bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mode of anaesthetic for category 1 caesarean sections and neonatal outcomes
Authors: Beckmann Michael , Calderbank Susan 
Published: June 2012

BackgroundBirth by emergency caesarean section (CS) is common and often considered urgent (category 1). In the UK, over half of all category 1 CS are performed under general anaesthesia (GA). In this setting, little is known about the effect of the mode of anaesthesia on the neonate.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was performed using routinely collected de‐identified data from Mater Health Services, Brisbane, Australia. The data set included 533 term babies born by category 1 CS for presumed fetal compromise between 2008 and 2011. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken.ResultsThe outcomes of 81 babies born by GA CS were compared with 452 by CS under regional anaesthesia (RA). Compared with a category 1 CS under RA, the decision‐to‐delivery interval for a GA CS was almost eight minutes faster (24.7 vs 32.6 minutes; P < 0.001). When adjusted for confounders, babies born by category 1 GA CS were significantly more likely to have an Apgar score < 7 at five minutes (aOR 6.89; 95%CI 1.79–26.55; P = 0.005), to require Neopuff or bag/mask ventilation for > 60 seconds (aOR 2.34; 95%CI 1.13–4.84; P = 0.022) and to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care nursery (aOR 2.24; 95%CI 1.16–4.31; P = 0.016).ConclusionsGeneral anaesthesia was associated with short‐term neonatal morbidity of term babies born by category 1 CS for presumed fetal compromise, despite enabling a more rapid delivery of the baby. These data should help inform the discussion between anaesthetist and obstetrician, in balancing the risks and benefits of the mode of anaesthesia.
The Efficacy of Second‐Line Anti‐Helicobacter pylori Therapy Using an Extended 14‐Day Levofloxacin/Amoxicillin/Proton‐Pump Inhibitor Treatment – A Pilot Study
Authors: Chuah Seng‐Kee , Tai Wei‐Chen , Hsu Pin‐I , Wu Deng‐Chyang , Wu Keng‐Liang , Kuo Chung‐Mou , Chiu Yi‐Chun , Hu Ming‐Luen , Chou Yeh‐Pin , Kuo Yuan‐Hung , Liang Chih‐Ming , Chiu King‐Wah , Hu Tsung‐Hui 
Published: June 2012

AbstractBackgroundLarge meta‐analyses of second‐line
Helicobacter pylori eradication with fluoroquinolone triple therapy have shown that neither 7‐day nor 10‐day therapy provides 90% or better treatment success. Reports describing second‐line
H. pylori eradication using 14‐day fluoroquinolone‐containing triple therapy are few. Current study aimed to determine the efficacy of a 14‐day levofloxacin/amoxicillin/proton‐pump inhibitor regimen as second‐line therapy and the clinical factors influencing the outcome.Materials and methodsOne‐hundred and one patients who failed
H. pylori eradication using the standard triple therapy for 7 days were randomly assigned to either a levofloxacin/amoxicillin/esomeprazole group (levofloxacin 500 mg once daily, amoxicillin 1 g twice daily, and esomeprazole 40 mg twice daily for 14 days) or a esomeprazole/metronidazole/bismuth salt/tetracycline group (esomeprazole 40 mg twice daily, metronidazole 250 mg four times daily, tripotassium dicitrate bismuthate 300 mg four times daily, and tetracycline 500 mg four times daily for 14 days). Follow‐up to assess treatment response consisted of either endoscopy or a urea breath test, which were carried out 8 weeks later.ResultsEradication rates attained by levofloxacin/amoxicillin/esomeprazole and esomeprazole/metronidazole/bismuth salt/tetracycline treatments in the per‐protocol analysis were 44/47 (93.6%; 95% CI = 86–99.8) and 43/47 (91.8%; 95% CI = 83.2–98.5). In the intention‐to‐treat analysis, these were 43/47 (86.3%; 95% CI = 76.5–96.1) in the LAE group (four lost to follow‐up) and 43/50 (86%; 95% CI = 76–96) in the EMBT groups. The observed adverse events were 25.5% and 38.5% among the two groups. There was 100% drug compliance among the levofloxacin/amoxicillin/esomeprazole group. Levofloxacin‐resistant strains occurred at a frequency of 32.3%.
H. pylori eradication rates for the levofloxacin‐susceptible strains and levofloxacin‐resistant strains were 92% (11/12) and 33% (1/3) in the per‐protocol analysis.ConclusionsA 14‐day levofloxacin/amoxicillin/esomeprazole triple therapy approach provides a >90% per‐protocol report card with the caveat that this approach is markedly less effective in the presence of fluoroquinolone resistance. Levofloxacin‐resistant strains are increasing in Taiwan.
The Late Medieval Kidney—Nephrology in and about the Fourteenth Century
Authors: Eknoyan Garabed 
Published: June 2012

