bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clinical risk and integrated care: Lessons from Accountable Care Organisations in the United States
Authors: Lennox-Chhugani Niamh , Horrigan Dennis , Stein Doris , Jain Aarushi
Published: June 2015

Integrated care can deliver a range of quality benefits for patients, but there has been little explicit reference to clinical risk and patient safety benefits in the UK. A review of literature presented here sets out some of the patient safety benefits of provider integration that have been identified in the literature. This article sets out some lessons which can be drawn from the US experience in developing the Accountable Care Organisation model. The success of this model has been measured using metrics which include care coordination and patient safety metrics. These were based on clinical and services research conducted largely in the US. The experience of putting this into practice at one successful Accountable Care Organisation is presented, highlighting the benefits of population as well as individual level risk management. We set out the conceptual framework that can be used to ensure that the critical enablers of integration and patient safety are addressed. In conclusion, we highlight some immediate lessons that the UK could learn from.
The effect of diagnostic labels on the affective responses of college students towards peers with ‘Asperger’s Syndrome’ and ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’
Authors: Brosnan Mark , Mills Elizabeth
Published: June 2015

Given the removal of Asperger’s Syndrome label in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fifth Edition, the impact of clinical labels upon the affective responses of college students was explored. A total of 120 college students read two vignettes depicting social interactions typical of a person with autism spectrum disorder. In one vignette, they were informed that the character was a typical college student and in the other, the character had a clinical disorder (either autism spectrum disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome or Schizophrenia). Participants’ affective responses were measured on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. No significant differences in positive and negative affective responses were found between the clinical labels. However, affective responses were significantly more positive and less negative towards behaviours associated with clinical groups compared to the typical college student. The implications for students disclosing their diagnosis at university are discussed.
Family interventions in traumatized immigrants and refugees: A systematic review
Authors: Slobodin Ortal , de Jong Joop T. V. M.
Published: June 2015

The importance of the family as a unit in the aftermath of trauma necessitates the use of family interventions among immigrants and refugees. While abundant clinical material suggests that family-based trauma interventions are applicable across cultures, very little is known about the extent to which family treatment modalities are effective for immigrants and refugees. We conducted a systematic review of intervention studies that have been designed or modified specifically for traumatized immigrant and refugee families. The terms “trauma,” “family,” and “immigrants/refugees/culture” were used along with different terms for “intervention.” Studies with no research methodology were excluded. Only 6 experimental studies met our inclusion criteria; 4 of them describe school-based interventions and 2 present multifamily support groups. The shortage of research in this area does not allow clear conclusions about the effectiveness of family interventions for traumatized immigrants or refugees. The complexity of employing methodologically rigorous research in small communities is discussed. Future trials should go beyond the individualistic approach and focus on posttraumatic stress disorder to address family-level processes, such as family relationship, communication, and resilience.
Mechanics and Metagame
Authors: Donaldson Scott
Published: June 2015

This article examines the significance of two types of expertise in the popular multiplayer video game League of Legends. Previous research into multiplayer games has explored a variety of expertise models, some which concern only a player’s mastery of the controls and some which take negotiation of a game’s sociocultural context into account. This article analyzes play in League of Legends through the lens of a binary model of expertise, outlining examples of the in-game and out-of-game practices used by players in their pursuit of competitive success. I argue that forms of out-of-game or “metagame” expertise are of particular importance in League of Legends and are of such depth that further research would be highly valuable.
Relationship between personality traits and pharmacist performance in a pharmacy practice research trial
Authors: Rosenthal Meagen , Sutton Jane , Austin Zubin , Tsuyuki Ross T.
Published: June 2015

Background:

Pharmacy practice research is one avenue through which new pharmacy services can be integrated into daily pharmacy practice. However, pharmacists’ participation in this research has not been well characterized. Drawing from the literature on work performance and personality traits, 4 hypotheses were developed to gain insight into pharmacists’ performance in a pharmacy practice research trial.

Methods:

This study was an observational, cross-sectional survey of pharmacists participating in a research trial. All pharmacists were asked to complete the Big Five Inventory (BFI), a validated, reliable instrument of personality traits. These results were then compared with measures of pharmacists’ performance in the trial.

Results:

Thirty pharmacists expressed interest in participating in the trial; 23 completed the BFI and 14 actively participated in the pharmacy practice research trial. No statistically significant differences were identified in the examination of the predetermined hypotheses. Exploratory analyses revealed significant relationships between the BFI trait of extroversion and pharmacists’ participation in the study, obtaining prescribing authority for the study and the number of patients lost to follow-up.

Discussion:

In addition to identifying a number of personality traits that have been shared by other samples of pharmacists, this work suggests the possibility of an interaction between pharmacists’ personality traits and their performance in a pharmacy practice research trial.

