bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A multi‐recombination model for the mtDNA rearrangements seen in maize cmsT regenerated plants
Authors: Fauron Christiane M.‐R. , Casper Mark , Gesteland Raymond , Albertsen Marc 
Published: February 2005

SummaryRegeneration of plants from maize cytoplasmic male sterile type T (cmsT) callus tissue culture promotes, in some instances, genetic variability in their mitochondrial genomes. These mutations have been analyzed in various cmsT regenerated plants that have or have not regained the male fertile phenotype.A unique multi‐recombination model explains the various mitochondrial genome rearrangements. First, recombination involving two different sets of direct repeats gives rise to subgenomic recombinant circles. Second, intermolecular recombination between some selected subgenomes gives rise to a new rearranged master chromosome.The consequence of these events is the formation of a new master chromosome containing sequence deletions and duplications when compared to the progenitor. This new mitochondrial genome seems stable, although it does not contain the entire genetic complexity of the progenitor.
Preparedness for rural community leadership and its impact on practice location of family medicine graduates
Authors: Woloschuk Wayne , Crutcher Rodney , Szafran Olga 
Published: February 2005

AbstractObjective:  To identify non‐clinical dimensions of preparedness for rural practice and to determine whether preparedness for rural practice is predictive of rural practice location. Design:  Cross‐sectional postal survey mailed in 2001. Setting:  Communities across Canada where graduates were practising. Subjects:   Graduates (n = 369) of the family medicine residency program at the universities of Alberta (U of A) and Calgary (U of C) between 1996 and 2000, inclusive. Interventions:  Using a 4‐point scale, graduates rated the extent to which the residency program prepared them for eight dimensions of rural practice: clinical demands of rural practice, understanding rural culture, small community living, balancing work and personal life, establishing personal/professional boundaries, becoming a community leader, handling a ‘fish bowl’ lifestyle, and choosing a suitable community. Main outcome measure:  Identification of non‐clinical dimensions of preparedness for rural practice and whether scores on preparedness scales are predictive of rural practice location. Results:  The overall response rate was 76.4%. Factor analysis of the eight preparedness items produced two factors, ‘rural culture’ and ‘rural community leader’ which explained 72% of the variance. The alpha coefficient for each factor was 0.87. Odds ratios revealed that family medicine graduates prepared for rural community leadership roles were 1.92 (CI = 1.03–3.61) times more likely to be in rural practice. Rural physicians were also 2.14 (CI = 1.13–4.03) times as likely to have a rural background. Conclusions:  Preparedness to be a rural community leader and having a rural background were predictive of rural practice. Educators should consider this in both family medicine residency admissions policy and practice and when designing and implementing family medicine residency curricula.
Caring for depressed patients in rural communities: general practitioners’ attitudes, needs and relationships with mental health services
Authors: Wright Megan J. , Harmon Karen D. , Bowman Jennifer A. , Lewin Terry J. , Carr Vaughan J. 
Published: February 2005

AbstractObjective:  To examine the needs and practices of rural GPs and their relationships with local acute mental health services, particularly in the provision of care to depressed patients. Design:  Postal survey. Setting:  Rural general practices. Subjects:  Ninety‐nine GPs (63 males, 36 females) from the Hunter Valley region of NSW, Australia. Main outcome measures:  GPs’ self‐reported contact rates, confidence, needs and beliefs. Results:  Depression was the most commonly seen mental disorder, with an average of 1.44 patients per GP per month referred to local acute mental health services, most commonly for suicidality. The preferred form of feedback after the referral of a depressed patient was a follow‐up letter, while the most requested type of patient management support was cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) groups. GPs were most confident in recognising depression, compared to other mental disorders except anxiety, and they were most confident in treating depression, compared to all other mental disorders. The most common barrier to providing care for depressed patients was reported to be ‘time constraints’ on GPs. Conclusions:  The challenge for mental health services is to develop ways to collaborate more effectively with GPs in the provision of psychological services for depressed patients in rural communities.
What factors influence survival in patients with unresected synchronous liver metastases after resection of colorectal cancer?
Authors: Chafai N. , Chan C. L. H. , Bokey E. L. , Dent O. F. , Sinclair G. , Chapuis P. H. 
Published: February 2005

