bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Development of a liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry assay for the quantification of apicidin, a novel histone deacetylase inhibitor, in rat serum: application to a pharmacokinetic study
Authors: Shin Beom Soo , Kim John , Yoon Chi Ho , Kim Chul Hwan , Park Eun Hye , Han Jeung‐Whan , Yoo Sun Dong 
Published: January 2005

AbstractApicidin, a fungal metabolite isolated from Fusarium pallidoroseum, is a cyclic tetrapeptide that exhibits potent anti‐protozoal and anti‐angiogenic activities. Although extensive studies have been recently conducted to examine the biological and pharmacological action, no information is available on the quantitative analysis of apicidin. To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe a rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) assay method for the quantification of apicidin in rat serum. The method was validated to demonstrate the specificity, linearity, recovery, lower limit of quantification (LLOQ), accuracy, and precision. The multiple reaction monitoring was based on the transitions m/z 624.7 → 84.3 and 372.1 → 176.1 for apicidin and trazodone, respectively. The assay utilized a single liquid‐liquid extraction and isocratic elution, and the LLOQ was 0.5 ng/mL using 0.1 mL of rat serum. The assay was linear over a range from 0.5–1000 ng/mL, with correlation coefficients >0.9994. The mean intra‐ and inter‐day assay accuracy ranged from 99.9–101.5% and 94.8–102.1%, respectively, and the mean intra‐ and inter‐day precision was between 2.7–5.9% and 1.6–11.5%, respectively. The developed assay method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study after intravenous injection of apicidin in rats at a dose of 1 mg/kg. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Person‐centered approaches to primary prevention in mental health: Situation‐focused and competence‐enhancement
Authors: Cowen Emory L. 
Published: January 2005

SummarySituation‐focused and competence‐enhancement approaches represent different pathways toward a richer person‐centered primary prevention in mental health. Each is valid in its own right. The utility of developing both strands rests precisely on the fact that they are different means to a common end. Thus, although the approaches have somewhat different conceptual footings (one is proactive, the other reactive), differ in immediate goals and tactics, and have characteristically different target groups and times of application, they come together around the shared ultimate goal of strengthening people's psychological well‐being.How much “good” will accrue from energetic exploration and development of these two strands remains a moot point, around which some skepticism has already been voiced (Rappaport, 1981). The two approaches singly or in combination, do not substitute for the type of social reform and provision of life opportunities (based on the concepts of justice and distribution of power) that Rappaport advocates. Nor do they compete with it. During the long period in which informed social change will remain an ideal, surrounded by uncertainty about procedural steps and outcomes, effective development of the two person‐centered primary prevention strategies considered in this article can at least help to achieve a shorter‐term objective, i.e., replacing aspects of traditional mental health practice known to have limited potential for advancing psychological wellness.
Optimal design of a micro parallel positioning platform. Part II: Real machine design
Authors: Oh Kun-Ku , Liu Xin-Jun , Kang Deuk Soo , Kim Jongwon 
Published: January 2005

In part I of this paper (previous issue of Robotica) a dual stage system with the coarse and fine actuators is adopted to achieve sub-micron accuracy with a large working space for the proposed new three degree-of-freedom (DOF) miniaturized micro parallel mechanism with high mobility and one type of the architecture with vertical actuator locations in all three legs (C-VV type) among six possible coarse actuator architectures is selected for the coarse actuator architecture.In this part of the paper, an optimal kinematic parameter set is determined for the selected coarse actuator architecture. To determine this set, the design tool of the physical model of the solution space (PMSS) and the evaluation of the conditioning index (CI) and global mobility conditioning index (GMCI) are used. The basic size of the micro parallel mechanism is 45.0 mm×22.5 mm×22.9 mm with 100° mobility, the workspace 5.0 mm (y-axis)×5.0 mm (z-axis), and sub-micron resolution. After finishing the design of the main coarse actuator architecture, one architecture among six possible fine actuator architectures is selected to achieve sub-micron positioning accuracy based on the requirements of the continuous fine motion and smaller platform resolution. The selected coarse-and-fine actuator combination is used for the micro positioning platform for laser-machining application.
Visual Discrimination of Spectral Distributions
Authors: Pas Susan F te , Koenderink Jan J 
Published: January 2005

