bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Molecular epidemiological analysis of community circulating respiratory syncytial virus in rural South Africa: Comparison of viruses and genotypes responsible for different disease manifestations
Authors: Venter M. , Collinson M. , Schoub B.D. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractHuman respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe lower respiratory tract infection in children in both the industrialized and developing world. Most molecular epidemiological studies have, until now, focused on isolates from hospitalized infants in industrialized countries. Limited data have been available with regard to community circulating RSV, especially from Africa. The present study compares RSV isolates from infants attending rural community clinics in the Northern province of South Africa, with isolates from hospitalized infants in Soweto, near Johannesburg, South Africa, during the same period. A multiplex nested polymerase chain reaction was developed for analyzing the clinical specimens, a technique that permits subtyping and nucleotide sequence analysis of the second variable region of the G‐protein gene. Community‐ and hospital‐based isolates from young children in South Africa, as well as isolates from Mozambique were compared phylogenetically. One subgroup B community isolate was identified that had a G‐protein truncated by approximately 35 amino acids, however, the other community isolates were not significantly different from hospital isolates. Evidence was found that the same RSV genotypes and viruses could cause mild upper respiratory tract infections or lower respiratory tract infections or severe RSV in young infants. J. Med. Virol. 68:452–461, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The epidemiology of mental retardation: Challenges and opportunities in the new millennium
Authors: Leonard Helen , Wen Xingyan 
Published: October 2002

AbstractThere are a number of problems and challenges in relating the science of epidemiology to mental retardation (MR). These relate to how MR is defined and classified and how these definitions may change over time. These as well as other differences in ascertainment sources and methods need to be considered when comparing MR prevalence over time and place. On the other hand, advances in technology also provide new and efficient methods of data collection both by data linkage and by use of web‐based methods to study rare diseases.While prevalence studies have not been individually reviewed, we have examined the range of data including recent studies relating to how prevalence differs according to age, gender, social class and ethnicity. Some problems with available etiological classification systems have been identified. Recent etiological studies, most of which use different classification systems, have been reviewed and explanations have been postulated to account for differences in results. Individual risk factors for MR are considered whilst the option of considering a population as opposed to a high risk strategy to MR prevention is raised. This might well involve improving the social milieu surrounding the occurrence of individual risk factors.The impact of biotechnological advances such as antenatal and neonatal screening and assisted reproduction on MR are discussed. The issue of how inequalities in access to technology may impact on case identification and even have the potential to further widen inequalities is raised. The importance of extending the use of epidemiological tools to study the social, health and economic burden of MR is also emphasized. However, in order to apply to MR the “prevention‐intervention‐research” cycle, which surely underpins all epidemiology, it is vital to ensure that the methodological challenges we raise are adequately addressed. MRDD Research Reviews 2002;8:117–134. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Environmental factors associated with a spectrum of neurodevelopmental deficits
Authors: Mendola Pauline , Selevan Sherry G. , Gutter Suzanne , Rice Deborah 
Published: October 2002

