bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A new methodology for modelling of health risk from urban flooding exemplified by cholera – case Dhaka, Bangladesh
Authors: Mark O. , Jørgensen C. , Hammond M. , Khan D. , Tjener R. , Erichsen A. , Helwigh B. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe phenomenon of urban flooding due to rainfall exceeding the design capacity of drainage systems is a global problem and can have significant economic and social consequences. This is even more extreme in developing countries, where poor sanitation still causes a high infectious disease burden and mortality, especially during floods. At present, there are no software tools capable of combining hydrodynamic modelling and health risk analyses, and the links between urban flooding and the health risk for the population due to direct contact with the flood water are poorly understood. The present paper outlines a novel methodology for linking dynamic urban flood modelling with quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). This provides a unique possibility for understanding the interaction between urban flooding and health risk caused by direct human contact with the flood water and hence gives an option for reducing the burden of disease in the population by use of intelligent urban flood risk management. The model linking urban flooding and health risk is applied to Dhaka City in Bangladesh, where waterborne diseases including cholera are endemic. The application to Dhaka City is supported by measurements of pathogens in the urban drainage system. The outcome of the application indicates that direct contact with polluted flood water is a plausible route of primary transmission of cholera and demonstrates the applicability and the potential for linking urban flood models with QMRA in order to identify interventions to reduce the burden of disease on the population in Dhaka City.
Proton MR Spectroscopy in Patients with Structural MRI‐Negative Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Authors: Xu Michael Y. , Ergene Erhan , Zagardo Michael , Tracy Patrick T. , Wang Huaping , Liu WenChing , Machens Nancy A. 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTBACKGROUND AND PURPOSEWith conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 20–30% of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) have negative pathological MRI findings. Further investigations of the role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the pre‐surgical evaluation of patients with MRI‐negative TLE are important to avoid intracranial EEG recording and to better understand the mechanism of the epileptogenic process. This study aimed to compare the measurements of N‐acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), and choline (Cho) in the hippocampi of MRI‐negative TLE patients and normal subjects.METHODSTwenty patients with MRI‐negative TLE and 10 age‐matched healthy control subjects underwent MRI and MRS. The concentrations of NAA, Cr, and Cho and the ratios of NAA/Cr and NAA/(Cr+Cho) were measured. Seven of these 20 patients also underwent surgical treatment for TLE. Their pathological results and surgical outcomes were evaluated.RESULTSIn the hippocampi ipsilateral to the seizure side, the NAA/Cr and NAA/(Cr+Cho) ratios were significantly decreased compared with the ratios of the hippocampi contralateral to the seizure side and the normal control hippocampi. There was no significant difference between the hippocampi contralateral to the seizure side and the normal control hippocampi.The pathological results from the patients who underwent temporal lobe resection indicated mild to moderate gliosis and minimal loss of neurons. Five patients were seizure‐free during the follow‐up period of 9‐ 47 months (mean 27.7 months).CONCLUSIONSIn MRI‐negative TLE, significant reductions in the NAA/Cr and NAA/(Cr+Cho) ratios ipsilateral to the seizure side may help lateralize and localize the epileptogenic zone.
Enabling professional development in mental health nursing: the role of clinical leadership
Authors: Ennis G. , Happell B. , Reid‐Searl K. 
Published: May 2015

Accessible summary
Clinical leadership is important for the strength of mental health nursing as a profession, particularly in utilizing clinical‐based opportunities for the professional development of new graduates and nursing students.
To date, there has been limited research examining the attributes of nurses considered by their colleagues to be clinical leaders. This study presents the views and experiences of mental health nurses who deliver care, about what they identify as important for effective clinical leadership.
Clinical teaching and role modelling are two fundamental roles of effective clinical leaders; they are underpinned by the attributes of professionalism, honesty, willingness to share knowledge and approachability.
Additional research is needed to consider the applicability of these roles and attributes across larger samples of nurses in mental health settings.
AbstractClinical leadership is acknowledged as important to the nursing profession. While studies continue to identify its significance in contributing to positive outcomes for consumers, the role that clinical leadership has in enabling and supporting professional development in mental health nursing is poorly understood. This study utilized a grounded theory methodology to explore the characteristics clinicians consider important for clinical leadership and its significance for mental health nursing in day‐to‐day clinical practice. Individual face‐to‐face, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nurses working in mental health settings. Participants described the important role that clinical leaders play in enabling professional development of others through role modelling and clinical teaching. They describe how nurses, whom they perceive as clinical leaders, use role modelling and clinical teaching to influence the professional development of nursing staff and undergraduate nursing students. Attributes such as professionalism and honesty were seen, by participants, as enablers for clinical leaders in effectively and positively supporting the professional development of junior staff and undergraduate nurses in mental health nursing. This paper examines clinical leadership from the perspective of mental health nurses delivering care, and highlights the important role of clinical leaders in supporting professional development in mental health nursing.
