bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Emotional numbing and pain intensity predict the development of pain disability up to one year after lateral thoracotomy
Authors: Katz Joel , Asmundson Gordon J.G. , McRae Karen , Halket Eileen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTLittle is known about the factors that predict the transition of acute, time limited pain to chronic pathological pain following postero‐lateral thoracotomy. The aim of the present prospective, longitudinal study was to determine the extent to which (1) pre‐operative pain intensity, pain disability, and post‐traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) predict post‐thoracotomy pain disability 6 and 12 months later; and (2) if these variables, assessed at 6 months, predict 12 month pain disability. Fifty‐four patients scheduled to undergo postero‐lateral thoracotomy for intrathoracic malignancies were recruited before surgery and followed prospectively for one year. The incidence of chronic post‐thoracotomy pain was 68.1% and 61.1% at the 6 and 12 month follow‐ups, respectively. Multiple regression analyses showed that neither pre‐operative factors nor acute movement‐evoked post‐operative pain predicted 6 or 12 month pain disability. However, concurrent pain intensity and emotional numbing, but not avoidance symptoms, made unique, significant contributions to the explanation of pain disability at each follow‐up (total R2=76.3.0% and 63.9% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, both p<0.0009). The relative contribution of pain intensity decreased, while that of emotional numbing increased with time, indicating a progressive de‐coupling of pain intensity and disability and a concomitant strengthening of the link between emotional numbing and disability. This suggests that pain may serve as a traumatic stressor which causes increased emotional numbing. The results also support recent suggestions that avoidance and emotional numbing constitute separate PTSS clusters. Further research is required to determine the source(s) of emotional numbing after postero‐lateral thoracotomy and effective interventions.
Long-chain inulin increases dendritic cells in the Peyer's patches and increasesex vivocytokine secretion in the spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes of growing female rats, independent of zinc status
Authors: Ryz Natasha R. , Meddings Jon B. , Taylor Carla G. 
Published: November 2008

Prebiotics may increase Zn absorption, a mineral known to play a central role in the immune system. Zn-deficient states are characterised by suppressed immune function, while prebiotics may improve both gut and cell-mediated immunity. Our objective was to determine if inulin alters the number and proportion of immune cells in the spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and Peyer's patches (PP),ex vivocytokine secretion, intestinal permeability and Zn status in healthy as well as Zn-deficient rats. Weanling female rats were fed diets supplemented with 5 % cellulose (CEL) or 5 % inulin (PRE) for 4 weeks. The rats received the CEL or PRE dietad libitum(ZN) or in restricted amounts (DR), or deficient in Zn (ZD) for another 4 weeks. The PRE-fed rats had a higher number and proportion of dendritic cells in PP, and greaterex vivosecretion of IL-2, IL-10 and interferon-γ from spleen and MLN cells compared with CEL-fed rats. PRE reduced the number and proportion of T cell receptor (TCR)-αβ+CD8+cells in spleen and CD45RA+cells in MLN compared with CEL. ZD rats had lower serum IgG2a and T cell numbers in MLN compared with ZN and DR rats. TCRγδ+cell numbers in PP were higher in ZD-PRE rats compared with ZD-CEL rats. Femur Zn concentrations of DR-PRE rats were higher than those of DR-CEL rats. Intestinal permeability was unchanged. The higher proportion and number of dendritic cells in the PP of inulin-fed rats indicates a need for further research on how prebiotics and their metabolites affect immune function possibly through intestinal dendritic cells.
Age- and sex-standardised lean and fat indices derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis for ages 7–11 years: functional associations with cardio-respiratory fitness and grip strength
Authors: Sherriff Andrea , Wright Charlotte M. , Reilly John J. , McColl John , Ness Andy , Emmett Pauline 
Published: November 2008

