bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Prospective Randomized Trial to Assess Fixation Strategies for Severe Open Tibia Fractures: Modern Ring External Fixators Versus Internal Fixation (FIXIT Study)
Authors: O'Toole Robert V. , Gary Joshua L. , Reider Lisa , Bosse Michael J. , Gordon Wade T. , Hutson James , Quinnan Stephen M. , Castillo Renan C. , Scharfstein Daniel O. , MacKenzie Ellen J. ,   METRC
Published: March 2017

Summary:
The treatment of high-energy open tibia fractures is challenging in both the military and civilian environments. Treatment with modern ring external fixation may reduce complications common in these patients. However, no study has rigorously compared outcomes of modern ring external fixation with commonly used internal fixation approaches. The FIXIT study is a prospective, multicenter randomized trial comparing 1-year outcomes after treatment of severe open tibial shaft fractures with modern external ring fixation versus internal fixation among men and women of ages 18–64. The primary outcome is rehospitalization for major limb complications. Secondary outcomes include infection, fracture healing, limb function, and patient-reported outcomes including physical function and pain. One-year treatment costs and patient satisfaction will be compared between the 2 groups, and the percentage of Gustilo IIIB fractures that can be salvaged without soft tissue flap among patients receiving external fixation will be estimated.
Cutaneous Burn Injury Modulates Urinary Antimicrobial Peptide Responses and the Urinary Microbiome
Authors: Plichta Jennifer K. , Holmes Casey J. , Nienhouse Vanessa , Puszynski Michelle , Gao Xiang , Dong Qunfeng , Lin Huaiying , Sinacore James , Zilliox Michael , Toh Evelyn , Nelson David E. , Gamelli Richard L. , Radek Katherine A. 
Published: March 2017

Objectives:
Characterization of urinary bacterial microbiome and antimicrobial peptides after burn injury to identify potential mechanisms leading to urinary tract infections and associated morbidities in burn patients.

Design:
Retrospective cohort study using human urine from control and burn subjects.

Setting:
University research laboratory.

Patients:
Burn patients.

Interventions:
None.

Measurements and Main Results:
Urine samples from catheterized burn patients were collected hourly for up to 40 hours. Control urine was collected from “healthy” volunteers. The urinary bacterial microbiome and antimicrobial peptide levels and activity were compared with patient outcomes. We observed a significant increase in urinary microbial diversity in burn patients versus controls, which positively correlated with a larger percent burn and with the development of urinary tract infection and sepsis postadmission, regardless of age or gender. Urinary psoriasin and β-defensin antimicrobial peptide levels were significantly reduced in burn patients at 1 and 40 hours postadmission. We observed a shift in antimicrobial peptide hydrophobicity and activity between control and burn patients when urinary fractions were tested against Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis urinary tract infection isolates. Furthermore, the antimicrobial peptide activity in burn patients was more effective against E. coli than E. faecalis. Urinary tract infection–positive burn patients with altered urinary antimicrobial peptide activity developed either an E. faecalis or Pseudomonas aeruginosa urinary tract infection, suggesting a role for urinary antimicrobial peptides in susceptibility to select uropathogens.

Conclusions:
Our data reveal potential links for urinary tract infection development and several morbidities in burn patients through alterations in the urinary microbiome and antimicrobial peptides. Overall, this study supports the concept that early assessment of urinary antimicrobial peptide responses and the bacterial microbiome may be used to predict susceptibility to urinary tract infections and sepsis in burn patients.
Antibiotic-Associated Apoptotic Enterocolitis in the Absence of a Defined Pathogen: The Role of Intestinal Microbiota Depletion*
Authors: Wurm Philipp , Spindelboeck Walter , Krause Robert , Plank Johannes , Fuchs Gottfried , Bashir Mina , Petritsch Wolfgang , Halwachs Bettina , Langner Cord , Högenauer Christoph , Gorkiewicz Gregor 
Published: March 2017

Objective:
Antibiotic therapy is a major risk factor for the development of diarrhea and colitis with varying severity. Often the origin of antibiotic-associated gastrointestinal deterioration remains elusive and no specific infectious agents could be discerned.

Patients:
We represent three cases of intractable high-volume diarrhea associated with combined antibiotic and steroid therapy in critically ill patients not fitting into established disease entities. Cases presented with severe apoptotic enterocolitis resembling acute intestinal graft-versus-host-disease. Microbiologic workup precluded known enteropathogens, but microbiota analysis revealed a severely depleted gut microbiota with concomitant opportunistic pathogen overgrowth.

Interventions:
Fecal microbiota transplantation, performed in one patient, was associated with correction of dysbiosis, rapid clinical improvement, and healing of enterocolitis.

Conclusions:
Our series represents a severe form of antibiotic-associated colitis in critically ill patients signified by microbiota depletion, and reestablishment of a physiologic gastrointestinal microbiota might be beneficial for this condition.
Current Practice for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Biopharmaceuticals in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Detrez Iris , Van Stappen Thomas , Martín Arranz María D. , Papamichael Kostas , Gils Ann 
Published: March 2017

Abstract:
Since the late 90s, biopharmaceuticals targeting tumor necrosis factor alpha have revolutionized the treatment of moderately to severely active inflammatory bowel disease. The robust efficacy witnessed in many patients stands in stark contrast with the observation of a proportion of patients who fail to respond or who lose response over time. Therapeutic drug monitoring has been proposed as a means to understand and respond to the variability in clinical response and remission. Various treatment algorithms have been proposed, but optimal use of these measurements in daily practice awaits additional prospective validation trials. This review provides an updated overview on the subject of therapeutic drug monitoring of biopharmaceuticals for the management of inflammatory bowel disease and how we could implement its concepts in a changing landscape.
Determining risk of severe gastrointestinal toxicity based on pretreatment gut microbial community in patients receiving cancer treatment: a new predictive strategy in the quest for personalized cancer medicine
Authors: Wardill Hannah R. , Tissing Wim J.E. 
Published: March 2017

Purpose of review
Currently, our ability to accurately predict a patient's risk of developing severe gastrointestinal toxicity from their cancer treatment is limited. Risk stratification continues to rely on traditional patient-related and treatment-related factors including age, ethnicity, sex, comorbidities, genetics, agent, dose and schedule. Although informative, these crude measures continue to underestimate toxicity risk, and hence alternative methods of risk prediction must be investigated. Given the increasing focus on the gut microbiome in driving disease, this review will provide an overview of the current literature proposing the gut microbiome as a novel predictive tool for treatment-induced gastrointestinal toxicity.

Recent findings
Predictive gut microbial phenotypes have been identified for gastrointestinal toxicity induced by radiation and the checkpoint blocker, Ipilimumab. Each study employed slightly different methods of gut microbiome assessment; however, in all cases, separation of toxic versus nontoxic patients was achieved. No studies have investigated chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal toxicity.

Summary
The gut microbiome offers an exciting new method of risk stratification for gastrointestinal toxicity. This would enable identification of high-risk patients prior to treatment, enabling tailored treatment regimens based on personalized risk assessment and the proactive provision of supportive care measures. Based on the plasticity of the gut microbiome, methods of risk mitigation may be investigated.
Gene length and detection bias in single cell RNA sequencing protocols
Authors: Phipson Belinda , Zappia Luke , Oshlack Alicia 
Published: March 2017

AbstractSingle cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has rapidly gained popularity for profiling transcriptomes of hundreds to thousands of single cells. This technology has led to the discovery of novel cell types and revealed insights into the development of complex tissues. However, many technical challenges need to be overcome during data generation. Due to minute amounts of starting material, samples undergo extensive amplification, increasing technical variability. A solution for mitigating amplification biases is to include Unique Molecular Identifiers (UMIs), which tag individual molecules. Transcript abundances are then estimated from the number of unique UMIs aligning to a specific gene and PCR duplicates resulting in copies of the UMI are not included in expression estimates. Here we investigate the effect of gene length bias in scRNA-Seq across a variety of datasets differing in terms of capture technology, library preparation, cell types and species. We find that scRNA-seq datasets that have been sequenced using a full-length transcript protocol exhibit gene length bias akin to bulk RNA-seq data. Specifically, shorter genes tend to have lower counts and a higher rate of dropout. In contrast, protocols that include UMIs do not exhibit gene length bias, and have a mostly uniform rate of dropout across genes of varying length. Across four different scRNA-Seq datasets profiling mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), we found the subset of genes that are only detected in the UMI datasets tended to be shorter, while the subset of genes detected only in the full-length datasets tended to be longer. We briefly discuss the role of these genes in the context of differential expression testing and GO analysis. In addition, despite clear differences between UMI and full-length transcript data, we illustrate that full-length and UMI data can be combined to reveal underlying biology influencing expression of mESCs.
Assembly of whole-chromosome pseudomolecules for polyploid plant genomes using outcrossed mapping populations
Authors: Zhou Chenxi , Olukolu Bode , Gemenet Dorcus C. , Wu Shan , Gruneberg Wolfgang , Cao Minh Duc , Fei Zhangjun , Zeng Zhao-Bang , George Andrew W. , Khan Awais , Yencho G. Craig , Coin Lachlan J.M. 
Published: March 2017

