bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modafinil May Alleviate Poststroke Fatigue
Authors: Poulsen Mai Bang , Damgaard Bodil , Zerahn Bo , Overgaard Karsten , Rasmussen Rune Skovgaard 
Published: November 2015

Background and Purpose—
Poststroke fatigue is common and reduces quality of life. Current evidence for intervention is limited, and this is the first placebo-controlled trial to investigate treatment of poststroke fatigue with the wakefulness promoting drug modafinil.

Methods—
The trial was randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled. Patients were treated with 400-mg modafinil or placebo for 90 days. Assessments were done at inclusion, 30, 90, and 180 days. The primary end point was fatigue at 90 days measured by the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 general fatigue domain. Secondary end points included the Fatigue Severity Scale, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the modified Rankin Scale and the Stroke-specific quality of Life questionnaire. Adult patients with a recent stroke achieving a score of ≥12 on the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 general fatigue domain were consecutively included. Exclusion criteria were severe cognitive disabilities and contraindications for modafinil treatment.

Results—

One thousand one hundred twenty-one patients with stroke were screened and 41 patients included, 21 received modafinil. The primary end point, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20 general fatigue score, did not differ between groups. Patients in the modafinil group obtained better scores on the Fatigue Severity Scale (
P
=0.02) and in some subscales of the stroke-specific quality of life questionnaire (0.001<
P
<0.05), which were secondary outcomes. No serious adverse reactions were observed and there was no difference in blood pressure between groups.

Conclusions—
There were no significant differences between the 2 groups with regard to the primary end point. There were secondary significant outcomes that should be explored in future trials.

Clinical Trial Registration—

URL:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov
. Unique identifier: NCT01800097.
Matrix Metalloproteinase-12 Induces Blood–Brain Barrier Damage After Focal Cerebral Ischemia
Authors: Chelluboina Bharath , Klopfenstein Jeffrey D. , Pinson David M. , Wang David Z. , Vemuganti Raghu , Veeravalli Krishna Kumar 
Published: November 2015

Background and Purpose—
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have a central role in compromising the integrity of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The role of MMP-12 in brain damage after ischemic stroke remains unknown. The main objective of the current study is to investigate the effect of MMP-12 suppression at an early time point before reperfusion on the BBB damage in rats.

Methods—
Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion. MMP-12 shRNA–expressing plasmids formulated as nanoparticles were administered at a dose of 1 mg/kg body weight. The involvement of MMP-12 on BBB damage was assessed by performing various techniques, including Evans blue dye extravasation, 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, immunoblot, gelatin zymography, and immunofluorescence analysis.

Results—
MMP-12 is upregulated ≈31-, 47-, and 66-fold in rats subjected 1–, 2-, or 4-hour ischemia, respectively, followed by 1-day reperfusion. MMP-12 suppression protected the BBB integrity by inhibiting the degradation of tight-junction proteins. Either intravenous or intra-arterial delivery of MMP-12 shRNA-expressing plasmid significantly reduced the percent Evans blue dye extravasation and infarct size. Furthermore, MMP-12 suppression reduced the endogenous levels of other proteases, such as tissue-type plasminogen activator and MMP-9, which are also known to be the key players involved in BBB damage.

Conclusions—
These results demonstrate the adverse role of MMP-12 in acute brain damage that occurs after ischemic stroke and, thereby, suggesting that MMP-12 suppression could be a promising therapeutic target for cerebral ischemia.
Strategies for the Temperature Control of Extruders
Authors: Brooks D. E. A. , Lever P. R. 
Published: November 2015

The paper opens with a study of plant controllability, particular attention being paid to the dynamic characteristics of the two most widely used types of electric heater, i.e. induction and resistance. The efficiency of each is considered and comparative figures presented. Several standard methods of heater control are discussed, together with techniques based upon two- and three-term continuous action controllers, special reference being made to the silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), the advent of which has rendered the continuous control of electric power economically feasible. Experimental results obtained on an actual extruder using various configurations and types of controller are presented. An analysis of results is given. Cooling of extruders operating in the “exothermic” mode is discussed. It is hoped to amplify this section with experimental results to be produced before the presentation of the paper. The paper concludes with a short discussion of the relative merits of the systems considered.
Fundamental Concepts of Measurement: Definition and Scales
Authors: Finkelstein L. 
Published: November 2015

