bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing the anatomical characteristics of renal masses has a limited effect on the prediction of pathological outcomes in solid, enhancing, small renal masses: results using the PADUA classification system
Authors: Shin Tae Young , Kim Jongchan , Koo Kyo Chul , Lim Sey Kiat , Kim Dong Wook , Kang Min Woong , Rha Koon Ho , Choi Young Deuk , Ham Won Sik
Published: September 2013

Objective

To evaluate whether assessing the anatomical characteristics of renal masses increases the accuracy of prediction of tumour pathology in small renal masses (SRMs).

Patients and Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 1129 consecutive patients who underwent extirpative surgeries for a clinical T1 renal mass, for which the preoperative aspects and dimensions used for an anatomical (PADUA) classification were available.

Multivariate logistic regression analyses of demographic and anatomical characteristics were performed.

Nomograms to predict malignancy and high grade pathology were constructed using a basic model (age, sex and tumour size), and an extended model (anatomical characteristics incorporated into the basic model), and the area under the curve (AUC) between models was compared.

Results

Age, sex and tumour size were significantly associated with malignancy and high grade pathology in the T1 and T1a category (except sex for high grade pathology in T1a tumours). Exophytic rate (T1 and T1a) and renal sinus or urinary collecting system involvement (only T1a) were also significant predictors of high grade pathology.

Nomograms using the extended model for malignancy showed an insignificant AUC increase compared with those using the basic model (T1, from 0.771 to 0.780, P = 0.149, and T1a, from 0.803 to 0.819, P = 0.055).

For high grade pathology, the extended model achieved a significant AUC increase (from 0.595 to 0.643, P = 0.014) in the T1a category, but the AUC for both T1 and T1a tumours showed merely modest competence (0.654 and 0.643, respectively).

Conclusion

Age, sex and tumour size are the primary predictors of tumour pathology of SRMs, and incorporating other anatomical characteristics has only a limited positive effect on the accuracy of prediction of pathological outcomes.
Occult lymph node metastases in patients with carcinoma invading bladder muscle: incidence after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and cystectomy vs after cystectomy alone
Authors: Mertens Laura S. , Meijer Richard P. , Meinhardt Wim , van der Poel Henk G. , Bex Axel , Kerst J. Martijn , van der Heijden Michiel S. , Bergman Andries M. , Horenblas Simon , van Rhijn Bas W.G.
Published: September 2013

Objective

To investigate the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) on the incidence of lymph node (LN) metastases in clinically node‐negative (cN0) patients with carcinoma invading the bladder muscle (MIBC).

Patients and Methods

Between 1990 and 2012, 828 consecutive patients underwent radical cystectomy (RC) with extended pelvic LN dissection (ePLND), of whom 441 had cT2–4N0M0 stage disease.

A total of 83 patients received NAC then underwent RC and 358 patients underwent RC only. The ePLND template and the indication for NAC remained the same during the study period.

The incidence of occult LN metastases was compared between the groups. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to investigate the influence of NAC, cT stage, gender and the preoperative staging technique used (computed tomography [CT] or positron emission tomography/CT) on the occurrence of LN metastases.

Overall survival (OS) and disease‐specific survival were analysed using the Kaplan–Meier method.

Results

Patients in the NAC group more often had locally advanced MIBC than patients in the non‐NAC group (cT3–4: 88.0 vs 30.2%). In the NAC group, 19.3% of patients had LN metastases vs 28.5% of the patients in the non‐NAC group (P = 0.099). In the patients with cT3–4 disease, the occurrence of LN metastases was significantly lower in the NAC group than in the non‐NAC group (21.9 vs 40.7%, respectively, P = 0.002).

In multivariable analysis, adjusting for cT stage, gender and staging method, NAC was independently associated with a lower likelihood of LN metastases (OR: 0.41, 95% CI 0.21–0.79; P = 0.008).

Among the patients with cT3–4 disease, the median OS was significantly longer in the NAC group than in the non‐NAC group (68.0 vs 23.0 months, P = 0.047)

Conclusion

These data suggest that, along with a downstaging effect on the primary bladder tumour, NAC is associated with a lower incidence of occult LN metastases at the time of RC.
Epidermal growth factor receptor‐targeted therapy in locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the penis
Authors: Carthon Bradley C. , Ng Chaan S. , Pettaway Curtis A. , Pagliaro Lance C.
Published: September 2013

Objective

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)‐targeted therapy in patients with advanced penile or scrotal cancer.

Patients and Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of patients with penile or scrotal squamous cell carcinoma who had visited our tertiary cancer centre between 2002 and 2009, including their subsequent treatment and follow‐up.

We collected details of EGFR‐targeted therapy and clinical outcomes. Treatment‐associated time‐to‐disease‐progression (TTP), overall survival (OS), responses to therapy and toxicity were evaluated.

Results

A total of 24 patients had received EGFR‐targeted therapies, including cetuximab, erlotinib and gefitinib. The most common treatment given (to 67% of patients) was cetuximab combined with one or more cytotoxic drugs.

