bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modulation of long-term potentiation-like cortical plasticity in the healthy brain with low frequency-pulsed electromagnetic fields
Authors: Premi Enrico , Benussi Alberto , La Gatta Antonio , Visconti Stefano , Costa Angelo , Gilberti Nicola , Cantoni Valentina , Padovani Alessandro , Borroni Barbara , Magoni Mauro 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Background
Non-depolarizing magnetic fields, like low frequency-pulsed electromagnetic fields (LF-PEMFs) have shown the ability to modulate living structures, principally by influencing synaptic activity and ion channels on cellular membranes. Recently, the CTU Mega 20 device was presented as a molecular accelerator, using energy up to 200 J and providing high-power (2 Tesla) pulsating fields with a water-repulsive (diamagnetic) action and tissue biostimulation. We tested the hypothesis that LF-PEMFs could modulate long-term corticospinal excitability in healthy brains by applying CTU Mega 20®. Ten healthy subjects without known neurological and/or psychiatric diseases entered the study. A randomized double-blind sham-controlled crossover design was employed, recording TMS parameters (amplitude variation of the motor evoked potential as index of cortical excitability perturbations of the motor system) before (pre) and after (post + 0, + 15, + 30 min) a single CTU Mega 20 session on the corresponding primary right-hand motor area, using a real (magnetic field = 2 Tesla; intensity = 90 J; impulse frequency = 7 Hz; duration = 15 min) or sham device. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA with TIME (pre, post + 0, + 15, + 30 min) and TREATMENT (real vs. sham stimulation) as within-subjects factor was applied.

Results
A significant TIME × TREATMENT interaction was found (p < 0.001). Post hoc comparisons showed a significant effect of TIME, with significant differences at + 0, + 15 and + 30 min compared to baseline after real stimulation (all p < 0.05) but not after sham stimulation (all p < 0.05) and significant effects of TREATMENT, with significant differences at + 0, + 15 and + 30 min for real stimulation compared to sham stimulation (all p < 0.005). No significant depolarizing effects were detected throughout the (real) stimulation.

Conclusions
Our proof-of-concept study in healthy subjects supports the idea that non-ionizing LF-PEMFs induced by the CTU Mega 20 diamagnetic acceleration system could represent a new approach for brain neuromodulation. Further studies to optimize protocol parameters for different neurological and psychiatric conditions are warranted.
Trial Registration The present work has been retrospectively registered as clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03537469 and publicly released on May 24, 2018
Comparing appropriateness of antibiotics for nursing home residents by setting of prescription initiation: a cross-sectional analysis
Authors: Pulia Michael , Kern Michael , Schwei Rebecca J. , Shah Manish N. , Sampene Emmanuel , Crnich Christopher J. 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Background
The pervasive, often inappropriate, use of antibiotics in healthcare settings has been identified as a major public health threat due to the resultant widespread emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In nursing homes (NH), as many as two-thirds of residents receive antibiotics each year and up to 75% of these are estimated to be inappropriate. The objective of this study was to characterize antibiotic therapy for NH residents and compare appropriateness based on setting of prescription initiation.

Methods
This was a retrospective, cross-sectional multi-center study that occurred in five NHs in southern Wisconsin between January 2013 and September 2014. All NH residents with an antibiotic prescribing events for suspected lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), and urinary tract infections (UTI), initiated in-facility, from an emergency department (ED), or an outpatient clinic were included in this sample. We assessed appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing using the Loeb criteria based on documentation available in the NH medical record or transfer documents. We compared appropriateness by setting and infection type using the Chi-square test and estimated associations of demographic and clinical variables with inappropriate antibiotic prescribing using logistic regression.

Results
Among 735 antibiotic starts, 640 (87.1%) were initiated in the NH as opposed to 61 (8.3%) in the outpatient clinic and 34 (4.6%) in the ED. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for urinary tract infections differed significantly by setting: NHs (55.9%), ED (73.3%), and outpatient clinic (80.8%), P = .023. Regardless of infection type, patients who had an antibiotic initiated in an outpatient clinic had 2.98 (95% CI: 1.64–5.44, P < .001) times increased odds of inappropriate use.

