bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Classification of iris colour: review and refinement of a classification schema
Authors: Mackey David A , Wilkinson Colleen H , Kearns Lisa S , Hewitt Alex W 
Published: December 2010

AbstractEye colour or, more accurately, iris colour is one of the most obvious physical characteristics of a person. European parents frequently ask the colour of their newborn's eyes, only to see the iris change dramatically during their child's first year of life. Genetic and epidemiological findings have uncovered further details about the basis for iris colour, which may have important implications for further research and treatment of some eye diseases and ocular characteristics. Surprisingly there is no widely recognized classification system for eye colour. An added difficulty when trying to devise an international system is that subtle differences in colour description exist between languages (e.g. hazel vs. auburn). We reviewed the recent and very early literature pertaining to eye colour classification. Recent genetic investigations of eye colour have tended to either use simple (three‐category grading systems) or more complex digital colour grading. We present a nine‐category grading system. Categories in this novel schema include: (i) light blue; (ii) darker blue; (iii) blue with brown peripupillary ring; (iv) green; (v) green with brown iris ring; (vi) peripheral green central brown; (vii) brown with some peripheral green; (viii) brown; and (ix) dark brown. Although different observers may categorize a person's eye colour differently, it is generally only by an adjacent category. We also describe a continuum of iris pigmentation from a small ring of brown around the pupil to almost complete brown with small peripheral flecks. Digital publishing and assessment of iris colour will result in more standardized classification of iris colour and investigation of its role in eye disease.
MEDIASTINAL EMPHYSEMA AFTER ESOPHAGEAL ENDOSCOPIC SUBMUCOSAL DISSECTION: ITS PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Authors: MAEDA YUKI , HIRASAWA DAI , FUJITA NAOTAKA , SUZUKI TAKASHI , OBANA TAKASHI , SUGAWARA TOSHIKI , OHIRA TETSUYA , HARADA YOSHIHIRO , NODA YUTAKA 
Published: December 2010

Aims:  To assess the prevalence and clinical significance of mediastinal emphysema (ME) after esophageal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).Methods:  A total of 105 patients in whom assessment of ME was prospectively carried out with multi‐detector row computed tomography (MDCT) after esophageal ESD were included in this study. ME was graded as follows: Grade‐0, no ME; Grade‐I, bubbles around the esophagus; Grade‐II, ME around the thoracic aorta; Grade‐III, ME extending around the heart or beyond the mediastinum into the neck; and Grade‐IV, ME with pneumothorax or subcutaneous emphysema. MDCT grading was compared with the finding of conventional chest X‐ray images (CXR) and clinical symptoms.Results:  CXR revealed the presence of ME in 6.6% of the subjects. On MDCT, ME was recognized in 62.9% (Grade‐0, 37.1%; I, 46.7%; II, 10.5%; III, 5.7%; and IV, 0%), most (83.8%) being Grade‐I or 0. CXR was able to visualize ME of Grade‐II or greater. Exposure of the muscularis propria layer and location of the lesion were significant risk factors for development of ME of Grade‐II or greater (P = 0.008 and P = 0.03, respectively). The duration of a fever of 37°C or higher was longer and the serum C‐reactive protein level was higher in patients with a higher grade of ME.Conclusions:  MDCT revealed the occurrence of ME in 62.9% of the patients who had undergone esophageal ESD, most of which, however, was clinically silent. Exposure of the muscular layer during ESD and location of the lesion were independent risk factors for the development of ME.
Laparoscopic resection for colorectal polyps: a single institution experience
Authors: Lai Jiunn‐Herng , Ng Kheng‐Hong , Ooi Boon‐Swee , Ho Kok‐Sun , Lim Jit‐Fong , Tang Choong‐Leong , Eu Kong‐Weng 
Published: December 2010

