bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mixed-methods research: What’s in it for economists?
Authors: Jefferson Therese , Austen Siobhan , Sharp Rhonda , Ong Rachel , Lewin Gill , Adams Valerie 
Published: April 2014

AbstractEmpirical studies in economics traditionally use a limited range of methods, usually based on particular types of regression analysis. Increasingly, sophisticated regression techniques require the availability of appropriate data sets, often longitudinal and typically collected at a national level. This raises challenges for researchers seeking to investigate issues requiring data that are not typically included in regular large-scale data. It also raises questions of the adequacy of relying mainly or solely on regression analysis for investigating key issues of economic theory and policy. One way of addressing these issues is to employ a mixed-methods research framework to investigate important research questions. In this article, we provide an example of applying a mixed-methods design to investigate the employment decisions of mature age women working in the aged care sector. We outline the use of a coherent and robust framework to allow the integrated collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Drawing on particular examples from our analysis, we show how a mixed-methods approach facilitates richer insights, more finely grained understandings of causal relationships and identification of emergent issues. We conclude that mixed-methods research has the capacity to provide surprises and generate new insights through detailed exploratory data analysis.
Societal Factors Impacting Child Welfare
Authors: Auerbach Charles , Zeitlin Wendy , Augsberger Astraea , McGowan Brenda G. , Claiborne Nancy , Lawrence Catherine K. 
Published: April 2014

Objective: This research examines the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Child Welfare Scale (PCWS). This instrument is designed to assess child welfare workers’ understanding of how society views their role and their work. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to analyze data on 538 child welfare workers. Results: The final model consisted of three latent variables with 14 indicators related to stigma, value, and respect (χ2 = 362.33, p = .00; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = .09; 90% confidence interval [CI]: [.08, .09]; comparative fit index [CFI] = .96; Tucker–Lewis Index [TLI] = .95). Discussion: The way in which workers believe others view their work suggests an increasingly complex prototype for understanding workforce issues. Those wishing to examine societal factors related to child welfare workforce issues could use this validated instrument.
The initial experience of introducing the Onstep technique for inguinal hernia repair in a general surgical department
Authors: Andresen K. , Burcharth J. , Rosenberg J. 
Published: April 2014

Background and Aims: A new technique for the repair of inguinal hernia, called Onstep, has been described. This technique places the mesh in the preperitoneal space medially and between the internal and external oblique muscles laterally. The Onstep technique has not yet been described outside the inventors’ departments. This study was based on the first 80 patients operated by the Onstep technique in a general surgical department. The objective of the study was to investigate postoperative pain and complications following the Onstep repair of inguinal hernia. Material and Methods: A total of 80 patients, operated in our department, were followed up in the medical files and contacted by letter. Patients were asked to fill out the Inguinal Pain Questionnaire, Carolinas Comfort Scale, and the Activity Assessment Scale, in order to assess postoperative pain. Results: No perioperative complications occurred. The response rate was 85% on the mailed questionnaires. No patients had any activities they were not able to perform. Activity Assessment Scale results: 80.3% did not have substantial pain-related impairment of daily function. Carolinas Comfort Scale results: 94.8% did not have a symptomatic repair. Inguinal Pain Questionnaire results: 95.5% reported no pain or pain that was easily ignored. Conclusions: It seems from this study that the Onstep technique is a safe method for inguinal hernia repair regarding perioperative and postoperative complications. The postoperative pain seems to be equal to or lower than after the Lichtenstein technique.
Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Humeral Capitellum
Authors: Kolmodin Joel , Saluan Paul 
Published: April 2014

Background: There is a paucity of information regarding the effect of lesion location on surgical outcomes in the treatment of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the humeral capitellum. Purpose: To survey the literature for conclusions that can be drawn regarding the effect of lesion location on treatment of capitellar OCD lesion. The hypothesis was that lesion severity and the need for more aggressive surgical interventions are increased for lesions that are located laterally on the capitellum. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: All studies from the past 20 years were determined using a literature search of PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane databases. Included studies were clinical studies that specifically commented on the location of the OCD defect on the capitellum. Excluded studies were case reports, review articles, and those that did not include information regarding the location of the OCD lesion on the capitellum. Results: Six studies met the inclusion criteria. Autograft reconstruction was found to yield reliable outcomes regardless of lesion location, as 87% (26/30) of lateral lesions had excellent or good outcomes using the Timmerman and Andrews score, while 91% (21/23) of central lesions had excellent or good outcomes. There was a trend toward improved outcomes with more aggressive surgical management of lateral lesions, specifically those involving the lateral cartilage margin. The failure rate for nonreconstructive operative management for lateral lesions was noted to be significant, as failure rates for peg fixation of lateral lesions was seen to be as high as 44% (4/9) in one of the studies. Conclusion: Studies regarding capitellar OCD lesion location, as it relates to symptom severity and surgical outcome, are limited. The literature suggests that lesions located on the lateral capitellum—particularly those involving the lateral cartilage margin—require more aggressive surgical management than those located medially. A refinement of the Takahara classification is proposed, which includes lesion location as a factor influencing surgical decision making.
The core autophagy protein ATG4B is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in CML stem/progenitor cells
Authors: Rothe Katharina , Lin Hanyang , Lin Kevin B. L. , Leung Amy , Wang Hui Mi , Malekesmaeili Mehrnoush , Brinkman Ryan R. , Forrest Donna L. , Gorski Sharon M. , Jiang Xiaoyan 
Published: April 2014

