bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Systemic Approach to Understand Smartphone Usage in Singapore
Authors: Nguyen Nam C. , Bosch Ockie J. H. , Ong Fung Yen , Seah Jin Shan , Succu Athena , Nguyen Thanh V. , Banson Kwamina E.
Published: August 2015

Interactions with smartphones, which have become more than just communication devices, have wide‐reaching consequences on the social harmony of the system in which people, organizations and natural environment co‐exist. This study employs a ‘systems thinking’ approach and uses associated systems tools [causal loop diagrams, systems archetypes and the Bayesian belief network (BBN) modelling] to examine the issue of social dysfunctions resulting from compulsive smartphone use in Singapore. A causal loop diagram was created to map out the interconnected variables within the system, showing many variables relating to the usage of smartphones. Amongst five identified systems archetypes, the ‘eroding goals’ systems archetype was considered to be the most effective leverage point in the system. The results from a BBN model suggested that small changes made within a family unit to improve on the quality of time spent together could afford benefits to the overall system. The proposed management objective of improving quality of time spent as a family can be utilized by individuals who are determined and willing to reduce social dysfunction in the social environment of which they are a part of. This research encourages business managers and decision‐makers to use a systems perspective to look at issues they need to manage, in terms of the issues' relation to other systems components. A shift towards the systems perspective of viewing issues integrates diverse but complementary decision‐making and problem‐solving methods, in order to find sustainable solutions that afford system‐wide benefits. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A practical guide to text mining with topic extraction
Authors: Karl Andrew , Wisnowski James , Rushing W. Heath
Published: August 2015

Text analytics continue to proliferate as mass volumes of unstructured but highly useful data are generated at unbounded rates. Vector space models for text data—in which documents are represented by rows and words by columns—provide a translation of this unstructured data into a format that may be analyzed with statistical and machine learning techniques. This approach gives excellent results in revealing common themes, clustering documents, clustering words, and in translating unstructured text fields (such as an open‐ended survey response) to usable input variables for predictive modeling. After discussing the collection and processing of text, we explore properties and transformations of the document‐term matrix (DTM). We show how the singular value decomposition may be used to drastically reduce the size of the document space while also setting the stage for automatic topic extraction, courtesy of the varimax rotation. This latent semantic analysis (LSA) approach produces factors that are compatible with graphical exploration and advanced analytics. We also explore Latent Dirichlet Allocation for topic analysis. We reference published R packages to implement the methods and conclude with a summary of other popular open‐source and commercial software packages. WIREs Comput Stat 2015, 7:326–340. doi: 10.1002/wics.1361

This article is categorized under:

Statistical Learning and Exploratory Methods of the Data Sciences > Clustering and Classification

Statistical Learning and Exploratory Methods of the Data Sciences > Pattern Recognition

Statistical Learning and Exploratory Methods of the Data Sciences > Text Mining
Modified Anterior Approach for the ALPPS Procedure: How We Do It
Authors: Chan Albert C. Y. , Poon Ronnie T. P. , Lo Chung Mau
Published: August 2015

Background

Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) is a highly complex operation that demands a thorough understanding of the intrahepatic vascular anatomy and skills in parenchymal transection for the in situ split procedure. In order to minimize adhesion formation after the stage I operation and to avoid iatrogenic tumor rupture during right liver mobilization in large tumors, anterior approach appears to be a logical approach for the in situ split procedure. However, in contrast to the anterior approach adopted for the usual right hepatectomy, the right hepatic artery and biliary pedicle remain intact and undivided during the first operation. To address this issue, we hereby reported our experience of the modified ‘anterior approach’ for the ALPPS procedure that facilitates a complete in situ parenchymal split.

Methods

Prospectively collected data of 13 patients who underwent the ALPPS procedure by the modified anterior approach for hepatocellular carcinoma from October 2013 to October 2014 were reviewed.

Results

The baseline future liver remnant volume (FLR) was 286 ml. The median tumor size was 6.0 cm. After a median of 8 days from stage I operation, the left FLR hypertrophied by 52.7 % in volume to 482 ml. All patients proceeded to second stage hepatectomy (extended right hepatectomy, n = 5; right hepatectomy, n = 6; right trisectionectomy, n = 2) without significant adhesion encountered. The overall morbidity and mortality rates were 7.7 % (n = 1) and 7.7 % (n = 1), respectively.

Conclusion

The modified anterior approach is safe and feasible for complete in situ split in the ALPPS procedure.
Additional Imaging in Alert Trauma Patients with Cervical Spine Tenderness and a Negative Computed Tomographic Scan: Is it Needed?
Authors: Mavros Michael N. , Kaafarani Haytham M. A. , Mejaddam Ali Y. , Ramly Elie P. , Avery Laura , Fagenholz Peter J. , Yeh D. Dante , de Moya Marc A. , Velmahos George C.
Published: August 2015

Background

The value of additional imaging in clearing the cervical spine (C‐spine) of alert trauma patients with tenderness on clinical exam and a negative computed tomographic (CT) scan is still unclear.

