bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Adulthood Weight Change and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study
Authors: Song Mingyang , Hu Frank B. , Spiegelman Donna , Chan Andrew T. , Wu Kana , Ogino Shuji , Fuchs Charles S. , Willett Walter C. , Giovannucci Edward L. 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
We investigated the association between adulthood weight change and colorectal cancer risk in a prospective study with 24 to 34 years of follow-up among 90,988 women and 46,679 men. The primary exposures included weight change from early adulthood (age = 18 years for women, 21 years for men) to baseline enrollment (median age = 43 years for women, 52 years for men), and from baseline to present. In the secondary analyses, we also assessed 4-year weight change during follow-up, and during premenopausal (from age 18 years to menopause) and postmenopausal (from menopause to present) periods in women. Compared to men maintaining their weight from age 21 to baseline, those who gained 20 kg or more were at a higher risk of colorectal cancer (relative risk [RR], 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15–2.35, Ptrend &lt; 0.001), whereas those who lost 8 kg or more had a lower risk (RR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.30–1.22, Ptrend = 0.003). Similar but weaker associations were found in women and the corresponding RRs were 1.38 (95% CI, 1.13–1.69, Ptrend &lt; 0.001) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.58–1.09, Ptrend = 0.21). Weight change from baseline to present was not associated with colorectal cancer risk. Four-year weight change during follow-up was positively associated with colorectal cancer risk in men (Ptrend = 0.03) but not in women (Ptrend = 0.42). In addition, in women, weight change before, but not after, menopause was associated with colorectal cancer risk. Our findings provide further scientific rationale for recommendations to maintain a healthy body weight during adulthood. A potential differential association according to sex and timing of weight change warrants further investigation. Cancer Prev Res; 8(7); 620–7. ©2015 AACR.
Impaired Development of Left Anterior Heart Field by Ectopic Retinoic Acid Causes Transposition of the Great Arteries
Authors: Narematsu Mayu , Kamimura Tatsuya , Yamagishi Toshiyuki , Fukui Mitsuru , Nakajima Yuji 
Published: May 2015

Background

Transposition of the great arteries is one of the most commonly diagnosed conotruncal heart defects at birth, but its etiology is largely unknown. The anterior heart field (
AHF
) that resides in the anterior pharyngeal arches contributes to conotruncal development, during which heart progenitors that originated from the left and right
AHF
migrate to form distinct conotruncal regions. The aim of this study is to identify abnormal AHF development that causes the morphology of transposition of the great arteries.

Methods and Results

We placed a retinoic acid–soaked bead on the left or the right or on both sides of the
AHF
of stage 12 to 14 chick embryos and examined the conotruncal heart defect at stage 34. Transposition of the great arteries was diagnosed at high incidence in embryos for which a retinoic acid–soaked bead had been placed in the left
AHF
at stage 12. Fluorescent dye tracing showed that
AHF
exposed to retinoic acid failed to contribute to conotruncus development.
FGF
8 and Isl1 expression were downregulated in retinoic acid–exposed
AHF
, and differentiation and expansion of cardiomyocytes were suppressed in cultured
AHF
in medium supplemented with retinoic acid.

Conclusions

The left
AHF
at the early looped heart stage, corresponding to Carnegie stages 10 to 11 (28 to 29 days after fertilization) in human embryos, is the region of the impediment that causes the morphology of transposition of the great arteries.
School Districts and Student Achievement
Authors: Chingos Matthew M. , Whitehurst Grover J. , Gallaher Michael R. 
Published: May 2015

