bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Short‐term intake of β‐carotene‐supplemented diets enhances ovarian function and progesterone synthesis in goats
Authors: Arellano‐Rodriguez G. , Meza‐Herrera C. A. , Rodriguez‐Martinez R. , Dionisio‐Tapia R. , Hallford D. M. , Mellado M. , Gonzalez‐Bulnes A. 
Published: October 2008

SummaryThe effect of β‐carotene supplementation upon luteal activity, measured as number (CLT) and volume (VLT) of corpus luteum, and P4 synthesis in goats, was evaluated. Goats (n = 22, 34 months) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups: (i) β‐carotene [Beta, n = 10; body weight (BW = 44.8 ± 1.45 kg), body condition score (BCS = 3.25 ± 0.07)], and (ii) Control (Control, n = 12; BW = 45.30 ± 1.32 kg, BCS = 3.33 ± 0.06). Upon oestrus synchronization, the Beta group received 50 mg of β‐carotene per day during 35 days pre‐ and 17 days post‐ovulation. The day 4, 8, 12 and 16 post‐ovulation, blood samples were collected for quantification of serum P4 concentrations by radioimmmunoassay, and transrectal ultrasonographic scanning was performed at day 18 for evaluating CLT and VLT. Overall, CLT and VLT mean were 3.10 and 2211.1 mm3 respectively. The Beta‐goats depicted both the largest values for CLT (p = 0.07) and serum P4 levels (p = 0.05), with no differences (p = 0.53) for VLT between treatments. Results suggest a higher efficiency within the cellular‐enzymatic groups defining the steroidogenic pathways in the β‐carotene‐supplemented goats, generating a larger P4 synthesis. The last is essential for ovulation of healthy oocytes, maintenance of uterine quiescence, nourishment and survival of the embryo around implantation; all of them of paramount significance during the maternal recognition of pregnancy process.
Cryopreservation of Immature Bovine Oocytes to Reconstruct Artificial Gametes by Germinal Vesicle Transplantation
Authors: Luciano AM , Franciosi F , Lodde V , Perazzoli F , Slezáková M , Modina S 
Published: October 2008

ContentsJoining immature gamete cryopreservation and germinal vesicle transplantation (GVT) technique could greatly improve assisted reproductive technologies in animal breeding and human medicine. The present work was aimed to assess the most suitable cryopreservation protocol between slow freezing and vitrification for immature denuded bovine oocytes, able to preserve both nuclear and cytoplasmic competence after thawing. In addition, the outcome of germinal vesicle transfer procedure and gamete reconstruction was tested on the most effective cryopreservation system. Oocytes, isolated from slaughterhouse ovaries, were stored after cumulus cells removal either by slow freezing or by vitrification in open pulled straws. After thawing, oocytes were matured for 24 h in co‐culture with an equal number of just isolated intact cumulus enclosed oocytes, and fixed in order to evaluate the stage of meiotic progression and cytoskeleton organization. Our results showed that after warming, vitrified oocytes reached metaphase II (MII) in a percentage significantly higher than oocytes cryopreserved by slow freezing (76.2% and 36.5% respectively, p < 0.05). Moreover, vitrification process preserved the organization of cytoskeleton elements in a higher proportion of oocytes than slow freezing procedure. Therefore vitrification has been identified as the elective method for denuded immature oocytes banking and it has been applied in the second part of the study. Our results showed that 38.3% of oocytes reconstructed from vitrified gametes reached the MII of meiotic division, with efficiency not different from oocytes reconstructed with fresh gametes. We conclude that vitrification represents a suitable method of GV stage denuded oocyte banking since both nuclear and cytoplasmic components derived from cryopreserved immature oocytes can be utilized for GVT.
Morphology and Chromatin Integrity of Stallion Spermatozoa Prepared by Density Gradient and Single Layer Centrifugation Through Silica Colloids
Authors: Morrell JM , Johannisson A , Dalin A‐M , Rodriguez‐Martinez H 
Published: October 2008

ContentsThe objective was to investigate whether it is possible to improve the quality of stallion semen, with respect to sperm morphology and chromatin integrity, both of which have been linked to fertility, using either density gradient centrifugation (DGC) or a new method, hereby named single layer centrifugation (SLC). The two methods of colloidal centrifugation were evaluated using 38 ejaculates from 10 stallions. Sperm morphology, subjective motility and sperm chromatin integrity were compared in uncentrifuged samples and in centrifuged sperm preparations. The proportion of morphologically normal spermatozoa varied between stallions (p < 0.001) and was increased by both methods of colloidal centrifugation (median value before centrifugation 67.5%; after SLC 78%; after DGC 77%; p < 0.001). The incidence of certain abnormalities was reduced, e.g. proximal cytoplasmic droplets were reduced from 12.9% to 8.8% (p < 0.001), and mid‐piece defects from 5.3% to 1.4% (p < 0.05). Similarly, sperm motility and chromatin integrity were significantly improved (p < 0.001), with no difference between the two centrifugation methods. Centrifugation through colloids can enrich the proportions of stallion spermatozoa with normal morphology and normal chromatin structure in sperm preparations. The new method, SLC, was as effective as DGC in selecting motile stallion spermatozoa with normal morphology and intact chromatin. SLC, being simpler to use than DGC, would be appropriate for routine use by stud personnel to improve stallion sperm quality in insemination doses.
Review article: Tackling the survival issue in end‐stage renal disease: Time to get physical on haemodialysis
Authors: CHEEMA BIRINDER SINGH BOBBY 
Published: October 2008

