bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hochkontagiöse Erkrankungen. Sind wir vorbereitet?
Authors: Stich August , Gottschalk René 
Published: December 2009

AbstractHochkontagiöse, gemeingefährliche, lebensbedrohliche Erkrankungen kommen in Deutschland bislang extrem selten vor, bergen aber ein hohes Gefahrenpotential für Patienten, Gesundheitspersonal und die allgemeine Bevölkerung. Sie können als importierte Infektionen, bei Laborunfällen oder im Rahmen bioterroristischer Anschläge vorkommen. Besondere Bedeutung haben die Mensch zu Mensch übertragbaren viralen hämorrhagischen Fieber (vor allem Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Krim‐Kongo hämorrhagisches Fieber), Pockenerkrankungen und die Lungenpest. Anamnese und klinisches Bild erlauben Fachleuten, einen “begründeten Verdacht” auszusprechen, was eine Reihe spezifischer Maßnahmen nach sich ziehen muss. Diese sollten in Alarmplänen vorbereitet sein, deren Umsetzung ein enges Zusammenspiel zwischen Klinikern, Öffentlichem Gesundheitsdienst und Experten voraussetzt. Deutschland ist durch das Netzwerk der StAKoB im internationalen Vergleich sehr gut aufgestellt.
Impfungen in der Tropen‐ und Reisemedizin. Hintergrundinformationen für die Beratung
Authors: Müller Andreas 
Published: December 2009

AbstractImpfungen vor Reisen sind eine effektive Maßnahme zum Schutz vor potentiell gefährlichen Erkrankungen. Eine Impfempfehlung ist das Resultat einer individuellen Beratung über das Krankheitsbild, die Epidemiologie, erzielte Schutzwirkung, Behandlungsmöglichkeiten und alternative oder additive Schutzmöglichkeiten. Reisemedizinische Impfungen müssen nicht kosteneffektiv sein sondern sie dienen der Minimierung individueller Gesundheitsrisiken unter Berücksichtigung des angestrebten Sicherheitsniveaus.
A continuous spectrophotometric assay for determination of the aureusidin synthase activity of tyrosinase
Authors: Jiménez‐Atiénzar M. , Pérez‐Gilabert M. , Cabanes J. , Escribano J. , Gandía‐Herrero F. , García‐Carmona F. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractIntroduction – Aurones (aureusidin glycosides) are plant flavonoids that provide yellow colour to the flowers of some ornamental plants. In this study we analyse the capacity of tyrosinase to catalyse the synthesis of aureusidin by tyrosinase from the chalcone THC (2′,4′,6′,4–tetrahydroxychalcone).Objective – To develop a simple continuous spectrophotometric assay for the analysis of the spectrophotometric and kinetic characteristics of THC oxidation by tyrosinase.Methodology – THC oxidation was routinely assayed by measuring the increase in absorbance at 415 nm vs. reaction time.Results – According to the mechanism proposed for tyrosinase, the enzymatic reaction involves the o‐hydroxylation of the monophenol THC to the o‐diphenol (PHC, 2′,4′,6′,3,4 – pentahydroxychalcone), which is then oxidised to the corresponding o‐quinone in a second enzymatic step. This product is highly unstable and thus undergoes a series of fast chemical reactions to produce aureusidin. In these experimental conditions, the optimum pH for THC oxidation is 4.5. The progress curves obtained for THC oxidation showed the appearance of a lag period. The following kinetic parameters were also determined: Km = 0.12 mM, Vm = 13 μM/min, Vm/Km = 0.11/min.Conclusion – This method has made it possible to analyse the spectrophotometric and kinetic characteristics of THC by tyrosinase. This procedure has the advantages of a short analysis time, straightforward measurement techniques and reproducibility. In addition, it also allows the study of tyrosinase inhibitors, such as tropolone. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hospital pharmacists' knowledge and opinions regarding adverse drug reaction reporting in Northern China
Authors: Su Changhai , Ji Hui , Su Yixin 
Published: December 2009

