bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ambulatory vital signs in the workup of pulmonary embolism using a standardized 3-minute walk test
Authors: Amin Qamar , Perry Jeffrey J. , Stiell Ian G. , Mohapatra Subhra , Alsadoon Abdulaziz , Rodger Marc 
Published: February 2015

AbstractObjectiveDiagnosing pulmonary embolism can be difficult given its highly variable clinical presentation. Our objective was to determine whether a decrease in oxygen saturation or an increase in heart rate while ambulating could be used as an objective tool in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.MethodsThis was a two-site tertiary-care-centre prospective cohort study that enrolled adult emergency department or thrombosis clinic patients with suspected or newly confirmed pulmonary embolism. Patients were asked to participate in a standardized 3-minute walk test, which assessed ambulatory heart rate and ambulatory oxygen saturation. The primary outcome was pulmonary embolism.ResultsWe enrolled 114 patients, including 30 with pulmonary embolism (26.3%). A ≥2% absolute decrease in ambulatory oxygen saturation and an ambulatory change in heart rate >10 beats per minute (BPM) were significantly associated with pulmonary embolism. An ambulatory heart rate change of >10 BPM had a sensitivity of 96.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 83.3 to 99.4) and a specificity of 31.0% (95% CI 22.1 to 45.0) for pulmonary embolism. A ≥2% absolute decrease ambulatory oxygen saturation had a sensitivity of 80.2% (95% CI 62.7 to 90.5) and a specificity of 39.3% (95% CI 29.5 to 50.0) for pulmonary embolism. The combination of both variables yielded a sensitivity of 100.0% (95% CI 87.0 to 100.0) and a specificity of 11.0% (95% CI 6.6 to 21.0).ConclusionIn summary, our study found that an ambulatory heart rate change of >10 BPM or a ≥2% absolute decrease in ambulatory oxygen saturation from baseline during a standardized 3-minute walk test are highly correlated with pulmonary embolism. Although the findings appear promising, neither of these variables can currently be recommended as a screening tool for pulmonary embolism until larger prospective studies examine their performance either alone or with pre-existing rules.
How does servant leadership affect employee attitudes, behaviors, and psychological climates in a for-profit organizational context?
Authors: Ozyilmaz Adnan , Cicek Serpil S 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThis study investigates the effects of servant leadership on employee attitudes, behaviors, and psychological climates. In Study 1, the empirical results are based on data for 284 employees from 12 different organizations, and in Study 2, the results are based on data for 286 employees from 15 different organizations. The results show that servant leadership is positively and significantly related to organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and psychological climate. The relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction is also partially mediated by psychological climate. With these results, this study contributes to research showing that leadership has both direct and mediating effects on employee attitudes and behaviors.
Inter-organizational relationships and firm performance: A study of the US equity underwriting market in the investment banking industry
Authors: Lo Yi-Ju , Hung Tung Min 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe debate on how firms govern their inter-organizational relationships to foster their business performance is far from being settled. While several arguments suggest both transactional and relational mechanisms may act as complementary or substitutive forces, this paper explores and demonstrates how both mechanisms can be jointly exploited to enhance performance. Adopting the context of the US equity underwriting market, this paper reveals that an issuer adopting a transactional governance mechanism to manage its inter-organizational relationships with underwriters obtains a lower cost offering (cost performance) but may not entail price premium (price performance) of that offering. In contrast, an issuer taking a relational governance mechanism has superior price performance but worse cost performance. Nevertheless, this paper uncovers that an issuer adopting a synthesized mechanism obtains better cost performance and price performance by leveraging the advantages from both of the transactional and relational mechanisms.
Toward a life cycle theory of board evolution: Considering firm legitimacy
Authors: Perrault Elise , McHugh Patrick 
Published: February 2015

