bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
MULTICENTER PHASE II RANDOMIZED STUDY EVALUATING DOSE–RESPONSE OF ANTIPERISTALTIC EFFECT OF L‐MENTHOL SPRAYED ONTO THE GASTRIC MUCOSA FOR UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL ENDOSCOPY
Authors: HIKI NAOKI , KAMINISHI MICHIO , YASUDA KENJIRO , UEDO NORIYA , KOBARI MASUMI , SAKAI TERUFUMI , HIRATSUKA TAKASHI , OHNO KYOTA , HONJO HAJIME , NOMURA SACHIYO , YAHAGI NAOHISA , TAJIRI HISAO , SUZUKI HIROAKI 
Published: June 2011

Aim:  Peppermint oil solution was found to be effective for reducing gastric spasm during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the gastric peristalsis‐suppressing effect is dose‐dependently induced by L‐menthol, the major constituent of peppermint oil, and to determine the recommended dose of an L‐menthol preparation.Methods:  In this phase II, multicenter, double‐blind, dose–response study, 131 eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive 20 mL of 0.4% L‐menthol (n = 32), 0.8% L‐menthol (n = 35), 1.6% L‐menthol (n = 30), or placebo (n = 34). The primary efficacy measure was the proportion of subjects with no peristalsis in two time periods, 75 to 105 s after treatment and immediately before the completion of endoscopy.Results:  The peristalsis‐suppressing effect of L‐menthol increased dose dependently (5.6%, 32.0%, 47.4% and 52.9% in the 0%, 0.4%, 0.8% and 1.6% groups, respectively: P < 0.001, one‐tailed Cochran‐Armitage trend test). As compared with the placebo group, the proportion of subjects with no peristalsis after administration was significantly higher in the 0.8% group (P = 0.015) and 1.6% group (P = 0.009). Adverse events in the L‐menthol dose groups occurred with similar frequencies in the placebo group.Conclusion:  L‐menthol suppresses peristalsis in a dose‐dependent manner, and the dose–response reaches a plateau at 0.8% L‐menthol. Further Phase III studies are needed to establish the superiority of 0.8% L‐menthol over placebo.
Nursing students' perceptions of nursing: a descriptive study of four cohorts
Authors: Safadi R.R. , Saleh M.Y.N. , Nassar O.S. , Amre H.M. , Froelicher E.S. 
Published: June 2011

SAFADI R.R., SALEH M.Y.N., NASSAR O.S., AMRE H.M. & FROELICHER E.S. (2011) Nursing students' perceptions of nursing: a descriptive study of four cohorts. International Nursing Review58, 420–427Aims:  The study aims to describe nursing students' changing perception of nursing over 4 years of the nursing programme and examine whether perception differed by gender, previous study or choice of nursing education.Methods:  A descriptive cross‐sectional design was used, with a probability sample of 606 students. Respondents were a random sample of 50% of each of the four educational cohorts studying within the academic year 2008–2009 in one baccalaureate nursing programme at a Jordanian public university. A specifically designed tool of statements of nursing definitions based on nursing theories, the nursing literature and sociocultural beliefs was used to identify student nurses' perception of nursing.Findings:  Student perceptions changed from lay altruistic beliefs of nursing to theoretical medical technological views of the profession denoting a theory–practice gap. Perceptions also differed by gender, having a previous associate degree in nursing and a priority choice to study nursing.Conclusion:  Such results delineated the importance of revising nursing schools' curricula and the universities' admission policies into the nursing profession.
Children's knowledge of cancer diagnosis and treatment: Jordanian mothers' perceptions and satisfaction with the process
Authors: Arabiat D.H. , Alqaissi N.M. , Hamdan‐Mansour A.M. 
Published: June 2011

