bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the effect of balneotherapy in patients with osteoarthritis of the hands: a randomized controlled single-blind follow-up study
Authors: Horváth Katalin , Kulisch Ágota , Németh András , Bender Tamás 
Published: December 2011

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of thermal mineral water compared with magnetotherapy without balneotherapy as control, in the treatment of hand osteoarthritis. Design: Randomized controlled single-blind follow-up study. Setting: Rheumatology specialist clinic of Gunaras Health Spa. Subjects: Patients between 50 and 70 years of age with hand osteoarthritis, randomly assigned into three groups. Interventions: The subjects in the first two groups bathed in thermal mineral water of two different temperatures (36°C and 38°C) for three weeks five times a week for 20 minutes a day and received magnetotherapy to their hands three times weekly. The third group received only magnetotherapy. Outcome measures: Visual analogue scale scores, handgrip strength, pinchgrip strength, the number of swollen and tender joints of the hand, the duration of morning joint stiffness, Health Assessment Questionnaire, and Short Form-36 questionnaire. The study parameters were administered at baseline, immediately after treatment and after 13 weeks. Results: The study included 63 patients. Statistically significant improvement was observed in several studied parameters after the treatment and during the follow-up study in the thermal water groups versus the control group. The 38°C thermal water treatment significantly improved the pinch strength of the right hand (0.6 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2 to 1.1) vs. 0.03 (95% CI −0.3 to 0.4), P < 0.05) and the Health Assessment Questionnaire parameters (−0.4 (95% CI −0.6 to −0.2) vs. −0.1 (95% CI −0.2 to 0.1), P < 0.01) even in the long term. Conclusions: Balneotherapy combined with magnetotherapy improved the pain and function as well as the quality of life in patients with hand osteoarthritis.
Effect of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme on perceived health among employees at increased risk of incapacity for work: a controlled study
Authors: Saltychev Mikhail , Laimi Katri , Oksanen Tuula , Pentti Jaana , Virtanen Marianna , Kivimäki Mika , Vahtera Jussi 
Published: December 2011

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a four-week primary prevention programme on change in perceived health among employees at increased risk of incapacity for work. Design: A follow-up controlled study. Settings: The data were collected from survey responses and registered data on demographic, work and health characteristics, and health-related behaviours. Subjects: Eight hundred and seventy-two participants and their 2440 propensity score-matched controls. Intervention: Multidisciplinary preventive programme of physical training and psychological education to adopt a healthier lifestyle, and to achieve greater aerobic capacity, muscle strength and endurance, as well as better self-management of stress. Main measures: Psychological distress, anxiety and suboptimal self-rated health. Results: The prevalence of suboptimal self-rated health, psychological distress and anxiety did not differ between the participants and controls before the intervention (22.6% vs. 22.8%, 26.6% vs. 29.0%, and 33.0% vs. 33.8%, respectively). Similarly, after the intervention, there were no group differences in the prevalence of self-rated health problems at the time of the short-term (mean 1.7 years, up to 4.6 years) or long-term (mean 5.8 years, up to 9.2 years) follow-up. Figures for prevalence of suboptimal self-rated health, psychological distress and anxiety in participants and controls at the time of the long-term follow-up were 33.8% vs. 28.9%, 25.1% vs. 24.9%, and 34.7% vs. 33.2%, respectively. Conclusions: No beneficial effects on perceived health were observed for a four-week primary prevention programme widely used in Finland to reduce early retirement on health grounds.
Randomized controlled study of the efficacy of the injection of botulinum toxin type A versus corticosteroids in chronic plantar fasciitis: results at one and six months
Authors: Díaz-Llopis Ismael V , Rodríguez-Ruíz Carmen M , Mulet-Perry Sandra , Mondéjar-Gómez Francisco J , Climent-Barberá Jose M , Cholbi-LLobel Francisco 
Published: December 2011

