bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Changes in hospital costs after introducing an intermediate care unit: a comparative observational study
Authors: Solberg Barbara CJ , Dirksen Carmen D , Nieman Fred HM , van Merode Godefridus , Poeze Martijn , Ramsay Graham 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
Introduction
The high cost of critical care resources has resulted in strategies to reduce the costs of ruling out low-risk patients by developing intermediate care units (IMCs). The aim of this study was to compare changes in total hospital costs for intensive care patients before and after the introduction of an IMC at the University Hospital Maastricht.

Methods
The design was a comparative longitudinal study. The setting was a university hospital with a mixed intensive care unit (ICU), an IMC, and general wards. Changes in total hospital costs were measured for patients who were admitted to the ICU before and after the introduction of the IMC. The comparison of interest was the opening of a six-bed mixed IMC.

Results
The mean total hospital cost per patient increased significantly. Before the introduction of the IMC, the total hospital cost per patient was €12,961 (± €14,530) and afterwards it rose to €16,513 (± €17,718). Multiple regression analysis was used to determine to what extent patient characteristics explained these higher hospital costs using mortality, type of stay, diagnostic categories, length of ICU and ward stay, and the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) as predictors. More surgical patients, greater requirements of therapeutic interventions on the ICU admission day, and longer ICU stay in patients did explain the increase in hospital costs, rather than the introduction of the IMC.

Conclusion
After the introduction of the IMC, the higher mean total hospital costs for patients with a high TISS score and longer ICU stay explained the cost increase.
Pain Predicts Overall Survival in Men With Metastatic Castration-Refractory Prostate Cancer
Authors: Halabi Susan , Vogelzang Nicholas J. , Kornblith Alice B. , Ou San-San , Kantoff Philip W. , Dawson Nancy A. , Small Eric J. 
Published: May 2008

Purpose Pain from castration-refractory prostate cancer (CRPC) bone metastases is a common event. Although it is assumed that pain represents an adverse prognostic factor, this variable has not been extensively evaluated. The objective of this study was to determine whether men with CRPC who had higher pain interference scores at baseline had worse clinical outcomes compared with men who had lower pain scores. Patients and Methods Data from three randomized phase III multicenter trials conducted by the Cancer and Leukemia Group B from 1992 to 1998 were combined. Eligible patients had progressive CRPC adenocarcinoma of the prostate, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 2, and adequate hematologic, renal, and hepatic functions. Seven items from the Brief Pain Inventory were used to assess the impact of pain on a range of daily activities and quality of life, each rated on a scale from 0 to 10. Results In 599 men, the median pain interference scores was 17 (interquartile range, 4 to 34), and 38% of the men had opioid analgesic use at baseline. There was a statistically significant association between pain interference scores and risk of death. The median survival times were 17.6 months (95% CI, 16.1 to 19.1 months) and 10.2 months (95% CI, 8.6 to 11.3 months; P < .001) in men with low (< 17) and high (≥ 17) pain scores, respectively. Pain was inversely associated with likelihood of prostate-specific antigen decline, objective response, and time to bone progression. Conclusion This analysis demonstrates that pain is a statistically significant predictor of overall survival in men with metastatic CRPC. These results need to be validated prospectively in future phase III trials.
Constitutionalism in Iran and Its Asian Interdependencies
Authors: Atabaki Touraj 
Published: May 2008

