bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Doppler ultrasonography in the determination of neonatal brain death
Authors: McMenamin Joseph B. , Volpe Joseph J. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractBoth clinical and electroencephalographic criteria for brain death have limited value in the newborn. A simple test to determine the cessation of cerebral blood flow would be a useful adjunct to the determination of brain death in this population. In contrast to the invasive techniques used in older patients to estimate cerebral blood flow, the Doppler technique to estimate cerebral blood flow velocity from the anterior fontanelle of the newborn is noninvasive and can be used at bedside. In this study we define the changes in the flow velocity pattern in the anterior cerebral and the common carotid arteries in six newborn infants with clinical criteria for brain death: coma, absent brainstem function, and dependence on mechanical ventilation. A characteristic sequence of deterioration of the flow velocity waveform in both vessels was defined. This sequence consisted of (1) loss of diastolic flow, (2) appearance of retrograde flow during diastole, (3) diminution in systolic flow in the anterior cerebral artery, and, ultimately, (4) no detectable flow in the anterior cerebral artery, despite considerable flow in the common carotid artery. This constellation of findings suggests a progressive increase in cerebrovascular resistance and a progressive decrease in cerebral perfusion, compatible with the diffuse cerebral necrosis and edema documented postmortem. We conclude that the transcutaneous Doppler technique is a useful complement to other noninvasive methods, especially clinical assessment, in the determination of brain death in the newborn.
Postoperative jaundice in children
Authors: WARK H. J. 
Published: February 2007

SummaryAt the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, during the 23‐year period 1957 to 1979, 165400 anaesthetics were administered. Almost all of the patients anaesthetised during this time would have been exposed to halothane. Seventy‐four patients became jaundiced for the first time in the postoperative period. Halothane‐associated hepatitis was excluded as the cause of the postoperative jaundice in all but two of the 74 patients. In these two patients in whom the diagnosis of halothane‐associated hepatitis was possible the hepatitic illness was mild and both patients made an uneventful recovery. In this survey the risk of a patient becoming jaundiced due to halothane associated hepatitis was greater than I in 82000. It would seem that in children halothane can be used whenever it is warranted and can be used repeatedly.
Endothelin receptor B2 (EDNRB2) is associated with the panda plumage colour mutation in Japanese quail
Authors: Miwa M. , Inoue‐Murayama M. , Aoki H. , Kunisada T. , Hiragaki T. , Mizutani M. , Ito S. 
Published: February 2007

SummaryThe panda mutant in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) displays spots of wild‐type plumage on a white background and is controlled by an autosomal recessive allele (s). The dotted white is controlled by a third allele (sdw) of the s locus with sdw/sdw quail having less pigmentation than s/s quail. We mapped the s locus to the Japanese quail chromosome 4 (CJA04) in a previous study. The orthologous region of the chicken (Gallus gallus) genome includes endothelin receptor B2 (EDNRB2), an avian‐specific paralog of endothelin receptor B (EDNRB). EDNRB mutations in mammals retard the migration of neural crest cells (NCCs), which results in a spotted coat colour and an enteric nervous defect. In the present study, we investigated the association between the s locus and EDNRB2 in Japanese quail. Sequence comparison among transcripts from livers of wild‐type, panda and dotted white quail revealed a nucleotide substitution (c.995G>A) leading to a p.R332H amino acid change that was specific to panda, whereas no amino acid substitution was found in dotted white birds. The amino acid position 332 is located in the sixth transmembrane domain and is highly conserved in both avian and mammalian endothelin receptors. The A allele at nucleotide position 995 was specific to panda (s/s) birds among 10 strains, and was mapped to the same chromosomal region as the s locus. Quantitative RT‐PCR revealed that EDNRB2 transcripts were reduced in both panda and dotted white mutants compared with wild‐type. However, there was no difference between the early embryos of wild‐type and panda with respect to the migration of NCCs. The genetic association of EDNRB2 with plumage colour in birds was found for the first time in this study.