Objective: To determine the efficacy of botulinum toxin type A in chronic plantar fasciitis compared to the local injection of a corticosteroid plus local anaesthetic. Methods: Patients with a clinical diagnosis of plantar fasciitis made at least six months earlier were selected to enter a randomized, single-blind study of treatment with injections of botulinum toxin type A or corticosteroid. There were 28 patients in each treatment group. Patients were evaluated at one month using the Foot Health Square Questionnaire and those with no clinical response subsequently received a second injection with the drug of the other arm of the study, creating two new treatment groups. Re-evaluation was performed at six months. Results: One month after injection there was a clear clinical improvement in both treatment groups but it was greater in the botulinum toxin group, with a significant difference for the pain item ( P = 0.069), though not in other items. At six months, patients treated with botulinum toxin type A had continued to improve in all items, whereas the corticosteroid group lost part of the improvement achieved at one month (improvement with botulinum toxin vs. corticosteroid: pain 19.10/–6.84 ( P = 0.001), function 16.00/–8.80 ( P < 0.001), footwear 13.48/–7.95 ( P = 0.004), self-perceived foot health 25.44/–5.41 ( P < 0.001). Conclusion: Botulinum toxin type A should be considered for the treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis in view of the improvement found at one month, and particularly at six months, when this treatment clearly has better results than corticosteroid injections. Further studies with larger samples are necessary to confirm these results.
Growing Leaders Grows Profits—A Case Study in Leadership Development
Authors: Pandit Arvind , Jhamtani Anisha 
Published: December 2011

Leadership is not a black box. It is not an intangible asset or soft skill. It has a quantifiable impact on results, however one might want to measure it. A leader’s singular objective should be value creation, both in terms of short-term and long-term results. Primary job of a leader is to deliver results by working through others. Results that leaders are able to deliver through their teams depend on how engaged their teams are. This engagement leads to high ‘discretionary effort’ which in turn drives high performance. The engagement comes from the climate that the leader is able to create. Leadership styles of the leader, which are essentially behaviours of the leader when he interacts with his team, create that climate. The most effective leaders know how to use a full range of leadership styles so that no matter how the demands of their roles change, what situations they face, or what the individual personalities are of those they are leading, they know how to provide the clarity, the context and the coaching needed to engage and energize people to perform at their best.
The expanding world market of generic pharmaceuticals
Authors: Brems Yannik , Seville Jonathan , Baeyens Jan 
Published: December 2011

The advantages of generic pharmaceuticals are acknowledged by policy makers worldwide, provided efficient national policies are in place, generics are available at reduced prices, drive competition and innovation, enhance access to essential medicines, ensure supply continuity, stimulate economic development, and generate savings for healthcare systems. This paper reviews the world market of generic pharmaceuticals, with special emphasis on the current situation and expected future development. Besides providing a global picture, different regions are separately examined by both assessing recent market analyses data, and by including recent literature on generics and their role in enhancing access to essential medicines. In view of the challenges in developing countries, the Republic of South Africa is dealt with in more detail. The analysis stresses the importance of this highly dynamic and competitive market, expected to continue to grow in the future, thus remaining an attractive business for new entrants, for mergers and for acquisitions.
Monte Carlo simulation of railway track geometry deterioration and restoration
Authors: Quiroga L M , Schnieder E 
Published: December 2011

Travelling safely and comfortably on high-speed railway lines requires excellent conditions of the whole railway infrastructure in general and of the railway track geometry in particular. The maintenance process required to achieve such excellent conditions is complex and expensive, demanding a large amount of both human and technical resources. In this framework, choosing the right maintenance strategy becomes a critical issue. A reliable simulation of the railway geometry ageing process would offer a great advantage for the optimization of planning and scheduling of maintenance activities. A fundamental requirement for such simulation is a statistical model describing the behaviour of the railway track geometry deterioration as well as the effects of maintenance activities. The French railway operator SNCF has been periodically measuring the geometrical characteristics of its high-speed network since its commissioning (i.e. for more than 20 years now). These records are an excellent data source to achieve a sound statistical description of the process. In this paper a new system identification method to obtain such simulations is presented. The proposed method uses a grey-box model: a model structure and its constraints are specified basing on previous knowledge of the process to be identified, and then the set of parameter values which best fits the signal measurements is searched. As previous knowledge indicates that the process is non-linear, parameter values are searched by means of the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, an iterative technique that finds a local minimum of a function that is expressed as the sum of squares of non-linear functions. Furthermore, the presented model is extended in order to analyse the effect of the variation of factors influencing the ageing process (e.g. operational speed). Finally, the method is applied and validated with real data of a French high-speed TGV line.
Recent advances in the surgical treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia
Authors: Rocco Bernardo , Albo Giancarlo , Ferreira Rafael Coelho , Spinelli Matteo , Cozzi Gabriele , Dell’Orto Paolo , Patel Vipul , Rocco Francesco 
Published: December 2011

TURP for many years has been considered the gold standard for surgical treatment of BPH. Symptoms relief, improvement in Maximum flow rate and reduction of post void residual urine have been reported in several experiences. Notwithstanding a satisfactory efficacy, concerns have been reported in terms of safety outcomes:intracapsular perforation, TUR syndrome, bleeding with a higher risk of transfusion particularly in larger prostates have been extensivelyreported in the literature. In the recent years the use of new forms of energy and devices suchas bipolar resector, Ho: YAG and potassium-titanyl-phosphate laserare challenging the role of traditional TURP for BPH surgical treatment. In 1999 TURP represented the 81% of surgical treatment for BPHversus 39% of 2005. Is this a marketing driven change or is there areal advantage in new technologies? We analyzed guidelines and higher evidence studies to evaluate therole of the most relevant new surgical approaches compared to TURPfor the treatment of BPH. In case of prostates of very large size the challenge is ongoing, withminimally invasive laparoscopic approach and most recently roboticapproach. We will evaluate the most recent literature on thisemerging field.
Closed Total Talar Extrusion After Ankle Sprain
Authors: Turhan Yalcin , Cift Hakan , Ozkan Korhan , Ozkut Afsar , Eren Abdullah 
Published: December 2011

Closed total talus dislocation from tibiotalar, subtalar, and talonavicular joints is a very rare injury. A 25-year-old young man, who had severe ankle distortion while walking down a flight of stairs, was brought to the emergency room complaining of a deformity and pain in his ankle joint. Roentgenographies revealed total talar body extrusion. The patient was treated urgently with open reduction in the authors’ clinic. Tibialis posterior tendon might prevent closed reduction so open reduction with retraction of the tendon may be necessary. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV
Long-Term Results of Neurectomy in the Treatment of Morton’s Neuroma
Authors: Lee Kyung Tai , Kim Jun Beom , Young Ki Won , Park Young Uk , Kim Jin Su , Jegal Hyuk 
Published: December 2011

