bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Spatial structures and temporal patterns of purse seine fishing effort in the NW Mediterranean Sea estimated using VMS data
Authors: Quattrocchi Federico , Maynou Francesc 
Published: November 2018

AbstractVessel monitoring systems (VMS) represent a tool that can provide information on the spatial and temporal distribution of fishing activity and a quantitative evaluation of the fishing effort at both spatial and temporal scales. The aim of this study was to characterise the spatio‐temporal structure of the Catalan purse seiner fishing effort directed towards anchovy or sardine, which was estimated by filtering VMS data (from 2012 to 2014) by species and seasons. The results showed that the mean location of the fishing effort directed towards anchovy did not vary among the summer seasons, in contrast to the efforts in spring and autumn, whereas the mean location of the effort directed towards sardine was constant over the seasons. The concentration curves indicated that similar fishing effort patterns occurred during all seasons when directed towards sardine, whereas the effort directed towards anchovy was more concentrated in summer. The ranges of the variograms indicated that the fishing effort directed towards both species formed patches. The dimensions of these patches changed from season to season, with the smallest magnitudes during the summer seasons. In this study, a seasonal distribution pattern of the fishing efforts was recognised that adequately captured the features of the distributions of small pelagic populations.
Surface‐water availability governs survival of an amphibian in arid mountain streams
Authors: Zylstra Erin R. , Swann Don E. , Steidl Robert J. 
Published: November 2018

Abstract

Declines in amphibian populations worldwide have been linked to multiple factors, including recent changes in climate. Changes in precipitation, for example, can alter the availability of aquatic resources that are required by many amphibians for successful reproduction and larval development.

Changes in climate have the potential to affect other important demographic parameters, particularly for species that are active year‐round. Therefore, we studied survival of post‐metamorphic (snout‐vent length ≥50 mm) lowland leopard frogs (Lithobates yavapaiensis) in arid mountain canyons, where surface water is limited and its availability can vary markedly within and among years.

Between 2013 and 2015, we surveyed frogs 33–74 times in each of six stream reaches distributed across two catchments in southern Arizona and used capture–recapture methods based on in situ photographs to identify individuals. We used Cormack–Jolly–Seber models to explore how surface‐water availability, weather and vegetation influenced seasonal variation in apparent survival of post‐metamorphic individuals.

Overall, mean annual apparent survival in this dynamic, arid environment was low ( = 0.11, 95% confidence interval = 0.07–0.14). Survival varied with ambient temperature, dew point, perimeter groundcover and year, but especially with changes in surface‐water availability. When water levels were at or near 100% of maximum pool depths, mean monthly survival was high ( ≥ 0.88); when water levels were at 50%, survival decreased modestly ( = 0.81) and when at 20%, survival dropped sharply ( = 0.36).

A decrease in survival of post‐metamorphic frogs in response to severe drought almost certainly contributed to the extirpation of frogs from one catchment in 2015. We anticipate that predicted increases in frequency and severity of drought will decrease the probability that lowland leopard frogs persist in this region over the long‐term, as droughts are expected to increase local extirpations and limit the ability of individuals to disperse through an increasingly arid landscape.
Developing quality criteria for patient‐directed knowledge tools related to clinical practice guidelines. A development and consensus study
Authors: van der Weijden Trudy , Dreesens Dunja , Faber Marjan J. , Bos Nanne , Drenthen Ton , Maas Ingrid , Kersten Sonja , Malanda Uriëll , van der Scheur Sander , Post Heleen , Knops Anouk 
Published: November 2018

