bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reduced structural brain asymmetry during neonatal life is potentially related to autism spectrum disorders in children born extremely preterm
Authors: Eklöf Eva , Mårtensson Gustaf E. , ådén Ulrika , Padilla Nelly 
Published: July 2019

Disruption of the normal patterns of structural brain asymmetry, and in language‐related areas, has been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We tested the hypothesis that 16 children born extremely preterm (EPT), and diagnosed with ASD at 6.5 years of age (EPT‐ASD), would have different patterns of brain structural asymmetry, particularly in language‐related areas, to 21 EPT children without ASD and 15 term‐born children. They all underwent neonatal magnetic resonance imaging scans at 40 weeks of gestation. ASD diagnoses and the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Edition, were performed in the EPT children, but not in the term group. Asymmetry indices (AIs) were assessed at three levels: global (hemispheres), lobar (brain lobes), and modular (primary sensorimotor, unimodal, and higher‐order association areas). AIs were also assessed in language‐related regions and correlational analyses were performed between these AIs and verbal scores. The EPT‐ASD group showed reduced structural asymmetry at the modular level, mainly involving the higher‐order association cortices and the language‐related areas. Predominant positive correlations between language functioning and leftward AIs in the inferior frontal gyrus (opercular) and supplementary cortices, and rightward asymmetry in the angular and supramarginal gyri, were identified in the EPT‐ASD group. The overall results suggest that reduced brain structural asymmetry identified during the neonatal period would be a risk factor for the development of ASD in EPT infants. This finding could identify EPT children at risk at an early stage, so that tailored interventions could be used to optimize their functions and quality of life. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1334–1343. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Lay summaryBabies born before the expected date (preterm) are more likely to develop autism, due to abnormal brain development. Compared with children without autism, preterm children with autism did not display the important physical differences between the two sides of their brain that are needed for normal functioning. As this alteration was found just after birth, this information could be used to identify children who are likely to develop autism, so that they can get medical support at an earlier age.
Symptom relief during last week of life in neurological diseases
Authors: Ozanne Anneli , Sawatzky Richard , Håkanson Cecilia , Alvariza Anette , Fürst Carl Johan , Årestedt Kristofer , Öhlén Joakim 
Published: July 2019

AbstractObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate symptom prevalence, symptom relief, and palliative care indicators during the last week of life, comparing them for patients with motor neuron disease (MND), central nervous system tumors (CNS tumor), and other neurological diseases (OND).Material & MethodsData were obtained from the Swedish Register for Palliative Care, which documents care during the last week of life. Logistic regression was used to compare patients with MND (n = 419), CNS tumor (n = 799), and OND (n = 1,407) as the cause of death.ResultsThe most prevalent symptoms for all neurological disease groups were pain (52.7% to 72.2%) and rattles (58.1% to 65.6%). Compared to MND and OND, patients with CNS tumors were more likely to have totally relieved pain, shortness of breath, rattles, and anxiety. They were also more likely to have their pain assessed with a validated tool; to receive symptom treatment for anxiety, nausea, rattles, and pain; to have had family members receive end‐of‐life discussions; to have someone present at death; and to have had their family members offered bereavement support. Both patients with CNS tumor and MND were more likely than patients with OND to receive consultation with a pain unit and to have had end‐of‐life discussions.ConclusionsThe study reveals high symptom burden and differences in palliative care between the groups during the last week of life. There is a need for person‐centered care planning based on a palliative approach, focused on improving symptom assessments, relief, and end‐of‐life conversations.
Soft‐tissue sarcoma in adolescents and young adults compared with older adults: A report among 5000 patients from the Scandinavian Sarcoma Group Central Register
Authors: Papworth Karin E. , Arroyo Vidal M. , Styring Emelie , Zaikova Olga , Melin Beatrice S. , Lupo Philip J. 
Published: July 2019

