bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Early Pediatric Emergency Department Return Visits
Authors: Ali Alliyia B. , Place Rick , Howell John , Malubay Sienna M. 
Published: April 2012

Background A substantial percentage of emergency department (ED) patients return within 72 hours of their initial evaluation. Quality reviews typically demonstrate that most revisits do not seem to be directly related to problematic care provided on the first evaluation. We examined the possibility that return visits are related to nonmedical issues on the first visit, most notably patient discharge education. Objective We prospectively surveyed a convenience sample of caregivers in a pediatric ED to determine why they returned with their children within 72 hours of their initial ED visit. Design/Methods All patients who returned within 72 hours of a previous visit were identified and prospectively interviewed using a survey instrument with nominal (multiple choice) and brief descriptive responses. Results Caregivers of 124 children were prospectively surveyed; 93 children (75%) returned because their symptoms had not improved or worsened. Only 50 (53%) had contacted their primary medical doctor (PMD) prior to the second visit; of these, 14 (28%) could not get an appointment, and 32 (64%) were told to return to the ED. Discharge instructions were felt to be informative by 94% (n = 86) of caregivers with the same number (94%) reported being satisfied with the first ED physician. Twenty-nine children (30%) were admitted on the second visit. Conclusions Among children who are discharged from the emergency department and return within 72 hours, most caregivers are satisfied with the care and instructions provided on their first visits. Though most patients have a PMD, many do not call them prior to their return ED visit, and those who do either cannot schedule an appointment or are told to return to the ED. The majority of patients return for clinical progression of illness.
Early-Childhood Obesity
Authors: Hernandez Raquel G. , Thompson Darcy A. , Cheng Tina L. , Serwint Janet R. 
Published: April 2012

Objectives To determine parental rankings of known factors related to early-childhood obesity and compare reports between parents of healthy weight and overweight children. Methods Parents of 2- to 5-year-old children seeking well-child care ranked card-sort statements including risks, barriers, and motivating factors for achieving a healthy weight child. Frequencies and means of ranked factors are reported and compared. Results Of the 150 participants, few parents (7.4%) considered low levels of physical activity a top risk factor compared with other known risks. Inability to control the food choices of alternate caregivers was the greatest perceived barrier to achieving a healthy child weight (34%). There were no differences in rankings by child weight groups. Conclusion Low-income parents of preschoolers are aware of high-risk feeding behaviors, but few recognize the risk of inactivity in their young child. Innovations that promote adequate physical activity and engage influential caregivers during counseling are necessary.
An efficacy trial of ‘Steps to Your Health’, a health promotion programme for adults with intellectual disability
Authors: McDermott Suzanne , Whitner Wendy , Thomas-Koger Marlo , Mann Joshua R , Clarkson John , Barnes Timothy L , Bao Haikun , Meriwether Rebecca A 
Published: April 2012

Objective: Although there are evaluation and effectiveness studies of health promotion interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), randomized efficacy trials of such interventions are lacking. Design: A randomized active control intervention trial. Setting: The participants attended the health promotion classes in local disability agency service facilities. Method: We enrolled 443 individuals and randomly assigned them to one of two eight-week participatory classes. The ‘Steps to Your Health’ (STYH) classes emphasized moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), healthy eating and body mass index (BMI) reduction. The control intervention focused on hygiene and safety. Results: We did not find a statistically significant difference in mean MVPA or BMI change between completers of the STYH group compared to the control group one year after the intervention was completed. We did find that participation in STYH classes had a non-significant association with odds of reduction in BMI (odds ratio [OR] 2.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91–9.11) and completers who lived in group homes were more likely than their counterparts who lived with families or in apartments to decrease their BMI (OR 4.61; 95% CI 1.14–18.64). Conclusions: This trial did not demonstrate a significant effect of STYH participation on change in mean minutes of MVPA or mean BMI 12 months after classes ended, although there was a non-significant association with odds of reduction of BMI ( p = 0.07). This study has implications for design of intervention studies in people with intellectual disability (ID).
Comprehensive Assessment of Human Pharmacokinetic Prediction Based on In Vivo Animal Pharmacokinetic Data, Part 2: Clearance
Authors: Lombardo Franco , Waters Nigel J. , Argikar Upendra A. , Dennehy Michelle K. , Zhan Jenny , Gunduz Mithat , Harriman Shawn P. , Berellini Giuliano , Liric Rajlic Ivana , Obach R. Scott 
Published: April 2012