Conclusion:

Future research should better characterize the relationship between pharmacists’ personality traits and participation in pharmacy practice research trials to gain insight into the context of pharmacy practice and how pharmacists are integrating this research into their practices.
Dramatic and persistent loss of eyelashes
Authors: Venneuguès Rowena Vicencio , Macbeth Abby , Levell Nick J
Published: June 2015

Although most paediatric hair loss presenting to clinicians is due to alopecia areata, unusual patterns should prompt a careful history.
Health Literacy and Medication Adherence Among Patients Treated in a Free Health Clinic
Authors: Sawkin Mark T. , Deppe Sara J. , Thelen Joanie , Stoner Steven C. , Dietz Craig A. , Rasu Rafia S.
Published: June 2015

Background:

A patient’s health literacy is not routinely assessed during visits with a health care provider. Since low health literacy is a risk factor for poor health outcomes, assessing health literacy should be considered as part of the standard medical workup.

Objectives:

To evaluate the health literacy levels and medication adherence of patients treated by pharmacists in both the general medicine and the chronic care clinics at an urban free health clinic.

Methods:

Eligible patients from the free health clinic completed the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), a health literacy measurement tool, during their clinic visit in 2011. Medication adherence was self-reported by the patients.

Results:

A total of 100 patients participated (mean age = 48). The majority of participants were female (56%) and white (55%). Most (64%) of the patients scored at a high school reading level according to REALM. Only 21% of participants read at a seventh- to eighth-grade level. Overall medication adherence rate was 73%. Forgetting to take medication was the most popular reason given for nonadherence.

Conclusion:

Disease state and adherence were significantly related in patients with HIV/AIDS and hypertension. Patient’s ethnicity was significantly associated with literacy levels ( P < .05). Although patients’ literacy levels were not significantly associated with self-reported adherence in this population, availability of a patient’s baseline health literacy level as a part of the medical record may help clinicians to individualize their interaction based on the patient’s health literacy level in order to achieve better health outcomes, including improved medication adherence, especially for underserved populations.
Optimised recrystallisation model using multiobjective evolutionary and genetic algorithms and k-optimality approach
Authors: Halder C. , Sitko M. , Madej L. , Pietrzyk M. , Chakraborti N.
Published: June 2015

The meta-models are constructed for static recrystallisation of dual phase steels using evolutionary neural nets (EvoNN). Four mutually conflicting objectives—(i) overall kinetics, (ii) grain size, (iii) the amount of strain and (iv) the precipitate volume fraction—are optimised simultaneously using an emerging k-optimal approach incorporated in the EvoNN, using a predator–prey genetic algorithm. The first objective involved minimisation of error with respect to experimental observation. The grain size and the amount of strain were minimised, whereas the precipitate volume fraction was maximised. The aim is to control the recrystallisation process in order to achieve desired material properties of dual phase steel during the final stages of heat treatment.
Effects of electropulsing assisted ultrasonic impact treatment on welded components
Authors: Ye Y. , Li X. , Kuang J. , Geng Y. , Tang G.
Published: June 2015

The effect of electropulsing assisted ultrasonic impact treatment (EUIT) on the mechanical properties and microstructure evolution of S50C steel welded components has been investigated. The present paper presents the application of a relatively new post-weld treatment method to eliminate the residual stress and improve the surface mechanical properties. The results show that EUIT exhibits better surface modification capability than does conventional ultrasonic impact treatment. After EUIT, plastic deformation layer with strengthened grains formed on the sample surface, and residual tensile stress was converted into residual compressive stress.
A process model on P2P lending
Authors: Wang Huaiqing , Chen Kun , Zhu Wei , Song Zhenxia
Published: June 2015

Background

Online peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending) is booming as the popularity of e-finance. To develop a conceptual model for the P2P lending process is great valuable for managers to tack the issues of marketing, management and operation.

Methods

In this paper, we focus on the P2P lending process model and provide a comparative analysis comparing with traditional bank loan process.

Results

Firstly, our model shows that the information flow in P2P lending is more frequent and transparent. Secondly, the model reveals that P2P lending uses a quite different credit audition method, which relies on information and the decision model in the P2P systems. Thirdly, the loan management is not complete normally in P2P lending, because most P2P companies do not have the post-loan records of borrowers.

Conclusions

These findings inspire future studies and practices on P2P lending process and key technologies.
Neural substrates of cognitive flexibility in cocaine and gambling addictions
Authors: Verdejo-Garcia Antonio , Clark Luke , Verdejo-Román Juan , Albein-Urios Natalia , Martinez-Gonzalez José M. , Gutierrez Blanca , Soriano-Mas Carles
Published: June 2015

Background

Individuals with cocaine and gambling addictions exhibit cognitive flexibility deficits that may underlie persistence of harmful behaviours.

