bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluating novel agent effects in multiple‐treatments meta‐regression
Authors: Salanti Georgia , Dias Sofia , Welton Nicky J. , Ades A. E. , Golfinopoulos Vassilis , Kyrgiou Maria , Mauri Davide , Ioannidis John P. A. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractMultiple‐treatments meta‐analyses are increasingly used to evaluate the relative effectiveness of several competing regimens. In some fields which evolve with the continuous introduction of new agents over time, it is possible that in trials comparing older with newer regimens the effectiveness of the latter is exaggerated. Optimism bias, conflicts of interest and other forces may be responsible for this exaggeration, but its magnitude and impact, if any, needs to be formally assessed in each case. Whereas such novelty bias is not identifiable in a pair‐wise meta‐analysis, it is possible to explore it in a network of trials involving several treatments. To evaluate the hypothesis of novel agent effects and adjust for them, we developed a multiple‐treatments meta‐regression model fitted within a Bayesian framework. When there are several multiple‐treatments meta‐analyses for diverse conditions within the same field/specialty with similar agents involved, one may consider either different novel agent effects in each meta‐analysis or may consider the effects to be exchangeable across the different conditions and outcomes. As an application, we evaluate the impact of modelling and adjusting for novel agent effects for chemotherapy and other non‐hormonal systemic treatments for three malignancies. We present the results and the impact of different model assumptions to the relative ranking of the various regimens in each network. We established that multiple‐treatments meta‐regression is a good method for examining whether novel agent effects are present and estimation of their magnitude in the three worked examples suggests an exaggeration of the hazard ratio by 6 per cent (2–11 per cent). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Strategic change and termination of interfirm partnerships
Authors: Cui Anna Shaojie , Calantone Roger J. , Griffith David A. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractAn evolutionary perspective of the resource‐based view is adopted to understand how changes in a partner firm's overall strategy may influence the firm's interfirm partnerships over time. We contend that changes in a partner firm's overall resource deployment strategy and partnering strategy influence the value and uniqueness of partnership resources. These changes alter the competitive advantage associated with partnership resources, affecting the propensity of partnership termination. An event history analysis is employed with 150 joint ventures over the period 1990 to 2001 to examine partnership termination within a longitudinal dataset. With initial partnership conditions controlled for, the results indicate significant influences of various changes in partner firm overall resource deployment strategy and partnering strategy on the propensity of termination. Further, competitor imitative activities are found to increase the propensity of termination as they reduce the uniqueness of partnership resources. This study provides support for an evolutionary perspective of resource value and competitive advantage that incorporates strategic change over time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Measurement and quantification are not the same: ISO 15939 and ISO 9126
Authors: Abran Alain , Desharnais Jean‐Marc , Cuadrado‐Gallego Juan Jose 
Published: August 2010

SUMMARYMeasurement based on the international standards for measurement (i.e., metrology) is not the same as judgmental‐based quantification of implicit relationships across a mix of entities and attributes without due consideration of admissible mathematical operations on numbers of different scale types. This paper presents first the Measurement Information Model in ISO 15939 and clarifies next what in it refers to the classical metrology field, and what refers to the quantitative analysis of relationships. The paper concludes with two examples of the designs of a measure for ISO 9126, one focusing on a single attribute and the second attempting to quantify a set of relationships across a number of entities and attributes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Process and product innovation needs integrated engineering collaboration skills
Authors: Riel Andreas , Draghici Anca , Draghici George , Grajewski Damian , Messnarz Richard 
Published: August 2010

SUMMARYCollaboration skills have become an incontestable necessity for professionals in engineering teams. Engineering teams are becoming more and more interdisciplinary and distributed, products and the environments they are created, used and recycled in are increasingly complex. Design engineers, system architects as well as requirements engineers and managers have to be able to understand the product and its whole lifecycle in order to be able to respect the constraints and requirements that are imposed on the product by different actors. Many of these skills have to be developed and improved in the course of a professional career rather than in initial education. This paper gives insight into the development of one component of a consistent qualification and certification scheme, which is in its entirety particularly targeted at Integrated Design Engineers in various industrial sectors. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Improving software testing process: feature prioritization to make winners of success‐critical stakeholders
Authors: Li Qi , Yang Ye , Li Mingshu , Wang Qing , Boehm Barry W. , Hu Chenyong 
Published: August 2010

SUMMARYFor a successful software project, acceptable quality must be achieved within an acceptable cost, demonstrating business value to customers and satisfactorily meeting delivery timeliness. Testing serves as the most widely used approaches to determine that the intended functionalities are performed correctly and achieve the desired level of services; however, it is also a labor‐intensive and expensive process during the whole software life cycle. Most current testing processes are often technique‐centered, rather than organized to maximize business value. In this article, we extend and elaborate the ‘4+1’ theoretical lenses of Value‐based Software Engineering (VBSE) framework in the software testing process; propose a multi‐objective feature prioritization strategy for testing planning and controlling, which aligns the internal testing process with value objectives coming from customers and markets. Our case study in a real‐life business project shows that this method allows reasoning about the software testing process in different dimensions: it helps to manage the testing process effectively and efficiently, provides information for continuous internal software process improvement, and increases customer satisfaction, which makes winners of all success‐critical stakeholders (SCSs) in the software testing process. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Vitamin C Promotes Widespread Yet Specific DNA Demethylation of the Epigenome in Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Authors: Chung Tung-Liang , Brena Romulo M. , Kolle Gabriel , Grimmond Sean M. , Berman Benjamin P. , Laird Peter W. , Pera Martin F. , Wolvetang Ernst Jurgen 
Published: August 2010

AbstractVitamin C (ascorbate) is a widely used medium supplement in embryonic stem cell culture. Here, we show that ascorbate causes widespread, consistent, and remarkably specific DNA demethylation of 1,847 genes in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), including important stem cell genes, with a clear bias toward demethylation at CpG island boundaries. We show that a subset of these DNA demethylated genes displays concomitant gene expression changes and that the position of the demethylated CpGs relative to the transcription start site is correlated to such changes. We further show that the ascorbate-demethylated gene set not only overlaps with gene sets that have bivalent marks, but also with the gene sets that are demethylated during differentiation of hESCs and during reprogramming of fibroblasts to induced pluritotent stem cells (iPSCs). Our data thus identify a novel link between ascorbate-mediated signaling and specific epigenetic changes in hESCs that might impact on pluripotency and reprogramming pathways.
Effect of the interval between onset of sustained fetal bradycardia and cesarean delivery on long‐term neonatal neurologic prognosis
Authors: Kamoshita Emi , Amano Kan , Kanai Yuji , Mochizuki Junko , Ikeda Yasuhiro , Kikuchi Shinzo , Tani Akihiro , Shoda Takashi , Okutomi Toshiyuki , Nowatari Masahiko , Unno Nobuya 
Published: August 2010

AbstractObjectiveTo examine the effect of the interval between onset of sustained fetal bradycardia and cesarean delivery on long‐term neonatal neurologic prognosis.MethodA retrospective observational case‐series performed with patients who had sudden‐onset and sustained (< 100 beats per minute) fetal bradycardia during labor. Fetal heart rate was monitored closely until cesarean delivery. The effect of the interval between the onset of bradycardia and delivery on neonatal neurologic prognosis was examined.ResultsAmong 2267 deliveries in 2002–2003 at Kitasato University Hospital, 19 pregnancies met the inclusion criteria. Episodes of fetal bradycardia were due to umbilical cord prolapse (n = 5), placental abruption (n = 4), uterine rupture (n = 3), maternal respiratory failure (n = 1), and other causes (n = 6). Mean onset of fetal bradycardia to delivery interval (BDI) was 20.5 ± 8.9 minutes. Mean decision‐to‐cesarean delivery interval was 11.4 ± 3.9 minutes. BDI was negatively correlated with umbilical arterial pH at delivery. There were 3 postnatal deaths. Neurologic assessment at the age of 2 years revealed that 15 of 16 children were neurologically normal. When the BDI was less than 25 minutes, all term pregnancies led to normal neonatal neurologic development.ConclusionIn the event of sustained intrapartum fetal bradycardia, delivery by emergency cesarean within 25 minutes improved long‐term neonatal neurologic outcome.
Late second–early first millennium BC abrupt climate changes in coastal Syria and their possible significance for the history of the Eastern Mediterranean
Authors: Kaniewski D. , Paulissen E. , Van Campo E. , Weiss H. , Otto T. , Bretschneider J. , Van Lerberghe K. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe alluvial deposits near Gibala-Tell Tweini provide a unique record of environmental history and food availability estimates covering the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The refined pollen-derived climatic proxy suggests that drier climatic conditions occurred in the Mediterranean belt of Syria from the late 13th/early 12th centuries BC to the 9th century BC. This period corresponds with the time frame of the Late Bronze Age collapse and the subsequent Dark Age. The abrupt climate change at the end of the Late Bronze Age caused region-wide crop failures, leading towards socio-economic crises and unsustainability, forcing regional habitat-tracking. Archaeological data show that the first conflagration of Gibala occurred simultaneously with the destruction of the capital city Ugarit currently dated between 1194 and 1175 BC. Gibala redeveloped shortly after this destruction, with large-scale urbanization visible in two main architectural phases during the Early Iron Age I. The later Iron Age I city was destroyed during a second conflagration, which is radiocarbon-dated at circa 2950 cal yr BP. The data from Gibala-Tell Tweini provide evidence in support of the drought hypothesis as a triggering factor behind the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean.
ZiF-Predict: A Web Tool for Predicting DNA-Binding Specificity in C2H2 Zinc Finger Proteins
Authors: Molparia Bhuvan , Goyal Kanav , Sarkar Anita , Kumar Sonu , Sundar Durai 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
Engineering zinc finger protein motifs for specific DNA targets in genomes is critical in the field of genome engineering. We have developed a computational method for predicting recognition helices for C2H2 zinc fingers that bind to specific target DNA sites. This prediction is based on artificial neural network using an exhaustive dataset of zinc finger proteins and their target DNA triplets. Users can select the option for two or three zinc fingers to be predicted either in a modular or synergistic fashion for the input DNA sequence. This method would be valuable for researchers interested in designing specific zinc finger transcription factors and zinc finger nucleases for several biological and biomedical applications. The web tool ZiF-Predict is available online at http://web.iitd.ac.in/~sundar/zifpredict/.
PsRNA: A Computing Engine for the Comparative Identification of Putative Small RNA Locations within Intergenic Regions
Authors: Sridhar Jayavel , Sowmiya Govindaraj , Sekar Kanagaraj , Rafi Ziauddin Ahamed 
Published: August 2010

AbstractSmall RNAs (sRNAs) are non-coding transcripts exerting their functions in the cells directly. Identification of sRNAs is a difficult task due to the lack of clear sequence and structural biases. Most sRNAs are identified within genus specific intergenic regions in related genomes. However, several of these regions remain un-annotated due to lack of sequence homology and/or potent statistical identification tools. A computational engine has been built to search within the intergenic regions to identify and roughly annotate new putative sRNA regions in Enterobacteriaceae genomes. It utilizes experimentally known sRNA data and their flanking genes/KEGG Orthology (KO) numbers as templates to identify similar sRNA regions in related query genomes. The search engine not only has the capability to locate putative intergenic regions for specific sRNAs, but also has the potency to locate conserved, shuffled or deleted gene clusters in query genomes. Because it uses the KO terms for locating functionally important regions such as sRNAs, any further KO number assignment to additional genes will increase the sensitivity. The PsRNA server is used for the identification of putative sRNA regions through the information retrieved from the sRNA of interest. The computing engine is available online at http://bioserver1.physics.iisc.ernet.in/psrna/ and http://bicmku.in:8081/psrna/.
Gorenstein model structures and generalized derived categories
Authors: Gillespie James , Hovey Mark 
Published: August 2010

AbstractIn a paper from 2002, Hovey introduced the Gorenstein projective and Gorenstein injective model structures on R-Mod, the category of R-modules, where R is any Gorenstein ring. These two model structures are Quillen equivalent and in fact there is a third equivalent structure we introduce: the Gorenstein flat model structure. The homotopy category with respect to each of these is called the stable module category of R. If such a ring R has finite global dimension, the graded ring R[x]/(x2) is Gorenstein and the three associated Gorenstein model structures on R[x]/(x2)-Mod, the category of graded R[x]/(x2)-modules, are nothing more than the usual projective, injective and flat model structures on Ch(R), the category of chain complexes of R-modules. Although these correspondences only recover these model structures on Ch(R) when R has finite global dimension, we can set R = ℤ and use general techniques from model category theory to lift the projective model structure from Ch(ℤ) to Ch(R) for an arbitrary ring R. This shows that homological algebra is a special case of Gorenstein homological algebra. Moreover, this method of constructing and lifting model structures carries through when ℤ[x]/(x2) is replaced by many other graded Gorenstein rings (or Hopf algebras, which lead to monoidal model structures). This gives us a natural way to generalize both chain complexes over a ring R and the derived category of R and we give some examples of such generalizations.
Behavior of the floating potential in an electronegative sheath as a function of electronegativity and negative ion temperature
Authors: SHARIFIAN M. , SHOKRI B. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThrough a simple one-dimensional collisionless plasma sheath model, behavior of the floating potential in an electronegative plasma sheath is studied. Specially, the floating potential behavior as a function of the plasma electronegativity for various negative ion temperatures has been studied. It has been observed that negative ion temperature strongly affects the variation of floating potential.
Measurement of Oxygen Diffusivity and Permeability in Polymers Using Fluorescence Microscopy
Authors: Chowdhury Sanchari , Bhethanabotla Venkat R. , Sen Rajan 
Published: August 2010

