bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reliability of frozen section examination of obturator lymph nodes and impact on lymph node dissection borders during radical cystectomy: results of a prospective multicentre study by the Turkish Society of Urooncology
Authors: Baltaci Sumer , Adsan Oztug , Ugurlu Ozgur , Aslan Guven , Can Cavit , Gunaydin Gurhan , Buyukalpelli Recep , Elhan Atilla Halil , Beduk Yasar 
Published: July 2010

Study Type – Diagnostic (exploratory cohort) Level of Evidence 2b What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? The anatomic extent of lymphadenectomy to achieve both goals, namely accurate staging and potential curative role, in bladder carcinoma patients is still in debate.We aimed in this study to evaluate the accuracy of frozen section examination (FSE) for detecting lymph node (LN) metastases and whether we can use this information to decide the extent of LN dissection during cystectomy. As a conclusion, we think that in such cases performing FSE only at obturator regions will give the information of possibility of residual positive LNs and the surgeon will then decide whether or not it is worthwhile in that case to proceed with EPLND.OBJECTIVETo evaluate the accuracy of frozen section examination (FSE) for detecting lymph node (LN) metastases and whether we can use this information to decide the extent of LN dissection during cystectomy.PATIENTS AND METHODSFrom August 2005 to August 2009 FSE of obturator LNs was performed in 118 patients with bladder cancer, who were undergoing radical cystectomy with extended LN dissection. Removed tissues from 12 well defined LN regions were sent separately for pathologic evaluation. The FSE results of obturator regions were compared with the final histopathologic results of these node regions.RESULTSThe mean number of removed nodes per patient was 29.4 ± 9.3 (median 28, range 12 to 51). The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of FSE for the 118 right obturator LN regions were 94.7%, 100%, 100% and 99%, respectively. The same values for the 118 left obturator LN regions were 86.7%, 100%, 100% and 98.1%, respectively. At final pathologic examination 28 of 118 (23.7%) patients had LN metastasis at obturator regions. Skipped metastasis was found in 15/90 patients (16.7%). Clinical and pathological stage of the primary tumour were found to be significant parameters for skipped metastasis (P= 0.008 and P < 0.001, respectively).CONCLUSIONSPerforming FSE of the obturator LNs seems to be a reliable procedure for their evaluation with acceptable negative and positive predictive values. The information obtained with FSE of obturator LNs can be used to determine intraoperatively the extent of LN dissection, especially in patients with significant comorbidity. Our study also showed that if the clinical stage of the primary tumour is <cT2, the possibility of skipped metastasis is zero.
Trifecta outcomes after robot‐assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
Authors: Novara Giacomo , Ficarra Vincenzo , D’Elia Carolina , Secco Silvia , Cavalleri Stefano , Artibani Walter 
Published: July 2010

Study Type – Therapy (outcomes research) Level of Evidence 2c What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? The ideal outcome following radical prostatectomy includes presence of undetectable PSA, and full recovery of urinary continence and erectile function (the so called trifecta outcome). Very few studies are indeed available on the trifecta outcome following retropubic radical prostatectomy and a single one reported trifecta outcome following robot‐assisted radical prostatectomy.We found that 1‐year after surgery 89% of the patients were continent, 60% were potent and 95.5% were with undetectable PSA and without adjuvant therapies. On the whole, trifecta outcome was achieved by 57% of the patients. On multivariable analysis, patients age at surgery and preoperative erectile function were independent predictors of trifecta.OBJECTIVETo evaluate the trifecta outcome and its preoperative predictors in a series of consecutive patients who underwent robot‐assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP).PATIENTS AND METHODSWe collected prospectively the clinical data of 242 consecutive patients with a minimum 12‐month follow‐up undergoing RALP for clinically localized prostate cancer. International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire–Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ‐UI SF) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF)‐6 were used to evaluate the functional outcomes. Patients receiving adjuvant therapies or with a PSA at follow‐up >0.2 ng/mL were censored for the biochemical recurrence‐free analysis. Logistic regression was used to perform univariable and multivariable analyses.RESULTSTwelve months after surgery, 216 patients (89%) were continent and 145 (60%) were potent. At a median follow‐up of 14 mo, 11 patients (4.5%) had either adjuvant radiation therapies within 3 months of surgery, when PSA was still undetectable (n= 6, 2.5%), or salvage radiation or hormone plus radiation therapy for PSA relapse (n= 5, 2%). A trifecta outcome was achieved by 137 patients (57%). On univariable regression analysis, patients’ age at surgery (P < 0.001), body‐mass index (P= 0.028), preoperative IIEF‐6 score (P < 0.001) and prostate volume (P= 0.036) were significantly associated with trifecta rates. On multivariable analysis, only patients’ age at surgery (odds ratio 1.095; P= 0.005) and preoperative IIEF‐6 score (odds ratio 0.803; P < 0.001) were independent predictors of trifecta rates.CONCLUSIONUsing validated questionnaires to assess functional outcomes, we found that 57% of our patients undergoing nerve‐sparing RALP achieved the trifecta outcome 12 months after surgery. Patient age at surgery and preoperative erectile function were the only independent predictors of trifecta rates.
The pyramid of transgenes TsVP and BetA effectively enhances the drought tolerance of maize plants
Authors: Wei AiYing , He ChunMei , Li Bei , Li Ning , Zhang JuRen 
Published: July 2010

