bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Fresh‐Frozen Cadaver and High‐Fidelity Virtual Reality Simulator as Methods of Laparoscopic Training
Authors: Sharma Mitesh , Horgan Alan 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundThe aim of this study was to compare fresh‐frozen cadavers (FFC) with a high‐fidelity virtual reality simulator (VRS) as training tools in minimal access surgery for complex and relatively simple procedures.MethodsA prospective comparative face validity study between FFC and VRS (LAP Mentor™) was performed. Surgeons were recruited to perform tasks on both FFC and VRS appropriately paired to their experience level. Group A (senior) performed a laparoscopic sigmoid colectomy, Group B (intermediate) performed a laparoscopic incisional hernia repair, and Group C (junior) performed basic laparoscopic tasks (BLT) (camera manipulation, hand‐eye coordination, tissue dissection and hand‐transferring skills). Each subject completed a 5‐point Likert‐type questionnaire rating the training modalities in nine domains. Data were analysed using nonparametric tests.ResultsForty‐five surgeons were recruited to participate (15 per skill group). Median scores for subjects in Group A were significantly higher for evaluation of FFC in all nine domains compared to VRS (p < 0.01). Group B scored FFC significantly better (p < 0.05) in all domains except task replication (p = 0.06). Group C scored FFC significantly better (p < 0.01) in eight domains but not on performance feedback (p = 0.09). When compared across groups, juniors accepted VRS as a training model more than did intermediate and senior groups on most domains (p < 0.01) except team work.ConclusionsFresh‐frozen cadaver is perceived as a significantly overall better model for laparoscopic training than the high‐fidelity VRS by all training grades, irrespective of the complexity of the operative procedure performed. VRS is still useful when training junior trainees in BLT.
Timing of Two‐stage Liver Resection during Chemotherapy for Otherwise Unresectable Colorectal Metastases
Authors: Tanaka Kuniya , Kumamoto Takafumi , Nojiri Kazunori , Takeda Kazuhisa , Ichikawa Yasushi , Endo Itaru 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundTumor downsizing by effective chemotherapy while increasing remnant liver volume by two‐stage hepatectomy can expand eligibility for resection of otherwise unresectable liver metastases. However, optimal timing of two‐stage hepatectomy with respect to chemotherapy is undetermined.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the effect of timing of two‐stage hepatectomy and chemotherapy using data from 95 patients whose colorectal liver metastases initially were considered unresectable.ResultsIn 21 of 22 (95 %) patients whose first liver resection preceded chemotherapy (Hx‐CTx group) and in 39 of 73 (53 %) patients whose chemotherapy preceded surgery (CTx‐Hx group), macroscopic complete resection ultimately was achieved (P < 0.01). Overall and disease‐free survivals were comparable between groups. However, overall survival of patients not achieving complete resection in the CTx‐Hx group was significantly poorer than that for patients achieving complete resection (P < 0.01). When the 21 patients with complete resection in the Hx‐CTx group were compared to the 39 patients with complete resection in the CTx‐Hx group, no difference in overall or disease‐free survival was observed (P = 0.12 and P = 0.24, respectively), although poor response to chemotherapy was more frequent in the Hx‐CTx group.ConclusionsOptimal timing of hepatectomy and chemotherapy is difficult to specify, but performing the initial resection in a two‐stage hepatectomy before chemotherapy may increase likelihood of macroscopic complete resection, even in patients with a poor response to chemotherapy or with limited courses of chemotherapy.
Synthesis and Surface Active Properties of a Novel Linear Dodecyl Diphenyl Ether Sulfonate Gemini Surfactant
Authors: Hujun Xu , Qicheng Liu , Dandan Chen , Xiaoya Liu 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe linear dodecyl diphenyl ether sulfonate gemini surfactant (C12‐DLADS) has been synthesized by a new route from lauric acid according to a five‐step reaction sequence consisting of acidification, Friedel–Crafts acylation, Clemmensen reduction, sulfonation and a neutralization reaction. The surfactant and intermediates were characterized by 1H‐NMR, HPLC/MS and elemental analysis. The properties have been studied by surface tension (γCMC) and conductivity measurements. The thermodynamic parameters of micellization were calculated. The test results show that C12‐DLADS has lower critical micelle concentration (CMC) and better capability for lowering the γCMC. The γCMC and CMC are 36.04 mN/m and 6.03 × 10−4 mol/L respectively at 45 °C. Moreover, with the increase in temperature, the conductivity of C12‐DLADS increased, while the counterion binding K0 decreased. The thermodynamic data show that the micellization process for the surfactant C12‐DLADS is entropy driven.
Urban health in megacities of developing countries
Authors: Khan Mobarak Hossain 
Published: April 2012

