bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Infant and maternal risk factors related to necrotising enterocolitis‐associated infant death in the United States
Authors: Seeman Sara M. , Mehal Jason M. , Haberling Dana L. , Holman Robert C. , Stoll Barbara J. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractAimTo evaluate necrotising enterocolitis (NEC)‐associated infant death and identify risk factors related to NEC infant death in the United States.MethodsThe United States Period Linked Birth/Infant Death data for 2010–2013 were utilised to determine risk factors associated with NEC infant death. Infant mortality rates (IMRs) were calculated and a retrospective matched case–control analysis was performed. An infant case was defined as having the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision code for NEC listed on the death record. Controls were matched on birthweight and randomly selected. Conditional multivariable logistic regression models stratified by birthweight were conducted to determine risk factors for NEC infant death.ResultsThe average annual NEC IMR was 12.5 deaths per 100 000 live births and was higher among very low birthweight (VLBW) compared to normal birthweight infants and among black compared to white infants. For VLBW infants, the multivariable analysis identified male sex, five‐minute Apgar score of less than 7, and white infants born to a mother who is less than or equal to 19 years of age to be related with NEC‐associated infant death.ConclusionPaediatricians should be aware of the factors related to NEC‐associated infant death to reduce the number of infants at greatest risk for NEC and focus on racial disparities.
Neonatal adiposity increases with rising cord blood IGF‐1 levels
Authors: Kadakia Rachel , Ma Madeleine , Josefson Jami L. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractObjectiveInfants with higher adiposity at birth may be at greater risk of developing obesity later in life. IGF‐1 is important for intrauterine growth and may be a useful early life marker of adiposity, and thus later obesity risk. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between cord blood IGF‐1, neonatal anthropometrics and markers of neonatal adiposity.Design, Patients and MeasurementsA cross‐sectional study design was utilized to study a multiethnic cohort of full‐term neonates born to healthy mothers with normal glucose tolerance at a large university hospital. Neonatal cord blood was collected after birth and assayed for IGF‐1, leptin and C‐peptide. Neonatal body composition was measured between 24 and 72 h of life using the method of air displacement plethysmography.ResultsCord blood IGF‐1 was positively and significantly associated with markers of neonatal adiposity in models adjusted for maternal age at delivery, race, maternal prepregnancy BMI, gestational age at delivery and neonatal sex: birthweight (r = 0·62, P < 0·001), leptin (r = 0·33, P = 0·018), fat mass (r = 0·52, P < 0·001) and percent body fat (r = 0·51, P < 0·001). Cord blood IGF‐1 was not associated with cord blood C‐peptide.ConclusionsCord blood IGF‐1 is strongly associated with all measures of neonatal adiposity suggesting that IGF‐1 may be an important contributor to in utero neonatal fat accumulation.
Retrospective success and survival rates of dental implants placed after a ridge preservation procedure
Authors: Apostolopoulos Peter , Darby Ivan 
Published: March 2016

