bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Leveraging information from genetic risk scores of coronary atherosclerosis
Authors: Assimes Themistocles L. , Salfati Elias L. , Del Gobbo Liana C. 
Published: February 2017

Purpose of review
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ∼60 loci for coronary artery disease (CAD). Through genetic risk scores (GRSs), investigators are leveraging this genomic information to gain insights on both the fundamental mechanisms driving these associations as well as their utility in improving risk prediction.

Recent findings
GRSs of CAD track with the earliest atherosclerosis lesions in the coronary including fatty streaks and uncomplicated raised lesions. In multiple cohort studies, they predict incident CAD events independent of all traditional and lifestyle risk factors. The incorporation of SNPs with suggestive but not genome-wide association in GWAS into GRSs often increases the strength of these associations. GRS may also predict recurrent events and identify patients most likely to respond to statins. The effect of the GRS on discrimination metrics remains modest but the minimal degree of improvement needed for clinical utility is unknown.

Summary
Most novel loci for CAD identified through GWAS facilitate the formation of coronary atherosclerosis and stratify individuals based on their underlying burden of coronary atherosclerosis. GRSs may one day be routinely used in clinical practice to not only assess the risk of incident events but also to predict who will respond best to established prevention strategies.
F‐calprotectin and Blood Markers Correlate to Quality of Life in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Carlsen Katrine , Jakobsen Christian , Kallemose Thomas , Paerregaard Anders , Riis Lene B. , Munkholm Pia , Wewer Vibeke 
Published: February 2017

ABSTRACTObjectives:Our aim was to investigate predictors of health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) with respect to changes in disease parameters over time in children with inflammatory bowel disease.Methods:This was a prospective longitudinal study examining the association between HRQoL (IMPACT III) and symptom scores (Pediatric Crohn Disease Activity Index, abbreviated Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index), fecal calprotectin measures and blood analyses (C‐reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, orosomucoid, albumin, hemoglobin, and vitamin‐D) in a cohort of 10‐ to 17‐year‐old patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Data were collected prospectively at 3‐month intervals during a 2‐year period. Associations were analyzed using linear mixed‐effect models. Patients were divided into 2 groups, which received nonbiological oral treatment or biological parenteral treatment.Results:From 79 patients (39 Crohn disease/40 ulcerative colitis), representing a total of 43,132 days of observation, 572 IMPACT measurements were paired with variables. A decrease in the IMPACT III score was significantly associated with increased ulcerative colitis‐symptom score in the biological group (P = 0.005), and a similar inverse tendency was found in the nonbiological group and for Crohn disease symptoms in both groups. We found in both treatment groups overall a significant (P < 0.05) inverse association between the IMPACT III and the levels of fecal calprotectin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and orosomucoid, whereas albumin, hemoglobin, and vitamin‐D were directly significantly associated.Conclusions:The IMPACT score, already known to correlate with disease activity, has now been shown to be associated with disease markers in feces and blood. This emphasizes that objective markers of disease activity indirectly can predict the patient's HRQoL.
Travel During Pregnancy: Considerations for the Obstetric Provider
Authors: Antony Kathleen M. , Ehrenthal Deborah , Evensen Ann , Iruretagoyena J. Igor 
Published: February 2017

ImportanceTravel among US citizens is becoming increasingly common, and travel during pregnancy is also speculated to be increasingly common. During pregnancy, the obstetric provider may be the first or only clinician approached with questions regarding travel.ObjectiveIn this review, we discuss the reasons women travel during pregnancy, medical considerations for long-haul air travel, destination-specific medical complications, and precautions for pregnant women to take both before travel and while abroad. To improve the quality of pretravel counseling for patients before or during pregnancy, we have created 2 tools: a guide for assessing the pregnant patient’s risk during travel and a pretravel checklist for the obstetric provider.Evidence AcquisitionA PubMed search for English-language publications about travel during pregnancy was performed using the search terms “travel” and “pregnancy” and was limited to those published since the year 2000. Studies on subtopics were not limited by year of publication.ResultsEight review articles were identified. Three additional studies that analyzed data from travel clinics were found, and 2 studies reported on the frequency of international travel during pregnancy. Additional publications addressed air travel during pregnancy (10 reviews, 16 studies), high-altitude travel during pregnancy (5 reviews, 5 studies), and destination-specific illnesses in pregnant travelers.Conclusions and RelevanceTravel during pregnancy including international travel is common. Pregnant travelers have unique travel-related and destination-specific risks. We review those risks and provide tools for obstetric providers to use in counseling pregnant travelers.Target AudienceObstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians, and midwives.Learning ObjectivesAfter completing this activity, the learner should be better able to ask appropriate questions of women who are planning travel during pregnancy; understand the increased risks borne by pregnant women who travel, especially to locations with limited medical resources and/or high rates of foodborne, waterborne, or mosquito-borne illnesses; counsel women about precautions regarding air travel including reducing risk of venous thromboembolism; and counsel women about destination-specific risks or feel empowered to refer women to travel clinics for patients with comorbidities, planning travel to high-risk destinations, or who require immunizations not used for routine vaccination of US patients.
Lateral Asymmetric Decubitus Position for the Rotation of Occipitoposterior Positions: Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial EVADELA
Authors: Le Ray Camille , Lepleux Flavie , de la Calle Aurélie , Guerin Jessy , Sellam Nathalie , Dreyfus Michel , Chantry Anne A. 
Published: February 2017