The most common adverse effect was skin rash (71%). The median (range) TTP and OS were 11.3 (1–40) and 29.6 (2–205) weeks, respectively. The OS time for patients with visceral or bone metastases was significantly shorter than it was for those without (24.7 vs 49.9 weeks, P = 0.013).

Among 17 patients treated with cetuximab alone or in combination with cisplatin, there were four partial responses (23.5%) including two patients with apparently chemotherapy‐resistant tumours.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that cetuximab has antitumour activity in metastatic penile cancer, and may enhance the effect of cisplatin‐based chemotherapy.

Prospective studies of EGFR‐targeted therapies in men with these tumours are warranted.
Awareness of and knowledge about mother‐to‐child infections in Japanese pregnant women
Authors: Morioka Ichiro , Sonoyama Ayako , Tairaku Shinya , Ebina Yasuhiko , Nagamata Satoshi , Morizane Mayumi , Tanimura Kenji , Iijima Kazumoto , Yamada Hideto
Published: September 2013

To reduce the incidence of infants with congenital infections, women should be aware of and know prevention measures against maternal infection with mother‐to‐child infections during pregnancy. Our objective was to assess the awareness of and knowledge about mother‐to‐child infections in Japanese pregnant women. A survey of 343 Japanese pregnant women was completed. Awareness of 13 pathogens capable of mother‐to‐child transmission was surveyed. Knowledge about the transmission route, the most susceptible time of infection that may cause severe fetal disease during pregnancy, and methods to prevent maternal infection were investigated for four major pathogens (cytomegalovirus, rubella virus, Toxoplasma gondii, and parvovirus B19) and results were compared between these pathogens. The proportion of women aware of pathogens concerning TORCH syndrome was the following: rubella virus 76%, Treponema pallidum 69%, Toxoplasma gondii 58%, parvovirus B19 28%, herpes simplex virus 27%, and cytomegalovirus 18%. Only 8% knew how cytomegalovirus is transmitted, and only 12% knew how parvovirus B19 is transmitted; both were significantly lower than those who knew transmission routes for rubella virus or Toxoplasma gondii. The proportion of women who knew the most susceptible time for severe fetal infection by maternal acquisition of cytomegalovirus, Toxoplasma gondii, or parvovirus B19 was significantly lower than that for rubella virus. The vast majority of surveyed women were not aware of methods to prevent maternal infection with cytomegalovirus or parvovirus B19. In conclusion, current awareness of and knowledge about cytomegalovirus and parvovirus B19 infection are low in Japanese pregnant women.
A Survey of Techniques for Event Detection in Twitter
Authors: Atefeh Farzindar , Khreich Wael
Published: September 2013

Twitter is among the fastest‐growing microblogging and online social networking services. Messages posted on Twitter (tweets) have been reporting everything from daily life stories to the latest local and global news and events. Monitoring and analyzing this rich and continuous user‐generated content can yield unprecedentedly valuable information, enabling users and organizations to acquire actionable knowledge. This article provides a survey of techniques for event detection from Twitter streams. These techniques aim at finding real‐world occurrences that unfold over space and time. In contrast to conventional media, event detection from Twitter streams poses new challenges. Twitter streams contain large amounts of meaningless messages and polluted content, which negatively affect the detection performance. In addition, traditional text mining techniques are not suitable, because of the short length of tweets, the large number of spelling and grammatical errors, and the frequent use of informal and mixed language. Event detection techniques presented in literature address these issues by adapting techniques from various fields to the uniqueness of Twitter. This article classifies these techniques according to the event type, detection task, and detection method and discusses commonly used features. Finally, it highlights the need for public benchmarks to evaluate the performance of different detection approaches and various features.
Endothelial cells are highly heterogeneous at the level of cytokine‐induced insulin resistance
Authors: Woth Kathrin , Prein Claudia , Steinhorst Katja , Diehl Sandra , Boehncke Wolf‐Henning , Buerger Claudia
Published: September 2013

The endothelial wall plays a crucial role in various diseases as it serves as the barrier between circulatory system and organ tissue. Inflammation‐driven insulin resistance and subsequent endothelial dysfunction represent a pathomechanism in cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. It was recently suggested that insulin resistance also contributes to the pathogenesis of psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the skin. However, it is not clear whether similar mechanisms at the endothelium contribute to the disease. In this study, we ask which endothelial cells are most suitable to address this question. We investigated the insulin response of four cell types (primary cells and cell lines) representing different vascular beds (micro‐ and macrovascular cells) in the presence of different pro‐inflammatory cytokines. All four cell types used responded well to insulin; however, the ability to become resistant to insulin due to an inflammatory stimulus by cytokines involved in psoriasis (e.g. IL‐1β, IL‐12, IL‐17, IL‐23 and TNF‐α) was very heterogeneous and could not be attributed to the differential expression of the cognate cytokine receptors. We conclude that this disparity is due to the different origins and properties of the endothelial cells used. Thus, endothelial cells should be carefully selected for the purpose of the respective study, particularly when it comes to analysing the pathogenesis of a disease and the search of new molecular targets for innovative therapies.
Lecithin retinol acyltransferase as a potential prognostic marker for malignant melanoma
Authors: Hassel Jessica C. , Amann Philipp M. , Schadendorf Dirk , Eichmüller Stefan B. , Nagler Markus , Bazhin Alexandr V.
Published: September 2013

