bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Study on the correlation between age and changes in mosquito bite response
Authors: Oka Keiko , Ohtaki Noriko , Igawa Ken , Yokozeki Hiroo
Published: October 2018

Mosquito bite reactions consist of an immediate response characterized by an erythema and a wheal, which peaks at 20 min, and a delayed response characterized by a papule and/or an erythema, which peaks at 24 h. Mosquito bite reactions progress from stage I to stage V as an individual is repeatedly bitten as follows: stage I, neither immediate nor delayed reaction; stage II, delayed reaction; stage III, both immediate and delayed reaction; stage IV, immediate reaction; and stage V, neither immediate nor delayed reaction. In 1985, we conducted a cross‐sectional study that demonstrated a positive association between age and stage in response to an Aedes albopictus bite among 162 healthy volunteers. However, it remains unknown how the mosquito bite reaction stage progresses in the same individual over decades. In the present study, the mosquito bite reaction of 10 subjects from the 1985 cross‐sectional cohort was longitudinally evaluated over 30 years. We confirmed the time‐dependent progression of stage in four subjects. One stage II subject and three stage III subjects had advanced to the next stage. We went on to find that, contrasting with the general trend found in the previous studies, the majority of the subjects (6/10) remained of stage III over the 30‐year study period. Upon closer inspection, this apparently non‐progressive group demonstrated a reduction in the size of the delayed reactions. The present study demonstrated a marked individual variability in course of the stage progression.
Optimizing syndromic health surveillance in free ranging great apes: The case of Gombe National Park
Authors: Wolf Tiffany M. , Wang Wenchun “Annie” , Lonsdorf Elizabeth V. , Gillespie Thomas R. , Pusey Anne , Gilby Ian C. , Travis Dominic A. , Singer Randall S.
Published: October 2018

Syndromic surveillance is an incipient approach to early wildlife disease detection. Consequently, systematic assessments are needed for methodology validation in wildlife populations.

We evaluated the sensitivity of a syndromic surveillance protocol for respiratory disease detection among chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Empirical health, behavioural, and demographic data were integrated with an agent‐based, network model to simulate disease transmission and surveillance.

Surveillance sensitivity was estimated as 66% (95% CI: 63.1, 68.8%) and 59.5% (95% CI: 56.5%, 62.4%) for two monitoring methods (weekly count and prevalence thresholds respectively), but differences among calendar quarters in outbreak size and surveillance sensitivity suggest seasonal effects.

We determined that a weekly detection threshold of ≥2 chimpanzees with clinical respiratory disease leading to outbreak response protocols (enhanced observation and biological sampling) is an optimal algorithm for outbreak detection in this population.

Synthesis and applications. This is the first quantitative assessment of syndromic surveillance in wildlife, providing a model approach to detecting disease emergence. Coupling syndromic surveillance with targeted diagnostic sampling in the midst of suspected outbreaks will provide a powerful system for detecting disease transmission and understanding population impacts.
High‐throughput identification and diagnostics of pathogens and pests: Overview and practical recommendations
Authors: Tedersoo Leho , Drenkhan Rein , Anslan Sten , Morales‐Rodriguez Carmen , Cleary Michelle
Published: October 2018

High‐throughput identification technologies provide efficient tools for understanding the ecology and functioning of microorganisms. Yet, these methods have been only rarely used for monitoring and testing ecological hypotheses in plant pathogens and pests in spite of their immense importance in agriculture, forestry and plant community dynamics. The main objectives of this manuscript are the following: (a) to provide a comprehensive overview about the state‐of‐the‐art high‐throughput quantification and molecular identification methods used to address population dynamics, community ecology and host associations of microorganisms, with a specific focus on antagonists such as pathogens, viruses and pests; (b) to compile available information and provide recommendations about specific protocols and workable primers for bacteria, fungi, oomycetes and insect pests; and (c) to provide examples of novel methods used in other microbiological disciplines that are of great potential use for testing specific biological hypotheses related to pathology. Finally, we evaluate the overall perspectives of the state‐of‐the‐art and still evolving methods for diagnostics and population‐ and community‐level ecological research of pathogens and pests.
Promises and pitfalls of using high‐throughput sequencing for diet analysis
Authors: Alberdi Antton , Aizpurua Ostaizka , Bohmann Kristine , Gopalakrishnan Shyam , Lynggaard Christina , Nielsen Martin , Gilbert Marcus Thomas Pius
Published: October 2018