Indices for lean and fat mass adjusted for height derived from bioelectrical impedance for children aged 7 years have been published previously and their usefulness in the clinical assessment of undernutrition has been demonstrated. However, there is a need for norms that cover a wider age range and to explore their functional significance. The aim of the present study is to derive lean and fat indices for children aged 7–11 years and investigate associations with objective measures of cardio-respiratory fitness and grip strength. Subjects were 9574 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) data collected longitudinally between ages 7 and 11 were used to derive lean and fat indices using the method of standardised residuals. Cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) (9 years) and grip strength (11 years) were also measured. Correlation coefficients and 95 % CI were calculated to assess the strength of association between lean index, fat index and CRF and grip strength. Equations for calculating lean and fat indices in children aged 7–11 years relative to the ALSPAC population are presented. Lean index was linearly associated with CRF (rboys 0·20 (95 % CI 0·15, 0·25), rgirls 0·26 (95 % CI 0·22, 0·30)) and grip strength (rboys 0·29 (95 % CI 0·26, 0·32), rgirls 0·26 (95 % CI 0·23, 0·29)). BMI showed slightly weaker associations, while fat index was unrelated to either CRF or grip strength. Lean indices relate to muscle function and fitness while fat index does not.
Diet scores and cardio-metabolic risk factors among Guatemalan young adults
Authors: Gregory Cria O. , McCullough Marjorie L. , Ramirez-Zea Manuel , Stein Aryeh D. 
Published: November 2008

We assessed the association of four diet quality scores with multiple cardio-metabolic outcomes among Guatemalan young adults experiencing the nutrition transition. We obtained cross-sectional dietary, demographic, anthropometric and cardio-metabolic risk factor data from 1220 Guatemalan adults (mean age 32·7 (sd 5·8) years) in 2002–4, and computed a Recommended Food Score (RFS), Not Recommended Food Score (NRFS), Food Variety Score (FVS) and the Dietary Quality Index-International (DQI-I). All four scores were correlated with energy intake (r 0·23–0·49; all P < 0·01), but had varying associations with socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and nutrient intakes. None of the scores was inversely associated with the metabolic syndrome or its components; rather some were positively associated with risk factors. Among both men and women the DQI-I was positively associated with BMI (kg/m2; β = 0·10, 95 % CI 0·003, 0·21 (men); β = 0·07, 95 % CI 0·01, 0·14 (women)) and waist circumference (cm; β = 0·02, 95 % CI 0·01, 0·03 (men); β = 0·02, 95 % CI = 0·01, 0·02 (women)). Among men, the RFS was positively associated with TAG (mg/l; β = 0·11, 95 % CI 0·02, 0·21) and glucose (mg/l; β = 0·13: 95 % CI 0·03, 0·22). We conclude that indices of diet quality are not consistently associated with chronic disease risk factor prevalence in this population of Guatemalan young adults.
AGGREGATION WITHIN LIVES
Authors: Temkin Larry S. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractMany philosophers have discussed problems of additive aggregation across lives. In this article, I suggest that anti-additive aggregationist principles sometimes apply within lives, as well as between lives, and hence that we should reject a widely accepted conception of individual self-interest. The article has eight sections. Section I is introductory. Section II offers a general account of aggregation. Section III presents two examples of problems of additive aggregation across lives: Derek Parfit's Repugnant Conclusion, and my Lollipops for Life CaseSection IV suggests that many may have misdiagnosed the source and scope of anti-additive aggregationist considerations, due to the influence of Rawls's and Nozick's claims about the separateness of individuals. Accordingly, many leave Sidgwick's conception of self-interest—which incorporates an additive aggregationist approach to valuing individual lives—unchallenged. Section V suggests that the separateness of individuals may have led some to conflate the issues of compensation and moral balancing. Section VI argues that an additive aggregationist approach is often deeply implausible for determining the overall value of a life. Section VII discusses a Single Life Repugnant Conclusion, first considered by McTaggart. Section VIII concludes with a summary, and a brief indication of work remaining.
WHEN, IF EVER, DO WE AGGREGATE? AND WHY?
Authors: Narveson Jan 
Published: November 2008

