bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Do as I Say, Not as I Did
Authors: Grossman Jennifer M. , Charmaraman Linda , Erkut Sumru
Published: November 2013

Communication between parents and teens about sexuality can reduce early sexual behavior. However, little research investigates how parents who were adolescents when they had children (early parents) talk with their teens about sex. In-depth interviews were conducted with a racially/ethnically diverse sample of 29 parents of seventh graders. Salient themes of conversations with adolescents were risks of early parenthood, sexually transmitted infections, delaying sex, and using protection. Compared with parents who were older when they had children (later parents), early parents were more likely to report having had negative sexuality communications with their families of origin and to express a wish to communicate differently with their own children. Early parents were more likely than later parents to discuss risks of early parenthood and to rely on extended family involvement in sexuality communication. Findings suggest that early parents may bring unique perspectives that enable them to approach sexuality communication differently than do later parents.
Epidemiology of Primary Anterior Shoulder Dislocation Requiring Closed Reduction in Ontario, Canada
Authors: Leroux Timothy , Wasserstein David , Veillette Christian , Khoshbin Amir , Henry Patrick , Chahal Jaskarndip , Austin Peter , Mahomed Nizar , Ogilvie-Harris Darrell
Published: November 2013

Background:

There is a lack of high-quality population-based literature describing the epidemiology of primary anterior shoulder dislocation.

Purpose:

To (1) calculate the incidence density rate (IDR) of primary anterior shoulder dislocation requiring closed reduction (CR; “index event”) in the general population and demographic subgroups, and (2) determine the rate of and risk factors for repeat shoulder CR.

Study Design:

Cohort study (prognosis); Level of evidence, 2.

Methods:

All patients who underwent shoulder CR by a physician in Ontario between April 2002 and September 2010 were identified with administrative databases. Exclusion criteria included age <16 and >70 years, posterior dislocation, and prior shoulder dislocation or surgery. Index event IDR was calculated for all populations/subgroups, and IDR comparisons were made. Repeat shoulder CR was sought until September 2012. Risk factors for repeat shoulder CR were identified with a Prentice, Williams, and Peterson proportional hazards model.

Results:

There were 20,719 persons (median age, 35 years; 74.3% male) who underwent a shoulder CR after a primary anterior shoulder dislocation (23.1/100,000 person-years). The IDR was highest among young males (98.3/100,000 person-years). A total of 3940 (19%) patients underwent repeat shoulder CR after a median of 0.9 years, of which 41.7% were ≤20 years of age. Less than two-thirds of all first repeat shoulder CR events occurred within 2 years; in fact, 95% occurred within 5 years. The risk of repeat shoulder CR was lowest if the primary reduction had been performed by an orthopaedic surgeon (hazard ratio [HR], 0.76; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.90; P = .002) or was associated with a humeral tuberosity fracture (HR, 0.71; CI, 0.53, 0.95; P = .02). Older age (HR, 0.97; CI, 0.97, 0.98; P < .0001) and higher medical comorbidity score (HR, 0.92; CI, 0.87, 0.98; P = .009) were also protective. Risk was highest among males (HR, 1.26; CI, 1.16, 1.36; P < .0001) and patients from low-income neighborhoods (HR, 1.23; CI, 1.13, 1.34; P < .0001).

Conclusion:

Young male patients have the highest incidence of primary anterior shoulder dislocation requiring CR and the greatest risk of repeat shoulder CR. Patient, provider, and injury factors all influence repeat shoulder CR risk. A comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of primary anterior shoulder dislocation will aid management decisions and injury prevention initiatives.
Understanding Informal Group Learning in Online Communities Through Discourse Analysis
Authors: Ziegler Mary F. , Paulus Trena , Woodside Marianne
Published: November 2013

Since informal learning occurs outside of formal learning environments, describing informal learning and how it takes place can be a challenge for researchers. Past studies have typically oriented to informal learning as an individual, reflective process that can best be understood through the learners’ retrospective accounts about their experiences. Although reports on the individual lived experience represent the privileged way of understanding social reality (including informal learning), the linguistic/discursive turn of the 1980s proposed a shift in our view of the function of language as creating rather than representing versions of the world. Accordingly, we propose resituating informal learning from a reflective process occurring in an individual mind to the meaning making that occurs in group conversations. We present an exploratory analysis of a single thread from an online hiking community to introduce discourse analysis as a framework to study informal learning as a group meaning-making process.
Desire Thinking as a Predictor of Problematic Internet Use
Authors: Spada Marcantonio M. , Caselli Gabriele , Slaifer Manuel , Nikčević Ana V. , Sassaroli Sandra
Published: November 2013

