bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neural correlates of ‘pessimistic’ attitude in depression
Authors: Herwig U. , Brühl A. B. , Kaffenberger T. , Baumgartner T. , Boeker H. , Jäncke L. 
Published: September 2009

BackgroundPreparing for potentially threatening events in the future is essential for survival. Anticipating the future to be unpleasant is also a cognitive key feature of depression. We hypothesized that ‘pessimism’-related emotion processing would characterize brain activity in major depression.MethodDuring functional magnetic resonance imaging, depressed patients and a healthy control group were cued to expect and then perceive pictures of known emotional valences – pleasant, unpleasant and neutral – and stimuli of unknown valence that could have been either pleasant or unpleasant. Brain activation associated with the ‘unknown’ expectation was compared with the ‘known’ expectation conditions.ResultsWhile anticipating pictures of unknown valence, activation patterns in depressed patients within the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal areas, inferior frontal gyrus, insula and medial thalamus were similar to activations associated with expecting unpleasant pictures, but not with expecting positive pictures. The activity within a majority of these areas correlated with the depression scores. Differences between healthy and depressed persons were found particularly for medial and dorsolateral prefrontal and insular activations.ConclusionsBrain activation in depression during expecting events of unknown emotional valence was comparable with activation while expecting certainly negative, but not positive events. This neurobiological finding is consistent with cognitive models supposing that depressed patients develop a ‘pessimistic’ attitude towards events with an unknown emotional meaning. Thereby, particularly the role of brain areas associated with the processing of cognitive and executive control and of the internal state is emphasized in contributing to major depression.
Antidepressant study design affects patient expectancy: a pilot study
Authors: Rutherford B. , Sneed J. , Devanand D. , Eisenstadt R. , Roose S. 
Published: September 2009

BackgroundResponse to antidepressant medication is higher in comparator versus placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Patient expectancy is an important influence on clinical outcome in the treatment of depression and may explain this finding. The results are reported from a pilot RCT studying expectancy and depression outcome in placebo-controlled versus comparator treatment conditions.MethodOut-patients aged 18–65 years with major depressive disorder (MDD) were enrolled in this 8-week RCT. Subjects were randomized to placebo-controlled (escitalopram or placebo) or comparator (escitalopram or citalopram) administration of antidepressant medication. Subjects reported their expected likelihood and magnitude of depression improvement before and after randomization using questions from the Credibility and Expectancy Scale (CES). A regressed change model of post-randomization expectancy of improvement was fit to the data to determine whether subjects in the comparator group reported greater expectancies of improvement than subjects in the placebo-controlled group.ResultsTwenty subjects with mean age 56.5±11.7 years, a baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) score of 24.2±5.3, baseline Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score of 24.9±6.4 and baseline Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) – Severity score of 4.0±0.3 were enrolled in the study. Adjusting for other factors, the effect of group assignment on expected magnitude of improvement was significant and large (effect size 1.5). No group differences in expected likelihood of improvement were found.ConclusionsRandomization to comparator versus placebo-controlled administration of antidepressant medication produced greater expectancies of how much patients would improve during the trial. This expectancy difference may explain the higher response and remission rates that are observed in comparator versus placebo-controlled trials.
Investigating cognitive deficits and symptomatology across pre-morbid adjustment patterns in first-episode psychosis
Authors: Béchard-Evans L. , Iyer S. , Lepage M. , Joober R. , Malla A. 
Published: September 2009