AbstractA number of environmental agents have been shown to demonstrate neurotoxic effects either in human or laboratory animal studies. Critical windows of vulnerability to the effects of these agents occur both pre‐ and postnatally. The nervous system is relatively unique in that different parts are responsible for different functional domains, and these develop at different times (e.g., motor control, sensory, intelligence and attention). In addition, the many cell types in the brain have different windows of vulnerability with varying sensitivities to environmental agents. This review focuses on two environmental agents, lead and methylmercury, to illustrate the neurobehavioral and cognitive effects that can result from early life exposures. Special attention is paid to distinguishing between the effects detected following episodes of poisoning and those detected following lower dose exposures. Perinatal and childhood exposure to high doses of lead results in encephalopathy and convulsions. Lower‐dose lead exposures have been associated with impairment in intellectual function and attention. At high levels of prenatal exposure, methylmercury produces mental retardation, cerebral palsy and visual and auditory deficits in children of exposed mothers. At lower levels of methylmercury exposure, the effects in children have been more subtle. Other environmental neurotoxicants that have been shown to produce developmental neurotoxicity include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, pesticides, ionizing radiation, environmental tobacco smoke, and maternal use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and cocaine. Exposure to environmental agents with neurotoxic effects can result in a spectrum of adverse outcomes from severe mental retardation and disability to more subtle changes in function depending on the timing and dose of the chemical agent. MRDD Research Reviews 2002;8:188–197. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The epidemiology of the epilepsies in children
Authors: Cowan Linda D. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractThe epilepsies are a heterogeneous collection of neurological conditions and syndromes characterized by recurrent, unprovoked, paroxysmal seizure activity. There are several types of epileptic seizures and syndromes that are unique to children, including infantile spasms, Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome and absence seizures. Febrile seizures and neonatal seizures, while not epilepsy, are relatively common types of seizures in infants and children and are likely markers of risk of later epilepsy. Thus, it is important to consider the epidemiological features of the epilepsies as they occur specifically in infants and children. The purpose of this review is to summarize what is currently known about the epidemiology of the childhood epilepsies and to identify promising areas for further population‐based studies. The epilepsies are an important cause of neurological morbidity in children. The average annual rate of new cases (incidence) of epilepsy is approximately 5‐7 cases per 10,000 children from birth to age 15 years, and in any given year, about 5 of every 1,000 children will have epilepsy. There is evidence that the incidence of the epilepsies in some populations of children may be decreasing over time, and this possibility merits further investigation. Factors that are known to increase risk of the epilepsies in children include congenital malformations of the central nervous system (CNS), moderate or severe head trauma, CNS infections, certain inherited metabolic conditions, and genetic factors. However, these account for only 25% to 45% of cases, and thus, the etiology of most cases of the epilepsies remains obscure. The paucity of well‐controlled etiological studies is due largely to formidable methodological problems in conducting epidemiological studies of the epilepsies. The prognosis for seizure control is generally good, although children with remote symptomatic seizures and those with additional neurological disabilities do less well. MRDD Research Reviews 2002;8:171–181. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Clinical, urodynamic, and manometric findings in women with combined fecal and urinary incontinence
Authors: Lacima Gloria , Espuña Montserrat , Pera Miguel , Puig‐Clota Montserrat , Quintó Llorenç , García‐Valdecasas Juan Carlos 
Published: October 2002

AbstractAimsTo determine the prevalence of fecal incontinence in patients with urinary incontinence, who were referred for urodynamic evaluation, and to compare clinical and manometric findings between double incontinence and isolated fecal incontinence.MethodsNine hundred women with urinary and/or fecal incontinence were prospectively investigated. Patients with double incontinence (group 1) were compared with 38 women with isolated fecal incontinence (group 2). Clinical data regarding obstetric and urogynecologic history, bowel habit, and type of fecal incontinence were collected. Urodynamics and anal manometry were performed.ResultsSeventy‐eight patients (8.7%) presented double incontinence. A history of vaginal delivery and chronic straining was more frequent in patients with double incontinence (P=0.043). No differences were found in the severity of fecal incontinence. Physical examination showed a greater prevalence of rectocele (54% vs. 12%) in group 1. On urodynamics, 80% of women with double incontinence had stress urinary incontinence. Rectal sensation testing revealed a significantly higher rate of hyposensitivity in group 2 (22% vs. 43%).ConclusionsThis study supports a close association between combined stress urinary and fecal incontinence, history of vaginal delivery, and chronic straining.. Neurourol. Urodynam. 21:464–469, 2002. © Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
African Americans with cancer: The relationships among self‐esteem, locus of control, and health perception
Authors: Swinney* Jean E. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to describe and examine the relationships among self‐esteem, locus of control, and perceived health status in African Americans with cancer and to identify predictors of perceived health status. A convenience sample of 95 oncology outpatients at two large medical facilities completed the Tennessee Self‐Concept Scale, the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, and the Cantril Ladder, a measurement of perceived health. In an audiotaped interview two open‐ended questions were used to clarify participants' Cantril Ladder scores. A significant positive relationship was discovered between self‐esteem and powerful others health locus of control (p < .05). Participants tended to view God as the Powerful Other capable of influencing their health and well‐being. Self‐esteem and an internal health locus of control were found to account for 23% of the perceived variance in health status. In addition, interview data indicated that participants with normal to high levels of self‐esteem and an internal health locus of control perceived their state of health and well‐being positively. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 25:371–382, 2002
Choroid plexus cysts in the mid‐trimester fetus—practical application suggests superiority of an individualized risk method of counseling for trisomy 18
Authors: Bird L. M. , Dixson B. , Masser‐Frye D. , Mestre L. , Ribas L. , Mullen L. , Kalla K. , Carder K. , Huslig M. , Catanzarite V. A. , Jones M. C. 
Published: October 2002