AbstractAimRidge preservation is any procedure that takes place at the time of, or shortly after an extraction, to minimise resorption of the ridge and maximise bone formation within the socket. The aim of this project is to investigate the outcome of implant treatment following ridge preservation and compare it to an ungrafted implant control group.Methods and materialsFollowing ethics approval, an electronic and manual search of patient records was conducted, and appropriate cases of implant placement following a ridge preservation procedure were identified. Forty‐two patients with 51 implants at ridge‐preserved sites were examined by one author (PA) with the following parameters assessed at each implant: pocket probing depth, bleeding on probing, presence/absence of plaque and radiographic bone loss. Clinical and radiographic findings were compared to an ungrafted implant control group and analysed by years in function.ResultsThere was a 100% survival rate of implants in ridge‐preserved sites. In the majority of cases, ridge preservation was performed in the anterior maxilla with a flap raised and the use of deproteinised bovine bone mineral and collagen membrane materials. The mean time in function was 31 (±24) months with a range of 2–102 months. Differences in the mean PPD, BOP, plaque index and radiographic bone loss were not statistically significant between implants at ridge‐preserved or ungrafted sites. The overall success rate was around 58% for ungrafted implants and around 51% for implants in ridge‐preserved sites. However, this difference was not statistically significant.ConclusionIn this retrospective study, implant placement at ridge‐preserved sites was a predictable procedure that led to very high survival rates and similar success rates to implant placement at ungrafted sites.
European Society of Coloproctology consensus on the surgical management of intestinal failure in adults
Authors:   ESCP Intestinal Failure Group:, Vaizey C. J. , Maeda Y. , Barbosa E. , Bozzetti F. , Calvo J. , Irtun Ø. , Jeppesen P. B. , Klek S. , Panisic‐Sekeljic M. , Papaconstantinou I. , Pascher A. , Panis Y. , Wallace W. D. , Carlson G. , Boermeester M. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractIntestinal failure (IF) is a debilitating condition of inadequate nutrition due to an anatomical and/or physiological deficit of the intestine. Surgical management of patients with acute and chronic IF requires expertise to deal with technical challenges and make correct decisions. Dedicated IF units have expertise in patient selection, operative risk assessment and multidisciplinary support such as nutritional input and interventional radiology, which dramatically improve the morbidity and mortality of this complex condition and can beneficially affect the continuing dependence on parenteral nutritional support. Currently there is little guidance to bridge the gap between general surgeons and specialist IF surgeons. Fifteen European experts took part in a consensus process to develop guidance to support surgeons in the management of patients with IF. Based on a systematic literature review, statements were prepared for a modified Delphi process. The evidence for each statement was graded using Oxford Centre for Evidence‐Based Medicine Levels of Evidence. The current paper contains the statements reflecting the position and practice of leading European experts in IF encompassing the general definition of IF surgery and organization of an IF unit, strategies to prevent IF, management of acute IF, management of wound, fistula and stoma, rehabilitation, intestinal and abdominal reconstruction, criteria for referral to a specialist unit and intestinal transplantation.
Differences in susceptibility to ash dieback in Czech provenances of Fraxinus excelsior
Authors: Havrdová L. , Novotná K. , Zahradník D. , Buriánek V. , Pešková V. , Šrůtka P. , Černý K. 
Published: March 2016

SummaryThe impact of ash dieback caused by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus on 17 provenances of Fraxinus excelsior and one provenance of Fraxinus angustifolia was studied in an extensive field trial established in the Czech Republic prior to the H. fraxineus invasion in 1999. A difference in the level of resistance to ash dieback between the species was found: F. angustifolia was significantly less affected by the disease than F. excelsior. Moreover, particular provenances of F. excelsior showed important differences in the level of resistance to H. fraxineus. A relationship between the impact of ash dieback and altitude was also discovered – the provenances from altitudes above 600 m a.s.l. were less affected by the pathogen than were the provenances from lower areas. No difference in the impact of the disease among provenances of F. excelsior from different ecotopes (ravine, calcareous ravine and alluvial) was found. Substantial among‐tree variability in resistance to H. fraxineus was observed throughout the trial – promising genotypes (with crown defoliation up to 5%) were identified in all 18 tested provenances. In regard to this finding, it appears that the main source of resistance to the pathogen is probably at the individual genotype level in the trial. A secondary but massive attack by Hylesinus fraxini was identified in the trees that had been greatly damaged by ash dieback, and the beetle caused their health to deteriorate significantly. A significant negative effect of the presence of collar necroses caused by H. fraxineus and browse damage was also identified.
The effects of reviews in video tutorials
Authors: van der Meij H. , van der Meij J. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractThis study investigates how well a video tutorial for software training that is based on Demonstration‐Based Teaching supports user motivation and performance. In addition, it is studied whether reviews significantly contribute to these measures. The Control condition employs a tutorial with instructional features added to a dynamic task demonstration. The Review condition additionally includes video reviews. Participants were 55 seventh graders who viewed task demonstrations (and reviews) followed by practice. Both tutorials increased motivation (i.e., task relevance and self‐efficacy) and performance. In addition, the Review condition had significantly better results for training time, self‐efficacy and scores on an immediate post‐test. Reviews have rarely been studied in dynamic visualizations. The present study suggests that there may be important advantages to be gained from concluding a demonstration video with a summary of the main points.
Facilitation of bone resorption activities in synovial lavage fluid patients with mandibular condyle fractures
Authors: Takano H. , Takahashi T. , Nakata A. , Nogami S. , Yusa K. , Kuwajima S. , Yamazaki M. , Fukuda M. 
Published: March 2016

