bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIUM RESTORATION AFTER A TRIPLE TEAR
Authors: Zahid Sarwar , Dolz Marco Rosa , Freund K. Bailey 
Published: December 2016

Purpose:
To demonstrate longitudinal multimodal imaging findings in a case of neovascular age-related macular degeneration presenting with multiple retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) tears showing progressive RPE restoration.

Methods:
Observational clinical case report.

Results:
A 79-year-old woman diagnosed with neovascular age-related macular degeneration developed 3 consecutive RPE tears in her right eye during the course of treatment with intravitreal anti–vascular endothelial growth factor therapy. The RPE tears initially appeared hypoautofluorescent on fundus autofluorescence. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography showed contractile folds of the RPE with adjacent subretinal fluid and overlying ellipsoid zone disruption. Over an 8-year follow-up period, the RPE defects progressively resolved with a return of patchy fundus autofluorescence. Eye-tracked spectral domain optical coherence tomography showed gradual restoration of the RPE band defects over an enlarging Type 1 neovascular lesion.

Conclusion:
Some RPE tears may show observable remodeling and restoration over time. These changes may be followed longitudinally with multimodal imaging, including eye-tracked spectral domain optical coherence tomography and fundus autofluorescence.
Look Who Is Talking Now: Eliciting the Concept of Fatherhood Among Filipino Fathers Using Metaphor Analysis
Authors: Villamor Neil Jupiter E. , de Guzman Allan B. , Matienzo Evangeline T. 
Published: December 2016

ABSTRACT

Background:
Although the increased interest in investigating the dynamics of fatherhood in developed nations has been documented in the literature, its collective meaning and implications in nursing remain largely unknown in the context of East Asia, especially in developing countries such as the Philippines.

Purpose:
Capitalizing on the unique power of metaphors to improve the understanding of complex and abstract ideas and to shape healthcare practices, this qualitative semiotic investigation intended to define the essence of fatherhood from the perspective of Filipino fathers.

Methods:
This study focused on a group of 28 first-time and 22 second-time fathers who were recruited from the largest maternal and newborn tertiary government hospital in the Philippines. To capture the richness and thickness of fatherhood as a subjective human reality, doodling and elicitation interviews were employed to promote data triangulation. Furthermore, semiosis was used as the data analytic framework to better understand the ontology and epistemology of the elicited metaphors. In addition, a member-checking procedure was employed to validate the themes that emerged from the inductive approach.

Results:
This study provides a conceptualization of “The House of Fatherhood,” which illustrates the uniqueness of the experience of fatherhood as identity defining, maturity enabling, and duality affirming.

Conclusions/Implications for Practice:
The pillars of fatherhood that were identified in this article provide a valuable framework for Filipino healthcare providers and program administrators in the field of maternal and child nursing to identify scaffolding measures and other support mechanisms to address the needs and concerns of Filipino fathers and their journey to fatherhood in a more effective and holistic way.
Association Between Discrimination and Objective and Subjective Sleep Measures in the Midlife in the United States Study Adult Sample
Authors: Owens Sherry L. , Hunte Haslyn E.R. , Sterkel Amanda , Johnson Dayna A. , Johnson-Lawrence Vicki 
Published: December 2016

ABSTRACT

Objective
Evidence suggests that sleep quality is worse in nonwhite minorities compared with whites. Poor sleep is associated with higher levels of perceived interpersonal discrimination, which is consistently reported among minorities. However, the literature is limited in exploring discrimination with both objective and subjective sleep outcomes in the same sample. We examined the relationship between discrimination and markers of subjective and objective sleep in a racially diverse sample.

Methods
The analytic sample included 441 participants of the Midlife in the United States II (MIDUS) study (M [SD] age, 46.6 [1.03]; female, 57.9%; male, 42.1%; nonwhite, 31.7%). Complete data were available for 361 participants. Sleep measures included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, sleep latency, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency derived from 7-day actigraphy. Discrimination was measured with the Williams Everyday Discrimination Scale. Ordinary least squares and logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship between discrimination and the subjective and objective measures of sleep.

