bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
GA2LEN skin test study III: Minimum battery of test inhalent allergens needed in epidemiological studies in patients
Authors: Bousquet P.‐J. , Burbach G. , Heinzerling L. M. , Edenharter G. , Bachert C. , Bindslev‐Jensen C. , Bonini S. , Bousquet‐Rouanet L. , Demoly P. , Bresciani M. , Bruno A. , Gjomarkaj M. , Canonica G. W. , Darsow U. , Durham S. , Fokkens W. J. , Giavi S. , Gramiccioni C. , Papadopoulos N. G. , Haahtela T. , Kowalski M. L. , Magyar P. , Muraközi G. , Orosz M. , Röhnelt C. , Stingl G. , Todo‐Bom A. , Von Mutius E. , Wiesner A. , Wöhrl S. , Bousquet J. , Zuberbier T. 
Published: October 2009

Background:  The number of allergens to be tested in order to identify sensitized patients is important in order to have the most cost‐effective approach in epidemiological studies.Objective:  To define the minimal number and the type of skin prick test (SPT) allergens required to identify a patient as sensitized using results of the new Pan‐European GA2LEN skin prick test study.Method:  In a large Pan‐European multicenter (17 centers in 14 countries) patient based study, a standardized panel of 18 allergens has been prick tested using a standardized procedure. Conditional approach allowed to determine the allergens selection.Result:  Among the 3034 patients involved, 1996 (68.2%) were sensitized to at least one allergen. Overall, eight allergens (grass pollen, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, birch pollen, cat dander, Artemisia, olive pollen, Blatella and Alternaria) allowed to identified more than 95% of sensitized subjects. However, differences were observed between countries, two allergens being sufficient for Switzerland (grass pollen and cat dander) as opposed to nine for France (grass pollen, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, olive pollen, cat dander, Blatella, cypress, dog dander, alder and [Artemisia or Alternaria]). According to country, up to 13 allergens were needed to identify all sensitized subjects.Conclusion:  Eight to ten allergens allowed the identification of the majority of sensitized subjects. For clinical care of individual patients, the whole battery of 18 allergens is needed to appropriately assess sensitization across Europe.
Bacterial tracheobronchitis. A rare cause of adult airway stenosis
Authors: KADOWAKI Toru , HAMADA Hironobu , FUJIWARA Ai , MIYOSHI Seigo , HAMAGUCHI Naohiko , ITO Ryoji , HIGAKI Jitsuo 
Published: October 2009

ABSTRACTBacterial tracheobronchitis is a rare cause of airway stenosis in adults. This report describes a 73‐year‐old woman with a recent history of polysialadenitis, who presented with severe airway obstruction due to infection and stenosis of tracheal and bronchial tissue. Tissue culture of the bronchial mucosa showed growth of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE). Sputum culture showed growth of MRSE, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae and Enterococcus faecalis; the same organisms were cultured from the salivary glands. Tracheostomy and antibiotic therapy were effective in controlling the disease.
Evaluation of an information booklet for caregivers of people with dementia: An Australian perspective
Authors: Chang Esther , Easterbrook Sally , Hancock Karen , Johnson Amanda , Davidson Patricia 
Published: October 2009

AbstractThe need for improved communication around end‐of‐life issues has been identified in cancer care. However, caregivers assisting those with dementia have been given scant attention. This study investigated the application of a new dementia information booklet for family caregivers, accessing those that were both community‐based and linked to a residential aged‐care facility through the distribution of 672 information booklets. This occurred via 14 dementia advisory services and 48 residential aged‐care facilities throughout New South Wales, Australia. A total of 233 carers (33%) completed the booklet questionnaire evaluation. The descriptive statistics indicated that most carers found the booklet useful and thought that the booklet should be freely available to them. Almost half of the carers said that they wanted to receive the information at the time of, or soon after, the diagnosis of dementia. Only a small group of respondents considered the information to be confronting. The reported anxiety was thought to be part of a larger issue of dementia education and dealing with loss and not specifically related to the booklet itself.
Effects of raloxifene on the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system and blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive osteoporotic postmenopausal women
Authors: Sumino Hiroyuki , Ichikawa Shuichi , Kasama Shu , Takahashi Takashi , Kumakura Hisao , Takayama Yoshiaki , Kanda Tsugiyasu , Murakami Masami , Kurabayashi Masahiko 
Published: October 2009