In the historiography of Iranian constitutionalism and the constitutional revolution, the reformist movement is treated as a receptive movement crafted by the ideas originating chiefly from nineteenth-century Western Europe or Russia, with no dependencies on Asia or the Middle East, excepting the Ottoman Empire. Even in the case of the Ottoman Empire, the study of the cross-border link has been limited to the nonreciprocal impact that the movement for change and reform in the Ottoman Empire had on late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century Iran, with no reference to the possible impact that Iranian constitutionalism might have had on the Young Turk revolution of 1908. In the case of Transcaspian connections, the historiography of Iranian constitutionalism has been usually limited to its reference to a few nonreciprocal links between Iran and the northern frontiers, where mainly the Caucasus was in charge of producing revolutionary literature or dispatching revolutionary agents to the south in order to save the constitution from being slaughtered by Qajar despotism.
In a corresponding fashion, in Soviet historiography the study of the reformist movement of the early twentieth century in the Caucasus and Central Asia was generally treated as an isolated, self-contained movement, confined within the geographic borders of Baku, Tbilisi, and Bukhara, or at most within the southern region of the czarist empire, Turkistan. The occasional reference to the cross-regional dimension of these reform movements, if ever, was merely to its association with the political reforms exercised during the same period by the Russians or Tatars in different parts of the czarist empire. Here, too, what has been largely overlooked is the bond between the reform movements in the Caucasus and Central Asia and the corresponding movements in neighboring countries, namely, Iran, Afghanistan, India, or the Ottoman Empire.
In this study, I examine the impact that the Iranian constitutional revolution had on the reformist movement of the early twentieth century in the Caucasus and Central Asia and Afghanistan. Further, I sketch the Indian connection that made such an impact possible. My observation in this study is derived from highlighting historical examples at specific moments, rather than adopting a checklist approach, and covering as many spaces as possible over a certain period of time.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis through Quantitative Measurements of Serum Glycan Profiles
Authors: Kyselova Zuzana , Mechref Yehia , Kang Pilsoo , Goetz John A , Dobrolecki Lacey E , Sledge George W , Schnaper Lauren , Hickey Robert J , Malkas Linda H , Novotny Milos V 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
Background: Glycosylated proteins play important roles in cell-to-cell interactions, immunosurveillance, and a variety of receptor-mediated and specific protein functions through a highly complex repertoire of glycan structures. Aberrant glycosylation has been implicated in cancer for many years.
Methods: We performed specific MALDI mass spectrometry (MS)-based glycomic profile analyses of permethylated glycans in sera from breast cancer patients (12, stage I; 11, stage II; 9, stage III; and 50, stage IV) along with sera from 27 disease-free women. The serum glycoproteins were enzymatically deglycosylated, and the released glycans were purified and quantitatively permethylated before their MALDI-MS analyses. We applied various statistical analysis tools, including ANOVA and principal component analysis, to evaluate the MS profiles.
Results: Two statistical procedures implicated several sialylated and fucosylated N-glycan structures as highly probable biomarkers. Quantitative changes according to a cancer stage resulted when we categorized the glycans according to molecular size, number of oligomer branches, and abundance of sugar residues. Increases in sialylation and fucosylation of glycan structures appeared to be indicative of cancer progression. Different statistical evaluations confirmed independently that changes in the relative intensities of 8 N-glycans are characteristic of breast cancer (P &lt; 0.001), whereas other glycan structures might contribute additionally to distinctions in the statistically recognizable patterns (different stages).
Conclusions: MS-based N-glycomic profiling of serum-derived constituents appears promising as a highly sensitive and informative approach for staging the progression of cancer.
“From Troubled Ground to Common Ground”: The Locust Grove African-American Cemetery Restoration Project: A Case Study of Service-Learning and Community History
Authors: BURG STEVEN B. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
This article chronicles a movement to restore Shippensburg, Pennsylvania's Locust Grove Cemetery, a historic African-American burial ground. The cemetery faced persistent troubles exacerbated by changing demographics in the surrounding neighborhood, its caretakers' limited resources, and the community's history of racial discrimination. Beginning in 2003, Shippensburg University applied history students assisted with research, grant writing, and interpretative materials. By 2005, a community coalition formed that built on the students' efforts, ultimately mobilizing the resources needed to finish the restoration. This case study illustrates the complex dynamics of a community preservation campaign and ways Public History programs can support such efforts.
Histologic examination of hepatic biopsy samples as a prognostic indicator in dogs undergoing surgical correction of congenital portosystemic shunts: 64 cases (1997–2005)
Authors: Parker Jacquelyn S. , Monnet Eric , Powers Barbara E. , Twedt David C. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
Objective—To determine whether results of histologic examination of hepatic biopsy samples could be used as an indicator of survival time in dogs that underwent surgical correction of a congenital portosystemic shunt (PSS).
Design—Retrospective case series.
Animals—64 dogs that underwent exploratory laparotomy for an extrahepatic (n = 39) or intrahepatic (25) congenital PSS.
Procedures—All H&E-stained histologic slides of hepatic biopsy samples obtained at the time of surgery were reviewed by a single individual, and severity of histologic abnormalities (ie, arteriolar hyperplasia, biliary hyperplasia, fibrosis, cell swelling, lipidosis, lymphoplasmacytic cholangiohepatitis, suppurative cholangiohepatitis, lipid granulomas, and dilated sinusoids) was graded. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to determine whether each histologic feature was associated with survival time.
Results—Median follow-up time was 35.7 months, and median survival time was 50.6 months. Thirty-eight dogs were alive at the time of final follow-up; 15 had died of causes associated with the PSS, including 4 that died immediately after surgery; 3 had died of unrelated causes; and 8 were lost to follow-up. None of the histologic features examined were significantly associated with survival time.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Findings suggested that results of histologic examination of hepatic biopsy samples obtained at the time of surgery cannot be used to predict long-term outcome in dogs undergoing surgical correction of a PSS.
Interrater Reliability of the Extended ICF Core Set for Stroke Applied by Physical Therapists
Authors: Starrost Klaus , Geyh Szilvia , Trautwein Anke , Grunow Jutta , Ceballos-Baumann Andres , Prosiegel Mario , Stucki Gerold , Cieza Alarcos 
Published: May 2008