Results
After adjusting for covariates, respondents with higher discrimination scores were significantly more likely to experience poor sleep efficiency (odds ratio, 1.12; p = .005) and report poorer sleep quality (odds ratio, 1.09; p = .029) on the basis of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Higher discrimination scores were also associated with longer wake after sleep onset (b = 0.032, p < .01) and more sleep difficulties (b = 0.049, p = .01). Discrimination attenuated all differences in the sleep measures between whites and nonwhites except for sleep efficiency.

Conclusions
The findings support the model that discrimination acts as a stressor that can disrupt subjective and objective sleep. These results suggest that interpersonal discrimination explains some variance in worse sleep among nonwhites compared with whites.
The Effect of Allopurinol on Renal Function
Authors: Krishnamurthy Aneesa , Lazaro Deana , Stefanov Dimitre G. , Blumenthal David , Gerber Donald , Patel Sheetal 
Published: December 2016

Background
Hyperuricemia is associated with development of gout, hypertension, and renal disease. The impact of allopurinol, a urate-lowering therapy, on renal function is unclear, especially in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at higher risk of hypersensitivity reaction.

Objectives
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of allopurinol on kidney function in hyperuricemic male veterans.

Methods
This is a retrospective cohort study using pharmacy, medical, and laboratory records of veterans enrolled at the Veterans Administration New York Harbor Healthcare System, Brooklyn campus. Fifty patients with hyperuricemia defined as a serum uric acid greater than 7 mg/dL (average of ~9 mg/dL), newly started on allopurinol for any reason, with evidence of treatment compliance, were matched by age, race, sex, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (EGFR) to 50 hyperuricemic control subjects. The retrospective cases were observed from October 2000 until November 2006, at which time there was a change in the laboratory analyzer, making further comparisons inappropriate.

Results
On average, patients treated with a mean 221 (SD, 96) mg/d dose of allopurinol achieved 11.9 mL/min higher GFR (95% confidence interval, 4.8–11.9 mg/d dose; P = 0.01) than did the control group. Treatment effect was found to depend on the initial EGFR, as indicated by the significant treatment by initial EGFR interaction (P = 0.004) and increased with a higher initial EGFR. The allopurinol-treated group had a 0.10 mg/dL lower final creatinine level (95% confidence interval, 0.003–0.20 mg/dL; P = 0.04) than did the control subjects, adjusted for initial creatinine and age. The average length of follow-up was 3.4 years. There were 5 mild adverse events in the treated cases.

Conclusions
Treatment of hyperuricemic patients with allopurinol over an average of 3.4 years resulted in a significant improvement of kidney function in this male cohort from the Veterans Administration Healthcare System. Clinicians should consider this potential benefit of allopurinol in the treatment of patients with hyperuricemia, those with overall maintained renal function.
McClintock: An integrated pipeline for detecting transposable element insertions in whole genome shotgun sequencing data
Authors: Nelson Michael G. , Linheiro Raquel S. , Bergman Casey M. 
Published: December 2016

