bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Functional Status Scale in Children With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Prospective Cohort Study*
Authors: Bennett Tellen D. , Dixon Rebecca R. , Kartchner Cory , DeWitt Peter E. , Sierra Yamila , Ladell Diane , Kempe Allison , Runyan Desmond K. , Dean J. Michael , Keenan Heather T. 
Published: October 2016

Objectives:
In children with traumatic brain injury, 1) to describe the hospital discharge functional outcome and change from baseline function using the Functional Status Scale and 2) to determine any associations between discharge Functional Status Scale and age, injury mechanism, neurologic examination, imaging, and other predictors of outcome.

Design:
Prospective observational cohort study, May 2013 to November 2015.

Setting:
Two U.S. children’s hospitals designated as American College of Surgeons level 1 pediatric trauma centers.

Patients:
Children less than 18 years old admitted to an ICU with acute traumatic brain injury and either a surgical or critical care intervention within the first 24 hours or in-hospital mortality.

Interventions:
None.

Measurements and Main Results:
The primary outcome was hospital discharge Functional Status Scale. Most, 133 of 196 (68%), had severe traumatic brain injury (admission Glasgow Coma Scale, 3–8). Overall hospital mortality was 14%; 20% among those with severe traumatic brain injury. Hospital discharge Functional Status Scale had an inverse relationship with Glasgow Coma Scale: for each increase in admission Glasgow Coma Scale by 1, the discharge Functional Status Scale decreased by 0.5 (95% CI, 0.7–0.3). Baseline Functional Status Scale was collected at one site (n = 75). At that site, nearly all (61/62) of the survivors had normal or near-normal (≤ 7) preinjury Functional Status Scale. More than one-third, 23 of 62 (37%), of survivors had new morbidity at hospital discharge (increase in Functional Status Scale, ≥ 3). Among children with severe traumatic brain injury who had baseline Functional Status Scale collected, 21 of 41 survivors (51%) had new morbidity at hospital discharge. The mean change in Functional Status Scale from baseline to hospital discharge was 3.9 ± 4.9 overall and 5.2 ± 5.4 in children with severe traumatic brain injury.

Conclusions:
More than one-third of survivors, and approximately half of survivors with severe traumatic brain injury, will have new morbidity. Hospital discharge Functional Status Scale, change from baseline Functional Status Scale, and new morbidity acquisition can be used as outcome measures for hospital-based care process improvement initiatives and interventional studies of children with traumatic brain injury.
Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes: Reducing Admission Rates for Diabetes Ketoacidosis
Authors: Ilkowitz Jeniece Trast , Choi Steven , Rinke Michael L. , Vandervoot Kathy , Heptulla Rubina A. 
Published: October 2016

Background:
Diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening complication of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Reducing DKA admissions in children with T1DM requires a coordinated, comprehensive management plan. We aimed to decrease DKA admissions, 30-day readmissions, and length of stay (LOS) for DKA admissions.

Methods:
A multipronged intervention was designed in 2011 to reach all patients: (1) increase insulin pump use and basal-bolus regimen versus sliding scales, (2) transform educational program, (3) increased access to medical providers, and (4) support for patients and families. A before-after study was conducted comparing performance outcomes in years 2007-2010 (preintervention) to 2012-2014 (postintervention) using administrative data and Wilcoxon rank sum and Fischer exact tests.

Results:
DKA admissions decreased by 44% postintervention (16.7 vs 9.3 per 100 followed patient-years; P = .006), unique patient 30-day readmissions decreased from 20% to 5% postintervention (P = .001), and median LOS significantly decreased postintervention (P < .0001). Although not an original goal of the study, median hemoglobin A1C of a subset of the population transitioned from sliding scale decreased, 10.3% to 8.9% (P < .02).

Conclusions:
When clinical and widespread program interventions were used, significant reductions in DKA hospitalizations, 30-day readmissions, and LOS occurred for pediatric T1DM. Continuous performance improvement efforts are needed for improving DKA outcomes.
Detection of Thyroid Abnormalities in Aquaporin-4 Antibody–Seropositive Optic Neuritis Patients
Authors: Zhao Shuo , Zhou Huanfen , Peng Xudong , Tan Shaoying , Liu Zihao , Chen Tingjun , Xu Quangang , Wei Shihui 
Published: October 2016

Objective:
This study retrospectively analyzed the frequency of anti-thyroid antibodies (ATAs) and thyroid disease in patients with optic neuritis (ON).

Methods:
Tests of serum thyroglobulin (TG) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies and thyroid function were performed in 97 ON patients. Blood also was drawn to test for AQP4-Ab using cell-based and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Comparisons of the frequencies of ATAs, thyroid diseases and thyroid function were performed based on AQP4-Ab status.

