bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Two Multiple Sclerosis Quality-of-Life Measures: Comparison in a National Sample
Authors: Moore Fraser , Vickrey Barbara , Fortin Kathy , Lee Liesly 
Published: January 2015

AbstractBackground: Multiple sclerosis (MS) has a profound impact on patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). It is unclear how HRQoL can be best assessed for different purposes. This study aimed to compare two HRQoL questionnaires of differing lengths for feasibility of administration, patient perceptions and psychometric properties.Methods: This was an open-label, 24-month study in 334 patients with relapsing MS treated with subcutaneous interferon β-1a. At baseline and months 6, 12, 18 and 24, patients completed the Multiple Sclerosis International Quality of Life (MusiQoL) and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54) questionnaires and compared them using an evaluation questionnaire. HRQoL scores over time and psychometric properties (correlations with clinical disease measures, relative validity and responsiveness to change) of the questionnaires were assessed.Results: A minority of patients had missing items on either HRQoL measure. Completion time was significantly shorter for MusiQoL versus MSQOL-54 (p<0.0001). Patients felt that MusiQoL was easier to use than MSQOL-54 but preferred MSQOL-54 in terms of thoroughness. Mean HRQoL scores increased significantly from baseline to 24 months; correlations of both measures were stronger with an anxiety and depression measure than with disability or recent relapse occurrence. Relative validity and responsiveness to change were similar for both instruments.Conclusion: The shorter MusiQoL is suitable for evaluating HRQoL in patients with MS and may be more practical to administer than the more thorough MSQOL-54.
Relationships among perceptions of organizational politics (POPs), work motivation and salesperson performance
Authors: Yen Wen-Wei 
Published: January 2015

AbstractSalespersons differ from office workers in office time, work pressure and salary structure, thus their perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and work motivations may also differ. Based on literature review and the expectancy theory of motivation, this study proposes three hypotheses: (1) POPs is positively related to salesperson performance, (2) POPs is positively related to salesperson work motivation and (3) there is mediator effect for work motivation in the relationship between POPs and salesperson performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted on four representative companies from the list of product manufacturers and service providers in Taiwan. The POPs and work motivation questions were answered by the salespersons, whereas the salespersons’ performance questions were assessed by the sales managers. A total of 850 questionnaires were distributed with 510 valid responses returned for hypotheses testing. The results support the three hypotheses, suggesting POPs can lead to improved salesperson performance, and this effect is mediated through work motivation. This new finding disagrees with the orthodox finding within the literature, which states that POPs and job performance for office workers are negatively correlated. The inconsistency may be ascribed to different work motivations between two groups of organizational members.
Identification ofToxoplasma gondiiantigens associated with different types of infection by serum antibody profiling
Authors: FELGNER JIIN , JUAREZ SILVIA , HUNG CHRIS , LIANG LI , JAIN AARTI , DÖŞKAYA MERT , FELGNER PHILIP L. , CANER AYŞE , GÜRÜZ YÜKSEL , DAVIES D. HUW 
Published: January 2015

