bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Neuropsychological Improvement Following Cognitive Rehabilitation in Patients with Gliomas
Authors: Gehring Karin , Aaronson Neil K. , Gundy Chad M. , Taphoorn Martin J.B. , Sitskoorn Margriet M. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractThis study investigated the specific patient factors that predict responsiveness to a cognitive rehabilitation program. The program has previously been demonstrated to be successful at the group level in patients with gliomas, but it is unclear which patient characteristics optimized the effect of the intervention at the individual level. Four categories of possible predictors of improvement were selected for evaluation: sociodemographic and clinical variables, self-reported cognitive symptoms, and objective neuropsychological test performance. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted, beginning with the most accessible (sociodemographic) variables and ending with the most difficult (baseline neuropsychological) to identify in clinical practice. Nearly 60% of the participants of the intervention were classified as reliably improved. Reliable improvement was predicted by age (p= .003) and education (p= .011). Additional results suggested that younger patients were more likely to benefit specifically from the cognitive rehabilitation program (p= .001), and that higher education was also associated with improvement in the control group (p= .024). The findings are discussed in light of brain reserve theory. A practical implication is that cognitive rehabilitation programs should take the patients’ age into account and, if possible, adapt programs to increase the likelihood of improvement among older participants. (JINS, 2011,17, 256–266)
Deteriorated Executive Functions in Patients with Successful Surgery for Pituitary Adenomas Compared with Other Chronically Ill Patients
Authors: Müssig Karsten , Besemer Britta , Saur Ralf , Klingberg Stefan , Häring Hans-Ulrich , Gallwitz Baptist , Leyhe Thomas 
Published: January 2011

AbstractPituitary adenomas, even after successful treatment, are associated with cognitive impairments. It is unclear whether these deficits are a consequence of unspecific factors associated with having a chronic illness and whether the cognitive dysfunctions exceed those of other chronically ill patients. Thirty-eight patients with transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenomas and 38 patients undergoing L-thyroxine replacement therapy after thyroid surgery were studied neuropsychologically with established tests. Executive function was examined with the Trail-Making Test A and B, working memory with the digit span test, attention with the digit symbol test, verbal memory with the German version of the Auditory Verbal Learning and Memory Test, and general verbal intelligence by a vocabulary test. Attention (p = .007), attentional speed (p = .0004), executive control (p = .04), and working memory (p = .01), were significantly reduced in patients with pituitary adenomas compared with other chronically ill patients. In contrast, no differences were found between the groups for verbal memory (all subtests: p ≥ .06). Patients with successful surgery for pituitary adenomas show also in comparison with other chronically ill patients an increased risk for deficits in certain aspects of cognitive function, including attention and working memory, supporting the relevance of the brain lesion and its treatment for these dysfunctions. (JINS, 2011, 17, 369–375)
Iron stores in relation to dietary patterns in a multiethnic population: the SAMINOR study
Authors: Broderstad Ann R , Melhus Marita , Brustad Magritt , Lund Eiliv 
Published: January 2011

AbstractObjectiveWe evaluated the association between serum ferritin (s-ferritin), transferrin saturation and dietary patterns, in connection with ethnicity, geographical settlement and lifestyle factors.DesignIn 2003–2004, a cross-sectional study of health and living conditions was carried out in northern Norway.SettingA questionnaire explored, among other factors, ethnicity and food consumption habits. Principal component analysis was used to assess the association between variables. Seven principal components were then used as input to a cluster analysis. To characterise food consumptions, five dietary patterns were identified and used to assess the effect of food consumption habits on Fe stores.SubjectsA total of 16 323 men and women between the ages of 36 and 79 years participated.ResultsParticipants who frequently consumed reindeer meat had higher levels of s-ferritin (P < 0·0001) than did individuals with other dietary patterns. This pattern was highly represented by subjects with three generations of Sami language (Sami I). Further, mean transferrin saturation in the reindeer group was higher compared with the other dietary clusters for men (P < 0·04) and women (P < 0·02). However, the reindeer pattern individuals also had the highest proportion of subjects with overweight and obesity. Obesity was positively associated with s-ferritin in both men and women (P < 0·0001).ConclusionsThe differences in Fe status described earlier between inland Sami and non-Sami can be explained by several factors such as food habits, age and obesity. High level of s-ferritin may reflect high intake of reindeer meat. Being overweight and obese is also associated with s-ferritin levels.
Improving the diet of employees at blue-collar worksites: results from the ‘Food at Work’ intervention study
Authors: Lassen Anne D , Thorsen Anne V , Sommer Helle M , Fagt Sisse , Trolle Ellen , Biltoft-Jensen Anja , Tetens Inge 
Published: January 2011