Summary
Urban health in rapidly urbanizing megacities of developing countries is a global public health concern due to growing slums in vulnerable areas, huge impacts of climate change, environment pollution, unhealthy lifestyles, high inequity, limited resources, and growing violence. Increasing cooperation and partnership among relevant disciplines such as urban planners, health professionals, community workers and politicians including improved urban governance are necessary to ameliorate risk factors and improve megacity health.
Assessing the Effects of a Parent-Implemented Language Intervention for Children With Language Impairments Using Empirical Benchmarks: A Pilot Study
Authors: Roberts Megan Y. , Kaiser Ann P. 
Published: April 2012

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a parent-implemented language intervention improves language skills in toddlers at risk for persistent language impairment (LI) as compared with a group of typically developing toddlers.

Method
Thirty-four children with LI between 24 and 42 months of age were randomly assigned to a treatment or nontreatment experimental condition. Participants in the treatment group received 24 biweekly 1-hr sessions for 3 months. An additional sample of 28 age- and gender-matched children with typically developing language (TL) was also included. Norm-referenced child assessments and observational measures were used to assess changes in children’s language growth.

Results
Results from multilevel modeling indicate that children in the treatment group made greater gains than children in the control group on most language measures. Whereas children in the treatment group had lower language scores than children with TL at the end of intervention, the rate of language growth was not significantly different between groups. Child receptive language and parent use of matched turns predicted expressive language growth in both children with and without LI.

Conclusion
The results of this preliminary study indicate that parent-implemented interventions may be an effective treatment for children with expressive and receptive LI.
Identification of Prelinguistic Phonological Categories
Authors: Ramsdell Heather L. , Oller D. Kimbrough , Buder Eugene H. , Ethington Corinna A. , Chorna Lesya 
Published: April 2012

Purpose

The prelinguistic infant’s babbling repertoire of
syllables
—the phonological categories that form the basis for early word learning—is noticed by caregivers who interact with infants around them. Prior research on babbling has not explored the caregiver’s role in recognition of early vocal categories as foundations for word learning. In the present work, the authors begin to address this gap.

Method
The authors explored vocalizations produced by 8 infants at 3 ages (8, 10, and 12 months) in studies illustrating identification of phonological categories through caregiver report, laboratory procedures simulating the caregiver’s natural mode of listening, and the more traditional laboratory approach (phonetic transcription).

Results
Caregivers reported small repertoires of syllables for their infants. Repertoires of similar size and phonetic content were discerned in the laboratory by judges who simulated the caregiver’s natural mode of listening. However, phonetic transcription with repeated listening to infant recordings yielded repertoire sizes that vastly exceeded those reported by caregivers and naturalistic listeners.

Conclusions
The results suggest that caregiver report and naturalistic listening by laboratory staff can provide a new way to explore key characteristics of early infant vocal categories, a way that may provide insight into later speech and language development.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6170384
Quantifying internal friction in unfolded and intrinsically disordered proteins with single-molecule spectroscopy
Authors: Soranno Andrea , Buchli Brigitte , Nettels Daniel , Cheng Ryan R. , Müller-Späth Sonja , Pfeil Shawn H. , Hoffmann Armin , Lipman Everett A. , Makarov Dmitrii E. , Schuler Benjamin 
Published: April 2012

