bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Expression of Equi Merozoite Antigen 2 during Development of
Babesia equi
in the Midgut and Salivary Gland of the Vector Tick
Boophilus microplus
Authors: Ueti Massaro W. , Palmer Guy H. , Kappmeyer Lowell S. , Scoles Glen A. , Knowles Donald P. 
Published: December 2003

ABSTRACT

Equi merozoite antigens 1 and 2 (EMA-1 and EMA-2) are
Babesia equi
proteins expressed on the parasite surface during infection in horses and are orthologues of proteins in
Theileria
spp., which are also tick-transmitted protozoal pathogens. We determined in this study whether EMA-1 and EMA-2 were expressed within the vector tick
Boophilus microplus. B. equi
transitions through multiple, morphologically distinct stages, including sexual stages, and these transitions culminate in the formation of infectious sporozoites in the tick salivary gland. EMA-2-positive
B. equi
stages in the midgut lumen and midgut epithelial cells of
Boophilus microplus
nymphs were identified by reactivity with monoclonal antibody 36/253.21. This monoclonal antibody also recognized
B. equi
in salivary glands of adult
Boophilus microplus
. In addition, quantification of
B. equi
in the mammalian host and vector tick indicated that the duration of tick feeding and parasitemia levels affected the percentage of nymphs that contained morphologically distinct
B. equi
organisms in the midgut. In contrast, there was no conclusive evidence that
B. equi
EMA-1 was expressed in either the
Boophilus microplus
midgut or salivary gland when monoclonal antibody 36/18.57 was used. The expression of
B. equi
EMA-2 in
Boophilus microplus
provides a marker for detecting the various development stages and facilitates the identification of novel stage-specific
Babesia
proteins for testing transmission-blocking immunity.
Invasive Fungal Sinusitis Caused byScytalidium dimidiatumin a Lung Transplant Recipient
Authors: Dunn James J. , Wolfe Michael J. , Trachtenberg Joel , Kriesel John D. , Orlandi Richard R. , Carroll Karen C. 
Published: December 2003

ABSTRACTWe describe a case of invasive fungal sinusitis caused byScytalidium dimidiatumin a lung transplant recipient. Treatment was complicated by renal failure with amphotericin B therapies. Following 6 months of voriconazole treatment, the patient remained radiographically and clinically stable for a short time before dying of respiratory failure precipitated by graft rejection.
Salmonella enterica
Pneumonia in a Patient with Lung Cancer
Authors: Samonis George , Maraki Sofia , Kouroussis Charalambos , Mavroudis Dimitrios , Georgoulias Vassilios 
Published: December 2003

ABSTRACT

A case of life-threatening
Salmonella enterica
serotype Enteritidis pneumonia in a febrile patient with lung cancer is described. The organism was isolated from the sputum, the protected specimen brush material of bronchial secretions, and the stool. Despite the early administration of appropriate and adequate treatment, the patient died 7 days after the onset of the infection.
A strategy for controlling the marketing of tobacco products: a regulated market model
Authors: Borland R 
Published: December 2003

Objective:To outline a novel strategy for controlling the tobacco market.Arguments:More comprehensive controls over the tobacco market are essential and long overdue. Effective controls need to encourage the development of less harmful products; control commercial communication to ensure that potential harms are highlighted relative to any benefits; and provide mechanisms to move consumers away from tobacco use, or at least towards less harmful alternatives. Achieving this by regulating the existing industry is one strategy. This paper puts the case for an alternative: to have marketing controlled by an agency (called here the Tobacco Products Agency, or TPA) which tendered to manufacturers for product and which distributed to retailers in ways that reduce incentives to bend or break the law. The TPA would be backed by legislation that made tobacco a controlled substance with possession sale and use only allowed as permitted by the regulations, which in reality would be only as provided by the TPA.Conclusions:The overall effect of such a model, which we call a “regulated market model”, would be to eliminate most of the incentives and remaining opportunities for commercial promotion of tobacco and to create incentives to encourage the development of less harmful tobacco products. Such a model preserves the competition inherent in a free market, but directs it towards the challenge of reducing the harm from tobacco use.
The US tobacco control community’s view of the future of tobacco harm reduction
Authors: Warner K E , Martin E G 
Published: December 2003

