bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tobacco modalities used and outcome in patients with acute coronary syndrome: an observational report
Authors: Al Suwaidi Jassim , Al Habib Khalid , Singh Rajvir , Hersi Ahmad , Al Nemer Khalid , Asaad Nidal , Al Saif Shukri , Al-Motarreb Ahmed , Almahmeed Wael , Sulaiman Kadhim , Amin Haitham , Al-Lawati Jawad , Al Bustani Nizar , Al-Sagheer Norah Q , Ali Waleed M 
Published: June 2012

Abstract

Aim
The authors evaluated the prevalence and effect of the various tobacco use modalities among patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and compared them with non-tobacco and ex-tobacco users.

Methods
An analysis of the 2nd Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events conducted between October 2008 and June 2009 and which included 7930 consecutive patients hospitalised with ACS was made. Patients initially were divided into non-tobacco users, ex-tobacco users and current tobacco users. Subanalysis according to the tobacco modality used was subsequently made: cigarette, waterpipe or smokeless tobacco users.

Results
Overall, 2834 (36%) patients were current tobacco users, 306 (3.9%) patients were waterpipe smokers and 240 patients (3%) were oral tobacco users. When compared with non-tobacco and ex-tobacco users, overall current tobacco users were younger, more likely to be male subjects and less likely to have diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Mortality rate (p=0.001) and overall cardiovascular events (p=0.001) were lower among current tobacco users when compared with the other two groups. After adjustment for baseline variables, tobacco use was not an independent predictor of adverse events. Subset analysis demonstrates oral tobacco users and waterpipe smokers were older and more likely to be women when compared with cigarette smokers. Among the various tobacco groups, inhospital mortality rates were significantly higher among the waterpipe smokers when compared with the other two groups.

Conclusions
Clinical characteristics and outcomes of ACS patients depend on the tobacco modality used. Further studies are required to evaluate the impact of emerging tobacco use modalities on patients with coronary artery disease.
Simple estimators of salmonid escapement and its variance using a new area-under-the-curve method
Authors: Millar Russell B. , McKechnie Sam , Jordan Chris E. 
Published: May 2012

If observed numbers of spawning salmon are plotted against sampling date, then the area under the curve (AUC) gives an estimate of spawner-days. Dividing AUC by spawner lifetime and adjusting for observer efficiency gives an estimate of spawner escapement. In particular, the trapezoidal form of AUC estimator has been widely used over the last two decades, despite the absence of a direct method for calculating its variance. For this reason, an alternative estimator of escapement was developed using a maximum likelihood (ML) model of spawner arrivals. However, this alternative has not been widely used, perhaps because of its complexity and concerns over validity of assumptions. Here, a simpler ML approach is used to estimate AUC by fitting a model directly to spawner numbers. It can be fitted using existing generalized linear modeling software and provides an explicit variance estimator for AUC and escapement. Simulations show that it has consistently higher coverage than the existing ML estimator. However, the trapezoidal AUC estimator was generally a slightly more precise estimator of escapement than either of the ML approaches.
Paenibacillus thiaminolyticus is not the cause of thiamine deficiency impeding lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) recruitment in the Great Lakes
Authors: Richter Catherine A. , Evans Allison N. , Wright-Osment Maureen K. , Zajicek James L. , Heppell Scott A. , Riley Stephen C. , Krueger Charles C. , Tillitt Donald E. 
Published: May 2012

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency is a global concern affecting wildlife, livestock, and humans. In Great Lakes salmonines, thiamine deficiency causes embryo mortality and is an impediment to restoration of native lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) stocks. Thiamine deficiency in fish may result from a diet of prey with high levels of thiaminase I. The discoveries that the bacterial species Paenibacillus thiaminolyticus produces thiaminase I, is found in viscera of thiaminase-containing prey fish, and causes mortality when fed to lake trout in the laboratory provided circumstantial evidence implicating P. thiaminolyticus. This study quantified the contribution of P. thiaminolyticus to the total thiaminase I activity in multiple trophic levels of Great Lakes food webs. Unexpectedly, no relationship between thiaminase activity and either the amount of P. thiaminolyticus thiaminase I protein or the abundance of P. thiaminolyticus cells was found. These results demonstrate that P. thiaminolyticus is not the primary source of thiaminase activity affecting Great Lakes salmonines and calls into question the long-standing assumption that P. thiaminolyticus is the source of thiaminase in other wild and domestic animals.
Applicability of 2-D modeling for forecasting ice jam flood levels in the Hay River Delta, Canada
Authors: Brayall M. , Hicks F.E. 
Published: June 2012

