bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Colorectal cancer screening, perceived discrimination, and low-income and trust in doctors: a survey of minority patients
Authors: Born Wendi , Engelman Kimberly , Greiner K Allen , Bhattacharya Shelley B , Hall Sandra , Hou Qingjiang , Ahluwalia Jasjit S 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Completion of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening testing is lower among low-income and minority groups than the population as a whole. Given the multiple cancer screening health disparities known to exist within the U.S., this study investigated the relationship between perceived discrimination, trust in most doctors, and completion of Fecal Occult Blood Testing (FOBT) among a low-income, minority primary care population in an urban setting.

Methods
We recruited a convenience sample of adults over age 40 (n = 282) from a federally qualified community health center (70% African American). Participants completed a survey which included measures of trust in most doctors, perceived discrimination, demographics and report of cancer screening.

Results
Participants reported high levels of trust in most doctors, regardless of sex, race, education or income. High trust was associated with low perceived discrimination (p < 0.01). The trend was for older participants to express more trust (p = 0.09) and less perceived discrimination (p < 0.01). Neither trust nor discrimination was associated with race or education. Trust was higher among participants over 50 who were up-to-date on FOBT screening vs. those who were not (31 vs. 29 (median), p < 0.05 by T-test). Among those over 50, up-to-date FOBT screening was nearly associated with high trust (p < 0.06; 95% CI 0.99, 1.28) and low perceived discrimination (p < 0.01; 95% CI 0.76, 0.96). Nevertheless, in multivariate-modeling, age and income explained FOBT completion better than race, trust and discrimination.

Conclusion
Perceived discrimination was related to income, but not race, suggesting that discrimination is not unique to minorities, but common to those in poverty. Since trust in most doctors trended toward being related to age, FOBT screening could be negatively influenced by low trust and perceived discrimination in health care settings. A failure to address these issues in middle-aged, low income individuals could exacerbate future disparities in CRC screening.
Long-term care cost drivers and expenditure projection to 2036 in Hong Kong
Authors: Chung Roger Y , Tin Keith YK , Cowling Benjamin J , Chan King Pan , Chan Wai Man , Lo Su Vui , Leung Gabriel M 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Hong Kong's rapidly ageing population, characterised by one of the longest life expectancies and the lowest fertility rate in the world, is likely to drive long-term care (LTC) expenditure higher. This study aims to identify key cost drivers and derive quantitative estimates of Hong Kong's LTC expenditure to 2036.

Methods
We parameterised a macro actuarial simulation with data from official demographic projections, Thematic Household Survey 2004, Hong Kong's Domestic Health Accounts and other routine data from relevant government departments, Hospital Authority and other LTC service providers. Base case results were tested against a wide range of sensitivity assumptions.

Results
Total projected LTC expenditure as a proportion of GDP reflected secular trends in the elderly dependency ratio, showing a shallow dip between 2004 and 2011, but thereafter yielding a monotonic rise to reach 3.0% by 2036. Demographic changes would have a larger impact than changes in unit costs on overall spending. Different sensitivity scenarios resulted in a wide range of spending estimates from 2.2% to 4.9% of GDP. The availability of informal care and the setting of formal care as well as associated unit costs were important drivers of expenditure.

Conclusion
The "demographic window" between the present and 2011 is critical in developing policies to cope with the anticipated burgeoning LTC burden, in concert with the related issues of health care financing and retirement planning.
Meteorologically estimated exposure but not distance predicts asthma symptoms in schoolchildren in the environs of a petrochemical refinery: a cross-sectional study
Authors: White Neil , teWaterNaude Jim , van der Walt Anita , Ravenscroft Grant , Roberts Wesley , Ehrlich Rodney 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Community concern about asthma prompted an epidemiological study of children living near a petrochemical refinery in Cape Town, South Africa. Because of resource constraints and the complexity of refinery emissions, neither direct environmental measurements nor modelling of airborne pollutants was possible. Instead a meteorologically derived exposure metric was calculated with the refinery as the putative point source. The study aimed to determine whether (1) asthma symptom prevalences were elevated compared to comparable areas in Cape Town and (2) whether there was an association between asthma symptom prevalences and the derived exposure metric.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was carried out of all consenting school children aged 11 to 14 years attending schools in a defined area, utilizing the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) written and video questionnaires. Information was collected on potential confounders, e.g. parental history of atopic disease, active and passive smoking by the participant, birth order, number of children in the home and distance from a major road. The exposure metric combined residential distance of each child from the refinery with a wind vector in the form of wind speed, wind direction and proportion of the year blown.

