bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Origin of the Mesozoic magmatism in the North China Craton: constraints from petrological and geochemical data
Authors: Chen B. , Zhai M.-G. , Tian W. 
Published: November 2007

Abstract

Voluminous plutonic and volcanic rocks were emplaced in the eastern part of the North China Craton (NCC) in the Mesozoic. The Mesozoic igneous rocks include a variety of rock types ranging from monzogabbroic, through monzonitic to monzogranitic, and locally to syenitic. Monzonitic rocks are dominant, and frequently contain mafic enclaves (dioritic in composition). The principal geochemical signatures of these Mesozoic rocks include high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic affinity, high Sr–Ba abundances and high Sr/Y, La/Yb, and highly enriched Sr–Nd isotopic compositions with ε
Nd
(
t
) ranging from −8 to −20 and
I
Sr
from 0.7053 to 0.710. Zircon sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe dating reveals that these Mesozoic rocks formed between 180 Ma and 120 Ma, but are predominantly confined to a narrow range of 135–127 Ma. The sudden surge of Mesozoic magmatism was genetically linked to the upwelling of asthenosphere in a back-arc extensional regime that was caused by subduction of the palaeo-pacific plate beneath the eastern NCC. Upwelling of hot asthenospheric mantle material triggered partial melting of enriched subcontinental lithosperic mantle, generating voluminous mafic magmas. The mafic magmas underplated in the lower crust and sparked melting of the latter, producting granitic melts. We suggest that the Mesozoic rocks in the NCC probably originated from mixing between the coeval mafic and granitic melts, followed by fractionation of ferromagnesian phases and subordinate plagioclase, rather than from melting of mafic lower crust as previously suggested by many others.
The Angolan Churches from the Bicesse to the Luena Peace Agreements (1991-2002): The Building of a Peace Agenda and the Road to Ecumenical Dialogue
Authors: Comerford Michael 
Published: November 2007

AbstractThis article examines how the major Angolan churches engaged with the search for peace from 1991 to 2002, the crucial period from the Bicesse Accords to the Luena Memorandum following the death of Jonas Savimbi, which ended the years of cyclical military conflict and broken peace agreements. It sets out how the churches analysed the causes of the conflict between the MPLA-led government and the UNITA rebel movement, as well as what they believed was required to bring about peace. This analysis is unique in Angola as no other national civic voice consistently engaged with the peace agenda over this period. The article also examines ecumenical initiatives to restore peace through the formation of COIEPA, the inter-ecclesial peace committee, following the return to war in 1998, initiatives that were strongly resisted by the government as it pursued its military strategy of bringing peace to Angola by fighting a final and decisive war.
'Broken Calabashes and Covenants of Fruitfulness': Cursing Barrenness in Contemporary African Christianity
Authors: Asamoah-Gyadu J. Kwabena 
Published: November 2007

AbstractChildlessness is an issue of deep religious concern in Africa. Men, women and couples with problems of sexuality and childlessness make use not only of the resources of traditional African religions but also of the many Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements that have burgeoned throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last three decades. Initially this was the domain of the older African independent churches, as far as the Christian response to childlessness is concerned; the new Pentecostals have taken on the challenge too. Based on the same biblical and traditional worldviews that events have causes, these churches have mounted ritual contexts that wrestle with the issues of sexuality and childlessness. In pursuing this salvific endeavor, however, the needs of those who may never have children seem to have been neglected by the churches considered here and represented by the Pure Fire Miracle Ministries, a Ghana/Nigeria charismatic church located in Ghana. is partial approach to 'healing' childlessness has led to one-sided interpretations of what it means to be fruitful and prosperous and deepened the troubles of the childless.
Functionally associated targets in mantle cell lymphoma as defined by DNA microarrays and RNA interference
Authors: Ortega-Paino Eva , Fransson Johan , Ek Sara , Borrebaeck Carl A. K. 
Published: November 2007

AbstractMantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a non-Hodgkin lymphoma with poor prognosis. Its hallmark is the translocation t(11:14)q (13;32), leading to overexpression of cyclin D1, a positive regulator of the cell cycle. As cyclin D1 up-regulation is not sufficient for inducing malignant transformation, we combined DNA microarray and RNA interference (RNAi) approaches to identify novel deregulated genes involved in the progression of MCL. DNA microarray analysis identified 46 genes specifically up-regulated in MCL compared with normal B cells; 20 of these were chosen for further studies based on their cellular functions, such as growth and proliferation. The Granta 519 cell line was selected as an MCL in vitro model, to set up the RNAi protocol. To confirm the functionality of overexpression of the 20 disease-associated genes, they were knocked down using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). In particular, knockdown of 3 genes, encoding the hepatoma-derived growth factor related protein 3 (HDGFRP3), the frizzled homolog 2 (FZD2), and the dual specificity phosphatase 5 (DUSP5), induced proliferative arrest in Granta 519 MCL cells. These genes emerged as functionally associated in MCL, in relation to growth and survival, and interfering with their function would increase insight into lymphoma growth regulation, potentially leading to novel clinical intervention modalities.
NK-cell activation and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity induced by rituximab-coated target cells is inhibited by the C3b component of complement
Authors: Wang Siao-Yi , Racila Emilian , Taylor Ronald P. , Weiner George J. 
Published: November 2007

AbstractAntibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement fixation both appear to play a role in mediating antitumor effects of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), including rituximab. We evaluated the relationship between rituximab-induced complement fixation, natural killer (NK)–cell activation, and NK cell–mediated ADCC. Down-modulation of NK- cell CD16 and NK-cell activation induced by rituximab-coated target cells was blocked by human serum but not heat-inactivated serum. This inhibition was also observed in the absence of viable target cells. C1q and C3 in the serum were required for these inhibitory effects, while C5 was not. An antibody that stabilizes C3b on the target cell surface enhanced the inhibition of NK-cell activation induced by rituximab-coated target cells. Binding of NK cells to rituximab-coated plates through CD16 was inhibited by the fixation of complement. C5-depleted serum blocked NK cell–mediated ADCC. These data suggest that C3b deposition induced by rituximab-coated target cells inhibits the interaction between the rituximab Fc and NK-cell CD16, thereby limiting the ability of rituximab-coated target cells to induce NK activation and ADCC. Further studies are needed to define in more detail the impact of complement fixation on ADCC, and whether mAbs that fail to fix complement will be more effective at mediating ADCC.
Genomic resources for Myzus persicae: EST sequencing, SNP identification, and microarray design
Authors: Ramsey John S , Wilson Alex CC , de Vos Martin , Sun Qi , Tamborindeguy Cecilia , Winfield Agnese , Malloch Gaynor , Smith Dawn M , Fenton Brian , Gray Stewart M , Jander Georg 
Published: November 2007

Abstract

Background
The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), is a world-wide insect pest capable of infesting more than 40 plant families, including many crop species. However, despite the significant damage inflicted by M. persicae in agricultural systems through direct feeding damage and by its ability to transmit plant viruses, limited genomic information is available for this species.

Results
Sequencing of 16 M. persicae cDNA libraries generated 26,669 expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Aphids for library construction were raised on Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Brassica oleracea, B. napus, and Physalis floridana (with and without Potato leafroll virus infection). The M. persicae cDNA libraries include ones made from sexual and asexual whole aphids, guts, heads, and salivary glands. In silico comparison of cDNA libraries identified aphid genes with tissue-specific expression patterns, and gene expression that is induced by feeding on Nicotiana benthamiana. Furthermore, 2423 genes that are novel to science and potentially aphid-specific were identified. Comparison of cDNA data from three aphid lineages identified single nucleotide polymorphisms that can be used as genetic markers and, in some cases, may represent functional differences in the protein products. In particular, non-conservative amino acid substitutions in a highly expressed gut protease may be of adaptive significance for M. persicae feeding on different host plants. The Agilent eArray platform was used to design an M. persicae oligonucleotide microarray representing over 10,000 unique genes.

Conclusion
New genomic resources have been developed for M. persicae, an agriculturally important insect pest. These include previously unknown sequence data, a collection of expressed genes, molecular markers, and a DNA microarray that can be used to study aphid gene expression. These resources will help elucidate the adaptations that allow M. persicae to develop compatible interactions with its host plants, complementing ongoing work illuminating plant molecular responses to phloem-feeding insects.
The prognostic value of the suPARnostic®ELISA in HIV-1 infected individuals is not affected by uPAR promoter polymorphisms
Authors: Schneider Uffe V , Nielsen Rikke L , Pedersen Court , Eugen-Olsen Jesper 
Published: November 2007

Abstract

Background
High blood levels of soluble urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor (suPAR) are associated with poor outcomes in human immunodeficiency-1 (HIV-1) infected individuals. Research on the clinical value of suPAR in HIV-1 infection led to the development of the suPARnostic® assay for commercial use in 2006. The aim of this study was to: 1) Evaluate the prognostic value of the new suPARnostic® assay and 2) Determine whether polymorphisms in the active promoter of uPAR influences survival and/or suPAR values in HIV-1 patients who are antiretroviral therapy (ART) naive.

Methods
DNA samples were collected retrospectively from 145 Danes infected with HIV-1 with known seroconversion times. In addition, plasma was collected retrospectively from 81 of these participants for use in the suPAR analysis. Survival was analysed using Kaplan Meier analysis.

