bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Safety of no bowel preparation before ileal urinary diversion
Authors: Hashad Mohamed Mohie Eldin , Atta Mohamed , Elabbady Ahmed , Elfiky Souzan , Khattab Amr , Kotb Ahmed 
Published: November 2012

Study Type – Harm (case series)Level of Evidence 4What's known on the subject? and What does the study add?Recent studies show no advantage of bowel preparation before ileal urinary diversion and that avoidance of bowel preparation led to early restoration of intestinal function and shorter hospital stay. However, this was not tested in a prospective comparison.The current study is a prospective comparison to test for the safety of omitting bowel preparation before ileal urinary diversion. This study also examines simultaneous effects of bowel preparation on the ileal flora and mucosa.OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety of no bowel preparation before ileal reconstructive procedures of the lower urinary tract, in comparison to standard 3‐day bowel preparation. The present study also examines the effects of bowel preparation on small bowel wall and bacterial flora.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
This study enrolled 40 patients scheduled for radical cystectomy and ileal urinary diversion, presenting to the department of urology, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt during the period from January 2009 to September 2010.
Patients were prospectively randomized into two groups: Group (I) had standard 3‐day bowel preparation. Group (II) had only over‐night fasting before surgery.
Intra‐operatively, one ml of ileal fluid was collected for bacteriological studies and an ileal wall biopsy was taken for histopathological examination.
Postoperative complications were reported for all patients using modified Clavien system.
RESULTS
Both groups showed insignificant difference regarding the frequency and Clavien grade of postoperative complications (P = 0.30).
Under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, 5 cases in group (I) had bacterial overgrowth of E. coli (>105) versus none in group (II) (P = 0.04). Eight patients in group (I) had sterile ileal fluid cultures versus 18 patients (90%) in group (II). No correlation could be made between would infections and the organisms isolated in ileal fluid cultures.
Histopathological examination of ileal biopsies revealed mucosal edema and submucosal congestion in 9 cases in group (I) versus 2 cases in group (II) (P = 0.0310).
CONCLUSIONS
Omitting bowel preparation before ileal urinary diversion is safe, with no added complications.
Non‐preparation of the small bowel is not associated with bacterial overgrowth.
Temporal dynamics and network analysis
Authors: Blonder Benjamin , Wey Tina W. , Dornhaus Anna , James Richard , Sih Andrew 
Published: November 2012

Summary1. Network analysis is widely used in diverse fields and can be a powerful framework for studying the structure of biological systems. Temporal dynamics are a key issue for many ecological and evolutionary questions. These dynamics include both changes in network topology and flow on the network. Network analyses that ignore or do not adequately account for the temporal dynamics can result in inappropriate inferences.2. We suggest that existing methods are currently under‐utilized in many ecological and evolutionary network analyses and that the broader incorporation of these methods will considerably advance the current field. Our goal is to introduce ecologists and evolutionary biologists interested in studying network dynamics to extant ideas and methodological approaches, at a level appropriate for those new to the field.3. We present an overview of time‐ordered networks, which provide a framework for analysing network dynamics that addresses multiple inferential issues and permits novel types of temporally informed network analyses. We review available methods and software, discuss the utility and considerations of different approaches, provide a worked example analysis and highlight new research opportunities in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Impact of cigarette smoking on impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance in Japanese men: The Saku Study
Authors: Morimoto Akiko , Tatsumi Yukako , Deura Kijyo , Mizuno Shoichi , Ohno Yuko , Watanabe Shaw 
Published: November 2012

AbstractAims/IntroductionTo assess the impact of smoking on impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance in Japanese men.Materials and MethodsThis study included 1,199 men aged 30–79 years without diabetes, impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance at baseline who underwent a comprehensive medical check‐up between April 2006 and March 2007 at Saku Central Hospital. Smoking status was categorized as current, ex‐smoker and never‐smoker. Insulinogenic index and homeostasis model assessment‐insulin resistance were determined using a standard 75‐g oral glucose tolerance test. The Japan Diabetes Society criteria were used to define impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance. Participants were followed up until March 2011.ResultsA total of 449 and 99 men developed impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance during 3,403 and 4,092 person‐years follow up, respectively. The multivariable‐adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for impaired insulin secretion were 1.06 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.84–1.33) in ex‐smokers and 1.95 (95% CI 1.44–2.63) in current smokers compared with never‐smokers after adjustment for age, familial history of diabetes, alcohol consumption, exercise, systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, γ‐glutamyltransferase, waist circumference, leukocyte count, changes in smoking status and changes in waist circumference. The number of pack‐years was positively associated with the risk for impaired insulin secretion in a dose‐dependent manner (P‐values for trend <0.001). The multivariable‐adjusted HRs for insulin resistance were 0.95 (95% CI 0.56–1.61) in ex‐smokers and 1.11 (95% CI 0.67–1.79) in current smokers compared with never‐smokers.ConclusionsCigarette smoking is a modifiable risk factor for impaired insulin secretion. The findings might also be important for other Asian populations, which have low insulin secreting ability.
Cardiovascular disease and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug prescribing in the midst of evolving guidelines
Authors: Pham Timothy T. , Miller Michael J. , Harrison Donald L. , Lloyd Ann E. , Crosby Kimberly M. , Johnson Jeremy L. 
Published: November 2012

