bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Influence of birth size on body composition in early adulthood: the programming factors for growth and metabolism (PROGRAM)‐study
Authors: Leunissen R. W. J. , Stijnen T. , Hokken‐Koelega A. C. S. 
Published: August 2008

SummaryBackground/Objectives  Several studies have investigated the relationship of birth size with fat mass and lean body mass (LBM), but the findings differed greatly due to different ways of measuring FM and LBM, different study populations and age groups. We hypothesized that birth size has no influence on adult body composition, whereas weight gain during childhood has.Methods  In the programming factors for growth and metabolism (PROGRAM)‐study, a cohort of 312 young adults, aged 18–24 years, FM and LBM were determined by dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA). Subsequently, differences in FM and LBM were analysed in four subgroups, young adults either born small for gestational age with short stature (SGA‐S) or with catch‐up growth (SGA‐CU), or born appropriate for gestational age (AGA) with idiopathic short stature (ISS) or with normal stature (controls).Results  Age, gender, adult height SDS and adult weight SDS were significant positive determinants of FM and LBM, whereas weight gain during childhood was positively significant for FM and negatively for LBM. Birth weight SDS tended to be significant and birth length SDS was not. Weight gain during childhood was positively correlated with waist : hip ratio and trunk fat : total fat ratio. SGA‐CU subjects had significantly higher FM and significantly lower LBM than controls.Conclusion  Weight gain during childhood is an important determinant of body composition in young adulthood, whereas birth size is less important. In clinical practice, too much weight gain in childhood should be prevented as it results in a relatively high fat mass, especially in children with catch‐up growth in weight, like SGA‐CU subjects.
Spinal volumetric trabecular bone mass in acromegalic patients: a longitudinal study
Authors: Battista Claudia , Chiodini Iacopo , Muscarella Silvana , Guglielmi Giuseppe , Mascia Maria Lucia , Carnevale Vincenzo , Scillitani Alfredo 
Published: August 2008

SummaryObjective  Data on trabecular bone mass in acromegaly are controversial. All the studies are cross‐sectional and bone mineral density (BMD) has been evaluated largely by dual X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA), which is influenced by bone enlargement. In this study we assessed in acromegalic patients the effects overtime of GH excess on trabecular bone mass measured by single‐energy quantitative computed tomography (QCT) which is not influenced by bone size.Design  Longitudinal retrospective study.Patients  A total of 46 acromegalic patients followed‐up for 48 months (median), subdivided into four groups: group A (eugonadal patients with active disease: n = 13), group B (hypogonadal patients with active disease; n = 9), group C (eugonadal patients with controlled disease; n = 10), group D (hypogonadal patients with controlled disease; n = 14).Measurements  Serum GH and IGF‐I levels, spinal trabecular BMD, and vertebral fractures were evaluated in all patients. BMD variations were reported as change (Δ) in Z‐values (Z‐QCT) measured at baseline and end of follow‐up per year (Δ Z‐QCT).Results  Δ Z‐QCT was greater in group A vs. group B and D (P =0·002 and P = 0·0001, respectively) and in group C vs. group D (P =0·009). Multivariate regression analysis showed that hypogonadal status (β = –0·69; P = 0·001) and baseline duration of hypogonadism (β = 0·44; P = 0·02) but not baseline duration of acromegaly, length of follow‐up and disease activity, were significantly associated with Δ Z‐QCT.Conclusions  This longitudinal study suggests that the effect of chronic GH excess on spinal trabecular bone mass seems to be anabolic in active eugonadal patients but not in hypogonadal ones.
Relationships between vascular resistance and energy deficiency, nutritional status and oxidative stress in oestrogen deficient physically active women
Authors: O'Donnell Emma , Harvey Paula J. , De Souza Mary Jane 
Published: August 2008

