bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Birthweight by gestational age in preterm babies according to a Gaussian mixture model
Authors: Tentoni Stefania , Astolfi Paola , De Pasquale Antonio , Zonta Laura A. 
Published: December 2004

Objective To provide a statistically sound criterion for identifying implausibly large birthweights for gestational age.Design Review of ISTAT 1990–1994 national newborn records.Setting ItalyPopulation Forty‐two thousand and twenty‐nine single first and second liveborn preterm babies.Methods Two‐component Gaussian mixture models are used to describe the birthweight distributions stratified by gestational age. Implausibly large babies are identified through model‐based probabilistic clustering.Main outcome measures Gestational age misclassification and weight‐for‐gestational age centile curvesResults Gestational age appears under‐estimated by about six weeks in 12.3% of the cases. Large babies are equally present in males and females, but are more frequent in second‐borns than in first‐borns, even when parity‐specific models are fitted.Conclusions The approach allows for a quantification of the gestational age under‐estimate error and for data correction through model‐based clustering. Correct birthweight distributions and growth curves are also provided.
A randomised controlled trial of cytological surveillance versus patient choice between surveillance and colposcopy in managing mildly abnormal cervical smears
Authors: Kitchener H.C. , Burns S. , Nelson L. , Myers A.J. , Fletcher I. , Desai M. , Dunn G. , Maguire P. 
Published: December 2004

Objective  To determine whether choice of colposcopy or six month cytological surveillance would be beneficial to women with mildly abnormal smears when compared with the national policy of six months surveillance in terms of psychological morbidity.Design  A randomised trial based on the Zelen design.Setting  A hospital‐based research clinic.Population  Four hundred and seventy‐six women who had had a recurrent borderline or mildly dyskaryotic smear on routine cervical screening in primary care.Methods  Women were randomised either to six months cytological surveillance or to make a choice between that or colposcopy and were followed up for 1 year.Main outcome measures  The primary outcome measure was caseness (score ≥4) on the General Health Questionnaire at 12 months follow up. Other measures were the Spielberger State and Trait scores, default rates and cytology/colposcopy outcomes.Results  There was no significant difference between the arms for General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) scores and Spielberger State and Trait at 12 months. There was a significant reduction in psychometric morbidity between baseline and 12 months in both arms. Overall rates of default from the protocol were the same in both arms, but default that led to uncertain ascertainment of cervical pathology was greater in the no‐choice arm.Conclusions  This trial indicates that having choice did not impact favourably or harmfully on anxiety or feelings of wellbeing. If a patient is anxious, allowing the patient to choose immediate colposcopy may be preferable because it will improve ascertainment of underlying disease in a group who are more likely to default.
Acquired factor VIII inhibitors in pregnancy: data from the Italian Haemophilia Register relevant to clinical practice
Authors:   Italian Association of Haemophilia Centres (AICE): Register of acquired factor VIII inhibitors (RIIA)
Published: December 2004

Objective
To review the clinical problems related to the inhibitor of factor VIII (FVIII) in pregnancy.Design
Retrospective analysis.Setting
Haemophilia and haemotology centres.Population
Patients registered and followed up at the centres.Methods
Data were collected from the Italian Haemophilia Register of acquired FVIII inhibitor.Results
Twenty of 96 cases with FVIII inhibitor were identified postpartum. The time of appearance was 3–150 days postpartum. All but one of the cases were idiopathic; 11/20 patients required blood transfusions. In six patients, the inhibitor was identified because of surgical bleeding, four after hysterectomies carried out because of postpartum haemorrhage. A prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time was present in all women in whom the test was carried out. Nine women did not require treatment because the bleeding was mild; in 11 patients bleeding was promptly controlled by different therapeutic modalities. Immunosuppressive therapy was used to suppress the inhibitor. The majority of the patients who achieved complete remission received steroids; in 6/6 patients who relapsed, a second remission was obtained with combined therapy.Conclusions
In a review of 20 pregnancies with FVIII inhibitor, over a 15 year period, bleeding was controlled in all cases with no fatalities. Correct evaluation of coagulation screening tests, in particular, activated partial thromboplastin time, is essential.
A randomised trial of timed delivery for the compromised preterm fetus: short term outcomes and Bayesian interpretation
Authors:   The GRIT Study Group,   participants are listed at the end of this article
Published: December 2004