Methods

All adult trauma patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 15, C‐spine tenderness in the absence of neurologic signs, and a negative C‐spine CT were included. The study period extended from September 2011 to June 2012. C‐spine CT scans were interpreted in detail and considered negative in the absence of any findings indicating bony, ligamentous, or soft tissue injury around the C‐spine. The incidence of C‐spine injury was evaluated using early (<24 h) repeat physical examination, MRI, and/or flexion–extension films.

Results

Of 2015 patients with a C‐spine CT, 383 (19 %) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The median age was 43 (IQR: 30–53) and 44.7 % were female. Thirty‐six patients (9.4 %) underwent MRI (3.7 %), flexion–extension imaging (5.2 %), or both (0.5 %), with no significant injuries identified and subsequent removal of the collar allowed. The remaining patients were clinically cleared within 24 h of presentation. None of the patients developed neurological signs following removal of the collar. On bivariate analysis, no variable except for evaluation by trauma surgery was associated with performance of additional imaging.

Conclusion

C‐spine precautions can be withdrawn without additional imaging in most blunt trauma patients with C‐spine tenderness but negative neurologic evaluation and C‐spine CT. Focus should be placed on the detailed and comprehensive interpretation of the C‐spine CT.
Observational constraints on atmospheric and oceanic cross-equatorial heat transports: revisiting the precipitation asymmetry problem in climate models
Authors: Loeb Norman G. , Wang Hailan , Cheng Anning , Kato Seiji , Fasullo John T. , Xu Kuan-Man , Allan Richard P.
Published: August 2015

Satellite based top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and surface radiation budget observations are combined with mass corrected vertically integrated atmospheric energy divergence and tendency from reanalysis to infer the regional distribution of the TOA, atmospheric and surface energy budget terms over the globe. Hemispheric contrasts in the energy budget terms are used to determine the radiative and combined sensible and latent heat contributions to the cross-equatorial heat transports in the atmosphere (AHTEQ) and ocean (OHTEQ). The contrast in net atmospheric radiation implies an AHTEQ from the northern hemisphere (NH) to the southern hemisphere (SH) (0.75 PW), while the hemispheric difference in sensible and latent heat implies an AHTEQ in the opposite direction (0.51 PW), resulting in a net NH to SH AHTEQ (0.24 PW). At the surface, the hemispheric contrast in the radiative component (0.95 PW) dominates, implying a 0.44 PW SH to NH OHTEQ. Coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 (CMIP5) models with excessive net downward surface radiation and surface-to-atmosphere sensible and latent heat transport in the SH relative to the NH exhibit anomalous northward AHTEQ and overestimate SH tropical precipitation. The hemispheric bias in net surface radiative flux is due to too much longwave surface radiative cooling in the NH tropics in both clear and all-sky conditions and excessive shortwave surface radiation in the SH subtropics and extratropics due to an underestimation in reflection by clouds.
Clients’ Perception of Outcome of Team‐Based Prenatal and Reproductive Genetic Counseling in Serbian Service Using the Perceived Personal Control (PPC) Questionnaire
Authors: Cuturilo Goran , Vucinic Olivera Kontic , Novakovic Ivana , Ignjatovic Svetlana , Mijovic Marija , Sulovic Nenad , Vukolic Dusan , Komnenic Milica , Tadic Jasmina , Cetkovic Aleksandar , Belic Aleksandra , Ljubic Aleksandar
Published: August 2015

This is the first study in Serbia and the region of South‐East Europe dedicated to clients’ perception of outcome and efficiency of prenatal and reproductive genetic counseling. The primary aim of this study was to assess overall value and success of genetic counseling in prenatal and reproductive care with regard to perceived personal control of clients, reflecting also in a part patient comprehension, knowledge retention, and empowerment in decision‐making. The standardized Perceived Personal Control questionnaire (PPC) was used for the assessment of 239 female participants. First, we performed a complete validation of the psychometric characteristics of the Serbian‐language version of the PPC questionnaire. The validation of the questionnaire permits other researchers from Serbian‐speaking regions of South‐East Europe to use this standard instrument to assess the effectiveness of prenatal genetic counseling in their communities and analyze advantages and disadvantages of their counseling models. We also measured social and demographic characteristics of participants. Further, we analyzed effects of our team‐based prenatal and reproductive genetic counseling model through (a) calculation of PPC scores at three different stages (before initial, after initial, and before second counseling session), and (b) by assessing participants’ responses by indication for referral (advanced maternal age, abnormal biochemical screening, family history of hereditary disorders, maternal exposure to drugs, exposure to radiation, exposure to infective agents, infertility or recurrent abortions, and miscellaneous). The results indicate that participants’ knowledge after initial counseling increased significantly and after that remained stable and sustainable. A satisfactory level of confidence among participants had been achieved, in that many felt an increased sense of control over their situation and emotional response to it. Indirectly, these results indicate the success of a team‐based prenatal genetic counseling model, which has not been assessed in the literature to date.
Familiärer Brustkrebs – empirische Erkrankungsrisiken und Risikoberechnungsmodelle
Authors: Engel Christoph , Zachariae Silke , Fischer Christine
Published: August 2015

BRCA1/2-Anlageträgerinnen haben ein stark erhöhtes Risiko an Brust- und Eierstockkrebs zu erkranken. Die individuelle klinische Betreuung erfordert eine genaue Kenntnis der Erkrankungsrisiken. In diesem Artikel geben wir einen Überblick über die aktuelle Literatur zu empirischen Erkrankungsrisiken, und wir beschreiben Berechnungsmodelle, die derzeit in der klinischen Praxis für die individuelle Risikoeinschätzung genutzt werden.