SUMMARYAcquisition of acute toxoplasmosis during the first trimester of pregnancy can have catastrophic consequences for the foetus. Diagnosis is routinely based on the detection of maternalToxoplasma gondii– antibodies using whole parasite extracts as detection antigen. While such assays are sensitive, they show no specificity for the stage of infection. We hypothesized diagnosis might be improved using recombinant antigens for detection, particularly if antibodies to certain antigen(s) were associated with early or late stages of infection. To address this, protein microarrays comprising 1513T. gondiiexon products were probed with well-characterized sera from seronegative (‘N’) controls, and acute (‘A’), chronic/IgM-persisting (‘C/M’) and chronic (‘C’) toxoplasmosis cases from Turkey. Three reactive exon products recognized preferentially in A infections, and three recognized preferentially in C/M infections, were expressed inEscherichia coliand tested for discrimination in IgG ELISAs. The best discriminators were exon 1 of TGME49_086450 (GRA5) which detected C/M infections with 70·6% sensitivity and 81·8% specificity, and exon 6 of TGME49_095700 (ubiquitin transferase domain-containing protein) which detected A infections with 84·8% sensitivity and 82·4% specificity. Overall, the data support a recombinant protein approach for the development of improved serodiagnostic tests for toxoplasmosis.
Residual nilpotence and ordering in one-relator groups and knot groups
Authors: CHISWELL I. M. , GLASS A. M. W. , WILSON JOHN S. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractLet G = 〈x, t | w〉 be a one-relator group, where w is a word in x, t. If w is a product of conjugates of x then, associated with w, there is a polynomial Aw(X) over the integers, which in the case when G is a knot group, is the Alexander polynomial of the knot. We prove, subject to certain restrictions on w, that if all roots of Aw(X) are real and positive then G is bi-orderable, and that if G is bi-orderable then at least one root is real and positive. This sheds light on the bi-orderability of certain knot groups and on a question of Clay and Rolfsen. One of the results relies on an extension of work of G. Baumslag on adjunction of roots to groups, and this may have independent interest.
Distribution and antimicrobial resistance of enteric pathogens in Chinese paediatric diarrhoea: a multicentre retrospective study, 2008–2013
Authors: ZHANG H. , PAN F. , ZHAO X. , WANG G. , TU Y. , FU S. , WANG J. , PAN J. , SONG J. , WANG W. , JIN Z. , XU H. , REN Y. , LI Y. , ZHONG N. 
Published: January 2015

SUMMARYThe enteric pathogens causing diarrhoea impair children's health severely. This study retrospectively analysed 1577 pathogens isolated from inpatients and outpatients in six hospitals located in Northern (Inner Mongolia), Northeastern (Hebei), Eastern (Shanghai and Jiangsu), Southern (Hainan) and Central (Hubei) China between 2008 and 2013. Of the 1577 enteric pathogens, Salmonella presented with the highest frequency (36·0%), followed by diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (23·7%), Staphylococcus aureus (15·0%), Shigella (13·1%), and Aeromonas (4·6%). The predominant pathogens varied in different regions of China, with Salmonella most prevalent in Shanghai and Hainan, diarrhoeagenic E. coli most prevalent in Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu and Hubei, and Shigella most prevalent in Hebei. Enteric pathogens were more frequently isolated in males (56·9%) than in females (43·1%). The highest proportion of all enteric pathogens was found in infants (67·6%) with a peak in summer and autumn (68·5%). Antimicrobial susceptibility assay demonstrated that Shigella was more resistant to ampicillin, ceftriaxone and sulfamethoxazole than Salmonella. Of the top two serotypes in Salmonella, Typhimurium was more resistant to ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole and chloramphenicol than Enteritidis (P < 0·001). Meanwhile, the resistance rates of Shigella flexneri against ampicillin/sulbactam, ciprofloxacin, and chloramphenicol were significantly higher than those of Shigella sonnei (P < 0·001). Multidrug resistance was apparent in 58·2% of Shigella and 45·9% of Salmonella, and this phenomenon was more pronounced in S. flexneri.
Variability in diurnal testosterone, exposure to violence, and antisocial behavior in young adolescents
Authors: Peckins Melissa K. , Susman Elizabeth J. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractThe purpose of this report is to provide evidence of an association between within-person variability in diurnal testosterone over 1 year, lifetime exposure to violence, and the manifestation of antisocial behavior in 135 pubertal-aged adolescents across 1 year. Adolescents' sex and lifetime history of violence exposure moderated the association between within-person variability in diurnal testosterone and antisocial behavior. Furthermore, sex-stratified analyses revealed that lifetime history of exposure to violence moderated the association between within-person variability in diurnal testosterone and antisocial behavior in females only. This report is unique in that it illuminates sex differences inwithin-personassociations among exposure to violence, individual variability in diurnal testosterone, and antisocial behavior.
Results of remote follow-up and monitoring in young patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices
Authors: Silvetti Massimo S. , Saputo Fabio A. , Palmieri Rosalinda , Placidi Silvia , Santucci Lorenzo , Di Mambro Corrado , Righi Daniela , Drago Fabrizio 
Published: January 2015

