bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A model of impairment and functional limitation in rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Escalante Agustín , Haas Roy W , del Rincón Inmaculada 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Background
We have previously proposed a theoretical model for studying physical disability and other outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The purpose of this paper is to test a model of impairment and functional limitation in (RA), using empirical data from a sample of RA patients. We based the model on the disablement process framework.

Methods
We posited two distinct types of impairment in RA: 1) Joint inflammation, measured by the tender, painful and swollen joint counts; and 2) Joint deformity, measured by the deformed joint count. We hypothesized direct paths from the two impairments to functional limitation, measured by the shirt-button speed, grip strength and walking velocity. We used structural equation modeling to test the hypothetical relationships, using empirical data from a sample of RA patients recruited from six rheumatology clinics.

Results
The RA sample was comprised of 779 RA patients. In the structural equation model, the joint inflammation impairment displayed a strong significant path toward the measured variables of joint pain, tenderness and swelling (standardized regression coefficients 0.758, 0.872 and 0.512, P ≤ 0.001 for each). The joint deformity impairment likewise displayed significant paths toward the measured upper limb, lower limb, and other deformed joint counts (standardized regression coefficients 0.849, 0.785, 0.308, P ≤ 0.001 for each). Both the joint inflammation and joint deformity impairments displayed strong direct paths toward functional limitation (standardized regression coefficients of -0.576 and -0.564, respectively, P ≤ 0.001 for each), and explained 65% of its variance. Model fit to data was fair to good, as evidenced by a comparative fit index of 0.975, and the root mean square error of approximation = 0.058.

Conclusion
This evidence supports the occurrence of two distinct impairments in RA, joint inflammation and joint deformity, that together, contribute strongly to functional limitations in this disease. These findings may have implications for investigators aiming to measure outcome in RA.
Portals to Wonderland: Health portals lead to confusing information about the effects of health care
Authors: Glenton Claire , Paulsen Elizabeth J , Oxman Andrew D 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Background
The Internet offers a seemingly endless amount of health information of varying quality. Health portals, which provide entry points to quality-controlled collections of websites, have been hailed as a solution to this problem. The objective of this study is to assess the extent to which government-run health portals provide access to relevant, valid and understandable information about the effects of health care.

Methods
We selected eight clinically relevant questions for which there was a systematic review, searched four portals for answers, and compared the answers we found to the results of the systematic reviews.

Results
Our searches resulted in 3400 hits, 155 of which mentioned both the condition and the intervention in one of the eight questions. Sixty-three of the 155 web pages did not give any information about the effect of the intervention. Seventy-seven qualitatively described the effects of the intervention. Twenty-six of these had information that was too unclear to be categorised; 15 were not consistent with the systematic review; and 36 were consistent with the review, but usually did not mention what happens without the intervention, what outcomes have been measured or when they were measured. Fifteen web pages quantitatively described effects. Four of these were abstracts from the systematic review, nine had information that was incomplete and potentially misleading because of a lack of information about people not receiving the intervention and the length of follow-up; one had information that was consistent with the review, but only referred to three trials whereas the review included six; and one was consistent with the review.

Conclusion
Information accessible through health portals is unlikely to be based on systematic reviews and is often unclear, incomplete and misleading. Portals are only as good as the websites they lead to. Investments in national health portals are unlikely to benefit consumers without investments in the production and maintenance of relevant, valid and understandable information to which the portals lead.
A model for empowerment of nursing in Iran
Authors: Adib Hajbaghery Mohsen , Salsali Mahvash 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Background
While the Iranian nursing profession tries to reach to its full capacity for participating in the maintenance of public health, its desire to develop is strongly influenced by cultural, economic, and religious factors. The concept of empowerment is frequently used in nursing and the health services, particularly in relation to the quality of care, since the mission of nursing is to provide safe and quality nursing care thereby enabling patients to achieve their maximum level of wellness. When considering the importance of nursing services in any health system, the 54th World Health Assembly recommended that programs be designed to strengthen and promote the nursing profession. Since empowerment is crucial to the role of nurses, a qualitative study was conducted and aimed at designing a model for empowering nurses in Iran.

Methods
A grounded theory approach was used for analyzing the participants' experiences, their perceptions and the strategies affecting empowerment. Data collection was done through Semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Forty-four participants were interviewed and 12 sessions of observation were carried out.