Results:
Seropositive AQP4-Ab was found in 47/97 (48.5%) patients. ATA was considered positive in 34/97 (35.1%) patients. The prevalence of ATA was two times higher (P = 0.019) in the AQP4-Ab+ group compared to the AQP4-Ab- group. AQP4-Ab+ ON patients exhibited lower FT3 (P = 0.006) and FT4 (P = 0.025) levels and a higher prevalence of definite Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) (P = 0.005). Among AQP4-Ab+ patients, those with HT had a worse visual outcome than non-HT patients.

Conclusion:
A high prevalence of ATAs and HT was found in AQP4-Ab+ ON patients, and AQP4-Ab+ patients with HT exhibited worse visual outcomes than non-HT patients.
SCORPIUS improves trajectory inference and identifies novel modules in dendritic cell development
Authors: Cannoodt Robrecht , Saelens Wouter , Sichien Dorine , Tavernier Simon , Janssens Sophie , Guilliams Martin , Lambrecht Bart , Preter Katleen De , Saeys Yvan 
Published: October 2016

1SummaryRecent advances in RNA sequencing enable the generation of genome-wide expression data at the single-cell level, opening up new avenues for transcriptomics and systems biology. A new application of single-cell whole-transcriptomics is the unbiased ordering of cells according to their progression along a dynamic process of interest. We introduce SCORPIUS, a method which can effectively reconstruct an ordering of individual cells without any prior information about the dynamic process. Comprehensive evaluation using ten scRNA-seq datasets shows that SCORPIUS consistently outperforms state-of-the-art techniques. We used SCORPIUS to generate novel hypotheses regarding dendritic cell development, which were subsequently validatedin vivo. This work enables data-driven investigation and characterization of dynamic processes and lays the foundation for objective benchmarking of future trajectory inference methods.
Analysis of Arabidopsis Accessions Hypersensitive to a Loss of Chloroplast Translation
Authors: Parker Nicole , Wang Yixing , Meinke David 
Published: October 2016

Abstract
Natural accessions of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) differ in their ability to tolerate a loss of chloroplast translation. These differences can be attributed in part to variation in a duplicated nuclear gene (ACC2) that targets homomeric acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) to plastids. This functional redundancy allows limited fatty acid biosynthesis to occur in the absence of heteromeric ACCase, which is encoded in part by the plastid genome. In the presence of functional ACC2, tolerant alleles of several nuclear genes, not yet identified, enhance the growth of seedlings and embryos disrupted in chloroplast translation. ACC2 knockout mutants, by contrast, are hypersensitive. Here we describe an expanded search for hypersensitive accessions of Arabidopsis, evaluate whether all of these accessions are defective in ACC2, and characterize genotype-to-phenotype relationships for homomeric ACCase variants identified among 855 accessions with sequenced genomes. Null alleles with ACC2 nonsense mutations, frameshift mutations, small deletions, genomic rearrangements, and defects in RNA splicing are included among the most sensitive accessions examined. By contrast, most missense mutations affecting highly conserved residues failed to eliminate ACC2 function. Several accessions were identified where sensitivity could not be attributed to a defect in either ACC2 or Tic20-IV, the chloroplast membrane channel required for ACC2 uptake. Overall, these results underscore the central role of ACC2 in mediating Arabidopsis response to a loss of chloroplast translation, highlight future applications of this system to analyzing chloroplast protein import, and provide valuable insights into the mutational landscape of an important metabolic enzyme that is highly conserved throughout eukaryotes.
D-Dalus VTOL – efficiency increase in forward flight
Authors: Schwaiger Meinhard , Wills David 
Published: October 2016

Purpose
This paper aims to provide the international aeronautical community with details of the development of a new disruptive technology for aircraft propulsion.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes the results achieved by a small Austrian aeronautical innovations company in developing a cyclogyro propulsion system capable of vertical launch and efficient forward flight. The research team progressed from concept definition and simulation (2004-2006), through experimental validation and concept demonstration (2006), component optimization (2006-2012), full system demonstration (2012-2014) and examination of ability to scale (both larger and smaller) (2015 onwards). This paper provides details of the results of each of these stages.

Findings
The research team proved that cyclogyro propulsion can be used for the vertical launch, and that, in forward flight, it has the potential to achieve efficiency beyond the range of conventional fixed wing and rotorcraft.

Research limitations/implications
This research indicates that the efficiency increases with forward speed within the range achieved in standard wind tunnels (up to 35 m/s). This efficiency appears to be caused by a unique chamber effect within the cyclogyro rotor assembly. Future research should be conducted to analyse this chamber effect in greater detail and to test the cyclogyro rotor for speeds beyond 35 m/s.

