bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prognostic impact of NT‐proBNP and renal function in comparison to contemporary multi‐marker risk scores in heart failure patients
Authors: Pfister Roman , Diedrichs Holger , Schiedermair Anne , Rosenkranz Stephan , Hellmich Martin , Erdmann Erland , Schneider Christian Alfons 
Published: March 2008

AbstractBackground:Multi‐marker risk scores accurately predict prognosis in heart failure patients but calculation is complex.Aims:To compare the prognostic accuracy of the Seattle Heart Failure Survival Score (SHFS) and a model derived from the CHARM programme, with laboratory parameters NT‐proBNP and glomerular filtration rate (GFR).Methods and results:In a sample of 290 heart failure patients, 39 patients died, 22 were hospitalised with acute heart failure and 4 underwent urgent cardiac transplantation during a median follow‐up of 498 days. NT‐proBNP, GFR, CHARM and SHFS showed an AUC for an endpoint during 1‐year of 0.80, 0.72, 0.79 and 0.69, respectively. The hazard ratio for an endpoint during follow‐up was 2.1, 2.6, 1.9 and 2.1 per 1 SD increase of log NT‐proBNP and CHARM and per 1 SD decrease of GFR and SHFS, respectively. In multivariate analysis, log NT‐proBNP and GFR added independent prognostic information to CHARM and SHFS, respectively.Conclusion:NT‐proBNP and GFR independently predicted endpoint‐free survival in systolic heart failure patients, with NT‐proBNP being superior and equally predictive to the SHFS and CHARM score, respectively. Assessment of both laboratory markers can simplify prognostic stratification, addition to multi‐marker scores should be evaluated.
NeuroQuick – A novel bedside test for small fiber neuropathy?
Authors: Haussleiter Ida S. , Richter Helmut , Scherens Andrea , Schwenkreis Peter , Tegenthoff Martin , Maier Christoph 
Published: March 2008

AbstractBackground: An appropriate bedside test for small fiber neuropathy does not exist so far. Cold hypaesthesia occurs as an early onset symptom, and the new handheld device NeuroQuick (NQ) was recently claimed to be a valid and reliable screening tool for its quantitative assessment.Aims: Comparison of the NQ with standardized quantitative sensory testing (QST) in patients suffering from chronic painful dysaesthesia with and without pathological cold detection threshold (CDT).Methods: Forty‐one patients with and without diabetes mellitus displaying chronic painful dysaesthesia were included (18 men, 55.8±13 years). According to the German network protocol QST was performed in the body area with the severest symptoms and at the opposite side as control after thorough clinical–neurological examination. The NeuroQuick, developed as quantitative bedside testing of cold thermal perception based on the wind chill, was used subsequently.Results: DT was pathologically increased in 14 and within normal range in 27 patients; NQ values were pathological in 9 and non‐pathological in 32 patients. Thus NQ obtained 7.4% false positive and 50% false negative results in detecting cold hypaesthesia, corresponding to 92.6% specificity, 50% sensitivity and a positive and negative predictive value of 78%, respectively.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the NeuroQuick is not an adequate screening device for cold hypaesthesia in patients with chronic neuropathic pain. It exhibits a high specificity but only low sensitivity in the identification of such small fiber dysfunction; a reliable and valid screening tool should necessarily provide opposite features.
Quantitative somatic sensory testing and functional imaging of the response to painful stimuli before and after cingulotomy for obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD)
Authors: Greenspan Joel D. , Coghill Robert C. , Gilron Ian , Sarlani Eleni , Veldhuijzen Dieuwke S. , Lenz Frederick A. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThe middle cingulate cortex (MCC) has been implicated in pain processing by studies of cingulotomy for chronic pain and imaging studies documenting increased MCC blood flow in response to acute pain. The only previous report of quantitative sensory testing following cingulotomy described increased intensity and unpleasantness ratings of painful hot and cold stimuli in a single patient with psychiatric disease. We now report a case in which perception of pain and temperature was assessed before and after cingulotomy for obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Positron emission tomographic (PET) studies of the blood flow response to acute pain were carried out using a single subject design which allowed for statistical evaluation of postoperative blood flow changes in this case.Postoperatively, the patient demonstrated increased intensity and unpleasantness ratings of painful thermal waterbath stimuli. The PET studies demonstrated preoperative contact heat pain‐evoked activation of the bilateral MCC/SMA (supplementary motor area) and the left (contralateral) fronto‐parietal operculum. Postoperative pain‐evoked activation was demonstrated in the right (ipsilateral) parasylvian cortex but not of the MCC/SMA. Prior studies of forebrain lesions, and of cortical synchrony during the application of painful stimuli suggest the presence of functional connectivity between components of the MCC/SMA and the fronto‐parietal opercula. Therefore present results suggest that cingulate lesions disinhibit ipsilateral parasylvian cortex and so are independent evidence of functional connectivity between these cortical areas, the defining characteristic of modules in a pain network.
The Stakes of Inclusion: Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress
Authors: Winter Stephen 
Published: March 2008