SummaryThe aim of this study was to investigate the bone resorption effect of the mediators delivered in joint cavity of patients with mandibular condyle fractures by detecting osteoclast markers using cellular biochemistry methods, and by analysing bone resorption activities via inducing osteoclast differentiation of the infiltrated cells from arthrocentesis. Sixteen joints in 10 patients with mandibular condyle fractures were evaluated. The control group consisted of synovial fluid (SF) samples from seven joints of four volunteers who had no clinical signs or symptoms involving the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) or disc displacement. We collected SF cells from all patients during therapeutic arthrocentesis. The infiltrating cells from TMJ SF were cultured, differentiated into tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)‐positive osteoclast‐like cells and examined bone resorption activities. We also investigated factors related to osteoclast induction of SF, using ELISA procedures. Osteoclast‐like cells were induced from the SF cells obtained from all patients with condylar fractures. These multinucleated giant cells were positive for TRAP and actin, and had the ability to absorb dentin slices. The levels of macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (M‐CSF), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), soluble form of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa‐B ligand (sRANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG), in SF samples from the patients, were significantly higher than in the controls. These findings indicate that bone resorption activities in SF from patients with mandibular condyle fractures were upregulated and may participate in the pathogenesis and wound healing.
Powerful methods for detecting introgressed regions from population genomic data
Authors: Rosenzweig Benjamin K. , Pease James B. , Besansky Nora J. , Hahn Matthew W. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractUnderstanding the types and functions of genes that are able to cross species boundaries—and those that are not—is an important step in understanding the forces maintaining species as largely independent lineages across the remainder of the genome. With large next‐generation sequencing data sets we are now able to ask whether introgression has occurred across the genome, and multiple methods have been proposed to detect the signature of such events. Here, we introduce a new summary statistic that can be used to test for introgression, RNDmin, that makes use of the minimum pairwise sequence distance between two population samples relative to divergence to an outgroup. We find that our method offers a modest increase in power over other, related tests, but that all such tests have high power to detect introgressed loci when migration is recent and strong. RNDmin is robust to variation in the mutation rate, and remains reliable even when estimates of the divergence time between sister species are inaccurate. We apply RNDmin to population genomic data from the African mosquitoes Anopheles quadriannulatus and A. arabiensis, identifying three novel candidate regions for introgression. Interestingly, one of the introgressed loci is on the X chromosome, but outside of an inversion separating these two species. Our results suggest that significant, but rare, sharing of alleles is occurring between species that diverged more than 1 million years ago, and that application of these methods to additional systems are likely to reveal similar results.
Cryopreservation of Dog Semen in a Tris Extender with 1% or 2% Soya Bean Lecithin as a Replacement of Egg Yolk
Authors: Axnér E , Lagerson E 
Published: March 2016

