bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Skeletal health after intestinal bladder augmentation: findings in 54 patients
Authors: Taskinen Seppo , Fagerholm Riitta , Mäkitie Outi 
Published: July 2007

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the risk of osteopenia in patients after intestinal bladder augmentation.PATIENTS AND METHODSIn all, 54 patients with bladder augmentation were evaluated during the regular follow‐up programme. Augmentation was performed because of paediatric neurogenic or non‐neurogenic reasons. Areal bone mineral densities (aBMD) for the lumbar spine (L1–L4), femoral neck and whole body were measured with dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry. In addition, acid‐base balance and plasma 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (vitamin D), kidney and gonadal functions as well as body mass index (BMI) were measured. Findings were correlated with clinical characteristics.RESULTSBMD was reduced in 34 (63%) of the 54 patients. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of decreased aBMDs between neurogenic and non‐neurogenic groups 31 of 42 patients (74%) and three of 12 patients, respectively (P < 0.01). There were spinal compression fractures in 23% of patients. Risk factors for osteoporosis were inability to walk, renal insufficiency, hypogonadism, vitamin D deficiency, acidosis, and a low BMI. There was moderate or severe vitamin D deficiency in 42% of patients but the vitamin D status did not correlate with BMD. The glomerular filtration rate correlated to the whole‐body aBMD (P = 0.04). In 26% of patients (predominantly males with myelomeningocele) plasma follicle‐stimulating hormone levels were elevated, indicating variable degrees of hypogonadism. Hypogonadism was associated with reduced lumbar spine aBMD (P = 0.03).CONCLUSIONPatients with paediatric reasons for bladder augmentation are at risk of osteopenia and compression fractures. The risk factors are mostly related to the patient’s underlying illness and not to the augmentation per se.
The role of inflammation and infection in the pathogenesis of prostate carcinoma
Authors: Wagenlehner Florian M.E. , Elkahwaji Johny E. , Algaba Ferran , Bjerklund‐Johansen Truls , Naber Kurt G. , Hartung Rudolf , Weidner Wolfgang 
Published: July 2007

Two of the mini reviews are about aspects of prostate cancer that are currently often discussed. The role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer is of great interest and has led to many important changes in our approaches to the subject of prostate cancer. Intermittent androgen deprivation has been an alternative therapeutic option for some time, but the absence of a large multicentre randomized controlled trial has delayed its general acceptance; this is discussed in detail in this section.Prostatitis and prostate carcinoma are both frequent entities of prostatic diseases. Epidemiological studies show significant associations between infection and inflammation and prostatic carcinoma. However, because of various confounding factors the results of these studies are inconclusive. Further findings are therefore needed to confirm the hypothesis that prostatic infection and inflammation might be a cause of prostatic carcinoma. We reviewed selected reports on the role of inflammation and infection in the pathogenesis of prostate carcinoma. Extensive genetic analyses show that several gene products, e.g. 2′‐5′‐oligoadenylate (2–5 A)‐dependent Rnase, macrophage scavenger receptor 1 and Toll‐like receptor‐4, influence the susceptibility of prostate cells to infectious agents. Proliferative inflammatory atrophy (PIA) could be a connection between prostatitis and prostatic carcinoma. In the transition from PIA to prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, the function of cellular detoxification is gradually lost by silencing of glutathione‐S transferase, a detoxifying enzyme. This cellular feature leads to an increased susceptibility of the prostatic epithelial cells to genomic damage by inflammatory oxidants or nutritional carcinogens. Consecutive somatic genome damage might then arise which modulates the further pathogenesis of prostate carcinoma. Summarising these epidemiological, genetic and cell biological aspects, infectious prostatitis might have a causative role in the complex and multifactorial process of prostate carcinogenesis.
Corruption and Related Socioeconomic Factors: A Time Series Study
Authors: Brown Steven F. , Shackman Joshua 
Published: July 2007

SUMMARYThis study examines corruption in relation to political, legal, and economic factors to see how these factors impact corruption over time and to test the direction of causality between these variables. To assess causality, cointegration analysis using an error correction model on data from over 100 countries spanning over 20 years was performed. Three antecedent variables are analyzed in relation to corruption. Over the long‐term, increases in these variables result in decreases in corruption. However, there is no evidence that changes in corruption impact any of these same variables. Interestingly, increases in GDP per capita are found to increase corruption over the short‐term while leading to a long‐term reduction in corruption.
Is God Good for Trade?
Authors: Helble Matthias 
Published: July 2007

