bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Generating vascular conduits: from tissue engineering to three-dimensional bioprinting
Authors: Maina Renee M. , Barahona Maria J. , Finotti Michele , Lysyy Taras , Geibel Peter , D’Amico Francesco , Mulligan David , Geibel John P. 
Published: July 2018

AbstractVascular disease – including coronary artery disease, carotid artery disease, and peripheral vascular disease – is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The standard of care for restoring patency or bypassing occluded vessels involves using autologous grafts, typically the saphenous veins or internal mammary arteries. Yet, many patients who need life- or limb-saving procedures have poor outcomes, and a third of patients who need vascular intervention have multivessel disease and therefore lack appropriate vasculature to harvest autologous grafts from. Given the steady increase in the prevalence of vascular disease, there is great need for grafts with the biological and mechanical properties of native vessels that can be used as vascular conduits. In this review, we present an overview of methods that have been employed to generate suitable vascular conduits, focusing on the advances in tissue engineering methods and current three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting methods. Tissue-engineered vascular grafts have been fabricated using a variety of approaches such as using preexisting scaffolds and acellular organic compounds. We also give an extensive overview of the novel use of 3D bioprinting as means of generating new vascular conduits. Different strategies have been employed in bioprinting, and the use of cell-based inks to create de novo structures offers a promising solution to bridge the gap of paucity of optimal donor grafts. Lastly, we provide a glimpse of our work to create scaffold-free, bioreactor-free, 3D bioprinted vessels from a combination of rat vascular smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts that remain patent and retain the tensile and mechanical strength of native vessels.
OLS and 2SLS in Randomized and Conditionally Randomized Experiments
Authors: Ansel Jason , Hong Han , Jessie Li and 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
We investigate estimation and inference of the (local) average treatment effect parameter when a binary instrumental variable is generated by a randomized or conditionally randomized experiment. Under i.i.d. sampling, we show that adding covariates and their interactions with the instrument will weakly improve estimation precision of the (local) average treatment effect, but the robust OLS (2SLS) standard errors will no longer be valid. We provide an analytic correction that is easy to implement and demonstrate through Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application the interacted estimator’s efficiency gains over the unadjusted estimator and the uninteracted covariate adjusted estimator. We also generalize our results to covariate adaptive randomization where the treatment assignment is not i.i.d., thus extending the recent contributions of Bugni, F., I.A. Canay, A.M. Shaikh (2017a), Inference Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization. Working Paper and Bugni, F., I.A. Canay, A.M. Shaikh (2017b), Inference Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization with Multiple Treatments. Working Paper to allow for the case of non-compliance.
Screening for autoimmune thyroiditis and celiac disease in minority children with type 1 diabetes
Authors: Kochummen Elna , Marwa Albara , Umpaichitra Vatcharapan , Perez-Colon Sheila , Chin Vivian L. 
Published: July 2018

Abstract

Background:
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and celiac disease (CD) are commonly associated with type 1 diabetes (T1DM). There is no consensus on screening, however, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) recommend testing for thyroid function (TFT), thyroid antibodies and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (TTG) IgA soon after diagnosis. TFT should be repeated every 1–2 years while TTG IgA should be tested for within 2 and 5 years. We hypothesize that the rate of HT and CD in our T1DM children is lower, so screening may need to be revised to reflect their underlying risk.

Methods:
An Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved retrospective chart review was conducted on children with T1DM in the past 10 years. Age, sex, race, A1C, TFT, thyroid and celiac antibodies were obtained. t-Tests, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and stepwise regression were performed.

Results:
Of 222 children with T1DM, with a mean age of 15.8±5.53 years, followed for 6.1±4.0 years, 53% female, mean A1C 11.1±1.9% and 87% African American (AA). Three had Graves’ disease (1.3%), three had HT (1.3%) and 97% were euthyroid. TFT were assessed on average every 1.3 years and thyroid antibodies every 2.5 years. Positive thyroid antibody was found in 11%, negative in 57% and unknown in 32%. The positive antibody group had higher mean A1C and TSH. No biopsy confirmed cases of CD (0%) were found when screened every 2.3 years.

Conclusions:
The number of individuals who screened positive for hypothyroid HT and CD was lower than expected in our population. Further studies are needed to assess the optimal screening frequency for HT and CD in minority children with T1DM.
Evaluation of Mn-superoxide dismutase and catalase gene expression in childhood obesity: its association with insulin resistance
Authors: Mohseni Roohollah , Arab Sadeghabadi Zahra , Goodarzi Mohammad Taghi , Teimouri Maryam , Nourbakhsh Mitra , Razzaghy Azar Maryam 
Published: July 2018

Abstract

Background
Obesity is associated with oxidative stress. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is the first line of defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS), eliminating the strong superoxide radical and producing H2O2, which can then be degraded by catalase (CAT). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the gene expression antioxidant enzymes (Mn-SOD and CAT) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of obese and normal-weight children, and its association with anthropometric and biochemical parameters.