Internal friction, which reflects the “roughness” of the energy landscape, plays an important role for proteins by modulating the dynamics of their folding and other conformational changes. However, the experimental quantification of internal friction and its contribution to folding dynamics has remained challenging. Here we use the combination of single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer, nanosecond fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and microfluidic mixing to determine the reconfiguration times of unfolded proteins and investigate the mechanisms of internal friction contributing to their dynamics. Using concepts from polymer dynamics, we determine internal friction with three complementary, largely independent, and consistent approaches as an additive contribution to the reconfiguration time of the unfolded state. We find that the magnitude of internal friction correlates with the compactness of the unfolded protein: its contribution dominates the reconfiguration time of approximately 100 ns of the compact unfolded state of a small cold shock protein under native conditions, but decreases for more expanded chains, and approaches zero both at high denaturant concentrations and in intrinsically disordered proteins that are expanded due to intramolecular charge repulsion. Our results suggest that internal friction in the unfolded state will be particularly relevant for the kinetics of proteins that fold in the microsecond range or faster. The low internal friction in expanded intrinsically disordered proteins may have implications for the dynamics of their interactions with cellular binding partners.
The War of Words
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This is the third part of a five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK, giving an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country. This volume covering the period from 1939 to 1945, is concerned not only with the impact of the Second World War on the structure, organization, and programmes of the BBC, itself a fascinating subject; it also deals directly with the role of the BBC outside as well as inside Britain within the context of the general political and military history of the war; an exciting, complicated, sometimes controversial role, strangely neglected by historians.
Perspectives
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the history of broadcasting in Great Britain from 1939 to 1945. This book evaluates the impact of World War 2 on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the role of broadcasting in war propaganda. It provides a detailed examination of domestic themes from international aspects of broadcasting and describes how the programmes and organizational structure of the BBC changed because of the war.
Controllers and Controlled
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the conflict of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with the Ministry of Information and the Cabinet. It discusses Minister of Information Frank Pick's proposal for a government takeover of the BBC. When this proposal was not accepted, Pick appointed two new advisers to the BBC to deal with home affairs and local affairs. This chapter describes BBC General-Director General Frederick Ogilvie's reaction to the appointment and his eventual resignation in February 1942.
‘Triple Expansion’
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the triple expansion of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1942. It suggests the idea of a large-scale extension of BBC overseas services had first taken shape in the autumn of 1940 in response to the volume of foreign-language broadcasting. The objectives of the expansion included providing the BBC with enhanced power to convey to all parts of the world truthful news and exposition of British policy, and grew to countering and discrediting the enemy cause within the enemy countries and among populations subject in enemy occupied territories.
Russia and the United States
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter examines the wartime broadcasting during Russia and the U.S.'s entry into the European theatre of World War 2. It discusses Germany's broadcasting of its detailed war plans to invade Russia followed non-broadcast propaganda until June 29, 1921. It describes how the American commentators and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responded to the German broadcast propaganda.
Prelude
Authors: Briggs Asa 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter examines the impact of the setting up of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) on the operation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It discusses the SHAEF's creation of a Psychological Warfare Division which had obvious ramifications for the BBC's European services and the SHAEF's demand for a new international broadcasting service for troops serving under the SHAEF Command. It also explains that the very existence of the SHAEF guaranteed the opening of the Second Front of the war and that BBC had to make preparations for its own reporting of D-Day.
Sexual function following spinal cord injury
Authors: Gardner B. P. , Rainsbury P. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractSpinal cord dysfunction is not limited to motor sensory and bladder problems, but includes the important aspect of sexuality. The patient with a spinal lesion may suffer a reduction in sexual attractiveness (real or imagined), with a concomitant psychological component of reduction in sexual drive or libido compounded by fear of rejection, pain, depression, and the possible effect of medication. Physical problems include difficulty or impossibility of movement, and the control of bodily functions, including sphincter control and stoma incontinence.
Current ideas on motor control and learning: implications for therapy
Authors: Mulder Theo 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThis chapter discusses recent notions on motor control and learning. It aims to give the reader an impression of modern psychological thinking on motor control and learning. The learning of motor control can be understood in terms of the acquisition of abstract plans or rules (or ways to link muscle-joint systems). Visual information, feedback, variability of practice, active movements, and ecologically valid context all play a role in this acquisition process. These requirements can be seen as instruments in the hands of a therapist, and can be employed in the development of a modern therapy.
Overview of fMRI analysis
Authors: Smith Stephen M. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThis chapter gives an overview of the various analysis steps that are required after a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment has been designed and carried out. The resulting data must be passed through various analysis steps before the experimenter can get answers to questions about experimentally related activations at the individual or multi-subject level. The aim of fMRI analysis is to identify in which voxels’ time-series the signal of interest is significantly greater than the noise level. The chapter also provides a brief overview of different approaches to obtaining activation maps, followed by a detailed introduction to analysis via the general linear model – currently the most popular statistical approach – and also various methods of thresholding the resulting statistics maps. It describes briefly the practical and numerical details involved in the analysis of a particular fMRI experiment.
Preparing fMRI data for statistical analysis
Authors: Smith Stephen M. 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This chapter describes the various preprocessing steps necessary to take raw data from the scanner and prepare it for the ‘heart’ of functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis, namely statistical analysis. These preprocessing steps take the raw MR data, convert it into images that actually look like brains, then reduce unwanted noise of various types and precondition the data in order to aid the later statistics. The chapter also discusses how it is much easier to ‘automate’ the preprocessing steps than the statistical analysis because optimal tuning of preprocessing algorithms is less dependent on the details of any particular experiment than is the case with later statistics. It discusses the reasons for applying spatial filtering as a preprocessing step and results clearly show the blurring of activation areas as spatial filtering extent increases, even causing ‘activation’ outside of the brain.
Stabilizing Head/Eye Movements in the BlowflyCalliphora erythrocephala
Authors: Hengstenberg Roland 
Published: April 2012

