bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modeling epilepsy disparities among ethnic groups in Philadelphia, PA
Authors: Wheeler David C. , Waller Lance A. , Elliott John O. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defined epilepsy as an emerging public health issue in a recent report and emphasized the importance of epilepsy studies in minorities and people of low socioeconomic status. Previous research has suggested that the incidence rate for epilepsy is positively associated with various measures of social and economic disadvantage. In response, we utilize hierarchical Bayesian models to analyze health disparities in epilepsy and seizure risks among multiple ethnicities in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The goals of the analysis are to highlight any overall significant disparities in epilepsy risks between the populations of Caucasians, African Americans, and Hispanics in the study area during the years 2002–2004 and to visualize the spatial pattern of epilepsy risks by ethnicity to indicate where certain ethnic populations were most adversely affected by epilepsy within the study area. Results of the Bayesian model indicate that Hispanics have the highest epilepsy risk overall, followed by African Americans, and then Caucasians. There are significant increases in relative risk for both African Americans and Hispanics when compared with Caucasians, as indicated by the posterior mean estimates of 2.09 with a 95 per cent credible interval of (1.67, 2.62) for African Americans and 2.97 with a 95 per cent credible interval of (2.37, 3.71) for Hispanics. Results also demonstrate that using a Bayesian analysis in combination with geographic information system (GIS) technology can reveal spatial patterns in patient data and highlight areas of disparity in epilepsy risk among subgroups of the population. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
AQuoSA—adaptive quality of service architecture
Authors: Palopoli L. , Cucinotta T. , Marzario L. , Lipari G. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper presents an architecture for quality of service (QoS) control of time‐sensitive applications in multi‐programmed embedded systems. In such systems, tasks must receive appropriate timeliness guarantees from the operating system independently from one another; otherwise, the QoS experienced by the users may decrease. Moreover, fluctuations in time of the workloads make a static partitioning of the central processing unit (CPU) that is neither appropriate nor convenient, whereas an adaptive allocation based on an on‐line monitoring of the application behaviour leads to an optimum design. By combining a resource reservation scheduler and a feedback‐based mechanism, we allow applications to meet their QoS requirements with the minimum possible impact on CPU occupation. We implemented the framework in AQuoSA (Adaptive Quality of Service Architecture (AQuoSA). http://aquosa.sourceforge.net), a software architecture that runs on top of the Linux kernel. We provide extensive experimental validation of our results and offer an evaluation of the introduced overhead, which is perfectly sustainable in the class of addressed applications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The ROI of systems engineering: Some quantitative results for software‐intensive systems
Authors: Boehm Barry , Valerdi Ricardo , Honour Eric 
Published: April 2008

AbstractThis paper presents quantitative results on the return on investment of systems engineering (SE‐ROI) from an analysis of the 161 software projects in the COCOMO II database. The analysis shows that, after normalizing for the effects of other cost drivers, the cost difference between projects doing a minimal job of software systems engineering— as measured by the thoroughness of its architecture definition and risk resolution— and projects doing a very thorough job was 18% for small projects and 92% for very large software projects as measured in lines of code. The paper also presents applications of these results to project experience in determining ‘‘how much up front systems engineering is enough’’ for baseline versions of smaller and larger software projects, for both ROI‐driven internal projects and schedule‐driven outsourced systems of systems projects. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng
Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus mordax) Genomic Library and EST Resources
Authors: von Schalburg K. R. , Leong J. , Cooper G. A. , Robb A. , Beetz-Sargent M. R. , Lieph R. , Holt R. A. , Moore R. , Ewart K. V. , Driedzic W. R. , ten Hallers B. F. H. , Zhu B. , de Jong P. J. , Davidson W. S. , Koop B. F. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractGenomic resources in rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) enable us to examine the genome duplication process in salmonids and test hypotheses relating to the fate of duplicated genes. They further enable us to pursue physiological and ecological studies in smelt. A bacterial artificial chromosome library containing 52,410 clones with an average insert size of 146 kb was constructed. This library represents an 11-fold average coverage of the rainbow smelt (O. mordax) genome. In addition, several complementary deoxyribonucleic acid libraries were constructed, and 36,758 sequences were obtained and combined into 12,159 transcripts. Over half of these transcripts have been identified, several of which have been associated with cold adaptation. These basic resources show high levels of similarity (86%) to salmonid genes and provide initial support for genome duplication in the salmonid ancestor. They also facilitate identification of genes important to fish and direct us toward new technologies for other studies in fish biology.
Assessment of Rotational Instability with Disruption of the Accessory Collateral Ligament of the Thumb MCP Joint: A Biomechanical Study
Authors: Fraser Bonnie , Veitch John , Firoozbakhsh Keikhosrow 
Published: April 2008