SummaryObjective  Oestrogen deficiency contributes to altered cardiovascular function in premenopausal amenorrheic physically active women. We investigated whether other energy deficiency‐associated factors might also be associated with altered cardiovascular function in these women.Design  A prospective observational study was completed at a research facility at the University of Toronto.Participants  Thirty‐two healthy premenopausal women (18–35 years old) were studied; 9 sedentary and ovulatory; 14 physically active and ovulatory; and 8 physically active and amenorrheic.Measurements  We measured calf vascular resistance, resting heart rate, dietary energy intake, resting energy expenditure and serum measures of homocysteine, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, oxidized low‐density lipoproteins, total T3, ghrelin, leptin and insulin.Results  Groups were similar (P > 0·05) in age (25·1 ± 0·8 years; mean ± SEM), weight (57·3 ± 1·1 kg), and BMI (21·4 ± 0·3 kg/m2). Resting vascular resistance and ghrelin were highest (P < 0·05, main effect), and total T3 and energy expenditure adjusted for fat free mass lowest (P < 0·05, main effect) in oestrogen deficient women. Using pooled data for stepwise multiple regression modelling: ghrelin and resting energy expenditure adjusted for fat free mass were associated with resting vascular resistance (R2 = 0·398, P = 0·018); adjusted dietary energy intake was associated with peak‐ischaemic vascular resistance (R2 = 0·231, P = 0·015). Adjusted resting energy expenditure (r = 0·624, P < 0·001) and total T3 correlated (r = 0·427, P = 0·019) with resting heart rate. Homocysteine, high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein and oxidized low‐density lipoproteins were similar (P > 0·05, main effect) among the groups, and were unrelated to cardiovascular measures.Conclusion  Altered resting vascular resistance in premenopausal oestrogen deficient physically active amenorrheic women is not associated with vascular inflammation or oxidative stress, but rather with parameters that reflect metabolic allostasis and dietary intake, suggesting a potential role for chronic energy deficiency in vascular regulation.
Relationship between clinical features and gastric emptying disturbances in diabetes mellitus
Authors: Bharucha Adil E. , Camilleri Michael , Forstrom Lee A. , Zinsmeister Alan R. 
Published: August 2008

SummaryBackground and objectives  Gastric emptying (GE) may be delayed or rapid in diabetes mellitus. We sought to ascertain differences in risk factors or associated features (i.e. diabetic ‘phenotype’) among patients with diabetes who have rapid, slow or normal GE.Methods  From a database of patients in whom gastrointestinal transit was assessed by scintigraphy, we compared the diabetic phenotype in diabetic patients with rapid, slow and normal GE.Results  Of 129 patients, 55 (42%) had normal, 46 (36%) had delayed and 28 (22%) patients had rapid GE. In each GE category, there was an approximately equal number of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In multivariable analyses, significant weight loss (OR, 2·81; 95% CI, 1·09–7·23) and neuropathy (OR, 3·60; 95% CI, 1·007–12·89) were the risk factors for delayed and rapid GE, respectively. Insulin therapy (OR, 0·08; 95% CI, 0·01–0·53) was associated with a lower risk of rapid compared to normal GE. However, other manifestations or characteristics of the diabetes ‘phenotype’ (i.e. type and duration of diabetes, glycosylated haemoglobin levels, and extraintestinal complications) were not useful for discriminating normal from delayed or rapid GE. At a specificity of 60%, clinical features were 73% sensitive for discriminating between normal and delayed GE and 80% sensitive for discriminating normal from rapid GE.Conclusions  Diabetes is associated with slow and rapid GE. Because the diabetic phenotype is of limited utility for identifying disordered GE, GE should be assessed in patients with diabetes and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Lactic acid fermentation of anthocyanin‐rich sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) into lacto‐juice
Authors: Panda Smita H. , Naskar Samir K. , Sivakumar Paramasivan Sethuraman , Ray Ramesh C. 
Published: August 2008

