bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rates of Interventions in Labor and Birth across Canada: Findings of the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey
Authors: Chalmers Beverley , Kaczorowski Janusz , O‘Brien Beverley , Royle Cathie 
Published: June 2012

AbstractBackgroundRates of interventions in labor and birth should be similar across a country if evidence‐based practice guidelines are followed. This assumption is tested by comparison of some practices across the 13 provinces and territories of Canada. The objective of this study was to describe the wide provincial and territorial variations in rates of routine interventions and practices during labor and birth as reported by women in the Maternity Experiences Survey of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System.MethodsA sample of 8,244 eligible women was identified from a randomly selected sample of recently born infants drawn from the May 2006 Canadian Census. The sample was stratified by province and territory. Computer‐assisted telephone interviews were conducted with participating birth mothers by Statistics Canada on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Interviews took an average of 45 minutes and were completed when infants were between 5 and 10 months old (9–14 mo in the territories). Completed responses were obtained from 6,421 women (78%).ResultsProvincial and territorial variations in rates of routine intervention used during labor and birth are reported. The percentage range of mothers' experience of induction (range 30.9%), epidural (53.7%), continuous electronic fetal monitoring (37.9%), and medication‐free pain management during labor (40.7%) are provided, in addition to the use of episiotomy (14.1%) or “stitches” (48.3%), being in a “flat lying position” (42.2%), and having their legs in stirrups for birth (35.7%). Wide variations in the use of most of the interventions were found, ranging from 14.1 percent to 53.7 percent.ConclusionsRates of intervention in labor and birth showed considerable variation across Canada, suggesting that usage is not always evidence based but may be influenced by a variety of other factors. (BIRTH 39:3 September 2012)
How Do Dental and Prenatal Care Practitioners Perceive Dental Care During Pregnancy? Current Evidence and Implications
Authors: George Ajesh , Shamim Simin , Johnson Maree , Dahlen Hannah , Ajwani Shilpi , Bhole Sameer , Yeo Anthony E. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractBackgroundPoor maternal oral health may be associated with adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. However, women seldom seek dental care during pregnancy, and misconceptions by prenatal care practitioners about oral health care during pregnancy may contribute to the problem. The aim of this study was to review current knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of dental and prenatal care practitioners about oral health care during pregnancy.MethodsThis review examined all studies published in English that explored the knowledge, attitude, behavior, and barriers faced by dentists, general practitioners, midwives, and obstetricians/gynecologists with respect to oral health care during pregnancy.ResultsDespite acknowledging the importance of maternal oral health, many dentists are uncertain about the safety of dental procedures and are hesitant in treating pregnant women. General practitioners and midwives are poorly informed about the impact of poor maternal oral health and rarely initiate this topic during prenatal care. Many general practitioners also believe that dental procedures are unsafe during pregnancy. Obstetricians/gynecologists are well informed about perinatal oral health and are supportive of dental procedures, but because of lack of training in this area and competing health demands they seldom focus on oral health care during their prenatal care.ConclusionNo real consensus exists among dentists and prenatal care practitioners with respect to oral health care during pregnancy. This issue poses a significant deterrent for pregnant women seeking dental care. Practice guidelines in perinatal oral health are needed for health professionals to emphasize this important aspect of prenatal care. (BIRTH 39:3 September 2012)
Stress sensitivity of childhood epilepsy is related to experienced negative life events
Authors: van Campen Jolien S. , Jansen Floor E. , Steinbusch Laurie C. , Joëls Marian , Braun Kees P. J. 
Published: June 2012

SummaryPurpose:  To evaluate the effect of stress on seizure frequency in childhood epilepsy, and to assess possible differences between children in whom seizures are precipitated by stress and those in whom they are not.Methods:  Parents or caregivers of children with active epilepsy (aged 2–16 years) were sent questionnaires on developmental and epilepsy characteristics, life‐time stress exposure, and the effect of stressful periods and moments of acute stress on seizure frequency in their child. Further information was extracted from patient files.Key Findings:  Parents or caregivers of 153 children with a median age of 8.8 years responded to the questionnaires. Thirty‐nine percent reported an increase in seizure frequency during periods of stress, with a median increase of 2.5 times the frequency compared to nonstressful periods. Thirty‐seven percent reported that seizures were precipitated by acute stress, with stress being a precipitating factor in 33% (median value) of the seizures. Overall, 51% of the patients reported stress sensitivity of seizures. A higher number of negative life events experienced in total life was related to an increase in seizure frequency in stressful periods (odds ratio [OR] 1.3, p = 0.01) as well as to the precipitation of seizures by acute stress (OR 1.3, p = 0.02).Significance:  Stress sensitivity is reported in half of the children with epilepsy. Results of this study suggest a relation between experienced negative life events and stress sensitivity of childhood epilepsy. One possible explanation could be that experiencing negative life events may cause a larger response to daily stressors, thereby increasing the likelihood to induce epileptic activity.
Contribution of Individual Diseases to Death in Older Adults with Multiple Diseases
Authors: Tinetti Mary E. , McAvay Gail J. , Murphy Terrence E. , Gross Cary P. , Lin Haiqun , Allore Heather G. 
Published: June 2012