The application of high‐throughput sequencing‐based approaches to DNA extracted from environmental samples such as gut contents and faeces has become a popular tool for studying dietary habits of animals. Due to the high resolution and prey detection capacity they provide, both metabarcoding and shotgun sequencing are increasingly used to address ecological questions grounded in dietary relationships. Despite their great promise in this context, recent research has unveiled how a wealth of biological (related to the study system) and technical (related to the methodology) factors can distort the signal of taxonomic composition and diversity. Here, we review these studies in the light of high‐throughput sequencing‐based assessment of trophic interactions. We address how the study design can account for distortion factors, and how acknowledging limitations and biases inherent to sequencing‐based diet analyses are essential for obtaining reliable results, thus drawing appropriate conclusions. Furthermore, we suggest strategies to minimize the effect of distortion factors, measures to increase reproducibility, replicability and comparability of studies, and options to scale up DNA sequencing‐based diet analyses. In doing so, we aim to aid end‐users in designing reliable diet studies by informing them about the complexity and limitations of DNA sequencing‐based diet analyses, and encourage researchers to create and improve tools that will eventually drive this field to its maturity.
SNP‐based heritability and genetic architecture of tarsal osteochondrosis in North American Standardbred horses
Authors: McCoy A. M. , Norton E. M. , Kemper A. M. , Beeson S. K. , Mickelson J. R. , McCue M. E.
Published: October 2018

Osteochondrosis is a common developmental orthopedic disease characterized by a failure of endochondral ossification. Standardbred horses are recognized as being predisposed to tarsal osteochondrosis. Prior heritability estimates for tarsal osteochondrosis in European Standardbreds and related trotting breeds have been based on pedigree data and range from 17–29%. Here, we report on genetic architecture and heritability based on high‐density genotyping data in a cohort of North American Standardbreds (n = 479) stringently phenotyped for tarsal osteochondrosis. Whole‐genome array genotyping data were imputed to ~2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).SNP‐based heritability of osteochondrosis in this population was explained by 2326SNPs. The majority of theseSNPs (86.6%) had small effects, whereas fewerSNPs had moderate or large effects (10% and 2.9% respectively), which is consistent with a polygenic/complex disease. Heritability was estimated at 0.24 ± 0.16 using two methods of restricted maximum likelihood analysis, as implemented ingcta(with and without a weighted relatedness matrix) andldaksoftware. Estimates were validated using bootstrapping. Heritability estimates were within the range previously reported and suggest that osteochondrosis is moderately heritable but that a significant portion of disease risk is due to environmental factors and/or genotype × environment interactions. Future identification of the genes/variants that have the most impact on disease risk may allow early recognition of high‐risk individuals.
Endotypes of chronic rhinitis: A cluster analysis study
Authors: Meng Yifan , Lou Hongfei , Wang Yang , Wang Xiaoyan , Cao Feifei , Wang Kuiji , Chu Xiaohan , Wang Chengshuo , Zhang Luo
Published: October 2018

Background

Chronic rhinitis (CR) is currently regarded as a syndrome, which presents as several endotypes. The aim of this study was to identify the CR endotype clusters and investigate the inflammatory patterns associated with the different endotypes.

Methods

A total of 259 CR patients and 20 control subjects were enrolled in this prospective study. Twelve clinical variables were analyzed using cluster analysis and five inflammatory variables were measured to investigate the inflammatory patterns associated with the different clusters.

Results

Six endotype clusters of CR were defined in the Chinese CR patients. Patients in cluster 1 (38.6%) were diagnosed as allergic rhinitis (AR) without asthma, and in cluster 2 (13.5%) as AR with asthma, with all demonstrating positive results for local eosinophils and high levels of local and serum IgE. Similarly, patients in cluster 3 (18.6%) were diagnosed as nonallergic rhinitis with eosinophilia syndrome (NARES) without asthma and in cluster 5 (5.0%) as NARES with asthma, with all demonstrating positive results for local eosinophils, and negative results for both local and serum IgE. Patients in cluster 4 (4.6%) were diagnosed as local allergic rhinitis and showed positive results for local eosinophils and local IgE, but negative results for serum IgE, whereas patients in cluster 6 (19.7%) were diagnosed as idiopathic rhinitis because of high symptoms scores, but negative findings for local eosinophils, local IgE, and serum IgE.

Conclusions

Chinese CR patients may be clustered into six endotypes with different inflammatory patterns, which may help in delivering individualized treatment.
Informality Materialised: Long‐term Temporariness as a Mode of Informal Urbanism
Authors: Moatasim Faiza
Published: October 2018

This paper establishes an important link between the architectural strategies and long‐term sustenance of “ordinary” informal spaces in the planned modernist city of Islamabad. By focusing on the modalities of street hawking in Islamabad, this paper demonstrates that the architecture of ordinary informality follows an aesthetic and materiality of temporariness, and invokes design criteria based on the rituals of daily assembly and disassembly, and shared customs involving “temporary” claims to immediate public space. The paper uses the concept of “long‐term temporariness” to argue that the sustained existence of street hawking depends upon the routine maintenance of the relationship between its temporality and materiality, evident in both the everyday spatial practices and official procedures concerning informal street commerce. The paper thus situates street hawking within the realms of both formal and informal processes, and highlights the role of provisionality in urban transformations in the global South.
Sex‐biased dispersal: a review of the theory
Authors: Li Xiang‐Yi , Kokko Hanna
Published: October 2018

