bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Children with congenital colorectal malformations often require special education or remedial teaching, despite normal intelligence
Authors: van den Hondel Desiree , Aarsen Femke K. , Wijnen Rene M.H. , Sloots Cornelius E.J. , IJsselstijn Hanneke 
Published: August 2015

AbstractAimThis study prospectively evaluated neuropsychological functioning in 8‐year‐old patients with anorectal malformation (ARM) and Hirschsprung's disease (HD).MethodsSchool functioning and behaviour were assessed in a standardised interview. Intelligence, attention, self‐esteem and quality of life were evaluated with validated tests and questionnaires. The following predictors were assessed: socio‐economic status, number of episodes of general anaesthesia, laxative treatment and premature birth. Severely intellectually disabled patients were excluded.ResultsIn total, twelve of the 23 (52%) patients with ARM and 11 (55%) of the 20 patients with HD received special education or remedial teaching. The intelligence quotient was normal: mean (standard deviation or SD) was 98 (17) and 96 (17), respectively. However, sustained attention was below the norm: mean (SD) Z‐score was −1.90 (1.94) and −1.43 (1.98) for ARM and HD patients; both p < 0.01. Self‐esteem was normal: mean (SD) Z‐score was 0.10 (1.29) and −0.20 (1.11) for ARM and HD patients. Quality of life was normal in ARM patients and slightly impaired in HD patients. No predictors for neuropsychological outcome were identified.ConclusionDespite normal intelligence, more than half of these patients received special education or remedial teaching. In addition, problems with sustained attention were found. These findings are important for long‐term care.
Optimum Study Design for Detecting Imprinting and Maternal Effects Based on Partial Likelihood
Authors: Zhang Fangyuan , Khalili Abbas , Lin Shili 
Published: August 2015

Summary
Despite spectacular advances in molecular genomic technologies in the past two decades, resources available for genomic studies are still finite and limited, especially for family-based studies. Hence, it is important to consider an optimum study design to maximally utilize limited resources to increase statistical power in family-based studies. A particular question of interest is whether it is more profitable to genotype siblings of probands or to recruit more independent families. Numerous studies have attempted to address this study design issue for simultaneous detection of imprinting and maternal effects, two important epigenetic factors for studying complex diseases. The question is far from settled, however, mainly due to the fact that results and recommendations in the literature are based on anecdotal evidence from limited simulation studies rather than based on rigorous statistical analysis. In this article, we propose a systematic approach to study various designs based on a partial likelihood formulation. We derive the asymptotic properties and obtain formulas for computing the information contents of study designs being considered. Our results show that, for a common disease, recruiting additional siblings is beneficial because both affected and unaffected individuals will be included. However, if a disease is rare, then any additional siblings recruited are most likely to be unaffected, thus contributing little additional information; in such cases, additional families will be a better choice with a fixed amount of resources. Our work thus offers a practical strategy for investigators to select the optimum study design within a case-control family scheme before data collection.
Enhancing L2 vocabulary acquisition through implicit reading support cues in e‐books
Authors: Liu Yeu‐Ting , Leveridge Aubrey Neil 
Published: August 2015

AbstractVarious explicit reading support cues, such as gloss, QR codes and hypertext annotation, have been embedded in e‐books designed specifically for fostering various aspects of language development. However, explicit visual cues are not always reliably perceived as salient or effective by language learners. The current study explored the efficacy of implicit reading support cues—cues that are imperceptible to second‐language (L2) readers during their L2 digital reading—for promoting L2 vocabulary acquisition. Results suggest that subliminal formal priming—being one type of implicit reading support cues—helped L2 readers significantly improve their form‐meaning vocabulary knowledge through e‐book reading. In particular, subliminal formal priming was more effective when the digital content, including the text and relevant illustration, was presented to L2 readers simultaneously, rather than incrementally. The results have important implications vis‐à‐vis the need for the inclusion of implicit reading cues, and the optimal digital input presentation mode for enhancing L2 vocabulary gains.
Neutrophil function in young and old caregivers
Authors: Vitlic Ana , Lord Janet M. , Taylor Angela E. , Arlt Wiebke , Bartlett David B. , Rossi Alessandra , Arora‐Duggal Niharika , Welham Alice , Heald Mary , Oliver Chris , Carroll Douglas , Phillips Anna C. 
Published: August 2015

