bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Gene therapy for lysosomal storage diseases: the lessons and promise of animal models
Authors: Ellinwood N. Matthew , Vite Charles H. , Haskins Mark E. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThere are more than 40 different forms of inherited lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) known to occur in humans and the aggregate incidence has been estimated to approach 1 in 7000 live births. Most LSDs are associated with high morbidity and mortality and represent a significant burden on patients, their families, and health care providers. Except for symptomatic therapies, many LSDs remain untreatable, and gene therapy is among the only viable treatment options potentially available. Therapies for some LSDs do exist, or are under evaluation, including heterologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT), enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), and substrate reduction therapy (SRT), but these treatment options are associated with significant concerns, including high morbidity and mortality (BMT), limited positive outcomes (BMT), incomplete response to therapy (BMT, ERT, and SRT), life‐long therapy (ERT, SRT), and cost (BMT, ERT, SRT). Gene therapy represents a potential alternative therapy, albeit a therapy with its own attendant concerns. Animal models of LSDs play a critical role in evaluating the efficacy and safety of therapy for many of these conditions. Naturally occurring animal homologs of LSDs have been described in the mouse, rat, dog, cat, guinea pig, emu, quail, goat, cattle, sheep, and pig. In this review we discuss those animal models that have been used in gene therapy experiments and those with promise for future evaluations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Can the life span of human marrow stromal cells be prolonged by bmi‐1, E6, E7, and/or telomerase without affecting cardiomyogenic differentiation?
Authors: Takeda Yukiji , Mori Taisuke , Imabayashi Hideaki , Kiyono Tohru , Gojo Satoshi , Miyoshi Shunichirou , Hida Naoko , Ita Makoto , Segawa Kaoru , Ogawa Satoshi , Sakamoto Michiie , Nakamura Shinobu , Umezawa Akihiro 
Published: March 2004

AbstractBackgroundCell transplantation has recently been challenged to improve cardiac function of severe heart failure. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells that can be isolated from adult marrow stroma, but because of their limited life span, it is difficult to study them further. To overcome this problem, we attempted to prolong the life span of hMSCs and investigate whether the hMSCs modified with cell‐cycle‐associated genes can differentiate into cardiomyocytes in vitro.MethodsWe attempted to prolong the life span of hMSCs by infecting retrovirus encoding bmi‐1, human papillomavirus E6 and E7, and/or human telomerase reverse transcriptase genes. To determine whether the hMSCs with an extended life span could differentiate into cardiomyocytes, 5‐azacytidine‐treated hMSCs were co‐cultured with fetal cardiomyocytes in vitro.ResultThe established hMSCs proliferated over 150 population doublings. On day 3 of co‐cultivation, the hMSCs became elongated, like myotubes, began spontaneously beating, and acquired automaticity. Their rhythm clearly differed from that of the surrounding fetal mouse cardiomyocytes. The number of beating cardiomyocytes increased until 3 weeks. hMSCs clearly exhibited differentiated cardiomyocyte phenotypes in vitro as revealed by immunocytochemistry, RT‐PCR, and action potential recording.ConclusionsThe life span of hMSCs was prolonged without interfering with cardiomyogenic differentiation. hMSCs with an extended life span can be used to produce a good experimental model of cardiac cell transplantation and may serve as a highly useful cell source for cardiomyocytic transplantation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Impact assessment of microfinance using qualitative data: communicating between social scientists and practitioners using the QUIP
Authors: Wright Katie , Copestake James 
Published: March 2004

