bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
VS13P SUPERFICIAL FEMORAL ARTERY STENTING: RISK OF RESTENOSIS AND REOCCLUSION
Authors: Lekgabe E. A. , Prasad J. , Kuan Y.‐M. , Last C. , Somjen G. , Chue W.‐L. 
Published: April 2009

Purpose:   Stenting is a widely practiced procedure for treating occlusive lesions of the superficial femoral artery (SFA). The objective of this study was to assess the rate of restenosis/reocclusion and the rate of re‐intervention following SFA stenting.Methodology:   A retrospective study of 159 patients with 199 SFA lesions was carried out. During a three year period all 159 patients underwent SFA stenting procedures. Data from regular postoperative duplex ultrasound surveillance were used to establish the rate of restenosis at any given time after the procedure. Ultrasound reports identified restenosis at the stent sites as either 50–75%, >75% or totally occluded. Post procedural ultrasound studies were performed at 1 month, 6 months, at 1 year and yearly thereafter.Results:   The restenosis rate was 21.1% at 12 months. It includes all in stent restenoses over 50% to a complete occlusion of the stented artery. At 24 months the restenosis rate increased to 25%. Despite the increasing restenosis rate the incidence of complete occlusion following SFA stenting appeared to decrease after one year. To maintain patency of the previously stented arteries re‐intervention was necessary up to 34% of the treated legs.Conclusions:   Our data confirm that stenting procedures on the SFA carry a relatively high incidence of restenosis. With the development of new stent designs further improvement can be expected.
VS04 STANDARDISED TECHNICAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT FOR VASCULAR TRAINEES USING AN ARTIFICIAL MODEL
Authors: Cole C. M. , Jackson M. , Boyne N. , Campbell C. 
Published: April 2009