Objective:Tobacco harm reduction (THR) has garnered recent attention due to the introduction of novel nicotine delivery products ostensibly intended to reduce risk for inveterate cigarette smokers. This study evaluates the grassroots tobacco control community’s knowledge, opinions, and beliefs about THR.Design:A web/mail survey conducted in October and November 2002, with a telephone survey of a sample of non-respondents.Subjects:The 2833 US based registrants for the 2001 National Conference on Tobacco or Health.Main outcome measures:Respondents’ awareness of THR, perception of its importance, support for regulation, and perception of which THR products should be recommended to inveterate cigarette smokers.Results:70% of respondents were aware of THR but respondents had low recognition of specific products at the forefront of the debate, such as Swedish snuff. Half believe THR will reduce smoking cessation and cause nicotine experimentation by children; 63% anticipate unintended adverse side effects. More expect THR to have a negative than a positive impact on health. Large majorities support government regulation of THR and conventional tobacco products, but fewer than 30% expect legislation regulating either. Most would recommend nicotine patches (76%) and gum (70%) to inveterate smokers, but no other product was supported by a majority. Scientists are more supportive of THR than activists, while respondents focusing on national/international issues are more supportive than those concentrating on local/state issues.Conclusions:Many members of the US tobacco control community are unaware of the THR “movement”, while others possess only rudimentary familiarity with it. If and as THR achieves an increasingly prominent role on the tobacco-or-health scene, this community will have to become educated about THR, and be prepared to advocate for regulatory policies that will maximise the potential for positive outcomes. The potential for negative outcomes remains significant.
Impact of the graphic Canadian warning labels on adult smoking behaviour
Authors: Hammond D , Fong G T , McDonald P W , Cameron R , Brown K S 
Published: December 2003

Objective:To assess the impact of graphic Canadian cigarette warning labels on current adult smokers.Design:A random-digit-dial telephone survey was conducted with 616 adult smokers in south western Ontario, Canada in October/November 2001, with three month follow up.Main outcome measures:Smoking behaviour (quitting, quit attempts, and reduced smoking), intentions to quit, and salience of the warning labels.Results:Virtually all smokers (91%) reported having read the warning labels and smokers demonstrated a thorough knowledge of their content. A strong positive relation was observed between a measure of cognitive processing—the extent to which smokers reported reading, thinking about, and discussing the new labels—and smokers’ intentions to quit (odds ratio (OR) 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07 to 1.16; p < 0.001). Most important, cognitive processing predicted cessation behaviour at follow up. Smokers who had read, thought about, and discussed the new labels at baseline were more likely to have quit, made a quit attempt, or reduced their smoking three months later, after adjusting for intentions to quit and smoking status at baseline (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.12; p < 0.001).Conclusions:Graphic cigarette warning labels serve as an effective population based smoking cessation intervention. The findings add to the growing literature on health warnings and provide strong support for the effectiveness of Canada’s tobacco labelling policy.
What the public thinks about the tobacco industry and its products
Authors: Ashley M J , Cohen J E 
Published: December 2003

Objectives:To assess public attitudes toward the tobacco industry and its products, and to identify predictors of attitudes supportive of tobacco industry denormalisation.Design:Population based, cross sectional survey.Setting:Ontario, Canada.Subjects:Adult population (n = 1607).Main outcome measures:Eight different facets of tobacco industry denormalisation were assessed. A denormalisation scale was developed to examine predictors of attitudes supportive of tobacco industry denormalisation, using bivariate and multivariate analyses.Results:Attitudes to the eight facets of tobacco industry denormalisation varied widely. More than half of the respondents supported regulating tobacco as a hazardous product, fining the tobacco industry for earnings from underage smoking, and suing tobacco companies for health care costs caused by tobacco. Majorities also thought that the tobacco industry is dishonest and that cigarettes are too dangerous to be sold at all. Fewer than half of the respondents thought that the tobacco industry is mostly or completely responsible for the health problems smokers have because of smoking and that tobacco companies should be sued for taxes lost from smuggling. In particular, less than a quarter thought that the tobacco industry is most responsible for young people starting to smoke. Non-smoking, knowledge about health effects caused by tobacco, and support for the role of government in health promotion were independent predictors of support for tobacco industry denormalisation.Conclusions:Although Ontarians are ambivalent toward tobacco industry denormalisation, they are supportive of some measures. Mass media programmes aimed at increasing support for tobacco industry denormalisation and continued monitoring of public attitudes toward this strategy are needed.
A comparison of US and Norwegian regulation of coumarin in tobacco products
Authors: Givel M 
Published: December 2003

