bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hurdle Effect of Antimicrobial Activity Achieved by Time Differential Releasing of Nisin and Chitosan Hydrolysates from Bacterial Cellulose
Authors: Hsiao Hui‐Ling , Lin Shih‐Bin , Chen Li‐Chen , Chen Hui‐Huang 
Published: April 2016

AbstractWe investigated the combined antimicrobial effect of nisin and chitosan hydrolysates (CHs) by regulating the antimicrobial reaction order of substances due to differential releasing rate from hydroxypropylmethylcellulose‐modified bacterial cellulose (HBC). The minimum inhibitory concentration of nisin against Staphylococcus aureus and that of CHs against Escherichia coli were 6 IU and 200 μg/mL, respectively. Hurdle and additive effects in antimicrobial tests were observed when nisin was used 6 h before CH treatment against S. aureus; similar effects were observed when CH was used before nisin treatment against E. coli. Simultaneously combined treatment of nisin and CHs exhibited the low antimicrobial effect. HBC was then selected as the carrier for the controlled release of nisin and CHs. A 90% inhibition in the growth of S. aureus and E. coli was achieved when 30 IU‐nisin‐containing HBC and 62.5 μg/mL‐CH‐containing HBC were used simultaneously. The controlled release of nisin and CHs by using HBC minimized the interaction between nisin and CHs as well as increased the number of microbial targets.
The influence of exercise load with and without different levels of blood flow restriction on acute changes in muscle thickness and lactate
Authors: Loenneke Jeremy P. , Kim Daeyeol , Fahs Christopher A. , Thiebaud Robert S. , Abe Takashi , Larson Rebecca D. , Bemben Debra A. , Bemben Michael G. 
Published: April 2016

SummaryThe aim of this study was to compare exercise with and without different degrees of blood flow restriction (BFR) on acute changes in muscle thickness (MTH) and whole blood lactate (WBL). Forty participants were assigned to Experiment 1, 2 or 3. Each experiment completed protocols differing by pressure, load and/or volume. MTH and WBL were measured pre and postexercise. The acute changes in MTH appear be maximized at 30% one repetition maximum (1RM) with BFR, although the difference between 20% 1RM and 30% 1RM at the lateral site was small (0·1 versus 0·2 cm, P = 0·09). Increasing the exercise load from 20% to 30% 1RM with BFR produces clear changes in WBL (3·7 versus 5·5 mmol l−1, P<0·001). The acute changes in MTH and WBL for 30% 1RM in combination with BFR were similar to that observed with 70% 1RM and 20 and 30% to failure, albeit at a lower exercise volume. These findings may have implications for designing future studies as it suggest that exercise load (to a point) may have a greater influence on acute changes in MTH and metabolic accumulation than the applied relative pressure.
A method to quantify and visualize femoral head intraosseous arteries by micro‐CT
Authors: Qiu Xing , Shi Xiaotian , Ouyang Jun , Xu Dachuan , Zhao Dewei 
Published: April 2016

AbstractWe describe a technique for perfusing a barium sulphate suspension into the intraosseous artery. Following the perfusion of abarium sulphate suspension into 14 fresh lower limbs of Chinese cadavers, micro‐CT scanning was applied to digitize, quantify and visualize the intraosseous arteries in the human femoral heads. Then, the femoral heads were removed and subjected to micro‐CT scanning. The data were imported into the amira and mimics programs to reconstruct and quantify the intraosseous arteries. The femoral head intraosseous artery lengths, areas, volumes, and femoral head bone volumes were quantified. The artery densities and artery ratios were calculated and analysed with independent‐samples t‐tests. The intraosseous vasculature volume renderings were displayed as screenshots and videos made with amira. Many intraosseous artery study technologies were compared. The barium sulphate suspension was milky white in colour. The perfusion of the barium sulphate suspension followed by micro‐CT scanning provided a good representation of the intraosseous artery. The femoral head intraosseous artery lengths, areas and volumes, and the femoral head bone volumes were displayed as the . No differences were observed between the left and right femoral head intraosseous arteries in terms of the artery densities or artery ratios. The volume renderings and 3‐D orthogonal projections displayed the overall distributions of the intraosseous arteries. The videos clearly demonstrated the entry sites of the nutrition‐carrying arteries, their courses and branches, and the intraosseous arterial anastomoses. Our technique is the simplest and least time‐consuming method of producing accurate vascular three‐dimensional reconstructions. The perfusion of a barium sulphate suspension into intraosseous arteries combined with micro‐CT scanning can deliver high‐resolution 3‐D digitized data and images of intraosseous arteries. This technique does not require bone decalcification or bone dissection and thus significantly shortens the time required to quantify and display intraosseous arteries. This method provides a simple and rapid technique for quantifying and visualizing human intraosseous arteries.
Pre‐delivery fibrinogen predicts adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes in patients with placental abruption
Authors: Wang Liangcheng , Matsunaga Shigetaka , Mikami Yukiko , Takai Yasushi , Terui Katsuo , Seki Hiroyuki 
Published: April 2016

