bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Did paying drugs misuse treatment providers for outcomes lead to unintended consequences for hospital admissions? Difference‐in‐differences analysis of a pay‐for‐performance scheme in England
Authors: Mason Thomas , Whittaker William , Jones Andrew , Sutton Matt 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimsTo estimate how a scheme to pay substance misuse treatment service providers according to treatment outcomes affected hospital admissions.DesignA controlled, quasi‐experimental (difference‐in‐differences) observational study using negative binomial regression.SettingHospitals in all 149 organisational areas in England for the period 2009–2010 to 2015–2016.Participants572 545 patients admitted to hospital with a diagnosis indicating drug misuse, defined based on International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD‐10) diagnosis codes (37 964 patients in 8 intervention areas and 534 581 in 141 comparison areas).Intervention and comparatorsLinkage of provider payments to recovery outcome indicators in 8 intervention organisational areas compared with all 141 comparison organisational areas in England. Outcome indicators included: abstinence from presenting substance, abstinent completion of treatment and non‐re‐presentation to treatment in the 12 months following completion.MeasurementsAnnual counts of hospital admissions, emergency admissions and admissions including a diagnosis indicating drugs misuse. Covariates included age, sex, ethnic origin and deprivation.FindingsFor 37 245 patients in the intervention areas, annual emergency admissions were 1.073 times higher during the operation of the scheme compared with non‐intervention areas (95% CI = 1.049; 1.097). There were an estimated additional 3 352 emergency admissions in intervention areas during the scheme. These findings were robust to a range of secondary analyses.ConclusionA programme in England from 2012 to 2014 to pay substance misuse treatment service providers according to treatment outcomes appeared to increase emergency hospital admissions.
Chronic Pain Among Patients With an Opioid Use Disorder
Authors: Latif Zill‐E Huma , Skjærvø Ingeborg , Solli Kristin K. , Tanum Lars 
Published: March 2021

Background and ObjectivesChronic pain is not well understood in opioid‐dependent populations. We report the prevalence of chronic pain and pain characteristics in an opioid‐dependent population by treatment type and gender.MethodsThis cross‐sectional study opportunistically recruited 569 patients (32% women) receiving treatment for opioid use disorder (DSM‐5) in Norway during 2016‐2018 (83% received opioid maintenance treatment, 17% received treatment without medication). We asked about chronic pain (≥3 months; ICD‐11), pain severity (NRS‐11), and other pain characteristics.ResultsOverall, 55% reported chronic pain (≥3 months), with a higher prevalence among women (61% vs 52%, P = .041) and patients receiving methadone (66%) compared with buprenorphine or no medication (46% and 45%, P < .001). Chronic pain was associated with higher age (P < .001) and higher doses of methadone (P = .048). The average duration of pain was 11 years. The most frequently reported pain locations were the lower extremities (59%) and the back (54%), and 69% reported more than one pain location. Constant pain and migrating pain were significantly associated with both moderate (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 2.04, confidence interval [CI]: 1.12‐3.74 and aOR: 2.44, CI: 1.09‐5.43) and severe pain intensity (aOR: 2.08, CI: 1.14‐3.80 and aOR: 2.46, CI: 1.10‐5.47). Reporting no effect of analgesics was associated with severe pain intensity (aOR: 0.54, CI: 0.29‐0.99).Conclusions and Scientific SignificanceOver half reported chronic pain, and rates were highest among women and patients receiving methadone. New contributions to the field are descriptions of pain characteristics by gender and pain severity, and interactions between medication type and age. (© 2021 The Authors. The American Journal on Addictions published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry). (Am J Addict 2021;00:00–00)
Hoxa11 and Hoxa13 facilitate slow‐twitch muscle formation in C2C12 cells and indirectly affect the lipid deposition of 3T3‐L1 cells
Authors: Lin Xiangsheng , Yan Mengting , Yu Wensai , Ma Yuchen , Zhang Lifan , Wei Wei , Chen Jie 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMuscle‐fiber type in livestock skeletal muscles influences meat quality, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We previously showed that Homeobox A11 (Hoxa11) and Homeobox A13 (Hoxa13) are differentially expressed in fast‐ and slow‐twitch muscles, but their effects on the formation of muscle‐fiber types and intramuscular fat deposition have not been investigated. Here, our results revealed that overexpression of Hoxa11 and Hoxa13 delayed cell‐cycle progression in C2C12 myoblasts, reduced their proliferation, and promoted their differentiation into slow‐twitch muscle fibers. Knockdown experiments produced the opposite results. The conditioned media of differentiated C2C12 cells with Hoxa11/Hoxa13 overexpression or knockdown were harvested. Staining results showed that adipogenesis of preadipocytes was significantly promoted by Hoxa13 knockdown C2C12 cell culture medium. Changes in lipid accumulation were due to a reduction in lipid decomposition and an increase in triglyceride synthesis; genes related to fatty‐acid synthesis were decreased. In conclusion, our study showed that Hoxa11 and Hoxa13 promote slow‐twitch muscle formation and indirectly regulate preadipocyte adipogenesis, which may facilitate meat‐quality improvement in the future.
