bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
QTc Dispersion in Hyperthyroidism and Its Association with Pulmonary Hypertension
Authors: GUNTEKIN UNAL , GUNES YILMAZ , TUNCER MUSTAFA , SIMSEK HAKKI , GUMRUKCUOGLU HASAN ALI , ARSLAN SEVKET , GUNES AHMET 
Published: March 2009

Background:Several studies have reported that hyperthyroidism is associated with prolonged QT interval corrected by the heart rate (QTc) and pulmonary hypertension (PHT).Methods:Forty‐seven patients with newly diagnosed overt hyperthyroidism and 20 healthy people were enrolled in the study. Transthoracic echocardiography, 12‐lead surface electrocardiogram, and thyroid hormone levels were studied at the time of enrollment and after achievement of euthyroid state with propylthiouracil treatment.Results:Baseline clinical characteristics were similar. However, heart rate (90.5±19.6 vs 79.2±13.7 bpm, P = 0.024), pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) (26.0±12.0 vs 10.6±4.0 mmHg, P < 0.001), E deceleration time (DT) (191.8±25.6 vs 177.0±10.7 ms, P = 0.016), isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) (91.38±12.3 vs 79.6±10.5 ms, P<0.001), and QTc dispersion (QTcD) (50.3±17.2 vs 38.9±11.6 ms, P = 0.009) were significantly higher in hyperthyroid patients compared to control group. Heart rate (to 74.1±13.8, P<0.001), QTcD (to 37.3±10.1 ms, P<0.001), DT (to 185.3±19.7 ms, P = 0.008), IVRT (to 88.6±10.3 ms, P = 0.056), and PASP (23.1±10.1 mmHg P<0.001) were significantly decreased after achievement of euthyroid state. Although PHT was present in 16 patients before treatment only six patients still had PHT during euyhyroid state. Compared to patients with normal PASP, QTcD was significantly longer in patients with PHT (56.5±15.8 vs 37.9±12.8 mmHg P<0.001). There were also significant correlations between QTcD and presence of PHT (r = 0.516, P<0.001) and PASP (r = 0.401, P = 0.009).Conclusions:Hyperthyroidism is a reversible cause of PHT and diastolic dysfunction. Increased QTcD observed in hyperthyroidism may be associated with PHT and diastolic dysfunction. These abnormal findings in hyperthyroidism often normalize with the achievement of euthyroid state.
Predictors of Atrial Tachyarrhythmias in Subjects with Type 1 ECG Pattern of Brugada Syndrome
Authors: LETSAS KONSTANTINOS P. , WEBER REINHOLD , ASTHEIMER KLAUS , MIHAS CONSTANTINOS C. , STOCKINGER JOCHEM , BLUM THOMAS , KALUSCHE DIETRICH , ARENTZ THOMAS 
Published: March 2009

Background:

Previous studies have demonstrated a high incidence of atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATs) in patients with Brugada syndrome (BS). The present study aimed to investigate whether various 12‐lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrophysiological parameters may help to differentiate subjects with a high probability to develop ATs.
Methods and Results:

The clinical records of 38 individuals (31 males, age 44.4 ± 13.9) with spontaneous (n = 15) or ajmaline‐induced (n = 23) type 1 ECG pattern of BS were analyzed. During a mean follow‐up period of 4.6 ± 2.2 years, nine subjects suffered ATs (24%). Six subjects displayed paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and three typical atrial flutter. Among the studied 12‐lead ECG parameters, subjects with ATs exhibited increased values of P‐wave duration in lead II, P‐wave dispersion, PR interval in leads II, QRS duration in leads II and V2, Tpeak‐end interval in lead II, and Tpeak‐end dispersion of the 12 leads in relation to those without ATs (P < 0.05). Among the assessed electrophysiological parameters, atrial‐His (AH) and His‐ventricular (HV) intervals were significantly prolonged in subjects with ATs (P < 0.05). Multiple Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that P‐wave duration in lead II, P‐wave dispersion, Tpeak‐end in lead II, Tpeak‐end dispersion of the 12 leads, as well as AH and HV intervals are independent predictors of ATs in subjects with BS (P < 0.05). Cut‐off point analysis showed that an HV interval≥56 ms displayed the highest predictive ability (P < 0.01).
Conclusion:

