bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The six‐minute walk test using forehead oximetry is reliable in the assessment of scleroderma lung disease
Authors: WILSHER MARGARET , GOOD NICOLA , HOPKINS RAEWYN , YOUNG PAMELA , MILNE DAVID , GIBSON ANDREW , SUPPIAH RAVI , LY JASON , DOUGHTY ROBERT , DALBETH NICOLA 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTBackground and objective:  The six‐minute walk test (6MWT) is a validated field test in the assessment of interstitial lung disease but may not be so useful in scleroderma (SSc) lung disease. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the 6MWT in patients with SSc and correlate results with morphological and functional measures of disease severity.Methods:  Thirty patients (24 female, mean age 47, mean diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide 65%, vital capacity 77% predicted) with American College of Rheumatology classification of SSc performed two 6MWT using various oximetry sites, 1 week apart, and underwent SSc‐specific disease severity and quality‐of‐life measurements, lung function, high‐resolution computed tomography and echocardiography.Results:  There was good reliability between the two 6MWT (distance; intraclass correlation coefficient 0.95, r = 0.89, Borg; intraclass correlation coefficient 0.85, r = 0.91, both P < 0.00 for r), and Bland Altman plots demonstrate good agreement between measures 1 week apart. Forehead and finger oximetry were more reliable than earlobe (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.64, 0.60, 0.24; r = 0.46, 0.47, 0.14; n = 22, 17, 7, respectively). Forehead desaturation correlated with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (r = 0.55, P = 0.01) and forced vital capacity (r = 0.59, P = 0.01). Distance correlated with all physiological measures: forced expiratory volume in 1 s (r = 0.55, P = 0.01), forced vital capacity (r = 0.61, P = 0.01) and diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide (r = 0.42, P = 0.05). Computed tomography extent and patterns of disease correlated poorly with 6MWT measures, and global measures of SSc correlated only with post‐test Borg score.Conclusions:  The 6MWT is feasible and reliable in SSc lung disease, but forehead oximetry should be used. The test measurements correlate reasonably but variably with functional and morphological measures of disease severity.
New clinical evidence of silodosin, an α1A selective adrenoceptor antagonist, in the treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms
Authors: Yoshida Masaki , Kudoh Junzo , Homma Yukio , Kawabe Kazuki 
Published: January 2012

AbstractLower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia are highly prevalent in older men. Pharmacological treatment is the first‐line treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia. The first choice in the pharmacological treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia is the α1‐adrenoceptor antagonists. Many α1‐adrenoceptor antagonists are available in the world. Silodosin is an α1‐adrenoceptor antagonist developed by Kissei Pharmaceutical, and has a specific selectivity for the α1A‐adrenoceptor subtype. By antagonizing α1A‐adrenoceptor in the prostate and urethra, silodosin causes smooth muscle relaxation in the lower urinary tract. As a result of the high affinity for the α1A‐adrenoceptor than for the α1B‐adrenoceptor, silodosin minimizes the propensity for blood pressure‐related adverse effects caused by blockade of α1B‐adrenoceptor. The efficacy and safety of silodosin for treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia was first reported by Japanese investigators in 2006. At present, silodosin is used in many countries. In the present review, we summarize the new clinical evidence for lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia and introduce the data supporting the new clinical indications of silodosin.
Extended endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery: from the sella to the anterior and posterior cranial fossa
Authors: Oostra Amanda , van Furth Wouter , Georgalas Christos 
Published: January 2012