BackgroundCognitive deficits in schizophrenia are well established and are known to be present during the first episode of a psychotic disorder. In addition, consistent heterogeneity within these impairments remains unexplained. One potential source of variability may be the level of pre-morbid adjustment prior to the onset of first-episode psychosis (FEP).MethodNinety-four FEP patients and 32 healthy controls were assessed at baseline on several neuropsychological tests comprising six cognitive domains (verbal memory, visual memory, working memory, processing speed, reasoning/problem-solving and attention) and an abbreviated version of the full IQ. A global neurocognitive domain was also computed. Pre-morbid adjustment patterns were divided into three distinct groups: stable-poor, stable-good and deteriorating course.ResultsBased on a cut-off of 0.8 for effect size, the stable-poor pre-morbid adjustment group was significantly more impaired on most cognitive domains and full IQ compared to the deteriorating group, who were more severely impaired on all measures compared to the stable-good group. The type of cognitive deficit within each subgroup did not differ and the results indicate that a global neurocognition measure may reliably reflect the severity of cognitive impairment within each subgroup.ConclusionsPre-morbid adjustment patterns prior to onset of psychosis are associated with severity but not type of cognitive impairment. Patients in the stable-poor group are generally more impaired compared to the deteriorating group, who are, in turn, more impaired than the stable-good group.
Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) III: Associations with functional impairment related to DSM-IV disorders
Authors: McLaughlin K. A. , Green J. G. , Gruber M. J. , Sampson N. A. , Zaslavsky A. M. , Kessler R. C. 
Published: September 2009

BackgroundDespite evidence that childhood adversities (CAs) are associated with increased risk of mental disorders, little is known about their associations with disorder-related impairment. We report the associations between CAs and functional impairment associated with 12-month DSM-IV disorders in a national sample.MethodWe used data from the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Respondents completed diagnostic interviews that assessed 12-month DSM-IV disorder prevalence and impairment. Associations of 12 retrospectively reported CAs with impairment among cases (n=2242) were assessed using multiple regression analysis. Impairment measures included a dichotomous measure of classification in the severe range of impairment on the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) and a measure of self-reported number of days out of role due to emotional problems in the past 12 months.ResultsCAs were positively and significantly associated with impairment. Predictive effects of CAs on the SDS were particularly pronounced for anxiety disorders and were significant in predicting increased days out of role associated with mood, anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders. Predictive effects persisted throughout the life course and were not accounted for by disorder co-morbidity. CAs associated with maladaptive family functioning (MFF; parental mental illness, substance disorder, criminality, family violence, abuse, neglect) were more consistently associated with impairment than other CAs. The joint effects of co-morbid MFF CAs were significantly subadditive. Simulations suggest that CAs account for 19.6% of severely impairing disorders and 17.4% of days out of role.ConclusionsCAs predict greater disorder-related impairment, highlighting the ongoing clinical significance of CAs at every stage of the life course.
The genetic and environmental relationship between major depression and the five-factor model of personality
Authors: Kendler K. S. , Myers J. 
Published: September 2009

BackgroundCertain personality traits have long been suspected to reflect an enduring vulnerability to major depression (MD) in part because of shared genetic risk factors. Although many have agreed that normative personality is well captured by the ‘Big-Five’ personality traits of Openness (O), Conscientiousness (C), Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A) and Neuroticism (N), to date genetically informative studies have only examined the relationship between MD and N and E.MethodQuestionnaires were completed on a website, yielding a sample of 44 112 subjects including both members of 542 same-sex twin pairs. Personality was measured by the Big Five Inventory. Structural modeling was performed by Mx.ResultsThree of the big-five personality traits – O, E and A – had small phenotypic associations with risk for MD and small genetic correlations. Two traits – N and C – had stronger phenotypic associations (positive for N and negative for C) with the following estimates of the genetic correlation with MD: +0.43 for N and −0.36 for C. N and C were moderately negatively correlated. Controlling for N reduced the genetic correlation between C and MD more than controlling for C reduced the genetic correlation between N and MD.ConclusionsA large proportion of the genetic risk for MD that is expressed via personality is captured by N, with a modest amount due to C, and small amounts from O, E and A.
Complexity provides a better explanation than probability for confidence in syllogistic inferences
Authors: Halford Graeme S. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractBayesian rationality is an important contribution to syllogistic inference, but it has limitations. The claim that confidence in a conclusion is a function of informativeness of the max-premise is anomalous because this is the least probable premise. A more plausible account is that confidence is inversely related to complexity. Bayesian rationality should be supplemented with principles based on cognitive complexity.
Cone exchange transformations and boundedness of orbits
Authors: ASHWIN PETER , GOETZ AREK 
Published: September 2009

