bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Protective Immunity, Eosinophilia, and Cytokine Responses by Selective Mutagenesis of a Recombinant G Protein Vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Authors: Huang Yan , Anderson Robert 
Published: March 2005

ABSTRACTUsing anEscherichia coli-grown plasmid vector encoding a fragment of thioredoxin (Trx) fused to a central region (amino acids 128 to 229) of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (Long strain) G protein, we employed site-directed mutagenesis to investigate the importance of selected amino acids to vaccine efficacy. Mice were immunized with a total of 10 wild-type or mutant Trx-G proteins and challenged intranasally with RSV. Striking differences in the induction of RSV G-protein-specific antibodies, protection against RSV challenge, cytokine RNA responses, and induction of RSV-associated eosinophilic inflammation were observed among the mutant proteins examined. Taken together, the results identify a critical role for specific amino acids in the induction of protective immunity and priming for eosinophilia against RSV.
Risk of breast cancer after miscarriage or induced abortion: a Scottish record linkage case-control study
Authors: Brewster David H , Stockton Diane L , Dobbie Richard , Bull Diana , Beral Valerie 
Published: March 2005

Study objective:To assess the risk of breast cancer in patients with a previous history of miscarriage or induced abortion.Design:Case-control study relating “exposure” to outcome by linkage of national hospital discharge and maternity records, the national cancer registry, and death records.Setting:Scotland.Participants:Miscarriage analysis—2828 women with breast cancer and 9781 matched controls; induced abortion analysis—2833 women with breast cancer and 9888 matched controls.Main results:After stratification for age at diagnosis, parity, and age at first birth, the odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) of breast cancer was 1.02 (0.88 to 1.18) in women with a previous miscarriage, and 0.80 (0.72 to 0.89) in women with a previous induced abortion. Further adjustments for age at bilateral oophorectomy, socioeconomic status (based on small area of residence), and health board area of residence had only minor effects on these odds ratios.Conclusion:These data do not support the hypothesis that miscarriage or induced abortion represent substantive risk factors for the future development of breast cancer.
Estimating sampling errors for major and trace elements in geological materials using a propagation of variance approach
Authors: Stanley Clifford R. 
Published: March 2005

Sampling errors produced when geological materials (rocks, soils, tills, drainage sediments) are collected have been estimated empirically using variance decomposition methods or theoretically using Poisson or binomial statistics. Unfortunately, historical distribution-based approaches assume that the element of interest occurs in only one mineral. Although this may be true in some cases, most major oxide and many trace elements reside in more than one mineral in most geological materials. As a result, historical distribution-based approaches do not estimate sampling errors correctly.
An alternative theoretical approach to sampling error estimation is proposed that employs both Poisson and hypergeometric statistics, depending on whether the elements of interest reside in rare or common grains. It is intended for use in advance of sampling to ensure that samples in a survey will be colleted in sufficient size to achieve a desired level of sampling precision. This method requires estimates of the proportions, sizes and compositions of the minerals making up the geological material, and thus is based on information readily available from a few (orientation) samples of the material to be sampled.
This approach accommodates cases where more than one mineral contains an element of interest. It involves first estimating the sampling error for the minerals present in the geological material. Then, the mineral sampling errors are used to make estimates of the sampling error of all elements within these minerals simultaneously using a simple propagation of variance approach. An EXCEL spreadsheet is provided that undertakes the relevant calculations, and this can be adapted to consider any suite of minerals and elements in geological materials.
Comparison of geochemical data derived from till and lake sediment samples, Labrador, Canada
Authors: Rencz A. N. , Klassen R. A. , Moore A. 
Published: March 2005

Techniques for combining geochemical data from a till survey (2438 samples) and a lake sediment survey (17 447 samples) are assessed to determine a rigorous method for comparing the two sampling media. This study is based on five elements, (Cu, Ni, Fe, Pb and Zn) from overlapping geochemical surveys in Labrador, Canada. Two methods for comparing the till and lake sediment geochemical data are: (1) gridding and (2) nearest neighbour. Pearson correlation coefficients between media are low (<0.2) for Cu, Fe and Zn and only Ni has a correlation significant at the 95% confidence level (r
2
= 0.45). Results from gridding show slightly higher correlations. Differences are most evident at the extremes, as anomalously high element concentrations in one medium typically do not correlate with high values in the other medium. Correlations between media increase as distance decreases for Ni, Pb and Zn; however, no such trend is evident for Cu or Fe. The nearest neighbour method has several advantages: this procedure retains the original data and it permits calculation of statistics such as distance and direction between the points. The differences between the geochemical results from the two media highlight the synergistic value of multi-media geochemical sampling.
Elemental mercury in copper, silver and gold ores: an unexpected contribution to Lake Superior sediments with global implications
Authors: Kerfoot W. Charles , Harting S. L. , Rossmann Ronald , Robbins John A. 
Published: March 2005

