bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Social Dominance in South African Indigenous Zulu Rams
Authors: Z. Dlomo Mhlengani , N. Ncobela Cyprial , W. Kunene Nokuthula 
Published: March 2022

Social ranking is usually caused by limited access to resources such as feed, water as well as mating partners. In rams, social dominance is mostly related to physical traits such as body weight, horn size, body length and scrotal circumference. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between physical traits of Zulu sheep rams and the establishment of social rankings. The social dominance rank was determined by a feed competition test using rams of the same age. Physical traits such as body weight, chest girth, horn length, scrotal circumference and withers height were measured for each ram. Sheep A was ranked first with a 100% number of wins (P < 0.01) followed by sheep E with an 86% number of wins (P < 0.05). A positive linear relationship between time spent on the feeder against the number of wins was not significant (P > 0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between the proportions of wins against horn length (P < 0.05) and chest girth length (P < 0.05). Time spent at the feeder was positively correlated with body weight and withers height (P < 0.05). Social dominance in Zulu sheep can be determined by particular physical traits such as horn length and chest girth.
In Vitro Propagation and Conservation of Fragaria Species
Authors: Gupta Sandhya 
Published: March 2022

The genus Fragaria L. belongs to the family Rosaceae. The basic chromosome number is 7 (x = 7). Around 20 species of diploid, tetraploid, hexaploid and octoploid are found in the genus. The species of Fragaria are commonly known as strawberries. The genus is found in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere as well as South America. The most extensively distributed species in the genus is F. vesca L. and the commonly cultivated strawberry is F. x ananassa Duch. While strawberries are native to temperate climates, some varieties can be grown in subtropical climates. Fragaria is a vegetatively propagated crop. The easiest and most direct method for conservation of the strawberry plants is in a field gene bank. Their germplasm remains at risk of loss due to biotic and abiotic factors including climate change. Besides, this approach does not result in the distribution of healthy, virus-free plants. In vitro techniques are in place to propagate and conserve Fragaria germplasm. In vitro storage may be done in cold conditions, or liquid nitrogen as meristem or shoot tip. In this review chapter, tissue culture propagation technique, various aspects and strategies for conservation of Fragaria species will be discussed to present a holistic view of ex situ conservation of Fragaria genetic resources.
Effects of Conformity to Masculine Norms and Coping on Health Behaviors in Men With Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Davis Bryan , Honomichl Ryan , Sullivan Amy B. 
Published: March 2022

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND
The role of conformity to masculine gender norms in health behaviors in men with multiple sclerosis (MS) has not received attention. This cross-sectional study explores these issues and their relationship to coping and health behaviors.

METHODS
Eighty-one men with MS completed the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-46 and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire and provided demographic and clinical variables. These results were used to predict subscale scores of the Health Behavior Inventory-20 in multivariable regression models.

RESULTS
Models for the Preventive Self-care and Avoiding Anger and Stress subscales were successfully fit. For the former, respondents endorsing lower levels of masculine conformity related to Emotional Control and higher levels of Heterosexual Self-presentation predicted greater self-care, as did higher use of Positive Reappraisal as a coping strategy. For men reporting low levels of Positive Reappraisal as a coping strategy, increasing Heterosexual Self-presentation was associated with higher levels of self-care. For those with high levels of coping with Positive Reappraisals, increased Heterosexual Self-presentation was associated with modest declines in self-care. For the Avoiding Anger and Stress subscale score, men endorsing Violence or Heterosexual Self-presentation as important aspects of masculinity also reported less efforts in controlling stress and anger.