Objective:This paper examines policy processes regarding why the USA and Norway have not regulated coumarin in tobacco.Design:A qualitative analysis of all tobacco industry documents regarding coumarin since the 1950s from the 1998 US Master Settlement Agreement and subsequent legal settlements. Additional data were collected from newspaper reports, general internet search engines, journal articles, scholarly reports, court cases, statutes, regulations, and informal correspondence with tobacco control experts in Norway.Main outcome measure:An overview, summary, and analysis of all documents related to coumarin.Results:In the USA from 1954 until 1985 when coumarin was reportedly removed from domestic cigarettes, but not from pipe tobacco until 1996, and not at all from imported Indian bidi cigarettes, regulatory efforts were stymied. In Norway, from 1973 to the present, the tobacco industry has never disclosed whether its tobacco products contain coumarin. In both the USA and Norway, the extreme delay and lack of vigorous evidence gathering and significant remedies were caused by tobacco industry assertions that revealing tobacco additives was a violation of trade secrets, and by weak regulatory authority and efforts to regulate coumarin.Conclusion:Vigorous and expeditious regulatory investigations and remedies for harmful additives in tobacco, such as coumarin, can protect the public health. Astute insider and outsider political advocacy by health advocates is required to hold elected officials and civil servants publicly accountable for failing to enact disclosure laws and to engage in effective regulatory efforts.
Hand rolling cigarette papers as the reference point for regulating cigarette fire safety
Authors: Laugesen M , Duncanson M , Fraser T , McClellan V , Linehan B , Shirley R 
Published: December 2003

Aim:To compare the burning characteristics of the tobacco and paper of manufactured and hand rolled cigarettes, and set a fire safety standard of manufacture to largely reduce the fire risk from discarded cigarettes.Methods:(1) Cigarette extinction test of ignition strength: 40 cigarettes per brand, lit and placed on 15 layers of filter paper, in accordance with ASTM test standard E2187-02. (2) Citrate extracted by 0.1N hydrochloric acid from cigarette papers and from tobacco in manufactured cigarettes, the supernatant analysed by high performance liquid chromatography using ultraviolet visual light spectrophotometer. (3) Survey of 750 nationally representative adults age 18 years and over, by telephone, including 184 smokers.Materials:(a) New Zealand made Holiday, and Horizon, and US made Marlboro manufactured cigarettes; (b) US manufactured Merit with banded paper; (c) Holiday, Horizon and Marlboro hand rolling tobaccos, hand rolled in Rizla cigarette papers; (d) manufactured cigarettes as in (a), reconstructed using Rizla hand rolling cigarette papers.Results:1. (a) For each brand of manufactured cigarettes, 40/40 burnt full length; (b) for Merit banded paper cigarettes 29/40 (73%) burnt full length; (c) for each brand of hand rolled cigarettes 0/40 burnt full length; (d) 0/40 manufactured cigarettes reconstructed with Rizla hand rolling paper burnt full length. 2. Citrate content: (a) In manufactured cigarette papers: 0.3–0.8 mg; in tobacco of manufactured cigarettes: Holiday 0, Horizon 0, Marlboro 8.8 mg; (b) Merit: in banded paper 0.418 mg; in tobacco 10.23 mg; (c) In hand rolled cigarettes: in the papers < 0.08 mg; in hand rolled tobacco 13.3–15.0 mg; (d) In hand rolling papers of reconstructed cigarettes: < 0.018 mg. 3. Requiring manufactured cigarettes to compulsorily self-extinguish when left unattended was supported by 67% of smokers, 61% of manufactured cigarette smokers, 82% of hand rolled smokers, and by 68% of non-smokers.Conclusion:The wrapping paper is a key determinant of whether or not unpuffed cigarettes burn their full length. Using international test methods, popular brands of manufactured cigarettes all burnt full length, but none did so when re-wrapped in hand rolling cigarette paper. This provides a ready-to-hand smoker acceptable standard for reducing ignition potential from manufactured cigarettes, as a basis for regulation or litigation.
Tobacco industry strategy to undermine tobacco control in Finland
Authors: Hiilamo H 
Published: December 2003

