bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the effectiveness of risk minimization measures for trimetazidine: A cross sectional joint PASS survey among physicians in selected European countries
Authors: von Bredow Dorothea , Toussi Massoud , Samad Abdus , Kaplan Sigal , Domahidy Mónika , de Voogd Hanka , Böhmert Stella , Ramos Rita Silveira , Arora Deepa 
Published: October 2018

AbstractPurposeIn 2012, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) restricted prescription of trimetazidine (TMZ) to “add‐on therapy for patients with stable angina pectoris who are inadequately controlled by or intolerant to first‐line therapies.” TMZ was no longer indicated for ophthalmology and otolaryngology. Risk minimization measure (RMM) was communicated to physicians. The survey presented here evaluated effectiveness of the RMM and assessed physicians knowledge and compliance with RMM. It also analyzed actual prescribing pattern of TMZ.MethodsA cross sectional, web‐based survey was developed and conducted among prescribing physicians of TMZ across 12 European countries. Physicians' samples were weighted to account for the actual proportion of specialties within and across countries.ResultsUsing weighted samples, data from 1123 physicians and 8332 prescriptions were analyzed. Most (74.0%) of the physicians assumed stable angina pectoris to be an indication for TMZ. Three quarter of (75.7%) of these physicians were aware of the approved indication. Vertigo (62.1%), tinnitus (42.5%), declined visual acuity, and visual field disturbances (45.1%) were also presumed to be approved indications for TMZ, and physicians actually prescribed for these indications. Only 29.8% of the physicians remembered receiving RMM communications regarding TMZ. Most (90.5%) of the physicians expressed their interest to know and comply with the safety communications. Of all prescriptions, 33.9% were issued for add‐on therapy for patients with stable angina pectoris.ConclusionsRMM for TMZ prescription have been moderately effective. Improvement in physician's compliance with safety information of TMZ is necessary for patient's safety.
Who diagnosed and prescribed what? Using provider details to inform observational research
Authors: Bushnell Greta A. , Stürmer Til , Mack Christina , Pate Virginia , Miller Matthew 
Published: October 2018

AbstractPurposeTo describe how often patients with depression initiating antidepressants receive their depression diagnosis and prescriptions from the same provider and, when simultaneously initiating benzodiazepines, how often both prescriptions come from the same provider.MethodsUsing a US healthcare claims database, we created a cohort of adults (18‐64 years) with a depression diagnosis who initiated antidepressants. We examined concordance by provider specialty and provider identifier between (a) the first antidepressant prescription fill and most proximal depression diagnosis, and (b) the initial antidepressant and benzodiazepine prescription fills among simultaneous benzodiazepine and antidepressant initiators.ResultsAmong 245 166 antidepressant initiators with a recent depression diagnosis (female = 67%; median age = 39), the specialty of the provider assigning the depression diagnosis matched the antidepressant prescriber's specialty in 94% of cases with known provider details (provider identifier concordance = 93%). Concordance was higher for adults diagnosed by a general practitioner (98%) or psychiatrist (92%) than for those diagnosed by a psychologist (74%). In simultaneous new users of antidepressants and benzodiazepines (n = 19 371), both prescriptions were issued by the same provider specialty and provider identifier 94% and 93% of the time, respectively.ConclusionsThe vast majority of patients who received antidepressant prescriptions and depression diagnoses appear to have received both diagnosis and antidepressants from the same provider, suggesting that when antidepressants are issued around the time a patient is diagnosed with depression, the antidepressant was likely prescribed for depression. In addition, the great majority of patients who simultaneously initiate benzodiazepines appear to do so under the direction of one provider.
