bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
THE STATE OF U.S. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: WHAT'S RIGHT AND WHAT'S WRONG?
Authors: Holmstrom Bengt , Kaplan Steven N. 
Published: April 2005

Largely as a result of failures at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and other prominent American companies, U.S. corporate governance practices have come under attack. These much publicized failures and the resulting popular outcry have served as catalysts for legislative and regulatory changes that include the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 and new governance guidelines from the NYSE and NASDAQ. But is the U.S. corporate governance system really as bad as critics suggest? And will the recent legislative and regulatory changes lead to a more effective system?The authors begin by noting that the broad evidence is not consistent with a failed U.S. governance system. During the past two decades, the U.S. economy and stock market have performed well both on an absolute basis and relative to other countries, even in the wake of the corporate scandals in 2001. Moreover, the most notable changes in U.S. corporate governance in the 1980s and 1990s‐including the institutionalization of U.S. share‐holders and the dramatic increase in equity‐based pay‐have served mainly (though not always) to strengthen the accountability of U.S. managers to their shareholders.The authors' message, then, is that while parts of the U.S. corporate governance system gave way under the exceptional strain created by the bull market of the 1990s, the overall system‐which includes corrective market forces as well as oversight by the public and government‐has reacted quickly and decisively to address its weaknesses. The net effect of the recent legislative and regulatory changes has been to make a good governance system an even better one. But, as the authors caution, perhaps the greatest risk now facing the U.S. financial market system (of which corporate governance is a critical part) is that of overregulation.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Authors: Brickley James A. , Smith Clifford W. , Zimmerman Jerold L. 
Published: April 2005

Effective corporate leadership involves more than developing a good strategic plan and setting high ethical standards. It also means coming up with an organizational design that encourages the company's managers and employees to carry out its business plan and maintain its ethical standards.In this article, the authors use the term organizational architecture to refer to three key elements of a company's design:

the assignment of decision‐making authority–who gets to make what decisions;
performance evaluation–the key measures of performance for evaluating business units and individual employees; and
compensation structure–how employees are rewarded for meeting performance goals.

In well‐designed companies, each of these elements is mutually reinforcing and supportive of the company's overall business strategy. Decision‐making authority is assigned to managers and employees who have the knowledge and experience needed to make the best investment and operating decisions. And to ensure that those decision makers have the incentive as well as the knowledge to make the best decisions, the corporate systems used to evaluate and reward their performance are based on measures that are linked as directly as possible to the corporate goal of creating value.Some of the most popular management techniques of the past two decades, such as reengineering, TQM, and the Balanced Scorecard, have often had disappointing results because they address only one or two elements of organizational architecture, leaving the overall structure out of balance. What's more, a flawed organizational design can lead to far worse than missed opportunities to create value. As the authors note, the recent corporate scandals involved not just improper behavior by senior executives, but corporate structures that, far from safeguarding against such behavior, in some ways encouraged it. In the case of Enron, for example, top management's near‐total focus on boosting reported earnings (a questionable corporate goal to begin with) combined with decentralized decision making and loose oversight at all levels of the company to produce an enormously risky high‐leverage strategy that ended up bringing down the firm.
Role of Word-External Contexts in Native Speakers’ Identification of Vowel Length in Japanese
Authors: Hirata Yukari , Lambacher Stephen G. 
Published: April 2005

AbstractFive groups of native Japanese listeners were assigned to five conditions differing in word-external contexts. In the Intact condition, three types of target disyllables, /mVmV/, /mV:mV/, and /mVmV:/ were spoken in a carrier sentence at two speaking rates. In the other four conditions, the target disyllables of the Intact condition were excised from the original carrier sentence (Excised); embedded in the carrier sentence of the other rate (Mismatch); presented only with the preceding three syllables (Preceding), and presented only with the following three syllables (Following). The accuracy for identifying the word types was higher for the Intact than Excised and Mismatch conditions, indicating that the presence of the carrier sentence with an appropriate rate was important for accurate identification.It was also found that either the preceding or the following short phrase contained sufficient information for identifying the word types. Further, there were effects of the preceding and following phrases on both the first and second vowels of the targets, suggesting that the distant speech materials more than two phonemes away from a target in both sides can affect identification accuracy. Implications are discussed in terms of the adjacency principle for rate normalization.
Improving Energy Efficiency by Five Percent and More per Year?
Authors: Blok Kornelis 
Published: April 2005

