bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neuronal receptors display cytoskeleton-independent directed motion on the plasma membrane
Authors: Taylor R. D. , Heine M. , Emptage N. J. , Andreae L. C. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractDirected transport of transmembrane proteins is generally believed to occur via intracellular transport vesicles. However, using single particle tracking in rat hippocampal neurons with a pH-sensitive quantum dot probe which specifically reports surface movement of receptors, we have identified a subpopulation of neuronal EphB2 receptors that exhibit directed motion between synapses within the plasma membrane itself. This receptor movement occurs independently of the cytoskeleton but is dependent on cholesterol and is regulated by neuronal activity.
Female leadership in the Middle Eastern higher education
Authors: von Alberti-Alhtaybat Larissa , Aazam Salwa 
Published: February 2018

Purpose
Female leadership is a still largely unexplored aspect of the higher education (HE) field. While it is known that barriers to entry exist, few studies have addressed female leadership and have investigated what makes a female academic seek leadership, what their experiences are and how they perceive their positions and the associated responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this lacuna as it provides a qualitative account of female academic leaders’ perceptions regarding their positions in the Middle East (ME) context. It also outlines their main tasks as administrative and academic leaders.

Design/methodology/approach
Data collection and analysis took place according to grounded theory principles, as outlined in this study. Participants were selected according to theoretical sampling principles, access and willingness to participate.

Findings
The findings illustrate a core concept, the female academic leadership mindset in the ME, and three emergent concepts that address the main shared perceptions, which are leadership experiences and expectations, differential treatment and work-life balance. The first discusses the different types of leadership and how female leaders experienced their positions, the second addresses the perceived differential treatment female leaders experience and the last addresses the dual pressure of work and home responsibilities that many female leaders have to deal with. Interestingly, several participants felt that fellow females were often unsupportive, which might also provide an explanation as to why women still experience obstacles.

Originality/value
This study provides in-depth exploratory accounts of female leaders in various Middle Eastern HE sectors, and gives insight into leadership-related perceptions. Furthermore, it explores the effect of the Middle Eastern cultural context on aspects of female leadership.
Lymphocyte immunotherapy for recurrent miscarriages: Predictors of therapeutic success
Authors: Cavalcante Marcelo Borges , Sarno Manoel , Niag Marla , Pimentel Kleber , Luz Ivana , Figueiredo Bianca , Michelon Tatiana , Lima Simone , Machado Isabela Nelly , Araujo Júnior Edward , Barini Ricardo , Neumann Jorge 
Published: February 2018

ProblemTo evaluate the predictors of successful pregnancies in women with a history of recurrent miscarriages (RMs) having undergone lymphocyte immunotherapy (LIT).Method of studyRetrospective, multicenter, observational study which involved 702 pregnant women with history of RM treated with LIT. Comparative analysis of women with a history of RM having undergone LIT and experienced treatment success vs those having experienced treatment failure along with the analysis of the association between the number of prior miscarriages and the efficacy of LIT.ResultsA total of 421 women were able to carry the pregnancy to term, with treatment success rate of 60%. The multivariate analysis showed that age, the association between autoantibodies and thrombophilia, and the number of previous miscarriages were factors associated with LIT failure. Secondary RMs alone were not found to be a factor predictive of LIT success or failure; however, secondary RMs among women with a history of 5 or more RM were found to be a predictor of LIT success (OR: 10.24; 95% CI: 1.9‐55.8; P = .007).ConclusionAge, the number of previous miscarriages, and the association between autoantibodies and thrombophilia are associated with LIT failure. A higher number of previous miscarriages in cases of secondary RM resulted in better LIT outcomes.
Cognitive decline in the middle‐aged after surgery and anaesthesia: results from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention cohort
Authors: Bratzke L. C. , Koscik R. L. , Schenning K. J. , Clark L. R. , Sager M. A. , Johnson S. C. , Hermann B. P. , Hogan K. J. 
Published: February 2018

