bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hand grip strength and associated factors in non-institutionalised men and women 50 years and older in South Africa
Authors: Ramlagan Shandir , Peltzer Karl , Phaswana-Mafuya Nancy 
Published: January 2014

Abstract

Background
Little is known about the prevalence, predictors and gender differences in hand grip strength of older adults in Africa. This study aims to investigate social and health differences in hand grip strength among older adults in a national probability sample of older South Africans who participated in the Study of Global Ageing and Adults Health (SAGE wave 1) in 2008.

Methods
We conducted a national population-based cross-sectional study with a sample of 3840 men and women aged 50 years or older in South Africa. The questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, health variables, and anthropometric measurements. Linear multivariate regression analysis was performed to assess the association of social factors, health variables and grip strength.

Results
The mean overall hand grip strength was 37.9 kgs for men (mean age 61.1 years, SD = 9.1) and 31.5 kgs for women (mean age 62.0 years, SD = 9.7). In multivariate analysis among men, greater height, not being underweight and lower functional disability was associated with greater grip strength, and among women, greater height, better cognitive functioning, and lower functional disability were associated with greater grip strength.

Conclusions
Greater height and lower functional disability were found for both older South African men and women to be significantly associated with grip strength.
Prehospital risk factors of mortality and impaired consciousness after severe traumatic brain injury: an epidemiological study
Authors: Tohme Sophia , Delhumeau Cecile , Zuercher Mathias , Haller Guy , Walder Bernhard 
Published: January 2014

AbstractBackgroundSevere traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant health concern and a major burden for society. The period between trauma event and hospital admission in an emergency department (ED) could be a determinant for secondary brain injury and early survival. The aim was to investigate the relationship between prehospital factors associated with secondary brain injury (arterial hypotension, hypoxemia, hypothermia) and the outcomes of mortality and impaired consciousness of survivors at 14 days.MethodsA multicenter, prospective cohort study was performed in dedicated trauma centres of Switzerland. Adults with severe TBI (Abbreviated Injury Scale score of head region (HAIS) >3) were included. Main outcome measures were death and impaired consciousness (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≤13) at 14 days. The associations between risk factors and outcome were assessed with univariate and multivariate regression models.Results589 patients were included, median age was 55 years (IQR 33, 70). The median GCS in ED was 4 (IQR 3-14), with abnormal pupil reaction in 167 patients (29.2%). Median ISS was 25 (IQR 21, 34). Three hundred seven patients sustained their TBI from falls (52.1%) and 190 from a road traffic accidents (32.3%). Median time from Out-of-hospital Emergency Medical Service (OHEMS) departure on scene to arrival in ED was 50 minutes (IQR 37-72); 451 patients had a direct admission (76.6%). Prehospital hypotension was observed in 24 (4.1%) patients, hypoxemia in 73 (12.6%) patients and hypothermia in 146 (24.8%). Prehospital hypotension and hypothermia (apart of age and trauma severity) was associated with mortality. Prehospital hypoxemia (apart of trauma severity) was associated with impaired consciousness; indirect admission was a protective factor.ConclusionMortality and impaired consciousness at 14 days do not have the same prehospital risk factors; prehospital hypotension and hypothermia is associated with mortality, and prehospital hypoxemia with impaired consciousness.
Effect of lung flooding and high-intensity focused ultrasound on lung tumours: an experimental study in an ex vivo human cancer model and simulated in vivo tumours in pigs
Authors: Wolfram Frank , Boltze Carsten , Schubert Harald , Bischoff Sabine , Lesser Thomas Günther 
Published: January 2014

Abstract

Background
High-intensity focused ultrasound is a valuable tool for minimally invasive tumour ablation. However, due to the air content in ventilated lungs, lung tumours have never been treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound. Lung flooding enables efficient lung sonography and tumour imaging in ex vivo human and in vivo porcine lung cancer models. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of lung flooding and sonography-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound for lung tumour ablation in ex vivo human and in vivo animal models.