Objective:To identify and explain tobacco industry strategy in undermining tobacco control measures in Finland and results of these interferences in tobacco policy development during the 1980s and early 1990s.Methods:Tobacco industry documents, which have been publicly available on the internet as a result of litigation in the USA, were analysed. Documents were sought by Finland and by names of organisations and tobacco control activists. Documents were accessed and assessed between September 2000 and November 2002. Tactics of the tobacco industry activities were categorised as presented by Saloojee and Dagli.Results:The international tobacco companies utilised similar strategies in Finland as in other industrial markets to fight tobacco control and legislation, the health advocacy movement, and litigation. These activities slowed down the development and implementation of the Tobacco Act in Finland. However, despite the extensive pressure, the industry was not able to prevent the most progressive tobacco legislation in Europe from being passed and coming into force in Finland in 1977 and in 1995.Conclusion:Denying the health hazards caused by tobacco—despite indisputable scientific evidence—decreased the credibility of the tobacco industry. Strategy of denial was falsely chosen, as health advocacy groups were active both in society and the parliamentary system. The strong influence of the tobacco industry may have in fact increased the visibility of tobacco control in Finland as the litigation process was also drawing attention to negative health effects of tobacco. Therefore the tobacco industry did not manage to convince public opinion. However, the tobacco industry did obtain experience in Finland in how to object to tobacco control measures.
Application of toxicological risk assessment principles to the chemical constituents of cigarette smoke
Authors: Fowles J , Dybing E 
Published: December 2003

Objective:To provide a hazard prioritisation for reported chemical constituents of cigarette smoke using toxicological risk assessment principles and assumptions. The purpose is to inform prevention efforts using harm reduction.Data sources:International Agency for Research on Cancer Monographs; California and US Environmental Protection Agency cancer potency factors (CPFs) and reference exposure levels; scientific journals and government reports from the USA, Canada, and New Zealand.Study selection:This was an inclusive review of studies reporting yields of cigarette smoke constituents using standard ISO methods.Data extraction:Where possible, the midpoint of reported ranges of yields was used.Data synthesis:Data on 158 compounds in cigarette smoke were found. Of these, 45 were known or suspected human carcinogens. Cancer potency factors were available for 40 of these compounds and reference exposure levels (RELs) for non-cancer effects were found for 17. A cancer risk index (CRI) was calculated by multiplying yield levels with CPFs. A non-cancer risk index (NCRI) was calculated by dividing yield levels with RELs. Gas phase constituents dominate both CRI and NCRI for cigarette smoke. The contribution of 1,3-butadiene (BDE) to CRI was more than twice that of the next highest contributing carcinogen (acrylonitrile) using potencies from the State of California EPA. Using those potencies from the USEPA, BDE ranked third behind arsenic and acetaldehyde. A comparison of CRI estimates with estimates of smoking related cancer deaths in the USA showed that the CRI underestimates the observed cancer rates by about fivefold using ISO yields in the exposure estimate.Conclusions:The application of toxicological risk assessment methods to cigarette smoke provides a plausible and objective framework for the prioritisation of carcinogens and other toxicant hazards in cigarette smoke. However, this framework does not enable the prediction of actual cancer risk for a number of reasons that are discussed. Further, the lack of toxicology data on cardiovascular end points for specific chemicals makes the use of this framework less useful for cardiovascular toxicity. The bases for these priorities need to be constantly re-evaluated as new toxicology information emerges.
COMPUTATIONAL AND COMPUTER COMPLEXITY OF ANALOGIC CELLULAR WAVE COMPUTERS
Authors: ROSKA TAMÁS 
Published: December 2003

