bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
In Situ Forming Poly(ethylene glycol)‐ Poly(L‐lactide) Hydrogels via Michael Addition: Mechanical Properties, Degradation, and Protein Release
Authors: Buwalda Sytze J. , Dijkstra Pieter J. , Feijen Jan 
Published: March 2012

AbstractChemically crosslinked hydrogels are prepared at remarkably low macromonomer concentrations from 8‐arm poly(ethylene glycol)‐poly(L‐lactide) star block copolymers bearing acrylate end groups (PEG‐(PLLAn)8‐AC, n = 4 or 12) and multifunctional PEG thiols (PEG‐(SH)n, n = 2, 4, or 8) through a Michael‐type addition reaction. Hydrogels are obtained within 1 min after mixing PEG‐(PLLA4)8 ‐AC and PEG‐(SH)8 in phosphate buffered saline, quickly reaching a high storage modulus of 17 kPa. Lysozyme and albumin are released for 4 weeks from PEG‐(PLLA12)8‐AC/PEG‐(SH)8 hydrogels. Lysozyme release from PEG‐(PLLA12)8‐AC/PEG‐(SH)2 and PEG‐(PLLA12)8‐AC/PEG‐(SH)4 hydrogels is significantly faster with complete release in 3 and 12 d, respectively, as a result of a combination of degradation and diffusion.
A multicenter prospective observational study of the conformity of temozolomide prescriptions in France
Authors: Tilleul Patrick , Brignone Melanie , Hassani Yasmine , Labrande Christelle , Pedeboscq Stéphane , Gensollen Sophie , Lahille Benedicte , Exinger Delphine , Bertholle Valérie , Billard Martine , Charlety Dominique , Prebay Danielle , Pinguet Frederic , Taillibert Sophie , Cartalat Stéphanie , Chinot Olivier , Borget Isabelle ,   Temozolomide Study Group of Société Française de Pharmacie Oncologique
Published: March 2012

ABSTRACTContextTemozolomide (TMZ) is approved for the treatment of high‐grade gliomas such as glioblastoma (GBM) multiforme and refractory anaplastic astrocytoma, but it is also used in indications not mentioned in the summary of product characteristics (SPC). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the conformity of TMZ prescriptions to the French SPC and prescription guidebook.MethodsWe conducted a prospective observational study of all consecutive patients treated with TMZ in 21 French hospitals between September 2006 and February 2007, accounting for 39% of total TMZ consumption in France. The conformity of TMZ prescriptions was evaluated in terms of the indication, dosage, treatment duration, and combination with other treatments, with respect to the SPC and prescription guidebook.ResultsWe enrolled 831 patients (median age, 56 years) who received a total of 5982 TMZ treatment cycles. TMZ was mainly prescribed to patients with newly diagnosed GBM (384 patients), GBM in progression/relapse (28 patients), or anaplastic astrocytoma in progression/relapse (19 patients). Prescriptions conformed to the SPC in 51.9% of cases and to the prescription guidebook in 91.5% of cases. Global conformity with the SPC, in terms of the dosage, treatment duration, and combination with other treatments, was 62% for newly diagnosed GBM treated with radiotherapy plus TMZ, 72% for TMZ maintenance monotherapy, and 66% for GBM and anaplastic astrocytoma in progression/relapse.Conclusion/discussionIn France, routine TMZ prescriptions conform to the SPC and practice guidebook. This is one of the largest studies of drug use in neuro‐oncology in terms of the number of patients and cycles analyzed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Protein‐semiconductor quantum dot hybrids for biomedical applications
Authors: Mansur Herman , Mansur Alexandra , González Juan 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThe present work reports the bioconjugation of CdS quantum dots (QDs) with protein by means of an aqueous route at room temperature, applying colloidal chemistry methods. Essentially, the bioconjugates were developed based on albumin (BSA) used as capping ligands for the stabilization of CdS QDs produced using cadmium perchlorate and thioacetamide precursors. CdS QDs were directly capped with BSA or BSA bioconjugated to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. UV‐visible spectroscopy (UV‐vis), TEM and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) were used to characterize the stability and morphology of CdS nanoparticles. The CdS nanocrystals were produced with estimated average particle size smaller than 4.0 nm, indicating that they were within the so‐called “quantum‐size confinement range”. The results have clearly shown that both routes (BSA and BSA conjugates) were effective on stabilizing fluorescent QDs in aqueous dispersions to be potentially used in biomedical applications (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Biomarker dynamics: estimating infection rates from serological data
Authors: Teunis PFM , van Eijkeren JCH , Ang CW , van Duynhoven YTHP , Simonsen JB , Strid MA , van Pelt W 
Published: March 2012

The marginal distribution of serum antibody titres in a cross‐sectional population sample can be expressed as a function of the infection rate, taking into account heterogeneity in peak levels and decay rates. This marginal model allows estimation of incidences, as well as simple tests for homogeneity across age, gender or geographic strata, using likelihood ratio tests.An example is given using Campylobacter serum antibody data. Using a hierarchical dynamic model to analyse data from a follow‐up study in patients with symptomatic Campylobacter infection, we show that the serum antibody response consists of a rapid increase to peak levels followed by a slow decline with a geometric mean halftime of 1.4, 0.6 and 0.3 years for IgG, IgM and IgA, respectively. Antibody peak levels and decay rates were highly variable among subjects.Incidence estimates are consistent among different antibody classes (IgG, IgM and IgA). High seroconversion rates indicate that Campylobacter infection is a frequent event, occurring approximately once every year in any adult person, in the Netherlands, supporting the conclusion that a small fraction of infections leads to symptoms severe enough for notification. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Assessment of Swallowing Function Impairment in Patients with Benign Goiters and Impact of Thyroidectomy: A Case Control Study
Authors: Sabaretnam Mayilvaganan , Mishra Anjali , Chand Gyan , Agarwal Gaurav , Agarwal Amit , Verma Ashok Kumar , Mishra Saroj Kanta 
Published: March 2012

AbstractBackgroundSwallowing‐related quality of life (QoL) in patients with benign thyroid goiters is not much studied. The aim of this study was to assess swallowing function impairment in patients with benign goiters, compare it to a control population, and also find the impact of thyroidectomy and various factors on the outcome of swallowing function.MethodsWe performed a prospective case–control study from September 2009 to September 2011 which consisted of 124 patients who were to undergo primary thyroid surgery and 100 age‐ and sex‐matched controls. A translated and validated modified swallowing quality‐of‐life (SWAL‐QOL) questionnaire was used to assess patients’ perception of dysphagia. Presurgery scores of patients and controls and pre‐ and postsurgery scores (>6 months after surgery) of patients were compared.ResultsThe mean age of males and females in the control and patient groups were 37.7 vs. 39.5 years and 37.4 vs. 39.8 years, respectively. Twelve patients (9.7%) complained of dysphasia at presentation. Sixty‐three patients (50.8%) underwent total thyroidectomy and 61 (49.2%) had hemithyroidectomy at the time of initial evaluation, 75, 23.4, and 1.6% of patients were euthyroid, hyperthyroid, and hypothyroid, respectively. Presurgery scores of patients in all of the 11 domains of the SWAL‐QOL were lower compared to those of controls. Comparing separately with the matched controls, females had significant differences in nine domains (except for sleep and fatigue) of the SWAL‐QOL questionnaire but males did not. Postoperatively, both male and female patients showed significant improvement in the scores of all the domains. Female gender, hyperthyroidism, thyroid nodularity, retrosternal extension, procedure, and weight of the resected specimen were the factors associated with significant improvement in various domains.ConclusionDysphagia seems to be an underestimated problem in patients with benign goiters. Uncomplicated thyroidectomy results in significant improvement in swallowing‐related QoL irrespective of patient profile and extent of thyroidectomy.
EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT COMPONENTS UNDER INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM (IFS) FOR SMALL AND MARGINAL FARMERS UNDER SEMI-HUMID CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT
Authors: KUMAR SANJEEV , SUBASH N. , SHIVANI S. , SINGH S. S. , DEY A. 
Published: March 2012

SUMMARYFor efficient utilisation of available farm resources and to increase the income per unit of land, seven integrated farming systems were developed and different combinations of crop, animal, fish and bird were evaluated at three locations of Eastern India,viz. Patna, Vaishali and Munger districts, to sustain productivity, profitability, employment generation and nutrient recycling for lowland situations from 2007–2008 to 2009–2010. Among the tested different Integrated Farming System (IFS) models,viz. (i) crop + fish + poultry, (ii) crop + fish + duck, (iii) crop + fish + goat, (iv) crop + fish + duck + goat, (v) crop + fish + cattle, (vi) crop + fish + mushroom and (vii) crop alone, crop + fish + cattle model recorded higher rice (Oryza sativaL.) grain equivalent yield (RGEY) (18.76 t/ha) than any other combinations, but in terms of economics, crop + fish + duck + goat model supersedes over all other combinations. The highest average net returns (USD 2655/yr) were recorded from crop + fish + duck + goat system over all other systems tested here. Higher average employment of 656 man-days/year were also recorded from crop + fish + duck + goat system because of better involvement of farm family labours throughout the year. Based on a sustainability index (SI) derived from different models, crop + fish + duck + goat system was found superior with a maximum sustainability for net returns (73.1%), apart from the addition of appreciable quantity of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium into the system in the form of recycled animal and plant wastes. The wastes/by-products of crop/animals were used as input for another component to increase the nutrient efficiency at the farm level through nutrient recycling. Results on integration of different components with crop depending upon suitability and preferences were found encouraging, and to enhance the productivity, economic returns, generating employment for farm families and maintaining soil health of the farm, the crop + fish + duck + goat combination could be adopted in the eastern part of India than cultivating the crop alone on the same piece of land under irrigated condition. Addition of organic residues in the form of animal and plant wastes could also help in improving the soil-health and thereby productivity over a longer period of time with lesser environmental hazards. The livelihoods of small and marginal farmers could be improved by their adoption of IFS technologies on a larger scale, as they provide scope to employ more labour year-round.
Beyond the Paradox: Religion, Family and Modernity in Contemporary Bangladesh
Authors: WHITE SARAH C. 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThis paper reflects on the apparent ‘paradox’ of a contemporary Bangladesh that appears both ‘more modern’ and ‘more Islamic’, focusing on changes in the family (and the gender and generational orders that it embodies) as a central locus of anxiety and contestation. The paper begins with theory, how the paradox is framed by classical social science expectations of religious decline and how this has been contested by contemporary writers who describe specifically modern forms of piety. It then turns to Bangladesh, where highly publicized symbolic oppositions between ‘religion’ and ‘development’ contrast sharply with people's pragmatic accommodation of development goods in everyday life. Analysis of religious references in interview data reveal the co-existence of very different understandings: a more traditional view of religion as embedded in the moral order; and a more modern deliberate cultivation of a religious life. They also reveal how many of the uses which people make of religion are not specifically religious: to conjure a moral universe, to mark what is important to them, to say things about themselves. The final section returns to theory, reflecting on how this is informed by the findings from Bangladesh, and suggesting that the importance of the private and personal as a site for governance offers a further dimension of why the supposed ‘paradox’ of a religious modernity may not be so paradoxical after all.
John Oman on feeling and theology
Authors: HOOD ADAM 
Published: March 2012

AbstractThis article revisits Oman's idea that an intuitive felt knowledge of the divine underlies the articulate knowledge found in faith and theology. Such feeling, Oman claims, is analogous to ordinary perception and gives rise to the attempt to evaluate, understand, and respond to the divine. Theology is the formalized attempt to respond to the intuition of the divine. The article argues that Oman's emphasis on the experiential and experimental character of theology is helpful, but that his analysis of the logic of faith requires reformulation.
Structure of child and adult past counterfactuals, and implications for acquisition of the construction
Authors: CRUTCHLEY ALISON 
Published: March 2012

ABSTRACTChildren start producing if p, q conditionals relatively late. Past counterfactuals (PCFs), for example ‘If she had shut the cage, the rabbit wouldn't have escaped’, are particularly problematic for children; despite evidence of comprehension in the preschool years, children aged eleven are still making production errors in PCF structure (Crutchley, 2004). Working within a usage-based framework, the present study explores whether PCFs in the conversational component of the British National Corpus show structural similarities to the set of PCF structures produced by six- to eleven-year-old children in an elicitation task. Adult PCFs are found to be both rare in spontaneous conversation and very varied in structure. Low token frequency and high type frequency are hypothesized to account partly for children's late acquisition of the PCF construction. However, regularities in the use of subjects and verbs in adult PCFs are hypothesized to assist children's acquisition of the construction.
Population-based laboratory assessment of the burden of community-onset bloodstream infection in Victoria, Canada
Authors: LAUPLAND K. B. , KIBSEY P. C. , GREGSON D. B. , GALBRAITH J. C. 
Published: March 2012

SUMMARYAlthough community-onset bloodstream infection (BSI) is recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality, its epidemiology has not been well defined in non-selected populations. We conducted population-based laboratory surveillance in the Victoria area, Canada during 1998–2005 in order to determine the burden associated with community-onset BSI. A total of 2785 episodes were identified for an overall annual incidence of 101·2/100 000. Males and the very young and the elderly were at highest risk. Overall 1980 (71%) episodes resulted in hospital admission for a median length of stay of 8 days; the total days of acute hospitalization associated with community-onset BSI was 28 442 days or 1034 days/100 000 population per year. The in-hospital case-fatality rate was 13%. Community-onset BSI is associated with a major burden of illness. These data support ongoing and future preventative and research efforts aimed at reducing the major impact of these infections.
Modeling of ionospheric magnetic field perturbations induced by earthquakes
Authors: Imtiaz Nadia , Marchand Richard 
Published: March 2012

The objective of this study is to present a simple coupled seismo‐ionospheric model to account for magnetic field perturbations in response to geophysical phenomena such as Earthquakes or tsunamis. For this purpose, we include a simple gravity wave model in the two dimensional mid latitude ionosphere model SAMI2. Following an earthquake, the disturbances in the neutral atmosphere density and velocity associated with gravity waves propagate vertically upward up to ionospheric altitudes 150–350 km, where significant coupling between the neutral atmosphere and the ionosphere occurs. As a result, a rapid variation in the ionospheric plasma density and temperature is observed associated with the photoionization of the perturbed neutral density. This variation in the electron density leads in turn to a variation in the total electron content (TEC). Strong variations in the TEC are observed close to the epicenter which correspond to large plasma density perturbations in this region associated with the ion acoustic mode. The calculation of magnetic perturbations is based on a set of reduced MHD equations. These are solved numerically using the finite element code TOPO coupled with the mid latitude ionospheric model SAMI2. The coupling between the two codes accounts for the variations in neutral gas density and the collisional drag force between ions and neutrals. Two wave modes are considered: the shear Alfvén mode and the compressional mode. The results of the magnetic field perturbations and of ions' velocity perturbations associated with the shear Alfvén and the compressional modes are presented. Variations in the TEC values are also computed for the compressional mode by taking into account the density perturbations transverse to the magnetic field. The results representing TEC perturbations associated with the compressional mode show strong variations at high latitudes both as a function of time and latitude.
Gender, Metaphor and the State
Authors: Sawer Marian 
Published: March 2012

The neo-liberal upsurge of the last twenty years and the neo-liberal case against the welfare state has gained much of its emotional force from a sub-text which is highly gendered. Whereas social liberalism had contained the promise of more autonomy within the private sphere and more caring values in the public sphere, neo-liberalism depicts the results of social liberalism as a loss of self reliance – through ‘over-protection’ by the state in the public sphere and usurpation of male roles in the private sphere. The identification of the welfare state as female (the ‘nanny state’) helps fuel resentment on the part of those already confused by rapidly changing gender roles. This paper tracks the sex change which took place in the image of the liberal state as it evolved out of the night watchman state – the link between the women's suffrage movement and social regulation, maternal principles of distribution and demands for the public organization of caring. It examines the neo-liberal rejection of the breast and neo-liberal claims that the maternal state is incompatible with ‘self-reliance’ and a barrier to competitiveness in the world market.
‘To Whom Does Ameena Belong?’
Authors: Mankekar Purnima 
Published: March 2012

This article examines the discourses of the Indian state and of community élites during battles for the custody of a young Muslim girl, Ameena, who was ‘rescued’ from a marriage with an elderly Arab. The battles for Ameena's custody were fought as much in news reports, opinion columns, and letters to the editor of metropolitan and vernacular newspapers, as in courts. Questions were raised about Ameena's age, the viability of her marriage, the applicability of secular laws to Muslim communities, and the political economy of the sexuality of girl-children. In these representations, Ameena became a symbol of minority identity, and was transformed into an unwilling and unwitting object of protection. Why did Ameena's story attract so much attention? What were the different positions underlying the arguments made for Ameena's ‘protection’? Without dismissing the protection of children and the advocacy of their rights, this article analyses the agendas shaping the discourses of the Indian state and national and community élites during the battles for Ameena's custody. The article situates the controversies surrounding Ameena in the wider context of the increasing polarization between Hindu and Muslim communities in India in the early 1990s, and focuses on the relationship between notions of childhood and discourses of community, gender and nation. The article argues that there was a synecdochic relationship between the purity of girl-children and the purity of the Indian nation: far from being ‘pre-cultural’ or apolitical, discourses of childhood were profoundly implicated in the politics of gender, sexuality, community and nation. What are the implications of Ameena's predicament for feminist epistemology and praxis? In pointing to the ways in which feminist critiques of modernist regimes of power and knowledge can enable us to understand the multiple positionalities of children in the contemporary world, the article explores the spaces available for feminist theorists and activists to engage in a politics of vigilance and intervention with regard to the state's positions towards children.
Three-DOF dynamic model with lubricant contact for thermal fly-height control nanotechnology
Authors: Vakis Antonis I , Hadjicostis Christoforos N , Polycarpou Andreas A 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
A three-degree-of-freedom dynamic contact model with friction and lubricant contact is introduced for thermal fly-height control of a near-contact flying slider. The proposed model addresses the issue of contact with a molecularly thin lubricant layer and includes a third degree-of-freedom, roll. Neither lubricant contact nor roll has been accounted for in previous models of the head–disk interface. Roll angle rotations allow for possible contact at other slider features such as the contact pads, which may induce destabilizing moments to the slider motion and lead to unwanted slider–disk contact. While roll is important primarily during operational shock, the inclusion of lubricant contact is found to be an important determinant of the severity of steady contact while lubricant properties are shown to affect the transient properties of the jump-to- and out-of-contact slider behaviour for near- and light-contact operation. The model's validity is examined using available experimental and simulation data that predict flying height gain due to air bearing stiffening as well as significant vibration zones before and after steady-state contact.
PINALOG: a novel approach to align protein interaction networks—implications for complex detection and function prediction
Authors: Phan Hang T. T. , Sternberg Michael J. E. 
Published: March 2012

Abstract
Motivation: Analysis of protein–protein interaction networks (PPINs) at the system level has become increasingly important in understanding biological processes. Comparison of the interactomes of different species not only provides a better understanding of species evolution but also helps with detecting conserved functional components and in function prediction.
Method and Results: Here we report a PPIN alignment method, called PINALOG, which combines information from protein sequence, function and network topology. Alignment of human and yeast PPINs reveals several conserved subnetworks between them that participate in similar biological processes, notably the proteasome and transcription related processes. PINALOG has been tested for its power in protein complex prediction as well as function prediction. Comparison with PSI-BLAST in predicting protein function in the twilight zone also shows that PINALOG is valuable in predicting protein function.
Availability and implementation: The PINALOG web-server is freely available from http://www.sbg.bio.ic.ac.uk/~pinalog. The PINALOG program and associated data are available from the Download section of the web-server.
Contact: m.sternberg@imperial.ac.uk
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.