bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A randomized study of docetaxel and dexamethasone with low‐ or high‐dose estramustine for patients with advanced hormone‐refractory prostate cancer
Authors: NELIUS THOMAS , KLATTE TOBIAS , YAP RON , KALINSKI THOMAS , RÖPKE ALBRECHT , FILLEUR STEPHANIE , ALLHOFF ERNST P. 
Published: August 2006

OBJECTIVETo test the combination of docetaxel with two different doses of estramustine in patients with hormone‐refractory prostate cancer (HRPC), to improve response rates and to lower side‐effects, as docetaxel‐based chemotherapy is an increasing option for men with advanced HRPC, and alone or combined with estramustine, docetaxel improves median survival.PATIENTS AND METHODSIn all, 72 patients with metastatic HRPC were randomly assigned to receive docetaxel (70 mg/m2 intravenously, on day 2 every 21 days) and estramustine (3 × 280 mg/day oral starting 1 day before docetaxel, for 5 consecutive days) for arm A, or estramustine (3 × 140 mg/day oral starting 1 day before docetaxel, for 3 consecutive days) for arm B. Premedication with oral dexamethasone at a total daily dose of 16 mg, in divided doses twice a day was administered in arm A on day 1–5 and in arm B on day 1–3. Initially, six cycles were administered. Chemotherapy was restarted after a significant increase in prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) level. Patients were monitored for any measurable PSA response and toxicity.RESULTSBetween the arms there was no statistically significant difference in time to progression and overall survival. However, treatment B had less treatment‐related toxicity than A. Independent prognostic variables were baseline factors like PSA level, haemoglobin level, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, and bone pain at presentation.CONCLUSIONSIn this randomized phase II study the combination of docetaxel and estramustine had substantial activity in HRPC, with a significant incidence of severe toxicity, both haematological and not. Nevertheless, treatment‐related toxicity was predictable and manageable. There was no better effect with a higher dose of estramustine with docetaxel than for a lower dose. There was a slight tendency to higher toxicity for high‐dose estramustine but this was not statistically significant. The present results support the assertion that estramustine is not necessary in docetaxel‐based treatment regimens.
How common are tape erosions? A comparison of two versions of the transobturator tension‐free vaginal tape procedure
Authors: ABDEL‐FATTAH MOHAMED , SIVANESAN KANAPATHIPPILLAI , RAMSAY IAN , PRINGLE STEWART , BJORNSSON STEIN 
Published: August 2006

OBJECTIVETo compare two transobturator suburethral tapes (ObtapeTM, Mentor‐Porges and TVT‐OTM, Gynaecare, Johnson & Johnson) used in the management of urodynamic stress incontinence (USI), for tape erosion (vaginal/urethral) rates, clinical presentation, management and outcome.PATIENTS AND METHODSWe retrospectively studied women who underwent a transobturator suburethral tension‐free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure for managing USI in a tertiary referral centre in the West of Scotland over a 36‐month period. In our department, the transobturator approach has been the first‐choice approach for TVTs since July 2003. Two types of tapes were mainly used, Obtape and TVT‐O, and the choice of tape was primarily decided by the surgeons’ preference.RESULTSIn all, 316 women had a transobturator tape procedure, of which 96 were associated with another procedure; 112 women had TVT‐O using the ‘inside‐out’ technique and 204 had the ‘outside‐in’ technique. Of the latter, 192 had Obtape, four had Obtryx (Boston Scientific) and eight had Monarc (American Medical Systems Inc.) tapes. Sixteen women developed vaginal tape erosion, and significantly more were in the Obtape group than in the TVT‐O group (7.29% vs 1.78%, P = 0.038). The patients’ age, body mass index, previous vaginal surgery and concomitant vaginal surgery were not significant risk factors for erosions. The time between surgery and diagnosis of erosion was 1–45 weeks, with only one patient being asymptomatic; all others presented with clinical symptoms such as vaginal bleeding, discharge and dyspareunia. Thirteen patients were continent at presentation and 10 of these remained continent after surgical management. In the TVT‐O group the erosions were in the lateral vaginal wall, while in the Obtape group the erosions were in the form of central tape extrusion secondary to defective vaginal wall healing.CONCLUSIONThere were significantly more vaginal tape erosions in the Obtape group than in the TVT‐O group. No cases of urethral erosions were identified.
The expression of prostate stem cell antigen in human clear cell renal cell carcinoma: a quantitative reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction analysis
Authors: ELSAMMAN ESSAM M. , FUKUMORI TOMOHARU , TANIMOTO SHUJI , NAKANISHI RYOICHI , TAKAHASHI MASAYUKI , TOIDA KAZUNORI , KANAYAMA HIRO‐OMI 
Published: August 2006

