bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modification of gDNA extraction from soil for PCR designed for the routine examination of soil samples contaminated with Toxocara spp. eggs
Authors: Borecka A. , Gawor J. 
Published: December 2007

AbstractA modification of gDNA extraction was developed for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, intended for the detection and differentiation of Toxocara spp. eggs in soil or sediments. Sand samples from sandpits confirmed as being contaminated with Toxocara spp. eggs by the flotation technique were analysed by PCR. The use of proteinase K made it possible to obtain genomic DNA from the sample without needing to isolate eggs using flotation or to inactivate PCR inhibitors present in the sand. Specific primers in the PCR reaction allowed discrimination between T. canis and T. cati eggs. The modification simplified the procedure, thanks to eliminating the step of gDNA isolation from eggs, which is both laborious and difficult.
Influence of the transmission function on a simulated pathogen spread within a population
Authors: HOCH T. , FOURICHON C. , VIET A.-F. , SEEGERS H. 
Published: December 2007

SUMMARYThe mathematical function for the horizontal transmission of a pathogen is a driving force of epidemiological models. This paper aims at studying the influence of different transmission functions on a simulated pathogen spread. These functions were chosen in the literature and their biological relevance is discussed. A theoretical SIR (Susceptible–Infectious–Recovered) model was used to study the effect of the function used on simulated results. With a constant total population size, different equilibrium values for the number of infectious (NI) were reached, depending on the transmission function used. With an increasing population size, the transmission functions could be assimilated to either density-dependent (DD), where an equilibrium was obtained, or frequency-dependent (FD), with an exponential increase in NI. An analytical study corroborated the simulated results. As a conclusion, the choice between the different transmission functions, particularly between DD and FD, must be carefully considered for a varying population size.
Changes in coral-associated microbial communities during a bleaching event
Authors: Bourne David , Iida Yuki , Uthicke Sven , Smith-Keune Carolyn 
Published: December 2007

Abstract
Environmental stressors such as increased sea surface temperatures are well-known for contributing to coral bleaching; however, the effect of increased temperatures and subsequent bleaching on coral-associated microbial communities is poorly understood. Colonies of the hard coral Acropora millepora were tagged on a reef flat off Magnetic Island (Great Barrier Reef) and surveyed over 2.5 years, which included a severe bleaching event in January/February 2002. Daily average water temperatures exceeded the previous 10-year average by more than 1 °C for extended periods with field-based visual surveys recording all tagged colonies displaying signs of bleaching. During the bleaching period, direct counts of coral zooxanthellae densities decreased by ∼64%, before recovery to pre-bleaching levels after the thermal stress event. A subset of three tagged coral colonies were sampled through the bleaching event and changes in the microbial community elucidated. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis demonstrated conserved bacterial banding profiles between the three coral colonies, confirming previous studies highlighting specific microbial associations. As coral colonies bleached, the microbial community shifted and redundancy analysis (RDA) of DGGE banding patterns revealed a correlation of increasing temperature with the appearance of Vibrio-affiliated sequences. Interestingly, this shift to a Vibrio-dominated community commenced prior to visual signs of bleaching. Clone libraries hybridized with Vibrio-specific oligonucleotide probes confirmed an increase in the fraction of Vibrio-affiliated clones during the bleaching period. Post bleaching, the coral microbial associations again shifted, returning to a profile similar to the fingerprints prior to bleaching. This provided further evidence for corals selecting and shaping their microbial partners. For non-bleached samples, a close association with Spongiobacter-related sequences were revealed by both clone libraries and DGGE profiling. Despite Vibrio species being previously implicated in bleaching of specific coral species, it is unsure if the relative increase in retrieved Vibrio sequences is due to bacterial infection or an opportunistic response to compromised health and changing environmental parameters of the coral host. This study provides the first molecular-based study demonstrating changes in coral-associated bacterial assemblages during a bleaching event on a natural reef system.
Bacteria are not the primary cause of bleaching in the Mediterranean coral Oculina patagonica
Authors: Ainsworth T D , Fine M , Roff G , Hoegh-Guldberg O 
Published: December 2007

Abstract
Coral bleaching occurs when the endosymbiosis between corals and their symbionts disintegrates during stress. Mass coral bleaching events have increased over the past 20 years and are directly correlated with periods of warm sea temperatures. However, some hypotheses have suggested that reef-building corals bleach due to infection by bacterial pathogens. The ‘Bacterial Bleaching’ hypothesis is based on laboratory studies of the Mediterranean invading coral, Oculina patagonica, and has further generated conclusions such as the coral probiotic hypothesis and coral hologenome theory of evolution. We aimed to investigate the natural microbial ecology of O. patagonica during the annual bleaching using fluorescence in situ hybridization to map bacterial populations within the coral tissue layers, and found that the coral bleaches on the temperate rocky reefs of the Israeli coastline without the presence of Vibrio shiloi or bacterial penetration of its tissue layers. Bacterial communities were found associated with the endolithic layer of bleached coral regions, and a community dominance shift from an apparent cyanobacterial-dominated endolithic layer to an algal-dominated layer was found in bleached coral samples. While bacterial communities certainly play important roles in coral stasis and health, we suggest environmental stressors, such as those documented with reef-building corals, are the primary triggers leading to bleaching of O. patagonica and suggest that bacterial involvement in patterns of bleaching is that of opportunistic colonization.
Abortion and the Struggle to be Good in the 1970s
Authors: Wainer Jo 
Published: December 2007