AbstractRationale, aims and objectivesResponding to safety concerns, the American Heart Association (AHA) published guidelines for non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug (NSAID) use in patients with pre‐existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) during 2005 and revised them in 2007. In the revision, a stepped approach to pain management recommended non‐selective NSAIDs over highly selective NSAIDs. This research evaluated NSAID prescribing during and after guideline dissemination.MethodA cross‐sectional sample of 8666 adult, community‐based practice visits with one NSAID prescription representing approximately 305 million visits from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) from 2005 to 2010 was studied. Multivariable logistic regression controlling for patient, provider and visit characteristics assessed the associations between diagnosis of CVD and NSAID type prescribed during each calendar year. Visits were stratified by arthritis diagnosis to model short‐term/intermittent and long‐term NSAID use.ResultsApproximately one‐third (36.8%) of visits involving a NSAID prescription included at least one of four diagnoses for CVD (i.e. hypertension, congestive heart failure, ischaemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease). Visits involving a CVD diagnosis had increased odds of a prescription for celecoxib, a highly selective NSAIDs, overall [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.29, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06–1.57] and in the subgroup of visits without an arthritis diagnosis (AOR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.11–1.89). Results were not statistically significant for visits with an arthritis diagnosis (AOR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.47–2.57). When analysed by year, the relationship was statistically significant in 2005 and 2006, but not statistically significant in each subsequent year.ConclusionNational prescribing trends suggest partial implementation of AHA guidelines for NSAID prescribing in CVD from 2005 to 2010.
A guide for using functional diversity indices to reveal changes in assembly processes along ecological gradients
Authors: Mason Norman W.H. , de Bello Francesco , Mouillot David , Pavoine Sandrine , Dray Stéphane 
Published: November 2012

AbstractQuestionWhich functional diversity indices have the power to reveal changes in community assembly processes along abiotic stress gradients? Is their power affected by stochastic processes and variations in species richness along stress gradients?MethodsWe used a simple community assembly model to explore the power of functional diversity indices across a wide range of ecological contexts. The model assumes that with declining stress the influence of niche complementarity on species fitness increases while that of environmental filtering decreases. We separately incorporated two trait‐independent stochastic processes – mass and priority effects – in simulating species occurrences and abundances along a hypothetical stress gradient. We ran simulations where species richness was constant along the gradient, or increased, decreased or varied randomly with declining stress. We compared observed values for two indices of functional richness – total functional dendrogram length (FD) and convex hull volume (FRic) – with a matrix‐swap null model (yielding indices SESFD and SESFRic) to remove any trivial effects of species richness. We also compared two indices that measure both functional richness and functional divergence – Rao quadratic entropy (Rao) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a null model that randomizes abundances across species but within communities. This converts them to pure measures of functional divergence (SESRao and SESFDis).ResultsWhen mass effects operated, only SESRao and SESFDis gave reasonable power, irrespective of how species richness varied along the stress gradient. FD, FRic, Rao and FDis had low power when species richness was constant, and variation in species richness greatly influenced their power. SESFRic and SESFD were unaffected by variation in species richness. When priority effects operated, FRic, SESFRic, Rao and FDis had good power and were unaffected by variation in species richness. Variation in species richness greatly affected FD and SESFD. SESRao and SESFDis had low power in the priority effects model but were unaffected by variation in species richness.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that a reliable test for changes in assembly processes along stress gradients requires functional diversity indices measuring either functional richness or functional divergence. We recommend using SESFRic as a measure of functional richness and either SESRao or SESFDis (which are very closely related mathematically) as a measure of functional divergence. Used together, these indices of functional richness and functional divergence provide good power to test for increasing niche complementarity with declining stress across a broad range of ecological contexts.
Hyperpolarization of resting membrane potential causes retraction of spontaneous transients during mouse embryonic circuit development
Authors: Watari Hirofumi , Tose Amanda J. , Bosma Martha M. 
Published: November 2012