PLUG (Pruning of Local Unrealistic Geometries) removes restrictions on biophysical modeling for protein design
Authors: Hallen Mark A. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractProtein design algorithms must search an enormous conformational space to identify favorable conformations. As a result, those that perform this search with guarantees of accuracy generally start with a conformational pruning step, such as dead‐end elimination (DEE). However, the mathematical assumptions of DEE‐based pruning algorithms have up to now severely restricted the biophysical model that can feasibly be used in protein design. To lift these restrictions, I propose to prune local unrealistic geometries (PLUG) using a linear programming‐based method. PLUG's biophysical model consists only of well‐known lower bounds on interatomic distances. PLUG is intended as preprocessing for energy‐based protein design calculations, whose biophysical model need not support DEE pruning. Based on 96 test cases, PLUG is at least as effective at pruning as DEE for larger protein designs—the type that most require pruning. When combined with the LUTE protein design algorithm, PLUG greatly facilitates designs that account for continuous entropy, large multistate designs with continuous flexibility, and designs with extensive continuous backbone flexibility and advanced nonpairwise energy functions. Many of these designs are tractable only with PLUG, either for empirical reasons (LUTE's machine learning step achieves an accurate fit only after PLUG pruning), or for theoretical reasons (many energy functions are fundamentally incompatible with DEE).
The vitellogenin receptor has an essential role in vertical transmission of rice stripe virus during oogenesis in the small brown plant hopper
Authors: He Kang , Lin Kejian , Ding Simin , Wang Guirong , Li Fei 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe small brown plant hopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus Fallén, is one of the most destructive pests on rice. This pest transmits rice stripe virus (RSV) both horizontally and vertically, leading to major yield and economic losses in rice production. However, the way that RSV particles enter oocytes of SBPH remains largely unknown. Thus, identification of key factors involved in the interaction between SBPH and RSV in the ovary is crucial.RESULTSTranscriptome of non‐viruliferous (NV) or high viruliferous (HV) SBPH ovaries at 24 and 48 h of emergence was sequenced. Differentially expressed genes analysis showed that vitellogenin receptor was significantly highly expressed in the ovary of the HV SBPH strains compared to NV strains. Quantitative real‐time polymer chain reaction showed that the vitellogenin receptor in L. striatellus (LsVgR) was highly expressed in the ovaries of female adults and maintained a high level of expression at the early stage of ovary development. By using RNA interference, the expression of LsVgR in the ovaries of the HV strain was significantly decreased by 98.1%. RSV titer was reduced by 60.9% as quantified by viral RNA3 intergenic region and the transcripts of nucleocapsid protein gene (CP) reduced by 46.3%. The numbers of offspring hatched were significantly reduced in dsRNA‐treated groups. The transcripts of CP were not affected by silencing LsVgR, whereas the abundance of RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase increased by 15‐fold in the member of surviving progenies.CONCLUSIONOur results suggest that vitellogenin receptor participates in regulating RSV replication during oogenesis. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry
A Bayesian framework for accelerated reliability growth testing with multiple sources of uncertainty
Authors: Ruiz Cesar , Pohl Ed , Liao Haitao , Sullivan Kelly M. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractReliability growth tests are often used for achieving a target reliability for complex systems via multiple test‐fix stages with limited testing resources. Such tests can be sped up via accelerated life testing (ALT) where test units are exposed to harsher‐than‐normal conditions. In this paper, a Bayesian framework is proposed to analyze ALT data in reliability growth. In particular, a complex system with components that have multiple competing failure modes is considered, and the time to failure of each failure mode is assumed to follow a Weibull distribution. We also assume that the accelerated condition has a fixed time scaling effect on each of the failure modes. In addition, a corrective action with fixed ineffectiveness can be performed at the end of each stage to reduce the occurrence of each failure mode. Under the Bayesian framework, a general model is developed to handle uncertainty on all model parameters, and several special cases with some parameters being known are also studied. A simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed models in estimating the final reliability of the system and to study the effects of unbiased and biased prior knowledge on the system‐level reliability estimates.