SUMMARYAs the world economy is integrating, trade between countries is growing rapidly. The exchange of goods not only has an economic, but also a cultural dimension. In the gravity equation literature common religion is often used as a control variable, without distinguishing between religious groups. This paper investigates the possible ways in which religion influences international trade patterns. Analyzing empirically trade flows between 151 countries, the paper finds that the five world religions, namely Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, have different impacts on trade. For inter‐religious trade the study indicates that several religions have clear preferences with whom to trade or not. Furthermore, the results indicate that religious openness boosts trade performance of countries.
Stimulating Employment Growth with Higher Wages? A New Approach to Addressing an Old Controversy
Authors: Suedekum Jens , Blien Uwe 
Published: July 2007

SUMMARYWe analyse the impact of wages on employment growth in West German local industries (1993–2002), addressing the tension between cost and potentially offsetting demand side effects. We construct a neutralised regional wage level that is detached from various productivity influences. A positive value implies ‘overly high’ labour costs, but also high local purchasing power. A subsequent employment growth regression yields significantly negative effects associated with this indicator. Cost push effects dominate, but our estimates suggest that demand side repercussions have a mitigating effect. There is considerable variation across industries, but in no case we find a positive employment reaction.
The effects of prohibiting gestures on children's lexical retrieval ability
Authors: Pine Karen J. , Bird Hannah , Kirk Elizabeth 
Published: July 2007

AbstractTwo alternative accounts have been proposed to explain the role of gestures in thinking and speaking. The Information Packaging Hypothesis (Kita, 2000) claims that gestures are important for the conceptual packaging of information before it is coded into a linguistic form for speech. The Lexical Retrieval Hypothesis (Rauscher, Krauss & Chen, 1996) sees gestures as functioning more at the level of speech production in helping the speaker to find the right words. The latter hypothesis has not been fully explored with children. In this study children were given a naming task under conditions that allowed and restricted gestures. Children named more words correctly and resolved more ‘tip‐of‐the‐tongue’ states when allowed to gesture than when not, suggesting that gestures facilitate access to the lexicon in children and are important for speech production as well as conceptualization.
Development of emotional facial recognition in late childhood and adolescence
Authors: Thomas Laura A. , De Bellis Michael D. , Graham Reiko , LaBar Kevin S. 
Published: July 2007

Abstract The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents and adults on a two‐alternative forced‐choice discrimination task using morphed faces that varied in emotional content. Actors appeared to pose expressions that changed incrementally along three progressions: neutral‐to‐fear, neutral‐to‐anger, and fear‐to‐anger. Across all three morph types, adults displayed more sensitivity to subtle changes in emotional expression than children and adolescents. Fear morphs and fear‐to‐anger blends showed a linear developmental trajectory, whereas anger morphs showed a quadratic trend, increasing sharply from adolescents to adults. The results provide evidence for late developmental changes in emotional expression recognition with some specificity in the time course for distinct emotions.
Growth‐related neural reorganization and the autism phenotype: a test of the hypothesis that altered brain growth leads to altered connectivity
Authors: Lewis John D. , Elman Jeffrey L. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractTheoretical considerations, and findings from computational modeling, comparative neuroanatomy and developmental neuroscience, motivate the hypothesis that a deviant brain growth trajectory will lead to deviant patterns of change in cortico‐cortical connectivity. Differences in brain size during development will alter the relative cost and effectiveness of short‐ and long‐distance connections, and should thus impact the growth and retention of connections. Reduced brain size should favor long‐distance connectivity; brain overgrowth should favor short‐distance connectivity; and inconsistent deviations from the normal growth trajectory – as occurs in autism – should result in potentially disruptive changes to established patterns of functional and physical connectivity during development. To explore this hypothesis, neural networks which modeled inter‐hemispheric interaction were grown at the rate of either typically developing children or children with autism. The influence of the length of the inter‐hemispheric connections was analyzed at multiple developmental time‐points. The networks that modeled autistic growth were less affected by removal of the inter‐hemispheric connections than those that modeled normal growth – indicating a reduced reliance on long‐distance connections – for short response times, and this difference increased substantially at approximately 24 simulated months of age. The performance of the networks showed a corresponding decline during development. And direct analysis of the connection weights showed a parallel reduction in connectivity. These modeling results support the hypothesis that the deviant growth trajectory in autism spectrum disorders may lead to a disruption of established patterns of functional connectivity during development, with potentially negative behavioral consequences, and a subsequent reduction in physical connectivity. The results are discussed in relation to the growing body of evidence of reduced functional and structural connectivity in autism, and in relation to the behavioral phenotype, particularly the developmental aspects.
Modelling Political Popularity: An Analysis of Long-Range Dependence in Opinion Poll Series
Authors: Byers David , Davidson James , Peel David 
Published: July 2007

