bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The invasion of southern South America by imported bumblebees and associated parasites
Authors: Schmid‐Hempel Regula , Eckhardt Michael , Goulson David , Heinzmann Daniel , Lange Carlos , Plischuk Santiago , Escudero Luisa R. , Salathé Rahel , Scriven Jessica J. , Schmid‐Hempel Paul 
Published: November 2013

Summary

The Palaearctic Bombus ruderatus (in 1982/1983) and Bombus terrestris (1998) have both been introduced into South America (Chile) for pollination purposes. We here report on the results of sampling campaigns in 2004, and 2010–2012 showing that both species have established and massively expanded their range.

Bombus terrestris, in particular, has spread by some 200 km year−1 and had reached the Atlantic coast in Argentina by the end of 2011. Both species, and especially B. terrestris, are infected by protozoan parasites that seem to spread along with the imported hosts and spillover to native species.

Genetic analyses by polymorphic microsatellite loci suggest that the host population of B. terrestris is genetically diverse, as expected from a large invading founder population, and structured through isolation by distance. Genetically, the populations of the trypanosomatid parasite, Crithidia bombi, sampled in 2004 are less diverse, and distinct from the ones sampled later. Current C. bombi populations are highly heterozygous and also structured through isolation by distance correlating with the genetic distances of B. terrestris, suggesting the latter's expansion to be a main structuring factor for the parasite.

Remarkably, wherever B. terrestris spreads, the native Bombus dahlbomii disappears although the reasons remain unclear. Our ecological and genetic data suggest a major invasion event that is currently unfolding in southern South America with disastrous consequences for the native bumblebee species.
Validation of Real‐time PCR Assays for Bioforensic Detection of Model Plant Pathogens
Authors: James Mindy , Blagden Trenna , Moncrief Ian , Burans James P. , Schneider Katherine , Fletcher Jacqueline 
Published: November 2013

AbstractThe U.S. agricultural sector is vulnerable to intentionally introduced microbial threats because of its wide and open distribution and economic importance. To investigate such events, forensically valid assays for plant pathogen detection are needed. In this work, real‐time PCR assays were developed for three model plant pathogens: Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato, Xylella fastidiosa, and Wheat streak mosaic virus. Validation included determination of the linearity and range, limit of detection, sensitivity, specificity, and exclusivity of each assay. Additionally, positive control plasmids, distinguishable from native signature by restriction enzyme digestion, were developed to support forensic application of the assays. Each assay displayed linear amplification of target nucleic acid, detected 100 fg or less of target nucleic acid, and was specific to its target pathogen. Results obtained with these model pathogens provide the framework for development and validation of similar assays for other plant pathogens of high consequence.
Stability of Morphine, Codeine, and 6‐Acetylmorphine in Blood at Different Sampling and Storage Conditions
Authors: Papoutsis Ioannis , Nikolaou Panagiota , Pistos Constantinos , Dona Artemisia , Stefanidou Maria , Spiliopoulou Chara , Athanaselis Sotirios 
Published: November 2013

AbstractThe stability of drugs in biological specimens is a major concern during the evaluation of the toxicological results. The stability of morphine, codeine, and 6‐acetyl‐morphine in blood was studied after different sampling conditions: (i) in glass, polypropylene or polystyrene tubes, (ii) with addition of dipotassium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (K2EDTA) or sodium oxalate (Na2C2O4), and (iii) with or without the addition of sodium fluoride (NaF). Spiked blood samples were stored at two different temperatures (4 and −20°C), analyzed after different storage times and after three freeze–thaw cycles. Opiate concentrations were decreased in all conditions, but the most unstable was 6‐acetyl‐morphine. The addition of NaF as preservative improved the stability of opiates at all conditions studied, whereas the type of anticoagulant did not affect the stability of opiates. It was concluded that blood samples should be stored at −20°C in glass tubes containing oxalate and NaF for maximum stability.
New insights into the epidemiology of childhood atopic dermatitis
Authors: Flohr C. , Mann J. 
Published: November 2013

AbstractThere is a growing desire to explain the worldwide rise in the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD). Trend data on the burden of AD suggest that the picture in the developing world may soon resemble that of wealthier nations, where AD affects over 20% of children. This, combined with significant variations in prevalence within countries, emphasizes the importance of environmental factors. Many hypotheses have been explored, from the modulation of immune priming by hygiene, gut microbiota diversity, and exposure to endotoxins through farm animals to the effects of pollution, climate, and diet. The discovery of the filaggrin skin barrier gene and its importance in AD development and severity has brought the focus on gene–environment interactions and the identification of environmental factors that impact on skin barrier function. This article reviews our current understanding of the epidemiology of AD, with an emphasis on the findings reported in the international literature over the last 5 years.
Managing Labor and Delivery among Impoverished Populations in Mexico: Cervical Examinations as Bureaucratic Practice
Authors: Smith‐Oka Vania 
Published: November 2013