Purpose:   To introduce a valid technical skills assessment of the current cohort of Vascular Surgical (SET) trainees and follow their progress with repeated assessment throughout surgical training.Methodology:   At the 2008 RACS Vascular Surgery Trainees’ Course, 42 SET trainees performed a standardised technical task: suturing a graft to popliteal artery in a commercially available artificial apparatus using standard surgical instruments and sutures. Each trainee was paired with another trainee who acted as a “passive” assistant and an assessor. Tasks were directly observed by a mentor vascular surgeon. The trainee, the assistant and the mentor surgeon completed assessment forms (Imperial College Evaluation of Procedural Skill and Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill) immediately after task completion. The anastomosis “finished product” was then analysed “post‐hoc” by two independent surgeons using an “End‐product Evaluation Scoring tool”. The scores were tabulated and a comparison between year of SET was performed.Results:   The Mentor scores, according to SET level, were as follows (Mean: 5% to +95% confidence limits): SET1:39.4, 33.7 to 45; SET2:43.7, 38.2 to 49.2; SET3:51.8, 46.9 to 56.6; SET 4:53.0, 44.2 to 61.8; SET5:69, 61.5 to 76.5. Variation and trend between trainee groups was highly significant (Kruskal‐Wallis test: p = 0.005).Conclusion:   The standardised apparatus and assessment tools demonstrated a good ability to discriminate between the technical skills of vascular surgical trainees of varying level. This is the first such assessment performed on an entire National cohort of vascular surgical trainees. These methods may prove to be a reliable assessment tool for SET trainees.
Physiological markers of local sleep
Authors: Rector David M. , Schei Jennifer L. , Van Dongen Hans P. A. , Belenky Gregory , Krueger James M. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractSubstantial evidence suggests that brain regions that have been disproportionately used during waking will require a greater intensity and/or duration of subsequent sleep. For example, rats use their whiskers in the dark and their eyes during the light, and this is manifested as a greater magnitude of electroencephalogram (EEG) slow‐wave activity in the somatosensory and visual cortex during sleep in the corresponding light and dark periods respectively. The parsimonious interpretation of such findings is that sleep is distributed across local brain regions and is use‐dependent. The fundamental properties of sleep can also be experimentally defined locally at the level of small neural assemblies such as cortical columns. In this view, sleep is orchestrated, but not fundamentally driven, by central mechanisms. We explore two physiological markers of local, use‐dependent sleep, namely, an electrical marker apparent as a change in the size and shape of an electrical evoked response, and a metabolic marker evident as an evoked change in blood volume and oxygenation delivered to activated tissue. Both markers, applied to cortical columns, provide a means to investigate physiological mechanisms for the distributed homeostatic regulation of sleep, and may yield new insights into the consequences of sleep loss and sleep pathologies on waking brain function.
The early outcome of laparoscopic sigmoid and rectal resection for endometriosis
Authors: Kössi J. , Setälä M. , Enholm B. , Luostarinen M. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractAim  Deeply infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) is the most severe form of endometriosis and may affect the rectum and sigmoid colon. The most effective treatment is segmental resection. We report our results of rectal and sigmoid resection for this.Method  The study comprises all patients who have had laparoscopic bowel resection for rectal or sigmoid endometriosis in the Päijät‐Häme Central Hospital between 1 January 2004 and 31 May 2007. Patient demographics, operative details, complications and early postoperative recovery were prospectively collected and analysed.Results  A total of 31 patients were treated using a multidisciplinary approach. The mean age was 33.6 years (range 21.7–48.6) and body mass index 24.2 (17–40). The mean operation time was 253.5 min (range 56–484). There were three sigmoid and 28 rectal resections and 80 concomitant gynaecological procedures. Conversion to open surgery was not required. A total of 23 (74.2%) patients recovered without complications. There were two major complications, anastomotic leakage and rectovaginal fistula. Minor complications included transient urinary retention (2), wound infection (1), pneumonia (1) and undefined fever (2). The mean time to full peroral diet was 3.8 days (range 3–7), to first flatus 2.6 days (1–4), to first bowel movement 3.5 days (2–6) and to discharge 5.7 days (4–13).Conclusion  Laparoscopic rectal and sigmoid resection for deep intestinal endometriosis is safe with few severe complications and rapid recovery. The long‐term outcome on symptoms requires further study.
Case controlled study of the hospital stay and return to full activity following laparoscopic and open colorectal surgery before and after the introduction of an enhanced recovery programme
Authors: Raymond T. M. , Kumar S. , Dastur J. K. , Adamek J. P. , Khot U. P. , Stewart M. S. , Parker M. C. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractAim  The short‐term benefits of laparoscopic surgery are well established and in particular within an enhanced recovery programme. Early return to activity is to be expected but has not been quantified widely. The aim of this study was to measure the hospital stay and return to full activity following laparoscopic colorectal surgery and compare this with a matched group of patients undergoing open colorectal resections before and after the introduction of an enhanced recovery programme.Method  Retrospective analysis of all laparoscopic colorectal operations performed between January 2003 and June 2007 on an intention to treat basis compared with a matched group of patients undergoing elective open colorectal surgery at the same institution.Results  The median hospital stay following 179 laparoscopic colorectal resections was 6 days whilst following 144 conventional open operations it was 8 days. Following the introduction of an enhanced recovery programme the hospital stay fell from 7 to 5 days and from 9 to 7 days for laparoscopic and open groups respectively. The median return to full activity from surgery for laparoscopic patients was 13 days in comparison to 56 days for patients undergoing open colorectal surgery.Conclusions  Following laparoscopic colorectal resection, patients can be expected to have a hospital stay of under a week and return to their usual activities as early as a week after discharge from hospital and < 2 weeks from surgery in comparison to patients undergoing open surgery who take 8 weeks or more to recover.
A pilot study of ultrasound guided Durasphere injection in the treatment of faecal incontinence
Authors: Beggs A. D. , Irukulla S. , Sultan A. H. , Ness W. , Abulafi A. M. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractAim  To assess injection of Durasphere under direct endoanal ultrasound guidance as a treatment for faecal incontinence.Method  A total of 23 patients with varying degrees of persistent faecal leakage and/or soiling were recruited. Durasphere was injected in the intersphincteric plane under direct ultrasound guidance. All patients were given a general anaesthetic. Patients had ano‐rectal physiology, endoanal ultrasound, continence scoring and quality of life measures assessed at 0, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months.Results  A total of 21 patients were followed up for at least 12 months, with two being excluded at the follow‐up stage. Friedman two‐way analysis of variance of the Cleveland Clinic Score, Faecal Incontinence Quality of Life Score and Diary Response Score demonstrated a significant sustained improvement. There was no significant improvement in number of bowel movements. There was a significant difference in anal squeeze pressure after therapy, but no significant difference in anal resting pressure. Six patients reported no improvement after Durasphere therapy.Conclusions  Durasphere gave sustained improvements in quality of life and continence scores in this study group. Strict criteria are needed to ascertain suitability for Durasphere therapy.
Colon and rectal cancer in Ibadan, Nigeria: an update
Authors: Irabor D. O. , Arowolo A. , Afolabi A. A. 
Published: April 2009

