bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rickets and osteomalacia in northeast Iran: report of 797 cases
Authors: JOKAR Mohammadhassan , HATEF FARD Mohammadreza , MIRFEIZI Zahra 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTAim:  To study the clinical, biochemical and radiographic features of rickets and osteomalacia in north‐east of Iran.Methods:  We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients with diagnosis of rickets and osteomalacia during the past 20 years (1986–2006) in the rheumatology outpatient clinic of Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran.Results:  There were 797 patients (795 female, 2 male). Their ages were between 8–74 years. Most cases were in their second decade of life. The most common clinical findings were: bone pain 96.4%, muscle weakness 81%, abnormal gait 43%, and bone deformity 19.6%. The most common laboratory finding was high serum alkaline phosphatase (92%) followed by hypophosphatemia 54.6%, and hypocalcemia (21%). Radiographic findings were: epiphyseal growth plate alterations 74.4%, osteopenia 63%, ground glass appearance 28.6%, and Looser's zones 26.5%. All except four patients were cured with vitamin D and calcium.Conclusion:  Rickets and osteomalacia are common disorders in our region. Females especially in the growing years are often involved. The most common cause of rickets and osteomalacia in our region is vitamin D deficiency probably due to inadequate sun exposure.
Infectious discitis in adults: 9 years experience from Al‐Yarmouk Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq
Authors: SAKENI Riyadh A. , AL‐NIMER Marwan S. M. 
Published: July 2008

AbstractAim:  The objective of this study was to analyse the presentation, aetiology, diagnosis, management, and outcome of infectious discitis.Methods:  A screening prospective case‐finding study was carried out at Al‐Yarmouk teaching hospital in Baghdad, Iraq from 1997 to 2006. Fifty adult patients (12 men and 38 women) were diagnosed with infectious discitis from different referral sources. The diagnosis was based on laboratory biochemical tests, isolation of micro‐organisms from blood and needle aspiration tissue, and radiological investigations including magnetic resonance images (MRI).Results:  Of the 50 cases, 32 (64%) patients presenting within 4 weeks, 94% had pelvic and abdominal surgical interventions, 70% presented with severe neck pain and 36% had neurological deficits. Marked elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate and high serum C‐reactive protein levels were observed in all patients. Positive blood, percutaneous disc aspiration and surgical exploration samples for Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus viridans, E. coli, Pseudomonas aureginosa and Candida albicans were found. Radiological images showed that disc involvement did not exceed more than one intervertebrate disc with two adjacent vertebrae. The clinical outcome was full recovery (86%), residual neurological deficits (10%) and death (4%).Conclusions:  Infectious discitis in adults should be suspected in every case presenting with severe neck or back pain, followed by pelvic or abdominal surgical interventions. Therefore, MRI techniques should be performed on every case and an early empirical antibiotic therapy is advised.
Hepatitis E Virus Infection among Domestic Animals in Eastern China
Authors: Zhang W. , Shen Q. , Mou J. , Gong G. , Yang Z. , Cui L. , Zhu J. , Ju G. , Hua X. 
Published: July 2008

SummaryHepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic pathogen of which several species of animal were reported as reservoirs. Antibodies to HEV and HEV RNA have been detected in some Chinese population and swine groups but few other domestic animals. In this study, to investigate the HEV prevalence, we tested sera from 788 pigs, 100 cows, 50 goats, 49 horses, 101 pet dogs, 105 chickens, 47 duck and 45 pigeons in eastern China for anti‐HEV immunoglobulin G (IgG). We also tested 50% of the swine sera, all of sera from the other domestic animals and 13 Shanghai human sera which were positive for anti‐HEV immunoglobulin M (IgM) for HEV RNA using reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction. Our results indicated that 82.5% (222/269) of the sows, 53.9% (104/193) of the 4‐ to 6‐month‐old swine, 63.4% (168/265) of the 1‐ to 3‐month‐old swine, 55.7% (34/61) of the slaughterhouse swine, 24% (12/50) of the goats, 16.3% (8/49) of the horses, 17.8% (21/101) of the pet dogs, 6% (6/100) of the cows, 12.8% (6/47) of the ducks, 4.4% (2/45) of the pigeons and 1.9% (2/105) of the chickens exhibited positive for anti‐HEV IgG. Inhibition assay confirmed the infection with HEV or HEV‐like viruses in these domestic animals except pigeons and chickens. From the sera, we isolated 18 swine HEV strains, one horse HEV strain and two human HEV strains. Sequence analysis showed that the horse HEV isolate and one swine isolate belonged to genotype 3. The other isolates belonged to genotype 4. The two human isolates were phylogenetically closely related to eight of the swine isolates. In short, the presence of anti‐HEV antibody had been confirmed in several species of domestic animals in eastern China and HEV RNA has been identified in swine, human and horse. This suggested that the authorities should pay more attention to the prevalence of HEV in eastern China.
Novelty and Uniqueness Patterns of Rare Members of the Soil Biosphere
Authors: Elshahed Mostafa S. , Youssef Noha H. , Spain Anne M. , Sheik Cody , Najar Fares Z. , Sukharnikov Leonid O. , Roe Bruce A. , Davis James P. , Schloss Patrick D. , Bailey Vanessa L. , Krumholz Lee R. 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTSoil bacterial communities typically exhibit a distribution pattern in which most bacterial species are present in low abundance. Due to the relatively small size of most culture-independent sequencing surveys, a detailed phylogenetic analysis of rare members of the community is lacking. To gain access to the rarely sampled soil biosphere, we analyzed a data set of 13,001 near-full-length 16S rRNA gene clones derived from an undisturbed tall grass prairie soil in central Oklahoma. Rare members of the soil bacterial community (empirically defined at two different abundance cutoffs) represented 18.1 to 37.1% of the total number of clones in the data set and were, on average, less similar to their closest relatives in public databases when compared to more abundant members of the community. Detailed phylogenetic analyses indicated that members of the soil rare biosphere either belonged to novel bacterial lineages (members of five novel bacterial phyla identified in the data set, as well as members of multiple novel lineages within previously described phyla or candidate phyla), to lineages that are prevalent in other environments but rarely encountered in soil, or were close relatives to more abundant taxa in the data set. While a fraction of the rare community was closely related to more abundant taxonomic groups in the data set, a significant portion of the rare biosphere represented evolutionarily distinct lineages at various taxonomic cutoffs. We reason that these novelty and uniqueness patterns provide clues regarding the origins and potential ecological roles of members of the soil's rare biosphere.
Roles of the Sortases of
Streptococcus pneumoniae
in Assembly of the RlrA Pilus
Authors: LeMieux Julianna , Woody Shauna , Camilli Andrew 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACT

Pili have been observed on the surface of several gram-positive bacteria, including
Streptococcus pneumoniae
. The
S. pneumoniae
strain TIGR4 pilus is composed of three structural subunit proteins encoded in the
rlrA
pathogenicity islet, RrgA, RrgB, and RrgC. RrgB comprises the pilus backbone, RrgA is observed at intervals along surface pili, while RrgC is found in a loosely defined relationship with RrgA. We investigated the incorporation of each subunit into pili and the reliance of such placement on each of the other subunits. Both accessory subunits RrgA and RrgC are present in similar quantities in pili of all sizes. However, neither protein is required for the polymerization of RrgB, suggesting a nonessential role for RrgA and RrgC in the initiation of pilus assembly. Additionally, the
rlrA
islet encodes three sortases, SrtC-1, SrtC-2, and SrtC-3 (formerly SrtB, SrtC, and SrtD), which are divergent in sequence from the housekeeping sortase, SrtA. We determined the contributions of these four sortases to pilus assembly and found that SrtA is dispensable for pilus assembly and localization to the cell wall. Instead, SrtC-1, SrtC-2, and SrtC-3 are responsible for pilus assembly and exhibit functional redundancy with respect to backbone assembly and cell wall localization. A level of specificity and coordination among the class C sortases was revealed by the finding that SrtC-1 and SrtC-3 are required for the incorporation of the accessory subunits and by showing a deleterious effect on pilus assembly upon alteration of the cell wall sorting signals of the accessory subunit proteins.
Control of Peripheral Light-Harvesting Complex Synthesis by a Bacteriophytochrome in the Aerobic Photosynthetic Bacterium
Bradyrhizobium
Strain BTAi1
Authors: Jaubert Marianne , Vuillet Laurie , Hannibal Laure , Adriano Jean-Marc , Fardoux Joël , Bouyer Pierre , Bonaldi Katia , Fleischman Darrell , Giraud Eric , Verméglio André 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACT

The recent sequence analysis of the photosynthetic and plant-symbiotic
Bradyrhizobium
sp. strain BTAi1 revealed the unexpected presence of a
pucBA
operon encoding the apoproteins of peripheral light-harvesting (LH) complexes. This
pucBA
operon is found close to a bacteriophytochrome gene (
BphP3

B
BTAi1

) and a two-component transcriptional regulator gene (TF
BTAi1
gene). In this study, we show that BphP3

B
BTAi1

acts as a bona fide bacteriophytochrome and controls, according to light conditions, the expression of the
pucBA
operon found in its vicinity. This light regulatory pathway is very similar to the one previously described for chromo-BphP4

Rp

in
Rhodopseudomonas palustris
and conducts the synthesis of a peripheral LH complex. This LH complex presents a single absorption band at low temperature, centered at 803 nm. Fluorescence emission analysis of intact cells indicates that this peripheral LH complex does not act as an efficient light antenna. One putative function of this LH complex could be to evacuate excess light energy in order to protect
Bradyrhizobium
strain BTAi1, an aerobic anoxygenic photosynthetic bacterium, against photooxidative damage during photosynthesis.
Moral distress among Norwegian doctors
Authors: Førde R , Aasland O G 
Published: June 2008

Background:Medicine is full of value conflicts. Limited resources and legal regulations may place doctors in difficult ethical dilemmas and cause moral distress. Research on moral distress has so far been mainly studied in nurses.Objective:To describe whether Norwegian doctors experience stress related to ethical dilemmas and lack of resources, and to explore whether the doctors feel that they have good strategies for the resolution of ethical dilemmas.Design:Postal survey of a representative sample of 1497 Norwegian doctors in 2004, presenting statements about different ethical dilemmas, values and goals at their workplace.Results:The response rate was 67%. 57% admitted that it is difficult to criticise a colleague for professional misconduct and 51% for ethical misconduct. 51% described sometimes having to act against own conscience as distressing. 66% of the doctors experienced distress related to long waiting lists for treatment and to impaired patient care due to time constraints. 55% reported that time spent on administration and documentation is distressing. Female doctors experienced more stress that their male colleagues. 44% reported that their workplace lacked strategies for dealing with ethical dilemmas.Conclusion:Lack of resources creates moral dilemmas for physicians. Moral distress varies with specialty and gender. Lack of strategies to solve ethical dilemmas and low tolerance for conflict and critique from colleagues may obstruct important and necessary ethical dialogues and lead to suboptimal solutions of difficult ethical problems.
Ethics review of research: in pursuit of proportionality
Authors: Edwards S J L , Omar R 
Published: June 2008

The ethics review system of research is now well-established, at least in the developed world, although there are many differences in how countries view it and go about managing it. The UK specifically is now seeking to revise its system by speeding up the process of ethics approval but only for some studies. It is proposed that only those studies which pose “no material ethical issues” should be “fast-tracked”. However, it is unclear what this means, who should decide and what should be included in this category.In this paper, we go some way towards answering these questions. While we are certain that the debate is only just beginning, we are equally certain that it will continue to run long after the system has been reformed. To stimulate this conversation and to inform a pilot project of the new system directly, we review two candidates to help give some substance to the notion of “material” ethical issues. Firstly, material could mean a certain type or degree of risk. Second, material could mean how physically invasive the research is. We conclude that there is still much work to be done on making the system of governing health and social care consistent and practicable.
Is genetic information relevantly different from other kinds of non-genetic information in the life insurance context?
Authors: Malpas P J 
Published: June 2008

Within the medical, legal and bioethical literature, there has been an increasing concern that the information derived from genetic tests may be used to unfairly discriminate against individuals seeking various kinds of insurance; particularly health and life insurance. Consumer groups, the general public and those with genetic conditions have also expressed these concerns, specifically in the context of life insurance.While it is true that all insurance companies may have an interest in the information obtained from genetic tests, life insurers potentially have a very strong incentive to (want to) use genetic information to rate applicants, as individuals generally purchase their own cover and may want to take out very large policies.This paper critically focuses on genetic information in the context of life insurance. We consider whether genetic information differs in any relevant way from other kinds of non-genetic information required by and disclosed to life insurance companies by potential clients. We will argue that genetic information should not be treated any differently from other types of health information already collected from those wishing to purchase life insurance cover.
Factors affecting student drop out from the university introductory physics course, including the anomaly of the Ontario double cohort
Authors: Slavin A 
Published: June 2008

The course drop-out rate is the fraction of students per year who drop a course after starting it. This statistic is important both as a measure of the difficulty or relevance of the course compared to others at a university, and as one indication of the success of measures taken to improve teaching. The drop-out rate of students from the first-year university physics course at Trent University increased from about 8% in the 1980s to over 20% in 1999, primarily under the same instructor, with the exception of the Ontario “double-cohort” years 2003–2004 and 2004–2005 when it plummeted to about 9% before rebounding in 2005–2006. A similar decrease in this rate for the double-cohort years has been observed at Brock University and the University of Guelph, and so was probably widespread. It is speculated that the main cause of the decrease for these two years was an improved work ethic of the double-cohort students. Possible causes of the steady increase in the drop-out rate from the 1980s to the present are discussed including high-school courses taken; gender balance; and grade inflation. The last of these combined with a dramatic increase in the percentage of high-school students continuing their education, appears to have resulted in weaker and less motivated students being admitted to university. Results are also given of a survey of recent first-year Trent University physics students for possible reasons for dropping out of the course: students who have not taken the final-year high-school physics course, do not live in residence, or do not work together on their assignments are much more likely to drop the course. PACS No.: 01.40.gb
Assessment of string tests strategy for an en route air traffic control system
Authors: O'Leary Jeff , Woodard Frederick , Srivastava Alok , Beidleman Denise S. 
Published: July 2008

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) depends upon several highly available large and complex computer systems to support air traffic control operations. One of the FAA's major initiatives, the Ada based En-Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) program leverages and significantly expands upon previous developed systems. To determine the effectiveness of the string test implementation before full system level testing, the FAA performed an audit of the software requirements that were verified by string tests.
An industry standard approach was used to determine the number of Shalls to be inspected. Detailed evaluation using multiple software documents and test plans were compared to the string test results provided by the development contractor.
This paper presents details of the audit, its results and reconciliation of the data with the development contractor.
The approach to have selected software Shalls verified through the string test method versus full system test resulted in a cost savings of 50% of the cost of the selected software Shalls' full system test, by avoiding duplication of testing efforts.
The resulting high pass rate of the audit gave confidence in the development contractor's string test results and also demonstrated a high confidence level in the code, thus confirming the high quality of the Ada code effort.
L'Origine Des Formules Pauliniennes "Le Christ S'Est Livré Pour Nous", "Le Christ Nous a Aimés Et S'Est Livré Pour Nous"1
Authors: Romaniuk Kazimierz 
Published: June 2008

AbstractLa charité salvifique du Christ est souvent exprimée chez Paul à l'aide de ces formules que sont "I1 s'est livré pour nous" ou "I1 nous a aimés et s'est livré pour nous". Puisque celles-ci se répètent à diverses reprises et qu'elles ne sont pas une manière ordinaire de parler de la mort de quelqu'un,-c'est le verbe beaucoup plus frequent dans de pareils contextes, qui exprime cette idée-il nous semble utile et même nécessaire de rechercher l'origine littéraire de ces formules pour mieux expliquer la sotériologie de saint Paul.
Voraussage-Empfang, Offenbarungs-Gewissheit Und Gebetskraft-Erfahrung Bei Jeremia
Authors: Eissfeldt Otto 
Published: June 2008