CONCLUSIONS
Masculinity adherence to traditional gender norms was a significant predictor of how men engaged in health behaviors and, in the case of Preventive Self-care, was found to interact with Positive Reappraisal as a coping strategy. Such information is novel and important to providers serving male patients with MS and can improve provider awareness/conceptualization of male patient needs.
Binding blockade between TLN1 and integrin β1 represses triple-negative breast cancer
Authors: Zhang Yixiao , Sun Lisha , Li Haonan , Ai Liping , Ma Qingtian , Qiao Xinbo , Yang Jie , Zhang Hao , Ou Xunyan , Wang Yining , Chen Guanglei , Xue Jinqi , Zhu Xudong , Zhao Yu , Yang Yongliang , Liu Caigang 
Published: March 2022

Background:Integrin family are known as key gears in focal adhesion for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) metastasis. However, the integrin independent factor TLN1 remains vague in TNBC.Methods:Bioinformatics analysis was performed based on TCGA database and Shengjing Hospital cohort. Western blot and RT-PCR were used to detect the expression of TLN1 and integrin pathway in cells. A small-molecule C67399 was screened for blocking TLN1 and integrin β1 through a novel computational screening approach by targeting the protein-protein binding interface. Drug pharmacodynamics were determined through xenograft assay.Results:Upregulation of TLN1 in TNBC samples correlates with metastasis and worse prognosis. Silencing TLN1 in TNBC cells significantly attenuated the migration of tumour cells through interfering the dynamic formation of focal adhesion with integrin β1, thus regulating FAK-AKT signal pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation. Targeting the binding between TLN1 and integrin β1 by C67399 could repress metastasis of TNBC.Conclusions:TLN1 overexpression contributes to TNBC metastasis and C67399 targeting TLN1 may hold promise for TNBC treatment.Funding:This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81872159, 81902607, 81874301), Liaoning Colleges Innovative Talent Support Program (Name: Cancer Stem Cell Origin and Biological Behaviour), Outstanding Scientific Fund of Shengjing Hospital (201803), and Outstanding Young Scholars of Liaoning Province (2019-YQ-10).
Performance Analysis and Evaluation of Quantitative Real Time PCR for Diagnosis of Scrub Typhus in North-East India
Authors: Paul Diptanu , Lyngdoh W. Valarie , Barman Himesh , Lyngdoh Clarissa Jane , Lynrah Kryshanlang , Durairaj Elantamilan 
Published: March 2022

Aims: Scrub typhus is a life-threatening infectious disease and always creating a diagnostic dilemma in terms of rapid turnaround time and accuracy, qRT PCR can become a very good option to achieve the desired result. This study was performed to evaluate the performance of qRT PCR in comparison to commonly used IgM ELISA and Weil-Felix tests to diagnose scrub typhus, in North-East India.
Study Design: This was a hospital based prospective study.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology, of a tertiary care centre of North-East India over a period of 1 year (June 2019– May 2020). Methodology: Samples from suspected scrub typhus cases were screened by Weil-Felix test, followed by IgM ELISA for the confirmation of diagnosis. All the IgM positive samples and 20 highly suspected but ELISA negative samples were subjected to qRT PCR.
Results: Out of 54 samples tested, 24 IgM ELISA positive samples and three IgM ELISA negative samples have shown the presence of bacterial DNA with quantification of DNA copies. It has also been observed that 21 out of 27 PCR positive samples (77.8%) were detected within the first seven days of illness.
Conclusion: The performance of the commercial qRT PCR kit used in our study is satisfactory, which provides the extra advantage of quantification of DNA copies and increases diagnostic accuracy within the first week of fever.
Caries Risk Assessment and Detection of Streptococcus Mutans Count in Plaque and Saliva Using Mutans-Sanguis Agar
Authors: Tyagi Vineet , Ramalingam Karthikeyan , Tyagi Ridhima , Kumar Manish , Tanwar Mamta , Bose Suddhasatva , Kakkar Amisha 
Published: March 2022

