bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prehospital Telemedical Emergency Management of Severely Injured Trauma Patients
Authors: Reime Birgit , Wurmb Thomas , Kippnich Uwe , Shammas Layal , Rashid Asarnusch , Eder Patrick 
Published: March 2019

Background Trauma is a global burden. Emergency medical services (EMS) provide care for individuals who have serious injuries or suffered a major trauma.
Objective This paper provides a comprehensive overview of telemedicine applications in prehospital trauma care.
Methods We conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines. We identified articles by electronic database search (PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, SpringerLink, LIVIVO, DARE, IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect) using keywords related to prehospital settings, ambulance, telemedicine and trauma. Search terms and inclusion criteria were specified a priori by the PICOS template and revised throughout a configurative approach iteratively, to outline the complexity and variety of different telemedical concepts.
Results A final sample of 15 records was systematically selected. Most interventions were piloted and/or evaluated in Germany for trauma victims in prehospital settings. Six studies were simulated scenarios. Telemedical assistance (TMA) via real-time telemetry systems (RTS), enabling video and audio conferencing between EMS by tele-emergency physicians (TEP) were associated with a higher treatment quality and a shorter time-to-treatment in invasive procedures. By initiating in-hospital preparations based on telemedical prehospital notification (TPN), loss of information during the clinical handover was reduced and in-hospital protocols were activated with high accuracy. Remotely guided ultrasound (Tele-Ultrasound) by TEP showed an overall high diagnostic accuracy in simulations. Technical solutions were reliable, seemed practical and auspicious.
Conclusion The review indicates that TMA and TPN are accompanying telemedical concepts in out-of-hospital trauma care. Well-designed populated studies are needed to fully assess the effect of telemedicine in acute trauma care. Therefore, evidence regarding the effectiveness of telemedicine in prehospital setting for trauma patients is still limited.
Embryonic development of the avian integument.
Authors: Headon D. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

The skin and its appendages, such as feathers and scales, form the interface between a bird and its environment. The size, number and distribution of feathers and the structure of the skin are defined during embryonic development through interactions between the dermal and epidermal tissues. A number of spontaneous mutations that alter feather distribution in the domestic chicken have been identified, defining key genes and intercellular signals that operate to determine their arrangement. This review summarizes the processes operating and structures formed during embryonic skin development in birds, and the origins of diversity in external appearance that arises from genetic variants acting in this period.
Genetic solutions to reduce injurious pecking in laying hens.
Authors: Ellen E. D. , Bijma P. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Survival of commercial laying hens is an important trait. Feather pecking has a large effect on the survival of birds. To improve survival it is important to use quantitative genetic methods that take into account both the direct genetic effect (victim effect) and the indirect genetic effect (actor effect). For survival time, we found that the victim effect contributes 13-64% of total heritable variation, while the actor effect contributes 36-87% of total heritable variation. Together, they explain 15-26% of total phenotypic variation in survival time. Here we compare different breeding programme designs to identify the optimum selection strategy against mortality due to feather pecking. Results show that mortality due to feather pecking can be reduced using genetic approaches, taking into account direct and indirect genetic effects. We performed a selection experiment using selection based on relatives. Using this method enables selection against mortality due to feather pecking in laying hens. However, selection intensities were small. Genomic selection can be a promising tool to select against mortality due to feather pecking. Model predictions show that genomic selection is expected to yield a rapid reduction of mortality due to feather pecking, but a challenge will be to reduce mortality due to feather pecking in large groups.
Contact dermatitis in domestic poultry.
Authors: Hocking P. M. , Veldkamp T. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Contact dermatitis is a common finding in commercial poultry kept for meat production that has both economic and welfare implications. The disease commonly affects the epidermis of the foot pad, hock joint and skin covering the breast muscles that are in contact with the litter or other floor materials. Welfare legislation in Europe has been implemented that requires farmers to reduce stocking rates if broiler chickens presented at the abattoir have a certain prevalence of foot pad dermatitis (FPD) as a proxy for poor welfare during the rearing. It has long been known that birds kept in deep litter systems are affected by foot pad dermatitis and hock burns if the litter contains too much water. The moisture content of the litter is affected by many factors (e.g. litter substrate, humidity, air temperature, stocking rate and gut health). Recently it was shown that adding water to clean wood shavings was sufficient to induce FPD and that the prevalence and severity of disease increased linearly above a certain minimum water content. The role of excess minerals, particularly sodium, and high electrolyte balance have been associated with increasing litter moisture and contact dermatitis. Hock burns and breast burns have a similar aetiology as FPD and have also been linked with high litter ammonia. Breast buttons (focal ulcerative dermatitis) and breast blisters (sternal bursitis) may be associated with poor breast feathering that exposes the naked skin to the litter. FPD, hock burns and focal ulcerative dermatitis have a similar aetiology whereas sternal bursitis is probably related to friction. FPD is associated with a cytokine milieu that is consistent with an inflammatory reaction but the precise stimulus for this response is not known with certainty. FPD has also been reported in laying hens and broiler breeders and is more prevalent in non-cage systems and in birds with outdoor access. Research indicates that optimum dietary concentrations of vitamins and minerals are necessary to maximize skin health and that management practices must be employed to create dry, friable litter in order to minimize contact dermatitis.
Genetics of feather pigmentation and chicken plumage colouration.
Authors: Olori V. E. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

