bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Burnout syndrome during residency in internal medicine and pediatrics in a country without working time directive
Authors: Yazgan Aksoy Duygu , Durusu Tanriover Mine , Unal Sule , Dizdar Omer , Kalyoncu Umut , Karakaya Jale , Unal Serhat , Kale Gulsev 
Published: April 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate burnout syndrome among internal medicine and pediatrics residents in a country that does not have the working time directive (WTD) and also to determine the risk factors and consequent impact on efficient functioning in clinical areas.

Design/methodology/approach
– A 57-item questionnaire was given to internal medicine and pediatrics residents. Responses from 22 pediatrics and 33 internal medicine residents were evaluated.

Findings
– Demographic findings, burnout scores, having hobbies, social activities and reading books unrelated to medicine were similar between the two groups. Six pediatrics residents (27.3 per cent) and 11 (33.3 per cent) internal medicine residents met the criteria for clinically significant burnout. Personal accomplishment scores and reading books unrelated to medicine were found to be related to burnout.

Originality/value
– Burnout is a syndrome characterized by depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and a low sense of personal accomplishment. It is important to document burnout in countries where WTDs are not implemented. Further studies might demonstrate burnout's effect on patient safety, service quality and physician's performance.
Bullying behaviours among mentally disordered offenders in a medium secure unit
Authors: Gakhal Baldeesh , Oddie Sharon 
Published: April 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and prevalence of bullying behaviours and victimisation experiences among mentally disordered offenders within a medium secure unit (MSU).

Design/methodology/approach
– In all, 35 adult male patients completed the Direct and Indirect Patient behaviour Checklist-Hospital Version (DIPC-H).

Findings
– Indirect aggression was reported more frequently than direct aggression, although there was no statistically significant difference between the prevalence estimates. The most prevalent DIPC-H categories were the pure victim and not involved categories followed by bully/victim and pure bully. Membership of the pure bully category was predicted by being on a particular ward.

Research limitations/implications
– Given that the study was a preliminary investigation into the nature and prevalence of bullying behaviours in a MSU, the sample size is limited. Consequently, it is difficult to generalise the findings. It would be useful for future research to focus on differences between levels of security using larger sample sizes to enable a greater understanding of the prevalence of bullying in secure settings and associated factors.

Practical implications
– Further evidence is provided by the current research that indirect bullying and victimisation behaviours are reported more frequently by patients. The importance of anti-bullying procedures and interventions in secure settings is emphasised and recommendations that can be applied across various forensic settings are described. Better-informed interventions can then be implemented with the aim to manage bullying behaviours in secure settings. The one “pure bully” in the current study was on a rehabilitation ward. This highlights that such behaviours occur on lesser secure wards and serves as an important reminder to ensure that staff do not become complacent.

Originality/value
– As there is only one published study to date that has focused on bullying behaviours in a MSU, the current study will contribute to the dearth of literature in this area and assist professionals working in secure settings to better understand the nature and prevalence of bullying behaviours among mentally disordered offenders.
Investment opportunity set, board independence, and firm performance
Authors: Sun Jerry , Lan George , Ma Zhenzhong 
Published: April 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) on high growth firms’ corporate governance. Specially, the study examines whether there is a negative impact of SOX on the interactive effect of board independence and investment opportunity set on firm performance.Design/methodology/approach– Sample firms were selected from the Investor Responsibility Research Center Directors’ database. Both accounting- and market-based firm performance measures are used. Regressions are run to test the hypothesis.Findings– It was found that the impact of SOX on the interaction effect of board independence and investment opportunity set on firm performance is negative.Originality/value– The results suggest that the impact of SOX in corporate governance and regulatory environment mitigates the effect of board independence on the relationship between investment opportunity set and firm performance, consistent with the notion that the enactment of SOX increases monitoring costs of board governance especially for high-growth firms.
The capital structure of Chinese listed firms: is manufacturing industry special?
Authors: Tse Chin-Bun , Rodgers Timothy 
Published: April 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not industry membership can explain the leverage of Shanghai listed firms prior to the 2007 financial crisis. In view of the central role that manufacturing industry played in China's rise as a global economic power, the authors are particularly interested in whether or not manufacturing is a special case.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper undertakes a comparative study of leverage differences between manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry firms on both a cross-section and time-series basis. This is supplemented by a pooled regression analysis that models the factors determining leverage on an industry-by-industry basis.

Findings
– The authors find that leverage levels differ across industries because of industry-based differences in financial characteristics. It is also found that, despite playing a leading role in China's economic development, there is no evidence to suggest that manufacturing is a special case. Across all sectors borrowing-power-related variables were identified as being important determinants of leverage and, contrary to the expectations, factors relating to profitability were largely insignificant.

