bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Gastric Band: First‐Choice Procedure for Obesity Surgery
Authors: Favretti Franco , Ashton David , Busetto Luca , Segato Gianni , De Luca Maurizio 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe advent of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) during the latter part of the 20th century represents a watershed in the management of chronic obesity. In this paper we provide an overview of LAGB with respect to its development, clinical outcomes, and future role. We also address current controversies, including a comparison of LAGB with Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass (RYGBP). At present LAGB seems to be increasing in popularity in the United States, whereas in Europe there seems to be a trend away from gastric banding toward RYGBP. Optimal outcomes after LAGB are a function of correct laparoscopic technique, an experienced surgical team, a well‐engineered device, and intensive long‐term follow‐up. The majority of studies show that LAGB is an extremely safe and effective procedure, with an operative mortality of 0–0.1% and excess weight loss (%EWL) of 50–60%. Commensurate with this degree of weight loss, almost all studies show substantial improvements in obesity‐related co‐morbidities, such as hypertension, type II diabetes, and dyslipidemia. In addition, LAGB has been shown to be both safe and effective in the super‐obese, in adolescents, and in older patients and can be delivered as an ambulatory procedure. Operative mortality and early complication rates are significantly higher for RYGBP and, whilst gastric bypass results in greater weight loss than LAGB in the first 2 years, at 3 years and beyond the difference appears to be less marked. Overall, LAGB provides a safe, effective intervention for obese patients and remains our first‐choice procedure for bariatric surgery.
An off-line map-matching algorithm for incomplete map databases
Authors: Pereira Francisco Câmara , Costa Hugo , Pereira Nuno Martinho 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
The task of map-matching consists of finding a correspondence between a geographical point or sequence of points (e.g. obtained from GPS) and a given map. Due to many reasons, namely the noisy input data and incomplete or inaccurate maps, such a task is not trivial and can affect the validity of applications that depend on it. This includes any Transport Research projects that rely on post-hoc analysis of traces (e.g. via Floating Car Data). In this article, we describe an off-line map-matching algorithm that allows us to handle incomplete map databases. We test and compare this with other approaches and ultimately provide guidelines for use within other applications. This project is provided as open source.
Silencing of calpain expression reduces the metastatic potential of human osteosarcoma cells
Authors: Fan De‐Gang , Dai Jing‐Yao , Tang Juan , Wu Ming‐Mei , Sun Si‐Guo , Jiang Jian‐Li , Fan Qing‐Yu 
Published: September 2009

AbstractOsteosarcoma, the most common primary bone tumor in young adults, is characterized by local invasion and distant metastasis. But detailed mechanisms of tumorigenicity and metastasis of osteosarcoma are not well known. We report the involvement of calpains, a family of calcium‐activated, cysteine proteases, in the invasive and metastatic processes of human osteosarcoma cells. By using siRNA treatment, the expression of μ‐ and m‐calpains were downregulated in human Saos‐2 osteosarcoma cells. Both the adhesive and invasive potentials were significantly attenuated in calpain siRNA‐transfected human Saos‐2 osteosarcoma cells. MMPs are the main factors involved in malignant tumor invasion and metastasis. siRNA of calpains also significantly inhibited the secretion of MMP‐2 in Saos‐2 cells. These results suggest that μ‐ and m‐calpains are important in the invasion and metastasis of human osteosarcoma cells, and calpains might be targeted to reduce tumor progression.
Ensuring patient satisfaction with second‐trimester abortion in resource‐poor settings
Authors: Regmi Kiran , Madison Jeanne 
Published: September 2009

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate patient satisfaction with the new second‐trimester abortion services in Nepal.MethodDepending on the patient's literacy level, a questionnaire was read and filled out by the patient herself or by an interviewer. Indicators were developed and assessed to determine the patient's experience of the services, focusing on her physical, emotional, and social comfort.ResultsSatisfaction was found to be high for characteristics associated with counseling and the caring attitude of the physician. However, dissatisfaction was expressed regarding some aspects of the delivery of care, especially the lack of privacy and confidentiality and the absence of a support person from the patient's own family.ConclusionThe patients described privacy, confidentiality, and a support person designated by them as factors that would greatly contribute to their satisfaction with the services. Maximizing patient satisfaction is necessary for the program's success but will be challenging.
The effect of sudden source buoyancy flux increases on turbulent plumes
Authors: SCASE M. M. , ASPDEN A. J. , CAULFIELD C. P. 
Published: September 2009

