bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cognitive functioning in affected sibling pairs with ADHD: familial clustering and dopamine genes
Authors: Loo Sandra K. , Rich Erika Carpenter , Ishii Janeen , McGough James , McCracken James , Nelson Stanley , Smalley Susan L. 
Published: July 2008

Background:  This paper examines familiality and candidate gene associations of cognitive measures as potential endophenotypes in attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Methods:  The sample consists of 540 participants, aged 6 to 18, who were diagnosed with ADHD from 251 families recruited for a larger genetic study of ADHD. All members of the family underwent psychiatric interviews and children were administered a large battery of cognitive tasks. Subjects were genotyped for several dopaminergic candidate genes (DAT1, DRD4, and DRD5).Results:  Performance on measures of intelligence, working memory, and set‐shifting had the highest sibling correlations and exhibited significant familial clustering. The 7‐repeat allele of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene was associated with poor performance on measures of intelligence, color naming, interference control, and working memory. There were no significant associations with DAT1 and DRD5.Conclusions:  Sibling correlations, familial clustering and candidate gene associations provide strong support for verbal working memory as a candidate endophenotype for ADHD. More complex models of, and larger sample sizes for, genetic association with cognitive functions are encouraged for future study.
Psychiatric consequences for Israeli adolescents of protracted political violence: 1998–2004
Authors: Slone Michelle , Shechner Tomer 
Published: July 2008

Background:  This study examined relations between Israeli adolescents’ political violence exposure and psychiatric consequences over seven years around the second Intifada and possible differential effects according to age and gender.Methods:  Cross‐sectional data was collected from 3667 adolescents aged 10–18, constituting two age groups of early and late adolescents sampled in three different exposure periods: pre‐Intifada, Intifada peak, and Intifada recession.Results:  The first hypothesis predicting a main effect of severity of political violence exposure on psychiatric indices was confirmed for all Brief Symptom Index scales. The second hypothesis predicting a main effect of exposure period was confirmed with higher psychopathological indices at the Intifada peak than at the pre‐Intifada and receding Intifada periods. The exploratory question of possible moderating effects in the relation between Political Life Events exposure and exposure period to psychiatric indices showed that higher levels of exposure to political violence were associated with higher rates of symptomatology for both younger and older adolescents. For both genders, a general direct relation emerged between level of severity of political violence exposure and severity of psychiatric outcome, but differently according to Intifada exposure period.Conclusions:  Findings document the psychiatric toll paid by adolescents who grow up in protracted conflict and political violence, emphasizing the delicate interaction between individual and conflict factors.
Restoration of Midwestern U.S. Savannas: One Size Does Not Fit All
Authors: Dettman Connie L. , Mabry Catherine M. , Schulte Lisa A. 
Published: July 2008

AbstractLowland savannas are a rare variant of Midwestern United States savanna occurring on alluvial soils, for which reference information is sparse. To evaluate the appropriateness of using upland savanna as a surrogate source of reference information for lowland savanna, we studied a pre‐Euro‐American lowland savanna using original U.S. Public Land Survey data and other historical records. Historical vegetation was reconstructed and compared among upland savannas, lowland savannas, and lowland forests; we also evaluated potential disturbance dynamics maintaining these systems. We found that all three communities were dominated by members of the genusQuercusbut also had extensive representation by many other tree species, especially notable for savannas in this region. There were no clear size–density relationships for species in the genusQuercus, indicating that these historical savannas were not characterized exclusively by large, scattered oak trees but rather by trees of many oak species and nonoak species in a wide range of size classes. Both upland and lowland savannas also contained a substantial shrub component. We found no evidence that lowland savannas were maintained by flooding, although the uneven‐aged canopy structure suggested that periodic disturbance occurred. Restoration of lowland savanna in this region should include provisions for maintaining nonoak species and shrubs, with disturbance timed to maintain an uneven‐aged canopy structure. Although the appropriateness of historical data in the face of climate change may be questionable, in this region, a warmer climate may actually help promote the “oak parkland” that was present from 8,000 BP up to Euro‐American settlement.
Linking Geographical Information Systems and Observational and Experimental Studies to Determine Optimal Seedling Microsites of an Endangered Plant in a Subtropical Urban Fire‐Adapted Ecosystem
Authors: Wendelberger Kristie S. , Maschinski Joyce 
Published: July 2008