Research limitations/implications
– The trade off and pecking order capital structure theories found to be commonly applicable to firms in the western business environment do not appear to adequately explain capital structure in China.

Originality/value
– The paper identify evidence to suggest that China needs to be treated as a “special case” in the context of capital structure theory due to the unique cultural and business environment.
Pushing the limits to tree height: could foliar water storage compensate for hydraulic constraints in Sequoia sempervirens?
Authors: Ishii H. Roaki , Azuma Wakana , Kuroda Keiko , Sillett Stephen C. 
Published: April 2014

Summary

The constraint on vertical water transport is considered an important factor limiting height growth and maximum attainable height of trees. Here, we show evidence of foliar water storage as a mechanism that could partially compensate for this constraint in Sequoia sempervirens, the tallest species.

We measured hydraulic and morpho‐anatomical characteristics of foliated shoots of tall S. sempervirens trees near the wet, northern and dry, southern limits of its geographic distribution in California, USA.

The ability to store water (hydraulic capacitance) and saturated water content (leaf succulence) of foliage both increased with height and light availability, maintaining tolerance of leaves to water stress (bulk‐leaf water potential at turgor loss) constant relative to height.

Transverse‐sectional area of water‐storing, transfusion tissue in leaves increased with height, while the area of xylem tissue decreased, indicating increasing allocation to water storage and decreasing reliance on water transport from roots.

Treetop leaves of S. sempervirens absorb moisture via leaf surfaces and have potential to store more than five times the daily transpirational demand. Thus, foliar water storage may be an important adaptation that helps maintain physiological function of treetop leaves and hydraulic status of the crown, allowing this species to partially compensate for hydraulic constraints and sustain turgor for both photosynthesis and height growth.
Effective wavefield extrapolation in anisotropic media: accounting for resolvable anisotropy
Authors: Alkhalifah Tariq 
Published: April 2014

ABSTRACTSpectral methods provide artefact‐free and generally dispersion‐free wavefield extrapolation in anisotropic media. Their apparent weakness is in accessing the medium‐inhomogeneity information in an efficient manner. This is usually handled through a velocity‐weighted summation (interpolation) of representative constant‐velocity extrapolated wavefields, with the number of these extrapolations controlled by the effective rank of the original mixed‐domain operator or, more specifically, by the complexity of the velocity model. Conversely, with pseudo‐spectral methods, because only the space derivatives are handled in the wavenumber domain, we obtain relatively efficient access to the inhomogeneity in isotropic media, but we often resort to weak approximations to handle the anisotropy efficiently. Utilizing perturbation theory, I isolate the contribution of anisotropy to the wavefield extrapolation process. This allows us to factorize as much of the inhomogeneity in the anisotropic parameters as possible out of the spectral implementation, yielding effectively a pseudo‐spectral formulation. This is particularly true if the inhomogeneity of the dimensionless anisotropic parameters are mild compared with the velocity (i.e., factorized anisotropic media). I improve on the accuracy by using the Shanks transformation to incorporate a denominator in the expansion that predicts the higher‐order omitted terms; thus, we deal with fewer terms for a high level of accuracy. In fact, when we use this new separation‐based implementation, the anisotropy correction to the extrapolation can be applied separately as a residual operation, which provides a tool for anisotropic parameter sensitivity analysis. The accuracy of the approximation is high, as demonstrated in a complex tilted transversely isotropic model.
Special structures of hoopoe eggshells enhance the adhesion of symbiont‐carrying uropygial secretion that increase hatching success
Authors: Martín‐Vivaldi Manuel , Soler Juan J. , Peralta‐Sánchez Juan M. , Arco Laura , Martín‐Platero Antonio M. , Martínez‐Bueno Manuel , Ruiz‐Rodríguez Magdalena , Valdivia Eva 
Published: April 2014

Summary

Animals live in a bacterial world, and detecting and exploring adaptations favouring mutualistic relationships with antibiotic‐producing bacteria as a strategy to fight pathogens are of prime importance for evolutionary ecologists.

Uropygial secretion of European hoopoes (Upupa epops, Linnaeus) contains antimicrobials from mutualistic bacteria that may be used to prevent embryo infection. Here, we investigated the microscopic structure of hoopoe eggshells looking for special features favouring the adhesion of antimicrobial uropygial secretions.

We impeded female access to the uropygial gland and compared microscopic characteristics of eggshells, bacterial loads of eggs and of uropygial secretion, and hatching success of experimental and control females. Then, we explored the link between microbiological characteristics of uropygial secretion and these of eggs of hoopoes, as well as possible fitness benefits.