Reduction of specific energy consumption by 1% to 2% per year is typically what is considered feasible for end‐use energy applications. This article tries to answer the question of whether much higher rates, for example 5% and more, are feasible fornew equipment, installations, and buildings.After examining some end‐use functions in industry, buildings, and the transport sector, it is concluded that for the foreseeable future—that is, not more than 10 to 20 years into the future—such high rates of reduction of specific energy consumption are indeed possible. For the longer term, no definitive proof is available, but there are also no indications that such high rates could not be maintained.The effect of the reduction of specific energy consumption on total energy use depends on the growth of energy‐using activities and on the replacement rates of capital stock. Taking these into account, it is estimated that for industrialized countries a reduction of absolute total energy use by 50% in 50 years compared with the current levels is possible.Such a reduction requires a huge effort in innovation; however, the possibilities for stimulating innovation seem not to be exhausted yet.
Adopting Lead‐Free Electronics: Policy Differences and Knowledge Gaps
Authors: Schoenung Julie M. , Ogunseitan Oladele A. , Saphores Jean Daniel M. , Shapiro Andrew A. 
Published: April 2005

For more than a decade, the use of lead (Pb) in electronics has been controversial: Indeed, its toxic effects are well documented, whereas relatively little is known about proposed alternative materials. As the quantity of electronic and electrical waste (e‐waste) increases, legislative initiatives and corporate marketing strategies are driving a reduction in the use of some toxic substances in electronics. This article argues that the primacy of legislation over engineering and economics may result in selecting undesirable replacement materials for Pb because of overlooked knowledge gaps. These gaps include the need for: assessments of the effects of changes in policy on the flow of e‐waste across state and national boundaries; further reliability testing of alternative solder alloys; further toxicology and environmental impact studies for high environmental loading of the alternative solders (and their metal components); improved risk assessment methodologies that can capture complexities such as changes in waste management practices, in electronic product design, and in rate of product obsolescence; carefully executed allocation methods when evaluating the impact of raw material extraction; and in‐depth risk assessment of alternative end‐of‐life (EOL) options.The resulting environmental and human health consequences may be exacerbated by policy differences across political boundaries. To address this conundrum, legislation and policies dealing with Pb in electronics are first reviewed. A discussion of the current state of knowledge on alternative solder materials relative to product design, environmental performance, and risk assessment follows. Previous studies are reviewed, and consistent with their results, this analysis finds that there is great uncertainty in the trade‐offs between Pb‐based solders and proposed replacements. Bridging policy and knowledge gaps will require increased international cooperation on materials use, product market coverage, and e‐waste EOL management.
Internet-based Composite Repair
Authors: Chu Won-Shik , Ahn Sung-Hoon 
Published: April 2005

As composite materials are gaining wide acceptance in aircraft structures, the repair of damaged composites is becoming an important issue. Composite repair, however, has been performed more or less in a manual fashion, an integrated repair system is desirable. In this paper, an Internet-based advisory service (Repair Advisory Service, RAS) for composite repair is proposed to increase the efficiency of the repair process. Based on the client-server architecture, RAS offers time-effective sharing of engineering knowledge between remote locations, easy maintenance and update of the application software, and ubiquitous access to the services. The web browser is used as the user interface, which provides an easy access to the service and software friendly environment. The RAS system provides integrated design and repair tools for repair technicians and engineers as follows: (1) A design software for scarf repair and lap repair estimates the tensile failure and shear failure of repaired structures. (2) A structural repair manual is provided in the PDF document for viewing, and a web search engine can search the document. (3) A fabrication module of RAS generates a CNC toolpath to cut repair patches. (4) A CNC-based prepreg cutting machine has been developed to implement an automated composite repair. A scenario for the web-based remote repair was proposed, and a test repair was performed on an aircraft wing. The RAS service is open to public and available at http://fab.snu.ac.kr/ras.
Deficiency in type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor in mice protects against oxygen-induced lung injury
Authors: Ahamed Karmene , Epaud Ralph , Holzenberger Martin , Bonora Monique , Flejou Jean-François , Puard Julien , Clement Annick , Henrion-Caude Alexandra 
Published: April 2005

Abstract

Background
Cellular responses to aging and oxidative stress are regulated by type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R). Oxidant injury, which is implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of respiratory diseases, acutely upregulates IGF-1R expression in the lung. This led us to suspect that reduction of IGF-1R levels in lung tissue could prevent deleterious effects of oxygen exposure.

Methods
Since IGF-1R null mutant mice die at birth from respiratory failure, we generated compound heterozygous mice harboring a hypomorphic (Igf-1r

neo
) and a knockout (Igf-1r
-) receptor allele. These IGF-1Rneo/- mice, strongly deficient in IGF-1R, were subjected to hyperoxia and analyzed for survival time, ventilatory control, pulmonary histopathology, morphometry, lung edema and vascular permeability.