Die in der Literatur beschriebenen Erkrankungsrisiken zeigen eine große Variabilität zwischen verschiedenen Studien. Das Brustkrebsrisiko beträgt 40–87 % bei BRCA1- und 18–88 % bei BRCA2-Anlageträgerinnen. Für den Eierstockkrebs werden Risiken von 22–65 % bei BRCA1- und 10–35 % bei BRCA2-Anlageträgerinnen angegeben. Auch das kumulative Risiko für kontralateralen Brustkrebs 10 Jahre nach der Ersterkrankung ist mit 27 % (BRCA1) und 19 % (BRCA2) deutlich erhöht. Verschiedene Berechnungsmodelle erlauben eine individuelle Risikovorhersage, indem zusätzlich die jeweilige Familienanamnese, bekannte Hauptgene und ihr Erbgang sowie andere genetische und epidemiologische Risikofaktoren berücksichtigt werden. Durch nutzerfreundliche Programme können diese Modelle direkt in der humangenetischen und klinischen Beratung angewandt werden. Für die genaue Bestimmung von Erkrankungsrisiken sowie für die Validierung der Risikovorhersagemodelle sind prospektive Kohortenstudien von großer Bedeutung. Um Studien dieser Art zu ermöglichen, sollten Frauen mit erhöhtem Risiko im Rahmen von strukturierten Registerstudien betreut und prospektiv nachverfolgt werden.
Island nail flap in the treatment of foot macrodactyly of the first ray in children: Report of two cases
Authors: Downey-Carmona Francisco Javier , Lagares Araceli , Farrington-Rueda David , Lirola-Criado José
Published: August 2015

Purpose

We evaluated the result of a combined single-stage surgery in the treatment of first ray macrodactyly in children.

Introduction

Macrodactyly is a rare congenital abnormality that involves thickening of both the soft tissue and bone of the affected digits. It is more frequent in fingers than toes, where there is less neural involvement. Increased growth is also seen in neurofibromatosis, hemangiomatosis, arteriovenous malformations, congenital lymphedema, and syndromes such as Klippel–Trenaunay–Weber syndrome and Proteus syndrome. The goal of treatment is to obtain a pain-free, functional foot that can accommodate normal shoes. Treatment of macrodactyly of the first ray generates numerous difficulties since ray resection, which has been recommended for other toes as a means to of shortening and narrowing the foot, cannot be performed. In addition to this, cosmetic results are better if the nail is preserved.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed our cases of first ray macrodactyly treated by a single-stage multiple-technique procedure.

Results

We obtained satisfactory results, in that same-sized shoes could be worn on by our patients and patients and family were happy with the outcome. However, one of our cases patients lost the nail 10 months postoperatively.

Conclusions

We believe that island-nail transfer in children obtains excellent results.
Parental Well-being Surrounding First Birth as a Determinant of Further Parity Progression
Authors: Margolis Rachel , Myrskylä Mikko
Published: August 2015

A major component driving cross-country fertility differences in the developed world is differences in the probability of having additional children among those who have one. Why do people stop at having only one child? We hypothesize that the experience of the transition to parenthood is an important determinant of further fertility. Analyzing longitudinal data from Germany, we find that the experience during the transition to parenthood, as measured by changes in subjective well-being, predicts further parity progression. A drop in well-being surrounding first birth predicts a decreased likelihood of having another child. The association is particularly strong for older parents and those with higher education: these characteristics may be related to the ability or willingness to revise fertility plans based on prior experiences. Parents’ experience with the first birth is an important and understudied factor in determining completed family size, and policy-makers concerned about low fertility should pay attention to factors that influence the well-being of new parents.
The Contributions of Kenelm Hutchinson Digby to Orthopaedics in Hong Kong Part 1
Authors: Louis Fu
Published: August 2015

Professor Kenelm Hutchinson Digby (1884–1954) was the first Professor of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong. He contributed extensively to the understanding of many aspects of orthopaedics and should be regarded as the originator of orthopaedics in Hong Kong. This article outlines the contributions of Professor Digby in the development of orthopaedics in Hong Kong.
Monitoring of extrapyramidal side effects in patients on antipsychotic treatment: a completed audit cycle
Authors: Butler MI , Chandrakanth J
Published: August 2015

Background

Movement disorders are a common problem in those receiving antipsychotic medication. Clinical guidelines recommend that these side-effects are monitored regularly throughout treatment. However, due to a lack of training, clinician confidence levels in assessment are often low and regular monitoring may be neglected.