Our findings demonstrate that simple 12‐lead ECG and electrophysiological parameters may easily be applied to identify high‐risk subjects with BS ECG phenotype to develop ATs.
Five Years of Catheter Ablation Procedures in South‐Western Europe: Meta‐Analysis of National Registries
Authors: INAMA GIUSEPPE , PEDRINAZZI CLAUDIO , ADRAGAO PEDRO , ALVAREZ MIGUEL , ARRIBAS FERNANDO , BONHORST DANIEL , ELVAS LUIS , LANDOLINA MAURIZIO , MERINO JOSÈ L. , RODRIGUEZ ENRIQUE , DE SOUSA JOAO , GULIZIA MICHELE 
Published: March 2009

Background:

Radiofrequency catheter ablation is a well‐established approach to treating several types of cardiac arrhythmias. The aim of our study was to provide data on the diffusion of catheter ablation procedures in clinical practice through a meta‐analysis of National Registries of electrophysiological procedures performed over a 5‐year period, from 2000 to 2005.
Methods:

We found only two national registries of catheter ablation procedures published in the journals indexed in PubMed: The Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry and the Portuguese National Registry on Cardiac Electrophysiology. In addition, we included in our analysis the data from the Italian Registry of Electrophysiological Procedures.
Results and Conclusions:

This meta‐analysis revealed a steady increase in the total number of catheter ablation procedures, particularly for the ablation of atrial flutter, of tachycardia due to double nodal pathways, and of the left atrial substrate in atrial fibrillation. However, the progress of catheter ablation and the impetus for additional research and development of new approaches and technologic advances requires further data on clinical indications, methodologic approach, complications, and long‐term success rate in the real world.
The Public Sphere as Wilderness: Le Musée du quai Branly
Authors: Shelton Anthony Alan 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThis article has the dual purpose of first describing the Musée du quai Branly and secondly critically evaluating its espoused intentions, its reception and its potential disciplinary, political and museological implications. The first part of the essay is approached through the analysis of a selection of newspaper reviews, and a comparison between these and institutionally sanctioned views of the Museum as expressed by some of its principal functionaries and instigators. The essay concludes by discussing whether the function and organization of the museum as a public space significantly differs from earlier projects undertaken on the eve of the 21st century.
Prenuptial agreements: mating frequency predicts gift‐giving inHeliconiusspecies
Authors: Cardoso Márcio Zikán , Roper James J. , Gilbert Lawrence E. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractTheory predicts that when males provision females with nuptial gifts that include nutrients, the degree of polyandry should be positively correlated with the size or quality of the gift. This is because larger and more nutritious gifts tend to increase female refractory period, reducing the chances the female will remate soon. This decreases the likelihood of sperm competiton and consequently increases the donor male fitness. Butterflies in the genusHeliconiusKluk (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconini) exhibit variable mating systems that include monandry and polyandry. In addition to protein in the spermatophore, males increase gift quality by providing females with cyanide, which may contribute to protection of the female or her eggs. We tested whether degree of polyandry and gift quality (spermatophore weight and cyanide content) were correlated in nineHeliconiusspecies from greenhouse populations. As predicted, both spermatophore weight and cyanide content were correlated with mating frequency. This is the first report to show that degree of polyandry correlates with allocation of defensive chemical as part of a nuptial gift.
Pre‐release feeding on yeast hydrolysate enhances sexual competitiveness of sterile male Queensland fruit flies in field cages
Authors: Pérez‐Staples Diana , Weldon Christopher W. , Smallridge Catherine , Taylor Phillip W. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractRecent laboratory studies of mass‐reared flies in small cages have found that periods of just 24‐ or 48‐h access to yeast hydrolysate can substantially enhance mating performance of mass‐reared male Queensland fruit flies, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) (‘Q‐flies’). Using field cage tests that provide a better approximation of nature, we here investigated whether access to yeast hydrolysate for 48 h after adult emergence improves the ability of male and female mass‐reared, sterile Q‐flies to compete sexually with wild‐type flies that had been provided continuous access to yeast hydrolysate. Mating probability of sterile males was significantly increased by 48‐h access to yeast hydrolysate; sterile males provided 48‐h access to yeast hydrolysate had mating probability similar to that of wild males provided continuous access to yeast hydrolysate, whereas sterile males deprived of access to yeast hydrolysate had much lower mating probability. Unlike males, access to yeast hydrolysate for 48 h did not increase mating probability of sterile female Q‐flies. We instead found that wild females provided continuous access to yeast hydrolysate had higher mating probability than sterile females that did or did not have 48‐h access to yeast hydrolysate. This result raises the possibility that a bisexual Q‐fly strain might operate essentially as a male‐only release when the flies are given access to yeast hydrolysate during a 48‐h pre‐release holding period. Sterile males given access to yeast hydrolysate for 48 h mated significantly earlier in the evening than wild males and, as in other recent studies, this tendency was associated with an increased tendency to mate on the trees rather than the cage walls. There was no evidence of sexual isolation in this study, as wild and sterile mass‐reared flies showed no evidence of preferential mating with their own kind. Further studies are now needed to assess the potential for pre‐release access to yeast hydrolysate to improve sexual performance and longevity of sterile, mass‐reared, Q‐flies in the field.
Micro‐CT analysis of alveolar bone healing using a rat experimental model of critical‐size defects
Authors: Ebina H , Hatakeyama J , Onodera M , Honma T , Kamakura S , Shimauchi H , Sasano Y 
Published: March 2009