Aims

We investigated the neural substrates of cognitive inflexibility in cocaine users v. pathological gamblers, aiming to disambiguate common mechanisms v. cocaine effects.

Method

Eighteen cocaine users, 18 pathological gamblers and 18 controls performed a probabilistic reversal learning task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, and were genotyped for the DRD2/ANKK Taq1A polymorphism.

Results

Cocaine users and pathological gamblers exhibited reduced ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) signal during reversal shifting. Cocaine users further showed increased dorsomedial PFC (dmPFC) activation relative to pathological gamblers during perseveration, and decreased dorsolateral PFC activation relative to pathological gamblers and controls during shifting. Preliminary genetic findings indicated that cocaine users carrying the DRD2/ANKK Taq1A1+ genotype may derive unique stimulatory effects on shifting-related ventrolateral PFC signal.

Conclusions

Reduced ventrolateral PFC activation during shifting may constitute a common neural marker across gambling and cocaine addictions. Additional cocaine-related effects relate to a wider pattern of task-related dysregulation, reflected in signal abnormalities in dorsolateral and dmPFC.
Neuroendocrine Function After Hypothalamic Depletion of Glucocorticoid Receptors in Male and Female Mice
Authors: Solomon Matia B. , Loftspring Matthew , de Kloet Annette D. , Ghosal Sriparna , Jankord Ryan , Flak Jonathan N. , Wulsin Aynara C. , Krause Eric G. , Zhang Rong , Rice Taylor , McKlveen Jessica , Myers Brent , Tasker Jeffrey G. , Herman James P.
Published: June 2015

Glucocorticoids act rapidly at the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) to inhibit stress-excitatory neurons and limit excessive glucocorticoid secretion. The signaling mechanism underlying rapid feedback inhibition remains to be determined. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that the canonical glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) is required for appropriate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation. Local PVN GR knockdown (KD) was achieved by breeding homozygous floxed GR mice with Sim1-cre recombinase transgenic mice. This genetic approach created mice with a KD of GR primarily confined to hypothalamic cell groups, including the PVN, sparing GR expression in other HPA axis limbic regulatory regions, and the pituitary. There were no differences in circadian nadir and peak corticosterone concentrations between male PVN GR KD mice and male littermate controls. However, reduction of PVN GR increased ACTH and corticosterone responses to acute, but not chronic stress, indicating that PVN GR is critical for limiting neuroendocrine responses to acute stress in males. Loss of PVN GR induced an opposite neuroendocrine phenotype in females, characterized by increased circadian nadir corticosterone levels and suppressed ACTH responses to acute restraint stress, without a concomitant change in corticosterone responses under acute or chronic stress conditions. PVN GR deletion had no effect on depression-like behavior in either sex in the forced swim test. Overall, these findings reveal pronounced sex differences in the PVN GR dependence of acute stress feedback regulation of HPA axis function. In addition, these data further indicate that glucocorticoid control of HPA axis responses after chronic stress operates via a PVN-independent mechanism.
Synthesis of Novel Caged Phosphate Esters and Their Flame Retardant Effect on Poly(vinyl chloride) Blends
Authors: Jia Puyou , Zhang Meng , Hu Lihong , Feng Guodong , Zhou Yonghong
Published: June 2015

Novel caged phosphate esters were synthesized. Flame-retardant mechanism of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) blends plasticized with these synthesized caged phosphate esters was investigated with limiting oxygen index (LOI), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and cone calorimeter tests. The results showed that caged phosphate esters improved the thermal stabilities of PVC blends: LOI values of PVC blends increased from 24.2% to 35.9%, peak heat release rate decreased from 379.04 to 258.79 kw m−2, and total smoke increased from 1877.9 to 3698.1 m2 m−2; hence, the flame retardancy of PVC blends was improved.
The Value of Democracy: Evidence from Road Building in Kenya
Authors: Burgess Robin , Jedwab Remi , Miguel Edward , Morjaria Ameet , Padró i Miquel Gerard
Published: June 2015

Ethnic favoritism is seen as antithetical to development. This paper provides credible quantification of the extent of ethnic favoritism using data on road building in Kenyan districts across the 1963–2011 period. Guided by a model, it then examines whether the transition in and out of democracy under the same president constrains or exacerbates ethnic favoritism. Across the post-independence period, we find strong evidence of ethnic favoritism: districts that share the ethnicity of the president receive twice as much expenditure on roads and have five times the length of paved roads built. This favoritism disappears during periods of democracy. (JEL D72, H54, J15, O15, O17, O22, R42)
Problems and Paths of Development of Investment Legislation of the Russian Federation
Authors: Doronina Nataliya , Semilyutina Natalya
Published: June 2015