Conclusions
Antibiotics initiated out-of-facility for NH residents constitute a small but not trivial percent of all prescriptions and inappropriate use was high in these settings. Further research is needed to characterize antibiotic prescribing patterns for patients managed in these settings as this likely represents an important, yet under recognized, area of consideration in attempts to improve antibiotic stewardship in NHs.
The prevalence, antibiotic resistance and mecA characterization of coagulase negative staphylococci recovered from non-healthcare settings in London, UK
Authors: Xu Zhen , Shah Haroun N. , Misra Raju , Chen Jiazhen , Zhang Wenhong , Liu Yuting , Cutler Ronald R. , Mkrtchyan Hermine V. 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Background
Coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) are important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes and associated mobile genetic elements and are believed to contribute to the emergence of successful methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clones. Although, these bacteria have been linked to various ecological niches, little is known about the dissemination and genetic diversity of antibiotic resistant CoNS in general public settings.

Methods
Four hundred seventy-nine samples were collected from different non-healthcare/general public settings in various locations (n = 355) and from the hands of volunteers (n = 124) in London UK between April 2013 and Nov 2014.

Results
Six hundred forty-three staphylococcal isolates belonging to 19 staphylococcal species were identified. Five hundred seventy-two (94%) isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic, and only 34 isolates were fully susceptible. Sixty-eight (11%) mecA positive staphylococcal isolates were determined in this study. SCCmec types were fully determined for forty-six isolates. Thirteen staphylococci (19%) carried SCCmec V, followed by 8 isolates carrying SCCmec type I (2%), 5 SCCmec type IV (7%), 4 SCCmec type II (6%), 1 SCCmec type III (2%), 1 SCCmec type VI (2%), and 1 SCCmec type VIII (2%). In addition, three isolates harboured a new SCCmec type 1A, which carried combination of class A mec complex and ccr type 1.
MLST typing revealed that all S. epidermidis strains possess new MLST types and were assigned the following new sequence types: ST599, ST600, ST600, ST600, ST601, ST602, ST602, ST603, ST604, ST605, ST606, ST607 and ST608.

Conclusions
The prevalence of antibiotic resistant staphylococci in general public settings demonstrates that antibiotics in the natural environments contribute to the selection of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. The finding of various SCCmec types in non-healthcare associated environments indicates the complexity of SCCmec. We also report on new MLST types that were assigned for all S. epidermidis isolates, which demonstrates the genetic variability of these isolates.
Targeting the Incretin/Glucagon System With Triagonists to Treat Diabetes
Authors: Capozzi Megan E , DiMarchi Richard D , Tschöp Matthias H , Finan Brian , Campbell Jonathan E 
Published: June 2018

AbstractGlucagonlike peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists have been efficacious for the treatment of type 2 diabetes due to their ability to reduce weight and attenuate hyperglycemia. However, the activity of glucagonlike peptide 1 receptor–directed strategies is submaximal, and the only potent, sustainable treatment of metabolic dysfunction is bariatric surgery, necessitating the development of unique therapeutics. GLP-1 is structurally related to glucagon and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), allowing for the development of intermixed, unimolecular peptides with activity at each of their respective receptors. In this review, we discuss the range of tissue targets and added benefits afforded by the inclusion of each of GIP and glucagon. We discuss considerations for the development of sequence-intermixed dual agonists and triagonists, highlighting the importance of evaluating balanced signaling at the targeted receptors. Several multireceptor agonist peptides have been developed and evaluated, and the key preclinical and clinical findings are reviewed in detail. The biological activity of these multireceptor agonists are founded in the success of GLP-1-directed strategies; by including GIP and glucagon components, these multireceptor agonists are thought to enhance GLP-1’s activities by broadening the tissue targets and synergizing at tissues that express multiple receptors, such at the brain and pancreatic isletβ cells. The development and utility of balanced, unimolecular multireceptor agonists provide both a useful tool for querying the actions of incretins and glucagon during metabolic disease and a unique drug class to treat type 2 diabetes with unprecedented efficacy.
Impaired β-cell glucokinase as an underlying mechanism in diet-induced diabetes
Authors: Lu Brian , Kurmi Kiran , Munoz-Gomez Miguel , Jacobus Ambuludi Egon J. , Tonne Jason M. , Rakshit Kuntol , Hitosugi Taro , Kudva Yogish C. , Matveyenko Aleksey V. , Ikeda Yasuhiro 
Published: June 2018

