bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Deviating from safety guidelines during deferiprone therapy in clinical practice may not be associated with higher risk of agranulocytosis
Authors: Elalfy Mohssen , Wali Yasser A. , Qari Mohamad , Al Damanhouri Ghazi , Al‐Tonbary Youssef , Yazman Dilek , Al Hawsawi Zakaria , Karakas Zeynep , Kilinc Yurdanur , Yesilipek M. Akif , Badr Mohamed , Elsafy Usama , Salama Mostafa , Abdel Rahman Yousryeia , Shebl Shebl , Stilman Anne , Toiber Temin Noemi , Tricta Fernando 
Published: December 2013

BackgroundA risk associated with the iron chelator deferiprone is the development of neutropenia or agranulocytosis. Accordingly, the product label recommends weekly blood monitoring and immediate interruption of treatment upon detection of an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) <1.5 × 109/L, out of concern that continued therapy might lead to a more severe drop. However, it is uncertain how these recommendations are followed under real‐life conditions and, if they are not followed, whether continuation of therapy results in increased incidence of agranulocytosis.ProcedureThis non‐interventional surveillance program assessed the monitoring of deferiprone therapy in clinical practice. A total of 294 patients with transfusion‐dependent anemias received deferiprone, as monotherapy or with another chelator, for up to 1 year. The participating physicians were not given any instructions about treatment and monitoring beyond being referred to the information in the package insert.ResultsANC monitoring was conducted at an average interval of 5 ± 4 weeks, and deferiprone was not always interrupted upon detection of neutropenia. One patient (0.3%) experienced agranulocytosis, and nine others (3%) experienced a total of 11 episodes of neutropenia. All neutropenia episodes resolved; median time to resolution was similar whether or not treatment was interrupted; and no case of neutropenia progressed to agranulocytosis.ConclusionsThese data indicate that less frequent ANC monitoring and continuation of deferiprone therapy during neutropenia are not associated with prolonged neutropenia or with progression to agranulocytosis. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:879–884. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fludarabine, cytarabine, granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor and melphalan (FALG with L‐PAM) as a reduced toxicity conditioning regimen in children with acute leukemia
Authors: Kato Koji , Yoshida Nao , Matsumoto Kimikazu , Matsuyama Takaharu 
Published: December 2013

AbstractBackgroundThe conventional conditioning regimen for patients with leukemia prior to allogeneic stem cell transplantation is myeloablation to eradicate residual leukemic cells and host immunocompetent cells. This helps prevent leukemic relapse as well as rejection after transplantation. A myeloablative conditioning regimen with busulfan (BU) or total body irradiation (TBI) is effective for eradication of leukemic cells but is also associated with significant toxicities in the acute or late phase in pediatric patients. In an effort to minimize these adverse effects, we conducted bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from unrelated volunteer donors using a conditioning regimen without BU or TBI.ProcedureTen patients with acute leukemia in first or second remission were given a “non‐BU, non‐TBI conditioning regimen,” which consisted of fludarabine (FLU), cytarabine (CA), and melphalan (L‐PAM) after FLAG combined with L‐PAM.ResultsEngraftment was obtained in all patients, and two patients died of relapse. Eight of 10 patients have been disease‐free for a median of 126 months (116–142) after transplantation. The overall survival, event‐free survival, relapse rate, and treatment‐related mortality were 80.0%, 80.0%, 20.0% and 0.0%, respectively. In female patients, spontaneous menstruation with normal luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and estradiol (E2) levels was observed in all four patients at post‐pubertal age.ConclusionsThis conditioning regimen of FLAG combined with L‐PAM (which did not contain BU and TBI) was associated with good outcomes and minimal late adverse effects in children with acute leukemia who have undergone allogeneic BMT from unrelated volunteer donors. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014;61:712–716. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Protein degradation and phosphorylation after freeze thawing result in spermatozoon dysfunction
Authors: Yuan Jing 
Published: December 2013

