bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of a visual risk communication tool: effects on knowledge and perception of blood transfusion risk
Authors: Lee D.H. , Mehta M.D. 
Published: December 2004

BACKGROUND: Effective risk communication in transfusion medicine is important for health‐care consumers, but understanding the numerical magnitude of risks can be difficult. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a visual risk communication tool on the knowledge and perception of transfusion risk. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Laypeople were randomly assigned to receive transfusion risk information with either a written or a visual presentation format for communicating and comparing the probabilities of transfusion risks relative to other hazards. Knowledge of transfusion risk was ascertained with a multiple‐choice quiz and risk perception was ascertained by psychometric scaling and principal components analysis. RESULTS: Two‐hundred subjects were recruited and randomly assigned. Risk communication with both written and visual presentation formats increased knowledge of transfusion risk and decreased the perceived dread and severity of transfusion risk. Neither format changed the perceived knowledge and control of transfusion risk, nor the perceived benefit of transfusion. No differences in knowledge or risk perception outcomes were detected between the groups randomly assigned to written or visual presentation formats. CONCLUSION: Risk communication that incorporates risk comparisons in either written or visual presentation formats can improve knowledge and reduce the perception of transfusion risk in laypeople.
Efficacy, recovery, and safety of RBCs from autologous placental blood: clinical experience in 52 newborns
Authors: Brune Thomas , Garritsen Henk , Hentschel Roland , Louwen Frank , Harms Erik , Jorch Gerhard 
Published: December 2004

BACKGROUND:  In the present study, the efficacy, recovery, and safety of RBCs from autologous placental blood (PB‐RBCs) were investigated.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:  A total of 52 newborns received transfusion with PB‐RBCs. The number of newborns requiring no additional allogeneic RBCs was calculated. In 22 of these 52 neonates with a birth weight of 1000 to 2500 g, vital measures were performed during transfusion, and serum potassium levels were measured up to 3 days after transfusion. The results were compared with those of a matched control group given allogeneic RBC transfusions.RESULTS:  All neonates of the study group with a birth weight of less than 1000 g, but only 59 percent those with a birth weight of 1000 to 2500 g and 58 percent of those requiring surgery directly after delivery needed allogeneic transfusions in addition to PB‐RBCs. The mean Hb increase after RBC transfusion of 10 mL per kg of body weight was 3 g per dL per kg of body weight in both groups; the Hb decrease was accelerated in the placental blood group (0.32 vs. 0.24 g/dL/day; p < 0.05). There were no intergroup differences in the vital parameters.CONCLUSION:  Our results show no difference in efficacy and safety between PB‐RBC transfusion and allogeneic RBC transfusion. According to well‐defined criteria, 40 percent of anemic neonates can be supported by autologous placental blood transfusions alone.
Preliminary results of colour Doppler‐guided intratendinous glucocorticoid injection for Achilles tendonitis in five patients
Authors: Koenig M. J. , Torp‐pedersen S. , Qvistgaard E. , Terslev L. , Bliddal H. 
Published: December 2004

Background:It is debated as to whether Achilles tendonitis (AT) has an inflammatory component. The intratendinous hyperaemia demonstrated with colour Doppler has been interpreted as neovascularisation. Glucocorticoid injection around the tendon is a common therapeutic procedure.Hypotheses:The intratendinous hyperaemia seen with ultrasound (US) colour Doppler represents an inflammatory background. Glucocorticoid injections will be effective if administered inside the tendon where the inflammation seems to be.Study design:An uncontrolled, prospective study with a minimum follow‐up of 3 months.Methods:Six tendons in five patients were evaluated with grey‐scale US and colour Doppler before and after US‐guided intratendinous glucocorticoid injection. Pain at rest and at activity was evaluated on a visual analogue scale.Results:With colour Doppler all tendons had intratendinous flow. Pain and colour Doppler activity decreased during a mean follow‐up of 182 days (range 92–309 days). One tendon relapsed after 199 days.Conclusion:Intratendinous glucocorticoid injections seem to have a marked effect on both symptoms and colour Doppler findings, which may be taken as an indication of an inflammatory component in the disease.Colour Doppler adds significant information to grey‐scale US with regard to diagnosis, location and follow‐up of AT.
Enhanced feminine sexual behavior and infertility in female rats prenatally treated with an antiestrogen
Authors: Matuszczyk Josefa Vega 
Published: December 2004