Practical implications
This work indicates that cyclogyro propulsion could have the potential to provide vertical launch, high speed and highly efficient aircraft that have reduced wing span, no external rotors and exceptional agility. This technology could therefore be feasible for vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can safely form densely packed swarms.

Social implications
It could be researched as an efficiency increase in forward flight completely different to existing propulsion systems. This could open a way for a more efficient air traffic in future and faster reduction of CO2 and NOX emission an allow an environment-friendlier air travelling.

Originality/value
This paper provides the details of the first cyclogyro aircraft to have flown and will serve the aeronautical community by stimulating the debate on this new disruptive technology.
On the notion of dispersion: from dispersion to diversity
Authors: Gregorius Hans‐Rolf , Kosman Evsey 
Published: October 2016

Summary

Dispersion and diversity are two variants of the notion of biological variation that are often not properly distinguished even though they address intrinsically disparate aspects. Dispersion focuses on the assessment of (variable) differences among individuals or types, while diversity focuses on the assessment of numbers of distinct types. Here, ‘type’ is a proxy for biological entities such as species, genotype and phenotype culminating in individuals at the highest level of resolution.

The present paper bridges the apparent gap between dispersion and diversity by showing how numbers of types and individuals can be treated as a dispersion characteristic (the number‐characteristic).

Drawing from the general concept of effective quantities, it is shown that the contribution of difference arrays to dispersion measures can always be summarized in terms of an effective difference. If the number‐characteristic is realized in addition, numbers of types (of individuals) can be determined that are effectively distinct at specified levels of difference. Whereas measures of diversity that replace abundances of types by differences of each type from other types can also be considered as numbers of effectively different types, they do not explicitly involve levels of distinctness among types. By contrast, dispersion effective numbers of types gain their sole validity from explicit reference to the degree to which types effectively differ from each other. In particular, dispersion effective numbers obey the diversity criterion only at levels of distinctness equal to or greater than the effective difference in that they do not exceed the actual number of types and become equal to that number only for uniform type distributions. The corresponding ‘proper dispersion effective number’ thus sets an upper limit to the effective number of types in a community and meets the characteristics of a diversity effective number.

Examples are outlined that have broader application in phylogenetics, population genetics and ecology.
RATING CHANGESAND COMPETING INFORMATION: EVIDENCE ON PUBLICLY TRADED INSURANCE FIRMS
Authors: Chen Leon , Pottier Steven W. 
Published: October 2016

AbstractWe examine the predictive ability of three competing sources of financial information—rating changes, profit changes, and excess stock returns. We find the following significant relations between current and lagged values of these three endogenous variables: (1) rating changes are positively related to past excess stock returns, (2) profit changes are positively related to past excess stock returns, and (3) profit changes and excess stock returns are mean reverting. In addition, profit changes are substantially more predictable than rating changes or excess stock returns, and past values of profit changes account for most of the observed ability to predict current profit changes. In contrast, past profit changes have little predictive ability in relation to excess stock returns or rating changes.
Exopolymer production as a function of cell permeability and death in a diatom (Thalassiosira weissflogii) and a cyanobacterium (Synechococcus elongatus)
Authors: Thornton Daniel C. O. , Chen Jie 
Published: October 2016

Exopolymer particles are found throughout the ocean and play a significant biogeochemical role in carbon cycling. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are composed of acid polysaccharides, and Coomassie staining particles (CSP) are proteins. TEPs have been extensively studied in the ocean, while CSP have been largely overlooked. The objective of this research was to determine the role of stress and cell permeability in the formation of TEP and CSP. The diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii and cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus were grown in batch cultures and exposed to hydrogen peroxide (0, 10, and 100 μM) as an environmental stressor. There was no correlation between TEP and CSP concentrations, indicating that they are different populations of particles rather than different chemical components of the same particles. CSP concentrations were not affected by hydrogen peroxide concentration and did not correlate with indicators of stress and cell death. In contrast, TEP concentrations in both taxa were correlated with a decrease in the effective quantum yield of photosystem II, increased activity of caspase‐like enzymes, and an increase in the proportion of the population with permeable cell membranes, indicating that TEP production was associated with the process of cell death. These data show that different environmental factors and physiological processes affected the production of TEP and CSP by phytoplankton. TEP and CSP are separate populations of exopolymer particles with potentially different biogeochemical roles in the ocean.
Does structural connectivity influence tree species distributions and abundance in a naturally discontinuous tropical forest formation?
Authors: Das Arundhati Abin , John Robert , Anand Madhur 
Published: October 2016

