bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cost-Effectiveness of An Early Assessment Service for Young People with Early Psychosis in Hong Kong
Authors: Wong Kenny K. , Chan Sherry K. W. , Lam May M.L. , Hui Christy L.M. , Hung Se F. , Tay Margaret , Lee K.H. , Chen Eric Y.H. 
Published: August 2011

Objective: The Early Assessment Service for Young People with Early Psychosis (EASY) was developed in Hong Kong in 2001 to provide a comprehensive and integrated approach for early detection and intervention for young people suffering from first episode psychosis. The present study examined the cost-effectiveness of the service over a period of 24 months compared to standard care. Method: This is a historical control study. Sixty-five patients who presented to the EASY service in 2001 with first episode psychosis were individually matched (on age, sex and diagnosis) with 65 patients who received standard psychiatric care in a precursor service (pre-EASY) between 1999 and 2000. A retrospective cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted over a period of 24 months. The overall average cost of service utilization per patient and the effects on hospitalization rate were compared using bootstrapping analysis. Cost per point improvement in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was also computed with sensitivity analysis. Only direct costs were analysed in the current study. Results: There was no significant difference in service utilization between the EASY and pre-EASY standard care groups. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve, which was used to explore uncertainty in estimates of cost and effects, suggested that there was a probability of at least 94% that the EASY model was more cost-effective than the pre-EASY service in reducing psychiatric inpatient admissions. EASY patients also showed superior results in average cost per unit improvement in PANSS. Conclusions: EASY is likely to be more cost-effective in improving outcomes, particularly in reducing hospitalization and improving clinical symptoms among young people with first episode psychosis. This study provides a perspective from the east Asian region, and supports further development of similar services, particularly in the local setting. However, further studies with a longer follow up period and larger sample size are required to verify these findings.
Atypical Antipsychotics Cause an Acute Increase in Cutaneous Hand Blood Flow in Patients with Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
Authors: Blessing Esther , Kader Linda , Arpandy Reza , Ootsuka Youichirou , Blessing William W. , Pantelis Christos 
Published: August 2011

Objective: Clinical studies suggest resting thermoregulatory cutaneous vasomotor tone could be increased in schizophrenia, resulting in reduced hand blood flow. In animal models, atypical antipsychotics including clozapine potently inhibit sympathetic neural outflow to the thermoregulatory cutaneous vascular beds. We have now determined whether antipsychotic medication administration is associated with an acute increase in hand blood flow in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, and whether this increase correlates with clinical status. Method: Hand temperature was measured with an infrared camera in 12 patients with chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder 30 min prior to, then 30 and 60 min following medication. Clinical status was assessed via the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Results were compared using regression and repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: A robust and significant increase in hand temperature (p < 0.001) was observed following antipsychotic administration. The mean increase after 60 min was 4.1 ± 2.4°C. This increase was significantly associated with colder hand temperature prior to medication (p < 0.05; suggestive of increased resting vasoconstriction) and with more severe psychiatric symptoms (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Atypical antipsychotics were associated with increased hand blood flow, consistent with inhibition of thermoregulatory sympathetic outflow to the cutaneous vascular bed in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. This increase correlated with symptom severity. Hand temperature increase following antipsychotic medication may therefore be a simple and informative physiological marker of disease activity and potential response in patients with schizophreniform disorders. Given that antipsychotics also inhibit sympathetic outflow to brown adipose tissue, which normally converts energy to heat, future studies should examine whether antipsychotic-induced hand temperature increase is associated with antipsychotic-induced weight gain.
Can Administrative Data Provide Insights Into the Mental Health of Indigenous Queenslanders?
Authors: Kisely Steve , Pais Joanne 
Published: August 2011

Introduction: The Australian Government has provided $20 million to establish the Population Health Research Network (PHRN), with representation from all States and Territories to facilitate population health research through data linkage. Health LinQ is part of the Queensland node involving four Queensland universities, Queensland Health and the Australian e-Health Research Centre. Method: This paper reviews the potential for using administrative databases to study the mental health experience of Indigenous Queenslanders. Researchers can define cohorts for study within the administrative data or link them to their own data. Robust protocols preserve confidentiality so that researchers only receive anonymized data. Indigenous status can be defined either through place of residence or through the recording of Indigenous status in datasets such as the Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection. Results: Available data include hospital morbidity, mental health data and mortality. Indigenous status is correctly identified in about 89% of cases with variation by definition used. Conclusions: Administrative data provide researchers and decision makers with accessible, cost-effective information without the intrusion and cost of additional data collection. These techniques are especially useful in studying regional, rural and remote populations where access may be difficult.
Arc of Opportunity
Authors: Delaney Adam Vai 
Published: August 2011