Dispersal is ubiquitous throughout the tree of life: factors selecting for dispersal include kin competition, inbreeding avoidance and spatiotemporal variation in resources or habitat suitability. These factors differ in whether they promote male and female dispersal equally strongly, and often selection on dispersal of one sex depends on how much the other disperses. For example, for inbreeding avoidance it can be sufficient that one sex disperses away from the natal site. Attempts to understand sex‐specific dispersal evolution have created a rich body of theoretical literature, which we review here. We highlight an interesting gap between empirical and theoretical literature. The former associates different patterns of sex‐biased dispersal with mating systems, such as female‐biased dispersal in monogamous birds and male‐biased dispersal in polygynous mammals. The predominant explanation is traceable back to Greenwood's () ideas of how successful philopatric or dispersing individuals are at gaining mates or the resources required to attract them. Theory, however, has developed surprisingly independently of these ideas: models typically track how immigration and emigration change relatedness patterns and alter competition for limiting resources. The limiting resources are often considered sexually distinct, with breeding sites and fertilizable females limiting reproductive success for females and males, respectively. We show that the link between mating system and sex‐biased dispersal is far from resolved: there are studies showing that mating systems matter, but the oft‐stated association between polygyny and male‐biased dispersal is not a straightforward theoretical expectation. Here, an important understudied factor is the extent to which movement is interpretable as an extension of mate‐searching (e.g. are matings possibleen routeor do they only happen after settling in new habitat – or can females perhaps move with stored sperm). We also point out other new directions for bridging the gap between empirical and theoretical studies: there is a need to build Greenwood's influential yet verbal explanation into formal models, which also includes the possibility that an individual benefits from mobility as it leads to fitness gains in more than one final breeding location (a possibility not present in models with a very rigid deme structure). The order of life‐cycle events is likewise important, as this impacts whether a departing individual leaves behind important resources for its female or male kin, or perhaps both, in the case of partially overlapping resource use.
Factors affecting mode choice for the home–elementary school journey: Evidence from Halifax, Canada
Authors: Spinney Jamie E. L. , Maoh Hanna , Millward Hugh
Published: October 2018

This research investigates personal, school, neighbourhood, and weather characteristics that are associated with travel mode choices for children's direct journeys between home and school. Travel diary and socio‐demographic data were collected from elementary school students aged 5 to 11 years in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and were joined with characteristics about their respective school, neighbourhood, and weather. Multinomial and mixed logistic regression were used to examine the relationships between these characteristics and choices between car, bus, and walk travel modes. Results indicate that personal, school, neighbourhood, and weather characteristics all impact mode choice decisions, yet distance between home and school is among the most significant. To promote active travel between home and school, our findings suggest that smaller elementary schools should be sited centrally within compact, high‐density neighbourhoods that are designed for active travel, thereby minimizing school travel distances and maximizing the practicality of active travel modes.
Phase 1 study of olaratumab plus doxorubicin in Japanese patients with advanced soft‐tissue sarcoma
Authors: Yonemori Kan , Kodaira Makoto , Satoh Taroh , Kudo Toshihiro , Takahashi Shunji , Nakano Kenji , Ando Yuichi , Shimokata Tomoya , Mori Joji , Inoue Koichi , Oakley Gerard J. , Sakaguchi Sachi , Tamura Kenji
Published: October 2018

Olaratumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting human platelet‐derived growth factor receptor α, plus doxorubicin significantly improved overall survival in patients with advanced soft‐tissue sarcoma (STS) in a prior phase 1b/2 randomized trial. Subsequent exposure‐response analysis suggested that higher olaratumab exposures earlier might improve outcomes in patients at risk of early disease progression. This phase 1 study (3 treatment cohorts; minimum 6 patients each) investigated the safety, pharmacokinetics and antitumor activity of olaratumab plus doxorubicin in Japanese patients with STS. Patients received olaratumab 15 mg/kg on Days 1 and 8 during each 21‐day cycle until disease progression. Patients in Cohort 3 received a 20 mg/kg loading dose of olaratumab in Cycle 1. Doxorubicin was administered for up to 6 cycles. Patients in Cohort 1 received doxorubicin 25 mg/m2 on Days 1, 2 and 3. Patients in Cohorts 2 and 3 received doxorubicin 75 mg/m2 on Day 1. One patient in Cohort 2 experienced a dose‐limiting toxicity of Grade 3 febrile neutropenia. Most treatment‐emergent adverse events were of mild and moderate severity, and were known doxorubicin toxicities. Olaratumab serum concentrations in Cohort 3 reached a steady‐state exceeding the target level in Cycle 1. Partial response was confirmed in 4 patients (2 each in Cohorts 2 and 3). Olaratumab plus doxorubicin had an acceptable safety profile in patients with STS. A loading dose of olaratumab 20 mg/kg was effective for achieving minimum serum concentrations above the target trough level in Cycle 1.
Inhibition and Mathematical Performance: Poorly Correlated, Poorly Measured, or Poorly Matched?
Authors: Lee Kerry , Lee Hon Wah
Published: October 2018