Bridging research and practice in conservation
Authors: Kadykalo Andrew N. , Buxton Rachel T. , Morrison Peter , Anderson Christine M. , Bickerton Holly , Francis Charles M. , Smith Adam C. , Fahrig Lenore 
Published: March 2021

AbstractCalls for biodiversity conservation practice to be more evidence based are growing, and we agree evidence use in conservation practice needs improvement. However, evidence‐based conservation will not be realized without improved access to evidence. In medicine, unlike in conservation, a well‐established and well‐funded layer of intermediary individuals and organizations engage with medical practitioners, synthesize primary research relevant to decision making, and make evidence easily accessible. These intermediaries prepare targeted evidence summaries and distribute them to practitioners faced with time‐sensitive and value‐laden decisions. To be effective, these intermediaries, who we refer to as evidence bridges, should identify research topics based on the priorities of practitioners; synthesize evidence; prepare and distribute easy‐to‐find and easy‐to‐use evidence summaries; and develop and maintain networks of connections with researchers and practitioners. Based on a review of the literature regarding evidence intermediaries in conservation and environmental management, as well as an anonymous questionnaire searching for such organizations, we found few intermediaries that met all these criteria. Few evidence bridges that do exist are unable to reach most conservation practitioners, which include resource managers in government and industry, conservation organizations, and farmers and other private landowners. We argue that the lack of evidence bridges from research to practitioners contributes to evidence complacency and limits the use of evidence in conservation action. Nevertheless, several existing organizations help reduce the gap between evidence and practice and could serve as a foundation for building additional components of evidence bridges in conservation. Although evidence bridges need expertise in research and evidence synthesis, they also require expertise in identifying and communicating with the community of practitioners most in need of clear and concise syntheses of evidence.Article Impact Statement: Evidence‐based conservation will not be realized without improved access to evidence. We call for intermediary evidence bridges.
Systolic longitudinal global and segmental myocardial mechanics in symptomatic isolated left ventricular non‐compaction cardiomyopathy
Authors: Bogunovic Nikola , Farr Martin , Pirl Lukas , Faber Lothar , van Buuren Frank , Rudolph Volker , Roder Fabian 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundLeft ventricular (LV) non‐compaction cardiomyopathy (LV‐NC) is rare, and data of segmental myocardial mechanics are largely lacking. We investigated myocardial longitudinal mechanics in adults with symptomatic LV‐NC (n = 30) versus individuals with healthy hearts (n = 150). The contribution of compacted and non‐compacted myocardial layer to systolic LV function has to be determined.MethodsSeven parameters derived from speckle tracking echocardiography were evaluated and documented utilizing polar‐diagrams to obtain overviews of myocardial mechanics of the entire LV.ResultsAccording to embryonal myocardial development, non‐compacted myocardium was mostly located in mid‐ventricular and apical segments of the free LV wall. LV ejection fraction was reduced in LV‐NC (34 ± 15%, healthy 63 ± 5%, P < .0001). The compact wall layer in LV‐NC demonstrated increasing systolic radial thickness (diastolic 5.6 ± 1.4, systolic 6.5 ± 1.4mm, P = .016), whereas the non‐compacted layer remained unchanged or tended to decrease in thickness (diastolic 17.6 ± 5.3, systolic 16.0 ± 4.6mm, P = .22).Compared with heart‐healthy individuals in LV‐NC peak systolic longitudinal strain (healthy ‐21.1% vs. LV‐NC ‐8.8, P < .0001), peak systolic longitudinal strain‐rate (–1.23%/s vs. –0.64, P < .0001), and peak longitudinal displacement (12.1 vs. 5.6 mm, P < .0001) were reduced, while pre‐systolic stretch index (1.31% vs. 3.2%, P < .0001) and post‐systolic index (2.5% vs. 15.9%, P < .0001) increased. Time‐to‐peak longitudinal strain (371 vs. 389 ms, P = .065) and time‐to‐peak longitudinal strain rate (181 vs. 200 ms, P = .0677) did not differ significantly. In LV‐NC, there were no significant differences between analyses using an interpolated endocardial border along the edges of the recesses and the endocardial edge of the compact wall layer. Hence, LV function appeared to depend only on the thin compact wall layer.ConclusionIn LV‐NC, myocardial efficiency is severely diminished compared with healthy controls and LV function seemed to depend mainly on the compact myocardial wall layer.