Aims

To audit current practice in our services regarding monitoring of extrapyramidal side effects (EPSE) and improve monitoring through education of clinicians.

Method

The clinical records of patients receiving antipsychotic treatment, seen in the outpatient clinic over a 2-week period, were reviewed. Data were collected on whether or not EPSE had been assessed. A re-audit was undertaken following a teaching session.

Results

Documentation regarding EPSE was present in only 14% of patient records. Following a teaching session, the overall level of documentation of EPSE rose to 42%, with rates of assessment dramatically improving in non-consultant hospital doctors.

Conclusion

In our practice, clinicians are generally poor to assess and record EPSE. However, rates of assessment improved significantly following a teaching session, especially in NCHDs.
Modal and non-modal stability of boundary layers forced by spanwise wall oscillations
Authors: Hack M. J. Philipp , Zaki Tamer A.
Published: August 2015

Modal and non-modal perturbation growth in boundary layers subjected to time-harmonic spanwise wall motion are examined. The superposition of the streamwise Blasius flow and the spanwise Stokes layer can lead to strong modal amplification during intervals of the base-flow period. Linear stability analysis of frozen phases of the base state demonstrates that this growth is due to an inviscid instability, which is related to the inflection points of the spanwise Stokes layer. The generation of new inflection points at the wall and their propagation towards the free stream leads to mode crossing when tracing the most unstable mode as a function of phase. The fundamental mode computed in Floquet analysis has a considerably lower growth rate than the instantaneous eigenfunctions. Furthermore, the algebraic lift-up mechanism that causes the formation of Klebanoff streaks is examined in transient growth analyses. The wall forcing significantly weakens the wall-normal velocity perturbations associated with lift-up. This effect is attributed to the formation of a pressure field which redistributes energy from the wall-normal to the spanwise velocity perturbations. The results from linear theory explain observations from direct numerical simulations of breakdown to turbulence in the same flow configuration by Hack & Zaki (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 760, 2014a, pp. 63–94). When bypass mechanisms are dominant, the flow is stabilized due to the weaker non-modal growth. However, at high amplitudes of wall oscillation, transition is promoted due to fast growth of the modal instability.
The application of Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) and other research: lessons for frontline commanders
Authors: Groenendaal Jelle , Helsloot Ira
Published: August 2015

This article focuses on a thus far insufficiently explored theme within management sciences, specifically the direct supervision of frontline workers, that is, frontline command. Frontline command can be defined as making decisions in the frontline and ensuring that frontline workers carry out these decisions accordingly. Scholarly knowledge on frontline command is still fragmented and the associated implications for frontline commanders have not yet been described or discussed in depth. This contribution aims to make up for that deficiency. For this purpose we brought together existing insights derived from research into Naturalistic Decision Making and other relevant research which we subsequently present using the FADCM model. This model sets out frontline command in five steps, already described in scholarly literature, and provides, per step, recommendations for frontline command. Finally, we provide associated examples derived from the Dutch firefighting practices.
Constructing meaning for up and down situated sentences: Is a sentence more than the sum of its words?
Authors: LACHMAIR MARTIN , DUDSCHIG CAROLIN , VEGA IRMGARD DE LA , KAUP BARBARA
Published: August 2015

abstract

The present study was concerned with the question whether comprehension is based on mental simulation processes beyond the word level. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with coherent sentence pairs, consisting of a context sentence and a target sentence. Target sentences ended with a word referring to an entity with a typical location in the upper vertical space (e.g., bird in There she sees a bird). Context sentences either supported the target entity’s typical location or not (Anna looks to the sky vs. Anna looks to the ground, respectively). Participants responded to the final word of the sentence pair by pressing an up- or a down-key. The results showed a main effect of response direction (faster up compared to down responses) as well as an interaction between context location and response direction. In Experiment 2, participants were presented with incoherent sentence pairs with the same context sentences and different target sentences (whereby the target word was kept identical), but in an incoherent manner (target sentence: On the poster one sees a bird). Here, the results showed a main effect of response direction but no interaction. The same result was obtained in Experiment 3, in which participants were presented with word pairs consisting of an up- or down-context word (e.g., sky vs. ground) and an up-target word (e.g., bird). Overall, the results provide evidence for the view that comprehension involves simulation processes at the word level as well as simulation processes at the sentence or discourse level.
Tayeb Salih, Sol Plaatje, and the Trajectories of World Literature
Authors: Helgesson Stefan
Published: August 2015

A crucial theoretical question in world literature studies concerns the dual trajectories of extroversion and introversion, and how they relate to or even are predicated on each other. By discussing the examples of Tayeb Salih and, in particular, Sol Plaatje, this article tries to demonstrate that although the current turn toward more “introverted” literary studies can be seen as justifiably critical of single-system modes of world literature theory, an attentiveness to the combined and contradictory trajectories of extroversion and introversion will enable a more situated and localized form of world literature studies that nonetheless evades the risk of reifying national or linguistic provenance. This also requires a stronger conception of reception history not as a transparent vessel for the literary object, but as an active agent in rendering specific texts or authorships readableasintroverted or extroverted.
Let There Be Nahdah!
Authors: El-Ariss Tarek
Published: August 2015