AbstractBackgroundRemote monitoring is increasingly used in the follow-up of patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices. Data on paediatric populations are still lacking. The aim of our study was to follow-up young patients both in-hospital and remotely to enhance device surveillance.MethodsThis is an observational registry collecting data on consecutive patients followed-up with the CareLink system. Inclusion criteria were a Medtronic device implanted and patient’s willingness to receive CareLink. Patients were stratified according to age and presence of congenital/structural heart defects (CHD).ResultsA total of 221 patients with a device – 200 pacemakers, 19 implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and two loop recorders – were enrolled (median age of 17 years, range 1–40); 58% of patients were younger than 18 years of age and 73% had CHD. During a follow-up of 12 months (range 4–18), 1361 transmissions (8.9% unscheduled) were reviewed by technicians. Time for review was 6±2 minutes (mean±standard deviation). Missed transmissions were 10.1%. Events were documented in 45% of transmissions, with 2.7% yellow alerts and 0.6% red alerts sent by wireless devices. No significant differences were found in transmission results according to age or presence of CHD. Physicians reviewed 6.3% of transmissions, 29 patients were contacted by phone, and 12 patients underwent unscheduled in-hospital visits. The event recognition with remote monitoring occurred 76 days (range 16–150) earlier than the next scheduled in-office follow-up.ConclusionsRemote follow-up/monitoring with the CareLink system is useful to enhance device surveillance in young patients. The majority of events were not clinically relevant, and the remaining led to timely management of problems.
Preliminary results of CyberKnife stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) boost for primary head and neck cancers: is it the future direction?
Authors: Kataria Tejinder , Basu Trinanjan , Goyal Shikha , Abhishek Ashu , Gupta Deepak , Subramani Vikraman , Karrthick K. P. , Bisht Shyam S. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractAimTo analyse the preliminary results of CyberKnife stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) boost in primary head and neck cancer patients among Indian population.Methods and materialsA total of nine patients of primary head and neck cancer were treated with CyberKnife SBRT boost after intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The median phase 1 IMRT dose was 54 Gy/27 fractions. Histological types included squamous cell carcinoma (n=7) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (n=2). Response was evaluated using positron emission tomography/computed tomography and detailed clinical examination.ResultsAs a preliminary analysis with median follow up of 8 months (range: 6–19 months), phase 2 median tumour volume of 16·3 cc and a median dose of 5 Gy per fraction, eight patients had loco-regionally stable disease and one had distant metastasis. With objective assessment five patients had complete response. Treatment was well tolerated with no grade 3 or more acute toxicities directly related to CyberKnife boost.ConclusionCyberKnife SBRT boost is an attractive option for primary head and neck cancers especially where disease is in close proximity to critical structures hindering radical dose delivery. Future prospective analysis and optimum assessment of total biological effective dose (BED) in a properly selected case might actually benefit the use of CyberKnife SBRT boost.
Emotional Reactivity during Anticipation and Perception of Affective Pictures
Authors: Pastor M. Carmen , Poy Rosario , Segarra Pilar , Moltó Javier 
Published: January 2015

AbstractThe focus of the present study was on further exploring anticipatory responses to emotional stimuli by measuring the eyeblink startle reflex in a variation of the picture-picture affective learning procedure. Participants (113 undergraduate women) were not explicitly instructed before the experiment began. Instead, they had to learn the specific relations between cues (geometrical shapes) and emotional pictures based on pairings during the first part of the task. Plausible contingency learning effects were tested afterwards, in a parallel sequence of trials including auditory probes during cues and pictures processing during the second part of the task. Results did show the typical affective startle modulation pattern during perception, linearF(1, 200) = 52.67,p< .0001, but unexpected inhibition for both pleasant and unpleasant, compared to neutral cues, during anticipation, quadraticF(1, 200) = 7.07,p< .009. All patterns of startle modulation were independent of cue-picture contingency awareness (all interactionsFs < 1). Skin conductance changes showed the predictable quadratic trend either during picture perception or anticipatory periods (greater activity for emotional vs. neutral; overall quadraticF(1, 224) = 7.04,p< .01), only for participants fully aware of the cue-picture contingency, quadraticF(1, 158) = 5.86,p< .02. Overall, our results during anticipation (cues processing) seem to suggest that more resources were allocated to highly arousing pictures that engage attention. Differences between the present results and prior research may be attributed to procedural variations in the sample, cues, or instructions. Future studies should also explore in more detail the role of the contingency awareness during anticipation.
Size dependence of phase transitions in aerosol nanoparticles
Authors: Cheng Yafang , Su Hang , Koop Thomas , Mikhailov Eugene , Pöschl Ulrich 
Published: January 2015