Methods
Lung flooding was performed in four human lung lobes which were resected from non-small cell lung cancers. B-mode imaging and temperature measurements were simultaneously obtained during high-intensity focused ultrasonography of centrally located lung cancers. The tumour was removed immediately following insonation and processed for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-diaphorase and H&E staining. In addition, the left lungs of three pigs were flooded. Purified BSA in glutaraldehyde was injected centrally into the left lower lung lobe to simulate a lung tumour. The ultrasound was focused transthoracically through the flooded lung into the simulated tumour with the guidance of sonography. The temperature of the tumour was simultaneously measured. The vital signs of the animal were monitored during the procedure.

Results
A well-demarcated lesion of coagulation necrosis was produced in four of four human lung tumours. There did not appear to be any damage to the surrounding lung parenchyma. After high-intensity focused ultrasound insonation, the mean temperature increase was 7.5-fold higher in the ex vivo human tumour than in the flooded lung tissue (52.1 K ± 8.77 K versus 7.1 K ± 2.5 K). The transthoracic high-intensity focused ultrasound of simulated tumours in the in vivo model resulted in a mean peak temperature increase up to 53.7°C (±4.5). All of the animals survived the procedure without haemodynamic complications.

Conclusions
High-intensity focused ultrasound with lung flooding produced a thermal effect in an ex vivo human lung carcinoma and in vivo simulated lung tumours in a porcine model. High-intensity focused ultrasound is a potential new strategy for treating lung cancer.
Crystallographic texture evolution in 1008 steel sheet during multi-axial tensile strain paths
Authors: Creuziger Adam , Hu Lin , Gnäupel-Herold Thomas , Rollett Anthony D 
Published: January 2014

AbstractThis paper considers the crystallographic texture evolution in a 1008 low carbon steel. The texture evolution along uniaxial, plane strain and balanced biaxial strain states were measured. For uniaxial testing, grains tend to rotate such that the
{
111
}
〈
1

1

̄

0
〉
slip directions are aligned with the loading axis. For plane strain and balanced biaxial strain states, the majority of grains are distributed with the {111} plane parallel to the sample normal direction. Accompanying visco-plastic self consistent (VPSC) predictions of the texture evolution were made along same strain paths and strain increments. Comparing between the measured texture evolution and computational texture evolution indicate that the VPSC model qualitatively predicts the measured texture evolution, but the rate at which the texture evolution occurs is over predicted.
Global regulation of mRNA translation and stability in the early Drosophilaembryo by the Smaug RNA-binding protein
Authors: Chen Linan , Dumelie Jason G , Li Xiao , Cheng Matthew HK , Yang Zhiyong , Laver John D , Siddiqui Najeeb U , Westwood J Timothy , Morris Quaid , Lipshitz Howard D , Smibert Craig A 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Background
Smaug is an RNA-binding protein that induces the degradation and represses the translation of mRNAs in the early Drosophila embryo. Smaug has two identified direct target mRNAs that it differentially regulates: nanos and Hsp83. Smaug represses the translation of nanos mRNA but has only a modest effect on its stability, whereas it destabilizes Hsp83 mRNA but has no detectable effect on Hsp83 translation. Smaug is required to destabilize more than one thousand mRNAs in the early embryo, but whether these transcripts represent direct targets of Smaug is unclear and the extent of Smaug-mediated translational repression is unknown.

Results
To gain a panoramic view of Smaug function in the early embryo, we identified mRNAs that are bound to Smaug using RNA co-immunoprecipitation followed by hybridization to DNA microarrays. We also identified mRNAs that are translationally repressed by Smaug using polysome gradients and microarrays. Comparison of the bound mRNAs to those that are translationally repressed by Smaug and those that require Smaug for their degradation suggests that a large fraction of Smaug’s target mRNAs are both translationally repressed and degraded by Smaug. Smaug directly regulates components of the TRiC/CCT chaperonin, the proteasome regulatory particle and lipid droplets, as well as many metabolic enzymes, including several glycolytic enzymes.

