bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Gravitational-Wave Detection Using Pulsars: Status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project
Authors: Hobbs G. B. , Bailes M. , Bhat N. D. R. , Burke-Spolaor S. , Champion D. J. , Coles W. , Hotan A. , Jenet F. , Kedziora-Chudczer L. , Khoo J. , Lee K. J. , Lommen A. , Manchester R. N. , Reynolds J. , Sarkissian J. , van Straten W. , To S. , Verbiest J. P. W. , Yardley D. , You X. P. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThe first direct detection of gravitational waves may be made through observations of pulsars. The principal aim of pulsar timing-array projects being carried out worldwide is to detect ultra-low frequency gravitational waves (f ∼ 10−9–10−8 Hz). Such waves are expected to be caused by coalescing supermassive binary black holes in the cores of merged galaxies. It is also possible that a detectable signal could have been produced in the inflationary era or by cosmic strings. In this paper, we review the current status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project (the only such project in the Southern hemisphere) and compare the pulsar timing technique with other forms of gravitational-wave detection such as ground- and space-based interferometer systems.
Investigating the link between Nephrops norvegicus burrow density and sediment composition in Scottish waters
Authors: Campbell Neil , Allan Lynda , Weetman Adrian , Dobby Helen 
Published: June 2009

Abstract
Campbell, N., Allan, L., Weetman, A., and Dobby, H. 2009. Investigating the link between Nephrops norvegicus burrow density and sediment composition in Scottish waters. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 2052–2059. Nephrops norvegicus is a burrowing decapod, found in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea at depths of 10–1200 m, and currently the most valuable species taken by the commercial fishing industry in Scotland. It constructs and inhabits extensive burrow complexes in suitable muddy sediments. Owing to its variable emergence patterns, catch rates from traditional trawl surveys are not considered a good indicator of population size. Nephrops populations around Scotland are assessed using an underwater television (UWTV) survey method. Sediment samples are collected at the end of each UWTV deployment. This study focuses on two areas off the coast of Scotland and investigates the accuracy of the sediment maps used for assessment purposes, and the relationship between Nephrops burrow density and sediment composition, over the period 2002–2007. Nephrops have a stock-specific relationship with the sediment they inhabit, which retains the same form through fluctuations in population size.
Associations of lobsters (Homarus americanus) off southwestern Nova Scotia with bottom type from images and geophysical maps
Authors: Tremblay M. John , Smith Stephen J. , Todd Brian J. , Clement Pierre M. , McKeown David L. 
Published: June 2009

Abstract
Tremblay, M. J., Smith, S. J., Todd, B. J., Clement, P. M., and McKeown, D. L. 2009. Associations of lobsters (Homarus americanus) off southwestern Nova Scotia with bottom type from images and geophysical maps. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 2060–2067. Images from an underwater towed vehicle (Towcam) were used to estimate densities and to evaluate bottom-type associations of lobsters (Homarus americanus), crabs (Cancer spp.), and scallops (Placopecten magellanicus). Images were obtained in October 2006 along 14 line-transects off southwestern Nova Scotia in an area with productive lobster and scallop fisheries. Lobsters were observed in 4% of the 2044 images, crabs in 7%, and scallops in 40%. On sand, gravel, and cobble seabed, lobsters were readily observable. On rougher substrata with boulders, some lobsters were still evident either in the open or partially hidden in shelters. Estimated densities of lobsters from the images on some transects were 0.04 m−2, approximately half of the estimates of lobster density for adjacent inshore areas from scuba, but 34 times higher than estimates from scallop drags in the same area. Models of animal presence by bottom type were evaluated with categories that were (i) geophysically based (map of bottom type from geophysical characteristics) and (ii) image-based (sediment size from images). Significant relationships were evident with both types of seabed categorization, suggesting that it would be beneficial to stratify surveys using geophysical categories. Depth was also significant in determining presence/absence of lobsters and crabs. There is potential to develop indicators of lobster abundance using underwater imaging, and stratification by bottom type should be incorporated into surveys.
Systematic review: standard‐ and double‐dose proton pump inhibitors for the healing of severe erosive oesophagitis – a mixed treatment comparison of randomized controlled trials
Authors: EDWARDS S. J. , LIND T. , LUNDELL L. , DAS R. 
Published: June 2009