Being a part of the economic legislation, investment legislation includes administrative regulation that deals with the mode of investors’ activities, as well as rules of contractual (civil) law, including laws on lease-purchase contracts, concessionary agreements and production sharing agreements. We can acknowledge that investment legislation is an integrated branch of legislation consisting of rules of private and public law. It embraces practically all branches of the national economy and it is its distinctive feature. Antimonopoly regulation plays a special role in investment regulation. In search of criteria uniting regulatory acts adopted with the aim of legal regulation of investment relations, it is necessary to refer to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. Antimonopoly law is a strategic factor that can unite regulatory acts in the investment sphere into a single system of investment legislation. Transfer to the program planning criteria and interaction between the state and the private sectors, and raising funds from private investors is one the ways to minimize costs on the Programs execution. The following modes, among others, can be used as mode of interaction with private investors: concessionary agreements, project co-financing by commercial banks (credit organizations), placement of public (municipal) bonds, investment projects.
Differentiation of Legal Regulation of Labor Relations as Typical Tendencies of Labor Law Development
Authors: Nurtdinova Aliya , CHikanova Lyudmila
Published: June 2015

The articles dwells upon the issue of differentiation of legal regulation of labor relations which is seen as a legal instrument, which allows taking into account the specificity of social relations that are formed under the conditions of or among the labor law subjects and that have specific features. The differentiation is a polar opposite to the legal regulation unity which embodies the existence of a unified legal status of employees, their equality, and, ultimately, the unity of the branch of law, which is unthinkable without stability and certainty of legal standing of principal participants of relevant legal relations. Further differentiation of legal regulation of labor relations is one of the most typical tendencies in labor law development. The article notes that the grounds for differentiation, out of necessity to coordinate with the principle of equality, and hence abidance by discrimination prohibition, must be entitative, justified and directly linked with an object of legal regulation and satisfy the principles of clarity and unambiguousness. Based on the abovementioned criteria, the authors analyze such grounds of differentiation of legal regulation of labor relations as peculiarities of labor process, its organization, and the type and nature of labor activity, the field of economic activity which uses labor, and the working and environmental employment terms. The articles notes that the grounds for differentiation, chosen by a legislator, do not always correspond to the mentioned criteria. They are often arbitrary and do not reflect their objective need or do not correspond to the reality. For example, inclusion into the Labor Code of peculiarities of legal regulation of labor relations for those categories of workers, in relation to whom these peculiarities have already been established by special laws. In fact these rules do not convey any regulatory meaning and therefore complicate the legislation and do not contribute to clarity and transparency of those workers’ legal status. The analysis shows that the employer’s legal form and the peculiarities of the employees’ professional activities have recently become the mostly widespread grounds for differentiation. The authors draw the conclusion that differentiation cannot be considered valid if it was derived on the basis of one criterion (the employer’s legal form) without taking into account other significant criteria. While the admissibility (and sometimes the necessity) of setting the specificity of legal regulation based on the peculiarities of labor (professional) activity does not raise doubts. The only issue that could be raised is the issue of existence (or absence) of such peculiarities and of the advisability of specific manifestations of the differentiation, i.e. special rules adopted by a legislator.
Problems of Licensing Procedures Implementation in Communication Sphere
Authors: Savchenko Elena
Published: June 2015

The article considers problems of licensing procedures implementation in the communication sphere. The author analyzes characteristic features of legal regulation improvement in implementation of licensing in the sphere of telecommunication services as part of a uniform industrial-engineering complex. The author reveals and justifies the necessity of modifying the Federal Law “On Communication” in regard to legal regulation improvement in provision of state services on granting licenses for telecommunication service rendering and approval documents for the use of radio frequencies, in regard to synchronization of standard legal regulation mechanisms in communication sector with the customs legislation norms within the framework of the Eurasian economic community, and modifying the Federal Law “On Licensing of Certain Types of Activity” with the purpose of unifying licensing procedures for the types of activity carried out with the use of information technology. The author focuses on the necessity of different licenses’ unification according to similar characteristics. The author justifies the necessity to envisage the possibility of licensing rights transfer to a reorganized legal body under the condition of continuity of the rendered services’ nature. On the basis of the conducted research the author suggests a stage-by-stage “inclusion” into the national legal system of the European law norms as the basis for overcoming the abovementioned negative tendencies.
Violation of the Patterns of Distribution of Hela Cells on the Substrate during Low-Frequency Pulsed Electromagnetic Radiation Effect (15 HZ)
Authors: Омельчук  , Omelchuk N. , Бунин  , Bunin K. , Симаков  , Simakov Yu.
Published: June 2015

