bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Review: Serum and urine biomarkers of kidney disease: A pathophysiological perspective
Authors: TESCH GREG H 
Published: June 2010

ABSTRACTThe use of reliable biomarkers is becoming increasingly important for the improved management of patients with acute and chronic kidney diseases. Recent developments have identified a number of novel biomarkers in serum or urine that can determine the potential risk of kidney damage, distinguish different types of renal injury, predict the progression of disease and have the potential to assess the efficacy of therapeutic intervention. Some of these biomarkers can be used independently while others are more beneficial when used in combination with knowledge of other clinical risk factors. Advances in gene expression analysis, chromatography, mass spectrometry and the development of sensitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays have facilitated accurate quantification of many biomarkers. This review primarily focuses on describing new and established biomarkers, which identify and measure the various pathophysiological processes that promote kidney disease. It provides an overview of some of the different classes of renal biomarkers that can be assessed in serum/plasma and urine, including markers of renal function, oxidative stress, structural and cellular injury, immune responses and fibrosis. However, it does not explore the current status of these biomarkers in terms of their clinical validation.
Increasing liver transplantation waiting list mortality: a report from the Australian National Liver Transplantation Unit, Sydney
Authors: Prakoso E. , Verran D. , Dilworth P. , Kyd G. , Tang P. , Tse C. , Koorey D. J. , Strasser S. I. , Stormon M. , Shun A. , Thomas G. , Joseph D. , Pleass H. , Gallagher J. , Allen R. , Crawford M. , McCaughan G. W. , Shackel N. A. 
Published: June 2010

AbstractBackground:  We aimed to describe the demand for liver transplantation (LTx) and patient outcomes on the waiting list at the Australian National Liver Transplantation Unit, Sydney over the last 20 years.Methods:  We performed a retrospective analysis with the data divided into three eras: 1985–1993, 1994–2000 and 2001–2008.Results:  The number of patients accepted for LTx increased from 320 to 372 and 548 (P < 0.001) with the number of LTx being performed increasing from 262 to 312 and 452 respectively (P < 0.001). The median adult recipient age increased from 45 to 48 and 52 years (P < 0.001) while it decreased in children from 4 to 2 and 1 years respectively (P= 0.001). In parallel, the deceased donor offers decreased from 1003 to 720 and 717 (P < 0.001). Methods to improve access to donor livers have been used with the use of split livers, extended criteria and non‐heart beating donors, resulting in increased acceptance of deceased donor offers by 65% and 115% in the second and third eras when compared with the first era (P < 0.001). However, the adult median waiting time has increased from 23 to 41 and 120 days respectively (P < 0.001). This was associated with increased adult mortality on the waiting list from 23 to 40 and 122 respectively (P < 0.001).Conclusions:  Despite the increasing proportion of donor offers being used, the waiting list mortality is increasing. A solution to this problem is an increase in organ donation to keep pace with the escalating demand for LTx.
Metropolitan–rural divide for stroke outcomes: do stroke units make a difference?
Authors: Cadilhac D. A. , Kilkenny M. F. , Longworth M. , Pollack M. R. P. , Levi C. R. ,   on behalf of Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce and Stroke Services New South Wales Coordinating Committee
Published: June 2010