Cryopreservation is widely used in many assisted conception units. Semen cryopreservation is the only proven method that offers many couples the chance to have children. However, spermatozoa are exposed to physical and chemical stressors during freezing and thawing that result in adverse changes in membrane lipid composition, sperm motility, viability, and acrosome status. Wang et al. (Proteomics 2014, 14, 298–310) evaluate the protein content of freeze‐thawed sperm samples relative to that of fresh sperm samples from the same normozoospermic donors. Four proteins are verified via Western blot and immunofluorescent staining, which are putatively involved in spermatozoon dysfunction. These marked differences demonstrated by Wang et al. suggest that dysfunctional spermatozoon after cryopreservation may be due to protein degradation and protein phosphorylation.
Antagonism of human CC‐chemokine receptor 4 can be achieved through three distinct binding sites on the receptor
Authors: Slack Robert J. , Russell Linda J. , Barton Nick P. , Weston Cathryn , Nalesso Giovanna , Thompson Sally‐Anne , Allen Morven , Chen Yu Hua , Barnes Ashley , Hodgson Simon T. , Hall David A. 
Published: December 2013

AbstractChemokine receptor antagonists appear to access two distinct binding sites on different members of this receptor family. One class of CCR4 antagonists has been suggested to bind to a site accessible from the cytoplasm while a second class did not bind to this site. In this report, we demonstrate that antagonists representing a variety of structural classes bind to two distinct allosteric sites on CCR4. The effects of pairs of low‐molecular weight and/or chemokine CCR4 antagonists were evaluated on CCL17‐ and CCL22‐induced responses of human CCR4+ T cells. This provided an initial grouping of the antagonists into sets which appeared to bind to distinct binding sites. Binding studies were then performed with radioligands from each set to confirm these groupings. Some novel receptor theory was developed to allow the interpretation of the effects of the antagonist combinations. The theory indicates that, generally, the concentration‐ratio of a pair of competing allosteric modulators is maximally the sum of their individual effects while that of two modulators acting at different sites is likely to be greater than their sum. The low‐molecular weight antagonists could be grouped into two sets on the basis of the functional and binding experiments. The antagonistic chemokines formed a third set whose behaviour was consistent with that of simple competitive antagonists. These studies indicate that there are two allosteric regulatory sites on CCR4.
SMT: Sparse multivariate tree
Authors: Deng Houtao , Baydogan Mustafa Gokce , Runger George 
Published: December 2013

AbstractA multivariate decision tree attempts to improve upon the single variable split in a traditional tree. With the increase in datasets with many features and a small number of labeled instances in a variety of domains (bioinformatics, text mining, etc.), a traditional tree‐based approach with a greedy variable selection at a node may omit important information. Therefore, the recursive partitioning idea of a simple decision tree combined with the intrinsic feature selection ofL1regularized logistic regression (LR) at each node is a natural choice for a multivariate tree model that is simple, but broadly applicable. This natural solution leads to the sparse multivariate tree (SMT) considered here. SMT can naturally handle non‐time‐series data and is extended to handle time‐series classification problems with the power of extracting interpretable temporal patterns (e.g., means, slopes, and deviations). BinaryL1regularized LR models are used here for binary classification problems. However, SMT may be extended to solve multiclass problems with multinomial LR models. The accuracy and computational efficiency of SMT is compared to a large number of competitors on time series and non‐time‐series data. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, 2013
Space‐efficient tracking of persistent items in a massive data stream
Authors: Lahiri Bibudh , Tirthapura Srikanta , Chandrashekar Jaideep 
Published: December 2013

AbstractMotivated by scenarios in network anomaly detection, we consider the problem of detecting persistent items in a data stream, which are items that occur ‘regularly’ in the stream. In contrast with heavy hitters, persistent items do not necessarily contribute significantly to the volume of a stream, and may escape detection by traditional volume‐based anomaly detectors.We first show that any online algorithm that tracks persistent items exactly must necessarily use a large workspace, and is infeasible to run on a traffic monitoring node. In light of this lower bound, we introduce an approximate formulation of the problem and present a small‐space algorithm to approximately track persistent items over a large data stream. We experimented with three different datasets to see how the accuracy and memory footprint of the algorithm varies with the skewness of the dataset. Our algorithms performed best for the two datasets out of three which had highest skewness of persistence and lowest mean persistence. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic study of the problem of detecting persistent items in a data stream, and our work can help detect anomalies that are temporal, rather than volume‐based. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, 2013
Psychological characteristics of religious delusions
Authors: Iyassu Robel , Jolley Suzanne , Bebbington Paul , Dunn Graham , Emsley Richard , Freeman Daniel , Fowler David , Hardy Amy , Waller Helen , Kuipers Elizabeth , Garety Philippa 
Published: December 2013