SummarySweet potato (SP) is an important root crop grown all over the world and consumed as a vegetable, boiled, baked or often fermented into food and beverages. The grated SP roots [non‐ boiled and fully boiled (boiled in water at 100 °C for 15 min) were treated with 0.05% of commercial pectinase enzyme (Pectinex, Novoenzyme) in order to extract the juice. The fresh juice was inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407 culture at 28 ± 2 °C for 48 h to produce lacto‐juice (LJ). The anova analysis of analytical data revealed that there was significant effect of boiling conditions (fully boiled and non‐boiled) on pH [F (1, 4) = 220.5, P < 0.001), TA [F (1, 4) = 78.89, P < 0.01], starch [F (1, 4) = 26.63, P < 0.01), total sugar [F (1, 4) = 61.36, P < 0.01) and anthocyanin [F (1, 4) = 32.86, P < 0.01) but not on reducing sugar [F (1, 4) = 2.48, P = 0.19). Sensory evaluation rated the SP LJ acceptable based on texture, taste, aroma, flavour and after taste. LJ prepared from fully boiled roots with 10% cane sugar was most preferred by a consumer’s panelist based on Linear Discriminant Analysis. Principal component analyses (PCA) reduced the seven original analytical variables to three independent components (factors), which accounted for 99.9% of the total variations. Similarly, six original sensory variables were reduced to two independent components, which accounted for 65.7% of the total variations.
An immune‐complex glomerulonephritis of Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum)
Authors: Lumsden J S , Russell S , Huber P , Wybourne B A , Ostland V E , Minamikawa M , Ferguson H W 
Published: August 2008

AbstractChinook salmon from New Zealand were shown to have a generalized membranous glomerulonephritis that was most severe in large fish. Marked thickening of the glomerular basement membrane was the most consistent lesion, with the presence of an electron‐dense deposit beneath the capillary endothelium. Severely affected glomeruli also had expansion of the mesangium and loss of capillaries, synechiae of the visceral and parietal epithelium and mild fibrosis of Bowman’s capsule. Chinook salmon from British Columbia, Canada with bacterial kidney disease caused by Renibacterium salmoninarum had similar histological lesions. They also had thickened glomerular basement membranes that were recognized by rabbit antiserum to rainbow trout immunoglobulin. This was true only when frozen sections of kidney were used and not formalin‐fixed tissue. An attempt to experimentally produce a glomerulopathy in rainbow trout by repeated immunization with killed R. salmoninarum was not successful. Case records from the Fish Pathology Laboratory at the University of Guelph over a 10‐year period revealed that a range of species were diagnosed with glomerulopathies similar to those seen in Chinook salmon. The majority of these cases were determined to have chronic inflammatory disease. This report has identified the presence of immunoglobulin within thickened basement membranes of Chinook salmon with glomerulonephritis and supports the existence of type III hypersensitivity in fish.
Immunization of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), with a low molecular mass fraction isolated from Flavobacterium psychrophilum
Authors: Högfors E , Pullinen K‐R , Madetoja J , Wiklund T 
Published: August 2008

Abstract Flavobacterium psychrophilum, the causative agent of rainbow trout fry syndrome has become a widespread fish pathogen in freshwater aquaculture worldwide. In this study, a low molecular mass fraction (P25‐33), with an approximate weight of 25–33 kDa, was identified among F. psychrophilum strains in an immunoblotting analysis with anti‐F. psychrophilum sera. The immunogenic efficacy of the isolated and extracted P25‐33 was investigated in two intraperitoneal immunization trials with rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum). The first trial included immunizations using P25‐33 with Freund’s complete adjuvant (FCA) and the second trial included immunizations using P25‐33, formalin‐inactivated whole and sonicated F. psychrophilum cell preparations without FCA. In both trials, antibody titres against F. psychrophilum were analysed with an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay and the efficacy of the immunizations was determined by a challenge with F. psychrophilum. The P25‐33 was shown to give rise to a protective immune response in rainbow trout after immunization with FCA, but not without FCA when a low concentration of P25‐33 was used. Instead formalin‐inactivated whole and sonicated cells of F. psychrophilum were able to protect the immunized fish more effectively when immunized without FCA. The results suggest that whole or sonicated F. psychrophilum cells could be better candidates for a cost‐effective water‐based injection vaccine than the immunogenic fraction.
Wildlife as reservoirs for parasites infecting commercial species: host specificity and a redescription of Kudoa amamiensis from teleost fish in Australia
Authors: Burger M A A , Barnes A C , Adlard R D 
Published: August 2008