Inhibition is an important aspect of executive functioning (EF) that refers to a cognitive mechanism that blocks or suppresses irrelevant stimuli, memory, habitual responses, or automatized processes from interrupting the desired response. Researchers have found weak and inconsistent relations between inhibitory abilities and mathematics performance (Bull & Lee, 2014). Given anecdotal evidence of the effects of external distraction or intruding thoughts on the ability to stay on task, it is surprising that inhibitory abilities do not have a more prominent role. In this article, we argue that this lower‐than‐expected association is due to (a) age‐related changes in EF, (b) the sensitivity of inhibitory tasks commonly used in studies, (c) a mismatch in how susceptibility to interference and mathematical performance are measured, and (d) the choice of criterion measures, with some mathematical tasks imposing less inhibitory demands than others.
Assessment of macular ganglion cell complex using optical coherence tomography: Impact of a paediatric reference database in clinical practice
Authors: Muñoz‐Gallego Alicia , De la Cruz Javier , Rodríguez‐Salgado Martín , Torres‐Peña José L. , de‐Lucas‐Viejo Beatriz , Ortueta‐Olartecoechea Ana , Tejada‐Palacios Pilar
Published: October 2018

Importance

Optical coherence tomography software classifies abnormality of macular ganglion cell‐inner plexiform layer thickness and macular retinal nerve fibre layer thickness based on adult series.

Background

We assessed the impact of using paediatric reference macular ganglion cell complex values instead of adult reference values.

Design

Cross‐sectional study. Primary and tertiary health‐care setting.

Participants

Out of 140 healthy participants aged 5 to 18 years, 90% were eligible.

Methods

Following a dilated eye examination and cycloplegic refraction, participants underwent optical coherence tomography ganglion cell scans (Topcon 3D OCT‐2000; Topcon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). Right eye measurements for superior, inferior, and total layer thickness and spherical equivalent were reported, together with age, sex and origin.

Main Outcome Measures

Paediatric reference values by age and spherical equivalent were produced, and the specific agreement between paediatric and adult ganglion cell complex reference values below or equal to percentile 5 was estimated.

Results

The multivariate analysis confirmed a positive association between spherical equivalent and macular ganglion cell‐inner plexiform layer thickness, and between age and macular retinal nerve fibre layer (five out of six regression coefficients P values were ≤ 0.03). Specific agreement was 25% for ganglion cell‐inner plexiform layer thickness and > 80% for macular retinal nerve fibre layer. Adult‐based software identified low ganglion cell values in one in seven children compared to paediatric reference values (0.8% vs 5.5%, P = 0.031).

Conclusions and Relevance

The availability of optical coherence tomography ganglion cell complex reference values for paediatric age and spherical equivalent groups can be used to improve detection of children with low cell layer thickness.
Online Global Non‐rigid Registration for 3D Object Reconstruction Using Consumer‐level Depth Cameras
Authors: Xu Jiamin , Xu Weiwei , Yang Yin , Deng Zhigang , Bao Hujun
Published: October 2018

We investigate how to obtain high‐quality 360‐degree 3D reconstructions of small objects using consumer‐level depth cameras. For many homeware objects such as shoes and toys with dimensions around 0.06 – 0.4 meters, their whole projections, in the hand‐held scanning process, occupy fewer than 20% pixels of the camera's image. We observe that existing 3D reconstruction algorithms like KinectFusion and other similar methods often fail in such cases even under the close‐range depth setting. To achieve high‐quality 3D object reconstruction results at this scale, our algorithm relies on an online global non‐rigid registration, where embedded deformation graph is employed to handle the drifting of camera tracking and the possible nonlinear distortion in the captured depth data. We perform an automatic target object extraction from RGBD frames to remove the unrelated depth data so that the registration algorithm can focus on minimizing the geometric and photogrammetric distances of the RGBD data of target objects. Our algorithm is implemented using CUDA for a fast non‐rigid registration. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reconstruct high‐quality 3D shapes of various small objects with textures.
FashionGAN: Display your fashion design using Conditional Generative Adversarial Nets
Authors: Cui Y. R. , Liu Q. , Gao C. Y. , Su Z.
Published: October 2018

Virtual garment display plays an important role in fashion design for it can directly show the design effect of the garment without having to make a sample garment like traditional clothing industry. In this paper, we propose an end‐to‐end virtual garment display method based on Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks. Different from existing 3D virtual garment methods which need complex interactions and domain‐specific user knowledge, our method only need users to input a desired fashion sketch and a specified fabric image then the image of the virtual garment whose shape and texture are consistent with the input fashion sketch and fabric image can be shown out quickly and automatically. Moreover, it can also be extended to contour images and garment images, which further improves the reuse rate of fashion design. Compared with the existing image‐to‐image methods, the quality of images generated by our method is better in terms of color and shape.
Single Image Surface Appearance Modeling with Self‐augmented CNNs and Inexact Supervision
Authors: Ye Wenjie , Li Xiao , Dong Yue , Peers Pieter , Tong Xin
Published: October 2018