This essay examines the movement of Arab national and cultural revival known as nahdah (meaning renaissance or awakening) as a speech act and a performance involving a nuhūd (rising) and an uncertain practice of civilization (tamaddun) that seek to bring about a culture of knowledge. Contesting its treatment as a homogeneous project of modernity that rose and fell and as a historical period with clear epistemic breaks, it argues that nahdah civilizational practices could not be reduced to notions of civilization associated with Orientalism as system of othering and cultural superiority. This approach frees up nahdah texts from the dominant narrative of rise and decline, and from their intertextual and ideological dependency on European modernity as a model to be borrowed or resisted.
Polysystems Redux: The Unfinished Business of World Literature
Authors: Ganguly Debjani
Published: August 2015

In responding to Muhsin al-Musawi’s two-part essay on the Arabic Republic of Letters, this essay proposes a rethinking of the world systems model in global literary studies in terms of a polysystems framework. Rather than trying to fit literary worlds—ancient, premodern, modern—within a single Euro-chronological frame culminating in a world capitalist systems model—where the non-European worlds appear as invariably inferior—it is worthwhile to see them as several polysystems with variable valences within a heterotemporal planetary literary space. This approach offers a comparative reading of the emergence of three language worlds—Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic—and urges us to rethink the totality of the world literary space as a diachronic field that generates overlapping, multiscalar, comparative histories of literary polysystems.
Whose Amnesia? Literary Modernity in Multilingual South Asia
Authors: Orsini Francesca
Published: August 2015

The debate over the impact of British colonialism and “colonial modernity” in India has hinged around questions of epistemic and aesthetic rupture. Whether in modern poetry, art, music, in practically every language and region intellectuals struggled with the artistic traditions they had inherited and condemned them as decadent and artificial. But this is only part of the story. If we widen the lens a little and consider print culture and orature more broadly, then vibrant regional print and performance cultures in a variety of Indian languages, and the publishing of earlier knowledge and aesthetic traditions belie the notion that English made India into a province of Europe, peripheral to London as the center of world literature. Yet nothing of this new fervor of journals, associations, literary debates, of new genres or theater and popular publishing, transpires in Anglo-Indian and English journals of the period, whose occlusion of the Indian-language storiesproducedignorance, distaste, indifference—those “technologies of recognition” (Shu-Mei Shih) that produce “the West” as the agent of recognition and “the rest” as the object of recognition, in representation.
STABILITY OF UNCONDITIONAL SCHAUDER DECOMPOSITIONS IN SPACES
Authors: MARCHENKO VITALII
Published: August 2015

We use the best constants in the Khintchine inequality to generalise a theorem of Kato [‘Similarity for sequences of projections’,Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.73(6) (1967), 904–905] on similarity for sequences of projections in Hilbert spaces to the case of unconditional Schauder decompositions in$\ell _{p}$spaces. We also sharpen a stability theorem of Vizitei [‘On the stability of bases of subspaces in a Banach space’, in:Studies on Algebra and Mathematical Analysis, Moldova Academy of Sciences (Kartja Moldovenjaska, Chişinău, 1965), 32–44; (in Russian)] in the case of unconditional Schauder decompositions in any Banach space.
Effects of arachidonic acid intake on inflammatory reactions in dextran sodium sulphate-induced colitis in rats
Authors: Naito Yukiko , Ji Xu , Tachibana Shigehiro , Aoki Satoko , Furuya Mami , Tazura Yoshiyuki , Miyazawa Daisuke , Harauma Akiko , Moriguchi Toru , Nagata Tomoko , Iwai Naoharu , Ohara Naoki
Published: August 2015

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the administration of oral arachidonic acid (AA) in rats with or without dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced inflammatory bowel disease. Male Wistar rats were administered AA at 0, 5, 35 or 240 mg/kg daily by gavage for 8 weeks. Inflammatory bowel disease was induced by replacing drinking water with 3 % DSS solution during the last 7 d of the AA dosing period. These animals passed loose stools, diarrhoea and red-stained faeces. Cyclo-oxygenase-2 concentration and myeloperoxidase activity in the colonic tissue were significantly increased in the animals given AA at 240 mg/kg compared with the animals given AA at 0 mg/kg. Thromboxane B2 concentration in the medium of cultured colonic mucosae isolated from these groups was found to be dose-dependently increased by AA, and the increase was significant at 35 and 240 mg/kg. Leukotriene B4 concentration was also significantly increased and saturated at 5 mg/kg. In addition, AA at 240 mg/kg promoted DSS-induced colonic mucosal oedema with macrophage infiltration. In contrast, administration of AA for 8 weeks, even at 240 mg/kg, showed no effects on the normal rats. These results suggest that in rats with bowel disease AA metabolism is affected by oral AA, even at 5 mg/kg per d, and that excessive AA may aggravate inflammation, whereas AA shows no effects in rats without inflammatory bowel disease.
The effects of resveratrol supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study
Authors: Faghihzadeh Forouzan , Adibi Payman , Hekmatdoost Azita
Published: August 2015

