bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Vertical distribution of picoeukaryotic diversity in the Sargasso Sea
Authors: Not Fabrice , Gausling Rudolf , Azam Farooq , Heidelberg John F. , Worden Alexandra Z. 
Published: February 2007

SummaryEukaryotic molecular diversity within the picoplanktonic size‐fraction has primarily been studied in marine surface waters. Here, the vertical distribution of picoeukaryotic diversity was investigated in the Sargasso Sea from euphotic to abyssal waters, using size‐fractionated samples (< 2 μm). 18S rRNA gene clone libraries were used to generate sequences from euphotic zone samples (deep chlorophyll maximum to the surface); the permanent thermocline (500 m); and the pelagic deep‐sea (3000 m). Euphotic zone and deep‐sea data contrasted strongly, the former displaying greater diversity at the first‐rank taxon level, based on 232 nearly full‐length sequences. Deep‐sea sequences belonged almost exclusively to the Alveolata and Radiolaria, while surface samples also contained known and putative photosynthetic groups, such as unique Chlorarachniophyta and Chrysophyceae sequences. Phylogenetic analyses placed most Alveolata and Stramenopile sequences within previously reported ‘environmental’ clades, i.e. clades within the Novel Alveolate groups I and II (NAI and NAII), or the novel Marine Stramenopiles (MAST). However, some deep‐sea NAII formed distinct, bootstrap supported clades. Stramenopiles were recovered from the euphotic zone only, although many MAST are reportedly heterotrophic, making the observed distribution a point for further investigation. An unexpectedly high proportion of radiolarian sequences were recovered. From these, five environmental radiolarian clades, RAD‐I to RAD‐V, were identified. RAD‐IV and RAD‐V were composed of Taxopodida‐like sequences, with the former solely containing Sargasso Sea sequences, although from all depth zones sampled. Our findings highlight the vast diversity of these protists, most of which remain uncultured and of unknown ecological function.
Effect of salinity changes on the bacterial diversity, photosynthesis and oxygen consumption of cyanobacterial mats from an intertidal flat of the Arabian Gulf
Authors: Abed Raeid M. M. , Kohls Katharina , De Beer Dirk 
Published: February 2007

SummaryThe effects of salinity fluctuation on bacterial diversity, rates of gross photosynthesis (GP) and oxygen consumption in the light (OCL) and in the dark (OCD) were investigated in three submerged cyanobacterial mats from a transect on an intertidal flat. The transect ran 1 km inland from the low water mark along an increasingly extreme habitat with respect to salinity. The response of GP, OCL and OCD in each sample to various salinities (65‰, 100‰, 150‰ and 200‰) were compared. The obtained sequences and the number of unique operational taxonomic units showed clear differences in the mats' bacterial composition. While cyanobacteria decreased from the lower to the upper tidal mat, other bacterial groups such as Chloroflexus and Cytophaga/Flavobacteria/Bacteriodetes showed an opposite pattern with the highest dominance in the middle and upper tidal mats respectively. Gross photosynthesis and OCL at the ambient salinities of the mats decreased from the lower to the upper tidal zone. All mats, regardless of their tidal location, exhibited a decrease in areal GP, OCL and OCD rates at salinities > 100‰. The extent of inhibition of these processes at higher salinities suggests an increase in salt adaptation of the mats microorganisms with distance from the low water line. We conclude that the resilience of microbial mats towards different salinity regimes on intertidal flats is accompanied by adjustment of the diversity and function of their microbial communities.
Making literature searches easier: a rapid and sensitive search filter for retrieving randomized controlled trials from PubMed
Authors: Royle P. L. , Waugh N. R. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAims  To develop and test the sensitivity and precision of a rapid and simple search filter (RSSF), suitable for busy clinicians wanting to find randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in PubMed. Ideally it should retrieve all the RCTs, but as few irrelevant studies as possible, and be easy to use.Methods  The RSSF consisted of the search term ‘Randomized Controlled Trial’ limited to the Publication Type field. Journals that published the highest numbers of diabetes RCTs between 2000 and 2005 were identified, and then handsearched in order define a set of known RCTs. The sensitivity of the RSSF was tested by measuring the proportion of the known RCTs retrieved, and the precision by checking the proportion of the retrieved studies which were RCTs. The RSSF was compared to a highly sensitive search strategy (HSSS) developed for PubMed. Embase was checked for trials not in PubMed.Results  Sixteen journals were found to contain half of all published RCTs in diabetes. 820 diabetes RCTs were identified by handsearching. Measured against these, the RSSF gave a sensitivity of 96.0% (95% CI, 94.8% to 97.1%), and a precision of 93.6% (95% CI 91.7% to 95.0%). Compared to the HSSS, the RSSF reduced the filtering required by 87%. An Embase search for diabetes RCTs found 36 (2.1%) not in PubMed.Conclusions  A rapid simple search filter for PubMed can find almost all diabetes RCTs, while excluding most studies not required, thereby greatly reducing the time cost of searching and filtering results, and of searching other databases.
Nursing skill mix and outcomes: a Singapore perspective
Authors: Ayre T. C. , Gerdtz M. F. , Parker J. , Nelson S. 
Published: February 2007