Key points
A wave of electrical activity occurs in the developing brain for a certain period of time before sensory, motor and cognitive functions mature.
This electrical activity, or spontaneous activity, originates, spreads, then later retracts and disappears in specific areas of the brain at specific time points, but how it retracts is unknown.
We report that retraction in the mouse embryonic hindbrain is caused by a reduced excitability in the network of cells. This process can be reversed by bath application of high K+ solution, which increases excitability.
This reduced excitability is probably caused by increased number of K+ pores that are always open in individual cells.
These results help us understand how the spread of spontaneous activity is regulated and ultimately help us better understand the role of electrical activity during development of the fetal brain.
Abstract  Spontaneous activity supports developmental processes in many brain regions during embryogenesis, and the spatial extent and frequency of the spontaneous activity are tightly regulated by stage. In the developing mouse hindbrain, spontaneous activity propagates widely and the waves can cover the entire hindbrain at E11.5. The activity then retracts to waves that are spatially restricted to the rostral midline at E13.5, before disappearing altogether by E15.5. However, the mechanism of retraction is unknown. We studied passive membrane properties of cells that are spatiotemporally relevant to the pattern of retraction in mouse embryonic hindbrain using whole‐cell patch clamp and imaging techniques. We find that membrane excitability progressively decreases due to hyperpolarization of resting membrane potential and increased resting conductance density between E11.5 and E15.5, in a spatiotemporal pattern correlated with the retraction sequence. Retraction can be acutely reversed by membrane depolarization at E15.5, and the induced events propagate similarly to spontaneous activity at earlier stages, though without involving gap junctional coupling. Manipulation of [K+]o or [Cl−]o reveals that membrane potential follows EK more closely than ECl, suggesting a dominant role for K+ conductance in the membrane hyperpolarization. Reducing membrane excitability by hyperpolarization of the resting membrane potential and increasing resting conductance are effective mechanisms to desynchronize spontaneous activity in a spatiotemporal manner, while allowing information processing to occur at the synaptic and cellular level.
Role of the Mmr Efflux Pump in Drug Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Rodrigues Liliana , Villellas Cristina , Bailo Rebeca , Viveiros Miguel , Aínsa José A. 
Published: November 2012

ABSTRACT

Efflux pumps are membrane proteins capable of actively transporting a broad range of substrates from the cytoplasm to the exterior of the cell. Increased efflux activity in response to drug treatment may be the first step in the development of bacterial drug resistance. Previous studies showed that the efflux pump Mmr was significantly overexpressed in strains exposed to isoniazid. In the work to be described, we constructed mutants lacking or overexpressing Mmr in order to clarify the role of this efflux pump in the development of resistance to isoniazid and other drugs in
M. tuberculosis
. The
mmr
knockout mutant showed an increased susceptibility to ethidium bromide, tetraphenylphosphonium, and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Overexpression of
mmr
caused a decreased susceptibility to ethidium bromide, acriflavine, and safranin O that was obliterated in the presence of the efflux inhibitors verapamil and carbonyl cyanide
m
-chlorophenylhydrazone. Isoniazid susceptibility was not affected by the absence or overexpression of
mmr
. The fluorometric method allowed the detection of a decreased efflux of ethidium bromide in the knockout mutant, whereas the overexpressed strain showed increased efflux of this dye. This increased efflux activity was inhibited in the presence of efflux inhibitors. Under our experimental conditions, we have found that efflux pump Mmr is mainly involved in the susceptibility to quaternary compounds such as ethidium bromide and disinfectants such as CTAB. The contribution of this efflux pump to isoniazid resistance in
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
still needs to be further elucidated.
Sneaking around concatMap
Authors: Höner zu Siederdissen Christian 
Published: November 2012

We present a framework of dynamic programming combinators that provides a high-level environment to describe the recursions typical of dynamic programming over sequence data in a style very similar to algebraic dynamic programming (ADP). Using a combination of type-level programming and stream fusion leads to a substantial increase in performance, without sacrificing much of the convenience and theoretical underpinnings of ADP.
We draw examples from the field of computational biology, more specifically RNA secondary structure prediction, to demonstrate how to use these combinators and what differences exist between this library, ADP, and other approaches.
The final version of the combinator library allows writing algorithms with performance close to hand-optimized C code.
Bolt
Authors: Kling Michael , Misailovic Sasa , Carbin Michael , Rinard Martin 
Published: November 2012

We present Bolt, a novel system for escaping from infinite and long-running loops. Directed by a user, Bolt can attach to a running process and determine if the program is executing an infinite loop. If so, Bolt can deploy multiple strategies to escape the loop, restore the responsiveness of the program, and enable the program to deliver useful output.
Bolt operates on stripped x86 and x64 binaries, dynamically attaches and detaches to and from the program as needed, and dynamically detects loops and creates program state checkpoints to enable exploration of different escape strategies. Bolt can detect and escape from loops in off-the-shelf software, without available source code, and with no overhead in standard production use.
AutoMan
Authors: Barowy Daniel W. , Curtsinger Charlie , Berger Emery D. , McGregor Andrew 
Published: November 2012