This study investigated the role of desire thinking in predicting problematic Internet use (PIU) independently of weekly Internet use, anxiety, depression, and craving for Internet use. A sample of 250 Internet users completed the following self-report instruments: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Internet Use Craving Scale, Desire Thinking Questionnaire, and Internet Addiction Test. The sample was then divided into two subgroups: problematic Internet users ( n = 90) and nonproblematic Internet users ( n = 140). Mann–Whitney U tests revealed that all variable scores were significantly higher for problematic Internet users than nonproblematic Internet users. A logistic regression analysis indicated that imaginal prefiguration was a predictor of classification as problematic Internet user over and above weekly Internet use, anxiety, depression, and craving for Internet use. A hierarchical regression analysis, on the combined sample, indicated that both verbal perseveration and imaginal prefiguration predicted PIU independently of weekly Internet use, anxiety, depression, and craving for Internet use. These results add to the argument that the construct of desire thinking is relevant in understanding of addictive behaviors including PIU.
Protective effect of vanadyl sulfate on skin injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
Authors: Tunali S , Yanardag R
Published: November 2013

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of vanadyl sulfate supplementation on the skin tissues of diabetic and control rats. In this study, 6–6.5 months old male Swiss albino rats were used. The animals were randomly divided into the following four groups: group I, control (nondiabetic intact animals); group II, vanadyl sulfate control; group III, streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic animals and group IV, STZ-diabetic animals given vanadyl sulfate. The animals were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of a single dose of 65 mg/kg STZ in 0.01 M citrate buffer (pH = 4.5). From day 1 to day 60, 100 mg/kg vanadyl sulfate was given daily by gavage technique to one of the control and diabetic groups. Body weights and blood glucose levels were estimated on experimental days 0, 1 and 60. On the 60th day, skin tissue samples were taken, glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation (LPO), nonenzymatic glycosylation (NEG) and protein levels, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione- S-transferase (GST) activities were determined. Blood glucose, skin LPO and NEG levels increased, but skin GSH levels and CAT, SOD and GST activities decreased in the STZ group. Treatment with vanadyl sulfate reversed these effects. The present study showed that vanadyl sulfate exerted antioxidant properties and may prevent skin damage caused by diabetes.
Oxidative stress on cardiotoxicity after treatment with single and multiple doses of doxorubicin
Authors: Segredo M Pacifico de Freitas , Salvadori DM Favero , Rocha NS , Moretto FC Fontes , Correa CR , Camargo EA , Almeida DC de , Reis RA Silva , Freire CM Murbach , Braz MG , Tang G , Matsubara LS , Matsubara BB , Yeum K-J , Ferreira ALA
Published: November 2013

The mechanism of doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity remains controversial. Wistar rats ( n = 66) received DOX injections intraperitoneally and were randomly assigned to 2 experimental protocols: (1) rats were killed before (−24 h, n = 8) and 24 h after (+24 h, n = 8) a single dose of DOX (4 mg/kg body weight) to determine the DOX acute effect and (2) rats ( n = 58) received 4 injections of DOX (4 mg/kg body weight/week) and were killed before the first injection (M0) and 1 week after each injection (M1, M2, M3, and M4) to determine the chronological effects. Animals used at M0 ( n = 8) were also used at moment −24 h of acute study. Cardiac total antioxidant performance (TAP), DNA damage, and morphology analyses were carried out at each time point. Single dose of DOX was associated with increased cardiac disarrangement, necrosis, and DNA damage (strand breaks (SBs) and oxidized pyrimidines) and decreased TAP. The chronological study showed an effect of a cumulative dose on body weight ( R = −0.99, p = 0.011), necrosis ( R = 1.00, p = 0.004), TAP ( R = 0.95, p = 0.049), and DNA SBs ( R = −0.95, p = 0.049). DNA SBs damage was negatively associated with TAP ( R = −0.98, p = 0.018), and necrosis ( R = −0.97, p = 0.027). Our results suggest that oxidative damage is associated with acute cardiotoxicity induced by a single dose of DOX only. Increased resistance to the oxidative stress is plausible for the multiple dose of DOX. Thus, different mechanisms may be involved in acute toxicity versus chronic toxicity.
Multiple imputation in the presence of high-dimensional data
Authors: Zhao Yize , Long Qi
Published: November 2013

Missing data are frequently encountered in biomedical, epidemiologic and social research. It is well known that a naive analysis without adequate handling of missing data may lead to bias and/or loss of efficiency. Partly due to its ease of use, multiple imputation has become increasingly popular in practice for handling missing data. However, it is unclear what is the best strategy to conduct multiple imputation in the presence of high-dimensional data. To answer this question, we investigate several approaches of using regularized regression and Bayesian lasso regression to impute missing values in the presence of high-dimensional data. We compare the performance of these methods through numerical studies, in which we also evaluate the impact of the dimension of the data, the size of the true active set for imputation, and the strength of correlation. Our numerical studies show that in the presence of high-dimensional data the standard multiple imputation approach performs poorly and the imputation approach using Bayesian lasso regression achieves, in most cases, better performance than the other imputation methods including the standard imputation approach using the correctly specified imputation model. Our results suggest that Bayesian lasso regression and its extensions are better suited for multiple imputation in the presence of high-dimensional data than the other regression methods.
Adaptive neural network control for unified chaotic systems with dead-zone input
Authors: Li Dong-Juan
Published: November 2013

