bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Parasite aggregations in host populations using a reformulated negative binomial model
Authors: Pal P. , Lewis J.W. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe negative binomial distribution model is reformulated and used to demarcate a host population at a specific level of infection by defining an attribute spanning a range of parasite aggregations. The upper limit of the range specifies the boundary for the classification of the host population and provides a technique to determine the cumulative probability at any level of parasite infection to a high degree of accuracy. This approach also leads to the evaluation of the k parameter, i.e. an inverse measure of dispersion of parasite aggregation, for each fraction of the host population with a discrete level of infection. The basic mathematical premise of the negative binomial function is unaltered in developing this reformulation which was applied to data on the distribution of the trichostrongylid nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus in populations of the field mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus.
Faecal egg counts provide a reliable measure of Trichostrongylus tenuis intensities in free-living red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus
Authors: Seivwright L.J. , Redpath S.M. , Mougeot F. , Watt L. , Hudson P.J. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe reliability of different egg counting methods for estimating the intensity of Trichostrongylus tenuis infections in red grouse, Lagopus lagopus scoticus, was investigated in the autumn, when grouse may harbour high parasite intensities. Possible limitations to the use of these methods were also examined. Faecal egg counts were found to accurately estimate T. tenuis worm intensities, at least up to an observed maximum of c. 8000 worms. Two egg counting methods (smear and McMaster) gave consistent results, although the exact relationship with worm intensity differed according to the method used. Faecal egg counts significantly decreased with increasing length of sample storage time, but egg counts were reliable for estimating worm intensity for three weeks. The concentration of eggs in the caecum was also found to reliably estimate worm intensity. However, egg counts from frozen gut samples cannot be used to estimate worm intensities. These results conclude that, despite some limitations, faecal and caecum egg counts provide useful and reliable ways of measuring T. tenuis intensities in red grouse.
Echinostoma friedi: the effect of age of adult worms on the infectivity of miracidia
Authors: Toledo R. , Espert A. , Carpena I. , Trelis M. , Muñoz-Antoli C. , Esteban J.G. 
Published: February 2004

AbstractThe effect of ageing of adults of Echinostoma friedi (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) on the infectivity of miracidia yielded was analysed. Miracidia were obtained after hatching of eggs obtained from adult worms of E. friedi collected weekly during the course of experimental infections in golden hamsters. Miracidial infectivity, measured in terms of percentage of infection in Lymnaea peregra, was significantly influenced by the age of the adult worms from which the miracidia were derived. Infective miracidia only were obtained from adult worms in the age range from 4 to 9 weeks post-infection. Infectivity was maximal in those miracidia derived from adults collected 8 and 9 weeks post-infection. The results suggest that adult worms producing viable eggs require additional maturation to be able to yield eggs containing infective miracidia.
Conservation analysis of small RNA genes in Escherichia coli
Authors: Zhang Yong , Zhang Zhihua , Ling Lunjiang , Shi Baochen , Chen Runsheng 
Published: March 2004

Abstract
Motivation: Small RNA (sRNA) genes in Escherichia coli have been in focus recently, as 44 out of 55 experimentally confirmed sRNA genes have been precisely located in the genome. The object of this study is to analyze quantitatively the conservation of these sRNA genes and compare it with the conservation of protein-encoding genes, function-unknown regions and tRNA genes.
Results: The results show that within an evolutionary distance of 0.26, both sRNA genes and protein-encoding genes display a similar tendency in their degrees of conservation at the nucleotide level. In addition, the conservation of sRNA genes is much stronger than function-unknown regions, but much weaker than tRNA genes. Based on the conservation of studied sRNA genes, we also give clues to estimate the total number of sRNA genes in E.coli.
Supplementary information: Supplementary information is available at http://www.bioinfo.org.cn/SM/sRNAconservation.htm
Degrees of differential gene expression: detecting biologically significant expression differences and estimating their magnitudes
Authors: Bickel David R. 
Published: March 2004

Abstract
Motivation: Many methods of identifying differential expression in genes depend on testing the null hypotheses of exactly equal means or distributions of expression levels for each gene across groups, even though a statistically significant difference in the expression level does not imply the occurrence of any difference of biological or clinical significance. This is because a mathematical definition of ‘differential expression’ as any non-zero difference does not correspond to the differential expression biologists seek. Furthermore, while some current methods account for multiple comparisons in hypothesis tests, they do not accordingly adjust estimates of the degrees to which genes are differentially expressed. Both problems lead to overstating the relevance of findings.
Results: Testing whether genes have relevant differential expression can be accomplished with customized null hypotheses, thereby redefining ‘differential expression’ in a way that is more biologically meaningful. When such tests control the false discovery rate, they effectively discover genes based on a desired quantile of differential gene expression. Estimation of the degree to which genes are differentially expressed has been corrected for multiple comparisons.
Availability: R code is freely available from http://www.davidbickel.com and may become available from www.r-project.org or www.bioconductor.org
Supplementary information: Applications to cancer microarrays, an application in the absence of differential expression, pseudocode, and a guide to customizing the methods may be found at www.davidbickel.com and www.mathpreprints.com
mdclust—exploratory microarray analysis by multidimensional clustering
Authors: Dugas M. , Merk S. , Breit S. , Dirschedl P. 
Published: March 2004

