bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The cost‐effectiveness of treating triple coinfection with HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C virus
Authors: Sánchez‐González G 
Published: June 2016

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to estimate the cost‐effectiveness of treating patients infected with HIV and simultaneously coinfected with tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).MethodsA mathematical model for HIV coinfection with TB and HCV is introduced. The model was designed to incorporate parameters of control for the coverage of care, which makes it useful for performing cost‐effectiveness analysis of public policies. A cost‐effectiveness analysis of early medical care of patients with TB and HCV coinfection, with coverage of 0 (basal), 25, 50, 75 and 100%, was performed for the whole cohort of patients and a special analysis was performed in a selected population with triple infection.ResultsThe cost per resolved infection and the cost per year of life gained were found to be very cost‐effective for the population with triple infection, for all different coverages.ConclusionsIt is known that treating patients with HIV who are coinfected with TB or HCV implies high cost and low efficacy, but it is possible that the population with triple infections could achieve important benefits in terms of years of life gained.
Week 96 efficacy and safety of darunavir/ritonavir monotherapy vs. darunavir/ritonavir with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors in the PROTEA trial
Authors: Girard PM , Antinori A , Arribas JR , Ripamonti D , Bicer C , Netzle‐Sveine B , Hadacek B , Moecklinghoff C 
Published: June 2016

ObjectivesPROTEA is a randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of darunavir/ritonavir (DRV/r) monotherapy as an alternative to triple therapy.MethodsPatients fully suppressed on first‐line antiretrovirals (viral load < 50 HIV‐1 RNA copies/mL) were switched to DRV/r 800/100 mg once daily, either as monotherapy (n = 137) or with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) (n = 136). Treatment failure was HIV‐1 RNA level ≥ 50 copies/mL at week 96 or discontinuation of study treatment [Food and Drug Administration (FDA) snapshot algorithm].ResultsPatients were mainly male and white, with mean age 44 years. In the primary efficacy analysis, the percentage of patients with HIV‐1 RNA < 50 copies/mL by week 96 [intent to treat (ITT)] was lower in the DRV/r monotherapy arm (103 of 137 patients; 75%) than in the triple therapy arm (116 of 136 patients; 85%) [difference −10.1%; 95% confidence interval (CI) −19.5, −0.7%]. In the switch‐included analysis, monotherapy was noninferior to triple therapy. In a post hoc analysis, for patients with nadir CD4 count ≥ 200 cells/μL, rates of HIV‐1 RNA suppression were 82 of 96 patients (85%) in the DRV/r monotherapy arm and 88 of 106 patients (83%) in the triple therapy arm. No treatment‐emergent primary protease inhibitor mutations were detected in either arm. The frequency of adverse events was similar in the two arms; however, one patient in the monotherapy arm was hospitalized with HIV encephalitis and elevated cerebrospinal fluid HIV‐1 RNA.ConclusionsIn this study, in patients with HIV‐1 RNA < 50 copies/mL at baseline, switching to DRV/r monotherapy showed lower efficacy vs. triple therapy at week 96 in the primary ITT switch‐equals‐failure analysis, particularly in patients with CD4 counts < 200 cells/μL.
Killer‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors and cytomegalovirus reactivation during late pregnancy
Authors: Alvarado‐Hernández D. L. , Benítez‐Sánchez A. , Rodríguez‐Cuevas J. S. , Rosales‐Saavedra T. , Guerra‐Palomares S. E. , Comas‐García A. , Noyola D. E. , García‐Sepúlveda C. A. 
Published: June 2016