AbstractPurposeThis study was designed to investigate the knowledge and opinions of hospital pharmacists about the spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in Inner Mongolia, a northern region of China.MethodsA face‐to‐face questionnaire survey of hospital pharmacists was conducted in five tertiary general hospitals in Inner Mongolia between July and December 2007. The structured questionnaire consisted of questions about the demographic details of the pharmacists, their knowledge of pharmacovigilance and their opinions on pharmacists' involvement in ADR reporting.ResultsOf the 288 pharmacists visited, 246 responded giving a total response rate of 85.4%. An amount of 70% of the pharmacists could define ADR correctly and 78.0% knew how to report ADRs. However, only one‐third were clear as to what should be reported. The majority of pharmacists (92.7%) considered ADR reporting to be a professional obligation. However, only 36 (14.6%) claimed to have reported an ADR in their career, 25 of these 36 pharmacists (69.4%) were clinical pharmacists. Younger pharmacists and those who had received ADR training were more likely to report an ADR. The three major reasons for not reporting were: uncertain association (81.9%), insufficient clinical knowledge (68.6%) and lack of time (45.7%). The most frequently mentioned suggestion for improvement included more education on ADR reporting (66.7%), participation in ward rounds (43.9%) and encouragement from the pharmacy department (32.9%).ConclusionOur investigation showed hospital pharmacists in a northern region of China had a reasonable knowledge of and positive attitudes towards pharmacovigilance. However, the majority of pharmacists had never reported an ADR in their career. Pharmacists' ADR education and increasing involvement in patient care would be important in improving ADR reporting in hospitals. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Real‐time control of dielectric elastomer actuators via bioelectric and biomechanical signals
Authors: Carpi Federico , Raspopovic Stanisa , Frediani Gabriele , De Rossi Danilo 
Published: December 2009

AbstractDielectric elastomers represent a high‐performance class of electromechanically active polymers, largely studied nowadays to develop soft actuators with pseudo‐muscular functions, suitable for a broad spectrum of biomedical and biorobotic applications. As such, they are investigated to achieve the ambitious goal of developing artificial muscles. From the perspective of using this technology for systems interfacing humans and machines, the possibility to control them in real time via human bioelectric and biomechanical signals is a fundamental requirement. This work provides the first detailed investigation on this topic. The amplitude and frequency of actuation of buckling dielectric elastomer actuators were dynamically controlled with electromyographic, electrocardiographic and respitrace signals, subjected to low‐pass filtering and amplification. The actuators were able to follow, in real time and in synchrony, inputs corresponding to skeletal muscle contraction, heart beating and respiratory activity. This work shows that real‐time open‐loop control of dielectric elastomer actuators via human bioelectric and biomechanical signals is feasible and readily achievable. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
Racial differences in prostate cancer risk remain among US servicemen with equal access to care
Authors: Wells Timothy S. , Bukowinski Anna T. , Smith Tyler C. , Smith Besa , Dennis Leslie K. , Chu Laura K. , Gray Gregory C. , Ryan Margaret A.K. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractBACKGROUNDProstate cancer is the most common cancer among US men, however, the etiology remains unclear. Yet, one consistency is that black non‐Hispanic men are at increased risk for prostate cancer compared to white, non‐Hispanic men. The goal of this study was to assess relations between demographic and other potential prostate cancer risk factors in the context of the US military healthcare system, which provides equal access to all US servicemen.METHODSMilitary healthcare and demographic data were used to describe risk factors for prostate cancer in the US military from September 1993 to September 2003. Cox's proportional hazards regression was employed to model the time to prostate cancer hospitalization.RESULTSFour hundred eight first prostate cancer hospitalizations were identified among 2,761,559 servicemen. The adjusted rate per 100,000 persons rose from 1.41 to 3.62 for white non‐Hispanic men and 1.43 to 6.08 for black non‐Hispanic men by the end of the study. The increasing incidence over time for combined race/ethnic groups was similar to trends reported in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program for the US civilian population. No association was observed between occupation and prostate cancer hospitalization. However, black non‐Hispanic men were at increased risk compared with white non‐Hispanic men (hazard ratio = 2.72, 95% confidence interval: 2.12, 3.49).CONCLUSIONSNo association was observed between occupation and prostate cancer hospitalization. In this relatively young cohort, black non‐Hispanic race/ethnicity was found to be predictive of prostate cancer, and this association existed regardless of access to care and socioeconomic status. Prostate 70: 727–734, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Adaptive rover behavior based on online empirical evaluation: Rover–terrain interaction and near‐to‐far learning
Authors: Krebs Ambroise , Pradalier Cédric , Siegwart Roland 
Published: December 2009

