bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Voltage and current conditions for nanoparticle chain formation using dielectrophoresis
Authors: Koshi Tomoya , Nakajima Yuta , Iwase Eiji 
Published: April 2017

Here, the voltage and current conditions required to form a nanoparticle chain bridging a gap between electrodes that is several tens of micrometres wide have been examined. When a voltage is applied to a gap between electrodes covered with a dispersion of nanoparticles, the nanoparticles are trapped in the gap by dielectrophoresis, forming a nanoparticle chain. It has been considered that a nanoparticle chain is formed in a gap only when a voltage higher than a certain value with a current lower than a certain value is applied to the gap. In this work, certain voltages were first applied with changing current to a 10 µm‐wide gap between electrodes covered with a dispersion of 150 nm‐diameter gold nanoparticles, and they found that a nanoparticle chain was formed only when 6.1 Vrms or more with 15 mArms or less was applied. Next, the process of nanoparticle chain formation in a 10 µm‐wide gap was directly observed with high‐magnification and high‐speed microscopy, and they clarified the behaviour of nanoparticle chain formation when a low voltage, high voltage with high current, and high voltage with low current were applied. Finally, they measured the critical value of current for nanoparticle chain formation in a gap several tens of micrometres wide.
Spatial Heterogeneity, Variable Rewards, Tag Loss, and Tagging Mortality Affect the Performance of Mark–Recapture Designs to Estimate Exploitation: an Example using Red Snapper in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
Authors: Sackett Dana K. , Catalano Matthew 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Accurate estimates of exploitation rate are essential to the management of exploited fisheries. Tagging studies are often used to estimate exploitation rates, but the performance of these approaches depends strongly on study design characteristics and the magnitude of assumption violations. We simulated a suite of candidate study designs for 1-year high-reward and variable-reward tagging studies, exploring a range of sample sizes (number of tagged fish), exploitation rates, tagging mortality rates, tag loss rates, proportions of double-tagged fish, and spatial variation in fish density, tag releases, and fishing effort. We calculated the uncertainty, biases, and reward costs of these candidate study designs to determine the most cost-effective approach to accurately estimate exploitation rate for Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus in Alabama waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We also investigated how incorrectly assuming a 100% reporting rate would affect these study results. Our simulations demonstrated that using all high-reward tags provided more accurate and precise exploitation rate estimates than the variable-reward approach but only if 100% reporting could be safely assumed. Further, distributing tags uniformly over the study area when the true spatial distribution of the population and fishing pressure varied over that area drastically biased exploitation rate estimates, suggesting that prior knowledge of the population's true spatial distribution over the study area is needed to ensure accurate estimates of exploitation rate. The most cost-effective study design involved tagging between 400 and 1,600 fish with high-reward tags, with 40% of the fish double-tagged, and the tags spatially distributed in the same proportion as the population. However, violation of the 100% reporting rate assumption resulted in a proportional downward bias in the estimated exploitation rate. Simulation studies such as this are critical to ensure that cost-effective study designs produce accurate and precise estimates of exploitation rate, particularly for high-value species such as Red Snapper.
Received July 13, 2016; accepted February 24, 2017 Published online April 14, 2017
Unsuccessfully Treated Hypertension: A Major Public Health Problem With a Potential Solution
Authors: Furberg Curt D , Sealey Jean E , Blumenfeld Jon D 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND
About one-half of all hypertensive adults do not have their blood pressure controlled. They are often prescribed medications that conform to national guidelines but they continue to have elevated blood pressure. This public health problem might be improved by applying plasma renin guided therapy.

RESULTS
A contributor to the public health problem of unsuccessfully treated hypertension is that the circulating renin–angiotensin system (RAS) is not recognized in treatment guidelines as clinically relevant for the treatment of hypertension or as important as the body salt status for determining blood pressure levels. Another contributor to the problem is the lack of specificity in the package inserts for antihypertensive drugs. They do not specifically state under the heading “Indications” that RAS blockers are primarily most effective in hypertensive subjects with medium and high plasma renin levels; by contrast, natriuretic drugs are most effective in those with low plasma renin levels.

