bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Use of multiple peptides containing T cell epitopes is a feasible approach for peptide‐based immunotherapy in Can f 1 allergy
Authors: Immonen Anu K. , Taivainen Antti H. , Närvänen Ale T. O. , Kinnunen Tuure T. , Saarelainen Soili A. , Rytkönen‐Nissinen Marja A. , Virtanen Tuomas I. 
Published: September 2006

SummaryWe have previously shown that the major dog allergen Can f 1 contains seven T cell epitope regions, none of which was preferentially recognized. To identify the immune characteristics of Can f 1 epitopes and to verify their suitability for peptide‐based allergen immunotherapy, short‐term T cell lines were generated with epitope‐containing peptides from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Can f 1 skinprick test‐positive allergic and healthy control subjects. The lines were examined for their proliferative capacity and cytokine production upon stimulation with the allergen peptide, a homologous peptide from human tear lipocalin (TL) and Can f 1 and TL proteins. Can f 1 peptides induced proliferation of T cells and gave rise to T cell lines with comparable efficiencies. In particular, the T cell lines of allergic subjects induced with p33–48 and p107–122 favoured the production of interferon‐γ and interleukin‐10, respectively. A greater number of Can f 1‐specific T cell lines were generated from allergic than from healthy individuals. Two p107–122‐induced Can f 1‐specific T cell lines also reacted to a homologous peptide of human TL. Our results suggest that several T cell epitope‐containing peptides should be used in combination for specific immunotherapy in Can f 1 allergy.
Analysis of the immune response to Neospora caninum in a model of intragastric infection in mice
Authors: TEIXEIRA L. , BOTELHO A. S. , BATISTA A. R. , MEIRELES C. S. , RIBEIRO A. , DOMINGUES H. S. , CORREIA DA COSTA J. M. , CASTRO A. G. , FAUSTINO A. M. R. , VILANOVA M. 
Published: September 2006

SUMMARY To study experimental Neospora caninum infection initiated at the gastrointestinal tract, Toll‐like Receptor 4‐ and functional IL‐12Rβ2 chain‐deficient C57BL/10 ScCr mice were challenged intragastrically with 5 × 106 N. caninum tachyzoites. All parasite‐inoculated mice eventually died with disseminated infection. In contrast, immunocompetent BALB/c mice challenged with 1 × 107 N. caninum tachyzoites by the intragastric (i.g.) or the intraperitoneal (i.p.) route remained alive for at least 6 months. Expansion of splenic B‐ and T‐cells, the latter displaying both activated and regulatory phenotypes, and increased levels of IFN‐γ and IL‐10 mRNA were detected in both groups of infected BALB/c mice compared with non‐infected controls, whereas in the Peyer's patches only IFN‐γ mRNA levels were found to be increased. Parasite‐specific IgG1, IgG2a and IgA antibody levels were elevated in the sera of all infected mice, whereas increased N. caninum‐specific IgA levels were detected in intestinal lavage fluids of i.g. challenged mice only. These results show that N. caninum infection can be successfully established in mice by i.g. administration of tachyzoites. They also show that the immune response elicited in i.g. or i.p. infected BALB/c mice, although conferring some degree of protection, was not sufficient for complete parasite clearance.
Can sexual selection drive female life histories? A comparative study on Galliform birds
Authors: KOLM N. , STEIN R. W. , MOOERS A. Ø. , VERSPOOR J. J. , CUNNINGHAM E. J. A. 
Published: September 2006

AbstractSexual selection has been identified as a major evolutionary force shaping male life history traits but its impact on female life history evolution is less clear. Here we examine the impact of sexual selection on three key female traits (body size, egg size and clutch size) in Galliform birds. Using comparative independent contrast analyses and directionaldiscreteanalyses, based on published data and a new genera‐level supertree phylogeny of Galliform birds, we investigated how sexual selection [quantified as sexual size dimorphism (SSD) and social mating system (MS)] affects these three important female traits. We found that female body mass was strongly and positively correlated with egg size but not with clutch size, and that clutch size decreased as egg size increased. We established that SSD was related to MS, and then used SSD as a proxy of the strength of sexual selection. We found both a positive relationship between SSD and female body mass and egg size and that increases in female body mass and egg size tend to occur following increases in SSD in this bird order. This pattern of female body mass increases lagging behind changes in SSD, established using our directionaldiscreteanalysis, suggests that female body mass increases as a response to increases in the level of sexual selection and not simply through a strong genetic relationship with male body mass. This suggests that sexual selection is linked to changes in female life history traits in Galliformes and we discuss how this link may shape patterns of life history variation among species.
Mating preferences, sexual selection and patterns of cladogenesis in ray‐finned fishes
Authors: MANK J. E. 
Published: September 2006