Objectives To compare the effect of delivering early to pre‐empt terminal hypoxaemia with delaying for as long as possible to increase maturity.Design A randomised controlled trial.Setting 69 hospitals in 13 European countries.Participants Pregnant women with fetal compromise between 24 and 36 weeks, an umbilical artery Doppler waveform recorded and clinical uncertainty whether immediate delivery was indicated.Methods The interventions were ‘immediate delivery’ or ‘delay until the obstetrician is no longer uncertain’. The data monitoring and analysis were Bayesian.Main outcome measures ‘Survival to hospital discharge’ and ‘developmental quotient at two years of age’, this latter to be reported later.Results Of 548 women (588 babies) recruited, outcomes were available on 547 mothers (587 babies). The median time‐to‐delivery intervals were 0.9 days in the immediate group and 4.9 days in the delay group. Total deaths prior to discharge were 29 (10%) in the immediate group versus 27 (9%) in the delay group (odds ratio 1.1, 95% CI 0.61–1.8). Total caesarean sections were 249 (91%) in the immediate group versus 217 (79%) in the delay group: (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.6–4.5). These odds ratios were similar for those randomised at gestational ages above or below 30 weeks.Interpretation The lack of difference in overall mortality suggests that clinicians participating in this trial were on average prepared to randomise at about the correct equivocal threshold between delivery and delay. However, there was insufficient evidence to convince enthusiasts for either immediate or delayed delivery that they were wrong.
Exploring the role of leukotriene receptor antagonists in the management of allergic rhinitis and comorbid asthma
Authors: Pawankar R. 
Published: December 2004

SummaryThe links between asthma and rhinitis are well documented and are based upon epidemiological, immunological and clinical observations. Leukotriene receptor antagonists (e.g. montelukast) are an established, effective and well tolerated treatment option for asthma, and more recent evidence now demonstrates their clinical utility in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. In seasonal allergic rhinitis, montelukast monotherapy has been shown to provide relief from daytime nasal symptoms (including congestion, runny nose, nasal itching and sneezing), as well as nighttime and eye symptoms. These clinical benefits were associated with reduced eosinophil counts in the blood, suggesting an effect on the underlying mechanisms of allergic inflammation. In addition, studies that have evaluated the combination of an antileukotriene with an antihistamine have typically shown a numerical and sometimes statistical benefit of combination therapy. Given the frequent coexistence and shared pathophysiologies of asthma and allergic rhinitis, a common therapeutic approach would seem warranted. Leukotriene receptor antagonists, such as montelukast, are emerging as a rational approach to ‘one airway’ disease management.
Feedback Requested ‐ Online Survey for Conservation Biology
Authors:   Society for Conservation Biology The Editorial Office of Conservation Biology
Published: December 2004

For over 16 years, Conservation Biology has been the voice of our global community of conservation biologists. Now, the Society of Conservation Biology and the Editorial Office of Conservation Biology need to hear YOUR voice!To make the journal as relevant as possible, we invite you to participate in an anonymous online survey for our Conservation Biology readers, authors and reviewers. This survey is the first of its kind for Conservation Biology— your feedback is extremely valuable!To participate, simply go to www.conservationbiology.org/journalsurvey
We hope to hear from you soon!Society for Conservation Biology The Editorial Office of Conservation Biology
Editorial
Authors: Hill Bill 
Published: December 2004

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Neill Alexander for all his hard work and critical input over the past seven years.
Proceedings B
has seen tremendous change during his tenure as Editor and he has ensured that the journal has maintained its high standards. During his tenure, submission levels have more than doubled, citation impact has improved and the international profile of the journal has never been stronger. The most significant development was the introduction of the
Biology Letters
service in 2003. The service has proved so successful that
Biology Letters
has gained independence from
Proceedings B
and is now a successful journal in its own right.