ARABIAT D.H., ALQAISSI N.M. & HAMDAN‐MANSOUR A.M. (2011) Children's knowledge of cancer diagnosis and treatment: Jordanian mothers' perceptions and satisfaction with the process. International Nursing Review58, 443–449Background:  The amount of information shared with children regarding their illness, as well as what knowledge children are entitled to know, varies widely among cultures.Aims:  This study aims to examine mothers' accounts of communication about cancer diagnosis to their children, how much children knew about their illnesses and how satisfied the mothers were with the method they used in communicating the diagnosis.Methods:  Using semi‐structured interviews and open‐ended questions, 51 mothers attending paediatric oncology clinics in Jordan were interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.Findings:  Mothers expressed a range of views about the forms of disclosure, including being clear about the diagnosis and its treatment and being secretive yet misconceptualizing the accounts of the illness. The median age for the children diagnosed with cancer was 11 years (interquartile range 7–16 years). Most of the mothers were offered no help with talking to their children about cancer diagnosis. Mothers who found it difficult to tell the news of the diagnosis to their children finally withheld the diagnoses from them. Those same mothers were unhappy and uncomfortable with the communication method they had used with children.Conclusion:  This study emphasized the role of nurses' interaction with their child patients diagnosed with cancer. Nurses should not have an opinion about how and what children need to know about their illness, and preferably should take an active role in the process of communication between mothers and their children. Further work and research are needed in this field.
Religion, culture and male involvement in the use of the Standard Days Method: evidence from Enugu and Katsina states of Nigeria*
Authors: Ujuju C. , Anyanti J. , Adebayo S.B. , Muhammad F. , Oluigbo O. , Gofwan A. 
Published: June 2011

UJUJU C., ANYANTI J., ADEBAYO S.B., MUHAMMAD F., OLUIGBO O. & GOFWAN A. (2011) Religion, culture and male involvement in the use of the Standard Days Method: evidence from Enugu and Katsina states of Nigeria. International Nursing Review58, 484–490Aim:  This paper presents findings from an exploratory study on the use of the Standard Days Method® (SDM) of family planning (FP) in Katsina and Enugu states of Nigeria.Background:  Potential users of FP often do not use modern methods if its practice is in dissonance with cultural and religious values. Increasing FP options through the introduction of effective natural methods is important, as it will ensure that FP providers, particularly nurses, can provide appropriate non‐hormonal methods to women who are interested in their use. This will bring about an increased contraceptive prevalence in countries with strong religious barriers to modern FP methods.Methods:  A qualitative study using focus group discussions and in‐depth interviews was conducted with nurses, community FP providers and users of the SDM following the introduction of the method in two Nigerian states.Discussion:  Both users and providers perceive the SDM to be religiously and culturally acceptable. They found it useful particularly among women who could not use hormonal methods for medical reasons.Conclusion:  There was no religious/cultural opposition to the use of SDM. Spousal involvement in use within localities where hormonal methods are not accepted was perceived as an important factor in making the method acceptable. It is imperative to scale up the intervention to other areas both in Nigeria and in other countries that have similar religious and cultural resistance to modern FP methods.
The integration substitute: the role of controls in managing human asset specificity
Authors: Sridharan VG , Akroyd Chris 
Published: June 2011

AbstractAs the integration solution to the problem of specific assets cannot be replicated on human asset specificity because slavery is illegal, economic theory states that control systems substitute for integration through a balanced structure to help align diverse interests. To understand the intricate design features of the balance, we examine a case‐study firm. For low human asset specificity, the restriction and segregation of usable decision rights link with standards. However, incentives are traced to individuals only to the extent task deviations do not create relevant future costs that are difficult to be self‐corrected. For high specificity, incentives are related to outputs rather than outcomes, because outcome variations reduce the attractiveness of maintaining the balance. Subjective assessment is used as an efficient alternate ‘balancing’ solution and decision control is shared when available subjective data are inadequate.
The Role and Impact of Trade Union Equality Representatives in Britain
Authors: Bacon Nicolas , Hoque Kim 
Published: June 2011