Metabolism inside cells differs between cancer and normal cells. Because disturbance of vitamin A metabolism might be important, we investigated expression of the enzymes lecithin retinol acyltransferase (LRAT) and RPE65 by immunohistochemistry in melanoma metastases and melanocytic nevi. Semiquantitative evaluation of this expression revealed downregulated expression of RPE65 in malignant melanoma compared with benign melanocytic nevi (P < 0.001). In contrast, expression of LRAT was not significantly different (P = 0.339). High LRAT expression in melanoma metastases was inversely correlated with patient survival; Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed earlier melanoma‐related death (P = 0.003). Expression of LRAT might, therefore, be a prognostic marker of the clinical course of melanoma.
Transnational lifestyles among Russian Israelis: a follow‐up study
Authors: REMENNICK LARISSA
Published: September 2013

Despite the expanding use of the transnational perspective, grounded qualitative research on everyday expressions of transnationalism has been scant. In this article, I explore the economic and social ties with former homelands among three categories of former Soviet immigrants of the 1990s in Israel, namely ethnically mixed families split by emigration; young professionals and entrepreneurs; and retirees who keep two homes – one in Israel and the other in Russia or Ukraine. To follow temporal changes in transnational lifestyles, I interviewed the same informants twice, in 2000 and 2010. The findings suggest that transnational activities reflect life‐course changes and can evolve in several possible directions. These are (1) an attrition of ties with former homelands with increasing integration in the host country; (2) a steady or ascending pace of transnational activities eventually leading to return migration; and (3) permanent low‐grade ties with former homelands and networking with co‐ethnics in other countries of the post‐Soviet diaspora. I conclude that relatively few migrants can sustain intense transnational lifestyle over many years; there are several critical life‐course points when most transnational migrants have to decide where their home is.
Situating transnational families' care‐giving arrangements: the role of institutional contexts
Authors: KILKEY MAJELLA , MERLA LAURA
Published: September 2013

Scholars sometimes conceptualize migrants and their kin as ‘transnational families' in acknowledgement that migration does not end with settlement and that migrants maintain regular contacts and exchange care across borders. Recent studies reveal that state policies and international regulations influence the maintenance of transnational family solidarity. We aim to contribute to our understanding of how families' care‐giving arrangements are situated within institutional contexts. We specify an analytical framework comprising a typology of care‐giving arrangements within transnational families, a typology of resources they require for care giving, and a specification of institutions through which those resources are in part derived. We illustrate the framework through a comparative analysis of two groups of migrants – Salvadorans in Belgium and Poles in the UK. We conclude by arguing that while institutions matter they are not the sole factor, and identify how future research might develop a more fully comprehensive situated transnationalism.
How manufacturing industries connect cities across the world: extending research on ‘multiple globalizations’
Authors: KRÄTKE STEFAN
Published: September 2013

In this article, I concentrate on a macro‐level analysis of inter‐urban linkages in a ‘world city network’. Empirical research on the formation of a world city network has mostly concentrated on global service providers. Yet, globally operating manufacturing firms also choose distinct urban regions throughout the world as locational anchoring points. In this article, using social network analysis, I present the first global‐scale analysis of how manufacturing firms connected cities across the world (in 2010). To detect the differing ‘sectoral profiles’ and nodal centralities of cities functioning as geographical hubs of transnational production networks, it is necessary to analyse the network structure of distinct industrial subsectors within the global urban system. The data collected for analysis cover 120 top global firms from three manufacturing subsectors, of which two are analysed in more detail than the third. I then compare the nodal centralities of cities included in these subsectors' global networks with the GaWC research on the producer services sector that has been at the centre of previous analyses of the world city network. The comparison reveals the cities' differing positioning within ‘multiple globalizations’. The aim of the article is to extend research on world city networks.
Evidence of a transnational capitalist class‐for‐itself: the determinants of PAC activity among foreign firms in the Global Fortune 500, 2000–2006
Authors: MURRAY JOSHUA
Published: September 2013

Transnational capitalist class (TCC) theory is rooted in the claim that the globalization of the economy has led to a globalization of economic interests and of class formation. However, systematic evidence linking the indicators of transnational class formation with political behaviour is largely missing. In this article, I combine data on board of director interlocks among the 500 largest business firms in the world between 2000 and 2006 with data on the political donations to US elections of foreign corporations via the corporate political action committees (PACs) of their subsidiaries, divisions or affiliates. Controlling for the various interests of individual firms, I find that foreign firms that are highly central in the transnational intercorporate network contribute more money to US elections than do the less central foreign firms. Given prior research on board of director interlocks, this finding suggests that a segment of the transnational business community has emerged as a class‐for‐itself.
Divine Freedom and Free Will Defenses
Authors: Franks W. Paul
Published: September 2013