Human observers seem to be able to use different features that classify materials with a large degree of accuracy. In this paper, we look at human perception of statistical properties of the spectral distribution in a scene. We investigated whether human observers can discriminate just as accurately between coloured textures that have a spectral distribution due either to shading only or to both shading and specular reflectance as between uniform colours. Thresholds for the discrimination of coloured textures are about 15 times as high as thresholds for the discrimination of uniform colours, provided there is a sharp transition between the two colours. However, the coloured texture thresholds are only 1.5 times higher when we introduce a gradual transition between the two colours. There are also distinct qualitative differences in discrimination thresholds for different base colours. These differences cannot be predicted from discrimination thresholds for uniform colours. Human observers are surprisingly good at discriminating between a material edge and a shadow edge in complex scenes. Statistical differences in the orientation of the colour distributions in colour space might be used to accomplish this. In a second experiment we investigated how well observers can discriminate between two linear distributions in colour space that have the same base colour but different orientations. When we vary the line-length in R, G, B space, thresholds cannot be predicted completely by the conservation of the average distance between the two distributions. This means that observers use not only the maximum colour difference in the stimulus to do the task, but other cues are also involved.
Recent developments and new strategies in scanning electron microscopy*
Authors: CAZAUX J. 
Published: January 2005

SummaryIn addition to improvements in lateral resolution in scanning electron microscopy, recent developments of interest here concern extension of the incident beam energy, E0, over two decades, from ≈ 20 keV to ≈ 0.1–0.5 keV and the possibility of changing the take‐off emission, α, of detected secondary electrons. These two degrees of freedom for image acquisition permit a series of images of the same field of view of a specimen to be obtained, each image of the series differing from the others in some aspect. The origins of these differences are explored in detail and they are tentatively interpreted in terms of the change in the secondary electron emission yield δ vs. E0, δ = f(E0), and also of the change in δ vs. α, ∂δ/∂α. Various origins for the chemical contrast and topographic contrast have been identified. Illustrated by correlating a secondary electron image and a backscattered electron image, use of the scatter diagram technique facilitates image comparison. The difference between the lateral resolution and the size of the minimum detectable detail is outlined to avoid possible errors in nanometrology. Some aspects related to charging are also considered and possible causes of contrast reversal are suggested. Finally, the suggested strategy consists of the acquisition of various images of a given specimen by changing one parameter: primary beam energy and take‐off angle for conductive specimens; working distance or beam intensity for high‐resolution experiments; scanning frequency for insulating specimens.
Imaging fluorescence lifetime heterogeneity applied to GFP‐tagged MHC protein at an immunological synapse*
Authors: TREANOR B. , LANIGAN P. M. P. , SUHLING K. , SCHREIBER T. , MUNRO I. , NEIL M. A. A. , PHILLIPS D. , DAVIS D. M. , FRENCH P. M. W. 
Published: January 2005

SummaryFluorescence imaging of green fluorescent protein (GFP) may be used to locate proteins in live cells and fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) may be employed to probe the local microenvironment of proteins. Here we apply FLIM to GFP‐tagged proteins at the cell surface and at an inhibitory natural killer (NK) cell immunological synapse (IS). We present a novel quantitative analysis of fluorescence lifetime images that we believe is useful to determine whether apparent FLIM heterogeneity is statistically significant. We observe that, although the variation of observed fluorescence lifetime of GFP‐tagged proteins at the cell surface is close to the expected statistical range, the lifetime of GFP‐tagged proteins in cells is shorter than recombinant GFP in solution. Furthermore the lifetime of GFP‐tagged major histocompatibility complex class I protein is shortened at the inhibitory NK cell IS compared with the unconjugated membrane. Following our previous work demonstrating the ability of FLIM to report the local refractive index of GFP in solution, we speculate that these lifetime variations may indicate local refractive index changes. This application of our method for detecting small but significant differences in fluorescence lifetimes shows how FLIM could be broadly useful in imaging discrete membrane environments for a given protein.
A resin impression SEM technique for examining the glass–ionomer cement chemical fusion zone
Authors: MILICICH G. 
Published: January 2005

