bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Trends of case-fatality rate by acute coronary syndrome in Portugal: Impact of a fast track to the coronary unit
Authors: Abreu D , Pinto FJ , Matias-Dias C , Sousa P 
Published: May 2019

Introduction Efforts were made to improve management of coronary disease as the fast-track system to the Coronary Unit. We aim to analyse case-fatality rates by acute coronary syndrome in Portugal from 2000 to 2016, mainly the impact of the fast-track system and the proportion of patients that activate the fast-track system. Methods We analysed monthly acute coronary syndrome case-fatality before and after the implementation of the fast-track system in 2007. Impact of the system was assessed through regression models for interrupted time-series. We calculated annual proportion of fast-track system admissions. Results After 2007 case-fatality by acute coronary syndrome decreased (β=−1.27, p-value < 0.01). The estimates obtained for ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction suggest a reduction of nearly 86 monthly deaths prevented after 2007. The highest percentage of patients admitted through the fast-track system was 35%. Conclusions Our results suggest fast-track system may have contributed to a decline in acute coronary syndrome case-fatality. However, more than half of patients were not admitted through the system. This should encourage health authorities to make efforts to ensure compliance.
Screening for retroviruses and hepatitis viruses using dried blood spots reveals a high prevalence of occult hepatitis B in Ghana
Authors: de Mendoza Carmen , Bautista José M. , Pérez-Benavente Susana , Kwawu Roger , Fobil Julius , Soriano Vicente , Díez Amalia 
Published: May 2019

Background: Recent advances in antiviral therapy show potential for a cure and/or control of most human infections caused by hepatitis viruses and retroviruses. However, medical success is largely dependent on the identification of the large number of people unaware of these infections, especially in developing countries. Dried blood spots (DBS) have been demonstrated to be a good tool for collecting, storing and transporting clinical specimens from rural areas and limited-resource settings to laboratory facilities, where viral infections can be more reliably diagnosed. Methods: The seroprevalence and virological characterization of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), as well as human retroviruses (HIV-1, HIV-2, human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 [HTLV-1] and human T-cell leukaemia virus type 2 [HTLV-2]), were investigated in clinical specimens collected from DBS in Ghana. Results: A total of 305 consecutive DBS were collected. A high prevalence of chronic HBV (8.5%) and occult hepatitis B (14.2%) was found, whereas rates were lower for HIV-1, HTLV-1 and HCV (3.2%, 1.3% and 0.6%, respectively). HIV-2 and HTLV-2 were absent. CRF02_AG was the predominant HIV-1 subtype, whereas genotype E was the most frequent HBV variant. Conclusions: DBS are helpful in the diagnosis and virological characterization of hepatitis and retrovirus infections in resource-limited settings. The high rate of hepatitis B in Ghana, either overt or occult, is noteworthy and confirms recent findings from other sub-Saharan countries. This should encourage close clinical follow up and antiviral treatment assessment in this population, as well as universal HBV vaccine campaigns.
Performance of the PROMIS After Operative Interventions for Shoulder Instability
Authors: Hajewski Christina J. , Glass Natalie A. , Westermann Robert W. , Bollier Matthew , Wolf Brian R. , Hettrich Carolyn 
Published: May 2019