AbstractSection 1 sets the context in which a qualitative impact protocol (QUIP) was created by distinguishing between demand from within microfinance organizations (MFOs) for organizational development and from donors and regulators for public policy purposes. On the supply side, it is argued that there is a case for using rigorous qualitative methods that stand between ‘positivist/quantitative’ and ‘participatory/interpretative’ approaches.Section 2 charts how the QUIP has been developed using theImp‐Actprogramme network. It discusses the theoretical considerations that were taken into account when designing the protocol, and the developments that led to the generation of a step‐by‐step guide. It then discusses relations between social scientists and practitioners with regard to impact assessment, and suggests that the QUIP can be used to strengthen them. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Role of microfinance in the household reconstruction process in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Authors: Matul Michal , Tsilikounas Caroline 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThis study looks at the role micro‐enterprise lending have played in the household reconstruction process during 1996–2002 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Bosnian households were severely affected by the conflict that resulted in destruction of household financial, physical, human and social assets leading to significant increase in household vulnerability to risks. This vulnerability is at the core of the research framework. We analyze critical household needs in BiH post‐conflict environment in order to understand how people coped with them and to what extent these efforts impacted their vulnerability. This paper claims that micro‐enterprise credit in BiH stimulated household reconstruction as it provided an efficient and long lasting coping mechanism for households after the war. For most clients micro‐enterprise credit helped at least to sustain their household self‐employment activities. Income generated from micro‐enterprises was perceived during the research as the most efficient coping mechanism among households affected by conflict so as to fill some of their most important needs over the reconstruction period. It is unquestionable that the success of a sustainable microfinance sector development has been due to the implementation of a structured and standardized minimalist approach. However, on the basis of the results presented in this paper, it appears that microfinance and related services could play a more substantial reconstruction role in post‐conflict areas. A thorough analysis of household needs informs that in BiH there was a significant need for other credit and business development services. Therefore, this paper claims that there is a need for a more integrated approach including various financial and non financial services in post‐conflict settings. As each conflict destruction and consequent reconstruction is very specific, the elements of this package will slightly differ across settings given the critical, priority needs to be satisfied. The integrated approach challenges the goal of reaching high profits in the short‐term while providing grounds to advocate for reasonable social returns over the entire reconstruction period. If a policy framework that balances financial and social returns in a longer period of time is in place the integrated approach does not preclude a development of a strong sustainable microfinance sector in the longer term. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Group dynamics, gender and microfinance in Bolivia
Authors: Velasco Carmen , Marconi Reynaldo 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThis paper examines the wider impacts, or externalities, of microfinance in Bolivia, an environment in which the loss of confidence in the formal banking system and the proactive role of the Superintendencia de Bancos in converting NGOs into deposit‐taking institutions have been positive factors. Our focus is on the group‐lending technology of ProMujer, which practises a ‘credit plus’ technology in which training, health and advisory services for women only are linked with lending (and savings services through FIE). There is some preliminary evidence that such groups have achieved the externality of stimulating collective public action outside of the immediate microfinance context (for example by lobbying for better public services or changes in policy); such growth seems to happen most readily where the group has collective experience of adversity, and/or where intragroup equality is high. They also have exemplary repayment rates, which—unlike those of most other microfinance institutions—did not fall off during the recent recession. This creates a second externality for the economy as a whole—a contribution to macro‐economic stability. We hypothesise that the chain of causation goes from ProMujer's ‘credit plus’ ancillary services, to client loyalty to the institution, to high repayment rates, to ability to expand lending and investment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Microfinance, labour markets and poverty in Africa: a study of six institutions
Authors: Mosley Paul , Rock June 
Published: March 2004

AbstractWe examine a range of six African microfinance institutions with a view to assessing and if possible enhancing their poverty impact. The impact of microfinance loans is variable between institutions, with a tendency in particular for savings services to be taken up by people well below the poverty line, especially in South Africa and Kenya.However, many benefits to the poor from microfinance programmes, in Africa at least, are likely to come via an indirect route, via ‘wider impacts’ or ‘spin‐offs’, rather than by through direct impacts on borrowers. We examine, here, three of these indirect routes:

(i) Microcredit to the nonpoor can reduce poverty by sucking very poor people into the labour market as employees of microfinance clients. This mechanism is important in three of our survey countries in particular (South Africa, Uganda and Kenya);

(ii) Microcredit, whether or not the proximate recipient is poor, often enhances human capital through increased expenditures on education and related improvements in health, which may then extend to poor individuals through intrahousehold and inter‐generational effects.

(iii) Microcredit, whether or not the proximate recipient is poor, often improves the household's risk management capacity through the enhancement of social capital, partly achieved by deliberate training and capacity‐building efforts and partly through fungibility of loan proceeds into the building up of social networks. This in turn may lead to ‘poverty externalities’ through the extension of credit groups to include poor people, and through the stabilisation of village income, which reduces the vulnerability of the poorest to risk. In all of our case studies, many male and female beneficiaries are members of farmer groups and/or business associations; they share information on markets, prices and technology and cut costs by pooling resources for transporting goods to and from markets and by sharing storage facilities; often borrowers invest in this form of social capital, on which drawings can be made by poor people outside the borrower population, using the proceeds of their loan.

