bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Abdominal Fat Distribution
Authors: Pou Karla M. , Massaro Joseph M. , Hoffmann Udo , Lieb Kathrin , Vasan Ramachandran S. , O'Donnell Christopher J. , Fox Caroline S. 
Published: December 2008

OBJECTIVE—The prevalence of abdominal obesity exceeds that of general obesity. We sought to determine the prevalence of abdominal subcutaneous and visceral obesity and to characterize the different patterns of fat distribution in a community-based sample.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Participants from the Framingham Heart Study (n = 3,348, 48% women, mean age 52 years) underwent multidetector computed tomography; subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volumes were assessed. Sex-specific high SAT and VAT definitions were based on 90th percentile cut points from a healthy referent sample. Metabolic risk factors were examined in subgroups with elevated SAT and VAT.
RESULTS—The prevalence of high SAT was 30% (women) and 31% (men) and that for high VAT was 44% (women) and 42% (men). Overall, 27.8% of the sample was discordant for high SAT and high VAT: 19.9% had SAT less than but VAT equal to or greater than the 90th percentile, and 7.9% had SAT greater than but VAT less than the 90th percentile. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was higher among women and men with SAT less than the 90th percentile and high VAT than in those with high SAT but VAT less than the 90th percentile, despite lower BMI and waist circumference. Findings were similar for hypertension, elevated triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol.
CONCLUSIONS—Nearly one-third of our sample has abdominal subcutaneous obesity, and &gt;40% have visceral obesity. Clinical measures of BMI and waist circumference may misclassify individuals in terms of VAT and metabolic risk.
Association of Lifestyle Factors With Abdominal Subcutaneous and Visceral Adiposity
Authors: Molenaar Esther A. , Massaro Joseph M. , Jacques Paul F. , Pou Karla M. , Ellison R. Curtis , Hoffmann Udo , Pencina Karol , Shadwick Steven D. , Vasan Ramachandran S. , O'Donnell Christopher J. , Fox Caroline S. 
Published: December 2008

OBJECTIVE— The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between lifestyle factors and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in a community-based setting.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— Cross-sectional associations between lifestyle factors (dietary quality, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption) and SAT and VAT volumes were examined in 2,926 Framingham Heart Study participants (48.6% women, aged 50 ± 10 years).
RESULTS— Diets consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines Adherence Index and greater physical activity were inversely associated with SAT and VAT (P &lt; 0.0001–0.002). In men, former smoking was associated with higher SAT (2,743 ± 56 cm3) compared with current smokers (2,629 ± 88 cm3) or those who never smoked (2,538 ± 44 cm3; P = 0.02). Both former and current smoking was associated with higher VAT (P = 0.03 [women]; P = 0.005 [men]). Women with high amounts of alcohol intake (&gt;7 drinks/week) had lower SAT (2,869 ± 106 cm3) than those who consumed less alcohol (3,184 ± 44 cm3, P = 0.006); significant differences in VAT were not observed (P = 0.18). In men, high amounts of alcohol intake (&gt;14 drinks/week) were associated with higher VAT (2,272 ± 59 cm3) compared with intake of ≤14 drinks/week (2,139 ± 25 cm3, P = 0.04), whereas SAT did not differ (P = 0.91). An increasing number of healthy lifestyle factors were associated with lower SAT and VAT volumes (all P &lt; 0.003).
CONCLUSIONS— Adherence to recommended dietary guidelines and physical activity are associated with lower SAT and VAT volumes. However, both smoking and high alcohol intake are differentially associated with VAT volumes. Further research to uncover the putative mechanisms is warranted.
Novel Noninvasive Breath Test Method for Screening Individuals at Risk for Diabetes
Authors: Dillon E. Lichar , Janghorbani Morteza , Angel James A. , Casperson Shanon L. , Grady James J. , Urban Randall J. , Volpi Elena , Sheffield-Moore Melinda 
Published: December 2008

