bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Endemic and opportunistic infections in Brazilian solid organ transplant recipients
Authors: Batista M. V. , Pierrotti L. C. , Abdala E. , Clemente W. T. , Girão E. S. , Rosa D. R. T. , Ianhez L. E. , Bonazzi P. R. , Lima A. S. , Fernandes P. F. C. B. C. , Pádua‐Neto M. V. , Bacchella T. , Oliveira A. P. P. , Viana C. F. G. , Ferreira M. S. , Shikanai‐Yasuda M. A. 
Published: June 2011

SummaryObjective  To evaluate the frequency and clinical features of endemic and other opportunistic infections in liver or kidney transplant recipients in four transplant centres in different geographical areas of Brazil.Methods  Retrospective analysis of medical and laboratory records of four transplant centres on endemic and other opportunistic infections in liver or kidney transplant recipients. Analyses were performed with spss statistical software.Results  From 2001 to 2006, 1046 kidney and 708 liver transplants were registered in all centres. The average age was 42 years. Among 82 (4.7%) cases with infections, the most frequent was tuberculosis (2.0%), followed by systemic protozoal infections (0.7%), toxoplasmosis (0.4%) and visceral leishmaniasis (0.3%). Systemic fungal infections occurred in 0.6%, of which 0.4% were cryptococcosis and 0.2% were histoplasmosis. Dengue was the only systemic viral infection and was registered in two cases (0.1%), of which one was classified as the classic form and the other as dengue haemorrhagic fever. Nocardiosis was described in one case (0.05%). The infectious agents most frequently associated with diarrhoea were Blastocystis sp., Schistosoma mansoni and Strongyloides stercoralis.Conclusions  Opportunistic Infections in transplant patients have a wide spectrum and may vary from asymptomatic to severe infections with high mortality. A better understanding of the epidemiology of endemic pathogens and clinical manifestations can contribute to the establishment of an early diagnosis as well as correct treatment aimed at decreasing morbidity and mortality.
Ambulance service within a comprehensive intervention for reproductive health in remote settings: a cost‐effective intervention
Authors: Somigliana Edgardo , Sabino Alice , Nkurunziza Richard , Okello Emmy , Quaglio Gianluca , Lochoro Peter , Putoto Giovanni , Manenti Fabio 
Published: June 2011

SummaryObjective To assess the cost‐effectiveness of an ambulance service within a comprehensive hospital/community‐based program aimed at improving access and quality of reproductive health in poor‐resources settings.Methods Obstetrical cases referred to the hospital with the ambulance during a 3‐month period were prospectively recorded. Clinical indications were used to determine the effectiveness of the referral; the direct costs of the service were calculated. Overall effectiveness was then measured against WHO thresholds.Results Ninety‐two obstetrical referrals were recorded. Eleven (12%) were considered effective, corresponding to 611.7 years saved. Cost per year saved was 15.82 US dollars which about half of WHO’s 30 US dollar benchmark defining very attractive interventions. Sensitivity analyses on the costs of the ambulance and the rate of effective referrals emphasized the robustness of the result.Conclusions The cost‐effectiveness profile of an ambulance service within a series of interventions aimed at improving reproductive health in remote settings is very attractive.
Health‐seeking behaviour among adults with prolonged cough in Vietnam
Authors: Hoa N. B. , Tiemersma E. W. , Sy D. N. , Nhung N. V. , Vree M. , Borgdorff M. W. , Cobelens F. G. J. 
Published: June 2011