AbstractBackground:  Endoscopic polypectomy, although routinely used for the treatment of colorectal polyps, may be limited by polyp size, location and histology. Laparoscopic resection for malignant polyps and polyps not amenable to endoscopic removal has the advantage of adequate disease clearance as well as the short‐term benefits of laparoscopic surgery. This study evaluates the outcomes of such an approach.Methods:  Patients who had laparoscopic resection for colorectal polyps between January 2005 and July 2008 were identified from a prospective database. Polyps that were malignant, large, difficult to snare or incompletely excised, were included. Demographics, perioperative details and histopathology were analysed.Results:  Seventy‐eight patients (44 male) with a median age of 62.5 years (range 24–86) were studied. The majority (79%) were laparoscopic anterior resections for sigmoid or rectal polyps. Median operating time was 125 min (range, 65–225). Eight cases (10.3%) were converted to open mainly due to adhesions. There was no post‐operative mortality. Perioperative complications occurred in seven patients (8.9%). Median hospital stay was 6 days (range 4–78). Median polyp size was 20 mm (range, 5–75). There were 44 benign polyps (55.7%); majority were tubulovillous adenomas (n= 22), and tubular adenomas (n= 10). Thirty‐five patients (44.3%) had invasive cancer, with T1 (n= 27) and T2 (n= 2) tumours. Three of these patients (8.6%) had lymph node metastases. Median number of lymph nodes sampled was six (range 0–23).Conclusion:  Laparoscopic resection is safe and effective for colorectal polyps not amenable to colonoscopic removal, and is especially important for adequate clearance in the case of malignant polyps.
Functional MRI evidence for the importance of visual short‐term memory in logographic reading
Authors: Koyama Maki S. , Stein John F. , Stoodley Catherine J. , Hansen Peter C. 
Published: December 2010

AbstractLogographic symbols are visually complex, and thus children’s abilities for visual short‐term memory (VSTM) predict their reading competence in logographic systems. In the present study, we investigated the importance of VSTM in logographic reading in adults, both behaviorally and by means of fMRI. Outside the scanner, VSTM predicted logographic Kanji reading in native Japanese adults (n = 45), a finding consistent with previous observations in Japanese children. In the scanner, participants (n = 15) were asked to perform a visual one‐back task. For this fMRI experiment, we took advantage of the unique linguistic characteristic of the Japanese writing system, whereby syllabic Kana and logographic Kanji can share the same sound and meaning, but differ only in the complexity of their visual features. Kanji elicited greater activation than Kana in the cerebellum and two regions associated with VSTM, the lateral occipital complex and the superior intraparietal sulcus, bilaterally. The same regions elicited the highest activation during the control condition (an unfamiliar, unpronounceable script to the participants), presumably due to the increased VSTM demands for processing the control script. In addition, individual differences in VSTM performance (outside the scanner) significantly predicted blood oxygen level‐dependent signal changes in the identified VSTM regions, during the Kanji and control conditions, but not during the Kana condition. VSTM appears to play an important role in reading logographic words, even in skilled adults, as evidenced at the behavioral and neural level, most likely due to the increased VSTM/visual attention demands necessary for processing complex visual features inherent in logographic symbols.
Ectomycorrhizal roots select distinctive bacterial and ascomycete communities in Swedish subarctic forests
Authors: Izumi Hironari , Finlay Roger D. 
Published: December 2010

SummaryEctomycorrhizal (ECM) roots represent important niches for interactions with bacteria and ascomycete fungi, since they have a large surface area and receive a direct supply of plant assimilates from their tree hosts. We tested the hypothesis that the roots colonized by specific ECM fungi harbour distinct bacteria/ascomycete communities. Roots were collected from two different locations in a subarctic shrub forest dominated by Betula pubescens. Bacterial and ascomycete communities were analysed by PCR‐DGGE and sequencing, in roots colonized by five frequently observed ECM fungi, Leccinum variicolor, Piloderma fallax, Tomentellopsis submollis, Lactarius torminosus and Pseudotomentella tristis. The bacterial communities associated with P. fallax‐ or P. tristis‐colonized roots were distinct from those associated with roots colonized by three other ECM fungi at both sampling locations. Bacterial communities associated with T. submollis‐, L. torminosus‐ and L. variicolor‐colonized roots were more similar to each other. Lactarius‐ and Pseudotomentella‐colonized roots hosted distinct ascomycete communities at one site while only the community associated with Lactarius was distinct at the second location. The results thus suggest that while the community structure of bacteria colonizing ECM roots can be influenced by the local soil environment, there can also be a strong selective effect of particular fungal symbionts.
Cross‐matched blood in colorectal surgery: a clinical waste?
Authors: Shaker H. , Wijesinghe M. , Farooq A. , Artioukh D. Y. 
Published: December 2010