This paper considers a problem that arises for free will defenses when considering the nature of God's own will. If God is perfectly good and performs praiseworthy actions, but is unable to do evil, then why must humans have the ability to do evil in order to perform such actions? This problem has been addressed by Theodore Guleserian, but at the expense of denying God's essential goodness. I examine and critique his argument and provide a solution to the initial problem that does not require abandoning God's essential goodness.
General Classes of Multiple Binary Regression Models in Dose Finding Problems for Combination Therapies
Authors: Gasparini Mauro
Published: September 2013

The dose finding problem for single compounds has been generalized to combination therapies and several binary regression models have been proposed in the literature. We propose general tools to evaluate them, in particular dose-free parameterizations of the risks of toxicity and risk ratio functions and plots. New classes of risk functions are also proposed. They generate low dimensional parametric risk functions which are made available to the researcher and commented on for their clinical relevance.
Determining High-Risk Zones for Unexploded World War II Bombs by Using Point Process Methodology
Authors: Mahling Monia , Höhle Michael , Küchenhoff Helmut
Published: September 2013

To prevent accidents caused by unexploded bombs from the Second World War, high-risk zones need to be determined. We introduce two statistical methods to determine such zones by considering patterns of exploded and unexploded bombs as realizations of inhomogeneous spatial Poisson point processes. The first method is based on the intensity of the point process; the second method on its nearest neighbour distance. Although the performance of the two methods is similar, the intensity-based method has the advantage of a more direct specification of risk and should hence be preferred. Risk that is associated with a zone is defined as the probability that not all unexploded bombs are in the zone. We propose and develop a procedure to calculate this probability. This procedure is then also used to investigate consequences of additional spatial clustering, in which case the intensity-based method is shown to be conservative. Our work is motivated and illustrated by World War II explosive ordnance disposal by German authorities on the basis of aerial pictures taken by the allies.
A Spatial Time-to-Event Approach for Estimating Associations Between Air Pollution and Preterm Birth
Authors: Chang Howard H. , Reich Brian J. , Miranda Marie Lynn
Published: September 2013

The paper describes a Bayesian spatial discrete time survival model to estimate the effect of air pollution on the risk of preterm birth. The standard approach treats prematurity as a binary outcome and cannot effectively examine time varying exposures during pregnancy. Time varying exposures can arise either in short-term lagged exposures due to seasonality in air pollution or long-term cumulative exposures due to changes in length of exposure. Our model addresses this challenge by viewing gestational age as time-to-event data where each pregnancy becomes at risk at a prespecified time (e.g. the 28th week). The pregnancy is then followed until either a birth occurs before the 37th week (preterm), or it reaches the 37th week, and a full-term birth is expected. The model also includes a flexible spatially varying baseline hazard function to control for unmeasured spatial confounders and to borrow information across areal units. The approach proposed is applied to geocoded birth records in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for the period 2001–2005. We examine the risk of preterm birth that is associated with total cumulative and 4-week lagged exposure to ambient fine particulate matter.
Multivariate Forecasting of Road Traffic Flows in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity and Measurement Errors
Authors: Anacleto Osvaldo , Queen Catriona , Albers Casper J.
Published: September 2013

Linear multiregression dynamic models, which combine a graphical representation of a multivariate time series with a state space model, have been shown to be a promising class of models for forecasting traffic flow data. Analysis of flows at a busy motorway intersection near Manchester, UK, highlights two important modelling issues: accommodating different levels of traffic variability depending on the time of day and accommodating measurement errors due to data collection errors. This paper extends linear multiregression dynamic models to address these issues. Additionally, the paper investigates how close the approximate forecast limits that are usually used with the linear multiregression dynamic model are to the true, but not so readily available, forecast limits.
Toward a Molecular Understanding of Voltage‐Gated Potassium Channels
Authors: JOHO ROLF H.
Published: September 2013

Voltage‐Gated Potassium Channels. Many different types of potassium (K+) channels exist and they play a central role in the fine tuning of excitability properties. Of the distinct subpopulations of K+ channels expressed in different cells, voltage‐gated K+ channels have been studied most thoroughly at a molecular level. Over the last few years, the joint application of recombinant DNA technology together with electrophysiology, such as the voltage clamp and the patch clamp techniques, has produced a wealth of information. We have begun to unravel the genetic basis of ion channel diversity. In particular, the Xenopus oocyte expression system has turned out to be of enormous experimental value. Oocytes microinjected with “cloned” mRNA have been used to gain insight into biophysical and pharmacologic properties of voltage‐gated K+, Na+, and Ca2+ channels. Here, we will review our understanding of K+ channel diversity based upon the fact that ion channels are encoded as a large multigene family. We have caught a first glimpse at possible molecular mechanisms underlying several biophysical properties characteristic for voltage‐gated ion channels: voltage dependence of activation and inactivation, and ion permeation and selectivity. We will discuss molecular mechanisms of K+ channel activation and inactivation. We will also describe experiments that led to the identification of the “pore region,” and we will present a model of a potassium selective ion channel pore.
Sudden Cardiac Death: Future Approaches Based on Identification and Control of Transient Risk Factors
Authors: MYERBURG ROBERT J. , KESSLER KENNETH M. , KIMURA SHINICHI , CASTELLANOS AGUSTIN
Published: September 2013