SummaryExamination of the auto‐cure glass–ionomer cement (GIC)–tooth interface using conventional SEM techniques causes severe dehydration and subsequent fracturing of the GIC, hampering accurate assessment of the GIC–tooth interface. A simple, accurate impression technique was developed to examine the GIC chemical fusion zone. Samples of GIC were bonded to prepared cavities and tooth surfaces that had been conditioned with 10% polyacrylic acid for 10 s and allowed to mature for 24 h in neutral buffered saline, sectioned under water and then acid etched with 37% phosphoric acid for 30 s to remove sectioning smear layer and to highlight surface morphology, rinsed and gently dried. Optibond Solo Plus was then applied and photo‐polymerized. Increments of posterior hybrid composite were then bonded onto the Optibond and photo‐polymerized. The tooth sections with attached GIC were then dissolved off the bonded composite with 18% HCl for 4 days. Subsequent SEM examination of the resin impressions created with this technique provided high‐quality, detailed images of the GIC chemical fusion zone, without the development of the fracture artefacts associated with the desiccation of GIC. The resin impression technique described proved to be a simple and successful method for providing accurate SEM images of the GIC–tooth chemical fusion.
Interactions between saporin, a ribosome‐inactivating protein, and DNA: a study by atomic force microscopy
Authors: POMA A. , SPANÒ L. , PITTALUGA E. , TUCCI A. , PALLADINO L. , LIMONGI T. 
Published: January 2005

SummarySaporins are enzymes belonging to the PNAG class (polynucleotide: adenosine glycosidase), plant enzymes commonly known as ribosome‐inactivating proteins (RIP), as a result of their property of irreversibly damaging eukaryotic ribosomes. Direct imaging with tapping‐mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to study pGEM‐4Z plasmid DNA binding to the saporin‐SO6 (isoform from Saponaria officinalis seeds). Saporin wrapped the plasmidic DNA, and distribution of the enzyme molecules along the DNA chain was markedly variable; plasmid digested with saporin‐SO6 appeared fragmented or topologically modified. The supercoiled DNA strands were cleaved, giving rise to a linearized form and to relaxed forms. Electrophoretic analysis of the effect of standard preparations of saporin‐SO6 on pGEM‐4S confirmed the presence of DNA strand‐cleaving activity.
Noise suppression of point spread functions and its influence on deconvolution of three‐dimensional fluorescence microscopy image sets
Authors: LAI X. , LIN ZHIPING , WARD E. S. , OBER R. J. 
Published: January 2005

SummaryThe point spread function (PSF) is of central importance in the image restoration of three‐dimensional image sets acquired by an epifluorescent microscope. Even though it is well known that an experimental PSF is typically more accurate than a theoretical one, the noise content of the experimental PSF is often an obstacle to its use in deconvolution algorithms. In this paper we apply a recently introduced noise suppression method to achieve an effective noise reduction in experimental PSFs. We show with both simulated and experimental three‐dimensional image sets that a PSF that is smoothed with this method leads to a significant improvement in the performance of deconvolution algorithms, such as the regularized least‐squares algorithm and the accelerated Richardson–Lucy algorithm.
Ulcerative colitis: factors affecting difficulties of life and psychological well being of patients in remission
Authors: Tanaka Makoto , Kazuma Keiko 
Published: January 2005