ABSTRACT
High-fat diet (HFD)-fed mouse models have been widely used to study early type 2 diabetes. Decreased β-cell glucokinase (GCK) expression has been observed in HFD-induced diabetes. However, owing to its crucial roles in glucose metabolism in the liver and in islet β-cells, the contribution of decreased GCK expression to the development of HFD-induced diabetes is unclear. Here, we employed a β-cell-targeted gene transfer vector and determined the impact of β-cell-specific increase in GCK expression on β-cell function and glucose handling in vitro and in vivo. Overexpression of GCK enhanced glycolytic flux, ATP-sensitive potassium channel activation and membrane depolarization, and increased proliferation in Min6 cells. β-cell-targeted GCK transduction did not change glucose handling in chow-fed C57BL/6 mice. Although adult mice fed a HFD showed reduced islet GCK expression, impaired glucose tolerance and decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), β-cell-targeted GCK transduction improved glucose tolerance and restored GSIS. Islet perifusion experiments verified restored GSIS in isolated HFD islets by GCK transduction. Thus, our data identify impaired β-cell GCK expression as an underlying mechanism for dysregulated β-cell function and glycemic control in HFD-induced diabetes. Our data also imply an etiological role of GCK in diet-induced diabetes.
This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Survey to describe variability in early onset scoliosis cast practices
Authors: Grzywna A. , McClung A. , Sanders J. , Sturm P. , Karlin L. , Glotzbecker M. , Children's Spine Study Group  , Growing Spine Study Group  
Published: June 2018

Purpose To investigate paediatric orthopaedists’ cast practices for early onset scoliosis regarding patient selection, cast application, radiographic evaluation, treatment cessation and adjunctive bracing. Methods A casting survey was distributed to all paediatric orthopaedists in Children's Spine and Growing Spine Study Groups (n = 92). Questions included physician and patient characteristics, technique, treatment, outcomes, radiographic measurements and comparison to other treatments. A total of 55 orthopaedists (60%) responded, and descriptive statistics were calculated on the subset who cast (n = 45). Results A majority of respondents use cast treatment for idiopathic and syndromic scoliosis patients, but not for neuromuscular or congenital scoliosis patients. Major curve angle ranked most important in orthopaedists’ decision to commence cast treatment, in comparison with rib-vertebra angle difference or clinical observations. The major curve angle threshold to initiate casting was a median of 30° (20° to 70°), and the minimum patient age was median ten months (3 to 24). First in-cast and out-of-cast radiographs are taken standing, supine, awake, under anesthesia and/or in traction. In all, 58% consistently cast over or under the arm, while 44% vary position by patient. Respondents were divided about the use of a brace after cast treatment: 22% do not prescribe a brace, 31% always do and 36% do in some patients. Conclusions Future multicentre research studies must standardize radiographic practices and consider age and major curve angle at cast initiation and termination, scoliosis aetiology, shoulder position and treatment duration. Practices need to be aligned or compared in these areas in order to distinguish what makes for the best cast treatment possible. Level of Evidence V, Expert opinion
Habilitacje w Polsce Ludowej. Część 2. Warunki i przebieg habilitacji w prawie o stopniach i tytułach naukowych
Authors: Wojtczak Krystyna 
Published: June 2018