SUMMARY:Life expectancy in haemodialysis patients is reduced fourfold on average versus healthy age‐matched individuals. The purpose of this review is to present empirical evidence that intradialytic exercise can mitigate primary independent risk factors for early mortality in end‐stage renal disease. These risk factors include measures of skeletal muscle wasting, systemic inflammation, cardiovascular functioning and dialysis adequacy. Overall, the available literature provides support for the integration of exercise within the conventional outpatient haemodialysis unit. The amelioration of various physiological risk factors through an appropriate exercise prescription may enhance survival in this vulnerable cohort. Investigations are required to determine the effects of various doses of intradialytic exercise on a broad range of clinical outcomes, and more thoroughly elucidate the relationship between exercise‐induced adaptations and survival advantage in end‐stage renal disease.
Classification of female genito‐urinary tract fistula: Inter‐ and intra‐observer correlations
Authors: Goh Judith T. W. , Krause Hannah G. , Browning Andrew , Chang Allan 
Published: October 2008

AbstractBackground:  Currently, there is no accepted standardized classification for genital tract fistulae. Many classifications have been proposed previously, mainly based on anatomical locations. This is the first paper on inter‐ and intra‐observer correlations using a recently published classification system based on fixed reference points.Aim:  To assess intra‐ and inter‐observer reliability of a new classification for genito‐urinary fistula.Methods:  This is a prospective assessment of women with genito‐urinary fistula. Women attending the Fistula Clinic in Ethiopia and Liberia were assessed by three fistula surgeons. The women were assessed in the outpatients and the fistulae were staged. In Liberia, where two surgeons were working together, inter‐observer reliability was assessed. All women had the fistulae restaged in the operating theatre and intra‐observer concordance was assessed. The clinicians were blinded to the outpatient results.Results:  A total of 119 women were recruited. All women had intra‐observer assessment and had the fistula examined by the same clinician in the outpatients and in the operating theatre. Fifty of these women had inter‐observer assessment with two clinicians assessing the same women. The results demonstrated that this classification system had high concordance in intra‐ and inter‐observer reproducibility.Conclusion:  The new classification for genito‐urinary fistulae utilizing fixed reference points is a useful tool in describing fistulae. This study has shown that this classification produced consistency in description amongst different clinicians and also by the same clinician in a different consultation. This therefore allows more precise communication of clinical findings.
Factors influencing the choice between cold knife conization and loop electrosurgical excisional procedure for the treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
Authors: Shin Jin Woo , Rho Hyun Seok , Park Chan Yong 
Published: October 2008

AbstractAim:  To determine whether cold knife conization (CKC) or loop electrosurgical excisional procedure (LEEP) is the better option for the treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) under specific circumstances.Methods:  We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent CKC or LEEP for the treatment of CIN. The proportion of non‐negative surgical margins between the two treatment groups was calculated based on their age, parity, previous mode of delivery, and grade of CIN. The Student's t‐test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to find the better option for the treatment of CIN under the specific circumstances.Results:  A total of 118 patients were enrolled in the study. Between the two treatment groups, there was no significant difference in the overall proportion of non‐negative surgical margins (P > 0.05). The grade of CIN, the previous mode of delivery, and parity did not affect the surgical margin status. The CKC treatment group had a significantly lower incidence of non‐negative surgical margins than the LEEP treatment group (14.3% vs. 52.6%, respectively; P < 0.05) in the patients >45 years of age. Based on multivariate analyses, LEEP was identified as a significant risk factor for non‐negative surgical margins in the patients >45 years of age. Of the 11 patients with non‐negative surgical margins who underwent a secondary procedure within 6 months of the initial CKC or LEEP, five patients (45.5%) had residual CIN II and III.Conclusions:  In patients >45 years of age, CKC is the preferred treatment for CIN.
Selectively eliminating and conserving exotic plants to save an endangered butterfly from local extinction
Authors: Severns P. M. , Warren A. D. 
Published: October 2008