OBJECTIVESTo analyse the gene expression level of prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) in human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CC‐RCC) and its relationship with conventional clinicopathological manifestations, to evaluate its prognostic value for patient outcome, and to determine the effect of PSCA on the progression of CC‐RCC.PATIENTS AND METHODSWe quantified PSCA mRNA level in human RCC cell lines (ACHN, A704, KPK‐1, Caki‐1, and Caki‐2) and in 154 surgical tissue samples (81 from CC‐RCC, 73 from normal kidney) using real‐time reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). The findings were analysed in relation to clinicopathological factors. Immunohistochemical expression was examined using confocal laser scanning light‐microscopy.RESULTSPSCA was overexpressed in all RCC cell lines. PSCA mRNA levels were significantly higher in CC‐RCC than in normal kidney tissue samples (P < 0.001), in G2‐G3 than in G1 tumours (P = 0.028), and in advanced disease (T3‐T4) than in organ‐confined (T1‐T2) tumours (P = 0.016). There was significantly higher PSCA mRNA expression in patients with M1 than in those with M0 disease (P = 0.029). Patients in whom the lesions had high PSCA expression levels had a significantly worse prognosis than those with low PSCA expression levels (P = 0.044). Using immunohistochemical analysis there was markedly greater PSCA expression in CC‐RCC than in normal kidney, and in advanced‐disease high‐grade tumours than in organ‐confined low‐grade tumours.CONCLUSIONSA significant correlation was detected in the gene expression level of PSCA with histological grade, clinicopathological stage and prognosis in CC‐RCC. Our data indicate that PSCA is associated with carcinogenesis and progression of CC‐RCC.
Circulating tumour‐associated plasma DNA represents an independent and informative predictor of prostate cancer
Authors: CHUN FELIX K.‐H. , MÜLLER IMKE , LANGE IMKE , FRIEDRICH MARTIN G. , ERBERSDOBLER ANDREAS , KARAKIEWICZ PIERRE I. , GRAEFEN MARKUS , PANTEL KLAUS , HULAND HARTWIG , SCHWARZENBACH HEIDI 
Published: August 2006

OBJECTIVETo investigate whether preoperative plasma levels of free DNA can discriminate between men with localized prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).PATIENTS AND METHODSIn all, 161 referred patients suspicious for prostate cancer either by an elevated prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) level and/or abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE) were included in this prospective study. Peripheral plasma was taken before prostate biopsy and genomic DNA was extracted from the plasma using the a commercial kit and a vacuum chamber. After controlling for age, PSA level, the percentage free/total (f/t) PSA and prostate volume, the median prostate cancer plasma DNA concentration served as diagnostic threshold in uni‐ and multivariate logistic regression models. Multivariate models were subjected to 200 bootstraps for internal validation and to reduce over‐fit bias.RESULTSSubgroups consisted of 142 men with clinically localized prostate cancer and 19 with BPH. The median plasma concentration of cell‐free DNA was 267 ng/mL in men with BPH vs 709 ng/mL in men with prostate cancer. In univariate analyses, plasma DNA concentration was a statistically significant and informative predictor (P = 0.032 and predictive accuracy 0.643). In multivariate analyses, it remained statistically significant after controlling for age, tPSA, f/tPSA and prostate volume, increasing the predictive accuracy by 5.6%.CONCLUSIONSOur data suggest that plasma DNA level is a highly accurate and informative predictor in uni‐ and multivariate models for the presence of prostate cancer on needle biopsy. The predictive accuracy was substantially increased by adding plasma DNA level. However, larger‐scale studies are needed to further confirm its clinical impact on prostate cancer detection.
Baseline follicle‐stimulating hormone is a strong predictor for the outcome of the gonadotrophin‐releasing hormone test in young men with unilateral medium‐ or high‐grade varicocele
Authors: BACH THORSTEN , PFEIFFER DIETRICH , TAUBER ROLAND 
Published: August 2006