METHODS
Literature review.

CONCLUSIONS
To address the problem of unsuccessfully treated hypertension, we recommend that the “Indications” section of package inserts for antihypertensive drugs be more specific. The primary indication for RAS blockers ought to be hypertension with medium and high plasma renin levels, and natriuretic agents for those with low plasma renin levels. Similar language ought to be added to treatment guidelines. Additionally, 3 other reasons for lack of blood pressure control also need to be addressed—failure to prescribe antihypertensive drugs to hypertensive subjects, failure of patients to fill prescriptions, and low drug adherence.
Deep learning with word embeddings improves biomedical named entity recognition
Authors: Habibi Maryam , Weber Leon , Neves Mariana , Wiegandt David Luis , Leser Ulf 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

Motivation
Text mining has become an important tool for biomedical research. The most fundamental text-mining task is the recognition of biomedical named entities (NER), such as genes, chemicals and diseases. Current NER methods rely on pre-defined features which try to capture the specific surface properties of entity types, properties of the typical local context, background knowledge, and linguistic information. State-of-the-art tools are entity-specific, as dictionaries and empirically optimal feature sets differ between entity types, which makes their development costly. Furthermore, features are often optimized for a specific gold standard corpus, which makes extrapolation of quality measures difficult.

Results
We show that a completely generic method based on deep learning and statistical word embeddings [called long short-term memory network-conditional random field (LSTM-CRF)] outperforms state-of-the-art entity-specific NER tools, and often by a large margin. To this end, we compared the performance of LSTM-CRF on 33 data sets covering five different entity classes with that of best-of-class NER tools and an entity-agnostic CRF implementation. On average, F1-score of LSTM-CRF is 5% above that of the baselines, mostly due to a sharp increase in recall.

Availability and implementation
The source code for LSTM-CRF is available at https://github.com/glample/tagger and the links to the corpora are available at https://corposaurus.github.io/corpora/.
BIOSSES: a semantic sentence similarity estimation system for the biomedical domain
Authors: Soğancıoğlu Gizem , Öztürk Hakime , Özgür Arzucan 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

Motivation
The amount of information available in textual format is rapidly increasing in the biomedical domain. Therefore, natural language processing (NLP) applications are becoming increasingly important to facilitate the retrieval and analysis of these data. Computing the semantic similarity between sentences is an important component in many NLP tasks including text retrieval and summarization. A number of approaches have been proposed for semantic sentence similarity estimation for generic English. However, our experiments showed that such approaches do not effectively cover biomedical knowledge and produce poor results for biomedical text.

Methods
We propose several approaches for sentence-level semantic similarity computation in the biomedical domain, including string similarity measures and measures based on the distributed vector representations of sentences learned in an unsupervised manner from a large biomedical corpus. In addition, ontology-based approaches are presented that utilize general and domain-specific ontologies. Finally, a supervised regression based model is developed that effectively combines the different similarity computation metrics. A benchmark data set consisting of 100 sentence pairs from the biomedical literature is manually annotated by five human experts and used for evaluating the proposed methods.

Results
The experiments showed that the supervised semantic sentence similarity computation approach obtained the best performance (0.836 correlation with gold standard human annotations) and improved over the state-of-the-art domain-independent systems up to 42.6% in terms of the Pearson correlation metric.

Availability and implementation
A web-based system for biomedical semantic sentence similarity computation, the source code, and the annotated benchmark data set are available at: http://tabilab.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/BIOSSES/.
Large-scale structure prediction by improved contact predictions and model quality assessment
Authors: Michel Mirco , Menéndez Hurtado David , Uziela Karolis , Elofsson Arne 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

Motivation
Accurate contact predictions can be used for predicting the structure of proteins. Until recently these methods were limited to very big protein families, decreasing their utility. However, recent progress by combining direct coupling analysis with machine learning methods has made it possible to predict accurate contact maps for smaller families. To what extent these predictions can be used to produce accurate models of the families is not known.

