bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Feline Reproduction
Authors: Little Susan 
Published: June 2011

Audience Many veterinarians are closely involved with pedigree cat breeding and have become familiar with the unique characteristics of feline reproduction and breeding management. However, even veterinarians who do not have involvement with the pedigree cat fancy require a basic knowledge of the reproductive problems that are most likely to be encountered in working with non-breeding pet cats as well as stray and feral cats. Clinical challenges This article reviews reproductive problems and challenges in both sexes — namely, ovarian remnant syndrome, mammary fibroadenomatous hyperplasia, congenital anomalies of the reproductive tract and pregnancy diagnosis in the queen, and cryptorchidism and low libido in the tom. Evidence base Feline reproduction has not received the amount of investigation and attention that has been directed at canine reproduction. The result is that less data is available both for description of normal reproduction and for management of common problems. This article reviews most of the available evidence for the conditions discussed. Efforts should focus on making information more readily available to the practitioner and expanding the knowledge base in this important area of feline medicine.
Malignant Melanoma in Pleural Effusion in a 14-Year-Old Cat
Authors: Morges Michelle A , Zaks Karen 
Published: June 2011

Case details A 14-year-old female cat presented with signs of respiratory distress. Pleural fluid was found on radiographic assessment. Cytologic evaluation of the fluid revealed malignant melanocytosis. The cat had a previous history of a recurrent malignant melanoma near the base of the right ear. Due to declining clinical condition, the cat was euthanized. Clinical significance Cutaneous malignant melanomas (or melanosarcomas) are uncommon neoplasms in cats, and knowledge is limited. As far as the authors are aware, there are no previous reports in the veterinary literature of malignant melanocytes being identified in pleural effusion in cats, as they have in dogs. This report suggests that, despite conflicting information in the literature regarding the clinical behavior of cutaneous melanomas in cats, these tumors are capable of recurrence and metastasis. Aggressive treatment may be necessary even, as in this case, if the tumor is well differentiated on histopathology.
Effect of gelatinisation of starch with casein proteins on incretin hormones and glucose transporters in vitro
Authors: Bruen Christine M. , Kett Anthony P. , O'Halloran Fiona , Chaurin Valérie , Fenelon Mark A. , Cashman Kevin A. , Giblin Linda 
Published: June 2011

Foods that have a low glycaemic index or foods that contain slowly digestible starch are beneficial in controlling fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels. The study hypothesis is that gelatinisation of starch in structured casein networks provides a method for decreasing the digestion rate of the starch and, hence, minimising postprandial glucose fluctuations. This study examined the effect of starch gelatinisation with or without casein on (1) gene expression and peptide secretion levels of the incretin hormones glucagon-like peptide 1 and glucose-independent insulinotropic polypeptide and (2) gene expression of the sodium–glucose cotransporter and GLUT-2 in intestinal cell culture systems. The intestinal epithelial cell line, STC-1, and the enteroendocrine colonic cell line, Caco-2, were exposed to in vitro digested foods (starch gelatinised with α-casein, starch gelatinised with β-casein and gelatinised starch alone). The encapsulation of starch with casein before in vitro digestion lowers levels of incretin hormone secretion. Digestion of starch gelatinised with casein also releases less glucose than starch alone as indicated by significantly (P < 0·05) lower levels of glucose transporter mRNA transcripts. Some subtle cellular response differences were observed following exposure to starch gelatinised with α- compared to β-casein. Fractionation of α-casein and β-casein by reverse-phase HPLC identified that fractions that differed in hydrophobicity differed significantly (P < 0·05) in their ability to promote secretion of the incretin hormones. Evidence suggests that gelatinisation of starch with casein may be a functional food ingredient that minimises blood glucose fluctuations.
Estimating changes in overall survival using progression-free survival in metastatic breast and colorectal cancer
Authors: Bowater Russell J. , Lilford Philippa E. , Lilford Richard J. 
Published: June 2011