AbstractObjectiveTo examine the impact of a 6-month participatory and empowerment-based intervention study on employees’ dietary habits and on changes in the canteen nutrition environment.DesignWorksites were stratified by company type and by the presence or absence of an in-house canteen, and randomly allocated to either an intervention group (five worksites) or a minimum intervention control group (three worksites). The study was carried out in partnership with a trade union and guided by an ecological framework targeting both individual and environment levels. Outcome measures included: (i) changes in employees’ dietary habits derived from 4 d pre-coded food diaries of a group of employees at the worksites (paired-data structure); and (ii) the canteen nutrition environment as identified by aggregating chemical nutritional analysis of individual canteen lunches (different participants at baseline and at endpoint).SettingEight blue-collar worksites (five of these with canteens).SubjectsEmployees.ResultsIn the intervention group (n102), several significant positive nutritional effects were observed among employees, including a median daily decrease in intake of fat (−2·2 %E,P= 0·002) and cake and sweets (−18 g/10 MJ,P= 0·002) and a median increase in intake of dietary fibre (3 g/10 MJ,P< 0·001) and fruit (55 g/d,P= 0·007 and 74 g/10 MJ,P= 0·009). With regard to the canteen nutrition environment, a significant reduction in the percentage of energy obtained from fat was found in the intervention group (median difference 11 %E,P< 0·001,n144).ConclusionsThe present study shows that moderate positive changes in dietary patterns can be achieved among employees in blue-collar worksites.
Impact of an intervention on the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables in the workplace
Authors: Bandoni Daniel Henrique , Sarno Flávio , Jaime Patricia Constante 
Published: January 2011

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of an educational and environmental intervention on the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables in workplace cafeterias.DesignThis was a randomized intervention study involving a sample of companies that were divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention, which focused on change in the work environment, was based on an ecological model for health promotion. It involved several different aspects including menu planning, food presentation and motivational strategies to encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables. The impact of the intervention was measured by changes (between baseline and follow-up) in the availability of fruits and vegetables that were eaten per consumer in meals and the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the workplace by workers. We also evaluated the availability of energy, macronutrients and fibre.SettingsCompanies of São Paulo, Brazil.SubjectsTwenty-nine companies and 2510 workers.ResultsAfter the intervention we found an average increase in the availability of fruits and vegetables of 49 g in the intervention group, an increase of approximately 15 %, whereas the results for the control group remained practically equal to baseline levels. During the follow-up period, the intervention group also showed reduced total fat and an increase in fibre in the meals offered. The results showed a slight but still positive increase in the workers’ consumption of fruits and vegetables (about 11 g) in the meals offered by the companies.ConclusionsInterventions focused on the work environment can be effective in promoting the consumption of healthy foods.
Social and cultural construction of obesity among Pakistani Muslim women in North West England
Authors: Ludwig Alison F , Cox Peter , Ellahi Basma 
Published: January 2011

