bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Local variations in reporting deaths to the coroner in England and Wales: a postcode lottery?
Authors: Mclean Maxwell , Roach Jason , Armitage Rachel 
Published: July 2013

AimsIn England and Wales, doctors are charged with a responsibility either to report a death to the coroner or issue a medical certificate specifying cause of death. A lack of formal prescriptive or presumptive oversight has resulted in the promulgation by individual coroners of local reporting regimes. The study reported here identified overall and gendered variations in local reporting rates to coroners across the jurisdictions of England and Wales, consistent over time.MethodsAnalysis was performed on Ministry of Justice (MOJ) data pertaining to the numbers and proportions of deaths reported to the coroner by jurisdiction over a 10-year period (2001–2010). Office of National Statistics (ONS) data provided the numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales over the same period to serve as a denominator for the calculation of proportions. Where coroner jurisdictions (and local authorities) had been amalgamated during this period, the combined reported and registered death figures have been included in line with the current jurisdiction areas.ResultsWhile reporting rates for individual jurisdictions were found to be stable over the 10-year period, wide local variations in reporting deaths to coroners were found with no obvious demographic explanation. The gender of the deceased was identified as a major factor in local variation.ConclusionsThe decision to report a death to the coroner varies across jurisdictions. Implications for coronial investigations are discussed and the need for wider research into coroners’ decision-making is proposed.
Learning to predict reciprocity and triadic closure in social networks
Authors: Lou Tiancheng , Tang Jie , Hopcroft John , Fang Zhanpeng , Ding Xiaowen 
Published: July 2013

We study how links are formed in social networks. In particular, we focus on investigating how a reciprocal (two-way) link, the basic relationship in social networks, is developed from a parasocial (one-way) relationship and how the relationships further develop into triadic closure, one of the fundamental processes of link formation.
We first investigate how geographic distance and interactions between users influence the formation of link structure among users. Then we study how social theories including homophily, social balance, and social status are satisfied over networks with parasocial and reciprocal relationships. The study unveils several interesting phenomena. For example, “friend's friend is a friend” indeed exists in the reciprocal relationship network, but does not hold in the parasocial relationship network.
We propose a learning framework to formulate the problems of predicting reciprocity and triadic closure into a graphical model. We demonstrate that it is possible to accurately infer 90% of reciprocal relationships in a Twitter network. The proposed model also achieves better performance (+20--30% in terms of F1-measure) than several alternative methods for predicting the triadic closure formation.
Thin servers with smart pipes
Authors: Lim Kevin , Meisner David , Saidi Ali G. , Ranganathan Parthasarathy , Wenisch Thomas F. 
Published: July 2013

Distributed in-memory key-value stores, such as memcached, are central to the scalability of modern internet services. Current deployments use commodity servers with high-end processors. However, given the cost-sensitivity of internet services and the recent proliferation of volume low-power System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, we see an opportunity for alternative architectures. We undertake a detailed characterization of memcached to reveal performance and power inefficiencies. Our study considers both high-performance and low-power CPUs and NICs across a variety of carefully-designed benchmarks that exercise the range of memcached behavior. We discover that, regardless of CPU microarchitecture, memcached execution is remarkably inefficient, saturating neither network links nor available memory bandwidth. Instead, we find performance is typically limited by the per-packet processing overheads in the NIC and OS kernel---long code paths limit CPU performance due to poor branch predictability and instruction fetch bottlenecks.
Our insights suggest that neither high-performance nor low-power cores provide a satisfactory power-performance trade-off, and point to a need for tighter integration of the network interface. Hence, we argue for an alternate architecture---Thin Servers with Smart Pipes (TSSP)---for cost-effective high-performance memcached deployment. TSSP couples an embedded-class low-power core to a memcached accelerator that can process GET requests entirely in hardware, offloading both network handling and data look up. We demonstrate the potential benefits of our TSSP architecture through an FPGA prototyping platform, and show the potential for a 6X-16X power-performance improvement over conventional server baselines.
Molecular Pathways: Human Leukocyte Antigen G (HLA-G)
Authors: Curigliano Giuseppe , Criscitiello Carmen , Gelao Lucia , Goldhirsch Aron 
Published: July 2013