AbstractBackground:  Stroke care across Australian hospitals is variable. The impact on health outcomes, in particular levels of disability for patients in rural areas, is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether geographic location and access to stroke units are associated with differences in health outcomes in patients with acute stroke.Methods:  Retrospective cohort study of consecutive eligible admissions from 32 hospitals (12 rural) in New South Wales between 2003 and 2007. Health status measured at discharge included level of independence (modified Rankin score: mRS) and frequency of severe complications during hospitalization. Multivariable analyses included adjustment for patient casemix and clustering.Results:  Among 2254 eligible patients, 55% were treated in metropolitan hospitals. Stroke unit treatment varied significantly (rural 3%; metropolitan 77%). Age, gender and stroke type did not differ by location (mean age 74, 50% female). After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, important risk factors and validated stroke prognostic variables, patients treated in rural hospitals had a greater odds of dying during hospitalization compared with those treated in metropolitan hospitals (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–2.05). There were no differences in mortality or frequency of severe complications between patients treated in rural and metropolitan hospitals when we adjusted for access to stroke units (aOR 1.00, 95% CI 0.62–1.61). Nevertheless, patients treated in rural hospitals were more dependent (mRS 3–5) at discharge (aOR 1.82, 95% CI 1.23–2.70) despite adjusting for stroke unit status.Conclusion:  Patients with stroke treated in rural hospitals have poorer health outcomes, especially if not managed in stroke units.
Increased central adiposity in morbidly obese patients with obstructive sleep apnoea
Authors: Soriano‐Co M. , Vanhecke T. E. , Franklin B. A. , Sangal R. B. , Hakmeh B. , McCullough P. A. 
Published: June 2010

AbstractBackground:  With the growing epidemic of obesity, few data are available regarding adipose distribution and the severity of sleep apnoea. Our aim was to measure precisely adipose distribution with dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a morbidly obese population with and without obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).Methods:  Morbidly obese female subjects without a history of OSA underwent overnight polysomnography and DXA analysis. Subject demographics, DXA variables, serum laboratory markers and physical exam characteristics were compared between individuals with and without OSA.Results:  For the study population (n= 26), mean body mass index (BMI) was 45.9 ± 7.8 kg/m2; mean age was 47.5 ± 10.2 years and all were female. The central adiposity ratio (CAR) was higher in individuals with OSA (apnoea–hypopnoea index > 5) than those without OSA (1.1 ± 0.05 vs 1.0 ± 0.04; P= 0.004). No difference was observed in Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores, body mass index (BMI) or neck circumference between groups.Conclusions:  OSA is associated with increased central adipose deposition in patients with a BMI of >40 kg/m2. These data may be helpful in designing future studies regarding the pathophysiology of OSA, and potential treatment options.
A genetic analysis of the response of Escherichia coli to cobalt stress
Authors: Fantino Jean‐Raphaël , Py Béatrice , Fontecave Marc , Barras Frédéric 
Published: June 2010

SummaryCobalt can be toxic and the way cells adapt to its presence is largely unknown. Here we carried out a transcriptomic analysis of Escherichia coli exposed to cobalt. A limited number of genes were either up‐ or downregulated. Upregulated genes include the isc and the nfuA genes encoding Fe/S biogenesis assisting factors, and the rcnA gene encoding a cobalt efflux system. Downregulated genes are implicated in anaerobic metabolism (narK, nirB, hybO, grcA), metal transport (feoB, nikA), sulfate/thiosulfate import (cysP), and one is of unknown function (yeeE). Cobalt regulation of isc, nfuA, hybO, cysP and yeeE genes was found to involve IscR, a Fe/S transcriptional regulator. Previously, the Suf Fe/S biogenesis machinery was found to be important for cobalt stress adaptation, but suf genes did not show up in the microarray analysis. Therefore, we used qRT‐PCR analysis and found that cobalt induced the suf operon expression. Moreover, kinetic analysis of the cobalt‐mediated induction of the suf operon expression allowed us to propose that cobalt toxicity is caused first by impaired Fe/S biogenesis, followed by decreased iron bioavailability and eventually oxidative stress.
Control of biofilm formation and colonization in Vibrio fischeri: a role for partner switching?
Authors: Morris Andrew R. , Visick Karen L. 
Published: June 2010

SummaryBacteria employ a variety of mechanisms to promote and control colonization of their respective hosts, including restricting the expression of genes necessary for colonization to distinct situations (i.e. encounter with a prospective host). In the symbiosis between the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri and its host squid, Euprymna scolopes, colonization proceeds via a transient biofilm formed by the bacterium. The production of this bacterial biofilm depends on a complex regulatory network that controls transcription of the symbiosis polysaccharide (syp) gene locus. In addition to this transcriptional control, biofilm formation is regulated by two proteins, SypA and SypE, which may function in an unusual regulatory mechanism known as partner switching. Best characterized in Bacillus subtilis and other Gram‐positive bacteria, partner switching is a signalling mechanism that provides dynamic regulatory control over bacterial gene expression. The involvement of putative partner‐switching components within V. fischeri suggests that tight regulatory control over biofilm formation may be important for the lifestyle of this organism.
Glycaemic variability using continuous glucose monitoring and endothelial function in the metabolic syndrome and in Type 2 diabetes
Authors: Buscemi S. , Re A. , Batsis J. A. , Arnone M. , Mattina A. , Cerasola G. , Verga S. 
Published: June 2010

