bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cerebriform plantar hyperplasia: the major cutaneous feature of Proteus syndrome
Authors: Schepis Carmelo , Greco Donatella , Siragusa Maddalena , Romano Corrado 
Published: March 2008

A 6‐year‐old girl was referred for clinical evaluation. Her phenotype was characterized by an asymmetric face, dysmorphic skull with frontal‐parietal hyperostosis, hypertelorism, strabismus, long neck, and low‐set antiverted ears (Fig. 1). Her thorax was also dysmorphic with dropped shoulders because of the abnormal orientation of the scapulae and scoliosis. Moreover, the following features were evident: multiple abdominal lipomatous formations, muscle hypotonia and hypotrophia, lower limb heterometria, severe limitation of spinal articulation movements, congenital papular‐nodular nevus over the posterior axillary line, macrodactyly of the third and fourth right fingers, left hand smaller than the right, and thickening of the cutaneous tissues of the plantar surface of the foot with a gyrate and cerebriform aspect (Fig. 2). In addition, simple hypermetropic astigmatism of both eyes, exotropia and hypertrophy of the left eye, and dental caries were found.Cranial and facial asymmetry with fronto‐parietal exostosis on the right sideimageCerebriform bilateral plantar hyperplasiaimage All routine blood examinations were within normal limits; electromyography disclosed a primary muscle disease. Thyroid ultrasound showed a dyshomogeneous structure with normal dimensions. Abdominal ultrasound showed a normal liver, gall bladder, and spleen; however, the pyelic cavities of the kidney were enlarged. Finally, molecular genetic analysis of the PTEN gene was negative. The clinical and instrumental features and the presence of significant cerebriform plantar hyperplasia allowed us to propose a diagnosis of Proteus syndrome.
Specific cutaneous manifestations in adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma
Authors: Pezeshkpoor Fakhralzaman , Yazdanpanah Mohammad Javad , Shirdel Abbas 
Published: March 2008

AbstractBackground  Adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is an aggressive malignancy which may occur in individuals infected with human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type‐I (HTLV‐I). HTLV‐I is endemic in Khorasan, with a frequency of 2.3% in the general population. As specific cutaneous manifestations of lymphoma may occur in a significant number of patients, we studied these manifestations in ATLL patients admitted to the Hematology and Dermatology Departments of Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, during 1995–2004.Methods  In this descriptive study, demographic and clinical information was obtained from 23 patients suffering from ATLL with specific cutaneous lesions (atypical lymphocytes on histopathology of cutaneous lesions), and was analyzed statistically.Results  Of the 23 patients, 11 were male and 12 were female. The mean age was 48.17 ± 14.1 years. The birth place in over 85% of cases was the north of Khorasan. The most common type of specific skin lesion was a maculopapular eruption (11 cases; 47.8%); papular lesions were seen in four cases (17.4%). Other lesions included plaques, ichthyosis‐like lesions, erythroderma, tumors, papules, and nodular lesions. In most patients (56.5%), the skin lesions were generalized.Conclusion  The most common type of specific skin lesion in ATLL was maculopapular eruption, especially with a generalized distribution. Other types of specific skin lesion, in order of frequency, were papules, plaques, ichthyosis‐like skin lesions, nodules, tumors, and erythroderma.
Sporotrichosis in Uttarakhand (India): a report of nine cases
Authors: Agarwal Saurabh , Gopal Krishna , Umesh, MD  , Kumar Binay 
Published: March 2008

