bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Socioeconomic factors associated with drug consumption in prison population in Mexico
Authors: Nevárez-Sida Armando , Constantino-Casas Patricia , Castro-Ríos Angélica 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Consumption of illegal drugs is a public health problem in Mexico, and the prison population is a vulnerable group with higher rates of prevalence than in the general population. The objective of this study was to determine the main socioeconomic variables associated with drug consumption in the prison population.

Methods
Utilizing data from the Second Incarcerated Population Survey carried out by the Centre of Research and Teaching of Economics (CIDE) in Mexico, a logistic model in two stages was developed. The first stage analyzed the determinants of habitual drug consumption by prisoners (prior to admittance into prisons), while the second stage of the model addressed drug consumption within prisons.

Results
Prevalence of drug consumption previous to incarceration was 28.5%, although once people were imprisoned this figure dropped to 7.4%. The characteristics that most heavily influenced against the possibility of habitual drug consumption prior to admittance to prison were: preparatory school or higher, being employed and having children; while the variables associated negatively were: male gender, childhood home shared with adults who consumed illegal drugs; abandoning childhood home; and having previous prison sentences. Once in prison, the negative conditions in there are associated with drug consumption.

Conclusions
Work and study during incarceration, in addition to being instruments for rehabilitation, seem to exert an important positive association against drug consumption. However, this correlation seems to be minimized in the face of negative conditions of the penal institution; thus, public policies are necessary to improve the prisoner's environment.
Wild bitter gourd improves metabolic syndrome: A preliminary dietary supplementation trial
Authors: Tsai Chung-Huang , Chen Emily Chin-Fun , Tsay Hsin-Sheng , Huang Ching-jang 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is a common tropical vegetable that has been used in traditional or folk medicine to treat diabetes. Wild bitter gourd (WBG) ameliorated metabolic syndrome (MetS) in animal models. We aimed to preliminarily evaluate the effect of WBG supplementation on MetS in Taiwanese adults.

Methods
A preliminary open-label uncontrolled supplementation trial was conducted in eligible fulfilled the diagnosis of MetS from May 2008 to April 2009. A total of 42 eligible (21 men and 21 women) with a mean age of 45.7 ± 11.4 years (23 to 63 years) were supplemented with 4.8 gram lyophilized WBG powder in capsules daily for three months and were checked for MetS at enrollment and follow-up monthly. After supplementation was ceased, the participants were continually checked for MetS monthly over an additional three-month period. MetS incidence rate were analyzed using repeated-measures generalized linear mixed models according to the intention-to-treat principle.

Results
After adjusting for sex and age, the MetS incidence rate (standard error, p value) decreased by 7.1% (3.7%, 0.920), 9.5% (4.3%, 0.451), 19.0% (5.7%, 0.021), 16.7% (5.4%, 0.047), 11.9% (4.7%, 0.229) and 11.9% (4.7%, 0.229) at visit 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 compared to that at baseline (visit 1), respectively. The decrease in incidence rate was highest at the end of the three-month supplementation period and it was significantly different from that at baseline (p = 0.021). The difference remained significant at end of the 4th month (one month after the cessation of supplementation) (p = 0.047) but the effect diminished at the 5th and 6th months after baseline. The waist circumference also significantly decreased after the supplementation (p < 0.05). The WBG supplementation was generally well-tolerated.

Conclusion
This is the first report to show that WBG improved MetS in human which provides a firm base for further randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy of WBG supplementation.
RNAa-mediated overexpression of WT1 induces apoptosis in HepG2 cells
Authors: Qin Qi , Lin Yi-Wei , Zheng Xiang-Yi , Chen Hong , Mao Qi-Qi , Yang Kai , Huang Shou-Jiang , Zhao Zheng-Yan 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Aim
Recent studies have reported that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) can activate gene expression by targeting promoter sequence in a process termed RNA activation. The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential of WT1 induction by small activating RNA targeting the WT1 promoter (dsWT1) in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Methods
The human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 was transfected with dsRNA by liposomes. The expression of mRNA and protein in cells were investigated using real-time reverse real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot, respectively. Cell viability and clonogenicity were determined by MTT assay and clonogenicity assay, respectively. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by flow-cytometric analysis.

Results
Expressions of WT1 mRNA and protein in dsWT1 treated HepG2 cells were significantly elevated. Inhibition of cell viability by dsWT1 was dose-dependent and time-dependent. Reduction of the number and size of colonies formed were found in dsWT1 treated cells. dsWT1 induced significant apoptosis in HepG2 cells. The decreased anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and elevated pro-apoptotic protein Bak expression were detected in dsWT1 treated cells. The level of pro-caspase-3 remarkably decreased and cleaved caspase-3 and PARP fragment were also detected in dsWT1 treated cells.