BackgroundIn recent years, there has been growing awareness of the distinct characteristics of adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer. Soft‐tissue sarcoma (STS) accounts for approximately 1% of all cancers diagnosed in adults and 8% of cancers diagnosed in AYA. To the best of our knowledge, only a few sarcoma registers include data regarding histological subtype, age at diagnosis, and detailed clinical information. Therefore, little is known regarding clinical presentation and outcomes in AYA diagnosed with STS.MethodsUsing the Scandinavian Sarcoma Group Central Register, data were obtained regarding 4977 patients who were diagnosed with STS for the period between 1986 and 2011. AYA (those aged 18‐39 years) were compared with older adults (OA; those aged 40‐80 years) with respect to clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome.ResultsThere were 868 AYA and 4109 OA. Overall and by STS subtype, there were significant differences noted between AYA and OA with regard to presentation, treatment, and survival. The distribution of STS subtypes was different between OA and AYA (eg, OA were more likely to be diagnosed with malignant fibrous histiocytoma compared with AYA [34% vs 16%; P < .001]). OA also were more likely to have tumors measuring ≥5 cm (68% vs 56%; P < .001) and a higher malignancy grade (75% vs 67%; P < .001). In the majority of STS subtypes AYA had significantly better overall survival and less disease recurrence compared with OA, but this finding was not true for those with malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors.ConclusionsThere are several differences between AYA and OA with STS with regard to presentation, treatment, and survival, and such differences must be taken into consideration when designing clinical trials. Additional work also is needed to characterize the potential biological mechanisms underlying these differences.
Restriction‐based fragmentation of business processes over the cloud
Authors: Kallel Slim , Maamar Zakaria , Sellami Mohamed , Faci Noura , Ben Arab Ahmed , Gaaloul Walid , Baker Thar 
Published: July 2019

SummaryDespite the elasticity and pay‐per‐use benefits of cloud computing (aka fifth utility computing), organizations adopting clouds could be locked into single cloud providers, which is not always a “pleasant” experience when these providers stop operations. This is a serious concern for those organizations that who would like to deploy (core) business processes on the cloud along with tapping into these two benefits. To address the lock‐into concern, this paper proposes an approach for decomposing business processes into fragments that would run over multiple clouds and hence multiple providers. To develop fragments, the approach considers both restrictions over owners of business processes and potential competition among cloud providers. On the one hand, restrictions apply to each task in a business process and are specialized into budget to allocate, deadline to meet, and exclusivity to request. On the other hand, competition leads cloud providers to offer flexible pricing policies that would cater to the needs and requirements of each process owner. A policy handles certain clouds' properties referred to as limitedness, non‐renewability, and non‐shareability that impact the availability of cloud resources and hence the whole fragmentation. For instance, a non‐shareable resource could delay other processes should the current process do not release this resource on time. During fragmentation, interactions between owners of processes and providers of clouds happen according to two strategies referred to as global and partial. The former collects offers about cloud resources from all providers, while the latter collects such details from particular providers. To evaluate these strategies' pros and cons, a system implementing them, as well as demonstrating the technical feasibility of the fragmentation approach using credit‐application case study, is also presented in the paper. The system extends BPMN2‐modeler Eclipse plugin and supports interactions of processes' owners with clouds' providers that result to identifying the necessary fragments with focus on cost optimization.
Exploring the underlying factors affecting capital structure decision: A quantitative analysis
Authors: Shil Nikhil , Hossain Md. Nazmul , Ullah Md. Nayamot 
Published: July 2019