Humans can perform many tasks with ease that remain difficult or impossible for computers. Crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon's Mechanical Turk make it possible to harness human-based computational power at an unprecedented scale. However, their utility as a general-purpose computational platform remains limited. The lack of complete automation makes it difficult to orchestrate complex or interrelated tasks. Scheduling more human workers to reduce latency costs real money, and jobs must be monitored and rescheduled when workers fail to complete their tasks. Furthermore, it is often difficult to predict the length of time and payment that should be budgeted for a given task. Finally, the results of human-based computations are not necessarily reliable, both because human skills and accuracy vary widely, and because workers have a financial incentive to minimize their effort.
This paper introduces AutoMan, the first fully automatic crowdprogramming system. AutoMan integrates human-based computations into a standard programming language as ordinary function calls, which can be intermixed freely with traditional functions. This abstraction lets AutoMan programmers focus on their programming logic. An AutoMan program specifies a confidence level for the overall computation and a budget. The AutoMan runtime system then transparently manages all details necessary for scheduling, pricing, and quality control. AutoMan automatically schedules human tasks for each computation until it achieves the desired confidence level; monitors, reprices, and restarts human tasks as necessary; and maximizes parallelism across human workers while staying under budget.
The Initial Hours of Metastasis: The Importance of Cooperative Host–Tumor Cell Interactions during Hematogenous Dissemination
Authors: Labelle Myriam , Hynes Richard O. 
Published: November 2012

Abstract
Tumor cells transit from the primary tumor via the blood circulation to form metastases in distant organs. During this process, tumor cells encounter a number of environmental challenges and stimuli that profoundly impact their metastatic potential. Here, we review the cooperative and dynamic host–tumor cell interactions that support and promote the hematogenous dissemination of cancer cells to sites of distant metastasis. In particular, we discuss what is known about the cross-talk occurring among tumor cells, platelets, leukocytes, and endothelial cells and how these cell–cell interactions are organized both temporally and spatially at sites of extravasation and in the early metastatic niche.
Significance: Metastasis is a function not only of tumor cells but also involves cooperative interactions of those cells with normal cells of the body, in particular platelets and leukocytes. These other cell types alter the behavior of the tumor cells themselves and of endothelial cells lining the vasculature and assist in tumor cell arrest and extravasation at sites of metastasis and subsequently in the establishment of tumor cells in the early metastatic niche. A better understanding of the important role that these contact and paracrine interactions play during metastasis will offer new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Cancer Discov; 2(12); 1091–9. ©2012 AACR.
“Shortly They Will Play Me in What Forms They List upon the Stage”: Hamlet, Conscience, and the Earl of Essex
Authors: Venema Jeremy 
Published: November 2012

AbstractThis essay explores the theme of conscience inHamletas it relates to Elizabethan Catholics and their hopes for Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex. Hamlet may represent Essex, the second half of the play being either a study of why Essex, put under house arrest in 1599, might delay taking bold action, or perhaps a negative example of how Essex ought not to proceed. Hamlet exhibits two traits that lead to delay, both applicable to Essex: rashness, and an overweening trust in Providence. These traits lead to tragedy in the play, as they would for Essex.
Listening for “The Silence of the Night”: Reading Kevin Hart’s “The Voice of Brisbane”
Authors: Brown Lachlan 
Published: November 2012

AbstractThis essay undertakes a close reading of Kevin Hart’s poem “The Voice of Brisbane” alongside three pertinent voices. The first voice belongs to Yves Bonnefoy and concerns his translation of the French termévidence. Taking into account Hart’s own admiration of Bonnefoy, this essay contrasts the kinds of experiential and poetic claims that the two poets make. The second voice belongs to St. John of the Cross. Hart’s poem owes much to the kinds of mystical meditation that St. John advocates. The third voice belongs to Synesius of Cyrene, a fifth-century Platonist and bishop, whose poem “Awake My Soul” bears an uncanny resemblance to the pattern of Hart’s work.
The Metaphysical Lyric of the Six Dynasties
Authors: Williams Nicholas Morrow 
Published: November 2012

AbstractIn the third and fourth centuries there flourished in China a literary tradition that integrated abstruse philosophizing into pentasyllabic verse: xuanyan shi or the “metaphysical lyric.” Xuanyan verse was mostly ignored in the great wave of literary critique and classification during the succeeding centuries, and much has been lost, but by using a variety of sources, ranging from the Shishuo xinyu to later imitations, we can ascertain its features and assess its later impact. Xuanyan verse played a key role in the development of early medieval poetry, providing a philosophical foundation to undergird poetic genres from which it at first appears quite alien. This article first describes the ideological and cultural context of xuanyan poetry, then surveys its major exemplars, and finally demonstrates its enduring influence.