ABSTRACTBirthing experiences for low‐income and marginalized women have frequently been framed within explanatory models of authoritative knowledge and power dynamics. Many of these explanatory models have pointed out the structural violence inherent in the biomedical model of birth. The research on which this article is based suggests that clinicians’ stressful work environment and class‐based stereotypes of low‐income women resulted in the routinizing of inhumane medical practices. Hospital overcrowding due to health reforms led to clinicians being primarily concerned with moving patients swiftly through the system. Clinicians increasingly relied on the cervical examination as a marker for labor's progress and a shorthand method to track cervical dilation. Using ethnographic data collected in the obstetrics ward of a public hospital in Mexico, in this article I explore the emergence of a bureaucratic routinizing of obstetricians’ everyday practice. I provide a new understanding of the encoding and entrenching of everyday medical practices and their effect on the reproductive rights of women.
Accelerated hazards model based on parametric families generalized with Bernstein polynomials
Authors: Chen Yuhui , Hanson Timothy , Zhang Jiajia 
Published: November 2013

SummaryA transformed Bernstein polynomial that is centered at standard parametric families, such as Weibull or log‐logistic, is proposed for use in the accelerated hazards model. This class provides a convenient way towards creating a Bayesian nonparametric prior for smooth densities, blending the merits of parametric and nonparametric methods, that is amenable to standard estimation approaches. For example optimization methods in SAS or R can yield the posterior mode and asymptotic covariance matrix. This novel nonparametric prior is employed in the accelerated hazards model, which is further generalized to time‐dependent covariates. The proposed approach fares considerably better than previous approaches in simulations; data on the effectiveness of biodegradable carmustine polymers on recurrent brain malignant gliomas is investigated.
Outcome of prolactinoma after pregnancy and lactation: a study on 73 patients
Authors: Domingue Marie‐Eve , Devuyst France , Alexopoulou Orsalia , Corvilain Bernard , Maiter Dominique 
Published: November 2013

SummaryContextProlactinoma is the most frequent pituitary tumour among women of child‐bearing age. Only a few studies have addressed the outcome of prolactinoma after pregnancy.ObjectiveTo study remission, defined as prolactin normalization without medical treatment, after pregnancy and lactation in women with prolactinoma.Patients and methodsA retrospective study conducted in 2 Belgian academic centres including 73 patients (54 microprolactinomas and 19 macroprolactinomas) with 104 pregnancies continuing beyond first trimester. Dopamine agonists were stopped in early pregnancy in all treated cases. Prolactin level and adenoma size at pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were recorded before pregnancy and throughout follow‐up.ResultsThirty of 73 women (41%) were in remission after a median follow‐up of 22 months after delivery or cessation of lactation. Adenoma size at diagnosis was smaller in women in remission (5 vs 8 mm). There was a nonsignificant higher rate of remission for microprolactinomas than for macroprolactinoma (46% vs 26%). The first pituitary MRI after pregnancy and lactation showed no tumour and a decreased adenoma size in 23% and 39% of women, respectively. MRI normalization was associated with remission. The number of pregnancies per woman as well as breastfeeding and its duration did not influence remission rate.ConclusionMore than 40% of women with previous diagnosis of prolactinoma have normal PRL level without medical treatment for a median follow‐up of 22 months after pregnancy and lactation. The likelihood of remission is associated with a smaller initial adenoma size and normalization of pituitary MRI after pregnancy.
Stackless Multi‐BVH Traversal for CPU, MIC and GPU Ray Tracing
Authors: Áfra Attila T. , Szirmay‐Kalos László 
Published: November 2013

AbstractStackless traversal algorithms for ray tracing acceleration structures require significantly less storage per ray than ordinary stack‐based ones. This advantage is important for massively parallel rendering methods, where there are many rays in flight. On SIMD architectures, a commonly used acceleration structure is the MBVH, which has multiple bounding boxes per node for improved parallelism. It scales to branching factors higher than two, for which, however, only stack‐based traversal methods have been proposed so far. In this paper, we introduce a novel stackless traversal algorithm for MBVHs with up to four‐way branching. Our approach replaces the stack with a small bitmask, supports dynamic ordered traversal, and has a low computation overhead. We also present efficient implementation techniques for recent CPU, MIC (Intel Xeon Phi) and GPU (NVIDIA Kepler) architectures.
The perceived risks and benefits of quitting in smokers diagnosed with severe mental illness participating in a smoking cessation intervention: Gender differences and comparison to smokers without mental illness
Authors: Filia Sacha L. , Baker Amanda L. , Gurvich Caroline T. , Richmond Robyn , Kulkarni Jayashri 
Published: November 2013