Mercury and copper inventories are low in central Lake Superior and increase markedly towards the Keweenaw Peninsula. Total copper flux to Lake Superior sediments averages 5.0 ± 2.5 μg cm
−2
year
−1
(mean ± 95% confidence limits), whereas mercury flux averages 7.5 ± 4.2 ng cm
−2
year
−1
. In the Keweenaw Peninsula region, copper, mercury and silver inventories are elevated and highly correlated. High copper, silver and mercury inventories can be traced back to shoreline stamp sand piles, the parent ores and to smelters. Mercury occurs in elemental form, probably as a natural amalgam, in native metal (copper, silver, gold) deposits and was liberated as volatile Hg
0
during on-site copper smelting. Stamp mills discharged at least 364 Mt of ‘stamp sand’ tailings, whereas smelters refined 5 Mt of native copper, liberating together at least 42 t of mercury. The Keweenaw situation is not unique, as mineral-bound mercury is commonplace in US and Canadian Greenstone Belts and is of worldwide occurrence in massive base metal ores.
Nickel and copper tolerance of phytoplankton isolated from a recovering lake near Sudbury, Canada
Authors: Woodfine D. G. , Havas M. , Acreman J. 
Published: March 2005

The current study compares the tolerance, to Ni and Cu, of three species of phytoplankton,
Urosolenia eriensis
,
Cosmarium minimum
and
Scenedesmus acutus
, isolated from Alice Lake, Sudbury, Canada. An attempt was made to determine if metal tolerance is related to the presence and abundance of these species in the lake. Alice Lake was subjected to 60 years of Ni and Cu pollution from a nearby Ni–Cu smelter. After the closure in 1972, the air quality improved immediately and water quality began to improve by the late 1970s and early 1980s. Phytoplankton, which had been all but absent from the lake, had reappeared by the mid-1980s. Metal tolerance was measured in defined media allowing the computer modelling of speciation described as ‘free’ Ni and Cu. Nickel tolerance was compared with ambient lake water concentrations and the presence of each species. The order of tolerance for Ni was
U. eriensis
>
C. minimum
>
S. acutus
. All species had similar tolerance to Cu. Differences in tolerance alone did not explain the shifts in species dominance within Alice Lake. These results emphasize the difficulties with using laboratory trace-metal tolerance estimates to interpret ecological field observations.
Mercury distribution in water, sediment and soil in the Idrijca and SoĉAhca river systems
Authors: Horvat M. , Jereb V. , Fajon V. , Logar M. , Kotnik J. , Faganeli J. , Hines M. E. , Bonzongo J.-C. 
Published: March 2005

Although the production of mercury (Hg) at the Idrija mercury mine, Slovenia, stopped in 1994, the tailings and contaminated soils in the mining region are continuously eroded and serve as a permanent source of Hg to the downstream rivers, flood plains and the Gulf of Trieste. The present article describes measurements of total Hg and monomethylmercury (MeHg) in various environmental compartments in the rivers Idrijca and So|$$|Ahca and the Gulf of Trieste during the period 1998–2000. Total Hg in the Idrijca river water upstream of the mercury mine varied between 2.8 and 6.9 ng l
−1
and increased to 197 ng l
−1
downstream of the mercury mine and remained elevated further downstream along the rivers Idrijca and So|$$|Ahca (from
c.
10 to 59 ng l
−1
), with lowest concentrations found in marine waters (from 0.2 to 2.0 ng l
−1
). The concentrations of total Hg were higher after the rain, which caused erosion and transport of particles enriched with Hg. Concentrations of MeHg were quite variable and did not follow the same trend as total Hg. The concentrations of MeHg in August 1999 were significantly higher than in June 1998, indicating the importance of seasonal effects, as well as hydrological conditions, on the production of MeHg. Above the mercury mine, MeHg was 0.1–0.2 ng l
−1
and doubled below the mercury mine. Downstream, in the rivers Idrijca and So|$$|Ahca, MeHg varied from 0.05 to 0.53 ng l
−1
and in marine waters from 0.06 to 0.08 ng l
−1
. Concentrations of Hg in sediments also increased downstream several fold with a value of 5.39 μg g
−1
above the mercury mine to a maximum of 727 μg g
−1
below the mine in the silt and clay fraction. The coarser-grained fraction (0.063 <
d
< 1.4 mm) frequently exceeded the value of total Hg in the silt and clay fraction due to the presence of particles of cinnabar. The concentrations of MeHg in sediments did not follow the same trend as total mercury. Highest concentrations of 14.1 and 10.0 ng g
−1
were found downstream of the peak total Hg concentration in sediments. In general, higher MeHg concentrations were associated with the silt and clay fraction, and accounted for 0.001–0.144% of total Hg. Total Hg in flood plain surficial soils varied from 60 to 150 μg g
−1
with less than 0.01% of mercury as MeHg. The results confirmed the fact that beside soils that are naturally elevated in Hg due to the high levels of Hg in geological materials in the Idrija district, there are also Hg-laden materials and tailings that are continuously eroded and deposited in flood plains downstream and serve as an important additional source of Hg to the rivers and the Gulf of Trieste. Important transformation mechanisms take place during fluvial transport, evidenced by the presence of MeHg in the various samples analyzed.
Low sampling density exploration geochemistry for gold in arid and tropical climates: comparison between conventional geochemistry and BLEG
Authors: Leduc C. , Itard Y. 
Published: March 2005

