bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Adult Outcomes for Children of Teenage Mothers
Authors: Francesconi Marco 
Published: April 2008

AbstractUsing data from the British Household Panel Survey, this study examines the relationship between several outcomes in early adulthood (e.g. education, inactivity, earnings and health) and being born to a teenage mother. Besides standard cross‐sectional multivariate regression estimates, we also present evidence from non‐parametric estimates and from estimates that account for unmeasured family background heterogeneity by comparing siblings born to the same mother who timed their births at different ages. Regardless of the econometric technique, being born to a teenage mother is usually associated with worse outcomes. An important channel of transmission of this adverse effect is childhood family structure, which plays a more powerful role than childhood family poverty. Albeit smaller, some of the detrimental effects are also found for children of mothers who gave birth in their early 20s.
Maternal Emotion‐related Socialization and Preschoolers' Developing Emotion Self‐awareness
Authors: Warren Heather K. , Stifter Cynthia A. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractPreschoolers' ability to demonstrate awareness of their own emotion is an important socio‐emotional competence which has received increasing attention in the developmental literature. The present study examined emotion self‐awareness of happiness, sadness, and anger in response to a delay of gratification task in 78 preschool children. Maternal emotion‐related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) including reported emotional expressivity, responses to her child's emotions, and observed emotion talk, were examined as predictors of children's emotion self‐awareness skill one year later. Results show that, after controlling for receptive language ability, supportive ERSBs were predictive of high self‐awareness of happiness whereas non‐supportive ERSBs were predictive of low self‐awareness of sadness. The results demonstrate that the concordance between observed and self‐reported emotion serves as a useful index of children's awareness of their emotional experience.
Seeing The World Through Rose‐colored Glasses? Neglect of Consensus Information in Young Children's Personality Judgments
Authors: Boseovski Janet J. , Lee Kang 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe present study examined the use of consensus information in early childhood. Ninety‐six three‐ to six‐year‐olds watched a demonstration that depicted the positive or negative behavior of one or several actors toward a recipient (low vs. high consensus, respectively). Subsequently, participants made behavioral predictions and personality judgments about the actors and recipients. Participants viewed all story characters favorably and were reluctant to assign blame for negative outcomes, although the appropriate use of consensus information increased with age for behavioral predictions. These findings suggest that there is a positivity bias in young children's personality judgments even in the face of explicit contradictory behavioral evidence. Children's early ‘theory of personality’ is apparently driven by a baseline assumption that people are nice.
Out‐of‐home care among immigrant children in Sweden: a national cohort study
Authors: Vinnerljung Bo , Franzén Eva , Gustafsson Björn , Johansson Ing‐Marie 
Published: April 2008

We used data from several national registers for ten entire birth cohorts (n > 1 million) to examine the representation of first generation immigrant children among first time entries into out‐of‐home care (foster or residential care) at ages 7–12 and 13–17. Logistic regression models were used to adjust results for socioeconomic background factors. Immigrant children were categorised in six groups relating to birth country/continent. Compared with Swedish‐born peers, immigrant children from non‐European countries had between two‐ and three‐fold sex and birth‐year adjusted odds for being placed in care for the first time at ages 7–12. After adjustments for five socioeconomic background variables, none of these overrisks remained. Instead there was a tendency towards immigrant background being associated with reduced risks, statistically significant for immigrant children born in non‐Nordic European countries. Immigrant children had between two‐ and six‐fold age and birth‐year adjusted odds for entering care for the first time during adolescence. After adjusting the results for socioeconomic background, only immigrant children born in Sub‐Saharan Africa or in Asia outside the Middle East had significant overrisks for care entries at ages 13–17 (odds ratio = 1.5).
Atypical development of face and greeble recognition in autism
Authors: Suzanne Scherf K. , Behrmann Marlene , Minshew Nancy , Luna Beatriz 
Published: April 2008

Background:  Impaired face processing is a widely documented deficit in autism. Although the origin of this deficit is unclear, several groups have suggested that a lack of perceptual expertise is contributory. We investigated whether individuals with autism develop expertise in visuoperceptual processing of faces and whether any deficiency in such processing is specific to faces, or extends to other objects, too.Method:  Participants performed perceptual discrimination tasks, including a face inversion task and a classification‐level task, which requires especially fine‐grained discriminations, on three classes of stimuli: socially‐laden faces, perceptually homogenous novel objects, greebles, and perceptually heterogeneous common objects.Results:  We found that children with autism develop typical levels of expertise for recognition of common objects. However, they evince poorer recognition for perceptually homogenous objects, including faces and, most especially, greebles.Conclusions:  Documenting the atypical recognition abilities for greebles in children with autism has provided an important insight into the potential origin of the relatively poor face recognition skills. Our findings suggest that, throughout development, individuals with autism have a generalized deficit in visuoperceptual processing that may interfere with their ability to undertake configural processing, and that this, in turn, adversely impacts their recognition of within‐class perceptually homogenous objects.
Oily fish intake during pregnancy – association with lower hyperactivity but not with higher full‐scale IQ in offspring
Authors: Gale Catharine R. , Robinson Sian M. , Godfrey Keith M. , Law Catherine M. , Schlotz Wolff , O’Callaghan F. J. 
Published: April 2008

Background:  Long‐chain omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are thought to be important for fetal neurodevelopment. Animal studies suggest that a deficiency of omega‐3 fatty acids may lead to behavioural or cognitive deficits. As oily fish is a major dietary source of omega‐3 fatty acids, it is possible that low intake of fish during pregnancy may have adverse effects on the developing fetal brain.Methods:  We used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence to assess behavioural problems and intelligence in 217 nine‐year‐old children. The mothers of these children had participated in a study of nutrition during pregnancy during which fish intake was assessed in early and late gestation.Results:  Children whose mothers had eaten oily fish in early pregnancy had a reduced risk of hyperactivity compared to those whose mothers did not eat oily fish: OR .34, 95% CI .15 to .78, after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Children whose mothers had eaten fish (whether oily or non‐oily) in late pregnancy had a verbal IQ that was 7.55 points higher (95% CI .75 to 14.4) than those whose mothers did not eat fish. There were, however, no significant associations between fish intake in pregnancy and other behavioural problems or full‐scale and performance intelligence, after adjustment for potential confounding factors.Conclusions:  Although maternal fish intake in pregnancy was associated with hyperactivity scores and verbal IQ in children, in general, how much fish women ate during pregnancy appeared to have little long‐term relation with neurodevelopmental outcomes in their child.
Glutamate activates GFAP gene promoter from cultured astrocytes through TGF‐β1 pathways
Authors: Romão Luciana Ferreira , Sousa Vivian de Oliveira , Neto Vivaldo Moura , Gomes Flávia Carvalho Alcantara 
Published: April 2008

AbstractGlial cells are currently viewed as active partners of neurons in synapse formation. The close proximity of astrocytes to the synaptic cleft suggests that these cells might be potential targets for neuronal‐released molecules although this issue has been less addressed. Here, we evaluated the role of the excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate, in astrocyte differentiation. We recently demonstrated that cortical neurons activate the gene promoter of the astrocyte maturation marker, GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) of cerebral cortex astrocytes by inducing TGF‐β1 (transforming growth factor beta 1) secretion in vitro. To access the effect of glutamate on GFAP gene, we used transgenic mice bearing the β‐Galactosidase (β‐Gal) reporter gene under the regulation of the GFAP gene promoter. We report that 100 μM glutamate activates the GFAP gene promoter of astrocytes from cerebral cortex revealed by a significant increase in the number of β‐Gal positive astrocytes. Neutralizing antibodies against TGF‐β completely prevented glutamate and neuronal‐induction of GFAP gene, thus indicating that this event is mediated by TGF‐β1. Further, induction of GFAP gene in response to glutamate was followed by nuclear translocation of the Smad transcription factor, a hallmark of TGF‐β1 pathway activation. The antagonist of the metabotropic glutamate receptor, MCPG, inhibited neuronal effect suggesting that neuronal activation of GFAP gene promoter involves glutamate metabotropic receptors. MAPK (PD98059) and PI3K (LY294002) inhibitors fully prevented activation of GFAP gene promoter by all treatments. Surprisingly, these inhibitors also abrogated TGF‐β1 direct action on GFAP gene although they did not inhibit Smad‐2 phosphorylation, suggesting that TGF‐β1‐induced GFAP gene activation might involve cooperation between the canonical and non‐canonical TGF‐β pathways. Together, our results suggest that glial metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor activation by neurons induces TGF‐β1 secretion, leading to GFAP gene activation and astrocyte differentiation and involves Smad and MAPK/PI3K pathways. Our work provides evidence that astrocytes surrounding synapses are target of neuronal activity and might shed light into the role of glial cells into neurological disorders associated with glutamate neurotoxicity.
Restoring Rainforest Fragments: Survival of Mixed‐Native Species Seedlings under Contrasting Site Conditions in the Western Ghats, India
Authors: Raman T. R. Shankar , Mudappa Divya , Kapoor Vena 
Published: April 2008

Abstract Historical fragmentation and a current annual deforestation rate of 1.2% in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot have resulted in a human‐dominated landscape of plantations, agriculture, and developed areas, with embedded rainforest fragments that form biodiversity refuges and animal corridors. On private lands in the Anamalai hills, India, we established restoration sites within three rainforest fragments (5, 19, and 100 ha) representing varying levels of degradation such as open meadow, highly degraded sites with dense Lantana camara invasion, abandoned exotic tree plantations (Eucalyptus grandis and Maesopsis eminii), and sites with mixed‐native and exotic tree canopy. Between 2000 and 2004, we planted annually during the southwest monsoon 7,538 nursery‐raised seedlings of around 127 species in nine sites (0.15–1.0 ha). Seedlings monitored at 6‐monthly intervals showed higher mortality over the dry season than the wet season and survival rates over a 2‐year period of between 34.4 and 90.3% under different site conditions. Seedling survival was higher in sites with complete weed removal as against partial removal along planting lines and higher in open meadow and under shade than in sites that earlier had dense weed invasion. Of 44 species examined, survival across sites after 24 months for a majority of species (27 species, 61.4%) was higher than 50%. Retaining regenerating native species during weed clearing operations was crucial for rapid reestablishment of a first layer of canopy to shade out weeds and enhance survival of shade‐tolerant rainforest seedlings.
Suitability Modeling of Lake Sturgeon Habitat in Five Northern Lake Michigan Tributaries: Implications for Population Rehabilitation
Authors: Daugherty Daniel J. , Sutton Trent M. , Elliott Robert F. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract The availability of lotic spawning, staging, and nursery habitats is considered a major factor limiting the recovery of Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) in Lake Michigan. Despite efforts to better understand the population biology and habitat use of remnant Lake sturgeon stocks, little information exists on the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of habitats for riverine life stages. We applied georeferenced habitat information on substrate, water depth, and stream gradient to a Lake sturgeon habitat suitability index in a geographic information system to produce spatially explicit models of life stage–specific habitat characteristics in the Menominee River, Michigan–Wisconsin; the Peshtigo, Oconto, and lower Fox rivers, Wisconsin; and the Manistique River, Michigan. High‐quality Lake sturgeon spawning habitat associated with coarse substrates (≥2.1 mm) and moderate‐ to high‐stream gradients (≥0.6 m/km) comprised 1–6% of the available habitat in each system. Staging habitat characterized by water depths greater that 2 m located near potential spawning habitat comprised an additional 17–41%. However, access to a majority of these habitat types (range 30–100%) by Lake sturgeon from Lake Michigan is currently impeded by dams. High‐quality juvenile Lake sturgeon habitat associated with finer substrates, lower stream gradients, and a broad range of water depths (i.e., 0.5–8 m) was relatively ubiquitous throughout each system and comprised 69–100% of the available habitat. Our study suggests that efforts to rehabilitate Lake sturgeon populations should consider providing fish passage and creating supplemental spawning habitat to increase reproductive and recruitment potential.
Habitat Restoration for Lupine and Specialist Butterflies
Authors: Pfitsch William A. , Williams Ernest H. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract The decline of the Frosted elfin butterfly (Callophrys irus (Godart)) population in the Rome Sand Plains (RSP) of central New York is directly related to loss of its host plant, Wild blue lupine (Lupinus perennis L.), as Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) invades the open sandy habitats where lupine grows. A Frosted elfin (New York threatened) population remains where lupine is the densest. We tested the hypotheses that tree canopy hinders lupine performance and restricts elfin behavior. Removal of white pines in experimental plots resulted in dramatic increases in canopy openness. Lupine flowering stems and lupine cover increased significantly in the tree removal plots and remained constant or declined in the control plots. The total number of lupine stems decreased, however, in both control and cleared plots. Observations of butterflies in the experimental plots increased significantly after tree removal, and male elfins, which form mating territories in sandy areas at the edges of lupine patches, established new territories in open patches where trees had been removed. Several new territories have been used each year since tree removal. This rapid response by the butterflies reflects their behavioral preferences for open areas near lupine patches. Selective tree removal at the RSP has benefited individual lupine plants and increased habitat for Frosted elfin butterflies, but more extensive habitat manipulation may be necessary to increase lupine population numbers.
Approaches to Selecting Native Plant Replacements for Fleshy‐Fruited Invasive Species
Authors: Gosper Carl R. , Vivian‐Smith Gabrielle 
Published: April 2008

Abstract Invasive plants are a serious threat to biodiversity. Yet, in some cases, they may play an important ecological role in heavily modified landscapes, such as where fleshy‐fruited invasive plants support populations of native frugivores. How can such conservation conflicts be managed? We advocate an approach in which native fleshy‐fruited plants are ranked on their ability to provide the fruit food resources for native frugivores currently being provided by invasive plants. If these native taxa are preferentially used, where ecologically appropriate, in plantings for restoration and in park and garden settings, they could help support native frugivore populations in the event of extensive invasive plant control. We develop and critically examine six approaches to selecting candidate native plant taxa: a multivariate approach based on the frugivore assemblage, a scoring model, and several multivariate approaches (including trait combinations having the greatest correlation with the diet of the native frugivore assemblage) based on the functional traits of fruit morphology, phenology, conspicuousness, and accessibility. To illustrate these approaches, we use a case study with Bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata) (Asteraceae), an Australian Weed of National Significance. The model using a dissimilarity value generated from all available traits identified a set of species used by the frugivores of C. monilifera more than null models. A replacement approach using species ranked by either all traits available or the frugivore community appears best suited to guide selection of plants in restoration practice.
How Much Compensation is Enough? A Framework for Incorporating Uncertainty and Time Discounting When Calculating Offset Ratios for Impacted Habitat
Authors: Moilanen Atte , Van Teeffelen Astrid J. A. , Ben‐Haim Yakov , Ferrier Simon 
Published: April 2008

Abstract Biodiversity offset areas may compensate for ecological damage caused by human activity elsewhere. One way of determining the offset ratio, or the compensation area needed, is to divide the present conservation value of the development site by the predicted future conservation value of a compensation area of the same size. Matching mean expected utility in this way is deficient because it ignores uncertainty and time lags in the growth of conservation value in compensation areas. Instead, we propose an uncertainty analytic framework for calculating what we call robustly fair offset ratios, which guarantee a high enough probability of the exchange producing at least as much conservation value in the offset areas than is lost from the development site. In particular, we analyze how the fair offset ratio is influenced by uncertainty in the effectiveness of restoration action, correlation between success of different compensation areas, and time discounting. We find that very high offset ratios may be needed to guarantee a robustly fair exchange, compared to simply matching mean expected utilities. These results demonstrate that considerations of uncertainty, correlated success/failure, and time discounting should be included in the determination of the offset ratio to avoid a significant risk that the exchange is unfavorable for conservation in the long run. This is essential because the immediate loss is certain, whereas future gain is uncertain. The proposed framework is also applicable to the case when offset areas already hold conservation value and do not require restoration action, in which case uncertainty about the conservation outcome will be lower.
The Influence of Soil Inoculum and Nitrogen Availability on Restoration of High‐Elevation Steppe Communities Invaded by Bromus tectorum
Authors: Rowe Helen I. , Brown Cynthia S. , Paschke Mark W. 
Published: April 2008

Abstract Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) is an exotic annual grass that has invaded approximately 40,000,000 ha of rangelands in the United States, including montane ecosystems that are important habitats for wildlife and livestock. In addition to well‐understood mechanisms by which Cheatgrass gains competitive advantage, recent studies have shown that Cheatgrass may also change the associated soil microbial community to impact native perennial plants and promote the persistence of Cheatgrass. Furthermore, reducing plant‐available N represents a tool for initiating conditions that accelerate successional change from annual‐ to perennial‐dominated communities. At a montane, mixed shrub–grassland Cheatgrass‐dominated site in Colorado, we applied sucrose to reduce available N, and we added soil from a native plant community in order to reestablish the microbial community. This approach tested the idea that intact native soil microbial communities may enhance the beneficial effect of reducing soil N availability in a restoration setting. By the end of the experiment, reduced N availability decreased Cheatgrass by 9.8%, non‐native annual/biennial plant cover by 15.0%, and increased relative perennial plant cover by 13.4%; soil inoculation reduced Cheatgrass by 7.6% and increased perennial abundance by 11.3%. Soil inoculum additions and reduced N availability both contributed toward restoring a perennial‐dominated community and demonstrates that addition of native soil inoculum may be a useful tool for restoration efforts.
Diazepam versus Fentanyl for Premedication during Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Results from the Myocardial Protection by Fentanyl during Coronary Intervention (PROFIT) Trial
Authors: ABDEL‐WAHAB MOHAMED , KHATTAB AHMED A. , LISKA BRANISLAV , KASSNER GUIDO , GEIST VOLKER , TOELG RALPH , RICHARDT GERT 
Published: April 2008

Background: Sedation is a cornerstone in the premedication for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Benzodiazepines and opioids are frequently used. Previous results suggest that opioids mimic the adaptation to ischemia during repeated balloon inflations and may provide direct myocardial protection in addition to their sedative effect. However, no comparative data exist.
Methods: We conducted a prospective, randomized, controlled, single‐blind trial comparing diazepam and fentanyl in 276 patients undergoing elective PCI. Patients were randomized to either diazepam 5 mg sublingually or fentanyl 0.05 mg or 0.1 mg intravenously at least 5 minutes prior to the first balloon inflation. The primary end‐point was the postprocedural elevation of myocardial markers of necrosis defined as an elevation of cardiac troponin T ≥ 0.01 ng/ml.
Results: The three groups had similar baseline clinical, angiographic, and procedural characteristics, with no significant differences in lesion morphology, procedural complexity, or adjunctive medical treatment. No significant variation in the hemodynamic response to the study drugs was observed in the three groups. The rate of postprocedural troponin T elevation was 28% in the diazepam group, 20% in the fentanyl 0.05 mg group, and 30% in the fentanyl 0.1 mg group (P = 0.26). Rates of postprocedural myocardial infarction were 3%, 2%, and 2%, respectively (P = 0.84), with one case of in‐hospital death in the diazepam group and no urgent TVR in the whole study population.
Conclusion: Although providing a well‐tolerated alternative to diazepam for sedation during PCI, fentanyl did not provide additional cardioprotection assessed through the postinterventional elevation of cardiac troponin T during elective coronary intervention.