bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
ELIMINATION OF BACTERIAL ISOLATES FROM JOLLOF RICE MEAL BY IRRADIATION AND CHILLED STORAGE
Authors: ADU‐GYAMFI ABRAHAM , NKETSIA‐TABIRI JOSEPHINE 
Published: April 2008

ABSTRACT The radiation sensitivity of three bacterial isolates (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella parathyphi B) on jollof rice meal (JRM) was determined. Based on the calculated D10 values, challenge testing of the isolates with irradiation (0, 2 and 3 kGy) was conducted on JRM followed by chilled (3–5C) storage (0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days). Calculated D10 values of E. coli, S. aureus and S. parathyphi B were 0.173, 0.260 and 0.285 kGy, respectively. Linear correlation coefficients of the regression lines were all >0.910 and highly significant (P < 0.01). A dose of 2 kGy reduced the population of E. coli by 6 log cycles and those of S. aureus and S. parathyphi B by 4 log cycles. A dose of 3 kGy eliminated all the isolates from the JRM during the 28‐day storage period and is therefore adequate to eliminate pathogens from JRM to enhance microbiological quality.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSReady meals are easily available and convenient. However, they have the major limitations of easy contamination with foodborne pathogens and a relatively short shelf life. Additionally in the tropics, high temperatures and poor access to refrigeration facilities promote rapid microbial proliferation in such foods. The potential of low dose radiation to improve microbiological safety and extend shelf life of some cook‐chill and other ready meals have been established and the technology is in use in most developed countries. However, in developing countries where the incidence of foodborne illness is relatively high, there is lack of awareness about the potential benefits of food irradiation. This study demonstrates the potential of irradiation to enhance microbiological safety and extend the shelf life of ready meals in developing countries, especially those which are popular and those of indigenous origin.
Diagnosis of hyperthyroidism in cats with mild chronic kidney disease
Authors: Wakeling J. , Moore K. , Elliott J. , Syme H. 
Published: April 2008

Objectives:In cats with concurrent hyperthyroidism and non‐thyroidal illnesses such as chronic kidney disease, total thyroxine concentrations are often within the laboratory reference range (19 to 55 nmol/l). The objective of the study was to determine total thyroxine, free thyroxine and/or thyroid‐stimulating hormone concentrations in cats with mild chronic kidney disease.Methods:Total thyroxine, free thyroxine and thyroid‐stimulating hormone were measured in three groups. The hyperthyroidism‐chronic kidney disease group (n=16) had chronic kidney disease and clinical signs compatible with hyperthyroidism but a plasma total thyroxine concentration within the reference range. These cats were subsequently confirmed to be hyperthyroid at a later date. The chronic kidney disease‐only group (n=20) had chronic kidney disease but no signs of hyperthyroidism. The normal group (n=20) comprised clinically healthy senior (>8 years) cats.Results:In 4 of 20 euthyroid chronic kidney disease cats, free thyroxine concentrations were borderline or high (≥40 pmol/l). In the hyperthyroidism‐chronic kidney disease group, free thyroxine was high in 15 of 16 cats, while thyroid‐stimulating hormone was low in 16 of 16 cats. Most hyperthyroidism‐chronic kidney disease cats (14 of 16) had total thyroxine greater than 30 nmol/l, whereas all the chronic kidney disease‐only cats had total thyroxine less than 30 nmol/l.ClinicalSignificance:The combined measurement of free thyroxine with total thyroxine or thyroid‐stimulating hormone may be of merit in the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism in cats with chronic kidney disease.
Rodents as reservoirs of parasites in India
Authors: SINGLA Lachhman D. , SINGLA Neena , PARSHAD Vir R. , JUYAL Prayag D. , SOOD Naresh K. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractWe monitored the prevalence of endoparasitic infections of rodents in Punjab State, India, between January 2004 and December 2005. Three species of wild rodents, namely the house rat, Rattus rattus (n= 42), the lesser bandicoot rat, Bandicota bengalensis (n= 34) and the Indian gerbil, Tatera indica (n= 15), were live‐captured from houses and crop fields. Examination of various organs revealed that the highest rates of endoparasitic infection occurred in R. rattus (40.5%), followed by B. bengalensis (35.3 %) and then T. indica (20.0%), with an overall infection rate of 35.2%. All three rodent species were found naturally infected with one or more species of helminths. Metacestodes (1–6) of Cysticercus fasciolaris (larvae of Taenia taeniaeformis) were found in all three rodent species (in the liver). In one male T. indica, numerous robust T. taeniaeformis metacestodes were found in oval sacs attached to the mesentery and the abdominal wall, an unusual site. The cauda epididymal fluid of the same gerbil was also found to be infected with a very rare species of strongylid nematode, which could not be identified to genus or species level. It is possible that this nematode is transmitted sexually and thus may affect the reproductive potential of gerbils. This appears to be the first report of this phenomenon. In one B. bengalensis individual, the intestine was found to be obstructed with an acanthocephalan, Moniliformis moniliformis, with concurrent infection with C. fasciolaris in the form of multiple cysts in the liver. Although no natural protozoan infection was found in these field rodents, experimental Trypanosoma evansi infection has been established in all three species with high pathogenicity, and the possibility of sexual transmission was supported by the presence of T. evansi in the cauda epididymal fluid of male rats.
Demography, reproductive biology and diet of the bushveld gerbil Tatera leucogaster (Rodentia: Gerbillinae) in the Lake Rukwa valley, south‐western Tanzania
Authors: ODHIAMBO Richard O. , MAKUNDI Rhodes H. , LEIRS Herwig , VERHAGEN Ron 
Published: April 2008