AbstractAimsThe study of naturally discontinuous forest systems could help further our understanding of the relative roles of abiotic factors and spatial connectivity in influencing species turnover and plant metacommunity structure, compared to continuous forest formations, where local communities are often arbitrarily defined and where ‘mass effects’ and source–sink dynamics tend to confound the roles of dispersal and environment. Here we studied a tropical montane landscape where old‐growth evergreen forest occurs as patchy formations in a matrix of natural grasslands, to test the influence of environment and connectivity on species turnover and woody plant metacommunity structure.LocationWestern and southern regions of the Upper Nilgiri Plateau, Western Ghats, southern India.MethodsWe sampled 85 vegetation plots located across a 600‐km2 landscape, assembled environmental data, constructed contrasting spatial connectivity models, including models for the effects of topography on structural connectivity, and used RDA‐based variation partitioning to assess the relative influence of environment and space on woody plant metacommunity structure.ResultsConsidering several environmental and multi‐scale spatial predictors, we could explain half of the variation in plant community structure. Environmental and habitat factors such as precipitation, temperature seasonality, elevation, fragment size and landscape context play a dominant role, explaining approximately 40% of variation. Spatial predictors based on Euclidean distance performed better than those that accounted for topographic resistance. Spatial predictors accounted for only 9% of the variation in plant metacommunity structure.ConclusionOur results support the species sorting paradigm of metacommunity structure, as abiotic effects and biotic interactions play dominant roles in influencing community structure and species turnover in these old‐growth forests, with a comparatively small influence of spatial connectivity. Effective management of woody species diversity would therefore require conservation of these forests across the range of environmental conditions under which they occur.
The putative Walker A and Walker B motifs of Rrp2 are required for the growth of Borrelia burgdorferi
Authors: Ouyang Zhiming , Zhou Jianli 
Published: October 2016

SummaryRrp2 encodes a putative bacterial enhancer binding protein (bEBP) in Borrelia burgdorferi. Point mutation (G239C) of Rrp2 abolishes the transcriptional activation of σ54‐dependent rpoS. In contrast to canonical bEBPs that are dispensable for bacterial growth, Rrp2 is essential for borrelial growth in BSK medium. It has been believed that Rrp2's ATPase activity is not required for cell growth, but experimental evidence supporting this notion has been lacking. In particular, it has remained unclear whether the residue G239 is involved in Rrp2's presumptive ATPase activity. To address these information gaps, we examined the roles of Rrp2's potential strategic signatures including the G239 residue and the putative Walker A and Walker B motifs. Herein it was showed that Rrp2 has ATP binding and hydrolysis activities engendered by the Walker A and B motifs respectively. However, these activities were not significantly impaired by a G239C mutation. Further mutagenesis analyses indicated that Rrp2's Walker A and B motifs are required for borrelial growth; mutations of key residues in these two motifs were lethal to B. burgdorferi. The combined data suggest that the Walker A and Walker B motifs of Rrp2 are involved in the control of another unknown RpoS‐independent gene product(s) associated with borrelial replication.
Developmental regulation and modulation of apoptotic genes expression in sheep oocytes and embryos cultured in vitro with L‐carnitine
Authors: Mishra A , Reddy IJ , Gupta PSP , Mondal S 
Published: October 2016

ContentsThe objective of this study was to find out the impact of L‐carnitine (10 mM) on developmental regulation of preimplantation sheep embryos cultured in vitro when supplemented in maturation medium and post‐fertilization medium separately. Subsequent objective was to observe the L‐carnitine‐mediated alteration in expression of apoptotic genes (Bcl2, Bax, Casp3 and PCNA) in sheep oocytes and developing embryos produced in vitro. Oocytes matured with L‐carnitine showed significantly (p < .05) higher cleavage (67.23% vs 43.12%), morula (47.65% vs 28.58%) and blastocysts (32.12% vs 13.24%) percentage as compared to presumptive zygotes cultured with L‐carnitine during post‐fertilization period. So it is suggested to use L‐carnitine during maturation than post‐fertilization period. Antiapoptotic and proliferative effects of L‐carnitine were confirmed by inducing culture medium with actinomycin D (apoptotic agent) and TNFα (antiproliferative agent), respectively, with and without L‐carnitine. Oocytes and embryos cultured with actinomycin D and TNFα showed developmental arrest with significant (p < .05) decrease in morula and blastocysts percentage but supplementation of L‐carnitine to actinomycin D and TNFα induced culture medium showed similar result as that of control. L‐carnitine supplementation during IVM significantly (p < .05) upregulated the expression of Bcl2 and PCNA genes in majority of the developmental stages. Although L‐carnitine upregulated the expression of Bax in initial developmental stages but downregulated at latter part, whereas the expression of Casp3 was upregulated upto 16‐cell stage but after that there was no difference in expression. Expression of GAPDH gene was not affected by L‐carnitine supplementation. In conclusion, L‐carnitine acted as an antiapoptotic and proliferative compound during embryo development and supplementation of L‐carnitine during IVM altered the expression of apoptotic genes in the developmental stages of embryos.