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is usually associated with insulin resistance, central obesity, reduced glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertriacylglycerolaemia. The beneficial effects of resveratrol on metabolic disorders have been shown previously. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of resveratrol supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in patients with NAFLD. In this randomised double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial, fifty NAFLD patients were supplemented with either a 500-mg resveratrol capsule or a placebo capsule for 12 weeks. Both groups were advised to follow an energy-balanced diet and physical activity recommendations. resveratrol supplementation reduced alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and hepatic steatosis significantly more than placebo (P<0·05). BMI, waist circumference, serum aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, HDL-cholesterol and apo a1 were reduced significantly in both groups (P<0·05); however, there were no significant differences between the two groups (P>0·05). There were no significant changes in blood pressure, insulin resistance markers and TAG in either group (P>0·05). Our data have shown that 12-week supplementation of 500 mg resveratrol does not have any beneficial effect on anthropometric measurements, insulin resistance markers, lipid profile and blood pressure; however, it reduced ALT and hepatic steatosis in patients with NAFLD.
Investigation of the relationship between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome
Authors: Yenigun A , Karamanli H
Published: August 2015

Objective:

To investigate the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and sleep apnoea severity relationship.

Methods:

Patients (n= 178) were assigned to five groups according to apnoea–hypopnea indices and continuous positive airway pressure use. White blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio values were compared for each group.

Results:

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio values of severe obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients (group 4) were significantly higher than those of: control patients (group 1), mild obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients (group 2) and patients treated with continuous positive airway pressure (group 5) (p= 0.008,p= 0.008 andp= 0.003). Minimum oxygen saturation values of group 4 were significantly lower than those of groups 1, 2 and 5 (p= 0.0005,p= 0.011 andp= 0.001). There was a positive correlation between apnoea–hypopnea index and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (r = 0.758,p= 0.034), and a negative correlation between apnoea–hypopnea index and minimum oxygen saturation (r = −0.179,p= 0.012).

Conclusion:

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio may be used to determine disease severity, complementing polysomnography.
Pulse oximetry in paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea: is it used appropriately?
Authors: Kanona H , Sharma S , Chaidas K , Kotecha B
Published: August 2015

Objectives:

This study assessed the use of pulse oximetry testing in children with suspected obstructive sleep apnoea in a hospital setting.

Methods:

A retrospective review of patients who underwent pulse oximetry testing between April 2013 and October 2013 was performed. Primary outcome measures included positive pulse oximetry results, defined as a McGill oximetry score of 2–4.

Results:

Thirty-seven test results were usable for analysis: from 21 pre- and 16 post-operative tests. Only four patients had positive test results. There was a significant difference between pre- and post-operative quality of life outcome scores in the surgical group (p< 0.0001).

Conclusion:

Pre-operative pulse oximetry should be used as a guide to help triage patients who require specialist paediatric services, such as a paediatric intensive care unit. The use of pulse oximetry, particularly in the post-operative setting, is unlikely to change patient management and can incur unnecessary financial costs to UK National Health Service Hospital Trusts.
On Mathematical and Religious Belief, and on Epistemic Snobbery
Authors: Jonas Silvia
Published: August 2015

In this paper, I argue that religious belief is epistemically equivalent to mathematical belief. Abstract beliefs don't fall under ‘naive’, evidence-based analyses of rationality. Rather, their epistemic permissibility depends, I suggest, on four criteria: predictability, applicability, consistency, and immediate acceptability of the fundamental axioms. The paper examines to what extent mathematics meets these criteria, juxtaposing the results with the case of religion. My argument is directed against a widespread view according to which belief in mathematics is clearly rationally acceptable whereas belief in religion is not. The paper also aims to make some of the implications of contemporary mathematics available to philosophers working in different fields.1
The Effects of Weather-Induced Migration on Sons of the Soil Riots in India
Authors: Bhavnani Rikhil R. , Lacina Bethany
Published: August 2015

Migration is thought to cause sons of the soil conflict, particularly if natives tend to be unemployed. Using data from India, the authors investigate the causal effect of domestic migration on riots by instrumenting for migration using weather shocks in migrants’ places of origin. They find a direct effect of migration on riots, but do not find that this effect is larger in places with more native unemployment. They argue and find evidence that migration is less likely to cause rioting where the host population is politically aligned with the central government. Politically privileged host populations can appease nativists and reduce migration through means that are less costly than rioting. Without these political resources, hosts resort to violence. Beyond furthering the sons of the soil literature, the authors detail a political mechanism linking natural disasters and, possibly, climate change and environmental degradation to riots, and demonstrate a widely applicable strategy for recovering the causal effect of migration on violence.
Troilos and Achilles: A Monumental Statue Group from Aphrodisias
Authors: Smith R. R. R. , Hallett C. H.
Published: August 2015

