bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Plant–Plant and Plant–Topography Interactions on a Rock Outcrop at High Altitude in Southeastern Brazil1
Authors: Medina Branca Maria Opazo , Ribeiro Kátia Torres , Scarano Fabio Rubio 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTPlant establishment and growth on rocky outcrops in the Itatiaia massif (2400 m a.s.l.), southeastern Brazil, are limited by lack of soil and by freezing temperatures in winter nights. Mat‐forming species of different sizes and shapes on bare rock provide substrate for other plants to establish. The habitat preference of two geophytes, Stevia camporum (Asteraceae) and Alstroemeria foliosa (Alstroemeriaceae), was compared with regard to their association with the type of mat species and distinct rock topographies. The habitat preference of the mat species in regard to topography was also assessed. We found 1706 ramets of S. camporum and 1317 of A. foliosa in 253 vegetation islands ranging in size from 0.005 to 18.097 m2. Mat species in these islands were Fernseea itatiaiae, Vriesea itatiaiae (both Bromeliaceae), Pleurostima gounelleana (Velloziaceae) and/or Campylopus pilifer (Dicranaceae) and other mosses. Mat species were segregated by topography. Geophytes were similarly distributed across types of topography but showed negative interspecific association. S. camporum occurred mostly on the moss‐dominated islands, whereas A. foliosa was more common in P. gounelleana islands. We found geophyte co‐occurrence in larger vegetation islands containing both P. gounelleana and mosses as mat species. Thus, the effect of topography on geophyte segregation was indirect, since topography affects mat species distribution, and the geophyte preference for distinct mat species as substrate resulted in their segregation.
Roosting Ecology of the Tent‐Roosting Bat Artibeus watsoni (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in Southwestern Costa Rica1
Authors: Chaverri Gloriana , Kunz Thomas H. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTWe described the plants used as roost resources by Artibeus watsoni in southwestern Costa Rica, assessed roost fidelity, and compared roosting ecology between two sites, Golfito and Corcovado, which vary in the degree of human influence. A total of 349 tents from 25 different plant species were used by A. watsoni as roosts; some plant species (e.g., Carludovica palmata, Asplundia alata, Heliconia imbricata and Calathea lutea) were modified into tents with significantly higher frequency than others. The highest tents above the ground were observed in Philodendron popenoei and Rhodospatha wendlandii, whereas tents in Philodendron grandipes and A. alata were significantly lower than any other species. Asplundia alata and R. wendlandii also had the highest frequency of leaves modified per plant. Fidelity of bats to tents was low, although bats used several tents intermittently within a restricted area. Males generally were more faithful to tents than females, although not significantly so. This observation, along with indirect evidence of leaf modification, suggests that males are primarily responsible for tent construction. The two study sites differed in the plants used for roosting and in tent fidelity. Bats in Corcovado used a greater variety of plant species for tent roosting, whereas bats in Golfito were more faithful, suggesting that roosting resources were scarcer at the latter site.
Children’s understanding of the risks and benefits associated with research
Authors: Burke T M , Abramovitch R , Zlotkin S 
Published: November 2005

Objective:The objective of the current study was to maximise the amount of information children and adolescents understand about the risks and benefits associated with participation in a biomedical research study.Design:Participants were presented with one of six hypothetical research protocols describing how to fix a fractured thigh using either a “standard” cast or “new” pins procedure. Risks and benefits associated with each of the treatment options were manipulated so that for each one of the six protocols there was either a correct or ambiguous choice.Participants and setting:Two hundred and fifty one children, ages 6–15 (53% boys), and 237 adults (30% men) were interviewed while waiting for a clinic appointment at the Hospital for Sick Children.Results:Using standardised procedures and questionnaires, it was determined that most participants, regardless of age group, were able to understand the basic purpose and procedures involved in the research, and most were able to choose the “correct” operation. The younger children, however, showed an overall preference for a cast operation, whereas the older participants were more likely to choose the pins.Conclusions:By creating age appropriate modules of information, children as young as six years can understand potentially difficult and complex concepts such as the risks and benefits associated with participation in biomedical research. It appears, however, that different criteria were used for treatment preference, regardless of associated risks; older participants tended to opt for mobility (the pins procedure) whereas younger participants stayed with the more familiar cast operation.
The impact on patient trust of legalising physician aid in dying
Authors: Hall M , Trachtenberg F , Dugan E 
Published: November 2005

