bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Water Deficit during the Reproductive Period of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Reduced Grain Yield but Maintained Seed Size
Authors: Gusmao M. , Siddique K. H. M. , Flower K. , Nesbitt H. , Veneklaas E. J. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThe grain legume grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is adapted to drought‐prone environments, but the extent and mechanisms of its tolerance are not well understood. In a pot experiment, water deficit was imposed on plants by withholding water from first flowering until predawn leaf water potential (LWPpd) was −3.12 MPa. Water deficit reduced dry matter, seed yield, harvest index and water use efficiency by 60 %, 87 %, 67 % and 75 %, respectively, when compared with the controls. Flower production stopped when LWPpd fell to −1.8 MPa. At LWPpd−1.5 MPa, only 25 % of flowers resulted in filled pods (compared with 95 % filled pods in the control) with the rest aborted as flowers (48 %) or pods (27 %). Filled pods had more aborted ovules than controls, resulting in 29 % less seeds per pod. Water deficit reduced pollen viability, germination and the number of pollen tubes reaching the ovary by 13 %, 25 % and 31 %, respectively. Emergence from seeds produced from water‐deficient plants was 21 % less than controls, but seedling shoot dry mass was 18 % higher, in accordance with the 19 % higher seed mass. The sensitivity of flowering to drought limited pod numbers but enabled plants to retain existing pods and develop near‐normal seeds with low β‐N‐oxalyl‐l‐α‐β‐diaminopropionic acid toxin concentrations. This trait is useful for farming systems reliant on harvested seed for the next crop and in cases where seed size influences the value of the product.
Concentrations of haptoglobin in bovine plasma determined by ELISA or a colorimetric method based on peroxidase activity
Authors: Cooke R. F. , Arthington J. D. 
Published: April 2012

SummaryThe objective was to compare different procedures for determination of haptoglobin in bovine plasma. Nine Angus steers were vaccinated againstMannheimia haemolyticato stimulate an acute‐phase response. Blood samples were collected immediately prior to vaccination (day 0), and on days 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10. Plasma samples were frozen in duplicates at −80 °C. One set of the duplicates was analysed for haptoglobin concentrations using a commercial ELISA kit. A day effect was detected (p < 0.01) because haptoglobin peaked on day 3 and returned to baseline on day 7 relative to vaccination. The second duplicate was analysed using a procedure that measures haptoglobin–haemoglobin complexing by estimating differences in peroxidase activity (CPPA) with results expressed as optical density. Further, based on the ELISA results, the plasma sample with the greatest haptoglobin concentration was also serially diluted into a plasma sample with negligible haptoglobin concentration from the same steer (1:1 through 1:1024 dilution). These dilutions were used within the CPPA method to generate a standard curve and estimate plasma haptoglobin concentrations (CPPA + STD). A linear standard curve was generated (r2 = 0.99). A day effect similar to the ELISA method was detected for the CPPA and CPPA + STD methods (p < 0.01). Results obtained from CPPA and ELISA methods were positively correlated (r = 0.97; p < 0.01). The values generated by the CPPA + STD procedure were similar (p = 0.38) compared to the values generated by the ELISA method. In conclusion, assessing concentrations of haptoglobin in bovine plasma using the CPPA and CPPA + STD methods generate highly correlated or similar results, respectively, compared to ELISA. Therefore, the CPPA + STD and CPPA methods can be used as a less expensive alternative to ELISA to determine concentrations or monitor changes in plasma haptoglobin in bovine samples.
Rapid death after admission to palliative care
Authors: Paratz E. D. , Flynn E. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackground:  Palliative care units provide non‐curative treatment and support to patients with terminal illness. Brief end‐of‐life admissions are disruptive for patients and their families, and increase staff stress. Extremely rapid deaths (survival <24 h from admission) are particularly challenging for all involved. From 1 January 2010 to 23 August 2011, 256 patients died on the Palliative Care Unit (Caritas Christi) at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. Forty‐two died within 24 h (16%), while 214 survived beyond 24 h (84%).Aims:  A retrospective chart audit was conducted, aiming to identify factors characterising those patients who died within 24 h.Methods:  Groups were compared for age, gender, country of birth, preferred language, ward of origin, primary pathology, time trends, whether an emergency code was called, Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) phase, modified Karnofsky score and commencement of a syringe driver for medication.Results:  Results showed that admission from neurosurgery (P= 0.0001), a vascular or infective pathology (P= 0.0001), PCOC phase ≥3 (P= 0.0001), modified Karnofsky score ≤20% (P= 0.0001), and commencement of a syringe driver prior to or at admission (P= 0.0001) were all significantly associated with death within 24 h of admission. On binary logistic regression, the only independent predictor of patients likely to die in <24 h from admission was PCOC phase ≥3 (P= 0.002).Conclusions:  This study is designed to help clinicians identify patients likely to deteriorate rapidly. Alternative options could include earlier transfer to the palliative care unit or palliation on their home ward with palliative care consultation.