SummaryHuman cytomegalovirus (CMV) represents an important public health concern as it is associated with severe morbidity and mortality in transplant recipients, HIV‐infected individuals and pregnant women given the risk of congenital infection. Congenital CMV is a leading cause of neurological sequelae, developmental delay and birth defects worldwide. Cytomegalovirus can be transmitted to the foetus following maternal infection or reactivation. NK cells expressing killer‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors (KIR) are part of the innate immune system and the first line of defence against viral incursions. Previous reports have shown that KIR genes are associated with CMV infections in the post‐transplant setting. In this study, we set out to determine whether a protective effect of KIR genes over CMV infection is seen in Mexican pregnant women. Cytomegalovirus infection was assessed through nucleic acid testing in 200 pregnant women and 600 healthy blood donors comprising the Mexican mestizo reference population. Killer‐cell immunoglobulin‐like receptors and HLA‐C genotypes were obtained from 200 pregnant women and 300 reference samples using a comprehensive PCR‐SSP approach. We observed statistically lower carrier frequencies of cB03|tA01 gene‐content haplotype, of cB03 haplotype motif, of the KIR2DL5 + 2DS3/2DS5 gene pair and of KIR2DL5 amongst CMV‐positive pregnant women in comparison with those CMV negative. None of these were associated with CMV status in the reference population. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the most important factor determining CMV status during third‐trimester pregnancies was the KIR2DL5 + 2DS3/2DS5 gene pair (OR 0.376 (95%CI 0.174, 0.811, P = 0.013). Our results indicate that CMV‐protective KIR gene associations described in Caucasoid populations are also present in the genetically distinct Mexican mestizo population. Our results suggest that certain KIR gene combinations provide protection against CMV infections occurring during late‐term pregnancies, a finding of utmost epidemiological importance given its implication with congenital CMV infections.
Return Migration to India: Decision‐Making among Academic Engineers and Scientists
Authors: Sabharwal Meghna , Varma Roli 
Published: June 2016

AbstractThe decision‐making process among migrants, whether to leave their country of birth for a foreign country or deciding to return to their native country is complex and laden with challenges. This article seeks to understand the decision‐making process by which immigrant engineers and scientists select to return to India after study and work in the United States. It is based on in‐depth interviews conducted with 54 returned engineers and scientists. Results indicate that the decision to return is anything but a linear process as highlighted in rational choice theory. Prospect and planned behaviour theories are better positioned to explain the decision‐making process among returned migrant engineers and scientists.
Troubling the Fields: Choice, Consent, and Coercion of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers
Authors: Silverman Stephanie J. , Hari Amrita 
Published: June 2016

AbstractThis article brings a new, theoretically minded approach to weighing the relative utilities and harms of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) without dismissing the agency of SAWP enrollees or arriving at an abolitionist argument to end Temporary Migrant Worker (TMW) programmes in Canada. Building on the anti‐trafficking debate within feminist migration studies, we evaluate the availability and exercise of consent, choice, and coercion among SAWP workers. We draw on extensive documentation by scholars across disciplines to contextualize the SAWP within a socio‐economic history that engendered and continues to legitimize the “success” of the programme in both Mexico (the largest sending state) and Ontario (the largest provincial recipient of workers). Our analysis suggests that, while grievous, the SAWP's structural injustice ought not to preclude individuals from migrating and earning wages. The article concludes with recommendations to create a fairer avenue for Mexican workers into, through, and out of the SAWP.
Labor Unemployment Concern and Corporate Discretionary Disclosure
Authors: Ji Yuan , Tan Liang 
Published: June 2016

AbstractWe investigate how firms strategically vary their disclosure policies in response to labor unemployment concern. Using changes in state unemployment insurance laws as exogenous variations of labor unemployment concern, we show that firms provide more bad news forecasts when unemployment concern is low. This relation is stronger when firms are financially constrained, when CEOs and CFOs have higher equity incentives, and when workers are likely to be affected more by unemployment. Our findings are not driven by earnings management reversal or underlying performance changes, and are robust to a battery of identification tests. Finally, we find a similar effect of unemployment concern on disclosure using the tone of 10‐K and 10‐Q filings as an alternative proxy for corporate disclosure. Overall, our findings suggest that labor unemployment concern is an important consideration for corporate discretionary disclosure.
Low Intensity Epicardial Pacing During the Absolute Refractory Period Augments Left Ventricular Function Mediated by Local Catecholamine Release
Authors: ITO BRUCE R. , COVELL JAMES W. , CURTIS GUY P. 
Published: June 2016