AbstractDas Nebeneinander der Jeremias Sekretär und Freund Baruch ben-Nerijja zu dankenden Er-Erzählungen von Jeremias Schicksalen und der von dem Propheten selbst herrührenden, nämlich von ihm dem Baruch diktierten Ich-Berichte über die einzelnen Phasen seiner Verkündigung, wie es im Jeremia-Buch vorliegt, trägt zum Verständnis der jeweiligen Vorgänge dadurch wesentlich bei, daß die Er-Erzählungen und die Ich-Berichte sich aufs glücklichste ergänzen, indem jene den äußeren Verlauf des Geschehens, diese das dabei von dem Propheten verkündete Gotteswort zum Inhalt haben. Das Musterbeispiel dafür ist das Nebeneinander der ihrer Grundlage nach aus einem Ich-Bericht Jeremias stammenden "Tempelrede" in C. vii und der von Baruch verfaßten Er-Erzählung von den Folgen, die der Vortrag dieser Rede für Jeremia gehabt hat, in C. xxvi. Aber es finden sich im Jeremia-Buche auch noch andere Fälle ähnlicher Art. Auf einige von ihnen ist in dem Beitrag des Verfassers zur Festschrift für WILHELM RUDOLPH hingewiesen worden 1), und einem weiteren, nämlich der "Parallele" von xxxvii II-I6 und C. xxxii, gelten die folgenden Ausführungen.
A Conceptual Model of the Surface Salinity Distribution in the Oceanic Hadley Cell
Authors: Nilsson Johan , Körnich Heiner 
Published: June 2008

AbstractA conceptual model of the salinity distribution in the oceanic Hadley cell is presented. The model pertains to the region of tropical easterly surface winds, where the surface salinity increases poleward from a local salinity minimum near the equator to a subtropical salinity maximum. A fundamental constraint is that the meridional freshwater transports in the atmosphere and the ocean have the same magnitude but opposite directions. A key assumption is that the strength of the meridional overturning cells in the atmosphere and the ocean is proportional and set by the surface layer Ekman transport. It is further assumed that, to the lowest order of approximation, the zonal-mean Ekman transports accomplish the meridional freshwater transports, that is, eddy fluxes and gyre-induced transports are ignored. The model predicts that the salinity variation in the oceanic cell is directly proportional to the specific humidity of the near-surface air, but independent of the meridional mass transport (as long as the atmospheric and oceanic mass transports remain proportional). If the relative humidity of the near-surface air is constant, the salinity variation in the oceanic Hadley cell varies essentially with the surface temperature according to the Clausius–Clapeyron expression for the saturation vapor pressure. Further, the model is compared to observations and a global warming simulation and found to give a leading-order description of the tropical surface salinity range.
Critically Reassessing Tropospheric Temperature Trends from Radiosondes Using Realistic Validation Experiments
Authors: Titchner Holly A. , Thorne P. W. , McCarthy M. P. , Tett S. F. B. , Haimberger L. , Parker D. E. 
Published: June 2008

Abstract
Biases and uncertainties in large-scale radiosonde temperature trends in the troposphere are critically reassessed. Realistic validation experiments are performed on an automatic radiosonde homogenization system by applying it to climate model data with four distinct sets of simulated breakpoint profiles. Knowledge of the “truth” permits a critical assessment of the ability of the system to recover the large-scale trends and a reinterpretation of the results when applied to the real observations.
The homogenization system consistently reduces the bias in the daytime tropical, global, and Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropical trends but underestimates the full magnitude of the bias. Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropical and all nighttime trends were less well adjusted owing to the sparsity of stations. The ability to recover the trends is dependent on the underlying error structure, and the true trend does not necessarily lie within the range of estimates. The implications are that tropical tropospheric trends in the unadjusted daytime radiosonde observations, and in many current upper-air datasets, are biased cold, but the degree of this bias cannot be robustly quantified. Therefore, remaining biases in the radiosonde temperature record may account for the apparent tropical lapse rate discrepancy between radiosonde data and climate models. Furthermore, the authors find that the unadjusted global and NH extratropical tropospheric trends are biased cold in the daytime radiosonde observations.
Finally, observing system experiments show that, if the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Upper Air Network (GUAN) were to make climate quality observations adhering to the GCOS monitoring principles, then one would be able to constrain the uncertainties in trends at a more comprehensive set of stations. This reaffirms the importance of running GUAN under the GCOS monitoring principles.