OBJECTIVETo investigate whether the gonadotrophin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) test is an adequate diagnostic tool to identify testicular dysfunction in men with strictly unilateral varicocele and defined testicular volume; and to identify any peripheral venous variable which would predict the result of the GnRH test.PATIENTS AND METHODSIn all, 102 GnRH tests were done in men with a left‐sided varicocele. Follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were determined. After intravenous administration of 100 µg GnRH, stimulated LH and FSH levels were measured. FSH levels of >8.2 U/L and LH levels of >51.7 U/L were considered exaggerated.RESULTSIn all, 50 men had an exaggerated GnRH test result; all had an exaggerated FSH response and six also had an elevated LH response. The baseline FSH levels were higher (P < 0.001) and the testicular volume was smaller (P < 0.01) in men with an exaggerated GnRH test response. All men with a baseline FSH level of >5.6 U/L had an exaggerated GnRH test response.CONCLUSIONA baseline FSH level of >5.6 U/L is a good predictor of the GnRH test outcome. Leydig cell function seems mainly undisturbed.
Becoming literate in different languages: similar problems, different solutions
Authors: Ziegler Johannes C. , Goswami Usha 
Published: August 2006

Abstract The teaching of reading in different languages should be informed by an effective evidence base. Although most children will eventually become competent, indeed skilled, readers of their languages, the pre‐reading (e.g. phonological awareness) and language skills that they bring to school may differ in systematic ways for different language environments. A thorough understanding of potential differences is required if literacy teaching is to be optimized in different languages. Here we propose a theoretical framework based on a psycholinguistic grain size approach to guide the collection of evidence in different countries. We argue that the development of reading depends on children's phonological awareness in all languages studied to date. However, we propose that because languages vary in the consistency with which phonology is represented in orthography, there are developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations, and accompanying differences in developmental reading strategies across orthographies.
Fluency, phonology and morphology: a response to the commentaries on becoming literate in different languages
Authors: Goswami Usha , Ziegler Johannes C. 
Published: August 2006

Abstract We are delighted at the range of issues raised in the commentaries. The breadth and scope of these serve to make obvious the need for an effective evidence base across languages if we are to optimize the teaching of reading. Our psycholinguistic grain size theory clearly did not pay sufficient attention to the role of morphology in decoding, nor to fluency. The commentaries also highlight the need for considering in more depth the intimate links between phonological and morphological development. All issues raised were highly germane to generating an adequate theoretical framework for the cross‐language collection of relevant evidence in different countries.
Development of multisensory spatial integration and perception in humans
Authors: Neil Patricia A. , Chee‐Ruiter Christine , Scheier Christian , Lewkowicz David J. , Shimojo Shinsuke 
Published: August 2006