Exploration of large areas for Au has led the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières to compare the efficiency of conventional fine-fraction geochemistry with BLEG (bulk cyanide leach extractable gold) sampling for low-density drainage surveys. Comparative test work was carried out on different types of mineralization in arid (Sudan) and tropical (Guinea, Indonesia) regions. Conventional geochemistry and BLEG give broadly similar results in all the test areas where Au anomalies of comparable size delineate the mineralized zones. In arid conditions, the mineralized zones can be detected by simulated surveys with a density of 1 sample per 10 km
2
, and such a sampling density is recommended for evaluating the Au potential in large remote areas. Under the tropical conditions of Indonesia (Irian Jaya), a lower density of one sample per 15 km
2
or more might be used in ‘grass-root’ surveys because of the large size of the potential mineralized zones and the mountainous morphology of the region.

In most of the test areas, the total Au contents of the stream sediment fine fractions (<63 μm, <125 μm or <180 μm) are higher than those extracted by BLEG from coarser size fractions (<500 μm or <2 mm) which means that cyanidation extracts only part of the free fine Au and/or that BLEG results are influenced by dilution of Au by barren material. On the other hand, the BLEG method extracted more Au than was present in the fine fraction from several sampling sites in Sudan and Iran Jaya, which indicated that the cyanidation extracted some coarse Au. The nugget effect so generated, however, does not hamper the recognition of mineralized zones.
From an operational point of view, conventional geochemistry on fine fractions is less costly than BLEG for remote areas, and has several other advantages including the ability to carry out multi-element analyses in order to rank anomalies, and the relatively easy transport and storage of samples.
Prosody-driven Sentence Processing: An Event-related Brain Potential Study
Authors: Pannekamp Ann , Toepel Ulrike , Alter Kai , Hahne Anja , Friederici Angela D. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Four experiments systematically investigating the brain's response to the perception of sentences containing differing amounts of linguistic information are presented. Spoken language generally provides various levels of information for the interpretation of the incoming speech stream. Here, we focus on the processing of prosodic phrasing, especially on its interplay with phonemic, semantic, and syntactic information. An event-related brain potential (ERP) paradigm was chosen to record the on-line responses to the processing of sentences containing major prosodic boundaries. For the perception of these prosodic boundaries, the so-called closure positive shift (CPS) has been manifested as a reliable and replicable ERP component. It has mainly been shown to correlate to major intonational phrasing in spoken language. However, to define this component as exclusively relying on the prosodic information in the speech stream, it is necessary to systematically reduce the linguistic content of the stimulus material. This was done by creating quasi-natural sentence material with decreasing semantic, syntactic, and phonemic information (i.e., jabberwocky sentences, in which all content words were replaced by meaningless words; pseudoword sentences, in which all function and all content words are replaced by meaningless words; and delexicalized sentences, hummed intonation contour of a sentence removing all segmental content). The finding that a CPS was identified in all sentence types in correlation to the perception of their major intonational boundaries clearly indicates that this effect is driven purely by prosody.
“Where to?” Remote Memory for Spatial Relations and Landmark Identity in Former Taxi Drivers with Alzheimer's Disease and Encephalitis
Authors: Rosenbaum R. Shayna , Gao Fuqiang , Richards Brian , Black Sandra E. , Moscovitch Morris 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Recent research suggests that the hippocampus is not needed for the maintenance and recovery of extensively used environments learned long ago. Instead, a network of neo-cortical regions differentially supports memory for location-navigation knowledge and visual appearance of well-known places. In this study, we present a patient, S. B., who was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease long after retiring from his 40 years as a taxi driver in downtown Toronto, a place that he has visited rarely, if ever, in the last decade. His performance was compared to that of two other retired taxi drivers, L. R., who developed encephalitis after retirement, and I. L., who is without neurological illness, and a group of eight healthy control participants who were never taxi drivers but all of whom worked or lived in downtown Toronto until at least 10 years ago. Despite S. B.'s widespread atrophy, which has affected mainly his hippocampus and part of his occipitotemporal cortex, he performed at least as well as all other participants on remote memory tests of spatial location and mental navigation between well-known Toronto landmarks. Unlike the comparison populations, however, he was unable to discriminate between the appearances of landmarks that he had visited frequently in his many years as a taxi driver from unknown buildings. This profound deficit extended to famous world landmarks but not to famous faces and does not appear to be semantic in nature. These findings add further support to the claim that the hippocampus is not necessary for mental navigation of old environments and suggest that expertise is not sufficient to protect against landmark agnosia.
Integration of Visual and Auditory Information by Superior Temporal Sulcus Neurons Responsive to the Sight of Actions
Authors: Barraclough* Nick E. , Xiao* Dengke , Baker Chris I. , Oram Mike W. , Perrett David I. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Processing of complex visual stimuli comprising facial movements, hand actions, and body movements is known to occur in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) of humans and nonhuman primates. The STS is also thought to play a role in the integration of multimodal sensory input. We investigated whether STS neurons coding the sight of actions also integrated the sound of those actions. For 23% of neurons responsive to the sight of an action, the sound of that action significantly modulated the visual response. The sound of the action increased or decreased the visually evoked response for an equal number of neurons. In the neurons whose visual response was increased by the addition of sound (but not those neurons whose responses were decreased), the audiovisual integration was dependent upon the sound of the action matching the sight of the action. These results suggest that neurons in the STS form multisensory representations of observed actions.
Flight muscles and flight dynamics: towards an integrative framework
Authors: Taylor Graham 
Published: March 2005