Contrasting plant ecological benefits endowed by naturally occurring EPSPS resistance mutations under glyphosate selection
Authors: Vila‐Aiub Martin M. , Han Heping , Yu Qin , García Federico , Powles Stephen B. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractConcurrent natural evolution of glyphosate resistance single‐ and double‐point EPSPS mutations in weed species provides an opportunity for the estimation of resistance fitness benefits and prediction of equilibrium resistance frequencies in environments under glyphosate selection. Assessment of glyphosate resistance benefit was conducted for the most commonly identified single Pro‐106‐Ser and less‐frequent double TIPS mutations in the EPSPS gene evolved in the global damaging weed Eleusine indica. Under glyphosate selection at the field dose, plants with the single Pro‐106‐Ser mutation at homozygous state (P106S‐rr) showed reduced survival and compromised vegetative growth and fecundity compared with TIPS plants. Whereas both homozygous (TIPS‐RR) and compound heterozygous (TIPS‐Rr) plants with the double TIPS resistance mutation displayed similar survival rates when exposed to glyphosate, a significantly higher fecundity in the currency of seed number was observed in TIPS‐Rr than TIPS‐RR plants. The highest plant fitness benefit was associated with the heterozygous TIPS‐Rr mutation, whereas plants with the homozygous Pro‐106‐Ser and TIPS mutations exhibited, respectively, 31% and 39% of the fitness benefit revealed by the TIPS‐Rr plants. Populations are predicted to reach stable allelic and genotypic frequencies after 20 years of glyphosate selection at which the WT allele is lost and the stable genotypic polymorphism is comprised by 2% of heterozygous TIPS‐Rr, 52% of homozygous TIPS‐RR and 46% of homozygous P106S‐rr. The high inbreeding nature of E. indica is responsible for the expected frequency decrease in the fittest TIPS‐Rr in favour of the homozygous TIPS‐RR and P106S‐rr. Mutated alleles associated with the glyphosate resistance EPSPS single EPSPS Pro‐106‐Ser and double TIPS mutations confer contrasting fitness benefits to E. indica under glyphosate treatment and therefore are expected to exhibit contrasting evolution rates in cropping systems under recurrent glyphosate selection.
The utility of climatic water balance for ecological inference depends on vegetation physiology assumptions
Authors: Young Derek J. N. , Jeronimo Sean M. A. , Churchill Derek J. , Kane Van R. , Latimer Andrew M. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundIn explaining and predicting spatial vegetation patterns, ecologists have increasingly favoured the use of climatic water balance variables, including actual evapotranspiration (AET) and climatic water deficit (CWD), for representing the hydrologic and energetic environment experienced by plants. Much of the interest in these variables lies in their hypothesized potential to characterize biologically relevant environmental variation more directly than simple climate variables, such as precipitation and temperature. Practically, obtaining AET and CWD values across space requires hydrologic process models that involve assumptions, including assumptions about vegetation transpiration rates. However, transpiration parameter values are rarely known with precision and can vary several‐fold within and among vegetation types.ApproachWe evaluate the extent to which assumptions about vegetation physiology in water balance models affect (a) relative spatial variation in modelled water balance values and (b) ecological inferences that are derived from analyses using water balance variables. We demonstrate an approach for identifying inferences that are robust to these assumptions.ResultsAssumptions about vegetation physiology can substantially affect relative spatial variation in modelled water balance values. More importantly, such assumptions can also substantially affect the inferences (e.g., expected vegetation distributions) drawn from ecological analyses that use water balance variables as predictors. Water balance variables are less sensitive to assumptions in environmental settings with abundant water supply, where AET variation is driven primarily by available energy (e.g., temperature and insolation), but they can be highly sensitive to assumptions in drier environments.ConclusionBecause of their sensitivity to assumptions, water balance variables are not unambiguously superior to simpler climatic and topographic variables, such as precipitation and temperature. However, they retain some advantages, primarily related to their mechanistic incorporation of interactions between water and energy, which may support their use in applications where sensitivity to hydrologic modelling assumptions is low or of minor concern.
“We were released into the so‐called Western world we knew absolutely nothing about”: Professional experiences of female employees in the Lithuanian Film Industry from the postcolonial point of view
Authors: Kaminskaitė‐Jančorienė Lina , Šalaj Jelena 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the professional experiences of female employees. Furthering ourselves from the textual film analysis prevalent in the Baltic film studies, we turn toward experiences of female film workers by using intermethodological approach, combining feminist film studies and psychology. We are focusing on the 30‐year period of the existence of independent Lithuania, which we understand as a post‐Soviet period, a time after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a postcolonial condition in which the values of the old system meet the new ones influenced by the processes of globalization. Using the method of thematic analysis, we analyze the interviews of 22 women of various age groups working in various positions in the film industry.