AbstractA comprehensive analysis on the prediction of human clearance based on intravenous pharmacokinetic data from rat, dog, and monkey for approximately 400 compounds was undertaken. This data set has been carefully compiled from literature reports and expanded with some in‐house determinations for plasma protein binding and rat clearance. To the authors— knowledge, this is the largest publicly available data set. The present examination offers a comparison of 37 different methods for prediction of human clearance across compounds of diverse physicochemical properties. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the application of each prediction method to each charge class of the compounds, thus presenting an additional dimension to prediction of human pharmacokinetics. In general, the observations suggest that methods employing monkey clearance values and a method incorporating differences in plasma protein binding between rat and human yield the best overall predictions as suggested by approximately 60% compounds within 2‐fold geometric mean‐fold error. Other single‐species scaling or proportionality methods incorporating the fraction unbound in the corresponding preclinical species for prediction of free clearance in human were generally unsuccessful.
Difference in Graft Maturity of the Reconstructed Anterior Cruciate Ligament 2 Years Postoperatively
Authors: Li Hong , Tao Hongyue , Cho Samson , Chen Shuang , Yao Zhenjun , Chen Shiyi 
Published: April 2012

Background: Currently, there is an ongoing debate regarding the optimal graft choice between autograft and allograft tendons in reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It has been reported that allograft tendons have a slower onset and rate of revascularization compared with autograft tendons. Hypothesis: Allograft tendons might have inferior graft maturity compared with autograft tendons in ACL reconstruction at 2 years postoperatively. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A total of 52 participants with ACL reconstruction were recruited in this study, including 30 using allograft tendons and 22 using autograft tendons. All of them had unilateral ACL reconstruction and were followed up using 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at least 2 years postoperatively. Clinical examination was performed on the same day when the MRI examination was performed, including subjective functional examinations (International Knee Documentation Committee [IKDC] and Tegner Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale [TLKS]) and physical examinations (anterior drawer test and Lachman test). Four measurements based on MRI were focused on graft orientation (including tibial tunnel position and graft angles), the edematous condition of the graft, intra-articular graft width at different sites, and signal intensity of the ACL graft using the signal/noise quotient (SNQ) from a region of interest analysis. Differences in each measurement were compared between the allograft group and the autograft group. Results: All the participants returned to normal sports activities at the follow-up time point, as all of them acquired full functional strength and stability. There was no significant difference between the autograft and the allograft group with respect to IKDC or TLKS score. The knees in both of the groups were confirmed stable by physical examination before MRI. On MRI measurements, the allograft group displayed no significant difference in graft orientation compared with the autograft group ( P > .05). Moreover, there was also no significant difference between allograft group and autograft group in graft width of the distal site ( P > .05), middle site ( P > .05), and proximal site ( P > .05). However, the mean SNQ value of the allograft group was significantly higher than that of the autograft group in the distal site (6.54 ± 6.58 vs 2.98 ± 5.48; P = .0173), the middle site (7.21 ± 6.31 vs 3.56 ± 4.62; P = .0149), and the proximal site (6.61 ± 8.08 vs 2.45 ± 8.12; P = .0018). Conclusion: The allograft group had a significantly higher SNQ value compared with the autograft group in this study, indicating that allograft tendons might have inferior graft maturity than autograft tendons in ACL reconstruction at 2 years postoperatively.
Delay in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Thromboembolism in Emergency Department
Authors: Aydoğdu Müge , Doğan Nurettin Özgür , Sinanoğlu Nazlı Topbaşı , Oğuzülgen İpek Kıvılcım , Demircan Ahmet , Bildik Fikret , Ekim Numan 
Published: April 2012

Background and Aim: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and serious disease that can result in death unless emergent diagnosis is made and treatment is initiated. In this study, we aimed to identify whether there is still a delay in the diagnosis of PE and to identify the time to delay in diagnosis and factors leading to this delay. Methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study performed in an emergency department (ED) of a tertiary care university hospital between September 2008 and September 2010. The rate and cause of delay in diagnosis were analyzed among patients with PE. The “delay” was defined as diagnosing after first 24 hours of symptom onset. Results: Among the 53 patients who were diagnosed with PE, a delay in diagnosis was present in 49 (93%) of them. Total delay time was 6.8 ± 7.7 days. In 33 (62%) patients, there was a delay of 4.6 ± 6.5 days due to patient-related factors. Delay in diagnosis after admission to hospital was 2.2 ± 2.9 days in 40 (75%) patients. In multivariate regression analysis, being female and having chest pain and cough were identified as significant factors causing patient-related delay. Unilateral leg edema, recent operation, and previous venous thromboembolism (VTE) history were the significant factors causing PE diagnosis without a delay. On the other hand, systemic hypertension as comorbidity was the only factor leading to physician-related delay. Conclusion: The delay in diagnosis of PE in EDs still remains as an important problem. While being female and having chest pain and cough are significantly and independently associated with patient delay in diagnosis, the unilateral leg edema, recent operation, and previous VTE history cause physicians to diagnose on time. On the other hand, having hypertension as comorbidity may lead to physician delay. In order to prevent the delay in diagnosis, hospital-associated factors must be elucidated totally and more interventions must be made to increase public and professional awareness of the disease.
Calibration of a model for selective catalytic reduction with ammonia, including NO oxidation, and simulation of NOx reduction over an Fe–zeolite catalyst under highly transient conditions
Authors: Sharifian Leila , Wright Yuri M , Boulouchos Konstantinos , Elsener Martin , Kröcher Oliver 
Published: April 2012