Results
Three main categories emerged from the data collected; these are "personal empowerment", "collective empowerment", and "the culture and structure of the organization." From the participants' perspective, empowerment is a dynamic process that results from mutual interaction between personal and collective traits of nurses as well as the culture and the structure of the organization. Impediments, such as power dynamics within the health care system hinder nurses from demonstrating that they possess the essential ingredients of empowerment.

Conclusion
A model was designed for empowering the nursing profession in Iran. Implementing this model will not only define nursing roles, identify territories in the national healthcare system, but it will restructure nursing systems, sub-systems, and services. Currently no such model exists; therefore, restructuring of the nursing system, including its services, education and research subsystems is recommended.
Mortality registration and surveillance in China: History, current situation and challenges
Authors: Yang Gonghuan , Hu Jianping , Rao Ke Quin , Ma Jeimin , Rao Chalapati , Lopez Alan D 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Background
Mortality statistics are key inputs for evidence based health policy at national level. Little is known of the empirical basis for mortality statistics in China, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of the world's population. An adequate description of the evolution of mortality registration in China and its current situation is important to evaluate the usability of the statistics derived from it for international epidemiology and health policy.

Current situation
The Chinese vital registration system currently covers 41 urban and 85 rural centres, accounting for roughly 8 % of the national population. Quality of registration is better in urban than in rural areas, and eastern than in western regions, resulting in significant biases in the overall statistics. The Ministry of Health introduced the Disease Surveillance Point System in 1980, to generate cause specific mortality statistics from a nationally representative sample of sites. Currently, the sample consists of 145 urban and rural sites, covering populations from 30,000 – 70,000, and a total of about 1 % of the national population. Causes of death are derived through a mix of medical certification and 'verbal autopsy' procedures, applied according to standard guidelines in all sites. Periodic evaluations for completeness of registration are conducted, with subsequent corrections for under reporting of deaths.