AbstractEvolutionary theory predicts that sexual selection may increase taxonomic diversity when emergent mating preferences result in reproductive isolation and therefore speciation. This theory has been invoked to explain patterns of diversity in ray‐finned fishes (most notably in the cichlids), but the theory has not been tested comparatively in fish. Additionally, several other unrelated factors have been identified as promoters of cladogenesis, so it is unclear how important sexual selection might be in diversification. Using sister‐clade analysis, I tested the relationship between the presence of sexually selected traits and taxonomic diversification in actinopterygiian fishes, a large clade that shows substantial diversity in mating preferences and related sexually selected traits. In all identified sister‐families that differed with regard to the proportion of species manifesting sexually selected traits, sexual selection was correlated with increased diversification, and this association was significant across all sister clades (P = 0.02). This suggests that sexual selection, when present, is a substantial driver of diversification in the ray‐finned fishes, and lends further empirical support to the theoretical link between mating preferences and accelerated cladogenesis.
EXTENT OF RENAL EFFECT OF CYCLO‐OXYGENASE‐2‐SELECTIVE INHIBITORS IS PHARMACOKINETIC DEPENDENT
Authors: Harirforoosh Sam , Aghazadeh‐Habashi Ali , Jamali Fakhreddin 
Published: September 2006

SUMMARYNon‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) cause renal side‐effects. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the extent of the renal effects of cyclo‐oxygenase (COX)‐2‐selective NSAIDs is linked to their pharmacokinetics.A single oral dose of rofecoxib (10 mg/kg), celecoxib (40 mg/kg), meloxicam (3 mg/kg) or placebo was administered to rats. Urinary excretion of electrolytes, a marker of renal effects, and plasma and kidney concentrations of NSAIDs were measured. Rofecoxib and celecoxib, but not meloxicam, significantly decreased urinary sodium and potassium excretion. There was a significant correlation between the area under the 24 h plasma concentration–time curve (AUC0−24) of rofecoxib and the change in sodium (r = –0.65;P < 0.02) and potassium (r = –0.82;P < 0.0006) excretion. The AUC0−24of celecoxib was correlated with sodium (r = –0.80;P < 0.05) but not potassium excretion. The ratios of kidney to plasma drug concentrations were 1.72, 3.16 and 0.17 for rofecoxib, celecoxib and meloxicam, respectively.The renal effect of the COX‐2‐selective NSAIDs examined, marked by their ability to reduce the excretion of electrolytes, is influenced by systemic exposure to the drugs. The relatively higher distribution into the kidneys of rofecoxib and celecoxib compared with meloxicam suggests involvement of direct drug exposure in the kidneys in the adverse renal effect.
A PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE ACUTE EFFECTS OF HIGH‐INTENSITY EXERCISE ON SKELETAL MUSCLE PROTEINS IN FASTED RATS
Authors: Guelfi Kym J , Casey Tammy M , Giles Jeffrey J , Fournier Paul A , Arthur Peter G 
Published: September 2006

SUMMARY

Quantitative proteomics is a technique that allows for large‐scale comparison of the levels of individual proteins present in a biological sample. This technique has not previously been applied to examine the response of skeletal muscle proteins to an acute bout of exercise.
In the present study, quantitative proteomics was applied to investigate whether the levels of individual skeletal muscle proteins are acutely affected by a short bout of high‐intensity exercise.
Gastrocnemius muscle was sampled from fasted rats either at rest, immediately following 3 min of high‐intensity exercise or after 30 min of recovery. Muscle samples were submitted to two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis and 61 of the resulting protein spots were selected for quantitative analysis.
It was found that skeletal muscle protein levels were generally not acutely affected by a short bout of high‐intensity exercise, with only four of the 61 proteins selected for analysis being significantly altered. These altered proteins were identified using liquid chromatography electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry as creatine kinase, troponin T and a combination of heat shock 20 kDa protein and adenylate kinase 1.
In conclusion, quantitative proteomics is sensitive enough to detect acute changes in skeletal muscle protein levels in response to exercise. We have found that the levels of most individual skeletal muscle proteins are not immediately altered in response to a short bout of high‐intensity exercise and recovery in fasted rats.
Telling cultures: ‘cultural’ issues for staff reporting concerns about colleagues in the UK National Health Service
Authors: Ehrich Kathryn 
Published: September 2006