AbstractIntroduction and AimsThis study aimed to examine the perceived risks and benefits of quitting in smokers diagnosed with psychosis, including potential gender differences and comparisons to smokers in the general population.Design and MethodsData were collected from 200 people diagnosed with psychosis participating in a randomised controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a multi‐component intervention for smoking cessation and cardiovascular disease risk reduction in people with severe mental illness. Results were compared with both treatment and non‐treatment seeking smokers in the general population.ResultsMale and female smokers with psychosis generally had similar perceived risks and benefits of quitting. Females rated it significantly more likely that they would experience weight gain and negative affect upon quitting than males diagnosed with psychosis. Compared with smokers in the general population also seeking smoking cessation treatment, this sample of smokers with psychosis demonstrated fewer gender differences and lower ratings of perceived risks and benefits of quitting. The pattern of risk and benefit ratings in smokers diagnosed with psychosis was similar to those of non‐treatment seeking smokers in the general population.Discussion and ConclusionsThese results increase our understanding of smoking in people with severe mental illness, and can directly inform smoking interventions to maximise successful abstinence for this group of smokers. For female smokers with psychosis, smoking cessation interventions need to address concerns regarding weight gain and negative affect. Intervention strategies aimed at enhancing beliefs about the benefits of quitting smoking for both male and female smokers with psychosis are necessary. [Filia S L, Baker A L, Gurvich C T, Richmond R, Kulkarni J. The perceived risks and benefits of quitting in smokers diagnosed with severe mental illness participating in a smoking cessation intervention: Gender differences and comparison to smokers without mental illness. Drug Alcohol Rev 2014;33:78–85]
Public participation in local alcohol regulation: Findings from a survey ofNewZealand communities
Authors: Kypri Kypros , Maclennan Brett 
Published: November 2013

AbstractIntroduction and AimsIn many high‐income countries, the responsibility for alcohol regulation is being devolved from central to local governments. Although seeking public input is typically required by law, there remains little empirical evidence on whether and how the public is involved. We investigated public participation in local liquor licensing and related regulation inNewZealand.Design and MethodsIn 2007, we randomly sampled 2337 residents from the national electoral roll in seven communities and invited them to complete a postal questionnaire assessing their level of general community engagement, whether they had taken action on alcohol issues, and barriers to participation they perceived or encountered.ResultsA total of 1372 individuals responded (59% response). Fifty‐two percent were current members of community organisations, and 40% had ever taken action on a local issue. Respondents considered alcohol to be a major problem locally, but only 4% had been involved in action to address a problem, whereas 18% had considered taking action. In their communities, 12% and 24%, respectively, felt they could influence the number or location of alcohol outlets. There was little variation across communities.Discussion and ConclusionDespite high levels of general community engagement and alcohol being widely regarded as a local problem, few community members reported acting on alcohol issues, and their self‐efficacy to effect change was low.[KypriK,MaclennanB. Public participation in local alcohol regulation: Findings from a survey ofNewZealand communities.Drug Alcohol Rev2014;33:59–63]
Long‐term outcome of elderly patients (75 years or older) with hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Hori Maisa , Tanaka Masatoshi , Ando Eiji , Sakata Masahiro , Shimose Shigeo , Ohno Miki , Yutani Shigeru , Kuraoka Kei , Kuromatsu Ryoko , Sumie Shuji , Sata Michio 
Published: November 2013

AimThe aim of this study was to evaluate the long‐term outcome of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) aged 75 years or older.MethodsThe study included 422 patients with HCC, who were divided into two age groups: 75 years or older (n = 140) and younger than 75 (n = 282). Outcomes were compared between the two groups.ResultsThe number of elderly patients treated with supportive care alone (33 patients; 24%) was significantly higher than younger patients (30 patients; 11%, P < 0.01). The 1‐, 3‐, 5‐ and 7‐year overall survival rates of the elderly patients (81%, 55%, 39% and 23%, respectively) were worse than those of younger patients (85%, 64%, 49% and 36%, respectively, P = 0.042). However, the overall survival rate of the elderly group after excluding 63 patients treated with supportive care alone, was similar to that of the younger group (P = 0.615). Multivariate analysis identified age, total bilirubin levels, albumin levels, serum des‐γ‐carboxy prothrombin levels, tumor size, number of HCC nodules, vascular invasion, extrahepatic metastasis and treatment modality as independent and significant factors of overall survival.ConclusionAdvanced age is a negative prognostic factor in patients with HCC due to the tendency for frequent use of conservative treatment rather than locoregional or surgical treatment.
Do Energy‐Based PET Models Require More Input Data than Temperature‐Based Models? — An Evaluation at Four Humid FluxNet Sites
Authors: Archibald Josephine A. , Walter M. Todd 
Published: November 2013