An attempt to elucidate the possible role of prenatal estrogen on the development of feminine sexual behavior and reproductive function was made by treating females with the antiestrogen CI628 prenatally on days 13–19. Control females were prenatally treated with saline or remained untreated. The animals were delivered by caesarian section on day 22 of pregnancy and placed with foster mothers whose newborn pups had been previously removed. Intact peripubertal females in each treatment group were observed for several reproductive measures, including the capacity to become pregnant. Other females were ovariectomized in adulthood and treated with estradiol benzoate (EB) (1, 1.5, 2 or 4 µg/rat) and 0.5 mg progesterone and tested for receptivity, proceptivity and sexual partner preference. Two weeks after the completion of these tests, the females were injected daily for 7 days with 0.25 mg testosterone and tested for sexual partner preference and mounting behavior. The results obtained showed accelerated vaginal opening, and infertility in the antiestrogen‐treated intact females and enhanced receptivity and proceptivity in response to 1 µg EB in the antiestrogen ovariectomized females. Sexual partner preference and mounting behavior did not differ between groups. These results suggest an involvement of prenatal estrogen on the development of female reproductive function, but not on behavioral differentiation.
Regression Models for Cyclic Data
Authors: Upton Graham J. G. , Hickey Kenneth A. , Stallard Aaron 
Published: December 2004

Summary
Geologists take slices through rock samples at a series of different orientations. Each slice is examined for a phenomenon which may occur in one of two states labelled clockwise and anticlockwise. The probability of an occurrence being in the clockwise state is dependent on the orientation. Motivated by these data, two models are presented that relate the probability of an event to orientation. Each model has two parameters, one identifying the orientation corresponding to the peak probability, and the other controlling the rate of change of probability with orientation. One model is a logistic model, whereas the other involves a power of the sine function. For the given data neither model consistently outperforms the other.
Tests for a Difference in Timing of Physiological Response Between Two Brain Regions Measured by Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Landau S. , Ellison-Wright I. C. , Bullmore E. T. 
Published: December 2004

Summary
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) measures the physiological response of the human brain to experimentally controlled stimulation. In a periodically designed experiment it is of interest to test for a difference in the timing (phase shift) of the response between two anatomically distinct brain regions. We suggest two tests for an interregional difference in phase shift: one based on asymptotic theory and one based on bootstrapping. Whilst the two procedures differ in some of their assumptions, both tests rely on employing the large number of voxels (three-dimensional pixels) in non-activated brain regions to take account of spatial autocorrelation between voxelwise phase shift observations within the activated regions of interest. As an example we apply both tests, and their counterparts assuming spatial independence, to FMRI phase shift data that were acquired from a normal young woman during performance of a periodically designed covert verbal fluency task. We conclude that it is necessary to take account of spatial autocovariance between voxelwise FMRI time series parameter estimates such as the phase shift, and that the most promising way of achieving this is by modelling the spatial autocorrelation structure from a suitably defined base region of the image slice.
Beds comprising debrite sandwiched within co‐genetic turbidite: origin and widespread occurrence in distal depositional environments
Authors: Talling P. J. , Amy L. A. , Wynn R. B. , Peakall J. , Robinson M. 
Published: December 2004