Abstract
Motivation: Unsupervised clustering of microarray data may detect potentially important, but not obvious characteristics of samples, for instance subgroups of diagnoses with distinct gene profiles or systematic errors in experimentation.
Results: Multidimensional clustering (mdclust) is a method, which identifies sets of sample clusters and associated genes. It applies iteratively two-means clustering and score-based gene selection.
For any phenotype variable best matching sets of clusters can be selected. This provides a method to identify gene–phenotype associations, suited even for settings with a large number of phenotype variables. An optional model based discriminant step may reduce further the number of selected genes.
Availability: R-code and supplemental information available from http://martin-dugas.de/mdclust/
Supplementary information: http://martin-dugas.de/mdclust/
Exploring genome architecture through GOV: a WWW-based gene order visualizer
Authors: Sakharkar Kishore R. , Chow Vincent T. K. 
Published: March 2004

Abstract
Motivation: The past decade has seen extension in the methods of sequence analysis from single gene based to analyzing multiple genes and proteins simultaneously. Consequently, there is a need for software tools that will allow mining of these enormous datasets at genome level effectively. A key challenge is to make them user-friendly, available to a larger community and integrate with public domain software without much hassle.
Results: A web-based interactive computational tool is described for visualization and comparison of gene order from prokaryotic and selected viral genome data. Many intriguing similarities and differences in gene order of multiple genomes can be compared and revealed. The interface facilitates easy extraction of the nucleotide sequence of the gene of interest and BLAST analysis against GenBank at NCBI to provide insights into gene functions and orthologs of the gene in other species.
Availability: GOV is available at: http://www.bii.a-star.edu.sg/~kishore/Gov/Gov.html
Tales from the frontline: the colorectal battle against SARS
Authors: Bradford I. M. J. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractObjective  The recent worldwide epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Disease (SARS) caused over 800 deaths and had a major impact on the health services in affected communities. The impact of SARS on colorectal surgery, particularly service provision and training, is unknown. This paper reports these changes from a single colorectal unit at the centre of the outbreak.Patients and methods  Hospital databases and electronic patient records covering the 4 months duration of the SARS epidemic and an equivalent period preceding SARS were compared. Data was collected for inpatient admissions, outpatient consultations, operative surgery, colonoscopy and waiting times for appointments or surgery.Results  The SARS epidemic resulted in reductions of 52% for new outpatient attendances, 59% for review attendances, 51% for admissions, 32% for surgical procedures and 48% for colonoscopies. Major emergency procedures, cancer resections and complex major procedures were unaffected. Operative procedures by trainees reduced by 48% and procedures by specialists reduced by 21%. Patients awaiting early or urgent outpatient appointments rose by 200% with waiting times for colonoscopy increased by a median 3, 5 or 9 weeks for outpatient, inpatient or non‐urgent cases, respectively. The waiting time for minor elective colorectal surgery was extended by 5 months.Conclusion  SARS resulted in a major reduction in the colorectal surgical caseload. The consequences were evidenced by a detrimental effect on waiting times and colorectal training. However, serious pathology requiring emergency or complex surgery was still possible within these constraints.
Use of Educational and Psychological Tests Internationally
Authors: Oakland Thomas 
Published: March 2004

Les aspects internationaux du développement et de l’usage des tests sont traités ici, en particulier pour situer les articles de cette édition spéciale. On présente succinctement l’utilisation internationale des tests ainsi que l’histoire, l’impact des conditions externes et internes, les normes et les lignes directrices du développement et de l’usage des tests. On parle aussi des organisations régionales et internationales actives dans le domaine du développement et de l’usage des tests, sans oublier les initiatives de structures comme la Commission Internationale des Tests.International aspects of test development and use are described, in part, to provide a context for other articles in this special issue. The history of test development and use, external and internal conditions that impact test development and use, test use internationally, together with standards and guidelines for test development and use are summarised. Regional and international organisations providing leadership in test development and use as well as leadership efforts by the International Test Commission and others are discussed.
Use of Western and Indigenously Developed Personality Tests in Asia
Authors: Cheung Fanny M. 
Published: March 2004