Objective:  This study was designed to establish a rat model of a critical size alveolar bone defect.Materials and methods:  Standardized buccal or mesiobuccal alveolar bone defects were made around the right first mandibular molar of 12‐week‐old rats, and the left was used as a control. Alveolar bone healing was examined quantitatively by three‐dimensional micro‐computed tomographic imaging. Bone matrix production of osteoblasts and osteocytes during repair of alveolar bone defects was examined with in situ hybridization for type I collagen.Results:  Buccal defects were repaired significantly and the volume decreased by 88.3% in week 24, whereas mesiobuccal defects were repaired little. Osteoblasts and osteocytes expressed type I collagen in both defects in week 3 but showed little expression by week 6 and thereafter, leaving the mesiobuccal defects largely unrepaired.Conclusion:  The mesiobuccal defect is a critical‐size defect that is not ultimately repaired with bone. It may be an appropriate experimental model for investigating the effectiveness of bone regenerative agents in human alveolar bone loss.
DNA content in malignant salivary gland tumours
Authors: Monteiro LS , Palmeira C , Bento MJ , Lopes C 
Published: March 2009

Objective:  Our aim was to evaluate the DNA content in malignant salivary gland tumours using image cytometry and its possible relationships with clinical and morphologic findings, disease course and prognosis.Patients and methods:  The study sample comprised 31 patients diagnosed and treated for primary malignant salivary gland tumours. Formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded surgical specimens of all patients were Feulgen‐stained for DNA content analysis by image cytometry. Statistical analysis was used to investigate possible relationships between DNA content variables and clinical and histological findings, disease course and patient survival.Results:  Seventeen (55%) cases of our sample were graded as DNA diploid, four (13%) as DNA aneuploid and 10 (32%) as DNA multiploid. In 15 (48%) cases, the 5c exceeding rate (5cER) was higher than 1.7%. DNA ploidy correlated with N stage and tumour size. DNA ploidy and 5cER had a statistically significant prognostic influence on overall and disease‐free survival in univariate analysis. However, in multivariate analysis, stage classification was the only parameter with an independent prognosis value.Conclusion:  Abnormal DNA content is a common finding in salivary gland cancers. Our results suggest an important role of DNA content analysis in the evaluation of these tumours.
The effect of the duration of the dialysis in hemodialysis patients on dental and periodontal findings
Authors: Cengiz MI , Sümer P , Cengiz S , Yavuz U 
Published: March 2009

