bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Combined approach tympanoplasty for cholesteatoma: impact of middle-ear endoscopy
Authors: Barakate M , Bottrill I 
Published: June 2007

AbstractObjective:The aims of this study were (1) to explore whether the experience at the Radcliffe Infirmary (Oxford, UK) supported the use of combined approach tympanoplasty for cholesteatoma, by determining the rate of disease at subsequent surgery, and (2) to assess whether this rate differed from findings reported elsewhere in the literature, possibly due to the effect of using an oto-endoscope.Study design:Retrospective case review, with data entered prospectively for operations performed by a single surgeon.Setting:Tertiary referral hospital.Patients:Between January 1998 and December 2004 inclusive, 66 patients underwent 68 primary procedures, with data available for all ‘second looks’.Interventions:Diagnostic and therapeutic operations for cholesteatoma were performed.Main outcome measures:All patients in this study attended follow up and underwent a second look operation, during which the rate of residual and recurrent cholesteatoma was determined. An oto-endoscope was used at all primary and subsequent surgery.Results:The mean interval between the first and second combined approach tympanoplasty procedures was 16 months, and that between the second and third such procedures was 19 months (10 patients). One patient underwent a fourth combined approach tympanoplasty procedure, 17 months after a third such procedure. The rate of cholesteatoma at second combined approach tympanoplasty was 20.6 per cent (14/68); this was judged to be residual in 10 ears (14.7 per cent) and to be recurrent, with the redevelopment of retraction pockets, in four ears (5.9 per cent). The rate of cholesteatoma at third combined approach tympanoplasty was 20 per cent (two of 10); of these two, one patient had a small pearl in the middle ear removed with the aid of a potassium titanyl phosphate laser. There was no disease present in one patient at a fourth combined approach tympanoplasty. Only four patients required a modified radical mastoidectomy.Conclusion:Cholesteatoma remains a disease with significant morbidity. Endoscope-assisted surgery may decrease the morbidity of second look surgery and may improve the clearance of disease in appropriately selected patients.
The Arctic ships Axel Thorsen and Skjøn Walborg
Authors: Kjær Kjell-G. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe two gun schooners Axel Thorsen and Skjøn Walborg were launched in 1810 and initially served as patrol ships with the task of protecting merchant vessels leaving Archangel from British attacks during the Napoleonic wars. Following the peace of 1815, the Norwegian authorities interpreted Russian activities in Finnmark, northern Norway, with considerable suspicion and, in 1816, Axel Thorsen was sent north to remove the Russian settlers from the area and to demolish their buildings. In 1817 and 1818, Skjøn Walborg replaced Axel Thorsen on the same mission. The two vessels also carried out a cartographic programme in the far north. In 1831 and 1832 there was an epidemic of cholera in Archangel, and the two ships acted to prevent vessels from that port docking in northern Norway. In 1864, Axel Thorsen was engaged by Adolf Nordenskiöld on his expedition to Svalbard while Skjøn Walborg was used by Graf Walburg-Ziel and Baron von Heuglin on their expedition to Svalbard in 1870. Both vessels were heavily engaged in sealing and hunting walrus at Novaya Zemlya from 1869 until both were crushed in the ice and lost in 1872.
Wikipedia(s) on the language map of the world
Authors: Dalby Andrew 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis article will not try to describe the whole Wikimedia galaxy. It will stick to Wikipedia in English, and that's ambitious enough. The English-language Wikipedia, by far the biggest of them, now (28th November 2006) contains 1,506,659 articles. The German Wikipedia reached 500,000 articles on 23rd November (note in passing: the English Wikipedia has added that many articles to its total in just six months), while the French Wikipedia reached the 400,000 milestone on 27th November. The newest and smallest Wikipedia, number 250, is in the Lak language of Dagestan, in the Caucasus, with one article and 20 users.One more statistical measure will show how much Wikipedia matters. People who Google already know that for a great many Google searches one or more Wikipedia entries will turn up high on the first page of the results. They don't all know that Wikipedia now comes eleventh in alexa.com's traffic ranking of world websites. For a strictly non-commercial site with relatively academic content, that is astonishing success; what's more, the trend is steadily upwards, though it will be hard to overtake the top four: yahoo.com, msn.com, google.com, and the highly popular Chinese search engine, baidu.com.
