bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Demographic, Social Support, and Community Differences in Predictors of African‐American and White Men Receiving Prostate Cancer Screening in the United States
Authors: Dickey Sabrina L. , Cormier Eileen M. , Whyte James , Graven Lucinda , Ralston Penny A. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractObjectiveTo examine demographic, social support, and community factors from a national dataset that influence African‐American (AA) and White men to receive prostate cancer screening (PCS) via the Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) or Prostate Specific Antigen Test (PSA).Design and SampleA cross‐sectional secondary analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) provided the sample of AA (N = 377) and White (N = 971) men over the age of 40 years. Regression analysis with confidence intervals was utilized to examine the factors associated with AA and White men receiving PCS. The Social Ecological Model provided the theoretical framework.MeasuresQuestionnaires from the NHANES dataset provided data for this study. Results: Age, education, and access to health care was associated with AA and White men receiving the DRE. Income and church attendance was only associated with White men receiving the DRE. Only White men had an association of income with receiving the PSA test and only AA men had an association of marital status with receiving the PSA test.ConclusionsCultural evaluations of PCS behaviors among AA men are necessary to decrease the health disparity of prostate cancer among the AA population.
Non‐Scale Endogenous Growth with R&D and Human Capital
Authors: Day Creina 
Published: January 2016

AbstractThis paper examines the conditions under which increasing knowledge, encapsulated in ideas for new technology through R&D and embodied in human capital through education, sustains economic growth. A general model is developed where, consistent with recent literature, growth is non‐scale (not increasing in population size) and endogenous (generated by factors within R&D and education). Recent models feature the counterfactual assumption of constant returns to existing knowledge and restrict the substitutability of inputs within R&D and education. We find that non‐scale endogenous growth is possible under less stringent conditions. The findings reconcile sustained economic growth with evidence of diminishing marginal returns in education and R&D, which suggests an ambiguous role for R&D policy.
Circulating let‐7g is down‐regulated in Bernese Mountain dogs with disseminated histiocytic sarcoma and carcinomas – a prospective study
Authors: Børresen B. , Nielsen L. N. , Jessen L. R. , Kristensen A. T. , Fredholm M. , Cirera S. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractCancer is a prevalent cause of mortality in Bernese mountain dogs (BMDs). Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are found in blood and have been identified as promising biomarkers in various neoplastic diseases in humans. In the current study, the expression profile of different types of miRNAs was investigated in healthy BMDs and BMDs with cancer. Seven healthy and six non‐treated BMDs with cancer [four with disseminated histiocytic sarcomas (DHS)] were enrolled in this study. Clinical evaluations including physical examination, blood analysis, urinalysis and diagnostic imaging were performed on all dogs. Twenty‐four different miRNAs were profiled from RNA isolated from whole blood preserved in PAXgene® tubes using quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR). The miRNA let‐7g was significantly down‐regulated in dogs with cancer (P = 0.002) and dogs with DHS (P = 0.011) compared with healthy controls. This miRNA is a known tumour suppressor and further analyses are warranted to assess its value as a non‐invasive biomarker for early detection of different types of cancer in BMDs.
High COX‐2 expression is associated with increased angiogenesis, proliferation and tumoural inflammatory infiltrate in canine malignant mammary tumours: a multivariate survival study
Authors: Carvalho M. I. , Pires I. , Prada J. , Raposo T. P. , Gregório H. , Lobo L. , Queiroga F. L. 
Published: January 2016