Purpose. The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate the long-term follow-up results of neurectomy clinical outcomes and complications in the treatment of Morton’s neuroma. Materials and methods. A total of 19 patients (19 different feet) were treated for Morton’s neuroma by excision of the interdigital nerve at our institute between May 1997 and May 1999. Thirteen (13 feet) of them were followed up. The 13 patients were female and had an average age of 43 years (range 34-54 years) at the time of the operation. The patients were followed-up for a mean of 10.5 years (range 10.0-12.2 years) and scored using the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) forefoot scoring system and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score. Subjective satisfaction was evaluated at the final follow-up. Results. Eight patients scored more than 90 on the AOFAS forefoot scoring system. The VAS score was improved in all patients. The mean preoperative VAS score was 8.6 ± 0.8 cm (7-10) and the mean follow-up VAS score was 2.4 ± 1.8cm (0-6), which indicated no significant difference (P > .05). The final follow-up satisfaction results indicated that 4 patients were completely satisfied with the operation, 4 were satisfied with minor reservations, 5 were satisfied with major reservations, and no patient was unsatisfied. Neurectomy to treat Morton’s neuroma had a good satisfaction rate (61%). Eleven of the patients complained of numbness on the plantar aspect of the foot adjacent to the interspace, and 2 of these 11 patients complained of disability induced by severe numbness. There was a complaint of residual pain by 1 patient. There were no skin problems on the operation lesions. Conclusion. The long-term results of neurectomy clinical outcomes in Morton’s neuroma are slightly worse than the short- and mid-term results. Levels of Evidence: Therapeutic, Level IV, Retrospective case series
Expansion of CD8+ T cells lacking Sema4D/CD100 during HIV-1 infection identifies a subset of T cells with decreased functional capacity
Authors: Eriksson Emily M. , Milush Jeffrey M. , Ho Emily L. , Batista Mariana D. , Holditch Sara J. , Keh Chris E. , Norris Philip J. , Keating Sheila M. , Deeks Steven G. , Hunt Peter W. , Martin Jeffrey N. , Rosenberg Michael G. , Hecht Frederick M. , Nixon Douglas F. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractSema4D, also known as CD100, is a constitutively expressed immune semaphorin on T cells and NK cells. CD100 has important immune regulatory functions that improve antigen-specific priming by antigen-presenting cells, and can also act as a costimulatory molecule on T cells. We investigated the consequence of HIV-1 infection on CD100 expression by T cells, and whether CD100 expression signifies functionally competent effector cells. CD100 expression on T cells from healthy individuals was compared with HIV-1–infected subjects including elite controllers, noncontrollers, and patients receiving antiretroviral therapy. The frequency and fluorescence intensity of CD100 on CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were decreased during HIV-1 infection. Furthermore, the absolute number of CD100-expressing CD8+ T cells was positively associated with the magnitude of HIV-1–specific T-cell responses. CD8+ T cells lacking CD100 expression were functionally impaired and present in increased numbers in HIV-1–infected individuals. The number of CD100−CD8+ T cells positively correlated with T-cell immunosenescence, immune activation, and viral load. Loss of CD100 expression appears to result from direct antigen stimulation, as in vitro cytokine exposure and viral replication did not significantly impact CD100 expression. These data suggest that loss of CD100 expression probably plays an important role in dysfunctional immunity in HIV-1 infection.
Notch promotes vascular maturation by inducing integrin-mediated smooth muscle cell adhesion to the endothelial basement membrane
Authors: Scheppke Lea , Murphy Eric A. , Zarpellon Alessandro , Hofmann Jennifer J. , Merkulova Alona , Shields David J. , Weis Sara M. , Byzova Tatiana V. , Ruggeri Zaverio M. , Iruela-Arispe M. Luisa , Cheresh David A. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractVascular development and angiogenesis initially depend on endothelial tip cell invasion, which is followed by a series of maturation steps, including lumen formation and recruitment of perivascular cells. Notch ligands expressed on the endothelium and their cognate receptors expressed on perivascular cells are involved in blood vessel maturation, though little is known regarding the Notchdependent effectors that facilitate perivascular coverage of nascent vessels. Here, we report that vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) recognition of the Notch ligand Jagged1 on endothelial cells leads to expression of integrin αvβ3 on VSMCs. Once expressed, integrin αvβ3 facilitates VSMC adhesion to VWF in the endothelial basement membrane of developing retinal arteries, leading to vessel maturation. Genetic or pharmacologic disruption of Jagged1, Notch, αvβ3, or VWF suppresses VSMC coverage of nascent vessels and arterial maturation during vascular development. Therefore, we define a Notch-mediated interaction between the developing endothelium and VSMCs leading to adhesion of VSMCs to the endothelial basement membrane and arterial maturation.
Durable donor engraftment after radioimmunotherapy using α-emitter astatine-211–labeled anti-CD45 antibody for conditioning in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation
Authors: Chen Yun , Kornblit Brian , Hamlin Donald K. , Sale George E. , Santos Erlinda B. , Wilbur D. Scott , Storer Barry E. , Storb Rainer , Sandmaier Brenda M. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractTo reduce toxicity associated with external γ-beam radiation, we investigated radioimmunotherapy with an anti-CD45 mAb labeled with the α-emitter, astatine-211 (211At), as a conditioning regimen in dog leukocyte antigen-identical hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Dose-finding studies in 6 dogs treated with 100 to 618 μCi/kg 211At-labeled anti-CD45 mAb (0.5 mg/kg) without HCT rescue demonstrated dose-dependent myelosuppression with subsequent autologous recovery, and transient liver toxicity in dogs treated with 211At doses less than or equal to 405 μCi/kg. Higher doses of 211At induced clinical liver failure. Subsequently, 8 dogs were conditioned with 155 to 625 μCi/kg 211At-labeled anti-CD45 mAb (0.5 mg/kg) before HCT with dog leukocyte antigen-identical bone marrow followed by a short course of cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil immunosuppression. Neutropenia (1-146 cells/μL), lymphopenia (0-270 cells/μL), and thrombocytopenia (1500-6560 platelets/μL) with prompt recovery was observed. Seven dogs had long-term donor mononuclear cell chimerism (19%-58%), whereas 1 dog treated with the lowest 211At dose (155 μCi/kg) had low donor mononuclear cell chimerism (5%). At the end of follow-up (18-53 weeks), only transient liver toxicity and no renal toxicity had been observed. In conclusion, conditioning with 211At-labeled anti-CD45 mAb is safe and efficacious and provides a platform for future clinical trials of nonmyeloablative transplantation with radioimmunotherapy-based conditioning.
Lack of sufficiently strong informative features limits the potential of gene expression analysis as predictive tool for many clinical classification problems
Authors: Hess Kenneth R , Wei Caimiao , Qi Yuan , Iwamoto Takayuki , Symmans W Fraser , Pusztai Lajos 
Published: December 2011