SummaryBackground  No randomized controlled trial (RCT) has compared all European‐licensed standard‐ and double‐dose PPIs for the healing of severe erosive oesophagitis.Aim  To compare the effectiveness of licensed doses of PPIs for healing severe erosive oesophagitis (i.e. esomeprazole 40 mg, lansoprazole 30 mg, omeprazole 20 mg and 40 mg, pantoprazole 40 mg and rabeprazole 20 mg).Methods  Systematic review of CENTRAL, EMBASE and MEDLINE for RCTs in patients with erosive oesophagitis (completed October 2008). Endoscopically verified healing rates at 4 and 8 weeks were extracted and re‐calculated if not analysed by intention‐to‐treat. A mixed treatment comparison was used to combine direct treatment comparisons with indirect trial evidence while maintaining randomization. Odds ratios (OR) are reported compared to omeprazole 20 mg.Results  A total of 3021 papers were identified in the literature search; 12 were of sufficient quality to be included in the analysis. Insufficient data were available to included rabeprazole. Esomeprazole 40 mg was found to provide significantly higher healing rates at 4 weeks [OR 1.84, 95% Credible Interval (95% CrI): 1.50 to 2.22] and 8 weeks (OR 1.91, 95% CrI: 1.13 to 2.88). No other PPI investigated had significantly higher healing rates than omeprazole 20 mg.Conclusion  Esomeprazole 40 mg consistently demonstrates higher healing rates compared with licensed standard‐ and double‐dose PPIs.
Development and content validity of a gastroparesis cardinal symptom index daily diary
Authors: REVICKI D. A. , CAMILLERI M. , KUO B. , NORTON N. J. , MURRAY L. , PALSGROVE A. , PARKMAN H. P. 
Published: June 2009

SummaryBackground  The Gastroparesis Cardinal Symptom Index (GCSI) is a patient‐reported outcome for gastroparesis using a two‐week recall period. To minimize potential patient recall effects, a daily diary version of the GCSI (GCSI‐DD) was developed.Aims  To evaluate the content validity of GCSI‐DD for the symptoms in patients with documented gastroparesis, to capture symptom variability over time and to compare responses of this GCSI‐DD to the original GCSI.Methods  In gastroparesis adults with delayed gastric emptying, cognitive debriefing interviews were conducted to elicit their perspective on relevant symptoms of gastroparesis and relevant recall periods and to evaluate patient understanding of GCSI‐DD. Patients completed the GCSI‐DD daily over a 2‐week period and completed the GCSI at baseline and the 2‐week follow‐up visit.Results  Twelve gastroparesis patients, of whom five were diabetic and nine women, reported nausea (100%), vomiting (100%), stomach fullness (75%), bloating (58%) and loss of appetite (50%) were important symptoms. All patients understood diary instructions and item content and reported that the diary captured their gastroparesis symptom experience; 83% considered response scales adequate. There was significant daily variability in GCSI‐DD scores. Mean GCSI‐DD subscale and total scores over 2 weeks correlated strongly (all r > 0.90) with GCSI scores at 2‐week follow‐up.Conclusions  The GCSI‐DD includes symptoms relevant to patients with gastroparesis, captures daily variability of those symptoms and has psychometric properties consistent with a good patient‐reported outcome endpoint for gastroparesis clinical trials.
Medication errors in elderly people: contributing factors and future perspectives
Authors: Fialová Daniela , Onder Graziano 
Published: June 2009