Objective:  The purpose of this study was to investigate the dental and periodontal health status of patients on regular hemodialysis (HD) maintenance therapy, and the effect of duration of HD on oral status.Study design:  Sixty‐eight HD patients and 41 controls were examined. Decayed, Missing or Filled Teeth (DMFT index), plague index (PI), gingival index (GI), Probing pocket depth (PPD) and loss of periodontal attachment (LPA) were examined.Results:  Except DMFT index, significant differences were found in the other index values between patients and controls (P < 0.01). Dialysis duration significantly correlated not with DMFT but with the others. Also, DMFT values showed no significant differences between the five HD subgroups. For the PI, GI and PPD values, the first 5‐year period revealed no significant variation, whereas the second 5‐year period included significant increases. After 10 years, a much more significant increase was observed. The LPA values did not show any significant differences between the HD subgroups, but after 10 years a significant progressive increase can be observed.Conclusions:  The dental and periodontal health is poor in HD patients and becomes worse with time on dialysis. Thus, oral health maintenance is of utmost importance in this patient group.
Decomposing socio‐economic inequality in childhood malnutrition in Nigeria
Authors: Uthman Olalekan A. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThis paper measures and decomposes socio‐economic inequality in childhood malnutrition in Nigeria. Individual data records were constructed for a nationally representative sample of 4187 under‐5 children. The data were taken from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey in 2003. The household's socio‐economic status was measured using principal component analysis. The concentration index of childhood malnutrition was used as a measure of socio‐economic inequality and decomposed into its determining factors. The largest contributions to inequality in childhood malnutrition were household economic status (31%), health service index (17%), maternal education (13%) and proper sanitation (11%). Breastfeeding duration (8%), geopolitical regions (8%) and residency in rural/urban areas (5%) also proved important contributors to the measured inequality. The findings indicate that socio‐economic inequality in childhood malnutrition in Nigeria is determined not only by health system functions, but also by factors beyond the scope of health authorities and care delivery system. Scaling up universal approach linking the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education with other ministries may speed up the reduction of inequalities in social determinants of childhood malnutrition.
The use of video support for infant feeding after hospital discharge: a study in remote and rural Scotland
Authors: Roberts Anne , Hoddinott Pat , Heaney David , Bryers Helen 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThis study assesses the feasibility and acceptability of future infant feeding video support after hospital discharge, and investigates general views on the potential of other communication technology in a remote and rural area of Scotland. Mixed survey and qualitative methods were used. A consecutive sample of 403 women were given a questionnaire at discharge from post‐natal wards and 91 responded. From the respondents, 20 volunteers were purposively selected for in‐depth semi‐structured telephone interviews 6–8 weeks after birth. Results demonstrated that two‐thirds of survey respondents had access to video communication technology, and 86% supported the availability of an infant feeding video link to the National Health Service, dependent on reassurance that it would be timely, maintain continuity of care and be available from home any time of day or night. However, less than 25% of the survey respondents stated that they would definitely or probably use video via mobile or Internet for advice on breastfeeding problems. When provided with four common post‐natal scenarios, the majority preferred face‐to‐face, followed by telephone support. Rural respondents had reservations about the potential impact of video support on existing face‐to‐face services, and concerns were raised about ensuring privacy and security. There was no evidence to suggest that support for video link varied depending upon feeding method or experience. No single technology solution suited all women; therefore, any innovations should take account of difference in preference and be multifaceted in terms of encompassing a range of means of communication.
Romantic c/China: The Literature of Chinoiserie
Authors: Tong Joanne 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAs the popularity of Chinese‐style textiles, lacquers, and especially porcelain increased in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, chinoiserie objects inevitably found their way into literature. Porcelain, or ‘china’ begins to be troped as the reified sign of its geographical and cultural referent, ‘China’. In Romantic writings about porcelain, writers render porcelain as a legible object with a story to be told, or even make the object itself speak, so that c/China teapots and dishes seemed less and less like mass‐produced things and more and more like auratic works of art that had the power of mediating relations between British consumers and Chinese producers. In the chinoiserie poems of Joanna Baillie and Thomas Hood, we can witness the literary development of a unique version of commodity fetishism that invests great cultural and historical significance in the imagined lives of objects.
