bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How sensitive and specific is continuous-wave Doppler for detecting peripheral arterial disease in people with and without diabetes? A cross-sectional study
Authors: Tehan Peta Ellen , Sebastian Mathew , Barwick Alex Louise , Chuter Vivienne Helaine
Published: June 2018

Background:

Continuous-wave Doppler is frequently used for detecting peripheral arterial disease in patients with diabetes; however, there is limited evidence investigating diagnostic accuracy. This study aimed to determine sensitivity and specificity of continuous-wave Doppler for detecting peripheral arterial disease in populations with, and without, diabetes and to investigate the influence of disease severity on sensitivity of continuous-wave Doppler for detecting peripheral arterial disease.

Results:

Data from 396 participants were included. Using colour Duplex ultrasound as reference standard (N=66), printed continuous-wave Doppler waveform analysis sensitivity was 81.75% (95% confidence interval: 76.75 to 85.88) and specificity 89.34% (95% confidence interval: 82.62 to 93.67). Printed continuous-wave Doppler waveform analysis sensitivity for peripheral arterial disease was comparable to sensitivity calculated using angiography as the reference standard (81.67%; 95% confidence interval: 69.56 to 90.48). Sensitivity and specificity were unaffected by diabetes diagnosis (n = 176), sensitivity 82.76% (95% confidence interval: 74.86 to 88.55), and specificity 88.33% (95% confidence interval: 77.82 to 94.23).

Conclusion:

Continuous-wave Doppler is a fair assessment tool for peripheral arterial disease in a community-based sample with suspected peripheral arterial disease. Diagnostic accuracy of continuous-wave Doppler for peripheral arterial disease is unaffected by the presence of diabetes.
On the development of high-frequency torsional impact drilling techniques for hard formation drilling
Authors: Tang Liping , Zhu Xiaohua
Published: June 2018

Stick-slip vibration is a big problem that the drilling of deep wells has to face, especially for drilling of tough formations. This type of vibration leads to failure problems, reduces the rate of penetration, and lowers the borehole quality. Suppression techniques for stick-slip vibration, for example, active control method based on real-time measurement, play important roles in improving the drilling efficiency. The high-frequency torsional impact drilling, however, provides a cheaper and more stable way to mitigate stick-slip in many conditions. This work is aimed to study the high-frequency torsional impact generator, which is used to achieve the function, for this new technique. First, state-of-the-art of high-frequency torsional impact generator is studied by schematically illustrating the existing four structures and their operating principles, followed by comments for these structures. Second, theoretical background of the high-frequency torsional impact drilling is presented, showing how the high-frequency torsional impact generator works to mitigate stick-slip and improve drilling efficiency. Finally, an optimally designed high-frequency torsional impact generator is schematically described. It is an improved version of the assembly of United Diamond and the improvements are based on results of a series of laboratory experiments.
Transcription-independent expression of PKMζ in the anterior cingulate cortex contributes to chronically maintained neuropathic pain
Authors: Ko Hyoung-Gon , Ye Sanghyun , Han Dae-Hee , Park Pojeong , Lim Chae-Seok , Lee Kyungmin , Zhuo Min , Kaang Bong-Kiun
Published: June 2018

Protein kinase M ζ is well known for its role in maintaining memory and pain. Previously, we revealed that the activation of protein kinase M ζ in the anterior cingulate cortex plays a role in sustaining neuropathic pain. However, the mechanism by which protein kinase M ζ is expressed in the anterior cingulate cortex by peripheral nerve injury, and whether blocking of protein kinase M ζ using its inhibitor, zeta inhibitory peptide, produces analgesic effects in neuropathic pain maintained chronically after injury, have not previously been resolved. In this study, we show that protein kinase M ζ expression in the anterior cingulate cortex is enhanced by peripheral nerve injury in a transcription-independent manner. We also reveal that the inhibition of protein kinase M ζ through zeta inhibitory peptide treatment is enough to reduce mechanical allodynia responses in mice with one-month-old nerve injuries. However, the zeta inhibitory peptide treatment was only effective for a limited time.
Influence of respondent type on relationships between safety climate and safety performance in manufacturing firm
Authors: Singh Vedant , Verma Anita
Published: June 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the interrelation between the dimensions of safety climate and of safety performance in the Indian manufacturing industries. A cross-sectional survey was carried out using a sample of 242 manufacturing employees from five small- and medium-scale industries across north India. An organized questionnaire was developed to acquire participant’s demographic attributes and safety climate and safety performance factors. In accordance with the literature review, a model is hypothesized to demonstrate the interrelations between safety climate and safety performance. It was examined and validated by applying confirmatory factor analysis on calibration and validation sub-samples, respectively. In addition, to analyze the moderating effects of respondent type, structural equation modeling was used. This study resulted that the impact of safety performance on safety participation and safety compliance was significantly positive whereas the impact on the number of self-reported accidents/injuries and near misses was significantly negative. The study assists the frame of understanding by uncovering the divergence in subsisting constructs of safety climate and safety performance. An accurate model is presumed to briefly determine the safety climate and safety performance in the Indian manufacturing industries; while concluding the results of the study to other developing countries, prudence must be applied.
Sacubitril/valsartan in cardiovascular disease: evidence to date and place in therapy
Authors: Yandrapalli Srikanth , Khan Mohammed Hasan , Rochlani Yogita , Aronow Wilbert S.
Published: June 2018