Aim:  To summarize key evidence on nursing skill mix in acute care hospitals and their limitations; and identify the gaps in current literature vis‐à‐vis Singapore’s nursing workforce.Background:  Nursing skill mix has been theorized to be a factor influencing patient, nurse and organizational outcomes. While there is a growing body of literature explicating associations between nursing skill mix and positive outcomes, the evidence does not as yet provide firm directions in determining the best configuration. In addition, differences in nursing workforce characteristics also make it difficult to apply findings from one healthcare setting to another.Conclusions:  In reviewing key evidence from the United States of America and Canada, this paper highlights three critical gaps in the nursing skill mix literature when examined in the context of Singapore’s nursing workforce. Issues related to the interface between local and foreign nurses, the impact of speciality education, and the possible effects that work roles and distribution may have on quality of care need to be further examined. This knowledge should provide a robust evidence base with which to inform national policy on skill mix and maximize nursing resources in order to achieve optimal outcomes.
Trends in nursing staff allocation: the nurse‐to‐patient ratio and skill mix issues in Israel
Authors: Rassin M. , Silner D. 
Published: February 2007

Purpose:  This article describes a case study relating to trends in nurse‐to‐patient ratios and nursing staff mix in Israel.Background:  In recent years, there has been a worldwide trend towards changing nurse‐to‐patient ratios and nursing staff mixes. On the one hand, the patient’s status has become more complex and requires a more professional nursing staff to maintain treatment, safety and quality, on the other hospitals have become more economically focused. In light of this, the need to re‐examine the issues of nurse‐to‐patient ratio and nursing staff mix are of primary importance to the health system. Legislation of nurse‐to‐patient ratios is being widely discussed in nursing circles, and nurse‐to‐patient ratios are now mandatory in the State of California, USA, and the State of Victoria, Australia.Conclusion:  The trend in nursing staff mix in Israel has been towards increased hiring of academic registered nurses, leading to the clinical development of quality treatment programmes and decreased mortality rates. Subsequently, license practical nurses are phased out, and where necessary auxiliary staff, which represents a cheaper work force, provides unskilled care. Today, the staff mix distribution in Israeli general governmental hospitals consists of 73% registered nurses, 11% licensed vocational nurses, and 16% auxiliary staff. In addition, there is a special collective agreement related to the allocation of nursing positions, including a classification method involving 10 categories of inpatient wards.
On amphidromy, a distinct form of diadromy in aquatic organisms
Authors: McDowall R M 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAmphidromy is a distinctive form of diadromy that involves some fish, decapod crustaceans and gastropod molluscs. Characteristic elements in amphidromy are: reproduction in fresh water, passage to sea by newly hatched larvae, a period of feeding and growing at sea usually a few months long, return to fresh water of well‐grown juveniles, a further period of feeding and growing in fresh water, followed by reproduction there. This life‐history strategy is observed in numerous fish species, primarily in islands of the tropics and subtropics (probably more than 75 species, especially sicydiine gobies), and extends to temperate countries as far as Japan in the north and New Zealand in the south. There has been considerable confusion about the nature of amphidromy and its distinctiveness from anadromy, another category of diadromy. The return to freshwater of small juveniles of amphidromous fishes is functionally and strategically different from the return of large mature adults, as happens in anadromy. The strategy is recognized as distinctive by numerous fish biologists who work with amphidromous fishes, although it has tended to be rejected or ignored by others, typically those who have no personal experience with them.
Chest pain is inversely associated with blood pressure during exercise among individuals being assessed for coronary heart disease
Authors: Ditto Blaine , D'Antono Bianca , Dupuis Gilles , Burelle Denis 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAcute and chronic increases in blood pressure have been related to decreases in pain perception. This phenomenon has been studied primarily using acute experimental pain stimuli. To extend the literature to naturalistic pain and in particular the problem of silent cardiac ischemia, this study examined the relationship between blood pressure and chest pain during exercise stress testing. Nine hundred seven (425 men, 482 women) individuals undergoing exercise stress testing for diagnosis of possible myocardial ischemia completed the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) immediately afterward and other questionnaires before and after testing. Blood pressure was measured before, during, and after exercise. Systolic blood pressure at the end of exercise was inversely related to a number of measures of pain such as total score on the MPQ. The relationship could not be explained by individual differences in exercise duration, medication use, sex, or other measured variable. In sum, the inverse relationship between blood pressure and sensitivity to pain that has been observed in other populations in experimental and naturalistic conditions was observed for chest pain during exercise. Blood pressure may contribute to episodes of silent ischemia.
Music and emotion: Electrophysiological correlates of the processing of pleasant and unpleasant music
Authors: Sammler Daniela , Grigutsch Maren , Fritz Thomas , Koelsch Stefan 
Published: February 2007