AbstractObjectiveThis study deploys an earnest effort to understand the factors that affect the managers involved in managing the portfolio of funding in companies. Capital structure decision is one of the crucial decisions that finance managers have to make. This study tries to identify a host of factors controlling the attitude of finance managers in choosing different sources of financing, as reflected in financials of respected companies.Design/methodology/approachBased on the data available in different secondary sources (such as the financial statements published by the sampled companies), an exploratory form of research is applied here. The samples for the study are selected from companies which are listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) under pharmaceutical, textile, and banking sectors. Different descriptive and inferential statistical tools are used to present the data and test relevant hypotheses by using statistical package for the social sciences.FindingsBased on the literature review, the study has identified a couple of factors affecting capital structure decision. These factors are replicated in selected Bangladeshi firms to understand their implications. Although the study fails to report any determinants having strong relationship which is statistically significant, the model passes goodness‐of‐fit test and residual analysis, which shows the presence of normality.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study could not be generalized due to some inherent limitations of the research. The study only covers selective companies from three sectors, leaving others from the preview of analysis, which limits the scope of the study. However, the findings of the research could be helpful for individual firms to find their status in the recent trend of practicing capital structure decision; thereby they can adopt or revise their policy in this regard. Another major limitation of the study is that, it applies a quantitative form of analysis based on the data published in general purpose financial statements. It would be more beneficial if quantitative findings could be validated through qualitative analysis in order to bring data triangulation which is left for further study. Extending the analysis to cover all the firms listed in DSE can give a better outlook on capital structure issues in Bangladesh.Originality/valueThis study has been conducted for the first time in Bangladesh, identifying determinants from different theories which may help the future researchers to extend the analysis. Thus, the study adds significant value to the current body of knowledge.
The systemic activin response to pancreatic cancer: implications for effective cancer cachexia therapy
Authors: Zhong Xiaoling , Pons Marianne , Poirier Christophe , Jiang Yanlin , Liu Jianguo , Sandusky George E. , Shahda Safi , Nakeeb Attila , Schmidt C. Max , House Michael G. , Ceppa Eugene P. , Zyromski Nicholas J. , Liu Yunlong , Jiang Guanglong , Couch Marion E. , Koniaris Leonidas G. , Zimmers Teresa A. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractBackgroundPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a particularly lethal malignancy partly due to frequent, severe cachexia. Serum activin correlates with cachexia and mortality, while exogenous activin causes cachexia in mice.MethodsIsoform‐specific activin expression and activities were queried in human and murine tumours and PDAC models. Activin inhibition was by administration of soluble activin type IIB receptor (ACVR2B/Fc) and by use of skeletal muscle specific dominant negative ACVR2B expressing transgenic mice. Feed‐forward activin expression and muscle wasting activity were tested in vivo and in vitro on myotubes.ResultsMurine PDAC tumour‐derived cell lines expressed activin‐βA but not activin‐βB. Cachexia severity increased with activin expression. Orthotopic PDAC tumours expressed activins, induced activin expression by distant organs, and produced elevated serum activins. Soluble factors from PDAC elicited activin because conditioned medium from PDAC cells induced activin expression, activation of p38 MAP kinase, and atrophy of myotubes. The activin trap ACVR2B/Fc reduced tumour growth, prevented weight loss and muscle wasting, and prolonged survival in mice with orthotopic tumours made from activin‐low cell lines. ACVR2B/Fc also reduced cachexia in mice with activin‐high tumours. Activin inhibition did not affect activin expression in organs. Hypermuscular mice expressing dominant negative ACVR2B in muscle were protected for weight loss but not mortality when implanted with orthotopic tumours. Human tumours displayed staining for activin, and expression of the gene encoding activin‐βA (INHBA) correlated with mortality in patients with PDAC, while INHBB and other related factors did not.ConclusionsPancreatic adenocarcinoma tumours are a source of activin and elicit a systemic activin response in hosts. Human tumours express activins and related factors, while mortality correlates with tumour activin A expression. PDAC tumours also choreograph a systemic activin response that induces organ‐specific and gene‐specific expression of activin isoforms and muscle wasting. Systemic blockade of activin signalling could preserve muscle and prolong survival, while skeletal muscle‐specific activin blockade was only protective for weight loss. Our findings suggest the potential and need for gene‐specific and organ‐specific interventions. Finally, development of more effective cancer cachexia therapy might require identifying agents that effectively and/or selectively inhibit autocrine vs. paracrine activin signalling.
In Vivo Measurement of Thumb Joint Reaction Forces During Smartphone Manipulation: A Biomechanical Analysis
Authors: Kim Wanlim , Kim Yusung , Park Hyung‐Soon 
Published: July 2019