AbstractObjectiveThe present qualitative study explored health perceptions, diet and the social construction of obesity and how this relates to the initiation and maintenance of a healthier diet in UK Pakistani women.DesignPakistani women in Greater Manchester participated in focus group and one-to-one discussions. Semi-structured interviews employing fictional vignettes and body shape images were used to explore the participants’ beliefs and practices regarding diet, overweight/obesity and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Transcripts were analysed using phenomenological and sociological approaches.SettingInterviews took place either in local community and Pakistani resource centres or in private homes.SubjectsFirst- and second-generation women who were both active in the community and housebound. The women spoke English and/or Urdu.ResultsThe fifty-five participants lacked the motivation to address weight gain and were unsure how to do so. There was a limited awareness of the link between weight gain and type 2 diabetes. Other barriers included the influence of Islam, culture and familial expectations on home cooking, perceptions that weight gain is inevitable (owing to ageing, childbirth or divine predestination) and the prioritisation of family concerns over individual lifestyle changes. As the findings of the present research did not correspond to existing educational and behaviour change models, a new Health Action Transition conceptual model is proposed.ConclusionsHealth education programmes that aim to address obesity and its associated risks in the South Asian community must take into account the complex beliefs and practices and the multiple dimensions of religion, ethnic and social identity within this population. The present study provides further insight into these factors and proposes a novel model for use in designing and implementing education interventions for British Pakistani women.
The Microstructure and Creep Behavior of Cold Rolled Udimet 188 Sheet
Authors: Boehlert C.J. , Longanbach S.C. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractUdimet 188 was subjected to thermomechanical processing (TMP) in an attempt to understand the effects of cold-rolling deformation on the microstructure and tensile-creep behavior. Commercially available sheet was cold rolled to varying amounts of deformation (between 5–35% reduction in sheet thickness) followed by a solution treatment at 1,464 K (1,191°C) for 1 h and subsequent air cooling. This sequence was repeated four times to induce a high-volume fraction of low-energy grain boundaries. The resultant microstructure was characterized using electron backscattered diffraction. The effect of the TMP treatment on the high-temperature [1,033–1,088 K (760–815°C)] creep behavior was evaluated. The measured creep stress exponents (6.0–6.8) suggested that dislocation creep was dominant at 1,033 K (760°C) for stresses ranging between 100–220 MPa. For stresses ranging between 25–100 MPa at 1,033 K (760°C), the stress exponents (2.3–2.8) suggested grain boundary sliding was dominant. A significant amount of grain boundary cracking was observed both on the surface and subsurface of deformed samples. To assess the mechanisms of crack nucleation, in situ scanning electron microscopy was performed during the elevated-temperature tensile-creep deformation. Cracking occurred preferentially along general high-angle grain boundaries (GHAB) and less than 25% of the cracks were found on low-angle grain boundaries (LAB) and coincident site lattice boundaries (CSLB). Creep rupture experiments were performed at T = 1,088 K (815°C) and σ = 165 MPa and the greatest average time-to-rupture was exhibited by the TMP sheet with the greatest fraction of LAB+CSLB. However, a clear correlation was not exhibited between the grain boundary character distribution and the minimum creep rates. The findings of this work suggest that although grain boundary engineering may be possible for this alloy, simply relating the fraction of grain boundary types to the creep resistance is not sufficient.
Speckle Patterning of Soft Tissues for Strain Field Measurement Using Digital Image Correlation: Preliminary Quality Assessment of Patterns
Authors: Ning Jinfeng , Braxton Vaughn G. , Wang Ying , Sutton Michael A. , Wang Yanqing , Lessner Susan M. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractMethods for creating speckle patterns on mouse arteries for use in deformation and strain field measurements in a stereomicroscope digital image correlation (DIC) system are described. Both fluorescent microsphere binding and ethidium bromide (EB) nuclear staining were used to generate high contrast, random patterns on mouse carotid arteries. To quantify the quality of each pattern, several metrics are used including (a) histogram distribution for each intensity pattern and (b) pixel-level variance in intensity pattern noise. Results demonstrate that both approaches provide sufficient pattern contrast for use in image-based methods to measure deformations in soft tissue. While fluorescent nuclear staining generates higher pixel-level intensity noise, this method provides better overall pattern quality (greater spatial uniformity and broader histogram) for automated DIC analysis when used at the appropriate magnification. Using recently developed theoretical predictions, estimates for the standard deviation in image-correlation-based displacements due to the measured intensity pattern variance are presented for fluorescent microsphere binding and EB nuclear staining patterns. Results confirm that both patterning approaches provide relatively small standard deviation in displacement measurements and hence are appropriate for measurement of deformations in small artery specimens.
AN EIGENVALUE PROBLEM INVOLVING A FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION ARISING IN A CELL GROWTH MODEL
Authors: VAN BRUNT BRUCE , VLIEG-HULSTMAN M. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractWe interpret a boundary-value problem arising in a cell growth model as a singular Sturm–Liouville problem that involves a functional differential equation of the pantograph type. We show that the probability density function of the cell growth model corresponds to the first eigenvalue and that there is a family of rapidly decaying eigenfunctions.
Certificate size reduction in abstraction-carrying code
Authors: ALBERT ELVIRA , ARENAS PURI , PUEBLA GERMÁN , HERMENEGILDO MANUEL 
Published: January 2011

