bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Analyte Comigrating with Trisialotransferrin during Capillary Zone Electrophoresis of Sera from Patients with Cancer
Authors: Ramdani Brahim , Nuyens Vincent , Codden Thierry , Perpete Gael , Colicis Jacques , Lenaerts Anne , Henry Jean-Pol , Legros Franz J 
Published: February 2004

AbstractBackground: Serum concentrations of monoglycosylated isoforms of transferrin are increased by chronic ethanol intake. We investigated transferrin glycosylation in patients with cancer, in which aberrant glycosylation is also induced.Methods: We used a P/ACE 5000 series capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) apparatus and a CZE carbohydrate-deficient transferrin reagent set to study 200 cancer patients who consumed alcohol moderately and 33 who were alcohol abusers; we then compared these patients with 56 healthy teetotalers, 89 moderate, and 112 excessive alcohol drinkers without known malignancies. Transferrin isoforms were identified by immunosubtraction with anti-human transferrin polyclonal antibody.Results: Seven peaks, P0–P6, were visualized and completely or partly immunosubtracted when CZE separation was performed at pH 8.5. P0 was present in 95% of alcohol abusers with or without cancer. P3 was significantly higher in cancer patients and was only partly immunosubtracted as trisialotransferrin in all groups. The comigrating analyte was not altered by papain, precipitation by ethanol, or extraction by organic solvents, but was sensitive to acid hydrolysis, suggesting a polysaccharide structure. When isolated at pH 8.25, this analyte was higher in cancer patients. ROC curve analysis identified localized malignant neoplasia at P3 values above 5.8% of total transferrin (sensitivity, 0.78; specificity, 0.87), regardless of alcohol consumption. Disseminated cancers were better differentiated above 8% (sensitivity, 0.94; specificity, 0.96).Conclusions: Malignant neoplasia, unlike excessive ethanol intake, did not alter the addition of two N-glycans to transferrin. A peak comigrating with trisialotransferrin had characteristics of a polysaccharide in all adults and was increased in sera of patients with cancer.
Critique of the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement Method of Estimating and Reporting Uncertainty in Diagnostic Assays
Authors: Krouwer Jan S 
Published: February 2004

Abstract
Background: The Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) provides instructions for constructing uncertainty intervals for a measurement. This method is usually reserved for reference materials, but GUM has been recently proposed as a way to express uncertainty for commercial diagnostic assays.
Methods: Using the official GUM standard and published applications of GUM to commercial diagnostic assays, I undertook an analysis to evaluate whether applying GUM to commercial diagnostic assays is warranted.
Results: Certain important assays, such as troponin I, would not be candidates for GUM because troponin I is not a well-defined physical quantity. Unlike definitive methods, in which efforts are taken to detect and eliminate all systematic error sources, commercial assays often trade off features such as ease of use and cost with accuracy and allow systematic errors to be present as long as the overall accuracy meets the medical need goal. Laboratories are hindered in preparing GUM models because the knowledge required to specify some systematic errors is often available only to manufacturers. Some non-GUM methods to estimate uncertainty rely on observed data, which include both known and unknown sources of error. The occurrence of large, unknown errors for assays in routine use (e.g., outliers) is not unusual because diagnostic assays must be chemically specific in the presence of thousands of potentially interfering substances. There is no provision in GUM to deal with unexplained outliers, which may lead to uncertainty intervals that are not wide enough. Some clinicians assume that diagnostic assay results have little uncertainty. This situation may be made worse by including an uncertainty interval, which implies certification.
Conclusions: Evaluations for accuracy (total analytical error) based on describing the distribution of result differences between commercial assays and reference methods indicate that some assays have a few results with large differences (e.g., outliers). This leads to a wide accuracy interval (total analytical error limits). It is unlikely that GUM would be able to predict these wide intervals, especially because there is little or no provision for outlier treatment in GUM. Presenting too narrow GUM uncertainty intervals to clinicians would be misleading. The modeling used by practitioners of the GUM method is potentially useful in improving quality, but commercial diagnostic assays are not ready for GUM uncertainty statements.
Capillary Electrophoresis in Diagnosis and Monitoring of Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency
Authors: Carlucci Filippo , Tabucchi Antonella , Aiuti Alessandro , Rosi Francesca , Floccari Federica , Pagani Roberto , Marinello Enrico 
Published: February 2004