ObjectiveThe present study examined the effects of caregiving stress and ageing on neutrophil function in young and older individuals.DesignAs a model of caregiving, young parents (aged 38.3 ± 4.78) of children with developmental disabilities were recruited and compared to older caregivers (aged 70 ± 6.03), full time carers of a spouse with dementia. Age‐ and gender‐matched controls were also assessed.MethodsParticipants completed a questionnaire pack assessing health behaviours, psychosocial status and caregiving characteristics, and provided a blood sample for assay of neutrophil function (phagocytosis of Escherichia coli and generation of reactive oxygen species to E. coli).ResultsDespite scoring poorly on the majority of psychological and caregiving variables, neutrophil function in caregivers was comparable to that in controls and was unexpectedly higher in older adults when compared to younger adults overall. However, those caregivers who reported higher psychological morbidity (depression, perceived stress, poor sleep quality), and more burdensome caregiving showed some evidence of poorer neutrophil phagocytic function.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of caregiving stress on neutrophil function in young and older participants simultaneously. Overall, neutrophil function was preserved in caregivers with neutrophil phagocytosis compromised only in those with the highest levels of distress. This suggests that, in future studies, more attention should be paid to individual differences among caregivers rather than caregiving status per se.
Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject?

Ageing is accompanied by the decrease in innate and adaptive immunity, termed immunosenescence.

Caregiving stress has been shown to exert negative effect on immune function in both young and old.

What does this study add?

The study examined effect of caregiving and ageing simultaneously in four groups of participants.

Neutrophil function and stress hormone levels were preserved in the stressed in both age groups.

Those with higher psychological morbidity had poorer neutrophil phagocytosis.
The challenges presented by parental mental illness and the potential of a whole‐family intervention to improve outcomes for families
Authors: Gatsou Lina , Yates Scott , Goodrich Nigel , Pearson Dan 
Published: August 2015

AbstractParental mental illness (PMI) can negatively affect the lives of all family members, and there is acknowledged need to work with family and social contexts to promote recovery. However, programmes undertaking such work remain rare and knowledge concerning mechanisms through which PMI impacts families and through which recovery might be achieved is underdeveloped. This paper outlines a new family intervention programme and presents evidence from focus groups with 16 professionals into their experiences of work with families with PMI. Evidence suggests that interactional effects of PMI, family communication and family relationships are key to understanding its impacts, but professionals are liable to struggle to engage with these due to concerns over stigma, lack of skills and low confidence. Positive impacts on practice were achieved through raising awareness of the whole‐family context in relation to PMI, building confidence to raise and engage with PMI and the provision of structured tools for use with families. Positive impacts on the lives of family members were then achieved by professionals in relation to symptoms for the ill parent, the burden on children and overall family well‐being, strongly mediated through improved family communication, understanding and relationships. Implications for policy and practice are considered.
Uncertainty and Expectation in Sentence Processing: Evidence From Subcategorization Distributions
Authors: Linzen Tal , Jaeger T. Florian 
Published: August 2015