It has become recognized that the present model of a single editor making decisions on 1300 papers per annum is no longer sustainable. For this reason, the editorial management of the journal has now been restructured. In the new model, as Editor-in-Chief I will oversee a team of Associate Editors. The Associate Editors will be individually responsible for making decisions based on the recommendations of board members and referees, although I will also act as Editor for some papers and be available for Associate Editors to consult. I ask you to bear with us until the new model becomes established, but I am optimistic that it will benefit both our authors and readers. I intend to maintain the high standards of refereeing and editing achieved by Neill Alexander and the Publishing section at the Royal Society.
FUTURE PLANS

Proceedings B
has its strongest presence in organismal and population biology, particularly in evolutionary biology, behaviour and ecology. I wish to see a broadening of its coverage, but recognize that it is likely to be in complementary rather than radically different areas. Thus, I particularly welcome papers using molecular methods in areas such as evolution, ecology and systematics, and also functional analysis of, for example, behaviour. I also identify three areas in which I hope to see more submissions, namely plant biology, palaeontology and neuroscience. I welcome submissions of quality in all areas of biology, however, and papers regardless of area will be published based on their merit. I want papers to be of interest and understandable to a broad audience of biologists. They should also be succinct: the standard limit is six printed pages, and that will be exceeded (at a charge) only in cases of particular need; Web archiving is available for large datasets.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Bill Hill
AI Can Rival Control Theory for Goal Achievement in a Challenging Dynamical System
Authors: DeJong Gerald 
Published: December 2004

Nonlinear dynamical systems are notoriously difficult to control. The Acrobot is an under‐actuated double pendulum in a gravitational field. Under most driving schemes the Acrobot exhibits chaotic behavior. But with careful applications of energy it is possible to gradually pump the system so as to swing it over its supporting joint. This swing‐up task is of current interest to control theory researchers.Conventional notions of AI planning are not easily extended to domains with interacting continuously varying quantities. Such continuous domains are often dynamic; important properties change over time even when no action is taken. Noise and error propagation can preclude accurately characterizing the effects of actions or predicting the trajectory of an undisturbed system through time. A plan must be a conditional action policy or a control strategy that carefully nudges the system as it strays from a desired course. Automatically generating such plans or action strategies is the subject of this research.An AI system successfully learns to perform the swing‐up task using an approach called explanation‐based control (EBC). The approach combines a plausible qualitative domain theory with empirical observation. Results are in some respects superior to the known control theory strategies. Of particular importance to AI is EBC's notion of a “plan” or “strategy” and its method for automatic synthesis. Experimental evidence confirms EBC's ability and generality.
Nutritional Response to the 1998 Bangladesh Flood Disaster: Sphere Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
Authors: O’Donnell Max R. , Bacos Dimitri , Bennish Michael L. 
Published: December 2004

In this study we use a cross–sectional survey to evaluate the nutritional response to the 1998 Bangladesh Flood Disaster by 15 relief agencies using standards developed by the Sphere Project. The Sphere Project is a recent attempt by agencies around the world to establish universal minimum standards for the purpose of ensuring quality and accountability in disaster response. The main outcomes measured were resources allocated to disaster relief, types of relief activities and percentage of agencies meeting selected Sphere food aid and nutrition indicators. Although the process of nutritional response was measured, specific nutritional and health outcomes were not assessed.This review found that self–reported disaster and nutritional resources varied widely between implementing agencies, ranging from US$58,947 to $15,908,712. The percentage of resources these agencies allocated to food aid and nutritional response also varied, ranging from approximately 6 to 99 per cent of total resources. Agencies met between 8 and 83 per cent of the specific Sphere indicators which were assessed. Areas in which performance was poor included preliminary nutritional analysis; beneficiary participation and feedback; disaster preparedness during non–emergency times; monitoring of local markets and impact assessment. Agencies were generally successful in areas of core humanitarian response, such as targeting the vulnerable (83 per cent) and monitoring and evaluating the process of disaster response (75 per cent).The results here identify both strengths and gaps in the quality of humanitarian response in developing nations such as Bangladesh. However, they also raise the question of implementing a rights–based approach to disaster response in nations without a commitment to meeting positive human rights in non–disaster times.
Triangle Sets in PHIGS PLUS: a Valuable Link with Finite Element Modeling
Authors: Bakker Miente 
Published: December 2004