SummaryStress resistance has repeatedly been enhanced in plants by the transfer of a single gene using genetic engineering. However, further enhancement of resistance to abiotic stress is still necessary. In our research, maize plants that were transgenic for both betA (encoding choline dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli) and TsVP (encoding V‐H+‐PPase from Thellungiella halophila) were produced by cross‐pollination. The existence of the transgenes in the pyramided plants was demonstrated by PCR and Southern blotting. The stable expression of transgenes was confirmed by real‐time RT‐PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) analysis. An examination of the drought resistance characteristics demonstrated that the pyramided transgenic plants had higher glycinebetaine contents and H+‐PPase activity compared with the parental lines, which had either betA or TsVP, and contained higher relative water content (RWC), greater solute accumulation and lower cell damage under drought stress treatment. The pyramided plants grew more vigorously with less growth retardation, shorter anthesis‐silking interval and higher yields than their parental lines and the wild‐type. We concluded that co‐expression of the two genes involved in different metabolism pathways in pyramided transgenic maize helped to improve the drought resistance over their parental lines that contained either single transgene. Our study suggests that the co‐expression of multiple, effective genes in transgenic plants could effectively enhance the resistance to abiotic stress and provide a feasible approach for obtaining maize plants with improved drought resistance.
WebQuests in special primary education: Learning in a web‐based environment
Authors: Kleemans Tijs , Segers Eliane , Droop Mienke , Wentink Hanneke 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe present study investigated the differences in learning gain when performing a WebQuest with a well‐defined versus an ill‐defined assignment. Twenty boys and twenty girls (mean age 11; 10), attending a special primary education school, performed two WebQuests. In each WebQuest, they performed either a well‐defined or an ill‐defined assignment. Knowledge acquisition was assessed by means of a concept map (ie, associative knowledge) and a knowledge test, based on facts concerning the subject (ie, factual knowledge). Results indicated that the learning gain on both WebQuests was higher for participants who worked on the ill‐defined assignments. In the long term, factual knowledge remained intact. The results of this study indicated that the use of WebQuest can be a valuable tool to enrich the educational curriculum in special education.
A concept map approach to developing collaborative Mindtools for context‐aware ubiquitous learning
Authors: Hwang Gwo‐Jen , Shi Yen‐Ru , Chu Hui‐Chun 
Published: July 2010

AbstractRecent advances in mobile and wireless communication technologies have enabled various new learning approaches which situate students in environments that combine real‐world and digital‐world learning resources; moreover, students are allowed to share knowledge or experiences with others during the learning process. Although such an approach seems to be promising and innovative, researchers have indicated several problems when applying it to practical applications, in particular, the lack of proper strategies or tools to assist the students to learn collaboratively in such a learning scenario with abundant content. Students might feel interested when using the mobile devices to learn; however, without proper assistance or guidance, their learning achievements are usually disappointing. To cope with this problem, this study proposes a concept map‐oriented Mindtool for collaborative ubiquitous learning. Experimental results from a natural science course in an elementary school show that this approach not only enhances learning motivation but also improves the learning achievements of the students.
Developing an instrument to measure social presence in distance higher education
Authors: Kim JungJoo 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThis paper examines the construct of social presence and develops an instrument to measure social presence in distance higher education. Social presence is regarded as an important factor to understand psychological and emotional relations among distant learners, especially when constructivism and discourse based learning are emphasised. Items initially drawn from the literature were reviewed by experts in relevant fields and extracted through exploratory and confirmatory analyses. Then correlation analysis was executed to see the relationship between social presence and other learning variables. As a result, this study confirmed four factor constructs of social presence: mutual attention and support, affective connectedness, sense of community and open communication, and also generated and verified a social presence instrument with a total of 19 items.
Asynchronous and synchronous online teaching: Perspectives of Canadian high school distance education teachers
Authors: Murphy Elizabeth , Rodríguez‐Manzanares María A. , Barbour Michael 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an inductive, interpretive analysis of the perspectives of 42 Canadian high school distance education (DE) teachers on asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. The paper includes a conceptual overview of the affordances and constraints of each form of teaching. Findings provided insight into the following aspects of asynchronous and synchronous online teaching: degree of use; the tools used; the contexts in which each occur; students' preferences; and limitations. Pedagogy emerged as more important than media for both asynchronous and synchronous online teaching. Synchronous online teaching relied on teacher‐ rather than student‐centred approaches. Asynchronous online teaching provided support for self‐paced, highly independent forms of secondary DE supplemented by synchronous online teaching for answering questions and troubleshooting.
Educational benefits of using game consoles in a primary classroom: A randomised controlled trial
Authors: Miller David J. , Robertson Derek P. 
Published: July 2010

