bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Harm reduction interventions for drug injectors or heroin users in Spain: expanding coverage as the storm abates
Authors: Barrio Gregorio , Bravo María J. , Brugal M. Teresa , Díez Mercedes , Regidor Enrique , Belza María José , de la Fuente Luis ,   the Itinere Working Group
Published: December 2011

ABSTRACTAims  To show the utility of analysing time trends of need and coverage of needle‐exchange programmes (NEPs) and opioid substitution treatment (OST) to assess harm reduction policies targeting drug injectors or heroin users.Design  Multiple methods applied to secondary data.Setting  Spain.Participants  Thousands of drug injectors or heroin users included in administrative registers, surveys and published studies during 1987–2010.Measurements  Coverage for the general population was calculated as the ratio between interventions provided (obtained directly from the sources) and interventions needed (estimated by multiple methods), and as the difference between the two. Timeliness was estimated by time elapsed between year of highest need and year in which coverage reached a reference level.Findings  In 2010 NEPs provided 138 syringes per drug injector [95% confidence interval (CI) 100–223], covering 25.7% (95% CI 18.3–43.3) of their need. OST coverage was 60.3% (95% CI 44.3–94.2). Syringe and OST provision increased between 1991 and 2001 and then declined. Syringe and OST coverage also increased substantially during this period and then stabilized, due mainly to decreases in drug injection or heroin use. Medium‐level coverage for both syringes and OST was not achieved until 2000, 8 years after the peak in need (1992).Conclusions  In Spain, the expansion of harm reduction interventions was greatly delayed, although the concomitant decrease in heroin and injecting drug use led to reasonable coverage after 2000. A longitudinal measurement of need and coverage provides insight into the timeliness and potential population impact of interventions, enabling better assessment of their adequacy.
Linking substance use with symptoms of subclinical psychosis in a community cohort over 30 years
Authors: Rössler Wulf , Hengartner Michael P. , Angst Jules , Ajdacic‐Gross Vladeta 
Published: December 2011

ABSTRACTAims  The aim of the study was to examine the temporal associations between substance use and subclinical psychosis symptoms.Design  Data from a prospective community study sampled within a single cohort over 30 years (1978–2008) were analysed with discrete‐time hazard models.Setting  General population‐based sample.Participants  At initial sampling in 1978 males (n = 292) were 19 and females (n = 299) were 20 years old.Measurements  Two psychosis syndromes representing ‘schizotypal signs’ and ‘schizophrenia nuclear symptoms’ and various substance use variables including cannabis, alcohol, tobacco and multiple‐drug use (i.e. cannabis combined with other drugs).Findings  In bivariate analyses, schizotypal signs were predominantly associated with regular cannabis use in adolescence (OR = 2.29, 95% CI 1.32–3.97). Schizophrenia nuclear symptoms were mainly related to alcohol (OR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.00–3.38) and multiple‐drug use (OR = 2.35, 95% CI 1.38–4.02) during adolescence. Multivariate analyses showed that, in particular, regular cannabis use during adolescence was associated with the occurrence of subsequent schizotypal symptoms over a 30‐year period (OR = 2.60, 95% CI; 1.59–4.23), whereas multiple‐drug use in adolescence was associated predominantly with schizophrenia nuclear symptoms (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.01–3.03). Alcohol misuse was only slightly associated with the onset of such symptoms.Conclusions  A significant portion of the occurrence of subclinical psychosis symptoms in adulthood can be attributed to excessive cannabis and multiple‐drug use during adolescence. This is in line with the hypothesis that long‐term sensitization of dopaminergic brain receptors plays a role in developing psychotic symptoms.
Ofatumumab demonstrates activity against rituximab‐sensitive and ‐resistant cell lines, lymphoma xenografts and primary tumour cells from patients with B‐cell lymphoma
Authors: Barth Matthew J. , Hernandez‐Ilizaliturri Francisco J. , Mavis Cory , Tsai Ping‐Chiao , Gibbs John F. , Deeb George , Czuczman Myron S. 
Published: December 2011