AbstractAim  This study was carried out to determine the rate of perioperative blood transfusion and to create an evidence‐based approach to requesting blood for elective colorectal surgery.Method  A comparative cohort study was carried out of 164 patients (107 men, 57 women, median age 68 years) who underwent major colorectal surgery. Details obtained included demographic and operative information, the number of units of blood cross‐matched, units used, the reasons for transfusion and patient suitability for electronic issue (EI). The cross‐match to transfusion ratio (C:T ratio) was calculated for each procedure and for the whole group of colorectal procedures.Results  Some 162 units of blood were cross‐matched for 76 (46%) patients, with the remaining 88 (54%) being grouped with serum saved. Twenty‐one (13%) were transfused with a total of 48 units of blood. The C:T ratio for all procedures was 3.4/1. The commonest indication for transfusion was anaemia. One patient required an emergency transfusion. The majority (78%) of patients were suitable for EI. There were no significant differences between the transfused and nontransfused groups with regard to age, diagnosis (malignant vs benign) and laparoscopic or open colorectal procedure.Conclusion  Only a small proportion of patients undergoing elective major colorectal surgery require perioperative blood transfusions, most of which are nonurgent. Blood should not be routinely cross‐matched in patients who are suitable for EI.
Comparative neurocranial morphology of angelsharks from the south‐western Atlantic Ocean (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii, Squatinidae): implications for taxonomy and phylogeny
Authors: de Carvalho Marcelo R. , Faro Caio , Gomes Ulisses L. 
Published: December 2010

Abstractde Carvalho MR., Faro C. and Gomes UL. 2010. Comparative neurocranial morphology of angelsharks from the south‐western Atlantic Ocean (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii, Squatinidae): implications for taxonomy and phylogeny. —Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 00:1–13Neurocrania of three species of angelsharks from the south‐western Atlantic Ocean, occurring off south‐eastern and southern Brazil, are described. A detailed morphological description is provided of the neurocranium of Squatina guggenheim and compared with S. argentina and S. occulta. Despite being generally conservative, the neurocranium of Squatina presents significant differences among these species which aid in their identification, which is otherwise problematical. The main distinctions were found in rostral projections, anterior fontanellae, supraorbital crests, upper and lower postorbital processes, otic capsules, suborbital crests, and pterotic processes. Squatina guggenheim and S. occulta share more neurocranial characters when compared to S. argentina. No basal angle was found, but we confirm the presence of a very much reduced and barely noticeable basioccipital fovea in Squatina; systematic implications within elasmobranchs of these and other features are discussed.
Phylogenetic relationships of Western Mediterranean subterranean Trechini groundbeetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
Authors: Faille Arnaud , Casale Achille , Ribera Ignacio 
Published: December 2010

Faille, A., Casale, A. & Ribera, I. (2010). Phylogenetic relationships of Western Mediterranean subterranean Trechini groundbeetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). —Zoologica Scripta, 40, 282–295.Carabid beetles of tribe Trechini (Coleoptera) are one of the main groups of insects that colonized the subterranean environment. Many species of this group have developed similar morphological modifications related to the subterranean life, resulting in a characteristic Aphaenops‐like phenotype that obscures their phylogenetic relationships (depigmented, blind, elongated body and appendages, narrow head and pronotum). We present here the result of a molecular study using a combination of nuclear (small ribosomal unit, large ribosomal unit) and mitochondrial (cox1, cyb, rrnL, trnL, nad1) genes to investigate the phylogenetic placement of the highly modified subterranean genera of the tribe Trechini from the west Mediterranean area (France, Spain, Morocco and Sardinia). Our results confirm the multiple independent origin of troglomorphism among these genera, and reveal a pattern largely determined by geographical proximity. We discuss the validity of some groups proposed on the base of morphological features, and provide estimates of divergence between subterranean genera and other groups of Trechini, including epigean species of the same area. We compare the estimated age for the origin of the main groups resulting from two different calibrations, using one the standard mitochondrial mutation rate (2.3% divergence per Myr) and the other the separation between Sardinia and mainland 33 Ma. Under the first scenario, the main groups of genera would have a late Miocene origin, with a subsequent colonization of north Africa at the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary. The assumption that the main groups originated through vicariance due to the separation of the Sardinian plate in the Oligocene results in a Messinian origin of the north African subterranean taxa, and a global mitochondrial rate reduced to 1% divergence per Myr.
What would be the outcome if the American Diabetes Association recommendations of 2010 had been followed in our pratice in 1998–2006?
Authors: Cosson E. , Nguyen M. T. , Hamo‐Tchatchouang E. , Banu I. , Chiheb S. , Charnaux N. , Valensi P. 
Published: December 2010