At the ISO/IEC editing meeting on PHIGS PLUS1 in Villars sur Ollon, Switzerland from 9 to 14 September 1990, an additional output primitive was added to PHIGS PLUS: TRIANGLE SET 3 WITH DATA together with its 2D shorthand. The principal reason for that addition was that only triangular primitives admit uniquely defined interpolation of data (colours, normals, etc.) across the facet.However, an additional advantage of this new primitive is its value for the visualization of scientific computing results. It corresponds in a very pleasant way with the Finite Element Method using piecewise linear blending functions on a triangular partition of the function domain.In this paper, an outline will be given of the possible use of this function by Finite Element engineers. 1983 CR Categories: G.1.1, G.1.2,I.3.2,I.3.5,I.3.7, J.6.
Search for the Intersection Polygon of any Two Polygons: Application to the Garment Industry
Authors: Mangen Alain , Lasudry Nadine 
Published: December 2004

One of the biggest problems usually encountered by the clothes manufacturer consists of placing various pattern parts on a rectangular area in such a way that the waste of material between the pieces is minimized.To bring some automated help in this field, computer programs need first to handle the complicated contours of the pieces. One needs not only to check the overlap of two contiguous patterns, but also to compute their precise area of intersection, allowing in this way the use of some kind of combinatorial optimization.In a wider context, it is possible to design a general purpose algorithm, able to build the complete structure representing the intersection of two polygons. It is remarkable that the same algorithm can also be used, with only a few modifications, to compute the union and the difference of any two polygons.
At Last an ISO C Binding of GKS
Authors: Bakker Miente 
Published: December 2004

The C4 bindings of GKS1 and other semantic computer graphics standards like GKS–3D2 and PHIGS3 are long overdue. While GKS was completed in 1985 and GKS–3D2 (and PHIGS3) became an international standard in 1988, none of their C bindings could be standardized, for the simple reason that the C language itself was not a standard. Instead, a host of de facto GKS/C bindings9 appeared.This paper will give the flavour of the ISO C binding5,6 of GKS; the main features will be outlined. 1983 CR Categories: D.3.0,I.3.0,I.3.4.
Special Feature: The Second Great Industrial Revolution
Authors: Rickards Tudor , Moger Susan 
Published: December 2004

In this issue we are pleased to celebrate the building of the world’s first computer – a machine that could hold a user program in electronic storage and process it at electronic speeds. The first program worked at 11.00am on 21 June 1948. The development took place at the University of Manchester, and has been celebrated by the reconstruction of that first machine and a re‐running of the original program, in the city on the same date, fifty years later.In this feature we look at the events that led to this momentous discovery, and at the careers of the developers, Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams. Chris Burton, who led the reconstruction project, gives a fascinating account of the work required to bring ‘The Baby’ back to life.The material produced for this feature was written at the University of Manchester, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. We would like to thank the editorial team of ‘This Week, Next Week’ the newsletter of the University, for access to the material which appears here, with slight modifications.
Evaluation of a Mental Health Service for Young Children: Development, Outcome and Satisfaction
Authors: Thompson Margaret J. J. , Coll Xavier , Wilkinson Suzanne , Uitenbroek Daan , Tobias Aurelio 
Published: December 2004