Conclusions
Smaug plays a direct and global role in regulating the translation and stability of a large fraction of the mRNAs in the early Drosophila embryo, and has unanticipated functions in control of protein folding and degradation, lipid droplet function and metabolism.
Identification of distinct miRNA target regulation between breast cancer molecular subtypes using AGO2-PAR-CLIP and patient datasets
Authors: Farazi Thalia A , ten Hoeve Jelle J , Brown Miguel , Mihailovic Aleksandra , Horlings Hugo M , van de Vijver Marc J , Tuschl Thomas , Wessels Lodewyk FA 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Background
Various microRNAs (miRNAs) are up- or downregulated in tumors. However, the repression of cognate miRNA targets responsible for the phenotypic effects of this dysregulation in patients remains largely unexplored. To define miRNA targets and associated pathways, together with their relationship to outcome in breast cancer, we integrated patient-paired miRNA-mRNA expression data with a set of validated miRNA targets and pathway inference.

Results
To generate a biochemically-validated set of miRNA-binding sites, we performed argonaute-2 photoactivatable-ribonucleoside-enhanced crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (AGO2-PAR-CLIP) in MCF7 cells. We then defined putative miRNA-target interactions using a computational model, which ranked and selected additional TargetScan-predicted interactions based on features of our AGO2-PAR-CLIP binding-site data. We subselected modeled interactions according to the abundance of their constituent miRNA and mRNA transcripts in tumors, and we took advantage of the variability of miRNA expression within molecular subtypes to detect miRNA repression. Interestingly, our data suggest that miRNA families control subtype-specific pathways; for example, miR-17, miR-19a, miR-25, and miR-200b show high miRNA regulatory activity in the triple-negative, basal-like subtype, whereas miR-22 and miR-24 do so in the HER2 subtype. An independent dataset validated our findings for miR-17 and miR-25, and showed a correlation between the expression levels of miR-182 targets and overall patient survival. Pathway analysis associated miR-17, miR-19a, and miR-200b with leukocyte transendothelial migration.

Conclusions
We combined PAR-CLIP data with patient expression data to predict regulatory miRNAs, revealing potential therapeutic targets and prognostic markers in breast cancer.
Surveillance After Initial Surgery for Pediatric and Adolescent Girls With Stage I Ovarian Germ Cell Tumors: Report From the Children's Oncology Group
Authors: Billmire Deborah F. , Cullen John W. , Rescorla Frederick J. , Davis Mary , Schlatter Marc G. , Olson Thomas A. , Malogolowkin Marcio H. , Pashankar Farzana , Villaluna Doojduen , Krailo Mark , Egler Rachel A. , Rodriguez-Galindo Carlos , Frazier A. Lindsay 
Published: January 2014

Purpose To determine whether overall survival (OS) can be preserved for patients with stage I pediatric malignant ovarian germ cell tumor (MOGCT) with an initial strategy of surveillance after surgical resection. Patients and Methods Between November 2003 and July 2011, girls age 0 to 16 years with stage I MOGCT were enrolled onto Children's Oncology Group study AGCT0132. Required histology included yolk sac, embryonal carcinoma, or choriocarcinoma. Surveillance included measurement of serum tumor markers and radiologic imaging at defined intervals. In those with residual or recurrent disease, chemotherapy with compressed PEB (cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin) was initiated every 3 weeks for three cycles (cisplatin 33 mg/m2 on days 1 to 3, etoposide 167 mg/m2 on days 1 to 3, bleomycin 15 U/m2 on day 1). Survivor functions for event-free survival (EFS) and OS were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results Twenty-five girls (median age, 12 years) with stage I MOGCT were enrolled onto AGCT0132. Twenty-three patients had elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) at diagnosis. Predominant histology was yolk sac. After a median follow-up of 42 months, 12 patients had evidence of persistent or recurrent disease (4-year EFS, 52%; 95% CI, 31% to 69%). Median time to recurrence was 2 months. All patients had elevated AFP at recurrence; six had localized disease, two had metastatic disease, and four had tumor marker elevation only. Eleven of 12 patients experiencing relapse received successful salvage chemotherapy (4-year OS, 96%; 95% CI, 74% to 99%). Conclusion Fifty percent of patients with stage I pediatric MOGCT can be spared chemotherapy; treatment for those who experience recurrence preserves OS. Further study is needed to identify the factors that predict recurrence and whether this strategy can be extended successfully to older adolescents and young adults.
An Individual Person Data Meta-Analysis of Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Breast Cancer Recurrence
Authors: Houssami Nehmat , Turner Robin , Macaskill Petra , Turnbull Lindsay W. , McCready David R. , Tuttle Todd M. , Vapiwala Neha , Solin Lawrence J. 
Published: January 2014