AbstractRare butterfly conservation requires understanding of butterfly interactions with the resource conditions that influence population growth. Exotic plant invasions can reduce butterfly population size and growth by displacing key resources, degrading habitat conditions and directly impacting fitness, but exotic plants may also be incorporated into native butterfly diets, rendering practicing conservation biologists a choice between exotic plant control and butterfly population persistence. Euphydryas editha taylori (Nymphalidae), a candidate endangered butterfly species in the Pacific Northwest of North America, switched from an unknown native larval host plant to become entirely dependent on an exotic larval host Plantago lanceolata in extant western Oregon populations. Furthermore, the last Oregon butterfly populations are surrounded by two exotic grasses, Brachypodium sylvaticum and Festuca arundinacea, both of which can dominate remnant native prairies and degrade native grassland structural conditions. When given a choice of habitat conditions, E. e. taylori oviposited on larval host plants surrounded by increasing abundance of short‐statured native bunchgrasses and adult nectar resources, indicating that females select egg‐laying sites based on habitat conditions rather than just host plant presence. Both larval and adult resources substantially diminished with increasing cover of exotic grasses and were nearly absent when B. sylvaticum and F. arundinacea dominated. Butterfly resource loss with increasing exotic grass cover, the documentation of contemporary subpopulation extinction, current historic site conditions and grass invasion history in the Willamette Valley suggest that mass E. e. taylori extinction in western Oregon by the late 1970s was due to B. sylvaticum and F. arundinacea invasion. To prevent the extinction of E. e. taylori, land managers must accept that the anthropogenically mediated host switch to P. lanceolata must be conserved and that reintroductions/augmentation with a potential native host plant species is unlikely to be effective because larval development is timed to P. lanceolata growth.
1 Gender, Households, and Society: An Introduction
Authors: Brumfiel Elizabeth M. , Robin Cynthia 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT A critical strength of the discipline of archaeology is that its access to the material record of human history extends well beyond the written record and includes societies and cultures unaffected by Western colonialism and capitalist penetration. Bringing to light the social relations of earlier time periods, archaeology plays a critical role in documenting the full range of human variation, a role that cannot be filled by ethnography, history, or ethnohistory with their shorter temporal spans. By questioning essentialist notions of binary gender systems, gender research in archaeology can lead to a reevaluation of long‐standing disciplinary assumptions about the nature of household organization, subsistence and craft production, ritual performance, and the structure of ancient states. The materiality of gender relations and gender identities in the archaeological record allows archaeologists to conduct historical comparisons of ancient, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic time periods to document changes as well as continuities in human social conditions. In so doing, archaeologists are able to expose ancient social scenarios that are distinctive from contemporary arrangements and thus widen the scope of the social sciences.
5 Situating Power and Locating Knowledge: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations
Authors: Morehart Christopher T. , Helmke Christophe G. B. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTViewing household production in terms of a political economic balance of “give and take” circumvents difficulties related to gender attribution in archaeology and challenges timeless gender stereotypes. This chapter proposes such an archaeological approach to gender by examining the charcoal assemblages from two Late Classic period Maya archaeological sites in the upper Belize Valley of western Belize. These sites occupied distinct positions within a complex political economic landscape, and their charcoal assemblages reflect heterogeneity in household production. The type and the intensity of activities, including wood procurement and craft production, were socially contingent. We propose that household activities and forms of knowledge were conditioned by the positions of households within broader political economic landscapes, not conforming to the timeless social stereotypes imposed by archaeologists.
9 Shaken, Not Stirred: The Revolution in Archaeology
Authors: Pyburn K. Anne 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT A generation of archaeologists has shown that gender stereotyping has impeded our ability to understand the political economy, social organization, and cultural changes that are reflected in archaeological data. But feminist archaeology has also shown that to understand the past we could not simply “add women and stir”; that researching gender would require interrogating a great deal of received wisdom and might ultimately challenge some of our most cherished anthropological and ethnographic categories. By studying gender in the past we were not trying to place women within the standard anthropological framework of understanding, we were trying to shake the framework. The important contributions to this volume come from some of the first young scholars to be born into that shaken framework; each providing new perspectives, new interpretations, and new insights into the lives of ancient people that expand not only what we perceive about the past, but also what we can understand about ourselves.
Mutations in p53, p53 protein overexpression and breast cancer survival
Authors: Rossner Jr Pavel , Gammon Marilie D. , Zhang Yu‐Jing , Terry Mary Beth , Hibshoosh Hanina , Memeo Lorenzo , Mansukhani Mahesh , Long Chang‐Min , Garbowski Gail , Agrawal Meenakshi , Kalra Tara S. , Gaudet Mia M. , Teitelbaum Susan L. , Neugut Alfred I. , Santella Regina M. 
Published: October 2008