AbstractAimPlacental abruption is a severe obstetric complication of pregnancy that can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation and progress to massive post‐partum hemorrhage. Coagulation disorder due to extreme consumption of fibrinogen is considered the main pathogenesis of disseminated intravascular coagulation in patients with placental abruption. The present study sought to determine if the pre‐delivery fibrinogen level could predict adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes in patients with placental abruption.MethodsThis retrospective medical chart review was conducted in a center for maternal, fetal, and neonatal medicine in Japan with 61 patients with placental abruption. Fibrinogen levels prior to delivery were collected and evaluated for the prediction of maternal and neonatal outcomes. The main outcome measures for maternal outcomes were disseminated intravascular coagulation and hemorrhage, and the main outcome measures for neonatal outcomes were Apgar score at 5 min, umbilical artery pH, and stillbirth.ResultsThe receiver–operator curve and multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that fibrinogen significantly predicted overt disseminated intravascular coagulation and the requirement of ≥6 red blood cell units, ≥10 fresh frozen plasma units, and ≥20 fresh frozen plasma units for transfusion. Moderate hemorrhage occurred in 71.5% of patients with a decrease in fibrinogen levels to 155 mg/dL. Fibrinogen could also predict neonatal outcomes. Umbilical artery pH < 7.00 occurred in 77.1% of patients with a decrease in fibrinogen levels to ≤ 250 mg/dL.ConclusionPre‐delivery fibrinogen can predict adverse maternal as well as neonatal outcomes with placental abruption. © 2016 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Rare case of complicated congenital anomalies of female reproductive organs with bilateral undescended ovaries
Authors: Oride Aki , Kanasaki Haruhiko , Ishihara Tomoko , Kyo Satoru 
Published: April 2016

AbstractCongenital anomalies of the female reproductive organs vary widely and the patients often have no symptoms related to them. We report an exceedingly rare case of complicated anomalies in the Müllerian duct and urogenital sinus. The patient was a 21‐year‐old woman evaluated for infertility, and the examination revealed the presence of a complete septate uterus. We found dual vaginal canals with right incomplete hymenal fenestration when we performed an examination during the patient's menstrual period. Laparoscopic findings showed bilateral undescended ovaries, absent utero‐ovarian ligaments, and partial atresia of the left fallopian tube. We performed hymenotomy of the right vagina, resection of the vaginal septum and salpingostomy of the left fallopian tube. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe this complex combination of anomalies in the Müllerian duct and urogenital sinus. This case might provide us with information about the development of the female reproductive organs. © 2016 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Beta‐hydroxybutyrate Concentrations in Dogs with Acute Pancreatitis and Without Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Hurrell F.E. , Drobatz K.J. , Hess R.S. 
Published: April 2016