Abstract Understanding microsite requirements is critical for restoring sustainable rare plant populations and creating meaningful management plans that will enhance native species’ population viability. Natural areas bordered by urban communities have restricted size and constrained management options that confound goals of preserving biodiversity. Using geographical information systems and observational and experimental studies, we determined that current microsites required for seedling establishment within existing habitat of the federally endangered Crenulate leadplant are few and spatially restricted, resulting in little wild seedling recruitment. Experimental and wild seedlings had highest germination rates in litter layers 1–2 cm in depth and survived the longest in litter 0.5–2 cm deep. Fire suppression and aggressive native and exotic plants have accumulated litter up to 33 cm near some of the wild adult Crenulate leadplant. Only 9% of habitat occupied by this taxon at its largest population is conducive to seedling establishment. Similarly, 30% is conducive to seedling establishment in the second largest population. Fire plays a critical role in South Florida ecosystem dynamics and the restoration and preservation of its landscape and biodiversity. When fire is not possible, other management is needed. Manual litter and downed debris removal are recommended at both population sites to improve the probability of Crenulate leadplant seedling establishment and population persistence.
Stillbirths in Macaca fascicularis
Authors: Sesbuppha Wacharaporn , Chantip Surachai , Dick Edward J. , Schlabritz‐Loutsevitch Natalia E. , Guardado‐Mendoza Rodolfo , Butler Stephanie D. , Frost Patrice A. , Hubbard Gene B. 
Published: July 2008

AbstractBackground  Stillbirths in non‐human primates are a major problem and represent failure of the maternal–fetal–placental unit to maintain normal relationships because of various endogenous, undetermined or environmental factors.Methods  Records of 236 stillborns and their dams in a Macaca fascicularis colony during a 7‐year period were reviewed retrospectively.Results  The 7‐year stillbirth incidence was 11.99% (236 stillbirths, 1967 live births). Most (61.02%, n = 144) were of undetermined etiology. Fetal causes included trauma (22.46%, n = 53), fetal pneumonia (0.85%, n = 2) and congenital anomalies (0.42%, n = 1). Maternal causes included dystocia (9.75%, n = 23) and uterine rupture (0.42%, n = 1). Forty‐nine placentas were available for histologic evaluation; there was placentitis in five, necrosis in five and placental abruption in two. Most stillbirths occurred close to term. First stillbirths usually occurred in 8‐ to 12‐year‐old animals during the first six pregnancies.Conclusions  Most stillbirths were of undetermined etiology. Fetal trauma was the most common cause.
Biochemical changes in cerebrospinal fluid of Chlorocebus aethiops naturally infected with zoonotic Meningonema peruzzii
Authors: Ngure R.M. , Karanja S.M. , Mungatana N.K. , Wamae C.N. , Ngotho J.M. , Gichuki C.W. 
Published: July 2008

AbstractBackground  Thirty‐four wild Chlorocebus aethiops monkeys were trapped for research purposes.Methods  During routine quarantine check‐up, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood were microscopically examined for parasites. Estimations of CSF protein levels were made by the biuret method and the white cell counts by the hemocytometer.Results  Seven monkeys demonstrated microfilariae in blood and CSF. This was accompanied by a two‐ and ninefold increase in CSF total protein and white cell counts, respectively. Necropsy of one of the blood and CSF microfilariae‐positive animals revealed the presence of adult worms in the brain meninges. The parasites were identified as the zoonotic filaroid nematode Meningonema peruzii.Conclusions  Wild C. aethiops monkeys developed CSF changes resulting, most probably, from infection with M. peruzii. Moreover, the monkeys could be acting as an important reservoir. The study highlights the need for epidemiological and pathogenological studies of this parasite, which is of public health significance. Moreover, C. aethiops proved to be a useful primate model for the study of this zoonotic infection.
Non‐nutritive sucking scoring system for preterm newborns
Authors: Neiva FCB , Leone C , Leone CR 
Published: July 2008

AbstractAim: To validate a non‐nutritive sucking (NNS) scoring system for oral feeding in preterm newborns (PTNB).Methods: A cohort study was carried out in two phases. In phase one of the study, 22 mastered speech‐language pathologists received the protocol and procedure for a NNS scoring system to evaluate the content and presentation of the form and to define the grading scale. In phase two, six speech‐language pathologists evaluated 51 PTNBs weekly, using the defined scoring system.Setting: This study was carried out in the Nursery Annex to the Maternity at the Intensive and Neonatal Pediatrics Service, Instituto da Criança, Hospital das Clinicas, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMUSP) during the period from May 2004 to May 2006.Participants: A total of 28 speech‐language pathologist experts and 51 PTNBs.Results: In the first phase of the study, 22 speech‐language pathologists selected the criteria, utilized in the NNS evaluation with 80% agreement. In the second phase of the study, the NNS evaluation was carried out on 51 PTNB, and a scoring system of 50 points was proposed, which corresponds to the smallest number of false positive and negative results regarding oral feeding ability.Conclusion: An NNS evaluation system was validated that was able to indicate when oral feeding could safely begin in PTNBs with a high level of agreement among the speech‐language pathologists who have participated.
Change in leptin, body composition and other hormones around menarche – a visual representation
Authors: Bandini LG , Must A , Naumova EN , Anderson SE , Caprio S , Spadano‐Gasbarro JL , Dietz WH 
Published: July 2008