Conclusion
Results from the DSP have been used to inform health policy at national, regional and global levels. There remains a need to critically validate the information on causes of death, and a detailed validation exercise on these aspects is currently underway. In general, such sample based mortality registration systems hold much promise as models for rapidly improving knowledge about levels and causes of mortality in other low-income populations.
Separation of Overlapping Processes from TGA Data and Verification by EGA
Authors: Artiaga R , Cao R , Naya S , González-Martín B , Mier JL , García A 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
A typical problem when analyzing the kinetics by dynamic TGA of polymer degradation consists in that different models can fit equally well, or the model does not fit the TGA data. It has been suggested that this is due to the presence of overlapping processes. High resolution TGA helps to clarify the problem in some cases, but in many other cases the problem remains unsolved. In this work, a dynamic TGA curve showing overlapping processes of degradation, typical of polymer thermal degradation, is fitted by a multiple logistic regression model. The regression function is a mixture of logistic functions where each single logistic function is weighed by a factor that represents the amount of the sample that takes place in the process represented by that function. A software program was developed to fit the data to the logistic mixture model by estimation of the parameter values. Additionally, the correlation of parameter estimates was performed by the S-Plus software. The regression was performed so that the best fitting shows the number of single decomposition processes that take place along the experiment, even if they are overlapping. Other parameters have the physical meaning of mass loss rate and position of the process in the time or temperature domain. The study of the correlations of parameter estimates gives a new insight on how each component fits a logistic model. The parameters obtained describe the kinetic of the processes in a form totally independent of the Arrhenius model. The separation of processes allows for analysis of each single process by classical methods. Although the model is mathematically supported, verification was done by comparing the results with the FTIR spectra obtained from the gases evolved along the experiment. The FTIR analysis of the gases evolved from a TGA experiment confirms that the logistic mixture model is suitable to analyze a dynamic TGA trace. It was also found that the logistic mixture model is suitable to separate single components from FTIR spectra. Some differences were found in the location of the components along the time axis, comparing DTG and FTIR data. In the FTIR, the separated peaks are broader and appear shifted to longer times. It can be attributed to the delay and mixing of components that may occur during the gas carriage from the TGA furnace to the FTIR detector.
Molecular Photoionization
Authors: Lucchese Robert R. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
The computational study of molecular photoionization requires special methods due to the continuous energy spectrum and the scattering asymptotic boundary conditions required to describe the photoelectron produced in the photoionization process. Experimental observables in photoionization experiments are discussed, and the theoretical formulations for those observables are given. A survey of theoretical methods and their corresponding numerical implementations is given. Three example studies that indicate the varying size of the molecular systems and the level of detail that can be addressed using computational chemistry tools are discussed.
Compound Selection
Authors: Clark Robert D. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract
Chemists often find themselves needing to identify an informative subset within a larger – often, a much larger – library of compounds. The range of contexts in which such needs arise is broad, from test set selection for QSAR to compound acquisition programs. The kinds of libraries of interest vary considerably as well, from relatively small homologous data sets through vast ensembles of combinatorial libraries. Such considerations have led to development of a correspondingly wide range of compound selection methods – from simple random section through complex programs employing a genetic algorithm to balance many competing selection criteria.
Perceptual learning in adults with amblyopia: A reevaluation of critical periods in human vision
Authors: Levi Dennis M. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractCritical periods for experience‐dependent plasticity are ubiquitous. The idea that experience‐dependent plasticity is closely linked with the development of sensory function is still widely held; however, there also is growing evidence for plasticity in the adult nervous system. This article reviews the notion of a critical period for the treatment of amblyopia in light of recent experimental and clinical evidence for neural plasticity. Specifically, adults with amblyopia can improve their perceptual performance via extensive practice on a challenging visual task, and this improvement may transfer to improved visual acuity. Amblyopes achieve this improvement via the mechanisms that have been shown to explain perceptual learning in the normal visual system. It is hypothesized that these same mechanisms account for at least some of the improvement that occurs in the treatment of amblyopia. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 46: 222–232, 2005.
Is there a critical period for cochlear implantation in congenitally deaf children? Analyses of hearing and speech perception performance after implantation
Authors: Harrison Robert V. , Gordon Karen A. , Mount Richard J. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractA range of basic and applied studies have demonstrated that during the development of the auditory system, early experimental manipulations or clinical interventions are generally more effective than those made later. We present a short review of these studies. We investigated this age‐related plasticity in relation to the timing of cochlear implantation in deaf‐from‐birth children. Cochlear implantation is a standard intervention for providing hearing in children with severe to profound deafness. An important practical question is whether there is a critical period or cutoff age of implantation after which hearing outcomes are significantly reduced. In this article, we present data from prelingually deaf children (mostly congenitally deaf) implanted at ages ranging from 1 to 15 years. Each child was tested with auditory and speech understanding tests before implantation, and at regular intervals up to 8 years postimplantation. We measured the improvement in performance of speech understanding tests in younger implanted children and compared it with the results of those implanted at a later age. We also used a binary partitioning algorithm to divide the data systematically at all ages at implant to determine the optimum split, i.e., to determine the age at implant which best separates performance of early implanted versus later implanted children. We observed distinct age‐of‐implant cutoffs, and will discuss whether these really represent critical periods during development. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 46: 252–261, 2005.
Validation of adaptive unstructured hexahedral mesh computations of flow around a wind turbine airfoil
Authors: Bijl H. , van Zuijlen A. H. , van Mameren A. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractIn this paper we investigate local adaptive refinement of unstructured hexahedral meshes for computations of the flow around the DU91 wind turbine airfoil. This is a 25% thick airfoil, found at the mid‐span section of a wind turbine blade. Wind turbine applications typically involve unsteady flows due to changes in the angle of attack and to unsteady flow separation at high angles of attack. In order to obtain reasonably accurate results for all these conditions one should use a mesh which is refined in many regions, which is not computationally efficient. Our solution is to apply an automated mesh adaptation technique.In this paper we test an adaptive refinement strategy developed for unstructured hexahedral meshes for steady flow conditions. The automated mesh adaptation is based on local flow sensors for pressure, velocity, density or a combination of these flow variables. This way the mesh is refined only in those regions necessary for high accuracy, retaining computational efficiency. A validation study is performed for two cases: attached flow at an angle of 6° and separated flow at 12°. The results obtained using our adaptive mesh strategy are compared with experimental data and with results obtained with an equally sized non‐adapted mesh. From these computations it can be concluded that for a given computing time, adapted meshes result in solutions closer to the experimental data compared to non‐adapted meshes for attached flow. Finally, we show results for unsteady computations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thyroid surgery in an area of iodine deficiency
Authors: Sarda Anil K. , Kapur Man M. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractBackground.The catchment area of the patients under study was the sub‐Himalayan plains, which are recognized as iodine‐deficient areas.Methods.A retrospective analysis of 1576 surgically treated patients with thyroid disorders is presented. The indications for surgery were hyperthyroidism or cytologically diagnosed malignancy and large size, pressure symptoms, cosmesis, suspicious cytologic findings for malignancy, and clinical suspicion of malignancy in clinically benign euthyroid goiters.Results.Histologically, 83 of 703 solitary thyroid nodules, 36 of 329 clinically benign euthyroid multinodular goiters, and four of 181 Graves' disease were cancers. Of all follicular cell cancers in this study, 132 were papillary, 83 were follicular, and 38 were anaplastic and squamous cell cancers. The different histologic types exhibited an aggressive clinical behavior, with advanced lesions with cervical lymph node involvement and distant metastases frequently seen at presentation. Locoregional recurrence occurred frequently even after radical surgical ablation, and overall mortality caused by the disease was high.Conclusions.Even well‐differentiated cancers pursued a virulent clinical course with high mortality, despite routine radical surgical and radionuclide ablation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 27: XXX–XXX, 2005
Failure property distributions for conventional and highly crosslinked ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylenes
Authors: Kurtz S. M. , Bergström J. , Rimnac C. M. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractTo make stochastic (probabilistic) failure predictions of a conventional or highly crosslinked ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) material, not only must a failure criterion be defined, but it is also necessary to specify a probability distribution of the failure strength. This study sought to evaluate both parametric and nonparametric statistical approaches to describing the failure properties of UHMWPE, based on the Normal and Weibull model distributions, respectively. Because fatigue and fracture properties of materials have historically been well described with the use of Weibull statistics, it was expected that a nonparametric approach would provide a better fit of the failure distributions than the parametric approach. The ultimate true stress, true strain, and ultimate chain stretch data at failure were analyzed from 60 tensile tests conducted previously. The ultimate load and ultimate displacement from 121 small punch tests conducted previously were also analyzed. It was found that both Normal and Weibull models provide a reasonable description of the central tendency of the failure distribution. The principal difference between the Normal and Weibull models can be appreciated in the predicted lower‐bound response at the tail end of the distribution. The data support the use of both parametric and nonparametric methods to bracket the lower‐bound failure prediction in order to simulate the failure threshold for UHMWPE. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater
Ruthenium(III)‐catalyzed oxidation of cyclopentanol and cyclohexanol by N‐bromoacetamide
Authors: Srivastava Sheila , Awasthi Ajaya , Singh Kulina 
Published: March 2005