OBJECTIVE—Diagnosis of pre-diabetes and early-stage diabetes occurs primarily by means of an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which requires invasive blood sampling. The aim of this study was to determine whether differences exist in breath 13CO2 excretion during a 13C-labeled OGTT between individuals with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and individuals with pre-diabetes and early-stage diabetes (PDED) and whether these differences correlated with blood glucose kinetics.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Blood and breath samples were collected at baseline and every 30 min for a 10-h period after ingestion of 75 g glucose isotopically labeled with 150 mg [U-13C6]d-glucose.
RESULTS—Age (56 ± 5 vs. 47 ± 3 years) and BMI (31 ± 2 vs. 31 ± 2 kg/m2) were not different between individuals with NGT (n = 10) and PDED (n = 7), respectively. Blood glucose concentrations were significantly higher in those with PDED compared with those with NGT from baseline to 4.5 h after glucose ingestion (P ≤ 0.05). Glucose-derived breath 13CO2 was significantly lower in individuals with PDED compared with those with NGT from 1 to 3.5 h after glucose (P ≤ 0.05). Peak breath 13CO2 abundance occurred at 4.5 and 3.5 h in individuals with PDED and NGT, respectively (36.87 ± 3.15 vs. 41.36 ± 1.56‰ delta over baseline).
CONCLUSIONS—These results suggest that this novel breath test method may assist in recognition of pre-diabetes or early-stage diabetes in at-risk persons without the need for invasive blood sampling, thus making it an attractive option for large-scale testing of at-risk populations, such as children.
Benefit of nicorandil using an immunologic murine model of experimental colitis
Authors: Hosseini-Tabatabaei Azadeh , Esmaily Hadi , Rahimian Reza , Khorasani Reza , Baeeri Maryam , Barazesh-Morgani Ahmadreza , Sari-Aslani Fatemeh , Abdollahi Mohammad 
Published: December 2008

AbstractInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory condition with an unknown etiology. Nicorandil, a potassium channel opener, has been used for many years for the treatment of angina. Recently, it has been shown that nicorandil possesses some novel traits such as anti-apoptotic, gastroprotective, free radical scavenging, and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, we set out to examine the possible beneficial effect of nicorandil in a rat model of IBD. Colitis was induced by rectal administration of 2,4,6-trintrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS) into rats. Groups of animals used in this study were sham, control, and exposure to dexamethasone, nicorandil, glibenclamid (a pure adenosine triphosphate sensitive potassium channel (KATP) blocker), or nicorandil plus glibenclamid. Drugs were administered by gavage and animals were sacrificed after 7 days. Biochemical markers, including TNF-α and IL-1β, ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP), myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and thiobarbitoric acid-reactive substance (TBARS), were measured in the homogenate of colonic tissue. Results indicate that nicorandil significantly reduces macroscopic and histological damage induced by TNBS. Nicorandil diminishes MPO activity and levels of TBARS, TNF-∢, and IL-1β in damaged colonic tissue with a concomitant increase in FRAP value (P<0.01). These effects were not reversed by coadministration of glibenclamide. In conclusion, nicorandil is able to ameliorate experimental IBD with a dose in which it does not show any anti-hypertensive effect, and the mechanism of which is partially or totally independent from KATP channels. It is hypothesized that nitric oxide donation and free-radical scavenging properties of nicorandil upregulate endothelial nitric oxide synthase may be responsible for this phenomenon. These findings suggest that nicorandil can be useful in treatment of IBD, although further investigations are needed to elucidate the mechanisms involved.
Catechol 1,2-dioxygenase from α-naphthol degrading thermophilic Geobacillus sp. strain: purification and properties
Authors: Giedraityte Gražina , Kalėdienė Lilija 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThe purpose of this study was purification and characterization of catechol 1,2-dioxygenase from Geobacillus sp. G27 strain, which degrades α-naphthol by the β-ketoadipate pathway. The catechol 1,2-dioxygenase (C1,2O) was purified using four steps of ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-celullose, Sephadex G-150 and hydroxylapatite chromatographies. The enzyme was purified about 18-fold with a specific activity of 7.42 U mg of protein−1. The relative molecular mass of the native enzyme estimated on gel chromatography of Sephadex G-150 was 96 kDa. The pH and temperature optima for enzyme activity were 7 and 60°C, respectively. A half-life of the catechol 1,2-dioxygenase at the optimum temperature was 40 min. The kinetic parameters of the Geobacillus sp. G27 strain catechol 1,2-dioxygenase were determined. The enzyme had apparent Km of 29 µM for catechol and the cleavage activities for methylcatechols were much less than for catechol and no activity with gentisate or protocatechuate was detected.
Anticandidal effect of berry juices and extracts from Ribes species
Authors: Krisch Judit , Ördögh Lilla , Galgóczy László , Papp Tamás , Vágvölgyi Csaba 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThe biological activities of fruit juices and pomace (skin, seeds) extracts from blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum), gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) and their hybrid plant (jostaberry, Ribes × nidigrolaria) were evaluated against the most frequently isolated twelve human pathogenic Candida species by broth dilution tests. The phenolic content of juice, water and methanol extracts were measured and the relationship with antifungal activity was assessed. Growth of the most Candida species was inhibited, with the exception of C. albicans, C. krusei, C. lusitaniae and C. pulcherrima. R. nigrum, with the highest phenol content, was observed to have the highest anticandidal activity, indicating a positive correlation between phenol content and antifungal activity.
Replacing an Inpatient Electronic Medical Record
Authors: Paré G. , Moreault M.-P. , Lemay A. , Valiquette L. , Barkun J. , Sicotte C. 
Published: December 2008