An adaptive control scheme is studied for unified chaotic systems with unknown function and dead-zone input. Because uncertain nonlinear property is included in the considered unified chaotic systems, the neural networks are used to approximate the uncertainties. An adaptive technique is employed to construct the neural controllers and compensate for the dead-zone parameters. By using the scheme, the chaotic phenomena for unified chaotic systems are overcome. It is proven that the proposed algorithm can guarantee that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded and the system states can converge to a neighborhood of zero based on the Lyapunov analysis method. The simulation example for a unified chaotic system is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Internal Marketing Practices in Health Care and Their Influence on Nurse Motivation
Authors: Azêdo Daniela , Alves Helena
Published: November 2013

Although internal marketing (IM) has been related to motivation in theory, very few studies have in fact studied this influence in practice. Therefore, this research aims to verify whether the existence of IM practices does influence the motivation of nurses as well as their practices in conjunction with whether IM practices diverge in accordance with whether the organization runs a public management or an innovative management model. To that end, a descriptive and correlational study in which 234 nurses participated from both corporate public entities (EPE) hospitals (public management model) and continuous care units (innovative management model) was undertaken. The results demonstrate that IM practices do influence nurse motivation levels. The results also show that some differences exist in IM practices between health care units with public management versus innovative management.
Dissociable Response Inhibition in Children With Tourette’s Syndrome Compared With Children With ADHD
Authors: Hovik Kjell Tore , Plessen Kerstin J. , Skogli Erik Winther , Andersen Per Normann , Øie Merete
Published: November 2013

Objective: This study investigates whether performance in a verbal response task ( Color-Word Interference Test [CWIT]) and a motor response task ( Conners’ Continuous Performance Test [CCPT]) discriminates children with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS), ADHD, and typically developing children (TDC). Method: Nineteen children with TS, 79 with ADHD, and 50 with TDC participated (8-17 years). Results: Children with TS committed significantly fewer errors in the verbal response task than those with ADHD. Moreover, children with TS but without ADHD performed better than TDC. Errors in motor task and speed of response did not distinguish between groups. A cautious tendency of response correlated positively with rates of tics in children with TS. Conclusion: Children with TS were superior in inhibiting a prepotent verbal response; however, comorbidity with ADHD in those children negatively influenced performance. Results support the hypothesis that levels of inhibitory control distinguish children with TS, ADHD, and TDC.
Late to the parade
Authors: McKee Seth C , Yoshinaka Antoine
Published: November 2013

We undertake an examination of southern state legislators who changed their party affiliation between 1992 and 2012. Not surprisingly, the vast majority went from being Democrats to Republicans, and this change has fuelled the dynamics at the national level by pulling the Republican Party further to the right and Democrats to the left. Hence, these are the incumbent party switchers we evaluate. With the use of constituency, electoral and contextual data on both switchers and non-switchers, we assess which factors influence the likelihood that a Democratic office-holder will switch to the GOP (Grand Old Party). We find that the typical demographic correlates of southern Republicanism, such as race and education, do indeed have a significant effect on the probability of the GOP label being adopted. In addition, the disruptive effect of redistricting induces switches, as does a change in the party of the elected governor. However, electoral pressure does not have an independent effect on party switching. Our results suggest that party switching is a response to several district-level factors as well as the broader political context within the state. We conclude with a discussion of why increasing partisan polarization and the maturation of the southern GOP is likely to forestall future party switching.
Theory and practice in the context of practicum
Authors: Standal Øyvind Førland , Moen Kjersti Mordal , Moe Vegard Fusche
Published: November 2013

Previous studies have found that student teachers value the practicum over other parts of physical education teacher education and that they experience a gap between theory and practice in their education. The purpose of this study was to provide more knowledge about the theory–practice relations in the context of the practicum of physical education teacher education. Data were generated through focus group interviews with physical education teacher education students ( n = 37) from three different university colleges in Norway. The analysis and discussion of the data material were framed with the concept of practical synthesis (Grimen, 2008). The findings indicate that students experience theory and practice as fragmented, but that they have a differentiated understanding of what theory is. The analysis also suggests that, for the students, university tutors occupy a rather distant role in the practicum and that it is mostly left to the students to make connections between theory and practice.
Ending Gang and Youth Violence: A Critique
Authors: Cottrell-Boyce Joe
Published: November 2013