Key Points
The core autophagy protein ATG4B is highly expressed in CML stem/progenitor cells and may be useful in predicting treatment response. ATG4B knockdown reduces autophagy, impairs the survival of CML stem/progenitor cells, and sensitizes them to IM treatment.
Transcriptome assembly and microarray construction for Enchytraeus crypticus, a model oligochaete to assess stress response mechanisms derived from soil conditions
Authors: Castro-Ferreira Marta P , de Boer Tjalf E , Colbourne John K , Vooijs Riet , van Gestel Cornelis AM , van Straalen Nico M , Soares Amadeu MVM , Amorim Mónica JB , Roelofs Dick 
Published: April 2014

Abstract

Background
The soil worm Enchytraeus crypticus (Oligochaeta) is an ecotoxicology model species that, until now, was without genome or transcriptome sequence information. The present research aims at studying the transcriptome of Enchytraeus crypticus, sampled from multiple test conditions, and the construction of a high-density microarray for functional genomic studies.

Results
Over 1.5 million cDNA sequence reads were obtained representing 645 million nucleotides. After assembly, 27,296 contigs and 87,686 singletons were obtained, from which 44% and 25% are annotated as protein-coding genes, respectively, sharing homology with other animal proteomes. Concerning assembly quality, 84% of the contig sequences contain an open reading frame with a start codon while E. crypticus homologs were identified for 92% of the core eukaryotic genes. Moreover, 65% and 77% of the singletons and contigs without known homologs, respectively, were shown to be transcribed in an independent microarray experiment. An Agilent 180 K microarray platform was designed and validated by hybridizing cDNA from 4 day zinc- exposed E. crypticus to the concentration corresponding to 50% reduction in reproduction after three weeks (EC50). Overall, 70% of all probes signaled expression above background levels (mean signal + 1x standard deviation). More specifically, the probes derived from contigs showed a wider range of average intensities when compared to probes derived from singletons. In total, 522 significantly differentially regulated transcripts were identified upon zinc exposure. Several significantly regulated genes exerted predicted functions (e.g. zinc efflux, zinc transport) associated with zinc stress. Unexpectedly, the microarray data suggest that zinc exposure alters retro transposon activity in the E. crypticus genome.

Conclusion
An initial investigation of the E. crypticus transcriptome including an associated microarray platform for future studies proves to be a valuable resource to investigate functional genomics mechanisms of toxicity in soil environments and to annotate a potentially large number of lineage specific genes that are responsive to environmental stress conditions.
Trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder and the effect of explanatory variables in paramedic trainees
Authors: Fjeldheim Celine B , Nöthling Jani , Pretorius Karin , Basson Marina , Ganasen Keith , Heneke Robin , Cloete Karen J , Seedat Soraya 
Published: April 2014

Abstract

Background
Emergency healthcare workers, including trainees and individuals in related occupations are at heightened risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression owing to work-related stressors.
We aimed to investigate the type, frequency, and severity of direct trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms and other psychopathology amongst paramedic trainees. In order to create a risk profile for individuals who are at higher occupational risk of developing PTSD, we examined risk and resilience factors that possibly contributed to the presence and severity of posttraumatic symptomatology.

Methods
Paramedic trainees (n = 131) were recruited from a local university. A logistic regression analysis was conducted using the explanatory variables age, gender, population group, trauma exposure, depression, alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, resilience and social support.

Results
94% of paramedic trainees had directly experienced trauma, with 16% meeting PTSD criteria. A high rate of depression (28%), alcohol abuse (23%) and chronic perceived stress (7%) and low levels of social support was found. The number of previous trauma exposures, depression, resilience and social support significantly predicted PTSD status and depression had a mediating effect.