We examine, in a non‐rigorous way, the magnitude of these ‘wider impacts’, and in a concluding section examine how they may be developed and expanded by means of institutional and policy initiatives. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Laser spray: electric field‐assisted matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization
Authors: Hiraoka Kenzo 
Published: March 2004

AbstractA new liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry interface, the laser spray, has been developed. Explosive vaporization and mist formation occur when an aqueous solution effusing out from the tip of the stainless‐steel capillary is irradiated from the opposite side of the capillary by a 10.6 µm infrared laser. Weak ion signals could be detected when the plume was sampled through the ion sampling orifice. When a high voltage (3–4 kV) was applied to the stainless‐steel capillary, strong ion signals appeared. The ion abundances were found to be orders of magnitude greater than those obtained by conventional electrospray ionization in the case of aqueous solutions. The present method is regarded as an electric‐field assisted form of matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization in which the liquid chromatographic solvent (water, etc.) acts as a liquid matrix. Laser spray ionization is expected to become a versatile method for biological mass spectrometry because this method is compatible with the natural solvent, water. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mass spectrometry in the structural analysis of flavonoids
Authors: Cuyckens Filip , Claeys Magda 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThe original article to which this Erratum refers was published in J. Mass Spectrom. 2004; 39 (1): 1–15. DOI:10.1002/jms.585. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of soil bulk density on seminal and lateral roots of young maize plants (Zea mays L.)
Authors: Kuchenbuch Rolf O. , Ingram Keith T. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractIt is well established that increasing soil bulk density (SBD) above some threshold value reduces plant root growth and thus may reduce water and nutrient acquisition. However, formation and elongation of maize seminal roots and first order lateral (FOL) roots in various soil layers under the influence of SBD has not been documented. Two studies were conducted on a loamy sand soil at SBD ranging from 1.25 g cm–3 to 1.66 g cm–3. Rhizotrons with a soil layer 7 mm thick were used and pre‐germinated plants were grown for 15 days. Over the range of SBD tested, the shoot growth was not influenced whereas total root length was reduced by 30 % with increasing SBD. Absolute growth rate of seminal roots was highest in the top soil layer and decreased with increasing distance from the surface. Increasing SBD amplified this effect by 20 % and 50 % for the top soil layer and lower soil layers, respectively. At the end of the experiment, total seminal roots attributed to approximately 15 % of the total plant root length. Increasing SBD reduced seminal root growth in the lowest soil layer only, whereas FOL root length decreased with SBD in all but the uppermost soil layer. For FOL, there was a positive interaction of SBD with distance from the soil surface. Both, increasing SBD and soil depth reduced root length by a reduction of number of FOL roots formed while the length of individual FOL roots was not influenced. Hence, increasing SBD may reduce spatial access to nutrients and water by (i) reducing seminal root development in deeper soil layers, aggravated by (ii) the reduction of the number of FOL roots that originate from these seminal roots.
Added nitrogen interaction as affected by soil nitrogen pool size and fertilization – significance of displacement of fixed ammonium
Authors: Lin Shan , Dittert Klaus , Wu Wen‐Liang , Sattelmacher Burkhard 
Published: March 2004