AbstractCOX‐2 expression affects mammary tumourigenesis by promoting angiogenesis and cell proliferation, encouraging metastatic spread and tumour‐associated inflammation. Samples of canine mammary tumours (n = 109) were submitted to immunohistochemistry to detect COX‐2, CD31, VEGF, Ki‐67, CD3 and MAC387 expression. Concurrent high expression of COX‐2/CD31, COX‐2/VEGF, COX‐2/Ki‐67, COX‐2/CD3 and COX‐2/MAC was associated with elevated grade of malignancy, presence of intravascular emboli and presence of lymph node metastasis. Tumours with high COX‐2 (P < 0.001) and tumours with concurrent expression of high COX‐2 and high CD31 (P = 0.008); high VEGF (P < 0.001); high Ki‐67 (P < 0.001); high CD3+ T‐lymphocytes (P = 0.002) and elevated MAC387 macrophages (P = 0.024) were associated with shorter overall survival (OS) time. Interestingly the groups with high COX‐2/CD31 and high COX‐2/VEGF retained their significance after multivariate analysis arising as independent predictors of OS. Present data highlight the importance of COX‐2 in canine mammary tumourigenesis.
A Novel Approach to Brachycephalic Syndrome. 1. Evaluation of Anatomical Intranasal Airway Obstruction
Authors: Oechtering Gerhard U. , Pohl Sabine , Schlueter Claudia , Lippert Johanna P. , Alef Michaele , Kiefer Ingmar , Ludewig Eberhard , Schuenemann Riccarda 
Published: January 2016

ObjectiveTo evaluate airway obstruction due to abnormal intranasal anatomy in 3 brachycephalic dog breeds using computed tomography and rhinoscopy.Study DesignProspective clinical study.AnimalsA total of 132 brachycephalic dogs (66 Pugs, 55 French Bulldogs, and 11 English Bulldogs) with severe respiratory distress due to brachycephalic syndrome.MethodsComputed tomography and anterior and posterior rhinoscopy were performed to evaluate endonasal obstruction.ResultsAll dogs had abnormal conchal growth that obstructed the intranasal airways. Rostral aberrant turbinates (RAT) were common in Pugs (90.9%) but less frequent in French (56.4%) and English (36.4%) Bulldogs. Caudal aberrant turbinates (CAT) obstructing the nasopharyngeal meatus were commonly found in all breeds (66.7%). Deviation of the nasal septum was an almost consistent finding in Pugs (98.5%) but was less common in bulldogs. Obstructing turbinates had multiple points of mucosal contact responsible for obstruction of the intranasal airway. Interconchal and intraconchal mucosal contacts were evident in 91.7% of dogs.ConclusionSelective breeding for short head conformation reduces the size of the nasal cavities to such an extent that intranasal structures grow aberrantly and malformed, leading to obstructed air conducting spaces. Intranasal airway obstruction of brachycephalic dogs may contribute to their exercise and heat intolerance because of impaired pulmonary ventilation and compromised thermoregulatory functions of the canine nose. Failure to address intranasal obstruction might be an explanation for lack of therapeutic success after conventional surgery for brachycephalic syndrome. Future consideration should be given to the diagnosis, management, and treatment of this newly described aspect of airway obstruction.
A Novel Approach to Brachycephalic Syndrome. 2. Laser‐Assisted Turbinectomy (LATE)
Authors: Oechtering Gerhard U. , Pohl Sabine , Schlueter Claudia , Schuenemann Riccarda 
Published: January 2016

ObjectiveTo introduce a new surgical procedure based on interventional, laser‐assisted removal of obstructing turbinate tissue to improve endonasal airway patency in brachycephalic dogs and to confirm the short and long term results using computed tomography (CT) and rhinoscopy.Study DesignProspective clinical study.AnimalsBrachycephalic dogs (n = 158; 70 Pugs, 77 French Bulldogs, 11 English Bulldogs) referred for treatment of severe respiratory distress because of brachycephalic syndrome.MethodsComputed tomography and anterior and posterior rhinoscopy were performed to evaluate endonasal obstruction. Laser‐assisted turbinectomy (LATE) using a diode laser was performed as part of a multilevel surgery. Nasal conchae that were causing airway obstruction were removed.ResultsThe obstructing parts of the conchae were safely and efficiently removed by LATE, shaping a patent nasal airway in all dogs. The newly developed surgical procedure involved 3 steps: turbinectomy of the (1)concha nasalis ventralis; (2) rostral aberrantly growing turbinates (RAT); and (3) caudal aberrantly growing turbinates (CAT). Complications of the procedure included transient intraoperative hemorrhage in 51 of 158 dogs (32.3%); however, a temporary tamponade was necessary in only 2/158 dogs (1.3%). After 6 months, regrowth of turbinates required resection of possibly re‐obstructing tissue in 25/158 dogs (15.8%; 1 Pug and 24 French Bulldogs).ConclusionLATE is an effective method for creating a patent nasal airway in brachycephalic dogs with intranasal obstruction.
Morphological and genetic variability of local Echinochloa accessions and the link with herbicide sensitivity
Authors: Claerhout S , Dewaele K , De Riek J , Reheul D , De Cauwer B 
Published: January 2016