Abstract.Between 1885 and 1923 Canada imposed a discriminatory head-tax on Chinese immigrants. In 2006 Canada implemented a material redress program intended to resolve this historical injustice, but aspects of this program have been subjected to vigorous criticism by those seeking greater inclusivity. Paying particular attention to the program's intergenerational aspects, this study explores how the current program's conceptualization of a valid redress claim is situated with respect to both its critics and to domestic and international precedents. Recognizing the dynamic potentiality of redress, the study explores aspects of why and how Canada's understandings of historical redress are politically implicated.Résumé.Entre 1885 et 1923 le Canada a imposé un impôt discriminatoire aux immigrés chinois. En 2006, le Canada a mis en oeuvre un programme de réparation afin de redresser cette injustice historique, mais certains aspects de ce programme sont vivement critiqués par les partisans d'une plus grande inclusivité. Se concentrant en particulier sur les aspects intergénérationnels du programme, cette étude analyse la manière dont le programme actuel situe la conceptualisation d'une demande légitime de réparation en fonction à la fois de ses détracteurs et de précédents nationaux et internationaux. Prenant en compte le potentiel dynamique de la réparation, cette étude analyse les implications politiques de la démarche canadienne de redressement historique.
Les styles discursifs des premiers ministres québécois de Jean Lesage à Jean Charest
Authors: Monière Denis , Labbé Cyril , Labbé Dominique 
Published: March 2008

Résumé. La forme, le style du discours des hommes politiques sont révélateurs de leurs personnalités et de leurs stratégies de communication. Pour analyser les styles des premiers ministres québécois, un corpus comprenant 789 discours officiels prononcés de 1960 à 2005 a été soumis à une analyse de stylistique quantitative. Nous avons analysé les catégories grammaticales, le maniement des verbes et des noms, la longueur et la structure des phrases. Cette comparaison statistique montre des différences significatives entre les premiers ministres et révèle également la stratégie de communication privilégiée par chacun d'eux.Abstract. The style of politician speeches reveals their personalities and their communication strategies. In order to analyse the style of Quebec prime ministers, from 1960 to 2005, a corpus of 789 speeches have been built up and a quantitative stylistic analysis has been applied to it. The main indicators used are the grammatical categories, especially the verbs and pronouns, the length and the structure of the sentences. This statistical comparison shows some important differences between the styles of the prime ministers and between the communication strategies they have followed.
Freedom of Speech in Early Stuart England
Authors: King Ed 
Published: March 2008

Freedom of Speech in Early Stuart England, David Colclough, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 314.The rhetorical lynchpin of this fascinating book's central argument is the concept of parrhesia, which is a Greek term that began life as a catch-all expression for the quality of speech belonging to citizens of the polis (6). Colclough implies that the tradition of parrhesia took a circular route via the freedom of expression inherent in the group rights of Greek citizens to the need for frank expression of unpleasant truths by courtiers to their rulers. This transition required that “frankness” be elevated to the status of a virtue once it became apparent that rulers did not always make decisions in the best interest of the state. After the Reformation in northern Europe this virtue evolved into a religious imperative in the face of sectarian persecution and in England, especially, this imperative naturally extended itself to the admonition of monarchs who encroached on their citizens' religious freedoms. Religious conflict led to war, war required economic investment and soon the religious imperative to oppose the wrong-headed heretic blended with a protestant parliament's right to admonish the monarch on purely secular matters. Thus, under the Stuarts, parrhesia eventually came to resume its original sense as the right and duty of a free subject to speak out in public without fear that his desire to preserve the common good would be prosecuted under laws aimed at the seditious and libelous. It is but a rising sense of the secular that enables us to recognize the change in values that led an onerous religious duty to become the unimpeachable liberal right we so casually assert today.
Russia Transformed: Developing Popular Support for a New Regime
Authors: Chandler Andrea 
Published: March 2008

Russia Transformed: Developing Popular Support for a New Regime, Richard Rose, William Mishler and Neil Munro, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. xii, 226.This monograph analyzes major findings of fourteen years of public opinion research in Russia carried out under the New Russia Barometer survey research project, which Rose and colleagues conducted in conjunction with the Levada Centre in Russia. Rose, Mishler and Munro offer a clearly written, focused discussion that puts complex data into perspective. The work's major contribution is its systematic evaluation of the evolution of Russian citizens' political attitudes from 1992 to 2005. As the authors note in their dedication to the volume, their surveys included over 28,000 people across Russia (the methodology is outlined on pp. 70–75). As such, the book's authority in providing an accurate reflection of citizens' views is indisputable. Much to their credit, the authors render their findings readily understandable to readers who are not expert in survey research design or quantitative methods.
Escaping the Resource Curse
Authors: Carter Angela V. 
Published: March 2008