Results
A total of 2,361 children from 17 schools met the criteria for inclusion. In multivariate analysis, meteorologically estimated exposure (MEE), but not simple distance from the refinery, was positively associated with having to take an inhaler to school [odds ratio per interquartile range (OR) 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-1.40], and with a number of video elicited asthma symptoms, including recent waking with wheezing (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.06-1.66) and frequent wheezing at rest (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.05 - 1.54). Symptom prevalences were higher than in other areas of the city, with frequent waking with wheezing being in great excess (OR 8.92, 95% CI 4.79-16.63).

Conclusion
The results support the hypothesis of an increased prevalence of asthma symptoms among children in the area as a result of refinery emissions and provide a substantive basis for community concern. The methodology also provides a low cost means of testing hypotheses about point source pollutant effects on surrounding populations of children.
Central nesfatin-1-expressing neurons are sensitive to peripheral inflammatory stimulus
Authors: Bonnet Marion S , Pecchi Emilie , Trouslard Jérôme , Jean André , Dallaporta Michel , Troadec Jean-Denis 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Recently, a novel factor with anorexigenic properties was identified and called nesfatin-1. This protein (82 aac) is not only expressed in peripheral organs but it is also found in neurons located in specific structures including the hypothalamus and the brainstem, two sites strongly involved in food intake regulation. Here, we studied whether some of the neurons that become activated following an injection of an anorectic dose of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) exhibit a nesfatin-1 phenotype. To this end, we used double immunohistochemistry to target the expression of the immediate-early gene c-fos and of nesfatin-1 on coronal frozen sections of the rat brain. The number of c-Fos+/nesfatin-1+ neurons was evaluated in the immunosensitive structures reported to contain nesfatin-1 neurons; i.e. paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN), supraoptic nucleus (SON), arcuate nucleus (ARC) and nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). LPS strongly increased the number of c-Fos+/nesfatin-1+ neurons in the PVN, SON and NTS, and to a lesser extent in the ARC. Triple labeling showed that a portion of the nesfatin-1 neurons activated in response to LPS within the NTS are catecholaminergic since they co-express tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Our data therefore indicate that a portion of nesfatin-1 neurons of both the hypothalamus and brainstem are sensitive to peripheral inflammatory signals, and provide the first clues suggesting that centrally released nesfatin-1 may contribute to the neural mechanisms leading to endotoxaemic anorexia.
Short-term effects of air pollution: a panel study of blood markers in patients with chronic pulmonary disease
Authors: Hildebrandt Katharina , Rückerl Regina , Koenig Wolfgang , Schneider Alexandra , Pitz Mike , Heinrich Joachim , Marder Victor , Frampton Mark , Oberdörster Günter , Wichmann H Erich , Peters Annette 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Growing evidence indicates that ambient air pollution is associated with exacerbation of chronic diseases like chronic pulmonary disease. A prospective panel study was conducted to investigate short-term changes of blood markers of inflammation and coagulation in response to daily changes in air pollution in Erfurt, Germany. 12 clinical visits were scheduled and blood parameters were measured in 38 male patients with chronic pulmonary disease during winter 2001/2002. Additive mixed models with random patient intercept were applied, adjusting for trend, weekday, and meteorological parameters. Hourly data on ultrafine particles (UFP, 0.01-0.1 μm), accumulation mode particles (ACP, 0.1-1.0 μm), PM10 (particulate matter <10 μm in diameter), elemental (EC) and organic carbon (OC), gaseous pollutants (nitrogen monoxide [NO], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], carbon monoxide [CO], and sulphur dioxide [SO2]) were collected at a central monitoring site and meteorological data were received from an official network. For each person and visit the individual 24-hour average of pollutants immediately preceding the blood withdrawal (lag 0) up to day 5 (lag1-4) and 5-day running means were calculated.

Results
Increased levels of fibrinogen were observed for an increase in one interquartile range of UFP, PM10, EC, OC, CO, and NO revealing the strongest effect for lag 3. E-selectin increased in association with ACP and PM10 with a delay of one day. The ACP effect was also seen with the 5-day-mean. The pattern found for D-dimer was inconsistent. Prothrombin fragment 1+2 decreased with lag 4 consistently for all particulate pollutants. Von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF) showed a consistent decrease in association with almost all air pollutants with all lags except for lag 0. No associations were found for C-reactive protein, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1, serum amyloid A and factor VII.

Conclusion
These results suggest that elevated concentrations of air pollution are associated with changes in some blood markers of inflammation and coagulation in patients with chronic pulmonary disease. The clinical implications of these findings need further investigation.
Micro-scaled high-throughput digestion of plant tissue samples for multi-elemental analysis
Authors: Hansen Thomas H , Laursen Kristian H , Persson Daniel P , Pedas Pai , Husted Søren , Schjoerring Jan K 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Quantitative multi-elemental analysis by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry depends on a complete digestion of solid samples. However, fast and thorough sample digestion is a challenging analytical task which constitutes a bottleneck in modern multi-elemental analysis. Additional obstacles may be that sample quantities are limited and elemental concentrations low. In such cases, digestion in small volumes with minimum dilution and contamination is required in order to obtain high accuracy data.

