bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The estimation of body height from ulna length in healthy adults from different ethnic groups
Authors: Madden A. M. , Tsikoura T. , Stott D. J. 
Published: November 2011

How to cite this article
Madden A.M., Tsikoura T. & Stott D.J. (2012) The estimation of body height from ulna length in healthy adults from different ethnic groups. J Hum Nutr Diet.25, 121–128AbstractBackground:  Assessments of nutritional status frequently incorporate a measure of height to evaluate a person’s relative thinness or fatness. Because height is often difficult to quantify, it may be predicted from alternative anthropometric measurements, including ulna length. Little information is available about the accuracy of these predictions in an ethnically diverse population. The present study aimed to evaluate published equations for predicting height from ulna length in adults from different ethnic groups.Methods:  Ulna length and standing height were measured in a gender‐stratified sample of 60 Asian, 69 Black and 65 White healthy volunteers, aged 21–65 years. Height was predicted from ulna length using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) equations and compared against the measured values. Linear regression analysis was used to develop equations to estimate height from ulna length and to explore the relationship between height and ulna length in subgroups.Results:  The mean (SD) age for Asian, Black and White in men was 31.7 (11.0), 32.0 (10.3) and 38.6 (12.5) years and in women was 26.2 (5.4), 32.6 (8.9) and 35.7 (11.7); the mean (SD) height in men was 170.9 (5.2), 178.1 (7.3) and 176.3 (7.7) cm and in women was 157.7 (4.7), 164.0 (5.9) and 163.7 (6.2) cm. Ulna length and measured height were significantly correlated among all subgroups, except Asian women (r = 0.11, P = 0.57). The mean (SD) difference between predicted and measured height showed significant overestimates for Asian and Black men [4.0 (4.8) and 6.7 (5.3) cm] and Asian and Black women [6.4 (4.9) and 4.4 (4.9) cm] but not for White men and women.Conclusions:  The MUST equations for predicting height from ulna length in healthy adults should be used with some caution among ethnically diverse populations, particularly in Asian women.
Assessing executive function in relation to fitness to drive: A review of tools and their ability to predict safe driving
Authors: Asimakopulos Julia , Boychuck Zachary , Sondergaard Diana , Poulin Valérie , Ménard Ingrid , Korner‐Bitensky Nicol 
Published: November 2011

Background/aim:  The assessment of executive functions is an integral component in determining fitness to drive. A structured review was conducted to identify assessment tools used to measure executive function in relation to driving and to describe these tools according to: (i) specific executive function components assessed; (ii) the tool’s validity in predicting safe driving; and (iii) clinical utility.Methods:  Sixty‐nine articles were reviewed, identifying 53 executive function tools/assessments used in driving research. Each tool was critically appraised and the findings were compiled in a Driving Executive Function Tool Guide.Results:  Among the 53 tools, there were 27 general assessments of cognition, 19 driving‐specific and seven activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living assessments. No single tool measured all executive function components: working memory was the most common (n = 20/53). Several tools demonstrated strong predictive validity and clinical utility. For example, tools, such as the Trail Making Test and the Maze Task, have the shortest administration time (i.e. often less than 10 minutes) and the most easily accessible method of administration (i.e. pen and paper or verbal). Driving‐specific tools range from short questionnaires, such as the 10‐minute Manchester Driving Behaviour Questionnaire, to more complex tools requiring about 45 minutes to administer.Conclusions and significance of the study:  The appropriateness of a tool depends on the individual being assessed and on practical constraints of the clinical context. The Driving Executive Function Tool Guide provides useful information that should facilitate decision‐making and selection of appropriate executive function tools in relation to driving.
Cerebellar haemorrhage in the extremely preterm infant
Authors: Hou David , Shetty Umesh , Phillips Mark , Gray Peter H 
Published: November 2011

