bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Free fetal DNA concentration in maternal plasma during normal labour at term
Authors: Ingargiola Ingrid , Vaerman Jean‐Luc , Debiève Frédéric , Palgen Gaëtane , Verellen‐Dumoulin Christine , Hubinont Corinne 
Published: December 2003

AbstractObjectiveOur aim was to investigate the effect of uterine contractions on free fetal DNA concentration in maternal plasma at term.Study designNine pregnant women were admitted for elective induction of labour between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation. All patients carrying male fetuses and without history of pre‐term labour and membrane rupture were selected. Maternal venous blood samples were serially collected every hour during labour, one hour after delivery and 24 h after delivery. In order to amplify fetal and total free DNA, primers for SRY and GAPDH genes were respectively chosen. Real‐ time PCR analysis was performed with an GeneAmp® 5700 Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems Foster City, USA). Statistical significance was determined using the Wilcoxon test.ResultMedian concentration of fetal DNA in plasma before labour was 3081 copies/mL (Range 812–15 864 copies/mL). No significant difference between the number of copies per millilitre before any contractions and during labour was demonstrated.One hour after delivery, significant decrease in the fetal DNA rate was observed with a median concentration of 293 copies/mL (Range 0–2037 copies/mL) (p‐value: 0.04).This drop was more significant 24 h after delivery with a median concentration of 0 copies/mL (Range 0–95 copies/mL) (p‐value: 0.02).ConclusionsDuring labour, no changes in free fetal DNA in maternal plasma were demonstrated. This suggests that labour does not have effect on free fetal DNA release in maternal circulation at term. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rapid prenatal diagnosis of X‐linked chronic granulomatous disease using a denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) system
Authors: Chien Shu‐Chin , Lee Chien‐Nan , Hung Chia‐Cheng , Tsao Po‐Nien , Su Yi‐Ning , Hsieh Fon‐Jou 
Published: December 2003

AbstractObjectiveTo describe a family on whom it was possible to perform a rapid prenatal diagnosis for chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) using a denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) system.MethodsFor a family whose first‐born, a boy, suffered from X‐linked chronic granulomatous disease, fetal DNA was obtained from an ongoing pregnancy by amniocentesis early in the second trimester. Denaturing high‐performance liquid chromatography and direct sequencing were used to attempt to detect the previously identified X‐linked chronic granulomatous disease mutation.ResultsOur studies predicted that the fetus in question was not likely to be affected by chronic granulomatous disease, which was demonstrated to be correct at birth.ConclusionsHere, we introduce a molecular diagnostic tool (DHPLC) for an effective and exact prenatal diagnosis of normality for the second‐born child, as determined from amniocentesis during the second trimester. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hydrogen bonding strength—measures based on geometric and topological parameters
Authors: Grabowski Sławomir Janusz 
Published: December 2003

AbstractDifferent methods of estimating H‐bond strength are presented. The studies are based on the results of MP2/6–311++G** calculations and the binding energies are corrected for the basis set superposition error (BSSE). The wavefunctions were further applied to localize bond critical points and ring critical points. The characteristics based on the Bader theory are also applied as indicators and measures of hydrogen bonding. This study compares samples of different compounds. The H‐bond strength measures such as the proton–acceptor distance (H···Y), the length of the proton donating bond, the electron density at H···Y bond critical point, the H‐bond energy and others are analysed. The case of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding is also analysed, and its special characteristics are given. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Regioselective synthesis of 1,2,4‐triazin‐5‐one via gas‐phase pyrolysis of 4‐arylidenimino‐3(2H)‐thioxo‐1,2,4‐triazin‐5(4H)‐one. Kinetic and mechanistic study
Authors: Al‐Etaibi Alya , Abdallah Mariam , Al‐Awadi Nouria , Ibrahim Yehia , Hasan Mohammad 
Published: December 2003

Abstract4‐Arylidenimino‐3(2H)‐thioxo‐1,2,4‐triazin‐5(4H)‐ones (1a–e) and 4‐arylidenimino‐3‐methylthio‐1,2,4‐triazin‐5(4H)‐ones (2a–e) were synthesized. Pyrolytic deprotection of these substrates were carried out. The kinetic results, product analysis and theoretical studies lend support to a reaction pathway involving a six‐membered transition state in which the carbonyl and not thione bond attacks the hydrogen atom of the arylidenimino group. This reaction represents an efficient, clean and general synthetic procedure for the protection and selective synthesis of potential biologically active triazines and their derivatives. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Influence of arene–arene interactions on the conformation of acyclic molecules:1H NMR and dipole moment experimental results
Authors: Bello Pablo , Heaton Nicholas J. , Chana Antonio , Jiménez‐Barbero Jesús , Riande Evaristo , Herradón Bernardo 
Published: December 2003