This article assesses the appropriateness of the strategies laid out in the 2011 Ending Gang and Youth Violence report (HM Government, 2011), for achieving the goal of reducing youth violence in England and Wales. Gangs, it is argued, have been constructed as a ‘suitable enemy’ in the report, obscuring the wider, structural roots of youth violence. At the level of enforcement, a focus on gang membership may also be counterproductive; creating confusion and resulting in a drag-net approach which can criminalize innocent young people rather than focusing resources on serious violent crime.
A Minimally Invasive Modified Reverse Sural Adipofascial Flap for Treating Posttraumatic Distal Tibial and Calcaneal Osteomyelitis
Authors: Yang Chenglin , Geng Shuo , Fu Chunjiang , Sun Jiabing , Bi Zhenggang
Published: November 2013

Our aim was to report a modified reverse sural adipofascial flap for treating posttraumatic distal tibial or calcaneal osteomyelitis. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 15 patients with posttraumatic distal tibial or calcaneal osteomyelitis treated with modified reverse sural adipofascial flaps between 2005 and 2010. The flap was raised through 2 short incisions in the posterior aspect of the lower leg. The raw surface of the flap was covered with a full-thickness skin graft. Donor sites were closed primarily. Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) scores and 2-point discrimination (TPD) were recorded preoperatively and postoperatively. There were 12 males and 3 females, with an average age of 39 years (range = 18-55 years). Twelve lesions were in the distal tibia and 3 in the calcaneus. The flap ranged in size from 11 × 5 cm to 16 × 7 cm. All flaps survived, and skin grafts healed without complications. Recipient sites had an anatomic contour, and all patients were able to ambulate without the assistance of special shoes or orthoses. No infections recurred, and no ulcers of the grafted skin occurred with the regular wearing of shoes. The follow-up duration was 18.7 ± 6.8 months (range = 12-36 months). The mean LEFS score increased from 22.4 ± 8.3 preoperatively to 53.0 ± 11.2 postoperatively ( P = .001). TPD markedly recovered at 24 months postoperatively. The modified reverse sural adipofascial flap provides good outcomes in treating distal tibial and calcaneal osteomyelitis with minimal donor site morbidity.
Citric Acid Treatment of Chronic Nonhealing Ulcerated Tophaceous Gout With Bursitis
Authors: Nagoba Basavaraj S. , Punpale Ajay , Poddar Ashok , Suryawanshi Namdev M. , Swami Ganesh A. , Selkar Sohan P.
Published: November 2013

The ulceration associated with gout tophi is very difficult to treat because of impaired and halted local inflammatory response resulting from the gout treatment regimen. We report chronic nonhealing tophaceous gout with bursitis in an 80-year-old male, not responding to conventional treatment modality for months together. This nonhealing ulcer was treated successfully with local application of 3% citric acid ointment for 22 days.
Reflective Teaching via a Problem Exploration–Teaching Adaptations–Resolution Cycle
Authors: Hayden H. Emily , Chiu Ming Ming
Published: November 2013

We explore development of elementary preservice teachers’ reflective practices as they solved problems encountered while teaching in a reading clinic. Written reflections ( N = 175) were collected across 8 weeks from 23 preservice teachers and analyzed to investigate relationships among problem exploration, teaching adaptations, and problem resolution. In this sequential mixed methods design, exploratory qualitative analysis revealed co-occurrence of problem exploration, instructional adaptation, and problem resolution. Confirmatory quantitative analysis found significant relationships: preservice teachers who engaged in more problem exploration or description of instructional adaptations reported more problem resolutions the following week. Results support mixed method, longitudinal analyses to analyze preservice teachers’ written reflections, and use of written reflections with responsive feedback to develop preservice teachers’ agency for problem solving.
Towards operationalizing complexity leadership: How generative, administrative and community-building leadership practices enact organizational outcomes
Authors: Hazy James K , Uhl-Bien Mary
Published: November 2013

Over five years ago, The Leadership Quarterly published a special issue on complexity to advance a new way of thinking about leadership. In shifting attention away from the individual to the organizing process itself, complexity added an important focus on process and context to leadership and management research. Yet, the complexity approach creates challenges for researchers who must combine or replace individual level constructs—like those built through surveys or factor analysis—with richer theories that investigate networked meso dynamics, multilevel phenomena, emergent processes, and organizational outcomes. To address this challenge, the present analysis draws on theoretical and empirical work over the last several years to identify five specific areas where complexity inspired research has led to new insights about the mechanisms that enable the organization to perform and adapt. It suggests propositions that describe how leadership and management, defined holistically, might activate complexity mechanisms to perform five essential organizing functions.
Transformational and transactional presidents
Authors: Nye Joseph S
Published: November 2013

During the 20th century, the United States went from being a second rate power to becoming the world’s sole superpower. Did leaders matter? In the cases I examined in Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era, most presidents mattered, but not necessarily those that one might expect. Leadership experts distinguish transformational leaders with broad visions and an inspirational style (such as Woodrow Wilson or Ronald Reagan) from transactional leaders who have modest vision and a managerial style (such as Dwight Eisenhower or George H.W. Bush). Experts and editorialists generally prefer transformational leaders and consider them both more effective and more ethical. But the concepts have been poorly defined, and the normative preference for transformational leaders is not justified. Leadership theorists need to be more careful in their definitions and assessments.
Implementation of the Connective Tissue Screening Questionnaire in Northeast Pennsylvania to Identify Comorbidities of Connective Tissue Diseases in Subjects With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Authors: Farrell Michael S. , Wallace Sean J. , Clarke Scott M. , Tarafder Mushfiqur R. , McLaughlin William A.
Published: November 2013