AbstractAbstraction-Carrying Code (ACC) has recently been proposed as a framework for mobile code safety in which the code supplier provides a program together with an abstraction (or abstract model of the program) whose validity entails compliance with a predefined safety policy. The abstraction plays thus the role of safety certificate and its generation is carried out automatically by a fixpoint analyzer. The advantage of providing a (fixpoint) abstraction to the code consumer is that its validity is checked in a single pass (i.e., one iteration) of an abstract interpretation-based checker. A main challenge to make ACC useful in practice is to reduce the size of certificates as much as possible while at the same time not increasing checking time. The intuitive idea is to only include in the certificate information that the checker is unable to reproduce without iterating. We introduce the notion of reduced certificate which characterizes the subset of the abstraction which a checker needs in order to validate (and re-construct) the full certificate in a single pass. Based on this notion, we instrument a generic analysis algorithm with the necessary extensions in order to identify the information relevant to the checker. Interestingly, the fact that the reduced certificate omits (parts of) the abstraction has implications in the design of the checker. We provide the sufficient conditions which allow us to ensure that (1) if the checker succeeds in validating the certificate, then the certificate is valid for the program (correctness) and (2) the checker will succeed for any reduced certificate which is valid (completeness). Our approach has been implemented and benchmarked within the CiaoPP system. The experimental results show that our proposal is able to greatly reduce the size of certificates in practice.
LINKING BLACKNESS OR ETHNIC OTHERING?
Authors: Nunnally Shayla C. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractDawson (1994) submits Black linked fate is a major predictor of Black political behavior. This theory conjectures that the experiences of African Americans with race and racial discrimination in the United States unify their personal interests under a rubric of interests that are best for the Black racial group. With increasing Black ethnic diversity in the United States, however, it becomes important to ascertain how African Americans perceive linkages across Black ethnic groups. This study examines African Americans' linkages with West Indian and African peoples in the United States, referred to here as diasporic linked fate. The study tests the influence of parent-child, intra-racial socialization messages on these linkages. Results suggest that, while a majority of African Americans acknowledge Black linked fate, they distinguish these linkages based on ethnicity and have more tenuous linkages with West Indians and Africans in the United States. While intra-racial socialization messages offer some import in explaining perceived differences in Black ethnic groups' living experiences, more frequent experiences with racial discrimination, and membership in a Black organization offer more import in explaining diasporic linked fate.
Innovation in vegetable seed production and the role of consumers in the organic and conventional babyleaf chains: The case of Denmark
Authors: Deleuran Lise C. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractIn this study, the focus is on babyleaf products and the potentials that an increased interest in these products might bring to vegetable seed growers. Case studies on babyleaf products illustrate how consumers perceive babyleaf products and which parameters they give preference to. In addition, aspects of preference for local vegetable products were investigated. The methodological approach has been in the form of two questionnaires presented to consumers in two different chain structures, an industrialized chain (linking actors from ‘farm to fork’) and an alternative chain where organic produce is delivered to the consumers' doorstep through a box-scheme concept. The participants in the surveys were selected to identify elements that potentially could be used as a spur in innovation and development of new products in the chain and not necessarily to indicate general consumer interests. The overall conclusions are a genuine interest in babyleaf products in both approached chains. In the industrialized chain, 89% of the respondents would like more products and subsequently new niches within seed production are likely to occur. In the alternative chain, 83% of the respondents were very content with the babyleaf product they had received. In addition, these consumers display a profound preference for local products. The paper proposes that seeds and the quality of the seeds play an important role in babyleaf production and should be viewed as, not just a raw material in the chain, but also as the initial step in the babyleaf chain. Dialog among the actors in the chain is essential to meet the consumer demands from both a conventional and an organic perspective. The role of organic seed in organic vegetable productions is discussed.
Interlocking complementarities and institutional change
Authors: PAGANO UGO 
Published: January 2011

Abstract:In biology, the laws that regulate the structuring and change of complex organisms, characterised by interlocking complementarities, are different from those that shape the evolution of simple organisms. Only the latter share mechanisms of competitive selection of the fittest analogous to those envisaged by the standard neoclassical model in economics. The biological counterparts of protectionism, subsidies and conflicts enable complex organisms to exit from long periods of stasis and to increase their capacity to adapt efficiently to the environment. Because of their interlocking complementarities, most institutions share the laws governing the structure and change of complex organisms. We concentrate on the complementarities between technology and property rights and consider historical cases in which organisational stasis has been overcome by mechanisms different from (and sometimes acting in spite of) competitive pressure. The evolution of institutions cannot be taken for granted; but even when institutions seem frozen forever by their interlocking complementarities, their potential for change can be discovered by analysis of those interactions.
A group-oriented inpatient CBT programme: a pilot study
Authors: Lynch Katherine , Berry Courtney , Sirey Joanne 
Published: January 2011

AbstractThe inpatient unit faces many challenges in the effort to deliver comprehensive psychiatric care to acutely ill patients with minimal lengths of stay. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), a structured, problem-focused, time-limited form of treatment has been shown to be a promising intervention with the inpatient population. This paper describes a group-oriented inpatient CBT programme for women and reports pilot data on the experiences of 78 adult female patients. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed that participants exhibited improved psychosocial functioning from admission to discharge, with gains maintained at 1 month post-discharge. Partial correlations indicated that participation and engagement in CBT groups is related to improved functioning at discharge. Participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and psychotic disorders all evidenced similar positive treatment trajectories, suggesting that group-oriented CBT programming may be a useful addition to standard inpatient care.