Escaping the Resource Curse, Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds., Foreword by George Soros; New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, pp. xviii, 408.Escaping the Resource Curse provides economic and political analysis of resource curse theories as well as practical policy advice to governments on managing oil and gas developments. Twelve chapters by natural resource specialists from multiple disciplines discuss a broad range of oil and gas development issues in three sections, “Dealing with Oil Corporations,” “Managing the Macroeconomy,” and “Handling the Politics.” Beyond the specific policy advice elaborated in detail throughout (relating primarily to transparency), the book succeeds in its accessible analysis of resource curse theories and state-industry tensions as well as its reinterpretation of oil wealth.
Parole d'historiens. Anthologie des réflexions sur l'histoire au Québec
Authors: Perreault Isabelle 
Published: March 2008

Parole d'historiens. Anthologie des réflexions sur l'histoire au Québec, Éric Bédard et Julien Goyette (dirs), Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2006, 492 pages.Cette anthologie de réflexions sur la pratique historienne au Québec est issue du désir de faire connaître les essais, les bilans et les réflexions théoriques sur l'historiographie au Québec depuis le dix-huitième siècle. Deux historiens québécois, Éric Bédard et Julien Goyette, en sont les tributaires. Par ce projet de publication de textes d'historiens de chez nous s'échelonnant sur près de trois siècles, les présentateurs de l'ouvrage voulaient aussi faire réfléchir sur la théorie et la pratique historique actuelle. Comme le souligne Bédard dans l'introduction de l'ouvrage, il s'agit de “nourrir [les] réflexions sur l'écriture de l'histoire au Québec et les finalités de la recherche” (11). En outre, bien que la discipline historique soit traditionnellement rattachée au domaine des Arts et Lettres, les historiens se sont toujours interrogés sur l'histoire en tant que discipline des sciences humaines et ils ont tenté de répondre aux grandes questions sur le sens et le rôle de l'histoire. L'histoire est-elle une science ou un grand récit ? L'historien doit-il être attentif aux enjeux présents ou tenter d'en faire abstraction ? L'historien est-il un chercheur en quête de vérité ou un critique des grands mythes de la nation ? Ces questions, et bien d'autres, se retrouvent dans les textes des historiens réunis dans cette anthologie.
Dancing Around the Elephant: Creating a Prosperous Canada in an Era of American Dominance, 1957–1973
Authors: Miljan Lydia 
Published: March 2008

Dancing Around the Elephant: Creating a Prosperous Canada in an Era of American Dominance, 1957–1973, Bruce Muirhead, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 323.Canadian feelings of anti-Americanism have a long history. Some have suggested that Canada was born more out of a sense of wanting to protect itself from American invaders than with a sense of what it was. The view that Canada is the lesser state is seen in Pierre Trudeau's comment to the Washington Press Gallery in 1969: “Living next to you, is like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” The elephant-mouse metaphor has been one of the best ones to describe the relationship between the two nations and is often used by left-leaning Canadian nationalists to illustrate how much weaker Canada is in the partnership.
Agir maintenant pour le Québec de demain, sous la direction de Luc Godbout.
Authors: Bourque Mélanie 
Published: March 2008

Agir maintenant pour le Québec de demain, sous la direction de Luc Godbout., Luc Godbout, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2006, 264 pages.L'ouvrage Agir maintenant pour le Québec de demain s'est fixé trois objectifs. Le premier est de mettre en lumière les positions divergentes des Lucides et des Solidaires; le second est d'ouvrir le dialogue entre les tenants de l'une et l'autre tendance; le troisième est de trouver des pistes de solutions qui pourront assurer le maintien des programmes sociaux tels qu'ils existent aujourd'hui pour les générations futures. On peut affirmer que l'ouvrage atteint le premier et le troisième objectifs, mais on ne peut en dire autant du second objectif, puisque le dialogue semble pour le moins difficile.
Building States without Society: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary
Authors: Boardman Robert 
Published: March 2008

Building States without Society: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary, Beate Sissenich, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007, pp. xiv, 237.Social policy has been a crucial and at times controversial area for the European Union, yet it remains limited in scope and clout. EU social policy is not a major annoyance of a kind to alarm employers nor does it present labour unions with tantalizing opportunities for social change. It does not deal with redistribution politics and does not establish an EU-level welfare state. Important topics are left out. In the negotiations before the 2004 enlargement, the issues of mobility and the freedom of movement of persons—politically charged issues in view of the fears on the part of some older members of a significant influx of workers from new lower-wage EU states—were handled in a separate negotiating chapter.
Order and Anarchy: Civil Society, Social Disorder and War
Authors: Noel Sid 
Published: March 2008