AbstractSkull base surgery has gone through significant changes with the development of extended endoscopic endonasal approaches over the last decade. Initially used for the transphenoidal removal of hypophyseal adenomas, the endoscopic transnasal approach gradually evolved into a way of accessing the whole ventral skull base. Improved visualization, avoidance of brain retraction, the ability to access directly tumours with minimal damage to critical neurosurgical structures as well lack of external scars are among its obvious benefits. However, it presents the surgeons with a number of challenges, including the need to deal endoscopically with potential arterial bleeding, complicated reconstruction requirements as well as the need for a true team approach. In this review drawing from our experience as well as published series, we present an overview of current indications, challenges and limitations of the expanded endonasal approaches to the skull base.
Production of novel fusarielins by ectopic activation of the polyketide synthase 9 cluster in Fusarium graminearum
Authors: Sørensen Jens Laurids , Hansen Frederik Teilfeldt , Sondergaard Teis Esben , Staerk Dan , Lee T. Verne , Wimmer Reinhard , Klitgaard Louise Graabæk , Purup Stig , Giese Henriette , Frandsen Rasmus John Normand 
Published: January 2012

SummaryLike many other filamentous fungi, Fusarium graminearum has the genetic potential to produce a vast array of unknown secondary metabolites. A promising approach to determine the nature of these is to activate silent secondary metabolite gene clusters through constitutive expression of cluster specific transcription factors. We have developed a system in which an expression cassette containing the transcription factor from the targeted PKS cluster disrupts the production of the red mycelium pigment aurofusarin. This aids with identification of mutants as they appear as white colonies and metabolite analyses where aurofusarin and its intermediates are normally among the most abundant compounds. The system was used for constitutive expression of the local transcription factor from the PKS9 cluster (renamed FSL) leading to production of three novel fusarielins, F, G and H. This group of compounds has not previously been reported from F. graminearum or linked to a biosynthetic gene in any fungal species. The toxicity of the three novel fusarielins was examined against colorectal cancer cell lines where fusarielin H was more potent than fusarielin F and G.
Who’s to blame? Accounts of genetic responsibility and blame among Ashkenazi Jewish women at risk of BRCA breast cancer
Authors: Mozersky Jessica 
Published: January 2012

AbstractGenetic knowledge of disease risk may induce a sense of genetic responsibility whereby those who are at risk feel an obligation to take certain actions not only in relation to their own personal health but also to their family, their children and many other aspects of their life. This article examines genetic responsibility among Ashkenazi Jewish women at increased risk of BRCA genetic breast cancer. It demonstrates the ways in which accounts of blame help to mitigate or allocate genetic responsibility and in particular focuses on the temporal nature of women’s accounts. Women locate responsibility or blame for genetic disease in the collective reproductive history of Ashkenazi Jews, currently among specific groups of Ashkenazi Jews, and this knowledge can have potential future reproductive consequences. A contradiction may arise between a pre‐existing sense of responsibility to produce future generations of Jews with that of producing future breast cancer free children. The research is based on in‐depth qualitative interviews with 14 high‐risk Ashkenazi Jewish women in London, England.
Does Finance Play a Role in Exporting for Service Firms? Evidence from India
Authors: Lancheros Sandra , Demirel Pelin 
Published: January 2012

