bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The frequency of small saccades during fixation is age independent in children between 5 and 16 years of age
Authors: Larsen Dorte Ancher , Bek Toke 
Published: August 2016

AbstractPurposeFixational eye movements are necessary for maintaining normal vision by preventing a stabilized image on the retina that would result in visual fading. The movements can be divided into tremor, drifts and saccades that may be related to movements of gaze and to fixation. It has previously been shown that the frequency of fixational saccades with an amplitude larger than 3° depends on age. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether other parameters describing fixational saccades also depend on age which necessitates age correction in studies of fixation during visual development.MethodsFixational eye movements were recorded in 36 normal children aged 5–16 years. Parameters describing fixational saccades were characterized using a standardized algorithm and were correlated with age.ResultsThere was a significant linear relation between the amplitude and duration of fixational saccades (r2 = 0.37, p < 0.0001). The relation between the number of saccadic movements and the amplitude was unimodal and showed no correlation with age. However, the number of saccades per examination with an amplitude larger than 1° showed a negative correlation with age (r2 = 0.23, p = 0.003).ConclusionsThe overall frequency and amplitude of fixational saccades show no correlation with age that necessitates correction in clinical studies of visual development. The decreasing frequency of large saccadic eye movements with increasing child age may be due to improved attention.
Calming cycle theory: the role of visceral/autonomic learning in early mother and infant/child behaviour and development
Authors: Welch Martha G. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractResults from a randomised controlled trial of Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) showed significantly improved maternal behaviours and infant neurodevelopment and behaviour through 18 months, including a significantly reduced risk for autism. Preliminary results from a pilot study of FNI in preschool children found significant reduction in adverse behaviour. Conclusion: Calming cycle theory proposes that early emotional behaviour is shaped by subcortical visceral/autonomic co‐conditioning between mother and infant. Two new constructs, emotional connection and visceral/autonomic co‐regulation, are defined within a functional Pavlovian conditioning framework and are theorised to be part of an evolutionarily conserved mammalian phenomenon first identified by Pavlov.
RNA toxicity induced by expanded CAG repeats in Huntington's disease
Authors: Martí Eulàlia 
Published: August 2016

AbstractHuntington's disease (HD) belongs to the group of inherited polyglutamine (PolyQ) diseases caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the coding region of the Huntingtin (HTT) gene that results in an elongated polyQ stretch. Abnormal function and aggregation of the mutant protein has been typically delineated as the main molecular cause underlying disease development. However, the most recent advances have revealed novel pathogenic pathways directly dependent on an RNA toxic gain‐of‐function. Expanded CAG repeats within exon 1 of the HTT mRNA induce toxicity through mechanisms involving, at least in part, gene expression perturbations. This has important implications not only for basic and translational research in HD, but also for other types of diseases carrying the expanded CAG in other genes, which likely share pathogenic aspects. Here I will review the evidence and mechanisms underlying RNA toxicity in CAG repeat expansions, with particular focus on HD. These comprise abnormal subcellular localization of the transcripts containing the expanded CAG repeats; sequestration of several types of proteins by the expanded CAG repeat which results in defects of alternative splicing events and gene expression; and aberrant biogenesis and detrimental activity of small CAG repeated RNAs (sCAG) that produce altered gene silencing. Although these altered pathways have been detected in HD models, their contribution to disease development and progress requires further study.
Iterative Closest Conformal Maps between Planar Domains
Authors: Segall Aviv , Ben‐Chen Mirela 
Published: August 2016

AbstractConformal maps between planar domains are an important tool in geometry processing, used for shape deformation and image warping. The Riemann mapping theorem guarantees that there exists a conformal map between any two simply connected planar domains, yet computing this map efficiently remains challenging. In practice, one of the main algorithmic questions is the correspondence between the boundaries of the domains. On the one hand, there exist a number of conformal maps between any two domains, thus many potential boundary correspondences, yet on the other, given full boundary prescription a conformal map might not exist. Furthermore, an approximate boundary fitting can be enough for many applications. We therefore propose an alternating minimization algorithm for finding a boundary‐approximating conformal map given only an initial global alignment of the two input domains. We utilize the Cauchy‐Green complex barycentric coordinates to parameterize the space of conformal maps from the source domain, and thus compute a continuous map without requiring the discretization of the domain, and without mapping to intermediate domains. This yields a very efficient method which allows to interactively modify additional user‐provided constraints, such as point‐to‐point and stroke‐to‐stroke correspondences. Furthermore, we show how to easily generalize this setup to quasi‐conformal maps, thus enriching the space of mappings and reducing the area distortion. We compare our algorithm to state‐of‐the‐art methods for mapping between planar domains, and demonstrate that we achieve less distorted maps on the same inputs. Finally, we show applications of our approach to stroke based deformation and constrained texture mapping.
Crawl through Neighbors: A Simple Curve Reconstruction Algorithm
Authors: Parakkat Amal Dev , Muthuganapathy Ramanathan 
Published: August 2016

AbstractGiven a planar point set sampled from an object boundary, the process of approximating the original shape is called curve reconstruction. In this paper, a novel non‐parametric curve reconstruction algorithm based on Delaunay triangulation has been proposed and it has been theoretically proved that the proposed method reconstructs the original curve under ε‐sampling. Starting from an initial Delaunay seed edge, the algorithm proceeds by finding an appropriate neighbouring point and adding an edge between them. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of reconstructing curves with different features like sharp corners, outliers, multiple objects, objects with holes, etc. The proposed method also works for open curves. Based on a study by a few users, the paper also discusses an application of the proposed algorithm for reconstructing hand drawn skip stroke sketches, which will be useful in various sketch based interfaces.
Identifying Style of 3D Shapes using Deep Metric Learning
Authors: Lim Isaak , Gehre Anne , Kobbelt Leif 
Published: August 2016

AbstractWe present a method that expands on previous work in learning human perceived style similarity across objects with different structures and functionalities. Unlike previous approaches that tackle this problem with the help of hand‐crafted geometric descriptors, we make use of recent advances in metric learning with neural networks (deep metric learning). This allows us to train the similarity metric on a shape collection directly, since any low‐ or high‐level features needed to discriminate between different styles are identified by the neural network automatically. Furthermore, we avoid the issue of finding and comparing sub‐elements of the shapes. We represent the shapes as rendered images and show how image tuples can be selected, generated and used efficiently for deep metric learning. We also tackle the problem of training our neural networks on relatively small datasets and show that we achieve style classification accuracy competitive with the state of the art. Finally, to reduce annotation effort we propose a method to incorporate heterogeneous data sources by adding annotated photos found online in order to expand or supplant parts of our training data.
Exploration of Empty Space among Spherical Obstacles via Additively Weighted Voronoi Diagram
Authors: Manak M. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractProperties of granular materials or molecular structures are often studied on a simple geometric model – a set of 3D balls. If the balls simultaneously change in size by a constant speed, topological properties of the empty space outside all these balls may also change. Capturing the changes and their subsequent classification may reveal useful information about the model. This has already been solved for balls of the same size, but only an approximate solution has been reported for balls of different sizes. These solutions work on simplicial complexes derived from the dual structure of the ordinary Voronoi diagram of ball centers and use the mathematical concept of simplicial homology groups. If the balls have different radii, it is more appropriate to use the additively weighted Voronoi diagram (also known as the Apollonius diagram) instead of the ordinary diagram, but the dual structure is no longer a simplicial complex, so the previous approaches cannot be used directly. In this paper, a method is proposed to overcome this problem. The method works with Voronoi edges and vertices instead of the dual structure. Additional bridge edges are introduced to overcome disconnected cases. The output is a tree graph of events where cavities are created or merged during a simulated shrinking of the balls. This graph is then reorganized and filtered according to some criteria to get a more concise information about the development of the empty space in the model.
Voice and ageing: clinical, endoscopic and acoustic investigation
Authors: Pessin A.B.B. , Tavares E.L.M. , Gramuglia A.C.J. , de Carvalho L.R. , Martins R.H.G. 
Published: August 2016

Vocal symptoms are frequent in the elderly and are consequences of structural changes in the larynx that occur with ageing.ObjectiveTo identify the voice alterations in elderly patients attending a voice clinic.MethodsElderly patients of both genders were divided into two groups: 60–75 and above 76 years. All patients completed a questionnaire with identification data, profession, vocal symptoms, hearing, habits and addictions, and systemic diseases. All participants were submitted to video laryngoscopy and acoustic and auditory‐perceptual vocal analysis.ResultsIn this study, women predominated (40 F versus 32 M). Hoarseness was reported by 34.72% of the participants. Other symptoms included singing difficulty (17%) and phonatory effort (15.28%). Maximum phonation time showed lower values and scores 2 and 3 of perceptual analysis were registered in 33% of the elderly participants, but without statistical significance. The fundamental frequency values were inferior in older man and high in women and acoustic parameters showed high values in both groups, but without statistical significance. Videolaryngoscopies demonstrated alterations in 47% of the participants, especially bowed and atrophic vocal folds.ConclusionsWe described the vocal symptoms, vocal perceptual and acoustic analysis and endoscopic findings of an elderly population, characterising the presbyphonia. Therapeutic measures must involve speech therapy and/or surgery to reduce the glottal gap, allowing less air leakage and, consequently, better vocal performance.
Reconciling Biodiversity Indicators to Guide Understanding and Action
Authors: Hill Samantha L.L. , Harfoot Mike , Purvis Andy , Purves Drew W. , Collen Ben , Newbold Tim , Burgess Neil D. , Mace Georgina M. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractMany metrics can be used to capture trends in biodiversity and, in turn, these metrics inform biodiversity indicators. Sampling biases, genuine differences between metrics, or both, can often cause indicators to appear to be in conflict. This lack of congruence confuses policy makers and the general public, hindering effective responses to the biodiversity crisis. We show how different and seemingly inconsistent metrics of biodiversity can, in fact, emerge from the same scenario of biodiversity change. We develop a simple, evidence‐based narrative of biodiversity change and implement it in a simulation model. The model demonstrates how, for example, species richness can remain stable in a given landscape, whereas other measures (e.g. compositional similarity) can be in sharp decline. We suggest that linking biodiversity metrics in a simple model will support more robust indicator development, enable stronger predictions of biodiversity change, and provide policy‐relevant advice at a range of scales.
Evaluation of image quality in carotid and cerebrovascular disease: a comparative study between subtraction and routine computed tomography angiography
Authors: Zhao De‐Li , Wan Yong , Wang Guo‐Kun , Wang Hai‐Bo , Liang Hong‐Wei , Zhou Hai‐Ting , Gao Li , Zhang Jin‐Ling 
Published: August 2016

ObjectiveFew data exist comparing the image quality and diagnostic accuracy of subtraction computed tomography (CT) angiography (SCTA) in carotid and cerebrovascular arteries with routine CT angiography (RCTA).Patients and methodsIn this study, 56 patients underwent 128‐row CT angiography of these vessels with review by two radiologists using routine, nonsubtracted, and SCTA protocols. Comparisons were made using a 4‐point subjective rating scale in all patients. Eighteen patients were examined with both SCTA and invasive digital subtraction angiography (DSA). The accuracy of SCTA and routine CTA reformations was assessed and compared by both patient‐based and vessel‐based analyses of intracranial aneurysms and intracranial and extracranial arterial stenotic lesions using DSA results as the reference standard.ResultsDiagnostic accuracy in the adjacent skull base portion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) and reading time for cerebral aneurysms and vessel stenoses were obviously improved with SCTA protocol, but the accuracy in vertebro‐basilar arteries was no different. The diagnostic accuracy in general was slightly increased compared with routine CTA.ConclusionReview of SCTA images is an effective means to remove bone close to vessels as seen on routine CTA and has good image quality and diagnostic accuracy. SCTA is superior to routine CTA in the visualization and diagnostic accuracy of adjacent skull base part of the ICA and decreases reading time for carotid and cerebrovascular arterial imaging.
Cardiac iron load and function in transfused patients treated with deferasirox (the MILE study)
Authors: Ho P. Joy , Tay Lay , Teo Juliana , Marlton Paula , Grigg Andrew , St Pierre Tim , Brown Greg , Badcock Caro‐Anne , Traficante Robert , Gervasio Othon L. , Bowden Donald K. 
Published: August 2016

