bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A One-Nearest-Neighbor Approach to Identify the Original Time of Infection Using Censored Baboon Sepsis Data*
Authors: Zhang Li Ang , Parker Robert S. , Swigon David , Banerjee Ipsita , Bahrami Soheyl , Redl Heinz , Clermont Gilles 
Published: March 2016

Objectives:
Sepsis therapies have proven to be elusive because of the difficulty of translating biologically sound and effective interventions in animal models to humans. A part of this problem originates from the fact that septic patients present at various times after the onset of sepsis, whereas the exact time of infection is controlled in animal models. We sought to determine whether data mining longitudinal physiologic data in a nonhuman primate model of Escherichia coli–induced sepsis could help inform the time of onset of infection.

Design:
A nearest-neighbor approach was used to back cast the time of onset of infection in animal models of sepsis. Animal data were censored to simulate prospective monitoring at any moment along the septic infection. This was compared against an uncensored database to find the most similar animal in order to estimate the infection onset time. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used for validation. Biomarker selection was performed based on the criteria of estimation accuracy and/or ease of measurement.

Setting:
Computational experimental on existing experimental data.

Subjects:
Retrospective data from 33 septic baboons (Papio ursinus) subjected to Escherichia coli infusion. Validation was performed using 14 pigs that were subjected to surgically induced fecal peritonitis and 22 pigs that were subjected to lipopolysaccharide infusion.

Measurements and Main Results:
Longitudinal physiologic and serum markers, time of death. The presence of uniquely changing biomarkers during septic infection enabled the estimation of infection onset time in the datasets. Various combinations of temporal biomarkers, such as WBC, oxygen content, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate, yielded estimation accuracies of up to 97.8%. The use of temporal vital signs and a single measurement of serum biomarkers yielded highly accurate estimates without the need for invasive measurements. Validation in the pig data revealed similar results despite the heterogeneity of multiple experimental cohorts. This suggests that the method may be effective if sufficiently similar subjects are present in the database.

Conclusions:
One nearest-neighbor analysis showed promise in accurately identifying the onset of infection given a database of known infection times and of sufficient breadth. We suggest that this approach is ready for evaluation within the clinical setting using human data.
Longitudinal Changes in ICU Admissions Among Elderly Patients in the United States*
Authors: Sjoding Michael W. , Prescott Hallie C. , Wunsch Hannah , Iwashyna Theodore J. , Cooke Colin R. 
Published: March 2016

Objectives:
Changes in population demographics and comorbid illness prevalence, improvements in medical care, and shifts in care delivery may be driving changes in the composition of patients admitted to the ICU. We sought to describe the changing demographics, diagnoses, and outcomes of patients admitted to critical care units in the U.S. hospitals.

Design:
Retrospective cohort study.

Setting:
U.S. hospitals.

Patients:
There were 27.8 million elderly (age, > 64 yr) fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with an intensive care or coronary care room and board charge from 1996 to 2010.

Interventions:
None.

Measurements and Main Results:
We aggregated primary International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification discharge diagnosis codes into diagnoses and disease categories. We examined trends in demographics, primary diagnosis, and outcomes among patients with critical care stays. Between 1996 and 2010, we found significant declines in patients with a primary diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease (26.6 to 12.6% of admissions) and congestive heart failure (8.5 to 5.4% of admissions). Patients with infectious diseases increased from 8.8% to 17.2% of admissions, and explicitly labeled sepsis moved from the 11th-ranked diagnosis in 1996 to the top-ranked primary discharge diagnosis in 2010. Crude in-hospital mortality rose (11.3 to 12.0%), whereas discharge destinations among survivors shifted, with an increase in discharges to hospice and postacute care facilities.

Conclusions:
Primary diagnoses of patients admitted to critical care units have substantially changed over 15 years. Funding agencies, physician accreditation groups, and quality improvement initiatives should ensure that their efforts account for the shifting epidemiology of critical illness.
Age Bias in Time From Diagnosis Comparisons of Prostate Cancer Treatment
Authors: Kendal Wayne S. 
Published: March 2016

Objectives:
Observational studies of prostate cancer treatment have demonstrated a major survival benefit with prostatectomy; randomized trials have been less certain in this regard. This discrepancy is hypothesized to be due to the use survival calculations based on time from diagnosis (TFD), which can bias toward better survival for younger cohorts. Attained age is an alternative timescale that can mitigate this effect. A Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results comparison of prostatectomy, radiotherapy (XRT), and conservative management for localized prostatic cancer was conducted to compare these 2 timescales.

Methods:
Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to contrast overall survival based on TFD and attained age from 279,064 prostate cancer cases. Proportional hazards models were constructed and baseline hazard functions estimated.