AbstractBackground  Sporotrichosis is a chronic granulomatous infection caused by Sporothrichum schenckii. The disease has worldwide distribution. Majority of cases from India are reported from North‐eastern states.Methods  The demographic, clinico‐investigative profile and therapeutic results of nine patients with cutaneous sporotrichosis attending the Dermatology Outdoor Department between January 2005 and June 2006 have been compiled.Results  Out of nine (male‐4, female‐5) patients, five had lymphocutaneous‐type sporotrichosis while four had fixed cutaneous sporotrichosis. The average age of these patients was 40.8 years. The duration of complaints ranged from 1 month to 15 months (average 8.6 months). Two patients were able to recall traumatic injury. Six patients had lesions over lower extremities, two over face and one over upper extremity. Histopathologically, all cases showed granulomatous process with mixed inflammatory infiltrate comprising of lymphocytes, plasma cells, histiocytes and small neutrophil abscesses. Two cases were positive for fungal cells on PAS staining. Fungal culture on skin tissue was positive in all cases. Eight patients were treated with saturated solution of potassium iodide (SSKI) and they responded very well to SSKI in 12–16 weeks. One patient was pregnant and therefore was advised thermotherapy.Conclusion  Sporotrichosis is also present in north‐western region of India as it is reported from north‐eastern part. This is the first series of cutaneous sporotrichosis being reported from Uttarakhand, a state situated in the north‐western region of India.
Moving to mate: the evolution of separate and combined sexes in multicellular organisms
Authors: EPPLEY S. M. , JESSON L. K. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractWhich conditions favour the evolution of hermaphroditism or separate sexes? One classical hypothesis states that an organism’s mode of locomotion (if any) when searching for a mate should influence breeding system evolution. We used published phylogenies to reconstruct evolutionary changes in adult mate‐search efficiency and breeding systems among multicellular organisms. Employing maximum‐likelihood analyses, we found that changes in adult mate‐search efficiency are significantly correlated with changes in breeding system, and this result is robust to uncertainties in the phylogenies. These data provide the first statistical support, across a broad range of taxa, for the hypothesis that breeding systems and mate‐search efficiency did not evolve independently. We discuss our results in context with other causal factors, such as inbreeding avoidance and sexual specialization, likely to affect breeding system evolution.
Bayesian approaches in evolutionary quantitative genetics
Authors: O’HARA R. B. , CANO J. M. , OVASKAINEN O. , TEPLITSKY C. , ALHO J. S. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThe study of evolutionary quantitative genetics has been advanced by the use of methods developed in animal and plant breeding. These methods have proved to be very useful, but they have some shortcomings when used in the study of wild populations and evolutionary questions. Problems arise from the small size of data sets typical of evolutionary studies, and the additional complexity of the questions asked by evolutionary biologists. Here, we advocate the use of Bayesian methods to overcome these and related problems. Bayesian methods naturally allow errors in parameter estimates to propagate through a model and can also be written as a graphical model, giving them an inherent flexibility. As packages for fitting Bayesian animal models are developed, we expect the application of Bayesian methods to evolutionary quantitative genetics to grow, particularly as genomic information becomes more and more associated with environmental data.
Aetiology of recurrent abdominal pain in a cohort of Sri Lankan children
Authors: Devanarayana Niranga M , De Silva DG Harendra , De Silva H Janaka 
Published: March 2008

Aims:  Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) has a multifactorial aetiology with many affected children having no evidence of organic pathology. This study assessed the functional and organic causes for RAP in a cohort of Sri Lankan children.Methods:  Fifty‐five Sri Lankan children (45.5% males, aged 5–15 years) having RAP were screened for organic diseases. RAP was defined using Apley criteria. Children without clinical or laboratory evidence of organic diseases were classified into functional gastrointestinal diseases (FGD) using Rome II and III criteria. Thirty‐nine patients with functional RAP and 20 healthy children (50% males, age 5–15 years) from same area were tested for Helicobacter pylori using a stool antigen test.Results:  Thirteen (23.6%) children had organic RAP. According to Rome II, 33 (60%), and according to Rome III, 39 (71%) (functional abdominal pain 19, irritable bowel syndrome nine, functional dyspepsia nine, abdominal migraine one, aerophagia one) children had FGD. Two (5.1%) patients and one (5%) control tested were positive for Helicobacter pylori (P > 0.05). Except for constipation, pain characteristics and associated symptoms were not significantly different between organic and functional RAP.Conclusions:  Organic pathology accounted for symptoms in less than a quarter of Sri Lankan children with RAP. The majority had functional bowel diseases, of which the commonest was functional abdominal pain. Rome III criteria were more effective than Rome II criteria in identifying FGD. Helicobacter pylori infection did not appear to be associated with RAP.
Infiltration of Epstein‐Barr virus‐harboring lymphocytes occurs in a large subset of bladder cancers
Authors: Abe Takashige , Shinohara Nobuo , Tada Mitsuhiro , Harabayashi Toru , Sazawa Ataru , Maruyama Satoru , Moriuchi Tetsuya , Takada Kenzo , Nonomura Katsuya 
Published: March 2008