Aim:  An increase in blood pressure after menopause has been documented. The renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) plays a central role in the regulation of blood pressure and in the pathophysiology of hypertension. This study investigated the effects of raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, on components of the RAAS and blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive osteoporotic postmenopausal women.Methods:  A total of 41 hypertensive or normotensive postmenopausal women with osteoporosis or osteopenia were divided into four groups. Eleven hypertensive and eight normotensive women received raloxifene hydrochloride (60 mg/day) p.o. for 6 months, and 12 hypertensive and 10 normotensive women did not receive raloxifene hydrochloride for 6 months. In all of the hypertensive women, blood pressure had been controlled prior to the start of the study using a variety of antihypertensive drugs other than angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin (Ang)II type 1 receptor antagonists or diuretics. Plasma renin activity (PRA), serum ACE activity, plasma AngI, AngII and aldosterone concentrations, and blood pressure were measured before and 6 months after the start of the study.Results:  No significant changes in PRA, ACE activity, or the AngI, AngII or aldosterone levels were observed in any of the groups. In all the groups, blood pressure remained unchanged.Conclusion:  Raloxifene may have no significant effect on the RAAS or blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive osteoporotic postmenopausal women.
Repeat dynamic sentinel node biopsy in locally recurrent penile carcinoma
Authors: Graafland Niels M. , Leijte Joost A.P. , Valdés Olmos Renato A. , Van Boven Hester H. , Nieweg Omgo E. , Horenblas Simon 
Published: October 2009

Study Type – Diagnosis (case series) Level of Evidence 4OBJECTIVETo explore the role of repeat dynamic sentinel‐node biopsy (SNB) in clinically node‐negative patients with locally recurrent penile carcinoma after previous penile surgery and SNB.PATIENTS AND METHODSBetween 1994 and 2008, 12 patients (4% of the 304 in our prospectively maintained dynamic sentinel node database) with clinically node‐negative groins had a repeat SNB for locally recurrent penile carcinoma after previous penile surgery and SNB. Five of these patients had previously had a unilateral inguinal node dissection for groin metastases. The median disease‐free interval was 18 months. The protocol and technique of primary dynamic SNB and the repeat procedure were similar, including preoperative lymphoscintigraphy and blue‐dye injection. Completion inguinal node dissection was only done if there was an involved sentinel node.RESULTSNo sentinel nodes were seen on preoperative lymphoscintigraphy in the five groins that had previously been dissected. A sentinel node was visualized on lymphoscintigraphy in the remaining 19 undissected groins. In 15 of these groins (79%) the sentinel node was identified during surgery. Histopathological analysis showed involved sentinel nodes in four groins of three patients. Additional metastatic nodes were found in one completion inguinal lymph node dissection specimen. During a median follow‐up of 32 months after the repeat SNB, one patient developed a groin recurrence 14 months after a tumour‐negative sentinel node procedure.CONCLUSIONSRepeat dynamic SNB is feasible in clinically node‐negative patients with locally recurrent penile carcinoma despite previous SNB.
Comparison of the thermal and histopathological effects of bipolar and monopolar electrosurgical resection of the prostate in a canine model
Authors: Ko Raymond , Tan Andrew H.H. , Chew Ben H. , Rowe P. Elaine , Razvi Hassan 
Published: October 2009