Objective:Little empirical evidence exists to support either side of the ongoing debate over whether legalising physician aid in dying would undermine patient trust.Design:A random national sample of 1117 US adults were asked about their level of agreement with a statement that they would trust their doctor less if “euthanasia were legal [and] doctors were allowed to help patients die”.Results:There was disagreement by 58% of the participants, and agreement by only 20% that legalising euthanasia would cause them to trust their personal physician less. The remainder were neutral. These attitudes were the same in men and women, but older people and black people had more agreement that euthanasia would lower trust. However, overall, only 27% of elderly people (age 65+) and 32% of black people thought that physician aid in dying would lower trust. These views differed with physical and mental health, and also with education and income, with those having more of these attributes tending to view physician aid in dying somewhat more favourably. Again, however, overall views in most of these subgroups were positive. Views about the effect of physician aid in dying on trust were significantly correlated with participants’ underlying trust in their physicians and their satisfaction with care. In a multivariate regression model, trust, satisfaction, age, and white/black race remained independently significant.Conclusion:Despite the widespread concern that legalising physician aid in dying would seriously threaten or undermine trust in physicians, the weight of the evidence in the USA is to the contrary, although views vary significantly.
Tobacco use among Swedish schoolchildren
Authors: Rodu B , Nasic S , Cole P 
Published: November 2005

Objective:To study the prevalence of snus use and of smoking among Swedish schoolchildren from 1989 to 2003.Design:Surveys conducted by the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs.Setting:All of Sweden.Subjects:84 472 boys and girls age 15–16 years.Main outcome measures:Subjects are classified as non-smokers, occasional smokers, and regular smokers, and into three similar categories for snus use. Tobacco use is reported as sex specific prevalence.Results:During the period 1989 to 2003, the prevalence of tobacco use declined both among boys and girls. For boys, regular smoking declined after 1992 from 10% to 4%. Their snus use was about 10% in the 1990s but increased to 13% by 2003. Regular smoking among girls was 20% in early years and declined to 15%. Smoking among girls was always double that among boys. Patterns of occasional tobacco use were similar to those of regular use.Conclusions:The high prevalence of snus use in Sweden not only reduces smoking rates among Swedish men, but suppresses smoking among boys as well.
FLUORINE AND CALCIUM PROFILING BY PIGE/PIXE FOR EXPOSURE AGE DATING IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Authors: GASCHEN A. A.-M. , KRÄHENBÜHL U. , DÖBELI M. , MARKWITZ A. , BARRY B. 
Published: November 2005

Fossil fragments of bone and teeth that are exposed to a humid environment take up fluorine from the surrounding soil and accumulate it in their mineral phase. In cortical parts of long bone diaphysis a fluorine concentration profile can be observed, which carries information on the exposure duration of the buried object in its shape. The distribution of fluorine in a sample however is strongly influenced by environmentally induced processes of bone diagenesis, i.e. alteration in the structure and composition of bone mineral and degradation of the organic components that may make the time information indistinct. PIGE (Proton Induced Gamma-ray Emission) is a precise and fast analytical technique to determine the quantitative fluorine content and its distribution in cross sections of bone and tooth specimen non-destructively. The simultaneous detection of Ca by PIXE (Proton Induced X-ray Emission) provides additional information on the sample topography. Cracks, alteration haloes and the porosity, which is typical for human bone samples, are parameters which have direct influence on the fluorine uptake and transport during burial. This contribution outlines the combined approach of using PIGE and PIXE measurement to understand some aspects of the complex environmental impact that impedes exposure age dating by fluorine diffusion profiling.
Dream Bodies and Dream Pains in Augustine's "De Natura et Origine Animae"
Authors: Sirridge Mary 
Published: November 2005