AbstractPhase transitions of nanoparticles are of fundamental importance in atmospheric sciences, but current understanding is insufficient to explain observations at the nano-scale. In particular, discrepancies exist between observations and model predictions of deliquescence and efflorescence transitions and the hygroscopic growth of salt nanoparticles. Here we show that these discrepancies can be resolved by consideration of particle size effects with consistent thermodynamic data. We present a new method for the determination of water and solute activities and interfacial energies in highly supersaturated aqueous solution droplets (Differential Köhler Analysis). Our analysis reveals that particle size can strongly alter the characteristic concentration of phase separation in mixed systems, resembling the influence of temperature. Owing to similar effects, atmospheric secondary organic aerosol particles at room temperature are expected to be always liquid at diameters below ~20 nm. We thus propose and demonstrate that particle size should be included as an additional dimension in the equilibrium phase diagram of aerosol nanoparticles.
Suppressing spontaneous polarization of p-GaN by graphene oxide passivation: Augmented light output of GaN UV-LED
Authors: Jeong Hyun , Jeong Seung Yol , Park Doo Jae , Jeong Hyeon Jun , Jeong Sooyeon , Han Joong Tark , Jeong Hee Jin , Yang Sunhye , Kim Ho Young , Baeg Kang-Jun , Park Sae June , Ahn Yeong Hwan , Suh Eun-Kyung , Lee Geon-Woong , Lee Young Hee , Jeong Mun Seok 
Published: January 2015

AbstractGaN-based ultraviolet (UV) LEDs are widely used in numerous applications, including white light pump sources and high-density optical data storage. However, one notorious issue is low hole injection rate in p-type transport layer due to poorly activated holes and spontaneous polarization, giving rise to insufficient light emission efficiency. Therefore, improving hole injection rate is a key step towards high performance UV-LEDs. Here, we report a new method of suppressing spontaneous polarization in p-type region to augment light output of UV-LEDs. This was achieved by simply passivating graphene oxide (GO) on top of the fully fabricated LED. The dipole layer formed by the passivated GO enhanced hole injection rate by suppressing spontaneous polarization in p-type region. The homogeneity of electroluminescence intensity in active layers was improved due to band filling effect. As a consequence, the light output was enhanced by 60% in linear current region. Our simple approach of suppressing spontaneous polarization of p-GaN using GO passivation disrupts the current state of the art technology and will be useful for high-efficiency UV-LED technology.
Advances in the physics understanding of ELM suppression using resonant magnetic perturbations in DIII-D
Authors: Wade M.R. , Nazikian R. , deGrassie J.S. , Evans T.E. , Ferraro N.M. , Moyer R.A. , Orlov D.M. , Buttery R.J. , Fenstermacher M.E. , Garofalo A.M. , Lanctot M.A. , McKee G.R. , Osborne T.H. , Shafer M.A. , Solomon W.M. , Snyder P.B. , Suttrop W. , Wingen A. , Unterberg E.A. , Zeng L. 
Published: January 2015