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing and the developed world. Mortality from CV disease had plateaued in the recent years raising concerning alarms about the sustained efficacy of available preventive and treatment options. Heart failure (HF) is among the major contributors to the CV-related health care burden, a persisting concern despite the use of clinically proven guideline-directed therapies. A requirement for more efficient medical therapies coupled with recent advances in bio-innovation led to the creation of sacubitril/valsartan, an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), which demonstrated substantial CV benefit when compared with the standard of care, enalapril, in patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction. Further investigations of this novel combination ARNI at the tissue level shed light into the anti-remodeling and cardioprotective effects of sacubitril/valsartan, while clinical studies in the phenotypes of HF with preserved ejection fraction, hypertension and subsets, coronary outcomes, postmyocardial infarction, and renal disease suggested that this combination could be beneficial across a wide spectrum of CV disease. Sacubitril/valsartan is a much-needed therapeutic advance in the avenue of CV disease.
Organic Wastes and Tropical Forest Restoration
Authors: Choi Jonathan J. , Treuer Timothy L. H. , Werden Leland K. , Wilcove David S.
Published: June 2018

In a recent publication, we documented the benefits of using agricultural waste (specifically, leftover orange peels from a commercial orange juice factory) to promote forest recovery at a site in Costa Rica. While we showed unambiguously positive impacts on soil conditions, forest biomass, and tree diversity, our ability to infer mechanisms behind this recovery was limited because the project was never replicated. It appears our work is one of only a handful of peer-reviewed studies testing the use of unprocessed agricultural waste as part of a tropical forest restoration initiative. We argue that regardless of the mechanism, there are first-principle reasons to expect that minimally processed (and thus low-cost) agricultural wastes could be utilized to accelerate tropical forest restoration in a variety of contexts, potentially creating a new class of biodiversity-friendly carbon offsets that may address previous concerns about linking tropical forestry to global carbon markets. We outline research initiatives that could lead to a richer understanding of when and where it is safe and effective to utilize agricultural and other wastes in tropical forest restoration endeavors.
Exploring Blacks’ Perceptions of Whites’ Racial Prejudice as a Function of Intergroup Behavior and Motivational Mindsets
Authors: Simon Stefanie , Shaffer Emily , Neel Rebecca , Shapiro Jenessa
Published: June 2018

When Whites believe prejudice cannot change, they often adopt a behavioral style that is intended to reduce the possibility that they are seen as racist (i.e., performance-oriented behaviors). The present research tests the possibility that these performance-oriented behaviors may be interpreted, ironically, as racist. Across two studies, Black participants viewed performance-oriented behaviors as indicating racial prejudice. Additionally, when Black participants were led to believe that Whites’ racial prejudice could not change, they perceived Whites as more prejudiced. This research highlights a potential source of misunderstanding in interracial interactions and offers implications for improving interracial interactions from target and perpetrator perspectives.
Valuing Differences and Reinforcing Them: Multiculturalism Increases Race Essentialism
Authors: Wilton Leigh S. , Apfelbaum Evan P. , Good Jessica J.
Published: June 2018

A substantial body of research on diversity philosophies has shown that multiculturalism (i.e., emphasizing and valuing cultural/ethnic differences) is a more effective way to promote equality and reduce bias than color blindness (i.e., deemphasizing cultural/ethnic differences in lieu of similarities). However, across two experiments, we present evidence for an unexpectedly negative outcome of multiculturalism: increased belief in race essentialism, or the notion that racial group differences are valid, biologically based, and immutable. Study 1 ( N = 165) shows that participants exposed to multiculturalism expressed greater race essentialist beliefs compared to those exposed to color blindness. Study 2 ( N = 150) replicates this effect and also finds that exposure to multiculturalism, compared to color blindness, decreased participants’ belief that racial equality is a problem. These findings raise the ironic possibility that well-intentioned efforts to portray the value of differences may reinforce the belief that fixed, biological characteristics underpin them.
Medication use and potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults with intellectual disabilities: a neglected area of research
Authors: O’Dwyer Maire , McCallion Philip , McCarron Mary , Henman Martin
Published: June 2018

It is known that for all adults, prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) and polypharmacy increases with advancing age and morbidity. This has been associated with adverse drug reactions and poor outcomes. As a result, screening tools have been developed to identify PIP and to improve prescribing and health outcomes.