AbstractHuman leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is a nonclassical MHC class I molecule that exerts important tolerogenic functions. Its main physiologic expression occurs in the placenta, where it participates in the maternal tolerance toward the fetus. HLA-G expression was found in embryonic tissues, in adult immune privileged organs, and in cells of the hematopoietic lineage. It is expressed in various types of primary solid (melanoma, head and neck, lung, urogenital, gastrointestinal, and breast cancers) and hematologic malignancies (acute leukemia, lymphomas) and metastases. HLA-G ectopic expression is observed in cancer, suggesting that its expression is one strategy used by tumor cells to escape immune surveillance. In this review, we will focus on HLA-G expression in cancers and its association with the prognosis. We will highlight the underlying molecular mechanisms of impaired HLA-G expression, the immune tolerant function of HLA-G in tumors, and the potential diagnostic use of membrane-bound and soluble HLA-G as a biomarker to identify tumors and to monitor disease stage. As HLA-G is a potent immunoinhibitory molecule, its blockade remains an attractive therapeutic strategy against cancer. Elimination of HLA-G–expressing cancer cells would be important in the efficacy of anticancer therapies. Clin Cancer Res; 19(20); 5564–71. ©2013 AACR.
Inhibition of MicroRNA-92a Protects Against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in a Large-Animal Model
Authors: Hinkel Rabea , Penzkofer Daniela , Zühlke Stefanie , Fischer Ariane , Husada Wira , Xu Quan-Fu , Baloch Elisabeth , van Rooij Eva , Zeiher Andreas M. , Kupatt Christian , Dimmeler Stefanie 
Published: July 2013

Background—
MicroRNAs (miRs) are small noncoding RNAs that posttranscriptionally control gene expression. Small-animal studies suggest that miRs might offer novel therapeutic targets in cardiovascular diseases such as cardioprotection of murine hearts after myocardial infarction via miR-92a inhibitors. Because the functional benefits of miR-92a inhibitors in larger preclinical models are not known, we assessed the therapeutic efficacy of miR-92a inhibition in a porcine model of ischemia and reperfusion.

Methods and Results—

Pigs (n=5 per group) underwent percutaneous ischemia/reperfusion (60 min/72 h or 7 days, respectively). Locked nucleic acid–modified antisense miR-92a (LNA-92a) was applied either regionally (antegrade or retrograde) with a catheter or systemically (intravenously). LNA-92a significantly (
P
<0.01) reduced miR-92a expression in the infarct zone regardless of the application venue. However, catheter-based delivery, but not intravenous infusion, of LNA-92a significantly (
P
<0.05) reduced the infarct size compared with control LNA–treated pigs, which correlated with an improved ejection fraction and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (
P
<0.05). Histochemistry revealed that LNA-92a increased capillary density but decreased leukocyte influx and cardiac cell death. Complete loss of miR-92a in mice attenuated the infarct-related myocardial dysfunction to a larger extent than cardiomyocyte-specific miR-92a deletion. In vitro, LNA-92a protected against hypoxia/reoxygenation–induced cardiomyocyte cell death.

Conclusions—
Regional LNA-92a delivery reduces miR-92a levels and infarct size and postischemic loss of function. LNA-92a exerts cell-protective, proangiogenic, and anti-inflammatory effects. miR-92a inhibition might be a novel therapeutic tool to preserve cardiac function after ischemia.
Downscaling of Climate Change in the Hawaii Region Using CMIP5 Results: On the Choice of the Forcing Fields*
Authors: Lauer Axel , Zhang Chunxi , Elison-Timm Oliver , Wang Yuqing , Hamilton Kevin 
Published: July 2013

AbstractThe Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been configured as a regional climate model for the Hawaii region (HRCM) to assess the uncertainties associated with the pseudo–global warming (PGW) downscaling method using different warming increments from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) model experiments. Results from 15-km downscaling experiments using warming increments from 10 individual CMIP5 models for the two warming scenarios representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) and 8.5 (RCP8.5) are compared with experiments using multimodel mean warming increments. The results show that changes in 2-m temperatures, 10-m wind speed, rainfall, water vapor path, and trade wind inversion vary significantly among the individual model experiments. This translates into large uncertainties when picking one particular CMIP5 model to provide the warming increments for dynamical downscaling in the Hawaii region. The simulations also show that, despite the large interexperiment spread, a single downscaling experiment using multimodel mean warming increments gives very similar results to the ensemble mean of downscaling experiments using warming increments obtained from 10 individual CMIP5 models. Robust changes of the projected climate by the end of the twenty-first century in the Hawaii region shown by most downscaling experiments include increasing 2-m temperatures with stronger warming at higher elevations, a large increase in precipitable water, and an increase in the number of days with a trade wind inversion (TWI). Furthermore, most experiments agree on a reduction in TWI height and an increase in the TWI strength. Uncertainties in the projected changes in rainfall and 10-m wind speed are large and there is little consensus among the individual downscaling experiments.
The association between gestational diabetes mellitus and first trimester aneuploidy screening markers
Authors: Spencer Kevin , Cowans Nicholas J 
Published: July 2013

