bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Long-term Echocardiographic and Cardioscintigraphic Effects of Growth Hormone Treatment in Adults With Prader-Willi Syndrome
Authors: Marzullo Paolo , Marcassa Claudio , Minocci Alessandro , Campini Riccardo , Eleuteri Ermanno , Gondoni Luca Alessandro , Aimaretti Gianluca , Sartorio Alessandro , Scacchi Massimo , Grugni Graziano 
Published: February 2015

Abstract

Context:
In Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), an altered GH secretion has been related to reduced cardiac mass and systolic function compared to controls.

Objective:
The objective was to evaluate the cardiovascular response to a 4-year GH therapy in adult PWS patients.

Study Participants:
Study participants were nine severely obese PWS adults (three females, six males) and 13 age-, gender-, and body mass index-matched obese controls.

Methods:
In an open-label prospective study, assessment of endocrine parameters and metabolic outcome, whole-body and abdominal fat scans, echocardiography, and radionuclide angiography in unstimulated and dobutamine-stimulated conditions were conducted at baseline and after 1 and 4 years of GH treatment.

Results:
GH treatment increased IGF-1 (P &lt; .0001), decreased C-reactive protein levels (P &lt; .05), improved visceral fat mass (P &lt; .05), and achieved near-significant changes of fat and fat-free body mass in PWS patients. Left ventricle mass indexed by fat mass increased significantly after 1 and 4 years of GH therapy (P &lt; .05) without evident abnormalities of diastolic function, while a trend toward a reduction of the ejection fraction was documented by echocardiography (P = .054). Radionuclide angiography revealed stable values throughout the study of both the left and right ventricle ejection fractions, although this was accompanied by a statistically nonsignificant reduction of the left ventricle filling rate. A positive association between lean body mass and left ventricle ejection fraction was evident during the study (P &lt; .05).

Conclusions:
GH therapy increased the cardiac mass of PWS adults without causing overt abnormalities of systolic and diastolic function. Although the association between lean mass and left ventricle ejection fraction during GH therapy corroborates a favorable systemic outcome of long-term GH treatment in adults with PWS, subtle longitudinal modifications of functional parameters advocate appropriate cardiac monitoring in the long-term therapeutic strategy for PWS.
The ACA Medicaid Expansion Waiver in the Keystone State: Do the Medically Uninsured “Got a Friend in Pennsylvania”?
Authors: Olson Laura Katz 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Medicaid is fundamental to near universal health insurance coverage under the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Its goal of broadening the program to all households with income at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level was thwarted in 2012 by a Supreme Court decision that allowed the states to choose whether or not they would join. This essay seeks to assess the status of Pennsylvania with regard to the Medicaid expansion controversy. It briefly describes the Keystone State's existing Medicaid program and the potential impact of the ACA on its growth. It then discusses Governor Tom Corbett's market-based alternative and what he achieved in his deliberations with the Obama administration. The article also discusses some of the financial considerations facing Pennsylvania policy makers in the expansion decision, the role of three of the more influential lobby groups, and the problematic situation of the medically uninsured population.
Let's Target this “Dirty Dozen” for Improvement during 2015; Caution: “Per Liter” Content on Manufacturers’ IV Bag Labels
Authors: Cohen Michael R. , Smetzer Judy L. 
Published: February 2015