SummaryOfatumumab is a new monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting a novel membrane‐proximal epitope on CD20. To better define ofatumumab’s activity, we conducted pre‐clinical studies in rituximab‐sensitive cell lines (RSCL), rituximab‐resistant cell lines (RRCL), ofatumumab‐exposed cell lines (OECLs), primary lymphoma cells, and a lymphoma xenograft model. RRCL and OECL were generated by repeated exposure of sensitive cells to escalating doses of rituximab or ofatumumab ± human serum. Antibody‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement‐mediated cytotoxicity (CMC) assays were performed to assess cellular sensitivity to rituximab or ofatumumab. Ofatumumab elicited a higher rate of CMC in RSCL, RRCL and primary tumour cells. The chronic exposure of lymphoma cells to ofatumumab resulted in rituximab resistance but less ofatumumab resistance. In an in vivo severe combined immunodeficiency mouse model of human lymphoma, ofatumumab prolonged median survival compared to rituximab. While rituximab CMC diminished with CD20 down‐regulation in RRCL passages, ofatumumab activity in vitro diminished to a lesser degree. Our data suggest that ofatumumab is more potent than rituximab in rituximab‐sensitive or rituximab‐resistant models and has the potential to decrease the development of biological resistance in patients with repeated exposure to anti‐CD20 mAbs.
Assessment of central adrenal insufficiency in children and adolescents with Prader–Willi syndrome
Authors: Corrias Andrea , Grugni Graziano , Crinò Antonino , Di Candia Stefania , Chiabotto Patrizia , Cogliardi Anna , Chiumello Giuseppe , De Medici Clotilde , Spera Sabrina , Gargantini Luigi , Iughetti Lorenzo , Luce Antonella , Mariani Benedetta , Ragusa Letizia , Salvatoni Alessandro , Andrulli Simeone , Mussa Alessandro , Beccaria Luciano ,   on behalf of the Study Group for Genetic Obesity of the Italian Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology (SIEDP/ISPED)
Published: December 2011

SummaryObjective  A recent study evidenced by metyrapone test a central adrenal insufficiency (CAI) in 60% of Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) children. These results were not confirmed in investigations with low [Low‐Dose Tetracosactrin Stimulation Test (LDTST), 1 μg] or standard‐dose tetracosactrin stimulation tests. We extended the research by LDTST in paediatric patients with PWS.Design  Cross‐sectional evaluation of adrenal stress response to LDTST in a PWS cohort of a tertiary care referral centre.Patients  Eighty‐four children with PWS.Measurements  Assessment of adrenal response by morning cortisol and ACTH dosage, and 1‐μg tetracosactrin test. Response was considered appropriate when cortisol reached 500 nm; below this threshold, patients were submitted to a second test. Responses were correlated with the patients’ clinical and molecular characteristics to assess genotype–phenotype correlation.Results  Pathological cortisol peak responses to the LDTST were registered in 12 patients (14·3%) who had reduced basal (169·4 ± 83·3 nm) and stimulated (428·1 ± 69·6 nm) cortisol levels compared to patients with normal responses (367·1 ± 170·6 and 775·9 ± 191·3 nm, P < 0·001). Body mass index standard deviation score was negatively correlated with basal and peak cortisol levels (both P < 0·001), and the patients’ ages (P < 0·001). In patients with deletion on chromosome 15, the cortisol peak was significantly lower than that in uniparental disomy (UPD) cases (P = 0·030). At multiple regression analysis, the predictors of peak response were basal cortisol, age, and UPD subclass (r2 = 0·353, P < 0·001). Standard‐dose (250 μg) tetracosactrin test confirmed CAI in 4/12 patients (4·8% of the cohort).Conclusions  Our results support the hypothesis that, albeit rare, CAI may be part of the PWS in childhood.
Optimizing forage yield of durum wheat/field bean intercropping through N fertilization and row ratio
Authors: Mariotti M. , Masoni A. , Ercoli L. , Arduini I. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractIntercropping (IC) cereals and legumes could be an option for obtaining forage suitable for ensiling and enabling reduced N fertilization. Two experiments were performed in central Italy with durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and field bean (Vicia faba L. var. minor) grown for forage production in IC and as sole crops (SC) with different N rates (20 and 50 kg ha−1) and row ratios (1:1 and 2:1 cereal/legume). The aims were to assess (i) whether IC is a feasible option to reduce N fertilization; (ii) the best combination of practices to obtain forage suitable for ensiling; and (iii) competition/facilitation effects exerted by field bean on durum wheat. Results showed IC allowed fertilizer‐N reduction and led to improved forage yield with better quality, compared with SC. Land equivalent ratio indicated a high efficiency of the IC, by up to 26% with respect to SC. Field bean was the dominant species of IC, but N fertilization reduced its competitive ability and enhanced that of wheat. In the intercrop fertilized with 50 kg N ha−1, the proportion of the wheat in the herbage (0·34–0·41 of the total dry matter) was sufficient for ensiling of the forage mass. Field bean exerted both competition and facilitation effects on the cereal. N uptake of durum wheat was greater under IC with beans than as wheat SC.
Fatigue in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemia in Japan
Authors: Nagai Ayako , Zou Ning , Kubota Masaru , Kojima Chiaki , Adachi Souichi , Usami Ikuya , Okada Masayuki , Tanizawa Akihiko , Hamahata Keigo , Matsubara Kousaku , Higuchi Manryoku , Imaizumi Masue 
Published: December 2011

