bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reflections on the theme issue outcomes
Authors: Sheresheva Marina Y. , Teare Richard
Published: June 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to profile the WHATT theme issue “Why is the Russian tourism and hospitality market becoming more diverse with new destinations?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editor and writing team.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editor to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting-point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process.

Findings

This paper provides a framework to facilitate discussion between all stakeholders in Russia’s tourism and hospitality industry, identifies ways of improving competitiveness as a tourist destination and contributes to thinking about sustainable development. The outcomes of a broad-ranging collaboration yield fresh insights, a deeper understanding of the issues and an array of possible responses to the theme issue question.

Practical implications

The theme issue outcomes provide lines of enquiry for others to explore and reinforce the value of WHATT’s approach to collaborative working and writing.

Originality/value

The collaborative work reported in this theme issue offers a unified but contrarian response to the theme’s strategic question. Taken together, the collection of articles provides a detailed picture of the changes occurring in the Russian tourism and hospitality market.
Being harmed while doing good: affective injuries in a community development programme, Medan, Indonesia
Authors: Jakimow Tanya
Published: June 2018

Complaints, accusations, and failures of gratitude are everyday experiences for volunteers in community‐driven development in Medan, Indonesia. In this article I develop the analytic of ‘affective injury’ to describe the force of such encounters: the sensation of having one's ethical self questioned or put at risk that manifests as an immediate force or lingering hurt. While humanitarian and development workers are all susceptible to affective injuries, I argue that they operate on a different register for developers who belong to, and have an enduring relationship with, the ‘community’. The ways local volunteers respond to, and seek to recover from, affective injuries are distinct from reflective responses to ethical dilemmas. The suppression of, or diversion from, thoughts that could derail self‐understanding is a hindrance to reflexive development practice.
Cultivating a longitudinal learning process through recurring crisis management training exercises in twelve Swedish municipalities
Authors: van Laere Joeri , Lindblom Jessica
Published: June 2018

This study illustrates how crisis management capability is developed in series of recurring exercises, rather than in one single exercise. Over one hundred table‐top and role‐playing exercises were performed and evaluated in a longitudinal cross‐case action research study in 12 Swedish municipalities. By consciously adapting training formats, municipalities were lead through three learning phases: obtaining role understanding (phase 1: knowing what to do), developing information management skills (phase 2: knowing how to do it), and mastering self‐reflection in regular time‐outs (phase 3: knowing when and why to do something). This final learning outcome, being able to concurrently execute, evaluate, and reorganize an ongoing crisis management performance, may be the most valuable capability of a crisis management organization when crisis strikes.
Women are more likely than men to blame structural factors for women's political under‐representation: Evidence from 27 countries
Authors: ALLEN PETER , CUTTS DAVID
Published: June 2018

Over time, gender and politics research has made progress in identifying those factors that result in low numbers of women in political institutions and in making evidence‐informed suggestions about how to ameliorate them. These factors include discrimination in party recruitment processes, male‐dominated political culture and broader gender inequalities in society. In contrast, little is known about public opinion regarding these drivers of women's political under‐representation, especially whether to who or what women assign blame for the under‐representation of women in politics differs from men. This article provides the first discussion and analysis of blame assignment for women's numeric under‐representation in politics. In doing so, it outlines and operationalises a framework that distinguishes between meritocratic explanations of women's under‐representation, whereby the blame for women not holding political office in greater numbers is assigned to women themselves, and structural explanations, whereby social forces external to women are seen to result in their numeric under‐representation. Cross‐national data from 27 European countries is used to show that women are significantly more likely than men to assign blame for women's numeric under‐representation to structural factors. The hierarchical nature of the dataset is exploited using multilevel models and significant differences in levels of structural blame assignment between countries is found as well as between‐country variation in the probability of women assigning blame to structural explanations for women's under‐representation. Finally, the category of structural explanations is disaggregated in order to assess their relative prominence and to provide strong corroborative evidence that women predominantly assign blame for women's under‐representation to political culture over other structural blame factors. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study's findings for policy makers contemplating the pursuit of gender equality policies aimed at increasing women's political representation and makes suggestions for the direction of future research in this area.
‘A Young Tory’? The Early Parliamentary Career of Charles James Fox 1768–74
Authors: Thomas P.D.G.
Published: June 2018

This article seeks to redress the neglect, even by his biographers, of Fox's early career, when he made over 250 speeches in the house of commons in six years. The period when young Fox supported government was an inappropriate prelude to his later fame as opponent of Prime Minister Pitt and champion of ‘liberal causes’. He was anything but a ‘man of the people’ in his authoritarian attitude and detestation of popular opinion, and yet there were signs that he would not be an administration man in the mould of his father, Henry Fox.
Richard Oastler, Toryism, Radicalism and the Limitations of Party, c.1807–46
Authors: Roberts Matthew
Published: June 2018