AbstractIn his De Natura et Origine Animae, an answer to a work by Vincentius Victor, Augustine was drawn into attempting to answer some questions about what kind of reality dream-bodies, dream-worlds and dream-pains have. In this paper I concentrate on Augustine's attempts to show that none of Victor's arguments for the corporeality of the soul are any good, and that Victor's inflated claims about the extent of the soul's self-knowledge are the result of mistaking self-awareness for self-knowledge. Augustine takes the position that the feelings we have in dreams and the feelings of the dead, although they are real feelings, are not always the feelings they seem to be. This position is consistent with Augustine's later works, though it departs from his understanding of these issues in his earliest works.
Theology, Philosophy, and Immortality of the Soul in the Late Via Moderna of Erfurt
Authors: Kärkkäinen Pekka 
Published: November 2005

AbstractIn 1513 the Fifth Lateran Council determined that the immortality of the rational soul is not true only in theology, but also in philosophy. The determination can be related also to the actual teaching of philosophy. In the university of Erfurt, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi de Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter wrote expositions on natural philosophy at that time. Usingen's and Trutfetter's expositions of De anima represent a position, which faithfully follows in methodology and aspirations the tradition of the via moderna. Furthermore, they give an interpretation of the relationship between philosophy and theology, which Trutfetter considered consonant with the intentions and the formulations of the Fifth Lateran Council; and finally, Trutfetter even presents a practical application of the Council's recommendations.
Emotions and Cognitions. Fourteenth-Century Discussions on the Passions of the Soul
Authors: Perler Dominik 
Published: November 2005

AbstractMedieval philosophers clearly recognized that emotions are not simply "raw feelings" but complex mental states that include cognitive components. They analyzed these components both on the sensory and on the intellectual level, paying particular attention to the different types of cognition that are involved. This paper focuses on William Ockham and Adam Wodeham, two fourteenth-century authors who presented a detailed account of "sensory passions" and "volitional passions". It intends to show that these two philosophers provided both a structural and a functional analysis of emotions, i.e., they explained the various elements constituting emotions and delineated the causal relations between these elements. Ockham as well as Wodeham emphasized that "sensory passions" are not only based upon cognitions but include a cognitive component and are therefore intentional. In addition, they pointed out that "volitional passions" are based upon a conceptualization and an evaluation of given objects. This cognitivist approach to emotions enabled them to explain the complex phenomenon of emotional conflict, a phenomenon that has its origin in the co-presence of various emotions that involve conflicting evaluations.
Mind the Gap
Authors: Guzder Jaswant , Krishna Meenakshi 
Published: November 2005

Diaspora women, with origins in Hindu Indian cultural spaces, are seeking psychotherapy to address mental health and personal identity issues within the North American context. Since psychotherapy literature is dominated by ethnocentric Euro-North American paradigms, the challenge to analysts and therapists working in the diaspora is to widen bedrock questions of counter-transference, neutrality, identity and psychotherapy processes to accommodate the cross-cultural realities of Hindu women. This article suggests that contemporary discourse on intrapsychic theories or psychotherapeutic work needs enrichment by multi-disciplinary discourses with social sciences, cross-cultural studies, alternative healing traditions augmented by structural, mythic, metaphoric and hermeneutic reasoning. Working with women in the Indian diaspora implicates the traditions of Hindu gendered hierarchies, the living legacy of the mother goddess, caste structures and boundaries, as well as differences between Western feminism and a feminism formed from South Asian contextual currents. The diaspora woman is in a predicament of options as she is pressured to reconcile and master her choice of internalisations from both traditional and Western individuation paradigms while finding her voice shaped by her particular narrative. Economic, legal and educational advantages in the host country allow options that place her in conflict with traditional identity paradigms. Older diaspora women may carry many worlds within them that shape their marital life, parenting and other role changes related to the migratory reality. The article explores some trends in the literature regarding South Asian women in therapy. It raises unresolved questions situated in therapeutic work illustrated by personal clinical vignettes.
Delta-like1-induced Notch1 signaling regulates the human plasmacytoid dendritic cell versus T-cell lineage decision through control of GATA-3 and Spi-B
Authors: Dontje Wendy , Schotte Remko , Cupedo Tom , Nagasawa Maho , Scheeren Ferenc , Gimeno Ramon , Spits Hergen , Blom Bianca 
Published: November 2005