Conclusion
There is a need for efficient, ongoing screening of depressive and PTSD symptomatology in trauma exposed high risk groups so that early psychological supportive interventions can be offered.
NOX2-generated oxidative stress is associated with severity of ultrasound liver steatosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: Del Ben Maria , Polimeni Licia , Carnevale Roberto , Bartimoccia Simona , Nocella Cristina , Baratta Francesco , Loffredo Lorenzo , Pignatelli Pasquale , Violi Francesco , Angelico Francesco 
Published: April 2014

Abstract

Background
Chronic oxidative stress is one of the key mechanisms responsible for disease progression in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, so far, few studies reported increased circulating levels of oxidative stress markers in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver and no study has been performed with newer markers of systemic oxidative stress. The aim was to assess the relationship between urinary 8-iso-prostaglandin F2α and serum soluble NOX2-derived peptide and the severity of liver steatosis in subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver.

Methods
The study was performed in 264 consecutive patients referred for suspected metabolic disease. Steatosis was defined according to Hamaguchi ultrasonographic criteria. Oxidative stress was assessed by urinary 8-iso- prostaglandin F2α and serum soluble NOX2-derived peptide levels.

Results
Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver had higher (p < 0.001) mean values of urinary 8-iso-PGF2α and of serum soluble NOX2-derived peptide, alanine aminotransferase, Cytokeratin-18 and homeostasis model of insulin resistance and lower values of serum adiponectin as compared to those without. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and of its clinical features was significantly higher in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver. Same findings were also observed after the exclusion of obese subjects, or subjects with diabetes or with metabolic syndrome and in those not taking statin medication. In addition, the levels of urinary 8-iso-PGF2α were independent predictors of non-alcoholic fatty liver and a strong association of urinary 8-iso-PGF2α and of serum soluble NOX2-derived peptide with the severity of steatosis at ultrasound was also observed.

Conclusions
We demonstrated increased markers of oxidative stress in subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver. Urinary 8-iso-PGF2α and serum soluble NOX2-derived peptide levels were independent from obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome and increased with the severity of liver steatosis at ultrasound.
Effects of changes in health insurance reimbursement level on outpatient service utilization of rural diabetics: evidence from Jiangsu Province, China
Authors: Zhang Lu , Wang Zhonghua , Qian Dongfu , Ni Jian 
Published: April 2014

Abstract

Background
Outpatient reimbursement levels of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme have changed in recent years in China, and those changes may have a greater impact on patients with chronic diseases due to their higher outpatient expenses. This study represents the first attempt to identify the effects of reimbursement level on outpatient service utilization for chronic patients in rural China and it also gives strong estimation results by conducting a tracer illness study in order to control for possible biases associated with studying several diseases together.

Methods
This study used difference-in-differences models to examine how changes in yearly maximum reimbursement amount and outpatient reimbursement rates affected rural residents with type 2 diabetes in three counties in Jiangsu Province, China. Other factors, such as sex, age and severity of illness, were also included in the model estimations. To make sure the treated group and control group are comparable, Propensity Score Match (PSM) was used to analysis the gender, age and severity of illness of the two groups.

Results
The results indicate that an increase in yearly maximum reimbursement amount for outpatient visits could cause an increase in yearly total outpatient expenses for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, changes in outpatient reimbursement rates between 2010 and 2011 did not significantly affect the utilization of different types of health institution.

Conclusions
The reimbursement rates of village clinics should be substantially increased from the existing basis and the gap of reimbursement rates among different institutions should be further widened. It is also important for village clinics to improve their services. Moreover, measures to improve the quality of care and scope of services at lower-level healthcare institutions, and promote the health service utilization of rural women should be considered.
A novel energy-efficient resource allocation algorithm based on immune clonal optimization for green cloud computing
Authors: Shu Wanneng , Wang Wei , Wang Yunji 
Published: April 2014

Abstract
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and other virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. The energy consumption and makespan associated with the resources allocated should be taken into account. This paper proposes an improved clonal selection algorithm based on time cost and energy consumption models in cloud computing environment. We have analyzed the performance of our approach using the CloudSim toolkit. The experimental results show that our approach has immense potential as it offers significant improvement in the aspects of response time and makespan, demonstrates high potential for the improvement in energy efficiency of the data center, and can effectively meet the service level agreement requested by the users.
Think globally and solve locally: secondary memory-based network learning for automated multi-species function prediction
Authors: Mesiti Marco , Re Matteo , Valentini Giorgio 
Published: April 2014

Abstract

Background
Network-based learning algorithms for automated function prediction (AFP) are negatively affected by the limited coverage of experimental data and limited a priori known functional annotations. As a consequence their application to model organisms is often restricted to well characterized biological processes and pathways, and their effectiveness with poorly annotated species is relatively limited. A possible solution to this problem might consist in the construction of big networks including multiple species, but this in turn poses challenging computational problems, due to the scalability limitations of existing algorithms and the main memory requirements induced by the construction of big networks. Distributed computation or the usage of big computers could in principle respond to these issues, but raises further algorithmic problems and require resources not satisfiable with simple off-the-shelf computers.