The CNN Universal Machine is generalized as the latest step in computational architectures: a Universal Machine on Flows. Computational complexity and computer complexity issues are studied in different architectural settings. Three mathematical machines are considered: the universal machine on integers (UMZ), the universal machine on reals (UMR) and the universal machine on flows (UMF). The three machines induce different kinds of computational difficulties: combinatorial, algebraic, and dynamic, respectively. After a broader overview on computational complexity issues, it is shown, following the reasoning related the UMR, that in many cases the size is not the most important parameter related to computational complexity. Emerging new computing and computer architectures as well as their physical implementation suggest a new look on computational and computer complexities. The new analog-and-logic (analogic) cellular array computer paradigm, based on the CNN Universal Machine, and its physical implementation in CMOS and optical technologies, proves experimentally the relevance of the role of accuracy and problem parameter in computational complexity. We introduce also the rigorous definition of computational complexity for UMF and prove an NP class of problems. It is also shown that choosing the spatial temporal elementary instructions, as well as taking into account the area and power dissipation, these choices inherently influence computational complexity and computer complexity, respectively. Comments related to relevance to biology of the UMF are presented in relation to complexity theory. It is shown that algorithms using spatial-temporal continuous elementary instructions (α-recursive functions) represent not only a new world in computing, but also, a more general type of logic inference.
OPTIMAL CONSUMPTION AND PORTFOLIO IN A BLACK–SCHOLES MARKET DRIVEN BY FRACTIONAL BROWNIAN MOTION
Authors: HU YAOZHONG , ØKSENDAL BERNT , SULEM AGNÈS 
Published: December 2003

We present a mathematical model for a Black–Scholes market driven by fractional Brownian motion BH(t) with Hurst parameter [Formula: see text]. The interpretation of the integrals with respect to BH(t) is in the sense of Itô (Skorohod–Wick), not pathwise (which is known to lead to arbitrage).We find explicitly the optimal consumption rate and the optimal portfolio in such a market for an agent with utility functions of power type. When H → 1/2+ the results converge to the corresponding (known) results for standard Brownian motion.
Increased fasting total homocysteine plasma levels as a risk factor for thromboembolism in children
Authors: Heinecke Achim , Kurnik Karin , Heller Christine , Nowak-Göttl Ulrike , Kosch Andrea , Koch Hans ,   for the Childhood Thrombophilia Study Group
Published: December 2003

SummaryElevated total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations are an inde- pendent risk factor for thromboembolic events in adults. In children with moderate hyperhomocysteinemia data are sparse. Therefore, between 1995 and 2002 we consecutively recruited 163 white pediatric patients with a first symptomatic thromboembolic event and 255 healthy controls (mean age: 6.4 years in patients vs. 6.6 years in controls, range: 3 months to 18 years) and measured fasting tHcy levels. Median tHcy levels in patients were significantly higher (6.6 µmol/l, range 2.9-20.4 µmol/l) than in controls (5.7 µmol/l, 2.0-14.0 µmol/l, p<0.0001). 48 of the 163 patients with thromboembolism (29.5%) versus 26 of the 255 controls (10.2%) had tHcy levels above the age- specific normal 90th percentile (OR 2.9, 95%CI: 1.7-4.8). The odds ratio for children in the highest quintile compared to chil- dren with levels in the lowest quintile was 4.3 (1.6-8.1; highest quintile: median tHcy level 9.6 µmol, range 8.0-20.4), showing a significantly increased risk for thromboembolic disease with even mild hyperhomocysteinemia. We conclude that hyperho- mocysteinemia above the age-specific cut-off values is a risk fac- tor for thromboembolic events in children. Therefore, screen- ing for elevated fasting tHcy levels of patients with thromboem- bolism is recommended to stratify the risk of thromboembo- lism.