Abstract An erratum has been published for this article in Prenatal Diagnosis 23 (3) 2003, 268.ObjectivesAnalysis of a referral population of patients with choroid plexus cysts (CPCs) was performed to compare an average risk method of counseling to an individualized risk method.MethodsA total of 395 patients referred to a Prenatal Diagnosis Center were included, of whom 341 had isolated CPCs and 54 had associated ultrasound abnormalities. For isolated CPCs, an average risk of 1/150 for aneuploidy was compared to an individualized risk assessment [prior risk as determined by maternal age or serum screening multiplied by the likelihood ratio established by Gupta et al. (1997)]. Accuracy, cost, and procedure‐related losses were assessed.ResultsBoth methods resulted in 100% sensitivity. The individualized method resulted in greater specificity, decreased costs, and (theoretically) fewer procedure‐related pregnancy losses.ConclusionsAn individualized risk method of counseling utilizing the likelihood ratios established by Gupta et al. (1997) was superior to an average risk method for assessing trisomy 18 risk in the setting of CPC detected in mid‐trimester. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Preparation of high‐temperature polyurethane by alloying with reactive polyamide
Authors: Takeichi Tsutomu , Suefuji Kyoko , Inoue Kazuto 
Published: October 2002

AbstractA series of novel poly(urethane amide) films were prepared by the reaction of a polyurethane (PU) prepolymer and a soluble polyamide (PA) containing aliphatic hydroxyl groups in the backbone. The PU prepolymer was prepared by the reaction of polyester polyol and 2,4‐tolylenediisocyanate and then was end‐capped with phenol. Soluble PA was prepared by the reaction of 1‐(m‐aminophenyl)‐2‐(p‐aminophenyl)ethanol and terephthaloyl chloride. The PU prepolymer and PA were blended, and the clear, transparent solutions were cast on glass substrates; this was followed by thermal treatments at various temperatures to produce reactions between the isocyanate group of the PU prepolymer and the hydroxyl group of PA. The opaque poly(urethane amide) films showed various properties, from those of plastics to those of elastomers, depending on the ratio of the PU and PA components. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed two glass‐transition temperatures (Tg's), a lower Tg due to the PU component and a higher Tg due to the PA component, suggesting that the two polymer components were phase‐separated. The rubbery plateau region of the storage modulus for the elastic films was maintained up to about 250 °C, which is considerably higher than for conventional PUs. Tensile measurements of the elastic films of 90/10 PU/PA showed that the elongation was as high as 347%. This indicated that the alloying of PU with PA containing aliphatic hydroxyl groups in the backbone improved the high‐temperature properties of PU and, therefore, enhanced the use temperature of PU. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 3497–3503, 2002
Crystallization and morphology of poly(ethylene‐2,6‐naphthalene dicarboxylate) in the presence of nucleating agents
Authors: Gao Xia , Liu Ruigang , Jin Manna , Bu Haishan 
Published: October 2002