The chicken's plumage is defined by the structure and colour of its feathers. Plumage colour is a feature used in modern poultry breeding to distinguish between breeds, strains and pure lines. It is therefore important in strain security. Sex-linked genes affecting plumage colour and patterns and rate of feather development are useful in sexing of day-old chicks. Variation in plumage colour is attributable to differences in the primary and secondary colour patterns exhibited by individual birds. While the primary pattern refers to the distribution of coloured feathers in different parts of the bird's body, the secondary pattern refers to the distribution of colour on individual feathers. Although many commercial broiler and layer chicken strains exhibit solid or single colours, the chicken, like many other birds, exhibits a very wide array of plumage colour patterns, due to the presence or absence of pigments on the feathers. While some birds exhibit complete lack of pigment either in individual feathers or in all of the feathers across the body and are hence completely white, others are pigmented and exhibit a range of colours such as black, blue, brown and orange. While some have all their feathers of the same colour (solid colouration), others show a mixture of colours, which may be distributed in a specific pattern in different parts of the body such as the neck, wing and tail feathers, or have multicoloured feathers. It is now clear that all of these colour patterns are under genetic control. The development of pure lines and commercial crosses with specific colour patterns therefore requires a good understanding of the genetics of feather pigmentation and hence the inheritance of plumage colouration. This review highlights current knowledge of the genes that affect colour development and distribution in chickens as well as the pigments that colour feathers and the mechanism of their secretion. It aims to enrich our understanding of the link between the genes and the causal mutations that affect colour in chickens and the physiological pathways involved in pigment production and distribution between and within feathers of the chicken plumage.
Genetic and breeding aspects of feather coverage and their effects on performance in broilers.
Authors: Cahaner A. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Tremendous genetic progress has been achieved in broiler growth rate and meat yield since the 1950s, but it is not fully expressed under hot conditions. Greater growth rate of broilers is driven by greater rates of feed intake and metabolism and elevated production of internal heat. Hot conditions negatively affect high growth-rate broilers by hindering dissipation of the excessive internal heat and elevating body temperature. To avoid heat-induced mortality, broilers acclimate to hot conditions by reducing feed intake, resulting in depressed growth rate and poorer breast meat yield. The rate of sensible heat dissipation is determined by the insulation of the feathers, which is advantageous in slow-growing chickens or for broilers reared under cool conditions. In high growth-rate broilers under hot conditions, feather coverage hinders the dissipation of excessive internal heat. Hence, it was hypothesized that the negative effects of heat can be alleviated by genes that reduce or eliminate feather coverage. Reduced feather mass was also expected to contribute to greater meat yield, if the saved feather-building proteins were directed to build more muscle mass. Many studies have been conducted with the co-dominant 'Naked neck' (Na) gene that reduces feather coverage by 20% and 40% in Na/na and Na/Na chickens, respectively. Under hot conditions, naked-neck broilers exhibit higher rate of heat dissipation, resulting in greater actual growth rate and meat production. However, naked-neck broilers raised at 25°C were superior to their counterparts under hot conditions, indicating that 20-40% reduction in feather coverage provides only partial heat tolerance and suggesting that complete feather elimination is required to maximize heat tolerance. To test this hypothesis, the mutation Scaleless, which blocks feather formation in sc/sc chickens, was introduced into modern high growth-rate broiler stock by backcrossing. The resulting novel experimental line, consisting of featherless broilers and their feathered siblings, had been used in many studies under comfortable versus hot conditions. Under acute heat stress, the featherless birds maintained normal body temperature with no mortality, in contrast to a significant elevation in body temperature of the feathered sibs that led to considerable mortality. In other trials, featherless broilers were compared with feathered sibs under chronic hot conditions (constant 32-35°C) versus comfortable (25°C) conditions. Under heat, only the featherless broilers maintained a normal body temperature, and their mean body weight was significantly higher than their feathered siblings. Under all conditions, the featherless broilers exhibited favourable breast meat yield and quality, apparently due to the saved feather-building nutrients and better vascularization in the breast muscle. These results indicate that reduction or elimination of feather coverage improved the livability and overall performance of fast-growing broilers in warm and hot conditions.
Effects of nutritional interventions on feathering of poultry - a review.
Authors: Emous R. A. van , Krimpen M. M. van 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