Methods
Thirty obese and 30 control subjects between the ages of 8 and 16 years were enrolled in this study. Serum insulin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and insulin resistance was calculated using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Biochemical parameters were also measured. PBMCs of the subjects were separated and Mn-SOD and CAT gene expression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results

Mn-SOD and CAT gene expression was significantly lower in the obese group compared with the control group (p<0.01). Also, a positive correlation was observed between the gene expression of Mn-SOD and CAT and body mass index (BMI), fasting blood sugar, insulin resistance, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) cholesterol, triglycerides (TG) and systolic blood pressure (SBP).

Conclusions
Induction of antioxidants, especially Mn-SOD and CAT, can lead to reduction of oxidative stress and prevent the complications of obesity in children.
Severe consumptive hypothyroidism caused by multiple infantile hepatic haemangiomas
Authors: Simsek Enver , Demiral Meliha , Gundoğdu Elif 
Published: July 2018

AbstractBackgroundInfantile hepatic haemangiomas (IHHs) produce an excess of the thyroid hormone inactivating enzyme type-3 iodothyronine deiodinase (D3), leading to rapid degradation of thyroid hormones and consumptive hypothyroidism. The L-thyroxine replacement dose in patients with consumptive hypothyroidism is inappropriately higher than that in congenital hypothyroidism.Case presentationA 4-month-old boy presented with abdominal distention. Thyroid function tests (TFTs) revealed an elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level of 177 mU/L, normal free thyroxine (fT4) of 1.23 ng/dL, low free tri-iodothyronine (fT3) of 1.55 pg/mL and increased reverse T3 (rT3) of 1240 ng/dL. Abdominal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed multiple IHHs. Based on his TFTs, ultrasonography and MRI evidence, he was diagnosed with consumptive hypothyroidism, and L-thyroxine replacement at 15 μg/kg/day was started. The L-thyroxine dose was increased gradually to 35 μ/kg/day until a stabilising euthyroid status was achieved. By the age of 8 months, the TSH concentration was decreased to normal levels; the L-thyroxine dose was gradually reduced and finally discontinued at the age of 12 months. Repeat abdominal ultrasound and MRI revealed a reduction in the number and size of the haemangiomas. The TFTs were at normal reference levels. The patient remains in active follow-up.ConclusionsNeonatal screening for congenital hypothyroidism is usually negative in cases of IHH, as seen in our case. A high index of suspicion is necessary to diagnose hypothyroidism in cases of IHH. The present case required very high doses of levothyroxine to achieve a euthyroid status. In cases of hypothyroidism in the first year of life with consumptive hypothyroidism caused by hepatic haemangioma, aggressive L-thyroxine replacement is required with no upper limit. The dose should be increased gradually until a stabilising euthyroid status is achieved.
First record of the Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Pteropodidae), from Kastellorizo island, Greece
Authors: Strachinis Ilias , Kalaentzis Konstantinos , Katsiyiannis Philippos , Kazilas Christos 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
The Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) is a pteropodid species with a large part of its range in the Palearctic region. It has a quite discontinuous range from sub-Saharan Africa to NW India, including SW Turkey. In this note we present the first record of the Egyptian fruit bat in Greek territory, observed during a zoological expedition on the island of Kastellorizo (Dodecanese, Greece). At least three specimens were observed foraging a white mulberry in the town of Megisti on May 4 2017, but no individual was spotted during a summer expedition in August 2017.
The faces at play in performance appraisals: With a focus upon a UK retail organization
Authors: Archer Dawn , Willcox Phil 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
A variety of face types can be in operation in workplaces, dependent on, for example, the kind of workplace, the various activities engaged in in that workplace, the status/role/gender of participants working in and/or connected with the workplace, etc. This paper offers an adapted version of Archer’s (2015) Facework Scale as a means of accounting for the different types of face in evidence in one activity - Performance Appraisals - in one workplace, relating to a UK retail organization. We will show that interlocutors used facework strategies that emphasized different or multiple facets of face on both a professional and personal level (Jagodziński 2013). This includes attempting to safeguard/support their working relationships (Haugh 2013) by managing impressions of self and/or the company (Jones and Pitman 1982) at the same time as maintaining credibility for self and/or other(s) (Bolino et al. 2016). We use our findings to argue that employers and their employees would benefit from having an understanding of face(work), and briefly discuss the training implications for Performance Appraisals if face(work) notions were introduced.
“Helping you to pay us”: Rapport management in debt collection call centre encounters
Authors: Harrington Leigh 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
This paper investigates the rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2005) that collections agents at a UK-based utilities company call centre are expected to perform during debt collection telephone interactions. It examines the rapport-relevant information communicated in the textual materials, including training manuals, through which a prescribed debt collection style is implemented. The analysis reveals that there are tensions in the rapport-concerns that collectors must attend to when using the style. Collectors are instructed to perform potentially face-threatening behaviours in order to collect debt, whilst simultaneously engaging in linguistic behaviour that may be interpreted as face-enhancing and which functions to develop rapport with the debtor. It is suggested that the local deployment of this contradictory “helping you to pay us” philosophy is problematic on multiple levels and may give rise to relational tensions between collectors and debtors who have conflicting expectations about rapport management entitlements. In turn, this may contribute to a culture of sanctioned face-attacks in call centres (Archer and Jagodziński 2015). Therefore, I suggest that call centres may need to loosen the synecdochical hold they have over their employees, thereby affording them the flexibility and volition to cope with the complex face demands, unpredictability and potential volatility of debt collection encounters.
Co-creating customer experience through call centre interaction: Interactional achievement and professional face
Authors: Jagodziński Piotr , Archer Dawn 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
Many customer service institutions draw on the (argued over) notion of “customer experience”. Gentile et al. (2007) suggest that, at an optimum, the notion assumes a thinking and feeling customer who co-creates their customer experience together with the service providing institution. This co-creation is believed to comprise interactional involvement, personalization and the holistic treatment of the customer’s needs. Given the latter, we might expect service providers, such as call centres, to view language as a vital means of creating an experience with the customer. The extant linguistic call centre research, including our own, points to the fact that call centre institutions view language as fundamental to their functioning. However, heavy language regulation tends to be the most important - if not the only - means of achieving outstanding customer experience (Cameron 2000; Jagodziński 2013; Archer and Jagodziński 2015). There is a clear mismatch, then, between the tenets of customer experience and the way language is conceptualized, interactionally managed and regulated. Throughout this paper, we argue that the co-creation of customer experience must be accompanied by its linguistic co-construction, which can only be achieved by giving frontline employees more interactional freedom than they tend to have in practice.
Neuroprotective effect of ZnT3 knockout on subarachnoid hemorrhage
Authors: Chen Duo , Nie Zhao-Bo , Chi Zhi-Hong , Wang Zhan-You , Wei Xiang-Tai , Guan Jun-Hong 
Published: July 2018