AbstractHuman emotion and its electrophysiological correlates are still poorly understood. The present study examined whether the valence of perceived emotions would differentially influence EEG power spectra and heart rate (HR). Pleasant and unpleasant emotions were induced by consonant and dissonant music. Unpleasant (compared to pleasant) music evoked a significant decrease of HR, replicating the pattern of HR responses previously described for the processing of emotional pictures, sounds, and films. In the EEG, pleasant (contrasted to unpleasant) music was associated with an increase of frontal midline (Fm) theta power. This effect is taken to reflect emotional processing in close interaction with attentional functions. These findings show that Fm theta is modulated by emotion more strongly than previously believed.
Cerebral blood flow in essential hypotension during emotional activation
Authors: Stegagno Luciano , Patritti Denise , Duschek Stefan , Herbert Beate , Schandry Rainer 
Published: February 2007

AbstractVariations of blood flow velocity in the left and right middle cerebral arteries (MCA) were measured in 20 hypotensive women and 20 normotensive control subjects during emotional stimulation using functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTDS). The emotional stimuli were composed of three series (neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant) of 20 pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Both groups exhibited greater increases in right than left MCA blood flow during emotional stimulation. However hypotensive subjects showed smaller increases in blood flow than did normotensive controls. Furthermore hypotensives exhibited lower MCA blood flow velocity in both hemispheres at rest than did normotensives. Nevertheless the hypotensive group rated the emotional pictures as more arousing than did the control group. Results suggest a decreased blood flow, in addition to peripheral, in the central nervous system (CNS) of hypotensives, which was associated with normal emotional responses for both valence and hemispherical asymmetry, but also with a general increase of arousal levels. This dissociation might be related to an increase in anterior cerebral arteries (ACA) blood flow and/or to hypotension‐mediated baroreceptors' up‐regulation to the reticular system.
Plasticity of 5‐HT1A receptor‐mediated signaling during early postnatal brain development
Authors: Mehta Mukti , Ahmed Zagloul , Fernando Suraj Shawn , Cano‐Sanchez Patricia , Adayev Tatyana , Ziemnicka Dorota , Wieraszko Andrzej , Banerjee Probal 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe presence of serotonin 1A receptor (5‐HT1A‐R) in the hippocampus, amygdala, and most regions of the frontal cortex is essential between postnatal day‐5–21 (P5–21) for the expression of normal anxiety levels in adult mice. Thus, the 5‐HT1A‐R plays a crucial role in this time window of brain development. We show that the 5‐HT1A‐R‐mediated stimulation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinases 1 and 2 (Erk1/2) in the hippocampus undergoes a transition between P6 and P15. At P6, a protein kinase C (PKC) isozyme is required for the 5‐HT1A‐R ⇒Erk1/2 cascade, which causes increased cell division in the dentate gyrus. By contrast, at P15, PKCα participates downstream of Erk1/2 to augment synaptic transmission through the Schaffer Collateral pathway but does not cause increased cell division. Our data demonstrate that the 5‐HT1A‐R ⇒Erk1/2 cascade uses PKC isozymes differentially, first boosting the cell division to form new hippocampal neurons at P6 and then undergoing a plastic change in mechanism to strengthen synaptic connections in the hippocampus at P15.
Biological Soil Crust Rehabilitation in Theory and Practice: An Underexploited Opportunity
Authors: Bowker Matthew A. 
Published: February 2007