Feather cover of chickens can be influenced by many factors, including direct or indirect nutritional factors. Direct dietary factor effects are levels of protein/amino acids, vitamins, minerals and mycotoxins. Indirect nutritional factors will impact feather cover through their effects on feather pecking behaviour. Since feathers contain 89-97% protein, the supply of dietary amino acids plays a critical role in feather development. Particularly in the juvenile phase of broilers and breeders, low dietary crude protein intake can negatively affect feather quality. Especially the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine are indicated as necessary for the synthesis of feather keratin. Dietary deficiencies of these amino acids have been shown to result in rough feathering, as indicated by body feathers sticking out from the body, or malformed cover feathers on the wings of young and older birds. Deficiencies of vitamin E and selenium might lead to depigmentation and shorter shafts of wing feathers, whereas deficiencies of other vitamins can lead to slower feather development and swollen tip of down feathers. Mineral (zinc, tin, vanadium, chromium, nickel) deficiencies could result in delayed feather development, frayed feathers (zinc) and blisters on the shafts. Mycotoxins in the feed have been shown to cause sparse covering of feathers and sticking out of feathers from the body. In an indirect way, nutritional aspects can also affect feather cover due to feather pecking in chickens. There is strong evidence that a (very) low crude protein content (<13%) of the diet increases injurious pecking in laying hens. On the other hand, a low energy content of the diet might decrease mortality of laying hens because the dilution of the diet increases eating time. Adding roughage (maize silage, barley silage or carrots) to the daily feed decreases injurious pecking behaviour and increases plumage condition of laying hens. Adding tryptophan to layer diets reduces incidences of feather pecking, because this AA contributes to serotonin turnover in the brain, which is largely related to bird behaviour. Addition of (coarse) insoluble non-starch proteins has been shown to increase gizzard weight and its contents and to prolong mean retention time in the foregut, which is an indicator for higher levels of satiety and a reduced motivation to peck. This chapter gives an overview of the direct and indirect relationships between the effects of nutritional interventions on feathering of poultry.
Business opportunities with the integument.
Authors: Lister S. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

The integument is an important organ system protecting the bird by acting as a barrier between the external environment and internal body systems, providing thermal insulation and for regulation of water loss. Arguably, as a result, the major business opportunity with the integument is to maintain the integrity of feathers, skin, scales and foot pads to protect and enhance bird health and performance, and through this boost economic return at processing. Feather cover and foot pad integrity are also used as proxy measures of animal husbandry, management, environmental control and bird health and are increasingly important as welfare outcome measures. In this way the integument acts as an important indicator of bird health and welfare. At processing, the harvesting of avian feathers, down, feet, skin and tongues can offer further business opportunities for by-products that would otherwise be considered as waste. The most profitable and widespread use of the integument as a by-product is the use of feather and down for bedding and clothing. Historically feathers were seen as an essential fashion accessory, often commanding prices of more than their weight in gold. Less obvious uses have been as an animal protein source, pet food, fertilizer, bacterial culture medium, enzyme production and adhesives. Recent interest has been in the production of biodegradable composite plastics from processed feathers. Chicken feet (paws) and duck feet, together with duck tongues, combs and wattles, have the potential to satisfy an increasing export opportunity for markets where these food choices are popular. This chapter will discuss some of these opportunities and factors that could adversely affect quality.
Protamine may have anti-atherogenic potential by inhibiting the binding of oxidized-low density lipoprotein to LOX-1
Authors: Takemura Yukitoshi , Okamoto Masaki , Hasegawa Makoto , Hatanaka Kenichi , Kubota Shunichiro 
Published: March 2019

ABSTRACT
Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) leads to atherosclerosis via lectin-like oxidized lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1), one of the major receptor for ox-LDL. Inhibition of the binding of ox-LDL to LOX-1 decreases the proinflammatory and atherosclerotic events. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether protamine, a polybasic nuclear protein, interferes the binding of ox-LDL to LOX-1. Using sandwich ELISA with newly generated antibody, we measured the blocking effect of protamine on the binding of ox-LDL to LOX-1. Protamine dose-dependently inhibited the binding of ox-LDL to LOX-1. DiI-labeled ox-LDL uptake assay in two types of cultured human endothelial cells was performed with fluorescence microplate reader. Activation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 by ox-LDL was analyzed by immunoblotting. We found that protamine suppressed uptake of ox-LDL in endothelial cells and inhibited ERK1/2 activation by ox-LDL. These results suggest that protamine may possess anti-atherogenic potential by inhibiting ox-LDL binding to LOX-1 through electrostatic interactions.
Platform-independent approach for cancer detection from gene expression profiles of peripheral blood cells
Authors: Yang Yadong , Zhang Tao , Xiao Rudan , Hao Xiaopeng , Zhang Huiqiang , Qu Hongzhu , Xie Bingbing , Wang Tao , Fang Xiangdong 
Published: March 2019

