bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An open‐label, multicentre, randomized, crossover study comparing sildenafil citrate and tadalafil for treating erectile dysfunction in men naïve to phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor therapy
Authors: Eardley Ian , Mirone Vincenzo , Montorsi Francesco , Ralph David , Kell Philip , Warner Margaret R. , Zhao Yanli , Beardsworth Anthony 
Published: November 2005

Associate EditorMichael G. WylieEditorial BoardIan Eardley, UKJean Fourcroy, USASidney Glina, BrazilJulia Heiman, USAChris McMahon, AustraliaBob Millar, UKAlvaro Morales, CanadaMichael Perelman, USAMarcel Waldinger, NetherlandsOBJECTIVESTo compare treatment preference, efficacy, and tolerability of sildenafil citrate (sildenafil) and tadalafil for treating erectile dysfunction (ED) in men naïve to phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor therapy.PATIENTS AND METHODSThis was an open‐label, crossover study of sildenafil and tadalafil (taken as needed). After a 4‐week baseline assessment, 367 men with ED (mean age 54 years) were randomized to receive sildenafil for 12 weeks followed by tadalafil for 12 weeks or vice versa (8‐week dose optimization and 4‐week assessment phases). During dose optimization, patients started taking 25‐ or 50‐mg sildenafil or 10‐mg tadalafil and could titrate to find their optimum dose (25‐, 50‐ or 100‐mg sildenafil; 10‐ or 20‐mg tadalafil). After completing both 12‐week periods, patients chose which treatment to continue during an 8‐week extension. Efficacy was measured with the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and Sexual Encounter Profile (SEP) diary.RESULTSOf the 291 men who completed both treatments, 85 (29%) chose sildenafil and 206 (71%) chose tadalafil (P < 0.001) for the 8‐week extension. The IIEF erectile function domain scores were 14.2 at baseline, 23.9 at endpoint on sildenafil, and 24.3 at endpoint on tadalafil (P = 0.08, sildenafil vs tadalafil). The mean per patient percentage success scores for SEP2 (penetration) were: baseline (46%), sildenafil (post‐baseline 82%) and tadalafil (post‐baseline 85%; P = 0.06, sildenafil vs tadalafil), and for SEP3 (successful intercourse) were: baseline (19%), sildenafil (post‐baseline 72%), and tadalafil (post‐baseline 77%; P = 0.003, sildenafil vs tadalafil). The only treatment‐emergent adverse events that were reported by >5% of men were headache and flushing.CONCLUSIONSIn men with ED who were naïve to PDE5 inhibitor therapy, sildenafil and tadalafil were both effective and well tolerated. After treatment with sildenafil and tadalafil, 29% of men chose sildenafil and 71% chose tadalafil for ED therapy during an 8‐week extension.
Takeover activity in Australia: endogenous and exogenous influences
Authors: Finn Frank , Hodgson Allan 
Published: November 2005

AbstractThe present paper analyses the population of takeover bids for listed Australian companies using quarterly data over a 25‐year period to re‐examine the predictability of takeover activity and to determine if there is a flow on impact on macroeconomic variables. We examine whether takeover activity: (i) is endogenous; that is, determined by own activity; (ii) is jointly determined by macroeconomic and capital market variables; and (iii) has an exogenous spillover impact across the economy. We find that stock prices and takeover activity share a long‐term common trend, the relative success of takeover bids is independent of sharemarket activity, and conclude that aggregate takeover activity is driven by fundamental economic factors rather than by speculative activity.