The microscopic study revealed special structures in hoopoes' eggshells (crypts). The experimental prevention of females' gland access demonstrated that crypts are filled with uropygial secretion and that symbiotic enterococci bacteria on the eggshells come, at least partially, from those in the female's uropygial gland. Moreover, the experiment resulted in a higher permeability of eggshells by several groups of bacteria and in elimination of the positive relationships detected for control nests between hatching success and density of symbiotic bacteria, either in the uropygial secretion of females or on the eggshell.

The findings of specialized crypts on the eggshells of hoopoes, and of video‐recorded females smearing secretion containing symbiotic bacteria at a high density onto the eggshells strongly support a link between secretion and bacteria on eggs. Moreover, the detected associations between bacteria and hatching success suggest that crypts enhancing the adhesion of symbiont‐carrying uropygial secretion likely protect embryos against infections.
Impact of States' Nurse Work Hour Regulations on Overtime Practices and Work Hours among Registered Nurses
Authors: Bae Sung‐Heui , Yoon Jangho 
Published: April 2014

ObjectivesTo examine the degree to which states' work hour regulations for nurses—policies regarding mandatory overtime and consecutive work hours—decrease mandatory overtime practice and hours of work among registered nurses.MethodsWe analyzed a nationally representative sample of registered nurses from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses for years 2004 and 2008. We obtained difference‐in‐differences estimates of the effect of the nurse work hour policies on the likelihood of working mandatory overtime, working more than 40 hours per week, and working more than 60 hours per week for all staff nurses working in hospitals and nursing homes.Principal FindingsThe mandatory overtime and consecutive work hour regulations were significantly associated with 3.9 percentage‐point decreases in the likelihood of working overtime mandatorily and 11.5 percentage‐point decreases in the likelihood of working more than 40 hours per week, respectively.ConclusionsState mandatory overtime and consecutive work hour policies are effective in reducing nurse work hours. The consecutive work hour policy appears to be a better regulatory tool for reducing long work hours for nurses.
Using Estimated True Safety Event Rates versus Flagged Safety Event Rates: Does It Change Hospital Profiling and Payment?
Authors: Rosen Amy K. , Chen Qi , Borzecki Ann M. , Shin Marlena , Itani Kamal M. F. , Shwartz Michael 
Published: April 2014

ObjectiveTo assess whether use of the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) composite measure versus modified composite measures leads to changes in hospital profiles and payments.Data Sources/Study SettingRetrospective analysis of 2010 Veterans Health Administration discharge data.Study DesignWe used the AHRQ PSI software (v4.2) to obtain PSI‐flagged events and composite scores for all 151 hospitals in the database (n = 517,814 hospitalizations). We compared the AHRQ PSI composite to two modified composites that estimated “true safety events” from previous chart abstraction findings: one with modified numerators based on the positive predictive value (PPV) of each PSI, and one with similarly modified numerators but whose denominators were based on the expected fraction of PSI‐eligible cases that remained after removing those PSIs that were present‐on‐admission (POA).Principal FindingsAlthough a small percentage (5–6 percent) of hospitals changed outlier status based on modified PSI composites, some of these changes were substantial; 30 and 19 percent of hospitals changed ≥20 ranks after adjustment for PPVs and POA flags, respectively. We estimate that 33 percent of hospitals would see a change of at least 10 percent in performance payments.ConclusionsChanges in hospital profiles and payments would be substantial for some hospitals if the PSI composite score used weights reflecting the relative prevalence of true versus flagged events.
Effects of Ranolazine on Torsades de Pointes Tachycardias in a Healthy Isolated Rabbit Heart Model
Authors: Sossalla Samuel , Wallisch Nora , Toischer Karl , Sohns Christian , Vollmann Dirk , Seegers Joachim , Lüthje Lars , Maier Lars S. , Zabel Markus 
Published: April 2014

AbstractPurposeTorsades de pointes (TdP) tachycardias are triggered, polymorphic ventricular arrhythmias arising from early afterdepolarizations (EADs) and increased dispersion of repolarization. Ranolazine is a new agent which reduces pathologically elevated late INa but also IKr. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of ranolazine in a validated isolated Langendorff‐perfused rabbit heart model.MethodsTdP was reproducibly induced with d‐sotalol (10−4 mol/L) and low potassium (K) (1.0 mmol/L for 5 min, pacing at CL 1000 ms). In 10 hearts, ECG and 8 epi‐ and endocardial monophasic action potentials were recorded. Action potential duration (APD) was measured at 90% repolarization and dispersion defined as APD max–min.ResultsD‐sotalol prolonged APD90 and increased dispersion of APD90, simultaneously causing EADs and induction of TdP. The combination of d‐sotalol and two concentrations of ranolazine did not increase dispersion of ventricular APD90 as compared to vehicle. Ranolazine at 5 μmol/L did not cause additional induction of EADs and/or TdP but also did not significantly suppress arrhythmogenic triggers. The higher concentration of ranolazine (10 μmol/L) in combination with d‐sotalol caused further prolongation of APD90, at the same time reduction in APD90 dispersion. In parallel, the incidence of EADs was reduced and an antitorsadogenic effect was seen.ConclusionsIn the healthy isolated rabbit heart (where late INa is not elevated), ranolazine does not cause proarrhythmia but exerts antiarrhythmic effects in a dose‐dependent manner against d‐sotalol/low K‐induced TdP. This finding—despite additional APD prolongation—supports the safety of a combined use of both drugs and merits clinical investigation.
Intrapulmonary unicentric Castleman disease mimicking peripheral pulmonary malignancy
Authors: Liu Yi , Chen Gang , Qiu Xiaoming , Xu Song , Wu Yi , Liu Renwang , Zhou Qinghua , Chen Jun 
Published: April 2014