Objectives: In clinical trials of new cancer drugs, reliable data for progression-free survival will often become available far sooner than reliable data for overall survival. The aim of this study was to determine how many months it would be expected that any given new drug for metastatic breast or colorectal cancer will add to overall survival times given that the number of months the drug adds to progression-free survival times relative to a standard drug is roughly already known.Methods: A literature search was conducted over Medline for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between January 1980 and August 2008 that assessed the effect of a drug treatment in comparison to an alternative drug treatment on patients with either metastatic breast or metastatic colorectal cancer.Results: The literature search found 95 and 74 RCTs for metastatic breast and colorectal cancer, respectively, that satisfied the study's inclusion criteria. The results from these trials are consistent, in the case of each of these two metastatic cancers, with gains in time to disease progression being generally associated with no gains or with very slight gains or losses in post-progression survival (i.e., the time between disease progression and death).Conclusions: It would appear that drugs for metastatic breast or colorectal cancer that extend, by a given amount, the time period between the start of treatment and disease progression (i.e., time to progression) have a strong tendency to extend, by roughly the same amount, the period between the start of treatment and death (i.e., overall survival).
Highly branched isoprenoids as proxies for variable sea ice conditions in the Southern Ocean
Authors: Massé Guillaume , Belt Simon T. , Crosta Xavier , Schmidt Sabine , Snape Ian , Thomas David N. , Rowland Steven J. 
Published: June 2011

AbstractConcentrations of a highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) diene determined in over 200 sediment samples from the Arctic co-vary with those of an HBI monoene (IP25) shown previously to be a sedimentary sea ice proxy for the Arctic. The same diene, but not monoene IP25, occurred in nine sea ice samples collected from various locations around Antarctica. The diene has been reported previously in Antarctic sea ice diatoms and the 13C isotopic compositions of the diene determined in two Antarctic sea ice samples were also consistent with an origin from sea ice diatoms (δ13C -5.7 to -8.5‰). In contrast, HBIs found in two Antarctic phytoplankton samples did not include the diene but comprised a number of tri- to pentaenes. In sediment samples collected near Adélie Land, East Antarctica, both the diene and the tri- to pentaenes often co-occurred. 13C isotopic compositions of the tri- to pentaenes in three sediment samples ranged from -35 to -42‰ whereas that of the diene in a sediment sample was -18‰. We propose the presence of this isotopically 13C enriched HBI diene in Antarctic sediments to be a useful proxy indicator for contributions of organic matter derived from sea ice diatoms. A ratio of the concentrations of diene/trienes might reflect the relative contributions of sea ice to phytoplanktonic inputs of organic matter to Antarctic sediments.
Thermophilic bacteria present in a sample from Fumarole Bay, Deception Island
Authors: Muñoz Patricio A. , Flores Patricio A. , Boehmwald Freddy A. , Blamey Jenny M. 
Published: June 2011