AbstractKinetic investigations on Ru(III)‐catalyzed oxidation of cyclopentanol and cyclohexanol by acidic solution of N‐bromoacetamide (NBA) in the presence of mercury(II) acetate as a scavenger have been carried out in the temperature range of 30–45°C. Similar kinetics was followed by both the cyclic alcohols. First‐order kinetics in the lower concentration range of NBA was observed to tend to zero order at its higher concentrations. The reaction exhibits a zero‐order rate dependence with respect to each cyclic alcohol, while it is first order in RuIII. Increase in [H+] and [Cl−] showed positive effect, while successive addition of acetamide exhibited negative effect on the reaction rate. Insignificant effect of sodium perchlorate, D2O, and mercury(II) acetate on the reaction velocity was observed. Cationic bromine has been proposed as the real oxidizing species. Various thermodynamic parameters have been computed. A suitable mechanism in agreement with the kinetic observations has been proposed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 37: 275–281, 2005
Ferromagnets with biquadratic exchange coupling energy. Global existence of weak solutions
Authors: Hamdache K. , Hamroun D. 
Published: March 2005

AbstractA global existence theorem is proved for the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equations with biquadratic exchange coupling energy acting on the interfaces of a material composed by two ferromagnetic layers separated by a nonmagnetic one. This energy is not convex. The magnetization M satisfies on the interfaces a coupled non‐linear Neumann boundary condition with cubic growth. We use several regularizations, in particular for the traces of the magnetization at the interfaces, to obtain global weak solutions of the problem with finite energy. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Weak solutions for the Falk model system of shape memory alloys in energy class
Authors: Yoshikawa Shuji 
Published: March 2005

AbstractWe show the unique global existence of energy class solutions for the Falk model system of shape memory alloys under the general non‐linearity as well as considered in Aiki (Math. Meth. Appl. Sci. 2000; 23: 299). Our main tools of the proofs are the Strichartz type estimate for the Boussinesq type equation and the maximal regularity estimate for the heat equation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.