Building upon the recent experimentally verified modelling of turbulent plumes which are subject to decreases in their source strength (Scase et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 563, 2006b, p. 443), we consider the complementary case where the plume's source strength is increased. We consider the effect of increasing the source strength of an established plume and we also compare time-dependent plume model predictions for the behaviour of a starting plume to those of Turner (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 13, 1962, p. 356).Unlike the decreasing source strength problems considered previously, the relevant solution to the time-dependent plume equations is not a simple similarity solution. However, scaling laws are demonstrated which are shown to be applicable across a large number of orders of magnitude of source strength increase. It is shown that an established plume that is subjected to an increase in its source strength supports a self-similar ‘pulse’ structure propagating upwards. For a point source plume, in pure plume balance, subjected to an increase in the source buoyancy flux F0, the rise height of this pulse in terms of time t scales as t3/4 while the vertical extent of the pulse scales as t1/4. The volume of the pulse is shown to scale as t9/4. For plumes in pure plume balance that emanate from a distributed source it is shown that the same scaling laws apply far from the source, demonstrating an analogous convergence to pure plume balance as that which is well known in steady plumes. These scaling law predictions are compared to implicit large eddy simulations of the buoyancy increase problem and are shown to be in good agreement.We also compare the predictions of the time-dependent model to a starting plume in the limit where the source buoyancy flux is discontinuously increased from zero. The conventional model for a starting plume is well approximated by a rising turbulent, entraining, buoyant vortex ring which is fed from below by a ‘steady’ plume. However, the time-dependent plume equations have been defined for top-hat profiles assuming only horizontal entrainment. Therefore, this system cannot model either the internal dynamics of the starting plume's head or the extra entrainment of ambient fluid into the head due to the turbulent boundary of the vortex ring-like cap. We show that the lack of entrainment of ambient fluid through the head of the starting plume means that the time-dependent plume equations overestimate the rise height of a starting plume with time. However, by modifying the entrainment coefficient appropriately, we see that realistic predictions consistent with experiment can be attained.
Recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis due to subclinical Lyme borreliosis
Authors: Karosi T , Rácz T , Szekanecz É , Tóth Á , Sziklai I 
Published: September 2009

AbstractObjective:We report an extremely rare case of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis due to subclinical Lyme borreliosis.Method:Case report presenting a 15-year-old girl referred with hoarseness and soft voice.Results:Right-sided recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis was observed using videolaryngoscopy. Imaging was used to exclude intracranial, cervical and intrathoracic embryological lesions, vascular malformations and tumours. Laboratory and electrophysiological investigations were used to exclude inflammatory and paraneoplastic processes, endocrinopathy and metabolic disorders. Serological testing was positive for Lyme disease. Parenteral ceftriaxone therapy was commenced. The patient's nerve paralysis showed complete recovery on the seventh day of antibiotic treatment; this was confirmed by videolaryngoscopy.Conclusion:Recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis is an extremely rare complication of neuroborreliosis associated with Lyme disease. In patients with recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis in whom the clinical history is uncertain and the usual diagnostic methods give negative results, screening with anti-borrelia immunoglobulin M is suggested.
Vocal fold paralysis: role of bilateral transverse cordotomy
Authors: Bajaj Y , Sethi N , Shayah A , Harris A T , Henshaw P , Coatesworth A P , Nicolaides A R 
Published: September 2009

AbstractObjective:Although modern endoscopic laser techniques aim to avoid a permanent tracheostomy by augmenting the glottic aperture in cases of bilateral vocal fold palsy, loss of tissue from the posterior glottis risks compromising voice quality and swallowing function. The objective of this study was to describe our experience with bilateral transverse posterior cordotomy.Methods:This was a retrospective analysis of functional outcomes in a series of consecutive patients undergoing a simple modification of the classical laser cordectomy procedure, which avoids tissue loss. The procedure was confined to the complete release of the vocal ligament from the arytenoid cartilage on both sides, while avoiding any significant loss of mucosa or cartilage.Results:Post-operative voice quality and quality of life were rated as good by most patients, which makes bilateral transverse cordotomy an attractive treatment option for bilateral vocal fold paralysis.Conclusion:Bilateral transverse cordotomy is a reliable treatment option for patients with bilateral vocal fold paralysis, and aims to avoid the morbidity associated with a permanent tracheostomy.
The Chinese Amigo: Implications for the Development of Equatorial Guinea
Authors: Esteban Mario 
Published: September 2009