AbstractAim: To present a visual representation of changes in body composition, leptin, insulin, estradiol and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) levels in relation to menarche in girls.Methods: Participants were a subset of healthy girls (n = 108) enrolled in a longitudinal study of growth and development conducted at the General Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Participants were seen annually from before menarche until 4 years postmenarche for measures of body composition and serum levels of leptin, insulin, estradiol and FSH. Body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance. Standardized body composition and hormone levels were smoothed and plotted relative to menarche to visualize patterns of change.Results: At menarche, the mean percentage body fat (%BF) of girls was 24.6% (SD = 4.1%) after menarche %BF was ∼27%. Leptin levels averaged 8.4 ng/mL (SD = 4.6) at menarche and were ∼12 ng/mL after menarche. Changes in leptin levels closely paralleled changes in %BF. Insulin, estradiol and FSH levels followed expected patterns relative to menarche. Leptin began rising closer to menarche than did insulin or the other sex hormones.Conclusion: We provide a visual presentation of hormonal and body composition changes occurring throughout the pubertal period in girls which may be useful in generating new hypotheses related to the timing of menarche.
ASSESSMENT OF MICROBIAL CONTAMINANTS PRESENT ON VACUUM LOADERS IN SHELL EGG PROCESSING FACILITIES
Authors: JONES D.R. , MUSGROVE M.T. 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine the pathogen prevalence on vacuum loader cup surfaces. An off‐line (birds housed off‐site) and a mixed (birds housed on‐site and eggs brought from outside production) operation shell egg processing facility were sampled three times each. Twenty vacuum loader cups were randomly rinsed with sterile saline per visit. Total aerobic microorganisms and Enterobacteriaceae were enumerated, and the prevalence of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria was determined. Aerobic microorganisms were ∼5 log cfu/mL, with higher levels noted in the mixed operation. Enterobacteriaceae levels averaged 2.5 log cfu/mL but were higher in the off‐line facility. Campylobacter was detected in 1.6% of the samples. Salmonella was detected in 3.3% of the samples with isolates serotyped as Salmonella anatum and Salmonella heidelberg. There was a high prevalence of Listeria (72%). Confirmed isolates were identified as Listeria innocua (98.8%) and Listeria monocytogenes (1.2%). Identification of the populations present on the cup surfaces will allow for the development of more effective cleaning and disinfection programs.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSVacuum loaders have previously been determined to be reservoirs for microorganisms in shell egg processing plants. Assessing the prevalence of prominent foodborne pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria) on the vacuum loader cup surface would allow for more targeted approaches to cleaning and sanitation. High levels of aerobic organisms and Enterobacteriaceae were detected (∼5 and 2.5 log cfu/mL, respectively). Furthermore, Campylobacter and Salmonella were also found, but at low prevalence. Listeria was detected in 72% of the samples. Cleaning and sanitation programs currently utilized in shell egg processing facilities need to be reassessed, and new technologies need to be developed to address the presence of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria.
DETECTION OF YERSINIA PESTIS BY COMPARISON OF VIRULENCE PLASMID (PYV/PCD)‐ASSOCIATED PHENOTYPES IN YERSINIA SPECIES*
Authors: BHADURI SAUMYA , SOMMERS CHRISTOPHER H. 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACT Consumption of meat contaminated with Yersinia pestis can cause oro‐pharyngeal plague in humans. Existing microbiological media designed for selective detection of Y. pestis in food are not satisfactory for that purpose. Expression of genetic determinants in Yersinia species including low calcium response (Lcr), colony size, crystal violet (CV) binding, Congo red (CR) uptake, autoagglutination (AA) and hydrophobicity (HP) were compared. Lcr and CV binding were detectable within 24 h at 37C in Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis but at 48 h in Y. pestis. Colony size, AA, and HP characteristics were expressed in Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica, but not in Y. pestis. CR uptake in Y. pestis was demonstrated only on calcium‐deficient CR‐magnesium oxalate (CR‐MOX) tryptic soy agar but was expressed on both CR‐MOX and low‐calcium agarose medium for Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica. CR‐uptake phenotype by Y. pestis can be used for the detection of this pathogen in foods.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Yersinia pestis, Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis can cause diverse human diseases. Y. enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis can cause intestinal distress when consumed in contaminated food. Y. pestis, the causative agent of bubonic plague in humans, is also found in food and can cause febrile illness in humans. Thus, food can have a significant role in the dissemination of human plague. There is a concern for risk assessors about the presence of Y. pestis in food. A virulence plasmid of 70 kb is directly involved with virulence of these pathogens. Until now, separating Y. enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis from Y. pestis required sophisticated molecular biology and immunological techniques. This problem was eliminated by analyses of virulence plasmid encoded phenotypes as simple and reliable targets for the rapid detection of Y. pestis. These classical microbiological assays should greatly assist both regulatory agencies and the food industry in the detection of Y. pestis. Further, these techniques should also greatly assist medical and public health laboratories to identify this pathogen.
Discovering Statistically Significant Periodic Gene Expression
Authors: Chen Jie , Chang Kuang‐Chao 
Published: July 2008