NOx reduction over an Fe–zeolite catalyst is simulated for highly transient conditions representative of automotive diesel engine operation. A transient 1D convection + 1D diffusion (1D + 1D) model for a single channel of a catalytic converter is developed, including a set of the most recently proposed kinetics for Fe–zeolite catalysts. The parameters specifying the characteristics of the selective catalytic reduction system are introduced, and an efficient calibration procedure is proposed that exploits the specific structure of the experimental dataset, consisting of a total of 90 operating conditions with varying space velocities, temperatures and inlet concentrations. Parameterization of the system is carried out by studying the system response to single step feeds in the inlet ammonia up to steady state (slow transient). Experimental data for highly dynamic ammonia dosing is subsequently employed to assess the model performance at highly transient conditions typical of diesel engine operation. Excellent agreement is reported for a total of 90 operating conditions; differences between the predictions and the experimental data in cumulative converted NOx after 20,000 s of operation are less than 2%.
Orthogonal stability of an additive-quartic functional equation with the fixed point alternative
Authors: Lee Sung Jin , Park Choonkil , Saadati Reza 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
Using the fixed point method, we prove the Hyers-Ulam stability of the orthogonally additive-quartic functional equation

f

(

2
x
+
y

)

+
f

(

2
x
-
y

)

=
4
f

(

x
+
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)

+
4
f

(

x
-
y

)

+
10
f

(

x

)

+
14
f

(

-
x

)

-
3
f

(

y

)

-
3
f

(

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y

)

for all x, y with x ⊥ y, where ⊥ is the orthogonality in the sense of Rätz.

AMS Subject Classification: Primary, 39B55; 47H10; 39B52; 46H25.
Shikonin enhances efficacy of a gene-based cancer vaccine via induction of RANTES
Authors: Chen Hui-Ming , Wang Pi-Hsueh , Aravindaram Kandan , Chen Yun-Hsiang , Yu Hsiu-Hui , Yang Wen-Chin , Yang Ning-Sun 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundShikonin, a phytochemical purified fromLithospermum erythrorhizon, has been shown to confer diverse pharmacological activities, including accelerating granuloma formation, wound healing, anti-inflammation and others, and is explored for immune-modifier activities for vaccination in this study. Transdermal gene-based vaccine is an attractive approach for delivery of DNA transgenes encoding specific tumor antigens to host skin tissues. Skin dendritic cells (DCs), a potent antigen-presenting cell type, is known to play a critical role in transmitting and orchestrating tumor antigen-specific immunities against cancers. The present study hence employs these various components for experimentation.MethodThe mRNA and protein expression of RANTES were detected by RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. The regional expression of RANTES and tissue damage in test skin were evaluated via immunohistochemistry assay. Fluorescein isothiocyanate sensitization assay was performed to trace the trafficking of DCs from the skin vaccination site to draining lymph nodes. Adjuvantic effect of shikonin on gene gun-delivered human gp100 (hgp100) DNA cancer vaccine was studied in a human gp100-transfected B16 (B16/hgp100) tumor model.ResultsAmong various phytochemicals tested, shikonin induced the highest level of expression of RANTES in normal skin tissues. In comparison, mouse RANTES cDNA gene transfection induced a higher level of mRANTES expression for a longer period, but caused more extensive skin damage. Topical application of shikonin onto the immunization site before gene gun-mediated vaccination augmented the population of skin DCs migrating into the draining lymph nodes. A hgp100 cDNA gene vaccination regimen with shikonin pretreatment as an adjuvant in a B16/hgp100 tumor model increased cytotoxic T lymphocyte activities in splenocytes and lymph node cells on target tumor cells.ConclusionTogether, our findings suggest that shikonin can effectively enhance anti-tumor potency of a gene-based cancer vaccine via the induction of RANTES expression at the skin immunization site.
PIntron: a fast method for detecting the gene structure due to alternative splicing via maximal pairings of a pattern and a text
Authors: Pirola Yuri , Rizzi Raffaella , Picardi Ernesto , Pesole Graziano , Della Vedova Gianluca , Bonizzoni Paola 
Published: April 2012

Abstract

Background
A challenging issue in designing computational methods for predicting the gene structure into exons and introns from a cluster of transcript (EST, mRNA) sequences, is guaranteeing accuracy as well as efficiency in time and space, when large clusters of more than 20,000 ESTs and genes longer than 1 Mb are processed. Traditionally, the problem has been faced by combining different tools, not specifically designed for this task.