SummaryObjective  To assess health‐seeking behaviour among adults with prolonged cough in a population‐based, nationally representative sample in Vietnam.Methods  Cross‐sectional survey conducted from September 2006 to July 2007. All inhabitants aged ≥15 years were invited for screening for cough, history of tuberculosis (TB) treatment and chest X‐ray (CXR) examination. TB suspects, defined as any survey participant with CXR abnormalities consistent with TB, or productive cough for more than 2 weeks or TB treatment either currently or in the preceding 2 years submitted sputum specimens for smear examination and culture and provided information on health‐seeking behaviour in an in‐depth interview.Results  Of 94 179 persons participating in the survey, 4.6% had prolonged productive cough. Forty‐four percentage of those had sought health care and reported pharmacies (35%), commune health posts (29%), public hospitals (24%) and private physicians (10%) as first point of contact. Only 7% had undergone sputum smear examination. Of TB suspects with prolonged productive cough, 2.9% were diagnosed with TB; 10.2% of these reported smear and 21.9% reported X‐ray examination when visiting a health care facility. The average patient delay was 4.1 weeks (95% CI: 3.9–4.4) among cough suspects and 4.0 weeks (95% CI: 3.1–4.9) among TB cases.Conclusions  In this Vietnamese survey, nearly half of persons with cough for more than 2 weeks had visited a health care provider. The commonest first health facility contacted was the pharmacy. Sputum smears were rarely examined, except in the provincial TB hospital. Our findings highlight the need to improve diagnostic practices by retraining health staff on the performance of sputum examination for TB suspects.
Developing resilient children and families when parents have mental illness: A family‐focused approach
Authors: Foster Kim , O'Brien Louise , Korhonen Teija 
Published: June 2011

ABSTRACTThere is substantial evidence supporting the need for effective intervention for children and families living with parental mental illness. However, translation of this knowledge into mental health workforce practice remains variable, with a range of clinical practices and models of care evident. Nurses, who constitute the majority of the mental health workforce, are in prime positions to support children and families and provide preventative measures, identify those at risk, and intervene early. In this paper, we provide a framework for practice for nurses working with consumer parents. We contend that traditional models of nursing practice concentrating on the consumer are insufficient in meeting the needs of children and families living with parental mental illness. A focus on families needs to be core business for mental health nurses. A family‐focused approach can be used to prevent problems for children and their families, and identify their strengths as well as vulnerabilities. Family‐focused care is a useful framework from which to support families and address the challenges that might arise from parental mental illness, and to build individual and family resilience.
Structure and function of medial temporal and posteromedial cortices in early Alzheimer’s disease
Authors: Miettinen Pekka S. , Pihlajamäki Maija , Jauhiainen Anne M. , Niskanen Eini , Hänninen Tuomo , Vanninen Ritva , Soininen Hilkka 
Published: June 2011

AbstractMedial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy and posteromedial cortical hypometabolism are consistent imaging findings in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As the MTL memory structures are affected early in the course of AD by neurofibrillary tangle pathology, the posteromedial metabolic abnormalities have been postulated to represent remote effects of MTL alterations. In this study, we investigated with functional MRI (fMRI) the structure–function relationship between the MTL and posteromedial regions, including the retrosplenial, posterior cingulate and precuneal cortices, in 21 older controls (OCs), 18 subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 16 AD patients during a word list learning task. In the voxel‐based morphometric and volumetric analyses, the MCI subjects showed smaller entorhinal volume than OCs (P = 0.0001), whereas there was no difference in the hippocampal or posteromedial volume. AD patients, as compared with MCI patients, showed pronounced loss of volume in the entorhinal (P = 0.0001), hippocampal (P = 0.01) and posteromedial (P = 0.001) regions. The normal pattern of posteromedial fMRI task‐induced deactivation during active encoding of words was observed bilaterally in the OCs, but only in restricted unilateral left posteromedial areas in the MCI and AD patients. Across all subjects, more extensive impairment of the retrosplenial and posterior cingulate function was significantly related to smaller entorhinal (P = 0.001) and hippocampal (P = 0.0002) volume. These findings demonstrate that entorhinal atrophy and posteromedial cortical dysfunction are early characteristics of prodromal AD, and precede and/or overwhelm atrophy of the hippocampus and posteromedial cortices. Disturbances in posteromedial cortical function are associated with morphological changes in the MTL across the continuum from normal aging to clinical AD.
Multiple memory traces after associative learning in the honey bee antennal lobe
Authors: Rath Lisa , Giovanni Galizia C. , Szyszka Paul 
Published: June 2011