AbstractParasites of the genus Kudoa (Phylum Myxozoa) have long been known to cause considerable losses to finfish aquaculture. One such parasite species, Kudoa amamiensis, causes unsightly white cysts in the skeletal muscle of yellowtail kingfish, Seriola quinqueradiata, in Japan rendering the fillets unmarketable. The authors who characterized K. amamiensis, Egusa & Nakajima, 1980, hypothesized that yellowtail kingfish, as non‐natives to the area, were accidental hosts of the parasite and that it normally infects native reef fish (damselfish, Family Pomacentridae). Since then, we have found parasites that are consistent with the description of K. amamiensis in two species of damselfish and one species of carangid fish in Australia, and it has been recorded previously in another species of reef‐associated fish. Our morphometric, histological and DNA results suggest that these specimens are K. amamiensis, and are new host records for that species. Furthermore, our observations show that reef fish may act as a reservoir of myxozoan infection for commercial species, and as such should be considered an infection pathway for species in aquaculture.
UK consensus statement on the content of communication curricula in undergraduate medical education
Authors: Von Fragstein Martin , Silverman Jonathan , Cushing Annie , Quilligan Sally , Salisbury Helen , Wiskin Connie ,   on behalf of the UK Council for Clinical Communication Skills Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education
Published: August 2008

Context  The teaching and assessment of clinical communication have become central components of undergraduate medical education in the UK. This paper recommends the key content for an undergraduate communication curriculum. Designed by UK educationalists with UK schools in mind, the recommendations are equally applicable to communication curricula throughout the world.Objectives  This paper is intended to assist curriculum planners in the design, implementation and review of medical communication curricula. The document will also be useful in the education of other health care professionals. Designed for undergraduate education, the consensus statement also provides a baseline for further professional development.Methods  The consensus statement, based on strong theoretical and research evidence, was developed by an iterative process of discussion between communication skills leads from all 33 UK medical schools conducted under the auspices of the UK Council of Clinical Communication Skills Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education.Discussion  How this framework is used will inevitably be at the discretion of each medical school and its implementation will be determined by different course designs. Although we believe students should be exposed to all the areas described, it would be impractical to set inflexible competency levels as these may be attained at different stages which are highly school‐dependent. However, the framework will enable all schools to consider where different elements are addressed, where gaps exist and how to generate novel combinations of domains within the communication curriculum. It is hoped that this consensus statement will support the development and integration of teaching, learning and assessment of clinical communication.
Morphology and evolution of bars in a wandering gravel‐bed river; lower Fraser river, British Columbia, Canada
Authors: RICE STEPHEN P. , CHURCH MICHAEL , WOOLDRIDGE COLIN L. , HICKIN EDWARD J. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractA hierarchical typology for the channels and bars within aggradational wandering gravel‐bed rivers is developed from an examination of a 50 km reach of lower Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Unit bars, built by stacking of gravelly bedload sheets, are the key dynamic element of the sediment transfer system, linking sediment transport during individual freshets to the creation, development and remoulding of compound bar platforms that have either a lateral or medial style. Primary and secondary unit bars are identified, respectively, as those that deliver sediment to compound bars from the principal channel and those that redistribute sediment across the compound bar via seasonal anabranches and smaller channels. The record of bar accretion evident in ground‐penetrating radar sequences is consistent with the long‐term development of bar complexes derived from historical aerial photographs. For two compound bars, inter‐annual changes associated with individual sediment transport episodes are measured using detailed topographic surveys and longer‐term changes are quantified using sediment budgets derived for individual bars from periodic channel surveys. Annual sediment turnover on the bars is comparable with the bed material transfer rate along the channel, indicating that relatively little bed material bypasses the bars. Bar construction and change are accomplished mainly by lateral accretion as the river has limited capacity to raise bed load onto higher surfaces. Styles of accretion and erosion and, therefore, the major bar form morphologies on Fraser River are familiar and consistent with those in gravelly braided channels but the wandering style does exhibit some distinctive features. For example, 65‐year histories reveal the potential for long sequences of uninterrupted accretion in relatively stable wandering rivers that are unlikely in braided rivers.
Non‐identical contributions of two membrane‐bound cpSRP components, cpFtsY and Alb3, to thylakoid biogenesis
Authors: Asakura Yukari , Kikuchi Shingo , Nakai Masato 
Published: August 2008