H2 clumped isotope measurements at natural isotopic abundances
Authors: Popa Maria Elena , Paul Dipayan , Janssen Christof , Röckmann Thomas 
Published: October 2018

RationaleMolecular hydrogen (H2) is an important gas for atmospheric chemistry, and an indirect greenhouse gas due to its reaction with OH. The isotopic composition of H2 (δD) has been used to investigate its atmospheric budget; here we add a new observable, the clumped isotopic signature ΔDD, to the tools that can be used to study the global cycle of H2.MethodsA method for determining ΔDD in H2 was developed using the high‐resolution MAT 253‐Ultra isotope ratio mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher). The HH, HD and DD abundances are quantified at medium resolution (M/ΔM ≈ 6000), which is sufficient for HD+ and DD+ to be distinguished from H3+ and H2D+, respectively. The method involves sequential measurement of isotopologues, and DD is measured using an ion counter. For verification, catalytic ΔDD equilibration experiments were performed at temperatures of up to 850°C.ResultsThe typical precision obtained for ΔDD is 2–6‰, close to the theoretical counting statistics limit, and adequate for detecting the expected natural variations. Compatibility and medium‐term reproducibility are consistent with the precision values. The method was validated using temperature equilibration experiments, which showed a dependence of ΔDD on temperature as expected form theoretical calculations.ConclusionsWe have established a method for determining ΔDD in H2 at natural isotopic abundances, with a precision that is adequate for observing the expected variations in atmospheric and other natural H2. This method opens the road to new research on the natural H2 cycle.
Short informative title: Quantitative assessment of acute impacts of suspended sediment on carp in the Yellow River
Authors: Xu Fengran , Baoligao Baiyin , Chen Xingru , Li Xiang , Deng Huanhuan , Shang Xu 
Published: October 2018

AbstractSediment concentration usually increases during the reservoir sediment flushing or natural floods, which may result in acute hypoxia stress and death of fishes in river reaches. Deceased fishes often appeared during periods of the reservoir sediment flushing in the Yellow River. To assess the quantitative impacts of high sediment concentration on carp, the suspended sediment concentration‐exposure duration model (SEV model) was applied and revised. With data from field surveys conducted during the sediment flushing of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, the sediment flushing in 2009 was assessed as having no lethal effect. However, for the flushing in 2010, the fish mortality rate was assessed to be less than 20%. By analysing the data from experiments that exposed carps to different sediment concentrations, the SEV model tended to underestimate the acute impact of high sediment concentration (>30,000 mg/l). The SEV model was revised by refitting with experimental data. The comparison between the models showed that the severity effect values (SEVs) calculated by the revised model were closer to actual observations. The revised model was validated with data from previous field surveys. This research could provide a scientific basis for river sediment management and eco‐friendly reservoir sediment flushing operations.
Nonmedical use of prescription drugs for cognitive enhancement as response to chronic stress especially when social support is lacking
Authors: Sattler Sebastian 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe nonmedical use of prescription drugs to improve cognitive performance has gained attention due to concerns over its social and political implications as well as side effects and long‐term health consequences. Some researchers expect a future trend of an instrumental use of drugs for cognitive enhancement (CE). Thus, getting insights about causes of CE‐drug consumption is warranted before the prevalence increases. Because perceived stress is ubiquitous in universities and may decrease cognitive performance, one reaction to cope with stress and its consequences might be the instrumental use of drugs for CE, especially if other resources, such as social support, are lacking. With a prospective design, randomly selected students from four German universities were invited to a web‐based survey and reinterviewed after 6 months (N = 2,203). Results show a 6‐month prevalence rate of self‐reported CE‐drug use of about 2%. Higher reported chronic stress is positively associated with CE‐drug use. Although social support has no main effect, stress‐buffering effects were found. In men with low stress, more support is associated with a higher chance of self‐reported CE‐drug use. These findings can inform intervention and prevention strategies such as changes in drug regulation or sensitizing (potential) users to unwanted health consequences.