Aim:  The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, risk factors and developmental outcomes of cerebellar haemorrhage in the extremely preterm infant.Methods:  Over a 4‐year period from January 2004, all patients with cerebellar haemorrhage born at 24–27 weeks gestation or with a birthweight < 1000 g were identified from database review. All patients had cranial ultrasound scans including views from the mastoid fontanelle. To verify the incidence, a review of all reports over the 4‐year period and a review of all cranial imaging over a 2‐year period were carried out.Results:  From the data analysed on 339 neonates, five cases of cerebellar haemorrhage were identified, four on ultrasound scan (1.2%) and one on magnetic resonance imaging (1.5% total). Two cases were associated with grade III peri‐intraventricular haemorrhage. The cases had diverse maternal, antenatal and post‐natal risk factors. The two with associated peri‐intraventricular haemorrhage have developmental delay. The cases with isolated cerebellar haemorrhage had good neurodevelopmental outcomes.Conclusions:  A low incidence of cerebellar haemorrhage identified from the mastoid fontanelle was demonstrated. The neurodevelopmental outcome was better than that described in previous reports.
Neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced bladder carcinoma: Development of novel bladder preservation approach, Osaka Medical College regimen
Authors: Azuma Haruhito , Inamoto Teruo , Takahara Kiyoshi , Ibuki Naokazu , Nomi Hayahito , Yamamoto Kazuhiro , Narumi Yoshihumi , Ubai Takanobu 
Published: November 2011

AbstractCisplatin‐based chemotherapy has been widely used in a neoadjuvant as well as adjuvant setting. Furthermore, trimodal approaches including complete transurethral resection of the bladder tumor followed by combined chemotherapy and radiation have generally been performed as bladder preservation therapy. However, none of the protocols have achieved a 5‐year survival rate of more than 70%. Additionally, the toxicity of chemotherapy and/or a decreased quality of life due to urinary diversion cannot be ignored, as most patients with bladder cancer are elderly. We therefore newly developed the novel trimodal approach of “combined therapy using balloon‐occluded arterial infusion of anticancer agent and hemodialysis with concurrent radiation, which delivers an extremely high concentration of anticancer agent to the site of a tumor without systemic adverse effects (“Osaka Medical College regimen” referred to as the OMC regimen). We initially applied the OMC regimen as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced bladder cancer. However, since more than 85% of patients with histologically‐proven urothelial cancer achieved complete response with no evidence of recurrence after a mean follow‐up of 170 (range 21–814) weeks, we have been applying the OMC‐regimen as a new approach for bladder sparing therapy. We summarize the advantage and/or disadvantage of chemotherapy in neoadjuvant as well as adjuvant settings, and show the details of our newly developed bladder sparing approach OMC regimen in this review.
Stimulus‐induced dissociation of neuronal firing rates and local field potential gamma power and its relationship to the blood oxygen level‐dependent signal in macaque primary visual cortex
Authors: Bartolo M. J. , Gieselmann M. A. , Vuksanovic V. , Hunter D. , Sun L. , Chen X. , Delicato L. S. , Thiele A. 
Published: November 2011

AbstractThe functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) signal is regularly used to assign neuronal activity to cognitive function. Recent analyses have shown that the local field potential (LFP) gamma power is a better predictor of the fMRI BOLD signal than spiking activity. However, LFP gamma power and spiking activity are usually correlated, clouding the analysis of the neural basis of the BOLD signal. We show that changes in LFP gamma power and spiking activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of the awake primate can be dissociated by using grating and plaid pattern stimuli, which differentially engage surround suppression and cross‐orientation inhibition/facilitation within and between cortical columns. Grating presentation yielded substantial V1 LFP gamma frequency oscillations and significant multi‐unit activity. Plaid pattern presentation significantly reduced the LFP gamma power while increasing population multi‐unit activity. The fMRI BOLD activity followed the LFP gamma power changes, not the multi‐unit activity. Inference of neuronal activity from the fMRI BOLD signal thus requires detailed a priori knowledge of how different stimuli or tasks activate the cortical network.
The Medicalization of Sunlight in the Early Twentieth Century
Authors: CARTER SIMON 
Published: November 2011