Sudden Cardiac Death. Future progress in the ability to control the problem of sudden cardiac death will require new approaches in applied epidemiology, methods of accurately evaluating therapeutic outcome, and techniques to identify and control those transient risk factors that are responsible for the initiation of fatal arrhythmias. In regard to the latter, transient risk factors are distinguished from classical risk factors in two ways: (1) they are not present continuously over time, thus confounding sampling techniques among a population; and (2) their dynamic nature suggests a proximate role in the initiation of potentially fatal arrhythmias in contrast to the role of classical risk factors in the genesis of the underlying diseases. Transient risk factors derive from the structure/function model of sudden cardiac death, which places structural abnormalities in a conditioning role, establishing the sensitivity to a transient destabilizing influence. In contrast, functional abnormalities are those conditions immediately responsible for destabilizing the system, establishing vulnerability to potentially fatal arrhythmias. They include four categories of risk: (1) transient ischemia and reperfusion; (2) systemic abnormalities, such as hemodynamic dysfunction and fluid and electrolyte imbalance; (3) autonomic fluctuations, both central and cardiac; and (4) cardiac toxic states, including proarrhythmic effects of antiarrhythmic drugs and arrhythmogenic effects of other substances. Sudden cardiac death is a dynamic problem, and its pathogenesis contains dynamic features. The ability to identify transient risk factors and to control them before they exert their influence on a conditioned electrophysiologic system will provide new inroads into the problem of sudden cardiac death.
Body condition dynamics and the cost‐of‐delay hypothesis in a temperate‐breeding duck
Authors: Warren Jeffrey M. , Cutting Kyle A. , Koons David N.
Published: September 2013

Pre‐breeding body condition is an important determinant of reproductive success in birds, largely through its influence on timing of breeding. Declines in clutch size and recruitment probability within breeding seasons indicate a tradeoff may exist between the number of young (clutch size) and quality of young (recruitment probability). We explored local drivers of pre‐breeding body condition and tested predictions of the cost‐of‐delay hypothesis in female lesser scaup Aythya affinis. Yearling females arrived on the study site in lower body condition than older females, but both age classes had similar rates of body condition gain on the breeding grounds prior to nesting. Rates of body condition gain were positively influenced by water temperature, a proxy for wetland phenology. The effect of water level was asymptotic and interacted with water temperature, with greater rates of gain in body condition occurring in years with low water levels. Our results supported the predicted response of clutch size to the rate of pre‐breeding body condition gain. After accounting for lay date, clutch size was positively related to the rate of body condition gain (= 0.08 ± 0.039). We did not find support for a predicted interaction between rate of body condition gain and intra‐seasonal decline in clutch size (= 0.01 ± 0.01). Our results indicate that local conditions during pre‐breeding influence body condition dynamics in female lesser scaup, which subsequently affects clutch size.
Do invasive freshwater fish species grow better when they are invasive?
Authors: Rypel Andrew L.
Published: September 2013

A frequent assumption in invasion ecology is that invasive species have enhanced growth rates in their invasive ranges. However, invasions frequently occur in sub‐tropical and tropical environments where growth could be higher simply due to climatic conditions rather than novel habitat. In this study, a meta‐analysis of growth rates (length‐at‐age data) was completed for six invasive freshwater fish species: common carp Cyprinus carpio, largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, brown trout Salmo trutta, brown bullhead Ictalurus nebulosus, flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris and northern snakehead Channa argus. Significant effects of climate on growth were observed for all species except common carp, and following normalization of growth for climate effects, a range of growth responses between native and invasive populations were revealed. Two species (brown trout, flathead catfish) showed significantly increased growth rates in invasive compared to native ranges, but two species (common carp, largemouth bass) showed significantly faster growth in native ranges, and two other species (northern snakehead, brown bullhead) showed no difference in growth rates. No species showed both significantly enhanced growth rates and initial sizes in invasive compared to native ranges. Using the comparative method, countergradient growth variations were apparent for all species within their native ranges and for all but one species in invasive ranges. Invasive populations of freshwater fish do not always grow faster when invasive and future studies need to consider growth covariates (e.g. climate and countergradient growth) prior to comparing life‐history differences between invasive and native populations.
Consequences of sex‐selective harvesting and harvest refuges in experimental meta‐populations
Authors: Snyder Kate T. , Freidenfelds Nicole A. , Miller Tom E. X.
Published: September 2013