AbstractDrawing on data from the first national survey of trade union equality representatives, this article assesses the role and impact of equality representatives in Britain. While the majority of equality representatives report having had a positive impact on employer equality practice, the analysis also suggests that equality representative effectiveness might be enhanced via the introduction of statutory rights to time off. In addition, it points to the need for unions to include equality on the bargaining agenda, attract new representatives to the role, and ensure that equality representatives have the confidence and skills to represent members effectively within grievance procedures. It also suggests an important role for the government in encouraging employers to engage in meaningful dialogue with equality representatives.
Did the Market Signal Impending Problems at Northern Rock? An Analysis of Four Financial Instruments
Authors: Hamalainen Paul , Pop Adrian , Hall Max , Howcroft Barry 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe academic literature has regularly argued that market discipline can support regulatory authority mechanisms in ensuring banking sector stability. This includes, amongst other things, using forward‐looking market prices to identify those credit institutions that are most at risk of failure. The paper's key aim is to analyse whether market investors signalled potential problems at Northern Rock in advance of the bank announcing that it had negotiated emergency lending facilities at the Bank of England in September 2007. A further aim of the paper is to examine the signalling qualities of four financial market instruments (credit default swap spreads, subordinated debt spreads, implied volatility from options prices and equity measures of bank risk) so as to explore both the relative and individual qualities of each. The paper's findings, therefore, contribute to the market discipline literature on using market data to identify bank risk‐taking and enhancing supervisory monitoring. Our analysis suggests that private market participants did signal impending financial problems at Northern Rock. These findings lend some empirical support to proposals for the supervisory authorities to use market information more extensively to improve the identification of troubled banks. The paper identifies equities as providing the timeliest and clearest signals of bank condition, whilst structural factors appear to hamper the signalling qualities of subordinated debt spreads and credit default swap spreads. The paper also introduces idiosyncratic implied volatility as a potentially useful early warning metric for supervisory authorities to observe.
A decision support system for fund raising management based on the Choquet integral methodology
Authors: Barzanti Luca , Giove Silvio 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe employment of a decision support system for optimizing fund raising strategies is crucial to the management of non‐profit organizations. Commonly considered methodologies utilize the organization's donor database in order to gather and analyse information. However, many organizations, especially small‐ and medium‐sized ones, do not own or efficiently manage a database, and consequently, the usual methods are inapplicable. In this paper, a decision support system is developed that is able to identify the most promising fund raising strategies on the basis of the organization's profile. The profile factors of a non‐profit organization are analysed and hierarchically organized in a decision tree in order to effectively employ the Choquet integral methodology, which is recommended in these kinds of multi‐criteria decision problems. The results obtained in the real operational context show the effectiveness of the proposed system.
A multi‐resolution multi‐classifier system for speaker verification
Authors: Impedovo Donato , Pirlo Giuseppe , Petrone Mario 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThis paper describes a Speaker Verification System based on the use of multi resolution classifiers in order to cope with performance degradation due to natural variations of the excitation source and of the vocal tract. The different resolution representations of the speaker are obtained by considering multiple frame lengths in the feature extraction process and from these representations a single Pseudo‐Multi Parallel Branch (P‐MPB) Hidden Markov Model is obtained. In the verification process, different resolution representations of the speech signal are classified by multiple P‐MPB systems: the final decision is obtained by means of different combination techniques. The system based on the Weighted Majority Vote technique considerably outperforms baseline systems: improvements are between 15% and 38%. The execution time of the verification process is also evaluated and it proves to be very acceptable, thus allowing the use of the approach for applications in real time systems.
Uncovering auditory evoked potentials from cochlear implant users with independent component analysis
Authors: Viola Filipa C. , Thorne Jeremy D. , Bleeck Stefan , Eyles Julie , Debener Stefan 
Published: June 2011