Objective To establish whether maternal serum first trimester concentrations of PAPP-A and free hCGβ are altered in pregnancies that subsequently are diagnosed by an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods Over the period 2009 and 2011, the results for women who had first trimester screening for aneuploidy were matched with those having an oral glucose tolerance test at 22–26 weeks for suspected GDM. Free hCGβ, PAPP-A and NT MoMs were compared amongst the group having an OGTT with confirmed GDM and those in which GDM was not confirmed. A second comparison group consisted of all non-aneuploidy singleton pregnancies in which no OGTT was performed. Results During the three-year period, 27,660 singleton pregnancies were screened of which 7429 cases had an OGTT of which 870 cases were classed as GDM by WHO criteria. There was a significant 7–9% reduction in both PAPP-A and free hCGβ MoM in the GDM group compared with either the OGTT non-GDM group or the remaining pregnancies with no known risk factors for evidence of GDM. There was no difference in the NT measurements. Conclusions First trimester concentrations of PAPP-A and free hCGβ are reduced in pregnancies that subsequently are diagnosed with GDM and may be useful in further screening algorithms for this disorder although the sensitivity alone is quite poor.
Supported liquid extraction as an alternative to solid phase extraction for LC-MS/MS aldosterone analysis?
Authors: Owen Laura J , Keevil Brian G 
Published: July 2013

Background Supported liquid extraction (SLE) techniques are relatively new compared to other sample preparation approaches such as solid phase extraction (SPE), liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and protein precipitation (PPE). We investigated the use of SLE as an alternative to SPE for the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) measurement of aldosterone. Methods Samples ( n = 83) were analysed by the routine method using SPE. The same samples were subsequently analysed using two different SLE 96-well plate devices (Thermo and Biotage) with methyl-tertiary butyl ether extraction. A direct comparison of the three extraction techniques on two different mass spectrometers was also performed. Results Both results using SLE plates gave excellent agreement with the results from the SPE analysis. The area counts obtained with the Biotage plates were considerably higher than those obtained using the Thermo plate. Conclusions SLE is an acceptable alternative to SPE for the LC-MS/MS analysis of aldosterone. Using SLE reduces the time required for sample preparation.
SMBG Out of Control
Authors: Chaudhry Tahir , Klonoff David C. 
Published: July 2013

Purpose The purpose of this project was to determine how prevalent control solution calibration is in patients who perform self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). Methods Eighteen patients with or parents of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus were surveyed to gauge patients’ knowledge of control testing and the prevalence of its use. US census data of educational attainment of residents in the surveyed region were used. The availability of control solution (CS) in all pharmacies in 8 cities in mid San Mateo County, California, was evaluated as well. User manuals from 6 leading blood glucose monitor (BGM) manufacturers were retrieved for their indications for using CS. Results It was found that although 82% of respondents claimed to know what CS is, 58% claimed to never use this product. In the analyzed geographic region, the educational attainment was above the educational level for the entire San Francisco Bay Area and the United States. CS in our region was stocked by only 15% of pharmacies that sold BGM equipment, even though 6 major BGM manufacturers in the aggregate listed 10 indications for its use. Conclusions It was concluded that BGM users are frequently not using CS to calibrate their monitors. The low availability of CS at pharmacies might contribute to the low demand for this product. It can be concluded that patients who perform SMBG need education from diabetes educators about proper CS calibration. Without the use of CS, BGMs are not being used according to manufacturer’s specifications. This misuse could lead to erroneous results and erode the potential benefits of SMBG.
Is risk assessment the new clinical model in public mental health?
Authors: Holmes Alex 
Published: July 2013

Objective: Australian public mental health services have seen a rapid adoption of risk assessment into clinical practice over the past decade. It is timely to review the role of risk assessment in clinical practice, evidence for its validity and to explore its role in clinical decision-making. Conclusion: There is little evidence to support the current form of risk assessment used in public mental health. The continued focus in risk may lead public psychiatrists into a bind where their specialist role is defined by a capacity that they do not fully possess. Further work is required to find ways of demonstrating our attention to the possibility of adverse outcomes whilst maintaining our skills and capacity to manage mental illness with complexity and balance within the limitations of rational decision-making.
An evaluation of the impact and costs of three strategies used to recruit acutely unwell young children to a randomised controlled trial in primary care
Authors: Redmond Niamh M , Hollinghurst Sandra , Costelloe Céire , Montgomery Alan A , Fletcher Margaret , Peters Tim J , Hay Alastair D 
Published: July 2013