Ice jam floods can present an annual threat to communities adjacent to rivers, especially those situated at river confluences, island or deltas. The objective of this study was to determine whether 2-D modeling might be used to predict expected ice jam flood elevations for such multi-channel systems. The Hay River delta was selected as the demonstration site for this study, and 2-D modeling was employed to calculate ice jam flood levels expected for varying inflow discharge conditions. The River2D model was calibrated for historical ice jam profiles covering a range of discharges from 268 to 1000 m3/s and a relationship was developed to predict the flow split down the East and West Channels based on the inflow discharge to the delta. Also, ice jam rating curves were developed at 0.5 km intervals along each channel facilitating the development of an ice jam profile prediction tool for use by the Town of Hay River.
Attentive documents
Authors: Buscher Georg , Dengel Andreas , Biedert Ralf , Elst Ludger V. 
Published: June 2012

Reading is one of the most frequent activities of knowledge workers. Eye tracking can provide information on what document parts users read, and how they were read. This article aims at generating implicit relevance feedback from eye movements that can be used for information retrieval personalization and further applications.
We report the findings from two studies which examine the relation between several eye movement measures and user-perceived relevance of read text passages. The results show that the measures are generally noisy, but after personalizing them we find clear relations between the measures and relevance. In addition, the second study demonstrates the effect of using reading behavior as implicit relevance feedback for personalizing search. The results indicate that gaze-based feedback is very useful and can greatly improve the quality of Web search. The article concludes with an outlook introducing attentive documents keeping track of how users consume them. Based on eye movement feedback, we describe a number of possible applications to make working with documents more effective.
Continuous body and hand gesture recognition for natural human-computer interaction
Authors: Song Yale , Demirdjian David , Davis Randall 
Published: June 2012

Intelligent gesture recognition systems open a new era of natural human-computer interaction: Gesturing is instinctive and a skill we all have, so it requires little or no thought, leaving the focus on the task itself, as it should be, not on the interaction modality. We present a new approach to gesture recognition that attends to both body and hands, and interprets gestures continuously from an unsegmented and unbounded input stream. This article describes the whole procedure of continuous body and hand gesture recognition, from the signal acquisition to processing, to the interpretation of the processed signals.
Our system takes a vision-based approach, tracking body and hands using a single stereo camera. Body postures are reconstructed in 3D space using a generative model-based approach with a particle filter, combining both static and dynamic attributes of motion as the input feature to make tracking robust to self-occlusion. The reconstructed body postures guide searching for hands. Hand shapes are classified into one of several canonical hand shapes using an appearance-based approach with a multiclass support vector machine. Finally, the extracted body and hand features are combined and used as the input feature for gesture recognition. We consider our task as an online sequence labeling and segmentation problem. A latent-dynamic conditional random field is used with a temporal sliding window to perform the task continuously. We augment this with a novel technique called multilayered filtering, which performs filtering both on the input layer and the prediction layer. Filtering on the input layer allows capturing long-range temporal dependencies and reducing input signal noise; filtering on the prediction layer allows taking weighted votes of multiple overlapping prediction results as well as reducing estimation noise.
We tested our system in a scenario of real-world gestural interaction using the NATOPS dataset, an official vocabulary of aircraft handling gestures. Our experimental results show that: (1) the use of both static and dynamic attributes of motion in body tracking allows statistically significant improvement of the recognition performance over using static attributes of motion alone; and (2) the multilayered filtering statistically significantly improves recognition performance over the nonfiltering method. We also show that, on a set of twenty-four NATOPS gestures, our system achieves a recognition accuracy of 75.37%.
Acyclic Retinoid Targets Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Signaling in the Prevention of Hepatic Fibrosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Development
Authors: Okada Hikari , Honda Masao , Campbell Jean S. , Sakai Yoshio , Yamashita Taro , Takebuchi Yuuki , Hada Kazuhiro , Shirasaki Takayoshi , Takabatake Riuta , Nakamura Mikiko , Sunagozaka Hajime , Tanaka Takuji , Fausto Nelson , Kaneko Shuichi 
Published: June 2012

Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often develops in association with liver cirrhosis, and its high recurrence rate leads to poor patient prognosis. Although recent evidence suggests that peretinoin, a member of the acyclic retinoid family, may be an effective chemopreventive drug for HCC, published data about its effects on hepatic mesenchymal cells, such as stellate cells and endothelial cells, remain limited. Using a mouse model in which platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-C is overexpressed (Pdgf-c Tg), resulting in hepatic fibrosis, steatosis, and eventually, HCC development, we show that peretinoin significantly represses the development of hepatic fibrosis and tumors. Peretinoin inhibited the signaling pathways of fibrogenesis, angiogenesis, and Wnt/β-catenin in Pdgf-c transgenic mice. In vitro, peretinoin repressed the expression of PDGF receptors α/β in primary mouse hepatic stellate cells (HSC), hepatoma cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. Peretinoin also inhibited PDGF-C–activated transformation of HSCs into myofibroblasts. Together, our findings show that PDGF signaling is a target of peretinoin in preventing the development of hepatic fibrosis and HCC. Cancer Res; 72(17); 4459–71. ©2012 AACR.
Genetic Ablation of
Adamts13
Gene Dramatically Accelerates the Formation of Early Atherosclerosis in a Murine Model
Authors: Jin Sheng-Yu , Tohyama Junichiro , Bauer Robert C. , Cao Na Nora , Rader Daniel J. , Zheng X. Long 
Published: June 2012

Objective—
ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 repeats-13) cleaves von Willebrand factor, thereby modulating thrombosis and inflammation. Low plasma ADAMTS13 activity is associated with cardiovascular events, including myocardial and cerebral infarction. Here, we investigated the role of ADAMTS13 in the development of early atherosclerosis in a murine model.

Methods and Results—

Apolipoprotein E–null (ApoE
−/−
) and
Adamts13-null (Adamts13
−/−
) ApoE
−/−
mice were fed with a high-fat Western diet for 12 weeks. Atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta and aortic roots were quantified after staining. Leukocyte rolling and adhesion onto cremaster venules after oxidative injury were determined by intravital microscopy. Although plasma cholesterol levels were largely similar in both groups, the extent of atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta en face and in the aortic roots in the
Adamts13
−/−
ApoE
−/−
mice increased ≈5.5-fold (
P
=0.0017) and ≈6.1-fold (
P
=0.0037), respectively. In addition, the ratio of plasma high- to low-molecular-weight von Willebrand factor multimers increased ≈3-fold. The leukocyte rolling velocities were significantly reduced (
P
<0.001), with an increased number of leukocyte rolling (
P
=0.0026) and macrophage infiltration into the atherosclerotic lesions in the
Adamts13
−/−
ApoE
−/−
mice.

Conclusion—
Our results suggest that ADAMTS13 plays a critical role in modulating the development of early atherosclerosis, likely through the proteolytic cleavage of ultra-large von Willebrand factor multimers, thereby inhibiting platelet deposition and inflammation.
Acute Pulmonary Vein Isolation Is Achieved by a Combination of Reversible and Irreversible Atrial Injury After Catheter Ablation
Authors: Arujuna Aruna , Karim Rashed , Caulfield Dennis , Knowles Benjamin , Rhode Kawal , Schaeffter Tobias , Kato Bernet , Rinaldi C. Aldo , Cooklin Michael , Razavi Reza , O’Neill Mark D. , Gill Jaswinder 
Published: June 2012

Background—
Pulmonary vein reconnection after pulmonary vein isolation is common and is usually associated with recurrences of atrial fibrillation. We used cardiac magnetic resonance imaging after radiofrequency ablation to investigate the hypothesis that acute pulmonary vein isolation results from a combination of irreversible and reversible atrial injury.