Abstract
Background: The diagnosis and monitoring of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) attributable to adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency requires measurements of ADA, purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), and S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine-hydrolase (SAHH) activity and of deoxyadenosine metabolites. We developed capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods for the detection of key diagnostic metabolites and evaluation of enzyme activities.
Methods: Deoxyadenosine metabolites were separated in 30 mmol/L sodium borate–10 mmol/L sodium dodecyl sulfate (pH 9.80) at 25 °C on a 60-cm uncoated capillary. For determination of enzyme activities, substrate–product separation and measurements were carried out in 20 mmol/L sodium borate (pH 10.00) at 25 °C on a 42-cm uncoated capillary.
Results: Deoxynucleotides and deoxyadenosine were readily detectable in erythrocytes and urine, respectively. Both methods were linear in the range 2–500 μmol/L (r &gt;0.99). Intra- and interassay CV were &lt;4%. Enzyme activities were linear with respect to sample amounts in the incubation mixture and to incubation time (r &gt;0.99 for both). In erythrocytes from healthy individuals, mean (SD) ADA activity was 5619 (2584) nmol/s per liter of packed cells. In erythrocytes of SCID patients at diagnosis, ADA activity was 56.9 (48.3) nmol/s per liter of packed cells; SAHH activity was also much reduced. PNP activity was similar in patients and controls.
Conclusions: CE can be used to test ADA deficiency and enables rapid assessment of ADA expression in hematopoietic cells of SCID patients during therapy.
Use of Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Multianalyte Screening of Dried Blood Specimens from Newborns
Authors: Chace Donald H , Kalas Theodore A , Naylor Edwin W 
Published: February 2004

AbstractBackground: Over the past decade laboratories that test for metabolic disorders have introduced tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), which is more sensitive, specific, reliable, and comprehensive than traditional assays, into their newborn-screening programs. MS/MS is rapidly replacing these one-analysis, one-metabolite, one-disease classic screening techniques with a one-analysis, many-metabolites, many-diseases approach that also facilitates the ability to add new disorders to existing newborn-screening panels.Methods: During the past few years experts have authored many valuable articles describing various approaches to newborn metabolic screening by MS/MS. We attempted to document key developments in the introduction and validation of MS/MS screening for metabolic disorders. Our approach used the perspective of the metabolite and which diseases may be present from its detection rather than a more traditional approach of describing a disease and noting which metabolites are increased when it is present.Content: This review cites important historical developments in the introduction and validation of MS/MS screening for metabolic disorders. It also offers a basic technical understanding of MS/MS as it is applied to multianalyte metabolic screening and explains why MS/MS is well suited for analysis of amino acids and acylcarnitines in dried filter-paper blood specimens. It also describes amino acids and acylcarnitines as they are detected and measured by MS/MS and their significance to the identification of specific amino acid, fatty acid, and organic acid disorders.Conclusions: Multianalyte technologies such as MS/MS are suitable for newborn screening and other mass screening programs because they improve the detection of many diseases in the current screening panel while enabling expansion to disorders that are now recognized as important and need to be identified in pediatric medicine.
Fractional Esterification Rate of Cholesterol and Ratio of Triglycerides to HDL-Cholesterol Are Powerful Predictors of Positive Findings on Coronary Angiography
Authors: Frohlich Jiri , Dobiášová Milada 
Published: February 2004

AbstractBackground: We examined the predictive value of various clinical and biochemical markers for angiographically defined coronary artery disease (aCAD). Specifically, we assessed the value of the ratio of plasma triglyceride (TGs) to HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and the fractional esterification rate of cholesterol in plasma depleted of apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins (FERHDL), a functional marker of HDL and LDL particle size.Methods: Patients (788 men and 320 women) undergoing coronary angiography were classified into groups with positive [aCAD(+)] and negative [aCAD(−)] findings. Patient age, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), medications, drinking, smoking, exercise habits, and plasma total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL-unesterified cholesterol, HDL-C, TGs, FERHDL, apoB, log(TG/HDL-C), and TC/HDL-C were assessed. Lipids and apoproteins were measured by standard laboratory procedures; FERHDL was determined by a radioassay.Results: Members of the aCAD(+) group were older and had a higher incidence of smoking and diabetes than those in the aCAD(−) group. The aCAD(+) group also had higher TG, apoB, FERHDL, and log(TG/HDL-C) and lower HDL-C values. aCAD(+) women had greater waist circumference and higher plasma TC and TC/HDL-C. aCAD(+) men, but not women, had higher plasma LDL-C. In the multivariate logistic model, the significant predictors of the presence of aCAD(+) were FERHDL, age, smoking, and diabetes. If only laboratory tests were included in the multivariate logistic model, FERHDL appeared as the sole predictor of aCAD(+). Log(TG/HDL-C) was an independent predictor when FERHDL was omitted from multivariate analysis.Conclusions: FERHDL was the best laboratory predictor of the presence of coronary atherosclerotic lesions.
Report of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Workshop on Lipoprotein(a) and Cardiovascular Disease: Recent Advances and Future Directions
Authors: Marcovina Santica M , Koschinsky Marlys L , Albers John J , Skarlatos Sonia 
Published: February 2004