AbstractCastleman disease, also known as angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia, can manifest as a unicentric or multicentric disorder. Intrapulmonary Castleman disease is very rare. Here, we present a patient with intrapulmonary Castleman disease who underwent left upper pulmonary lobectomy for suspected early lung cancer. The histopathologic diagnosis of the lobar mass was hyaline‐type Castleman disease. The patient has remained well after surgery, showing no local recurrence or distant disease during a two‐year follow‐up period. Although unicentric Castleman disease originating in the lung is rare, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of primary pulmonary malignant tumors.
Insulin‐like growth factor‐1 regulates the SIRT1‐p53 pathway in cellular senescence
Authors: Tran Duc , Bergholz Johann , Zhang Haibo , He Hanbing , Wang Yang , Zhang Yujun , Li Qintong , Kirkland James L. , Xiao Zhi‐Xiong 
Published: April 2014

SummaryCellular senescence, which is known to halt proliferation of aged and stressed cells, plays a key role against cancer development and is also closely associated with organismal aging. While increased insulin‐like growth factor (IGF) signaling induces cell proliferation, survival and cancer progression, disrupted IGF signaling is known to enhance longevity concomitantly with delay in aging processes. The molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of aging by IGF signaling and whether IGF regulates cellular senescence are still poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that IGF‐1 exerts a dual function in promoting cell proliferation as well as cellular senescence. While acute IGF‐1 exposure promotes cell proliferation and is opposed by p53, prolonged IGF‐1 treatment induces premature cellular senescence in a p53‐dependent manner. We show that prolonged IGF‐1 treatment inhibits SIRT1 deacetylase activity, resulting in increased p53 acetylation as well as p53 stabilization and activation, thus leading to premature cellular senescence. In addition, either expression of SIRT1 or inhibition of p53 prevented IGF‐1‐induced premature cellular senescence. Together, these findings suggest that p53 acts as a molecular switch in monitoring IGF‐1‐induced proliferation and premature senescence, and suggest a possible molecular connection involving IGF‐1‐SIRT1‐p53 signaling in cellular senescence and aging.
Impaired neutrophil extracellular trap formation: a novel defect in the innate immune system of aged individuals
Authors: Hazeldine Jon , Harris Phillipa , Chapple Iain L. , Grant Melissa , Greenwood Hannah , Livesey Amy , Sapey Elizabeth , Lord Janet M. 
Published: April 2014

SummaryNeutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are a recently discovered addition to the defensive armamentarium of neutrophils, assisting in the immune response against rapidly dividing bacteria. Although older adults are more susceptible to such infections, no study has examined whether aging in humans influences NET formation. We report that TNF‐α‐primed neutrophils generate significantly more NETs than unprimed neutrophils and that lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐ and interleukin‐8 (IL‐8)‐induced NET formation exhibits a significant age‐related decline. NET formation requires generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and this was also reduced in neutrophils from older donors identifying a mechanism for reduced NET formation. Expression of IL‐8 receptors (CXCR1 and CXCR2) and the LPS receptor TLR4 was similar on neutrophils from young and old subjects, and neutrophils challenged with phorbol‐12‐myristate‐13‐acetate (PMA) showed no age‐associated differences in ROS or NET production. Taken together, these data suggest a defect in proximal signalling underlies the age‐related decline in NET and ROS generation. TNF‐α priming involves signalling through p38 MAP kinase, but activation kinetics were comparable in neutrophils from young and old donors. In a clinical setting, we assessed the capacity of neutrophils from young and older patients with chronic periodontitis to generate NETs in response to PMA and hypochlorous acid (HOCL). Neutrophil extracellular trap generation to HOCL, but not PMA, was lower in older periodontitis patients but not in comparison with age‐matched controls. Impaired NET formation is thus a novel defect of innate immunity in older adults but does not appear to contribute to the increased incidence of periodontitis in older adults.