The experiment was carried out on the cell line HeLa, which is one of the most famous among researchers, biologists and physicians; it is widely used in laboratories to identify factors that inhibit the cancerous growth, as well as for testing and testing of various drugs. It is shown that after 60 minutes of exposure field electromagnetic with a frequency of 15 Hz. from impulse wave of the device "Kamena" in the culture of cancer cells occurs morphological structural adjustment. HeLa cells are compressed and reduced contact with the substrate and form becomes elongated and wedge-shaped. In addition, under the influence of pulsed field electromagnetic with a frequency of 15 Hz patterns (patterns), formed by HeLa cells resembling a "flower", dissolved, and cells randomly appears in the culture. HeLa cells, after exposure to the field of apparatus "Kameny, become different dimension that allows to speak about the development of anisocytosis, which indicates a decrease in the resistance of cancer cells in culture for them to adverse factors. During the same time period in the control (without effects of pulsed EMR) is observed only move in HeLa cells relatively dark marks due to horizontal migration. This compression cells and destruction of patterns that originally marked in culture, in the form of the "flower", didn’t observed. Revealed the effect of low-frequency field electromagnetic on the morphology of cancer cells and on the patterns of their distribution on the substrate may be important for therapy of malignant tumors. This experiment doesn’t yet allow by the authors to answer the question: how long the effect on human cancer cells can be maintained in culture and how safe the use of this pulsed field EMR to inhibit the activity of malignant cells. In these experiments, the authors observed an increase in cell proliferation in culture of malignant cells. All of this suggests that further research of revealed effect of low-intensity pulsed electromagnetic radiation on malignant cells in culture is necessary.
Peculiarities of the Dynamics of Indicators of Levels of Oxygen Transport System during Exercise in the Athletes of Different Sports
Authors: Виноградов  , Vinogradov S. , Платонов  , Platonov A.
Published: June 2015

The study of the dependence of the dynamics of change of indicators of the gas transportation system from the power of physical exercise in the athletes of different sports was carried out. It was identified non-linear character of changes at speed - increasing workload, strong and positive correlation with the load power and their relationship at various levels of maximal oxygen consumption. The regression equations derived in the form of polynomials of the third degree, describing the revealed features with a high degree of importance were presented. The coefficients of regression equations define the peculiarities of dynamics of parameters of separate links of the gas transportation system when increasing the load capacity. It was established that representatives of cyclic sports with a high level aerobic capacity for oxygen consumption, in conditions of step-increasing load to the level of maximum oxygen consumption equally optimally functioning links of the gas transportation system, which provides the delivery of oxygen and its disposal at the limiting physical activity at various stages of its implementation in comparison with the representatives of acyclic sports. The obtained results are consistent with survey data of reactive types of oxygen transport systems of the body at a maximum physical load. The authors suggest to using them in evaluating the functional possibilities of the oxygen transport system with subsequent identification of the factors limiting the maximum oxygen consumption at full load.
Analisis of Causes and Results of Re-Operations in the Patients with Congenital Septal Defects
Authors: Соболев  , Sobolev Yu. , Медведев  , Medvedev A.
Published: June 2015

Complications, which led to the need of re-operations in the patients with previously correction of congenital septal defects, are analyzed in this paper. Indications for re-operations, their immediate and long term results are considered. Approaches to the problem of the choice of tactics in the case of different complications after initial correction of congenital septal defect of the heart are considered as well. Having diagnosed re-canalization of septal defect requires not always need to re-intervention. The presence of a severe deficiency on the mitral or aortic valve (in particular, the existence of fenestration of the valves of the aortic valve) is almost always an indication for re-operation. Infective endocarditis as one of the significant causes for re-operations is considered in this paper. At the same time, this investigation didn’t reveal a single case of re-operation concerning any severe arhythmias, which required surgical operation. The investigation demonstrates the good immediate and long term results of re-operations in given group of patients. The complications required re-operation after correction of septal defects for more than 15 years didn’t note. This was the result of analysis of mistakes made, and also "the surgeon is an independent" complications.
Long-Term Consequences of Mine Explosive Wounds as a Factor for Neuropsychiatric Disorder
Authors: Апагуни  , Apaguni A. , Бахадова  , Bakhadova E. , Карпов  , Karpov Sergey , Калоев  , Kaloev A.
Published: June 2015