AbstractBackground:  Fatigue in cancer survivors is a serious problem in pediatric oncology, but reports on this issue are limited, especially in Asian countries.Methods:  Sixty‐three patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 18 patients with acute myeloid leukemia who attended a follow‐up outpatient clinic were enrolled. Participants were required to be >8 years of age, in remission, and without any cancer treatment for at least the previous 1 year. A control group consisted of 243 subjects whose age and gender were matched with the patient group. A questionnaire consisting of 12 items was devised for fatigue measurement.Results:  Principal factor analysis identified three dimensions, defined as physical fatigue, decreased function, and altered mood. The mean total and the three fatigue dimension scores tended to be higher in the control group, but significant differences between the scores were seen only in the total and physical fatigue scores. Multiple regression analysis indicated an association of present older age or shorter duration after completion of treatment with total and physical fatigue, and an association of presence of total body irradiation with decreased function.Conclusion:  Pediatric leukemia survivors in Japan experience equal or less fatigue compared with that of controls in different fatigue dimensions. Elucidation of underlying mechanisms of cancer‐related fatigue including the differences of cultural background among different countries is necessary for future study of this issue.
Single‐stage segmental urethral replacement using combined ventral onlay fasciocutaneous flap with dorsal onlay buccal grafting for long segment strictures
Authors: Erickson Bradley A. , Breyer Benjamin N. , McAninch Jack W. 
Published: December 2011

Study Type – Therapy (case series)Level of Evidence 4What's known on the subject? and What does the study add?Single‐stage urethral segment replacement has historically poor outcomes and two‐stage repairs are now more common. We present a novel approach to the single‐stage repair with initial outcomes similar to two‐stage repairs.OBJECTIVE
To present our experience with repairing long‐segment urethralstrictures in a single‐stage using a combined tissue‐transfer technique.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
In all, 14 men underwent urethroplasty where a segment of urethra was completely replaced using a dorsal onlay buccal mucosa graft and a ventral onlay fasciocutaneous flap in a singlestage.
Primary success was defined as an open urethra at >6 months follow‐up with no need for additional surgical intervention.
Secondary success was defined as the need for a single postoperative endoscopic procedure before stricture stabilization.
Failure was the need for multiple endoscopic procedures, repeat urethroplasty, urinary diversion or intermittent dilatation.
RESULTS
The mean (sd) stricture length was 9.75 (4.6) cm. The mean (sd) neourethral length was 5.4 (2.7) cm. Stricture location was penile/bulbar in 12men, and bulbar alone in two. Primary success was achieved in nine of the 14 men at a median (range) follow‐up of 2.5 (0.5–9.43) years.
The mean (sd) time to recurrence in the five initial failures was 340 (376) days.
Secondary success was achieved in two men after a single endoscopic procedure for an overall success in 11 of 14 men.
Patients that recurred had longer strictures (12.8 vs 8.7 cm, P= 0.04) than initial successes, but neourethral lengths were similar (6.2 vs 5.1 cm, P= 0.5).
In all, three of the 14 men failed, two of whom required a repeat urethroplasty.
CONCLUSIONS
Our initial outcomes were favourable using the combined tissue‐transfer technique for segmental urethral replacement with initial and secondary success rates similar to those reported for two‐stage repairs.
This technique is not suitable for all patients as it requires healthy penile skin, but appears to be effective when a single‐stage repair is desirable.
Satisfaction with the treatment, confidence and ‘naturalness’ in engaging in sexual activity in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial of three therapeutic approaches
Authors: Melnik Tamara , Abdo Carmita H.N. , de Moraes José F. , Riera Rachel 
Published: December 2011