Background.  Ulcerative colitis is a chronic disease of unknown aetiology characterized by alternating periods of remission and relapses. The difficulties in the patients with ulcerative colitis daily life mostly arise from symptoms associated with bowel inflammation but there are many patients who have difficulties despite being in the remission phase. This study was conducted to elucidate factors that influence perception of difficulties of life and psychological well being of patients with ulcerative colitis in remission.Methods.  A questionnaire survey was carried out in 72 outpatients with ulcerative colitis in remission. The perception of difficulties of life was assessed using the scale developed by Tanaka et al. Psychological well being was assessed using the Japanese version of the ‘profile of mood states’. Physical condition, demographic attributes and psychosociological states were also investigated as related factors.Results.  There was no outstanding aspect of psychological well being, but a relatively large number of patients perceived a ‘decline of vitality or vigour’ despite being in the remission phase. In the presence of irritable bowel syndrome‐like symptoms, the scores for ‘difficulties of life in society’ or ‘difficulties concerned with bowel movements’ were high. Scores for ‘decline of vitality or vigour’ were high when the emotive coping scores were high, social support was lower, disease durations were short and relapses occurred more than once. When the emotive coping scores were high, psychological well being was not fine.Relevance to clinical practice.  Strategies need to be developed to allow patients to recover and maintain their strength in the remission phase. Further, the strategies should take the above factors into consideration.
Sleep disturbance: the patient care activities applied at the night shift in the intensive care unit
Authors: Çelik Sevim , Öztekin Deniz , Akyolcu Neriman , İşsever Halim 
Published: January 2005

Aims and objectives.  The aim of the study was to determine the frequency and types of nursing activities on sedated and non‐sedated patients in the intensive care unit at night shift.Background.  The complex intensive care unit and nursing activities has been described as an environment in which patients enter in a physiological crisis. This is even more so when the patient is unable to communicate or heavily sedated or unable to move. Nursing activities, fear and apprehension cause low morale and sleep disturbance.Method.  The study was carried out on a descriptive basis in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Thirty sedated and 30 non‐sedated patients to whom the nursing care was applied during 19.00–07.00 hours for three consecutive nights were chosen with simple random sampling. Data were gathered by means of retrospective examination of the standard nursing chart notes about the 60 patients for three consecutive nights. Data were analysed using percentage calculations and chi‐square test.Results.  The results demonstrate that patient records indicated a mean of 51 interactions per patient per night. Nursing activities were more frequent between 02.00 and 05.00 hours. It was detected that nursing activities such as mouth and eye care, decubitus ulcer care, change of dressing, bed bath, catheter change for three night shifts were more frequently between 24.00 and 05.00 hours. Mechanical ventilation control and endotracheal suctioning were more frequently performed on sedated patients than on non‐sedated patients (P < 0.05).Conclusion.  These findings of this study indicate that the nursing activities in the intensive care unit were focused on the activities, which will maximize what is seen to be physiological stability.Relevance to clinical practice.  This study has provided further data that identify the activities of nurses working in the intensive care unit at night shift. We hope to contribute to the development of the sleep protocol in surgical intensive care units.
Perinatal nursing education for single‐room maternity care: an evaluation of a competency‐based model
Authors: Janssen Patricia A , Keen Lois , Soolsma Jetty , Seymour Laurie C , Harris Susan J , Klein Michael C , Reime Birgit 
Published: January 2005

Aims and objectives. To evaluate the success of a competency‐based nursing orientation programme for a single‐room maternity care unit by measuring improvement in self‐reported competency after six months.Background. Single‐room maternity care has challenged obstetrical nurses to provide comprehensive nursing care during all phases of the in‐hospital birth experience. In this model, nurses provide intrapartum, postpartum and newborn care in one room. To date, an evaluation of nursing education for single‐room maternity care has not been published.Design. A prospective cohort design comparing self‐reported competencies prior to starting work in the single‐room maternity care and six months after.Methods. Nurses completed a competency‐based education programme in which they could select from a menu of learning methods and content areas according to their individual needs. Learning methods included classroom lectures, self‐paced learning packages, and preceptorships in the clinical area. Competencies were measured by a standardized perinatal self‐efficacy tool and a tool developed by the authors for this study, the Single‐Room Maternity Care Competency Tool. A paired analysis was undertaken to take into account the paired (before and after) nature of the design.Results. Scores on the perinatal self‐efficacy scale and the single‐room maternity care competency tool were improved. These differences were statistically significant.Conclusions. Improvements in perinatal and single‐room maternity care‐specific competencies suggest that our education programme was successful in preparing nurses for their new role in the single‐room maternity care setting. This conclusion is supported by reported increases in nursing and patient satisfaction in the single‐room maternity care compared with the traditional labour/delivery and postpartum settings.Relevance to clinical practice. An education programme tailored to the learning needs of experienced clinical nurses contributes to improvements in nursing competencies and patient care.
Malignant wounds in women with breast cancer: feminine and sexual perspectives
Authors: Lund‐Nielsen Betina , Müller Kirsten , Adamsen Lis 
Published: January 2005