Results
We have developed a micro-scaled microwave digestion procedure and optimized it for accurate elemental profiling of plant materials (1-20 mg dry weight). A commercially available 64-position rotor with 5 ml disposable glass vials, originally designed for microwave-based parallel organic synthesis, was used as a platform for the digestion. The novel micro-scaled method was successfully validated by the use of various certified reference materials (CRM) with matrices rich in starch, lipid or protein. When the micro-scaled digestion procedure was applied on single rice grains or small batches of Arabidopsis seeds (1 mg, corresponding to approximately 50 seeds), the obtained elemental profiles closely matched those obtained by conventional analysis using digestion in large volume vessels. Accumulated elemental contents derived from separate analyses of rice grain fractions (aleurone, embryo and endosperm) closely matched the total content obtained by analysis of the whole rice grain.

Conclusion
A high-throughput micro-scaled method has been developed which enables digestion of small quantities of plant samples for subsequent elemental profiling by ICP-spectrometry. The method constitutes a valuable tool for screening of mutants and transformants. In addition, the method facilitates studies of the distribution of essential trace elements between and within plant organs which is relevant for, e.g., breeding programmes aiming at improvement of the micronutrient density in edible plant parts. Compared to existing vial-in-vial systems, the new method developed here represents a significant methodological advancement in terms of higher capacity, reduced labour consumption, lower material costs, less contamination and, as a consequence, improved analytical accuracy following micro-scaled digestion of plant samples.
Leadership is the essential non-technical skill in the trauma team - results of a qualitative study
Authors: Hjortdahl Magnus , Ringen Amund H , Naess Anne-Cathrine , Wisborg Torben 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Background
Trauma is the leading cause of death for young people in Norway. Studies indicate that several of these deaths are avoidable if the patient receives correct initial treatment. The trauma team is responsible for initial hospital treatment of traumatized patients, and team members have previously reported that non-technical skills as communication, leadership and cooperation are the major challenges. Better team function could improve patient outcome. The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of which non-technical skills are important to members of the trauma team during initial examination and treatment of trauma patients.

Methods
Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted at four different hospitals of various sizes and with different trauma load. At each hospital a nurse, an anaesthesiologist and a team leader (surgeon) were interviewed. The conversations were transcribed and analyzed using systematic text condensation according to the principles of Giorgi's phenomenological analysis as modified by Malterud.

Results and conclusion
Leadership was perceived as an essential component in trauma management. The ideal leader should be an experienced surgeon, have extensive knowledge of trauma care, communicate clearly and radiate confidence. Team leaders were reported to have little trauma experience, and the team leaders interviewed requested more guidance and supervision. The need for better training of trauma teams and especially team leaders requires further investigation and action.
Duration of red blood cell storage is associated with increased incidence of deep vein thrombosis and in hospital mortality in patients with traumatic injuries
Authors: Spinella Philip C , Carroll Christopher L , Staff Ilene , Gross Ronald , Mc Quay Jacqueline , Keibel Lauren , Wade Charles E , Holcomb John B 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Introduction
In critically ill patients the relationship between the storage age of red blood cells (RBCs) transfused and outcomes are controversial. To determine if duration of RBC storage is associated with adverse outcomes we studied critically ill trauma patients requiring transfusion.

Methods
This retrospective cohort study included patients with traumatic injuries transfused ≥5 RBC units. Patients transfused ≥ 1 unit of RBCs with a maximum storage age of up to 27 days were compared with those transfused 1 or more RBC units with a maximum storage age of ≥ 28 days. These study groups were also matched by RBC amount (+/- 1 unit) transfused. Primary outcomes were deep vein thrombosis and in-hospital mortality.

Results
Two hundred and two patients were studied with 101 in both decreased and increased RBC age groups. No differences in admission vital signs, laboratory values, use of DVT prophylaxis, blood products or Injury Severity Scores were measured between study groups. In the decreased compared with increased RBC storage age groups, deep vein thrombosis occurred in 16.7% vs 34.5%, (P = 0.006), and mortality was 13.9% vs 26.7%, (P = 0.02), respectively. Patients transfused RBCs of increased storage age had an independent association with mortality, OR (95% CI), 4.0 (1.34 - 11.61), (P = 0.01), and had an increased incidence of death from multi-organ failure compared with the decreased RBC age group, 16% vs 7%, respectively, (P = 0.037).