Background: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) was developed to capture patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in an efficient manner. Few studies have assessed this instrument postoperatively. Purpose: To compare the PROMIS Physical Function computer adaptive test (PROMIS PF CAT) and Upper Extremity (PROMIS UE) item bank to other previously validated PRO instruments and to evaluate ceiling and floor effects and construct validity responsiveness in patients who underwent operative interventions for shoulder instability. Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods: A total of 72 patients who underwent operative interventions for shoulder instability completed the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) assessment form, Marx shoulder activity scale (Marx), 36-Item Short Form Health Survey physical function (SF-36 PF) and general health (SF-36 GH), Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI), PROMIS PF CAT, and PROMIS UE before surgery and then at 6 weeks and 6 months postoperatively. Correlation coefficients were calculated among these tools. The effect size of change was also calculated for each tool at each time point. A total of 91 patients who had also undergone surgery for shoulder instability completed these PRO instruments 2 years postoperatively. The percentage of patients hitting the ceiling and floor effects of each of the PRO instruments was calculated at all time points. Results: The PROMIS PF CAT demonstrated excellent-good correlation with the SF-36 PF at all postoperative time points (0.61 at 6 weeks, 0.68 at 6 months, and 0.64 at 2 years; P < .01 for all). The PROMIS UE showed excellent correlation with the ASES at 6 weeks postoperatively (0.73, P < .01). Both the PROMIS PF CAT and PROMIS UE demonstrated the ability to detect change after surgical interventions with a medium to large effect size. The PROMIS UE demonstrated a ceiling effect at 6 months (68.1%) and 2 years (67.0%) postoperatively. The PROMIS PF CAT demonstrated no ceiling effect at any time point. Conclusion: The PROMIS PF CAT demonstrated good to excellent correlation with other previously validated PRO instruments that assess physical function in patients with shoulder instability postoperatively. The PROMIS UE demonstrated good correlation with other PRO tools but had a significant ceiling effect and is not recommended for this patient population. Both tools demonstrated an ability to detect change after surgical interventions with a good effect size.
Impregnation of silver in zeolite–chitosan composite: thermal stability and sterility study
Authors: Taaca Kathrina Lois M. , Olegario Eleanor M. , Vasquez Magdaleno R. 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThe solvent-casting method was used to synthesize a silver–zeolite–chitosan (AgZ-Ch) composite from Philippine natural zeolites. X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermogravimetry (DTG) were used to investigate the different properties of the composite before and after plasma treatment. The major phase of the zeolite is Na-clinoptilolite with trace amounts of mordenite, feldspar and quartz. UV-Vis and OES analyses confirmed the presence of Ag and zeolite on the chitosan matrix. The decrease in the transmittance signal at 290 nm and the emission spectra of the discharge showed the presence of Ag I, Al I and Si I signals at 705–852 nm. The TGA and DTG curves revealed the thermal stability of the natural zeolites after ion exchange and after incorporation in the chitosan matrix, where the onset of degradation was observed to occur above ~37°C, the human body temperature. Bacterial count showed minimal growth of colonies on all samples, both pristine and plasma-treated, suggesting that the surface of the composites does not influence bacterial habitation. The fabricated composites meet the minimum requirements for biomedical application such as thermal stability with respect to the average human body temperature and absence of bacteria.
Gene expression signature that predicts early molecular response failure in chronic-phase CML patients on frontline imatinib
Authors: Kok Chung H. , Yeung David T. , Lu Liu , Watkins Dale B. , Leclercq Tamara M. , Dang Phuong , Saunders Verity A. , Reynolds John , White Deborah L. , Hughes Timothy P. 
Published: May 2019

AbstractIn chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) patients treated with frontline imatinib, failure to achieve early molecular response (EMR; EMR failure: BCR-ABL1 &gt;10% on the international scale at 3 months) is predictive of inferior outcomes. Identifying patients at high-risk of EMR failure at diagnosis provides an opportunity to intensify frontline therapy and potentially avoid EMR failure. We studied blood samples from 96 CP-CML patients at diagnosis and identified 365 genes that were aberrantly expressed in 13 patients who subsequently failed to achieve EMR, with a gene signature significantly enriched for stem cell phenotype (eg, Myc, β-catenin, Hoxa9/Meis1), cell cycle, and reduced immune response pathways. We selected a 17-gene panel to predict EMR failure and validated this signature on an independent patient cohort. Patients classified as high risk with our gene expression signature (HR-GES) exhibited significantly higher rates of EMR failure compared with low-risk (LR-GES) patients (78% vs 5%; P &lt; .0001), with an overall accuracy of 93%. Furthermore, HR-GES patients who received frontline nilotinib had a relatively low rate of EMR failure (10%). However, HR-GES patients still had inferior deep molecular response achievement rate by 24 months compared with LR-GES patients. This novel multigene signature may be useful for selecting patients at high risk of EMR failure on standard therapy who may benefit from trials of more potent kinase inhibitors or other experimental approaches.
CMAB009 plus irinotecan versus irinotecan‐only as second‐line treatment after fluoropyrimidine and oxaliplatin failure in KRAS wild‐type metastatic colorectal cancer patients: promising findings from a prospective, open‐label, randomized, phase III trial
Authors: Shi Yuankai , Li Jin , Xu Jianming , Sun Yan , Wang Liwei , Cheng Ying , Liu Wei , Sun Guoping , Chen Yigui , Bai Li , Zhang Yiping , He Xiaohui , Luo Yi , Wang Zhehai , Liu Yunpeng , Yao Qiang , Li Yuhong , Qin Shukui , Hu Xiaohua , Bi Feng , Zheng Rongsheng , Ouyang Xuenong 
Published: May 2019