A growing body of evidence supports the fact that there are even greater concerns among older adults with intellectual disability (ID) who are living longer than before but still have premature mortality and poorer health outcomes compared with the general population. They have different patterns of multimorbidity, with higher rates of epilepsy and mental health conditions. Polypharmacy is prevalent and some prescribing practices may be inappropriate. High exposure to anticholinergic and sedative medicines has additional adverse effects on quality of life. There may also be underutilization of clinically needed therapies. There has been substantial controversy internationally relating to extensive use of psychotropic medicines, particularly off-label use for challenging behaviours.

Despite the mounting evidence and concerns about the impact of PIP on quality of life, health and safety for people with ID, appropriate methods to measure PIP are lacking, which represents an important gap in the research literature. Differences in morbidity and medicines use patterns in this population mean instruments used to identify inappropriate medicines in the older population are not suitable. In this perspective article we outline the specific health and medicinal needs for people with ID, the prevalence of polypharmacy and presentation of chronic health conditions in older adults with ID. We provide an overview of the psychotropic medicine classes most frequently used in people with ID which carry substantial risk. We highlight studies to date that have attempted to assess PIP and present research priorities to improve prescribing, health outcomes and quality of life for people with ID.
Emerging themes in coping with lifetime stress and implication for stress management education
Authors: Amnie Asrat G
Published: June 2018

Background:

Adults with adverse childhood experiences and exposure to adverse life events experience a diverse array of physical, mental, and social health problems across their lifespan. Adult exposure to emotional trauma, physical injury, or other adverse life events may result in the development of post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder. Understanding individuals’ response to stress and their coping strategies is as important as the stimulus or the causes of the stress for effective stress management interventions.

Methods:

This is a mixed quantitative and qualitative online survey study which explores the coping strategies to stress in adults with adverse childhood experiences and exposure to adverse life events through analysis of emerging themes from survey questionnaire responses of study participants.

Results:

Participants who respond to stress through adaptive coping focused either on problem-solving, 17.6% (32 out of 188), or on emotion-focused coping, 45.2% (85 out of 188). Participants engaged in problem-solving mainly through therapy such as counseling and other professional stress management, whereas those who chose emotion-focused coping used diverse strategies including practicing mindfulness, meditation, and yoga; using humor and jokes; seeking higher power or religious pursuits; engaging in physical or breathing exercises; and seeking social support. Participants who practiced maladaptive coping styles constituted 37.2% (70 out of 188) of respondents and resorted to avoidance of the stressful condition, withdrawal from a stressful environment, disengagement from stressful relationships, and use and abuse of drugs and/or alcohol.

Conclusion:

An understanding of emerging themes in coping strategies calls for collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches in the design, implementation, and execution of health education and promotion programs tailored to meet the diverse needs of priority populations. Stress management educators need to take into account the vulnerabilities of individuals who resort to maladaptive coping and institute evidence-based behavioral and social service intervention strategies, including life skills training, to prevent the consequences of maladaptive coping and to enhance the self-efficacy of individuals to cope more effectively with stress and stressful life events.
Assessing the contextual stability of moral foundations: Evidence from a survey experiment
Authors: Ciuk David J.
Published: June 2018

Moral foundations theory (MFT) claims that individuals use their intuitions on five “virtues” as guidelines for moral judgment, and recent research makes the case that these intuitions cause people to adopt important political attitudes, including partisanship and ideology. New work in political science, however, demonstrates not only that the causal effect of moral foundations on these political predispositions is weaker than once thought, but it also opens the door to the possibility that causality runs in the opposite direction—from political predispositions to moral foundations. In this manuscript, I build on this new work and test the extent to which partisan and ideological considerations cause individuals’ moral foundations to shift in predictable ways. The results show that while these group-based cues do exert some influence on moral foundations, the effects of outgroup cues are particularly strong. I conclude that small shifts in political context do cause MFT measures to move, and, to close, I discuss the need for continued theoretical development in MFT as well as an increased attention to measurement.
An inhibitor of spleen tyrosine kinase suppresses experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis
Authors: Han Yingjie , Ma Frank Y , Di Paolo Julie , Nikolic-Paterson David J
Published: June 2018