AbstractRecent UK health policy initiatives promote a ‘no blame culture’ and learning from adverse events to enhance patient safety in the NHS. Similar initiatives exist in the USA and Australia. Changing the ‘blame culture’ in the NHS has been advocated in policy documents and inquiry reports for over a decade. Some key concepts that are used in the policy discourse –‘blame’; mistakes, errors and misdemeanours; and ‘culture’– are examined and considered in the light of pertinent social science literature to question some of the assumptions concerning these terms in the policy discourse, and to suggest some alternative questions and perspectives. The Three Inquiries, a recent series of statutory inquiries held in the UK, are used as a case study to explore some of the intra‐ and inter‐professional difficulties of reporting errors and misconduct by medical practitioners. The paper offers an interpretive social science perspective as an alternative to more policy oriented and managerial approaches to patient safety issues, focusing on deeper structural aspects of organisational phenomena implicated in the ability or otherwise of medical and other healthcare staff to report mistakes and misconduct as one aspect of patient safety.
Guilt, blame and responsibility: men's understanding of their role in the transmission of BRCA1/2 mutations within their family
Authors: Hallowell Nina , Arden‐Jones Audrey , Eeles Ros , Foster Claire , Lucassen Anneke , Moynihan Clare , Watson Maggie 
Published: September 2006

AbstractMen and women who have a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer may be offered a predictive genetic test to determine whether or not they carry the family specific BRCA1/2 mutation. The sons and daughters of mutation carriers have a 50 per cent chance of inheriting a mutation, which will increase their risk of developing cancer. Little is known about at‐risk men's feelings about the part they play in the transmission of BRCA1/2 mutations within their families. This study investigated high risk men's responses to BRCA1/2 predictive genetic testing. Seventeen in‐depth interviews were undertaken with carrier (n= 5) and non‐carrier men (n= 12). All men described genetic testing as a familial duty. It is observed that carriers and non‐carriers mobilised differing explanations about their role in the aetiology of risk. It is noted that men engage in a form of narrative reconstruction in which they draw upon discourses of guilt and blame or fate and predestiny in an effort to present themselves as morally responsible or blameless. It is argued that narrative reconstruction enables these men to reconcile their genetic identity, self and family.
TOWARDS A NON‐POSSESSIVE CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE: ON THE RELATION BETWEEN REASON AND LOVE IN AQUINAS AND BALTHASAR1
Authors: SCHINDLER DAVID C. 
Published: September 2006

AbstractBecause of the consistent emphasis he places on the supremacy of love, Hans Urs von Balthasar has occasionally been thought to incline toward a problematic irrationalism. This essay addresses this charge through a comparison of Aquinas and Balthasar on the question of the relationship between intellect and will. It is argued that the superiority of intellect over will generally attributed to Aquinas itself leads paradoxically to irrationalism whenever the object exceeds the soul, and that Balthasar's insistence on the supremacy of love—precisely because it integrates will and intellect and thereby makes the intellectual act structurally ecstatic—in fact allows us to avoid such an irrationalism.
Effects of sex hormones on ECG parameters and expression of cardiac ion channels in dogs
Authors: Fülöp L. , Bányász T. , Szabó G. , Tóth I. B. , Bíró T. , Lôrincz I. , Balogh Á. , Petô K. , Mikó I. , Nánási P. P. 
Published: September 2006

AbstractAim: The aim of the study was to examine the effects of testosterone and oestrogen on the ECG parameters and expression of cardiac ion channels in male and female dogs, and to compare the dofetilide‐induced lengthening of QTc interval in control, castrated and hormone‐treated animals.Methods: ECG records were taken from male and female anaesthetized dogs (n = 10 in each group) before castration, after castration, and following inverted hormone substitution. The animals were challenged with dofetilide at each stage of the experiment. Finally, the hearts were excised and expression of ion channels was studied using Western blot technique.Results: Heart rate was decreased and PQ interval increased by deprivation of sex hormones in both genders (orchiectomy or ovarectomy), while inverted hormonal substitution restored control values. Orchiectomy significantly increased the duration of QT and QTc intervals, QTc‐dispersion and the dofetilide‐induced lengthening of QTc, while testosterone treatment of castrated females had opposite effects. Intraventricular conduction (QRS duration) was independent of the endocrine status of the animals. Ovarectomy or oestrogen treatment of castrated males failed to alter significantly these parameters except for QTc‐dispersion. Expression of ion channel proteins responsible for mediation of IK1and Itocurrents (Kir2.1 and Kv4.3, respectively), was significantly higher in the testosterone‐treated castrated females and normal males than in the oestrogen‐treated castrated males and normal females.Conclusion: Repolarization of canine ventricular myocardium is significantly modified by testosterone, but not oestrogen, in both genders. This effect is likely due to augmentation of expression of K+‐channel proteins, and thus may provide protection against arrhythmiasviaincreasing the repolarization reserve.
Atomic Standards of Frequency and Time
Authors: Richardson John M. , Brockman James F. 
Published: September 2006