AbstractIn the last five years China has dramatically increased its presence in Africa. Despite its abundant natural resources, the notoriety of its political regime and its close relationship with Beijing, Equatorial Guinea is a glaring omission in the China–Africa literature. This article intends to fulfil that gap by analysing the bilateral relationship between Beijing and Malabo at both the official and the social levels to assess its impact on the development of Equatorial Guinea. As bad governance is the main obstacle for the development of Equatorial Guinea, the article compares the role played by Chinese companies and government in reinforcing Obiang's authoritarian regime with that played by their Western counterparts. It concludes that Chinese extractive firms play a marginal role in the financial extraversion that strongly links the Obiang regimen with US oil companies. Conversely, the Chinese government offers Obiang more extensive and stable support than Western governments to the extent that most of the undeniable developmental potential of Chinese co-operation is wasted through clientelist networks.
Chinese Shops and the Formation of a Chinese Expatriate Community in Namibia
Authors: Dobler Gregor 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe first Chinese migrants came to the Namibian border boom town Oshikango in 1999. Today, there are over 100 shops which sell Chinese goods to Angolan traders in that town of only around 10,000 inhabitants. This article describes their way of doing business and the economic interactions between migrants and the host society. By reacting to the host society's reaction to them, Chinese shopkeepers in Namibia are gradually developing into a migrant society with a distinct social structure. In an increasingly hostile political climate, Chinese entrepreneurs are faced with stronger regulation. This has not had the intended effect of pushing shopkeepers into manufacturing. Instead, it has sharpened social stratification among migrants, with traders better connected to Namibian authorities using their connections as an additional resource. In an optimistic view, the alliance between successful Chinese and Namibian actors could be the germ for a spill-over of Chinese entrepreneurial success; in a pessimistic view, it will create additional rents for some Namibians and give migrants the leverage to evade regulations.
African Perspectives on China–Africa Links
Authors: Sautman Barry , Hairong Yan 
Published: September 2009

AbstractScholars and the international media often allude to a putative “African view” of Africa–China links, constructed from anecdotal evidence. Using random sample and university-based surveys, we elaborate the first empirically based study of what Africans think of their relationships with China. We reach three conclusions. First, African views are not nearly as negative as Western media make out, but are variegated and complex. Second, the survey results are at variance with the dominant Western media representation that only African ruling elites are positive about these links. Third, we find that the dominant variation in African perspectives is by country, compared with variations such as age, education and gender. The differences among countries in attitudes towards China are primarily a function of the extent to which national politicians have elected to raise the “Chinese problem” and, secondarily, the extent of Western media influence in African states.
Representations of Africa in a Hong Kong Soap Opera: The Limits of Enlightened Humanitarianism inThe Last Breakthrough
Authors: Saavedra Martha 
Published: September 2009

AbstractSeveral studies have looked at “Africa” in the Western imagery, and explored how it is constructed for Americans through popular media. This article offers a preliminary query into whether Chinese popular media functions in a similar way by examining a 2004 Hong Kong-produced soap opera that uses a medical humanitarian mission in Kenya to advance its plot and central themes. While many tropes regarding Africa found in Western media are repeated, there is a conscious effort in this production to embody a more enlightened approach. Nevertheless, the core relationship is marked by humanitarianism, and necessarily one embodying unequal power relations. The soap opera thus avoids critical questions of development, globalization or even post-colonial solidarity, and instead rests more on older, safer paradigms of modernization. Still, an analysis of the drama reveals contradictions and unresolved tensions in which the relationship with Africa parallels Hong Kong's relationship with mainland China. This study posits that popular culture can offer unique insights into understanding dynamics affecting the evolving relationship between China and Africa.
The Past in the Present: Historical and Rhetorical Lineages in China's Relations with Africa
Authors: Strauss Julia C. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractChina's official rhetoric on its relations with Africa is important; it frames, legitimates and renders comprehensible its foreign policy in this ever-important area of the world. This article explores the following puzzle: why China's rhetoric on its involvement with Africa has retained substantial continuities with the Maoist past, when virtually every other aspect of Maoism has been officially repudiated. Despite the burgeoning layers of complexity in China's increasing involvement in Africa, a set of surprisingly long-lived principles of non-interference, mutuality, friendship, non-conditional aid and analogous suffering at the hands of imperialism from the early 1960s to the present continue to be propagated. Newer notions of complementarity and international division of labour are beginning to come in, but the older rhetoric still dominates official discourse, at least in part because it continues to appeal to domestic Chinese audiences.
Women, Enclosure and Estate Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Northamptonshire
Authors: McDONAGH BRIONY A. K. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis paper examines the role of elite women in estate management, enclosure and landscape improvement in eighteenth-century England, a topic which has to date received little in the way of sustained academic consideration. The paper focuses on four women who took control of sizeable Northamptonshire estates in the 1760s and early 1770s, and demonstrates that these women were active as both managers and innovators. In examining the women's involvement in estate management, the paper explores a series of important questions about women's place in the history of parliamentary enclosure and landscape improvement, as well as women's role in eighteenth-century society more generally.
The Rise and Decline of Village Reading Rooms
Authors: KING CAROLE 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis article describes the development of the reading room, from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Reading rooms were originally imposed upon the working classes by the upper classes, mainly the church and local landowners. Their establishment reflected contemporary attitudes to philanthropy, recreation and self-help and confirmed the great class divide. Little research has been carried out on this subject, and this article focuses particularly on rural Norfolk, explaining the distribution of the one hundred and sixty village reading rooms identified, their varying location and architectural styles, membership profile and differing methods of financing, including fund-raising social events. The article uses local and national archives and contemporary Ordnance Survey maps, as well as information from many local people. Reading rooms offered a much needed alternative to the public house for the working classes, although they tended to appeal more to the lower middle classes, and membership was mostly restricted to males. The difference between reading rooms in ‘open’ and ‘closed’ parishes is discussed. In the twentieth century, as other diversions appeared and the countryside became more democratised, reading rooms gradually declined. They were an important part of village life and have left interesting evidence of former lifestyles and attitudes.
A lexicon of contratenor behaviour: case studies of equal-cantus Italian motets from the MS Bologna Q.15
Authors: WESTERHAUS ANDREW 
Published: September 2009