Non-selective inhibitors of spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) efficiently suppress disease in T cell-dependent models of crescentic glomerulonephritis. However, the therapeutic potential of selective SYK inhibitors in this disease has not been established. In addition, we lack knowledge regarding SYK expression in non-myeloid cells in glomerulonephritis. We addressed these two issues in a rat model of nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NTN) using a SYK inhibitor, GS-492429. Disease was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats (Study 1) or Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats (Study 2) by immunization with sheep IgG and administration of sheep anti-rat nephrotoxic serum. Animals were untreated or received GS-492429 (30 mg/kg/bid) or vehicle treatment from 2 h before nephrotoxic serum injection until being killed 3 or 24 h later (Study 1) or 14 days later (Study 2). Two-colour confocal microscopy found that SYK expression in NTN kidney was restricted to myeloid cells and platelets, with no evidence of SYK expression by T cells, mesangial cells, podocytes or tubular epithelial cells. In Study 1, GS-492429 treatment significantly reduced glomerular neutrophil and macrophage infiltration, with protection from glomerular thrombosis and proteinuria. In Study 2, GS-492429 treatment reduced glomerular crescent formation by 70% on day 14 NTN in conjunction with reduced glomerular thrombosis, glomerulosclerosis and tubular damage. This was accompanied by a marked reduction in markers of inflammation (CCL2, TNF-α, NOS2, MMP-12). Importantly, the protective effects of GS-492429 were independent of T cell infiltration and activation and independent of JAK/STAT3 signalling. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a SYK inhibitor can suppress the development of crescentic glomerulonephritis through effects upon myeloid cells and platelets.
Identity in Engineering Adulthood: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Early-Career Engineers in the United States as They Transition to the Workplace
Authors: Huff James L. , Smith Jonathan A. , Jesiek Brent K. , Zoltowski Carla B. , Oakes William C.
Published: June 2018

Prior research has established emerging adulthood to be a time characterized by robust identity explorations in professional and nonprofessional domains. However, extant literature provides little contextual explanations in relation to how these identity explorations are experienced by early-career professionals. This article presents idiographic findings from a qualitative study that used interpretative phenomenological analysis on interviews with seven engineering students as they transitioned to their respective workplaces. These findings describe how the participants experienced a strong sense of commitment to their career identities while also exploring features of their identities that were unrelated to their careers. Additionally, we discuss how women participants experienced a gendered form tension in managing their career and family roles. In sum, this article contributes detailed insight regarding coherence and complexity of personal identity development as lived by early-career professionals.
Comparison of sacroplasty with or without balloon assistance for the treatment of sacral insufficiency fractures
Authors: Yang Shih-Chieh , Tsai Tsung-Ting , Chen Hung-Shu , Fang Chi-Jung , Kao Yu-Hsien , Tu Yuan-Kun
Published: June 2018

Purpose:

Sacral insufficiency fractures (SIFs) can cause severe lower back pain and immobility, which have limited therapeutic options. No previous studies have compared clinical outcomes and radiographic findings of sacroplasty with or without balloon assistance for the treatment of SIFs.

Methods:

Forty-five patients with SIFs were divided into two groups. One group had 18 patients treated using sacroplasty with balloon assistance, and the other had 27 patients treated without balloon assistance. The operation time and cement injection volume were compared between these two groups. Clinical outcomes were evaluated using visual analog scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and Odom’s criteria. Cement leakage rate was examined by postoperative radiography and computed tomography.

Results:

Sacroplasty with balloon assistance was associated with significantly longer operative time ( p = 0.003) and larger cement injection volume ( p = 0.038). Cement leakages were found in 4 of 18 patients (22.2%) with balloon assistance and 15 of 27 patients (55.6%) without balloon assistance, which showed significant difference ( p = 0.027). No significant differences were observed between sacroplasty with and without balloon assistance with regard to clinical outcomes including improvement in VAS, ODI, and Odom’s criteria.

Conclusions:

Sacroplasty with balloon assistance was shown to achieve greater cement injection with longer operation time and can decrease the risk of cement leakage. Both sacroplasty with and without balloon assistance showed good-to-excellent clinical outcomes for the treatment of SIFs.
The Epistemic Status of Predictions in Central Bank Reports: A Cross-Linguistic Study
Authors: Lejeune Pierre
Published: June 2018

This study aims to analyze the strategies of hedging in a prototypical speech act in economic communication—that is, predictions. The analyzed genre is that of central bank projections. We have used a parallel corpus of four reports (one European Central Bank report and three national bank reports) written in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The analyzed documents are multimodal (having text, tables, and charts). At a global level, hedging arises from external assumptions that limit the validity of the predictions and from the fact that generally the text does not give direct predictions but rather reports projections without assuming or attributing explicit responsibility regarding their validity. At the microlinguistic level, the epistemic marking of predications about the future is extremely complex, due to the phenomenon of grammatical metaphor. The cross-language analysis shows that because of language idiosyncrasies, the degree of endorsement of the typical utterances about prediction/projection varies between the reports.
Completeness of reporting of randomised controlled trials including people with transient ischaemic attack or stroke: A systematic review
Authors: Wilson Blair , Burnett Peter , Moher David , Altman Douglas G , Al-Shahi Salman Rustam
Published: June 2018

Purpose

To assess the adherence of stroke randomised controlled trials to Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting guidelines and investigate the factors that are associated with completeness of reporting.

Method

We took a random sample from the Cochrane Stroke Group's Trial Register of transient ischaemic attack or stroke randomised controlled trials, published in English in 1997–2016 inclusive. Two reviewers assessed the published report of the final primary results of stroke randomised controlled trials with a 10-point truncated Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting checklist to investigate adherence over time, univariable associations and independent associations with total Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting score in a multiple linear regression model.