AbstractPurposeReligious delusions are common and are considered to be particularly difficult to treat. In this study we investigated what psychological processes may underlie the reported treatment resistance. In particular, we focused on the perceptual, cognitive, affective and behavioural mechanisms held to maintain delusions in cognitive models of psychosis, as these form the key treatment targets in cognitive behavioural therapy. We compared religious delusions to delusions with other content.MethodsComprehensive measures of symptoms and psychological processes were completed by 383 adult participants with delusions and a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis, drawn from two large studies of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis.ResultsBinary logistic regression showed that religious delusions were associated with higher levels of grandiosity (OR 7.5; 95 % CI 3.9–14.1), passivity experiences, having internal evidence for their delusion (anomalous experiences or mood states), and being willing to consider alternatives to their delusion (95 % CI for ORs 1.1–8.6). Levels of negative symptoms were lower. No differences were found in delusional conviction, insight or attitudes towards treatment.ConclusionsLevels of positive symptoms, particularly anomalous experiences and grandiosity, were high, and may contribute to symptom persistence. However, contrary to previous reports, we found no evidence that people with religious delusions would be less likely to engage in any form of help. Higher levels of flexibility may make them particularly amenable to cognitive behavioural approaches, but particular care should be taken to preserve self-esteem and valued aspects of beliefs and experiences.
Microvascular Infiltration has Limited Clinical Value for Treatment and Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Authors: Portolani Nazario , Baiocchi Gian Luca , Molfino Sarah , Benetti Anna , Gheza Federico , Giulini Stefano Maria 
Published: December 2013

AbstractBackgroundMicrovascular infiltration (MVI) is considered a necessary step in the metastatic evolution of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its prognostic value after liver resection (LR) is uncertain. We studied the clinical value of MVI compared to the Milan criteria in a consecutive series of patients submitted to radical LR.MethodsA total of 441 patients were retrospectively evaluated. MVI and the Milan criteria were analyzed and compared as prognostic factors for overall and disease‐free survival (DFS).ResultsMVI was present in 189 patients (42.8 %). Grading, satellitosis, size of cancer, and alfa fetoprotein value were significantly related to MVI, which was present in 34.3 and 53.2 % of Milan+ and Milan− patients, respectively (p = 0.00001). Both MVI and the Milan criteria were associated with a lower overall and DFS, but only the Milan criteria were associated with the rate of early recurrence and the feasibility of a curative treatment of the recurrence. The application of MVI parameters to patients classified by the Milan criteria further selects the outcome in Milan+ patients (5‐year survival rate of 54.1 and 67.9 %, respectively, in the presence or absence of MVI) but not in Milan− patients.ConclusionsMVI is related to survival after LR for HCC, but the clinical value of this information is limited. In Milan+ patients, the absence of MVI selects the cases with better prognosis. In the presence of a liver recurrence, the Milan criteria related to the primary HCC show a better prognostic accuracy and have clinical relevance in the decision‐making process.
Pancreaticoduodenectomy: Outcomes in a Low‐Volume, Specialised Hepato Pancreato Biliary Unit
Authors: Kanhere H. A. , Trochsler M. I. , Kanhere M. H. , Lord A. N. , Maddern G. J. 
Published: December 2013