SummaryThe insertion of light‐harvesting chlorophyll proteins (LHCPs) into the thylakoid membrane of the chloroplast is cpSRP‐dependent, and requires the stromal components cpSRP54 and cpSRP43, the membrane‐bound SRP receptor cpFtsY and the integral membrane protein Alb3. Previous studies demonstrated that the Arabidopsis mutant lacking both cpSRP54 and cpSRP43 had pale yellow leaves, but was viable, whereas the mutants lacking Alb3 exhibit an albino phenotype that is more severe and seedling lethality. We previously showed that a maize mutant lacking cpFtsY had a pale yellow–green phenotype and was seedling lethal. To compare the in vivo requirements of cpFtsY and Alb3 in thylakoid biogenesis in greater detail, we isolated Arabidopsis null mutants of cpftsY, and performed biochemical comparisons with the Arabidopsis alb3 mutant. Both cpftsY and alb3 null mutants were seedling lethal on a synthetic medium lacking sucrose, whereas on a medium supplemented with sucrose, they were able to grow to later developmental stages, but were mostly infertile. cpftsY mutant plants had yellow leaves in which the levels of LHCPs were reduced to 10–33% compared with wild type. In contrast, alb3 had yellowish white leaves, and the LHCP levels were less than or equal to 10% of those of wild type. Intriguingly, whereas accumulation of the Sec and Tat machineries were normal in both mutants, the Sec pathway substrate Cyt f was more severely decreased in the cpftsY mutant than in alb3, which may indicate a functional link between cpFtsY and Sec translocation machinery. These results suggest that cpFtsY and Alb3 have essentially similar, but slightly distinct, contributions to thylakoid biogenesis.
The CACTA transposon Bot1 played a major role in Brassica genome divergence and gene proliferation
Authors: Alix Karine , Joets Johann , Ryder Carol D. , Moore Jay , Barker Guy C. , Bailey John P. , King Graham J. , (Pat) Heslop‐Harrison John S. 
Published: August 2008

SummaryWe isolated and characterized a Brassica C genome‐specific CACTA element, which was designated Bot1 (Brassica oleracea transposon 1). After analysing phylogenetic relationships, copy numbers and sequence similarity of Bot1 and Bot1 analogues in B. oleracea (C genome) versus Brassica rapa (A genome), we concluded that Bot1 has encountered several rounds of amplification in the oleracea genome only, and has played a major role in the recent rapa and oleracea genome divergence. We performed in silico analyses of the genomic organization and internal structure of Bot1, and established which segment of Bot1 is C‐genome specific. Our work reports a fully characterized Brassica repetitive sequence that can distinguish the Brassica A and C chromosomes in the allotetraploid Brassica napus, by fluorescent in situ hybridization. We demonstrated that Bot1 carries a host S locus‐associated SLL3 gene copy. We speculate that Bot1 was involved in the proliferation of SLL3 around the Brassica genome. The present study reinforces the assumption that transposons are a major driver of genome and gene evolution in higher plants.
Microarray analysis of vegetative phase change in maize
Authors: Strable Josh , Borsuk Lisa , Nettleton Dan , Schnable Patrick S. , Irish Erin E. 
Published: August 2008

SummaryVegetative phase change is the developmental transition from the juvenile phase to the adult phase in which a plant becomes competent for sexual reproduction. The gain of ability to flower is often accompanied by changes in patterns of differentiation in newly forming vegetative organs. In maize, juvenile leaves differ from adult leaves in morphology, anatomy and cell wall composition. Whereas the normal sequence of juvenile followed by adult is repeated with every sexual generation, this sequence can be altered in maize by the isolation and culture of the shoot apex from an adult phase plant: an ‘adult’ meristem so treated reverts to forming juvenile vegetative organs. To begin to unravel the as‐yet poorly understood molecular mechanisms underlying phase change in maize, we compared gene expression in two juvenile sample types, leaf 4 and culture‐derived leaves 3 or 4, with an adult sample type (leaf 9) using cDNA microarrays. All samples were leaf primordia at plastochron 6. A gene was scored as ‘phase induced’ if it was up‐ or downregulated in both juvenile sample types, compared with the adult sample type, with at least a twofold change in gene expression at a P‐value of ≤0.005. Some 221 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were upregulated in juveniles, and 28 ESTs were upregulated in adults. The largest class of juvenile‐induced genes was comprised of those involved in photosynthesis, suggesting that maize plants are primed for energy production early in vegetative growth by the developmental induction of photosynthetic genes.