bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness of Coblation compared with cold steel tonsillectomies in the UK
Authors: Guest J F , Rana K , Hopkins C 
Published: January 2019

AbstractObjectiveThis study aimed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of Coblation compared with cold steel tonsillectomy in adult and paediatric patients in the UK.MethodDecision analysis was undertaken by combining published clinical outcomes with resource utilisation estimates derived from a panel of clinicians.ResultsUsing a cold steel procedure instead of Coblation is expected to generate an incremental cost of more than £2000 for each additional avoided haemorrhage, and the probability of cold steel being cost-effective was approximately 0.50. Therefore, the cost-effectiveness of the two techniques was comparable. When the published clinical outcomes were replaced with clinicians’ estimates of current practice, Coblation was found to improve outcome for less cost, and the probability of Coblation being cost-effective was at least 0.70.ConclusionA best-case scenario suggests Coblation affords the National Health Service a cost-effective intervention for tonsillectomy in adult and paediatric patients compared with cold steel procedures. A worst-case scenario suggests Coblation affords the National Health Service an equivalent cost-effective intervention for adult and paediatric patients.
The changes in different symptom scores during subcutaneous immunotherapy in Chinese house dust mite allergic patients: a two-year, observational study
Authors: Tu Y , Zhang H , Zhao L , Jin P , Zi X , Li T , Shi L , Zhi L 
Published: January 2019

AbstractBackgroundSubcutaneous immunotherapy is an effective and safe treatment for allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Different symptom scores are used to evaluate the efficacy of subcutaneous immunotherapy in clinical trials.MethodA total of 58 allergic rhinitis patients sensitised to house dust mites, with or without mild asthma, were included. Symptom score, medication score, visual analogue scale score and quality of life were assessed before and after 6, 12 and 24 months of subcutaneous immunotherapy.ResultsAfter two years of subcutaneous immunotherapy, asthma symptom scores nearly reached zero, whereas the scores remained higher for nasal symptoms. The changes in asthma symptom scores were markedly different (p &lt; 0.05) and occurred faster than the changes in nasal symptom scores when compared between monosensitised and polysensitised groups. Significant reductions in visual analogue scale score and medication score were demonstrated after subcutaneous immunotherapy.ConclusionTwo-year subcutaneous immunotherapy with house dust mite vaccine is an effective treatment for both monosensitised and polysensitised allergic patients. The changes in asthma symptom scores were markedly different and occurred quicker than the changes in nasal symptom scores in Chinese house dust mite allergic patients.
Can psychological features predict antidepressant response to rTMS? A Discovery–Replication approach
Authors: Krepel Noralie , Rush A. John , Iseger Tabitha A. , Sack Alexander T. , Arns Martijn 
Published: January 2019

AbstractBackgroundFew studies focused on the relationship between psychological measures, major depressive disorder (MDD) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) response. This study investigated several psychological measures as potential predictors for rTMS treatment response. Additionally, this study employed two approaches to evaluate the robustness of our findings by implementing immediate replication and full-sample exploration with strictp-thresholding.MethodsThis study is an open-label, multi-site study with a total of 196 MDD patients. The sample was subdivided in a Discovery (60% of total sample,n= 119) and Replication sample (40% of total sample,n= 77). Patients were treated with right low frequency (1 Hz) or left high frequency (10 Hz) rTMS at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Clinical variables [Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Five-Factor Inventory, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and BDI subscales] were obtained at baseline, post-treatment, and at follow-up. Predictors were analyzed in terms of statistical association, robustness (independent replication), as well as for their clinical relevance [positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV)].ResultsUnivariate analyses revealed that non-responders had higher baseline anhedonia scores. Anhedonia scores at baseline correlated negatively with total BDI percentage change over time. This finding was replicated. However, anhedonia scores showed to be marginally predictive of rTMS response, and neither PPV nor NPV reached the levels of clinical relevance.ConclusionsThis study suggests that non-responders to rTMS treatment have higher baseline anhedonia scores. However, anhedonia was only marginally predictive of rTMS response. Since all other psychological measures did not show predictive value, it is concluded that psychological measures cannot be used as clinically relevant predictors to rTMS response in MDD.
From dual systems to dual function: rethinking methodological foundations of behavioural economics
Authors: Herrmann-Pillath Carsten 
Published: January 2019

AbstractBuilding on an overview of dual systems theories in behavioural economics, the paper presents a methodological assessment in terms of the mechanistic explanations framework that has gained prominence in philosophy of the neurosciences. I conclude that they fail to meet the standards of causal explanations and I suggest an alternative ‘dual functions’ view based on Marr’s methodology of computational neuroscience. Recent psychological and neuroscience research undermines the case for a categorization of brain processes in terms of properties such as relative speed. I defend an interpretation of dualities as functional, without assigning them to specific neurophysiological structures.
Impaired systolic and diastolic left ventricular function in children and adolescents with congenital adrenal hyperplasia receiving corticosteroid therapy
Authors: Tuhan Hale , Demircan Tülay , Altıncık Ayca , Çatlı Gönül , Kızılca Özgür , Egeli Tuğba , Kır Mustafa , Can Şule , Dündar Bumin , Böber Ece , Abacı Ayhan 
Published: January 2019