AbstractThis paper traces the emergence of the therapeutic use of sunlight in medicine during the first half of the twentieth century. This was a period of considerable flux in medicine with various strands of practice and theory competing. Drawing on two case studies of sunlight therapy, both artificial (actinotherapy) and natural (heliotherapy), in the treatment of rickets and tuberculosis this paper will explore how medicine was constituted within these regimes. The paper will argue that therapeutic and clinical applications of sunlight helped establish an association between sunlight and health but also defined a particular and specific performance of medicine.
“To Rid Oneself of the Uninvited Guest”: Robert Koch, Sergei Winogradsky and Competing Styles of Practice in Medical Microbiology
Authors: ATTENBOROUGH FREDERICK THOMAS 
Published: November 2011

AbstractDoes an infectious disease have one, singular pathogenic cause, or many interacting causes? In the discipline of medical microbiology, there is no definitive theoretical answer to this question: there, the conditions of aetiological possibility exist in a curious tension. Ever since the late 19th century, the “germ theory of disease”–“one disease, one cause”– has co‐existed with a much less well known theory of “multifactorality”–“one disease, many interacting causes”. And yet, in practice, it is always a singular and never a multifactorial aetiology that emerges once the pathogenic world is brought into the field of medical perception. This paper seeks to understand why. Performing a detailed, genealogical reading of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, it foregrounds a set of links that connect the practical diagnostic tools at work within contemporary, 21st century laboratories to the philosophical assumptions at work within late‐19th century understandings of the “germ theory of disease”.
North Korea's Militant Nationalism and People's Everyday Lives: Past and Present
Authors: KANG JIN WOONG 
Published: November 2011

AbstractNorth Korea's anti‐American state power has operated in individuals' everyday practices by focusing on its post‐war militant nationalism. Existing studies have neglected an aspect of North Korea's nationalist power that has been neither necessarily top‐down nor violent, but rather productive and diffusive in people's everyday lives. While the regime's anti‐American mobilization has come from above, people's politics of hatred, patriotism, and emotion have been reproduced from below. Along this line, I examine the historical and social changes in North Korea's militant nationalism and people's ways of life through a comparison between two periods: from the 1950s through the 1980s and from the 1990s through the present. I focus on how the state's anti‐American power was legitimated by people's solid micro‐fascism from the 1950s through the 1980s, and how it has been contested and recreated through both change and persistence in people's micro‐fascism from the 1990s through the present.
Outdoor Brothel Culture: The Un/Making of a Transsexual Stroll in Vancouver's West End, 1975–1984
Authors: ROSS BECKI L. 
Published: November 2011

AbstractIn the mid‐1970s, following a series of police raids on prostitution inside downtown nightclubs, a community of approximately 200 sex workers moved into Vancouver's West End neighborhood, where a small stroll had operated since the early 1970s. This paper examines the contributions made by three male‐to‐female (MTF) transsexuals of color to the culture of on‐street prostitution in the West End. The trans women's stories address themes of fashion, working conditions, money, community formation, violence, and resistance to well‐organized anti‐prostitution forces. These recollections enable me to bridge and enrich trans history and prostitution history – two fields of inquiry that have under‐represented the participation of trans women in the sex industry across the urban West. Acutely familiar with the hazards inherent in a criminalized, stigmatized trade, trans sex workers in the West End manufactured efficacious strategies of harm reduction, income generation, safety planning, and community building. Eschewing the label of “victim”, they leveraged their physical size and style, charisma, contempt towards pimps, earning capacity, and seniority as the first workers on the stroll to assume leadership within the broader constituency of “hookers on Davie Street”. I discover that their short‐lived outdoor brothel culture offered only a temporary bulwark against the inevitability of eviction via legal injunction in July 1984, and the subsequent rise in lethal violence against all prostitutes in Vancouver, including MTF transsexuals.
What Saved the Indian Banking System: State Ownership or State Guarantees?
Authors: Acharya Viral V. , Kulkarni Nirupama 
Published: November 2011