AbstractBackgroundThe 5‐fluorouracil/leucovorin plus oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) regimen is the standard first‐line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), however, the optimal second‐line regimen for KRAS wild‐type mCRC patients is still investigational. In this study, we aimed to determine the clinical efficacy and safety of CMAB009 plus irinotecan compared to irinotecan‐only as a second‐line regimen for treating KRAS wild‐type mCRC patients.MethodsPatients with KRAS wild‐type mCRC who had previously failed to respond to FOLFOX treatment were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio, to receive CMAB009 plus irinotecan or irinotecan‐only. Patients receiving irinotecan‐only were permitted to switch to CMAB009 therapy on disease progression and were grouped as the sequential‐CMAB009 arm. The primary endpoints were overall response rate (ORR) and median progression‐free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints were median overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), and duration of response (DOR).ResultsThe CMAB009 plus irinotecan arm demonstrated significantly improved ORR (33.2% vs. 12.8%; P < 0.001) and longer median PFS (169 days vs. 95 days; P < 0.001) as compared to the irinotecan‐only arm. Patients receiving CMAB009 plus irinotecan also demonstrated improved DCR (80.1% vs. 65.2%, P < 0.001), CBR (30.0% vs. 14.6%, P < 0.001), and DOR (210 days vs. 109 days; P< 0.001) as compared to irinotecan‐only. However, patients treated with CMAB009 had an increased risk of skin rash (66.9% vs. 5.5%, P < 0.001) and paronychia (9.8% vs. 0.0%, P < 0.001). Anti‐drug antibodies (ADA) were detected in 3.6% of patients, and only 0.9% of patients who received CMAB009 experienced hypersensitivity reactions. In patients receiving sequential‐CMAB009 therapy after failure with irinotecan, their median PFS was 84 days (95% CI 65 to 113 days). The median OS was 425 days for patients receiving CMAB009 plus irinotecan and 401 days for those with sequential‐CMAB009 (P= 0.940).ConclusionsTreatment with CMAB009 plus irinotecan was found to be a superior second‐line regimen in comparison to irinotecan‐only in KRAS wild‐type mCRC patients. Further, switching to CMAB009 can be considered as an efficient third‐line of treatment after treatment failure with second‐line irinotecan‐only.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01550055, retrospectively registered on March 9, 2012.
Non-BRCA1/2 Variants Detected in a High-Risk Chilean Cohort With a History of Breast and/or Ovarian Cancer
Authors: Adaniel Christina , Salinas Francisca , Donaire Juan Manuel , Bravo Maria Eugenia , Peralta Octavio , Paredes Hernando , Aliaga Nuvia , Sola Antonio , Neira Paulina , Behnke Carolina , Rodriguez Tulio , Torres Soledad , Lopez Francisco , Hurtado Claudia 
Published: May 2019