Aims and objectives.  The aim of this article is to investigate the way malignant fungating wounds affect femininity, sexuality and daily life in women with progressive breast cancer. Malignant wounds occur when the underlying localized tumour filtrates into the skin, blood capillaries and/or lymph vessels.Design.  The study was a prospective and exploratory intervention study. The intervention was tested on 12 consecutively selected women with progressive breast cancer and malignant fungating wounds.Methods.  The 12 women participated in a 4‐week wound care intervention programme that comprised evidence‐based wound care principles and psychosocial support. Data were generated by means of interviewing prior to and following the intervention period.Results.  The women described how malodorous and oozing wounds trigger anxiety about seepage, prevent them from wearing feminine attire and cause them to suppress the need for physical closeness and sexual activity. The results showed that by using modern wound care products, the patients could be secured against seepage and odour. The women experienced a sense of comfort, were able to dress again as they wished, no longed felt caged in and isolated and were given a sense of freedom which they had not felt for a long time.Conclusions.  The intervention succeeded in increasing breast cancer patients’ psychosocial well‐being and reducing social isolation.Relevance to clinical practice.  There is a lack of standard methods of practice for care of malignant wounds in women with breast cancer. This article describes an intervention for wound care which could improve daily live in women with progressive breast cancer.
Developmental impairments following severe falciparum malaria in children
Authors: Carter Julie A. , Ross Amanda J. , Neville Brian G. R. , Obiero Elizabeth , Katana Khamis , Mung'ala‐Odera Victor , Lees Janet A. , Newton Charles R. J. C. 
Published: January 2005

SummaryObjective  Neurological deficits are reported in children after cerebral malaria (CM) but little is known about the prevalence and characteristics of persisting neurocognitive consequences. The prevalence of developmental impairments following other complications of falciparum malaria, such as multiple, prolonged or focal seizures, is not known. Thus, our objective was to investigate the long‐term developmental outcome of CM and malaria with complicated seizures (M/S).Methods  We followed up a cohort of children previously exposed to CM or M/S and children unexposed to either condition. All children between 6 and 9 years of age, exposed to CM, and an equal number of children exposed to M/S were identified from databases of hospital admissions from 1991 to 1998. The unexposed group was randomly selected from a census database. The children's performance was measured using assessments of cognition, motor, speech and language, hearing and vision. A parental questionnaire was used to identify children with epilepsy.Results  CM group scores were significantly lower than unexposed group scores on the assessments of higher level language (adjusted mean difference −1.63, 95% CI: −2.99 to −0.27), vocabulary (−0.02, 95% CI: −0.04 to −0.01), pragmatics (OR 2.81, 95% CI: 1.04–7.6) and non‐verbal functioning (−0.33, 95% CI: −0.61 to −0.06). The areas of significantly reduced functioning for the M/S group were concentrated on phonology (OR 2.74, 95% CI: 1.26–5.95), pragmatics (OR 3.23, 95% CI: 1.2–8.71) and behaviour (OR 1.8, 95% CI: 1.0–3.23). The performance of the active epilepsy group was significantly poorer than that of the group without epilepsy on the tests of comprehension, syntax, pragmatics, word finding, memory, attention, behaviour and motor skills.Conclusions  CM and M/S are associated with developmental impairments. If these impairments persist, this may have implications for least 250 000 children in Sub‐Saharan Africa each year. Active epilepsy significantly increases the risk of cognitive and behavioural problems in children with a history of severe malaria.