Richard Oastler (1789–1861), the immensely popular and fiery orator who campaigned for factory reform and for the abolition of the new poor law in the 1830s and 1840s, has been relatively neglected by political historians. Few historians, however, have questioned his toryism. As this article suggests, labelling Oastler an ‘ultra‐tory’ or a ‘church and state tory’ obscures more than it reveals. There were also radical strands in Oastler's ideology. There has been a tendency among Oastler's biographers to treat him as unique. By comparing Oastler with other tories – Sadler, Southey, and the young Disraeli – as well as radicals like Cobbett, this article locates him much more securely among his contemporaries. His range of interests were much broader (and more radical) than the historiographical concentration on factory and poor law reform suggests. While there were periods when Oastler's toryism (or radicalism) was more apparent, one of the most consistent aspects of his political career was a distaste for party politics. Far from being unique or a maverick, Oastler personified the pervasive anti‐party sentiments held by the working classes, which for all the historiographical attention paid to popular radicalism and other non‐party movements still tends to get lost in narratives of the ‘rise of party’.
A baseline tool for predicting response to peginterferon alfa‐2a in HBeAg‐positive patients with chronic hepatitis B
Authors: Chan H. L. Y. , Messinger D. , Papatheodoridis G. V. , Cornberg M. , Xie Q. , Piratvisuth T. , Ren H. , Kennedy P. T. , Thompson A. , Caputo A. , Bakalos G. , Pavlovic V. , Lampertico P.
Published: June 2018

Background

Peginterferon induces off‐treatment responses in approximately one‐third of patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)‐positive chronic hepatitis B.

Aim

To develop an easy‐to‐use baseline prediction score to identify hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype B‐/C‐infected HBeAg‐positive Asian patients likely to respond to peginterferon alfa‐2a.

Methods

Generalised additive models, multiple logistic regression (MLR) analysis and internal validation methods were applied to data from 647 HBeAg‐positive patients from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to develop a scoring system to predict response 24 weeks after completing a 48‐week course of peginterferon alfa‐2a.

Results

Five baseline factors (age, sex, alanine aminotransferase ratio, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level and HBV DNA level) were retained in the final MLR for HBeAg seroconversion and used to develop a scoring system from 0 to 7. Among patients with scores of 0‐1, 2‐3, 4 or ≥5, HBeAg seroconversion was achieved in 6.4% (6/94), 23.0% (61/265), 36.4% (67/184) and 54.8% (57/104), respectively, and a combined response (HBeAg seroconversion plus HBV DNA <2000 IU/mL) in 5.3% (5/94), 12.8% (34/265), 25.0% (46/184) and 36.5% (38/104), respectively. Among patients with scores of 0‐1, 2‐3, 4 or ≥5, 57.0% (53/93), 12.3% (31/253), 3.4% (6/178) and 1.0% (1/100) had HBsAg ≥20 000 IU/mL at treatment Week 12; only 3/91 (3.3%) with HBsAg ≥20 000 IU/mL experienced a combined response at 24 weeks post‐treatment (negative predictive value = 97% [88/91]).

Conclusion

A pre‐treatment scoring system using readily available baseline characteristics identifies HBeAg‐positive Asian patients likely to experience sustained HBeAg seroconversion after treatment with peginterferon alfa‐2a.
Changes of leukocyte counts and expression of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines in peripheral leukocytes in periparturient dairy cows with retained fetal membranes
Authors: Shimizu Takashi , Morino Ikumi , Kitaoka Ryuji , Miyamoto Akio , Kawashima Chiho , Haneda Shingo , Magata Fumie
Published: June 2018

In dairy cows, retained fetal membranes (RFM) affect reproductive performance. The aim of this study was to examine the leukocyte counts and the gene expression of tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukin 1β (IL‐1β), IL‐8, and IL‐10 in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in cows with (n = 5) or without (n = 5) RFM during the peripartum period. The lymphocyte counts in RFM cows were higher than those in control cows throughout the experiment (p < .05). The expression of IL‐8 in PMNs of control cows was higher (p < .05) compared with that of RFM cows postpartum. In cows with RFM, IL‐1β expression was higher (p < .05) in PMNs at 6 weeks postpartum whereas the expression of IL‐1β was lower (p < .05) in PBMCs at 4 weeks postpartum. The expression of IL‐10 in PBMCs of control cows was higher (p < .05) than that of RFM cows at 2 weeks prepartum and 4 weeks postpartum. Taken together, our data indicate that changes of gene expression of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines in RFM cows might be associated with the delayed placental separation and development of uterine inflammation in RFM cows.
From Business Tax to Value‐added Tax: The Effects of Reform on Chinese Transport Industry Firms
Authors: Huang Haifeng , Wang Tao , Zhan Zhichao
Published: June 2018