Habilitation proceedings ending with a conferral of an academic degree were first introduced in the Polish People’s Republic by virtue of the Act on higher education of 1958. The academic title of docent, which the Act also provided for, was later endorsed by the Act of 1965 on academic titles and academic degrees. Another academic degree of ‘habilitated doctor’ (doktor habilitowany) functioned from 1968 and continued through subsequent legislative acts in force until 1990 as well as through the years after later reforms. The changes in higher education implemented in 1965–1990 were not fi nal and continued to be modifi ed in the following areas: (1) the branches and science and disciplines in which the academic degrees of docent or doktor habilitowany could be conferred; (2) the requirements which institutions (establishments of higher education, research units of the Polish Academy of Sciences and other research entities) had to fulfi l before earning the rights to confer the academic degrees referred to above; (3) establishment of the lists of institutions entitled to confer these academic degrees. The solutions then adopted were by no means triggered by the intention to replace the academic degree of docent with a degree of doktor habilitowany. On the contrary, the majority of changes, of which those happening after 1985 were even more politically biased, did not refl ect any legal need but aimed at restricting the autonomy of schools of higher education in the scope of conferring academic degrees. This tendency extended to the conditions of commencing habilitation proceedings and the very course of the proceedings. As of 1985 one of the requirements of the key factors qualifying successful candidates was an ‘impeccable civic attitude.’ After 1985, most of the activities which had been till then conducted by committees appointed Faculty councils, were to be taken up by the relevant councils, although the latter were allowed to appoint from time to time committees to perform some of the activities related to habilitation proceedings. The Act of 1965 abandoned the requirement of the candidate’s habilitation lecture, re-established in 1985.
Mining the Web for New Words: Semi-Automatic Neologism Identification with the NeoCrawler
Authors: Kerremans Daphné , Prokić Jelena 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
Lexical innovation is omnipresent and constantly at work. Studies aiming to understand the process of lexical innovation and the subsequent diffusion of neologisms therefore benefit from systematic methods of neologism identification. Retrieval procedures in the past have largely consisted of manual activities of participant observations and close reading. Recently, attempts have been made at designing automatized identification procedures, assisted by state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques and tools. Beginning with a discussion of the most commonly used neologism detection methods and applications in linguistics, the present paper will describe a semi-automatic approach to identifying new words on the web, the NeoCrawler’s Discoverer, which has been developed as part of a project on the incipient diffusion of lexical innovations. The Discoverer daily processes large batches of online text in English and automatically identifies unknown grapheme sequences as potential neologism candidates by means of a dictionary matching procedure, in which the individual tokens are matched against a very large dictionary. These potential neologisms subsequently are presented to the user for manual evaluation of their neologism status. Finally, candidates are added to the NeoCrawler’s database for continuous close monitoring of their development in the online speech community. We argue that the use of dictionary matching in neologism identification offers an efficient method to semi-automatically extract potential instances of lexical innovation with high precision and high recall when compared to previous approaches.
Spiritual Teachings by Catherine of Siena in BL Harley 2409: An Edition
Authors: Schultze Dirk 
Published: June 2018

AbstractLondon, British Library, MS Harley 2409, written in the first half of the fifteenth century, contains a text that has come to be referred to as “long Version C” ofThe Cleanness of Soul, and which for some time has been considered as based on Catherine of Siena’sDialogo. The latter, however, is wrong, as Jennifer N. Brown (2015) has recently shown. Part of the text is probably based on William Flete’sDocumento spirituale, and it is this part which may most correctly be referred to asCleanness of Soul. It is extant in three versions, of which Version C survives in Harley 2409 and in five other manuscripts. The version in Harley, however, contains additional material from elsewhere. I shall offer a brief discussion of the whole text, its sources and its textual affiliations as well as the first critical edition of what in this long version may more generally be called “Spiritual Teachings by Catherine of Siena”.
Clustered solutions for supercritical elliptic equations on Riemannian manifolds
Authors: Chen Wenjing 
Published: June 2018