Results:
The prostatectomy cohort averaged 9 to 12 years younger than the radiotherapy or conservative management cohorts, and the baseline hazard depended more strongly upon age than TFD. Survival calculations based on TFD demonstrated a major benefit with prostatectomy compared with XRT and conservative management, consistent with prior observational studies. Calculations based on attained age, however, demonstrated lesser differences between treatment cohorts and were more consistent with published randomized trials.

Conclusions:
The survival benefit apparent to prostatectomy in conventional observational cohort studies could reflect an age-related bias attributable to their use of TFD analysis. Care is warranted in the choice of timescale in observational analysis if large age differences exist between treatment cohorts. Randomized controlled trials remain the most reliable means to compare prostate cancer treatments.
MULTIFOCAL CHOROIDITIS IN DISSEMINATED SPOROTRICHOSIS IN PATIENTS WITH HIV/AIDS
Authors: Biancardi Ana L. , Freitas Dayvison F. S. , Valviesse Vitor R. G. de A. , Andrade Hugo B. , de Oliveira Manoel M. E. , do Valle Antonio C. F. , Zancope-Oliveira Rosely M. , Galhardo Maria C. G. , Curi Andre L. L. 
Published: March 2016

Purpose:
In this article, the authors describe multifocal choroiditis related to disseminated sporotrichosis in patients with HIV/AIDS.

Methods:
We conducted a retrospective observational study of three patients infected with HIV who presented with disseminated sporotrichosis characterized by cutaneous lesions, multifocal choroiditis, and other manifestations, including osteomyelitis and involvement of the bone marrow, larynx, pharynx, and nasal and oral mucosa.

Results:
Five eyes of three patients with HIV/AIDS showed multifocal choroiditis related to disseminated sporotrichosis. The CD4+ counts ranged from 25 to 53 mm−3. All patients were asymptomatic visually. The ocular disease was bilateral in two patients. The lesion size ranged from 1/3 to 2 disc diameters. None of the patients had vitritis. Of the 12 lesions, 9 were localized in the posterior pole (Zone 1) and 3 were localized in the mild periphery (Zone 2).

Conclusion:
Multifocal choroiditis due to disseminated sporotrichosis can occur in profoundly immunosuppressed patients with HIV/AIDS.
Disaster preparedness and response improvement: comparison of the 2010 Haiti earthquake-related diagnoses with baseline medical data
Authors: van Berlaer Gerlant , Staes Tom , Danschutter Dirk , Ackermans Ronald , Zannini Stefano , Rossi Gabriele , Buyl Ronald , Gijs Geert , Debacker Michel , Hubloue Ives 
Published: March 2016

Objectives
Disaster medicine research generally lacks control groups. This study aims to describe categories of diagnoses encountered by the Belgian First Aid and Support Team after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and extract earthquake-related changes from comparison with comparable baseline data. The hypothesis is that besides earthquake-related trauma, medical problems emerge soon, questioning an appropriate composition of Foreign Medical Teams and Interagency Emergency Health Kits.

Methods
Using a descriptive cohort study design, diagnoses of patients presenting to the Belgian field hospital were prospectively registered during 4 weeks after the earthquake and compared with those recorded similarly by Médecins Sans Frontières in the same area and time span in previous and later years.

Results
Of 7000 triaged postearthquake patients, 3500 were admitted, of whom 2795 were included and analysed. In the fortnight after the earthquake, 90% suffered from injury. In the following fortnight, medical diseases emerged, particularly respiratory (23%) and digestive (14%). More than 53% developed infections within 3 weeks after the event. Médecins Sans Frontières registered 6407 patients in 2009; 6033 in 2011; and 7300 in 2012. A comparison indicates that postearthquake patients suffered significantly less from violence, but more from wounds, respiratory, digestive and ophthalmological diseases.

Conclusion
This is the first comparison of postearthquake diagnoses with baseline data. Within 2 weeks after the acute phase of an earthquake, respiratory, digestive and ophthalmological problems will emerge to the prejudice of trauma. This fact should be anticipated when composing Foreign Medical Teams and Interagency Emergency Health Kits to be sent to the disaster site.
Hierarchical cortical transcriptome disorganization in autism
Authors: Lombardo Michael V. , Courchesne Eric , Lewis Nathan E. , Pramparo Tiziano 
Published: March 2016

AbstractBackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are etiologically heterogeneous and complex. Functional genomics work has begun to identify a diverse array of dysregulated transcriptomic programs (e.g., synaptic, immune, cell cycle, DNA damage, WNT signaling, cortical patterning and differentiation) potentially involved in ASD brain abnormalities during childhood and adulthood. However, it remains unclear whether such diverse dysregulated pathways are independent of each other or instead reflect coordinated hierarchical systems-level pathology.MethodsTwo ASD cortical transcriptome datasets were re-analyzed using consensus weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify common coexpression modules across datasets. Linear mixed-effect models and Bayesian replication statistics were used to identify replicable differentially expressed modules. Eigengene network analysis was then utilized to identify between-group differences in how co-expression modules interact and cluster into hierarchical meta-modular organization. Protein-protein interaction analyses were also used to determine whether dysregulated co-expression modules show enhanced interactions.ResultsWe find replicable evidence for 10 gene co-expression modules that are differentially expressed in ASD cortex. Rather than being independent non-interacting sources of pathology, these dysregulated co-expression modules work in synergy and physically interact at the protein level. These systems-level transcriptional signals are characterized by downregulation of synaptic processes coordinated with upregulation of immune/inflammation, response to other organism, catabolism, viral processes, translation, protein targeting and localization, cell proliferation, and vasculature development. Hierarchical organization of meta-modules (clusters of highly correlated modules) is also highly affected in ASD.ConclusionsThese findings highlight that dysregulation of the ASD cortical transcriptome is characterized by the dysregulation of multiple coordinated transcriptional programs producing synergistic systems-level effects that cannot be fully appreciated by studying the individual component biological processes in isolation.
The Effects of Evolution and Spatial Structure on Diversity in Biological Reserves
Authors: Dolson Emily L. , Wiser Michael J. , Ofria Charles 
Published: March 2016

AbstractConservation ecologists have long argued over the best way of placing reserves across an environment to maximize population diversity. Many have studied the effect of protecting many small regions of an ecosystem vs. a single large region, with varied results. However, this research tends to ignore evolutionary dynamics under the rationale that the spatiotemporal scale required is prohibitive. We used the Avida digital evolution research platform to overcome this barrier and study the response of phenotypic diversity to eight different reserve placement configurations. The capacity for mutation,and therefore evolution, substantially altered the dynamics of diversity in the population. When mutations were allowed, reserve configurations involving a greater number of consequently smaller reserves were substantially more effective at maintaining existing diversity and generating new diversity. However, when mutations were disallowed, reserve configuration had little effect on diversity generation and maintenance. While further research is necessary before translating these results into policy decisions, this study demonstrates the importance of considering evolution when making such decisions and suggests that a larger number of smaller reserves may have evolutionary benefits.
Nomadic Lifestyle ofLactobacillus plantarumRevealed by Comparative Genomics of 54 strains Isolated from Different Niches
Authors: Martino Maria Elena , Bayjanov Jumamurat R. , Caffrey Brian E. , Wels Michiel , Joncour Pauline , Hughes Sandrine , Gillet Benjamin , Kleerebezem Michiel , van Hijum Sacha A.F.T. , Leulier François 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThe ability of many bacteria to adapt to diverse environmental conditions is well known. Recent research has linked the process of bacterial adaptation to a niche to changes in the genome content and size, showing that many bacterial genomes reflect the constraints imposed by their habitat. However, some highly versatile bacteria are found in diverse niches that almost share nothing in common.Lactobacillus plantarumis a lactic acid bacterium that is found in a large variety of niches. With the aim of unravelling the link between genome evolution and ecological versatility ofL. plantarum,we analysed the genomes of 54L. plantarumstrains isolated from different environments. Phylogenomic analyses coupled with the study of genetic functional divergence and gene-trait matching analysis revealed a mixed distribution of the strains, which was uncoupled from their environmental origin. Our findings demonstrate the high complexity ofL. plantarumevolution, revealing the absence of specific genomic signatures marking adaptations of this species towards the diverse habitats it is associated with. This suggests fundamentally similar and parallel trends of genome evolution inL. plantarum,which occur in a manner that is apparently uncoupled from ecological constraint and reflects the nomadic lifestyle of this species.
The execution of marketing strategies in a developing economy
Authors: Appiah-Adu Kwaku , Amoako George Kofi 
Published: March 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how market leaders use marketing strategies to maintain strong performance in their respective sectors within different economic contexts in an emerging developing economy.Design/methodology/approach– Case studies of three consistent, high performing market leaders based on the Ghana Club 100 rankings over the past decade are conducted. This involves structured interviews with chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief marketing officers (CMOs) of the organisations studied.Findings– The findings indicate that irrespective of the country of origin of the firm, or the economic context in a developing country, effective marketing strategies can be used to enhance the performance of organisations in their respective sectors.Originality/value– The approach used in this paper enables the authors to address the effectiveness of the marketing strategies across the past three decades covering the periods of pre-, during and post-economic reforms, and to examine the influence of different types of ownership (local, mixed foreign/local ownership and a multinational) on the execution of marketing strategies in a developing economy.
Design of a novel permanent magnet linear synchronous motor with segmented armature core for ropeless lifter
Authors: Lu Qinfen , Huang Liren , Ye Yunyue , Huang Xiaoyan , Fang Youtong 
Published: March 2016