Experimental warming interacts with soil moisture to discriminate plant responses in an ombrotrophic peatland
Authors: Buttler Alexandre , Robroek Bjorn J.M. , Laggoun‐Défarge Fatima , Jassey Vincent E.J. , Pochelon Cédric , Bernard Gregory , Delarue Frédéric , Gogo Sébastien , Mariotte Pierre , Mitchell Edward A.D. , Bragazza Luca 
Published: May 2015

AbstractQuestionA better understanding of the response of Sphagnum mosses and associated vascular plants to climate warming is relevant for predicting the carbon balance of peatlands in a warmer world. Open‐top chambers (OTCs) have been used to investigate the effect on soil biogeochemical processes in peatlands, but little information is available on the effects of OTCs on microclimate conditions and the associated response of the plant community. We aimed to understand how simulated warming and differences in soil moisture affect plant species cover.LocationA Sphagnum‐dominated peatlands in French Jura.MethodsWe used OTCs to measure the effect of a near‐ground temperature increase (+1.5 °C on average) on vegetation dynamics over five growing seasons (2008–2012) in a Sphagnum‐dominated peatland, in two adjacent microhabitats with different hydrological conditions – wet and dry. Microclimatic conditions and plant species abundance were monitored at peak biomass in years 1, 2, 3 and 5 and monthly during the plant growing season in year 5.ResultsThe response to warming differed between vascular plants and bryophytes, as well as among species within these groups, and also varied in relation to soil moisture. Andromeda polifolia abundance responded positively to warming, while Vaccinium oxycoccus responded negatively, and Eriophorum vaginatum showed a high resistance.ConclusionDepth of rooting of vascular plants appeared to control the response in plant abundance, while moss abundance depended on various other interacting factors, such as shading by the vascular plant community, precipitation and soil moisture.
Calcineurin orchestrates dimorphic transitions, antifungal drug responses and host–pathogen interactions of the pathogenic mucoralean fungus Mucor circinelloides
Authors: Lee Soo Chan , Li Alicia , Calo Silvia , Inoue Makoto , Tonthat Nam K. , Bain Judith M. , Louw Johanna , Shinohara Mari L. , Erwig Lars P. , Schumacher Maria A. , Ko Dennis C. , Heitman Joseph 
Published: May 2015

SummaryCalcineurin plays essential roles in virulence and growth of pathogenic fungi and is a target of the natural products FK506 and Cyclosporine A. In the pathogenic mucoralean fungus Mucor circinelloides, calcineurin mutation or inhibition confers a yeast‐locked phenotype indicating that calcineurin governs the dimorphic transition. Genetic analysis in this study reveals that two calcineurin A catalytic subunits (out of three) are functionally diverged. Homology modeling illustrates modes of resistance resulting from amino substitutions in the interface between each calcineurin subunit and the inhibitory drugs. In addition, we show how the dimorphic transition orchestrated by calcineurin programs different outcomes during host–pathogen interactions. For example, when macrophages phagocytose Mucor yeast, subsequent phagosomal maturation occurs, indicating host cells respond appropriately to control the pathogen. On the other hand, upon phagocytosis of spores, macrophages fail to form mature phagosomes. Cytokine production from immune cells differs following exposure to yeast versus spores (which germinate into hyphae). Thus, the morphogenic transition can be targeted as an efficient treatment option against Mucor infection. In addition, genetic analysis (including gene disruption and mutational studies) further strengthens the understanding of calcineurin and provides a foundation to develop antifungal agents targeting calcineurin to deploy against Mucor and other pathogenic fungi.