AbstractThere is now considerable evidence that human sentence processing is expectation based: As people read a sentence, they use their statistical experience with their language to generate predictions about upcoming syntactic structure. This study examines how sentence processing is affected by readers' uncertainty about those expectations. In a self‐paced reading study, we use lexical subcategorization distributions to factorially manipulate both the strength of expectations and the uncertainty about them. We compare two types of uncertainty: uncertainty about the verb's complement, reflecting the next prediction step; and uncertainty about the full sentence, reflecting an unbounded number of prediction steps. We find that uncertainty about the full structure, but not about the next step, was a significant predictor of processing difficulty: Greater reduction in uncertainty was correlated with increased reading times (RTs). We additionally replicated previously observed effects of expectation violation (surprisal), orthogonal to the effect of uncertainty. This suggests that both surprisal and uncertainty affect human RTs. We discuss the consequences for theories of sentence comprehension.
Global patterns of agricultural land‐use intensity and vertebrate diversity
Authors: Kehoe Laura , Kuemmerle Tobias , Meyer Carsten , Levers Christian , Václavík Tomáš , Kreft Holger 
Published: August 2015

AbstractAimLand‐use change is the single biggest cause of biodiversity loss. With a rising demand for resources, understanding how and where agriculture threatens biodiversity is of increasing importance. Agricultural expansion has received much attention, but where high agricultural land‐use intensity (LUI) threatens biodiversity remains unclear. We address this knowledge gap with two main research questions: (1) Where do global patterns of LUI coincide with the spatial distribution of biodiversity? (2) Where are regions of potential conflict between different aspects of high LUI and high biodiversity?LocationGlobal.MethodsWe overlaid thirteen LUI metrics with endemism richness, a range size‐weighted species richness indicator, for mammals, birds and amphibians. We then used local indicators of spatial association to delineate statistically significant (P < 0.05) areas of high and low LUI associated with biodiversity.ResultsPatterns of LUI are heterogeneously distributed in areas of high endemism richness, thus discouraging the use of a single metric to represent LUI. Many regions where high LUI and high endemism richness coincide, for example in South America, China and Eastern Africa, are not within currently recognized biodiversity hotspots. Regions of currently low LUI and high endemism richness, found in many parts of Mesoamerica, Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia, may be at risk as intensification accelerates.Main conclusionsWe provide a global view of the geographic patterns of LUI and its concordance with endemism richness, shedding light on regions where highly intensive agriculture and unique biodiversity coincide. Past assessments of land‐use impacts on biodiversity have either disregarded LUI or included a single metric to measure it. This study demonstrates that such omission can substantially underestimate biodiversity threat. A wider spectrum of relevant LUI metrics needs to be considered when balancing agricultural production and biodiversity.
National survey of the management of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) in the UK in 2014
Authors: Dhatariya K. K. , Nunney I. , Higgins K. , Sampson M. J. , Iceton G. 
Published: August 2015

AbstractAimTo examine, in a national survey, the outcomes of adult patients presenting with DKA in 2014, mapped against accepted UK national guidance.MethodsData were collected in a standardized form covering clinical and biochemical outcomes, risk and discharge planning. The form was sent to all UK diabetes specialist teams (n = 220). Anonymized data were collected on five consecutive patients admitted with DKA between 1 May 2014 and 30 November 2014.ResultsA total of 283 forms were received (n = 281 patients) from 72 hospitals, of which 71.4% used the national guidelines. The results showed that 7.8% of cases occurred in existing inpatients, 6.1% of admissions were newly diagnosed diabetes and 33.7% of patients had had at least one episode of DKA in the preceding year. The median times to starting 0.9% sodium chloride and intravenous insulin were 41.5 and 60 min, respectively. The median time to resolution was 18.7 h and the median length of hospital stay was 2.6 days. Significant adverse biochemical outcomes occurred, with 27.6% of patients developing hypoglycaemia and 55% reported as having hypokalaemia. There were also significant issues with care processes. Initial nurse‐led observations were carried out well, but subsequent patient monitoring remained suboptimal. Most patients were not seen by a member of the diabetes specialist team during the first 6 h, but 95% were seen before discharge. A significant minority of discharge letters to primary care did not contain necessary information.ConclusionDespite widespread adoption of national guidance, several areas of management of DKA are suboptimal, being associated with avoidable biochemical and clinical risk.
Persistent alterations in active and passive electrical membrane properties of regenerated nerve fibers of man and mice
Authors: Moldovan Mihai , Alvarez Susana , Rosberg Mette R. , Krarup Christian 
Published: August 2015