Abstract Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are ubiquitous lichen–bryophyte microbial communities, which are critical structural and functional components of many ecosystems. However, BSCs are rarely addressed in the restoration literature. The purposes of this review were to examine the ecological roles BSCs play in succession models, the backbone of restoration theory, and to discuss the practical aspects of rehabilitating BSCs to disturbed ecosystems. Most evidence indicates that BSCs facilitate succession to later seres, suggesting that assisted recovery of BSCs could speed up succession. Because BSCs are ecosystem engineers in high abiotic stress systems, loss of BSCs may be synonymous with crossing degradation thresholds. However, assisted recovery of BSCs may allow a transition from a degraded steady state to a more desired alternative steady state. In practice, BSC rehabilitation has three major components: (1) establishment of goals; (2) selection and implementation of rehabilitation techniques; and (3) monitoring. Statistical predictive modeling is a useful method for estimating the potential BSC condition of a rehabilitation site. Various rehabilitation techniques attempt to correct, in decreasing order of difficulty, active soil erosion (e.g., stabilization techniques), resource deficiencies (e.g., moisture and nutrient augmentation), or BSC propagule scarcity (e.g., inoculation). Success will probably be contingent on prior evaluation of site conditions and accurate identification of constraints to BSC reestablishment. Rehabilitation of BSCs is attainable and may be required in the recovery of some ecosystems. The strong influence that BSCs exert on ecosystems is an underexploited opportunity for restorationists to return disturbed ecosystems to a desirable trajectory.
Plant Diversity, Production, Stability, and Susceptibility to Invasion in Restored Northern Tall Grass Prairies (United States)
Authors: Biondini Mario 
Published: February 2007

Abstract This study investigated the relationship among plant diversity, production, stability, and susceptibility to invasion in restored northern tall grass prairies (United States). The experiment consisted of 50 species mixtures fertilized with N or P, at high or low levels. Results from the past 5 years were as follows: (1) aboveground biomass increased and year‐to‐year variability declined with increases in plant species and functional form richness, mostly as a result of substantial increases in minimum biomass (maximum biomass was unaffected). (2) Aboveground biomass and biomass stability increased when the species in the mixture had: (a) high relative growth rates, root density, root surface area per unit of root biomass, uptake rates of N or P per unit of root surface area, and N use efficiency and (b) low root to shoot ratio. (3) Invasion of nonseeded species declined with increases in plant species and functional form richness. (4) The results from this experiment did not provide a single specific criterion for selecting an optimal species mixture. However, if the objectives of the restoration were simply to achieve an aboveground biomass variability that is less than that of growing‐season precipitation, then the seed mixtures need to have a minimum of nine species and three functional forms.
Blood use by inpatient elderly population in the United States
Authors: Anderson Steven A. , Menis Mikhail , O'Connell Kathryn , Burwen Dale R. 
Published: February 2007

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to characterize inpatient blood use by the US elderly population during 2001. As the US population ages the demand for blood is expected to grow. There have been no comprehensive studies, however, detailing blood use by the elderly in the United States.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A descriptive cross‐sectional study of blood utilization was conducted with the 5 percent Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data file obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Each record of the file represented a billing record of an inpatient stay. Blood use was identified by either a nonzero blood pints furnished quantity or a procedure code for transfusion of whole blood or red blood cells (RBCs).RESULTS: Among 635,700 stays, 43,220 (6.8%) recorded transfusion of whole blood or RBCs. Blood use prevalence was approximately 4.5 times higher for stays with at least one medical procedure compared to stays without procedures. Of 15,579 stays with number of blood pints furnished recorded, the top 20 principal procedures with the largest quantities of blood accounted for about 56 percent of total blood pints furnished; however, these procedures represented only about 19 percent of all stays.CONCLUSION: Our study shows a strong association between medical procedures and blood use among inpatient stays for the elderly. Some of the highest blood utilization occurred with surgical procedures. More precise information on blood utilization may serve as the basis for estimating risks associated with blood transfusion and may inform decisions that maintain an adequate supply of blood.
A revised classification scheme for acute transfusion reactions
Authors: Sanders Robert P. , Geiger Terrence L. , Heddle Nancy , Pui Ching‐Hon , Howard Scott C. 
Published: February 2007

BACKGROUND: Although the standard classification system for acute transfusion reactions adequately describes the general features associated with the various types of reactions, it was not designed to provide strict criteria for diagnosis and classification. Consequently, its use to classify individual reactions can result in significant inter‐ and intraobserver variability, which can complicate patient management and clinical research.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 595 transfusion reactions that occurred at a single institution between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2003, were reviewed and were initially classified according to the established conventions of the AABB. Each reaction was then reclassified with a revised system that refines and clarifies reaction categories, adds severity grades in the format of the National Cancer Institute's Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), and includes terminology to indicate the attribution or likelihood that the adverse event is related to the transfusion.RESULTS: Comparison of the two approaches as applied to these 595 transfusion reactions showed clear advantages for the revised system. Of 128 reactions classified by AABB criteria as inconclusive, a mixture of reaction types, or otherwise qualified, all but 5 were accommodated by discrete categories within our revised scheme. In each case with a classifiable reaction, the severity of the reaction could be readily graded.CONCLUSION: The advantages of this revised classification scheme for acute transfusion reactions warrant prospective evaluation and ultimately consideration of its incorporation into clinical practice.