed; data collected included signalment, month of diagnosis, geographic location, clinicopathologic abnormalities, medical treatments, outcome, and necropsy findings when applicable. Cytauxzoon felis DNA was amplified, cloned, and sequenced from 4 of these cats and compared with previously reported C felis DNA sequences.
Results—Of 34 C felis–infected cats, 28 resided in North Carolina, 3 resided in South Carolina, and 3 resided in Virginia; in 32 cats, a diagnosis of C felis infection was made in April through September. Pancytopenia and icterus were the most common clinicopathologic abnormalities. Thirty-two cats either died or were euthanatized, and 2 cats survived. At 5 veterinary hospitals, multiple cases were identified, and 4 multicat households had > 1 cat infected with C felis. The 18S rRNA gene sequences characterized in organisms obtained from 4 cats were nearly identical to C felis DNA sequences reported from other US regions.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Data indicate that veterinarians in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States should consider C felis infection in cats that become ill with fever, icterus, and pancytopenia or bicytopenia, especially in the spring and summer months.
Risk factors associated with renal insufficiency in horses with primary gastrointestinal disease: 26 cases (2000–2003)
Authors: Groover Erin S. , Woolums Amelia R. , Cole Dana J. , LeRoy Bruce E. 
Published: February 2006

Abstract
Objective—To identify factors associated with renal insufficiency in colic- or colitis-affected horses with high serum creatinine (SCr) concentrations evaluated at a referral hospital.
Design—Retrospective case series.
Animals—167 colic- or colitis-affected horses (88 represented a random sample [hospital population], and 79 had high SCr concentration at initial evaluation [study population]).
Procedure—Medical records were reviewed. Data collected included signalment; physical examination, clinicopathologic, and diagnostic findings; and outcome. The study population was categorized on the basis of whether SCr concentration did (AR group; n = 53) or did not (PA group; 26) normalize within 72 hours of fluid therapy. Characteristics of the study and hospital populations were compared.
Results—Males and Quarter Horses were significantly overrepresented in the study population. Compared with the hospital population, study-population horses were significantly more likely to have colitis, gastric reflux, and diarrhea at initial evaluation. Initial mean SCr concentration in the PA group was significantly higher than the AR group; identification of gastric reflux, abnormal rectal examination findings, and hypochloremia were significantly associated with persistent azotemia after 72 hours of fluid therapy. Compared with the AR group, PA group horses were 3 times as likely to die or be euthanized.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—In colic- or colitis-affected horses, factors associated with renal insufficiency included gastric reflux, abnormal rectal examination findings, or hypochloremia initially; prognosis for horses in which azotemia resolves within 72 hours of treatment appears to be better than for horses with persistent azotemia.
The reactive–proactive aggression questionnaire: differential correlates of reactive and proactive aggression in adolescent boys
Authors: Raine Adrian , Dodge Kenneth , Loeber Rolf , Gatzke‐Kopp Lisa , Lynam Don , Reynolds Chandra , Stouthamer‐Loeber Magda , Liu Jianghong 
Published: February 2006

AbstractThis study reports the development of the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), and the differential correlates of these two forms of aggression. Antisocial, psychosocial and personality measures were obtained at ages 7 and 16 years in schoolboys, while the RPQ was administered to 334 of the boys at age 16 years. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a significant fit for a two‐factor proactive–reactive model that replicated from one independent subsample to another. Proactive aggression was uniquely characterized at age 7 by initiation of fights, strong‐arm tactics, delinquency, poor school motivation, poor peer relationships, single‐parent status, psychosocial adversity, substance‐abusing parents, and hyperactivity, and at age 16 by a psychopathic personality, blunted affect, delinquency, and serious violent offending. Reactive aggression was uniquely characterized at age 16 by impulsivity, hostility, social anxiety, lack of close friends, unusual perceptual experiences, and ideas of reference. Findings confirm and extend the differential correlates of proactive–reactive aggression, and demonstrate that this brief but reliable and valid self‐report instrument can be used to assess proactive and reactive aggression in child and adolescent samples. Aggr. Behav. 32:159–171, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.