Findings

In this random sample of 177 stroke randomised controlled trials, the mean score on the truncated Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials checklist was 5.8 (SD 2.2); reporting improved from 1997–2000 (4.9 SD 2.0) to 2001–2009 (5.8 SD 2.1) and to 2010–2016 (6.8 SD 2.1). A higher Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials score was independently associated with publication during epochs following a revision of Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting guidelines (p < 0.001), journal endorsement of the Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting guideline at the time of randomised controlled trial publication (p < 0.001) and modified journal impact factor using median citation distribution (p = 0.012).

Discussion

Stroke randomised controlled trial reporting to Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials standards has improved over time, but could be better.

Conclusion

Journal endorsement and enforcement of Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials reporting guidelines could further improve the reporting of stroke randomised controlled trials. Systematic review registration: Registered with PROSPERO (CRD42017072193).
Inflammatory arthritis in systemic sclerosis: What to do?
Authors: Blank Rebecca B , Nwawka Ogonna Kenechi , Yusov Anna A , Gordon Jessica K
Published: June 2018

Musculoskeletal involvement, including arthritis and tendinopathy, is a common and important determinant of disability and impaired quality of life in systemic sclerosis. However, the treatment of arthritis in systemic sclerosis has not been studied as a primary outcome in randomized controlled trials, and arthritis-specific outcome measures for systemic sclerosis have not been sufficiently validated to date. Rheumatologists caring for patients with systemic sclerosis must address these complaints regularly despite the fact that the level of evidence for the treatment of systemic sclerosis–related inflammatory arthritis is limited. Consensus statements, based on treatments for related musculoskeletal aspects of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other autoimmune diseases, support the use of methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine. Newer biologics, which have efficacy in the treatment of other autoimmune conditions, may show promise in the treatment of arthritis in systemic sclerosis. In this article, we review the current literature on the assessment and treatment of systemic sclerosis arthritis in order to address management considerations.
Preferred Image of Women on Indian Television: A Move from Classic Stereotypes
Authors: Sandhu Namrata
Published: June 2018

This article seeks to suggest that televised portrayals of women should do justice to the evolving image of the present-day woman in India. Such portrayals will not only address the expectations of the audience but also serve desirable social (towards gender equity) and commercial ends.
Sympathetic Ophthalmia in a 22-Month-Old Infant With Sturge–Weber Syndrome With Atypical Histopathological Correlation
Authors: Cernichiaro-Espinosa Linda A. , Gold Aaron S. , Berrocal Audina M. , Dubovy Sander R. , Chang Ta Chen , Orcutt-Hayes Abby , Murray Timothy G.
Published: June 2018

Purpose:

Sturge–Weber syndrome (SWS) and sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) are unusual pathologies. Their association has not been previously reported. This unusual diagnosis can be elucidated by clinical suspicion.

Methods:

Case report of a 22-month-old female with SO.

Results:

SWS with a unilateral diffuse choroidal hemangioma. The exciting eye had multiple surgeries for glaucoma that required enucleation. Clinical picture of SO was found on the sympathizing eye. Atypical histopathology (nongranulomatous choroidal infiltrate and perivascular mononuclear cells) is found in the enucleated eye.

Conclusions:

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first description of an association of SWS, diffuse choroidal hemangioma, infantile glaucoma, and SO. Many confounding factors are present (ie, multiple surgeries, risk of infectious endophthalmitis). Therefore, a high index of suspicion must be kept in mind to make the diagnosis. We aim to raise awareness of such a devastating condition in a pediatric patient with many comorbidities.
Retrospective Cohort Study: Ledipasvir-Sofosbuvir With/Without Ribavirin for Chronic Hepatitis C Post–Liver Transplant in a Real-World Population
Authors: Hawkins Kelsey L. , Hot Ives
Published: June 2018

Background: Liver damage caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the number one indication for liver transplantation in the United States and Europe. Patients with a detectable HCV level at time of transplant will universally develop a recurrent infection, which can lead to increased morbidity and mortality. Objective: To assess the sustained virologic response rate post end-of-treatment (SVR) in HCV-infected, post–liver transplant patients at the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) treated with ledipasvir-sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF). Methods: This retrospective, cohort study of HCV-positive, genotype 1 or 4 infected, post–liver transplant patients treated with LDV/SOF was conducted at a large academic medical center affiliated clinic. Patients treated with 12 weeks of LDV/SOF with or without ribavirin were included in the 12-week group, and patients treated with 24 weeks of LDV/SOF without ribavirin were included in the 24-week group. Results: Twenty-nine patients with recurrent HCV post–liver transplant receiving 12 weeks of LDV/SOF with or without ribavirin and 32 patients receiving 24 weeks of LDV/SOF alone were assessed. SVR was achieved by 100% (29/29) of patients in the 12-week group and 100% (32/32) of patients in the 24-week group. Conclusion: Post–liver transplant patients at UWMC treated with LDV/SOF for recurrent HCV achieved high rates of SVR.
Protein kinase C signaling dysfunction in von Willebrand disease (p.V1316M) type 2B platelets
Authors: Casari Caterina , Paul David S. , Susen Sophie , Lavenu-Bombled Cécile , Harroche Annie , Piatt Raymond , Poe Kathryn O. , Lee Robert H. , Bryckaert Marijke , Christophe Olivier D. , Lenting Peter J. , Denis Cécile V. , Bergmeier Wolfgang
Published: June 2018

