bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
IMMUNOSUPPRESSION BY HUMAN SKIN CANCERS
Authors: McCabe M , Nowak M , Maguire D , Robertson P 
Published: August 2007

SummaryBiopsy samples from normal skin (12 samples) and skin lesions diagnosed as either basal cell (17 cases) or squamous cell carcinoma (5 cases) were frozen, disrupted and extracted with aqueous buffer. The sterilised extract was added to an in vitro system of cultured bovine lymphocytes. The response of the lymphocytes to PHA was measured by tritialed thymidine uptake. Extracts of both basal cell and squamous cell cancers inhibited normal PHA stimulation of lymphocyte mitogenesis. Blastogenesis was reduced by more than 50% by all of the cancer extracts tested. In contrast, similar extracts from normal skin showed less than 40% inhibition.
BABESIA MICROTI IN MICE. ADOPTIVE TRANSFER OF IMMUNITY WITH SERUM AND CELLS
Authors: Meeusen E , Lloyd S , Soulsby EJL 
Published: August 2007

SummaryProtection against infection with Babesia microti in mice was passively transferred with either serum or cells. Immune spleen cells were more effective than were immune mesenteric lymph node (MLN) cells in reducing parasitaemias in recipient mice, and the level of protection correlated with the donor to recipient ratio rather than with the number of cells transferred. Protection against primary infection in recipient mice was adoptively transferred by nylon wool adherent, B cell enriched subpopulations of spleen cells. In contrast, higher peak parasitaemias were apparent in mice which received nylon wool non‐adherent, T enriched spleen cells in comparison with the control mice. However, if the recipient mice were reinfected, control of this second infection was greatest in the recipients of the T enriched cell subpopulation. Treatment of the protective nylon wool adherent, B cell subpopulation with anti‐θ serum and complement abolished both the protective effect and the anamnestic antibody response in the recipient mice. This suggested that primed T cells controlled the expression of the protective antibody response by primed B cells.
ABSCESS INDUCTION IN BEIGE (bg/bg) MUTANT MICE
Authors: Finlay‐Jones JJ , Shellam GR , Boyden AN , Hart PH , Spencer LK , Skinner JM , McDonald PJ 
Published: August 2007

SummaryHumans with Chediak‐Higashi Syndrome (CHS) and several animal species with similar defects have been reported to have increased susceptibility to infection, including abscess formation, associated with granulocyte abnormalities. Those defects were investigated by comparing mice of the SB/Le strain, homozygous for the beige mutation, with their heterozygous littermates and with normal BALB/c mice with respect to the ability to form intraabdominal abscesses. Mice were autopsied 7 days after the intraperitoneal inoculation of a mixture of Bacteroides fragilis, Escherichia coli and an abscess‐potentiating agent, bran. Although homozygous beige mice formed more numerous abscesses than controls, the total abscess sizes and bacterial contents were not significantly different. Histopathologically, the abscesses resembled those in normal mice. Phagocytic killing assays using granulocytes from beige mice of the SB/Le and C57BL/6J strains showed no significant differences between homozygous beige mice and controls. Within the context of these experiments in which neutrophil function in vivo and in vitro was examined with respect to anaerobic and facultative Gram‐negative bacteria, it is concluded that beige mice can respond adequately to an infectious bacterial challenge. The increased susceptibility to an infection seen in various species with CHS‐like disease may relate to virulence factors of the infecting organisms and defects in host defences documented by others but not manifest in these experiments.
EPIGENETIC EFFECTS OF THE METHYLATING AGENT 5‐(3‐METHYL‐1‐TRIAZENO) IMIDAZOLE‐4‐CARBOXAMIDE IN HUMAN MELANOMA CELLS
Authors: Hayward IP , Parsons PG 
Published: August 2007

SummaryThe anti‐tumour methylating agent 5‐(3‐methyl‐1‐triazeno)imidazole‐4‐carboxamide (MTIC) increased the thymidine and deoxycytidine pools but not the deoxyguanosine pool in human melanoma cells. Incorporation of deoxyguanosine and deoxyadenosine was strongly inhibited by MTIC due to formation of the decomposition product 5‐aminoimidazole‐4‐carboxamide (AIC). Theophylline, natural nucleosides and sulphydryl compounds did not affect the toxicity of MTIC in either MTIC‐sensitive (Mer−) or autologous‐resistant (Mer+) melanoma cells. 3‐Aminobenzamide (3 mM for 48 h), an inhibitor of ADP‐ribosyl transferase, greatly enhanced MTIC toxicity in the resistant compared with the sensitive cell line.
METABOLISM OF BABESIA PARASITES IN VITRO. CHANGE IN ADENYLATE ENERGY CHARGE AND INFECTIVITY OF BABESIA RODHAINI‐INFECTED ERYTHROCYTES
Authors: Barry DN 
Published: August 2007