Purpose
– Due to the merits of direct driven, high thrust density and high efficiency, PM linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) is pretty suitable for the long-stroke ropeless lifter. However, the vibration caused by detent force and difficulty of maintenance become the barriers that restrict its application. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– In order to simplify structure and improve driving performance, a novel PMLSM with segmented armature core and end non-overlapping windings is proposed. The analytical formula of detent force is derived based on energy method and harmonic analysis, which is validated by two-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA). Moreover, with erected parametric FEA calculation, the selection principles of slot-pole number combination and interval distance to this novel structure are obtained. Finally, the heat dissipation ability of conventional PMLSM and novel PMLSM are compared through thermal analysis.

Findings
– In novel PMLSM, it is found that the (3m+1) and (3m+2) order harmonic components of thrust force are eliminated, which leads to a better driving performance in comparison with the conventional structure. Furthermore, the good heat dissipation ability of novel structure makes it possible for higher thrust density, which is crucial for ropeless lifter.

Originality/value
– The novel PMLSM has excellent driving performance, simple structure for maintenance, possibility of modular production and high thrust density. It is a strong candidate for long-stroke ropeless lifter.
Investigation of modular odd-pole PM linear synchronous motors with flux gaps
Authors: Shi Jiameng , Kong Hao , Huang Liren , Lu Qinfen , Ye Yunyue 
Published: March 2016

Purpose
– Nowadays, to simplify manufacture process and improve fault-tolerant capability, more and more modular electrical machines are being applied in industrial areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a novel modular single-sided flat permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM), which adopts segmented armature with the required flux gaps between segments to enhance the performance.

Design/methodology/approach
– Using 2D finite element analysis, the performances, such as open-flux linkage, back-EMF, average thrust force, thrust ripple, etc., are compared in different values of flux gaps, as well as different slot/pole number combinations (mainly odd numbers of poles). Finally, to show the difference of linear motor from rotary one, the detailed comparison is made between modular PMLSM and rotary PMSM.

Findings
– Due to flux gaps, it is found the electromagnetic performances are worsened along with flux gap width increasing to modular PMLSMs having slot number higher than pole number, but some aspects of performances such as winding factor, open-circuit flux linkage, back-EMF and average thrust can be improved to those having slot number lower than pole number. Due to the end effect of linear format, the thrust ripple is not significantly improved.

Originality/value
– It is concluded the proper flux gaps can be chosen to improve the performance of PMLSM with certain slot/pole combinations. A new structure of 12-slot-13-pole (hereinafter referred to as 12s/13p) PMLSM with fractional slot and alternative-teeth wound winding is designed.
Cogging torque in SPM machine with segmented stator
Authors: Shen Jian-Xin , Cai Shun , Yuan Jian , Cao Shuai , Shi Cen-Wei 
Published: March 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the cogging torque in a surface-mounted permanent magnet (SPM) machine with both uniformly and non-uniformly segmented stator cores and to find out the optimal solution of stator core segmenting.

Design/methodology/approach
– The cogging torque with segmented stators is synthesized from a single slot model, and analytical prediction is given to analyze the cogging torque with both uniformly and non-uniformly segmented stators. Finite element method (FEM) is used to figure out the electromagnetic field and validate the analytical prediction. Moreover, models with various shapes and positions of connecting tongues between the stator core segments are explored to achieve the optimal design.

Findings
– The cogging torque is found to be greatly related to the number of segments and the electrical angle between adjacent additional air gaps caused by the tolerance of stator segments. Different shapes of the connecting tongues are tested and proved to be of great importance to the flux density, both radial and tangential, and therefore affect the cogging torque. Finally, position of the connecting tongues is perceived to have little influence on the performance of machine.

Practical/implications
– By utilizing analytical prediction and FEM calculation, the optimal solution is discussed to minimize the cogging torque in the SPM machine from the perspective of the stator core segmentation.

Originality/value
– This paper establishes formula of cogging torque with segmented stators and predicts the variation of cogging torque with analytical method. Besides, different combinations of segments are compared and measures to reduce the cogging torque produced by the segmentation are proposed.