Backgroundβ‐hydroxybutyrate (BOHB) concentrations have not been quantified in dogs with acute pancreatitis (AP).ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigateBOHBconcentrations in dogs withAP.AnimalsA total of 154 client‐owned dogs withoutDM.MethodsProspective clinical study. Dogs were enrolled into 1 of 3 groups:AP, sick without anAPdiagnosis, or fasted. Dogs were diagnosed withAP(44) if they had vomiting or anorexia, and either ultrasonographic findings consistent withAPor increased pancreatic lipase. Sick dogs withoutAP(68) had vomiting or anorexia but a diagnosis ofAPwas either not suspected or was excluded based on ultrasonographic findings or a normal pancreatic lipase. Dogs without anorexia or vomiting that were fasted for over 10 hours for a procedure were also enrolled (42).BOHBwas measured on whole blood with a portable ketone meter. The Kruskal‐Wallis test was performed to compareBOHBin the 3 groups. Pair‐wise comparisons were performed using the Mann‐Whitney test and Bonferroni correctedP‐values are reported.ResultsMedianBOHBconcentration was significantly higher in dogs withAP(0.3 mmol/L, range 0–2.9 mmol/L) compared to sick dogs withoutAP(0.20 mmol/L, range 0–0.9 mmol/L,P= .007) and fasted dogs (0.1 mmol/L, range 0–0.4 mmol/L,P= .0001). MedianBOHBconcentration was significantly higher in sick dogs withoutAPcompared to fasted dogs (P= .0002).Conclusions and clinical importanceIn dogs withoutDM,BOHBis significantly higher in dogs withAPcompared to other dogs. The diagnostic utility of this finding remains to be investigated.
Bayesian Networks‐Based Probabilistic Safety Analysis for Railway Lines
Authors: Castillo Enrique , Grande Zacarías , Calviño Aida 
Published: April 2016

AbstractA Bayesian network model is developed, in which all the items or elements encountered when travelling a railway line, such as terrain, infrastructure, light signals, speed limit signs, curves, switches, tunnels, viaducts, rolling stock, and any other element related to its safety are reproduced. Due to the importance of human error in safety, especial attention is given to modeling the driver behavior variables and their time evolution. The sets of conditional probabilities of variables given their parents, which permits quantifying the Bayesian network joint probability, are given by means of closed formulas, which allow us to identify the particular contribution of each variable and facilitate a sensitivity analysis. The probabilities of incidents affecting safety are calculated so that a probabilistic safety assessment of the line can be done and its most critical elements can be identified and sorted by importance. This permits improving the line safety and saving time and money in the maintenance program by concentrating on the most critical elements. To reduce the complexity of the problem, an original method is given that permits dividing the Bayesian network in to small parts such that the complexity of the problem becomes linear in the number of items and subnetworks. This is crucial to deal with real lines in which the number of variables can be measured in thousands. In addition, when an accident occurs the Bayesian network allows us to identify its causes by means of a backward inference process. The case of the real Palencia–Santander line is commented on and some examples of how the model works are discussed.
Egocentric Content
Authors: Field Hartry 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThe paper distinguishes two approaches to understanding the representational content of sentences and intentional states, and its role in describing people, predicting and explaining their behavior, and so forth. It sets forth the case for one of these approaches, the “egocentric” one, initially on the basis of its ability to explain the near‐indefeasibility of ascriptions of content to our own terms (“‘dogs’ as I use it means dogs”), but more generally on the basis of its providing an attractive overall picture of the descriptive and explanatory role of representational content. In doing this, the paper relates the egocentric view to an “immanent” or “deflationary” view of reference and truth conditions, and also to the view of reference‐talk and truth‐talk as anaphoric devices. It discusses the indeterminacy of content ascriptions to those in communities with radically different theories, a phenomenon that is unsurprising on the egocentric approach, and connects this to the thesis of the normativity of meaning. (It does all this in rather broad brush: many strands of the egocentric account will be familiar, and are the subject of familiar controversies; the point of the paper is less to address these controversies individually than to tie the strands together into what is hoped to be an appealing package.)
Glucocorticoids and erythropoietin in chronic lung disease of prematurity: Proliferative potential in lung fibroblast and epithelial cells exposed to tracheal aspirates
Authors: Ohnishi Satoshi , Ichiba Hiroyuki , Saito Mika , Hamazaki Takashi , Matsumura Hisako , Shintaku Haruo 
Published: April 2016

