bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Proteome rebalancing in soybean seeds can be exploited to enhance foreign protein accumulation
Authors: Schmidt Monica A. , Herman Eliot M. 
Published: August 2008

SummarySeeds possess a high intrinsic capacity for protein production that makes them a desirable bioreactor platform for the manufacture of transgenic products. One strategy to enhance foreign protein production involves exchanging the capacity to produce intrinsic proteins for the capacity to produce a high level of foreign proteins. Suppression of the α/α′ subunit of β‐conglycinin storage protein synthesis in soybean has been shown previously to result in an increase in the accumulation of the glycinin storage protein, some of which is sequestered as proglycinin intode novoendoplasmic reticulum (ER)‐derived protein bodies. The exchange of glycinin for conglycinin is quantitative, with the remodelled soybeans possessing a normal protein content with an altered proteome. The green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐kdel reporter was transferred in a construct using the glycinin promoter and terminator to mimic glycinin gene expression. When expressed in soybean seeds, GFP‐kdel accreted to form ER‐derived protein bodies. The introgression of GFP‐kdel into the α/α′ subunit of the β‐conglycinin suppression background resulted in a fourfold enhancement of GFP‐kdel accumulation to > 7% (w/w) of the total protein in soybean seeds. The resulting seeds accumulated a single population of ER membrane‐bound protein bodies that contained both GFP‐kdel and glycinin. Thus, the collateral proteome rebalancing that occurs with the suppression of intrinsic proteins in soybean can be exploited to produce an enhanced level of foreign proteins.
At 11 months, prosody still outranks statistics
Authors: Johnson Elizabeth K. , Seidl Amanda H. 
Published: August 2008

Abstract English‐learning 7.5‐month‐olds are heavily biased to perceive stressed syllables as word onsets. By 11 months, however, infants begin segmenting non‐initially stressed words from speech. Using the same artificial language methodology as

Johnson and Jusczyk (2001

), we explored the possibility that the emergence of this ability is linked to a decreased reliance on prosodic cues to word boundaries accompanied by an increased reliance on syllable distribution cues. In a baseline study, where only statistical cues to word boundaries were present, infants exhibited a familiarity preference for statistical words. When conflicting stress cues were added to the speech stream, infants exhibited a familiarity preference for stress as opposed to statistical words. This was interpreted as evidence that 11‐month‐olds weight stress cues to word boundaries more heavily than statistical cues. Experiment 2 further investigated these results with a language containing convergent cues to word boundaries. The results of Experiment 2 were not conclusive. A third experiment using new stimuli and a different experimental design supported the conclusion that 11‐month‐olds rely more heavily on prosodic than statistical cues to word boundaries. We conclude that the emergence of the ability to segment non‐initially stressed words from speech is not likely to be tied to an increased reliance on syllable distribution cues relative to stress cues, but instead may emerge due to an increased reliance on and integration of a broad array of segmentation cues.
The Neoliberal State, Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining in Australia
Authors: Cooper Rae , Ellem Bradon 
Published: August 2008

AbstractFor nearly 12 years from 1996, the Australian government pursued a neoliberal industrial relations agenda, seeking to break with structures based on collective bargaining and trade unions. In the name of choice and deregulation, this agenda involved unique levels of state intervention and prescription — and anti‐unionism. In the last round of legislative change, the 2005 laws badged as Work Choices, the government overreached itself and in 2007 was defeated in a general election. As in the UK after Thatcher, the extent to which collective bargaining can be restored and trade unions regain a voice is problematical.
States, markets, and other unexceptional communities: informal Romanian labour in a Spanish agricultural zone
Authors: Hartman Tod 
Published: August 2008