These medication errors have occurred in health care facilities at least once. They will happen again—perhaps where you work. Through education and alertness of personnel and procedural safeguards, they can be avoided. You should consider publishing accounts of errors in your newsletters and/or presenting them at your inservice training programs. Your assistance is required to continue this feature. The reports described here were received through the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Medication Errors Reporting Program. Any reports published by ISMP will be anonymous. Comments are also invited; the writers’ names will be published if desired. ISMP may be contacted at the address shown below. Errors, close calls, or hazardous conditions may be reported directly to ISMP through the ISMP Web site ( www.ismp.org ), by calling 800-FAIL-SAFE, or via e-mail at ismpinfo@ismp.org . ISMP guarantees the confidentiality and security of the information received and respects reporters’ wishes as to the level of detail included in publications.
The art student as data capturer: Engaging multimedia technology in teaching drawing to Visual Arts students at a tertiary level
Authors: Bull Katherine 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Over the last four years I have been drawing on aspects of my own visual art practice (‘data capture’ digital drawing performances, 2004–) in my drawing teaching at the University of Cape Town. For this article I would like to share these projects and discuss the relevance of incorporating multimedia engagement in the teaching of traditional drawing at a tertiary level. First, moving images, sound, digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and engagement in online platforms are primary mediators of experience for many urban citizens. I find it relevant for students to not only reflect critically on the use of digital tools and online social platforms, but to experience and explore engaging with them directly as an experience by making them physical through drawing. In my experience through my teaching practice I have observed how this embodiment of the technology can provide useful tools of processing the volume of immaterial information that we engage with on a daily basis. A physical processing of multimedia material can also operate to provide an interesting engagement with perception, cognition and orientation. At another level, by bringing different media together in the physical studio of life drawing, there can be an interesting reflection and experience of different states of being in the world. These aspects are discussed through descriptions of a selection of my own creative practice and a second-year drawing project I teach at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town titled, ‘Interface: Image and text, the portrait as Dialogue’.
‘The Stone Sky’: Dwelling and habitation in other worlds
Authors: Grant Jane 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Have humans always had the desire to inhabit other worlds? From the microscopic scale to the vastness of outer space, it seems our capacity for occupying uninhabitable spaces with our intellect, our bodies, our sensorium, our desire, is fundamental to our being.
What are these spaces and how do we come to ‘know’ them? Whether mythological, religious or scientific, these minute or vast worlds are spaces that we unfold, narrate and dwell in. In his short story ‘The Stone Sky’ the novelist Italo Calvino writes of the inhabitants who live in a world that exists beneath the earth’s crust. These inhabitants who occupy the underworld exist in a mutable form that allows them to travel through the dense, dark inner landscape of the earth, through the crystal structures, the nickel sea to the earth’s core, an intricate viscous landscape quite other than the formation of matter on the earth’s surface. Calvino’s narration tells us of what is it to inhabit the interstices of the underworld, to be in a space with little intervening air, to live within the deep time scale of crystal formation. The neuroscientist Christof Koch states that ‘we live in a universe where organised bits of matter give rise to consciousness’ and that we need to extend our understanding of what consciousness really is. Could it be that these other worlds, whether planets only just glimpsed through early telescopes, or nano-landscapes at the scale of the atom are still integrated with our own fundamental make-up? Are they the product of a vastly developed pre-frontal cortex or are they a result of ideas, knowledge and experiences accumulated over billions of years? In this article I will look at the concepts of matter as a carrier of consciousness and of panpsychism as a tool with which to understand our habitation of other worlds.
Are we our fictions?: The narrative boundaries of self
Authors: Alsobrook Law 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Revisiting Dawkin’s proposal of memes – a piece of thought copied from person to person – raises the question: can narrative, and by extension narratology, be utilized to explore the ‘infecting’, or transferring agent of cultural ideas, identity and the creation of self? Intriguingly, and perhaps even more relevant to the role of emergent models and the shifting divide between engineered and organic constructions, what role does media play in the fabrication of self? This article proposes to examine various attempts to define modes of being using the formative and delimiting lens of narrative. It will investigate the role of media as the carrier agent for memetic modes of being, and their application in creating and sustaining cultural individuation. Jung’s declarative of the collective unconscious and archetypes, as well as Hofstadter’s loops, a common, but neglected field of enquiry that interrogates how memetic transference begins with the stories we tell, will inform the exploration of narrative as a means to define, delineate and bound the self.