Purpose There is little consensus regarding preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast cancer (BC). We examined the association between preoperative MRI and local recurrence (LR) as primary outcome, as well as distant recurrence (DR), in patients with BC. Methods An individual person data (IPD) meta-analysis, based on preoperative MRI studies that met predefined eligibility criteria, was performed. Survival analysis (Cox proportional hazards modeling) was used to investigate time to recurrence and to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) for MRI. We modeled the univariable association between LR (or DR) and MRI, and covariates, and fitted multivariable models to estimate adjusted HRs. Sensitivity analysis was based on women who had breast conservation with radiotherapy. Results Four eligible studies contributed IPD on 3,180 affected breasts in 3,169 subjects (median age, 56.2 years). Eight-year LR-free survival did not differ between the MRI (97%) and no-MRI (95%) goups (P = .87), and the multivariable model showed no significant effect of MRI on LR-free survival: HR for MRI (versus no-MRI) was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.52 to 1.51; P = .65); age, margin status, and tumor grade were associated with LR-free survival (all P < .05). HR for MRI was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.52 to 1.77; P = .90) in sensitivity analysis. Eight-year DR-free survival did not differ between the MRI (89%) and no-MRI (93%) groups (P = .37), and the multivariable model showed no significant effect of MRI on DR-free survival: HR for MRI (v no-MRI) was 1.18 (95% CI, 0.76 to 2.27; P = .48) or 1.31 (95% CI, 0.76 to 2.27; P = .34) in sensitivity analysis. Conclusion Preoperative MRI for staging the cancerous breast does not reduce the risk of LR or DR.
Georg Simmel as unrecognized media ecologist
Authors: Anton Corey 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
This article considers Georg Simmel’s contributions to media ecology. By examining various dialectics of subjectivity and cultural form (especially how valuation relates to money) and also by delineating how humanity takes its structure from resistances and boundaries which in their turn need to be transcended, Simmel’s work outlines both the basic dynamics of cultural process and the tragedy of culture itself: people can grow themselves only by fashioning and cultivating the world, and yet, as civilization grows, people increasingly shape themselves by beginning their worldly pursuits in the trails that others have left behind. An unfortunate consequence is that many cultural forms and practices quite easily become understood as wholly ends in themselves rather than as they were originally understood, means to an end.
Gregory Bateson and Paul Watzlawick: From the ecology of mind to the pragmatics of media ecology
Authors: Strate Lance 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Gregory Bateson and Paul Watzlawick provide an important contribution to the field of media ecology through their application of a systems view to the study of communication. Bateson emphasizes the concept of difference, and information as a difference that makes a difference. He also stresses the importance of negative feedback, and patterns that connect in regard to the systems view. Watzlawick explains the systems view via group theory and the theory of logical types, posits as his first axiom that one cannot not communicate, and distinguishes between different levels of communication and metacommunication, content and relationship, first and second order knowledge and reality, digital and analogical modes of communication, and symmetrical and complementary interaction, along with key concepts of confirmation, disconfirmation, and the double bind.
Things come in fours: Comparing Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Canonical Formula
Authors: Blechman Robert K. 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
The figure-ground structure of a four part approach to analysing media, merging McLuhan’s Laws of the Media (1988) with the Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Canonical Formula, allows us to focus our enquiry on the ways a new technology transforms society rather than technology content alone. The hidden biases of a new technology can change our assumptions about what is valuable and what is not, what is true and what is false, and who are the winners and the losers in the new Media Ecology. Ultimately, as Lévi-Strauss suggested in his study of myths, we may be able to go beyond traditional media content analysis to understand how technological transformations operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact.
Silvan Tomkins as media ecologist