Order and Anarchy: Civil Society, Social Disorder and War, Robert Layton, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. vi, 197.All societies undergo periods of stress from time to time, whether caused by internal factors or by radical changes in their economic, political or other environments. Why do some make the necessary adjustments by peaceful political means with relatively little disruption of their underlying social order while others spiral into violence, social disorder and (not infrequently) inter-communal warfare? This is a question that has long engaged political theorists and in this short book Robert Layton reflects upon it from the perspective of an anthropologist. His subject is nothing less than the role of violence in human evolution.
L'égalité introuvable. La parité, les féministes et la République
Authors: Tremblay Manon 
Published: March 2008

L'égalité introuvable. La parité, les féministes et la République, Éléonore Lépinard, Les Presses de sciences po (Collection Fait politique), 2007, 293 pages.La parité, ou l'idée que les sièges dans les assemblées élues devraient être partagés également entre les femmes et les hommes, a fait couler beaucoup d'encre, surtout depuis la première moitié des années 1990. Dans ce contexte d'abondance, l'apport original de L'égalité introuvable est d'étudier cette problématique sous l'angle du processus de légitimation discursive, c'est-à-dire en s'interrogeant sur les normes juridiques et politiques qui ont rendu possible la parité. En d'autres mots, Lépinard cherche à mettre au jour les mécanismes discursifs qui ont permis que la revendication de la parité soit mise en conformité avec les valeurs de la République française, notamment celles de l'égalité formelle de tous les citoyens et de l'universalisme abstrait.
Perioperative placement of stents for relief of proximal pulmonary arterial stenoses in infants
Authors: Sreeram Narayanswami , Emmel Mathias , Ben Mime Lotfi , Brockmeier Konrad , Bennink Gerardus 
Published: March 2008

AbstractIntroductionStenoses in the pulmonary arterial system can have a significant negative impact on the early postoperative course in infants. Early recognition and aggressive management are mandatory.Patients and methodsWe describe our experience with 8 infants, with ages ranging from 3 to 9 months, weighing from 4.5 to 7.7 kilograms, who presented in the up to 18 days following construction of a shunt from the superior caval vein to the pulmonary arteries with clinical symptoms of obstructed pulmonary flow. We include also 2 infants in whom pulmonary arterial stents were implanted in the operating room. Cardiac catheterization showed significant stenoses or occlusion of the left pulmonary arteries in 9 infants, the right pulmonary arteries in 2, or the superior caval vein in 1, the investigation being prompted by the findings of supraphysiological superior caval venous pressures and systemic hypoxaemia. We implanted a variety of stents mounted on balloons ranging in diameter from 6 to 13 millimetres, with 7 placed across a newly created surgical anastomotic site.ResultsAll stenoses were crossed successfully, and stents implanted satisfactorily in all patients, albeit that 1 infant suffered an acute tear of the left pulmonary artery, requiring immediate reoperation. This patient died 72 hours later due to a diffuse coagulopathy. All other patients demonstrated sustained clinical improvement following the procedure. At follow-up, 7 of the 9 survivors have progressed to completion of the Fontan circulation. Redilation of the stents was required in the interim, prior to completion of the Fontan circulation, in 4 of them. In 2 patients, the previously implanted stents were incised during the Fontan completion, permitting placement of the extracardiac Goretex conduit from the inferior caval vein to the pulmonary arteries.ConclusionsStents can successfully be implanted perioperatively in the pulmonary arterial system during infancy, and redilated, with improvement in clinical outcome in the majority of those with clinically relevant obstruction.
Role of caval venous manipulation in treatment of protein-losing enteropathy
Authors: Menon Shaji , Hagler Donald , Cetta Frank , Gloviczki Peter , Driscoll David 
Published: March 2008

AbstractProtein-losing enteropathy has been associated with the Fontan operation, restrictive cardiomyopathy, constrictive pericarditis, tricuspid valvar stenosis and insufficiency, and superior caval venous obstruction. The mechanism of development of this complication of cardiac disease likely is multifactorial. We report here our experience with 3 patients with protein-losing enteropathy. Two had superior caval venous occlusion. The third patient had undergone an extracardiac Fontan operation, with stenosis of the extracardiac conduit placed to the right pulmonary artery. In all three cases, the complication was resolved by restoring unobstructed flow of blood in the superior or inferior caval vein. Since the aetiology of protein-losing enteropathy associated with cardiac disease is multifactorial, reduction of pressure in the tributaries of the superior caval vein may, in some cases, be curative. It is more difficult to cure the problem when it is associated with the Fontan operation.