AbstractAimThe present study aimed to evaluate systolic and diastolic myocardial function in children and adolescents with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.MethodsThe study included 44 children with the diagnosis of classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia and 39 healthy children whose age, pubertal status, and gender were similar to those of the patient group. Anthropometric parameters and 17-hydroxyprogesterone levels were measured, and bone age was calculated. The average daily hydrocortisone dose was calculated over the last 1-year file records. Hyperandrogenic state was defined according to bone age SD score (⩾2) and 17-hydroxyprogesterone levels (>10 ng/ml). Echocardiographic examinations were assessed by conventional two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging.ResultsPatients had higher morphological parameters, such as left ventricular end-systolic diameter, interventricular septal thickness at end diastole, left ventricular posterior wall thickness at end diastole, left ventricular mass and index, than the control group (p<0.05). On pulsed-wave and tissue Doppler echocardiography, significant subclinical alterations were observed in systolic (isovolumic contraction time), diastolic (isovolumic relaxation time), and global left ventricular functional (myocardial performance index) parameters in the congenital adrenal hyperplasia group compared to the control group (p<0.05). In partial correlation analyses, after controlling the effect of hyperandrogenism, the mean hydrocortisone dosage was positively correlated with isovolumic relaxation time in congenital adrenal hyperplasia group (p<0.05).ConclusionThis study demonstrated that the patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia are at risk for left ventricular hypertrophy, systolic and diastolic myocardial subclinical alterations. Overtreatment may be responsible for the increased risk of myocardial dysfunction in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
Cover Crop Termination Treatment Impacts Weed Suppression Potential
Authors: Haramoto Erin R. , Pearce Robert 
Published: January 2019

AbstractWeed management in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacumL.) is accomplished primarily with soil-residual herbicides, cultivation, and hand removal. Management practices that reduce weed emergence, like reduced tillage and cover crop mulches, may improve weed management efficacy. Depending on cover-cropping goals, growers face trade-offs in species selection and management priorities—producing weed-suppressive mulches may lead to transplanting difficulties and soil-residual herbicide interception. Managing more complex cover crop mixtures may result in different challenges. We established on-farm trials across 4 site-years to study impacts of cover crop composition [wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) monoculture or mixture], termination treatment (early or late chemical termination or removing aboveground biomass), and soil-residual herbicides on weed density and biomass. The cover crop mixture contained cereal rye (Secale cerealeL.), crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatumL.), and hairy vetch (Vicia villosaRoth.), with canola (Brassica napusL.) at 1 site-year. The mixture typically produced more biomass than monoculture wheat, although composition had few impacts on weed density or biomass. With residual herbicides, termination treatment had few impacts on weed density, suggesting that residues did not adversely affect herbicide efficacy. Without residual herbicides, early-season weed density was often higher following the late-terminated cover crop compared with other termination treatments, though midseason weed density was typically lower. When termination treatment affected final weed biomass, it was lower following late termination, with one exception—crop establishment was reduced at 1 site-year, leading to reduced weed–crop competition and greater weed biomass. Our results suggest that growers can use mixtures and, if well-timed to a rainfall event for incorporation, still effectively use soil-residual herbicides to maintain adequate weed control in tobacco regardless of how the cover crop is managed. Later termination, resulting in more residue, may lead to less weed biomass accumulation in the absence of herbicide use.
Atmospheric Moisture Measurements Explain Increases in Tropical Rainfall Extremes
Authors: Roderick Thomas P. , Wasko Conrad , Sharma Ashish 
Published: January 2019

AbstractAnthropogenic climate change is increasing extreme rainfall as a result of an increased water‐holding capacity of the atmosphere due to higher temperatures. However, observed rainfall‐temperature scaling relationships often differ from the theorized increases in moisture‐holding capacity. This discrepancy is most evident in the tropics, where higher surface temperatures show a marked decrease in extreme rainfall intensity despite observed increases in extreme rainfall. Here we use atmospheric moisture measurements from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder with surface data to investigate the tropical rainfall‐temperature scaling relationship. We show rainfall intensity scales positively with integrated water vapor in all regions. Further, integrated water vapor does not consistently scale positively with surface air temperature and its dependence on background temperature offers a physical explanation for the apparent negative scaling. We conclude that the inconsistent relationship between surface air temperature and moisture is the reason for the “apparent” negative scaling consistently found in the tropics.
TAZ couples Hippo/Wnt signalling and insulin sensitivity through Irs1 expression
Authors: Hwang Jun-Ha , Kim A Rum , Kim Kyung Min , Il Park Jung , Oh Ho Taek , Moon Sung A , Byun Mi Ran , Jeong Hana , Kim Hyo Kyung , Yaffe Michael B. , Hwang Eun Sook , Hong Jeong-Ho 
Published: January 2019