ObjectivesTo determine empirically the diseases contributing most commonly and strongly to death in older adults, accounting for coexisting diseases.DesignLongitudinal.SettingUnited States.ParticipantsTwenty‐two thousand eight hundred ninety Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey participants, a national representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries, enrolled during 2002 to 2006.MeasurementsInformation on chronic and acute diseases was ascertained from Medicare claims data. Diseases contributing to death during follow‐up were identified empirically using regression models for all diseases with a frequency of 1% or greater and hazard ratio for death of greater than 1. The additive contributions of these diseases, adjusting for coexisting diseases, were calculated using a longitudinal extension of average attributable fraction; 95% confidence intervals were estimated from bootstrapping.ResultsFifteen diseases and acute events contributed significantly to death, together accounting for nearly 70% of death. Heart failure (20.0%), dementia (13.6%), chronic lower respiratory disease (12.4%), and pneumonia (5.3%) made the largest contributions to death. Cancer, including lung, colorectal, lymphoma, and head and neck, together contributed to 5.6% of death. Other diseases and events included acute kidney injury, stroke, septicemia, liver disease, myocardial infarction, and unintentional injuries.ConclusionThe use of methods that focus on determining a single underlying cause may lead to underestimation of the extent of the contribution of some diseases such as dementia and respiratory disease to death in older adults and overestimation of the contribution of other diseases. Current conceptualization of a single underlying cause may not account adequately for the contribution to death of coexisting diseases that older adults experience.
Ultrasound‐Guided Transversus Abdominis Plane Catheter for Chronic Abdominal Pain
Authors: Guirguis Maged N. , Abd‐Elsayed Alaa A. , Girgis Girgis , Soliman Loran Mounir 
Published: June 2012

Abstract  Background and Objectives:  Neural blockade of the thoracolumbar nerves supplying the anterior abdominal wall through transversus abdominis plane (TAP) has been investigated for different applications mainly for the acute pain management following abdominal surgical procedures. The role of this block for chronic pain syndromes is still to be discovered, and its value in chronic abdominal pain needs to be studied. We are presenting new application of the TAP technique for management of chronic abdominal pain syndrome using the continuous infusion.Case report:  We present a case of an 18‐year‐old girl who underwent an uneventful laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Postoperatively, patient complained of chronic pain at the site of the surgery. All diagnostic and imaging studies were negative for a surgical or a medical cause. Multiple interventions including epidural blocks, transcutaneous electrical neural stimulation, and celiac plexus blocks had failed to relieve the pain. After discussion with the patient about the diagnostic nature of the procedure and the likelihood of recurrence of pain, TAP block was performed on the right side with significant improvement of pain for about 24 hours. The degree of pain relief experienced by the patient was very dramatic, which encouraged us to proceed with an indwelling TAP catheter to allow for continuous infusion of a local anesthetic. The patient was sent home with the continuous infusion through a TAP catheter for 2 weeks. From the day of catheter insertion and up to 9 months of follow‐up, patient had marked improvement of her pain level as well as her functional status and ability to perform her daily activities, after which our acute pain team stopped following the patient.Conclusion:  A successful TAP block confirmed the peripheral (somatic) source of the abdominal pain and provided temporary analgesia after which an indwelling catheter was inserted, which provided prolonged pain relief.
Idiopathic Right Ventricular Tract Outflow Tachycardia Induced by High‐Frequency Stimulation
Authors: JESURAJ MASILAMANI LAWRANCE , RAO B. HYGRIV , SHARADA K. , NARASIMHAN C. 
Published: June 2012