Key Points

In VWD (p.V1316M) type 2B, the VWF–GPIb interaction alters the sustained PKC-mediated pathway of Rap1 activation. VWF/p.V1316M expression in mice causes multiple platelet dysfunctions, including significant ADAM17-independent shedding of GPIbα.
Review of additive manufactured tissue engineering scaffolds: relationship between geometry and performance
Authors: Gleadall Andrew , Visscher Dafydd , Yang Jing , Thomas Daniel , Segal Joel
Published: June 2018

Material extrusion additive manufacturing has rapidly grown in use for tissue engineering research since its adoption in the year 2000. It has enabled researchers to produce scaffolds with intricate porous geometries that were not feasible with traditional manufacturing processes. Researchers can control the structural geometry through a wide range of customisable printing parameters and design choices including material, print path, temperature, and many other process parameters. Currently, the impact of these choices is not fully understood. This review focuses on how the position and orientation of extruded filaments, which sometimes referred to as the print path, lay-down pattern, or simply “scaffold design”, affect scaffold properties and biological performance. By analysing trends across multiple studies, new understanding was developed on how filament position affects mechanical properties. Biological performance was also found to be affected by filament position, but a lack of consensus between studies indicates a need for further research and understanding. In most research studies, scaffold design was dictated by capabilities of additive manufacturing software rather than free-form design of structural geometry optimised for biological requirements. There is scope for much greater application of engineering innovation to additive manufacture novel geometries. To achieve this, better understanding of biological requirements is needed to enable the effective specification of ideal scaffold geometries.
Effects of Surgery With Salvage Stereotactic Radiosurgery Versus Surgery With Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy in Patients With One to Four Brain Metastases (JCOG0504): A Phase III, Noninferiority, Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Kayama Takamasa , Sato Shinya , Sakurada Kaori , Mizusawa Junki , Nishikawa Ryo , Narita Yoshitaka , Sumi Minako , Miyakita Yasuji , Kumabe Toshihiro , Sonoda Yukihiko , Arakawa Yoshiki , Miyamoto Susumu , Beppu Takaaki , Sugiyama Kazuhiko , Nakamura Hirohiko , Nagane Motoo , Nakasu Yoko , Hashimoto Naoya , Terasaki Mizuhiko , Matsumura Akira , Ishikawa Eiichi , Wakabayashi Toshihiko , Iwadate Yasuo , Ohue Shiro , Kobayashi Hiroyuki , Kinoshita Manabu , Asano Kenichiro , Mukasa Akitake , Tanaka Katsuyuki , Asai Akio , Nakamura Hideo , Abe Tatsuya , Muragaki Yoshihiro , Iwasaki Koichi , Aoki Tomokazu , Watanabe Takao , Sasaki Hikaru , Izumoto Shuichi , Mizoguchi Masahiro , Matsuo Takayuki , Takeshima Hideo , Hayashi Motohiro , Jokura Hidefumi , Mizowaki Takashi , Shimizu Eiji , Shirato Hiroki , Tago Masao , Katayama Hiroshi , Fukuda Haruhiko , Shibui Soichiro ,   Japan Clinical Oncology Group
Published: June 2018

Purpose

Whereas whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) has been the standard treatment of brain metastases (BMs), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is increasingly preferred to avoid cognitive dysfunction; however, it has not been clearly determined whether treatment with SRS is as effective as that with WBRT or WBRT plus SRS. We thus assessed the noninferiority of salvage SRS to WBRT in patients with BMs.

Patients and Methods

Patients age 20 to 79 years old with performance status scores of 0 to 2—and 3 if caused only by neurologic deficits—and with four or fewer surgically resected BMs with only one lesion > 3 cm in diameter were eligible. Patients were randomly assigned to WBRT or salvage SRS arms within 21 days of surgery. The primary end point was overall survival. A one-sided α of .05 was used.

Results

Between January 2006 and May 2014, 137 and 134 patients were enrolled in the WBRT and salvage SRS arms, respectively. Median overall survival was 15.6 months in both arms (hazard ratio, 1.05; 90% CI, 0.83 to 1.33; one-sided P for noninferiority = .027). Median intracranial progression-free survival of patients in the WBRT arm (10.4 months) was longer than that of patients in the salvage SRS arm (4.0 months). The proportions of patients whose Mini-Mental Status Examination and performance status scores that did not worsen at 12 months were similar in both arms; however, 16.4% of patients in the WBRT arm experienced grade 2 to 4 cognitive dysfunction after 91 days postenrollment, whereas only 7.7% of those in the SRS arm did ( P = .048).