Diabet. Med. 27, 872–878 (2010)AbstractAims  Subjects who are at increased risk of developing diabetes may have increased glycaemic variability associated with endothelial dysfunction and possibly subclinical atherosclerosis, which may lead to increased cardiovascular risk observed at the time of diabetes diagnosis. To investigate this hypothesis, we measured endothelial function, carotid intima‐media thickness and glycaemic variability using 48‐h continuous subcutaneous glucose monitoring in 3 groups of overweight or obese subjects – those without the metabolic syndrome, and those with the metabolic syndrome with or without newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes.Methods  Consecutive subjects, aged 30–65 years with a body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2 were recruited. Patients were classified as with or without the metabolic syndrome,or as metabolic syndrome with newly diagnosed Type 2 DM. Glycaemic variability was calculated in terms of the coefficient of variation. Endothelial function was measured using brachial artery flow‐mediated dilation.Results  We identified 75 subjects. Mean flow mediated dilation decreased (P < 0.001) and carotid intima‐media thickness increased (P < 0.05) across groups. Flow mediated dilation predictors included mean 48‐h continuous subcutaneous glucose monitoring values (β = –0.022; P < 0.005) and the coefficient of variation (β = –0.10; P = 0.01). Carotid intima‐media thickness predictors included age (β = 0.009; P < 0.001) and flow mediated dilation (β = –0.014; P = 0.076). Patients re‐stratified according to cut‐offs for mean 48‐h glycaemia and variability demonstrated that subjects with high mean glycaemia but low coefficient of variability had similar flow mediated dilation and carotid intima‐media thickness to subjects with low mean glycaemia but high coefficient of variation.Conclusions  This study suggests that glycaemic variability influences endothelial function even in non‐diabetic subjects. Such variability may explain the increased cardiovascular risk observed in patients prior to developing overt Type 2 diabetes
Prescription Drug Labeling and “Over‐Warning”: The Disturbing Case of Diana Levine and Wyeth Pharmaceutical
Authors: ADAMS RONALD J. 
Published: June 2010

ABSTRACTIn April of 2000, Diana Levine went to a clinic in Vermont suffering from a migraine headache. She was given the drug Demerol for the migraine symptoms and Phenergan for nausea. Complications with the administration of Phenergan ultimately resulted in Ms. Levine contracting gangrene, necessitating the amputation of her right arm. Ms. Levine sued the drug maker, Wyeth Pharmaceutical, in state court and prevailed. The lower court's decision was appealed by Wyeth to the state supreme court where the ruling was confirmed. Wyeth next appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which, to the surprise of many observers, affirmed the judgment of the state supreme court. At issue was the fundamental question of the ability of consumers to obtain redress against negligent manufacturers in state courts. Wyeth's arguments to the Court were based upon preemption: Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a drug (and its labeling) preempts the ability of injured consumers like Ms. Levine to recover in state courts despite years of precedent to the contrary. Ability to recover damages in state courts represents, perhaps, the most important safety net available to consumers injured by defective products. A ruling by the Supreme Court that FDA‐approved labeling of pharmaceuticals preempts the reach of the state courts would have severely compromised the balance of power between consumers and producers.
TouchTone: Interactive Local Image Adjustment Using Point‐and‐Swipe
Authors: Liang Chia‐Kai , Chen Wei‐Chao , Gelfand Natasha 
Published: June 2010