AbstractThe global financial crisis which began in the fall of 2007 and progressively worsened in 2008, affected the Indian financial sector beginning only in 2008. While Indian financial firms have been fairly resilient compared with their global counterparts, we show that Indian private sector firms faced greater losses compared with public sector firms during the crisis period of 2008–09. We use a stock market‐based measure of systemic risk, marginal expected shortfall (MES), to determine the systemic risk contributed by each Indian financial firm for the period preceding the crisis (January–December 2007) and compare it to its realised returns during the crisis (January 2008–February 2009). Our results show that public sector firms outperformed private sector firms despite having greater systemic risk during the crisis. We conclude that investors rewarded Indian public sector firms with greater systemic risk while penalising private sector firms with similar risk. We attribute this finding to the explicit and implicit government backing of public sector banks. We find that riskier public sector banks with high ex ante systemic risk and low Tier 1 capital received greater capital support from the government.
Are the Direct and Indirect Growth Effects of Remittances Significant?
Authors: Rao B. Bhaskara , Hassan Gazi Mainul 
Published: November 2011

AbstractDevelopment economists believe that migrant workers’ remittances are an important source of funds for long‐run growth. Therefore, recent studies have investigated the growth effects of remittances but reached different conclusions. In these studies, the rate of growth of output is simply regressed on both remittances and the channels through which remittances affect growth. Thus, no distinction has been made between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances. Such regressions may give unreliable estimates because the channels may also capture some growth effects of remittances, making the growth effects of remittances insignificant. In this study, we make a distinction between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances. Our model is estimated with panel data of 40 high remittance recipient countries with the system generalized method of moment. We found that remittances have no direct growth effects but they have small indirect growth effects.
Diversity of human hair pigmentation as studied by chemical analysis of eumelanin and pheomelanin
Authors: Ito S. , Wakamatsu K. 
Published: November 2011

AbstractHair colour is one of the most conspicuous phenotypes in humans, ranging from black, brown, blond to red. This diversity arises mostly from the quantity and ratio of the black‐dark brown eumelanin and the reddish‐brown pheomelanin. To study the chemical basis underlying the diversity of hair colour, we have developed several chemical methods to quantify those two pigments. Alkaline H2O2 oxidation affords pyrrole‐2,3,5‐tricarboxylic acid (PTCA) as a eumelanin marker and thiazole‐2,4,5‐tricarboxylic acid (TTCA) as a pheomelanin marker. Pheomelanin can also be analysed as 4‐amino‐3‐hydroxyphenylalanine (4‐AHP) after hydroiodic acid hydrolysis. Using those methods, we evaluated the contents of eumelanin and pheomelanin (the ‘chemical’ phenotype) in human hairs of black, dark brown, brown, light brown, blond and red colour (the ‘visual’ phenotype). Eumelanin contents decrease in that order, with a trace but constant level of pheomelanin, except for red hair which contains about equal levels of pheomelanin and eumelanin. Thus, the chemical phenotype correlates well with the visual phenotype. The genotype of melanocortin‐1 receptor (MC1R), a gene regulating the red hair phenotype, is predictive of hair melanin expressed as the log value of eumelanin to pheomelanin ratio, with a dosage effect evident. Hair melanin contents were also analysed in patients with various hypopigmentary disorders including Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome, Menkes disease, proopiomelanocortin deficiency, cystinosis, malnutrition and trace metal deficiency. The chemical phenotype helped evaluate the precise effects of each disease on pigmentation. In studies of human hair, the chemical phenotype will find more and more application as an objective measure of pigmentation.
Randomized controlled trial comparing treatment outcome of two compression bandaging systems and standard care without compression in patients with venous leg ulcers
Authors: Wong I.K.Y. , Andriessen A. , Charles H.E. , Thompson D. , Lee D.T.F. , So W.K.W. , Abel M. 
Published: November 2011