A remarkable blue-grey marble horse with a white marble rider, found in the Basilica at Aphrodisias, has been a focus of recent research. The article describes the archaeology and history of the monument — how it can be reconstructed, with its base and in its precise setting in the Basilica. The group was a daring composition that had already fallen and been restored once in antiquity. What emerges is firstly a new full-size hellenistic-style statue group whose subject can be identified as Troilos and Achilles, and secondly a striking example of the long second lives of classical statues in Late Antiquity. The horse was a great public monument of the early imperial period that was moved to the Basilica probably in the mid-fourth centurya.d., where it has a well-documented context. The subject of the group can be identified both from epigraphy and from its iconographic antecedents, and its version of the subject can be related to a particular strand in the rich later literary representations of the story.1
Application of the multifactor dimensionality reduction method in evaluation of the roles of multiple genes/enzymes in multidrug-resistant acquisition in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains
Authors: YAO Z. , PENG Y. , BI J. , XIE C. , CHEN X. , LI Y. , YE X. , ZHOU J.
Published: August 2015

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRPA) infections are major threats to healthcare-associated infection control and the intrinsic molecular mechanisms of MDRPA are also unclear. We examined 348 isolates of P. aeruginosa, including 188 MDRPA and 160 non-MDRPA, obtained from five tertiary-care hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Significant correlations were found between gene/enzyme carriage and increased rates of antimicrobial resistance (P < 0·01). gyrA mutation, OprD loss and metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) presence were identified as crucial molecular risk factors for MDRPA acquisition by a combination of univariate logistic regression and a multifactor dimensionality reduction approach. The MDRPA rate was also elevated with the increase in positive numbers of those three determinants (P < 0·001). Thus, gyrA mutation, OprD loss and MBL presence may serve as predictors for early screening of MDRPA infections in clinical settings.
Impact of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis in children
Authors: CHAPOUTOT A. G. , DESSEIN R. , GUILLUY O. , LAGRÉE M. , WALLET F. , VARON E. , MARTINOT A. , DUBOS F.
Published: August 2015

The impact of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) on the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis (PM) in children is unknown. To determine this impact, a descriptive multicentre retrospective cohort study was conducted from 2008 to 2013 in northern France. All laboratory-confirmed PM in children aged <18 years in all hospitals of the area with paediatric units were included. Two independent databases were used for exhaustive identification of cases: medical plus laboratory records at each hospital and discharge codes. The corrected incidence of PM was determined by a capture–recapture analysis using these two databases. Sixty-two cases were found over the 6-year period. A decrease of the PM corrected incidence was observed in the global population (P = 0·07), significant only for children aged <2 years, from 11·9/100 000 in 2008 in 1·9/100 000 in 2013 [6·4 fold-decrease, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·4–41, P = 0·01] between years 2008 and 2013. When comparing the pre- and post-PCV13 periods, this decrease was still statistically significant for children aged <2 years [7·32/100 000 (95% CI 4·39–10·25) to 2·78/100 000 (95% CI 0·96–4·60), P = 0·01]. Only three (5%) cases of PM caused by vaccine serotypes could have been prevented. After the introduction of the PCV13 vaccine, a decrease in the incidence of PM cases in children in northern France was observed.
Hierarchical organisation and tonal scaling
Authors: Truckenbrodt Hubert , Féry Caroline
Published: August 2015

Ladd (1988) investigates configurations A[BC]vs.[AB]C of three English clauses containing clause-internal downstep. A sister-node relation between clauses (but not a sequential relation) leads to downstep among clauses, such that C is systematically lower than B in A[BC] but not in [AB]C. These findings are replicated here with German data. In addition, the German phenomenon of upstep (Truckenbrodt 2007b) arguably targets the phonetic reference line that models lowering among clauses (van den Berget al.1992). We show that both Ladd's and our results also support Selkirk's (2011) suggestion that root sentences/illocutionary clauses can be interpreted as matched to intonational phrases (not just aligned with them, as in Downing 1970). The results also suggest that, in addition to downstep among intonational phrases, phrase-final lowering takes place.
The syntax and prosody of apposition in Shingazidja
Authors: O'Connor Kathleen M. , Patin Cédric
Published: August 2015

This paper investigates the syntax–prosody interface with respect to apposition in Shingazidja. We examine the syntactic properties of two types of apposition (restrictive and non-restrictive). While restrictive apposition appears to form a single constituent, the syntactic data for non-restrictives are ambiguous between a single constituent analysis and an analysis in which the appositive and its anchor are syntactically separate. Prosodic data confirm the single constituent analysis for restrictive apposition, and provide evidence that non-restrictive appositives are syntactically linked to their antecedent and prosodically embedded in their host clause. The phenomenon of final raising emerges as the principal indicator of intonational phrases in Shingazidja; tone shift signals phonological phrasing. Our analysis is formalised in Optimality Theory through a comparison of Align/Wrap theory and Match theory. A Match-theory account predicts the existence of recursive phonological phrasing, and we present evidence supporting this prediction.
Phrasal phonology in Copperbelt Bemba
Authors: Kula Nancy C. , Bickmore Lee S.
Published: August 2015