AbstractExcitability of regenerated fibers remains impaired due to changes in both passive cable properties and alterations in the voltage‐dependent membrane function. These abnormalities were studied by mathematical modeling in human regenerated nerves and experimental studies in mice. In three adult male patients with surgically repaired complete injuries of peripheral nerves of the arm 22 months–26 years prior to investigation, deviation of excitability measures was explained by a hyperpolarizing shift in the resting membrane potential and an increase in the passive ‘Barrett and Barrett’ conductance (GBB) bridging the nodal and internodal compartments. These changes were associated with an increase in the ‘fast’ K+ conductance and the inward rectifier conductance (GH). Similar changes were found in regenerated mouse tibial motor axons at 1 month after a sciatic crush lesion. During the first 5 months of regeneration, GH showed partial recovery, which paralleled that in GBB. The internodal length remained one‐third of normal. Excitability abnormalities could be reversed by the energy‐dependent Na+/K+ pump blocker ouabain resulting in membrane depolarization. Stressing the Na+ pumping system during a strenuous activity protocol triggered partial Wallerian degeneration in regenerated nerves but not in control nerves from age‐matched mice. The current data suggest that the nodal voltage‐gated ion channel machinery is restored in regenerated axons, although the electrical separation from the internodal compartment remains compromised. Due to the persistent increase in number of nodes, the increased activity‐dependent Na+ influx could lead to hyperactivity of the Na+/K+ pump resulting in membrane hyperpolarization and neurotoxic energy insufficiency during strenuous activity.
Predictive formula for acute liver failure is useful for predicting the prognosis of patients with acute‐on‐chronic liver failure
Authors: Kakisaka Keisuke , Kataoka Kojiro , Kuroda Hidekatsu , Takikawa Yasuhiro 
Published: August 2015

AimThe prognosis of acute‐on‐chronic liver failure (ACLF) is extremely poor in comparison to acute liver failure (ALF). We aimed to establish methods for the early diagnosis of ACLF and its severity to identify the patients with a poor prognosis.MethodsThe laboratory data at admission of 30 ACLF and 46 ALF patients were compared. Three established prognosis prediction models (Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease [MELD]; MELD modified by serum sodium concentration, [MELD‐Na]; and the Japan hepatic encephalopathy prediction model [J‐HEPM]) were assessed using area under the receiver–operator curve (AUROC) values.ResultsNo significant difference was found in the laboratory data of the two patient groups. J‐HEPM was able to predict the outcome of the ACLF subjects (AUROC = 0.93).ConclusionAlthough ACLF could not be differentially diagnosed from ALF at admission from the laboratory data alone, the J‐HEPM effectively predicted the prognosis of liver failure in patients with ACLF. These findings indicate that ACLF patients with high J‐HEPM scores require earlier and more intensive care than ALF patients.
An Exploration of the Readiness, Challenges and Expected Support for Their Overseas Study of Chinese Business and Management Programme Students
Authors: Wang Chengbo , Li Xiaomei , Ou Xuan , O'Kane James , Mao Zhaofang , Zhang Wenquan 
Published: August 2015

AbstractChinese students are the largest international student cohort in the higher education institutions of English‐speaking developed countries. The paper explores strategies to enhance the Chinese students' learning efficacy in overseas institutions. This research differs from other research focusing on international students already in English‐speaking institutions; it explores the readiness of potential Chinese international students before departure from China, their anticipated challenges for study abroad and expected support from host institutions and staff. Besides the insights of anticipated challenges and expected support, the key findings include: the majority of the sample students are financially ready for overseas study, however they are not fully ready on English language; students from the public institute in the study have a higher level of readiness for subject knowledge than their private institute's peers. The findings offer a guide, to both the English‐speaking institutions and their Chinese partners, on facilitating, teaching and preparing the Chinese students for a fruitful learning experience abroad and enhanced academic performance.
Horizontal stability of connective tissue grafts at the buccal aspect of single implants: a 1‐year prospective case series
Authors: De Bruyckere Thomas , Eghbali Aryan , Younes Faris , De Bruyn Hugo , Cosyn Jan 
Published: August 2015