AbstractRecent proliferation of camera phones, photo sharing and social network services has significantly changed how we process our photos. Instead of going through the traditional download‐edit‐share cycle using desktop editors, an increasing number of photos are taken with camera phones and published through cellular networks. The immediacy of the sharing process means that on‐device image editing, if needed, should be quick and intuitive. However, due to the limited computational resources and vastly different user interaction model on small screens, most traditional local selection methods can not be directly adapted to mobile devices. To address this issue, we present TouchTone, a new method for edge‐aware image adjustment using simple finger gestures. Our method enables users to select regions within the image and adjust their corresponding photographic attributes simultaneously through a simple point‐and‐swipe interaction. To enable fast interaction, we develop a memory‐ and computation‐efficient algorithm which samples a collection of 1D paths from the image, computes the adjustment solution along these paths, and interpolates the solutions to entire image through bilateral filtering. Our system is intuitive to use, and can support several local editing tasks, such as brightness, contrast, and color balance adjustments, within a minute on a mobile device.
Fast Ray Sorting and Breadth‐First Packet Traversal for GPU Ray Tracing
Authors: Garanzha Kirill , Loop Charles 
Published: June 2010

AbstractWe present a novel approach to ray tracing execution on commodity graphics hardware using CUDA. We decompose a standard ray tracing algorithm into several data‐parallel stages that are mapped efficiently to the massively parallel architecture of modern GPUs. These stages include: ray sorting into coherent packets, creation of frustums for packets, breadth‐first frustum traversal through a bounding volume hierarchy for the scene, and localized ray‐primitive intersections. We utilize the well known parallel primitives scan and segmented scan in order to process irregular data structures, to remove the need for a stack, and to minimize branch divergence in all stages. Our ray sorting stage is based on applying hash values to individual rays, ray stream compression, sorting and decompression. Our breadth‐first BVH traversal is based on parallel frustum‐bounding box intersection tests and parallel scan per each BVH level.We demonstrate our algorithm with area light sources to get a soft shadow effect and show that our concept is reasonable for GPU implementation. For the same data sets and ray‐primitive intersection routines our pipeline is ∼3x faster than an optimized standard depth first ray tracing implemented in one kernel.
Isosurfaces Over Simplicial Partitions of Multiresolution Grids
Authors: Manson Josiah , Schaefer Scott 
Published: June 2010

AbstractWe provide a simple method that extracts an isosurface that is manifold and intersection‐free from a function over an arbitrary octree. Our method samples the function dual to minimal edges, faces, and cells, and we show how to position those samples to reconstruct sharp and thin features of the surface. Moreover, we describe an error metric designed to guide octree expansion such that flat regions of the function are tiled with fewer polygons than curved regions to create an adaptive polygonalization of the isosurface. We then show how to improve the quality of the triangulation by moving dual vertices to the isosurface and provide a topological test that guarantees we maintain the topology of the surface. While we describe our algorithm in terms of extracting surfaces from volumetric functions, we also show that our algorithm extends to generating manifold level sets of co‐dimension 1 of functions of arbitrary dimension.
Heat Transfer Simulation for Modeling Realistic Winter Sceneries
Authors: Maréchal N. , Guérin E. , Galin E. , Mérillou S. , Mérillou N. 
Published: June 2010

AbstractThis paper presents a physically based method for simulating the heat transfers between the different environmental elements to synthesize realistic winter sceneries. We simulate the snow fall over the ground, as well as the conductive, convective and radiative thermal transfers using a finite volume method according to the variations of air and dew point temperatures, the amount of snow, cloud cover and day‐night cycles. Our approach takes into account phase changes such as snow melting into water or water freezing into ice.
Seamless Montage for Texturing Models
Authors: Gal Ran , Wexler Yonatan , Ofek Eyal , Hoppe Hugues , Cohen‐Or Daniel 
Published: June 2010