AbstractObjectivesTo assess the effect of iron chelation therapy with deferasirox on cardiac iron and function in patients with transfusion‐dependent thalassemia major, sickle cell disease (SCD), and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).MethodsThis phase IV, single‐arm, open‐label study over 53 wk evaluated the change in cardiac and liver iron load with deferasirox (up to 40 mg/kg/d), measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).ResultsCardiac iron load (myocardial T2*) significantly improved (P = 0.002) overall (n = 46; n = 36 thalassemia major, n = 4 SCD, n = 6 MDS). Results were significant for patients with normal and moderate baseline cardiac iron (P = 0.017 and P = 0.015, respectively), but not in the five patients with severe cardiac iron load. Liver iron concentration (LIC) significantly decreased overall [mean LIC 10.4 to 8.2 mg Fe/g dry tissue (dw); P = 0.024], particularly in those with baseline LIC >7 mg Fe/g dw (19.9 to 15.6 mg Fe/g dw; P = 0.002). Furthermore, myocardial T2* significantly increased in patients with LIC <7 mg Fe/g dw, but not in those with a higher LIC. Safety was consistent with previous reports.ConclusionsOnce‐daily deferasirox over 1 yr significantly increased myocardial T2* and reduced LIC. This confirms that single‐agent deferasirox is effective in the management of cardiac iron, especially for patients with myocardial T2* >10 ms (Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00673608).
The course of language functions after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery: a prospective study
Authors: Giovagnoli A. R. , Parente A. , Didato G. , Manfredi V. , Deleo F. , Tringali G. , Villani F. 
Published: August 2016

Background and purpose
Anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) within the language‐dominant hemisphere can impair naming. This prospective study examined the pre‐operative to post‐operative course of different language components, clarifying which changes are relevant within the short‐term and long‐term outcome of language.
Methods
Patients with drug‐resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) were evaluated using the Token, Boston Naming and Word Fluency tests assessing sentence comprehension and word‐finding on visual, semantic or phonemic cues.
Results
A total of 106 patients were evaluated before and 6 months, 1 and 2 years after ATL; 60 patients were also evaluated after 5 years and 38 controls were assessed at baseline. Seizure outcome was comparable between the left and right TLE patients. Before surgery, naming and word fluency were impaired in the left and right TLE patients, whereas sentence comprehension was normal. After left or right ATL, word fluency progressively improved, naming showed early worsening and late improvement after left ATL and progressive improvement after right ATL, and sentence comprehension did not change. At the 5‐year follow‐up, naming improvement was clinically significant in 31% and 71% of the left and right TLE patients, respectively. Pre‐operative naming, ATL laterality, schooling, and post‐operative seizure frequency and number of antiepileptic drugs predicted post‐operative naming. Pre‐operative word fluency and schooling predicted post‐operative word fluency.
Conclusions
Left or right TLE can impair word‐finding but not sentence comprehension. After ATL, word‐finding may improve for a long time, depending on TLE laterality, seizure control and mental reserve. These findings may clarify prognosis prior to treatment.
Long‐term exposure and safety of lacosamide monotherapy for the treatment of partial‐onset (focal) seizures: Results from a multicenter, open‐label trial
Authors: Vossler David G. , Wechsler Robert T. , Williams Paulette , Byrnes William , Therriault Sheila ,   the ALEX‐MT study group
Published: August 2016