AbstractCo‐genetic debrite–turbidite beds occur in a variety of modern and ancient turbidite systems. Their basic character is distinctive. An ungraded muddy sandstone interval is encased within mud‐poor graded sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. The muddy sandstone interval preserves evidence of en masse deposition and is thus termed a debrite. The mud‐poor sandstone, siltstone and mudstone show features indicating progressive layer‐by‐layer deposition and are thus called a turbidite. Palaeocurrent indicators, ubiquitous stratigraphic association and the position of hemipelagic intervals demonstrate that debrite and enclosing turbidite originate in the same event. Detailed field observations are presented for co‐genetic debrite–turbidite beds in three widespread sequences of variable age: the Miocene Marnoso Arenacea Formation in the Italian Apennines; the Silurian Aberystwyth Grits in Wales; and Quaternary deposits of the Agadir Basin, offshore Morocco. Deposition of these sequences occurred in similar unchannellized basin‐plain settings. Co‐genetic debrite–turbidite beds were deposited from longitudinally segregated flow events, comprising both debris flow and forerunning turbidity current. It is most likely that the debris flow was generated by relatively shallow (few tens of centimetres) erosion of mud‐rich sea‐floor sediment. Changes in the settling behaviour of sand grains from a muddy fluid as flows decelerated may also have contributed to debrite deposition. The association with distal settings results from the ubiquitous presence of muddy deposits in such locations, which may be eroded and disaggregated to form a cohesive debris flow. Debrite intervals may be extensive (> 26 × 10 km in the Marnoso Arenacea Formation) and are not restricted to basin margins. Such long debris flow run‐out on low‐gradient sea floor (< 0·1°) may simply be due to low yield strength (≪ 50 Pa) of the debris–water mixture. This study emphasizes that multiple flow types, and transformations between flow types, can occur within the distal parts of submarine flow events.
Differential mRNA translation contributes to gene regulation under non‐stress and dehydration stress conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Kawaguchi Riki , Girke Thomas , Bray Elizabeth A. , Bailey‐Serres Julia 
Published: December 2004

SummaryTranslational regulation was evaluated for over 2000 genes by measurement of the proportion of individual mRNA species in polysomal (PS) complexes in leaves of non‐stressed and moderately dehydration‐stressed Arabidopsis. The amount of each mRNA in polysomes ranged from 23 to 97% in non‐stressed leaves and was significantly reduced for a large portion of the genes (71%) in response to dehydration. The effect of dehydration on translational status varied extensively between mRNA species. Sixty per cent of the dehydration‐inducible mRNAs with twofold or greater increase in abundance maintained PS levels in response to water‐deficit stress, while 40% showed impaired ribosome loading (RL). PS association declined significantly for 92% of the mRNAs that displayed a strong decrease in abundance, indicating a relationship between translation and decreased gene transcription and/or mRNA stability. Interestingly, many mRNAs that encode proteins of similar biological function displayed coordinate translational regulation. Thus, the abundance of PS mRNA may provide a more accurate estimate of gene expression than total cellular mRNA because of extensive differential translational regulation.
The nuclear localization signal and the C‐terminal region of FHY1 are required for transmission of phytochrome A signals
Authors: Zeidler Mathias , Zhou Qingwen , Sarda Xavier , Yau Chi‐Ping , Chua Nam‐Hai 
Published: December 2004

SummaryPlants use the family of phytochrome photoreceptors to sense their light environment in the red/far‐red region of the spectrum. Phytochrome A (phyA) is the primary photoreceptor that regulates germination and early seedling development. This phytochrome mediates seedling de‐etiolation for the developmental transition from heterotrophic to photoauxotrophic growth. High intensity far‐red light provides a way to specifically assess the role of phyA in this process and was used to isolate phyA‐signaling intermediates. fhy1 and pat3 (renamed fhy1‐3) are independently isolated alleles of a gene encoding a phyA signal transduction component. FHY1 is a small 24 kDa protein that shows no homology to known functional motifs, besides a small conserved septin‐related domain at the C‐terminus, a putative nuclear localization signal (NLS) and a putative nuclear exclusion signal (NES). Here we demonstrate that the septin‐related domain is important for FHY1 to transmit phyA signals. Moreover, the putative NLS and NES of FHY1 are indeed involved in its nuclear localization and exclusion. Nuclear localization of FHY1 is needed for it to execute responses downstream of phyA. Together with the results from global expression analysis, our findings point to an important role of FHY1 in phyA signaling through its nuclear translocation and induction of gene expression.
BRL1, a leucine‐rich repeat receptor‐like protein kinase, is functionally redundant with BRI1 in regulating Arabidopsis brassinosteroid signaling
Authors: Zhou Aifen , Wang Huachun , Walker John C. , Li Jia 
Published: December 2004