Management of skin thinning and aging: review of therapies for neocollagenesis; hormones and energy devices
Authors: Majidian Mandy , Kolli Hiren , Moy Ronald L. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundHormone replacement therapy and various devices exist to treat signs of aging, such as skin thinning, yet there are no reviews summarizing or evaluating their role in neocollagenesis and the associated increase in skin thickness.ObjectiveTo review the literature regarding stimulation and generation of new collagen in the dermis in two parts. Part 2 reviews oral and topical hormone replacement therapy as well as energy‐based devices.MethodsThe PubMed database was searched for related literature. Studies involving the use of hormone supplements and energy devices with a resultant change in collagen production or skin thickness were obtained and reviewed for evidence.ResultsHormones, including estrogen, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone, and human growth hormone have been reported with substantiating evidence for neocollagenesis and dermal thickening. Energy devices, including radiofrequency, ultrasound, and laser therapy, have also been reported to stimulate neocollagenesis.LimitationsThe results presented in certain literature are not based on randomized controlled trials.ConclusionHormone deficient individuals can regain skin thickness with hormone replacement therapy. Dermal heating can provide a substantial amount of neocollagenesis; however, laser technology, specifically CO2, appears to be the most effective at increasing skin collagen and tightening.
Mental health illness in chronic respiratory disease is associated with worse respiratory health and low engagement with non‐pharmacological psychological interventions
Authors: Hunter Roseanna , Barson Elizabeth , Willis Karen , Smallwood Natasha 
Published: March 2021

AbstractPatients with chronic respiratory disease commonly experience comorbid mental illness. This study aimed to explore associations between mental illness and respiratory health, as well as determine access to and uptake of mental health treatment. Mental health conditions were highly prevalent, long‐standing and associated with worse respiratory outcomes. Active treatment with psychotropic drugs was common; however, acceptance of non‐pharmacological interventions was poor. Further research is required to understand co‐existing mental illness management in chronic respiratory disease.
Vapor‐mediated melt infiltration for synthesizing SiC composite matrices
Authors: Silverstein Ravit , Zok Frank W. , Levi Carlos G. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractA two‐step synthesis of SiC involving initial exposure of carbon surfaces to Si vapor, followed by Si melt infiltration, is investigated in this article with emphases on the mechanisms, kinetics, and microstructure evolution. Interrupted differential thermal analysis of amorphous C and Si powder mixtures and microstructure characterization are used to generate insight into the stages of the reaction. Exposure to Si vapor yields a SiC layer with nano‐scale porosity driven by the volume change associated with the reaction. This forms a continuous pore network that promotes subsequent melt access to the reaction front with the C. While the pores remain open, the vapor phase reaction proceeds at a nearly constant rate and exhibits a strong temperature sensitivity, the latter due in part to the temperature sensitivity of the Si vapor pressure. The implications for enhancing the reactive melt infiltration process and fabrication of SiC matrices for ceramic composites are discussed.
Mapping stages, barriers and facilitators to the implementation of HEARTS in the Americas initiative in 12 countries: A qualitative study
Authors: Giraldo Gloria P. , Joseph Kristy T. , Angell Sonia Y. , Campbell Norm R. C. , Connell Kenneth , DiPette Donald J. , Escobar Maria C. , Valdés‐Gonzalez Yamile , Jaffe Marc G. , Malcolm Taraleen , Maldonado Javier , Lopez‐Jaramillo Patricio , Olsen Michaels Hecht , Ordunez Pedro 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe World Health Organization (WHO) Global Hearts Initiative offers technical packages to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases through population‐wide and targeted health services interventions. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has led implementation of the HEARTS in the Americas Initiative since 2016. The authors mapped the developmental stages, barriers, and facilitators to implementation among the 371 primary health care centers in the participating 12 countries. The authors used the qualitative method of document review to examine cumulative country reports, technical meeting notes, and reports to regional stakeholders. Common implementation barriers include segmentation of health systems, overcoming health care professionals' scope of practice legal restrictions, and lack of health information systems limiting operational evaluation and quality improvement mechanisms. Main implementation facilitators include political support from ministries of health and leading scientific societies, PAHO's role as a regional catalyst to implementation, stakeholder endorsement demonstrated by incorporating HEARTS into official documents, and having a health system oriented to primary health care. Key lessons include the need for political commitment and cultivating on‐the‐ground leadership to initiate a shift in hypertension care delivery, accompanied by specific progress in the development of standardized treatment protocols and a set of high‐quality medicines. By systematizing an implementation strategy to ease integration of interventions into delivery processes, the program strengthened technical leadership and ensured sustainability. These study findings will aid the regional approach by providing a staged planning model that incorporates lessons learned. A systematic approach to implementation will enhance equity, efficiency, scale‐up, and sustainability, and ultimately improve population hypertension control.