AbstractIn this article, we build on recent attempts to theorize about the evolution of boards of directors by juxtaposing firms’ strategies to gain, maintain, and repair legitimacy onto their life cycle to examine how board characteristics change – both symbolically and substantively – to reflect their firm’s evolving legitimating strategy. In doing so, we develop insights contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the evolving structure and composition of boards of directors. We suggest that boards fulfill an important role ingrained in the firm’s legitimacy in addition to, and intertwined with, their substantive contribution to the firm’s performance at each life cycle stage. We also address firms’ real ability to effect change in their board as a function of the factors that pertain to each stage of life cycle. We conclude by expounding the implications of this novel framework for future research and managerial practice.
Positioning the reader: the effect of narrative point-of-view and familiarity of experience on situation model construction
Authors: MULCAHY MELISSA , GOULDTHORP BETHANIE 
Published: February 2015

abstractPrevious research suggests that situation model construction may be influenced by a reader’s ability to embody the first-person perspective of the protagonist, including character emotions, during online comprehension. This study examined the effect of narrative point-of-view and readers’ own prior personal experience on reading engagement and comprehension. Participants read eighty short story passages on a computer screen, each describing either a familiar or an unfamiliar event. Stories were written in the first or third person, and either featured or did not feature a shift in protagonist emotions in the last sentence of the text. The results indicated that the use of third-person narrative point-of-view had an overall effect on reading engagement and enhanced readers’ ability to monitor changing character emotions. First-person narrative point-of-view, however, promoted protagonist empathy when participants read about unfamiliar events. The results also provide support for the conclusion that readers were more engaged with the story and constructed more effective situation models when they had prior personal experience of story events.
Sourceland controls and dispersal pathways of Holocene muds from boreholes of the Ionian Basin, Calabria, southern Italy
Authors: PERRI FRANCESCO , CRITELLI SALVATORE , DOMINICI ROCCO , MUTO FRANCESCO , PONTE MAURIZIO 
Published: February 2015

AbstractDeep-marine muds were collected from two boreholes (Crati II and Neto VI) along the Ionian Calabrian Basin. The samples from the Crati II and the Neto VI boreholes show a similar mineralogical distribution; the marine muds contain mostly phyllosilicates, quartz, calcite, feldspars and dolomite. Traces of gypsum are present in a few samples. The Neto muds show higher concentrations of carbonates than the Crati muds; these contents are mainly related to recycling of the Neogene–Quaternary carbonate-rich marine deposits of the Crotone Basin, which mostly influences the composition of the Neto muds. The geochemical signatures of the muds mainly reflect a provenance characterized by felsic rocks with a minor, but not negligible, mafic supply. In particular, the hinterland composition of the Crati drainage area is on average more mafic in composition than the Neto drainage area. The higher mafic concentration of the Crati sample muds is probably related to the ophiolitiferous units that are exposed in the Crati drainage basin. The degree of source area weathering was most probably of low–moderate intensity because the Chemical Index of Alteration values for the studied muds range from 67 to 69. Furthermore, the low and constant Al/K and Rb/K ratios suggest low–moderate weathering without important fluctuations in weathering intensity. The Al2O3–TiO2–Zr ternary diagram and the values of the Index of Compositional Variability indicate that both the Neto and Crati muds are first-cycle, compositionally immature sediments, related to a tectonically active (collision) setting such as the Calabria–Peloritani Arc, where chemical weathering plays a minor role.
What Is Agrarian Labour? Contrasting Indigo Production in Colonial India and Indonesia
Authors: van Schendel Willem 
Published: February 2015