Abstract

Background
The pathophysiology of early brain injury (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is poorly understood. The present study evaluates the influence of zinc transporter 3 (ZnT3) knockout and the depletion of vesicular zinc on EBI.

Methodology
SAH was induced in ZnT3 KO mice by internal carotid artery perforation. The changes in behavior were recorded at 24 hours after SAH. Hematoxylin-eosin, Nissl and TUNEL staining were performed to evaluate neuronal apoptosis. Data from mice with a score of 8-12 in intracerebral bleeding (i.e. moderate SAH), were analyzed.

Results
The degree of SAH-induced neuronal injury was directly correlated to the amount of blood lost, which in turn was negatively reflected in their behavior. The Wild Type (WT)-SAH group behaved poorly when compared to the knockout (KO)-SAH mice and their poor neurological score was accompanied by an increase in the number of apoptotic neurons. Conversely, the improvement of behavior in the KO-SAH group was associated with a marked reduction in apoptotic neurons.

Conclusions
These results suggest that ZnT3 knockout may have played a vital role in the attenuation of neuronal injury after SAH and that ZnT3 may prove to be a potential therapeutic target for neuroprotection in EBI.
An Investigation of the Forced Convection and Heat Transfer with a Cylindrical Agitator Subjected to Non-Newtonian Nanofluids
Authors: Li Botong , Zheng Liancun , Zhu Liangliang , Liu Tao , Zhang Wei 
Published: July 2018

Abstract
The present research performed a numerical simulation of laminar forced convection nanofluid-based non-Newtonian flow in a channel connecting a tank with heating regions. To achieve a rapid diffusion of heat, a cylindrical agitator is inserted into the tank. Power-law modelling is employed to describe the effect of non-Newtonian behaviour. The velocity and temperature fields and heat transfer coefficient ratio are studied systematically, taking into account the impact of various parameters, such as the generalised Reynolds number Re, generalised Prandtl number Pr, angular velocity of a cylinder ω, nanoparticle volume fraction ϕ, mixer size and location. Our research reveals that, to improve the heat transfer in practice, several applicable strategies are available, including the addition of more nanoparticles into the base fluid, which proved to be the most efficient method to enhance the heat transfer of a nanofluid.
Conflicted between Goal-Directed and Habitual Control, an fMRI Investigation
Authors: Watson P. , van Wingen G. , de Wit S. 
Published: July 2018