The Critical Dictionary and the Wiki World
Authors: Adams Michael 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTA new utopian lexicography – online? Today, dictionary users are Web users: they imagine that a static paper text is necessarily less richly informative than a hyperlinked megatext. They expect to move among texts as interest and curiosity direct, not to be constrained by linear, editorially directed matter of the old-fashioned kind. The nodes of an infinite hyperlinked search may map a universe of small, classically organized texts, but those who travel the Web for information and ideas expect to click around on impulse. Further, they often expect to participate in the public construction of know-ledge, contributing and editing Web content whenever they feel competent to do so. They are hyper-Romantics who have conflated their imaginations and the scapes of human know-ledge into a hypertextual hyperuniverse. Future dictionaries of English should acknowledge these new user inclinations to the extent compatible with the highest lexicographical standards. These ideas are discussed further.
Using Fuzzy Tree Fragments to explore English grammar
Authors: Aarts Bas , Nelson Gerald , Wallis Sean 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTReaders of ET may recall two papers, the first by the late Sidney Greenbaum (‘ICE: the International Corpus of English,’ ET7, 1991, 3–7), the second and by Akiva Quinn & Nick Porter (‘Investigating English Usage with ICECUP’, ET10, 1994, pp. 21–24) which introduced the International Corpus of English (ICE) and its search facility ICECUP (the ICE Corpus Utility Programme). The present paper has a two-fold aim: to (re-)acquaint readers with ICE and discuss the latest developments in ICECUP – including its recent release on CD-ROM. The International Corpus of English was initiated by Sidney Greenbaum, whose aim was to set up a number of identically constructed corpora (for the purpose of grammar research) in the world's various English-speaking countries.
China EFL: Teaching with movies
Authors: Qiang Niu , Hai Teng , Wolff Martin 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTSome observations on using motion pictures to teach Business English. THE USE of motion pictures or other captioned films as part of teaching English as a foreign language has markedly increased in recent years in China. Because of this, we undertook a four-year experiment to determine how effective the use of English-language movies has been in the teaching of business. From this experiment it became clear that a cavalier use of movies in effect misused them. The appropriate and effective use of motion pictures requires a range of elements: (1) movies that are at one and the same time educational, informative, and entertaining; (2) a workbook linked to such movies that enables students to get ready beforehand; (3) most importantly, a range of classroom activities to induce and elicit timely and optimal output from the students, so as to make talking and writing about communication easier and more effective. Activities such as dubbing, story retelling, acting, discussing, debating, and role playing are only a few of the effective techniques a teacher can employ to engage the students.
Cercarial dermatitis and lake eutrophication in south-central Chile
Authors: VALDOVINOS C. , BALBOA C. 
Published: June 2007

SUMMARYCercarial dermatitis is caused by exposure to the cercariae of schistosome species which have birds or mammals as their definitive hosts. A public alarm was raised in the summer of 2004 when this parasitic disease was observed for the first time in south-central Chile at Laguna Chica de San Pedro (36° 51″ S, 73° 05″ W). Swimmers at this eutrophic lake were surveyed in order to estimate the amount of cercarial dermatitis in the area; participants were observed during the summers of 2004 and 2005 for clinical signs of cercarial dermatitis and 25Chilina dombeyanasnails were collected monthly from Laguna Chica de San Pedro during one year and then examined for animal schistosome cercariae. We found that 3% of the swimmers had pruritic maculopapular rashes on their legs, arms, necks, or other body parts and that between 9·1% (May 2006) and 52·4% (November 2004) of the snails examined were infected with the bird schistosome cercariaeTrichobilharziasp.