AbstractAggregation in moral philosophy calls for the summing or averaging of values or utilities as a guide to individual behavior. But morality, it is argued, needs to be individualistic, in view of the evident separateness of persons, especially given the great disparities among individuals who nevertheless interact with each other in social life. The most plausible general moral program is the classical liberal (or “libertarian”) one calling for mutual noninterference rather than treating others as equal to oneself in point of demands on our action. Why, then, would we ever aggregate? The reason is that we are affected by behavior that has general effects, especially unintended side effects, on all sorts of people among whom we ourselves are often to be found. When we are randomly situated among such groups—as we sometimes are and often are not—minimizing aggregate harm is the plausible strategy, and sometimes promoting aggregate benefit as well.
TWO DOGMAS OF DEONTOLOGY: AGGREGATION, RIGHTS, AND THE SEPARATENESS OF PERSONS
Authors: Norcross Alastair 
Published: November 2008

AbstractOne of the currently popular dogmata of anti-consequentialism is that consequentialism doesn't respect, recognize, or in some important way account for what is referred to as the “separateness of persons.” The charge is often made, but rarely explained in any detail, much less argued for. In this paper I explain what I take to be the most plausible interpretation of the separateness of persons charge. I argue that the charge itself can be deconstructed into at least two further objections to consequentialist theories. These objections amount to (i) the rejection of axiological aggregation, and (ii) the rejection of deontic aggregation. Of these two objections, I argue that the first one, though often made, is untenable. I also argue that the second objection, in its various forms, relies on distinctions whose moral significance is vigorously denied by almost all consequentialist theorists. I thus argue that the separateness of persons objection poses no special threat to consequentialism.
IS WELFARE AN INDEPENDENT GOOD?
Authors: Brewer Talbot 
Published: November 2008

AbstractIn recent years, philosophical inquiry into individual welfare has blossomed into something of a cottage industry, and this literature has provided the conceptual foundations for an equally voluminous literature on aggregate social welfare. In this essay, I argue that substantial portions of both bodies of literature ought to be viewed as philosophical manifestations of a characteristically modern illusion—the illusion, in particular, that there is a special kind of goodness that is irreducibly person-relative. Theories that are built upon this idea suffer from a recurring defect. Such theories relativize welfare to subjective states that are wholly unsuited to settling deliberative questions concerning what it would be good for us to do, because they themselves are subjective outlooks on value and their dependability is itself fair game for deliberative review. They are unstable, then, in the course of first-person deliberation, which is precisely where they are supposed to have their primary application. The idea of an irreducibly person-relative kind of goodness is of modern vintage, and its rise has distorted prevailing interpretations of pre-modern alternatives, including the appealing alternative found in Plato and Aristotle. A further objective of this essay is to recover this alternative, bring out its appeal, and answer some possible objections to it.
MAJORITIES AGAINST UTILITY: IMPLICATIONS OF THE FAILURE OF THE MIRACLE OF AGGREGATION
Authors: Caplan Bryan 
Published: November 2008

AbstractA surprising conclusion of modern political economy is that democracies with highly ignorant voters can still deliver very good results as long as voters' errors balance each other out. This result is known as the Miracle of Aggregation. This paper begins by reviewing a large body of evidence against this Miracle. Empirically, voters' errors tend to be systematic; they compound rather than cancel. Furthermore, since most citizens vote for the policies theybelieveare best for society, systematic errors lead voters to support socially suboptimal policies. The paper then considers the case for “paternalistically” vetoing popular but misguided democratic decisions, presenting several arguments that overruling democratic decisions is much less objectionable than overruling individual decisions. In fact, since democracies routinely adopt paternalistic policies, the opponent of paternalism for individual decisions should embrace paternalism for democratic decisions. The paper concludes by considering several different mechanisms for improving upon majority rule.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A GROUP?
Authors: Sosa David 
Published: November 2008