Summary
Objective: Since it is important to develop strategies for the successful implementation of electronic clinical information systems, the aim of this study is to explore where, and to what extent, users’ attitudes toward the former system that is being replaced may vary.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 346 nurses and physicians practicing in two Canadian teaching hospitals resulted in a total response rate of 63%. User attitudes were measured in three dimensions: a) user satisfaction with the system’s quality attributes, b) perceived system usefulness, and c) perceived impact on quality of care and patient safety. The current system (the one being replaced) was analyzed as a dual system composed of both paper-based and electronic records.
Results: The results on user satisfaction demonstrate a wide variation in opinions, with satisfaction ranging from 4.2 to 7.7 on a 10-point disagree-agree, Likert scale. The quality attributes varied by record type, with differences that were systematically in favor of the electronic record component, which received higher scores. The results also highlighted large differences by user group. Physicians and nurses systematically rated the two record formats differently. The nurses were more satisfied with the attributes of the paper-based record. Multivariate regression analyses results also revealed strong interdependencies among the three dimensions of user attitudes, to the extent that perceived system usefulness was strongly correlated with system quality attributes and the system outcomes were also correlated, although less strongly, with the two former system dimensions.
Conclusion: Understanding users’ attitudes toward a clinical information system in use, both in its paper and electronic aspects, is crucial for developing more successful implementation strategies for electronic record systems.
Future Development of Medical Informatics from the Viewpoint of Health Telematics
Authors: Pfeiffer K. P. 
Published: December 2008

Summary
Objectives: The transformation process of the health care systems in most countries in direction of integrated care needs the support of information and communication technology. The central element of this development is the electronic health care record. But there are many other applications around this record and the functionality and usability of these systems has to be improved and extended.
Methods: A system-analytic approach to integrated care is used to analyze the possibilities and the role of information and communication technology in current and future health and social care systems.
Results: The key elements of the improvements in the next years are the integration of evidence-based knowledge in the care process, the improvement of the usability for patients and health care providers, the development of pro-active systems for decision support, the support of the mobility of patients and the activities of daily living, the integration of data form molecular biology, semantic interoperability and last but not least the processing and analysis of these data. In a series of tables requirements of the functionality of eHealth applications are summarized.
Conclusion: Research in medical informatics has to focus on strategic concepts and how to transform the demands of a modern integrated health and social care system into user-friendly, secure and efficient ICT solutions and to support the citizen’s responsibility for her/his own healthcare. But there is also a high demand for research to improve the technology of ICT systems in health and social care.
Signal Informatics as an Advanced Integrative Concept in the Framework of Medical Informatics
Authors: Ungureanu M. , Ligges C. , Hemmelmann D. , Wüstenberg T. , Reichenbach J. , Astolfi L. , Babiloni F. , Leistritz L. , Witte H. 
Published: December 2008