School districts are a focus of education reform efforts in the United States, but there is very little existing research about how important they are to student achievement. We fill this gap in the literature using 10 years of student-level, statewide data on fourth- and fifth-grade students in Florida and North Carolina. A variance decomposition analysis based on hierarchical linear models indicates that districts account for only a small share (1 to 2 percent) of the total variation in student achievement. Nevertheless, the differences between lower- and higher-performing districts are large enough to be of practical and policy significance, with a one standard deviation difference in district effectiveness corresponding to about 0.11 standard deviations in student achievement (about nine weeks of schooling). District performance is generally stable over time, but there are examples of districts that have shown significant increases or decreases in performance.
Some Climatological Aspects of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO)
Authors: Lafleur Donald M. , Barrett Bradford S. , Henderson Gina R. 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
One of the most commonly used metrics for both locating the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) geographically and defining the intensity of MJO convective activity is the real-time multivariate MJO (RMM) index. However, a climatology of the MJO, particularly with respect to the frequency of activity levels or of consecutive days at certain activity thresholds, does not yet exist. Thus, several climatological aspects of the MJO were developed in this study: 1) annual and 2) seasonal variability in MJO intensity, quantified using four defined activity categories (inactive, active, very active, and extremely active); 3) persistence in the above-defined four categories; 4) cycle length; and 5) low-frequency (decadal) variability.
On an annual basis, MJO phases 1 and 2 occurred more often, and phase 8 occurred less often, than the other phases throughout the year. Notable seasonality was also found, particularly in the frequency of extremely active MJO in March–May (8% of days) compared with June–August (only 1% of days). The MJO was persistent in time and across intensity categories, and all activity categories the following day had at least an 80% chance of maintaining their amplitudes. Implications of this climatology are discussed, including length of complete MJO cycles (the shortest of which was 17 days) and correlations between MJO amplitude and atmospheric response.
Aerosol Optical Thickness Measurement with Elevation-Scanning Lidar
Authors: Ionov Pavel I. , Mollner Andrew K. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractHigh-accuracy measurement of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) τa with an elevation-scanning lidar is demonstrated and the results are compared with a collocated Cimel 318 sun photometer. Linear regression of the time-coincident data from a 2-week measurement campaign with the two instruments is found to be τalidar = (1.00 ± 0.17)τaphot + (0.025 ± 0.019) (1σ). The method proved to have sufficient accuracy to measure AOTs of 0.1–0.2 commonly seen in relatively clear atmosphere. The measurement is absolute and thus does not depend on any external calibration standards.
CXCR4+granulocytes reflect fungal cystic fibrosis lung disease
Authors: Carevic Melanie , Singh Anurag , Rieber Nikolaus , Eickmeier Olaf , Griese Matthias , Hector Andreas , Hartl Dominik 
Published: May 2015

Cystic fibrosis airways are frequently colonised with fungi. However, the interaction of these fungi with immune cells and the clinical relevance in cystic fibrosis lung disease are incompletely understood.We characterised granulocytes in airway fluids and peripheral blood from cystic fibrosis patients with and without fungal colonisation, non-cystic fibrosis disease controls and healthy control subjects cross-sectionally and longitudinally and correlated these findings with lung function parameters.Cystic fibrosis patients with chronic fungal colonisation byAspergillus fumigatuswere characterised by an accumulation of a distinct granulocyte subset, expressing the HIV coreceptor CXCR4. Percentages of airway CXCR4+granulocytes correlated with lung disease severity in patients with cystic fibrosis.These studies demonstrate that chronic fungal colonisation withA. fumigatusin cystic fibrosis patients is associated with CXCR4+airway granulocytes, which may serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in fungal cystic fibrosis lung disease.
Polysulfide Evokes Acute Pain through the Activation of Nociceptive TRPA1 in Mouse Sensory Neurons
Authors: Hatakeyama Yukari , Takahashi Kenji , Tominaga Makoto , Kimura Hideo , Ohta Toshio 
Published: May 2015