Abstract
Recent experiments on DIII-D have increased confidence in the ability to suppress edge-localized modes (ELMs) using edge-resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) in ITER, including an improved physics basis for the edge response to RMPs as well as expansion of RMP ELM suppression to more ITER-like conditions. Complete ELM suppression has been achieved utilizing n = 3 RMPs in the ITER baseline scenario. In addition, RMP ELM suppression has been expanded to include plasmas with helium concentrations near 25% and the use of n = 2 RMPs. Analysis of the kinetic profile response suggests that ELM suppression is correlated with the co-alignment of the ω
⊥e = 0 location, an n = 3 rational surface, and the top of the pedestal. Modelling predicts that such a co-alignment could potentially lead to island (or island chain) formation just inside the top of the pedestal, inhibiting the growth of the pedestal and thereby maintaining the ELM-free state. Detailed analysis of data obtained during toroidal phase variations of the applied n = 3 RMPs have provided further evidence of an island-like structure at the top of the pedestal. In addition, nearly matched discharges with co-neutral-beam-injection (co-NBI) and counter-NBI have demonstrated the importance of the presence of the ω
⊥e = 0 location for ELM suppression. In the counter-NBI cases, the toroidal rotation profile is such that there is no ω
⊥e = 0 location and ELMs are not suppressed in conditions in which ELM suppression is generally observed with co-NBI.
Why Do Fewer Agricultural Workers Migrate Now?
Authors: Fan Maoyong , Gabbard Susan , Alves Pena Anita , Perloff Jeffrey M. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractThe share of agricultural workers who migrate within the United States has fallen by approximately 60% since the late 1990s. To explain this decline in the migration rate, we estimate annual migration‐choice models using data from the National Agricultural Workers Survey for 1989–2009. On average, over the last decade of the sample, one‐third of the fall in the migration rate was due to changes in the demographic composition of the workforce, while two‐thirds was due to changes in coefficients (“structural” change). In some years, demographic changes were responsible for half of the overall change.
More challenges for machine-learning protein interactions
Authors: Hamp Tobias , Rost Burkhard 
Published: January 2015

Abstract
Motivation: Machine learning may be the most popular computational tool in molecular biology. Providing sustained performance estimates is challenging. The standard cross-validation protocols usually fail in biology. Park and Marcotte found that even refined protocols fail for protein–protein interactions (PPIs).
Results: Here, we sketch additional problems for the prediction of PPIs from sequence alone. First, it not only matters whether proteins A or B of a target interaction A–B are similar to proteins of training interactions (positives), but also whether A or B are similar to proteins of non-interactions (negatives). Second, training on multiple interaction partners per protein did not improve performance for new proteins (not used to train). In contrary, a strictly non-redundant training that ignored good data slightly improved the prediction of difficult cases. Third, which prediction method appears to be best crucially depends on the sequence similarity between the test and the training set, how many true interactions should be found and the expected ratio of negatives to positives. The correct assessment of performance is the most complicated task in the development of prediction methods. Our analyses suggest that PPIs square the challenge for this task.
Availability and implementation: Datasets used in our analyses are available at https://rostlab.org/owiki/index.php/PPI_challenges
Contact: rost@in.tum.de
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
NLR-parser: rapid annotation of plant NLR complements
Authors: Steuernagel Burkhard , Jupe Florian , Witek Kamil , Jones Jonathan D.G. , Wulff Brande B.H. 
Published: January 2015

Abstract
Motivation: The repetitive nature of plant disease resistance genes encoding for nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins hampers their prediction with standard gene annotation software. Motif alignment and search tool (MAST) has previously been reported as a tool to support annotation of NLR-encoding genes. However, the decision if a motif combination represents an NLR protein was entirely manual.
Results: The NLR-parser pipeline is designed to use the MAST output from six-frame translated amino acid sequences and filters for predefined biologically curated motif compositions. Input reads can be derived from, for example, raw long-read sequencing data or contigs and scaffolds coming from plant genome projects. The output is a tab-separated file with information on start and frame of the first NLR specific motif, whether the identified sequence is a TNL or CNL, potentially full or fragmented. In addition, the output of the NB-ARC domain sequence can directly be used for phylogenetic analyses. In comparison to other prediction software, the highly complex NB-ARC domain is described in detail using several individual motifs.
Availability and implementation: The NLR-parser tool can be downloaded from Git-Hub (github.com/steuernb/NLR-Parser). It requires a valid Java installation as well as MAST as part of the MEME Suite. The tool is run from the command line.
Contact: burkhard.steuernagel@jic.ac.uk; fjupe@salk.edu
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.