Cardiac Function Increased by Pacing Induced CatecholaminesBackgroundBiventricular epicardial (Epi) pacing can augment left ventricular (LV) function in heart failure. We postulated that these effects might involve catecholamine release from local autonomic nerve activation. To evaluate this hypothesis we applied low intensity Epi electrical stimuli during the absolute refractory period (ARP), thus avoiding altered activation sequence.MethodsAnesthetized pigs (n = 6) were instrumented with an LV pressure (LVP) transducer, left atrial (LA) and LV Epi pacing electrodes, and sonomicrometer segment length (SL) gauges placed proximal and remote to the LV stimulation site. A catheter was placed into the great cardiac vein adjacent to the LV pacing site for norepinephrine (NE) analysis. During LA pacing at constant rate, 3 pulses (0.8 milliseconds, 2–3x threshold) were applied to the LV Epi electrodes during the ARP. An experimental run consisted of baseline, stimulation (10 minutes), and recovery (5 minutes), repeated 3 times before and after β1‐ receptor blockade (BB, metoprolol).ResultsARP stimulation produced significant increases in cardiac function reflected by elevated LVP, LV, dP/dtmax, and reduced time to LV dP/dtmax. This was accompanied by increased coronary NE levels and increases in LVP versus SL loop area in the remote myocardial segment. In contrast, the proximal segment exhibited early shortening and decreased loop area. BB abolished the changes in SL and LV function despite continued NE release.ConclusionThese results demonstrate that ARP EPI stimulation induces NE release mediating augmented global LV function. This effect may contribute to the beneficial effect of biventricular Epi pacing in heart failure in some patients.
Is There a Role for Genetics in the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death?
Authors: FARAGLI ALESSANDRO , UNDERWOOD KATHERINE , PRIORI SILVIA G. , MAZZANTI ANDREA 
Published: June 2016

Genetics for Sudden Cardiac DeathThe identification of patients at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) is fundamental for both acquired cardiovascular diseases (such as coronary artery diseases, CAD) and inherited arrhythmia syndromes (such as the long‐QT syndrome, LQTS). Genetics may play a role in both situations, although the potential to exploit this information to reduce the burden of SCD varies among these two groups. Concerning acquired cardiovascular diseases, which affect most of the general population, preliminary data suggest an association between genetics and the risk of dying suddenly. The maximal utility, instead, is reached in inherited arrhythmia syndromes, where the discovery of monogenic diseases such as LQTS tracked the way for the first genotype‐phenotype correlations.The aim of this review is to provide a general overview focusing on the current genetic knowledge and on the present and future applicability for prevention in these two populations at risk for SCD.
Peri‐implant crevicular fluid biomarkers as discriminants of peri‐implant health and disease
Authors: Zani Sabrina Rebollo , Moss Kevin , Shibli Jamil Awad , Teixeira Eduardo Rolim , de Oliveira Mairink Renata , Onuma Tatiana , Feres Magda , Teles Ricardo Palmier 
Published: June 2016