Conclusion

Salvage SRS is noninferior to WBRT and can be established as a standard therapy for patients with four or fewer BMs.
The Ontology of Motion
Authors: Nail Thomas
Published: June 2018

We live in an age of movement. More than at any other time in history, people and things move longer distances, more frequently, and faster than ever before. If being is increasingly defined by the historical primacy of motion today yet existing ontologies are not, then we need a new historical ontology of our mobile present. This essay offers what is perhaps the first introduction, definition, and history of “the ontology of motion,” as well as the first steps toward a new historical ontology of motion for our time. In particular, the crux of this intervention is twofold: first, to provide a historical definition of the ontology of motion, its precursors, and their difference from process ontologies of becoming; second, to provide a list of limitations for both these traditions and lay out a few criteria for the creation of a new ontology of motion today.
Notes on Atmosphere
Authors: Zhang Dora
Published: June 2018

This essay argues that we do not yet fully recognize and attend to the importance of atmospheres as social and political phenomena of everyday life, and draws on a range of approaches to examine these ordinary and ubiquitous sites of affective charge. First charting how creating and manipulating atmospheres in retail and commercial settings has become a feature of contemporary capitalism, the essay discusses the political potential of “organizing a climate” via the case of the recent indignados movement in Spain. The essay suggests that atmospheres can play an important role in opening up political horizons.
Wi-Fi Defiance
Authors: Kafer Gary
Published: June 2018

As programs of internet surveillance have increasingly pervaded our contemporary social and political lives, resistance has become necessary for those seeking to evade online data tracking. This article interrogates such resistance through an examination of Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum’s Autonomy Cube (2014)—an installation that initiates a public Wi-Fi hotspot using the open-source anonymizing Tor network. Allowing connected viewers to retain their independence from internet surveillance, this work is often discussed as offering a model of resistance in terms of self-determined autonomy. In its reading of the interactive installation through the lens of systems theory, however, this article qualifies autonomy as at once distributed and communally managed yet sensitive to the ways in which infrastructures of wireless technologies are deeply imbricated in lived social realities. Ultimately, this article gestures toward a model of resistance that acknowledges the dissensual shifts between the local public Wi-Fi network and the global internet commons.
The Beaver Diaspora
Authors: Ogden Laura A.
Published: June 2018

For decades the role of invasive species has been central to discussions of anthropogenic loss and change. Conceptual debates over whether “native” and “invasive” species are useful to our understanding of dynamic processes of world making have significantly challenged traditional approaches to conservation biology and conservation practices. Yet decommissioning the “invasive species paradigm” requires us to grapple with new ethical and political frameworks for stewarding the Earth in a time of loss. In response, this essay offers a thought experiment. Instead of referring to invasive species, I reframe the migration and settlement of nonhuman beings as diasporas. Doing so illuminates the political complexities of loss and change in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, where I have been conducting fieldwork for the past five years. Integrating approaches from political ecology, multispecies ethnography, and postcolonial theory, this essay focuses on the introduction in 1947 of Canadian beavers into the Fuegian archipelago (now considered the region’s most significant environmental problem). The introduction of plant and animal life is bound up in the apparatus of settler colonialism, as what Alfred Crosby so famously called “ecological imperialism.” Yet, as I explore in this essay, ecological imperialism is not just the remaking of landscapes to look like Europe but also a process of remaking nonhuman life through the constitution of new multispecies assemblages. Finally, this reframing allows me to destabilize the species concept as a stagnant and apolitical category of difference.
Piecing Together the Extinct Great Auk
Authors: Kalshoven Petra Tjitske
Published: June 2018

Extinct as a result of overhunting and habitat loss, the great auk, or garefowl, leads a hidden taxidermied existence in museum storerooms, sheltered from potential further degradation. As an environmental icon, however, the bird inspires a lively political economy of re-creation. Engaging from an anthropological perspective with practices of collecting, representing, and re-creating the great auk, I combine testimonies from Cambridge ornithologist John Wolley’s mid-nineteenth-century Garefowl Books with contemporary ethnography among taxidermists and model makers in Britain and Belgium to argue that remnants, re-creations, and reenactments of the extinct great auk offer a material substrate from which to grasp a human drive to achieve contiguity with a lost species. Re-creation as a form of attentive reanimation by dedicated experts takes shape both discursively and plastically, predicated on assumptions about natural appearance and behavior that may not reflect evidence from historical records. Animated by what I call techniques of contiguity, reconstructions play a persuasive role in expressing and shaping human perceptions and imaginings of past environmental disaster and future environmental opportunity. Contiguity is achieved, on one hand, through performances of bodily kinship between human practitioners and dead or extinct animals and, on the other, through plays on resonance with specific organic materials, including garefowl remnants in Victorian taxidermied auks and plumage from related seabirds used in contemporary auk reconstructions. The reanimated great auk lives to tell stories of ethographic entanglement and continues, through its presence in museum spaces, to provoke both thought and action in a time of unprecedented numbers of species extinctions.
Inorganic Becomings
Authors: Tironi Manuel , Hird Myra J. , Simonetti Cristián , Forman Peter , Freiburger Nathaniel
Published: June 2018