Summary
A simple model of political popularity, as recorded by opinion polls of voting intentions, is proposed. We show that, as a consequence of aggregating heterogeneous poll responses under certain assumptions about the evolution of individual opinions, the time series of poll data should exhibit long memory characteristics. In an analysis of the monthly Gallup data on party support in the UK, we confirm that the series have long memory and further show them to be virtually pure ‘fractional noise’ processes. An explanation of the latter result is offered. We study the role of economic indicators in predicting swings in support, perform event analyses and use our estimates to generate post-sample forecasts to April 1997.
Regression Modelling of Disease Risk in Relation to Point Sources
Authors: Diggle Peter , Morris Sara , Elliott Paul , Shaddick Gavin 
Published: July 2007

Summary
We describe a class of models for the investigation of possible raised risk of disease around putative sources of environmental pollution. An adaptation of the point process method suggested by Diggle and Rowlingson is presented, allowing the use of routinely available aggregated data and incorporating the more general distance–risk model suggested by Elliott and co-workers. An application to data on cancers of the stomach around municipal solid waste incinerators is presented.
TESTING WAGE AND PRICE PHILLIPS CURVES FOR THE UNITED STATES
Authors: Flaschel Peter , Kauermann Göran , Semmler Willi 
Published: July 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper demonstrates how the labour and product markets interact in determining as outcome a generalized reduced‐form price Phillips curve. For the labour market we consider a wage Phillips curve and for the product market a price Phillips curve. We estimate separately the wage and price Phillips curves for the USA, using ordinary least squares, non‐parametric estimation and three‐stage least squares techniques. The finding is that wages are always more flexible than prices with respect to their respective demand pressure and that price inflation responds somewhat more to a medium‐run cost pressure than does wage inflation. The implications for macroeconomic stability are demonstrated. We also show—as a link between product and labour markets—that employment is related to output as Okun's law states. In comparing linear and non‐linear estimates of the wage and price Phillips curves we find furthermore that for some relationships non‐linearities are important while not for others. Although overall the non‐linear estimates tend to confirm our linear estimates, non‐linearities in some relationships of the Phillips curve are important as well.
Delayed immune‐mediated adverse effects related to hyaluronic acid and acrylic hydrogel dermal fillers: clinical findings, long‐term follow‐up and review of the literature
Authors: Alijotas‐Reig J , Garcia‐Gimenez V 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIntroduction Implantation of dermal filler for cosmetic purposes is becoming increasingly common worldwide. It is thought that hyaluronic acid (HA) alone or combined with acrylic hydrogels (HA‐AH) does not have severe nor persistent side‐effects. However, recent evidence may show that major, local and/or systemic, immediate or delayed adverse effects may appear in relation with its use.Objective To evaluate the clinical complaints, laboratory data, treatment and follow‐up of patients with delayed adverse effects related to HA and HA‐AH implant fillers.Design Prospective, case‐series study of patients filled with HA and HA‐AH compounds.Setting The study has been done in a tertiary, teaching university hospital.Patients We report on a series of 25 patients, 15 of them in prospective manner, with severe, delayed side‐effects related to HA‐AH. Inclusion criteria have been drawn up. Patients with immediate side‐effects were excluded. Patients were submitted to a clinical follow‐up, battery of blood tests and thorax X‐ray films. Besides, a review of the literature was made. We undertook a computed‐assisted (MEDLINE), National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA, search of the literature from 1996 up to December 2005.Main outcome Clinical evaluation of granulomas, skin manifestations and other local and systemic immune‐mediated disorders possibly related to HA and HA‐AH fillers or their cumulative interaction with previously administered fillers.Results Of 25 cases, 16 were filled with HA alone and 9 with a HA‐AH compounds. Of 15 cases analysed and with long‐term follow‐up, 10 were filled with HA alone, and the remaining five were filled with a HA‐AH. Time latency average up to beginning of symptoms was 13.7 months. Three of these 15 cases had been filled before with silicone and another one with Artecoll. Tender nodules were seen in 14 patients. Systemic manifestations appeared in three cases. Laboratory abnormalities were noted in all studied cases. After 16‐month average follow‐up, seven patients seem to be cured, and six have recurrent bouts. Two cases were lost during follow‐up.Conclusion Although in some cases, these clinical complications might have been associated with previous fillers or with other unknown foreign bodies, we feel that, although infrequently, delayed and recurrent chronic inflammatory and granulomatous reactions may complicate HA and HA‐AH implant fillers.
A set of primers for plastid indels and nuclear microsatellites in the invasive plant Heracleum mantegazzianum (Apiaceae) and their transferability to Heracleum sphondylium
Authors: HENRY P. , PROVAN J. , GOUDET J. , GUISAN A. , JAHODOVÁ Š. , BESNARD G. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis study reports the isolation and polymorphism characterization of four plastid indels and six nuclear microsatellite loci in the invasive plant Heracleum mantegazzianum. These markers were tested in 27 individuals from two distant H. mantegazzianum populations. Plastid indels revealed the presence of five chlorotypes while five nuclear microsatellite loci rendered polymorphism. Applications of these markers include population genetics and phylogeography of H. mantegazzianum. A very good transferability of markers to Heracleum sphondylium was demonstrated.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci for Florida largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus, and other micropterids
Authors: LUTZ‐CARRILLO DIJAR J. , HAGEN CRIS , DUECK LUCY A. , GLENN TRAVIS C. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractWe isolated and characterized 52 novel microsatellite markers from Florida largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus, for use in conservation, management and population genetic studies. Markers were assessed in M. s. floridanus from peninsular Florida (n = 30) and averaged eight alleles per locus with observed heterozygosity of 0.57 (range 0–0.97). Cross‐taxa amplification was successful among 88% of tested congeners. These polymorphic and potentially taxon‐diagnostic markers contribute to the limited number of microsatellites currently available for micropterids and specifically M. s. floridanus.
Development and characterization of microsatellite markers for the invasive weed Mikania micrantha (Asteraceae)
Authors: HONG LAN , NIU HONGYU , SHEN HAO , YE WANHUI , CAO HONGLIN 
Published: July 2007