1. Older people have substantial interindividual variability in health, disability, age‐related changes, polymorbidity, and associated polypharmacy, making generalization of prescribing recommendations difficult.2. Medication use in older adults is often inappropriate and erroneous, partly because of the complexities of prescribing and partly because of many patient, provider, and health system factors that substantially influence the therapeutic value of medications in aged people.3. A high prevalence of medication errors in older adults results on the one hand from accumulation of factors that contribute to medication errors in all age groups, such as polypharmacy, polymorbidity, enrolment in several disease‐management programmes, and fragmentation of care. On the other hand, specific geriatric aspects play a role in these medication errors; these include age‐related pharmacological changes, lack of specific evidence on the efficacy and safety of medications, underuse of comprehensive geriatric assessment, less availability of drug formulations offering geriatric doses, and inadequate harmonization of geriatric recommendations across Europe.4. The dearth of geriatric clinical pharmacology and clinical pharmacy services compounds the difficulties.5. There are gaps in research and clinical practice that lead to frequent medication errors in older adults, which must be solved by future studies and by regulatory measures in order to support errorless and appropriate use medications in these people.
Medication errors: the role of the patient
Authors: Britten Nicky 
Published: June 2009

1. Patients and their carers will usually be the first to notice any observable problems resulting from medication errors. They will probably be unable to distinguish between medication errors, adverse drug reactions, or ‘side effects’.2. Little is known about how patients understand drug related problems or how they make attributions of adverse effects. Some research suggests that patients' cognitive models of adverse drug reactions bear a close relationship to models of illness perception.3. Attributions of adverse drug reactions are related to people's previous experiences and to their level of education. The evidence suggests that on the whole patients' reports of adverse drug reactions are accurate. However, patients do not report all the problems they perceive and are more likely to report those that they do perceive as severe. Patients may not report problems attributed to their medications if they are fearful of doctors' reactions. Doctors may respond inappropriately to patients' concerns, for example by ignoring them. Some authors have proposed the use of a symptom checklist to elicit patients' reports of suspected adverse drug reactions.4. Many patients want information about adverse drug effects, and the challenge for the professional is to judge how much information to provide and the best way of doing so. Professionals' inappropriate emphasis on adherence may be dangerous when a medication error has occurred.5. Recent NICE guidelines recommend that professionals should ask patients if they have any concerns about their medicines, and this approach is likely to yield information conducive to the identification of medication errors.
Prevention of medication errors: detection and audit
Authors: Montesi Germana , Lechi Alessandro 
Published: June 2009

1. Medication errors have important implications for patient safety, and their identification is a main target in improving clinical practice errors, in order to prevent adverse events.2. Error detection is the first crucial step. Approaches to this are likely to be different in research and routine care, and the most suitable must be chosen according to the setting.3. The major methods for detecting medication errors and associated adverse drug‐related events are chart review, computerized monitoring, administrative databases, and claims data, using direct observation, incident reporting, and patient monitoring. All of these methods have both advantages and limitations.4. Reporting discloses medication errors, can trigger warnings, and encourages the diffusion of a culture of safe practice. Combining and comparing data from various and encourages the diffusion of a culture of safe practice sources increases the reliability of the system.5. Error prevention can be planned by means of retroactive and proactive tools, such as audit and Failure Mode, Effect, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). Audit is also an educational activity, which promotes high‐quality care; it should be carried out regularly. In an audit cycle we can compare what is actually done against reference standards and put in place corrective actions to improve the performances of individuals and systems.6. Patient safety must be the first aim in every setting, in order to build safer systems, learning from errors and reducing the human and fiscal costs.
Prevention of medication errors: teaching and training
Authors: Likic Robert , Maxwell Simon R. J. 
Published: June 2009