Previous studies have described an increased risk of developing an additional connective tissue disease (CTD) when one such ailment is present. We examine here the likelihood that individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) screen positive for one or more of the following five autoimmune CTDs: Sjögren’s syndrome, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatomyositis/polymyositis, and mixed connective tissue disorder. Five hundred SLE-diagnosed subjects were asked to complete a CTD screening questionnaire (CSQ). The results were analyzed according to the set of diagnostic criteria given by the American College of Rheumatology to identify probable cases of each CTD. Significant standardized prevalence ratios and comorbidities indicate an increased risk for the other autoimmune CTDs. In all, 96% of the subjects screened positive for at least one additional CTD, and 13% screened positive for at least two additional CTDs. We see that the SLE-diagnosed population may benefit from further attention regarding the presence of additional CTDs, which may further inform treatment strategies. We also see the application of the CSQ as a potentially important tool for clinical practice, and we describe the present study’s limitations along with possible ways that these can be addressed.
Microstructure evolution of directionally solidified Nb–Si alloy
Authors: Weng J. F. , Jia L. N. , Yuan S. N. , Su L. F. , Ding F. , Zhang H.
Published: November 2013

By taking the method of liquid–metal cooled directional solidification, alloys with a nominal composition of Nb–14Si–24Ti–10Cr–2Al–2Hf (at-) were prepared under different conditions. Alloys were initially directional solidified with different withdrawal rates ( R = 1·2, 6, 18 mm min−1) at 1750°C and subsequently heat treated at 1450°C for 10 h. These processes aimed to investigate the microstructure of directionally solidified (DS) and heat treated (HT) alloys by XRD, SEM, and EDS. The microstructure of DS alloy was composed of (Nb,Ti)SS, (Nb,Ti)5Si3, and Laves phase Cr2Nb, and the former two components formed (Nb,Ti)SS+(Nb,Ti)5Si3 eutectics. In addition, (Nb,Ti)5Si3 laths only presented in DS1·2 alloy. With the increasing withdrawal rates, the microstructure of alloy altered from hypereutectic into pseudo-eutectic, accompanied with the eutectic morphology transformation from petaloid into coupled. Also, the dimension of constituent phases reduced. However, after heat treatment, the constituent phases did not change. The petaloid morphology of eutectics in DS specimens disappeared and coupled eutectic transferred into network. The block or needle-like Cr2Nb gathered along the boundary between (Nb,Ti)5Si3 and (Nb,Ti)SS, and the overall alloy composition became homogenisation.
Research on variation and stress status of graphite in laser cladding process of grey cast iron
Authors: Xu P. Y. , Liu Y. C. , Yi P. , Fan C. F. , Li C. K.
Published: November 2013

Grey cast iron codenamed HT250 was processed by laser cladding with Fe based alloy to investigate the graphite variation in laser cladding process. To study the phenomenon that microcracks appeared at some graphite tips in the bonding zone, the macro laser cladding model and micro graphite model were established. Thermal–mechanical characteristics of the area around graphite were investigated using the models. The results showed that graphite in the bonding zone had complicated variation and microcracks appeared on a portion of graphite tips. Tensile stress concentration emerged at graphite tips in the cooling period which was a hazardous area of microcracks initiation. Microcracks were caused by coactions of microstructure characteristics of graphite area and stress concentration at graphite tips. The tensile stress was closely related to graphite dimensions. Graphite with large radius and length caused larger tensile stress which resulted in microcracks more easily.
Activation of the inflammatory transcription factor nuclear factor interleukin-6 during inflammatory and psychological stress in the brain
Authors: Fuchs Franziska , Damm Jelena , Gerstberger Rüdiger , Roth Joachim , Rummel Christoph
Published: November 2013

Background

The transcription factor nuclear factor interleukin 6 (NF-IL6) is known to be activated by various inflammatory stimuli in the brain. Interestingly, we recently detected NF-IL6-activation within the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis of rats after systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-injection. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether NF-IL6 is activated during either, inflammatory, or psychological stress in the rat brain.

Methods

Rats were challenged with either the inflammatory stimulus LPS (100 μg/kg, i.p.) or exposed to a novel environment. Core body temperature (Tb) and motor activity were monitored using telemetry, animals were killed at different time points, brains and blood removed, and primary cell cultures of the anterior pituitary lobe (AL) were investigated. Analyses were performed using immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, and cytokine-specific bioassays.