AbstractIntroduction Colorectal cancer was hitherto a rarity in the rural African in general and in Nigerians inclusive. Ibadan is a sprawling city in Western Nigeria with a population of about 2.5 million inhabitants. Lately, several publications from surgeons in this city have alluded to an increase in the number of colorectal cancer cases managed in the teaching hospital.Objectives To examine the incidence of this disease over 10 years in order to confirm or exclude the apparent significant increase in colorectal cancer cases in Ibadan, Nigeria.Method This is a retrospective study highlighting the age, sex, clinical features, operations performed and histopathological subtypes of patients who had surgery for colorectal cancer in the University College Hospital Ibadan between July 1995 and August 2004.Results Two and sixty‐eight patients were seen over 10 years. The male:female ratio was 1.16:1. The mean age was 41 years and the peak age was the 51‐ to 60‐years group. Fourteen per cent of the patients were 30 years and below. Sixty‐two per cent of the patients had rectal carcinoma while 33.2% had colonic carcinoma. Around 60.7% of colonic lesions were right‐sided. The most common histopathological subtype was adenocarcinoma (78.8%), mucinous adenocarcinoma was 10.8% and signet ring type was 2.6%.Conclusion Colorectal cancer is a disease on the increase in Ibadan. The mean age of 41 years is much lower than in the Western world. The male:female ratio still favours male patients slightly. About one in seven patients are 30 years and below. Adenomatous polyps were absent in the resected specimens.
The promiscuous receptor
Authors: Newsom‐Davis Thomas E. , Kenny Laura M. , Ngan Sarah , King Judith , Waxman Jonathan 
Published: April 2009

OBJECTIVETo determine the effectiveness of vitamin D therapy in patients with asymptomatic, prostate‐specific antigen (PSA)‐progression of prostate cancer.PATIENTS AND METHODSTwenty‐six patients with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer were treated with vitamin D. Vitamin D therapy was discontinued on disease progression as assessed by symptoms or serum PSA increase. The response to therapy was judged from changes in PSA level from the pretreatment baseline to 3 months after starting vitamin D therapy.RESULTSOf the 26 patients, five (20%) responded to vitamin D; the mean (range) reduction in PSA level was 45.3 (15.9–95.1)%, and mean duration of response was 4–5 months. Patients in whom the PSA level was stabilized, but not reduced, after vitamin D treatment had a duration of response of up to 36 months. Treatment was well tolerated and was not associated with elevation of serum calcium levels. There was no significant correlation between response to therapy and stage of disease, Gleason grade, previous treatments or PSA level at diagnosis or initiation of vitamin D therapy.CONCLUSIONVitamin D therapy is an effective and well tolerated treatment for patients with asymptomatic progressive prostate cancer, and is a useful addition to the therapeutic options.
THE HUMAN WORLD
Authors: Kekes John 
Published: April 2009