AbstractBackgroundWe investigated the effects of glucocorticoids, erythropoietin (EPO) and spironolactone (SPL) n human fetal lung fibroblasts and human alveolar epithelial cells exposed to tracheal aspirate fluid (TAF) from extremely premature infants with chronic lung disease (CLD), characterized by fibrosis and changes in the alveolar epithelium.MethodsFibroblasts and epithelial cells (FHs 738Lu and A549, respectively) were treated with different concentrations of hydrocortisone (HDC), dexamethasone (DEX), betamethasone (BET), SPL, and EPO in the absence or presence of TAF from infants with CLD (gestational age, 25.3 ± 0.8 weeks; birthweight, 658 ± 77 g; postnatal age, 0–28 days) and assayed for proliferation.ResultsExposure to TAF resulted in a concentration‐dependent proliferation of fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Proliferation of TAF‐exposed fibroblasts was suppressed most significantly by 100 μmol/L DEX (21%, P = 0.046) and 300 mIU/mL EPO (18%, P = 0.02) and promoted most significantly by 0.4 μmol/L HDC (10%, P = 0.04). Epithelial proliferation was promoted by 4 μmol/L HDC (15%, P = 0.04), 10 μmol/L DEX (53%, P < 0.01), 0.2 μmol/L BET (56%, P < 0.01), and 300 mIU/mL EPO (35%, P < 0.01) in the presence of TAF. Treatment with glucocorticoids alone did not significantly affect fibroblast proliferation.ConclusionsGlucocorticoids and EPO reduced fibroproliferation while promoting epithelial cell growth in vitro within certain dose ranges. Appropriate doses of glucocorticoids and EPO may be useful in the prevention and resolution of CLD in extremely premature infants.
Unemployment, Wage Inequality and International Factor Movement in the Presence of Agricultural Dualism
Authors: Li Xiaochun , Xu Yuanting 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThis paper investigates how the international factor movements affect the unemployment and skilled–unskilled wage inequality with the existence of a modern agricultural sector. Our research has the new feature that we not only consider that the rural labor migrates to the urban sector but also to the modern agricultural sector. The main conclusions are that the unskilled labor outflow certainly decreases the wage inequality and unemployment rate and the influences that skilled labor movement and capital inflow have on wage inequality and unemployment rate are dependent on the factor intensity between the urban and modern agricultural sectors.
The Changing Relationship between Banking Crises and Capital Inflows
Authors: Rastovski Jason 
Published: April 2016

AbstractDifferent types of capital inflows have varied effects when predicting banking crises in emerging and developing economies, and these relationships have meaningfully changed over time. In a sample of 29 developing and emerging economies over the period 1976–1991 increases in short‐term debt inflows raised the probability of a banking crisis while increases in inflows for long‐term borrowing by the private sector had the opposite effect. Conversely, over the period 1992–2007 increases in inflows for long‐term borrowing by the private sector and for equity investment both increased the probability of a banking crisis. The findings suggest distinct optimal capital account liberalization policies between the two periods.
A Test for Hysteresis in International Trade
Authors: Denadai Ricardo , Teles Vladimir K. 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThe article suggests a new test for strong hysteresis, that is, at the macro level, in international trade. The variables that capture the effects of hysteresis are based on a theoretical model with calibrations using a state–space model to determine the parameters for each point in time. These variables are then applied to a cointegration test with breaks, where it is possible to verify whether the hysteresis effect is essential in determining the long‐term equilibrium.
The Effect of Terrorist Incidents on Capital Flows
Authors: Filer Randall K. , Stanišić Dragana 
Published: April 2016

AbstractPrevious work has shown that terrorism has significant negative impact on countries' economies. We explore this relationship in more detail. Using an unbalanced panel of more than 160 countries for up to 25 years and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) we show a decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) as a consequence of terrorism. We also find evidence that FDI flows are more sensitive to terrorism than either portfolio investments or external debt flows. Finally, we test the hypothesis that terrorism has negative spill‐over effects on FDI flows into neighboring countries and find evidence that cultural, but not geographical, closeness matters.
The Exporter Wage Premium Reconsidered—Destinations, Distances and Linked Employer–Employee Data
Authors: Schmillen Achim 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThis study uses detailed, reliable and up‐to‐date linked employer–employee data that take account of both the demand and the supply side of the labor market to challenge the conventional wisdom of a universal exporter wage premium. It investigates whether for German establishments an exporter wage premium can be found irrespective of export destination and the distance between export origin and destination. As expected, it finds that exporters generally pay higher wages than non‐exporters, but it also shows that only exporting to certain countries is associated with a wage premium. Moreover, such a premium exists only for establishments that ship goods over a relatively long distance.
Estimation of High Dimensional Mean Regression in the Absence of Symmetry and Light Tail Assumptions
Authors: Fan Jianqing , Li Quefeng , Wang Yuyan 
Published: April 2016