OBJECTIVESTo compare the thermal and histopathological effects of two commercially available bipolar systems and conventional monopolar transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in a canine model. Bipolar TURP is an alternative to monopolar electrosurgery for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia and has several potential clinical advantages, including the ability to use normal saline irrigation, enhanced haemostasis and less collateral thermal damage.MATERIAL AND METHODSIn all, 12 adult male beagles were studied. After midline laparotomy and exposure of the bladder and prostate, two fibre‐optic thermosensors were placed to record tissue temperatures; one sensor was placed into the substance of the prostate 2 cm from the urethra and the second in the prostatic‐rectal groove on the capsular surface of the prostate to measure temperatures in the region of the neurovascular bundles. Through a midline cystotomy, antegrade TURP was performed using two different bipolar systems (Gyrus PlasmaKinetic and Vista, both from Gyrus‐ACMI Corporation, Maple Grove, MN, USA) or a monopolar device (ForceTM 2, Valleylab, Boulder, CO, USA). TURP was performed in each lateral lobe using 24 F resection loops. The dogs were humanely killed acutely and the prostates excised for histopathological assessment.RESULTSWhen comparing intraprostatic temperature data, the mean (sem) temperature changes recorded for the monopolar group were significantly higher than in either the Gyrus or Vista bipolar groups, at 24.2 (3.9) °C vs 8.1 (1.5) °C and 6.8 (1.8) °C, respectively (P < 0.001). No measurable temperature elevations were recorded near the neurovascular bundles with any of the electrosurgery devices. The depth of thermal damage was greatest in the monopolar group at 0.59 (0.27) mm compared with the Gyrus and Vista groups at 0.07 (0.08) mm and 0.15 (0.02) mm, respectively (P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONBipolar TURP generated significantly less heat and histopathological evidence of thermal damage compared with monopolar TURP in the present canine model.
Long‐term glycaemic effects of pioglitazone compared with placebo as add‐on treatment to metformin or sulphonylurea monotherapy in PROactive (PROactive 18)
Authors: Scheen A. J. , Tan M. H. , Betteridge D. J. , Birkeland K. , Schmitz O. , Charbonnel B. ,   on behalf of the PROactive investigators
Published: October 2009

AbstractAims  To assess the long‐term glycaemic effects, concomitant changes in medications and initiation of permanent insulin use (defined as daily insulin use for a period of ≥ 90 days or ongoing use at death/final visit) with pioglitazone vs. placebo in diabetic patients receiving metformin or sulphonylurea monotherapy at baseline in the PROspective pioglitAzone Clinical Trial in macroVascular Events (PROactive).Methods  In PROactive, patients with Type 2 diabetes and macrovascular disease were randomized to pioglitazone (force titrated to 45 mg/day) or placebo, in addition to other existing glucose‐lowering therapies. In a post‐hoc analysis, we categorized patients not receiving insulin at baseline and treated by oral monotherapy into two main cohorts: add‐on to metformin alone (n = 514) and sulphonylurea alone (n = 1001). The follow‐up averaged 34.5 months.Results  There were significantly greater reductions in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) with pioglitazone than with placebo and more pioglitazone‐treated patients achieved HbA1c targets, irrespective of the baseline oral glucose‐lowering regimen and despite a decrease in the use of other glucose‐lowering agents. Approximately twice as many in the placebo groups progressed to permanent insulin use than in the pioglitazone groups across the two cohorts: 3.4% for pioglitazone and 6.5% for placebo when added to metformin monotherapy and 6.3% and 14.8%, respectively, when added to sulphonylurea monotherapy. The overall safety of both dual therapies was good.Conclusions  Intensifying an existing oral monotherapy regimen to a dual oral regimen by adding pioglitazone resulted in sustained improvements in glycaemic control and reduced progression to insulin therapy. The efficacy and safety of adding pioglitazone to either metformin monotherapy or sulphonylurea monotherapy were good.
The effect of biopsy‐positive silent coeliac disease and treatment with a gluten‐free diet on growth and glycaemic control in children with Type 1 diabetes
Authors: Sun S. , Puttha R. , Ghezaiel S. , Skae M. , Cooper C. , Amin R. ,   on behalf of the North West England Paediatric Diabetes Network
Published: October 2009

AbstractObjective  To determine the effect of coeliac disease and treatment with a gluten‐free diet on growth and glycaemic control in asymptomatic children with Type 1 diabetes.Methods  Data were compared in children with coeliac disease diagnosed by annual antibody screening and jejunal biopsy and treated with a gluten‐free diet (n = 49) against individuals who were antibody negative (n = 49) matched for age, sex and duration of diabetes.Results  No differences in growth were observed. In the years prior to diagnosis of coeliac disease, mean glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) was lower in cases compared with control subjects [8.3 ± 1.1% vs. 8.7 ± 0.9%, P = 0.02 (mean ± sd)]. In cases, HbA1c deteriorated 12 months from the start of a gluten‐free diet to levels similar to control subjects (8.9 ± 1.5% vs. 8.8 ± 1.5%, P‐value for analysis of variance = 0.9). In regression analysis, the diagnosis of coeliac disease and start of a gluten‐free diet was associated with a rise in HbA1c in the first year of treatment [odds ratio 1.56 (95% confidence intervals 1.16–2.10), P = 0.003] after adjusting for insulin dose and regimen and other variables.Conclusions  In children with Type 1 diabetes, lower HbA1c prior to diagnosis of silent coeliac disease rises following treatment with a gluten‐free diet to levels similar to those without coeliac disease. Although unproven, these observations may relate to abnormalities at the small bowel mucosa before the appearance of circulating coeliac antibodies.
SHAPE OF THINGS: UNDERSTANDING A LOOM WEIGHT
Authors: MÅRTENSSON LINDA , NOSCH MARIE‐LOUISE , STRAND EVA ANDERSSON 
Published: October 2009