The logic of transnational capital and the ongoing European imperative of ‘competition’ have created unofficial economies, seemingly exceptional situations in which the state is left to grapple with the problem of essential but ‘illegal’ labour in spaces in which it is no longer unambiguously sovereign. This article discusses Romanian labourers working informally, and often temporarily, in an agricultural area characterized by intensive plastic greenhouse production in Almería province, Spain. Informal employment is arranged through personal contacts and connections, advertisements, or anonymously in the plaza, the public square. Wages are often negotiated through the person of a Romanian intermediary, who organizes workers into teams, contracts with Spanish growers, and retains a significant proportion of the total pay. It is argued here that although technically outside of state jurisdiction, some of this ‘illegal’ economic activity embodies normalized, unexceptional features of the ‘official’ labour market. These include the general reliability of obtaining work with predictable wages and some opportunity for occupational and economic mobility within the sector for a limited number of people, as well as work‐related hierarchies, a racialized division of the area's labour force, and the reproduction of capitalist relations of production in the interests of prolonging the provision of flexible and cheap migrant labour with the complicity of the state.RésuméLa logique du capital transnational et l'impératif européen de « concurrence » ont donné naissance à des économies non officielles, situations apparemment exceptionnelles dans lesquelles l'État doit résoudre le problème d'une main‐d'œuvre indispensable mais « illégale » dans des espaces où il n'est plus entièrement souverain. L'auteur décrit ici le travail informel et souvent temporaire de Roumains dans une région agricole de la province d'Almería, en Espagne, caractérisée par une production intensive sous serres en plastique. Les embauches informelles s'organisent par contacts personnels et relations, par petites annonces, ou de façon anonyme sur les places de village. Les salaires sont souvent négociés par un intermédiaire roumain qui organise aussi les équipes d'ouvriers, sous‐traite avec les cultivateurs espagnols et se réserve une part conséquente de la paie. Bien qu'elle échappe techniquement à la juridiction de l'État, une partie de cette activitééconomique « illégale » reprend des caractéristiques normalisées et ordinaires du marché du travail « officiel » : fiabilité d'un travail rémunéré de façon prévisible, possibilité de mobilité professionnelle et économique dans le secteur pour un nombre limité de personnes, hiérarchisation du travail, division racialisée de la main‐d'œuvre dans la région, reproduction des relations capitalistes de production en vue de prolonger la fourniture de main‐d'œuvre migrante flexible et bon marché, avec la complicité des pouvoirs publics.
Social Networks and Corporate Governance
Authors: Subrahmanyam Avanidhar 
Published: August 2008

Abstract We analyse frameworks that link corporate governance and firm values to governing boards' social networks and innovations in technology. Because agents create social networks with individuals with whom they share commonalities along the dimensions of social status and income, among other attributes, CEOs may participate in board members' social networks, which interferes with the quality of governance. At the same time, social connections with members of a board can allow for better evaluation of the members' abilities. Thus, in choosing whether to have board members with social ties to management, one must trade off the benefit of members successfully identifying high ability CEOs against the cost of inadequate monitoring due to social connections. Further, technologies like the Internet and electronic mail that reduce the extent of face‐to‐face networking cause agents to seek satisfaction of their social needs at the workplace, which exacerbates the impact of social networks on governance. The predictions of our model are consistent with recent episodes that appear to signify inadequate monitoring of corporate disclosures as well as with high levels of executive compensation. Additionally, empirical tests support the model's key implication that there is better governance and lower executive compensation in firms where networks are less likely to form.
Measuring consumer's willingness to pay for organic and Fair Trade products
Authors: Didier Tagbata , Lucie Sirieix 
Published: August 2008

AbstractPrevious research has extensively studied consumer's environmental and social concerns. However, measuring the value of the environmental or social dimension of a product remains a challenge. This paper proposes to partially fill this gap by measuring the double ‘Fair Trade and organic’ labels' value using an experimental method – the Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak's mechanism. Two ‘organic and Fair Trade’ and two conventional chocolate products were tested on a sample of 102 consumers. Results show that organic and Fair Trade labels increase consumers' willingness to pay, and allow the identification of three consumers clusters. The first cluster represents people insensitive to the label. For the second cluster, the ‘organic and Fair Trade’ labels' influence on the improving image of the products is positive and important. And finally, for the third cluster, the valuation of the ‘organic and Fair Trade’ label is determined by the product's taste. Our research contributes to a better understanding of consumers' valuation of Fair Trade and organic labels, leading to our conclusions, which offer managerial implications with respect to this market (importance of taste and usefulness of double labels).
Accessing public health information: a preliminary comparison of CABI's global health database and medline
Authors: Aalai Elham , Gleghorn Colette , Webb Anne , Glover Steven William 
Published: August 2008