Results

Stress stimulation by a novel environment increased NF-IL6-immunoreactivity (IR) in the pituitary’s perivascular macrophages and hypothalamic paraventricular cells and a rise in Tb lasting approximately 2 h. LPS stimulation lead to NF-IL6-IR in several additional cell types including ACTH-IR-positive corticotrope cells in vivo and in vitro. Two other proinflammatory transcription factors, namely signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3 and NFκB, were significantly activated and partially colocalized with NF-IL6-IR in cells of the AL only after LPS-stimulation, but not following psychological stress. In vitro NF-IL6-activation was associated with induction and secretion of TNFα in folliculostellate cells, which could be antagonized by the JAK-STAT-inhibitor AG490.

Conclusions

We revealed, for the first time, that NF-IL6 activation occurs not only during inflammatory LPS stimulation, but also during psychological stress, that is, a novel environment. Both stressors were associated with time-dependent activation of NF-IL6 in different cell types of the brain and the pituitary. Moreover, while NF-IL6-IR was partially linked to STAT3 and NFκB activation, TNFα production, and ACTH-IR after LPS stimulation; this was not the case after exposure to a novel environment, suggesting distinct underlying signaling pathways. Overall, NF-IL6 can be used as a broad activation marker in the brain and might be of interest for therapeutic approaches not only during inflammatory but also psychological stress.
Knowledge, use and management of native wild edible plants from a seasonal dry forest (NE, Brazil)
Authors: Cruz Margarita Paloma , Peroni Nivaldo , Albuquerque Ulysses Paulino
Published: November 2013

Background

Despite being an ancient practice that satisfies basic human needs, the use of wild edible plants tends to be forgotten along with associated knowledge in rural communities. The objective of this work is to analyze existing relationships between knowledge, use, and management of native wild edible plants and socioeconomic factors such as age, gender, family income, individual income, past occupation and current occupation.

Methods

The field work took place between 2009 and 2010 in the community of Carão, Altinho municipality, in the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 members of the community regarding knowledge, use and management of 14 native wild edible plants from the Caatinga region, corresponding to 12 vegetable species. In parallel, we documented the socioeconomic aspects of the interviewed population (age, gender, family income, individual income, past occupation and current occupation).

Results

Knowledge about edible plants was related to age but not to current occupation or use. Current use was not associated with age, gender or occupation. The association between age and past use may indicate abandonment of these resources.

Conclusion

Because conservation of the species is not endangered by their use but by deforestation of the ecosystems in which these plants grow, we suggest that the promotion and consumption of the plants by community members is convenient and thereby stimulates the appropriation and consequent protection of the ecosystem. To promote consumption of these plants, it is important to begin by teaching people about plant species that can be used for their alimentation, disproving existing myths about plant use, and encouraging diversification of use by motivating the invention of new preparation methods. An example of how this can be achieved is through events like the “Preserves Festival”.
Immune responses to stress after stress management training in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: de Brouwer Sabine JM , van Middendorp Henriët , Kraaimaat Floris W , Radstake Timothy RDJ , Joosten Irma , Donders A Rogier T , Eijsbouts Agnes , Koulil Saskia Spillekom-van , van Riel Piet LCM , Evers Andrea WM
Published: November 2013

Introduction

Psychological stress may alter immune function by activating physiological stress pathways. Building on our previous study, in which we report that stress management training led to an altered self-reported and cortisol response to psychological stress in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we explored the effects of this stress management intervention on the immune response to a psychological stress task in patients with RA.

Methods

In this study, 74 patients with RA, who were randomly assigned to either a control group or a group that received short stress management training, performed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) 1 week after the intervention and at a 9-week follow-up. Stress-induced changes in levels of key cytokines involved in stress and inflammatory processes (for example, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8) were assessed.

Results

Basal and stress-induced cytokine levels were not significantly different in patients in the intervention and control groups one week after treatment, but stress-induced IL-8 levels were lower in patients in the intervention group than in the control group at the follow-up assessment.

Conclusions

In line with our previous findings of lower stress-induced cortisol levels at the follow-up of stress management intervention, this is the first study to show that relatively short stress management training might also alter stress-induced IL-8 levels in patients with RA. These results might help to determine the role of immunological mediators in stress and disease.

Trial registration

The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR1193)
Impact of Wait Times on Survival for Women With Uterine Cancer
Authors: Elit Lorraine M. , O'Leary Erin M. , Pond Gregory R. , Seow Hsien-Yeang
Published: November 2013

Purpose

To determine whether wait time from histologic diagnosis of uterine cancer to time of definitive surgery by hysterectomy had an impact on all-cause survival.

Patients and Methods

Women in Ontario with a confirmed histopathologic diagnosis of uterine cancer between April 1, 2000, and March 31, 2009, followed by surgery were identified in the Ontario Cancer Registry. Survival was calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method. Factors were evaluated for their prognostic effect on survival by using Cox proportional hazards regression. Wait time was evaluated in a multivariable model after adjusting for other significant factors.