This paper presents a deep learning based method for estimating the spatially varying surface reflectance properties from a single image of a planar surface under unknown natural lighting trained using only photographs of exemplar materials without referencing any artist generated or densely measured spatially varying surface reflectance training data. Our method is based on an empirical study of Li et al.'s [LDPT17] self‐augmentation training strategy that shows that the main role of the initial approximative network is to provide guidance on the inherent ambiguities in single image appearance estimation. Furthermore, our study indicates that this initial network can be inexact (i.e., trained from other data sources) as long as it resolves the inherent ambiguities. We show that the single image estimation network trained without manually labeled data outperforms prior work in terms of accuracy as well as generality.
Deep Video Stabilization Using Adversarial Networks
Authors: Xu Sen‐Zhe , Hu Jun , Wang Miao , Mu Tai‐Jiang , Hu Shi‐Min
Published: October 2018

Video stabilization is necessary for many hand‐held shot videos. In the past decades, although various video stabilization methods were proposed based on the smoothing of 2D, 2.5D or 3D camera paths, hardly have there been any deep learning methods to solve this problem. Instead of explicitly estimating and smoothing the camera path, we present a novel online deep learning framework to learn the stabilization transformation for each unsteady frame, given historical steady frames. Our network is composed of a generative network with spatial transformer networks embedded in different layers, and generates a stable frame for the incoming unstable frame by computing an appropriate affine transformation. We also introduce an adversarial network to determine the stability of apiece of video. The network is trained directly using the pair of steady and unsteady videos. Experiments show that our method can produce similar results as traditional methods, moreover, it is capable of handling challenging unsteady video of low quality, where traditional methods fail, such as video with heavy noise or multiple exposures. Our method runs in real time, which is much faster than traditional methods.
Local and Hierarchical Refinement for Subdivision Gradient Meshes
Authors: Verstraaten T. W. , Kosinka J.
Published: October 2018

Gradient mesh design tools allow users to create detailed scalable images, traditionally through the creation and manipulation of a (dense) mesh with regular rectangular topology. Through recent advances it is now possible to allow gradient meshes to have arbitrary manifold topology, using a modified Catmull‐Clark subdivision scheme to define the resultant geometry and colour [LKSD17]. We present two novel methods to allow local and hierarchical refinement of both colour and geometry for such subdivision gradient meshes. Our methods leverage the mesh properties that the particular subdivision scheme ensures. In both methods, the artists enjoy all the standard capabilities of manipulating the mesh and the associated colour gradients at the coarsest level as well as locally at refined levels. Further novel features include interpolation of both position and colour of the vertices of the input meshes, local detail follows coarser‐level edits, and support for sharp colour transitions, all at any level in the hierarchy offered by subdivision.
Translucent Image Recoloring through Homography Estimation
Authors: Huang Yifei , Wang Changbo , Li Chenhui
Published: October 2018

Image color editing techniques are of great significance for users who wish to adjust the image color. However, previous works paid less attention to the translucent images. In this paper, we propose a new method to recolor the translucent images while preserving detailed information and color relationships of the source image. We consider the recolor problem as a location transformation problem and solve it in two steps: automatic palette extraction and homography estimation. First, we propose the Hmeans method to extract the dominant colors of the source image based on histogram statistics and clustering. Then, we propose homography estimation to map the source colors to desired colors in the CIE‐LAB color space. Further, we adopt a non‐linear optimization approach to improve the result generated by the last step. The proposed method maintains high fidelity of the source image. Experiments have shown that our method generates a state‐of‐the‐art visual result, in particular in the shadow areas. The source images with ground truth generated by a ray tracer further verify the effectiveness of our method.
Subdivision schemes with optimal bounded curvature near extraordinary vertices
Authors: Ma Yue , Ma Weiyin
Published: October 2018

We present a novel method to construct subdivision stencils near extraordinary vertices with limit surfaces having optimal bounded curvature at extraordinary positions. With the proposed method, subdivision stencils for newly inserted and updated vertices near extraordinary vertices are first constructed to ensure subdivision with G1 continuity and bounded curvature at extraordinary positions. The remaining degrees of freedom of the constructed subdivision stencils are further used to optimize the eigenbasis functions corresponding to the subsubdominant eigenvalues of the subdivision with respect to G2 continuity constraints. We demonstrate the method by replacing subdivision stencils near extraordinary vertices for Catmull‐Clark subdivision and compare the results with the original Catmull‐Clark subdivision and previous tuning schemes known with small curvature variation near extraordinary positions. The results show that the proposed method produces subdivision schemes with better or comparable curvature behavior around extraordinary vertices with comparatively simple subdivision stencils.
Curvature continuity conditions between adjacent toric surface patches
Authors: Sun Lanyin , Zhu Chungang
Published: October 2018

Toric surface patch is the multi‐sided generalization of classical Bézier surface patch. Geometric continuity of the parametric surface patches plays a crucial role in geometric modeling. In this paper, the necessary and sufficient conditions of curvature continuity between toric surface patches are illustrated with the theory of toric degeneration. Furthermore, some practical sufficient conditions of curvature continuity of toric surface patches are also developed.
Longitudinal trajectories and reference centiles for the impact of health conditions on daily activities of children with cerebral palsy
Authors: Bartlett Doreen J , Gorter Jan Willem , Jeffries Lynn M , Avery Lisa , Hanna Steven E ,   On Track Study Team
Published: October 2018

Aim

First, to describe the impact of health conditions on daily activities over time in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and to create age‐specific reference centiles. Second, to determine the amount of change typical over a 1‐year period, across Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels.