Attention Training in the Reduction and Reappraisal of Intrusive Thoughts
Authors: Watson Chris , Purdon Christine 
Published: June 2007

AbstractAttention Training (ATT) is an auditory attention-focusing technique that attempts to reduce the perseverative self-focused processing characteristic of anxiety and mood disorders. The present study investigated the effects of one session of ATT in the reduction and reappraisal of intrusive thoughts in a university sample reporting high levels of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. One-hundred and eight participants identified their most distressing intrusive thought and spent 7 minutes monitoring their stream of consciousness while recording occurrences of the identified thought. They then rated the unpleasantness of the intrusive thought, their attempts to dismiss the thought from consciousness, and their perceived success in reducing the frequency of the thought. Participants were then randomly assigned to receive one session of ATT, thought replacement instructions (TR), distraction instructions (DI), or no intervention (CONT). Participants then repeated the thought monitoring interval and ratings. ATT was expected to be the most effective in decreasing the frequency and unpleasantness of intrusive thoughts. However, contrary to hypotheses, all groups reported similar decreases across intervals. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism associated with a novel de novo heterozygous R551K inactivating mutation and a heterozygous A986S polymorphism of the calcium‐sensing receptor gene
Authors: Tõke Judit , Czirják Gábor , Patócs Attila , Enyedi Balázs , Gergics Péter , Csákváry Violetta , Enyedi Péter , Tóth Miklós 
Published: June 2007

SummaryIntroduction  Neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism (NSHPT) is induced by inactivating mutations of human calcium‐sensing receptor (CaSR). Only three heterozygous de novo inactivating mutations of CaSR causing NSHPT have been described. We report the case of a now 11‐year‐old boy with NSHPT and we characterize a novel inactivating mutation along with the results of some functional analyses.Patient and methods  As a neonate the patient presented the clinical syndrome of NSHPT. At 6 years of age persisting hypercalcaemia without clinical symptoms was documented, and the patient remained completely symptom free without parathyroid surgery until his present age of 11 years. The entire coding region of the CaSR gene of the patient and his family members was sequenced. Functional investigation was performed in HEK‐293 cells, transiently transfected with wild type and mutant CaSR plasmid constructs.Results  Sequence analysis revealed a novel de novo heterozygous mutation at codon 551 (AGG→AAG), predicting a change of arginine to lysine (R551K) and a known heterozygous polymorphism (A986S) on the same allele, which was inherited from the father. We demonstrated that the novel R551K mutation significantly reduced the calcium sensitivity of CaSR (EC50: from 3·38 ± 0·62–6·10 ± 0·83 mmol/l), which was not alleviated by the simultaneous presence of A986S polymorphism.Conclusions  We present the fourth NSHPT case induced by a novel de novo heterozygous inactivating mutation (R551K) of the CaSR gene. The disease gradually reverted to a symptomless, benign condition resembling familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia without any surgical intervention.
Cytokine profiling and in vitro studies of murine bone growth using biological fluids from children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Authors: MacRae V. E. , Wong S. C. , Smith W. , Gracie A. , McInnes I. , Galea P. , Gardner‐Medwin J. , Farquharson C. , Ahmed S. F. 
Published: June 2007

SummaryObjective  Growth retardation in children with chronic inflammatory disease may be partly due to direct effects of pro‐inflammatory cytokines on the growth plate and requires further investigation.Design  This study assessed the cytokine concentrations in serum and synovial fluid (SF) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and determined the effect of the biological fluid on cultured murine metatarsal growth.Patients  Serum and SF were obtained from four children attending for arthrocentesis (child A, systemic; children B, C and D, oligoarticular). In addition, serum samples were obtained from four more children (children E and F, polyarticular; child G, oligoarticular).Measurements  Anthropometry, cytokine levels and longitudinal bone growth were assessed.Results  Cytokines were elevated to a variable extent in the samples. Although all serum samples were associated with reduced metatarsal growth, only SF from child A and child B reduced metatarsal growth. Metatarsals treated with child A's SF showed reduced proliferation, reduced proliferative and mineralizing zone width, and increased hypertrophic zone width. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, interleukin (IL)‐1β and IL‐6 concentrations were elevated in child A's SF. However, SF exposure with neutralizing antibodies to these cytokines or IGF‐1 did not improve metatarsal growth.Conclusion  SF and serum JIA samples can impair bone growth at the growth plate. In synovial fluid, the effect is variable but resistant to treatment with IL‐1β, IL‐6 and TNF‐α specific antibodies and IGF‐1, suggesting that other factors in this biological fluid may also have an effect on longitudinal growth through IGF‐1‐independent mechanisms.