Summary
Objectives: The main objective is to show current topics and future trends in the field of medical signal processing which are derived from current research concepts. Signal processing as an integrative concept within the scope of medical informatics is demonstrated.
Methods: For all examples time-variant multivariate autoregressive models were used. Based on this modeling, the concept of Granger causality in terms of the time-variant Granger causality index and the time-variant partial directed coherence was realized to investigate directed information transfer between different brain regions.
Results: Signal informatics encompasses several diverse domains including: processing steps, methodologies, levels and subject fields, and applications. Five trends can be recognized and in order to illustrate these trends, three analysis strategies derived from current neuroscientific studies are presented. These examples comprise high-dimensional fMRI and EEG data. In the first example, the quantification of time-variant-directed information transfer between activated brain regions on the basis of fast-fMRI data is introduced and discussed. The second example deals with the investigation of differences in word processing between dyslexic and normal reading children. Different dynamic neural networks of the directed information transfer are identified on the basis of event-related potentials. The third example shows time-variant cortical connectivity networks derived from a source model.
Conclusions: These examples strongly emphasize the integrative nature of signal informatics, encompassing processing steps, methodologies, levels and subject fields, and applications.
KINEMATICAL STRATEGY TO REGAIN BALANCE DURING A FORWARD FALL ON A SLIPPERY FLOOR
Authors: CHOU PEI-HSI , CHOU YOU-LI , LEE SHANG-LIN , YOU JIA-YUAN , SU FONG-CHIN , CHEN HSIEH-CHIN 
Published: December 2008

Slips and falls often occur in the industrial environments. They are not only caused by environmental hazards but also by some biomechanical factors related to deficient ability of postural control to arrest impending falls. The purpose of this study is to simulate the slip condition in human walking and to find out the possible related factors of biomechanics. Eleven male and 9 female recruited were healthful without any musculoskeletal and neurological impairments. In order to provide different disturbance level, three lean angles of tilting boards were designed as 10, 20, 30 degrees with respect to horizontal plane. Subjects wore a safety harness, stood on the tilting board and were released without awareness. A forceplate applied a soap patch was in front of the tilting board to serve the slippery perturbation and to measure the fool/floor reactions. Movements of body segments were measured using the motion analysis system. The results were shown that lean angle had a significant effect to all parameters except step length, response time, maximum ankle forward velocity, hip forward velocity, and ankle flex angle. The gender significantly affected on the step length, response time, maximum ankle forward velocity, and knee forward velocity. Larger lean angle made subjects to take a more rapid step. In order to absorb the shock in foot strike, subjects flexed more their knee and increased the foot landing angle in larger lean angle. Male tended to adopt the long step-length strategy to respond to the slippery perturbation and female tended to use the short step-length strategy instead. The results of maximum ankle forward velocity suggested that short step-length strategy could be belter to reduce the foot slip than long step-length strategy.
IN VIVO AND CLINICAL STUDY OF PHOENIX-7 TOTAL ARTIFICIAL HEART
Authors: HSU CHEUNG-HWA 
Published: December 2008