We study the effects of switching from business tax (BT) to value‐added tax (VAT) on the performance of firms in the Chinese transport industry, in an effort to determine whether the change in policy improves firm performance. We study the effects of this new VAT reform from a theoretical perspective, and test the effects on 49 listed transportation firms using a difference‐in‐differences model. The results indicate that VAT reform has a positive effect on profitability and the growth ability of firms in the transport industry, but no significant effects on the debt‐paying ability and operating capability of firms are found. Furthermore, we propose some suggestions for speeding up the development of transportation firms by replacing BT with VAT.
Between a rock and hard place: fever and inflammation in intracerebral hemorrhage
Authors: Honig A. , Leker R. R.
Published: June 2018

Click here to view the accompanying paper in this volume.
Paediatric pain management: knowledge, attitudes, barriers and facilitators among nurses – integrative review
Authors: Alotaibi K. , Higgins I. , Day J. , Chan S.
Published: June 2018

Aims

To identify and synthesize evidence regarding the knowledge and attitudes of nurses, and barriers and facilitators to effective pain assessment and management in infants and children.

Background

Pain among children is a common experience. Relief from pain is a fundamental human right, yet hospitalized children continue to experience unrelieved pain. Provision of effective pain management is an integral part of the nurse's role.

Methods

Guided by Whittemore & Knafl's five‐stage framework, primary peer‐reviewed studies published in English between 2000 and 2018 were searched using CINAHL, PubMed, ProQuest, PsycINFO and Scopus. The initial search yielded 292 papers. Twenty‐seven papers were included in this review: quantitative (n = 18), qualitative (n = 5) and mixed‐methods (n = 4).

Results

Findings showed that nurses internationally have poor knowledge and attitudes of basic pain assessment and management principles. Barriers to effective pain management include the absence of pain education and assessment tools, parents’ reluctance to report pain and insufficient prescription of analgesia by physicians. Facilitators for the effective management of pain include parental participation in care, trusting and respectful relationships between nurses and children, and adequate nurse–patient ratios.

Conclusion

The review findings suggest a need to improve education for nurses, doctors and the patients’ family in relation to paediatric pain management, communication and interprofessional collaborations. There is a need to maximize facilitators and overcome barriers, such as those identified in this review, to ensure the quality of paediatric pain management.

Implications for nursing and health policy

Nursing and health policy should mandate the prioritization of paediatric pain management and the clinical roles and responsibilities of the interdisciplinary team members. Undergraduate, postgraduate and in‐service education for nurses and other health professionals should also address paediatric pain management. In‐service education on paediatric pain management should be compulsory for all health professionals caring for children.
Construction and usability of community health nursing database in rural north‐eastern Thailand
Authors: Arakawa N. , Ota K. , Piyabanditkul L. , Ishikawa M.
Published: June 2018

Introductions

Digitization could be incorporated in rural areas of resource‐poor countries because information gathered by nurses working on‐site could be better used.

Background

For effective management of community health information, the usage and maintenance of digital records are important. Digitization of information provides essential information for informing health policy.

Aim

To develop a sustainable database to effectively collect and manage community health information and nursing practice.

Methods

This study used a mixed method design. Phase 1 involved the development of a database system through repeated systematic focus group discussions with community health nurses. Phase 2 involved a practical trial examination of the developed system with both objective and subjective evaluations.

Results

A nursing database system was developed with templates designed for the major health problems of communities. The templates were composed of multiple‐choice items and a free‐text field that allowed records to be more detailed than handwritten records and maintained in standardized formats. This enables accumulation of data that were less likely to be influenced by the variance of ability in each nurse.

Discussion and conclusion

A multifaceted evaluation of the database system suggested that it could improve the efficiency of information management and contribute to the improvement of nursing care quality through standardization of the recording pattern.

Implications for nursing and health policy

The nursing database will enable high‐quality information storage that will potentially better inform health and healthcare policies as well as enable visualization of data concerning nursing care challenges and activities within the relevant communities. This information is essential for policy development and implementation in areas of human and fiscal resource allocations and meeting training/education needs.
New application of purse string suture in skin cancer surgery
Authors: Fioramonti Paolo , Sorvillo Valentina , Maruccia Michele , Lo Torto Federico , Marcasciano Marco , Ribuffo Diego , Cigna Emanuele
Published: June 2018

Closure of large wounds may require full‐thickness skin grafts, but their use is burdened by donor tissue availability and morbidity; the use of the purse string technique is an elegant way to overcome this problem. The study highlights the gain in terms of graft donor site morbidity and oncological radicality. The study included a group of 47 patients who underwent surgical excision for skin cancer and whose wounds were covered using a purse string suture and a skin graft. Radius of the defect left was measured after the lesion's excision and after the purse string suture. Thereafter, the difference between the initial defect area and the area after purse string suture was calculated. Initial defects ranged from 3.85 to 61.5 cm2. After skin graft, the purse string suture ranged between 2.2 and 40 cm2 (mean area = 14 cm2). Gained area before the graft measured from 1.3 to 21.5 cm2 (mean gained area = 7.1 cm2). Average reduction was 33%. The technique allows a reduction of the size of the area to be grafted and the skin graft donor area, thus increasing the possibility of the feasibility of full‐thickness grafts. In addition, it allows an optimal observation both of the area of tumour excision and margins during follow‐up controls.
Vegetating erosive cutaneous lesions and pyogenic granuloma in the course of mucous membrane pemphigoid: a case report and review of literature
Authors: Jakubowska Beata , Kowalewski Cezary , Ishii Norito , Hashimoto Takashi , Wozniak Katarzyna
Published: June 2018

Mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) is a group of chronic autoimmune sub‐epithelial blistering disorders, which mostly affect the oral mucosa and the conjunctiva. MMP is very diverse in terms of both the clinical and immunological features (IgG and IgA autoantibodies may react with different antigens). MMP can be induced by infections and medication, including ophthalmologic medication, which may lead to the development of eye lesions. In contrast, a vegetating variant of MMP is extremely rare. Here, we report an MMP case that demonstrated unusual clinical features, that is, pyogenic granulomas on the conjunctivae and extensive vegetating erosions on the skin of intertriginous regions. All these lesions were considered to be induced by unconventional medication containing arsenic.
Exploration of predictive metabolic factors for gestational diabetes mellitus in Japanese women using metabolomic analysis
Authors: Sakurai Kenichi , Eguchi Akifumi , Watanabe Masahiro , Yamamoto Midori , Ishikawa Ko , Mori Chisato
Published: June 2018

Aims/Introduction

We aimed to explore novel predictive markers for gestational diabetes mellitus using metabolomic analysis in pregnant Japanese women.

Materials and Methods

We carried out a case–control study with a cohort of participants enrolled during the first or early second trimester in the Center of Chiba Unit of the Japan Environment and Children's Study. Participants were classified as either gestational diabetes mellitus cases or matched controls based on age, body mass index and parity. Metabolite levels of their serum and urine obtained randomly before the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus were analyzed using hydrophilic interaction chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis was carried out to investigate metabolome profiles for the different groups. Metabolites with a variable importance in projection value of >1.5 were identified as potential markers.

Results

In total, 242 participants were enrolled in the study, of which 121 were cases. The R2X, R2Y and Q2 parameters for the discrimination ability of the resulting models were 0.388, 0.492 and 0.45 for serum, and 0.454, 0.674 and 0.483 for urine, respectively. We finally identified three metabolites in serum and 20 in urine as potential biomarkers. Glutamine in serum and ethanolamine and 1,3‐diphosphoglycerate in urine showed >0.8 area under the receiver operating characteristic curves.

Conclusions

The present study identified serum and urine metabolites that are possible predictive markers of subsequent gestational diabetes mellitus in Japanese women. Further studies are required to elucidate their efficacy.
Effects of liraglutide, metformin and gliclazide on body composition in patients with both type 2 diabetes and non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease: A randomized trial
Authors: Feng Wen‐Huan , Bi Yan , Li Ping , Yin Ting‐Ting , Gao Cai‐Xia , Shen Shan‐Mei , Gao Li‐Jun , Yang Dong‐Hui , Zhu Da‐Long
Published: June 2018

Aims/Introduction

To compare the effects of gliclazide, liraglutide and metformin on body composition in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Materials and Methods

A total of 85 patients were randomly allocated to receive gliclazide (n = 27), liraglutide (n = 29) or metformin (n = 29) monotherapy for 24 weeks. Body composition was measured using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry.

Results

Liraglutide and metformin reduced total, trunk, limb, android and gynoid fat mass; this also led to weight reduction. However, gliclazide treatment produced no significant changes in weight or fat mass, likely because reductions in fat mass were concomitant with increases in lean tissue mass. Blood glucose concentrations and glycated hemoglobin levels improved in all treatment arms; levels of the latter were lower in patients treated with liraglutide and metformin. Serum alanine aminotransferase concentrations decreased in all treatment arms, whereas serum aspartate aminotransferase concentrations were reduced only by liraglutide and metformin. In all patients, weight loss and total, trunk, limb, and android fat mass reductions were positively correlated with decreases in serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, whereas reductions in waist circumference were positively correlated with lower serum alanine aminotransferase levels.