Objective:  Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) has been implicated in the genesis of a variety of human cancers. We aimed to confirm the presence and define the role of EBV in bladder cancer.Methods:  A total of 39 bladder cancer specimens were analyzed. Ten urinary bladder tissues obtained at autopsy were used as a normal control. EBV‐encoded RNA (EBER) was evaluated by in situ hybridization (ISH). Frozen material available from 18 EBER‐positive cases was analyzed by using reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction for BZLF1, an early lytic gene product. The expression of CD20, CD3, ZEBRA (BZLF1 product) and transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ‐1) was assessed using an immunohistochemical technique.Results:  Infiltration of EBER‐expressing lymphocytes was detected in 26 of 39 bladder cancer cases (66.7%). A small fraction of the tumor cells as well as the infiltrating lymphocytes were positive in two cases. All normal urinary bladder specimens showed negative results. The incidence of EBV‐positive lymphocyte infiltration was significantly higher for advanced stage cancers than those in earlier stages (Ta‐152% vs T2‐4 93%, P = 0.013). The presence of BZLF1 mRNA was demonstrated in seven out of the 18 EBER‐positive cases.Conclusions:  Infiltration of EBV‐harboring lymphocytes occurs in a large subset of bladder cancers cases. It is more frequently associated with advanced stages. EBV infection in tumor cells is very limited. Our findings suggest that EBV‐positive lymphocytes might play a role in bladder cancer progression.
Clustered disturbances lead to bias in large‐scale estimates based on forest sample plots
Authors: Fisher Jeremy I. , Hurtt George C. , Thomas R. Quinn , Chambers Jeffrey Q. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractAssessments from field plots steer much of our current understanding of global change impacts on forest ecosystem structure and function. Recent widespread observations of net carbon accumulation in field plots have suggested that terrestrial ecosystems may be a carbon sink, possibly resulting from climate change and/or CO2 fertilization. We hypothesize that field plots may inadequately sample inherently rare mortality events, leading to bias when plot level measurements are scaled up to larger domains. In this study, we constructed a simple computer simulation model of forest dynamics to investigate the effects of disturbance patterns on landscape‐scale carbon balance estimates. The model was constructed to be a balanced biosphere at the landscape‐scale with a uniform spatial pattern of forest growth rates. Disturbance gap‐size distributions across the landscape were modelled with a power‐law distribution. Small and frequent disturbances result in a well‐mixed heterogeneous forest where even small sample plots represented domain‐wide behaviour. However, with disturbances dominated by large and rare events, sample plots as large as 50 ha displayed significant bias towards growth. We suggest that the accuracy of domain level estimates of carbon balance from sample plots are highly sensitive to the distribution of disturbance events across the landscape, and to the number, size and distribution of field plots that comprise the estimate. Assumptions that small clusters of field plots may be representative of domain‐wide conditions should only be made very cautiously, and warrant further investigation for verification.
Microbial community composition in soils of Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica
Authors: Niederberger Thomas D. , McDonald Ian R. , Hacker Amy L. , Soo Rochelle M. , Barrett John E. , Wall Diana H. , Cary S. Craig 
Published: March 2008