AbstractConformational analysis of derivatives of 2‐methyl‐1,3‐propanediol is reported. The diol spacer is substituted with different aromatic residues that are linked by ether or ester functionalities. Most of the experimental evidence was obtained by1H NMR spectroscopy through the analysis of the vicinal coupling constants of the two ABX systems of the spacer. It is found that the main factor influencing the conformation of the molecules is the interaction between the aromatic fragments at the ends of the spacer. Thus, when the electronic character of the two residues is similar (e.g.1–3and5), the molecules have high conformational flexibility. On the other hand, when the electronic character of the two residues is different (e.g.4), the molecules possess a conformational bias, having a preference for folded conformations. These results were corroborated by NOEs and computational modelling. The folded conformation of molecules such as4(and others reported previously) may be due to favourably quadrupolar and van der Waals interactions between the unlike aromatic residues. The conformational energies obtained by the1H NMR analysis of the vicinal coupling constants were used for the calculation of the dipole moments of some molecules (1,3,5and6) and excellent agreement with the experimental values was found. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Additional material for this paper is available in Wiley Intersciene
The use of enhanced bioremediation at the Savannah River Site to remediate pesticides and PCBs
Authors: Baladi Sadika M. , Lewis Catherine M. , Ganguly Amitava , Morrow Alvin G. , Shoffner Lisel R. , Blundy Robert F. , Nakagawa Patrick F. , Mundy Sara T. , Anderson Larry , Adams Karen 
Published: December 2003

AbstractEnhanced bioremediation is quickly developing into an economical and viable technology for the remediation of contaminated soils. Until recently,
chlorinated organic compounds have proven difficult to bioremediate. Environmentally recalcitrant compounds, such as polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and persistent organic pesticides (POPs) such as dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) have shown to be
especially arduous to bioremediate. Recent advances in field‐scale bioremedial applications have indicated that biodegradation of these
compounds may be possible. Engineers and scientists at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a major DOE installation near Aiken, South Carolina,
are using enhanced bioremediation to remediate soils contaminated with pesticides (DDT and its metabolites, heptachlor epoxide, dieldrin, and
endrin) and PCBs. This article reviews the ongoing remediation occurring at the Chemicals, Metals, and Pesticides (CMP) Pits using
windrow turners to facilitate microbial degradation of certain pesticides and PCBs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
In situ remediation of arsenic in contaminated soils
Authors: Martin Todd A. , Ruby Michael V. 
Published: December 2003

AbstractIn situ chemical fixation represents a promising and potentially cost‐effective treatment alternative for
metal‐contaminated soils. This article presents the findings of the use of iron‐bearing soil amendments to reduce the leachability and
bioaccessibility of arsenic in soils impacted by stack fallout from a zinc smelter. The focus of this investigation was to reduce the lead
bioaccessibility of the soils through addition with phosphorus‐bearing amendments. However, as phosphorus addition was expected to increase
arsenic mobility, the fixation strategy also incorporated use of iron‐bearing amendments to offset or reverse these effects. The findings of
this investigation demonstrated that inclusion of iron‐bearing chemicals in the amendment formulation reduced arsenic leachability and
bioaccessibility without compromising amendment effectiveness for reducing lead bioaccessibility. These results suggest that in situ
chemical fixation has the potential to be an effective strategy for treatment of the impacted soils. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
An ecologically oriented database to guide remediation and reuse of contaminated sites
Authors: Greenberg Michael , Miller K. Tyler , Lowrie Karen , Carletta Mary Anne , Burger Joanna 
Published: December 2003

AbstractThis article presents a database developed to determine the potential reuse of contaminated sites for primarily ecologically and culturally based
activities. The database consists of 172 quantitative and qualitative measures of on‐site land suitability, ecological, cultural, and recreational
value, and off‐site suitability, economic, and demographic information. Using sites owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a
case study, the article evaluates the quality of available data and suggests ways of using it for planning ecologically sensitive remediation activities
and future land use. This type of database can be developed and used by anyone who needs to select, review, or evaluate site remediation and future land
use options. Also discussed are the challenges associated with compiling and using data that has been generated by many sources over several years.
© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
NURBS to Avoid Boundary Orientation Poses in Serial Manipulators
Authors: Cebula Andrzej J. , Zsombor‐Murray Paul J. 
Published: December 2003