PURPOSE Little is known about the genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer among the Chilean population, in particular genetic predisposition beyond BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. In the current study, we aim to describe the germline variants detected in individuals who were referred to a hereditary cancer program in Santiago, Chile. METHODS Data were retrospectively collected from the registry of the High-Risk Breast and Ovarian Cancer Program at Clínica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile. Data captured included index case diagnosis, ancestry, family history, and genetic test results. RESULTS Three hundred fifteen individuals underwent genetic testing during the study period. The frequency of germline pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants in a breast or ovarian cancer predisposition gene was 20.3%. Of those patients who underwent testing with a panel of both high- and moderate-penetrance genes, 10.5% were found to have pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in non- BRCA1/2 genes. CONCLUSION Testing for non- BRCA1 and -2 mutations may be clinically relevant for individuals who are suspected to have a hereditary breast or ovarian cancer syndrome in Chile. Comprehensive genetic testing of individuals who are at high risk is necessary to further characterize the genetic susceptibility to cancer in Chile.
Introduction
Authors: Chaturvedi Ruchi , von Schnitzler Antina 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThis essay introduces the special section “Political Society and Popular Politics in Africa” and sets out some of the key debates and concepts that animate the contributions. It focuses in particular on the specific terrains of postcolonial governmentality and the diverse practices of political society on the continent today. The vivid ways in which various African states have combined and/or moved between liberal and authoritarian modalities of power, attended to biopolitical concerns while also exercising strong coercive force, and dealt with the question of citizenship presents the contributors to the section with important analytical opportunities. They examine the multiple lineages and formations of popular politics on the continent, outline how the concept of “political society” enables novel ways of charting and unraveling the political in African settings, and unpack the ways in which African contexts help clarify and elaborate the concept.
The Two Economies, Primitive Accumulation, and the Government of the State
Authors: Veriava Ahmed 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThis article is about representations of poverty and governmental frameworks for addressing poverty in postapartheid South Africa. It is, therefore, also about “the poor,” about their place in society and the ways they intervene in the making of the present. The article returns to a South African metaphor—Thabo Mbeki's “two economies” thesis—focused on the problem of poverty, its causes, and the governmental approach to combating it. This discussion shows how the work of Partha Chatterjee helps us understand the governmental problems Mbeki's representations reframe and their relationship to forms of contemporary capitalism and governmentality, as well as the emerging practices through which the poor “invade” the political and impact the frameworks targeting them. But the essay also suggests that, in following these threads, we need to push beyond Chatterjee's conceptual framework, with implications for how we think about the state, its relationship to capitalist development, and the political practices of subaltern classes.
“He Will Know How to Explain”
Authors: Croese Sylvia 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThis article applies Partha Chatterjee's concept of political society to the case of postwar urban Angola in order to draw attention to the everyday ways in which popular politics are practiced in Africa beyond episodic moments of popular revolt. It looks at the case of the Zango social-housing project, which was created to resettle evicted shack dwellers in Luanda. While in the initial stages of the project responses to resettlement were marked by bouts of protest and resistance against the state, over time these shifted to the emergence and formulation of informal strategies, arrangements, and understandings to claim, gain, and explain access to housing in the project, often in collaboration with state officials. Although the application of Chatterjee's work to Angola opens up useful avenues for comparative analysis, it also shows the particularities of the workings of popular politics under conditions of nondemocratic rule. It is by studying the daily workings of popular politics in relation to the actual and fragmented workings of the state that insight can be gained into the variegated nature of political practice and agency across the global south.
Heartless Acts
Authors: Tabor Nathan Lee Marsh 
Published: May 2019