AbstractHuman early thymic precursors have the potential to differentiate into multiple cell lineages, including T cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). This decision is guided by the induction or silencing of lineage-specific transcription factors. The ETS family member Spi-B is a key regulator of pDC development, whereas T-cell development is critically dependent on GATA-3. Here we show that triggering of the Notch1 signaling pathway by Delta-like1 controls the T/pDC lineage decision by regulating the balance between these factors. CD34+CD1a- thymic progenitor cells express Notch1, but down-regulate this receptor when differentiating into pDCs. On coculture with stromal cell lines expressing either human Delta-like1 (DL1) or Jagged1 (Jag1) Notch ligands, thymic precursors express GATA-3 and develop into CD4+CD8+TCRαβ+ T cells. On the other hand, DL1, but not Jag1, down-regulates Spi-B expression, resulting in impaired development of pDCs. The Notch1-induced block in pDC development can be relieved through the ectopic expression of Spi-B. These data indicate that DL1-induced activation of the Notch1 pathway controls the lineage commitment of early thymic precursors by altering the levels between Spi-B and GATA-3. (Blood. 2006;107:2446-2452)
Mast cells and neutrophils proteolytically activate chemokine precursor CTAP-III and are subject to counterregulation by PF-4 through inhibition of chymase and cathepsin G
Authors: Schiemann Florian , Grimm Tobias Alexander , Hoch Josef , Gross Roland , Lindner Buko , Petersen Frank , Bulfone-Paus Silvia , Brandt Ernst 
Published: November 2005

AbstractThe CXC chemokines platelet factor 4 (PF-4/CXCL4) and connective tissue-activating peptide III (CTAP-III) are released by activated human platelets in micromolar concentrations. So far, neutrophils have been recognized to cleave the precursor CTAP-III to form the active chemokine neutrophil-activating peptide 2 (NAP-2/CXCL7) through limited proteolysis by membrane-associated cathepsin G. Here we show for the first time that activated human skin mast cells (MCs) convert CTAP-III into biologically active NAP-2 through proteolytic cleavage by released chymase. A direct comparison on a cell number basis revealed that unstimulated MCs exceed the CTAP-III–processing potency of neutrophils about 30-fold, whereas MCs activated by IgE cross-linking exhibit even 1000-fold higher CTAP-III–processing capacity than fMLP-stimulated neutrophils. Intriguingly, PF-4 counteracted MC- as well as neutrophil-mediated NAP-2 generation at physiologically relevant concentrations. Addressing the underlying mechanism, we obtained evidence that PF-4 acts as an inhibitor of the CTAP-III–processing enzymes cathepsin G and chymase without becoming cleaved itself as a competitive substrate. Because cleavage of the CTAP-III–unrelated substrate substance P was also affected by PF-4, our results suggest a regulatory role for PF-4 not only in NAP-2 generation but also in neutrophil- and MC-mediated processing of other physiologically relevant inflammatory mediators.
De novo synthesis of early growth response factor-1 is required for the full responsiveness of mast cells to produce TNF and IL-13 by IgE and antigen stimulation
Authors: Li Bo , Power Melanie R. , Lin Tong-Jun 
Published: November 2005