Objectives The objective of this paper was to biomechanically investigate rotational stability of the thumb after ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) and accessory collateral ligament (ACL) disruption and repair at the metacarpal joint of the thumb. Methods Twelve fresh frozen adult cadaveric thumbs were used. The torsion test was performed under constant rotation of 1/s through 30 arc of metacarpal phalangeal (MCP) joint. The torsional resistance was determined for four categories: first no intervention of the UCL structures (control), next with the proper UCL cut at the distal insertion, then with the additional ACL ligament cut, and lastly with the repair of only the proper UCL. The decrease on the amount of torsional rigidity for each of the last three categories was determined and compared. Each thumb was used as its own control. Significance of the differences in each test categories was statistically determined. Results After the proper UCL was cut, the torsional rigidity of the MCP joint was reduced 35.18±17.56% ( p<0.001). When, additionally, the ACL was cut, the torsional rigidity of the MCP joint was further reduced to 49.34±16.82% ( P< 0.001). After repair of only the proper UCL, the torsional rigidity of the MCP joint improved, but still showed a considerable reduction from controls. The amount of reduction was not consistent among specimens and was 13.52±16.40%. Conclusions The ACL ligament is a contributor of rotary stability as well as a provider of lateral stability. Leaving the ruptured ACL unrepaired causes some residual rotating instability and that may lead to future rotational instability of the MCP joint.
Dietary Perilla Oil Inhibits Proinflammatory Cytokine Production in the Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid of Ovalbumin‐Challenged Mice
Authors: Chang Hui‐Hsiang , Chen Chin‐Shun , Lin Jin‐Yuarn 
Published: April 2008

AbstractTo evaluate the anti‐inflammatory effects of different dietary oils on ovalbumin‐sensitized and ‐challenged mice. Experimental BALB/c mice were fed with different diets containing 5% corn oil [rich in linoleic acid, 18:2n‐6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), as a control diet], 5% perilla oil (rich in α‐linolenic acid, 18:3n‐3 PUFA) or 5% compound oil containing 50% corn oil and 50% perilla oil, for 5 consecutive weeks. The leukocyte count, inflammatory mediators, and cytokine levels, including proinflammatory and Th1/Th2 cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from the mice were determined. The results showed that 5% compound oil administration significantly (P < 0.05) decreased eosinophilic infiltration. Dietary perilla oil could not significantly (P > 0.05) decrease the eosinophil accumulation or the secretions of inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), histamine, nitric oxide and eotaxin. However, dietary perilla oil significantly (P < 0.05) reduced proinflammatory cytokine (TNF‐α, IL‐1β and IL‐6) and Th1 cytokine (IFN‐γ and IL‐2) production. The production of Th2 cytokine IL‐10, but not IL‐4 and IL‐5, was also significantly inhibited by perilla oil administration. The results suggest that dietary perilla oil might alleviate inflammation via decreasing the secretion of pro‐inflammatory cytokines in BALF, but failed to regulate the Th1/Th2 balance toward Th1 pole during the Th2‐skewed allergic airway inflammation.
Flavonoid intake and the risk of ischaemic stroke and CVD mortality in middle-aged Finnish men: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study
Authors: Mursu Jaakko , Voutilainen Sari , Nurmi Tarja , Tuomainen Tomi-Pekka , Kurl Sudhir , Salonen Jukka T. 
Published: April 2008