AbstractSeasonal abundance, reproductive biology and feeding ecology of the bushveld gerbil Tatera leucogaster (Peters, 1852) were investigated in small‐scale maize field‐fallow land mosaics in south‐western Tanzania. The gerbils were collected over a 2‐year period using Sherman live and Victor hold‐fast snap traps in permanent 4.5‐ha grids. A total of 664 individuals were captured over 13 650 trap nights, giving an overall trap success rate of 4.9%. Trap success varied between seasons with and without crops in the field but not between habitat types. At this site, the breeding activity of this species is seasonal. All individuals whose stomachs were analyzed ate a wide range of items, indicating omnivory in this species at this site; however, seeds were the most preferred diet category, with a mean contribution of 50.4%, followed by arthropods, with a mean contribution of 25.7%. Other plant materials became important during the very dry periods.
Response of small rodents to manipulations of vegetation height in agro‐ecosystems
Authors: JACOB Jens 
Published: April 2008

AbstractSome small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimize adverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in their environment and consideration of how they react to management efforts, management will not be optimal. Social behavior, spatial and temporal activity patterns, predator avoidance and other behavioral responses can affect pest rodent management. Some of these behavioral patterns and their causes have been well studied. However, their impact on pest rodent management, especially for novel management approaches, is not always clear. Habitat manipulation occurs necessarily through land use and intentionally to reduce shelter and food availability and to increase predation pressure on rodents. Rodents often respond to decreased vegetation height with reduced movements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior. This seems to result mainly from an elevated perceived predation risk. Behavioral responses may lessen the efficacy of the management because the desired effects of predators might be mediated. It remains largely unknown to what extent such responses can compensate at the population level for the expected consequences of habitat manipulation and how population size and crop damage are affected. It is advantageous to understand how target and non‐target species react to habitat manipulation to maximize the management effects by appropriate techniques, timing and spatial scale without causing unwanted effects at the system level.
Sustainable Development and Environmental Justice in African Cities
Authors: Myers Garth Andrew 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe rhetoric of sustainable development has substantive impacts in African cities, through programs like the United Nations Sustainable Cities Program. Discussions of urban environmental justice are comparatively rare in African cities, with notable exceptions in South African policy and research. I examine the sustainable development and environmental justice literatures in African urban studies, largely around South African and Tanzanian cases. My goals are to understand the out‐sized presence of sustainable development rhetoric and the general absence of environmental justice debates in sub‐Saharan African urban studies, and to speculate on possibilities for regional cross‐fertilization in research and movements for urban environmental justice.
The Region in Political Economy
Authors: Harrison John 
Published: April 2008