AbstractLike the majority of other insects, the blowfly has five eyes: three ocelli on top of the head and two compound eyes at the side. The ocelli retinae compose a few hundred photoreceptors whose light-sensitive structures lie inside the focal distance of the lens. Ocelli are believed to act as wide field brightness sensors and are not suited to perceive fine spatial details. Degradation of visual perception by blurring during self-motion is principally the same in all types of eyes. The transfer of high spatial frequencies can be optimized by minimization of the retinal slip, using the necessary compensatory eye movements.
Neural Processes between Visual Sign Stimuli and Head Movements in Toads
Authors: Ewert Jörg-peter , Schürg-pfeiffer Evelyn , Will iSchwippert Wolfgang 
Published: April 2012

AbstractConsidering the neural visuomotor processes obtained by behaviorally relevant sign stimuli, it was realized that investigations in mammals are very intricate. In mammals, the retina is functionally divided into an event-signaling periphery and a central fovea. The oculomotor system is adapted to this property. If an object appears in the peripheral visual field, eye movements direct the fovea to the locus of interest. These ballistic eye movements are relatively fast and not object-specific but event-related. Once the fovea is on target, feedback-guided fixation and smooth-pursuit eye movements provide the conditions for feature analysis and recognition, which are criteria to select the necessary goal-directed behavior.
Optocollic Reflexes and Neck Flexion—Related Activity of Flight Control Muscles in the Airflow-Stimulated Pigeon
Authors: Bilo Dietrich 
Published: April 2012

AbstractGaze stabilization in birds is primarily achieved by a stabilization of the head as manifested, for example, by the head bobbing phenomenon. During this particular kind of head movement, forward thrusts of the head regularly alternate with hold phases in which the head is almost perfectly stabilized in space. This behavior is most often manifested by species that pick up their food from the ground while walking, such as chickens and pigeons. In the pigeon, not only does head bobbing happen during walking, but the same pattern of head movements can also be seen during landing flight. Horizontal angular head bobbing can be observed during slow-turning flights of the pigeon.
Head Position and Posture in Newborn Infants
Authors: Jouen François 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe early development of head-neck and postural control systems has garnered interest not only from developmental psychologists but from researchers from other domains as well. Until recently, however, this field had been ruled by an essentially maturationistic approach and has not extended much beyond more or less accurate descriptions of observed postural behavior. Major aspects of postural development are elaborated in terms of the central nervous system. Recent research on infants' sensory-motor systems has revealed an intricacy overlooked by a maturationistic perspective. Therefore, reconsidering early postural development in a wider framework is a must, combining all the different inputs involved from proprio to ex-proprioceptive signals.
Skeletal Geometry in Vertebrates and Its Relation to the Vestibular End Organs
Authors: Graf Werner , Waele Catherine de , Vidal Pierre Paul 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe results in man and monkey came as no surprise since an erect cervical column had been considered one of the characteristics of “humanness” and a consequence of bipedalism and upright stance. Added to this, the vertical orientation of the cervical spine in man is more or less obvious from the outside. However, for the majority of mammalian quadrupeds, the body shape of the animal is misleading since the outline of the head-neck region formed by soft tissue suggests a horizontal orientation of the cervical spine. In higher vertebrates, the head is found balanced on top of the vertically oriented cervical spine. It was interpreted as providing an energy-saving balance of the head in the resting position.
The Cervical Spine, from Anatomy and Physiology to Clinical Care
Authors: Blandand John H. , Boushey Dallas R. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe cervical spine is the most intricate articulate system in the human body. There are thirty-seven separate joints whose function is to carry out the many movements of the head and neck in relation to the trunk and subserve all specialized sense organs. The seven small cervical vertebrae with their capsular, ligamentous, tendinous, and muscle attachments are poorly designed to protect their contacts, as compared to the skull above and the thorax below. The contents of this anatomic cylinder interposed between skull and thorax include carotid and vertebral arteries, the spinal cord and all anterior and posterior nerve roots, and the brain stem.
Excitatory and Inhibitory Mechanisms Involved in the Dynamic Control of Posture during the Cervicospinal Reflexes
Authors: Pompeiano Ottavio 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe main structure that regulates posture in decerebrate animals is the lateral vestibular nucleus (LVN), whose descending verstibulospinal (VS) pathway excites mono- and polysynaptically ipsilateral neck and limb extensor motoneurons. However, in the addition to the LVN, there are two other structures that exert an antagonistic influence on posture. The first region is represented by the medical aspect of the medullary reticular formation, from which the inhibitory reticulospinal (RS) pathway acting on ipsilateral limb extensor motoneurons originates. This area is under the tonic excitatory influence of a dorsal tegmental region whose neurons, located in the peri-locus ceruleus and the neighboring pontine reticular formation (PRF) are cholinosensitive and also cholinergic in nature.