Conclusions

Compared with gliclazide, liraglutide and metformin monotherapies result in greater weight loss, reductions in body fat mass, and better blood glucose control among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease. Reductions in weight, fat mass and waist circumference favorably affect hepatic function.
Independent and interactive effects of immune activation and larval diet on adult immune function, growth and development in the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella)
Authors: Kangassalo Katariina , Valtonen Terhi M. , Sorvari Jouni , Kecko Sanita , Pölkki Mari , Krams Indrikis , Krama Tatjana , Rantala Markus J.
Published: June 2018

Organisms in the wild are likely to face multiple immune challenges as well as additional ecological stressors, yet their interactive effects on immune function are poorly understood. Insects are found to respond to cues of increased infection risk by enhancing their immune capacity. However, such adaptive plasticity in immune function may be limited by physiological and environmental constraints. Here, we investigated the effects of two environmental stressors – poor larval diet and an artificial parasite‐like immune challenge at the pupal stage – on adult immune function, growth and development in the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella). Males whose immune system was activated with an artificial parasite‐like immune challenge had weaker immune response – measured as strength of encapsulation response – as adults compared to the control groups, but only when reared on high‐nutrition larval diet. Immune activation did not negatively affect adult immune response in males reared on low‐nutrition larval diet, indicating that poor larval diet improved the capacity of the insects to respond to repeated immune challenges. Low‐nutrition larval diet also had a positive independent effect on immune capacity in females, yet it negatively affected development time and adult body mass in both sexes. As in the nature immune challenges are rarely isolated, and adverse nutritional environment may indicate an elevated risk of infection, resilience to repeated immune challenges as a response to poor nutritional conditions could provide a significant fitness advantage. This study highlights the importance of considering environmental context when investigating the effects of immune activation in insects.
Genetic population structure of the convict surgeonfish Acanthurus triostegus: a phylogeographic reassessment across its range
Authors: Otwoma Levy M. , Diemel Valeska , Reuter Hauke , Kochzius Marc , Meyer Achim
Published: June 2018

This study investigates the genetic population structure and connectivity of Acanthurus triostegus in five Indo‐Pacific biogeographic regions (western and eastern Indian Ocean, western, central and eastern Pacific Ocean), using a mitochondrial DNA marker spanning the ATPase8 and ATPase6 gene regions. In order to assess the phylogeography and genetic population structure of A. triostegus across its range, 35 individuals were sampled from five localities in the western Indian Ocean and complemented with 227 sequences from two previous studies. Results from the overall analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) without a priori grouping showed evidence of significant differentiation in the Indo‐Pacific, with 25 (8.3%) out of 300 pairwise ΦST comparisons being significant. However, the hierarchical AMOVA grouping of Indian and Pacific Ocean populations failed to support the vicariance hypothesis, showing a lack of a genetic break between the two ocean basins. Instead, the correlation between pairwise ΦST values and geographic distance showed that dispersal of A. triostegus in the Indo‐Pacific Ocean follows an isolation‐by‐distance model. Three haplogroups could be deduced from the haplotype network and phylogenetic tree, with haplogroup 1 and 2 dominating the Indian and the Pacific Ocean, respectively, while haplogroup 3 exclusively occurring in the Hawaiian Archipelago of the central Pacific Ocean.
Developmental characteristics of firesetters: Are recidivist offenders distinctive?
Authors: Bell Ryan , Doley Rebekah , Dawson Deborah
Published: June 2018

Introduction

This study examined the prevalence of developmental disadvantage and the extent that disadvantage could differentiate between recidivist and one‐time firesetters in an Australian sample of firesetting offenders.

Methods

Variables pertaining to developmental experiences were collected from file data held by the Western Australian Department of Corrective Services pertaining to all offenders (n = 354) convicted of a firesetting offence between 2005 and 2010. Analyses of variance were conducted between recidivistic and one‐time firesetters to investigate which developmental factors were related to risk of recidivism.

Results

Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that firesetters would have poor developmental experiences characterized by high rates of abuse, parental absence, early substance use and poor educational achievement. This hypothesis was partly supported. Multiple firesetters were much more likely to be victims of childhood sexual and physical abuse and be diagnosed with a learning disability.

Discussion

Current theories of firesetting maintain that an impoverished developmental experience catalyses the development of psychological risk factors that precipitate and maintain firesetting behaviour. The high prevalence of developmental risk factors among this population lends evidence to this relationship.

Conclusions

These data suggest that physical and/or sexual abuse, the absence of a mother or father figure through childhood, problematic substance use, poor academic achievement and the presence of speech, learning and reading deficits are common among firesetters generally and the presence of childhood abuse and learning disability is a risk factor for repeat firesetting.
Long‐term results of transurethral endoscopic excision using the holmium laser for urethral perforation of synthetic slings
Authors: Wang Connie , Zimmern Philippe E. , Lemack Gary
Published: June 2018

Objective

This study reports on the long‐term results of transurethral endoscopic excision using the Holmium laser (TEEH) for large urethral perforation (UP; defined as involving one‐quarter or more of the urethral circumference) from synthetic slings.

Methods

Charts of women treated with TEEH for large UP were reviewed. TEEH was performed using a 365‐μm laser fiber passed inside an open‐ended ureteral catheter positioned in a holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) sheath to stabilize the laser fiber. Data extracted included patient demographics, clinical presentations, surgical details, postoperative functional outcomes and complications, and any secondary repairs.

