bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Local Estrogen Synthesis Regulates Parallel Fiber–Purkinje Cell Neurotransmission Within the Cerebellar Cortex
Authors: Hedges Valerie L , Chen Gang , Yu Lei , Krentzel Amanda A , Starrett Joseph R , Zhu Jing-Ning , Suntharalingam Piratheepan , Remage-Healey Luke , Wang Jian-Jun , Ebner Timothy J , Mermelstein Paul G 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Estrogens affect cerebellar activity and cerebellum-based behaviors. Within the adult rodent cerebellum, the best-characterized action of estradiol is to enhance glutamatergic signaling. However, the mechanisms by which estradiol promotes glutamatergic neurotransmission remain unknown. Within the mouse cerebellum, we found that estrogen receptor activation of metabotropic glutamate receptor type 1a strongly enhances neurotransmission at the parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapse. The blockade of local estrogen synthesis within the cerebellum results in a diminution of glutamatergic neurotransmission. Correspondingly, decreased estrogen availability via gonadectomy or blockade of aromatase activity negatively affects locomotor performance. These data indicate that locally derived, and not just gonad-derived, estrogens affect cerebellar physiology and function. In addition, estrogens were found to facilitate parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synaptic transmission in both sexes. As such, the actions of estradiol to support cerebellar neurotransmission and cerebellum-based behaviors might be fundamental to understanding the normal processing of activity within the cerebellar cortex.
Analysis of pluripotency marker expression in human glioblastoma multiforme cells treated with conditioned medium of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells
Authors: Hardiany Novi Silvia , Huang Purnamawati , Dewi Syarifah , Paramita Reni , Wanandi Septelia Inawati 
Published: January 2018

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive form of malignant glioma and is also known as grade IV astrocytoma. This might be due to the presence of cancer stem cells with high pluripotency and ability of self-renewal. Recently, it has been reported that tumor stroma cells, including mesencyhmal stem cells (MSCs), secrete factors that affect cancer cell growth. Until now, the role of MSC secretomes in cancer stem cell pluripotency remains unclear. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of MSC secretomes in conditioned medium (CM) on the expression of pluripotency markers of GBM cells. Methods: Umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UCSCs) were grown on serum-free alphaMEM for 24 hours to prepare the UCSC-CM. Human GBM T98G cells were treated with UCSC-CM for 24 hours. Following this treatment, expression of pluripotency markers SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG genes was analyzed using quantitative RT-PCR. Results: SOX2 and OCT mRNA expression was 4.7-fold (p=0.02) and 1.3-fold (p=0.03) higher in CM-treated cells compared to the control. However, there was no change in NANOG mRNA expression. This might be due to there being others factors regulating NANOG mRNA expression. Conclusions: UCSC-CM could affect the expression of SOX2 and OCT4 in human glioblastoma multiforme T98G cells. Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanism by which pluripotency markers are expressed when induced by the UCSC secretome.
Real world evidence (RWE) – a disruptive innovation or the quiet evolution of medical evidence generation?
Authors: Khosla Sajan , White Robert , Medina Jesús , Ouwens Mario , Emmas Cathy , Koder Tim , Male Gary , Leonard Sandra 
Published: January 2018

Stakeholders in healthcare are increasingly turning to real world evidence (RWE) to inform their decisions, alongside evidence from randomized controlled trials. RWE is generated by analysing data gathered from routine clinical practice, and can be used across the product lifecycle, providing insights into areas including disease epidemiology, treatment effectiveness and safety, and health economic value and impact. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have stated their ambition for greater use of RWE to support applications for new indications, and are now consulting with their stakeholders to formalize standards and expected methods for generating RWE. Pharmaceutical companies are responding to the increasing demands for RWE by developing standards and processes for each stage of the evidence generation pathway. Some conventions are already in place for assuring quality, whereas other processes are specific to the research question and data sources available. As evidence generation increasingly becomes a core role of medical affairs divisions in large pharmaceutical companies, standards of rigour will continue to evolve and improve. Senior pharmaceutical leaders can drive this change by making RWE a core element of their corporate strategy, providing top-level direction on how their respective companies should approach RWE for maximum quality. Here, we describe the current and future areas of RWE application within the pharmaceutical industry, necessary access to data to generate RWE, and the challenges in communicating RWE. Supporting and building on viewpoints from industry and publicly funded research, our perspective is that at each stage of RWE generation, quality will be critical to the impact that RWE has on healthcare decision-makers; not only where RWE is an established and evolving tool, but also in new areas that have the potential to disrupt and to improve drug development pathways.
The risk of microbial contamination associated with six different needle-free connectors
Authors: Casey Anna L , Karpanen Tarja J , Nightingale Peter , Elliott Tom SJ 
Published: January 2018

Background: needle-free connectors are widely used in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to identify any differences between microbial ingress into six different connectors (three neutral-displacement, one negative-displacement and two anti-reflux connectors). Methods: each connector underwent a 7-day clinical simulation involving repeated microbial contamination of the connector's injection ports with Staphylococcus aureus followed by decontamination and then saline flushes through each connector. The simulation was designed to be a surrogate marker for the potential risk of contamination in clinical practice. Results: increasing numbers of S. aureus were detected in the flushes over the 7 days of sampling despite adherence to a rigorous decontamination programme. Significant differences in the number of S. aureus recovered from the saline flush of some types of connectors were also detected. Two different durations (5- and 15-second) of decontamination of the injection ports with 70% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) wipes were also investigated. There was no significant difference between the median number of S. aureus recovered in the saline flushes following a 5-second (165.5, 95% CI=93-260) or a 15-second decontamination regimen (75, 10–190). Conclusions: The findings suggest that there may be differences in the risk of internal microbial contamination with different types of connectors and that even 15 seconds of decontamination may not fully eradicate microorganisms from the injection ports of some devices.
Clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients in China
Authors: Wang Liping , Li Chaxiang , Zhang Qiongling , Li YaJie 
Published: January 2018

Objective: To examine Chinese clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients, and to examine the relationships between clinical nurses' attitudes towards death and caring for dying patients. Methods: A convenience sample of 770 clinical nurses from 15 hospitals in China. All participants completed the Chinese version of the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale, Form B (FATCOD-B-C), the Chinese version of the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R-C), and a demographic questionnaire. Results: The mean score of the FATCOD-B-C items was 95.62 (SD = 7.45). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses were likely to provide care for the dying person's family (mean = 3.77), but did not have a positive attitude towards communication with the dying person(mean = 2.62). The majority of Chinese clinical nurses showed low scores on death avoidance (mean=1.96) and natural acceptance (mean = 1.61), and most of them viewed death as a passageway to a happy afterlife (mean = 4.33). Attitudes towards caring for dying patients were significantly negatively correlated with fear of death (r = -0.120) and positively correlated with approach acceptance (r = 0.127) and natural acceptance (r = 0.117). Factors that predicted clinical nurses' attitudes towards the care of dying patients included education level, fear of death, approach acceptance, religious beliefs, previous education on death and dying, natural acceptance, professional title, and experience with death or dying patients, which accounted for 18.7% of the variance. Conclusion: Nurses' personal attitudes towards death were associated with their attitudes towards the care of dying patients. Training and educational programmes for clinical nurses should take into consideration nurses' personal attitudes towards death as well as their cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs.
Quebec’s Economic and Commercial Linkages with the United States, 1994–2017
Authors: Fry Earl H. 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US.1

1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.
Self deinfibulation during unassisted home delivery: a hitherto unknown dimension of female genital mutilation?
Authors: Hago Nuda Elnagi Mousa , Babarinsa Isaac A. , Shurbak Zeena Saeed Bu 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
The severe scarring and distortion which follows genital mutilation may make subsequent childbirth difficult or traumatic. Deinfibulation has been advocated and practiced in hospitals. We present a patient who deinfibulated herself during a successful home delivery, and presented to hospital thereafter.
Motion Capturing Emotions
Authors: Wood Karen , Cisneros Rosemary E. , Whatley Sarah 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
The paper explores the activities conducted as part of WhoLoDancE: Whole Body Interaction Learning for Dance Education which is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project. In particular, we discuss the motion capture sessions that took place at Motek, Amsterdam as well as the dancers’ experience of being captured and watching themselves or others as varying visual representations through the HoloLens. HoloLens is Microsoft’s first holographic computer that you wear as you would a pair of glasses. The study embraced four dance genres: Ballet, Contemporary, Flamenco and Greek Folk dance. We are specifically interested in the kinesthetic and emotional engagement with the moving body and what new corporeal awareness may be experienced. Positioning the moving, dancing body as fundamental to technological advancements, we discuss the importance of considering the dancer’s experience in the real and virtual space. Some of the artists involved in the project have offered their experiences, which are included, and they form the basis of the discussion. In addition, we discuss the affect of immersive environments, how these environments expand reality and what effect (emotionally and otherwise) that has on the body. The research reveals insights into relationships between emotion, movement and technology and what new sensorial knowledge this evokes for the dancer.
Democracy and Financial Crisis Between the Five Presidents Report and the BREXIT: In Search for a New Way?
Authors: Munin Nellie 
Published: January 2018

Summary
In the aftermath of the Brexit, the EU is swinging between a vision of enhanced integration, depicted by the Five Presidents Report, and a decision by the people of one of its leading member states - the UK - to withdraw this alliance, that may be interpreted as a non-confidence vote in the enhanced integration process underlying the EU. This article assumes that non-democratic elements embodied in the measures taken to pull out of the financial crisis and stabilize EU/EMU economies may enhance non-confidence among EU/EMU citizens, serving as incentives for more member states to opt out of this alliance, inspired by the Brexit. While it might have been expected that as the peak of the crisis passed, decision makers would pay more attention to ensure the democratic nature of such measures, comparison of the regulation enacted during the emergency phase and shortly thereafter with later regulation reveals that, despite certain improvements, many non-democratic elements still characterize both the nature of the measures devised and the decision-making processes leading to them. The article suggests that the Brexit should serve as a red light, reinforcing previous criticism calling for improving the democratic nature of such measures and of the decision-making processes involved, to prevent a further drift.
Responsibility of a Juvenile for a Prohibited Act Under Polish Law
Authors: Daniluk Paweł , Mierzwińska-Lorencka Joanna 
Published: January 2018

Summary
The law on juvenile delinquency proceedings creates a model of a paternalistic and welfare approach to juvenile justice, the protection and treatment of the juvenile at risk oriented allowing only a certain range, to use criminal sanctions against juvenile perpetrators of prohibited acts. The rule is that juvenile is not liable to the principles defined in the Penal Code, the Code of Petty Offences or the Fiscal Penal Code, and the law is applied to him is the Juvenile Act of 26 October 1982 which does not provide for a criminal responsibility. Special, nonpenal responsibility for juveniles applies for those between 13 and 17 years. For younger juveniles, special measures of exclusively educational and care character are possible.
The Constitutional Court of Romania and European Union Law
Authors: Călin Dragoş 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
The Constitutional Court of Romania has subjected the introduction of a norm of European Union law into the constitutionality control, as an interposed norm to the standard norm. On the one hand, the norm should be sufficiently clear, precise and unequivocal in itself, or its meaning should have been clearly, precisely and unequivocally established by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and on the other hand it should be circumscribed by a certain level of constitutional relevance, so that its normative content could support the possible breach of the Constitution - the only direct standard norm within the constitutionality control - by national law. However, the experience of the Constitutional Court of Romania over the eight years (2007-2014) since the EU accession, does not seem to be very convincing, irrespective of the way in which European Union law, including the case law of the CJUE has been used: as justifying or circumstantial argument, as a mere reference or in an inadequate context.
The Concept of Plea Bargaining Under the Czech Criminal Law and the Criminal Law of Other Countries Within the Region of Central Europe
Authors: Ščerba Filip 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
The article deals with the specific instrument used in criminal proceedings called as plea bargaining, or agreement upon the guilt and punishment (in the Czech legal regulation). This instrument is considered as one of the main measures used for acceleration of criminal proceedings and for criminal justice rationalization. Plea bargaining originally belongs to the system of criminal law in the countries belonging to the Anglo-Saxon legal order, but it has been implemented also into the legal orders of countries in Middle Europe region during last decade. Such implementation in connected with some important problems related to the different characteristics of criminal proceedings. The article solves some of these problems, primarily the collision with the basic principles of continental system of criminal law.
Reverse Payment Patent Settlements in the Pharmaceutical Sector and Competition Law – Do Lundbeck and Actavis Help to Bridge the Views Across the Atlantic Regarding the Delayed Market Entry of Cheaper, Generic Medicines?
Authors: Dutt Pawan , Kerikmäe Tanel 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Competition law and Intellectual Property law are remarkably divergent in scope and thus make for uneasy bedfellows. Although they both purport to help the consumer, their effects on the common market can be strikingly different. Recent decisions in the European Union and the United States of America have brought into focus the role of reverse payment patent settlement agreements. These agreements are generally of a commercial nature, and are agreements to settle actual or potential disputes which are related to patents. The questions which are sought by the parties to mutually settle range from infringement of a patent or the validity of a patent. When such a settlement agreement between a patent holder (in this instance the originator company) and a patent challenger (being a generic company) involves a value transfer from the originator to the generic company, coupled with a provision to limit or restrict the generic company’s ability to market its own product on the market, then certain interesting areas of conflict tend to come forward. The question arises whether this is simply a case of a company paying off its competitors to stay out of its market and delay the entry of cheaper, generic medicines, and is thus purely anticompetitive and harmful to consumers? Or whether the right to settle a patent dispute within the scope of patent laws is something which is outside the domain of Competition law? The European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have displayed similar levels of distrust towards such commercial settlement agreements, and now the United States Supreme Court has weighed in with its own opinion. It remains to be seen how this matter will develop further in the courtrooms on both sides of the Atlantic.
Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration
Authors: Malacka Michal 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
International commercial arbitration and national commercial arbitration are issues of international private law combined with global and local aspects. The rules of the procedure in international commercial arbitration vary around the world and are combined with the very strong influence of national law and are determinate by the place where the arbitration procedure is being preceded by the arbitrators. Obtaining evidence in commercial arbitration is also dependent on the above-mentioned aspects. The arbitrators have to know, as much as possible, all about the common law system, the civil law system’s influence and the powers and initiation possibilities they have during the arbitration procedure. The knowledge of the system and existing procedure rules allow them to produce the most important part of the arbitration, such as a perfect award.
Protection of Indigenous or Traditional Knowledge Under Intellectual Property Laws: An Examination of the Efficacy of Copyright Law, Trade Secret and SUI Generis Rights
Authors: Ogwezzy Michael C. 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
The article deals with the rules for a grant of interim measures in the context of EU law and its application in national judicial proceedings. It covers the key case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU related to the regime, conditions and limits of the interim measures and adds a reflection of practice of Czech courts. Article pays particular attention to the conditions for suspension ofn the application of national law measures.
The new principles in internal audit function in banks: stagnation or step forward?
Authors: Kubáňová Klára 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Article reflects the recent developments in the field of internal audits within the banks (the document on the internal audit function in banks issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2012). It covers the processes of the internal audits, the relations between supervisors and auditors and the main principles covering the internal audits in banks.
The final act in the deregulation of the Austrian postal market: the Postal Market Act (Postmarktgesetz-PMG)
Authors: Hofstätter Christoph 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
On 1 January 2011, the PMG entered into force. It implements the EC/ EU Postal Directive and finally eliminates the protected market for letters of the former incumbent “Österreichische Post Aktiengesellschaft ” (Post AG). Th is is the last step in the full liberalization of the postal service sector in Austria. The following article presents the new Act with a focus on the universal service and the closure of post offices by the Post AG.
The Libyan Uprising and the Right of Revolution in International Law
Authors: Keenan Thomas 
Published: January 2018

Abstract
Despite the ubiquitous coverage of the Libyan revolution throughout the last six months, very little has been said regarding the legal foundations for the rebels’ actions. Within the international legal framework, it must be asked whether the Libyan people even had a legal right in the first place to overthrow the Gaddafi regime. In fact, the existence of a right to rebel under international law is very much an unsettled matter. Among the sources of international law, a right to rebel is not enumerated in any of the principal international instruments. In truth, the only significant mention of the right is a passing but ambiguous reference in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A customary right of revolution is similarly absent, as many nations criminalize treason and other insurrectionary activities. Instead, if such a right exists in international law, it must derive from the well-enshrined right of self-determination. Th is right would thus constitute an additional exception to international law’s general prohibition on the use force, standing alongside self-defense and Security Council peace enforcement. Yet establishing a right of revolution would mark a significant departure from these other exemptions. In essence, the right of revolution represents an allowance for non-state actors to resort to force unilaterally for the protection of human rights. For this very reason, contemporary international law likely does not recognize a popular right to revolt. In light of international law’s fi rm restrictions on lawful uses of force, there is no evidence that the law currently acknowledges a novel exception for the individual enforcement of human rights. Th us, in the absence of a change in the law, the proper legal remedy for the Libyan people was not rebellion but rather an appeal to the international community.