Assessment of the caries risk of individual patients is a critical component in determining an appropriate management strategy.
A total of 160 samples were taken from the outpatients of dental clinics in Surendera Dental College, Sriganganagar, Rajasthan. The age group of the participants ranged from 16-60 years.
We have used the ADA caries risk assessment form among our study samples to ascertain their caries risk and compared it with their Streptococcus mutans levels in saliva and plaque using mutans-sanguis agar. The colonies were counted after 18 hours of incubation at 37oC. The S.mutans colonies were greyish-yellow in colour and those of S.sanguis were colourless. The colonies were counted with a digital colony counter.
The tabulated data were subjected to statistical analysis using ANOVA and t-test with SPSS.
The findings of the present study indicated the Streptococcus mutans counts among high risk and moderate risk group were statistically insignificant when compared to low risk and control group even though the mean value showed an increase. We observed that the CFU yield was higher in unstimulated saliva than the plaque samples in contrast to reported literature.
Moreover, Dental caries risk assessment should become a routine component in dental practice. Estimation of the caries risk will help to establish the periodicity and intensity of caries management protocol.
Our data suggest that the MS count in oral microflora are influenced by age and various other factors such as diet, time and host response. As dental caries is multifactorial disease further clinical studies are needed to identify the actual pathogenesis.
Covid-19 Pandemic and the Degree of Informality of Sole Proprietor Entrepreneurship (SPE)
Authors: Eho Olong Christopher , Mfondo Merlin , Tabeko Gilbert 
Published: March 2022

This study reports a survey conducted July and August 2021 in the cities of Bamenda and Buea respectively capital cities of North West and South West regions of Cameroon amongst 255 sole proprietor entrepreneurs (SPE). The study seeks to examine the personal and Structural factor driving SPE in whole or in part to operate informal and their degree of informality during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study adopted a survey research design. The finding showed that 38.4% of SPE operate wholly informal, 17.3% largely informal, 14.9% largely formal and 29.4% wholly formal since the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic in the cities. Using ordinary logistic regression model, the study revealed that the structural factors of tax avoidance and tax fraud are high in the cities of Bamenda and Buea. Revealing that there is a high significant likelihood that as tax avoidance and tax fraud increase by one unit, more sole proprietor entrepreneur chose to remain wholly informal within the period of covid-19 pandemic. This suggests SPE have adopted tax avoidance and tax fraud as resilience strategies to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19.
Increased IL-12 release by monocytes in nephrotic patients
Authors: Matsumoto K , Kanmatsuse K 
Published: July 2002

SUMMARYThe pathogenesis of minimal-change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS) is obscure. It has been postulated that this glomerular disease may be a systemic disorder of cell-mediated immunity. IL-12 is a heterodimeric cytokine that is produced primarily by antigen-presenting cells and plays a primary role in the induction of cell-mediated immunity. To gain insight into the involvement of this cytokine, in vitro IL-12 levels were assessed in patients with MCNS and IgA nephropathy (IgAN) who were in either a stable or active clinical condition. The levels were compared with values in healthy controls. Significantly increased spontaneous and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated release of IL-12 was detected in peripheral blood monocyte (PBM) cultures of MCNS and IgAN patients with the nephrotic syndrome (NS) compared with those of normal controls. Moreover, when individual MCNS patients were followed through their clinical illness, IL-12 levels were increased during the active phase and normalized as the patients went into remission. The amounts of IL-12 are significantly correlated with the levels of vascular permeability factor (VPF) in MCNS patients. This study describes a correlation between in vitro IL-12 release by PBM from two types of nephrotic patients and their disease activity, as well as a correlation with release of VPF by the same cultures. The study contributes to the understanding of this class of diseases and the observations may have a prognostic/diagnostic value.
Pilocytic astrocytomas do not show most of the genetic changes commonly seen in diffuse astrocytomas
Authors: Cheng Y , Pang J C‐S , Ng H‐K , Ding M , Zhang S‐F , Zheng J , Liu D‐G , Poon W‐S 
Published: July 2002