If there is one thing to be learnt from watching people work

in old traditional crafts it is this:

The tools and the working procedures are never clumsy, never impractical
(Hoffmann 1988)
SummaryLoom weights are common finds in archaeological excavations in Europe and the Near East. They represent the only remains of warp‐weighted looms. The function of the warp‐weighted loom is well known from ethnographic studies. The function of loom weights, however, has not been investigated and cannot be deduced directly from ethnographical data, since loom weights in antiquity were very different from those used in the twentieth century AD. This paper reviews the functional elements of a loom weight. The weight and thickness of loom weights are established as the defining functional parameters for the operation of the warp‐weighted loom. A series of systematic tests demonstrated that the weight of a loom weight defines what yarn to use and the thread density. The thickness of a loom weight, and thus the width of the row of loom weights hanging closely together, defines the width of a fabric and – together with the weight of the loom weight – the thread count and density of the fabric. This new knowledge provides the methodological framework for archaeologists to calculate textile production possibilities from any given loom weight, as long as the weight and thickness are preserved. Furthermore, it allows scholars to assess textile production on sites where no textiles are preserved.
DOES CRANIAL TRAUMA PROVIDE EVIDENCE FOR PROJECTILE WEAPONRY IN LATE IRON AGE DORSET?
Authors: REDFERN REBECCA C. 
Published: October 2009

SummaryHuman remains form an independent dataset with which to examine martial activity in past societies, particularly how to understand the types of weaponry used and who was subject to lethal violence. In the Late Iron Age of Dorset (first century BC to first century AD), these data are useful in understanding such activity in light of the small range of extant evidence.This bioarchaeological study examined the crania of 80 inhumed and articulated sexed adults, using forensic, bioarchaeological and clinical criteria to determine whether osteological evidence for sharp and blunt projectiles could be observed. The sample showed evidence for peri‐ and ante‐mortem traumas, with the majority of injuries sustained at the time of death; most affected males and were caused by blunt projectiles. Healed injuries were observed in both sexes but only females had evidence for remodelled blunt projectile injuries. The age‐groups affected were predominantly young and middle‐aged adults, suggesting that weapon training began early in life.
RETHINKING RACE HISTORY: THE ROLE OF THE ALBINO IN THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT LIFE SCIENCES1
Authors: CURRAN ANDREW 
Published: October 2009

ABSTRACTThe scholarly quest to recover the construction of racial difference in the Enlightenment‐era life sciences generally overlooks a singular fact: the vast majority of eighteenth‐century thinkers who were engaged in theorizing the human were often far more preoccupied with preserving a belief in an essential human sameness than they were in creating categories of essential difference. This article charts the problem of a potential human sameness as it related to questions of category, biological processes, and the human and non‐human through an examination of a neglected and key construct in the eighteenth‐century life sciences, the albino. The albino was absorbed into a scientific narrative in 1744 when Maupertuis used the concept to put forward a theory of shared origins or monogenesis. Positing that the nègre blanc—quite literally a “white Negro”—was a racial throwback, a reversion to a primitive whiteness, Maupertuis inspired a new generation of thinkers, most notably the great French naturalist Buffon, to assert categorically that blacks had degenerated from a prototype white variety. The significance of the concept nègre blanc, which has not been studied sufficiently, cannot be overestimated. In addition to the fact that the new role of the nègre blanc clearly said as much about whiteness as it did about blackness, the albino generated a new diagnostic chronology of the human species.
1. NARRATIVE FORM AND HISTORICAL SENSATION: ON SAUL FRIEDLÄNDER'S THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION1
Authors: CONFINO ALON 
Published: October 2009