AbstractBackgroundPatient‐directed knowledge tools such as patient versions of guidelines and patient decision aids are increasingly developed to facilitate shared decision making. In this paper, we report how consensus was reached within the Netherlands on quality criteria for development, content and governance of these tools.MethodA 12‐month development and consensus study. The consortium worked on four work packages: (a) reviewing existing criteria; (b) drafting the quality criteria; (c) safe‐guarding the acceptability and feasibility of the draft criteria by participatory research in on‐going tool development projects; and (d) gaining formal support from national stakeholders on the quality criteria.ResultsWe reached consensus on a 8‐step guidance; describing minimal quality criteria for (a) the team composition; (b) setting the scope; (c) identifying needs; (d) the content and format; (e) testing the draft; (f) finalizing and approval; (g) dissemination and application, and (h) ownership and revision. The participants of the on‐going tool development projects were positive about the quality criteria in general, but divided as to the degree of detail. Whereas some expressed a clear desire for procedural standards, others felt that it would be sufficient to provide only general directions. Despite the different views as to the degree of detail, consensus was reached in three stakeholder meetings.DiscussionWe successfully collaborated with all stakeholders and achieved formal support from national stakeholders on a set of minimum criteria for the development process, content and governance of patient‐directed knowledge tools.
Atopic dermatitis: the relationship to temperature and seasonality in the United States
Authors: Fleischer Alan B. 
Published: November 2018

AbstractBackgroundClimatologic factors may affect atopic dermatitis (AD), and there have been few explorations into this topic. Because of its size, the United States (US) has a broad range of climates. The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between ambulatory office visits physicians for AD with temperature and season.MethodsUS region‐specific satellite‐derived data air temperature from the North America Land Data Assimilation System from 1993 to 2011 were studied in relation with ambulatory AD visits to all physicians from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.ResultsOver the 19‐year study period, in no regional location in the US is there clear evidence of a winter flare of AD. The greatest numbers of visits occur in May and June, and smaller peaks also occur in January and October. As the ambient air temperature increases, the likelihood of an AD visit rises (P < .0001). In the South, the hottest US climate, summer is responsible for substantially more AD visits. In every other region and the US overall, the largest number of AD visits occur in spring. AD visits appear to display regional variation in comparing the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West.ConclusionsIncreased temperatures predict increased likelihood of AD office visits.
Multi‐centre ethics and research governance review can impede non‐interventional clinical research
Authors: Duplancic Christine , Crough Tania , Bell Scott C. ,   for the Australian Non‐tuberculous Mycobacteria in Cystic Fibrosis Study Group
Published: November 2018

AbstractBackgroundThe inter‐jurisdictional National Mutual Acceptance (NMA) scheme for Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approvals of human research is designed to reduce the reported delays and costs of ethical review. Introduction of the NMA set forth an uncoupling of the ethics and governance review processes, permitting a single ethical review for multiple sites, while continuing separate governance review for each centre covering financial and operational aspects of the research project.AimTo compare the time required to gain ethics and governance approvals in Australia for a non‐interventional investigator‐led study from December 2015 to approval times for an earlier pre‐NMA study utilising a similar study design and study sites and evaluate the effect that the NMA has had on total approval time for non‐interventional multi‐centre projects.MethodsWe recorded the time taken to obtain ethics and governance approval at 16 sites for our nationwide low‐risk non‐interventional study looking at the prevalence and aetiology of non‐tuberculous mycobacterial infection in people with cystic fibrosis in Australia.ResultsApplications were submitted to three hospitals and one university HREC to conduct our study at 16 hospital sites, HREC approval took from 16 to 79 days (median 28). Subsequent site‐specific governance approval at 15 hospital sites took 23–225 days (median 83). The entire process of gaining ethical and governance approval to conduct the study at 16 sites took 24 months at an estimated cost of AU$56000 (US$ 42 000).ConclusionLengthy governance approval processes negate benefits gained from centralised ethics review under the NMA.
Projection‐Based Inference in Randomised Clinical Trials
Authors: Zhang Biao 
Published: November 2018