AbstractThe importance of finance for exporting goods is well understood in the literature. Yet, despite the growing magnitude and importance of service exports, the question whether service firms rely on external finance for exporting remains unanswered by the existing literature. We address this overlooked area by studying whether long‐ and short‐term borrowing matters for the exporting decisions and the levels exported by Indian service firms. To this end, we use an unbalanced panel of service firms for the years 1999–2007 from the Prowess data set compiled by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy. In contrast to some findings for the manufacturing industry, we found that finance is not a significant determinant of Indian service firms' exporting activity. Possibly, the different nature of costs associated with the exports of services restrains the impact of finance on exporting. Interestingly, in line with previous research on goods exports, we found that some nonfinancial variables such as firm size, total factor productivity and technology investments are significant factors motivating the exporting decision and the level of exports of Indian service firms.
MIGRANT DOMESTIC CAREWORKERS: Between the Public and the Private in Catholic Social Teaching
Authors: Osborne Catherine R. 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that Catholic (magisterial) social teaching's division of ethics into public and private creates a structural lacuna which makes it almost impossible to envision a truly just situation for migrant domestic careworkers (MDCs) within the current horizon of Catholic social thought. Drawing on a variety of sociological studies, I conclude that it is easy for MDCs to “disappear” between two countries, two families, and, finally, two sets of ethical norms. If the magisterium genuinely wishes Catholic ethicists to address the plight of these migrant women, normative Catholic social teaching must pay more attention to household sociological realities and more fully absorb the feminist critique of the sharp line between the public and the private, between care and paid work.
TORTURE AND JUST WAR
Authors: Cole Darrell 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTI offer an argument for why torture, as an act of state‐sponsored force to gain information crucial to the well‐being of the common good, should be considered as a tactic of war, and therefore scrutinized in terms of just war theory. I argue that, for those committed to the justifiability of the use of force, most of the popular arguments against all acts of torture are unpersuasive because the logic behind them would forbid equally any act of mutilating or killing in battle. I will also argue that looking at torture through the perspective of the just war tradition forces us to place strictures on the practice that make it hard to justify, helps us to see why torture should never be legalized, helps us to clarify when circumstances might justify torture, and suggests what sort of character is required to recognize when those circumstances have occurred.
ONENESS AND SELF‐CENTEREDNESS IN THE MORAL PSYCHOLOGY OF WANG YANGMING
Authors: Tien David W. 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTRather than “selfishness,” a more accurate and revealing interpretation of Wang's use of siyuis “self‐centeredness.” One of the main goals in Wang's model of moral cultivation was to attain a state devoid of self‐centered desires. Wang relied a great deal on the exercise and cultivation of an emotional identification and feeling of oneness with others. In this paper, I first provide a brief summary of the role of Wang's concept of siyu in his moral psychology. I then examine key passages in Wang's writings that reveal his nuanced understanding of siyu and, along the way, I draw on empirical research in psychology to help illuminate the significance of Wang's view of siyu to his overall model of moral cultivation.
“HEROISM ON AN EMPTY STOMACH”: Weil and Hillesum on Love and Happiness Amid the Holocaust1
Authors: Jackson Timothy P. 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTI do four things in this essay: (1) briefly rehearse the biographies of Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum, (2) outline and compare some of the key themes in their lives and works, noting interesting (and also troubling) similarities between them, as well as salient differences, (3) use their examples as lenses through which to look at contemporary attitudes toward altruism vs. self‐interest, freedom vs. necessity, eating vs. fasting, and acting vs. writing, and (4) highlight both their strengths and their weaknesses as religious witnesses to the truth. An overarching issue throughout the essay is the relation between the soul and the body, but I am especially concerned with the relation between self‐sacrifice and self‐love—also known as agape and temporal happiness—when confronted by radical evil. When allowed to correct one another, Weil and Hillesum show us, I believe, how Christian agapism can refuse both hatred and false security, even in an era of terrorism and torture.
WHAT IS IMMANENT IN JUDAISM? Transcending A Secular Age
Authors: Kavka Martin 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTThis essay takes on the implicit claim in Taylor's A Secular Age, forecast in some of his earlier writings, that the desire for a meaningful life can never be satisfied in this life. As a result, A Secular Age is suffused with a tragic view of existence; its love of narratives of religious longing makes no sense otherwise. Yet there are other models of religion that lend meaning to existence, and in the majority of this essay, I take up one model that Taylor ignores in A Secular Age, namely that of a God who is immanent in social life throughout religious law. Turning to Maimonides's account of divine law in the Guide of the Perplexed, I argue that a vision of the divine law that is divine because of its effects in society, namely the promotion of human welfare, can mend the relations between varying kinds of believers and unbelievers in a way that Taylor thinks is impossible. A God who commands laws is a God who inaugurates an “anthropocentric shift” long before current understandings of secularization see it beginning.
NATURALIZING CHRISTIAN ETHICS: A Critique of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age
Authors: Hart William David 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTThis essay critically engages the concept of transcendence in Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. I explore his definition of transcendence, its role in holding a modernity‐inspired nihilism at bay, and how it is crucial to the Christian antihumanist argument that he makes. In the process, I show how the critical power of this analysis depends heavily and paradoxically on the Nietzschean antihumanism that he otherwise rejects. Through an account of what I describe as naturalistic Christianity, I argue that transcendence need not be construed as supernatural, that all of the resources necessary for a meaningful life are immanent in the natural process, which includes the semiotic capacities of Homo sapiens. Finally, I triangulate Taylor's supernatural account of transcendence, naturalistic Christianity, and Dreyfus and Kelly's physis‐based account of “going beyond” our normal normality in All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics for Meaning in a Secular Age.
INCOME DISTRIBUTION, CREDIT RATIONING AND HOUSEHOLDS' DEBT
Authors: Charpe Matthieu , Flaschel Peter , Proaño Christian R. 
Published: January 2012