AbstractAuditory evoked potentials (AEPs) provide an objective measure of auditory cortical function, but AEPs from cochlear implant (CI) users are contaminated by an electrical artifact. Here, we investigated the effects of electrical artifact attenuation on AEP quality. The ability of independent component analysis (ICA) in attenuating the CI artifact while preserving the AEPs was evaluated. AEPs recovered from CI users were systematically correlated with age, demonstrating that individual differences were well preserved. CI users with high‐quality AEPs were characterized by a significantly shorter duration of deafness. Finally, a simulation study revealed very high spatial correlations between original and recovered normal hearing AEPs (r>.95) that were previously contaminated with CI artifacts. The results confirm that after ICA, good quality AEPs can be recovered, facilitating the objective, noninvasive study of auditory cortex function in CI users.
Greater China, the challenges of global production networks and the dynamics of transformation
Authors: HENDERSON JEFFREY , NADVI KHALID 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe rise of ‘greater’ China (which includes mainland China, the ‘special administrative regions’ of Hong Kong and Macao and – particularly for our purposes – Taiwan), marks a transformative process in terms of the global political economy. China is now the world's second biggest economy, and continues to post double‐digit growth despite the global downturn. More significant than the numeric size of China's economy per se, is the extraordinary scale at which it is combining labour with capital to transform raw materials into commodities and, as part of that process, embedding the potential for innovation within China's political economy and society. In the introductory article to this special issue, we highlight the implications arising from the dynamism of Greater China for the evolving structures of global production networks (GPNs). The GPN framework provides a powerful analytical tool with which to map the shifting nature of corporate power and capital in the global economy and their consequences for local producers and regions. The externalization of the Chinese political economy and, with it, the emergence of Chinese lead firms, suggests that Western‐centric views on GPNs are likely to be challenged. We outline the ways in which the contributions to this special issue throw light on this, and the implications that arise for analysis of GPNs within China as well as for other developing countries. We conclude by considering the consequences this transformative process has for the developmental project and how it might be theorized.
Playing against China: global value chains and labour standards in the international sports goods industry
Authors: NADVI KHALID , LUND‐THOMSEN PETER , XUE HONG , KHARA NAVJOTE 
Published: June 2011

AbstractThe rise of China as the global factory raises challenges for many developing countries and their producers. The football‐manufacturing sector is a case in which China has emerged as a global player. It is also a sector where compliance with international labour standards is considered critical. Leading international brands dominate the industry and control the global value chain for sports goods. In this article, we explore the relationship between the rise of China and international labour standards and consider how labour standards have affected the geography and organization of global football production. We draw on evidence from three of the main production locations – China, Pakistan and India. It appears that compliance with labour standards not only has different implications for the three production locations, but also that compliance alone is an insufficient basis for competing against China.
An early treatment with 17‐β‐estradiol is neuroprotective against the long‐term effects of neonatal ionizing radiation exposure
Authors: Caceres Lucila G. , Uran Soledad L. , Zorrilla Zubilete María A. , Romero Juan I. , Capani Francisco , Guelman Laura R. 
Published: June 2011

J. Neurochem. (2011) 118, 626–635.AbstractIonizing radiations can induce oxidative stress on target tissues, acting mainly through reactive oxygen species (ROS). The aim of this work was to investigate if 17‐β‐estradiol (βE) was able to prevent hippocampal‐related behavioral and biochemical changes induced by neonatal ionizing radiation exposure and to elucidate a potential neuroprotective mechanism. Male Wistar rats were irradiated with 5 Gy of X‐rays between 24 and 48 h after birth. A subset of rats was subcutaneously administered with successive injections of βE or 17‐α‐estradiol (αE), prior and after irradiation. Rats were subjected to different behavioral tasks to evaluate habituation and associative memory as well as anxiety levels. Hippocampal ROS levels and protein kinase C (PKC) activity were also assessed. Results show that although βE was unable to prevent radiation‐induced hippocampal PKC activity changes, most behavioral abnormalities were reversed. Moreover, hippocampal ROS levels in βE‐treated irradiated rats approached control values. In addition, αE administered to irradiated animals was effective in preventing radiation‐induced alterations. In conclusion, βE was able to counteract behavioral and biochemical changes induced in irradiated animals, probably acting through an antioxidant mechanism.
St John’s wort greatly decreases the plasma concentrations of oral S‐ketamine
Authors: Peltoniemi Marko A. , Saari Teijo I. , Hagelberg Nora M. , Laine Kari , Neuvonen Pertti J. , Olkkola Klaus T. 
Published: June 2011