Recent trends in Victorian risk‐adjusted in‐hospital mortality: 1999–2009
Authors: Duke G. , Barker A. , Santamaria J. , Graco M. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundThe background of the study is a comparison of risk‐adjusted mortality across hospitals from different jurisdictions is now common worldwide.AimTo examine temporal trends in risk‐adjusted mortality in Victoria over the last decade.MethodsRetrospective cohort study of 6.89 million adult (>14 years) patient episodes from 23 major Victorian public hospitals between 1999 and 2009. The primary outcome was in‐hospital death. Three measures were calculated: the crude mortality rate, risk‐adjusted mortality rate and standardised mortality ratio (SMR). The Hospital Outcome Prediction Equation (HOPE) was applied to generate estimates of predicted mortality that were used to compute the SMR and risk‐adjusted mortality rates. The HOPE model includes 26 exogenous risk factors for which providers have no influence. The model was calibrated using the 2004–2005 data. Temporal mortality trends from 1999–2009 were evaluated using negative binomial regression for crude mortality and SMR estimates and random‐intercept hierarchical logistic regression for risk‐adjusted mortality.ResultsThe study population included 84 423 in‐hospital deaths (1.2%). Crude mortality risk declined from 1.5% in 2000 to 1.1% in 2005–2009 (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95–0.97; P < 0.001). There were 1.39 million episodes in the HOPE calibration cohort. Between 1999 and 2009, the SMR decreased from 1.4 to 0.9 (IRR = 0.91; 95% CI: 0.90–0.97; P < 0.001) and adjusted mortality risk declined from 2.1% to 0.9% (odds ratio = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.94–0.94, P < 0.001). Declining mortality trends were evident in the tertiary, metropolitan and regional peer groups (P < 0.001).ConclusionAnalysis of in‐hospital risk‐adjusted mortality trends using the HOPE model indicates significant improvement in patient outcomes in the State of Victoria over the past decade.
Sleep‐dependent consolidation of procedural motor memories in children and adults: the pre‐sleep level of performance matters
Authors: Wilhelm Ines , Metzkow‐Mészàros Maila , Knapp Susanne , Born Jan 
Published: April 2012

AbstractIn striking contrast to adults, in children sleep following training a motor task did not induce the expected (offline) gain in motor skill performance in previous studies. Children normally perform at distinctly lower levels than adults. Moreover, evidence in adults suggests that sleep dependent offline gains in skill essentially depend on the pre‐sleep level of performance. Against this background, we asked whether improving children’s performance on a motor sequence learning task by extended training to levels approaching those of adults would enable sleep‐associated gains in motor skill in this age group also. Children (4–6 years) and adults (18–35 years) performed on the motor sequence learning task (button‐box task) before and after ∼2‐hour retention intervals including either sleep (midday nap) or wakefulness. Whereas one group of children and adults, respectively, received the standard amount of 10 blocks of training before retention intervals of sleep or wakefulness, a further group of children received an extended training on 30 blocks (distributed across 3 days). A further group of adults received a restricted training on only two blocks before the retention intervals. Children after standard training reached lowest performance levels, whereas in adults performance after standard training was highest. Children with extended training and adults after reduced training reached intermediate performance levels. Only at these intermediate performance levels did sleep induce significant gains in motor sequence skill, whereas performance did not benefit from sleep in the low‐performing children or in the high‐performing adults. Spindle counts in the post‐training nap were correlated with performance gains at retrieval only in the adults benefitting from sleep. We conclude that, across age groups, sleep induces the most robust gain in motor skill at an intermediate pre‐sleep performance level. In low‐performing children sleep‐dependent improvements in skill may be revealed only after enhancing the pre‐sleep performance level by extended training.
THE TRIPLISM OF PRACTICAL REASON
Authors: Skorupski John 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThere can be reasons for belief, for action, and for feeling. In each case, knowledge of such reasons requires non‐empirical knowledge of some truths about them: these will be truths about what there is reason to believe, to feel, or to do – either outright or on condition of certain facts obtaining. Call these a priori truths about reasons, ‘norms’. Norms are a priori true propositions about reasons.It's an epistemic norm that if something's a good explanation that's a reason to believe it. It's an evaluative norm that if someone's cheated you that's a reason to be annoyed with them. There are many evaluative norms, relating to a variety of feelings. Equally, there may be various epistemic norms, even though in this case they all relate to belief. My concern here, however, is with practical norms: a priori truths about what there is reason to do.I have a suggestion about what fundamental practical norms there are, which I would like to describe and explain. It is that there are just three distinct kinds of practical norm governing what there is reason to do – three categories or generic sources of practical normativity, one may say. I call them the Bridge principle, the principle of Good, and the Demand principle – Bridge, Good and Demand for short. I have said more about them in my book, The Domain of Reasons;1 here my aim is simply to set them out and sketch some questions to which this ‘triplism of practical reason’2 gives rise. In particular, since these norms are about practical reasons, not about morality, a question I'll touch on is how moral obligation comes onto the scene.