The clinical and neuropsychological examination of 78 victims after suffering mine explosive wounds (MEW), which included 75 men and 3 women, was carried out. The 1st group consisted of the patients with MEW in combination with traumatic brain injury mild and accompanying complications – 51 (65,4%) patients; the 2nd group was the patients with MEW with peripheral lesion (limb amputation) – 27 (34,6%) patients. The basic number of patients were age 30-40 years (69,2%). The study identified the neurological changes that showed by the manifestation of brain syndrome, cerebral symptomatic, epilepsy syndromes, vegetative dystonia syndrome and its combinations. Average number of associated symptoms of vegetative dysfunction in the patients of the 1st and 2nd groups were significantly (p<0,05) higher relative to the control group. The authors note that the study of the vegetative nervous system identified supra-segmental disorders differed by poly-consistency and a high degree of expressiveness of vegetative dysfunction, with a significant (p<0,05) difference from the parameters of the control group. Disorders in the mental sphere and the failure of adaptation mechanisms in the form of increase of the level of fear and anxiety were identified. The most pronounced changes were observed in patients with MEW and brain injury. Identified dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system in most cases led to an increased risk of desadaptation, which further intensified manifestations of psychopathological disorders.
Therapeutic Efficacy of Enterosorbents on the Model of Chronic Endotoxicosis
Authors: Дзюман  , Dzyuman A. , Иванов  , Ivanov V. , Чучалин  , Chuchalin V. , Келус  , Kelus N. , Кайдаш  , Kaydash O.
Published: June 2015

A comparative evaluation of detoxification properties of a powder of brown peat moss’s turf, activated charcoal and polisorb has been studied on a model of chronic endotoxicosis, simulated by the administration of tetrachloromethane and lipopolysaccharide S. thyphi to the experimental animals. The effectiveness of the investigated objects has been evaluated by their effect on serum biochemical parameters and histology of liver and kidney. The administration of tetrachloromethane and lipopolysaccharide to the rats in the chronic experiment has shown statistically significant increase of aspartataminotransferase, alaninaminotransferase and malondialdehyde, and have been decreased significantly protein and urea in serum. The administration of powder of brown peat moss’s turf to the animals with experimental chronic endotoxicosis has limited the toxicity of tetrachloromethane and lipopolysaccharide. This has been resulted in lower activities of aspartataminotransferase and alaninaminotransferase, and level of malondialdehyde. But levels of protein and urea have been increased in serum, that indicating of a partial normalization functions of liver. Thus, the course administration of investigated sorbents in steady of experimental chronic endotoxicosis is accompanied by a significant decrease of endotoxic reaction associated with disruption of the structure and functions of the cells of liver. The detoxification activity of the powder of brown peat moss’s turf doesn’t yield to the effects of polisorb and activated charcoal.
Psycho-Vegetative Status and Plasma Catecholamines in the Men with Acute Coronary Syndrome
Authors: Алексеев  , Alekseev D. , Лиман  , Liman T. , Виноградов  , Vinogradov V. , Микин  , Mikin V.
Published: June 2015

The authors analyzed the manifestations of anxiety and depressive disorders, disturbance of autonomic regulation and changes in the level of catecholamines in the blood of patients with acute coronary syndrome from the perspective of outcomes of the disease. 102 men with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were examined. Blood samples for the determination of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine) was performed at admission, psychological examination and scrutiny of heart rate variability was performed on the third-fourth day of the hospitalization. All patients were divided into three groups. The first group was executed on 14 (13,7%) patients who had fatal myocardial infarction developed during hospitalization. In the second group there were 40 (47,1%) patients with non-fatal myocardial infarction. The third group included 48 (47,1%) patients with unstable angina. It was shown, that levels of anxiety and depression were inverse correlated with the concentration of dopamine in the plasma, and adrenaline levels are positively correlated with indicators of overall heart rate variability and its high frequency component. Thus, in patients with acute coronary syndrome, who developed myocardial infarction the incidence and severity of anxiety and depressive disorders is substantially lower than in patients with unstable angina. Increase in high frequency component of heart rate variability was more typical for patients with acute coronary syndrome who developed fatal myocardial infarction during hospitalization. High levels of dopamine in the blood plasma are typical for patients with nonfatal myocardial infarction.
Capacity Investment in Renewable Energy Technology with Supply Intermittency: Data Granularity Matters!
Authors: Hu Shanshan , Souza Gilvan C. , Ferguson Mark E. , Wang Wenbin
Published: June 2015

We study an organization’s one-time capacity investment in a renewable energy-producing technology with supply intermittency and net metering compensation. The renewable technology can be coupled with conventional technologies to form a capacity portfolio that is used to meet stochastic demand for energy. The technologies have different initial investments and operating costs, and the operating costs follow different stochastic processes. We show how to reduce this problem to a single-period decision problem and how to estimate the joint distribution of the stochastic factors using historical data. Importantly, we show that data granularity for renewable yield and electricity demand at a fine level, such as hourly, matters: Without energy storage, coarse data that does not reflect the intermittency of renewable generation may lead to an overinvestment in renewable capacity. We obtain solutions that are simple to compute, intuitive, and provide managers with a framework for evaluating the trade-offs of investing in renewable and conventional technologies. We illustrate our model using two case studies: one for investing in a solar rooftop system for a bank branch and another for investing in a solar thermal system for water heating in a hotel, along with a conventional natural gas heating system.
Bacteria and fungi associated with isoprene consumption in soil
Authors: Gray Christopher M. , Helmig Detlev , Fierer Noah
Published: June 2015