Literal transitions: From organic to digital in a constrained writing piece
Authors: Dürig Regina 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
The writing piece ‘Literal transitions’ proposes a literary answer to the question as to whether a potential transit from the word ‘organic’ to the word ‘digital’ exists. The piece as well as its creation process and the author’s comments on it will be described in the following. What can result from this experiment is a reflection of the language material itself, a certain degree of awareness of the implications of the traditional or unconscious constraints in language. Literal Transitions is not an explanation, but an examination with artistic means. This examination is based on three assumptions: (1) the potential of literature unfolds when writing is constrained; (2) restrictions make the language’s silence speak and (3) we need fictions to build our world.
New perspectives about Nature and life
Authors: Capucci Pier Luigi 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
‘Engineered’ and ‘organic’ have always represented two sides of a challenge that went along with human evolution. Since the dawn of its existence, humankind has been trying to adapt ‘Nature’, the phenomenal world, to his goals, through projects, techniques, instruments, devices, machines, in a process that received propulsion and acceleration from the advent of symbolic ability. Inside the phenomenal world, the ‘organic’ – the material carbon-based dimension on which life is founded, according to the sciences – has always represented a very important subsystem, mainly the world of the living. The ‘organic’ as food, support, pleasure, invention, care, with human skill, has been developing since prehistory, to select, hybridize and breed animals and plants, through more and more successful techniques ranging from crossbreeding to genetic manipulation and engineering. But also as ways to take care of the human body and life with tools, dresses, signs, machines and medical treatments. Scientific evolution has led to the capacity to deeply modify existing organisms and create new ones, new species that would never have evolved naturally. One major technique to describe and simulate the world and to interoperate with Nature is digital technology. Artificial intelligence, artificial life and robotics are mainly digitally based, working at the edge of Nature and the engineered. Digitally based technologies such as 3D printing and the Internet of Things can get to an intimate relationship among the engineered, the organic and Nature, blurring the divide between matter and language, life and code, ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. Hence, through sciences and technologies humanity is creating a Third Life originating from knowledge and culture, which is independently and autonomously evolving, expanding Nature from inside the realm of Nature.
Excavating the ghost from the meat-covered skeleton: An aesthetic engagement with technologically mediated medical imagery
Authors: Suzanne Sita 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
The interior of the body is an alien landscape, the frontiers of which we are continually expanding. Technological developments have allowed us to see more and more of what lies beneath the skin. Starting with the violently erotic public spectacle of dissection in amphitheatres, through X-ray and endoscopy, to other current and future technologies that work towards the yet to be realized ideal (or myth) of a truly non-invasive but microscopically detailed depiction of the human body. This opening up of the human interior to our gaze is not exclusively a medical phenomenon. It is an exploration that has been shared by scientists, artists and entertainers, variously reappropriating imagery and technologies of seeing. Each new invasive technology brings with it the somewhat naïve belief that it can excavate the essence of the subject, their passions, motivations and faults, their ‘souls’ for lack of a better word. Yet while an X-ray can certainly not tell us anything of the subject’s personality, as we delve deeper we discover more about our chemical and electrical natures, encouraging the perception that our consciousness is the ‘sum of our parts’. However, as technologies have become more sophisticated, there has been an increasing tendency to present the body in segments, detached from their surrounding structures. A certain objectification and distancing that occurs when we view the flesh laid open. How do we engage with these views culturally, and how do they influence how we view others and ourselves? In this article I grapple with notions of a mutating body that we are actively in the process of changing in the context of my own and others’ visual practice, with particular emphasis on making the mediated nature of these images visible. I will engage in a celebratory but critical discussion of others’ and mine.
Mudzakkar dan Muannats: Sumber Pendidikan Islam Bias Gender
Authors: Setiyawan Agung 
Published: February 2015