Results

From 2011 to 2016, 12 women underwent TEEH. The mean interval between sling placement and first TEEH was 47 months (range 10–161 months). The types of slings included transvaginal tape (n = 2), transobturator tape (n = 4), mini‐invasive (n = 4), and Solyx (1), or were not specified (n = 1). The mean number of TEEH procedures was 1.6 (range 1–3), and the mean length of initial treatment was 40 min (range 15–79 min), with subsequent treatments <30 min. Mean follow‐up time was 43 months (range 14–70). Resolution of UP by TEEH alone was achieved in 6 patients, with 2 requiring multiple TEEH. Six patients underwent secondary vaginal mesh sling excision alone or with an associated repair including 2 small distal urethrovaginal fistulas.

Conclusion

TEEH is a minimally invasive procedure that can avoid a more complex initial urethral reconstruction and should be considered for treating large UP. Secondary repairs for residual small UP or associated lower urinary tract symptomatology may be necessary and patients should be counseled accordingly.
Citizen participation and the redistribution of public goods
Authors: Hong Sounman , Cho B. Shine
Published: June 2018

This study investigates whether citizen participation in public budgeting resulted in increased redistributive outcomes when compared with bureaucratic decision‐making. We focused on a specific budget item (i.e., the installation of surveillance cameras for crime prevention) and examined whether participatory budgeting yielded larger budget allocations to low‐income neighbourhoods. Results indicate that such participatory budgeting results in larger budget allocations for low‐income neighbourhoods when compared with allocations produced by bureaucratic budgeting practices. The results also indicate that budgets allocated through citizen participation may be no more or even less effective for advancing public goals. These findings suggest a potential trade‐off between equity and public service effectiveness. Citizen participation improves budget equity, but may be less effective for achieving public goals than bureaucratic decision‐making. To explain this, we offer the ‘social pressure hypothesis’, which posits that social pressure during public‐forum discussions can influence participating citizens to make redistributive decisions.
Combustion, Performance, and Tail Pipe Emissions of Common Rail Diesel Engine Fueled With Waste Plastic Oil-Diesel Blends
Authors: Lamani Venkatesh T. , Kumar Yadav Ajay , G. N. Kumar
Published: June 2018

The demand for plastic is eternally growing in urban areas and producing enormous quantity of plastic waste. The management and disposal of plastic waste have become a major concern worldwide. The awareness of waste to energy retrieval is one of the promising modes used for the treatment of the waste plastic. The present investigation evaluates the prospective use of waste plastic oil (WPO) as an alternative fuel for diesel engine. Different blends (WPO0, WPO30, and WPO50) with diesel are prepared on a volume basis and the engine is operated. Experiments are conducted for various injection timings (9 deg, 12 deg, 15 deg, and 18 deg BTDC) and for different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates (0%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) at 100 MPa injection pressure. Combustion, performance, and tail pipe emissions of common rail direct injection (CRDI) engine are studied. The NOx, CO, and Soot emissions for waste plastic oil-diesel blends are found more than neat diesel. To reduce the NOx, EGR is employed, which results in reduction of NOx considerably, whereas other emissions, i.e., CO and Soot, get increased with increase in EGR rates. Soot for WPO-diesel blends is higher because of aromatic compounds present in plastic oils. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of blends is found to be higher compared to diesel.
Stabilization of dry protein coatings with compatible solutes
Authors: Killian Manuela S. , Taylor Adam J. , Castner David G.
Published: June 2018

Exposure of protein modified surfaces to air may be necessary in several applications. For example, air contact may be inevitable during the implantation of biomedical devices, for analysis of protein modified surfaces, or for sensor applications. Protein coatings are very sensitive to dehydration and can undergo significant and irreversible alterations of their conformations upon exposure to air. With the use of two compatible solutes from extremophilic bacteria, ectoine and hydroxyectoine, the authors were able to preserve the activity of dried protein monolayers for up to >24 h. The protective effect can be explained by the preferred exclusion model; i.e., the solutes trap a thin water layer around the protein, retaining an aqueous environment and preventing unfolding of the protein. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immobilized on compact TiO2 was used as a model system. Structural differences between the compatible solute stabilized and unstabilized protein films, and between different solutes, were analyzed by static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). The biological activity difference observed in a colorimetric activity assay was correlated to changes in protein conformation by application of principal component analysis to the static ToF-SIMS data. Additionally, rehydration of the denatured HRP was observed in ToF-SIMS with an exposure of denatured protein coatings to ectoine and hydroxyectoine solutions.
Initial nucleation stage in photo-CVD of GeH4 on SiO2 substrate monitored by real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry and photo reflectance: Accurate determination of incubation time
Authors: Akazawa Housei
Published: June 2018