Diabet. Med. 28, 567–574 (2011)AbstractAims  In 2010, the American Diabetes Association has published recommendations on the population to be screened for dysglycaemia; the diagnostic criteria for intermediate hyperglycaemia and diabetes using oral glucose tolerance testing and HbA1c; and the patients eligible for treatment with metformin. We aimed to evaluate the consequences of screening with oral glucose tolerance test or HbA1c in an at‐risk population.Methods  Among 1177 overweight or obese consecutive adults without known diabetes who were referred to our department for weight management, we selected 1157 individuals (83% female; 80% European) fulfilling the American Diabetes Association 2010 criteria for dysglycaemia screening.Results  Mean age was 41.2 ± 13 years, BMI 37.0 ± 7.2 kg/m2, fasting plasma glucose 4.9 ± 0.8 mmol/l and HbA1c (turbidimetric immunoassay) 5.7 ± 0.7% (39 mmol/mol). Based on oral glucose tolerance test and HbA1c, respectively, 76 (6.6%) and 113 (9.8%) patients had diabetes, including 34 sharing both criteria; 307 (26.5%) and 478 (41.3%) had intermediate hyperglycaemia; and 130 (11.2%) and 255 (22.0%) would be treated with metformin. The sensitivity/specificity of HbA1c ≥ 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) for the diagnosis of diabetes according to the oral glucose tolerance test were 44.7/92.7%. Diabetes risk scores and UK Prospective Diabetes Study cardiovascular risk score were the highest in the 130 patients having both an abnormal oral glucose tolerance test and HbA1c ≥ 5.7%.Conclusions  In a population at risk for diabetes, the HbA1c strategy could lead to diagnosing more cases of dysglycaemia and to treating more patients with metformin than the oral glucose tolerance test strategy. The consistency of either diagnostic criteria was low. The patients with the highest a priori risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease were those fulfilling both oral glucose tolerance test and HbA1c criteria.
WAS BIOETHICS FOUNDED ON HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL MISTAKES ABOUT MEDICAL PATERNALISM?
Authors: MCCULLOUGH LAURENCE B. 
Published: December 2010

ABSTRACTBioethics has a founding story in which medical paternalism, the interference with the autonomy of patients for their own clinical benefit, was an accepted ethical norm in the history of Western medical ethics and was widespread in clinical practice until bioethics changed the ethical norms and practice of medicine. In this paper I show that the founding story of bioethics misreads major texts in the history of Western medical ethics. I also show that a major source for empirical claims about the widespread practice of medical paternalism has been misread. I then show that that bioethics based on its founding story deprofessionalizes medical ethics. The result leaves the sick exposed to the predatory power of medical practitioners and healthcare organizations with only their autonomy‐based rights to non‐interference, expressed in contracts, to protect them. The sick are stripped of the protection afforded by a professional, fiduciary relationship of physicians to their patients. Bioethics based on its founding story reverts to the older model of a contractual relationship between the sick and medical practitioners not worthy of intellectual or moral trust (because such trust cannot be generated by what I call ‘deprofessionalizing bioethics’). On closer examination, bioethics based on its founding story, ironically, eliminates paternalism as a moral category in bioethics, thus causing bioethics to collapse on itself because it denies one of the necessary conditions for medical paternalism. Bioethics based on its founding story should be abandoned.
IN WHOSE INTEREST? POLICY AND POLITICS IN ASSISTED REPRODUCTION
Authors: DONCHIN ANNE 
Published: December 2010