AbstractObjective  The aim of this study was to determine whether the survival of patients with untreated synchronous liver metastases after resection of a colorectal cancer was associated with any features of the primary tumour.Methods  Information for 398 consecutive patients with unresected liver metastases in the period 1971–2001 was examined by multivariate survival analysis.Results  Of 19 clinical and pathological variables considered, survival was independently associated only with residual tumour in a line of resection (hazard ratio (HR) 1.95), venous invasion (HR 1.87), right colonic tumour (HR 1.68), lymph node metastasis (HR 1.54), and extra‐hepatic metastasis (HR 1.16); 8.3% of patients had none of these adverse features. Their 2‐year overall survival rate was 39.2%, compared with only 16.5% (P < 0.001) in those with one or more adverse features.Conclusions  These findings may assist in selecting patients most likely to benefit from treatment of hepatic metastases and in counselling patients and their relatives.
Ano‐cutaneous flap repair for complex and recurrent supra – sphincteric anal fistula
Authors: Hossack T. , Solomon M. J. , Young J. M. 
Published: February 2005

AbstractBackground  Suprasphincteric fistulae remain the most difficult to cure.Objectives  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the healing rate of suprasphincteric anal fistula treated by ano‐cutaneous advancement flap repair, and the impact of this procedure on continence and quality of life.Method  Sixteen patients with complex, recurrent or chronic suprasphincteric fistulae associated with significant tissue damage (necrotizing fasciitis, keyhole deformity and anal stenosis) or who had failed previous surgical procedures were treated by ano‐cutaneous flap closure. They were assessed pre and postoperatively by the treating surgeon for wound healing and fistula recurrence and later followed up by phone interview using the St Mark's Hospital incontinence score and the Perianal Disease Activity Index (PDAI) as indicators of treatment outcome.Results  Fifteen patients had successful healing of their fistula with the cutaneous flap, with recurrence in only one. The most common short‐term complications were minor graft site wound separation, which healed in all cases without intervention, and wound pain, which settled over time and was not associated with recurrence. Continence improved for almost 70% of the patients, with a significant reduction in St Mark's incontinence scores (t = 2.62, 15 d.f., P = 0.02). PDAI also decreased significantly (t = 7.55, 15 d.f., P < 0.001), demonstrating improvement in quality of life for most patients.Conclusion  Ano‐cutaneous flap can achieve healing of complex and recurrent suprasphincteric anal fistula in patients who had previously failed at other forms of treatment thus improving their quality of life and continence.
Rifaximin‐ciprofloxacin combination therapy is effective in chronic active refractory pouchitis
Authors: Abdelrazeq A. S. , Kelly S. M. , Lund J. N. , Leveson S. H. 
Published: February 2005

AbstractObjective  Treatment of chronic refractory pouchitis is often difficult and disappointing and some of the affected pouches subsequently fail. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of treatment with rifaximin, a nonabsorbable oral antibiotic with immunomdulatory functions, in combination with ciprofloxacin for chronic active refractory pouchitis.Patients and methods  Eight patients with chronic active refractory pouchitis were treated orally with a combination of rifaximin 1 g b.d and ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.d. for two weeks. Clinical assessment, endoscopic and histological evaluations were performed before and after therapy using the Pouchitis Disease Activity Index (PDAI) score. Improvement was defined as a decrease of at least three points in the PDAI score and remission as a PDAI score of 0. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare pre‐ and post‐treatment PDAI scores. The long‐term outcome of the treated patients was prospectively monitored.Results  Seven of the eight patients either went into remission (n = 5) or improved (n = 2). The median (range) PDAI scores before and after therapy were 12 (9–18) and 0 (0–15), respectively, (P = 0.018). All patients were compliant and no side effects were reported. Pouchitis recurred in two of the seven responding patients but returned into remission after further courses of the same combination. After a median follow‐up of 30 months, the seven responding patients still had satisfactory pouch function.Conclusion  Rifaximin‐ciprofloxacin combination therapy is safe and objectively effective in chronic active refractory pouchitis and may salvage a significant percentage of ‘at risk pouches’.
Topographic mediation of growth in high elevation foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana Grev. et Balf.) forests in the Sierra Nevada, USA
Authors: Bunn Andrew G. , Waggoner Lindsey A. , Graumlich Lisa J. 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACTAim  Climate variability is an important mediating agent of ecosystem dynamics in cold, semi‐arid regions such as the mountains of western North America. Climatically sensitive tree‐ring chronologies offer a means of assessing the impact of climate variability on tree growth across temporal scales of years to centuries and spatial scales of metres to subcontinents. Our goal was to bring practices from landscape ecology that highlight the impact of landscape heterogeneity on ecological pattern and processes into a dendroclimatic study that shows that the biophysical setting of target trees affects ring‐width patterns.Location  This study was conducted at two sites near alpine treeline in the Sequoia National Park, USA (36°30′ 00′ N, 118°30′ 00′ W).Methods  We collected stand information and increment cores from foxtail pines (Pinus balfouriana Grev. et Balf.) for eight tree‐ring chronologies in four extreme biophysical settings at two sites using proxies for soil moisture and radiation derived from a digital elevation model.Results  Biophysical setting affected forest age–class structure, with wet and bright plots showing high recruitment after 1900 ad, but had no obvious effect on immature stem density (e.g. seedlings). Biophysical setting strongly affected ring‐width patterns, with wet plots having higher correlation with instrumental temperature records while dry plots correlated better with instrumental precipitation records. Ring‐width chronologies from the wet plots showed strong low‐frequency variability (i.e. hundreds of years) while ring‐width chronologies from the dry plots showed strong variability on multidecadal scales.Main conclusions  There was a strong association between biophysical setting and age‐class structure, and with ring‐width patterns in foxtail pine. The mediation of ring widths by biophysical setting has the potential to further the understanding of the expression of synoptic‐scale climate across rugged terrain. When combined with remotely sensed imagery, a priori GIS modelling of tree growth offers a viable means to devise first‐order predictions of climatic impacts in subalpine forest dynamics and to develop flexible and powerful monitoring schemes.
Diversification of ectoparasite assemblages and climate: an example with fleas parasitic on small mammals
Authors: Krasnov Boris R. , Shenbrot Georgy I. , Khokhlova Irina S. , Poulin Robert 
Published: February 2005