Harvesting for food or sport is often non‐random with respect to demographic state, such as size or life stage. The population‐level consequences of such selective harvesting depend upon which states are harvested and how those states contribute to population dynamics. We focused on a form of selective harvesting that has not previously been investigated in an experimental context: sex‐selective harvesting, a common feature of exploited, dioecious populations. Using simple metapopulations (two patches connect by dispersal) of sexually dimorphic Bruchid beetles in the laboratory, we contrasted the effects of female‐selective, male‐selective, and non‐selective harvesting over six generation of population dynamics. We also tested the ability of a harvest refuge (one patch of the metapopulation free from harvesting) to mitigate the effects of harvesting, and whether refuge effects interacted with sex selectivity. Sex‐selective harvesting significantly perturbed operational sex ratios and harvest refuges dampened these perturbations. Metapopulations assigned to male‐selective and non‐selective treatments were able to fully compensate for harvesting, such that their dynamics did not differ from non‐harvested controls. Only female‐selective harvesting led to significant reductions in population size and this effect was completely offset by dispersal from a harvest refuge. A two‐sex model confirmed that population dynamics are more sensitive to female vs. male harvesting, but suggested that higher levels of male harvest than included in our experiment would cause population decline. We discuss the roles of density‐dependent competition and frequency‐dependent sexual processes in the population response to sex‐selective harvesting.
Oridonin ameliorates neuropathological changes and behavioural deficits in a mouse model of cerebral amyloidosis
Authors: Zhang Zhi‐Yuan , Daniels Rolf , Schluesener Hermann J.
Published: September 2013

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of neurodegeneration and the major cause of dementia. This multifactorial disorder is clinically defined by progressive behavioural and cognitive deficits, and neuropathologically characterized by β‐amyloid aggregation, hyperphosphorylated tau and neuroinflammation. Oridonin, a diterpenoid isolated from Chinese herb Rabdosia rubescens, has multiple biological properties, especially anti‐inflammatory and neuroregulatory activities. Potential therapeutic effects of Oridonin were investigated in an animal model of cerebral amyloidosis for AD, transgenic APP/PS1 mice. Oridonin was suspended in carboxymethylcellulose or loaded with a nanostructured emulsion, and was orally administrated or injected. Before, during and following the experimental treatments, behavioural tests were performed with these transgenic mice and their naive littermates. Following relatively short‐term treatments of 10 days, brain tissue of mice were removed for immunohistochemical assays. The results indicate that both oral treatment and injection of Oridonin significantly attenuated β‐amyloid deposition, plaque‐associated APP expression and microglial activation in brain of transgenic mice. Furthermore, injection of Oridonin‐nanoemulsion ameliorated deficits in nesting, an important affiliative behaviour, and in social interaction. Additional in vitro studies indicated that Oridonin effectively attenuated inflammatory reaction of macrophage and microglial cell lines. Our results suggest that Oridonin might be considered a promising therapeutic option for human AD or other neurodegenerative diseases.
Commentary: Missing heritability, polygenic scores, and gene–environment correlation
Authors: Plomin Robert
Published: September 2013

This special issue amply fulfils its aim of moving the study of gene × environment (GE) interplay forward constructively and creatively, exploiting contributions from diverse disciplines. Rather than discussing the many interesting findings and methods in this special issue, I will comment on two cross‐cutting issues – one about genes and the other about the environment – that came to mind as I read these articles.
Commentary: Study of gene–environment interplay – a lesson in how to keep oneself busy for the foreseeable future
Authors: Viding Essi
Published: September 2013

Psychologists and psychiatrists have long been aware that individuals differ in their response to environmental stressors. It is equally apparent that whilst positive or corrective environmental factors help some individuals, others seem to benefit little, if at all. To make the matters even more interesting (at least for a researcher who is hoping for a long and painstaking road of scientific discovery), it is not safe to assume that environments operate entirely independently of the study participants.
Editorial: gene–environment interplay in child psychology and psychiatry – challenges and ways forward
Authors: Petrill Stephen A. , Bartlett Christopher W. , Blair Clancy
Published: September 2013

This special issue in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry presents several invited articles examining gene–environment interplay in child development and psychopathology. Models of gene–environment interplay have been exhaustively discussed in the literature, including an important contribution by Rutter, Moffitt and Caspi (2006) published in this journal.
Commentary: Gene by environment interplay and psychopathology – in search of a paradigm
Authors: Nigg Joel T.
Published: September 2013

The articles in this Special Issue (SI) extend research on G×E in multiple ways, showing the growing importance of specifying kinds of G×E models (e.g., bioecological, susceptibility, stress‐diathesis), incorporation of sophisticated ways of measuring types of G×E correlations (rGE), checking effects of statistical artifact, exemplifying an impressive range of quantitative and biological methodologies, and pointing to clearly needed next‐step studies such as summarizing across many genes in gene sets (Bentley et al.) or in genome‐wide pathway based approaches to G×E (Winham & Biernacka) and prediction of clinical outcomes (Rapee et al.). As a group, they document nicely that gene × environment research has come of age. What is the import of this? Does it represent a major new development in our field, or merely an incremental change of a framework that remains fundamentally unchanged?
What do patients need to know? Living with inflammatory bowel disease
Authors: Lesnovska Katarina P , Börjeson Sussanne , Hjortswang Henrik , Frisman Gunilla H
Published: September 2013