Isoprene is a reactive volatile organic compound released from the biosphere that can be abundant in the planetary boundary layer, where it can have a myriad of effects on atmospheric chemistry and secondary aerosol formation. There is currently a high degree of uncertainty in forecasts of how atmospheric isoprene concentrations will shift in response to anthropogenic land-use change and climate change. One source of this uncertainty is that studies of terrestrial isoprene fluxes have almost entirely focused on plant sources of isoprene, largely ignoring the role of soils as a sink of isoprene and the corresponding microbial consumption of isoprene. We quantified isoprene consumption rates by the microbial communities found in two distinct soils under laboratory conditions and used high-throughput sequencing to identify the bacterial and fungal taxa that increased in relative abundance with changes in isoprene mixing ratios. On average, soil microbes were capable of consuming 68% (ranging 55% to 80%) of the gaseous isoprene provided to the soils (2–200 ppbv) in a flow-through experiment. Consumption rates increased with increasing levels of isoprene with rates reaching 770 pmol g-1 h-1 in one of the soils exposed to the highest mixing ratio of isoprene (200 ppbv). Increases in isoprene levels were associated with significant shifts in the composition of both soil bacterial and fungal communities. A wide range of taxa were associated with isoprene consumption including members of the Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Zygomycota phyla with many of the taxa being closely related to known hydrocarbon degraders. Soils likely represent a significant sink of atmospheric isoprene and our results suggest that a wide range of bacterial and fungal taxa are capable of isoprene degradation.
Caring for patients after myocardial infarction
Authors: Goddard Lesley , Hill Marie C , Morton Anne
Published: June 2015

Practice nurses can play an important role in the care of patients post-myocardial infarction. Here, the authors provide a protocol for the first post-myocardial infarction appointment
Point of care C-reactive protein test
Authors: Thomas Susan
Published: June 2015

Susan Thomas discusses the use of point of care C-reactive protein testing in order to avoid inappropriate antibiotic prescribing
A playbill: Rethinking assessment in teacher education
Authors: Borgioli Gina M. , Ociepka Anne , Coker Kristie
Published: June 2015

In this article, we use a theatre metaphor, reflected in a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue, to retell and reflect on our journey of inquiring about, designing, enacting, and studying our enactment of non-traditional assessment practices in higher education. We are striving to better align our assessment practices with our beliefs and values about teaching and learning. We discuss how reforming our assessment practices affected issues of equity for our pre-service teachers, such as their participation, identity, power, and agency in our classes. We hope to inspire readers to reflect on how their assessment practices affect students’ learning and sense of agency.
A Study Showing Research Has Been Valued over Teaching in Higher Education
Authors: Chen Chi Yuan
Published: June 2015

Research has been valued and given priority over teaching for a long time in academia.  In recent decades, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education has pursued objective and quantitative research criteria and has encouraged higher education institutions to ask teachers to publish papers in SSCI or SCI journals as part of the criteria for promotion and evaluation.  This policy strengthens the concept that research has priority over teaching because teachers must devote more time to research than to teaching in order to be promoted and evaluated.The purpose of this study is to explore the influences that cause teachers to value research over teaching.  To achieve this purpose, document analysis, the analysis of Taiwan Higher Education database and interviews were adapted as methods. First of all, our researchers collected and analyzed the documents for promotion and evaluation of twelve different universities whose areas of specialty included general studies, education, medicine, vocational studies, and the arts. Then, the study used and analyzed the empirical data of teachers’ working hours every week for different tasks from the Taiwan Higher Education Database which investigated the working conditions of teachers in higher education in 2004. Additionally, twenty professors who have different areas of study and work in different types of universities were interviewed to collect teachers’ opinions of the task priority of research, teaching, and service duties. The results showed that academia in Taiwan exhibits the phenomenon that research is valued over teaching. The reasons are due to the requirements of the reward system. The reward system emphasizes research over teaching and service. Teachers’ research achievements are judged based on publishing articles in different types of journals and the amount of research funding they can obtain. The results also showed that every week teachers spend the most time on teaching, then on research, and finally on service. However, teachers emphasize research as the most important task, then teaching, and finally service. Although the majority of teachers think research is the most important duty, there is still twenty percent of teachers who think it is the least important. Although teaching has been thought of as the second most important duty after research, it is the task that the most teachers give as the first priority as far as time spent and none of the interviewees thought it is the least important. Universities and teachers all try to use their professionalism as capital to gain financial support from the government. This situation forces teachers to try to put more time and energy into research, but they still need to maintain teaching and service work quality. Some teachers focus more time and energy on research and ignore the needs of students. Working time endlessly increases even for teachers who out value on both teaching and research. Some suggestions based on the findings have been proposed for Taiwanese higher institutions.
Evolutes and Involutes of Frontals in the Euclidean Plane
Authors: Fukunaga Tomonori , Takahashi Masatomo
Published: June 2015