AbstractEarly growth-response factor 1 (Egr-1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor that plays a regulatory role in the expression of many genes important for inflammation. Whether Egr-1 is involved in IgE-dependent mast-cell activation was investigated. We demonstrated that IgE and antigen (TNP) stimulation induced a rapid expression of Egr-1 mRNA in mouse bone marrow–derived mast cells (BMMCs). As early as 15 to 20 minutes after IgE + TNP stimulation, Egr-1 protein was detectable in the nucleus of BMMCs by immunofluorescence or electrophoretic mobility shift assay. To examine a role for Egr-1 in IgE-dependent cytokine production by mast cells, Egr-1–deficient (Egr-1–/–) BMMCs were developed from the bone marrow cells of Egr-1 knockout mice. Egr-1–/– BMMCs express similar levels of surface c-kit and IgE receptor as compared with those on Egr-1+/+ BMMCs. Importantly, IgE + TNP-induced TNF and IL-13 expression was significantly reduced at both mRNA and protein levels in Egr-1–/– BMMCs as compared with those in Egr-1+/+ BMMCs. Thus, our results suggest that de novo synthesis of Egr-1 represents a novel mechanism in FcϵRI signaling and is required for the full responsiveness of IgE-dependent TNF and IL-13 production by mast cells.
Impaired class switch recombination (CSR) in Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) despite apparently normal CSR machinery
Authors: Kriangkum Jitra , Taylor Brian J. , Strachan Erin , Mant Michael J. , Reiman Tony , Belch Andrew R. , Pilarski Linda M. 
Published: November 2005

AbstractAnalysis of clonotypic isotype class switching (CSR) in Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) and IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) reveals a normal initial phase of B-cell activation as determined by constitutive and inducible expression of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Switch μ (Sμ) analysis shows that large deletions are not common in WM or IgM MGUS. In CD40L/IL-4-stimulated WM cultures from 2 patients, we observed clonotypic IgG exhibiting intraclonal homogeneity associated with multiple hybrid Sμ/Sγ junctions. This suggests CSR had occurred within WM cells. Nevertheless, the estimated IgG/IgM-cell frequency was relatively low (1/1600 cells). Thus, for the majority of WM B cells, CSR does not occur even when stimulated in vitro, suggesting that the WM cell is constitutively unable to or being prevented from carrying out CSR. In contrast to WM, the majority of IgM MGUS clones exhibit intraclonal heterogeneity of IgH VDJ. Furthermore, most IgM MGUS accumulate more mutations in the upstream Sμ region than do WM, making them unlikely WM progenitors. These observations suggest that switch sequence analysis may identify the subset of patients with IgM MGUS who are at risk of progression to WM.
N-acetylcysteine increases manganese superoxide dismutase activity in septic rat diaphragms
Authors: Barreiro E. , Sánchez D. , Gáldiz J. B. , Hussain S. N. A. , Gea J. 
Published: November 2005

The antioxidantN-acetylcysteine (NAC) prevented sepsis-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction. As an indirect antioxidant NAC was shown to induce superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in immune cells from endotoxaemic mice. The aim of this study was to assess whether NAC acts as an indirect antioxidant by inducing manganese (Mn)-SOD activity in the diaphragms of endotoxaemic rats, while preventing muscle dysfunction.A controlled study was conducted, in which protein carbonylation, Mn-SOD, catalase, and 3-nitrotyrosine immunoreactivity were detected using immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry in rat diaphragms. Six groups were studied for 24 h after a saline (control) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 20 mg·kg−1)i.p.injection in the absence and presence of NAC pre-treatment (either 1.5 or 3 mmol·kg−1·24 h−1for 7 days, oral administration). Diaphragm mitochondrial Mn-SOD activity and respiratory muscle function were also determined.Within 24 h, LPS induced maximal inspiratory pressure reduction, increasing diaphragmatic protein carbonylation and nitration. Pre-treatment with 3 mmol·kg−1NAC clearly increased muscle Mn-SOD protein content and activity in both LPS- and saline-injected animals, while reducing protein carbonylation and nitration, and partially preventing the LPS-induced respiratory muscle dysfunction.Data produced from this study indicate that high doses ofN-acetylcysteine induces manganese superoxide dismutase, as well as preserves its activity, possibly by preventing nitration of critical tyrosine residues of the enzyme.