AbstractWe introduce a class of two-dimensional piecewise isometries on the plane that we refer to as cone exchange transformations (CETs). These are generalizations of interval exchange transformations (IETs) to 2D unbounded domains. We show for a typical CET that boundedness of orbits is determined by ergodic properties of an associated IET and a quantity we refer to as the ‘flux at infinity’. In particular we show, under an assumption of unique ergodicity of the associated IET, that a positive flux at infinity implies unboundedness of almost all orbits outside some bounded region, while a negative flux at infinity implies boundedness of all orbits. We also discuss some examples of CETs for which the flux is zero and/or we do not have unique ergodicity of the associated IET; in these cases (which are of great interest from the point of view of applications such as dual billiards) it remains an outstanding problem to find computable necessary and sufficient conditions for boundedness of orbits.
Small-step and big-step semantics for call-by-need
Authors: NAKATA KEIKO , HASEGAWA MASAHITO 
Published: September 2009

AbstractWe present natural semantics for acyclic as well as cyclic call-by-need lambda calculi, which are proved equivalent to the reduction semantics given by Ariola and Felleisen (J. Funct. Program., vol. 7, no. 3, 1997). The natural semantics are big-step and use global heaps, where evaluation is suspended and memorized. The reduction semantics are small-step, and evaluation is suspended and memorized locally in let-bindings. Thus two styles of formalization describe the call-by-need strategy from different angles. The natural semantics for the acyclic calculus is revised from the previous presentation by Maraist et al. (J. Funct. Program., vol. 8, no. 3, 1998), and its adequacy is ascribed to its correspondence with the reduction semantics, which has been proved equivalent to call-by-name by Ariola and Felleisen. The natural semantics for the cyclic calculus is inspired by that of Launchbury (1993) and Sestoft (1997), and we state its adequacy using a denotational semantics in the style of Launchbury; adequacy of the reduction semantics for the cyclic calculus is in turn ascribed to its correspondence with the natural semantics.
A domain-specific language for experimental game theory
Authors: WALKINGSHAW ERIC , ERWIG MARTIN 
Published: September 2009

AbstractExperimental game theory is increasingly important for research in many fields. Unfortunately, it is poorly supported by computer tools. We have created Hagl, a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell, to reduce the development time of game-theoretic experiments and make the definition and exploration of games and strategies simple and fun.
A machine learning approach to textual entailment recognition
Authors: ZANZOTTO FABIO MASSIMO , PENNACCHIOTTI MARCO , MOSCHITTI ALESSANDRO 
Published: September 2009

AbstractDesigning models for learning textual entailment recognizers from annotated examples is not an easy task, as it requires modeling the semantic relations and interactions involved between two pairs of text fragments. In this paper, we approach the problem by first introducing the class of pair feature spaces, which allow supervised machine learning algorithms to derive first-order rewrite rules from annotated examples. In particular, we propose syntactic and shallow semantic feature spaces, and compare them to standard ones. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed spaces learn first-order derivations, while standard ones are not expressive enough to do so.
The Anglican Imagination of Matthew Arnold
Authors: LaGrone Matthew 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis essay is an attempt to write Matthew Arnold into the narrative of Anglican thought in the nineteenth century. Overviews of general religious thought in the Victorian era give an appropriate nod to Arnold, but the institutional histories of the Anglican Church have not acknowledged his contributions to defining Anglican identity. In many ways, this is quite understandable: Arnold broke with much of traditional Christian doctrine. But, and just as significant, he never left the Church of England, and in fact he was an apologist for the Church at a time when even part of the clergy seemed alienated. He sought to expand the parameters of permitted religious opinion to include the largest number of English Christians in the warm embrace of the national Church. The essay concludes that the religious reflections of Arnold must be anchored in an Anglican context.
How can demography inform health policy?
Authors: Leone Tiziana 
Published: September 2009