Summary BRI1‐like receptor kinase (BRL1) was identified as an extragenic suppressor of a weak bri1 allele, bri1‐5, in an activation‐tagging genetic screen for novel brassinosteroid (BR) signal transduction regulators. BRL1 encodes a leucine‐rich repeat receptor‐like protein kinase (LRR‐RLK). Sequence alignment revealed that BRL1 is closely related to BRI1, which is involved in BR perception. Overexpression of a BRL1 cDNA, driven by a constitutive CaMV 35S promoter, recapitulates the bri1‐5 suppression phenotypes, and partially complements the phenotypes of a null bri1 allele, bri1‐4. Analysis of a BR‐specific feedback response gene, CPD, indicates that BRL1 functions in BR signaling. BRL1 expression pattern overlaps with, but is distinct from, that of BRI1. In addition, both the expression level and in vitro kinase autophosphorylation activity of BRL1 are significantly lower than those of BRI1. bri1‐5 brl1‐1 double mutant plants have enhanced developmental defects relative to bri1‐5 mutant plants, revealing that BRL1 plays a partially redundant role with BRI1 in controlling Arabidopsis growth and development. These findings enhance our understanding of functional redundancy and add an additional layer of complexity to RLK‐mediated BR signaling transduction in Arabidopsis.
The upstream oxylipin profile of Arabidopsis thaliana: a tool to scan for oxidative stresses
Authors: Montillet Jean‐Luc , Cacas Jean‐Luc , Garnier Lionel , Montané Marie‐Hélène , Douki Thierry , Bessoule Jean‐Jacques , Polkowska‐Kowalczyk Lidia , Maciejewska Urszula , Agnel Jean‐Pierre , Vial Alexandra , Triantaphylidès Christian 
Published: December 2004

SummaryVarious physiological imbalances lead to reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction and/or increases in lipoxygenase (LOX) activities, both events ending in lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Besides the quantification of such a process, the development of tools is necessary in order to allow the identification of the primary cause of its development and localization. A biochemical method assessing 9 LOX, 13 LOX and ROS‐mediated peroxidation of membrane‐bound and free PUFAs has been improved. The assay is based on the analysis of hydroxy fatty acids derived from PUFA hydroperoxides by both the straight and chiral phase high‐performance liquid chromatography. Besides the upstream products of peroxidation of the 18:2 and 18:3 PUFAs, products coming from the 16:3 were characterized and their steady‐state level quantified. Moreover, the observation that the relative amounts of the ROS‐mediated peroxidation isomers of 18:3 were constant in leaves allowed us to circumvent the chiral analyses for the discrimination and quantification of 9 LOX, 13 LOX and ROS‐mediated processes in routine experiments. The methodology has been successfully applied to decipher lipid peroxidation in Arabidopsis leaves submitted to biotic and abiotic stresses. We provide evidence of the relative timing of enzymatic and non‐enzymatic lipid peroxidation processes. The 13 LOX pathway is activated early whatever the nature of the stress, leading to the peroxidation of chloroplast lipids. Under cadmium stress, the 9 LOX pathway added to the 13 LOX one. ROS‐mediated peroxidation was mainly driven by light and always appeared as a late process.
The MADS‐box gene DAL1 is a potential mediator of the juvenile‐to‐adult transition in Norway spruce (Picea abies)
Authors: Carlsbecker Annelie , Tandre Karolina , Johanson Urban , Englund Marie , Engström Peter 
Published: December 2004