AbstractWe investigated the effect of associative learning on early sensory processing, by combining classical conditioning with in vivo calcium‐imaging of secondary olfactory neurons, the projection neurons (PNs) in the honey bee antennal lobe (AL). We trained bees in a differential conditioning paradigm in which one odour (A+) was paired with a reward, while another odour (B−) was presented without a reward. Two to five hours after differential conditioning, the two odour–response patterns became more different in bees that learned to discriminate between A and B, but not in bees that did not discriminate. This learning‐related change in neural odour representations can be traced back to glomerulus‐specific neural plasticity, which depended on the response profile of the glomerulus before training. (i) Glomeruli responding to A but not to B generally increased in response strength. (ii) Glomeruli responding to B but not to A did not change in response strength. (iii) Glomeruli responding to A and B decreased in response strength. (iv) Glomeruli not responding to A or B increased in response strength. The data are consistent with a neural network model of the AL, which we based on two plastic synapse types and two well‐known learning rules: associative, reinforcer‐dependent Hebbian plasticity at synapses between olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) and PNs; and reinforcer‐independent Hebbian plasticity at synapses between local interneurons and ORNs. The observed changes strengthen the idea that odour learning optimizes odour representations, and facilitates the detection and discrimination of learned odours.
Motivational interviewing to improve weight loss in overweight and/or obese patients: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors: Armstrong M. J. , Mottershead T. A. , Ronksley P. E. , Sigal R. J. , Campbell T. S. , Hemmelgarn B. R. 
Published: June 2011

SummaryMotivational interviewing, a directive, patient‐centred counselling approach focused on exploring and resolving ambivalence, has emerged as an effective therapeutic approach within the addictions field. However, the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in weight‐loss interventions is unclear. Electronic databases were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials evaluating behaviour change interventions using motivational interviewing in overweight or obese adults. Standardized mean difference (SMD) for change in body mass, reported as either body mass index (BMI; kg m−2) or body weight (kg), was the primary outcome, with weighted mean difference (WMD) for change in body weight and BMI as secondary outcomes. The search strategy yielded 3540 citations and of the 101 potentially relevant studies, 12 met the inclusion criteria and 11 were included for meta‐analysis. Motivational interviewing was associated with a greater reduction in body mass compared to controls (SMD = −0.51 [95% CI −1.04, 0.01]). There was a significant reduction in body weight (kg) for those in the intervention group compared with those in the control group (WMD = −1.47 kg [95% CI −2.05, −0.88]). For the BMI outcome, the WMD was −0.25 kg m−2 (95% CI −0.50, 0.01). Motivational interviewing appears to enhance weight loss in overweight and obese patients.
The relevance of increased fat oxidation for body‐weight management: metabolic inflexibility in the predisposition to weight gain
Authors: Astrup A. 
Published: June 2011

SummaryCells, tissues and organisms have the ability to rapidly switch substrate oxidation from carbohydrate to fat in response to changes in nutrient intake, and to changes in energy demands, environmental cues and internal signals. In healthy, metabolically normal individuals, substrate switching occurs rapidly and completely; in other words, substrate switching is ‘flexible’. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that a blunted substrate switching from low‐ to high‐fat oxidation exists in obese individuals, as well as in pre‐obese and post‐obese, and that this ‘metabolic inflexibility’ may be a genetically determined trait. A decreased fat oxidation can lead to a positive energy balance under conditions of high‐fat feeding, due to depletion of glycogen stores that stimulates appetite and energy intake through glucostatic and glucogenostatic mechanisms, e.g. hepatic sensing of glycogen stores. Several genetic polymorphisms and single‐nucleotide polymorphisms have been identified that are associated with low‐fat oxidation rates and metabolic inflexibility, and genetic identification of susceptible individuals may lead to personalized prevention of weight gain using fat oxidation stimulants (‘fat burners’) in the future.
Attending to the Sabbath: An Alternative Direction in Karl Barth's Theology of Prayer
Authors: COCKSWORTH A.J. 
Published: June 2011