ContentsEgg yolk is usually included in extenders used for preservation of dog semen. Lecithin is an interesting animal‐protein free alternative to egg yolk for semen preservation. The aim of our study was to evaluate soya bean lecithin for cryopreservation of dog semen. Five ejaculate replicates were divided in three equal parts, centrifuged and each pellet diluted with one of the three Tris‐based extenders containing 20% egg yolk, 1% soya bean lecithin or 2% soya bean lecithin. Extended semen was loaded in 0.5‐ml straws, cooled and diluted a second time and frozen in liquid nitrogen vapours. Sperm motility parameters (CASA), acrosome integrity (FITC‐PNA/PI) and sperm membrane integrity (C‐FDA) were evaluated 5 min post‐thaw and after 2 and 4 h of incubation. Total motility was significantly better in the egg yolk extender than in any of the lecithin‐based extender and was better in the 1% lecithin extender than in the 2% lecithin extender. Sperm membrane integrity was significantly better in the egg yolk extender than in any of the lecithin‐based extenders but did not differ significantly between the 1% and 2% lecithin extenders. Acrosome integrity was significantly better in the egg yolk extender than in the 2% lecithin extender but did not differ between the egg yolk extender and the 1% lecithin extender or between the two lecithin extenders. In conclusion, egg yolk was superior to lecithin in our study. The extender with 1% lecithin preserved sperm motility better than the extender with 2% lecithin.
Significance of IFN‐ɤ/IL‐2 Ratio as a Circulating Diagnostic Biomarker in Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis
Authors: Goyal N. , Kashyap B. , Kaur I. R. 
Published: March 2016

AbstractExtrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) remains a challenging diagnosis both for clinicians and microbiologists. We hypothesized that the profile of IFN‐ɤ/IL‐2 ratio in clinically diagnosed cases of EPTB would be distinct from that of age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls. Therefore, in our study, we have assessed the ratio of serum levels of IFN‐ɤ and IL‐2 in clinically diagnosed cases of EPTB to assess their potential role as diagnostic biomarkers. Sixty‐nine (69) clinically confirmed EPTB cases and 69 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls were included in the study. All the extrapulmonary specimens were subjected to Ziehl–Neelsen staining for acid‐fast bacilli and culture on Lowenstein–Jensen (LJ) medium. Detection of serum levels of IFN‐ɤ and IL‐2 was carried out using commercially available ELISA kits following manufacturers' instructions. The ratio of serum levels of IFN‐ɤ and IFN‐ɤ/IL‐2 was discriminative for the diagnosis of EPTB cases (p < 0.001), although the same was not observed with IL‐2 (p > 0.05). Distribution of all biomarkers significantly differed between culture‐positive and culture‐negative cases (p < 0.05). Among the smear‐positive and smear‐negative ones, only IFN‐ɤ and IFN‐ɤ/IL‐2 ratio could significantly differentiate (p < 0.05). Ratio of IFN‐ɤ and IL‐2 rather than the individual levels was the best discriminatory biomarker with the highest area under the ROC curve. Although IFN‐ɤ and IFN‐ɤ/ IL‐2 ratio could aid in the diagnosis of EPTB, IL‐2 has a limited utility in the diagnosis of EPTB. Further elaborate studies to validate these results are required.
Bystanders’ responses to offline bullying and cyberbullying: The role of empathy and normative beliefs about aggression
Authors: Machackova Hana , Pfetsch Jan 
Published: March 2016

Cyberbullying often takes place with the virtual presence or knowledge of bystanders. While we have some evidence about the determinants of bystanders’ responses to offline bullying, we lack empirical studies concerning the variables that influence bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying. The current study examines bystanders’ responses to offline bullying and cyberbullying incidents. Two types of responses were captured: support toward the victims and the reinforcement of bullies’ actions. Using data from 321 German adolescents (ages 12–18; M = 14.99; 44% girls), the association between bystanders’ responses and normative beliefs about verbal aggression and cyberaggression, and affective and cognitive empathy, were tested in a path model. Both types of normative beliefs positively predicted the reinforcement of bullies, and normative belief about verbal aggression also predicted support for the victims of offline bullying. Both types of empathy predicted support in offline bullying, but only affective empathy predicted support in cyberbullying. There was no link between affective or cognitive empathy to the reinforcement of bullies. Moreover, bystanders’ tendencies to respond supportively to the victim or to reinforce the bully were rather consistent in both cyber‐ and offline bullying, but there was no link between support and reinforcement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for prevention and intervention efforts.
Dual-band bandpass filter using composite metamaterial resonator
Authors: Jin Yu-Ting , Si Li-Ming , Zhang Qing-Le , Wu Yu-Ming , Lv Xin 
Published: March 2016