Results

The final study population included 9,417 women; 51.9% had surgery by a gynecologist, and 69.9% had endometrioid adenocarcinoma. Five-year survival for women with wait times of 0.1 to 2, 2.1 to 6, 6.1 to 12, or more than 12 weeks was 71.1%, 81.8%, 79.5%, and 71.9%, respectively. Wait times of ≤ 2 weeks were adversely prognostic for survival after adjusting for other significant factors in the multivariable model, and patients with wait times of more than 12 weeks had worse survival than those who had wait times between 2.1 and 12.0 weeks.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in a large population-based cohort demonstrating that longer wait times from diagnosis of uterine cancer to definitive surgery have a negative impact on overall survival.
Nervous Conditions, Lukács, and the Postcolonial Bildungsroman
Authors: Hay Simon
Published: November 2013

This essay asks what it means to call Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions (1988) a postcolonial bildungsroman. It argues that there is a fundamental contradiction in the term between the pressures and practices of bildung (education; development; formation), on the one hand, and the project of postcolonial emancipation, on the other. Managing contradictions is a standard feature of the bidungsroman, though, and the essay argues that what makes Nervous Conditions interesting is the way it addresses this particular core contradiction. What marks Dangarembga's novel as distinct from earlier European bildungsromans is, first, its relationship with its revolutionary moment, that is, to the Zimbabwean independence struggle, and, second, its deployment of narration and description, or of realist and naturalist narrative modes, in representing an epistemology of postcolonial resistance.
Neil Gaiman's Sandman as Mythic Romance
Authors: Hume Kathryn
Published: November 2013

The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman and many illustrators, is a two-thousand-page frame tale. Critics have focused on the enclosed tales and argue or assume that Gaiman's concern is the nature of narrative. If we look at the frame, the actions of Morpheus/Dream, we find instead a mythic romance that heavily emphasizes death and the need for us to accept death, not recoil in horror or frantically resist it. This complementary reading, based on several theories of the romance form, helps explain the heavy reliance on imprisonment and death in the tales and also makes sense of using an attractive young woman to represent death.
Monstrous Utopia in Toni Morrison'sParadise
Authors: Grattan Sean
Published: November 2013

Contemporary US literature appears to have shied away from considerations of utopia. “Monstrous Utopia in Toni Morrison's Paradise” argues that Morrison creates two utopian communities to explore the ambiguous relationship between utopia and political imagination. The importance of communication in the small, unplanned utopian community of the Convent starkly exposes the danger of closing narrative possibilities as represented by the planned utopian community of Ruby. Utopian narratives, more than any other genre, create an argument for alternatives to the status quo. By examining intersections between utopian theory, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's concept of the multitude, and Morrison's Paradise, a space opens up for reconsidering ambiguous narratives of utopia in contemporary US fiction.
The Robust (Minmax Regret) Quadratic Assignment Problem with Interval Flows
Authors: Feizollahi Mohammad Javad , Averbakh Igor
Published: November 2013

We consider a generalization of the classical quadratic assignment problem, where material flows between facilities are uncertain, and only upper and lower bounds are known for each flow. The objective is to find a minmax regret solution. We present an exact Benders decomposition algorithm based on two developed mathematical programming formulations and on the developed linearizations of master problems, and a heuristic based on using tabu search in the context of a Benders decomposition framework. Then, we develop a hybrid Benders decomposition approach that allows us to combine the speed of heuristics with the rigor and precision of the exact Benders method. We discuss the results of extensive computational experiments.
Dimethyl sulfide control of the clean summertime Arctic aerosol and cloud
Authors: Leaitch W. Richard , Sharma Sangeeta , Huang Lin , Toom-Sauntry Desiree , Chivulescu Alina , Macdonald Anne Marie , von Salzen Knut , Pierce Jeffrey R. , Bertram Allan K. , Schroder Jason C. , Shantz Nicole C. , Chang Rachel Y.-W. , Norman Ann-Lise
Published: November 2013

One year of aerosol particle observations from Alert, Nunavut shows that new particle formation (NPF) is common during clean periods of the summertime Arctic associated with attendant low condensation sinks and with the presence of methane sulfonic acid (MSA), a product of the atmospheric oxidation of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). The clean aerosol time periods, defined using the distribution of refractory black carbon number concentrations, increase in frequency from June through August as the anthropogenic influence dwindles. During the clean periods, the number concentrations of particles that can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) increase from June through August suggesting that DMS, and possibly other oceanic organic precursors, exert significant control on the Arctic summertime submicron aerosol, a proposition supported by simulations from the GEOS-Chem-TOMAS global chemical transport model with particle microphysics. The CCN increase for the clean periods across the summer is estimated to be able to increase cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) by 23–44 cm-3, comparable to the mean CDNC increase needed to yield the current global cloud albedo forcing from industrial aerosols. These results suggest that DMS may contribute significantly to modification of the Arctic summer shortwave cloud albedo, and they offer a reference for future changes in the Arctic summer aerosol.
Explicit and Implicit Difference Methods for Quasilinear First Order Partial Functional Differential Equations
Authors: Kamont Zdzisław , Szafrańska Anna
Published: November 2013

Initial boundary value problems of the Dirichlet type for quasilinear functional differential equations are considered.
Explicit difference schemes of the Euler type and implicit difference methods are investigated.
Sufficient conditions for the convergence of approximate solutions
are given and comparisons of the methods are presented.
It is proved that assumptions on the regularity of given functions
are the same for both classes of the methods. It is shown that conditions on the mesh for explicit
difference schemes are more
restrictive than suitable assumptions for implicit
methods.
Error estimates for both methods are presented.
Interpolating operators corresponding to functional variables are constructed.
Simple endotrivial modules for quasi-simple groups
Authors: Lassueur Caroline , Malle Gunter , Schulte Elisabeth
Published: November 2013

We investigate simple endotrivial modules of finite quasi-simple groups and
classify them in several important cases. This is motivated by a recent result
of Robinson [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc.
43 (2011), 712–716] showing that simple endotrivial modules of most groups
come from quasi-simple groups.
The state-of-the art in gelotophobia research: A review and some theoretical extensions
Authors: Ruch Willibald , Hofmann Jennifer , Platt Tracey , Proyer René
Published: November 2013

Research on gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) has come a long way since the first empirical studies published in 2008. Based on a review of the findings on gelotophobia, its structure, causes and consequences, updates to the model are introduced emphasizing the context of the fear and its dynamic nature. More precisely, external and internal factors are seen to moderate the effects of initial events on gelotophobia, and a spiral nature in the development of the fear is assumed. It is highlighted that gelotophobia needs to be studied in the context of related variables (such as timidity, shame-proneness and social anxiety), and research should focus on the time span in which this fear is most prevalent. The relevance of gelotophobia for humor theory, research and practice is highlighted and new areas of research are introduced. Among the latter the role of gelotophobia at work and in relation to life trajectories is discussed.
School-age children talking about humor: Data from focus groups
Authors: Dowling Jacqueline S.
Published: November 2013

School-age children use humor to form relationships with peers and adults, to celebrate life through expressions of joy and laughter, to play with words to develop cognitive and linguistic competence, and as a way of coping with the psychological, social, and physical constraints of growing up. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into school-age children's understanding of humor and explore ways the children use humor to cope with daily life stressors using focus group methodology. In this study, eleven focus groups were conducted with four to six participants in each group at a local elementary and middle school. As anticipated, the developmental level influenced the type of humor the child thought was funny ranging from recalled riddles of second graders to more complex jokes and humorous observations of fourth graders to elaborate jokes and spontaneous witticisms from the sixth graders. Gender also played a role, with tickling being a common theme among the girls and the minor misfortunes of others among the boys. The children used humor to help them cope with the daily life stressors associated with interpersonal relationships, school and after-school activities, and life at home.
Gestational age-specific reference ranges from different laboratories misclassify pregnant women's thyroid status: comparison of two longitudinal prospective cohort studies
Authors: Bliddal Sofie , Feldt-Rasmussen Ulla , Boas Malene , Faber Jens , Juul Anders , Larsen Torben , Precht Dorthe Hansen
Published: November 2013

Objectives

Correct interpretation of thyroid status during pregnancy is vital to secure fetal development. Pregnancy-related changes in maternal thyroid status necessitate the use of gestational age-specific reference ranges. In this study, we investigated between-laboratory reproducibility of thyroid reference ranges in pregnant women.

Design

Comparison of two longitudinal prospective cohort studies including 255 (cohort 1) and 101 (cohort 2) healthy antibody-negative Danish pregnant women attending prenatal care at Copenhagen University Hospital.

Methods

Different immunoassays were used to measure thyroid hormone levels in the two cohorts. Thyroid hormone reference ranges were established for every 5 weeks of gestation. Differences between cohorts were explored through mixed-model repeated measures regression analyses. By applying reference ranges from one cohort to the other, the proportion of women who would be misclassified by doing so was investigated.

Results

TSH increased and free thyroxine (FT4) decreased as pregnancy progressed. Results indicated highly significant differences between cohorts in free triiodothyronine (F=21.3, P<0.001) and FT4 (F=941, P<0.001). TSH levels were comparable (P=0.09). Up to 90.3% of the women had FT4 levels outside their laboratory's nonpregnant reference range, and up to 100% outside the other cohort's gestational-age-specific reference ranges. Z-score-based reference ranges markedly improved comparison between cohorts.

Conclusion

Even in the same region, the use of gestational-age-specific reference ranges from different laboratories led to misclassification. Up to 100% of maternal FT4 levels fell outside the other cohort's reference range despite similar TSH levels. In clinical practice, thyroid testing of pregnant women without adding method specificity to gestational age-dependent reference ranges will compromise patient safety.