ABSTRACTThis paper interprets the British legislative process that initiated the first comprehensive national regulation of embryo research and fertility services and examines subsequent efforts to restrain the assisted reproduction industry. After describing and evaluating British regulatory measures, I consider successive failures to control the assisted reproduction industry in the US. I discuss disparities between UK and US regulatory initiatives and their bearing on regulation in other countries. Then I turn to the political and social structures in which the assisted reproduction industry is embedded. I argue that regulatory bodies are seldom neutral arbiters. They tend to respond most readily to special interests and neglect strategies that could more effectively meet the health needs of the people they represent. Neither national nor international bodies have aggressively pursued policies to harness the industry, reduce infertility rates, or meet the needs of people whose fertility is threatened by substandard healthcare and environmental neglect. In conclusion, I consider recent initiatives by activist groups to mount an alternative response to the industry's current practices and build a transnational reproductive justice movement.
PUBLISHING BIOETHICS AND BIOETHICS – REFLECTIONS ON ACADEMIC PUBLISHING BY A JOURNAL EDITOR
Authors: SCHÜKLENK UDO 
Published: December 2010

ABSTRACTThis article by one of the Editors of Bioethics, published in the 25th anniversary issue of the journal, describes some of the revolutionary changes academic publishing has undergone during the last decades. Many humanities journals went from typically small print‐runs, counting by the hundreds, to on‐line availability in thousands of university libraries worldwide. Article up‐take by our subscribers can be measured efficiently. The implications of this and other changes to academic publishing are discussed. Important ethical challenges need to be addressed in areas such as the enforcement of plagiarism‐related policies, the so‐called ‘impact factor’ and its impact on academic integrity, and the question of whether on‐line only publishing can currently guarantee the integrity of academic publishing histories.
PERSONAL GENOMES: NO BAD NEWS?
Authors: CHADWICK RUTH 
Published: December 2010

ABSTRACTIssues in genetics and genomics have been centre stage in Bioethics for much of its history, and have given rise to both negative and positive imagined futures. Ten years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, it is a good time to assess developments. The promise of whole genome sequencing of individuals requires reflection on personalization, genetic determinism, and privacy.
A STATE‐LEVEL ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS CYCLE ASYMMETRY
Authors: Ewing Bradley T. , Thompson Mark A. 
Published: December 2010

ABSTRACTThis paper provides a comprehensive examination of asymmetry in US state‐level business cycles. We consider two different types of asymmetry in the adjustment process of a stationary time series: deepness and steepness. The data used in the study are a comparable set of state‐level coincident indexes (SCIs) developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Specifically, results from using the momentum‐threshold autoregressive model provide evidence of asymmetry in the growth rate of 23 SCIs as well as the equivalent national coincident index.
Should Monetary Policy Respond to Money Growth? New Results for the Euro Area
Authors: Scharnagl Michael , Gerberding Christina , Seitz Franz 
Published: December 2010

AbstractIn recent years, the relevance of money growth indicators for the conduct of monetary policy has been questioned in the mainstream academic literature. It is widely argued that monetary policy should directly relate short‐term interest rates to inflation and the output gap. The present paper investigates whether the performance of this type of interest rate rule can be significantly improved by adding a policy response to money growth. In contrast to most previous studies, our analysis explicitly takes into account the fact that real‐time data on both actual and potential output, and hence the output gap, may be subject to substantial measurement errors. Broadly speaking, we find that the greater the degree of output gap uncertainty, the greater the benefits of incorporating a money growth response are in terms of reducing volatility in output, inflation and interest rates. The main reason is that real‐time data on money growth contain valuable information on the true level of current output growth, which is not otherwise known to policy makers in real time with a sufficient degree of precision. Hence, we conclude that policy makers should explicitly account for money growth in the setting of policy rates.