SummaryProgression through the plant life cycle involves change in many essential features, most notably in the capacity to reproduce. The transition from a juvenile vegetative and non‐reproductive to an adult reproductive phase is gradual and can take many years; in the conifer Norway spruce, Picea abies, typically 20–25 years. We present a detailed analysis of the activities of three regulatory genes with potential roles in this transition in Norway spruce: DAL1, a MADS‐box gene related to the AGL6 group of genes from angiosperms, and the two LEAFY‐related genes PaLFY and PaNLY. DAL1 activity is initiated in the shoots of juvenile trees at an age of 3–5 years, and then increases with age, whereas both LFY genes are active throughout the juvenile phase. The activity of DAL1 further shows a spatial pattern along the stem of the tree that parallels a similar gradient in physiological and morphological features associated with maturation to the adult phase. Constitutive expression of DAL1 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants caused a dramatic attenuation of both juvenile and adult growth phases; flowers forming immediately after the embryonic phase of development in severely affected plants. Taken together, our results support the notion that DAL1 may have a regulatory role in the juvenile‐to‐adult transition in Norway spruce.
Exchange transfusion as an adjunct to the treatment of severe falciparum malaria
Authors: Hoontrakoon S. , Suputtamongkol Y. 
Published: December 2004

Summary objective  To compare the efficacy of exchange transfusion as the adjunct to quinine treatment (21 patients) with quinine therapy alone (29 patients). method  A retrospective study of 50 patients with severe falciparum malaria was conducted at Chumphorn Hospital, Southern Thailand. results  Clinical characteristics in both treatment groups were not significantly different although in the exchange transfusion group, the admission geometric mean parasitaemia (18 (5%), and the proportion of patients with more than 10% parasitaemia was higher (76%, P= 0.03) than in the group who received quinine alone (10 ± 4%; 38%, P = 0.1). The mortality rate of patients who received exchange transfusion was 48%; that of the remainder, 69%. (P= 0.3). ARDS (P= 0.01) and oliguric renal failure (P= 0.04) were significant risk factors for death in these patients. conclusion  Exchange transfusion was safe and well tolerated. Results of our study revealed a 20% reduction in mortality when exchange transfusion was used as an adjunct to quinine treatment. It should therefore be considered in patients with severe falciparum malaria when possible.
Retail supply of malaria‐related drugs in rural Tanzania: risks and opportunities
Authors: Goodman Catherine , Patrick Kachur S. , Abdulla Salim , Mwageni Eleuther , Nyoni Joyce , Schellenberg Joanna A. , Mills Anne , Bloland Peter 
Published: December 2004

SummaryObjectives  To characterize availability of fever and malaria medicines within the retail sector in rural Tanzania, assess the likely public health implications, and identify opportunities for policy interventions to increase the coverage of effective treatment.Methods  A census of retailers selling drugs was undertaken in the areas under demographic surveillance in four Tanzanian districts, using a structured questionnaire.Results  Drugs were stocked by two types of retailer: a large number of general retailers (n = 675) and a relatively small number of drug shops (n = 43). Almost all outlets stocked antipyretics/painkillers. One‐third of general retailers stocking drugs had antimalarials, usually chloroquine alone. Almost all drug shops stocked antimalarials (98%): nearly all had chloroquine, 42% stocked quinine, 37% sulphadoxine–pyrimethamine and 30% amodiaquine. A large number of antimalarial brands were available. Population ratios indicate the relative accessibility of retail drug providers compared with health facilities. Drug shop staff generally travelled long distances to buy from drugs wholesalers or pharmacies. General retailers bought mainly from local general wholesalers, with a few general wholesalers accounting for a high proportion of all sources cited.Conclusions  Drugs were widely available from a large number of retail outlets. Potential negative implications include provision of ineffective drugs, confusion over brand names, uncontrolled use of antimalarials, and the availability of components of potential combination therapy regimens as monotherapies. On the other hand, this active and highly accessible retail market provides opportunities for improving the coverage of effective antimalarial treatment. Interventions targeted at all drug retailers are likely to be costly to deliver and difficult to sustain, but two promising points for targeted intervention are drug shops and selected general wholesalers. Retail quality may also be improved through consumer education, and modification of the chemical quality, packaging and price of products entering the retail distribution chain.