AbstractMost accounts of Karl Barth's theology of prayer focus on the active dimensions of prayer, as prioritized in the formal sections on prayer in the Church Dogmatics. This leads to the suspicion that Barth has little time for the contemplative and reflective dimensions of prayer. This article will complement the existing approaches by broadening the scope of inquiry from the formal prayer‐sections into other, less obvious areas of the Dogmatics to uncover an alternative, contemplative, direction in Barth's theology of prayer. It will suggest, therefore, that attending to his rich but often‐neglected account of the Sabbath affords the opportunity to begin the work of reassessing Barth's relation to the contemplative tradition.
Ecological assembly rules in plant communities—approaches, patterns and prospects
Authors: Götzenberger Lars , de Bello Francesco , Bråthen Kari Anne , Davison John , Dubuis Anne , Guisan Antoine , Lepš Jan , Lindborg Regina , Moora Mari , Pärtel Meelis , Pellissier Loic , Pottier Julien , Vittoz Pascal , Zobel Kristjan , Zobel Martin 
Published: June 2011

Understanding how communities of living organisms assemble has been a central question in ecology since the early days of the discipline. Disentangling the different processes involved in community assembly is not only interesting in itself but also crucial for an understanding of how communities will behave under future environmental scenarios. The traditional concept of assembly rules reflects the notion that species do not co‐occur randomly but are restricted in their co‐occurrence by interspecific competition. This concept can be redefined in a more general framework where the co‐occurrence of species is a product of chance, historical patterns of speciation and migration, dispersal, abiotic environmental factors, and biotic interactions, with none of these processes being mutually exclusive.Here we present a survey and meta‐analyses of 59 papers that compare observed patterns in plant communities with null models simulating random patterns of species assembly. According to the type of data under study and the different methods that are applied to detect community assembly, we distinguish four main types of approach in the published literature: species co‐occurrence, niche limitation, guild proportionality and limiting similarity.Results from our meta‐analyses suggest that non‐random co‐occurrence of plant species is not a widespread phenomenon. However, whether this finding reflects the individualistic nature of plant communities or is caused by methodological shortcomings associated with the studies considered cannot be discerned from the available metadata.We advocate that more thorough surveys be conducted using a set of standardized methods to test for the existence of assembly rules in data sets spanning larger biological and geographical scales than have been considered until now. We underpin this general advice with guidelines that should be considered in future assembly rules research. This will enable us to draw more accurate and general conclusions about the non‐random aspect of assembly in plant communities.
Online self‐help tools for the relatives of persons with depression – a feasibility study
Authors: Stjernswärd Sigrid , Östman Margareta , Löwgren Jonas 
Published: June 2011

Scand J Caring Sci; 2012; 26; 70–80Online self‐help tools for the relatives of persons with depression – a feasibility studyBackground:  The Internet’s potential as health care tool should be explored.Aim:  One objective was to determine the feasibility of constructing a digitally based tool through an iterative design process in cooperation with potential users. The tool’s purpose is to alleviate hardships in daily life of relatives of persons with depression. An additional aim was to explore motivation and hindrances to using the tool as a basis for design decisions.Method:  An iterative design approach, including data collection through focus groups and with paper and web‐based prototypes, was used.Results:  Cooperation with potential users, using an iterative design process, was valuable in developing the digitally based tool. Motivations (i.e. to create understanding and rehabilitate oneself) and hindrances (i.e. lack of time or energy) to using the tool were illuminated. Design decisions were based on consideration towards participants’ privacy concerns, needs of support and the depression’s influence on the relatives’ daily life.Conclusion:  Prototypes and cooperation with potential users were essential and valuable for the iterative development of the website.
Building a regulatory framework for biofuels governance in China: Legislation as the starting point
Authors: Wang Huanhuan 
Published: June 2011