AbstractConsequentialist and Kantian theories differ over the ethical relevance of consequences of actions. I investigate how they might differ too over the relevance of what actions are consequence of. Focusing on the case of group action and collective responsibility, I argue that there's a kind of analog to the problem of aggregating the value of consequences—about aggregating responsibility with respect to the roles of cooperating agents—that Kantian theories will not confront and consequentialist theories will. The issue provides a useful way to characterize a deep difference between Kantian and consequentialist theories and points, ironically, toward a way of making those views compatible.
CONTRACTARIANISM AND INTERSPECIES WELFARE CONFLICTS
Authors: Cohen Andrew I. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractIn this essay I describe how contractarianism might approach interspecies welfare conflicts. I start by discussing a contractarian account of the moral status of nonhuman animals. I argue that contractors can agree to norms that would acknowledge the “moral standing” of some animals. I then discuss how the norms emerging from contractarian agreement might constrain any comparison of welfare between humans and animals. Contractarian agreement is likely to express some partiality to humans in a way that discounts the welfare of some or all animals. While the norms emerging from the contract might be silent or inconsistent in some tragic or catastrophic cases, in most ordinary conflicts of welfare, contractors will agree to norms that produce some determinate resolution. What the agreement says can evolve depending upon how the contractors or the circumstances change. I close with some remarks on contractarian indeterminacy.
ON THE POSSIBILITY OF NONAGGREGATIVE PRIORITY FOR THE WORST OFF
Authors: Fleurbaey Marc , Tungodden Bertil , Vallentyne Peter 
Published: November 2008

AbstractWe address the question of whether there is a prioritarian moral theory that both (1) avoids giving absolute priority to the worst off (as leximin does) but (2) does not allow arbitrarily small benefits to enough extremely affluent people to take priority over a significant benefit to a worst off person in abject poverty. We argue that this is possible only if one rejects some seemingly plausible conditions.
THE INTERPRETATION OF MAXIMIZING UTILITARIANISM
Authors: Riley Jonathan 
Published: November 2008

AbstractUtilitarians and their critics commonly assume that maximizing utilitarianism necessarily aggregates over cardinal comparable personal utility rankings that are homogeneous in quality independently of their sources or objects, whether utility is conceived in terms of pleasure or preference satisfaction. Although familiar versions of utilitarianism, crude or sophisticated, do make such rich homogeneous utility information part of the very meaning of the doctrine, utilitarian philosophy loses credibility as a result. A more credible version of maximizing utilitarianism along John Stuart Mill's lines relies instead on plural kinds of ordinal non-comparable personal utilities that are heterogeneous in quality. One kind of utility is qualitatively superior to another if and only if the higher kind is more valuable than the lower kind irrespective of quantity. Given that the kind of utility associated with the moral sentiment of justice is qualitatively superior to any competing kinds, Mill's pluralistic ordinal utilitarianism gives absolute priority to a social code of equal rights and duties over competing considerations. Some key practical implications of this extraordinary utilitarianism are discussed with reference to various examples of the sort discussed in the literature.
LIBERTY, THE HIGHER PLEASURES, AND MILL'S MISSING SCIENCE OF ETHNIC JOKES
Authors: Millgram Elijah 
Published: November 2008

AbstractAggregation-friendly moral theories such as classical utilitarianism are forced to invest a great deal of ingenuity in damping out and modulating the effects of welfare aggregation. In Mill's treatment, the problem famously appears as the puzzle of how the Principle of Liberty is meant to be compatible with the Principle of Utility, and there have been a great many attempted interpretations of his solution, all, in my view, unsatisfactory. I will first reconstruct Mill's generally unnoticed account of the psychological implementation of higher pleasures; this will allow me to explain what the distinction between higher and lower pleasures was, and how Mill was introduced lexical preference orderings into his theory. Then I will show how the underlying psychological theory permits Mill to argue for the lexical priority of liberty over the goods which liberty allows us to obtain. Finally, I will turn to the Millian considerations omitted from the argument I will have reconstructed. By way of explaining why they are so difficult to accommodate, I will consider why Mill might have abandoned his projected sciences of character. I will take my leave by asking what Mill's failure to turn his implementation analysis of the higher pleasures into an argument expressing the importance of individuality and originality means for us.
The use of R-roscovitine to fit the ‘time frame’ on in vitro porcine embryo production by intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Authors: Alfonso J. , García-Rosello E. , García-Mengual E. , Salvador I. , Silvestre M. A. 
Published: November 2008