AbstractThe Late Medieval Period was a decisive period in the history of medicine. It was then that medical education was integrated into the universities that were coming into existence and when medicine made its transition from a menial trade to a regulated profession with a statutory basis of learning and graduation. It was also then that the necessities of understanding the fabric of the body was realized; for the first time in history, the study of anatomy and of human dissection were incorporated into the medical curriculum. This was a defining change whose subsequent expansion and evolution would bring about the study of function (physiology) and changes in disease (pathology). Few advances were made in the study of the kidney, which was considered part of the venous circulation, whose function was subservient to that of nutrition in eliminating excess fluid. Uroscopy flourished and reached unrealistic levels of dominance in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognostication of any and all diseases, especially in the hands of quacks and charlatans. Alchemy, a mysterious pseudo‐science, blossomed into a discipline that nurtured experimentation and laid the rudimentary foundations of scientific study, chemistry, and pharmacology. It was also then that surgery took form as a specialty that actually provided much of the medical care of the period including that of the principal diseases of the kidney, obstruction and calculi, and thereby laid the foundations of what in time would become urology.
Standardized Reporting Guidelines for Emergency Department Syncope Risk‐stratification Research
Authors: Sun Benjamin C. , Thiruganasambandamoorthy Venkatesh , Cruz Jeffrey Dela ,   for the Consortium to Standardize ED Syncope Risk Stratification Reporting
Published: June 2012

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:694–702 © 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency MedicineAbstractThere is increasing research interest in the risk stratification of emergency department (ED) syncope patients. A major barrier to comparing and synthesizing existing research is wide variation in the conduct and reporting of studies. The authors wanted to create standardized reporting guidelines for ED syncope risk‐stratification research using an expert consensus process. In that pursuit, a panel of syncope researchers was convened and a literature review was performed to identify candidate reporting guideline elements. Candidate elements were grouped into four sections: eligibility criteria, outcomes, electrocardiogram (ECG) findings, and predictors.A two‐round, modified Delphi consensus process was conducted using an Internet‐based survey application. In the first round, candidate elements were rated on a five‐point Likert scale. In the second round, panelists rerated items after receiving information about group ratings from the first round. Items that were rated by >80% of the panelists at the two highest levels of the Likert scale were included in the final guidelines.There were 24 panelists from eight countries who represented five clinical specialties. The panel identified an initial set of 183 candidate elements. After two survey rounds, the final reporting guidelines included 92 items that achieved >80% consensus. These included 10 items for study eligibility, 23 items for outcomes, nine items for ECG abnormalities, and 50 items for candidate predictors. Adherence to these guidelines should facilitate comparison of future research in this area.
Plant‐herbivore coevolution in a changing world
Authors: Leimu Roosa , Muola Anne , Laukkanen Liisa , Kalske Aino , Prill Nadine , Mutikainen Pia 
Published: June 2012