AbstractIt has been estimated that ∼37% of the US population judged to be at high risk for developing coronary artery disease (CAD), based on the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines, have increased plasma lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], whereas Lp(a) is increased in only 14% of those judged to be at low risk. Therefore, the importance of establishing a better understanding of the relative contribution of Lp(a) to the risk burden for CAD and other forms of vascular disease, as well as the underlying mechanisms, is clearly evident. However, the structural complexity and size heterogeneity of Lp(a) have hindered the development of immunoassays to accurately measure Lp(a) concentrations in plasma. The large intermethod variation in Lp(a) values has made it difficult to compare data from different clinical studies and to achieve a uniform interpretation of clinical data. A workshop was recently convened by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to evaluate our current understanding of Lp(a) as a risk factor for atherosclerotic disorders; to determine how future studies could be designed to more clearly define the extent to which, and mechanisms by which, Lp(a) participates in these processes; and to present the results of the NHLBI-supported program for the evaluation and standardization of Lp(a) immunoassays. This report includes the most recent data presented by the workshop participants and the resulting practical and research recommendations.
Prolonged impact of five imprinters on the serotonin content of white blood cells and mast cells of weanling rats: outstanding effect of benzpyrene and chlorpheniramine
Authors: Csaba G. , Kovács P. , Pállinger Éva 
Published: February 2004

AbstractIn previous experiments, treatment at weaning or adult age with endorphin, serotonin or an antihistamine (late hormonal imprinting) durably influenced the serotonin content of white blood cells and mast cells of rat. In the present experiments, five molecule (approved imprinters in other indexes) were studied for imprinting effect of immune cells, 3 weeks after a single treatment at weaning. Three steroid hormone‐like molecule (vitamin D3, mifepristone and dexamethasone) were ineffective (except dexamethasone in 1/4 indexes), while benzpyrene (aromatic hydrocarbon) and chlorpheniramine (H1‐receptor blocker antihistamine) were highly effective (5/6 and 4/4 respectively). The results indicate: (1) a prolonged (late imprinting) effect of a single treatment with certain molecules acting at receptor level; (2) non‐generality of late imprinting, and (3) the very extensive effects of benzpyrene, which in earlier experiments was one of the strongest imprinter at receptorial and behavioral level at any periods of life studied.
Leptin‐induced signal transduction pathways
Authors: Hegyi Krisztina , Fülöp Kristóf , Kovács Krisztina , Tóth Sára , Falus András 
Published: February 2004

AbstractLeptin is a multifunctional cytokine and hormone that primarily acts in the hypothalamus and plays a key role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. In addition, it has direct effects on many cell types on the periphery. Leptin acts through its receptor, the product of the db gene, which has six isoforms. Only one of them (OB‐Rb) has full signalling capabilities and is able to activate the Jak/STAT pathway, the major pathway used by leptin to exert its effects. However, some signalling events can be initiated by the short isoforms. Besides Jak/STAT, other pathways, such as MAPK and the 5′‐AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway, are also involved in leptin signalling. Leptin also interacts with insulin signalling. In this paper, we give an overview of the signal transduction mechanisms that are related to the actions of leptin.
The impact of operational failures on hospital nurses and their patients
Authors: Tucker Anita L. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractOperational failures in healthcare can hinder employees, potentially decreasing both productivity and quality of care. At the same time, regulatory agencies, industry experts, and consumers increasingly demand that health care organizations learn from prior failures to prevent recurrence. Building on the notion that learning from operational failures requires an accurate understanding of their nature, this paper reports on an in‐depth study of operational failures encountered by hospital nurses. Data analysis suggests that in this context (1) most operational failures stem from breakdowns in the supply of materials and information across organizational boundaries and (2) employees quickly compensate for most failures. We propose that these two conditions—lack of control of processes that create failures and the ease with which employees restore functioning—make it difficult for organizations to recognize these incidents as learning opportunities, and if they do, to capitalize on the opportunity. This has an important implication for efforts to generate organizational learning and improvement from employees’ experiences with failures. Highly interdependent front‐line workers do not control organizational processes responsible for the majority of failures they encounter and have a difficult task convincing powerful associates that these obstacles warrant solution efforts, making it likely operational failures will persist.
Integrating China into the Global Economy. By Nicholas Lardy [Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, 2002. x+244 pp. Hard cover $48.95, ISBN 0-8157-5136-2; paperback $19.95, ISBN 0-8157-51235-4.]
Authors: Sun Laixiang 
Published: February 2004

