bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Professional oral hygiene treatment and detailed oral hygiene instructions in patients affected by mucous membrane pemphigoid with specific gingival localization: a pilot study in 12 patients
Authors: Arduino PG , Lopetuso E , Carcieri P , Giacometti S , Carbone M , Tanteri C , Broccoletti R 
Published: September 2011

To cite this article:

Int J Dent Hygiene 10, 2012; 138–141  DOI: 10.1111/j.1601‐5037.2010.00527.xArduino PG, Lopetuso E, Carcieri P, Giacometti S, Carbone M, Tanteri C, Broccoletti R. Professional oral hygiene treatment and detailed oral hygiene instructions in patients affected by mucous membrane pemphigoid with specific gingival localization: a pilot study in 12 patients.Abstract:  Objectives:  The aim of this prospective case series was to assess the clinical efficiency of an oral hygiene protocol in patients affected by mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) with specific gingival localization, before starting any medical treatment. Methods:  Patients received oral hygiene instruction followed by non‐surgical periodontal therapy including oral hygiene instructions in a 3‐week cohort study. Clinical outcome variables were recorded at baseline and 5 weeks after intervention and included, as periodontal parameters, full mouth plaque (FMPS) and bleeding (FMBS) scores and patient‐related outcomes (visual analogue score of pain). Results:  A total of 12 patients were recruited. The mean age at presentation was 59.5 ± 14.52 years. Five weeks after finishing the oral hygiene and periodontal therapy protocol, a statistical significant reduction was observed for FMPS (P = 0.001), FMBS (P = 0.022) and reported pain (P = 0.0028). Conclusions:  Professional oral hygiene procedures and non‐surgical periodontal therapy are connected with improvement of gingival status and decrease in gingival‐related pain, in female patients affected by MMP with specific gingival localization.
Can home monitoring reduce mortality in infants at increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome? A systematic review
Authors: Strehle Eugen‐Matthias , Gray William K , Gopisetti Sharmila , Richardson Jenny , McGuire Jackie , Malone Sive 
Published: September 2011

AbstractAim:  To conduct a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of home monitoring devices in the prevention of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).Methods:  Systematic literature review to June 30, 2010.Results:  Eleven unique studies were identified. Only one of these studies involved a comparison of home monitoring with a control intervention and so could be deemed level I evidence. The remaining studies constituted level III evidence.Conclusions:  There is no high‐level evidence that home monitoring may be of use in preventing SIDS; further research is needed.
Reduction of breast cancer cell migration via up‐regulation of TASK‐3 two‐pore domain K+ channel
Authors: Lee G.‐W. , Park H. S. , Kim E.‐J. , Cho Y.‐W. , Kim G.‐T. , Mun Y.‐J. , Choi E.‐J. , Lee J.‐S. , Han J. , Kang D. 
Published: September 2011

Abstract
Aim:  Many kinds of K+ channels are expressed in a variety of cells, including cancer cells. However, only a small amount of research has explored the relationship between voltage‐independent K+ channels and breast cancer. This study was performed to investigate whether changes in two‐pore domain K+ (K2P) channel expression levels are related to the migration of human breast cancer cells.
Methods:  K2P channel gene/protein expression levels were compared between MCF‐7 (a non‐invasive cell) and MDA‐MB‐231 (an invasive cell) using reverse transcriptase (RT)‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real‐time PCR, Western blotting and immunocytochemistry. The relationship between K2P channel expression level and cell migration was analysed using gene overexpression and knock‐down techniques. Functional expression of TASK‐3 in MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231 cells was recorded using patch‐clamp technique.
Results:  Of K2P channels, TASK‐3 mRNA and protein were highly expressed in MCF‐7 cells compared with those in MDA‐MB‐231 cells. Overexpression of TASK‐3 in breast cancer cells reduced migration and invasion, whereas silencing of TASK‐3 increased the migration and invasion. The TASK‐3 expression level was decreased by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), a PKC activator. PMA also enhanced the cell migration in MDA‐MB‐231 cells.
Conclusion:  These results show that an increase in TASK‐3 expression levels, which could be modulated by PKC activation, reduces cell migration/invasion in breast cancer cells and suggest that modulation of TASK‐3 expression may regulate metastasis of breast cancer cells.
Forest bioenergy climate impact can be improved by allocating forest residue removal
Authors: Repo Anna , Känkänen Riina , Tuovinen Juha‐Pekka , Antikainen Riina , Tuomi Mikko , Vanhala Pekka , Liski Jari 
Published: September 2011