AbstractDeception Island, an active stratovolcano located in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, provides excellent conditions for the thermophilic bacteria growth because of high ground temperatures in specific areas, such as Fumarole Bay where the temperatures are above the mesophilic range. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) was used with the 16S ribosomal gene to analyse cultures of thermophilic bacteria from a soil sample taken from Fumarole Bay. Nine bands were sequenced and analysed from DGGE and they indicated the presence of bacteria from the generaGeobacillus,Bacillus,Brevibacillus,Thermusand uncultured sulphate reducing bacteria. Some of which have been reported in other Antarctic geothermal sites.Geobacillus,BacillusandBrevibacillusgenera were successfully cultivated in an enriched medium. A pure culture of one thermophilicGeobacillusbacterium was obtained closely related toGeobacillus jurassicus.
Carbon dioxide emissions of Antarctic tourism
Authors: Farreny Ramon , Oliver-Solà Jordi , Lamers Machiel , Amelung Bas , Gabarrell Xavier , Rieradevall Joan , Boada Martí , Benayas Javier 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe increase of tourism to the Antarctic continent may entail not only local but also global environmental impacts. These latter impacts, which are mainly caused by transport, have been generally ignored. As a result, there is a lack of data on the global impacts of Antarctic tourism in terms of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper presents and applies a methodology for quantifying CO2 emissions, both for the Antarctic vessel fleet as a whole and per passenger (both per trip and per day). The results indicate that the average tourist trip to Antarctica results in 5.44 t of CO2 emissions per passenger, or 0.49 t per passenger and day. Approximately 70% of these emissions are attributable to cruising and 30% to flying, which highlights the global environmental relevance of local transport for this type of tourism.
Practical collimator optimization in the management of prostate IMRT planning: A feasibility study
Authors: Badusha M Ahamed , McGarry CK 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate the delivery efficiency of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with a non-zero collimator rotation approach compared to conventional planning IMRT in the management of prostate carcinoma. Inverse plans, created using conventional collimator angle 0° (CA0) for eight prostate patients, were compared to plans using collimator angle 70° (CA70) for all fields and also with plans utilizing an automatic collimator angle optimization tool (CAopt) for each field. Results demonstrate that IMRT plans created with rotational collimator techniques can produce comparable dose distributions to standard CA0 plans. The rotational collimator approach significantly reduced the total number of monitor units (MU) by 6% (p value = 0.027) and 9% (p value = 0.003) for CA70 and CAopt, respectively. The mean monitor units for CA0, CA70 and CAopt were 635 ± 107 MU, 597 ± 96 MU and 587 ± 104 MU, respectively. The mean peripheral dose was significantly increased with CA70 against CA0 (p value < 0.001) despite reduced monitor units. Collimator optimization resulted in reduction in monitor units and peripheral dose. The number of monitor units are reduced with the rotational collimator approach, which results in reduced delivery time. However, we conclude that peripheral dose should be analyzed when assessing monitor unit differences in IMRT plans.
Laparoscopy Pneumoperitoneum Fuzzy Modeling
Authors: Becker Otavio , Araujo Jose , Azevedo Joao 
Published: June 2011

AbstractAbstract: Gas volume to intra-peritoneal pressure fuzzy modeling for evaluating pneumoperitoneum in videolaparoscopic surgery is proposed in this paper. The proposed approach innovates in using fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory for evaluating the accuracy of the prognosis value in order to minimize or avoid iatrogenic injuries due to the blind needle puncture. In so doing, it demonstrates the feasibility of fuzzy analysis to contribute to medicine and health care. Fuzzy systems is employed here in synergy with artificial neural network based on backpropaga tion, multilayer perceptron architecture for building up numerical functions. Experimental data employed for analysis were collected in the accomplishment of the pneumoperitoneum in a random population of patients submitted to videolaparoscopic surgeries. Numerical results indicate that the proposed fuzzy mapping for describing the relation from the intra peritoneal pressure measures as function injected gas volumes succeeded in determinining a fuzzy model for this nonlinear system when compared to the statistical model.
Collaborative platforms for streamlining workflows in Open Science
Authors: Förstner Konrad , Hagedorn Gregor , Koltzenburg Claudia , Kubke M. Fabiana , Mietchen Daniel 
Published: June 2011