AbstractA decade ago, regions were the hot topic in political economy. Convinced by accounts of how regions were competitive economic territoriesper excellenceand crucial sites for promoting a plural society, the ‘new regionalism’ ascended to a position of orthodoxy in political economy. Today, the memory of these halcyon days is but a distant one with the past decade seeing regions be the site for a number of topical debates that appear, at first sight, to challenge the regional concept: the collapse of the new regionalist orthodoxy; the theoretical ascendancy of relational approaches to conceptualising spatiality; and the political ascendancy of the ‘city‐region’ concept. All of which suggests that the regional concept may be under threat in contemporary political economy. But it also prompts the need to confront searching questions as to whether we are in fact witnessing the awakening of a new geography of the region. This article emphasises the latter, arguing that what we are witnessing is the emergence of a new era of ‘relational regionalism’ in political economy.
Youth, AIDS and Rural Livelihoods in Southern Africa
Authors: Van Blerk Lorraine , Ansell Nicola , Robson Elsbeth , Hadju Flora , Chipeta Lucy 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAIDS, in interaction with other factors, is impacting on the livelihood activities, opportunities and choices of young people in southern Africa. This article explores these linkages firstly by reviewing what is known about the impacts of AIDS on young people, before looking more specifically at how this impinges on their future ability to secure livelihoods. Within the home and family, AIDS often results in youth taking on a heavy burden of responsibilities. This can include caring for sick relatives, helping with chores and taking on paid employment. This burden of care and work can have further impacts on young people's future livelihoods as they find they have reduced access to schooling, potential loss of inheritance and a breakdown in the intergenerational transfer of knowledge, which is especially important for sustained agricultural production. The article ends by suggesting that the sustainable livelihoods approach can be useful for understanding the complexity of the issues surrounding the impacts of AIDS on young people's livelihoods and calls for further research to explore how their access to future sustainable livelihoods in rural southern Africa might be supported.
Heparan Sulfate Accumulation with Aβ Deposits in Alzheimer's Disease and Tg2576 Mice is Contributed by Glial Cells
Authors: O'Callaghan Paul , Sandwall Elina , Li Jin‐Ping , Yu Hong , Ravid Rivka , Guan Zhi‐Zhong , Van Kuppevelt Toin H. , Nilsson Lars N. G. , Ingelsson Martin , Hyman Bradley T. , Kalimo Hannu , Lindahl Ulf , Lannfelt Lars , Zhang Xiao 
Published: April 2008