This book assesses the extent of China's increasing integration into the global economy during the reform era and explores the likely global impact of China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The five chapters of the book cover China's pre-WTO trade reforms; the terms of China's final WTO accession package; and the implications of China's WTO membership for foreign companies, world trade, the international trading system, and US-China relations. It presents sober and reasoned analyses of these issues and represents a solid attempt to take stock of China's economic progress to date and its prospects over the coming decade.Witnessing the mounting publications on this subject, one may wonder what perspectives or insights from this book are still worth repeating and remembering. Within this short review, I would like to highlight the following three.First, Lardy contends that, contrary to popular wisdom in the media and research literature, China's economy had become far more open than Japan's and it was ready to join the WTO. Before WTO entry China had already achieved the lowest tariff protection of any developing country and had also shrunk non-tariff barriers impressively. Most price distortions were eliminated in the decade before WTO entry and much of the necessary industrial and agricultural restructuring was already underway before accession. Other substantial progress included expansion of trade rights, adoption of current account convertibility, vast expansion of the legal scope for foreign investment, legalized development of the private sector, and establishment of basic social security systems in urban areas. If this assessment is correct, why did it take 15 years for China to get into the WTO? Lardy argues that the long waiting “reflects as much the rising bar imposed by members of the Working Party . . . as China's slowness to embrace the principles of the multilateral trading system” (p. 9). This leads to the second insightful message.
The Chinese Coal Industry: An Economic History. By Elspeth Thomson. [London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xx+412 pp. £75.00. ISBN 0-7007-1727-7.]
Authors: Bramall Chris 
Published: February 2004

The performance of the Chinese coal industry in the 20th century is undeniably important given the pivotal role played by coal as a source of energy for Chinese industry and consumers alike until very recently. Was the coal industry a binding constraint on Chinese economic growth across the 1949 divide? And if so, can we identify some form of managerial failure as its root cause?The answer offered by Tim Wright, in his well-known Coal Mining in China's Economy and Society 1895–1937 (1984), is that the coal shortages did not constrain pre-war economic growth. On the contrary: it was the slow growth of the Chinese economy in aggregate that limited the expansion of the coal industry. The main obstacle to the expansion of coal production was thus to be found on the demand side, and not in entrepreneurial failure or some other supply-side cause. Accepting this (rather Keynesian) conclusion, the question naturally arises as to whether the coal industry fared any better under Mao, and after. In particular, this framework of analysis invites us to consider whether the Maoist regime (and its successors) lifted the demand-side constraint, only to substitute a supply-side constraint in the form of state ownership and management.
Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi. Edited by Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie, and David Wank. [New York: Cambridge University Press. 2002. 276 pp. £16.95. ISBN 0521-53031-8.]
Authors: Hsing You-tien 
Published: February 2004

This collection about guanxi in China is timely. It is timely because, as studies of social networks have reached maturity, it is important to reconsider the relevance of guanxi to social organization and change in China, especially since China has experienced such radical social and economic transformations in the last three decades. It is timely also because there is now increasing discussion about the possibilities of understanding non-Western societies with non-Western analytical categories, and about the strategies of resolving the tension between the particular and the universal. So guanxi, as the Chinese expression of the universal practice of building interpersonal relationships, may serve as a good example of understanding a social feature in specific cultural-institutional contexts and at a more universal level. The authors of this book have dealt with these issues in three broad ways.The first is to see if the instrumental and emotional dimensions of guanxi offer a more satisfying analysis than one based on extreme rationalism. The authors who took on this issue made useful distinctions between the perception, practice, and real effects of guanxi. For these authors, guanxi is a good way to understand the ambivalence of, and shifts between, the rational and the emotional in social relations, and between behaviour and discourse in social analysis. It remains a great challenge, however, to use the concept of guanxi as an analytical category to resolve the tension between the deep ambivalence of human relations and the methodological clarity demanded by many social scientists.
The Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, Culture and Conservation in China. By Chris Coggins. [Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003. xi +339 pp. $55.00. ISBN 0-8248-2506-3.]
Authors: Tisdell Clem 
Published: February 2004

Much of this book is based on extensive fieldwork in the Meihuashan Nature Reserve (and nearby protected areas) of western Fujian as well as substantial examination of relevant historical records. Its basic purpose is to explore the interaction between people (in this case Hakka) and their surrounding ecological environments as influenced by their culture. The study is set within a long-term historical context stretching in the case of the tiger over approximately 2000 years. The chronicling of the status of the tiger illustrates how culture and ecological conditions are intertwined. While the tiger is a focal point in this book, it is not the only ecological case analysed in considering how and why ecological conditions have altered in this part of China as a result of variations in local cultural, social and economic conditions.The basic thesis of this book is that culture dominates man-induced ecological change. Hence, little or no progress can be made in understanding ecological change without a thorough study of the way cultural factors influence attitudes to nature. It is especially important to do this at the local level, particularly in China.There are two reasons why this is a desirable approach. First, in-depth local studies can enhance understanding of the national situation. Local or regional studies can be very valuable even when their results cannot be completely transferred to other parts of the country. Secondly, Coggins argues that local people are often the final arbiters of ecological change and that nature conservation can make little progress without local support and knowledge (for example, p. 283).