Method

A prospective, cohort design, with five assessments over 2 years, involved 708 children with a confirmed diagnosis of CP participating in the On Track Study (396 males, 312 females; mean age 6y [SD 2y 7mo]; range 18mo–12y at first assessment; 32.1% in GMFCS level I, 22.7% in GMFCS level II, 11.2% in GMFCS level III, 18.2% in GMFCS level IV, 15.7% in GMFCS level V). The impact of health conditions on daily activities was assessed using the Child Health Conditions Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using mixed‐effects models and quantile regression.

Results

Linear longitudinal trajectories describe the relatively stable impact of health conditions over time for each functional level for children aged 2 years to 12 years, with the lowest scores (least impact) in GMFCS level I and the highest scores (highest impact) in GMFCS level V. Centiles were created for children in each GMFCS level. A system to interpret the magnitude of change over time in centiles was developed.

Interpretation

Longitudinal trajectories of co‐occurring health conditions assist with understanding children's prognoses. Centiles assist in understanding a child's experience relative to children in similar GMFCS levels. Guidelines are provided to determine if children are progressing ‘as expected’, ‘better than expected’ or ‘more poorly than expected’ in regard to the impact of health conditions on daily activities.

What this paper adds

For children with cerebral palsy, the mean impact of health conditions on daily activities is relatively stable.

Significant intraindividual and interindividual variability for the impact of health conditions exists, which complicates prognosis.

Centiles enable interpretation of the impact of health conditions relative to Gross Motor Function Classification System level.
Whisker exploration behaviours in the 5xFAD mouse are affected by sex and retinal degeneration
Authors: Grant Robyn A. , Wong Aimee A. , Fertan Emre , Brown Richard E.
Published: October 2018

Active whisking in mice and rats is one of the fastest behaviours known in mammals and is used to guide complex behaviours such as exploration and navigation. During object contact, whisker movements are actively controlled and undergo robust changes in timing, speed and position. This study quantifies whisker movements in 6‐ to 7‐month old male and female 5xFAD mice, and their C57/SJL F1 wild‐type (WT) controls. As well as genotype, we examined sex differences and the effects of retinal degeneration (rd). Mice were filmed using a high‐speed video camera at 500 frames per second (fps), under infrared light while behaving freely in three tasks: object exploration, sequential object exploration and tunnel running. Measures of whisker position, amplitude, speed and asymmetry were extracted and analysed for each task. The 5xFAD mice had significantly altered whisker angular positions, amplitude and asymmetry during object contacts and female 5xFAD mice with rd had lower mean angular positions during object contact. There were no significant effects of genotype on sequential object exploration or on tunnel running but differences due to sex and rd were found in both tasks, with female mice making larger and faster whisker movements overall, and mice with rd making larger and faster whisker movements during object contact. There were sex differences in whisker movements during sequential object exploration and females with rd had higher whisker retraction speeds in tunnel running. These data show that measuring whisker movements can quantify genotype and sex differences and the effects of rd during exploratory behaviour in these mice.
Influence of Ambient Temperature, Precipitation, and Groundwater Level on Natural Source Zone Depletion Rates at a Large Semiarid LNAPL Site
Authors: McAlexander Benjamin , Sihota Natasha
Published: October 2018

Natural source zone depletion (NSZD) is increasingly being integrated into management strategies for petroleum release sites. Measurements of NSZD rates can be used to evaluate naturally occurring hydrocarbon (HC) mass losses, and provide a baseline for evaluating engineered recovery systems. Here, nominal saturated and unsaturated zone HC losses were quantified by groundwater sampling and ground surface CO2 effluxes approximately monthly over a 1‐year period. In addition, subsurface gas profiles and temperature, precipitation, and groundwater elevation were evaluated to elucidate dominant environmental factors controlling NSZD rates. Results showed that NSZD rates estimated by surface CO2 effluxes were, on average, more than a factor of 3 greater than those estimated by uptake of electron acceptors (primarily sulfate) in extracted groundwater. This may indicate that vadose zone mass loss mechanisms (e.g., volatilization and subsequent biodegradation) were dominant in this system, but possible transfer of gases from the saturated zone to the vadose zone confounds this interpretation. Results for this semiarid site revealed that increasing NSZD rates tended to occur with increasing ambient monthly precipitation and temperature when accounting for time lags associated with subsurface transport. However, groundwater elevation was not found to be significantly related to NSZD rates. This result is counter to an expectation that increased smear zone exposure increases HC mass losses, and suggests that the pump‐and‐treat system did not greatly influence total NSZD rates directly through smear zone flushing or indirectly by lowering the regional water table.
Rosemary powder filtrate improves the oxidative stability and antioxidant properties of rapeseed oil: potential applications for domestic cooking
Authors: Redondo‐Cuevas Lucía , Hayes Helen , Nicol Fergus , Raikos Vassilios
Published: October 2018