Post‐glacial migration of silver fir (Abies albaMill.) in the south‐western Alps
Authors: Muller Serge D. , Nakagawa Takeshi , De Beaulieu Jacques‐Louis , Court‐Picon Mona , Carcaillet Christopher , Miramont Cécile , Roiron Paul , Boutterin Clément , Ali Adam A. , Bruneton Hélène 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAim Previous studies have failed to reconstruct the regional post‐glacial migration pattern ofAbies albain southern France. Based on the first exhaustive compilation of palaeoecological data in this region, we present the state‐of‐the‐art and attempt to synthesize the available information concerning glacial refugia and post‐glacial migration, and analyse the information with regard to climate and orography.Location South‐western Alps and adjacent areas, southern France.Methods The work compiles the available palaeoecological data in the south‐western Alps (52 sites, 290 radiocarbon dates). The post‐glacial migration pattern ofAbies albais reconstructed based on 22 selected palynological analyses (11 well‐dated reference sites and 11 supplementary ones).Results The geographical patterns of approaching area limit, immigration and expansion are reconstructed at the scale of the southern French Alps.Main conclusions Despite previous assertions, the evidence of refugia in southern France is non‐existent. The late‐glacial records of fir pollen, previously interpreted in French Mediterranean regions and on adjacent foot‐hills as possibly reflecting regional refugia, most probably correspond to reworking phenomena or long‐distance pollen transport. Fir migration, originating in the Apennine refugia and through the south‐western extremity of the Alps, was extremely rapid in the southern French Alps, only spanning a few centuries between 10,100 and 9800 cal. yrbp. The subsequent spread of fir populations was controlled by local parameters, such as the aridity of the inner valleys, which resulted in a delayed expansion in comparison to other regions.Abiesalmost disappeared from the south‐western Alps during the Roman era, around 2000 cal. yrbp.
The distribution of genetic variation in Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) populations in the western Alps
Authors: Meloni Marilena , Perini Davide , Binelli Giorgio 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAim  In order to look for a possible centre of survival for the Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) in the south‐western Alps, six natural populations of this area were investigated by means of genetic markers in order to assess the degree and the distribution of genetic diversity within the species.Location  Western and South‐western Alps.Methods  Populations were genotyped using seven simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Basic population genetics parameters were estimated and the amount of genetic differentiation calculated.Results  A large amount of variability was found (0.59 < He < 0.67); genetic differentiation as measured by FST was 0.05, close to other similar studies; no isolation by distance was detected by a Mantel test. Analysis of molecular variance confirmed a high degree of variability within populations and a low degree of variability among populations. Finally, the number of populations from which those observed could have arisen was estimated by Bayesian analysis.Main conclusions  The results presented here suggest that the present populations derive their genetic make‐up from three inferred clusters. The possible existence in this area of a relict/refuge population during the last glaciation is discussed.
Competence of Romanian nurses after their first six months in Italy: a descriptive study
Authors: Palese Alvisa , Barba Maria , Borghi Gianni , Mesaglio Maura , Brusaferro Silvio 
Published: February 2007

Aims and objectives.  Aims of this study were to describe (a) the Romanian nurses’ reasons for emigration and the difficulties experienced in the first six months of integration, (b) their perception of the level of professional independence and competence gained in the first six months of working and (c) the strategies that either facilitated or impeded their development of professional independence at a teaching hospital.Background.  The international recruitment of nursing staff is a strategy adopted by the Italian State to confront nursing shortages. Although the critical aspects and the opportunities available have been reported for many years, little has been written about the professional autonomy perceived by these nurses six months after their placement in the host country.Design.  A descriptive study involving Romanian nurses working at the Udine University Training Hospital (Italy) was used.Methods.  The participants were interviewed using anonymous questionnaires, which contained eight open and 20 closed questions. With their consent, the interview was done in the ward and took on average 45 minutes (from 30–60 minutes). Given a choice of language to use by the bilingual researcher, half the participants chose Romanian.Results.  The small, homogenous group of Romanian nurses used as the sample and employed at the University Training Hospital, felt satisfied (in the areas of culture/placement/integration) and recorded similar facilitating factors and obstacles as those documented by other authors. By the sixth month following placement they felt they had a sufficient level of autonomy, but this was not the case in many skills, which are an essential part of Italian nursing.Conclusions.  The expectations of the hospitals involved in international recruitment are higher than the Romanian nurses can guarantee, especially in the first six months. Integration obviously needs substantial investment, less ‘red‐tape’ and a longer period of time for adjustment.Relevance to clinical pratice.  It is necessary to help and support the placement of these nurses into the Italian workforce with programmes where their practical work is supervised by permanent trained staff, allowing them to develop autonomy and ensuring an optimal standard of nursing care for the patients. It would be necessary to continue these programmes for more than six months.