The initial stage of photoexcited chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of Ge layers on SiO2 substrate was studied through a combined analysis of real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry and photoreflectance (PR). Just after GeH4 gas was admitted into the growth chamber, there was a certain period during which both the ellipsometric (Ψ, Δ) angles and PR intensity remained unchanged from their initial values. This phenomenon prior to steady-state growth is known as incubation, and it is due to the very slow reactive sticking of GeHx species on the dangling-bond free SiO2 surfaces. The incubation time was accurately determined from the time derivatives of (Ψ, Δ) and the PR intensity. In most cases, the incubation times independently derived from (Ψ, Δ) and the PR intensity coincided, but for other cases, those derived from the PR intensity were slightly longer than those derived from (Ψ, Δ). The incubation time decreased as thermally activated decomposition of GeHx species became prevalent above 300 °C. An activation energy of 18 kJ/mol was obtained by assuming that the rate of creating nucleation seeds on SiO2 is proportional to the inverse of the incubation time. Such a low activation energy, much lower than that of thermal CVD, is due to partial decomposition of GeH4 by photoexcitation to create reactive GeHx fragments. At the end of incubation, the Ge layer wetting the SiO2 surface changed into self-assembled Ge dots when more Ge atoms were deposited. The dot density was maximum at the beginning of dot formation and gradually decreased as the dot size became larger. The activation energy of continuous Ge growth on Ge-covered SiO2 surface was derived from the time evolution of Δ to be 13 kJ/mol. The minimum PR intensity for three-dimensional (3D) dot formation was lower than that of two-dimensional (2D) layer growth, reflecting greater surface roughness. Contrasting behaviors between 2D and 3D growth were also observed in terms of the recovery level of the PR intensity after prolonged growth; continued 2D growth recovered up to 90% of the initial level, while 3D dot formation recovered only 50 −60%.
A model-based Bayesian framework for sound source enumeration and direction of arrival estimation using a coprime microphone array
Authors: Bush Dane , Xiang Ning
Published: June 2018

Coprime microphone arrays use sparse sensing to achieve greater degrees of freedom, while the coprimality of the microphone subarrays help resolve grating lobe ambiguities. The result is a narrow beam at frequencies higher than the spatial Nyquist limit allows, with residual side lobes arising from aliasing. These side lobes can be mitigated when observing broadband sources, as shown by Bush and Xiang [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, 447–456 (2015)]. Peak positions may indicate directions of arrival in this case; however, one must first ask how many sources are present. In answering this question, this work employs a model describing scenes with potentially multiple concurrent sound sources. Bayesian inference is used to first select which model the data prefer from competing models before estimating model parameters, including the particular source locations. The model is a linear combination of Laplace distribution functions (one per sound source). The likelihood function is explored by a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method called nested sampling in order to evaluate Bayesian evidence for each model. These values increase monotonically with model complexity; however, diminished returns are penalized via an implementation of Occam's razor.
Sound source localization and speech enhancement with sparse Bayesian learning beamforming
Authors: Xenaki Angeliki , Bünsow Boldt Jesper , Græsbøll Christensen Mads
Published: June 2018

Speech localization and enhancement involves sound source mapping and reconstruction from noisy recordings of speech mixtures with microphone arrays. Conventional beamforming methods suffer from low resolution, especially with a limited number of microphones. In practice, there are only a few sources compared to the possible directions-of-arrival (DOA). Hence, DOA estimation is formulated as a sparse signal reconstruction problem and solved with sparse Bayesian learning (SBL). SBL uses a hierarchical two-level Bayesian inference to reconstruct sparse estimates from a small set of observations. The first level derives the posterior probability of the complex source amplitudes from the data likelihood and the prior. The second level tunes the prior towards sparse solutions with hyperparameters which maximize the evidence, i.e., the data probability. The adaptive learning of the hyperparameters from the data auto-regularizes the inference problem towards sparse robust estimates. Simulations and experimental data demonstrate that SBL beamforming provides high-resolution DOA maps outperforming traditional methods especially for correlated or non-stationary signals. Specifically for speech signals, the high-resolution SBL reconstruction offers not only speech enhancement but effectively speech separation.
A comparison of iterative sparse equivalent source methods for near-field acoustical holography
Authors: Hald Jørgen
Published: June 2018

During the past decade, several publications have described the use of compressive sensing principles to extend the frequency range supported by a given irregular microphone array for near-field acoustic holography. The applied numerical source model has typically been of the type used for the equivalent source method, i.e., a mesh of point sources, and a one-norm regularized inverse problem has been solved using a very stable, but slow interior-point optimization algorithm. A few publications have investigated the use of simpler and faster iterative algorithms. The present paper gives a brief description of five such iterative algorithms, and it compares their performances with that of the interior-point algorithm based on a set of simulated measurements. A particular focus is on the suitability for industrial applications. Finally, an optimal choice of methodology is discussed based on the presented limited set of simulated tests.
A sparsification and reconstruction strategy for compressed sensing photoacoustic tomography
Authors: Haltmeier Markus , Sandbichler Michael , Berer Thomas , Bauer-Marschallinger Johannes , Burgholzer Peter , Nguyen Linh
Published: June 2018

