bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Long‐term Follow‐up after Adrenalectomy for Primary Aldosteronism
Authors: Meyer Andreas , Brabant Georg , Behrend Matthias 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThe objective of this study was to assess the long‐term effects of adrenalectomy on the blood pressure and antihypertensive medication in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA). Twenty‐four patients (15 female and 9 male) with a mean age of 48.3 ± 10.8 years underwent surgery for PA in our institution between 1988 and 2001. All subjects were re‐examined with a complete clinical work‐up after a mean follow‐up period of 86 ± 48 months, including blood pressure readings (<140/90 mmHg defined as normal), endocrine adrenal function, and specific medication. All patients suffered from hypertension (onset 8.5 ± 5.5 years prior to surgery). In 92% of the patients, hypokalemia was present (onset 2.0 ± 2.6 years prior to surgery). The histopathologic examinations revealed unilateral adenomas in 23 patients and a bilateral hyperplasia in one patient. At follow‐up, 33% (8) of the patients were completely cured (normal blood pressure and no antihypertensive treatment), with seven of these eight patients being under 50 years of age at the time of surgery. One patient revealed a contralateral aldosterone‐secreting adrenal adenoma during the subsequent endocrine and imaging examination 44 months after the first operation. Despite normalized plasma‐aldosterone concentration (PAC), plasma‐renin‐activity (PRA) and serum potassium levels, a long‐lasting insufficiently treated hypertension due to the delayed diagnosis in patients with PA may explain the persistent blood pressure elevation, indicating the necessity of a life‐long, regular control of the blood pressure and antihypertensive medication.
Bacterial Translocation: Not a Clinically Relevant Phenomenon in Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Takesue Yoshio , Kakehashi Masayuki , Ohge Hiroki , Uemura Kenichiro , Imamura Yuuji , Murakami Yoshiaki , Sasaki Masaru , Morifuji Masahiko , Yokoyama Yujiro , Kouyama Mohei , Okii Kazuya , Sueda Taijiro 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThe aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for bacterial translocation and to determine the clinical significance of bacterial translocation in patients with colorectal cancer. Mesenteric lymph node sampling was performed to identify the presence of bacterial translocation in 75 patients with colorectal cancer undergoing laparotomy. Bacterial translocation was identified in 29 patients (39%), with the most common organism beingEscherichia coli(31%). Three factors for bacterial translocation were identified, including a preoperative low peripheral lymphocyte count, metastasis to lymph nodes, and invasion depth (= T3). Stepwise regression analysis, however, selected only = T3 [odds ratio (OR) 4.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2‐13.5]. Altogether, 35% of patients with bacterial translocation developed septic complications, compared with 20% in patients without bacterial translocation. In the multivariate analysis, bacterial translocation was not an independent risk factor for infection, with an OR of 1.8 (95% CI 0.56‐5.96). Systemic inflammatory response syndrome developed on the first day in 62% of patients with bacterial translocation, compared with 50% of patients without bacterial translocation. Adjusting for the other factors, bacterial translocation was not a significant risk factor in the occurrence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome after surgery (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.37‐3.29). We concluded that n patients with colorectal cancers bacterial translocation does occur and is increased in patients with deep invasion. However, it appears to be of no clinical significance.
New Pancreas‐preserving Total Duodenectomy Technique
Authors: Imamura Masayuki , Komoto Izumi , Doi Ryuichiro , Onodera Hisashi , Kobayashi Hiroyuki , Kawai Yasuhiro 
Published: January 2005

AbstractPancreas‐preserving total duodenectomy (PPTD) was first described by Chung et al. in 1994. Since then, several surgeons have used PPTD to treat diseases that involve the duodenum diffusely but not the head of the pancreas, mostly familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). The PPTD method has been changed in each report and seems to have improved over time. We performed PPTD on three patients with different diseases‐one with intestinal hemorrhage due to small intestinal amyloidosis; another with numerous duodenal gastrinomas in a patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN‐1) and Zollinger‐Ellison syndrome (ZES); and the third with numerous duodenal polyposis and FAP‐using a new method that is simpler and safer than those previously reported. When resecting the whole duodenum, we performed mucosectomy of the major papillar portion and saved the structure of the major papilla. After an approximately 8 mm long sphincteropapillotomy, the opened major papilla was anastomosed to an incisional opening of the small intestine. The orifice of the main pancreatic duct (MPD) was stented by a catheter, and the MPD was kept intact under direct vision during the operative procedures. The head of the pancreas was fixed with the small intestine by interrupted 4‐0 silk sutures. Reconstruction of the alimentary tract was performed after either the Billroth I or the Billroth II method. This is the first report of PPTD in which the entire MPD was preserved to simplify the biliopancreatic‐ductal reconstruction.
Variations in life‐form composition and foliar carbon isotope discrimination among eight plant communities under different soil moisture conditions in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China
Authors: Chen Shiping , Bai Yongfei , Lin Guanghui , Han Xingguo 
Published: January 2005