The role of flavonoids in CVD, especially in strokes, is unclear. Our aim was to study the role of flavonoids in CVD. We studied the association between the intakes of five subclasses (flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols and anthocyanidins), a total of twenty-six flavonoids, on the risk of ischaemic stroke and CVD mortality. The study population consisted of 1950 eastern Finnish men aged 42–60 years free of prior CHD or stroke as part of the prospective population-based Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. During an average follow-up time of 15·2 years, 102 ischaemic strokes and 153 CVD deaths occurred. In the Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age and examination years, BMI, systolic blood pressure, hypertension medication, serum HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, serum TAG, maximal oxygen uptake, smoking, family history of CVD, diabetes, alcohol intake, energy-adjusted intake of folate, vitamin E, total fat and saturated fat intake (percentage of energy), men in the highest quartile of flavonol and flavan-3-ol intakes had a relative risk of 0·55 (95 % CI 0·31, 0·99) and 0·59 (95 % CI 0·30, 1·14) for ischaemic stroke, respectively, as compared with the lowest quartile. After multivariate adjustment, the relative risk for CVD death in the highest quartile of flavanone and flavone intakes were 0·54 (95 % CI 0·32, 0·92) and 0·65 (95 % CI 0·40, 1·05), respectively. The present results suggest that high intakes of flavonoids may be associated with decreased risk of ischaemic stroke and possibly with reduced CVD mortality.
High levels of vegetable oils in plant protein-rich diets fed to gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurataL.): growth performance, muscle fatty acid profiles and histological alterations of target tissues
Authors: Benedito-Palos Laura , Navarro Juan C. , Sitjà-Bobadilla Ariadna , Gordon Bell J. , Kaushik Sadasivam , Pérez-Sánchez Jaume 
Published: April 2008

The feasibility of fish oil (FO) replacement by vegetable oils (VO) was investigated in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurataL.) in a growth trial conducted for the duration of 8 months. Four isolipidic and isoproteic diets rich in plant proteins were supplemented withl-lysine (0·55 %) and soya lecithin (1 %). Added oil was either FO (control) or a blend of VO, replacing 33 % (33VO diet), 66 % (66VO diet) and 100 % (VO diet) of FO. No detrimental effects on growth performance were found with the partial FO replacement, but feed intake and growth rates were reduced by about 10 % in fish fed the VO diet. The replacement strategy did not damage the intestinal epithelium, and massive accumulation of lipid droplets was not found within enterocytes. All fish showed fatty livers, but signs of lipoid liver disease were only found in fish fed the VO diet. Muscle fatty acid profiles of total lipids reflected the diet composition with a selective incorporation of unsaturated fatty acids in polar lipids. The robustness of the phospholipid fatty acid profile when essential fatty acid requirements were theoretically covered by the diet was evidenced by multivariate principal components analysis in fish fed control, 33VO and 66VO diets.
Evaluation of serum transferrin receptor for iron deficiency in women of child-bearing age
Authors: Lin Xiao-Ming , Zhang Juan , Zou Zhi-Yong , Long Zhu , Tian Wei 
Published: April 2008

The objective was to study the evaluation of serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) for Fe deficiency in women of child-bearing age. Primary screening was performed in 942 women ranging in child-bearing age. Serum ferritin (SF), Zn protoporphyrin (ZPP) and Hb were determined. Then the subjects were divided into four groups: normal, Fe store depletion (IDs), Fe-deficiency erythropoiesis and Fe-deficiency anaemia. sTfR was determined and sTfR/SF (sTfR/logSF and log(sTfR/SF)) was calculated. Changes of sTfR in women of different Fe status were observed. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate whether sTfR had proper diagnostic efficacy for functional Fe deficiency. The levels of sTfR increased significantly along with the aggravation of Fe deficiency. Increase of STfR/SF along with the aggravation of Fe deficiency was more significant than that of sTfR. STfR had a significant negative correlation with SF and Hb, while it had a significant positive correlation with ZPP. The ROC curve showed that the diagnostic effective rate of sTfR for Fe deficiency could reach 83 %. At this point, the sensitivity was 79 % and the specificity was 63 %. Log(sTfR/SF) could be considered to have the highest effective ratio in detecting IDs, since it reached 99 %. STfR and sTfR/SF could both reflect body Fe-deficiency status specifically. They could be used as reliable indicators for evaluating Fe status and diagnosing Fe deficiency in women of child-bearing age.
Effects of long-term plant sterol or stanol ester consumption on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in subjects on statin treatment
Authors: Jong Ariënne de , Plat Jogchum , Lütjohann Dieter , Mensink Ronald P. 
Published: April 2008