Abstract Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A‐V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants’ head and eye movements in response to auditory, visual, or both kinds of stimuli presented either 25° or 45° to the right or left of midline. Infants under 8 months of age intermittently showed response latencies significantly faster toward audiovisual targets than toward either auditory or visual targets alone They did so, however, without exhibiting a reliable violation of the Race Model, suggesting that probability summation alone could explain the faster bimodal response. In contrast, infants between 8 and 10 months of age exhibited bimodal response latencies significantly faster than unimodal latencies for both eccentricity conditions and their latencies violated the Race Model at 25° eccentricity. In addition to this main finding, we found age‐dependent eccentricity and modality effects on response latencies. Together, these findings suggest that audiovisual integration emerges late in the first year of life and are consistent with neurophysiological findings from multisensory sites in the superior colliculus of infant monkeys showing that multisensory enhancement of responsiveness is not present at birth but emerges later in life.
Eye remember you two: gaze direction modulates face recognition in a developmental study
Authors: Smith Alastair D. , Hood Bruce M. , Hector Karen 
Published: August 2006

Abstract The effects of gaze direction on memory for faces were studied in children from three different age groups (6–7, 8–9, and 10–11 years old) using a computerized version of a task devised by Hood, Macrae, Cole‐Davies and Dias (2003). Participants were presented with a sequence of faces in an encoding phase, and were then required to judge which faces they had previously encountered in a surprise two‐alternative forced‐choice recognition test. In one condition, stimulus eye gaze was either direct or deviated at the viewing phase, and eyes were closed at the test phase. In another condition, stimulus eyes were closed at the viewing phase, with either direct or deviated gaze at the test phase. Modulation of gaze direction affected hit rates, with participants demonstrating greater accuracy for direct gaze targets compared to deviated gaze targets in both conditions. Reaction times (RT) to correctly recognized stimuli were faster for direct gaze stimuli at the viewing phase, but not at the test phase. The age group of participants differentially affected these measures: there was a greater hit rate advantage for direct gaze stimuli in older children, although RTs were less affected by age. These findings suggest that while the facilitation of face recognition by gaze direction is robust across encoding and recognition stages, the efficiency of the process is affected by the stage at which gaze is modulated.
A new method for calibrating perceptual salience across dimensions in infants: the case of color vs. luminance
Authors: Kaldy Zsuzsa , Blaser Erik A. , Leslie Alan M. 
Published: August 2006

Abstract We report a new method for calibrating differences in perceptual salience across feature dimensions, in infants. The problem of inter‐dimensional salience arises in many areas of infant studies, but a general method for addressing the problem has not previously been described. Our method is based on a preferential looking paradigm, adapted to determine the relative salience of two stimuli. We report here on the case of stimuli differing in color and luminance, though the method has wider potential. We were able to determine on a psychophysical curve the point at which a color contrast was equally salient to infants as a given luminance contrast. We then used these calibrated, ‘iso‐salient’ stimuli in an object memory study. Results showed that 6.5‐month‐old infants noticed a color, but not a luminance, change while tracking an occluded object. Our method should have numerous applications in the study of bottom‐up effects on infant attention and visual working memory.
The development of change detection
Authors: Shore David I. , Burack Jacob A. , Miller Danny , Joseph Shari , Enns James T. 
Published: August 2006

Abstract Changes to a scene often go unnoticed if the objects of the change are unattended, making change detection an index of where attention is focused during scene perception. We measured change detection in school‐age children and young adults by repeatedly alternating two versions of an image. To provide an age‐fair assessment we used a bimanual choice rather than open‐ended verbal responses. The difference in detection speed and accuracy between 50‐ms versus 250‐ms blank screens between views indexed change detection in short‐term visual memory independent of sensory and response processes. Younger children were significantly less efficient than older participants, especially when an object changed color or had a part deleted. Changes in object orientation were detected more readily. These results point to important differences in the perceptual reality of younger and older children.
A longitudinal behavioral genetic analysis of task persistence
Authors: Deater‐Deckard Kirby , Petrill Stephen A. , Thompson Lee A. , DeThorne Laura S. 
Published: August 2006