Objective: This study used social science methodology to illuminate an important clinical question that had been inaccessible to researchers until the 1970s. The question was what effect did an abortion have on normally rule abiding women. Abortion had been presumed to be illegal until a judicial decision in 1969. In 1972 Australia's first abortion clinic was established, and the participants in this study were the women who attended it in 1974. This study was the first of its kind in Australia. Method: Interviews were conducted with 32 women who had a lawful termination of pregnancy and who agreed to be interviewed one year later. 84% of women agreed to follow-up contact, and 34 were contacted. Social science theory about deviance, social stigma and norm violation was used to inform the study. Results: Single, nulliparous women, were troubled by the potential exposure of their rule breaking sexual activity. The abortion was in part an action taken to preserve their persona as competent, moral beings capable of taking care of themselves. The abortion was the sensible next step in managing a missed menstrual period, the back up when contraception or plans for love and marriage failed. These women took mothering seriously and had an abortion to avoid becoming inadequate mothers. Abortion was a challenge to the married women's sense of themselves as good mothers, and their motives related to good mothering. The working class women had histories of managing tough and challenging life events, and they used the strengths, skills and networks they had established and applied those to the abortion decision. Conclusion: The most important and frequent effect of abortion was to make women feel more competent in managing their lives. The skills required to locate and access an abortion clinic against a backdrop of general social disapproval, expanded their sense of themselves as actors in their own lives. Their stories, as well as networks of support, enabled them to integrate abortion into their sense of themselves as good women.
Antenatal Psychosocial Risk Factors and Depression Among Women Living in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Suburbs in Adelaide, South Australia
Authors: Edwards Belinda , Galletly Cherrie , Semmler-Booth Tracy , Dekker Gus 
Published: December 2007

Objective: This study reports the prevalence of psychosocial risk factors and the incidence of depression in women presenting for their first antenatal visit at a general hospital in a socioeconomically deprived area. We also investigated the association between specific psychosocial risk factors and antenatal depression. Method: Four hundred and twenty one women completed the Antenatal Psychosocial Questionnaire (APQ) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Logistic regression analysis was used to identify psychosocial risk factors predictive of EPDS caseness. Results: 88% of women endorsed at least one psychosocial risk factor. 35.6% had been abused as children, 34.9% had suffered recent major life stresses, 24.5% had thoughts of self harm, 8% admitted to recently hitting or hurting someone in anger and 5.6% had been victims of violence since becoming pregnant. The incidence of depression, measured using an EPDS cut-off score of 10 or more, was 29.7%. The questionnaires were generally acceptable, apart from questions about drug and alcohol abuse which were not completed by one in five subjects. Factors associated with an increased risk of antenatal depression were being hit by someone since becoming pregnant, having recently hit someone else in anger, obsessional traits, previous feelings of depression and anxiety, and requiring both past and current treatment for emotional problems. Protective factors were having someone to talk to and feeling confident. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that women birthing at the LMHS are a very vulnerable group. Violence (either by or towards the pregnant women) was the strongest predictor of antenatal depression and may be under recognized. Antenatal screening for psychosocial risk factors and depression was useful and was well accepted by the women and the clinic staff. It is important that appropriate services are available once women at risk are identified.
Do Women Express and Experience Psychosis Differently from Men? Epidemiological Evidence from the Australian National Study of Low Prevalence (Psychotic) Disorders
Authors: Morgan Vera A. , Castle David J. , Jablensky Assen V. 
Published: December 2007