AbstractIt is well established that wet environment potential evapotranspiration (PET) can be reliably estimated using the energy budget at the canopy or land surface. However, in most cases the necessary radiation measurements are not available and, thus, empirical temperature‐based PET models are still widely used, especially in watershed models. Here we question the presumption that empirical PET models require fewer input data than more physically based models. Specifically, we test whether the energy‐budget‐based Priestley‐Taylor (P‐T) model can reliably predict daily PET using primarily air temperature to estimate the radiation fluxes and associated parameters. This method of calculating PET requires only daily minimum and maximum temperature, day of the year, and latitude. We compared PET estimates using directly measured radiation fluxes to PET calculated from temperature‐based radiation estimates at four humid AmeriFlux sites. We found good agreement between P‐T PET calculated from measured radiation fluxes and P‐T PET determined via air temperature. In addition, in three of the four sites, the temperature‐based radiation approximations had a stronger correlation with measured evapotranspiration (ET) during periods of maximal ET than fully empirical Hargreaves, Hamon and Oudin methods. Of the three fully empirical models, the Hargreaves performed the best. Overall, the results suggest that daily PET estimates can be made using a physically based approach even when radiation measurements are unavailable.
Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame
Authors: Vasilopoulou Sofia , Halikiopoulou Daphne , Exadaktylos Theofanis 
Published: November 2013

AbstractWithin the broader debate on the Greek crisis, the theory of ‘populist democracy’ postulates that populism is fundamental to the sustenance of the Greek political system and is at the heart of Greece's endemic domestic weaknesses. This article tests this assumption empirically through the use of a sophisticated framing analysis of speeches delivered by the leaders of the five parties in the Greek parliament in the period 2009–11. The findings confirm that populism: (a) is expressed through the narratives of political actors; (b) is observed across the party system; (c) is expressed in the forms of blame‐shifting and exclusivity; and (d) differs depending on position in the party system. The article contributes to the debate by testing and building on the theory of democratic populism, providing a novel way of measuring and operationalizing populism and identifying a new typology that distinguishes between mainstream and fringe populism.
Bone healing with oxytocin‐loaded microporous β‐TCPbone substitute in ectopic bone formation model and critical‐sized osseous defect of rat
Authors: Park Jin‐Woo , Kim Jae‐Min , Lee Heon‐Jin , Jeong Seong‐Hwa , Suh Jo‐Young , Hanawa Takao 
Published: November 2013

AbstractAimThis study investigated the efficacy of the hypothalamic nonapeptide oxytocin (OT) by direct delivery to local defects using a microporous β‐tricalcium phosphate (TCP) as the carrier for the future applications as a method to achieve predictable bone regeneration of large osseous defects requiring sinus bone graft and guided bone regeneration procedures for implant placement.Material and MethodsBoth the ectopic and new bone formation induced by theOT‐loaded microporous β‐TCPpowder was histomorphometrically compared with unloaded β‐TCPin a subcutaneous ectopic bone formation model and calvarial critical‐sized defects (CSDs) in 45 rats.ResultsTheOT‐loaded β‐TCPclearly enhanced ectopic bone formation compared with the unloaded control group. A High initialOTdose (250 μg) significantly increased ectopic bone formation at an early healing time‐point compared with a lowerOTdose (50 μg). TheOT‐loaded samples displayed greater new bone formation in the rat calvarialCSDs. Extensive new bone formation was achieved in the calvarialCSDs with the higherOTdose.ConclusionThese results suggest that localOTdelivery to bone substitute promotes new bone formation via an osteoinductive mode of action.
One‐stage full‐mouth disinfection combined with a periodontal dressing: a randomized controlled clinical trial
Authors: Keestra Johan A. J. , Coucke Wim , Quirynen Marc 
Published: November 2013

AbstractAimTo compare the clinical benefit of a periodontal dressing applied after a one‐stage full‐mouth disinfection (OSFMD) in patients with chronic periodontitis up to 3 months after therapy.Material and MethodsThis randomized, controlled split‐mouth study included 24 patients. After OSFMD, a test and a control side were selected by means of a computer‐generated randomization list. Test sides received a periodontal dressing (Coepak®) for 7 days and the control sides received no periodontal dressing. After 7 days the periodontal dressing was removed and the pain experience was recorded. After 3 months, the clinical periodontal parameters were recorded.ResultsThe periodontal dressing group showed a significant (p < 0.05) additional pocket depth reduction and additional clinical attachment gain for the moderate pockets of single‐ and multi‐rooted teeth compared with the control group. A significant (p < 0.05) lower percentage of sites with probing pocket depth ≥5 mm were shown for the periodontal dressing group compared with the control group (2.7 ± 16.3% versus 4.8 ± 21.4%). The pain intensity was significantly reduced when using a periodontal dressing (5.13 ± 0.89 versus 3.42 ± 1.27).ConclusionThe use of a periodontal dressing for 7 days after a OSFMD offers an additional short‐term clinical improvement and lowers the pain intensity.