Copperbelt Bemba exhibits several rightward spreading tonal processes which are sensitive to prosodic phrase structure. The rightmost H tone in a word will undergo unbounded spreading if the word is final in a phonological phrase (φ). In an intonational phrase consisting of several single-word φ's, the rightmost H in the first word will spread through all following toneless φ's. From a rule-based perspective, this can only be accounted for by positing mutually feeding iterative rules, as a single H-tone spreading rule cannot account for the long-distance spreading. Rather, a second rule that spreads a H from the final mora of one word onto the initial mora of the following word is required, as a bridge to further unbounded spreading. Three phrase-sensitive OT constraints are proposed to account for H-tone spreading between words. One is of the domain-juncture variety, requiring the specification of two separate prosodic domains.
Cultures of nuclear resistance in 1980s Liverpool
Authors: HOGG JONATHAN
Published: August 2015

Focusing on Liverpool in the early 1980s, this article argues that localized approaches to Cold War cities can help us understand the impact of national nuclear policy on cultures of local government and everyday life. After an articulation of cultural politics in the early 1980s, this article suggests that nuclear cultures that existed in Liverpool were shaped by ideas and assumptions discursively reinforced at both a national and local level.
Neuroimaging endophenotypes in autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Mahajan Rajneesh , Mostofsky Stewart H.
Published: August 2015

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has a strong genetic basis, and is heterogeneous in its etiopathogenesis and clinical presentation. Neuroimaging studies, in concert with neuropathological and clinical research, have been instrumental in delineating trajectories of development in children with ASD. Structural neuroimaging has revealed ASD to be a disorder with general and regional brain enlargement, especially in the frontotemporal cortices, while functional neuroimaging studies have highlighted diminished connectivity, especially between frontal-posterior regions. The diverse and specific neuroimaging findings may represent potential neuroendophenotypes, and may offer opportunities to further understand the etiopathogenesis of ASD, predict treatment response, and lead to the development of new therapies.
Modernising historical Slovene words
Authors: SCHERRER YVES , ERJAVEC TOMAŽ
Published: August 2015

We propose a language-independent word normalisation method and exemplify it on modernising historical Slovene words. Our method relies on character-level statistical machine translation (CSMT) and uses only shallow knowledge. We present relevant data on historical Slovene, consisting of two (partially) manually annotated corpora and the lexicons derived from these corpora, containing historical word–modern word pairs. The two lexicons are disjoint, with one serving as the training set containing 40,000 entries, and the other as a test set with 20,000 entries. The data spans the years 1750–1900, and the lexicons are split into fifty-year slices, with all the experiments carried out separately on the three time periods. We perform two sets of experiments. In the first one – a supervised setting – we build a CSMT system using the lexicon of word pairs as training data. In the second one – an unsupervised setting – we simulate a scenario in which word pairs are not available. We propose a two-step method where we first extract a noisy list of word pairs by matching historical words with cognate modern words, and then train a CSMT system on these pairs. In both sets of experiments, we also optionally make use of a lexicon of modern words to filter the modernisation hypotheses. While we show that both methods produce significantly better results than the baselines, their accuracy and which method works best strongly correlates with the age of the texts, meaning that the choice of the best method will depend on the properties of the historical language which is to be modernised. As an extrinsic evaluation, we also compare the quality of part-of-speech tagging and lemmatisation directly on historical text and on its modernised words. We show that, depending on the age of the text, annotation on modernised words also produces significantly better results than annotation on the original text.
Reliable Change on Neuropsychological Tests in the Uniform Data Set
Authors: Gavett Brandon E. , Ashendorf Lee , Gurnani Ashita S.
Published: August 2015

Longitudinal normative data obtained from a robust elderly sample (i.e., believed to be free from neurodegenerative disease) are sparse. The purpose of the present study was to develop reliable change indices (RCIs) that can assist with interpretation of test score changes relative to a healthy sample of older adults (ages 50+). Participants were 4217 individuals who completed at least three annual evaluations at one of 34 past and present Alzheimer’s Disease Centers throughout the United States. All participants were diagnosed as cognitively normal at every study visit, which ranged from three to nine approximately annual evaluations. One-year RCIs were calculated for 11 neuropsychological variables in the Uniform Data Set by regressing follow-up test scores onto baseline test scores, age, education, visit number, post-baseline assessment interval, race, and sex in a linear mixed effects regression framework. In addition, the cumulative frequency distributions of raw score changes were examined to describe the base rates of test score changes. Baseline test score, age, education, and race were robust predictors of follow-up test scores across most tests. The effects of maturation (aging) were more pronounced on tests related to attention and executive functioning, whereas practice effects were more pronounced on tests of episodic and semantic memory. Interpretation of longitudinal changes on 11 cognitive test variables can be facilitated through the use of reliable change intervals and base rates of score changes in this robust sample of older adults. A Web-based calculator is provided to assist neuropsychologists with interpretation of longitudinal change. (JINS, 2015, 21, 558–567)