The National Bureau of Standards scale of time is provided by an atomic frequency standard. Thus, for the first time in our civilization, the basis of our measurement of time is atomic instead of astronomical. The major reasons for this change are that modern science can measure the resonance of an atom more accurately than it can measure the motions of stars and planets, all of the factors affecting atoms are better understood, and the atomic resonance appears to be more stable than planetary motions. This change has improved our accuracy of measurement by three orders of magnitude.
Presently, the best atomic clocks are based on atomic cesium beams such as the three at NBS. Further research, however, may reveal a better choice of atom or method. NBS is using four radio stations to distribute time (and its reciprocal, frequency) to the nation and over much of the globe, but again, research is being conducted on newer techniques that offer higher accuracies.
The change from astronomical to atomic time will have little effect on our daily living habits, but it will permit our technology to accomplish things we couldn't do before and to do the same things more economically.
RESIDUE CONSERVATION INFORMATION FOR GENERATING NEAR-NATIVE STRUCTURES IN PROTEIN–PROTEIN DOCKING
Authors: DUAN YUHUA , REDDY BOOJALA V. B. , KAZNESSIS YIANNIS N. 
Published: September 2006

Motivation: Protein–protein docking algorithms typically generate large numbers of possible complex structures with only a few of them resembling the native structure. Recently (Duan et al., Protein Sci, 14:316–218, 2005), it was observed that the surface density of conserved residue positions is high at the interface regions of interacting protein surfaces, except for antibody–antigen complexes, where a lesser number of conserved positions than average is observed at the interface regions. Using this observation, we identified putative interacting regions on the surface of interacting partners and significantly improved docking results by assigning top ranks to near-native complex structures. In this paper, we combine the residue conservation information with a widely used shape complementarity algorithm to generate candidate complex structures with a higher percentage of near-native structures (hits). What is new in this work is that the conservation information is used early in the generation stage and not only in the ranking stage of the docking algorithm. This results in a significantly larger number of generated hits and an improved predictive ability in identifying the native structure of protein–protein complexes. Results: We report on results from 48 well-characterized protein complexes, which have enough residue conservation information from the same 59 benchmark complexes used in our previous work. We compute conservation indices of residue positions on the surfaces of interacting proteins using available homologous sequences from UNIPROT and calculate the solvent accessible surface area. We combine this information with shape-complementarity scores to generate candidate protein–protein complex structures. When compared with pure shape-complementarity algorithms, performed by FTDock, our method results in significantly more hits, with the improvement being over 100% in many instances. We demonstrate that residue conservation information is useful not only in refinement and scoring of docking solutions, but also helpful in enrichment of near-native-structures during the generation of candidate geometries of complex structures.
Interdecadal Variability of the Southern Ocean
Authors: Hogg Andrew Mc C. , Blundell Jeffrey R. 
Published: September 2006

Abstract
The intrinsic variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is investigated using an idealized wind-driven model. The model uses three quasigeostrophic layers, with steady wind stress forcing, and no diabatic effects. Despite the idealized nature of the model, the simulations display a robust mode of low-frequency variability in the flow. It is demonstrated that this variability is dependent upon the explicit simulation of the dynamics of mesoscale eddies. As such, the variability is sensitive to stratification, horizontal viscosity, bottom stress, and topography. The energetic balance of the variability is diagnosed, and a driving mechanism is proposed that involves positive feedback between the generation of eddies through baroclinic instability and the dynamics of the mean circulation.
A method for computing the overall statistical significance of a treatment effect among a group of genes
Authors: Delongchamp Robert , Lee Taewon , Velasco Cruz 
Published: September 2006

Abstract

Background
In studies that use DNA arrays to assess changes in gene expression, our goal is to evaluate the statistical significance of treatments on sets of genes. Genes can be grouped by a molecular function, a biological process, or a cellular component, e.g., gene ontology (GO) terms. The meaning of an affected GO group is often clearer than interpretations arising from a list of the statistically significant genes.

Results
Computer simulations demonstrated that correlations among genes invalidate many statistical methods that are commonly used to assign significance to GO terms. Ignoring these correlations overstates the statistical significance. Meta-analysis methods for combining p-values were modified to adjust for correlation. One of these methods is elaborated in the context of a comparison between two treatments. The form of the correlation adjustment depends upon the alternative hypothesis.

Conclusion
Reliable corrections for the effect of correlations among genes on the significance level of a GO term can be constructed for an alternative hypothesis where all transcripts in the GO term increase (decrease) in response to treatment. For general alternatives, which allow some transcripts to increase and others to decrease, the bias of naïve significance calculations can be greatly decreased although not eliminated.