SummarySurgery and anaesthesia might affect cognition in middle‐aged people without existing cognitive dysfunction. We measured memory and executive function in 964 participants, mean age 54 years, and again four years later, by when 312 participants had had surgery and 652 participants had not. Surgery between tests was associated with a decline in immediate memory by one point (out of a maximum of 30), p = 0.013: memory became abnormal in 77 out of 670 participants with initially normal memory, 21 out of 114 (18%) of whom had had surgery compared with 56 out of 556 (10%) of those who had not, p = 0.02. The number of operations was associated with a reduction in immediate memory on retesting, beta coefficient (SE) 0.08 (0.03), p = 0.012. Working memory decline was also associated with longer cumulative operations, beta coefficient (SE) −0.01 (0.00), p = 0.028. A reduction in cognitive speed and flexibility was associated with worse ASA physical status, beta coefficient (SE) 0.55 (0.22) and 0.37 (0.17) for ASA 1 and 2 vs. 3, p = 0.035. However, a decline in working memory was associated with better ASA physical status, beta coefficient (SE) −0.48 (0.21) for ASA 1 vs. 3, p = 0.01.
Morphology and ultrastructure of the testes and spermatozoa of the South African leopard (Panthera pardus)
Authors: Das Neves Jamie‐Lee , Wagenaar Ina 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe survival of South African leopard (Panthera pardus) populations is at risk due to the decrease in natural habitat caused by increasing human populations, development projects and industry. The use of ex situ conservation methods such as assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) in captive breeding programmes can be used to conserve and protect this species. However, a good understanding of the reproductive system of the species is imperative in the development of successful ARTs. This study serves to provide information on the morphology and ultrastructure of the spermatozoa and testes of P. pardus that can be used to help in the development, testing and optimization of reproductive techniques. The objectives of this study were (i) to assess the morphology and ultrastructure of the spermatozoa by means of fluorescence and electron microscopy respectively, and (ii) to examine the morphology and ultrastructure of the testicular tissue as well as of the stages of spermatogenesis using light and electron microscopy. In this study, it was noted that the morphology and ultrastructure of the spermatozoa are similar to those reported in other feline and mammalian species and that a high amount of morphologically abnormal ejaculated sperm was found to be a common occurrence in all samples obtained.
High‐dose melphalan‐based sequential conditioning chemotherapy followed by allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia
Authors: Steckel Nina K. , Groth Christoph , Mikesch Jan‐Henrik , Trenschel Rudolf , Ottinger Hellmut , Kordelas Lambros , Mueller‐Tidow Carsten , Schliemann Christoph , Reicherts Christian , Albring Joern C. , Silling Gerda , Schmidt Eva , Berdel Wolfgang E. , Lenz Georg , Ditschkowski Markus , Beelen Dietrich W. , Stelljes Matthias 
Published: February 2018

SummaryConsidering the unsatisfactory results of salvage therapies for patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukaemia (R/R‐AML), their value before allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains questionable. However, direct allogeneic HSCT following established conditioning regimens applied in patients with R/R‐AML during active disease has been equally disappointing. In this retrospective observational study, high‐dose melphalan, as part of a sequential preparative regimen, followed by a total body irradiation (4 × 2 Gy)‐based or a treosulfan‐based dose‐adapted conditioning therapy for allogeneic HSCT was administered to 292 adult patients (median age 56 years, range 17–74) with primary refractory (144 patients), secondary refractory (97 patients) or relapsed AML (51 patients). Overall survival rates at 3 years were 34%, 29% and 41%, respectively. Risk factors associated with an inferior survival were higher age, transplantation from a human leucocyte antigen‐mismatched donor and high disease burden. Patients transplanted with blast infiltration <20% showed a notable survival rate of 51% at 3 years. In particular, patients with primary refractory AML showed a more favourable outcome when transplanted early during their disease course. Thus, high‐dose melphalan‐based sequential conditioning chemotherapy followed by an allogeneic HSCT is feasible and enables long‐term remission to be achieved in a substantial proportion of patients with active R/R‐AML.
Probabilistic measures of climate change vulnerability, adaptation action benefits, and related uncertainty from maximum temperature metric selection
Authors: DeWeber Jefferson T. , Wagner Tyler 
Published: February 2018

AbstractPredictions of the projected changes in species distributions and potential adaptation action benefits can help guide conservation actions. There is substantial uncertainty in projecting species distributions into an unknown future, however, which can undermine confidence in predictions or misdirect conservation actions if not properly considered. Recent studies have shown that the selection of alternative climate metrics describing very different climatic aspects (e.g., mean air temperature vs. mean precipitation) can be a substantial source of projection uncertainty. It is unclear, however, how much projection uncertainty might stem from selecting among highly correlated, ecologically similar climate metrics (e.g., maximum temperature in July, maximum 30‐day temperature) describing the same climatic aspect (e.g., maximum temperatures) known to limit a species’ distribution. It is also unclear how projection uncertainty might propagate into predictions of the potential benefits of adaptation actions that might lessen climate change effects. We provide probabilistic measures of climate change vulnerability, adaptation action benefits, and related uncertainty stemming from the selection of four maximum temperature metrics for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), a cold‐water salmonid of conservation concern in the eastern United States. Projected losses in suitable stream length varied by as much as 20% among alternative maximum temperature metrics for mid‐century climate projections, which was similar to variation among three climate models. Similarly, the regional average predicted increase in brook trout occurrence probability under an adaptation action scenario of full riparian forest restoration varied by as much as .2 among metrics. Our use of Bayesian inference provides probabilistic measures of vulnerability and adaptation action benefits for individual stream reaches that properly address statistical uncertainty and can help guide conservation actions. Our study demonstrates that even relatively small differences in the definitions of climate metrics can result in very different projections and reveal high uncertainty in predicted climate change effects.
Knowledge gap regarding dementia care among nurses in Taiwanese acute care hospitals: A cross‐sectional study
Authors: Lin Pei‐Chao , Hsieh Mei‐Hui , Chen Meng‐Chin , Yang Yung‐Mei , Lin Li‐Chan 
Published: February 2018