Results
Strikingly, after 72 h of exposure to 90% O2, IGF-1Rneo/- mice had a significantly better survival rate during recovery than IGF-1R+/+ mice (77% versus 53%, P < 0.05). The pulmonary injury was consistently, and significantly, milder in IGF-1Rneo/- mice which developed conspicuously less edema and vascular extravasation than controls. Also, hyperoxia-induced abnormal pattern of breathing which precipitated respiratory failure was elicited less frequently in the IGF-1Rneo/- mice.

Conclusion
Together, these data demonstrate that a decrease in IGF-1R signaling in mice protects against oxidant-induced lung injury.
Interstitial lung disease in children – genetic background and associated phenotypes
Authors: Hartl Dominik , Griese Matthias 
Published: April 2005

AbstractInterstitial lung disease in children represents a group of rare chronic respiratory disorders. There is growing evidence that mutations in the surfactant protein C gene play a role in the pathogenesis of certain forms of pediatric interstitial lung disease. Recently, mutations in the ABCA3 transporter were found as an underlying cause of fatal respiratory failure in neonates without surfactant protein B deficiency. Especially in familiar cases or in children of consanguineous parents, genetic diagnosis provides an useful tool to identify the underlying etiology of interstitial lung disease. The aim of this review is to summarize and to describe in detail the clinical features of hereditary interstitial lung disease in children. The knowledge of gene variants and associated phenotypes is crucial to identify relevant patients in clinical practice.
A restraint molecular dynamics and simulated annealing approach for protein homology modeling utilizing mean angles
Authors: Möglich Andreas , Weinfurtner Daniel , Maurer Till , Gronwald Wolfram , Kalbitzer Hans Robert 
Published: April 2005

Abstract
Background
We have developed the program PERMOL for semi-automated homology modeling of proteins. It is based on restrained molecular dynamics using a simulated annealing protocol in torsion angle space. As main restraints defining the optimal local geometry of the structure weighted mean dihedral angles and their standard deviations are used which are calculated with an algorithm described earlier by Döker et al. (1999, BBRC, 257, 348–350). The overall long-range contacts are established via a small number of distance restraints between atoms involved in hydrogen bonds and backbone atoms of conserved residues. Employing the restraints generated by PERMOL three-dimensional structures are obtained using standard molecular dynamics programs such as DYANA or CNS.

Results
To test this modeling approach it has been used for predicting the structure of the histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein HPr from E. coli and the structure of the human peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (Ppar γ). The divergence between the modeled HPr and the previously determined X-ray structure was comparable to the divergence between the X-ray structure and the published NMR structure. The modeled structure of Ppar γ was also very close to the previously solved X-ray structure with an RMSD of 0.262 nm for the backbone atoms.

Conclusion
In summary, we present a new method for homology modeling capable of producing high-quality structure models. An advantage of the method is that it can be used in combination with incomplete NMR data to obtain reasonable structure models in accordance with the experimental data.
Shortest triplet clustering: reconstructing large phylogenies using representative sets
Authors: Sy Vinh Le , von Haeseler Arndt 
Published: April 2005

Abstract
Background
Understanding the evolutionary relationships among species based on their genetic information is one of the primary objectives in phylogenetic analysis. Reconstructing phylogenies for large data sets is still a challenging task in Bioinformatics.

Results
We propose a new distance-based clustering method, the shortest triplet clustering algorithm (STC), to reconstruct phylogenies. The main idea is the introduction of a natural definition of so-called k-representative sets. Based on k-representative sets, shortest triplets are reconstructed and serve as building blocks for the STC algorithm to agglomerate sequences for tree reconstruction in O(n2) time for n sequences.
Simulations show that STC gives better topological accuracy than other tested methods that also build a first starting tree. STC appears as a very good method to start the tree reconstruction. However, all tested methods give similar results if balanced nearest neighbor interchange (BNNI) is applied as a post-processing step. BNNI leads to an improvement in all instances. The program is available at http://www.bi.uni-duesseldorf.de/software/stc/.

Conclusion
The results demonstrate that the new approach efficiently reconstructs phylogenies for large data sets. We found that BNNI boosts the topological accuracy of all methods including STC, therefore, one should use BNNI as a post-processing step to get better topological accuracy.
Deduction of probable events of lateral gene transfer through comparison of phylogenetic trees by recursive consolidation and rearrangement
Authors: MacLeod Dave , Charlebois Robert L , Doolittle Ford , Bapteste Eric 
Published: April 2005

Abstract
Background
When organismal phylogenies based on sequences of single marker genes are poorly resolved, a logical approach is to add more markers, on the assumption that weak but congruent phylogenetic signal will be reinforced in such multigene trees. Such approaches are valid only when the several markers indeed have identical phylogenies, an issue which many multigene methods (such as the use of concatenated gene sequences or the assembly of supertrees) do not directly address. Indeed, even when the true history is a mixture of vertical descent for some genes and lateral gene transfer (LGT) for others, such methods produce unique topologies.