AbstractWe do not have to choose between belief in a divinely ordained cosmic moral order and the arbitrariness of our moral commitments. The alternative is a secular view that accepts that there is a natural cosmic order, denies that the order is moral, and relies on the values of the human world to provide a moral order by which we can reasonably live. These values are human constructions. Reliance on them is reasonable if they have passed the test of critical reflection. Our well‐being depends on living according to the values that passed that test. Natural necessities, the contingencies of life, and our fallibility, however, limit the extent to which we can control how we live. We cannot free ourselves from necessities, but we can reduce the extent to which we are vulnerable to contingencies, and we can, within limits, increase the control we have by correcting mistakes we make when we are insufficiently critical of our attitudes, commitments, and values.
INDEFENSIBLE MIDDLE GROUND FOR LOCAL REDUCTIONISM ABOUT TESTIMONY
Authors: Gelfert Axel 
Published: April 2009

AbstractLocal reductionism purports to defend a middle ground in the debate about the epistemic status of testimony‐based beliefs. It does so by acknowledging the practical ineliminability of testimony as a source of knowledge, while insisting that such an acknowledgment need not entail a default‐acceptance view, according to which there exists an irreducible warrant for accepting testimony. The present paper argues that local reductionism is unsuccessful in its attempt to steer a middle path between reductionism and anti‐reductionism about testimonial justification. In particular, it challenges local reductionism ‘from within’, without appealing to anti‐reductionist intuitions. By offering novel arguments to the effect that local reductionism fails by its own standards, the present paper considerably strengthens the case against this version of reductionism. Local reductionism, it is argued, fails for three main reasons. First, it cannot account for the rationality of testimonial rejection in paradigmatic cases, even though the possibility of rational rejection is thought to be of central justificatory importance. Second, it does not provide a sufficiently distinct non‐testimonial basis to which testimonial justification can be successfully reduced. Finally, local reductionism is shown to be an intrinsically unstable position, in danger of collapsing into full‐fledged ‘credulism’ of the kind historically associated with Thomas Reid.
THE MODAL ARGUMENT FOR A PRIORI JUSTIFICATION
Authors: Horvath Joachim 
Published: April 2009

AbstractKant famously argued that, from experience, we can only learn how something actually is, but not that it must be so. In this paper, I defend an improved version of Kant's argument for the existence of a priori knowledge, the Modal Argument, against recent objections by Casullo and Kitcher. For the sake of the argument, I concede Casullo's claim that we may know certain counterfactuals in an empirical way and thereby gain epistemic access to some nearby, nomologically possible worlds. But I maintain that our beliefs about metaphysical necessities still cannot be justified empirically. Furthermore, I reject Casullo's deflationary thesis about the significance of such justification. Kitcher's most troublesome objection is that we can gain any modal justification whatsoever through testimony, i.e. in an experiential way. This can be countered by distinguishing between productive sources of justification, like perception, and merely reproductive sources, like testimony. Thus, some productive a priori source will always be needed somewhere.1
‘DEMONSTRATIVE’ COLOUR CONCEPTS: RECOGNITION VERSUS PRESERVATION
Authors: Textor Mark 
Published: April 2009

AbstractArguments for and against the existence of demonstrative concepts of shades and shapes turn on the assumption that demonstrative concepts must be recognitional capacities. The standard argument for this assumption is based on the widely held view that concepts are those constituents of propositional attitudes that account for an attitude's inferential potential. Only if demonstrative concepts of shades are recognitional capacities, the standard argument goes, can they account for the inferential potential of demonstrative judgements about shades. Shades are conceived as colour universals. Shade a is different from shade b iff it is possible to distinguish a from b visually. In this paper I will argue that the standard argument is based on a mistaken view of inference. We can correctly draw inferences from a demonstrative judgement about something x, even if we are not able to recognise or re‐identify the previously demonstrated x during our reasoning. We are prima facie entitled to rely on our preservative memory as retaining our initial demonstrative apprehension of x. The fact that preservative memory entitles us to assume sameness of referent over time is linguistically manifest in the use of anaphoric pronouns: if we can no longer recognise and demonstrate our original demonstratum, we can use anaphoric expressions to pick it up, thereby ensuring sameness of reference. (‘That is a nice bird. Now it has vanished. So there is a nice bird that has just vanished.’) Since preservation of the initial episode of apprehending x grounds our reasoning from demonstrative judgements, there is no longer a reason to require demonstrative concepts to be recognitional capacities. The standard argument does not get off the ground.1
Equity Home‐Bias: A Suboptimal Choice for UK investors?
Authors: Antoniou Antonios , Olusi Olasupo , Paudyal Krishna 
Published: April 2009