Background Recruitment to primary care trials, particularly those involving young children, is known to be difficult. There are limited data available to inform researchers about the effectiveness of different trial recruitment strategies and their associated costs. Purpose To describe, evaluate, and investigate the costs of three strategies for recruiting febrile children to a community-based randomised trial of antipyretics. Methods The three recruitment strategies used in the trial were termed as follows: (1) ‘local’, where paediatric research nurses stationed in primary care sites invited parents of children to participate; (2) ‘remote’, where clinicians at primary care sites faxed details of potentially eligible children to the trial office; and (3) ‘community’, where parents, responding to trial publicity, directly contacted the trial office when their child was unwell. Results Recruitment rates increased in response to the sequential introduction of three recruitment strategies, which were supplemented by additional recruiting staff, flexible staff work patterns, and improved clinician reimbursement schemes. The three strategies yielded different randomisation rates. They also appeared to be interdependent and highly effective together. Strategy-specific costs varied from £297 to £857 per randomised participant and represented approximately 10% of the total trial budget. Limitations Because the recruitment strategies were implemented sequentially, it was difficult to measure their independent effects. The cost analysis was performed retrospectively. Conclusions Trial recruiter expertise and deployment of several interdependent, illness-specific strategies were key factors in achieving rapid recruitment of young children to a community-based randomised controlled trial (RCT). The ‘remote’ recruitment strategy was shown to be more cost-effective compared to ‘community’ and ‘local’ strategies in the context of this trial. Future trialists should report recruitment costs to facilitate a transparent evaluation of recruitment strategy cost-effectiveness.
The Src and c-Kit kinase inhibitor dasatinib enhances p53-mediated targeting of human acute myeloid leukemia stem cells by chemotherapeutic agents
Authors: Dos Santos Cedric , McDonald Tinisha , Ho Yin Wei , Liu Hongjun , Lin Allen , Forman Stephen J. , Kuo Ya-Huei , Bhatia Ravi 
Published: July 2013

Key Points
SRC family kinases are activated in AML stem/progenitor cells and contribute to AML stem cell survival and proliferation. Combined inhibition of SFKs and c-KIT with dasatinib enhances p53-mediated elimination of AML stem cells.
Thrombospondin-1 modulates VEGF signaling via CD36 by recruiting SHP-1 to VEGFR2 complex in microvascular endothelial cells
Authors: Chu Ling-Yun , Ramakrishnan Devi Prasadh , Silverstein Roy L. 
Published: July 2013

Key PointsTSP-1 binding to CD36 recruits SHP-1 to CD36-VEGFR2 complex in microvascular endothelial cells. SHP-1 recruitment to CD36-VEGFR2 complex dephosphorylates VEGFR2 and inhibits angiogenesis.
Experimental transmission of enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma in sheep
Authors: Walsh Scott R , Linnerth-Petrik Nicolle M , Yu Darrick L , Foster Robert A , Menzies Paula I , Diaz-Méndez Andrés , Chalmers Heather J , Wootton Sarah K 
Published: July 2013

Abstract
Enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma (ENA) is a contagious neoplasm of the secretory epithelial cells of the nasal mucosa of sheep and goats. It is associated with the betaretrovirus, enzootic nasal tumor virus (ENTV), but a causative relationship has yet to be demonstrated. In this study, 14-day-old lambs were experimentally infected via nebulization with cell-free tumor filtrates derived from naturally occurring cases of ENA. At 12 weeks post-infection (wpi), one of the five infected lambs developed clinical signs, including continuous nasal discharge and open mouth breathing, and was euthanized. Necropsy revealed the presence of a large bilateral tumor occupying the nasal cavity. At 45 wpi, when the study was terminated, none of the remaining infected sheep showed evidence of tumors either by computed tomography or post-mortem examination. ENTV-1 proviral DNA was detected in the nose, lung, spleen, liver and kidney of the animal with experimentally induced ENA, however there was no evidence of viral protein expression in tissues other than the nose. Density gradient analysis of virus particles purified from the experimentally induced nasal tumor revealed a peak reverse transcriptase (RT) activity at a buoyant density of 1.22 g/mL which was higher than the 1.18 g/mL density of peak RT activity of virus purified from naturally induced ENA. While the 1.22 g/mL fraction contained primarily immature unprocessed virus particles, mature virus particles with a similar morphology to naturally occurring ENA could be identified by electron microscopy. Full-length sequence analysis of the ENTV-1 genome from the experimentally induced tumor revealed very few nucleotide changes relative to the original inoculum with only one conservative amino acid change. Taken together, these results demonstrate that ENTV-1 is associated with transmissible ENA in sheep and that under experimental conditions, lethal tumors are capable of developing in as little as 12 wpi demonstrating the acutely oncogenic nature of this ovine betaretrovirus.