SummaryCovariate information is often available in randomised clinical trials for each subject prior to treatment assignment and is commonly utilised to make covariate adjustment for baseline characteristics predictive of the outcome in order to increase precision and improve power in the detection of a treatment effect. Motivated by a nonparametric covariance analysis, we study a projection approach to making objective covariate adjustment in randomised clinical trials on the basis of two unbiased estimating functions that decouple the outcome and covariate data. The proposed projection approach extends a weighted least‐squares procedure by projecting one of the estimating functions onto the linear subspace spanned by the other estimating function that is E‐ancillary for the average treatment effect. Compared with the weighted least‐squares method, the projection method allows for objective inference on the average treatment effect by exploiting the treatment specific covariate–outcome associations. The resulting projection‐based estimator of the average treatment effect is asymptotically efficient when the treatment‐specific working regression models are correctly specified and is asymptotically more efficient than other existing competitors when the treatment‐specific working regression models are misspecified. The proposed projection method is illustrated by an analysis of data from an HIV clinical trial. In a simulation study, we show that the proposed projection method compares favourably with its competitors in finite samples.
Betulinic acid induces apoptosis and suppresses metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Wang Wei , Wang Yang , Liu Mingxing , Zhang Yifan , Yang Tao , Li Dongsheng , Huang Yinpeng , Li Qing , Bai Guang , Shi Linlin 
Published: November 2018

AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a high incidence and mortality malignant tumour globally. Betulinic acid (BA) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid with potential pro‐apoptotic activities which widely found in many plants. In this study, we determined the effects of BA on proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis in HCC cell lines and on tumour growth and pulmonary metastasis in mice. The results suggested that BA could inhibit cell viability and proliferation of HCC cell lines including HepG2, LM3, and MHCC97H. In addition, BA induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells characterised condensed nuclei and nuclear fragmentation. Moreover, western blot analysis showed that BA‐induced apoptosis associated with increasing of pro‐apoptotic protein Bax and cleaved caspase‐3 and decreasing of anti‐apoptotic protein Bcl‐2. Meanwhile, BA also reduced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. Furthermore, BA also significantly inhibited HCC growth in vivo and blocked pulmonary metastasis of HCC by regulating the metastasis‐related proteins including MMP‐2, MMP‐9, and TIMP2 without obvious toxicity. In all, the present study suggested that BA might be a promising anti‐HCC drug candidate by inhibiting proliferation, inducing apoptosis, and blocking metastasis.
Use of organic acids for preservation and safety of traditional meat products
Authors: Mir Sajad Ahmad , Masoodi Farooq Ahmad 
Published: November 2018

AbstractThe present study was designed to evaluate effect of sodium acetate (SA) on various quality attributes of rista (meat ball). Rista was treated with SA at 1% (SA1), 2% (SA2), and 3% (SA3) level, while as rista without addition of SA acted as control. Treated rista maintained significantly lower (p ≤ .05) value of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and free fatty acid (FFA) value as compared to control rista during storage. SA3 recorded the lowest value of TBARS (0.41 mg MDA/kg) as compared to SA2 (0.65 mg MDA/kg), SA1 (0.87 mg MDA/kg) and control (1.45 mg MDA/kg). The FFA value at the 15 day of storage for control rista was 0.98%, followed by SA1 (0.63%), SA2 (0.51%), and SA3 (0.39%) samples. Total plate count was significantly higher (p  ≤ 0.05) in control (6.82 cfu/g) as compared to SA1 (4.56 cfu/g), SA2 (3.08 cfu/g), and SA3 (2.35 cfu/g).Practical applicationsSpoilage of the traditional meat products is a major challenge in front of meat industry and results huge economic loss. Different preservation techniques are in practice to reduce the spoilage and enhance the safety of these meat products. Use of organic acids/salts as a preservative is one of the options to minimize the spoilage, with least impact on various quality attributes. Application of the organic acids/salts in the traditional meat products needs to be technologically up graded and authenticated.
Cell viability in three ex vivo rat models of spinal cord injury
Authors: Patar Azim , Dockery Peter , Howard Linda , McMahon Siobhan S. 
Published: November 2018

AbstractSpinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating disorder that has a poor prognosis of recovery. Animal models of SCI are useful to understand the pathophysiology of SCI and the potential use of therapeutic strategies for human SCI. Ex vivo models of central nervous system (CNS) trauma, particularly mechanical trauma, have become important tools to complement in vivo models of injury in order to reproduce the sequelae of human CNS injury. Ex vivo organotypic slice cultures (OSCs) provide a reliable model platform for the study of cell dynamics and therapeutic intervention following SCI. In addition, these ex vivo models support the 3R concept of animal use in SCI research – replacement, reduction and refinement. Ex vivo models cannot be used to monitor functional recovery, nor do they have the intact blood supply of the in vivo model systems. However, the ex vivo models appear to reproduce many of the post traumatic events including acute and secondary injury mechanisms. Several well‐established OSC models have been developed over the past few years for experimental spinal injuries ex vivo in order to understand the biological response to injury. In this study, we investigated cell viability in three ex vivo OSC models of SCI: stab injury, transection injury and contusion injury. Injury was inflicted in postnatal day 4 rat spinal cord slices. Stab injury was performed using a needle on transverse slices of spinal cord. Transection injury was performed on longitudinal slices of spinal cord using a double blade technique. Contusion injury was performed on longitudinal slices of spinal cord using an Infinite Horizon impactor device. At days 3 and 10 post‐injury, viability was measured using dual staining for propidium iodide and fluorescein diacetate. In all ex vivo SCI models, the slices showed more live cells than dead cells over 10 days in culture, with higher cell viability in control slices compared with injured slices. Although no change in cell viability was observed between time‐points in stab‐ and contusion‐injured OSCs, a reduction in cell viability was observed over time in transection‐injured OSCs. Taken together, ex vivo SCI models are a useful and reliable research tool that reduces the cost and time involved in carrying out animal studies. The use of OSC models provides a simple way to study the cellular consequences following SCI, and they can also be used to investigate potential therapeutics regimes for the treatment of SCI.
Comparative transcriptomes and development of expressed sequence tag‐simple sequence repeat markers for two closely related oak species
Authors: Sun Jing‐Jing , Zhou Tao , Zhang Rui‐Ting , Jia Yun , Zhao Yue‐Mei , Yang Jia , Zhao Gui‐Fang 
Published: November 2018

AbstractQuercus species comprise the major genera in the family Fagaceae and they are widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. Many Quercus species, including several endemics, are distributed in China. Genetic resources have been established for the important genera but few transcriptomes are available for Quercus species in China. In this study, we used Illumina paired‐end sequencing to obtain the transcriptomes of two oak species, Q. liaotungensis Koidz. and Q. mongolica Fisch. ex Turcz. Approximately 24 million reads were generated and then a total of 103 618 unigenes were obtained after assembly for both species. Comparative transcriptome analyses of both species identified a total of 12 981 orthologous contigs. The Ka/Ks estimation and enrichment analysis indicated that 1179 (9.08%) orthologs showed rapid evolution, and most of these orthologs were related to functions comprising “DNA repair”, “response to cold”, and “response to drought”. This findings could provide some insights into how these two closely related Quercus species adapted to extreme environments characterized by aridity and cold. The divergence time (approximately 4.27–5.93 Mya) between the two Quercus species was estimated according to the Ks distribution. Moreover, 16 608 simple sequence repeat loci were detected and 12 363 primer pairs were designed. Subsequently, 158 of the 12 363 primer pairs were randomly selected to test the polymorphisms and 92 of the primer pairs were successfully amplified in the two oak species. The resultant orthologs and simple sequence repeat markers are valuable for genetic differentiation analyses and evolutionary studies of Quercus.
Molecular and morphological evidence for a new species of liverwort, Lejeunea heinrichsii (Marchantiophyta: Lejeuneaceae) from Taveuni, Fiji
Authors: Lee Gaik Ee , Bechteler Julia , Pócs Tamás , Schäfer‐Verwimp Alfons 
Published: November 2018