ABSTRACTThis paper considers contratenor parts in equal-cantus Italian motets found in the manuscript Bologna Q.15 from codicological, contrapuntal and stylistic perspectives. After establishing criteria for contratenor classification, the paper collates a lexicon of rules governing contratenor behaviour in fourteen motets by Johannes Carmen, Johannes Ciconia, Christoforus de Monte, Antonius Romanus, Matheus de Brixia, and Antonius de Civitate. Four paradigmatic motets are presented as case studies. Q.15 is the earliest (or only extant) source for many of these contratenors, several of which were probably added by a later composer, and they exhibit remarkably similar behaviour that we might term a ‘Q.15 style’. Finally, the lexicon is employed to distinguish between the features of an original contratenor and a later one, and the paper posits that studying contratenors can offer a unique window into fifteenth-century compositional thinking.
The ‘restoration’ of plainchant in the Premonstratensian Order
Authors: HOONDERT MARTIN J.M. 
Published: September 2009

ABSTRACTIn 1910 the Premonstratensian Order acquired its own Graduale. Soon after the publication of this Graduale doubts were expressed about its authenticity. Still, to this very day the Premonstratensians stand by their ‘own’ chant and use the 1910 Graduale. In this article, I reveal that the Graduale is not a reconstruction of Premonstratensian chant of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries and I also attempt to explain why the Premonstratensians undertook the quest for their ‘own authentic’ Premonstratensian chant.
Timelines, borderlines and conflicts
Authors: Bartels Rogier 
Published: September 2009

AbstractCalls have been made in recent years for the legal distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts to be removed. Also as of late, confusion regarding the applicable legal regime has been created by so-called transnational conflicts involving non-state entities. These situations do not fit naturally into the two traditional types of armed conflict recognized by IHL from 1949 onwards. The present article centres on how the legal divide that still exists between international and non-international armed conflict can be explained historically. It aims to further the discussion on whether such a distinction is still relevant, as well as on how certain situations could be classified in the existing typology of IHL.
Armed violence in fragile states:
Authors: Geiβ Robin 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe gradual process of state failure is commonly accompanied by armed violence. Apart from occasional outbreaks, armed violence in fragile states tends to smoulder with relatively low intensity, often over an extended period of time. The actual level of violence may oscillate around the level of violence that is commonly accepted as triggering the application of international humanitarian law (IHL). In addition, because of the specific objectives typically – though not necessarily always – pursued by armed groups in failed state conflict scenarios, cross-border spillover effects are fairly frequent. The qualification of armed violence in such scenarios according to the conflict categories laid down in IHL thus raises some rather specific issues. Moreover, weak states, failing states, and ultimately failed states are increasingly perceived as a key threat to international security. States seem increasingly inclined to assume sporadic order maintenance functions in the place of disabled governments so as to maintain the perceived security threat at a tolerable level. Current efforts to repress acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia are an evident case in point. Since the Security Council, in Resolution 1851, at least implied the possibility of applying IHL in that specific context, the application of this legal regime to sporadic law enforcement operations by third parties also demands further scrutiny.
Typology of armed conflicts in international humanitarian law: legal concepts and actual situations
Authors: Vité Sylvain 
Published: September 2009

AbstractAlthough international humanitarian law has as its aim the limitation of the effects of armed conflict, it does not include a full definition of those situations which fall within its material field of application. While it is true that the relevant conventions refer to various types of armed conflict and therefore afford a glimpse of the legal outlines of this multifaceted concept, these instruments do not propose criteria that are precise enough to determine the content of those categories unequivocally. A certain amount of clarity is nonetheless needed. In fact, depending on how the situations are legally defined, the rules that apply vary from one case to the next. By proposing a typology of armed conflicts from the perspective of international humanitarian law, this article seeks to show how the different categories of armed conflict anticipated by that legal regime can be interpreted in the light of recent developments in international legal practice. It also reviews some actual situations whose categorization under existing legal concepts has been debated.