AbstractDemography’s contribution to health policy debates comes from the study of population dynamics relating to fertility, mortality and migration. The aim of this article is to stress how vital a correct understanding of population dynamics is for health policy and planning. The article first highlights some of the major contributions demographers have made to debates about health, particularly where they have helped to overcome misconceptions. It then discusses two prominent issues: population ageing in the developed world and population growth in developing countries.
Access and choice – competition under the roof of solidarity in German health care: an analysis of health policy reforms since 2004
Authors: Lisac Melanie , Reimers Lutz , Henke Klaus-Dirk , Schlette Sophia 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis paper analyses the influence of recent German health care reforms, the Statutory Health Insurance Modernization Act 2004 and the Statutory Health Insurance Competition Strengthening Act 2007, on different dimensions of access and choice. More specifically, we look at and discuss the effects of these policies on the availability, reachability and affordability of health care as well as on their impact on consumers’ choice of insurers and providers. Generally, patients in Germany enjoy a high degree of free access and a lot of freedom to choose, partly leading to over- and misuse of health services. Concerning choice of insurers, one result of our analysis is that in the statutory health insurance system, the introduction of a greater variety of benefit packages will develop into an additional parameter of choice. In contrast to that, insurees more and more accept certain restrictions of choice and direct access to providers by enrolling into new forms of care (such as gatekeeping-, disease management- and integrated care programmes). However, they might benefit from better quality of care and more options for products and services that best fit their needs.
Systems Biology Graphical Notation: Activity Flow language Level 1
Authors: Mi Huaiyu , Schreiber Falk , Le Novére Nicolas , Moodie Stuart , Sorokin Anatoly 
Published: September 2009

AbstractStandard graphical representations have played a crucial role in science and engineering throughout the last century. Without electrical symbolism, it is very likely that our industrial society would not have evolved at the same pace. Similarly, specialized notations such as the Feynmann notation or the process flow diagrams did a lot for the adoption of concepts in their own fields. With the advent of Systems Biology, and more recently of Synthetic Biology, the need for precise and unambiguous descriptions of biochemical interactions has become more pressing. While some ideas have been advanced over the last decade, with a few detailed proposals, no actual community standard has emerged. The Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) is a graphical representation crafted over several years by a community of biochemists, modellers and computer scientists. Three orthogonal and complementary languages have been created, the Process Descriptions, the Entity Relationships and the Activity Flows. Using these three idioms a scientist can represent any network of biochemical interactions, which can then be interpreted in an unambiguous way. The set of symbols used is limited, and the grammar quite simple, to allow its usage ranging from textbooks and teaching in high schools to peer reviewed articles in scientific journals. The first level of the SBGN Activity Flow language has been publicly released. Shared by the communities of biochemists, genomic scientists, theoreticians and computational biologists, SBGN languages will foster efficient storage, exchange and reuse of information on signaling pathways, metabolic networks and gene regulatory maps.
Technical Comments on “Greater Transportation Energy and GHG Offsets from BioelectricityThan Ethanol”
Authors: Zhang Y-H Percival , Rollin Joe 
Published: September 2009

AbstractCampbell et al. [Report in Science 2009 (May 22), 324, 1055] analyzed two scenarios where bioenergy crops were used for transportation – (1) cellulosic ethanol production by biorefineries for internal combustion engines and (2) bioelectricity generation by power stations for electric motors. Their study suggests the latter approach offers more efficient energy utilization than the former. We argue that the evaluation of a transportation system must be based on complicated metrics rather than only one or two factors. We suggest another out-of-the-box solution biomass carbohydrate-to-hydrogen-to-electricity as a key component of the future transportation sector.
Aedes aegypti cadherin serves as a putative receptor of the Cry11Aa toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis
Authors: Chen Jianwu , Aimanova Karlygash G. , Fernandez Luisa E. , Bravo Alejandra , Soberon Mario , Gill Sarjeet S. 
Published: September 2009