AbstractA simple fluorescence microscopy technique is developed and presented to investigate heterogeneities in emission intensity and quenching responses of luminescence sensors and to measure diffusion and permeation coefficients of oxygen in polymers. Most luminescence oxygen sensors do not follow linearity of the Stern-Volmer (SV) equation due to heterogeneity of luminophore in the polymer matrix. To circumvent this limitation, inverted fluorescence microscopy is utilized in this work to investigate the SV response of the sensors at the micron scale. It was found that intensity is higher in regions where the luminophore is aggregated, but the response is poorer to oxygen concentration. In contrast, the nearly homogeneous regions exhibit linearity with high SV constants. In these diffusion experiments, oxygen concentration was measured by luminescence changes in regions with high SV constants and good linearity. Two diffusion experiments were performed—termed film-on-sensor and accumulation-in-volume techniques. A new Fick's law based quasi-steady-state diffusion model was developed and combined with the SV equation to obtain effective permeation coefficients for the accumulation-in-volume technique. Using these experimental techniques, oxygen diffusion properties in free-standing Teflon polymer films, cast silicon elastomers, and cast polydimethylsiloxane films containing different weight percentages of zeolite were determined with good precision.
Analysis of human and animal fecal microbiota for microbial source tracking
Authors: Lee Jung Eun , Lee Sunghee , Sung Joohon , Ko GwangPyo 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
Microbial compositions of human and animal feces from South Korea were analyzed and characterized. In total, 38 fecal samples (14 healthy adult humans, 6 chickens, 6 cows, 6 pigs and 6 geese) were analyzed by 454 pyrosequencing of the V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Four major phyla, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, were identified in the samples. Principal coordinate analysis suggested that microbiota from the same host species generally clustered, with the exception of those from humans, which exhibited sample-specific compositions. A network-based analysis revealed that several operational taxonomic units (OTUs), such as Lactobacillus sp., Clostridium sp. and Prevotella sp., were commonly identified in all fecal sources. Other OTUs were present only in fecal samples from a single organism. For example, Yania sp. and Bifidobacterium sp. were identified specifically in chicken and human fecal samples, respectively. These specific OTUs or their respective biological markers could be useful for identifying the sources of fecal contamination in water by microbial source tracking.
Identity of epibiotic bacteria on symbiontid euglenozoans in O2-depleted marine sediments: evidence for symbiont and host co-evolution
Authors: Edgcomb V P , Breglia S A , Yubuki N , Beaudoin D , Patterson D J , Leander B S , Bernhard J M 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
A distinct subgroup of euglenozoans, referred to as the ‘Symbiontida,’ has been described from oxygen-depleted and sulfidic marine environments. By definition, all members of this group carry epibionts that are intimately associated with underlying mitochondrion-derived organelles beneath the surface of the hosts. We have used molecular phylogenetic and ultrastructural evidence to identify the rod-shaped epibionts of the two members of this group, Calkinsia aureus and B.bacati, hand-picked from the sediments of two separate oxygen-depleted, sulfidic environments. We identify their epibionts as closely related sulfur or sulfide-oxidizing members of the epsilon proteobacteria. The epsilon proteobacteria generally have a significant role in deep-sea habitats as primary colonizers, primary producers and/or in symbiotic associations. The epibionts likely fulfill a role in detoxifying the immediate surrounding environment for these two different hosts. The nearly identical rod-shaped epibionts on these two symbiontid hosts provides evidence for a co-evolutionary history between these two sets of partners. This hypothesis is supported by congruent tree topologies inferred from 18S and 16S rDNA from the hosts and bacterial epibionts, respectively. The eukaryotic hosts likely serve as a motile substrate that delivers the epibionts to the ideal locations with respect to the oxic/anoxic interface, whereby their growth rates can be maximized, perhaps also allowing the host to cultivate a food source. Because symbiontid isolates and additional small subunit rDNA gene sequences from this clade have now been recovered from many locations worldwide, the Symbiontida are likely more widespread and diverse than presently known.
Variations in Intensity, Fundamental Frequency, and Voicing for Teachers in Occupational Versus Nonoccupational Settings
Authors: Hunter Eric J. , Titze Ingo R. 
Published: August 2010

Purpose
In this study, the authors created a more concise picture of the vocal demands placed on teachers by comparing occupational voice use with nonoccupational voice use.

Method

The authors used National Center for Voice and Speech voice dosimetry databank to calculate voicing percentage per hour as well as average dB SPL and fundamental frequency (F
0
). Occupational voice use (9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., weekdays) and nonoccupational voice use (4:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., weekends) were compared (57 teachers, 2 weeks each).

Results
Five key findings were uncovered: (1) Similar to previous studies, occupational voicing percentage per hour is more than twice that of nonoccupational voicing; (2) teachers experienced a wide range of occupational voicing percentages per hour (30 ± 11% per hr); (3) average occupational voice was about 1 dB SPL louder than the nonoccupational voice and remained constant throughout the day; (4) occupational voice exhibited an increased pitch and trended upward throughout the day; and (5) some apparent gender differences were shown.

Conclusions

Data regarding voicing percentages, F
0
, and dB SPL provide critical insight into teachers' vocal health. Further, because nonoccupational voice use is added to an already overloaded voice, it may add key insights into recovery patterns and should be the focus of future studies.