Born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the author had a 20 year career in diplomacy, political affairs, and development policy analysis at the Pacific Islands Forum, the United Nations in New York; the Prime Minister's Department in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and in the Foreign Ministry of PNG. He has also been involved in theatre for over a decade in PNG, and participated in a three-month program at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut, USA. He is currently the Business Development Manager at the Torres Strait Regional Authority (Commonwealth) on Thursday Island. Since 1975 the Australian government's overseas development policy has supported various sectoral programs in its neighbouring countries, in particular Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The “creative” field has not been prominent in this strategy. While natural resources and the sports sectors have gained much greater attention, in terms of being viable international commercial enterprises, the arts, have remained stagnant. In this paper the need for joint programs genuinely supporting “wellbeing” and promoting social enterprise throughout the “arc of opportunity” is described to harness Melanesian creativity to compete successfully in world-markets, starting with penetration of the largest economy at its door-step: Australia.
Performative Evaluation and Social Return On Investment: Potential in Innovative Health Promotion Interventions
Authors: Gibson Julie , Jones Anita , Travers Helen , Hunter Ernest 
Published: August 2011

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe an approach to evaluation of a project involving complex health behaviours that incorporates collateral social outcomes. Method: Evaluation challenges and responses for an innovative information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) initiative (HITnet) operating in remote Indigenous Australia are presented. Conclusions: Innovation in evaluation must match innovation in project design and application. Two methodologies – performative research, and social return on investment – as proposed for a HITnet, sexual health promotion project, are considered.
Intentional Teams in Rural Health Care: a Preliminary Report
Authors: Gudkovs Jan 
Published: August 2011

Objective: This paper reports on how private practitioners were engaged in a rural community in an intentional team to provide a comprehensive lifestyle program for “hard to treat” patients with physical and mental health problems. Methods: A field trial of a 12-week program for patients with depression or anxiety plus other chronic disease was delivered by a team of allied health practitioners. Results: Significant improvements in mental health as measured by DASS and SF36 were achieved. Conclusions: Utilizing community resources effectively can lessen the burden on other aspects of the health care system.
Enterprising Social Wellbeing: Social Entrepreneurial and Strengths Based Approaches to Mental Health and Wellbeing in “Remote” Indigenous Community Contexts
Authors: Tedmanson Deirdre , Guerin Pauline 
Published: August 2011

Objective: Social enterprises are market-based activities that provide social benefits through the direct engagement of people in productive activities. Participation in social enterprise development brings psychosocial wellbeing benefits, by strengthening family networks, enhancing trust, increasing self-reliance and social esteem and promoting cultural safety. Our objective is to explore how social enterprise activities can meet community needs and foster self-sustainability while generating profits for redistribution as social investment into other ventures that aid social functioning and emotional well-being. Conclusions: Social entrepreneurship enhances both interdependence and independence. Concomitant mental health and social wellbeing dividends accrue overtime to communities engaged in self-determined enterprise activities. Social entrepreneurship builds social capital that supports social wellbeing. Strengths-based approaches to social entrepreneurship can assuage disempowering effects of the “welfare economy” through shifting the focus onto productive activities generated on people's own terms.
Christianity and Tamil Culture: Father Joseph Beschi and the Image of the Virgin Mary
Authors: Granziera Patrizia 
Published: August 2011

Abstract: Costanzo Giuseppe Beschi (1680–1747) was an Italian Jesuit sent to the Madurai Mission in 1711. Father Beschi was a highly educated man who commanded several languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Portuguese prior to his move to India. Once at the mission he learned Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, and Urdu and wrote extensively in Tamil on both religious and profane subjects. Beschi had a deep veneration for the Virgin Mary. He, like many other missionaries, called upon her for protection during sea voyages and for help in evangelization. In fact, Beschi was responsible for the erection of two important places of worship dedicated to the Virgin Mary: Konankuppam, near Parur, and Ellacurichi, near Tanjore. These two sanctuaries became places of pilgrimage during the seventeenth century and continue to be respected as such places today. The cult of the Virgin Mary in southern India and especially in Tamil Nadu is very popular, and she incarnates the emblematic figure of contemporary Indian Catholicism. This article examines the image of the Virgin Mary as portrayed by Father Beschi in his Tamil poems and as shaped in the artistic representations that decorate the two sanctuaries he erected in her honour in Tamil Nadu.
Miracles, Divine Agency, and the Laws of Nature
Authors: Larmer Robert 
Published: August 2011