AbstractBackgroundTransposable element (TE) insertions are among the most challenging type of variants to detect in genomic data because of their repetitive nature and complex mechanisms of replication. Nevertheless, the recent availability of large resequencing datasets has spurred the development of many new methods to detect TE insertions in whole genome shotgun sequences. These methods generate output in diverse formats and have a large number of software and data dependencies, making their comparative evaluation challenging for potential users.ResultsHere we develop an integrated bioinformatics pipeline for the detection of TE insertions in whole genome shotgun data, called McClintock (https://github.com/bergmanlab/mcclintock), that automatically runs and generates standardized output for multiple TE detection methods. We demonstrate the utility of the McClintock system by performing comparative evaluation of six TE detection methods using simulated and real genome data from the model microbal eukaryote,Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We find substantial variation among McClintock component methods in their ability to detect non-reference insertions in the yeast genome, but show that non-reference TEs at nearly all biologically-realistic locations can be detected in simulated data by combining multiple methods that use split-read and read-pair evidence. In general, our results reveal that split-read methods detect fewer non-reference TE insertions than read-pair methods, but generally have much higher positional accuracy. Analysis of a large sample of real yeast genomes reveals that most, but not all, McClintock component methods can recover known aspects of TE biology in yeast such as the transpositional activity status of families, tRNA gene target preferences, and target site duplication structure, albeit with varying levels of positional accuracy.ConclusionsOur results suggest that no single TE detection method currently provides comprehensive detection of non-reference TEs, even in the context of a simplified model eukaryotic genome likeS. cerevisiae. In spite of these limitations, the McClintock system provides a framework for testing, developing and integrating results from multiple TE detection methods to achieve this ultimate aim, as well as useful guidance for yeast researchers to select appropriate TE detection tools.
More Than Money: Motivating Physician Behavior Change in Accountable Care Organizations
Authors: PHIPPS‐TAYLOR MADELEINE , SHORTELL STEPHEN M. 
Published: December 2016

Policy Points:
For accountable care organizations (ACOs) to be successful they need to change the behavior of their physicians. To stimulate this change, a broad range of motivators are being used, including ways to see a greater impact on patients (social purpose) and opportunities to be a more effective physician (mastery), in addition to personal financial incentives.
From our analysis of case studies, it does not appear that the full range of motivators is being deployed by ACOs, which suggests an opportunity to develop more sophisticated and wider‐ranging portfolios of motivators for greater impact.
ContextThere are approximately 800 accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the United States. In order to achieve the ACO goals of reduced cost, improved outcomes of care, and better population health, it is critical to change how physicians within ACOs deliver care. While knowledge of ACO development and evolution is growing, relatively little is known about the motivational drivers that are being used to effect change among participating physicians.MethodsWe synthesized 9 well‐established and empirically tested theories of motivation into an overarching framework of 6 motivator domains. This framework was then used to explore the types of motivators that leaders use to stimulate change within 4 case study ACOs. We explored the organizational characteristics, strategies, and motivators for changing physicians’ behaviors through in‐depth interviews and document review.FindingsThe case study ACOs more strongly emphasized nonfinancial motivators for changing physician behavior than financial incentives. These motivators included mastery and social purpose, which were used frequently across all case study sites. Overall, the ACO case studies illustrated variability across all motivational domains. While there was evidence of changing motivators as a result of the ACO, the case study ACOs found it difficult to comprehensively change the use of motivators, in part due to dispersed managerial attention and the complexity and diversity of programs and contracts that fragmented efforts to improve.ConclusionsMotivating behavior change within ACOs goes beyond financial incentives. ACOs are using a broad range of motivators, including creating ways to make a greater impact on patients and opportunities to be a more effective physician. Overall, it does not appear that ACOs are deploying the full range of available motivators. This suggests an opportunity to develop more sophisticated and wider‐ranging portfolios of motivators to drive behavior change.
Influence of tooth bleaching on dental enamel microhardness: a systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Zanolla J , Marques ABC , da Costa DC , de Souza AS , Coutinho M 
Published: December 2016

AbstractSeveral studies have investigated the effect of bleaching on dental tissues. The evaluation of the effect of home bleaching with 10% carbamide peroxide is important for assessing alterations in enamel microhardness that may affect dental health in terms of resistance to masticatory forces. This meta‐analysis was performed in order to determine scientific evidence regarding the effects of home vital bleaching with 10% carbamide peroxide gel on the microhardness of human dental enamel. A systematic electronic literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Web of Science databases using search terms. Two independent researchers evaluated the information and methodological quality of the studies. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established for article selection; further, only studies published in English were selected. Thirteen studies that met all of the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected and underwent statistical analysis. The results of this meta‐analysis showed no significant changes in enamel microhardness when using the 10% carbamide peroxide bleaching gel over periods of 7, 14 and 21 days.
Comparing QT interval variability of semiautomated and high‐precision ECG methodologies in seven thorough QT studies—implications for the power of studies intended for definitive evaluation of a drug's QT effect
Authors: Meiser Karin , Jordaan Pierre , Latypova Sasha , Darpo Borje 
Published: December 2016