Methods and Results—

Delayed enhancement (DE; representing areas of acute tissue injury/necrosis) and T2-weighted (representing tissue water content, including edema) cardiac magnetic resonance scans were performed before, immediately after (acute), and later than 3 months (late) after pulmonary vein isolation in 25 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation undergoing wide-area circumferential ablation. Images were analyzed as pairs of pulmonary veins to quantify the percentage of circumferential antral encirclement composed of DE, T2, and combined DE+T2 signal. Fourteen of 25 patients were atrial fibrillation free at 11-month follow-up (interquartile range, 8–16 months). These patients had higher DE (71±6.0%) and lower T2 signal (72±7.8%) encirclement on the acute scans compared with recurrences (DE, 55±9.1%; T2, 85±6.3%;
P
<0.05). Patients maintaining sinus rhythm had a lesser decline in DE between acute and chronic scans compared with recurrences (71±6.0% and 60±5.8% versus 55±9.1% and 34±7.3%, respectively). The percentage of encirclement by a combination of DE+T2 was almost similar in both groups on the acute scans (atrial fibrillation free, 89±5.4%; recurrences, 92±4.8%) but different on the chronic scans (60±5.7% versus 34±7.3%).

Conclusions—
The higher T2 signal on acute scans and greater decline in DE on chronic imaging in patients with recurrences suggest that they have more reversible tissue injury, providing a potential mechanism for pulmonary vein reconnection, resulting in arrhythmia recurrence.
Development of children’s internalising and externalising problems from infancy to five years of age
Authors: Bayer Jordana K , Ukoumunne Obioha C , Mathers Megan , Wake Melissa , Abdi Nadia , Hiscock Harriet 
Published: June 2012

Objective: Mental health problems are an international public health issue affecting a substantial proportion of youth. This study aimed to identify groups of young children exhibiting distinct internalising and externalising symptom trajectories across early childhood compared to existing norms. Linear regression then identified child, parenting and family predictors from infancy in the development of internalising and externalising behaviours at age 5 years. Method: This consisted of a follow-up of 5-year-old children from a longitudinal, population-based study with earlier surveys having been completed by primary caregivers when the children were aged 7, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. Five hundred 5-year-olds (68% retention) were included from 733 children recruited at age 6–7 months from routine well-child appointments across six socio-economically diverse government areas in Victoria, Australia. Mothers then completed a further questionnaire when their children reached 5 years of age, repeating the instruments included in previous waves. The primary outcomes were the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), 1.5–5 internalising and externalising symptoms (T-scores in relation to norms) and behaviours (raw scores). Results: Across early childhood, three distinct profiles for each of the internalising and externalising symptoms (T-scores) were identified and compared to CBCL norms. Around 20% of this Australian child population exhibited consistently elevated symptoms for each problem. Regarding aetiology, longitudinally the strongest predictors of internalising behaviours at 5 years of age were harsh discipline, maternal stress, having no older siblings, single parenthood and maternal substance misuse. The strongest predictors of externalising behaviours at 5 years of age were male sex, harsh discipline and maternal stress. The predictors explained 22% of the variation in internalising behaviours and 24% of the variation in externalising behaviours at 5 years. Conclusions: Starting as early as the toddler period, effective population approaches to preventing mental health problems are needed. Randomised trials of preventive interventions focused on improving parenting practices and reducing maternal stress are under way.
Exploring children’s perceptions of play using visual methodologies
Authors: Anthamatten Peter , Wee Bryan Shao-Chang , Korris Erin 
Published: June 2012