A dual-band bandpass filter at X-band is proposed using composite metamaterial resonator consisting of an outer square closed-ring resonator (SCRR) and two inner electric inductance–capacitance (ELC) resonators. Numerical simulation and microwave measurement reveal that the filter exhibits two passbands centered at 8.76 GHz and 11.04 GHz, with 3 dB bandwidths of 130 MHz and 290 MHz, respectively. The complex dispersion relation of the filter is further derived based on the effective medium theory, where two balanced composite right-/left-handed bands are found, i.e. lines exhibiting two left-handed and two right-handed bands alternating. The proposed filter may find useful in dual-band or multi-band wireless communication systems.
Poly (γ-glutamic acid)/beta-TCP nanocomposites via in situ copolymerization: Preparation and characterization
Authors: Shu Xiu-lin , Shi Qing-shan , Feng Jin , Yang Yun-hua , Zhou Gang , Li Wen-ru 
Published: March 2016

A series biodegradable poly (γ-glutamic acid)/beta-tricalcium phosphate (γ-PGA/TCP) nanocomposites were prepared which were composed of poly-γ-glutamic acid polymerized in situ with β-tricalcium phosphate and physiochemically characterized as bone graft substitutes. The particle size via dynamic light scattering, the direct morphological characterization via transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscope, which showed that γ-PGA and β-TCP were combined compactly at 80℃, and the γ-PGA/TCP nanocomposites had homogenous and nano-sized grains with narrow particle size distributions. The water uptake and retention abilities, in vitro degradation properties, cytotoxicity in the simulated medium, and protein release of these novel γ-PGA/TCP composites were investigated. Cell proliferation in composites was nearly twice than β-TCP when checked in vitro using MC3T3 cell line. We also envision the potential use of γ-PGA/TCP systems in bone growth factor or orthopedic drug delivery applications in future bone tissue engineering applications. These observations suggest that the γ-PGA/TCP are novel nanocomposites with great potential for application in the field of bone tissue engineering.
Vocabulary Learning Strategy Use by Iranian EFL Learners across Proficiency Levels
Authors: Davoudi Mohammad , Chavosh Milad 
Published: March 2016

<p>Given the importance of vocabulary as well as vocabulary learning strategies in the context of ELT, the present study sought to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies employed by Iranian intermediate and advanced learners. Several English language institutes in Yazd cooperated with the researchers by providing them with a list of intermediate to advanced learners. After arrangement with institutes’ administrators and getting students’ consent to participate in the study, students took a TOEFL and based on the obtained scores, 55 learners were chosen as intermediate and 50 as advanced students. Participants with TOEFL score range of 481-506 were classified as intermediate and those with TOEFL range of 507-600 were classified as advanced students (Phillips, 1991). Next, students completed VOLSI by choosing one of the options (1) never, (2) seldom, (3) sometimes, (4) often, and (5) always. The results of statistical analyses revealed that both advanced and intermediate language learners used mental linkages, memory strategies and auditory strategies as the most frequent vocabulary learning strategies respectively. On the other hand, both advanced and intermediate language learners used strategies for self-motivation, strategies involving authentic language, and strategies involving creative activities as the least frequent. It was also found that advanced and intermediate language learners were significantly different from each other in all categories of vocabulary learning strategies except strategies involving creative activities. Moreover, Iranian language learners with different levels of language proficiency used vocabulary learning strategies with varying frequency of use. </p>