Abstract: I have two goals in this paper. The first is to locate the concept of miracles within a broad model of divine agency. I shall argue that the concept is properly located in what may be termed a supernaturalist model of divine agency, in which miracles are understood as events produced by a supernatural agent intervening upon the usual course of nature. My second goal is to argue that the concept of miracles is in no way at odds with science. Specifically, I shall argue that miracles, understood as events produced by a supernatural agent overriding the usual course of nature, imply no violation of the laws of nature, and thus belief in them should not be viewed as unscientific.
Publication patterns of oral and poster presentations at the annual meetings of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons
Authors: Patel Akash J. , Cherian Jacob , Fox Benjamin D. , Whitehead William E. , Curry Daniel J. , Luerssen Thomas G. , Jea Andrew 
Published: August 2011

Object
National and international meetings, such as the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meetings, provide a central location for the gathering and dissemination of research. The purpose of this study was to determine the publication rates of both oral and poster presentations at CNS and AANS meetings in peer-reviewed journals.

Methods
The authors reviewed all accepted abstracts, presented as either oral or poster presentations, at the CNS and AANS meetings from 2003 to 2005. This information was then used to search PubMed to determine the rate of publication of the abstracts presented at the meetings. Abstracts were considered published if the data presented at the meeting was identical to that in the publication.

Results
The overall publication rate was 32.48% (1243 of 3827 abstracts). On average, 41.28% of oral presentations and 29.03% of poster presentations were eventually published. Of those studies eventually published, 98.71% were published within 5 years of presentation at the meeting. Published abstracts were published most frequently in the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery.

Conclusions
Approximately one-third of all presentations at the annual CNS and AANS meetings will be published in peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed journals. These meetings are excellent forums for neurosurgical practitioners to be exposed to current research. Oral presentations have a significantly higher rate of eventual publication compared with poster presentations, reflecting their higher quality. The Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery have been the main outlets of neurosurgical research from these meetings.
Comparative use of turkey and chicken wing brachial artery models for microvascular anastomosis training
Authors: Abla Adib A. , Uschold Timothy , Preul Mark C. , Zabramski Joseph M. 
Published: August 2011

Object
The aim of this study was to describe a turkey wing model for microvascular anastomosis training and compare it to the previously outlined chicken wing model.

Methods
The authors compared diameter measurements in each of 5 turkey and 5 chicken brachial arteries at 3 equidistant points. Usable vessel length was measured (from joint to joint) in each of the specimens. A survey was created and distributed at a bypass training course to assess the attendees' impressions of various practice models used for bypass.

Results
The turkey wing brachial artery was consistently larger in diameter (p < 0.01) and longer (p < 0.01) than the chicken wing artery and showed less variability in the vessel diameter (1.47 ± 0.14 mm in the turkey vs 1.07 ± 0.25 mm in the chicken). In a survey of 15 bypass course participants, the live rat training model scored highest overall and was ranked as the best model for training; however, the turkey wing model was ranked second best and was consistently scored ahead of the chicken wing and silastic tube training models.

Conclusions
The authors' institutional preference has shifted to the use of a turkey wing artery as the initial model for microanastomosis training. Advantages in terms of vessel size and tissue durability favor this model over the chicken wing as part of a graduated instruction process.
Postoperative outcomes following closed head injury and craniotomy for evacuation of hematoma in patients older than 80 years
Authors: Lau Darryl , El-Sayed Abdulrahman M. , Ziewacz John E. , Jayachandran Priya , Huq Farhan S. , Zamora-Berridi Grettel J. , Davis Matthew C. , Sullivan Stephen E. 
Published: August 2011

Object
Advances in the management of trauma-induced intracranial hematomas and hemorrhage (epidural, subdural, and intraparenchymal hemorrhage) have improved survival in these conditions over the last several decades. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the relation between patient age and outcomes of surgical treatment for these conditions. In this study, the authors examined the relation between patient age over 80 years and postoperative outcomes following closed head injury and craniotomy for intracranial hemorrhage.

Methods
A consecutive population of patients undergoing emergent craniotomy for evacuation of intracranial hematoma following closed head trauma between 2006 and 2009 was identified. Using multivariable logistic regression models, the authors assessed the relation between age (> 80 vs ≤ 80 years) and postoperative complications, intensive care unit stay, hospital stay, morbidity, and mortality.

Results
Of 103 patients, 27 were older than 80 years and 76 patients were 80 years of age or younger. Older age was associated with longer length of hospital stay (p = 0.014), a higher rate of complications (OR 5.74, 95% CI 1.29–25.34), and a higher likelihood of requiring rehabilitation (OR 3.28, 95% CI 1.13–9.74). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the age groups in 30-day mortality or ability to recover to functional baseline status.