THE STRUCTURE OF RUSSIAN IMPERIAL HISTORY
Authors: HELLIE RICHARD 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTPath dependency is most valuable tool for understanding Russian history since 1480, which coincides with the ending of the “Mongol yoke,” Moscow's annexation of northwest Russia, formerly controlled by Novgorod, and the introduction of new method for financing the cavalry—the core of new service class. The cavalry had to hold off formidable adversaries (first Lithuania, then the Crimean Tatars, then the Livonians, the Poles, the Swedes, and the Ottomans) for Muscovy to retain its independence. Russia in 1480 was poor country lacking subsurface mineral resources and with very poor climate and soil for the support of agriculture. These basic problems inspired autocratic power and by 1515 an ideology was in place justifying it. Religion, literature, and law were employed to support the autocracy. A variant of caste society was created to support the army. This made up the substance of the first service‐class revolution in which all resources (human and intellectual) were mobilized to support garrison state. After 1667 the external threats to Muscovy diminished, but the service class kept its privileges, especially the land fund and the peasant‐serfs.Russia faced major foreign threats again in 1700 and in the 1920s and 1930s. Those threats precipitated the second and third service‐class revolutions. The second and third service‐class revolutions broadly paralleled the first. Reinvigorated service classes were created with state institutions to support them. As society became more complex, so did the service classes and their privileges. Ideologies (Russian Orthodoxy and then Marxism‐Leninism) were converted into devices to support the infallible autocratic ruler and his elites. Almost the entire population was bound to state service, either directly, working to support the service state, or paying taxes. The church and clergy were harnessed first by Peter's Holy Synod and then Stalin's Department 5 of the Secret Police after he revived the church during World War II. Writers and artists were also put into uniform, until they finally rebelled—but the arts retained their civic functions, first supporting the regime, and then criticizing it. Finally, law retained its traditional programmatic functions in regimes themselves beholden to no law. As the foreign threats diminished, the service classes lost their function, but the elite servicemen kept their privileges as the service states disintegrated and the service classes lost their collective élan. Both the Russian Empire (in 1917) and then the Soviet Empire (in 1991) collapsed almost without whimper.
The Geographic Distribution of Physicians Revisited
Authors: Rosenthal Meredith B. , Zaslavsky Alan , Newhouse Joseph P. 
Published: November 2005

Context. While there is debate over whether the U.S. is training too many physicians, many seem to agree that physicians are geographically maldistributed, with too few in rural areas.Objective. Official definitions of shortage areas assume the market for physician services is based on county boundaries. We wished to ascertain how the picture of a possible shortage changes using alternative measures of geographic access. We measure geographic access by the number of full‐time equivalent physicians serving a community divided by the expected number of patients (possibly both from within the community and outside) receiving care from those physicians. Moreover, we wished to determine how the geographic distribution of physicians had changed since previous studies, in light of the large increase in physician numbers.Design. Cross‐sectional data analyses of alternative measures of geographic access to physicians in 23 states with low physician–population ratios.Results. Between 1979 and 1999, the number of physicians doubled in the sample states. Although most specialties experienced greater diffusion everywhere, smaller specialties had not yet diffused to the smallest towns. Multiple measures of geographic access, including physician‐to‐population ratios, average distance traveled to the nearest physician, and projected average caseload per physician, confirm that residents of metropolitan areas have better geographic access to physicians. Physician‐to‐population ratios exhibit the largest degree of geographic disparity, but ratios in rural counties adjacent to metropolitan areas are smaller than in those not adjacent to metropolitan areas. Distance‐traveled and caseload models that allow patients to cross county lines show less disparity and indicate that residents of isolated rural counties have less access than those living in counties adjacent to metropolitan areas.Conclusion. Geographic access to physicians has continued to improve over the past two decades, although some smaller specialties have not diffused to the most rural areas. While substantial variation in the supply of physicians across communities remains, current measures of geographic access to physicians overstate the extent of maldistribution and yield an incorrect ranking of areas according to geographic accessibility of physicians.
Exploratory Factor Analyses of the CAHPS®Hospital Pilot Survey Responses across and within Medical, Surgical, and Obstetric Services
Authors: O'Malley A. James , Zaslavsky Alan M. , Hays Ron D. , Hepner Kimberly A. , Keller San , Cleary Paul D. 