AbstractIt is known that computer games are motivating for children, but there is limited direct evidence of their effects on classroom learning. The studies that are available tend to be limited in terms of output data reported, or small in scale, or both. The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to upscale a recent study by Miller and Robertson investigating the effects of a commercial off‐the‐shelf computer game on children's mental computation skills and self‐perceptions. A pre‐post design was employed, with 634 primary (elementary) school children (10–11 years old) from 32 schools across Scotland. Schools were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. In the experimental schools, children used a games console for 20 minutes each day, running a ‘brain training’ game. The controls continued with their normal routine. The treatment period was 9 weeks. Significant pre‐post gains in accuracy and speed of calculations were found in both experimental and control groups over the treatment period. Gains in the experimental group were 50% greater than those of the controls in accuracy, and twice those of the controls in speed. There were no significant changes in two measures of self‐concept for either group. There was a small but statistically significant improvement in attitude towards school among the experimental group but not the controls. When scores were analysed by ability, different patterns were apparent. The design of the study allows a degree of confidence when generalising from these results. Some implications of the findings are discussed.
The roles of phonology and analogy In Old English high vowel deletion
Authors: Fulk R. D. 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThe problem under consideration is the exact nature of the application of High Vowel Deletion (HVD) in Old English. As discussed in §1, according to what has come to be the most prevalent view, a form such as nom.acc.pl. hēafdu‘heads’ in Late West Saxon, from earlier *hēafudu, is the phonologically regular result of the application of HVD. In §2 a recent alternative explanation is discussed, whereby *hēafudu should have produced *hēafd, which was subsequently reformed to hēafdu in West Saxon on the basis of analogy. Some initial difficulties that confront this latter explanation are discussed. The earlier analysis of Eduard Sievers maintains that neither of these analyses is correct, and that hēafudu, one of the forms actually attested in early texts, including the Vespasian Psalter, represents the purely phonological result of HVD, which applies vacuously to this form. Evidence is adduced in §3 demonstrating that the treatment of the phonological results of HVD in interrelated declensional categories in the dialect of the Vespasian Psalter are preserved with impressive conservatism, evincing little or no analogical disruption. This conclusion lends strong support to Sievers’ analysis of forms like hēafudu and renders it extremely improbable that West Saxon hēafdu can be anything but an analogical creation or that the proposed *hēafd could ever have existed. In §4 a rationale is offered for the changes, analogical or otherwise, that must be assumed for West Saxon in forms like hēafdu, as well as in ja‐stem neuter nouns with plurals like rīċu, wītu, along with feminine nouns in Germanic *‐iþō, such as and .
An overview of Old Tibetan synchronic phonology
Authors: Hill Nathan W. 
Published: July 2010

AbstractDespite the importance of Old Tibetan in the Tibeto‐Burman language family, little research has treated Old Tibetan synchronic phonology. This article gives a complete overview of the Old Tibetan phonemic system by associating sound values with the letters of the Tibetan alphabet and exploring the distribution of these sounds in syllable structure.
Implicit possessives and reflexive binding in Norwegian
Authors: Lødrup Helge 
Published: July 2010

AbstractNorwegian allows implicit possessives with nouns in some cases when the subject is the understood possessor (e.g.Han vasket hendene‘he washed hands.DEF’). The core group of nouns that allow this option is body‐part nouns, but it can be extended to nouns denoting objects in the ‘personal domain’. There are both syntactic and semantic restrictions on sentences with implicit possessives. These restrictions are discussed, and it is shown that the distribution of nouns with implicit possessives follows that of the local simple reflexiveseg. An account is given which highlights the connection between reflexive binding and implicit possessives.
Coordination and word order in the history of Swedish
Authors: Petzell Erik Magnusson 
Published: July 2010

AbstractThis article deals with the relations between coordination and word order in the history of Swedish. In Present‐day Swedish, the finite verb always raises to Coin main‐clause coordination, whereas it always remains in situ (in VP) in subordinate clause coordination. In Older Swedish, either verbal position was possible in both cases. In addition, VS word order was used in contexts where it would be ungrammatical today. Subordinate conjuncts with V in Co, main clause conjuncts with V in Vo, and VS conjuncts are all analysed as parts of coordination, in which only the first conjunct contains a trace after an extracted element; this type of trace asymmetry characterises a wide range of coordinate structures in Older Swedish. In the modern language, on the other hand, a trace in a first conjunct is always matched with equivalent traces in all subsequent conjuncts (the traces occur across the board).
Equity Markets Do Not Fit All: an Analysis of Public‐to‐Private Deals in Continental Europe
Authors: Geranio Manuela , Zanotti Giovanna 
Published: July 2010