ABSTRACTThe assembly of whole-chromosome pseudomolecules for plant genomes remains challenging due to polyploidy and high repeat content. We developed an approach for constructing complete pseudomolecules for polyploid species using genotyping-by-sequencing data from outcrossing mapping populations coupled with high coverage whole genome sequence data of a reference genome. Our approach combinesde novoassembly with linkage mapping to arrange scaffolds into pseudomolecules. We show that the method is able to reconstruct simulated chromosomes for both diploid and tetraploid genomes. Comparisons to three existing genetic mapping tools show that our method outperforms the other methods in accuracy on both grouping and ordering, and is robust to the presence of substantial amounts of missing data and genotyping errors. We applied our method to three real datasets including a diploidIpomoea trifidaand two tetraploid potato mapping populations. The linkage maps show significant concordance with the reference chromosomes. We resolved seven assembly errors for the publishedIpomoea trifidagenome assembly as well as anchored an unplaced scaffold in the published potato genome.
Area Collaboration at Nedbank: cultivating culture through contextual leadership
Authors: Scheepers Caren , Oosthuizen Marius , Retief Dean 
Published: March 2017

Subject area
Organisational Development, Organisational Behaviour, Leadership Change.

Study level/applicability
Master of Business Administration, postgraduate studies, middle or senior managers on open programmes.

Case overview
The case focuses on the dilemma that Douglas Lines, Nedbank’s Divisional Executive for Strategic Business Unit, South Africa, faced when a new sense of urgency was required to cultivate a culture of collaboration in Nedbank to overcome their silo-mentality.

Expected learning outcomes
Examine the current and recommend the preferred culture of Nedbank to enable collaboration; critically analyse and evaluate the suitability of the current structure recommend restructuring; insight into how contextual leadership contributes to collaboration in organisations; present judgement of strategies in initiating and enhancing collaboration to overcome silo-mentality.

Supplementary materials
A DVD is available with link and password. Teaching Plan and slides are available. The four learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided as well as linking them to relevant literature.

Subject code
CSS 7: Management Science.
Six Sigma for improving aesthetic defects in aluminum profiles facility
Authors: Hadidi Laith A. , Bubshait Abdulaziz , Khreishi Suleiman 
Published: March 2017

Purpose
This paper aims to develop a quality plan to detect aesthetic defects in extruded aluminum profiles before the fabrication stage based on the Six Sigma improvement methodology in an aluminum facility. These defects are hard to be detected at the fabrication stage. It is also hard to be fixed in the site.

Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology utilized the DMAIC framework (define, measure, analyze, improve and control). The methodology relies on statistical analysis (histogram, control charts and Pareto) and field work (observations, focus groups and interviews).

Findings
The process shows significant improvement in aesthetic defect reduction that aids in reaching a Four Sigma quality level.

Practical implications
Aluminum fabrication is known to be vulnerable for many types of defects such as scratches and debris on work surface. In addition, post-fabrication defects may also occur due to improper coating caused by chemical imbalance, blocked filters or blocked sprays.

Originality/value
The main contribution of this research is to demonstrate the use of DMAIC framework to reduce the aluminum aesthetic defects that reach the end customer. The Six Sigma methodology is a well-known quality improvement framework that relies heavily on quantitative data. More precisely, it is widely used to control defects in quantities such as weights, heights, etc. In this research, it has been used to control qualitative data (aesthetic). This will enable objective decisions for facility management rather than subjective.
The impacts of TRIPS on the pharmaceutical regulation and pricing of drugs in Bangladesh
Authors: Azam M. Monirul 
Published: March 2017

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the impacts of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) as adopted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the pharmaceutical regulation and pricing of drugs in Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to explore how Bangladesh could adjust obligations for patent and pharmaceutical law reforms in the context of TRIPS Agreement while maintaining societal goals to ensure access to medicines. Another prime objective of this study is to examine viability of arguments regarding pharmaceutical patents for affordability and accessibility of pharmaceuticals in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used doctrinal research and case study using surveys and interviews in Bangladesh to understand the perceptions of different stakeholders regarding TRIPS and possible impacts on the local pharmaceutical industry and also consequences as to access to pharmaceuticals in terms of pricing, availability and affordability.FindingsThis study suggests that in the case of Bangladesh, the main health bottleneck is not patents or any drugs, but the lack of proper healthcare service, health infrastructure and lack of efficient healthcare personnel. Again, most of the necessary drugs for the local market are off patent, but patented drugs, issues of price, availability and affordability could become a concern for Bangladesh in situation of multi-drug resistance and for diseases like HIV AIDS, cancer and cardio-vascular problems.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was based on randomly selected interview and surveys. To get a broader picture of the impacts of TRIPS compliant patent law and pharmaceutical patents in a country like Bangladesh, more in-depth socio-legal studies need to be conducted. Due to shortage of time and resources, it was not possible to conduct broader socio-legal studies; therefore, this study may not reflect views of all related stakeholders.Practical/implicationsThis paper will guide how countries like Bangladesh could adopt intellectual property policies for pharmaceuticals in a way not only adjusting societal goals for accessibility and affordability of pharmaceuticals but also promoting innovation and capability of local industries.Social/implicationsCountries like Bangladesh should adopt intellectual property policies balancing not only investment and innovation side but also societal goals to ensure access to medicines for the vast majority of poor populations.Originality/valueThis study is an original study based on primary sources as collected during field studies in Bangladesh. It also used doctrinal research, and related materials are duly referred.
Is a lender environmentally liable for the simple act of lending money?
Authors: Al-Tawil Tareq Nail 
Published: March 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate whether or not lenders are environmentally liable by the simple act of lending money. The concept of “lender liability” is one of the more critical issues which seems to be ready to upset the “apple cart” of environmental calm, which the English law enjoyed until recently. Why should banks be held liable for pollution and clean-up costs? The banks’ responsibility should end when it has granted the loan to the borrower to carry out its commercial activities. It is argued that a lender who becomes involved in the borrower’s financial management is unlikely to incur a clean-up liability, but it will become liable to clean it up if it forecloses or takes possession of the land. Can the bank be regarded as the “owner” of the land? In some English statutes, there is no definition of the word “owner”. Does a mortgagee in possession entitle him to ownership of the property to hold him responsible for liabilities for environmental harm?