AbstractHere a conceptual framework is provided for analysing the role of the flight muscles in stability and control. Stability usually refers to the tendency of a system to return to a characteristic reference state, whether static, as in gliding, or oscillatory, as in flapping. Asymptotic Lyapunov stability and asymptotic orbital stability as formal definitions of gliding and flapping flight stability, respectively, are discussed and a limit cycle control analogy for flapping flight control proposed. Stability can arise inherently or through correctional control. Conceptually, inherent stability is that which would arise if all body parts were rigid and all articulation angles were constants (gliding) or periodic functions (flapping), both of which require muscular effort. Pose can be maintained during disturbances by neural feedback or isometric contraction of tonic muscles: cyclic pose changes can be buffered by neural feedback or viscous damping by phasic muscles. Correctional control serves to drive the system towards its reference state, which will usually involve a phasic response, if only because of the tendency of flying bodies to oscillate during disturbances. Muscles involved in correctional control must therefore be tuned to the characteristic frequencies of the system. Furthermore, in manoeuvre control, these frequencies set an upper limit on the timescales on which control inputs can be effective. Flight muscle physiology should therefore be evolutionarily co-tuned with the morphological parameters of the system that determine its frequency response. Understanding this fully will require us to integrate internal models of physiology with external models of flight dynamics.
Motor unit recruitment during vertebrate locomotion
Authors: Wakeling James , Rozitis Antra 
Published: March 2005

AbstractVertebrate skeletal muscles act across joints and produce segmental accelerations and therefore animal movement when they contract. Different muscles and different motor units vary in their mechanical contractile properties. Early studies on motor unit recruitment demonstrated orderly recruitment of motor units from the slowest to the fastest during a graded contraction. However, many subsequent studies illustrate conditions when alternative recruitment strategies may exist. Motor unit recruitment during locomotion is thus multifactorial and more complex than typically thought.Different types of motor unit vary in their mechanical properties, including rates of force activation and deactivation, maximum unloaded shortening velocities and the shortening velocities at which maximum mechanical power output and maximum mechanical efficiency occur. In short, it would make mechanical sense to perform fast activities with the faster motor units and slow activities with the slower motor units. However, determining patterns of motor unit recruitment during locomotion has presented experimental challenges.Comparisons between distinct muscles have shown that fast fish swimming and the cat paw shake are activities which employ predominantly the fast and not the slower muscle. Glycogen depletion studies have showed that jumping in the bushbaby uses fast without slow motor units within the vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius muscles. Studies in man show that differential recruitment of the different types of muscle fibre occurs at different times within each running stride. It is suggested that vertebrates may have a strategy of recruiting the motor units that are most mechanically suited for the different locomotor demands. However, we have much to learn about motor recruitment patterns during locomotion.
Biomechanical aspects of peak performance in human swimming
Authors: Toussaint Huub , Truijens Martin 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Peak performances in sport require the full deployment of all the powers an athlete possesses. How factors such as mechanical power output, technique and drag, each individually, but also in concert, determine swimming performance is the subject of this enquiry. This overview of swimming biomechanics focuses on three performance factors: (i) generation of propulsion in water; (ii) drag encountered by the body during swimming; and (iii) propulsive efficiency. Theoretical considerations will be put to use by predicting individual power requirements for swimming a world record in the 50 m freestyle based on experimental data.