SummaryBiotic communities and ecosystem dynamics in terrestrial Antarctica are limited by an array of extreme conditions including low temperatures, moisture and organic matter availability, high salinity, and a paucity of biodiversity to facilitate key ecological processes. Recent studies have discovered that the prokaryotic communities in these extreme systems are highly diverse with patchy distributions. Investigating the physical and biological controls over the distribution and activity of microbial biodiversity in Victoria Land is essential to understanding ecological functioning in this region. Currently, little information on the distribution, structure and activity of soil communities anywhere in Victoria Land are available, and their sensitivity to potential climate change remains largely unknown. We investigated soil microbial communities from low‐ and high‐productivity habitats in an isolated Antarctic location to determine how the soil environment impacts microbial community composition and structure. The microbial communities in Luther Vale, Northern Victoria Land were analysed using bacterial 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and were related to soil geochemical parameters and classical morphological analysis of soil metazoan invertebrate communities. A total of 323 16S rRNA gene sequences analysed from four soils spanning a productivity gradient indicated a high diversity (Shannon–Weaver values > 3) of phylotypes within the clone libraries and distinct differences in community structure between the two soil productivity habitats linked to water and nutrient availability. In particular, members of theDeinococcus/Thermuslineage were found exclusively in the drier, low‐productivity soils, whileGammaproteobacteriaof the genusXanthomonaswere found exclusively in high‐productivity soils. However, rarefaction curves indicated that these microbial habitats remain under‐sampled. Our results add to the recent literature suggesting that there is a higher biodiversity within Antarctic soils than previously expected.
ExPEC‐typical virulence‐associated genes correlate with successful colonization by intestinal E. coli in a small piglet group
Authors: Schierack Peter , Walk Nicole , Ewers Christa , Wilking Hendrik , Steinrück Hartmut , Filter Matthias , Wieler Lothar H. 
Published: March 2008

SummaryUpon studying the transmission of Escherichia coli from a sow to five of her piglets, we observed domination of the coliform flora in piglets by a single E. coli clone, especially after weaning. This haemolytic cloneH1 did not harbour any virulence determinants typical for intestinal pathogenic E. coli isolates from swine but had a virulence gene profile very similar to extraintestinal E. coli (ExPEC), including genes coding for P fimbriae and several iron acquisition systems, besides having an affiliation to the phylogenetic B2 group. Overall, we show that the presence of higher numbers of ExPEC‐typical virulence‐associated genes (VAGs) in clones correlate with their successful colonization ability in piglets. We conclude that VAGs typical for ExPEC also support intestinal colonization in healthy pigs. Faeces of healthy domestic pigs can harbour high numbers of ExPEC‐similar E. coli and are suggested to be a potential risk for the transmission of such bacteria to other hosts.
The art of visual anthropology: An interview with André Singer
Authors: Thakur Gail S. 
Published: March 2008

Abstract:André Singer ‐ anthropologist, filmmaker, and CEO and Creative Director of West Park Pictures ‐ talks about challenges faced by anthropologists working in visual media and discusses his own career, including his work on Khyber, the Disappearing World series, Tribe and his recent collaborations with Werner Herzog and Stephen Fry.
HOW MUCH DO VOTERS KNOW? AN ANALYSIS OF MOTIVATION AND POLITICAL AWARENESS
Authors: Jones Philip , Dawson Peter 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTDowns argued that instrumental individuals have no incentive to incur costs to turn out to vote. High turnout rates are explained in terms of intrinsic value derived from action. But if it is important to individuals that they participate, surely it matters how they participate? This paper tests the proposition that voters acquire more political information than those who abstain because they believe they have a duty to participate in collective decision‐making processes. It also considers the relevance of civic duty when explaining systematic differences between preferences expressed by those who vote and by those who abstain. Choice expressed at the ballot box is not the same as demand revealed in markets.
CONSUMPTION AND LEISURE EXTERNALITIES, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EQUILIBRIUM EFFICIENCY
Authors: Gómez Manuel A. 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the effects of consumption and leisure externalities on growth and welfare in a two‐sector endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation. Both types of externalities are shown to affect the long‐run equilibrium and optimal growth rates in a rather different way. The relationship between the steady state of the market and the centrally planned economy is also analyzed. The optimal growth path can be decentralized by resorting to consumption or labor income taxation, whereas capital income should be untaxed. Numerical simulations suggest that growth and welfare effects of mild consumption and leisure externalities may be quantitatively important.
Good Item or bad—can Latent Class Analysis Tell?: The Utility of Latent Class Analysis for the Evaluation of Survey Questions
Authors: Kreuter Frauke , Yan Ting , Tourangeau Roger 
Published: March 2008