This paper concerned with results of implantation of the Phoenix-7 total artificial heart (TAH) in the growing calves. Experimental study had been conducted 41 times in 41 calves. All the calves could breathe, stand, eat and void by themselves in two hours after operation. The causes of death essentially included respiratory failure, sepsis, hemorrhage shock, thrombo-embolism, and multiple organ failure. Autopsy was performed in all deaths. The phoenix hearts were opened and examined. Blood morphology and blood chemistry were welt analyzed. Deformation of the red blood cells was found in most of the cases. Cell destruction, however, was not obvious. Besides, there was no evidence of red blood cell aggregation. Initial clinical experience was undertaken for a 46-year-old male who was in cardiogenic shock. The patient was indwelled with intra-aortic balloon counter-pulsation (IABP) and supported by extra-corporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO) before the implantation. With IABP and ECMO, the patient's blood pressure was maintained at 90/60mmHg, but oliguria persisted with the complication of hemolysis. The patient was then implanted with the Phoenix-7 TAH and the condition was improved tremendously. With the TAH, the patient's blood pressure was maintained at 90∼100mHg / 40∼50mmHg. Cardiac output was adequately maintained at 4.2~5.8 Llmin by an operating model on modifying the parameters of driving air pressure for both the right and left hearts, heart rate and systolic ratio. The patient had been on the device for 15 days until a successful simultaneous orthotopic heart and heterotopic kidney transplantation from a suitable donor was undertaken.
CHITOSAN/GELATIN NETWORK BASED BIOMATERIALS IN TISSUE ENGINEERING
Authors: YAO KANGDE , MAO JINSHU , YIN YUJI , LIU WENGUANG , CUI YUANLU , CAI KAIYONG , ZHAO FENG 
Published: December 2008

Tissue can be looked upon as a cell composite, where cell expresses its functions, while extra cellular matrixes (ECMs) secreted provide cell information and do its matrix functions. Here ECMs are, physical and chemical networks consisted of proteins (e.g. collagen, fibronectin, laminin and vitronectin etc.) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs, e.g. hyaluronic acid, chodroitin 4-sulfate, chodroitin 6-sulfate etc.). The idea cell-carrier should be the one, which most mimics the ECM. Therefore, chitosan in which the N-acetylglucosamine moiety is a structural feature also found in the GAGs, and gelatin, the partially denatured derivative of collagen were used to develop hiomaterials. They will exhibit related bioactivities, as their analogue and precursor, respectively. Chitosan gelatin network based biomaterials can be applied as membrane, scaffold, surface modifier and non-viral vectorfor. DNA delivery in tissue engineering. Some of our activities were reported. These biomaterials have promising perspectives.
PET-MRI IMAGE REGISTRATION AND FUSION USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS
Authors: WANG WOEI-FUH , NGO FRANK QH , CHEN JYH-CHENG , HUANG RAY-MING , CHOU KUO-LIANG , LIU REN-SHYAN 
Published: December 2008

Multi-modality image registration and fusion play an increasingly important role in medicine. 3-D image reconstruction, object recognition, and medical imaging analysis, are just a few examples. Medical images provide essential information for clinical diagnosis. Good image quality can yield more accurate patient information, which can then be used for better clinical decision making. X-ray computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are clinically established imaging modalities. Among them, CT and MRI images are anatomical imaging with high spatial resolutions. However their physiological information is limited. On the other hand, although SPECT and PET can provide physiological information, both spatial resolutions are too poor to provide clear anatomical information. Thus, it would be advantageous to combine images from multi-modality images so that the resulting image can provide both physiological and anatomical information with high spatial resolution for use in clinical diagnosis and therapy. In order to generate an overlapping image from different-modality images, image registration and various fusion techniques have been employed. In the past studies, artificial neural network (ANN) has been used in registration and fusion of multi-modality remote sensing data for the reconstruction of 3-D models of terrain regions and medical images. In this study, we apply multilayer back propagation (BP) and conjugate gradient back propagation (CGBP) NN model to train PET and MRI images. We use Matlab and Borland C++ Builder to implement the network training frame and find out the optimal training model for accurate image registration. Further, we evaluate the accuracy of the image registration using NN by phantom images. Our study shows that, the registration errors are less than 5mm, and using appropriate opacity is better to show the fusion image than using interleaved pixels with independent color scale. Finally, we use Borland C++ Builder to implement a user-friendly window-based interface for image registration and fusion system.