AbstractWater is one of the key limiting factors for the survival and growth of plant species in arid and semi‐arid steppe regions. Different plant functional groups (PFGs) based on life‐forms differ in their strategies to cope with limited water availability. The foliar carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) value provides an integrated measurement of internal plant physiological and external environmental properties affecting photosynthetic gas exchange over the time interval when the carbon was fixed. In this study, we surveyed the composition and Δ values of various life‐forms (shrubs, sub‐shrubs, perennial grasses, perennial forbs and annuals) in eight different plant communities along a soil moisture gradient in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Our results showed that: (1) life‐forms occurred variously in eight steppe communities with different soil moisture status; (2) in wetter habitats, forbs were more abundant and accounted for the majority of aboveground biomass, whereas grasses became more important in drier habitats. Shrubs and sub‐shrubs increased with decreasing soil water availability and their relative biomass rapidly increased in degraded steppe and sand dune communities. (3) The numerical order of the mean Δ values of life‐forms is as follows: perennial grasses (15.86‰) < shrubs (16.10‰) < perennial forbs (16.45‰)=annuals (16.41‰) < sub‐shrubs (17.55‰), reflecting their differences in water use efficiencies. The significant differences in the Δ values among these life‐forms suggested that life‐form‐based PFGs not only represent a morphological classification of these plants, but could also represent a functional group integrating different physiological processes such as water use strategies, which may partially explain the differences in PFG composition and competitive ability of co‐existing species along environmental gradients in the Xilin River Basin.
Pharmacoeconomic comparison between homeopathic and antibiotic treatment strategies in recurrent acute rhinopharyngitis in children
Authors: Chaufferin G , Nicoloyannis N , Trichard M 
Published: January 2005

Objectives: A pharmacoeconomic study to compare, in terms of: medical effectiveness, quality of life and costs two treatment strategies (‘homeopathic strategy’ vs ‘antibiotic strategy’) used in routine medical practice by allopathic and homeopathic GPs in the treatment of recurrent acute rhinopharyngitis in 18-month to 4-year-old children.
Methods: Statistical analysis of data obtained from a population of 499 patients included in a previous 6-month prospective, pragmatic study. The patients were re-grouped according to type of drug prescribed. Medical effectiveness was assessed in terms of (i) episodes of acute rhinopharyngitis, (ii) complications, (iii) adverse effects. Quality of life was assessed using the Par-Ent-Qol© scale. Direct medical costs (medical consultations, drug prescriptions, prescriptions for further tests) and indirect medical costs (sick-leave) were evaluated from three viewpoints (society, patient, Social Security) using public prices and French Social Security tariffs.
Results: The ‘homeopathic strategy’ yielded significantly better results than the ‘antibiotic strategy’ in terms of medical effectiveness (number of episodes of rhinopharyngitis: 2.71 vs 3.97,