AbstractIn scholarly writings, the term “agrarian labour” is used variously. It can refer to a very specific set of productive activities – the cultivation of crops and animal husbandry – but it can also have the much broader connotation of rural or non-urban labour. These different uses can be confusing, especially in comparative research. This paper starts from the French comparative agriculture school and its conceptualization of three nested scales of analysis – the “cropping system”, the “activity system”, and the “agrarian system”. It tests these ideas in a comparison of labour employed in the production of indigo dye in two colonial systems (British India and the Dutch East Indies). The article concludes that this approach helps counteract monocausal explanations of labour relations in terms of agro-environmental determinants, the force of colonial capitalism, or local work cultures. It also promotes agriculture-sensitive readings of social transformations by comparing social orders that comprise both agricultural and non-agricultural labour relations.
Carbon allowances and the demand for offsets: a comprehensive assessment of imperfect substitutes
Authors: Dormady Noah C. , Englander Gabriel 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe efficient use of market-based policy instruments is an area of increasing importance as scholars and policymakers work to balance effective climate policy with economic growth. Carbon allowances and carbon offsets, despite being statutorily substitutable, behave in practice like imperfect substitutes. This paper provides a synthesis of extant work, market data and the regulatory frameworks of the world’s major carbon markets, and provides a comprehensive assessment of the drivers of demand for carbon offsets. It also provides a detailed assessment of the process through which international carbon offsets are produced, the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism. Demand for carbon offsets is heavily influenced by key programme design parameters that are specific to carbon market design and its implementation. These design parameters heavily influence the degree to which transaction costs, regulatory uncertainty and risk factor into the decisions of firms operating within the carbon trading programme. This paper also identifies key extra-statutory drivers that are outside of the policymaker’s control, which should be considered in both the policy design and the implementation process. This paper provides an instructive set of guiding criteria for policymakers and scholars for the design of future market-based environmental policy.
Robust adaptive fuzzy controller with supervisory compensator for MEMS gyroscope sensor
Authors: Fang Yunmei , Zhou Jian , Fei Juntao 
Published: February 2015

SUMMARYIn this paper, a robust adaptive fuzzy controller is proposed to improve the robustness and position tracking of a MEMS gyroscope sensor. The proposed controller is designed as an indirect adaptive fuzzy controller with a supervisory compensator. It incorporates a fuzzy inference system with an adaptive controller in a unified Lyapunov framework, which can approximate and compensate for the unknown system dynamics and nonlinearities in the MEMS gyroscope. The parameters of the membership functions in the fuzzy controller can be adjusted online based on the Lyapunov method. Moreover, a supervisory controller is employed to guarantee the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system and boundedness of the state variables in the MEMS gyroscope model. Numerical simulations demonstrate the proposed robust adaptive fuzzy controller has satisfactory tracking performance and robustness in the presence of external disturbances.
Stabilizing the second-order nonholonomic systems with chained form by finite-time stabilizing controllers
Authors: He Guangping , Zhang Chenghao , Sun Wei , Geng Zhiyong 
Published: February 2015

SUMMARYAn underactuated mechanical system is generally a good test bed for advanced nonlinear controllers and can be applied to design a novel mechanical system with better energy efficiency and good controllability. It has been shown that the dynamics of many underactuated mechanical systems could be transformed into the chained canonical form. To improve the performance of the controllers presented in the literature, a novel controller design method is proposed in this paper. It is shown that the set-point stabilization problem of the second-order chained form systems can be changed into a trajectory-tracking problem based on the nonsmooth Hölder continuous feedback. By designing the tracked trajectory, the presented controller permits the achievement of exponential stability. Some numerical simulations demonstrate the stability of the proposed controller for an underactuated Hovercraft system.
Stiffness analysis of multibody systems using matrix structural analysis—MSA
Authors: Soares Júnior G. D. L. , Carvalho J. C. M. , Gonçalves R. S. 
Published: February 2015

SUMMARYThis paper deals with the stiffness analysis of multibody systems using the Matrix Structural Analysis—MSA. This methodology allows us to obtain the stiffness matrix of the structure from the stiffness properties of each element. First the MSA method is described and its application is detailed using an L-structure in order to make easy its understanding. Numerical and experimental results obtained for the L-structure and a 6-RSS parallel manipulator, follow to prove the validity of the methodology.
Abnormal myocardial blood flow in children with mild/moderate aortic stenosis
Authors: Madriago Erin , Wells Ronald , Sahn David J. , Diggs Brian S. , Langley Stephen M. , Woodward Daniel J. , Jerosch-Herold Michael , Silberbach Michael 
Published: February 2015