AbstractBioenergy from forest residues can be used to avoid fossil carbon emissions, but removing biomass from forests reduces carbon stock sizes and carbon input to litter and soil. The magnitude and longevity of these carbon stock changes determine how effective measures to utilize bioenergy from forest residues are to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector and to mitigate climate change. In this study, we estimate the variability of GHG emissions and consequent climate impacts resulting from producing bioenergy from stumps, branches and residual biomass of forest thinning operations in Finland, and the contribution of the variability in key factors, i.e. forest residue diameter, tree species, geographical location of the forest biomass removal site and harvesting method, to the emissions and their climate impact. The GHG emissions and the consequent climate impacts estimated as changes in radiative forcing were comparable to fossil fuels when bioenergy production from forest residues was initiated. The emissions and climate impacts decreased over time because forest residues were predicted to decompose releasing CO2 even if left in the forest. Both were mainly affected by forest residue diameter and climatic conditions of the forest residue collection site. Tree species and the harvest method of thinning wood (whole tree or stem‐only) had a smaller effect on the magnitude of emissions. The largest reduction in the energy production climate impacts after 20 years, up to 62%, was achieved when coal was replaced by the branches collected from Southern Finland, whereas the smallest reduction 7% was gained by using stumps from Northern Finland instead of natural gas. After 100 years the corresponding values were 77% and 21%. The choice of forest residue biomass collected affects significantly the emissions and climate impacts of forest bioenergy.
Exploring causal pathways in demographic parameter variation: path analysis of mark–recapture data
Authors: Gimenez Olivier , Anker‐Nilssen Tycho , Grosbois Vladimir 
Published: September 2011

Summary1. Inference about demographic parameters of animal and plant natural populations is important to evaluate the consequences of global changes on populations. Investigating the factors driving their variation over space and time allows evaluating the relative importance of biotic and abiotic variables in shaping the dynamics of a population. Although numerous studies have identified the factors possibly affecting population dynamics, they have barely formally determined the routes by which these different factors are related to demographic parameters.2. We focus on mark–recapture (MR) models that provide unbiased estimators of demographic parameters, while explicitly coping with imperfect detection inherent to wild populations. MR models allow estimating the effect of covariates on demographic parameters and testing their significance in a regression‐like framework. However, these models can only detect correlations and do not inform on causal pathways (e.g. direct vs. indirect effects) in the relationships between demographic parameters and the factors possibly explaining their variability.3. We develop an integrated model to perform path analysis (PA) of MR data, to examine causal relationships among several (including demographic) variables. This approach is implemented in a Bayesian framework using Markov chain Monte Carlo.4. To motivate our developments, we analyse 17 years of mark–recapture data from Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica), to investigate the mechanisms through which environmental conditions have an impact on puffins’ adult survival. Using our PA‐based MR modelling approach, we found that local climatic conditions had an indirect and lagged impact on puffin survival through their influence on local abundance of herring. Besides, we found no evidence for any lagged effect through an alternative unknown pathway (e.g. abundance of another resource).5. Our method allows elucidating pathways through which environmental, trophic or density‐dependent factors influence demographic parameters, while accounting for detectability <1. This is a critical step to understand the interactions of a species with its environment and to predict the impacts of global change on its viability.
Upper gastrointestinal cancer in its early stages is predominantly asymptomatic
Authors: Berrill James W , Turner Jeff K , Hurley Jo J , Swift Gillian , Dolwani Sunil , Green John T 
Published: September 2011

BackgroundCurrent guidelines for urgent endoscopic investigation of dyspepsia are based on alarm features and age criteria. However, there is concern that this type of guideline may delay the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.ObjectiveTo evaluate the timescale of symptoms in upper GI cancer, determining whether patients experience dyspepsia before developing alarm features, and hence whether the current guidelines may delay diagnosis.MethodA prospective study of patients diagnosed with upper GI cancer between May 2004 and January 2007. A structured interview was performed directly after endoscopic diagnosis regarding the nature and duration of symptoms.ResultsAlarm features were present in 56 of the 60 patients interviewed. Only eight patients reported dyspepsia before developing their alarm feature; three of these had complained of dyspepsia for >10 years, one reported dyspepsia preceding the alarm feature by 18 months and in four patients dyspepsia preceded the alarm feature by ≤8 weeks. Preceding dyspepsia did not cause significant delay in referral for endoscopy (p=0.670), or affect tumour stage at diagnosis (p=0.436) or length of survival (p=0.325).ConclusionIt is rare for patients with upper GI cancer to experience significant dyspepsia before the onset of their alarm symptoms, therefore limiting the prospect of an earlier diagnosis. Early upper GI cancer is largely asymptomatic, and guidelines should limit the availability of open-access gastroscopy in simple dyspepsia. Increased awareness of the need to urgently investigate patients with concurrent anaemia or weight loss is required.
Patient-Reported Outcomes in Left Ventricular Assist Device Therapy
Authors: Brouwers Corline , Denollet Johan , de Jonge Nicolaas , Caliskan Kadir , Kealy Jennifer , Pedersen Susanne S. 
Published: September 2011

Background—
Technological advancements of left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) have created today's potential for extending the lives of patients with end-stage heart failure. Few studies have examined the effect of LVAD therapy on patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as health status, quality of life, and anxiety/depression, despite poor PROs predicting mortality and rehospitalization in patients with heart failure. In this systematic review, we provide an overview of available evidence on the impact of LVAD therapy on PROs and discuss recommendations for clinical research and practice.

Methods and Results—
A systematic literature search identified 16 quantitative studies with a sample size ≥10 (mean±SD age=50.1±12.6 years) that examined the impact of LVAD therapy on PROs using a quantitative approach. Initial evidence suggests an improvement in health status, anxiety, and depression in the first few months after LVAD implantation. However, PRO scores of patients receiving LVAD therapy are still lower for physical, social, and emotional functioning compared with transplant recipients. These studies had several methodological shortcomings, including the use of relatively small sample sizes, and only a paucity of studies focused on anxiety and depression.

Conclusions—
There is a paucity of studies on the patient perspective of LVAD therapy. To advance the field of LVAD research and to optimize the care of an increasingly growing population of patients receiving LVAD therapy, more well-designed large-scale studies are needed to further elucidate the impact of LVAD therapy on PROs.
Transapical Aortic Valve Implantation
Authors: Kempfert Jörg , Rastan Ardawan , Holzhey David , Linke Axel , Schuler Gerhard , van Linden Arnaud , Blumenstein Johannes , Mohr Friedrich Wilhelm , Walther Thomas 
Published: September 2011

Background—
Transapical aortic valve implantation has evolved to a reproducible therapeutic option for high-risk patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate our learning experience over 4 years and to analyze outcome-related risk factors.

Methods and Results—

A total of 299 patients who received transapical aortic valve implantation between February 2006 and January 2010 with the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter prosthesis were analyzed according to early experience (EE; patients 1 to 150) and recent experience (RE; patients 151 to 299). Patients consistently demonstrated high risk scores, and major perioperative parameters were comparable between the 2 groups. RE patients had a significantly higher logistic EuroSCORE (RE 33.2±17.2, EE 29.4±14;
P
=0.039) but a significantly lower STS (Society of Thoracic Surgeons) score (RE 11.4±7.5, EE 13.5±7.8;
P
=0.019). Use of contrast dye (EE 104±78 mL, RE 93±46 mL) and the need to perform a balloon redilation were significantly reduced in the RE group. Thirty-day mortality decreased from 11.3% to 6.0%, and 1-year mortality improved significantly from 30.7% (EE) to 21.5% in the RE patients (
P
=0.047). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed reduced vital capacity (<70%) and concomitant preoperative mitral regurgitation >1+ as the only independent predictors of 30-day mortality. Classic variables such as age, logistic EuroSCORE >30%, and STS score >15% failed to predict mortality.

Conclusions—
Recent results with transapical aortic valve implantation indicate a progressive improvement in outcomes despite an unchanged patient risk profile, which reflects a significant learning curve that includes a better understanding of optimal patient selection. Classic surgical risk factors fail to predict outcome, which indicates the need for new transapical aortic valve implantation–specific risk scores.
Double Knockdown of Prolyl Hydroxylase and Factor-Inhibiting Hypoxia-Inducible Factor With Nonviral Minicircle Gene Therapy Enhances Stem Cell Mobilization and Angiogenesis After Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Huang Mei , Nguyen Patricia , Jia Fangjun , Hu Shijun , Gong Yongquan , de Almeida Patricia E. , Wang Li , Nag Divya , Kay Mark A. , Giaccia Amato J. , Robbins Robert C. , Wu Joseph C. 
Published: September 2011

Background—
Under normoxic conditions, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α is rapidly degraded by 2 hydroxylases: prolyl hydroxylase (PHD) and factor-inhibiting HIF-1 (FIH). Because HIF-1α mediates the cardioprotective response to ischemic injury, its upregulation may be an effective therapeutic option for ischemic heart failure.

Methods and Results—

PHD and FIH were cloned from mouse embryonic stem cells. The best candidate short hairpin (sh) sequences for inhibiting PHD isoenzyme 2 and FIH were inserted into novel, nonviral, minicircle vectors. In vitro studies after cell transfection of mouse C2C12 myoblasts, HL-1 atrial myocytes, and c-kit
+
cardiac progenitor cells demonstrated higher expression of angiogenesis factors in the double-knockdown group compared with the single-knockdown and short hairpin scramble control groups. To confirm in vitro data, shRNA minicircle vectors were injected intramyocardially after left anterior descending coronary artery ligation in adult FVB mice (n=60). Functional studies using MRI, echocardiography, and pressure-volume loops showed greater improvement in cardiac function in the double-knockdown group. To assess mechanisms of this functional recovery, we performed a cell trafficking experiment, which demonstrated significantly greater recruitment of bone marrow cells to the ischemic myocardium in the double-knockdown group. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting showed significantly higher activation of endogenous c-kit
+
cardiac progenitor cells. Immunostaining showed increased neovascularization and decreased apoptosis in areas of injured myocardium. Finally, western blots and laser-capture microdissection analysis confirmed upregulation of HIF-1α protein and angiogenesis genes, respectively.

Conclusions—
We demonstrated that HIF-1α upregulation by double knockdown of PHD and FIH synergistically increases stem cell mobilization and myocardial angiogenesis, leading to improved cardiac function.
Land Cover Change Effects on the Climate of the La Plata Basin
Authors: Lee Seung-Jae , Berbery Ernesto Hugo 
Published: September 2011