AimThe quality of dementia care in hospitals is typically substandard. Staff members are underprepared for providing care to older people with dementia. The objective of the present study was to examine dementia care knowledge, attitude and behavior regarding self‐education about dementia care among nurses working in different wards.MethodsThis was a descriptive cross‐sectional study. The present study was carried out from July 2013 to December 2013. In total, 387 nurses working in different wards were recruited from two hospitals in Taiwan by using convenience sampling. The nurses completed a self‐report questionnaire on demographic data, experience and learning behavior, and attitude towards dementia care, and a 16‐item questionnaire on dementia care knowledge. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the status and differences in dementia care knowledge among nurse in different wards.ResultsThe average dementia care knowledge score was 10.46 (SD 2.13), with a 66.5% mean accuracy among all nurses. Dementia care knowledge was significantly associated with age, nursing experience, possession of a registered nurse license, holding a bachelor's degree, work unit, training courses and learning behavior towards dementia care. The dementia care knowledge of the emergency room nurses was significantly lower than that of the psychiatric and neurology ward nurses. A significantly lower percentage of emergency room nurses underwent dementia care training and actively searched for information on dementia care, compared with the psychiatric and neurology ward nurses.ConclusionsHospital nurses show a knowledge gap regarding dementia care, especially emergency room nurses. Providing dementia care training to hospital nurses, particularly emergency room nurses, is crucial for improving the quality of care for patients with dementia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 276–285.
Dermatology hospitalists: a multicenter survey study characterizing the infrastructure of consultative dermatology in select American hospitals
Authors: Ko Lauren N. , Kroshinsky Daniela 
Published: February 2018

AbstractBackgroundAlthough considered an outpatient specialty, dermatology plays an important role in inpatient medicine. We characterized the activity and structure of dermatology consultation services in select U.S. hospitals.MethodsIn this cross sectional study, a 31‐question survey was distributed in person to 32 board‐certified dermatologists at the 2017 Society of Dermatology Hospitalists meeting.ResultsThirty participants completed the survey (yield 93.8%). Most dermatology hospitalists spend 41–52 weeks on service (50%), with 37% spending between 11 and 30 weeks. Coverage was organized by continuous weeks (68%) or months (21%). While on service, hospitalists staffed an average of 4 outpatient clinics per week. Consultative teams also included internal medicine residents (43%), medical students (47%), pediatric residents (10%), and fellows from other specialties (27%). Consultation services saw approximately 3.7 new inpatients and 4.2 follow‐up inpatients per day, with daily rounds lasting approximately 2.6 hours.ConclusionsThe results suggest that hospital dermatologists in the U.S. consider inpatient care their niche and devote a majority of their time staffing consults over clinic. The diverse composition of inpatient teams and the number of academic duties held by these physicians suggests they play an important role in medical education.
Why European Banks Are Undercapitalized and What Should Be Done About It
Authors: Finnerty John D. , Gonzalez Laura 
Published: February 2018

Major European banks are significantly undercapitalized as compared to large American banks, and, more importantly, as compared to the capital levels they would need to survive another severe financial crisis. Bank capital shortfalls in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in particular, are largely the consequence of European bank regulations that: (1) apply static risk weights to assets like mortgages and sovereign debt; (2) fail to require an overall market‐based capital ratio that is high enough to enable banks to survive a severe financial crisis; (3) fail to get banks to promptly write down their impaired assets to market value; (4) subject banks to weak stress tests that can create a false impression of capital adequacy; and (5) fail to compel banks to retain sufficient earnings and to raise sufficient capital externally to eliminate capital shortfalls promptly, all apparently out of fear that being tougher might cause investors and customers to lose confidence in the banks.This article summarizes important recent independent bank stress testing that has quantified the capital shortfalls in European banks. The recent highly publicized regulatory interventions to resolve failing European banks were inevitable due to these shortfalls. The authors recommend steps European bank regulators should take to address the problem and to eliminate the risk of serious capital shortfalls. In the absence of such steps, bank depositors, customers, and security holders should be prepared to expect further unwelcome surprises as the risks inherent in allowing undercapitalized banks to operate will continue to materialize in more bank failures.
How Investment Opportunities Affect Optimal Capital Structure
Authors: Myint Stanley , Lupi Antonio , Tsomocos Dimitrios P. 
Published: February 2018