Rapeseed oil is an important source of edible oil for the human diet but is also highly susceptible to oxidative deterioration. Previous research has demonstrated that rosemary powder and its extracts can increase the oxidative stability of rapeseed oil. In this study, the protective effect of ground rosemary powder (0.25–2.0%) against the oxidative degradation of filtered rapeseed oil was assessed. Rapeseed oil filtrate showed enhanced antioxidant capacity and higher induction periods (IP) based on Rancimat analysis. Lower conductivity changes and total colour differences, reduced malondialdehyde and conjugated dienes content, and higher levels of tocopherols and carotenoids were observed for the oils formulated with rosemary powder after 1.5 and 3 h of exposure to accelerated oxidation. The use of rosemary powder filtrate could be an effective way to protect rapeseed oil from oxidation during storage or cooking with domestic and commercial applications.
Antihyperuricemic effect of tuna protein hydrolysate and derived products after in vitro digestion or Maillard reaction on oteracil potassium‐induced hyperuricemia rats
Authors: Liu Yang , Zou Jing , Zhao Yaqi , Sun‐Waterhouse Dongxiao , Zhao Mouming , Su Guowan
Published: October 2018

To investigate the effect of Maillard reaction (MR) and gastrointestinal digestion (GID) on the antihyperuricemic activity of tuna protein hydrolysate (TPH), hyperuricemia rats were treated with TPH, its MR products (TPH‐M) and gastrointestinal digesta (TPH‐D) in this work. Although the XO inhibitory activity of TPH‐M was higher than TPH, TPH‐M exhibited even lower serum‐uric‐acid‐lowering activity than TPH. Additionally, there was no significant (P < 0.05) difference observed in the inhibition of XO activity in vitro and antihyperuricemic activity of TPH and TPH‐D, indicated that the antihyperuricemic activity of TPH would not decrease after GID. Additionally, TPH, TPH‐M and TPH‐D could effectively inhibit XO activity and downregulate XO mRNA expression in vivo, suggesting the mechanisms of antihyperuricemic effect was related to XO inhibitory activity and XO mRNA expression. As a whole, TPH could be a useful functional ingredient against hyperuricemia.
Plasticity of antimicrobial and phagocytic programs in human macrophages
Authors: Montoya Dennis , Mehta Manali , Ferguson Benjamin G. , Teles Rosane M. B. , Krutzik Stephan R. , Cruz Daniel , Pellegrini Matteo , Modlin Robert L.
Published: October 2018

Macrophage (MΦ) polarization is triggered during the innate immune response to defend against microbial pathogens, but can also contribute to disease pathogenesis. In a previous study, we found that interleukin‐15 (IL‐15) ‐derived classically activated macrophages (M1 MΦ) have enhanced antimicrobial activity, whereas IL‐10‐derived alternatively activated macrophages (M2 MΦ) were highly phagocytic but lacked antimicrobial activity. Given that the ability to modulate MΦ polarization from M2 MΦ to M1 MΦ may promote a more effective immune response to infection, we investigated the plasticity of these MΦ programs. Addition of IL‐10 to M1 MΦ induced M2‐like MΦ, but IL‐15 had little effect on M2 MΦ. We determined the set of immune receptors that are present on M2 MΦ, elucidating two candidates for inducing plasticity of M2 MΦ, Toll‐like receptor 1 (TLR1) and interferonγ (IFN‐γ) receptor 1. Stimulation of M2 MΦ with TLR2/1 ligand (TLR2/1L) or IFN‐γ alone was not sufficient to alter M2 MΦ phenotype or function. However, co‐addition of TLR2/1L and IFN‐γ re‐educated M2 MΦ towards the M1 MΦ phenotype, with a decrease in the phagocytosis of lipids and mycobacteria, as well as recovery of the vitamin‐D‐dependent antimicrobial pathway compared with M2 MΦ maintained in polarizing conditions. Similarly, treatment of M2 MΦ with both TLR2/1L and anti‐IL‐10 neutralizing antibodies led to polarization to the M1‐like MΦ phenotype and function. Together, our data demonstrate an approach to induce MΦ plasticity that provides the potential for re‐educating MΦ function in human mycobacterial disease to promote host defense and limit pathogenesis.
Stock market reactions to dividend and earnings announcements in a tax‐free environment
Authors: Tee Kienpin , Tessema Abiot M.
Published: October 2018