Background and PurposeThe World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is gaining recognition in physical therapy. The Extended ICF Core Set for Stroke is a practical tool that represents a selection of categories from the whole classification and can be used along with the ICF qualifier scale to describe patients’ functioning and disability following stroke. The application of the ICF qualifier scale poses the question of interrater reliability. The primary objective of this investigation was to study the agreement between physical therapists’ ratings of subjects’ functioning and disability with the Extended ICF Core Set for Stroke and with the ICF qualifier scale. Further objectives were to explore the relationships between agreement and rater confidence and between agreement and physical therapists’ areas of core competence.Subjects and MethodsA monocentric, cross-sectional reliability study was conducted. A consecutive sample of 30 subjects after stroke participated. Two physical therapists rated the subjects’ functioning in 166 ICF categories.ResultsThe interrater agreement of the 2 physical therapists was moderate across all judgments (observed agreement=51%, kappa=.41). Interrater reliability was not related to rater confidence or to the physical therapists’ areas of core competence.Discussion and ConclusionThe present study suggests potential improvements to enhance the implementation of the ICF and the Extended ICF Core Set for Stroke in practice. The results hint at the importance of the operationalization of the ICF categories and the standardization of the rating process, which might be useful in controlling for rater effects and increasing reliability.
Information Needs of Women At Risk of Breast Cancer
Authors: Paisley Judy , Brown Catherine M. , Greenberg Marlene 
Published: May 2008

Purpose: Information needs and current information sources related to healthy eating, active living, and healthy body weight were examined in women attending breast cancer risk assessment clinics. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 257 women over 20 years old. The women completed a selfadministered survey (52.8% response rate) containing both closed- and open-ended questions. Most respondents were 49 or younger, were English-speaking, reported annual family incomes over $140,000, and resided in urban communities. Results: Participants reported a need for general information concerning healthy eating, active living, and healthy body weight. For example, they wanted information on reading food labels (51.0%), healthy recipes (51.0%), activities for increasing overall fitness (52.5%), and achieving healthy body weights (48.6%). They also wanted information concerning the relationships between cancer risk and specific foods and nutrients, such as antioxidants (65.0%), supplements (60.7%), phytochemicals (47.5%), and omega-3 fatty acids (45.5%). Participants most often turned to magazines, friends, and family members when they wanted information on healthy eating, active living, and healthy body weight. Conclusions: These findings present an opportunity for dietitians to enhance their leadership role in creating and disseminating evidence-based information to meet the expressed needs of women who may be at increased risk for breast cancer.
Youth Politics in the Postwar Germanies
Authors: Stehle Maria 
Published: May 2008