Impact of care settings on residents' functional and psychosocial status, physical activity and adverse events
Authors: Resnick Barbara , Galik Elizabeth 
Published: May 2015

BackgroundInternationally, as the number of older adults increases, different types of care settings are evolving to address the care needs of this growing group of individuals.Aims and objectivesThe purpose of this study was to describe and compare clinical outcomes of residents with moderate to severe cognitive impairment living in residential care facilities (RCFs) and nursing homes (NHs).DesignThis was a secondary data analysis that included data from two studies testing a Function‐Focused Care for Cognitively Impaired (FFC‐CI) Intervention.MethodsA total of 96 participants were from RCFs and 103 were from NHs. Change scores over a 6‐month period in RCF and NH residents were evaluated using a multivariate analysis of variance.ResultsResidential care facilities residents had more agitation, better function and engaged in approximately twice as much physical activity as those in NH settings at baseline. Controlling for treatment status and baseline differences, over 6 months, RCF residents showed a decrease of −22.77 ± 41.47 kilocalories used in 24 hours while those in NHs increased to a mean of 10.49 ± 33.65 kilocalories used. With regard to function, residents in RCFs declined 10.97 ± 18.35 points on the Barthel Index, while those in NHs increased 10.18 ± 19.56 points.ConclusionsIn this sample, NH residents were more likely to be African American, had more comorbidities, less cognitive impairment, engaged in less physical activity, were more impaired functionally and had less agitation than those in RCFs. Controlling for treatment group status and baseline differences in comorbidities, cognitive status and race, residents in RCFs declined more in terms of functional and physical activity over a 6‐month period.Implications for practiceOngoing research and clinical work is needed to understand the impact of care settings on clinical outcomes.
Pain Management in Four‐Limb Amputation: A Case Report
Authors: Warner Nafisseh S. , Warner Matthew A. , Moeschler Susan M. , Hoelzer Bryan C. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractAcute pain following amputation can be challenging to treat due to multiple underlying mechanisms and variable clinical responses to treatment. Furthermore, poorly controlled preoperative pain is a risk factor for developing chronic pain. Evidence suggests that epidural analgesia and peripheral nerve blockade may decrease the severity of residual limb pain and the prevalence of phantom pain after lower extremity amputation. We present the perioperative analgesic management of a patient with gangrene of the bilateral upper and lower extremities as a result of septic shock and prolonged vasopressor administration who underwent four‐limb amputation in a single procedure. A multimodal analgesic regimen was utilized, including titration of preoperative opioid and neuropathic pain agents, perioperative intravenous, epidural and peripheral nerve catheter infusions, and postoperative oral medication titration. More than 8 months postoperatively, the patient has satisfactory pain control with no evidence for phantom limb pain. To our knowledge, there have been no publications to date concerning analgesic regimens in four‐limb amputation.
History and Practice: Antibodies in Infectious Diseases
Authors: Hey Adam 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACT

Antibodies and passive antibody therapy in the treatment of infectious diseases is the story of a treatment concept which dates back more than 120 years, to the 1890s, when the use of serum from immunized animals provided the first effective treatment options against infections with
Clostridium tetani
and
Corynebacterium diphtheriae
. However, after the discovery of penicillin by Fleming in 1928, and the subsequent introduction of the much cheaper and safer antibiotics in the 1930s, serum therapy was largely abandoned. However, the broad and general use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine has resulted in the development of multi-resistant strains of bacteria with limited to no response to existing treatments and the need for alternative treatment options. The combined specificity and flexibility of antibody-based treatments makes them very valuable tools for designing specific antibody treatments to infectious agents. These attributes have already caused a revolution in new antibody-based treatments in oncology and inflammatory diseases, with many approved products. However, only one monoclonal antibody, palivizumab, for the prevention and treatment of respiratory syncytial virus, is approved for infectious diseases. The high cost of monoclonal antibody therapies, the need for parallel development of diagnostics, and the relatively small markets are major barriers for their development in the presence of cheap antibiotics. It is time to take a new and revised look into the future to find appropriate niches in infectious diseases where new antibody-based treatments or combinations with existing antibiotics, could prove their value and serve as stepping stones for broader acceptance of the potential for and value of these treatments.
Use of Human Hybridoma Technology To Isolate Human Monoclonal Antibodies
Authors: Smith Scott A. , Crowe, Jr. James E. 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTThe human hybridoma technique offers an important approach for isolation of human monoclonal antibodies. A diversity of approaches can be used with varying success. Recent technical advances in expanding the starting number of human antigen-specific B cells, improving fusion efficiency, and isolating new myeloma partners and new cell cloning methods have enabled the development of protocols that make the isolation of human monoclonal antibodies from blood samples feasible. Undoubtedly, additional innovations that could improve efficiency are possible.