School’s Out: pathways for young people with intellectual disabilities from out‐of‐area residential schools or colleges
Authors: Heslop P. , Abbott D. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractBackground  Previous research, and official guidance, has suggested that planning for the transition between children’s and adults’ services is failing young people with intellectual disabilities and their families in the UK. Youngsters placed away from home in residential schools or colleges are likely to be at even greater risk of poor transition planning and outcomes, yet there is little understanding of what factors parents consider contribute to a smoother transition and what a satisfactory outcome would be.Method  The parents of 15 young people from five areas of the UK were interviewed about what they thought contributed to a satisfactory pathway for their son or daughter from an out‐of‐area residential school or college on to the next phase of their life.Results  Parents identified four main process issues: being well‐connected with other parents or with key professionals; being proactive; having sufficient information; and good forward planning. Most considered a good outcome to be if the young person was happy, fulfilled and stimulated.Conclusions  Parents were clear about what they thought helped, and there was little disagreement between their views. While some of these factors have been previously identified regarding the transition of disabled youngsters, they raise some unique issues for families with a youngster educated in an out‐of‐area residential school or college.
Fifteen‐year follow‐up of 92 hospitalized adults with Down’s syndrome: incidence of cognitive decline, its relationship to age and neuropathology
Authors: Margallo‐Lana M. L. , Moore P. B. , Kay D. W. K. , Perry R. H. , Reid B. E. , Berney T. P. , Tyrer S. P. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractBackground  The clinical and neuropathological features associated with dementia in Down’s syndrome (DS) are not well established.Aims  To examine clinico‐pathological correlations and the incidence of cognitive decline in a cohort of adults with DS.Method  A total of 92 hospitalized persons with DS were followed up from 1985 to December 2000. At outset, 87 participants were dementia‐free, with a median age of 38 years. Assessments included the Prudhoe Cognitive Function Test (PCFT) and the Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS), to measure cognitive and behavioural deterioration. Dementia was diagnosed from case records and caregivers’ reports.Results  Eighteen (21%) patients developed dementia during follow‐up, with a median age of onset 55.5 years (range 45–74). The PCFT demonstrated cognitive decline among those with a less severe intellectual disability (mild and moderate) but not among the profoundly disabled people (severe and profound). Clinical dementia was associated with neuropathological features of Alzheimer’s disease, and correlated with neocortical neurofibrillary tangle densities. At the age of 60 years and above, a little more than 50% of patients still alive had clinical evidence of dementia.Conclusions  Clinical dementia associated with measurable cognitive and functional decline is frequent in people with DS after middle age, and can be readily diagnosed among less severely intellectually disabled persons using measures of cognitive function such as the PCFT and behavioural scales such as the ABS. In the more profoundly disabled people, the diagnosis of dementia is facilitated by the use of behavioural and neurological criteria. In this study, the largest prospective DS series including neuropathology on deceased patients, the density of neurofibrillary tangles related more closely to the dementia of DS than senile plaques. In people with DS surviving to middle and old age, the development of dementia of Alzheimer type is frequent but not inevitable, and some people with DS reach old age without clinical features of dementia.