SummaryMicromanipulation of oocytes is time consuming during ICSI experiments; however the ‘time frame’ to manipulate oocytes without a drop in efficiency is not very wide due to the use of not completely matured and/or aged MII oocytes. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the effect of a short roscovitine pretreatment for 5 h and two different IVM periods (5R + 40IVM or 5R + 45IVM) and a prolonged IVM time from 45 h (45IVM) to 50 h (50IVM) on parthenogenetic and ICSI embryo development, in order to fit the time frame to manipulate pig oocytes to the whole labour day session. In the first experiment, oocytes, pretreated with roscovitine and IVM cultured for 5 h, showed a similar nuclear stage as non-cultured oocytes and a significantly higher percentage of GVI-GVII oocytes compared with non-roscovitine treated oocytes cultured for 5 h in IVM conditions. When COC were cultured under the 5R + 40IVM system, nuclear maturation and cleavage rates after electrical activation were significantly lower than when COC were cultured under the 45IVM, 50IVM and 5R + 45IVM culture systems (54.2% vs. 72.6–76.8% and 58.8% vs. 81.4–88.3%, respectively). However, this difference was not statistically significant for parthenogenote blastocyst rate. No differences were observed in MII and in parthenogenote and ICSI embryo development among 45IVM, 50IVM and 5R + 45IVM experimental groups. In conclusion, under our conditions and using parthenogenetic and ICSI embryos, we observed that it is feasible to prolong the pig oocyte manipulation ‘time frame’ by at least 5 h with no significant drop in blastocyst rate.
PARABOLIC AND HYPERBOLIC SCREW MOTION SURFACES IN ℍ2×ℝ
Authors: SA EARP RICARDO 
Published: November 2008

AbstractIn this paper we find many families in the product space ℍ2×ℝ of complete embedded, simply connected, minimal and surfaces with constant mean curvature H such that |H|≤1/2. We study complete surfaces invariant either by parabolic or by hyperbolic screw motions. We study the notion of isometric associate immersions. We exhibit an explicit formula for a Scherk-type minimal surface. We give a one-parameter family of entire vertical graphs of mean curvature 1/2. We prove a generalized Bour lemma that can be applied to ℍ2×ℝ,𝕊2×ℝ and to Heisenberg’s space to produce a family of screw motion surfaces isometric to a given one.
ON THE BITS COUNTING FUNCTION OF REAL NUMBERS
Authors: RIVOAL TANGUY 
Published: November 2008

AbstractLetBn(x) denote the number of 1’s occurring in the binary expansion of an irrational numberx>0. A difficult problem is to provide nontrivial lower bounds forBn(x) for interesting numbers such as$\sqrt {2}$,eorπ: their conjectural simple normality in base 2 is equivalent toBn(x)∼n/2. In this article, amongst other things, we prove inequalities relatingBn(x+y),Bn(xy) andBn(1/x) toBn(x) andBn(y) for any irrational numbersx,y>0, which we prove to be sharp up to a multiplicative constant. As a by-product, we provide an answer to a question raised by Baileyet al. (D. H. Bailey, J. M. Borwein, R. E. Crandall and C. Pomerance, ‘On the binary expansions of algebraic numbers’,J. Théor. Nombres Bordeaux16(3) (2004), 487–518) concerning the binary digits of the square of a series related to the Fibonacci sequence. We also obtain a slight refinement of the main theorem of the same article, which provides a nontrivial lower bound forBn(α) for any real irrational algebraic number. We conclude the article with effective or conjectural lower bounds forBn(x) whenxis a transcendental number.
PRINCIPAL AND SYNTACTIC CONGRUENCES IN CONGRUENCE-DISTRIBUTIVE AND CONGRUENCE-PERMUTABLE VARIETIES
Authors: DAVEY BRIAN A. , JACKSON MARCEL , MARÓTI MIKLÓS , MCKENZIE RALPH N. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractWe give a new proof that a finitely generated congruence-distributive variety has finitely determined syntactic congruences (or, equivalently, term finite principal congruences), and show that the same does not hold for finitely generated congruence-permutable varieties, even under the additional assumption that the variety is residually very finite.
AN Lp ‘COUSIN OF COBOUNDARY’ THEOREM FOR RANDOM FIELDS
Authors: BRADLEY RICHARD C. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractIt is known that for a given $p\in [1,\infty )$ and a given strictly stationary sequence of random variables, the p-norms of the partial sums are bounded if and only if the sequence consists of successive differences from another strictly stationary sequence with finite p-norm. Here this is generalized to random fields, and the assumption of stationarity is relaxed. The index $p= \infty $ is included.