AbstractThis article examines a posthumous literary gathering held at the grave of eighteenth-century Persian-language poet ‘Abd al-Qadir Bedil (1642–1720) in order to trace varying uses of a peculiar shrine space and its Persianate textual practices in late-Mughal Delhi. This graveside mushā‘irah was a setting for the competitive exchange of poetry and one of the most well-documented gatherings of the mid-1700s. In anecdotes and verse written between 1721 and 1784, attendees at this event reveal their implicit and explicit associations between elite and nonelite classes. This article provides a genealogy of the normative literary acts and material practices at the grave. The tomb's space and its texts reveal a setting that overturns assumptions about vernacular and elite literatures, as it hosted Urdu poetry recitation and cutting-edge Persian verse as well as a medicines market and space for Sufi devotional practices, institutions with contradictory social expectations. This setting and its varied social practices provide an example of a late Mughal cultural institution formed outside of the court, which forces us to redefine precolonial forms of publicity in light of localized linguistic and social hierarchies.
Mastering the Wheel of Chance
Authors: Krais Jakob 
Published: May 2019

AbstractDuring the 1920s and 1930s, French Algeria and Italian Libya witnessed spectacular motor-sports events: desert rallies as well as car races on closed circuits. Speed sports events, in this context, served three main purposes: they integrated or reconquered the colonial territory symbolically; they demonstrated the advancement and technological superiority of the conquerors vis-à-vis the “backward” indigenous population; and beyond that, they established the colonies as laboratories of modernity and experimentation grounds of progress. In this sense, this essay employs the Foucauldian term heterotopia to designate the sites of motor sports competitions in Libya and Algeria. The colonies now were even more modern than France or Italy itself, or, put differently, they served as showcases for a possible future. Motor sports were especially apt to serve the outlined purposes. Road races and new circuits constantly referred to colonial claims about the progress of infrastructure. “Automobilism” was perceived as the very epitome of modernity and progress, set to take over the colonies, which were imagined as a tabula rasa. Finally, mastery of a car at a “devilish speed” was metonymically extended to represent the taming of the wheel of contingency in an uncertain situation and staying in control of the colonies.
From Camel to Truck?
Authors: Sakatni Mehdi 
Published: May 2019

Abstract
A conventional view of nomadic tribes is that motorization—the passage from animal to automobile transportation—brought about the transformation and eventually the obliteration of the nomadic pastoralist lifestyle in the long twentieth century. But through the example of nomadic tribes in French mandate Syria, this essay shows that creative appropriation of the automobile actually helped nomadic groups to strengthen their position and to defend their economic and political interests. Automobiles allowed tribal chiefs to experience enhanced mobility, facilitating a faster connection between the bulk of the tribe and the towns. Nomads could thereby reliably sell their livestock and products more easily. Motorcars also presented nomads with a new weapon with which to challenge the technical hegemony commonly associated with colonial power. Consequently, it forced mandate authorities to adapt and transform their own ways of policing and controlling the steppe to counter the pioneering use of cars by armed Bedouins. Last, it enabled tribal chiefs to gain social prestige and, therefore, to assert themselves as ruling elites in the soon-to-be-born independent state. Overall, the Syrian nomads should be seen as pioneers of automobile culture at the start of the global Fordist period, rather than as its victims.
Ambedkar's Agonism
Authors: Kapila Shruti 
Published: May 2019

Abstract
In focusing primarily on B. R. Ambedkar, this essay will reconstruct and interpret the work on hostility and antagonism that was central to his political thought and writings. As a thinker, Ambedkar remained singular in taking account of the full and potential measure of violence predominantly in caste relations, but also beyond, in the comparative contexts of revolutions and formations of nation-states in the modern world. The essay reconstructs and interprets Ambedkar as a foundational thinker of sovereignty, republicanism, and agonism. In so doing, it analyzes in the same analytic rubric his writings on caste and Pakistan and the salience of separation to his political thought. Violence, power, and antagonism are elaborated here, as these were redirected to agonistic ends for the assumption of republicanism. The consideration of Pakistan as a political idea, the essay argues, needs to be understood in relation to the historic source of sovereignty, as Ambedkar uncovered namely in the figure of the Brahmin as a dispersed monarchy. Noting the singularity of his apprehension over the radical futurity of the idea of Pakistan, the essay intervenes in and contributes to global political thought and modern Indian history and the formation of Pakistan.