BackgroundIn studies of drug effects on electrocardiographic parameters, the level of precision in measuring QTc interval changes will influence a study's ability to detect small effects.MethodsVariability data from investigational, placebo and moxifloxacin treatments from seven thorough QT studies performed by the same sponsor were analyzed with the objective to compare the performance of two commonly used approaches for ECG interval measurements: semiautomated (SA) and the high‐precision QT (HPQT) analysis. Five studies were crossover and two parallel. Harmonized procedures were implemented to ensure similar experimental conditions across studies. ECG replicates were extracted serially from continuous 12‐lead recordings at predefined time points from subjects supinely resting. The variability estimates were based on the time‐point analysis of change‐from‐baseline QTcF as the dependent variable for the standard primary analysis of previous thorough QT studies. The residual variances were extracted for each study and ECG technique.ResultsHigh‐precision QT resulted in a substantial reduction in ∆QTc variability as compared to SA. A reduction in residual variability or approximately 50% was achieved in both crossover and parallel studies, both for the active comparison (drug vs. placebo) and for assay sensitivity (moxifloxacin vs. placebo) data.ConclusionsHigh‐precision QT technique significantly reduces QT interval variability and thereby the number of subjects needed to exclude small effects in QT studies. Based on this assessment, the sample size required to exclude a QTc effect >10 ms with 90% power is reduced from 35 with SA to 18 with HPQT, if a 3 ms underlying drug effect is assumed.
Inflammasome activation in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)
Authors: Barclay William , Shinohara Mari L. 
Published: December 2016

AbstractThe aptly named inflammasomes are powerful signaling complexes that sense inflammatory signals under a myriad of conditions, including those from infections and endogenous sources. The inflammasomes promote inflammation by maturation and release of the pro‐inflammatory cytokines, IL‐1β and IL‐18. Several inflammasomes have been identified so far, but this review focuses mainly on the NLRP3 inflammasome. By still ill‐defined activation mechanisms, a sensor molecule, NLRP3 (NACHT, LRR and PYD domains‐containing protein 3), responds to danger signals and rapidly recruits ASC (apoptosis‐associated speck‐like protein containing a CARD) and pro‐caspase‐1 to form a large oligomeric signaling platform—the inflammasome. Involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome in infections, metabolic disorders, autoinflammation, and autoimmunity, underscores its position as a central player in sensing microbial and damage signals and coordinating pro‐inflammatory immune responses. Indeed, evidence in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) suggests inflammasome activation occurs during disease. Experiments with the mouse model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), specifically describe the NLRP3 inflammasome as critical and necessary to disease development. This review discusses recent studies in EAE and MS which describe associations of inflammasome activation with promotion of T cell pathogenicity, infiltration of cells into the central nervous system (CNS) and direct neurodegeneration during EAE and MS.
What do we know about the inflammasome in humans?
Authors: Amin Jay , Boche Delphine , Rakic Sonja 
Published: December 2016