GH responsiveness in a large multinational cohort of SGA children with short stature (NESTEGG) is related to the exon 3 GHR polymorphism
Authors: Tauber M. , Ester W. , Auriol F. , Molinas C. , Fauvel J. , Caliebe J. , Nugent T. , Fryklund L. , Ranke M. B. , Savage M. O. , Clark A. J. L. , Johnston L. B. , Hokken‐Koelega A. C. S. ,   on behalf of the NESTEGG group
Published: June 2007

SummaryObjective  The polymorphic deletion of exon 3 of the GH receptor (d3‐GHR) has recently been linked to the magnitude of growth response to recombinant human GH (rhGH) therapy in short children with or without GH deficiency. We investigated this association in a large multinational cohort from the Network of European Studies of Genes in Growth (NESTEGG), comprising short children born small for gestational age (SGA).Design  The study included short prepubertal SGA children treated with rhGH for 1 or 2 years.Population  Two hundred and forty white Caucasian SGA children (138 male, 102 female) aged 6·6 ± 2·3 years with a height at –3·0 ± 0·7 SDS at start of rhGH treatment; 193 ethnically matched controls.Methods  The GHR polymorphism (fl/fl, fl/d3 or d3/d3) was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) multiplex assay. Growth velocity (G/V) in cm/year and changes in GV during the first and second year of rhGH treatment were evaluated.Results  The change in GV was significantly greater in SGA children carrying one or two copies of the d3‐GHR allele (P = 0·038 for the first year and P = 0·041 for the second year of GH treatment), but the change in height was not significantly different. Birthweight was significantly lower in SGA children with the d3/d3 genotype than in SGA children with the fl/fl genotype (P = 0·034) and in those with the fl/d3 genotype (P = 0·016).Conclusion  Our data, based on a large cohort, showed that the exon 3 GHR polymorphism is associated with responsiveness to rhGH treatment in SGA children with short stature.
Autism: tactile perception and emotion
Authors: Pernon E. , Pry R. , Baghdadli A. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractBackground  For many years, and especially since Waynbaum and Wallon, psychology and psychopathology have dealt with cognitive perception, but have had little to do with the affective qualities of perception. Our aim was to study the influence of the sensory environment on people with autism.Method  Several experiments were carried out using different forms of tactile stimulation (passive and active subjects).Results  Our data showed specific responses in children with autism and intellectual disability. These children displayed a strong (positive) valence to the stimulation provided.Conclusion  They were very attracted to the stimulation and were excited by it.
The Sentence Completion and Three Wishes tasks: windows into the inner lives of people with intellectual disabilities
Authors: Dykens E. , Schwenk K. , Maxwell M. , Myatt B. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractBackground  Measuring the self‐perceptions, thoughts, hopes and inner lives of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) has long been a research challenge. Unlike objective or projective tests, semi‐projective tasks may provide persons with ID with just enough structure or cues to convey their self‐perceptions in a spontaneous and unbiased manner.Methods  Sentence Completion and Three Wishes tasks were individually administered to 128 persons with ID aged 5–50 years (mean = 18.75 years). Participants had Prader–Willi, Williams or Down syndromes. Content analyses resulted in 19 codes that were used to reliably score both tasks by independent raters who achieved excellent levels of inter‐rater agreement. Participants also received IQ testing, and their parents or care providers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).Results  Frequent themes across both tasks included activities, positive affect, desired objects, and relationships with family and pets. No gender or IQ effects were found, and just a few codes showed modest age effects. Several responses, including dating, friends, food, and positive or negative self‐appraisals, were significantly related to either syndrome status or CBCL maladaptive behaviour.Conclusions  Although not widely used, the Sentence Completion and Three Wishes tasks are useful semi‐projective techniques for garnering otherwise hard‐to‐access self‐perceptions and associations of people with ID. Implications are discussed for practice and research.