This article addresses the question of how competition for investments among companies in a certain industry affects their capital structure. The authors develop a new modelling framework that simulates financial variables of a set of firms in a given sector, and uses the framework to analyze how such firms compete for new investments. The leverage of companies affects their flexibility to react to and take advantage of investment opportunities, and the authors show how such flexibility can be optimized to maximize the firm’s growth.As an illustration, they apply the model to a set of European airlines and global pharmaceutical companies. The novelty introduced by this paper is the explicit modelling of the interaction between several companies. The literature on optimal capital structure focuses on individual companies optimizing their capital structure in a world in which the actions of their competitors are exogenous. The authors’ results show how to incorporate the competitive position of the firm as well as the availability of investment opportunities into the capital structure decison.
Maximum Withdrawal Rates: A Novel and Useful Tool
Authors: Estrada Javier 
Published: February 2018

Even after accumulating a portfolio of investment assets, retirees still need to know how much of their wealth they can spend each year without risking running out of money before they die. Traditionally, financial advisers use extensive simulation to predict a “failure rate” (i.e. the probability of a retiree running out of money before they die). Unfortunately, the failure rate approach is flawed because strategies with the same failure rate may not be comparable overall. For example, different withdrawal strategies may have the same failure rate but wind up leaving significantly different amounts of wealth behind.Instead of failure rate, this author recommends using the maximum withdrawal rate, or MWR, approach that predetermines a desired bequest (which could be zero or some positive sum), thus enabling an apples‐to‐apples comparison of retirement strategies. In addition to permitting direct comparisons of retirement strategies, the MWR provides a way to assess how likely a retiree is to sustain a target sequence of inflation‐adjusted withdrawals. This is the main advantage of the MWR; it is a single tool that can be used to explore two of the most important issues in retirement analysis.The MWR as presented here is essentially a measure of the best a retiree could have done had he known the future returns of his portfolio. Obviously, one cannot be sure of future rates of return ahead of time, so the MWR does not eliminate all retirement risk. That said, its adoption would be an improvement upon current practice.
Positive and Negative Affect and Adolescent Adjustment: Moderation Effects of Prefrontal Functioning
Authors: Brieant Alexis , Holmes Christopher J. , Maciejewski Dominique , Lee Jacob , Deater‐Deckard Kirby , King‐Casas Brooks , Kim‐Spoon Jungmeen 
Published: February 2018

We examined whether cognitive control moderates the effects of emotion on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in a longitudinal study of 138 adolescents. Self‐reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect and behavioral and neural indicators of cognitive control, indexed by performance and prefrontal hemodynamic response during a cognitive interference task, were collected at Time 1. Self‐reported internalizing and externalizing symptomatology were collected at Time 1 and Time 2 (1 year later). Results indicated that higher PA predicted decreases in externalizing symptomatology, but only for adolescents with poor neural cognitive control. No moderation effects were found for behavioral cognitive control. Findings imply the beneficial effects of PA on the development of externalizing problems among adolescents with poor prefrontal functioning.
The Effect of Urine Concentration and pH on the Growth of Escherichia Coli in Canine Urine In Vitro
Authors: Thornton L.A. , Burchell R.K. , Burton S.E. , Lopez‐Villalobos N. , Pereira D. , MacEwan I. , Fang C. , Hatmodjo A.C. , Nelson M.A. , Grinberg A. , Velathanthiri N. , Gal A. 
Published: February 2018

BackgroundLower urinary tract infections are common in dogs, and Escherichia coli is the most common bacterial pathogen isolated. The literature has conflicting evidence regarding the inhibitory effects of urine concentration and pH on E. coli growth.Hypothesis/ObjectivesTo determine the effect of different pH and urine concentrations on E. coli growth in vitro.AnimalsVoided urine samples from 10 apparently healthy spayed female dogs were used.MethodsA matrix of 9 urine specific gravity (USG; 1.010, 1.020, and 1.030) and pH (5.5, 7.0, and 8.5) combinations was prepared by diluting and titrating filtered voided urine samples. Three E. coli isolates were obtained from urine of female dogs with signs of lower urinary tract infection and cultured at different urine pH and USG combinations in wells of a microtiter plate. The number of E. coli colony‐forming units (CFU) per mL of urine was calculated after aerobic incubation of the urine at 37°C for 18 hours, and statistically compared.ResultsSignificant differences were identified in the mean log CFU/mL among different combinations of pH and USG. The lowest log CFU/mL were observed in alkaline concentrated urine (pH 8.5 and USG 1.030).Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceEscherichia coli in vitro growth was higher in neutral to acidic and diluted urine compared to alkaline and concentrated urine. The impact of non‐alkalizing diluting diets on the incidence of E. coli lower urinary tract infections should be further explored.