SummaryStudies were undertaken to investigate a possible correlation between the change, during experimental in vitro treatments, in adenylate energy charge (AEC) of B. rodhaini‐infected erythrocytes and the infectivity of the parasites for mice.When the AEC and infectivity of B. rodhaini‐infected erythrocytes were modified by incubation in basal salts media containing various substrates, parasite infectivity correlated significantly (r2 = 0·83, p<0·01) with change in AEC. However, B. rodhaini frozen with and without cryoprotectant demonstrated large changes in infectivity but relatively small changes in AEC. The final AEC values were similar to those of unfrozen organisms, although infectivity was greatly depressed.The results suggest that, when in vitro treatment changed the adenine nucleotide pool (ATP + ADP + AMP) of infected erythrocytes, change in AEC correlated with infectivity. When the adenylate pool was unchanged, no such correlation was evident. Thus, the AEC can be a useful index of parasite infectivity in some, but not necessarily in all, in vitro systems.Data on the relative utilization by B. rodhaini of various substrates, obtained when AEC and infectivity of infected erythrocytes were modified, are also reported and discussed.
PHARMACOLOGY OF THE STEROID REGULATION OF TRANSMITTER CHOICE IN CULTURED RAT SYMPATHETIC GANGLIA
Authors: McLennan Ian S , Hill Caryl E , Hendry Ian A 
Published: August 2007

SummaryThe normally adrenergic rat superior cervical ganglion becomes cholinergic when grown in explant culture. This response is prevented by the physiological glucocorticosteroid, corticosterone, and the mineralocorticoid, aldosterone. The synthetic glucocorticosteroid, RU 26988, was also active in this respect. Progesterone, spironolactone, testosterone and 17β‐estradiol were all inactive at 10−6 M, demonstrating the specificity of the response. The response to 10−7 M corticosterone was not antagonized by a hundred‐fold excess of progesterone, testosterone, cortexolone or spironolactone. The response to 10−7 M aldosterone was antagonized by spironolactone but not by progesterone.The order of potency of the agonists in this study is similar to that described for classical glucocorticoid receptors. The action of aldosterone was antagonized, however, by the mineralocorticoid antagonist, spironolactone. Thus, the steroid response described here may be mediated by both glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors or, alternatively, by a new glucocorticoid receptor which can be antagonized by a mineralocorticoid antagonist.
SERUM IgM/A, IgA AND FUNCTIONALLY DISTINCT IgM ANTI‐TYPE III PNEUMOCOCCAL POLYSACCHARIDE (SIII) ANTIBODIES IN BALB/c AND ATHYMIC (NUDE) MICE
Authors: Kearney R , Johnstone S 
Published: August 2007

SummaryThe influence of hereditary absence of thymus upon the synthesis of IgA, complement‐fixing (CF) hybrid IgM/A, CF‐IgM and non‐CF‐IgM antibodies to pneumococcal type III polysaccharide (SIII) injected into BALB/c and athymic nude mice was studied. Techniques Involved the differential absorption of the serum antibodies by protein‐A of Staphylococcus aureus (Sa), co‐precipitation in gels with 125I‐SIII and autoradiography. IgM/A anti‐SIII activity was not demonstrable in nude mice but was produced in significant amounts, by day 5 in BALB/c mice injected with SIII. By day 8, node mice produced more IgA anti‐SIII antibodies than BALB/c mice injected with the same antigen. IgA anti‐SIII antibodies were not detected in either strain 5 days after SIII administration. The absence of hybrid IgM/A anti‐SIII antibodies in athymic mice, prior to the appearance of monotypic IgA anti‐SIII antibodies at day 8, suggests that IgM/A and not IgA synthesis is largely T cell‐dependent The evidence also implies that hybrid IgM/A antibody production, maximal on day 5 in BALB/c mice, and absent from nude mice, is not an essential produced in the switching from IgM to IgA synthesis. Both strains of mice produced comparable amounts of complement‐fixing (CF)‐IgM and NCF‐IgM anti‐SIII antibodies, with the production of non‐complement‐fixing (NCF)‐IgM anti‐SIII in athymic mice being delayed. Results indicate that attemptS to quantitate the levels of IgA by assays incorporating anti‐IgA anti‐sera may be complicated by the presence of IgM/A hybrid antibody. The lower levels of IgA in nude mice may not necessarily imply T cell dependency of IgA synthesis. Since cells producing the T cell‐dependent IgM/A antibodies are visualized by direct plagues, the present findings have important implications in studies where the calculation of the number of indirect plaque‐forming cells is based on the assumption that direct plaques are due only to thymus‐independent CF‐IgM antibodies.
THE RELATION BETWEEN TECHNICAL VARIATION AND THE MEAN IN THE MIXED LYMPHOCYTE REACTION IN THE RAT
Authors: Hibberd AD , Wells JE , Walker PA , Lindsay VJ 
Published: August 2007