IRIS MURDOCH AND THE BORDERS OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
Authors: Milligan Tony 
Published: April 2012

AbstractIris Murdoch's philosophical texts depart significantly from familiar analytic discursive norms. (Such as the norms concerning argument structure and the minimization of rhetoric.) This may lead us to adopt one of two strategies. On the one hand an assimilation strategy that involves translation of Murdoch's claims into the more familiar terms of property‐realism (the terminology of ethical naturalism and non‐naturalism). On the other hand, there is the option of adopting a crossover strategy and reading Murdoch as (in some sense) a philosopher who belongs more properly to the continental tradition. The following article argues that if familiar Quinean claims about ontological commitment and Murdoch's account of metaphor are both broadly correct then the assimilation strategy must fail to produce a faithful translation. Nonetheless, Murdoch's connection to the analytic tradition is more than genealogical, it is more than a matter of her writing (initially) in response to analytic contemporaries before branching off in a more continental direction. While she departs from familiar analytic discursive norms, she continues to accept most of the epistemic values (such as clarity and simplicity) that the norms embody.
Norwegian Euroscepticism: Values, Identity or Interest*
Authors: SKINNER MARIANNE SUNDLISÆTER 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThis article presents a new theory – the VCR (Values, political Culture and Rural society) model – to clarify what Norwegian Euroscepticism is really about and explain why so many Norwegians do not want their country to be a member of the European Union. It argues that at the centre of Norwegian Euroscepticism is a concern for post‐materialist values, political culture and rural society, and that values (the desire to make Norway and the world a better place) is a much more potent explanation for Norwegian Euroscepticism than economic interest (the desire to make Norway a richer place) or perceived threat to Norwegian national identity. The VCR theory finds support in the empirical study conducted: a thematic analysis of newspaper debates in a major Norwegian newspaper from the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. The findings also indicate that the Euroscepticism found in Norway in the 1990s is extremely similar to that which was formed during the first membership debates in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to contributing towards the literature on Norway and the EU, the article makes a contribution to the general study of Euroscepticism by putting forward a new approach to studying and comparing the subject across time and across countries.
Using life‐history traits of New Zealand sea lions, Auckland Islands to clarify potential causes of decline
Authors: Chilvers B. L. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractAnnual censuses of New Zealand (NZ) sea lions Phocarctos hookeri at the subantarctic Auckland Islands have indicated a decline in pup production of over 40% during the first decade of the 2000s. With this significant decline and likely decline in the population as a whole, population ecology theory hypothesizes that life‐history traits such as reproduction rate, survival or growth should improve, particularly if density‐dependency is playing a significant role in the population. This research examined whether changes in NZ sea lion pup production were associated with changes in adult abundance or population life‐history traits in an attempt to clarify potential causes of decline. Since 1998/1999, daily surveys of Sandy Bay, Enderby Island, were undertaken during the NZ sea lion breeding season (December–February). These surveys confirm that the number of adults at the breeding area has significantly declined during the period of pup production decline. There was no difference between years in mean pup birth date, but the ratio of pups to females ashore during peak pupping varied significantly. The sex ratio of pups at birth also varied from year to year, but with no significant variation overall. Pup mortality varied significantly only during years of epizootic events (1997/1998, 2001/2002 and 2002/2003). Pup birth mass showed little variation between 2000/2001 and 2006/2007, increasing slightly in the last 3 years of study. Pup mass at 3 weeks, although highly variable, showed no trend during the period of decline. Despite the significant decrease in pup production and breeding animals, not all life‐history traits relating to pup mass and survival or female fecundity improved. Research suggests that indirect fishing‐related pressures may influence some of these traits and that the NZ sea lion population was unlikely to have been influenced by density‐dependent factors or to have been at or near carrying capacity before the decline.