AbstractA procedure to build NURBS motion interpolants to avoid boundary orientation poses for serial manipulator architectures is presented. As an example, the PUMA architecture was used. The procedure, which emerged from B‐spline curves theory, enables a local change of the NURBS motion interpolant. The change may be introduced in any arbitrary neighborhood of the chosen boundary orientation pose. Therefore, when tracking a trajectory, one may change NURBS motion interpolant value at any time instant, leaving its remaining values untouched. Recommendation for further research pertains to exploiting the flexibility of NURBS applied to robot kinematics. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Analysing Italian voluntary abortion data using a Bayesian approach to the time series decomposition
Authors: Magni Paolo , Bellazzi Riccardo 
Published: December 2003

AbstractAfter the approval of the law on voluntary abortion in Italy, the Italian health care system started to practice voluntary abortion before the third month of pregnancy. Since 1980, the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) has collected data on the abortion frequency per month and per administrative local areas. Although a preliminary analysis of the data showed that, after an initial increase, the number of abortions progressively lowered over years, there is no insight on the existence of periodicity in the time series and on the local effects related to the regional habits and social environments. The aim of our study is therefore to extract local trends and periodicity from the data collected by ISTAT, by combining a ‘structural model’ of the time series and Bayesian statistics. This paper describes both the adopted stochastic model and its Bayesian estimation through a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach on the Italian abortion data. Abortion data are analysed both at national level and in each of the 95 Italian local areas. At the national level this analysis allows extraction of a trend component that clearly shows that the voluntary abortion trend has decreased constantly since June–July 1983 until the end of the study. The periodic component shows an astonishing regularity too, suggesting that the Italian people have a seasonal preference for voluntary abortion. In particular, abortions are concentrated in the central part of the year (April–August). Finally, at the local level this analysis allows us to find similarities/differences between different areas in trends and/or in seasonal preferences. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects and non‐effects of paired identical observations in comparing proportions with binary matched‐pairs data
Authors: Agresti Alan , Min Yongyi 
Published: December 2003

AbstractBinary matched‐pairs data occur commonly in longitudinal studies, such as in cross‐over experiments. Many analyses for comparing the matched probabilities of a particular outcome do not utilize pairs having the same outcome for each observation. An example is McNemar's test. Some methodologists find this to be counterintuitive. We review this issue in the context of subject‐specific and population‐averaged models for binary data, with various link functions. For standard models and inferential methods, pairs with identical outcomes may affect the estimated size of the effect and its standard error, but they have negligible, if any, effect on significance. We also discuss extension of this result to matched sets. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Spectrum bias: a quantitative and graphical analysis of the variability of medical diagnostic test performance
Authors: Goehring Catherine , Perrier Arnaud , Morabia Alfredo 
Published: December 2003

AbstractA Correction to this article has been published in Statistics in Medicine 2005, 24:(11) 1782.
The performance of a medical diagnostic test may vary in a subgroup of patients according to the severity and clinical presentation of the disease. This phenomenon is often referred to as the spectrum effect. There is currently no technique to determine in which situations this spectrum effect may lead to a spectrum bias, that is, a distortion of the posterior probability which can potentially affect the clinical decision. We show that spectrum bias, on either a positive or a negative test result, can be expressed as the subgroup‐specific likelihood ratio (LR) divided by the LR in the overall population of patients. This assessment of spectrum bias is independent of the pretest probability. We present here the test statistic and its variance and also propose a mode of graphically visualizing the presence of spectrum bias. We applied it to 15 examples from the literature, of which three are discussed in detail. In two examples, there was spectrum bias: (1) diagnosis of urinary tract infection in subgroups of low or high risk patients when using the dipstick test, and (2) diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy using electrocardiography in subjects with different body mass index. In a third example, there was no spectrum bias for the diagnosis of coronary heart disease in subgroups of patients defined by age, sex or comorbidities when using exercise electrocardiography. As sensitivity and specificity usually vary in opposite directions from one subgroup to the other, the ratio of LRs tends to remain constant, resulting in no or little spectrum bias. We conclude that spectrum effect is more common than spectrum bias and that clinical decisions are affected only under certain conditions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Regression models for relative survival
Authors: Dickman Paul W. , Sloggett Andy , Hills Michael , Hakulinen Timo 
Published: December 2003

AbstractFour approaches to estimating a regression model for relative survival using the method of maximum likelihood are described and compared. The underlying model is an additive hazards model where the total hazard is written as the sum of the known baseline hazard and the excess hazard associated with a diagnosis of cancer. The excess hazards are assumed to be constant within pre‐specified bands of follow‐up. The likelihood can be maximized directly or in the framework of generalized linear models. Minor differences exist due to, for example, the way the data are presented (individual, aggregated or grouped), and in some assumptions (e.g. distributional assumptions). The four approaches are applied to two real data sets and produce very similar estimates even when the assumption of proportional excess hazards is violated. The choice of approach to use in practice can, therefore, be guided by ease of use and availability of software. We recommend using a generalized linear model with a Poisson error structure based on collapsed data using exact survival times. The model can be estimated in any software package that estimates GLMs with user‐defined link functions (including SAS, Stata, S‐plus, and R) and utilizes the theory of generalized linear models for assessing goodness‐of‐fit and studying regression diagnostics. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Including interpersonal events on hassle and uplift scales: verification employing global and molecular events
Authors: Maybery Darryl J. 
Published: December 2003