AbstractDespite the internet’s dynamic and collaborative nature, scientists continue to produce grant proposals, lab notebooks, data files, conclusions etc. that stay in static formats or are not published online and therefore not always easily accessible to the interested public. Because of limited adoption of tools that seamlessly integrate all aspects of a research project (conception, data generation, data evaluation, peer-reviewing and publishing of conclusions), much effort is later spent on reproducing or reformatting individual entities before they can be repurposed independently or as parts of articles.We propose that workflows - performed both individually and collaboratively - could potentially become more efficient if all steps of the research cycle were coherently represented online and the underlying data were formatted, annotated and licensed for reuse. Such a system would accelerate the process of taking projects from conception to publication stages and allow for continuous updating of the data sets and their interpretation as well as their integration into other independent projects.A major advantage of such workflows is the increased transparency, both with respect to the scientific process as to the contribution of each participant. The latter point is important from a perspective of motivation, as it enables the allocation of reputation, which creates incentives for scientists to contribute to projects. Such workflow platforms offering possibilities to fine-tune the accessibility of their content could gradually pave the path from the current static mode of research presentation into a more coherent practice of open science.
Palliative care, double effect and the law in Australia
Authors: White B. P. , Willmott L. , Ashby M. 
Published: June 2011

AbstractCare and decision‐making at the end of life that promotes comfort and dignity is widely endorsed by public policy and the law. In ethical analysis of palliative care interventions that are argued potentially to hasten death, these may be deemed to be ethically permissible by the application of the doctrine of double effect, if the doctor's intention is to relieve pain and not cause death. In part because of the significance of ethics in the development of law in the medical sphere, this doctrine is also likely to be recognized as part of Australia's common law, although hitherto there have been no cases concerning palliative care brought before a court in Australia to test this. Three Australian States have, nonetheless, created legislative defences that are different from the common law with the intent of clarifying the law, promoting palliative care, and distinguishing it from euthanasia. However, these defences have the potential to provide less protection for doctors administering palliative care. In addition to requiring a doctor to have an appropriate intent, the defences insist on adherence to particular medical practice standards and perhaps require patient consent. Doctors providing end‐of‐life care in these States need to be aware of these legislative changes. Acting in accordance with the common law doctrine of double effect may not provide legal protection. Similar changes are likely to occur in other States and Territories as there is a trend towards enacting legislative defences that deal with the provision of palliative care.
Spinal opioids in adult patients with cancer pain: A systematic review: A European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC) Opioid Guidelines Project
Authors: Kurita Geana Paula , Kaasa Stein , Sjøgren Per 
Published: June 2011

Background: A systematic review, undertaken according to an initiative to revise European Association for Palliative Care guidelines on the use of opioids for cancer pain, which aimed to analyse analgesic efficacy and side effects of spinal opioids in adult cancer patients previously treated with systemic opioids. Methods: Search strategy elaborated with MeSH terms and words related to cancer, palliative care, pain, spinal route and opioids. PubMed, Embase and Cochrane assessed in Nov 2009. Studies were analysed and classified according to quality of evidence and strength of recommendation. Results: Out of 2939 abstracts, 44 articles were selected (nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs), two non-randomized cohort studies, 28 uncontrolled prospective studies, and five case series). Relief of pain and/or side effects were reported in 42 articles; however, there were few studies of high quality design (RCTs) and these studies had methodological limitations that reduced their quality of evidence to very low. Conclusion: There are few RCTs and these are of very low quality. As a result, they provide weak recommendation for using spinal opioids in adult cancer patients. Further studies are clearly needed.
A systematic review of combination step III opioid therapy in cancer pain: An EPCRC opioid guideline project
Authors: Fallon Marie T , Laird Barry JA 
Published: June 2011

Background: The use of combinations of opioids is a common clinical practice; however, this is not advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic ladder. As opioid combination therapy becomes used increasingly, a review of the evidence on this practice was conducted. Aims: To carry out a systematic review of the use of strong opioids in combination in cancer pain. Methods: The following databases were searched electronically: Embase (1980–2010 week 2), Medline (1950–2010 week 1) and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (fourth quarter 2009). Only strong opioids as defined by the WHO ladder and full opioid agonists were examined. Only studies conducted in human, adult patients with chronic cancer pain were eligible. Studies must have contained data on efficacy and/or side effects in the key point. Appraisal was conducted using predetermined criteria set by the EAPC guideline development group. All potential papers were reviewed independently by both authors. Results: In total 596 articles were retrieved resulting in only two eligible studies, which were rated as grade C and grade D evidence. These examined morphine in combination with oxycodone or fentanyl/methadone. Conclusion: Only a weak recommendation can be used to support combination opioid therapy. This recommendation is also based on the caveat that the desirable effects of combination opioid therapy is outweighed by any disadvantages that this would confer. Prospective randomized trials are needed to clarify the benefits and safety of combination opioid therapy.
Evidence-based medicine: What is the evidence that it has made a difference?
Authors: McQuay Henry 
Published: June 2011