Objective: A great deal of scholarly work has examined the way that physical, social and cultural environments relate to children’s health behaviour, particularly with respect to diet and exercise. While this work is critical, little research attempts to incorporate the views and perspectives of children themselves using visual methodologies. Specifically, we examine: (1) how children conceptualize play; (2) what aspects of play are important to children; and (3) the role that play assumes in guiding children’s activity patterns. Setting: Elementary school classrooms from third and fifth grade were sampled in a low-income, largely Latino/a part of southwest Denver, United States of America (USA), in late spring of 2010. Design: A qualitative study in which each child participated in a ‘photo voice’ survey and an in-class focus group. Method: The authors employed visual methodologies to explore how children conceptualized play. Photo voice surveys were administered in English and Spanish. After analysis of the photo voice surveys, children were invited to discuss their photos and drawings in small focus groups conducted in the classroom. All children who completed the survey participated in the focus groups. Results: Children in this study group conceptualized play largely in unstructured form. Family and school were important themes to emerge from the analysis of the data. Conclusion: Visual methods can clarify social-cultural dimensions of interactions between people and places, which can serve to inform research on health behaviours from children’s perspectives. Such methodologies are particularly important for research that focuses on the construction of physical environments for children.
The Effects of External Motivation and Real-Time Automated Feedback on Speeding Behavior in a Naturalistic Setting
Authors: Reagan Ian J. , Bliss James P. , Van Houten Ron , Hilton Bryan W. 
Published: June 2012

Objective: In this field experiment, the authors tested an alerting system and a monetary incentive system with the objective of reducing speeding more than 5 mph faster than the posted speed limit. Background: Speeding is a factor in a significant number of traffic fatalities. The systems tested in this project have been evaluated outside but not within the United States. These studies indicated that similar systems led to reductions in speeding. Method: For this study, eight vehicles were instrumented such that vehicle speed and speed limits were linked in real time. A total of 50 participants drove assigned vehicles for 4 weeks. Week 1 was a baseline period; during Week 2 or Week 3, 40 participants experienced the alerting system that issued auditory and visual advisory signals when drivers exceeded the limit by 5 mph or more. Of these 40 individuals, 20 experienced the monetary incentive system during Weeks 2 and 3; Week 4 was a return-to-baseline period. A control group of 10 drivers experienced neither system during the study. Results: Results indicated that the incentive system resulted in significant reductions in driving faster than the posted limit, and the feedback system led to modest changes in speeding. In the condition in which drivers experienced the feedback and incentive, reductions in speeding were similar to those found during the incentive-only condition. Conclusion: The technology tested in this study has potential to benefit traffic safety by reducing the incidence of driving faster than the posted limit, which should lead to a reduction in speed-related crashes. Application: Insurers provide incentive-based discounts on premiums. Combining this technology with such a discount program may improve traffic safety significantly.
Patient-focused goal planning process and outcome after spinal cord injury rehabilitation: quantitative and qualitative audit
Authors: Byrnes Michelle , Beilby Janet , Ray Patricia , McLennan Renee , Ker John , Schug Stephan 
Published: June 2012

Objective: To evaluate the process and outcome of a multidisciplinary inpatient goal planning rehabilitation programme on physical, social and psychological functioning for patients with spinal cord injury. Design: Clinical audit: quantitative and qualitative analyses. Setting: Specialist spinal injury unit, Perth, Australia. Subjects: Consecutive series of 100 newly injured spinal cord injury inpatients. Main measure(s): The Needs Assessment Checklist (NAC), patient-focused goal planning questionnaire and goal planning progress form. Results: The clinical audit of 100 spinal cord injured patients revealed that 547 goal planning meetings were held with 8531 goals stipulated in total. Seventy-five per cent of the goals set at the first goal planning meeting were achieved by the second meeting and the rate of goal achievements at subsequent goal planning meetings dropped to 56%. Based on quantitative analysis of physical, social and psychological functioning, the 100 spinal cord injury patients improved significantly from baseline to discharge. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed benefits consistently reported by spinal cord injury patients of the goal planning rehabilitation programme in improvements to their physical, social and psychological adjustment to injury. Conclusions: The findings of this clinical audit underpin the need for patient-focused goal planning rehabilitation programmes which are tailored to the individual’s needs and involve a comprehensive multidisciplinary team.