Conclusion
These data show that RNAa-mediated overexpression of WT1 may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Acute cholecystitis in high risk surgical patients: percutaneous cholecystostomy versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy (CHOCOLATE trial): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Kortram Kirsten , van Ramshorst Bert , Bollen Thomas L , Besselink Marc G H , Gouma Dirk J , Karsten Tom , Kruyt Philip M , Nieuwenhuijzen Grard A P , Kelder Johannes C , Tromp Ellen , Boerma Djamila 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in acute calculous cholecystitis in high risk patients can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Percutaneous cholecystostomy may be an alternative treatment option but the current literature does not provide the surgical community with evidence based advice.

Methods/Design
The CHOCOLATE trial is a randomised controlled, parallel-group, superiority multicenter trial. High risk patients, defined as APACHE-II score 7-14, with acute calculous cholecystitis will be randomised to laparoscopic cholecystectomy or percutaneous cholecystostomy. During a two year period 284 patients will be enrolled from 30 high volume teaching hospitals. The primary endpoint is a composite endpoint of major complications within three months following randomization and need for re-intervention and mortality during the follow-up period of one year. Secondary endpoints include all other complications, duration of hospital admission, difficulty of procedures and total costs.

Discussion
The CHOCOLATE trial is designed to provide the surgical community with an evidence based guideline in the treatment of acute calculous cholecystitis in high risk patients.

Trial Registration
Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): NTR2666
Equine poisoning by coffee husk (Coffea arabicaL.)
Authors: Delfiol Diego Jose Z , Oliveira-Filho Jose P , Casalecchi Fernanda L , Kievitsbosch Thatiane , Hussni Carlos A , Riet-Correa Franklin , Araujo-Jr João P , Borges Alexandre S 
Published: January 2012

AbstractBackgroundIn Brazil, coffee (Coffea arabica) husks are reused in several ways due to their abundance, including as stall bedding. However, field veterinarians have reported that horses become intoxicated after ingesting the coffee husks that are used as bedding. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether coffee husk consumption causes intoxication in horses.ResultsSix horses fed coast cross hayad libitumwere given access to coffee husks and excitability, restlessness, involuntary muscle tremors, chewing movements and constant tremors of the lips and tongue, excessive sweating and increased respiration and heart rates were the most evident clinical signs. Caffeine levels were measured in the plasma and urine of these horses on two occasions: immediately before the coffee husks were made available to the animals (T0) and at the time of the clinical presentation of intoxication, 56 h after the animals started to consume the husks (T56). The concentrations of caffeine in the plasma (p < 0.001) and urine (p < 0.001) of these animals were significantly greater at T56 than at T0.ConclusionsIt was concluded that consumption of coffee husks was toxic to horses due to the high levels of caffeine present in their composition. Therefore, coffee husks pose a risk when used as bedding or as feed for horses.
BarraCUDA - a fast short read sequence aligner using graphics processing units
Authors: Klus Petr , Lam Simon , Lyberg Dag , Cheung Ming Sin , Pullan Graham , McFarlane Ian , Yeo Giles SH , Lam Brian YH 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
With the maturation of next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies, the throughput of DNA sequencing reads has soared to over 600 gigabases from a single instrument run. General purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU), extracts the computing power from hundreds of parallel stream processors within graphics processing cores and provides a cost-effective and energy efficient alternative to traditional high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. In this article, we describe the implementation of BarraCUDA, a GPGPU sequence alignment software that is based on BWA, to accelerate the alignment of sequencing reads generated by these instruments to a reference DNA sequence.

Findings
Using the NVIDIA Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) software development environment, we ported the most computational-intensive alignment component of BWA to GPU to take advantage of the massive parallelism. As a result, BarraCUDA offers a magnitude of performance boost in alignment throughput when compared to a CPU core while delivering the same level of alignment fidelity. The software is also capable of supporting multiple CUDA devices in parallel to further accelerate the alignment throughput.

Conclusions
BarraCUDA is designed to take advantage of the parallelism of GPU to accelerate the alignment of millions of sequencing reads generated by NGS instruments. By doing this, we could, at least in part streamline the current bioinformatics pipeline such that the wider scientific community could benefit from the sequencing technology.
BarraCUDA is currently available from http://seqbarracuda.sf.net
An increased incidence of Hodgkin's lymphoma in patients with adult-onset sarcoma
Authors: Downing Megan E , Dite Gillian S , Ballinger Mandy L ,   The International Sarcoma Kindred Study Consortium
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Sarcomas are rare, often fatal malignancies of connective tissues that can occur in genetic predisposition syndromes or result from carcinogen exposure. Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is not known to contribute to any recognised familial cancer syndrome comprising sarcomas, but is known to be associated with a variety of second cancers, including sarcomas. This study describes the prevalence of HL in families affected by sarcoma.