Abstract Change in task persistence was assessed in two annual assessments using teachers’, testers’, and observers’ ratings. Participants included 79 monozygotic and 116 same‐sex dizygotic twin pairs who were in Kindergarten or 1st grade (4.3 to 7.9 years old) at the initial assessment. Task persistence was widely distributed and higher among older children and girls. Overall, there was modest growth in persistence over time, and moderate stability of individual differences. Most of the stability was accounted for by genetic influences, whereas most of the change was accounted for by nonshared environment, including an association with observed differential maternal warm supportive behavior.
Interrupting infants’ persisting object representations: an object‐based limit?
Authors: Cheries Erik W. , Wynn Karen , Scholl Brian J. 
Published: August 2006

Abstract Making sense of the visual world requires keeping track of objects as the same persisting individuals over time and occlusion. Here we implement a new paradigm using 10‐month‐old infants to explore the processes and representations that support this ability in two ways. First, we demonstrate that persisting object representations can be maintained over brief interruptions from additional independent events – just as a memory of a traffic scene may be maintained through a brief glance in the rearview mirror. Second, we demonstrate that this ability is nevertheless subject to an object‐based limit: if an interrupting event involves enough objects (carefully controlling for overall salience), then it will impair the maintenance of other persisting object representations even though it is an independent event. These experiments demonstrate how object representations can be studied via their ‘interruptibility’, and the results are consistent with the idea that infants’ persisting object representations are constructed and maintained by capacity‐limited mid‐level ‘object‐files’.
A NONLINEAR BUSINESS CYCLE MODEL IN DISCRETE TIME
Authors: Sen Kunal 
Published: August 2006

ABSTRACTThe paper develops a simple multiplier‐accelerator model of a market economy, where the strength of the accelerator relationship between current investment and past output depends on the state of the economy. It is found that the greater the values of the multiplier and the accelerator, the more persistent and aperiodic («chaotic») would be the cyclical behaviour of the economy.
Maximum Eigenvalue Test for Seasonal Cointegrating Ranks*
Authors: Seong Byeongchan , Cho Sinsup , Ahn Sung K. 
Published: August 2006

AbstractThe maximum eigenvalue (ME) test for seasonal cointegrating ranks is presented using the approach of Cubadda [Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics (2001), Vol. 63, pp. 497–511], which is computationally more efficient than that of Johansen and Schaumburg [Journal of Econometrics (1999), Vol. 88, pp. 301–339]. The asymptotic distributions of the ME test statistics are obtained for several cases that depend on the nature of deterministic terms. Monte Carlo experiments are conducted to evaluate the relative performances of the proposed ME test and the trace test, and we illustrate these tests using a monthly time series.
Panel Unit‐root Tests for Cross‐sectionally Correlated Panels: A Monte Carlo Comparison*
Authors: Gutierrez Luciano 
Published: August 2006

AbstractThis paper deals with the finite‐sample performance of a set of unit‐root tests for cross‐correlated panels. Most of the available macroeconomic time series cover short time periods. The lack of information, in terms of time observations, implies that univariate tests are not powerful enough to reject the null of a unit‐root while panel tests, by exploiting the large number of cross‐sectional units, have been shown to be a promising way of increasing the power of unit‐root tests. We investigate the finite sample properties of recently proposed panel unit‐root tests for cross‐sectionally correlated panels. Specifically, the size and power of Choi's [Econometric Theory and Practice: Frontiers of Analysis and Applied Research: Essays in Honor of Peter C. B. Phillips, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001)], Bai and Ng's [Econometrica (2004), Vol. 72, p. 1127], Moon and Perron's [Journal of Econometrics (2004), Vol. 122, p. 81], and Phillips and Sul's [Econometrics Journal (2003), Vol. 6, p. 217] tests are analysed by a Monte Carlo simulation study. In synthesis, Moon and Perron's tests show good size and power for different values of T and N, and model specifications. Focusing on Bai and Ng's procedure, the simulation study highlights that the pooled Dickey–Fuller generalized least squares test provides higher power than the pooled augmented Dickey–Fuller test for the analysis of non‐stationary properties of the idiosyncratic components. Choi's tests are strongly oversized when the common factor influences the cross‐sectional units heterogeneously.