Objective: To examine how women differ from men in their expression and experience of psychosis. Method: Using an epidemiological sampling frame, 1090 cases of psychosis (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, affective psychoses, and other psychoses) were randomly selected from a catchment of 1.1million people as part of the Australian Study of Low Prevalence (Psychotic) Disorders. Women and men were compared with respect to their premorbid functioning, onset and course of illness, symptomatology, levels of disability and service utilization. Results: Results within diagnostic groupings confirm differences in how men and women experience and express their illness. Within each diagnostic group, women reported better premorbid functioning, a more benign illness course, lower levels of disability and better integration into the community than men. They were also less likely to have a chronic course of illness. There were no significant differences in age at onset. Differences between women across the diagnostic groups were more pronounced than differences between women and men within a diagnostic group. In particular, women with schizophrenia were severely disabled compared to other women. Conclusions: These comparisons across diagnostic groupings are among the most systematic and comprehensive in the literature. It is likely that several mechanisms are needed to explain the differences. Greater social integration and functioning in women across diagnostic groups may well reflect culturally and socially determined gender differences. In contrast, variability and attenuated findings with respect to symptom profiles beg the question of biological mechanisms with some degree of specificity.
Does Antenatal Screening for Psychosocial Risk Factors Predict Postnatal Depression? A Follow-Up Study of 154 Women in Adelaide, South Australia
Authors: Edwards Belinda , Galletly Cherrie , Semmler-Booth Tracy , Dekker Gus 
Published: December 2007

Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of antenatal screening for psychosocial risk factors in predicting postnatal depression, in women living in a socioeconomically deprived area. Method: 154 women completed the Antenatal Psychosocial Questionnaire (APQ) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Logistic regression analysis was used to identify antenatal psychosocial risk factors predictive of EPDS caseness, with an EPDS score of 10 or more being taken to indicate depression. Results: Antenatal depression was more common than postnatal depression. 44 women (30%) met criteria for antenatal depression and 33 women (22.6%) met criteria for postnatal depression. 21 women (14.4%) were depressed both before and after delivery of their baby, and women who had antenatal depression were significantly more likely to be depressed postnatally. Whilst there were high rates of endorsement of antenatal psychosocial risk factors, the only item from the APQ that predicted postnatal depression was emotional abuse as a child. Conclusion: Antenatal screening for psychosocial risk factors was useful in identifying problems during the antenatal period, but was not useful as a predictor of postnatal depression.
The incidence of preterm deliveries decreases in Finland
Authors: Jakobsson M , Gissler M , Paavonen J , Tapper A‐M 
Published: December 2007

Objective  We examined the trends and risk factors of preterm delivery.Design  Register‐based retrospective cohort study from Finland.Setting  National Medical Birth Register data during 1987–2005.Population  The study population consisted of 1 137 515 deliveries, of which 59 025 were preterm (5.2%).Methods  We calculated the population attributable risks for using the risk factor prevalence rates in the population. We further calculated odds ratios with 95% CI by multivariate logistic regression to adjust for confounders.Main outcome measures  Preterm delivery rate subclassified into moderately preterm (32–36 weeks), very preterm (28–31 weeks) and extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks).Results  Preterm delivery rates increased from 5.1% in the late 1980s to 5.4% in the late 1990s but then decreased to 5.2% for 2001–05. The proportion of extremely preterm deliveries decreased substantially by 12% (P < 0.01). The greatest risk factors were multiplicity (OR 13.72, 95% CI 13.26–14.19), followed by elective delivery (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.82–1.89), primiparity (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.45–1.50), in vitro fertilisation treatment (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.31–1.47), maternal smoking (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.29–1.34) and advanced maternal age (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.02–1.03 for each additional year of age). Prematurity rates decreased by 1.8% after adjusting for risk variables.Conclusions  The rate of preterm delivery has not increased from 1987 to 2005 in Finland, while the risk for extremely preterm delivery has decreased. This finding is in contrast with recent trends in other countries.
A survey of women’s views of Thermachoice endometrial ablation in the outpatient versus day case setting
Authors: Marsh F , Bekker H , Duffy S 
Published: December 2007

Objective  To determine women’s preference towards Thermachoice being performed either awake in the outpatient setting or under general anaesthetic (GA) as a day case.Design  Questionnaire.Setting  Large teaching hospital.Population  One hundred women.Methods  The questionnaire was developed from prior research on factors associated with preference for procedures performed in the outpatient versus day case setting.Main outcome measures  (1) Describe women’s preference towards outpatient versus day case Thermachoice and other menorrhagia treatments. (2) Identify variations in preference by demographic characteristics and prior experience of anaesthesia.Results  There was an exact split in preference with 50% preferring Thermachoice as an outpatient and 50% as a day case. The mean age of women preferring outpatient Thermachoice was significantly higher (41.5 years) than those preferring day case (33.5 years) (P < 0.005). Women with children and a higher qualification were more likely to opt for outpatient Thermachoice. A previous bad experience of GA was associated with preference for outpatient Thermachoice. Spending less time in hospital, attending for one visit, feeling well straight after treatment and choosing the treatment setting were important factors to the majority of women. Most women (70%) who opted for Thermachoice as a menorrhagia treatment would prefer to have it performed in the outpatient setting.Conclusions  If the Department of Heath is to target services towards women’s choice, there is a need to increase the provision of outpatient menorrhagia treatments, such as Thermachoice, to more women in the UK.
Serological Evaluation of Specific-Antibody Levels in Patients Treated for Chronic Chagas' Disease
Authors: Sánchez Negrette Olga , Sánchez Valdéz Fernando J. , Lacunza Carlos D. , García Bustos María Fernanda , Mora María Celia , Uncos Alejandro D. , Basombrío Miguel Ángel 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT

Serological tests are the main laboratory procedures used for diagnosis during the indeterminate and chronic stages of Chagas' disease. A serological regression to negativity is the main criterion used to define parasitological cure in treated patients. The aim of this work was to monitor the individual specificities of antibody levels for 3 years posttreatment in 18 adult patients. Conventional serological techniques (hemagglutination assays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]) were modified by using recombinant antigens to detect early markers of treatment effectiveness. For this purpose, serum samples were taken before and during treatment and every 6 months after treatment for at least 3 years. When hemagglutination assays were used, a decrease in antibody levels was observed in only one patient. When ELISA with serum dilutions was used, antibody clearance became much more apparent: in 77.7% (14/18) of the patients, antibody titers became negative with time. This was observed at serum dilutions of 1/320 and occurred between the 6th and the 30th months posttreatment. The immune response and the interval for a serological regression to negativity were different for each patient. For some of the recombinant antigens, only 50% (9/18) of the patients reached the serological regression to negativity. Recombinant antigen 13 might be a good marker of treatment effectiveness, since 66.6% (six of nine) of the patients presented with an early regression to negativity for specific antibodies to this antigen (
P
= 0.002).
Prevalence, Types, and RNA Concentrations of Human Parechoviruses, Including a Sixth Parechovirus Type, in Stool Samples from Patients with Acute Enteritis
Authors: Baumgarte Sigrid , de Souza Luna Luciano Kleber , Grywna Klaus , Panning Marcus , Drexler Jan Felix , Karsten Claudia , Huppertz Hans Iko , Drosten Christian 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT
Parechovirus epidemiology and disease association are not fully understood. Real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) for all human parechoviruses (HPeV) was applied on stool samples from two groups of patients. Both groups contained patients with acute enteritis of all age groups, seen during one full year. Patients with norovirus, adenovirus, enterovirus, astrovirus, or rotavirus infections were excluded. In 118 patients from outbreak and hospital settings, no HPeV was detected. In a prospective study group of 499 nonhospitalized patients, the detection rate was 1.6%. One virus-positive patient was detected from 39 control patients. Positive samples occurred only in summer and autumn. Only one patient had accompanying respiratory symptoms. An association with travel or animal contact was not found. All positive patients except one were <2 years of age, with a neutral gender ratio. In children <2 years of age, the detection rate was 11.6% (7 of 60 children). The range of viral loads was 3,170 to 503,377,290 copies per gram or milliliter of stool. One of the highest viral loads occurred in a control child without symptoms at the time of testing. Phylogenetic analysis showed mainly contemporary HPeV1 strains in our patients but also showed a separate new lineage of HPeV1 in evolutionary transition from the historical prototype strain. Moreover, a novel sixth HPeV type was identified. Full genome analysis of the two viruses revealed recombination between HPeV1 and -3 in one and HPeV6 and -1 in another. HPeV seems relevant in children <2 years and specific RT-PCR for HPeV should be included in enteritis screening.
Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for Comprehensive Detection of Human Rhinoviruses
Authors: Lu Xiaoyan , Holloway Brian , Dare Ryan K. , Kuypers Jane , Yagi Shigeo , Williams John V. , Hall Caroline B. , Erdman Dean D. 
Published: December 2007

ABSTRACT

Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are important contributors to respiratory disease, but their healthcare burden remains unclear, primarily because of the lack of sensitive, accurate, and convenient means of determining their causal role. To address this, we developed and clinically validated the sensitivity and specificity of a real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay targeting the viral 5′ noncoding region defined by sequences obtained from all 100 currently recognized HRV prototype strains and 85 recently circulating field isolates. The assay successfully amplified all HRVs tested and could reproducibly detect 50 HRV RNA transcript copies, with a dynamic range of over 7 logs. In contrast, a quantified RNA transcript of human enterovirus 68 (HEV68) that showed the greatest sequence homology to the HRV primers and probe set was not detected below a concentration of 5 × 10
5
copies per reaction. Nucleic acid extracts of 111 coded respiratory specimens that were culture positive for HRV or HEV were tested with the HRV real-time RT-PCR assay and by two independent laboratories that used different in-house HRV/HEV RT-PCR assays. Eighty-seven HRV-culture-positive specimens were correctly identified by the real-time RT-PCR assay, and 4 of the 24 HEV-positive samples were positive for HRV. HRV-specific sequences subsequently were identified in these four specimens, suggesting HRV/HEV coinfection in these patients. The assay was successfully applied in an investigation of a coincidental outbreak of HRV respiratory illness among laboratory staff.