; number of complications: 1.25 vs 1.95,

), and quality of life (global score: 21.38 vs 30.43,

), with lower direct medical costs covered by Social Security (

vs

,

) and significantly less sick-leave (9.5% of parents vs 31.6% of parents,

).
Conclusions: Homeopathy may be a cost-effective alternative to antibiotics in the treatment of recurrent infantile rhinopharyngitis.
Colonization by Lichens and the Development of Lichen-Dominated Communities in the Maritime Antarctic
Authors: Lewis Smith R.I. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThree long-term studies of lichen growth and colonization have been undertaken at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, in the maritime Antarctic. Small individual thalli of several crustose species and uncolonized plots on 12 fresh rock surfaces were photographically monitored at intervals of 3–4 years over a period of up to 20 years. The development of Ochrolechia frigida colonies on a regenerating moss bank, recently uncovered by a receding glacier, was similarly monitored. The results indicate that many lichens growing in sites enriched by nitrogenous compounds derived from populations of sea birds, have relatively rapid colonization and growth rates. Mean percentage increase in thallus area can be as high as 15–32% per annum in some nitrophilous saxicolous species (e.g. Acarospora macrocyclos, Xanthoria elegans and species of Buellia and Caloplaca), but as low as, 0·4–4% in nitrophobous species (Lecanora physciella, Lecidea sp., Rhizocarpon geographicum). Umbilicaria antarctica and Usnea Antarctica also yielded data indicating high growth rates, with colonist plants reaching several centimetres after 20 years. Colonization by mixed assemblages of lichens of new rock surfaces can attain 40->90% cover after 20 years in nutrient-enriched sites, and even 20–25% in non-biotically influenced sites. Colonization by or increase in extant O. frigida on the regenerating moribund moss bank was also quite rapid. It is suggested that the exceptionally large thalli of several lichen species and the locally extensive dense lichen fellfield communities in the maritime Antarctic may be much younger than previously supposed.
Lichen Colonization and Recolonization of Two Recently Deglaciated Zones in the Maritime Antarctic
Authors: Valladares Fernando , Sancho Leopoldo G. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThe stages of vegetation development close to two glacier fronts on two of the South Shetland Islands (Livingston and Robert) within the Maritime Antarctic were studied with special reference to saxicolous lichens. A lichenometric study of the crustose lichen Caloplaca sublobulata was carried out at both sites. On the moraine of Livingston Island, rock size played an important role in lichen development, explaining most of the differences observed in the diameter of C. sublobulata, the number of species, and the percentage of cover among the rocks studied. On Robert Island, the distance from the glacier front was associated with the lichen cover of the rocks but not with diameter of C. sublobulata This homogeneous distribution of C. sublobulata thallus size on the Robert Island study area points to a simultaneous recolonization of the whole zone by this lichen. The lichen development in the area studied on Robert Island seems to have been drastically affected by fluctuations in the persistence of snow cover following glacier front retreat. Tentative associations between ice retreat and colonization, on the o e hand, and changes in snow cover duration and the dynamic processes of extinction and recolonization, on the other, are suggested from comparison of the two zones.
Carbon Acquisition and Water Relations of Lichens in Polar Regions—Potentials and Limitations
Authors: Kappen L. , Sommerkorn M. , Schroeter B. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractPrimary production in lichens, as in all plants, is the result of gains and losses. Losses of carbon may be high under extreme environmental conditions. In the harsh climate of polar regions lichens use much carbon for maintenance and in their stress response. Thallus biomass is preserved through periods of darkness, extremely low temperatures and snow cover. On the other hand, lichens are photosynthetically active at temperatures below 0°C. They can make use of melted water from snow and ice and take up water vapour from snow. Physiological adaptations and environmental conditions under which growth is possible are discussed in terms of our recent results. A concept model describes the main parameters that influence carbon acquisition, growth and water relations of lichens in polar regions.
Climate Change and the Ecophysiological Response of Arctic Lichens
Authors: Nash Thomas H. , Olafsen Astrid G. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractUnder field conditions of optimal water hydration, lichen photosynthesis is primarily light-limited and nitrogen fixation is temperature-limited in both Peltigera canina and Stereocaulon tomentosum at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Thus, where duration of optimal hydration conditions remains unchanged from the present-day climate, the anticipated temperature increases in the Arctic may enhance nitrogen fixation in these lichens more than carbon gain. Because nitrogen frequently limits productivity in Arctic ecosystems, the results are potentially important to the many Arctic and subarctic ecosystems in which such lichens are abundant.
Picturing the Black Box: On Blanks in Nineteenth Century Paintings and Photographs
Authors: Geimer Peter 
Published: January 2005

ArgumentIn 1867 Edouard Manet painted the execution of the Mexican emperor Maximilian of Habsburg. Manet broke with the classical tradition of history painting, for he depicted the actual shooting itself instead of choosing moments before or after the execution. Thus, the painting refers to a moment that in real time would have been far too brief to be perceptible. Manet presented a portrait of living actors whose execution has already taken place. This depiction of the imperceptible invites comparison to contemporaneous photographs of extremely short periods of time: attempts to capture flying cannon balls (Thomas Kaife), to take flashlight portraits of patients that would undermine their bodies' reaction time (Albert Londe), to visualize the successive stages of a drop falling into water (Arthur Worthington). Like Manet these scientists referred to an “optical unconscious” (Walter Benjamin). A closer look at their work reveals that they dealt with a space of knowledge that went beyond the classical dichotomy between objectivity and imagination, scientific and artistic pictures.
László Moholy-Nagy's New Vision and the Aestheticization of Scientific Photography in Weimar Germany
Authors: Botar Oliver A. I. 
Published: January 2005

ArgumentI propose that both Moholy-Nagy's suggestions that products of applied, particularly scientific, photography be employed as exemplars for art photography, and his practice of integrating such applied photographs with art photographs in his publications and exhibitions, laid the groundwork for an aestheticization of scientific photography within the twentieth-century artistic avant-garde. This photographic “New Vision,” formulated in the 1920s, also effected a kind of “scientization” of art photography. Rather than Positivist mechanism, however, I argue that the science at play was “biocentrism,” the early twentieth-century worldview that can be described as Naturromantik updated by biologism. His key inspiration in this regard was one of the most important figures of biocentrism, the biologist and popular scientific writer Raoul Heinrich Francé, and his conception of Biotechnik [bionics], in which he proposed that all human technologies are based in natural technologies.The biological, pure and simple, taken as the guide.– Moholy-Nagy (1938, 198)
The role of job evaluation in determining equal value in tribunals
Authors: Gilbert Kay 
Published: January 2005