AbstractKetamine is an intravenous anaesthetic and analgesic agent but it can also be used orally as an adjuvant in the treatment of chronic pain. This study investigated the effect of the herbal antidepressant St John’s wort, an inducer of cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of oral S‐ketamine. In a randomized cross‐over study with two phases, 12 healthy subjects were pretreated with oral St John’s wort or placebo for 14 days. On day 14, they were given an oral dose of 0.3 mg/kg of S‐ketamine. Plasma concentrations of ketamine and norketamine were measured for 24 h and pharmacodynamic variables for 12 h. St John’s wort decreased the mean area under the plasma concentration–time curve (AUC0–∞) of ketamine by 58% (P < 0.001) and decreased the peak plasma concentration (Cmax) of ketamine by 66% (P < 0.001) when compared with placebo. Mean Cmax of norketamine (the major metabolite of ketamine) was decreased by 23% (P = 0.002) and mean AUC0–∞ of norketamine by 18% (P < 0.001) by St John’s wort. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between the self‐reported drug effect and Cmax of ketamine (r = 0.55; P < 0.01). St John’s wort greatly decreased the exposure to oral S‐ketamine in healthy volunteers. Although this decrease was not associated with significant changes in the analgesic or behavioural effects of ketamine in the present study, usual doses of S‐ketamine may become ineffective if used concomitantly with St John’s wort.
Protective effects of liquiritin apioside on cigarette smoke‐induced lung epithelial cell injury
Authors: Guan Yan , Li Fen‐Fen , Hong Ling , Yan Xiao‐Feng , Tan Gong‐Li , He Jun‐Shan , Dong Xin‐Wei , Bao Meng‐Jing , Xie Qiang‐Min 
Published: June 2011

AbstractCigarette smoking is associated with an increased incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this study, we hypothesized that liquiritin apioside (LA), a main flavonoid component from Glycyrrhiza uralensis, had antioxidant properties by inducing glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis via the inhibition of cytokines and protected lung epithelial cells against cigarette smoke‐mediated oxidative stress. A549 cells were treated with cigarette smoke extract (CSE) and/or LA. ICR mice were exposed to cigarette smoke (CS) for four days with increasing exposure time for up to 6 h per day to elicit epithelial cells injury. One hour before smoke exposure, mice were treated with LA by gavage; 18 h after the last CS exposure all examinations were performed. Treatment with LA concentration‐dependently prevented CSE‐induced cytotoxicity, increase of TGF‐β and TNF‐α mRNA expression, depletion of GSH and apoptosis in A549 cells. LA at doses 3, 10 and 30 mg/kg dose‐dependently inhibited pulmonary neutrophil and macrophage inflammation. Lung sections of the CS‐exposed LA treated mice showed an apparently reduced pulmonary inflammation and a significant inhibitory effect on mucus containing goblet cells in the large airways. Furthermore, the CS‐induced pulmonary release of TGF‐β, TNF‐α and myeloperoxidase activity was reduced, and superoxide dismutase activity was enhanced.These results indicate that protective roles of LA on CS‐induced the lung epithelial cell injury are mediated by inhibiting TGF‐β and TNF‐α expression and increasing anti‐oxidative levels of GSH, suggesting that LA might be effective as protective agent against epithelial injury in COPD.