Results
We have developed software that aims to extract evidence for vertical and lateral inheritance from a set of gene trees compared against an arbitrary reference tree. This evidence is then displayed as a synthesis showing support over the tree for vertical inheritance, overlaid with explicit lateral gene transfer (LGT) events inferred to have occurred over the history of the tree. Like splits-tree methods, one can thus identify nodes at which conflict occurs. Additionally one can make reasonable inferences about vertical and lateral signal, assigning putative donors and recipients.

Conclusion
A tool such as ours can serve to explore the reticulated dimensionality of molecular evolution, by dissecting vertical and lateral inheritance at high resolution. By this, we mean that individual nodes can be examined not only for congruence, but also for coherence in light of LGT. We assert that our tools will facilitate the comparison of phylogenetic trees, and the interpretation of conflicting data.
Abacavir, efavirenz, didanosine, with or without hydroxyurea, in HIV-infected adults failing initial nucleoside/protease inhibitor-containing regimens
Authors: Swindells Susan , Cohen Calvin J , Berger Daniel S , Tashima Karen T , Liao Qiming , Pobiner Bonnie F , Snidow Jerry W , Pakes Gary E , Hernandez Jaime E ,   the NZTA4008 Study Team
Published: April 2005

Abstract
Background
Hydroxyurea (HU) is an immunomodulatory agent that has been documented to enhance the antiretroviral activity of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, such as abacavir (ABC) and didanosine (ddI), and would be expected to improve virologic efficacy.

Methods
A 48-week, phase IV, multicenter, open-label, proof-of-concept clinical trial was conducted to evaluate second-line, protease inhibitor (PI)-sparing therapy with ABC/efavirenz (EFV)/ddI plus HU or without HU in HIV-infected subjects failing to achieve HIV-1 RNA ≤ 400 copies/mL after ≥ 16 weeks of treatment with lamivudine/zidovudine or lamivudine/stavudine, plus 1 or 2 PIs. Subjects were assigned to ABC (300 mg twice daily)/ EFV (600 mg once daily)/ ddI (400 mg once daily) plus HU (500 mg twice daily) (n = 30) or this regimen without HU (n = 24).

Results
Baseline mean HIV-1 RNA was 3.86 log10 copies/mL and CD4+ cell count was 345 cells/mm3. A similar percentage of subjects in the non-HU arm (58%) and HU arm (53%) completed the study. Intent-to-treat: missing = failure analysis showed no differences in proportions of subjects in the non-HU and HU arms achieving undetectable plasma HIV-1 RNA levels at week 24 (<400 copies/mL: 58% [14/24] vs 57% [17/30], P = 0.899; <50 copies/mL (50% [12/24] vs 47% [14/30], P = 0.780). Median change from baseline in CD4+ cell count in the non-HU and HU arms at week 48 was +114 cells/mm3 and -63 cells/mm3 (P = 0.007), respectively. Both regimens were generally well tolerated, although more subjects in the HU arm withdrew prematurely from the study due to adverse events (23% vs 4%). Four cases of possible ABC-related hypersensitivity were observed.

Conclusion
ABC/EFV/ddI was an effective and well-tolerated second-line regimen for nucleoside/PI-experienced HIV-infected subjects. The addition of HU blunted the CD4+ cell response, did not appear to enhance antiviral activity, and resulted in more treatment-limiting adverse events.
Mutation analysis of genes that control the G1/S cell cycle in melanoma: TP53, CDKN1A, CDKN2A, and CDKN2B
Authors: Soto José Luis , Cabrera Carmen M , Serrano Salvio , López-Nevot Miguel Ángel 
Published: April 2005

Abstract
Background
The role of genes involved in the control of progression from the G1 to the S phase of the cell cycle in melanoma tumors in not fully known. The aim of our study was to analyse mutations in TP53, CDKN1A, CDKN2A, and CDKN2B genes in melanoma tumors and melanoma cell lines

Methods
We analysed 39 primary and metastatic melanomas and 9 melanoma cell lines by single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP).

Results
The single-stranded technique showed heterozygous defects in the TP53 gene in 8 of 39 (20.5%) melanoma tumors: three new single point mutations in intronic sequences (introns 1 and 2) and exon 10, and three new single nucleotide polymorphisms located in introns 1 and 2 (C to T transition at position 11701 in intron 1; C insertion at position 11818 in intron 2; and C insertion at position 11875 in intron 2). One melanoma tumor exhibited two heterozygous alterations in the CDKN2A exon 1 one of which was novel (stop codon, and missense mutation). No defects were found in the remaining genes.

Conclusion
These results suggest that these genes are involved in melanoma tumorigenesis, although they may be not the major targets. Other suppressor genes that may be informative of the mechanism of tumorigenesis in skin melanomas should be studied.