Abstractp53 is an important tumour suppressor gene that encodes p53 protein, a molecule involved in cell cycle regulation and has been inconsistently linked to breast cancer survival. Using archived tumour tissue from a population‐based sample of 859 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1996 and 1997, we determined p53 mutations in exons 5–8 and p53 protein overexpression. We examined the association of p53 mutations with overexpression and selected tumour clinical parameters. We assessed whether either p53 marker was associated with survival through 2002, adjusting for other tumour markers and prognostic factors. The prevalence of protein overexpression in the tumour was 36% (307/859) and of any p53 mutation was 15% (128/859). p53 overexpression was positively associated with the presence of any p53 mutation (odds ratio [OR]= 2.2, 95% confidence interval [CI]= 1.5–3.2), particularly missense mutations (ER = 7.0, 95% CI = 3.6–13.7). Negative oestrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) status was positively associated with both p53 protein overexpression (= 2.6, 95% CI = 1.7–4.0) and p53 mutation (OR = 3.9, 95% CI = 2.4–6.5). Any p53 mutation and missense mutations, but not p53 protein overexpression, were associated with breast cancer‐specific mortality (hazard ratio [HR]= 1.7, 95% CI = 1.0–2.8; HR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.1–3.6, respectively) and all‐cause mortality (HR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.0–2.4; HR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2–3.4, respectively); nonsense mutations were associated only with breast cancer‐specific mortality (HR = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.1–8.1). These associations however did not remain after adjusting for ER/PR status. Thus, in this population‐based cohort of women with breast cancer, although p53 protein overexpression and p53 mutations were associated with each other, neither independently impacted breast cancer‐specific or all‐causing mortality, after considering ER/PR status.
miR‐21: a small multi‐faceted RNA
Authors: Krichevsky Anna M. , Gabriely Galina 
Published: October 2008

miR‐21 expression in cancer and other diseases
Mechanisms of miR‐21 elevation in cancer: multi‐level regulatory control
Transcriptional control
Post‐trancriptional regulation
miR‐21 functions in cancer
Identification of direct miR‐21 targets
miR‐21 in gliomas: targeting cell cycle, apoptosis and invasion
miR‐21 networking and feedback regulation
miR‐21 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker
Potential therapeutic target
Acknowledgements

AbstractMore than 1000 microRNAs (miRNAs) are expressed in human cells, some tissue or cell type specific, others considered as house‐keeping molecules. Functions and direct mRNA targets for some miRNAs have been relatively well studied over the last years. Every miRNA potentially regulates the expression of numerous protein‐coding genes (tens to hundreds), but it has become increasingly clear that not all miRNAs are equally important; diverse high‐throughput screenings of various systems have identified a limited number of key functional miRNAs over and over again. Particular miRNAs emerge as principal regulators that control major cell functions in various physiological and pathophysiological settings. Since its identification 3 years ago as the miRNA most commonly and strongly up‐regulated in human brain tumour glioblastoma [1], miR‐21 has attracted the attention of researchers in various fields, such as development, oncology, stem cell biology and aging, becoming one of the most studied miRNAs, along with let‐7, miR‐17–92 cluster (‘oncomir‐1’), miR‐155 and a few others. However, an miR‐21 knockout mouse has not yet been generated, and the data about miR‐21 functions in normal cells are still very limited. In this review, we summarise the current knowledge of miR‐21 functions in human disease, with an emphasis on its regulation, oncogenic role, targets in human cancers, potential as a disease biomarker and novel therapeutic target in oncology.
Histomorphometric analysis of the osseointegration of four different implant surfaces in the femoral epiphyses of rabbits
Authors: Le Guehennec Laurent , Goyenvalle Eric , Lopez‐Heredia Marco‐Antonio , Weiss Pierre , Amouriq Yves , Layrolle Pierre 
Published: October 2008

AbstractObjectives: The surface properties of titanium dental implants are key parameters for rapid and intimate bone–implant contact. The osseointegration of four implant surfaces was studied in the femoral epiphyses of rabbits.Material and methods: Titanium implants were either grit‐blasted with alumina or biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) ceramic particles, coated with a thin octacalcium phosphate (OCP) layer, or prepared by large‐grit sand blasting and acid‐etched (SLA). After 2 and 8 weeks of implantation, the bone‐implant contact and bone growth inside the chambers were compared. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and profilometry showed distinct microtopographies.Results: The alumina‐Ti, BCP‐Ti and OCP‐Ti groups had similar average surface roughness in the 1–2 μm range whereas the SLA surface was significantly higher with a roughness averaging 4.5 μm. Concerning the osseointegration, the study demonstrated a significantly greater bone‐to‐implant contact for both the SLA and OCP‐Ti surfaces as compared with the grit‐blasted surfaces, alumina‐ and BCP‐Ti at both 2 and 8 weeks of healing.Conclusion: In this animal model, a biomimetic calcium phosphate coating gave similar osseointegration to the SLA surface. This biomimetic coating method may enhance the apposition of bone onto titanium dental implants.