Material Meanings and the Social Signs of Manuscript Letters in Early Modern England
Authors: Daybell James 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThis article investigates the physical features and characteristics of early modern manuscript letters – paper, ink, handwriting, physical layout, signatures, seals and fastenings, and addresses and endorsements – paying attention to the significant meanings generated by such material forms. It is thus concerned more with the kinds of analysis traditionally associated with codicology, palaeography, sigillography and diplomatics, than with what might be termed social materiality, that is the social and cultural practices of letter‐writing and the contexts in which letters were composed, delivered, read and preserved, though the two areas of investigation are closely interrelated. The article argues thatmaterialreadings must reside alongside and complement literary, stylistic, linguistic, historical and more recent gender‐based approaches to letters in order to understand more fully the culture, practices and social signs of early modern letter‐writing.
Does Performance Studies Speak to Restoration Theatre?
Authors: Payne Fisk Deborah 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe rise of Performance Studies (PS) has been nothing short of phenomenal, but the field of Restoration drama and theatre has resisted this popular methodology, preferring critical approaches grounded in theatre history, literary exegesis, and, more recently, gender studies and queer theory. In part, the resistance is understandable: the dominant themes of PS – ethical research, social action, non‐scripted events, hybridity, and marginality – hardly apply to a theatre as resolutely textual and elite as the Restoration. Then too, Restoration drama's institutional history, which has traditionally privileged the ‘literary’ over the ‘theatrical’, additionally explains its disregard of PS. The field, however, has paid a price for not jumping on the PS bandwagon as evidenced by the decline in scholarly interest over the past decade. Arguably, criticism informed by ‘materialist semiotics’ and ‘site‐specific performance analysis’ might not only revive interest in Restoration theatre and drama but also avoid the theoretical shortcomings of PS.
Boz, Ba and Derry Down Derry: Names and Pseudonyms in Victorian Literature
Authors: Barton Anna 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIn nineteenth‐century fiction and poetry, names are frequently shown to be unstable, unreliable and occasionally dangerous. From the limericks of Edward Lear to the fiction of Charles Dickens, Victorian literature seems to pre‐empt Jacques Derrida's deconstructionist reading of name and signature, which insists that a name can never belong to the thing or person that it names, but has an independent existence in the system of signs that make up language. However, the Victorian interest in names and naming, which was rooted in both the philosophy of the period and in the prominence of names in the newly commodified marketplace, was also characterised by a faith in the power of naming and a concern about the responsibility that a name entailed.
Enhanced resistance to foliar fungal pathogens in carrot by application of elicitors
Authors: Jayaraj J. , Rahman M. , Wan A. , Punja Z.K. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractTreatment of greenhouse‐grown carrot plants with salicylic acid (SA) (100 μm), chitosan (0.02%) and the nutrient‐chelate product Alexin (1%) followed 10 h later by inoculation with the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Alternaria radicina and Botrytis cinerea significantly reduced disease development 10 days after inoculation (d.a.i.) compared with control plants sprayed with water. The most effective treatment was chitosan, followed by Alexin and SA. Additional sprays of elicitors resulted in significantly lower disease development 25 d.a.i. Treated plants had elevated transcript levels of pathogenesis‐related protein 1 (PR1), chitinase, lipid transfer protein (LTP), chalcone synthase, nonexpressor of PR1 and pathogenesis‐related protein 5 (PR5) genes compared with control plants when assayed 10–70 h after treatment. The activity of peroxidase, polyphenoloxidase, phenylalanine ammonia‐lyase, chitinase, β‐1,3‐glucanase and lipoxygenase was significantly increased in elicitor‐treated plants compared with control plants 12–72 h after treatment. Microscopic examination of treated leaves revealed reduced fungal growth and colonisation, 48 h after treatment, accompanied by fewer lesions at 120 h, compared with the control. Protein extracts from elicitor‐treated plants reduced spore germination and germ tube elongation of the pathogens in vitro by 30–45%. Elicitor‐treated plants accumulated higher amounts of total phenolics, 6‐methoxymellin and H2O2 compared with the control. Both chitosan and Alexin induced responses similar to that of SA, suggesting that these elicitors may activate the salicylate pathway, leading to induction of defence genes, enzymes, phytoalexin and phenolics, which collectively reduced fungal colonisation.