AbstractCurrent anthropogenic environmental change causes rapid loss of biodiversity. Although the effects of the main causes of this loss (habitat fragmentation, climate change, and invasive species) on single species have been widely studied, the effects on species interactions are poorly understood. In particular, we do not yet understand how these phenomena affect the evolutionary processes that impact species interactions. Coevolution is a dominant process that organizes the web of life: most species are involved in at least one coevolved interaction. Due to rapid human modification of landscapes it is important to understand how subsequent changes in biotic and abiotic environment and in the level and distribution of genetic variation, as well as changes in population structures, influence the elements of the coevolutionary process. In this review, we synthesize recent development of theoretical work on the coevolution of interacting species with conservation genetics and the impact of anthropogenic environmental changes on single species to address the potential effects of habitat fragmentation, climate change, and invasive species on plant‐herbivore coevolution.
The effects of China's growth on the food prices and the food exports of other developing countries
Authors: Villoria Nelson 
Published: June 2012

AbstractThis article explores the impacts of China's growth in the international markets of agricultural products along two dimensions: food price inflation and export growth in other developing countries. China's food imports of vegetable oils have grown dramatically over the last decade, linking China's economic growth to the recent increases in global food prices. If China is a source of global food price inflation, exporting countries will benefit whether they sell directly to China or not. These direct and indirect linkages are explored using a short‐run, partial‐equilibrium model of international trade in agricultural products in which consumer prices and trade costs are derived from bilateral trade flows. China's effects on food prices and exports are estimated by reducing Chinese food expenditures in 2007 by half, roughly China's level of expenditures in 1995. Results indicate that food prices as measured by CES price indexes in developing Asia, Africa, and Latin America would have been reduced by 1.27%, 0.32%, and 0.22%, respectively. China has been an important source of growth for exporters selling directly to China. There is no evidence of export growth due to an overall increase in food prices caused by China's growth.
Dopaminergic‐like cells from epigenetically reprogrammed mesenchymal stem cells
Authors: Zhang Zhiying , Alexanian Arshak R. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractA number of recent studies have examined the ability of stem cells derived from different sources to differentiate into dopamine‐producing cells and ameliorate behavioural deficits in Parkinsonian models. Recently, using the approach of cell reprogramming by small cell‐permeable biological active compounds that involved in the regulation of chromatin structure and function, and interfere with specific cell signalling pathways that promote neural differentiation we have been able to generate neural‐like cells from human bone marrow (BM)‐derived MSCs (hMSCs). Neurally induced hMSCs (NI‐hMSCs) exhibited several neural properties and exerted beneficial therapeutic effect on tissue preservation and locomotor recovery in spinal cord injured rats. In this study, we aimed to determine whether hMSCs neuralized by this approach can generate dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Immunocytochemisty studies showed that approximately 50–60% of NI‐hMSCs expressed early and late dopaminergic marker such as Nurr‐1 and TH that was confirmed by Western blot. ELISA studies showed that NI‐hMSCs also secreted neurotrophins and dopamine. Hypoxia preconditioning prior to neural induction increased hMSCs proliferation, viability, expression TH and the secretion level of dopamine induced by ATP. Taken together, these studies demonstrated that hMSCs neurally modified by this original approach can be differentiated towards DA‐like neurons.
Suicide seasonality and antidepressants: a register‐based study in Sweden
Authors: Makris G. D. , Reutfors J. , Ösby U. , Isacsson G. , Frangakis C. , Ekbom A. , Papadopoulos F. C. 
Published: June 2012

Objective:  Seasonality of completed suicides with a peak in spring and early summer is a well‐documented finding. The circannual serotonergic functioning is hypothesized to be central in this phenomenon. Antidepressant medications exert their pharmacological action mainly by regulating serotonin. Our aim is to study the amplitude of the seasonal effect among suicide victims positive for different classes of antidepressants or without any antidepressants at the time of death.Method:  By using Swedish Registers, 12 448 suicides with forensic data for antidepressive medication and information on in‐patient‐treated mental disorder were identified during 1992–2003. Seasonality was estimated with a Poisson regression variant of the circular normal distribution of completed suicides.Results:  Higher suicide seasonality was found for individuals treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) compared to those with other antidepressant treatment or without any antidepressant treatment. The finding is more evident for men and violent suicide methods and those without history of in‐patient treatment.Conclusion:  Our results provide preliminary support for the serotonergic hypothesis of suicide seasonality and raise the question of a possible accentuation of the natural suicide seasonality in patients treated with SSRIs, a hypothesis that warrants further investigation.
A new diagnostic technique for tinea incognito: In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy. Report of five cases
Authors: Turan Enver , Erdemir Asli Turgut , Gurel Mehmet Salih , Yurt Nurdan 
Published: June 2012