AbstractBackground
This study was designed to evaluate the outcomes of pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) at a low‐volume specialised Hepato Pancreato Biliary (HPB) unit. Volume outcome analyses show significantly better results for patients undergoing PD at high‐volume centres (Begg et al. JAMA 280:1747–1751, 1998; Finlayson et al. Arch Surg 138:721–725, 2003; Birkmeyer et al. N Engl J Med 346:1128–1137, 2002; Gouma et al. Ann Surg 232:786–795, 2000). Centralisation of PD seems to be the logical conclusion to be drawn from these results. In countries like Australia with a small and widely dispersed population, centralisation may not be always feasible. Alternative strategy would be to have similar systems in place to those in high‐volume centres to achieve similar results at low‐volume centres. Many Australian tertiary care centres perform low to medium volumes of PD (Chen et al. HPB 12:101–108, 2010; Kwok et al. ANZ J Surg 80:605–608, 2010; Barnett and Collier ANZ J Surg 76:563–568, 2006; Samra et al. Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int 10:415–421, 2011). Most of these have a specialised HPB unit, accredited by the Australia and New Zealand Hepatic pancreatic and biliary association (ANZHPBA), as training units for post fellowship training in HPB surgery. It is imperative to perform outcome‐based analyses in these units to ensure safety and high quality of care.
MethodsRetrospective analysis of database for periampullary carcinoma (1998 till date) was performed in an ANZHPBA accredited HPB unit based at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South Australia. Because age older than 74 years is shown to be a predictive marker of increased morbidity and mortality after a PD, we analysed the outcomes in this subset of patients separately.ResultsFifty‐three patients underwent PD in 14 years. Overall mortality was 3.8 %. The last in hospital mortality was in 1999. The morbidity rates and the oncologic outcomes were similar to those in high‐volume units.ConclusionsPD can be safely performed in a low‐volume specialised unit at centres where the amenities and processes at high‐volume centres can be replicated.
Winter climate change in plant–soil systems: summary of recent findings and future perspectives
Authors: Makoto Kobayashi , Kajimoto Takuya , Koyama Lina , Kudo Gaku , Shibata Hideaki , Yanai Yosuke , Cornelissen J. H. C. 
Published: December 2013

AbstractThe winter climate is changing in many parts of the world, and it is predicted that winter climate change will modify the structure and function of plant–soil systems. An understanding of these changes and their consequences in terrestrial ecosystems requires knowledge of the linkage between above‐ and below‐ground components as well as the species interactions found in plant–soil systems, which have important implications for biogeochemical cycles. However, winter climate‐change studies have focused on only a part of the ecosystem or ecological process. We summarize here recent findings related to the effects of winter climate and its changes on soil nitrogen (N) dynamics, greenhouse gas (N2O) emissions from the soil, N use by individual plants, vegetation development, and interactions between vegetation and pollinators to generate an integrative understanding of the response of the plant–soil system to winter climate change. This review indicates that the net effects on plants, soil microbes, pollinators, and the associated biogeochemical cycles are balanced among several processes and are highly variable depending on the context, such as the target species/functional group, original winter condition of the habitat, and type of climate change. The consequences of winter climate change for species interactions among plants, associated animals, and biogeochemical cycles are largely unknown. For further research, a large‐scale comparative study to measure ecosystem‐level functions is important, especially in less‐cold ecosystems.
Conventional and Non‐conventional Edible Oils: An Indian Perspective
Authors: Choudhary Monika , Sangha Jasvinder Kaur , Grover Kiran 
Published: December 2013

AbstractThe Indian dietary pattern has undergone major changes over the past 40 years. Many of these changes involve modification in dietary intake of fats and oils. In developing countries like India, vegetable oils are replacing animal fats because of the cost and health concerns. A wide range of vegetable oils are available in the market but the choice of healthy cooking oil has been a controversial subject since ideas keep on changing as new evidence accumulates. One of the factors holding back the increased use of value‐added healthy oils in India is that most potential consumers are genuinely not aware of their health benefits. Edible oil consumption is primarily a community‐driven phenomenon in India. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the current scenario of edible oils in India, their composition, health benefits, food applications, stability issues and future aspects as buying the right oil for health has become of great importance.
Multi‐length‐Scale Elucidation of Kinetic and Symmetry Effects on the Behavior of Stearic and Oleic TAG. I. SOS and SSO
Authors: Baker Mark , Bouzidi Laziz , Garti Nissim , Narine Suresh S. 
Published: December 2013