AbstractBackground:  Access to a comprehensive public health index or database has been identified as problematic for health professionals. Public health literature contains many varied sources including reports, journal articles, and grey literature. Traditional biomedical databases such as medline often do not meet the needs of public health workers and researchers.Aim/Methods:  The aim of the study was to examine the unique content of the global health database, by comparing it to the medline database. Pre‐determined terms were used as baseline comparators where controlled vocabulary definitions in each database were sufficiently matched. Retrieved results were stored and compared using EndNote libraries.Results:  Results obtained from the terms used in the comparison study protocol suggest that the global health database holds a high proportion of unique records in comparison to medline. The largest overlap of duplicates from the global health database perspective came from the coccidiomycosis results set which contained 70.5% of references retrieved from both databases. Analyzing the results from a medline perspective, the subject with the largest overlap was dengue, with a 43% overlap.Conclusion:  The results of this study show that the global health database is complimentary to medline in the subject areas of public health and global health.
Absence of glutathione peroxidase‐1 exacerbates cerebral ischemia‐reperfusion injury by reducing post‐ischemic microvascular perfusion
Authors: Wong Connie H. Y. , Bozinovski Steven , Hertzog Paul J. , Hickey Michael J. , Crack Peter J. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractMice deficient in the anti‐oxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase‐1 (Gpx1) have a greater susceptibility to cerebral injury following a localized ischemic event. Much of the response to ischemia‐reperfusion is caused by aberrant responses within the microvasculature, including inflammation, diminished endothelial barrier function (increased vascular permeability), endothelial activation, and reduced microvascular perfusion. However, the role of Gpx1 in regulating these responses has not been investigated. Wild‐type and Gpx1−/− mice underwent focal cerebral ischemia via mid‐cerebral artery occlusion followed by measurement of cerebral perfusion via laser Doppler and intravital microscopy. Post‐ischemic brains in wild‐type mice displayed significant deficit in microvascular perfusion. However, in Gpx1−/− mice, the deficit in cerebral blood flow was significantly greater than that in wild‐type mice, and this was associated with significant increase in infarct size and increased vascular permeability. Ischemia‐reperfusion also resulted in expression of matrix metalloproteinase‐9 (MMP‐9) in endothelial cells. The absence of Gpx1 was associated with marked increase in pro‐MMP‐9 expression as well as potentiated MMP‐9 activity. Pre‐treatment of Gpx1−/− mice with the anti‐oxidant ebselen restored microvascular perfusion, limited the induction and activation of MMP‐9, and attenuated the increases in infarct size and vascular permeability. These findings demonstrate that the anti‐oxidant function of Gpx1 plays a critical role in protecting the cerebral microvasculature against ischemia‐reperfusion injury by preserving microvascular perfusion and inhibiting MMP‐9 expression.
Soluble aggregates of the amyloid‐β protein selectively stimulate permeability in human brain microvascular endothelial monolayers
Authors: Gonzalez‐Velasquez Francisco J. , Kotarek Joseph A. , Moss Melissa A. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractCerebral amyloid angiopathy associated with Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by cerebrovascular deposition of the amyloid‐β protein (Aβ). Aβ elicits a number of morphological and biochemical alterations in the cerebral microvasculature, which culminate in hemorrhagic stroke. Among these changes, compromise of the blood‐brain barrier has been described in Alzheimer’s disease brain, transgenic animal models of Alzheimer’s disease, and cell culture experiments. In the current study, presented data illustrates that isolated soluble Aβ1–40 aggregates, but not unaggregated monomer or mature fibril, enhance permeability in human brain microvascular endothelial monolayers. Aβ1–40‐induced changes in permeability are paralleled by both a decrease in transendothelial electrical resistance and a re‐localization of the tight junction‐associated protein zonula occludin‐1 away from cell borders and into the cytoplasm. Small soluble Aβ1–40 aggregates are confirmed to be the most potent stimulators of endothelial monolayer permeability by establishing an inverse relationship between average aggregate size and stimulated changes in diffusional permeability coefficients. These results support previous findings demonstrating that small soluble Aβ1–40 aggregates are also primarily responsible for endothelial activation, suggesting that these same species may elicit other changes in the cerebrovasculature associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer’s disease.
Mitochondrial turnover in liver is fast in vivo and is accelerated by dietary restriction: application of a simple dynamic model
Authors: Miwa Satomi , Lawless Conor , Von Zglinicki Thomas 
Published: August 2008

Summary‘Mitochondrial dysfunction’, which may result from an accumulation of damaged mitochondria in cells due to a slowed‐down rate of mitochondrial turnover and inadequate removal of damaged mitochondria during aging, has been implicated as both cause and consequence of the aging process and a number of age‐related pathologies. Despite growing interest in mitochondrial function during aging, published data on mitochondrial turnover are scarce, and differ from each other by up to one order of magnitude. Here we demonstrate that re‐utilization of the radioactively labelled precursor in pulse‐chase assays is the most likely cause of significant overestimation of mitochondrial turnover rates. We performed a classic radioactive label pulse‐chase experiment using 14C NaHCO3, whose 14C is incorporated into various amino acids, to measure mitochondrial turnover in mouse liver. In this system, the activity of the urea cycle greatly limited arginine dependent label re‐utilization, but not that of other amino acids. We used information from tissues that do not have an active urea cycle (brain and muscle) to estimate the extent of label re‐utilization with a dynamic mathematical model. We estimated the actual liver mitochondrial half life as only 1.83 days, and this decreased to 1.16 days following 3 months of dietary restriction, supporting the hypothesis that this intervention might promote mitochondrial turnover as a part of its beneficial effects.
ING1a expression increases during replicative senescence and induces a senescent phenotype
Authors: Soliman Mohamed A. , Berardi Philip , Pastyryeva Svitlana , Bonnefin Paul , Feng Xiaolan , Colina Ana , Young Dallan , Riabowol Karl 
Published: August 2008