AbstractWe present an automatic method to recover high‐resolution texture over an object by mapping detailed photographs onto its surface. Such high‐resolution detail often reveals inaccuracies in geometry and registration, as well as lighting variations and surface reflections. Simple image projection results in visible seams on the surface. We minimize such seams using a global optimization that assigns compatible texture to adjacent triangles. The key idea is to search not only combinatorially over the source images, but also over a set of local image transformations that compensate for geometric misalignment. This broad search space is traversed using a discrete labeling algorithm, aided by a coarse‐to‐fine strategy. Our approach significantly improves resilience to acquisition errors, thereby allowing simple and easy creation of textured models for use in computer graphics.
Real‐time Rendering of Heterogeneous Translucent Objects with Arbitrary Shapes
Authors: Wang Yajun , Wang Jiaping , Holzschuch Nicolas , Subr Kartic , Yong Jun‐Hai , Guo Baining 
Published: June 2010

AbstractWe present a real‐time algorithm for rendering translucent objects of arbitrary shapes. We approximate the scattering of light inside the objects using the diffusion equation, which we solve on‐the‐fly using the GPU. Our algorithm is general enough to handle arbitrary geometry, heterogeneous materials, deformable objects and modifications of lighting, all in real‐time. In a pre‐processing step, we discretize the object into a regular 4‐connected structure (QuadGraph). Due to its regular connectivity, this structure is easily packed into a texture and stored on the GPU. At runtime, we use the QuadGraph stored on the GPU to solve the diffusion equation, in real‐time, taking into account the varying input conditions: Incoming light, object material and geometry. We handle deformable objects, provided the deformation does not change the topological structure of the objects.
A Data‐driven Segmentation for the Shoulder Complex
Authors: Hong Q Youn , Park Sang Il , Hodgins Jessica K. 
Published: June 2010

AbstractThe human shoulder complex is perhaps the most complicated joint in the human body being comprised of a set of three bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Despite this anatomical complexity, computer graphics models for motion capture most often represent this joint as a simple ball and socket. In this paper, we present a method to determine a shoulder skeletal model that, when combined with standard skinning algorithms, generates a more visually pleasing animation that is a closer approximation to the actual skin deformations of the human body. We use a data‐driven approach and collect ground truth skin deformation data with an optical motion capture system with a large number of markers (200 markers on the shoulder complex alone). We cluster these markers during movement sequences and discover that adding one extra joint around the shoulder improves the resulting animation qualitatively and quantitatively yielding a marker set of approximately 70 markers for the complete skeleton. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our skeletal model by comparing it with ground truth data as well as with recorded video. We show its practicality by integrating it with the conventional rendering/animation pipeline.
Bidirectional Search for Interactive Motion Synthesis
Authors: Lo Wan‐Yen , Zwicker Matthias 
Published: June 2010

AbstractWe present an approach to improve the search efficiency for near‐optimal motion synthesis using motion graphs. An optimal or near‐optimal path through a motion graph often leads to the most intuitive result. However, finding such a path can be computationally expensive. Our main contribution is a bidirectional search algorithm. We dynamically divide the search space evenly and merge two search trees to obtain the final solution. This cuts the maximum search depth almost in half and leads to significant speedup. To illustrate the benefits of our approach, we present an interactive sketching interface that allows users to specify complex motions quickly and intuitively.
Adding Depth to Cartoons Using Sparse Depth (In)equalities
Authors: Sýkora D. , Sedlacek D. , Jinchao S. , Dingliana J. , Collins S. 
Published: June 2010

AbstractThis paper presents a novel interactive approach for adding depth information into hand‐drawn cartoon images and animations. In comparison to previous depth assignment techniques our solution requires minimal user effort and enables creation of consistent pop‐ups in a matter of seconds. Inspired by perceptual studies we formulate a custom tailored optimization framework that tries to mimic the way that a human reconstructs depth information from a single image. Its key advantage is that it completely avoids inputs requiring knowledge of absolute depth and instead uses a set of sparse depth (in)equalities that are much easier to specify. Since these constraints lead to a solution based on quadratic programming that is time consuming to evaluate we propose a simple approximative algorithm yielding similar results with much lower computational overhead. We demonstrate its usefulness in the context of a cartoon animation production pipeline including applications such as enhancement, registration, composition, 3D modelling and stereoscopic display.