AbstractPositional isomerism in triacylglycerols (TAG), present in a molecular ensemble arising from genetic, environmental or processing‐induced changes, can result in significant differences in the macroscopic physico‐chemical functionality of crystallized networks of the ensemble. The differences in phase behavior induced by positional isomerism and levels of unsaturation of pure oleoyl‐distearoyl TAG (SOS, SSO) were detailed at different length scales. The effect of cooling rate on the polymorphism, thermal properties and microstructure were systematically investigated between 0.1 and 5 °C/min. The symmetrical SOS presented a complex polymorphism and microstructure, which varied predictively with cooling rate. The crystal phases and transitions observed for this TAG are similar to those of cocoa butter. In contrast, the cooling rate had limited effect on the phase behavior of the asymmetrical SSO. The differences between the crystallization of SSO and SOS induced by kinetics are related to the kinked oleic acid at the outer position in the SSO molecule and favorable end group structure for SOS. The fundamental understanding gained from such model systems can be used in many industrial formulations, particularly foods.
33
S hyperfine interactions in H2S and SO2 and revision of the sulfur nuclear magnetic shielding scale
Authors: Helgaker Trygve , Gauss Jürgen , Cazzoli Gabriele , Puzzarini Cristina 
Published: December 2013

Using the Lamb-dip technique, the hyperfine structure in the rotational spectra of H233S and 33SO2 has been resolved and the corresponding parameters—that is, the sulfur quadrupole-coupling and spin–rotation tensors—were determined. The experimental parameters are in good agreement with results from high-level coupled-cluster calculations, provided that up to quadruple excitations are considered in the cluster operator, sufficiently large basis sets are used, and vibrational corrections are accounted for. The 33S spin-rotation tensor for H2S has been used to establish a new sulfur nuclear magnetic shielding scale, combining the paramagnetic part of the shielding as obtained from the spin–rotation tensor with a calculated value for the diamagnetic part as well as computed vibrational and temperature corrections. The value of 716(5) ppm obtained in this way for the sulfur shielding of H2S is in good agreement with results from high-accuracy quantum-chemical calculations but leads to a shielding scale that is about 28 ppm lower than the one suggested previously in the literature, based on the 33S spin-rotation constant of OCS.
Effects of flux additives on the characteristics of Y2.95Al5O12:0.05Ce3+ phosphor: Particle growth mechanism and luminescence
Authors: Chiang Chung-Hao , Liu Te-Hsing , Lin Han-Yu , Kuo Hung-Yi , Chu Sheng-Yuan 
Published: December 2013

The dependence of the amount of the BaF2 flux additive on the luminescence of Y2.95Al5O12:0.05Ce3+ phosphors was investigated. The integrated emission intensity of Y2.95Al5O12:0.05Ce3+ prepared without the flux was enhanced by 29% with the addition of BaF2 flux at the optimum amount of 6 wt. %. Such an enhancement can be attributed to the purer phase of Y3Al5O12 and the morphology change from the irregular shape to spherical shape with the smoother surface due to the flux. The morphology and luminescence of Y2.95Al5O12:0.05Ce3+ prepared with the 6 wt. % BaF2 flux additive (Sample II) were further compared with those of Y2.95Al5O12:0.05Ce3+ prepared with the 7 wt. % H3BO3 flux additive (Sample I). The particle size, particle shape, and integrated emission intensity (λex = 450 nm) of the former were found to be larger, more regular, and 6% higher than those of the latter. The difference in the morphology of Samples I and II, which led to the difference in the emission intensity and the external quantum efficiency, were well explained by the particle growth mechanism.
Intermittent recruitment and exploitation pulse underlying temporal variability in a demersal deep-water fish population
Authors: Bergstad Odd Aksel , Øverbø Hansen Hege , Jørgensen Terje 
Published: December 2013

Abstract
Recent temporal variability in abundance, size and age structure, distribution, and recruitment of the Skagerrak population of the commercially exploited long-lived deep-water demersal macrourid roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris) appeared strongly influenced by a combined effect of a single pronounced recruitment incident in the early 1990s and a subsequent pulse in targeted exploitation a decade later. Fishery-independent annual survey data showed that probably only one strong year class occurred across an almost three-decade period, 1985–present. Recruitment studies in deep-water fish remain few, yet rarity of successful recruitment events may have to be added to life-history characteristics already recognized as limiting the potential for sustainable harvesting of deep-water demersal fish, i.e. extended lifespan, slow growth, high age at first maturity, and low fecundity.