Fossorial but widespread: the phylogeography of the common spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus), and the role of the Po Valley as a major source of genetic variability
Authors: CROTTINI ANGELICA , ANDREONE FRANCO , KOSUCH JOACHIM , BORKIN LEO J. , LITVINCHUK SPARTAK N. , EGGERT CHRISTOPHE , VEITH MICHAEL 
Published: June 2007

Abstract Pelobates fuscus is a fossorial amphibian that inhabits much of the European plain areas. To unveil traces of expansion and contraction events of the species’ range, we sequenced 702 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. To infer the population history we applied phylogeographical methods, such as nested clade phylogeographical analysis (NCPA), and used summary statistics to analyse population structure under a neutral model of evolution. Populations were assigned to different drainage systems and we tested hypotheses of explicit refugial models using information from analysis of molecular variance, nucleotide diversity, effective population size estimation, NCPA, mismatch distribution and Bayesian dating. Coalescent simulations were used as post hoc tests for plausibility of derived or a priori assumed biogeographical hypotheses. Our combination of all approaches enabled the reconstruction of the colonization history and phylogeography of P. fuscus and confirmed a previous assumption of the existence of two major genetic lineages within P. fuscus. Using the Afro‐European vicariance of Pelobates cultripes and Pelobates varaldii and applying Bayesian dating we estimated the divergence of these phylogeographical lineages to the Pliocene. We suggest the existence of three different glacial refugia: (i) the area between the Caspian and Black Seas as the origin for the expansion of the ‘eastern lineage’; (ii) the Danube system as a centre of diversity for part of the ‘western lineage’; (iii) the Po Valley, the largest centre of genetic variability. This fits the hypothesis that climatic fluctuation was a key event for differentiation processes in P. fuscus.
Testing hypotheses of population structuring in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea using the common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis
Authors: PÉREZ‐LOSADA MARCOS , NOLTE MARK J. , CRANDALL KEITH A. , SHAW PAUL W. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractPopulation structuring in species inhabiting marine environments such as the Northeast Atlantic Ocean (NEA) and Mediterranean Sea (MS) has usually been explained based on past and present physical barriers to gene flow and isolation by distance (IBD). Here, we examined the relative importance of these factors on population structuring of the common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis by using methods of phylogenetic inference and hypothesis testing coupled with coalescent and classical population genetic parameter estimation. Individuals from 10 Atlantic and 15 Mediterranean sites were sequenced for 659 bp of the mitochondrial COI gene (259 sequences). IBD seems to be the main factor driving present and past genetic structuring of Sepia populations across the NEA–MS, both at large and small geographical scales. Such an evolutionary process agrees well with some of the biological features characterizing this cuttlefish species (short migrations, nektobenthic habit, benthic eggs hatching directly to benthic juveniles). Despite the many barriers to migration/gene flow suggested in the NEA–MS region, genetic population fragmentation due to past isolation of water masses (Pleistocene; 0.56 million years ago) and/or present‐day oceanographic currents was only detected between the Aegean‐Ionian and western Mediterranean Seas. Restricted gene flow associated with the Almería‐Oran hydrographic front was also suggested between southern and eastern Spanish populations. Distinct population boundaries could not be clearly determined, except for the Aegean‐Ionian stock. Two Atlantic and five Mediterranean samples showed evidence of current decline in genetic diversity, which may indicate over‐exploitation of Sepia in both marine regions.