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we present a model of an economy with household debt, and discuss the conditions under which financial fragility arises. Financial instability is driven by distributive effects. In addition to the income transfers associated with interest payments, the accumulation of debt feeds back with the distribution of income between labour and capital. The model also gives a central role to banks and credit rationing. Contrary to the existing literature, credit supply does not depend on the characteristics of borrowers, but on those of banks. There is a feedback channel between the health of the financial system and the quantity of credit in the economy. We show that there is a diversity of channels through which financial fragility may arise. We identify three channels: a debt–deflation effect à la Fisher, a credit‐financed consumption boom and an exhilarating debt effect.
Can Justice Dethrone Democracy in the European Union? A Reply to Jürgen Neyer
Authors: NICOL DANNY 
Published: January 2012

AbstractJürgen Neyer has recently proposed replacing the European Union's ‘democracy discourse’ with a ‘justice discourse’. This article challenges his arguments. It points out the difficulties associated with Neyer's assertion that EU democracy is not theoretically possible. It then goes on to argue against his proposition that it would be unfair to judge the EU against democracy criteria. Finally it questions Neyer's assumption that EU policy contains an incontestable justice, arguing that democracy remains essential as the means by which a political community differentiates between justice and injustice.
When Failure isn't Failure: European Union Constitutionalism after the Lisbon Treaty*
Authors: SCICLUNA NICOLE 
Published: January 2012

AbstractThe Constitutional Treaty's attempt to turn the peoples of Europe into a much more coherent citizenry, bound together by a common identity, was not successful. Moreover, its failure greatly damaged the federalist cause. Member States retain significant power to constrain supranational agendas in the post‐Lisbon Treaty European Union.
The effect of humeral torsion on rotational range of motion in the shoulder and throwing performance
Authors: Roach Neil Thomas , Lieberman Daniel E. , Gill Thomas J. , Palmer William E. , Gill Thomas J. 
Published: January 2012

AbstractSeveral recent studies have found that throwing athletes typically have lower humeral torsion (retroversion) and a greater range of external rotation at the shoulder than non‐athletes. How these two parameters are related is debated. This study uses data from a sample of both throwers and non‐throwers to test a new model that predicts torsion values from a range of motion data. The model proposes a series of predicted regressions which can help provide new insight into the factors affecting rotational range of motion at the shoulder. Humeral torsion angles were measured from computed tomography scans collected from 25 male subjects. These values are compared to predicted torsion values for the same subjects calculated from both kinematic and goniometric range‐of‐motion data. Results show that humeral torsion is negatively correlated (goniometric: r = −0.409, P = 0.047; kinematic: r = −0.442, P = 0.035) with external rotational range of motion and positively correlated (goniometric: r = 0.741, P < 0.001; kinematic: r = 0.559, P = 0.006) with internal rotational range of motion. The predicted torsion values are highly correlated (goniometric: r = 0.815, P < 0.001; kinematic: r = 0.617, P = 0.006) with actual torsion values. Deviations in the data away from predicted equations highlight significant differences between high torsion and low torsion individuals that may have significant functional consequences. The method described here may be useful for non‐invasively assessing the degree of torsion in studies of the evolution and biomechanics of the shoulder and arm, and for testing hypotheses about the etiology of repetitive stress injuries among athletes and others who throw frequently.
Plasma uric acid remains a marker of poor outcome in hypertensive pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Hawkins TL‐A , Roberts JM , Mangos GJ , Davis GK , Roberts LM , Brown MA 
Published: January 2012