Background Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is oxidized to polysulfide. Recent reports show that this sulfur compound modulates various biological functions. We have reported that H2S is involved in inflammatory pain in mice. On the other hand, little is known about the functional role of polysulfide in sensory neurons. Here we show that polysulfide selectively stimulates nociceptive TRPA1 and evokes acute pain, using TRPA1-gene deficient mice (TRPA1(–/–)), a heterologous expression system and a TRPA1-expressing cell line. Results In wild-type mouse sensory neurons, polysulfide elevated the intracellular Ca concentration ([Ca2+]i) in a dose-dependent manner. The half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of polysulfide was less than one-tenth that of H2S. The [Ca2+]i responses to polysulfide were observed in neurons responsive to TRPA1 agonist and were inhibited by blockers of TRPA1 but not of TRPV1. Polysulfide failed to evoke [Ca2+]i increases in neurons from TRPA1(–/–) mice. In RIN-14B cells, constitutively expressing rat TRPA1, polysulfide evoked [Ca2+]i increases with the same EC50 value as in sensory neurons. Heterologously expressed mouse TRPA1 was activated by polysulfide and that was suppressed by dithiothreitol. Analyses of the TRPA1 mutant channel revealed that cysteine residues located in the internal domain were related to the sensitivity to polysulfide. Intraplantar injection of polysulfide into the mouse hind paw induced acute pain and edema which were significantly less than in TRPA1(–/–) mice. Conclusions The present data suggest that polysulfide functions as pronociceptive substance through the activation of TRPA1 in sensory neurons. Since the potency of polysulfide is higher than parental H2S and this sulfur compound is generated under pathophysiological conditions, it is suggested that polysulfide acts as endogenous ligand for TRPA1. Therefore, TRPA1 may be a promising therapeutic target for endogenous sulfur compound-related algesic action.
Is quality certification in fruit and vegetable production a market-driven choice in Greece?
Authors: Tselempis Dimitrios , Karipidis Philippos , Pavloudi Alexandra , Semos Anastasios 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
This study examines whether the implementation of a quality management system (QMS) and the choice of a certain quality assurance scheme (QAS) were decided as responses by fruit and vegetable producers to market conditions, separating certification decisions into two components. A survey study is conducted and two discrete choice models are estimated: ordered logit for the implementation of QMS and binary probit for the choice of QAS. It is found that the buyers’ demand for certification and the efforts of farmers to differentiate their products from others in an area that may present local quality problems lead farm businesses to accelerate QMS implementation. Regarding the choice of a private QAS, it is a market-driven decision. The conclusion is that certifications are characterised by a market-driven approach and the increased interest in certified products can lead to the diffusion of certification. Because the absence of information provision and the controls exerted by public authorities have an impact on QMS implementation, the diffusion of certification depends also on public policy measures, indicating the crucial role of a public policy mix properly designed to promote certification.
Lingering in Girlhood: Dancing with Patriarchy in Jordan
Authors: Yessayan Maral Tatios 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
This article investigates issues of modesty, sexuality, and womanhood in a community of young Jordanian women working in folkloric dance companies in twenty-first-century Amman. Using feminist performance ethnography, it contrasts the gendered codes in play in the hoshiyya—a Bedouin courtship dance—with how women dancers enact and revise such codes in everyday life. The article explores choreographies of gender through a careful reading of tensions between the moving bodies of men and the embodied practices of the woman soloist onstage. It also compares this model with the narratives and corporeal practices of the women dancers in daily life. I argue that the women rationalize their professional dancing and protect their reputations in a patriarchal context through self-disciplining practices and by disavowing their sexuality during what they understand as a temporary period of girlhood.
Grammars of Disguised, Multiple, and Missing Critique inDreams of TrespassandTomorrow We’ll Get Our Land Back
Authors: Campbell Ian 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis article extends critical analysis of Fatima Mernissi’s 1995 semiautobiographical Dreams of Trespass to Fatima al-Rawi’s 1967 novel, Tomorrow We’ll Get Our Land Back (Ghadan tatabadal al-ʾard), which shares with Dreams the trope of Moroccan women imprisoned by patriarchal power and cooperating through storytelling. Both narratives reflect their own forms of “multiple critique.” Tomorrow confronts the exploitation of the working class in postcolonial Morocco but does so in a way that disguises a frontal challenge to the masculinist context of the 1960s and the undemocratic postcolonial state. Examining Tomorrow through a gendered lens opens up a new perspective on Dreams. The harem imprisonment of the Mernissi women marks the family’s vast wealth and class privilege, which are not meaningfully addressed in Dreams. The liberation of young, privileged women in both works depends on the imprisonment of slaves and servants, whose conditions are only partly considered in Dreams and not at all addressed in Tomorrow.
The Potent Eunuch: The Story of Wei Zhongxian
Authors: McMahon Keith 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Literary and historical sources assumed ulterior, even diabolical, motives in the man who voluntarily became a eunuch. If he was lucky, he could become the ruler's confidant and even usurp imperial power. Focusing on Ming eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568–1627), the article addresses key questions in the portrayal of eunuchs: How and why did a man become a eunuch? What were his motives, as far as can be learned from historical cases; and what did storytellers and other writers think his motives were? In the case of powerful and influential eunuchs, the question also became, how, after his act of self-destruction, did the eunuch reconstruct himself? How did he re-create himself as a newly potent man?
In silico analysis suggests repurposing of ibuprofen for prevention and treatment of EBOLA virus disease
Authors: Veljkovic Veljko , Goeijenbier Marco , Glisic Sanja , Veljkovic Nevena , Perovic Vladimir R. , Sencanski Milan , Branch Donald R. , Paessler Slobodan 
Published: May 2015

The large 2014/2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa points out the urgent need to develop new preventive and therapeutic approaches that are effective against Ebola viruses and can be rapidly utilized. Recently, a simple theoretical criterion for the virtual screening of molecular libraries for candidate inhibitors of Ebola virus infection was proposed. Using this method the ‘drug space’ was screened and 267 approved and 382 experimental drugs as candidates for treatment of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been selected. Detailed analysis of these drugs revealed the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen as an inexpensive, widely accessible and minimally toxic candidate for prevention and treatment of EVD. Furthermore, the molecular mechanism underlying this possible protective effect of ibuprofen against EVD is suggested in this article.
An Evaluation of Vancomycin Dosing for Complicated Infections in Pediatric Patients
Authors: Durham Spencer H. , Simmons Marroyln L. , Mulherin Diana W. , Foland Jason A. 
Published: May 2015

Objective:
To determine the incidence with which a vancomycin dosing regimen of 15 mg/kg per dose every 6 hours achieves steady-state trough concentrations of 15 to 20 mg/L in pediatric patients with complicated infections.