ABSTRACTAim We studied the relationships between the numbers of species and numbers of higher taxa (genera, tribes, subfamilies and families) in flea assemblages of small mammalian hosts with the aims of: (a) comparing these relationships across different regions, and (b) testing the hypothesis that flea assemblages in warmer regions diversify mainly via intrahost speciation, whereas those in colder regions diversify mainly via host switching.Location The study used previously published data on flea assemblages on small mammalian hosts from 25 different regions of the Holarctic.Methods The number of flea genera, tribes, subfamilies or families in an assemblage (host species) was plotted against the number of flea species in this assemblage for each region separately, and a power function was fitted to the resulting relationships. Then, the values of the exponent of the power function for a region were regressed against the mean annual temperature in this region, across all regions.Results The relationships between the number of flea species and the numbers of flea genera, tribes, subfamilies or families on a host species in each region were found to be well described by simple power functions. The exponent of the power function of the relationship between the number of flea species and the number of flea genera per host tended to decrease with increasing local mean annual temperature. When two apparent outliers from the trend (corresponding to regions where sampling was not performed as in other regions) were omitted from the analysis, the negative relationship between temperature and the exponent of the power function between the number of flea species and number of flea genera per host became highly significant. No relationship was found between the values of the exponents of the power functions between the number of flea species and the number of flea tribes, subfamilies or families per host, and the mean local annual temperature.Main conclusions The results suggest that the diversification of flea assemblages is associated with climatic variables. In warm regions, the greater number of congeneric species per flea assemblage, reflected by the lower exponent of the power function, may well be the outcome of intrahost speciation. This indicates that, as regional temperature increases, intrahost speciation becomes a relatively more important mode of diversification than acquisition of fleas via host switching.
Gaucher disease and cancer incidence: a study from the Gaucher Registry
Authors: Rosenbloom Barry E. , Weinreb Neal J. , Zimran Ari , Kacena Katherine A. , Charrow Joel , Ward Elizabeth 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Patients with Gaucher disease (GD) are alleged to be at an increased risk of malignant disorders, possibly due to potential chronic stimulation of the immune system and lymphoproliferation associated with storage of glucocerebroside in tissue macrophages. Because previous reports of increased risk of malignancy in GD may have been affected by small patient numbers and ascertainment bias, 2742 patients with GD from the International Gaucher Registry were studied. The number of cancers identified among patients in the registry was compared with that expected in the US population of similar attained age and sex. The majority of patients were young or middle-aged adults at the time of last follow-up, with only 14% older than age 60. There were 10 patients with multiple myeloma, yielding an estimated relative risk of 5.9 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 2.8, 10.8). The relative risk of cancer overall was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.94), and the subgroups for cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and rectum, lung, and hematologic malignancies other than myeloma did not yield statistically significant higher risks. This study suggests that, in general, patients with Gaucher disease are not at highly increased risk of cancer, at least during early and middle age. However, there appears to be a significantly higher risk of multiple myeloma of which physicians should be aware when caring for these patients. (Blood. 2005;105:4569-4572)
Increasing stability of water-soluble PQQ glucose dehydrogenase by increasing hydrophobic interaction at dimeric interface
Authors: Tanaka Shunsuke , Igarashi Satoshi , Ferri Stefano , Sode Koji 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
Water-soluble quinoprotein glucose dehydrogenase (PQQGDH-B) from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus has a great potential for application as a glucose sensor constituent. Because this enzyme shows no activity in its monomeric form, correct quaternary structure is essential for the formation of active enzyme. We have previously reported on the increasing of the stability of PQQGDH-B by preventing the subunit dissociation. Previous studies were based on decreasing the entropy of quaternary structure dissociation but not on increasing the interaction between the two subunits. We therefore attempted to introduce a hydrophobic interaction in the dimeric interface to increase the stability of PQQGDH-B.