ABSTRACTThe relationship between arthritis or repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) in thumbs and rapidly increasing hours of smartphone usage is not fully elucidated. We evaluated axial joint reaction forces (AJRFs) and thumb torques in 19 healthy subjects performing typical smartphone tasks, which included tapping, tap game, and swiping. We measured force and torque when a subject tapped or swiped the panel of the smartphone and analyzed the motions of each joint using surface markers and motion capture systems. We calculated AJRFs and torques on each thumb joint using inverse dynamics. The results were then compared with representative activities such as computer keyboard typing and handwriting. The mean AJRFs/torques at the thumb carpometacarpal joint (CMCJ) while tapping the smartphone and tap gaming were 12.5 N/95.5 N mm and 21.1 N/187.21 N mm, respectively. AJRFs and torques were significantly higher during tap gaming activities than during simple tapping subtasks (p = 0.003 and p < 0.001, respectively). Compared with those during computer keyboard typing, the mean AJRFs and torques at the CMCJ during smartphone tapping was 3 (p = 0.075) and 1.4 times (p = 0.680) larger, respectively. Considering the rapidly increasing dependency on smartphones in our daily lives, long‐term exposure of the thumb to repetitive AJRFs and torques may lead to an acceleration of arthritis or aggravation of RSIs in thumbs. © 2019 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 37:2437–2444, 2019
Automated chemical resonance generation and structure filtration for kinetic modeling
Authors: Grinberg Dana Alon , Liu Mengjie , Green William H. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractThis work discusses efficient and automated methods for constructing a set of representative resonance structures for arbitrary chemical species, including radicals and biradicals, consisting of the elements H, C, O, N, and S. Determining the representative reactive structures of chemical species is crucial for identification of reactive sites and consequently applying the correct reaction templates to generate the set of important reactions during automated chemical kinetic model generation. We describe a fundamental set of resonance pathway types, accounting for simple resonating structures, as well as global approaches for polycyclic aromatic species. Automatically discovering potential localized structures along with filtration to identify the representative structures was shown to be robust and relatively fast. The algorithms discussed here were recently implemented in the Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG) software. The final structures proposed by this method were found to be in reasonable agreement with quantum chemical computation results of localized structure contributions to the resonance hybrid.
Preparation of Hierarchically Structured Amorphous Carbon Monoliths with Closed Spherical Mesopores via the Lower Critical Solution Temperature Phase Transition
Authors: Jeon Seung‐Yeol , Jeon Hyeonyeol , Park Tae Joon , Kang Min Kwan , Cho Byoung‐Ki , Hwang Seung Sang , Hur Kahyun 
Published: July 2019

AbstractSome polymer mixture systems become immiscible above a specific temperature, the so‐called lower critical solution temperature (LCST). In this work, the LCST behavior of a mixture of poly(ethylene oxide)‐block‐poly(propylene oxide)‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymers and phenolic resin oligomers is observed, and the corresponding phase transition is exploited to develop a facile route to hierarchically structured carbon monoliths. Whereas evaporation‐induced self‐assembly generates hexagonal channels in the monoliths, an additional phase transition at the LCST leads to an ordered arrangement of isolated pores. The fabrication method involves annealing the gel‐phased mixture with polymeric microbeads in a 3D‐structured mold at the LCST, followed by thermosetting and a carbonization process. The LCST phase transition behavior is observed experimentally by in situ small‐angle X‐ray scattering, optical transparency measurements, differential scanning calorimetry, and infrared spectroscopy. The fundamental mechanism of the LCST phase transition is further investigated by atomistic molecular dynamics simulations.
Lymphaticovenular anastomosis and venous arterialization in coexisting Raynaud's phenomenon and lymphedema: A case report
Authors: Yoshida Shuhei , Koshima Isao , Imai Hirofumi , Uchiki Toshio , Sasaki Ayano , Fujioka Yumio , Nagamatsu Shogo , Yokota Kazunori 
Published: July 2019

AbstractRaynaud's phenomenon is highly prevalent in the general population. The optimal medical management for patients with severe Raynaud's phenomenon remains unclear. Venous arterialization (VA) may be considered as a salvage procedure when no distal vessels are available for vascular reconstruction. Surgical treatments for lymphedema, including lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA), are becoming popular alternatives to conservative therapy. Here, we report on a patient with comorbid primary Raynaud's phenomenon and lymphedema in whom both VA and LVA were performed. The patient was a 60‐year‐old woman with an edematous right upper limb and pain and cold sensitivity in the middle, ring, and small fingers that was refractory to medication. Indocyanine green lymphography and computed tomography angiography suggested coexistence of lymphedema and primary Raynaud's phenomenon. VA and LVA were performed to reduce the risks of cellulitis and amputation. Computed tomography angiography was performed regularly after surgery to examine the arterialized venous system and Doppler echography to search for developing branches. Five months later, three branches of the arterialized veins that flowed proximally at the level of the hand and wrist were ligated. By around 1 year after surgery, the lymphedema index in the affected upper limb had improved from 116 to 103 and the patient's numerical rating scale score for intractable pain and cold sensitivity had improved from 6–7 to 1–2. We believe that the combination of VA and LVA in the early stages of primary Raynaud's phenomenon and lymphedema was effective in this case.
Implementation fidelity of patient‐centered prescription label to promote opioid safe use
Authors: McCarthy Danielle M. , Russell Andrea M. , Eifler Morgan R. , Opsasnick Lauren A. , Lyden Abigail E. , Gravenor Stephanie J. , Montague Enid , Hur Scott I. , Cameron Kenzie A. , Curtis Laura M. , Wolf Michael S. 
Published: July 2019

AbstractPurposePatient‐centered labels may improve safe medication use, but implementation challenges limit use. We assessed implementation of a patient‐centered “PRN” (as needed) label entitled “Take‐Wait‐Stop” (TWS) with three deconstructed steps replacing traditional wording.MethodsAs part of a larger investigation, patients received TWS prescriptions (eg, Take: 1 pill if you have pain; Wait: at least 4 h before taking again; Stop: do not take more than 6 pills in 24 h). Prescriptions labels recorded at follow‐up were classified into three categories: (1) one‐step wording (Take 1 pill every 4 h [without daily limits]), (2) two‐step wording (Take 1 pill every 4 h; do not exceed 6 pills/day), and (3) three‐step wording. There were three subtypes of three‐step wording: (3a) three‐step, not TWS (three deconstructed steps, not necessarily TWS wording), (3b) TWS format, employing three steps with leading verbs, but “with additions or replacements” (eg, replaced “do not take” with “do not exceed”), and (3c) verbatim TWS.ResultsTwo hundred eleven participants completed follow‐up. Mean age was 44.3 years (SD 14.3); 44% were male. One‐step bottles represented 12% (n = 25) of the sample, whereas 26% (n = 55) had two‐step wording. The majority (44%, n = 93) had three‐deconstructed steps, not TWS (3a); 16% (n = 34) retained TWS structure, but not verbatim (3b). Only 2% (n = 4) displayed verbatim TWS wording (3c). All category three labels (utilizing deconstructed instructions) were considered adequate implementation (62%).ConclusionsExact intervention adherence was not achieved in the majority of cases, limiting impact. Nonetheless, community pharmacies were responsive to new instructions, but higher implementation reliability requires additional supports.