Conclusions
The findings suggest that in comparison with younger patients, patients over 80 years of age may be similarly able to return to preinjury functional baselines but may require increased postoperative medical attention in the forms of rehabilitation and longer hospital stays. Prospective studies concerned with the relation between older age, perioperative parameters, and postoperative outcomes following craniotomy for intracranial hemorrhage are needed. Nonetheless, the findings of this study may allow for more informed decisions with respect to the care of elderly patients with intracranial hemorrhage.
Oxidative markers in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage: leukocyte 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine as an independent predictor of the 30-day outcome
Authors: Chen Yi-Chun , Chen Chiung-Mei , Liu Jun-Liang , Chen Sien-Tsong , Cheng Mei-Ling , Chiu Daniel Tsun-yee 
Published: August 2011

Object
Oxidative stress may play a role in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), but data on oxidative burden in cerebral hemorrhage are limited, and it is not clear whether oxidative markers add predictive power regarding ICH outcome beyond that of traditional factors. The authors therefore examined redox status and traditional factors in ICH patients within 3 days of hemorrhage onset to delineate redox status in ICH and investigate the predictive value with respect to 30-day functional outcome.

Methods
Sixty-four patients with ICH and 114 controls were prospectively enrolled in this study. Blood samples were collected within 3 days of ICH onset and processed for isolation of plasma, erythrocytes, and leukocytes. The authors evaluated levels or activities of leukocyte 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase (GPx), plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), vitamin E, and vitamin A, as well as traditional factors including the presence of hypertension or diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol level, and measures of liver function. A general linear model and multivariable logistic regression were used for analyses where appropriate.

Results
After adjustment for age and sex and traditional risk factors, ICH was significantly associated with an increased level of 8-OHdG (p < 0.0001), decreased GPx activity (p = 0.0002), and a decreased level of vitamin E (p = 0.003). There was no association of ICH risk with G6PD activity or MDA or vitamin A level. Considering all the oxidative markers and traditional risk factors together, logistic regression showed an independent association of ICH with 8-OHdG (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.7–4.2, p < 0.0001). The association between increased 8-OHdG level and lower 30-day Barthel Index was also independent of the effects of age, sex, hemorrhage location and size, and traditional factors (p = 0.026). Unfavorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale score ≥ 3) at 30 days after ICH onset was not significantly associated with any of the examined oxidative markers.

Conclusions
Increased leukocyte 8-OHdG levels, as well as decreased GPx activity and vitamin E levels, were found during acute ICH. Only 8-OHdG was associated with ICH and the 30-day outcome independently from the other oxidative markers and traditional factors. Leukocyte 8-OHdG may add power beyond the traditional factors in predicting ICH outcome and thus may be used as an independent surrogate for clinical ICH study.
Factors associated with hearing preservation after Gamma Knife surgery for vestibular schwannomas in patients who retain serviceable hearing
Authors: Hasegawa Toshinori , Kida Yoshihisa , Kato Takenori , Iizuka Hiroshi , Yamamoto Takashi 
Published: August 2011

Object
Gamma Knife surgery (GKS) has been a safe and effective treatment for small- to medium-sized vestibular schwannomas (VSs) over relatively long-term outcomes. However, even with recent radiosurgical techniques, hearing results following GKS remain unsatisfactory. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hearing preservation rate as well as factors related to hearing preservation in patients with VSs and serviceable hearing who were treated with GKS.

Methods
Among patients with Gardner-Robertson (GR) Class I or II serviceable hearing and VSs treated with GKS between 1991 and 2009, 117 were evaluable via periodic MR imaging and audiometry.

Results
The median age at the time of GKS was 52 years. Four patients (3%) had undergone prior surgery. Fifty-six patients (48%) had GR Class I hearing and 61 (52%) had GR Class II hearing at the time of GKS. The median tumor volume was 1.9 cm3. The median maximum and tumor margin radiation doses were 24 and 12 Gy, respectively. The median follow-up periods for MR imaging and audiometry were 74 and 38 months, respectively. The overall tumor control rate was 97.5%. Actuarial 3-, 5-, and 8-year hearing preservation rates were 55%, 43%, and 34%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, GR hearing class at the time of GKS and the mean cochlear dose affected hearing preservation significantly. In a limited number of patients who were treated using the most recent dose planning techniques and who had GR Class I hearing before treatment, the 3- and 5-year hearing preservation rates increased to 80% and 70%, respectively.

Conclusions
For the majority of patients with small- to medium-sized VSs, GKS was an effective and reasonable alternative to resection with satisfactory long-term tumor control. Factors related to hearing preservation included a GR Class I hearing pre-GKS and a lower mean cochlear radiation dose. To retain serviceable hearing, it is important to apply GKS treatment while patients retain GR Class I hearing.