AbstractDeforestation and replacement of natural pastures by agriculture have become a common practice in the La Plata River basin in South America. The changes in land cover imply changes in the biophysical properties of the land surface, with possible impacts on the basin’s hydroclimate. To help understand to what extent the climate could be affected, and through which processes, ensembles of seasonal simulations were prepared using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model for a control case and a scenario assuming an expansion of the agricultural activities to cover the entire basin. The La Plata River basin shows different climate responses to the land cover changes depending on the region. The northern part of the basin, where forests and savanna were replaced by crops, experiences an overall increase in albedo that leads to a reduction of sensible heat flux and near-surface temperature. A reduction of surface roughness length leads to stronger low-level winds that, in turn, favor a larger amount of moisture being advected out of the northern part of the basin. The result is a reduction of the vertically integrated moisture flux convergence (VIMFC) and, consequently, in precipitation. In the southern part of the basin, changes from grasslands to crops reduce the albedo and thus increase the near-surface temperature. The reduction in surface roughness length is not as large as in the northern sector, reducing the northerly moisture fluxes and resulting in a net increase of VIMFC and, thus, in precipitation. Notably, advective processes modify the downstream circulation and precipitation patterns over the South Atlantic Ocean.
Explaining the willingness of public professionals to implement new policies: a policy alienation framework
Authors: Tummers Lars 
Published: September 2011

Nowadays, many public policies focus on economic values, such as efficiency and client choice. Public professionals often show resistance to implementing such policies. We analyse this problem using an interdisciplinary approach. From public administration, we draw on the policy alienation concept, which consists of five dimensions: strategic powerlessness, tactical powerlessness, operational powerlessness, societal meaninglessness and client meaninglessness. These are considered as factors that influence the willingness of professionals to implement policies (change willingness — a concept drawn from the change management literature). We test this model in a survey among 478 Dutch healthcare professionals implementing a new reimbursement policy. The first finding was that perceived autonomy (operational powerlessness) significantly influenced change willingness, whereas strategic and tactical powerlessness were not found to be significant. Second, both the meaninglessness dimensions proved highly significant. We conclude that clarifying the value of a policy is important in getting professionals to willingly implement a policy, whereas their participation on the strategic or tactical levels seems less of a motivational factor. These insights help in understanding why public professionals embrace or resist the implementation of particular policies. Points for practitioners Policymakers develop public policies which, nowadays, tend to focus strongly on economic values, such as increasing efficiency or offering citizens the opportunity to choose among suppliers of public services. Public professionals, who have to implement these policies, are often reluctant to do so. This study shows that the causes of this resistance are unlikely to be found in the lack of influence these professionals have in the shaping of the policy at the national or organizational level. Rather, professionals might resist implementing policies because they do not see them as meaningful for society, or for their own clients. Therefore, policymakers should focus on this perceived meaninglessness and adopt ways to counter this, for example by intensively communicating the value associated with a policy.
Employment policy confronted with new patterns of governance centred on coordination and performance
Authors: Jacob Steve , Genard Jean-Louis 
Published: September 2011

At both the global and local levels, employment policy currently constitutes one of the major issues confronted by governments faced with economic crises and globalization. The success of these policies depends, in particular, on their ability to link together initiatives undertaken not only at different levels of power, but also within a single level between multiple actors that (more or less) have prerogatives in matters of employment policy. This domain of public policy constitutes a unique space in which to analyse the developments and circulation of principles promoted by advocates of two new patterns of governance: New Public Management and the Open Method of Coordination. On the basis of a qualitative analysis conducted with employment policy actors in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), this article studies the difficulties these actors come up against when faced with the implementation expectations of new managerial demands, as well as coordination demands that force an increasingly flexible economic landscape and an increasingly complex institutional landscape onto these actors. Enumerating the difficulties encountered, the article also updates the strategies put into place by the actors themselves to address the often severe diagnoses that are made of the situations to which they are subject. This article also constitutes a contribution to the clarification of both the favourable and undesirable conditions for the establishment of new forms of governance within public policy. Points for practitioners In most countries, employment policies figure among the highest priorities. When new initiatives in this sector need to be elaborated and implemented, practitioners attempt to balance a wide variety of opinions, focusing on the coherence of their decisions and actions. In the context of performance management, practitioners are also required to demonstrate the success of their public interventions. In Europe, these expectations are exacerbated by the requirements of the Open Method of Coordination and New Public Management. The appropriation of these two patterns of governance depends on a given practitioner’s receptivity regarding the perceived utility of these patterns to their particular work.