AbstractBackground  In Hong Kong, at the time of the study, compression treatment was not considered usual care for venous leg ulcer patients.Aim  This randomized controlled trial compared quality of life (QOL) aspects in venous leg ulcer patients of over 55‐years of age, of short‐stretch compression (SSB), four‐layer compression bandaging (4LB) and usual care (UC) (moist wound healing dressing, no compression).Method  Study period was 24‐weeks, the primary outcome was the patient functional status, disease‐specific and generic health‐related QOL measures and ulcer healing rates, comparing week 1 vs. week 24 (end) results. Assessments included photogrammetry, Brief Pain Inventory, SF‐12 Health Survey, Charing Cross Venous Ulcer Questionnaire and Frenchay Activity Index. Data analysis was performed using, where appropriate; Kaplan Meier and log rank chi‐square and the repeated measures analysis of variance test.Results  A total of 321 patients participated in the study, 45 (14%) withdrew for various reasons. Compression bandaging in both groups significantly reduced pain (P < 0.0001) and improved functional status and QOL. Healing rate at 24 weeks for both compression groups was significant (P < 0.001); for SSB this was 72.0% (77/107) vs. 67.3% in the 4LB group (72/107) and 29.0% (31/107) with usual care. The reduction in ulcer area from weeks 12 to 24 was significant only for SSB (P < 0.047).Conclusion  Compression was shown to be feasible for elderly community care patients in Hong Kong and is currently implemented as part of standard venous leg ulcer treatment.
Serum soluble CD26 levels: diagnostic efficiency for atopic dermatitis, cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma and psoriasis in combination with serum thymus and activation‐regulated chemokine levels
Authors: Miyagaki T. , Sugaya M. , Suga H. , Morimura S. , Kamata M. , Ohmatsu H. , Fujita H. , Asano Y. , Tada Y. , Kadono T. , Sato S. 
Published: November 2011

AbstractBackground  CD26 is a multifunctional type II transmembrane glycoprotein, which also exists as a secreted isoform, soluble CD26 (sCD26). The CD26 expression on circulating T cells is decreased in some skin diseases such as cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma (CTCL) and psoriasis. It remains to be determined whether sCD26 can be used as a marker of skin diseases or not.Objective  To investigate utility of sCD26 as a diagnostic marker of skin diseases in combination with thymus and activation‐regulated chemokine (TARC).Methods  Serum sCD26 levels were measured using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in 130 participants including 32 patients with atopic dermatitis (AD); 45 patients with CTCL; 26 patients with psoriasis; and 27 healthy controls.Results  Serum sCD26 levels in patients with CTCL and psoriasis (162.1 ± 80.2 ng/mL and 125.4 ± 82.1 ng/mL respectively) were significantly lower than those of healthy controls (392.6 ± 198.7 ng/mL; P < 0.01 and 0.01 respectively). In patients with CTCL, serum sCD26 levels of patients with advanced stage were 135.0 ± 51.5 ng/mL and they were significantly lower than those with early stage (193.1 ± 96.0 ng/mL; P < 0.05). When we used serum sCD26 and TARC levels for diagnostic criteria, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for AD, CTCL and psoriasis were 65.2–73.7%, 81.4–97.6%, 65.2–94.4%, and 81.4–88.9% respectively.Conclusion  Serum sCD26 levels, combined with serum TARC levels, are helpful in diagnosis of AD, CTCL and psoriasis.
Myocardial remodelling in left ventricular atrophy induced by caloric restriction
Authors: Gruber Carina , Nink Nadine , Nikam Sandeep , Magdowski Gerd , Kripp Gerhard , Voswinckel Robert , Mühlfeld Christian 
Published: November 2011

AbstractChanges in body weight due to changes in food intake are reflected by corresponding changes in the cardiac phenotype. Despite a growing body of literature on cardiac hypertrophy associated with obesity, little is known on the atrophic remodelling of the heart associated with calorie restriction. We hypothesized that, besides the cardiomyocyte compartment, capillaries and nerve fibres are involved in the atrophic process. C57Bl6 mice were kept on normal diet (control group) or at a calorie‐restricted diet for 3 or 7 days (n = 5 each). At the end of the protocol, mice were killed and the hearts were processed for light and electron microscopic stereological analysis of cardiomyocytes, capillaries and nerve fibres. Body, heart and left ventricular weight were significantly reduced in the calorie‐restricted animals at 7 days. Most morphological parameters were not significantly different at 3 days compared with the control group, but at 7 days most of them were significantly reduced. Specifically, the total length of capillaries, the volume of cardiomyocytes as well as their subcellular compartments and the interstitium were proportionally reduced during caloric restriction. No differences were observed in the total length or the mean diameter of axons between the cardiomyocytes. Our data indicate that diet‐induced left ventricular atrophy leads to a proportional atrophic process of cardiomyocytes and capillaries. The innervation is not involved in the atrophic process.