AbstractAmyloid β‐peptide (Aβ) plaques, one of the major neuropathological lesions in Alzheimer's disease (AD), can be broadly subdivided into two morphological categories: neuritic and diffuse. Heparan sulfate (HS) and HS proteoglycans (HSPGs) are codeposits of multiple amyloidoses, including AD. Although HS has been considered a limiting factor in the initiation of amyloid deposition, the pathological implications of HS in Aβ deposits of AD remain unclear. In this study, immunohistochemistry combined with fluorescence and confocal microscopy was employed to gain deeper insight into the accumulation of HS with Aβ plaques in sporadic and familial AD. Here we demonstrate that HS preferentially accumulated around the Aβ40 dense cores of neuritic plaques, but was largely absent from diffuse Aβ42 plaques, suggesting that Aβ42 deposition may occur independently of HS. A codeposition pattern of HS with Aβ deposits in Tg2576 mice was also examined. We identified the membrane‐bound HSPGs, glypican‐1 (GPC1) and syndecan‐3 (SDC3), in glial cells associated with Aβ deposits, proximal to sites of HS accumulation. In mouse primary glial cultures, we observed increased levels of GPC1 and SDC3 following Aβ stimulation. These results suggest that HS codeposits with Aβ40 in neuritic plaques and is mainly derived from glial cells.
Adult Onset Leukodystrophy with Neuroaxonal Spheroids: Clinical, Neuroimaging and Neuropathologic Observations
Authors: Freeman Stefanie H. , Hyman Bradley T. , Sims Katherine B. , Hedley‐Whyte E. T. , Vossough Arastoo , Frosch Matthew P. , Schmahmann Jeremy D. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractPigmented orthochromatic leukodystrophy and hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids are two adult onset leukodystrophies with neuroaxonal spheroids presenting with prominent neurobehavioral, cognitive and motor symptoms. These are familial or sporadic disorders characterized by cerebral white matter degeneration including myelin and axonal loss, gliosis, macrophages and axonal spheroids. We report clinical, neuroimaging and pathological correlations of four women ages 34–50 years with adult onset leukodystrophy. Their disease course ranged from 1.5–8 years. Three patients had progressive cognitive and behavioral changes; however, one had acute onset. Neuroimaging revealed white matter abnormalities characterized by symmetric, bilateral, T2 hyperintense and T1 hypointense Magnetic Resonance Imaging signal involving frontal lobe white matter in all patients. Extensive laboratory investigations were negative apart from abnormalities in some mitochondrial enzymes and immunologic parameters. Autopsies demonstrated severe leukodystrophy with myelin and axonal loss, axonal spheroids and macrophages with early and severe frontal white matter involvement. The extent and degree of changes outside the frontal lobe appeared to correlate with disease duration. The prominent neurobehavioral deficits and frontal white matter disease provide clinical‐pathologic support for association pathways linking distributed neural circuits sub‐serving cognition. These observations lend further support to the notion that white matter disease alone can account for dementia.
Hormonal responses to a single session of wholebody vibration exercise in older individuals
Authors: Cardinale M , Soiza R L , Leiper J B , Gibson A , Primrose W R 
Published: April 2008

ObjectiveWhole-body vibration (WBV) has been recently suggested as an alternative form of exercise. In this study, the acute effects of a single session of WBV exercise on anabolic hormones in aged individuals were analysed.DesignA randomised cross-over trial design was used.SettingsGeriatrics Department, Woodend Hospital.Participants20 individuals (9 men and 11 women; median age 70 years (range 66 to 85 years) volunteered in the experiment.InterventionsIsometric squat on a platform with vibration or no vibration (control) conditions.Main outcome measurementsPlasma cortisol, testosterone, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) were measured before, immediately after, and 1 and 2 h after the interventions.ReportsA significant difference between treatments (p<0.001) and a time6treatment interaction (p<0.05) was found in IGF-1 levels. Cortisol levels were shown not to be significantly different between treatments (p = 0.43), but a difference over time (p<0.001) and a time6 treatment interaction (p<0.05) were identified. No significant differences were identified in GH and testosterone levels.ConclusionsAs shown by the results of the study, 5 min of WBV exercise characterised by static squat with a frequency of 30 Hz can be performed by older individuals without apparent signs of stress and/or fatigue. Furthermore, WBV produced an acute increase in the circulating levels IGF-1 and cortisol greater than that observed following the same exercise protocol conducted without vibration.
Polar Activity Watch 200: a new device to accurately assess energy expenditure
Authors: Brugniaux J V , Niva A , Pulkkinen I , Laukkanen R M T , Richalet J-P , Pichon A P 
Published: April 2008