ABSTRACTSaul Friedländer's magnum opus, The Years of Extermination, has been received worldwide as an exemplary work of history. Yet it was written by a historian who in the last two decades has strenuously asserted the limits of Holocaust representation. At the center of this essay is a problem of historical writing: how to write a historical narrative of the Holocaust that both offers explanations of the unfolding events and also suggests that the most powerful sensation about those events, at the time and since, is that they are beyond words. I explore Friedländer's crafting of such a narrative by considering, first, the role of his attempt in The Years of Extermination to explain the Holocaust and, second, the narrative form of the book. The book is best seen, I argue, not primarily as a work of explanation but as a vast narrative that places an explanation of the Holocaust within a specific form of describing that goes beyond the boundaries of the historical discipline as it is usually practiced. This form of describing goes beyond the almost positivist attachment to facts that dominates current Holocaust historiography. By using Jewish individual testimonies that are interspersed in the chronological history of the extermination, Friedländer creates a narrative based on ruptures and breaks, devices we associate with works of fiction, and that historians do not usually use. The result is an arresting narrative, which I interpret by using Johan Huizinga's notion of historical sensation. Friedländer sees this narrative form as specific to the Holocaust. I view this commingling of irreducible reality and the possibility of art as a required sensibility that belongs to all historical understanding. And in this respect, The Years of Extermination only lays bare more clearly in the case of the Holocaust what is an essential element in all historical reconstruction.
3. EVOCATION, ANALYSIS, AND THE “CRISIS OF LIBERALISM”
Authors: BROWNING CHRISTOPHER R. 
Published: October 2009

ABSTRACTIn The Years of Extermination, the second volume of Nazi Germany and the Jews, Saul Friedländer attempts to write an “integrated” history of the Holocaust that captures the “convergence” of German decisions and policies, the reaction of the surrounding world, and the perceptions and experiences of the Jews. Although several historiographical issues are studied in detail (the role of Hitler, the evolution of Nazi anti‐Jewish policy, and the role of the Christian churches), the most innovative aspect of the book is its extensive use of excerpts from over forty diaries of Jewish victims, which are interspersed among the statements of Nazi leaders and officials, Wehrmacht soldiers, churchmen, and various collaborators and bystanders in order to juxtapose “entirely different levels of reality.” What ultimately holds the book together, despite its intentionally disrupted narrative and Friedländer's disclaimer that the history of the Holocaust can be encompassed within any “single conceptual framework,” is the overarching theme of the “crisis of liberalism.”
Urea clearance: a new method to register local changes in blood flow in rat skeletal muscle based on microdialysis
Authors: Farnebo S. , Samuelsson A. , Henriksson J. , Karlander L.‐E. , Sjöberg F. 
Published: October 2009

SummaryIncreasing evidence suggests that local blood flow should be monitored during microdialysis (MD) as the recovery of analytes is affected by local blood flow. At present ethanol clearance is the standard technique for this purpose, but it is not functional at very low perfusion velocities. Here, we introduce a technique for MD whereby local tissue blood flow is recorded by the use of urea clearance (changes inflow/outflow concentration), in conjunction with measurements of tissue metabolism (glucose, lactate and puruvate). MD probes were inserted into the gracilis muscle of 15 rats and perfused with a medium containing urea (20 mmol l−1). Changes in muscle blood flow were made by addition of noradrenaline (5 μg ml−1) to the perfusion medium at two perfusion velocities (0·6 and 0·4 μl min−1). The clearance of urea from the perfusion medium was then calculated and examined in relation to the dose of noradrenaline and to the coexisting changes in extracellular metabolites. The results showed reproducible and dose‐dependent changes in blood flow that were induced by noradrenaline. These were characterized by dose‐dependent changes in the urea clearance as well as blood‐flow‐specific changes in the MD metabolic markers (reduction in glucose and increase in lactate). The sensitivity for blood flow changes as assessed by urea clearance (MD) was increased at 0·4 compared with the 0·6 μl min−1 perfusion speed. The results indicate that inclusion of urea to the perfusion medium may be used to monitor changes in skeletal muscle blood flow at low perfusion velocities and in parallel assess metabolic variables with a high recovery (>90%).