Results
We propose a novel framework for scalable network-based learning of multi-species protein functions based on both a local implementation of existing algorithms and the adoption of innovative technologies: we solve “locally” the AFP problem, by designing “vertex-centric” implementations of network-based algorithms, but we do not give up thinking “globally” by exploiting the overall topology of the network. This is made possible by the adoption of secondary memory-based technologies that allow the efficient use of the large memory available on disks, thus overcoming the main memory limitations of modern off-the-shelf computers. This approach has been applied to the analysis of a large multi-species network including more than 300 species of bacteria and to a network with more than 200,000 proteins belonging to 13 Eukaryotic species. To our knowledge this is the first work where secondary-memory based network analysis has been applied to multi-species function prediction using biological networks with hundreds of thousands of proteins.

Conclusions
The combination of these algorithmic and technological approaches makes feasible the analysis of large multi-species networks using ordinary computers with limited speed and primary memory, and in perspective could enable the analysis of huge networks (e.g. the whole proteomes available in SwissProt), using well-equipped stand-alone machines.
Modeling on phosphor sedimentation phenomenon during curing process of high power LED packaging
Authors: Wang Yiman , Zheng Huai , Hu Run , Luo Xiaobing 
Published: April 2014

Abstract
In the LED packaging, the phosphor particles are usually mixed with silicone matrix material, and then dispensed onto the LED chips directly. Since the density of the phosphor particle is bigger than that of the silicone, the phosphor particles may settle in the silicone matrix because of the gravity during dispensing and curing processes. In this paper, a model was developed to investigate the phosphor sedimentation phenomenon in silicone during isothermal curing according to the Stokes’ law, and the size distribution of phosphor particles and the viscosity-time function of silicone during curing were built for the model. We compared the modeling results with the experimental results and found that the model can well simulate the sedimentation phenomenon. The modeling results show that the sedimentation velocity is inversely proportional to the viscosity of silicone and proportional to the size of phosphor particle. Phosphor particles sedimentation lasts for about 5 minutes during isothermal curing at 85°C, and the big particles accumulate in the bottom of the sample.
International study on inter-reader variability for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer
Authors: Ignatiadis Michail , Riethdorf Sabine , Bidard François-Clement , Vaucher Isabelle , Khazour Mustapha , Rothé Françoise , Metallo Jessica , Rouas Ghizlane , Payne Rachel E , Coombes Raoul Charles , Teufel Ingrid , Andergassen Ulrich , Apostolaki Stella , Politaki Eleni , Mavroudis Dimitris , Bessi Silvia , Pestrin Marta , Di Leo Angelo , Campion Michael , Reinholz Monica , Perez Edith , Piccart Martine , Borgen Elin , Naume Bjorn , Jimenez Jose , Aura Claudia Monica , Zorzino Laura , Cassatella Maria Cristina , Sandri Maria Teresa , Mostert Bianca , Sleijfer Stefan , Kraan Jaco , Janni Wolfgang , Fehm Tanja , Rack Brigitte , Terstappen Leon , Repollet Madeline , Pierga Jean-Yves , Miller Craig , Sotiriou Christos , Michiels Stefan , Pantel Klaus 
Published: April 2014

Abstract
Introduction
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been studied in breast cancer with the CellSearch® system. Given the low CTC counts in non-metastatic breast cancer, it is important to evaluate the inter-reader agreement.

Methods
CellSearch® images (N = 272) of either CTCs or white blood cells or artifacts from 109 non-metastatic (M0) and 22 metastatic (M1) breast cancer patients from reported studies were sent to 22 readers from 15 academic laboratories and 8 readers from two Veridex laboratories. Each image was scored as No CTC vs CTC HER2- vs CTC HER2+. The 8 Veridex readers were summarized to a Veridex Consensus (VC) to compare each academic reader using % agreement and kappa (κ) statistics. Agreement was compared according to disease stage and CTC counts using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.

Results
For CTC definition (No CTC vs CTC), the median agreement between academic readers and VC was 92% (range 69 to 97%) with a median κ of 0.83 (range 0.37 to 0.93). Lower agreement was observed in images from M0 (median 91%, range 70 to 96%) compared to M1 (median 98%, range 64 to 100%) patients (P < 0.001) and from M0 and <3CTCs (median 87%, range 66 to 95%) compared to M0 and ≥3CTCs samples (median 95%, range 77 to 99%), (P < 0.001). For CTC HER2 expression (HER2- vs HER2+), the median agreement was 87% (range 51 to 95%) with a median κ of 0.74 (range 0.25 to 0.90).

Conclusions
The inter-reader agreement for CTC definition was high. Reduced agreement was observed in M0 patients with low CTC counts. Continuous training and independent image review are required.