SummaryTechnical variation is a linear function of the incremental mean in the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and is independent of the immune status of the responders and the gene dose of the stimulators. Logarithmic transformation of the absolute count/control mean makes technical variation independent of the mean. We recommend that this transformation be used before parametric analysis of the data.
CHANGES IN THE CORTICAL COMPONENTS OF THE VISUAL EVOKED POTENTIAL WITH AGE IN MAN
Authors: Shaw NA 
Published: August 2007

SummaryPattern visual evoked potentials (PVEPs) were recorded from 177 normal subjects aged 11–87 years. The purpose was to determine age‐dependent changes in the latency of the individual components of the waveform. The initial components of the PVEP, which are thought to reflect activity in the primary visual (striate) cortex, showed no change in latency from 11–50 years followed by an abrupt increase occurring during the sixth decade. It is probable that this delay in the PVEP is mediated largely by pathophysiological changes occurring either in the eye or visual pathways, or both. The secondary components of the PVEP, which are presumed, to be generated in the visual association areas of the extrastriate cortex, showed a progressive although initially very limited increase in latency starting after adolescence. It is suggested that those delays occurring between 21 and 50 years in the secondary components are mediated largely by intracortical factors. The more pronounced delays occurring for the older age groups (over 50 years) appear to be caused by a combination of cortical, sub‐cortical and ocular changes in visual function. The prolongation of the later components in the age group 11–20 years seems to reflect maturational changes almost entirely confined to intracortical processes. The results are discussed in terms of the many conflicting reports of the effects of age on the PVEP.
Query-driven module discovery in microarray data
Authors: Dhollander Thomas , Sheng Qizheng , Lemmens Karen , De Moor Bart , Marchal Kathleen , Moreau Yves 
Published: August 2007

AbstractMotivation: Existing (bi)clustering methods for microarray data analysis often do not answer the specific questions of interest to a biologist. Such specific questions could be derived from other information sources, including expert prior knowledge. More specifically, given a set of seed genes which are believed to have a common function, we would like to recruit genes with similar expression profiles as the seed genes in a significant subset of experimental conditions.Results: We introduce QDB, a novel Bayesian query-driven biclustering framework in which the prior distributions allow introducing knowledge from a set of seed genes (query) to guide the pattern search. In two well-known yeast compendia, we grow highly functionally enriched biclusters from small sets of seed genes using a resolution sweep approach. In addition, relevant conditions are identified and modularity of the biclusters is demonstrated, including the discovery of overlapping modules. Finally, our method deals with missing values naturally, performs well on artificial data from a recent biclustering benchmark study and has a number of conceptual advantages when compared to existing approaches for focused module search.Availability: Software is available on the Supplementary Material.Contact: thomas.dhollander@esat.kuleuven.beSupplementary information: Available on http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~tdhollan/Supplementary_Information_Dhollander_2007/index.html
Control and Corporate Rescue–An Anglo-American Evaluation
Authors: McCormack Gerard 
Published: August 2007