Ruff, Mark Edward. The Wayward Flock: Catholic Youth in Postwar West Germany, 1945-1965 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005)McDougall, Alan. Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement 1946-1968 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004)
Do herbivores exert top‐down effects in Neotropical savannas? Estimates of biomass consumption by leaf‐cutter ants
Authors: Costa Alan N. , Vasconcelos Heraldo L. , Vieira‐Neto Ernane H.M. , Bruna Emilio M. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractQuestion:Plant communities in Paleotropical savannas are regulated by a combination of bottom‐up and top‐down effects. However, the paucity of ungulates and other large herbivores in Neotropical savannas has led to speculation that these communities are primarily structured by physical factors such as fire, precipitation and soil chemistry. We addressed the following question: How much plant biomass is consumed by leaf‐cutter ants in Neotropical savannas, and is it comparable to the amount of biomass consumed by herbivores in Paleotropical savanna sites?Location:Our study was conducted at the Estação Ecológica do Panga, located 30 km south of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. All field work was conducted in the vegetation type known as cerrado sensu stricto.Methods and ResultsUsing direct measurements of herbivory, coupled with estimates of plant productivity and ant colony density, we found that leaf‐cutter ants (Atta spp.) consume 13–17% of the foliar biomass produced annually by woody plants in a Neotropical savanna (Brazilian cerrado). Although comparisons with other savanna systems are complicated by methodological differences among studies, the proportion of biomass consumed by Atta species is about 25% of that consumed by the entire ungulate community in some African savannas and greater than or comparable to the total herbivory observed in some terrestrial ecosystems.Conclusions:We hypothesize that this intense biomass consumption by Atta will have important ecological consequences for the cerrado ecosystem, because leaf‐cutter abundance increases in fragmented or degraded habitats. These effects are likely to be exacerbated as anthropogenic pressure in this biodiversity hotspot increases.
A structural glaciological analysis of the 2002 Larsen B ice-shelf collapse
Authors: Glasser N.F. , Scambos T.A. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractThis study provides a detailed structural glaciological analysis of changes in surface structures on the Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula prior to its collapse in February–March 2002. Mapped features include the ice-shelf front, rifts, crevasses, longitudinal linear surface structures and meltwater features. We define domains on the ice shelf related to glacier source areas and demonstrate that, prior to collapse, the central Larsen B ice shelf consisted of four sutured flow units fed by Crane, Jorum, Punchbowl and Hektoria/Green/Evans glaciers. Between these flow units were ‘suture zones’ of thinner ice where the feeder glaciers merged. Prior to collapse, large open-rift systems were present offshore of Foyn Point and Cape Disappointment. These rifts became more pronounced in the years preceding break-up, and ice blocks in the rifts rotated because of the strong lateral shear in this zone. Velocity mapping of the suture zones indicates that the major rifts were not present more than about 20 years ago. We suggest that the ice shelf was preconditioned to collapse by partial rupturing of the sutures between flow units. This, we believe, was the result of ice-shelf front retreat during 1998–2000, reducing the lateral resistive stress on the upstream parts of the shelf and glacier flow units, ice-shelf thinning and pre-shelf-break-up glacier acceleration.
Criteria for validating mouse models of psychiatric diseases
Authors: Chadman Kathryn K. , Yang Mu , Crawley Jacqueline N. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractAnimal models of human diseases are in widespread use for biomedical research. Mouse models with a mutation in a single gene or multiple genes are excellent research tools for understanding the role of a specific gene in the etiology of a human genetic disease. Ideally, the mouse phenotypes will recapitulate the human phenotypes exactly. However, exact matches are rare, particularly in mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders. This article summarizes the current strategies for optimizing the validity of a mouse model of a human brain dysfunction. We address the common question raised by molecular geneticists and clinical researchers in psychiatry, “what is a ‘good enough’ mouse model”11 Published 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
PPP2R2B CAG repeat length in the Han Chinese in Taiwan: Association analyses in neurological and psychiatric disorders and potential functional implications
Authors: Chen Chiung‐Mei , Hou Yi‐Ting , Liu Ju‐Yun , Wu Yih‐Ru , Lin Chih‐Hsin , Fung Hon‐Chung , Hsu Wen‐Chuin , Hsu Yuying , Lee Shen‐Hung , Hsieh‐Li Hsiu‐Mei , Su Ming‐Tsan , Chen Shui‐Tein , Lane Hsien‐Yuan , Lee‐Chen Guey‐Jen 
Published: May 2008