Study Type – Therapy (RCT)Level of Evidence 1bWhat's known on the subject? and What does the study add?Studies of erectile dysfunction (ED) are often criticized for providing only clinical data on remission of ED symptomatology. This study is the first controlled trial comparing satisfaction, confidence and naturalness in engaging in sexual activity with three therapeutic approaches for psychogenic ED.OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy of group psychotherapy (GTP) and/or sildenafil for psychogenic erectile dysfunction (ED).
PATIENTS AND METHODS
A randomized controlled single‐blind trial was performed at the Institute of Psychiatry of the Medical School of at Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
In all, 30 men with mild and moderate psychogenic ED were randomized to receive for 6 months: GPT plus 50 mg sildenafil on‐demand, or 50 mg sildenafil on‐demand exclusively, or GPT exclusively.
Changes in score from baseline for three questions of the Erectile Dysfunction Inventory of Treatment Satisfaction (EDITS) were evaluated at endpoint and after 3‐months follow‐up.
RESULTS
Satisfaction with the treatment, confidence and ‘naturalness’ increased in the GPT plus sildenafil and GPT exclusively groups (P= 0.001) from baseline to endpoint.
The treatment‐by‐time comparison was not significant at endpoint vs the 3‐month follow‐up, in the three groups.
There was no difference in the sildenafil group in the three study periods (P > 0.05)
CONCLUSION
Men with mild and moderate psychogenic ED had higher treatment satisfaction, confidence and naturalness in engaging in sexual activity when receiving GPT plus sildenafil or GP exclusively, when compared with sildenafil exclusively, as assessed by these three EDITS questions after 6‐months treatment.
A population‐based assessment of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network practice guideline indications for pelvic lymph node dissection at radical prostatectomy
Authors: Abdollah Firas , Schmitges Jan , Sun Maxine , Shariat Shahrokh F. , Briganti Alberto , Abdo Al'a , Tian Zhe , Perrotte Paul , Montorsi Francesco , Karakiewicz Pierre I. 
Published: December 2011

Study Type – Therapy (cohort)Level of Evidence  2bWhat's known on the subject? and What does the study add?The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend pelvic lymph node dissection in patients with a nomogram‐predicted lymph node invasion risk of 2% or more. We set out to examine the validity of this recommendation.OBJECTIVES
To examine the ability of the threshold recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) in correctly predicting histologically‐confirmed lymph node invasion (LNI).
The 2010 NCCN practice guidelines for prostate cancer recommend a pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) at radical prostatectomy in all individuals with a nomogram predicted LNI risk of ≥2%.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
We assessed 20 877 patients who were treated with radical prostatectomy and PLND between 2004 and 2006, within the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database.
The 2% nomogram threshold, as well as other threshold values (range 1–10%) were tested.
Finally, we externally validated the NCCN guideline nomogram.
RESULTS
Overall, 2.5% of patients had LNI.
The use of the 2% threshold would allow the avoidance of 23% of PLNDs, at the cost of missing 1.7% of patients with LNI. Conversely, the use of a 3% threshold would allow the avoidance of 58% of PLNDs, at the cost of missing 15% of patients with LNI vs 72% and 26%, respectively, for the 4% threshold.
Overall, the accuracy of the NCCN guideline nomogram quantified according to the receiver‐operator characteristics‐derived area under the curve was 82%.
CONCLUSIONS
In a population‐based sample, the NCCN guideline nomogram is highly accurate.
However, the 2% threshold will permit the avoidance of only 23% of PLNDs, instead of the 48% intended by the NCCN guidelines.
The use of a 3% threshold may allow a lower rate of PLND overtreatment, although it will miss more patients with LNI.
Sport and the Basques: Constructed and Contested Identities, 1876–1936
Authors: WALTON JOHN K. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThis article explores relationships between sport and the construction and expression of collective identities in the Basque Country of northern Spain. It focuses on the period between the restoration to the Bourbon monarchy in 1876 and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War sixty years later, which was transitional in economic, social and political terms, with pockets of rapid industrialization and the rise of Basque nationalism. It identifies three kinds of relevant sporting cultures: the traditional, local and popular; the adaptive traditional which embraced the new worlds of commercialised leisure; and the imported codified sports, whether elite or commercial, from lawn tennis to football. A key conclusion is that, here as perhaps elsewhere, the new sporting cultures did more to divide the Basques than to unite them.
“The Necessity for Better Bodies to Perpetuate Our Institutions, Insure a Higher Development of the Individual, and Advance the Conditions of the Race.” Physical Culture and the Formation of the Self in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century USA
Authors: MARTSCHUKAT JÜRGEN 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThis article explores the significance of sports and physical exercise in the turn‐of‐the‐century culture and society of the U.S. It depicts how physical fitness became a decisive feature of collective and individual self‐perception and was understood as being at the core of a successful shaping of both the self and of the American body politic. I concentrate in particular on paradigms and strategies of human resources management to exemplify the overarching significance of physical fitness as it established itself at the heart of the USA's enterprise culture that began to emerge in the later nineteenth century. American peculiarities will be considered, alongside ties and allusions to European, and particularly British, developments.
A Vertical World: The Eastern Alps and Modern Mountaineering
Authors: KLEIN KERWIN LEE 
Published: December 2011