SummaryThe ING family of tumor suppressor proteins affects cell growth, apoptosis and response to DNA damage by modulating chromatin structure through association with different HAT and HDAC complexes. The major splicing isoforms of the ING1 locus are ING1a and INGlb. While INGlb plays a role in inducing apoptosis, the function of ING1a is currently unknown. Here we show that alternative splicing of the ING1 message alters the INGla:INGlb ratio by ~30‐fold in senescent compared to low passage primary fibroblasts. INGla antagonizes INGlb function in apoptosis, induces the formation of structures resembling senescence‐associated heterochromatic foci containing heterochromatin protein 1 gamma, the accumulation of senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase activity and promotes senescent cell morphology and cell cycle arrest. Phenotypic effects may result from differential effects on gene expression since ING1a increases levels of both retinoblastoma and the p16 cyclin‐dependent kinase inhibitor and ING1a and ING1b have opposite effects on the expression of proliferating nuclear cell antigen (PCNA), which is required for cell growth. Gene expression appears to be altered by targeting of HDAC complexes to gene promoters since INGla associates with several‐fold higher levels of HDAC1 in senescent, compared to replication‐competent cells and ING1 is found on the PCNA promoter by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis. These data demonstrate a novel role for the ING1 proteins in differentially regulating senescence‐associated chromatin remodeling vs. apoptosis and support the idea that altered ratios of the ING1 splicing isoforms may contribute to establishing the senescent phenotype through HDAC and HAT complex‐mediated effects on chromatin structure.
Blood pressure and heart rate variability analysis of orthostatic challenge in normal human pregnancies
Authors: Heiskanen Nonna , Saarelainen Heli , Valtonen Pirjo , Lyyra‐Laitinen Tiina , Laitinen Tomi , Vanninen Esko , Heinonen Seppo 
Published: August 2008

SummaryThe aim of the present study was to evaluate pregnancy‐related changes in autonomic regulatory functions in healthy subjects. We studied cardiovascular autonomic responses to head‐up tilt (HUT) in 28 pregnant women during the third trimester of pregnancy and 3 months after parturition. The maternal ECG and non‐invasive beat‐to‐beat blood pressure were recorded in the horizontal position (left‐lateral position) and during HUT in the upright position. Stroke volume was assessed from blood pressure signal by using the arterial pulse contour method. Heart rate variability (HRV) was analysed in frequency domain, and baroreflex sensitivity by the cross‐spectral and the sequence methods. In the horizontal position, all frequency components of HRV were lower during pregnancy than 3 months after parturition (P < 0·01 to <0·001), while pregnancy had no influence on normalized low frequency and high frequency powers. During pregnancy haemodynamics was well balanced with only minor changes in response to postural change while haemodynamic responses to HUT were more remarkable after parturition. In pregnant women HRV and especially its very low frequency component increased in response to HUT, whereas at 3 months after parturition the direction of these changes was opposite. Parasympathetic deactivation towards term is likely to contribute to increased heart rate and cardiac output at rest, whereas restored sympathetic modulation with modest responses may contribute stable peripheral resistance and sufficient placental blood supply under stimulated conditions. It is important to understand cardiovascular autonomic nervous system and haemodynamic control in normal pregnancy before being able to judge whether they are dysregulated in complicated pregnancies.
Role of Helicobacter pylori Infection in the Treatment and Outcome of Chronic Urticaria
Authors: Hellmig S. , Troch K. , Ott S. J. , Schwarz T. , Fölsch U. R. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractIntroduction:  Chronic urticaria is thought to have numerous causative factors including a large variety of infectious conditions, food intake, and drugs. The impact of Helicobacter pylori infection has been studied with ambiguous results. The aim of this study was to investigate the course of chronic urticaria in H. pylori‐positive patients undergoing eradication compared to H. pylori‐negative urticaria patients.Patients and Methods:  We included 74 urticaria patients with positive H. pylori breath test and 74 age‐ and sex‐matched H. pylori‐negative controls. All urticaria patients underwent an extensive diagnostic work‐up to search for trigger foci. H. pylori‐infected patients were submitted to eradication therapy. Mean follow‐up time was 58 months.Results:  Neither the prevalence of H. pylori nor the eradication therapy had an influence on the clinical course of chronic urticaria. In 81.1% of H. pylori‐infected patients at least one additional infectious focus was found. Nevertheless, it could be shown that individuals that described any kind of symptom relief presented with higher serum IgE levels at diagnosis (198.1 vs 115.7 kU/L, p= .027) but this effect was independent of H. pylori infection.Conclusions:  In conclusion there is no evidence that eradication of H. pylori improves the outcome in patients with chronic urticaria. The high rate of spontaneous remission and the coexisistance of multiple foci will always obscure the evaluation of any specific antimicrobial therapy.