PurposeAims to identify standards set for job evaluation and assess the use of job evaluation by its executors.Design/methodology/approachBefore examining the Employment Tribunals’ approach, focuses on research already undertaken with a view to assessing job evaluation methods as an approach to achieve pay equity. Examines the establishment of standards set by case law and goes on to consider the way in which job evaluation methods have been used in employment tribunal cases, how the standards apply, and whether there are wider issues being considered.FindingsFinds that in addition to determining equal pay, in some cases job evaluation has acted as a barrier or weapon against those making such a claim. The standards set for job evaluation appear to have been used variably in determining that the jobs are not equal in value under the guises of no reasonable grounds, material factor defences and in Tribunal decision making.Originality/valueDemonstrates that job evaluation as a tool can and does provide the means of assessing jobs to make an equal value decision. However, at times it appears not be used, thoroughly or methodically.
Human resource management: the Achilles heel of school governance
Authors: Grieves Jim , Hanafin Peter 
Published: January 2005

PurposeAims to examine current debates about the recruitment and retention of teachers and explore the views of Local Education Authority Human Resource Advisors, governors and teachers.Design/methodology/approachAddresses the issue of whether the Government is actually achieving its stated aims of best value in selecting, recruiting and retaining the most effective teachers in primary and secondary education.FindingsThe conclusion for the appointment of teachers in schools is that structured panel interviews, with trained panel members, and preferably including an HR professional, would represent best practice.Originality/valueRaises serious concerns about the delegation of HR practice.
Internet ticketing in a not‐for‐profit, service organization
Authors: Olson John R. , Boyer Kenneth K. 
Published: January 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to look at the ways in which the internet has changed the way in which many organizations now do business. The internet has made the transference of information easy but fulfilling online orders has proved to be a challenge.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents detailed analysis of 238 customers of a world‐renowned not‐for‐profit organization – the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Our sample of customers consists of patrons who ordered tickets online at least once during the 2001/2002 concert seasons. Factors influencing the development of an e‐loyal customer database were examined.FindingsThe results indicate that customers realize significant benefits from using the internet to purchase concert tickets. Patrons also indicated that they were satisfied with their internet service experience.Originality/valueThe role of the internet within organizations will change dramatically over the next decade. For organizations that are attempting to use the internet as a primary sales medium, they must realize that their success hinges on the development of a sustainable customer base. For established organizations, the integration of the internet into their existing business will be one of the keys to future success.
Does pattern of soil resource heterogeneity determine plant community structure? An experimental investigation
Authors: WIJESINGHE DUSHYANTHA K. , JOHN ELIZABETH A. , HUTCHINGS MICHAEL J. 
Published: January 2005

Summary

Spatial and temporal pattern of nutrient delivery to individual plants and plant populations can affect growth and allocation of biomass to roots and shoots. We predicted that it would also affect attributes of plant community structure, including species composition, diversity, and partitioning of biomass between above‐ and below‐ground parts. We tested these predictions experimentally by providing the same quantity of nutrients in five different patterns to sown plant communities grown under field conditions for 2 years. We used orthogonal contrasts to compare the effects on community structure of homogeneous vs. heterogeneous nutrient supply, supply of nutrients in patches at two different densities, and provision of nutrients in spatially predictable vs. unpredictable patches. We harvested above‐ and below‐ground plant biomass, and measured species richness, diversity, and species population sizes.
Pattern of nutrient delivery significantly affected community biomass and below‐ground : above‐ground biomass partitioning. Treatments with the lowest density of nutrient‐rich patches supported 44% more total biomass than homogeneous treatments, largely as a result of greater (71% more) below‐ground biomass, which resulted in a 39% increase in community below‐ground : above‐ground biomass ratio.
Above‐ground community composition was also affected by treatment. There were several instances in which biomass, percentage cover or population sizes of different species, were affected by treatment. There were few significant differences between communities in treatments with predictable and unpredictable nutrient patches. Treatment did not affect species richness or diversity, despite high power to detect small differences.
We conclude that the spatial and temporal pattern of nutrient supply strongly affects some important facets of plant community structure, but has less influence on others. Further understanding of community responses to the pattern of nutrient supply will require experiments testing the responses of individual species to heterogeneity with and without competitors present.