Published: November 2005

Objectives.To estimate the associations among hospital‐level scores from the Consumer Assessments of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Hospital pilot survey within and across different services (surgery, obstetrics, medical), and to evaluate differences between hospital‐ and patient‐level analyses.Data Source.CAHPS Hospital pilot survey data provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Study Design.Responses to 33 questionnaire items were analyzed using patient‐ and hospital‐level exploratory factor analytic (EFA) methods to identify both a patient‐level and hospital‐level composite structures for the CAHPS Hospital survey. The latter EFA was corrected for patient‐level sampling variability using a hierarchical model. We compared results of these analyses with each other and to separate EFAs conducted at the service level. To quantify the similarity of assessments across services, we compared correlations of different composites within the same service with those of the same composite across different services.Data Collection.Cross‐sectional data were collected during the summer of 2003 via mail and telephone from 19,720 patients discharged from November 2002 through January 2003 from 132 hospitals in three states.Principal Findings.Six factors provided the best description of inter‐item covariation at the patient level. Analyses that assessed variability across both services and hospitals suggested that three dimensions provide a parsimonious summary of inter‐item covariation at the hospital level. Hospital‐level factor structures also differed across services; as much variation in quality reports was explained by service as by composite.Conclusions.Variability of CAHPS scores across hospitals can be reported parsimoniously using a limited number of composites. There is at least as much distinct information in composite scores from different services as in different composite scores within each service. Because items cluster slightly differently in the different services, service‐specific composites may be more informative when comparing patients in a given service across hospitals. When studying individual‐level variability, a more differentiated structure is probably more appropriate.
Patterns of Unit and Item Nonresponse in the CAHPS® Hospital Survey
Authors: Elliott Marc N. , Edwards Carol , Angeles January , Hambarsoomians Katrin , Hays Ron D. 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To examine the predictors of unit and item nonresponse, the magnitude of nonresponse bias, and the need for nonresponse weights in the Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Hospital Survey.Methods. A common set of 11 administrative variables (41 degrees of freedom) was used to predict unit nonresponse and the rate of item nonresponse in multivariate models. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the impact of nonresponse on CAHPS Hospital Survey ratings and reports.Results. Unit nonresponse was highest for younger patients and patients other than non‐Hispanic whites (p<.001); item nonresponse increased steadily with age (p<.001). Fourteen of 20 reports of ratings of care had significant (p<.05) but small negative correlations with nonresponse weights (median −0.06; maximum −0.09). Nonresponse weights do not improve overall precision below sample sizes of 300–1,000, and are unlikely to improve the precision of hospital comparisons. In some contexts, case‐mix adjustment eliminates most observed nonresponse bias.Conclusions. Nonresponse weights should not be used for between‐hospital comparisons of the CAHPS Hospital Survey, but may make small contributions to overall estimates or demographic comparisons, especially in the absence of case‐mix adjustment.
Measuring Hospital Care from the Patients' Perspective: An Overview of the CAHPS® Hospital Survey Development Process
Authors: Goldstein Elizabeth , Farquhar Marybeth , Crofton Christine , Darby Charles , Garfinkel Steven 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To describe the developmental process for the CAHPS® Hospital Survey.Study Design. A pilot was conducted in three states with 19,720 hospital discharges.Methods of Analysis. A rigorous, multi‐step process was used to develop the CAHPS Hospital Survey. It included a public call for measures, multiple Federal Register notices soliciting public input, a review of the relevant literature, meetings with hospitals, consumers and survey vendors, cognitive interviews with consumer, a large‐scale pilot test in three states and consumer testing and numerous small‐scale field tests.Findings. The current version of the CAHPS Hospital Survey has survey items in seven domains, two overall ratings of the hospital and five items used for adjusting for the mix of patients across hospitals and for analytical purposes.Conclusions. The CAHPS Hospital Survey is a core set of questions that can be administered as a stand‐alone questionnaire or combined with a broader set of hospital specific items.
The Reliability of Survey Assessments of Characteristics of Medical Clinics
Authors: Marsden Peter V. , Landon Bruce E. , Wilson Ira B. , McInnes Keith , Hirschhorn Lisa R. , Ding Lin , Cleary Paul D. 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To assess the reliability of survey measures of organizational characteristics based on reports of single and multiple informants.Data Source. Survey of 330 informants in 91 medical clinics providing care to HIV‐infected persons under Title III of the Ryan White CARE Act.Study Design. Cross‐sectional survey.Data Collection Methods. Surveys of clinicians and medical directors measured the implementation of quality improvement initiatives, priorities assigned to aspects of HIV care, barriers to providing high‐quality HIV care, and quality improvement activities. Reliability of measures was assessed using generalizability coefficients. Components of variance and clinician–director differences were estimated using hierarchical regression models with survey items and informants nested within organizations.Principal Findings. There is substantial item‐ and informant‐related variability in clinic assessments that results in modest or low clinic‐level reliability for many measures. Directors occasionally gave more optimistic assessments of clinics than did clinicians.Conclusions. For most measures studied, obtaining adequate reliability requires multiple informants. Using multiple‐item scales or multiple informants can improve the psychometric performance of measures of organizational characteristics. Studies of such characteristics should report the organizational level reliability of the measures used.
Failure of ICD‐9‐CM Codes to Identify Patients with Comorbid Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes
Authors: Kern Elizabeth F. O. , Maney Miriam , Miller Donald R. , Tseng Chin‐Lin , Tiwari Anjali , Rajan Mangala , Aron David , Pogach Leonard 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To determine prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with diabetes, and accuracy of International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD‐9‐CM) codes to identify such patients.Data Sources/Study Setting. Secondary data from 1999 to 2000. We linked all inpatient and outpatient administrative and clinical records of U.S. veterans with diabetes dually enrolled in Medicare and the Veterans Administration (VA) health care systems.Study Design. We used a cross‐sectional, observational design to determine the sensitivity and specificity of renal‐related ICD‐9‐CM diagnosis codes in identifying individuals with chronic kidney disease.Data Collection/Extraction Methods. We estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from serum creatinine and defined CKD as Stage 3, 4, or 5 CKD by eGFR criterion according to the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative guidelines. Renal‐related ICD‐9‐CM codes were grouped by algorithm.Principal Findings. Prevalence of CKD was 31.6 percent in the veteran sample with diabetes. Depending on the detail of the algorithm, only 20.2 to 42.4 percent of individuals with CKD received a renal‐related diagnosis code in either VA or Medicare records over 1 year. Specificity of renal codes for CKD ranged from 93.2 to 99.4 percent. Patients hospitalized in VA facilities were slightly more likely to be correctly coded for CKD than patients hospitalized in facilities reimbursed by Medicare (OR 5.4 versus 4.1, p=.0330)Conclusions. CKD is a common comorbidity for patients with diabetes in the VA system. Diagnosis codes in administrative records from Medicare and VA systems are insensitive, but specific markers for patients with CKD.
Opioid dysphoria in three dogs
Authors: Hofmeister Erik H. , Herrington Jennifer L. , Mazzaferro Elisa M. 
Published: November 2005

AbstractObjective:To describe the clinical manifestations and response to management of opioid dysphoria in 3 dogs.Case summary:Three dogs being managed for post‐operative pain were evaluated. All 3 dogs had been managed with various opioids including morphine, hydromorphone, and fentanyl following the surgical procedure. The 3 dogs exhibited vocalization that did not respond to interaction and did not change with administration of analgesic and anxiolytic agents. The dogs were treated with naloxone and, within 5 minutes of its administration, ceased vocalizing, and became aware and interactive with their environment. Further pain management consisted of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory medications, alpha‐2 (α2) receptor agonists or the partial μ‐receptor opioid agonist, buprenorphine.New and unique information provided:Vocalization and lack of response to interaction with humans are clinical signs which can be seen in dogs with opioid dysphoria, and generally are not responsive to analgesics or sedation. Reversal with naloxone results in rapid resolution of vocalization and opioid‐induced dysphoria.
Uterus masculinus: an unusual complication in a case of feline urethral obstruction
Authors: Sfiligoi Gabriella , Drobatz Kenneth J. , Mark Saunders H. 
Published: November 2005

AbstractA 6‐year‐old, male castrated domestic short hair cat presented for urethral obstruction. Despite passage of a urinary catheter, urine could not be drained through the catheter, but urine flow was noted around the catheter. Special imaging studies, including ultrasound and fluoroscopy, revealed that the catheter had been passed into an abnormal small bicornuate structure that entered the urethra from dorsally within the pelvic canal. This structure was believed to be a uterus masculinus or remnants of the Mullerian ducts. The anomalous structure was not felt to be related to the cause of the urethral obstruction, but was simply an incidental finding which resulted in difficult catheterization.
The relationship between dietary intake and the number of teeth in elderly Japanese subjects
Authors: Yoshihara Akihiro , Watanabe Reiko , Nishimuta Mamoru , Hanada Nobuhiro , Miyazaki Hideo 
Published: November 2005

Objective:  This study used a precise weighing method to assess whether tooth loss was related to nutrient intake in elderly Japanese subjects.Material and methods:  Fifty‐seven subjects aged 74 years were randomly selected from a longitudinal interdisciplinary study of ageing. Complete 3‐day food intake data were obtained by a precise weighing method. The dietary intakes of energy and nutrients were calculated based on the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (5th ed.). A clinical evaluation of the number of teeth present was carried out. Multiple regression standardised coefficients for each nutrient was estimated based on a continuous scale adjusted for gender, smoking habits, and educational level. After dividing the subjects into two groups according to the number of teeth present (0–19, 20+), the difference in the intake of nutrients and the amount of food consumed per day was evaluated.Results:  The number of teeth present had a significant relationship with the intake of several nutrients. In particular, total protein, animal protein, sodium, vitamin D, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, niacin, and pantothenic acid were significantly associated with the number of teeth present and with the two groups (0–19, 20+). The intake of vegetables and fish, shellfish, and their products was significantly lower among subjects with fewer teeth.Conclusion:  This study suggests that there was a significant relationship between nutrient intake, such as minerals and vitamins from food, and tooth loss.
Impact of dry mouth conditions on oral health‐related quality of life in older people
Authors: Gerdin Elisabeth Wärnberg , Einarson Susanne , Jonsson Margareta , Aronsson Kerstin , Johansson Ingegerd 
Published: November 2005

Objective:  The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of dry mouth conditions on oral health‐related quality of life in frail old people, residents at community care centers. Further, reliability and validity of a visual analogue scale (VAS) for dry mouth symptoms were determined within the study cohort.Background:  In old people functional, social and psychological impacts of oral conditions are associated with an overall sense of well being and general health. Subjective dry mouth and reduced saliva flow are common disorders in old people caused by disease and medication. Thus, dry mouth conditions may be determinants for compromised oral health‐related quality of life in old people.Method:  In total, 50 old people living at service homes for the old people were asked to answer questionnaires on subjective dry mouth (VAS) and Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP14) for oral health‐related quality of life. Saliva flow was estimated by absorbing saliva into a pre‐weighed cotton roll.Results:  The final study cohort comprised 41 old people (aged 83–91 years). Significant associations were identified between both objective and subjective dry mouth and overall or specific aspects of oral health‐related quality of life.Conclusion:  Dry mouth (objective and subjective) is significantly associated with oral health‐related quality of life strengthening the value of monitoring dry mouth conditions in the care of frail old people.