Please cite this paper as: Hawkins T, Roberts J, Mangos G, Davis G, Roberts L, Brown M. Plasma uric acid remains a marker of poor outcome in hypertensive pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study. BJOG 2012 2012;119:484–492.Objective  To examine the relationship between hyperuricaemia, haemoconcentration and maternal and fetal outcomes in hypertensive pregnancies.Design  Retrospective analysis of a database of hypertensive pregnancies.Setting  St George Hospital, a major obstetric unit in Australia.Population  A cohort of 1880 pregnant women without underlying hypertension or renal disease, referred for management of pre‐eclampsia or gestational hypertension.Methods  Demographic, clinical and biochemical data at time of referral and delivery were collected for each pregnancy. Women were grouped according to diagnosis (pre‐eclampsia or gestational hypertension) and logistic regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between uric acid, haemoglobin, haematocrit and adverse outcomes; an α level of P < 0.01 was used for statistical significance.Main outcome measures  Composites of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes.Results  In women with ‘benign’ GH (without proteinuria or any other maternal clinical feature of pre‐eclampsia) gestation‐corrected hyperuricaemia was associated with increased risk of a small‐for‐gestational‐age infant (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.3–4.8) and prematurity (OR 3.2; 95% CI 1.4–7.2), but not with adverse maternal outcome. In the whole cohort of hypertensive pregnant women (those with pre‐eclampsia or gestational hypertension) the risk of adverse maternal outcome (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.6–2.4) and adverse fetal outcome (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.5–2.1) increased with increasing concentration of uric acid. Hyperuricaemia corrected for gestation provided additional strength to these associations. Haemoglobin and haematocrit were not associated with adverse pregnancy outcome.Conclusions  Hyperuricaemia in hypertensive pregnancy remains an important finding because it identifies women at increased risk of adverse maternal and particularly fetal outcome; the latter, even in women with gestational hypertension without any other feature of pre‐eclampsia.
Maternal sepsis: a Scottish population‐based case–control study
Authors: Acosta CD , Bhattacharya S , Tuffnell D , Kurinczuk JJ , Knight M 
Published: January 2012

Please cite this paper as: Acosta C, Bhattacharya S, Tuffnell D, Kurinczuk J, Knight M. Maternal sepsis: a Scottish population‐based case–control study. BJOG 2012;119:474–483.Objective  To describe the risk of maternal sepsis associated with obesity and other understudied risk factors such as operative vaginal delivery.Design  Population‐based, case–control study.Setting  North NHS region of Scotland.Population  All cases of pregnant, intrapartum and postpartum women with International Classification of Disease‐9 codes for sepsis or severe sepsis recorded in the Aberdeen Maternal and Neonatal Databank (AMND) from 1986 to 2009. Four controls per case selected from the AMND were frequency matched on year‐of‐delivery.Methods  Cases and controls were compared; significant variables from univariable regression were adjusted in a multivariable logistic regression model.Main outcome measures  Dependent variables were uncomplicated sepsis or severe (‘near‐miss’) sepsis. Independent variables were demographic, medical and clinical delivery characteristics. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) are reported.Results  Controlling for mode of delivery and demographic and clinical factors, obese women had twice the odds of uncomplicated sepsis (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.14–3.89) compared with women of normal weight. Age <25 years (OR 5.15; 95% CI 2.43–10.90) and operative vaginal delivery (OR 2.20; 95% CI 1.02–4.87) were also significant predictors of sepsis. Known risk factors for maternal sepsis were also significant in this study (OR for uncomplicated and severe sepsis respectively): multiparty (OR 6.29, 12.04), anaemia (OR 3.43, 18.49), labour induction (OR 3.92 severe only), caesarean section (OR 3.23, 13.35), and preterm birth (OR 2.46 uncomplicated only).Conclusions  Obesity, operative vaginal delivery and age <25 years are significant risk factors for sepsis and should be considered in clinical obstetric care.