Cry11Aa of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is the most active toxin to Aedes aegypti in this strain. We previously reported that, in addition to a 65 kDa GPI (glycosylphosphatidylinositol)-anchored ALP (alkaline phosphatase), the toxin also binds a 250 kDa membrane protein. Since this protein is the same size as cadherin, which in lepidopteran insects is an important Cry toxin receptor, we developed an anti-AaeCad antibody. This antibody detects a 250 kDa protein in immunoblots of larval BBMVs (brush border membrane vesicles). The antibody inhibits Cry11Aa toxin binding to BBMVs and immunolocalizes the cadherin protein to apical membranes of distal and proximal caecae and posterior midgut epithelial cells. This localization is consistent with areas to which Cry11Aa toxin binds and causes pathogenicity. Therefore, the full-length Aedes cadherin cDNA was isolated from Aedes larvae and partial overlapping fragments that covered the entire protein were expressed in Escherichia coli. Using toxin overlay assays, we showed that one cadherin fragment, which contains CR7–11 (cadherin repeats 7–11), bound Cry11Aa and this binding was primarily through toxin domain II loops α8 and 2. Cadherin repeats CR8–11 but not CR7 bound Cry11Aa under non-denaturing conditions. Cry11Aa bound the cadherin fragment with high affinity with an apparent Kd of 16.7 nM. Finally we showed that this Cry11Aa-binding site could also be competed by Cry11Ba and Cry4Aa but not Cry4Ba. These results indicate that Aedes cadherin is possibly a receptor for Cry11A and, together with its ability to bind an ALP, suggest a similar mechanism of toxin action as previously proposed for lepidopteran insects.
Rapid affinity-purification and physicochemical characterization of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) phloem exudate lectin
Authors: Narahari Akkaladevi , Swamy Musti J. 
Published: September 2009

The chito-oligosaccharide-specific lectin from pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) phloem exudate has been purified to homogeneity by affinity chromatography on chitin. After SDS/PAGE in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol, the pumpkin phloem lectin yielded a single band corresponding to a molecular mass of 23.7 kDa, whereas ESI-MS (electrospray ionization MS) gave the molecular masses of the subunit as 24645 Da. Analysis of the CD spectrum of the protein indicated that the secondary structure of the lectin consists of 9.7% α-helix, 35.8% β-sheet, 22.5% β-turn and 32.3% unordered structure. Saccharide binding did not significantly affect the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein. The haemagglutinating activity of pumpkin phloem lectin was mostly unaffected in the temperature range 4–70 °C, but a sharp decrease was seen between 75 and 85 °C. Differential scanning calorimetric and CD spectroscopic studies suggest that the lectin undergoes a co-operative thermal unfolding process centred at approx. 81.5 °C, indicating that it is a relatively stable protein.
Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Among Persons Exposed in a Medical Examiner's Office, New York
Authors: Ussery Xilla T. , Bierman Jennifer A. , Valway Sarah E. , Seitz Teresa A. , DiFerdinando George T. , Ostroff Stephen M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractObjective:To determine the prevalence of and risk factors for having a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) result among employees at a medical examiner's office (MEO).Design:Cohort study, environmental investigation.Setting:Several employees at a medical examiner's office were found to have positive TST results after autopsies were performed on persons with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).Participants:Employees of the MEO.Results:Of 18 MEO employees, 5 (28%) had a positive TST result; 2 of these 5 had TST conversions. We observed a trend between TST conversion and participation in autopsies on persons with MDR-TB (2 of 2 converters versus 3 of 13 employees with negative TST; relative risk=4.3; 95% confidence interval 1.61 to 11.69; P=0.l0). The environmental investigation revealed that the autopsy room was at positive pressure relative to the rest of the MEO and that air from the autopsy room mixed throughout the facility.Conclusions:A systematic approach to preventing transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in autopsy suites should include effective environmental controls and routine tuberculin skin testing of employees.