Consumption of plant sterol- or stanol-enriched margarines by statin users results in an additional LDL-cholesterol reduction of approximately 10 %, which may be larger than the average decrease of 3–7 % achieved by doubling the statin dose. However, whether this effect persists in the long term is not known. Therefore, we examined in patients already on stable statin treatment the effects of 85 weeks of plant sterol and stanol ester consumption on the serum lipoprotein profile, cholesterol metabolism, and bile acid synthesis. For this, a double-blind randomised trial was designed in which fifty-four patients consumed a control margarine with no added plant sterols or stanols for 5 weeks (run-in period). For the next 85 weeks, seventeen subjects continued with the control margarine and the other two groups with either a plant sterol (n18) or plant stanol (n19) (2·5 g/d each) ester-enriched margarine. Blood was sampled at the end of the run-in period and every 20 weeks during the intervention period. Compared with the control group, plant sterol and stanol ester consumption reduced LDL-cholesterol by 0·28 mmol/l (or 8·7 %;P = 0·08) and 0·42 mmol/l (13·1 %;P = 0·006) respectively after 85 weeks. No effects were found on plasma concentrations of oxysterols or 7α-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one, a bile acid synthesis marker. We conclude that long-term consumption of both plant sterol and stanol esters effectively lowered LDL-cholesterol concentrations in statin users.
Dietary supplementation of glycine modulates inflammatory response indicators in broiler chickens
Authors: Takahashi Kazuaki , Aoki Akira , Takimoto Testuya , Akiba Yukio 
Published: April 2008

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of dietary glycine (Gly) supplementation on inflammatory responses in broiler chicks fed a basal diet using maize and soyabean meal as the primary ingredients. Inflammation-related processes following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection were examined by analysing plasma concentrations of nitrate plus nitrite (NOx) and ceruloplasmin (Cer) in experiments 1 and 2, or expression of several genes in the spleen and liver including IL-1β and -6, TNF-like ligand (TL)1A, inducible NO synthase, interferon (IFN)-γ and toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 were examined in experiment 3. Growth performance was also determined following immunological stimulation by both LPS and Sephadex injection in experiment 2. In experiment 1, birds fed a diet supplemented with Gly at 10 or 20 g/kg showed lower responses in plasma NOx and Cer than birds fed the diet supplemented with Gly at 0 or 40 g/kg. In experiment 2, a similar effect of Gly supplementation at 10 g/kg on plasma NOx and Cer was observed when chicks were fed either an isonitrogenous diet with Gly or glutamic acid (Glu). Gly-supplemented diet-fed birds showed better growth performance than Glu-supplemented diet-fed birds. The splenic expression of inflammatory response-related genes in birds fed a diet supplemented with Gly at 10 g/kg diet was lower than that of birds fed the basal diet in experiment 3. These results suggest that dietary Gly supplementation modulates the inflammatory response partly through changes in the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1, IL-6, IFN-γ and TL1A.
Under-reporting of energy intake is more prevalent in a healthy dietary pattern cluster
Authors: Scagliusi Fernanda B. , Ferriolli Eduardo , Pfrimer Karina , Laureano Cibele , Cunha Caroline S. F. , Gualano Bruno , Lourenço Bárbara , Lancha Antonio H. 
Published: April 2008