Background/purpose
In vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is a modern non‐invasive method for investigation of the skin that allows real‐time visualization of individual cells and subcellular structures with the highest resolution imaging comparable to the routine histopathology. Our aim was to demonstrate the potential of CLSM for non‐invasive diagnosis of difficult tinea incognito cases.MethodsClinically atypical lesions in five cases of tinea incognito due to dermatophyte spp. were demonstrated using reflectance confocal laser scanning microscopy (RCM), parallel to KOH preparation and fungal culture of skin scrapings performed in the same patients.ResultsThe morphological features characteristic for tinea incognito, namely linear branched hyphae in the intercellular area of the stratum corneum, were readily detectable by means of CLSM. In vivo tissue imaging were performed at three different wavelengths (785, 658, 445 nm) and the best images of fungal elements were obtained at 445 nm. All of our five cases had similar reflectance confocal microscopical findings.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the potential of CLSM as a non‐invasive tool for the diagnosis of tinea incognito having atypical clinical appearance. Although at present the reflectance confocal microscopy cannot replace the current diagnostic standards for tinea incognito, it may be successfully used as in vivo non‐invasive screening tool to facilitate the diagnosis and point to the need for further investigation of the patient.
Parental quality‐of‐life impacts following children's dento‐alveolar trauma
Authors: Porritt Jenny M. , Rodd Helen D. , Baker Sarah R. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractBackground/AimThe aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the impacts of children's dental injuries on parents and explore how demographic, clinical and psychosocial characteristics influence parental adaptation to dental injuries over time.Materials and methodsA total of 244 families attending a UK‐based Dental Hospital, for management of their child's traumatized permanent teeth, were invited to participate. Clinical information relating to the child's injury was collected from patient notes. Self‐report questionnaires collected baseline information on children's oral health‐related quality‐of‐life (OHRQoL), parental satisfaction with dental treatment and parental health‐related quality‐of‐life (HRQoL) and worry. Parental outcomes were assessed again at a six‐month follow up.Results108 children and 113 parents participated in the baseline study (44% and 46% response rates), and of this group, a total of 73 parents completed follow‐up questionnaires (65% response rate). Parents reported improved HRQoL at follow up; however, parental worry did not decrease over time. Parental satisfaction with treatment and children's OHRQoL were the only significant predictors of parental HRQoL at the six‐month follow up.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the inter‐relationship between child and parental outcomes following their children's dental injuries and the importance of the dental team delivering a family‐centred approach for the management of their children's dental injuries.
Human periodontal ligament cells reaction on a novel hydroxyapatite–collagen scaffold
Authors: Guo Jing , Wang Ying , Cao Chengbo , Dziak Rosemary , Preston Brian , Guan Guoqiang 
Published: June 2012

AbstractBackgroundPeriodontal tissue regeneration presents a highly promising method for restoring periodontal structures. The development of a suitable bioactive scaffold that promotes cell proliferation and differentiation is critical in periodontal tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biocompatibility of a novel 3‐dimensional hydroxyapatite–collagen scaffold with human periodontal ligament (hPDL) cell culture.MethodsThe scaffold was produced from a natural collagen matrix ‐ purified porcine acellular dermal matrix (PADM), which was then treated with hydroxyapatite (HA) through a biomimetic chemical process to obtain hydroxyapatite–porcine acellular dermal matrix (HA‐PADM) scaffold. The hPDL cells were cultured with HA‐PADM scaffolds for 1, 3, 6, 14, and 28 days. The cell viability assay, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, immunohistochemistry, and confocal microscopy were employed in different time points to evaluate the biocompatibility of the scaffolds with hPDL cells.ResultsThe cell viability assay (WST‐1 test) verified cell proliferation on the HA‐PADM scaffolds. The SEM study showed unique morphology of hPDL cells, which attach and spread on the surface of the scaffolds. The H&E staining, immunohistochemistry, and confocal microscopy demonstrated that hPDL cells were able to grow into the HA‐PADM scaffolds and maintain viability after prolonged culture.ConclusionsThis study proved that HA‐PADM scaffold is ‐biocompatible for hPDL cells. The cells were able to proliferate and migrate into the scaffold. These observations suggest that HA‐PADM is a potential cell carrier for periodontal tissue regeneration.
Species presence/absence sometimes represents a plant community as well as species abundances do, or better
Authors: Bastow Wilson J. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractQuestionMany broad‐scale surveys are made, and local communities described, with time spent recording some measure of the abundance of each species. The results are always somewhat different from those obtained with presence/absence records, but which best represents the underlying structure of the community? Two partial answers to this question are suggested and tested here: which analysis correlates best with the habitat, and which gives more stable ordination scores under subsampling?MethodsTests were made on ten field data sets, ranging widely in habitat type, spatial extent, spatial grain and measure of abundance. Correlation with the habitat was examined for the four larger‐extent data sets with reasonably complete environmental information, using multiple regression of detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination scores on environmental factors. Stability was tested for each data set using random subsets of the quadrats, and measuring stability as correlation between quadrat ordination scores in the subset and those using all quadrats.ResultsCorrelation with the habitat for the four data sets, where possible, was closer with presence/absence in most comparisons. Stability was greater with presence/absence in some cases and with abundance in others. Where abundance analyses were more stable, reduction to abundance categories, which are often used in field sampling, resulted in a loss of stability, although in two out of three data sets some advantage of abundance information over presence/absence was retained. Jittering to simulate subjective recording gave no further degradation.ConclusionsThe data sets in which stability was higher in abundance analyses suggest that abundance is of value only in the rather homogeneous vegetation types that tend to occur over short distances, and with high‐quality abundance data. From this, and environmental correlations being on the whole better with presence/absence analyses, I conclude that in broader‐scale survey work, abundance information is unnecessary and may even be misleading. It seems that the primary assembly rule control on communities is on the presence of species, not their abundance.
From steady‐state to synchronized yeast glycolytic oscillations II: model validation
Authors: du Preez Franco B. , van Niekerk David D. , Snoep Jacky L. 
Published: June 2012

In an accompanying paper [du Preez et al., (2012) FEBS J279, 2810–2822], we adapt an existing kinetic model for steady‐state yeast glycolysis to simulate limit‐cycle oscillations. Here we validate the model by testing its capacity to simulate a wide range of experiments on dynamics of yeast glycolysis. In addition to its description of the oscillations of glycolytic intermediates in intact cells and the rapid synchronization observed when mixing out‐of‐phase oscillatory cell populations (see accompanying paper), the model was able to predict the Hopf bifurcation diagram with glucose as the bifurcation parameter (and one of the bifurcation points with cyanide as the bifurcation parameter), the glucose‐ and acetaldehyde‐driven forced oscillations, glucose and acetaldehyde quenching, and cell‐free extract oscillations (including complex oscillations and mixed‐mode oscillations). Thus, the model was compliant, at least qualitatively, with the majority of available experimental data for glycolytic oscillations in yeast. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a model for yeast glycolysis has been tested against such a wide variety of independent data sets.Database
The mathematical models described here have been submitted to the JWS Online Cellular Systems Modelling Database and can be accessed at http://jjj.biochem.sun.ac.za/database/dupreez/index.html.