Abstract Mikania micrantha is a successful invasive weed in many parts of the world. Twelve polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized from an AC‐enriched genomic library of this species. Twenty‐eight individuals from one population in Dongguan were tested for polymorphism. The average allele number of these microsatellites was three per locus, ranging from two to five. The expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.275 to 0.742, and from 0.250 to 1.000, respectively. These microsatellite markers can be applied to study the population genetics in the native and invasive ranges of this species, and to trace its invasion history.
Screening Efficiency of the Child Behavior Checklist and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Systematic Review
Authors: Warnick Erin M. , Bracken Michael B. , Kasl Stanislav 
Published: July 2007

Objective:  Assess the screening efficiency of the caretaker‐report CBCL and SDQ in community and clinical samples using published data.Methods:  PyschInfo, Medline, and EMBASE were systematically searched to identify studies with appropriate efficiency data. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity were extracted from identified studies and used to generate summary likelihood ratio estimates on which the scales were compared. Summary estimates of sensitivity and specificity were calculated with respect to a ‘true’ diagnosis to compare scales.Results:  A total of 29 and 3 studies met inclusion criteria for CBCL and SDQ respectively. Summary estimates of the likelihood ratios for domains assessed by CBCL ranged from 3.86 (2.23, 6.69) to 4.87 (2.90, 8.18); and for SDQ from 5.02 (1.61, 15.63) to 8.32 (2.72, 25.48). Heterogeneity was low. For total problems, the SDQ caretaker‐report was found to be most specific (0.93, 95% CI 0.92, 0.94) and the CBCL caretaker‐report to be most sensitive (0.66, 95%CI 0.60, 0.73).Conclusions:  This meta‐analysis supports continued use of the CBCL and SDQ via caretaker‐report in clinical and community samples. Additional research is required to determine if there is a true difference in efficiency between the two scales.
Efficacy of lumiracoxib in relieving pain associated with knee osteoarthritis: a 6‐week, randomized, double‐blind, parallel‐group study
Authors: BIN Seong‐II , WU Shing‐Sheng , ZENG Xiaofeng , MOORE Alan , FRANK Nicole 
Published: July 2007

AbstractAim:  The aim of the current study was to assess the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of lumiracoxib 200 mg once daily (o.d.) in relieving osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain in patients in China, Taiwan, and South Korea.Methods:  Patients of either sex (aged ≥ 18 years) with symptomatic, primary OA of the knee for ≥ 3 months were eligible for inclusion if they had OA pain intensity of ≥ 40 mm (100 mm visual analogue scale [VAS]) in the target knee joint during the previous 24 h. Patients were required to undergo regular non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug therapy for ≥ 6 weeks. After 3–7 days of screening, patients were randomized (1 : 1) to receive either lumiracoxib 200 mg o.d. or celecoxib 200 mg o.d. The primary efficacy comparison between the study groups was overall OA pain intensity (VAS) in the target knee after 6 weeks of treatment.Results:  The mean overall OA pain intensity (VAS) in the target knee after 6 weeks decreased from 60.6 mm to 35.7 mm and 60.5 mm to 36.1 mm in the lumiracoxib and celecoxib groups, respectively. Both study groups showed similar results in terms of improvement in both patient's and physician's global assessment of disease activity and functional health status. The percentage of adverse events (AEs) in the lumiracoxib and celecoxib groups (40.3% and 37.9%, respectively) was similar, as was the proportion of treatment‐related AEs (21.0% and 18.2%, respectively).Conclusions:  Lumiracoxib 200 mg o.d. provided effective and well‐tolerated pain relief similar to that achieved with celecoxib 200 mg o.d. in knee OA patients.