Results
We present the PconsFold2 pipeline that uses contact predictions from PconsC3, the CONFOLD folding algorithm and model quality estimations to predict the structure of a protein. We show that the model quality estimation significantly increases the number of models that reliably can be identified. Finally, we apply PconsFold2 to 6379 Pfam families of unknown structure and find that PconsFold2 can, with an estimated 90% specificity, predict the structure of up to 558 Pfam families of unknown structure. Out of these, 415 have not been reported before.

Availability and Implementation
Datasets as well as models of all the 558 Pfam families are available at http://c3.pcons.net/. All programs used here are freely available.
A multi-systemic mitochondrial disorder due to a dominant p.Y955H disease variant in DNA polymerase gamma
Authors: Siibak Triinu , Clemente Paula , Bratic Ana , Bruhn Helene , Kauppila Timo E.S. , Macao Bertil , Rosenberger Florian A. , Lesko Nicole , Wibom Rolf , Naess Karin , Nennesmo Inger , Wedell Anna , Peter Bradley , Freyer Christoph , Falkenberg Maria , Wredenberg Anna 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Mutations in the mitochondrial DNA polymerase, POLG, are associated with a variety of clinical presentations, ranging from early onset fatal brain disease in Alpers syndrome to chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia. The majority of mutations are linked with disturbances of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) integrity and maintenance. On a molecular level, depending on their location within the enzyme, mutations either lead to mtDNA depletion or the accumulation of multiple mtDNA deletions, and in some cases these molecular changes can be correlated to the clinical presentation. We identified a patient with a dominant p.Y955H mutation in POLG, presenting with a severe, early-onset multi-systemic mitochondrial disease with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, cataract, myopathy, and liver failure. Using a combination of disease models of Drosophila melanogaster and in vitro biochemistry analysis, we compare the molecular consequences of the p.Y955H mutation to the well-documented p.Y955C mutation. We demonstrate that both mutations affect mtDNA replication and display a dominant negative effect, with the p.Y955H allele resulting in a more severe polymerase dysfunction.
Tracking Career Paths of Women in Neurosurgery
Authors: Renfrow Jaclyn J , Rodriguez Analiz , Wilson Taylor A , Germano Isabelle M , Abosch Aviva , Wolfe Stacey Quintero 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Women represent a growing cohort of US neurosurgeons.

OBJECTIVE
To describe postresidency fellowship, practice environment, and updated academic rank among female neurosurgeons.

METHODS
Databases from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) from 1964 to 2013 were reviewed for female neurosurgery residency graduates. Data on postresidency fellowships, practice environment (private vs academic), academic rank, board certification, and AANS/CNS (Congress of Neurological Surgeons) Joint Section on Women in Neurosurgery (WINS) membership were collected in 2016. Academic rank was verified from program websites and electronic correspondence. Faculty members were asked to report directorships and tenure. The AANS/CNS Joint Section on Women in Neurosurgery verified WINS membership.

RESULTS
A total of 379 female neurosurgery residency graduates were identified in this 50-yr span. Of these, 70% became ABNS certified, and 2.1% left neurosurgery. Twenty-seven percent of women (n = 103) pursued fellowships, with pediatric neurosurgery (33%) the most common. Regarding practice environment, 26% entered academic medicine (n = 91), with 42 at the rank of assistant professor, 33 at the rank of associate professor, and 16 reaching the rank of full professor.