Results
Amino acid residues Asn340 and Tyr418 face each other at the dimer interface of PQQGDH-B, however no interaction exists between their side chains. We simultaneously substituted Asn340 to Phe and Tyr418 to Phe or Ile, to create the two mutants Asn340Phe/Tyr418Phe and Asn340Phe/Tyr418Ile. Furthermore, residues Leu280, Val282 and Val342 form a hydrophobic region that faces, on the other subunit, residues Thr416 and Thr417, again without any specific interaction. We simultaneously substituted Thr416 and Thr417 to Val, to create the mutant Thr416Val/Thr417Val. The temperatures resulting in lose of half of the initial activity of the constructed mutants were increased by 3–4°C higher over wild type. All mutants showed 2-fold higher thermal stability at 55°C than the wild-type enzyme, without decreasing their catalytic activities. From the 3D models of all the mutant enzymes, the predicted binding energies were found to be significantly greater that in the wild-type enzyme, consistent with the increases in thermal stabilities.

Conclusions
We have achieved via site-directed mutagenesis the improvement of the thermal stability of PQQGDH-B by increasing the dimer interface interaction. Through rational design based on the quaternary structure of the enzyme, we selected residues located at the dimer interface that do not contribute to the intersubunit interaction. By substituting these residues to hydrophobic ones, the thermal stability of PQQGDH-B was increased without decreasing its catalytic activity.
Bilateral recurrent discloation of the patella associated with below knee amputation: A case report
Authors: Batra Sumit , Kumar Ratnesh , Lenka Prasanna 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
Recurrent dislocation of the patella in patients with below knee amputation is a known entity. Abnormally high-riding patella (patella alta) and medial patellofemoral ligament insufficiency in these patients predisposes them to patellar instability. The established treatment of this problem is surgical realignment.

Case presentation
A 25 year old male patient with bilateral below knee amputation presented with bilateral recurrent dislocation of the patella while walking on knees on uneven ground. Clinical and radiographic studies showed patella alta. A simple shoe modification was used to treat this patient.

Conclusions
A simple shoe modification can be used to treat such a condition which is otherwise treated surgically.
The uses of provincial administrative health databases for research on palliative care: Insights from British Columbia, Canada
Authors: Allan Diane E , Stajduhar Kelli I , Reid R Colin 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
Research indicating that people increasingly prefer to die at home suggests that palliative care is likely to play a more prominent role in the future of Canada's health care system. Unfortunately, at a time when research evidence should be informing policy and service delivery, little is known about health service utilization by Canadians at the end of life. One existing mechanism that can help address this gap is provincial administrative health data. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of administrative health data to identify characteristics of palliative care users, patterns of formal service utilization and predictors of palliative care use.

Methods
Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine data from the Capital Health Region, British Columbia Linked Health Databases for the period 1992/93 to 1998/99. The databases examined include continuing care, physician claims, hospital separations, and vital statistics. As the name implies, these databases can be linked at the individual level using unique identifiers so that health services utilization can be tracked across sectors.

Results
General patterns of service use among palliative care patients suggest that general practitioner and medical specialist visits have decreased over time and the utilization of hospital beds has increased. Utilization of community-based services (i.e. home support and home nursing care) shows an overall pattern of decline. However, when compared to non-palliative care patients, palliative care patients spent fewer nights in hospital, used fewer hours of home support, and had a greater number of home nursing care visits.

Conclusions
Administrative health databases can provide valuable information for examining service utilization patterns over time. However, given that decisions surrounding the designation of palliative care include factors beyond the scope of administrative databases (such as quality of life, personal preferences, social support), these databases should only be seen as one source of information to inform service delivery and policy decision making.