AbstractThe inflammasome complex is part of the innate immune system, which serves to protect the host against harm from pathogens and damaged cells. It is a term first proposed by Tschopp's group in 2002, with numerous original research articles and reviews published on the topic since. There have been many types of inflammasome identified, but all result in the common pathway of activation of caspases and interleukin 1β along with possible cell death called pyroptosis. Despite a growing body of research investigating the structure and function of the inflammasome in animal models, there is still limited evidence identifying inflammasome components in human physiology and disease. In this review, we explore the molecular structure and mechanism of activation of the inflammasome with a particular focus on inflammasome complexes expressed in humans. Inflammasome components have been identified in several human peripheral and brain tissues using both in vivo and ex vivo work, and the inflammasome complex has been shown to be associated with several genetic and acquired inflammatory and neoplastic disorders. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the information available on the inflammasome with an emphasis on the importance of prioritizing work on human tissue. There is a huge demand for more effective treatments for a number of inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Modulation of the inflammasome has been proposed as a novel treatment for several of these diseases and there are currently clinical trials ongoing to test this theory.
Effects of preference heterogeneity among landowners on spatial conservation prioritization
Authors: Nielsen Anne Sofie Elberg , Strange Niels , Bruun Hans Henrik , Jacobsen Jette Bredahl 
Published: December 2016

AbstractThe participation of private landowners in conservation is crucial to efficient biodiversity conservation. This is especially the case in settings where the share of private ownership is large and the economic costs associated with land acquisition are high. We used probit regression analysis and historical participation data to examine the likelihood of participation of Danish forest owners in a voluntary conservation program. We used the results to spatially predict the likelihood of participation of all forest owners in Denmark. We merged spatial data on the presence of forest, cadastral information on participation contracts, and individual‐level socioeconomic information about the forest owners and their households. We included predicted participation in a probability model for species survival. Uninformed and informed (included land owner characteristics) models were then incorporated into a spatial prioritization for conservation of unmanaged forests. The choice models are based on sociodemographic data on the entire population of Danish forest owners and historical data on their participation in conservation schemes. Inclusion in the model of information on private landowners’ willingness to supply land for conservation yielded at intermediate budget levels up to 30% more expected species coverage than the uninformed prioritization scheme. Our landowner‐choice model provides an example of moving toward more implementable conservation planning.
Prediction of the soil water retention curve for structured soil from saturation to oven‐dryness
Authors: Karup D. , Moldrup P. , Tuller M. , Arthur E. , de Jonge L.W. 
Published: December 2016

The soil water retention curve (SWRC) is the most fundamental soil hydraulic function required for modelling soil–plant–atmospheric water flow and transport processes. The SWRC is intimately linked to the distribution of the size of pores, the composition of the solid phase and the soil specific surface area. Detailed measurement of the SWRC is impractical in many cases because of the excessively long equilibration times inherent to most standard methods, especially for fine textured soil. Consequently, it is more efficient to predict the SWRC based on easy‐to‐measure basic soil properties. In this research we evaluated a new two‐stage approach developed recently to predict the SWRC based on measurements for disturbed repacked soil samples. Our study involved undisturbed structured soil and took into account the effects of bulk density, organic matter content and particle‐size distribution. Independently measured SWRCs for 171 undisturbed soil samples with organic matter contents that ranged from 3 to 14% were used for model validation. The results indicate that consideration of the silt and organic matter fractions, in addition to the clay fraction, improved predictions for the dry‐end SWRC. The dry‐end results revealed that the smallest matric potential at hypothetical ‘zero‐water‐content’ varies between −45 000 and −125 000 m (pF 6.65–7.1) even for soils with similar clay mineralogy. The sensitivity analysis of the two‐stage approach indicated that predicted SWRC results are more sensitive to bulk density than to organic matter content or soil texture. For the soils studied, the two‐stage approach showed reasonable agreement with measured data, with a root mean square error of 0.04 cm3 cm−3 for the matric potential range from pF 1 to pF 6.6.HighlightsIs a new approach to modelling the soil water retention (SWR) curve applicable to structured soil?
The model accurately predicts the full SWR curve with an RMSE of 0.04 cm3 cm−3.
Prediction accuracy of the wet part of the SWR curve was sensitive to variation in bulk density.
The pF at zero water content, which affects the prediction of dry SWR, ranged from 6.65 to 7.10.