CONCLUSION
Upon completion of training, 27% of women pursue fellowships. The distribution of women in private vs academic practice environments is proportionate to male neurosurgeons; however, the number women in academic leadership positions remains exceedingly low, with disproportionate representation in higher academic ranks. Women in national organized neurosurgery are increasing. Tracking the career paths of women in neurosurgery is a necessary step to identifying current achievements and opportunities for future progress.
Pediatric Clival Chordoma: A Curable Disease that Conforms to Collins' Law
Authors: Rassi Marcio S , Hulou M Maher , Almefty Kaith , Bi Wenya Linda , Pravdenkova Svetlana , Dunn Ian F , Smith Timothy R , Al-Mefty Ossama 
Published: April 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Skull base chordomas in children are extremely rare. Their course, management, and outcome have not been defined.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the preeminent clinical and radiological features in a series of pediatric patients with skull base chordomas and analyze the outcome of a cohort who underwent uniform treatment. We emphasize predictors of overall survival and progression-free survival, which aligns with Collins’ law for embryonal tumors.

METHODS
Thirty-one patients with a mean age of 10.7 yr (range 0.8-22) harboring skull base chordomas were evaluated. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes and prognostic factors for 18 patients treated by the senior author, with uniform management of surgery with the aim of gross total resection and adjuvant proton-beam radiotherapy. Mean follow-up was 119.2 mo (range 8-263).

RESULTS
Abducens nerve palsy was the most common presenting symptom. Imaging disclosed large tumors that often involve multiple anatomical compartments. Patients undergoing gross total resection had significantly increased progression-free survival (P = .02) and overall survival (P = .05) compared with those having subtotal resection. Those who lived through the period of risk for recurrence without disease progression had a higher probability of living entirely free of progression (P = .03; odds ratio = 16.0). Age, sex, and histopathological variant did not yield statistical significance in survival.

CONCLUSION
Long-term overall and progression-free survival in children harboring skull base chordomas can be achieved with gross surgical resection and proton-beam radiotherapy, despite an advanced stage at presentation. Collins’ law does apply to pediatric skull base chordomas, and children with this disease have a high hope for cure.
Effectiveness of McKenzie Method–Based Self-Management Approach for the Secondary Prevention of a Recurrence of Low Back Pain (SAFE Trial): Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: de Campos Tarcisio F. , Maher Chris G. , Clare Helen A. , da Silva Tatiane M. , Hancock Mark J. 
Published: April 2017

Abstract
Background. Although many people recover quickly from an episode of low back pain (LBP), recurrence is very common. There is limited evidence on effective prevention strategies for recurrences of LBP.
Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a McKenzie method–based self–management approach in the secondary prevention of LBP.
Design. This will be a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.
Setting. Participants will be recruited from the community and primary care, with the intervention delivered in a number of physical therapist practices in Sydney, Australia.
Participants. The study will have 396 participants, all of whom are at least 18 years old.
Intervention. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the McKenzie method–based self-management approach group or a minimal intervention control group.
Measurements. The primary outcome will be days to first self-reported recurrence of an episode of activity-limiting LBP. The secondary outcomes will include: days to first self–reported recurrence of an episode of LBP, days to first self-reported recurrence of an episode of LBP leading to care seeking, and the impact of LBP over a 12-month period. All participants will be followed up monthly for a minimum of 12 months or until they have a recurrence of activity-limiting LBP. All participants will also be followed-up at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months to assess the impact of back pain, physical activity levels, study program adherence, credibility, and adverse events.
Limitations. Participants and therapists will not be masked to the interventions.
Conclusions. To our knowledge, this will be the first large, high-quality randomized controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of a McKenzie method–based self–management approach for preventing recurrences of LBP. If this approach is found to be effective, it will offer a low-cost, simple method for reducing the personal and societal burdens of LBP.
Out of many, one? U.S. sub-national political-economies in the post-welfare reform era
Authors: Bjorklund Eric 
Published: April 2017