AbstractA new species from Fiji, Lejeunea heinrichsii is described and illustrated herein based on morphological characters and molecular phylogenetic analyses. The taxonomic descriptions of L. heinrichsii and the comparison with their allies are presented, together with the Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of two chloroplast regions (trnL‐trnF, rbcL) and the nuclear ribosomal ITS region. This delicate and rather minute species is characterized by its autoicy, eplicate perianths, the oblong‐rectangular leaf lobes, the distantly arranged underleaves with lobes to 1/2‐2/3 underleaf length, and the leaf cells without well‐developed trigones and intermediate thickenings. In the molecular phylogeny, L. heinrichsii is placed sister to the Asian L. compressiuscula from Indonesia and forms an independent lineage including accessions of Neotropical L. adpressa from the Dominican Republic and the widespread Palaeotropical L. anisophylla from São Tomé and Príncipe. Morphologically, L. heinrichsii is very similar to L. capensis, however the result based on the molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the two species are very distinct.
Oil Prices and Personal Consumption Expenditures: Does the Source of the Shock Matter?
Authors: Alsalman Zeina N. , Karaki Mohamad B. 
Published: November 2018

AbstractThis paper studies the effect of structural oil shocks on personal consumption expenditures (PCE). First, we estimate a nonlinear simultaneous equation model, compute impulse responses by Monte Carlo integration, and conduct a test of the symmetry of the impulse response functions. We find that aggregate PCE responds asymmetrically to positive and negative oil‐specific demand shocks. Second, we find that aggregate PCE responds negatively to positive oil demand shocks, while adverse oil supply shocks are of limited effect. Third, we find important heterogeneity in the magnitude, sign and timing of the disaggregate PCE responses to structural shocks in the crude oil market. Our results clearly indicate that the response of PCE to an unexpected oil price increase depends on the source of the oil price shock. Our findings are robust to different nonlinear transformations for the real price of oil.
Experimental Evaluation of Mail Questionnaires in a Probability Sample on Victimization
Authors: Michael Brick J. , Lohr Sharon 
Published: November 2018

AbstractExperiments to evaluate questionnaires or methods for data collection are often conducted in the context of a probability sample that collects data from various primary sampling units or sites. Statistics used to evaluate treatment effects for these experiments have different interpretations and variances in different inferential frameworks. We discuss four frameworks for inference about treatment effects: inference to the finite population, to a superpopulation of future sites, to the mean of the site treatment effects and to individual respondents. For each framework, we consider the parameters of interest, the properties of statistics used to estimate those parameters, and the optimal design for the experiment. We consider the four inferential frameworks for an experiment conducted on a mail survey measuring criminal victimization and community attitudes towards law enforcement. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the frameworks could be applied to other experiments.
Could a national oral health promotion program improve the oral hygiene of persons attending special care establishments in France? Evaluation of a pilot program
Authors: Catteau Céline , Faulks Denise , Pereira Bruno , Hennequin Martine 
Published: November 2018

AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an oral health promotion intervention implemented in special care establishments by dentists trained online. Twenty‐six dentists intervening in 27 French special care establishments undertook a standardised oral health promotion intervention, including a conference presentation for care staff and hands‐on toothbrushing workshops. Oral hygiene status of the residents was performed at baseline and at 6 months, and were compared using the McNemar test. Mixed logistic regression was performed to identify the factors associated with an improvement of dental plaque removal. The oral health intervention was completed by 890 residents: 445 children, 373 adults and 72 elderly adults. At baseline, dental plaque was observed for 79.8% of the 797 dentate residents. Among the 691 dentate residents included in the final analysis, dental plaque removal was improved for 34%. Improvement in dental plaque removal was recorded more often for the group of 13 to 20‐year‐old residents (OR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.15–3.38). The results indicate that this programme failed to significantly improve the dental plaque removal of the residents. More research is needed to understand the limiting factors of such interventions.