Results
Survival was strongly correlated to suPAR levels (p < 0.001). Levels at or above 6 ng/ml were associated with death in 13 of 27 patients within a two-years period; whereas only one of 54 patients with suPAR levels below 6 ng/ml died during this period. We identified two common uPAR promoter polymorphisms: a G to A transition at -118 and an A to G transition at -465 comparative to the transcription start site. These promoter transitions influenced neither suPAR levels nor patient survival.

Conclusion
Plasma suPAR levels, as measured by the suPARnostic® assay, were strongly predictive of survival in ART-naïve HIV-1 infected patients. Furthermore, plasma suPAR levels were not influenced by uPAR promoter polymorphisms.
The Struggle for Housing Land: A case of confused interests
Authors: Rydin Yvonne 
Published: November 2007

The issue of housing land has always been central to town and country planning and since the introduction of comprehensive land-use planning, allocating land for residential development has been a major planning function for local authorities. Furthermore, this allocation process has frequently become the focus for overt political struggles between different groups at local fora, such as public local inquiries into planning applications and examinations in public of structure plans. Less well documented though are the political struggles at the national level over this planning issue.
Yet over the past few years central government policy on housing land allocation has taken an important new direction. With the election of a Conservative government in 1979, the planning system has come under renewed scrutiny. The result has been a series of Department of the Environment circulars, other policy statements and environmental planning initiatives. Associated with this has been an active political debate. The recent press coverage of the draft green belt circular (eg The Sunday Times 9th October 1983 and The Guardian 5th and 12th August 1983) is a more public example of the continuing stream of articles on this subject in trade, professional and other pressure group journals.
Urban Housing Rehabilitation: An Encouraging British Example
Authors: Maclennan Duncan 
Published: November 2007

The rehabilitation of Britain’s older housing became an increasingly important activity throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The British rehabilitation programme, broadly defined, now contains a range of activities and instruments, including improvement and repair grants for private sector use, environmental improvement grants, direct local authority investment, and housing association programmes. By 1983 this broad set of activities had come to comprise more than a third of public spending on housing capital formation, indeed almost 50% in Scotland. Whilst public spending on housing capital has quartered since 1976, the budget of the Housing Corporation increased in the 1970s and has been only marginally reduced in 1983 and 1984. Grant aid to rehabilitation, via local authorities, boomed from 1982 to 1984 but now appears set to reduce progressively over the next four years.
At the present time local authorities in Britain, and the various sub-national offices of central government, are interested in the extent to which housing programmes may contribute to neighbourhood, urban and indeed national economic development. However perusal of the available academic literature will do little to convince government to sustain or expand rehabilitation programmes, and the improvement grant programme is now being reduced and restructured.
Housing and Planning Policy in Northern Ireland: Problems of Implementation in a Divided Community
Authors: Singleton Dale 
Published: November 2007

‘One has always to remember that facts well enough known to every Belfast street urchin have to be translated into learned jargon for university professors abroad’ (Stewart 1977, p. 141).
Many of the unusual features of housing and planning policy in Northern Ireland spring from the nature of the ‘Northern Ireland problem’ itself. The ‘war’ in the Province is principally about a conflict of nationalities and the challenge it poses to the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state. One of the elements of the ‘war’ is the battle for space or territory at both a ‘micro’ level within the state and at the spatial level of the whole of Northern Ireland. Although conflict is inherent in virtually all instances where change occurs in the ‘built environment’, in Northern Ireland the ‘sectarian’ dimension increases the complexity of change and the intensity of conflict. For example, in Britain if a proposal is made to site public sector housing in close proximity to owner-occupied property, protests from existing owneroccupiers can usually be anticipated on the grounds that the new development will lead to a fall in the value of their property and/or will increase crime in the area.
Asian Politics and Housing Renewal
Authors: Stoker Gerry , Brindley Tim 
Published: November 2007

This article focuses on an incident, a series of events in the political life of an English city. The case in question deals with a proposal to demolish over 50 houses in the Grand Union Housing Action Area in Leicester, in 1983. The demolition plan represented a desire on the part of officers and councillors of the City Council to increase the rate of replacement of the housing stock and to break away from a policy which relied almost exclusively on improvement and repair. The plan met considerable resistance from local residents, who were predominantly Asian owner-occupiers. It split the local Labour party and was eventually abandoned.
Having described the case the paper seeks to extract from it a number of general political relationships and policy considerations. The technique of using a study of the actions of individuals and groups within a particular situation to exhibit the nature of the broader social or political structure has been widely and successfully used in social anthropology (Gluckman, 1940; Epstein, 1967). While obviously limited by its particular focus, it provides a convenient and interesting way of raising important issues and opening up areas of debate.
Bus Deregulation and Game Theory
Authors: Evans Andrew , Holder Andrew 
Published: November 2007