ObjectivesEnergy expenditure (EE) based on movement detection is calculated by a new device, the Activity Watch 200 (AW200). The aim of this study was to validate EE measured by this device against indirect calorimetry (IC) and to assess the reproducibility of AW200 measurements.DesignEE was assessed during a 9.7 km hike. 10 men and 10 women in the age range 35–45 years, and 5 men and 6 women in the age range 50–55 years were tested. One in five participants of each age- and sex-matched group was equipped with a portable metabograph (Oxycon Mobil) for IC measurements. Data were collected every 30 min during the hike, and IC was extrapolated for the remaining four other participants of the group.ResultsDuring the total hike, there was a high correlation between EE obtained from the AW200 and the IC calculation (r = 0.987, p<0.001). Identical values of EE were calculated by both methods during the first 90 min of the hike. However, EE calculated by the AW200 at 120 min and at the end of the hike was lower (p<0.05). Bland–Altman analysis showed limits of agreements between 105 and 279 kJ after 30 and 120 min, respectively. EE measured by the AW200 was well correlated with IC measurements, and limits of agreement between devices were below 10% of the measured values for hike durations longer than 60 min.ConclusionThe AW200 appears to be a very useful and accurate device for measuring EE during exercise in recreational hikers and provides a useful tool for keeping track of personal EE.
Current and future management of chronic hepatitis C infection
Authors: Cross T J S , Antoniades C G , Harrison P M 
Published: April 2008

AbstractCurrent treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection consists of the combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. This treatment regimen achieves a sustained virological response, defined as undetectable HCV RNA 6 months after treatment cessation, in 50% of patients overall. There is therefore a need for new treatments to improve the sustained virological response rate and reduce the number of adverse effects associated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. This review examines the current management of chronic HCV infection, including who is eligible for treatment, the optimum duration of treatment, and management of side effects. New drugs in development, such as HCV-specific protease inhibitors, polymerase inhibitors, immune modulators and ribavirin analogues, are outlined, and their role in the treatment armamentarium is discussed, whether used alone or in combination with existing treatments.
Salvia miltiorrhiza treatment during early reperfusion reduced postischemic myocardial injury in the rat
Authors: Nie Ruqiong , Xia Rui , Zhong Xingwu , Xia Zhengyuan 
Published: April 2008

Oxidative stress may play a causative role in myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury. However, it is a relatively understudied aspect regarding an optimal timing of antioxidant intervention during ischemia–reperfusion. The present study investigates the effect of different treatment regimens of Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) herb extracts containing phenolic compounds that possess potent antioxidant properties on postischemic myocardial functional recovery in the setting of global myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. Langendorff-perfused rat hearts were subjected to 40 min of global ischemia at 37 °C followed by 60 min of reperfusion, and were randomly assigned into the untreated control and 2 SM-treated groups (n = 7 per group). In treatment 1 (SM1), 3 mg/mL of water soluble extract of SM was given for 10 min before ischemia and continued during ischemia through the aorta at a reduced flow rate of 60 μL/min, but not during reperfusion. In treatment 2 (SM2), SM (3 mg/mL) was given during the first 15 min of reperfusion. During ischemia, hearts in the control and SM2 groups were given physiological saline at 60 μL/min. The SM1 treatment reduced the production of 15-F2t-isoprostane, a specific index of oxidative stress-induced lipid peroxidation, during ischemia (94 ± 20, 43 ± 6, and 95 ± 15 pg/mL in the coronary effluent in control, SM1, and SM2 groups, respectively; p < 0.05, SM1 vs. control or SM2) and postponed the onset of ischemic contracture. However, SM2, but not the SM1 regimen, significantly reduced 15-F2t-isoprostane production during early reperfusion and led to optimal postischemic myocardial functional recovery (left ventricular developed pressure 51 ± 4, 46 ± 4, and 60 ± 6 mmHg in the control, SM1, and SM2 groups, respectively, at 60 min of reperfusion; p < 0.05, SM2 vs. control or SM1) and reduced myocardial infarct size as measured by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining (26% ± 2%, 22% ± 2%, and 20% ± 2% of the total area in the control, SM1, and SM2 groups, respectively, p < 0.05, SM2 vs. control). It is concluded that S. miltiorrhiza could be beneficial in the treatment of myocardial ischemic injury and the timing of administration seems important.