Aims: While it is well known that pilocytic astrocytomas are clinically distinct from diffuse astrocytomas, few comprehensive studies have focused on their genetic differences. The aim of this study was to examine pilocytic astrocytomas for genetic alterations that are commonly seen in diffuse astrocytomas.Methods and results:By using molecular genetic and immunohistochemical techniques, we evaluated p16, p53, CDK4 and PTEN genes in 29 pilocytic astrocytomas. Mutation screening of p53 and PTEN was performed by single strand conformation polymorphism analysis followed by direct sequencing. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of p53, p16 and 10q23–25 loci was performed with microsatellite markers and genomic microsatellite instability (MSI) was also screened. Protein expression of p16, p53, CDK4 and PTEN was examined by immunohistochemistry. Five tumours were found to have single genetic alterations, which included a p53 mutation, a PTEN mutation, MSI at a single microsatellite marker of the p16 locus, and one single LOH at each p16 and 10q23 loci. Protein expressions of p16, CDK4 and PTEN were detected in 73%, 61% and 38% of tumours, respectively. Significantly and in sharp contrast to diffuse astrocytomas, no pilocytic astrocytoma in our series stained for p53 protein.Conclusion:Pilocytic astrocytomas have neither MSI phenotype nor recurrent alterations of the p53 and p16 genes. However, altered expression of PTEN may be important in the genesis of pilocytic astrocytomas. We conclude that pilocytic astrocytomas are genetically distinct from diffuse astrocytomas. Lack of p53 mutation/immunostaining may serve as a diagnostic adjunct for differentiating pilocytic astrocytomas from diffuse astrocytomas in small neurosurgical biopsies.
Report of a nutritional screening audit
Authors: Wheatley P. 
Published: July 2002

Summary Background: Malnutrition in hospitals has been widely documented and nutritional screening forms part of the National Professional Standards for Dietitians. As a result of this concern, a nutrition screening tool has been incorporated into the nursing care plan documentation. Aims: To audit the use of the screening tool in nursing care plans for elderly patients and examine the communication methods concerning the need for individual nutritional care. Methods: A standard chart was used to audit patient notes. In addition, a short informal interview was conducted with nursing staff. Results: Use of the screening tool was variable and fewer than half of those identified by this tool as in need of nutritional care were referred to the dietitian. Conclusion: Ward staff are prioritizing patients referred for dietetic care, even when they have been identified by the screening tool, but this is not always done systematically. Improvements could be made in the relevant documentation. Further training of ward staff and a follow‐up audit should be undertaken.
An extended role for the hospital optometrist
Authors: Oster J. , Culham L.E. , Daniel R. 
Published: July 2002

SummaryThe management of patients within shared care programmes would seem to have significant benefits in terms of individuals' convenience, addressing resource needs and expanding professional horizons. To date, these schemes have typically concentrated on the monitoring of patients with diabetes and glaucoma. At Moorfields Eye Hospital, we attempted to develop the role of the hospital optometrist by establishing a study to evaluate the clinical appraisal of new referrals in a busy out‐patient clinic. The results showed a high level of diagnostic accuracy which suggests that the role of hospital optometrists may be successfully extended to include some aspects of patient evaluation not typically undertaken.
Restraint Use, Restraint Orders, and the Risk of Falls in Hospitalized Patients
Authors: Shorr Ronald I. , Guillen M. Katherine , Rosenblatt Linda C. , Walker Kathryn , Caudle Cynthia E. , Kritchevsky Stephen B. 
Published: July 2002

OBJECTIVES:TTo determine the relationship between physical restraints and falls in the acute hospital setting.DESIGN:Matched case‐control study.SETTING:Inpatients at a 528‐bed, urban, community‐based, acute care hospital.PARTICIPANTS:Two hundred twenty‐eight patients who fell during hospitalization and 228 controls matched to cases by nursing unit and length of stay.MEASUREMENTS:Persons who fell were systematically evaluated at the time of fall by trained fall evaluators. For the cases, we sought to validate “orders for restraints” using “observed restraint use,” defined as the use of restraints at the time of fall as determined through direct observation or interviews with nursing staff.RESULTS:Patients with orders for restraints were more likely to fall than patients without orders for restraints (multivariate relative risk = 6.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.8–22.3). However, in the cases, there was poor correlation between “orders for restraints” and “observed restraint use” at the time of fall (kappa = 0.15, 95% CI = −0.4–0.34).CONCLUSION:Because orders for restraint use may not reflect actual restraint use at the time of a fall, observational studies relating use of restraints to the risk of falls should be interpreted with caution. Despite this caveat, we could find no evidence that restraints protect hospitalized patients from falling. J Am Geriatr Soc 50:526–529, 2002.
Collision-induced transitions between A 1Σu+ and b 3Πu states of Na2: The ‘‘gateway’’ effect of perturbed levels
Authors: Li Li , Zhu Qingshi , Lyyra A. M. , Whang T.-J. , Stwalley W. C. , Field R. W. , Alexander M. H. 
Published: July 2002