AbstractPeripheral blood gene expression intensity-based methods for distinguishing healthy individuals from cancer patients are limited by sensitivity to batch effects and data normalization and variability between expression profiling assays. To improve the robustness and precision of blood gene expression-based tumour detection, it is necessary to perform molecular diagnostic tests using a more stable approach. Taking breast cancer as an example, we propose a machine learning–based framework that distinguishes breast cancer patients from healthy subjects by pairwise rank transformation of gene expression intensity in each sample. We showed the diagnostic potential of the method by performing RNA-seq for 37 peripheral blood samples from breast cancer patients and by collecting RNA-seq data from healthy donors in Genotype-Tissue Expression project and microarray mRNA expression datasets in Gene Expression Omnibus. The framework was insensitive to experimental batch effects and data normalization, and it can be simultaneously applied to new sample prediction.
National trends and perioperative outcomes of robotic resection of thymic tumours in the United States: a propensity matching comparison with open and video-assisted thoracoscopic approaches†
Authors: Kamel Mohamed K , Villena-Vargas Jonathan , Rahouma Mohamed , Lee Benjamin , Harrison Sebron , Stiles Brendon M , Abdelrahman Abdelrahman M , Altorki Nasser K , Port Jeffery L 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
Despite the recent increased rate of adoption of robotic approaches for the resection of thymic tumours, their use is still limited to large-volume academic centres. To date, a large-scale analysis of the robotic approach has not been performed. We assessed the recent trends and outcomes of robotic thymectomies in the United States compared to those of open and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical (VATS) approaches.

METHODS:
The National Cancer Database was queried for patients who underwent resection for thymic tumours (2010–2014). Predictors of using the robotic approach were estimated by logistic regression analysis. Propensity matching analysis (robotic versus open and robotic versus VATS) was done (1:1—caliper 0.05), controlling for age, gender, comorbidity index, induction treatment, tumour size and tumour extension.

RESULTS:
A total of 2558 thymectomies were performed (robotic = 300, VATS = 280, open = 1978). The use of a robotic approach increased from 6% (2010) to 14% (2014). The number of hospitals performing at least 1 robotic thymectomy increased from 22 (2010) to 52 (2014). Independent predictors influencing the choice of a robotic approach included an academic research/integrated cancer programme [odds ratio (OR) 1.66, confidence interval (CI) 1.22–2.27], later year of diagnosis (2014; OR 2.23, CI 1.31–3.80) and a patient’s race (Asian) (OR 1.68, CI 1.05–2.69). A robotic approach was less likely to be utilized in midwestern hospitals (OR 0.65, CI 0.42–0.99), in larger tumours (cm) (OR 0.85, CI 0.80–0.90), with invasion of adjacent organs (OR 0.55, CI 0.37–0.82), thymic carcinoma (OR 0.62, CI 0.40–0.97) and following induction chemotherapy (OR 0.22, CI 0.08–0.61). In a propensity-matched analysis, there were no differences in the incidence of positive margins, nodal dissection, 30-day readmission rates and 30-/90-day mortality rates between the groups. However, a robotic approach was associated with fewer conversions compared to VATS, with a trend towards a shorter length of stay compared to an open approach. There were no differences in the 5-year overall survival rate between the matched groups (robotic 93% vs VATS 94%; P = 0.571; robotic 91% vs open 80%; P = 0.094).

CONCLUSIONS:
Over a 4-year study period, there was a significant increase in robotic utilization for thymectomies and an increase in the number of hospitals performing the procedure. In a matched analysis, a robotic approach was comparable to a VATS or an open approach. Current trends demonstrate increased robotic utilization for small thymomas with excellent perioperative results.
China's Energy Diplomacy: Does Chinese Foreign Policy Favor Oil-Producing Countries?
Authors: Lee Chia-yi 
Published: March 2019

AbstractDue to its rapid economic growth and increasing demand for energy, China has engaged in numerous efforts to sustain its energy supplies and enhance its energy security. While existing literature argues that access to energy is oftentimes the driving force behind Beijing's foreign policy behavior, little work has been done to systemically examine the bilateral relationship between China and energy-producing countries. This paper explores how China's foreign policy making is influenced by its energy security concern, focusing on three foreign policy instruments—partnerships, foreign aid, and leadership visits. Using a large-N, quantitative approach, this paper analyzes the effect of oil production on these three foreign policy indicators. The results show that Beijing is more likely to form partnerships with oil-producing countries. Top Chinese leaders are also more likely to travel to countries that produce a higher level of oil. China's aid allocation to Africa is driven by oil abundance as well, although the findings on aid are only valid in the cross-national analysis.