Abstract In spite of the popularity of international portfolio diversification theory, extant empirical literature shows that investors prefer domestic assets and as a result, many studies argue that investors' portfolios are largely suboptimal. This paper examines whether British investors need to diversify their portfolios internationally to gain performance benefits from international markets or can they obtain these benefits by mimicking the portfolios with domestically traded assets. The results confirm that it is possible to mimic the performance of foreign equity with domestic equity. Indeed, the pay‐offs from homemade portfolios outperform those from international portfolios regardless of the periodic variation in the overall performance of the UK market vis‐à‐vis foreign markets. The superiority of homemade portfolio is more prominent in recent years and is enhanced by the increased internationalisation of developed capital markets. Therefore, investors' home bias is not suboptimal.
Liquidity and Optimal Market Transparency
Authors: Dumitrescu Ariadna 
Published: April 2009

Abstract In this paper I explore some of the consequences of greater market transparency for market performance in the presence of a strategic specialist. Although numerous studies have dealt with this issue, previous work has only considered either fully transparent or fully opaque markets. My model allows for different levels of transparency, and therefore sheds light on how transparency affects market performance. I show that an intermediate level of transparency can improve market performance relative to the more extreme cases of full transparency or no transparency at all.
Does Global Liquidity Matter for Monetary Policy in the Euro Area?*
Authors: Berger Helge , Harjes Thomas 
Published: April 2009

AbstractGlobal excess liquidity prevalent across the world's financial markets (or its sudden absence) is sometimes believed to limit sovereign monetary policy even in large economies such as the euro area. However, there is still discussion about what constitutes global excess liquidity and how exactly it shapes the policy environment. Our approach adjusts liquidity for a longer‐term interest rate and output effects and focuses on US and Japanese liquidity as relevant proxies for global developments from a euro area perspective. We find that, in particular, excess liquidity in the US tends to lead developments in euro area liquidity. US excess liquidity is also consistently positive as a determinant of euro area inflation and is shown to be Granger‐causal for euro area inflation in an out‐of‐sample forecasting exercise. There is some evidence that, at least in part, this result seems to be related to a weakening of the effectiveness of monetary policy in the euro area interest during times of excessive US liquidity. In contrast, the influence of euro area excess liquidity on euro area inflation is more limited.
The effects of sales promotion strategy, product appeal and consumer traits on reminder impulse buying behaviour
Authors: Liao Shu‐Ling , Shen Yung‐Cheng , Chu Chia‐Hsien 
Published: April 2009

AbstractThis article investigates factors of marketing communications and consumer characteristics that induce reminder impulse buying behaviour. Study 1 applies the antecedent, process and consequence approach to investigate the essential differences between reminder impulse buying and pure impulse buying. The results of Study 1 reveal that reminder impulse buying significantly differs from pure impulse buying on motivation, buying goal and decision evaluation. Study 2 further examines how sales promotion strategy might affect reminder impulse buying, with product appeal and consumer traits as moderating factors. Both sales promotion strategy and its interaction effects with product appeal are found to have significant influences on reminder impulse buying. Specifically, an instant‐reward promotion promotes stronger reminder impulse buying than a delayed‐reward promotion. Furthermore, both a utilitarian product appeal with a price discount promotion and a hedonic product appeal with a premium promotion can encourage greater reminder impulse buying.