1. Poor prescribing is probably the most common cause of preventable medication errors in hospitals, and many of these events involve junior doctors who have recently graduated. Prescribing is a complex skill that depends on a sound knowledge of medicines, an understanding of the principles of clinical pharmacology, the ability to make judgements concerning risks and benefits, and ideally experience. It is not surprising that errors occur.2. The challenge of being a prescriber is probably greater now than ever before. Medical education has changed radically in the last 20 years, reflecting concerns about an overburdened curriculum and lack of focus on social sciences. In the UK, these changes have resulted in less teaching in clinical pharmacology and practical prescribing as guaranteed features of undergraduate training and assessment. There has been growing concern, not least from students, that medical school training is not sufficient to prepare them for the pressures of becoming prescribers. Similar concerns are being expressed in other countries. While irrefutable evidence that these changes are related to medication errors identified in practice, there is circumstantial evidence that this is so.3. Systems analysis of errors suggests that knowledge and training are relevant factors in causation and that focused education improves prescribing performance. We believe that there is already sufficient evidence to support a careful review of how students are trained to become prescribers and how these skills are fostered in the postgraduate years. We provide a list of guiding principles on which training might be based.
Medication errors: the importance of an accurate drug history
Authors: FitzGerald Richard J. 
Published: June 2009

1. Medication histories are important in preventing prescription errors and consequent risks to patients. Apart from preventing prescription errors, accurate medication histories are also useful in detecting drug‐related pathology or changes in clinical signs that may be the result of drug therapy. A good medication history should encompass all currently and recently prescribed drugs, previous adverse drug reactions including hypersensitivity reactions, any over‐the counter medications, including herbal or alternative medicines, and adherence to therapy.2. Medication history errors, such as omitting drugs erroneously, are common and often have the potential to harm the patient. Hypersensitivity reactions are often poorly documented or not explored in detail, which may lead to unnecessary avoidance of a drug. Accurate documentation of concomitant herbal or alternative therapies is rare, despite the importance they may have in causing adverse effects or drug‐drug interactions. Polypharmacy, specific drugs, and clinical specialty can affect the risk of medication history errors.3. There are various strategies to reduce medication history errors. Pharmacists are better at taking an accurate medication history than many physicians or nurses. In the context of acute hospital admissions they reduce error, the risks of adverse drug reactions, and prescription costs. Electronic prescribing may reduce transcription errors, but it can facilitate other errors and still depends on an accurate medication history.4. Education of prescribers, both in clinical pharmacology and in taking accurate medication histories is vitally important in reducing errors.
Endonasal transsphenoidal surgery and multimodality treatment for giant pituitary adenomas
Authors: De Paiva Neto Manoel Antonio , Vandergrift Alexander , Fatemi Nasrin , Gorgulho Alessandra A. , DeSalles Antonio A. , Cohan Pejman , Wang Christina , Swerdloff Ronald , Kelly Daniel F. 
Published: June 2009

SummaryObjective  Giant pituitary adenomas (≥40 mm) pose a major management challenge. We describe the experience of a single surgeon and a dedicated neuro‐endocrine team with multimodality treatment of these tumours in three specialized institutions.Design  Retrospective data set analyses.Patients  Fifty‐one consecutive patients with a giant adenoma (39 endocrine‐inactive, 12 endocrine‐active; mean tumour diameter 45 mm) treated over 10 years by an endonasal transsphenoidal approach were included. All patients had surgical resection followed by radiotherapy and/or medical therapy as judged necessary.Measurements  Hormonal and visual status, extent of resection, tumour control rates, complications and use of medical and radiotherapy were evaluated.Results  Surgery resulted in gross total, near total and subtotal removal in21 (41%), 10 (20%) and 20 (39%) patients respectively. Complete tumour removal was associated with absence of cavernous sinus invasion (P < 0·001). Long‐term endocrine function improved in 49% of patients and new endocrinopathy occurred in 14·6%; 76% required long‐term hormone replacement therapy. Vision improved in 81·5% of the patients and there was no visual worsening. At the last follow up (median 30 months), tumour control was achieved in 96% of patients: 59% with surgery alone, 20% with surgery plus focussed radiotherapy, 18% with surgery and medical therapy and two with all three modalities.Conclusions  Endonasal surgery provides effective initial treatment for patients with giant adenomas. Multimodality therapy was needed in almost 50% of patients and this rate will likely increase with longer follow up. Close collaboration of neurosurgeons with endocrinologists and radiation oncologists is essential for optimal treatment of patients with these challenging tumours.
Neurofibromatosis type 1: should we screen for other genetic syndromes? A case report of co‐existence with multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A
Authors: Gkaliagkousi E. , Erlic Z. , Petidis K. , Semertzidis P. , Doumas M. , Zamboulis C. , Neumann H. P. H. , Douma S. 
Published: June 2009