Design/methodology/approach
The development of domestic environmental liability and the Trans-Atlantic position with the USA will be examined. The “owner” concept will also be critically reviewed to see whether banks and mortgagees can be regarded as owners on possession of the property. The dilemma of the English courts with regards to lender issues and lender self-protection will also be examined. This will all be analysed and criticised in this paper.

Findings
This paper aims to demonstrate whether or not lenders are environmentally liable by the simple act of lending money. It will also discuss “owner” concept to see whether banks and mortgagees can be regarded as owners on possession of the property.

Originality/value
In this paper, the “owner” concept will be critically reviewed to see whether banks and mortgagees can be regarded as owners on possession of the property. The dilemma of the English courts with regards to lender issues and lender self-protection will also be critically analysed and compared with different legal systems.
A city-level analysis of the distribution of FDI within China
Authors: Cheng Suwina , Lin Kenny , Simmons Richard 
Published: March 2017

Purpose
The study aims to examine whether city-level investment climate, local government effectiveness and corporate income tax rates influence the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) across cities in China.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses regression analysis using city-level data sets.

Findings
The study finds that while city-level investment climate and effective local government influence the spatial distribution of FDI across Chinese cities, city-level tax rates have no such influence.

Practical implications
The results have implications for the design of policies aimed at enhancing FDI flows into emerging countries.

Originality/value
To date, few studies have investigated the investment location choice at the city level in a single country. The study contributes to the literature by examining the role of government in such investment decisions. It also adds to the previously limited research examining the role of investment climate at the micro level.
Productivity drivers of knowledge workers in the central London office environment
Authors: Chadburn Ana , Smith Judy , Milan Joshua 
Published: March 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the drivers that allow for enhanced personal productivity of knowledge-based workers in Central London focusing on the physical and social environment as well as worker’s individual preferences.

Design/methodology/approach
A closed-ended questionnaire was sent to employees of eight professional companies (Consultancy, Financial and Media Services) based in Central London. Of the 500 questionnaires sent, 213 were successfully completed and returned, representing a response rate of 42.6 per cent.

Findings
The findings from this trial study show that comfort, convenience, IT connectivity, good design and working to a specific time scale were strong drivers of personal productivity. Knowledge workers prefer a flexible range of office settings that enable both a stimulating open and connected work environment, knowledge sharing, collaboration, as well as quiet concentration locations, free of distractions and noise. It was also found that moves of knowledge workers into open-plan office space (and especially fee earners) is normally met with initial resistance. However, there is normally greater acceptance of open space after experiencing an actual move into open-plan, with benefits improving teamwork and communication being highlighted. The research also stresses that office design considerations need to be closer aligned with knowledge worker’s overall well-being and individual psychological needs.

Research limitations/implications
Limited to Central London offices and self-assessed evaluation of productivity drivers within the knowledge worker’s office environment.

Practical implications
Corporate real estate managers and office occupiers, designers and facilities managers can use the findings as part of their workplace strategy by providing a range of flexible workplaces that allow the knowledge worker a place for greater personal productivity through the provision of a well-designed collaborative office environment alongside private and quiet working spaces. Developers and landlords should also be aware of these requirements when taking their decisions.

Originality/value
This paper focuses specifically on the high-productivity knowledge-based work environment, demonstrating that there is a need to consider the collaborative physical and social environment and the individual preferences of knowledge workers to ensure enhanced personal productivity and well-being within the office. This can be achieved through the provision of a well-designed office space that allows for open, connected and comfortable work environments, as well as opportunities to use dedicated concentration spaces that are free of distraction. It was also shown that hot-desking was unanimously disliked by knowledge workers.