AbstractObjectiveTo quantify myocardial blood flow in infants and children with mild or moderate aortic stenosis using adenosine-infusion cardiac magnetic resonance.BackgroundIt is unclear whether asymptomatic children with mild/moderate aortic stenosis have myocardial abnormalities. In addition, cardiac magnetic resonance-determined normative myocardial blood flow data in children have not been reported.MethodsWe studied 31 infants and children with either haemodynamically normal hearts (n=20, controls) or mild/moderate aortic stenosis (n=11). The left ventricular myocardium was divided into six segments, and the change in average segmental signal intensity during contrast transit was used to quantify absolute flow (ml/g/minute) at rest and during adenosine infusion by deconvolution of the tissue curves with the arterial input of contrast.ResultsIn all the cases, adenosine was well tolerated without complications. The mean pressure gradient between the left ventricle and the ascending aorta was higher in the aortic stenosis group compared with controls (24 versus 3 mmHg, p<0.001). Left ventricular wall mass was slightly higher in the aortic stenosis group compared with controls (65 versus 50 g/m2, p<0.05). After adenosine treatment, both the absolute increase in myocardial blood flow (p<0.0001) and the hyperaemic flow significantly decreased (p<0.001) in children with mild/moderate aortic stenosis compared with controls.ConclusionAbnormal myocardial blood flow in children with mild/moderate aortic stenosis may be an important therapeutic target.
Breakfast frequency, adiposity, and cardiovascular risk factors as markers in adolescents
Authors: Cayres Suziane U. , Júnior Ismael F. F. , Barbosa Maurício F. , Christofaro Diego G. D. , Fernandes Rômulo A. 
Published: February 2015

AbstractObjectiveTo analyse the relationship between skipping breakfast and haemodynamic, metabolic, inflammatory, and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out with information from an ongoing cohort study in Presidente Prudente, São Paulo, Brazil. The sample comprised of 120 adolescents (11.7±0.8 years old) who met the following inclusion criteria: age between 11 and 14 years; enrolled in the school unit of elementary education; absence of any known disease; and no drug consumption. The parents or legal guardians of the patients signed a formal informed consent. Skipping breakfast was self-reported through face-to-face interviews. Blood pressure, intima-media thickness, trunk fatness, total and fractional cholesterol levels – high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol – triacylglycerol levels, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels were measured.ResultsIn this study, 47.5% (95% CI: 38.5–56.4%) of the adolescents reported skipping breakfast at least 1 day/week. Adolescents who skipped breakfast had higher values of trunk fatness and systolic blood pressure. Breakfast frequency was negatively related to systolic blood pressure (β −1.99 [−3.67; −0.31]) and z score dyslipidaemia (β −0.46 [−0.90; −0.01]), but this relationship was mediated by trunk fatness.ConclusionSkipping breakfast is related to cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents, and this relationship was mainly mediated by trunk fatness.
Micro-Topography and Reactivity of Implant Surfaces: An In Vitro Study in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF)
Authors: Gandolfi M.G. , Taddei P. , Siboni F. , Perrotti V. , Iezzi G. , Piattelli A. , Prati C. 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThe creation of micro-textured dental implant surfaces possessing a stimulating activity represents a challenge in implant dentistry; particularly, the formation of a thin, biologically active, calcium-phosphate layer on their surface could help to strengthen the bond to the surrounding bone. The aim of the present study was to characterize in terms of macrostructure, micro-topography and reactivity in simulated body fluid (SBF), the surface of titanium (Ti) implants blasted with TiO2 particles, acid etched with hydrofluoric acid, and activated with Ca and Mg-containing nanoparticles. Sandblasted and acid-etched implants were analyzed by ESEM-EDX (environmental scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray system) to study the micromorphology of the surface and to perform elemental X-ray microanalysis (microchemical analyses) and element mapping. ESEM-EDX analyses were performed at time 0 and after a 28-day soaking period in SBF Hank’s balanced salt solution (HBSS) following ISO 23317 (implants for surgery—in vitro evaluation for apatite-forming ability of implant materials). Microchemical analyses (weight % and atomic %) and element mapping were carried out to evaluate the relative element content, element distribution, and calcium/phosphorus (Ca/P) atomic ratio. Raman spectroscopy was used to assess the possible presence of impurities due to manufacturing and to investigate the phases formed upon HBSS soaking. Micro-morphological analyses showed a micro-textured, highly rough surface with microgrooves. Microchemical analyses showed compositional differences among the apical, middle, and distal thirds. The micro-Raman analyses of the as-received implant showed the presence of amorphous Ti oxide and traces of anatase, calcite, and a carbonaceous material derived from the decomposition of an organic component of lipidic nature (presumably used as lubricant). A uniform layer of Ca-poor calcium phosphates (CaPs) (Ca/P ratio <1.47) was observed after soaking in HBSS; the detection of the 961 cm−1 Raman band confirms this finding. These implants showed a micro-textured surface supporting the formation of CaPs when immersed in SBF. These properties may likely favor bone anchorage and healing by stimulation of mineralizing cells.
Measuring Judicial Independence Reconsidered: Survival Analysis, Matching, and Average Treatment Effects
Authors: FUKUMOTO KENTARO , MASUYAMA MIKITAKA 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThis article reconsiders how to judge judicial independence by using the Japanese judicature, one of the allegedly-most dependent judiciary branches. In their influential work, Ramseyer and Rasmusen (2003) argue that judges who once belonged to a leftist group take longer to reach a ‘moderately prestigious status’ under the long-term conservative rule of Japan. Their method does not, however, deal appropriately with the possibility of judges not reaching this position because the judge dies, retires early, or is still at the early stage of her career. Ramseyer and Rasmusen also mistakenly assume that all judges will eventually obtain this position. This article develops a survival analysis model of judicial careers and attempts to solve the problems of censoring, left truncation, and split population. We also offer a way to utilize a matching procedure to estimate average treatment effects on censored time-to-event as well as event occurrence. We re-analyze a corrected version of Ramseyer and Rasmusen's data using their and our methods. One of the most important findings is that, contrary to what Ramseyer and Rasmusen argue, leftist judges are not discriminated against in terms of the timing of promotion.
The Effect of Direct Democracy on Political Efficacy: The Evidence from Panel Data Analysis
Authors: KIM TAEHEE 
Published: February 2015