AbstractAimTo clinically evaluate the horizontal stability of a connective tissue graft (CTG) at the buccal aspect of single implants (1); to compare actual gingival thickness between thin and thick gingival biotype (2).Materials and MethodsPeriodontally healthy non‐smoking patients with a single implant in the anterior maxilla (15–25) were selected for a prospective case series. All demonstrated a horizontal alveolar defect and were in need of contour augmentation by means of CTG for aesthetic reasons. Patients were enrolled 3 months after implant surgery and had been provided with a provisional screw‐retained crown. CTG was inserted in the buccal mucosa via the envelope technique using one intrasulcular incision. An ultrasonic device was used to evaluate mucosal thickness (MT) at the buccal aspect. MT was assessed at t0 (before CTG), t1 (immediately after CTG), t2 (2 weeks after CTG = suture removal), t3 (3 months after CTG = permanent crown installation) and t4 (1 year after implant placement). The gingival biotype was categorized as thin or thick based on the transparency of a periodontal probe through the soft tissues while probing the buccal sulcus of the contra‐lateral tooth. Gingival thickness (GT) was measured at the contra‐lateral tooth using the same ultrasonic device.ResultsThirty‐seven patients (19 men, 18 women; mean age 38) met the selection criteria and consented to the treatment. Mean soft tissue gain immediately after CTG was on average 1.07 mm (SD 0.49). What remained of this tissue gain after 1 year was on average 0.97 mm (SD 0.48; 90.5%). Hence, mean soft tissue loss amounted to 0.10 mm (SD 0.23; 9.5%; p = 0.015) with no significant difference between patients with a thin or thick biotype (p ≥ 0.290). Patients with a thin biotype had a mean GT of 1.02 mm (SD 0.21), whereas GT was on average 1.32 mm (SD 0.31) in subjects with a thick biotype (p = 0.004).ConclusionConnective tissue graft substantially thickens the peri‐implant mucosa with acceptable stability over a 1‐year period.
Attention problems in very preterm children from childhood to adulthood: the Bavarian Longitudinal Study
Authors: Breeman Linda D. , Jaekel Julia , Baumann Nicole , Bartmann Peter , Wolke Dieter 
Published: August 2015

BackgroundVery preterm (VP; gestational age <32 weeks) and very low birth weight (VLBW; <1500 grams) is related to attention problems in childhood and adulthood. The stability of these problems into adulthood is not known.MethodsThe Bavarian Longitudinal Study is a prospective cohort study that followed 260 VP/VLBW and 229 term‐born individuals from birth to adulthood. Data on attention were collected at 6, 8, and 26 years of age, using parent reports, expert behavior observations, and clinical ADHD diagnoses.ResultsAt each assessment, VP/VLBW individuals had significantly more attention problems, shorter attention span, and were more frequently diagnosed with ADHD than term‐born comparisons. In both VP/VLBW and term‐born individuals, overall, attention span increased and attention problems decreased from childhood to adulthood. Attention problems and attention span were more stable over time for VP/VLBW than term‐born individuals. Similarly, ADHD diagnoses showed moderate stability from childhood to adulthood in VP/VLBW, but not in term‐born individuals. However, when those with severe disabilities were excluded, differences between VP/VLBW and term‐born individuals reduced.ConclusionsDespite improvement in attention regulation from childhood to adulthood, children born very preterm remained at increased risk for attention problems in adulthood. In contrast, term‐born children with clinical attention problems outgrew these by adulthood. As inattentive behavior of VP/VLBW children may be overlooked by teachers, it may be necessary to raise awareness for school intervention programs that reduce attention problems in VP/VLBW children.