Aims and objectives

To explore the need for knowledge as expressed by patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background

Inflammatory bowel disease has a major impact on physical and emotional well‐being, placing considerable demands on patients' management of daily activities. Although inflammatory bowel disease patients' level of knowledge about their disease has been previously studied, it is necessary to learn more about their self‐expressed needs.

Design

The study was designed to explore patients' need for knowledge; therefore, an inductive method was chosen.

Methods

Thirty patients with inflammatory bowel disease were interviewed. Content analysis was used to describe their need for knowledge.

Results

The analysis generated three categories and eight subcategories: (1) knowledge related to the course of the disease (subcategories: understanding causal relationships between symptoms and the disease, complications related to the disease and understanding treatment), (2) knowledge related to managing everyday life (subcategories: behaviour that enhances well‐being and managing social life) and (3) difficulty understanding and assimilating information (subcategories: shifting knowledge needs, help to understand information and reasons for wanting or not wanting knowledge).

Conclusion

Knowledge needs were related to what to expect when living with inflammatory bowel disease in order to manage everyday life. There was a great variation in the need for knowledge, which was greatest immediately following diagnosis and during relapse.

Relevance to clinical practice

It is important for healthcare providers to ascertain the patients' individual knowledge needs and together with them formulate an individual care plan that gives the patient the necessary knowledge to manage their health and social life.
Clinical and cytogenetic results of a large series of amniocentesis cases from Turkey: Report of 6124 cases
Authors: Ocak Zeynep , Özlü Tülay , Yazıcıoğlu Hasan Fehmi , Özyurt Osman , Aygün Mehmet
Published: September 2013

Aim

The aim of this study was to document the clinical and cytogenetic results of a large series of amniocentesis (AS) cases from Turkey.

Material and Methods

Second‐trimester amniocentesis cases performed in Suleymaniye Maternity Hospital for Research and Training between January 2007 and December 2011 were included.

Results

During this period, 6124 AS were performed. Indications were increased risk in maternal serum screening (MSS) (56%), advanced maternal age (29%) and pathologic ultrasound finding (11.5%). Most frequent MSS abnormality was abnormal triple test result (58%). Overall culture success rate was 98.8%. Chromosomal abnormality was detected in 215 (3.6%) of the 6052 cytogenetic results (74.9% numerical, 25.1% structural). Most frequent numerical chromosomal abnormality was trisomy 21 (61.9%). Clinically insignificant polymorphisms were the most frequent structural changes (n = 571). Most frequent polymorphism was increase in heterochromatin region in the 1st chromosome (n = 158). Advanced maternal age had a positive predictive value of 5.2%. Among the MSS tests, the combined test had the highest positive predictive value (5.2%).

Conclusions

In our study, abnormal MSS (and among these, abnormal triple test result) was the most frequent indication for amniocentesis. Our overall culture success rate was 98.8%. Frequency of major chromosomal abnormality was 3.2% and trisomy 21 was the most frequent abnormality.
Effect of anatomic variation in caudal tibial plateau on the tibial plateau angle in dogs: a cadaveric study
Authors: Ocal M.K. , Sabanci S.S.
Published: September 2013

Objectives

To determine the effect of using two different landmarks to identify the caudal point on the joint orientation line in the sagittal plane in tibial plateau angle measurement in dogs: the caudal margin of the medial condyle as the anatomic tibial plateau angle and the tibial insertion of the caudal cruciate ligament as the conventional tibial plateau angle.

Methods

A total of 170 tibiae from 85 mid‐ and large‐breed dogs were used. The two joint orientation lines were drawn on photographic images of the bones. The angles between the line perpendicular to the tibial axis and the two lines were then measured as the anatomic and conventional tibial plateau angle.

Results

The mean conventional tibial plateau angle (25·2 ±2·60°) and anatomic tibial plateau angle (23·5 ±2·59°) differed significantly (P<0·001), and the degree of this difference varied significantly among seven breeds (P<0·01).