This paper investigates the stock market reactions to dividend and earnings announcements for firms listed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where there is no tax on dividend income or capital gains. This tax‐free setting allows us to examine the tax‐based signalling hypothesis, which holds that a change in dividends does not offer important information when dividend income is not taxed. Contrary to the tax‐based signalling theory, we find a positive (negative) price reaction to dividend initiations and increases (dividend omissions and decreases). We further examine the signalling hypothesis, which proposes that dividends convey information about firms' future earnings. We find that the size of the dividend increases or decreases does not predict future earnings.
Insurance activity and economic performance: Fresh evidence from asymmetric panel causality tests
Authors: Hatemi‐J Abdulnasser , Lee Chi‐Chuan , Lee Chien‐Chiang , Gupta Rangan
Published: October 2018

Insurance plays a fundamental role in any modern economy, but the literature has not accounted for the potential asymmetric causal impacts from the dynamic interaction between the insurance market and economic performance. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying the causal relationship between several measures of insurance per capita and real GDP per capita in the G7 countries over the period 1980–2014 via asymmetric panel causality tests. Our results show that insurance market activity and economic performance exhibit bidirectional causalities, but their direction, intensity and significance are different due to distinct market situations. In general, insurance activity plays a passive role in economic performance, while economic performance has a significant role in insurance activity. These findings offer several useful insights for policy makers and researchers.
Mechanochemical synthesis of α‐Al2O3‐Cr3+ (Ruby) and χ‐Al2O3
Authors: Cortes‐Vega Fernando D. , Yang Wenli , Zarate‐Medina Juan , Brankovic Stanko R. , Calderon Hector A. , Robles Hernandez Francisco C.
Published: October 2018

In this work we present a unique method to synthesize χ‐Al2O3 and α‐Al2O3 doped with Cr3+ (ruby). The ruby is synthesized by mechanical milling of pseudoboehmite that is doped in‐situ with chromium. The doping is carried by adding chromium sulfate hydrate to an aqueous solution rich in aluminum sulfate hydrate. The pH in the solution is controlled to be between 9 and 10 by using ammonia, which induces the pseudoboehmite precipitation. The Cr3+ is added for its remarkable effects on the detectability of ruby emitting luminescent R1 and R2 bands that are traceable in Raman spectroscopy. The formation of ruby is detected at milling times as short as 5 hours and increased with the milling time. Ruby phase is further confirmed by means of true atomic resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).
An intervention using the Parenting Toolkit “Children—What does it involve?” and the Real‐Care‐Baby simulator among students with intellectual disability—A feasibility study
Authors: Janeslätt Gunnel , Larsson Margareta , Wickström Maria , Springer Lydia , Höglund Berit
Published: October 2018

Background

There is limited knowledge about how young people with intellectual disability can be facilitated in their process of deciding about parenthood. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an upcoming trial to evaluate an intervention using the Toolkit “Children—what does it involve?” and the “Real‐Care‐Baby” (RCB) simulator among students with intellectual disability.

Methods

Six students with intellectual disability participated in an intervention with eight educational sessions and a 3‐day caring session with the RCB simulator. Data were collected with questionnaires and interviews.

Results

The study showed that it is possible to evaluate an intervention using these instruments among students with intellectual disability in order to provide them with further insights about parenthood.

Conclusion

It is feasible to evaluate the Toolkit and the RCB in a cluster‐randomized study and that such a study could add to our knowledge about possible intervention strategies regarding reproduction and parenting among students with intellectual disability.
A qualitative study about quality of life in Brazilian families with children who have severe or profound intellectual disability
Authors: Rodrigues Stephania A. , Fontanella Bruno J. B. , de Avó Lucimar R. S. , Germano Carla M. R. , Melo Débora G.
Published: October 2018

Background

This study investigated the psychocultural perspectives concerning family quality of life among Brazilian families with children who have severe or profound intellectual disability.

Methods

Individual in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted with 15 mothers, selected by convenience, were analysed using a categorical thematic analysis technique. The themes were examined to allow for an interpretative approach of the results.

Results

Mothers revealed that their children with disabilities had insufficient access to services and support related to health care, transportation and recreation. Family quality of life was negatively affected by financial restrictions and social interaction difficulties. Caring for a child with disabilities seemed to be centred on the mother and religious coping appeared as a common psychological adjustment strategy.

Conclusions

Improving emotional and psychological cares, as well as social and practical measures comprising income support and access to appropriate health care, were inferred to be the mothers’ priorities to improve their families’ quality of life.
Touch‐typing for better spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer
Authors: van Weerdenburg Marjolijn , Tesselhof Mariëtte , van der Meijden Henny
Published: October 2018

This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on the spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer of elementary school students. Data of 207 students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 were analysed using a pretest–posttest design. Students in the experimental group (n = 154) followed a touch‐typing course, and those in the control group (n = 53) did not. The experimental group showed more progress in typing, spelling, and narrative‐writing skills on the computer than the control group. It can be concluded that the touch‐typing course had a positive effect, not only on typing skills but also on spelling and narrative‐writing skills on the computer.