Site-specific non-LTR retrotransposons
Authors: Fujiwara Haruhiko 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACT
Although most of non-long terminal repeat (non-LTR) retrotransposons are incorporated in the host genome almost randomly, some non-LTR retrotransposons are incorporated into specific sequences within a target site. On the basis of structural and phylogenetic features, non-LTR retrotransposons are classified into two large groups, restriction enzyme-like endonuclease (RLE)-encoding elements and apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE)-encoding elements. All clades of RLE-encoding non-LTR retrotransposons include site-specific elements. However, only two of more than 20 APE-encoding clades, Tx1 and R1, contain site-specific non-LTR elements. Site-specific non-LTR retrotransposons usually target within multi-copy RNA genes, such as rRNA gene (rDNA) clusters, or repetitive genomic sequences, such as telomeric repeats; this behavior may be a symbiotic strategy to reduce the damage to the host genome. Site- and sequence-specificity are variable even among closely related non-LTR elements and appeared to have changed during evolution. In the APE-encoding elements, the primary determinant of the sequence- specific integration is APE itself, which nicks one strand of the target DNA during the initiation of target primed reverse transcription (TPRT). However, other factors, such as interaction between mRNA and the target DNA, and access to the target region in the nuclei also affect the sequence-specificity. In contrast, in the RLE-encoding elements, DNA-binding motifs appear to affect their sequence-specificity, rather than the RLE domain itself. Highly specific integration properties of these site-specific non-LTR elements make them ideal alternative tools for sequence-specific gene delivery, particularly for therapeutic purposes in human diseases.
Transposons Tn
10
and Tn
5
Authors: Haniford David B. , Ellis Michael J. 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACT

The study of the bacterial transposons Tn
10
and Tn
5
has provided a wealth of information regarding steps in nonreplicative DNA transposition, transpososome dynamics and structure, as well as mechanisms employed to regulate transposition. The focus of ongoing research on these transposons is mainly on host regulation and the use of the Tn
10
antisense system as a platform to develop riboregulators for applications in synthetic biology. Over the past decade two new regulators of both Tn
10
and Tn
5
transposition have been identified, namely H-NS and Hfq proteins. These are both global regulators of gene expression in enteric bacteria with functions linked to stress-response pathways and virulence and potentially could link the Tn
10
and Tn
5
systems (and thus the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes) to environmental cues. Work summarized here is consistent with the H-NS protein working directly on transposition complexes to upregulate both Tn
10
and Tn
5
transposition. In contrast, evidence is discussed that is consistent with Hfq working at the level of transposase expression to downregulate both systems. With regard to Tn
10
and synthetic biology, some recent work that incorporates the Tn
10
antisense RNA into both transcriptional and translational riboswitches is summarized.
Related Mechanisms of Antibody Somatic Hypermutation and Class Switch Recombination
Authors: Hwang* Joyce K. , Alt* Frederick W. , Yeap Leng-Siew 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTThe primary antibody repertoire is generated by mechanisms involving the assembly of the exons that encode the antigen-binding variable regions of immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light (IgL) chains during the early development of B lymphocytes. After antigen-dependent activation, mature B lymphocytes can further alter theirIgHandIgLvariable region exons by the process of somatic hypermutation (SHM), which allows the selection of B cells in which SHMs resulted in the production of antibodies with increased antigen affinity. In addition, during antigen-dependent activation, B cells can also change the constant region of their IgH chain through a DNA double-strand-break (DSB) dependent process referred to as IgH class switch recombination (CSR), which generates B cell progeny that produce antibodies with different IgH constant region effector functions that are best suited for a elimination of a particular pathogen or in a particular setting. Both the mutations that underlie SHM and the DSBs that underlie CSR are initiated in target genes by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). This review describes in depth the processes of SHM and CSR with a focus on mechanisms that direct AID cytidine deamination in activated B cells and mechanisms that promote the differential outcomes of such cytidine deamination.
The λ Integrase Site-specific Recombination Pathway
Authors: Landy Arthur 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTThe site-specific recombinase encoded by bacteriophage λ (Int) is responsible for integrating and excising the viral chromosome into and out of the chromosome of itsEscherichia colihost. Int carries out a reaction that is highly directional, tightly regulated, and depends upon an ensemble of accessory DNA bending proteins acting on 240 bp of DNA encoding 16 protein binding sites. This additional complexity enables two pathways, integrative and excisive recombination, whose opposite, and effectively irreversible, directions are dictated by different physiological and environmental signals. Int recombinase is a heterobivalent DNA binding protein and each of the four Int protomers, within a multiprotein 400 kDa recombinogenic complex, is thought to bind and, with the aid of DNA bending proteins, bridge one arm- and one core-type DNA site. In the 12 years since the publication of the last review focused solely on the λ site-specific recombination pathway inMobile DNA II, there has been a great deal of progress in elucidating the molecular details of this pathway. The most dramatic advances in our understanding of the reaction have been in the area of X-ray crystallography where protein-DNA structures have now been determined for of all of the DNA-protein interfaces driving the Int pathway. Building on this foundation of structures, it has been possible to derive models for the assembly of components that determine the regulatory apparatus in the P-arm, and for the overall architectures that define excisive and integrative recombinogenic complexes. The most fundamental additional mechanistic insights derive from the application of hexapeptide inhibitors and single molecule kinetics.