Clinical Significance

The results of this study suggest that the locations of the caudal margin of the medial condyle and the tibial insertion of the caudal cruciate ligament differed, leading to inconsistent identification of the joint orientation line depending on the landmark used.
Time spent suckling is affected by different social organization in three zebra species
Authors: Pluháček J. , Olléová M. , Bartoš L. , Bartošová J.
Published: September 2013

Suckling bout duration and frequency were used in the past as an indicator of milk intake. However, later studies found no significant relationship between suckling bout duration and frequency and milk or energy intake. On the other hand recent studies are in line with the suggestion that suckling bout duration and frequency may express intensity of maternal care. The three extant zebra species differ in their ecology and social system. Mountain Equus zebra and Grévy's zebra E. grevyi live in an arid environment, whereas plains zebras E. quagga are found in savannah. Mountain and plains zebra mares form stable herds associated with high aggression and low aggression, respectively. Female Grévy's zebras form loose associations with the lowest level of aggression. The aim of this study was to re‐evaluate the suggestion that suckling bout duration and frequency are affected by social system. We observed suckling behaviour of 30 foals (16 plains zebras, 8 Grévy's zebras and 6 mountain zebras) at the Dvůr Králové Zoo, Czech Republic. We found that suckling bout duration was longest in mountain zebras, followed by plains and Grévy's zebras. Similar results were found for suckling frequency. These results coincide with the rate of aggression among mares; foals spent more time by suckling in species, where more aggression among adults occurred. Thus, the results of our study support the suggestion that suckling bout duration reflects social needs of the foal rather than milk intake requirements.
Cyclical Activity and Gestation Lags in Investment*
Authors: Ercolani Joanne S.
Published: September 2013

This paper uses a macroeconomic model of investment behaviour to identify cyclical activity in UK investment. Various cycles are detected and their lengths are estimated. As a new contribution to the business cycle literature, we estimate the gestation lags inherent in investment projects (arising from capital adjustment, buildings construction etc.) that are considered central to the creation of fluctuations in economic activity. We find multiple and statistically significant cycles in our investment series, including a 3.1‐year Kitchin cycle, a 9.6‐year Juglar cycle and a 22.2‐year Kuznets swing, driven by gestation lags of 1.1 years, 2.4 years and 12 years respectively.
Long‐term exposure to elevatedCO2andO3alters aspen foliar chemistry across developmental stages
Authors: COUTURE J. J. , HOLESKI L. M. , LINDROTH R. L.
Published: September 2013

Anthropogenic activities are altering levels of greenhouse gases to the extent that multiple and diverse ecosystem processes are being affected. Two gases that substantially influence forest health are atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and tropospheric ozone (O3). Plant chemistry will play an important role in regulating ecosystem processes in future environments, but little information exists about the longitudinal effects of elevatedCO2andO3on phytochemistry, especially for long‐lived species such as trees. To address this need, we analysed foliar chemical data from two genotypes of trembling aspen,Populus tremuloides, collected over 10 years of exposure to levels ofCO2andO3predicted for the year 2050. ElevatedCO2andO3altered both primary and secondary chemistry, and the magnitude and direction of the responses varied across developmental stages and between aspen genotypes. Our findings suggest that the effects ofCO2andO3on phytochemical traits that influence forest processes will vary over tree developmental stages, highlighting the need to continue long‐term, experimental atmospheric change research.
Calendarization with Interpolating Splines and State Space Models
Authors: Quenneville B. , Picard F. , Fortier S.
Published: September 2013

We consider the problem of transforming values from a flow time series observed over varying time intervals into values that cover calendar intervals such as day, week, month, quarter and year. We call this process calendarization. We propose simple methods based on interpolating the cumulated flows with natural spline interpolations. Alternatively, we provide state space models with missing observations to obtain smoothed values of the level of the cumulated flows. The state space models are the underlying statistical models behind Denton's benchmarking methods modified by Cholette. We therefore provide efficient alternative methods for benchmarking and temporal distribution. We show the theoretical properties of our methods, compare them and illustrate them with various examples.
Statistical Approaches to Three Key Challenges in Protein Structural Bioinformatics
Authors: Mardia Kanti V.
Published: September 2013

Proteins are the workhorses of all living systems, and protein bioinformatics deals with analysis of protein sequences (one dimensional) and structures (three dimensional). The paper reviews statistical advances in three major active areas of protein structural bioinformatics: structure comparison, Ramachandran plots and structure prediction. These topics play a key role in understanding one of the greatest unsolved problems in biology, how proteins fold from one dimension to three dimensions, and have relevance to protein functionality, drug discovery and evolutionary biology. For each area, we give the biological background and review one of the main bioinformatics solutions to a specific problem in that area. We then present statistical tools recently developed to investigate these problems, consisting of Bayesian alignment, directional distributions and hidden Markov models. We illustrate each problem with a new case-study and describe what statistics can offer to these problems. We highlight challenges facing these areas and conclude with an overall discussion.
Analysis of Interval-Censored Data with Random Unknown End Points: An Application to Soft Error Rate Estimation
Authors: Michalak Sarah E. , Hamada Michael S. , Hengartner Nicolas W.
Published: September 2013

The paper presents a Bayesian approach to analysing interval-censored data with random unknown end points. Such data occur when the event of interest is interval censored but, because of the measurement process, the interval end points are not known exactly. Modelling the measurement process permits inference that accounts for this source of variability. Our results are motivated by an experimental study that was designed to characterize the cosmic-ray–neutron-induced soft error rate of a semiconductor device.