AbstractA recent hassle and uplift study indicated that interpersonal events were generally missing from scales measuring these concepts—a finding consistent with the daily diary literature. This paper addresses two shortcomings of the hassle and uplift study. First, this research controlled for individual differences within its methodology. Second, it adhered more closely to diary research by examining the inclusion of interpersonal events at a molecular level (i.e. specific types of events). By employing university student participants (n = 289) the study sought to examine if interpersonal daily hassles and uplifts, at a global and molecular level, would predict stress and well‐being over and above individual differences and non‐interpersonal events. One of four distress and well‐being outcomes was improved in the global and all four in the molecular stepwise regression analyses. Weight of evidence suggests that interpersonal events are important inclusions on hassle and uplift scales. The anomalous global and molecular findings are also discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Job stress among middle‐aged health care workers and its relation to sickness absence
Authors: Verhaeghe Rik , Mak Rudolf , Maele Georges Van , Kornitzer Marcel , Backer Guy De 
Published: December 2003

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine differences between the perception of job stress by Flemish health care workers (HCW), aged between 35 and 59 years, and a control group of employees with a similar education and of the same age and gender (controls). This perception was prospectively related to sickness absence. This study is based on the Belstress study, a larger epidemiological survey on perceived job stress and health. The study group consists of 315 nurses (55 men and 260 women) from two public hospitals. The control group consists of 612 non‐nurses (110 men and 502 women). Perception of job stress is measured with the scales of the ‘job demand–control–support (JDCS)’ model of R. Karasek. Perception of job stress showed an increased score for ‘job demand’ and a decreased score for ‘decision latitude’ among HCW in comparison with controls. The combination of these two factors resulted in a higher proportion of subjects in the job strain category in comparison with the controls. In contrast to controls we found among HCW an important positive association between absenteeism and job demand and a clear negative association between sickness absence and social support. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Coping with the stress of motherhood: cognitive and defence style of women with postnatal depression
Authors: Milgrom Jeannette , Beatrice Glenda 
Published: December 2003

AbstractThis study investigated cognitive and defence styles of women experiencing postnatal depression. Women diagnosed with postnatal depression were recruited while inpatients at mother–baby units in Melbourne, Australia. A comparison control group was recruited from Maternal and Child Health Centres. Mothers took part in structured interviews and completed psychometric questionnaires when their infants were 3 months old, with a follow‐up at 24 months. Women with postnatal depression used different cognitive and defence styles to non‐depressed women 3 months after the birth of their baby. Unlike non‐depressed women, depressed women tended to use more irrational cognitions and less mature defence styles. Their locus of control indicated a common belief that ‘powerful others’ had control of their lives. This trend was stable over time, when the majority of women had recovered from their depression at 24 months even when ongoing depressive symptoms were controlled for statistically. By contrast, certain cognitive and defence styles appeared linked with the depressive episode. The study paints a profile of women with postnatal depression that is consistent with cognitive and psychodynamic theories of depression, suggesting certain characteristics render some women psychologically vulnerable to stressors in the postnatal period, while others are specific to the depressive state itself. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A multidisciplinary study of the immediate effects of mechanical clam harvesting in the Venice Lagoon
Authors: Pranovi F , Da Ponte F , Raicevich S , Giovanardi O 
Published: December 2003

AbstractIn the Venice Lagoon, clam (Tapes philippinarum) harvesting is carried out mainly by means of a gear locally called “rusca”, developed by local fishermen. The rusca consists of an iron cage, an outboard engine propeller, which produces a water flow directed onto the bottom suspending sediments and fauna, and a net bag where the clams are collected. The aim of this study was to provide an analysis of the immediate effects of rusca fishing on a wide spectrum of ecosystem compartments: sediment biogeochemistry, sediment resuspension, and macro- and meiofauna community. Rusca fishing produced a V-shaped furrow (about 60 cm wide and 7 cm deep) and a plume of resuspended sediment with a significant increase (up to two orders of magnitude greater than undisturbed areas) of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and increased Ctot, Corg, Ntot, and sulphide concentrations in the water column. Experimental rusca hauls significantly reduced macrofauna density, while no significant effect on meiofauna was detected. Results are also discussed in terms of basin-scale impact, attempting to compare natural and anthropogenic disturbance.