Cet article passe en revue les recherches transculturelles sur les grandes évaluations de la personnalité dans les pays asiatiques, à savoir le MMPI, l’EPQ, le STAI et le NEO‐PI‐R. On aborde la question de l’application interculturelle de tests traduits. L’Inventaire d’Evaluation de la Personnalité Chinois (CPAI) est mentionné comme exemple de travaux autochtones qui ont mis en évidence des dimensions originales ou importantes. Développéà l’origine en tant qu’outil d’évaluation culturellement approprié au peuple chinois, le CPAI a ensuite permis de mettre à l’épreuve l’universalité des théories occidentales de la personnalité. Le facteur spécifique du CPAI relatif aux liens interpersonnels est utile pour l’étude d’un aspect de la personnalité qui est absent des mesures de la personnalité importées. On examine aussi les défis à venir qui attendent la recherche et les applications concernant l’évaluation de la personnalité en Asie.This paper reviews the cross‐cultural research on major personality measures in Asian countries, including the MMPI, EPQ, STAI, and the NEO‐PI‐R. Considerations in the cross‐cultural application of translated tests are discussed. The Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) is cited as an example of indigenous measures that have identified culturally salient or unique dimensions. Although developed originally as a culturally relevant assessment tool for Chinese people, the CPAI has also become a means to examine the universality of Western personality theories. The unique Interpersonal Relatedness factor of the CPAI is useful to the study of an aspect of personality that has been absent in imported personality measures. Future challenges for research and applications of personality assessment in Asia are discussed.
The Relative Effectiveness of External, Peer, and Self‐Coaches
Authors: Sue‐Chan Christina , Latham Gary P. 
Published: March 2004

Deux recherches poursuivies sur deux continents ont fait appel à deux variables dépendantes différentes pour étudier l’efficacité relative du coach externe, du pair coach et de l’autocoaching sur la performance des participants (maîtrise de gestion). La première investigation concernait trente étudiants en gestion canadiens. Ceux qui étaient suivis par un coach extérieur présentaient une meilleure adaptation au travail collectif que ceux qui avaient un pair pour coach. La seconde recherche portait sur 23 managers en gestion australiens. Ceux qui étaient suivis soit par un coach externe, soit par eux‐même, ont obtenu des résultats significativement plus élevés que ceux qui étaient accompagnés par un pair. Dans les deux études, le coach externe avait aux yeux de l’intéressé une plus grande crédibilité que le pair. Dans la seconde étude, l’autocoaching était mieux vu que le coaching du pair. La satisfaction relative à l’ensemble du processus était plus forte chez les managers pourvus d’un coach externe.Two studies in two different continents using two different dependent variables examined the relative effectiveness of external, peer, and self‐coaches on the performance of participants in two MBA programs. The first study involved MBA students in Canada (n= 30). Those who were coached by an external coach exhibited higher teamplaying behavior than did those who were coached by peers. The second study involved EMBA managers in Australia (n= 23). Those who were either coached by an external coach or who were self‐coached had significantly higher grades than those who were coached by a peer. In both studies, an external coach was perceived by the participants to have higher credibility than their peers. In the second study, self‐coaching was perceived to be more credible than coaching from peers. Satisfaction with the coaching process was highest among the managers who had an external coach.
Between Marx and Heidegger: Politics, Philosophy and Lefebvre's The Production of Space
Authors: Elden Stuart 
Published: March 2004

This article argues that the work of Martin Heidegger is extremely important in understanding Henri Lefebvre's intellectual project. It suggests that Lefebvre's trio of influential thinkers—Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche—are partnered by Heidegger. But this is Heidegger read in a particular way, and subjected to a Marxist critique—turned back on his feet, grounded, made real.This is pursued in detail through a rereading of Lefebvre's The Production of Space. The two terms in this title need to be examined, and while the importance of space develops a number of insights from Heidegger, the stress on production shows the political and Marxist nature of this research. The Production of Space is therefore situated, and needs to be read, between Marx and Heidegger. The article closes with some comments on the interrelation of history, space and politics, and offers the possibility of a left‐Heideggerianism.
Inequality/difference in education: is a real explanation of primary and secondary effects possible?
Authors: Nash Roy 
Published: March 2004

ABSTRACTThe persistence of social disparities in educational achievement in contemporary societies is a matter of concern to social theory. Sociology of education has distinguished between the primary and secondary effects of socialization in order to construct explanatory theories of inequality of educational opportunity. Empirical evidence from the recent OECD PISA research is analysed to suggest that causes of the primary effect are the most important. The case is made with close reference to Goldthorpe's attempt to provide a rational action model of social disparities in education. An approach informed by scientific realism is held to offer a more adequate explanation.
Declining inequality? The changing impact of socio‐economic background and ability on education in Australia
Authors: Marks Gary N. , McMillan Julie 
Published: March 2004