The nature of the outflow in gamma-ray bursts
Authors: Kumar P. , McMahon E. , Panaitescu A. , Willingale R. , O'Brien P. , Burrows D. , Cummings J. , Gehrels N. , Holland S. , Pandey S. B. , Vanden Berk D. , Zane S. 
Published: February 2007

Abstract
The Swift satellite has enabled us to follow the evolution of gamma-ray burst (GRB) fireballs from the prompt γ-ray emission to the afterglow phase. The early-time X-ray and optical data for GRBs obtained by telescopes aboard the Swift satellite show that the source for prompt γ-ray emission, the emission that heralds these bursts, is short lived, and is distinct from the source for the long-lived afterglow emission that follows the initial burst. Using these data we determine the distance of the γ-ray source from the centre of the explosion. We find this distance to be 1015–1016 cm for most bursts, and show that this is within a factor of about 10 of the radius of the shock heated circumstellar medium (CSM) producing the X-ray photons. Furthermore, using the early γ-ray, X-ray and optical data we show that the prompt gamma-ray emission cannot be produced in internal shocks nor can it be produced in the external shock; in a more general sense γ-ray generation mechanisms based on shock physics have problems explaining the GRB data for ten Swift bursts analyzed in this work. A magnetic field dominated outflow model for GRBs has a number of attractive features, although evidence in its favour is inconclusive. Finally, the X-ray and optical data allow us to provide an upper limit on the density of the CSM of about 10 protons cm−3 at a distance of ∼5 × 1016 cm from the centre of explosion.
Research on HLA‐G: an update†
Authors: Favier B. , LeMaoult J. , Rouas‐Freiss N. , Moreau P. , Menier C. , Carosella E. D. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractHuman leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐G is a nonclassical HLA class I molecule from the major histocompatibility complex, which was initially shown to confer protection to the fetus from her mother’s immune system. The Third International Conference on HLA‐G, held in 2003, showed that beyond its role in fetal–maternal tolerance, HLA‐G exerts tolerogenic functions involved in transplant acceptance as well as in tumoral and viral immune escape. The Fourth International Conference, which took place in Paris on July 2006, counted 72 oral presentations and about 200 attendees from 25 countries. The reports presented brought new insight into HLA‐G research, and we summarize here the major advances on the HLA‐G biology that were reported. Abstracts for all presentations can be found in volume 68 issue number 4 of Tissue Antigens.
Analysis of KIR gene frequencies in HLA class I characterised bladder, colorectal and laryngeal tumours
Authors: Middleton D. , Vilchez J. R. , Cabrera T. , Meenagh A. , Williams F. , Halfpenny I. , Maleno I. , Ruiz‐Cabello F. , Lopez‐Nevot M. A. , Garrido F. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThree cohorts of patients with laryngeal, bladder or colorectal tumours were investigated for frequency of killer immunoglobulin‐like receptor (KIR) genes compared with a normal control population. The frequency of KIR3DL1 and KIR2DS4 was significantly increased (but not after correction for number of comparisons made) in patients with bladder tumour compared with controls. No other significant differences were found in gene frequencies or in the frequencies of those KIR genes with and without their human leucocyte antigen (HLA) ligands. Furthermore, no significant differences were found in KIR gene frequencies, taking into consideration the type of loss of HLA expression in the individual tumours. Finally, in the group of colorectal carcinomas, there was an overall significant difference in the frequencies of C group heterozygosity and homozygosity with HLA alterations on the tumour.