The paper presents briefly the current state of understanding of the epistemological and logical foundations of measurement. Measurement is defined as an empirical operational procedure which assigns numbers to members of a class of entities, in such a way as to describe them; by which is meant that relations between these numbers correspond to empirical relations between the entities to which they are assigned. On the basis of this definition, the conditions for the establishment of scales of measurement are analysed.
Source Guide to History of Measurement Technology Material
Authors: Sydenham P. H. 
Published: November 2015

Measurement hardware before the 19th century is reasonably well reported in historical works. More modern electrical devices have not been studied as extensively, presumably because of the high degree of understanding needed of the historian and because the artifacts and written information are not easy to locate. This article provides a brief summary of the history of sensing, a working guide to dominant world collections of sensing apparatus, and an introductory guide to the literature available on sensing methods. It is intended as an aid to historical sensing technique research.
On-Line Analytical Instrumentation in the Water Industry — Problems and Practical Solutions
Authors: Briggs R. 
Published: November 2015

Water industry needs in instrumentation and control have been discussed mainly against a background of developments in the UK, in Europe and the US, although requirements in developing areas, where different, have not been ignored. Limitations of existing instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) systems have been discussed, and so too have potential improvements resulting from recent developments in sensor and system technology including developments in microelectronics and microcomputers. Certain sensor and system developments of particular relevance have been discussed in more detail, and so too have certain organisational and logistical aspects. Finally, some new horizons have been explored.
Isolated Interfaces — Will They Replace Barrier Devices?
Authors: McMillan A J 
Published: November 2015

Apart from relay systems, interface units not forming part of more complex items of apparatus were very rare in intrinsic safety, and for analogue circuits non-existent, until the development of the shunt diode safety barrier which first received recognition in 1964. The barrier device is now 21 years old and its limitations well known to us. In the last two or three years alternative interface units called generally ‘isolated interfaces’ have been developed and much is claimed for these — indeed there are those who claim that isolated interfaces are as big a technological breakthrough as was the barrier device before it. The objective of this article is to compare the isolated interface with the barrier and attempt to demonstrate just what advantages it possesses and how much of a breakthrough it really is.
Computer-Controlled On-Line Moisture Measurement in Organic Solvents Using a Novel Potentiometric Technique
Authors: Hall T F , Waterfall R C , Kakabadse G J , Olatoye E O , Perry R , Tipping A E 
Published: November 2015

A microcomputer-based monitoring system for the determination of residual water in organic solvents using ion-selective electrodes in a novel potentiometric method, called the proton iso-concentration technique (PICT), has been developed at UMIST. In the monitor, a sample stream is bled off and mixed with a buffer solution before passing through a cell containing a pH glass electrode, a reference electrode and an automatic temperature compensation probe. The instrument is calibrated with standard solutions containing water in the same solvent. The automatic monitoring system comprises a microcomputer and slave microprocessor system, the former performing system control and data analysis, the latter controlling a number of discrete electronic devices. Results obtained on selected industrially important solvents demonstrate a satisfactory performance of PICT in continuous monitoring, showing it to be accurate, reproducible and sensitive. On-line determination of moisture in solvents is important for process control in industry.
Middle Class Drug Abuse and Jewish Youth
Authors: Leffler William J. 
Published: November 2015

Statistically, drug abuse is a problem for Jews far in excess of their percentage among the American population. The author would posit three reasons for this. The vast majority of American Jewry lives in the major megalopolis areas of this country, and so are overly susceptible to this malady. A second reason is that the middle class drug abuser comes from an upward mobile, socio-economic family, one in which the father has been too busy making a living to pay much attention to the children and in which the mother is overly involved in outside activities that enhance her status in the community. Many Jewish families fit this description. And a third reason is that the middle class drug abuser is college bound in high school. And since over 80% of Jewish high school graduates are college bound, here again Jewish children are overly susceptible to drug abuse. These three factors have been overlooked by most researchers.
Religious Correlates of Teenage Drug Use
Authors: McLuckie Benjamin F. , Zahn Margaret , Wilson Robert A. 
Published: November 2015

This paper analyzes the relationship of religiosity and patterns of drug use among students in the seventh through the twelfth grades. Data were collected in a statewide questionnaire survey of more than 30,000 students. Hypotheses regarding the constraining influence of religion on drug use patterns received mixed support. On the one hand religiosity as measured by affiliation and by parochial school attendance did not uniformly constrain drug use. For example, while Catholics and Protestants were relatively low in current use, Jewish teenagers had the highest rate with nonaffiliates the second highest. Extent of involvement in religion (as measured by frequency of attendance), on the other hand, did seem constraining since nonattenders were more than twice as likely to be drug users as were regular weekly attenders. Data on these teenagers' evaluation of drug information sources is also presented. Here it was found that drug users tend to trust traditional sources of Information less than do nonusers and trust those with personal drug experience more than do nonusers. All students, however, whether drug users or not, tended to value information from those presumed to have technical knowledge about drugs, i.e., physicians and medical school professors. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also explored.
Hormonal Alteration in the Female Athlete
Authors: Harris Dorothy V. 
Published: November 2015

With increasing emphasis being placed on the female's success in international sport, hormonal controls and alterations to enhance her performance have become a common practice in some sports. Control of the menstrual cycle through the use of hormonal contraceptive medication is the most common alteration. Supplementing the endocrine system by taking anabolic steroids is becoming an increasing problem in events requiring strength and power. In other sports such as gymnastics, the use of hormonal inhibitors to retard growth and development is reported to be practiced in some Eastern countries. With the emergence of Dr. Renee Richards in women's professional tennis, the issue of man-to-woman transsexualism through surgery and hormonal treatment has produced another cause for concern regarding biochemical and surgical alterations for enhanced performance.
Verbal Performances and Addict Conversion: An Interactionist Perspective on Therapeutic Communities
Authors: Hawkins J. David , Wacker Norman 
Published: November 2015

Verbal interaction in therapeutic communities (TC's) for the treatment of drug addictions are explored here as a source of both the high rate of “conversion” among residents and the reported high rates of relapse to street crime and illicit drug use after leaving treatment. Residents enter TC's with values radically opposed to those of the TC's treatment philosophy but are gradually drawn into behavioral conformity with the TC code. Certain verbal performances demanded of clients appear instrumental to a conversion process in which clients develop self-concepts along the lines of program models, in spite of their frequent early efforts to “game” their way through therapy. In verbal performances, clients are pressured to use the distinctive language (argot) and implicit value system of the TC treatment philosophy to characterize their own and their fellow clients' behavior before the group. Major vehicles are confessions, confrontations and rituals of stigmatization mounted with the active participation of resident peers. The ways in which residents are drawn into actively playing expected roles in the resocialization of fellow clients are described. In TC's, dramatic verbal performances are highly compartmentalized in recurring discrete frames or occasions (Goffman, 1974). Each occasion is governed by a particularistic code which is learned experientially through the prompting of the TC peer group and staff. Specific codes of behavior are “learned by rote.” Behaviors appropriate on one occasion meet with censure on different occasions. In TC's the elaborated code or “concept” which joins the dramatic occasions is described as unknowable and not reducible to intellectual understanding. As a result, the resocialization process in TC's appears to be a conversion to this specific institutional setting itself. Such context-tried resocialization is not likely to guarantee the long-term rehabilitation of clients when they leave the TC setting.
Black Family Features and Drinking Behavior
Authors: Lipscomb Wendell R. , Goddard Lawford L. 
Published: November 2015

The structural features of the Black family are explored in detail: the social organization of Black family life, the functions of the Black family and the concrete material context within which the Black family exists. Also explored is the contextual relationship between the family and its environment and how this interchange affects the family system and the behavior of its constituent members as manifested in patterns of drinking behavior. While most of this work is highly descriptive, the logic of discovery underlying this article is guided by a theoretical model that suggests that the features of Black family life, as well as the pattern of drinking behavior, are unique and that such uniqueness derives from the cultural world-view of Black people. Accordingly, it is suggested that current Black drinking patterns are a product of historical traditions and practices originating from the African continent which have been modified by the concrete historical experience of Blacks in America.
Marketing and Pharmaceutical Development
Authors: Myers Maven J. 
Published: November 2015

New pharmaceuticals are developed in response to therapeutic need, scientific feasibility, and market demand. As research and development (R&D) decision processes becomes more sophisticated, marketing input plays a greater role in these decisions. Industry-financed R&D is dependent on basic research financed by government. The political decisions which determine government-financed research are significant determinants of the scientific feasibility of a new drug. Many new drugs offer only minor advantages over existing therapies. The cumulative effect of these minor improvements are significant. In addition, new drugs often increase competition in a market. The Orphan Drug Act has contributed to the marketing of drugs where sufficient market demand may not otherwise exist. While some portion of R&D funds are spent on imitative drugs, the incentive for this use of R&D funds decreases as buyers become more sophisticated and as the cost of marketing a new drug increases.
Wet Soiling of Cotton; Part I: The Effect of Finishes on Soiling
Authors: Berch Julian , Peper Henry 
Published: November 2015

This work is part of a program that has the objective of establishing the relationship between surface properties and wet soiling characteristics of cottons treated with selected finishes. The results and interpretation of soiling tests on cottons with fifteen different finishes or chemical modifications are reported here. The fabrics were soiled in aqueous dispersions of iron oxide, iron oxide plus oleic acid, carbon black, carbon black plus oleic acid, and vacuum cleaner dirt. In most cases, the fabrics were soiled with each of these dispersions at 120° and 160° F. The results of the tests indicate that positively charged, hydrophobic or soft finishes promote wet soiling. The best resistance to wet soiling was obtained with those finishing agents or chemical modifications that were negatively charged or hydrophilic.
The Theory of Shrinkproofing of Wool: Part V: Electron and Light Microscopy of Wool Fibers after Chemical Treatments
Authors: Bradbury J. H. , Rogers G. E. , Filshie B. K. 
Published: November 2015

Lincoln 36's top, subjected to ten different chemical treatments as described in previous publications of this series [4, 5], was examined by light and electron microscopy using replica and thin-sectioning techniques. The sectioning and staining technique proved useful in showing the extent of penetration of the fiber by the reagent. The more drastic treatments such as 5% sodium hydroxide in water, hydrogen peroxide (10 vol for 16 hr), and severe treatment with chlorine (16% on weight of wool) caused almost complete obliteration of cellular detail throughout the fiber. Milder oxidation treatments may not have destroyed cellular detail, but may have oxidized sufficient disulfide bonds to prevent the TGA-OsO4 staining procedure from staining the matrix, with the result that the fine structure of microfibrils and matrix in the cortex were not visible. Alternative section staining procedures utilizing permanganate or lead hydroxide were also useful. Modification of the cuticle was observed after every treatment which effected shrinkproofing; namely, acid chlorination, treatment with permonosulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, and treatment with permanganate in saturated salt. Some treatments (ethanol extraction, for example) produced a marginal degree of shrinkproofing and showed a small amount of cuticle modification. Other treatments (with peracetic acid, for instance) did not modify the cuticle and did not effect shrinkproofing. Thus, the primary requirement for shrinkproofing by degradative chemical treatments is sufficient modification of the fiber cuticle. The chemical reaction by which cuticle modification (and thereby shrinkproofing) is brought about generally involves cystine, but with the use of ethanolic sodium hydroxide the major process is probably the removal of a wool wax constituent from the cell membrane complex beneath the cuticle. Although modification of the cortex by chemical reaction is undesirable from a practical point of view, it has only a secondary effect on the degree of shrinkproofing. Various methods of confining the reaction to the cuticle are discussed. In particular, it was found that sodium hydroxide in water penetrates throughout the fiber, whereas the reaction was limited to the cuticle by the use of sodium hydroxide in ethanol or in an aqueous solution saturated with salt. Similarly, reaction of the cortex occurred with permanganate in water (with no subsequent shrinkproofing), whereas the presence of salt limited the reaction to the cuticle, thus producing shrinkproofing. The correlation between cuticle modification (hence degree of shrinkproofing) and alteration of frictional coefficients was good in most cases, but the lack of correlation in a few cases emphasized the importance of a new approach to the measurement of frictional coefficients.
The Political Economy of Metrology
Authors: Harris William T. , Harris Lydia 
Published: November 2015

This paper is an attempt to discuss some economic aspects of metrology, the field of study dealing with measurements. The first part of the paper deals with what might be called the economics of precision; the second discusses the public goods nature of a system of measurement, and the third economic aspect of metrology concerns occupational entry barriers. Even though a market demand and supply in the usual sense do not exist, a system of weights and measures does have many traditional economic characteristics. For example, the measures themselves came about in response to emerging needs to measure with varying degrees of accuracy the commodities that were traded in society. Just as technology has affected the supply of traded goods, so too has it affected the supply of tools of measurement and their precision. The first two sections of the paper will describe our system of weights and measures as an evolutionary process much like how traditional commodity markets work. Individuals and governments have promoted the standardization of units and their accuracy when it served to facilitate a more efficient allocation of resources. The public goods nature of a standardized system of weights and measures will be discussed with emphasis on government involvement. The third section of the paper will discuss some instances in which our system of weights and measures fails to promote economic efficiency. Specifically, we will discuss the rent-seeking behavior by some to implement nonstandard measures as a means of erecting occupational entry barriers.