The aim of the present study was to determine whether under-reporting rates vary between dietary pattern clusters. Subjects were sixty-five Brazilian women. During 3 weeks, anthropometric data were collected, total energy expenditure (TEE) was determined by the doubly labelled water method and diet was measured. Energy intake (EI) and the daily frequency of consumption per 1000 kJ of twenty-two food groups were obtained from a FFQ. These frequencies were entered into a cluster analysis procedure in order to obtain dietary patterns. Under-reporters were defined as those who did not lose more than 1 kg of body weight during the study and presented EI:TEE less than 0·82. Three dietary pattern clusters were identified and named according to their most recurrent food groups: sweet foods (SW), starchy foods (ST) and healthy (H). Subjects from the healthy cluster had the lowest mean EI:TEE (SW = 0·86, ST = 0·71 and H = 0·58; P = 0·003) and EI − TEE (SW = − 0·49 MJ, ST = − 3·20 MJ and H = − 5·08 MJ; P = 0·008). The proportion of under-reporters was 45·2 (95 % CI 35·5, 55·0) % in the SW cluster; 58·3 (95 % CI 48·6, 68·0) % in the ST cluster and 70·0 (95 % CI 61·0, 79) % in the H cluster (P = 0·34). Thus, in Brazilian women, under-reporting of EI is not uniformly distributed among dietary pattern clusters and tends to be more severe among subjects from the healthy cluster. This cluster is more consistent with both dietary guidelines and with what lay individuals usually consider ‘healthy eating’.
Neuroticism, recall bias and attention bias for valenced probes: a twin study
Authors: Rijsdijk F. V. , Riese H. , Tops M. , Snieder H. , Brouwer W. H. , Smid H. G. O. M. , Ormel J. 
Published: April 2008

BackgroundPrior research on the nature of the vulnerability of neuroticism to psychopathology suggests biases in information processing towards emotional rather than neutral information. It is unclear to what extent this relationship can be explained by genetic or environmental factors.MethodThe genetic relationship between a neuroticism composite score and free recall of pleasant and unpleasant words and the reaction time on negative probes (dot-probe task) was investigated in 125 female twin pairs. Interaction effects were modelled to test whether the correlation between neuroticism and cognitive measures depended on the level of the neuroticism score.ResultsThe only significant correlation was between neuroticism and the proportion of recalled unpleasant words (heritability is 30%), and was only detectable at the higher end of the neuroticism distribution. This interaction effect seems to be due to environmental effects that make people in the same family more similar (e.g. parental discipline style), rather than genetic factors. An interesting sub-finding was that faster reaction times for left versus right visual field probes in the dot-probe task suggest that cognitive processing in the right hemisphere is more sensitive to subliminal (biologically relevant) cues and that this characteristic is under substantial genetic control (49%). Individual differences in reaction times on right visual field probes were due to environmental effects only.ConclusionsThere is no evidence that the predisposition of individuals to focus on negative (emotional) stimuli is a possible underlying genetic mechanism of neuroticism.
Affective modulation of external misattribution bias in source monitoring in schizophrenia
Authors: Costafreda S. G. , Brébion G. , Allen P. , McGuire P. K. , Fu C. H. Y. 
Published: April 2008

BackgroundSchizophrenic patients tend to attribute internal events to external agents, a bias that may be linked to positive symptoms. We investigated the effect of emotional valence on the cognitive bias.MethodMale schizophrenic subjects (n=30) and an experimenter alternatively produced neutral and negative words. The subject then decided whether he or the experimenter had generated the item.ResultsExternal misattributions were more common than self-misattributions, and the bias was greater for patients with active hallucinations and delusions relative to patients in remission. Actively psychotic patients but not patients in remission were more likely to generate external misattributions with negative relative to neutral words.ConclusionsAffective modulation of the externalizing cognitive bias in source monitoring is evident in patients with hallucinations and delusions.
Resonant acceleration of electrons by intense circularly polarized Gaussian laser pulses
Authors: Niu H.Y. , He X.T. , Qiao B. , Zhou C.T. 
Published: April 2008

AbstractResonant acceleration of plasma electrons in combined circularly polarized Gaussian laser fields and self-generated quasistatic fields has been investigated theoretically and numerically. The latter includes the radial quasistatic electric field, the azimuthal quasistatic magnetic field and the axial one. The resonant condition is theoretically given and numerically testified. The results show some of the resonant electrons are accelerated to velocities larger than the laser group velocity and thus gain high energy. For peak laser intensity I0 = 1 × 1020 W cm−2 and plasma density n0 = 0.1ncr, the relativistic electron beam with energies increased from 207 MeV to 262 MeV with a relative energy width around 24% and extreme low beam divergence less than 1° has been obtained. The effect of laser intensity and plasma density on the final energy gain of resonant electrons is also investigated.