AbstractThis article compares and contrasts Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code with the UK administration procedure under the Insolvency and Enterprise Acts. It focuses in particular on who runs a company during the restructuring process—debtor-in-possession or management displacement in favour of an outside administrator. Various reasons have been given to explain the US/UK divergence in this respect including differences in entrepreneurial culture and differences in the lending markets in the two countries. The article suggests that the divergence cannot be reduced to a single factor but instead implicates a complex web of circumstances.
Pan Bread and Chinese White Salted Noodle Qualities of Chinese Winter Wheat Cultivars and Their Relationship with Gluten Protein Fractions
Authors: Zhang Pingping , He Zhonghu , Zhang Yan , Xia Xianchun , Liu Jianjun , Yan Jun , Zhang Yong 
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACTImprovement of food processing quality has become a major breeding objective in China. Nineteen Chinese leading winter wheat cultivars with improved quality and two Australian cultivars with high bread and noodle‐making qualities were sown in four locations for two years to investigate dough properties, pan bread, and Chinese white salted noodle (CWSN) qualities, and their association with the quantity of protein fractions. The results indicated that genotype, environment, and genotype‐by‐environment interaction significantly affected most of quality traits and amount of protein fractions. Genotype mainly determined the quantity of gluten protein fractions and pan bread quality parameters, while environment was the most important source of variation for the noodle quality parameters. Chinese cultivars were characterized by acceptable protein content (11.1–13.4%), medium to strong dough strength (maximum resistance 176.9–746.5 BU), medium to poor dough extensibility (166.5–216.4 mm), fair to very good pan bread qualities, and good to very good CWSN qualities. Gliadin contributed more in quantity to protein content (r = 0.80, P < 0.001), however, glutenin and its subgroups were more important to dough strength. The quantity of glutenin, HMW‐GS, and LMW‐GS were highly and significantly correlated with dough strength‐related traits such as farinograph development time, stability, extensigraph maximum resistance, and extension area (r = 0.70–0.91, 0.65–0.89, and 0.70–0.91, respectively; P < 0.001). The quantity of LMW‐GS could explain 82.8% of the total variation of dough maximum resistance. The quantity of gliadin and the ratio of HMW‐GS to LMW‐GS determined dough extensibility (r = 0.75 and r = –0.59, respectively; P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). Higher quantity of glutenin and lower ratio of gliadin to glutenin resulted in higher bread score with r = 0.70 (P < 0.001) and r = –0.74 (P < 0.001), respectively. However, protein content and its fractions have a moderate undesirable effect on CWSN parameters such as color, firmness, and taste. Therefore, both allelic variation and quantity of storage protein fractions should be considered in breeding cultivars with improved pan bread making quality.
Laboratory Methods to Remove Surface Layers from Cereal Grains Using a Seed Scarifier and Comparison with a Barley Pearler
Authors: Liu Keshun 
Published: August 2007

ABSTRACTThe distribution of nutrients and undesirable components within a cereal seed is heterogeneous, and many of the valuable nutrients are located in the outer layers. Efficient laboratory methods to remove these layers will allow for the experimental production of value‐added products. A seed scarifier (SS) was used to abrade barleys, and factors affecting abrading performance and the quality of end fractions including sample charge size, mode of operation, motor speed, and cereal species were investigated. Results showed that the level of surface removal decreased as the sample charge size increased. Compared with a continuous abrading mode (only one abrading cycle per sample), a successive abrading mode (multiple abrading cycles per sample) not only provided a means to collect different fractions of outer layers and remaining kernels, but also minimized kernel breakage and gave more uniform removal of outer layers among seeds. Reduction in motor speeds tended to decrease removal efficiency but significantly prevented kernels from breakage. Subsequent trials with other grain species (wheat, rice, sorghum, and oat) confirmed these findings. Compared with a barley pearler, the SS was easier to operate, produced more repeatable data, and gave more uniform removal from a seed. The SS is an inexpensive and reliable alternative for abrading various species of cereal grains.
First Report of Sclerotial Rot of Saffron Caused by Sclerotium rolfsii in India
Authors: Kalha C. S. , Gupta V. , Gupta D. , Priya Satya 
Published: August 2007