AbstractBackground  NF 1 is a genetic disorder with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritence. It is associated with neoplastic disorders mainly derived from the neural seath. However, the co‐existence of NF1 with the full spectrum of MEN 2A has rarely been reported. The aim of the study was to investigate the presence of secondary neoplasias in a patient with diagnosed NF1, and in particular the presence of hyperparathyroidism and the possible co‐existence with another pheochromocytoma‐related syndrome.Methods  We report a case of a 70 years old female patient who had NF1. The patient was referred to our center and was diagnosed with an isolated pheochromocytoma of the right adrenal gland for which she underwent right adrenalectomy. We further investigated for the presence of another pheochromocytoma‐related syndrome and in particular for the presence of hyperparathyroidism and medullary thyroid cancer. Molecular screening for germline mutations of the genes NF1, RET and VHL has also been performed.Results  The patient was further diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism and medullary thyroid cancer, having the full spectrum of the clinical picture of the MEN2A syndrome. The genetic testing revealed the germline mutation for NF1 but not for the RET proto‐oncogene which is generally found in MEN2A cases.Conclusion  To our knowledge this is a rare case of co‐existence of two pheochromocytoma‐related genetic syndromes, and generates the question of whether all patients with these syndromes should undergo a thorough clinical and laboratory investigation for the possibility of another co‐existing pheochromocytoma‐related genetic syndrome.
Nitrogen and phosphorus allocation in leaves, twigs, and fine roots across 49 temperate, subtropical and tropical tree species: a hierarchical pattern
Authors: Li Ang , Guo Dali , Wang Zhengquan , Liu Hongyan 
Published: June 2009

Summary1. Hierarchical branching is a fundamental feature of trees. Understanding how tree architecture is linked to tissue nutrient concentrations, metabolic rates, and life cycles is important for predicting ecosystem processes such as respiration, module turnover, and organic matter decomposition.2. Here, we examined branch order–nutrient relationships in above‐ and belowground tree branching systems by analysing nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and N : P ratio in leaves, the first three orders of twigs, and the first five orders of roots in 49 tree species, including 21 temperate angiosperm species, six temperate gymnosperm species, and 22 subtropical‐tropical angiosperm species.3. Tissue [N] and [P] declined linearly with increasing twig and root orders across all species. The slope of the linear regression between root order and root [N] was the same between temperate and subtropical‐tropical angiosperms, but steeper in angiosperms than gymnosperms. In contrast, root order–[P] relationship differed between biomes but not between phylogenetic groups, probably due to the significantly lower P availability in subtropical‐tropical soils. Additionally, the magnitude of change in tissue [N] and [P] between successive shoot and root branch orders was not constant across branching levels. Among all fine root orders, first order root tips had [N], [P], and N : P ratio most similar to those of leaves.4. These results demonstrate that there is a general inverse order–nutrient relationship in above‐ and belowground modules, though specific patterns of this relationship differed between N and P, and between species groups. Moreover, among all root orders within the fine root guild, root tips are the best parallels of leaves in nutrient concentrations. The order–nutrient relationships presented here advances our understanding of functional module construction in trees, and provide a basis for modelling tissue chemistry‐regulated processes such as respiration and decomposition in forest ecosystems.