Background: Over a 10‐year period (1984–1996) a child guidance clinic developed a service in the community for parents with young children with mental health problems. This included support for primary care staff and training courses. The clinical input to the young children developed from a clinic within the child guidance clinic (1984–87), to a specialist clinic for under fives (1990–91) to a service run by a nurse in the community (1994–95), with nurses referring to colleagues only the more complicated cases.Method: The work in 1990–91 was compared with the work in 1994–95. The family and clinic scored the outcome of the work, by recording the severity of the problem, separately, on unanchored 5‐point Likert scales before and after treatment. For the evaluation in 1994–95 a satisfaction questionnaire was also developed. The cost of running the two different clinics was calculated.Results: The results indicated that there was a slight fall in the effect size for the clinical work in 1994–95, but this method of working was two‐thirds of the cost of the previous clinic. The parents were satisfied with both services. The post‐contact parental satisfaction questionnaire had face validity, construct validity and internal consistency.Conclusions: Nurses working on their own in the community can be a cost effective method for working with families with young children. Some families will need to be referred on to specialist teams and more work needs to be done to establish which families and when referral is appropriate. The questionnaire was shown to be a valid and reliable way of assessing family satisfaction.
Mixed oligopoly and spatial agglomeration
Authors: Matsushima Noriaki , Matsumura Toshihiro 
Published: December 2004

AbstractWe investigate a mixed market where a state‐owned welfare‐maximizing public firm competes against profit‐maximizing private firms. We use a circular city model with quantity‐setting competition. In contrast to a pure market case discussed byPal (1998a), spatial agglomeration of private firms always appears in equilibrium. All private firms locate at the same point, and the public firm locates at the opposite side. We also find that this equilibrium pattern of the location is second best provided that output of each private firm cannot be controlled by the social planner. JEL Classification: H42, L13Oligopole mixte et agglomération spatialeLes auteurs examinent un marché mixte où une entreprise publique possédée par l’État et cherchant à maximiser le niveau de bien‐être est en concurrence avec des entreprises privées qui cherchent à maximiser leurs profits. On utilise un modèle de cité circulaire où la concurrence se fait en choisissant la quantité produite. En contraste avec le cas du marché parfait discuté par Pal (1998a), l’agglomération spatiale des entreprises privées paraît être en équilibre. Toutes les entreprises privées se localisent au même point, et l’entreprise publique se localise du côté opposé. Il appert que ce pattern d’équilibre de localisation est un équilibre de second ordre compte tenu du fait que la production de chaque entreprise privée ne peut être contrôlée par le planificateur social.
Is the export‐led growth hypothesis valid for Canada?
Authors: Awokuse Titus O. 
Published: December 2004

Abstract Empirical evidence linking exports to economic growth has been mixed and inconclusive. This study re‐examines the export‐led growth (ELG) hypothesis for Canada by testing for Granger causality from exports to national output growth using vector error correction models (VECM) and the augmented vector autoregressive (VAR) methodology developed in Toda and Yamamoto (1995). Application of recent developments in time series modelling and the inclusion of relevant variables omitted in previous studies help to clarify the contradictory results from prior studies on the Canadian economy. The empirical results suggest that a long‐run steady state exists among the model's six variables and that Granger causal flow is unidirectional from real exports to real GDP. JEL Classification: F43, C32Est‐ce que l’hypothèse de la croissance engendrée par les exportations est valide pour le Canada? Les résultats empiriques des études tentant de montrer le lien entre les exportations et la croissance économique sont mixtes et ne contiennent pas de résultats concluants. Cet article ré‐examine l’hypothèse dans le cas du Canada en testant la causalitéà la Granger pour les exportations et la croissance du produit national, en utilisant les modèles VECM et la méthodologie VAR développés par Toda et Yamamoto (1995). L’application de certains développements récents dans l’analyse des séries chronologiques et l’inclusion de variables pertinentes omises dans les études antérieures aident à mettre de l’ordre dans les résultats contradictoires des études antérieures portant sur l’économie canadienne. Les résultats empiriques suggèrent qu’un régime permanent existe entre les six variables du modèle et que la causalitéà la Granger est unidirectionnelle des exportations réelles vers le PIB réel.