Calcitonin Gene‐Related Peptide and Size of the Atrial Septal Defect in New‐Onset Migraine After Transcatheter Closure: Results of a Preliminary Study
Authors: Wei Shu‐Hao , Fan Pi‐Chuan , Kuo Ping‐Hung , Chiou Lih‐Chu , Wang Jou‐Kou 
Published: April 2012

Background.— New‐onset migraine headache attacks (MHAs) can occur after atrial septal device implantation in patients without previous migraine. Plasma calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP), which plays a crucial role in migraine pathophysiology, has shown to be released from specific cardiac tissues.Methods and Results.— We prospectively collected patients before and after closure and measured plasma CGRP levels using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Forty atrial septal defect (ASD) patients who had no migraine previously were enrolled. Four (23.5%) of the 17 consecutive patients whose CGRP levels were checked before ASD closure had new‐onset MHAs. The patients with MHAs had bigger ASD size (20 ± 0.9 vs 16 ± 1 mm, P = .009) and lower CGRP levels before closure (21.1 ± 3.9 vs 90.1 ± 27.1 pg/mL, P = .042) than those without. Among the 5 patients with blood samplings both during and between attacks, a paired comparison revealed a significantly increased level during attack (257.2 ± 45.5 vs 45.6 ± 25.5 pg/mL, P = .03).Conclusion.— Bigger ASD size and lower plasma CGRP levels before closure can be a potential predictor of new‐onset MHAs. Furthermore, a significant increase of CGRP levels during migraine attack implies that the occurrences of new‐onset MHAs after ASD closure correlate with the release of CGRP. This suggests CGRP sensitization from a lower baseline may be involved in the occurrence of new‐onset MHAs after ASD closure.
Alcohol Exposure Rate Control Through Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling
Authors: Plawecki Martin H. , Zimmermann Ulrich S. , Vitvitskiy Victor , Doerschuk Peter C. , Crabb David , O'Connor Sean 
Published: April 2012

BackgroundThe instantaneous rate of change of alcohol exposure (slope) may contribute to changes in measures of brain function following administration of alcohol that are usually attributed to breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) acting alone. To test this proposition, a 2‐session experiment was designed in which carefully prescribed, constant‐slope trajectories of BrAC intersected at the same exposure level and time since the exposure began. This paper presents the methods and limitations of the experimental design.MethodsIndividualized intravenous infusion rate profiles of 6% ethanol (EtOH) that achieved the constant‐slope trajectories for an individual were precomputed using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model. Adjusting the parameters of the model allowed each infusion profile to account for the subject's EtOH distribution and elimination kinetics. Sessions were conducted in randomized order and made no use of feedback of BrAC measurements obtained during the session to modify the precalculated infusion profiles. In one session, an individual's time course of exposure, BrAC(t), was prescribed to rise at a constant rate of 6.0 mg% per minute until it reached 68 mg% and then descend at −1.0 mg% per minute; in the other, to rise at a rate of 3.0 mg% per minute. The 2 exposure trajectories were designed to intersect at a BrAC (t = 20 minutes) = 60 mg% at an experimental time of 20 minutes.ResultsIntersection points for 54 of 61 subjects were within prescribed deviations (range of ±3 mg% and ±4 minutes from the nominal intersection point).ConclusionsResults confirmed the feasibility of applying the novel methods for achieving the intended time courses of the BrAC, with technical problems limiting success to 90% of the individuals tested.
Evaluate, assess, treat: development and evaluation of the EAT framework to increase effective communication regarding sensitive oral‐systemic health issues
Authors: DeBate R. D. , Cragun D. , Gallentine A. A. , Severson H. H. , Shaw T. , Cantwell C. , Christiansen S. , Koerber A. , Hendricson W. , Tomar S. L. , McCormack Brown K. , Tedesco L. A. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractOral healthcare providers are likely to encounter a number of sensitive oral/systemic health issues whilst interacting with patients. The purpose of the current study was to develop and evaluate a framework aimed at oral healthcare providers to engage in active secondary prevention of eating disorders (i.e. early detection of oral manifestations of disordered eating behaviours, patient approach and communication, patient‐specific oral treatment, and referral to care) for patients presenting with signs of disordered eating behaviours. The EAT Framework was developed based on the Brief Motivational Interviewing (B‐MI) conceptual framework and comprises three continuous steps: Evaluating, Assessing, and Treating. Using a group‐randomized control design, 11 dental hygiene (DH) and seven dental (D) classes from eight institutions were randomized to either the intervention or control conditions. Both groups completed pre‐ and post‐intervention assessments. Hierarchical linear models were conducted to measure the effects of the intervention whilst controlling for baseline levels. Statistically significant improvements from pre‐ to post‐intervention were observed in the Intervention group compared with the Control group on knowledge of eating disorders and oral findings, skills‐based knowledge, and self‐efficacy (all P < 0.01). Effect sizes ranged from 0.57 to 0.95. No statistically significant differences in outcomes were observed by type of student. Although the EAT Framework was developed as part of a larger study on secondary prevention of eating disorders, the procedures and skills presented can be applied to other sensitive oral/systemic health issues. Because the EAT Framework was developed by translating B‐MI principles and procedures, the framework can be easily adopted as a non‐confrontational method for patient communication.