Authors: Rose Phil 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Taking as its starting point Christine Nystrom’s definition of media ecology as the study of the interactions between communications media, technologies, techniques and processes, and human thought, feeling, value and behaviour, this article argues that media ecologists have inadequately developed the field’s consideration of the phenomenon we understand as ‘feeling’. With this in mind, I maintain that the affect-script theory of the personality theorist Silvan Tomkins has much to contribute to the media ecology perspective, not only in bringing to bear a nuanced understanding of emotional phenomena, but in what Tomkins’ ideas might contribute to our understanding of focal areas of media ecological concern, such as literacy, the accelerated rate of technological change and forms of violence.
Foucault and Heidegger on mediation and subjectivity
Authors: Seidenshaw Blake 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
If we take as a central maxim of media-ecological thought the proposition – central to the work of Marshall McLuhan – that our technological prostheses comprise spaces that we come to inhabit, then we can indeed call Michel Foucault a media-ecological thinker. In the following, we will undertake a brief exploration of the sense in which Foucault’s work explicates this fundamental media-ecological proposition, by way of some necessary clarifications regarding its provenance and milieu. This will not only provide us with a way of reading Foucault that highlights an important thread of continuity intrinsic to his corpus, but will also allow us to begin weaving this thread into the broad tapestry of twentieth century thinking on the formative properties of technics and media; a site where extraordinarily rich patterns have begun to emerge. If we can only begin to sketch out this way of reading Foucault, it is because of the caution that is required in dealing with his work, which represents a high point of twentieth century scholarship, deserving of a careful and sustained attention, for which I can only hope, within the constraints of this short article, to provide some small encouragement.
Media ecology and techno-ethics in Paul Virilio
Authors: Zhang Peter 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
This article places Paul Virilio in the company of McLuhan, Foucault and Deleuze. After sketching out his intellectual personality, the article presents a few speed-induced media ecological and ethical problematics as Virilio sees them. It ends with two of Virilio’s signature notions – antiform and divergence – with the addition of a few tetrads. Finally, it points to further explorations that need to be made to fully capture the significance of Virilio’s work for the media ecology community, and for the good life.
Opening the media-ecological black box of Latour
Authors: Van Den Eede Yoni 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour’s work is almost never mentioned in media-ecological contexts, but considering the aim, style and scope of his work he can definitely be seen as a media ecologist pur sang. Moreover, he shares some essential premises with Marshall McLuhan. His notions of ‘actant’ or ‘hybrid’, ‘black box’, and ‘translation’, for instance, all find counterparts in ‘common’ media-ecological vocabulary. His advice to ‘follow the actors’, detective style, can be likened to McLuhan’s sleuth-like probing ‘method’. And they both make a similar cultural critique. Yet above and beyond these correspondences, some crucial divergences remain, more precisely with regard to the concept of agency. In this article I endeavour to outline the similarities and differences, which eventually lead me to a brief reflection on the ‘uniqueness’ of the discipline of media ecology.
Media ecology, the biology of Stuart Kauffman and Terrence Deacon’s Incomplete Nature: Much Ado About Nothing
Authors: Logan Robert K. 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
A review is made of the systems biology work of Stuart Kauffman and Terrence Deacon. A parallel between their work and media ecology is developed. An argument is made that Media Ecology is about the application of systems thinking to understanding media, communications and the impact of technology.
Political sex scandal as an outgrowth of television culture: Moving the phenomenon beyond its sensational roots
Authors: Mandell Hinda 
Published: January 2014

Abstract
Media outlets enthusiastically cover news of political sex scandals in the United States when a politician is caught breaking sexual norms. While the content of scandals, by definition, is sensational and highly titillating, it is important not to view these events merely as filler, soft news. Rather, this article argues that while scandal is an outgrowth of television culture, indicative of the premium society places on its scintillating content, analysis of mediated scandals can also reveal fundamental elements of our social fabric that make the subject necessary for analysis.