AbstractA rather young but rapidly accelerating biofuel industry has recently emerged in China. However, there is no legislation or policy specifically regulating biofuels or bioenergy. In addition, most of the regulatory functions are undertaken by policy initiatives rather than by law. As a result, the regulation and, in a broader context, governance of biofuels still face several major obstacles, including unclear development directions, ignored impact of biofuels development on society, environment and economy, and limited public participation. This paper argues that legislation on biofuels in the form of joint departmental rule is a departure for a comprehensive regulatory framework to overcome the current obstacles and to realize the sustainable development of the biofuels industry in China.
Anti‐inflammatory potential of allyl‐isothiocyanate – role of Nrf2, NF‐κB and microRNA‐155
Authors: Wagner Anika Eva , Boesch‐Saadatmandi Christine , Dose Janina , Schultheiss Gerhard , Rimbach Gerald 
Published: June 2011

AbstractIn this study, the underlying mechanisms of the potential anti‐inflammatory properties of allyl‐isothiocyanate (AITC) were analysed in vitro and in vivo. Murine RAW264.7 macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were supplemented with increasing concentrations of AITC. In addition, C57BL/6 mice (n= 10 per group) were fed a pro‐inflammatory high‐fat diet and AITC was administered orally via gavage for 7 days. Biomarkers of inflammation were determined both in cultured cells and in mice. AITC significantly decreased tumour necrosis factor α mRNA levels and its secretion in LPS stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Furthermore, gene expression of other pro‐inflammatory markers including interleukin‐1β and inducible nitric oxide synthase were down‐regulated following AITC treatment. AITC decreased nuclear p65 protein levels, a subunit of the transcription factor NF‐κB. Importantly, our data indicate that AITC significantly attenuated microRNA‐155 levels in LPS‐stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages in a dose‐dependent manner. The anti‐inflammatory effects of AITC were accompanied by an increase in Nrf2 nuclear translocation and consequently by an increase of mRNA and protein levels of the Nrf2 target gene heme‐oxygenase 1. AITC was slightly less potent than sulforaphane (used as a positive control) in down‐regulating inflammation in LPS‐stimulated macrophages. A significant increase in nuclear Nrf2 and heme‐oxygenase 1 gene expression and only a moderate down‐regulation of interleukin‐1β and microRNA‐155 levels due to AITC was found in mouse liver. Present data suggest that AITC exhibits potent anti‐inflammatory activity in cultured macrophages in vitro but has only little anti‐inflammatory activity in mice in vivo.
Detecting spatial patterns in species composition with multiple plot similarity coefficients and singularity measures
Authors: Jurasinski Gerald , Jentsch Anke , Retzer Vroni , Beierkuhnlein Carl 
Published: June 2011

Recently, several multiple plot similarity indices have been presented that cure some of the problems associated with the approaches for the calculation of compositional similarity for groups of plots by averaging pairwise similarities. These new indices calculate the similarity between more than two plots whilst considering the species composition on all compared plots. The resulting similarity value is true for the whole group of plots considered (called neighborhood in the following). Here, we review the possibilities for multiple plot similarity calculation and additionally explore coefficients that examine multiple plot similarity between a reference plot (named focal plot in the following) and any number of surrounding plots. The latter represent measures of singularity. Further, we establish a framework for applying these two kinds of multiple plot measures to gridded data including an algorithm for testing the significance of calculated values against random expectations.The capability of multiple plot measures for detecting species compositional gradients and local/regional hotspots within this framework is tested. For this purpose, several artificial data sets with known gradients in species composition (random, gradient, central hotspot, hotspot bottom right) are constructed on the basis of a real data set from a Tundra ecosystem in northern Sweden (Abisko). The coefficients that best reflect the positions of the plots on the realized gradients in species composition are considered as performing best with regard to pattern detection. The tested measures of multiple plot similarity and singularity produced considerably different results when applied to one real and 4 artificial data sets. The newly proposed symmetric singularity coefficient has the best overall performance which makes it suitable for local/regional hotspot detection and for incorporating local to regional similarity analyses in reserve selection procedures.