Methods
The International Sarcoma Kindred Study (ISKS) is a prospective cohort of 561 families ascertained via a proband with adult-onset sarcoma. Cancer-specific standardised incidence ratios (SIR) for multiple primary malignancies in probands were estimated. Clinical characteristics of individuals reporting both sarcoma and HL were described. Standardised incidence ratios for the occurrence of cancer in ISKS families were also estimated.

Results
Multiple primary cancers were reported in 16% of probands, significantly higher than in the general population. The risk of HL in probands was increased 15.8-fold (95%CI 7.9-31.6) and increased risks were also seen for breast cancer (SIR 2.9, 95%CI 1.9-4.4) and thyroid cancer (SIR 8.4, 95%CI 4.2-16.8). In 8 probands with both HL and sarcoma, the diagnosis of HL preceded that of sarcoma in 7 cases, and occurred synchronously in one case. Only 3 cases of sarcoma occurred in or close to prior radiotherapy fields. The overall incidence of HL in the ISKS cohort was not significantly increased by comparison with age- and gender-specific population estimates (SIR 1.63, 95%CI 1.05-2.43), suggesting that the association between HL and sarcomas did not extend to other family members. The age of onset of non-sarcoma, non-HL cancers in families affected by both HL and sarcoma was younger than the general population (56.2 y vs 65.6 y, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions
The basis for the association between HL and sarcomas may include the carcinogenic effects of therapy combined with excellent survival rates for HL. Common risk factors for both may also exist, including both environmental and heritable factors.
Relative impact of maternal depression and associated risk factors on offspring psychopathology
Authors: Barker Edward D. , Copeland William , Maughan Barbara , Jaffee Sara R. , Uher Rudolf 
Published: January 2012

BackgroundIn general, mothers with depression experience more environmental and family risk factors, and lead riskier lifestyles, than mothers who are not depressed.AimsTo test whether the exposure of a child to risk factors associated with mental health adds to the prediction of child psychopathology beyond exposure to maternal depression.MethodIn 7429 mother–offspring pairs participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in the UK, maternal depression was assessed when the children were aged 1.5 years; multiple risk factor exposures were examined between birth and 2 years of age; and DSM-IV-based externalising and internalising diagnoses were evaluated when the children were 7.5 years of age.ResultsChildren of clinically depressed mothers were exposed to more risk factors associated with maternal mental health. Maternal depression increased diagnoses of externalising and internalising disorders, but a substantial portion of these associations was explained by increased risk factor exposure (41% for externalising and 37% for internalising disorders). At the same time, these risk exposures significantly increased the odds of both externalising and internalising diagnoses, over and above the influence of maternal depression.ConclusionsChildren of clinically depressed mothers are exposed to both maternal psychopathology and risks that are associated with maternal mental health. These results may explain why treating mothers with depression shows beneficial effects for children, but does not completely neutralise the increased risk of psychopathology and impairment.
Primary Hyperparathyroidism and Celiac Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study
Authors: Ludvigsson Jonas F. , Kämpe Olle , Lebwohl Benjamin , Green Peter H. R. , Silverberg Shonni J. , Ekbom Anders 
Published: January 2012

Context:
Celiac disease (CD) has been linked to several endocrine disorders, including type 1 diabetes and thyroid disorders, but little is known regarding its association to primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Objective:
The aim of the study was to examine the risk of PHPT in patients with CD.

Design and Setting:
We conducted a two-group exposure-matched nonconcurrent cohort study in Sweden. A Cox regression model estimated hazard ratios (HR) for PHPT.

Participants:
We identified 17,121 adult patients with CD who were diagnosed through biopsy reports (Marsh 3, villous atrophy) from all 28 pathology departments in Sweden. Biopsies were performed in 1969–2008, and biopsy report data were collected in 2006–2008. Statistics Sweden then identified 85,166 reference individuals matched with the CD patients for age, sex, calendar period, and county.

Main Outcome Measure:
PHPT was measured according to the Swedish national registers on inpatient care, outpatient care, day surgery, and cancer.

Results:
During follow-up, 68 patients with CD and 172 reference individuals developed PHPT (HR = 1.91; 95% confidence interval = 1.44–2.52). The absolute risk of PHPT was 42/100,000 person-years with an excess risk of 20/100,000 person-years. The risk increase for PHPT only occurred in the first 5 yr of follow-up; after that, HR were close to 1 (HR = 1.07; 95% confidence interval = 0.70–1.66).