AbstractDespite increased research on social policy variation among U.S. states, few have examined U.S. state-level political-economies in the wake of welfare reform. This is problematic given the ability of state-level political-economies to solidify patterns of stratification. I address this by analyzing four dimensions of U.S. state-level political-economies in the welfare reform era: labor policy, family/social policy, tax policy, and state imposed fiscal constraint. From this analysis I delineate five state-level political-economic types: (1) progressive; (2) contested progressive; (3) boilerplate; (4) frontier conservative; and (5) Southern conservative. Four determinants of type membership are also evaluated: Democratic Party control, unionization, racial fractionalization and income per capita. While my results demonstrate these as meaningful determinants, patterns of association vary by type, thus suggesting a revision to the assumed progressive/conservative continuum of U.S. social policy and political-economies. I conclude by elaborating how my analysis expands our understanding of U.S., and cross-national, political-economies.
Parent-Reported Severity and Health/Educational Services Use Among US Children with Autism: Results from a National Survey
Authors: Zuckerman Katharine E. , Friedman Nora D. B. , Chavez Alison E. , Shui Amy M. , Kuhlthau Karen A. 
Published: April 2017

ABSTRACT:

Objective:
Little national data exist regarding service use patterns for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of varying severity. This study aimed to assess the relationship between parent-reported severity and use of educational and health care services.

Methods:
Data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services were used to examine a nationally representative sample of 1420 US children aged 6 to 17 years with ASD, with or without developmental delay and intellectual disability. Weighted multivariable logistic regression assessed associations of parent-reported ASD severity and child sociodemographic characteristics with school-based therapy, non-school-based therapy, behavioral interventions, and specialty provider visits.

Results:
Higher parent-reported ASD severity was associated with increased likelihood of current use of school-based therapy (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.08, 95% confidence interval =1.85–8.98), non-school-based therapy (AOR = 3.60 [1.95–6.66]), and behavioral interventions (AOR = 2.30 [1.22–4.34]), as well as regular specialty provider visits (AOR = 2.99 [1.38–6.46]). Although rates of service use were generally highest among children with severe ASD, non-school-based therapy and behavioral interventions were only used by about half of children with severe ASD, and about 1 in 4 children with mild ASD were using none of the therapies asked about.

Conclusion:
Parent-reported severity is associated with increased therapy and specialty provider service use among children with ASD. However, substantial variability exists in service use across levels of severity.
Descemetorhexis Without Graft Placement for the Treatment of Fuchs Endothelial Dystrophy: Preliminary Results and Review of the Literature
Authors: Iovieno Alfonso , Neri Alberto , Soldani Anna Maria , Adani Chantal , Fontana Luigi 
Published: April 2017

Purpose:
To report our preliminary experience with a central descemetorhexis without graft placement in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) and to review the existing literature on the topic.

Methods:
A 4-mm central descemetorhexis was performed in 5 patients (4 women, 1 man; mean age: 69.8 ± 8.6 yrs; range: 57–78 yrs) with FECD. All patients had central confluent guttae, undetectable central endothelial cell count, healthy peripheral corneal endothelium, no clinically evident bullous keratopathy, and no ocular comorbidities. In 3 patients, the procedure was combined with phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation.

Results:
All patients completed at least 6 months of postoperative follow-up (mean follow-up 9 ± 2.5 mo; 7–13 mo). Endothelial repopulation of the central stroma was completed in all patients by the third month. Corneal clarity was achieved in 4 of 5 patients. The patient with persistent edema and haze had the highest preoperative central pachymetry. A final improvement in corrected visual acuity was achieved in 4/5 patients. A reduction in preoperative central pachymetry was observed in all cases. All patients developed deep stromal opacities around the margin of the descemetorhexis, which did not resolve over the follow-up time. Abnormal corneal topography and irregular astigmatism developed in 3 of 5 patients; these patients achieved 20/20 corrected distance visual acuity with rigid gas-permeable contact lens fitting.

Conclusions:
In partial concordance with previous studies, preliminary outcomes of a central descemetorhexis in FECD performed without endothelial graft placement seemed rather unpredictable. Baring of central stroma may trigger a variable wound-healing response with subsequent posterior stromal scarring and topographical irregularity.