Idiopathic Right Ventricular Tract Outflow Tachycardia Induced by High‐Frequency Stimulation. Ventricular tachycardia arising from the right ventricular outflow tract is one of the common forms of idiopathic ventricular tachycardia. One of the major challenges in mapping and ablation of idiopathic right ventricular outflow tract ventricular tachycardia is noninducibility. Direct stimulation of sympathetic nerves innervating the right ventricular outflow may provide an alternative approach to induce arrhythmia. We report a case of idiopathic right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia in whom tachycardia was noninducible by aggressive conventional stimulation protocols, which was induced by high‐frequency stimulation of proximal pulmonary artery and was successfully ablated. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 24, pp. 221‐223, February 2013)
SOS—Satisfied or Stuck, Why Older Rural Residents Stay Put: Aging in Place or Stuck in Place in Rural Utah*
Authors: Erickson Lance D. , Call Vaughn R.A. , Brown Ralph B. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractAs rural communities undergo substantial demographic and economic changes, understanding the migration intentions and their antecedents of rural elderly persons becomes increasingly important. Using data drawn from a survey of adults from 24 rural Utah communities conducted in 2008, we examine whether rural residents 60 years of age or older plan to remain in their present communities (N= 621). We use structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the relationships between a variety of individual and community‐level background measures, including perceptions of local service quality, leaving one's community for health care, Internet use, attachment to and satisfaction with community, and plans to age in place. Results suggest that even as the rural context of economic decline, population loss, and distance to medical services may reduce the viability of staying in a community, a desire to remain in the community is primarily a function of perceptions of the quality of local services and community satisfaction. This research highlights the need to better understand the interplay between the availability of medical services and perceptions of distance as well as to understand the complex relationship between individual and community level characteristics for migration intentions.
Pattern detection in null model analysis
Authors: Ulrich Werner , Gotelli Nicholas J. 
Published: June 2012

SynthesisThe identification of distinctive patterns in species x site presence‐absence matrices is important for understanding meta‐community organisation. We compared the performance of a suite of null models and metrics that have been proposed to measure patterns of segregation, aggregation, nestedness, coherence, and species turnover. We found that any matrix with segregated species pairs can be re‐ordered to highlight aggregated pairs, indicating that these seemingly opposite patterns are closely related. Recently proposed classification schemes failed to correctly classify realistic matrices that included multiple co‐occurrence structures. We propose using a combination of metrics and decomposing matrix‐wide patterns into those of individual pairs of species and sites to pinpoint sources of non‐randomness.Null model analysis has been a popular tool for detecting pattern in binary presence–absence matrices, and previous tests have identified algorithms and metrics that have good statistical properties. However, the behavior of different metrics is often correlated, making it difficult to distinguish different patterns. We compared the performance of a suite of null models and metrics that have been proposed to measure patterns of segregation, aggregation, nestedness, coherence, and species turnover. We found that any matrix with segregated species pairs can be re‐ordered to highlight aggregated pairs. As a consequence, the same null model can identify a single matrix as being simultaneously aggregated, segregated or nested. These results cast doubt on previous conclusions of matrix‐wide species segregation based on the C‐score and the fixed‐fixed algorithm. Similarly, we found that recently proposed classification schemes based on patterns of coherence, nestedness, and segregation and aggregation cannot be uniquely distinguished using proposed metrics and null model algorithms. It may be necessary to use a combination of different metrics and to decompose matrix‐wide patterns into those of individual pairs of species or pairs of sites to pinpoint the sources of non‐randomness.
Differential water uptake among plant species in humid alpine meadows
Authors: Leng Xin , Cui Jun , Zhang Shiting , Zhang Wenguang , Liu Yuhong , Liu Shirong , An Shuqing 
Published: June 2012

AbstractQuestionDo the three chosen species (
Caltha palustris, Veratrum nigrum and
Stellera chamaejasme) in humid alpine meadows take up water from different depths? Do these species differ in their responsiveness to rainfall?Location
Mt. Balang, China.MethodsRainwater, soil water and plant water were collected from three plots over a 15‐day period during June–July 2006, and water isotopes analysed. The linear mixed models procedure was used to compare δD and δ
18O values across soil depths, while three‐factor ANOVA was performed to compare δD and δ
18O values among the three species. The contributions of different soil depths to plant water sources were analysed using MixSir. A classic two‐endmember linear mixed model was used to calculate the proportion of rainwater in plant stem water.ResultsSoil water showed substantial temporal shifts in isotopic profile from day to day, as influenced by rainwater input. The three plant species,
C. palustris (CP),
V. nigrum (VN) and
S. chamaejasme (SC), acquired water from different soil depths, with their reliance on deeper soil water increasing in the order of CP < VN < SC. Moreover, CP, VN and SC absorbed 69.18%, 35.50% and 13.46% of their stem water, respectively, from the 4 July rainwater, suggesting that their responsiveness to rain pulses significantly differed in the order of CP > VN > SC.ConclusionsThe isotopic profiles of soil water shifted dramatically in response to rainfall, suggesting rapid movement of soil water. There was separation of the plant water uptake depths among the three species, with SC depending less on surface soil and being associated with drier soil habitats compared with CP and VN. Moreover, CP absorbed rainwater before it percolated below the root zone, while VN and SC did not; the differential responsiveness to water pulses may be related to their different water requirements as a result of adaptation to different soil water conditions. Our study demonstrates inter‐specific differentiation in plant water uptake in humid alpine meadows. Such information is important for species co‐existence and plant community composition.
Land‐use impact on the growth and survival of seedlings and saplings in West African savannas
Authors: Jurisch Katrin , Hahn Karen , Wittig Rüdiger , Bernhardt‐Römermann Markus 
Published: June 2012

AbstractQuestionIn frequently disturbed habitats such as savannas, survival of seedlings and saplings depends on the species‐specific ability to persist for a long time and to re‐sprout following disturbances that are damaging to individuals. This physiological ability increases with increasing stem diameter, as re‐sprouting requires sufficient nutrient reserves. Are survival and growth of seedlings and saplings of woody savanna species related to habitat conditions and land‐cover type?LocationSemi‐arid savannas representing different site conditions and land‐use practices in North Benin, West Africa.MethodsFor individuals of 18 common woody species <1‐m tall, basal diameter and height were repeatedly measured in five censuses from 2008 to 2010 in the land‐cover types non‐arable sites, fallows and protected areas. We used multistate capture–recapture models to estimate survival and transition probabilities between diameter classes.ResultsWe detected six groups of species with similar survival and transition probabilities. For one of these groups we found no correlation to land use, whereas the other groups comprise species with distinct preferences for different land‐cover types. Most species developed better in the communal area compared to the protected area. For five species (one shrub and four trees), we detected an extremely low transition probability for the latter land‐cover type.ConclusionFor some species groups, differences in plant performance were explained by a human‐caused opening of the canopy that is beneficial for germination of seeds and enhances survival of juveniles by reducing the competition for light, water and nutrients. Other species showed their best demographic performance in the communal area on non‐arable sites with unfavourable environmental conditions and resulting small‐scale heterogeneity (mosaic of bare ground and areas with low herbaceous cover), whereas five species are likely to decline in the protected area.
Application of highly differentiated SNPs between Japanese Black and Holstein to a breed assignment test between Japanese Black and F1 (Japanese Black x Holstein) and Holstein
Authors: NISHIMURA Shota , WATANABE Toshio , OGINO Atsushi , SHIMIZU Kazuhiro , MORITA Mitsuo , SUGIMOTO Yoshikazu , TAKASUGA Akiko 
Published: June 2012

ABSTRACTTwo taurine breeds, Japanese Black and Holstein, established from geographically distant origins and selected for different uses, beef and dairy, were extensively genotyped using a genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip with more than 1000 animals of each breed. The genetic structure was examined by principal component analysis, in which the first principal component clearly separated the two breeds and explained more than 15% of the variance. Highly differentiated SNPs were detected throughout the genome, some of which were clustered within small regions on BTA4 (79.2–79.7 Mb, Btau4.0) and BTA26 (22.2–23.6 Mb). A breed assignment test was developed using 18 highly differentiated SNPs to distinguish Japanese Black from F1 (Japanese Black × Holstein) and Holstein. The error rate that an F1 or Holstein animal is misjudged as Japanese Black was expected to be < 0.8%, while the error rate that a Japanese Black animal is misjudged as F1 or Holstein was expected to be < 0.001%. This test provides a reliable and powerful method to detect breed label falsification in retail beef.
Breast milk zinc transfer and early post‐natal growth among urban South Indian term infants using measures of breast milk volume and breast milk zinc concentrations
Authors: Samuel Tinu Mary , Thomas Tinku , Thankachan Prashanth , Bhat Swarnarekha , Virtanen Suvi M. , Kurpad Anura V. 
Published: June 2012

AbstractZinc (Zn) deficiency in infancy and early childhood is of public health concern in developing countries. This study aimed to longitudinally assess Zn intake of urban South Indian term infants in the first 6 months of life using measures of breast milk (BM) volume and BM Zn concentrations and, additionally, to study the effect of BM Zn intake on infant length and weight gain. BM intake by the deuterium dilution technique, BM Zn concentration at months 1, 3 and 6, as well as serum Zn level at months 3 and 6 were assessed in 50 mother–infant pairs. BM intake significantly declined from 627 mL day−1 at month 1 to 608 mL day−1 at month 6 (P < 0.01). BM Zn concentration and intake significantly declined from month 1 to month 6 (P < 0.001 for both). Mean infant serum Zn level at months 3 and 6 were 93.0 ± 27.1 and 99.6 ± 30.1 µg dL−1, respectively. Infant BM Zn intake at months 1 and 3 was not associated with the weight and length gain between 1–3 and 3–6 months, respectively. Zn intake from BM, maternal BM Zn content and serum Zn levels were not significantly different between small‐for‐gestational age and appropriate‐for‐gestational age infants. Therefore, among urban south Indian term infants less than 6 months of age, BM Zn intakes were low, owing to low volumes of BM intake, despite BM Zn concentrations being in the normal range. Promotion of breastfeeding and thereby increasing the volumes of milk produced is a first important step towards improving Zn intake among infants.