SummaryObjectiveTo assess long‐term use and safety of lacosamide (LCM) ≤800 mg/day monotherapy in patients with partial‐onset seizures (POS) enrolled previously in a historical‐controlled, conversion‐to‐monotherapy study (SP902; NCT00520741).MethodsPatients completing or exiting SP902 with LCM as monotherapy or as adjunctive therapy were eligible to enter this 2‐year open‐label extension (OLE) trial (SP904; NCT00530855) at a starting dose ±100 mg/day of their final SP902 dose. Investigators could adjust the LCM dose to 100–800 mg/day and add up to two antiepileptic drugs to optimize tolerability and seizure reduction.ResultsThree hundred twenty‐two patients received LCM: 210 patients (65.2%) completed and 112 (34.8%) discontinued, most commonly owing to withdrawal of consent (9.3%). Two hundred fifty‐eight patients (80.1%) had ≥1 year of and 216 (67.1%) had ≥2 years of LCM exposure, of whom 179/258 (69.4%) achieved LCM monotherapy lasting for any 12‐month period, and 126/216 (58.3%) patients exposed for ≥24 months achieved LCM monotherapy for any 24‐month period. Total exposure = 525.5 patient‐years. The median modal dose was 500 mg/day. Two hundred ninety‐two patients (90.7%) achieved LCM monotherapy at some point during the study. Sixty‐five of 87 patients who exited and 193/235 who completed SP902 were exposed for ≥12 months, and 43.1% and 78.2%, respectively, achieved LCM monotherapy for ≥12 months. Median LCM monotherapy duration was 587.0 days (2–791 days); 91.0% of patients reported treatment‐emergent adverse events, of which the most common were dizziness (27.3%), headache (17.1%), and nausea (14.3%). Compared with the SP902 study baseline, 74.2% of patients had a ≥50% seizure reduction and 5.6% were seizure‐free at 24 months.SignificanceThe majority of patients were receiving LCM monotherapy at 0, 12, and 24 months in this OLE. Lacosamide monotherapy (median dose of 500 mg/day) had a safety profile similar to that of adjunctive therapy studies. These results support the use of lacosamide as long‐term monotherapy treatment for adults with POS.
Development and application of a new measure of engagement in out‐patient HIV care
Authors: Howarth AR , Burns FM , Apea V , Jose S , Hill T , Delpech VC , Evans A , Mercer CH , Michie S , Morris S , Sachikonye M , Sabin C ,   the REACH study,   the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study
Published: August 2016

ObjectivesCommonly used measures of engagement in HIV care do not take into account that the frequency of attendance is related to changes in treatment and health status. This study developed a new measure of engagement in care (EIC) incorporating clinical factors.MethodsWe conducted semi‐structured interviews with eight HIV physicians to identify factors associated with the timing of patients' next scheduled appointments. These factors informed the development of an algorithm to classify each month of follow‐up as “in care” (on or before the time of the next expected attendance) or “out of care” (after the time of the next expected attendance). The EIC algorithm was applied to data from the UK Collaborative HIV Cohort (UK CHIC) study, a large clinical cohort study.ResultsThe interviews indicated that time to next appointment varied depending on psychosocial and physical comorbidities, and clinical factors (time since diagnosis, AIDS diagnosis, treatment status, CD4 count and viral load). The resulting EIC algorithm was applied to 44 432 patients; 83.9% of the 3 021 224 person‐months were “in care”. Greater EIC was independently associated with older age, white ethnicity, HIV acquisition through sex between men, current use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), a higher nadir CD4 count, later calendar year and being seen at the clinic for the first time within the last year.ConclusionsThis algorithm describing engagement in HIV care incorporates a time‐updated measure of patients' treatment and health status. It adds to the options available for measuring this key performance indicator.