Conclusions:
CD patients are at increased risk of PHPT, but the absolute risk is small, and the excess risk disappeared after more than 5 yr of follow-up.
Worker division of labor and endocrine physiology are associated in the harvester ant,Pogonomyrmex californicus
Authors: Dolezal Adam G. , Brent Colin S. , Hölldobler Bert , Amdam Gro V. 
Published: January 2012

SUMMARYIn Pogonomyrmex californicus harvester ants, an age-associated division of labor occurs in the worker caste, in which young workers perform in-nest tasks and older workers forage for food. Here, we tested whether this behavioral division is age based or age flexible, and whether it coincides with differential expression of systemic hormones with known roles in behavioral regulation. Whole-body content of juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids was determined in workers from (1) age-typical colonies, in which a typical age structure is maintained and workers transition across behaviors naturally, and (2) single-cohort colonies, which are entirely composed of same-aged workers, facilitating the establishment of age-independent division of labor. Foragers from both colony types had higher JH and lower ecdysteroid content than workers performing in-nest tasks, suggesting that age is not the sole determinant of worker behavior. This association between hormone content and behavior of P. californicus workers is similar to that previously observed in founding queens of this species. Because these hormones are key regulators of development and reproductive behavior, our data are consistent with the reproductive ground plan hypothesis (RGPH), which posits that the reproductive regulatory mechanisms of solitary ancestors were co-opted to regulate worker behavior.
Dexamethasone suppression test: development of a method for simultaneous determination of cortisol and dexamethasone in human plasma by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Authors: Hempen C , Elfering S , Mulder A H L , van den Bergh F A J T M , Maatman R G H J 
Published: January 2012

Background Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid and is analogous to cortisol. It is used in the low-dose overnight dexamethasone suppression test (LDODST) to diagnose hypercortisolism in patients suspected to be suffering from Cushing's syndrome (CS). Measuring plasma dexamethasone in conjunction with measuring the amount of cortisol following the LDODST may allow clinicians to improve the diagnosis of CS. Methods Plasma samples were cleaned up by solid-phase extraction before analysis. Liquid chromatographic separation was carried out under reversed-phase conditions prior to detection by tandem mass spectrometry. The analytes were determined in the presence of deuterated internal standards cortisol-d4 and dexamethasone-d4. Results Limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 1.89 nmol/L for dexamethasone and <0.02 μmol/L for cortisol. Recoveries of both analytes ranged from 80.2% to 114.4%. Intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were <15%. The concentration of dexamethasone and cortisol was determined in 62 patients after performing LDODST. Dexamethasone concentrations ranged from 3.0 to 21.5 nmol/L (median 7.4 nmol/L) for 57 of these samples. For five patients the concentration was <LOQ. Cortisol concentrations were <0.08 μmol/L (median 0.037 μmol/L, n = 54) except for eight patients (>0.22 μmol/L). Conclusions A method for the simultaneous measurement of dexamethasone and cortisol in human plasma by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry has been developed and validated. The method is suitable for controlling the compliance to the LDODST and for determining the cortisol plasma concentration after the test. The interpretation of LDODSTs was improved by the simultaneous determination of both analytes.
Baseline Levels and Trimestral Variation of Triiodothyronine and Thyroxine and Their Association with Mortality in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients
Authors: Meuwese Christiaan L. , Dekker Friedo W. , Lindholm Bengt , Qureshi Abdul R. , Heimburger Olof , Barany Peter , Stenvinkel Peter , Carrero Juan J. 
Published: January 2012

Summary

Background and objectives
Conflicting evidence exists with regard to the association of thyroid hormones and mortality in dialysis patients. This study assesses the association between basal and trimestral variation of thyroid stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, and thyroxine and mortality.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements
In 210 prevalent hemodialysis patients, serum triiodothyronine, thyroxine, thyroid stimulating hormone, and interleukin-6 were measured 3 months apart. Cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths were registered during follow-up. Based on fluctuations along tertiles of distribution, four trimestral patterns were defined for each thyroid hormone: persistently low, decrease, increase, and persistently high. The association of baseline levels and trimestral variation with mortality was investigated with Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models.

Results
During follow-up, 103 deaths occurred. Thyroid stimulating hormone levels did not associate with mortality. Patients with relatively low basal triiodothyronine concentrations had higher hazards of dying than patients with high levels. Longitudinally, patients with persistently low levels of triiodothyronine during the 3-month period had higher mortality hazards than those having persistently high levels. These associations were mainly attributable to cardiovascular-related mortality. The association between thyroxine and mortality was not altered after adjustment for triiodothyronine.

Conclusions
Hemodialysis patients with reduced triiodothyronine or thyroxine levels bear an increased mortality risk, especially due to cardiovascular causes. This was true when considering both baseline measurements and trimestral variation patterns. Our longitudinal design adds observational evidence supporting the hypothesis that the link may underlie a causal effect.