AbstractThe crystallization and morphology of poly(ethylene‐2,6‐naphthalene dicarboxylate) (PEN) containing, as nucleating agents, a sodium salt of a copolymer of ethylene and acrylic acid or a sodium salt of a copolymer of ethylene and methacrylic acid, were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, and small‐angle light scattering. The nucleating agents accelerated the crystallization rate at high temperatures by decreasing the surface free energy barrier hindering nucleation. Meanwhile, the nucleating agents with flexible chains could also improve the mobility of the PEN chains and increase the crystallization rate at low temperatures. Hedrites were observed when PEN was crystallized at high temperatures, whereas crystallization at low temperatures led to the formation of spherulites. Similar but smaller morphologies were obtained in the presence of nucleating agents. With nucleating agents, the spherulites formed at low temperatures were less perfect, although the optical properties of the spherulites were not influenced. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 2387–2394, 2002
Coping and health‐related quality of life in men with prostate cancer randomly assigned to hormonal medication or close monitoring
Authors: Green Heather J. , Pakenham Kenneth I. , Headley Betty C. , Gardiner Robert A. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractProstatic carcinoma and its treatment have been associated with adverse effects on health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). Individual differences in appraisal and coping have been suggested to mediate these HRQoL outcomes. A randomized trial of 65 men with non‐localized prostate cancer compared several treatments and tested associations between appraisal, coping, and HRQoL. These patients, and 16 community volunteers matched for age and general health, undertook psychosocial assessments before treatment and after 6 months of treatment. Compared with baseline assessments, men on hormonal treatments reported impaired sexual function. Groups did not differ on emotional distress, existential satisfaction, subjective cognitive function, physical symptoms, or social and role functioning. For individuals, hormonal treatments were more frequently associated with decreased sexual, social and role functioning, but were also associated with improved physical symptoms. In hierarchical regression analysis, HRQoL was lower for men who had more comorbid illnesses, a history of neurological dysfunction, higher threat appraisals, or higher use of coping strategies at baseline. These results showed that pharmacological hormonal ablation for prostate cancer can improve or decrease HRQoL in different domains. HRQoL in men with prostate cancer was associated more strongly with appraisal and coping than with medical variables. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Combining the GOR V algorithm with evolutionary information for protein secondary structure prediction from amino acid sequence
Authors: Kloczkowski A. , Ting K.‐L. , Jernigan R.L. , Garnier J. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractWe have modified and improved the GOR algorithm for the protein secondary structure prediction by using the evolutionary information provided by multiple sequence alignments, adding triplet statistics, and optimizing various parameters. We have expanded the database used to include the 513 non‐redundant domains collected recently by Cuff and Barton (Proteins 1999;34:508–519; Proteins 2000;40:502–511). We have introduced a variable size window that allowed us to include sequences as short as 20–30 residues. A significant improvement over the previous versions of GOR algorithm was obtained by combining the PSI‐BLAST multiple sequence alignments with the GOR method. The new algorithm will form the basis for the future GOR V release on an online prediction server. The average accuracy of the prediction of secondary structure with multiple sequence alignment and full jack‐knife procedure was 73.5%. The accuracy of the prediction increases to 74.2% by limiting the prediction to 375 (of 513) sequences having at least 50 PSI‐BLAST alignments. The average accuracy of the prediction of the new improved program without using multiple sequence alignments was 67.5%. This is approximately a 3% improvement over the preceding GOR IV algorithm (Garnier J, Gibrat JF, Robson B. Methods Enzymol 1996;266:540–553; Kloczkowski A, Ting K‐L, Jernigan RL, Garnier J. Polymer 2002;43:441–449). We have discussed alternatives to the segment overlap (Sov) coefficient proposed by Zemla et al. (Proteins 1999;34:220–223). Proteins 2002;49:154–166. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Discriminative ability with respect to amino acid types: Assessing the performance of knowledge‐based potentials without threading
Authors: Kuznetsov Igor B. , Rackovsky S. 
Published: October 2002

AbstractWe present a novel method designed to analyze the discriminative ability of knowledge‐based potentials with respect to the 20 residue types. The method is based on the preference of amino acids for specific types of protein environment, and uses a virtual mutagenesis experiment to estimate how much information a given potential can provide about environments of each amino acid type. This allows one to test and optimize the performance of real potentials at the level of individual amino acids, using actual data on residue environments from a dataset of known protein structures. We have applied our method to long‐range and medium‐range pairwise distance‐dependent potentials. The results of our study indicate that these potentials are only able to discriminate between a very limited number of residue types, and that discriminative ability is extremely sensitive to the choice of parameters used to construct the potentials, and even to the size of the training dataset. We also show that different types of pairwise distance potentials are dominated by different types of interactions. These dominant interactions strongly depend on the type of approximation used to define residue position. For each potential, our methodology is able to identify a potential‐specific amino acid distance matrix and a reduced amino acid alphabet of any specified size, which may have implications for sequence alignment and multibody models. Proteins 2002;49:266–284. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Role of C‐terminal region of Staphylococcal nuclease for foldability, stability, and activity
Authors: Hirano Satoshi , Mihara Ken'ichi , Yamazaki Yoichi , Kamikubo Hironari , Imamoto Yasushi , Kataoka Mikio 
Published: October 2002

AbstractThe role of the C‐terminal region of Staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) was examined by deletion mutation. Deletions up to eight residues do not affect the structure and function. The structure and enzymatic activity were partially lost by deleting Ser141‐Asn149 (Δ141–149), and deletion of Trp140‐Asn149 (Δ140–149) resulted in further loss of structure and activity. A 13‐residue deletion showed the same effect as the 10‐residue deletion. Both Ser141Gln and Ser141Ala mutations for an eight‐residue deletion mutant did not alter properties as well as Ser141A1a for full‐length SNase. In contrast, Trp140Ala mutation for Δ141–149 shows the same effect as the deletion of Trp140. Trp140Ala mutation for full‐length SNase causes the loss of native structure. These observations indicate the significance of the 140th and the 141st residues. The side‐chain of the 140th residue is required to be tryptophan; however, the backbone of the 141st residue is solely critical for foldability, but the side‐chain information is not crucial. All of the mutants that take a non‐native conformation show enzymatic activity and inhibitor‐induced folding, suggesting that foldability is required for the activity. Proteins 2002;49:255–265. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.