Abstract“Slips of action” occur in everyday life when we momentarily lose sight of a goal (for example, when in a rush or distracted). Associative models propose that these habitual responses can be activated via a direct stimulus-response (S-R) mechanism, regardless of the current hedonic value of the outcome. The slips-of-action task (SOAT) has been extensively used in both healthy and pathological populations to measure habit tendencies, the likelihood of making erroneous responses for devalued outcomes. Inspection of behavioral performance does not reveal, however, whether the impairments were due to impaired goal-directed control or aberrantly strong habit formation. In the current study, we used functional MRI while human participants performed both the instrumental training and SOAT test phases, to elucidate the relative contributions of these mechanisms to performance on the SOAT. On trials in which conflict arises between competing goal-directed and habitual responses, we observed increased activation across areas including the anterior cingulate cortex, paracingulate gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insula, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Responding for devalued outcomes was related to increased activation in the premotor cortex and cerebellum, implicating these regions in habitual responding. Increased activation in the caudate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and frontal pole during training was associated with better performance during the test phase, indicative of goal-directed action control. These results endorse interpretation of the SOAT in terms of competing goal-directed and habitual mechanisms and highlight that cognitive control processes present an additional bottleneck for successful performance on this task.
Prognostic relevance of proliferation-related miRNAs in pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms
Authors: Grolmusz Vince Kornél , Kövesdi Annamária , Borka Katalin , Igaz Peter , Patócs Attila 
Published: July 2018

ObjectivePancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PanNENs) are rare tumors arising from the endocrine pancreas; however, their prognosis differs significantly upon their proliferative state, which is characterized by histopathological grading. MiRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs posttranscriptionally regulating gene expression. Our aim was to identify miRNAs with altered expression upon proliferation which can be used as prognostic biomarkers in PanNENs.MethodsMiRNA expression profiles of 40 PanNENs were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus and were reanalyzed upon tumor grades (discovery cohort). Results of the reanalysis were confirmed by qRT-PCR analysis of five miRNAs on an independent validation cohort of 63 primary PanNEN samples. Cox proportional hazards survival regression models were fit for both univariate and multivariate analysis to determine the miRNAs’ effect on progression-free and overall survival.ResultsNineteen miRNAs displayed differential expression between tumor grades. The altered expression of three out of five chosen miRNAs was successfully validated; hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-10a and hsa-miR-106b were upregulated in more proliferative PanNENs compared to Grade 1 tumors. In univariate analysis, higher expression of tissue hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-10a and hsa-miR-106b of primary PanNENs predicted worse progression-free and overall survival; however, multivariate analysis only confirmed the expression of hsa-miR-21 as an independent prognostic factor.ConclusionsThe expression of hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-10a and especially hsa-miR-21 has prognostic relevance regarding progression-free and overall survival in patients with PanNENs.
Adverse Events in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients
Authors: Stockwell David C. , Landrigan Christopher P. , Toomey Sara L. , Loren Samuel S. , Jang Jisun , Quinn Jessica A. , Ashrafzadeh Sepideh , Wang Michelle J. , Wu Melody , Sharek Paul J. , Classen David C. , Srivastava Rajendu , Parry Gareth , Schuster Mark A. ,   for the GAPPS Study Group
Published: July 2018

BACKGROUND:
Patient safety concerns over the past 2 decades have prompted widespread efforts to reduce adverse events (AEs). It is unclear whether these efforts have resulted in reductions in hospital-wide AE rates. We used a validated safety surveillance tool, the Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety, to measure temporal trends (2007–2012) in AE rates among hospitalized children.

METHODS:
We conducted a retrospective surveillance study of randomly selected pediatric inpatient records from 16 teaching and nonteaching hospitals. We constructed Poisson regression models with hospital random intercepts, controlling for patient age, sex, insurance, and chronic conditions, to estimate changes in AE rates over time.

RESULTS:
Examining 3790 records, reviewers identified 414 AEs (19.1 AEs per 1000 patient days; 95% confidence interval [CI] 17.2–20.9) and 210 preventable AEs (9.5 AEs per 1000 patient days; 95% CI 8.2–10.8). On average, teaching hospitals had higher AE rates than nonteaching hospitals (26.2 [95% CI 23.7–29.0] vs 5.1 [95% CI 3.7–7.1] AEs per 1000 patient days, P &lt; .001). Chronically ill children had higher AE rates than patients without chronic conditions (33.9 [95% CI 24.5–47.0] vs 14.0 [95% CI 11.8–16.5] AEs per 1000 patient days, P &lt; .001). Multivariate analyses revealed no significant changes in AE rates over time. When stratified by hospital type, neither teaching nor nonteaching hospitals experienced significant temporal AE rate variations.

CONCLUSIONS:
AE rates in pediatric inpatients are high and did not improve from 2007 to 2012. Pediatric AE rates were substantially higher in teaching hospitals as well as in patients with more chronic conditions.