Exotic holographic RG flows at finite temperature
Authors: Gürsoy Umut , Kiritsis Elias , Nitti Francesco , Silva Pimenta Leandro 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBlack hole solutions and their thermodynamics are studied in Einstein-scalar theories. The associated zero-temperature solutions are non-trivial holographic RG flows. These include solutions which skip intermediate extrema of the bulk scalar potential or feature an inversion of the direction of the flow of the coupling (bounces). At finite temperature, a complex set of branches of black hole solutions is found. In some cases, first order phase transitions are found between the black-hole branches. In other cases, black hole solutions are found to exist even for boundary conditions which did not allow a zero-temperature vacuum flow. Finite-temperature solutions driven solely by the vacuum expectation value of a perturbing operator (zero source) are found and studied. Such solutions exist generically (i.e. with no special tuning of the potential) in theories in which the vacuum flows feature bounces. It is found that they exhibit conformal thermodynamics.
Calogero-Sutherland approach to defect blocks
Authors: Isachenkov Mikhail , Liendo Pedro , Linke Yannick , Schomerus Volker 
Published: October 2018

AbstractExtended objects such as line or surface operators, interfaces or boundaries play an important role in conformal field theory. Here we propose a systematic approach to the relevant conformal blocks which are argued to coincide with the wave functions of an integrable multi-particle Calogero-Sutherland problem. This generalizes a recent observation in [1] and makes extensive mathematical results from the modern theory of multi-variable hypergeometric functions available for studies of conformal defects. Applications range from several new relations with scalar four-point blocks to a Euclidean inversion formula for defect correlators.
Analysing Breast Cancer Multidisciplinary Patient Management: A Prospective Observational Evaluation of Team Clinical Decision‐Making
Authors: Gandamihardja T. A. K. , Soukup T. , McInerney S. , Green J. S. A. , Sevdalis N. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBackgroundMultidisciplinary team (MDT)‐driven cancer care is a mandatory UK national policy, widely used globally. However, few studies have examined how MDT members make decisions as a team. We report a single‐centre prospective study on team working within breast cancer MDT.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study of 10 breast MDT meetings (MDM). Trained clinical observer scored quality of presented information and disciplinary contribution to case reviews in real time, using a validated tool, namely Metric for the Observation of Decision‐Making. Data were analysed to evaluate quality of team working.ResultsTen MDMs were observed (N = 346 patients). An average of 42 patients were discussed per MDM (range: 29–51) with an average 3 min 20 s (range: 31 s–9 min) dedicated to each patient. Management decision was made in 99% of cases. In terms of contribution to case reviews, breast care nurses scored significantly (p < 0.05) lower (M = 1.79, SD = 0.12) compared to other team members (e.g. surgeons, M = 4.65; oncologists, M = 3.07; pathologists, M = 4.51; radiologists, M = 3.21). Information on patient psychosocial aspects (M = 1.69, SD = 0.68), comorbidities (M = 1.36, SD = 0.39) and views on treatment options (M = 1.47, SD = 0.34) was also significantly (p < 0.05) less well represented compared to radiology (M = 3.62, SD = 0.77), pathology (M = 4.42, SD = 0.49) and patient history (M = 3.91, SD = 0.48).ConclusionMDT evaluation via direct observation in a meeting is feasible and reliable. We found consistent levels of quality of information coverage and contribution within the team, but certain aspects could be improved. Contribution to patient review resides predominantly with surgeons, while presented patient information is largely of biomedical nature. These findings can be fed to cancer MDTs to identify potential interventions for improvement.