(Abstracted from Am J Obstet Gynecol 2016;215:511.e1–511.e7)
Approximately 20% of fetal positions during labor and approximately 5% of fetal positions during delivery are occiput posterior (OP), which is associated with high cesarean delivery rates and severe perineal lacerations. The hypothesis of this study was that the maternal lateral asymmetric decubitus (LAD) posture favored fetal head flexion during uterine contractions.
Selfish Drive Can Trump Function When Animal Mitochondrial Genomes Compete
Authors: Ma Hansong , O’Farrell Patrick H. 
Published: February 2017

(Abstracted from Nat Genet 2016;48:798–802)
Natural selection favors traits in organisms that enhance fitness and survival. Nuclear genes contain a mixture of both maternal and paternal DNA, whereas mitochondrial genes are inherited unilaterally from the maternal side.
Effect of Temperature on Heart Rate Variability in Neonatal ICU Patients With Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy
Authors: Massaro An N. , Campbell Heather E. , Metzler Marina , Al-Shargabi Tareq , Wang Yunfei , du Plessis Adre , Govindan Rathinaswamy B. 
Published: February 2017

Objective:
To determine whether measures of heart rate variability are related to changes in temperature during rewarming after therapeutic hypothermia for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Design:
Prospective observational study.

Setting:
Level 4 neonatal ICU in a free-standing academic children’s hospital.

Patients:
Forty-four infants with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated with therapeutic hypothermia.

Interventions:
Continuous electrocardiogram data from 2 hours prior to rewarming through 2 hours after completion of rewarming (up to 10 hr) were analyzed.

Measurements and Main Results:
Median beat-to-beat interval and measures of heart rate variability were quantified including beat-to-beat interval sd, low and high frequency relative spectral power, detrended fluctuation analysis short and long α exponents (αS and αL), and root mean square short and long time scales. The relationships between heart rate variability measures and esophageal/axillary temperatures were evaluated. Heart rate variability measures low frequency, αS, and root mean square short and long time scales were negatively associated, whereas αL was positively associated, with temperature (p < 0.01). These findings signify an overall decrease in heart rate variability as temperature increased toward normothermia.

Conclusions:
Measures of heart rate variability are temperature dependent in the range of therapeutic hypothermia to normothermia. Core body temperature needs to be considered when evaluating heart rate variability metrics as potential physiologic biomarkers of illness severity in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy infants undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.
Brief Report: Changes in Levels of Inflammation After Antiretroviral Treatment During Early HIV Infection in AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5217
Authors: Macatangay Bernard J. , Yang Ming , Sun Xin , Morton Jessica , De Gruttola Victor , Little Susan , Hogan Christine , Rinaldo Charles R. ,   for the A5217 Team
Published: February 2017

Background:
We evaluated the changes in the levels of soluble biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation and T-cell activation among participants of AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5217 who were started on antiretroviral therapy (ART) within the first 6 months of HIV infection.

Methods:
Cryopreserved specimens were obtained pre-ART (week 0), at the time of virologic suppression (week 36), and at 36 weeks after treatment interruption (week 72). Levels of D-dimer, C-reactive protein (CRP), and soluble CD14 (sCD14) were measured in plasma, whereas T-cell activation levels, defined as the frequencies of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells coexpressing HLA-DR and CD38, were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Results:
D-dimer levels were significantly lower at viral suppression (P = 0.031), whereas CRP and sCD14 levels remained similar to pre-ART levels. At viral suppression, levels of the soluble markers did not correlate with each other. CD4+ T-cell counts pre-ART tended to modestly correlate with levels of D-dimer (r = 0.35; P = 0.058) and CRP (r = 0.33; P = 0.078). At 36 weeks after treatment interruption (week 72), D-dimer levels returned back to pre-ART levels. However, CD8+ T-cell activation was significantly lower than pre-ART levels (35.8% at week 0 vs 28.9% at week 72; P = 0.004).