Analysis of the BTNL2 truncating splice site mutation in tuberculosis, leprosy and Crohn’s disease
Authors: Johnson C. M. , Traherne J. A. , Jamieson S. E. , Tremelling M. , Bingham S. , Parkes M. , Blackwell J. M. , Trowsdale J. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe region on chromosome 6 encoding the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is associated with a number of autoimmune and infectious diseases. Primary susceptibility to many of these has been localized to a region containing the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐DR and ‐DQ genes. A recent study of sarcoidosis has provided evidence of an independent effect, associated with a truncating single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of a nearby gene, BTNL2. This gene may encode an immune receptor involved in costimulation. Sarcoidosis, tuberculoid leprosy, tuberculosis (TB) and Crohn’s disease all have similar immunological features, including a Th1 response with granuloma formation. In addition mycobacteria have been identified or suggested to be causative pathogens in such conditions. We genotyped the truncating BTNL2 SNP in 92 TB and 72 leprosy families from Brazil and carried out family‐based association studies. We could not find evidence of overtransmission of the truncating allele in TB. There was an association with susceptibility to leprosy (P = 0.04), however, this is most likely due to linkage disequilibrium with HLA‐DR. We also genotyped 476 UK Caucasian cases of Crohn’s disease with 760 geographically matched controls and found no evidence of a disease association. We conclude that the truncating BTNL2 SNP is not important in this group of Th1 dominated granulomatous diseases.
Association of CD22 gene polymorphism with susceptibility to limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis
Authors: Hitomi Y. , Tsuchiya N. , Hasegawa M. , Fujimoto M. , Takehara K. , Tokunaga K. , Sato S. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractActivating and inhibitory signal transducers, CD19 and CD22, have been substantially implicated both in human systemic sclerosis (SSc) and tight‐skin mouse, a model for SSc. We previously showed that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in CD19 promoter region was significantly associated with increased CD19 expression level and with susceptibility to SSc. In the present study, we examined whether CD22 polymorphisms were associated with susceptibility to SSc. CD22 variations were genotyped in 126 Japanese patients with SSc [47 diffuse cutaneous SSc and 79 limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc)] and 93 unrelated healthy controls. At the c.2304C > A SNP coding for a synonymous substitution in exon 13, A/A genotype was observed in six patients with SSc (4.8 %) but none in the controls (P = 0.040). All six patients with A/A genotype belonged to the lcSSc subgroup (7.6%, P = 0.008 vs controls). Surface expression level of CD22 tended to be lower in B cells from the patients with A/A genotype (n = 5) as compared with C/A (n = 7) or C/C (n = 14) genotype (17% decrease, P = 0.0032). Taken together with our previous observation on CD19 polymorphism, intrinsic difference in the expression level of CD19 and CD22 was suggested to play a causative role in a proportion of patients with lcSSc.
Effect of changing the age criteria for blood donors
Authors: Goldman M. , Fournier E. , Cameron‐Choi K. , Steed T. 
Published: February 2007

Background and Objectives  The upper age limit for allogeneic blood donation varies among countries and blood operators. We assessed the impact of the removal of the upper age limit for donation in Canada from December 2004 to January 2006.Materials and Methods  Starting in December 2004, regular donors were permitted to continue whole blood or apheresis donation past their 71st birthday, provided an annual external medical assessment was performed by their family physician. Regular donors aged from 70 to 74 were sent a letter about the change in criteria, and encouraged to continue donations. Rates of donor adverse reactions and deferrals were calculated for these donors and donors in other age groups.Results  In the 13‐month period following implementation of the new criteria, 961 (54%) of regular donors who had received a letter initiated a medical inquiry, and 862 inquiries were completed and returned to Canadian Blood Services. In 98% of cases, the donors’ family physician approved ongoing donation. Of the 659 donors who presented to donate, 93% successfully donated. There was only one moderate/severe donor reaction out of 3137 donor attendances for donors aged 71 and older. This rate was not statistically different from the rate in the overall donor population. No donors were deferred for high‐risk activities or had positive infectious disease test results.Conclusion  Regular blood donors may safely continue to donate past their 71st birthday. Extra steps in the donation process, such as an external medical inquiry, may not be necessary.