Compressed sensing (CS) is a promising approach to reduce the number of measurements in photoacoustic tomography (PAT) while preserving high spatial resolution. This allows to increase the measurement speed and reduce system costs. Instead of collecting point-wise measurements, in CS one uses various combinations of pressure values at different sensor locations. Sparsity is the main condition allowing to recover the photoacoustic (PA) source from compressive measurements. In this paper, a different concept enabling sparse recovery in CS PAT is introduced. This approach is based on the fact that the second time derivative applied to the measured pressure data corresponds to the application of the Laplacian to the original PA source. As typical PA sources consist of smooth parts and singularities along interfaces, the Laplacian of the source is sparse (or at least compressible). To efficiently exploit the induced sparsity, a reconstruction framework is developed to jointly recover the initial and modified sparse sources. Reconstruction results with simulated as well as experimental data are given.
Exploiting platform motion for passive source localization with a co-prime sampled large aperture array
Authors: Ramirez Juan , Rogers Jeffrey S.
Published: June 2018

Co-prime array geometries have received a great deal of attention due to their ability to discriminate O(MN) sources with only O(M + N) sensors. This has been demonstrated both theoretically and in simulation. However, there are many practical limitations that make it difficult to realize the enhanced degrees of freedom when applying co-prime geometries to real acoustic data taken on a horizontal line array. For instance, co-prime sampling leads to grating lobes that can obscure lower signal-to-noise-ratio acoustic signals making them difficult to detect. In this work, a synthetic aperture (SA) method is presented for filling in holes and increasing redundancy in the difference co-array by exploiting array motion. The SA method is applied to acoustic data collected off the Southeastern shore of Florida on a fixed large aperture horizontal array. Array motion is simulated by taking a co-prime sampled subarray and virtually moving it along the horizontal aperture of the fixed array. It is demonstrated that SA processing on real acoustic data results in reduced side-lobe and grating lobe levels compared to that of the physical co-prime aperture.
Broad-Spectrum Adaptive Antibiotic Resistance Associated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa Mucin-Dependent Surfing Motility
Authors: Sun Evelyn , Gill Erin E. , Falsafi Reza , Yeung Amy , Liu Sijie , Hancock Robert E. W.
Published: June 2018

Surfing motility is a novel form of surface adaptation exhibited by the nosocomial pathogen
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
in the presence of the glycoprotein mucin, which is found in high abundance at mucosal surfaces, especially those of the lungs of cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis patients. Here, we investigated the adaptive antibiotic resistance of
P. aeruginosa
under conditions in which surfing occurs compared that in to cells undergoing swimming.
Overlapping Community Compositions of Gut and Fecal Microbiomes in Lab-Reared and Field-Collected German Cockroaches
Authors: Kakumanu Madhavi L. , Maritz Julia M. , Carlton Jane M. , Schal Coby
Published: June 2018

The German cockroach infests diverse human-built structures, including homes and hospitals. It produces potent allergens that trigger asthma and disseminates opportunistic pathogens in its feces. A comprehensive understanding of gut and fecal microbial communities of cockroaches is essential not only to understand their contribution to the biology of the cockroach, but also for exploring their clinical relevance. In this study, we compare the diversity of bacteria and eukaryotes in the cockroach gut and feces and assess the variation in the gut microbiota across cockroach populations.
Characterization of Three Small Proteins in Brucella abortus Linked to Fucose Utilization
Authors: Budnick James A. , Sheehan Lauren M. , Kang Lin , Michalak Pawel , Caswell Clayton C.
Published: June 2018

Despite being one of the most common zoonoses worldwide, there is currently no human vaccine to combat brucellosis. Therefore, a better understanding of the pathogenesis and biology of
Brucella
spp., the causative agent of brucellosis, is essential for the discovery of novel therapeutics against these highly infectious bacteria. In this study, we further characterize the virulence-associated transcriptional regulator VtlR in
Brucella abortus
. Our findings not only shed light on our current understanding of a virulence related genetic system in
Brucella
spp. but also increase our knowledge of small proteins in the field of bacteriology.
Repression of Capsule Production by XdrA and CodY in Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Lei Mei G. , Lee Chia Y.
Published: June 2018

Staphylococcus aureus
employs a complex regulatory network to coordinate the expression of various virulence genes to achieve successful infections. How virulence genes are coordinately regulated is still poorly understood. We have been studying capsule regulation as a model system to explore regulatory networking in
S. aureus
. In this study, we found that XdrA and CodY have broad binding sites that overlap extensively in the capsule promoter region. Our results also suggest that XdrA assists CodY in the repression of capsule. As capsule gene regulation by DNA-binding regulators has not been fully investigated, the results presented here fill an important knowledge gap, thereby further advancing our understanding of the global virulence regulatory network in
S. aureus
.