AbstractDoes direct democracy enhance political efficacy? This article examines the effect of direct democracy on political efficacy. Normative theorists have suggested that direct democracy has educative effects on citizens, such as promoting political efficacy. While a number of studies have examined the corresponding hypothesis, their empirical findings are not clear-cut. This study attributes the inconsistent results to two problems of the existing studies: the employment of cross-sectional data and the heterogeneity of popular vote issues. This study closes this gap by examining the effect of direct democracy in local politics on political efficacy in a more systematic and controlled way. More concretely, it utilizes the Japanese case: In the first decade of this century, more than 400 Japanese municipalities held a popular vote for the first time because the Japanese national government promoted municipal merger. Therefore, the Japanese case provides multiple popular votes on comparable substantive topics that can be conceived as an homogeneous treatment. By applying multilevel modeling to panel survey data, this study demonstrates the causal effect that the popular vote increases the level of internal political efficacy.
National Security Environments, Patriotism, and Japanese Public Opinion
Authors: KAGOTANI KOJI 
Published: February 2015

AbstractThis study examines Japanese reactions to neighboring countries’ behavior by addressing possible micro-motives, such as patriotism, the rational demand for national defense, and retrospective policy evaluation. This theoretical development leads to distinctive hypotheses from different motivations and directly tests them using macro-data (not survey data). This research will apply this framework to Japanese politics and will show that foreign threats stimulate patriotism in the public mind and enhance political support for national leaders. It will also demonstrate that the Japanese public has no optimistic view of the new prime minister and that the honeymoon effect in previous research may be confounded with the patriotic effect because the new leader is less experienced and is often challenged by foreign countries.