AbstractLet{(M,g)}be a smooth compact Riemannian manifold of dimension{n\geq 5}. We are concerned with the following elliptic problem:-\Delta_{g}u+a(x)u=u^{\frac{n+2}{n-2}+\varepsilon},\quad u>0\text{ in }M,where{\Delta_{g}=\mathrm{div}_{g}(\nabla)}is the Laplace–Beltrami operator onM,{a(x)}is a{C^{2}}function onMsuch that the operator{-\Delta_{g}+a}is coercive, and{\varepsilon>0}is a small real parameter. Using the Lyapunov–Schmidt reduction procedure, we obtain that the problem under consideration has ak-peaks solution for positive integer{k\geq 2}, which blow up and concentrate at one point inM.
EU Common Values in the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: Anchor to Democracy?
Authors: Petrov Roman 
Published: June 2018

AbstractThis article analyses the Association Agreement (AA) between the EU and Ukraine. It argues that this agreement constitutes a new legal framework which has the objective to establish a unique form of political association and economic integration, characterised by three specific features: comprehensiveness, complexity and conditionality, and to promote EU values into the legal systems of Ukraine. The article studies substantive and procedural means of promotion and protection of EU values in the AA. The article scrutinises objectives, institutional framework and mechanisms of enhanced conditionality and legislative approximation in the AA. In addition, the means to protect EU values (the EU’s response to security conflicts in Ukraine) are discussed.
Bicameralism: European Tendencies and Perspectives for Ukraine
Authors: Tatsiy Vasyl , Serohina Svitlana 
Published: June 2018

AbstractThe authors of the article continue the scientific discourse on the role and significance of bicameralism for building a modern democratic legal state. The main arguments of supporters and opponents of bicameralism have been analysed, given the complicated development of Ukrainian institutional framework and discussions over the European Committee of Regions evolution. The authors of the article attempt to supplement the list of arguments that exist in modern legal literature in favor of Ukraine’s transition to bicameralism. The challenges of European integration for Ukrainian parliament as a unitary actor have been highlighted. The authors substantiate the thesis that the formation of the second (upper) chamber does not threaten the Ukrainian unitarianism, but will contribute to further diversification of state power and at the same time increase the stability of the government in terms of a consensual, pluralistic democracy and semi-presidential government.
Using Patent Development, Education Policy and Research and Development Expenditure Policy to Understand Differences between Countries: The Case of Estonia and Finland
Authors: Dutt Pawan , Ferraro Simona , Chochia Archil , Muljar Ramona 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
This article is an econometric study of patent development, education policy and research and development (R&D) expenditure policy, the aim of which is to investigate the key similarities and differences when it comes to the issue of competitiveness between Estonia and Finland, particularly in the utilisation of foreign patents, as well as ranking them on the international arena. The authors of the article intend to study how it is possible to increase the technological competitiveness of small European Union Member States and the special effect of investments in research and development (R&D) and education on the competitiveness ranking of Estonia and Finland. The authors attempt to explore how Estonia can advance by learning from the model of innovative growth adopted by Finland.
Agent–Principal Dilemma and the EU Chemical Management
Authors: Filipec Ondřej 
Published: June 2018

Abstract
In 2007, the EU adopted the most comprehensive chemical regulation in the world. The so-called REACH requires all chemical producers and importers to register and evaluate their chemical products and, when necessary, replace them with safer alternatives. For the administration of REACH, a new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) was established. Establishment of this specialized body under the close supervision of the European Commission created in many ways an untraditional relationship which differs from the agent-principal model. The main aim of this article is to explore the specific nature of the agent-principal relationship between the ECHA and the European Commission in the areas of delegation, information asymmetry, motivation and control structures and emphasize how specific measures may limit the negative outcomes of the agent-principal dilemma.