Methods:
We performed a retrospective chart review for patients admitted to our children’s hospital between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011. Patients were included if they were between 1 month and 18 years of age, had at least 1 steady-state vancomycin trough obtained, received an initial vancomycin dose of 15 mg/kg per dose every 6 hours, and were being treated for a diagnosis of meningitis, pneumonia, osteomyelitis, bacteremia/sepsis, or endocarditis.

Results:
Seventy-four patients were enrolled, mean age of 4.2 ± 3.9 years and weight of 17.0 ± 11.2 kg. Five (6.8%) patients obtained an initial trough of 15 to 20 mg/L. Patients between 1.0 and 5.9 years of age were significantly less likely to achieve an initial trough of 15 to 20 mg/L compared with other age groups evaluated (P = .041). Thirty-four patients with initial subtherapeutic troughs received a dose adjustment and a follow-up vancomycin trough. Of these patients, 15 (44.1%) achieved a trough between 15 and 20 mg/L. The median dose for patients achieving a therapeutic trough at any point during the study was 80 mg/kg per day.

Conclusions:
A vancomycin dosing regimen of 15 mg/kg per dose every 6 hours is not likely to achieve a trough concentration of 15 to 20 mg/L in pediatric patients with complicated infections. An initial regimen of 80 mg/kg per day for these patients may be more likely to result in therapeutic steady-state concentrations of vancomycin.
Performance Characterization and Optimization of Cement Systems for Thermally Stimulated Wells
Authors: Chartier Mark A. , Thompson Scott , Bordieanu Marius , Bustamante Giovanni , Saunders J. Ryan , Kaiser Trent M. 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Cement is critical to well integrity. It provides hydraulic isolation, preventing fluid flow between producing zones, ground water aquifers, and the surface. In steam stimulated wells, such as for Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) or Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), the heat-up period places severe mechanical loading on the cement sheath. Heat is transferred from high temperature steam, through completion strings and annular fluids, to the casing, cement and formation. Thermal expansion of the casing combined with axial constraint make radial expansion of the casing the most severe in the energy industry. Furthermore, with constrained expansion of the cement, the range of deformations that must be accommodated by the cement sheath while maintaining isolation is challenging. These deformations can cause shear or tensile failure of the cement and result in leakage paths through the cement (e.g. cracks or global changes in cement permeability), or leave a micro-annulus when recovery has been completed and thermal operations halt.
This paper describes the impact of key thermal and mechanical properties on the structural performance of cement blends in thermally stimulated wells. The work is based on laboratory testing of thermal cement blends and the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to examine cement performance under operating conditions. The findings provide insight into important cement behaviours that impact longterm integrity of cement and highlight the significance of conducting tests under field representative conditions. Results indicate the importance of compressive strengths, flexibility, and shrinkage/expansion characteristics to ensure the cement sheath remains structurally intact during initial heat-up.
Determination of the biomechanical effect of an interspinous process device on implanted and adjacent lumbar spinal segments using a hybrid testing protocol: a finite-element study
Authors: Erbulut Deniz U. , Zafarparandeh Iman , Hassan Chaudhry R. , Lazoglu Ismail , Ozer Ali F. 
Published: May 2015

OBJECT
The authors evaluated the biomechanical effects of an interspinous process (ISP) device on kinematics and load sharing at the implanted and adjacent segments.

METHODS
A 3D finite-element (FE) model of the lumbar spine (L1–5) was developed and validated through comparison with published in vitro study data. Specifically, validation was achieved by a flexible (load-control) approach in 3 main planes under a pure moment of 10 Nm and a compressive follower load of 400 N. The ISP device was inserted between the L-3 and L-4 processes. Intact and implanted cases were simulated using the hybrid protocol in all motion directions. The resultant motion, facet load, and intradiscal pressure after implantation were investigated at the index and adjacent levels. In addition, stress at the bone-implant interface was predicted.

RESULTS
The hybrid approach, shown to be appropriate for adjacent-level investigations, predicted that the ISP device would decrease the range of motion, facet load, and intradiscal pressure at the index level relative to the corresponding values for the intact spine in extension. Specifically, the intradiscal pressure induced after implantation at adjacent segments increased by 39.7% and by 6.6% at L2–3 and L4–5, respectively. Similarly, facet loads at adjacent segments after implantation increased up to 60% relative to the loads in the intact case. Further, the stress at the bone-implant interface increased significantly. The influence of the ISP device on load sharing parameters in motion directions other than extension was negligible.

CONCLUSIONS
Although ISP devices apply a distraction force on the processes and prevent further extension of the index segment, their implantation may cause changes in biomechanical parameters such as facet load, intradiscal pressure, and range of motion at adjacent levels in extension.