We have already defined the evolutes and the involutes of fronts without inflection points. For regular curves or fronts, we can not define the evolutes at inflection points. On the other hand, the involutes can be defined at inflection points. In this case, the involute is not a front but a frontal at inflection points. We define evolutes of frontals under conditions. T he definition is a generalisation of both evolutes of regular curves and of fronts. By using relationship between evolutes and involutes of frontals, we give an existence condition of the evolute with inflection points. We also give properties of evolutes and involutes of frontals.
Duality on Geodesics of Cartan Distributions and Sub-Riemannian Pseudo-Product Structures
Authors: Ishikawa Goo , Kitagawa Yumiko , Yukuno Wataru
Published: June 2015

Given a five dimensional space endowed with a Cartan distribution, the abnormal geodesics form another five dimensional space with a cone structure. Then it is shown in (15), that, if the cone structure is regarded as a control system, then the space of abnormal geodesics of the cone structure is naturally identified with the original space. In this paper, we provide an exposition on the duality by abnormal geodesics in a wider framework, namely, in terms of quotients of control systems and sub-Riemannian pseudo-product structures. Also we consider the controllability of cone structures and describe the constrained Hamiltonian equations on normal and abnormal geodesics.
CT-Right Equivalence Of Analytic Functions
Authors: Migus Piotr
Published: June 2015

Let ƒ, g : (ℝn, 0) --+ (ℝ, 0) be analytic functions. We will show that if ▽ƒ(0) = 0 and g ƒ∈ (ƒ)r+2 then I and g are Cr-right equivalent, where (ƒ) denote ideal generated by ƒ and r ∈ ℕ.
Symplectic U7,U8 and U9 Singularities
Authors: Trębska Żaneta
Published: June 2015

We use the method of algebraic restrictions to classify symplectic U7, U8 and U9 singularities. We use discrete symplectic invariants to distinguish symplectic singularities of the curves. We also give the geometric description of symplectic classes
Finite involution semigroups with infinite irredundant bases of identities
Authors: Lee Edmond W. H.
Published: June 2015

A basis of identities for an algebra is irredundant if each of its proper subsets fails to be a basis for the algebra. The first known examples of finite involution semigroups with infinite irredundant bases are exhibited. These involution semigroups satisfy several counterintuitive properties: their semigroup reducts do not have irredundant bases, they share reducts with some other finitely based involution semigroups, and they are direct products of finitely based involution semigroups.
Antidiarrheal activity of fractions from aqueous extract of Detarium senegalense
Authors: Sanni Fatimah Saka , Hamza Hajja Gana , Onyeyili Patrick Azubuike
Published: June 2015

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different fractions of the aqueous crude extract of Detarium senegalense stem bark on castor oil-induced diarrhea. Castor oilinduced diarrhea, gastrointestinal motility and castor oil-induced enteropooling methods were used to evaluate the antidiarrheal effects of the fractions. Castor oil was used to induce diarrhea and the effect of all the fractions (chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, methanol and residual aqueous) were evaluated at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight. The results show that all fractions significantly (p<0.05) decreased the frequency of defecation in rats following the induction of diarrhea with castor oil. Ethyl acetate which produced the highest antidiarrheal activity was further subjected to gastrointestinal motility and castor oil-induced enteropooling tests. In the gastrointestinal motility, two test doses of the extract (200 and 400 mg/kg) were administered orally to two groups of rats (n=5), while the third group of rats (control), were treated with normal saline, and the fourth group were treated with diphenoxylate, a conventional anti-diarrheal drug. In the castor oil-induced enteropooling experiment, normal saline was used for the control animals, while 200 and 400 mg/kg of the extract was administered to groups two and three, respectively and atropine, a standard drug, was administered to rats in group four. The ethyl acetate fraction significantly (p<0.05) decreased the gastro-intestinal motility, as shown by the extent of movement of the charcoal meal in the treated rats. It also significantly inhibited the fluid accumulation within the intestine. These findings suggest that the ethyl acetate fraction possess antidiarrheal effect, which may be due to the presence of some phytochemical constituents (alkaloids, flavonoids and tannins) in the plant, which may either be working alone or in combination with each other. This study has demonstrated that D. senegalense fractions, especially the ethyl acetate fraction, possess antidiarrheal activity thus supporting the use of the plant in the treatment of diarrheal diseases.