Conclusions:
Among the A5217 participants who started ART within the first 6 months of HIV infection, high levels of sCD14 and CRP remain similar to pre-ART levels, suggesting that immune damage occurring in the initial stages of infection persists despite short-term virologic suppression.
Elasticity improves handgrip performance and user experience during visuomotor control
Authors: Mace Michael , Rinne Paul , Liardon Jean-Luc , Uhomoibhi Catherine , Bentley Paul , Burdet Etienne 
Published: February 2017

Passive rehabilitation devices, providing motivation and feedback, potentially offer an automated and low-cost therapy method, and can be used as simple human–machine interfaces. Here, we ask whether there is any advantage for a hand-training device to be elastic, as opposed to rigid, in terms of performance and preference. To address this question, we have developed a highly sensitive and portable digital handgrip, promoting independent and repetitive rehabilitation of grasp function based around a novel elastic force and position sensing structure. A usability study was performed on 66 healthy subjects to assess the effect of elastic versus rigid handgrip control during various visuomotor tracking tasks. The results indicate that, for tasks relying either on feedforward or on feedback control, novice users perform significantly better with the elastic handgrip, compared with the rigid equivalent (11% relative improvement, 9–14% mean range;
p
< 0.01). Furthermore, there was a threefold increase in the number of subjects who preferred elastic compared with rigid handgrip interaction. Our results suggest that device compliance is an important design consideration for grip training devices.
NoRMCorre: An online algorithm for piecewise rigid motion correction of calcium imaging data
Authors: Pnevmatikakis Eftychios A. , Giovannucci Andrea 
Published: February 2017

AbstractBackgroundMotion correction is a challenging pre-processing problem that arises early in the analysis pipeline of calcium imaging data sequences. The motion artifacts in two-photon microscopy recordings can be non-rigid, arising from the finite time of raster scanning and non-uniform deformations of the brain medium.New methodWe introduce an algorithm for fast Non-Rigid Motion Correction (NoRMCorre) based on template matching. NoRMCorre operates by splitting the field of view into overlapping spatial patches that are registered at a sub-pixel resolution for rigid translation against a continuously updated template. The estimated alignments are subsequently up-sampled to create a smooth motion field for each frame that can efficiently approximate non-rigid motion in a piecewise-rigid manner.Existing methodsExisting approaches either do not scale well in terms of computational performance or are targeted to motion artifacts arising from low speed scanning, whereas modern datasets with large field of view are more prone to non-rigid brain deformation issues.ResultsNoRMCorre can be run in an online mode resulting in comparable to or even faster than real time motion registration on streaming data. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method with simple yet intuitive metrics and compare against other non-rigid registration methods on two-photon calcium imaging datasets. Open source Matlab and Python code is also made available.ConclusionsThe proposed method and code provide valuable support to the community for solving large scale image registration problems in calcium imaging, especially when non-rigid deformations are present in the acquired data.
Knock down of Calcineurin-B2, a calcium binding regulatory subunit of Calcineurin, gives rise to hypercontraction myopathy in indirect flight muscles ofDrosophilathrough dysregulation of calcium homeostasis
Authors: Jhonsa Ruchi , Nongthomba Upendra 
Published: February 2017

Abstract/SummaryMuscle is a calcium responsive tissue and requires calcium for initiation of muscle contraction. Calcium concentration in muscle is tightly regulated by calcium binding proteins. Calcineurin-B2 (canB2), a calcium binding, regulatory subunit of calcineurin, is the isoform maximally expressed in the indirect flight muscles (IFMs) ofDrosophila. The developmental and functional roles of CanB2 particularly in the maintenance of calcium homeostasis are not understood. In this study, we show that the loss ofcanB2causes hypercontraction of IFMs. Genetic interaction studies with hypercontraction mutants suggest a synergistic interaction between Calcineurin-B2 and structural protein Troponin-T. Similarly, interaction studies withdSERCAmutant reveal that Calcineurin-B2 is important for regulating calcium homeostasis in muscles.In vivocalcium imaging showed that Calcineurin-B2 deficiency leads to arrhythmicity in the calcium oscillations. We show that Calcineurin-B2 knockdown causes deregulation of calcium homeostasis, which results in unregulated acto-myosin interaction. However, overexpression of Calcineurin-A, which inhibits calcium oscillations, had no effect on myofibrillogenesis suggesting that calcium activation is dispensable for myofibrillar assembly. Our findings contribute to the understanding of muscle physiology in normal as well as pathophysiological conditions.
Government project failure in Ghana: a multidimensional approach
Authors: Damoah Isaac Sakyi , Akwei Cynthia 
Published: February 2017