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has, over the past 20 years, made us all more critical in our thinking about the efficacy and safety of interventions. This is evident in the higher standards of our spoken and written work, formal and informal, and in our approach to the subject. The downside has been the coincidence of the squeeze on healthcare funding with the emergence of the EBM ideas – it has been all too easy to misuse the tools of EBM to deny patients access to treatment, and this, together with the off-putting political correctness of the EBM approach in some quarters, has made clinicians uneasy. Clinicians have to make decisions about therapy for the individual patient. Ideally this is guided by the best available evidence and their experience. EBM can guide one as to the population efficacy and safety of a particular intervention, but as we all know few patients are average. That guidance can only be given if there is adequate evidence, and the difficulty with guidance about symptom control is often the paucity of evidence of sufficient quality to yield credible guidance. Palliative care is often a ‘complex intervention’, and here EBM struggles to untangle which components, if any, of the complex interventions are important. The trial and review methodologies for complex intervention are wanting. Tom Chalmers, a grandfather of the EBM movement, argued late in his career that the most important function of the EBM approach was to frame the research agenda. This we think is correct. The process of systematic review of a topic throws up the deficits in trial methods and the lacunae in the data, and this then can show the way forward.
The second step of the analgesic ladder and oral tramadol in the treatment of mild to moderate cancer pain: A systematic review
Authors: Tassinari Davide , Drudi Fabrizio , Rosati Marta , Tombesi Paola , Sartori Sergio , Maltoni Marco 
Published: June 2011

Background: To analyse the evidence supporting the widespread use of modified analgesic ladders or oral tramadol as alternatives to codeine/paracetamol for mild to moderate cancer pain. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was independently performed by two authors. The level of evidence and risk/benefit ratio were assessed in all the selected trials. A comprehensive analysis of the level of evidence, risk/benefit ratio and strength of the recommendations was carried out. The analysis was performed using the GRADE system. Results: Eighteen papers were included into the analysis. The level of evidence was low or very low for all the trials, and as a result the risk/benefit ratio was uncertain. Likewise, the strength of the final recommendations was considered weak negative for either the use of modified analgesic ladders (by-passing the second step of the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic ladder) or the use of oral tramadol as an alternative to codeine/paracetamol in the second step of the WHO analgesic ladder. Conclusions: Data supporting the role of modified two-step analgesic ladders or oral tramadol as an alternative to codeine/paracetamol are insufficient to recommend their routine use in cancer patients with mild to moderate cancer pain.
Dose of methylphenidate during service transition for adults with ADHD
Authors: Adamou Marios , Bowers Sara 
Published: June 2011

Objectives: We wanted to investigate how one element of the transitional process of adolescents to an adult ADHD service, namely the use of medication, fared when compared to the recommendations of national guidelines. Methods: We did a chart review of the dose of stimulants in a cohort of transitional patients after they were transferred to an adult ADHD service, whilst investigating if other variables such as severity of ADHD, age, gender and comorbidity played any role in determining the dose of stimulants at transition. Results: The dose of stimulants when calculated in mg/kg was almost half the recommended whist the patients were also severely symptomatic. Reported comorbidity with Autistic Spectrum Disorders was also very high. Conclusions: A handover approach of adolescents with ADHD to an adult service, may hide gaps at least as far as prescribing is concerned. This gap may need considerable resources to address successfully. We suggest that establishing transitional processes may help minimise this problem.