AbstractOwing to the fundamental nature of all‐terrain exploration, autonomous rovers are confronted with unknown environments. This is especially apparent regarding soil interactions, as the nature of the soil is typically unknown. This work aims at establishing a framework from which the rover can learn from its interaction with the terrains encountered and shows the importance of such a method. We introduce a set of rover–terrain interaction (RTI) and remote data metrics that are expressed in different subspaces. In practice, the information characterizing the terrains, obtained from remote sensors (e.g., a camera) and local sensors (e.g., an inertial measurement unit) is used to characterize the respective remote data and RTI model. In each subspace, which can be described as a feature space encompassing either a remote data measurement or an RTI, similar features are grouped to form classes, and the probability distribution function over the features is learned for each one of those classes. Subsequently, data acquired on the same terrain are used to associate the corresponding models in each subspace and to build an inference model. Based on the remote sensor data measured, the RTI model is predicted using the inference model. This process corresponds to a near‐to‐far approach and provides the most probable RTI metrics of the terrain lying ahead of the rover. The predicted RTI metrics are then used to plan an optimal path with respect to the RTI model and therefore influence the rover trajectory. The CRAB rover is used in this work for the implementation and testing of the approach, which we call rover–terrain interactions learned from experiments (RTILE). This article presents RTILE, describes its implementation, and concludes with results from field tests that validate the approach. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Sediment load estimates and variations in the Lower Mekong River
Authors: Wang J.‐J. , Lu X. X. , Kummu M. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractAlthough sediment issues have critical implications for aquatic ecology, agriculture, water supply and river navigation, studies regarding the sediment production, deposition and transportation in the Lower Mekong River are relatively sparse. With the construction and operation of dams in the Upper Mekong River, this issue has attracted more attention in recent years. The estimation of sediment loads has been hindered by the serious lack of sediment measurements in the Lower Mekong River. This study aimed to investigate the possibility of estimating the sediment loads for the years without good quality SSC measurements in the Lower Mekong River. To make this estimate, this study classified the rating curves on the basis of the synchronous nature of the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and the water discharge among the adjacent stations (e.g. Chiang Saen, Luang Prabang, Nong Khai, Mukdahan and Khong Chiam). Together with other methods, it was possible to estimate the yearly sediment loads for the period of 1962–2003 at the five mainstream Lower Mekong River stations. Consequently, the spatial and temporal variations in the sediment loads and water discharge in the Lower Mekong River were examined. In addition, the possible impacts of Chinese dams as well as the annual sediment load of the Mekong River into the sea were also investigated. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Applying instream flow incremental method for the spawning habitat protection of Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis)
Authors: Ban X. , Du Y. , Liu H. Z. , Ling F. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThe Chinese sturgeon,Acipenser sinensis, is an anadromous species that spawns in the Yangtze River and Pearl River of China. Its population has declined dramatically since the construction of the Gezhouba Dam (GD) in 1981 and then with the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) upstream of the GD in 2003. This paper presents a quantitative method based on the instream flow incremental method to explore the relationship between the fish spawning habitat and the operations of the GD and TGD, aiming to find a solution for conservation of the species. A two‐dimensional hydrodynamic model was built with the River2D to simulate the hydraulic behaviour of the stream below the GD. Habitat suitability index was determined by the biological data of the fish collected in the field. The two parts were then integrated through a geographical information system developed via ArcGIS to outline the fish habitat area variation with flows. The decision support system is applied to set up a habitat time series for validating the assumption that more habitats have the potential to support more fish. The fish habitat results for alternative instream flow schemes are then compared with one another for defining the optimal flow requirements and evaluating effects of reservoir operation alternatives in order to improve the operation management for the GD and TGD projects. The results show that the optimal flow for spawning of the fish is about 7000–13000 m3/s and the optimal inlets combination is where the inflow comes from two power plants. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Innovative joints in steel construction
Authors: Bijlaard Frans S. K. , Coelho Ana M. Girão , Magalhães Victor J. D. A. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractInnovative concepts for beam‐to‐column joints are currently under development. The emphasis with these new forms is on providing an incentive for the mass production of joints and connections, automating the process of structural assembly and reducing dangerous erection procedures. Two alternative concepts for moment‐transmitting joints are addressed below. The joints include modular connecting elements that provide stability during the erection phase and are later finished to ensure that the design loads are transferred from the beam to the column. The development phase of these concepts is dealt with in this paper.
Constructing secured cognitive wireless networks: experiences and challenges
Authors: Zhang Xueying , Li Cheng 
Published: December 2009

AbstractRecent development in wireless communications has lead to the problem of growing spectrum shortage. Cognitive radio, as a novel technology, has been proposed in recent years to solve this problem by dynamically accessing the spectrum so as to enhance the spectrum utilization. Security in cognitive radio networks has become a challenging issue because there are more chances open to attackers by cognitive radio technology, compared to those from conventional wireless networks. These weaknesses and vulnerable aspects, introduced by the nature of cognitive radio, may cause serious impact on the security and quality of service (QoS) provisioning for the entire network. Unfortunately, at present, there is no specific secure protocol designed for cognitive radio networks. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct a high‐level survey to review and reflect the state‐of‐the‐art work on the security issues in cognitive networks. We focus on analyzing the security system at the macroscopic level, where both protection and detection are considered to be the most essential parts to ensure security in the whole network. Furthermore, we investigate special characteristics of cognitive networks at different protocol layers, including physical layer, link layer, network layer, transport layer and application layer. We recognize both the challenges and experiences, and focus on constructing the secured cognitive wireless networks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards utility‐optimal random access without message passing
Authors: Liu J. , Yi Y. , Proutiere A. , Chiang M. , Poor H. V. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractIt has been recently suggested by Jiang and Walrand that adaptive carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) can achieve optimal utility without any message passing in wireless networks. In this paper, after a survey of recent work on random access, a generalization of this algorithm is considered. In the continuous‐time model, a proof is presented of the convergence of these adaptive CSMA algorithms to be arbitrarily close to utility optimality, without assuming that the network dynamics converge to an equilibrium in between consecutive CSMA parameter updates. In the more realistic, slotted‐time model, the impact of collisions on the utility achieved is characterized, and the tradeoff between optimality and short‐term fairness is quantified. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A software‐defined radio based cognitive radio demonstration over FM band
Authors: Zhou Ruolin , Mian Omer , Li Xue , Wang Bin , Wu Zhiqiang 
Published: December 2009