SummaryEchinochloa crus‐galli and Echinochloa muricata are common weeds in Belgian maize fields. Both species are morphologically difficult to distinguish and exhibit high morphological variability. Their response to herbicides varies from field to field. This study investigated whether the considerable morphological polymorphism found among Belgian Echinochloa accessions has a genetic background and whether it is consistently associated with differences in sensitivity to maize herbicides. For this purpose, accessions of E. crus‐galli and E. muricata were compared for morphological and genetic resemblance and tested for herbicide sensitivity. All accessions were planted in the field to examine the morphological traits. A cluster analysis was conducted to assess them for morphological diversity. DNA of leaf material was used for amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis to cluster the accessions genetically. Dose–response pot experiments were conducted in the glasshouse to assess the effectiveness of an acetolactate synthase (nicosulfuron), acetyl‐CoA carboxylase (cycloxydim) and 4‐hydroxyphenyl phosphate dioxygenase (topramezone) inhibiting herbicide. The genetic and morphological clusters were compared with the effective doses obtained from the dose–response bioassays. Morphological variation significantly correlated with genetic variation, but the relation with herbicide sensitivity was weak. Spikelet size and biomass characteristics are reliable discriminating characteristics for (sub)species classification. Intraspecies identification does not seem essential for optimisation of chemical control of E. crus‐galli and E. muricata in the field.
Role of reactive oxygen species in regulation of glucose transport in skeletal muscle during exercise
Authors: Katz Abram 
Published: January 2016

AbstractGlucose derived from extracellular sources serves as an energy source in virtually all eukaryotic cells, including skeletal muscle. Its contribution to energy turnover increases with exercise intensity up to moderately heavy workloads. However, at very high workloads, the contribution of extracellular glucose to energy turnover is negligible, despite the high rate of glucose transport. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in the stimulation of glucose transport in isolated skeletal muscle preparations during intense repeated contractions. Consistent with this observation, heavy exercise is associated with significant production of ROS. However, during more mild to moderate stimulation or exercise conditions (in vitro, in situ and in vivo) antioxidants do not affect glucose transport. It is noteworthy that the production of ROS is limited or not observed under these conditions and that the concentration of the antioxidant used was extremely low. The results to date suggest that ROS involvement in activation of glucose transport occurs primarily during intense short‐term exercise and that other mechanisms are involved during mild to moderate exercise. What remains puzzling is why ROS‐mediated activation of glucose transport would occur under conditions where glucose transport is highest and utilization (i.e. phosphorylation of glucose by hexokinase) is low. Possibly ROS production is involved in priming glucose transport during heavy exercise to accelerate glycogen biogenesis during the initial recovery period after exercise, as well as altering other aspects of intracellular metabolism.
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Nonthermal ablation of deep brain targets: A simulation study on a large animal model
Authors: Top Can Barış , White P. Jason , McDannold Nathan J. 
Published: January 2016

Purpose:Thermal ablation with transcranial MRI‐guided focused ultrasound (FUS) is currently limited to central brain targets because of heating and other beam effects caused by the presence of the skull. Recently, it was shown that it is possible to ablate tissues without depositing thermal energy by driving intravenously administered microbubbles to inertial cavitation using low‐duty‐cycle burst sonications. A recent study demonstrated that this ablation method could ablate tissue volumes near the skull base in nonhuman primates without thermally damaging the nearby bone. However, blood–brain disruption was observed in the prefocal region, and in some cases, this region contained small areas of tissue damage. The objective of this study was to analyze the experimental model with simulations and to interpret the cause of these effects.Methods:The authors simulated prior experiments where nonthermal ablation was performed in the brain in anesthetized rhesus macaques using a 220 kHz clinical prototype transcranial MRI‐guided FUS system. Low‐duty‐cycle sonications were applied at deep brain targets with the ultrasound contrast agent Definity. For simulations, a 3D pseudospectral finite difference time domain tool was used. The effects of shear mode conversion, focal steering, skull aberrations, nonlinear propagation, and the presence of skull base on the pressure field were investigated using acoustic and elastic wave propagation models.Results:The simulation results were in agreement with the experimental findings in the prefocal region. In the postfocal region, however, side lobes were predicted by the simulations, but no effects were evident in the experiments. The main beam was not affected by the different simulated scenarios except for a shift of about 1 mm in peak position due to skull aberrations. However, the authors observed differences in the volume, amplitude, and distribution of the side lobes. In the experiments, a single element passive cavitation detector was used to measure the inertial cavitation threshold and to determine the pressure amplitude to use for ablation. Simulations of the detector's acoustic field suggest that its maximum sensitivity was in the lower part of the main beam, which may have led to excessive exposure levels in the experiments that may have contributed to damage in the prefocal area.Conclusions:Overall, these results suggest that case‐specific full wave simulations before the procedure can be useful to predict the focal and the prefocal side lobes and the extent of the resulting bioeffects produced by nonthermal ablation. Such simulations can also be used to optimally position passive cavitation detectors. The disagreement between the simulations and the experiments in the postfocal region may have been due to shielding of the ultrasound field due to microbubble activity in the focal region. Future efforts should include the effects of microbubble activity and vascularization on the pressure field.
Point-Counterpoint: The FDA Has a Role in Regulation of Laboratory-Developed Tests
Authors: Caliendo Angela M. , Hanson Kimberly E. 
Published: January 2016

ABSTRACT

Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its draft guidance on the regulation of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) in October 2014, there has been a flurry of responses from commercial and hospital-based laboratory directors, clinicians, professional organizations, and diagnostic companies. The FDA defines an LDT as an “
in vitro
diagnostic device that is intended for clinical use and is designed, manufactured, and used within a single laboratory.” The draft guidance outlines a risk-based approach, with oversight of high-risk and moderate-risk tests being phased in over 9 years. High-risk tests would be regulated first and require premarket approval. Subsequently, moderate-risk tests would require a 510(k) premarket submission to the FDA and low-risk tests would need only to be registered. Oversight discretion would be exercised for LDTs focused on rare diseases (defined as fewer than 4,000 tests, not cases, per year nationally) and unmet clinical needs (defined as those tests for which there is no alternative FDA-cleared or -approved test). There was an open comment period followed by a public hearing in early January of 2015, and we are currently awaiting the final decision regarding the regulation of LDTs. Given that LDTs have been developed by many laboratories and are essential for the diagnosis and monitoring of an array of infectious diseases, changes in their regulation will have far-reaching implications for clinical microbiology laboratories. In this Point-Counterpoint, Angela Caliendo discusses the potential benefits of the FDA guidance for LDTs whereas Kim Hanson discusses the concerns associated with implementing the guidance and why these regulations may not improve clinical care.
Development and Evaluation of a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method for Rapid Detection of Aspergillus fumigatus
Authors: Tang Qing , Tian Shuguang , Yu Nong , Zhang Xi , Jia Xiaodong , Zhai Hongyan , Sun Qun , Han Li 
Published: January 2016

ABSTRACT

Aspergillus fumigatus
is a conditional pathogen and the major cause of life-threatening invasive aspergillosis (IA) in immunocompromised patients. The early and rapid detection of
A. fumigatus
infection is still a major challenge. In this study, the new member of the fungal annexin family, annexin C4, was chosen as the target to design a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the rapid, specific, and sensitive detection of
A. fumigatus
. The evaluation of the specificity of the LAMP assay that was developed showed that no false-positive results were observed for the 22 non-
A. fumigatus
strains, including 5 species of the
Aspergillus
genus. Its detection limit was approximately 10 copies per reaction in reference plasmids, with higher sensitivity than that of real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) at 10
2
copies for the same target. Clinical samples from a total of 69 patients with probable IA (
n =
14) and possible IA (
n
= 55) were subjected to the LAMP assay, and positive results were found for the 14 patients with probable IA (100%) and 34 patients with possible IA (61.82%). When detection using the LAMP assay was compared with that using qPCR in the 69 clinical samples, the LAMP assay demonstrated a sensitivity of 89.19% and the concordance rate for the two methods was 72.46%. Accordingly, we report that a valuable LAMP assay for the rapid, specific, and simple detection of
A. fumigatus
in clinical testing has been developed.
Extensive Positive Selection Drives the Evolution of Nonstructural Proteins in Lineage C Betacoronaviruses
Authors: Forni Diego , Cagliani Rachele , Mozzi Alessandra , Pozzoli Uberto , Al-Daghri Nasser , Clerici Mario , Sironi Manuela 
Published: January 2016

ABSTRACT
Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) spreads to humans via zoonotic transmission from camels. MERS-CoV belongs to lineage C of betacoronaviruses (betaCoVs), which also includes viruses isolated from bats and hedgehogs. A large portion of the betaCoV genome consists of two open reading frames (ORF1a and ORF1b) that are translated into polyproteins. These are cleaved by viral proteases to generate 16 nonstructural proteins (nsp1 to nsp16) which compose the viral replication-transcription complex. We investigated the evolution of ORF1a and ORF1b in lineage C betaCoVs. Results indicated widespread positive selection, acting mostly on ORF1a. The proportion of positively selected sites in ORF1a was much higher than that previously reported for the surface-exposed spike protein. Selected sites were unevenly distributed, with nsp3 representing the preferential target. Several pairs of coevolving sites were also detected, possibly indicating epistatic interactions; most of these were located in nsp3. Adaptive evolution at nsp3 is ongoing in MERS-CoV strains, and two selected sites (G720 and R911) were detected in the protease domain. While position 720 is variable in camel-derived viruses, suggesting that the selective event does not represent a specific adaptation to humans, the R911C substitution was observed only in human-derived MERS-CoV isolates, including the viral strain responsible for the recent South Korean outbreak. It will be extremely important to assess whether these changes affect host range or other viral phenotypes. More generally, data herein indicate that CoV nsp3 represents a major selection target and that nsp3 sequencing should be envisaged in monitoring programs and field surveys.

IMPORTANCE
Both severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and MERS-CoV originated in bats and spread to humans via an intermediate host. This clearly highlights the potential for coronavirus host shifting and the relevance of understanding the molecular events underlying the adaptation to new host species. We investigated the evolution of ORF1a and ORF1b in lineage C betaCoVs and in 87 sequenced MERS-CoV isolates. Results indicated widespread positive selection, stronger in ORF1a than in ORF1b. Several selected sites were found to be located in functionally relevant protein regions, and some of them corresponded to functional mutations in other coronaviruses. The proportion of selected sites we identified in ORF1a is much higher than that for the surface-exposed spike protein. This observation suggests that adaptive evolution in ORF1a might contribute to host shifts or immune evasion. Data herein also indicate that genetic diversity at nonstructural proteins should be taken into account when antiviral compounds are developed.