This article uses game theory to explore the situation of bus operators when there is competition on stage-carriage, or local, bus services, as is proposed in the recent British White Paper ‘Buses’ (Department of Transport, 1984), and as exists in the Hereford area at the time of writing. The Hereford area is one of three so-called ‘trial areas’ set up under the Transport Act 1980 where the provision of bus services is unregulated, although operators still have to meet the usual safety requirements.
Our model is very simple and could be developed further. Nevertheless it provides some insights into the position of operators under competition, and an interpretation of some of their actions. It also suggests one rationale for regulation. Regulation can be seen as a device to avoid the worst possible outcome for the public that might arise under competition at the cost of giving up the best possible outcome.
Game theory is concerned with the logic of decision-making in situations where outcomes depend on the decisions of two or more autonomous agents, and each agent therefore has only partial control of the outcomes.
Screening Using Serum Percentage of Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin for Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation in Children with Suspected Metabolic Disease
Authors: Pérez-Cerdá Celia , Quelhas Dulce , Vega Ana I , Ecay Jesús , Vilarinho Laura , Ugarte Magdalena 
Published: November 2007

AbstractBackground: Diagnoses of congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are based on clinical suspicion and analysis of transferrin (Tf) isoforms. Here we present our experience of CDG screening in children with a suspected metabolic disease by determination of serum percentage of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (%CDT) in tandem with isoelectric focusing (IEF) analysis of Tf and α1-antitrypsin (α1-AT).Methods: We performed approximately 8000 serum %CDT determinations using %CDT turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA). In selected samples, IEF analysis of Tf and α1-AT was carried out on an agarose gel (pH 4–8) using an electrophoresis unit. The isoforms were detected by Western blotting and visualized by color development. We performed neuraminidase digestion of serum to detect polymorphic variants of Tf.Results: We established a cutoff value for serum %CDT of 2.5% in our pediatric population. Sixty-five patients showed consistently high values of serum %CDT. In accordance with Tf and α1-AT IEF profiles, enzyme assays, and mutation analysis, we made the following diagnoses: 23 CDG-Ia, 1 CDG-Ib, and 1 conserved oligomeric Golgi 1 (COG-1) deficiency. In addition, we identified 13 CDG-Ix non Ia, non-Ib; 3 CDG-Ix; and 9 CDG-IIx cases, albeit requiring further characterization; 9 patients with a secondary cause of hypoglycosylation and 6 with a polymorphic Tf variant were also detected.Conclusion: The combined use of CDT immunoassay with IEF of Tf and α1-AT is a useful 1st-line screening tool for identifying CDG patients with an N-glycosylation defect. Additional molecular investigations must of course be carried out to determine the specific genetic disease.
Robust, Persistent Transgene Expression in Human Embryonic Stem Cells Is Achieved with AAVS1-Targeted Integration
Authors: Smith Joseph R. , Maguire Sean , Davis Lesley A. , Alexander Morgan , Yang Fentang , Chandran Siddharthan , ffrench-Constant Charles , Pedersen Roger A. 
Published: November 2007

Abstract
Silencing and variegated transgene expression are poorly understood problems that can interfere with gene function studies in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). We show that transgene expression (enhanced green fluorescent protein [EGFP]) from random integration sites in hESCs is affected by variegation and silencing, with only half of hESCs expressing the transgene, which is gradually lost after withdrawal of selection and differentiation. We tested the hypothesis that a transgene integrated into the adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) target region on chromosome 19, known as the AAVS1 locus, would maintain transgene expression in hESCs. When we used AAV2 technology to target the AAVS1 locus, 4.16% of hESC clones achieved AAVS1-targeted integration. Targeted clones expressed Oct-4, stage-specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA3), and Tra-1–60 and differentiated into all three primary germ layers. EGFP expression from the AAVS1 locus showed significantly reduced variegated expression when in selection, with 90% ± 4% of cells expressing EGFP compared with 57% ± 32% for randomly integrated controls, and reduced tendency to undergo silencing, with 86% ± 7% hESCs expressing EGFP 25 days after withdrawal of selection compared with 39% ± 31% for randomly integrated clones. In addition, quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of hESCs also indicated significantly higher levels of EGFP mRNA in AAVS1-targeted clones as compared with randomly integrated clones. Transgene expression from the AAVS1 locus was shown to be stable during hESC differentiation, with more than 90% of cells expressing EGFP after 15 days of differentiation, as compared with ∼30% for randomly integrated clones. These results demonstrate the utility of transgene integration at the AAVS1 locus in hESCs and its potential clinical application.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.