In this choral essay we, an assorted group of academics interested in inorganic life and matter, explore a mode of thinking and feeling with our objects of inquiry—chemicals, waste, cement, gas, and the “project” as a particular form of circulation and enactment of materials and things. To experiment with alternative modes of knowing, we went to Puchuncaví, the largest, oldest, and most polluting industrial compound in Chile, to encounter the inorganic through and with its inorganicness and to attend to the situated, historicized, and political composition of both our materials and our experiences. Thinking of this as a collective provocation, we do not rehearse a conventional argument. Its parts are connected but only partially. There is no dramatic arc but rather an attempt at composing an atmosphere through which our thought and feelings are invoked. We have made visible the authorship behind each of the stories recounted here to celebrate the multivocality of our collaboration and to rehearse a nonabstracted mode of attention to Puchuncaví and the inorganic forces and entities we encountered there. We connect our irritations and speculations with the Anthropocene precisely as a way of summoning the multiple violences, many of them of planetary reach, that have to be denounced when situating our knowledge practices in Puchuncaví. Thinking about the ethico-political challenges of research in territories that have been, and are being, transformed under the weighty history of contamination and that are lived in and lived with by generations of beings (human and otherwise), we call in our concluding remarks for an enhanced pedagogy of care born of our inherited pasts and of engagement, interest, and becoming as response-ability.
Avian thermoregulation in the heat: metabolism, evaporative cooling and gular flutter in two small owls
Authors: Talbot William A. , Gerson Alexander R. , Smith Eric Krabbe , McKechnie Andrew E. , Wolf Blair O.
Published: June 2018

The thermoregulatory responses of owls to heat stress have been the subject of few studies. Although nocturnality buffers desert-dwelling owls from significant heat stress during activity, roost sites in tree and cactus cavities or in deep shade provide only limited refuge from high environmental temperatures during the day. We measured thermoregulatory responses to acute heat stress in two species of small owls, the elf owl (Micrathene whitneyi) and the western screech-owl (Megascops kennicottii), which occupy the Sonoran Desert of southwestern North America, an area of extreme heat and aridity. We exposed wild-caught birds to progressively increasing air temperatures (Ta) and measured resting metabolic rate (RMR), evaporative water loss (EWL), body temperature (Tb) and heat tolerance limits (HTL; the maximum Ta reached). Comparatively low RMR values were observed in both species, Tb approximated Ta at 40°C and mild hyperthermia occurred as Ta was increased toward the HTL. Elf owls and screech-owls reached HTLs of 48 and 52°C, respectively, and RMR increased to 1.5 and 1.9 times thermoneutral values. Rates of EWL at the HTL allowed for the dissipation of 167–198% of metabolic heat production (MHP). Gular flutter was used as the primary means of evaporative heat dissipation and produced large increases in evaporative heat loss (44–100%), accompanied by only small increases (<5%) in RMR. These small, cavity-nesting owls have thermoregulatory capacities that are intermediate between those of the open-ground nesting nightjars and the passerines that occupy the same ecosystem.
Thigh and Psoas Major Muscularity and Its Relation to Running Mechanics in Sprinters
Authors: EMA RYOICHI , SAKAGUCHI MASANORI , KAWAKAMI YASUO
Published: June 2018

Purpose

We aimed to examine the morphological characteristics of the thigh and psoas major muscles in sprinters as well as interrelations among their muscularity, hip joint mechanics, and running speed during maximal running.

Methods

T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of the thigh and trunk were obtained from 15 male sprinters (best 100-m sprint times, 10.63–11.57 s) and 12 untrained men. From the magnetic resonance images, the volumes of each of the quadriceps femoris and hamstrings, total adductors, sartorius, tensor fasciae latae, gracilis, and psoas major were determined. For sprinters, the kinetic and kinematic data were measured using a three-dimensional motion capture system and force plates during maximal running. The data for one step from the foot strike of the stance leg to that of the swing leg were analyzed. The center of gravity (CG) velocity and hip joint kinetics were quantified.

Results

Compared with untrained men, sprinters had significantly greater thigh muscle volumes of the hip flexors and extensors, total adductors, gracilis, and psoas major, whereas the monoarticular knee extensor and flexor thigh muscle volumes were similar between the two groups. The CG velocity was positively correlated with the hip flexion angular impulse. Only the rectus femoris volume was significantly correlated with the CG velocity and peak hip flexion moment for the swing leg (r = 0.66–0.69).

Conclusions

The sprinters in this study presented greater muscularity of the thigh and psoas major but not the monoarticular knee extensor or flexor muscles. The rectus femoris, in particular, may play an important role during the swing phase of sprinting.