Results
We propose a fast method based on ad hoc procedures for solving the problem. Our method combines two ideas: a novel algorithm of proved small time complexity for computing spliced alignments of a transcript against a genome, and an efficient algorithm that exploits the inherent redundancy of information in a cluster of transcripts to select, among all possible factorizations of EST sequences, those allowing to infer splice site junctions that are largely confirmed by the input data. The EST alignment procedure is based on the construction of maximal embeddings, that are sequences obtained from paths of a graph structure, called embedding graph, whose vertices are the maximal pairings of a genomic sequence T and an EST P. The procedure runs in time linear in the length of P and T and in the size of the output.
The method was implemented into the PIntron package. PIntron requires as input a genomic sequence or region and a set of EST and/or mRNA sequences. Besides the prediction of the full-length transcript isoforms potentially expressed by the gene, the PIntron package includes a module for the CDS annotation of the predicted transcripts.

Conclusions
PIntron, the software tool implementing our methodology, is available at http://www.algolab.eu/PIntron under GNU AGPL. PIntron has been shown to outperform state-of-the-art methods, and to quickly process some critical genes. At the same time, PIntron exhibits high accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) when benchmarked with ENCODE annotations.
Parametric modeling of cellular state transitions as measured with flow cytometry
Authors: Ho Hsiu J , Lin Tsung I , Chang Hannah H , Haase Steven B , Huang Sui , Pyne Saumyadipta 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundGradual or sudden transitions among different states as exhibited by cell populations in a biological sample under particular conditions or stimuli can be detected and profiled by flow cytometric time course data. Often such temporal profiles contain features due to transient states that present unique modeling challenges. These could range from asymmetric non-Gaussian distributions to outliers and tail subpopulations, which need to be modeled with precision and rigor.ResultsTo ensure precision and rigor, we propose a parametric modeling framework StateProfiler based on finite mixtures of skewt-Normal distributions that are robust against non-Gaussian features caused by asymmetry and outliers in data. Further, we present in StateProfiler a new greedy EM algorithm for fast and optimal model selection. The parsimonious approach of our greedy algorithm allows us to detect the genuine dynamic variation in the key features as and when they appear in time course data. We also present a procedure to construct a well-fitted profile by merging any redundant model components in a way that minimizes change in entropy of the resulting model. This allows precise profiling of unusually shaped distributions and less well-separated features that may appear due to cellular heterogeneity even within clonal populations.ConclusionsBy modeling flow cytometric data measured over time course and marker space with StateProfiler, specific parametric characteristics of cellular states can be identified. The parameters are then tested statistically for learning global and local patterns of spatio-temporal change. We applied StateProfiler to identify the temporal features of yeast cell cycle progression based on knockout of S-phase triggering cyclins Clb5 and Clb6, and then compared the S-phase delay phenotypes due to differential regulation of the two cyclins. We also used StateProfiler to construct the temporal profile of clonal divergence underlying lineage selection in mammalian hematopoietic progenitor cells.
Expansion and diversification of the SET domain gene family following whole-genome duplications in Populus trichocarpa
Authors: Lei Li , Zhou Shi-Liang , Ma Hong , Zhang Liang-Sheng 
Published: April 2012

Abstract

Background
Histone lysine methylation modifies chromatin structure and regulates eukaryotic gene transcription and a variety of developmental and physiological processes. SET domain proteins are lysine methyltransferases containing the evolutionarily-conserved SET domain, which is known to be the catalytic domain.

Results
We identified 59 SET genes in the Populus genome. Phylogenetic analyses of 106 SET genes from Populus and Arabidopsis supported the clustering of SET genes into six distinct subfamilies and identified 19 duplicated gene pairs in Populus. The chromosome locations of these gene pairs and the distribution of synonymous substitution rates showed that the expansion of the SET gene family might be caused by large-scale duplications in Populus. Comparison of gene structures and domain architectures of each duplicate pair indicated that divergence took place at the 3'- and 5'-terminal transcribed regions and at the N- and C-termini of the predicted proteins, respectively. Expression profile analysis of Populus SET genes suggested that most Populus SET genes were expressed widely, many with the highest expression in young leaves. In particular, the expression profiles of 12 of the 19 duplicated gene pairs fell into two types of expression patterns.

Conclusions
The 19 duplicated SET genes could have originated from whole genome duplication events. The differences in SET gene structure, domain architecture, and expression profiles in various tissues of Populus suggest that members of the SET gene family have a variety of developmental and physiological functions. Our study provides clues about the evolution of epigenetic regulation of chromatin structure and gene expression.