AbstractNew sporting practices of modernity were products of complex dynamics of cultural remaking. Most accounts of the emergence of alpinism describe the new activity as part of modernization. As ways of seeing mountains changed, so did ways of moving in them. This involved a sharp break with the British gentlemanly preference for climbing without technical assistance. Modernists and alpinists found a new common ground in the Ostalpen of Tirol, a place commonly represented as one of the most traditional and Catholic locations in central Europe. In mountaineering, we may imagine a similar turn to that of artistic modernists. This article explores how the region pulled together two apparently oppositional cultural forces. In this process, there is no simple grand narrative of modernization that creates an international sporting culture of the mountains: on the one hand, in popular culture, the Ostalpen and the Dolomites in particular represented premodern forms of religiosity, from Orientalist aesthetics to the most conservative styles of Catholicism; on the other hand, the region served as a proving ground for the most technologically advanced and self‐consciously modern forms of alpinism.
CRIME AND LOCAL LABOR MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOW‐SKILLED WORKERS: EVIDENCE USING JAPANESE PREFECTURAL PANEL DATA
Authors: MIYOSHI KOYO 
Published: December 2011

AbstractThis paper examines the link between crime and labor market opportunities in Japan. To consider this link, we estimate the crime supply function first introduced by Becker using panel data for Japanese prefectures. The main empirical results are as follows. First, we expect that increasing the number of police will reduce crime, regardless of its type (i.e. whether referring to total crime, violent crime or larceny). Second, crime rates are generally lower in prefectures where a low‐skilled individual can find a job more easily. Third, the effects of wages for low‐skilled workers on crime, especially larceny, are significantly negative, whereas average wages in a prefecture do not appear to affect crime. Fourth, the prefectures with lower educational standards are expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures. Finally, prefectures with higher Gini coefficients on schooling years are also expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures.
THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THE FALLING LABOUR SHARE AND PERSISTENT UNEMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN
Authors: AGNESE PABLO , SALA HECTOR 
Published: December 2011

AbstractLike in most advanced countries, the labour income share in Japan has been falling since the mid‐1970s. However, in contrast to other advanced economies, Japan experienced an exceptional recessive period in the 1990s and 2000s, with the rate of unemployment rising to a historical maximum of 5.5% in 2002, to persist above 4% in subsequent years. In the present paper, we examine the main causes behind the paths followed by the labour income share and the unemployment rate during the post‐1997 crisis period (1997–2002) and the transition years that followed (2002–2009). We do so by estimating a multi‐equation macro model that allows us to look separately at the various components of this particular labour market: wages, output, and employment. Our main finding is that the fall in the labour share can be attributed to the changes that took place within the labour relations system (the weakening of unions mainly) and that the surge in unemployment can be altogether ascribed to the distorting effects of the sizeable and increasing public debt.