AbstractConcentration of family‐based ownership and recent development of private equity companies in Continental Europe suggest that the motivations and results of public‐to‐private (PTP) deals may differ from well‐studied cases in the USA and the UK. We overview the PTP market and measure the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of 106 PTP deals concluded in Continental Europe from 2000 to 2005, introducing a model to explain the abnormal returns. Our results partially confirm findings of previous studies, namely, that undervalued and smaller firms register higher CARs. We additionally find that deals promoted by family owners register higher abnormal returns, whereas financial investors and private operating firms show no impact.
Functioning of the upper extremity in persons with late polio
Authors: Sunnerhagen K. S. , Lundgren‐Nilsson Å. , Willén C. 
Published: July 2010

Background: There are a number of people living with late effects of polio, but the extent of engagement with the upper extremity is unclear. The objective is to describe the polio involvement in persons attending the polio clinic and to assess the perceived problems in self‐reported arm/hand function.Material and methods: A 1‐year sample of consecutively examined community‐dwelling people at the polio clinic. Electromyography and muscle strength were assessed as part of the clinical examination. A questionnaire regarding perceived problems in different activities involving arm/hand function was sent out prior to appointment and brought to the clinic.Results: A total of 186 persons were seen, and the majority was women (65%). The average age at examination was 60 years (SD 14), and the acute polio illness had occurred at 5 years of age (SD 7). Post‐polio syndrome was present in 96%. Polio involvement in the upper extremities was seen in the majority, and this was often clinically unstable. Perceptions of problems in arm/hand activities did not always correlate with having had polio in the upper extremity or with mode of mobility. However, the grip force correlated significantly with the number of perceived problems. Bi‐manual activities were more often perceived problematic.Conclusions: Polio involvement in the upper extremity is very common. There were no obvious correlations with the objective findings of polio and perceived problems. The polio survivors’ adaptation requires more questions and assessments from the professional team to identify those with a possible need for intervention.
Near fixation of melanism in leopards of the Malay Peninsula
Authors: Kawanishi K. , Sunquist M. E. , Eizirik E. , Lynam A. J. , Ngoprasert D. , Wan Shahruddin W. N. , Rayan D. M. , Sharma D. S. K. , Steinmetz R. 
Published: July 2010

AbstractMelanistic leopardsPanthera pardusare common in south‐east Asian forests but the exact frequency of this variant phenotype is difficult to assess. Records from camera‐trapping studies conducted at 22 locations in Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand between 1996 and 2009 show that only melanistic leopards were present in samples south of the Isthmus of Kra. During 42 565 trap‐nights, we collected 445 photos of melanistic leopards and 29 photos of the spotted or non‐melanistic morph. All 29 photos of spotted leopards came from study sites north of the Isthmus. These results indicate that this recessive trait may be nearly fixed inP. parduspopulations of the Malay Peninsula, suggesting a unique evolutionary history of leopards in the region. Assuming a very small effective population size (Ne=100) and a high initial allelic frequency, at least 1000 years would be expected to elapse until a neutral allele became fixed. The severe bottleneck implied by this scenario provides a testable hypothesis that can be addressed using molecular markers and evidence of past glacioeustatic changes across the region. Although natural selection might lead to rapid fixation of melanism within Malayan leopards, had their effective population size been much larger (e.g.Ne=5000) and stable, with a lower allelic frequency, the fixation would require a longer time span (e.g. 20 000 years) if induced by genetic drift alone.
The priming of storage glucan synthesis from bacteria to plants: current knowledge and new developments
Authors: D’Hulst Christophe , Mérida Ángel 
Published: July 2010

SummaryStarch is the main polymer in which carbon and energy are stored in land plants, algae and some cyanobacteria. It plays a crucial role in the physiology of these organisms and also represents an important polymer for humans, in terms of both diet and nonfood industry uses. Recent efforts have elucidated most of the steps involved in the synthesis of starch. However, the process that initiates the synthesis of the starch granule remains unclear. Here, we outline the similarities between the synthesis of starch and the synthesis of glycogen, the other widespread and abundant glucose‐based polymer in living cells. We place special emphasis on the mechanisms of initiation of the glycogen granule and current knowledge concerning the initiation of the starch granule. We also discuss recent discoveries regarding the function of starch synthases in the priming of the starch granule and possible interactions with other elements of the starch synthesis machinery.