AbstractIn this paper, we present a software‐defined radio (SDR) based cognitive radio (CR) implementation and demonstration over the frequency modulation (FM) band. Using GNU Radio as the software platform and USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) SDR boards as the hardware solution, we implement and demonstrate a CR that autonomously senses the entire FM band, detects all the active FM stations (occupied bands) as well as the spectrum holes (non‐occupied bands), exploits the available spectrum holes to transmit secondary users' data without interference with the existing FM transmission. Moreover, we demonstrate that when a primary user's transmission returns to its allocated spectrum band after a period of absence, the CR automatically adapts its transmission and hands off to a different spectrum hole that is available to avoid interference with the returning primary user. Moreover, we have proposed, implemented, and demonstrated a frequency hopping scheme over multiple spectrum holes to support multiple secondary users while attaining the minimum interference among the users. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Per‐user service model for opportunistic scheduling scheme over fading channels
Authors: Dianati Mehrdad , Tafazolli Rahim , Shen Xuemin , Naik Kshirasagar 
Published: December 2009

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a finite‐state Markov model for per‐user service of an opportunistic scheduling scheme over Rayleigh fading channels, where a single base station serves an arbitrary number of users. By approximating the power gain of Rayleigh fading channels as finite‐state Markov processes, we develop an algorithm to obtain dynamic stochastic model of the transmission service, received by an individual user for a saturated scenario, where user data queues are highly loaded. The proposed analytical model is a finite‐state Markov process. We provide a comprehensive comparison between the predicted results by the proposed analytical model and the simulation results, which demonstrate a high degree of match between the two sets. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adaptive antenna selection at mobile stations for SDMA in WiMAX networks
Authors: Wang Tairan , Tao Zhifeng , Molisch Andreas F. , Orlik Philip V. , Zhang Jinyun 
Published: December 2009

AbstractThe IEEE 802.16/WiMAX standard has fully embraced multi‐antenna technology and can, thus, deliver robust performance and high transmission rates. Nevertheless, due to its inherent cost concerns, a WiMAX mobile station (MS) should preferably contain fewer radio frequency (RF) chains than antenna elements. This is because the former is often substantially more expensive than the latter. Thus, antenna selection, wherein a subset of antennas is dynamically selected to connect to the limited number of RF chains for transceiving, is a highly appealing performance enhancement technique for multi‐antenna WiMAX terminals. In this paper, a novel protocol for antenna selection in space division multiple access (SDMA) transmission is developed for the next‐generation IEEE 802.16 mobile stations. Both locally and globally optimal selection rules are considered together with various linear precoding designs at the base station (BS). The proposed protocol can readily accommodate various channel situations (e.g., reciprocal and non‐reciprocal channels). As demonstrated by analysis and simulation, the proposed protocol delivers considerable performance improvement over conventional IEEE 802.16 terminals that lack antenna selection capability. Moreover, the proposed protocol leverages the existing signaling method defined in IEEE 802.16, thereby incurring a negligible signaling overhead and requiring only minimal modifications of the standard. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first effort to support antenna selection capability for SDMA transmissions in IEEE 802.16 mobile stations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Categorical perception
Authors: Goldstone Robert L. , Hendrickson Andrew T. 
Published: December 2009

AbstractCategorical perception (CP) is the phenomenon by which the categories possessed by an observer influences the observers' perception. Experimentally, CP is revealed when an observer's ability to make perceptual discriminations between things is better when those things belong to different categories rather than the same category, controlling for the physical difference between the things. We consider several core questions related to CP: Is it caused by innate and/or learned categories, how early in the information processing stream do categories influence perception, and what is the relation between ongoing linguistic processing and CP? CP for both speech and visual entities are surveyed, as are computational and mathematical models of CP. CP is an important phenomenon in cognitive science because it represents an essential adaptation of perception to support categorizations that an organism needs to make. Sensory signals that could be linearly related to physical qualities are warped in a nonlinear manner, transforming analog inputs into quasi‐digital, quasi‐symbolic encodings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.This article is categorized under:Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics