bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Headaches and Oral Contraceptives: Impact of Eliminating the Standard 7‐Day Placebo Interval
Authors: Sulak Patricia , Willis Sherilyn , Kuehl Thomas , Coffee Andrea , Clark Jeffrey 
Published: January 2007

Objective.—The aim was to assess the timing and severity of self‐reported headaches in patients utilizing a standard 28‐day oral contraceptive (OC) cycle consisting of 21 hormone (estrogen + progestin)‐containing pills and 7 placebo pills (ie, 21/7‐day cycle) converted to a placebo‐free extended OC regimen.Methods.—An open label single‐center prospective analysis of headaches recorded daily on a severity scale of 0 to 10, along with the headache item of the Penn Daily Symptom Rating (DSR17) and a weekly modified Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) headache questionnaire, during standard 21/7‐day cycles followed by a 168‐day extended placebo‐free regimen of an OC containing 3 mg of drosperinone and 30 mcg of ethinyl estradiol (DRSP/EE).Results.—Of the 114 patients who began the trial, 111 completed the 21/7‐day cycle portion of the study. Based on the headaches scales, there were significant differences in headache severity among the 28 days of the standard 21/7 cycles (P < .001). Greater headache severity occurred on days 25 through 28 during the 7‐day placebo interval of the 21/7 cycles (P < .05). Of the 111 patients who completed the 21/7 phase of the study, 102 (92%) completed the 168‐day extended placebo‐free OC regimen. During the first 28 days of the extended placebo‐free regimen, daily headache scores decreased (P < .0001) compared to those of the previous 21 active/7 placebo day cycle. The difference on a daily basis was first detected on extended cycle days 25 through 28 (P < .0001) and persisted throughout the remainder of the 168‐day regimen. Subjects were divided into 2 groups (severe and mild) based on the median of the total headache score during the 21/7 OC cycle. The group with higher total headache scores demonstrated a significant (P < .0001) reduction in daily headaches beginning in the first 28‐day interval of the extended placebo‐free regimen, persisting throughout the entire 168‐day extended regimen. In contrast, the group with the lower total headache score remained unchanged (P= .79) throughout the extended regimen. Impact of headaches on work, family, and social functions also improved on the extended placebo‐free regimen in 6 of 8 measures (P < .05) assessed by weekly headache questionnaires.Conclusion.—Compared to a 21/7‐day OC regimen, a 168‐day extended placebo‐free regimen of DRSP/EE led to a decrease in headache severity along with improvement in work productivity and involvement in activities. This is a preliminary study and results may not be widely generalizable.
Effect of Multivitamin and Mineral Supplementation on Episodes of Infection in Nursing Home Residents: A Randomized, Placebo‐Controlled Study
Authors: Liu Barbara A. , McGeer Allison , McArthur Margaret A. , Simor Andrew E. , Aghdassi Elaheh , Davis Lori , Allard Johane P. 
Published: January 2007

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of vitamin and mineral supplementation on infections in an elderly institutionalized population.DESIGN: Eighteen‐month, randomized, placebo‐controlled trial.SETTING: Twenty‐one long‐term care facilities.PARTICIPANTS: Seven hundred sixty‐three subjects from 21 long‐term care facilities.INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized to receive one multivitamin and mineral supplementation daily or placebo.MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was number of infections per subject. Secondary outcomes were antibiotic use and hospitalization rates. Infection control surveillance was conducted over 18 months using standardized criteria.RESULTS: Outcome data from 748 subjects, mean age 85, were included in the intention‐to‐treat analysis. Using univariate analyses, there was no difference in infectious episodes between the supplemented and placebo groups (3.5 infections per 1,000 resident‐days vs 3.8 infections per 1,000 resident‐days, odds ratio (OR)=0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.82–1.03, P=.12). There was a reduction in antibiotic usage in the supplementation group, but this was not significant in the multivariate model. There was no difference in the number of hospital visits. In the multivariate analysis, the effect of multivitamin use on total number of infections was not significant (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.54–1.1). Subjects without dementia had a greater rate of infections than those with dementia (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.19–1.76). In post hoc subgroup analysis, subjects without dementia who received supplementation had a significantly lower rate of infections than those who received placebo (relative risk=0.81, 95% CI=0.66–0.99).CONCLUSION: Overall, multivitamin and mineral supplementation does not have a significant effect on the incidence of infections in institutionalized seniors, although the subgroup of residents in long‐term care without dementia may benefit from supplementation. Further research is needed to determine its effect in high‐risk subgroups within the nursing home population.
Physicochemical properties of the thermal gel of water‐washed meat in the presence of the more soluble fraction of porcine sarcoplasmic protein
Authors: MIYAGUCHI Yuji , HAYASHI Yuki , SAKAMOTO Taro 
Published: January 2007

ABSTRACTWe investigated the physicochemical properties of the thermal gel of water‐washed pork meat (WWM) in the presence of the soluble fraction of porcine sarcoplasmic protein (SP) obtained with ammonium sulfate at 75 percent saturation. Two precipitated fractions of SP were obtained at 0–50 percent and 50–75 percent saturation, named SP‐f1 and SP‐f2, respectively, and the soluble fraction obtained at 75 percent saturation, SP‐f3, was used. Sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that SP‐f3 contained mainly glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), while SP‐f1 and SP‐f2 had other SPs such as phosphorylase b, enolase, actin and phosphoglycerate mutase. The gel strength of WWM was greater when SP‐f3 rather than one of various animal proteins such as bovine plasma (BP), egg white, or whey protein isolates (WPI), was added and SP‐f3 had a gel‐enhancing effect as good as that of polyphosphate (PP). The gel strength of WWM with added SP‐f3 increased significantly with NaCl at 0.15 mol/L or more, but not in the absence of NaCl (0 mol/L). The effect of SP‐f3 was evident at neutral pH and maximum gel strength was obtained at a pH above 6.0. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis showed that an endothermic peak corresponding to myosin heads in WWM shifted to a lower temperature with the addition of SP‐f3, as in the case of PP, though there was no such shift in the presence of other animal proteins (BP, egg white and WPI), suggesting that SP‐f3 increases the gel strength of WWM through the dissociation of actomyosin similar to PP. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed wall‐like structures among the protein strands in the WWM gel matrix in the presence of SP‐f3. The results of DSC and SEM indicated that the formation of a gel network in meat products is reinforced with GAPDH in SP after the interaction between GAPDH and myofibrillar protein.
A Camera of Her Own: Woolf and the Legacy of the Indomitable Mrs. Cameron
Authors: Setina Emily 
Published: January 2007

This paper forms part of a Literature Compass cluster of articles which examines the current state of Virgina Woolf Studies and aims to provide a snapshot of the field. Urmila Seshagiri (University of Tennessee) and Rishona Zimring (Lewis and Clark College) first provide an introduction for this paper along with Anne Fernald's article, “Woolfian Resonances.” The full text of Emily Setina's piece then follows.These papers grew out of the 15th Annual International Virginia Woolf Conference (College of Lewis and Clark, Portland, OR, June 9–12, 2005).The full cluster is made up of the following articles:“Introduction: Virginia Woolf and The Art of Exploration,” Urmila Seshagiri and Rishona Zimring, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00393.x“Virginia Woolf's Sense of Adventure,” Maria DiBattista, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00394.x“The Twentieth Part: Virginia Woolf in the British Museum Reading Room,” Benjamin Harvey, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00395.x“‘Street Haunting’: Phantasmagorias of the Modern Imperial Metropolis,” Sara Gerend, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00396.x“Hyde Park Gate News,” Gill Lowe, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00397.x“The Art of ‘Scene‐Making’ in the Charleston Bulletin Supplements,” Claudia Olk, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00398.x“A Camera of Her Own: Woolf and the Legacy of the Indomitable Mrs. Cameron,” Emily Setina, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00399.x“Woolfian Resonances,” Anne Fernald, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00400.x“Early Twentieth‐Century British Women Travellers to Greece: Contextualizing the Example of Virginia Woolf,” Martha Klironomos, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00401.x“‘Others Wanted to Travel’: Woolf and ‘America Herself’,” Thaine Stearns, Literature Compass 3 (2006), 10.1111/j.1741‐4113.2006.00402.x
RETRACTED: Epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate(‐)Protects Chang Liver Cells against Ethanol‐Induced Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis
Authors: Kaviarasan Subramanian , Ramamurthy Nalini , Gunasekaran Palani , Varalakshmi Elango , Anuradha Carani V. 
Published: January 2007

Abstract: The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG) on ethanol (EtOH)‐induced cytotoxicity in human Chang liver cells. Cells were incubated with either 30 mM EtOH alone or together in presence of (25 µM) EGCG for 24 hr. Assays were performed in treated cells to evaluate the ability of EGCG to prevent the toxic effects of EtOH. EtOH exposure suppressed the growth of Chang liver cells and induced lactate dehydrogenase leakage, oxygen radical formation, peroxidation of lipids, mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis. Reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) while oxidized glutathione (GSSG) concentration was significantly elevated in EtOH‐treated cells as compared to normal cells. Incubation of EGCG along with EtOH significantly prevented EtOH‐dependent cell loss and lactate dehydrogenase leakage. This was associated with a reduction in oxidative damage as reflected by a reduction in the generation of reactive oxygen species, and in lipid peroxidation and maintenance of intracellular GSH/GSSG ratio. EGCG decreased the accumulation of sub‐G1phase cells and reduced apoptosis. The findings suggest that EGCG exerts a protective action during EtOH‐induced liver cell damage.
Annotated expressed sequence tags and xenobiotic detoxification in the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer)
Authors: FIGUEROA C.C. , PRUNIER‐LETERME N. , RISPE C. , SEPÚLVEDA F. , FUENTES‐CONTRERAS E. , SABATER‐MUÑOZ B. , SIMON J.‐C. , TAGU D. 
Published: January 2007

AbstractAphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are phytophagous insects that are important agricultural pests. The enormous negative economic impacts caused by aphids worldwide are well known, and are mostly due to their high multiplication rate and the transmission of phytopathogenic viruses. Aphid management strategies mainly involve chemical treatments which are pollutants and are increasingly inefficient, since aphids have developed multiple insecticide‐resistant mechanisms. Among the most economically important species is the green peach aphid Myzus persicae Sulzer (Aphididae: Macrosiphini), which is able to colonize a wide range of host plants belonging to many different families, and transmits numerous plant viruses. Because of its large prevalence, M. persicae has been the target of massive insecticide treatments; consequently, it has evolved several insecticide‐resistant mechanisms. In this work, a collection of expressed genes from M. persicae is presented in order to identify putative genes involved in xenobiotic detoxification. After cDNA cloning and sequencing, 959 expressed sequence tags (EST) were annotated. Most sequences matched known genes corresponded to metabolism proteins (26%), ribosomal proteins (23%) and structural proteins (8%). Among them, several sequences corresponded to proteins putatively involved in sensing, degradation or detoxification of plant xenobiotic products.
Determination of ethane, pentane and isoprene in exhaled air – effects of breath‐holding, flow rate and purified air
Authors: Lärstad M. A. E. , Torén K. , Bake B. , Olin A.‐C. 
Published: January 2007

AbstractAim:  Exhaled ethane, pentane and isoprene have been proposed as biomarkers of oxidative stress. The objectives were to explore whether ethane, pentane and isoprene are produced within the airways and to explore the effect of different sampling parameters on analyte concentrations.Methods:  The flow dependency of the analyte concentrations, the concentrations in dead‐space and alveolar air after breath‐holding and the influence of inhaling purified air on analyte concentrations were investigated. The analytical method involved thermal desorption from sorbent tubes and gas chromatography. The studied group comprised 13 subjects with clinically stable asthma and 14 healthy controls.Results:  Ethane concentrations decreased slightly, but significantly, at higher flow rates in subjects with asthma (P = 0.0063) but not in healthy controls. Pentane levels were increased at higher flow rates both in healthy and asthmatic subjects (P = 0.022 and 0.0063 respectively). Isoprene levels were increased at higher flow rates, but only significantly in healthy subjects (P = 0.0034). After breath‐holding, no significant changes in ethane levels were observed. Pentane and isoprene levels increased significantly after 20 s of breath‐holding. Inhalation of purified air before exhalation resulted in a substantial decrease in ethane levels, a moderate decrease in pentane levels and an increase in isoprene levels.Conclusion:  The major fractions of exhaled ethane, pentane and isoprene seem to be of systemic origin. There was, however, a tendency for ethane to be flow rate dependent in asthmatic subjects, although to a very limited extent, suggesting that small amounts of ethane may be formed in the airways.
Impact of Ramadan on physical performance in professional soccer players
Authors: Zerguini Yacine , Kirkendall Donald , Junge Astrid , Dvorak Jiri 
Published: January 2007

Objective:Ramadan is a period of daylight abstention from liquid or solid nutrients. As sports continue to be scheduled, an understanding of the effects of Ramadan on Muslim athletes is warranted.Design:Two Algerian professional soccer teams (55 men) were studied. Field tests of physical and soccer performance were collected before, at the end and 2 weeks after Ramadan in 2004. Players were queried on sleeping habits and personal perception of training and match performance.Setting:Field setting at club training ground.Main outcome measures:Performance on fitness and skill tests.Results:Performance declined significantly (p<0.05) for speed, agility, dribbling speed and endurance, and most stayed low after the conclusion of Ramadan. Nearly 70% of the players thought that their training and performance were adversely affected during the fast.Conclusions:The phase shift of food intake and disruption of sleep patterns affect actual and perceived physical performance. Islamic athletes need to explore strategies that will maximise performance during Ramadan.
Adaptive storage control for page frame supply in large scale computer systems
Authors: Yoshizawa Y. , Arai T. 
Published: January 2007

A real storage management algorithm called Adaptive Control of Page-frame Supply (ACPS) is described. ACPS employees three strategies: prediction of the demand for real page frames, page replacement based on the prediction, and working set control. Together, these strategies constitute the real page frame allocation method, and contribute to short and stable response times in conversational processing environments.
ACPS is experimentally applied to the VOS3 operating system. Evaluation of ACPS on a real machine shows that TSS response times are not affected too strongly by king-size jobs and ACPS is successful in avoiding paging delay and thrashing. ACPS prevents extreme shortages of real storage in almost all cases.
HEMI (Hybrid Events Monitoring Instrument)
Authors: Sebastian Peter R. 
Published: January 2007

HEMI is an experimental instrumentation system being developed for use with the CYBER 70 and 170 Series computers in order to ascertain the extent to which an integrated approach to instrumentation is economically and technologically viable for performance measurement and evaluation purposes.
HEMI takes advantage of the distributed CYBER computer architecture. This consists of a pool of Peripheral Processors (PPs) - (mainly dedicated to I/O and system tasks) while the CPU capabilities are reserved mostly for computation; Central Memory constitutes the communications link.
HEMI uses one of the PPs as its major processor. A hardware data acquisition front end is interfaced to one of the I/O channels and driven by the PP. Hardware probes sample events at suitable testpoints, while the PP has software access to Central Memory (Operating System tables and parameters), Status Registers, I/O Channel Flags, etc.
A data reduction package is used to produce a variety of reports from the data collected. A limited on-line data reduction and display capability is also provided.
This paper will describe the current status of the project as well as anticipated applications of HEMI.
Interpretive analysis of computer system performance
Authors: Cox Springer W. 
Published: January 2007

A typical performance evaluation consists of the identification of resources, the definition of system boundaries, the measurement of external and internal performance variables, and finally the interpretation of data and projection of system performance to hypothetical environments. These projections may be used to estimate the cost savings to be expected when changes are made to the system.
The fundamental external performance measures such as response time and thruput are intimately related, but may be defined differently depending on how the system is defined. They can be analyzed with respect to the internal performance measures (such as activities, queue lengths and busy times) by applying one or more interpretations such as: absolute utilizations, normalized busy times, system profiles, analysis of response, workload relaxation, and resource consumption hyperplanes. These models, which are generally free of assumptions regarding interarrival and service time distributions, can be adjusted to represent potential changes to the system. Then the interpretations may be used to evaluate the predicted external performance measures.
The value of CPU utilization as a criterion for computer system usage
Authors: Erikson Warren J. 
Published: January 2007

It is generally agreed that a computer system's CPU utilization means little by itself, but there has been only a limited amount of research to determine the value of CPU utilization when used with other performance measures. This paper focuses on time-sharing systems (or similar systems such as some remote batch systems) as viewed by someone who wants to minimize the mean cost per job run on the system.
The paper considers cost per job to include both the computer cost (as allocated among all the jobs run on the system) and the user cost (where user cost is the time spent waiting for a response from the system multiplied by the user's wage rate). Given this approach, cost per job is a function of some constants (user wage rate, computer system cost, and mean processing time per job) and only one variable (CPU utilization). The model thus developed can be used to determine the optimum CPU utilization for any system. It can also be used to determine the value of different tuning efforts.
Applied quality assurance methodology
Authors: Pfau Pamela R. 
Published: January 2007

What is the charter of a Quality Assurance (Q.A.) department? What are the activities? How are they undertaken? What is the impact of Quality Assurance upon a software product?
The structure and operating philosophy of the department are explained in this report as is the definition of the work cycle as applied to a new release of a software product. Comments are made about the interaction between departments: product development, product maintenance, publications, education, field support, product management, marketing, product distribution and quality assurance. While this is a description of the activities of a company involved in developing and marketing software products, the concepts apply to techniques and practices which would also be beneficial to any data processing department that develops in-house application software.
Software Configuration Management
Authors: Bersoff Edward H. , Henderson Vilas D. , Siegel Stan G. 
Published: January 2007

This paper is about discipline. It is about discipline that managers should apply to software development. Why is such discipline needed? Quite simply because the software industry has traditionally behaved in an undisciplined manner—doing its own thing. The products that the industry has turned out have typically
Contained other than what was expected (usually less, rather than more);
Been delivered much later than scheduled;
Cost more than anticipated;
Been poorly documented; and
If you have been involved in any of the situations quoted above, then this paper may be of some help. In short, if you are now, or intend to be, a software seller or buyer, then you should benefit from an understanding of Software Configuration Management. Lest you think that you are not now, or ever will be, a software seller or buyer—keep in mind that the recent technology explosion in electronic component miniaturization has placed the era of personalized computing at hand. In that context, nearly everyone may be considered a potential seller or buyer of software.
This paper is about the discipline called Software Configuration Management (SCM). The objective of SCM is to assist the software seller in achieving product integrity and to assist the software buyer in obtaining a product that has integrity.
Relating software requirements and design
Authors: Peters Lawrence 
Published: January 2007

Software development is a process which has evolved into a number of phases. Although the names of the phases and some of their characteristics differ from contractor to contractor and customer to customer, the functional similarities among sets of phases cannot be ignored. The basic software development scenario depicted by these phases starts with problem identification and definition, requirements specification, design, code, test, and installation and maintenance. Although some “smearing&rdquo of one phase activity into other(s) may occur, this represents the basic flow. However, it is just that smearing which occurs between requirements and design that we wish to explore here.
Identifying or defining problems and solving problems are viewed by many to be separate, distinguishable activities. They are complementary in that one identifies what must be done (requirements) while the other depicts how it will be done (design). But software designers complain bitterly that requirements are poorly defined while customers and analysts often complain that the design is not responsive to the problem(s) as they perceive it. Somehow software designers end up discovering previously unknown requirements and end up solving a problem which is foreign to the customer. Is there a workable mechanism to reduce this difficulty?