ABSTRACTThe paper addresses several debates surrounding the reproduction of socio‐economic inequality: (i) the persistent inequality thesis, which maintains that despite the increases in educational participation socio‐economic inequalities in education have not declined; (ii) the related thesis of maximally maintained inequality, which proposes that socio‐economic inequalities decline only when participation levels for the most privileged socio‐economic group approach saturation levels; (iii) the meritocracy debate on the importance of ability vis‐á‐vis socio‐economic background and changes in its influence over time; and (iv) the effect of policy changes on socio‐economic inequalities in education. These issues are addressed using data from six Australian youth cohorts born between 1961 and the mid‐1980s.
Educational homogamy in Ireland and Britain: trends and patterns*
Authors: Halpin Brendan , Chan Tak Wing 
Published: March 2004

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the pattern of educational homogamy in Ireland and Britain. Using contemporary data on recent marriages from the early 1970s through to the mid‐1990s, we show that these two countries share a broadly similar pattern of educational homogamy, which is quasi‐symmetric in character, with no tendency for women to marry up over and above that which can be attributed to the gender difference in educational attainment. In the 1970s, the strength of homogamy was much weaker in Ireland than in Britain. But we discern a clear inter‐country difference in how the net strength of homogamy has changed over time. While it has declined in Britain since the 1970s, in Ireland the strength of homogamy has first increased and then levelled off. Our findings are inconsistent with the inverted U‐shaped relationship between economic development and homogamy reported by Smits, Ultee and Lammers (1998) – an argument premised on secular change in the criteria of spouse selection. Instead, our results are better understood in terms of Mare's (1991) life course argument that homogamy is inversely related to the time‐gap between school departure and first marriage.
Signs of change in Turkey's working class: workers' age‐related perceptions in the modern manufacturing sector*
Authors: Nichols Theo , Sugur Nadir , Tasiran Ali C. 
Published: March 2004

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the possible effects of the increasing exposure to modernity on younger workers in some sectors of developing countries with special reference to those employed in advanced manufacturing in Turkey. In recent decades Turkey has undergone considerable urbanization, improvements in literacy and rising levels of formal education. The paper systematically examines differences in the work‐related attitudes and expectations, commitment and aspirations of younger and older workers, who have been exposed to these processes to different degrees. It is broadly confirmed that younger workers have higher expectations and aspirations that make them relatively less satisfied with a number of aspects of their work and which are likely to make for a less committed more critical workforce.
Interdependencies, values and the reshaping of difference: gender and generation at the birth of twentieth‐century modernity
Authors: Irwin Sarah 
Published: March 2004

ABSTRACTThe paper explores the mutuality of values, claims and social relations in the process of social change. Values are not separable from social relations but are embedded in the shaping and reshaping of social difference and interdependence. The paper focuses on developments around the turn of the twentieth century, and analyses changes in the relative social positioning of children and adults, and women and men, shifting patterns of interdependence, and linked values and ideas about difference. The reconfiguring of generational and gender relations was integral to the first fertility decline, to transformation in family life and societal divisions of labour, and to the embedding of particular values and claims regarding gendered difference, identities and gender appropriate roles. Analysis of these developments reveals the mutuality of ‘cultural’ and ‘material’ processes and holds lessons for interpreting social change today.
β lactam monotherapy versus β lactam-aminoglycoside combination therapy for sepsis in immunocompetent patients: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials
Authors: Paul Mical , Benuri-Silbiger Ishay , Soares-Weiser Karla , Leibovici Leonard 
Published: March 2004

AbstractObjective To compare β lactam monotherapy with β lactam-aminoglycoside combination therapy for severe infections.Data sources Medline, Embase, Lilacs, Cochrane Library, and conference proceedings, to 2003; references of included studies; contact with all authors. No restrictions, such as language, year of publication, or publication status.Study selection All randomised trials of β lactam monotherapy compared with β lactam-aminoglycoside combination therapy for patients without neutropenia who fulfilled criteria for sepsis.Data selection Two reviewers independently applied selection criteria, performed quality assessment, and extracted the data. The primary outcome assessed was all cause fatality by intention to treat. Relative risks were pooled with the random effect model (relative risk < 1 favours monotherapy).Results 64 trials with 7586 patients were included. There was no difference in all cause fatality (relative risk 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.77 to 1.06). 12 studies compared the same β lactam (1.02, 0.76 to 1.38), and 31 studies compared different β lactams (0.85, 0.69 to 1.05). Clinical failure was more common with combination treatment overall (0.87, 0.78 to 0.97) and among studies comparing different β lactams (0.76, 0.68 to 0.86). There was no advantage to combination therapy among patients with Gram negative infections (1835 patients) or Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections (426 patients). There was no difference in the rate of development of resistance. Nephrotoxicity was significantly more common with combination therapy (0.36, 0.28 to 0.47). Heterogeneity was not significant for these comparisons.Conclusions In the treatment of sepsis the addition of an aminoglycoside to β lactams should be discouraged. Fatality remains unchanged, while the risk for adverse events is increased.