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is highly desirable as a condiment and is also used for medicinal purposes. In India, saffron is cultivated in 2,825 ha with a production of 6,048 t and an average yield of 2.28 kg/ha. Approximately 70 to 80% of the saffron crop in 25 commercial fields in the Kishtwar District of Jammu and Kashmir, India was affected with a corm rot from October 2005 to 2006. In newly infested fields, the disease occurred in small patches that gradually enlarged each year. Symptoms appeared as brown-to-dark brown sunken, irregular patches below corm scales. Lesions were usually 1 mm deep with raised margins. Severely infected corms had foliage that dried from the tip downward. White fungal mycelia appeared on the bulbs that rotted at later stages of disease development. Sclerotia formation was observed. For isolation of the pathogen, small bits of the infected tissue were surface sterilized in 0.1% mercuric chloride and washed three times in sterile distilled water. The surface-sterilized pieces were placed aseptically on potato dextrose agar and incubated at 28 ± 1°C for 3 days. The fungus was characterized by hard, brown-to-black sclerotia that was 1 to 2.1 mm in diameter with a pseudoparenchymatous rind. These were produced on sterile, cottony white mycelium with clamp connections. On the basis of morphological characteristics (3), the fungus was identified and deposited as Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. at the Indian Type Culture Collection Center, IARI-New Delhi as ID No. 6491.07. Pathogenicity tests were carried out in a growth chamber maintained at 28 ± 1°C. S. rolfsii was grown in potato dextrose broth for 7 days and then blended to make a mycelial suspension. Fifty milliliters (1 × 104 hyphal fragments per ml) of the suspension was mixed in each kilogram of sterilized soil and placed in pots. Healthy saffron corms were planted in 10 pots containing soil infested with S. rolfsii, and five pots with noninfested soil served as controls. Symptoms appeared on eight corms 9 to 10 days after planting. Signs of the pathogen in the form of mycelia and sclerotia were also present. The corms rotted and died 12 to 14 days after inoculation. Control plants did not display any symptoms. S. rolfsii was reisolated from infected bulbs, thus proving Koch's postulates. Corm rot caused by Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp., and Rhizoctonia spp. is also reported on saffron (2). Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. gladioli has been reported in Italy (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of S. rolfsii as being pathogenic on saffron from India. References: (1) P. Di Primo and C. Cappelli. Plant Dis. 84:806, 2000. (2) M. G. Hassan and L. Sobita Devi. Indian Phytopathol. 56:122, 2003. (3) Z. K. Punja and A. Damiani. Mycologia 88:694, 1996.
Detection of Multiple Infections of Citrus exocortis viroid, Citrus viroid III, and Hop stunt viroid Variants in Hunan Province, China
Authors: Rizza S. , Catara A. , Ma X. F. , Deng Z. 
Published: August 2007

Citrus cultivation in China has increased since the late 1970s, with China now having the largest area of citrus in culture in the world that is spread in 22 provinces and municipalities. Hunan Province has undergone a program to become one of the major citrus producers in China. Poncirus trifoliata is the main rootstock, so citrus viroids are a limiting factor for further citriculture development. In mainland China, only the presence of Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd) has been reported from Etrog citron indexing, sPAGE (sequential polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) analysis (2), and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR (3). Three viroid-like RNAs, a1, b1, and d, based on sPAGE patterns were detected years ago in our laboratory in budsticks received from Sichuan Province. To identify different viroids and determine their distribution, a survey has been undertaken. Field trees showing stunting, bark scaling and cracking of the rootstock, and poor yield were tested using biological indexing and PCR for the most frequent citrus viroids. Samples from six trees of a local sweet orange variety and three of a Clementine variety introduced from abroad, both grafted on P. trifoliata and showing a variable degree of bark scaling and cracking, were collected near Changsha and in the County of Xin Ning at the end of summer 2006. Small pieces of bark were inserted in stems of young E. citron budwood grafted on rough lemon and maintained in a warm greenhouse (24 to 32°C). Indexing on E. citron showed mild epinasty and leaf roll typical of citrus viroid infections. To identify specific viroids, bark was ground to a fine powder with liquid nitrogen and total RNA was extracted with TRIZOL Reagent (Invitrogen, San Diego, CA) and tested by RT-PCR to detect CEVd, Hop Stunt viroid (HSVd), and Citrus viroid III (CVd-III), as well as to identify the cachexia variants of HSVd. Four primer pairs were used to test the RNA extracts by RT-PCR (1). All samples were infected by HSVd, eight with CVd-III, and six with CEVd. The cachexia variants of HSVd were detected in four of nine samples. Mixed infections were as follows: one sample had CEVd and HSVd, eight had HSVd and CVd-III, and five were infected by the three viroids. A second sampling 3 months after inoculation gave the same amplification patterns. The results show that at least three viroids are present in citrus orchards in Hunan Province. To our knowledge, this is the first report of cachexia variants of HSVd and CVd-III in China. The common occurrence of these viroids supports the need for proper indexing of mother trees and a specific shoot tip grafting program to create healthy budwood sources to provide healthy plants. References: (1) L. Bernard and N. Duran-Vila. Mol. Cell. Probes, 20:105, 2006. (2) L. Han et al. Viroids. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 283, 2003. (3). Q. Hu et al. Acta Bot. Sin. 39:613, 1997.