SummaryLatent class analysis has been used to model measurement error, to identify flawed survey questions and to estimate mode effects. Using data from a survey of University of Maryland alumni together with alumni records, we evaluate this technique to determine its usefulness for detecting bad questions in the survey context. Two sets of latent class analysis models are applied in this evaluation: latent class models with three indicators and latent class models with two indicators under different assumptions about prevalence and error rates. Our results indicated that the latent class analysis approach produced good qualitative results for the latent class models—the item that the model deemed the worst was the worst according to the true scores. However, the approach yielded weaker quantitative estimates of the error rates for a given item.
Household Debt and Financial Assets: Evidence from Germany, Great Britain and the USA
Authors: Brown Sarah , Taylor Karl 
Published: March 2008

SummaryWe explore the determinants of debt, financial assets and net worth at the household level by using survey data for Germany, Great Britain and the USA. To identify which households are potentially vulnerable to adverse changes in the economic environment, we also explore the determinants of a range of measures of financial pressure: the probability that a household has negative net worth; the debt-to-income ratio; mortgage income gearing; the saving-to-income ratio. Our empirical findings suggest that the poorest and the youngest households are the most vulnerable to adverse changes in their financial circumstances.
High Wage Workers and Low Wage Firms: Negative Assortative Matching or Limited Mobility Bias?
Authors: Andrews M. J. , Gill L. , Schank T. , Upward R. 
Published: March 2008

SummaryIn the empirical literature on assortative matching using linked employer–employee data, unobserved worker quality appears to be negatively correlated with unobserved firm quality. We show that this can be caused by standard estimation error. We develop formulae that show that the estimated correlation is biased downwards if there is true positive assortative matching and when any conditioning covariates are uncorrelated with the firm and worker fixed effects. We show that this bias is bigger the fewer movers there are in the data, which is ‘limited mobility bias’. This result applies to any two-way (or higher) error components model that is estimated by fixed effects methods. We apply these bias corrections to a large German linked employer–employee data set. We find that, although the biases can be considerable, they are not sufficiently large to remove the negative correlation entirely.
Y‐Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian‐Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin
Authors: Csányi B. , Bogácsi‐Szabó E. , Tömöry Gy. , Czibula Á. , Priskin K. , Csõsz A. , Mende B. , Langó P. , Csete K. , Zsolnai A. , Conant E. K. , Downes C. S. , Raskó I. 
Published: March 2008

SummaryThe Hungarian population belongs linguistically to the Finno‐Ugric branch of the Uralic family. The Tat C allele is an interesting marker in the Finno‐Ugric context, distributed in all the Finno‐Ugric‐speaking populations, except for Hungarians. This question arises whether the ancestral Hungarians, who settled in the Carpathian Basin, harbored this polymorphism or not. 100 men from modern Hungary, 97 Szeklers (a Hungarian‐speaking population from Transylvania), and 4 archaeologically Hungarian bone samples from the 10thcentury were studied for this polymorphism. Among the modern individuals, only one Szekler carries the Tat C allele, whereas out of the four skeletal remains, two possess the allele. The latter finding, even allowing for the low sample number, appears to indicate a Siberian lineage of the invading Hungarians, which later has largely disappeared.The two modern Hungarian‐speaking populations, based on 22 Y‐chromosomal binary markers, share similar components described for other Europeans, except for the presence of the haplogroup P*(xM173) in Szekler samples, which may reflect a Central Asian connection, and high frequency of haplogroup J in both Szeklers and Hungarians. MDS analysis based on haplogroup frequency values, confirms that modern Hungarian and Szekler populations are genetically closely related, and similar to populations from Central Europe and the Balkans.