14C Dating of the Roman Military Interventions in the Middle Danube Barbarian World
Authors: Komoróczy Balázs , Vlach Marek , Hüssen Claus-Michael , Rajtár Ján 
Published: October 2018

ABSTRACTThe Roman-barbarian interactions along the riverine borderline of the Middle Danube Limes exhibit a wide range of forms, from peaceful contacts and trading activities to full-scale military conflicts. The direct evidence of the latter type of events represents a specific source of archaeological information—generally referred to as temporary camps. The regions of Moravia, SW Slovakia and Lower Austria currently encompass more than 30 verified Roman military field installations. The specifics of these archaeological contexts and the present unsatisfactory state of knowledge have raised the necessity of approaching the given questions with advanced techniques, not least with respect to their chronological position. Along with multiple methods and analytical procedures of relevant natural sciences (geophysics and geochemistry, archaeobotany, microstratigraphy, etc.), radiocarbon (14C) dating has also been involved in order to further establish the chronological position of temporary camps because the archaeological data provide limited possibilities in this respect. In multiple cases, the method has augmented traditional dating techniques and allowed more precise and secure establishment of the chronological position of the field camps of the Roman army.
The Neolithic Transition in the Western Mediterranean: a Complex and Non-Linear Diffusion Process—The Radiocarbon Record Revisited
Authors: Manen C , Perrin T , Guilaine J , Bouby L , Bréhard S , Briois F , Durand F , Marinval P , Vigne J-D 
Published: October 2018

ABSTRACTThe Neolithic transition is a particularly favorable field of research for the study of the emergence and evolution of cultures and cultural phenomena. In this framework, high-precision chronologies are essential for decrypting the rhythms of emergence of new techno-economic traits. As part of a project exploring the conditions underlying the emergence and dynamics of the development of the first agro-pastoral societies in the Western Mediterranean, this paper proposes a new chronological modeling. Based on 45 new radiocarbon (14C) dates and on a Bayesian statistical framework, this work examines the rhythms and dispersal paths of the Neolithic economy both on coastal and continental areas. These new data highlight a complex and far less unidirectional dissemination process than that envisaged so far.
THE POLITICS OF REGIONALISM AND FEDERATION IN EAST AFRICA, 1958–1964
Authors: VAUGHAN CHRIS 
Published: October 2018

AbstractRecent scholarship discussing the ‘federal moment’ in world history after 1945 has re-examined alternatives to the nation-state in the years of decolonization, arguing against any inevitable transition from empire to nation. This article focuses on the case of East Africa, where federation seemed an attractive and likely prospect by 1963, yet never came to pass. Here, the politics of federation should be understood as a constitutive part of the contested nation-state-making process, rather than a viable alternative to it. For the leaders who initiated the politics of federation in the 1960s, regional unity promised the further centralization of power and a means of defeating ‘tribalist’ opposition. For their opponents, federation was seized on as a means of promoting the autonomy of provinces or kingdoms within a larger federal unit. Ultimately, regionalist aspiration was inseparable from national politics, and negotiations among the leaders of East African states demanded the definition of national interests which divided states rather than united them. Such conclusions suggest that historians of the federal moment might more productively focus on the functions of federalist discourse in the making of nation-states rather than debating the viability of federalist projects.
Integrating Science, Technology and Health Policies in Brazil: Incremental Change and Public Health Professionals as Agents of Reform
Authors: da Fonseca Elize Massard , Shadlen Kenneth , Bastos Francisco Inácio 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBrazil has encouraged an ambitious set of policies towards the pharmaceutical industry, aiming to foster technological development while meeting health requirements. We characterise these efforts, labelled the ‘Complexo Industrial da Saúde’ (Health-Industry Complex, CIS), as an outcome of incremental policy change backed by the sustained efforts of public health professionals within the federal bureaucracy. As experts with a particular vision of the relationship between health, innovation and industry came to dominate key institutions, they increasingly shaped government responses to emerging challenges. Step by step, these professionals first made science and technology essential aspects of Brazil's health policy, and then merged the Ministry of Health's new focus on science, technology and health with industrial policy measures aimed at private firms. We contrast our depiction of these policy changes with a conventional view that relies on a partisan orientation of the executive.