We present here the best qualitative and quantitative illustration to date of the perturbation ‘‘gateway’’ effect in collision-induced transitions between two mutually perturbing electronic states. The gateway effect, as described by Gelbart and Freed [Chem. Phys. Lett. 18, 470 (1973)], is a suggestion that all collision-induced transfer of population between two electronic states proceeds through a small number of isolated-molecule eigenstates which are of mixed electronic character, the ‘‘gateway levels,’’ and that the rates for such gateway-mediated processes are related to the mixing fractions in the gateway levels. The gateway levels here are the Na2 A 1Σu+ v′=26∼b 3Π2u v′=28 J′=16e,a-symmetry levels which are significantly mixed owing to an extremely small spin–orbit perturbation matrix element (the neighboring J′=15 and 17e,s-symmetry levels are essentially free of mixing). A cw optical–optical double resonance (OODR) scheme is used to PUMP a single parent level and PROBE single daughter and granddaughter levels.
The oscillator strengths for the PUMP and PROBE transitions are derived, respectively, from the A 1Σu+←X 1Σg+ (26,4) band and the 2 3Π2g←b 3Π2u (28,28) subband. The qualitative observation of the gateway effect is that whenever an a-symmetry A 1Σu+ v′=26 parent level is selected, b 3Π2u v′=28 daughter and granddaughter levels are observably populated, but when an s-symmetry A 1Σu+ v′=26 parent is selected, essentially no population is detected in b 3Π2u v′=28 daughter and granddaughter levels (i.e., no perturbation, no interelectronic state transfer). The quantitative observation of the gateway effect is that when a J′=12 (or 14)e,a parent is selected, the most efficiently populated rotational levels of the other electronic state are granddaughter levels centered about the J′=16e,a gateway daughter level rather than about the J′ value of (or minimum energy gap relative to) the parent level.
Combining many multiple alignments in one improved alignment.
Authors: Bucka-Lassen K , Caprani O , Hein J 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
MOTIVATION: The fact that the multiple sequence alignment problem is of high complexity has led to many different heuristic algorithms attempting to find a solution in what would be considered a reasonable amount of computation time and space. Very few of these heuristics produce results that are guaranteed always to lie within a certain distance of an optimal solution (given a measure of quality, e.g. parsimony). Most practical heuristics cannot guarantee this, but nevertheless perform well for certain cases. An alignment, obtained with one of these heuristics and with a bad overall score, is not unusable though, it might contain important information on how substrings should be aligned. This paper presents a method that extracts qualitatively good sub-alignments from a set of multiple alignments and combines these into a new, often improved alignment. The algorithm is implemented as a variant of the traditional dynamic programming technique. RESULTS: An implementation of ComAlign (the algorithm that combines multiple alignments) has been run on several sets of artificially generated sequences and a set of 5S RNA sequences. To assess the quality of the alignments obtained, the results have been compared with the output of MSA 2.1 (Gupta et al., Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Pattern Matching, 1995; Kececioglu et al., http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld. de/bcd/Lectures/kececioglu.html, 1995). In all cases, ComAlign was able to produce a solution with a score comparable to the solution obtained by MSA. The results also show that ComAlign actually does combine parts from different alignments and not just select the best of them. AVAILABILITY: The C source code (a Smalltalk version is being worked on) of ComAlign and the other programs that have been implemented in this context are free and available on WWW (http://www.daimi.au.dk/ √µcaprani). CONTACT: klaus@bucka-lassen.dk; jotun@pop.bio.au.dk;ocaprani@daimi.au.dk