AbstractPPP2R2B, a protein widely expressed in neurons throughout the brain, regulates the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity for the microtubule‐associated protein tau and other substrates. Altered PP2A activity has been implicated in spinocerebellar ataxia 12, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and other tauopathies. Through a case‐control study and a reporter assay, we investigated the association of PPP2R2B CAG repeat polymorphism with Taiwanese AD, essential tremor (ET), Parkinson's disease (PD), and schizophrenia and clarified the functional implication of this polymorphism. The distribution of the alleles was not significantly different between patients and controls, with 68.6–76.1% alleles at lengths of 10, 13, and 16 triplets. No expanded alleles were detected in either group. However, the frequency of the individuals carrying the short 5‐, 6‐, and 7‐triplet alleles was notably higher in patients with AD (5/180 [2.8%], Fisher's exact test, P = 0.003; including 2 homozygotes) and ET (4/132 [3.0%], Fisher's exact test, P < 0.001) than in the controls (1/625 [0.2%]). The PPP2R2B transcriptional activity was significantly lower in the luciferase reporter constructs containing the (CAG)5–7 allele than in those containing the common 10‐, 13‐, and 16‐triplet alleles in both neuroblastoma and embryonic kidney cells. Therefore, our preliminary results suggest that the PPP2R2B gene CAG repeat polymorphism may be functional and may, in part, play a role in conferring susceptibility to AD and ET in Taiwan. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Wasserstoffabstraktion und Elektronentransfer mit Aminoxylradikalen: Synthesen und Mechanismen
Authors: Galli Carlo , Gentili Patrizia , Lanzalunga Osvaldo 
Published: May 2008

AbstractAminoxylradikale (R2NO.) sind eine wertvolle Klasse reaktiver Zwischenstufen mit interessanten Synthese‐ und Reaktivitätseigenschaften. Dieser Kurzaufsatz fasst einige bemerkenswerte Synthesen zusammen, die auf einer radikalischen Oxidation mit Aminoxylradikalen beruhen, und geht auf Fragen zur Reaktivität ein, die jüngste Literaturberichte aufgeworfen haben. Mit den Struktur‐ und Reaktivitätseigenschaften des Aminoxylradikals und des Substrats kann eine mögliche Doppelreaktivität der Aminoxylradikale erklärt werden. Diese “mechanistische Dichotomie” zwischen H‐Atomabstraktion und Elektronenabstraktion steht im Vordergrund dieses Kurzaufsatzes.
Maternal periconceptional smoking and alcohol consumption and risk for select congenital anomalies
Authors: Grewal Jagteshwar , Carmichael Suzan L. , Ma Chen , Lammer Edward J. , Shaw Gary M. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractBACKGROUND: This study examined the association between maternal smoking and alcohol use (including binge drinking) during the periconceptional period (i.e., 2 months before through 2 months after conception) and the risk of orofacial clefts, NTDs, and conotruncal heart defects in offspring. METHODS: Data were drawn from a population‐based case‐control study of fetuses and live‐born infants among a cohort of California births between July 1999 and June 2003. The 1,355 cases comprised of 701 orofacial clefts, 337 NTDs, and 323 conotruncal heart defects. Information on smoking and alcohol consumption was obtained via telephone interviews with mothers of 1,355 (80% of eligibles) cases and 700 (77% of eligibles) nonmalformed, live‐born controls. RESULTS: Maternal smoking of five cigarettes or less per day was associated with reduced risks of NTDs (OR 0.7; 95% CI: 0.3, 1.4), whereas the risk associated with higher cigarette consumption was lower for conotruncal heart defects (OR 0.5; 95% CI: 0.2, 1.2). Maternal intake of alcohol less than 1 day per week was associated with a 1.6‐ to 2.1‐fold higher risk of NTDs (95% CI: 0.9, 2.6), d‐transposition of the great arteries (95% CI: 1.1, 3.2), and multiple cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) (95% CI: 0.8, 4.5). Risks associated with more frequent alcohol intake were 2.1 for NTDs (95% CI: 1.1, 4.0) and 2.6 for multiple CLP (95% CI: 1.1, 6.1). CONCLUSIONS: This study observed that maternal alcohol intake increased the risk for d‐transposition of the great arteries, NTDs, and multiple CLP in infants. By contrast, smoking was associated with a lower risk of NTDs and conotruncal heart defects. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.