AbstractInsulin regulates blood glucose levels by binding its receptor and stimulating downstream proteins through the insulin receptor substrate (IRS). Impaired insulin signalling leads to metabolic syndrome, but the regulation of this process is not well understood. Here, we describe a novel insulin signalling regulatory pathway involving TAZ. TAZ upregulates IRS1 and stimulates Akt- and Glut4-mediated glucose uptake in muscle cells. Muscle-specific TAZ-knockout mice shows significantly decreased Irs1 expression and insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, TAZ is required for Wnt signalling-induced Irs1 expression, as observed by decreased Irs1 expression and insulin sensitivity in muscle-specific APC- and TAZ-double-knockout mice. TAZ physically interacts with c-Jun and Tead4 to induce Irs1 transcription. Finally, statin administration decreases TAZ, IRS1 level and insulin sensitivity. However, in myoblasts, the statin-mediated decrease in insulin sensitivity is counteracted by the expression of a constitutively active TAZ mutant. These results suggest that TAZ is a novel insulin signalling activator that increases insulin sensitivity and couples Hippo/Wnt signalling and insulin sensitivity.
Experience of adverse events with cerebral propofol testing in patients with drug resistant epilepsy
Authors: Szantroch Marta , Bala Aleksandra , Rysz Andrzej , Żyłkowski Jarosław , Marchel Andrzej 
Published: January 2019

AbstractThe aim of this study was to assess the type and frequency of adverse events during the Wada test conducted with propofol as an anaesthetic agent. In total, 122 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy underwent the Wada test with propofol between 2006 and 2016 as part of presurgical evaluation at the Department of Neurosurgery of the Medical University of Warsaw. The Wada test was conducted bilaterally on 118 patients (236 cases). In four cases, due to complications, the test was conducted only unilaterally, which resulted in a total of 240 cases. Those cases were further analysed for the presence of adverse events. In all cases, intracranial circulation angiography (via the transfemoral approach) was performed before memory and language testing. Of the 122 patients, adverse events were observed in 75 patients (61.4%). Serious complications were notably rare and observed only in two patients (1.6%): one patient had a carotid artery dissection, and the other had a pseudoaneurysm at the puncture site. Mild adverse events (e.g., shivers or pain of the eye) were highly common – we observed them in 71 patients (58%), but they were short-term and well-tolerated by the subjects. Two patients (1.6%) had a seizure during the Wada test. Most of the adverse events occurring during the Wada test with propofol were mild and short-lived. Considering a small risk of serious damage to health, this procedure can be perceived as a good method for assessing language and memory in a fraction of the epilepsy surgery candidates.
The time course of auditory looming cues in redirecting visuo-spatial attention
Authors: Glatz Christiane , Chuang Lewis L. 
Published: January 2019

AbstractBy orienting attention, auditory cues can improve the discrimination of spatially congruent visual targets. Looming sounds that increase in intensity are processed preferentially by the brain. Thus, we investigated whether auditory looming cues can orient visuo-spatial attention more effectively than static and receding sounds. Specifically, different auditory cues could redirect attention away from a continuous central visuo-motor tracking task to peripheral visual targets that appeared occasionally. To investigate the time course of crossmodal cuing, Experiment 1 presented visual targets at different time-points across a 500 ms auditory cue’s presentation. No benefits were found for simultaneous audio-visual cue-target presentation. The largest crossmodal benefit occurred at early cue-target asynchrony onsets (i.e., CTOA = 250 ms), regardless of auditory cue type, which diminished at CTOA = 500 ms for static and receding cues. However, auditory looming cues showed a late crossmodal cuing benefit at CTOA = 500 ms. Experiment 2 showed that this late auditory looming cue benefit was independent of the cue’s intensity when the visual target appeared. Thus, we conclude that the late crossmodal benefit throughout an auditory looming cue’s presentation is due to its increasing intensity profile. The neural basis for this benefit and its ecological implications are discussed.
Porous flower-like superstructures based on self-assembled colloidal quantum dots for sensing
Authors: Stepanidenko Evgeniia A. , Gromova Yulia A. , Kormilina Tatiana K. , Cherevkov Sergei A. , Kurshanov Danil A. , Dubavik Aliaksei , Baranov Mikhail A. , Medvedev Oleg S. , Fedorov Anatoly V. , Gun’ko Yurii K. , Ushakova Elena V. , Baranov Alexander V. 
Published: January 2019