Conclusions
In trauma patients transfused ≥5 units of RBCs, transfusion of RBCs ≥ 28 days of storage may be associated with deep vein thrombosis and death from multi-organ failure.
Modelling engine and exhaust temperatures of a mono-fuelled turbocharged compressed-natural-gas engine during warm-up
Authors: Röth J A , Guzzella L 
Published: September 2009

A promising way to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles is the use of engines fuelled only by compressed natural gas (CNG). However, even with CNG, restrictions on pollutants such as methane and non-methane hydrocarbons must be complied with. In a modern spark ignition (SI) engine, most of the pollutants are produced during the cold start before the catalytic converter reaches its light-off temperature. To avoid costly problems late in the development phase, it is reasonable to assess the functionality of the exhaust system as a whole, and the light-off behaviour of the catalytic converter in particular, as early as possible using simulation. Today's state-of-the-art catalytic converter simulation tools require the temperature signal upstream of the catalytic converter as input. This necessitates an easily applicable simulation tool of the exhaust temperature that takes the engine warm-up into account. This paper presents a new physics-based model for the estimation of the engine and exhaust temperatures for a CNG-fuelled SI engine during warm-up. A new mean value model for the combustion wall heat transfer and also a lumped-parameter consideration of the cooling fluid are presented. In addition, existing methods for engine modelling are adapted to account for engine warm-up. Based on measurements performed on a special test bench assembly, the most important physical effects occurring in this phase are identified. Various experiments for parameterization and validation of the model are carried out. Tests for all relevant engine operating variations confirm a good correlation between the model and measurement results.
Distributed vehicle body electric/electronic system architecture with central coordination control
Authors: Gu Z-M , Yang D-G , Zhang X-F , Lu L , Li K-Q , Lian X-M 
Published: September 2009

The conventional vehicle electric/electronic system architecture has become an obstacle of the booming development of in-vehicle electric and electronic devices. The surging number of these devices and the runup of the information exchange requirement among the devices call for a brand new system architecture. In this paper, a completely distributed electric/electronic system architecture with a centralized coordinator is introduced. The new architecture concept features a set of hierarchy on-site serial buses together with a digitalized power supply network coordinated by a central controller. The basic functionality and diagnosis of all the in-vehicle electric devices are implemented as digitalized nodes with unified connection interface in the network, which execute commands and share information with the central coordinator. The new architecture facilitates the information exchange, minimizes the cost and effort of vehicle harness, and reserves the configurability and expandability. The distributed structure with twin backup central coordinators ensures the system reliability.
Rescaled range analysis of service load data
Authors: Rathanraj K J , Srividya A , Verma A K , Raman R , Mannikar A V , Pankhawala V A 
Published: September 2009

Recent advances in data acquisition, storing, and recording technology are allowing increasingly detailed samplings of actual customer usage of product. Because of this, laboratories are coming forward to use the actual road data rather than simulated data or data collected from the proving ground. This research work is an attempt to find a representative length of data (short-term data) from the large-distance data (long-term data). For any particular class of vehicle, finding the short-term data, which are representative of long-term data, will avoid the collection of large-distance data in the future. In this paper, using the Hurst methodology an attempt have been made to find the short-term data that have to be collected, so as to be representative of the long-term data. In this study, data have been collected both on the proving ground as well as on an actual road for a distance of 1700km on a light commercial vehicle. It has been seen from the Hurst exponent that, collecting data for an actual road length of about 200km would give a representation for an actual road length of 1000km.
The opportunities and challenges associated with wireless interconnects in aircraft
Authors: Panitz M , Hope D C , Sato T , Harley C D , Christopoulos C , Sewell P , Dawson J F , Marvin A C , Fearon E , Watkins K G , Dearden G , Crowther W J 
Published: September 2009

Utilizing wireless data buses in aircraft has the potential to increase reliability, reduce weight, and improve flexibility and adaptability. In this article, the implementation of wirelessly connected interconnects in aircraft is introduced from a broad perspective, considering the issues of radio systems, propagation, antennas, and applications. Existing avionics systems are discussed briefly in order to understand the requirements placed on a wireless system and the specification it must meet. A review of existing wireless protocols and commercial off the shelf systems is provided, explaining where systems including ZigBee and IEEE 802.11 are suitable and unsuitable for a wireless aircraft application, and it is found that no existing system can be used exclusively. It is shown quantitatively that the propagation environment is expected to have high delay spreads and the negative impact of this on system reliability is shown through simulation and measurements. The application and benefits of a direct write, in-situ, metallic deposition procedure are discussed for the placement of antennas, sensors, and their associated electronics. By writing electronics onto a surface, fitting and retrofitting are made much easier without the need to affect the aircraft structure, and this enables a more flexible wireless system. The opportunities, advantages and challenges for such a technology within the wireless aircraft are discussed.