AbstractAimThe objective of this cross‐sectional study was to examine the potential of peri‐implant crevicular fluid (PICF) analytes to discriminate between peri‐implant health and disease using a multi‐biomarker approach.MethodsWe collected PICF samples from the mesio‐buccal site of every implant (n = 145) from 52 subjects with peri‐implantitis and measured the levels of 20 biomarkers using Luminex. We grouped implants and subjects based on the clinical characteristic of the sampled sites and implants into: healthy sites from healthy implants (HH), diseased sites from diseased implants (DD) and healthy sites from diseased implants (HD). The significance of the differences between the HH and DD groups was determined using general linear models controlling for false discovery rate. We used logistic regression to determine the best multi‐biomarker models that could distinguish HH from DD subjects and HH from HD subjects.ResultsThere were statistically significant differences between HH and DD groups for 12/20 biomarkers. Logistic regression resulted in a 6‐biomarker model (Flt‐3L, GM‐CSF, IL‐10, sCD40L, IL‐17 and TNFα) that discriminated HH from DD subjects (AUC = 0.93) and a 3‐biomarker model (IL‐17, IL‐1ra and vascular endothelial growth factor) that distinguished HH from DD subjects (AUC = 0.90).ConclusionPICF biomarkers might help discriminate peri‐implant health from disease.
Functional bone histology of zebrafish reveals two types of endochondral ossification, different types of osteoblast clusters and a new bone type
Authors: Weigele Jochen , Franz‐Odendaal Tamara A. 
Published: June 2016

AbstractThe zebrafish is as an important vertebrate animal model system for studying developmental processes, gene functions and signalling pathways. It is also used as a model system for the understanding of human developmental diseases including those related to the skeleton. However, surprisingly little is known about normal zebrafish skeletogenesis and osteogenesis. As in most vertebrates, it is commonly known that the bones of adult zebrafish are cellular unlike that of some other teleosts. After careful histological analyses of each zebrafish adult bone, we identified several acellular bones, with no entrapped osteocytes in addition to several cellular bones. We show that both cellular and acellular bones can even occur within the same skeletal element and transitions between these two cell types can be found. Furthermore, we describe two types of osteoblast clusters during skeletogenesis and two different types of endochondral ossification. The epiphyseal plate, for example, lacks a zone of calcification and a degradation zone with osteoblasts. A new bone type that we term tubular bone was also identified. This bone is completely filled with adipose tissue, unlike spongy bones. This study provides important insight on how osteogenesis takes place in zebrafish, and especially on the transition from cellular to acellular bones. Overall, this study leads to a deeper understanding of the functional histological composition of adult zebrafish bones.
Micro ribonucleic acid‐93 promotes oncogenesis of cervical cancer by targeting RAB11 family interacting protein 1
Authors: Zhang Jing , Wang Fenfen , Xu Junfen , Wang Xinyu , Ye Feng , Xie Xing 
Published: June 2016

AbstractAimMicro ribonucleic acid (RNA)‐93 (miR‐93) is a novel oncogenic miRNA dysregulated in many types of tumors. We aimed to further study the expression pattern and clinical significance of miR‐93 and its target, the RAB11 family interacting protein 1 (RAB11FIP1) gene, in cervical cancer.MethodsMir‐93 and RAB11FIP1 expression in cervical cancer (n = 168), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2 or 3 (n = 60) and normal cervical tissues (n = 48) was examined by real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical staining. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay, flow cytometry, and Transwell chamber invasion assay were performed to investigate the function of miR‐93 in the proliferation, apoptosis and invasion of cervical cancer cell lines SiHa and CaSki. Luciferase activity assay was conducted to identify the target gene of miR‐93.ResultsMir‐93 expression levels in cervical cancer and CIN tissues were significantly increased (P = 0.032), but the RAB11FIP1 protein was significantly decreased (P = 0.006) compared with normal tissues. Neither was associated with clinicopathological variables. Enforced miR‐93 knockdown or RAB11FIP1 overexpression suppressed proliferation and promoted apoptosis, but did not influence invasion in cervical cancer cells. Luciferase activity indicated that RAB11FIP1 was a direct target for miR‐93.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that overexpression of miR‐93 via targeting RAB11FIP1 as an early event plays an important role in oncogenesis of cervical cancer. MiR‐93 and its target protein RAB11FIP1 may be potential therapeutic targets for cervical cancer and its precursors.
Long‐term patient satisfaction after retropubic and transobturator mid‐urethral slings for female stress urinary incontinence
Authors: Al‐Zahrani Ali A. , Gajewski Jerzy 
Published: June 2016