Pengelompokan kata benda Bahasa Arab ke dalam jenis mudzakkar dan muannats kerap kali menjadi sumber pemahaman yang terkesan bias gender. Penggolongan semacam ini merupakan salah satu karakteristik bahasa Arab yang berbeda dengan bahasa lainnya. Dengan adanya klasifikasi tersebut, dapat dipahami bahwa bahasa Arab memberikan pembedaan yang baku terhadap perbedaan jenis kelamin. Bias gender dalam bahasa Arab sangat menarik untuk dikaji bukan untuk merendahkan bahasa tersebut, tetapi untuk memahami apa sebenarnya bias gender dalam bahasa Arab tersebut sehingga kita tidak terjebak dalam pemahaman yang keliru dan terkesan merendahkan. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa apabila dikaji lebih mendalam, justru karakteristik mudzakar dan muannats yang ada dalam bahasa Arab merupakan suatu keunikan serta kekayaan yang mungkin tidak dijumpai dalam bahasa lain.
Internalisasi Nilai Gender melalui Dolanan Anak Tradisional
Authors: Rahmatulla Azam Syukur 
Published: February 2015

Dolanan anak atau permainan tradisional anak sejatinya merupakan media yang mengandung nilai-nilai kesetaraan gender yang tinggi, di antaranya nilai equality value, cooperation value, recoqnition value, tolerance value, dan justice value. Nilainilai kesetaraan tersebut idealnya mulai diberikan sejak masa anak-anak. Ada tiga tahapan proses internalisasi nilai-nilai kesetaraan gender dalam dolanan anak, yakni Pertama, tahapan transformasi nilai yang merupakan tahapan penyampaian informasi yang baik. Kedua, tahapan transaksi nilai yang merupakan tahapan pendidikan nilai, dan ketiga, tahapan transinternalisasi yakni tahapan aplikatif dalam kegiatan sehari-hari.
Testing antiplatelet and antioxidant activity of the
extract of seven varieties of Allium cepa L.
Authors: Saplonţai-Pop Aniela , Moţ Augustin , Moldovan Marioara , Oprean Radu , Silaghi-Dumitrescu Radu , Orășan Olga , Pârvu Marcel , Gal Emese , Ionescu Corina 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Background: The extracts of Allium cepa
are known for their medical use: antioxidant, antiinflammatory,
antimicrobial, fibrinolytic and antiplatelet
properties. Our study aims to establish, using in vitro tests,
the antiplatelet and antioxidant character, the link between
them and the extract acidity, from seven varieties of A. cepa.
Methodology: The qualitative and quantitative
presence of polyphenols and anthocyanins in the
extracts was determined using UV-Vis and HPLC.
Quantitative determination of the thiosulfinates
compounds was calculated using their reaction with
4-mercaptopyridine. Antioxidant character was
determined using 3 methods (FC, DPPH and TEAC),
and antiplatelet effect was measured by in vitro tests
on platelet rich plasma obtained from human blood.
Principal Findings/Results: The white variety of
A. cepa has the most alkaline pH, the largest amount of thiosulfinate compounds and the most powerful
antiplatelet effect, but a very small amount of flavonoids
and an antioxidant effect almost nonexistent, in contrast
with red variety of A. cepa which is the opposite.
Conclusions/Significance: The white variety of A. cepa had
very high anitiplatelet activity suggesting the potential
use of A. cepa extract in treating cardiovascular diseases.
Armchair Boron Nitride nanotubes—heterocyclic
molecules interactions: A computational
description
Authors: Anota Ernesto Chigo , Cocoletzi Gregorio Hernández , Tapia Andres Manuel Garay 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Ab-initio calculations using density functional
theory (DFT) are used to investigate the non-covalent
interactions between single wall armchair boron nitride
nanotubes (BNNTs) with open ends and several heterocyclic
molecules: thiophene (T; C4H4S), benzothiophene (BT;
C8H6S) and dibenzothiophene (DBT; C12H8S). In the
armchair model the nanotubes exhibit (n, n) chirality; here
we consider n = 5. The exchange-correlation energies are
treated according to the Hamprecht-Cohen-Tozer-Handy
functional in the generalized gradient approximation
(HCTH-GGA). A base function with double polarization is
used. The geometry optimization of (5,5) BNNT-X; X = T, BT
and DBT has been carried out using the minimum energy
criterion in 5 different configurations of the molecules
adsorbed on the nanotube. Our computer simulations have
found that the preferential adsorption site of the molecule
on the nanotube surface is the parallel configuration for
BT and DBT, and at one nanotube end for the T fragment,
with all cases having physical interactions. The polarity
exhibits an increase which favors the possible dispersion,
provided the electrons are polarized. The nanostructure
functionalization increases the chemical reactivity which
in turn enhances interactions between the molecule and
the nanotube. The BNNT-dibenzothiophene work function
reduction as compared with the pristine case yields the
improvement of the field emission properties.
Application of QuEChERS - High Performance
Liquid Chromatography with Postcolumn
Fluorescence Derivatization (HPLC-FLD) method
to analyze Eprinomectin B1a residues from
a pour-on conditioning in bovine edible tissues
Authors: Csuma Ana , Cristina Romeo T. , Dumitrescu Eugenia , Muselin Florin , Alexa Ersilia C. , Butnariu Monica , Gergen Iosif 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
A QuEChERS in house method for determining
the marker residue of eprinomectin (eprinomectin B1a)
by HPLC-FLD in bovine tissues and milk provided from
treated animals was developed and applied. Briefly: all
samples were extracted with acetonitrile using a dispersive
SPE purification stage. The ascertained detection limits
were 1 μg kg-1 and the quantification limits 2 μg kg-1.
Recoveries on tissue samples fortified in the range of
10 μg kg-1 to 200 μg kg-1 were from 80.0% to 87.2%, with
variation coefficients between 2.7% to 10.6%. The
confirmation of residues in the purified extracts was
made by LC-MS/MS after separation on an XTerra MS C18
(10 cm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm) column with a mobile phase of
acetonitrile / formic acid 0.1% (97:3, v/v) at a flow rate of
0.2 mL min-1 and MRM monitoring of three characteristic
ions (m/z 896.1, m/z 467.9 and m/z 329.9), resulting from
the fragmentation of molecular ions [M-H]+ (m/z 914.6)
of eprinomectin and the comparison of the abundance ratio of fragmented ions was obtained in the booth,
sample and standard at comparative concentrations.
In conclusion, this method has proven its advantage and
versatility as a routine drug residues analysis method.
Improvements in Birch’s theorem on forms in many variables
Authors: Browning T. D. , Prendiville S. M. 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
We show that a non-singular integral form of degree d is soluble over the integers if and only if it is soluble over