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of failure within Ghanaian Government projects using multiple failure criteria.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a sequential data collection approach by employing an in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire, respectively. Based on insight from the literature review, interviews were held with participants to solicit their perceptions about the failure of Ghanaian Government projects. A questionnaire was developed based on the results from the interviews in order to determine the relative importance of the various failure criteria used as the evaluation tool.FindingsSix main criteria were identified and used as the assessment framework for Ghanaian Government project failure. The findings indicated that Ghanaian Government projects fail on all the six failure criteria; however, the extent of failure differs from criterion to criterion. The worst failure criterion is meeting the projected timescale. This is followed by cost, requirement, stakeholder satisfaction, national development and contribution to the sector where projects are implemented, respectively.Practical implicationsFrom this study, government project practitioners and policy makers will be able identify the failure areas (criteria) on which to focus during government project implementation.Originality/valueThough extant literature has been devoted to the success/failure criteria, attention has not been paid to comparison of the extent of failure within these criteria in government projects. Therefore, this study extends the literature in this regard as well as government project failure literature in general.
Agile project management with Scrum
Authors: Azanha Adrialdo , Argoud Ana Rita Tiradentes Terra , Camargo Junior João Batista de , Antoniolli Pedro Domingos 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the benefits of the agile project management (APM) framework compared to the traditional waterfall model, and understand how it can help companies add value and gain competitive advantage.

Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used was the exploratory qualitative research through a case study of a software project, developed with the support and application of the Scrum framework, in a pharmaceutical industry information technology project.

Findings
There were benefits found in the utilization of the agile framework, such as increased motivation and staff satisfaction, better control of requirements and especially higher quality of the delivered system, generating added value to the organization. Additionally, the project allowed the use of features from the first month of the application deployed, enabling a 75 percent reduction in development time, compared to traditional methods. The software development time was four months, 30 percent of what would be the total if the traditional methodology was adopted. Based on the results, the agile framework, especially the Scrum, proved to be a viable option as a project management approach.

Research limitations/implications
Since this research is an exploratory case study, its results cannot be generalized.

Practical implications
The paper provides relevant practical information and experiences to managers interested in implementing APM, as well as those interested in improving the management of projects.

Originality/value
This paper provides a case study with practical implications of using APM, and APM’s benefits and advantages are compared with the traditional waterfall approach. Companies can use this case study to better understand about the advantages and strengths of APM over the traditional approach.
Partnering in offshore drilling projects
Authors: Børve Sjur , Ahola Tuomas , Andersen Bjorn , Aarseth Wenche 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate to which extent partnering practices observed in earlier research focussing on the construction industry are applied in offshore development drilling projects.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews earlier research on project partnering and the relationship-based procurement (RBP) taxonomy. The taxonomy is then empirically applied to describe partnering practices in an incentive-based drilling project in Norway.

Findings
Many elements of project partnering observed earlier in construction projects were found to characterize offshore development drilling projects. However, as assessed using the RBP framework, the authors found that partnering elements in observed context rated consistently lower than elements previously reported in the construction industry, indicating a lower maturity of partnering practices in the studied context.

Practical implications
The present study provides a multi-dimensional and systematic description of partnering practices in offshore drilling projects. Project owners can utilize this information to identify partnering elements requiring particular emphasis when initiating and managing drilling projects. Based on the findings, such elements include transparency and open-book auditing, integrated risk mitigation and insurance practices and establishment of authentic leadership. The findings further imply that partnering models cannot be directly applied across industry boundaries but must be tailored to fit the salient characteristics of each context.

Originality/value
The paper systematically describes to which extent specific partnering elements of the RBP taxonomy are applied in offshore drilling projects.
Performance contracting
Authors: Kristiansen Mads Bøge 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how variation in the content of the performance contracts (number and types of targets) across agencies can be understood.

Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is conducted as a cross-sectional quantitative study carried out through an analysis of performance contracts between parent ministries and their agencies in Danish Central Government.

Findings
The study finds that the size of agencies, measurability of tasks and ministerial affiliation are significantly related to the number of targets in the contracts, whereas ministerial affiliation and the internal organization of agencies are significantly related to certain types of targets in contracts.

Practical implications
The findings indicate, on the one hand, that it may be difficult to obtain the same kind of performance contracting across agencies characterized by different features. Thus, it may be difficult to put up universal standards for performance contracting for a broad range of agencies, and expect that they will all be able to meet them. On the other hand, the findings also indicate that the effort and knowledge actors put into the implementation of performance contracting matters. Therefore, some agencies may be able to get closer towards the recommendations for management by objectives and results.

Originality/value
The paper contributes to the existing literature, as it tests and shows the importance of other and further contextual factors affecting the formulation of targets in performance contracts than previous studies.