Abstract

Background
Our goal was to examine how various aspects of a gene signature influence the success of developing multi-gene prediction models. We inserted gene signatures into three real data sets by altering the expression level of existing probe sets. We varied the number of probe sets perturbed (signature size), the fold increase of mean probe set expression in perturbed compared to unperturbed data (signature strength) and the number of samples perturbed. Prediction models were trained to identify which cases had been perturbed. Performance was estimated using Monte-Carlo cross validation.

Results
Signature strength had the greatest influence on predictor performance. It was possible to develop almost perfect predictors with as few as 10 features if the fold difference in mean expression values were > 2 even when the spiked samples represented 10% of all samples. We also assessed the gene signature set size and strength for 9 real clinical prediction problems in six different breast cancer data sets.

Conclusions
We found sufficiently large and strong predictive signatures only for distinguishing ER-positive from ER-negative cancers, there were no strong signatures for more subtle prediction problems. Current statistical methods efficiently identify highly informative features in gene expression data if such features exist and accurate models can be built with as few as 10 highly informative features. Features can be considered highly informative if at least 2-fold expression difference exists between comparison groups but such features do not appear to be common for many clinically relevant prediction problems in human data sets.
Progenitor expansion in apc mutants is mediated by Jak/Stat signaling
Authors: Lin Junji , Wang Xu , Dorsky Richard I 
Published: December 2011

AbstractBackgroundMutations inAPC, a negative regulator of the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway, can cause cancer as well as profound developmental defects. In both cases, affected cells adopt a proliferative progenitor state and fail to differentiate. While the upregulation of some target genes of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling has been shown to mediate these phenotypes in individual tissues, it is unclear whether a common mechanism underlies the defects inAPCmutants.ResultsHere we show thatstat3, a known oncogene and a target of ß-catenin in multiple tissues, is upregulated inapcmutant zebrafish embryos. We further demonstrate that Jak/Stat signaling is necessary for the increased level of proliferation and neural progenitor gene expression observed inapcmutants.ConclusionsTogether, our data suggest that the regulation of Jak/Stat signaling may represent a conserved mechanism explaining the expansion of undifferentiated cells downstream ofAPCmutations.