AbstractQuantum dots (QDs) have been envisaged as very promising materials for the development of advanced optical sensors. Here we report a new highly porous luminescent material based on colloidal QDs for potential applications in optical sensing devices. Bulk flower-like porous structures with sizes of hundreds of microns have been produced by slow destabilization of QD solution in the presence of a non-solvent vapor. The porous highly luminescent material was formed from CdSe QDs using the approach of non-solvent destabilization. This material demonstrated a 4-fold decrease in PL signal in the presence of the ammonia vapor. The relationship between the destabilization rate of QDs in solution and the resulting morphology of structural elements has been established. The proposed model of bulk porous flower-like nanostructured material fabrication can be applied to nanoparticles of different nature combining their unique properties. This research opens up a new approach to design novel multi-component composite materials enabling potential performance improvements of various photonic devices.
Precision of a Novel Craniofacial Surgical Navigation System Based on Augmented Reality Using an Occlusal Splint as a Registration Strategy
Authors: Jiang Taoran , Zhu Ming , Chai Gang , Li Qingfeng 
Published: January 2019

AbstractThe authors have developed a novel augmented reality (AR)-based navigation system (NS) for craniofacial surgery. In this study, the authors aimed to measure the precision of the system and further analyze the primary influencing factors of the precision. The drilling of holes into the mandibles of ten beagle dogs was performed under the AR-based NS, and the precision was analyzed by comparing the deviation between the preoperational plan and the surgical outcome. The AR-based NS was successfully applied to quickly and precisely drill holes in the mandibles. The mean positional deviation between the preoperative design and intraoperative navigation was 1.29 ± 0.70 mm for the entry points and 2.47 ± 0.66 mm for the end points, and the angular deviation was 1.32° ± 1.17°. The precision linearly decreased with the distance from the marker. In conclusion, the precision of this system could satisfy clinical requirements, and this system may serve as a helpful tool for improving the precision in craniofacial surgery.
The interplay between prematurity, maternal stress and children’s intelligence quotient at age 11: A longitudinal study
Authors: Turpin Hélène , Urben Sébastien , Ansermet François , Borghini Ayala , Murray Micah M. , Müller-Nix Carole 
Published: January 2019

AbstractVery premature children (<33 weeks of gestational age (GA)) experience greater academic difficulties and have lower, though normal-range, intelligence quotients (IQs) versus their full-term peers. These differences are often attributed to GA or familial socio-economic status (SES). However, additional factors are increasingly recognized as likely contributors. Parental stress after a child’s premature birth can present as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and can in turn reinforce difficulties in parent-child interaction pattern. Following a longitudinal design, we studied the interplay between a premature child’s perinatal history and maternal PTSD symptoms on intelligence abilities assessed at 11 years of age. Thirty-three very preterm and 21 full-term mother-children dyads partook in the study. Children’s perinatal risk was evaluated at hospital discharge, maternal PTSD symptoms were assessed when the children were 18 months old, and children’s IQ was measured at 11 years old. IQ was significantly lower for preterm than full-term children, without reliable influences from perinatal risk scores. However, lower maternal PTSD symptoms predicted higher IQ in preterm children. This preliminary study highlights the importance detecting maternal PTSD symptoms after a preterm birth and suggests interventions should target reducing maternal PTSD symptoms during early childhood to enhance very preterm children’s intelligence development.
Deposition of calcium in an in vitro model of human breast tumour calcification reveals functional role for ALP activity, altered expression of osteogenic genes and dysregulation of the TRPM7 ion channel
Authors: O’Grady Shane , Morgan Maria P. 
Published: January 2019

AbstractMicrocalcifications are vital mammographic indicators contributing to the early detection of up to 50% of non-palpable tumours and may also be valuable as prognostic markers. However, the precise mechanism by which they form remains incompletely understood. Following development of an in vitro model using human breast cancer cells lines cultured with a combination of mineralisation-promoting reagents, analysis of calcium deposition, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and changes in expression of key genes was used to monitor the calcification process. Two cell lines were identified as successfully mineralising in vitro, MDA-MB-231 and SKBR3. Mineralising cell lines displayed higher levels of ALP activity that was further increased by addition of mineralisation promoting media. qPCR analysis revealed changes in expression of both pro- (RUNX2) and anti- (MGP, ENPP1) mineralisation genes. Mineralisation was suppressed by chelation of intracellular Ca2+ and inhibition of TRPM7, demonstrating a functional role for the channel in formation of microcalcifications. Increased Mg2+ was also found to effectively reduce calcium deposition. These results expand the number of human breast cancer cell lines with a demonstrated in vitro mineralisation capability, provide further evidence for the role of an active, cellular process of microcalcification formation and demonstrate for the first time a role for TRPM7 mediated Ca2+ transport.