SummaryData subject to heavy-tailed errors are commonly encountered in various scientific fields. To address this problem, procedures based on quantile regression and least absolute deviation regression have been developed in recent years. These methods essentially estimate the conditional median (or quantile) function. They can be very different from the conditional mean functions, especially when distributions are asymmetric and heteroscedastic. How can we efficiently estimate the mean regression functions in ultrahigh dimensional settings with existence of only the second moment? To solve this problem, we propose a penalized Huber loss with diverging parameter to reduce biases created by the traditional Huber loss. Such a penalized robust approximate (RA) quadratic loss will be called the RA lasso. In the ultrahigh dimensional setting, where the dimensionality can grow exponentially with the sample size, our results reveal that the RA lasso estimator produces a consistent estimator at the same rate as the optimal rate under the light tail situation. We further study the computational convergence of the RA lasso and show that the composite gradient descent algorithm indeed produces a solution that admits the same optimal rate after sufficient iterations. As a by-product, we also establish the concentration inequality for estimating the population mean when there is only the second moment. We compare the RA lasso with other regularized robust estimators based on quantile regression and least absolute deviation regression. Extensive simulation studies demonstrate the satisfactory finite sample performance of the RA lasso.
Non-Parametric Spatial Models for Clustered Ordered Periodontal Data
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Dipankar , Canale Antonio 
Published: April 2016

SummaryClinical attachment level is regarded as the most popular measure to assess periodontal disease (PD). These probed tooth site level measures are usually rounded and recorded as whole numbers (in millimetres) producing clustered (site measures within a mouth) error prone ordinal responses representing some ordering of the underlying PD progression. In addition, it is hypothesized that PD progression can be spatially referenced, i.e. proximal tooth sites share similar PD status in comparison with sites that are distantly located. We develop a Bayesian multivariate probit framework for these ordinal responses where the cut point parameters linking the observed ordinal clinical attachment levels to the latent underlying disease process can be fixed in advance. The latent spatial association characterizing conditional independence under Gaussian graphs is introduced via a non-parametric Bayesian approach motivated by the probit stick breaking process, where the components of the stick breaking weights follow a multivariate Gaussian density with the precision matrix distributed as G-Wishart. This yields a computationally simple, yet robust and flexible, framework to capture the latent disease status leading to a natural clustering of tooth sites and subjects with similar PD status (beyond spatial clustering), and improved parameter estimation through sharing of information. Both simulation studies and application to a motivating PD data set reveal the advantages of considering this flexible non-parametric ordinal framework over other alternatives.
Similarity-Based Semilocal Estimation of Post-Processing Models
Authors: Lerch Sebastian , Baran Sándor 
Published: April 2016

SummaryWeather forecasts are typically given in the form of forecast ensembles obtained from multiple runs of numerical weather prediction models with varying initial conditions and physics parameterizations. Such ensemble predictions tend to be biased and underdispersive and thus require statistical post-processing. In the ensemble model output statistics approach, a probabilistic forecast is given by a single parametric distribution with parameters depending on the ensemble members. The paper proposes two semilocal methods for estimating the ensemble model output statistics coefficients where the training data for a specific observation station are augmented with corresponding forecast cases from stations with similar characteristics. Similarities between stations are determined by using either distance functions or clustering based on various features of the climatology, forecast errors and locations of the observation stations. In a case-study on wind speed over Europe with forecasts from the ‘Grand limited area model ensemble prediction system’, the similarity-based semilocal models proposed show significant improvement in predictive performance compared with standard regional and local estimation methods. They further allow for estimating complex models without numerical stability issues and are computationally more efficient than local parameter estimation.