AbstractDisplacement of NH4+ fixed in clay minerals by fertilizer 15NH4+ is seen as one mechanism of apparent added nitrogen interactions (ANI), which may cause errors in 15N tracer studies. Pot and incubation experiments were carried out for a study of displacement of fixed NH4+ by 15N‐labeled fertilizer (ammonium sulfate and urea). A typical ANI was observed when 15N‐labeled urea was applied to wheat grown on soils with different N reserves that resulted from their long‐term fertilization history: Plants took up more soil N when receiving fertilizer. Furthermore, an increased uptake of 15N‐labeled fertilizer, induced by increasing unlabeled soil nitrogen supply, was found. This ANI‐like effect was in the same order of magnitude as the observed ANI. All causes of apparent or real ANI can be excluded as explanation for this effect. Plant N uptake‐related processes beyond current concepts of ANI may be responsible. NH4+ fixation of fertilizer 15NH4+ in sterilized or non‐sterile, moist soil was immediate and strongly dependent on the rate of fertilizer added. But for the tested range of 20 to 160 mg 15NH4+‐N kg–1, the NH4+ fixation rate was low, accounting for only up to 1.3 % of fertilizer N added. For sterilized soil, no re‐mobilization of fixed 15NH4+ was observed, while in non‐sterile, biologically active soil, 50 % of the initially fixed 15NH4+ was released up to day 35. Re‐mobilization of 15NH4+ from the pool of fixed NH4+ started after complete nitrification of all extractable NH4+. Our results indicate that in most cases, experimental error from apparent ANI caused by displacement of fixed NH4+ in clay is unlikely. In addition to the low percentage of only 1.3 % of applied 15N, present in the pool of fixed NH4+ after 35 days, there were no indications for a real exchange (displacement) of fixed NH4+ by 15N.
Detection and localization of protein modifications by high resolution tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Meng Fanyu , Forbes Andrew J. , Miller Leah M. , Kelleher Neil L. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractFor interrogation of peptides with diverse modifications, no other instrument is as versatile as the Fourier‐transform mass spectrometer (FTMS). Particularly using electrospray ionization (ESI), many intact proteins and their proteolytic products harboring post‐translational and chemical modifications (PTMs) have been studied by high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The widely touted analytical figures of merit for FTMS in fact have translated into clarity when analyzing PTMs from phosphorylations to disulfides, oxidations, methylations, acetylations, and even exotic PTMs found in the biosynthesis of antibiotics and other natural products. A top down approach to PTM detection and localization is proving extensible to an increasing variety of PTMs, some of which are stable to MS/MS at the protein level but unstable to amide bond cleavage by threshold dissociations at the level of small peptides <3 kDa. In contrast, MS/MS using electron capture dissociation (ECD) allows precise localization of even labile PTMs given enough sample and abundant molecular ions. Finally, this brief synopsis of recent literature highlights specific PTMs that perturb the protein backbone therefore altering MS/MS fragmentation patterns. Thus, FTMS will continue its expansion into more laboratories in part because of its ability to detect and deconvolute the regulatory mechanisms of biology written in the language of PTMs. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 24:126–134, 2005
Proteomics by FTICR mass spectrometry: Top down and bottom up
Authors: Bogdanov Bogdan , Smith Richard D. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractThis review provides a broad overview of recent Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) applications and technological developments relevant to the field of proteomics. Both the “bottom up” (peptide level) and “top down” (intact protein level) approaches are discussed and illustrated with examples. “Bottom up” topics include peptide fragmentation, the accurate mass and time (AMT) tag approach and dynamic range extension technology, aspects of quantitative proteomics measurements, post‐translational modifications, and developments in FTICR operation software focused on peptide and protein identification. Topics related to the “top down” approach include various aspects of high mass measurements, protein tandem mass spectrometry, methods for the study of protein conformations, and protein complexes as well as advanced technologies that may become of practical utility in the coming years. Finally, early examples of the integration of both FTICR approaches to biomedical proteomics applications are presented, along with an outlook for future directions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Mass Spec Rev 24:168–200, 2005
Effects of triploidy on early human development
Authors: Philipp T. , Grillenberger K. , Separovic E. R. , Philipp K. , Kalousek D. K. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractObjectiveThe morphologic features of 18 triploid embryos are described.MethodEmbryoscopic examination of the embryo in cases of missed abortion before instrumental evacuation from the uterus. Cytogenetic and histologic analysis of the chorionic villi.ResultsSeventeen out of 18 triploid embryos showed structural defects on embryoscopic examination. The most common defects were facial anomalies (n = 15), limb abnormalities (n = 13), microcephaly (n = 11) and neural tube defects (n = 10); 3 embryos were classified as growth disorganized. Placenta of 12 grossly abnormal embryos was diagnosed as partial hydatidiform moles on histological examination.ConclusionsThe grossly abnormal development of the embryo observed in 12 partial hydatidiform moles indicate that, in aborted triploid embryos, the presence of two paternal genomes might have both placental and embryonic consequences. Transcervical embryoscopy in cases of missed abortion can serve as a central component in additional studies using molecular determination of parental origin of triploidy to establish the true proportion of diandric triploidy among grossly abnormal triploid embryos. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pregnancy after preimplantation genetic diagnosis for Sanjad–Sakati syndrome
Authors: Hellani Ali , Aqueel Aida , Jaroudi Kamal , Ozand Pinar , Coskun Serdar 
Published: March 2004

AbstractSanjad–Sakati syndrome (SSS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital hypoparathyroidism, growth and mental retardation. In Saudi Arabia, the disease is caused by a deletion of 12 bp (155‐166nt) in the tubulin‐specific chaperone E gene. In a family with two affected siblings with SSS, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) was performed. Fluorescent PCR (F‐PCR) was utilized to check the heterozygosity and the homozygosity status of the parents and the affected children, respectively. F‐PCR was then optimized for single‐cell analysis by using peripheral blood lymphocytes. The patient underwent a cycle with intra‐cytoplasmic sperm injection. A total of 11 embryos were obtained and biopsied. There were five heterozygous, three homozygous affected and three normal embryos. One heterozygous and one normal embryo were transferred because of their very good quality (morula). A singleton pregnancy was obtained, and amniosynthesis confirmed the presence of the heterozygous fetus. These results show for the first time, the feasibility of PGD for SSS. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.