ℝ

{\mathbb{R}}

and over

ℚ
p

{\mathbb{Q}_{p}}

for all primes p, provided that the form
has at least

(

d
-

1
2

⁢

d

)

⁢

2
d

{(d-\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{d})2^{d}}

variables.
This improves on a longstanding result of Birch.
Piezoelectric Actuator Based on Two Bending-Type Langevin Transducers
Authors: Mazeika Dalius , Vasiljev Piotr , Borodinas Sergejus , Yang Ying 
Published: February 2015

Abstract
Langevin-type piezoelectric transducers are widely used for different industrial applications such as high-accuracy positioning, ultrasonic welding, bonding, drilling, etc. Usually Langevin-type transducers operate at longitudinal mode by employing d33 vibrations of piezoceramic elements. A novel design of piezoelectric actuator based on two bending-type Langevin transducers is introduced. Two half-wavelength transducers are connected by a special aluminum plate. Piezoceramic rings with two-directional polarizations are used for bending oscillation excitation. An input voltage with phase shifted by π/2 on different transducers is applied. The forward and backward elliptical motion of the contact tip is controlled by changing phases of electric signals on different transducers. A numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the trajectories of contact point motion and to validate the operating principle of the actuator. Experimental prototype of the piezoelectric actuator was fabricated, and the measurements of driven tip movements and mechanical output were performed. The results of numerical and experimental analysis are discussed.
Design & Performance of Wearable Ultra Wide Band Textile Antenna for Medical Applications
Authors: Singh Nikhil , Singh Ashutosh Kumar , Singh Vinod Kumar 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe concept of wearable products such as textile
antenna are being developed which are capable of monitoring,
alerting and demanding attention whenever hospital
emergency is needed, hence minimizing labour and
resource. In the proposed work by using textile material
as a substrate the ultra wideband antenna is designed
especially for medical applications.Simulated and measured
results here shows that the proposed antenna design
meets the requirements of wide working bandwidth
and provides 13.08 GHz bandwidth with very small size,
washable (if using conductive thread for conductive parts)
and flexible materials. Results in terms of bandwidth, radiation
pattern, return loss as well as gain and efficiency
are presented to validate the usefulness of the current proposed
design. The work done here has many implications
for future research and it could help patients with such
flexible and comfortable medical monitoring techniques.