AbstractAimThe aim of this study was to report long‐term patient outcomes after retropubic and transobturator mid‐urethral slings for female stress urinary incontinence.MethodsWomen who underwent mid‐urethral sling for stress urinary incontinence between 2000 and 2010 were invited to participate in a survey regarding their overall improvement. Patients' outcomes were assessed using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire – Short Form and the Global Response Assessment Scale.ResultsThe questionnaires were completed by 330 patients. Their median age at the time of surgery was 54.8 years (±12.9) and the median follow‐up period was 11.9 years (±6.4). Retropubic and transobturator approaches were performed in 128 (38.8%) and 202 (61.2%) patients, respectively. The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire – Short Form score dropped from an average of 14 (±4.1) to 6.4 (±6) with no significant difference between the two groups. The Global Response Assessment Scale showed an 9% greater improvement in the retropubic (66.4%) over the transobturator (57.4%) approach. De novo overactive bladder was the commonest long‐term reported adverse event, affecting 18/330 patients (5.5%). Voiding dysfunction that required surgical correction following the retropubic approach occurred in three patients (2.3%).ConclusionMid‐urethral slings for the management of female stress urinary incontinence had good and durable long‐term effects. Although the retropubic approach gave better results, they were not significantly different than those of the transobturator approach.
Immature ovarian teratoma with hyponatremia and low serum vasopressin level
Authors: Sakamoto Yuki , Takei Yuji , Saga Yasushi , Machida Shizuo , Takahashi Yoshifumi , Fujiwara Hiroyuki 
Published: June 2016

AbstractHyponatremia is often caused by the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH). Hypersecretion of vasopressin from malignant tumors can be considered a cause of SIADH. Most of these ectopic productions of vasopressin are complications of small cell lung cancer. Cases concomitant with ovarian tumors are very rare, and a specific causative substance from the ovary is often unknown. A 16‐year‐old woman was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor. She developed hyponatremia that was resistant to medical treatment, but immediately improved after surgical resection of the tumor. Her diagnosis was SIADH caused by an ovarian tumor; however, her serum vasopressin level was normal. It is possible that a vasopressin‐like substance causing SIADH was secreted by either nervous system tissue within an immature teratoma or small cell lung cancer. We should be cautious when SIADH is a complication of an ovarian tumor.
Managing Longevity Risk by Implementing Sustainable Full Retirement Age Policies
Authors: Stevens Ralph 
Published: June 2016

AbstractIn this article, we investigate the effect of five policies to link the retirement age to (forecasted) survival probabilities. We investigate the effect of these policies on the distribution of the (future) full retirement age and on longevity risk in the discounted future payments. Our investigated policies effectively hedge longevity risk, but do lead to substantial uncertainty in the retirement age and the expected number of years in retirement. We find that policies based on present values lead to a higher annuity factor than policies based on expected remaining years in retirement. Our results can explain the differences between the proposed automatic rule to adjust the full retirement age in the United Kingdom (defined contribution pension schemes) and the Netherlands (defined benefit pension schemes).
Decomposing Asymmetric Information in China's Automobile Insurance Market
Authors: Gao Feng , Powers Michael R. , Wang Jun 
Published: June 2016

AbstractDistinguishing between adverse selection and moral hazard is a difficult but important issue in insurance economics. In the present work, we model and evaluate the distinct roles of adverse selection, ex ante moral hazard, and ex post moral hazard in China's automobile insurance market. Our econometric analysis supports the following conclusions: (1) the effect of asymmetric information on the probability of claims is significant; (2) the effect of ex ante moral hazard on the probability of claims is not significant, establishing adverse selection as the underlying source of information asymmetry; (3) the effect of asymmetric information (including ex ante moral hazard) on the severity of claims is not significant; and (4) the impact of ex post moral hazard on claim severity is significant for a subset of lower‐coverage policyholders. Consequently, it may be advisable for Chinese automobile insurance companies to allocate greater resources to both underwriting (i.e., selecting policyholders) and auditing claims.