SummaryOne frequent application of microarray experiments is in the study of monitoring gene activities in a cell during cell cycle or cell division. High throughput gene expression time series data are produced from such microarray experiments. A new computational and statistical challenge for analyzing such gene expression time course data, resulting from cell cycle microarray experiments, is to discover genes that are statistically significantly periodically expressed during the cell cycle. Such a challenge occurs due to the large number of genes that are simultaneously measured, a moderate to small number of measurements per gene taken at different time points and high levels of non‐normal random noises inherited in the data. Computational and statistical approaches to discovery and validation of periodic patterns of gene expression are, however, very limited. A good method of analysis should be able to search for significant periodic genes with a controlled family‐wise error (FWE) rate or controlled false discovery rate (FDR) and any other variations of FDR, when all gene expression profiles are compared simultaneously. In this review paper, a brief summary of currently used methods in searching for periodic genes will be given. In particular, two methods will be surveyed in details. The first one is a novel statistical inference approach, the C & G Procedure that can be used to effectively detect statistically significantly periodically expressed genes when the gene expression is measured on evenly spaced time points. The second one is the Lomb–Scargle periodogram analysis, which can be used to discover periodic genes when the gene profiles are not measured on evenly spaced time points or when there are missing values in the profiles. The ultimate goal of this review paper is to give an expository of the two surveyed methods to researchers in related fields.
On the Practice of Rescaling Covariates
Authors: Sardy Sylvain 
Published: July 2008

SummaryWhether doing parametric or nonparametric regression with shrinkage, thresholding, penalized likelihood, Bayesian posterior estimators (e.g.,ridge regression, lasso, principal component regression, waveshrinkorMarkov random field), it is common practice to rescale covariates by dividing by their respective standard errors ρ. The stated goal of this operation is to provide unitless covariates to compare like with like, especially when penalized likelihood or prior distributions are used. We contend that this vision is too simplistic. Instead, we propose to take into account a more essential component of the structure of the regression matrix by rescaling the covariates based on the diagonal elements of the covariance matrix Σ of the maximum‐likelihood estimator. We illustrate the differences between the standard ρ‐ and proposed Σ‐rescalings with various estimators and data sets.
SU‐GG‐I‐13: Low‐Contrast Detectability for X‐Ray Computed Tomography
Authors: Hsieh J , Toth T 
Published: July 2008

Low‐contrast‐detectability (LCD) is one of the important performance parameters for computed tomography (CT). Often LCD is determined by visual inspection of low‐contrast phantom images. The testing process is gated not only by limitations of existing LCD phantoms, but also by the subjective nature of the evaluation methodology. Although statistical LCD methods were proposed, these methods often unfairly favor post‐processed images, since they measure mainly the noise characteristics in uniform portion of the phantom and do not consider the impact on LCD objects.In this paper, we present a measurement methodology that incorporates the LCD objects as part of the testing process. To overcome limited availability of low‐contrast phantoms in terms of object size and contrast level, computer simulated objects are inserted into the reconstructed uniform phantom images prior to the post‐process filtering steps. These test objects are obtained by convolving the ideal disc shaped objects with the point‐spread‐function (PSF) of the system. We also propose a LCD index that incorporates the object contrasts and noise levels of the LCD images. The index is defined as the ratio of the measured object contrast over the standard deviation of means measured over a region equal to the LCD object size. This index overcomes the shortcomings of the previously proposed statistical method in which the visibility of post‐processed low‐contrast objects are over‐estimated. Extensive phantom tests were conducted. Existing statistical‐based LCD measure was compared with the proposed LCD index, and both were judged against visual inspection of experts. Phantoms vary over different contrast, object size, scan techniques, and reconstruction kernels. Test results have shown that the proposed LCD method outperforms the existing method and correlates well with human observers. Future extension of the algorithm includes the refinement of the LCD object shape and the non‐stationary characteristics of the PSF and noise in CT systems.